Amber vs Jack

“Good luck,” you tell Jack as you separate to take your places on the field.

“This battle is sure to be quite the match. I’ll be keeping a close eye on these two, I’m sure before long they’ll both be Master trainers and giving me a run for my money.” The words made you smile, he’s right, you plan on beating him one day. But more than that, it just feels good to be respected as a trainer rather than objectified as a potential forfeit.

Trapinch, he has some of the best odds for standing up against Jack’s first pick. Jack has her ball in hand. She’s beautiful. Stunning, in her vest covered blouse, her messy red hair, brushed off to the side, and that smile. The smile that tells you she’s confident.

“Let the first Semi-final match begin,” Lance calls, bringing forth the excitement of the crowd.

“Phantump!” That’s why she’s confident. She read you like a book. Of course she knows your team, just as well as you know hers.

It’s too late to switch, you throw out Trapinch. And Jack’s grin widens, it’s exactly what she expected. You take a deep breath. You can’t let this get to you. Trapinch still has a couple dark type moves. He just needs to avoid being hit too much.

“Crunch,” you command. Trapinch lunges after the ghostly tree. It nearly dodges, but Trapinch’s impressive maw closes around the ethereal tail of its opponent.

Phantump shrieks, but listens as Jack commands a horn leech. Its body contorts and slams its wooden horns into Trapinch’s jaw. Your pokemon separate before both you and Jack give new commands. And the cycle repeats, Trapinch biting Phantump. Phantump draining essence from Trapinch.

“Both are looking rough. I think our first knock out is approaching,” Lance comments on the battle. And sure enough he’s right, unfortunately Trapinch is the first to fall, putting you down in the numbers.

Phantump is hurt, and you don’t want to save Slaking as an anchor, he’s still not reliably listening to you. “A Slaking from the Pallet Town trainer. A true powerhouse if controlled correctly.”

“Slaking, play rough!” But he doesn’t move, letting Phantump absorb health from the lax pokemon. Damn it, Slaking please.

The large pokemon glares at the opponent, obviously perturbed by the attack. He opens his mouth roaring as a laser charges. “No, Slaking, play rough!” But he doesn’t listen, and instead fires a hyper beam, that passes straight through the ghost pokemon.

“How unfortunate, Amber doesn’t seem to be in sync with her partner.”

Jack takes the opportunity to get a few free hits in, and by the time Slaking is fully recharged Phantump looks to be nearly fully healed. It comes in for another blow, surely enough to heal itself. “Slaking, sucker pu—“ but before the command is even out of your mouth, he swings a sneaky blow from below and knocks out the Phantump. If you had just gotten another syllable out, it would’ve almost looked like he’d listened.

“A brilliant display of strength, if Amber could bring him under her command, they’d be a **** to be reckoned with.”

Slaking returns, as if it ever wasn’t, to not listening. Jack throws out Litwick, who uses will-o-wisp to burn your pokemon. “That’s going to hamper any attacks coming from the powerful attacker.” You know normally Jack would follow up with hexes, but Slaking’s immunity means she relies upon fire spin and embers to whittle down his health.

And after another failed hyper beam, Slaking eventually falls victim to the **** of tiny strikes. You know Wartortle is a smart choice. He has type advantage against the rest of Jack’s team, but you want to save him for later in case he can’t take down all 5 remaining pokemon.

But Bellossom and Tingle are both weak to Litwick’s fire type moves. So you go with Runt. She dodges the ghostly flame of Jack’s will-o-wisp, landing a bite on the candle. “Night shade,” Jack commands. And Runt winces at the ghostly mirage.

“Let’s hear it for these two amazing Rookies! We’re definitely going to be seeing more of them!” Lance evokes a roar of cheers from the crowd. The adrenaline is flowing, a battle, the crowd, Lance paying attention to you!

Runt’s next bite is enough to even your numbers. Litwick is down. Ponyta comes next. It makes sense Runt’s dark typing is a problem for a lot of Jack’s team. The horse coats herself in flames charging around the battlegrounds, picking up speed as it goes. “Headbutt,” you command. Runt charges forward, slamming the top of her skull into the horses side. Ponyta crumples to the ground from the impact, but gets back up to charge. But the time lost was enough to let Runt crunch down on her hindquarters.

Runt releases her jaw when Ponyta stomps on her tail. She whimpers and at Jack’s command, the horse turns on Runt and charges into her coated in flames. “Amber’s Mightyena is out of commission,” Lance officiates.

You really hoped that you could take the lead. Tingle and Bellossom are going to have a rough time, but if they can just take down 1 or maybe 2, you think Wartortle can pull it out.

Tingle materializes from his ball. “Thunder wave!” A field of static emanates from the small spider. Ponyta passes through the field, immediately slowing.

“Flame charge!” Jack’s voice comes from across the field. Ponyta reignites its as it charges at Tingle. The Joltik jumps out of the way, barely avoiding the body but the flames still lick his fur.

A few electrowebs continue to slow the charging beast. But the unfortunate type matchup is too much, and Tingle falls victim. “Only 2 pokemon left to Amber, while Jack is still holding strong at 4. Is this match almost over? I certainly hope not.”

Ponyta’s first flame charge looks to almost knock out Bellossom in one hit. Luckily she stays up, and leaves you open to giga drain. And another when Ponyta stutters from her paralysis. Bellossom still looks rough.

Ponyta charges forward and you give the command “Petal Blizzard.” A flurry of pink petals fly around Bellossom before launching at the flaming horse. Most of the grass type move seems to disintegrate in the flames, but some make it through and Ponyta trips over her feet. “Ponyta is down for the count, but Amber still has a ways to go,” Lance delivers his professional commentary. It’s almost odd not hearing comments on either of our bodies, or what they’d like to see after.

The high of taking down another of Jack’s pokemon is short lived as Numel delivers a final blow to Bellossom. “It’s all down to you Wartortle,” you say as you throw out your last partner.

“I’ve been waiting for this. Amber’s Wartortle has been a delight in past matches, and should put up a good show against the rest of Jack’s team.” Wait, has Lance been watching the tournament? Not only watching, but actually remember individual’s teams?

He’s right, Wartortle is a perfect match for Jack. A 4 times effective aqua tail is enough to one shot the Numel. Sandygast puts up more of a fight managing to hit a mega drain, and missing a hypnosis before falling to Wartortle.

He doesn’t look too bad as it goes into the final matchup against Jack’s fire wielding Marowak. Wartortle is hit by a shadow bone, but manages to land a water pulse in return. Wartortle withdraws to bolster his defenses, allowing more shadow bones to glance off. And with a mighty swing of his water coated tail, Marowak goes down.

“Congratulations, Amber of Pallet Town. You’ll be moving on to the finals! And Jack, I look forward to seeing more of you in the future.” You cross the field to greet Jack, and take your forfeit. “Let’s get the damage cleared up, and our next competitors out here. I’m excited to see these next two.” You pause with Jack’s hand already in yours, moments away from kissing her.

The crowd quiets. Lance looks around, glancing at the still crowds, and then at the screens. The split view of Lance’s confused face as well as Jack and yourself holding hands, inches apart. “Oh right, the forfeit,” he slaps his forehead, “I was just excited. Thinking about seeing Blue’s Dragonair or the impressive Mawile from Ashley. How could I not?” He laughs, “My bad, sorry continue forfeit away ladies.”

And with that the crowd erupted once again. The momentary lapse of excitement gone. And you pull Jack in for a passionate kiss.