Welcome back folks, have a chapter!
Ben's Team:
Ogrim - Golett
Dart - Beedrill
Cleo and Lacy/The Twins - Doduo
Gauss - Alolan Geodude
Chapter 23: Upset
"Three pokémon," I say to Surge's trainer.
"I want two," Leon protests.
"You're getting three. Deal," I reply bluntly, "I'm not budging on this."
"What's the matter, not feeling confident?" Leon taunts.
"Confident enough to give you a handicap," I reply, smirking at Leon. I gesture behind me to Cleo and Lacy, who have been following behind me out of their poke ball ever since I left the hotel. They're watching Leon with an intense look in their beady eyes.
Leon goes red with barely repressed fury, then turns to Surge's trainer, "Fine. Three." He looks back to me with a murderous look on his face, "Call it whatever you want, Wilson. You're just an idiot who's only made it this far with luck. I've watched your battle with Sabrina, and those birds were useless. I'm going to enjoy crushing them, and everything else you send out after!"
"Keep talking, you're only making them more motivated," I reply, noting with approval the sheer fury radiating off of the girls. I made a point of showing them Leon's shit-talking on the news. Not that I really needed to; pokémon are totally capable of sensing what goes on outside of their poke ball if they want to, and the girls pay far closer attention than most. They were ready to kill this jackass even before they got to see his insults on the tv.
Leon stares back at Cleo and Lacy for a moment, before snorting in derision, "Please, they're just a couple of beady-eyed, empty-headed losers. Have fun losing your first real fight of the tournament!" He walks away laughing to himself.
Little does he realize I'm doing the same thing.
"He's overconfident," I comment to the girls as I leave, "Never a good mindset to bring to a battle, but against you? It'll be fatal. Metaphorically speaking, of course."
The girls sigh in faux-disappointment at my addendum, but still seem pleased at my assessment. "Wark wark?" Lacy asks, her voice full of longing.
It takes me a moment to figure out what she's asking, but I get there in the end. "Yup, he's all yours. Couldn't switch you girls out even if I wanted to, Lacy," I reply, "No substitutions. The rules basically say you get to fight until you drop, or they do. So if you want to hog the whole battle to yourself? I'm all for it."
"Kweh…" Cleo notes, trying and failing to hide the amusement in her voice.
This one's a bit easier to decipher. "Humiliating him is the point Cleo, and you know it," I roll my eyes, "I want him so embarrassed he can't bring himself to look at a battle when we're done with him." I stop in the middle of the hallway and turn back to look at both of them, "He wants to call my team trash on international television? We show him who the real trash is, so thoroughly even his twisted ego can't deny it."
Cleo and Lacy meet my eyes, full to the brim with spiteful determination. "Wark!" They reply in gleeful unison.
"Good," I nod and start walking again, "Let's get moving then. We have ten minutes left to finalize our gameplan before we have to get out there."
"Alright folks, we're starting today's battles off with a doozy! I was already excited to see this one play out, but I'm sure I don't need to tell you things have only heated up further since yesterday!" Fern calls out enthusiastically.
"I'll say!" Surge echoes, "Leon's been barking about this grudge he has against Koga and his sponsored trainers since this tournament started, but now that he's getting his first chance at one of them he seems to have really poked the sleeping snorlax! Ben Wilson is currently the biggest unknown in the tournament thanks to not one but two wins given him by default. So far he's been content to sit back as other trainers make big moves, but that seems to have changed! Koga, what's your read on the situation with your oldest rookie?"
"If I were to describe it in a word: unusual," Koga replies, "In the time I have known Ben he has proven to be a mature and composed individual, one with a strong degree of control over himself. To so publicly declare that he is handicapping himself for this match suggests either supreme confidence, or a serious breach in that composure."
"Not to mention a serious intent to shut Leon up in a big way!" Surge adds.
"Indeed."
"Well there you have it folks, Ben Wilson is here to shut down Leon's grudge with extreme prejudice! But will his handicap prove the point he's looking to make, or will his confidence prove his undoing? I think we're all eager to find out!" Fern exclaims over riotous cheering from the audience. "So let's get started here before the excitement proves too much for me! From the eastern gate, it's the young man from Pewter with a point to prove, Leon Drummond!"
