January 31st
Saffron Stadium - Afternoon - Clear
Aidan Klein
The original plan had been to sit in the general stands like any other audience members, but then Ulster Hagen, himself a former pro-battler, had spotted and recognized Aidan on the group's way into the stadium, and somehow—he was pretty sure it mostly was Cyrilla's fault—they were now in his private box instead. Hagen was loaded, and now made a name for himself commentating on a secondary PSPN channel, so Aidan was sure he was going to mention having a former champion in his box at some point, but so far they'd mostly been left alone, save that there were loads of snacks and shit up here.
He had to admit, the view was nice.
The last day of the tournament was set to be a pretty exciting one. Yesterday had narrowed the field to the top ten competitors, and this was as everyone knew where things got difficult. As he'd expected, Nero and Rheinallt had been challenged by the caliber of the opponents here, and though they were doing well, he didn't expect them to win. That honor would almost certainly go to Amaris Castro, one of the biggest up and coming stars on the scene. She'd been around for a while, maybe five years, and it was generally agreed that she'd matured very well in that time, into a world-class competitor.
She was also Rheinallt's opponent for the match, because he was seeded all the way down at number 10. Still, it would be useful experience for him, and if he could manage not to get the floor wiped with him, he'd almost certainly get a lot of attention.
Nero was in a similar position: his opponent was higher seeded, but the match was more even and Aidan was actually pretty optimistic about it. It was possible he could win it, and that would be a major help in the real goal here: getting themselves some sponsors. Ernest Waters was an old pro, and while not the strongest in most fields, in Aidan's opinion one of the most solid and reliably-good. He was also an admirable person, and Aidan remembered well the bizarre sort of feeling it had been to be coached through a battle with his opponent, the first time they'd met at a tournament.
“Oh, this is going to be so exciting," Doc mumbled a little. It was obvious that she was excited; she hadn't been able to sit still in her chair when they'd been seated, and even now her leg was shaking. “They have been doing so well so far," she added, glancing in Aidan's direction.
Cyrilla was chewing idly on a chip, grinning broadly as she glanced in Aidan's direction as well. She shook her head a bit before turning to Ana, offering the bag of chips in her direction. “Who's up first, Rykster or Kas?" she asked.
“I thought Kas was first?" Doc answered as she arched a brow. “Or did I read the line up wrong?"
"He is," Aidan replied. "It'll probably be a couple minutes here to get things ready still but not much longer." He still remembered what this part was like; the competitors were all probably gathered in a large room, most of them doing some kind of pre-battle ritual to psych themselves up. It wasn't even always doing something exactly; some people stared at nothing, deep in their own heads. Some people moved around the room chatting to anyone who seemed amenable. Some people gave their pokémon pep talks or prayed or wished or used some lucky object.
He'd known a girl once who always ate a huge bowl of ramen noodles before a match. Same flavor every time.
Part of him kind of wondered what Rheinallt and Nero would do, if anything. Routines like that could take a while to develop, and they were still new to this, but Rheinallt at least had gym badges. He might have done something for those battles that he picked back up now.
Ana, taking a chip from the offered bag of them, looked to be twice as anxious as any spectator ought to be. The reason for that was obvious, of course: she'd realized that this mattered to Nero on a personal level, and because she cared about him, that meant it mattered to her, too.
"I don't know how anyone can stand the waiting," she murmured, eating the chip.
Cyrilla huffed slightly, tucking her legs underneath her as she arched a brow at Ana. “You know Ryk. He's probably the only one who could stand waiting for anything," she said in a jocular tone, before letting a sigh out. “He's also probably glaring at everyone who is trying to approach him for anything. I wonder if Kas is chastising him about it," she stated, somewhat amused.
“Eryk is a patient person, but I don't know if he's that patient," Doc said as she pursed her lips together. “Either way, I really hope they start soon," she continued. It was obvious that she didn't quite have the patience to wait.
“Don't worry, Nev, they'll be making the introductions soon. And then you can go ham on cheering and whatever else it is you do," Cyrilla joked, twisting the top off of her water bottle and taking a drink.
