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The New Normal - 2-15
🕑 Added 2023-04-07 13:11:07 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 2-15 – Here be Dragons
“AND WITH THAT DOUBLE KNOCKOUT, WHICH POKEMON WILL OUR TRAINERS BE SENDING OUT NEXT?!” The announcer boomed out, “LET’S COUNT THEM DOWN NOW!...THREE!”
As I distractedly listened to the countdown, I quickly contemplated which Pokémon I would be sending out next.
With Blastoise already knocked out, that gave me the reassurance I needed to send out my Pidgeot, Zephyr. Also, I was still fairly certain that Drake would leave his biggest threats for the latter half of the match, since I had noted down that he had done so in many of his previous matches.
“TWO!” Thus, I knew that I had to also retain my own big boys to counter his. And since I was keeping my Clefable, Luna, as insurance in case something goes wrong, that really means that realistically I had only one choice here. I sighed internally as I thought that I really needed to catch a few more powerful Normal types in the future. At least Pixel was training hard.
“ONE!” No longer hesitating, I threw out Zephyr’s Premier Ball and released him, with Drake doing the same.
Two white glows appeared onto the arena momentarily before it disappeared to reveal my Pidgeot and Drake’s Altaria, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the harsh sunlight was instantly receding to become milder.
Zephyr let out a confident screech as it faced down against Drake’s Altaria, and I had to fight down a smirk of my own. To Zephyr, other Flying types were simply its prey. And he was their predator.
“OH, WHAT A COINCIDENCE! BOTH TRAINERS HAVE SENT OUT THEIR FLYING TYPE POKEMON? ARE WE GOING TO SEE A BATTLE IN THE SKY-”
“IN THE AIR, ZEPHYR!” I ignored the announcer and commanded Zephyr to immediately swoop high into the air and started using Work Up like we practiced. In fact, telling Zephyr to go ‘in the air’ was just a coded command for him to start buffing up. I knew that Altaria was quite a bit tankier than most other Flying Types, so Zephyr’s natural offenses might not be sufficient to knock it out.
“Cotton Guard, Altaria.” As I predicted, the Altaria started to create spores of cotton that wrapped around itself, forming a protective shield of cotton that an unbuffed Zephyr would be unable to break through.
So, I allowed Zephyr to continue staying high in the air as he continued using Work Ups to buff himself. The longer he could do so without being interrupted, the better. As the seconds ticked by as Drake continued to stare suspiciously at my Zephyr as if he was trying to figure out why it wasn’t attacking.
Suddenly, he lurched forwards and gripped tightly onto the platform’s rails in alarm as soon as he realized what was happening.
“Dragon Pulse, Altaria! Stop it from setting up!” Altaria hummed in response and quickly fired off a beam of draconic energy at Zephyr, but he easily dodged around it with his aerial manoeuvrability. Repeated Dragon Pulses were met with the same futility as Zephyr dodged past them all with contemptuous ease.
Altaria may be strong and well-trained, but its Dragon Pulses easily fell short of the devastating torrent that Blastoise was able to rapidly fire out like an artillery cannon. If Zephyr had matched up against Drake’s Blastoise, I was certain that Zephyr would be quickly knocked out.
Yet now, Zephyr was almost relaxedly able to continue buffing up with Work Ups as Altaria’s Dragon Pulses failed to even get close to Zephyr, to Drake’s growing frustration. He knew that the situation was getting more tenuous for him the more Zephyr was able to set up, so he had to do something about it, and fast.
“Sing, Altaria!” Switching tactics, Altaria cut off its Dragon Pulse before starting to sing melodically, blanking the arena with a level of calm and peace that even I found to be extraordinarily soothing. But I quickly snapped myself out of my daydreaming as I forcefully refocused on the battle, just in time to catch Zephyr falling out of the sky as he drifted to sleep.
“Uproar, Zephyr! Don’t let yourself fall asleep!” I shouted out with a small amount of panic. Zephyr luckily still had the presence of mind to react to my commands as he started letting out a horrendously loud screech that drowned out Altaria’s melodious singing. The audience, who were previously falling asleep or becoming entranced from Altaria’s Singing, were now clutching their ears in pain from Zephyr’s ear-piercing screeches.
