A/N: Changed the title to 'An Aura of Freedom' because I was never happy with what the previous title was. It felt too Pokemon-centric with not enough One Piece, and was also kind of lacking in terms of personality. Hopefully this one is a little more distinct and better represents the story I'm writing.
Following the sound but rather unorthodox defeat of Admin Nickel, the mixture of fear and shame that had hung in the air over Pastoria Village vanished in an instant, being banished by an air of jubilation that was flavoured with the aromas of the medley of dishes which Sanji was continuing to prepare for the villagers. It might have been a tall order for an ordinary chef to be presented with so many unfamiliar ingredients and recipes and expected to provide for such a large slew of people, but it was barely a challenge for a seafaring cook like him. It had demanded a certain amount of effort and concentration, at least initially, but with his cooking have fed about two-thirds of the villagers by this point and most of the dishes being done, he was able to slightly relax as he continued to do what he did best. The still-unfed villagers grouped together and watched him, waiting with as much self-control as they could muster for their turns to be served.
It wasn't only the people in the village who were drawn to Sanji's cooking, however. Had he gone about with this undertaking on any other day, then Pastoria would have only had people for him to serve, but he had gone about it today, and there just so happened to be a single Pokemon currently residing within the village that was enticed by the aroma and the earlier display of raw culinary ability. A small, purple Pokemon with a pair of glittering gemstones for eyes, stood up on the rooftop of one of the houses in the village and looked out at the scene below for about five seconds, before ducking down to try and avoid being seen by anyone.
This was not great. It wasn't even good. Happening to get caught up in a Rhyhorn stampede had been bad enough earlier today, but being thrown from the backs of one of the Rhyhorn and ending up on this rooftop was even worse than that. Now, if he wanted to get back to the Oreburgh Caves where he belonged, he would have to climb down from the rooftop and move through the village. That was terrible! What if he ran into one of the humans? What if the human he ran into was scared by him and ran away in fear? If that happened, then Sableye would have to recall that moment every time he was trying to sleep and feel bad about it! A fate worse than being dead, and he would know.
The situation had been bad enough earlier, when he had been contemplating the best way to leave the village unnoticed, but then things had gotten even worse when the freakishly-strong human from earlier had returned to the village and started cooking. Even from up on the roof where he was, Sableye could smell the myriad of mouth-watering dishes that he was preparing, and it was almost impossible to resist the urge to scamper down and go scarf down a plate or two for himself. If it weren't for the food, he could have easily just waited up on the roof for night to come so he could sneak away.
Ultimately, the will of his tastebuds won over the will of his anxiety, and he walked around the roof and hopped down to land beside the house, ducking next to one of the corners in order to try and hide himself from view. Peeking from around the corner, he saw that everyone's attention was either on where Sanji was cooking, or they were chatting amongst themselves and weren't too fixated on their surroundings. Moving quickly, he stepped out from behind the corner and scurried across the ground over to one of the other houses and quickly hid himself in the shadow beside it. It didn't seem like anyone had noticed, and it breathed a slight sigh of relief as it waited for an opportunity to sneak even closer to the cooking station.
As it turned out, Sableye was not the most observant Pokemon in existence, because as soon as he stepped out of the shadows to try and make another run, he found himself being scooped up by a pair of hands belonging to Nami. Greed shone in the navigator's eyes as she picked Sableye up off the ground and held him up in front of her face, peering at the Pokémon's gemstone eyes the way that a predator looked at its prey.
"Well hello there, gorgeous." Nami said sweetly, leaning in so that she could make out her own reflection in Sableye's eyes while paying no mind to the Pokémon's look of fear or the way it was struggling away from her. Behind her, Vivi and Usopp walked over to see what had drawn her interest.
"Is this one of those Pokémon creatures?" Vivi asked, standing beside Nami and reaching over to poke the side of Sableye's head. Her finger pressed into him like she were touching skin, but the texture was far from it, being something completely foreign that she couldn't liken to anything else. Somehow, despite his eyes being literal rocks, Sableye's look of fear intensified as he recoiled away from her touch.
"Sableye!" Sableye exclaimed, oblivious to the death glare he was receiving from a very jealous Sanji.
"Oh!" Vivi gasped, retracting her finger, "I'm terribly sorry, that must have been rather invasive of me!"
"Are those its eyes?" Usopp said, standing on the other side of Nami and squinting at the gemstones which adorned Sableye's face, as well as the smaller crimson gem on his chest.
"I hope not." Nami said, her eyes seemingly having turned into a pair of Beri signs. Seeing the three of them all fussing over Sableye, Tiffany walked over with a plate of berry ratatouille in hand.
"That's a Sableye." She explained helpfully, "They're a species of Pokémon that live in the Oreburgh Caves, and they dig for gemstones to eat, which are where those gems on its body come from."
"They dig for gemstones, you say?" Nami said, a maniacal grin slowly starting to break out across her face.
"Sableye…" Sableye said as his gaze was drawn towards the plate in Tiffany's hands, and he began to salivate a little.
"Yes, and they're quite good at it, too." Tiffany nodded, "Not sure what a Sableye is doing all the way out here in Pastoria Village, though. It's- oh! Oh, the poor thing must have gotten caught up in the stampede earlier and dragged all the way here by one of those Rhyhorn."