Leon walks into the stadium with a self-satisfied smirk across his face, waving to the crowd. He's reveling in the attention, both negative and positive, egomaniac that he is.
"And from the western corner, the oldest trainer in the tournament, all the way from Nimbasa Town, it's Ben Wilson!"
I walk out calmly, the twins at my side. I'm pleased to hear that the crowd has definitely picked their favorite already. Folks are eager to see me whip this loudmouth, and I can't wait to deliver.
"And there's his doduo as well! The very same pokémon he agreed to lead with in his confrontation with Leon yesterday! If there were any doubts about Ben's intention to make good on his arrangement, I think that just ended them! It looks like Ben is fully committed to winning with a handicap!"
I take my place on the field, calling the twins back to their ball and waiting for the ref's signal.
"Is there a reason Ben called the twins back?" Fern asks for the benefit of the audience, "Why not just let them walk into the field?"
"Proof of fair play," Surge replies immediately, "Any League-Standard match requires trainers to release their trainers from a poke ball to ensure they haven't used any techniques to boost before the match. A poke ball resets a pokémon's energy to its neutral state, so using one is mandatory unless the pokémon has a proven mental health concern preventing it. I'm running this tournament by the same rules. Gotta keep things legit!"
The ref makes the call, and we release our pokémon. I lead with the twins, obviously. And Leon leads with an aron.
"Hahahaha! How do you like that, moron! You can't even hit an aron, can you?" Leon cackles at the favorable matchup.
"It looks like Ben's doduo will need to break through a wall of steel right off the bat! A brutal hurdle to overcome, will he be able to do it?" Fern exclaims.
"That is the big question, isn't it?" I say to myself, feeling quite unbothered. So far Leon is acting entirely according to my ideal scenario.
See, as much as I hate to give him credit, I know Leon is in fact a good trainer. He's got the personality of a trash bag left out in the sun, but he's still skilled. Which means he made the decision he did yesterday with a plan in mind. That plan being to use the same issue I've noticed with trainers not dealing with their counters well, to try to no-sell the pokémon he chose to face. And out of all my team Cleo and Lacy likely have the worst matchup against one of his pokémon.
Doduo aren't particularly well suited for fighting rock and steel types. The only kind they tend to meet in the wild are rhyhorn, a pokémon which they can easily handle by simply running away. They have one move they can learn that really helps them turn the tables on that matchup. It's called jump kick, and it's notoriously difficult to learn even for experienced pokémon. The twins have barely begun the training they'll need to use it, so against an aron you'd think there isn't much they can do, right?
Well, obviously anyone who's actually using their head will know that isn't the case. Lucky for me Leon isn't half as smart as he thinks he is. Because when the battle begins and the girls don't immediately rush in to bounce off of aron's formidable defenses he looks a bit confused. Instead they just stand there, glaring at the aron, shrieking, and clawing at the ground with their talons.
"What, are you giving up already? Throwing a tantrum?" Leon laughs, gesturing at my plainly furious pokémon, "Well alright then, guess I'll mop you up nice and quickly and move on! Aron, use rock tomb!"
Aron advances, calling rocks out of the ground to hurl at the twins. This does not happen quickly of course, aron aren't great at speed, but the rocks can make the terrain more difficult to traverse for the girls and will seriously hurt if they catch them.
Not much chance of that though, because as soon as the rocks are released a quick attack to the side has Cleo and Lacy completely out of the way and safe from harm. At which point they retaliate by… staring and stamping their feet again.
"Are you giving up or aren't you?" Leon growls, "Aron, again! Trap that feather duster with your rocks and finish it! Whatever they're planning won't work if you stop them from moving!"
I can't help but laugh at that. Not because he's wrong, mind you, but because he still hasn't figured out what the girls are already doing. It's not totally his fault, of course, work up is an insidiously unflashy move. But still, what else would I be doing here if not using boosting moves?
Work up is still a poor substitute for the techniques I want the girls using, but the fact that it relies on mental state is working well for me here. Because Cleo and Lacy are both extremely motivated to humiliate Leon right now, and as such are using the move to push their offensive power to dizzying heights. Useful as that is though… I think we've done enough for what I need, "Alright, go time ladies! Cleo, echoed voice, Lacy, rage!"
