Icirrus Arc: Challenged
Soon, they reached another cave that led back into the mountain. "Alright... this should be our way down.",
"Oh, please, pleaaase be the way down...", Jacky prayed. Mari pointed at the cave entrance. "Combusken? Can you go ahead again?" It nodded and lit up the passage with its fire. They re-entered the mountain and followed a cold path in some indefinable direction. Eventually, the air freshened up and they emerged on the other side of the mountain. "At last. We're here!" Mari pointed towards the silhouette of a town that rose from the earth not far away. "That's Icirrus."
Jacky gasped, struggling for breath. "Finally... I've lost all my sense of direction and time in this mountain... It... it's getting dark already... We should hurry...",
"I agree. It's not far anymore, we should be there before the end of dusk." Mari withdrew her Combusken.
They walked the last bit. It was much cooler here than in Mistralton, because Icirrus was situated in the shadow of the mountain in the far north between hills and forests, and the swamp that surrounded the town made for regularly rising fog and cold air. The town itself was beautiful, but really chilly in the depths of winter. Light drizzle sprayed down on them as they approached their destination and some wind stirred up. Jacky let Budew out, who happily jumped around in the light rain. It got heavier with every step they took, however, so they made a quick run for Icirrus' Pokémon Center. There, they got a room key and went upstairs when Jacky suddenly stopped and her hands cramped around the door handle. "What's wrong?" Mari asked in confusion.
"...Nothing... Nothing at all." Jacky gritted her teeth and unlocked the door to the room. In the background, they could hear a muffled voice. Mari didn't recognize it, but she did recognize the voice that replied. It was Laslow's. So he was here as well. Then, the girl's voice she heard was most likely that of his companion, Aria.
"Hey..." Mari entered the room with her. "Why don't you challenge Laslow for a battle?",
"What?" Jacky turned to her and put their room key on the table.
"You heard me. I asked why you don't challenge Laslow. If you do, you can talk to him again, like you did at the festival. You guys did talk a lot there, that's the impression I got, at least.",
"Laslow's nice and all... But Aria...",
"...is his girlfriend?",
"At least she acts like it.",
"Hmph... So? She shouldn't be keeping you from asking him, should she? Laslow is strong. Just think of it as some training for the Opelucid gym. Aria gets on his nerves sometimes, you can tell.",
"Then why does he hang out with her?",
"I don't know... because friends are annoying sometimes?",
"Well, thanks a lot.", '
"Wh- No, no that's not what I meant! You're not annoying!" She waved her hands in front of her defensively. "You're the best, really. Now just go over there and challenge him. Period." Jacky was undecided, but then sighed. After all, she wanted the same, so she had to step up. "Yeah... Yeah, you're right... Thanks for the imaginary kick in the butt.",
"No problem. Now move.",
Jacky gave in and walked across the hallway to where the voices came from. The sound of loud arguing led her to a room just a few doors down the hall. She quietly held her breath and wanted to turn back immediately upon hearing them fight in there. "Aria, we're done discussing this. I am not your property, period!",
"You belong to ME, Laslow! And no one else! I want to secure you for myself!",
"What?",
'Secure you... for myself...?' Jacky's mouth dropped open in puzzlement. 'What does she think he is? A bargain at the grocery store?',
"I'm your girlfriend, Laslow! You're MINE!"
Silence.
"Why don't you say something?" Aria demanded to know. Jacky could hear him get up. "I don't know what kind of illusions you have... But this discussion is over." Jacky could wait no longer and knocked on the door. "No, we're busy!" Aria exclaimed, but Laslow harshly growled at her. "This is my room, just to remind you again! You don't have any right to decide SHIT! Now get the hell out!" And with that, he yanked the door open, with an angry expression on his usual serene face. "...Oh. Hi, Jacky." When he saw her, the spark of rage in his eyes burned away and his face just looked hard and cold, as if all emotional capacity that he possibly had had been drained away by that screeching banshee behind him. "What can I do for you?",
"I, uhm... I heard you were here, so... I want to challenge you to a battle. If... you don't mind.", "Oh?" He leaned against the doorframe. "Well, that's-"
"No!" Aria screamed at the top of her lungs. "Out of the question!"
