Darla's test with Reed begins! Will she be able to emerge victorious? Or will Reed defeat her, thus sealing her fate and forcing her to return home?
KedharS: Sums up how things are for Lila pretty well.
Pokemonking0924: …Trust that feeling.
Rowlets and Oshawotts: Yep. Reed's a fierce one alright, but Darla's not going to give up easily herself, either!
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 788
Ayame felt overwhelmed by the sheer power coming off of the two girls. She was lucky that the pier was shaped like a "T", otherwise she might have found herself directly in the line of fire instead of viewing the battle from the side.
It didn't do much to pause her shaking, however. She watched cautiously as the two dragons fought, wary to even encourage Darla; she felt like if she drew any attention to herself at all, she might end up on the receiving end of their ferocity.
Come on, Darla, she silently cheered her cohort. I know you can do it!
Darla was in the middle of thinking things through herself.
Her Dragonair knows light screen, but it can't learn reflect. Luckily, Rex is a master of physical moves, so that shouldn't be an issue. The problem is, her Dragonair has a lot more mobility on this battlefield, she can even hide in the water. With that in mind, I'll have to even things out a little.
"We'll use this move! Rex, stealth rock!" Darla shouted.
"Tyrantrum!" Rex nodded, stomping his foot on the dock and summoning up a wave of sharp stones that hovered in the air around Reed's side of the battlefield.
Reed glanced around at the stones, nonplussed. "Not a bad move, and not what I was expecting," she admitted. "With all that talk of dragon force I was expecting something a bit more… forceful out of you, Zinnia."
Darla smirked. "You may know all there is to know about dragons, Reed, but you've got a lot to learn about show business! As a good friend of mine once said, the success of a performance is dependent on how well you can set up the stage!"
"Tyrantrum!" Rex nodded in agreement. He bared his fangs and lowered his head, storming down the pier towards the Dragonair.
"Coming in for another head-on charge, hmm? Well, I suppose that's all you can do in this situation," Reed laughed. She snapped her fingers. "Mystica! No protect this time, use your extremespeed to get behind him!"
"Dragonair!" Mystica sprung for from her coil and shot across the dock, slithering beneath Rex's legs as he charged. Springing up from behind him, she opened her mouth and prepared a powerful dragon pulse.
"That won't work on us! Duck, Rex!"
With surprising speed, Rex lowered his head just as Mystica fired her dragon pulse, the orb of energy sailing harmlessly over him and exploding in the air. Roaring, Rex turned and raised his large tail, smashing it into Mystica and sending the long pokemon rolling over the wood.
"That was an excellently performed breaking swipe attack," Reed congratulated her, "but Mystica won't mind a drop in her attack. You should know by now, she's far more specially oriented. As for your Tyrantrum… well, you certainly caught me off-guard with that speed! I didn't see you prepare a dragon dance!"
Darla grinned. "Who needs it? Why don't you take a closer look at Rex's scales, and tell me what you see?"
Reed squinted, and Ayame did too. Ayame could see immediately how much Rex's condition had improved from just a few minutes ago, the shining of his smooth scales doing wonders for his aerodynamics.
"I see! My, that's quite something, his scales are so polished their gleaming!" Reed said.
"It's rock polish! It may not boost his attacking strength, but unlike dragon dance it raises his speed by two stages instead of one!" Darla boasted. "There are other moves to rely on than dragon dance when it comes to raising the stats of our pokemon, you know. But then, I wouldn't expect someone from our family to have any regard for techniques that don't ascribe to the old ways!"
"I'll admit, it wasn't something I expected," Reed admitted. "But then, when it comes to speed, your Tyrantrum simply can't compare, no matter how highly he boosts himself. Mystica, use your extremespeed once more!"
Mystica leapt up and shot at Rex like a bullet, hitting him in the side of the face. But Rex barely flinched from the assault, swiping at the blue blur as it passed.
"You should know that a move like that won't even scratch Rex's tough scales!" Darla said.
"But it does work for closing the distance," Reed said. "Now wrap!"
