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  "writing": "[center]Forbidden Waters - 23\n[/center]\n\n“GO!”\n\n\tBonnie pressed a button on her utility belt and pink membranous wings folded out into place between her hips and arms. “Go, Emolga! Double Team!” she shouted as she and Clemont recalled Dedenne, Stunfisk, and Heliolisk.\n\t\n\tHer Emolga spun through the air in a corkscrew, and suddenly one mostly-visible varmint became two blurry, imperceptible varmint shaped blobs. \n\n\tEmil adjusted his glasses, squinting, then he reached into his pocket for a few nondescript 00 capsules filled with a sticky, amber ichor. \n\nHe knew that certain meds were illegal for Pokemon to use during a match, but very little was laid out in the official rules about the kinds of chemicals trainers could use. In fact, it was common for certain trainers to use steroids and other enhancers to build their bodies so they could train physically with their Pokemon. Nadine was probably no stranger to this practice, though he was sure she was a complete naturalist herself, and elite Poison Specialists had to keep a pharmacy on hand just to stave off the inevitable. \n\nThe tournament meant a lot to Rich, and that made it matter all the more to Emil knowing how crushed he’d be if they were to lose to some tiny, insignificant detail either of them somehow missed.\n\nBefore leaving he’d spent weeks absorbing gobs of chemistry research data, looking for anything that could give himself an edge as a trainer without breaking the rules. After very nearly giving up in a fit of frustration, he finally hunted down a refined herbal remedy from the rural, mountainous areas of Johto. Articles on the topic were hot off the presses, considered bleeding edge research, and he had to pay significant cash just to get access years before approval of public release, but it was just the thing he’d been looking for.\n\nA nootropic medicine made by extracting compounds found within the body parts of two different Pokemon: Pansage Leaves and Stantler Orbs. Both were concentrated in wildly different processes, mixed together, and suspended in an edible resin to protect the salts from oxidation. The stuff was odorless but tasted totally unbearable, leaving him retching at the mere suggestion of it going anywhere near his mouth, so he used a clay extruder to pipe it into some caps; problem solved.\n\nGood thing his dealer was strapped for cash, because some of the hazardous controlled substances needed to capture the freebase made the guy’s face go white. \n\nHe knew Vaporeon would slap him silly if she put together what he was up to, especially after all the Venomoth Dust withdrawals she and Rich had helped him through after cutting him cold-taillow. He made his plans weeks in advance, with the components stored in all different places all around the house.\n\nThe deed was done slow, stealthy, and clean alongside his ritual consumption of coffee and academic texts while Vaporeon snoozed away an easy Sunday morning. Emil sterilized his workshop, disposed of the waste just before trash pickup, and then returned to bed after an incredibly abrasive shower with his Honey none the wiser.\n\nNot to be underestimated, of course, because she instantly noticed something was wrong when she woke and began sniffing around the property, trying to follow the source of some alien odor that had long been carted away by the department of sanitation. She did so the entire day before giving up in a huff, squinting at her mate the entire day.\n\nWhen she was taken by the Joys in the Pokemon center for checkups, he’d tested the drug in gradually higher amounts, finding his metabolic tolerances. As far as he could tell, there were no lasting ill effects on his body or mind. Headaches immediately afterwards, but nothing chronic, and none of the compounds present in the admixture had any known carcinogenic or mutagenic properties…\n\n…so he rubbed Vaporeon’s cheek to direct her attention away, popped one of the caps and took a swig from his water bottle, ready to get serious.\n\n\n[i](As for what it [/i][u][i]actually[/i][/u][i] did, well…)[/i]\n\n\n“Rhydon!” Richard pumped his fist. “Iron Defense!”\n\nRhydon squatted down and his armor plating started to glow with a silver light.\n\n\n[i](...It wasn’t instantaneous…)[/i]\n\n\nBonnie grinned. “Agility!”\n\nThe twin smudges of yellow and white and black started zipping around the air in long z-shaped paths, doubling Emolga’s velocity at the very least.\n\nRichard clapped his hands together. “Swords! Dance! Boiii!”\n\nAs Rhydon stumbled around, trying to manifest one of the techniques he struggled with the most, Emil could feel his heart starting to race. He took deeper and deeper breaths to support the rate of circulatory flow, doing his best to stave off the fleeting hyperventilation he felt setting in; an anticipated secondary effect, easily offset with good respiratory control.\n\nVaporeon felt his elevated heart rate through his neck and nuzzled him with concern. It felt like he had a fever, but he didn’t seem sick when they were mating just a few hours ago. “Nervous, Emmi?”\n\n\n[i](....but bit by bit…)[/i]\n\n\n\tRichard looked over at Emil, smirking. “Looks like a classic Elise strat,” he said, recalling everyone on the sidelines for rapid release and recall. All except Vaporeon, of course, because he’d rather not upset the morale boost she got being draped around the shoulders of her pet human.\n\n\tEmil remarked that Richard’s glistening green eyes had a tiny shade of aqua near the pupil, something he’d never noticed and now greatly appreciated. Every feature of Richard’s face came into painstaking, realer than life resolution. He felt like he could count the tiny, budding specks of stubble he didn’t have time to shave away that morning after a full night of finding himself.\n\n\tHe nodded to both of them, brushing his fingertips along Vaporeon’s fins. He suddenly pulled them away, thinking he’d received a shock, but realized an instant later that it was just the heightened sensitivity in his extremities. Gently, like toes dipped in freezing water before a swimmer slowly submerged, he laid his palm against her cheek and kissed her paw.\n\n\tThe sensation against his lips lit his skin ablaze and stood his hairs on end.\n\n\n[i](...the jumbled puzzle of colliding causes-and-effects that composed the world…)[/i]\n\n\nBut he knew there were other things at hand far more important than the totally [u]overwhelming[/u] smell of sex on everyones' bodies, the tiny scratches left in Richard’s signature leather bomber jacket by Incineroar during her special training, or the fact that one of his buddy’s knuckles still looked slightly out of sorts after being released from the splint.\n\n[i]Oops, right, focus Emmi, focus.[/i]\n\nEmil’s head barely moved at all. “Elise and ‘lil something extra; charm cycle, if the gym records are right. Don’t keep Rhydon in too long. He’s got the weakest mental fortitude.”\n\n\tRichard nodded. “He’s got the best typing, but I’ll keep that in mind.” His voice was easily audible, despite the subtle whispers they were speaking in. “GET that crap outta here, girl! Rhydon! ROAR!”\n\n\t\n[i](...began to realign, rearrange, and snap themselves into focus…)[/i]\n\n\nBonnie punched the air, screaming “Rapid Spin, Emolga!”\n\n\tRhydon opened his mouth to send Emolga back to the belt, but growled in frustration as the wisp of squeaking colors in the air abruptly turned ninety degrees on a trajectory straight for his face and smashed against the spot right between the eyes. Emolga’s insane velocity somehow increased as she ricocheted off his skull, a squeaking mad ‘mon fueled by ill-gotten energy.\n\n\tEmil watched Emolga’s movements, now suddenly able to follow her with better resolution. He could just barely perceive her rapidly banking left and right with expertly executed barrel-rolls, the source of her Double Team afterimages. Her body had a faint, white, glowing outline around her body that grew as she pumped more and more energy into her moves. But, something wasn’t right…\n\n\t“Oooooohhhh! Surprise wildcard move! Emolga don’t learn that move in the wild, that’s for sure!” the announcer praised the opposition.\n\n\n[i](...revealing the impossibly vivid reflection of a world on fire…)[/i]\n\n\n\tShe slammed into Rhydon over, and over, and over again, striking the same spot between his eyes. Not normally a problem for the Team Stone’s resident raging blockhead; however, each time she grazed across him tiny sparks rained around Rhydon’s cheeks and his muscles were jittering from what Emil could tell was an imminent case of paralysis setting in. Emolga was putting her Static gene to work.\n\n\tRichard winced. “If she doesn’t know Baton Pass it’d be a crime. Yer right, Cinny’ll set her straight,” he said, reaching for his belt.\n\nEmil could sense a faint, nervous quiver in his friend’s voice, perhaps even a little bit of an insecure sigh. He could tell Richard sensed something was up too, but couldn’t quite place the feeling to reality.\n\n\tThen he spotted the metallic, lavender glint of something held between Emolga’s hind paws…\n\n\t“No!” Emil put his arm up sideways, palm turned towards Rich, fingers clutching at the air repeatedly. His gaze remained locked onto Emolga’s ballistic maneuvers, eyes darting around in time with her movements. “Gimme his ball.” He felt all the branching tunnels in his lungs expand at once as he readied to scream, “HOLD ON RHYDON! Meditate! Breathe! Stay in control!”\n\n\n[i](...where each and every trail of smoke was made as plain as his own name…)[/i]\n\n\nBonnie hopped up and down, skipping in place with unchecked elation. “Ha haaaaa! Great work, Emolga, all those months of training paid off! Hooray!” She smacked a button on her belt, and her figure was haloed in technicolor fireworks from her backpack.\n\nCarlisle gave a gentleman’s clap. “Sensational, young Mistress.”\n\n\tRhydon was angry, furious, downright ornery. His eyes were beginning to pop from the pure, unfettered rage that broiled inside him; he wanted to take Bonnie and her fluttering runt and twist them between his claws and drink the juice. But when he heard Emilio’s voice, screaming at the end of the long tunnel between himself and Rhydon’s dark little world, he was shocked into submission. Friend Emilo never yelled at anyone! His voice was like the gentle whisper of the lawn sprinklers he liked to listen to as the sun came up back home; always full of a cool, patient empathy that chilled him like the grassy morning dewdrops soothing his feet during warmups.\n\n\tSo, as far as he was concerned, if Friend Emilio was screaming at you, you fucking listened.\n\n\tRhydon closed his eyes, wincing at every single machine gun strike that made purchase against his crackling temple, but he managed to breathe out and fall to his ass with an earth-shaking thud. His small shift in position made Emolga miss him by an inch and she tumbled to the ground behind him, needing to scramble back up into the air and regain her lost momentum.\n\n\n[i](...the intricate clockwork behind the numbers on Dialga’s face was free for all to see…)[/i]\n\n\n\tEmil waited in patient agony for Richard to slowly turn his head in confusion and respond.\n\n\t“Whaaa? Didn’t y–” his voice was sluggish, spilling past his lips like honey from a cold beaker.\n\n\tEmil cut him off. “We can’t let her switch. Give. Me. The. [u]BALL[/u]!”\n\n\tBonnie finished her little dance. “A little more, Emolga; he’s on the ground, you’ve got him! Just a little proof that type advantage is a mere suggestion when you’re at the top. Lesson learned, boys.”\n\n[i]\t[/i]Richard knew better than to deny Team Stone’s resident cave-dwelling wizard his material components. “Think fast,” he said, tossing Rhydon’s confinement device.\n\n\tEmil’s hand felt the shifting of the air as the ball approached his palm, and his fingers cradled it with grace. His gaze locked onto Bonnie, who was busy cartwheeling her victory over Rhydon, releasing showers of confetti as she giggled and spun around.\n\n“Yeah,” he muttered with pupils widening as the world washed across his cortex at a torrent’s pace, “Go on, show me that winner’s face.”\n\n\n[i](...and each of the turquoise gears within spoke their purpose true.)[/i]\n\n\t\n\tRhydon folded his legs together and crossed his arms, humming like Friend Emilio taught every morning for the last year, summoning up every scrap of self control he had to keep his whole body from shaking with a chronic paralysis or flying into a legendary berserking tantrum.\n\n\tThe air around his spinning horn lit up under the intense fireworks display sparking off him as Emolga worked to drive themselves through Rhydon’s brain, on to victory.\n\n\n[i](He liked gazing into that argent mirror.)[/i]\n\n\n\tBonnie stood proud at the end of a pirouette that fanned out her cape, and she stopped with it in her hand, hiding behind it like a magician about to unveil some great mystery. “Sorry, Rhydon. But…”\n\n\tEmil’s cheek twitched as he watched Bonnie’s theatrical expression loosen up, twisting into an arrogant smirk. She swung her arm up in a beckoning arc dozens of videos he’d examined of her matches, in and out of the gym.\n\n\t[i]There![/i]\n\n\tHe brought the ball up to his mouth, pressing its force-command switch. “Rhydon… Use Stealth Rock!” he hissed.\n\n\tRhydon’s horn started spinning as it glowed with a rich, umber nebula. Tiny, razor sharp flakes of his carapace started chipping off, and the knapped bladelets fell around him in a fat heap all around his arse.\n\t\n\n[i](Things made sense there.)[/i]\n\n\n\t“Emolga. Baton Pass!” Bonnie sang with a mock operatic tremble.\n\n\tRhydon rose to his feet, head cracked open with a bloody split, one eye swollen shut, and then he thrust both his arms up into the air with a furious, “DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!” Sharpened stone scales sprayed out in all directions, polluting the air with a million edges and points.