Pokémon Academy: Ch 3: Winter Cup [IC]

[Chim]

Hosts (Surge)

“And that brings us to the last battle of the first round. Mareek and Lana, please make your way to the field.” Professor Redwood was still giving the comments since Marco was still without a mic. “Oh yes, information; Mareek is a trainer and the main threat to Jacob to win this tournament. Lana is a shy Breeder and some people think she doesn’t stand a chance. Personally I wouldn’t underestimate her ground types… Also the two are pretty good friends. I expect an interesting match.”

Zephyr and Commander

Lana stayed quiet during the conversation of her fellow students. She felt like she was interrupting something she shouldn’t and tried to morph into the walls. Though she had to admit her childhood friend and the boy from Orre seemed to get along really well.

She was glad when she heard Redwood’s voice calling her to the battlefield and disappeared without disturbing the duo.

Lana

The Breeder was first to arrive at the battlefield. She felt nervous and tried not to pay too much attention to the crowd. She already released her Rhyhorn and Shellos since Mareek knew who she would use. The water type looked around with a big grin on her face, full of expectations while the Rhydon looked like he was sleeping like a log.

Somewhere in the stands

“I spy with my little eye…” Jeremy Brand teased when he saw the old man and his granddaughter.

“Oh, hello Mister Brand, I didn’t see you there,” the old man replied respectfully.

“Please, call me Jeremy. Craig (Redwood) told me you would be here but it took me a while to find you in this big crowd. So how are you two doing?” he asked, turning to the girl with the hoodie. “How’s our new-“

“Yo, give me all yo moneys Richman,” the female replied. Her fingers formed a gun aimed at his head.

“For Arceus sake, can’t you behave for once?” the old man sighed.

Brand chuckled and played along, raising his hands like he surrendered. “It’s alright Franck, but I’m afraid I have to disappoint my robber. I just invested bigtime in this stadium and the ones used for the League. I hope the results will have your approval.”

[Commander]

Wait was that Lana? Henry turned a minute to see where she went when was suddenly startled by a blonde haired girl. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough," she responded. "I just came by to give you your wallet back. So, want to introduce me to this little friend of yours?"

Henry sighed a moment after looking through his empty wallet. "Maybe I don't introduce you to people because you'll probably scare them off. Raiza, meet Citrine. Citrine, meet Raiza. Now I suggest you run before it's too late."

"Awww, don't be so mean to your big sister," responded Citrine. "I'm honestly not that bad of a person."

"Yes you are," Henry mumbled.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Oblivious to nearly everything that was going on till she heard "big sister", Raiza was playing with Paradox. Then she looked up abruptly, only noticing the new girl. "Oh, hi. I didn't know Henry had a sibling actually." Tilting her head in curiosity, having slipped back into her poker face, she added, "You two don't really... look alike."

[Sutoratosu]

Mareek

Nemo was the first one onto the field for the boy's side, running out of the waiting room exit and hurrying to take up his position, peering silently at the opposition as he brought up his bone club into the fighting stance Mareek had taught him. Chest to wall, weapon held vertically to the side, shoulders to foe... making himself a smaller target.

Next came Mareek himself, face completely devoid of any emotion as he glanced over at his opponent at the other side of the field- he might as well make this a good show and turn everything off, after-all, make it believable that he wasn't holding any punches... "Like I said," He began coldly, retrieving Erce's capsule from within his jacket and bringing it to full size in his gloved palm. "I'm not holding anything back." With a flick of his wrist, she was out on the field beside the small Ground type, eyes fixed on the Rhydon and Shellos. "So keep up. The only way you walk off this field victorious is if you manage to overcome the bond between myself and my team- the only way you win here... is if you do it with your own power."

And then he wasted no time getting started, snapping his fingers at Erce only once and turning his attention to Nemo as the Scyther unfurled her wings and took off in a cloud of dust, vanishing into a blur of motion and then nothing. "Stone Sentinels." He ordered simply. Nemo knew it wasn't part of the original plan, but he could see like his trainer that now would probably be a better place to reveal it rather than later- and arceus knows he wanted to actually use it instead of just practicing over and over and over.... He began to take on a silvery white glow as he followed the order, sparks of the same color beginning to flare around him before firing off to different spots... on his side of the field, growing larger, jagged, elongating into near obelisk-like shapes before slamming into the ground and losing their glow for the time being, as did Nemo...

