Joint Post (Part 1)
Another Double battle? Mark normally wouldn't mind this but against both Val and Sammy? To top it off he was still stuck with Amber... she performed well in the battle but compared to Val? Mark would have to take extra care to draw Val's Pokemon away from Amber. They were way more powerful in comparison. He was curious how Sammy was going to react to this. Mark had been hoping for a one on one battle with her in this tournament.
Amber barely paid attention to the previous battle, except to notice that people really had been turned into Pokemon. She intended to spend the time between matches just healing up and ignoring that nuisance who somehow got matched with her, but it seemed a certain teacher had other plans. She glanced over at him at his compliment, trying to suppress a shudder at that smirk. What a creep.
Thankfully, the PA system decided to pick that moment to go off, saving Xander from whatever snarky comment she had planned. Amber listened intently to the announcement, letting out an irritated sigh as she heard she would be teamed up with Mark again, except this time against Valorie and Sammy. Valorie... Amber was betting that was that chick Sammy was paired with last time. She stood up as a flash of anger passed through her; she was going to take that little doll-girl down if it was the last thing she did.
"Cool, thanks," she said, already walking away from Xander. "Gotta go, battle time," she remarked, not bothering to turn around to face him. She gave him a nonchalant backwards wave goodbye before stalking off to find Mark, Valor chattering angrily at her insubordination the whole way.
Normally Sammy would have been infuriated at the idea of still being stuck with a partner, but Valorie and her Pokemon were clearly no slouches when it came to getting the job done... and their opponents were going to be both Mark and Amber. This could hardly have worked out better, she knew from their unfinished battle just before the tournament that although Amber was skilled and would be a force to reckon with after only a short time at the Academy, she was still relatively new to organised battles and competition.
Mark was another matter entirely - he was second only to Valorie in reputation on the island, and with Val not being her... usual self right now, this was his chance to claim the top spot. He'd be fighting tooth and nail to prove himself in this next battle, using every strategy and ploy he'd learned or developed in his time at the Academy. To make matters worse, she'd recently realised that a lot of his Pokemon held type advantages over her own.
But she viewed Mark as her rival, and the unfinished battle with Amber was still bothering her. This was her opportunity to take both of them out at once... with a little help from Valorie, of course. She'd had her Pokemon healed up while some of the other battles had progressed, so she now looked around for Valorie as she made her way back to the battlefield. Between them they should be able to unleash enough all-out attack on the less experienced Pokemon used by Amber to take them out early on, then focus on Mark and his trickier team.
The crowd emitted a dull roar as the combatants faced off on the battlefield, Valorie moving into place. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Mark, a knowing expression and a smile on her face. One could see the anticipation in her eyes, the fires of competition blazing powerfully as she stared down her rival. She was reveling in the moment, The planets were all aligned, and she definitely wasn't going to lose. She couldn't! ...Because...she was her! And Valorie Ryder simply did not lose.
"Yo."
The voice jolted Valorie out of her stupor. It had been Shu, her yamask. He had crept out from her shadow to see what she was staring at so intently.
"...You like that boy?" he asked, sizing Mark up.
Valorie cringed. Shu, why?! Sure it was telepathy and nobody else could hear him, but Valorie couldn't have known he was only projecting his thoughts to her. What an embarassing question to be asked, right then of all times. "..Shu!" she snapped quietly, flustered.
"Alright, alright, but you better warn me if you're going to be doing any lovey dovey stuff. I want to be at least thirty feet away from it at all times." the ghost pokemon snarked. Suddenly Valorie's good mood was shot in an instant and Shu's lack of a throat became the only thing preventing her from throttling him. She grit her teeth and closed her eyes for a moment, forcefully steeling her composure so that she might not embarrass herself any further.
"..."
The announcers' voice rang out over the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen, make your final preparations and begin battle." they announced before going on to announce the names of the four competing to the crowd. Valorie's eyes opened and her gaze returned to Mark, still lively and intense, but less cheery this time. "...I'll take whatever Mark sends out." she announced casually to Sammy, making her intent clear. Sure she was letting her rivalry get in the way of strategy, but at least she was communicating properly!