Aidan had to smile a little at her obvious enthusiasm. It didn't surprise him anymore that she was this into the scene. Sometimes he thought it was kind of a shame that they hadn't met earlier, when he was still part of it. He hadn't ever been the kind who paid much attention to his fans, but part of him wondered if maybe she wouldn't have been one. She'd apparently at least owned his fucking miniature, a thing that was probably going to haunt him to his grave.
If he'd told her she could have him instead, what would she have said?
He tossed aside the useless thought as the stadium beneath them started to rearrange. The dynamic stages even in the last couple of years had become intricate as hell; for this one, they raised a pool on the left side; the right side was strewn with boulders and other small terrain features, rated well over any kind of seismic effect a pokémon could produce.
“LADIES, GENTLEMEN, AND FRIENDS," an announcer's voice boomed from the loudspeakers, to a burst of crowd noise, mostly a dull background roar here in the box. “WELCOME TO THE FINAL ROUNDS OF THE SAFFRON CITY SCRAMBLE!"
There was a pause for the swelling noise to die town, and then the tournament bracket was projected up on the screen. They'd done it a little weird; ten was an uneven bracket, but it had actually started yesterday, where two 'pre-final' matches had taken out the eleventh and twelfth place finishers. But since everyone wanted to see the top two go on the last day, the matches had been 3 vs. 12 and 4 vs. 11, with the predictable results.
The 1 vs. 10 match, Rheinallt's, was next, and then so on. Nero, seeded seventh, was two matches later, against the sixth seed.
“PLEASE JOIN ME IN WELCOMING OUR NUMBER TEN RANKED COMPETITOR, KASIMIR RHEINALLT, TO THE RING!"
There was a roar from the crowd, and a subtle grin that formed on Cyrilla's face. Doc's attention had fixed on the ring, too, when Rheinallt's name was mentioned. They introduced Amaris, next, and she entered the ring with a bright grin on her face. Her violet locks barely brushed the tips of her ear, and the sides of her head had been shaved. It was styled in a fauxhawk manner, and she was dressed in what looked to be a pure black suit with a lavender tie. Even the shirt underneath the vest was black, but she seemed to be in her element.
Brown eyes fixed on Rheinallt, though, and the grin on her face just widened. “Make sure you don't take it easy on me, alright? We've a performance to make," she stated as she plucked her first pokéball from the strap on her wrist. She gave it a deft toss, sending out her first pokémon. When the silhouette faded, it looked to be a low key form toxtricity. It yawned, seemingly bored to be where it was, however; there was a faint grin on its face as it strummed the electrical organ on its chest.
It sounded as if it were playing a bass guitar, but it was just an effect of generating the sparks that surrounded it. “Ready, sweet stuff?"
Rheinallt smoothed a hand back through his hair, grinning that pristine showman's grin of his. Honestly even with the nerd-chic thing he was going for, his actual personality was pretty much front and center. He was just himself in the ring, and himself included being a showman.
"I'd never do you the disservice," he replied. "I'd ask you to maybe go a little easy on a rookie like me, but that's no fun." He counted three pokéballs back on his belt and gave the one in the center a toss.
Aidan knew which it was even before the emerald-green ball had cracked open. The type matchup was just good, and in a competition this fierce you had to take it where you could get it. Widget stretched her vibrant viridian-edged green wings, sunlight making the scales glitter, and blinked her big eyes.
“COMPETITORS, READY YOURSELVES."
When both had signaled that they were ready to begin, the announcer called the match, and it was on.
Rheinallt reacted first. "Supersonic."
As they'd taught her to do, Widget integrated the move with a leap to launch herself into the air, the attack distorting the space in front of her with ripples of force.
“Boomburst, Strum," Amaris countered as the toxtricity grinned. It jumped back a pace before puffing out its chest, bringing one hand up to the organ there, and strummed. The attack aimed straight for Widget who was still in the air.
The two attacks met in midair, softening the boomburst and canceling the supersonic entirely. Widget twisted, barrel-rolling in midair, avoiding most of the rest, but part of the attack clipped her wing, and she dropped a little as a result.