"Go on," Mareek said, face still not giving away anything. "I'll give you the first attack." Because I'm going to have the last one...and so is Erce.

Galen

"And there he is, kiddos..." Galen said, sighing. "That right there is Mareek Akira Sisto, the one kid here who the three of you must avoid like he's death itself. And I mean it, stay away- the kid won't forget your faces if he sees them... you see all these marks and scars and crap I got?" He jabbed a finger towards his own facial features, specifically at his nose. "I had to rough my own self up just so he wouldn't know me...dye my hair, get freaking colored contacts... put on a damn false mustache and goatee combo- had to change basically everything..."

[Chim]

Lana

This was it; being pressured from the start. She expected nothing less from Mareek. He kept his promise and went all out. The stones on his side of the field already set his plan in motion and even though Lana was surprised, she didn’t show it. There were only 2 options; go after Erce or after Nemo. The first option wasn’t really there since she couldn’t see the bug type and her Pokémon were too slow. If she went after Nemo she would probably play right into Mareek’s hands.

The Breeder didn’t respond and thought for a minute; rushing things would be her demise. Wasn’t there a way to locate Erce? She could try and flood the field like Jacob so the splashing would give away her location, but she was probably hovering in the air. Lana took a deep breath. “Rain Pulse,” she finally ordered.

Shellos yelped in excitement and started to move in a very weird way, causing a heavy rainfall over the entire field. The little slug then grinned and started to blast multiple little Water Pulses. They didn’t pack as much power as one big attack, but hopefully the swordsman in front of her couldn’t stop all of them.

In the meantime Rhyhorn hadn’t moved a muscle.

[Sutoratosu]

"Rainfall won't give her away, Lana." Mareek said simply as Nemo acted on his own initiative and began to glow silvery-white again, calling upon the power of his ancestors and all those who'd come and fought before him to move a few of the stones on the field, lifting them off the ground as they took on a similiar glow and slamming them back down a few feet in front of him, forming a virtual wall that stopped the mini-pulses dead in their tracks before floating back up and moving apart a bit to give Nemo an opening. "What, you honestly think I didn't sit down and come up with all the ways the environment could be used to locate her? I've been training since the beginning to be as fast as she can be, and at a high enough speed, you eyes won't be able to catch any movement unless she wants you to see it, rain or shine. The disturbance of every rain drop she makes as she passes through them- it's all happening too fast for the human eye to even process..."

He broke off the conversation and nodded his head to the Shellos, "Ancient Power." Nemo obeyed, body again beginning to glow with a hazy white as a sphere formed before him, shining and casting a strange light onto the rain drops falling around him before he fired it off at the small water type through the opening in the makeshift wall he'd assembled... We need to see if that thing has any Ice at it's disposle though...And let's see if we can lure out the Rhyhorn...

[Commander]

"That's 'cause he's my brother from another mother," responded Citrine.

"She's adopted," Henry quickly included.

"I have to ask you something important." Citrine scooted closer and closer to this Raiza girl. "Where did you find the mute button on this thing?" She pointed to the little Togepi in her hands.

Meanwhile, Zuko was glaring up at the newly evolved Rosie. It felt a bit weird seeing as he used to be bigger than her. The Delcatty merely looked down at the Vulpix and the two were locked into a staring contest. While Rosie didn't know any better, Zuko was a bit jealous of her evolving first. Seemed like she always won when it came to Henry.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Pfft-- oh darn, that was too close. Giving away nothing about her stifled laughter, Raiza watched the two as she absentmindedly wiggled her fingers over Paradox's stubby little arms in a little game of catch. But when Citrine-- that was her name, right?-- moved in nearer and nearer, she backed up a little bit, raising an eyebrow.

