There was a muted electronic whir, immediately followed by a blinding flash-bang of electric blue light. Glowing loops of fractal data whirled around the rapidly solidifying form of the summoned creature, distorting the space within and refracting it into rippling facets, then fell away and shattered into nothingness as the glow faded from the newly materialized Pokemon. People in the crowd booed and jeered, while others cheered wildly. Uther was impassive, as usual.
Jabberwocky had appeared facing Linali with his back to the Onix. Jeweled eyes glittered brightly in a dark royal purple face, and the Sableye flashed a cheerfully maniac grin at Linali.
O frabjous day, calooh and callay! The esteemed one and only Jabberwocky is at your service! What delightful beastie shall I be playing tricks with today?
Linali regarded the babbling Sableye with exasperation . “Turn around and see for yourself.”
Jabberwocky obliged, twisting his head around a full 180 degrees to take in the Onix towering high above him. His eyes popped out of their sockets—literally, in one case.
HOLY BOUNCING DINGLEBERRY PIES! YOU’RE SENDING ME OUT AGAINST THAT?!
One of the jewels clattered to the snow, casting pinpricks of light around it. Delicately, the Sableye plucked the diamond up and began to wipe at it vigorously, muttering fragmented nonsense to himself.
Another muted hum echoed around the parking lot as a second Pokemon materialized in a frenzy of whirling data and light.
“Kakunaaaa…aaa!” Vespa wobbled slightly, then fell forwards with a thud. She lay there, utterly prone. Ah, a mouthful of dirt. Beautiful.
A third and final hum sounded off, and a lithe Breloom appeared on the field, bouncing slightly on the balls of his hind claws. The absurdly oversized mushroom cap upon his head quivered as he looked about with interest. Oooh, are we in a battle now? Hello!
Jabberwocky held up his eye to the sun, examining it fussily. When he was thoroughly satisfied with its immaculateness, he carefully inserted the diamond back into its empty socket and twisted it in (as he did so, it produced a squelching squeak) until it could turn no longer. The Sableye sighed in pleasure, his toothy grin nearly splitting his face in half. He spun around once, twice, thrice, paused, and then did an astonishingly quick backflip, landing with perfect grace. The Sableye crouched down and squinted at the Onix.
This is quite interesting! I must get a closer look at this marvel! An animated heap of rocks, oh my, my, my! Calooh!
Linali drew a long shaky inhale. She’d forgotten how wayward and undisciplined her Pokemon team could be at times. “People, get serious. This is a battle!”
“Kakuna kunaaaa KUUUUKAA!” Gosh, a battle, really? I wasn’t aware of that. Gee, I wonder why? MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT I AM LYING HERE IMMOBILE AND HELPLESS AND UNABLE TO SEE ANYTHING EXCEPT A FACEFUL OF ASPHALT!
The Onix had begun to ponderously heave its vast, heavy bulk out of the upturned earth, dragging its stony hide across the hardpan and making a unbearable scraping noise like metal files gouging against each other. Patches of the dirt were softened and spongy with melted snow, creating a muddy slurry that slowed and hindered the creature’s progress.
“Kakuna KUNA!” What the hell’s that noise? What is it? SOMEONE FLIP ME AROUND, I CAN’T SEE A BLOODY THING!
“Bree—looom ooom boom.” It’s a rather big Onix heading towards you, and he looks sort of mad, the Breloom offered helpfully.
“Vespa, Pierrot, be quiet.” Linali’s voice had taken on an icy, hard edge as she watched the Onix laboriously pull itself towards her, its stupid malevolent gaze locked on her. “Vespa. Listen to me. You need to calm down. Make as little noise as possible. On my command, I want you to perform Harden, and keep repeating the procedure until you’re maxed out. Can you do that?”
“Ku…na.” Ah….yes, I can.
A faint smile lifted the corners of Linali’s lips. This was her entire world now, this small patch of dirt and snow that was the Outskirt’s parking lot converted into a battling arena. The thrill of battle hummed and sang through her veins as Linali’s mind settled into the familiar mode of strategizing and tactics and split-second decisions. This was what she did.
She closed her eyes and took steady, deep breaths. One. Two. One. Two…
In her mind, the cold starkness muddy asphalt and snow melted away into darkness as a hazy image sketched itself into clarity, filling in the empty gaps of memory. The memory surged through her entire consciousness, engulfing her in a flood of color and sound—taking her to another world, another time, another life…
—the crowd roared…it’s February 15, 1856…perfect day….rising—
thunder… drumming drumming DRUMMING DRUMMING SWELLING ROAR—
—sun gleaming in the sky as furnace heat rises from the majestic stadium—packed bench to bench with roaring, slavering, cheering fans. The bellow of the frenzied crowds rolling out across the arena like thunder drums drums drumming drumming—
“It’s a perfect day today here at the finals, and we’re all cheering for the best of the best! Introducing the elite of the elite…the most celebrated rising trainer of the newly formed Indigo League…Linali Furusato, also known to her fans as the deadly die Wespe der blauen Lanze!”