Laslow rolled his eyes and ignored her. "... surprising, for sure. But... since it's you challenging me, I accept, of course. It could prove to be an effective way of preparing for the next gym.",
"Laslow?!",
"Shut up!", he snapped at her. "If I'm not mistaken, I get to decide for myself if and whose challenges I accept, damn it!",
"But she's a GIRL and she likes you!",
"I. Accept. Her challenge", Laslow repeated, emphasizing each word with vigor. Jacky couldn't help but smile briefly and feeling a little triumphant. "As for you...", he turned to Aria and narrowed his eyes, "...you better not be here anymore when I come back." Then, he walked past Jacky and slammed the door for good measure. "You coming?",
"Already on my way!" Jacky went along with him.
"She's horrible", Jacky mumbled. He sighed irritated and buried his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Yes. Yes, she is. She's so entitled... She thinks she's my girlfriend, even though she's not, I have no damn idea what's wrong with her at this point.",
"And yet you still travel with her?",
"No. No, I've reached my limit of tolerance for her bullshit", he replied. "I'll tell her to get lost and leave me alone. I'm fed up with this. I thought telling her often enough that what she wants will never become reality would get her to stop being like this and make her turn back into a normal, tolerable person. But it only got worse, and I'm officially done.",
"It's better that way... she makes you miserable.",
"A lot makes me miserable", he replied curtly. Jacky blinked. "What...?",
"... Not relevant." He shook his head. "So, you challenged me, which means you make the rules.",
"Hmh, okay..." She nodded. "I suggest a five against five.",
"No objection." He forced a smile on his face. "It's been a while since our last encounter on the battle field. I'm sure you've gotten a lot stronger in the meantime.",
"I'm eager to show you what I can do!",
"Great."
They went outside and found a suitable place where they wouldn't disturb anybody. "Alright then! Here I go! Let's go, Absol!" Jacky shouted and sent out her first Pokémon.
"Houndoom, you're up!" Both Pokémon landed in front of their trainers.
Laslow stretched out his arm. "Start with Flamethrower!" Houndoom growled and attacked Absol.
"Dodge it!" Absol agilely jumped to the side.
"Roar!" Laslow commanded next. A loud roar followed, loud enough to shake the ground. Absol cowered down on the ground with its eyes closed and returned to its trainer. Instead, Scizor appeared on the field. Bravely, it raised its huge metal pincers and stared Houndoom down with resolution burning in its eyes.
"Oh no! Anything but..." Jacky looked at the Pokémon in shock. She appreciated its willingness to take on the fight despite the immense disadvantage, but still. She hadn't used it in a single fight yet. She clenched her hands to fists. "I haven't trained one second with it yet... but... I guess this fight shall be the first then. I won't back down!",
"Are you sure you want to tackle the fight like this?" Laslow asked, and he seemed worried. "The odds don't look too good. I wouldn't waste a Pokémon like this, even if it is just for training purposes...",
"I might be able to defy all those odds." Jacky said courageously. "Just watch me!",
'...Her courage is admirable, not gonna lie', Laslow thought to himself. 'But it's not a good idea to insist on keeping Scizor on the field in this scenario, given the fact that she also has no experience with it whatsoever...'
"Let's go, Scizor! Iron Head!" Her Pokémon lowered its head and then charged at Houndoom.
"Flamethrower!" Houndoom shot flames at the opponent, who had to dodge to the side. It kept charging at the fire-type Pokémon however. "Fire Fang!" Laslow commanded. Houndoom dodged Scizor's attack and seized the opportunity to snap at it, yanking it off its feet. Scizor got up again, smashing its pincers against each other. "Flash Cannon!" Jacky shouted.
"Dark Pulse!"
The attacks collided, causing a loud and devastating explosion. Smoke ascended and worsened visibility immensely. "Go, Houndoom. Fire Fang!" Houndoom burst through the smoke cloud, but Jacky saw it coming. "Block it, Scizor! Bullet Punch!" Scizor was able to fend the incoming attack off and Houndoom jumped back. "Let's turn this around! X-Scissor!" It immediately lunged after Houndoom, but Laslow's Pokémon was way more agile than hers and evaded the attack. "Flamethrower!" Laslow commanded and the next attack engulfed Scizor in flames. It cried out and sank to its knees before it toppled to the side. With it, the last hope of being able to turn the tides vanished. "W-Whoa... That was over quite quickly..." Jacky mumbled breathlessly. "And here I thought I could counterstrike. Seems it was a huge miscalculation on my part... You've gotten much stronger.",
"I don't think this had anything to do with strength, particularly...", Laslow replied and shook his head. "You had a non-neglectable disadvantage in this duel because your Scizor is extremely weak to fire and way slower than Houndoom. That you weren't familiar with it yet just adds to it. It is extremely difficult to win under those conditions, and quite a risky choice to go through with it anyway. I know you're strong, but disregarding type correlations and physical differences in a serious battle could really break your back, you know...",
"... you might be right there...", she muttered meekly. "Well... it was a nice try, I guess... It didn't work out too well.",
"May I give you a piece of advice?", he asked politely.