... And almost jumped when the Togepi in her arms began to bawl again. "A-Ah, hey, it's okay, it's okay. There's nothing to be afraid of, it's just Henry's older sister." The Trainer held the Normal-Fairy type to her chest gently and began to hum what sounded like the beginning bars of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Stantler" in an effort to placate the crying egg Pokemon. While doing this, she moved away a little from both (foster?) siblings till Paradox simmered down. "Sorry," Raiza said, coming back, though this time making sure that there was a little distance between herself and the new girl. "What were you saying again, Citrine?"

[Commander]

"So that's why he quieted down when I sang to him." Citrine had a big grin on her face. "Don't worry about it. I'm just happy Henry was able to make some friends...or is there something more between you two."

"Citrine! I thought we already talked about this," interrupted Henry. "We're just...friends."

"You hesitated." She watched as Henry just glared at her in silence. It didn't bother her as she turned back to Raiza. "So how did the two of you meet?"

[Jory]

{Waiting Room Exit}

"Wait up, Danielle," Jacob said hurriedly as he and Spitfyre rushed over to join the girl. "Mareek's got his battle going on right now. It's actually against Lana of all people as well. We're best off waiting for him at the end of the tunnel he'll go through after the match is over." He then pondered what Danielle had said. "Yeah, Donphan aren't usually that aggressive. I'm not a betting man, but I'd be willing to put money down that those creeps in black were the ones who scared the Donphan so they could go after poor Evan over there." He looked over to Evan, unsure of himself. "Maybe Claude or I should go talk to Evan after we see what Mareek thinks. If he has anything to do with them, I'd like to give him the opportunity to redeem himself. He's a student after all. And once you get past his Krabbyness, he's actually a sweet guy."

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

For a moment there, Raiza felt like her heart leapt or something when she realized that Henry acknowledged her as a friend. Well, uh... That shouldn't have been much of a surprise to her, that they were technically friends. She guessed that it was just something along the lines of being proud to be this infamous Orre boy's friend. On the outside, she shrugged, stroking the Togepi's head gently. "We're friends, definitely; I still don't get why people dislike him so much. He's pretty straightforward and chill. As for when we met, it was in the cafeteria. I heard lots of things about him so I just had to approach him. I don't really put stock into rumors, for one thing." It was probably better than she didn't mentioned that Henry'd tripped; Citrine seemed to be the kind of tease-y annoying big sister figure to him.

[Chim]

Lana

“The rain isn’t to detect Erce. I already expected she would be too fast to see,” Lana responded. “Rock Smash.”

Rhyhorn got up in the blink of an eye, positioned himself between the incoming rocks and his partner, and started smashing the rocks with his horn.

“Rhy, clear the field, Shelly, Water Pulse on Nemo!”

This time Shellos went for power instead of multiple small water orbs. She held the attack for a while, gathering more water only to release it as soon as the Rhyhorn was done creating an opening. Apparently Lana had decided to play Mareek’s game and concentrated on taking Nemo first.

[Sutoratosu]

"Good, that's right... focus on little Nemo here. You fell right for it..." His face still gave nothing of his thoughts away as he ordered "Nemo, detect out of the pulse's path and onto Rhyhorn's back- create a dividing barrier with another stone sentinels before transitioning into Lonely Swordsman."

Nemo nodded as his shield was gradually broken down by the rhino, eyes glowing as his pupils took on a deep teal hue and he gracefully side-flipped into the air just as the Water Pulse was closing in, at the same time his body glowed a hazy white and fired off another bout of stealth rocks, these ones slamming down directly behind Rhyhorn on Mareek's side of the field, cutting off both it's and Nemo's veiw of the Shellos in the distance as the cubone landed on the Rock type's back like a gymnast. The next moment he gripped his club with both hands and projected a bright blue length of energy outwards before him, bringing down the construct towards the Rhyhorn's neck like a sword to try to begin his assault...

Mareek meanwhile, clothes virtually soaked through and through and hair falling in wet strands into his face from the storm, just stood there and looked over at the water type across the field, the memory of what he'd planned with Erce still fresh in the boy's mind...