Mark stared Valorie down. Of course she was very different from before thanks to the whole transform thing but it was still her by heart. Mark suddenly got extremely excited. Finally another battle with his first rival in the school! And his first crush... but that was in the past. She clearly wasn't interested in him after the last time he asked...then again... well this wasn't the time or place to think about Romance. He had a battle to begin.
"Remember awhile back I said one of these days we'd face off in an arena like this? Its no Pokemon league but I'd say its pretty close Val." Mark said with a confident smirk. He was in this to win.
Amber looked her competitors over as she took her place on the battlefield, barely glancing in Mark's direction. She had equal motivation for defeating the both of them, but it seemed Valorie and Mark had some sort of rivalry themselves. As much as she wanted to smash Miss China Doll into tiny, broken shards, it would mean Sammy's Pokemon would be free to attack Mark while he was distracted by Valorie. She may not have liked Mark very much, but it'd be two against one without him, and she liked those odds even less. She'd just have to make sure she had Sammy's full attention then.
Amber flashed a confident smirk in Sammy's direction, her hand already moving to her belt for a Pokeball. "So, that wager still on?~" she asked lightly. They
had made a deal, after all, and Amber wasn't going to give up on the opportunity; a favor was a powerful thing in the right hands.
Sammy frowned at Valorie's decision to focus on Mark, leaving her to deal with Amber. It made more sense to team up on one of them and take them out early on, but she couldn't force Valorie to do anything. She could join her in tackling Mark exclusively but she had to admit that Mark was good enough to turn their lack of teamwork against them. So Amber it was then... she just had to hope she could take the less experienced girl out of the battle without sustaining heavy losses. If Mark could beat Valorie and Sammy found her own team badly weakened she was going to need Victini smiling on her to steal the victory... but it was Amber herself that made the decision to battle her an easy one.
She grinned at Amber, a more aggressive expression than the other girls cocky smirk. If she wanted to make
this their rematch rather than buy time to get her team in order... well, she was going to get a shock about how much a Trainer could improve at the Academy. Sammy had once been in Amber's position - new to the island, only a few Pokemon and taking part in a battle that involved Mark. But things had changed since then.
"The wager is on, but this is a tournament, not a friendly battle. I won't be holding back this time, so bring your best. You'll need it." She flicked her styled hair back from her face to free her field of vision, her hand dipping to hover over the Pokeballs on her belt, each one color coded for the Pokemon inside. Amber had already seen Pancham and Shuppet in action, and she might have watched Elvis, her powerhouse in Crawdaunt, in the last battle of the tournament alongside Valorie's Charizard. But in this three on three battle that still left Sammy with a whole team of Pokemon Amber knew nothing about - whereas Sammy held experience on a far larger percentage of Amber's Pokemon. If she kept her cool for once and used her head instead of her brawn then she could win this. She just had to keep a lid on her emotions and ego.
"Ready partner?" She asked, looking to Valorie. In its own way this gambit was going to call for more trust than their last quickly cobbled strategy. They would have to completely trust that the other one could hold up their half of the battle, if either one slipped up then the other would pay the price.
A grin graced Valorie's face and she slipped into the mindset of calculating odds and formulating strategies, only to be pulled out of it by Sammy's question. Oh, right? There was someone else there. ...She'd need to work around this little obstacle in order to ensure that Mark didn't show her up. "...Right~" she remarked light-heartedly. Producing a pokeball from her satchel, Valorie primed it and tossed it forth. From the ball emerged Charizard, whom turned her nostrils to the sky and snorted dismissively at the stadium.
Valorie silently swelled with pride at Charizard's display. Yeah, that's right. We don't afraid of nothin'!
"I'm going to win this,
and become champion. You can
bet on it, Mark~" Valorie remarked provocatively as she stowed the ball back in her satchel. Charizards fired.