"Dragon Claw!" It was reasonable strategy, using the fact that she was already moving down to add force to the attack. Widget drew back one foreleg, her claws glowing as she charged them with draconic power, and then slashed downwards toward her foe.
“Payback," Amaris retaliated as Strum didn't even try to dodge Widget's attack. The attack landed, however; the toxtricity only grinned, and released its attack on Widget.
“Follow it up with Throat Chop!" if the attack landed, Widget wouldn't be able to use supersonic for awhile.
"Earth Power!" Rheinallt clearly understood the importance of not letting that land; the ground beneath Strum's feet buckled and erupted, throwing off his balance. It was a hell of a time to pull out a quadruple-effective move, but he wouldn't put it past Rheinallt to have been setting something like this up as soon as it was clear Castro wasn't going to let him have the air.
Strum fell to his knees, trying to roll away to avoid the next attack, but it was obvious that the move did its job. “Tch, Strum, use Mega Kick!" she called as the toxtricity stood on his legs. He hopped in place a couple of times before pointing in Widget's direction and chortling. Jumping into the air, Strum seemed intent on landing his attack.
But the match had turned with that well-timed move, and Widget was confident. She flapped her wings, ascending sharply without needing to wait for Rheinallt's input, and when he told her to use Supersonic again, she did, this time catching Strum square in the face with it.
He was weakened and confused; Aidan wouldn't be surprised if Castro used the mercy rule to cede the point to Rheinallt, just so her pokémon wouldn't actually have to pass out. The mercy rule was something Aidan himself had asked Gregorovich to push for when he first joined NTR; it was now league standard, but it hadn't been in his heyday.
Castro looked amused if anything, but retrieved Strum's pokéball from her wrist and recalling him. “I guess I know what I'm dealing with, now," she stated as she pulled another ball from her wrist. Giving it a deft toss, she released a hatterene that didn't appear to be too happy about something. It might have been the loud noises since hatterene were known not to like them, much.
“Come on, Lady, let's get this show started! Dazzling Gleam!"
That was a one move knockout, unsurprisingly; Rheinallt flinched and took back Widget, sending out Lani instead. It was the best of several not-great options for him, and he did make the most of it, but it was pretty clear from the outset that the match was Castro's to win, and she did.
When her arbok took down Meep, Aidan could sense the crowd getting restless. It looked, to the inexperienced eye, like the first match had been a fluke, like this was going to be a predictable first-versus-tenth seed match, and that, more or less, there wasn't anything to see here.
In contrast, the scene in the box had never been more invested. Ana was leaned forward in her chair, hands clenched into fists and resting on her knees. Cyrilla had stopped eating and was completely vested in the match, her eyes never leaving Rheinallt. Doc, however, was biting on a piece of jerky, occasionally making a deflated noise when an attack landed on Rheinallt's pokémon, or a sharp gasp of joy when one of his pokémon's attack landed. She'd accidentally knocked over the box of popcorn in her lap, but didn't seem to pay it too much mind, trying to scrape it up while keeping her eyes on the ring.
When Castro sent out her snorlax, Reinallt smiled, and Aidan knew what his play was before he made it. It was a hell of a risk, but it would also make for a hell of a show. Before that became an issue, though, he threw the second pokéball on his belt, and Sigrún appeared, the lucario shaking out her coat and glaring down the other pokémon with those hard eyes of hers. That one was made to fight, and it showed. As strong as snorlax obviously was, Sigrún took the match handily.
This, however, was where things got very difficult.
“I have to say," Castro started as she pulled at her last remaining pokéball. “You've given me quite the challenge. Unfortunately, I think it's time we end this, wouldn't you agree?" she stated, tossing the pokéball out. “Tank! Use Hydro Pump!" she commanded as the large blastoise roared, aiming its cannons straight for Sigrún.
To her credit, Sigrún got out of the way, one of the jets just barely skimming her back, and managed to dart in and land a heavy Force Palm on Tank's front. But the second shot got her, and Rheinallt withdrew her even as she was trying to stand again, making the signal for a mercy. The downside to her personality was that she wouldn't stop until something forced her to.
