The atmosphere in Stadium F was reaching fever pitch, as the men and women in the stands restlessly counted down the final moments before the beginning of the battle. They were excited beyond the need for coherent words, simply cheering and shouting their names of their favourite team; flags and banners were flapping about in a gentle night-time breeze that circled high above the battlefield, held aloft by the most diehard of the spectators. At last, their prayers for contest were answered by the twin flags of the sideline referee, drawing out long arcs either side of their wielder as they were raised high in the air.
"Let the battle begin!" declared the referee.
The starting siren rang through the stands, drawing out another blast of jubilation from the spectators as the match commenced. Grinning fiercely in anticipation, Leoric's hand instantly shot to the Poké Balls strapped to his waist, but Ari clasped a hand down on his wrist, pulling it away.
"What's the big idea, huh?" he roared, wrenching himself free and rounding on Ari.
"You do this every time!" Ari countered, throwing an arm towards their opponents, standing resolute on the other side of the stadium. "You just go in, guns blazing, and pick a Pokémon without thinking! You're such an idiot!"
"Me?" howled Leoric, as the crowd booed and jeered. "I told you before, I felt like taking a risk! Not everyone needs to have a playbook full of teeny-tiny little details like you do!" he added, jabbing Ari in the chest with an accusing finger. Ari's face contorted in anger, and he batted Leoric's hand away before pushing him in the chest.
Across the field, Antoine hid her mouth behind a hand and snickered at the two boys' display. "Look at those morons," she giggled, leaning towards her mountainous partner. "They haven't got a clue how to work as a team… this battle might take less time than I thought!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Antoine," warned Lorenzo. "They're obviously skilled enough to make it to the Championships in the first place—" he raised an eyebrow as Ari tried to shove Leoric in the side, only to be thrown in a headlock by the taller Trainer, his arms flailing about manically, "although I might be wrong…"
"This is gonna be a snap!" Antoine cackled, pulling a Poké Ball from her belt. "Show your colours, Archeops!"
The stadium itself seemed to ripple with excitement as Antoine tossed the ball high into the air, and screams of exhilaration and wonder erupted from the eager spectators as it split open in a flash of white, revealing the Pokémon within. It was a huge bird of a creature, covered in yellow down and blue wing-feathers, but its head and tail were scaly like a reptile, a strip of green running over the back of its clay-coloured face. At the peak of its wings were two claw-tipped hands, just the same as the powerful talons beneath its body, and the Pokémon opened its mouth to reveal two pairs of pointed white teeth.
"Akaaa!" cawed the Archeops, spreading its winged arms wide and tilting its head toward the heavens.
"You've got no chance against us, you punks!" shouted Antoine, pointing across the battlefield from behind her Pokémon. "You—huh?" she stopped short, watching as Leoric immediately let go of his partner, who reached into his back pocket. "Hey—what're you doing?" she demanded.
"Damn…" grunted Ari, pulling out his wallet and rifling through it. Finding what he was looking for, he slipped it out and handed it to a gleeful Leoric, who scrunched it in his fist and gave a whoop of delight. "I didn't think that would actually work…!"
"And now I'm ten bucks wealthier!" laughed his partner, stuffing the bill into his pocket and making a ridiculous face at Ari.
"What the hell are you two talking about?" Antoine snapped, her strawberry blonde curls jangling about her face. Her two foes looked back in her direction with raised eyebrows, as though there was something wrong with her.
"I made a bet with Ari," Leoric explained, making an effort to talk in a slow, deliberate voice. "If us pretending to get in an argument got you to send out a Pokémon first, then he owed me ten bucks."
"Thanks a lot, Antoine," said Ari, in a mock-hurt voice, and a nerve in Antoine's temple twitched violently.
"You son of a—"
Up in the stands, Gunther recoiled at the language that started spewing out of her mouth. "Well, that's not in the spirit of things, is it?" he asked the crowd, who were too busy roaring with laughter, cringing at her ferocity, or covering up their children's ears to bother replying.
Ari, for the most part, ignored the woman's ranting and raving, his focus instead on her Pokémon. "An Archeops, huh…" he murmured, cautious. "You ever seen one of those before, Leo?"
"Never," replied Leoric, folding his arms. "Well, no harm in looking it up, right?"
"Right," Ari nodded. He slipped a hand into his other back pocket, this time pulling out a teal Pokédex, which he flipped open and trained on the Archeops.
"Archeops, the First Bird Pokémon," hummed the Pokédex in a robotic, androgynous voice, as a rotating image of the Pokémon appeared on its screen. "Archeops is now an extinct species, having lived in forests and mangroves in ancient times; modern specimens have been created using DNA extracted from fossils. Archeops runs better than it flies, and will use the ground for a running start before take-off. They are highly intelligent and willing to co-operate with others in order to catch prey, but can hunt on its own by running at speeds comparable to an automobile. DNA testing has uncovered ancestral links between Archeops and many current bird Pokémon, although recent evidence has suggested a link with primordial dragon Pokémon."
"Blah, blah, blah," grunted Leoric, leaning over Ari's shoulder to get a good look at the gadget's display. "Get to the tech specs."
After a wry glance at Leoric, Ari began scrolling through the menus, stopping now and then at anything that caught his attention. "Rock/Flying dual-type—powerful offenses, limited defences—moderate learning potential—and next—and next—"
"Whoa!" Leoric exclaimed, pointing at the screen. "Go back one."
Ari did as his friend instructed, scrolling up to the previous entry. "'Archeops grows exponentially weaker in strength in proportion to its level of fatigue. An Archeops at half-strength will have drastically reduced offensive capabilities…' Huh…"
"So all we have to do is weaken it a bit and it'll be next to useless?" mused Leoric. "That doesn't sound too hard," he added with a snort.
