Like No One Ever Was

“Nemona, are you… ok?” Friede asked worriedly, waving a hand in front of my face. It was unnecessary, but I understood why; I’d been staring at Freddrick and the Pokeballs on his belt ever since the match ended with laser intensity. All the adults looked nervous, but Cyan and Arven were excited, watching the matches. No fear that I could fail. Wish I could say the same.

“I’m fine,” I bit out, running through plans in my head. Dammit, I have no good ways to fight a Corviknight. How did an entitled prick like that- oh, right, probably his family. Focus. Steel-Flying is a nightmare for Dun to deal with, it’ll resist any of his STAB Normal Moves, and outright ignore Poison Jab and Earthquake, two of his best non-Normal Moves! Not to mention, that bird just looks incredibly tough. To be expected from a fully evolved Pokemon, but still.

The tournament was a beginner’s tournament for a reason - it wasn’t expected that anyone would be showing up with a fully evolved Pokemon. Of course, they could hardly put in a rule that outright forbade it. Some Types and specific Pokemon lines evolved very fast or had no evolutions. Excluding a Pokemon from being on your team just because it belonged to your family before was also dismissed. They could be your beloved family friend, how could someone ask that you give them up or restrict them from going with you on every step of your journey?

By that same standard though, it was considered quite rude and more than a little cheap to show up to a tournament with a Pokemon that you hadn’t had a major hand in training. I suspect that was why the referee was giving Freddrick such a dressing down for his ‘reckless behavior’, not that the young man seemed to care.

That Lechonk won’t be permanently hurt, though that speaks more to the incredible health care tools available to Pokemon than Freddrick’s ‘restraint.’ Dunsparce is a lot tougher, but that also means that he’ll be more likely to push past his limits. Plus, the jerk definitely has it out for me, so he’ll be sure to go harder.

“You can drop out, you know. It’s not wrong to be afraid.” Leah’s gentle voice cut through my thoughts. I glanced down at my Pokeball, wondering if I should ask Dun if he wanted to battle before discarding the idea as foolish.

He would be offended if I’d even ask him. Dun is the type that would fight a Legendary to prove how strong he is… I might need to pull him out of danger someday. But not today. Today was his moment to shine, to show what months, nearly a year of training had done for him. As if sensing my feelings from within, the ball shook a bit, as if in anticipation.

“No, we’ll fight.” I gave her a determined nod and smiled at my friends (and sister) before catching Turo’s curious gaze.

Am I teaching him the wrong lesson here? To push on, despite great odds. Sure, sometimes you need to do that, but other times, the most determined thing you can do, is quit. I sighed. It wasn’t my job to keep an adult from making a terrible mistake; my job was to win this battle.

I lacked the focus to spare on analyzing the other battles, just making a plan for the next one.

Occasionally, I’d whisper a bit of my strategy to Dun in his ball. While it wasn’t great for carrying out a full conversation, this was just a slight adjustment to the plans we already had, so he’d be ready when the time came.

Soon enough, it was time, with the announcer calling up the first match of the semi-finals. “It’s Nemona Glitterati versus Freddrick van Grough! Two of our most surprising competitors. Can the young prodigy beat the experienced student?”

He hardly seems experienced, from what I’ve seen. Turning brightly to face my opponent at the other end of the arena I shouted “Let’s have a good match!”

“I doubt it,” he sneered back, actually earning a few boos from the crowd. “Oh, come off it!” He yelled back at them. “She’s got a Dunsparce. What’s it gonna do, bore me to defeat?” Shaking his head, he added “It’s a shame that this is what the once great Glitterati family has been reduced to. Was that really the best Pokemon your parents could get you?”

“I found Dun on my own, he’s my choice of starter.”

Frederick crossed his arms. “That’s even worse! What’s the point of having money if you can’t get the best?”

“Oh, don’t worry; I’m fighting with the best Pokemon in this tournament.” I smirked as I heard a few gasps and ‘oohs' from the crowd at my banter. It took Freddrick a moment longer to get my meaning there, and he dropped his arms, hands clenched in fists.

Before this could go any further a new referee stepped up and cleared his throat. “Trainers ready?”

I released Dunsparce in response and he did the same for Corviknight. The massive avian stared down at Dun, who met it with a fierce glare of his own. The fully evolved Pokemon gave an odd squawking sound like she was laughing at Dun.

“In that case, let the battle… begin!” As the last syllable left his mouth, Dun made his Move. Flooding his eyes with Normal energy, he turned his glare into a Glare, one that sent even the advanced Pokemon stumbling and twitching backward.

