Chapter Text
That Ceruledge pokemon looks really tough, Kitty thought as she ran her hands over the pokeballs on her belt, considering her options. It’s obviously a Fire type. And Juliana said it was a Ghost type, as well. So a Fire/Ghost type? That’s a good combination. And it’s clearly a physical attacker as well… in that case, maybe my best option would be…
Going over her remaining pokemon, there was really only one good choice in Kitty’s mind, if she wanted to seize some initiative in this match.
“Larosa!” She decided, sending her Growlithe back out. “It’s on you!”
“Growlithe!” Larosa emerged snarling from the pokeball, narrowing her eyes into a ferocious glare. Her Intimidate ability triggered, causing Sol to cringe.
“Intimidate to lower Sol’s attack? I anticipated that,” Juliana replied. “Sol, use swords dance to boost your attack back up.”
“Ceruledge,” Sol growled, raising his sword arms. He began to sharpen them against each other to increase his attacking strength, but Kitty anticipated that herself.
“I expected you’d do that, too!” She shouted. “Go, Larosa! Agility!”
“Growlithe!” Larosa charged forward and picked up speed, and soon she was running circles around the ominous flame pokemon. When her speed reached a high enough level as judged by Kitty and her harmonia, and it looked like Sol was about to finish his swords dance, Kitty decided that they should attack.
“Now, use crunch!” She ordered.
“Growlithe!” Larosa opened her mouth, baring her fangs. She leapt at Sol from behind, and bit down hard on his shoulder blade.
“Ceruledge!” Sol growled in pain, raising his arm to try and swipe Larosa off, stabbing at her with his swords. But Larosa knew better than to hang on. After she bit him, she quickly let go, landing on the grass. His blade just barely scraped a few tufts of fur.
“Nicely done!” Kitty nodded to her Growlithe.
“Sol, time to take the offensive,” Juliana ordered. “Use shadow sneak.”
Kitty winced. That wasn’t good.
“Ceruledge.” Sol jammed his swords into the ground, and sunk into the shadows. A trail of darkness shot towards Larosa, chasing her with even greater speed than she could manage to achieve, and quickly overtaking the puppy pokemon.
Oh, how Kitty wished that Larosa had evolved like Blaze had! With extreme speed, Larosa could have easily outpaced the Ceruledge, but there was nothing she could do now.
“Dodge!” She yelled helplessly.
Larosa leapt to the side, which allowed her to escape a truly severe strike from the Ceruledge’s sharpened blade. But that just wasn’t enough. Sol slashed down her side, drawing blood, and she let out a yelp of pain as she tumbled through the grass.
“Now, shadow claw,” Juliana ordered.
Sol stalked towards Larosa with his sword raised. Ghostly energy surged through his arm, forming a blade of darkness that he angled at the Growlithe.
“Dig!” Kitty shouted, catching Juliana off-guard.
Before Sol’s blade could strike the Growlithe, Larosa sprung into action. She used the tall grass as cover and began to burrow a hole deep into the ground, moving fast to get out of the range of the Ceruledge’s attack. Again, Sol’s strike just barely missed her, carving out a patch of grass and revealing a dark hole dug in the lawn.
Larosa had escaped beneath the ground. Where she’d attack from? Not even Juliana with all her exceptional instincts as a trainer would be able to guess.
“Sol, be prepared,” Juliana warned, narrowing her eyes. Normally she would use this opportunity to set up another swords dance, but she knew that Kitty wasn’t an opponent she could risk that against. If what Kitty had said was true, and Juliana had no reason to doubt that it was, then she could share her senses with her pokemon.
A skill like that…
A trainer with a skill like that would be quite a fearsome foe. If Nemona were here, she’d probably be smiling from ear to ear. But for right now, it was just Juliana.
And Juliana had cleared everything from her mind but her intent to win.
“Growlithe!” Larosa emerged from the ground, right behind Sol, and extended her claws.
That was just what Juliana had expected. “Now! Strike!”
Sol whirled around and swung his sword. But Larosa hit him in the side with her tackle just as he struck her in the side with his blade, and the two pokemon knocked each other back. But Sol had taken a far greater hit, due to his weakness to Ground type moves. That being said, he was a very strong pokemon, so he was quickly back on his feet.
