Accumula Battle Club

When they got back outside, Jiro defiantly announced that he'd be going to check out the battle club. Miya already had an assignment from Professor Juniper. She'd called her on the cross-tranceiver that morning to announce that they were nearly at Accumula Town. So, Miya headed to the library. She browsed the shelves for a few books, selecting The Legends of Arceus, A Geologic History of Pokémon, and Do Genesect Dream of Electric Mareep?

She sat town and wrote the paper in an hour or so, returned the books, and went to meet Jiro at the battle club. Giant glass doors slid open with a whoosh as Miya approached them; blinking to adjust to the change in lighting, she stepped into the battle club lobby. The first thing she noticed were the rows of kiosks with wide screens projecting pictures of trainers and their pokémon teams. It reminded her a bit of the Nuvema Airport with all of its self-check-in ticket kiosks. As she walked by them to the information desk, she paused to look.

The first trainer to flash on one of the screens was a tall, confident-looking girl who didn't look much older than Miya and Jiro. It was an animation, and the trainer tossed her thick brown hair over one shoulder, seeming to not take her eyes off Miya. Her name flashed across the top: Dana Williams. Her pokémon team trailed after in a scrolling sidebar, ticking off each of their stats. Her battle history bloomed on the screen next. And then there was an alert: Next Battle- Dana Williams vs. Jiro Takata.

"Are you kidding me?!" Miya cried. Jiro was already going to battle and he didn't tell her? She jogged up to the information desk.

"Hello, how may I help you?" The man behind the desk greeted her with a polite, toothless smile.

"Is there admission for spectators?" Miya asked.

"Are you here to watch a friend?"

"Yeah, Jiro Takata, apparently he's up next."

"Hmm, yes, he is," the man replied. Assistant, his badge read. He passed Miya a clipboard. "Here, if you sign up, I can enter you in the system and you can get a year-long spectator pass for all the battle clubs in Unova."

"Um, okay, does it cost anything?"

"It only costs 100 PD."

"Oh, all right," said Miya, and scribbled her name and information across the form quickly. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled up 100 PD note and slapped it on top of the form. "When does the battle start?"

The assistant took her forms and money and gave her a tiny card and a brochure. "Just a few moments, I think. Do you need a key ring?"

"No, thanks. That's it?"

"Yes. An attendant will scan your card as you enter to take your seat. Have a nice day!"

"Perfect, thanks," Miya said, heading over to the double doors that would lead her into the main arena. Sure enough, an attendant held out his hand for her card, scanned it, and handed it back to her, opening the door for her.

Jiro was on the far side of the arena. It wasn't big, maybe about as big as a basketball court. There were bleachers dotted with other trainers and their pokémon. There were little kids, too; this wasn't really what Miya would have considered a family environment, so this shocked her slightly. She wondered if the place would have been fuller were it not for Ghetsis' speech earlier that day.

Another girl, presumably his opponent Dana Williams, entered the arena from behind Jiro. Miya watched him stand to meet her. They greeted each other courteously, shaking hands. Miya couldn't hear anything that they said, although she saw Jiro's lips move and Dana throw back her head in a laugh. Dana walked to the other side.

A static noise filled the air, and Miya looked up to see that there was a press box on the other side of the arena. Behind the glass was an announcer fiddling with a microphone. "Good afternoon, poké fans…" More static, then it suddenly disappeared, replaced by the clear, echoing voice of the announcer. "It's a fine day for the opening of Accumula Town's very first Battle Club! This is our fourth match of the day, and what a fine afternoon it is for a friendly pokémon battle indeed. On the north side we have Dana Williams, a trainer and regular Battle Club competitor hailing from Luxuria Town. Her team today consists of misdreavus, delcatty, and pachirisu. On the south side we have rookie Jiro Takata of Tidewater Harbor, challenging Dana with his team, feebas and gallade. Trainers, please approach your marks! Are we ready to battle?!"

Cheers from the crowd spurred Miya to run into the bleachers to find an empty seat. She slid to rest and applauded politely. A battle shield lowered from the ceiling to shield spectators from the action. Miya let Milo out of his poké ball. "You might want to see this," she whispered in his ear.

Milo did. He always wanted to watch out for his fellow water-type pokémon. Especially when electric-types were around. Ooh, that pachirisu looked menacing.

"Come on, that pachirisu's not that bad," said Miya over the applause. "Look at his stats." She pointed up to the screen on the north wall where the stats of each pokémon were displayed. Jiro was on the left, Dana was on the right. All the pokémon displayed full health bars at the moment. Dana may have had more pokémon than Jiro, but only one was a higher level than his.

"Trainers, send out your first pokémon and begin!" the announcer called, and Dana's pachirisu and Jiro's gallade rushed forward.

"And Jiro's gallade uses a Leer on Dana's pachirisu- that's quite a nasty look, seems to have caught the pachirisu off guard-" Miya glanced with the audience to the stats board where the pachirisu's defense number dropped by one.

"But this is one tough pachirisu, I can tell by the looks of it- oh! Dana counters this with a command for a Quick Attack and it works! That's down fifteen hitpoints for the gallade."

Jiro's gallade was named Dasya. When he'd introduced them all the day they left, he'd told Miya that Dasya was a gift from his uncle who lived in another region. Miya wondered what she'd do in Jiro's position. Dual fighting- and psychic-type against electric… Dana's pachirisu began to glow. Was that beginning of Spark?

She couldn't hear any of the commands Jiro gave to Dasya, but she was sure he was yelling at him to use caution.