Leoric's words caused a frown to spread on Ari's mouth as he pocketed the Pokédex, eyes flitting from Archeops to Lorenzo and back again. "That's the point," he told Leoric, who looked at him, confused. "Archeops will be useless at low health, and it has poor defences…" he began to elaborate, but he trailed off into a heady silence, lips pursed and eyes unfocused.
Leoric recognised Ari's mannerisms for what they were, and waited patiently for his friend to come out of his thoughts. The crowd started to grow impatient, muttering between themselves and making their dissatisfaction known, pelting the duo with boos and insults. Eventually, Ari's head shot up and he snapped his fingers, a triumphant smile now replacing his steadfast frown.
"Lorenzo's using either a Shuckle or a Registeel."
"Which one are you leaning towards?" Leoric asked, totally unfazed by Ari's declaration or how he arrived at such a conclusion.
"Shuckle. If he had a Registeel, he'd have a better partner," he replied. Antoine blew up in anger again, now having to be physically held back by Lorenzo to keep her from charging over the battlefield and launching into them, but he nodded at his own words and looked to Leoric. "Yeah, it's definitely a Shuckle," he said, taking a Poké Ball from his belt and enlarging it in the palm of his hand.
"We still running with a weather pair? If he's gonna be backing Antoine up with a Shuckle, they might be using Sandstorm," Leoric thought aloud, but Ari shook his head.
"No, we're sticking to our guns. It might be after dark, but we're gonna light things up," he said with a grin, tossing the ball towards his opponents. "Furret, engage!"
The Poké Ball split open with a flash, and an elongated, beige-and-brown striped Pokémon appeared on the battlefield in front of Ari. Its streamlined ears twitched as it propped itself up on its tiny hind legs, scratching at its chin with equally tiny front paws, and a collective sigh descended from the crowd, seemingly spellbound by its cute appearance. The Furret gave a little yawn, blinking its deep blue eyes and swishing its tail back and forth before getting sight of its opponent, who screeched fiercely back. Unafraid, the Pokémon puffed out its cheeks and blew a raspberry in Archeops' direction, earning a round of laughter and smattering of applause from the spectators.
"Ew," said Antoine, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the Normal-type. "That thing's probably riddled with fleas or something."
"You really do turn into a bitch when someone gets under your nose, don't you?" chided Lorenzo, earning him a contemptuous glare from his partner. "My point exactly. But—" he turned back to regard Ari with a wary gaze, "that boy had never seen an Archeops before in his life; just by gathering information with his Pokédex, he was able to know that I would be using my Shuckle… how could he have possibly known?"
Antoine snorted in disbelief. "It's just a trick," she said stubbornly. "He's trying to psych you out, like how the blonde guy got me with that stupid bet of his."
"I'm not blonde!" yelled Leoric, clenching his fist. "It's just my fringe! Look!" he shouted, indignantly grabbing a fistful of blonde streaks and tugging on them to show the darker roots.
"You're right," said Lorenzo to his partner, giving her a curt nod. "I can't dwell on this. We need to stick to our strategy." He took his Poké Ball and dropped it onto his foot, kicking it in a long arc. "Shuckle, vai adesso!" he roared, and in a burst of light, a large red shell dotted with pale holes fell out of the ball and hit the ground with a dull clunk. Five yellow tubes soon crept out of the holes, four in the sides and one at the top, the latter of which had two slit-like eyes.
"You ever get tired of being right?" Leoric asked Ari, with a casual sideways glance.
"Not really," Ari joked, looking back.
"Of course not," he sneered, already throwing his own Poké Ball into the fray. "Prepare to charge, Tangrowth!"
At first, the Pokémon that sprang forth from the ball looked like a giant mass of blue-green hair; it simply flopped onto the battlefield as though it were some mutant pile of jelly, shaking about with the gentlest of impacts. However, like Lorenzo's Shuckle had done only a moment ago, tubular arms extended from the Pokémon's body, tipped with red feelers. A small opening appeared in the centre of its front, and two round eyes peeked out from the depths of the vines, giving Tangrowth an uncanny resemblance to some sort of seaweed monster.
"That's an odd pair of Pokémon…" Lorenzo muttered to Antoine, who nodded in agreement. "We should stay hot on our toes."
"We should make the first move, to see what their plan is," she added. "Archeops! Fire a Stone Edge at Furret!" she ordered. With the crowd exploding into cheers of excitement as the battle proper got underway, a trio of silver rings began to orbit around Archeops' feathered body. The Flying-type's eyes flashed white, and the rings instantly shattered with the sound of crunching glass, turning into a cloud of pointed stones that launched themselves away from the Pokémon and veered towards Ari's Furret.
"Gimme some cover!" Ari barked, eyes trained on Lorenzo and Shuckle. He completely ignored Archeops' attack even as it zoomed closer to his own Pokémon, and Leoric picked up the slack without a moment's hesitation.
"Confusion!" he roared.
Tangrowth raised its creeper-like hands and pointed them towards the incoming Stone Edge, its body becoming shrouded in a pale blue glow. Waves of energy began pouring from the Grass-type's body, and soon the stones become covered in the same light, coming to a complete stop in mid-air just a few feet away from their target and clattering uselessly onto the ground. Its work done, the light faded from Tangrowth's body, and it took the time to extend the middle vine on one hand, providing its opponents with an obscene gesture before hastily withdrawing it.
"Aw, look! He likes you!" cackled Leoric, bending over as the crowd roared with laughter.
Lorenzo was unfazed by the Pokémon's dirty behaviour and motioned towards Shuckle. "You know what to do, Shuckle. Use Guard Split on Archeops!"
