Pokémon Academy: Ch 2a: Dragons [IC]

[Aurorix]

"Keep your guard up Sasuke, be prepared to counter when he attacks." Slade said looking around the battle field for any sign of the dragon. Sasuke still in the same position as before kept his guard on high as his bubble scarf blew in the breeze.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

His giggling seemed to unnerve James; good! Though Lucifer couldn't care less how his victims felt, somehow a scared soul always tasted best. Or at least was the most filling kind. In fact, darkness radiating from the Litwick overcame the Dratini, shadows of what frightened it most lurking, fading in and out, dancing to a madly flickering blue flame that changed into unnatural colors... Laughter echoed in the inky void of mirages... Cold, icy fangs that glimmered in the candlelight...

Back down on the field, Raiza watched quietly, with a shadow of a grin on her face. You've got this, baby; make momma proud!

if you can't see the link (move your mouse over the hyperlinked text), the move is Night Shade

[Azeria]

The Litwick was terrifying,it's night shade attack was more like a nightmare to Liona as it showed what the Dratini was terrified of."Liona try to snap out ofit,if you do blast it with Water Pulse!"James tried as the night shade attack's effect was scaring Liona more and more."If Liona is knocked out,i don't have anyone that can take this Litwick on without taking some heavy damage...damn it!"He thought as Dratini charged a Water Pulse and sent it at the Liwick.

[Chim]

DarkLight

Kristen started laughing when she saw the failed attempt. “I knew you were all talk, but to think you were this weak! Your first Pokémon can’t even pull off an attack; it’s says a lot about you as a trainer! Skrelp, show her how it’s done! Use Acid!”

A spray of acid quickly found its way towards Avis. With a bit of luck it would also stick to her feathers.

Stratos

“Sorry about that,” Evan apologized. “My Pokémon are rather curious and playful.” He pointed towards the Clefairy chasing Vaporeon. “I caught that Vulpix before I fell after I gave her some food.” The little fox walked circles around Nemo while sniffing. This was her first time seeing this particular Pokémon and it peeked her interest.

“Your team has changed to much since I last saw them,” Lana suddenly said. This time she was stuck petting the Skarmory. “Both your Pokémon evolved and you have two new Pokémon. You’re going to be a force to reckon with during the Winter Cup,” she said in a friendly tone. She was completely unaware that Evan’s team changes, aside from the Vulpix, weren’t completely innocent.

[Sutoratosu]

"You probably will," Mareek nodded in agreement, rising from his spot and grabbing the stick. "And if you can top it all off by managing to calm the skarmory's excitement enough to use her in battle, You'll probably end up winning the whole thing if you play your cards and your strategies right. Who knows, maybe the two of us will end up facing each other?" His expression and mood dropped a little when he himself didn't feel the usual interest he should've at that last prospect. Nemo looked up at him questioningly, tapping his leg as if to ask what was wrong. The only response he got was Mareek shaking his head and pointing at a place on the ground with his stick.

"Nevermind about that..." he sighed. "Nemo, take your place right there. First we're going to work on proper grip and stance, then it's on to Footwork and actual strikes." The cubone knew something was wrong from the sudden change of attitude, giving a single glance of concern at Lana. His eyes were asking the breeder to help him out here. His trainer had been like this a lot lately, and he wouldn't talk about whatever was wrong to him or the polygon thingy or even Erce... but maybe he would if she asked about it?

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Another fun thing about prey scared near-witless was that their aim was usually off, if not totally faulty. In the cover of the darkness, Lucifer shrank himself and spun danced out of the way as his flame grew and grew, becoming brighter and brighter until he flung it at the frazzled Dratini.

[DarkLight]

Avis and Danielle were unfazed by the failed attempt since the Deino did warn them about this. However, they didn't expect it to happen this soon. Danielle recovered from the shock first and pointed to the Skrelp. "Steel yourself!" She commanded. 'Put your usual mischevous self to good use, Avis!'