Here marks the beginning of a very fun strategy I've come up with for the girls. I've already examined the way they can use sound moves to far greater effect than most pokémon, but this time rather than using both sets of vocal chords, I'm taking advantage of the twins having multiple brains at play instead. Lacy handles steering the body and using physical attacks, while Cleo can bust out the ranged techniques. The ability to run and gun is standard fare in high level battles, but it takes hard work to learn properly. The twins having a shortcut to the same effect is a big advantage for a tournament like this.
That advantage is working out well for me against this aron. Leon no doubt thought I'd be forced to choose between either rushing in and bouncing off aron's armor, or stopping to use ranged techniques from afar and being vulnerable to rock attacks. Instead aron's charge is completely incapable of catching Lacy, while Cleo blasts soundwaves unhindered. Aron recovers quickly by using their rock tomb for defense, but that just leaves them open for Lacy to run in for the rage attack.
Rage is a good move for someone like Leon. Not just because it matches his personality though. The big thing rage provides is mental pressure. It's like telling the opponent 'you can try to fight back, but what doesn't defeat me will only make me stronger.' Putting that thought in the mind of a high strung jackass like Leon is going to give me a big leg up in this battle. Sure enough, when Lacy moves in to strike and receives only a glancing blow from aron's metal claw in return, Leon visibly grimaces.
"More rock tomb. Scatter them everywhere. Stop the two-headed freak from running around!" Leon barks out. Good call, good call. Unfortunately my momentum is already building out of control. Aron can only toss so many rocks at a time, after all.
"Echo chamber," I call out.
Lacy squawks in recognition and stops running. Then for several seconds she starts trading calls with her sister.
"Oho, that's interesting!" Surge comments, "Looks like those doduo are switching off with echoed voice to amplify the attack faster than usual!"
"Indeed," Koga confirms, "Ben seems to be using his advantage in mobility to push the power of doduo beyond what even this aron can endure. If Leon isn't careful his entire team will be incapable of standing up to them."
Not cool of you to give away the game like that, Master. But I'm not sure it matters at this point. The power of the twins' echoed voice is already enough to do proper damage to aron, and it's only getting stronger with each use.
The next soundwave to hit aron forces them to drop their rocks and cringe behind them, in hope that they can get some relief. Another wave after that starts to push the rocks away. The next wave sends the rocks tumbling away altogether and pushes aron back across the ground.
"WHAT IS THIS? WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?" Leon bellows indignantly over the absolute racket the twins are making. "STOP COWERING ARON! FIGHT BACK! DEFEND YOURSELF! DO SOMETHING!"
Aron wails as another wave of sonic pressure slams into them, and then shakily tries to call up more rocks. Several of them rise out of the ground, but another echoed voice sends them tumbling once more. Aron wails in distress and turns back to retrieve their weapon.
Whoops, back is turned, game over! "Engage!" I call out immediately. Rather needlessly, honestly; as soon as Lacy sees aron move away she knows exactly what to do. Aron takes a few steps towards the stones, then Lacy is tearing at their back with a beak shrouded in wicked black energy. Aron screeches in pain, unable to weather the dark-typed pursuit nearly as well as the other moves we've been using, and collapses unconscious to the ground.
"Aron is unable to battle! Doduo wins the first round!"
"What a finish!" Fern exclaims over the roaring of the crowd, "It looks like this whole time Ben and his doduo were waiting for the perfect chance to unleash that dark type attack and bypass aron's type advantage!"
"That about sums it up!" Surge agrees, "Pursuit's a great move for keeping the pressure up in a match; it makes your opponent think twice before trying to make a strategic retreat. Combining that with that double-time echoed voice is a nasty little combo!"
"My student seems to be putting much of his focus on applying as much mental pressure as possible to his opponent. No doubt he's decided to use Leon's short temper to his advantage," Koga points out, once again casually making my life more difficult. Announcers aren't supposed to give strategies away mid-match, Koga! Please stop helping my opponent!
Of course, I know exactly what he'd say if I asked him that directly. 'Is there a problem? I thought helping your opponent would be fine since you were so eager to do so yourself.'
… Ah, fuck, I'm being punished right now, aren't I?
Meanwhile on Leon's side of the battlefield, he's wasted no time grabbing his next pokémon from his belt, and is about to release them. At the last second though, he pauses, staring at the twins with a calculating expression. Then he smirks and lets his arm fall to his side.
