A/N: Snow day for my school district! Third in a row, which I am grateful for. Enjoy!
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This was it. One more battle and I would win a 150,000$ jackpot, minimum. Of course, I wanted first place. But so did Luciana. In fact, she wanted it so badly she only used Sableye against Mitchel just to avoid showing her other Pokémon. I was at a disadvantage before the match even started. The thought made my body restless. I needed to learn more about her, but everything online only showed her Gemlin. She had two more Pokémon most had never seen.
I paced in front of Tetsu, Nova, and Nautilus. Tetsu and Nautilus waited patiently as I collected my thoughts. Well, Tetsu waited patiently. Nautilus kept trying to establish a two-way Psychic connection, but he couldn't do more than listen to my thoughts. That was probably the only reason he hadn't already forced me to talk.
Nova just sat and munched on a Leppa Berry, blissfully unaware of my troubles. Or maybe she knew exactly what was going on and was choosing to ignore it. Either way, it led me to thinking maybe it didn't matter. I've faced plenty of people without knowing who they would send out. Luciana was much more skilled than the average Trainer, but so was I.
I spewed battle plans to the team. Nautilus was probably the only one who knew what I was talking about, but it didn't matter. Tetsu trusted me enough to follow instructions without hesitation, and Nova had won enough battles to know my plans were generally sound even if they were risky. At the end of the planning, all I asked from them was to do their best and let me worry about everything else.
I watched her battle with Mitchel again. Sableye was a monster. Bulk Up, Confuse Ray, Will-O-Wisp, Detect, Shadow Sneak, Low Kick, Night Slash, and all three elemental punches. Everything needed to be a close-quarters menace. Adding Ominous Wind and Recover was just unfair. It was no wonder she didn't showcase her other two Pokémon. She didn't need to.
Tetsu wouldn't last long. There was no question about that. But setting up Stealth Rocks and Spikes would give me a major advantage against her unknown team. Focusing on Leech Seed would put Gemlin on a timer, while Acid Spray would help Nova get the knockout. The strategies were great on their own, but they could take time to complete. And Sableye did better with more set-up time. If Sableye was Luciana's ace, I just needed to take her down with Tetsu and Nova. After that, Nautilus could clean up.
'What if she lied and Sableye isn't her ace?'
I shook my head. No point in dwelling on it again. I had another minute, and then the battle would start. Nautilus made another attempt at telepathy. This one felt different, but it ended quickly. I looked at him, and he looked at me. We didn't say anything. Nautilus smiled, and my shoulders relaxed. I was going to trust them. Nothing else mattered.
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"Luciana, Marco! Are you ready?" Araceli shouted.
"Yup!" / "Yes."
"Trainers, release your Pokémon!"
Tetsu showed up with an excited bounce. On the other side of the field, Sableye landed in a squat. It stayed crouched, slowly twisting her head with jerky movements.
"Begin!"
"Bulk Up!" / "Leech Seed!"
Sableye grew in size just enough to be noticeable as several green seeds landed on her chest and sprouted. "Rush the Ferroseed and burn them off, Gemlin!"
"Hazards, baby girl!" I knew this was coming. As Sableye disappeared with Shadow Sneak, Tetsu set up Stealth Rocks and one layer of Spikes. I tracked the shadow Sableye traveled in. If there were no other shadows, it was easy to keep track of Shadow Sneak. That didn't mean much, however, when Sableye could stay down there indefinitely to avoid attacks.
"Roll away and use Harden!"
Luciana's eyes crinkled in amusement. "Fire Punch into Confuse Wisp!"
There it was. "Gravity, Acid Spray!"
"Detect!"
Sableye scurried along the floor and popped out just ahead of where Tetsu was rolling, fist ablaze as a ball of ethereal fire spun toward Tetsu. She used Gravity to force herself to a stop and send Sableye crashing into the ground. The Acid Spray didn't do much to stop the Confuse Ray, but it put out the Will-O-Wisp. Sableye dodged the Poison attack, ducking in the nick of time to avoid it.
Tetsu, the blessed tank she was, kept Acid Spray going. Gemlin dodged a few times before Detect failed. Tetsu continued, stacking the debuffs until the confusion took over and she slipped on a forming puddle of Acid Spray. Luciana frowned but kept her commands going.
"Back away! Recover and Ominous Wind."