Avis sighed disappointedly at the failed attempt before she focused her energy on hardening her wings. Oh well, she would get another chance, she was sure of it. In fact, this blunder has made Kristen underestimate them, and those are always fun to watch once the Murkrow pulls off a prank. And, talking about pranks, this could be a perfect opportunity for her...Maybe something like the one she pulled while she was hunting for that tracker... The little bird then charged head on to the Skrelp, slicing through the Acid with her Steel Wing, daring the Skrelp to make a move.

[Chim]

DarkLight

“Brace for impact and use Poison Tail!” The Skrelp got ready and focused on Avis, his tail dripping with poison. As soon as the bird flew into range the poison type quickly used his tail to jump up, made a flip, and came crashing down with a poison covered tail. Avis had enough time to dodge, but if she didn’t Skrelp would also take damage from the incoming unavoidable attack.

((You can decide. Skrelp can’t dodge and goes in for a reckless attack))

Stratos

Evan was luring the Vulpix and ordered it to play with the rest of his team. In the meantime he failed to notice Lana had gotten up which resulted in Skarmory demanding his attention again. While he was being occupied, Lana walked over to Mareek. She noticed wasn’t his usual self and after the look for help from Cubone she couldn’t sit around doing nothing.

“Uhm, Mareek, are you alright?” she whispered so only he and Nemo could hear it. “You don’t act like your usual self, is it because you lost the battle? Or maybe about your brother?”

[DarkLight]

"Didn't you see what move Avis went for?" Danielle asked offhandedly. She honestly expected a Smokescreen from the little Pokemon, but this works too. "Avis, steel yourself and go into a Dark Pulse!"

Avis adjusted her tail feathers to make an abrupt turn so that she could take a good look at the incoming Skrelp that is above her head. Once her wings turned silvery once more, she flew up to block most of the Poison Tail with her metal wings. Then, as the black wisps leaked out of her beak, Avis smirked at the Skrelp before she opened her mouth to let the black-purplish rings hit their target. Avis crowed with delight as she zoomed back into the air to prepare for the next assault.

[Jory]

Jacob nodded in approval as he watched Danielle control the pace of the battle. He turned to Claude, pointing at the field. "See how she's able to react to Kristen's moves? That's the mark of a good Coordinator from everything I know. She's able to think on her feet and use what moves she has available to her advantage. In a Contest battle, I'm quite sure she would have taken a few points away from Kristen simply by blocking that move." He then put his hand on his chin. "I thought Kristen would have known better than to save Skrelp for last, though. That thing, believe it or not, would probably have done better against Zared. With high special defense and the ability to leap over Zared's maw using its tail, it would have been able to counter anything that Mawile could throw at it. I have to wonder why she sent in her Marill instead. Showed a real lack of forethought," he said offhandedly as he commentated on the battle.

[Felicity]

Claude grunted, still enraptured in the battle. "Well, I assume it's because her Murkrow knows Roost and has Prankster as an ability. That's dangerous, that ability and the skill it gives the user was the main reason I won my match. Kristen needed to poison Avis, or she never would have gone down, so she had to save the Skrelp. Besides, Zared nullified the Skrelps poison typing too, a very bad thing for it, not having access to half it's typing." Claude chattered off in response.

[Chim]

DarkLight

Kristen hissed when her plan failed. She hoped to smack Avis into the ground, where it belonged, but her agility was too much for her Pokémon in his current state. To make things worse the close ranged Dark Pulse did a lot of damage. Skrelp was shaking up and glanced at his trainer, hoping she would have a plan.

“Smokescreen! And follow it up with an Acid Armor! Let the bird come to you,” Kristen ordered. A black smoke covered half the field and hid the Skrelp who covered himself in a thick poisonous substance to increase defenses.

