The New Normal - 16-15

The New Normal – 16-15 – The Finals?

Our victory over Koga and Flannery was definitely not clean, but I couldn’t deny being satisfied with it nonetheless.

However, I didn’t get much chance to replay that battle in my head as I had to focus on getting ready for the next battle. We were given the rest of the day to rest and heal up our Pokémon before the final battle would take place.

So for the very last time, Elesa and I burned through the midnight fuel as we ran through everything we could find out about Karen and Iris’ Pokémon choices and fighting styles, while also coming up with a plan on how to counter them.

Out of all the trainers that were competing in this Tournament, I was fully confident in saying that I knew Karen the best. Having duelled her so many times in the past, I knew every facet of her strategies and tactics, so I knew what she would try to deploy against me. However, the reverse was also true, as Karen also knew practically every trick I had available since she had a lot of experience facing off against my team as well.

So this battle might really be a case of ‘I know you will do this so I will do this’ and ‘but I knew you would do this so I did this thinking that you will do this’. In other words, our plans might break apart much quicker than usual.

But I did my best to ensure that neither Elesa or I stressed over it. Whatever happens tomorrow, happens. The best pair would win.

Strangely enough, just before I went to bed for the day, I received a strange text from Cynthia where she was being unusually coy about something that would take place at the end of the Tournament. I tried pressing about it, but she refused to give me an answer, which only heightened my suspicions.

I suspected this ‘surprise’ would be more than just some trophy or prize. But since she refused to elaborate, I supposed I would find out after our battle.

Therefore, after a good night’s sleep for both myself and my Pokémon, we returned to the arena for what should be the final time. Despite having already sat through over a week of constant battles, the crowd was no less excited as they cheered us on, with many banners containing our faces and our Pokémon waving amongst them.

But it wasn’t just the faceless crowd that cheered us on. In the VIP stands, I could barely make out the forms of many of my friends and colleagues who were also there to cheer for the battlers today.

“You ready for this, John?” My partner asked me as we headed into the arena, “This will be the last time we fight together.”

“Yes, it will.” I nodded, “And I may have said this before – but I couldn’t have gotten a better partner for this Tournament.”

“Likewise.” She smiled, “So let’s end this on a good note. We’ve come this far. We can win it all.”

Nothing else needed to be said between us as we took our positions opposite of Karen and Iris. Karen was trying to say something to us, but I zoned her out as I ran through my strategy in my head again. There was no need to acknowledge anything Karen was saying – she was just trying to rile us up and unsettle us.

Finally, the referee made themselves known, “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! AFTER A GRUELLING FIGHT TO THE TOP, WE’VE FINALLY MANAGED TO NARROW DOWN OUR FINAL TWO TEAMS FOR THE FIRST EVER POKÉMON WORLD TOURNAMENT! PLEASE GIVE IT UP FOR OUR FINALISTS – ON THE ONE SIDE, WE HAVE ELITE JOHN AND GYM LEADER ELESA. AND ON THE OTHER, WE HAVE ELITE KAREN AND GYM LEADER IRIS!”

“I DON’T THINK YOU NEED ANY MORE OF AN INTRODUCTION TO THESE TWO TEAMS, SO LET’S GET RIGHT INTO THE BATTLE! TRAINERS, ARE YOU READY?!”

“THREE!... TWO!... ONE!... FIGHT!”

“Come, Pixel!”     “As planned, Emolga!”

“Weavile, get’em!”      “Druddigon, it’s on you!”

The battle began with a black blur instantly circling around the battlefield. Weavile had quickly broken out into a sprit as it fired off an equally-fast Taunt at Emolga, but Pixel jumped in the way and intercepted the attack in its place.

This shut down Pixel’s ability to make use of its support moves, but it had already done what it needed to. Pixel had immediately swapped its own type to Fairy using Conversion as soon as the battle started.

At the same time, since it wasn’t affected by the Taunt, Emolga was able to make distance from everyone as it rocketed into the air, before it began to enact our plan as it gave off a Helping Hand boost to Pixel, heavily powering up the Fairy type Tri-Attack that it just fired out.