The moment that Move was complete I shouted “Belly flop!” Dun slammed the mosaic ground, causing it to rise in chunks and shake, slamming into Corviknight, still too Paralyzed to get off the ground. Usually, a Flying Type was immune to Ground-Type attacks because they could fly up and had a near instinctive sense to avoid even the more airborne Ground Moves.

Here, where she couldn’t flap her wings properly, the Move hit her hard. Freddrick rallied, crying

“Get off the ground!” It was a valiant attempt, as she struggled to flap her wings, the Corviknight trying to push past her muscles not working. To her credit, she managed to get a few feet off the ground… before Dun Body Slammed her down from above, the earth-shaking helping boost him up and distracting our opponents from his movement.

Corviknight shrieked and tried to knock Dun away with an awkward wing sweep as she fell, but Dun easily slipped around the Paralyzed and disoriented bird. “Earthquake!” I called out, Dun moving to shake the ground again.

“Get off the ground already!” Frederick shouted, and this time the metallic bird lifted itself, above the shifting ground. As the arena settled, I saw Corviknight was dirtied, but not much more than that. The attacks did so little to it? I knew Body Slam would be resisted, but I thought Earthquake might have- no, it looks like even if the attack connects, even with the Steel Typing, the Flying half makes the Move not very effective, maybe less.

In the background, I heard the crowd cheering me on, shocked gasps at how well I was doing/how poorly Freddrick was faring, but I was less optimistic about our odds. That surprise attack didn’t do nearly as well as I hoped, and now I have to see what his response will be.

Freddrick didn’t hesitate in calling out his next Move, and I had to fight to keep the smile off my face as I heard it. “Hurricane!” Rising higher till Corviknight floated almost twelve meters above the ground (the limit on how high one could fly above the ground when not facing another Flying Type in this tournament) she began whipping the wind around.

“Go to the center!” Dun dutifully moved into the center of the gathering storm, having plenty of time to reach the Eye with Corviknight’s movements slowed by the Paralysis. The winds were moving so harshly that I could barely see anything within them, but since Dun wasn’t crying out in pain or panic, I assumed it was fine.

“Gah, stop that! Iron Defense!” Freddrick called out and I bit back a curse. The winds died as the gleaming feathers grew brighter. I have to stop that!

“Dun, taunt,” I called out, covering a hand over my mouth. He read the signal easily and rolled over, Yawning and closing his eyes. “Man, didn’t realize you were going to be so boring,” I taunted. “We might as well take a nap.”

Whether from thinking we had used a different Move or from falling to my own taunt, the angry boy changed tracks. “Corvi, forget about that, Fury Attack!!”

The powerful Pokemon twitched as she let go of the energy she had been gathering to defend herself. From the sigh that escaped its beak, I knew that twitch wasn’t from being Paralyzed. This battle would have been so much harder if we were fighting that Pokemon without Freddrick.

For balance reasons, the games had Pokemon of too high a level traded to or caught by you refused to follow commands, but that didn’t work that way in real life. Here, Freddrick's family Corviknight was loyal to a fault and followed all the orders he gave out. And that fault, his ineptitude as a trainer, is the lever we’ll pull on to win this fight.

“Roll around and get away!” Dunsparce gave up pretending to be asleep and tried to get away, but this time with the aerial advantage, he only managed to dodge twice before Corviknight’s talons clawed into him twice.

“Yes! Now grab him!” The opposing trainer commanded.

“I-uh- Body Slam!” I stammered out. Dammit, did it not work? Dun is in a terrible spot here. I hadn’t seen a way out of it, however, so a last-second attack was all I could call out to get some damage in before he was inevitably grabbed.

Dun squirmed within Corviknight’s talons, but he couldn’t slither out of this tight grip. All he managed to do was make small lacerations on his own body, struggling against the sharp claws.

Freddrick laughed maniacally. “See how helpless you are? You should have forfeited while you had the chance.”

“Uh, I still could. It’s not like there’s any rule about when you give up.” I pointed out, and everyone, even much of the crowd, paused.

After a moment Freddrick, red in the face, said “Well? I’m waiting!”

“Oh, I’m not going to. Just like, you were wrong.” A beat passed and I caught the droop of Corviknight’s head and added “Thought you should know.”

He gave an inarticulate scream of rage. “You-you- you little brat! Destroy that worm.”

“I’ll have you know, he’s more a snake, and now is his time to strike!” I countered as the Yawn finally took full effect and the big bird landed with a clanging crash as she fell to the ground, asleep.

“What?!” The boy at the other end looked confused and worried. “How did you do that?”

