Disclaimer is on Chapter 1
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Once again, Alastor found himself standing at one end of the cruise ship's battle arena with Yulie. The only difference this time was that she was standing alongside him in a doubles battle against Will and Cas, the latter Alastor had something of a grudge against for what happened back when they first met.
"Both sides will use a single pokemon each." Zai called out to them acting as referee to the battle receiving various forms of acknowledgement from the four. "And…begin!"
"Serperior! Show 'em what you've got!" Alastor called out plucking and throwing the pokeball containing his most trusted partner.
Not expecting her teammate to have already chosen his pokemon for the battle, Yulie hastily grabbed a pokeball from her belt and tossed it out. As Aron materialized on the field next to Serperior, only then did Yulie realize what she had just done and a sliver of fear shot up her spine.
'My first battle with this guy and I choose Aron of all pokemon!' She mentally cursed. No offense to Aron, the little guy was great for kicking off a big battle, but she personally knew Will and her type preference.
"Scorch them, Houndoom!" Cas said sending out the black and orange canine.
"Swanna, Come on out!" Will called, choosing to bring out her swan-like pokemon.
"Fire/dark and a water/flying against a grass and a rock/steel. By type alone, you'd expect this battle to be kinda one sided." Caesar casually pointed out.
"Maybe. But this is Alastor and Yulie we're talking about. Will and Cas aren't going to have as easy a time as they may believe they have." Aden pointed out having seen both in action.
Dragon nodded in agreement. He was beginning to understand having pokemon with type advantage did not always mean that a battle would go in your favor. Moves; skills; strategies; experience; bonds; it all accumulated to help both trainer and pokemon grow and become even stronger for the next battle.
"Let's finish this quickly, Houndoom! Flamethrower!" Cas ordered.
"Oh no, you don't! Aron, attack Houndoom with Iron Head!" Yulie called out wanting to capitalize on her pokemon's speed to prevent Houndoom from striking first.
Too bad it was a double battle not a single.
"Swanna. Intercept her pokemon with Wing Attack!" Will called out predicting what Yulie was going to do.
As such, the attack meant for Houndoom was deflected off to the side by the swan pokemon's wing leaving Aron to go skidding across the ground, wide open to the flamethrower attack from Houndoom.
"Dragon Tail!"
Darting across the field at a speed to rival Yulie's Aron, Serperior placed herself between Aron and the others and fended off the attack with her tail that was glowing a light blue.
"It's not affecting her." Dragon remarked in surprise as the regal pokemon held off the flamethrower without as much as a flinch.
"Yeah, Dragon Tail is a dragon type move making it real handy for fighting both against dragon types and attacks from grass, electric and fire types if used correctly." Caesar explained for him as Houndoom ceased his attack.
"Then how about this? Swanna, gain altitude and attack with Hurricane!" Will told her pokemon.
But Alastor had already planned his next move.
"Strike Aron with Dragon Tail!" Alastor commanded to the shock and surprise of everyone watching.
Even Aron's eyes widened as he watched the ten foot green snake pull back her glowing blue tail and swipe at him full tilt sending him shooting like a bullet towards Houndoom who was unable to react in time and got struck square in the face while Aron ricocheted towards Swanna who was still ascending. With no time to evade, Swanna took the full brunt of the collision head on knocking her out before crashing to the ground seconds later followed by Aron who, despite the shock of it all, staggered about for a second before shaking it off and looking round at the aftermath of what just happened.
The whole area was silent as they comprehended what had just happened. Eventually, Zai at least managed to find his voice.
"Houndoom and Swanna are unable to battle. Aron and Serperior win!" He called out while spectators began to mutter about how 'dirty' one of the trainer's tactics had been.
Alastor paid them no attention as he recalled his pokemon while Yulie ran over to Aron to see if he was okay after his sudden flight. Sure, it may have looked like a dirty tactic, but Alastor knew that Dragon Tail was going to have little effect on Aron and was probably more shocked than injured due to its armored exterior.
Surprisingly, it was Will who came over to him all cheerfully unlike Cas who was now all quiet as he recalled his unconscious Houndoom.
"And I thought Yulie could think outside the box. Nice play." She complimented Alastor raising her hand for a high five only to drop it as when she saw he wasn't going to respond to the gesture. Or even reply as he started to walk off again leaving Yulie to jog to catch up to him with her pokemon, Aron and Jin, following at her heels.
She didn't need to exert herself as Alastor had barely gotten halfway to the battle deck's entrance before being stopped by Zai who evidently had a bone to pick with the trainer as well.
"Your pokemon destroyed my sketch." Zai told Alastor holding up the piece of paper Kirlia went through earlier.
"If you're expecting me to make you a new one, don't bother asking. I'm terrible at it." Alastor brushed off as he tried to walk past Zai only for the taller trainer to step in his way again, irritating him. "It's just a drawing. Just make another one on a fresh piece of paper."
Zai saw red at those words. His immaculately drawn sketches were prominent research notes and he was not going to let some trainer with a higher-than-thou attitude get away with such a comment. If words were not going to make him make amends for the damage his pokemon caused, then a battle would.