Weavile had tried to interrupt the attack with an Ice Shard, but Pixel relied on its great defenses to just shrug off the attack.

An enormous blast of concentrated Fairy energy shot forwards right towards Druddigon, who had been trying to set up with a Hone Claws. Druddigon did successfully manage to boost itself the once, but seeing the overwhelmingly powerful Fairy attack coming, it was forced to cancel what it was doing and hurriedly burrow into the ground with a Dig.

Unfortunately for Druddigon, that wouldn’t be enough. The Fairy Tri-Attack was so powerful that it literally ripped a trench through the ground itself, annihilating everything that it touched – with Druddigon being no exception.

Druddigon let out an anguished growl as it suffered through the supereffective attack, but though it was certainly injured, I knew one attack was far from enough to bring it down.

Meanwhile, before Pixel could fire off another attack, Weavile had dashed in close and went past Pixel’s Protect with a Feint, completely exposing Pixel to its follow up attacks as Weavile viciously delivered a supereffective Metal Claw into Poison Jab combo. The double hit of supereffective attacks caused Pixel to crumble to the ground as it whirled painfully.

Yet before Weavile could follow up with another Poison Jab, Emolga suddenly appeared out of nowhere with a Quick Attack and Nuzzle combo, ramming into Weavile from behind before the Dark type could dodge out of the way in a blur of white and yellow. The damage that this attack did was pitiful, even to a Pokémon as frail as Weavile, but that wasn’t the point. Thanks to Nuzzle, Weavile was now paralysed, cutting its once incredible speed to more manageable levels.

Emolga immediately made a quick retreat into the air to get out of reach before Weavile could counterattack, and even tried to Charm Weavile to sharply lower its attack, but Weavile – even while affected by paralysis – still fired off a Taunt quicker than Emolga could get off its Charm.

That was how instinctual the use of Taunt was for Weavile. It was basically just another muscle at this point.

While this was all happening, Druddigon had been staying quiet. I had been trying to keep an eye on it, but it had burrowed itself in the ground with a Dig to stay out of vision and was probably buffing itself up while out of sight.

It then burst out from the ground right next to where our Pokémon had been fighting and launched a massive rock towards Emolga – which just narrowly missed and only managed to hit a glancing blow. Pixel immediately punished this attempt with another Fairy Tri-Attack that struck Druddigon dead on.

However, that glancing blow was enough to momentarily knock Emolga off balance, and right back into Weavile’s waiting claws. Weavile let out an enraged snarl as it delivered a hard-hitting Ice Punch right to the face, before burying Emolga in an avalanche of Icicle Crashes.

Small chunks of frost began to spread across its wings, preventing it from taking flight again.

All the while, the paralysis meant nothing to Weavile - it was never going to freeze up from just that as it continued to absolutely devastate Emolga. Without having access to its speed to get away, Emolga could do nothing but fire off weak Discharges in a futile attempt to force Weavile off of it.

It didn’t work. And Emolga was completely overwhelmed and was soon knocked out of the fight.

Yet this wasn’t a surprise to us. We knew full well that if Weavile ever got in range of Emolga, the Electric type was absolutely doomed as the Dark type would certainly tear it apart.

But that was fine. We had expected this, and Emolga’s sacrifice was part of the plan.

Because, while this was all happening, Pixel had broken free of the Taunt thanks to all that mental training it had received, and was able to use Recover to restore its own health while also setting up with a Nasty Plot.

Then Pixel pulled out my favourite trick as it suddenly intensified the Gravity to such a level that the mighty Druddigon was struggling to even move. Weavile fared a little better, since it had trained with my Pokémon before, but even it was slowed down by the crushing weight that was now pressing down on its shoulders.

Furthermore, because Pixel was so proficient in using Gravity, it was able to localise the affected area to just encompass the side of the arena that Weavile and Druddigon were in. Therefore, when Elesa sent out her final Pokémon – her second Emolga – it was unaffected and could stay in the air.

And now that both of our opponents’ Pokémon were slowed down, Pixel unleashed another, terrifyingly powerful and Helping-Hand boosted Fairy Tri-Attack that shot right towards the vulnerable Weavile like it was glowing pink orb of death.