"I knew it," murmured Ari, a victorious smirk lighting up his face. "First move, follow me!"
Furret reared up high on its hind legs and waved its head about in a wide circle, hypnotically taunting Shuckle into turning around to face it. The taunt worked perfectly, and the Bug-type swung around just in time for its attack to change target; instead of Archeops, small balls of blue energy were sucked out of Furret's body. A large number of the same orbs were drawn out of Shuckle, and the orbs mixed together in the air between the two before splitting in half and racing back inside the Pokémon.
Lorenzo cursed under his breath as the last twinkling sphere of blue vanished beneath Furret's skin. "How?" he roared at Ari, fists trembling in anger. "How could you have known such a thing?"
"It's elementary, really," he said simply, as the more knowledgeable members of the crowd rose to their feet and applauded his counter-move. "You take a powerhouse with a horrible defensive streak, pump it full of Shuckle's rock-solid defence and give yourself a Pokémon that's near-invincible. The moment I scanned Antoine's Pokémon, I saw that tactic coming from a mile away," he explained, with a ghostly snicker that made his opponents bare their teeth in unison.
"Son of a—!" snarled Antoine.
"Second move, Sunny Day!" Ari shouted, his voice reaching over the top of hers as he ordered his Pokémon forward. Furret moved its stubby hands together and quickly formed a ball of pure light between them, glowing with all the burning ferocity of a newborn sun. With a loud yelp the Normal-type threw the sphere up into the night sky, climbing higher and higher until it came to a stop above the topmost tiers of the stadium and hung motionless, beaming down onto the battlefield.
"Use Guard Split on Archeops properly this time!" ordered Lorenzo. This time, his opponents did nothing to interfere, and Shuckle was free to use its attack on its teammate, a flurry of glinting blue balls were sucked out of the two Pokémon's bodies before mingling between them and being reabsorbed. "You may have taken the full effect out of my first Guard Split, but we can still make do with the second one!"
The moment that Shuckle's attack had finished, Antoine smoothly went on the offensive, throwing her arm forwards. "Keep hounding that Furret, Archeops! Ram into it with Quick Attack!"
"Kehaaa!" crowed the Flying-type, frantically beating its wings and racing over the battlefield as a trail of white light was left in its wake. Ari's eyes opened wide in shock, and he opened his mouth to shout an order, but Archeops had already crossed the length of the stadium before his words could be spoken. Archeops lowered its head and tucked in an arm, ramming Furret with the full force of a crunching shoulder charge, and its foe cried out as it was launched backwards, rocketing towards another sickening impact, this time against the boundary wall.
Instead of the cold embrace of twisting metal, however, Furret found itself crashing into a soft mass of vines, cushioning it until the Pokémon came to a complete stop and dropped lightly onto all fours. Looking up, it saw the familiar figure of Tangrowth towering behind, and gave it a grateful smile and twitch of the ears before bounding back up the battlefield.
"Thanks for the save, Leo," said Ari, extending an outstretched fist towards his teammate.
"Thanks for the sun," Leoric chortled, smacking it with his own fist.
"A nice display of teamwork by Ari and Leoric keeps Furret out of harm's way!" shouted Gunther, rapping his knuckles against the desk. "Courtesy of Furret's use of Sunny Day, Tangrowth's special ability has been activated! For those of you who aren't in the know, Tangrowth's ability – Chlorophyll – drastically increases its speed while the sun is shining! It's certainly an innovative way of bringing out the speedster in Tangrowth, considering that it's night right now, but with the speed it showed to get behind Furret, the results definitely speak for themselves! With this newfound quickness, will Tangrowth be able to provide our local contingent with the momentum to prove victorious?"
Leoric smirked at the question, planting a hand on his hip. "Tangrowth, let's show everybody just how much momentum you can get. Use Growth!"
Tangrowth held its hands in front of its body, a low hum emanating from its core as a pair of glowing green orbs appeared above its upturned palms. The orbs spun around each other, moving faster and faster until they turned into a large ring of energy, and the Grass-type latched onto the ring and stuffed it into the patch of darkness below its eyes, munching and chewing. A bright flash of green erupted all over the Pokémon, and it seemed to grow even taller, the thick green vines lengthening and coiling around its body even more tightly.
"You know what happens when a Pokémon uses Growth under bright sunlight, don't you?" Leoric asked his opponents mockingly, as the glow faded from his Pokémon.
"It becomes a target," rebuked Lorenzo, gesturing towards Shuckle. "Use Power Split on Tangrowth!"
"What?" exclaimed Leoric, as Shuckle focused its attention on his green behemoth. Just like its previous attacks, a mess of orbs flew out of the two Pokémon and mingled together, but unlike the twinkling blue orbs of before, these spheres were pulsating and angry red in colour. The orbs split in half and disappeared into the Pokémon, and Shuckle flexed its frond-like limbs in a show of strength, while Tangrowth looked down at its arms as if confused at the sudden power loss.
"Tough break," Antoine teased, pulling on an eyelid and sticking her tongue out at Leoric, who scowled back.
"SolarBeam, hit Archeops!" he roared, slamming a fist into his opposite palm.
Tangrowth mimicked its Trainer's gesture, and a pinprick of blinding light appeared in the space between its clenched fingers. The Grass-type cupped its hands around the orb as it grew larger and larger, feeding off the artificial sun still hovering over the battlefield, and within moments it had grown massive, spinning in upon itself as it threatened to tear away from its creator and rampage out of control.
"Dragon Pulse!" shrieked Antoine, eyeing the shining orb with fear as it was surrounded by a shimmering haze.
