CHAPTER 15 – THUNDEROUS INADVERTENCE
"Excuse me, excuse me!" Ash cried as he tried to shove his way through the crowded lobby of Stadium 18. The space had proved to be deceptively large, somehow being able to accommodate over a hundred people packed into it with little room to spare. And try as he might, Ash just couldn't find a way through to the stands. He wasn't the only one in a hurry to find a seat either. A trio of burly men accidentally – or otherwise, in Ash's opinion – barged into him as they rushed forwards to try and claim some of the last seats available.
"Geez, is Anabel facing a regional champion or something?" he wondered aloud, amazed at how popular this one match was turning out to be. Not even his match with Ari had a capacity attendance, and judging by the fans he'd seen on his way over, he and Ari were amongst the more supported trainers competing.
Someone bumped into Ash, knocking him forward a step before he rounded on them. "Watch where you're—!"
"Sorry!" said the person before he could finish. The voice belonged to an attractive girl with a heart-shaped face framed by wild maroon hair that just managed to tickle her bare shoulders. Despite looking a few years older than Ash, she was a lot shorter than him; the top of her head was level with his nose as she brushed past. A split-second glance downwards revealed a black wire-strap top that hung loosely over her slender frame, but she slinked out of view before Ash could process any more.
At least she apologised, said a voice in his head as the girl disappeared into the swarming crowd. Standing on tip-toe and craning his head to find a way to the field, he almost jumped a foot in the air when he felt something slip into his pocket.
"Relax, Ash, I'm just grabbing my phone," Ari drawled in Ash's ear, whipping his hand back out, lo and behold, with his phone clutched between his fingers. Ash whirled around so fast he made himself dizzy, seeing the Ecruteak trainer cracking under the effort to suppress a burst of laughter. "You're not my type, if that's what you were thinking," he added with a chuckle.
"When did you get here?" Ash scowled, his eyes instinctively flicking past Ari's shoulder when he saw a tall green figure out of the corner of his eye. The red horn atop its helmet-shaped head would've made it stand out anywhere, but it was impossible to miss in a space like this. "What's your Gallade doing here?" he asked, pointing at the Blade Pokémon.
"Don't be alarmed, Mr. Ketchum," Gallade said politely, preferring to use telepathy to communicate over the noise of the jostling crowd. "I am simply here to ensure that we all find ourselves some seating for Anabel's match. Master Ari requested that I locate you so you could accompany us."
"Since the match starts in a few minutes, whaddaya say we hurry up and grab those seats before the stadium completely fills up?" Ari suggested, waving a hand towards the almost indistinguishable – and completely choked – entrance to the field.
"I dunno…" Ash replied warily. "I don't think we'll be able to get past this crowd, let alone find two spare seats."
Ari grinned and clapped a hand on Ash's shoulder. "As usual, Ash, I'm way ahead of you," he said, jerking his head at Gallade.
"I hope you're not averse to travelling via Teleport, Mr. Ketchum," said the Blade Pokémon as it rested an arm against Ash's back. For a second, Ash's mind flashed back to the strange encounter he had with Strung and her Slowking earlier in the day.
Maybe that only hurt because I wasn't expecting it, he reasoned, giving Ari's Pokémon a shallow nod and bracing himself for the worst.
"Might I suggest closing your eyes if you're squeamish with regards to Teleporting, Mr. Ketchum?" advised Gallade, putting his other arm on his trainer and counting them in. Ash did what was suggested to him and shut his eyes, silently hoping this Teleport would be a lot less painful than the last.
"Three… two… one…"
WHOOSH!
Ash felt his body spinning like a Pokémon using Gyro Ball, and he resisted the urge to vomit as the sensation made his insides churn. But then the discomfort passed, and he could feel his body slowing until it finally came to a stop. Carefully, he opened his eyes, immediately throwing a hand up to shield them from the sun as he found himself in the stand's first tier and with a clear view of the field.