“BLOCK IT WITH YOUR BODY, DRUDDIGON! DRAGON RUSH!”

However, with a ruthlessness and decisiveness that surprised me, Iris’ Druddigon heroically forced itself forwards with a Dragon Rush, turning itself into a blue blur as it threw itself in front of Weavile and in the way of the incoming attack – knowing that Weavile was the more important of the two.

The subsequent explosion of Fairy energy absolutely eradicated Druddigon’s health. It didn’t matter how ‘defensively strong’ it was – this was not an attack that it was expected to endure through. Especially not with its existing injuries.

It collapsed limply to the ground; its body still lingering with a subtle pink afterglow.

Yet, despite this takedown evening out the score to 1-1, I was not happy with this development. Druddigon’s sacrifice had ruined my plan of taking down Weavile in exchange for Emolga.

And now, before Pixel could recharge and fire off another attack, a volley of Ice Shards immediately came Pixel’s way as Weavile moved to avenge its fallen teammate. The Ice Shards served as a cover for Weavile to dash forwards, running past a Thunderbolt from Emolga, before firing off another Taunt towards Pixel.

Even though I had heavily trained up Pixel’s mental discipline, that did not make it perfect, and Weavile’s Taunts were still potent enough to interrupt the Fairy Tri-Attack that it was once again trying to charge up.

With both of our Pokémon focused onto Weavile, I almost missed the flare of draconic energy coming out from Iris’ newly sent out Haxorus. It was taking advantage of our Pokémon’s momentary distraction to power itself up with a Dragon Dance.

Realising this, I hurriedly shouted out.

“ELESA, GET YOUR EMOLGA TO DEAL WITH HAXORUS! DON’T LET IT SET UP!”

“Night Slash, Weavile. Stop it.”

Instantly pivoting on the spot, Weavile leapt into the air as it pounced after the fleeing Emolga, intending to cut it down with a vicious Night Slash. But thanks to the fact that it had been paralysed earlier, Weavile wasn’t as fast as it usually was, allowing the fresh Emolga to just fly out of range before it was hit.

Emolga quickly flew over to Haxorus, and seeing that it was just about to finish setting up with a second Dragon Dance, Elesa made a split second decision.

“Quick Attack and Nuzzle it, Emolga!”

Instead of going for the safer, but slower, Thunder Wave, Emolga suddenly blurred forwards and slammed into the Haxorus with an electrified Quick Attack, paralysing the Haxorus. Yet that attack did not come without risks, as now Emolga was within slashing distance of a buffed up and enraged Haxorus.

Not wanting to be eviscerated, Emolga rapidly backpedalled with another Quick Attack while also simultaneously throwing out fake afterimages of itself with a Double Team. Haxorus ripped through them like paper, but unlike Weavile, Haxorus wasn’t as used to dealing with paralysis as its partner, and it was too slow to react and was unable to catch Emolga before it flew out of its range.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, Elesa still had one more ‘gift’ for Haxorus.

“Encore, Emolga!”

Haxorus let out a frustrated snarl as it became locked into using its last move – Dragon Claw. Normally, this was by far Haxorus’ most used attack, and would usually be the go-to option for most opponents. However, the move had very short range, which wouldn’t be useful against the flying Emolga. Furthermore, Pixel was currently a Fairy type, making it immune to the Dragon Claw.

Essentially, until Encore’s effect ended, Haxorus had been completely nullified for the time being.

Meanwhile, Weavile and Pixel were still continuing their intense duel. Thanks to all of the training that I had done with Pixel against fast, close-range attackers, it wasn’t completely helpless when Weavile managed to get in close against it. A series of well-timed Discharges and even surprise Take Downs prevented Weavile from simply pummelling Pixel into unconsciousness, though it was still on the backfoot.

Even when slowed down by paralysis, Weavile was still far superior at close range battles, and it was gradually overwhelming Pixel. If nothing changed, then it was inevitable that Pixel would fall first.

But I knew now was the time to enact one of our situational plans that we had planned from the very beginning of the Tournament. I tapped Elesa on the shoulder, signalling to her that to be ready.

Then I raised Pixel’s Pokéball, “Switch out, Pixel! Crush them, Vordt!”

