[u][b]Estelle[/b][/u] Britannium City → Silumin Reserve When you step out of the pokemon center, you can't help but wonder where you should go. You could always return to Britannium park, but going back there a third time seems a litte... stagnant? You've seen the sights, you've battled the people, and while there's surely more trainers to be had, "it would be nice if I could find a battle on my way out of town..." "Oh? You're looking for a battle, are you? I'm on my lunch break, so I'll take you on!" You turn to find a man in a business suit of sorts, holding a pokeball. You were just talking to yourself, [s]as one tends to do off-screen and never actually on-screen unless it is narratively relevant,[/s] but this is [i]quite serendipitous indeed[/i]. You suppose it's par for the course, being an international league, for trainers to be all over the place. Well, actually, considering their suit, maybe they're just a native of the region? Well, it doesn't really matter who they are, you're just happy to finally get a chance to battle with an adult for once. Not to say that children can't excel in the art of pokemon battling - there were plenty of famous young champions after all, but most gym leaders and elite four are adults. Maybe there's significance to the pattern, maybe there isn't, but either way, you want to know if it feels different, battling against someone your own age. "Yeah! That'd be-" Before you can finish your sentence, you're interrupted by a girl stepping between the two of you, wearing similar formal attire to the man. She adjusts her glasses in such a way that her they catch the light, obscuring her eyes with the glare and making her face hard to read. "Mind if I join in?" "Eh? Jenn? Are you on break too?" She answers matter-of-factly, "I am now." "Uhhh..." The man seems uncertain, but this is no problem for you. "I don't mind. In fact, I've been meaning to try double battles for a while now, since I intend to try being a coordinator. What do you guys say? Two against one?" Jenn responds before the man has a chance to. "I find those terms agreeable." The man seems to want to say something, but Jenn is already sending out her pokemon. "Go Snubbull." You respond in kind. "Go, Sepher! Demetori!" The man puts a hand on the back of his neck before relenting. "Go, Houndour." It only occurs to you after he sends out his pokemon that he never actually said whether he's okay with a double battle or not... Oh well, he seems to be rolling with it. [hider=Estelle vs. Colleagues Jenn and Ryan] It’s your first time double battling, so you’re a bit apprehensive, but in moments like these, you like to break the ice immediately, with the basics if nothing else. “Sepher, Water Pulse the Houndour! Demetori, keep Snubbull busy with Fire Fang!” Sepher is quick on the draw, sniping Houndour and dealing heavy damage right off the bat. Demetori follows, charging right at Snubbull. Snubbull extends its paws and leans its head back in an attempt to protect itself, but Demetori just bites Snubbull’s paw. “Snubbull, Intimidate it with Scary Face!” Snubbull’s face darkens. Its eyes seem to grow deeper, as if they go on for miles. Its jaw unhinges for a second as it opens its mouth to let out a blood-curdling scream. Demetori makes no facial expression and instead lifts it off the ground and then slams it back into the ground, back and forth. That’s your fearless little baby. ♥ “Houndour! Smog!” Houndour unleashes a stream of poisonous gas, aimed directly at Sepher. Not quite the same as passing through Sepher harmlessly, but ghost resists poison all the same. “Sepher, Lick!” He seems to be catching on to your strategies, because he doesn’t turn back this time when he sticks out his tongue, as if he’s specifically taunting Houndour. The smog hits him soon thereafter, but he doesn’t seem particularly phased by it and comes out the other end without any lasting harm. “Alright, now finish it with Water Pulse!” Sepher advances on Houndour, knowing full well how helpless the poor doggo must be. Smog isn’t a particularly strong attack, not even any stronger than Ember, considering Houndour’s typing, so its options must be fairly limited. When the Water Pulse hits, no one is surprised to see Houndour go down. “Damn. Return, Houndour. Let’s go, Hoothoot.” He sends out his Hoothoot unenthusiastically. Meanwhile, Snubbull and Demetori are still going at it. “Snubbull! Counter it with Bite!” Snubbull, amidst being tossed around like a ragdoll, pulls itself in against Demetori’s teeth and then bites his hand. Bad idea. “Demetori! Slash it off!” He proceeds to violently shake Snubbull as its sharp claws mess with the inside of its mouth. It holds pretty steady until Demetori begins slamming it against the ground again. When it finally releases its bite, Demetori immediately kicks it off the ground like a soccer ball, and then slashes it away, sending it flying. Needless to say, it has been knocked out. “Tsk. Snubbull, return. Go, Jigglypuff! Puff up into the air! Ryan, you do the same.” “Uh, right, Hoothoot, fly up!” “We’ve got to fight together. Ryan, you do offense, Jigglypuff, we’ll do defense! Use Bide!” Jigglypuff puffs up even further, blocking out Hoothoot from view with a scrunched up face. “Hoothoot! Echoed Voice!” Hoothoot flies up and