Rheinallt's grin turned a little rueful, and he shrugged across the way at Castro. "Sorry in advance about this. She's a bit of a brat." He gave his last pokéball a toss, and out popped the one pokémon he had left: Princess Cinders, or as Aidan preferred to think of her, that goddamn charizard.
She was huge, first of all, and jet black from nose to tip, save her white underbelly and the deep red of the inside of her wings. She spread them and roared, the flame on her tail flaring, and the crowd went nuts.
"I can never tell which one of them's the bigger showoff," Aidan admitted.
“It's definitely Princess," Cyrilla stated, rolling her eyes at the charizard's antics. “She's basically flexing; she taught that to Siri, the little brat," she continued, but the smile on her face made it clear she wasn't upset or anything.
“Shh, the match is still going," Doc stated, not having taken her eyes off the match. She did wave her hand a little in the shooing motion, though. Cyrilla just snickered softly and turned back towards the match. “Amaris has the type advantage, but still... it's anyones match at this point," Doc added, briefly glancing in Aidan's direction.
“Oh, she's adorable!" Castro nearly squealed, seemingly enamored by the charizard. “It's a shame, though," she continued, grinning faintly. “Tank, Rock Tomb!"
Rheinallt didn't seem too concerned, though; it was definitely an effective move, but it was also off-type, and Princess wasn't the kind of pokémon you could half-ass anything with. "Flamethrower."
She obliged, ducking one of the incoming rocks and blasting clan through another, sweeping her head to the side to clear away more. The sheer force of the sustained blast knocked a few out of the air, and they fell back to the ground in scorched heaps, some of them melted on the side. Aidan couldn't help the little burst of something in his chest—pride, he thought. He was proud of them. They'd worked damn hard to make her blasts that strong, and it was paying off.
But Castro would adjust quickly, and Rheinallt knew it. "Smokescreen!" The one after a flamethrower was particularly dense, the pokémon's flame apparatus already inclined to be pretty smoky in the aftermath of a blast that big, so the smoke that poured out with the charizard's next breath was thick and dark both.
Castro smirked, though, and glanced towards Tank. “Clear it away with Rapid Spin, and follow it up with Water Pulse!" she directed as the blastoise took a step. Retreating into its shell, it began spinning at a rapid pace, pulling the smoke in before pushing it out. Tank seemed to combine the effort, though, and was shooting water from his cannons at the same time. It wouldn't be as accurate with the smoke, but it was likely to still hit something.
And it did, some of the water splashing on Princess, but she handled it well enough, launching herself into the air to get away from the rest. "Air Slash!" Rheinallt called. Time was of the essence here; the longer the battle dragged, the more the type difference was going to hurt; that was just a fact.
The slash put a cut in the smokescreen, speeding towards Tank like a solid blade. The crowd seemed to hold its breath all at once; even Aidan felt himself tensing, unsure how it was going to work out.
“Endure!" the blastoise stopped its spinning, and fell to all fours. Tank dug his claws into the ground and met the attack almost head on. It was effective in making the blastoise stagger a bit, but he regained his composure quickly enough, shaking off the attack.
“Dig in and use Hydro Cannon!" Castro commanded as Tank roared once more. The cannons on his back shifted upwards towards Princess, clearly taking aim.
"Watch yoursel—" Rheinallt didn't even get to finish the warning before the cannons fired. Princess shifted in the air, but fast as she was it still wasn't fast enough, and one of the twin jets caught her square in the chest, taking her to the ground. It was a near thing; that Tank had needed to Endure that last hit meant that the battle was one blow from finishing either way, even as Princess regained her feet, slower than she was accustomed to, the flame on her tail spitting and guttering.
"Air Slash!"
With a heavy beat of her wings, she complied, this one weaker than the last but still impressive, streaking over the field towards tank. Aidan grit his teeth.
Come on, Rheinallt.