Yes. That was what they had called her.
The stadium was her world, and always had been. Battling was her life, and it pounded in the pulse of her blood just like the thunderous echo of the drums in her memory.
She was the die Wespe der blauen Lanze.
She would not lose (now and then)
This was her world , no matter where or when she was, and nothing else mattered in the world right now except defeating her opponent.
“Good. Very good. Pierrot, Jabberwocky…listen to me. Listen carefully. Our goal is to defeat that Onix, but we won’t do that right now. We need to tire him out first. Pierrot, start off with Leech Seed. Jabber, you use Taunt, and dazzle him with your jewels to make him follow you. Wear him down, insult his mother, throw sand in his eyes, anything you can think of, do it, as long as he’s following you, and only you. Understood?”
Pierrot straightened and puffed out his chest. “Loom loomah!” Leave it to me!
Jabberwocky nodded, grinning naughtily as he began to shuffle through his mental repertoire of bawdy insults. The Sableye lowered his squat body into a crouch, his sapphires and rubies glittering in the morning sunlight. He spat into the pads of his paws and rubbed them, keeping his eyes alertly trained on the Onix. Vespa…well, Vespa simply remained facedown in the dirt. There was only so much a Kakuna was capable of.
In the crowd, Sahara stamped her foot impatiently and snarled, her teeth noticeably longer than they should have been. “What’s with the theatrics? What the hell’s taking them so long to attack?!?”
Dakota shushed his fidgety Packmate. “Patience, mi bonita, patience. Your fangs are starting to show again. Linali knows what she is doing, I am sure.”
“She had better,” Sahara mumbled, eyeing the Onix with contemptuous distaste. The Wereyena jumped with fright as Linali’s piercing battle cry rang out, echoing up and down the parking lot.
”NOW!”
The arena exploded with a fury of sound and movement as Jabberwocky and Pierrot leapt forward; the Onix reacted to Linali’s shout with a dull roar of fury. Vespa remained stone still, but her skin had begun to gleam wetly. A thin film of liquid began to seep through her pores, glazing every inch of yellow chitin and turning a dull silvery color as it hardened into a solid layer. No sooner than when that process had finished, a second layer of wet film had begun to seep out.
“Excellent, Vespa, just keep at it and you’ll be fine!” Linali called out, encouraging the cocoon Pokemon even as she turned her attention to the zigzagging, maniacally laughing blur that was her Sableye.
Jabberwocky was having the time of his life, somersaulting and yelling out taunts. His jewels flashed in the sunlight and seemed to glow with their own inner fire, tantalizingly beckoning the Onix to give chase.
“Look out for his tail there, Jabber! Watch where you’re going and don’t slip on the ice!”
Pierrot wasn’t nearly half as fast as his partner, but he was holding his own as he sprightly bounced around, spitting Leech Seeds at the Onix with deadly accuracy. They clung wetly to the stony surface and took root—literally. Thin green tendrils shot out and rapidly crisscrossed every available inch of stone, greedily devouring energy.
“Good work, Pierrot. Try and sap more of its energy with Giga Drain—you need to store as much energy as possible.”
The combination worked surprisingly well. If this had been a video game and featured a Rage power gauge, the Onix’s levels would have been in the red and exploding through the roof. He thrashed in mindless anger, sweeping up rocks with his gargantuan tail and flinging them upwards into the air.
“Jabber, do your old shtick—the thing about the weeping earth, or however it went!” Linali rapped out, covering her ears to prevent being deafened by the crashing of falling stone and the roaring of the Onix.
The ground shook with decibel-shattering, explosive impacts. Boulders fell and crashed everywhere as the agile Sableye weaved, ducked, and leapt to evade his foe’s Rock Throws; he ended the sequence with a mighty somersault, landing hard on all fours and sliding sideways on the slippery mud and ice. He screeched to a halt and lifted himself up on his hind legs, puffing his chest out and flexing his claws.
Yahooo! I’m the one and only Jabberwocky the Mighty! I make the earth shake and the skies weep! Bah! You call those Rock Throws? My dear old grandma—(bless her soul)—could throw better n’ than that—heck, even a Wurmple could do better n’ that! Haw haw haw! Jabber crowed, wagging his bejeweled bottom impudently.
The Taunt had its intended effect, and the Onix roared, his brains nearly boiling with rage. He bellowed the first thing that came to mind: EAT THIS—ROCK BLAST!
“Pierrot, jump! Try to take advantage of your Effect Spore attribute!” Linali leapt to the side, avoiding a spinning hunk of shrapnel that would have happily rendered her face to a bloody red pulp had she not dodged it in time.
A veritable hailstorm of boulders thundered down, hissing and spinning through the air with enough force to decapitate anyone standing in their path. Pierrot disappeared into a blur of motion, and by the time the onlookers’ eyes could track him again, he had already launched himself into the sky. The Breloom landed on a boulder and pushed off again, sending it spinning off into another direction. Boulders flew everywhere astray as the Breloom continued leaping from stone to stone midair.