Relieved with the trip, Ash let out a nervous laugh, taking in the sights. A grand collage of colours dominated the majority of his view, the makeshift palette provided by the thousands upon thousands of fans packed into every available seat on the other side of the stadium. Below them was an immaculately maintained battlefield, covered with a blanket of finely trimmed grass that stretched from boundary wall to boundary wall. It looked like it had only been cured the day before, and there was still the faintest smell of mown grass in the air.
"So where are those seats you were talking about, Ari?" he pondered aloud to his accompanying Johto trainer.
"Front row, right in sight with the centre circle," Ari smirked as he recalled Gallade in a dull flash of red. Ash gave him an incredulous look at the fantastic seats he'd managed to score. "It helps when you know both the trainers."
"Lead the way, then!" Ash laughed, motioning for Ari to point them out to him. A chuckling Ari strode down the main isle bisecting the first tier with Ash following dutifully behind, stopping once he hit the railing mounted on the stadium wall. He made a sharp right turn, running his hand along the railing as he guided Ash to their empty, waiting seats. Or at least they would've been empty seats, were it not for the giant Electric-type sitting with folded arms across the pair of them.
"Eelekvire eelek elevire!" grumbled Ari's Electivire, throwing its hands up in the air when it noticed its trainer waiting for it to vacate his seat.
"I'll make it up to you with a hotdog after the battle; how does that sound?" Ari offered before Electivire could continue its complaining. After giving it a thought, the Thunderbolt Pokémon seemed happy with the offer, giving Ari a nod that prompted him to recall Electivire to its PokéBall. "Shall we?" he said to Ash, and the two of them dropped down into the seats.
"Man, these are some comfy seats!" Ash commented, pointing to the comparative luxury of the steel armrests.
"That they are," smiled Ari, flipping his phone open to get an update on the bracket standings. "Hey, good work on winning your match with Fraser!" he congratulated, giving Ash a deserved clap on the shoulder for his victory.
"Thanks, Ari!" said a contented Ash, checking over his shoulder for a drinks vendor. When he found one he held an arm up high to grab his attention, taking the liberty of purchasing a pair of drinks. "You got them last time, now it's my turn to pay you back for it," he told Ari as he tried to hand one to him.
"Wasn't going to complain," Ari laughed, propping it between his legs as his attention returned to the phone. "Okay then… that win puts you on three points, so you're still in third position. But you won the battle, so you're still in with a good shot to qualify for the next round," he surmised, pressing a few more buttons. A nosy Ash noticed that he was bringing up Anabel's bracket.
"How's Anabel doing in her bracket, by the way?" Ash inquired, gesturing to the table on the phone's display.
"She's doing pretty good," Ari said, handing Ash to phone so he could verify it himself. "She's second on the ladder at the moment, three points ahead of third and fourth, and they've all had two matches apiece. Since the match between the other two members of her bracket is being held at the same time as this one right now, we won't know if she got through until the end of this battle. But the only way she won't make it through is if both matches are whitewashes," he explained.
Even though Ash was focused on the rankings for Anabel's group, he still detected a trace amount of concern in Ari's words. And when he double-checked the phone, he saw why. Anabel was facing the bracket's leader, a trainer who had won his two matches in rather convincing fashion. Whereas Anabel was currently sitting on a modest four points after two-one and one-all results, he was flying with seven points, courtesy of three-nil and two-nil wins.
If Anabel received any points in this match she'd be through, but her opponent hadn't conceded a point in his first two matches, so he could see why Ari was a bit nervous. On the other hand, he knew Anabel was a powerful trainer, and she'd scored points in her other two matches, so the point was fairly moot anyways.
"Why are you worried about her opponent, Ari?" Ash asked with a frown, acting on his gut feeling. Ari's eyebrows flicked up in honest surprise as he turned to Ash, the latter pointing to the bracket's leader on the display. "What's so intimidating about this L—?"
Ash's words were crushed underfoot a tidal wave of cheering from the capacity crowd. People all around him rose as one to roar in delight as they, like Ash once he'd glanced back, saw a trainer walk out onto the freshly mown field. He and Ari joined the crowd in their highly vocal support when they saw that it was Anabel herself striding out.