"It doesn't seem injured or anything, though. And it wasn't trying to attack anyone, either." Usopp noted, "Why didn't it just go back to the cave it came from?"
"Maybe it's lost, and doesn't know the way back?" Vivi suggested, while Nami observed where Sableye's attention was directed, and followed his gaze over to the plate that Tiffany was carrying.
"I think it stuck around because it wanted to grab something to eat." Nami said. Tiffany looked at Sableye, and then looked down at her plate, and then looked at Sableye looking at her plate.
"It wants my food?" Tiffany said.
"Absolutely not!" Sanji called out furiously, drawing all eyes over to him, with Sableye cowering in Nami's hold slightly, "I prepared that meal with love and care to be enjoyed by a beautiful woman, not some kind of creature that scrounges about for rocks in a cave."
"Eye…" Sableye said timidly, looking downcast at the comment.
"If it wants to eat, I can prepare something else, but it'll have to wait its turn to be served." Sanji continued, which made Sableye perk up.
"You'd better prepare a really filling meal for it, Sanji." Nami said, "Because I don't think that this little guy is going to get the chance to eat any gemstones for quite a while."
"Of course! You can count on me, Nami-dear~!" Sanji gushed, going into lovestruck mode while continuing to cook.
The greed in Nami's eyes had grown into a full-blown aura which seemed to waft off her, focused entirely on the Pokémon in her hands, which caused a bead of sweat to trail down the side of his head. Vivi and Usopp both took a couple of nervous steps away from her. Much to Sableye's relief, Nami was snapped back to normal by the arrival of Luffy and Zoro, who were joined by Walter, Spruce and Ria.
"HEY GUYS!" Luffy greeted as he ran over to where the other Straw Hats were. As he neared them, the aroma of Sanji's food caught his attention, causing him to accelerate and leap into the air and over the heads of several of the villagers present. While in the air, he stretched an arm out towards the food, trying to grab it for himself, only for the limb to be kicked away by an irate Sanji. The sight of his body stretching like it were made of rubber silenced every single one of the villagers, leaving them with wide eyes and gaping jaws, and even Walter's eyes were almost bugging out of his skull.
"Glutton! Wait your turn to be served!" Sanji chastised Luffy, his voice the only sound in the entire village at that moment. Continuing on his trajectory, Luffy landed on the ground behind Sanji's cooking station and hopped right back up onto his feet in an instant, retracting his arm in order to dust himself off.
"Did that guy just…?" One villager mumbled, starting to blink rapidly.
"He must be some kinda Pokémon or something to stretch like that…" Another said.
"No way, you guys all saw that too?!" A third one added.
"First that chef, and now that boy?" Tiffany said, "Are these the kinds of people who come from across the sea?!"
"H-His arm!" Walter gasped, "His arm just stretched several times its own length! My feeble, elderly eyes must be failing me, because I just saw his arm stretch several times its own length!"
"Well, yeah." Zoro deadpanned.
"Shishishi!" Luffy snickered at everyone's astonishment, "I ate the Gum-Gum fruit, and now I'm a rubber man!"
"Gum-Gum fruit?" Timothy said, tilting his head slightly, "I've never heard of a fruit like that."
"Must be some kinda exotic fruit or something." A villager said.
"That's weird, you'd think these people had never heard of Devil Fruits before." Usopp said.
"Devil Fruits? What are those?" Spruce said, causing Zoro's head to snap over in his direction.
"You mean you don't know?!" He said, "Didn't you ever eat a weird fruit that gave you a special ability?"
"No, not really. That sounds weird." Spruce said.
"But- but then- how?" Zoro said, gesturing to the Pokeballs that Spruce was carrying on his person.
"How? How what?" Spruce said, before the realisation finally struck him, "Oh! Yeah, if you don't know about Pokémon, you don't know about Pokeballs either, do you?"
"Never heard of them." Zoro said.
"Pokeballs are what trainers use to catch Pokémon, and we usually keep our Pokémon in them when we're not doing anything with them." Walter said, having finally gotten over his surprise at Luffy's ability. He took his own Pokeball out and held it in front of him, opening it to release Floatzel in a burst of white light, before promptly returning the Pokémon a second later with a beam of red light.
"They can just do that?" Zoro said.
"Pretty much, yeah." Spruce nodded.
With Luffy having explained away his bizarre abilities, some of the villagers turned their attention away from him and over to the trio of people he had brought to Pastoria along with them, and found themselves being quite surprised once again, though not quite as much as before.
"Hey, that kid brought Fisherman Walter with him!" A villager exclaimed, "And that other kid- that's the Spruce kid, the one who fought Team Steel three years ago! That scary guy with them, though, that's- OH! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"
"Huh? Do these people know Zoro somehow?" Vivi said.
"IT'S THE LEGENDARY POKÉMON-!" The villager continued, only for Zoro to interrupt him.
"SHUT UP, MY HAIR IS NOT A POKÉMON!" Zoro yelled, "The only thing legendary about me is the fact that I'm going to become the world's greatest swordsman! Got that?!"
'He's scary!' All the villagers thought in unison.
"A pair of strong trainers like that plus a bunch of foreigners who can fight Pokémon with their bare hands…" The villager spoke up a couple of seconds later, "It- can it be?! Have you all gathered here because you're about to go and defeat Team Steel?!"
