Mercy VS Zenyatta

"Thames, I'm going to need you to hold still. Gardevoir, heal pulse."

The embrace pokemon spread its arms, forming a golden sphere between them. Massaging it on the young agent's mutilated leg, the golden glow spread across his lower body, and his limb regrew right before his eyes.

Mercy had known to be a miracle worker before, but with the help of her partner pokemon, her prowess grew exponentially. Waving Thames goodbye, she pulled out a TM from under the desk.

Linking the TM to her laptop, she signalled gardevoir over. A new tab appeared on her laptop: a tutorial for shadow ball.

"Gardevoir, forget heal pulse. Comply as stated on the tutorial."

The embrace pokemon learned quickly, forming a blob of shadowy mass that it hurled at a nearby human skeleton model, shattering it.

Draping a lab coat over her shoulders, Mercy recalled gardevoir, stepping out of her makeshift clinic.

"If only I didn't have to participate."

The angel could save lives, but she could take them as well.

*Later*

The stadium was packed, as usual, but the crowd was getting restless. The arena had been changed to an armada of solid clouds, covering a long artificial drop. In the challenger's corner, Zenyatta meditated peacefully, communicating with his partner pokemon on the astral plane.

The omnic monk sensed a presence. That, and a round of applause and cheers of encouragement. Activating his optics, he saw Mercy walking through the arena gate on the opposite end, a microphone in hand.

"Good morning everyone. I hope you have been doing fine?"

Replies of yes and shouts of encouragement.

"Good," she continued in her angelic voice, topped off with a German accent. "Before we begin, I would like to once again remind everyone, that defeating your enemy should not be the focus of pokemon battling. It is about bonding and growing together with your partner, as you would with a human, or Omnic friend."

"The pokemon healthcare services, free as you all would know, have been funded by Overwatch, and I hope that you all are able to capitalize on this to grow stronger together with your pokemon. Thank you."

The spectator's cheers were silenced by Athena.

"Competitors, send out your first pokemon."

"I believe in you, florges. Go!"

"You and I are one, beheeyem."

The embrace pokemon faced the cerebral pokemon, the two waiting obediently for instructions.

"Begin!"

"Florges, toxic!"

Buds were expelled from florges' yellow flower, releasing clouds of purple gas. With its hands, the garden pokemon directed the gas to beheeyem, forcing it into the cerebral pokemon's system and badly poisoning it. However, beheeyem did not retaliate, instead pointing its 3-fingered arm at florges, flashing its fingers while analysing it. Its green eyes flashed, and made a sound similar to deep laugher.

Mccree was confused. "What'd beheeyem do there? He's gonna miss his turn."

Winston, sitting nearby on an oversized chair, replied.

"Beheeyem shows signs of having used nasty plot. Put that with its ability, which I presume to be analytic, it could deal some serious damage to florges next turn."

"Well, she'd be darned. Also, isn't a doctor restricted from using toxins? Ain't that against the hippocratic oath or something?"

"I would trust Angela to have her degree in toxicology. Remember: pokemon battles aim to knock out, not kill. Whatever venom florges is using now should be non-lethal, and I am confident that Angela would be able to restore beheeyem after the battle without difficulty."

Beheeyem flinched as purple sparks flew from its cranium, causing it to take poison damage. Seizing the opportunity, Mercy made her move.

"Florges, moonblast!"

A reflection of the moon appeared in the sky, shooting down a beam that enveloped florges' flower. With a battlecry, florges launched a pink pulse of energy at beheeyem, blasting it back. The cerebral pokemon lost its focus, its special attack dropping, but Zenyatta was not deterred.

"Beheeyem, psyshock!"

Orbs of red, green and yellow formed between the cerebral pokemon's arms, which sent them flying towards florges. Lacking the mobility of many previous contestants, the garden pokemon took multiple direct hits, wailing at the concussive blasts.

Noticing florges' subpar defense, beheeyem ran another algorithm through its cranium, its eyes flashing. Despite suffering another turn of increasing poison damage, the cerebral pokemon amassed a huge amount of psychic energy, readying a large volley of psyshock orbs.

"Florges, protect!"

As beheeyem launched a few of its orbs, florges formed a yellow barrier in front of it, causing them to ricochet off, punching holes in the cloud. Florges dispelled the barrier, as beheeyem took another turn of poison damage.

The cerebral pokemon did not have long left. As florges readied another moonblast, Zenyatta predicted another protect on the next turn.

"Beheeyem, land your psyshock on the moonblast!"

