Episode 6: On the stage! (Part 2)
Lauren grit her teeth. Infernape just took a powerful hit from metagross' zen headbutt, and slowking barely evaded an unusually fast thunderpunch from lickylicky. She then commanded slowking use zen headbutt on lickylicky, and infernape to use flare blitz on metagross.
"Bullet punch!" Argenta commanded. The iron leg pokémon raised its leg into the air and thrusted it towards infernape, who quickly moved out of the way and slammed into the steel "x" on metagross' face. Infernape then leapt on top of metagross and, on Lauren's command, jumped into the air, burst into a flame wheel, and landed down on the iron leg pokémon before taking a zen headbutt to the chest, launching her into the air and across the stage before landing in the center.
Meanwhile, slowking rammed into lickylicky's rotund body with blue sparks crackling along his horned shell. The licking pokémon, in response, leapt into the air and proceeded to crash down upon the royal pokémon, pressing onto slowking with its spherical body. Lickylicky then got off of slowking and prepared to thunderpunch the water type when it took a water pulse directly to the face. Slowking walked backwards to observe the damage done, only to see an electrified yellow fist hurdling towards him.
"Zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted. Slowking lowered his head once more before charging at lickylicky, once again slamming into the normal type. Argenta then tried to repeat her previous strategy with body slam. However, this time slowking was prepared and, on Lauren's command, spun around and launched a water pulse at lickylicky while it was still in the air. The licking pokémon still landed on slowking, but it also took damage, unlike the previous time.
Getting off of slowking, lickylicky didn't immediately attack. Rather, it waited for its opponent to also get up. Argenta smirked.
"Lickylicky appreciates a good challenge, Lauren. Your slowking is something special."
"You got that right. Slowking, use swagger!" She then turned to infernape, who had tried another flame wheel on metagross, only to meet the same result. "Hmph. Infernape, use close combat!"
"Bullet punch again!" Argenta commanded. The two pokémon collided once more, this time with infernape launching a merciless number of punches and kicks at the iron leg pokémon. It didn't seem to matter how many times she hit: metagross wasn't giving up. "Now, finish infernape off with meteor mash!" Argenta cried out, thrusting a hand forward.
Metagross' hand began to glow white with the silhouette of a meteor appearing in the center. It then punched infernape in the chest, launching the flame pokémon across the stage at a frighteningly fast pace. Infernape collapsed on a wall next to the stands before crumbling to the ground.
"Infernape!" Lauren shouted, turning her attention to the monkey slowly getting back up. She ran down the steps of the stage to help her pokémon up. "Can you keep going? If you're done, that's fine. I get it. We can try again next time."
Infernape looked at Lauren with two fiercely determined eyes. She then nodded, and let go of Lauren before jumping up the stairs and back onto the stage to face metagross. In that moment, the entire stadium was fixated on infernape—even lickylicky and slowking.
Then, unexpectedly, infernape began to glow bright red and orange, as if she was using flare blitz. Only she wasn't. In the stands Fay, Brittany, and JJ immediately recognized it to be infernape's blaze ability.
Infernape turned to Lauren and nodded before another aura appeared around the flame pokémon. This time, Lauren truly understood what was happening, but couldn't believe it. Nodding, she issued her command.
"Infernape, BLAST BURN!" She cried out. Infernape then struck the ground with her right fist, and a wave flowed underneath the stage before erupting under metagross, sending the iron leg pokémon high into the air. "Now, flare blitz!"
The fire monkey enveloped herself in flames before bursting forward, slamming into metagross just as it was about to crash back into the ground. In the aftermath of the collision, infernape grabbed onto metagross' front left leg for support, but was still able to stand up.
"Oh my…" Brittany said, cupping her mouth with her hands. "She did it. Fay…she did it."
"That she did. Guess our explanation made sense to her. Kudos." He said with a satisfied smile.
Niko sat in the backroom watching. He was through the roof in excitement, and hair on his arms and legs were standing straight up. But he couldn't help but feel as if he was now very much behind Lauren, since infernape had only just learned about blast burn that very morning, and venusaur has had an extra day to practice frenzy plant.
"Metagross is unable to battle, infernape and slowking win!" Austin announced. Argenta and Lauren immediately turned their attention back to lickylicky and slowking, who had paused their battle to watch their partners.
"Zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted.
"Body slam!" Argenta commanded. Both pokémon struck once more, but this time Lauren had an asset that she could count on. Even though she was exhausted, infernape burst forward with a mach punch to lickylicky's side, knocking the normal type off of its balance for slowking to finish with zen headbutt, effectively defeating the licking pokémon.
"Lickylicky is unable to battle, infernape and slowking are the winners! And the victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" Austin announced amid cheering from the crowd.