Juliana was a little surprised at how fast Larosa was able to do the same.
“With my harmonia, I can strengthen my pokemon,” Kitty declared, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her side from the Ceruledge’s cut. “Pushing out pain and boosting her defense… Larosa can hold her own against you! Now, use agility again!”
“Growlithe!” Larosa started picking up speed, going even faster than before.
“It doesn’t matter how fast you go. Shadow sneak is faster,” Juliana warned.
“Ceruledge!” Sol sunk his swords into the ground again, and disappeared into his shadow once more to pursue the Growlithe.
Kitty smiled. “True, but this time we can see it coming! Now, Larosa! Use dig!”
“Growlithe!” Larosa stopped in her tracks and began digging. Sol was fast, moving in his shadow as he was, but Larosa’s speed had allowed her to get an even larger distance between herself and the Ceruledge than before, and she was able to disappear underground just as Sol emerged to strike her with shadows.
And this time, she didn’t stay down nearly as long.
Larosa burst from her hole just as the attack finished, and bared her fangs.
“Crunch!” Kitty shouted. This time, Larosa went for the jugular- in quite a literal meaning of the phrase. She opened her mouth wide and clamped her teeth onto the pokemon’s armored throat, biting down with all her might.
“Ceru-!” Sol thrashed, reeling backwards as he felt massive pain shoot through his neck. He stumbled and fell over as he swatted at Larosa with his swords, unable to get a good angle to stab the canine pokemon. But Kitty and Larosa knew that good fortune couldn’t last forever, so Larosa jumped off him before he could regain his bearings and really strike.
“Nicely done, Larosa!” Kitty cheered her Growlithe on. “We’ll keep going just like that!”
“Sol.” Juliana’s voice was as cold as ice, and cut sharper than her Ceruledge’s blade. The insinuation was clear to everyone. Things had changed.
“…Ceruledge.”
Before Larosa could respond, the Ceruledge rose to his feet, and charged at her. Kitty was stunned for a moment, because she’d anticipated another shadow sneak. But at speed like this, Larosa could just outrun him regularly!
“Larosa, dodge around him and go for another crunch!” She ordered.
“Growl!” Larosa nodded. She shot at high speed and circled around the Ceruledge, aiming to strike the pokemon from behind.
“Psycho cut,” Juliana ordered.
Then suddenly everything changed. Sol stopped in his tracks and whirled around, swinging his arm in a wide arc. As he did, a blade of psychic energy burst out of it, swinging out like a wide crescent moon that flew across the field in a shockwave. Larosa was already charging at him from behind, so there was no way she could stop herself in time.
The psychic blast slammed into her, and sent her flying back.
“Larosa!” Kitty felt her face burn with pain. That attack had hit her poor Growlithe right in the face, ouch!
“Growl… Growlithe!” Larosa rose to her feet, gasping for breath. Kitty felt an ache in her side, and realized how bad the situation was going for them. Larosa had already sustained a few hits from that Tinkaton, and now she was being pressed by the Ceruledge.
At the same time… Kitty wanted to take this pokemon down. And she knew that Larosa might be able to do it… if she was clever enough.
So Kitty would have to be clever enough for both of them.
“Shadow sneak,” Juliana ordered, not letting up the offense for even one second. Now that Larosa was injured even more, she was a sitting duck.
“Ceruledge.” Sol sank into the shadows once more, charging right at Larosa. As he did, he gave Kitty time to consider just how strong he, and all of Juliana’s pokemon, were.
We hit him with several super-effective attacks, and he still looks barely injured, she considered, feeling an ache in her chest as she reconsidered the strategy that she and Larosa had just settled on seconds earlier in the fight. Juliana’s pokemon… they’re really strong, even if they’re not Paradox Pokemon. Could we really…
She smacked her cheeks.
No! We can do it! I’m sure we can beat at least one more! Although she was starting to doubt her ability to clear the entire team, Kitty was certain at least that her remaining pokemon could defeat this Ceruledge.
“Larosa!” She shouted as the shadows approached her Growlithe. “Use odor sleuth to track that Ceruledge down!”