Even better, the effect of Zephyr’s Work Ups was noticeable as Altaria was blown backwards as it got hit by the tide of booming sonic waves from Zephyr’s Uproar. The situation was going from bad to worse for Drake, and I knew that now was the time to finally go on the offensive.
“Air Slash, Zephyr!”
“Aerial Ace, Altaria, and Protect! Get closer to it!”
Zephyr thankfully stopped screeching and started gathering a ball of wind around his wings before he slashed them repeatedly towards Altaria, creating multiple sharp blades of wind that sliced through the air. In response, Altaria demonstrated its own proficiency at aerial acrobatics as it quickly veered and swooped over many of the incoming Air Slashes and using Protect to block against those that it failed to dodge.
However, Altaria’s dodges were less smooth, its corners were wider, and it had a distinct lack of grace that Zephyr had. I had initially contemplated continuing to keep Zephyr at a distance from Altaria so he could attempt to slowly wear it down with his boosted Special Attacks and to prevent Altaria from getting close to him, but its weaker aerial manoeuvrability was something I could capitalize on.
“Brave Bird, Zephyr! Hit and Run!” Zephyr called out in agreement and started to surround itself with a silver glow before he dove ninety degrees downwards and swooped forwards into Altaria, taking it by surprise at the sudden burst of aggression, and slammed into it with his glowing wings.
However, despite the impact and its inability to counterattack, Altaria practically shrugged off the Brave Bird due to his Cotton Guard and continued closing the distance. The armour of cotton acted as a shield for Altaria and significantly dampened the impact from Zephyr’s Brave Bird.
I grimaced and realized that, without getting rid of the Cotton Guard, I had no way of causing any significant damage towards the Altaria with Zephyr’s Physical Attacks.
Of course, this is when Drake decided to punish me for trying to make use of an opportunity, since now Zephyr had voluntarily closed the distance for him and entered Altaria’s striking range, unable to fly away in time.
“Dragon Rush and get close to it, Altaria!”
“Protect and make some distance!”
Capitalizing on the fact that Altaria was effectively immune to physical attacks, Drake tried to turn the aerial battle into a brawl so that Zephyr couldn’t make great use of his better manoeuvrability.
Altaria suddenly exploded forward with a blue glow as it slammed into Zephyr, who barely had time to create a Protect shield that was instantly broken by the impact from Altaria, but still managed to halt most of Altaria’s momentum.
“Dragon Claw and stay close to it!” Before Zephyr could fly away and create more distance, one of Altaria’s claws narrowly raked past Zephyr, almost ripping through one of his wings with practiced ease.
Zephyr struggled with slight panic at the numerous near-misses from Altaria’s attacks, and he was trying desperately to make some distance between himself and Altaria, where he would be able to make the most use out of his training. He was unused to close-range fights like this, unlike Drake’s Altaria, who seemed to relish in it.
I cursed inwardly as, despite having watched Drake’s use of Altaria in his previous battles, I really did underestimate just how fearsome his Altaria was at close range.
All of his Pokémon really were close-range monsters, huh.
Nevertheless, I knew that I had to quickly separate the two before Zephyr got entangled by Altaria. I also needed to find a way to get rid of Altaria’s Cotton Guard. I desperately tried to think of a solution when one popped into my head as I saw that a few pieces of cotton had fallen onto the ground after being carried along by gusts of wind.
“Whirlwind, Zephyr! Blow everything away!” Zephyr narrowly swerved past another powerful swipe from Altaria’s claws and started flapping his wings rapidly and creating a strong gust of wind that blew everything back. Altaria tried to fight against with powerful flaps of its own much larger wings, but the tyrannical gale storm eventually overwhelmed Altaria’s efforts and forced it backwards.
Not only that, but the intense whirlwind also managed to blow away much of Altaria’s Cotton Guard, leaving Altaria exposed to physical attacks from Zephyr. I instantly capitalized on this opportunity.
“Brave Bird, Zephyr! Strike it while it’s vulnerable!”
“Protect, Altaria!”
Zephyr once again quickly fell into a dive as he began to be engulfed by a silvery glow as he swooped down rapidly against the opposing Altaria. Realizing that it didn’t have time to set up a Cotton Guard, Altaria formed a haphazard Protect shield that Zephyr easily shattered through and smashed right into Altaria’s center, eliciting a cry of pain, before using the remaining momentum to fly away before Altaria could recover and counterattack.