\n\n\tRichard gasped as he suddenly realized what Emil was up to. “Oh holy cra—”\n\n\tEmolga flashed white like a star, gathering up immense amounts of momentum and evasive focus from her body that formed into a brilliant white rod in her paws…\n\n\t…then she haplessly fired herself back towards her trainer, at maximum speed, plunging straight through a fog of obsidian-edged blades. Her body burst into a spray of fine red mist, showering the arena in tiny specks of blood, and she screamed out of the arena with a hundred gushing, parallel lacerations. \n\n\tBonnie’s hands slapped her mouth and she gasped in horror as Emolga finished tumbling at the end of a long, crimson smear. Her baton hit the ground and exploded into a cloud of white sparks, taking a chunk of concrete out with it, and the gem she was holding shattered into dust.\n\n\tEmolga reached around her body, soaking her paws in deep, oozing wounds. Her wings were shredded into grisly, beaded curtains and she felt a bloody stump where her ear used to be. She reached up for Bonnie in a panic. “Mooolll….” her throat gurgled. “...Gaaaa!” she cried, shaking in a pool of her own blood as shock started setting in.\n\n\tThe crowd roared with satisfaction at the sudden, visceral turnaround.\n\n\t“Return move Interrupt; Emolga is [u]out[/u] [u]of[/u] [u]bounds[/u]!” the Rotom Drone declared.\n\n\tCarlisle shook his head. “Oh! How dreadful!”\n\n\tBonnie teared up a little bit as she held her Pokeball out to recall her earthbound baby. “It’s ok, you’ll be at the center soon.”\n\n[color=#3d85c6][s][u][b][i] [/i][/b][/u][/s][/color]\n\n\tItching at the uncomfortable sensation of woven fibers rubbing against his skin, François gritted his teeth from a plush spectator’s sofa in one of the Crown’s luxurious, private observation boxes. He was surrounded by confused, distant relatives; most being totally oblivious to the fact that they were related to a famous edutainment personality. “Sacre bleu, Emilio!” he coughed, and then took a long swig of water from a three gallon jug in his lap.\n\nHe felt a hand on his shoulder, looked over his shoulder at nobody, and then frantically whipped his head the other way as Valorie and Fenny plopped onto the sofa beside him, chuckling. “Sup, pepe. Ain’t often I get the drop on ya. Didn’t ye smell me comin’ up the tower?”\n\nHe gasped as he finished another long drink. “Oh, Valorie, it is so difficult to pay attention to anything else when I must bear witness to this masochistic [u]butchery[/u].”\n\nShe threw her arm over François’ shoulders, snuggling into his luxurious, cerulean chenille gown, knowing the warmth of their bodies touching would soothe him some. “Hmmm, dunno if it's [u]that[/u] bad, hadda put a half-eaten Tribesmate outta their misery more’n once. ‘Least folks get a mighty fine slappin when a ‘mon dies ‘ere,” she said, playfully acting in Darkrai’s defense. \n\nFrançois sighed and rested his head on her neck as Fenny leaned over the railing of the observation deck with his tail wagging at the fantastic view and the insane spectacle of it all. “[u]That[/u] is the natural order of Arceus’ design, [u]this[/u] is manufactured, systematic brutality–”\n\nShe smirked. “All fer bets n’ laughs n’ human eyes?”\n\n“Precisely!” he blustered, “it should be banned and reviled, my— Quoi?” he paused as he felt a tug on his sleeve.\n\nA tiny girl in a gorgeous, Shaymin print dress giggled as her parents frantically hissed and cajoled her to come back and sit down. “Hello there, mister sir. Are you ‘Mr. G?’” she asked in a very rough and painfully formal Interregional accent.\n\nHe beamed with delight and gave her a friendly nod. “Oui, demoiselle. Quel est votre nom, s'il vous plaît?”\n\nHer parents covered their faces in humiliation as she swayed around, brushing the floor with the hem of her dress. “Seline, Maître.”\n\nMon and Dad breathed sighs of relief in unison as their daughter used the correct address.\n\n“Enchanté, Seline. On s'est déjà vu non?” he asked, and took a massive gulp of water.\n\nVal rolled her eyes. “Would’a loved kids, ‘bet,” she whispered to herself.\n\nThe little girl gasped. “[u]Moi[/u]?”\n\nHe raised his chin and placed a pale finger to his lips in thought. “Je pourrais jamais oublier telle beau visage.”\n\nShe giggled. “Mais on ne se connaît pas!”\n\nHe chuckled back. “J'étais là quand tu’s né…” and then he leaned towards her, pointing to his eyes. “...et je t'ai vu depuis le grand réservoir.”\n\nShe breathed in with excitement. “Sérieux?!”\n\nHe smirked and then winked at her. “La semaine dernière, en fait.”\n\n“C'est tellement inouï!” She laughed and danced around, nearly knocking over an antique end-table.\n\nHe laughed with her, infected by her elation. “Qu'est se Pokémon favori?”\n\nShe leaned back and forth with her hands behind her back. “Aquali!”\n\nHe gasped in exaggerated surprise. “Quelle chance! Vous verrez se nageoires magnifique ce jour, petite demoiselle.”\n\n“Je connais! C’est étonnant!” She stopped prancing around and groaned as her mother came to pull her away, apologizing profusely for so rudely interrupting his afternoon out with his wife.\n\nThe adult and child both protested at her being pulled away, but Seline managed to turn her head back to wave goodbye, saying, “Vous avez de si beaux yeux!”\n\n“Merci, demoiselle. Profitez du spectacle!” He sighed with a smile and snuggled back up to Valorie. “{Salve for the soul.}”\n\nVal hummed and crossed her legs as she looked at her Fenny, then winced a little as she looked away. “{I bet it is.}”\n\n[color=#3d85c6][s][u][b][i] [/i][/b][/u][/s][/color]\n\n\tEmil tossed the Pokeball back at Richard. “Sorry, no time to mince words.”\n\n\tRichard coughed and smiled, clapping his hands. “Holy shit, Em. Rep-re-sent!”\n\n\t“Rhydon, Rhydon, Rhydon!” the crowd chanted as the beast pumped his fists and shook the megaphones on their poles with a roar that rattled the front-seaters’ skulls.\n\n\tRotom Number Five turned back and forth, saying, “Faint penalty! Opposition switch?”\n\n\tEmil pointed with a lazy slouch. “Might wanna get him outta there, meditation only goes so far.”\n\n\tRhydon started snarling at the crowd and snapping at Rotom Drones as they zipped by. He dug deep furrows in the cement with his claws, threatening to charge, huffing at the very edge of the arena’s boundary.\n\nEmil stuck his hands in his pockets. “Scratch that, he’s totally losing his shit.”\n\n\tRichard bared his teeth like a wild Hex. “Nah, Em. We worked on his patience, and I can tell it’s paid off, but this is exactly the place where Rhydon does his best work. Haven’t seen him this worked up since before I met you!” He raised his fist, signaling he refused to switch. \n\n\t“Team Prism, release!” Rotom said, hovering over Emolga’s puddle of defeat.\n\n\tEmil leaned towards his buddy. “Only thing I worry about is Stunfisk. Their momentum is shot, so it’s gonna be that or Magneton.”\n\n\tRich grabbed Em’s shoulder. “Doesn’t matter, Rhydon’s a scrappy boi, you’ll see.”\n\n\tBonnie squeaked out a concerned whine. “Clemont… that was horrible!”\n\n\tHer brother floated down to her side, still slouching with unchecked confidence. “I told you the Big Leagues were brutal, sis. Vids are one thing, but it’s a whole different matter when your own ‘Mon are the ones getting chopped up, huh?”\n\n\tShe nodded with tears in her eyes and reached for her belt, fumbling around as she released her next pokemon. “I’m gonna do this, I’m not just another wimpy little girl!” she shouted, determination returning to her face. \n\n\tRichard pumped his fist. “A’tta girl, let’s go!”\n\n\t“Dedenne, GO!”\n\n\tClemont lurched upwards, yawning. “Careful, Bonnie. He’s no gym journey novice.”\n\n\tHer next pokemon was released onto the field, wearing a petite heart-shaped backpack with a steel pull cord. She immediately cut their little arm on one of Rhydon’s floating stones and squeaked, “Den?!” with her ashen whiskers flailing in surprise.”\n\n\tEmil saw concern flash across the rodent’s eyes at the same time Richard’s mouth scrunched up in surprise.\n\n\t[i]She doesn’t seem like she’s ready for this ladder. How’d she call Richard’s play like that?[/i]\n\nBonnie piped up. “Don’t worry, we've got a plan for everything, right?” she said, fingers brushing the hair by her ear proudly. “Nothing a little playtime can’t fix, honey! Agility!” she cheered, and her ‘Mon regrouped in seconds.\n\nVaporeon pointed with her paw. “{Oh hey, her name is Honey too!}”\n\nDedenne flashed them a mean glare and she swirled around the hazards, skipping up, down, and around like she was hopping scotch at the playground. \n\t\n\tRhydon only then just noticed there was some other nuisance skittering towards him, and he was possessed by a hysterical fit of laughter. He laughed when his feet buckled the cement, kicking himself forward. He kept on laughing as he stormed forward, brewing up a cloud of ground-type energy with each quaking step.\n\n\tBonnie raised her hand, fingers splayed out in a dynamic pose. “Ok, use Electric Terrain,” she said, stumbling a bit on her words as she hurriedly put her hand back up to her head and seemed to improvise it as part of her performance.\n\n\tRichard leaned sideways with suspicious curiosity on his face, hands cocked on his hips.\n\n\tDedenne dipped and strafed around Rhydon, trying to keep a great distance from the move she recognized from her years in the gym. “Dennededede!” she chittered, leaving behind a trail of blue sparks that pulsed and spread out across the field in waves. She kited Rhydon around, staying a very precise distance away from her berserking pursuer, and then her body droned with the hum of a transformer.\n\n\tRichard rumbled in his throat, wondering… then he put his hands in his pockets, letting his Rhydon fly into the cathartic rage he’d been long overdue. “C’mon, Rhydon, it's rodent stomping day!”\n\nEmil leaned forward, able to see with immense clarity what it was Dedenne was wearing, but having no idea what it was. His hands ran up and down his lover’s cool, blue flesh with an all new appreciation for the softness of her skin, despite the absolutely rippling musculature shifting just beneath. She leaned forward as she smelled something off putting, tilted her head with a curious look, and then nuzzled him again.\n\nIt was so unbelievably hard to focus on the fight as he was suddenly assailed with her pheromones. He supposed he hadn’t considered that she’d be around his shoulders during a battle while he was under the influence. He secretly wished there was an opportune moment for her to switch in, despite his absolute aching desire to curl up and get lost in her scent.\n\nRichard noticed Dedenne starting to lift off the ground and his eyebrows rose. “Oh, wait. Oh!”\n\nBonnie raised her palms up. “Magnet Rise, rise rise!” she sang as her Pokemon floated up into the air.\n\nRhydon screamed up at her, having kicked down and smashed the concrete into a catastrophic tumble of rubble, to absolutely no avail. He picked up chunks of the arena he’d just dislodged and started hurling them at the airborne pest, energizing them into glowing Rock Blasts, but she deftly dodged each one with a churlish squeak and a cute, midair tumble. \n\nBonnie winked and pointed. “Dedenne…”\n\n“Yep, you’re done, buddy,” Richard mumbled as Rhydon was withdrawn.\n\nDedenne’s face twisted into a cackling grin, mirroring her master’s smug face as she kicked away a few stealth rocks in her path.\n\n“...use Rain Dance!”\n\nEmil turned over to Richard, feeling an intense headache starting to set in. “Thought she was going for a U-Turn?”\n\nThey were smacked in the face by a sudden torrential downpour.\n\n“Yep,” he huffed.\n\nThe announcer zoomed across the airspace. “Return penalty! Opposition switch?”\n\nEmil shrugged. “Was my guess too. What’s your plan now?”\n\nRichard rubbed his chin as he watched Bonnie curtsy to the crowd with an adorable squee, hands cradling her ear. “Plan C,” he said, glancing over at the dexnav in Emil’s hand.\n\nBonnie put her hands on her hips, suddenly overflowing with confidence. “Nope!” she called, raising her fist.\n\n“Torterra, I choose you!”\n\nEmil’s eyebrow rose as he gave Rich a sideyed glance.\n\nRich nodded. “Torterra into Rhydon again, I think that’s best; use what we got burnin’.”\n\nEmil’s mouth dropped at what he just heard and Vaporeon lifted his lower jaw shut with her tail. “Trust the doofus, Emmi,” she said, sniffing at his mouth with a quizzical look as he exhaled.\n\nTorterra appeared, and was totally dumbfounded. She gazed up into the sky at Dedenne, looked back at her trainer, and then hemmed and hawed as she puzzled out what to do about the enemy circling around in the air where she couldn’t easily reach. “Ooooooooo… Hmmmm…”\n\nSuddenly she realized her tootsies were tingling from the ripples of electrical energy that finally made it up to her brain, tiny stones harmlessly scraped across her shell, and the leaves of the willow tree growing on her back were brushed by the downpour. She started laughing, tickled top to bottom, and plopped to the ground. “Haaaa. Haaaa. Haaaa.” She hollered with delight, and the crowd busted up with her.\n\nBonnie chuckled. “What a pretty lady. Glad she’s having a good time, let’s make it even more fun! U-Turn, Dedenne!”\n\nRichard leaned forward as he shouted, “Torterra, buy us some time! Curl up, hold fast!” Then he brought the ball closer to his face “...and Roar,” he whispered as quietly as he could.\n\nThe giant leafy green slowly inhaled as her head tried to retract and she tucked her legs under her, fighting the urge to holler out, face turning red with the effort.\n\nHer Dedenne swirled around in the air with a buzzing, swarming noise and a corona of murky, yellow light. Then she bounced around the inside of some invisible rodent ball before ricocheting off a non existing wall and firing herself right at Torterra’s shell. A ring of fallen leaves fluttered around Torterra, who grunted in pain, and Dedenne vanished.\n\n\t“Force return! Team Prism, release!” The announcer said as they spun around in a loop.