A Late Start

Round one

Ethan and I stood at our end of the field, our opponents, two girls about our age on the other. Silas was perched on my shoulder since it wasn't against the rules for the tournament. The battle was about to begin, but the referee was running late so we were all just standing there waiting. The rules were simple enough, no more than 2 pokemon per person, teams would flip a coin before the battle begins to determine who had to send out their pokemon first and no pokemon with a power level higher than 2500 were allowed. all pokemon in participating teams were scanned before battles had begun to ensure they were all legal. Ethan and I exchanged glances and Silas began to shift around on my shoulders, hopping from one to the other.
"What do you think is keeping them?" Ethan asked me quietly.
"No idea, maybe we just had our schedule wrong?" Before we could get any deeper into it the ref finally showed up,
"I'm here, I'm here." He shouted across the field, panting between breaths, still fidgeting with his tie. "Sorry I'm late everyone, Are we all ready to get started?"
"We've been ready for like 10 minutes, can we get on with it already?" One of the girls from across the field called out.
"Uh, right. Team leaders come forward please." The referee was trying to regain his composure. Ethan and the taller of the two girls walked to the centre of the field for the coin toss. After it was done they both returned to their partners.
"We won, they're sending first," Ethan spoke quietly to me.
"Cool, we'll have an advantage there then." Two streams of white light burst onto the field before manifesting themselves into two common beginner pokemon, on the right side a Sewaddle, a small bug pokemon cloaked in leaves and foliage, barely a foot in height, its yellow face and limbs are all that poke out from under the green covering its body. On the left was a Venipede, another bug, although this time also being poisonous. Known as the centipede Pokemon It's a little larger than Sewaddle by four inches, covered in a dark red exoskeleton with a few green plates around the midsection black stripes adorn its antennae and tail stingers. Ethan grimaced a little at the sight of the grass type Sewaddle, I put a hand on his shoulder.
"Silas and I can keep em off your back, think you can handle the poison?" He nodded. Ethan unhooked a Pokeball from his belt before tossing it onto the field, I gestured for Silas to jump forth as well. Royce joined him on the field not a second later, wearing his armband again. I glanced over towards the ref to confirm my suspicions, sure enough, there were now several camera crews lining the sidelines. Of course, it's being televised.
"Round one of the Unova national beginners light official tournament is about to begin!" The ref called out. "Taking the stands are The Aspertian Aces on the left side. On the right side, we have EmErica. Teams have already deployed their first pokemon. Since this is a team battle there will be no pauses for switching, otherwise, this is a normal 4v4. Good luck to both teams. The battle will begin in 3. 2. 1. BEGIN!"

