Smith tried to conduct introductions before he and Zuri set up the conditions for the battle, but she wasn’t interested. “Time enough for that later,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Let us skip to the important part.”
They agreed on a friendly battle, which apparently meant attacks on or by trainers were not allowed and they would go to forfeit instead of fainting. They also agreed that the battle should be constrained within the boundaries of the training field with ‘no limits on height’, whatever that meant. Once the terms had been decided they walked to opposite sides of the field while Venomoth and Pelipper flew to the center. Alonso ushered me, Florence, and all of our Pokemon off to the side where we’d all be out of the way, and I settled down in the grass with Pausso sitting next to me and Echo listening from on top of my head.
“You should all pay close attention,” Smith called towards our group. “Afterwards I will ask you what you learned.”
Zuri idly glanced over at our group as Smith spoke. Then she did a double-take. I could see her eyes flick across all the Pokemon in our group, far too many Pokemon for just three people in this era. For a moment it looked like she might turn away from the battle; then she shifted her attention back to the field again.
The two Pokemon landed in the middle of the field and briefly exchanged words. Then they both took to the skies, which was apparently the signal for the battle to start.
Smith got his commands out first. “Poison Powder and Gust,” he said calmly. Venomoth shook his wings to release a spread of purple powder, then flapped his wings and sent the powder flying in a burst of wind towards Pelipper.
“Agility and Quick Attack out of there,” Zuri shouted. Pelipper briefly spread his wings out wide and relaxed his whole body. Then, just before the powder from Venomoth hit him, he gave a massive stroke of his wings and shot up into the sky. He was now flying much faster than Venomoth had, so he was easily able to create distance between them.
Smith raised his eyebrows. “Quiver Dance,” he told Venomoth, but he didn’t watch as his partner started fluttering about in place. His eyes instead tracked Pelipper, and I got the sense he was waiting to see what Zuri did next.
Zuri cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted up towards the bird. “Start Stockpiling,” she called; then she glanced over at Smith and grinned at his lack of a reaction.
I wasn’t sure what that meant, and the others seemed equally uncertain. I peered up into the sky at Pelipper, and that just made me more confused because it looked like he was just gliding about. Or wait – was there a slight golden glow around him? It was hard to tell at such a distance.
Perhaps five seconds passed with the two Pokemon staying separate, each performing their own move. Five seconds is a long time in a battle, and by the end of it Smith looked concerned. “Get in closer and Bug Buzz,” he finally told Venomoth, “but be careful.”
Venomoth chirped a reply and shot up into the sky, moving much faster now that he had performed his dance for so long. Pelipper started flying a little faster in an attempt to keep distance between them, but he seemed to have trouble moving fast while ‘stockpiling’, whatever that meant.
Zuri clucked her tongue and shouted up at Pelipper again. “Switch to Water Pulse for now, keep him off of you!”
Venomoth managed to fly up under the bird and even from a distance I could hear the low thrum that emitted from his body as he used his attack. I frowned, feeling puzzled. Why go with Bug Buzz when it had a type disadvantage?
Not that it mattered. Pelipper banked and shot a pulse of water down at Venomoth, and the bug was forced to twist away to dodge the attack. Some of the water clipped his wing and sent him spiraling downwards; he managed to level out, thankfully, and started beating his wings in large thrusts to shake the water off.
There was another short pause in the battle as Pelipper resumed his golden-glowing move and Venomoth dried off his wing. I heard a scuffle followed by a muttering noise towards my left and glanced over. Florence held Skiploom firmly in place in front of her; had he tried to join the flight? That seemed likely since the grass Pokemon was muttering rebelliously. I shook my head and grinned when Pausso let out a derisive snort next to me, then turned back to watch the skies.
Venomoth had flown for long enough now to fully dry off, so he veered about and shot towards Pelipper again. “Supersonic,” Smith called up to him.
“Counter with your own,” Zuri shouted immediately afterwards.
Both Pokemon opened their mouths and screamed their Supersonic attacks at each other. The sound waves hit each other in the middle of the sky and – disappeared? I had kind of expected an explosion. Echo squeaked in interest from atop my head as she listened to the battle.
Smith huffed. “Evasion pattern to get in range for another Bug Buzz.”
That seemed risky, as getting close could lead to another Water Pulse. I understood why he was going for it anyway a moment later. I’d often seen Smith and Venomoth do agility runs during training and I’d modeled Echo’s own training off of it. Now Venomoth put his training to full use as he flew in seemingly-random patterns, never in one place for long enough that Pelipper could get off an easy hit.
Surprisingly, Zuri didn’t tell Pelipper to escape or to try hitting Venomoth anyway. She just narrowed her eyes and peered up into the sky at her bird, who had started glowing again as soon as he finished using Supersonic.
Then the light around him flashed, and Zuri grinned.
“Spit Up!” she yelled, and even as she spoke Pelipper opened his beak up wide and golden light spewed out of it in a massive torrent. I gasped as the light barreled into Venomoth, knocking him back so hard that he started to fall out of the sky.
