Round One
Control of Dialga (2/2)
Ninja ♂
[Compoundeyes]
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Waiting in darkness, fufufu.
Sparky ♀
[Intimidate]
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Cramming in some last-minute practice to look her most fearsome.
Le Sabre (2/2)
Blaze ♂
[Gluttony]
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Making sure he's... as well-rested as possible for the big day.
Valorie ♀
[Overgrow]
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Excited! Resisting the urge to break out of her ball early.
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As an official of the dignified Pokémon League of Asber, the ref has the privilege of taking the first step onto the marvellous field reserved for today's battle. The power of Science has worked many wonders, but the invention our heroes are here to test today is quite possibly the best of them all. Dutifully removing per shoes, the ref emerges onto the magical (
scientifically magical) paper of the Finger Paint Station and imprints an elegant black sockprint with a Poké Ball design on the paper, very fitting, very classy.
Per second step leaves behind stripes of the most livid shade of purple known to humankind alternating with safety orange.
After per wastes a minute or two giddily dancing around, Le Sabre and the oh-so-modestly-monikered Control of Dialga catch per attention with a synchronized
a-hem from the entrance. Per snaps back to reality for a moment to give the a-ok sign, and the cousins burst out onto the gargantuan sheet and start dancing around with almost as much excitement, but not quite. That would be quite an achievement.
Blaze the Pansear knows better than to even try. He emerges from his Poké Ball still snoring! Today seemed like a good day to sleep in. (Every day seems like a good day to sleep in to him.) He rolls over, leaving a bright orange-red smear on the paper, but keeps on sawing logs until Le Sabre picks him up and gives him a rigorous shake. It takes a few shakes before he stops pretending he's still asleep, and then she plops him down on the page again. He sees the red blotches he left on the paper and freaks out for a moment—
oh god what did she try before shaking me—and then happens to glance down and notices the footprints peeking out from under his feet. He steps back, and the fiery red-orange pawprints with the yellow pads make everything snap into place. Hey, this is pretty cool, he thinks.
Sparky thinks it's pretty cool, too, but for completely different reasons. Her immediate plans involve sectioning off a quarter of the page as her territory and snarling at potential intruders, and then once everyone else knows to stay out maybe she'll put some kickass lightning bolts around. First thing's first though; she paces back and forth, trying to find a good spot to start a border, then starts marching in a circle around the middle of the page, leaving behind a border of black and electric blue pawprints. She gets pretty bored of this before long, though, and finishes the job running at full speed, skidding to close the circle with a jagged blue streak.
That's more her style.
While the Shinx dashes off to draw the other border on her territory, Ninja slowly adjusts to the bright colours assaulting each lens of his compound eyes. He's used to being cubbyhold underground, and he's a
ninja to boot, so his disorientation is understandable. Still, what kind of ninja is
totally dependent on shadows to get any good sneakage done? A lousy one, that's what. And he's not a louse, he's a Nincada, so he'd better change his tune quick. The marks he leaves as he scuttles about suit him well: simple strokes that would barely be noticeable even if they
weren't a light tan colour that blends in neatly with the paper. Of course, he's embarrassed about leaving a trail at all, but next to the others' electric blue and fiery orange pawprints, he feels pretty confident he's doing an okay job.
And then Valorie steps onto the page. She glides along the paper lithely on half as many feet as Ninja, leaving behind a sparse trail of sleek prints. Very discreet, especially compared the nebula of little footprints accumulating behind Ninja. What's more, their light cream colour makes them nearly impossible to spot against the manila paper. Ninja knows when he's outclassed. He may as well just give up now, he thinks. But then Valorie, an excitable little critter, figures out how the paper works and stops darting around and starts rolling around instead. She doesn't
want her trail to be invisible, she wants to join in the fun! And her bright green works wonderfully for fun. She can't roll around everywhere, of course, but she figures out a solution pretty quickly. She lets her tail drag behind her, and using its leaves, leaves a perfectly green trail behind her. Well, thinks Ninja, this one's just full of surprises. But a ninja is a
master of surprises. She'll be a piece of cake after all.