“Again, Zephyr! Don’t let up!” Before the silver glow surrounding him dissipated, Zephyr reignited it and performed a 180 degrees aerial somersault before diving into Altaria once again. Altaria didn’t have time to reorient itself from the impact of the first Brave Bird or set up another Cotton Guard before Zephyr crashed into it yet again.
Seeing that Altaria was starting to waver from its injuries, I took advantage of the momentum and ordered another Brave Bird.
“Outrage, Altaria.” Drake said with determined resignation. Recognizing that the situation had gone out of his control, and that Altaria was heavily injured, Drake’s sole recourse was to do as much damage as it could against my Zephyr, choosing to allow Altaria to fall in a blaze of glory rather than be switched out.
Altaria’s eyes lit up with rage as it went berserk. It wrapped itself with the distinct deep blue glow of draconic energy and thrashed out wildly at everything. I couldn’t get Zephyr to stop his Brave Bird at this moment, so I could only hope that he would make it out mostly unscathed.
I watched stoically as Zephyr dove towards Altaria with another Brave Bird, and although the distance between the battle and where I was standing was far enough that it made it difficult to see precisely what had happened, I saw that Zephyr was almost knocked to the side for a moment before he stabilised himself.
Fortunately, Zephyr seemingly held firm and continued his final dive straight straight into the center of Altaria with his boosted Brave Bird, throwing his everything into that attack. After taking three consecutive Brave Birds in a row without the absorption provided by Cotton Guard, Altaria wasn’t able to continue fighting even after going berserk with Outrage and fell out of the sky, fainted.
Zephyr gave off a victorious screech that was soon joined by the audience as he began circling around in the air like a vulture stalking its’ prey as Altaria slowly fell downwards, and Drake managed to withdraw it before it crashed into the ground.
“WHAT A KNOCKOUT! IT SEEMS THAT JOHN’S PIDGEOT WAS A BETTER FLYER THAN DRAKE’S ALTARIA AND MANAGED TO KNOCK IT OUT WITH A DEVESTATING SERIES OF BRAVE BIRDS!” The announcer called out, “JOHN NOW LEADS THE MATCH 2-1!”
I could hear a few more people in the crowd chanting my name at Zephyr’s victory, and as much as I wanted to acknowledge them and wave to them, I focused my attention on Zephyr’s condition. Sure enough, as Zephyr circled around my side of the field, he was flagging slightly, his wingbeats were no longer as even as they were at the beginning of the fight, and his face was lined with exhaustion.
However, this level of injury wasn’t really enough for me to justify withdrawing him. I knew that Zephyr was unlikely able to beat another one of Drake’s Pokémon, but unlike my battle with Norman where I held onto my pride and hoped for a perfect match, I knew that I needed every little advantage possible against Drake.
So, seeing that Zephyr showed no sign of wanting to be withdrawn either, I kept him out in the battle so that he could do as much damage as he could against Drake’s next Pokémon by making use of its boosts.
Surely enough, after only a few seconds, Drake ignored the announcer’s attempts to hype up his next Pokémon and just casually sent it out, ignoring all sense of dramatic tension.
“…AND IT LOOKS LIKE DRAKE HAS IMPATIENTLY DECIDED TO SEND OUT HIS NEXT POKEMON, HIS KINGDRA!”
Drake’s Kingdra emerged with a small spout of water out of his snout. It radiated majesty, and my gut quickly told me that it was at the same level as his Blastoise. My thoughts were quickly confirmed when I felt the power that it unconsciously exuded from itself, and I knew that the plan I had thought up was correct.
Zephyr had no chance to win.
“BEGIN!” “Dragon Dance, Kingdra.” “Brave Bird! Don’t let it set up!”
Drake clearly realized that the threat to his Kingdra wasn’t my Zephyr, but whatever I was going to send out next. I couldn’t afford to allow Kingdra to set up for my next Pokémon.
Fortunately for me, although Zephyr was flagging and wavering slightly, his retained his impressive flight speed, and he rapidly charged at Kingdra once more with his Brave Bird.
“Stop dancing, Kingdra, and Hydro Pump!” Kingdra quickly stopped its Dragon Dance before it completed, and a huge torrent of water shot out from its snout like a bullet that Zephyr was clipped briefly in his left wing, almost causing Zephyr to spin-out in mid-air. Fortunately, Zephyr was able to swoop to the right and avoided being blasted backwards by the Hydro Pump as he continued his descent.
