The trainer across from me looked like an Ash Ketchum wannabe. I'm sure it's what he based his look off of. The battered trainer cap. The Pikachu on his shoulder. The blue vest. The fingerless gloves.
In my world, such an outfit would have been made fun of. To be fair, though, the closest you could get to a real pikachu would be a plushie, and that would look pretty corny. This outfit was common in this world. They were sold in joint packages, like halloween costumes. I'd seen one recently, which explicitly said Pikachu not included. I wonder if a company had been sued for that if they had to include it on the packaging.
The field was a forest desert split. One one side was plain sand and rock spires. On the other side was flush vegetation and thick trees.
"Trainer Green, release your pokemon!"
The Pikachu hopped off the trainer's shoulder, running down his arm and jumping to the ground.
"Trainer Yellow, release your pokemon!"
Zuko would tank literally anything the Pikachu could throw at him. I tossed Azula's pokeball, being the good sport that I am. Besides, total obliteration wasn't good training. There's a reason I didn't just release Myst first to decimate opponents. Putting myself at the biggest disadvantage possible would mean the most room to grow. The same held true for my pokemon. That being said, the mental image of Zuko trying to chase after a nimble Pikachu was almost funny enough for me to change my decision.
"BEGIN!"
The Pikachu looked back to its trainer expectantly.
Interesting.
"Quick attack! Catch that Charmeleon off guard!"
The Pikachu actually waited for its trainer to finish the follow up sentence before attacking, giving Azula an eternity to ready a response.
Pikachu dodged under a fire whip, continuing on to hit Azula.
It was a trap, however, and the whip pulled back in to catch the Pikachu right as it hit her. She then sent a line of fire down the length of the steel whip, eliciting a pained cry from the electric rat.
"Electrify the whip, shock that stupid lizard!" The trainer yelled.
Azula simply dissipated the steel whip, halfway through the sentence. Pikachu's electric shock simply fizzled out into the air as the conductor disappeared. A bit of the shock seemed to jump in the general direction of Azula, following the path where the magnetic field had been a second before. It wasn't enough to let the charge actually reach her, but it was interesting to see that a regular electric shock, unenhanced by aura, acted as electricity normally would. A part of my brain noted down that steel aura left lingering magnetic fields, although I still didn't know if they lasted more than a second.
Pikachu looked back at its trainer, ready for its next command.
Azula kept her eyes fixed on Pikachu. Noticing the Pikachu turned away, Azula sent out a flamethrower.
"DODGE!" The trainer yelled.
Azula hadn't done one of her focused laser flamethrowers, just a widespread weak one, so the Pikachu was able to dodge in time.
I internally giggled. Lucky the trainer didn't add another follow up sentence. Seriously, did this Pikachu even have a brain?
Azula was clearly toying with her opponent. How the hell had he made it this far in the tower?
"Alright Pikachu, let's end this. THUNDERBOLT!"
Pikachu lit up with power. The stadium lights flickered for a second from the massive electromagnetic field the Pikachu began generating. Then, it released, blasting the rock Azula was hiding behind into smithereens.
Despite her cover, Azula still took significant damage from the attack. Her arm spasmed for a second, unwilling to listen to her commands. She snarled, putting on her game face.
Okay, that's how this trainer had gotten this far. His Pikachu had raw power in spades. This world still was largely based around power. Even if you implement a good strategy, getting knocked out in one hit complicates things. For example: Claire, a Gym Leader who barely incorporated any sort of strategy into her fighting. Her dragons had enough raw power that she could decimate smarter opponents with ease. Mask had shown, though, that tactics could still bridge the gap.
Luckily, I had both.
It really was impressive. Azula's scales resisted electricity naturally. Having lived with Zuko, having fought against Zuko, that had only become more true over the last couple months.
This Pikachu had insane power.
"Azula, mix up attack styles, press for openings. Don't give him any room to breathe."
Azula followed suit, forming metal claws and sprinting in.
"Shit! Pikachu, drop back and thunderbolt again!" The trainer yelled.
However, as soon as the Pikachu retreated to charge up an attack, it was hit with a fine tuned cone of fire, shooting like a laser out of Azula's mouth.
The Pikachu skidded across the ground before jumping back to its feet. It wiped the spit from its mouth. Its fur was singed, both from the initial whip trap and the flamethrower.
"Close the distance! Quick attack!"
Azula had immediately spun up a tornado of fire around herself upon hearing the first sentence. The Pikachu, stopping in its tracks in front of the flames, turned hesitantly back towards its trainer.
A thin line of silvery metal laced in fire shot out of the tornado, slapping the Pikachu backwards. It curled up on the ground, defeated.
Azula's whips were thicker towards the end. She had to round out the steel energy, and make sure it wasn't sharp. She didn't want to eviscerate her opponents, after all. That made it harder to control, but she made do.
