From: Continue <continue2@mindspring.com> Subject: [PW!][LEAGUE] Mowing down the Grass Field: Damian vs. Jennifer Date: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 6:09 PM "You’re going to the Pokemon Center right after this match! Even if you do have to wait in line for a long time." Drake paused before continuing to admonish Damian. "After not picking up the ones you dropped off after the first match and not dropping off your pokemon after your second match, I’m not sure you’ll have the pokemon you need to compete at full strength in this match." The young trainer tried to shrug off the berating he was getting. "Ok, Ok, I thought you were my pokemon, not my mother." The Dragonite thought of being flippant and quoting a famous line on heritage from the Star Wars movies, but decided that the conversation should be strictly on the topic of pokemon as they walked down the trainer’s entrance corridor. "It’s a good thing that you used that TM on Low-Res, now there’s a pokemon that needed it. Where did you get that TM anyway? It was covered in dust!" Damian didn’t even need to strain to remember it. "I bought it while we were on the S.S. Anne." Drake’s expression changed, as if he were floating back through the mist-shrouded halls of time itself. "The S.S. Anne…that was a long time ago. Back when Nori and Kat were traveling with the group…" "Yeah…" Damian’s face became pensive as he said this. The Dragonite saw the change on the young trainer’s face and knew he had made a blunder with what he had said. He decided that he would have to try to re-focus the young human’s mind to the more immediate task. "Hey, something else we’re going to have to do is see about which of the other TM’s that you’ve gotten would be good to give to your pokemon. I know the one you got when you beat Lt. Surge would be something good to use on that over-sized magnetic earring of yours." "Mag?" the Magnemite in question queried as it turned to look at Drake. Damian pulled up short. "What’s wrong with Bulletproof?" The young trainer pointed at the Magnemite hovering over his right shoulder for emphasis. "This pokemon saved my life twice already." Drake sighed. "Yes, I know, but it hasn’t been doing much else. Like almost every other living thing out there, it can’t improve without using its skills and abilities. Without training, those same skills and abilities could begin to degrade as well. I don’t think Magnemite can become fat, but it wouldn’t look good for you if you had the first one that did." The young trainer crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Well what about you? I don’t see you doing much training." The Dragonite blinked a few times, not expecting for the conversation to focus in on him. "Even though I don’t like it, I do get some training. Trying to keep my tail from getting small perforations thanks to Cuddles and Spunky does keep my skills from becoming rusty. It’s a lot harder for me to get any serious training in, though. The kind of opponents that I would have to face to actually get past my warm-up aren’t easy to come by. Right now this place probably has the highest concentration of the kind of pokemon I’m going to have to face to get any useful training." A wry grin spread across Damian’s face. "Sounds like a good reason why you should be fighting for me here." The Dragonite frowned. He didn’t like getting outwitted by a human child. "Yeah, yeah. I haven’t been seeing anything too impressive in your first two matches. I don’t think we’ll seeing anything like that until after your fourth match anyway. That agreement we made still stands as is." The young trainer persisted with his trap. "What it my fourth round opponent is Lance? He’s supposed to have some strong Dragonites…" Drake gave a derisive snort. "Yeah, right! Strong, my eye! His Dragonite got beat by Cuddles, for pity’s sake!" Damian shot right back. "The Dragonite lost because Sarah Jane’s a really good trainer." A smile tugged at Drake’s mouth as he sensed victory, even in this confrontation. "Yes, and obviously Lance is not. If he were then neither he nor his Dragonite would have lost like that. Anyway you try and put that one, he’s not impressive enough for me to think of forgoing our agreement." The Dragonite noticed that the trainer tower was now in place and waiting for the next competitor. "You better get to the platform and get your mind set on this match. I’ll get over to the coaches bench. See you outside." The two took their respective places and the trainer tower raised out onto the field. After Damian’s tower had locked into place the announcer started to address the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Grass Field! We’re about to start a third-round match in the seven plus division and we’ve got a good pair of competitors out here for you today. Coming off of two wins, one with League favorite AJ, we have the red trainer, Damian Fox!" The crowd cheered after this and the announcer waited until it had died down before continuing. "While our other competitor lost her first match to Lance of the Elite Four, she won her second match against reigning League champion Ash Ketchum. Please welcome the green trainer, Jennifer!" Damian was happy to hear that unlike his previous two matches, the cheers were no louder for his opponent than they were for him. He readied his first pokeball, but Jennifer tossed her first. Out of it came a Raichu. The young trainer changed