June 1st, 1978, 2100
Grumpig looked incredulously back at Sula as if to say, "You don't think I know that? I'm the one out here busting my ass in this stupid volcano!" The customary cheer that the pig-like pokemon brought to all his battles was gone; it had been replaced by a chilling fear that Sula felt keenly from her longstanding bond with the diminutive pig.
As she moved to make her first command, Sula noticed that she was no longer sweating. In fact, she felt cold. For a fleeting second, Sula thought Blaine had been considerate enough to turn on a fan, but she quickly snapped her gaze back towards The Reaver and realized in horror what was happening.
In the mere seconds Grumpig had taken to glare at his trainer, Blaine's Ninetales had coalesced nine watermelon-sized balls of inky, black darkness that sent jolts of pain down her eyes when she looked at them.
Even from nearly fifty meters away, Sula could feel the soul-leeching properties of the powerful Ghost energy Ninetales was channeling.
Stupid Sula, Blaine didn't need to make a command. His Ninetales is a fucking expert psychic, she realized all too late as the nine Shadowballs screaming with a ghostly howling careened with deceptive speed towards the singed Grumpig.
Grumpig didn't even have time to cry out in fear before they impacted. In an ironic juxtaposition to the fiery wall he had just run through, his flesh erupted into huge white patches of what looked like freezing necrotic tissue.
Sula grimaced as she watched her pokemon writhe with pain at the devastating attack.
The blobs easily ate through the same layer of blubber that had let the previous Fire Blast wash over him like a light summer breeze.
Grumpig cried out in soul-curdling agony from the savage attack, before abruptly keeling over.
Sula recalled Grumpig before more damage could be done, whispering a few words to the downed pokémon in appreciation.
"Good job, buddy. I forgot about Shadowball when I led with you; that's on me."
Shit. I really thought he could tank for a few attacks, thought Sula in frustration. I shouldn't have underestimated Ninetales' little-known ghost typing.
It often went unsaid, but everybody seriously training their pokémon knew that ghost types grew from absorbing souls from either killing or torturing their prey. With a name like The Reaver, there was no question what Ninetales had been up to in the war.
Sula studied the Ninetales as she decided on her next pokémon. She was reasonably sure that Ninetales was Blaine's starter, so she felt okay breaking out the big guns for this one.
After all, if I can't get through The Reaver, it doesn't matter what else Blaine might have up his sleeve.
Across the silent arena, Blaine waited calmly without saying a word as he let Sula make her decision.
"Alright, Lapras, get out there! I need ya, big guy!" Sula said in excitement.
The large, seafaring pokémon flopped out clumsily onto the arena with a sizzling noise as his wet skin came into contact with the magma-heated floor. Lapras looked back at Sula with annoyed black eyes as he gestured with a massive flipper at the rocky surface he found himself on as if to say, "This is bullshit, and you know it."
"Hey, don't get sassy with me right now. This is serious business, and I need you to take down that demon across the way," Sula said with a hard edge.
Lapras immediately got the message and dropped his annoyance as he took in the scene with the seasoned eye of a professional battler.
Blaine had issued no commands, yet there was not one, not two, but eighteen prancing Ninetales heading towards Lapras in a constantly shifting wall of fur.
They really need to update that move name, thought Sula as she took in Ninetales' exemplary Double Team.
"Lapras! Widescale containment, form one, please," ordered Sula calmly.
Without any indication of having heard her, Lapras practically exploded with elemental water energy as a massive wave of water crashed its way toward the approaching fox army.
It was a widespread misconception that all water pokémon needed to be in water to be effective. Some did, sure. But most water pokémon were highly adaptive and could survive in various environments.
Lapras may have been awkward and cumbersome in his movements on land, but he could still fight with the best in a battle. Sula thought of him as an immobile artillery source when on land.
There was a hiss of steam and a staccato of small popping noises as Ninetales' clones came into contact with the wave before bursting in a flash of fire. The excess water poured off the arena's edges onto the waiting magma below, creating a veritable steam room as the water evaporated en masse.
Sula and Lapras strained their eyes to find the real Ninetales hiding in the obscuring mist.
This steam might've been nice a few hours ago, thought Sula absently as she used her sleeve to wipe off the blend of condensation and sweat that now coated her face and neck. She clicked her tongue in distaste as she realized her sleeve was already fully saturated, and all she had done was move moisture around. Stupid fucking fire arena.
"One more time, Lapras, just keep doing this as long as we need to. She has to come to us," ordered Sula.
Just as Lapras was about to release another wave, a beam of white light shot out at Lapras from beyond their field of view.
The sizzling noise in the background multiplied a thousand times over as the Solarbeam began melting Lapras' flesh hungrily.
