Ange's battle with Gansley is only getting more and more onesided. Her pokemon are incredibly powerful, is there anything Gansley can do to fight back? Or will Ange and her team destroy him completely? Let's find out just what she's capable of!
KedharS: That's a rather optimistic thought.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 877
Gansley had to remind himself to keep his composure. Calm down. So what, her Slaking can fight in her sleep. Yeah, it's frustrating, but so what? It's still two against one, that Snorlax isn't doing anything! We can still take it down!
He took a deep breath. It wasn't as bad as it looked.
"Houndoom! Use fire spin to trap that Slaking in place!" Gansley shouted.
"Houndoom!" Houndoom nodded, opening his mouth wide. A swirl of dark flames erupted from deep within his throat, spinning around Belle in a tornado of hellfire that kept the sleeping pokemon right where she was.
"Rrrgh," Ange winced, feeling the sparks on her collar shoot up again, sending an electric current through her body. Unlike the previous shocks, this one wasn't going away. Was that because her Slaking was trapped in a continuing move?
She spit in frustration. "Belle! You might be immobilized for a little bit, but you're not helpless! Use flail, now!"
"Slaking…" Belle yawned, still fast asleep. But thanks to her sleep talk she could hear Ange's words, and tried to use flail… even if the result was basically the same as thrashing around helplessly, her beefy arms not even getting close to the two pokemon.
"Tch," Ange clicked her tongue in frustration. This was getting annoying! But she was going to have to make do. She glanced at Beel, hoping that she was almost done with her meal. And thankfully, the gluttonous pokemon finally was.
"Now Scrafty, we might not land another focus punch," Gansley warned. "But we can still take it down with a low kick! Get her down low, and knock her over! Then the fire spin can do the rest, sound like a plan?"
"Scrafty!" Scrafty nodded in agreement, sinking low to the ground and scurrying towards the thrashing Belle. He took great care to avoid the pokemon's long arms, knowing that another hit would be the end for him.
But he never saw the attack coming.
"SNORLAX!" Beel belched out, firing a giant wad of gunk. The leftovers of her meal collided with Scrafty head-on, the belched-up sludge temporarily blinding the pokemon.
"Scraaaaa…!" Scrafty wailed, scraping desperately at his face as the stomach acid burned him, before finally collapsing in pain. He couldn't handle it anymore.
"Finally finished, Beel?" Ange purred, turning to her Snorlax and giving her a pleased smile. She patted Beel on the back and turned to Gansley. "Well, I suppose that's what you get for… urk."
Another shot of electricity cut Ange off before she could finish her boast. The current was really picking up. She shrugged it off as best she could and continued her battle.
"Dragonite, go!" Gansley shouted, sending out his strongest pokemon. He'd been saving it, but after losing three of his team, his only choice left was the colossal might of the dragon pokemon, and the hope it could defeat this bitch.
"DRAGONITE!" The Dragonite roared, spreading his wings and landing in the center of the plaza, sending a blast of wind out around his body. The audience cheered in glee. Everyone was rooting for Gansley and his Dragonite to take out this woman and her crazy pokemon.
Even Ange was begrudgingly impressed, acknowledging the achievement with a whistle. "Well, so you do have a trump card. I gotta say, I wasn't expecting a Dragonite."
"This Dragonite's going to rip you apart!" Gansley boasted. "Now go! Use dragon claw on that Slaking before it has a chance to wake up!"
"Dragonite!" Dragonite nodded, flapping his wings and taking off across the battlefield, moving for the tornado of fire in the center. He raised his claw, and draconic flames began to burn around it with the crackle of lightning.
"Beel!" Ange called out, nodding to her Snorlax. "Quickly, help Belle out!"
"Snorlax!" Beel bellowed, rising to her feet and lumbering across the battlefield. While she was normally a rather slow pokemon, the boost to her speed she'd obtained from Luci meant she could close the distance quickly, getting to Belle's side just in time to throw herself in front of the dragon claw and shield her partner with her giant body.
"Dragon!" Dragonite was undaunted, driving his dragon claw as deep into Beel's flabby stomach as it would go.
"Snor… lax…" Beel winced, enduring the hit as best as she could. She wasn't alone in her suffering, the shocks shooting through Ange's collar were getting stronger and stronger. Now that two of her pokemon were in pain, the damage to her body had been doubled. But even as she shook with pain she didn't fall. She took that pain and channeled it into anger.
"That won't… work…" She managed to get out through her chattering teeth. "Beel… I first found her… on Iron Island. It's an… island in what used to be… the Hisui Region…" She coughed, as the pain from her Snorlax was translated into more pain for her.