Argenta returned lickylicky, looking pleased. She then approached Lauren, infernape, and slowking with a small gold print of the Battle Hall in her hand. "I must say, I'm very impressed with your pokémon. I can tell from your reaction to blast burn that that was the first time you've used it, no?"
"It was. And I'm very happy with infernape." Lauren said, patting the exhausted monkey on the shoulder.
"As you should be for all of your pokémon. Now, here: the Hall Print that you have rightly earned. I take it that it's your first?" Lauren nodded. "Well, I'm honored to have been the first Frontier Brain that you've defeated. Congratulations."
"Thank you, Argenta. It was a great battle." Lauren said, bowing before returning slowking and infernape and exiting the stage. Argenta then bowed to the crowd and also exited the stage to prepare for her upcoming battle with Niko.
In the backroom, Niko ran up to Lauren and brought her into a hug, picking her up a little as he did so. "I'm so proud of you and infernape. You mastered blast burn in a single battle. I can't even do that!" Niko said before kissing her.
"Thanks. I'm really awestruck myself. I didn't expect it."
"Well, it looked like you did, and it looked amazing!" Niko said with excitement in his tone, which convinced Lauren that he wasn't feeling anything but satisfaction for her win. "And you got your first print!" He said, opening Lauren's small hand to reveal the Hall Print.
"Yes! And soon you'll have one, too!" She said before pointing up to the monitor. "Speaking of which, I think you're up." She said with a wink. "I'll be right here when you win, alright?"
"Got it." Niko said before turning towards the hall that led to the main stage. As he started walking, he could hear Austin announcing his name.
"Aaand for our last battle of the evening, we've got quite the show for you all! He's from Pallet Town in Kanto, and has participated in four—count them, four—Pokémon Leagues, reaching Top 8 in three of them! Please give a round of applause for Niko!" Austin shouted, throwing his hand towards Niko's end. As soon as he stepped onto the stage, he too felt blinded by the bright lights and could hear the cheering of so many strangers. He then looked ahead of him to see Argenta standing there with a smile written on her face.
Austin then explained the same rules of the match as he had done with Lauren, and allowed the match to begin.
"Bellossom, blissey, I choose you!" Argenta shouted. Seeing his opponents, Niko fiddled around with his six pokéballs before choosing the two he thought would work best.
"Glalie, prinplup! Let's win this!" Niko shouted, summoning the face and penguin pokémon. "Ice beam on bellossom, drill peck on blissey!"
"Bellossom, dodge and use stun spore! Blissey, fire blast on glalie!" Argenta commanded. The flower pokémon shook its body and yellow spores emitted from it, spreading across the field and nearly stunning prinplup and glalie. Meanwhile, the face pokémon blocked both the stun spore and fire blast with a quickly conjured protect.
"Glalie, use ice beam on blissey! Prinplup, drill peck on bellossom!" Niko shouted. He couldn't afford not to go on offense. He had faith that his pokémon were strong enough to win. It was going to come down to his strategy.
Prinplup rushed forward to hit the grass type, his glowing white beak extending half of a foot outwards. However, bellossom conjured a green blade out of thin air and slashed at prinplup, parrying the drill peck and holding prinplup off. The penguin then attempted to use metal claw and found himself engaging in close combat with the flower pokémon for nearly a minute, neither willing to give in.
"Stun spore!" Argenta shouted. Bellossom shook its body, letting go of its stalemate with prinplup and subsequently stunned the penguin. "Now, leaf storm!"
"Ice beam!" Niko shouted. Just as bellossom unleashed a hurricane of leaves at its opponent, the grass type felt a stream of ice crash into it, knocking it over. "Now crunch! Prinplup, get out of there!" Niko continued. Glalie charged towards bellossom and landed his teeth on top of the flower pokémon and shot out another ice beam to defeat it.
"Bellossom is unable to battle, glalie and prinplup are the winners!" Austin declared. Niko sighed a breath of relief—all was going well.
"Alright glalie, now use ice be—protect, now!" Niko shouted, as a now angry blissey breathed out a massive five-pointed burst of fire at the face pokémon. Fortunately, glalie was able to block the attack, but Niko needed prinplup to move again—and he wasn't.
"Blissey, minimize!" Argenta shouted. The happiness pokémon began to shrink progressively, and it became harder for Niko, glalie, and now prinplup to see blissey. He then commanded glalie to use ice beam which the happiness pokémon successfully dodged. Then, prinplup attacked with bubblebeam, and ordered the penguin to follow blissey with bubblebeam.
Then he got an idea.
"Glalie, ice beam the stage floor!" Niko directed. The face pokémon opened his mouth and shot out a stream of ice that turned the stage into an ice rink. He nodded, acknowledging glalie's good work, but had to quickly command him to use protect to block another fire blast.
