Cloud Nine
"Gliscor?" Blue asked when Ethan sent out his second Pokémon, more to himself than to the young woman beneath him. "Why would the little runt send out Gliscor against Blastoise? He should know that a Ground-type Pokémon like Gliscor is weak to Water-type moves."
Leaf observed Ethan in silence. He was talking to Gliscor about something, and his face showed worry. "Would you believe me if I said this is his way of saying sorry for punching Red?"
Blue laughed. "As if! Look at that determined face," he pointed at Ethan's face. "He's trying to make a point to us. I'm guessing it's something like 'I can win even in a type disadvantage'."
"Hmm..." Leaf hummed. "Maybe. If that's the case, then that point is made either to us," she responded as Gliscor took flight, "or to himself. Either way, let's watch."
"Gliscor, use Sandstorm!" Ethan's voice could clearly be heard, and after commanding his Gliscor to enlarge the storm's size, the whole mountaintop was covered in a raging vortex of sand and stones, a vortex that without question reached the tree Blue was on and Leaf was under.
"Whoa whoa whoa, the runt's not holding back, is he?" Blue exclaimed, sitting upright in an instant. Wind was pushing him off his branch, and sand was creeping into his eyes. "Leaf, isn't this a good time to bring your Pokémon out?"
Leaf held her hat in place so it wouldn't get blown away. "Right. Come out, Golduck!" She opened one of her own Poké Balls and then a blue duck with a gem on its forehead came out.
"Golduck, focus your powers and activate your Ability. Surround this tree with Cloud Nine!" She commanded the Golduck, which proceeded to look around in confusion first, as if it was surprised to be on a sand-covered snowy mountain.
"Oh, just do it already, you dumb duck!" Leaf shouted in comical frustration as her skirt was lifted up by the harsh winds. Golduck immediately brought its webbed hands up to its forehead and closed its eyes. The gem on its head shone bright, and then a mystical air surrounded it. Golduck then opened its eyes – which were shining as well – and suddenly a small area around the tree was covered in a room of mysterious powers.
Suddenly, there was no more wind nor sand and stones. It was as if the tree and its surroundings were completely shielded from the effects of Gliscor's Sandstorm attack.
"Phew, that's more like it. Thanks, Golduck!" Blue said to it after he sat back down as he did before. Leaf also sat down on the ground, brushing dirt off her clothes. She looked at her Pokémon. "You never change, do you?"
Golduck's eyes stopped glowing and it looked at its Trainer, tilting its head while making a sound like its confused. In a flash, the effects of the storm of the battle covered the tree again, and the unprepared Blue quickly fell from his branch onto the ground, his head covered in the snow.
"Don't stop focusing your powers, Golduck! Surround the tree with Cloud Nine again!" Leaf yelled to it as she stooped her head. Golduck focused again and there was no more wind once more.
Leaf tried to control her breaths as her friend struggled with the pull of the snow. His head was still stuck. A few seconds after that, there was a large 'BOOM' that occurred somewhere and Blue's head was forcibly shook underneath the ground. Finally it popped out, and he looked flustered.
"You dumb duck!" She stood up immediately and knocked Golduck's head as she scowled. "I should smash your head with a bike again."
Blue wiped his face clean with his sleeves. "Easy Leaf. We still need it alive, you know." And then he shook his head, still dizzy from the earthquake he received straight to his face.
Leaf turned around, looking grumpy, and the she massaged her temples. "Ohh, now it's giving me a headache..."
Blue climbed onto his branch again while Leaf sat with her back on the tree, and they both continued to observe the battle in silence. Around a minute later, something incredible happened: Blastoise was creating a huge wind vortex inside the raging sandstorm while shooting out Hydro Cannon attacks.
"Ha-ha!" Blue commented in a triumphant voice. Leaf nodded in agreement.
"He's doing it again," Leaf replied.
"Yup." Blue smirked. "We all know there are principally four weather conditions that could affect a battle."
"Intense sunlight, heavy rain, sandstorm, hailstorm," Leaf answered.
"Uh-huh. And only one can occur in the middle of a battle. So if Red wanted it to rain, then the sandstorm needed to be stopped."
Leaf continued him, "But while Red needed to make the weather wet, he didn't need to make the sandstorm stop."
Blue nodded. "Exactly. Even without Rain Dance, Red can still make a pseudo-rain by combining Rapid Spin and Hydro Cannon."
"Which in turn doesn't replace Sandstorm, but rather merged with it, resulting in this messy mudstorm."
"And the sheer brilliance of it is that, in effect, he has managed to create two ongoing weather conditions in this battle."
"What's more, he effectively turned what was Ethan's advantage to his own. Look," she pointed at Gliscor, "mud's sticking on it. Red has not only brought Gliscor out of hiding, he also managed to stop it from flying away."
"Red. Ingenious as always. Unorthodox and completely original. There's no more sand or water now, only mud." Blue shook his head. "That guy's created a new weather condition!"
Leaf chuckled. "He didn't really do that. It's just... he managed to stop the 'sand' part of 'Sandstorm'. But the 'storm' itself is still raging on."