lands on Jigglypuff’s head before letting out a piercing cry. You cover your ears as best you can to drown out the wretched noise. The sound is horrible, but it seems like it’s much worse on Sepher and Demetori, possibly due to hearing frequencies. It occurs to you Jigglypuff is also affected, but it’s still not moving, simply building up the power of bide. An idea strikes you, one that you’re not entirely sure will work, but may just resolve this combat in short order. When Hoothoot finally relents to breathe, you give the command decisively. “Sepher! Demetori! Smokescreen!” They glance at each other once before nodding and letting loose, positively covering the area with smoke. If Hoothoot’s Echoed Voice wasn’t disruptive enough to passersby already, the large plume of smoke definitely seals the deal. The best course of action now would be to return your pokemon and pretend Sepher and Demetori are still in there, but not sending a replacement out immediately after returning a pokemon is frowned upon in the battling world as unsporting. You’re not sure if there’s regulations against it in official league battles, but you do know that it’s very anticlimactic for a big attack to be negated by an antsy switch. Sure, taking the attack might hurt, but the damage to your reputation is much worse for a coordinator. When you’re performing live onstage, you have to suck up all of your troubles and deal with them afterwards. You suppose battlers don’t owe spectators anything, but coordinators need to be tough on their pokemon and themselves. Well, you suppose you can only hope they feel the same. “Brace yourselves!” “Some smoke isn’t going to help you! Hoothoot, Echoed Voice!” True to his word, Hoothoot remained perched on Jigglypuff, comfortable to sit there and cry out even louder than before. It starts to get rather unpleasant, but you know it’s much worse for your pokemon right now. Still, they manage to stay hidden, completely enveloped by the smoke. “Good job, stay hidden for just a bit longer!” A few short moments pass as Jigglypuff begins to squirm. This Ryan guy is blissfully oblivious. “Hey, aren’t you even going to fight back?” Jenn is much more level-headed. “If she doesn’t want to fight back, then so be it. Jigglypuff, unleash your energy on them!” Jigglypuff’s scrunched-up face seems to get even more uncomfortable as it tilts off-kilter and eventually lands on its side. Hoothoot tries to stay atop it at first before eventually dismounting and coming to land next to Jigglypuff. Jenn starts to look worried “Jigglypuff, what’s wrong? It’s okay if you miss, just do your best.” It’s probably dawned on her that their strategy has a crucial weakness. Jigglypuff erupts all at once, yelling loudly and slamming into Hoothoot like a freight train. You didn’t think a Jigglypuff was capable of moving so quickly or exerting such force, but it seems that all the damage it took from Echoed Voice snapped out at once like a rubberband. Hoothoot is completely wrecked, launched down the street like a feathery bullet. “Hoothoot!” Ryan chases after it, down the street and away from battle. Jigglypuff is still standing though, and Jenn seems beside herself with anguish. It was just a guess, but you did know the basic principle of how Bide worked. It’s a counterattack with strength directly related to the damage the pokemon receives. You weren’t sure if it could be redirected or not, but without a target in sight thanks to Smokescreen, the worst case scenario was making them waste their stored power and accomplishing little in the process. However, this outcome exceeds your expectations. Jenn doesn’t seem to feel the same. “You! Do you know how far you’ve just set me back with Ryan in an instant!?” Honestly? Not your concern in the slightest, but it’s time to put on your customer service voice, which sounds exactly like your regular voice but isn’t sincere. Your cast your eyes to the ground and bring a hand to your cheek in a faux nervous tic, helping to sell an expression of repentant guilt. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea you two were…” dealing with some kind of insipid one-sided love bullshit. “-Well, had I known, I’d have probably-” not “-done things differently.” You start to gain a feeling of real guilt, a byproduct of getting in-character. When you commit to a behavior well enough mentally, you can trick your brain into having feelings you can recognize yourself as illogical. Even if you don’t care at all, telling yourself you do and feeling as if you do makes acting like you do a lot easier. “I wish I could help, but I’m afraid I can’t think of any solution” You can think of plenty actually, but they’re all huge hastles. “The only way to help I can think of is to save Ryan’s pride by winning.” Jenn seems to have reeled in her wrath a bit thanks to your apology, but she still seems mad. “What, and let me come off as incompetent? And denying me of any [b]revenge[/b]? Forget that! It may be one against two, but we’ve still got tricks up our sleeves! Jigglypuff, get rid of that smoke with Icy Wind!” Jigglypuff unleashes a chilly gale, blowing away the smoke. From beneath the black haze, a striking pair of blue and red pokemon are revealed. Instead of a Froakie and a Charmander standing there, you find a Frogadier