\n\n\tBonnie swayed back and forth, wrapping her cape around herself like some castle dwelling vampire. “Stunfisk, Go!”\n\n\tThe muddy mistake of nature flopped onto the cement, sharted out an embarrassing gargle of a cry, and its googly eyes wobbled around as it assessed its surroundings. \n\n\t“Alright Stunfisk, use—”\n\n\tTorterra was finally finished breathing in, and rattled the heads of everyone in the arena with a Roar that had been diluted with hideous, uncontrollable laughter.\n\n\tStunfisk flailed around and, like his teammate, vanished back to their pokeball.\n\n\tThe Rotom drone’s eyes flickered red and blue, then it smiled and said, “Force switch! Team Prism, release!”\n\n\tDedenne returned to the skies, crackling as she took a Stealth Rock cut across her face, but gracefully recovered and awaited her master’s commands.\n\n\tRichard reached for his ball at his belt like a cowboy drawing pistols at dawn with a childish smirk. “Switchout! Go Rrr-”\n\n\tBonnie crouched and leapt up into the air with excitement. “Get ready to Trailblaze, girlie!”\n\n“Psych; Plan D!”\n\n\tMachamp appeared, wearing a shiny, gold plated lifting belt Emil had made for him after winning a local special exhibition back home. Bearing the words ‘Old but Gold!’ with pride, he flexed his upper arms and confidently punched his lower fists into his hips, confronting the verdant missile heading straight for him with a cool readiness.\n\n\tRichard grinned with his hand at his waist, a perfect mirror image of his four-armed wonder popping the button on his satchel to clutch a handful of glowing green sand. “Ha HAAAA!”\n\n\tClemont’s eyes opened, rising up from his nap atop Magneton’s head. “Wha?”\n\n\tDedenne squealed in pain as Machamp hurled a cloud of sunlight right into her eyes, breaking her concentration. She shielded her face and smacked face-first into one of Machamps mountainous biceps, knocked senseless from the collision, blabbering with delirious gurgling noises as she was snatched up like a doll.\n\n\tMachamp cinched Dedenne up against his body with a crushing Rugby hold. “Cham-champa!”\n\n\tBonnie’s palms smacked against her cheeks. “Dedenne! No! Clemont, what happened?!”\n\n\t“I… I don’t know,” he muttered between gnashing teeth. “Dedenne, use your Eject Pack!”\n\n\tDedenne frantically grasped around for the pull cord, but Machamp plucked it off her back and slipped it around his wrist. “{Yoink!}” he said as he tossed the empty bag of Bright Powder away to ensure he was in compliance with the rules.\n\n\tRichard stomped his right foot forward. “Machamp, give ‘er the ol’ Sportsball Special! Hup! Hup! Hup!”\n\n\tMachamp stomped forward with long, monstrous strides, his other palms in front of him as the crowd gasped and then started roaring with ear-crushing excitement. “PAAAA HAHAHAHA!” His steps made the pebbles around him dance along the ground as he sprinted towards the end zone at full tilt.\n\n\tBonnie reached out for her baby. “C’mon, get free! Thunder Shock, Play Rough, [u]anything[/u]!” \n\n\tEmil smacked his head in surprise, completely flabbergasted. “What? When did we get Bright Powder, man?!”\n\n\tRich bellowed with evil laughter. “When I looked at their roster this morning!” He brushed a thumb across his nose. “Gramps’d roll in his grave if I let them send us sailing home on a garbage strat like that.”\n\n\tThe announcer’s eyes went white with lines of code, and then they gasped in mock surprise. “Looks like Richard knows his roots, alright! What a treat; classic Stone turnaround!”\n\n\tRichard pointed to Emil’s ‘nav. “Turn that thing off; not a fan of nosy neighbors.” Then he chuckled. “Well, with one exception.”\n\n\tFinally it dawned on Emil what was going on. “Holy shit, Rich. Rep-re-sent!” he said, feeling very little of the neurological rush from before and was left mostly reeling from the rapid-onset migraine he knew was coming. He pulled the batteries out of his Dexnav, but not before delivering one final crumb of correspondence.\n\n\n\t[b]1-218-860-5045 (Emil):[/b][b][i] [/i][/b][b]Fool me once…[/b]\n\n\t\n\tEmil shifted his eyes at Rich as he slipped his ‘nav into his back pocket. “Is that against regulation?”\n\n\tRich shrugged. “Don’t care; they get’n done dirty now.”\n\n\tMachamp reached the opponent’s side of the field, squeezing his helpless adversary between all four of his massive, meaty mitts. Then he leapt into the air and raised her above his head, glowing bright orange with the pent up energy of a mighty Seismic Toss. “MAAAAAAHAHAHAAAA! {TOUCHDOWN!}”\n\n\tBonnie’s screams were drowned out by the crowd as Machamp helped Dedenne embrace her inner Minior, and watched in horror as her starter made reentry with a fiery orange streak.\n\n\tDedenne made impact and then a tidal wave of powdered concrete smothered the entire arena beneath a comically large mushroom cloud of ashen smoke that sprouted up into the sky. (Machamp vehemently insisted that the mushroom cloud was [u]absolutely[/u] necessary to properly execute the technique, of course.) The heavy, airborne debris settled in seconds, revealing the fallout.\n\nDedenne laid totally motionless at the bottom of a ten foot wide crater, popping with pitiful sparks.\n\nMachamp stuck the landing at the end of a perfect hextuple somersault right at the edge of the battle zone and flashed quadruple v-signs at the crowd, closing his eyes to skip being blinded in the camera flash firework display that followed.\n\nVaporeon clapped and giggled aloud at the gratuitous display of destruction.\n\nBonnie was locked inside an eternal, vacant expression before Dedenne finally stirred to life and puked a fountain of claret up into the air.\n\n“Deeey! Dend-” runaway voltage danced around her body as she choked on another gout of blood and vomit, guts heaving to keep from drowning.\n\n\tThe announcer drone bobbed up and down. “Dedenne is unable to continue. Faint penalty. Opposition Switch?”\n\n\t“Bonnie! C’mon, sis!” Clemont shouted as he fell from Magenton with a thud.\n\n\tHis voice splashed against her like a bucket of water and she fuddled around with Dedenne’s love ball. “R-right! Return!” \n\n\t“Shall I step in, Master Clemont?” Carlisle asked as he, completely out of nowhere, yanked a cast iron ball and chain out of his suit coat lining and slung it over his shoulder. “That brute looks like he could use a polite talking-to.”\n\n\tClemont shook his head and stepped up beside his sister. “Not yet, old boy. Time to work together, sis.”\n\n\t“No switch!” Richard shook his head and laughed. “What, not ready to cough up those badges just yet?”\n\nClemont expanded a premier ball in his grip. “Nah, you can have them, friends. Be sure to save us shipping by carrying them home with you on the way out. Heliolisk, go!”\n\nMachamp smacked his fists together, hunched forward with excitement. “Ooooh hoo hoo, chaaahmp!”\n\n\tHeliolisk appeared in the middle of the arena, pointy frills twitching as it hissed and curled up in a defensive coil at the airborne stones threatening to bleed him out. It barked with a sharp buzzing noise and squealed out a shrill warning call, hidden within a thorny bush of electrical vines. Around its wrists were a pair of gold bracelets set with tiny brown stones.\n\n\tSpinel could feel the rush of static tugging at his fur all the way from his position behind the trainer’s box and he folded his tendrils up beneath his body with a paw over his mouth in awe at the insane power on display. He looked up at Richard and marveled at the fact that his man could somehow just stare into the eyes of oblivion like that with loose shoulders and a smile cool as orange island iced tea.\n\n\tClemont smirked, the glare of his glasses hiding his eyes. “Heliolisk here has enough pent up energy to power the Prism Tower three times over. How’s your grounding these days, Rich?”\n\n\tRichard pointed his finger with a scowl. “Ey! The only freaky egghead ‘gets to call me ‘Rich’ is standing over here!”\n\nFor a fraction of a second, Emil broke from his migraine and smiled.\n\nClemont’s head tilted with a smirk. “Thirty million pika-joules oughta be enough.”\n\nRichard scoffed. “Wh[i]oah[/i], that's a big number, nerd!”\n\nEmil squinted. [i]That’d be a proper Thunder strike on a charged field like this. No way he’d just announce an inaccurate move like that.[/i]\n\n\t“Sandstorm!” Clemont commanded, and his Pokemon started running around in a wide circle.\n\n\tMachamp tried to advance on the enemy in time, leaping into the air, but he was swept up in a swirling vortex of brown grit that hid the entire battle zone from view.\n\n\tRichard brought his sunglasses down over his eyes. “Switch out!” he declared, reaching for Rhydon’s ball.\n\n\t“Rich, wait.”\n\n\tA lantern of crimson light appeared in the sandpaper cloud and was swept out of harms way.\n\n\tEmil leaned to the side, head starting to rattle beneath the bright, electrical cymbals of lighting crashing within the earthen vortex before them. “He’s bluffing.”\n\n\t“Yea?” Richard scratched his chin, immersing himself in the possibilities.\n\n\t“That thing knows Surf.”\n\n\tVaporeon glared at Richard as he briefly considered sending in his queen bee of the sea. “No.”\n\n\tRich wagged his chin, compared all his options at warp speed, and then aimed a ray of energy from a [u]different[/u] Pokeball in his palm into the Sandstorm curtain. \n\n\tThe swarm of Rotom drones backed away as the storm threatened to carry them away. “Ooooh, a silent release….what secrets await Heliolisk within?”\n\n\tClemont’s mouth tightened up with an paralyzed frown, struck still in a fit of anxious analysis.\n\n\tBonnie clenched her fist in wet-eyed anger. Following basic type theory, she went for an obvious play she’d rehearsed a hundred times before, failing to recognize the delicate, strategic ballet still running on stage. “Heliolisk! Use Surf!”\n\n\tImagine, if you will, a howling whirlwind of sand and obsidian glass that boomed with unpredictable flashes of ball lightning. Now imagine it suddenly shaken up into a brown, silty milkshake of razors and high voltage wires; roaring, humming, shrieking… rumbling with the bass-drum laughter of a ticklish Torterra.\n\n“Haaaa. Haaaa. Haaaa.”\n\n\tThe front seat crazies started bracing for impact, readily donning protective gear in response to being splashed with a whip of mud and sharpened chitin. All except the solitary frontrow virgin who practically backflipped out of his seat and bent over behind it, taking his first ‘Smoothie’ like a little bitch.\n\n\tCarlisle brought an old fashioned pair of bifocals up to his eyes. “Goodness gracious…”\n\n\tClemont slouched forward with teeth bared. “Guess we’re committed now.”\n\n\tBonnie’s eyes became saucers full of freshly poured doubt. “Oh Azelf… Please…” she whispered as her head turned back and forth, trying to stop herself from slipping into that deep pit of despair which dragged the hearts of all men down to Distortion.\n\nShe clenched her fingers in a shaky superhero’s pose. “Oh yeah? Just keep on laughing! There’s nowhere left to hide, now! No matter what you do, you’re toast. Heliolisk, Dragon Tail!.”\n\n\tEmil tried to keep his attention fixed to the fight, but faded in and out as his skull pounded in time with his pulse while their team tank was thrown up and out of bounds.\n\nHer shell shattered the cement where her belly flopped down and she slumped to the ground, out of breath from laughter and torn with physical exhaustion.\n\n\tEmil snagged Torterra’s ball from Richard and recalled the gentle giant, releasing her behind the tainer’s box where Spinel laid in wait to pounce with tender loving care. He wiped cuts and bruises clean before applying potion concentrates, laid her head atop a stack of cushions he ‘borrowed’ from one of the couches in the contestant waiting room, and started massaging her cramped up muscles free from the effects of what was nothing short of a second-hand toaster bath.\n\nRichard was in that special sort of trance; accessible to him now that the stakes were high and the risks were too many to bother counting anymore. “If we’re not careful this might sweep us, Em,” he said with a Gengar’s grin, scraping mud off his shades.\n\n\tEmil nodded, recognizing that the battle had roiled up into a frothing soup of late-stage entropy that Richard was far more experienced and equipped to handle. “Do your thing, Bro.”\n\n\tHis head bobbed down once. “Thanks, Brother.”\n\n\tThe judge drones wiped their lenses clean with tiny, telescoping windshield wipers. “What an insane spectacle folks! You might call that one the Tortado!”\n\nThe audience groaned in pain as lumps of pun cancer riddled their brains.\n\n“Faint penalty. Opposition switch?”\n\n\tBonnie and Clemont raised their fists.\n\t\n\tRichard plucked a Pokeball from his belt and winced as he rolled it around in his fingers.\n\n\t[i]Someones’ gotta be the bait. Sorry, buddy.[/i]\n\n\tMachamp appeared in the air above that sloppy swirlpool of death made horrible reality, and his mouth opened with surprise as he tumbled down, down, down. “Macho-cho, Chaaamp?!”\n\n\t“Give it to ‘em, slugger!”\n\n\tMachamp shrugged, remembering that this was the life he never really signed up for but still loved more than anything else in the world, and grabbed his knees for a cataclysmic cannonball. “Eeee Haaa!”\n\n\tEvery over-encouraging newbie coach loved to tell all the tiny drops in the vast sea of wide-eyed washups to ‘trust their instincts’ like it was the first thing you did before catching a Caterpie. Any master instructor worth their time wouldn’t be caught dead wasting their breath like that.\n\nInstinct wasn’t some foundational skill… it was a curse that kept the old fuckers climbing the mount.\n\n\tRichard knew that even the softest kiss of electrical shock in there would finish any of his remaining ‘Mon but Metagross, and he needed her for the two monsters Clemont had lying in wait. Rhydon would drown in an instant… he had to time it just right… the chance he’d catch some helpful physical, auditory, or visual cue was all but gone… Both trainers had buckled in with their theory and technique as far as they could, called upon their tightest parries and ripostes, and walked the wobbly tightrope of impromptu plays just to end up circling the meanest crapper in Distortion, mid-flush.