"Nothing grows on Iron Island… there aren't any berries. So to survive… Beel had to do like the Rock and Steel type pokemon… and eat the natural minerals that could be found there. And over the years, while she grew up on that island… that tiny Munchlax reached the point… where her skin is tougher than even the metal itself…"
Ange cracked a smile, proud of Beel's tough body. "Don't let her soft and squishy looks fool you, a move of the caliber is nothing against my Beel! Now, Beel, use counter!"
"SNORLAX!" Beel shouted, taking all the pain she'd endured from the Dragonite's attack and focusing it into her fist. She slammed her hand down on Dragonite's head, smashing him into the ground so hard the plaza cracked.
"Nicely done!" Ange grinned, relieved that her pain was lessening. "Now, use body press!"
"Snorlax!" Beel nodded, leaping into the air. High above the Dragonite, she held her arms out wide and dropped down on him with a giant body slam, pinning the struggling pokemon to the ground under a thousand pounds of fat.
"Dragonite!" Gansley shouted, cursing that his strongest pokemon was trapped like that. He could barely make him out under the massive pokemon! He turned to Houndoom with his rage. "Houndoom! Get rid of that Snorlax! Use fire blast!"
"Houndoom!" Houndoom opened his mouth wide and fired a massive blast of flame in the shape of a star, the strongest fire move he knew. The flames hit Beel head-on and she cried in pain as they burned, but still she refused to move.
"That's it, Beel!" Ange coaxed her encouragingly. "Keep going! You can take it, just a little bit longer and it'll all be over!"
"The hell it will!" Gansley snarled. "Dragonite! Don't just lie there like a useless sack of potatoes! Use your outrage attack on that Snorlax too!"
"Dragonite…" Dragonite grunted. The pressure on his back was enormous, but he was still strong enough to push through it. He built up energy into his body, building up his rage as he considered the indignity of being used as a couch by the obese pokemon. Those thoughts pushed him harder and harder and soon his rage was impossible to contain, burning around him in a massive burst of fire and lightning that attacked the Snorlax from below.
"Come on girl," Ange whispered, the shocks nearly overwhelming her. "I know you can do it, just hold out a little longer and there'll be a nice feast in it for you…"
Ange could believe in Beel. She turned her attention away from her Snorlax, and to a pokemon that Gansley had forgotten about, her Slaking. The pokemon was still sleeping in the center of the inferno, but two things were soon to change about that.
For one, Belle was awake now. She had been for a few seconds, coming to her senses groggily as she looked around and tried to figure out where she was.
For another, the fire spin had started dying down.
Ange had been trapped in more than a few fire spins in her days in the wilds. She knew that there was a point that you could break free of them, and she waited for precisely that moment. When she noted how feeble the flames looked, and knew that Gansley wasn't paying them the least bit of attention, she called out to Belle.
"Now, Belle!" She shouted. "Break free and use reversal!"
"Slaking!" Belle leapt out of the flames, startling Gansley. He'd been so focused on getting rid of the Snorlax that was pinning down his trump card that he'd forgotten there was another pokemon to deal with! And that pokemon was charging right for his Houndoom!
"Houndoom!" Gansley shouted. "Quick, you've got to-" His next word was going to be "dodge" but he never got the chance to say it. Belle lowered her shoulder and collided with the small dog pokemon, sending her flying through the air. The Houndoom crashed to the ground at Gansley's feet, knocked unconscious by Belle's shoulder check.
And just like that, Gansley found himself reduced down to his last two pokemon. But he wasn't about to let that stand! "DRAGONITE!" He roared angrily. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Dragonite responded to his trainer's shouts. Finally having built up enough power to break free of the Snorlax, he let out a savage roar, knocking the pokemon off his back.
"Dragonite!" He flew into the sky again, not about to be pinned for a second time, and turned on the stunned Snorlax, a tornado of draconic energy building up around him.
When he collided with the fat pokemon, the shockwave was enormous. Beel was sent stumbling back, clutching her stomach in pain. She fell backwards and hit the ground hard enough to send a tremor throughout the entire plaza, having been knocked unconscious herself.
"Sorry, Beel," Ange apologized, recalling her Snorlax. "Don't worry. I promise, you'll be getting a nice feast when you wake up, okay?"
She turned to her Slaking. Belle was still raring to go, hopped up with energy, which was a rarity. But Ange could see that her pokemon's strength was beginning to flag. As powerful as she was when let off the chain, there was a reason that Belle had the ability Truant, and that was because it wasn't safe for her to use so much of her power so recklessly.
