Cynthia's turned the tables in her match with Keya! Ruby's brute strength showed him just how tough her team is, and how sharp her mind is, too! It's not just strong pokemon that make Cynthia a great trainer, it's her diabolical mind! Can Keya with his feral wild pokemon manage to stand a chance against such strategic initiative?
KedharS: Cynthia's definitely known for being a master strategist.
Hyphenman: Cynthia is the definition of a savant. When it comes to the book learning and the studying side of being a trainer, she flounders. But send her out into the field and the girl's got instincts that'll give anyone a run for their money.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1258
"Lycanroc!" The Lycanroc kicked frantically at Ruby, trying to pry loose from her clamping jaws. But it was no use. Ruby had him in her grasp, and she wasn't about to let him go. She withstood the kicking and clamped down harder, until the Lycanroc began to weaken.
"Ruby! Smash him into the ground with iron head!" Cynthia ordered.
"Mawile!" Ruby's sharp fangs hardened to become like steel and she stood up, using her incredible strength to lift the Lycanroc into the air.
"Whoa!" Maddi gasped. "I had no idea Mawile had so much strength!"
"Ruby's powerful," Cynthia bragged. "Mawile can lift boulders with their fake jaws, so I figured a Rock type pokemon was no different! Now, smash!"
"Mawile!" Ruby swung her head and finally released the Lycanroc, though not in the way he wanted. The howling pokemon flew through the air and hit the rocky face of the cliff, rolling off and hitting the ground hard.
"Urgh," Keya winced, feeling the sensation of his bones smashing against stone. He forced that feeling out of his mind and concentrated his harmonia, keeping the Lycanroc conscious. Now that he was free from Ruby's grasp, he should be able to mount a counter attack… in theory, anyway.
Cynthia didn't give him the chance. But the next words out of her mouth weren't issuing commands for an attack. Instead she did something that none of them saw coming.
"Baton pass!" She ordered.
Ruby flashed, and returned to her pokeball for some much-needed rest. Cynthia smirked, eyeing Keya with a mischievous gleam in her eye.
"This isn't something you can do either, is it?" She asked. "Without pokeballs, strategies like baton pass aren't that useful! But we can use them as we please. Now I've taken that iron defense Ruby used, and I'm passing the defense buffs to a pokemon who needs it! Come out, Rose!"
With a cry, Rose emerged from her pokeball, doing a pirouette.
"Oh, good thinking!" Maddi gasped. "Kirlia are normally very vulnerable when it comes to physical defense, so boosting her stats with iron defense will really help!"
"…Uh, yeah, I know," Cynthia said, staring at Maddi in confusion. "That's why I did it. Who are you explaining to?"
"Um…" Maddi suddenly realized there was no point in giving commentary to an audience of zero. Cynthia and Keya were both well aware of what was going on.
"It's fine," Keya smiled. "She's had a rough month. But don't think that just because you've switched to a faster pokemon you'll be able to-"
Cynthia rolled her eyes and smirked. "Already did."
Rose was glowing, and she struck the wounded Lycanroc with a blast of psychic energy.
"You aren't the only trainer who can communicate with their pokemon without needing to rely on words," Cynthia bragged. "My girl knew exactly what I wanted the second she came out and saw her opponent! How's a taste of that extrasensory feel?"
"Not too good, I'll admit," Keya winced. But his smile remained. He went over to treat Lycanroc's wounds. "But thank you for showing some mercy to the little guy."
"Wh-What? Why do you think I showed him mercy?! I was fighting all-out!" Cynthia pouted, her cheeks turning a little red.
"Your Mawile could have brute-forced her way to victory," Keya explained. "But if she did that, then Lycanroc here would have taken a lot more damage to his body. By switching to a Psychic type pokemon and attacking with a mental attack, you still won the match, but only by wearing down his mind, not causing more injuries that would be harder to heal."
"N-No, I wasn't thinking about that at all!" Cynthia sniffed, crossing her arms and turning away. "I was just having my pokemon do the attacks I thought were best! And I switched pokemon because of strategy! It was the best opportunity, that's all!"
"If you say so," Keya nodded. "Now then! I suppose I should find another friend to help fight. Hmm, your Kirlia is a Psychic/Fairy type, so how about…"
Keya extended his harmonia, asking his friends if they wanted to battle. He finally settled on one that would be a good fit.
"Haunter!" A ghostly specter floated up out of the crowd of pokemon watching the fight, drifting towards the battlefield.