Mystica extended her long body and wrapped herself around the hulking dinosaur, coiling around him like a snake. Flexing her muscles she squeezed tightly, putting serious pressure on Rex as she clenched down hard on him.
"Rex!" Darla shouted. The wrap attack wasn't doing much damage considering the condition of the two pokemon, but the problem was that bound up as he was, Rex couldn't do anything to fight back. He thrashed against Mystica in a desperate attempt to free himself, but the Dragonair only squeezed down harder.
"All wrapped up nice and tight," Reed giggled, her eyes shining with menace. "Now you've found yourself in quite a bind."
"Mystica's taking damage from this too," Darla reminded her, gesturing at the wounds sustained from Rex's struggle against the grapple. "And she's losing health faster than Rex is! How long do you think she'll be able to keep this up?!"
"Not long, I'll grand you that," Reed admitted, nodding in agreement. "But you see, she doesn't have to hold on that much longer. Where do you think we are, Zinnia?" She asked, looking around and holding out her arms.
Darla gasped in realization. "No! You wouldn't!"
Reed wore a menacing grin as she nodded her head. "Yes! That's it exactly! Why did you think I asked you to meet me here, at his beach? On this pier? You forget, my dragons have grown training in the deep pools of the Dragons' Den in Blackthorn City! Their specialty is water! Mystica, drag Rex into the ocean!"
"Dragonair!" Mystica called, straining with all her might to begin pulling Rex towards the edge of the pier.
"Rex! Don't let her get you!" Darla shouted. But it was futile at this point. Rex was struggling as hard as he could, but he couldn't break the tight grip of Mystica. It was slow going, but the serpentine pokemon was slowly slithering him closer to the edge.
"Your Tyrantrum is a Rock type, right?" Reed asked, smiling knowingly. "I sure do hope he knows how to swim!"
"Rex!" Darla shouted. She was desperate for her pokemon, even though she knew that there was a way to escape. That was because of how narrow a margin there was. She had to time it perfectly or else there wouldn't be a point.
Mystica had pulled Rex right to the edge. Another second and she would pull him in. Now was the time! "Rex! Use protect!"
A brown barrier grew out from around Rex's body, pushing Mystica off of him and into the water. He stumbled forward, panting, and roared triumphantly.
Darla smirked. "That's one of your favorite moves with Mystica, isn't that?" She scoffed. "That's a move we can use, too!"
"You could have done that at any time, but you waited until we were right on the edge? Interesting," Reed said.
"Rex was using thrash. He was confused, and could barely hear my words," Darla explained. "I needed to wait until the last moment so you wouldn't know what I was planning, but for it to work my order needed to get through. I was worried for a second there that he would be so lost in his haze that he wouldn't hear me, but he did."
She smiled triumphantly. "And now we're going to win! Right, Rex?"
"Tyrantrum!" Rex growled, nodding in agreement. He'd snapped out of his confusion and was ready to strike.
But there was no one to attack.
Mystica had yet to surface from the water.
A sly grin slowly spread across Reed's face.
"Problem?" She chirped in silky sweetness. As she did, a cold beam of ice shot from the ocean and hit Rex in the back.
"TYRANTRUM!" Rex roared in pain, stumbling forward as he nursed the freezing chill on his shoulder tenderly.
"Rex!" Darla cried. "It's like we expected! She's hidden her Dragonair under the water and is preparing to attack!"
"That's right exactly," Reed laughed. "Very well done! But even if you know that, even though you saw it coming, that still doesn't mean you can stop Mystica from whittling away at your Tyrantrum until there's nothing left!"
"I would have thought better of you than to rely on Ice type moves," Darla scowled. "Don't you despise them?"
"I do indeed, the cold is always so cruel to my dear Dragon types," Reed sighed dramatically. "But in a situation like this, success trumps all! So I'll put aside my grudge today and ask you: what do you plan to do next?"
Ayame was starting to panic. What could Darla do next? Her Tyrantrum might still be in good shape, but his methods of attacking were severely limited; he didn't have the range to fight a fair fight against Reed's Dragonair, and they both knew it! Reed had just been playing with Darla this whole time, and now she was breaking out the big moves.
