Chapter 13

~A Tale of Two Trainers~
-A Children's Story, Part: 3

Weeks turned to months turned to seasons turned to years.

Eric and Ashley went beyond their hundred battles. Every time they got close to figuring out a winner the tables would turn and the other one would start to stand on top.

The local Gym Leader encouraged Eric and Ashley to each go on a journey. To fight other trainers, to visit other places and catch other Pokémon! Why, Quagsire and Weepinbell were already each tough enough to fight the Gym's strongest battlers! And they would win too!

The Gym Leader said that they were both already 'the best'.

Eric and Ashley disagreed.

'There can only be one best'. Said both Eric and Ashley.

Besides, Ashley and Eric didn't want to compete against other trainers. They didn't want to bother with Badges or journeys or training other Pokémon.

Eric only had eyes for beating Ashley.

And Ashley only had eyes for beating Eric.

One night, there was a new person in the crowd watching their fight. Someone neither Ashley nor Eric recognized as being from Violet City.

He introduced himself as Bradley.

Lake of Rage, Semifinal Round

I am become error.

No seriously, I think I've goofed up.

I should have pulled Bubbles out of the reserve for a few days to give me one more viable team member for this tournament.

Yeah, the big boy's gotten fat and lazy. He's definitely out of shape. But he still would've been a Mamoswine. I could've used him.

Because if this keeps up then I'm gonna be straight cooked in regards to options going into the finals.

"Bullet Punch! / Brick Break!" Ma Ma and the Lv. 52 Scizor clash again, smashing into each other and both refusing to give an inch. To make matters worse the Steel/Bug Pokémon has both a beneficial Nature and I'm pretty certain the Ability Technician.

Ma Ma will not be getting out of this unscathed.

From across the field, Ace Trainer Alton -the same individual who convinced me to draw in round five- stands there cool as a cucumber. Not a worry in the world or a drip of sweat on his brow.

"Scizor! Break off and go into U-Turn!"

'Damn! If only the Ursaring family could learn Pursuit!' "Use the opening to Bulk Up!"

A speeding ball of Bug-energy smashes into Ma Ma even as her muscles swell, boosting both offense and defense. The Scizor disappears back into its cage and a new Pokémon dances onto the field, hopping back and forth, keeping itself loose.

Hitmontop: Lv. 46
Nature: Careful
Potential: B+

I work at my jaw. Fuck. Another contender we have to take seriously. Luckily Intimidate doesn't trigger but that doesn't tell me much. That Ability has a limitation in this world where it doesn't seem to work on opponents at least 10 levels higher. Of course, the absence of anything happening could also just mean this Fighting-type has Technician too which could be really bad.

"Triple Kick!"

"Ma Ma, Play Rough!"

Hitmontop flips over onto its head and begins accelerating across the field like a whirlwind, its form disappearing into just a spinning brown & blue vortex. Meanwhile Ma Ma preps another move she's been working on with…middling results.

Fairy-energy is ephemeral. It's nebulous. It's dreams and sparkles and fugitive fancy. Very different from working with Ground whose main characteristic is being firm. Ma Ma's tried her best to get the technique under her command but it's been slow baby steps to success rather than leaps.

The end result right now is claws shining in Normal energy with perhaps a few bits of Fairy mixed in.

She gives as good as she's got, accepting multiple blows to strike back with what she can but it's clear she's no longer fresh from duking it out with Scizor.

"Take a breather Ma Ma!" I snap up her ball to return her. 'I need to force an opening for her to Rest! But I can't do it against a Hitmontop! Even with Chesto, we might end up taking a Close Combat to the face!' "Vlad, move in!"

"Gligar!" he announces, swooping into the field.

I sweep my arm out. "Acrobatics! Take him down in one shot!"

"Hitmontop, play defensive with Ice Spinner!"

"Hit! Hitmon!" The Fighting-type spins up again, turning into a wintery tornado that throws off ice crystals as it spirals.

"Vlad! Abort! Pull up high!" 'Ice Spinner? Fuck, I don't know that one either! How many times am I going to be punished for only having cursory knowledge of the Generations past VII? We can't get hit by a 4x effective move of unknown power! "Start setting up! Agility!"

"Baton Pass!" Alton orders. He's got no bonuses to gift but using BP is technically a little faster than just doing a normal switch out. 'This would've been a good fight to set up some entry hazards.'

Alton's third Pokémon enters play and immediately sticks its tongue out while raising its little yellow hands high. Storm clouds begin to gather overhead and I curse under my breath.

'Of fucking course. A Politoed with Drizzle. Where in the fuck did he get that?'