"I was afraid of this," Maddi frowned. A shadow crossed her face. "Kirlia is Psychic and Fairy type, which puts her at a serious disadvantage against a Ghost/Poison type. Because Keya has such a large selection of pokemon to choose from, he can make sure he's got the perfect type matchup."
Keya shrugged, offering a good-natured smile as his only rebuttal.
"What can I say? I have a lot of friends."
To Maddi it seemed like a dirty trick.
"It's fine," Cynthia assured her. "Remember, Haunter are part Poison type, right? Which means Psychic type moves will work on him."
A conspiratorial grin tugged at her lips. "But even then… we've got a little trump card on our side, right Rose?"
Rose smirked along with her trainer and began to cackle. Maddi sighed. Apparently, Cynthia's bad habits were rubbing off on her team.
"Well, a surprise?" Keya asked. "I'm intrigued! I can't wait to see what you've got in store! Haunter, use hex!"
"Haunter!" The Haunter raised his disembodied hands, and ghostly energy surged through them. The spectral force flew towards Rose.
"Not bad, not bad," Cynthia nodded. "But not good enough! Dodge it, Rose!"
With a nod, Rose leapt out of the way, holding her hands up to her head. She began to build up another extrasensory attack.
"Haunter!" Haunter wailed in pain as the psychic blast struck. But then the ghostly pokemon began to cackle.
"That hurt quite a bit," Keya winced, holding his head. "But don't think we just took that attack for nothing!"
In fact, while under the effects of the extrasensory, Haunter had actually gotten in close to Rose, close enough to launch an attack.
"Double team!" Cynthia ordered. Rose created several copies of herself, filling the battlefield with Kirlia clones.
"Nice, now even if he can set his sights on one of them, it might not be the real one," Maddi grinned. "And Haunter don't have a lot of moves to attack all their opponents at once!" Cynthia had given herself a real opportunity here.
Keya smiled. "I know you think double team will help your Kirlia keep the edge in this fight, but you're wrong," he said. "Because we've got a move of our own! Shadow punch!"
"A physical move?!" Cynthia gasped. But Haunter sucked at physical attacks! What trainer would spend time training up that move?
…Oh, right. Keya didn't train his pokemon.
"Haunter!" Ghostly energy surged through Haunter's fist, and he sent his hand flying across the battlefield, smashing through clone after clone.
"Shadow punch uses special ghostly power to track down the target's shadow," Keya explained. "There's no dodging it! You see, wild pokemon aren't like trainer pokemon. A lot of trainers will specialize their pokemon in certain areas, teach them how to use only special moves, for example, or focus on training up their physical defenses. But wild pokemon are more versatile. Haunter, for example, after evolving from Gastly finally have hands. Can you blame them for wanting to go a little wild with them? Even if shadow punch isn't the best move for them to use, they'll still do it, because in the wild, it tends not to matter if you're using physical or special moves. Wild pokemon don't concern themselves with fighting exhausting battles against a multitude of pokemon, they don't have to be trained to their peak. They know nothing about the finer points of stats and move specialties, just hunt the prey they can hunt and that's that."
Maddi shook her head. A Haunter using physical moves, what was the world coming to?
The shadow punch plowed through more clones until finally it found the right target. Rose couldn't dodge at all; the fist struck her in the stomach, hitting her with a powerful ghost attack.
Rose cried out in pain… then laughed.
Cynthia laughed too.
"What?" Keya's eyes widened, confused at the reaction. Even with iron defense, even with Haunter's low physical attack, that move should have done a lot more damage! It should have gotten some sort of reaction, not just laughter! It was super-effective… right?
Then in a puff of smoke, the Illusion fell away. The Haunter had never been fighting Rose at all. Her opponent was, and still is, Ruka.
"Zorua!" Ruka cackled, bounding around in a circle. Cynthia threw back her head and laughed.
"Your Zorua?!" Maddi sputtered in disbelief. "But… but I thought…?"
"A trick!" Cynthia cackled. "It was all a trick, right from the start! I knew you'd break Ruka's Illusion immediately the first time I sent her out! And when you did, I made a big show out of babying her, treating her like a poor little wounded infant who couldn't fight for herself! And because of that, she completely slipped out of your thoughts, didn't she? It didn't even cross your mind that I might try to send her out a second time!"