********

"That's enough Erce, it's time..." He had said once the mantis had executed three more Kamikaze strikes and returned to land on the ground before him and Nemo. The large screen overheard blared the announcment of the final match as Nemo turned and scurried towards the entrance of the stadium... which worked out just fine for what Mareek was about to do.

"Erce, you need to know our real strategy," He began, hands in his pocket as the Mantis followed him inside without a sound. "We're going to trick her into focusing her team's firepower all on Nemo- then once she does and that Rhyhorn is on our side of the field and not able to readily support the Shellos... you're going to emerge from the shadows. We're going to isolate the two from one another, and it'll be two split theaters, Nemo takes out the Rock type, while you take out the water type."

All erce had done was look at him quizacally. Why had he felt the need to lie to the boy about things then? wouldn't that only-

"Nemo thinks he's fighting both sides on his own because I want to drive him further," Mareek said, not even bothering to look back as they approached the waiting room. He stopped before entering though. "I need you to get back in your ball now. better to not have you seen walking out with me onto the field."

*******

"Erce, bait's been taken, the trap's sprung... Kamikaze." He said simply, breaking out of this thoughts, satisfied that stage one of the stratagem had been achieved. Within an instant the Mantis appeared in a blur of motion in the air on Lana's side of the field- behind the shellos, tucking in her wings and not letting out even the slightest sound as a tempest of teal winds engulfed her descending form and trailed out behind her like a comet in the night sky, the force of gravity adding onto the speed and force of her full strength Return attack as she hurtled towards her target, just as it had when she'd practiced outside not too long ago...

[Azeria]

As James walked back into the waiting room,he looked at Danniele."So..what was that about "TR" from earlier?"He asked while his growing suspicion of Team Rocket being involved coming back to light."If "TR" means what i think it does..."James muttered while his eyes narrowed.

[Commander]

Citrine remained silent for a moment grinning while looking over to her little 'brother.' Henry tried to avoid looking into her eyes. She then looked back at Raiza. She was having a bit of a hard time whether to tell the truth to the girl or to play along with Henry's game. "...uhh...that wasn't what I was...nevermind. It's good to know Henry's got a buddy when I'm not around. Don't worry though, those rumors are oh so true. He's just a big softie once you get past that tough guy thing."

"Luna!" Henry yelled at her.

"What? She's gonna figure it out sooner or later. Oh, you called me by my real name. Didn't think it was that serious." She watched the boy go back into silence once again. He was trying to hide it, but he was turning a bit red. "Anyway, I remember seeing you on the battlefield. Seems like there's a lot of strong competitors out there."

[DarkLight]

Danielle nodded at Jacob and Claude's suggestions. She was honestly glad that they would be able to take on Evan and leave her with either Mareek or Henry. And at the mention of Mareek...

"Mon dieu! You're right!" Danielle exclaimed after Jacob finished his thoughts. She then heard an affirmative cry from her Murkrow, who pointed to the screen from the back of a chair. "All right, we can ask Mareek after the match; I'm curious to see how this plays out. And, if it's okay, maybe we could ask Lana as well? She might have overhead something since she's so quiet and all... And I am almost one-hundred percent certain that she's no threat to any of us." She added as she followed Jacob back into the heart of the waiting room. "As for Evan, I would settle for him being reasonable, let alone being sweet."

"So..what was that about "TR" from earlier?"

"James! That was a quick battle!" Danielle greeted the Lavender Town native as he made his way over to her. "Well, remember that Donphan stampede from earlier? All of us had suspected it was Team Rocket's doing; hence the "TR." However, my Mawile was able to talk to Evan's Skarmory and was convinced that this wasn't the work of the Rockets at all." Danielle looked to Claude and Jacob fill in the rest of the details; she has to give credit to where its due, after all.

[Felicity]

Again, Claude wasn't sure how much James knew, but he could at least say some without spilling all the info. "We kinda have reason to believe that Skarmory is bad news, seeing as it appeared after the kerfuffle with whoever caused the stampede and also because,uh, some people have some reasons from psychic pokemon to distrust the skarmory even being here." Claude infoormed James, trying not to give away anything pertaining too specifically to Ryans situation. "Anyway, seems we have a game plan, I'll go chat to Evan, see if an honest approach will work."

