Neither Gerard nor Alden have lost a pokemon yet, but the battle between them is still heating up! Where will things go from here?
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: We're nowhere near the endgame, don't worry.
KedharS: Things are only going to get better from here.
Aquahaze675: Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 574
That day, before the match began:
Gerard stormed into the Sandbox, his face lined with irritation.
"What do you want?" K asked with a scowl, looking up from his computer. He glared at Gerard, and Gerard looked past him. Clearly, he wasn't going to be much help. But then he spotted someone who would be.
"Misato Daisan," Gerard called out to the Mechadoll standing at attention by the door leading to the Phantom's private wing. "I need your help."
"What assistance do you require from me?" Misato asked.
"I'm looking for Sylvia Driscoll. Where is she?"
"Affirmative. Sylvia Driscoll is located in the break room. It is through that door." Misato turned and raised her arm, gesturing to a door on the other side of the building. Gerard tromped over to it, storming inside.
"Sylvia?" He demanded.
"Oh, my, hello there," Sylvia said, raising her head and giving him a smile. While everyone outside was working hard, she was quite clearly putting zero effort into anything, working on building a Jenga tower but with the blocks stacked longwise instead of edgewise. "How can we help you?"
The "we" referred to her Shuppet, Specter, who was floating alongside her, staring suspiciously at Gerard.
"I need your help with something," he said.
"For your match today?" Sylvia asked, her blue eyes sparkling. "My, my, I would have thought that the great 'Gerard Alkwest', the First Leader would be ABOVE asking for help from someone like me. This is truly a commemorative day. You must be getting flustered by all the whispers on campus, am I right? Everyone saying how they think the Commander has 4 to 1 odds against you? That would bother anyone I figure."
Gerard narrowed his eyes into a glare and growled at her, but Sylvia never let stuff like that get the better of her.
"What would people say?" She continued. "If they knew you were so weak that you needed the help of someone else-"
Gerard stormed over to her and knocked over her tower in an act of pettiness. In response, Sylvia's smirk only grew wider.
"I get it, you must be bothered by the fact that the Commander's pokemon are a lot faster than yours, especially his best ones, his Lucario and his Cinderace. But yes, I could help you. If you need it, I mean. I could teach you my tricks, if you really need them."
Gerard growled at her, but he couldn't deny he needed her help.
Back to the present, Alden was still thinking about what pokemon he would send out to deal with the incredibly fast Archen. If it was a matter of speed, there was only one pokemon that the Commander could rely on right now.
"Tracey, go," Alden said, sending out his Cinderace.
"Cinderace!" Tracey chirped, emerging from her pokeball with a smile and landing on the cloudy battlefield. Unfortunately, her smile didn't last long, because the sharp stones hovering in the air around her pierced her from multiple directions, Tracey grinding her teeth in pain.
"The Commander has sent out his Cinderace to replace his Lucario!" Lila called. "His Cinderace is a pretty fast pokemon!"
"But so's that Archen," Dakota said, frowning. "What do you think, Aki? Does she have a shot at catching up?"
Akira cracked a smile. "Definitely," he replied. "Just watch."
"Tracey, use court change!" Alden shouted.
"Cinderace!" Tracey kicked the ground, and began to glow. The battlefield shook and she swapped places with Archer as the battlefield switched around. Now, the tailwind was at Tracey's back, and Archer found his maneuverability quite hampered by the large floating rocks now hovering in the air around his side of the battlefield.
"Nicely done!" Akira applauded. "Using court change, Cinderace shifted the advantages and disadvantages they had! Now Gerard's side of the field is affected by stealth rock, and the Commander's side of the field has the tailwind!"
Gerard scowled, his expression darkening. "Archer! Use defog!"
"Archen!" Archer squawked, flapping his wings, sending a powerful gust across his side of the battlefield that knocks away the large stones floating around him, clearing the stealth rock away completely and freeing up space to allow him to fly around again.
"Not bad, but while you're doing that, we'll catch up to your speed!" Alden replied. "Use agility to boost your speed, Tracey!"
"Cinderace!" Tracey nodded, tucking her head in and dashing forward, her speed increasing as she approached Archer. With the power of the wind on her back as well, she drew in close to the pokemon as he blew away the large stones floating around him.
