Still Pools Day 1
Cynthia checked her pokedex. Twice, just to be sure. "Dialga, the Temporal pokemon. It is thought to be responsible for the appearance of the Indian elephant." Steel and Dragon typing.
Not a Luvdisc.
"Just kidding, Cyn. His name's actually Bill."
The impish grin that plastered itself across Dawn's face did not budge as Bill annihilated Cynthia's Arcanine. Or her Elektross. Or her Toxicroak.
Hawlucha heroically managed to land a brutal flying supplex on Dialga. The bird still lost, of course, but Dialga savaged him slightly slower than he had Cynthia's other pokemon.
As the blonde contemplated the utterly pointless choice of whether to send Starmie or Tangrowth out next, Dawn recalled Bill and sent out her Palkia, Ted. "The Spatial pokemon" chirped Cynthia's pokedex, "It is thought to be responsible for the disappearance of the African elephant." Ted made predictably short work of Cynthia's remaining pokemon.
2-1 in Dawn's favor. Back to the prime round. No dodging Giratina this time.
This is bad for Cynthia, but maybe not insurmountable. Her much-weaker raw team had managed to damage Dialga, and Dawn can't possibly have a fourth legend to back up Giratina. With a bit of luck, Spiritomb might even be able to take Giratina out with Destiny Bond, and outside of Giratina Cynthia had a clear edge over Dawn.
Or maybe Dawn has been training Giratina diligently. Only one way to find out.
With the arena shifting to a grass field punctuated by trenches of still water, Cynthia settled on leading off with Milotic. There were many good reasons for this that became quickly irrelevant. Flashes of light from both sides revealed Cynthia's Chips and Dawn's Grim. Her Giratina, Grim.
"Giratina, the Renegade pokemon. Sinnoh mythology holds that Giratina was cast from reality for it's efforts at creating a new breed of elephant."
Dawn was still grinning ear to ear, but it was her serious grin, meaning she probably didn't have another legend. She might have five more though.
"Ooooh, you're actually gonna try this time Cyn? I hope Bill and Ted didn't traumatize you too badly."
"You've made this interesting, Dawn, but it's time to show you why I didn't need the antithesis of reality to carry me through the pokemon league!"
Cynthia had seen Grim in battle only when Dawn demolished the elite 4 and Palmer (who seemingly lost to every challenger in the twilight of his championship). Grim was incredibly powerful, durable, and fast, but not quite capable of beating a champion-quality team alone. Every bit of damage Chips can dish here out matters.
The blue-head's response was cut off by the marshal signaling the round to begin.
Milotic began with Mist to obscure Giratina's vision, and leapt into the water just in time to avoid a wave of Dragonbreath. Well hidden by the mist and water, Milotic shot brief streams of ice at Giratina, not strong enough to seriously harm him but excellent at forcing Giratina to move and prevent him from charging up a more powerful attack. It wasn't clear if the monster was getting tired or just bored, but as the mist began to fade it had plenty of fight left. Milotic would need to jump out of the water to set up another veil, and when she did she would be vulnerable. Cynthia decided to take a risk.
Jumping out of the water, Milotic launched a brutal Hydro Pump. Giratina rushed towards the gout of water and disappeared, reappearing behind Milotic and still charging. Chips lashed out with Dragon Tail, not needing to see to hit such a massive creature so close. Grim felt the hit, but it wasn't nearly enough to stop his momentum as it slammed into Chips.
Time to give Spiritomb a shot.
"Use Shadow Ball at full strength and get ready, Legion." Cynthia's command was a code she had taught Spiritomb, so she could tell it to use Destiny Bond without actually saying so. Not knowing Destiny Bond was coming made it much harder for the opponent to play around, something Cynthia had learned from experience.
Giratina, as expected, disappeared before the black orb struck, winking back to reality above Spiritomb and unleashing it's own torrent of darkness, which was gracious enough to obscure the pale nimbus surrounding Legion.
The stream of blackness ceased as both pokemon fell to the ground.
It worked.
Being the deity of the heat-death of all existence is a pretty raw gig, apparently.
Cynthia's position was better now, but hardly secure. Dawn was still going to win every raw round. Cynthia knew she could win the prime round as long as Dawn doesn't figure out how to counter Destiny Bond, which she is entirely capable of (eventually). Cynthia would be able to win the next loan round handily with her hidden Weavile, but that surprise would only work once. Counting on Dawn staying stupid is not a good strategy.
What is a good strategy, is counting on Dawn being empathetic. She was closer to her pokemon (or at least her main team) than nearly any trainer Cynthia had met, and the blue-haired girl hated two things above all: seeing them hurt, and denying them. Easy personality traits for the jaded blonde to capitalize on.