"Yes, of course!" she nodded. "That's why I asked to battle with you in the first place... to improve.",
"Alright." He smiled at her and then explained: "It's never smart to put yourself in inferiority right at the beginning of the fight. You usually don't recover from that. In the qualifiers of the Junior Cup Tournament, fighting in the same type of disadvantageous situation worked because your Pokémon was very well trained. Even though doing something like that in a one on one battle in the very first round is really risky. But especially with opponents that have more experience, something like that will tend to fall on your feet. Hard.",
"..." She sighed and lowered her head, biting her lip. "Yeah... I get that... You demonstrated that to me pretty clearly just now...",
"Are you doing something like that... more often?", he asked carefully. "Like, is it a common thing for you to do?"
"Oh. Uh..." She didn't seem to have expected a question like that and fell quiet for a moment before stammering out: "I... y-yeah... Sorta...",
"Why, if I may ask? I wouldn't say I really understand, but I want to try..." He sounded genuine when he said that and the look in his eyes spoke of worry . "What makes you do that?",
"I... don't know", she admitted. "Probably, I just want to prove myself... You know, that I can win no matter what the situation is like. To have the advantage all the time is not an art... Fighting your way out of a disadvantage is what really makes an impression. I want people to remember me. I want to stand out against the rest.",
"I see..." He nodded. "Well, it does make sense. But... I don't think that type of mentality is healthy in the long run. It will probably come to bite you later, at the latest when it costs you an important victory, for example. Because then, people will think you have no idea what you're doing. They will remember you, but... maybe not in the way you'd want them to. Do you get what I mean?",
"...Yeah...", she said quietly. "I never thought of it that way...",
"Trust me, it's not worth it to risk that much. You have way more to lose than to gain.",
"I suppose you're right..." She looked at him again and smiled. "Thank you, Laslow. I'll take your advice to heart. We will keep on fighting and claim the win anyway, just watch me! Noivern, your turn!"
Jacky's dragon rose into the air with mightly flaps of its wings. "I'm ready for round two!",
"Alright then. Let's move on from this and start off as usual, with Flamethrower!" Houndoom sent fire at Noivern, but the dragon deftly dodged it. "Iron Tail!" It folded its wings and darted down, smashing its tail against Houndoom's ribs. "Don't let up! Dragon Pulse, go!" Noivern rose higher into the air again before firing off the next attack, but Houndoom was able to dodge that one. The beam left a deep furrow in the earth. "Strike back! Dark Pulse!" The counter attack hit Noivern's wings and it faltered in the air with a surprised scream. It was impressive how quickly Laslow's Houndoom was able to get over the damage it had received. "Iron Tail!" Jacky shouted. Her Pokémon let itself fall from the sky and tried lashing out at the foe, but Laslow seemed to have an idea. "Fire Fang! Grab its tail!" Houndoom's fangs managed to get ahold of Noivern's tail and it was flung to the ground with force. Houndoom forcibly held it there. Bit by bit, its tail was heated up by the iron's warmth conducting properties and Noivern screeched loudly, flailing around on the ground before shooting a Dragon Pulse at it. The attack hit Houndoom's shoulder and it let go of the dragon with a growl.
Noivern scrambled back onto its feet and roared loudly before rising back into the air. "Let's pursue it from above, Noivern! Dragon Pulse!" Enraged, Noivern launched one attack after the other, but Houndoom nimbly dodged them before turning around and retaliating with Flamethrower. Noivern dodged before grabbing its opponent and lifting it into the air along with it. It dropped it mid-air and made it crash into the ground with another Iron Tail. "Now Dragon Pulse!" The attack finished Houndoom off and it stayed down. "I've evened the scales!" Jacky announced. "Was that performance better?",
"Yeah, way better." Laslow nodded and withdrew his Pokémon. "Gothitelle, you're up!" His psychic-type Pokémon appeared on the field.