But with Archer's speed back in play, the swift pokemon could keep her distance from Tracey, circling Tracey and preparing to attack her, since Tracey still wasn't able to catch up to the fast Archen, even with the speed boost from agility and the tailwind.
"Archer, acrobatics," Gerard ordered. Archer zigzagged and flew towards Tracey directly, preparing to attack her from multiple directions, but Tracey was fast enough to see that attack coming. She turned and hit Archer in the beak with a powerful sucker punch, catching Archer completely off-guard, sending the ancient pokemon stumbling backwards through the air.
"Nice!" Lila cheered. "The sucker punch got the small pokemon directly!"
"Your little bird has speed, but that isn't enough," Alden grinned. "Tracey! Pyro ball!"
"Cinderace!" Tracey ran towards the floundering Archen, a large fireball appearing in front of her foot as she dribbled the ball forward, pulling back her leg and kicking the massive flame at full-force, the fireball flying through the air and hitting Archer directly, the bird pokemon letting out a squawk of pain, knocked out of the air by the attack.
"Archer!" Gerard shouted.
"Ooh, that had to hurt," Dakota winced in sympathy, seeing how much damage that the attack had done to the small pokemon.
"Archen…" Archer landed on the cloud and bounced, sitting up wearily and sighing. He looked down, clearly having lost motivation to keep going. Gerard clicked his tongue in irritation, this was the worst part about dealing with Archer, thanks to the bird pokemon's Defeatist ability, he would give up too damn easily!
"Nice! He's just sitting there not doing anything!" Alden grinned. "Now, Tracey, go and take him down! Use flame charge!"
"Cinderace!" Tracey lowered her head and charged at Archer, flames dancing up around her legs as she boosted her speed with flames.
"Archer, ancientpower!" Gerard cried out, not willing to have his Archen faint without doing anything else of worth.
"Archer," Archen sighed, rolling his eyes like a rebellious teenager that was being told to clean up his room. But he obeyed Gerard's orders, creating large stones of energy, and flung them at Tracey in a wave of glowing rocks.
"Cinder!" Tracey had been charging in so fast that she hadn't had time to dodge, thinking that the defeated Archen wouldn't be a problem, so she wasn't able to avoid the ancientpower attack in time. Fortunately for her though, the stones broke against her and didn't do a whole lot of damage, since Archer's attack had been so greatly reduced.
"What's up with that Archen?" Lila asked, confused. "He's not really fighting back anymore…"
"It's his Defeatist ability," Akira explained. "When an Archen's health drops to below half, they sort of just give up on the battle and all their stats lower as a result."
"What?" Lila huffed. "That's dumb! Come on, Archen! Don't give up! You can do it! Go, go!"
Dakota glanced at Akira, raising her eyebrow as if to ask whether or not cheering for the pokemon would even work to get him back up. Akira shook his head.
Archer didn't have much fight left in him. Tracey collided with him, knocking him backwards, and then pressed the attack even more.
"Double kick," Alden ordered. Tracey placed her hands on the cloudy ground and propelled the lower part of her body up, spinning her legs and kicking Archer twice, knocking the small bird pokemon backwards.
"Archen…" Archer sighed, losing consciousness. He just didn't have it in him to keep fighting.
"Archen is unable to battle!" Lila announced. "Cinderace is the winner! The first pokemon to faint goes to Gerard!"
She added under her breath, "it's about time something fainted…"
Gerard sighed, but he didn't look too bothered by Archer's fainting. "Return," he said, calling the small pokemon back. "Now then…"
Gerard contemplated his next move. But it wasn't that difficult of a decision if he was being honest. His next pokemon would be…
"Diana. We've played around enough, I think."
Gerard's bright pink pokeball opened up, a pink light erupting from within, Diana emerging in a fluster of sparkles.
"Diancie!" Diana smiled, floating up into the air above the clouds, dazzling like an angel in the heavens on the serene battlefield. The white clouds caught the pink light emanating from around her, and her whole body seemed to be glowing in the afternoon sun.
"Wooooo!" Dakota cheered, snapping photos like mad. Such a picture of grace, it would be perfect cover-page material! Her finger couldn't press the shutter button fast enough!
"Gerard's sent out his Diancie already!" Lila marveled, her eyes wide with excitement.
"It's a pretty decent choice," Akira said. "From what we've seen, that Diancie of his has quite a good array of coverage moves."