"Well, Zinnia? I'm waiting to hear your response!" Reed called. "What's next? Hiding in the water, Mystica can launch attacks from any direction she chooses, and there's nothing you can do to stop her. None of your moves can hope to hit, while she can attack with impunity."
Big words. Reed was boasting, but she wasn't attacking. Nor was she asking Darla to give up. Her response? That's what she was asking for? What response would Darla be able to give? At this point, her options were very limited. She could recall Rex, and send out a different pokemon, one more suited for fighting against an underwater opponent, but that would only be delaying the inevitable. With only three pokemon at her disposal she needed all of them to pull their weight, and right now Rex was like the rocks he'd been reborn out of; weighing down her chances at victory.
Reed snapped her fingers and another ice beam erupted from the sea. Rex was able to dodge it this time, just barely, now that his attention was focused solely on the waves. But it was a futile gesture. There were just too many places for Mystica to hide underwater, too many blind spots. Rex couldn't watch everywhere at once!
This was like a battle with the ocean itself. Darla glared venomously at Reed, it was like the woman was attacking her from everywhere at once without even having to lift a finger!
Then Darla had an idea.
"You… wanted our response?" She asked slowly. It was a wild, crazy idea, not the sort of idea one would come up with if their back wasn't against the wall. And certainly not the sort of idea one should try in a licensed pokemon match.
But this wasn't a match. It was a test. And this was the only answer Darla could see that would have a shot of being correct.
"Rex!" She shouted. "Use head smash!"
Rex looked back at her with questioning eyes. For a moment, he wasn't sure what she meant.
Ayame didn't have the faintest idea either.
But then Rex saw the glimmer of determination in his trainer's eyes, and put the pieces together. "Ty?" He asked, not sure if he was right.
Darla's nod was all the answer he needed. He turned back to Reed and roared, lowering his head and charging forward. It was a crazy idea, but he was going to follow along with his trainer on it nevertheless.
"Oh? What's this now?" Reed asked, confused. Why would the Tyrantrum use an attack like that, when Mystica was hiding safely under the water? Then she realized how fast the Tyrantrum was charging, and who he was charging at. "…Oh. That's bold of you, Zinnia."
"No way!" Ayame exclaimed, finally figuring it out. She couldn't believe it. "No way, that's crazy! Darla, are you insane?!"
"If we can't attack Mystica while she's hiding under the water, then I suppose we'll just have to attack you!" Darla roared. "How's that for our response, Reed?"
The distance between Rex and Reed grew shorter and shorter, but Reed didn't make any move to get out of the way. She already knew by the speed of his charge she'd never make it to the water. But that was fine. Mystica was on the move too, and with her extremespeed she was even faster.
Mystica erupted from the water, flinging herself in front of her trainer as a blue aura wrapped around her body, pushing out into a protective screen. Rex crashed into the screen with full force, but even his strongest move wasn't able to make a dent in their defenses.
"Nice gambit there," Reed applauded. "Like before, you had Rex charge in to attack me, knowing that Mystica would have to protect me like last time. I know you were hoping that you could beat her to the punch in that thin window between extremespeed and protect, but unfortunately for you, she was preparing a protect attack before even emerging from the water. Now, your Tyrantrum has to face the consequences of the move he just used. You know how it is with Dragon types. They have access to powers far above those of ordinary pokemon, but those moves always come at a cost. And from the force of that move, it must be quite the cost. Confusion, perhaps? Or being stunned? Whatever it is, it's got him at quite the disadvantage."
"I knew there was no way I could hit your Dragonair while she was down there," Darla agreed. "That's why we had to lure her onto the pier again. But you miscalculated, Reed!"
Reed raised her eyebrow. "Oh?"
Darla grinned. "You might know all about the techniques of Dragon types, way more than I do. Thrash? Outrage? Hyper beam? Giga impact? Moves like those are second-nature to you! But head smash is a Rock type move, and my guess is you don't know as much about those!" Darla's eyes were shining brightly as Mystica's shield lowered.