"Yep!" Luffy said, "We're gonna go beat Mercu-lady up along with the rest of Team Bronze!"
"I already took one of the Admins down before you got here, someone called Nickel." Sanji said, "He said he'd try and recruit some of the other members of the Team to back us up when the fight happened."
"The numbers might be nice." Walter said, "Though by my count, there are only three serious threats left who need to be dealt with. Even with some other grunts still in the base, the four of us should suffice to go deal with them."
"I agree. Just the four of you are probably enough to win." Usopp said.
"You can stay here and cook, Sanji." Luffy said, "I'm gonna need a lot to eat once we win! Plus we need to have a big party to celebrate a new member of the crew!"
"Oh, another mouth for me to feed?" Sanji said curiously, looking over at Spruce, "Several mouths, more likely?"
"He's gonna be our scout!" Luffy said eagerly.
"In that case, I'll need to get some recipes for food Pokémon can eat before we leave." Sanji said, "Plus dietary and nutritional requirements."
As the chef pondered the ways that his job would change with this new development, Spruce made his way over to Nami, Usopp and Vivi, with his eyes lighting up at the sight of the Sableye that Nami was holding.
"Wow, a Sableye! Is this guy your friend, Nami? I usually try to steer clear of the Oreburgh Cave, so I haven't seen many of these." Spruce said, gushing just a bit.
"We've only just met, actually, but I think that the two of us could get along very well." Nami said brightly, clutching Sableye close to her chest.
"Eye, Sableye…" Sableye muttered defeatedly.
"That's great!" Spruce said, "There's tons of stuff that I can teach you if you're gonna be a trainer. Having a Pokémon partner is one of the best things ever, so it's really great that you're meeting one for yourself while you're here!"
"Hm. I don't think Nami's the only one, actually." Usopp mentioned, glancing over to Zoro and pointing to the space behind him. The swordsman raised an eyebrow and turned around to see the angular blue rock Pokémon he had encountered earlier today was standing right behind him, currently spinning rapidly in place.
"That's just Spinner, ignore him." Walter said dismissively.
"Oh, okay." Usopp said.
"You've given twirly-brow his orders." Zoro called out to Luffy, "We should hurry up and get going. I don't want this Team Steel to underestimate us because they've only fought him so far."
"You'd better watch out for mosshead, Luffy. The Admins will definitely be too much for him to handle." Sanji cautioned, throwing a glare at the swordsman.
"If you were able to take one down, I won't even need my swords. A strong breeze would probably be enough for them." Zoro retorted, glaring right back at him.
"Okay! We're going now." Luffy nodded, walking back over to where Walter, Zoro and Spinner were. As he did, he reached back behind him, stretching his arm in order to grab one of the berries that hadn't yet been used for anything. Sanji allowed it, and he grabbed a red and yellow berry with two leaves poking out from the top of it.
Giving Sableye an affectionate pat atop the head, Spruce hurried over to go join the other three, with Ria following beside him, and the group headed off. Walter and Spruce took the lead this time, making sure that Zoro was following behind them, and the villagers all watched as they gradually shrank into the distance.
"Such a headstrong attitude…" Tiffany murmured, "Is that the kind of man who can call himself your captain, Sanji?"
"No." Sanji replied in a tone which carried a distinct fondness, "That's the kind of man who's going to call himself the Pirate King."
-O-
Mercury's leg bounced impatiently. Sitting out in the middle of the berry garden, she watched as several of the Grunts worked together to repair the main gate, now just putting on the finishing touches before the work would be done. Brass was overseeing the work directly, giving directions and instructions, while Copper stood silently behind her.
"Nickel's taking his time." Mercury said irritably.
"You think he's been beaten, don't you?" Copper said, "ACHOO!"
"If that brute who attacked us had the strength to break down the gates and beat the grunts senseless with just his bare hands, how strong do you think his Pokémon must be?" Mercury replied.
"Nickel's always been a weakling!" Brass called out, "You should have sent Copper or me to go after him and make sure the job got done properly!"
"Perhaps you should extend an offer of membership to these foreigners." Copper suggested, "They will have certainly proven themselves if they have defeated Nickel. ACHOO!"
"Might have to rough 'em up first, just to make sure they know who's in charge, but that wouldn't be a terrible idea." Mercury said, "Alright. As soon as the repair work's done, I want the both of you to head down to Pastoria Village and finish the job that Nickel couldn't."
"You heard the Leader!" Brass said, beckoning for the Grunts to hurry things up, "Get the gate done and dusted so Copper and I can go show that weakling how real Team Steel Admins handle things!"
It was exactly one second after Brass had spoken that the gate was blasted off its hinges.
The extended fist of Monkey D. Luffy struck Team Steel's looming gate dead-centre, and immediately undid every bit of work that had gone into repairing the damage Sanji had done. Both halves of the gate were launched backwards by the force of the single blow, sending them both flying back to crash through the front wall of the Team Steel base and just about cave in the front half of the entire building. Brass had been stood to the side of the gate, just barely avoiding being hit by either of the wickets, while Copper ducked down to avoid any damage. Mercury sat completely still, save for a twitching eyebrow, as the gate sailed over her head, and the grunts that had been repairing it were all smashed by the gate and sent tumbling back in all directions through the berry garden.