"Not bad, Gerard! Bringing out your ace already?" Alden grinned. "Sounds like a plan! Tracey, let's take full advantage of your speed! Use electro ball!"
"Cinderace!" Tracey charged forward, a small orb of electricity crackling in front of her feet. She dribbled the ball of electricity which began to crackle and spark with more and more power, growing larger and larger until it was the size of a soccer ball. Tracey pulled back her foot and kicked with all her might at Diana, the ball surging through the air at her.
"Nice move," Akira said. "Electro ball is a powerful attack that gets even more powerful the faster the pokemon using it is in comparison to their opponent. And Diancie is a very slow pokemon, so it's a good move to smash through those high defenses of hers!"
"Diana!" Gerard shouted, his lips curling up into a smile. "Withstand it!"
"Diancie!" Diana nodded, closing her eyes and beginning to focus her energy. As she concentrated her energy inwards the pink diamonds covering her body began to shine. As she did, the electro ball hit her directly and she cried out in pain, withstanding the attack. It hurt a lot, but Diana's defenses were high, and she was able to get through it without much damage. And now, she had built up enough energy for her secret weapon.
"Now, Diana!" Gerard called. "Use trick room!"
"Diancie!" Diana released the energy she had built up out of her body, Large crystalline walls made of bright pink diamond spreading out in a massive dome around her, engulfing the entire battlefield in a large field of pink light.
"What the heck?!" Lila exclaimed.
"Oh, that's clever," Akira gasped, his eyes widening. "The Commander's pokemon, that Cinderace in particular, are very fast. But right now, using trick room, the faster pokemon are slowed, and the slower pokemon are sped up! So that means that now that Diancie, which is normally very slow but makes up for it with her high defenses, can move at great speed!"
"No fair! Because of that stupid barrier, I can't get a good shot of Diancie with my camera!" Dakota wailed. Clearly, her priorities were not the best.
"Tracey!" Alden shouted. "Are you okay?"
"Cinder!" Tracey nodded, glancing back at him with a smile. The fire in her eyes hadn't gone out even a little. She ran forward, but her body was heavy, weighed down by the eerie energy of the trick room. She couldn't move with the speed she was used to; she could barely move at all!
I'll have to thank Sylvia for teaching us how to use a weapon of this magnitude, Gerard thought, his face twisting into a wild smile. Trick room was the perfect technique for his normally-slow team of Rock type pokemon!
"Diana, use diamond storm!" Gerard shouted.
"Diancie!" Diana began to glow bright pink and she raised her arms, creating a massive cloud of diamond shards that she flung at Tracey.
"Cinderace!" Tracey cried, feeling the diamonds smash against her. She would have been able to dodge them normally, but in this trick room she could barely move. Fortunately, Tracey's Libero ability had turned her into an Electric type pokemon, meaning the diamond storm attack wasn't super effective, at least.
Not that that made all that much of a difference considering the serious damage that it had done to Tracey.
That was enough for Alden. He wasn't about to let his Cinderace get beaten up any more than this. Even if, as a Fire type, she wasn't the most effective member of his team for fighting Gerard's team, she was still one of his stronger pokemon and her Libero ability gave her a good amount of coverage and an ability to change things up. He wasn't going to risk her.
"Tracey, return," Alden said, holding up his pokeball to recall Tracey.
"Not a chance! Diana, use sand tomb!" Gerard ordered.
"Diancie!" Diana waved her hands and a swirl of sparkling diamond dust rose up around Tracey, cutting into her with razor shards while holding her in place, interfering with the Commander's attempt to recall her.
"Oh no!" Lila gasped. "The Commander can't recall his Cinderace now because the sand tomb is holding her down!"
"That's not all," Akira said, his expression darkening. "Remember, his Cinderace has the Libero ability, meaning her type changes in response to the last move she used. And the move that she used last was electro ball, so now she's an Electric type. And that means that she's been hit by a super-effective move."
"And me without being able to take good pictures," Dakota grumbled, less interested in the battle and more the fact that the shining barrier of pink diamonds was reflecting and blurring everything that was happening inside.
"Now that you're trapped, what will you do next?" Gerard asked, raising his eyebrow and smirking. "Your Cinderace takes advantage of the fact that she has such great speed. But in her current condition, there's not a lot that she can do, is there?"
Alden knew that he was right. Tracey was trapped.