[DarkLight]

'Oh! There it is!' Danielle thought excitedly. She hesitated on letting Avis go in for the beat-down, however, since the Acid Armor could prove to be annoying to Avis' current moveset. 'At least Zared got that Fake Tears off. I need to properly thank him for that afterwards...' But, suddenly, another idea popped into her head. It wouldn't do much physically, but it could cause some mental damage. "Boo to you too."

'Finally!' Avis fired off a stream of black feathers towards the Smokescreen to blow it off. However, the smoke is now replaced by the gusts of a Featherdance tornado, obscuring most of the field. The mischievous black bird then began to cackle eerily as she dived into the thick of the FeatherDance. Finally, a frighteningly ghostly shadow with red eyes appeared in the thick of the tornado with Avis' taunting laughter echoing all across the battlefield.

[Chim]

DarkLight

Skrelp and Kristen weren’t impressed. “Use Acid on those feathers!” The poisonous substance quickly covered the feathers and cleared the field. Skrelp located Avis almost immediately. “Feint Attack!”

The poison type approached Avis, pretending to surrender, before throwing a punch with his tail.

[DarkLight]

"So much for that. At least the audience could be amused... Avis, ready?" Danielle asked her frail bird. A confirmation was heard before Danielle nodded. Her heart was pumping with fear - or was it excitement? - as Kristen's new addition was about to land a hit on her partner. "Intercept and get another Dark Pulse in! Make Zared's last stand count!"

Avis growled as Skrelp's Faint Attack found its mark on her glowing wing. With a more determined cry, Avis let out a series of black-purplish rings. One was aiming straight for the water type and several others were aiming for spots behind the Skrelp.

[Azeria]

The fiery burst of Litwick's flame hit it's target and Liona was blown back on the ground."Damn it,this gosh darn Litwick is so frustrating.....That's it,Liona snap out of confusion and blast Litwick with Dragon Rage! If it misses,smash into Litwick with Aqua Jet!"James shouted as he tried the only attack that could keep Litwick off Liona for a short amount of time to let her recuperate.Liona heard her trainers scream and cried out as she snapped out of confusion.A Blue orb was once again created in Liona's belly and was shot out as a Blue and Black Dragon headed straigth for Lucifer.

[Chim]

DarkLight

With no room to dodge Skrelp went down. Kristen hissed in frustration and recalled her Pokémon before storming off and mumbling something about being lucky.

((I won't be only for quite a while since I have work first thing in the morning. I just didn't want to hold DarkLight up.))

Edited December 16, 2014 by Chimchain

[DarkLight]

"You know luck is part of the game too, Kristen!" Danielle called after her. Seeing that the redhead wasn't in the mood, Danielle gave a sigh of relief and bowed to Alastair. Then she held her arms out for Avis to come back to. "Great job Avis! You were awesome as always~"

The Murkrow laughed loudly as Kristen stomped off in anger. That's what she gets for insulting her and her master! She then turned to fly back towards Danielle... When a small puddle left by the Skrelp's Water Pulse caught her attention. So, instead of flying straight into Danielle's arms, she dived into the puddle to take a bird bath.

Danielle put down her arms and laughed. "Fine, Avis, I see how it is! Just don't take too long. There are other people that need to use the field." She said as she made her way over to her ecstatic bird.

((I don't mind waiting, you know lol!))

[Sutoratosu]

Damn it... Mareek thought to himself, looking at Lana with a defeated look in his eyes. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to talk about it... guess there's no point in trying to hide it since I keep coming back to think about it anyway. "It's a bit of both, I guess..." He sighed, resting the stick on his shoulder idely as Nemo sidled closer in concern, drawing the boy's attention. No... I'd rather he not have to hear this and be worried. And the same goes with Java. My problems aren't their burdens to bear... Without seemingly any warning he took out the Cubone's ball and recalled him in a flash of white, sending out Erce instead where the orphan had just been standing. Erce already knows everything there is to about it though... It won't be anything new to her. she'd already carried some of this for me.