Not wasting any energy on him, I spoke to Dun instead, my Pokemon slipping out of the now relaxed grip and ready for payback. “Body Slam, as many times as you can!” He threw himself at the sleeping bird, crashing into her several times. Dents started forming on her steely feathers, but she remained sound asleep through the onslaught.

It couldn’t last forever, though. Eventually, either Dun’s attacks or Freddrick’s increasingly desperate pleas got through to Corviknight, and she woke up with a start. Her wing slapped out, tossing Dunsparce across the arena. That was more due to the differences in mass between them than the damage it did, but I couldn’t deny that Dun was looking a little roughed up.

Ok, a lot roughed up, I admitted to myself as I took in his wounds. He had tiny cuts all over his body, a nasty-looking abrasion on his tail, and one of his eyes was swollen, probably bruised.

Dun gave as good as he got though, Corviknight’s metal wing feathers bent and broken in places, and a small crack on her beak. She was glaring down at us both with angry red eyes and I knew that even if Freddrick kept on underestimating us, his Pokemon wouldn’t be anymore. I gripped the ball in my pocket, ready but not willing to use it quite yet.

“Hurricane, blow them away!” Well, I guess even if he doesn’t underestimate us, he can still make poor choices. On the surface, it seemed like a solid play, especially since Corviknight had managed to shake off her Paralysis and could direct the stream of wind too fast for Dun to dodge if he tried to move into the center again.

“Ride it! Don’t fight against it, float like a leaf on the wind!” The heavy winds picked him up, but rather than let them send him spiraling out of control, he flew with them. Adjusting his trajectory with his own tiny wings, he rose through the air until he shot off near the top, propelled into a heavy Body Slam that snapped the Corviknight’s head back.

As Dunsparce and Corviknight landed back down, both of them were able to catch themselves before they hit the ground, though it was a close thing in Corviknight’s case. She snapped out of her daze at the last second, but from the way she was holding herself, it looked like that had put a serious crick in her neck.

“You shouldn’t use Moves your Pokemon aren’t suited to,” I told Freddrick.

“Huh?”

“Corviknight had no mastery of Hurricane. What did you do, just teach it to her from a TM and never practice it?” I teased him again. Probably true, but that raven is no joke. She was already adapting the Move and if she kept on pelting us from above, we’d lose. Dunsparce doesn’t know any ranged Moves that can hit a flying target and he won’t be able to close. If it was someone else I might let them tire themselves out with repeated powerful Moves, but that Corviknight just has too much experience and strength to lose that way.

“Wing Attack, then dive in and Fury Attack!” Dual wing beats sent a burst of air too quick to dodge, knocking Dun into the corner beside me. As Corviknight advanced on him, I gave out commands of my own.

“Parry the claws, then Body Slam!” Dodging would have been useless, so Dun turned around and spun his tail drill, knocking into the claws that came his way. Turned around, he couldn’t see the attacks, instead following the motions of my free hand as I directed him on how to block every talon that reached down to rend him.

After a quarter minute of attempts that Dun expertly blocked, Corviknight backed off for a moment, which gave Dun the chance to turn around and fulfill the second part of my command. Spinning back around, he jumped up at the low-flying bird, and with his wingbeats, pushed ahead to hit Corviknight.

The impact resounded throughout the arena, leaving a small dent in the solid metal armor plating in front of her chest. The pain was not enough to stop her from grabbing Dun in her claws as he fell, however.

“Yes! Rip him to shreds! Drill Peck until he’s dead- defeated.” Freddrick quickly corrected, seeing the referee suddenly turn to glare at him. The man still gave him a warning, but it was clear he wasn’t going to be disqualified for that slip of the tongue, so I focused on the battle. Dun was struggling under the assault, waving his tail around wildly to deflect against her beak and other claws, but without leverage, many strikes were getting through and he was starting to bleed profusely from the pecks.

“Bite the feet! Force her to let you go!” The dark energy gathered around his jaws was faint, but stronger than it usually was. Desperation from the pain helping him align more with the Type energy of the attack, he bit down hard, and Corviknight let him go. Not wasting the opportunity, I pulled the ball-shaped object out of my pocket and pressed the button.

The Tera Orb shook violently with the power contained within and I gripped it with my other hand. Spinning around once, I gathered the momentum needed and tossed it out, over Dun, where it exploded in a burst of light, right as the last sliver of sunlight faded beyond the horizon.

The light was accompanied by the usual crystallization surrounding Dunsparce, causing his foe to stumble back, squawking in surprise. The crystals shattered and revealed Dun covered in a prismatic sheen and a large clear gem resting above his head like an oversized hat.

