Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

”Go, Ursaring!”

”Go, Forretress!”

”Ursaring, huh?” Reiji rubbed his chin. Forretress had a decent matchup here. ”Forretress, Toxic Spikes.”

”Toxic Spikes!” Tommy had seen Reiji use that tactic before. His stomach sank, and he immediately shouted, ”Ursaring, Fire Punch!”

”Don’t worry about it. Pull into your shell when it gets close.” Reiji felt this one should be simple. Ursaring would have a hard time breaking through Forretress’s defense, so he could get the hazards down first.

”For!” Forretress spun in place, flinging Toxic Spikes across the field. The spikes vanished the moment they landed.

By the time both layers were down, Ursaring had already charged in. Forretress tucked itself into its hard black shell and started rolling across the field.

It rolled while using Iron Defense. Reiji had only told it to roll and raise its defense, so that was exactly what it did.

Ursaring, meanwhile, had stepped on the Toxic Spikes and was badly poisoned. Regular poison and bad poison were not the same.

Poison drained a fixed amount of HP over time. Bad poison started small, then grew worse each turn. The first tick was light, the second was twice as much, and it kept building from there.

Regular poison could be stalled out with recovery abilities, moves or items. Bad poison was different. Once it dragged on, even recovery moves could not keep up. Recalling the Pokémon reset the buildup, but if a Pokémon had no way to heal, bad poison could take it out within a handful of turns.

”It’s poisoned.” Tommy saw the purple glow on Ursaring and noticed it struggling.

But that was not entirely bad. Ursaring had Guts.

Guts raised a Pokémon’s Attack by fifty percent when it had a status condition, and if that status was burn, it also ignored the usual physical attack penalty.

”Ursaring, Fire Punch!”

”Saa!” Ursaring grew more aggressive, flames burning around its paw as it chased Forretress. It was moving faster than before.

The moment Ursaring caught up and swung, black light flashed over Forretress’s shell. Fire Punch landed, and a blast erupted, sending Ursaring flying backward.

”What was that? I didn’t see this Forretress use that move before!” Tommy could not understand why Fire Punch had bounced back.

”Idiot, that was Counter.” Reiji pressed a hand to his forehead. How did he not recognize it?

A Guts-boosted Fire Punch had done nothing to Forretress. Instead, Counter threw the damage right back at Ursaring, and with Counter treated as a Fighting-type move here, Ursaring was hit where it hurt.

Ursaring had barely hit the ground before the purple glow flared again. Bad poison took another bite out of its HP.

A boosted Fire Punch reflected back at double strength, Counter hitting as a Fighting-type move, and the third tick of bad poison. Ursaring went down on the spot.

”Ursaring? That fast?” Tommy recalled the unconscious Ursaring, stunned by how quickly it had fallen.

”Of course it was fast,” Reiji muttered. ”Bad poison takes a Pokémon down fast if you leave it alone. That was already the third tick, and it got hit by Counter on top of that.”

Did this kid not know how to track a Pokémon’s condition?

If he couldn’t judge the state of his own Pokémon, how was he supposed to know what move to use and when?

”Damn it. That’s so toxic.” Tommy thought of his Snorlax. Too bad the poison-immune Snorlax had already gone down. If it were still around, he could have used it to break this setup.

But Snorlax was gone.

His teacher had told him before: to deal with Toxic Spikes, use a Poison-type Pokémon or clear them with Rapid Spin.

The problem was, he did not have a Poison-type.

That was what made this so awful. His parents had hired private Pokémon tutors for him, but once he insisted on using Normal-types, the tutors stopped trying to push other options and let him specialize. So now he had no Poison-type at all.

He had not caught any Normal-type Pokémon that knew Rapid Spin either.

This was bad.

What do I do? What do I do? Who can clear the Toxic Spikes?

Tommy hesitated so long that even the referee started getting impatient.

”Contestant Tommy, are you forfeiting?” The referee raised the flag and asked. If Tommy kept stalling on purpose, he would receive a warning.