Ari held his fingers against his mouth and gave a high-pitched, piercing whistle that drew her attention over the deafening din. A frantic wave and a wide smile on his face, the boy gave Ash a light nudge in the ribs, so Ash did the same, waving both arms in front of him in support of the lavender-haired Salon Maiden. Unless Ash's eyes were deceiving him, the faintest of pink tinges sprang onto her cheeks, and she gave them a polite, acknowledging wave of her own in return.
A lull in the crowd's noise levels prompted the pair of them to fall back into their seats as Anabel reached the centre circle. She seemed quite relaxed. Her hands were limp by her sides as she waited for her opponent to enter the battlefield, though she did cast another quick glance towards her two most vocal 'fans'. Maybe she was quietly nervous?
Quiet was a word evidently missing from the crowd's vocabulary, and they almost damaged Ash's eardrums when Anabel's opponent walked out. He was reasonably tall compared to the diminutive Anabel, hands tucked into the pockets of his dark, full-length pants. A sleeveless white shirt with an upturned collar was stretched across his athletic chest, making no attempt to hide his muscular arms as he raised them in appreciation of the applause being directed his way. His bright green eyes lit up at the reception and glinted under the sun as it beamed down from overhead.
Even though he had quite literally the best seat in the house, Ash had to crane his head forward to get a good look at the trainer. He looked to be in his late teens, and his hair gave Ash the impression that he was a bit of a hooligan. It was of an identical shade of plain brown as Ari's, but slowly faded into a dark, springy gold atop his head, lightening even further into a rich blonde at his spiked up fringe.
The crowd continued to chant for the trainer, even as he shook hands with Anabel and exchanged pleasantries. His height advantage was especially pronounced at such close quarters; Anabel's lavender locks barely reached his nose. They appeared to know each other, judging by how long they talked before they took their places at opposite ends of the field.
It was then, in those few moments when the referee explained the rules to the two trainers, that Ash noticed that Ari had gone very quiet. He turned to his newfound friend.
"Do you know him, Ari?" Ash queried, gesturing towards the popular man.
"Yeah I do, as a matter of fact," Ari said with a slight grimace, folding his arms when the referee told the male trainer to choose a Pokémon first. "His name's Leoric," he added, his calculating eyes whipping back and forth between them.
"Leoric?" repeated Ash, but before Ari could elaborate any further a bright flash drew their attentions. Leoric had chosen his first Pokémon, a small orange creature with an enormous head like a bear trap that made up most of its body. From his spot on the sideline, Ash could only make out one beady black eye on the side of the Pokémon's head, and its four tiny legs seemed incapable of holding its massive head off the ground. In fact, the Pokémon itself looked like an orange replica of a Scizor's claw mounted on a lump of dirt. The Pokémon opened its mouth in a gleeful smile, making chomping noises at Anabel.
"The heck?" Ari frowned, leaning forwards in his seat. "Why's he leading with Trapinch of all things?" he muttered to himself, instinctively checking on Anabel to see how she'd counter Leoric's choice.
It didn't take long for Anabel to make her counter-selection. Barely moments after Trapinch gave her a toothy smile upon release did she pick her own PokéBall and toss it onto the field. Following the customary burst of harsh white light, a Pokémon very familiar to Ash appeared on the field. It wasn't something he'd known Anabel to possess, but it was a Pokémon he'd shared the very beginning of his Pokémon journey with.
A Butterfree.
"The first battle of this match will be Trapinch versus Butterfree! Begin!" declared the referee, and the starting bell barely managed to overcome the rampant crowd with its usual ding as both trainers leapt into action.
"Butterfree, let's start this battle off strong! Use Energy Ball!" Anabel ordered, wearing a look of complete concentration and determination. Mirroring its trainer's attitude, Butterfree quickly formed a pulsing ball of green energy in front of it, and with a twitch of its head sent the orb arcing over the field and straight towards Trapinch.
"Dodge it with Dig, Trapinch!" smirked Leoric. His voice was loud, boisterous and made no effort to hide his burgeoning cockiness.