Pixel was enveloped in a red light before being returned back to its Pokéball. Seeing its target disappear from in front of it, Weavile quickly dashed backwards to make distance before beginning to set up with a Swords Dance.

Then Vordt emerged onto the field. And the very instant that he did so, Emolga started to form a light blue orb of energy as the Electric type continued to remain out of reach of Haxorus.

“Speed Swap, Emolga!”

The light blue orb shot across the battlefield until it was absorbed into Vordt, swapping Emolga’s incredible speed with Vordt’s.

I caught Karen’s eyes widening in alarm as she started to process the implications of what just happened. Unfortunately, I didn’t give her any moment to recover as I ordered Vordt forwards.

“Ignite yourself and Headlong Rush, Vordt! On Weavile!”

Vordt blitzed forwards with a level of speed that I doubted anyone had seen before. He literally moved so fast, and with so much power, that it was almost like the trench in the ground that he tore up behind him was struggling to catch up to his speed.

He was like a flaming missile of unstoppable destruction.

For the first time in a long while, Weavile actually found itself outsped by Vordt and wasn’t able to retreat out of the way in time. In desperation, it tried throwing out Ice Shards to stop his charge, but they might as well have melted from Vordt’s flaming body for how little damage they did.

Realising it wasn’t able to dodge, it threw up a last-second Protect shield that did nothing as Vordt brutally smashed through it and crashed into the Weavile. Weavile was launched backwards like it had been hit by a high speed missile and its limp body was painfully thrown against the psychic shields.

One hit, and the frail Weavile was knocked out.

But Vordt wasn’t done yet. Without wasting a single moment, he spun around and immediately charged towards Haxorus with another Headlong Rush.

Haxorus had managed to break free of the effects of Encore, and because Emolga had sacrificed and exchanged its own speed for Vordt’s, it meant that it was now incredibly slow. Extremely unused to its newfound sluggish speed, it was completely unable to move out of the way as a Rock Slide sent an avalanche of rocks crashing down all around it. Emolga managed to block a few with Protect, but it wasn’t enough to stop them all and the Electric type was sent tumbling to the ground.

Then with the boost that it had gained from its earlier Dragon Dances, Haxorus stomped down on the ground and unleashed a terrifying Earthquake – mere moments before Vordt came ferociously barrelling into it with a devastating Play Rough.

“Stop it, Houndoom!”

Vordt came slamming into Haxorus like a freight train, brutally throwing the Dragon type to the ground. But before Vordt could finish it off with another Play Rough, a searing wave of black flames scorched the entire area. Haxorus was just barely out or range to avoid friendly fire, but both Vordt and Emolga were not so lucky. Due to how frail it was, Emolga had really struggled to pull itself back off the ground, and had not done so in time to get out of the way of the incoming blaze.

The conflagration proved too much for Emolga, and it was knocked out.

Knowing that the battle was now a 2v1, I unconsciously clenched one of my fists. This was the situation we had placed all of our past opponents in, and now I was in their shoes. Despite this, I stomped down hard on that small spike of nervousness.

Vordt would win; especially with all of the buffs he had. He had done so against worse odds. I was certain.

And I knew that the first priority would be to balance out the fight. So Haxorus had to go.

“Play Rough again, Vordt! Take down Haxorus!”

Obeying my orders, Vordt roared out through the wall of flames that tried to bar him and pounced onto Haxorus, trapping it beneath his monstrously powerful claws. Houndoom unleashed a blackened Fire Blast that exploded and engulfed Vordt in a ball of searing fire, but Vordt pushed through the pain and focused on pummelling Haxorus into the ground. Fortunately, thanks to the Speed Swap that Emolga sacrificed itself for, Vordt’s rate of attacks were able to come even faster than normal – faster than our opponents could have prepared themselves for – and the paralysed Haxorus was not unable to fend off Vordt’s unrelenting assault.

Its Dragon Claws were parried. Its Iron Heads were rebuffed. Its Stone Edges were weak and were shrugged off. The speed difference, both from the buffs Vordt received and from the paralysis inflicted on Haxorus, was too much.