"Alright Silas, we gotta keep that Sewaddle's attention on us and not Royce. Start with a quick attack then trust your instincts, I'm sure Royce'll cover you." I gave Silas basic instructions for the semblance of a plan I'd cooked up in the heat of the moment. There was no way to plan for this battle ahead of time, so I just had to hope Ethan got the memo.
"We don't gotta worry about that Sewaddle, Lexi's gonna cover us. Our target's the Venipede. Hit it with everything you got." Ethan gave his instructions as well, We were on the same page for now. Silas was first to move, ramming Sewaddle head-on, knocking it back just in time, it fired off an attack mere moments after the two collided. A barrage of leaves swirled through the air, sailing off into the distance above Royce's head. The Venipede was next to act, lunging at Silas with its tail cloaked in vibrant purple energy.
"Silas, Left!" I called out as loud as I could. Silas barely had enough time to hop to the right and avoid the attack. A mere moment later the ground collapsed near where Silas was standing, causing his assailant to fall into a small crater no more than a foot deep. A glance to my left confirms my suspicions as I see Royce pull his hands out from the dirt. Without skipping a beat Silas strikes Sewaddle again, landing a full force tackle followed by his signature pivot kick, sending Sewaddle reeling. This time, however, the creature retaliated, latching onto Silas and biting him repeatedly, though not very strong individually the bites were numerous and rapid. Silas eventually freed himself from the Sewaddle's grip with a Headbutt.
"Behind!" I tried to warn him, but I was too late as the Venipede struck again with its poison tail, striking Silas in his back legs, causing him to not only topple but also roll across the field. He shook his head before standing back up, a thin trail of purple ooze leaking from his mouth. Crap, poisoned.
"Ethan, we gotta finish this quickly," I spoke out of the side of my mouth while gesturing towards Silas. Ethan took one glance over, realising what had happened and gave me a nod.
"Alright Royce, time to go all out, Rock throw, then tackle." Royce immediately leapt into action, hurling a rock into the commotion, followed immediately by digging his hands into the ground and thrusting himself forth at high speeds. The rock struck the Venepede with force, while the creature was still recovering it was struck again, this time by Royce's balled-up fist, the excess momentum sending the poisonous creature flying. He then dug his hands into the ground again, causing another crater to open up where Venepede landed, smaller than last time. Silas used the opening to land another quick attack against Sewaddle, He continued to strike, pushing Sewaddle to the other side of the field as he did, splitting the fight in two. The two skidded to a stop, now closer to Ethan and I, Sewaddle was starting to look weak but it fired off another storm of razor-sharp leaves. Silas ignored them entirely, without even flinching as the attack bounced off of him he charged forward, readying another attack. As his tackle connected it sent Sewaddle flying, out past the boundary of the arena. The creature didn't get back up as Silas turned back to me, grinning. Sewaddle was recalled in bright red light before promptly being replaced by a Herdier, the evolved form of Lillipup. Bigger, and stronger and draped in blue, cloak-like fur across its back and sides the whiskers on its face now thicker and Its build slicker, more aggressive. I glanced across to see Royce still battling it out with the Venepede.
"Alright bud, let's not get in their way," I spoke quietly to Silas, who responded with a nod of affirmation. "Give 'em your Baby-doll Eyes then strike when they're distracted." I saw him sit down slowly in front of me, Tail swaying slowly from side to side, I saw his head Lull gently to one side, I couldn't help but wonder how his act must look from the other side. Herdier's charge seemed to slow down a moment, Just long enough for Silas to sidestep the charge, landing another of his backwards kicks, before the bigger creature's momentum carried it beyond the field boundaries, grazing past my leg before coming to a stop. I took a step to the side to remain out of the creature's way as it came charging back towards Silas once again. Another sidestep from Silas before chasing after the Herdier with a quick attack. Silas' attack practically bounced off as the creature swung around, catching Silas In Its jaws before throwing him off to one side. He shook his head as he stood back up, his balance faltered and he struggled to get his feet back under himself. Herdier began another of Its reckless charges, barrelling towards Silas who still had yet to find his feet. I closed my eyes in anticipation, as I knew there was no way Silas was going to avoid the next attack. A loud CRACK echoed across the field, followed by the sound of something skidding across the dirt. I peeled my eyes open slowly to see Silas standing right where he was before the impact. a glance behind him showed the Herdier laying on its side, a small brown rock lay broken in two pieces a few feet away. I looked to the other side of the field to see Royce, triumphantly standing over a collapsed Venepede with another rock in hand eyes locked on Silas with a fierce determination. One of the two girls at the other end was looking down at her feet before recalling her Venepede, she didn't reach for a second ball. Her partner had a look of stress on her face as she stared at Herdier. I looked back at Ethan to see he was giving me a Thumbs up, with that cocky smirk I was all too familiar with.
"Finish this for us, Lex." He spoke quietly. I gave him an affirmative grunt before looking back to the field, Both Herdier and Silas were back on their feet, facing each other once more. Herdier was Undoubtedly the physically stronger of the two, But the way it was breathing told me that It had far less endurance than Silas, we just had to outlast it.
"Alright bud, Let's show 'em what we've got."
"Eeh VOI!" He barked in affirmation.

The two Pokemon stared each other down. Their battle was about to continue. Herdier moved first, charging headlong at Silas once more.
"Left!" I called out, Silas quickly slid to the right, slipping out of the attack's way, landing a weak tackle of his own as the creature careened past him. Silas followed up as the Herdier was recovering with a quick attack, allowing his momentum to bounce off the creature to keep at a distance. He landed a few feet away causing dust from the field to begin to scatter from the impact. The two both charged forward at the same time, Their attacks clashing in a quick flash of light where their energy collided, the power difference between them showed quickly, as Silas was sent reeling backwards under another cloud of dust. Herdier barely recoiled from the attack and continued his rush forward. the two clashed again and once more Silas was pushed backwards.
"You can't beat 'em head-on like that. Focus on your dodging, wear him down," I called out to Silas, as he took yet another direct clash.  He either ignored me or didn't hear and charged once more toward Herdier. Their attacks collided once more, this time however Silas began to glow, Cloaking himself under bright white light. The glow grew brighter before resulting In a burst of pressure similar to that of a small scale explosion. there was a bright flash, followed by a storm of dust. I covered my eyes to not be blinded by the debris. The field went silent. As the dust settled, I removed my arm from my field of view to see that Silas was standing further forward than when he had begun to glow his breathing was heavy and he could barely stand. About 10 feet away, Herdier was laying on its side motionless. Silas looked up at me seemingly surprised by the result before giving me a smirk reminiscent of Ethan's. I stood and stared in disbelief at the situation before me. What... Just happened. A moment later the silence was broken by the referee calling out
"Herdier is unable to battle, Team EmErica Is out of Pokemon, the victory goes to the Aspertian Aces." He brought his hand down Like a guillotine marking the end of our first tournament battle. Red light engulfed the fainted creature before vanishing entirely. Silas weakly trotted back to my side and leaned against my leg. Ethan recalled Royce, that same red light emerging from his hand before he turned to look at me and Silas. His smug grin had turned to one of disbelief.
"We won," his voice was quivering, from excitement or shock, I couldn't tell.
"Yeah, we did," My response was soft as I glanced down at Silas.