"Belle, you return too," Ange said, calling back her Slaking as well. "You've earned yourself a nice, long break."
She wouldn't use Belle for a few days at least. Her Slaking deserved her relaxation time. And she had other pokemon at her disposal, anyway.
Gansley was utterly shocked. "Why… tell me, why did you call your Slaking back?!" He demanded furiously, jamming an impudent finger Ange's way. "That Slaking of yours had more than enough strength to fight, are you making light of me?!"
As much as he was glad to be given some respite from Ange's Slaking, if she was calling her back out of pity that would be a whole other matter. NOBODY pitied Gansley, nobody!
Ange glared at him. "I called her back because she didn't want to fight anymore, it's as simple as that," she snarled. "Belle needs her rest, there are more important things than wiping the floor with some weakling like you."
Gansley didn't even know what to make of that. First she lets one of her pokemon eat instead of helping out in the battle. Then, she recalls one of her strongest pokemon to its pokeball because… it was too lazy to keep fighting? Even after she'd suppressed its ability Truant, and had it use rest so it could fight and sleep at the same time?
This girl was insane. Not just because of the savagery of that strange Zoroark, but the way she was acting, how she treated her pokemon, no pokemon trainer Gansley had ever encountered would do something like that!
"It doesn't matter anyway," Ange muttered, utterly disgusted by Gansley's lack of compassion for any pokemon, including his own. "It's not like I expected any better from someone like you. And besides, I already have two more pokemon ready to go who are MORE than capable of destroying whatever you have left! Mami! Asmo! Come out!"
Ange flung her last two pokeballs into the air, and released her final two pokemon.
On her left was her Persian, Mami. A sleek and gorgeous feline whose fur was fluffed perfectly and jewel was shined to a beautiful sheen. She was the picture of class and elegance.
And on her right was her Lopunny, Asmo. The bunny pokemon bounced eagerly from paw to paw, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously as the Dragonite across the battlefield.
Gansley had already recalled his Houndoom. Now all that was left was sending out its replacement, his final pokemon.
"Go, Grumpig!" Gansley shouted, sending out his last pokemon. The hefty Grumpig landed on the ground with an "oink", the black pearls lining his body beginning to glow.
"And the last pokemon's a Grumpig, huh? I see. Well, that works just fine by my standards," Ange judged. "Asmo, I can leave that rampaging Dragonite up to you, right?"
"Lopunny!" Asmo purred, rolling her eyes like it even needed to be said. She bounced towards the Dragonite, her eyes bright with excitement.
"DRAGONITE!" Dragonite's outrage had yet to be abated. The air around him still roared furiously, and he flew towards Asmo, ready to squash her.
Then he spread his wings and braked, startled.
"Dragonite?!" Gansley gasped. "What the hell? Why did you stop your attack?!" When using outrage, the pokemon was supposed to keep going until they wore themselves out completely, like Ange's Tauros had! But even the fire burning around Dragonite had calmed down, what was the deal here?! "Dragonite?!"
Ange smirked. "He's found something else to occupy his attention," she sneered, nodding to her Lopunny.
"Lopunny~" Asmo chirped, batting her eyelashes at Dragonite again. Dragonite's scales blushed red and he touched down in front of the cute pokemon, too infatuated to even consider continuing his attack against her.
"WHAT?!" Gansley roared.
"Asmo isn't a pokemon who likes fighting or violence," Ange explained, shrugging her shoulders as if to say "it just can't be helped." She smirked at Gansley. "She prefers… other activities. Have you ever heard of the expression 'horny as a Lopunny' before?"
Gansley was at a loss for words.
"Using her attract attack, Asmo seduces her opponents and keeps them from even considering attacking her," Ange continued her explanation, her eyes shining with glee at Gansley's impotent rage. "Sorry, but for a while I think your Dragonite's found a new master. …Err, mistress."
Gansley couldn't believe what he was hearing. Dragonite was his strongest pokemon! All that power and destructive potential, that was the foundation he'd built his empire on! It was the reason people feared him, because it couldn't be beat!
She'd turned his trump card into some simpering milksop!?
His eyes scanned the crowd. Everyone was trying not to laugh.
They were laughing. At him. What a disgrace! He wouldn't stand for this. This was something he absolutely couldn't abide!
"Grumpig!" Gansley shouted. "Take out that Lopunny!"
"Pig!" Grumpig nodded, the pearls on his body glowing bright as he prepared to blast Asmo with psychic energy.