The announcer continued, "Pachirisu's winding up to deliver a powerful Spark- a Spark is capable of paralyzing pokémon, but it looks like Jiro's gallade is ready- here comes a Confusion ray- oh! It's beaten the Spark to its foe." Miya held her breath- Jiro had told Dasya to use Confusion before Dana's pachirisu could shock him.

"A risky move by Jiro pays off! This could be bad for Dana; look at that pachirisu stagger! It certainly seems disoriented." The pachirisu ran into the battle shield and was knocked backwards after the collision to sit, dazed, on the ground. Miya watched its hitpoints fall on the stats board.

Dana recalled the pokémon and raised her pointer finger high in the air, looking slightly ruffled. The announcer called, "Dana's recalled pachirisu; it's taken out of the battle. That's one down and two to go for Jiro!" Jiro clenched his fists in triumph to mannerly applause from the crowd.

Milo shifted next to Miya. Surely, the others wouldn't be this easy, Miya? Miya shrugged in response to his curious expression. She folded her arms and sat back.

"Both trainers are switching out now- Jiro's only option is his feebas, a safe option now that the type disadvantage is out of the way. This one's a mature feebas, could be due to evolve any day now, eh? Anyway, Dana sends out her delcatty."

Jiro's feebas, Navy, was outfitted with pods around her gills so she could breathe the air in a land-based battle, and she wore around her fins two lifters to allow her to move at the same height as her opponent. Don't those weigh her down? Miya wondered.

"It looks like both trainers are back in action," continues the announcer. The delcatty turns away from Navy and then suddenly strikes; Navy strikes the ground briefly before rising slowly back up. "That's a nice Fake Out by Dana's delcatty; an excellent start to the battle, but now Jiro's feebas has half the hit points as before-"

Miya and Milo both glanced to the board-

"-But he's directed it to Tackle the delcatty, and it misses! That is not a forgiving delcatty; Dana strikes back with Double Slap. Wow! What a close one. Another hit and Jiro would have a fainted pokémon, but will he push his feebas to its limits to knock out the delcatty?" the announcer called. Miya could see Jiro huff from where she was sitting as he recalled Navy and raised a finger into the air, just as Dana had done.

"And Jiro plays it safe; that feebas is out of the battle. Dana recalls her delcatty- that'll be misdreavus against gallade, and that's quite a type disadvantage for Jiro."

Miya knew that Dasya could have clobbered the delcatty with some fighting-type moves. Why did Jiro recall him in the first place?

"Folks, gallade is fighting- and psychic-type, and misdreavus is a ghost-type, strong against psychic pokémon. Jiro needs to choose his moves carefully if he wants to win…"

Jiro pointed across the field, commanding Dasya to … what was that?

"But Jiro's got an ace up his sleeve!" the announcer exclaims. Dasya slices the misdreavus (his elbow runs straight through) and the misdreavus winces. "That's Night Slash, a dark-type move that can damage a ghost-type!"

The misdreavus recovers quickly. "Dana's going to counter that with a Hex from misdreavus, and that's a particularly nasty one." Dasya faltered, and on the stats board, his health bar dropped.

"Now misdreavus is made to face one nasty Leer from gallade- that'll be a drop in defense for sure- misdreavus retaliates with a Psywave, and that's gotta hurt." Milo nudged Miya's shin and pointed to the stats board, where she saw exactly what the announcer had said. Dasya was at half hitpoints now; was his luck about to run out?

"Jiro jumps on the weakened misdreavus by sending another Night Slash, and it's a knockout!" The misdreavus fainted, and Dana recalled it, raising this time two fingers into the air. "That's one pokémon left for both teams, now!"

Dana sent out her delcatty again. Miya could see her grit her teeth as she pulled her hair tighter in her ponytail.

"And it begins," the announcer calls. "Here's a type disadvantage for Dana's delcatty, a normal type, up against gallade which is half fighting-type. But delcatty strikes first with- ho, ho, what's this, a Hyper Beam?! Oh, incredible, what a twist! Dana's delcatty has been trained well using a TM and that is one powerful attack!"

An intense, bright beam of light slices across the arena and strikes Dasya squarely; Dasya flies back against the battle shield.

Jiro runs over to Dasya and, looking distressed, raises two fingers into the air. "And it's a knockout, what a victory for Dana! Hyper Beam was a risky choice; if it had failed, her delcatty would have had to rest and surely left a wide-open opportunity for Jiro to exploit that type weakness. What a payoff. Congratulations to all pokémon on both sides, this was a hard-fought battle by both trainers of course, but that's the end, folks!" The crowd applauded and Dana made a brief curtsy before making her way back across the arena.

The announcer read off some information about the next battle, but Miya wasn't listening. She stood, worried. She hoped Dasya wasn't seriously hurt. That was it? It was over so quickly. She picked up Milo and dashed down the bleacher steps to meet Jiro.

A/N: Another author note haha, sorry, I'm back. Anyway a quick note about battling: I tried to keep as true to game mechanics as I could, especially with the stats. Pokemon is a world full of nuts technology, so I figured I'd add a little. It never made sense to me that pokemon that are basically fish could battle with a pokemon that's... I dunno, something that isn't also submerged in water. So I gave Navy some lifters.

I will depart from conventional game battling by not making it turn-based. Real battles don't have pokemon waiting to take turns and strike each other. The opponents in trainer battles are also are more likely to withdraw their pokemon before they faint, especially if they care about them. ;P

Maybe I'll go into this in more depth later, but trainers can scan their pokemon using their pokedex to see hitpoints, status, base stats, and experience. These are all approximations of a pokemon's current health/fitness that the pokedex converts into numerical data.

Which leads me to question how/why pokemon evolution works... another day, maybe.

What a complex world, right?! :)