”I’m not!” Tommy shouted back at once, still scrambling for an answer.

”Use Pidgeot. Doesn’t it know Defog, brat?” Reiji yawned. Had this kid rushed into the Indigo Plateau Conference before finishing his theory lessons? How could he forget something like that?

”Right, right! Pidgeot!” Tommy quickly sent Pidgeot back out and looked at Reiji with gratitude. Reiji was annoying, but he really was a good guy.

”Pidgeot, Defog!”

”Pidge!” Pidgeot flapped its wings, blowing a strong wind across the field and clearing away the Toxic Spikes.

What Pidgeot failed to notice was Forretress rolling toward it. Forretress slammed into its stomach while it was flying low and knocked it straight to the ground. Luckily, Pidgeot had already cleared the Toxic Spikes. Otherwise, it would have been poisoned too.

Pidgeot barely had time to get up before Forretress dropped from above and crushed it.

”Piii!” Pidgeot flapped its wings twice, then started twitching. The paralysis kicked in again, and it passed out.

”Pidgeot!” Tommy looked at it in distress. It had been slammed down by Forretress’s Double-Edge, then flattened under Body Slam. Pidgeot finally could not take any more.

”Pidgeot is unable to battle. Contestant Tommy, please recall Pidgeot. Contestant Tommy has lost three Pokémon. We will now begin a five-minute intermission.”

”Come back, Pidgeot. You did great. You cleared the Toxic Spikes, so the others can fight now.” Tommy comforted Pidgeot, put its Poké Ball back on his belt, and stepped down from the platform to rest.

As he left the stage, he glanced up at the big screen. Snorlax, Pidgeot, and Ursaring had all gone gray.

On Reiji’s side, only Butterfree and Forretress had appeared, and only Butterfree’s icon had gone gray. The difference was obvious.

Tommy was down two Pokémon. How was he supposed to turn this around? He had no idea.

In the stands, people were still discussing the first half of the match.

”Ash, this kid is just like you. He forgets moves during battle and needs his opponent to remind him.” Misty said it like a joke, but the look she gave Ash was full of contempt. It immediately got under his skin.

”I don’t forget moves! I’m not like him!” Ash shot back stubbornly.

”Really? He made top four, and you only made top sixteen,” Misty said, stabbing him right where it hurt.

A kid who forgot moves had still reached the top four, while Ash had only reached the top sixteen. Misty put extra weight on those numbers.

”What does that have to do with anything?” Ash’s face turned red. He had no comeback, so he sat there sulking.

Nearby, the Team Rocket trio was secretly watching Ash’s Pikachu while also talking about the match.

”He’s in the top four now. Noodle Rai is really strong, meow…”

”He might actually win the whole thing.”

”James, if he wins, should we steal the championship trophy?”

”No way, meow. We can’t beat him.”

Meowth quickly stopped Jessie. It still remembered the instant noodles Reiji had given them. How could it do something so ungrateful?

”Meowth’s right, Jessie. We can’t beat him.” James sighed, looking down at the battlefield. For a moment, he imagined himself down there instead, standing tall and crushing his opponent with a wave of his hand.

If not for his family’s arranged marriage, if not for that ridiculous fiancée, maybe he really could have been like that. With his family’s resources, getting rare Pokémon would not have been hard. Finding a strong teacher would not have been hard either.

But he had run away from home.

On the other side of the stands, a married couple watched the match closely, silently cheering for their son. The boy fighting below was Tommy.

”What do we do, dear? Tommy has run into such a strong opponent.”

”Don’t worry. Believe in our Tommy. Tommy is the best.”

”But what if Tommy loses? What do we do then?”

”If he loses, he loses.” Seeing his wife so worried, the husband gently took her hands and promised, ”If Tommy loses, we’ll take him home and let him inherit the family business.”

The people around them nearly fell over.

What a problem to have. Inherit the family business?