Dawn wasn't smiling as she selected her next pokemon.
"Feeding time Yuchi!"
"Get 'em Oswald!"
Cynthia's Garchomp vs Dawn's Empoleon. Cynthia couldn't have asked for better. Empoleon was Dawn's baby, more so than her other pokemon. Oswald had been the girl's very first pokemon, as an Piplup years before she became a trainer. Nothing was more painful for her than watching the penguin suffer.
Garchomp has a lot of practice making things suffer.
A quick Earthquake began the fight, sprawling the rigid bird and spoiling her attempted Blizzard. As Yuchi charged, Oswald snapped off a burst of Flash Cannon rounds, but a weak Twister was enough to foul her aim. Garchomp knocked Empoleon to the ground, pinning her with her bulk as the shark's jaws clamped down on the penguin's neck. Oswald tried everything to throw Yuchi off – slashing with her wings, flapping icy wind, blasting water at the ground to propel herself upwards – but each effort was more feeble than the last, and as her neck-plate crackled and crumpled Dawn started to panic. When Garchomp began to pry Oswald's armor off with her claws, Dawn gave in and recalled her pokemon.
Next up for Dawn was her Weavile, Ra's. Likely a preview of the coming loan round. Funny how these things happen, isn't it?
Sadly for the girl, Weavile has quite a bit of trouble putting his type advantage to work against Garchomp. He tried to blast Garchomp away with Ice Beam and was countered by Flamethrower. He tried to slow Yuchi with Icy Wind and was countered with Incinerate. His Ice Shards were batted away by Dragon Rage. Dawn couldn't figure out how to get Ra's in to deliver the killer Ice Punch Weavile was feared for.
As the battle dragged on, Ra's was getting the worse of every exchange. His anemic special attacks paled in comparison to Garchomp's, and he lacked the shark's endurance and toughness. If Ra's had just gone for it, he might have been able to at least hurt Yuchi, but Dawn was still leery after what Garchomp did to her Empoleon, and over the next 20 minutes her Weavile just...faded away.
Dawn's next pokemon was Harleen, her Staraptor. She tried to bait Yuchi the same way Cynthia had baited Dawn's loaned Garchomp with Leafeon, but Yuchi knew better. Waves of dragonfire forced Harleen to back off far enough for Garchomp conjure a field of Stealth Rock. Dawn saw the writing on the wall: her best opportunity to attack was now, while Staraptor was still healthy and before Garchomp could summon too many rocks to be unreachable.
Tucking in her wings, Harleen shot towards Yuchi like a bolt of lightning, breaking through a final gamut of rocks to slam into Garchomp. Their struggle devolved into a mess of flailing claws and talons. Garchomp rose before long, battered but refusing bow. Cynthia was shocked by how much fight Yuchi had left in her – that hit from Harleen was brutal, and she had beaten two very strong pokemon before that.
Hoping to regain some momentum and her smile, Dawn sent out Infernape, her most aggressive pokemon. Wasting no time, Antonio rushed Yuchi. Garchomp put up a show of force with Dragon Rage, but lacked the energy to seriously threaten the ape. As Infernape lunged for the finishing blow, he was deflected by a hastily mustered Hyper Beam. Yuchi had neither the time nor the strength to unleash anything resembling a fully powered Hyper Beam, so the damage to Infernape would have been mostly cosmetic had Antonio not been knocked into one of the water-trenches dividing the arena. By the time Antonia had crawled back onto land, Yuchi had recovered from the self-paralysis that follows using Hyper Beam and let off another volley of Dragon Rage. The attacked clipped Antonia as he rolled to evade, and lunged at Yuchi, aiming a punch at the shark's head, and hitting nothing at all as Cynthia recalled her pokemon.
Not sure whether Dawn or her Infernape was more annoyed at this intervention, Cynthia waited as long as the marshal would allow before sending Togekiss onto the field. The adrenaline of fighting Yuchi had worn off, and Antonio offered only token resistance as Yolk's Aura Spheres found their mark. Dawn wanted to recall Infernape, but Antonio wanted to remain fighting as long as possible. Dawn acquiesced, respecting her pokemon's fighting spirit, but she couldn't help but wince at every hit Antonio suffered.
Dawn's final pokemon was Alec the Torterra. Alec attempted to use Stone Edge, but was incessantly disrupted by Yolk's volleys of Air Slash. A massive barrage of leaves from Torterra's tree managed to break through the scythes of air and injure Yolk, but the effort left Alec too weak to fight for much longer as the cutting wind intensified.
