Ange's revealed her true colors, and those of her pokemon! Her ace is a Hisuian Zoroark, a pokemon of devastating power and malice! Will Gansley be any match for such a frightening beast? He's already lost two of his pokemon, how much further can he take this? Does he have any trump cards that might be able to put up a fight? If not, then Ange and Luci might have some devastating surprises for him, that's for sure!
KedharS: Well, war's a bit too civilized. She might eat him alive, though.
JoshGamerV: Yeah, she's pretty scary. She's the kind of girl who you want to make sure you can stay on the good side of, or she'll feed you to wild pokemon.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 876
Gansley was terrified. This girl and her pokemon had wiped out two of his strongest without even blinking. But he also knew that if he backed down now, then his life was forfeit- weakness was a sin, and that sin would be punishable by death in this instance.
These chilly winds… that Zoroark of hers… she said it was a Normal/Ghost type, so in that case, I'll have to fight with something stronger than this, Gansley judged. "Houndoom! Go!"
Gansley sent out the first replacement for his unconscious pokemon, a Houndoom. It was the perfect counter to the savage Zoroark.
And then… for my other choice… Gansley needed to come up with something fast. "Scrafty, you, too!" He shouted, sending out a Scrafty as his other pokemon. The reptilian punk pokemon was the perfect fit for a thuggish guy like him, Ange thought.
"My, two Dark types… and a Fighting type, to boot," Ange mused with a smirk. "Why, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were afraid of me!"
"Don't… don't misunderstand!" Gansley spat, his beefy face flushing with embarrassment. "These pokemon are more than enough to tear yours down! Go, Houndoom! Use dark pulse!"
"Houndoom!" Houndoom opened his mouth wide, and fired a shockwave of dark aura towards the cackling Zoroark. At the same time, Ange noted that Gansley's Scrafty was preparing a strike of his own- he was setting up a sucker punch.
So, if I try to dodge with something like shadow sneak, then that Scrafty will counter, how quaint, she noted. Well in that case… we won't dodge!
"Luci, now!" She shouted, and Luci nodded her head, glowing white. The dark pulse collided in a powerful blast, sending smoke and dust through the plaza. When the dust cleared, a Snorlax remained standing.
"Another illusion? We won't fall for that one!" Gansley snarled. "Don't let up, Houndoom, use another dark pulse!"
"Ah, so you are blind," Ange scoffed. She didn't even note the electrical charges running through her at this point, they were like bug bites. Bug bites that hurt like hell, maybe, but she'd gotten used to them. "Beel, use iron head!"
"Snorlax," Beel bellowed, lowering her head and charging at the Houndoom.
"That's just what we were waiting for! Now, Scrafty, hit with your sucker punch," Gansley ordered.
"Scraft!" Scrafty shot forward and raised his fist, hitting the Snorlax with a darkness-infused punch. But the attack barely scratched her pudgy body, and he was quickly thrown aside by the Snorlax's charge, stunning Gansley.
"What's with that?!" He asked, confused.
"I didn't throw up another illusion, you fool, I had Luci simply use baton pass," Ange replied, rolling her eyes. "Like I would bother with tricks at this point in the battle? No, I want you to see just how badly things are going to go for you. Now, Beel, grab that Scrafty!"
"Snorlax!" Boosted in speed by Luci's agility that was passed onto her, Beel reached out and grabbed Scrafty by the leg, hoisting him into the air. The punk pokemon struggled frantically but he couldn't break free of Beel's iron grip, helpless as the pokemon wound up and threw him right into the path of the oncoming Tauros.
"Sati, continue your rampage!" Ange ordered, turning her attention to her Tauros next. The pokemon was still the center of a maelstrom of draconic energy, and unleashing her outrage on everything that came into her path.
"Khh! That thing's powerful… but we're not some pushovers either!" Gansley shouted. "Scrafty, use protect!"
"Scrafty!" Scrafty raised his hands and created a barrier of black energy around his body just as Sati slammed into him. The shield was more than enough to stop the pokemon's charge, and she thrashed helplessly against it.
"It doesn't matter how powerful that Tauros of yours is, there's no way she's getting through that barrier," Gansley cackled. "And that gives us plenty of time to prepare a counterattack, all thanks to you!"