“Endure!" Castro shouted as the attack flew towards Tank. The blastoise roared, however; even he was likely feeling the fatigue of the battle. The attack hit head on, causing the blastoise to skid back, however; he dug his feet into the ground and roared once more.
“Let's finish this, Tank. Hydro Pump!" the cannons shifted once more in Princess's direction. From the way Tank's legs were shaking, it was a last stand. The attack was meant to bring this battle to its conclusion. If it missed, it was only a matter of which one fell, first, to fatigue.
"Get out of the way!" Rheinallt seemed to realize it—that all he had to do was outlast now, and outlasting would be a matter of moments if Princess could just avoid or handle this one last hit.
She strained her wings, ascending as fast as she could, but Tank adjusted his aim, and though it wasn't a square-on hit, it was enough. Princess crashed to the ground, and this time she didn't stir.
The crowd went berserk.
“THE WINNER OF THIS MATCH IS AMARIS CASTRO!" The roar intensified, and Rheinallt recalled Princess Cinders, saying something too low to be picked up by his mic.
Aidan sighed. "Arceus damn," he muttered, shaking his head. That was even closer than he'd expected it to be. If Rheinallt's name wasn't out there after this, he'd eat the cigarettes in his pocket.
"Endure's a cheap move anyway," Ana protested, crossing her arms over her chest and looking rather put out. "Especially to use it twice like that."
“Son of a bitch!" Doc stated as she dropped her box of popcorn again. “It was arceusdamn luck is what that was. Endure isn't supposed to work in succession like that, especially when Tank had as little stamina as he did!" Doc nearly shouted, stooping down to pick up the box and popcorn on the floor. “Still, I have to admire the fact that she did use it, especially knowing that its success rate was going to be low, and after Hydro Cannon at that. Usually, there's a few minutes of rest between using that attack and following it up with another."
“It's a shame that he lost, but I think he held himself well. He did take out a couple of her pokémon, too, and look how excited the crowd had been at that final show off. Despite the type disadvantage, he lasted a lot longer than what most people would have," Cyrilla stated, smiling a little in Doc's direction. Doc merely pursed her lips together, though, almost as if she were pouting.
"It's the finest loss I've seen in a while," Aidan added, reaching over to ruffle Doc's hair. He shouldn't think that expression was cute, but arceus help him, he did. Was he fucking weak for this woman or what? "And I'm willing to bet the next time they meet things'll go a little differently." The tournament was important, but Rheinallt had just made his point in a particularly spectacular fashion. The pro-battling world had been put on notice.
Now they just had to make sure Nero could do the same. This match, Aidan was really looking forward to.
It was another five minutes or so before the competitors cleared the ring. Once they had, the announcer was back over the loudspeaker, introducing the next competitors. “NEXT UP, WE HAVE OUR NUMBER SEVEN RANKED COMPETITOR: ERYK NE—wait, what was that?" a slight pause and some shuffling, “NERO!"
Cyrilla burst out laughing as Nero walked onto the field. “Oh my arceus. He'll never change." Nero's expression seemed a little sour. More-so than usual, at least, and the deep furrow of his brows indicated he was a little stressed. He still didn't seem quite as comfortable in a large crowd, but he at least looked a little more focused. He didn't say anything, and instead of waiting for his opponent, Nero grabbed the fourth ball on his belt, and gave it a light toss, sending out Imp.
The gengar seemed rather pleased to be out, and grinned maliciously towards the crowd.
“FACING HIM IS THE NUMBER SIX SEED, EDGAR WATERS!"
Waters looked almost exactly how Aidan remembered him, which was really saying something. He wore a tweed suit and a bowler hat, his grey mustache kept trim and neat. When Eryk threw his ball, Waters cocked his head and smiled a little. It wasn't a smirk or anything like that; the old codger was one of those rare people that was just nice.
“Hrm hrm, let's see now, where did I put... ah, there we go." He removed a pokéball from his inside jacket pocket and gave it a toss. A bisharp appeared, standing at attention. “Now since I got to pick second, I think it's only fair that the first move is yours, Mr. Nero." He inclined his head politely.