“Growlithe!” Larosa closed her eyes and began to rely on her incredible nose. As the Ceruledge raced towards her at top speed, moving so fast within the shadows that he was practically inescapable, Larosa sensed his presence.
Then she lunged forward, and struck with her claw.
“Cer-!” Sol was caught completely off-guard. He never would have expected an attack like that to hit him while he was in the shadows! But one strike from Larosa’s paw had caused the ground to crack, and him to crack with it! As he was knocked out of the shadows he quickly rose to his feet, glaring at the Growlithe.
“That was our rock smash attack!” Kitty grinned. “Thanks to odor sleuth and Larosa’s great nose, we were able to track your Ceruledge’s movements! Which meant we could strike before you did, and hit the ground itself!”
“Maybe so,” Juliana admitted. “But now, you’ve opened yourself up to an attack. Shadow claw!”
“Ceruledge!” Sol lunged forward and raised his sword, coating the blade in shadowy energy. He was close enough that even with Larosa’s massively buffed speed stat, she still wasn’t fast enough to evade the attack.
But Kitty didn’t want her to evade it.
That was the whole reason she’d used odor sleuth in the first place!
“Larosa!” She shouted to her Growlithe. “Now!”
Larosa closed her eyes, and gathered her energy. She stored it inside her body and waited until she could feel the heat of Sol’s blade on her fur.
Then she released it the moment his strike connected.
A burst of energy shot out of Larosa and slammed into Sol just as he struck. Larosa was flung backward by the force of the shadow claw, but Sol didn’t fare much better. He hit the ground hard as his armor cracked around him, and for a moment, he didn’t get back up.
“Larosa!” Kitty cried for her Growlithe. But she could already feel Larosa’s energy slipping away. That had been their trump card, and it was a risky one. She’d been hoping that Larosa had enough energy to withstand the attack, and had done everything she could with her harmonia to boost her pokemon’s defenses, but that shadow claw had been a critical hit, landing right on Larosa’s prior wound on the side of her belly.
Her pokemon had fainted.
Sighing, but also relieved that her own pain was lessened now that the connection was broken, Kitty recalled Larosa to her pokeball. She winced. Only three pokemon left… and she’d only managed to take out two of Juliana’s.
“Ceru… ledge…”
She gasped.
Make that one.
Sol, badly injured, slowly rose to his feet. He was clearly not doing great, but the restorative effects of the grassy terrain were doing their part to heal him up again.
“Your pokemon… it’s really tough.” That was all Kitty could say. The truth.
Juliana nodded. “So is your Growlithe. That move… was that reversal?”
“It was,” Kitty confirmed. “That’s why I had her use odor sleuth, so Fighting type moves like rock smash and reversal would hit your Ceruledge. I could feel how much damage Larosa had taken, and how hard she was fighting to hold on. I thought that if she could get one good reversal off just as your attack connected… …It doesn’t matter. It didn’t work.”
“No, it didn’t,” Juliana said, shaking her head. “But it was still a good strategy.”
Kitty smiled a little. That was nice to hear, at least.
And the match wasn’t over yet. Sol might have been able to withstand Larosa’s reversal attack, but that didn’t mean he was unbeatable. He’d taken massive damage, and Kitty was confident that she could push it the rest of the way.
Assuming Juliana let that happen, of course. She’d already demonstrated a penchant for swapping out pokemon when the whim struck her, far more than normal pokemon trainers did. And none of her pokemon had been in as bad of shape as her Ceruledge was.
No, if Kitty wanted a chance to take this thing down, then she’d need to trap it first, and force it to stay in the fight.
And it just so happened that she had the perfect pokemon to do that with.
“Pearl!” She shouted, sending out her Clamperl. “Use whirlpool!”
“Clamperl!” Pearl landed in the grass and opened her shell, summoning a massive wave of water that twisted around her body, whipping up and about in a spout that spun right for Sol.
Juliana was surprised. Another pokemon she’d never seen before! These new students had so many tricks up their sleeves! Of course, the surprise was secondary compared to her ruthless resolve to emerge victorious.
The spiral of water swallowed Sol, submerging the Fire type pokemon in a powerful current.
“Yes!” Kitty cheered, punching the air.