Eyes narrowed and burning like dark coals, Tangrowth threw its lengthy arms in front of its body with the lustrous sphere in tow, and an intense beam of white-yellow light burst free from the orb, spearing over the battlefield like a crescent arc of pure sunlight. Not to be intimidated even by such a powerful attack, Archeops opened its fanged maw wide and charged a blue-green ball of energy in front of its mouth. As the SolarBeam roared closer and shook the very earth beneath it, Archeops screeched like a banshee and tossed its head in a circle, launching its attack into the face of its foe's.
As the Dragon Pulse shot towards its target, the spinning ball of turquoise looked miniscule against the advancing torrent of yellow sunlight, like a pebble being tossed up at a cascading waterfall. But, when the two forces collided, Archeops' attack created a colossal explosion that split the gargantuan beam of light cleanly in two. The top half of the attack was sent flying towards the stars, fading away into the night, but the lower half smashed into the ground and sliced through it like a knife through butter, carving out a deep trench that reached from the centre of the battlefield all the way back to Tangrowth.
Leoric hissed between his teeth, his gaze following the great scar that had been left on the arena. If Tangrowth's SolarBeam had been a direct hit, he was sure that the battle would have been an easy victory.
Across the field, Antoine was thinking the same thing, and she counted herself lucky for having thought of a counterattack so quickly. Not wanting to let her good fortune go to waste by waiting about, she ordered her Pokémon forward again. "Let's show them how devastating our attacks can be, Archeops! Put that Tangrowth out of commission with Acrobatics!"
Archeops raced towards its foe like a bullet, covering the length of the battlefield in little more than the blink of an eye. Tangrowth extended a hand to parry its first strike, but the red-tipped fingers passed right through the Rock-type's body, which wavered and disappeared. A split second later, a laser beam of heat and pain ran down the Vine Pokémon's body as Archeops delivered a crushing full-body tackle to the back of the former's head, sending it staggering forwards.
The ancient Pokémon pressed on with its lightning-quick assault, ducking and weaving around its foe so quickly that Tangrowth didn't know which way to turn. Suddenly, Archeops was everywhere; above and behind, left and right, a blur of scales, feathers and claws landing hits in all directions as the Grass-type was sent tumbling this way and that after every pinpoint hit. Mercifully for Tangrowth, the barrage soon came to a stop, and it teetered about on one leg before crashing to the ground in a tangle of vines and a plume of dust.
"Game over!" Antoine sneered, running a thumb under her nose as Archeops fluttered back to her side of the field and hovered in front of its Trainer.
"Holy cow!" Gunther gasped, on his feet like so many fans in the crowd. "Beg my pardon for that kind of language, folks, but—holy cow! Archeops is making the most out of its powerhouse reputation and hasn't wasted any time in laying the smack-down! I'm sure we all felt the raw power behind Tangrowth's SolarBeam; I thought I was gonna cook like a chicken fillet! But that Dragon Pulse gave it a firm smack upside the head like it was saying, 'this is my neighbourhood', and the big bad bird followed it up with a brutalising chain of attacks that's put Tangrowth on an express lane to pain!"
"What a load of bull," snorted Leoric, folding his arms and shifting his weight onto one leg. "Tangrowth, up on your feet!"
Still in the throes of her spiteful boasting, Antoine's green eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as her opponent's Pokémon casually pushed itself up off the ground and shook its body about, sending little puffs of dust spraying out into the air. Tangrowth blinked stupidly in the light a few times as though getting rid of cobwebs in its eyes, and raised an arm to scratch nonchalantly at its vine-covered head, seemingly unaware of everything around it.
"That's impossible!" Antoine managed to shriek, after regaining her voice. "Acrobatics is Archeops' strongest attack! I saw every last hit connect, so why didn't it knock that brute of yours out?"
"You really can't guess?" asked Ari, stepping into the conversation with the hint of a sneer playing at the corner of his mouth. "I just used Power Split on your Archeops!" he shouted matter-of-factly, and Antoine's upper lip twitched involuntarily, showing a full row of bleached teeth.
"Dammit…" Lorenzo growled. "That Furret must have used Mimic on my Shuckle while we were dealing with Tangrowth…!"
"Maybe next time," said Leoric, not even trying to keep his mocking laughter held in check, "you'll think twice before focusing all your attention on the big, scary monster. Otherwise my buddy here—" he threw an arm around Ari's shoulder affectionately and stuck out his tongue, "will leave you crying like a couple of little schoolkids while I start grinding you into the dirt."
"You've got a real big mouth for someone who hasn't even won the battle yet!" Antoine snarled, shaking a fist at the two as Ari's Furret slinked over to stand next to its teammate.
Leoric's joking expression quickly faded away, replaced by a determined stare that was at complete odds with his behaviour throughout the battle. "You've got a point," he said in a low voice, planting his feet a little more firmly into the ground and straightening up his shoulders. He unzipped his jacket and threw it onto the green-painted earth behind him, revealing a skin-tight black singlet that showed off a decent amount of musculature.
Ari rolled his eyes as he heard the swooning sighs of impressionable girls in the crowd, but the simple shift in appearance had done its job. Leoric now seemed much taller, stronger, and more intimidating than before, and even a simple glance could tell him that Antoine had noticed the sudden change.
"That better?" he called out, spreading his hands wide. "Let's get serious then! Tangrowth, lay down a Leech Seed on Shuckle!"
"Taggura…" growled Tangrowth, cocking its head backwards before spitting a large brown seed from its invisible mouth.