\n\nAll he had left was instinct, and It was in those unsure moments that true battlers drank inspiration up from the subconscious slurry of study, practice, and experience brewed from lifetimes of intense, non-stop, all-or-nothing competition. You can’t teach that shit to anyone, nobody can.\n\n\tHe held his breath, counting the heartbeats in his ears as licks of mud splashed against his jeans like a stormy sea beating the sails of an ancient ranger’s skiff. \n\n\t[i]Now![/i] \n\n“Machamp, Escape Pack!”\n\n\tMachamp didn’t waste a single millisecond hesitating, he pinched the tiny drawstring between his thumb and forefinger and was yanked across the raging storm, ragdolled by the wrist. He was reeled in by an invisible fishing line connected to Richard’s palm as a yellow, buzzing disc narrowly missed his legs. “Wooooohaaaa!” he hooted, cheeks splattering with mud as they flapped in the wind, and then he melted into red energy just before bowling his trainer over.\n\n\tJust as Machamp popped free, a sky-shattering lightning bolt crashed down from the clouds and both teams were nearly swept out of their trainers boxes in an unbearable blast of static and steam. The hideous torrent bubbled and hissed and snapped, its center barely containing a colossal ball of plasma atomizing the air within.\n\nRichard watched the glowing center of the arena slowly fade, clutching his next Pokeball, and felt out the moment like wind on a wetted finger.\n\t\n\t[i]Time to get stupid.[/i]\n\n\tRichard chucked it into the murky wall of death, knowing the creature within would be released to the clearest, safest area possible after a time.\n\n\tHe bent over with his hands cupped over his mouth and screamed as loud as he could.\n\n\t“Incineroar! Crush your Flame Orb! Ignite! Give it EVERYTHING YOU HAVE! Down to the last spark! Everyone is depending on you, BLOW THAT THING APART!”\n\n\tHe didn’t need to tell her what move to use; he knew exactly what she would do, stuck on stage in the spotlight, back against the wall, staring down a million expecting eyes. It would be her signature speciality, the one thing he knew for sure would get him every ounce of her effort. Burning Jealousy.\n\n\tRoaring, rushing, cracking, ear deafening silence… then the toll of shattering glass in a cage of angry claws. At the center of the torrent a spark of yellow and red popped, burbled and popped again, then its watery guts swelled with flame and flashed boiled around a white-hot lump of starlight. \n\n“YrrrrrblblbllrrrrrroooooOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLL!” her silhouette screamed within, holding some dark, squirming thing in her clutches.\n\n\tThe battle zone was cloaked in a haze of spinning flames, billowing steam, and sparkling arcs. The audience screamed and panicked as hot, muddy water that tingled the skin showered down upon them. Several judge drones were knocked out of the sky and tumbled across the ground coughing and spluttering. Even the veteran front seat freaks joined their one weaker brother behind the benches, shielding their faces from the wicked sauna rolling out across them.\n\n\tIncineroar stood there at the center of the ring, hunched over a charbroiled Heliolisk with its neck trapped in her paw. She sucked up fresh, cool air at long last and heaved with wisps of inky mist that slithered around her snarling teeth, eyes flushed clean with pure, indignant rage. \n\n\t“Roaaaaaar!” She hurled Heliolisk’s limp, twitching body back at Clemont and then spat on the ground.\n\nThe People of Lumiose and abroad popped out of their seats like kernels in an open pan, rapping the air with a raucous cheering that all of Lumiose-East could hear. But Incineroar didn’t catch a peep of it behind the unbearable ringing in her ears, the searing pain threading through her nerves, and the inferno of pride that Richard had just stoked up and set free.\n\n\tBonnie’s eyes were stuck open in a complete panic, and shouted in distress as she tossed her final ball without considering what might happen as Clemont recalled his ‘Mon.\n\n\t“Bonnie, no!” Clemont shouted in slow motion, too late to make a difference as his head followed the ball’s trajectory down to Incineroar’s feet.\n\n\tStunfisk flopped out again, landed down in what it recognized as a muddy field, and flarped happily as it started wriggling around, burying itself in the muck.\n\n\tIncineroar’s fangs bunched up into a vicious smile.\n\n\tShe set the air ablaze again and a swirling furnace swallowed up the sky. \n\n\tEmil rolled his shoulders and hiked Vaporeon up as his body’s soreness caught up with his skull. “That’s a bit much for little old Stunfisk, isn’t it?”\n\n\tRich shrugged again. “I’ll take what I can get after a close call like that!”\n\n\tThe mud all across the arena was instantly desiccated to a field of brittle, brown flakes as Incineroar cawed and yeowled, squeezing her body for every scrap of energy she could release. She pushed up to that exact moment the body started giving way, when her claws started to unwind like screws and her fur shed like dead evergreen needles. Then she stopped as her foot found a wriggling bit of humidity squealing in the oven beneath a burnt crust of earthen tile, and plucked it up.\n\n\tTired and unwilling to show it, Incineroar tried to punt Stunfisk out of the arena, but Bonnie’s Pokemon hit the ground and flopped to a stop inches away from the edge of the ring. Then the fires in the air vanished, leaving behind the wobbly, burnt-out husk of a once ferocious feline.\n\n\t“Stunfisk, use Mud-Shot!” Bonnie growled with tears falling from her eyes. “Make it thick and chunky!”\n\nIncineroar was smothered in a sticky, brown ooze that hissed and plopped as it cooled her body down to a pathetic simmer. She snarled and swiped, roared and bit, but each time she tried to break free she was coated in yet another heavy layer of filth. Then Stunfisk finished the job with a powerful shockwave that locked her in place.\n\nClemont stood in shock. “Coup de pot… Whew!”\n\nIncineroar finally stopped moving when her entire body slumped over, encased in a curly, steaming blob of dark brown sludge with her head half-stuck out the side like a nugget of corn.\n\nVaporeon shuddered and winced at the sight of her nemesis waking to discover she had become a helpless, humiliated, victim stuck hacking up gobs of her enemy’s shit. \n\nThe drones finally started getting back into formation and the lead shouted, “Incineroar is unable to continue! Faint penalty, Opposition switch?” they asked as the laughter of the crowd finally died down enough for them to be heard.\n\nRichard pulled her back to her ball and set her free behind where Spinel was fussing over Torterra, and it was instantly clear something was very, very wrong with Incineroar as she flopped over herself into a ragged heap.\n\nThe flames of victory weren’t the only thing snuffed out inside her.\n\nShe’d been eliminated many times since they got her from the tradehouse; not once did she let it cool her jets. She was a prickly, precocious monster of a Litten from a well known breeder, brimming with potential. Yet there she was, slapped with clearance stickers and a tattered pedigree rolled under her collar. The seller admitted that finding trainers willing to deal with her rotten personality just wasn’t worth it anymore, and Nature Clinic slots were hard to come by, so Team Stone snatched her up for less than a junky, used sedan.\n\nShe came exactly as advertised, with a complementary case of abandonment to unpack as well.\n\nBut the struggles she put them through with her uncooperative attitude paid out in spades. Each time Incineroar woke from a faint or tumbled out of bounds she’d scratch the floor, howl at the gods and herself, then stomp around and train until she collapsed with exhaustion. Win or lose, she’d always come back meaner, stronger, faster. It got even more intense when Vaporeon showed up and her destined place as ace of the team was placed into question. Normally, in a big match like that, she’d peel herself off the floor, smother herself in medicine and smoke, and leer attentively as the rest of the fight went on.\n\nThis time, however, as Spinel gave her a big, obnoxiously affectionate hug and started rubbing her down with pain relieving creams, she let him lay her down however he wished, compliant as a corpse.\n\nHer head was propped up with a plush folded quilt as fresh water trickled down her throat. Draped in a cold shroud of wet towels, only her chest dared to move, heaving up and down with long, haggard breaths. She closed her eyes, unable to face the crowd that confronted her in every direction, the teammates she’d let down, or the spoiled princess she struggled to outclass.\n\nVaporeon glared with icey hatred across the field at Bonnie as the girl recalled her Pokemon.\n\n[center]“{How [u]dare[/u] you.}”\n[/center]\n\n",
  "writing_bbcode_parsed": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'><div class='align_center'>Forbidden Waters - 23<br /></div><br /><br />&ldquo;GO!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie pressed a button on her utility belt and pink membranous wings folded out into place between her hips and arms. &ldquo;Go, Emolga! Double Team!&rdquo; she shouted as she and Clemont recalled Dedenne, Stunfisk, and Heliolisk.<br />\t<br />\tHer Emolga spun through the air in a corkscrew, and suddenly one mostly-visible varmint became two blurry, imperceptible varmint shaped blobs. <br /><br />\tEmil adjusted his glasses, squinting, then he reached into his pocket for a few nondescript 00 capsules filled with a sticky, amber ichor. <br /><br />He knew that certain meds were illegal for Pokemon to use during a match, but very little was laid out in the official rules about the kinds of chemicals trainers could use. In fact, it was common for certain trainers to use steroids and other enhancers to build their bodies so they could train physically with their Pokemon. Nadine was probably no stranger to this practice, though he was sure she was a complete naturalist herself, and elite Poison Specialists had to keep a pharmacy on hand just to stave off the inevitable. <br /><br />The tournament meant a lot to Rich, and that made it matter all the more to Emil knowing how crushed he&rsquo;d be if they were to lose to some tiny, insignificant detail either of them somehow missed.<br /><br />Before leaving he&rsquo;d spent weeks absorbing gobs of chemistry research data, looking for anything that could give himself an edge as a trainer without breaking the rules. After very nearly giving up in a fit of frustration, he finally hunted down a refined herbal remedy from the rural, mountainous areas of Johto. Articles on the topic were hot off the presses, considered bleeding edge research, and he had to pay significant cash just to get access years before approval of public release, but it was just the thing he&rsquo;d been looking for.<br /><br />A nootropic medicine made by extracting compounds found within the body parts of two different Pokemon: Pansage Leaves and Stantler Orbs. Both were concentrated in wildly different processes, mixed together, and suspended in an edible resin to protect the salts from oxidation. The stuff was odorless but tasted totally unbearable, leaving him retching at the mere suggestion of it going anywhere near his mouth, so he used a clay extruder to pipe it into some caps; problem solved.<br /><br />Good thing his dealer was strapped for cash, because some of the hazardous controlled substances needed to capture the freebase made the guy&rsquo;s face go white. <br /><br />He knew Vaporeon would slap him silly if she put together what he was up to, especially after all the Venomoth Dust withdrawals she and Rich had helped him through after cutting him cold-taillow. He made his plans weeks in advance, with the components stored in all different places all around the house.<br /><br />The deed was done slow, stealthy, and clean alongside his ritual consumption of coffee and academic texts while Vaporeon snoozed away an easy Sunday morning. Emil sterilized his workshop, disposed of the waste just before trash pickup, and then returned to bed after an incredibly abrasive shower with his Honey none the wiser.<br /><br />Not to be underestimated, of course, because she instantly noticed something was wrong when she woke and began sniffing around the property, trying to follow the source of some alien odor that had long been carted away by the department of sanitation. She did so the entire day before giving up in a huff, squinting at her mate the entire day.<br /><br />When she was taken by the Joys in the Pokemon center for checkups, he&rsquo;d tested the drug in gradually higher amounts, finding his metabolic tolerances. As far as he could tell, there were no lasting ill effects on his body or mind. Headaches immediately afterwards, but nothing chronic, and none of the compounds present in the admixture had any known carcinogenic or mutagenic properties&hellip;<br /><br />&hellip;so he rubbed Vaporeon&rsquo;s cheek to direct her attention away, popped one of the caps and took a swig from his water bottle, ready to get serious.<br /><br /><br /><em>(As for what it </em><span class='underline'><em>actually</em></span><em> did, well&hellip;)</em><br /><br /><br />&ldquo;Rhydon!&rdquo; Richard pumped his fist. &ldquo;Iron Defense!&rdquo;<br /><br />Rhydon squatted down and his armor plating started to glow with a silver light.<br /><br /><br /><em>(...It wasn&rsquo;t instantaneous&hellip;)</em><br /><br /><br />Bonnie grinned. &ldquo;Agility!&rdquo;<br /><br />The twin smudges of yellow and white and black started zipping around the air in long z-shaped paths, doubling Emolga&rsquo;s velocity at the very least.<br /><br />Richard clapped his hands together. &ldquo;Swords! Dance! Boiii!