A Late Start

The Ace Of Aspertia

"Ladies and gentlemen we are here live at Aspertia City gym where a very important battle is about to begin. Aspertia City's very own Alexis Evans informally dubbed the Ace of Aspertia is about to do battle with gym leader Cheren. Despite being a top student for five years straight no one has ever seen the mysterious hot shot's partner pokemon. Even despite this, she's widely considered as the best trainer in town, known for giving advice and practical tips to any of her peers at a moment's notice and supposedly responsible for another rookie trainer's success at the very same gym." The newscaster went on while Cheren and I waited for the signal to go.
"Remember to smile for the cameras." Cheren chuckled as he called across the arena to me.
"If they want a show, I'll be sure to give them one to remember," I shot back. Silas was growing impatient inside his Pokeball, I could feel his amped-up energy coursing through my fingers. As soon as the cameras were in place the announcer began reciting the rules of the battle.
"This will be a 2 on 2 battle, all participating pokemon must be announced upon their arrival on the field, the battle will be taken in the form of 3 or fewer rounds, the first side with no remaining pokemon will be declared the winner. A pokemon will be declared unable to battle upon fainting or other injury making continued battle impossible. The challenger may switch to any pokemon they are using within the challenge at any time, while the gym leader may only switch upon being declared unable to battle. The battle will begin on the count of three assuming both trainers are ready to begin. Gym leader Cheren, are you ready?" He raised on hand towards Cheren as he made the query.
"Ready!" Cheren called back.
"Challenger Alexis, are you ready to begin?" He called, raising his other hand towards me.
"I'm ready," I called back. The announcer raised both his hands higher.
"One, Two. three!" His hands swung down as he called three. And both Cheren and I threw out our pokeballs at once, his Patrat appeared on his side and Silas materialised on mine, taking a brief stretch before assuming his battle stance. "Round one, Patrat, versus Eevee. BEGIN!"
Patrat closed its eyes in an attempt to prepare its buff like it always does at the start of a battle. Silas immediately sprung into action, Landing a quick attack before his opponent could finish, just like we had planned earlier. Silas was quite a bit stronger than both of Cherens pokemon individually, but they had a numbers advantage, so we had planned ahead of time to overwhelm Patrat in an honest battle while saving our more powerful moves for Lillipup as a trump card. We'd been over the plan multiple times, so Silas was acting mostly autonomously while I called out which way he had to dodge. Silas immediately followed up on his quick attack with a tackle, the first strike knocked Patrat off balance, the second then sent him toppling backward, falling over. Its eyes opened just in time to see Silas charging at it once more, barely rolling out of the way of yet another follow up attack. The Patrat's fangs became larger, and a white glow surrounded them as it stood up.
"Silas! Left!" I called out seeing the attack coming towards Silas' blind spot. He immediately pivoted to the right, avoiding the attack entirely before landing a counterattack. Silas glanced back at me with a cocky look in his eye as Patrat toppled once more, its own momentum proving too much with the added push. "Stay focused now bud, it's not over yet." I scolded him for getting distracted. He rolled his eyes and went to turn around as Patrat collided with him, square on his left shoulder, sending him reeling back. He fired back with another quick attack, Patrat was already too exhausted to even try avoiding it and took the attack head-on, the smaller creature's arms raised in front of its face as it was pushed back by the force of Silas' attack. When the momentum stopped Patrats arms went slack at its sides and its breathing slowed. It had run out of energy to fight back. It prepared another charge toward Silas, its fangs glowing once more, however, the creature tripped, falling over just a few feet in front of Silas before tumbling to his feet. Silas took a step back, revealing to me that Patrat had fainted from its own attack and the round was over.
"Patrat is unable to battle. Round one goes to Alexis and Eevee." The announcer called out. Silas rolled his eyes, seemingly offended that the announcer didn't call him by name.
"Alright bud, halfway there. Let's show 'em what we're made of." I shouted as a cheer arose from the crowd.
"Ee VOI!" Silas cheered as he trotted gleefully back to our side of the field, taking his position for the next round. We only took one hit, though Silas was completely unprotected, this is good.
"Very well done," Cheren remarked as he recalled the fainted Patrat. "I would expect nothing less." He sent out his Lillipup who had a look of ferocity across its face as it materialised on the field. Both Pokemon took up their battle stance as the announcer called out.
"Round two, Lillipup versus Eevee. BEGIN!"
Just like Patrat before, Lillipup started its round with its eyes closed. This time, however, Silas held his ground taking only a few steps toward his opponent. Lillipup's eyes opened once more and its body became engulfed in an orange glow. I watched as Silas sat down directly in front of it and cocked his head to one side. Lillipup charged forward in its now powered-up state. However, the glow faded just before the attack connected as Silas sidestepped the attack, landing a swift kick to the aggressor's side. Baby-Doll Eyes worked exactly as planned. Lillipup wasted no time in recovering and threw itself at Silas once more.