"You might have thought that while Rex was stunned, Mystica could slither away back to the sea! But sorry to break it to you, but head smash won't confuse Rex, and he isn't stunned, either! The cost of using it is only a little bit of pain… and pain is something that motivates him to fight even harder!" Darla shouted. "Go, Rex, use ice fang!"
"TYRANTRUM!" Rex roared, shaking off the ache of his head smash. He lunged at Mystica before the dragon could escape, opening his mouth wide. Like mighty icicles crashing down upon her Rex snatched Mystica up in his mighty jaws and bit down hard, hoisting the serpent up into the air as his fangs pierced through her scaly hide.
"DRAGONAIR!" Mystica howled in pain.
"Now it's your Dragonair's turn to be trapped," Darla said. "Rex's ability is Strong Jaw; with those mighty fangs, the power of his bite is increased by 50%, and that's even stronger than your ice beam! There's nowhere for your Dragonair to escape, once he's got his teeth in he's never going to let go! Keep going, Rex, bite down even harder!"
Mystica thrashed helplessly against the crushing power of Rex's fangs, but there was nothing she could do. There was no way she was squirming her way out of this one, and it wasn't long before her slender figure crumpled and her voice faded away, Rex spitting her out onto the dock.
"…Well done, you've taken the first victory in our little exchange," Reed said, her smile disappearing momentarily. It quickly returned however, and she recalled Mystica to her pokeball. "I apologize for underestimating you, Zinnia. I thought your time away had caused you to go lax in your training, but I can see I wasn't treating you with the respect you deserve. A Dragonair is not a suitable foe for your level of skill, I'll acknowledge that from the bottom of my heart."
Reed recalled Mystica to her pokeball, and reached for the next one. Her dragon force was stronger than ever, Darla bracing herself against the power she felt pressing against her on the wind. Reed was a foe to be reckoned with, alright.
"In response to your excellent showing, I'll fight you as a dragon master ought," Reed promised. "Alendra! Come!"
With a flourish Reed flung her pokeball into the sky, where it burst open to reveal the shining scales of a bright gold dragon.
"You managed to overcome my Dragonair," Reed said, catching the pokeball as it fell, "now how will you stand against my Dragonite?
"Dragonite!" Aldendra roared, landing on the pier in front of Reed and flapping his wings, sending a mighty gust of wind forwards. It was so strong it actually managed to push Rex back slightly, which was a terrifying thought.
Darla narrowed her eyes into a glare. She wasn't giving in that easily. Reed might have said she was taking things seriously now, and the look in her eyes was certainly honest enough, even if her smile was twisted.
But Darla knew what Reed was capable of. The woman had a trump card up her sleeve that she still hadn't played, and Darla wasn't going to relax and think that a Dragonite was the strongest foe she had to face.
Reed deserved more credit than that.
While Darla's test against Reed was going on, Lila was relaxing in bed, appreciative of having the day to herself.
But she was also supremely bored. She took out her phone and checked her messages. Nothing. It had been hours since Olivia had texted Darla and asked her to meet, and she still hadn't heard anything back.
What was going on? Darla was usually a lot more responsible than this. If the meeting was long, she would have checked in. Or if she wasn't going to be back for a few hours because she was doing something else, she would always let Lila know.
Even if it was a day off, Darla was the kind of person who would always check in, always! Even just to make sure that Lila wasn't slacking.
Lila sighed. Darla had told her to enjoy her day off before she left, so maybe she was just being considerate. Maybe Lila was just overthinking things.
But there was a strange pressure in her chest that was making her uncomfortable. A bad feeling that she tried to shake, but just couldn't.
She looked out the window at the stormy skies overhead. It had been so clear earlier, but now it looked like a storm was coming. She shivered and went to go grab a blanket, pulling it over herself as she typed out an inquiry to Darla.
She hoped her friend would be back soon.
Little does Lila know, Darla may not be coming back at all…