"Trainer Leon?" The ref looks over to Leon with a confused expression, "Please release your next Pokémon…"
"I'm thinking!" Leon replies, a shit-eating grin on his face, "I still have time, right?"
Ah, so that's his game. Trainers get a maximum of one minute after the ref calls the end of a round to send out their next pokémon. That's longer than the standard time by a fair bit, but I guess Surge decided to throw the rookies a bone on this one. Leon has apparently decided to wait the full minute out so that the twins lose all the momentum they built up using echoed voice. It'll be much weaker when the battle resumes now. Annoying, but clever.
There's some booing from the crowd as some people realize what Leon is up to, but for a guy as shamelessly scummy as him a little something like this is barely worth mentioning. He just waits until the last possible second with that dumb grin on his face before releasing his eelektrik.
Honestly, this thing is probably more trouble than the aron was. Eelektrik isn't as well defended against my attacks, but the speed advantage is definitely smaller now. Eelektrik aren't super fast, but they can certainly outpace an aron, and the way they slither through the air makes them tough to catch. This is one of Leon's best pokémon, and from the satisfied smirk on his face he knows it.
I don't like how confident this guy's acting. He seems to think the extra minute will be enough to undo my momentum. Yeah, no. No happy feelings for you. I came here today with the goal of making you cry.
"I've gotta hand it to you, that's not bad thinking, running out the clock to weaken my echoed voice," I call out, "But I think you forgot something rather important!"
"I didn't forget anything! You got lucky with my aron, but eelektrik's different. We're gonna leave your dumb birds a twitching paralyzed mess on the ground!" Leon calls back, as cocky as ever.
"Kweeeeeeeeeh…" Lacy mutters, almost certainly idly plotting no less than seven methods of murdering this boy. I do nothing to dissuade it; I want her and Cleo at their most vindictive.
"I see, I see," I nod along to Leon's taunting, "So then… how are you going to stop the girls from just… powering up again?"
Leon's reply is cut off by the ref calling for the battle to resume. And then cut off again by me shouting commands, "Lacy, full evasive maneuvers! Cleo, as you were!"
"KWAAAAAAAAH!" Cleo bellows out another echoed voice, as Lacy starts idly trotting away from eelektrik.
Another fun feature of battling with a doduo: they can use any move that doesn't require their talons flawlessly no matter what direction they're moving. Eelektrik tries to slither after the girls, but doesn't have nearly the speed needed to catch them, especially once echoed voice starts forcing eelektrik back. Doesn't matter how slippery you are, you can't slither your way around a sound attack. All sound attacks either fire in a wide cone, or just plain hit everything.
Of course eelektrik does have some ranged moves to try to fight back, but most are only mid-ranged compared to echoed voice's long range. The only move eelektrik has that can actually reach the girls is charge beam, a move which ironically despite being a beam attack is actually pretty slow compared to most electric techniques. Lacy definitely has to work to dodge them, but she manages it with only the occasional quick attack to really tear out of a dangerous situation.
It takes much longer than with aron, since Lacy doesn't get a chance to push our attacks with echo chamber, but eventually Cleo's solo sound waves become powerful enough to once again take the win. Leon's smug attitude seems to have finally disappeared now. He's down to his last pokémon, and the girls are still raring to go.
"Leon, what's wrong? You're falling apart here!" I call out in false concern, "I thought this was supposed to be my first real fight of the tournament!"
"Shut up!" Leon snaps, "You have to be cheating somehow, this is impossible!"
"Impossible? This isn't just possible, Leon, this was expected. Seriously, out of all the pokémon you could have picked for me to start with, you chose the one who specializes in power boosting moves? And led with the slowest pokémon you have? I'm starting to wonder who had the handicap here!"
Leon lets out a string of no-doubt extremely colorful curses at me at that point, but alas, some quick-witted employee of Surge has the foresight to tell the rotom drones to mute their microphones before any of them can reach my poor virgin ears. Instead I just have to settle for watching him snarl and flail from across the field and just imagine the fascinating new forays into the English (or is it Galarian?) language that he's no doubt creating. And he keeps blazing those new linguistic trails all the way until the referee's countdown finally reaches the end and he sends out his last pokémon, his cubone.