"Let's have a battle." Zai demanded. "And when I beat you-"
"If." Alastor corrected him, keeping calm despite facing a large angry Primeape in human form. "Neither of us know how this battle will go."
Had Zai been keeping a cool head, he would have acknowledged that Alastor was not as arrogant as some folk were believing him to be. Unfortunately, he was too livid and upset about his ruined work to take note of it only wanting to beat him in a battle to avenge his destroyed masterpiece.
"Let's go, big guy!" Zai called out as he threw out Blastoise's pokeball, too impatient to wait for them to return to the field.
"Hey, hold on!" Yulie called out to Zai as the giant turtle pokemon materialized while a crowd began to gather for the upcoming battle.
"Save it, Violet. He's a little too angry right now to see reason." Alastor said as he tossed out Serperior's pokeball. He really did not want to have another battle right now, but it looked like he had no other choice but to humor Zai. "Serperior. Show 'em what you got!"
Whether she was tired or not from her earlier battle, Serperior hid it well as she prepared for battle once more.
"Go! Use Wring Out!" Alastor ordered.
Zai let out a dry chuckle as he watched the regal pokemon wrap round Blastoise's shell and attempt to crush it in her powerful coils.
"You're wasting time and energy. Blastoise shell is sturdy enough to withstand ocean depths of up to four thousand meters." Zai explained while Serperior continued in vain to try and crush Blastoise. "Rapid Spin, Blastoise!"
Retracting his head and limbs into his shell, Blastoise began to rotate at high speed causing Serperior to be flung away when the force of the rotations became too powerful for her to resist.
"Now use Hydro Cannon!"
Stopping on a dime, Blastoise head and limbs poked out from the shell along with two large cannons on the top of the shell just behind where Blastoise shoulders would be. Without missing a beat, Blastoise launched two powerful blasts of water at Serperior before the snake pokemon had yet to land from being flung away. The attack connected, knocking Serperior further away as she skidded along the ground.
Many of the spectators cheered for Zai and Blastoise, evidently wanting to see Alastor suffer an embarrassing defeat for once after the way he treated the previous battles he had been in. And yet, despite the jeers he was getting, Yulie noticed that Alastor wasn't at all disheartened from what had just happened to his pokemon.
Perhaps this was because he had faith in his pokemon, who had already gotten up and was slithering her way back towards them.
"Strike back with Wring Out!" He ordered once again.
"Did you forget what happened last time you tried that?" Zai asked in disbelief as the snake pokemon once again wrapped around Blastoise's shell.
"I was expecting that the first time. Giga Drain!" Alastor retorted.
The small palmate leaves near the tail glowed light green before growing and latching onto the shell which began to give off a faint greenish glow as the move sapped Blastoise of his strength. Blastoise might have had a strong resistance to physical attacks, but against Serperior's Giga Drain, the large turtle pokemon could only hold out for so long before succumbing to fatigue and passing out much to Zai's horror as the red mist finally lifted from his vision.
"Next time, don't try battling without a clear head." Alastor advised as he recalled Serperior and walked off. This time, without anyone trying to stop him.
"Okay, can someone explain how he just managed to do that?" Caesar asked out loud.
"Hydro Cannon is so powerful a move, a pokemon, even a Blastoise, needs a moment to recover from after a single use leaving them wide open to attacks." Zai spoke up, surprising everyone. "That moment was all it took for him to win the battle."
He really should have used Hydro Pump or Skull Bash instead but his desire to inflict as much damage at once had shoved his rational side clear out the window. He was really regretting his actions as he recalled his Blastoise.
"Look on the bright side, big guy. Now you know not to underestimate him again if you ever battle him again." Will encouraged him only for her words to fall on deaf ears as Zai had suddenly pulled out his sketchbook and was quickly sketching out a picture of his Blastoise and Alastor's Serperior preparing to battle while the image was burning freshly in his mind. "Talk about a quick recovery…"
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Yulie cautiously made her way down the corridor she had seen Alastor go down with a puzzled Jin at her heels. Unlike everyone else who had gathered around Zai after the battle or went off to do their own thing, she had decided to shadow the blue haired trainer curious to see if what she had seen in the aftermath of her battle with him had been a one off.
Her curiosity was sated as she peered around a corner to see Alastor tenderly caring for his injured Serperior who was looking grumpier than her trainer as he applied super potion to her injuries.
(That oversized turtle got my coils dirty!) The snake pokemon hissed angrily slamming her tail down in a temper tantrum.
"I know, I know." Alastor soothed accepting the clean cloth Snivy handed to him. He was used to this having learned a long time ago that his pokemon had a strong dislike for getting her 'beautiful coils' dirty and would often have a temper tantrum like she was doing now or lash out particularly hard against the one who had stained her.
Yulie watched quietly as Alastor treated his Serperior with care and patience she never expected the trainer to have. It made her wonder if there was more to him than met the eye and, if there was, she was going to find it and bring it to the fore so that everyone saw what she saw. It was a tall challenge but those were the best kind to attempt
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After years of suffering from chronic procrastination, I'm finally getting back to (at least) finishing off what I started.
Fingers crossed I can keep it up.