Ange narrowed her eyes. She could see where Gansley was going with this. Sati had unleashed all of her power into that outrage, and strength like that came at a heavy cost. Right now the tempest was already starting to dwindle, and before long all that would be left was a disoriented pokemon who had charged herself right into confusion.
That was the moment Gansley was waiting for.
"Scrafty, use focus punch!" He ordered. As the barrier dropped, Sati stumbled forward, zigzagging slightly, not able to concentrate. She would have attacked the Scrafty to break his focus if she could, but she was too disoriented to even see straight.
"Scrafty!" Scrafty hit Sati in the side with as much force as he could muster, sending the Tauros flying through the air. Sati crashed to the ground at Ange's feet, and she sighed.
"Well, you definitely tried your hardest. I'm sorry it wasn't enough," Ange apologized. She knew that Sati had a lot more rage that she wanted to let out on her opponents, and she was sad that she wouldn't get the chance. "But don't worry. Everyone else will carry your share of the wrath with them, I promise you," she said, switching to her next pokeball.
Seeing that one of Ange's pokemon had gone down, Gansley felt a brief surge in confidence flare up. She wasn't unbeatable. Her pokemon could faint just like anyone else's! It was a sympathy that was shared by the onlookers who had remained, and a few even approached closer now that the terrifying pressure of Ange's Zoroark was gone.
"Let's do it for real then, Belle," Ange declared, sending out her next pokemon. A very familiar Slaking emerged, sending a shiver down the spines of everyone else.
"N-Not again!" Someone in the audience cried.
"It… it's just my imagination, right?" A woman frantically asked, shivering. "It's not really getting cold again, is it?!"
"You… think you can get me with the same trick?!" Gansley demanded, more out of desperation to be proven wrong than anything else. He hoped that it really was a Slaking this time, not a reappearance of her Zoroark.
Ange rolled her eyes. "I already told you, no more tricks. This time it's really Belle. Isn't that right, girl?" She asked, patting her Slaking on the back.
"Slaking…" Belle yawned, lounging on her side and scratching her belly lazily. She began to pick her nose absentmindedly to the disgust of the audience.
Ange snickered. Same old Belle.
"Well, while I appreciate that you want to take it easy and relax, I need your help!" Ange told her Slaking, who glanced at her in confusion. She smiled back, then turned to Beel. "Beel, if you wouldn't mind, use your gastro acid!"
"Snorlax," Beel grunted, nodding her head and lumbering back over to Ange as a confused Gansley watched on.
"H-Houndoom, now's your chance!" He shouted, completely flabbergasted by Ange's decision to turn her Snorlax away from the fight. "Hit her with your flamethrower!"
"Houndoom!" Houndoom howled, opening his mouth and sending out a stream of dark red flames across the plaza. The fire struck Beel in the back, but the pokemon shrugged off the heat, opening her mouth wide.
She spat up sludge onto Belle, which grossed the audience out even more.
"Sla… king…" It took a second for Belle to realize what had just happened. She looked to Beel first, confused, and then to her trainer. "Slaking?"
Ange shrugged.
Belle looked back at the Snorlax, and now she wasn't just confused. She was mad. "SLAKING!" She rumbled, rising to her feet and pounding her chest angrily. "Slaking!"
"Sorry, Belle!" Ange said, stepping in the middle between the two. "I asked her to do it! I needed your help to win this fight, and, well… you can be a little… lazy. But don't worry, once we've wiped the floor with this punk, you can go back to relaxing all you like!"
"…Slaking," Belle grunted, upset but understanding. She turned towards the Scrafty and Houndoom, glaring angrily down at them.
"What… what is that?!" Gansley demanded. "What did you just do?" He'd never heard of a Slaking acting like this before. They were content to just laze back and not try very hard in battle, the way that this one had been acting before!
But now, she was coming right for them! What the heck was going on?! Had Ange lied? Was this really that Zoroark after all? But no, it wasn't behaving the same way as that pokemon had, either, which left Gansley just feeling confused.
"It's called gastro acid," Ange explained with a smirk. "My Beel's stomach acid is a very corrosive, disgusting substance. It needs to be, to be able to digest the mountains of food she consumes on a daily basis. Needless to say, getting any of it on you won't make for a very pleasant day. Because it doesn't just break down the chemicals in food, it suppresses the ability of any pokemon that's bathed in it, you see!"
