The New Normal – 7-10 – Interlude – Oak
Oak let out a jaunty whistle as he walked into the middle of the arena, ignoring the many cheers of the crowd. He didn't think it was deserved anyways; they were merely cheering on a man far past his prime. He hadn't even been in a battle like this in many, many years. Their adorations were wasted on him.
Still, misplaced or not, he made sure to give his fans a large sweeping wave to acknowledge them. He wasn't ungrateful for their support, after all.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS QUITE THE OCCASION, BUT WE'RE HERE TODAY TO WITNESS PROFESSOR OAK'S RETURN TO THE ARENA! THE CHALLENGER HERE TODAY HAS CHALLENGED PROFESSOR OAK'S CLAIMS ABOUT THE NEW FAIRY TYPE, AND THE GREAT PROFESSOR IS NOW HERE TO PROVE HIS POINT!"
It had been a long time since he had last stared down a Blackthorn in battle. So long, that they seemed to have forgotten about him and became foolish enough to challenge his word. He might have retired, but he thought he had made a strong enough impression the first time round when he brought them to their knees.
But it seemed like they needed another reminder.
Standing opposite him, a young man stood with flames burning in his eyes as he stared daggers at Oak. The young man raised a finger and pointed threateningly at him. All Oak could do was raise an eyebrow; was this really the best that the Blackthorns could offer at the moment?
"You're going to see the error of your ways, Professor Oak!" The young man taunted, "NONE challenges the might of Dragons."
The whistling stopped. The look of joviality on his face faded away. And the young man faltered.
Words were unnecessary here. He had no need to shout back with fighting words. He didn't even need to glare – a simple stare at the young man had him flinching back as if physically struck.
Oak frowned despite himself. The old Blackthorns – the ones he used to face, were built of sterner stuff than this. They wouldn't have been cowed, instead they would have lashed out in an attempt to regain any lost pride. It was what made them predictable, both in battle and in politics.
The current generation lacked that primal anger. They lacked the raw rage of the past. They had the roar of a Dragon, but not their bite.
They had grown weak and afraid.
"TRAINERS, ARE YOU READY?!" The announcer finally called out, which caused his opponent to snap out of his instinctive fear. They drew out their Pokéball, clutching on it tightly as the young man's anger returned. But the slight redness of his cheeks told Oak that all he needed to know; the young man was just trying to compensate for their embarrassment.
As Oak casually drew out his own Pokéball out of his coat pocket, a small reminiscent smile appeared on his face as he thought about how long it had been since his last battle on a stage like this. And while he knew this was a 3v3, he had only brought the one Pokéball.
It was all he needed.
"BEGIN!" Both trainers released their Pokémon, with one hurling their Pokéball with all of their pent up fury and the other with an almost lazy toss.
"DRAGONITE, COME!"
"Clefable."
The opposing Dragonite let out a roar as he emerged onto the field, its draconic presence sweeping over the crowd. Oak thought he could hear a few impressed gasps at the pressure radiating out of the Dragonite, though he didn't really understand what the big deal was. He had seen bigger. He HAD bigger.
Almost by instinct, his eyes scanned over the Dragonite. It looked well cared of, clearly strong, and it was a very healthy yellow. Good, it must have been trained well. Could be better, of course, but decent enough.
"DRAGON RUSH!" Oh, he probably should actually focus on the battle itself. Whoops, he was really getting rusty if he let himself lose concentration like that. But that's what happens when you go into a battle you knew you couldn't lose.
The enemy Dragonite exploded forwards in a burst of draconic rage, leaving a deep trench in his wake, before slamming mightily into his Clefable.
His Clefable stumbled backwards, but otherwise looked unaffected by the attack. That was as expected; he had tested out with his own Dragonite beforehand.
"DRAGON CLAW!" The Dragonite roared out and raked its claws savagely across his Clefable, who instinctively shielded herself with her arms. The ferocious claws slashed through Clefable's arms, but despite all of the power in that attack, its claws merely brushed off harmlessly against his Clefable.
Hmm…that reaction from his Clefable was slower than he expected. He might need to train it more with handling close range threats like that. A stronger opponent could have taken advantage of that slow reaction time.