Ange considered having Asmo use attract once again, and seduce the Grumpig, as well. But she decided not to. If the Grumpig was swayed, well, then who would Mami get to play with? It just wasn't fair to her.
"Mami!" Ange called, turning to her Persian. "Use fake out!"
"Persian!" Mami leapt forward and slashed Grumpig in the face with her claws, startling the pig pokemon and causing him to flinch.
"Nicely done my girl!" Ange cheered. "Next, use swagger!"
"Persian!" Mami puffed out her chest and smirked at the Grumpig, the ruby on her forehead shining brightly in an intriguing way. Grumpig became incensed. Desperate to take down the Persian, his attack stat increased and he charged her, forgetting about his psychic powers entirely in his confusion.
"One seduced, the other confused… oh, but we aren't even close to being done!" Ange boasted. "Mami's on the hunt!"
Taking advantage of Grumpig's angry fugue, Mami skillfully evaded the psychic pokemon's reckless charge, dancing to the side with grace and poise. She raised her claw and struck the Grumpig in the side, knocking something clear.
"What… what was that?!" Gansley asked in confusion.
Mami raised her paw to reveal the shiny black pearl she'd filched from the confused Grumpig's body. She trotted over to Ange and placed it in her hand for Ange's inspection.
"Sorry about that," Ange shrugged apologetically, in no way sorry at all. "Ever since she was a Meowth, Mami's been a bit of a greedy little kitty. If she sees something that's to her liking, she'll take it with a thief attack. Fortunately, no harm done! Grumpig's pearls grow back incredibly fast, and it doesn't even hurt! It's just like a haircut!"
Truthfully, Ange did feel a LITTLE bad for taking away the Grumpig's pearl. But that was just how Mami was.
"And she won't stick with just your pokemon's items, either," Ange added. "Use swagger again, Mami!"
"Persian!" Mami waved the pearly in front of the Grumpig's eyes, infuriating him even more. His attack stat was really getting high now.
"I think that's high enough, don't you think?" Ange asked, turning to her Persian. Mami shook her head. Ange sighed, and shrugged. "Well, I guess I can't argue with you."
While Mami used swagger for a third time, maximizing the Grumpig's power, Ange turned to her Lopunny. "Asmo! Mami's getting ready to wrap things up here, it's about time for you to do the same, don't you think? Time to play rough with your new paramour!"
"Lopunny!" Asmo nodded. She hadn't basked in the Dragonite's fawning affection nearly enough, but Ange's word was law. She leapt back and raised her hands, and began unleashing a pummeling on the stunned Dragonite.
"No! Dragonite!" Gansley cried. Not a fairy attack! Those were the worst! "Dragonite! You have to get over your infatuation! And Grumpig, snap out of it!"
"They won't hear you," Ange told him, her voice losing all traces of its previous affable air. It was as cold as ice again. "Maybe if you had a real bond with your pokemon, your voice could reach their ear. But you only treat them as tools. Weapons to boost your power. When faced with something they want more than obeying you, well… whether that's lust… or fury… they'll pursue that. I wanted to show you, Gansley, that more than just being a coward and a bully… the reason why you ultimately came to nothing was because there was nothing to you in the first place…"
"Sh-Shut up!" Gansley shouted. "I'm the strongest trainer in Pyrite Town! I rule the underworld in these parts! I'm Gansley!"
"You're a coward who builds his success on the backs of others," Ange spat. "You wouldn't know real struggle. You use your pokemon and the strength they give you to build a cushy life for yourself, while others suffer. Well, now that's all going to come crashing down! Asmo, keep on going! And Mami, time to psych up!"
"Lopunny!" Asmo nodded, building up the force of her play rough attack to chip away at the Dragonite's health even further.
"Persian!" Mami agreed, her ruby flashing as she stole all of the strength she'd loaded onto Gansley's Grumpig for herself.
"Now, finish it!" Ange snapped. "Asmo, play rough! Mami, night slash!"
Asmo and Mami both leapt forward. Asmo pulled back her fist and delivered a finishing blow to the Dragonite, while Mami raised her claw and sent darkness surging through it, bringing it down on the Grumpig in a crippling critical slash.
Their foes crumpled to the ground, and with them collapsed any hope of Gansley being respected as the boss of Pyrite Town's underworld ever again.
So Ange managed to win! And brutally, too! She got the chance to show off just what her team of quirky pokemon are capable of! But what comes next? Is she not done with Gansley yet? Or was she satisfied with just beating him in a pokemon battle?