“Protect.” Moments before Zephyr was about to slam into it, Kingdra stared arrogantly at the approaching Zephyr and drew up a Protect shield that managed to withstand and block Zephyr’s boosted Brave Bird. As Zephyr tried to fly back into the air, my eyes widened in alarm as Kingdra’s head tilted back once again.
“Zephyr, Quick Attack and get out of there!” I shouted out desperately and Zephyr barely managed to dive away just before a huge blast of water struck where it had been flying just a second ago.
Not wanting to risk having Zephyr anywhere close to Kingdra, especially with a damaged wing, I decided to rely on long-range Special Attacks to harass the Kingdra.
“Air Slash and keep your distance, Zephyr!” Zephyr formed another ball with his wings before firing off a series of wind blades at Kingdra.
“Flash Cannon at the incoming blades, Kingdra.” Showing off its impressive accuracy and precision, Kingdra calmly fired a barrage of Flash Cannons that blocked and shot down all of Zephyr’s wind blades, some of them even nearly clipping Zephyr’s wings. As this continued, Kingdra’s Flash Cannons continuously fired off Flash Cannons, serving as a defensive screen against Zephyr’s Air Slashes, and none were able to get anywhere close to Kingdra.
The battle entered a sort of stalemate as Zephyr was unable to land an Air Slash onto Kingdra as his attacks were being shot down but was proving a good enough distraction to stop Kingdra from setting up with a Dragon Dance. I was very tempted to try to heal up Zephyr with a Roost, but I knew that landing to heal right now would result in Zephyr getting promptly knocked out by a powerful stream of water.
As Zephyr started to slowly waver and flag while he endlessly fired off Air Slashes despite its injuries, I realized I was faced with a choice. I had to either keep up harassing Kingdra in hopes that I got a lucky hit in before Zephyr fainted from exhaustion, or I could gamble and risk an all-out attack to do as much damage as I can while Zephyr could still fight.
I grimaced and bit down on my lips, before ultimately deciding to take a risk and ordered the full-on assault.
“Get close and Hurricane, Zephyr!”
“Pidgeot!” Zephyr saluted with a screech as he swerved in the air and dove towards Kingdra. He recognised what I had just ordered, and he valiantly proved his determination to me as he nevertheless charged towards the Kingdra.
“Ice Beam, Kingdra.” Kingdra switched from its Flash Cannons and started firing short bursts of Ice Beams at the incoming Zephyr. I clenched my fists reflexively and tried to clamp down on my nerves as Zephyr determinately flew around in an unorthodox and almost random manner in order to dodge past the many incoming Ice Beams while a visible gust of air started being formed in his wings.
As Zephyr was just about to fire off the Hurricane, an Ice Beam suddenly clipped him in the wings and began to freeze it over. Zephyr rapidly started falling out of the sky as he lost usage of one of his wings.
However, in an act of tremendous valour, he still managed to fire off the gathered wind that he had stored in his wings, forming a violent hurricane that sped towards the Kingdra as it started to consume all in its path.
“Keep the Ice Beam on Pidgeot.” However, Drake and his Pokémon remained unfazed at the incoming Hurricane and instead prioritized knocking out my Pidgeot to prevent him from using Roost from healing up. Another Ice Beam this time easily struck Zephyr critically in the chest, and he fell unconscious, knocked out.
Nevertheless, Zephyr had done his duty. With his suicidal last resort attack, Kingdra was forcibly engulfed by the Hurricane and was forcefully spun around before eventually getting spat out by the Hurricane before it gradually petered out.
As I watched the Kingdra pull itself off the ground, it was noticeably swaying unsteadily, and it had trouble pulling itself upright. I gave the Kingdra a sharp look and I noticed that its eyes were glancing around confusedly. It was confused!
“…AND WHAT A FINAL ATTACK FROM JOHN’S PIDGEOT, MANAGING TO DIVE PAST ALL THOSE ATTACKS FROM KINGDRA AND STILL FIRING OFF A HURRICANE BEFORE GOING DOWN TO A POWERFUL SHOT FROM DRAKE’S KINGDRA! AN IMPRESSIVE DISPLAY OF DISCIPLINE FROM JOHN…AND IT’S LOOKING LIKE HE’S ALREADY SENDING OUT ANOTHER POKEMON?!”