Wreaking that amount of destruction distracted most of the onlookers present from the fact that Luffy's fist was extended the way it was, and the momentum of his attack carried his fist a few meters into the base, before suddenly snapping back and retracting back to its original length. Mercury, who had been focused on the arm rather than the giant pieces of wood flying through the air, followed the limb's trajectory to direct her gaze on who had actually just thrown that punch. She recognised, to a mixture of dismay and interest, two of the people who had come along as part of the attack party, but not the boy in the straw hat who had thrown the punch, nor the green-haired swordsman who was with him.
"HEY MERCU-LADY!" Luffy yelled, striding on into the base through the open gateway he had just created, "WE'RE HERE TO BEAT YOU UP!"
"I'M RIGHT HERE!" Mercury yelled right back from where she was sitting, "There's no need to shout so loudly. Now, I take it that you're affiliated with the man who came by and attacked us earlier?"
As she spoke, Brass gathered his bearings and made to grab one of his Pokeballs, but Mercury halted him with a finger. Noticing the gesture, Zoro and Spruce both gave Brass threatening looks, with the former nudging one of his swords a couple inches out of its sheath so that the metal glinted in the daylight.
"Yeah, he's my chef!" Luffy nodded.
"Oh, your chef? Now that's interesting. From the looks of things, he's not come with you. Nickel didn't defeat him, did he?" Mercury said.
"No way, Sanji beat your stupid Nicholas guy and now he's preparing a feast for after we beat up the rest of you!" Luffy said hotly.
"So he did fail after all." Mercury sighed, "A little disappointing for one of my Admins to be taken down in such a manner, but it's good that a weakling like him was taken down."
"You're… not mad about it?" Luffy said confusedly.
"HA! Why would the Leader be mad about that sorta thing?" Brass scoffed, "Trash belongs in the trash! All that chef did was clean up our ranks. We're mad at Nickel for failing to do his job, and we're mad at the chef for breaking down our gate and stealing all our food, but we're not mad at the chef for beating up Nickel."
"Nothing but a bunch of thugs, the lot of them!" Walter growled.
"Now, given that you called him your chef, does that mean I'm talking to the guy in charge of all these foreigners suddenly visiting Iron Island out of nowhere?" Mercury said.
"They're my crew!" Luffy said, "The Straw Hat Pirates, and I'm gonna become King of the Pirates!"
As the exchange between Leader and Captain went on, many of the Grunts who had been posted to the base began to amass over near what remained of the base building. Some came from the battlefield behind it, some came out of the garden, and some dragged themselves out from the wreckage itself. None of them had sent their Pokémon out yet, though a few of them had their Pokeballs in hand.
"A pirate, huh? A little storybook-ish, but you've proven strong enough to earn it." Mercury said, "The swordsman is another one of yours, I presume. Pokémon trainers don't carry swords, they've got Pokémon for that. The brat and the old man, though, they're Iron Islanders through and through. Been a while, hasn't it you two?"
"Too long." Walter said.
"Riolu! Rio, Riolu Lu!" Ria snapped while Spruce remained silent.
"See, you're new so you won't know, but I've smacked the both of them down in the past." Mercury said, "It was a shame both times too. The geezer was a really great Pokémon trainer some decades ago in his prime, and Spruce? That kid? Ha! I killed his dad in front of him, and then he went and lived as an orphan in the Eterna Grove for five years before coming back to challenge me! Seriously, how hardcore is that? Only way to top it would be to live in the Oreburgh Cave, but that's just being unrealistic at that point. I hoped that if I ever saw the two again, it would be because they were coming over to serve under me. Unfortunately, it seems like they just might be here to try and defeat me again, and I won't have any mercy to spare them this time."
"Spruce can't join your Team because he's gonna be joining my crew instead!" Luffy said, "After we beat the crap out of you, he's gonna be my scout!"
"Actually, I'm afraid that your band of pirates are going to join up under my Team Steel." Mercury countered, "That's the only way you'll be spared after everything that you've done."
"Nuh-uh. If we joined you, you'd have to be working under me instead." Luffy said, "My crew can't work for you! You're a bully who doesn't respect her friends!"
"Why? Because of what I said about Nickel?" Mercury said, "You have to understand, don't you? That swordsman doesn't look like he carries those swords for show, and you and your chef have proven yourselves already. People like us, we need strong subordinates working under us, not weak ones."
"Strong crewmates? Weak crewmates?" Luffy frowned, "I don't care about any of that stuff! EVERYONE ON MY CREW IS MY FRIEND, SO WE'RE ALL GONNA MAKE OUR DREAMS COME TRUE TOGETHER!"
The declaration hung in the air for seconds after it was made, seemingly stunning not only the members of Team Steel into silence, but Spruce as well, as his words echoed in their minds. Spruce's hands trembled, and a tear began to trail down his cheek, while Mercury rose to her feet with a blank look on her face.
"Riolu?" Ria said, nudging the side of Spruce's leg.
"Luffy?" Spruce mumbled.
"Huh?" Luffy glanced back at him.
"Kick her ass." He encouraged as he wiped away the tear.
"Okay!" Luffy responded with a D-shaped grin breaking out across his face.
That was the signal for things to get going. All the Grunts who had merely been watching up until that moment leaped into action, running forwards as the first wave of offense to soften their enemies up before the leadership had to deal with them. Before a single Pokeball could be thrown and a single Pokémon sent out to fight, however, the charge was met by Luffy and Zoro. The Captain took the ones on the left, while his First Mate took the ones on the right.
