ROUND 1
Business seems to be looking up for Dragons' Den Simulations. As Whirlpool leaves the front foyer, sending the chimes on the door into a frenzy, another Trainer enters a few moments later. The Trainer seems to have something of an ambiguous gender, though the girl standing behind the counter is more interested in the cash in their hand. sreservoir pauses in front of a cardboard cut-out of the legendary Sky High Pokemon, Rayquaza, before moving to the front counter. The girl snatches the money from its outstretched hand with something of a smile, before she leads them through the back door and through the maze of hallways and doors.
They passed a door with an alarming caution sign on it. A quick glance through the side window revealed an oddly serene island, though the screeches coming through the door indicated something to the contrary. What exactly was going on there? A flash of white and grey, followed by a streak and white and red and a loud
thump made both Trainers jump, and then they were moving on again. After a short trip that must have taken at least three minutes, the two Trainers arrive at an unusually shiny, flimsy looking wooden door. A red light comes on somewhere further down the hallway as the girl opens the door, and they enter without a word.
The door seems to have led to a small waiting room. The girl points sreservoir through yet another door, this one more heavily armoured with thick metal sheets lining both sides. She goes through a different side door, disappearing from sight as sreservoir comes to the main simulation room. The metal panelling on the floors and walls appear to be made of the same kind of metal as the door, giving the room a boxy feel, despite its size. Industrial lights overhead light up the entire room with a warm white light. Footsteps echo through the room as sreservoir walks a few steps, almost to the center of the room, when a bright flash of light makes it throw up an arm to cover its eyes. Still obscured by the bright lights, the room begins to move with mechanical clunks and whirrs of hidden panels.
The floor under sreservoir's feet begins to shake and move upwards, and as it opens its eyes, the ground under its feet seems to have changed significantly. The formerly metal-lined room appears to have become a mountain peak, with clouds beyond the mountaintop clearing as far as the eye can see. As sreservoir turns around to take in the sight, it sees a cave that presumably leads back down to the base of the Sky Pillar. The ground is horribly unstable looking, complete with cracks and full out holes just littering the ground.
The ground begins to shake and rumble, pieces of the ground crumbling away to the lower floor at the slight movements. sreservoir looks around in anticipation as the shaking of the ground increases, and stops all of a sudden. It jumps up in surprise as the clouds in front of it burst abruptly, parting as a green dragon explodes upwards from just below the clouds. It hovers in front of sreservoir, and roars mightily, shaking the ground and opening up quite a few more holes around the edges of the clearing. sreservoir reaches for a Pokeball fastened on its belt, completely unfazed by the Legendary's show, and sends out its Drifloon, Puff, with a shout. Puff eyes the huge dragon in front of her with some anticipation, drifting backwards slightly as Rayquaza roars again, curling and uncurling its tail quickly in amusement. Exactly what was such a tiny bag of air supposed to do? Get caught in its teeth? sreservoir takes a few steps back as Rayquaza coughs out a series of snarls that could be laughter. Come at me, bro, it seemed to be saying.
sreservoir (Oo)
[Puff] F <Unburden>
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Swaying back and forth eagerly.
Simulator (O)
[Rayquaza] X <Air Lock>
Health: 250%
Energy: 250%
Status: this is a joke right
Much to Rayquaza's surprise, Puff reacts right after sreservoir shouts commands to it, trembling and seeming to shudder with pain. A misty image of a knife appears in front of her, and she willingly drifts forwards into it, wincing as it sinks in to the hilt and
twists. Rayquaza makes a low growling sound as the misty knife, now stained with a dark purple looking substance, dissolves into a fine powder and floats towards it. Rayquaza lashes at the powder with its tail, a low sound that makes the ground around it begin to tremble again, but can do nothing as it floats around its tail and up around its neck, to form a collar-like stain around it. Rayquaza thrashes about as the powder contacts its scales, knocking over a few rocks that fall a floor down. That stuff
burned, dammit. To its pleasure though, it saw that Puff was already severely wounded and starting to droop in the air. It was willing to do that to itself?
Rayquaza seems to be looking around Sky Pillar for something, something round? It turns over rocks and stones and finding one to its liking, Rayquaza breathes over it. A bright yellow, almost glowing mist falls from its mouth and is absorbed by the rock in its claw, two eye-like shapes and a yellow circle like Rayquaza's forming on its forehead. A long stream of the mist forms a makeshift tail, and Rayquaza looks into the eyes of its Substitute with a snarl. The Rayquaza-rock snarls back, a bit weakly, and Rayquaza nods. It would do. The rock floats in front of its creator and whips its tail about, eager to get stuff done.