Lapras grunted in pain and used his flippers to try and move away from the concentrated grass-type energy but only succeeded in flopping himself over onto his side through his efforts.
"AH SHIT, FUCK IT, LAPRAS, USE HYPER BEAM!" cried Sula in a panic as she watched her companion gritting his way through the super effective damage he was taking.
Lapras managed to rear back and emitted a crackling white tunnel of normal-type energy toward the offending grass energy.
Although the Solarbeam was undoubtedly powerful, it was steadily pushed back by Lapras' retaliation, and a few seconds later, Sula heard a pained yip from across the field as Ninetales was finally struck by the attack. One of the only downsides of the mighty move was that it painted a target on the user.
"Lapras, I know you're hurting. Push through it! Form one again!" commanded Sula mercilessly as Lapras languished on the floor.
Somehow, even from his position on the floor, Lapras could barely usher forth one more powerful blast of water-type energy before he passed out cold.
The five-meter-high wave of water roared desperately across the area, causing the already cloying cloud of steam to become even denser.
Sula heard another small yip of pain and then silence. She pulled out Lapras' ball to return him to a state of blissful slumber, away from the pain she knew he would feel when he woke up.
Please be down, please, please stay down, Sula prayed silently as she waited with bated breath. Lapras was my best answer. Please work. She clenched her fists in anticipation as the silence became increasingly deafening.
Fifteen silent seconds went by. Then thirty.
Just as Sula was about to release her next pokémon, she heard Blaine's nasal voice croak hauntingly through the haze, and she trembled in relief.
"Ninetales is unable to battle. Lapras is unable to battle. Since your Pokémon fainted first, you're up next. Rememberrrr, no switches," he called out in a taunting, almost sing-song voice, seemingly unaffected by his starter's loss.
Sula felt herself shiver once more. For an Arceus damned volcanic arena, I'm shivering way too much, thought Sula. What a creep.
Wasting no time with her decision, Sula threw out her starter confidently.
"ZARDDDD," roared out the fire-flying pokémon as she entered the fray, eyes scanning through the mist to find her prey. In contrast to her species' normal burnt orange coloration, this particular Charizard's scales were nearly entirely white due to the rarely seen condition of albinism. Her eyes shone a baleful crimson, and the flame on her tail glowed with a haunting blue light. Lizzie the Charizard stood over two meters tall, her tail lashing with a not-so-subtle impatience for violence.
"An interesting choice, Miss Seiichi. I had forgotten your penchant for my own chosen specialty. What a beautiful specimen," commented Blaine appreciatively. "Go, Torkoal!"
The flame tortoise emerged on the far side of the field from Sula and looked around in confusion; he could hardly see a thing through the blankets of white. Nonetheless, when the hardy pokémon entered the field, a glaring ray of sunlight shone through the mist as his Drought ability activated.
Ugh, like it needs to be any hotter, thought Sula with an exhausted shake of her head that sent droplets of sweat to sizzle on the magma below.
"Torkoal, use Rock Tomb before she can get into the air!" ordered Blaine.
"Don't get hit, Lizzie! Get to the air quickly and pick up that stupid pile of rocks! You know what to do," shot back Sula as she clenched her fists in determination.
Torkoal channeled rock-type energy, and a few large chunks of the arena broke off and hurtled towards the Charizard.
It was impressive. If Sula's pokemon was any less mobile, she would've been in trouble.
As it stood, Lizzie could easily dodge them with her speed, and they shattered loudly against the psychic barrier behind her. With a powerful flap of her nearly translucent wings, she hurtled toward the slower pokémon before snatching her up in a bear hug and heading upwards. Using her superior strength, she could efficiently suppress the smaller pokémon's efforts to escape her grasp, but it wasn't without cost.
Torkoal growled, and the pseudo-dragon's pale white scales began to blacken from the scorching heat, even as she gripped her package tighter to resist the increasing g-forces. With a few more beats of her wings, she rose seventy meters above the arena before releasing the helpless tortoise with a triumphant roar.
Like a flaming hunk of shrapnel, Torkoal plummeted towards the waiting ground below. Before he could hit the ground, his form disappeared in a flash of light as Blaine recalled him before he shattered on the hard surface.
"That would've killed him, you know," reprimanded Blaine coldly at the ruthless tactic. "You'll be fined and have your license suspended in a normal circuit battle."
"Then it's a good thing you recalled him when you did. If I recall, you never specified anything about not killing any pokémon when you laid out the rules for the match," retorted Sula.
"Let's get on with this, Blaine. I'll take down whatever you can throw at me and won't hesitate to do what I need to. It's not like you, of all people, have any room to critique my tactics."