If Reiji had been there, he would have said, ”Ma’am, please adopt me. I’m tired of working hard.”

Five minutes passed, and the bell rang.

The intermission ended. The match continued.

Reiji returned to the platform and sent Forretress back out. Tommy stepped onto his platform too and threw Slaking’s Poké Ball.

”It’s Slaking! Slaking is said to have potential on par with Legendary Pokémon. Sadly, its Truant Ability holds that incredible power back…”

The announcer sounded genuinely regretful. Slaking was a common Pokémon, but Truant dragged its value down.

”Slaking, Taunt!” Tommy had learned from the first half and immediately sealed Forretress’s status moves.

”So you did learn something.” Reiji watched Taunt hit Forretress. It couldn’t use status moves for the next three turns, which was annoying, but not a real problem.

Forretress still had other moves.

”Forretress, Gyro Ball.”

Forretress tucked itself back into its black shell and rolled toward Slaking.

Gyro Ball’s power depended on the speed gap between the user and the target.

Slaking’s base Speed was 100. Forretress’s was 40.

Forretress also had not used Autotomize, so it still weighed around 140 kilograms, close to an average Forretress. With that difference, Gyro Ball would hit hard.

The formula was simple: 25 times the target’s Speed divided by the user’s Speed, up to a maximum of 150 power.

”Slaking, stop it!”

”King!” Slaking rose from the ground and faced the huge Forretress rolling at it. At the moment of impact, it threw its arms around Forretress and held on, getting pushed backward as its feet carved two deep trenches into the field.

Slaking’s base stats really did live up to the hype. Catching Forretress head-on like that showed just how much power it had.

”Slaking, Fire Punch!” Tommy needed Slaking to attack before Truant kicked in. If it lost a turn for free, Forretress would toy with it.

Reiji sighed. He did not bother calling Counter out loud. Forretress knew what to do.

Why would this kid not learn?

Boom.

Another explosion burst across the field. Slaking was blown away and landed on the ground, unable to get up.

It was not because the damage was too much to stand from. Truant had kicked in, and Slaking simply did not want to move.

”Slaking!” Tommy shouted, trying to get it up, but Truant was not something that could be overcome just by yelling.

Since Slaking was resting, Reiji immediately called out, ”Toxic Spikes.”

Taunt’s three turns had passed. It was time for hazards to take over again.

”What? Again?” Tommy almost broke down when he heard Toxic Spikes.

He had sacrificed Pidgeot to clear those spikes, and now Reiji was shameless enough to set them again. Was there no end to this?

Reiji had not planned to rely on hazards this much, but Tommy had no answer to Toxic Spikes. Since the kid was so full of himself, Reiji might as well teach him a lesson with it.

By the time Slaking could move again, Forretress had already set both layers. The moment Slaking stood up, it stepped on the Toxic Spikes and became badly poisoned, a purple glow flickering over its body.

Even standing up did not make Slaking’s position look good. It had taken Counter from its own Fire Punch, then got hit by bad poison on top of that.

”Slaking, Flamethrower!” Tommy had at least learned one thing. This time, he did not dare use a physical move. If Counter caught him again, Slaking would go down too.

”Forretress, roll.” Reiji knew Forretress resisted fire, but there was no reason to take Flamethrower head-on.

Forretress rolled across the field, and Slaking’s Flamethrower chased after it. Wherever Forretress went, the fire followed.

Sometimes the flames grazed the edge of Forretress’s shell, but they still failed to do any real damage.

Then Truant kicked in again. Slaking lay flat on the ground to rest, and bad poison flared for the second time, draining more of its HP.

”Damn it. What do I do?” Tommy was sweating now. He had run into the same problem again. This time, he could recall Slaking, but that would not cure the poison. Recalling it would not solve anything.

He had to think of a way before Slaking’s lazy turn ended, or bad poison would drag it down too.

[End of chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]

[[email protected]/BellAshelia]

[Thanks for your support!]