Puff perks up slightly at the sight of the floating rock. She couldn't help but think about how unfitting it looked, whipping its tail about and trying to act like Rayquaza. She was good at making stuff too, though! Puff shivers and concentrates, and closes her eyes tightly as a thin stream of energy begins to flow from her. She blinks them open and sways side to side, stirring the energy hovering in the air around. It flutters about until it mostly settles in front of the Drifloon, and she seems to be satisfied with its position. The energy-mist quickly forms rectangular shapes and stacks up, creating a faint pattern in the air, not dissimilar to a brick wall. Puff drifts backwards and nods slightly, satisfied with her energy-wall.
Rayquaza looks over the shoulder of its Substitute scornfully. A tiny brick wall not even the size of its tail was supposed to do what, again? It roars again, eager to show off as always. This time, its roar causes the ground to shake violently, and a bunch of tiny stone fragments crack and rise into the air. Puff looks around herself wildly as the stone fragments rise to about her level and shudder, before flying towards her with a vengeance, seeming to stall in the air slightly as they pass through the energy-brick wall in front of the Drifloon. Puff deflates slightly and is thrown backwards as the tiny rocks cut into her, leaving a bunch of tiny cuts in her front. She makes a high pitched squeaking noise and shakes around slightly to dislodge the stone fragments embedded in her.
Puff shudders and eyes Rayquaza angrily, swinging side to side in the air. She wanted to show it exactly what she was made of, though that was against her Trainer's orders. Instead, she floats down so her short energy barrier covers a bit more of her, and looks directly into Rayquaza's eyes. It growls in response and whips its tail around, lightly brushing the ground. Was that a challenge? Rayquaza lifts its head and roars again, making the ground shake. It slams its tail on the ground and lifts both claws in the air as hundreds of tiny stone fragments rise with it, shuddering in the air. Puff flinches back as they all fly at her and sink into the energy wall, slowed down only the slightest as they force their way through to cut into her. Puff winces as one fragment hits a particularly tender spot, where another chip of stone had cut her already.
Puff makes an annoyed sound and sways side to side, making noises that could probably be interpreted as insults under her breath. Rayquaza roars a taunt in response, and Puff squeaks a comeback. Could it stop doing that? What exactly had it done that was so brag-worthy? Made a few rocks float? She appears to inhale deeply and expands to the maximum while Rayquaza looks on with something of a sour expression. The energy wall in front of her seems to be pulsing as Puff continues to inhale, and turns into strands of light as the Drifloon mentally pulls at it. The energy is absorbed back into Puff as she sucks in. When it appears she can't inhale anymore at the risk of exploding, Puff exhales and a ring of whitish-yellow energy explodes outwards from her towards Rayquaza. The Rayquaza rock dives in front of it, protecting its creator from the blast of energy with fatal results. It's thrown backwards and skids on the ground under Rayquaza, the yellow energy fading quickly from around the rock and dissipating in the air. Rayquaza looks at it almost disappointedly before looking up to face Puff and roaring again. Puff makes a high pitched noise in response. If it didn't stop that, its throat was going to get sore pretty quickly. It was probably just mad that she totally killed its rock-thing.
The black stain around Rayquaza's throat flares up with a dark purple, almost black light and both Rayquaza and Puff flinch away slightly in surprise. Rayquaza roars and thrashes about as the stain spreads further down its body, thickening out as it coats its green scales. What exactly was this stuff? It scratches at its neck with one claw while making low noises. Puff replies with a few quiet, high pitched sounds and some raspy breaths. Being overdramatic didn't get anyone anywhere.
sreservoir (Oo)
[Puff] F <Unburden>
Health: 13%
Energy: 77%
Status: Annoyed with Rayquaza's screaming. Already quite tired.
Simulator (O)
[Rayquaza] X <Air Lock>
Health: 210%
Energy: 225%
Status: Stinging.
Cursed (25% damage a round).
-This round, fire and ice typed moves were weakened by 2%.
-..And just for reference, Curse took 50% health off Puff.
-second Stone Edge was a critical hit.
-sreservoir commands first.