and a Charmeleon in their place. You can’t believe it. “Sepher? Demetori?” They each look back and nod. You simply cannot believe it. You never got to see your own pokemon evolve. You were excited for this ever since you got them so long ago, and just like that, you missed it. you just can’t believe your luck. MAYBE if you weren’t so busy PACIFYING this GROWN ADULT, you could have actually continued THE BATTLE YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF. Then they wouldn’t have evolved while sitting in the middle of a smokescreen! You would have bust out your phone and streamed it live to your fans! Ugh! This isn’t fair! You know just who to take it out on, though. “So they evolved, big whoop, I’m still not giving up! Jigglypuff, Mega Punch!” Jigglypuff goes straight to Demetori, being slightly closer to him. “Demetori, take it down!” Demetori does well to obey, meeting Jigglypuff head on and grabbing the Mega Punch. You expected its signature bite, and you can’t imagine Demetori managed that without taking some damage, but it’s hard to argue with his choices when he digs his claws into Jigglypuff’s nubby little hands. “Alright, now that you’ve got her, get rid of her!” Demetori twirls Jigglypuff around like a lasso before tossing it at Sepher. The temptation to yell out ‘DUNK THAT TRASH!’ is overwhelming, but you resist. Truly, your self-control is unparalleled. “Sepher, dunk it with Quick Attack!” Sepher rises up and slams it down with a well-placed kick, immediately showing off the superior speed of a Frogadier. Jigglypuff hits the ground hard and bounces off of it like the balloon that it is. “Now, finish it Demetori! Slash it all the way to Hoothoot!” Demetori does just that, nailing it with a wicked uppercut that sends it blasting off down the road. “Go to him. I think he’s bummed he didn’t get to do a single battle. If it seems like the result would have been the same, then losing should sting less right?” Jenn gives you an annoyed look, but doesn’t seem like she’s going to disagree. Yes, that’s right, go forth my minion. Sing my praises to him and become closer through your collective defeat. Jenn runs off towards him without a word. You call out to her, “Good luck!” She doesn’t look back. [/hider] After beating Colleagues Jenn and Ryan, you call back your newly evolved pokemon and return to the pokemon center you just stepped out of. What they say about trainers practically living in them really is true. As you hand your pokemon off to Nurse Joy, you start to wonder how you should go about approaching the league challenge. You mostly want a wide, open area to train without worrying about others getting in the way. according to the maps-guides you picked up earlier, Route 2 is full of shops and Route 9 is practically a park. You’re sure you’d be able to find places to train on either, but you don’t want to have to do any searching. They’re only candidates because they’re on the way to Arsenic Island, after all. That being said, there are a couple of forests around the place… As you get your pokemon back, you ask Nurse Joy what she thinks. She recommends to you the Silumin Reserve, since the poison pokemon on Arsenic Island’s forests make it difficult to train for long periods of time, in addition to being easy to get lost in. You’re always up for a challenge, but from the sounds of things, it’s just more tedious to deal with. You thank Nurse Joy for the advice and finish up your business in Britannium. Besides grabbing a bite at a local restaurant you’ve been meaning to try, you have to do a photo session with your two newly evolved pokemon. It’s only natural for you to show them off to the world, posting dozens of pictures of them online. Sepher seems to get more tired from the photo shoot than an actual battle, while Demetori is aloof throughout the whole thing. Once you’re finally satisfied, you hail a Flying Taxi and head straight to the Silumin Reserve. [hider=Status] [u][b]Pokemon[/b][/u] [img]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Fp4pzHu8vQ/WmJVAmfOSLI/AAAAAAAADww/svf8Wksb15g8pRIJoy-1vFTNSiQoEDUDwCK4BGAYYCw/s400/656.gif[/img] → [img]https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aBWOoZyuA2w/WmJVAmb01TI/AAAAAAAADwo/7EX_FdeIaoAkjR6NiUbKunXObVdyfdxfACK4BGAYYCw/s400/657.gif[/img] [b]Name[/b]: Sepher [b]Species[/b]: Froakie → Frogadier [b]Gender[/b]: ♂ [b]Ability[/b]: Protean [b]Battle Experience[/b]: 7 → 11 [b]Moves[/b]: Water Pulse, Lick, Quick Attack, Smokescreen [img]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5XoG2vs4dOc/WjKH_YFT6mI/AAAAAAAABBY/03navKtUr2o_gQOkM0JqzxmRE86IXOoGQCK4BGAYYCw/s400/004.gif[/img] → [img]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XDSoN-ECKOM/WjKIBgqWEpI/AAAAAAAABBg/99QlKerVrhcT9XC0GpOdkYD_0g8Zprq5wCK4BGAYYCw/s400/005.gif[/img] [b]Name[/b]: Demetori [b]Species[/b]: Charmander → Charmeleon [b]Gender[/b]: ♂ [b]Ability[/b]: Blaze [b]Battle Experience[/b]: 7 → 11 [b]Moves[/b]: Fire Fang, Dragon Breath, Slash, Smokescreen [img]https://projectpokemon.org/images/normal-sprite/ponyta-galar.gif[/img] [b]Name[/b]: Xi-on [b]Species[/b]: Ponyta (Galarian) [b]Gender[/b]: ♀ [b]Ability[/b]: Pastel Veil [b]Battle Experience[/b]: 7 [b]Moves[/b]: Confusion, Fairy Wind, Tackle, Agility [u][b]Inventory[/b][/u] 5 Potions 5 Pokeballs 1 Revive[/hider]