"You baited him!" Maddi gasped. "Sending her out disguised as Rose, that was…"
"I figured if he thought I was using a Kirlia then he'd probably use a Ghost type to take her down," Cynthia nodded. "A Steel type pokemon would be too slow, and a Poison type would be vulnerable to her psychic moves. A Ghost type was really the only option if he wanted to take advantage of her weakness. So I had my sweet little Dark type pokemon all prepared to take. You. Down!"
It was very rare, but for once, Maddi was actually impressed by Cynthia's play. She'd fallen for the trick just like Keya had, assuming that Ruka was just a helpless little baby who didn't know how to fight. But if she could actually hold her own, then…
"But… I sensed it earlier," Keya said, not sure what was going on. Before, he'd figured out that Ruka's Mawile disguise had been an illusion because he sensed that she was really a Zorua. But he didn't sense any of that this time.
"Oh, that?" Cynthia twirled a stray lock of hair. "Yeah, I figured with your harmonia you might try and see what Ruka was hiding. But you know, I have a friend who has harmonia too. And she's just a sweetheart. So when I adopted Ruka I tested out her illusion powers with my little kitty cat, and get this? As long as Ruka's concentrating on it, people can't connect with her through the Illusion!"
"So that was a trick too, then," Keya said, shaking his head in disbelief. He was as impressed as Maddi. "You let me think I could see through her, so when you sent her out a second time and I didn't feel a Zorua, I wouldn't even think about it. All that, that was just… for what? So you could arrange a type advantage in one matchup?"
Cynthia blinked in confusion. "…Yup!" She chirped, tilting her head to the side like that was the most obvious thing in the world. "A girl's gotta have a trick or two up her sleeve if she wants to win, you know?" She giggled.
…A trick or two up her sleeve? Maddi thought. Are you fucking serious with that? I think that counts as a little more than just a trick. She's a certified bad girl.
"Ahahaha!" Cynthia cackled. "You fell for it brilliantly! Now, let's finish him off, Ruka!"
"Zoruahahaha!" Ruka cackled with glee.
…Two of them. There's two of them now. Oh, fuck me… Maddi bemoaned, slapping her face in frustration.
Ruka, now no longer needing to maintain the illusion, demonstrated just how fast she was. The little fox ran towards Haunter and snarled, forcing the ghost back with disturbing sounds.
"Haunter!" Haunter quickly regained his composure, not used to his prey transforming like that right in front of him.
It wasn't just an effective trick against me, either, Keya noted. Wild pokemon are much simpler when it comes to their targets. Seeing a pokemon completely transform in front of his eyes threw Haunter for a loop. He's completely flummoxed!
Keya had to work overtime to assert his thoughts over the confused Haunter and get him thinking clearly. But that was time Cynthia and Ruka had no intention of letting him have.
"Feint attack!" Cynthia ordered.
"Zorua!" Ruka disappeared into the shadows and then reappeared beneath Haunter, claws raised. She leapt up and cut into the ghost with talons of darkness, striking hard and causing some serious damage. Haunter stumbled back through the air, the pain allowing him to regain some of his mental faculties. A few moves like that wouldn't get the better of him.
"Now that we know you're a Dark type it's time for a change of plans," Keya said. "Haunter, use hypnosis!"
But the Haunter refused to listen. Enraged, it charged at the Zorua, building up a field of ghostly energy between his claws.
"He won't use moves like that," Cynthia said, shaking her head and smirking. "Because he's completely fallen for our taunt! That opening before, after we used double team? When we had the chance to strike but didn't? Ruka used her illusion powers to create a subtle goad in Haunter's mind, compelling him to attack with everything he had!"
"Why did you do that?" Maddi asked, confused. "Wouldn't it have been better to just keep pressing the attack?"
"What? No way!" Cynthia shook her head. "If we did that, then we wouldn't have been able to show off how great Ruka's illusions are!"
"Zorua!" Ruka nodded in agreement.
Maddi didn't understand. Sacrificing a tactical edge of more damage for what amount to "style points" was so different from how she herself handled pokemon battles that she couldn't make sense of it at all. She sighed.
"Wild pokemon in general have less mental discipline than trained ones, too," Cynthia noted. "So they fall for things like taunts a lot easier, don't they? It's why you didn't even notice until now, Keya. What you saw as a completely normal gesture struck a chord with a wild pokemon who cares about defending its turf!"
Keya had to admit, Cynthia certainly knew her stuff. "Well then, I guess there's not really a lot that can be done! If we can't use status moves, then hit 'em with your night shade, Haunter!"
