Here is the 12th chapter of the Pokemon Entertainment League. In this chapter Zane and Roddy have training exercises with one another in preparation for their upcoming matches. I hope you enjoy it and please review and tell me what you thought of it.
March 11th (Season 1 Episode 12)
Roddy and I are up early for a Saturday, even though we've been getting up early this whole week. The night before we got our schedules for the next week for our battles and activities and learned that at the end of the week we would be pairing up in a tag team battle. That meant we have less than six days to get on the same page with one another. Not only that but we also have two other battles we each have to focus on. That's why we both came to one of the three PEL training centers. We both have a battle tomorrow and we need to train for them instead of focusing on partnering up.
"So, tomorrow your battle is at 10:30. Mine is at 8:15. That means we'll be able to watch each other's battles, which helps for moral support." Roddy tells me. "Right now though, training is the utmost importance. So far, we've been here less than a week, had one full battle against each other and nothing else." We are sitting in a private room next to the battlefield that we privately rented for the half hour. Of the three training centers only one has the ability to rent out the battlefields to trainers for half hour increments for the day. The other two are first come first serve and in open view of everyone there, meaning people can watch you train and learn about your strategies. Here we are the only two who knows what's happening. "This will be the first chance we get to actually hone our skills instead of having to fight with them." Roddy states while sitting back in his wooden chair. We are both sitting at a table that seats six people with a whiteboard on a wall that you can use to write our strategies and showcase your thoughts to a group. A door nearby leads out to a small battlefield that we will use in a bit for our training purposes.
"So how do you want to go about this training regime?" I ask him since this is his plan.
"Well since tomorrow your battle is only a normal one on one battle with one pokemon, you don't have as much restrictions as I do. Since I have to use my Muk I think it would be better if we focus on me training against you with Muk while you can use the training as preparation for your battle." I understand what he's saying. Since I can use any pokemon no matter what I use against him I'll be training while he can only use his Muk.
"Ok, lets get to it." I say. We both leave the room and go out to the battlefield, him on one side and me on the other. We take out our pokeballs, ready to battle.
"Muk, lets go." Roddy says, throwing his pokeball out to the field with Muk coming out. While I know he's expecting me to use a steel or psychic pokemon to use against him, I decide to send him a real curveball.
"Noivern, get ready for battle." I say as my main pokemon is sent out for battle. Roddy looks surprised by my choice.
"I was expecting Bronzor. It would have been your best to combat my weaknesses."
"Well we already tried that combination in our first battle and you seem to have an idea how to combat a steel pokemon so I decided to try out speed and strength. I will allow you to have the first move." Roddy accepts what I say and nods.
"Muk, Fire Blast." Good first move. Muk opens up its mouth and releases an huge blast of flames.
"Counter that with Boomburst." Noivern releases a loud burst of sound from its head that hits the flames, snuffing them out easily.
"I see you know how to use your moves in a defensive nature." He pauses, smirking. "But you forget that now you have no defense against my poison moves. Muk, use Sludge Wave." A purple wave of sludge appears in front of Muk, it then launches the sludge at Noivern.
"Dodge that." I command. Noivern does a quick dodging maneuver that allows it to escape from the sludge.
"Muk, jump and use Pound." Muk launches itself into the air with a glowing white fist, coming towards Noivern. I realize this is the same strategy that he uses against Bronzor. Last time I wasn't expecting it, now I am and I know how to counter it.
"Noivern, intercept it." Roddy looks shocked by that command. Noivern allows itself to get hit by Muk and brought down to the ground. It punches Noivern in the head with its fist but I know what I have to do. "Noivern, Dragon Claw." I see glowing coming from underneath Muk and suddenly its launched off of Noivern and sent tumbling to its side of the field.
"I see now why you allowed yourself to become trapped." Roddy says. I nod to him.
"I remember you using that against Bronzor. I wanted to show you that its possible to attack while in that predicament. It seems to have worked." I smile at him. "That is the point of training. To showcase ways to improve your battling."
"Well then let's try something else. Muk, jump again but this time Fire Blast." Muk does the same procedure as before, jumping up halfway across the field, but this time it releases a large burst of flames from its mouth. It's to close to Noivern this time to effectively counter with Boomburst.
"Noivern, Agility to dodge it." Noivern quickly disappears and reappears around the flames, dodging them. "Aerial Ace." Noivern rises in the air and then swoops around into a dive towards Muk who landed on the ground.
"Muk, Pound." Muk raises its hand into a glowing white fist and punches Noivern at the exact moment it was close to making contact with Muk. The two attacks cancel each other out and Noivern quickly flies away.
"Alright then, last attempt. Muk, Gunk Shot." Muk breaths in and shoots out a dark purple orb of sludge right at Noivern. I have only one shot at this.
"Counter with Boomburst." Noivern sends out the loud burst of sound. The two attacks collide in midair but the Boomburst pushes the Gunk Shot back towards Muk, Roddy is taken aback by this.
"Use Pound on the Gunk Shot." Muk quickly uses its fist to punch the attack and it bursts into a bunch of goo. Roddy sighs with relief and puts up his hand. "I think that will do it for me. We should get you some training in as well. Good work Muk." He says as he returns Muk to its pokeball. I return Noivern as well.
"Thank you as well." I say to my Noivern. "So since I have no special requirements for my battle should we just have an ordinary fight?"