"RIGHT!" I directed Silas, prompting him to hop to the left, out of the way of the attack. Or so I thought, Lillipup swerved at the last moment, reacting to Silas' dodge, the attack connected cleanly on his side and he was sent tumbling.
"Shoot, Sorry bud." I apologised
"Vuh" I heard Silas exclaim as he jumped to his feet, wasting no time setting off an attack of his own, encasing himself in white light and ramming Lillipup at full speed, pushing the creature back. Silas ran up once more before landing another covet, a clean backwards kick directly to Lillipups forehead. Once again Lillipup was able to react, despite taking the full brunt of Silas' attack the creature was able to use its bite to get a grip on Silas' ankle. The creature then charged forward without letting go of Silas' leg, his balance was completely broken by the time Lillipup reared its head and let go, sending Silas careening across the battlefield in a cloud of dust. He skidded to a stop a few feet from my pedestal. He stood up again with a slight falter as his ankle was injured from the last attack.
"You good bud?" I asked looking down at him.
"Voi," he replied, his voice was shaky but still held his usual bravado. Lillipup wasted no time, running across the arena towards him once more, falling for the same trick twice as Silas sidestepped and landed yet another kick to the creature's side. By this point, both pokemon were breathing pretty heavily, and Silas' stance was uneven as he had no weight on his back right foot.
Lillipup was undoubtedly the more exhausted of the two, but Silas' injury was more severe. He probably can't quick attack with that uneven stance, and another covet might hurt his ankle more.
"Silas, Play it safe, you're almost there. Don't push it." I told him, hoping that he'd get the memo. He darted towards Lillipup, landing a clean tackle as the creature was standing up. The attack was weaker than usual, but it was enough to send Lillipup back to the ground. Silas stopped and returned to the centre of the field. Lillipup's eyes were closed and it didn't seem to be trying to get up. Everyone went silent, worried that something had happened to the creature. However, after a few moments, an orange glow surrounded the creature once more and it charged forward, clearly putting what energy it had left into one final attack.
"Right, again!" I called out, Silas followed my order despite the failure last time and dodged to the right, this time Lillipup overshot its target and collapsed to the ground as Silas avoided the attack, the glow faded, but Lillipup stood up once more. Panting heavily, even its eyelids had begun drooping.
"Alright Silas, finish it!" Silas charged forward, colliding with Lillipup head-on as all it could do was try to absorb the blow, as the creature tumbled back towards Cheren's pedestal. When the dust settled everyone could see Lillipups eyes turn to spirals, the sign of ultimate defeat.
"Lillipup is unable to battle. The victory goes to the challenger Alexis and her Eevee!" As soon as the announcer was finished Silas' stance loosened and he looked up at me triumphantly.
"YOU DID IT BUD!" I couldn't help but shout as I did a little jump on the platform. I looked across to see Cheren looking down in thought
"Such strength from one so young." I could barely hear him muttering from across the field. "Impressive work, You've passed with flying colours, " he called out to me. I wanted to check on Silas, but the platforms hadn't started to go down. "However," Cheren continued. "I was wondering, would you be up for an extra, bonus round?"
"What do you mean bonus round?" I was intrigued.
"It wouldn't count towards your challenge, as that battle is already over, but I have one more Pokemon I was hoping to test out some strategy with."
"So like, another battle?"
"Yes, but just for fun, not for competition." He pulled another Pokeball from his belt as he spoke.
"That would be really cool. But I don't know if Silas can handle another round." I looked down towards Silas, who was still holding his weight off his leg, to the point he had it raised off the ground. "What do you think bud?" Silas looked towards Cheren, then back at me. He planted his foot down and got back in his battle stance. I saw him flinch as his foot hit the ground, but he chirped contentedly anyway. "Never back down from a fight, do you? Alright, we'll have your bonus round. Silas, be careful okay?" Silas scoffed at me as he turned back to Cheren.
"Excellent, I'll try to go easy on you since your pokemon is already injured." Cheren pushed up his glasses and threw out his third pokemon. the white light gave way to a small bird pokemon, Grey feathers lined its body, with some black accents on the wings and tail, the bird's chest was adorned with a white heart shape.
"A pidove?" I was caught off guard by the pokemon, it wasn't something I expected to see in Cheren's team.
"Eh, Alright. BONUS ROUND, Pidove versus Eevee. BEGIN!" The announcer seemed taken aback by the sudden extra round but tried to keep his cool.
"Alright Pidove, just like we practised, gust. Now!" Cheren called out.
"Talking during battle now? Just what's gotten into you Cheren?" I called back in jest. Meanwhile, his pidove had taken off, kicking up a storm of dust in its wake, I couldn't see the battlefield at all through the cloud. "Silas! You okay buddy?" I couldn't spot him through the dust.