&rdquo;<br /><br />As Rhydon stumbled around, trying to manifest one of the techniques he struggled with the most, Emil could feel his heart starting to race. He took deeper and deeper breaths to support the rate of circulatory flow, doing his best to stave off the fleeting hyperventilation he felt setting in; an anticipated secondary effect, easily offset with good respiratory control.<br /><br />Vaporeon felt his elevated heart rate through his neck and nuzzled him with concern. It felt like he had a fever, but he didn&rsquo;t seem sick when they were mating just a few hours ago. &ldquo;Nervous, Emmi?&rdquo;<br /><br /><br /><em>(....but bit by bit&hellip;)</em><br /><br /><br />\tRichard looked over at Emil, smirking. &ldquo;Looks like a classic Elise strat,&rdquo; he said, recalling everyone on the sidelines for rapid release and recall. All except Vaporeon, of course, because he&rsquo;d rather not upset the morale boost she got being draped around the shoulders of her pet human.<br /><br />\tEmil remarked that Richard&rsquo;s glistening green eyes had a tiny shade of aqua near the pupil, something he&rsquo;d never noticed and now greatly appreciated. Every feature of Richard&rsquo;s face came into painstaking, realer than life resolution. He felt like he could count the tiny, budding specks of stubble he didn&rsquo;t have time to shave away that morning after a full night of finding himself.<br /><br />\tHe nodded to both of them, brushing his fingertips along Vaporeon&rsquo;s fins. He suddenly pulled them away, thinking he&rsquo;d received a shock, but realized an instant later that it was just the heightened sensitivity in his extremities. Gently, like toes dipped in freezing water before a swimmer slowly submerged, he laid his palm against her cheek and kissed her paw.<br /><br />\tThe sensation against his lips lit his skin ablaze and stood his hairs on end.<br /><br /><br /><em>(...the jumbled puzzle of colliding causes-and-effects that composed the world&hellip;)</em><br /><br /><br />But he knew there were other things at hand far more important than the totally <span class='underline'>overwhelming</span> smell of sex on everyones&#039; bodies, the tiny scratches left in Richard&rsquo;s signature leather bomber jacket by Incineroar during her special training, or the fact that one of his buddy&rsquo;s knuckles still looked slightly out of sorts after being released from the splint.<br /><br /><em>Oops, right, focus Emmi, focus.</em><br /><br />Emil&rsquo;s head barely moved at all. &ldquo;Elise and &lsquo;lil something extra; charm cycle, if the gym records are right. Don&rsquo;t keep Rhydon in too long. He&rsquo;s got the weakest mental fortitude.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRichard nodded. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got the best typing, but I&rsquo;ll keep that in mind.&rdquo; His voice was easily audible, despite the subtle whispers they were speaking in. &ldquo;GET that crap outta here, girl! Rhydon! ROAR!&rdquo;<br /><br />\t<br /><em>(...began to realign, rearrange, and snap themselves into focus&hellip;)</em><br /><br /><br />Bonnie punched the air, screaming &ldquo;Rapid Spin, Emolga!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRhydon opened his mouth to send Emolga back to the belt, but growled in frustration as the wisp of squeaking colors in the air abruptly turned ninety degrees on a trajectory straight for his face and smashed against the spot right between the eyes. Emolga&rsquo;s insane velocity somehow increased as she ricocheted off his skull, a squeaking mad &lsquo;mon fueled by ill-gotten energy.<br /><br />\tEmil watched Emolga&rsquo;s movements, now suddenly able to follow her with better resolution. He could just barely perceive her rapidly banking left and right with expertly executed barrel-rolls, the source of her Double Team afterimages. Her body had a faint, white, glowing outline around her body that grew as she pumped more and more energy into her moves. But, something wasn&rsquo;t right&hellip;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Oooooohhhh! Surprise wildcard move! Emolga don&rsquo;t learn that move in the wild, that&rsquo;s for sure!&rdquo; the announcer praised the opposition.<br /><br /><br /><em>(...revealing the impossibly vivid reflection of a world on fire&hellip;)</em><br /><br /><br />\tShe slammed into Rhydon over, and over, and over again, striking the same spot between his eyes. Not normally a problem for the Team Stone&rsquo;s resident raging blockhead; however, each time she grazed across him tiny sparks rained around Rhydon&rsquo;s cheeks and his muscles were jittering from what Emil could tell was an imminent case of paralysis setting in. Emolga was putting her Static gene to work.<br /><br />\tRichard winced. &ldquo;If she doesn&rsquo;t know Baton Pass it&rsquo;d be a crime. Yer right, Cinny&rsquo;ll set her straight,&rdquo; he said, reaching for his belt.<br /><br />Emil could sense a faint, nervous quiver in his friend&rsquo;s voice, perhaps even a little bit of an insecure sigh. He could tell Richard sensed something was up too, but couldn&rsquo;t quite place the feeling to reality.<br /><br />\tThen he spotted the metallic, lavender glint of something held between Emolga&rsquo;s hind paws&hellip;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;No!&rdquo; Emil put his arm up sideways, palm turned towards Rich, fingers clutching at the air repeatedly. His gaze remained locked onto Emolga&rsquo;s ballistic maneuvers, eyes darting around in time with her movements. &ldquo;Gimme his ball.&rdquo; He felt all the branching tunnels in his lungs expand at once as he readied to scream, &ldquo;HOLD ON RHYDON! Meditate! Breathe! Stay in control!&rdquo;<br /><br /><br /><em>(...where each and every trail of smoke was made as plain as his own name&hellip;)</em><br /><br /><br />Bonnie hopped up and down, skipping in place with unchecked elation. &ldquo;Ha haaaaa! Great work, Emolga, all those months of training paid off! Hooray!&rdquo; She smacked a button on her belt, and her figure was haloed in technicolor fireworks from her backpack.<br /><br />Carlisle gave a gentleman&rsquo;s clap. &ldquo;Sensational, young Mistress.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRhydon was angry, furious, downright ornery. His eyes were beginning to pop from the pure, unfettered rage that broiled inside him; he wanted to take Bonnie and her fluttering runt and twist them between his claws and drink the juice. But when he heard Emilio&rsquo;s voice, screaming at the end of the long tunnel between himself and Rhydon&rsquo;s dark little world, he was shocked into submission. Friend Emilo never yelled at anyone! His voice was like the gentle whisper of the lawn sprinklers he liked to listen to as the sun came up back home; always full of a cool, patient empathy that chilled him like the grassy morning dewdrops soothing his feet during warmups.<br /><br />\tSo, as far as he was concerned, if Friend Emilio was screaming at you, you fucking listened.<br /><br />\tRhydon closed his eyes, wincing at every single machine gun strike that made purchase against his crackling temple, but he managed to breathe out and fall to his ass with an earth-shaking thud. His small shift in position made Emolga miss him by an inch and she tumbled to the ground behind him, needing to scramble back up into the air and regain her lost momentum.<br /><br /><br /><em>(...the intricate clockwork behind the numbers on Dialga&rsquo;s face was free for all to see&hellip;)</em><br /><br /><br />\tEmil waited in patient agony for Richard to slowly turn his head in confusion and respond.<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Whaaa? Didn&rsquo;t y&ndash;&rdquo; his voice was sluggish, spilling past his lips like honey from a cold beaker.<br /><br />\tEmil cut him off. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t let her switch. Give. Me. The. <span class='underline'>BALL</span>!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie finished her little dance. &ldquo;A little more, Emolga; he&rsquo;s on the ground, you&rsquo;ve got him! Just a little proof that type advantage is a mere suggestion when you&rsquo;re at the top. Lesson learned, boys.&rdquo;<br /><br /><em>\t</em>Richard knew better than to deny Team Stone&rsquo;s resident cave-dwelling wizard his material components. &ldquo;Think fast,&rdquo; he said, tossing Rhydon&rsquo;s confinement device.<br /><br />\tEmil&rsquo;s hand felt the shifting of the air as the ball approached his palm, and his fingers cradled it with grace. His gaze locked onto Bonnie, who was busy cartwheeling her victory over Rhydon, releasing showers of confetti as she giggled and spun around.<br /><br />&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; he muttered with pupils widening as the world washed across his cortex at a torrent&rsquo;s pace, &ldquo;Go on, show me that winner&rsquo;s face.&rdquo;<br /><br /><br /><em>(...and each of the turquoise gears within spoke their purpose true.)</em><br /><br />\t<br />\tRhydon folded his legs together and crossed his arms, humming like Friend Emilio taught every morning for the last year, summoning up every scrap of self control he had to keep his whole body from shaking with a chronic paralysis or flying into a legendary berserking tantrum.<br /><br />\tThe air around his spinning horn lit up under the intense fireworks display sparking off him as Emolga worked to drive themselves through Rhydon&rsquo;s brain, on to victory.<br /><br /><br /><em>(He liked gazing into that argent mirror.)</em><br /><br /><br />\tBonnie stood proud at the end of a pirouette that fanned out her cape, and she stopped with it in her hand, hiding behind it like a magician about to unveil some great mystery. &ldquo;Sorry, Rhydon. But&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br />\tEmil&rsquo;s cheek twitched as he watched Bonnie&rsquo;s theatrical expression loosen up, twisting into an arrogant smirk. She swung her arm up in a beckoning arc dozens of videos he&rsquo;d examined of her matches, in and out of the gym.<br /><br />\t<em>There!</em><br /><br />\tHe brought the ball up to his mouth, pressing its force-command switch. &ldquo;Rhydon&hellip; Use Stealth Rock!&rdquo; he hissed.<br /><br />\tRhydon&rsquo;s horn started spinning as it glowed with a rich, umber nebula. Tiny, razor sharp flakes of his carapace started chipping off, and the knapped bladelets fell around him in a fat heap all around his arse.<br />\t<br /><br /><em>(Things made sense there.)</em><br /><br /><br />\t&ldquo;Emolga. Baton Pass!&rdquo; Bonnie sang with a mock operatic tremble.<br /><br />\tRhydon rose to his feet, head cracked open with a bloody split, one eye swollen shut, and then he thrust both his arms up into the air with a furious, &ldquo;DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!&rdquo; Sharpened stone scales sprayed out in all directions, polluting the air with a million edges and points.<br /><br />\tRichard gasped as he suddenly realized what Emil was up to. &ldquo;Oh holy cra&mdash;&rdquo;<br /><br />\tEmolga flashed white like a star, gathering up immense amounts of momentum and evasive focus from her body that formed into a brilliant white rod in her paws&hellip;<br /><br />\t&hellip;then she haplessly fired herself back towards her trainer, at maximum speed, plunging straight through a fog of obsidian-edged blades. Her body burst into a spray of fine red mist, showering the arena in tiny specks of blood, and she screamed out of the arena with a hundred gushing, parallel lacerations. <br /><br />\tBonnie&rsquo;s hands slapped her mouth and she gasped in horror as Emolga finished tumbling at the end of a long, crimson smear. Her baton hit the ground and exploded into a cloud of white sparks, taking a chunk of concrete out with it, and the gem she was holding shattered into dust.<br /><br />\tEmolga reached around her body, soaking her paws in deep, oozing wounds. Her wings were shredded into grisly, beaded curtains and she felt a bloody stump where her ear used to be. She reached up for Bonnie in a panic. &ldquo;Mooolll&hellip;.&rdquo; her throat gurgled. &ldquo;...Gaaaa!&rdquo; she cried, shaking in a pool of her own blood as shock started setting in.<br /><br />\tThe crowd roared with satisfaction at the sudden, visceral turnaround.<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Return move Interrupt; Emolga is <span class='underline'>out</span> <span class='underline'>of</span> <span class='underline'>bounds</span>!&rdquo; the Rotom Drone declared.<br /><br />\tCarlisle shook his head. &ldquo;Oh! How dreadful!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie teared up a little bit as she held her Pokeball out to recall her earthbound baby. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s ok, you&rsquo;ll be at the center soon.&rdquo;<br /><br /><span style=\"color: #3d85c6;\"><span class='strikethrough'><span class='underline'><strong><em> </em></strong></span></span></span><br /><br />\tItching at the uncomfortable sensation of woven fibers rubbing against his skin, Fran&ccedil;ois gritted his teeth from a plush spectator&rsquo;s sofa in one of the Crown&rsquo;s luxurious, private observation boxes. He was surrounded by confused, distant relatives; most being totally oblivious to the fact that they were related to a famous edutainment personality. &ldquo;Sacre bleu, Emilio!&rdquo; he coughed, and then took a long swig of water from a three gallon jug in his lap.<br /><br />He felt a hand on his shoulder, looked over his shoulder at nobody, and then frantically whipped his head the other way as Valorie and Fenny plopped onto the sofa beside him, chuckling. &ldquo;Sup, pepe. Ain&rsquo;t often I get the drop on ya. Didn&rsquo;t ye smell me comin&rsquo; up the tower?&rdquo;<br /><br />He gasped as he finished another long drink. &ldquo;Oh, Valorie, it is so difficult to pay attention to anything else when I must bear witness to this masochistic <span class='underline'>butchery</span>.