EXTRA CHAPTER: The Rose Blooms PT 2
"Ugh…" Lucian sighed as he lowered his fists and crossed his arms. "Okay, kid. I'm going to give you one last chance to stop this charade and put on your invoker armor. It'll be hard for you to fight while wearing that dress." Lucian pointed at Beatrice's large blue dress laced with jewels and fabrics.
"It won't be," Beatrice replied.
"Listen. The crowd wouldn't like it if the final match ended in an instant. Right, Flygon?" Lucian turned to Flygon, who stood next to him, and they both shared a nod. "This whole act you're doing is very cute," Lucian continued, "but this is a serious match. And I recommend you take it seriously."
Beatrice took hold of her invoker that was a necklace around her neck.
She paused and stared.
"I assure you, Lucian. I'm taking this very seriously." The challenger then took her necklace off and tossed it into the spectator crowd.
"Did you just-" Lucian spoke with his eyes wide. After a brief moment, he groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Beatrice then reached into her dress pockets, pulling out a pair of sunglasses and sliding it on.
Just like her biological father would have.
"You've already lost, Lucian." Beatrice said, "You just don't know it yet."
Lucian stepped forward with a serious look in his eye.. "You just threw away your chances of winning."
"They aren't zero."
"I'm going to end this in an instant."
Both trainers glared at each other. Flygon furiously glared along with his trainer. Slowpoke, who lied in a seemingly helpless state, yawned loudly.
The two trainers spoke at the same time:
"...Roar of Time- Time will move faster for me alone-"
"Slowpoke! Trick room, now!"
Slowpoke's eyes flashed right as Lucian finished his sentence. A massive purple cube erupted from Slowpoke's body and expanded like an explosion. The cube grew large enough to cover the entire arena and dyed the area purple.
"Wh-What?!" Lucian cried, turning his head back and forth. Beatrice smiled.
"Using my knowledge of Dialga and from watching you fight Aldrich… I know you can do one of three things with his power. Freeze time, accelerate time, or reverse time. I'm sure you know how Trick Room works," Beatrice said. "Those who are slower will be faster. And those who are faster will be slower. Earlier, I heard you activate your time acceleration move. You should be several times faster than me right now. But because of the rules of the trick room..!"
In an instant, Beatrice disappeared, then re-appeared in front of Flygon. Grabbing the Dragon/ground type by the shoulders, Beatrice's head shined with pink psychic-type energy. "Zen...! Headbutt!" Beatrice cried. Beatrice slammed her head against the Pokémon's head not once, not twice, but multiple times over and over again in rapid succession in extreme speeds. It was like watching an extremely fast hammer slamming a nail again and again. Soon, Beatrice stopped, and Flygon fell to the ground, unconscious.
Beatrice turned to Lucian, who was watching in horror. Beatrice smiled, then disappeared in a blink of an eye to appear in front of her Slowpoke, who was shining like the sun. The psychic/water type's eyes shined with a red color, maintaining the trick room as long as possible. Lucian eyed the psychic type that hung in the sky and looked back down at Beatrice.
"I can guess what you're thinking," Beatrice said. "You're thinking that if you take down my Slowpoke, the Trick Room will be undone, and you'll be faster than me again. And you'd be right. But unfortunately for you, I'm not letting you do that. I'm several times faster than you because of Trick Room's effects! You'll never reach my Slowpoke in time." Beatrice pointed at Lucian. "And don't even think about using Roar of time to freeze time! I know for a fact that in order for that move to work, you have to say the entire sentence without being interrupted! With me being several times faster than you, I can hit you before you can even say a single word!"
"I see." Lucian said. A bead of sweat fell from his cheek. "Well done, but-"
Beatrice raised her finger.
"Ah-Ah-Ah~ I'm not done talking, old man," Beatrice said.
Lucian furrowed his brow.
"By using trick room, I've simultaneously stopped you from speeding yourself up, and freezing time. That leaves you only one option: Time reversal. But- if you use too much of your power, you'll risk disappearing again. You did disappear because of using too much temporal energy. So it makes sense you have a limit to the amount you can use now. So, if you use all of the temporal energy that your body can handle, you can reverse time up until the moment we started the fight. All to undo Trick room. But… this comes at a cost. You know what that cost is, right? Go ahead, tell me," Beatrice said, smiling widely.