No doubt he intended to have beaten the twins by the time this one came out. Still, I won't underestimate my opponent. Cubone is Leon's ace, and despite how I've been humiliating him this match Leon is definitely a skilled trainer. He's just also an overconfident moron who lacks the capacity for self-reflection.
That probably won't change no matter how hard I beat him, honestly. Lost any delusion about that the moment he called me a cheater. Still gonna embarrass him as much as I can though. Lacy and Cleo are going all the way. And I won't even need my secret weapon to do it.
The battle begins and cubone starts by immediately creating a ring of rocks for defense and using bone club to fire them at high speed. Inventive, powerful, and still too slow to catch Lacy, if only just. Lacy has to start mixing her movements up immediately though, as cubone adjusts their aim swiftly.
Leon starts mixing his tactics up even more at this point, leaving larger rocks to break up the field in between swings of the club. Once the field is feeling even more cramped the rocks are also mixed in with occasional use of bonemerang. It's actually more clever than it first seems. Doduo and flying types as a whole aren't like golett and some other ghost types; they don't need any special tricks to become immune to ground attacks. But even if ground energy won't affect doduo, a bone tangling up in your legs is still gonna trip you up, which could easily turn the tides in a big way. So even if the rock attacks slow dramatically while cubone is throwing bonemerang attacks, the girls actually need to dodge even more.
This is the first real hit to my momentum I've taken in this match. The dodging Lacy is needing to do is becoming so dramatic that Cleo is barely able to find opportunities to attack anymore, which means echoed voice is barely increasing in power. And every time cubone finds an opportunity another rock is planted in the ground to limit mobility further. Leon's ace is genuinely formidable.
"Getting sick of this, girls!" I call out in annoyance, "He's taking your tempo from you! Take something from him back!"
"Kweheh!" Lacy and Cleo cackle, realizing what I'm asking for. The bone flies through the air once more, closing in the girls, and this time leap into the air directly above it. Cleo abandons her counterattacks to hone in on the flying weapon, and with two pairs of sharp eyes to act as a guide…
There's a loud crunch throughout the battlefield, and a shriek of victory from the twins, as their powerful talons pluck the bone from the air and stomp it into splinters.
"You've gotta be kidding!" Leon exclaims, gaping at the precise attack in disbelief. The crowd roars with excitement. Cubone screeches in horror.
None of the onlookers get any time to process what the girls just did though, because they're immediately moving to finish the battle. Cubone goes from wailing at the loss of their prized weapon to wailing at the brutal beatdown the twins are unleashing. There's no hope of counterattack; a cubone channels their energy through their club, and can't attack nearly as well without it. They flail back, but with none of the previous power, which only serves to make the twins hit harder due to their use of rage.
This doesn't continue for long before Leon gives in and withdraws his final pokémon. He storms away from the battlefield before the ref has finished making the call.
"An incredible sweep by Ben Wilson, crushing his opponent despite his handicap, and earning himself a place in the quarter finals!" Fern exclaims to the excitement of the crowd.
I give a few waves to the crowd, then raise my arms to congratulate the twins as they slowly walk back. "You two were incredible," I say, reaching up to stroke each of their feathery heads, "Not that you need me to tell you that, right?"
"Wark," Lacy replies, rolling her eyes.
"Kweh," Cleo says, leaning into my hand a little.
I call them back a moment later. That slow walk back was a warning sign. They mistimed grabbing that bone. Pretty sure one of their toes was broken. Might be some bone shards for the nurses to pick out of their foot as well. Silly girls thought I didn't notice. Well, I won't be the one to give it away. I walk out of the field quickly but calmly, not wanting to ruin anyone's perception of Cleo and Lacy's flawless victory.
By the time I've brought the twins to the nurses and made my way up to the spectator's booth the next match is already coming to a close. Norma's squad of cats (plus the one goat) are vicious as heck, and full of energy, but Arthur's in another weight class. His beedrill and carkol made quick work of her team.
Keith's battle against Bethany Queens is actually rather similar to mine, with Checkers basically doing exactly what the twins did and powering up for a big sweep against a trainer with way more aggression. Except in typical Keith fashion, he manages to be way flashier by using double team as his technique of choice, and has Bethany's team picked apart by four scyther at once, all dancing around the field. Just like that, Bethany's righteous crusade to avenge her sister's crappy matchup in round one is brought to a sudden halt.