Politoed: Lv. 46
Nature: Quirky
Potential: B-

'And it's just as tough as the Hitmontop! There's no opening to use in this fight! If I can't get it done with Vlad and Ma Ma then we're finished!'

Also, bonus points in the bad news category. There's a certain hierarchy to weather effects. I can't just call up a Sandstorm and make the rain go away. In this scenario, Wet beats Dry.

"Hydro Pump!" Alton practically roars and his frog wastes no time. With a deep breath its cheek sacs begin bloating up. Stretching to comical proportions.

Vlad signals he's done boosting. "Evade! Get Toxic when you can!"

"Quick Bursts Politoed!" Alton steps forward. "Shoot it down!"

Rather than one massive blast of blue, Politoed manages his water inventory in a way I've never encountered before. Spraying out smaller sniper shots, trying to clip one of Gligar's wings like a turret gunner against a plane.

Vlad is nothing if not an expert though. Completely unbothered by the rain he swerves and swishes. Even throwing in a Double-Team of his own accord after a near miss. "Gli!" Nasty purple sludge ejects from his tail as he flies by -and though Politoed intercepts it with a shot of Water- some of the malignant gunk still manages to splash Alton's Pokémon along it's upper torso.

"Hyper Voice!" Vlad's too close to do anything about this one. With a cacophonous croak, sound waves from Politoed slam into Gligar, sending him spinning out. "Follow with Weather Ball!"

A swirling blue orb shoots into the sky away from view and the hairs stick up on my neck. 'A delayed attack? That's not how Weath- Shit, he's gonna pincer us!' "Protect!"

"Hydro Pump! Full blast!" From within its gut a positively prodigious amount of Water sprays forth from Politoed, slamming into Gligar's protective dome and actually carting it away with Vlad trapped inside. The back of Vlad's barrier grinds against the safety field emanating from the League's equipment and I can feel my main man dig deep to hold the Protect firm.

Both moves die away, with Politoed actually breathing a little heavy from the effort put in and Gligar with sweat on his face. '!' I try to warn him but there's no time. The Super-effective Weather Ball slams down into the top of Vlad's head on its return trip and the scorpion-bat gets hammered into the mud.

'Their mistake.' I bolster Vlad with what aura I can through the link. 'Gligar can KO lesser opponents with Earthquake without ever leaving the sky. Now see what happens when you force him to the ground!'

"FISSURE!"

A lesson in Ground-type energy for the crowd at home. Magnitude, Earthquake, and Fissure are all really variations of the same move, just at different levels of skill. Magnitude is a move that Ground-types learn first. It's wild. It's a bit uncontrolled. Young Pokémon aren't the best at regulating their internal energy. When they send out a Magnitude sometimes they send out too much…or sometimes really not enough at all.

As they get better at it, those extremes on the end of the bell curve disappear. You stop seeing Magnitude 4 and 10. Then you stop seeing Magnitude 5 followed by 9. Eventually the move just 'evolves' you see. Magnitude becomes Earthquake. Consistent power, consistent range, consistent spread.

At least, this is what I've managed to observe in how young Ground-types develop. I can't speak on the subject of other 'mons who naturally get access to TM26.

Fissure is one more step forward. Maybe two. Take away the spread, take away some of the range. Take aaaaall that power and send it to One Spot.

It's harder to do than you're imagining.

It's probably why the accuracy is so shit in-game. Hell, Vlad's a god's damned prodigy and even he misses with it half the time.

Unless.

Unless he's got line of sight and those two pincers stuck straight in the ground.

"OH!" The announcer registers in my ears again. "IT'S A ONE-HIT KO!"

"Politoed is unable to battle! The score is 1-0!" The blue flag goes up. "Trainer Alton, please release your next Pokémon!"

I release a breath I didn't realize I was holding. 'Holy jeezus. One down.' There's a dull roar of the crowd cheering but honestly I can barely hear it over the heartbeat thundering in my ears.

Scizor reenters play and his owner doesn't dawdle. "It's low! Finish with Metal Claw!"

Without Politoed present, the rain is already starting to taper off. A note I'll have to remember about the real life differences between Drizzle and a proper Rain Dance. "Fire Fang! Hottest you got!"

I know it's pretty universally agreed upon that Scizor is better than Scyther. But in this moment I am thanking god that the evolution loses about forty points in Speed.

An exhausted Vlad springs himself at Scizor right as the metal bug gets in range. Glowing red fangs sink into his opponent near the same time the Technician Metal Claw gets him in the gut.

I have every faith in the world in Vlad…but I know that that's going to be his parting shot. Summoning up a Fissure after the direct hit he was struck with? I can't ask him for anything more.