The tiny projectile traced out a large arc in the air, the eyes of all spectators following it intently, and it struck home, disappearing into the small gap between Shuckle's leg and the rim of its shell hole. A moment later, the tiniest of cracking sounds came from the depths of the shell, and a tangled mess of ivy creepers burst out from every part of the Pokémon's body, covering and constricting it like a voracious serpent. Try as it might, the Bug-type couldn't escape from the binding tendrils, and it soon looked like its opponent, a lump of green vines with a pair of small eyes peeking out.
"Break out of there with Gastro Acid!" barked Lorenzo. A small stream of sizzling purple acid began seeping from Shuckle's mouth, eating away at the thin vines that covered its face, and the awful smell of methane and burning compost filled the air, making the fans closest to the battlefield recoil and cry out in protest. As the acid bubbled away and dribbled down towards the rest of the Leech Seed, Ari sprang into action, throwing his arm forwards.
"Fifth move, Ice Beam!" he ordered. Furret nimbly ran up the side of Tangrowth's body, small feet expertly latching on and launching the Normal-type higher upwards, before pushing itself away and rising high into the air, a neon-blue globe sparking into life in front of its open mouth. Jagged, frozen bolts split free from the orb and descended upon Shuckle like hungry beasts, and clusters of ice crystals erupted all over the Rock-type's body until it was wrapped in a solid cocoon that shimmered on all sides in the stadium's electric lights.
Seeing that one of his opponents was trapped in a seamless prison of ice, a boastful grin showed on Leoric's face. "Growth!" he shouted, giving a tiny pump of his fist as it rested at his side.
Tangrowth gladly obliged, a pair of green lights already twisting into life above its upturned palms, and they quickly zoomed into their creator's body with a bright flash. Once more, the Grass-type grew in stature, its bulky body stretching higher and higher towards the open skies; by now, it was easily three times the size of its Trainer, and casting an enormous shadow that entirely swallowed up the diminutive Furret standing in front of it. As the bright, fake sun continued to burn overhead, its heat began to slowly cook away the Pokémon's topmost vines, which had also grown to ridiculous proportions, but Tangrowth didn't seem to mind in the least, happily humming away as it basked in the light.
Lorenzo stamped a foot against the hard ground, his frustration starting to get the better of him. Ari's deduction of his Pokémon and tactics seemed otherworldly, and Leoric was riding the coattails with a Pokémon enjoying the full benefits of what a Sunny Day could offer. Now that Shuckle had been frozen solid, their options were beginning to look few and far between, and he turned to Antoine for some way to get them out of their predicament.
"I'm on it," she said quickly. "Archeops! Hyper Beam!"
For the first time in the battle, Ari and Leoric exchanged looks of alarm as a tiny spark of orange flickered between the pointed fangs of Archeops' open mouth. The spark quickly burgeoned into a flaming ball of terrifying size, and large ripples of energy weaved their way over the surface. The attack's fierce light was reflected in Archeops' equally fierce eyes as they locked onto their target, and a low rumble echoed out from the Flying-type's body, growing louder and louder as the orb swelled and gleamed.
All at once, Archeops fired the Hyper Beam with a sound like cannon fire, and the entire stadium was bathed in its brilliant glow as it shot across the battlefield. Antoine felt herself crossing her fingers behind her back as the attack sped away from her like a bullet, and her heart leapt into her mouth as it flew those last few feet to collide with Ari's Furret, its face a sheet of orange light.
The explosion was titanic. An immense shockwave wrought havoc on the arena, reducing most of the battlefield to powder and rubble. The very foundations of the stadium were affected, groaning and creaking under the force of the tremor, and the spectators that weren't shielding their eyes from the bright flash of heat and light, or shrinking away from the powerful gust of wind that tore at their faces, were howling in fright as their seats shook and rattled.
As the crowd began to recover from the blast, they eagerly looked back to the stadium floor to get a good look at the carnage that Archeops had caused, only to be forced into waiting with bated breath by the tumultuous black clouds of smoke left hovering in the explosion's wake. Seconds flew by as though time itself was impatient to see the result, but the stubborn smoke simply refused to fade away, undulating and wafting about in a thick layer that kept everybody guessing as to what would lie underneath.
Unable to wait any longer, Antoine turned to her Pokémon. "Archeops, blow it all away!"
"A-kaa!" screeched the Pokémon; it, too, was eager to see the effects of its devastating attack. Shaking tiny chunks of rock out from between its feathers, the Rock-type furiously flapped its wings, powerful gusts of wind slicing into the dark clouds and slowly clearing the air.
Suddenly, a colossal beam of golden light shot out from the cover of the remaining smoke, illuminating the ruined battlefield as it rushed forwards like a speeding train before slamming squarely into Archeops' chest. The hapless Pokémon was caught completely by surprise, knocked cleanly out of the air by the force of the blow, and it crashed in a feathered heap just in front of its Trainer as the surprise attack sheared upwards, dissolving harmlessly into a haze of yellow dust.
Antoine's eyes bulged wide open, nearly falling out of their sockets as she stared, stunned, at her fallen Pokémon. Her jaw fell comically, lips moving like a blubbering seal without making any actual sound.
"Wh-what… where the hell did that come from…?" she finally managed to stammer, before her brain kicked back into gear and offered a suggestion. If anything, the realisation made her eyes widen even more, to the point that she looked positively deranged. "Oh, get the f—!"
"Antoine!" chided Lorenzo, giving her an angry stare. "Mind your language. We're in the middle of a battle, for crying out loud!"
"Yeah, be serious," taunted Leoric, hidden by the smoke as it, having been blasted through by the mystery attack, began to lift. As the last wisps finally fizzled out, the crowd celebrated their seemingly long-awaited look at the aftermath of Archeops' Hyper Beam with a cheer, but it was barely a murmur compared to the raucous reaction they gave when they saw its true effects.