"DRAGON TAIL! FINISH IT OFF!" Dragonite's tail came sweeping up from the sides, kicking up a small cloud of dust and sand, before it crashed into his Clefable with a hammering blow. His Clefable let out a surprised cry and was thrown aside, but he knew that it was still barely hurt.
Okay, that was likely sufficient for a simple endurance test. It was probably time to fight back.
"Moonblast." He ordered casually, and his Clefable instantly formed a large glowing orb of Fairy energy that floated above it. This was a move that he copied off of John by studying his battles. It was surprisingly simple to understand, and he imagined that this would be a staple move of the Fairy type for the years to come.
"DRAGON PULSE! SHOW THAT FAIRY WHO'S BOSS!" The Dragonite let out another primal roar as it went prone on all fours as a large torrent of energy shot out of its maw. The Dragon Pulse blasted forwards, pulsating with blinding light that radiated with power.
…Before detonating harmlessly against his own Moonblast.
Slowly but surely, the Moonblast moved forwards, almost dismissively tanking through the incoming Dragon Pulse. But instead of ordering a retreat, his opponent doubled down.
"KEEP IT UP! UPHOLD THE PRIDE OF A DRAGON!" As soon as he heard those words, he had to hold back the chuckle that threatened to leak out of him. It's been a very long time since he heard someone utter those very words.
Even though the current generation seemed to be a little more timid, it seemed that the underlying stubborn pride of being a Blackthorn had yet to change over the years. It made him wonder if his old enemies had changed, or were they still the same people that he had fought against before?
The ones that survived, that was.
However, returning his gaze back to the fight, he realized that, as always, the signature stubbornness of the Blackthorns would prove to be their downfall.
Despite the Dragonite's best efforts and all of the training that it had gone through, the powerful Dragon Pulse was easily swept aside by the incoming Moonblast. The type advantage of the Fairy type was just too strong against it. Power alone could not overcome such a weakness.
And so, just like Oak had expected, the Moonblast ended up crashing and detonating directly on the Dragonite's face, blasting it backwards as it clutched its face in pain.
The young man gritted his teeth, "PUSH THROUGH THE PAIN AND CHARGE FORWARDS! DRAGON RUSH AGAIN!"
Oak had to hold back a sigh. Honestly, he had hoped for a bit more creative thinking from the young man. But he supposed that he shouldn't have expected so much from the Blackthorns.
After all, despite facing down so many 'different' Blackthorns over the years, he could write down all of their tactics on the small sticky notes that he attached to his fridge. The elders should really switch up their training methods.
Oh well, may as well start wrapping this up.
"Dazzling Gleam." As the Dragonite rushed closer, his Clefable began glowing a mystical pink before it blasting its surroundings with a wave of Fairy energy. The Dragonite stumbled backwards, its charge interrupted as it could not withstand the flood of Fairy energy that slammed and ripped through its health.
Oak let out a pleased smile at the attack's effectiveness. This was a move that he had thought up while he was brainstorming about how to train up his Clefable. John had probably realized the same. It just seemed like the natural progression to him because – Oh wait, did the Dragonite just collapse?
Damn, he had hoped it would put up a greater fight than that. He had plenty of other moves to test.
"AND THE CHALLENGER'S DRAGONITE GOES DOWN! BUT HE STILL HAS TWO MORE POKEMON TO MAKE USE OF! CAN THE CHALLENGER REVERSE HIS FORTUNES?!"
Oh well, at least he still had two other test subjects to experiment with.
A.N. Two very different perspectives in this battle.
The Blackthorn challenger: Fighting the hardest battle of his life
Oak: Casually observing the battle and not even taking things seriously
I hope I nailed down your imagination of what Oak would be like in a battle. I feel like there's two sides to Professor Oak. One is the jovial Professor who just wants to study Pokémon, and the other is the retired Champion that forced peace upon a region. Oak has an ego, but he's humble enough to keep that buried, only showing up in his inner thoughts. Also, we will be exploring the background events going on with the Blackthorns in a future chapter. Needless to say, things are not going that well in the clan.
I apologize for not covering the entire battle, but I felt that keeping this utter curbstomp of a battle to be short and sweet would do better. Hope you liked it!
And to anyone who wants to support me, please check out my p atreon at CartecTNN where you can read 8 advanced chapters! Thanks to those who have supported me already!