Haxorus desperately tried to Outrage, only for the endless barrage of Fairy attacks to knock it right out of it as Vordt easily dispersed the buildup of Dragon nergy.

Houndoom did its best to intervene as it engulfed Vordt in a searing torrent of black flames, but Vordt was locked onto his target and refused to let go as he continued pummelling Haxorus and ensuring that it would never be able to get up.  

So for all of Haxorus’ draconic might, even after it was boosted by Dragon Dances, it was still not a match for a Guts-boosted Vordt.

Maybe one day Haxorus would grow strong enough to match Vordt in strength, but today was not this day.

The Dragon crumbled before Vordt.

That left the battle to be a 1v1, with Karen’s untouched Houndoom versus my own injured Vordt. Wisps of blackened embers infected Vordt’s frame, slowly spreading around like a dark malaise, steadily sapping away at his mental discipline. Furthermore, knowing that her teammate was doomed, instead of continuing to fire off Flamethrowers, Houndoom made distance and used the time instead to set up with a Nasty Plot, sharply boosting her own Special Attack.

That only caused her next torrent of flames to explode into an inferno even larger than before, and Vordt was fully engulfed in the fiery, black pyre. It was almost like he was being absorbed into the void itself.

The flames fully scorched and seared his form, blackening his once brilliant fur, but Vordt held strong to his convictions and stomped down hard on the ground, unleashing a violently destructive Earthquake that effortlessly split the arena apart.

Houndoom immediately leapt into the air to dodge the attack, and knowing what was to come, even managed to dart to the side before the follow-up eruption of rocks could impale her.

However, that was all just a distraction to buy time for Vordt to get in close. He charged forwards with another Headlong Rush, aiming for the location where Houndoom was going to land in. But it had been a trap, and he had charged straight into a pre-prepared explosion of Dark energy, causing him to stumble out of his charge while Houndoom inflicted it with a Taunt and Torment simultaneously.

Thinking that Vordt was temporarily unable to attack, Houndoom landed and prepared to fire off another gigantic Fire Blast. But then a single rock shot out from the ground and slammed into the bottom of Houndoom’s mouth, forcibly closing it and cancelling the Fire Blast.

Then Vordt was there, having rushed forwards with a ridiculous level of speed, and smashed into the Houndoom with another devastatingly supereffective Headlong Rush. Houndoom managed to partially block it with a last-second Protect, but it was far from enough.

Houndoom was sent flying backwards, but she managed to fire off a Flamethrower behind herself and used that to propel herself out of the way of Vordt’s follow-up Stone Edge. Yet Houndoom had to land eventually, and so tried to cover its landing by firing off a Dark Pulse while still mid-air in hopes of flinching Vordt.

Already inflicted by so many mental ailments, Vordt did flinch, but was still able to unleash a quick Earthquake that knocked Houndoom off-balance as it failed to withstand against the burst of tectonic energy.

Even though the exchange of attacks barely lasted over a dozen seconds, both Pokémon were exhausted and wounded.

Vordt was limping, and every last bit of him was burnt black.

I almost couldn’t make out how he was visibly flinching in pain as he was slowly being incinerated by all of the black flames clinging to his body. Not only that, but Vordt would occasionally shake his head, as if he was plagued with some sort of mental affliction. He looked horrible.

On the other hand, Houndoom was doing no better. It was struggling to pull itself off the ground, and one of its back legs was wobbling heavily – a telltale sign that it was unable to withstand the weight of its body. Furthermore, the normally malicious glint that always seemed present in Houndoom’s eyes was gone, though the conviction still remained.

Karen and I shared a mutual look of understanding – we both knew that this was it. The battle was going to be decided here.

One last move, and the victor would be decided.

“FLAMETHROWER! TORCH IT!”

“HEADLONG RUSH, GO FOR IT!”

Even though Vordt was clearly on his last legs, he still managed to let out a booming roar as he charged forwards one final time. Meanwhile, Houndoom unleashed an enormous torrent of black flames, but this time it was surrounded by a vortex of darkness that looked exactly like what you would expect from a Dark Pulse.

Vordt threw up a wall of rock in front of himself as he met the torrent of flames head on. The wall of rock practically disintegrated in the face of such a scorching inferno, but Vordt was doing anything he could do lessen the damage coming his way.