The battlefield was a mess; spidering cracks and countless craters dotted its surface like pockmarks on a human face, exposing the dark brown soil that was once hidden underneath a thick layer of hardened clay. A small circle of ice and dead leaves lay shattered around Lorenzo's Shuckle, having been broken free from its opponents' attacks by the explosion. But across the field, its opponents stood tall; several tattered lengths of vine had been sheared off Tangrowth's body, and Furret's striped body was blackened by soot, but they seemed, for the most part, untouched by Archeops' attack.
"No freaking way…" gasped Antoine in disbelief.
"Sh-Shuckle, use—use Safeguard!" Lorenzo stammered; he, too, was stunned by the sight of Ari and Leoric's Pokémon, but he was experienced enough to know that paralysis through fear would be their undoing.
"Shoop!" cried Shuckle, and a pair of diamond-like shields of green energy wrapped themselves around it and its partner, buzzing with static electricity before disappearing in a flash. Nobody seemed to notice the move, though, as all eyes were planted firmly on the other side of the battlefield.
"I don't believe it!" screamed Gunther, nearly chipping his front teeth on the edge of the microphone as it was gripped in his white-knuckled hands. "I see it, but I don't believe it! Tangrowth and Furret are still standing after a direct hit from Archeops' Hyper Beam! I'm not even sure if that's possible! We all know that Ari and Leoric aren't a pair of Trainers that you want to take lightly, but surely—surely!—there must have been some clever thinking on their part to soften the blow from that gargantuan blast!"
"And there was, of course," Leoric muttered smugly, eyes flicking up towards the commentator's skybox before turning back to the field. "Hey, look at that," he added with a cocky grin, "only six moves and you've already got her quaking."
"You sure it wasn't your SolarBeam that did that?" countered Ari, but he was smirking as well.
"How…" Antoine whispered, utterly dejected. Her opponents' names rang out loud and clear from the chanting crowd, but it was all a world away to her as she tried to wrap her head around what had just happened. "It was a direct hit… so how—?" her face became scrunched up in fury, "how the hell did you survive it?" she screamed at the duo. "Tell me how! I want to know!"
"A tactician never reveals his secrets," said Leoric coolly, before Ari could tell her. "Haven't you ever heard the saying?"
"Enough of your smart mouth, boy!" barked Lorenzo, brandishing his large fists. "Shuckle, it's time for us to go on the attack. Trap Tangrowth with Sand Tomb!" he commanded, and Shuckle's tiny eyes gleamed like black coals as it dipped its tendril-like front legs into the broken earth. For a few moments, nothing seemed to happen, and even the more nervous spectators were beginning to get settled back into their seats after the earlier Hyper Beam, but then the ground began to quiver and shift again, prompting squeals of fright from the stands.
Just as the small tremors faded away, a horrible squelching noise rose up from underground, like a torrent of water being sucked down a kitchen drain. Leoric's eyes darted left and right for the source of the sound, but his sharp alertness was soon met with something totally unexpected; the ground around Tangrowth simply caved away and took the Pokémon's towering figure with it. Down and down it was dragged by the falling soil, its arms vainly trying to grab a solid handhold as the soft earth crumbled at a touch, until its entire body had disappeared below the arena's surface, leaving a giant, sloping hole in its place.
"Tangrowth!" shouted Leoric worriedly, but Lorenzo wasn't finished.
"Bulldoze!"
Shuckle dutifully tucked itself into its impenetrable shell, an unblemished red mark on an otherwise ruined field, and it bounced up and down, over and over again, causing large circles of dust to rise up from the ground. As it came to ground the final time, its body gleamed with silver light, and it landed with a loud crack that sent a white ripple of energy tearing over the field, snatching up anything in its way. The crowd watched, awestruck, as spires of rock were pushed effortlessly along by the wave, and everything left in the wave of the attack was turned perfectly level, as though the Bulldoze was rewinding time and returning the battlefield to its original state.
Leoric had the same thought and instantly understood what it meant for his Pokémon, cupping his hands over his mouth to get his order in over the wave's low droning as it swept through the stadium. He was a moment too late, though, and the attack carried over the hole that had swallowed up his Tangrowth, burying it alive in a mass of rock and soil as it levelled the ground. Furret was also hit by the attack, mown down before it could hop away to safety, and the ripple finally faded away into nothingness, leaving a spotlessly-restored battlefield behind, but with only three Pokémon left above its surface.
"Antoine, snap out of it!" Lorenzo shouted to his partner, who was still shell-shocked by the earlier events. "We're a team, you remember? We can lose as a team or on our own, but we have to win as a team!"
Antoine snapped out of her silence, his words bringing her back to reality, and she gave him an apologetic nod. "You're right," she said. "Sorry about that. They can't counter us forever, so let's show them what we're really made of!"
"It should be a little easier at the moment, now that Tangrowth is stuck below the battlefield… at least for the moment, anyway," he reminded her; as if on cue to his words, Furret's Sunny Day finally imploded with a flash of white light, but the stadium's huge light towers meant that no visibility was lost. "Let's see if we can't take Furret out of the equation by the time it comes back!"
"Yeah!" she cheered, turning back to her Archeops. "You heard the man, Archeops! Give Furret a taste of your Acrobatics!"
"Kaaaaops!"
Ari gritted his teeth. "Furret, seventh move: keep pace with Quick Attack!" he roared, just before Archeops gave an almighty flap of its wings and launched itself across the stadium at his Pokémon with talons and claws outstretched. Furret did its best to match the speed with a burst of its own as it charged towards the Flying-type, and the trails of light left in its wake gave it the appearance of a shooting star.