It took Gansley a second to figure out what that meant, and when he did, his face went white as a sheet and he began shaking.
"N-No, then that means…"
"Go wild, Belle!" Ange crowed triumphantly.
"Slaking!" Belle roared, stomping into the fray. He raised a powerful hand and slammed it down on Scrafty's head, pressing the pokemon into the plaza so hard the ground cracked.
"Scrafty!" Scrafty wailed as the Slaking wailed on him.
"Houndoom! Quick, stop that thing!" Gansley shouted. "Use the strongest flamethrower you've got! And Scrafty, use protect to shield yourself!"
"H-Houndoom!" Houndoom nodded, opening his mouth and sending another stream of fire at the Slaking. The bulky pokemon shrugged off the attack like it was nothing, continuing her assault on Scrafty until the pokemon conjured up a barrier.
Frustrated, Belle let out another roar, and turned her attention to the Houndoom next.
"Like all Slaking, Belle's a lazy one," Ange smirked. "She doesn't like fighting, not if she could be relaxing. But with her ability Truant suppressed, she's fighting-mad now, and that means she's chosen the quickest method she can think of to get back to slacking off. And that just happens to be pounding your pokemon into paste! Belle, be a dear and use hammer arm on that Houndoom!"
"Slaking!" Belle raised up her arms and clenched her hands together into a fist, bringing them down like a sledgehammer upon Houndoom.
"Quick Houndoom! Dodge it!" Gansley shouted. Houndoom proved his speed and agility by slipping away just before Belle could strike, dodging her blow by the skin of his teeth.
Shit! This really isn't good! Slaking are monsters with incredible bulk and speed! Normally, their laziness can make up for that, but right now we're struggling just to keep in this! Shit! Fuck! I never would have imagined she'd do something as insane as suppress her pokemon's Truant ability! Gansley cursed in frustration. Luckily, Houndoom is fast enough to stay out of reach, but if that Snorlax joins the fray, then we're in trouble…
Gansley's eyes shot to Ange's Snorlax, and he sighed in relief. Contrary to his fears, Beel seemed to have no interest in entering the battle. She was content to sit back and chow down on some berries as she watched Belle go at it. That was a little insulting, but it was nothing that Gansley could afford to be bothered by.
Everything's on the line here, he reminded himself. So what if we need to go two on one to take out this Slaking? That's just fine with me, damn it! "Houndoom!" He shouted. "Use another flamethrower, as many as it takes!"
"Houndoom!" Houndoom nodded, spitting more flames, this time catching Belle in the face. She shielded her eyes with one hand as she batted away the flames with the other, stomping into the stream to take out the attacking pokemon.
Gansley turned to Scrafty next. He was in pretty bad shape, having been on the receiving end of a savage beating from that Slaking. But he wasn't out of the fight yet, and that was a miracle itself. "Scrafty!" Gansley called.
"Scraft?" Scrafty dropped his protective barrier and rose to his feet, shaking. Hmm. He was in worse shape than Gansley had thought.
But Gansley didn't care. What was important right now was taking out that Slaking before it went any wilder on them!
"Scrafty, prepare a sucker punch," he ordered. "That Slaking's going berserk, so when you see an opportunity, sneak in from behind!"
Ange scoffed. "You know I can HEAR you, right?" She asked. "Slaking, you heard the man! That Scrafty's going to be looking for an opening, so I suggest you don't give him one! Use rest!"
"Slaking?!" Belle asked, turning to her trainer with an eager smile on her face. She was actually going to be allowed to slack off for once?!
Ange nodded.
"Slaking!" Belle sounded overjoyed, letting out a long yawn. She stretched and found a comfortable spot to lounge, before drifting off to sleep.
Gansley was stunned. Ange had spent so much time getting her Slaking to run wild, and now, what, she was just letting her go off to sleep?
He had no idea what was going on. But he knew that this wasn't something he could afford not to take advantage of.
"Okay you two!" He growled. "Now's our opportunity! We're going to take her down! Houndoom, use flamethrower! And Scrafty, prepare a focus punch!"
"Houndoom!"