Both pirates moved at speeds that nobody present could actually properly follow them at, with the swordsman drawing two of his three swords from their sheaths before running straight into the crowd of grunts. Cold steel shone and the glint of the blades flashed as he moved through the grunts like the wind, limbs flowing like water, and he came to a stop behind them as ten Grunts all promptly collapsed to the ground. Blood spurted from over a dozen different wounds, while Pokeballs fell from limp hands.
In contrast to the silent grace that Zoro had exhibited, Luffy came to a stop just in front of the Grunts on the left and unleashed hell.
"GUM-GUM… GATLING!"
The two fists which he possessed became four, then sixteen, and then it became impossible to actually count. A flurry of blows were launched, striking out in front of him before being pulled back and thrown again, and each one that managed to connect with a Grunt sent that Grunt flying off their feet. Bodies were bruised, bones were broken, teeth were knocked out of people's mouths, and in no time at all Luffy brought an end to his onslaught and stood up straight.
It was hard to tell which group of Grunts had been dealt the more unfortunate hand, but there was no shortage of misfortune between them. Luffy and Zoro both turned around to see not only the Admins and Mercury herself, but even Spruce and Walter, giving them utterly gobsmacked looks.
"They- they attacked the trainers before they'd even sent their Pokémon out!" Walter gasped.
"I didn't even know you could do that!" Spruce said.
"Riolu… Rio, Riolu…" Ria whispered reverentially at the sight of Luffy's Gum-Gum Gatling.
"What a disgustingly dishonourable show of force!" Brass snapped. Walter promptly whirled around and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground while the old man winced and shook his fist. Despite being punched, the Admin's arms remained crossed.
"Feeble, elderly fists aren't meant to throw punches like that." He grumbled.
"Dishonourable?" Zoro scoffed, "Did you forget who it is you're facing? Honour is a worthless concept in a pirate battle."
"In that case, do not expect the Admins of Team Steel to fall so easily before mere brute force." Copper warned as he grabbed a Pokeball, "TOXICROAK, COME OUT AND STRIKE THEIR CAPTAIN WITH POISON JAB! ACHOO!"
"That was a cheap shot, geezer!" Brass said as he held his Pokeball out in front of him, "TIME TO CRUSH THESE LOSERS INTO DUST GOLEM! HEAVY SLAM!"
Both Admins' Pokeballs opened up and released the mentioned Pokémon out in matching bursts of white light. From Copper's Pokeball emerged a blue and red humanoid frog Pokémon, with sinister yellow eyes and a crafty smirk, below which was a bulbous red sac. Its hands were three-fingered, plus a large red claw on each, and the claw on its right hand glowed a deep shade of purple as droplets of poison began to gather around the tip. Moving swiftly, it dashed towards where Luffy was standing and thrust its poisonous claw out, aiming to strike the pirate dead-centre in his chest.
Rather than flesh or cloth, however, Toxicroak's found its attack being met with steel. Charging in from the side, Zoro used the blade in his left hand to catch the attack and parry it to the side, while slashing across Toxicroak's body with the blade in his right. Yubashiri's edge danced across Toxicroak's midsection, digging into the skin, and Zoro followed the attack up by crossing both swords in front of him and performing a downwards X-shaped slash into Toxicroak's chest, with the Pokémon's sac accounting for most of the surface area where the attack struck.
The sheer strength of the attack, coupled with the fact that the blades did no more than simply dig into Toxicroak's flesh as opposed to actually cutting through it, caused Toxicroak to be knocked back. It stumbled backwards, half-skidding across the ground, and almost fell onto its rear but hopped up into the air in order to correct itself and land on its feet. Doing so gave Zoro an opportunity to assess the damage for himself, and he saw that indents had been left in its skin where he attacked, but the skin had not broken anywhere and no blood had been spilled. Droplets of poison clung to Sandai Kitetsu's edge, though, and he flicked his wrist in order to flick the droplets off into the ground.
"Sorry, an insignificant second-fiddle like you isn't even worth our captain's time." Zoro taunted Copper, "You'll have to make do with me instead."
"A shame, steel is not my best match-up." Copper drawled, "Though I think I can make do. ACHOO!"
Emerging from Brass' Pokeball, a powerful Golem's feet touched the ground for less than a second before it had leapt up into the air. It tucked its arms, legs and head in, making itself as much of a sphere of rock as it possibly could as the stones that lined the outside of its body took on a shining silver hue, looking more like metal than rock. Its trajectory would have brought it crashing down into both Walter and Spruce, and Ria bent her legs in preparation for jumping up and knocking the Pokémon away, but Walter moved even faster as he drew his own Pokeball.
"FLOATZEL, TEACH SOME MANNERS WITH AQUA TAIL!"
Walter's own Floatzel, a battle-hardened Pokémon with the kinds of scars and faded fur that gave a clear impression of age, materialised on the battlefield, and didn't waste any time getting to work. Jumping up, a mass of water enveloped the two tails poking out of its behind, and it swung itself around, putting extra emphasis into the hip movement, in order to strike the descending Golem and bat it away like a star baseball player. Golem was knocked through the open gateway and crashed into the ground outside with such force that it created a crater where it landed. Brass scrambled to his feet and ran after it, clearly wise enough not to face down a pair of partner Pokémon without any Pokémon of his own between them.
