The kids arranged out into the grassy areas in a six-facing-six formation, the battle lines marked out with the flags that Pansage had lined around the area with. Clearing his throat, the teacher then raised his voice as began speaking in a lecturing tone, "Today, you will all be participating in battles. Some of you may have more experience with this than others, so I'm going to go over the rules to begin with. This applies to both the trainers and the Pokémon, so pay attention! First of all, absolutely no attacks toward your opposing trainer. Even an accidental stray attack can and will get you disqualified in a proper match, and we don't want anyone getting hurt today. Secondly, the match will go until surrender or until myself or Mable declare a winner. If we say you have lost, no arguing! A referee's judgement is an important part of official battling, especially on the Gym circuit, so get used to it! Anyone who wants to argue about a loss might wind up sitting out the rest of the day. Does everyone understand?"
A dozen enthusiastic voices overlapped in a chaotic blend of "Yes, Mister Patel!", while I focused on glancing across the grassy area at my first opponent. While I had hoped that Johnathan kid was going to push to battle us right off, that didn't seem to be the case. It was another young girl standing across from Annabelle, and my eyes narrowed at the bouncing blue ball of bubbly energy across from me. Oh, it was on!
"Time to get even for that sneak-attack after dinner the other day, you little spray-bottle-rat!" I called out with a grin, making a face at the Azurill. I tugged at the corner of my eyes and stuck my tongue out at them in the most childish mocking display I could think of on the spot. It seemed to work, as the Azurill puffed up her cheeks with an angry huff, bouncing from side to side in a fashion that reminded me of a boxer's footwork warming up before a match.
Annabelle peered down at me making faces and calling out to the opponent, covering her mouth with one hand and trying not to laugh and interrupt the end of the rules and discussion. When the adults didn't have anything more to add, she gave in and laughed, "Ditto, what are you doing? Hahaha!" I stopped and looked up at her and flashed her a thumbs-up to try and express confidence, bounding out onto the field a few steps. She turned her attention out as well, waving at her counterpart. A similarly-dressed blonde-haired girl with her hair tied back in a ponytail. Ponyta-tail? Whatever. "Good luck Amy!"
"You too!" The other girl called back in return. A few moments passed as we waited for the start to be called, and the moment it was, the Azurill bounced straight out at me like a missile. "W-wait a second, I didn't even say anything yet!" Amy called out in surprise, not that the Azurill was going to be able to stop midair.
"Uh, quick, Ditto use your transform to copy it!" I tried not to roll my eyes, as I knew the girl was a novice, but do you really think you had to call that part out? What else was I going to do, sit here and be a punching bag again? I complied and copied the blue-bodied small form of my opponent even as Azurill flew toward me. As the light of the sheen of energy was fading, I swung myself around in a pirouette motion, the big, ball-tipped tail whipping around me toward the incoming mouse-based-missile. A meaty 'THWAK' sounded out as the Tail Whip used my opponent's momentum against them, the bouncy nature of the tail sending them rebounding across the grass like a rubber ball. "Oh! Good job, Ditto! You should, um. Follow it up with a Water Gun before it can get close again!"
Honestly, not what I would have done either, considering that water wasn't going to be very effective against water types, but this was a learning experience for her as much as I wanted to make the best choices during our battle. Plus, I already made one responsive move without her calling out a command, so I didn't want to wind up doing the same as Azurill and leaving my temporary trainer feeling like they weren't getting to participate. As I took a deep breath, aimed, and spouted a powerful gush of water at the Azurill who was standing up, the other girl... Amy? She was trying to call things out that Azurill was just outright ignoring.
"Azurill, bounce up high and dodge the water, quick!" It actually had the opposite of the intended effect, as the Azurill actually turned her attention away from me to look back at Amy with an annoyed stare. I should have known this little wild-child was going to be a problem. Well, if she didn't want to listen to her trainer's command to dodge, I just had to hit her hard enough that she would reconsider listening for the rest of the battles today. Pushing extra strain and energy into the already-flowing Water Gun, it impacted the back of the Azurill's head and sent her rolling across the grass, growing muddy from the puddle that accompanied her and formed across her journey, until I had pushed her clear across the grassy boundary back toward her trainer's feet. "So... dizzy...!" 'Zu... rillll...' It was one of the first times I had actually heard them speak, I had almost wondered if they couldn't yet since Azurill was a baby Pokémon.
"Come on, get up Azurill! Bubblebeam back at them, we've gotta get a hit in on them! You can do it!" Amy cried out enthusiastically, pumping her fist in the air. The Azurill righted herself, looking unsteady on her feet, but took a deep breath of her own, before a veritable storm of bubbles started pelting toward me.
"Ditto, push through the bubbles and hit them with a Slam!" Despite wondering in the past how an attack made of bubbles could hurt, I still wasn't keen to follow an order that told me to drive straight through an attack. I guess the way that Pokémon sometimes misbehaved and did their own things if the trainer wasn't able to control them properly made sense, after I was in that position. My instincts told me that I should try and use a Bounce to dodge the same way that my opponent hadn't been willing to do, but I sighed and dashed forward in short bounces, half-closing my eyes as I pushed into the attack.
