Author's note: Hey guys, it's Fyre, I've had part of this chapter written beforehand, so I decided to push it out a little earlier. I felt that the last chapter had too little detail on the procedure of the battle, so I'll be focusing more on that this chapter. Yes, that does mean longer chapters and yes, that also means rate of publish is gonna go down (but it'll stay within 2 weeks). That out of the way, have fun and enjoy the chapter!
Tracer vs Widowmaker
A new day, a new match. The crowd stopped cheering as Athena's logo appeared on the large screens all over the arena, which had been changed into a desert oasis.
"Now, we shall commence the second preliminary round. Competitors, Tracer and Widowmaker, please step forth."
The short, spunky Overwatch agent waved to the crowd, tossing her pokeball in one hand. In the other side of the arena, the ex-talon agent blew a kiss to the crowd, earning many oohs and aahs.
The elite four and champion looked from above at the two new competitors, chuckling in remembrance of their mission to recover Amelie from Talon's grasp 6 months ago. Tracer had played a critical role in the operation, making it all the more ironic that they would be putting all they had against each other once more.
"Looks like we're at each other again, Ame. Good luck, love!"
Amelie smiled at her. "Best of luck to you as well, mon cherie."
Athena's voice rang out once again.
"Competitors, send out your first pokemon."
"Go Raichu, I believe in you love!"
"Take us to victory, drapion."
The two pokemon circled round each other, as if looking for a weakness. Drapion had no problem traversing the sandy terrain, while raichu's amazing speed was hampered by the shifting sands.
Gabriel smiled. Amelie's current advantage could just snowball into enough momentum to win her the match.
"BEGIN!"
Tracer, rash as she usually was, made the first move.
"Raichu, thunderbolt! Aim for the eyes!"
Raichu's body pulsed with electricity, sending a beam of it crashing towards drapion. But quite ingeniously, Amelie ordered it to use knock off on the ground, spraying up a cloud of sand. The thunderbolt connected with it and was conducted into the earth, leaving drapion without a scratch.
"Damn! Alright raichu, move towards the oasis, it's harder for her to deflect your attacks there."
Raichu edged closer to the oasis as the dust cloud cleared. Strangely, drapion was nowhere to be seen. Raichu began charging itself, ready to blast its opponent as soon as it showed its ugly pair of mandibles. But without warning, the ground beneath raichu erupted and an ivory-white pincer grabbed raichu. Drapion's entire body appeared from the sands as it slammed raichu into the oasis, soaking itself with a huge wave of water.
Reinhardt let out a hearty laugh. "Excellent!"
Amelie smiled. Her superiors had told her long before that her arena would be a desert. Replacing the common earthquake with dig turned out to be an excellent choice, the sand stifling the sound of a burrowing pokemon until it was too late.
"Now, drapion, impart your gift."
In understanding, drapion coated both its pincers with toxin, and sprayed them into the oasis. However, before the toxin could completely cloud the oasis, raichu suddenly sprang from the water, thunderbolt at the ready.
"Dodge it, drapion!"
Drapion lunged to the side, only for the strengthened thunderbolt to land on its long, segmented tail. Drapion roared in pain, the water droplets from the earlier splash retaining their charge and stinging it continuously like a thousand sword cuts.
"Retaliate with knock off!"
Eyes burning with venom, drapion sprung around, grabbing raichu by the neck. Reminding itself not to make the same mistake, it slammed raichu onto a neighbouring rock instead, following up with a jab with a pincer coated with venom.
"Job well done with the girl, I'd say," Torbjorn nudged Gabriel with a wide grin on his face.
Tracer was shocked. "Get outta there, love!"
Wincing, raichu gathered its energy and released a focus blast point-blank into drapion's pincer. Recoiling from the direct hit, drapion disengaged from raichu, allowing the latter to bound back to the oasis, heavily injured. Tracer rushed to her pokemon, only to find a purple-black bruise spreading from where drapion had used poison jab.
"Oh, gosh this is bad."
By then, drapion's toxins had also tainted the oasis, restricting the use of its water to boost raichu's electric type moves. Raichu didn't have long left. Standing back up with the remainder of its strength, Raichu issued a cry of challenge at drapion. The ogre scorpion pokemon, no less injured, replied defiantly.
"Relax, drapion, take aim…"
Drapion calmed itself, and waited for raichu to make its attack. It made out raichu's line of fire, possible manoeuvres, and finally, most tantalizingly, the best way to take it down…
"Thunderbolt!"
Rushing headfirst towards the bolt of electricity, drapion dragged its venom-coated pincer along the sand. The spectating crowd grew restless, confused by Amelie's course of action. Just before the move connected, drapion veered to the side, using its now sand coated claw and velocity to deflect the thunderbolt right back at raichu.