"Might have softened up that Golem a bit more than I should have." Walter admitted with a hearty chuckle, "Hope that doesn't taint your victory at all, Spruce. I was expecting to deal with the rabble, but those cheeky troublemakers beat me to the punch! HOHOHO!"
"I think I can find a way to cope." Spruce replied calmly, following Brass and his Golem back out the gate and onto the terrain outside the base. As well as them, Zoro had begun to trade blows with Copper's Toxicroak as the two darted about the berry garden, which left just Luffy, Mercury and Walter standing around amidst the chaos.
"Well, seeing as it's a bit cramped here, I hope you'll humour my request for a change of venue." Mercury said, "Copper's the only one of us who can fight here without ruining the gardens anyway… Ironic, given his type proficiency. The battlefield back behind the building should be vacant. Does that work for you, pirate?"
"It doesn't matter where we fight, I'm gonna kick your ass either way!" Luffy said, cracking his knuckles. Still, he allowed Mercury to walk over and past him, and he followed her in the direction of the battlefield she had mentioned, both of them climbing over the wreckage of the base to get there.
"Apologies, Spruce, but I don't think I could forgive my feeble, elderly self if I didn't witness this particular match firsthand." Walter said quietly to himself. He and Floatzel both made their way after the Captain and the Leader, and with Spruce and Brass' fight having moved outside, that left the garden empty save for the clash between Zoro and Copper.
"LOW KICK!"
Toxicroak dashed across the ground towards Zoro, strafing to the side just as it was within his range of attack so that it could duck down and kick one of its legs out, aiming to strike the side of the swordsman's knee and make him lose his balance. Of course, given that Zoro had just heard Copper yell out the directions prompting it to do so, he was able to hop back out of the reach of Toxicroak's kick. He retaliated with a downwards swing of Yubashiri, only for Toxicroak to catch the blade with the underside of its claw and redirect the attack to its side as it rose back up to a standing position.
"POISON JAB!"
The other claw imbued itself with poison energy as it had done so before, and Toxicroak thrust the tip of it out towards his abdomen. Zoro blocked it with the flat of Sandai Kitetsu and shoved the attack off to the side before raising his swords together and then spinning himself around in order to drive them both into the side of its body. They dug deeply into the skin, but were quickly pushed out as the blunt force of the attack launched Toxicroak off its feet and sent it tumbling back across the ground.
Such a sight made Zoro's face twist up with distaste, and Copper noticed his reaction.
"Is Pokémon battling not to your tastes? ACHOO!"
"Swords aren't created to act as blunt instruments." Zoro said irritably, "They exist to cut down the enemies before their wielder. Blades of this quality shouldn't be acting like nothing more than metal clubs."
"I'm afraid that Pokémon are far too resilient for mere pieces of metal to pierce their flesh like that. You can go ahead and put that resilience to the test, if you'd like. Attack Toxicroak with as much killing intent as you want to. ACHOO!"
'He's trying to bait me into some kind of attack.' Zoro noted, 'There must be some kind of a trap involved, but I can't not attack and expect to win. Eh, it'll be easier to destroy a trap if it's sprung anyway.'
Once again, he held his swords out in front of his face and crossed them into an X-shape. Facing Toxicroak directly, where the Pokémon had risen to its feet and was now staring him down with its sac rhythmically inflating and deflating in a way akin to breathing.
A second passed, with both Zoro and Copper's eyes raking in every single minute detail in front of them. The swordsman's muscles twitched, and he moved but-
"SUCKER PUNCH! ACHOO!"
The words registered in Zoro's mind as Toxicroak was already in action. Imbued with a swiftness that not even he could process, Toxicroak dashed forwards across the ground, becoming a blur of red and blue and an ominous blackness that enshrouded its fist. That mass of black slammed into Zoro's abdomen before he had even moved an inch, with the claw especially digging into him, and the breath escaped his lungs as his brain was still trying to catch up, not even feeling the pain yet.
And then it hit him a moment later, as Toxicroak's ungodly speed vanished and it became as it had been before. Zoro staggered back off of the Pokémon's limb, winded and with wide, disoriented eyes. Had Toxicroak been any other fighter, it would have pressed its advantage and attacked again, but it simply stood still and waited for another command to be issued. Zoro was, after all, not the only human present who needed a moment to catch up with its speed.
"FOLLOW IT UP WITH POISON JAB! ACHOO!"
Once the instructions finally came, Toxicroak thrust its other claw- imbued with poison, of course- out at the same part of Zoro's abdomen that it had just struck previously, but compared to its attack speed before it was moving just shy of a snail's pace. Zoro caught the claw between his swords, stopping Toxicroak's attack short as poison trickled down the two blades. He shoved the Pokémon back, releasing its claw and spinning himself around once again, though not to attack with a regular slash as he had done before.
"Two-Sword Style… HAWK WAVE!"
With the sheer force that he swung his blades, he mustered up a great gust of wind and hurled it directly into Toxicroak. Whereas before the Pokémon had been able to easily endure the might of world-class blades wielded by a competent swordsman, the wind actually elicited a reaction of serious pain, with Toxicroak's eyes widening as it was knocked back off its feet by the wind and sent tumbling back across the ground.
Such a reaction did not escape Zoro's notice.