“Ceruledge!”
A blast of darkness ruptured the water spout, and Sol emerged, swinging his shadow-covered blades wildly.
“You used whirlpool to try and trap Sol, to keep him in the fight, correct?” Juliana guessed. “Because you thought that I would switch out a pokemon in a condition like his.”
Kitty winced. “Y-yeah, well, so what? Of course you would! And we trapped you!”
Juliana shook her head. “You’ve misunderstood. Ghost type pokemon are incapable of being trapped by moves like that.”
Kitty gasped. “Wait! No!”
“But don’t worry… we have no intention of running from this fight. You sent out a Water type pokemon for a type advantage, but you’ll need more than that. Shadow claw,” Juliana ordered coldly.
“Ceruledge!” Sol raised his sword, and gathered dark energy through the blade as he brought it down on the small target that was Pearl.
But if there was one thing Pearl could do, it was defend. In fact, that was her greatest advantage!
“Peal! Iron defense!” Kitty shouted.
“Clamperl!” Pearl shut her shell up tight, and it began to glow silver. A sheen of metallic light covered her body as she hardened herself to be stronger than steel.
Sol’s blade struck the shell, and bounced right off.
“Nicely done!” Kitty crowed. “Now, use water gun!”
Pearl’s shell popped open, and she fired a blast of water at Sol, who just barely managed to leap to the side to avoid it.
“Your pokemon has considerable defense,” Juliana had to admit. “It’s like a Shellder or a Cloyster, very hard to break through.”
“Pearl’s an expert when it comes to defending,” Kitty crowed. “We barely even felt that attack! And by using my harmonia, we’ll strengthen her defenses even more!”
“Clamperl!” Pearl shut her shell up tight, and boosted her defenses once again.
Juliana said nothing. She looked like she was thinking hard about something, which worried Kitty. But she had confidence in Pearl’s abilities. Against a physical attacker like Ceruledge, a Fire type, she was sure that Pearl would come out on top.
“…Night shade,” Juliana hissed.
The ghostly aura surrounding Sol changed drastically. It began to crackle around him like lightning, and charged through his swords in an ethereal flame. He raised both arms and swung with all his might, sending a wave of ghostly energy pulsing across the battlefield.
“Pearl!” Kitty shouted as she braced herself, devoting all of her harmonia into this next defensive move. “Stay strong!”
She was confident that Pearl could withstand this assault.
Right up until the attack actually hit.
“YAAAAGH!” Kitty howled in pain as she felt the ghostly energy surge through her pokemon’s body, shocking Pearl to her core.
“CLAMPERL!” Pearl wailed.
Kitty nearly collapsed and Pearl’s shell burst open.
“What… what kind of move was that?!” Kitty exclaimed, her face turning pale. “We couldn’t defend against it… even… even my harmonia didn’t-!”
“It’s an attack called night shade,” Juliana answered. “A specialty of Ghost type pokemon. It bypasses all defenses the enemy might care to create, even natural ones, and deals damage to the pokemon’s soul itself.”
Kitty swallowed. “Then… then even my harmonia…”
Juliana shook her head. “I don’t know what that power of yours is capable of, or how it allows you to supplement the defenses of your pokemon. But if you’re going to boost your Clamperl to where even Sol’s blade cannot pierce its shell… then we shall forgo the sword altogether and strike with an attack like this!”
The harsh certainty with which Juliana illustrated her point chilled Kitty down to the bone. And unlike the fast Larosa, there was no way Pearl would be able to evade these attacks.
Kitty wracked her brain, trying to come up with something to do. But she couldn’t think of anything.
The only thing she could do was retreat.
“Return!” She shouted, holding up her Dive Ball to recall Pearl.
“Fire spin!” Juliana snapped.
Suddenly, a tornado of fire spun up around Pearl, deflecting the light from the Dive Ball.
“No!” Kitty gasped as she felt the flames lick up around her. Pearl didn’t take much damage from the scorching heat, but she didn’t need to be directly wounded by the attack.
Kitty’s own strategy had been turned against her. Pearl was unable to escape.
“Now, finish this, Sol,” Juliana ordered, her eyes glittering like daggers in the light of the flames.