"Tetsu, listen to my voice! Take a deep breath. Just set up Spikes and use Leech Seed when you feel better."
"Fire Punch her into distortion!"
Tetsu got another layer of Spikes before Sableye descended on her like a meteor shower of Fire Punches. Each hit left her metallic skin melted and warped, but Tetsu roared and spat another Leech Seed and Acid Spray into Sableye's face before she fainted. I didn't wait for Araceli to call it. I immediately recalled Tetsu and released Nova.
Nova watched as Sableye burned the Leech Seed, eyes narrowing. "Let's do this, Nova."
"Begin!"
"Ominous Wind and Recover!" / "Disarming Voice! Keep it going!"
The Ominous Wind and Disarming Voice slammed into each other. The wind eventually dispersed as Nova's Disarming Voice broke through and wrecked Sableye's ears. Sableye cut out the attack and dropped into her shadow. "Curse and Yawn when she shows up again. Watch her shadow!"
Nova hunkered down, increasing her attack power and defenses while the shadow raced over. "Encore!"
My eyes widened automatically. Before Nova belted out a Yawn, Sableye popped up behind her and locked her into Curse. Luciana didn't need to say anything for Sableye to Recover and spam Ominous Wind, lightly glowing as she stacked stat buffs several times. Encore didn't even finish before Nova fainted, leaving me with just Nautilus.
"Trainer Marco, please release your final Pokémon!"
Nautilus came out, pausing when he saw Sableye. He glanced at me. I shook my head, but focused on Sableye. "Time to lock in, buddy."
"Begin!"
"Aerial Ace!" / "Dodge and cross him out!"
I didn't have time to say anything else. Nautilus reacted the instant Sableye popped out, his beak glowing with Flying-Type Energy. Sableye dodged at the last second with Detect and lashed out with several X-Scissors, her claws blurring as she knocked my starter out.
I knew this was how it would play out for Nautilus, and that was why I wanted Tetsu and Nova to deal with Gemlin. But I wasn't prepared for her. The entire battles had only lasted roughly four minutes.
Luciana trained her ace Pokémon to perfection, curating her moveset so well she probably didn't need to teach Gemlin anything for a while. It proved how crucial having the right moves was for a Pokémon. It also showed me how thoroughly pessimized my team's moves were.
I looked over at Luciana, who was hugging Sableye and celebrating their win. She beat me. No, that was an understatement.
"You whooped my ass," I said as I approached her, a grin on my face. "Belt to ass, even left a red mark."
She smiled back. "I'm glad you're not taking the loss as personal as some others. It feels nice to be around peers at my level."
"I'm on your level?" I scoffed. "Luciana, you demolished my team. As you've done with everyone else."
"No," she responded. "You almost took down Gemlin with Nova. I was worried you were going to do it if she pulled off that Yawn. Actually, Gemlin was close to fainting when I called out Encore."
"But I still didn't pull it off, and I would have had to face your two unknown Pokémon."
"Mushu and Matilda? I doubt a Magikarp and Natu would have been any sort of trouble for you."
My jaw dropped. Luciana laughed, the sound loud but pleasant. "Yeah, you're the first person I've told. And that's because I think you can be a proper rival for me. Mitchel can too, now that I think about it. His Pansear is devious."
"Then we should tell him after the award ceremony. I'm pretty sure he beat Alain right when we started."
We walked together towards the prize table. Mitchel and Araceli were already there, Mitchel proudly holding a ribbon as Araceli smiled and rubbed his head affectionately. Professor Sycamore and Lida were there as well, a tablet in each of their hands.
"Thank you for the fantastic battle, you two," Professor Sycamore announced. "Now that we have our top three rankings, it's time for the prizes.
"The tablet I'm holding has a list of TMs and battle items. The one Miss Lida is holding has a list of all evolutionary items and Pokémon supplements, including mints, Ability Patches, and Ability Capsules. Alain has forfeited his prize, so all of you gain an additional 30,000$ to spend. Again, you have a limited amount, even if it seems high on paper. Choose wisely."
After receiving her coupon from the Professor, Luciana searched through the tablet Lida held. I let Mitchel go ahead and choose since I still didn't know what we needed. Damn, this was going to be a tough decision.
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A/N: What do you think? Was Luciana just being nice? Also, what should Marco spend his 180,000 on?