“Why, I can’t believe it! Folks, we are witnessing Terastalization firsthand!” The announcer called out, and the crowd was going wild. Frederick was seizing with rage or disbelief. Either way, he wasn’t ready to stop us.

“Body Slam, show that oversized crow your true power!” I told Dun. He complied with gusto, leaping forward with newfound energy, hitting Corviknight hard enough now to send her stumbling back. Again and again, he attacked and she was on the back foot. She tried to grab him again, but this time Dun’s attacks were strong enough to break through, and she let him go after he snapped one of her talons with his gem-covered head.

“Just- just attack!” The van Grough boy screeched eventually and she did just that. Corviknight was flying off the ground, holding one of her claws gingerly, but she didn’t let that stop her. Furiously, she’d Wing Attack, Peck, and (with her good leg) claw at Dunsparce. With Terastalization adding on to his power though, he was giving as good as he got, despite the Type resistance.

After a minute of brutal attacks on each side, they broke off, one last Wing Attack whipping up the winds and making space between them. The two of them were breathing heavily, panting as they glared at each other. Dunsparce’s bulbous body was swollen, more so than usual. One of his eyes was so puffed up that I was pretty sure he physically couldn’t use Glare till it healed. He was bleeding all over from the numerous peck and claw attacks having ripped through his scales. Nowhere critical was injured, but I didn’t like how it looked.

On the other side, flying high above, was Corviknight. Dents all over her armor, feathers torn and bent, matching one of her talons, which she held gingerly even while flying. The damage she took was more bludgeoning than cutting, but there were still a few trickles of blood dripping down from her feathers. Despite it all, the determination and confidence she held from the beginning of our fight hadn’t left her steely gaze.

It’s much more… real than the bruise effects they showed in the anime. I couldn’t help the giggles that escaped my mouth at the absurd thought. Something that my opponent took offense to.

“You think this is funny, huh? Do you think you could possibly win? NO! I refuse, I’m the greatest, it’s my name that will rise to the top! The van Grough’s are in no one’s shadow!” I blinked at his unhinged rant. Dude has issues. “That’s it, Corvi, Sky Attack!”

“It looks like this will be the end, everyone! How can Nemona hope to survive…” The announcer rapidly commented, my focus was on the battle in front of me.

In the darkness of the night, the usually dark-steeled bird became a glowing beacon, rapidly surrounded by a harsh light. Something about the radiance forced my gaze away, down to the other source of light. Dun was covered in wounds, staring up at the bird turning to a descent position. Am I just getting him needlessly hurt by continuing this? He’s fought well, no one could judge him poorly for this. I still have a second left, I could recall him-

My thoughts cut off as I saw his gaze, his one good eye firmly facing upwards. This is his moment. Everything he’s been training for, almost a year now we’ve been together, to prove that promise I made to him on the beach true. I can’t take that away from him now.

“Hit her with everything you got!” I shouted as Corviknight dived down. Dun leaped up to meet her, but something changed midway through his jump. Rather than losing momentum, it increased, a star-like energy surrounding him and propelling him forward at greater speeds.

“It’s so bright! I can’t make out who won!” Larry cried out, most of the fans averting their eyes. I didn’t, but still couldn’t make out what exactly happened, just seeing them pass a moment after.

Dun kept on rising for a few seconds, like a comet falling in reverse while Corviknight crashed through the ground, her landing kicking up mosaic tiles into the barrier. Gravity soon took hold of my Pokemon too, and he crashed down as well, landing with a heavy thud.

Silence filled the arena, everyone staring with bated breath at the two unmoving Pokemon.

“Unbelievable! It appears that both Pokemon are unable to battle! It’s a ti-”

“Un.” The sound was faint, but enough to be heard by Larry and the referee before he could swing the flag in the center to call the match. “Un. Arce,” Dun said, slightly clearer as he shakily rolled over. Then, trembling, he planted his tail into the ground, raising his body to stand on it, as tall as he could. Taking a deep breath, he announced to all of Mesagoza “DUUUUUUUUUUUNNN!!!!”

He started to fall over but before he could hit the ground I was already there, running and sliding to catch him. “You did it! You did it!” I shouted, hugging him close and then holding him up for the crowd to see. They roared in response, cheering and hollering, my friends and sister jumping up and down. I could barely even make out the referee calling the match in my favor.

“Sparce.” He replied tiredly, leaning into my arms, a content smile on his face. I started pulling out potions with one hand while still holding onto him. They stopped the worst of the bleeding, though I would still have plenty of his blood staining my clothes, and didn’t care one bit. There was technically another match we had to win to win the tournament, but I couldn’t worry about that right now.

“You did great, Dun. Just like I said, you’re gonna be the best.”