It's a shame these fights are so lopsided, because the atmosphere in the spectator's box is a bit… strained. Nobody's feeling quite as friendly anymore after what happened with Sara, Keith, and myself yesterday. If a proper good fight were to happen then maybe that could take everyone's mind off of the incident.
Instead we have Sara still acting angry, Valeria smugly feigning ignorance, and everyone else sitting around looking awkward about it. With Arthur, Axel, and Keith having all spent their time in the waiting rooms to prepare for their match, and me being kinda sorta responsible for the bad mood, we have none of the usual peacemakers available. And since I'm not really feeling much like sitting near my fellow Koga sponsor at the moment I find myself sitting in the back row between Ulu and Valeria instead. This means the usual talking is not happening, since Valeria will never be a fan of my commentary during the battles no matter how much I work to endear myself to her, and Ulu is too scared to go against her.
This is a real shame, since what's coming promises to be one of the most interesting battles of the round. Axel vs Vlad, a fight that I've been very much looking forward to. Vlad's biggest strength so far has been his ability to play mind games with his opponents, which means putting him up against Axel should really pull him out of his comfort zone. Axel is like a walking bastion of zen, his calm practically unassailable. Vlad's either going to crash against that hard and get stomped, or start to show us what he's really made of. And while I'm obviously still rooting for Axel to win, I can't help but hope Vlad's got plenty of tricks in reserve. They've apparently opted to go all out with a 4v4, so this battle should be a ton of fun.
My thoughts on the matter are interrupted when Keith comes running into the room, breathing hard from apparently sprinting up here. "Did I miss anything?" he gasps, looking my way.
"No, they're just about to start," I reply, gesturing to the field.
"Cool. Awesome," Keith pauses a moment to take a deep breath, then plops himself in the nearest seat and waves me over, "Okay Ben, get over here so we can talk shop without bothering Valeria too much."
"Good call," I hop to my feet, all too eager to sit next to somebody who's actually willing to put up with my commentary. I pause a moment, turning towards Valeria, "Valeria, I want you to know I'm only ditching you because I care."
"Yeah, yeah, go be someone else's problem," Valeria waves me off with a smirk.
Ulu looks between us, then asks tentatively, "Uhh, would you two mind if…"
"Course not! Pull up a chair, man!" Keith replies.
"Thank you," Ulu beams at Keith and I as he joins us, "I've been learning a lot about battling from listening to you speak, and I want to do well today."
"He's decided to pull out all the stops against Valeria today," I explain to Keith.
Keith becomes very serious at that, glancing over at Valeria and asking in a low voice, "Unleashing a righteous asskicking for the sake of your opponent?"
"It is a time honored tradition in Alola," Ulu replies, equally serious.
"Yup, we take those seriously here too," Keith nods, reaching around me to clap Ulu on the shoulder, "I wish you the best of luck."
"Thank you," Ulu nods solemnly. Keith and I nod in return. Then we all immediately face forward to refocus on the battle as Axel and Vlad release their pokémon.
Axel starts with Shizu, his slowpoke, while Vlad releases his diglett. Type advantage goes to Axel, but speed advantage goes to Vlad. Typical diglett matchup: they'll take the win unless Axel can find a reliable way to pin them down and hit them, in which case a few good blows will handle it. If he can't he'll be in big trouble, since his team has a pretty big weakness to ground types.
The fight starts with an explosion of movement from diglett, who starts off by slamming Shizu as much as possible. It's a common tactic against slowpoke; their brains run so slowly that you can usually get a good bit of damage in at the start of a match before they've realized they're fighting. It seems to be working especially well here, since Shizu can barely seem to register where the diglett is. She's just slowly looking around, getting smacked back and forth, and generally looking unsure about what's going on.
"Is it just me, or does Shizu seem more clueless than usual?" Keith wonders aloud, watching the proceedings with a frown on his face.
"Maybe diglett is just too fast for her?" I wonder aloud, though even as I say it I can't say it sounds right. Shizu's done better than this in our training battles against faster pokémon than this diglett.