"I guess I honestly can't hide it then," he went on, leaning against the stick Nemo had fetched, actually a bit surprised by how sturdy the thing held up when he did so. "It was what Jacob was spouting on about during our battle... when I gave Java the order to use Discharge on the Ice Field. How he claimed that all I thought about was the offensive potential of the attack and not Java's safety... I still don't know what the fuck he was seeing at that moment, because the only reason I even gave such an order at all in that situation was because I knew Java's hovering around would keep him safe... after that, I honestly just stopped caring about the fight. I just wanted it to end, didn't care how or who won, I just wanted to stop fighting period. What he said, it... it got me thinking about something that happened when I was a kid..."

Erce stood keeping a close watch of the confession, having backed up a little to keep things in perspective. Her eyes followed Mareek's body language, noting everything that was said as the old worry started creeping back up more and more. It was undeniable at this point; the kid was slipping back into it again, slipping back into what she had dragged him out of the first time. And the scariest thing to Erce was that this, this beginning stage she was witnessing, that she had seen and gone through with him already in the past, could be a far much harder fall than the original one had been... a fall that he might not get up from this time.

"My dad died when I was about eight or so," Her trainer continued, eyes growing darker. "It was during a battle from what I was told; He had been Electrocuted by a Discharge attack from his opponent... and he was soaking wet from a misfire of a water type attack that had been launched earlier. They said his heart was completely fried instantly..." He cast a wayward glance at Jacob in the distance, his eyes holding some strange mixture of anger shame, spiked with a bit of old hurt as he watched the other boy chat it up with the Cottonee Trainer. His voice was far softer when he spoke up again, void of the unshakeable sense of cold confidence he usually had to his words and actions.

It felt as though something was tearing away at him bit by bit; for some reason it felt as though he had failed some great task, some great task to be a better man than his brother, actually, no, not a better man, but just to be a better fucking human being than him. That was honestly all he'd been trying for, it was the only thing he had found that he could drive himself to do; be superior, be better. Not to everyone, just to the one guy who had wronged him most of all... to his brother. And if he had managed to fail in even that; If he was no better than the man, but exactly the same afterall, what did that make him? what had all his effort and determination over these last seven years been? He had just completely wasted the entire time trying to become something better than he was ever meant to be; at least, that was the conclusion he had kept coming back to, over and over again since the fight had ended not long ago.

It had been the reason why he had gotten off the field as quickly as he had. The reason why he didn't want to talk at first when he came over here, then when Lana had said it was a brilliant idea, he'd tried shoving the thoughts away, tried distracting himself with talking. There was just one issue though... the damn thoughts kept coming back every time.

"What he said about it being stupid to electrocute the pool..." he said, beginning to completely break up in composure as he felt the sting of the urge of tears in his throat, overcome by the crushing implications of the persistent ponderings that had been evoked. "It got me thinking: what if he was right about me? Java was completely safe, but still what if he is right on some level? what if I am like that, so reckless that I'd give such an order that was probably a lot like the one that killed my Dad? If he's wrong... then why the hell did the idea to do what I did even pop into my mind when Nemo went down?" the stick fell out from under his elbow as he sank to the ground in a sitting position, hiding his face from the girl as he felt the hot tang of tears on his face and their salt in his mouth, beginning to sob silently with his head held in his palms, his elbows on his knees.

Erce had seen enough, far more than enough, walking over to his side and placing the flat of her scythe around his shoulder in support as she knelt down, casting a glance over at Jacob herself now, silently cursing the boy for unknowingly pulling the string that had just proved to bring down all the work she had done. But she didn't have time to let her feelings of wrath linger on the other student... right now she had the more important task of trying to figure out how to salvage all of this before things turned into a complete clusterfuck and she wouldn't be able to. Maybe it was time to see what this girl here could do to help; After all, he'd opened up a lot more to her than Erce had seen with anyone else ever...