“Loomah boom!” Say hello to Newton’s laws, pebble-brain!
Pierrot landed on the Onix’s head and latched himself there, clinging tightly with all four of his talons wrapped around the raised blade of stone that jutted out of the larger Pokemon’s skull. His seed-encrusted tail waved around in front of the boulder python’s eyes; each blow it struck produced a cartoony bong-g-g! sound. Pale yellow spores gushed out of the red spore ducts on his cap and drifted around in the sharp breeze, settling upon the Onix’s exposed skin.
“Good, good. Keep him busy until he’s well worn out.” Linali whispered, more to herself than to the Breloom.
The Onix howled and thrashed about violently, his tail crashing up and down upon the ground and shattering patches of ice. By this point, nearly his entire bulk had sunk into the sodden mud, clogging up his segments and rendering him practically immobile, and the paralyzing spores only made it worse. His cries had noticeably become more faint, his movements slower and weaker. Linali’s sharp eye took note of this.
Vespa was swaddled up in about thirty-plus layers of Hardens, nearly unrecognizable. Layer upon layer of hardened film had created a solid, inches-thick armor that could have easily withstood anything short of being dropped into a minefield.
Which was precisely what Linali had been waiting for.
“Pierrot, let go of the Onix and get behind Vespa! Jabber, back up, back up Keep your distance and reflect sunlight off your jewels into his eyes so he can’t see!”
But Jabberwocky is having fun! Jabber howled as he was violently flung into the air by a gigantic sweep of the Onix’s tail. Pierrot abruptly let go and went sailing backwards through the air, cheerfully twiddling a red claw at the Onix. Cheerio, m’ dear!
The Breloom landed artfully upon the ice, but his landing was ruined as he slipped and fell on his bottom. Sahara groaned, face in her hands as the crowd howled with laughter. Pierrot pulled himself to his feet with all the dignity he could muster and assumed the traditional fighting stance of his species.
There was a piercing flash as Jabberwocky flashed a dazzling ray of light directly into the Onix’s eyes. The beleaguered boulder snake wailed piteously and flinched its head back, squeezing its eyes shut. Linali’s voice cut through the roar of the crowd, as clear and cold as a knife’s edge.
“Pierrot, perform Focus Punch on Vespa.”
This time, Jabberwocky’s jaw hit the ground and both of his eyes popped out of their sockets, leaving behind empty black holes in a gaping face. Pierrot looked at Linali, eyes wide with disbelief. The roar of the crowd abruptly died away to shocked, hostile murmurs. Dakota lowered his eyes silently. Sahara’s fists clenched in rage. “That stone-cold bItch! She doesn’t care about hurting her Pokemon! She’ll do anything to win—“
“Be quiet, Sahara.” Dakota growled. “Can’t you see it hurts her as much as it’ll hurt her Pokemon? Be silent and watch.”
”Obey me, Pierrot!” Linali hissed. ”You know your place.”
The crowd watched with a quiet, almost-reverent awe as Pierrot lowered his head so that the mushroom cap obscured his eyes. “Loom.” Very well.
His body tensed as it began to crackle and hum, glowing a dim orange with collecting energy.
Vespa still lay facedown, unaware of what was happening. The layers of armor muffled out all but the loudest noises, and she didn’t hear the steady drumming of Pierrot’s feet approaching, growing louder and louder with each moment. Pierrot’s entire body was blazing in a sheath of white-hot energy, collecting at his outstretched claw to form a deadly sphere of keening light.
There was a terrible, echoing thud as he slammed into Vespa with all the force of a cannon. The recoil of the punch sent him tumbling backwards into the muddy snow. The crowd flinched collectively as Vespa hissed through the air, shedding bits and pieces of fractured metallic shards as she flew.
“Keeeeeeeeeeeeeku kak aaa!” WHAT THE HELL?!? LIIINAAALLIII IMA GONNA KIIIIIILLL YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU—
The hollow thwock! Vespa made as she slammed into the Onix’s face was even more terrible than the previous thud. There was a splintering, cracking noise as the Kakuna’s Harden armor shattered explosively. She plummeted towards the ground in a cloud of metal shards, unconscious before she hit the asphalt. The small cocoon Pokemon lay prostate on the ground for a few heartbeats before her form began to shimmer with light. The air around her rippled and distorted with whirling strands of data and she disappeared, leaving behind only glittering shards of metallic chitin.
The Onix let out a weak groan as he swayed from side to side, a thin crack running down his forehead from the impact. A large sliver of metal protruded from his right eye, which was squeezed shut and trickling coppery liquid ore. The massive bulk of his body suddenly stiffened, then went limp like a slackening rope. With no more than a rumbling sigh, the Onix clattered to the asphalt, and slid backwards down the hole and out of sight.
Okay…we’ll skip to the speeches by relatives…first, a tribute by the trainer of this unfortunate pokemon, Typhlogirl.