1vs1 Set
DQ: Standard Week
Damage Cap: None
Banned Moves/Pokemon: Anything but Metronome, so anything that can't learn it isn't allowed; self-KO moves cannot be called
Other: Pokemon start with 150% energy
Arena: Willow Town
Times Square is a major intersection in New York, and an important artery of the city. Having existed for over a century, it has become an icon and is a symbol of New York. Many businesses and other landmarks exist here, and the New Year's ball drop also calls this place home. At the center of the square, traffic is heavy as always, and somehow even busier than most other streets. However, judicious string-pulling has allowed a Pokemon battle to take place there. A small circle has been cleared off for the purposes of the battle, and eager spectators ring the arena. Elsewhere, life moves on as usual, albeit with noticeably more traffic police present.
Round 1
The spectators chatter eagerly amongst themselves as they watch the two trainers, Prettzel and sreservoir, stare each other down before releasing their chosen combatants. Mostly comprised of visitors and tourists (native New Yorkers, quite used to much weirder crap going on in their streets, tending to walk by with barely a glance), many are holding cameras, cell phones, and various other recording devices at the ready.
This’ll be great to show friends and family back home (or random people on YouTube)!, they think.
A random pokemon battle right in the middle of Times Square! Awesome!
Of course, none of them are privy to the
unique rules of this particular battle.
Prettzel seems quietly amused at the spectators’ naïve enthusiasm. Eager to get started, he selects a pokeball from his belt and tosses it to the center of the circle; in a flare of light, an abra emerges. He immediately and unceremoniously plops himself on the ground, not acknowledging the crowd ringing the area, nor the famous location he finds himself in; in fact, if his tightly closed eyes and soft breathing are any indication, he appears to be sound asleep!
Several members of the crowd appear disappointed, having hoped for something a bit more…well,
cool. Still, they hold out hope that the abra‘s opponent will be more impressive as Sreservoir responds to Prettzel with his own pokeball... only for their skepticism to spike upward as a tiny, stubby-limbed, big-eared cleffa materializes opposite the abra. While the crowd’s reaction is mostly squeals and coos of “Cute!”, several groans can be heard as well, and almost no one now expects the battle to be as exciting as they’d been hoping.
Star the cleffa simply smiles and giggles cutely, waving to Kine, who remains impassively asleep. Their trainers nod to each other, ready to begin, and shout their first commands over the omnipresent traffic that moves on around them, unconcerned with the chaos about to break forth…
Prettzel
Kine (M) <Synchronize>
Health: 100%
Energy: 150%
Status: “…zzz…”
sreservoir
Star (F) <Magic Guard>
Health: 100%
Energy: 150%
Status: “Hee! Let‘s blow stuff up!”
Kine’s ears give an almost unnoticeable twitch, the only outward sign that he heard his trainer’s orders. Even with only half his brain awake, Kine still has faster reaction time than Star; he immediately raises his arms and begins swaying his fingers back and forth. The tempo of the motion is strangely mesmerizing, and many of the spectators unconsciously follow it with their eyes. After a few more seconds of the same rhythm, Kine stops the movement with his claws pointed upwards… but, much to everyone’s disappointment, nothing appears to happen.
Star, meanwhile, has begun a metronome of her own, though her rhythm is much faster than Kine’s. In the middle of it, however, just as Kine’s metronome ends, she experiences a strange sensation: as though a sort of invisible cage is compressing her mind, shrinking in on itself to imprison her thoughts and memories. However, the sensation vanishes as quickly as it came, and Star doesn’t feel as though she’s forgotten anything, important or otherwise, so she just shrugs it off and continues waving her fingers without missing a beat.
She finishes the metronome, and the air around her suddenly fills with a dense white mist. It spreads out over Star’s side of the field, obscuring her, her trainer, and about half the ring of onlookers from view. (Several of them start to mutter about first there’s no action and now they can’t even
see and oh
wow I’m on the edge of my seat with excitement here.) It doesn’t bother Kine, whose eyes are closed anyway, in the slightest; he just silently begins twitching his fingers again, bringing about another bend in reality…
Prettzel tries not to groan as once again Kine’s metronome seems to do absolutely nothing. Only a few seconds later, though, he hears a distressed whimper from behind the cloud of fog, and looks carefully at the cleffa-shaped outline to see what happened.
Once again, Star had felt an odd sensation in her head when Kine had finished: this time, like a door slamming shut and locking over an important piece of information. She immediately tried to form another metronome, only to find that her stubby little fingers refused to twitch in synch. No matter how hard she tries, she just can’t get her fingers to stay in the proper tempo, which has
never been a problem for her before; the little cleffa is close to tears as what is probably her species’ most basic technique seems suddenly beyond her ability.
She stops her attempt, sniffling, and glares petulantly at Kine through the mist. She’s not having fun anymore, and it’s all
his fault. Angrily, she rushes forward out of the mist, managing to look surprisingly menacing (but in a cute way), and slams her tiny body into Kine as hard as she can. He doesn’t even budge, and Star bounces back and hits the pavement, bruising herself a little. She stands up, and, still pouting, waddles back behind the mist as the abra raises his fingers again.
Since the battle began, Kine had been doing what he normally spends at least eighteen hours a day doing: sleeping. When his fingers stop ticking this time, however, his mind is immediately and inexplicably jerked fully into wakefulness. His eyes snap open - as much as an abra’s
can, at least - and he leaps to his feet with a sudden exuberance.
Looking around and seeing the place for the first time, Kine smiles and giggles happily in a very un-abra-like way, as his trainer stares blankly at him like he’s grown a second head. He doesn’t know why, but he just feels incredibly…happy, and carefree, and childlike (and with a odd, cheerful desire to see things explode mixed into it all). He also seems to sense some sort of invisible force surrounding him, ready to protect him from any indirect harm.
He giggles again. This is gonna be fun! How could he
possibly have intended to sleep through this?!
Suddenly, Star bursts out of the mist again, rushing at Kine and flailing her stubby limbs - she’d tried a metronome again, but the technique remains blocked to her, and once again she moves to take out her frustration on the abra. Kine waves cheerfully to her (
exactly as she had to him earlier), but Star is in no mood to acknowledge it; she gives a high-pitched growl and slams her round body into the abra’s leg.
Kine yelps, more in surprise than pain, as Star falls back and is engulfed by swirling mist once again. He rubs his leg, frowning a little; quickly enough, though, an undaunted smile finds its way back to the oddly-acting abra’s face, and he bounces eagerly on his toes, fingers already raised once more…
Prettzel
Kine (M) <Magic Guard>
Health: 94%
Energy: 141%
Status: “Hee! Let’s blow stuff up!”
sreservoir
Star (F) <Magic Guard>
Health: 98%
Energy: 146%
Status: Angry and distraught. Metronome disabled (2 more actions)
Kine’s Metronome: Imprison ~ Disable ~ Role Play
Star’s Metronome: Mist ~ *disabled* ~ *disabled*
Battle notes:
Since no other moves had been used yet, Imprison had no effect.
Kine now has the ability Magic Guard.
Star used Struggle on the last two actions. (I kept going back and forth on whether or not Struggle would be allowed. If that’s not what you had in mind, Prettzel, I can go back and edit it.)
Terrain notes:
Star’s side of the field is shrouded in thick mist.
Next round:
Sreservoir attacks first.