Mark smirked right back at Valorie. She was dead focused on him. That kind of thinking would be the teams downfall if she stuck with it... Mark had to choose wisely when to start provoking her to start thinking for her teammate. Then again, Val could have had the same idea as Mark... there were several ways the battle could go down. Mark's team wasn't suited for Double Battles but neither were the other trainers as far as he knew. They would all have to improvise. Mark looked over to Sammy for a moment. Eyes locked for a moment almost to taunt her. That confident grin was plastered right on his face. Mark was implying something there. He then turned over to Valorie once she spoke up.
"Well then..." Mark said as he quickly pulled a ball off of his belt. "Don't let me down then. Val." Mark said. His tone quickly shifting. Mark was serious. More serious then he had even been in any previous battle. Mark threw his ball and out came Len, his Poliwrath! He could take out this team easily if he played his cards right.
"Amber, lets try what we did in the last battle." Mark whispered. "Val's Pokemon can't be underestimated but I think Len can handle her Charizard... if you have the chance while your duking it out with Sammy, see if you can land a Confuse Ray or whatever else you got. I'm afraid that Charizard might target you somewhere in this battle so we can't let that happen."
Sammy's overconfidence merely egged Amber on more, her confident smirk growing steadily more malicious. "Holding back? Please, I think I've seen everythin' you've got already. You're on," she taunted. Sure, it wasn't the best idea to encourage her to do better, but she couldn't help feeling slightly insulted. Did Sammy think she couldn't handle a real battle?
Amber's strategic taunting nearly spilled over into true anger as another stab of jealousy pierced her. Sammy's choice of words were both perfectly acceptable and meant innocently, but it didn't stop her smirk from tightening ever so slightly, her hand snapping a Pokeball off her belt with a bit more force than necessary. Her head turned slightly towards Mark as he whispered a battle plan. "Oh, I have
far better than a Confuse Ray, if that's what you want," she growled.
With a sweeping motion, Amber threw the Pokeball into the air. "Let's dance, Spirit!" she called, the proud Ponyta emerging from the ball in a flash of light. He struck a pose, flipping his mane and whinnying loudly, apparently finding Amber's attempt at a dramatic entrance insufficient. As long as Sammy didn't send out anything too challenging, she'd be free to follow up with Mark's not
entirely worthless plan.
So Amber was opening up with that damn Ponyta again - Sammy had to admit that its pool of moves was a tricky one to deal with if you didn't take it out of the battle immediately. Elvis would be the perfect choice for smacking Spirit down early but she didn't want to fall into the trap of using her strongest Pokemon right off the bat against Amber - she might need him later if she had to take on Mark. Pancham had struggled against Spirit, so he was out too. Her hand twitched towards the only regular Pokeball on her belt, but she changed her mind at the last minute and grabbed a hold of the Luxury Ball next to it instead.
As much as she hated to use a Pokemon Amber had already seen and battled against she knew it was the best play she had other than Elvis. "Shuppet, we some unfinished business!" She tossed the Pokeball underarm, trying her best to seem casual about the whole thing, the capsule popping open to release her eerie Ghost type. Mark had faced Shuppet before too, but both Sammy and her Pokemon had come a long way since then. Any tips he tried to give Amber would be horribly out of date.
She was confident that she could handle Spirit, from what she had seen in their earlier battle the Ponyta would try and disable or cripple Shuppet before launching a serious offensive, which was exactly why so many of her other Pokemon would have been terrible match ups. Sammy usually relied on a power game to dominate her opponents, so an enemy that took that power away from her could give her serious problems. Shuppet was her backup for times like that and although she'd used the spook against Valor for her silence she was being deployed against Spirit for an entirely different reason.
"Try not to make this too boring for me Amber, I'd hate to fall asleep in the middle of our battle. But hey, I could beat you in my sleep anyway, so it doesn't really matter." If she'd learned one thing about Amber so far it was that the girl liked to smack talk, something that could usually goad Sammy into making rash decisions. But she was going to take a page from Cynthia's book and try to control every aspect of the battle.
Valorie's gaze shifted sharply to the flames of Ponyta's back. An opportunity presented itself so freely and generously! With a fluid gesture, Valorie trailed her finger betwixt Len and Spirit. "Charizard, let's take the field with Rock Slide!" the short stop commanded, voice beaming with confidence. She knew she'd suggested she would be taking Mark on, but why not both? Charizard and her would be the star of the show, just how she liked it.