Vordt’s charge took barely over a second, but to me it felt like a lifetime as I watched the flames rapidly engulf his form. He actually seemed to slow down near the end, but he valiantly maintained the momentum and slammed into Houndoom.

Yet Houndoom refused to be knocked away and latched onto Vordt and ruthlessly bit down with a savage Crunch deep into Vordt’s neck, causing Vordt to let out a howl of pain. But he retaliated by brutally backhanding Houndoom across the face, knocking it off, and followed up by delivering a Cross Chop right to the crown of its head – interrupting the Fire Blast that had been forming in Houndoom’s throat.

Houndoom let out a choking cough as it reeled back, though even then it was still able to blast Vordt with a quick Dark Pulse. With Vordt’s mental defenses so heavily weakened already, that actually caused him to flinch and momentarily let go of Houndoom.

Knowing there was no point trying to retreat, Houndoom let out a vicious snarl as she slammed into Vordt with a desperate Flare Blitz before biting down as hard as she could with a Fire Fang. Vordt howled in pain, and this time, his resilience finally faltered.

Vordt succumbed to the flames that had long burned through his body. He went down.

…But I still had one Pokémon left.

“Pixel, finish the job!”

Pixel reemerged onto the battlefield, and immediately used Conversion to switch its own type to Water just before the Taunt from Houndoom managed to hit.

That didn’t stop Pixel from blasting Houndoom with a Water type Tri-Attack, which the latter valiantly tried to fend off with a stream of Dark Pulse.

But Pixel was stronger. Sure, Pixel was injured too, but Houndoom was exhausted. Karen’s ace no longer could muster up the power that it once possessed.

Because of that, the defending Dark Pulse was ripped apart by the Tri-Attack, and Houndoom was too tired and injured to dodge out of the way. The Dark type skidded backwards from the impact, only for a rain of Thunderbolts to come crashing down from above, stunning the Houndoom for long enough for a final Tri-Attack to finish it off.

I swear I saw Houndoom’s form twitch momentarily, almost like it was almost to get back up, but after what felt like an eternity, the referee called the battle.

It was over. We had won. The World Tournament was ours.

There was a moment of silence from everyone as the crowd took a moment to process our victory, but soon there was an enormous roar of cheers as they celebrated our victory.

I shot Pixel a proud smile and returned it to its Pokéball quickly so that it could have a good rest. That smile didn’t leave my face as I turned to Elesa, who similarly had a matching smile of her own.

My hand was moving before I even realised it, “High-five! We did it!”

“We did!” Our hands clapped together, before we both raised them into the air as proof of our victory. The crowd somehow cheered even louder at that.

I was about to praise Elesa for everything she had accomplished during this Tournament, but then Cynthia interrupted our moment to make an announcement on the microphone.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like with this the final two teams of this Tournament has been decided! After so many exciting and tense battles during the past week, these two teams have managed to climb their way to the top! So let’s give it up for your first ever World Tournament finalists!!”

There was another round of frighteningly loud applause as a cacophony of shouts and cheers echoed throughout the arena once again, and Cynthia waited for it to die down before continuing, “However! After seeing the myriad of jaw-dropping performances from all of our many contestants, I can’t deny that it’s gotten my blood pumping from just watching all these battles.”

“Therefore, though I initially said otherwise, I will be challenging the team that wins the World Tournament!” My eyes shot open at her declaration – I had not known anything about this.

“But that’s not all!” She continued, her voice somehow being heard despite the loud shouts of surprise that she got, “I was not alone in my desire for a battle, and there was one other individual who was equally as excited as I was after seeing these battles – so much so that he asked if he could participate alongside me.”

“And that trainer is none other than the recently ascended Champion of Hoenn – Steven!”

A.N. John and Elesa have won! That’s it for the World Tournament, except for one final battle! Karen and Iris were definitely the hardest opponents that John and Elesa have had to face, and I hope I portrayed that well in this chapter.

But the battle between John and the two Champions are coming. John will finally be able to cement his strength in everyone’s minds in the upcoming battle. I hope you enjoyed!