As the pulse of pink energy sped towards beheeyem, the cerebral pokemon sent a volley of its psyshock orbs straight at it. The two attacks collided in midair, exploding in a cloud of pink and green smoke.

With visibility severely hampered, Mercy had no choice but to call another protect, just as Zenyatta predicted. But this time, the omnic monk tried something different.

"Thunderbolt!"

A white blast of electricity erupted from one of beheeyem's orbs, not aimed at florges, but at the cloudy floor around it. Blazing through the clouds, the cerebral pokemon formed a wide radius of sheer drop around the garden pokemon, restricting its escape.

Another round of poison damage, this time so strong the the circuitry on beheeyem's cranium flashed purple altogether. Dispelling its protective barrier, Mercy ordered florges to use moonblast once more.

Beheeyem looked straight at the moonblast. Time seemed to slow as it calculated its arc and velocity, matching it with previous launched attacks. Then, in a blur of motion, it dashed under the moonblast, the orb missing its oversized head by a calculated millimeter. The cerebral pokemon readied 5 psyshock orbs, pummeling the garden pokemon with them.

There was no time to react. Florges took the brunt of the attack, fainting instantly and giving Zenyatta a point. From above, the elite four and champion looked on with surprise, always pleased to have a strong trainer under them.

"Come to think of it, psyshock is actually pretty clever. Gives blissey a hard time, much more dangerous than those focus blast users."

Reinhardt smiled, patting Ana on the back.

"Nonsense, my dear. Your blissey could withstand anything! I remember, it recovered from a sacred sword like it was a scratch!"

"Ok, Reinhardt, we know Ana's pretty strong. Let's see what Mercy has up her sleeve to turn the battle around…"

Statistically speaking, Mercy didn't really have a proper counter to beheeyem. However, with increasing poison damage, she just might be able to stall her opponent out and form a counterpush.

"Go, gardevoir!"

The embrace pokemon landed on the cloud gracefully, sparking some cheering from the crowd. Anyone that had been under Mercy's care would know of her faithful pokemon companion, who assisted her in medical procedures ever since she captured it a few months after the Swiss headquarters blew up. Now they wanted to see if it was a good battler.

Gardevoir noticed beheeyem's composed stance and flashing fingers, deducing its ability, analytic. Adapting it as its own ability with trace, it analysed beheeyem's previous attacks, preparing itself for psyshock or thunderbolt.

Unexpectedly, Zenyatta ordered a shadow ball. Beheeyem formed a mass of darkness with black static around the edges, flinging it towards gardevoir. Without time for evasive action, Mercy ordered a calm mind as the shadowy blob landed a direct hit, scattering black smoke everywhere.

Beheeyem sunk to the ground, its cranium lined with purple. Zenyatta rushed to his pokemon, helping it up.

"The iris embraces you, beheeyem. Hold strong…"

Shadow ball's smokescreen was dispelled by a bright flash of pink, with Mercy and her partner pokemon, now a mega gardevoir, at the centre of it.

"An interesting phenomenon… this requires more research. Gardevoir, shadow ball!"

Having learnt quickly, gardevoir formed a dark mass, much like beheeyem, separating it into three. With a wave of its arm, the shadow balls were sent flying towards the cerebral pokemon, which countered with its own shadow ball.

Without hesitation, beheeyem launched a psyshock beam at gardevoir, the embrace pokemon dodging it just in time using its newfound speed. The cerebral pokemon readied another shadow ball, only to be stopped by a hyper voice commanded by Mercy, the scream vaporising the blob of shadow and sending beheeyem flying back.

"Become one with the sky, beheeyem. Thunderbolt!"

Unprepared for the attack, beheeyem's calculated strike landed hard on gardevoir's chest spike, causing a cry of pain.

"Verdammt! Gardevoir, recover with calm mind."

Soothing itself, the embrace pokemon meditated for a few moments in silence. Meanwhile, beheeyem was struggling in its battle against florges' toxins, with Zenyatta by its side, comforting it.

"Y'know, I'm surprised the alien managed to hold up for this long. The monk's gotta have a mighty fine bond with it," Mccree said to no one in particular.

Overhearing this with psychic, gardevoir had quite an ingenious idea. Without a command from Mercy, the embrace pokemon directed its psychic abilities to beheeyem. It could see the plague of poisons destroying its mind, the innards of its cranium filled with streaks of purple.

Gardevoir pulled directly on beheeyem's conscience. Unbeknownst to anyone, the embrace pokemon seeded a terrifying thought in the cerebral pokemon's mind.