"What if I'm no better than the guy who killed him?" Mareek asked, barely audible now. The moment the scyther heard that, she shot a hot glance at the breeder, the fiercely protective glint and drive in her eyes coupled with her equally as fiery expression practically demanding that the girl say something and help her fix this official Charlie Foxtrot. Damn it, how she hated not being capable of human speech right now...

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Your rage means nothing to me, the Ghost-Fire type's dancing flame and mocking yellow eyes seemed to taunt from the shadows. He flung another round of Flame Burst at the oncoming dragon-shaped attack; if it worked, the Dratini's rage would dissipate or explode for a nice show along with his flame, letting loose little sparks that would splash everywhere that could hit his opponent (whatever would happen to Dragon Rage didn't matter anyway; Flame Burst would explode on contact). Oh, how clever of him! He hoped Raiza was watching down below.

Back down on the field, Raiza squinted her eyes, looking into the sphere of ghostly ghostliness that was Lucifer's continuing Night Shade. For most of the time, she didn't have to tell her baby what to do. Aqua Jet, however, would be a concern. "Lucifer, sweetie, when Flame Burst hits, draw back Night Shade quickly!" The sudden dazzle of sunlight combined with the light that would come from Flame Burst impacting with Dragon Rage ought to momentarily blind Liona so he can get out of the way and finish her off.

[Chevaleresse]

"Reina, Rock Polish again, and wait for Sasuke to show up." The dragonling obeyed, though she had a distinct look of impatience on her reptilian face. Kage called out to his opponent. "We can wait all day. I'm pretty patient." That was a lie, of course, but his opponent didn't know that.

[Aurorix]

"I guess that makes two of us," Slade chuckled, "though, which one of us can last the longest? I mean I could try and find you but then you'd just move to a different location. So, if you want to acctually go somewhere with this battle, me and Sasuke are always ready." Slade said with a smirk. Sasuke however kept his cool, first step to defeat is to loose focus and become aggravated. "Or if you're that scared of loosing, you could just forfeit." Slade said rubbing his finger on the bottom of his nose, he then became focus hoping the last comment would start some action because just because he can wait doesn't mean he wants to.

Edited December 17, 2014 by EXLink32

[Chevaleresse]

"Forfeit? That's a great joke. I'm blind, not stupid; I can recognize a taunt when I hear one." After replying to Slade, he focused his thoughts on Lucas and nudged him with his shoulder. Whispering, he asked the little Ralts a favor. "Hey, could you tell Reina to get ready to push that rock over when you signal?" Lucas gave an affirmative pulse, then relayed the message. The Tyrunt shifted a bit, getting ready to ram her head into the stone.

[Aurorix]

"Sasuke, just keep alert for anything." Slade said to the frog unknowing of what Kage had been planning.

[Jory]

Jacob nodded as Danielle's battle finished, a small smile playing across his lips. He then turned to Claude once more. "You know, I'm glad Danielle won. I mean Kristen is what she is to me and all, but she's been so rude to Danielle that I can't help but feel as though she had it coming. I'm sure she's not taking it well, though." He paused, looking around at the other students for a moment. His eyes lit on Mareek for a moment and he met Erce's glower with a stare of pure and complete shock. "Claude..." he whispered, unable to take his eyes off of the Scyther that had looked at him like he'd killed someone. "I think I really messed up. I know Mareek can take a loss. He's a great Trainer, and great Trainers know that a loss is a learning experience. But he's really upset," he finished, not able to complete his thought out loud. Was it something I said? Was it something I did in the battle? he wondered, feeling terrible about the impact the battle had had on Mareek.

He's a classmate and, as much as I'm hesitant to say it out loud, he's one of the people I've learned the most from this semester. He began to feel disgusted with himself, the things he'd said to Mareek playing back in his mind. How could I of all people have implied he doesn't care about his Pokemon? He has close bond with all of them, even that new Cubone. Jacob got up without a word and walked off, lost in thought as he went in the direction he'd seen Kristen storm off in after her battle. I need to make this right somehow. But I just don't know how.