Axel seems to have his own theory. "Shizu, tail in the ground!" he calls out. Shizu blinks at that advice, taking another few blows in the process, before twisting around and stuffing their tail down one of the many tunnels diglett has been making. For a moment there she just sits like that, looking a bit silly, but the next time diglett emerges from the ground she turns and fires a water gun that only narrowly misses.
"Oh, of course!" Ulu comments, lighting up, "The end of a slowpoke tail is really sensitive, much more than any other part of the body!"
"Oh, so the reason diglett was causing so much trouble was because it was moving underground, where Shizu's tail couldn't detect it," Keith nods to himself.
"Knew slowpoke used their tails for fishing, but I didn't know they used them for battles too," I comment, "Good on Axel for figuring out the problem."
Indeed, now that Shizu can actually detect where diglett is attacking from, she's doing a much better job fighting back. Diglett is forced to be far more careful about approaching, for fear of getting blasted as soon as they emerge. And that care is quickly turned against them when they hesitate aboveground just a bit too long, and Shizu turns on them with her eyes flashing. Diglett flinches, moves as if to go underground, and then stops, looking down at the ground in front of them and visibly shaking.
"Ohohoho! Disable! They've got this now!" Keith exclaims, grinning at the sight of a panicking diglett sitting helplessly in the open. I can't help but agree with the assessment. Disable is a brutally effective mental attack under the right circumstances, effectively placing a wall in the opponent's mind. The last technique they used that involves energy manipulation is effectively sealed away, unable to be used again until the effect fades and the knowledge of how to do so returns to them. Basically, right now this diglett has forgotten how to dig. Which means there's little it can do to avoid the next attack.
"Now Shizu, water pulse at full power!" Axel cries. Shizu lets out a dull grunt, straightening up and charging a big orb of water in their mouth. It'll be a certain knockout once this hits, giving Axel a strong lead.
Vlad's trying to rally, but diglett is too panicked to really listen right now, and not able to do much without the ability to dig anyways. "Will you get your head on straight already! Just focus up! Come on, we're running out of time!" He calls, looking increasingly irritable, "Ugh! No choice then! Do the thing, diglett!"
Diglett finally reacts at that, turning towards Shizu. It's facing down the much larger pokémon bravely, despite the orb of water about to knock it out. But surely whatever Vlad's command is, it won't be enough to turn this around?
Or at least that's what I'm thinking, until Shizu literally turns around and fires that massive water pulse attack off to the left. Wait, what was that movement? Shizu definitely turned to attack in the wrong direction, but I didn't actually see her feet move. It's almost like…
"I knew it!" Keith crows, "I knew that rockruff tripping in their last match was too convenient!"
"That diglett is literally moving the ground under their feet!" I exclaim in disbelief, watching as Shizu looks around in confusion. The level of technical skill behind that maneuver was… "I am stealing that trick for Ogrim as soon as possible!"
Meanwhile down in the stadium, Vlad is looking around as the audience chatter about diglett's technique with obvious discomfort. "I don't suppose I could convince everyone that this was just another lucky accident in my favor, could I?" he grumbles.
"No, I'm afraid this was a bit too blatant," Axel replies cheerfully, "I'm afraid I have little choice but to take you completely seriously now!"
"Goooooodie," Vlad drawls.
"Shizu, confusion, then curse!" Axel calls.
"Don't let her focus on you! Keep her facing the other way and use mud slap!" Vlad shouts in response.
For a while things turn into a bit of a stalemate, with Shizu constantly charging her power and attempting to take aim at diglett, while diglett does everything they can to stop her. The stalemate works in Shizu's favor in the short term, as she's able to all but ignore mud slap and boost her energy with curse. But as soon as her disable technique wears off, diglett's able to unleash a much more potent offensive, popping out of the ground like the demented whack-a-mole creature that they are and being just the biggest pest they can.
"Alright Shizu, now use bubblebeam, wide spread, heavy foam!" Axel calls out.
Heavy foam turns out to be a technique rather plainly inspired by Dart's string shot. It's a variant of bubblebeam, one which moves rather slow but doesn't burst when it reaches the ground. Instead the bubbles pile up into a dense coating like sea foam, which lingers over a wide area. A big sticky bubble trap which Shizu immediately walks into. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all, but when diglett gets close to them they immediately shy away. Whatever's going on with that foam it probably isn't pleasant to deal with if you're not a water type.