his choice of pokemon after seeing this. "Why don’t I go with a more experienced pokemon for this. Go, Kaboodle!" Out of this pokeball emerged a Persian. The referee signaled the beginning of the match and the two trainers shouted their first commands to their pokemon. "Raichu, Thunder Wave!" "Kaboodle, Screech!" The overgrown rat charged up, then released a wall of electricity towards its larger feline opponent. The cougar-like pokemon leapt over the wall as it singed grass in its wake. The feline then emitted an extremely loud and shrill yowl. Raichu tried to use its stubby forepaws to cover its disproportionately large ears in order to block out the painful sound. "Raichu, Thunder!" "Kaboodle, Slash!" The feline leapt in and sliced at its opponent’s highly exposed belly. Whether or not it had heard its trainer’s command, Raichu released the most powerful electrical attack in any pokemon’s arsenal. The force of the blast would have knocked the Persian back, but the blast caused the pokemon’s muscles to involuntarily contract and its claws dug into the ground. Although Kaboodle couldn’t see itself, the spectators could. Despite the seriousness of the combat on the field many of them were now laughing. While ordinarily the Persian looked like a sleek predator, the electrical attack had changed this and made the pokemon more closely resemble a bleached Clefairy. The two trainers were a little more concerned about their pokemon so they shouted out their next commands in hopes of making sure that they could win. "Raichu, another Thunder!" "Kaboodle, give it another Slash!" The Persian raked its claws against the large rodent’s belly again adding three more long red gouges to it. The electric rodent doubled over in pain and fell to the ground. It didn’t try to move from the curled up position as the referee made his way over. Once there the man raised the red flag that he held and declared "Raichu is unable to battle. Green trainer wins." Jennifer withdrew her Raichu and sent out her next choice. After the bright white light faded, the pokemon called out "Golduck!" The referee signaled the beginning of this next fight and both trainers acted quickly. "Golduck, Confusion!" "Kaboodle, Slash!" The feline leapt in at the water fowl and quickly raked this pokemon as it had the previous one. Golduck’s eyes glowed a bright blue that just about matched the color of its plumage. A similarly-colored aura surrounded the Persian and its head jerked sideways. The feline then began to its own fluffed-out tail. In this case, it was a bad thing that the cat pokemon was an extraordinarily good predator. In almost no time at all it had managed to catch and bite down hard on its own tail. It shot up a foot into the air when it did so and Damian sighed. The young trainer decided that this was a sign that it was time to call Kaboodle back for now. After recalling his current he pokemon, he took a moment to consider his next choice. After looking over at Bulletproof he tossed out his next pokeball. There was a shocked reaction after the released pokemon turned out to be a Hitmonchan. Nearly identical words came from both the announcer and Drake. "What is he thinking?!" The difference was that when Drake said it he replaced "he" with "you" as he was shouting directly to the trainer. The Dragonite continued "Did you happen to miss that the last attack tossed by that Golduck was a psychic attack? Why would you send out a fighting type against that?" Damian tried to defend his decision. "I was just thinking that water types are vulnerable to electricity. I thought Bruiser’s Thunder punch would be able to take out that Golduck since it’s already hurt." Drake shook his head as he responded. "That Hitmonchan’s Thunder Punch won’t be enough. Turn your attention back to the fight and make a start thinking about which pokemon you’re going to choose next. Mark my words. Choose it well, because it’s going to have to take out that duck and stand up to whatever gets sent out next. Bruiser is going to lose." The young trainer frowned, but quickly turned his attention back to the field in time to see the referee signal the beginning of the next fight. Both trainers quickly issued their first command. "Bruiser, Thunder Punch!" "Golduck, Confusion!" Electricity arced across the Hitmonchan’s glove as it delivered an uppercut to the head of its feathered foe. The duck pokemon was knocked back as electricity ran up and down its body. It recovered its composure as its eyes glowed blue once again. The humanoid pokemon’s head snapped sideways and it stumbled backwards as if someone had landed a blow straight to its head. The Hitmonchan tried to get back into a fighting stance but still wobbled unsteadily. "Bruiser, Thunder Punch!" "Golduck, one more Confusion!" The humanoid pokemon managed to repeat its previous attack and after the electricity faded from its opponent’s body, that opponent wobbled as unsteadily as it did. Despite being unsteady now, the blue duck-like pokemon’s eyes glowed yet again. The Hitmonchan looked as if it had been struck another blow to the head and flew backwards from it. It landed on its back, spread-eagled. "You might as well forgo the ten count, ref! It looks like a K.O. from here." Some of the crowd chuckled from the announcer’s joke. The referee pretty much seemed to agree with what was said and didn’t take long to award the win to the green trainer. Damian recalled his fainted