Briefly returning his swords to their sheaths in order to free up his hands, he untied the bandana that had previously been wrapped around his arm, and tied it around his head while Toxicroak rose to its feet.
"So that stupid frog of yours can take damage." Zoro remarked, a vicious grin on his face. When he drew his swords again, he drew Wado Ichimonji first, and he grasped the sword's hilt in his mouth to go along with the blade he wielded in each hand. His particular method of wielding three blades at once elicited a raised eyebrow from Copper.
"That is an interesting way of doing combat. Am I to presume that is the norm for foreigners? ACHOO!"
"Nothing about me is the norm." Zoro retorted proudly, "I'm glad to know that you're stronger than the guy who twirly-brow beat, because I'd feel bad about having to put in this much effort if you weren't."
"And I suppose I should thank you for making yourself my opponent." Copper said, "Assuming a hierarchy based on strength, I may very well have bitten off more than I could- ACHOO- with that captain of yours."
"Don't sell yourself short." Zoro said, "You bit off more than you could chew with me."
"We'll see, won't we? ACHOO!"
-O-
In contrast to the show of speed and skill between a swordsman and a frog, the battle between Spruce and Brass far more closely resembled what one would picture in their heads when they heard the term 'Pokémon Battle'. Once Golem had risen to its feet and climbed out of the crater it created, Brass took his place standing behind the Pokémon while Spruce stood behind Ria, and the diminutive blue canine glared down the walking boulder with a ferocity that could be mistaken for Intimidate. Golem's attack was not lowered in the slightest, though.
"You sure you wanna take this battle, Ria? Floatzel probably really softened him up with that Aqua Tail." Spruce asked.
"Riolu! Rio-Rio, Lu Riolu!" Ria said hotly, bouncing up and down and turning back to Spruce as she made several wild gestures. He nodded along like he understood everything she was trying to communicate.
"Right, yeah. I get it. That would be pretty cool, wouldn't it? Sure, you got this!" He said with an added fist pump of encouragement.
"Damn crazy weirdoes who think they can talk to Pokémon." Brass grunted, "GOLEM, USE ROCK POLISH!"
"GOLEM!" Golem roared. It rubbed its hands along the rocky plates of its shell in a polishing motion as its body took on a bright white glow, which died down a second later to reveal that its body was now much shinier, practically sparkling in the sunlight.
"Make yourself a more obvious target, why don't you?" Spruce deadpanned, "RIA! QUICK ATTACK INTO ROCK SMASH!"
"DODGE IT!" Brass ordered.
"Riolu!" Ria nodded, quickly dashing forwards towards the sparkling Golem at a breakneck pace. She zigzagged, hopping from left to right as she did, before ramming right into the centre of Golem's shell. The attack didn't even faze that Pokémon, but damage hadn't been the main goal of the Quick Attack. As Ria rebounded off of Golem's rocky shell, she reared her fist back while imbuing it with an orange glow, only for Golem to strafe to the side just as she threw the punch. She landed on the ground and swivelled around to keep the Pokémon in her sights.
"USE HEAVY SLAM!"
"CATCH IT WITH METAL CLAW!"
The same as before, Golem's shell was overtaken by a metallic shine, giving the impression of steel rather than stone, though it didn't leap up into the air to perform the attack this time. Instead, it simply threw itself forwards into Ria, aiming to crush her with its weight. A pair of glowing claws with a similar metal sheen grew out the ends of Ria's paws, and she thrust them out to meet Golem's attack head-on. Gritting her teeth and bracing herself against the ground, she dug the tips of the claws into the plates of its shell and heaved Golem off of the ground. Swinging her arms overhead, she lifted the enormous Rock-Type in an arc and slammed it into the ground behind her. Its body dug into the ground, creating an indent, though not quite the crater it had left before.
"NOW USE METAL CLAW FOR REAL!"
"DODGE IT!"
No longer imbued with the power of a Heavy Slam, Golem's shell had returned to normal just in time for Ria to leap up onto it, her metal claws having not yet disappeared, so she scrape them parallel to each other down across the rocky plates.
"GOLEM!" It cried out in pain, planting its hands firmly against the ground and shoving it up onto its feet. The motion jostled Ria off of its shell, and she did a flip in the air before landing on the ground a short distance away. She looked over at Spruce with a hopeful expression, and he gave her a thumbs-up.
"Riolu!" Ria chirped, bouncing up and down gleefully. Such antics seemed to anger both Brass and his Pokémon, as matching veins popped in their foreheads.
"USE STEALTH ROCK!"
"USE METAL CLAW!"
White energy manifested all around Golem's body, shaping itself as tendrils that emerged from between the plates of its shell and shot out in all directions of the battlefield, with no particular target as far as any observer could tell. The ends of the tendrils took shape and materialised into a myriad of small, jagged stones, which both littered the ground they were battling on and even floated in the air, as if immune to the effects of gravity. Some of the rocks appeared in Ria's path as she dashed towards where Golem was standing, claws of metal appearing out of her paws once more, but she easily darted around or over most of them, and used her claws to smash right through the last couple to have wound up in her path.
"ROCK POLISH AND THEN DODGE!" Brass yelled as Ria closed the distance between the two Pokémon.