&rdquo;<br /><br />She threw her arm over Fran&ccedil;ois&rsquo; shoulders, snuggling into his luxurious, cerulean chenille gown, knowing the warmth of their bodies touching would soothe him some. &ldquo;Hmmm, dunno if it&#039;s <span class='underline'>that</span> bad, hadda put a half-eaten Tribesmate outta their misery more&rsquo;n once. &lsquo;Least folks get a mighty fine slappin when a &lsquo;mon dies &lsquo;ere,&rdquo; she said, playfully acting in Darkrai&rsquo;s defense. <br /><br />Fran&ccedil;ois sighed and rested his head on her neck as Fenny leaned over the railing of the observation deck with his tail wagging at the fantastic view and the insane spectacle of it all. &ldquo;<span class='underline'>That</span> is the natural order of Arceus&rsquo; design, <span class='underline'>this</span> is manufactured, systematic brutality&ndash;&rdquo;<br /><br />She smirked. &ldquo;All fer bets n&rsquo; laughs n&rsquo; human eyes?&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;Precisely!&rdquo; he blustered, &ldquo;it should be banned and reviled, my&mdash; Quoi?&rdquo; he paused as he felt a tug on his sleeve.<br /><br />A tiny girl in a gorgeous, Shaymin print dress giggled as her parents frantically hissed and cajoled her to come back and sit down. &ldquo;Hello there, mister sir. Are you &lsquo;Mr. G?&rsquo;&rdquo; she asked in a very rough and painfully formal Interregional accent.<br /><br />He beamed with delight and gave her a friendly nod. &ldquo;Oui, demoiselle. Quel est votre nom, s&#039;il vous pla&icirc;t?&rdquo;<br /><br />Her parents covered their faces in humiliation as she swayed around, brushing the floor with the hem of her dress. &ldquo;Seline, Ma&icirc;tre.&rdquo;<br /><br />Mon and Dad breathed sighs of relief in unison as their daughter used the correct address.<br /><br />&ldquo;Enchant&eacute;, Seline. On s&#039;est d&eacute;j&agrave; vu non?&rdquo; he asked, and took a massive gulp of water.<br /><br />Val rolled her eyes. &ldquo;Would&rsquo;a loved kids, &lsquo;bet,&rdquo; she whispered to herself.<br /><br />The little girl gasped. &ldquo;<span class='underline'>Moi</span>?&rdquo;<br /><br />He raised his chin and placed a pale finger to his lips in thought. &ldquo;Je pourrais jamais oublier telle beau visage.&rdquo;<br /><br />She giggled. &ldquo;Mais on ne se conna&icirc;t pas!&rdquo;<br /><br />He chuckled back. &ldquo;J&#039;&eacute;tais l&agrave; quand tu&rsquo;s n&eacute;&hellip;&rdquo; and then he leaned towards her, pointing to his eyes. &ldquo;...et je t&#039;ai vu depuis le grand r&eacute;servoir.&rdquo;<br /><br />She breathed in with excitement. &ldquo;S&eacute;rieux?!&rdquo;<br /><br />He smirked and then winked at her. &ldquo;La semaine derni&egrave;re, en fait.&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;C&#039;est tellement inou&iuml;!&rdquo; She laughed and danced around, nearly knocking over an antique end-table.<br /><br />He laughed with her, infected by her elation. &ldquo;Qu&#039;est se Pok&eacute;mon favori?&rdquo;<br /><br />She leaned back and forth with her hands behind her back. &ldquo;Aquali!&rdquo;<br /><br />He gasped in exaggerated surprise. &ldquo;Quelle chance! Vous verrez se nageoires magnifique ce jour, petite demoiselle.&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;Je connais! C&rsquo;est &eacute;tonnant!&rdquo; She stopped prancing around and groaned as her mother came to pull her away, apologizing profusely for so rudely interrupting his afternoon out with his wife.<br /><br />The adult and child both protested at her being pulled away, but Seline managed to turn her head back to wave goodbye, saying, &ldquo;Vous avez de si beaux yeux!&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;Merci, demoiselle. Profitez du spectacle!&rdquo; He sighed with a smile and snuggled back up to Valorie. &ldquo;{Salve for the soul.}&rdquo;<br /><br />Val hummed and crossed her legs as she looked at her Fenny, then winced a little as she looked away. &ldquo;{I bet it is.}&rdquo;<br /><br /><span style=\"color: #3d85c6;\"><span class='strikethrough'><span class='underline'><strong><em> </em></strong></span></span></span><br /><br />\tEmil tossed the Pokeball back at Richard. &ldquo;Sorry, no time to mince words.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRichard coughed and smiled, clapping his hands. &ldquo;Holy shit, Em. Rep-re-sent!&rdquo;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Rhydon, Rhydon, Rhydon!&rdquo; the crowd chanted as the beast pumped his fists and shook the megaphones on their poles with a roar that rattled the front-seaters&rsquo; skulls.<br /><br />\tRotom Number Five turned back and forth, saying, &ldquo;Faint penalty! Opposition switch?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tEmil pointed with a lazy slouch. &ldquo;Might wanna get him outta there, meditation only goes so far.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRhydon started snarling at the crowd and snapping at Rotom Drones as they zipped by. He dug deep furrows in the cement with his claws, threatening to charge, huffing at the very edge of the arena&rsquo;s boundary.<br /><br />Emil stuck his hands in his pockets. &ldquo;Scratch that, he&rsquo;s totally losing his shit.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRichard bared his teeth like a wild Hex. &ldquo;Nah, Em. We worked on his patience, and I can tell it&rsquo;s paid off, but this is exactly the place where Rhydon does his best work. Haven&rsquo;t seen him this worked up since before I met you!&rdquo; He raised his fist, signaling he refused to switch. <br /><br />\t&ldquo;Team Prism, release!&rdquo; Rotom said, hovering over Emolga&rsquo;s puddle of defeat.<br /><br />\tEmil leaned towards his buddy. &ldquo;Only thing I worry about is Stunfisk. Their momentum is shot, so it&rsquo;s gonna be that or Magneton.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRich grabbed Em&rsquo;s shoulder. &ldquo;Doesn&rsquo;t matter, Rhydon&rsquo;s a scrappy boi, you&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie squeaked out a concerned whine. &ldquo;Clemont&hellip; that was horrible!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tHer brother floated down to her side, still slouching with unchecked confidence. &ldquo;I told you the Big Leagues were brutal, sis. Vids are one thing, but it&rsquo;s a whole different matter when your own &lsquo;Mon are the ones getting chopped up, huh?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tShe nodded with tears in her eyes and reached for her belt, fumbling around as she released her next pokemon. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m gonna do this, I&rsquo;m not just another wimpy little girl!&rdquo; she shouted, determination returning to her face. <br /><br />\tRichard pumped his fist. &ldquo;A&rsquo;tta girl, let&rsquo;s go!&rdquo;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Dedenne, GO!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tClemont lurched upwards, yawning. &ldquo;Careful, Bonnie. He&rsquo;s no gym journey novice.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tHer next pokemon was released onto the field, wearing a petite heart-shaped backpack with a steel pull cord. She immediately cut their little arm on one of Rhydon&rsquo;s floating stones and squeaked, &ldquo;Den?!&rdquo; with her ashen whiskers flailing in surprise.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tEmil saw concern flash across the rodent&rsquo;s eyes at the same time Richard&rsquo;s mouth scrunched up in surprise.<br /><br />\t<em>She doesn&rsquo;t seem like she&rsquo;s ready for this ladder. How&rsquo;d she call Richard&rsquo;s play like that?</em><br /><br />Bonnie piped up. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry, we&#039;ve got a plan for everything, right?&rdquo; she said, fingers brushing the hair by her ear proudly. &ldquo;Nothing a little playtime can&rsquo;t fix, honey! Agility!&rdquo; she cheered, and her &lsquo;Mon regrouped in seconds.<br /><br />Vaporeon pointed with her paw. &ldquo;{Oh hey, her name is Honey too!}&rdquo;<br /><br />Dedenne flashed them a mean glare and she swirled around the hazards, skipping up, down, and around like she was hopping scotch at the playground. <br />\t<br />\tRhydon only then just noticed there was some other nuisance skittering towards him, and he was possessed by a hysterical fit of laughter. He laughed when his feet buckled the cement, kicking himself forward. He kept on laughing as he stormed forward, brewing up a cloud of ground-type energy with each quaking step.<br /><br />\tBonnie raised her hand, fingers splayed out in a dynamic pose. &ldquo;Ok, use Electric Terrain,&rdquo; she said, stumbling a bit on her words as she hurriedly put her hand back up to her head and seemed to improvise it as part of her performance.<br /><br />\tRichard leaned sideways with suspicious curiosity on his face, hands cocked on his hips.<br /><br />\tDedenne dipped and strafed around Rhydon, trying to keep a great distance from the move she recognized from her years in the gym. &ldquo;Dennededede!&rdquo; she chittered, leaving behind a trail of blue sparks that pulsed and spread out across the field in waves. She kited Rhydon around, staying a very precise distance away from her berserking pursuer, and then her body droned with the hum of a transformer.<br /><br />\tRichard rumbled in his throat, wondering&hellip; then he put his hands in his pockets, letting his Rhydon fly into the cathartic rage he&rsquo;d been long overdue. &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon, Rhydon, it&#039;s rodent stomping day!&rdquo;<br /><br />Emil leaned forward, able to see with immense clarity what it was Dedenne was wearing, but having no idea what it was. His hands ran up and down his lover&rsquo;s cool, blue flesh with an all new appreciation for the softness of her skin, despite the absolutely rippling musculature shifting just beneath. She leaned forward as she smelled something off putting, tilted her head with a curious look, and then nuzzled him again.<br /><br />It was so unbelievably hard to focus on the fight as he was suddenly assailed with her pheromones. He supposed he hadn&rsquo;t considered that she&rsquo;d be around his shoulders during a battle while he was under the influence. He secretly wished there was an opportune moment for her to switch in, despite his absolute aching desire to curl up and get lost in her scent.<br /><br />Richard noticed Dedenne starting to lift off the ground and his eyebrows rose. &ldquo;Oh, wait. Oh!&rdquo;<br /><br />Bonnie raised her palms up. &ldquo;Magnet Rise, rise rise!&rdquo; she sang as her Pokemon floated up into the air.<br /><br />Rhydon screamed up at her, having kicked down and smashed the concrete into a catastrophic tumble of rubble, to absolutely no avail. He picked up chunks of the arena he&rsquo;d just dislodged and started hurling them at the airborne pest, energizing them into glowing Rock Blasts, but she deftly dodged each one with a churlish squeak and a cute, midair tumble. <br /><br />Bonnie winked and pointed. &ldquo;Dedenne&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;Yep, you&rsquo;re done, buddy,&rdquo; Richard mumbled as Rhydon was withdrawn.<br /><br />Dedenne&rsquo;s face twisted into a cackling grin, mirroring her master&rsquo;s smug face as she kicked away a few stealth rocks in her path.<br /><br />&ldquo;...use Rain Dance!&rdquo;<br /><br />Emil turned over to Richard, feeling an intense headache starting to set in. &ldquo;Thought she was going for a U-Turn?&rdquo;<br /><br />They were smacked in the face by a sudden torrential downpour.<br /><br />&ldquo;Yep,&rdquo; he huffed.<br /><br />The announcer zoomed across the airspace. &ldquo;Return penalty! Opposition switch?&rdquo;<br /><br />Emil shrugged. &ldquo;Was my guess too. What&rsquo;s your plan now?&rdquo;<br /><br />Richard rubbed his chin as he watched Bonnie curtsy to the crowd with an adorable squee, hands cradling her ear. &ldquo;Plan C,&rdquo; he said, glancing over at the dexnav in Emil&rsquo;s hand.<br /><br />Bonnie put her hands on her hips, suddenly overflowing with confidence. &ldquo;Nope!&rdquo; she called, raising her fist.<br /><br />&ldquo;Torterra, I choose you!&rdquo;<br /><br />Emil&rsquo;s eyebrow rose as he gave Rich a sideyed glance.<br /><br />Rich nodded. &ldquo;Torterra into Rhydon again, I think that&rsquo;s best; use what we got burnin&rsquo;.&rdquo;<br /><br />Emil&rsquo;s mouth dropped at what he just heard and Vaporeon lifted his lower jaw shut with her tail. &ldquo;Trust the doofus, Emmi,&rdquo; she said, sniffing at his mouth with a quizzical look as he exhaled.<br /><br />Torterra appeared, and was totally dumbfounded. She gazed up into the sky at Dedenne, looked back at her trainer, and then hemmed and hawed as she puzzled out what to do about the enemy circling around in the air where she couldn&rsquo;t easily reach. &ldquo;Ooooooooo&hellip; Hmmmm&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br />Suddenly she realized her tootsies were tingling from the ripples of electrical energy that finally made it up to her brain, tiny stones harmlessly scraped across her shell, and the leaves of the willow tree growing on her back were brushed by the downpour. She started laughing, tickled top to bottom, and plopped to the ground. &ldquo;Haaaa. Haaaa. Haaaa.&rdquo; She hollered with delight, and the crowd busted up with her.<br /><br />Bonnie chuckled. &ldquo;What a pretty lady. Glad she&rsquo;s having a good time, let&rsquo;s make it even more fun! U-Turn, Dedenne!&rdquo;<br /><br />Richard leaned forward as he shouted, &ldquo;Torterra, buy us some time! Curl up, hold fast!&rdquo; Then he brought the ball closer to his face &ldquo;...and Roar,&rdquo; he whispered as quietly as he could.<br /><br />The giant leafy green slowly inhaled as her head tried to retract and she tucked her legs under her, fighting the urge to holler out, face turning red with the effort.