The pseudo dragon pokemon raised a foot and brought it down with a powerful crack, shattering the ground before her and launching several large boulders into the air. Charizard then proceeded to spit several little bursts of fire into the rocks, smacking them out of the air as they rose to violently launch them at both Len and Spirit. "Show 'em why we're here, Charizard!" Valorie remarked enthusiastically.
Everything was off to a good start. She was sure Charizard could overcome her weakness to Len's water moves.What else had they been training for, if not to overcome odds like these?
Rock Slide... he wasn't sure how well Amber's Ponyta would handle an attack like that. Len on the other hand barely felt a thing due to its water/fighting type. Perfect for a solid enough opening to get things into gear! Rock Slide was weak enough to give Mark the opening he needed to pull off a fairly risky move.
"Alright Len lets get right to business. Belly Drum!" Mark shouted. The Poliwrath would stand firm and begin pounding its belly hard, reducing its health drastically, but increasing its attack power tenfold. A direct attack from Len was going to be devastating. And he still had enough health and bulk to take a couple more hits! That Shuppet would be an issue however. None of Len's physical attacks could touch it... thankfully Len still had Bubble Beam as a backup. Mark hadn't found a means to teach it any form of physical water attack yet. If only it had something quick like Aqua Jet!
Amber's smirk didn't falter in the slightest at the smack talk, but for once she didn't retaliate. It was time to focus; that Shuppet was a tricky one, but not an immediate threat. As much as she hated following Mark's lead, that Charizard was a much more serious threat. "From the top, stage left!" she called to Spirit, who let out a small whinny of confusion. Wasn't the plan to each take one opponant...? Still, he readied the first attack all the same, continuing to stare down Shuppet for some degree of stealth.
As he prepared to fire the Hypnosis attack, a rumble split the air as the boulders went flying, With a whinny of fright, Spirit leaped back away from the first boulder, firing off the hypnotic waves in his eyes in Charizard's general direction. He was no match for the rocky onslaught however, and was quickly buried beneath the rocks, his energy draining from the super-effective hit. Amber let out a hiss of air between her teeth; there was no way Spirit was getting up from that one.
Sammy was almost instantly furious. This was not what they had agreed on - but worse than that, everyone seemed to be ignoring her and Shuppet. Valorie was the big threat was she, the one to deal with first? Well it was time to show people that she had tricks of her own and had been paying attention. Especially to Mark bragging about his perfect strategies.
"Shuppet, Knock Off on that Poliwrath!"
Shuppet rotated to face Len and soared unerringly towards him, lowering her head so that the spike was aimed at his gloved hand. Sparks began to crackle along the length of the spike, dark electricity powering up the attack. Mark had told Sammy all about his 'Belly Drum strategy' when he'd been telling her about berries in the forest and she was going to take full advantage of her insider knowledge. By getting rid of the item Len was almost certainly holding she could cut that strategy in half and hopefully knock some of the wind out of Marks sails. And if Valorie didn't like it they could hash it out later - by the looks of things she hadn't left Sammy with a Pokemon to attack.
Valorie literally jumped for joy as she watched Charizard force Amber's Ponyta to eat a boulder mid-hypnosis. If it had been working, it definitely wasn't going to work now. "Bet you didn't see that coming!" Valorie called out enthusiastically. She could only imagine how awesome she looked. Her ego absolutely loved the attention, with no mind paid to ... anything else really. Charizard shook the attempted hypnosis off, turning her cheek at Len and locking gazes with the other monster passionately. Valorie became aware of a situation arising. Now wait just a second...
She knew this strategy.
...Her Charizard knew belly drum!
She became aware of Sammy jumping in to help out. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, but decided to ignore it for the time being. It was the maximum amount of doll-face she could save at the moment. "Charizard, don't let Len catch you! Dragon Pulse!" Valorie commanded. Charizard took to the air with a powerful flap of her wings, dispelling a powerful wave of draconic energy. One could practically feel the fangirling oozing from her expression. The plan was to play defensively and hope she could get a couple of hits off before Len got a chance to show off his newfound power.