Heading into the second loan round, they were tied at two rounds apiece. The stage this time was a gravel field dotted with piles of rubble. No water, which would work against Dawn and her Seaking.
Cynthia chose to send out Bastiodon as her first pokemon. She was her least useful against Dawn's team, and there was the very slight possibility Dawn would lead with Lopunny, whom Bastiodon should be able to handle with ease. Instead, Dawn sent out Infernape. It was a brilliant choice, really: of the five pokemon Dawn had seen Cynthia use, Infernape was massively advantaged against all of them, and given that Cynthia had chosen not to use her 6th against Infernape, Dawn could be confident the 6th was also at a disadvantage against the fire monkey. Every casualty inflicted would give Cynthia fewer options to handle the rest of Dawn's team.
As the battle began, Cynthia realized she was actually in a worse position than she had been the previous fight between the two pokemon. Bastiodon had some leftover Stealth Rocks to work with last time, and Infernape had been somewhat injured. She had no chance of hitting Infernape with a blind charge this time around. Infernape was quite content to hammer away with fire attacks. Bastiodon tried to answer with her own Stone Edge, but the nimble fire fighter was able to avoid every volley of rock sent at him, and the revived fossil expired without landing a hit.
Checking Sudowoodo's known moves on her pokedex, Cynthia noticed something she hadn't seen before: Explosion. That's perfect! How did she miss that earlier?
Sudowoodo's rematch with Infernape began the same as before: Infernape blinded the tree with Fire Spin, Sudowoodo tried to work some Stealth Rock magic, and Infrenape ran forward to break the rock's face. This time, Sudowoodo broke his own face first.
The blast threw Infernape across the arena, slamming into Dawn's booth. He slid to the ground and did not get up.
Next up for Cynthia was Vespiquen, whom she figured would be able to take down any pokemon Dawn sent out next. Opposing the monarch was Lopunny. Cynthia decided to try and conserve the Combee, keeping them back to contribute to the queen's Bug Buzz. Lopunny used Agility to avoid the sound waves and rush forwards, but each time a few Combee broke from the swarm to keep Lopunny from reaching the Vespiquen. By the time Agility had worn off, Lopunny had defeated a small portion of the Combee flock but was unable to continue dodging Bug Buzz effectively, and after one too-slow tumble was down for good.
Wanting to ensure the defeat of the queen and her court, Dawn sent out Rotom. Cynthia let the battle play out the same as before, exchanges of Power Gem and Thunderbolt knocking out both combatants, the blonde confident that so long as she didn't fall behind she would win this round.
The double-KO left Cynthia with Weavile, Leafeon, and Lickitung against Dawn's Altaria, Garchomp, and Seaking. Lickitung, Cynthia could afford to lose, so he was up next, met by Dawn's chaff Seaking. Less than graceful himself, Lickitung sustained far more damage than any pokemon should have against a fish out of water, but won out wrapping Seaking with his tongue and slamming the fish into the ground over and over and over.
The tongue monster was equally unimpressive, and far less amusing, as he was beaten into the ground by Dawn's Garchomp.
"Time to shine Weavile!"
Tossing curving Ice Shards and dustings of Icy Wind, Weavile put Garchomp on the defensive. The land shark was forced back until he ran out of arena.
One peculiar fact about Garchomp is that the species absolutely hates being restrained. Were they less capable of destroying any cage on a whim, their condition might be called claustrophobia. It isn't relevant very often, because Garchomp are so aggressive that any opponent trying to restrain one typically needs to knock it out first. Several well-respected researchers believe Garchomp's condition is a consequence of being a flightless relative of the many fully-evolved flying dragons. Losing to Leafeon had shamed Garchomp into obeying Dawn better this time, but being forced against the wall of the arena was a trigger for Garchomp. Striking in a berserk fury, the dragon batted aside Weavile's Ice Shards and charged through the Icy Wind as he charged at the elfin trickster. In it's rage, the dragon made mistakes, its snapping jaws and heavy slashes easily evaded by it's smaller foe. A missed swipe with it's arm-fin put Garchomp just so slightly off balance, and Weavile pounced with an Ice Punch uppercut that even the frenzied dragon couldn't shrug off.
Dawn tried, and failed utterly, to hide her disappointment as she sent out Altaria to flounder for a little while against Weavile. A few well-aimed Ice Shards and a raw round forfeit brought the trainers to the prime round again, tied 3 rounds each.
This time, the stage was a grass field painted like a pokeball, with water filling the dividing lines.