Keeping herself standing upright so she can keep dragging her tail, Valorie clumsily skips over to say hi to Blaze, who lazily raises a fist for a fist-bump. Valorie, having teeny little Snivy arms, throws her entire body into returning the fist-bump. The two go over to greet the others with offers of more fist-bumps, but they don't even get as far as learning whether or not quadrupeds can even manage to fist-bump. Ninja just scurries away, and Sparky warns them in no uncertain terms that trespassers will be prosecuted. Or, ah, something to that effect.
Then both trainers huddle with their Pokémon to talk strategy. Valorie and Sparky get the gist of their respective commands right away; Blaze takes a moment to quit spacing out, but he gets it pretty quickly too.
But Ninja's in a panic. He
thinks he gets it, but he's worried about forgetting something and he's not at all confident about all the
sun in his commands and—and then everything happens all at once. The Pansear breathes a bright jet of fire in his face, and he's too stunned to move. He shields his eyes just in time, but swathes of fire sweep over his claws and the rest of his face and scorch his entire body. In the end, though, nothing is seriously hurt. Relieved, and not too ashamed, he moves his claws aside. Valorie leaps into action. She curls into a loop in midair and comes down hard, slashing Ninja's face with her tail. Then there's an awful crackling noise and more searing light crashes over him, prickling his entire body like a flurry of needles.
And then everything stops. The prickling dies down instantly with the light, and Ninja begins to calm down. That last part didn't even hurt! It just felt like scuttling over pine needles. He just got flustered and panicked. But maybe nobody saw. As he catches his bearings, he becomes more and more confident in this idea—the strangers don't look like they had such an easy time of it, and Sparky, well, it was probably her light in the first place but she wouldn't care about his ninja pride anyway.
Okay. Now it's his turn. Time to even the score. Valorie's still staggering to her feet, clutching her head—now's his chance! Ninja hurries over and slashes at her with his claws, right across the neck. She falls back down with a startled, choking hiss, and Ninja rushes back off before she can figure out what hit her.
Valorie shakes her head clear and regroups with Blaze quick as a cricket (and rather quicker than a Nincada). This time they're off into Sparky's territory. It's like an adventure! Hunting the hunter. It's thrilling, they try to convince themselves. Not scary,
thrilling, right? And so they dash into the charred ring. Sparky instantly transforms into a terrifying, snarling gargoyle made of hate, bristling fur, and more hate. Blaze runs up to her and bops her on the nose with a flaming fist, then does a one-eighty and makes a break for it. Valorie doesn't even get that far; she spits a blob of gelatinous-looking green energy from a few feet away and bolts. Their coordination completely disinitgrates as they speed off in different directions with the lion in pursuit of one of them for sure, neither looking back to check if it's them.
In reality, Sparky doesn't chase either of them. She's a bit too bewildered to decide which way to go, and besides, they're leaving, so who cares? She'll have to step up the patrol, though, if she doesn't want that happening again. She runs over to the edge of her circle and dashes off around the perimeter. Sparks start flying behind her, and eventually she melts into a blur; when she slows down, there are four of her marching along the border. That should do it.
Meanwhile, Ninja closes his eyes and focuses hard, no matter how much he doesn't want to, on intensifying the light. He thinks about the bright colours, the fire, the wave of electricity... mostly the fire. The fire was the
worst, but also the most inspiring. Streaks of bright yellow and orange spill outward from beneath his feet and over the paper, turning into a bright, glowing disc. Ninja opens his eyes, and can't believe them. The disc rises off the page, leaving it the way it was, and takes its place in the sky, opposite the real sun, shining, miraculously, just as warmly. He finds he doesn't mind it. It's nice, even. It feels
good when he's in control of it.
Blaze, once his nerve is back up, approaches Sparky, careful to stay on his side of the border. He starts timidly trying to tell her how fearsome she is, and how, uh, much he likes that? And... he doesn't feel all that convincing. He sure isn't convincing himself, and judging by the way she's totally ignoring him, she's not buying it either. He waves a paw in front of her face, just to be sure, and she disappears! He jumps backward with a startled
ook, and the other Sparkies just laugh at him. Wait, he thinks; other Sparkies? Since when are there other Sparkies?! One was bad enough...