Smith had seemed fairly calm for most of the fight, but now he jolted in alarm and took a few steps forward. I held my breath as I watched Venomoth fall. Had he been knocked out? He wasn’t connected to a poke ball so there was no way to recall him before he hit the ground –
Suddenly Venomoth shook his head and twisted around, then extended his wings to slow his dive. He looked horribly battered from Pelipper’s attack, but he was still alert. I whooped and Florence clapped as we watched him slowly circle in the sky and move closer to Smith.
“Do you need to rest?” Smith called up to him. Venomoth flicked his wings sharply. “Very well. I think you already know what I will say.”
Venomoth called his agreement and soared up into the air again, trying to close the distance between himself and Pelipper. The bird had taken to lazily circling in the skies and the golden glow around his body suggested he was using Stockpile again. Zuri had a smug smile on her face as she called up to her partner. “No need for a full charge this time, I think. We do not want to knock him out of the sky entirely.”
A full charge? The two moves had to be connected, then. Stockpile let Pelipper build up power, and Spit Up let him release it. The golden attack had seemed insanely powerful – I was kind of surprised Venomoth hadn’t outright fainted.
Venomoth shot through the sky until he was directly under Pelipper; then he twisted his body about to face upwards and two blue rings of light shot up from his head. I outright laughed when I recognized the attack. Smith and Venomoth weren’t giving up yet!
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Zuri yelled for Pelipper to dodge and he tried to twist to the side, but one of the blue rings still hit him. The golden glow surrounding his body immediately disappeared and he squawked, alarmed.
“What was that?” Zuri asked, startled.
“Disable,” Smith said simply, and I grinned in satisfaction. “Venomoth, get some distance and Psybeam. Prepare to stall.”
“Water Pulse – no, Water Gun!” Zuri ordered quickly. Pelipper tried the pulse of water first, but the rings were too slow and Venomoth was able to shoot away before they could hit. He switched to the faster spurts of Water Gun, but Venomoth was far enough away by that point that he could dodge the beams of water easily.
Venomoth turned on a wing so he was facing Pelipper from a distance, then shot a glowing Psybeam across the air towards him. I whistled; the distance was over double of what Pausso could currently manage. As if that wasn’t enough, when Pelipper dodged to the side Venomoth twitched his antenna and the beam of mental energy moved in midair, redirecting to slam into Pelipper’s body. The bird cried out in pain as the psychic attack hit him.
The two flying Pokemon spent perhaps half a minute firing Psybeams and Water Guns at each other, but it was clear that Venomoth now had the advantage. The Water Guns that Pelipper fired all missed, and Pelipper was obviously getting worn down from the constant psychic attacks.
Zuri muttered something and slashed her hand in a cutting gesture. “Swallow what you’ve got, then get close and Wing Attack!”
Pelipper paused and briefly glowed brighter than ever with a golden light. It was hard to tell from a distance, but the move seemed to refresh him. Then he shot forward and barreled towards Venomoth.
“Air Slash into position,” Smith called. His Pokemon swept his wings forward to generate a giant gash of air, but Pelipper was able to dodge below it. The bird swept up from under Venomoth and slammed his right wing into the bug, sending him reeling up into the sky.
“Now!” Smith yelled, and Venomoth unfurled his wings. Brilliant streams of yellow powder cascaded from his body, filling the sky. Zuri screamed for Pelipper to get out of there, but it was too late; the bird was already coated in powder that clung to his feathers as he tried to fall back.
“Oh, Goldeen guts,” Zuri spat. “Pelipper, how bad is it?”
The bird tried to caw back reassuringly, but his wings seized up halfway through. He plummeted a few dozen feet through the air before the paralysis released him and he was able to spread his wings again.
“Damn it all,” she said quietly. Then she cupped her hands around her mouth again. “We’ve almost got them – see if you can get in close with Quick Attack and give’em another wing.”
She wasn’t wrong either – Venomoth was breathing heavily and it did look like one more attack could knock him out. I expected that Smith would forfeit, but to my surprise he smiled instead. “Get close to the ground and Psybeam from below, make them keep their distance,” he called out.
Zuri cursed again as Venomoth twisted away from Pelipper and shot downwards. Pelipper pursued him for a short distance and almost caught him, but his flight was broken off once more as static energy pulsed through his wings, locking him into an uneven glide up in the air. That gave Venomoth time to make his escape. He pulled up from his dive mere feet above the ground, then hovered in place near the center of the field and formed a purple globe of energy before his head. The bug held it at the ready, prepared to fire it off as soon as Pelipper got close enough.
Zuri looked at Venomoth, then back up at Pelipper. She bit her thumb for a moment, then shouted up at her bird. “Can you manage a Protect landing?”
For a moment something that looked like a blue faceted dome sparked to life around Pelipper, and he angled downwards to dive towards the ground. But then his wings seized up once more and the dive turned into a fall.
“We forfeit!” Zuri screamed as she ran forward to intercept the bird. I jumped to my feet as Echo darted off of my head and Skiploom broke out of Florence’s hands, both of them shooting forward to help. Venomoth also let the energy of his Psybeam attack dissipate as he burst through the air in an attempt to reach Pelipper in time.
