Chapter Seventeen - A Lesson in Humility!
August 12th, 2022
Route 4, Eastern Edge of Finch Forest, Asture Region
"Are you ready?" Mirella called. She stood fifty metres away from Raine at the other end of a training pitch at the very entrance to Finch Forest. They had chosen to stop for the day before entering the Forest in the morning. They both wanted to take the opportunity to have a battle and having the luxury of a Pokémon Centre right beside them made them comfortable with the idea of testing out their Pokémon.
A small crowd of trainers of all ages was gathered to watch, mainly because they were waiting their turn to use the pitch, but also as a form of late day entertainment with nothing else to do in the area.
"I'm ready," Raine answered, picking a Poké Ball off of his belt. "Teddiursa, I choose you!" He threw the Poké Ball into the grass between them and the small brown bear Pokémon came out of his ball.
"Furret, I choose you!" Mirella called, sending her own Pokémon into the mix.
The two Pokémon stood nearly forty metres apart waiting for their trainers' commands.
"Furret, show him your Tackle," Mirella ordered as Raine said, "Teddiursa, close in and use Scratch."
Furret pounded forwards on all fours as Teddiursa wobbled forwards slowly with his paws up and claws ready to strike. Furret was far faster than Teddiursa and it closed the majority of the distance extremely quickly. It stayed low to the ground, dodging Teddiursa's swinging claws and headbutted the little bear with a ferocious tackle. Teddiursa barely even flinched from the attack, reaching out with its exposed claws to strike Furret's back.
"Furret, use Agility and get behind Teddiursa and then use Fury Swipes."
Furret skittered away from Teddiursa's claws and was quickly right behind his back.
"Teddiursa, quickly use Baby-Doll Eyes."
Teddiursa turned, and with the cutest little face batted his eyelids in order to charm Furret before it could attack. Furret sat back on its hind legs and was clearly infatuated by the attack. It sat stunned for a moment and no urgent yelling by Mirella could get it to move.
"Teddiursa, strike with Scratch."
Teddiursa swung its arm back in preparation to attack, but the spell clearly broke too early and Furret rolled sideways out of the way as his paw came down in a wide slash.
"Finish him with Headbutt," Mirella yelled.
While Teddiursda was still in his long followthrough, Furret leapt and slammed its head into the side of Teddiursa. He went down with a whimper of pain and as Furret lurked around him he didn't get back up.
"Teddiursa is unable to continue the battle," Mirella said. "Choose your next Pokémon."
"Teddiursa, it's time to recover, come on back," Raine said, pointing his Poké Ball at his fainted Pokémon and returning him to the ball. He clipped the Poké Ball to his belt and threw out his next Pokémon. "Electabuzz, I choose you!"
It was only the second time that Raine had summoned Electabuzz from her ball. The first had been to introduce himself as she was being healed at the Pokémon Centre from any damage taken when fighting Buizel in order to catch her. She had immediately taken a liking to Raine and was happy to accept any PokéTreats he offered her. Once they had moved outside she happily showed off her moveset.
"Elec!" Electabuzz said, flaring with static electricity.
Furret ran a large circle around Electabuzz, coming around to stand close to Mirella on her side of the pitch. Electabuzz stalked out on her own until she was standing nearly in the centre of their arena. She discharged lightning at will, shooting jagged lines of electricity in all directions.
"Woah!" Raine said, very excited at the prospect of having such a cool Pokémon on his team. He couldn't wait to get her back to a lab setting to test the limits of her power. "Electabuzz, use Thunder Shock."
"Furret, knock it down with Thunderbolt and follow up with a Quick Attack," Mirella said.
Two flashes of electricity arced through the air and clashed in a blinding, beautiful lightshow. It was so bright that Raine had to look away. When he looked back Furret was zooming along the ground at top speed towards Electabuzz. He didn't have time to consider that he had now seen Mirella's Furrret use a water type and an electric type move as well as its normal attacks. It was so well rounded.
"Electabuzz, quickly stop Furret with Swift."