Well, that wasn't quite true. Tracey could still do something. It just wouldn't be a very good decision to make.
Even though Tracey was caught in the sand tomb, it was still possible to switch her out if he used baton pass. The problem with that, though, was that Tracey had stacked up a significant amount of speed boosts over the course of the battle. And if she used baton pass, then she would pass those stat boosts onto whatever pokemon he sent out next. And if that pokemon received all those boosts to their speed, then that would mean that they would be slowed down. So basically, whichever pokemon he was switching to next would be in the same position of being incredibly slowed.
This was tricky, and he was running out of time.
No. Tracey is essential.
"Tracey!" He shouted. "Use baton pass!"
"Cinderace!" Tracey nodded back, her body beginning to shine.
"Oh, nice!" Akira grinned. "He's switching out!"
"But isn't she trapped?" Lila asked, confused.
"You can still switch out using baton pass," Akira explained. "Even if you're trapped by something like sand tomb or mean look."
"Switch out if you want," Gerard smirked. "But it won't help! Diana, use stealth rock!"
"Diancie!" Diana raised her hands, raising up large diamonds into the air around the Commander's side of the battlefield, the diamonds floating around sharply.
Tracey was recalled to her pokeball, Alden switching her out for another pokemon. It was unfortunate, it wasn't at all the situation he wanted to be in. Ideally, he would have switched Tracey out for Eifa, and use her magic bounce to reflect the stealth rocks. But due to the trick room, Diana had been able to get up the stealth rocks before Tracey could switch out, and now that was too late.
There were a few pokemon he could switch into right now, but the problem was the stealth rock. He would have to find some way to get rid of it, and he only had one pokemon that could reasonably pull it off.
The only problem was, that pokemon was Tracey, and she was being switched out! Alden needed to deal with what was becoming quite a significant problem.
"Finn, go," he said, sending out his Swampert.
"Swampert!" Finn bellowed, landing on the cloudy field. The sharp stones gouged into him but he shrugged them off, barreling right for Diana.
"Well, normally Swampert isn't a terrible choice for a trick room, but with all those speed buffs that big guy can barely move," Gerard smirked. "Meanwhile, Diana can take care of him easily! Diana, use moonblast!"
"Diancie!" Diana held her hands in front of the large gem on her chest, concentrating energy into the diamond and directing it at the approaching Swampert.
"Finn, use flip turn!" Alden ordered. Finn charged headfirst into the beam of fairy light, covering his body with water as he did. The attack hurt quite a bit, but he withstood it and tackled Diana, knocking her backwards. He kicked off of the small pokemon and shot back, returning to his pokeball for a quick switch-out. "Now, Tracey, come back!"
Alden sent Tracey out again, the Cinderace landing on the ground and letting out a cry of pain as the stones gouged her. Unlike Finn, stealth rocks hurt Tracey quite a bit.
"Cinderace!" Tracey cried out in pain, withstanding the diamonds gouging her. She shook it off, still standing strong.
"Tracey, use court change to get rid of those stealth rocks!" Alden ordered.
"Cinder!" Tracey nodded, sending the stones to Diana's side of the field, the large diamonds hovering around her. She didn't seem fazed, even though she was the one now surrounded by stealth rocks. Diana smiled.
"Stealth rock!" Gerard ordered.
"Diancie!" Diana sent more stones up into the air. Now, both sides of the field were covered in pointy stones.
Alden clicked his tongue.
"That's the problem with your team, 'Commander'," Gerard smirked. "Your volt-turn combo is weak to entry hazards, but your usual tactics prevent people from risking using them. Swapping the field with Cinderace, or reflecting them back on your opponents with Espeon, using entry hazards against you is too much of a risk to be a viable strategy. But when they are established, well… things don't work out so well for you, do they?"
"But now they both have stones over their field!" Lila said, shaking her head. "What's the point of that, then? Doesn't that mean that they're both in trouble?"
"So now we both have stealth rocks," Gerard laughed, his eyes shining nearly as brightly as Diana's diamonds. "But my team are Rock types. Stealth rocks won't do much to them. But you, with your team, you're much more vulnerable, aren't you? And there's no chance of using your volt-turn under these circumstances. Now, the battle can really get started!"
Alden's face darkened. Gerard was right.
Things are looking rather poor for the Commander! Gerard's moved into quite a commanding lead, even if he is one pokemon lower!