I couldn’t let this opportunity pass by with Kingdra’s confusion. I didn’t bother listening to the announcer’s increasingly grating voice as I immediately withdrew Zephyr and sent out my next Pokémon as quickly as possible.
Smough landed onto the field with a roar, and I instantly started giving him commands before Kingdra could recover.
“Body Slam while it’s confused, Smough! Quickly!” Smough bellowed out another roar as he started his charge towards Drake’s Kingdra. Drake’s eyes widened as he realized my plan.
“Focus Energy, Kingdra! Snap out of it!” Kingdra seemingly looked around blankly before slowly beginning to channel its own internal energies and refocused itself, snapping out of its confusion. However, the confusion still bought Smough precious seconds that it needed to get closer to the Kingdra.
“HYDRO PUMP, KINGDRA! FULL POWER!” In a valiant attempt to deter Smough’s charge, Kingdra made use of his regained focus and fired off an enormous stream of water at Smough. Unfortunately, Smough was far too used to taking heavy Special Attack hits like this, and as powerful as Kingdra’s Hydro Pump was, it really wasn’t sufficient at stopping Smough’s unrelenting assault.
As a result, Smough pushed through the torrent of water, remained mostly unharmed as he slammed into Kingdra with his full weight behind him, sending the much lighter Kingdra flying backwards. It landed in an unsightly heap on the floor and was struggling to stand up.
“Earthquake, Smough!” Taking advantage of Kingdra’s fallen state, Smough bellowed out and started an Earthquake that caused the ground of the arena to shake intensely. Kingdra was helpless to do anything as it wasn’t able to pull itself off the ground, and it shook violently on the ground as it took the full brunt of the Earthquake.
“Rest, Kingdra!” Drake ordered in an attempt to get Kingdra to restore enough health so that it could continue fighting, but another Earthquake from Smough quickly put an end to those hopes as Kingdra wasn’t able to endure two back-to-back Earthquakes and was subsequently knocked out.
“ARCEUS WHAT A QUICK KNOCKOUT BY JOHN’S SNORLAX! IT SEEMS LIKE JOHN NOTICED THAT KINGDRA WAS CONFUSED FROM THE HURRICANE AND QUICKLY TOOK ADVANTAGE OF IT BY ATTACKING WITH HIS SNORLAX AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!” The announcer helpfully explained to the audience what had just happened, “AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY!”
A mixture of cheers and boos resonated from the crowd at Kingdra’s possibly ignoble defeat. I ignored the crowd, choosing instead to stare carefully at Drake.
I knew that everything that I just did was within the rules, even if it was a little dishonourable, but I understood that people were fickle and were stubborn with their own opinions. If Drake had wanted to make a fuss about this, it would likely cause a huge debate that would potentially sour my reputation.
Fortunately, Drake just gave me a grin as if he understood what I was trying to convey to him with my stares. I gave out a sigh of relief and gave him a small smile as thanks, thankful for his understanding.
“JOHN IS NOW 3-2 IN THIS BATTLE AND MAINTAINS HIS LEAD! WILL DRAKE BE ABLE TO TURN IT AROUND WITH HIS NEXT POKEMON?! FIND OUT AFTER A QUICK COMMERCIAL BREAK!” I audibly groaned and could see that Drake was similarly scowling at the unnecessary pause of our battle.
I sighed out in frustration before I went through Drake’s remaining Pokémon in my head. If I was right, his most likely remaining Pokémon should be his Gyarados, Flygon, and of course, his Salamence.
I really didn’t know which Pokémon he’d be sending out next, but I believed that Smough would be able to deal with anything and everything.
After all, I had promised Smough that if he did well, I would feed him an all-you-could-eat buffet of his favourite berries.
And nothing is more motivated than a Snorlax that wanted to eat his favourite meal.
A.N. I made some improvements to the fight based on feedback from the last chapter, so I hope this chapter flows more smoothly and has more show not tell (but that’s definitely a work-in-progress). And to explain power levels, Zephyr would have beaten Altaria 9 times out of 10 but would almost certainly lose to Kingdra 1v1 (even if they were both at full health).
Smough would have beaten Kingdra 1v1, but it would have been much more injured if Kingdra wasn’t confused.
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