[Azeria]

Hearing what Danielle said,James was left relatively unsurprised.The "TR" refered to what happened on the trip"Well..Considering the fact that the Symbol definetly refers to something Team Rocket related-i've seen the symbol enough to know that Personally-but considering what you've just said it might run a lot deeper than that."He recalled what had happened in Lavender town,the cold blooded brutality that those horrid members of that goddamn orginization showed with glee."If we pressure Evan too much however he might move more towards this "Third Party" but if we leave this untouched they'll be able to act freely...it's like a lose-lose situation."

Edited February 21, 2015 by Dat Assery

[Felicity]

Claude looked at James queerly. "So, the obvious answer is not to pressure him." Claude said with a rather matter-of-fact tone "See, the thing about acting honest is that the other person often is more likely to be honest, or at least respect that you yourself were honest. At the very least we can let him know he has someone to talk to if he needs. Anyways, i'm off" Claude said as he wandered over to Evan with a friendly smile, or so he hoped. Kinda hard to tell that. For all Claude knew he looked like a serial killer. "Hey man, you got a minute to talk in private? I've got something I need to ask you"

[Azeria]

James sighed as Claude walked over to Claude."Thing is,even if you are honest some people are just naturally very defensive..oh well I just think worst case scenario all the time. Soooooo,what've you guys been upto lately?"He asked while wondering how the battle involving Mareek was going on as he looked at the Screen. Seemed like he'd have to find a way to Shut that Scyther down.

[Bfroger6]

"I don't feel so well..." Shiro's response was weak. His pale face twisted itself as he embraced his stomach with his arms. He felt as if he could throw up any second now...

[TurboAura]

Seeing Shiro's expression turn to one that looked sadder, to the point that he might even be sick, Robert practically dove down besides Shiro and wrapped his arm around Shiro's back, trying to comfort him while flinging Jet off in the process. His own thoughts raced in his mind, wondering if he should have brought Shiro back with him, if this might have just made things even worse.

"Shiro... I truely wish I could understand all that you're going through, be able to do more than just cushion the blow... anything that could actually help you feel truely better through this." He was doing his best to hold his own tears back, trying to be the 'shoulder to cry on' that seemed so necessary.

Edited February 22, 2015 by TurboAura

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Luckily enough for the duo, Raiza seemed to be half-distracted with playing with Paradox. "Hm? Oh, yeah, they're pretty intense. One of them managed to..." It was there that she sobered up a little bit and look away from the giggling Normal-Fairy type. "A-Anyway, do you battle too, Citrine? I'm told that you're actually the infamous Zuko's original trainer." She said that about Zuko with a half-grin, glancing at the Fire type in question. The whole of her, in truth, was grateful that she never had to face Henry in battle... so far, anyway.

[Bfroger6]

Shiro pushed Robert away, angrily shaking his head. Robert's embrace just further hurt him, both physically and mentally... "I-it's fine... I'm fine! I-" The boy's face turned into a frown as his stomach twisted itself upside down. Shiro fell to his feet and crouched, leaning over to the floor as he put one hand over his mouth.

What ensued wasn't really pretty...

[Commander]

"Citrine is...special when it comes to battling," Henry answered. "When it comes to the basics of battling, she doesn't know squat...like she thought water was lightning was weak to poison last time I saw her."

"Wait! It's not? I was sure that was right," responded Citrine who was now confused.

"I do have to give her props. She's the one who created some of my more out there strategies. It's probably why I like double battle more than singles. Never could win a one on one back in Orre." Henry looked over and saw Rosie and Zuko still locked into their staring contest.

"And to think this beautiful friendship started when I offered you Zuko in exchange for two meals a day." Citrine watched as Zuko glared at her. He still hadn't forgotten how easily she gave him up the first time. "I love you too, Zuko." Suddenly, the Delcatty teased Zuko for looking away claiming her victory once again. She'd never lost to him yet.