Dawn looked dejected as she released Empoleon. Cynthia, knowing Dawn wouldn't dare lead with Giratina again, had chosen Garchomp to lead the charge. Oswald put up more of a fight this time, throwing the water from the stage against Yuchi to great effect, but the shark out of water was just faster, stronger, and tougher. Empoleon was thrown around like a ragdool and beaten like a red-headed stepchild for 20 minutes (though his crest had been broken in just 7 minutes) before a distraught Dawn recalled him.
Grim was up next, Dawn not wanting to watch Yuchi run through half her team again. To deny Dawn the pleasure of seeing her Garchomp beaten to a pulp, Cynthia brought Yuchi back and threw out Legion. Giratina struck at Spiritomb's purple-streaked-with-green miasma and, having learned absolutely nothing, followed the other ghost into unconsciousness.
The next bout was a very fast and very harsh exchange between Infernape and Lucario. Barely moving by the end, Infernape nonetheless stood while Lucario fell, which is what Cynthia wanted. Too weak to fight and too stubborn to give up, Antonio gave Roserade the perfect opportunity to finish the round herself.
Volleys of poisons needles and paralyzing spores kept the weakened ape back while Roserade put down roots and unfurled her leaves, drawing energy from the sun, soil, and water of the stage. Infernape fought valiantly, but was so weak after fighting Lucario that he could barely defend himself, much less strike at Snowberry. Dawn could see what was happening, but Infernape hated giving up too much for her to recall him. Roserade gave Infernape a glimmer of hope when she used Sunny Day, the intense sunlight stoking his own flame enough to let him fight on a bit longer. Every unnecessary wound Antonio suffered was like a stake through Dawn's heart, but the real twist of the knife was Roserade's visible joy at this mockery of a pokemon battle. Snowberry honored Dawn with a bow and a flourish when Infernape finally fell (Cynthia swore she could hear the girl grinding her teeth). The blonde was glad to have finally found a productive outlet for Snowberry's sadistic streak.
Staraptor came out next, hoping to nip this problem in the bud, but it was too late. A lancing Solar Beam pierced the bird's left wing. Harleen hurtled down to earth before being enveloped by a mass of strangling vines and a cloud of toxic dust. When Staraptor quit struggling, the vines receded. Harleen mastered a few steps in Snowberry's general direction before collapsing. The marshal called the bird out, sparing Dawn the burden of deciding to recall her or not.
Ra's fared little better. Engorged on excess energy, Snowberry sprouted an entire forest of scything briars, lashing vines, and flowers spewing debilitating spores. For every plant, Ra's hacked through, two more grew in it's place. Once the stun spores took hold, Ra's couldn't even squirm in protest as Snowberry hurled him into the air. Dawn barely recalled him before he hit the ground.
Last was Torterra. Fighting for Dawn's pride more than any hope of victory, Alec bulldozed through Snowberry's domain with a surge of power from the scorching sun. Whips from Roserade's arms struck Torterra's eyes, the deadly venom blinding the great turtle, but it continued to charge through Roserade's ensnaring vines. A barrage of Solar Beams struck, bringing Alec down mere inches from the ingrained Snowberry.
As Roserade bowed to Dawn once more before being recalled, Cynthia worried she might have overdone it. Dawn was a wreck after that round, and during the following loan round it showed. The girl barely watched the fight, and what few commands she did give hurt her pokemon more than they helped. Vespiquen and Weavile took out her entire team, enjoying their walk in the park. The stress had gotten to Dawn; she'd given up and her pokemon followed.
Still, a win is a win. Cynthia did what she needed to keep her shot at the championship alive. All she'd hurt were Dawn's friends and feelings – wounds time would heal.
The rest of Cynthia's matches for the day were dull and unsatisfying by comparison. Some kid out of his league that had received a first-round bye, a middle-aged woman in an Eevee costume with a team of Eeveevolutions, a junior dragon tamer that hadn't done his reading on Togekiss and Fairy-types, and an exhausted psychic that had relied too heavily on his gifts his previous four battles offered little challenge for Cynthia's victorious prime team and her eager-to-redeem-themselves raw team.
With her battles done for the day, she decided to see how Steven was doing.
"Having fun yet, Stone Cold Steven Stone?"
"Not as much fun as you, Cyn. Did you make all the little girls you battled cry, or just your friend?"
"Hey, it's her fault for being so caring and compassionate – if she were more like you, she probably would have won."
"Well, making young children cry is the cornerstone of the rich man's burden, and I guess she was asking for it by bringing three legendaries to the tournament, wasn't she?"
"You bet your sweet bippy she was, though the rest of my matches for the day just seemed kinda dull after beating Dawn."
"I'll bet. After the tournament, we are going see about bringing your exclamations into this decade."
"I'm not spending that much time with you for free, Stevie."