Its head still split open in a happy smile, Trapinch used its vast lower jaw as a makeshift shovel, ripping through the grass and throwing earth aside at a frenetic pace. Butterfree's Energy Ball sailed dangerously close to Trapinch's head, but it was far enough underground for the attack to miss by a hair's breadth as Trapinch continued to dig. By the time the Energy Ball exploded and tore a chunk out of the field in front of Leoric, Trapinch had vanished from view, leaving a large hole and an even larger mountain of dirt behind.
Undeterred, Anabel marched onwards with a cry of, "Butterfree, fly over to that hole and fill it with Sleep Powder!"
On command Butterfree flew over the hole Trapinch had left, angling its large wings and giving them an almighty flap. A cloud of sparkling green spores detached themselves from the wings, floating gently down until Butterfree gave them a boost, thrusting its wings again to send them speeding into the cavity.
"Time to surface!" called Leoric, and with a soft rumbling his Ant Pit Pokémon reappeared, popping out of the ground ten feet in front of Anabel. Seeing its opponent occupied with the hole on the other side of the field, Trapinch yipped playfully, eager to continue the game of tag.
"Butterfree, turn around and use Psybeam!" said Anabel, motioning towards the nearby Ground-type as Butterfree whirled around. Its two antennae shone with all the hues of the rainbow before it fired an identically coloured beam at Trapinch. Instead of jumping straight back into its hole, Trapinch waddled to the side, dodging the attack by mere inches at it blasted into the ground, ripping up a chunk of the pristine grass.
"Keep it up, Butterfree! Keep firing at Trapinch!" Anabel encouraged, knowing that Trapinch were exceptionally slow Pokémon. It also helped that Butterfree had Compoundeyes as its natural ability, as shown when Butterfree took aim again. This time, the beam connected, though a last-second shift by Trapinch caused the rainbow projectile to strike it on the rear leg. With a bang Trapinch was sent airborne, tumbling through the air before landing on its feet near the left boundary wall.
"Good thing that big head of yours makes it easy to balance, eh Trapinch?" laughed Leoric, his legion of fans echoing his sentiments.
Anabel even joined in for a moment before sending Butterfree in to attack. "Hit it with Psybeam again, Butterfree!"
"Dig before it can fire, Trapinch!" responded Leoric. The Ant Pit Pokémon happily chomped its massive jaws in approval of the tactic, putting them to work in shovelling the ground aside as Butterfree launched another beam across the field. Thanks to the distance between them, Trapinch was safely underground before the Psybeam impacted, taking another divot out of the grass.
Darn it… Anabel muttered quietly. Rather than give Butterfree an order, she ran through the last few moves in her head to figure out a strategy. Coming to the conclusion that the best move was no move, she waited patiently for Trapinch's head to reappear. Then she'd have Butterfree attack.
"Back up here, Trapinch!" Leoric yelled.
The moment Trapinch's orange head reappeared near the right boundary, Leoric ordered Trapinch back underground amidst Anabel's order of "Energy Ball!"; he'd been expecting the move. Butterfree spun as quickly as it could and launched another shimmering green orb at the Ground-type, but its target had long since ducked back into its safe haven before the attack reached it. One Trapinch-less explosion of grass and dirt later, and Leoric's contingent of fans were jeering Anabel for her miss.
"Hey, quit booing her!" Ash yelled to the offending fans nearby. Before he could continue his rant, he felt a sharp tug on his shoulder. It was Ari, who was trying to direct his attention back to the match at hand. Casting the belligerent fans one last glare, he obeyed, turning back on the field to find Leoric taunting Anabel.
"I know you're fond of games, Anabel, so how's about a little game of whack-a-Trapinch?" Leoric sneered, drawing an irritated, narrow-eyed stare from the Salon Maiden. As the two locked eyes, Trapinch's huge head popped up for a third time, carving a fifth hole in the very centre of the field and completing the cross formation Leoric had been engineering since the battle's start.
Psybeam! Anabel said telepathically to her Butterfree.
With the element of surprise on its side, Butterfree tilted to the horizontal and shot another Psybeam, this time directly at this newest hole. But the moment its antennae began to glow with rainbow light, Trapinch ducked back inside, still making playful noises and treating the contest as little more than a game.