"More foam please, Shizu! As much as you can make," Axel requests, looking rather pleased with himself. At his command Shizu starts spewing more and more foam into the air, until a total heap of it is piled up in a large section of the field, and Shizu is totally hidden from view.
"Not a fan of this, diglett! Use mud slap! Flatten the foam!" Vlad calls out, squinting suspiciously at the foam, looking for a sign of what Shizu might be doing.
Diglett moves to obey, hurling mud into the cloud of foam that does seem to be punching gaps into it. Before too much progress can be made though, it suddenly becomes very apparent what Shizu is doing in the foam cloud while nobody's watching her. Diglett suddenly starts shrieking in pain as a burst of water erupts around them. The whole field's flooding, in fact. Shizu seems to have pulled the old 'flood the tunnels with water gun' trick, waiting until out of view to catch Vlad and diglett by surprise. And with that sudden advantage, Axel makes his biggest play yet: using Shizu's psychic abilities to lift and throw the entire mass of foam at the struggling diglett.
"He's got him!" Keith cheers as the foam lifts into the air. I lean forward in my seat, eagerly awaiting Axel's grand finale.
Vlad stares wide-eyed at the mass of foam as it launches towards diglett, then seems to visibly deflate. "Nothing else for it, I guess," he grumbles, "Diglett, do it."
Diglett had been sitting helplessly, staring at the mass of foam bearing down on them, unable to burrow away due to all the water flooding the ground. But at Vlad's command a drastic change occurs. Diglett suddenly seems to explode with energy, shrieking as loudly as it can. And in an instant they race forward, heedless of the bubbles above ground and water beneath. The foam explodes as it collides with diglett, but the move barely seems to affect the little pokémon. As far as I can tell nothing is going to stop them, at least until they crash into Shizu with a mighty explosion of power.
The crowd gasps, myself included, as the two pokémon are engulfed in a massive smoke cloud. And when it clears, both pokémon are unconscious. A double knockout.
"But… how did this happen?" Ulu asks, staring down in bewilderment, "It seemed as if Axel was certain to win the matchup."
"Looks like Vlad had a trick left up his sleeve to ensure he didn't fall behind," Keith explains grimly, "Final gambit. It's a last resort move that burns up every bit of energy a pokémon has left to deal it as damage to the opponent. All that time diglett spent whittling down Shizu over the course of the match must have been enough for the move to overcome the difference in endurance."
"Well, it's unfortunate that Axel wasn't able to gain a lead, but at least Vlad and diglett only managed to level the playing field," Ulu comments, trying to force some cheer into his voice, "Axel has already proven he's a strong enough trainer to take the lead, so he should be able to do it again, right?"
"I wouldn't be so sure," I reply, gesturing towards the field, "Look at Axel right now."
Keith and Ulu follow my gaze to Axel's side of the field. The man has a deep frown on his face, and an impressive furrow in his brow. The usual aura of calm he gives off is nowhere to be found.
"Geez, he didn't take that double knockout well at all!" Keith winces, "I've never seen him look so pissed before."
"Exactly," I reply, not hiding how uneasy I'm now feeling about this match, "And now that he's let Vlad get under his skin he's going to have a much tougher time of it. Of all the opponents to lose his cool against…"
"Guess Vlad's ability to piss people off is stronger than Axel's ability to shrug everything off," Keith says, with a click of his tongue, "Which means this battle's only just beginning."
Bit of a weird spot for a chapter break, I know, but I figured it was getting to a good enough length. Honestly could probably have left the start of this fight out as well, but it fit the general theme of 'people getting really pissed off' a bit too well for me to resist.
Now, time for some good/bad news. The good news is that I'm back in university now! Good stuff, nice to be free from the threat of another too many fucking years of retail work. Bad news is of course that this means I will be writing less. Trying to adjust to all the big changes to my schedule so that I can find more time to write, but obviously my time and energy are going to be focused on the classes I just spent several thousand dollars on. Go figure, right? I'm sure things will get better once I'm used to everything, but for the time being you'll all just have to be patient. In the meantime, thanks for reading, and I'll have more for you as soon as I can!
Have a link: discord .gg/u89gx745fn