Roddy thinks for a second. "I brought in the original six pokemon that I used for our first battle so how about you choose one of them and we can have a regular match."
"Ok, I want my Bronzor to face your Wigglytuff." This brings a look of surprise on Roddy.
"I'm surprised you would want to go against Wigglytuff again. It is well-known for being an extremely tough fighter."
"I figured that out in our first battle. That's why I want to try facing it again, to see just how good I can be against it." I explain. Roddy seems unsure though.
"If you want to. But I will tell you this, just because Bronzor is a steel type isn't going to help you out much." He brings out a pokeball and throws it. "Wigglytuff, lets go." The tough looking balloon pokemon appears. It does look like its ready for a fight. But I want to see how well I can do against it.
"Bronzor, you're up." I announce as I throw my pokeball and out pops my Bronzor. I do want to see just how good this Wigglytuff is. I decide to take the first move. "Bronzor, Gyro Ball." Bronzor quickly starts spinning around and moving quickly towards Wigglytuff. Unfortunately, Roddy doesn't seem all that worried about it.
"Wigglytuff, use Double Edge." What! That is a real dangerous tactic to use. Wigglytuff starts charging towards Bronzor who is still spinning towards it. Both pokemon collide with one another, with Bronzor taking a larger brunt of the damage and sending it flying off. I am shocked. I wasn't expecting Wigglytuff to just go charging into such a powerful attack with no cause of concern for itself. But it doesn't even look like it cares that its been damaged. I am confused by this but Roddy doesn't seem look all that phased from it. "Wigglytuff, Thunder Wave." Blue electricity surrounds Wigglytuff and it releases the bolt at Bronzor.
"Dodge that!" I command. Bronzor quickly maneuvers around the electricity so it doesn't get hit by it.
"Shadow Ball." Before the Thunder Wave can finish being executed Wigglytuff puts its hands together and makes a shadowy orb between them and throws it at Bronzor.
"Avoid that." Bronzor quickly moves away from the attack but only barely. I realize my plan to use quickness to my advantage isn't working as well if I have no way of putting together a good offense. "Psywave, now." Bronzor shoots out a wave of pink energy from its eyes towards Wigglytuff.
"Defense Curl." Wigglytuff quickly curls up into a ball with the energy waves hitting it directly. After the attack is done it uncurls itself looking quite fine in fact. "Use Double Edge." Wigglytuff starts charging towards Bronzor. I only have one real chance of getting out of this and gaining some sort of advantage.
"Counter with Gyro Ball." Bronzor starts spinning around directly at the charging Wigglytuff. The two pokemon collide and Wigglytuff shoves Bronzor out of the way, it falling to the ground with Wigglytuff going back to its own side. Roddy puts up his hand signaling an end to the battle. Bronzor looks like it got a lot taken out of it from that last attack while Wigglytuff is trying to catch its breath but looks none the worse. I really thought I could do something. Roddy returns Wigglytuff and I do the same. We both walk across the field towards each other.
"That was a pretty good attempt. Sorry it didn't go better." Roddy says to me. It almost seems like he is upset that I didn't win the fight.
"Its fine. I'm just surprised that Wigglytuff is extremely strong. I thought it might have been lucky how well it did in our first fight but it seems that it is well trained with an interesting strategy to it." Roddy looks embarrassed by what I say which I am confused about.
"It was an interesting pokemon before. I caught it as an Igglybuff when it was a newborn. After a bit of battling I realized that it was focused on strength way more than anything. Eventually it evolved into a Jigglypuff and learned Double Edge soon after. It never cared about taking damage and it became its strategy to just deal as much damage as possible, even though it is hurting itself. I found a Moon Stone and evolved it and with it gaining more health gave it the ability to just keep using Double edge as a way of guaranteeing a hit on the opponent even if it takes damage from an attack and recoil damage. Shadow Ball was a way of making sure we can take down Ghost types, Defense Curl was a way of making sure we weren't being reckless and Thunder Wave was the way of keeping an opponent as ground as possible. Its been hard to figure out an effective strategy around using Double Edge but I think I have one now." He says although I get the feeling he doesn't exactly enjoy the strategy.
"Well it seems to be working well. Its hard to get the advantage on it." But that didn't seem to make him feel better.
"I guess so." He says unhappily. "But its difficult to have a plan B in place when your whole move set revolves around Double Edge." He gives me a smile. "Well I guess our training for the day is done. How do you feel?"
"I mean I don't feel better or worse since I don't know what I am going against. How do you feel though about your Muk?" I say since I know that he can only choose one pokemon for tomorrow's match, I have my whole team I can choose from. He thinks about it for a minute as we walk towards the exit of our battlefield room.
"Honestly, I am quite confident in Muk. But I was expecting to go into my battle facing a Steel or Psychic pokemon but now I am realizing that I can face pretty much anything if it means they have a good strategy to taking on Muk." Good, that was the point I wanted to drive home on him.
"Well the only way we'll see how good we are is to do our best for tomorrow." I say as we walk out of the building knowing we both have challenges in the morning.
Thank you for reading. Next chapter we finally get into the week's matches starting with Roddy's match. I hope you enjoyed it and please review and tell me what you thought about it. Also if you have any questions on this series or any other series I write feel free to message me.