Let it consume you…

Beheeyem shuddered, surprising Zenyatta. Its eyes flashed purple as it groaned in pain, finally succumbing to poison damage. The cerebral pokemon fell flat onto the cloudy floor, purple sparks flying from its cranium.

"Beheeyem is unable to battle. Mercy gets a point."

Zenyatta smiled internally, recalling beheeyem into the pokeballs stored in the orbs floating around his neck.

"A disciplined mind is truly a dependable ally, sailing one smoothly through the sea of knowledge. But there is always a bigger fish. In our case, alakazam…"

The psi pokemon levitated in the air with psychic, a piece of alakazite set into one of its spoons. Zenyatta revealed a key stone in one of his orbs, and alakazam mega evolved, needing not a word from its trainer.

"Now, a test of minds… psychic!"

"Gardevoir, psychic as well!"

Suddenly, Athena's voice blared over the loudspeakers.

"For the sake of psychic visualisation, an astral projector has been activated. Spectators, please enjoy the ongoing battle in the astral plane. Thank you."

A pink screen formed over the arena, and two silhouettes appeared on it, one of gardevoir and one of alakazam. The trainers and pokemon were standing still on the arena, but the pokemon silhouettes were very much alive, battling it out with all their might.

On the projector, alakazam formed dozens of spoons above its head, sharpened their edges and sent them raining down on gardevoir. The embrace pokemon formed a shield, blocking the spoons and slamming the shield into the psi pokemon's flank.

Alakazam retaliated, wrenching the shield away and slashing at gardevoir with a giant spoon, only for the embrace pokemon to duck and land a roundhouse kick on alakazam's face, pushing the psi pokemon back.

Recovering, alakazam put its spoons together, forming an orb between them. Gardevoir did the same, readying an attack between its hands. Simultaneously, beams of energy erupted from the orbs, colliding in midair.

DVa giggled from the crowd. "Oooh, quick time event!"

Both pokemon's silhouettes squinted in concentration, gardevoir's chest spikes and alakazam's gem glowing brighter than ever before. The beam's collision point shifted back and forth, calmly at first, but as time went by, the point of collision began to swing wildly as the standoff proceeded, first over to gardevoir, then to alakazam, the cycle repeating itself over and over.

The beam glowed brighter on the astral projector. And it didn't stop. The spectators grew restless as the glare started getting unbearable, to a point where people were beginning to feel a static interference. Was it the system? It felt like it was coming from inside them…

The elite four and champion started to feel uneasy as well. Jack was the first to talk.

"The standoff is still going? What's the energy level?"

Winston radioed in. "We didn't think it'd exceed the terajoule, but if it continu-"

The astral projector began to crack, beams of psychic energy spilling out from them. Within the arena, Mercy was first to notice this. Gardevoir followed its trainer's line of sight, gasping at the sight of the overstrained machine.

The embrace pokemon lost its focus. Without mercy, alakazam pushed forth, overpowering gardevoir with psychic. The astral projector's energy levels began to drop, as the spectators settled back down, watching the battle intently.

The psi pokemon chained gardevoir with its psychic capabilities, readying a shadow ball to finish off the embrace pokemon. Unexpectedly, Mercy ordered a desperate hyper voice, blasting alakazam back. The psychic chains around gardevoir dissipated, and the embrace pokemon readied multiple shadow balls, taking aim at alakazam.

"A chance to focus…calm your mind."

Alakazam meditated, not moving a muscle. Gardevoir released the dark masses, its aim on point. The shadow balls sailed closer and closer, and right before impact, Alakazam's eyes snapped open.

"Psychic!"

The shadow balls were held stationary in the air as alakazam's spoons glowed pink. Narrowing its eyes, the psi pokemon fired the attack back at gardevoir. With hardly any stamina left, the embrace pokemon could not overthrow alakazam's psychic hold on its own attack.

All five shadow balls connected on gardevoir, filling the arena with smoke. Alakazam cleared it with psychic, revealing gardevoir's unconscious body on the cloud.

"Gardevoir is unable to battle. Zenyatta gains a point."

"Well, since none of us here are psychic type trainers, I'd say the Shambali's pretty good at training them. I've never seen anyone overpower Mercy's gardevoir before."

"That is true, Ana, but they're pretty weak physically. Send a dark main like Gabriel and he'd tear up their ranks like a hot knife through butter. Ain't that right?"

Gabriel smiled. "Thanks, Jack."

