For Coloursfall.
2 vs 2 doubles
DQ: 7 days
Damage cap: 50%
Banned moves: OHKOs, attract, sleep, direct healing
Arena: GLaDOS's Control Room
For once - just for once - these two Asberian trainers decided to have a simple battle in a plain location that won't require too much thought. They just want to improve their teams, you see, and perhaps have a little fun while they're at it. They aren't aiming for the joyous chaos of a metronome battle or the hand-wringing tension of a high-stakes tournament, so they wanted somewhere peaceful.
But they couldn't resist investigating when they heard warnings about a field of wheat near the town in which they were taking a vacation, and when nothing seemed to be of note, they chose to battle in it.
The wheat field was quite simple - an endless golden field as high as one's hip, expanding in every direction. The only landmark was a small shed surrounded by a square of concrete, and, well, it provided an easily-explained place to meet.
Unfortunately, it also held a dangerous secret, and for days on end, the trainers fought for their lives for days using their minds, some physics-breaking portal guns, and their pokémon. It was this that intrigued the Voice the most. But it was not until the poor referee, whom the prospective battlers had requested in advance before being dragged down into a massive underground facility, that the Voice knew what must be done.
In an isolated cylindrical room, the trainers found themselves confronted by a massive robot hanging from the ceiling, her yellow optic burning into them with curiosity. With an oddly emotive, rectangular white face, and a wires arranged around the hanging body so they looked like arms, this new entity was uncomfortably close to human. And her actions, her words, her subtle cruelty - well, they too screamed humanity, though she denied it.
Around her, hanging from the ceiling, were several flat screens detailing anything she wanted, with another massive flatscreen on the far wall doing the same. And the screens showed only replays of every instance the trainers used their pokémon, and close-ups of the pokémon themselves.
More alarmingly, every panel - all of them black in colour, not white like the ones they were interested in - moved when the AI (not a recording, one murmured, can you believe it?) feigned laughter and mocked them. When the panels were turned perpendicular to the floor, they looked like they had eyes.
There was an incinerator, the trainers noted, though blocked off. The button to open it was on the other side of the room, and on a timer, so one could not press the button and run to the incinerator in time to put something in.
But otherwise, the room was fairly plain. And, save for the AI's face, not a white surface in sight.
The poor referee hung from a metal claw, unable to help the trainers with anything but a voice, because that's all the AI required.
With a calm voice and not a reference to cake in sight, the AI told them of the next test they were to undergo. They were to put their Aperture Science Handheld Portal Devices in the ASHPD receptacle, have what the referee called an "Asberian-style pokémon battle", and when finished, recall their pokémon and assume the Party Escort Submission Position.
Under threat of attack by deadly neurotoxin, the trainers agreed to show her what pokémon could do.
Additional rules: Many components of the room are fully customisable - but only by the AI running the facility. In their commands, a trainer can request what will be needed for an attack being ordered, and it will be provided. For science. However, that is only for attacks that might be used, such as surf requiring her to pump in tepid water - the AI is not so eager to watch the trainers bouncing and sliding around the room like dangerous, non-mute lunatics. Edgeless Safety Cubes, Weighted Storage Cubes, and Discouragement Redirection Cubes will take the place of any rock that must normally be torn out of the ground, though more dangerous products such as turrets, Thermal Discouragement Beams, Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button, High Energy Pellets, and Aerial Faith Plates will not be provided.
However, these boons come with a risk: should the trainers not provide any new material - new strategies, combinations, or moves, for example - GLaDOS may just decide to flood the arena with a deadly neurotoxin. Or crush the referee and toss the body aside. Or, at least, that is what she claims.