Mark kept a stern face. Len was weakened about halfway from that belly drum and that Dragon Pulse did a serious number to Len on top of that! With Knock Off, Len's Lum Berry he had hidden under his sleeve fell right out of the battlefield. He had planned to use that berry to make a smooth recovery out of Belly Drum but it looked like Len would be down for the count!
...That is... if Mark didn't plan ahead for such a possibility.
"At ease Len." Mark said, holding up his hand. Len looked back at Mark and just nodded. With that, Len would slowly close its eyes and sit down on the ground. Did he get knocked out...? No! He fell asleep! He was using Rest to recover his health to max! And with his max boosted attack power... he'd be unscathed! However, he was wide open now. What was he thinking? Without that Lum berry he couldn't go off waking up immediately!
Amber practically growled in frustration as both Charizard and Shuppet attacked the now-defenseless Poliwrath. It seemed their strategy was going out the window, with cheap shots coming out of nowhere like that. Valorie's obvious pride for that attack was even more infuriating; it wasn't even that awesome. Still, she could probably use Valorie's ego and laser focus on her own actions against her.
Quietly, Amber knelt down on the ground as if retying her boots, then reached back towards her belt. She grabbed a Pokeball and released the Pokemon inside as discreetly as possible. A tiny blob of yellow fur blinked its eyes open, and Amber made a quiet shushing noise before it even had the chance to open its mouth. She was relying on all the focus being on Poliwrath and Charizard; the last thing she needed was the hyperactive Joltik causing a scene.
"I need you to be
really quiet, okay? You gotta take down that Charizard for me. Stun it with Thunder Wave, then come back here for Shuppet," Amber whispered before straightening back up as if nothing happened, her shadow making the tiny Pokemon nearly invisible.
Twitch desperately tried to resist the temptation to speak. She puffed out her cheeks and sunk her fangs into her mouth, doing everything she could to make it physically impossible to talk while Amber gave her instructions. Her eyes widened the more Amber went on; she got to be a super spy?! Twitch nodded seriously before blending into the shadows, already plotting her route to get closer to Charizard.
Twitch scurried along, feeling exposed as she hurried first to the cover Mark's shadow, then to Len's. The temptation to talk was finally too much, and she started humming under her breath. "
Dum di-di dum dun dun dun dum di-di dum dun dun dun DUH NUHH, duh duh dun....!~" She embarked on the riskiest part of her expedition, darting out into the open as she charged electricity on her fur. She released a Thunder Wave attack towards the Charizard.
"
The name's Bond. Joltik Bond."
Sammy furrowed her brow as Mark ordered Len to use Rest anyway. She'd just pulled his strategy out from under him and he didn't seem phased at all. She was going to leave Valorie to deal with the problem but there was no sign of Amber sending out her next Pokemon... couldn't she decide? Maybe her Ponyta being taken out so decisively had given her a shock... without a Pokemon to deal with that left Sammy no choice but to keep helping out with Poliwrath.
Mark not being phased by her move was
really annoying her - she had been sure it would throw him off his game. But she could push him further - Mark had told her that although he knew a lot about Kanto and Johto Pokemon he was a bit clueless when it came to the other regions... and that could mean their moves too. She'd taught Shuppet a move earlier that day that had originated in Kalos, only just beginning to see use in the Kanto and Johto leagues. It wasn't the perfect move for the situation but Mark could easily have no idea what it did. That element of the unknown might be more effective than the move itself.
"Shuppet, let's get under his skin with
Infestation!"
Of course, she'd never seen her (or any) Ghost type use that move before.
Shuppet stared wide eyed at Len, motionless in the air until her mouth slowly began to fall open. It dropped lower and lower, the Pokemons dark maw stretching beyond possibility until there was at least a foot of open mouth hanging below her. It looked like nothing else would happen as the moment stretched on until a cloud of tiny insects violently erupted from inside Shuppets mouth, flying straight for Len in an almost solid mass. The gnat-like creatures seemed to have stingers of some sort and would plague Len with an endless barrage of tiny attacks, reducing his health. The cloud of insects was simply too thick to be penetrated by a Pokeball beam, making it impossible for Mark to call Len back and escape the swarm.