The trainer pulled out a pokeball, and returned his Pikachu.
"You'll pay for that! Feraligator, wash this stupid Charmeleon away!"
Okay so this kid was going all in on the Ash Ketchum thing. Probably. Was that how Ash acted in the anime? I only ever paid attention to the pokemon. I guess this Ash Ketchum might also have been different, since he was actually competent enough to become Champion. I'd only seen recent battles, where he was actually the experienced trainer who could go toe to toe with the strongest trainers in the world. Maybe he was like this when he started out.
The Feraligator stood over 6 feet tall, even while it was hunched over. Its teeth were sharp, and comparable in size to Zuko's.
Myst and Zuko would both make quick work of this overhydrated crocodile.
"Alright Azula, let's see what you got. Don't get caught by those jaws."
Azula stood, eyeing the teeth with caution.
How would she deal with this? Both her fire and steel moves would struggle against the Feraligators tough hide. Getting in close would be a death sentence.
She sent out a few experimental fire attacks.
"Ignore them Chewie! Get in close with aqua tail!"
The Feraligator sprinted towards Azula. To respond, Azula ran the other way. She continued sprinkling the Feraligator with fire attacks as she retreated. She began lapping the entire battlefield, keeping a good distance between her and the rows of teeth.
It worked too, since the Feraligator wasn't particularly nimble.
A fighting retreat. It could work. It just might take a couple decades. I eyed the clock, noting that there were still 12 minutes of the 20 minutes allotted for the 2v2 battle.
I sighed and sat down. This could be a while.
Using fire moves to eventually dry up the Feraligator's hide would make steel attacks far more effective. If I was in Azula's position, it's probably what I would do too.
I'm glad her critical thinking was getting better. It was good that she avoided overthinking things. It was far more efficient to be able to simply think of a solution that works, and then follow suit immediately. Trying to think of the perfect solution, or the best solution, usually took far too long to matter in battle.
She'd come up with something that would mean victory, even if it wasn't particularly flashy. She'd already overcome her draconic ego, gaining patience and thinking.
If only I could say the same for Zuko.
"Good thinking Azula! If you want to speed things up, you could use your steel whips as chains, leveraging your environment to trap the stupid alligator. Then you can try a sustained attack."
Azula nodded, already looking around for the best objects to use for leverage.
"GAAAHHH, Feraligator run faster! Aqua tail!"
The Feraligator still held a rapidly spinning torrent of water around its tail as it ran, despite how inconveniencing it must have been.
This trainer was holding his pokemon back. Plain and simple. Pikachu was easily fast enough to react to any of Azula's attacks. If it didn't rely on its trainers' instructions, Azula wouldn't have stood a chance.
I could think of a dozen ways to make that Pikachu an absolute monster.
This Feraligator, clearly very powerful, lacked any sort of zoning options. It could fight up close, but that was it. I knew it could learn to use water attacks from a distance, it just clearly had no practice in it.
What could it possibly do if its opponent could fly? Wait. Right. I guess anything that could fly wouldn't have survived the Pikachu.
Still, I liked to have backups.
Silvery lines of conjured steel latched onto the Feraligators legs and arms. The gator struggled, trying to pull on the lines with all its power. However, they'd been wrapped multiple times around the thick trunks of the trees nearby. The fact that the trees actually budged meant that the Feraligator had frightening strength.
Then, Azula let out a powerful flamethrower, keeping the fire sustained on the trapped Feraligator.
One second. Two.
Time stretched as the fire continued on.
Then, as Azula readied an iron head, a red line snatched the Feraligator back, returning it to its pokeball.
The trainer hung his head in defeat.
"Yellow trainer wins!"
I walked to the center of the field, ready to shake hands. The other trainer looked absolutely livid.
"You're a coward! If you fought like a real man, you wouldn't have stood a chance!" The trainer yelled, sending out spittle as he shook his fist at me.
"And if you hadn't fought like a child, things might have been more interesting." I sighed. It was a tragedy, really. His pokemon were strong. He probably only trained for raw power. It was important. It really was. It would get you far. But it would never stand a chance against somebody with comparable strength, but could also think and adapt.
I shook his hand, ignoring the incoherent ramblings. I turned to Azula, who was walking towards me. She looked exhausted, but lit up as she noticed my attention.
"Azula, great follow through. Your hard work is really paying off. You didn't even need me out there." I grinned, rubbing her on the top of her head. The hard scales felt like sandpaper, but she deserved it.
She growled, content. I returned her to her pokeball.
You know what, I couldn't accept this. Usually, when I saw incompetence, I let it slide. If it didn't affect me, I would live and let live. This one just actually physically pains me.
"Oi! Ketchum wannabe!" I yelled, running to catch up with the other trainer. He looked my age.
"What? Are you gonna gloat?" He spit out between gritted teeth. His hands were clenched at his sides.