This time, it was not successful, and glalie took a powerful hit from fire blast, the heat of the attack melting some of the ice in its wake. Glalie spun out of control and crashed onto the edge of the stage, unable to get back up.
"Glalie is unable to battle, blissey is the winner!" Austin shouted.
"Alright prinplup, it's you and me now. Are you ready?" Niko asked. The penguin turned to his trainer and nodded. "Excellent. Let's keep this up. Use bubblebeam on the floor!" He commanded. Prinplup then shout out yet another stream of bubbles that wet the floor around blissey. "Now. Drill peck!" He shouted. Prinplup slid forward, being completely comfortable on the now icy floor. He rushed at blissey and successfully landed his attack on the happiness pokémon, knocking it onto its back and causing it to slide backwards across the field. "Now, metal claw!"
Prinplup's claws began to extend and glow a bright gray color as he jumped onto his belly and slid across the ice field and slashed at blissey again before stopping with his metallic fingers and jumping back onto his feet. Niko then went in for the final move. Checkmate.
"Water pulse!" He commanded. Prinplup raised his flippers into the air and slammed it onto his opponent.
"Softboiled." Argenta commanded plainly. Blissey conjured an egg from its pouch and tossed it into the air, and when it landed back down on the happiness pokémon, she began to glow. "Healed up. Now, return!"
Blissey began to glow a bright white as she jumped back up and attempted to crash into prinplup. However, because of the slippery field, blissey crashed face-forward into the ground, giving Niko and prinplup the opportunity they needed. "Finish blissey off with water pulse!"
Prinplup conjured a glowing, pulsating orb of water and brought it down on blissey's head, bursting upon contact and defeating the happiness pokémon.
"Blissey is unable to battle, prinplup wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" Austin declared. Prinplup immediately turned around and slide over towards Niko excitedly, leaping off of his feet and into Niko's arms.
"We did it! Great job, prinplup!" Niko said happily before putting prinplup down and looking up at Argenta who, due to the stage now looking like an ice rink and the fact that she was wearing heels, motioned for Niko to step down from the stage into the space between the stage and the stands.
"Niko, excellent battle. I particularly appreciated your use of the ice field to get around minimize. Kudos to you. Here," She held out a gold symbol bearing the Battle Hall on it. "This is your first print. I wish you the best of luck. Also, the closest facility to here would be the Battle Factory. It's at the base of Stark Mountain. That, I believe, will be a challenge for you and Lauren. The Frontier Brain, Thornton, is…well, he's an interesting young man."
"Thank you for the battle, Argenta. I'm glad to finally win a print!" Niko said, looking down at the gold print sitting in his hand. Argenta nodded and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Keep your head up, too. Becoming a skilled pokémon trainer is not an easy path. As a Frontier Brain, I can tell you that for certain. As long as you keep a steady mindset, and put the upmost trust in your pokémon, then you'll do just fine."
Niko nodded. He appreciated hearing it, and from a Frontier Brain of all people. He walked into the backroom to see Lauren sitting down with a big smile on her face. Upon seeing her boyfriend, she jumped up and ran towards Niko to hug him. They held one another for nearly a minute before letting go.
"First prints." Niko said, holding his gold Hall Print. Lauren smirked as she pulled her own from her pocket. "Also, the next place to go is the Battle Factory at the base of Stark Mountain, wherever that is."
Niko and Lauren joined their friends in the lobby of the Battle Hall, walking through a crowd of impressed Battle Hall fans.
"Congrats guys," Fay said. "Both of you…really incredible battles. Lauren, great job on blast burn!"
"Thanks, Fay!" Lauren said, walking up and hugging the pokémon researcher. Niko slightly frowned, but turned away so that no one else would see it. "I'm really glad infernape figured it out. We might not have won without it!"
"Well, just keep practicing. That's what charizard and I are doing." Fay said before turning to Niko. "And that ice field…wow, that was neat." Niko smiled and nodded his head in agreement.
"It just came to me out of nowhere. I might not have won without it either."
"Well, I'm glad you both got the print. Four more, right?" Niko and Lauren both nodded. "Great. Well, where's the next one?" Niko and Lauren explained what Argenta said to Niko. "Stark Mountain? Oh! Yeah, I actually have to go there next."
"Want to join us then?" Brittany asked. Niko, JJ, and Lauren all agreed.
"Yeah, let's do it. Want to leave in the morning?" The group all nodded. "Great, see you all tomorrow, then."
Fay then turned to leave the Battle Hall, and the group then stood in the lobby and talked for some time before leaving the facility, with one print in hand, and four to go.