"Good hustle, Trapinch!" Leoric cheered, taking delight from Trapinch's quick reflexes. "Now it's time to hit them with a screen from underground! Use Rock Tomb!"
A series of muffled gouging noises drifted out of the five holes on the field, making the crowd lean forward in anticipation of Trapinch's next move. Anabel's eyes frantically darted between the pits, completely unsure as to which one Trapinch would pop out from next. "Butterfree, stay alert!" she warned her Pokémon, and soon Butterfree was mimicking its trainer's cautious behaviour, using its large eyes to keep track of as many holes as it could.
Alas, Trapinch didn't reappear on the field. Instead, a large boulder of compressed earth was flung out of the hole nearest Leoric. Spotting the missile out of the corner of its eye, Butterfree threw itself to the side, the boulder arcing through the empty space Butterfree had just been occupying. Anabel had to step to the side herself as the boulder flew past her shoulder, landing with a crunch against the boundary wall and breaking apart into dust.
Before she'd even turned around, however, a second boulder flew out of the centre hole, and Butterfree had to execute a tight sideways barrel roll to avoid it, the boulder missing the Bug-type's delicate wings by an inch. This is bad! Anabel thought, watching as the boulder reached the height of its trajectory and gave in to gravity.
"Butterfree, look out!" she cried as it bore back down on her Pokémon. Butterfree darted towards its trainer to dodge it, and Anabel was relieved to see that it hadn't wasted valuable time trying to chance a glance at the boulder.
As the boulder ploughed into the ground with an impact that sent a tremor through the field, Trapinch sent a third rocketing out of the hole in front of Anabel. Butterfree was much too slow on the uptake, and a feeble, surprised surge of its wings couldn't change its course fast enough. With a mixture of pained sighs and congratulatory cheering rising from the stands, the boulder crashed into Butterfree, knocking the Butterfly Pokémon clean out of the sky and bringing it to ground right next to the centre circle.
But that wasn't the worst of it for Anabel. The moment Butterfree's frail body hit the ground under the weight of the boulder, the projectile collapsed in on itself and buried the Bug-type under a pile of heavy dirt, trapping its wings in the rubble and giving it no chance for escape. Both Ash and Ari rose to their feet, gripping the rail with white knuckles and leaning over to yell words of support to Anabel.
"Great shot, Trapinch!" Leoric grinned as the Pokémon in question poked its head out of the centre hole, barely five feet from the struggling Butterfree. "Now latch onto it with Crunch!"
With a sound like two knives sharpening each other, Trapinch's colossal mouth split open. Anabel's breath caught in her throat as the Ant Pit Pokémon jumped forwards, landing on top of Butterfree's dirt prison and digging its jaws into the dirt.
"Butterfree!" she choked as Trapinch's mouth snapped shut like a bear trap, latching on to Butterfree's body and ripping it out of the tomb. Butterfree cried out in agony as it felt its body being crushed under the incredible power of Trapinch's jaws. Its large wings had been mercifully spared from the deadly embrace, and they flapped in vain to try and break Trapinch's grip.
The sight of Butterfree's unharmed wings gave Anabel a flicker of hope. An idea, albeit a desperate one. "Bug Buzz!" she shrieked.
Good move! Ari thought, his eyes along with everyone else's locked on the unfolding struggle.
Summoning the strength to shut out the intense pain washing over its small body, Butterfree churned its wings as fast as it could. Kicking up a gale force that sent the dust of its previous prison flying in all directions, Butterfree's wings began to emit a horrible droning sound that tore at the crowd's ears as much as the winds did. A series of powerful shockwaves followed as Butterfree's wings began to vibrate at sonic speed, each of the shockwaves crashing into Trapinch with the force of a speeding truck at such point-blank range.
Leoric started forwards in surprise at the move, knowing that Trapinch was taking a lot more damage from the Bug Buzz than Butterfree was from the Crunch. Not thinking about whether Anabel had planned this all along, he gave Trapinch its orders. "Trapinch, Hyper Beam!" he bellowed, his voice quickly lost beneath the sounds of the cheering crowd and Butterfree's assault.