"Haunter!" Haunter's eyes flashed and black lightning surged from his fingertips, striking Ruka directly.
"Zorua!" Ruka cried in pain, collapsing into the grass.
"That's a powerful night shade! That Haunter's level must be incredibly high!" Maddi gasped.
"Night shade isn't my favorite kind of move," Keya admitted. "I can't boost its power with harmonia, after all. But it does have certain advantages. Wild pokemon tend to have much lower stats than trained pokemon of the same level, since they get very little formal combat practice against other pokemon. But night shade helps even those odds, doing a set amount of damage regardless of stat differences. Your Zorua's probably tasting the difference right now."
He wasn't wrong. Ruka had taken some rough hits already from the first matchup against the Trapinch; now she'd just taken a night shade. And while Cynthia might have been playing a prank by making her pokemon out to be a weakling, the fact of the matter was that she'd only had Ruka for a few weeks. She hadn't done nearly enough training with the little fox.
But just like her trainer, Ruka had an indomitable spirit (and a love of pranking people, can't forget about that). She hopped to her feet and growled at the Haunter.
"Yeah Ruka, go get 'im!" Cynthia cheered, punching the air. "Use agility!"
"Zorua!" Ruka dashed through the grass, zigzagging around the Haunter and picking up speed. If the ghost couldn't hit her with his lightning then he'd need to rely on shadow punch again, and she could take those all day.
"Night shade again, Haunter, but in a wide range," Keya ordered.
"Haunter!" Haunter nodded obediently, holding out his hands on opposite sides of his body. He began to spin, releasing lightning in all directions. If even one bolt hit Ruka it would be like all of them had hit her.
"No way that's a natural fighting style for a Haunter!" Cynthia protested.
"It's not," Keya conceded. "We're mimicking a Baltoy. But it certainly works!"
Again, Keya was taking advantage of the limited thinking of wild pokemon to use other species' survival traits to help defeat his opponent.
But Cynthia had faith in her cute little fox.
"Okay Ruka! Time for extrasensory!" She shouted.
Ruka skidded to a stop, landing right in the path of the night shade. But even as the ghostly lightning struck her, she didn't lose focus.
"Ruka's all too familiar with ghosts and scary things," Cynthia boasted. "She lived in a haunted mansion for years! Jagged Pass pokemon can handle a little bit of harshness!"
"Zorua!" Ruka withstood the pain and concentrated her thoughts, sending a wave of psychic energy that slammed into Haunter, knocking him out of the air. Keya recoiled backwards as he was likewise assaulted by the psychic attack, nearly losing his balance.
He felt his connection with the wild pokemon snap and sighed.
"Well, that's that, then," he said, walking over to the Haunter to treat its injuries.
"Nice! Aw, yeah, Ruka! Way to go!" Cynthia cheered. "That's my girl! Now call out one of those friends of yours, Keya, and let's do this thing!"
Keya smiled, and then shook her head. "No… no, this is fine."
"Huh?"
"I said, this is fine. You've shown me more than enough," he said, chuckling. "As someone who tends to rely on the natural hunting instincts of wild pokemon, it's been a long time since I've had a battle that was this unorthodox. It really was a lot of fun."
"But I've only used four!" Cynthia protested. "You haven't even seen what Rose can really do! And I have James, and Chris, and Leon, and even little Aud! Come on, you've got tons of pokemon with you, send out as many as you want!"
Keya laughed. "Really? Because that little trick you did with Zorua seemed like a suitable finale to me. You're telling me there's more?"
Cynthia's eyes shined. "Oh, you don't know the half of it," she cackled.
Maddi shivered.
Keya shook his head. "Boy, I can see why Alden likes you so much, you two were really cut from the same cloth. But sorry, this is enough for me. No sense in asking my friends to get more injured, I've seen what you've got."
Cynthia brightened with anticipation. "So then… you'll do it? You'll write my recommendation letter?" She asked hopefully.
Keya nodded. "Consider it written."
She exploded with joy.
"Yes! OH, YES! I did it! We did it, Ruka!" She cooed, Ruka leaping into her arms. She spun the Zorua around with glee.
Awesome! Cynthia managed to pass Keya's test! She showed him what she and her pokemon were capable of, with some of the best setup possible! What a little trickster! Keya was playing into the palm of her hand this entire time! Blake better watch his back, because while he's dinking around trying to repair his relationship, Cynthia's honing her team into a lethal fighting machine with more tricks than you can count!