The two combatants met in the dead centre of the battlefield, determination sparking in each Pokémon's eyes as the crowd looked on with bated breath. Archeops lunged first, sweeping low with a vicious claw, but Furret quickly changed direction and bolted underneath the strike, leaving its opponent slicing through nothing but air. In the blink of an eye, Archeops struck back by dropping its tail into the Normal-type's back, crushing the latter against the ground and trapping it as the Rock-type lithely spun around in mid-air for its next attack.
Scrambling desperately, Furret managed to slip out from beneath its foe's tail, and narrowly avoided the stamping talon that was driven down where its body had been only a moment ago. As the ground below was torn apart by Archeops' strong claw, Furret leapt up onto the former's wing and expertly ran along its narrow length before hopping down and clutching onto the feathers on its pale underbelly. Squawking in alarm, Archeops tried to swat the Normal-type away, but it twisted its lengthy body around the blow, still grimly hanging on even as the larger Pokémon took to the sky.
"Rock Slide!" Leoric bellowed, throwing his hands high into the air as though he were celebrating, even though his expression was darkly serious. A whirl of wind passed through the stadium, gently nipping at hair and clothes, and it was followed by a series of confused murmurs in the stands, the crowd not exactly sure what he was trying to accomplish.
Two loud exclamations later, and their attention was drawn skyward to see an array of ripples, nearly the same as those of Shuckle's Bulldoze attack, spreading out amongst the stars above the battlefield. A moment passed as the ripples grew larger, but as their edges began to cross with those next to them, several large stones suddenly dropped out of them and rocketed towards the ground below. The giant cluster of rocks were quickly pulled down by gravity, and thousands upon thousands of eyes all shot wide open as they crashed down, one after the other, onto Lorenzo's Shuckle, shattering against its solid shell and forming a pile of rocky rubble over it.
"Cosa diavolo?" snarled Lorenzo, slipping back to his native tongue out of anger and surprise.
"What, you thought that Tangrowth can't attack while he's underground?" Leoric mocked. "Hurry up and get back above ground, wouldja?" he called out to his Pokémon, and small scuffling sounds could be heard from below the ground a few feet in front of him.
Still above the battlefield, Archeops was beginning to tire in its efforts to tear its persistent opponent off. Full of vigour, Furret had managed to survive all of its attempted grabs and lunges, and small chunks of featherless hide were now beginning to show on the Rock-type's belly, having been impatiently torn away by the Pokémon itself. Archeops screeched at Furret in sheer frustration, and the latter wailed in pain as the hideous noise tore at its eardrums, but it stubbornly refused to let go, especially not with the ground far below.
"Eighth move, Ice Beam!" Ari yelled, craning his neck like everybody else to keep track of the two Pokémon.
"Fyah!" mewed Furret, twisting away from yet another clawed jab by Archeops. Happy for the chance to repay its opponent, the Normal-type tugged even tighter and climbed its way up onto Archeops' back, making it cry out in distress as belly-feathers were ripped away from its body. Once it was sure-footed on the Rock-type's back, Furret charged its attack, a pale ball of blue light that sizzled and spat neon sparks in all directions.
"Archeops, look out!" cried Antoine, and Archeops gave a slight downwards push that bucked its opponent free, putting some distance between itself and Furret.
Now hovering above its foe, Furret fired the Ice Beam in a torrential shower of jagged spears that tore downwards like bolts of lightning. Archeops was immediately engulfed by the attack, the beams of blue running rampant over its body and freezing whatever they touched, until the poor Flying-type's body was all but shackled together in a giant cube of ice. As if to rub salt in the wound, Furret landed lightly on Archeops' unfrozen neck, holding on merrily as the two Pokémon began their perilous drop out of the sky.
As the two foes rushed downwards to meet the ground in the cruellest way, a huge sheet of rock was blasted into smithereens from below, and Leoric's Tangrowth slowly emerged from its underground tomb. The Pokémon was covered in dust and grime, its green vines now tinged with brown and black, but it hardly seemed to mind as it caught sight of its teammate, the Normal-type riding shotgun on Archeops like a cowboy riding the bomb.
"It's time for a meteor move, Tangrowth!" Leoric shouted, bringing his fists together high above his head. The stands erupted with cheers, as all of Leoric's fans recognised the pose as the signal for one of his ultimate techniques, and they mimicked their favourite Trainer with the same gesture, rows upon rows of people holding their fists high and proud.
"Meteor move…?" echoed Lorenzo, raising an eyebrow in confusion as the chant of 'Meteor! Meteor!' rang throughout the stadium.
"Super Corona!" thundered Leoric, pointing at the falling Archeops.
Tangrowth spread its arms wide and raised them high, a loud growl coming from the depths of its dust-streaked body as a large ball of white light ringed with red appeared above its head. The Grass-type's growl grew louder and louder until it was roaring like a waterfall, and the orb became even bigger, gleaming as brightly as the sun as the energy within swirled and raged. Both Lorenzo and Antoine took a step backwards as they saw it burgeoning even larger; they had never heard of the attack before, and they had no idea what to expect.
The ground began to tremble, and arcs of angry red electricity began discharging into the ground around Tangrowth, and as its ferocious roar reached its peak, it fired. A huge crescent of pink energy exploded out from the glowing ball and soared up towards Archeops, small bolts of red lightning still firing from the curve as it split the night sky in two. As the attack whirred closer, Furret timed its jump to perfection and got out of harm's way; Archeops, still frozen by the small Pokémon's Ice Beam, could do nothing to escape.
Tangrowth's attack hit long and true, obliterating the icy cocoon that surrounded Archeops as though it was nothing, before ramming into the Rock-type itself with all the force of a freight train. Archeops' head shot backwards like it had been hit by a prize-fighter, and it fell backwards like a stone, the wind rushing up past its trailing feathers as smoke rose out of its battered body. With a sickening crunch, the Pokémon smashed into the battlefield in a plume of dust, and it lay in a heap in the centre of a huge, cracked crater with swirls in its eyes, moving no more.