"No. I know this is hard. I'm not gonna sugarcoat this. It wouldn't be genuine if I did. You're terrible–"
He cut me off before I could finish. "NO! I just got unlucky, that's all. If Chewie was just a little faster, or if Pikachu had just landed one more hit, you would have been done." The kid glared at me.
"Listen, you didn't let me finish. You're terrible, but you could be an Elite trainer someday. You've got the power, you're just lacking in some other areas."
The kid's eyes narrowed. His outright aggressiveness seemed to be slowly replaced by confusion. "Whaddya mean?"
"Your pokemon rely too much on you. And you rely too much on them."
The kids' eyes began to spin. "What?! I'm pretty sure that's a hyperbole."
"I think you mean oxymoron. But that's not the point. Listen, if you really want to be like Ash Ketchum, you're gonna need some serious work."
I handed him Oak's card, which I still had in my wallet for some reason.
"Show up here, tomorrow at three. I'll give you some pointers." I said, walking off. The kid had accepted the card, dumbfounded.
"Screw you! You're probably just going to make fun of me more!" He yelled from behind me.
I kept walking. I don't usually offer to help people like this. It's not my responsibility to make other people as smart as me. If they want to get stuck in backwater ways, that just makes it easier for me to win. Honestly, I'm not quite sure why I broke my rule today. Something just felt different. Maybe it was because he returned his Feraligator before the final hit. That showed compassion. Despite his brute headedness, some part of me admired that. Or maybe it was that stubbornness. His pokemon were strong despite their lack of good training. That kind of strength only comes from really grueling work.
"You didn't see, but I tore up the card and threw it to the ground! I hate you! Screw you! I hope your intestines get eaten by a Guzzlord!" The kid yelled.
Huh. I guess people know about Ultra Beasts.
Neat.
I'd still show up to the front of the building tomorrow at three. The kid was stubborn. Egotistical. I could see that in his battling style.
Yet something told me he'd come around. Maybe it was something mystical. Maybe I just had some screws loose. But some part of me genuinely thought that he would come around. And that I wanted to help him, even if I stood nothing to gain from it.
I surprise myself sometimes.
As I stepped outside the Battle Tower, the air outside of the battle tower somehow felt more fresh than normal. The sun seemed more warm, and the trees more colorful.
I chalked it up to my eyes and nose finally adjusting from Azula's powerful flames.
~~~~~~~~Starfall~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~Starfall~~~~~~~~~~
I sat outside of Oak's building.
It was a nice day. Warm. A slight breeze.
I sat on a hanging bench, swinging slightly. It was a nice little alcove near the main doors. There was a tree to my side, tall with thick branches. The bench was hanging from one of the thicker ones. It provided me with ample shade.
It was a great place to sit and read.
My current book. Chaos and Void. All you need to know about the monsters of the night. Written by Agatha of the Indigo Elite four. And maybe one of Oak's old flames? I feel like the age was off, but I swear I'd heard it somewhere.
My current chapter was talking about the topic of possession. Last chapter had been about non biological possession, like Banette or Polteageist, while this one went over biological possession. This ranged from trees, like Trevenant, to some ghosts that would possess people. Like Gengar.
It was a spooky thought, but there were precautions and countermeasures. Most of them were psychic. If there was anything I had learned about this world, it was that psychic powers were helpful for just about anything.
Having seen Mob Psycho, it made a lot of sense.
I checked my watch.
3:15
After another half hour of reading, I would head in. A shame that the kid didn't show up, but I wouldn't stress about it. Besides, this impromptu meet up was cutting into the hours I usually allotted for power training.
I was working on trying to create a void cowl, with Myst's help, so that I could avoid a psychic's gaze.
I didn't like the idea of a psychic being able to locate my mind and mess with it from afar. It gave me the heebeegeebees. I absolutely needed countermeasures.
I'd had limited success. Trying to visualize it in the same way as the reinforcement of fighting aura had helped a little, but they weren't the same. It was like comparing apples to oranges. It helped me with a baseline, at least.
I looked up as I heard somebody approaching.
It was the kid, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. No Ash Ketchum getup this time. I wonder if my comment got to him, or if he only wears it for battle?
He glared at me as he walked up. "Do you promise you won't make fun of me?"
I looked to the side as I grinned. I turned back.
"No, but don't worry. The fact that you're here means that you're willing to learn. That's the most important step. You'll be an ACE Trainer in no time!" I smiled, trying to sound convincing. I genuinely did mean that. He's trying. I really admired that. It took guts to accept help.
"No. I'm not going to ACE. I'm going to be a Captain. In the rangers. Like my Dad was." He said, resolutely. His gaze was hard as he set his chin straight.
Wait…
"Hey kid, what's your name?" I asked.
"Niel."
"Niel Siba."