pokemon and Drake started with "You had better –". The young trainer cut off the Dragonite "I thought about what you said already. I know exactly the pokemon needed to be able to stand up to whatever comes out next." Before anything else could be said, Damian tossed out his final pokeball. It resolved into another duck, but this one droned out the name of its species "Porygon". The announcer leaped on this one. "It looks like it’s going to be the first defeat for Damian here at the League games. Porygons are so weak that I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard of one being used at this level of competition. This looks like the second bad choice of the match and that’s more than anybody can come back from." Drake’s tone was very even as he stated to Damian. "I’m guessing you latched onto that outlasting thing that I mentioned." The young trainer just waved absently at the Dragonite as his attention seemed to be focused on the field. Both trainers seemed to be just as fixated because they reacted almost instantly to the referee’s signal to begin. "Low-Res, Psybeam!" "Golduck, Water Gun!" A violet beam shot out from the center of the angular duck’s head and struck the red ruby in the center of the water pokemon’s forehead. The feathered duck’s legs gave out instantly and it collapsed to the ground. The referee came over and watched the nearly-humanoid duck pokemon twitch on the ground a few times before declaring that it was unable to fight. As Jennifer withdrew her pokemon the announcer put in "While Jennifer is down to her last pokemon, the match still seems like it’s in her favor. As long as she doesn’t choose an unevolved pokemon, it’s seems likely that her choice will be strong enough to take out Damian’s last pokemon." The green trainer’s last choice came out with a battle cry of "Vileplume!" The announcer also couldn’t resist this chance to comment. "Jennifer must be trying to gain extra bragging rights here. Despite the fact that it is a much stronger pokemon, it is still a part-poison type pokemon which will be vulnerable to Porygon’s Psybeam attack." Both trainers were almost champing at the bit as the referee got into position. He lowered both flags for the final time this match and the trainers shouted out their commands. "Low-Res, Substitute!" "Vileplume, Sleep Powder!" Beams of light projected from every corner of the virtual duck’s body. They shot forward and took up position out in front of the Porygon. Light began to flow like water as it filled in the spaces between the projected beams. The plant pokemon spun around like a top and glittering pollen shook loose from the huge flower atop its head. The powder quickly floated towards its target. The powder stopped as it hit a duck, but it wasn’t the intended target. What it hit was a replica of the intended victim which was about four times as large and hovering directly in front of the original. Jennifer looked confused by the sight in front of her, but she quickly resolved on a course of action. Damian was nervous about his strategy, but made sure not to show. He was gambling that his opponent had never seen this before and had to make sure that he gave nothing away for fear that she might pick up on it. "Low-Res, Psybeam!" "Vileplume, circle around and use Solar Beam!" The plant pokemon tried to move around behind the giant replica so that it could get a clear shot at its opponent. It didn’t work. Every time the plant moved, the virtual duck turned to face it, and the replica stayed in front of it. A violet beam shot out from the Porygon and struck the flowering pokemon once it had stopped moving in order to charge its attack. The gray-green plant shuddered as it was struck. "Low-Res, Psybeam it again while it’s still charging up!" Another violet beam shot out from the angular duck and struck Vileplume. The plant shuddered but the glow that had surrounded the flower atop its head ballooned outward, then shot at its target. The replica was still in the way and took the full measure of the blast. It shattered into millions of triangular shards that went spinning off in every direction and disappeared as they touched the ground. "Low-Res, another Psybeam!" "Vileplume, Acid!" Damian knew his gamble had worked as he watched another Psybeam strike his opponent’s pokemon. Even before it had been hit droplets of sweat appeared all over its body, showing how weak it really was. Even though the glob of acid that it spit deeply wounded his Porygon when it hit, he had no doubt that the next shot would be all it would take. "Low-Res, one last Psybeam!" "Vileplume, Petal Dance!" The gray-green pokemon had begun to twirl, but was struck in the back of the head with the violet beam shot from Low-Res. The flowered pokemon twirled around slowly and drunkenly one last time before it fell over. The referee completed his formal duty by declaring Vileplume unable to fight. Immediately thereafter the scoreboard flashed the words "Winner! Congratulations!" next to Damian’s picture. An enthusiastic cheer then arose from the crowd. Damian turned to Drake "Yeah, I know that it was too big of a risk. I won’t try it again." The Dragonite shrugged and said "Maybe the risk was too big, but it seems like it was worth it since it worked. And as long as you can use what happened to figure out the right thing to do in the future, then you definitely made the right decision." <TBC…> Jeff Hauser* *Sig Sold Seperately