[color=yellow][u][b]Troy[/b][/u][/color] The queen of deceit strikes again, uncoiling her vast tendrils and winding them around us all in a leathery vice grip akin to that of an anaconda cosplaying as a bear trap, snapping shut on our collective legs and whispering promises of total consumption. ZARIA, wielder of misdirection and chaotic sower of confusion, how far doth thou aim to grasp? Just when Troy had given up, when Zaria had completely thrown him off with acting worthy of an award, she had come back around and boldly proclaimed that her earlier statement was a blatant, flagrant, and utterly shameless lie. She knew the transfer students would know immediately. She could have picked any lie, but instead chose to announce her previous statement as the lie in front of the entire class. Did she know the teacher would conduct this particular icebreaker? Was this all planned from the onset? Is Professor Caprea in her pocket? How powerful is her influence, and how high up does it go? [i]Why[/i] would she have such influence? Why would she deliberately let the transfer students know she lied? This timing is too perfect. Does she [i]want[/i] Troy to suspect her ulterior motives? Is she trying to say there's more than meets the eye? How great is her ambition, and for what purpose does she taunt Troy and the other transfers with this? Troy goes on like this for quite a while, ruminating on possible explanations for Zaria's actions but not coming to any satisfactory conclusions. Eventually classes come to an end and the class 2-A tournament begins, with a TM on the line for the victor. Naturally, Troy is ready and raring to go, putting aside the Zaria mystery for the time being to focus solely on his battle. For the first time in front of others, he sends out Shuckle on the battlefield and gives it an affirmative nod. No words need to be said. He is matched up with a classmate named Bobby, who [i]insists[/i] they will be [i]the best trainer in class[/i], screaming even louder than Zaria did earlier today. He then proceeds to say some nonsense he probably stole word-for-word from an anime or something and takes the initiative with a Sludge attack from his Gulpin. Troy couldn't help but notice the attack's shoddy quality, sparser than one should expect and symptomatic of Gulpin's visible inexperience. Even in spite of Shuckle's defensive focus, power split is unlikely to yield much (if any) results this battle, and Shuckle should theoretically do the most damage through brute force. As for Gulpin's attack, although poison is usually very difficult for a Shuckle to deal with before learning Rest, it's shouldn't be an issue for a 1v1 battle with healing available in between, so long as things don't get dragged out. Troy hates to take chances, but expecting a Shuckle to dodge an attack with no setup is like expecting the sun to stop shining. Still, it's not like there's no counter-measures. [color=yellow]"Block it with defense curl."[/color] Shuckle withdraws into its shell and angles itself to avoid direct contact with the sludge as the poison comes to drape itself over his shell. [color=yellow]"Now, shake it off with rollout!"[/color] Shuckle begins spinning rapidly, attempting to shake off the poison while it barrels toward Gulpin. [hider=Misc.] [hider=Team]Shuckle Lv. 10 Ability: Sturdy Item: Berry Juice - Power Split - Defense Curl - Rollout - Infestation Full moveset: [hider][u]Level-up moves:[/u] Withdraw (lv. 1) Wrap (lv. 1) *Rollout (lv. 5) Struggle Bug (lv. 10) *Power Split (lv. 35, as an exception to make things less boring) Power Trick (lv. 55, as an exception to make things less boring) [u]Previous generation exclusive moves:[/u] Bide (lv. 1) Constrict (lv. 1) Mud-Slap (egg move) [u]Egg moves:[/u] Acid Acupressure Covet *Defense Curl Final Gambit *Infestation Knock Off Sweet Scent Toxic [u]Learned TMs:[/u] Hidden Power ([url=http://www.psypokes.com/dex/hp.php]Electric based on ivs[/url]) [/hider] [/hider] [hider=Bag]Poke Ball x5 Berry Juice x3 TM Hidden Power x1 Cheri Berry x1 Chesto Berry x1 Pecha Berry x1 Rawst Berry x1 Aspear Berry x1 Leppa Berry x1 Oran Berry x1 Persim Berry x1[/hider] PP: 11[/hider]