Furret skittered from side to side, closing the distance between the Pokémon at breakneck speed, but Electabuzz shot a stream of stars that couldn't miss. They still only struck Furret a glancing blow and they collapsed in a rolling ball of fur. Electabuzz stalked towards her downed opponent as Furret struggled to recover from the blow.
"I wasn't expecting such controlled power so soon," Mirella said with a hint of pride in her tone. "Be careful, Furret. Use Agility and stay back."
Electabuzz and Raine allowed Furret to stand back up and run away from the fight temporarily. When they stopped and faced each other again Furret seemed unaffected from the attack it had worn on its flank.
"Let's see what you can do, Electabuzz! Charge up and unleash your full might in one final Thunder Shock."
Electabuzz started to shimmer and surge with electricity and Raine knew that if she could unleash her full power Furret wouldn't be able to combat it, even with her low level of experience. Like when Buizel had overcome its Water Pulse during their Gym battle he knew that proficiency in the move type didn't exactly equate to full power in the move.
Nevertheless, Mirella thrust an arm out and commanded, "Furret, stop it with another Thunderbolt."
This time when the moves were unleashed and they clashed in midair there was a thunderous boom and everyone watching flinched away. When Raine looked back at the pitch somehow Electabuzz was in a smoking heap and Furret was still standing, panting and smoking.
"No way!" Everyone said at once. Furret should not have been able to overpower Electabuzz with her own type move. And yet.
Raine dejectedly withdrew Electabuzz to her Poké Ball and threw out his last Pokémon to hopefully take down the extremely powerful all rounder.
"Go, Buizel!" Raine yelled. "Finish things off with a sustained Water Gun."
"Furret, use Defence Curl."
Furret rolled into a ball, protecting its limbs and head as Buizel hammered it with an immensely powerful blast of water. Furret was pushed around in the short grass, coming to a stop right in front of Mirella's feet as Buizel ran out of steam. As Furret unfurled and stood up it seemed no worse off, in fact the smoke that had lingered from fighting Electabuzz was gone and it looked refreshed.
"Furret, use Thunderbolt again."
"Buizel, use Agility and dodge."
Buizel dropped to all fours and ran away from the direct line of water between him and Furret as a rippling bolt of electricity flew towards him. He flattened himself on his stomach and did a sideways roll as the Thunderbolt came close to striking him head on. Keeping up his momentum he got up and ran towards Furret in a zigzag pattern.
"Don't let up, Furret. Cover the arena with Thunder."
Furret had more than just the one electric type move? What was the limit to its power?
Raine saw the necessity to finish things off as quickly as possible or Buizel was in big trouble. "Buizel, take them down with a Quick Attack."
Furret lifted its head and out of the clear blue sky came a plethora of lightning bolts, slamming into the ground with furious abandon. Buizel was doing his best to dodge and weave without ever looking up, but with every step the unrelenting attack grew more and more furious. He got to within five metres of striking Furret down when a bolt of lightning caught him on the flank and sent him crashing head first into the ground at top speed.
As Buizel slid to a stop at Furret's feet, crying out in pain, Mirella commanded, "Slash!"
Furret exposed its claws and before Buizel could get back up slashed across his back with vigour. Buizel squealed in pain and collapsed on his belly.
"Get up, Buizel," Raine yelled in desperation.
Buizel took one last attempt to stand before collapsing.
"Buizel has fainted," Mirella said, standing only a few metres away from the Pokémon. "Unless you have any more Pokémon hidden up your sleeve I claim victory."
"I'm finished," Raine said, wandering out onto the pitch and when he was close enough returned Buizel to his Poké Ball. He would have to take all of his Pokémon to the Pokémon Centre for urgent care, but before that he had to do the right thing and congratulate his opponent. "Furret was incredible. There is still so much that I have to learn."
"You put up a good fight," Mirella said, patting Furret on the head and feeding it a PokéTreat. "You have some real potential. You just need more battle experience."
"As long as we can continue to train each day I'd happily fight you again and again. I've received a lesson in humility today, but I'm not put off from becoming an actual Pokémon Trainer in time."