Tracer almost laughed out loud. With its ability, lightning rod, the reflected thunderbolt was absorbed square into raichu's tail, giving it an immense reserve of electrical energy. Unable to contain this, raichu's eyes glowed a blazing white as it discharged the excess energy all around it in a devastating, blinding 360 degree blast.
Rubbing her eyes, Tracer surveyed the arena. There was no standing drapion in sight, yet she had not been awarded her point yet.
"Wait, why-"
The ground beneath raichu erupted once again, as drapion emerged and crushed the mouse pokemon with its pincer, holding its unconscious body up in the air like a trophy.
"Raichu is unable to battle, Widowmaker gains a point."
Amelie smiled at Tracer. "I sense strength within your raichu. Better luck next time."
Tracer smiled back, nothing could deter the cheerful, young Brit.
"It's alright, Ame. Let's keep going! You're up next staraptor!"
The predator pokemon emerged from its pokeball with a squawk, shifting its fringe upwards as it landed, much like its trainer.
"Oh drapion, this won't do… come back!"
Before drapion could switch out, however, it was intercepted.
"Finish it, star! Pursuit!"
Staraptor landed square on drapion's back and with its powerful talons, threw drapion into the tainted oasis. The ogre scorpion pokemon did not re-emerge.
"Drapion is unable to battle. Tracer gains a point."
"She taught the scorpion to snipe. Not bad. I was impressed with her overloading raichu to give herself cover to land a good dig." Ana mused to herself as Amelie recalled Drapion back to its pokeball.
It was a tough choice for Amelie. One of her remaining pokemon would hampered by the terrain, while the other suffered a severe type disadvantage.
"I choose you, galvantula!"
The elespider pokemon landed awkwardly on the sandy terrain, before coating its 6 legs with sticky thread that somewhat firmed up its steps.
"Aww, that's adorable! Staraptor, brave bird"
With a screech, staraptor flew in close to the ground, on a collision course with its opponent. However, galvantula was swift, sidestepping neatly as staraptor flew past it.
"Now galvantula, thunder wave!"
A net of electricity appeared between galvantula's pedipalps, and was flung towards the airborne staraptor. By the time the predator pokemon turned around, it was too late. The net dissolved into a crippling jolt of electricity, paralyzing it.
"Drat! Stay out of its field of view staraptor!"
The predator pokemon, despite being afflicted with paralysis, flew in a semicircle to face galvantula's unprotected back. As it swooped in for another brave bird, little did it know that galvantula's 6 compound eyes had noticed it mid flight. The many reflections gathered into one and…
"Thunder!"
Galvantula leaped into the air as thunderclouds darkened the sky, barely clearing staraptor as it flew past inches below. A bolt of lightning struck galvantula, charging it as it took aim at the predator pokemon's vulnerable back.
"Move, staraptor! Get to cover at the oasis!"
Electric blasts burst from galvantula's six legs, seeking staraptor like jagged barbs. The predator pokemon dodged and weaved, some of the thunderbolts missing it narrowly and scorching the trees at the oasis. One bolt from above flashed right before its eyes, and staraptor crash landed in the sand close by, temporarily stunned. The bolt missed it, fortunately, and crashed into the oasis, seemingly clearing the water of toxin.
"It's weakened, galvantula, use bug buzz!"
Still levitating in the air, galvantula vibrated its many legs together, producing sound waves of unbearable frequency, causing the crowd to cover their ears. It didn't seem to hurt staraptor physically, but the predator pokemon had its eyes squeezed shut, screeching in pain.
Gabriel chuckled. "Insult to injury. Just like when you kicked me out of that strike team and put me in charge of blackwatch, eh, Jack?"
"Don't mull over that now, Gabe. We're all in the same team now. Except one of us has to be champion…"
Back down in the arena, staraptor was incapacitated, stumbling delusionally on the ground. Amelie knew that it was finished.
"Thunder, again!"
Galvantula's body flared up once more, and a bolt of lightning raced towards staraptor.
"Move, star, you can't let up now!"
Staraptor barely heard it's trainer's voice over its ringing ears, but with the last of its strength, heaved itself into the oasis. The thunderbolt missed, striking the sand instead. A web of electricity spread out over the oasis, and a few bubbles emerged, then all was still. Galvantula discharged itself, returning to the ground.
Very suddenly, staraptor burst from the oasis, and with flaps of its wings dried itself while soaking galvantula with water. Caught off guard, the sticky silk coating galvantula's claws dissolved, causing it to lose its footing once more. Taking advantage of this, staraptor went for one final brave bird, pinning galvantula into the arena wall, cratering it and sending up a shower of rocks.
Neither pokemon made it out.
"Staraptor and galvantula are unable to battle. Both competitors gain a point."
"Down to you, manectric!"
"Victory is within our grasp, I can feel it. Go, heracross!"
Jack looked on with interest. "This is going to be interesting."
"Mega evolve!"