"Scrafty!"
Both pokemon nodded in agreement, and everyone was on the same page. Gansley made another check on Snorlax, relieved to see that the pokemon was STILL wasting her time eating. He began to breathe a little easier, beating Ange was looking more and more doable the longer her pokemon slacked off like this and didn't take the battle seriously!
But he couldn't stop that nagging feeling that was gnawing up inside of him.
And the root of that feeling was Ange herself.
As far as Gansley could tell, the blonde girl didn't have any problem with her pokemon doing whatever they pleased. Heck, she was actively encouraging it! She wasn't calling out to her Slaking to wake her up, and she wasn't demanding her Snorlax stop eating and pitch in.
She was acting like this was perfectly normal. Like her pokemon could do whatever they wanted, and she would still come out the winner.
It was a frightening attitude, because it was one that he'd often displayed himself. When he knew that victory was certain, he wouldn't always take things seriously. It was a type of arrogance, a way to look down on people by pretending that they weren't even worth your full and complete effort, and Ange was doing an excellent job of displaying it.
That pissed Gansley off even more. He was worth the time, damn it! He wasn't about to let this girl make a mockery out of him!
"Go!" He shouted, the crowd's cheers leading his orders. They had gotten back into the fight, noticing the same things he had about how Ange's pokemon weren't as big of a deal anymore. He just had to count on his own pokemon to carry him to victory.
Houndoom's flamethrower came first. While Scrafty tightened his focus to prepare for a devastating punch, Houndoom began to boost out a massive amount of flames. She aimed right for the Slaking's face. Even if the heat from the fire attack woke her up, that would be fine as long as she could inflict some wicked burns.
As the flames drew closer to Belle, she sneezed.
The force of the sneeze was enough to snuff them out completely, much to Gansley's and the audience's shock.
Belle sneezed again, blowing out the rest of the approaching flames.
Gansley didn't let himself get shaken, though. "That… don't worry about that! It's just fine!" He shouted to Scrafty, but really he was talking to himself. "Just ignore that! She won't be able to shrug this one off! Hit her with your focus punch!"
"Scrafty!" Scrafty charged forward, his fist pulled back to unleash a devastating punch containing all the energy he'd managed to build with his concentration. He aimed right for Belle's gut, punching with all his might.
Belle shifted in her sleep, rolling over. The punch hit the concrete where she'd been snoozing a fraction of a second earlier.
"What the hell?!" That was enough to get Gansley to lose it. "What's the problem with you, you useless pokemon?!" He roared. "You can't even hit a pokemon while it's sleeping right in front of you?! What's WRONG with you?!"
"Sc-Scrafty!" Scrafty quickly wailed, shaking his head. He didn't understand it either, the attack should have hit. He turned back to Belle and raised his fist again, this time preparing a quicker brick break attack, but he didn't have a chance.
As Scrafty turned, he saw a long, wide arm sweeping his way, colliding with him and knocking him backwards. He rolled across the ground and jumped to his feet, stunned.
"Scrafty?!" He gasped in disbelief, looking to Houndoom. The hound pokemon was just as shocked as he was.
Belle was still fast asleep, but now she was standing up.
"Oh, I suppose I should have mentioned," Ange said, twirling a lock of her hair. "You see, Belle doesn't like fighting much, right? She'd prefer to just snooze the night away… but that won't do. I need the power she's got. But it would be cruel to make her fight when she just wants to relax, don't you agree?" She asked, knowing that someone like Gansley would never care about what his pokemon wanted.
"What… what are you saying?!" Gansley demanded.
"I'm saying that, since I want to make sure that all my pokemon's needs are met, I taught my Belle how to fight in her sleep," Ange explained, shooting him an icy smirk. "So tell me, Gansley, what are your thoughts on the matter?"
Still fast asleep but no less powerful, Belle stalked forward, snoring loudly.
Neither Scrafty nor Houndoom, and certainly not Gansley, had prepared for something like this, either!
So Ange's switched up her pokemon a little, but she's still well ahead in the match! And it's nice to see that as wicked as she can seem, she does still have a soft spot for her pokemon, and is willing to tolerate their little idiosyncrasies. She knows her pokemon best, after all, and knows what they're capable of even if they're sleeping and eating.