Blaine snorted in dismissal. "As I said before, the younger generations disgust me. As if using lethal tactics in a pokémon match for entertainment holds up compared to fighting in an actual war. You don't know a thing, Miss Seiichi. I hope you never have to for your sake. Charizard, go. Let's see how you do when you don't have air superiority," said Blaine as he released his fourth pokémon.
"Oh, try not to kill your brethren if you can," Blaine added almost as an afterthought.
Sula could practically feel his taunting smile, even though she couldn't see him herself. Her breath caught in her throat as Blaine's pokémon took the field, flying rapidly toward Lizzie's position above the arena.
Blaine's Charizard may have lacked any unique characteristics like Lizzie's coat of white scales, but he certainly wasn't lacking in any way. The aging fire-lizard dwarfed Lizzie by at least a meter, and his frame looked like he outweighed her by nearly twice over.
I did not know Blaine had a Charizard, thought Sula as she attempted to suppress a feeling of rising panic at the sight. Try as she might, Sula was unable to fully calm herself down and could feel her breath coming in shorter, rapid spasms as her body reacted against her will.
An instinctive fear response genetically coded into humans hijacked their system when first coming into contact with any type of draconic pokémon, even a pseudo-dragon like Charizard.
Sula vowed to spend more time building resistance against draconic energy. Freezing up like this was mortifying!
"Fire moves won't work well on him, Lizzie! Get in close and hit him with a Dragon Claw if you can!" shouted Sula.
Her voice echoed loudly around the volcanic rim from the speakers around the space. In battles like this, where the pokémon were tens of meters away from their trainers, it was much more difficult to give specific instructions. As a result, many high-level matches devolved into savage close-quarters combat where the combatant's base instincts took over.
This one was no exception.
The two flaming lizards hacked and bit at each other savagely, and it wasn't long before sprays of blood started falling through the mist like a macabre rainstorm.
That's actually fucking terrifying, thought Sula in a sort of detached awareness as she watched the battle unfold above her.
Sula could hardly distinguish what was happening above her, only seeing brief flashes of fire sporadically illuminate the night sky. Sula could hear the growls, roars, and grunts inherent to a melee like this as both pokémon fought tooth and nail to emerge victorious.
"Lizzie, you got this! I know he's older and bigger than you, but you're young and skilled! Take that grandpa out! Size isn't everything!" cheered Sula as she struggled to think of something to help.
In times like these, trainers realized truly how powerless they were in the face of pokémon. More minor gym matches and pokémon contests gave trainers the illusion that they were in control and that their hard work granted them their win. It wasn't until a trainer reached the upper echelons of battling that they realized how small they were.
I can't do a damn thing, realized Sula as she waited and hoped for the result she wanted.
As Sula was spacing out, thinking about her place in the grand scheme of things, the duel came to a close as Blaine's Charizard anticlimactically fell nearly lifeless from the sky, with the dull thud unique to a body devoid of consciousness hitting the ground.
The Charizard's wings had been heavily damaged, and he was missing his right horn entirely. Blood rapidly began pooling underneath the damaged pokémon from the many gaping wounds he had received from Lizzie's sharp talons.
Seconds later, Lizzie, now liberally covered in blood and blackened scales, landed to announce her dominance over the elder Charizard.
"ZARDDDD! CHARIZARD!" roared Lizzie as she breathed a powerful jet of flame into the sky as if to herald her coming as the new head of the pack.
Sula pumped her fist in excitement, feeling pleasantly surprised at the result.
I knew she needed an extra push to win, thought Sula as she ironically attributed the victory to her cheering, quickly forgetting how powerless she felt seconds before.
Blaine silently recalled the unconscious pokémon before muttering something too quietly for the mike to pick up.
"Arcanine, go. Extreme Speed into Crunch. Don't give her a chance to escape," ordered Blaine as he released his fifth pokémon.
The fire-dog blinked out of sight, reappearing with a dull thump as he crashed into the barely coherent Lizzie, damaged as she was from the previous encounter.
"ZARD?" Lizzie managed to cry out in surprise as she was violently thrown from her position near the center of the ring into one of the psychic barriers. There was a dull crunch as one of the large bones in her wing snapped, eliciting a screech of agony from the flagging pokémon.
Arcanine gave her no respite and immediately latched his jaws around the damaged wing as he shook Lizzie like a ragdoll, sending specs of blood and saliva flying around the edge of the arena.
Sula immediately recalled her starter before further damage could be done to the most delicate part of Lizzie's body.
"Nice work, Liz, we'll get you patched up in no time as soon as we finish up with this," consoled Sula to the pokéball as she gingerly put it back on her belt.