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It wasn't exactly painful, but each of the bubbles had been reinforced with the Azurill's water-type energy, and it popped with surprising force as it impacted off my body. It was more like a series of firm pokes than anything else, but what feels like a firm poke hitting you square in the eye is still enough to make you stumble. I kept moving forward, and front-flipped at the bubble-spouting Azurill, tail glowing with a white sheen of energy before hitting firmly against their face. This jolted them out of their bubble-spraying, and bowled them well out past the boundary of flags that marked out our fighting area. "Azurill is out of bounds, Ditto wins the battle!" Mable called out, since she was watching over the three fields that we were battling in, with Mister Patel on the other three further way.
Azurill plopped down and sniffled, making dejected whining sounds at the call of a loss. She had already been back on her feet and ready to run at me again when Mable called her out. Amy stepped over and crouched down, wiping some of the mud off their face. "Hey, it's the first time we're battling, we'll do better in the next one, right!?" That seemed to help console the young Pokémon, who nodded. "And maybe you'll listen to me in the next battle, huh?" That got another, smaller and more hesitant nod of agreement. "Great! Good battle, Annabelle!"
"You too! Good job, Ditto! You were really quick with that tail-swing you did. I don't think I've ever seen someone use Tail Whip like that before!" I grinned sheepishly, not wanting to take credit. It was just my reflexes and instincts telling me how to react in the split-second I had to make a decision. "I was lucky..." 'Dit-ditto...'
We both turned to look at the other battles going on near us, only to discover that one of our set of three had finished even before we did. A boy in a bug-catcher outfit was feeding a berry to a Caterpie with a big bump on its forehead, and across the field was an Aron. Ouch, rough luck. Yeah, I wouldn't want to have to tackle a steel-type down either. If I fought them next, I'd think about going easy on the Caterpie. Wait... Sitrus berry time! I turned back to my normal transformation and hopped over toward Mable, getting a pair of berries after I pointed at the Azurill, and headed over to give theirs to them as a peace offering. "Here, Azurill. No hard feelings?" They immediately took one huge bite and stuffed the entire berry into their mouth in one go, which left me a little dumbfounded. Am I the stretchy one, or are you?
"I guesh." Came the water-mouse's dismissive reply, though it was impressive she managed a response at all with her cheeks bulging out like that. It was cute, in the same way I remember seeing hamsters stuff their cheek pouches in the past. I pat Azurill atop the head, only to get gently bopped with her tail. I turned to the last battle field near us, and frowned almost immediately. It was that Johnathan boy, and Mable was giving him a firm, disapproving stare too. That should have been warning enough for the kid, but he was clearly drawing out a battle and enjoying tormenting his opponent. The problem was, he wasn't actually doing any damage.
"That dumb rabbit can't do anything to us! You should just give up!" Johnathan called out smugly, "Keep it locked up with the Sand Attack, Pidgey! If it can't keep its eyes open, they'll have to give up at some point!" This was just... awful. Even Pidgey looked hesitant about following the order as she scuffed the ground in repeated downward swoops, flinging more dirt into the eyes of the Bunnelby that was her opponent. I could only assume that Mable hadn't put a stop to this because she wanted to see if the bully would learn when to stop, or to give the Bunnelby a chance to push through and land a lucky hit to turn things around.
I was growing more and more fed up with this boy, and just as I was wondering what I could turn into that would be scary enough to make him pee himself in fright but not get Mable to be mad at me, she spoke out "I'm ending the match. Pidgey is the winner of this battle. Come here, Bunnelby, let me wipe your eyes..." Mable stepped out onto the field, taking out a towel and wiping at the poor rabbit's face. The boy across from Johnathan marched over to him, "You're such a jerk! We're just practicing! Why did you have to be so awful about it?"
"Oh? Did I break the rules? Lowering your opponent's ability to fight back is a real strategy! Only those who aren't tough enough to fight back complain about their opponent's strategies. You should have acted up sooner and attacked before it got so bad, instead of hesitating because you were too busy worrying about if the Bunnelby could fight. If the Pokémon wanted to surrender, it would have just ran away." The boys argued a little longer, before Mable separated them when she was finished tending to the Bunnelby.
He's such a smug little... argh! But he's still not entirely wrong, even if he is a right little turd. I didn't want Pidgey to take lessons from this kid, though, so I wandered over and gave her a pat on the wing. "I bet that wasn't a very fun fight, huh?"
She nodded, and guiltily looked over at the Bunnelby. "I was following orders and we were winning, but... yeah. That made me feel kinda... bad." She scuffed the ground with her talons, peeking over at me.
"I don't blame you, and I doubt that the Bunnelby over there will either. That Johnathan kid's not wrong, he's just taking this way too seriously for practice. He probably has experience battling before, and wants to show off to feel good in front of the other kids. He's still a total bully though. I guess I'm going to have to kick your feathery butt in the process of teaching him a lesson, though, huh?" I teased with a laugh, earning a slap of a wing atop my head for my efforts.
"Just try it! We're gonna have a good fight, even if I have to ignore that dummy to do it."
"Well, I hope he's dumb enough to try that Sand Attack strategy against me later. If he does, listen to him, I think it'll be funny." A grin formed over my face, as we both knew from experience how poorly that strategy would go, after we had tried it against each other in the past.
"Are you gonna turn into me again when we fight?" The same smug expression formed on her beak, as if catching on to what I was meaning. "Alright, sure. I'll listen if he tries the same thing. How long do you think it'll take him to realize?"
"Oh, I bet he wont unless someone else points it out to him. Anyway, I better be going back to Annabelle. I can't keep fraternizing with the enemy, and we're supposed to be opponents! See you on the battlefield!" Another friendly wing-swat later, we separated and I moved back to Annabelle. One win down, let's keep it going!