A blinding flash of light, and mega manectric and mega heracross held a standoff in the sand. Manectric growled menacingly, earning a little flinch from heracross. The bulky single horn pokemon stood firm in the sand, ready for what manectric had to throw against it.
"Manectric, thunderbolt!"
A bolt of lightning raced towards heracross, but instead of dodging it, Amelie ordered a rock blast. Shattering a rock outcrop from the oasis, heracross sent many vicious shards of stone to meet the thunderbolt mid-air. The remaining shards caused manectric to dodge to the side, it's feet shifting in the sands.
"Heracross, pin missile!"
Holding its ground at the oasis, heracross took aim at manectric. The shells on its hands burst open, releasing a swarm of spiny projectiles. Manectric frantically dodged the barrage of spines, ducking for cover at the other end of the oasis.
"Flamethrower, manectric! Go for the plants!"
Bursts of flame erupted from manectric's mouth, destroying the foliage that heracross was using for cover. Over time, heracross' side of the oasis was getting more and more barren as the fire took hold and spread, forcing Amelie to order it to get closer to the water.
"Bullet seed!"
The shells on heracross' arms burst open again, this time blasting heated seeds at high velocity at manectric's turf. Some of the seeds shredded the foliage and lay steaming on the ground, while others went wide, splashing into the lake.
Looking at the smoking seeds, and then at those in the water, fizzling out and losing their speed, Tracer had an idea.
"Occupy the lake, manectric! He can't get you there!"
Blasting a thunderbolt into the lake, manectric pounced into the charged water, advancing on heracross and forcing it to step away. A flamethrower was met with rock blast, then a thunderbolt with bullet seed. Heracross was trapped between manectric's line of fire and a small bush of almost completely ablaze greenery.
"You're tired, heracross. Salvage some sap from that tree trunk."
Uprooting the only tree remaining in the bush, slightly scorched at the ends, heracross drank heartily on the rich, green sap. Out of the corner of its eye it spotted an incoming thunderbolt, and used the trunk to deflect the attack.
"Destroy the trunk, manectric! Flamethrower!"
Having drained the trunk of sap, heracross threw the trunk at the burst of flame, following up with a rock blast. The flames could not take hold, and the shards of rock and bark rained down on the lake.
Manectric tensed, preparing to dash out of the way. But as it scrambled, something tugged on its limbs. The something turned out to be multiple little tendrils that had sprouted from the sunken seeds at the bottom of the lake. Manectric could do nothing but take the attack.
"How did'e do that?"
"The sap, Torbjorn. Remember the stray seeds that she blasted into the water a while ago? Those couldn't have been salvaged from this arena. My guess is that Amelie pre-loaded heracross, and with the energy gained from the sap allowed the seeds to grow and entangle manectric," Gabriel explained.
"Smart. Stealthy. Precise. I guess that part of talon stayed with her."
"I suppose so, Jack."
When the hail of wood and stone was over, manectric opened its eyes to heracross jumping onto it from above, ready to land a crushing close combat.
"Quick, manectric, flamethrower!"
Heracross tackled manectric under the surface, only to be blasted away with a point-blank flamethrower and thrown onto the shore. The flames took hold suddenly despite heracross' soaked carapace, burning it. Severely incapacitated, Tracer knew that this was her chance to finish it.
"Manectric, use thunderbolt to clear the vines."
Manectric, exhausted and injured, freed itself and stumbled onto land.
"Now, end it with flamethrower…?"
Only then did Tracer realize the purple sheen across manectric's face. The flames in its mouth died, and the discharge pokemon collapsed on the sand, unconscious.
"Wha…? The lake was still poisoned?"
"Yes, mon cherie. Drapion's poisons are complex, they cannot be easily destroyed by electrolysis."
"Manectric is unable to battle. Widowmaker gains the final point and wins the match."
Applause. Tracer laughed, extending a hand. "Well played, love!"
Amelie shook it firmly. "You too. Better luck next time, I suppose. Come, heracross. You did well today."
The single horn pokemon returned to its pokeball, and the two competitors proceeded to have their partners healed, before returning to their seats.
"That was amazing! The terrain, the trickery, the brute strength at the end, oh I feel like a new man again watching that battle!"
The elite four and champion discussed every battle in their own chamber. The heated one that day was no exception. They were all keen to see what Amelie could hold against one of Overwatch's finest agents, only to have Tracer beaten by a woman that she had rescued.
After signing a few autographs and battling a few challengers, they returned to their living quarters.
*A few hours later*
Amelie polished heracross' arms with a cloth. Just as she picked up a case of seeds to load into her pokemon, her phone rang. It was her superior again.
"You made risky decisions out there today. Should have used pin missile to finish manectric off. But you won nevertheless. Well done, I suppose. Rest well. Your quarter-final is in 7 days, not counting today. Your arena, steep cliffs. A bit of snow, maybe rockfalls. Be prepared."
"Understood. Bonne nuit."