This time it's the red flag raising high. "Gligar is unable to battle! The score is tied at 1-1! Trainer Bradley, please release your next Pokémon!"

'You did good buddy.' I do my best to tell the fallen warrior, returning him to the ball he rarely lives in. 'You did great.' Off on the field Scizor is cradling one of his arms where the metal is still sizzling. 'And you even got the Burn.'

Of course, Scizor has to go and ruin that by revealing a Lum Berry was hidden in the right claw, but at least we can say the one Held Item is out of the way.

"Ma Ma!" I deliberately throw the ball as far from the Scizor as possible. "This is our chance!" The tower of light manifests the queen grizzly onto the scene absent her usual characteristic roar. She's so quick about moving into Rest that to the untrained eye it looks like she came out already asleep.

"It's asleep! Use this chance to Swords Dance!"

"Ma Ma, use Yawn!"

Alton gets genuinely taken aback for the first time in the fight. "What?!" A wispy cloud of energy sweeps into Scizor's face right as its boosting move ends. "How did- Shit! They're using a Lum Berry too!"

'Well, no. But he's got the right idea.' "Stall tactics Ma Ma! Scary Face!"

"Close that distance NOW! Bullet Punch!"

Scizor explodes across the field, a stream of white power trailing at his back…and then he falls to half-speed as he crosses the center chalk line.

You know what comes next. It's obvious. We all know its name. One of the most popular competitive moves of all time. Say it with me. "Protect!"

Scizor's Bullet Punch is stopped cold by the barrier and Alton looks a bit panicked. "Hit it again! X-Scissor!"

"Catch its claws at the wrist!" Normally one wouldn't be able to pull that off. Only a viable option at a collision of coincidences such as this. 'Two Pokémon already in close quarters. The attacker at half-speed and its eyes starting to droop as Yawn finally does its job. You have to be ready for anything.'

The Bug-energy fades from Scizor's pincers as it loses the fight to stay awake and I grin. "Now piledrive it with Seismic Toss!"

"Ursa!" Brown arms circle the Steel-type at its waist. "RING!" And with an impressive twist Ma Ma embeds her enemy upside-down into the dirt, getting its legs to stick straight out of the ground like something from a cartoon.

Legs that begin to flail as that definitely woke it the fuck up.

"Finish with Bulldoze!" Ma Ma angrily stomps at the earth, pummeling the half-submerged Scizor again and again and again and again until Alton signals he's withdrawing the 'mon.

'Two down. Which only leaves-'

Hitmontop spins into the field and Alton steps forward angrily. "Close Combat! Hit it until it goes down!"

He's not the only one who can break out the big moves. "Thrash, Ma Ma! We need the STAB!"

Both Pokémon crash into each other and it's clear all strategy has been thrown out the window. There's no clever tricks or traps or anything hidden about what's going on.

This is just a straight up slugfest of two powerhouses beating the shit out of each other.

"We've beaten plenty of other Ursaring before." Alton speaks, sweat sliding down his brow, a manic grin in place.

I push what aura I can towards Ma Ma, not that it does much when she's not using a Ground move. A minor boost to Defense. 5% maybe. "Ma Ma's not other Ursaring."

Alton chuckles once at that. "Guess it's a good thing we did that draw after all."

A burst of displaced air sees Ma Ma ejected from the scuffle, getting thrown back to land on all fours like an actual bear. The scuffed and scraped Hitmontop drops to its hands and knees, panting like its just run a marathon.

The Thrash is still going.

Ursaring roars and charges in again, switching from four legs to two mid-stride. Absolutely refusing to give in.

"Reversal!"

I wish it were different. I wish I could say we had the grit and the stamina to take Super-effective move after Super-effective move and just push through it. We've got him beat by 12 levels. There's lots of wiggle room we have to work with.

But everyone has their breaking point. And Reversal gets stronger the lower the user's HP is.

"Ursaring is unable to battle! The score is 2-2! Trainer Bradley, release your final Pokémon!"

For all the heart pumping panic this match brought, with its fast-paced decisions, multiple switch outs, all the mistakes and successes from both parties, one might expect it to have a satisfactory ending. A climax appropriate for its significance. The first time ever that I've lost both Vlad and Ma Ma to a knockout.

But you'd be wrong.

The Hitmontop was so exhausted, so unbelievably done, that Krokorok cleaned him up easy. Dig into Hone Claws. Same as we've done so many times before. The difference in levels didn't matter. Alton's Pokémon could barely stand, let alone dodge.

Ma Ma lost the battle but she won us the war.

'But seriously…what the fuck am I supposed to do in the finals?'

At Bradley's belt, a Moon Ball rumbles lightly.