If anyone took the time to look closely at the tiny bugs they would see they weren't insects at all, but miniscule versions of Shuppet jabbing Len with the spikes on top of their heads, single minded in their aggression.
The whole thing happened silently, neither Shuppet or her... babies... making a single sound.
" $%& me." Sammy commented.
Valorie felt herself tense as she found herself unable to ignore the swarm of spooky ghosts filling the battlefield before her eyes. Just what she needed, more ghosts. Valorie forced herself to focus, uninterested in being 'that coward girl who freaks out around ghosts all the time'. "Charizard, belly drum!" she ordered.
The psuedo dragon began to pump herself up, tensing and beating upon her belly with her small arms rather viciously. She reared back, turning her head to the sky and spewing forth an uncontrolled torrent of fire as she let slip an awesome battle cry. Valorie grinned at Mark; the look in her eyes said 'checkmate'.
Suddenly Charizard felt an intensely irritating stinging sensation as a
sphee sapped her joltik's thunder wave found it's way onto her arm. The attack hardly seemed to slow her down, mostly because she hadn't been moving to begin with, but the damage had been done. Charizard turned her full focus upon the sneaky bug pokemon, a low growl escaping her throat. Bond had accomplished her mission, but at what cost?!
Mark had smirked again. She must have assumed that Len was wide open. Still Charizard using Belly Drum was not going to be good if he let that slip by. Time to go full out. Mark watched the swarm of insects cover up Len... he wasn't too familiar with the move but the Poliwraith didn't seem too phased by it. He was still fast asleep! Or was he...?
Mark looked back at Val noticing the look in her eyes. Time to give them both a surprise! "Bad move Val. Len, Sleep Talk!" Mark shouted. Len kept his eyes closed but he seemed to move around as if he were awake. He'd mutter a bit in his sleep but would suddenly start running toward the Charizard! Taking advantage of his paralyzed state and lept up toward him with Body Slam! With Lens boosted power, this was bound to send the lizard out of the sky.
Twitch let out a terrified squeak as Charizard turned its attention onto her, which turned into a full scream as she tore across the battle field as fast as her tiny legs would take her. She felt a whoosh as Mark's Pokemon lept over her in a Body Slam attack, spurring her on faster to reach Amber's side of the battlefield once again.
"Nice going, Twitch! Let's slow that ghost down a little; Electroweb!" Amber called out. Sammy's Shuppet had almost cost her their previous match, so there was no way she was going to let it have free reign of the battlefield. Mark could deal with that Charizard himself, especially after she'd weakened it for him. Twitch enthusiastically gathered a web in her mouth and spat it towards the nightmarish Pokemon, charging it with electricity as it flew.
The webbing smacked Shuppet full in the mouth, binding it shut and zapping her with electricity. She stared at Twitch, seemingly unconcerned - but it looked like she wouldn't be using Infestation again anytime soon. That said, the miniature Shuppets she had spawned continued to swarm around Len and sting him mercilessly.
"You're going to need more punch than that Amber. Shuppet - Nightshade the bug."
Shuppet took her usual sweet time responding to the command, her eyes slowly beginning to roll around inside her head. They spun faster and faster until they were just a blur - her pupils slowly shifting through the spectrum of one colour to the next. Purple, blue, green, yellow, red... it was a nausea inducing sight if you didn't look away. Shuppet began to shake with the force of the move, bobbing erratically in the air until her eyes came to a sudden stop, locking onto Twitch as they continued rippling from one colour to the next. The air around the Bug type would start to twist and compress, causing extreme discomfort and pain to anything caught inside the ghastly bubble.
Sammy had no idea where Shuppet was coming up with these twisted variations on established moves, it was nothing she had ever taught her. But she had to admit that they were at least as effective as the normal versions of these moves, just with an added flair to throw her opponents and their Pokemon off their game. Maybe she should try and take a lesson from Shuppet and expand the idea to the rest of her Pokemon?