"I bet the people at Hoenn's Weather Institute would just love to get a glimpse of this." He snorted. "Tampering with the weather, can you believe this guy?"
"Maybe they would," she replied, "but I know something that would grab their attention even more."
He looked at her from above. "Oh, you're talking about 'that', aren't you?"
Leaf nodded. "The fifth in-battle weather condition. The one Red managed to invent all by himself."
"I wonder if he'll show it to that runt in this battle..." Blue wondered aloud as they continued to observe the battle.
Then they witnessed Blastoise spinning laterally at the grounded Gliscor, who let out an X-Scissor attack in desperation, only to be deflected by the shell and get hit the next second.
After Gliscor was rammed to a rocky wall on the far side, Blastoise wasted no time in coming out of its shell and pinning Gliscor to the wall with its arms, who retaliated with a barrage of close range X-Scissor attacks.
All those X-Scissor attacks won't stop Blastoise, Leaf commented in her head. Not after it has used Iron Defense three times to maximize its Defense.
And as Red commanded his Blastoise to use Skull Bash, she squinted her eyes.
"Is that really necessary, do you think?" she asked.
"Hmm?" Blue didn't take his eyes off the battle. "Well, the little runt did headbutt the guy, didn't he? We both know how Red hates to lose, even in the smallest of things."
"Feeling nostalgic, Blue?"
"Somewhat," he said as he shrugged. "But I have to agree with you: a point-blank Skull Bash to the head is too extreme, at least for my tastes."
Leaf raised her eyebrow at him. "It's ironic you should say that."
"Hey, my past extremities are nothing compared to that," Blue defended himself by pointing towards the two battling Pokémon, right as Blastoise smashed its head against Gliscor's, leaving a hole on the wall of solid rock behind it.
As Blastoise staggered back and Gliscor glided away, Leaf shook her head in disappointment while Blue whistled. Oh Red...
The two of them kept watching the battle, and their eyes widened when moments later they saw Blastoise making a beeline for the airborne Gliscor by using Hydro Cannon at the ground.
"Blue!" She exclaimed after Blastoise was above Gliscor. "Is Red doing what I think he's doing?"
"No way. No way in Distortion World would he ever... No way!"
But as Blastoise became bathed in another mystical silver glow, Blue's suspicion was confirmed. "That murderous little psycho! He's... he's combining the recharging period of Hydro Cannon with the charging period of Skull Bash!"
Leaf's jaw dropped in amazement. "Unthinkable. Making full use of the time Blastoise can't move after a powerful attack to immediately prepare yet another powerful attack."
"And from midair, too... I've never seen anything like this!" Blue was on the edge of his seat. "Even I wouldn't go that far. When did he come up with this trick?"
Leaf looked at Red, and as he gave the command to Blastoise, she returned her attention to Gliscor. "Seems like we've been away from this place longer than we thought."
And as Blastoise shot back down – Gliscor's last-gasp X-Scissor stopping nothing – Leaf closed her eyes with her hands. She didn't want to see this. Blue bit his lip, his heart beating faster than usual. Although he didn't show it, he was concerned about Ethan and Gliscor. Even Golduck's breathing became erratic.
The sound of the impact reverberated throughout Mt. Silver. Ethan ran to the middle of the battlefield and held his Pokémon in his hands. Even from this distance it was clear to Leaf that Gliscor's condition was worse than 'badly damaged'; it was 'horribly, horribly damaged'. Leaf put her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from throwing up.
"Time?" she forced herself to ask Blue as Ethan declared his loss.
Snapping out of the surprise and coming back to reality, Blue checked his wristwatch. Then he turned his attention to the battlefield. "Two minutes and thirteen seconds," he stated loudly so the two battling Trainers could hear him.
Ethan didn't react to it at all. He had returned Gliscor to its Poké Ball, but he was just sitting there, weeping. Leaf felt bad for him, but there was nothing she could do.
To her surprise, Blue called out to Ethan "What's wrong, runt? Can't take the pressure?"
The younger Trainer said nothing in response, but he did turn around.
"Y'know, when I said you had to give this battle your everything, I didn't mean you had to give us your ugly little babyface too!" he went on.
"Shut up, Blue," Ethan finally said to him. Blue snickered.
"Well if you want me to shut up, then answer me now: are you a battler or a quitter?"
Ethan looked at Blue fiercely, but he knew Blue was right. He wiped his tears and made up his mind. I'm not going to quit. Not after what Ambipom and Gliscor went through. We're a family and we go through everything to the very end together.
"Let's continue the challenge," he said quietly. Blue heard him, but he pretended not to.
"Sorry, what was that, little runt?"
"I said I'm going for it! I'll win this whole thing!"
Blue smirked again. "Good. Then get your butt back to your side and let's get on with it!"
Ethan did, and soon Red and Ethan was facing off against each other again, both grabbing one of their Poké Balls.
"Both Trainers ready?" Blue shouted. The both of them nodded.
"Then let the challenge resume. Round 3, begin!"