Lucian sighed and looked away. "If I reverse time to the point when we started the fight…I won't be able to use Dialga's powers for the match."
"Good, Good!" Beatrice started clapping as she spoke as though she were complimenting a child for keeping up. "You're catching on! Good job!"
"How do you know all of this?" Lucian asked in an annoyed tone. "Did someone tell you?!"
Beatrice crossed her arms.
"I'll start with how and when I learned of each ability of yours. First: Freezing time. This one was obvious, my biological father could do it when he wielded Dialga's powers, so obviously, so can you. Two: Reversing time. Back when we fought against Aldrich, you said, and I quote: 'I didn't realize I used so much temporal power, reversing time so much. Three: Your speed. When I was waiting along with Lucia during your fight with Aldrich, when you had gone to outer space… Lucia's mother and the others appeared on Salamence's back in a blink of an eye, and there was no Spatial portal to be found. It wasn't Palkia who teleported them. It was you."
Lucian's eyes widened. "Wait… you're telling me… you took mental notes of my abilities during our fight with Aldrich!? How long have you been planning for this fight?!"
"Lucian, promptly remind me whose kid you're talking to." Beatrice said with a proud smile. "Now, do what you're told: Reverse time. Unless you want to be beaten now, that is. Go on, do it. The crowd wouldn't like it if the match ended in an instant."
Lucian glared furiously.
"Ah, I see…" Zennon said from the spectator's seats. "This plan has layers to it. Very interesting."
"Wait," Anastasia said. "I have no idea what's going on…"
"Let me sum it up:" Zennon said. "Beatrice baited Lucian into using his time-acceleration move by taunting him. She then used Trick Room, knowing full well that she'd become faster because of how the move works."
"Right," Anastasia said. "I understand that much..."
"Using Trick room alone puts Lucian in a corner," Marie continued, "Because in order to use Roar of Time, Lucian has to finish his sentence or else the move won't work. So he can't stop time, either, because Beatrice would use her newfound speed to hit him before he could say a word."
"Oh… And with Flygon gone, his only option is to reverse time to get him out of this mess...!" Anastasia said.
"Yeah, and If he reverses time now," Marie continued, "Then Lucian will have to not use any more temporal energy, or else his body will disappear, like it did at the end of our fight with Aldrich."
"Ohhh!" Anastasia cried. "So that means he won't be able to use Dialga's powers anymore! He'll be like a normal person!"
"Exactly," Marie said.
"So, Lucian. Will you do the honors?" Beatrice asked.
"Tch.." The champion groaned. "Roar of time, Time reverse!"
Time reversed itself like a video player going on rewind, undoing Slowpoke's trick room and rewinding all the way up until the point where Beatrice was grabbing a hold of her invoker necklace and about to take it off. Beatrice stared at Lucian, then blinked in sudden realization once she saw Lucian's body turn back to normal. A smile crossed the red-haired girl's lips.
"I have no memory of what just happened earlier, but I assume that my plan worked." Beatrice moved her hand away from her Invoker instead of tossing it away. She activated it immediately, and her body became encased in armor.
"I'll admit, you had another option other than reversing time," Beatrice said. "You could have just undone your time-acceleration. Then, with our speeds equalized, you could have used Roar of Time to freeze time, then defeat me in one blow. But I couldn't afford you to think of that, so I kept talking and interrupting you. I made you angry so you couldn't think straight. I took my invoker off. I called you old. I taunted you. I even stopped calling you 'Mr.' Lucian. Every second of this match was a gamble, all so I could even the odds."
Lucian smiled and grinned widely. "You got me. You really got me. I admit it, when it comes to strategy, you've got me beat."
Flygon, who was now back on his feet because of the time-reversal, glared furiously as Lucian stepped forward. With a single swift movement, he pulled his watch-invoker from his pocket and pressed the button with his thumb. A flash of light covered his entire body, and faded away to reveal an armored Lucian, who entered a battle stance along with Flygon. "But that doesn't mean you'll win." Lucian concluded.
Beatrice took a deep breath as she entered a battle stance. Slowpoke, who lied on his back, shined with red eyes.
"No more words from here on in. The only words we use is to command our Pokémon or announce moves." The redheaded girl said.
Lucian nodded. "Agreed." He said.
Author's note: It took me a while to think of what Beatrice would do against Lucian... I'm rather proud of the result, I hope that this part made sense. The next part will be coming soon!