<br /><br />Her Dedenne swirled around in the air with a buzzing, swarming noise and a corona of murky, yellow light. Then she bounced around the inside of some invisible rodent ball before ricocheting off a non existing wall and firing herself right at Torterra&rsquo;s shell. A ring of fallen leaves fluttered around Torterra, who grunted in pain, and Dedenne vanished.<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Force return! Team Prism, release!&rdquo; The announcer said as they spun around in a loop.<br /><br />\tBonnie swayed back and forth, wrapping her cape around herself like some castle dwelling vampire. &ldquo;Stunfisk, Go!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tThe muddy mistake of nature flopped onto the cement, sharted out an embarrassing gargle of a cry, and its googly eyes wobbled around as it assessed its surroundings. <br /><br />\t&ldquo;Alright Stunfisk, use&mdash;&rdquo;<br /><br />\tTorterra was finally finished breathing in, and rattled the heads of everyone in the arena with a Roar that had been diluted with hideous, uncontrollable laughter.<br /><br />\tStunfisk flailed around and, like his teammate, vanished back to their pokeball.<br /><br />\tThe Rotom drone&rsquo;s eyes flickered red and blue, then it smiled and said, &ldquo;Force switch! Team Prism, release!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tDedenne returned to the skies, crackling as she took a Stealth Rock cut across her face, but gracefully recovered and awaited her master&rsquo;s commands.<br /><br />\tRichard reached for his ball at his belt like a cowboy drawing pistols at dawn with a childish smirk. &ldquo;Switchout! Go Rrr-&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie crouched and leapt up into the air with excitement. &ldquo;Get ready to Trailblaze, girlie!&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;Psych; Plan D!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tMachamp appeared, wearing a shiny, gold plated lifting belt Emil had made for him after winning a local special exhibition back home. Bearing the words &lsquo;Old but Gold!&rsquo; with pride, he flexed his upper arms and confidently punched his lower fists into his hips, confronting the verdant missile heading straight for him with a cool readiness.<br /><br />\tRichard grinned with his hand at his waist, a perfect mirror image of his four-armed wonder popping the button on his satchel to clutch a handful of glowing green sand. &ldquo;Ha HAAAA!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tClemont&rsquo;s eyes opened, rising up from his nap atop Magneton&rsquo;s head. &ldquo;Wha?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tDedenne squealed in pain as Machamp hurled a cloud of sunlight right into her eyes, breaking her concentration. She shielded her face and smacked face-first into one of Machamps mountainous biceps, knocked senseless from the collision, blabbering with delirious gurgling noises as she was snatched up like a doll.<br /><br />\tMachamp cinched Dedenne up against his body with a crushing Rugby hold. &ldquo;Cham-champa!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie&rsquo;s palms smacked against her cheeks. &ldquo;Dedenne! No! Clemont, what happened?!&rdquo;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;I&hellip; I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he muttered between gnashing teeth. &ldquo;Dedenne, use your Eject Pack!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tDedenne frantically grasped around for the pull cord, but Machamp plucked it off her back and slipped it around his wrist. &ldquo;{Yoink!}&rdquo; he said as he tossed the empty bag of Bright Powder away to ensure he was in compliance with the rules.<br /><br />\tRichard stomped his right foot forward. &ldquo;Machamp, give &lsquo;er the ol&rsquo; Sportsball Special! Hup! Hup! Hup!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tMachamp stomped forward with long, monstrous strides, his other palms in front of him as the crowd gasped and then started roaring with ear-crushing excitement. &ldquo;PAAAA HAHAHAHA!&rdquo; His steps made the pebbles around him dance along the ground as he sprinted towards the end zone at full tilt.<br /><br />\tBonnie reached out for her baby. &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon, get free! Thunder Shock, Play Rough, <span class='underline'>anything</span>!&rdquo; <br /><br />\tEmil smacked his head in surprise, completely flabbergasted. &ldquo;What? When did we get Bright Powder, man?!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRich bellowed with evil laughter. &ldquo;When I looked at their roster this morning!&rdquo; He brushed a thumb across his nose. &ldquo;Gramps&rsquo;d roll in his grave if I let them send us sailing home on a garbage strat like that.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tThe announcer&rsquo;s eyes went white with lines of code, and then they gasped in mock surprise. &ldquo;Looks like Richard knows his roots, alright! What a treat; classic Stone turnaround!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRichard pointed to Emil&rsquo;s &lsquo;nav. &ldquo;Turn that thing off; not a fan of nosy neighbors.&rdquo; Then he chuckled. &ldquo;Well, with one exception.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tFinally it dawned on Emil what was going on. &ldquo;Holy shit, Rich. Rep-re-sent!&rdquo; he said, feeling very little of the neurological rush from before and was left mostly reeling from the rapid-onset migraine he knew was coming. He pulled the batteries out of his Dexnav, but not before delivering one final crumb of correspondence.<br /><br /><br />\t<strong>1-218-860-5045 (Emil):</strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong>Fool me once&hellip;</strong><br /><br />\t<br />\tEmil shifted his eyes at Rich as he slipped his &lsquo;nav into his back pocket. &ldquo;Is that against regulation?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRich shrugged. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t care; they get&rsquo;n done dirty now.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tMachamp reached the opponent&rsquo;s side of the field, squeezing his helpless adversary between all four of his massive, meaty mitts. Then he leapt into the air and raised her above his head, glowing bright orange with the pent up energy of a mighty Seismic Toss. &ldquo;MAAAAAAHAHAHAAAA! {TOUCHDOWN!}&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie&rsquo;s screams were drowned out by the crowd as Machamp helped Dedenne embrace her inner Minior, and watched in horror as her starter made reentry with a fiery orange streak.<br /><br />\tDedenne made impact and then a tidal wave of powdered concrete smothered the entire arena beneath a comically large mushroom cloud of ashen smoke that sprouted up into the sky. (Machamp vehemently insisted that the mushroom cloud was <span class='underline'>absolutely</span> necessary to properly execute the technique, of course.) The heavy, airborne debris settled in seconds, revealing the fallout.<br /><br />Dedenne laid totally motionless at the bottom of a ten foot wide crater, popping with pitiful sparks.<br /><br />Machamp stuck the landing at the end of a perfect hextuple somersault right at the edge of the battle zone and flashed quadruple v-signs at the crowd, closing his eyes to skip being blinded in the camera flash firework display that followed.<br /><br />Vaporeon clapped and giggled aloud at the gratuitous display of destruction.<br /><br />Bonnie was locked inside an eternal, vacant expression before Dedenne finally stirred to life and puked a fountain of claret up into the air.<br /><br />&ldquo;Deeey! Dend-&rdquo; runaway voltage danced around her body as she choked on another gout of blood and vomit, guts heaving to keep from drowning.<br /><br />\tThe announcer drone bobbed up and down. &ldquo;Dedenne is unable to continue. Faint penalty. Opposition Switch?&rdquo;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Bonnie! C&rsquo;mon, sis!&rdquo; Clemont shouted as he fell from Magenton with a thud.<br /><br />\tHis voice splashed against her like a bucket of water and she fuddled around with Dedenne&rsquo;s love ball. &ldquo;R-right! Return!&rdquo; <br /><br />\t&ldquo;Shall I step in, Master Clemont?&rdquo; Carlisle asked as he, completely out of nowhere, yanked a cast iron ball and chain out of his suit coat lining and slung it over his shoulder. &ldquo;That brute looks like he could use a polite talking-to.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tClemont shook his head and stepped up beside his sister. &ldquo;Not yet, old boy. Time to work together, sis.&rdquo;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;No switch!&rdquo; Richard shook his head and laughed. &ldquo;What, not ready to cough up those badges just yet?&rdquo;<br /><br />Clemont expanded a premier ball in his grip. &ldquo;Nah, you can have them, friends. Be sure to save us shipping by carrying them home with you on the way out. Heliolisk, go!&rdquo;<br /><br />Machamp smacked his fists together, hunched forward with excitement. &ldquo;Ooooh hoo hoo, chaaahmp!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tHeliolisk appeared in the middle of the arena, pointy frills twitching as it hissed and curled up in a defensive coil at the airborne stones threatening to bleed him out. It barked with a sharp buzzing noise and squealed out a shrill warning call, hidden within a thorny bush of electrical vines. Around its wrists were a pair of gold bracelets set with tiny brown stones.<br /><br />\tSpinel could feel the rush of static tugging at his fur all the way from his position behind the trainer&rsquo;s box and he folded his tendrils up beneath his body with a paw over his mouth in awe at the insane power on display. He looked up at Richard and marveled at the fact that his man could somehow just stare into the eyes of oblivion like that with loose shoulders and a smile cool as orange island iced tea.<br /><br />\tClemont smirked, the glare of his glasses hiding his eyes. &ldquo;Heliolisk here has enough pent up energy to power the Prism Tower three times over. How&rsquo;s your grounding these days, Rich?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRichard pointed his finger with a scowl. &ldquo;Ey! The only freaky egghead &lsquo;gets to call me &lsquo;Rich&rsquo; is standing over here!&rdquo;<br /><br />For a fraction of a second, Emil broke from his migraine and smiled.<br /><br />Clemont&rsquo;s head tilted with a smirk. &ldquo;Thirty million pika-joules oughta be enough.&rdquo;<br /><br />Richard scoffed. &ldquo;Wh<em>oah</em>, that&#039;s a big number, nerd!&rdquo;<br /><br />Emil squinted. <em>That&rsquo;d be a proper Thunder strike on a charged field like this. No way he&rsquo;d just announce an inaccurate move like that.</em><br /><br />\t&ldquo;Sandstorm!&rdquo; Clemont commanded, and his Pokemon started running around in a wide circle.<br /><br />\tMachamp tried to advance on the enemy in time, leaping into the air, but he was swept up in a swirling vortex of brown grit that hid the entire battle zone from view.<br /><br />\tRichard brought his sunglasses down over his eyes. &ldquo;Switch out!&rdquo; he declared, reaching for Rhydon&rsquo;s ball.<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Rich, wait.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tA lantern of crimson light appeared in the sandpaper cloud and was swept out of harms way.<br /><br />\tEmil leaned to the side, head starting to rattle beneath the bright, electrical cymbals of lighting crashing within the earthen vortex before them. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s bluffing.&rdquo;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Yea?&rdquo; Richard scratched his chin, immersing himself in the possibilities.<br /><br />\t&ldquo;That thing knows Surf.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tVaporeon glared at Richard as he briefly considered sending in his queen bee of the sea. &ldquo;No.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRich wagged his chin, compared all his options at warp speed, and then aimed a ray of energy from a <span class='underline'>different</span> Pokeball in his palm into the Sandstorm curtain. <br /><br />\tThe swarm of Rotom drones backed away as the storm threatened to carry them away. &ldquo;Ooooh, a silent release&hellip;.what secrets await Heliolisk within?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tClemont&rsquo;s mouth tightened up with an paralyzed frown, struck still in a fit of anxious analysis.<br /><br />\tBonnie clenched her fist in wet-eyed anger. Following basic type theory, she went for an obvious play she&rsquo;d rehearsed a hundred times before, failing to recognize the delicate, strategic ballet still running on stage. &ldquo;Heliolisk! Use Surf!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tImagine, if you will, a howling whirlwind of sand and obsidian glass that boomed with unpredictable flashes of ball lightning. Now imagine it suddenly shaken up into a brown, silty milkshake of razors and high voltage wires; roaring, humming, shrieking&hellip; rumbling with the bass-drum laughter of a ticklish Torterra.<br /><br />&ldquo;Haaaa. Haaaa. Haaaa.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tThe front seat crazies started bracing for impact, readily donning protective gear in response to being splashed with a whip of mud and sharpened chitin. All except the solitary frontrow virgin who practically backflipped out of his seat and bent over behind it, taking his first &lsquo;Smoothie&rsquo; like a little bitch.<br /><br />\tCarlisle brought an old fashioned pair of bifocals up to his eyes. &ldquo;Goodness gracious&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br />\tClemont slouched forward with teeth bared. &ldquo;Guess we&rsquo;re committed now.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie&rsquo;s eyes became saucers full of freshly poured doubt. &ldquo;Oh Azelf&hellip; Please&hellip;&rdquo; she whispered as her head turned back and forth, trying to stop herself from slipping into that deep pit of despair which dragged the hearts of all men down to Distortion.