"Gol… EM!" Golem said, polishing himself once again and causing his body to sparkle even more than it had before. Ria could vaguely make out her own reflection growing larger as she leaped towards it with her Metal Claw attack. Moving with a swiftness that was almost a comical sight given Golem's appearance, the Pokémon leaped to the side to dodge Ria's attack, her warped reflection taunting her as it passed across several different plates on the Pokémon's shell.
"Sending out Whiskers and Pex is probably out of the question with all these Stealth Rocks about." Spruce mused to himself, "That was probably intention with the attack, help cover the numbers disadvantage."
"Riolu!" Ria snapped at her trainer, throwing him a glare from across the battlefield.
"I wasn't gonna!" He defended, throwing his hands up placatingly, "I was just saying. Come on, you know I wouldn't go back on my word like that!"
"The hell kind of insane ramblings are you having now?" Brass called out irritably.
"She got mad at me because she thought I might switch her out!" Spruce replied, "But we decided that I wouldn't do that because Floatzel already weakened Golem earlier, so instead she's going to beat Golem and your next Pokémon as well!"
"Riolu!" Ria nodded confidently.
"In your dreams, you damn homeless nutcase." Brass grunted, "GOLEM! ROLLOUT!"
"GOLEM!" Golem exclaimed. The Pokémon tucked its limbs and head in, retracting them into its shell so that it became as close to spherical as it could, and began to spin rapidly in place. The movement kicked up a trail of dust behind where it was, and after a second to build up speed, it shot forwards like a ball fired out of a cannon. The trail of dust in its wake only grew larger as it sped across the ground right towards where Ria was standing.
"BRACE YOURSELF!" Spruce instructed. Brass' brow furrowed at the command.
'Brace? Not dodge? What the hell is that dumb brat thinking?'
"Rio… Lu… Rio… Lu…" Ria murmured to herself, raising her arms up to shield her face as Golem rolled towards her. Spreading her legs apart and digging her heels into the ground, she glared at the high-speed shell, which had since lost its previous shine, right up into it slammed into her. Plates of stone rammed into her, scraping across her body as she was quickly flung off her feet to sail through the air and land unceremoniously to the side, all while Golem just rolled right on. It continued on its trajectory for several meters, before swerving around and doubling back, singling out where Ria was standing and once again rolling towards her.
For her part, Ria rose to her feet, ignoring the superficial scrapes the attack had left her with in favour of brushing some of the dust off her fur. Once again, she glared at the rapidly oncoming Rollout attack rather than make any attempt to dodge, as she had been given no command to do so. The attack seemed to accelerate as it approached her, kicking a larger amount of dust up in its wake, and she did nothing more than shield her face once again as she was hit. Like before, the attack flung her into the air, but her landing this time was far more graceful, as she rolled with the attack in order to do two whole flips in the air this time before landing. Spruce gave her a double thumbs-up, while two veins throbbed in Brass' forehead.
"CRUSH IT WITH THIS ROLLOUT!" Brass roared furiously, not that he need of bothered, as Golem kept up its speed and momentum and, once again, swerved around to aim itself at where Ria was now standing. And, once again, the attack sped up even more the third time around. Third time's the charm, after all.
Unlike the previous round, however, Spruce actually saw fit to issue a new command this time.
"JUMP UP AND COME DOWN WITH A ROCK SMASH!"
Brass' eyes widened as he cottoned onto the plan he had been ignorantly playing into, but there was nothing he could do but watch as Golem remained locked in its Rollout attack.
Before Golem had a chance to hit her for the third time, Ria jumped up into the air and reared her fist back, which glowed with a burning orange light. As Golem passed by beneath her, she descended and drove her fist down, smashing it into the Pokémon's shell with such force as to stop its Rollout short and drive it into the ground. A crater formed in the ground around where Golem was stopped while the cloud of dust obscured both trainers' vision of the battle.
Neither one said anything until the dust settled, which revealed to both of them the sight of Ria standing atop Golem's shell, her fist still pressed into one of many cracked plates, and none the worse for wear. Golem's limbs and head had emerged from within its shell, all hanging limply and its eyes having turned into a pair of swirls. Even with no referee to make it official, the result was clear.
"Golem!" Brass gasped.
"Great job, Ria! You did really well tanking those hits!" Spruce cheered, an ear-to-ear grin plastered across his face.
"Riolu!" Ria gushed, a matching grin on her face as she bounced up and down on Golem's shell.
Red light snapped both trainer and Pokémon out of their jubilation and returned them to the reality of their battle, as Brass returned Golem to its Pokeball. In contrast to Spruce's glee, he had a sneer on his face as he held the Pokeball in front of his face.
"A useless piece of trash, no better than the ones in the wild. That's what you are." Brass spat before placing the Pokeball back on his belt and grabbing the one next to it.
"That kind of attitude is exactly the reason you're losing this battle!" Spruce said disapprovingly.
"Spare me the self-righteousness and just battle." Brass growled.
"Fine, fine, I'll save the gloating for after I win." Spruce shrugged, "Now hurry up and make this quick! I don't wanna miss seeing Luffy beat the crap out of Mercury!"
"Grnngh." Brass said, "Damn brat, I'll show you! TIME TO ROCK AND ROLL SUDOWOODO!"
He threw the Pokeball high up into the air, and Ria and Spruce both braced themselves for the next stage of the battle, as they knew that the easy part was done, and the next Pokémon they faced would be nowhere near as easy to defeat.