"Eevaa?" His response came quickly.
"I can't see anything in there bud, you're gonna have to rely on your instincts for this one."
"Voi!" He chirped in affirmation. I could vaguely make out movements from within the clouded arena. I heard the sound of attacks landing, and the pained cries of both pokemon. I hated not being able to see. The battle had been going on for a few minutes when I had an idea.
"SILAS! Think you can manage a quick attack bud?" I called out
"Voi!" He sounded confident, so I had to hope he could take it.
"Alright, go for it, but don't aim for the pidove!"
"Eeva?" Clearly, he was confused by my instruction.
"Use the speed to make a circle, as fast as you can, BLOW THE DUST AWAY!" a distinct white glow emanated from the centre of the cloud. Go get 'em bud. The glow began moving from the centre of the arena, out towards the edges, forming its way into a vaguely oblong circle covering most of the battlefield. I smirked as I saw the cloud begin to separate just like I'd planned. The dust settled over the crowd and the field was clear once more. The glow died down and Silas came to a stop, his breathing was heavy but he stood firm. I glanced up towards the sky to see Cheren's Pidove hovering a few feet from the ground, it was also looking tired but nowhere near as much as Silas. Pidove began a dive headed straight for Silas.
"Alright, covet now!" I called out, wanting to get more involved in the battle. "Careful with your leg though."
Silas pivoted on the spot, turning his back to Pidove entirely. The pokemon collided a few seconds later, Silas kicked with one of his legs the moment Pidoves tackle connected. The resulting impact sent both pokemon reeling in opposite directions. Silas skidded to a stop a few inches short of my pedestal.
His back feet returned to the ground and he turned back to face Pidove, his entire body was twitching. Pidove had also landed on the other side of the field too tired to keep flying. After a few seconds, Silas' legs gave out and he collapsed into the dirt. I clenched my fist as the platforms began to descend.
"I told you to be careful damnit Silas..." I muttered. The moment the platform reached the ground I sprung over the handrail landing beside my pokemon, I put a hand on his back as I knelt by his side.
"Eevee is unable to battle, Pidove wins the bonus round," the announcer finished the battle officially as Cheren recalled his Pidove.
"You gotta stop pushing yourself so hard buddy." I carefully lifted Silas off the ground, sure enough, his eyes had turned to the very same spirals as the two before him. He moaned weakly as I carried him to the side of the field. I could feel him twitching in my arms.
"He fought well today you know." Cheren chimed in as he came over to us.
"He really gave it his all, I just wish he knew how to hold back sometimes." I run my fingers through his fur slowly, he was covered in dust and it kept getting on my fingers.
"Sometimes a pokemon's competitive spirit goes uninhibited, that drive pushes them to go above and beyond for their trainer." He put a hand on my shoulder. "It's up to us as their trainers to take that drive and refine it. Learn your pokemon's limits and know when to push them."
"I guess Silas and I still need to learn where our limits are." I chuckled a little
"Mhm, Silas has a lot of potential, especially for one so young and between me and you, if anyone could take that potential to its limit. It's you. Not only did you blow my challenge away with one pokemon, but you also did it without any sort of type advantage. You relied only on your strategy and Silas' strength." He smirked as he took my hand. "Here, You've earned this and more." He pulled his hand away and I looked down to see a small purple rectangle left behind in my palm.
"The basic badge, I can't believe this is really happening." I clenched my fist around the badge before pinning it to the end of Silas' scarf. "We did it bud, we did it."
"Vuhh," his response was weak.
"Can I be honest with you Alexis?" Cheren asked quietly.
"Oh, uh sure, what's up?"
"The only reason I threw that bonus round at you was as a test."
"A test? For what?"
"Your plan was thought out meticulously, You've studied my battles for years and knew exactly how to act around it. I wanted to see how you would do at improvising, in a situation you'd never seen before."
"All these years later and you're still trying to teach me new things huh?" I couldn't help but chuckle at the whole situation.
"Well, you are my top student you know and I must admit, it was pretty clever. Using the draft from Silas' movement to clear out the sandstorm."
"Well, it was just a hunch. Honestly, I wasn't sure if Silas could run fast enough to blow the dust away, especially with his injured leg."
"It certainly was a risk, did you have anything planned if it didn't work?"
"Uhh, no. It was kind of a last-ditch thing, I just couldn't sit there and let the battle happen without me."
"Well, sometimes it can be a good thing to have a backup plan, in case things don't go your way.
"Yeah, It kinda sucks that we couldn't handle your Pidove as well though."
"Nonsense, expecting any pokemon to be able to handle three opponents all in one sitting is a monumental feat. You both fought incredibly well but it's no surprise you were overwhelmed in the end."
"I should probably give that reporter the interview he wanted huh?
"Aha, don't let me keep you then."
I turned away, toward the news crew on the other side of the field.