"A Hyper Beam at that close range?" Ari yelled in disbelief, having only barely heard Leoric's order.
Trapinch also seemed to have heard its trainer, and a second later the ground around the pair of Pokémon was bathed in an intense orange light. A collective gasp as the crowd inhaled as one, before a huge explosion erupted into existence around the combatants, followed swiftly by a gargantuan pillar of light that speared out from the side of the explosion. Ash got a momentary glimpse of a winged shape being propelled on the back of the beam before they both slammed into the boundary wall on Anabel's left, the beam giving rise to a second explosion that left little to the imagination.
"Butterfree!" cried Anabel and Ash as the Butterfly Pokémon fluttered to the ground in a smoking heap.
"Butterfree is unable to battle! Trapinch is the winner! Mr. Reiger receives one point!" announced the referee with an upwards thrust of his red flag. An ear-splitting boom of cheering thundered into the back of Ash's ears as the crowd celebrated Leoric's victory.
"Alright!" said Leoric, punching the air with a fist and smiling as his Ant Pit Pokémon made its way back to him. Overjoyed by its success, Trapinch leapt at Leoric and tried to clamp its jaws down on his head, but Leoric managed to catch it and keep it arm's length as it happily chomped away at empty air. "How's about a quick break?" he laughed, recalling Trapinch in a smoky haze of red light.
Meanwhile, Anabel had dashed over to the boundary wall where her Butterfree lay, crouching down next to motionless Pokémon and resting a tender hand on its head. "You did great, Butterfree," she sighed apologetically, pained by the dramatic loss. She gently tapped Butterfree's PokéBall against its head and recalled it before standing straight and walking back to her trainer's box.
Aware that she was required to send out a Pokémon first, Anabel put a smile back on her face and picked a PokéBall. "Clefable, my friend, let's go!" she called out, and in a flash the robust shape of her Fairy Pokémon appeared, Clefable slowly drifting down to ground to a chorus of entranced sighs from the audience.
"Bad choice," Ari winced, slinking down a fraction in his seat as all eyes turned to Leoric. He knew exactly what Leoric was going to send out to counter Clefable, and he really didn't fancy Anabel's chances of pulling off an upset win against it.
Sure enough, Ari's prediction was an accurate one, and an arrogant smirk sprang onto Leoric's face. "Blaziken, prepare to charge!"
The crowd gave its loudest cheer yet as the Blaze Pokémon dropped onto the field amidst a flash of light, forcing Ash to clamp his hands over ears to block it out. The fearsome Pokémon towered above its opponent in Clefable, wreathing its wrists in fire and tensing its powerful legs as it waited for a chance to show off its strength.
"Blaz…" growled the Fire-type, flexing its claws in anticipation.
"—Blaziken versus Clefable!" the referee was saying, having to shout at the top of his lungs so the trainers could hear him. Blaziken was a clear fan favourite amongst the capacity crowd, and Ash got the dreaded feeling that he was about to find out why.
As usual, a tasty little cliffhanger to leave you all waiting for the next chapter. Which, incidentally, will feature more of Anabel's battle against Leoric.
While we're on the topic, Chapter 16 is titled "A Lilac Mercy", and will be released next Tuesday. So that's the 8th; mark it on your calendars, because you don't wanna miss it. And, as it were, I've got a little competition to run for these two chapters; "Thunderous Inadvertence" and "A Lilac Mercy". The two chapter names are mighty peculiar, no? That's because they're both allusion to a certain game series. And whoever can name the series in question will win themselves... a gift fic!
Although the gift-fic will be a one-shot limited to the Pokémon fandom, you can ask for practically anything you like! The reason I say practically is because there are a few lines in the sand, as it were, those being furry fics (I have nothing against furries myself, it's just not my style), requests for blatant OOC (again, style~), and the ever-dreaded trollfic. Aside from that, though, if you win this competition, feel free to go nuts!
So if you've read and liked this chapter or any of the ones before it, or are simply looking to try and score yourself that gift-fic, send in a review with your thoughts! They're all much appreciated, and you can be safe with the knowledge they're going to a good home.
And, as always, keep reading, and don't forget to review~