On the opposite side of Sparkistan, Valorie tries a different approach to making Sparky less terrifying. She balances on one foot and starts spinning around, forgetting about the beast, just focussing on herself. She thinks of herself as the beast, a big, rough lizard, practically a dragon. She has no reason to be scared of a little kitten. She manages to shake her fear and sharpen her senses a little, and her body, too—the leaves on her tail actually have finer, sharper edges.
Sparky still isn't satisfied with her defense force. It's still, essentially, just her; those warning clones won't work for long. She calls the bug over and offers to make a deal: he helps keep those outsiders on the outside, and she grants him her protection. Ninja was pretty sure they
already were allies, but he's not going to complain. He agrees to her terms and scuttles over the border, careful not to get any of his footprints on it. To seal the deal, Sparky concentrates and creates a dazzling barrier of sparks around them—Ninja likens them to Volbeat—to help keep away any more of those goop bombs or fire shots. Ninja is transfixed. Yep, he definitely likes light when it's on his side.
Now to try and wield it for himself. He knows the theory behind this move, but he's never actually attempted it; it's a bit nerve-wracking. He focuses his mind and lets the light he's created pour into his body. Combined with the light from the real sun, he builds up a good amount of energy quickly; he turns toward Blaze and lets it loose. The beam is the most amazing light he's seen yet. In fact, he doesn't get to see it hit its mark, but when it peters out, the monkey is lying dazed on the ground. Ninja feels sort of dazed himself. He... he did that. He turns to the nearest Sparky for approval; he doesn't know which Sparky is his boss, but they all give him the same curt nod, and in that moment he feels more impressive than ever.
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Control of Dialga (2/2)
Ninja ♂
[Compoundeyes]
Health: 68%
Energy: 86%
Status: Reassessing his thoughts on the light. Maybe he's not just a creature of darkness.
Sparky ♀
[Intimidate]
Health: 83%
Energy: 87%
Status: Satisfied with her new recruit.
Light Screen (five more actions); has two Double Team clones.
Le Sabre (2/2)
Blaze ♂
[Gluttony]
Health: 82%
Energy: 90%
Status: Rubbing his eyes, seeing kind of fuzzy.
-1 attack.
Valorie ♀
[Overgrow]
Health: 72%
Energy: 86%
Status: Confident and eager to launch a proper assault on the Sparky Brigade.
+1 attack.
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Arena Notes:
- Sparky and Ninja are in the middle of the sheet in Sparky's territory. The paper inside the circle is charred, especially towards the center.
- Valorie and Blaze are just outside, on opposite sides.
- There are footprints everywhere.
- A big acrylic sun is shining above the paper. Sunny Day (five more actions).
Notes:
- Help help I made too many words
- Leaf Blade and X-Scissor rolled for critical hits.
- Light Screen is covering both Sparky and Ninja; I just noted it on Sparky's status because she's the one supporting it.
- Okay so yes the rest of the battle should go more quickly because a) I won't have to introduce four Pokémon and an arena; b) I kind of have the hang of doubles now.
- Control of Dialga commands first this round.
Flame the male Cyndaquil <Blaze> @ Fire Stone
Star the unknown Starmie <Illuminate>
Sparky the female Shinx <Intimidate>
Ninja the male Nincada <Compoundeyes>
Who the female Hoothoot <Keen Eye>
Piggly the male Swinub <Snow Cloak>
Iron the female Aron <Rock Head>
Vinny the female Bellsprout <Chlorophyll>
King the male Slowpoke <Oblivious> @ Quick Claw
Glyem the female Elgyem <Telepathy>
Valorie the female Snivy <Overgrow>
Nickolaus the male Joltik <Compoundeyes>
Jesse the male Buizel <Swift Swim>
Sharon the female Gastly <Levitate>
Blaze the male Pansear <Gluttony>
Tweeters the female Starly <Keen Eye>
Drills the male Drilbur <Sand Force>