I breathed out a sigh of relief as Pelipper managed to spread his wings and bank perhaps ten feet above the ground. Moments later the three other fliers arrived and hovered nearby, watching as the great bird slowly flapped down until he could rest on the ground. Zuri immediately ran up to his side and took a moment to murmur a few words to the bird. He croaked out a reply, and she nodded and started checking him over for damage, making sure not to touch the powder that still clung to his feathers as she worked.
The rest of us jogged up to join them. Smith arrived first, and he paused for a moment to dig a few berries out of the medical pouch he always brought to training. He handed two off to Zuri, then let Venomoth land on his arm so he could feed the bug a handful of oran berries and murmur a few words of praise.
Zuri wasted no time in tossing the cheri and oran berries Smith had given her into Pelipper’s giant beak. Then she laughed ruefully. “That was quite a fight,” she told Smith with a lopsided grin. “You are craftier than I expected,”
“And the two of you are surprisingly strong for ones who are not trainers,” he replied with a smile. “Well fought indeed.”
Then he turned to look at the rest of us. “Well? What did the three of you observe?”
Alonso spoke up first. “You both used information to gain an advantage in the battle,” he said tentatively. “Trai – err, Miss Zuri kept the true power of her Stockpile combination hidden until the crucial moment. And you did not announce Disable or Stun Spore verbally, which made them harder to counter.”
Smith nodded and turned to me. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at Alonso – I had planned to bring up how Zuri had kept Stockpile a secret. I quickly wracked my brain for something else to mention. “Umm… I thought it was strange that you told Venomoth to use Bug Buzz,” I finally said. “Since Pelipper should be able to resist it.”
“Usually that would be true,” Smith said with a small nod. “However, my partner has an inherent ability to see which parts of an enemy majū least resist his attacks. With this ability, Bug Buzz becomes just as effective as a move like Air Slash.” He swept his hand widely to encompass all our Pokemon. “Every majū has some special ability beyond the moves they can perform. With time you will come to understand what makes your own partner – or partners – stand out.”
I nodded solemnly, but my mind was alight with new ideas. Abilities – I knew about abilities! Well, sort of. We had learned in my Pokemon Studies class that they existed and had gone over a few examples, but there were so many possible variations that we hadn’t gone into any huge depth. I glanced over at Pausso and Echo speculatively. Maybe if we did some experimentation I could figure out what their abilities were.
Finally Smith turned to Florence, who was wrangling Skiploom again. The grass Pokemon seemed to be badgering Pelipper and Venomoth with questions as Natu and Snubbull watched from the sidelines. Both battlers looked tired, though, and it seemed like she was trying to make Skiploom give them space. “And you, Florence?”
“Last warning,” Florence told her Pokemon sternly. Then she looked up at Smith and flushed. “Oh, yes. I thought the use of the sky for distance and positioning was interesting. Different strategies became possible when Venomoth and Pelipper were close to each other, or far apart.” Her eyes got a far-off look and she brightened up as she kept talking. “And the distance between the battle and the ground was important at multiple times, especially when fighting higher in the sky gave the majū more opportunities to recover if their flight was interrupted. So when you took the fight close to the ground at the end, it forced Pelipper to go lower as well and raised the stakes.”
Smith smiled widely, which was rare for him. “Very good. Positioning is always important, but it is especially crucial in battles of the sky, or battles on uneven terrain.”
“It’s also important out on the sea,” Zuri pointed out. She had watched us discuss the battle with some degree of amusement, but now her expression grew more serious. “Those battles can be even more difficult because you cannot see what is happening under the water and your partner cannot hear you. You must trust that they will be able to fend for themselves while they are under the waves.”
I remembered Pausso’s mock-battle with Richard’s Tentacruel and shuddered. At least that had been somewhat close to the shore and had stayed above water through the whole fight. Well, it wasn’t likely that we’d have to do water battles again anytime soon.
“That is a good point,” Smith said, nodding towards Zuri. Then he looked towards the rest of us. “Those are all useful observations. I would also highlight the use of attacks for their secondary effects, such as how my partner used Gust to spread Poison Powder at the beginning of the battle, and how Pelipper used Quick Attack multiple times to enable faster movement to a particular location. If you –“
He was interrupted by an angry squawk. We all looked over to see Skiploom floating next to an aggravated Pelipper. He was trying to peer into Pelipper’s beak, and the bird had not taken kindly to that.
Florence was scarlet. “I am so sorry,” she said to Pelipper and Zuri in a strained voice as she pulled Skiploom’s poke ball out of her bag. “Skiploom, what did I tell you? Get back in here before you cause more trouble.” She pushed the button on his ball and he was sucked in, which made Snubbull cry out in protest. “I truly do apologize, he means well but he gets overly eager –“
“Wait,” Zuri said. Her eyes were locked on the ball in Florence’s hand. “Is that a poke ball?”
Florence paused and exchanged a glance with me. “Yes,” she said carefully. “You have heard of them?”
“Heard of them?” Zuri spread her arms in a wide gesture and smiled broadly. “Dear girl, they are the whole reason I am here in Azalea.”
I barely kept myself from heaving out an exasperated sigh. It looked like we had another curious traveler to deal with.