"Archeops is unable to battle!" declared the referee, throwing up both flags before quickly lowering the red one. "Ma'am, please recall your Pokémon!"
As Ari's Furret landed on the ground with the grace and light-footedness of a cat, Antoine could do nothing but give the tiniest of nods in comprehension. She slowly unclipped her Poké Ball and aimed it at her Pokémon, feeling like her arm was moving through water, and the fallen Flying-type was recalled to its depths in a flash of red light.
"Referee," said Lorenzo, raising his own Poké Ball, "I would like to return my Pokémon as well."
"Sir, recalling your Pokémon would mean that it will be deemed unable to battle," he replied. "In this case, doing so would mean that you are eliminated from the tournament. Are you sure you want to proceed?"
"Yes," Lorenzo affirmed, looking to Antoine, then to his opponents. "Together with Antoine, victory was a possibility. On my own… I cannot stand up to these two by myself. I am responsible enough to know when we are defeated."
"Very well," said the referee, with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "Shuckle is therefore unable to battle! The victory goes to Ari DeVarro and Leoric Reiger, who move on to the second round!"
As the four Trainers returned to the centre circle for the post-match formalities, Leoric jubilantly exchanged a handshake with Lorenzo before turning to Antoine, who stuffed her hands into her pockets, not wanting anything to do with it. Ari, however, had something else on his mind, and turned to the Italian before their handshake.
"Why did you surrender?" he asked, staring at Lorenzo from under his brow.
"It was the intelligent move to make," he said simply. "We used Shuckle as a Pokémon for support and defence. Using the combination with Archeops, we don't win battles when Shuckle is our last Pokémon left standing. Why make my Pokémon suffer for a fight I cannot win? But—" it was his turn to stare at Ari now, "we must know something from you."
"How we stopped Antoine's Hyper Beam, right?" Ari figured, looking over to Antoine. She nodded her head vehemently, suddenly interested in them again.
"How you stopped the Hyper Beam," Lorenzo corrected, wagging his finger before pointing it at Leoric. "This boy here, he is like Antoine. Full of mouth," he said, drawing a comically indignant expression out of Leoric before continuing, "but you are clearly the tactical one, like me. So… if you would."
Ari pondered on the man's words for a moment before giving him a nod. "My sixth move was to use Me First while everybody was focused on Antoine's Archeops. I'd already lowered Archeops' power with Power Split, and since Furret is a Normal-type, its Hyper Beam would easily be able to match yours and take the force of most of the blast," he explained, with a little nonchalant shrug and a smile towards the end. "It's elementary, really…"
"I see," muttered Lorenzo, but he was smiling just like Ari. "Well, I can leave this battle in comfort now, knowing that," he said, shaking Ari's hand warmly. "Good fortune to you in the next round, then. Come, Antoine!"
"R-right…" Antoine mumbled, following behind her partner as he strode towards their Trainer's tunnel at the edge of the stadium, not even giving the two boys a second look before they disappeared out of sight.
Ari turned back to Leoric, who was now resting his hands on top of his head.
"So, you were bit of an ass back there," he chuckled, nodding towards the ski jacket lying forgotten at the edge of their box.
"Yeah, maybe. But, hey—it worked, right?" he said flippantly. He cracked Ari a wide, playful grin, and the latter couldn't help but return it as they broke into joyful laughter.
Huzzah, I actually updated when I said I would! Break out the party favours and dance, dance, dance! It turns out that my university schedule wasn't as kind as I was hoping, which is why I left open the possibility of skipping a week.
Awww, we're so close to reaching 100,000 words! Damn... oh well, we can celebrate in style when the next chapter comes around! Twenty's a nice, round number, haha.
As you can probably tell by this chapter, I've decided to take a slight departure in characterisation from the original version, at least when it comes to one specific character. It might make him seem more or less appealing, depending on how you look at it, but that's how things go, I suppose... I'm trying to avoid the Sue/Stu-ishness that was so rampant in the original, and this is essentially the first step.
Thanks to everybody who reviewed the previous chapter(s), and to those that will be reviewing this, and other, chapters in the near future. Thanks in particular to "Hadeos" for multiple reviews. I think we passed 400 reviews over the last week, which is astounding and mind-blowing and so amazingly awesome and-all these feelings, you guys. Next stop, the big half-millennium!
Please, make sure you drop in a review. Even something as simple as "good chapter" (or "I didn't like this chapter", conversely) counts as some kind of feedback from you, the readers. And, after all, I write this story for you guys, so a response is always appreciated.
As a side note, the issue of OCs remains the same as last chapter. Next chapter will see two lucky entrants, so if you sent one in, tune in to see if one of the duo is yours!
It's time to answer more questions, and there sure are a lot of them! For Titanic X, "JUNE" stands for "Jurisdiction Under N's Enterprise" - as to what that might mean, you'll have to wait and see; Misty is still recovering in hospital, but I can't say more beyond that.
For "Table Rounders", Mark is still incarcerated at Chernaya Tochka... for now (see below!); and for "Jenny LongLegs", Ash's next battle will take place within the next few chapters, so you won't have to wait long.
Chapter 20, "Out of the Frying Pan", will be released next Tuesday - that's June 12th for everybody playing at home. What happens during the chapter, you may ask? Well, it just so happens to feature Mark, so you can guess what will be going down!
Also, stay tuned for next chapter's release, as I have an important announcement to share with you all!
So, until next time... be sure to review and, as always,
DFTBA (whatever that means)!