<br /><br />She clenched her fingers in a shaky superhero&rsquo;s pose. &ldquo;Oh yeah? Just keep on laughing! There&rsquo;s nowhere left to hide, now! No matter what you do, you&rsquo;re toast. Heliolisk, Dragon Tail!.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tEmil tried to keep his attention fixed to the fight, but faded in and out as his skull pounded in time with his pulse while their team tank was thrown up and out of bounds.<br /><br />Her shell shattered the cement where her belly flopped down and she slumped to the ground, out of breath from laughter and torn with physical exhaustion.<br /><br />\tEmil snagged Torterra&rsquo;s ball from Richard and recalled the gentle giant, releasing her behind the tainer&rsquo;s box where Spinel laid in wait to pounce with tender loving care. He wiped cuts and bruises clean before applying potion concentrates, laid her head atop a stack of cushions he &lsquo;borrowed&rsquo; from one of the couches in the contestant waiting room, and started massaging her cramped up muscles free from the effects of what was nothing short of a second-hand toaster bath.<br /><br />Richard was in that special sort of trance; accessible to him now that the stakes were high and the risks were too many to bother counting anymore. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re not careful this might sweep us, Em,&rdquo; he said with a Gengar&rsquo;s grin, scraping mud off his shades.<br /><br />\tEmil nodded, recognizing that the battle had roiled up into a frothing soup of late-stage entropy that Richard was far more experienced and equipped to handle. &ldquo;Do your thing, Bro.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tHis head bobbed down once. &ldquo;Thanks, Brother.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tThe judge drones wiped their lenses clean with tiny, telescoping windshield wipers. &ldquo;What an insane spectacle folks! You might call that one the Tortado!&rdquo;<br /><br />The audience groaned in pain as lumps of pun cancer riddled their brains.<br /><br />&ldquo;Faint penalty. Opposition switch?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tBonnie and Clemont raised their fists.<br />\t<br />\tRichard plucked a Pokeball from his belt and winced as he rolled it around in his fingers.<br /><br />\t<em>Someones&rsquo; gotta be the bait. Sorry, buddy.</em><br /><br />\tMachamp appeared in the air above that sloppy swirlpool of death made horrible reality, and his mouth opened with surprise as he tumbled down, down, down. &ldquo;Macho-cho, Chaaamp?!&rdquo;<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Give it to &lsquo;em, slugger!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tMachamp shrugged, remembering that this was the life he never really signed up for but still loved more than anything else in the world, and grabbed his knees for a cataclysmic cannonball. &ldquo;Eeee Haaa!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tEvery over-encouraging newbie coach loved to tell all the tiny drops in the vast sea of wide-eyed washups to &lsquo;trust their instincts&rsquo; like it was the first thing you did before catching a Caterpie. Any master instructor worth their time wouldn&rsquo;t be caught dead wasting their breath like that.<br /><br />Instinct wasn&rsquo;t some foundational skill&hellip; it was a curse that kept the old fuckers climbing the mount.<br /><br />\tRichard knew that even the softest kiss of electrical shock in there would finish any of his remaining &lsquo;Mon but Metagross, and he needed her for the two monsters Clemont had lying in wait. Rhydon would drown in an instant&hellip; he had to time it just right&hellip; the chance he&rsquo;d catch some helpful physical, auditory, or visual cue was all but gone&hellip; Both trainers had buckled in with their theory and technique as far as they could, called upon their tightest parries and ripostes, and walked the wobbly tightrope of impromptu plays just to end up circling the meanest crapper in Distortion, mid-flush.<br /><br />All he had left was instinct, and It was in those unsure moments that true battlers drank inspiration up from the subconscious slurry of study, practice, and experience brewed from lifetimes of intense, non-stop, all-or-nothing competition. You can&rsquo;t teach that shit to anyone, nobody can.<br /><br />\tHe held his breath, counting the heartbeats in his ears as licks of mud splashed against his jeans like a stormy sea beating the sails of an ancient ranger&rsquo;s skiff. <br /><br />\t<em>Now!</em> <br /><br />&ldquo;Machamp, Escape Pack!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tMachamp didn&rsquo;t waste a single millisecond hesitating, he pinched the tiny drawstring between his thumb and forefinger and was yanked across the raging storm, ragdolled by the wrist. He was reeled in by an invisible fishing line connected to Richard&rsquo;s palm as a yellow, buzzing disc narrowly missed his legs. &ldquo;Wooooohaaaa!&rdquo; he hooted, cheeks splattering with mud as they flapped in the wind, and then he melted into red energy just before bowling his trainer over.<br /><br />\tJust as Machamp popped free, a sky-shattering lightning bolt crashed down from the clouds and both teams were nearly swept out of their trainers boxes in an unbearable blast of static and steam. The hideous torrent bubbled and hissed and snapped, its center barely containing a colossal ball of plasma atomizing the air within.<br /><br />Richard watched the glowing center of the arena slowly fade, clutching his next Pokeball, and felt out the moment like wind on a wetted finger.<br />\t<br />\t<em>Time to get stupid.</em><br /><br />\tRichard chucked it into the murky wall of death, knowing the creature within would be released to the clearest, safest area possible after a time.<br /><br />\tHe bent over with his hands cupped over his mouth and screamed as loud as he could.<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Incineroar! Crush your Flame Orb! Ignite! Give it EVERYTHING YOU HAVE! Down to the last spark! Everyone is depending on you, BLOW THAT THING APART!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tHe didn&rsquo;t need to tell her what move to use; he knew exactly what she would do, stuck on stage in the spotlight, back against the wall, staring down a million expecting eyes. It would be her signature speciality, the one thing he knew for sure would get him every ounce of her effort. Burning Jealousy.<br /><br />\tRoaring, rushing, cracking, ear deafening silence&hellip; then the toll of shattering glass in a cage of angry claws. At the center of the torrent a spark of yellow and red popped, burbled and popped again, then its watery guts swelled with flame and flashed boiled around a white-hot lump of starlight. <br /><br />&ldquo;YrrrrrblblbllrrrrrroooooOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLL!&rdquo; her silhouette screamed within, holding some dark, squirming thing in her clutches.<br /><br />\tThe battle zone was cloaked in a haze of spinning flames, billowing steam, and sparkling arcs. The audience screamed and panicked as hot, muddy water that tingled the skin showered down upon them. Several judge drones were knocked out of the sky and tumbled across the ground coughing and spluttering. Even the veteran front seat freaks joined their one weaker brother behind the benches, shielding their faces from the wicked sauna rolling out across them.<br /><br />\tIncineroar stood there at the center of the ring, hunched over a charbroiled Heliolisk with its neck trapped in her paw. She sucked up fresh, cool air at long last and heaved with wisps of inky mist that slithered around her snarling teeth, eyes flushed clean with pure, indignant rage. <br /><br />\t&ldquo;Roaaaaaar!&rdquo; She hurled Heliolisk&rsquo;s limp, twitching body back at Clemont and then spat on the ground.<br /><br />The People of Lumiose and abroad popped out of their seats like kernels in an open pan, rapping the air with a raucous cheering that all of Lumiose-East could hear. But Incineroar didn&rsquo;t catch a peep of it behind the unbearable ringing in her ears, the searing pain threading through her nerves, and the inferno of pride that Richard had just stoked up and set free.<br /><br />\tBonnie&rsquo;s eyes were stuck open in a complete panic, and shouted in distress as she tossed her final ball without considering what might happen as Clemont recalled his &lsquo;Mon.<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Bonnie, no!&rdquo; Clemont shouted in slow motion, too late to make a difference as his head followed the ball&rsquo;s trajectory down to Incineroar&rsquo;s feet.<br /><br />\tStunfisk flopped out again, landed down in what it recognized as a muddy field, and flarped happily as it started wriggling around, burying itself in the muck.<br /><br />\tIncineroar&rsquo;s fangs bunched up into a vicious smile.<br /><br />\tShe set the air ablaze again and a swirling furnace swallowed up the sky. <br /><br />\tEmil rolled his shoulders and hiked Vaporeon up as his body&rsquo;s soreness caught up with his skull. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a bit much for little old Stunfisk, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRich shrugged again. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take what I can get after a close call like that!&rdquo;<br /><br />\tThe mud all across the arena was instantly desiccated to a field of brittle, brown flakes as Incineroar cawed and yeowled, squeezing her body for every scrap of energy she could release. She pushed up to that exact moment the body started giving way, when her claws started to unwind like screws and her fur shed like dead evergreen needles. Then she stopped as her foot found a wriggling bit of humidity squealing in the oven beneath a burnt crust of earthen tile, and plucked it up.<br /><br />\tTired and unwilling to show it, Incineroar tried to punt Stunfisk out of the arena, but Bonnie&rsquo;s Pokemon hit the ground and flopped to a stop inches away from the edge of the ring. Then the fires in the air vanished, leaving behind the wobbly, burnt-out husk of a once ferocious feline.<br /><br />\t&ldquo;Stunfisk, use Mud-Shot!&rdquo; Bonnie growled with tears falling from her eyes. &ldquo;Make it thick and chunky!&rdquo;<br /><br />Incineroar was smothered in a sticky, brown ooze that hissed and plopped as it cooled her body down to a pathetic simmer. She snarled and swiped, roared and bit, but each time she tried to break free she was coated in yet another heavy layer of filth. Then Stunfisk finished the job with a powerful shockwave that locked her in place.<br /><br />Clemont stood in shock. &ldquo;Coup de pot&hellip; Whew!&rdquo;<br /><br />Incineroar finally stopped moving when her entire body slumped over, encased in a curly, steaming blob of dark brown sludge with her head half-stuck out the side like a nugget of corn.<br /><br />Vaporeon shuddered and winced at the sight of her nemesis waking to discover she had become a helpless, humiliated, victim stuck hacking up gobs of her enemy&rsquo;s shit. <br /><br />The drones finally started getting back into formation and the lead shouted, &ldquo;Incineroar is unable to continue! Faint penalty, Opposition switch?&rdquo; they asked as the laughter of the crowd finally died down enough for them to be heard.<br /><br />Richard pulled her back to her ball and set her free behind where Spinel was fussing over Torterra, and it was instantly clear something was very, very wrong with Incineroar as she flopped over herself into a ragged heap.<br /><br />The flames of victory weren&rsquo;t the only thing snuffed out inside her.<br /><br />She&rsquo;d been eliminated many times since they got her from the tradehouse; not once did she let it cool her jets. She was a prickly, precocious monster of a Litten from a well known breeder, brimming with potential. Yet there she was, slapped with clearance stickers and a tattered pedigree rolled under her collar. The seller admitted that finding trainers willing to deal with her rotten personality just wasn&rsquo;t worth it anymore, and Nature Clinic slots were hard to come by, so Team Stone snatched her up for less than a junky, used sedan.<br /><br />She came exactly as advertised, with a complementary case of abandonment to unpack as well.<br /><br />But the struggles she put them through with her uncooperative attitude paid out in spades. Each time Incineroar woke from a faint or tumbled out of bounds she&rsquo;d scratch the floor, howl at the gods and herself, then stomp around and train until she collapsed with exhaustion. Win or lose, she&rsquo;d always come back meaner, stronger, faster. It got even more intense when Vaporeon showed up and her destined place as ace of the team was placed into question. Normally, in a big match like that, she&rsquo;d peel herself off the floor, smother herself in medicine and smoke, and leer attentively as the rest of the fight went on.<br /><br />This time, however, as Spinel gave her a big, obnoxiously affectionate hug and started rubbing her down with pain relieving creams, she let him lay her down however he wished, compliant as a corpse.<br /><br />Her head was propped up with a plush folded quilt as fresh water trickled down her throat. Draped in a cold shroud of wet towels, only her chest dared to move, heaving up and down with long, haggard breaths. She closed her eyes, unable to face the crowd that confronted her in every direction, the teammates she&rsquo;d let down, or the spoiled princess she struggled to outclass.<br /><br />Vaporeon glared with icey hatred across the field at Bonnie as the girl recalled her Pokemon.<br /><br /><div class='align_center'>&ldquo;{How <span class='underline'>dare</span> you.}&rdquo;<br /></div><br /><br /></span>",
  "pools_count": 1,
  "title": "Forbidden Waters - 23",
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