Sula could tell the time for conversation was over, so rather than saying something to get under Blaine's skin, she just sent out her next pokémon.
"Take this oversized puppy down, Queenie," ordered Sula to her next combatant, a large blue saurian who practically bristled with venomous spikes.
"Use toxic to coat yourself in poison, and then scatter some spikes around yourself so he can't get close for free. He's quicker than you, so don't worry about trying to catch him. Play it slow. Hit him with Poison Stings if he gets close enough."
As Queenie began carrying out her trainer's instructions, Arcanine moved.
Rather than getting close, he retreated to Blaine's side of the field to stay out of the poison type's range.
"Flamethrower; sear off the poison. Use evasive tactics, and don't get close," ordered Blaine dispassionately.
The Arcanine swiftly carried out the command, using his superior speed to avoid the Nidoqueen's slower-moving darts and sending short bursts of fire to harass the relatively immobile pokémon.
Sula grimaced as she realized Blaine wasn't letting Arcanine get anywhere near Queenie. She also noticed that most of the venom on Queenie's spikes had already evaporated due to Arcanine's harrying flamethrowers.
"Okay, we gotta switch it up, girlie. He's too quick to hit. Use Sandstorm and Sludge Bombs on the surrounding area. I want this dog walking through poisonous sludge," called out Sula.
Nodding, Queenie focused for a moment, ignoring the intermittent bursts of fire, and the seemingly ever-present steam was finally chased out as a roaring Sandstorm screamed into existence within the bounds of the psychic shield. With a roar, the Nidoqueen erupted in a corona of virulent poison-type energy as the Sludge Bomb doused the surrounding area.
True to Sula's word, the poison and ground type-energy mixed seamlessly, and the arena was quickly coated in an inhospitable layer of toxic mud.
Arcanine growled in frustration and pain as his paws began disintegrating from the concentrated poison he could no longer avoid.
"That's it, Queenie! Just keep up the Sludge Bombs, and you can wait for him to come to you," encouraged Sula as she saw her plan was working.
"Tch. Change of plans Arcanine. We can't afford to wait out the sandstorm. Get in there with a Flare Blitz; try to avoid the spikes if you can," commanded Blaine.
Sula could hear the tiniest hint of panic creeping into Blaine's voice, and she smiled in satisfaction. We have an easy lead. I'm almost there.
"Queenie! Try to predict where he'll hit you and position yourself to hit him if you can! Just keep it up! I know you can do this!" Sula shouted in support of the dwindling pokémon.
At this point, between maintaining a constant sandstorm, multiple barrages of Sludge Bomb, and the earlier pestering tactics, Nidoqueen was swaying in exhaustion. Her eyes looked slightly unfocused but glinted determinedly at Sula's encouragement.
Arcanine didn't waste any time, thundering towards Queenie while wreathed in a corona of white-hot flame. Unfortunately for him, the Nidoqueen barely shifted her body in time, tucking her head to lance the Arcanine with her horn as he made contact.
Both pokémon grunted in pain at the contact; Arcanine's intense heat quickly ate through Queenie's natural armor, but the damage was already done. Arcanine's weight, paired with his momentum, had wedged his opponent's horn deep into his chest.
Arcanine whined in pain and desperately tried to pull himself off of the horn, but Queenie reacted instinctively and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him even further onto the impaling appendage with a quiet moan of effort. She shook herself wildly, scattering scraps of flesh as her spikes made easy work of his natural defenses.
"Stop! We're done! I forfeit the match!" cried Blaine frantically as he recalled his pokémon before it could become irreparably damaged. "This has gone too far for a competitive match."
As Blaine submitted, Sula felt a brief flood of relief spread through her overwhelmed nervous system before she realized something was wrong. Seriously wrong. I don't feel so good, she thought to herself as she slumped down across the platform, unconscious.
Blaine paused on his way off the platform, unaware of Sula's state. "Miss Seiichi. You may be the next champion. You may win all your matches. You and your pokémon are talented. No one can deny that, least of all me. But please, I beg you to consider what you may lose along the way if you continue to pursue victory at all costs. Some things aren't worth losing," Blaine mused mournfully as he recalled his experiences in the previous war.
"Miss Seiichi? Sula?" Blaine turned around in surprise when he didn't hear the snippy response he had expected.
"Shit," cursed Blaine as he realized Sula had ignored his secretary's well-intentioned advice to bring a water bottle or two. He quickly pressed a button on the edge of his platform before a familiar voice rang out.
"Sir? I thought you were in a match? Is everything alright up there?" asked Miss Shalke via the intercom system installed throughout the gym property.
"We've got another one," grumbled Blaine dejectedly as he thought about all the paperwork coming his way from yet another unconscious trainer on his property.