Mercy had no way to tell how much damage she'd done to alakazam. With that poker face and no physical signs of injury, she could only hope that her last pokemon could take out Zenyatta's trump card.

"You're our last chance, sylveon. Bring it home!"

The intertwining pokemon used hyper voice right off the bat, stopping alakazam from getting a direct psychic hold on it.

"A closed mind is already defeated. Alakazam, thunderbolt!"

Employing his old strategy once again, alakazam forced sylveon to constantly change positions, destroying calculated regions of cloudy flooring with its thunderbolts.

As the intertwining pokemon jumped from cloud to cloud, alakazam analysed its position positioning patterns, and with one precise prefire, the psi pokemon blasted a thunderbolt at sylveon's next foothold, staggering it.

Mercy willed sylveon on as the intertwining pokemon used its ribbon-like feelers to pull itself back onto the cloud. However, a pink aura surrounded sylveon's feelers, radiating with psychic energy.

"No…"

The psi pokemon squinted, concentrating its psychic power. One by one, sylveon's feelers were plucked from the cloud, the intertwining pokemon looking at its trainer, purring sadly.

"It's alright sylveon, don't be afraid. You'll return, I promise."

With its last feeler plucked from the surface, sylveon plummeted into the void, crying distinctly. Mercy recalled the intertwining pokemon as the astral projector's screen retracted. It was over.

"Sylveon is unable to battle. Zenyatta gains the final point and wins the match."

Mercy chuckled. "Well, what can I expect. You truly are a strong and learned trainer, Zenny. Let me get our partners patched up."

"Thank you, Dr. Ziegler. It was a pleasure."

The spectators cheered and waved as the two supports left the arena. Now knowing the hidden strength of Mercy's pokemon, their admiration of everyone's favorite doctor steadily grew.

*Around 10pm that night*

Mercy stacked her notes and patient reports as she recalled gardevoir into its pokeball. Just a bit more paperwork and she would call it a day. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Yes, come in."

A man in a poncho and cowboy hat stepped into the miniature clinic, glancing outside before closing the door.

"Ah, Mccree. What seems to be the problem?"

Sending gardevoir out, the Texan began to speak.

"First, doc, don't tell Gabe that I came around. He's probably still piss drunk at the bar so I took the chance to come over."

"Why would commander Reyes not want you to consult me?"

"Oh no, it ain't me. It's him. The man's been having nightmares lately. Getting worse. All mumbly in his sleep, talking about leaving. I got no clue what's on his mind but Gabe ain't been like this ever since I got to know him. There's something wrong, doc, but he says he's fine and doesn't need help."

Gardevoir looked intently from Mccree, then back to Mercy.

"No, gardevoir, we are not going to probe Gabriel's mind. Not yet. Tell you what, Mccree. I can't really do much if Gabriel doesn't come to me himself, but I will try talking to him."

"For now, I'll give you a batch of serotonin suppressants that you could get him to use. I don't know, slip it in his supper or something. Try to get him to eat melatonin rich foods and take a hot bath before bed. Is there anything else?"

"Well, if you can treat pokemon, I guess there is…"

"Let me have a look."

Mccree sent tyranitar out of its pokeball, careful not to destroy any of the medical equipment.

"Was having a friendly against Gabe yesterday night. Everything about him's fine as of now, ain't it? Well look at this."

Mccree threw open the curtains covering a nearby window, revealing the figure of the waning moon. Immediately, tyranitar started roaring at the window, without any reaction when gardevoir waved its hand in front of its eyes, or even touched its nose.

The door suddenly opened, covering the window. Tyranitar suddenly stopped roaring, tilting its head in confusion.

"What's all the ruckus here? And don't- oh right Mccree. Didn't I tell you not to say a word to doc about this?"

Mccree was quick to defend himself. "Ain't about that, boss. Ttar's been acting up ever since last night, I'm sure hydreigon's having the same deal. I just want to find out what's going on."

"Wait, did you say Gabriel's hydreigon is undergoing the same phenomenon? This is most curious. Gentlemen, I'm going to have to borrow a few of your partner pokemon to root out the source of this incident."

"Well, anything you say, doc."

The ex-blackwatch operatives handed over tyranitar and hydreigon, turning to leave. Mercy was about to say something about Gabriel's sleep condition, but as the door closed, she decided not to.

"Well, looks like another sleepless night."

Author's note: Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh I'm sorry I'm late. So much stuff to do also Orisa is coming out. Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. What could be wrong with tyranitar and hydreigon, though? You won't find out so soon!