It was clear that Waters had the type advantage, with the bisharp being a primary dark type and a secondary steel type. Nero, however, inclined his head, and locked eyes with Imp, who merely hopped from one foot to the other. Nero rolled his eyes as if some unsaid exchange happened before shaking his head.
“Shadow Ball," he stated, knowing well that it wasn't going to have much effect on the bisharp.
And it didn't—the pokémon didn't even try to dodge it, letting it break against its chest instead. Waters tilted his head. “Having a disagreement?" he asked, nodding at the bisharp. It didn't require any more direction than that—Reginald was as old a hand at this as Waters himself. He lunged forward with a night slash, quick enough that Imp was going to need to get serious very quickly if he wanted to win.
Which... he might. That one was kind of a pain in the ass.
Nero frowned as the attack landed, causing Imp to skid back and take a more solid form. “Imp," Nero started, pursing his lips together. The gengar merely shook his head and frowned in Reginald's direction. “Focus Blast," he said as Imp stood still for a second. He gathered his energy before blasting it towards the bisharp. It would normally be a super-effective move, but with Imp being a dual type of ghost and poison, it wasn't going to be nearly as damaging if it hit.
Bisharp leaped aside, but part of the attack caught him in the side. Waters frowned a little, but nodded as if this was to be expected. “Very well done!" he said, genuine in his praise as always. “Reginald, Assurance, then Snarl."
Oof. That assurance was going to hurt if it landed.
“Oh, no, Imp!" Doc stated as Imp took the hit. It was enough to knock the gengar down, and the follow up Snarl was enough to keep him down for a moment. Nero seemed to be having some debate before Imp reluctantly stood up. He was a little wobbly, and if he took another hit like that, it was likely to keep him down for good.
“Dazzling Gleam, and follow it up with a Drain Punch," Nero spoke in a rather lax tone as Imp grinned. The purple fur began to shimmer as he readied the first attack. It was possible that Nero was using Dazzling Gleam as more of means to blind Reginald than actually making the attack land.
He'd have to be, with the hit Imp just took to his special attack. It seemed to work, though; Reginald slashed, but the attack whiffed. The drain punch connected, but—
“There!" Reginald took the cue, slashing in the direction the punch had come from.
Imp took the hit, effectively knocking him out. Nero shook his head, but retrieved Imp's pokeball from his belt. He recalled the gengar, unhooking another ball and giving it a deft toss. He summoned Orion, his pidgeot, to the field. Waters released his claydol for that battle.
It was intense from start to finish, Waters occasionally giving out praise when Nero was in sync with his pokemon, or offering some form of advice. At first, it seemed like Nero didn't quite understand what Waters was getting at with the advice, but he seemed to be taking it. Orion defeated Waters' claydol, but was defeated in turn by Waters' boltund.
Nero had released Runt for that battle, the tyrunt having some difficulty at first due to the speed difference, however; the battle had been enough to kickstart Runt's evolution. He had been pretty close to evolving after all the training sessions, and it seemed that, as stupid as Brick was, Runt wasn't too far behind. He managed to take down the boltund, followed by the Sirfetch'd, however; Runt eventually succumbed to Waters' Galarian weezing. The type advantage was too much, and Runt had already looked to be exhausted.
The weezing also took out Red before being felled by Icarus. The espurr, however, didn't seem too fond of fighting against Waters' anchor, Empoleon, and Nero recalled him. It was down to Nova and the empoleon, now.
Nero pulled the luxury ball from his belt and stared at it for a moment. Seemingly making up his mind, he gave the ball a deft toss, nodding his head in Nova's direction.
“Oh, this is so exciting," Doc muttered as she sat at the edge of her seat. Her eyes were wide and there was a large smile on her face.
“It's the deciding moment. If Ryk can pull this off, he'll have managed to secure himself a spot, for sure, for the next tournament," Cyrilla stated, smiling broadly.
Ana was quite literally on the edge of her seat, too, gripping the parts next to her legs with white knuckles. The hadn't taken her eyes off the field since the match began, not even to comment on anything they'd seen.
"Whew, made it!" Rheinallt approached from behind. "Didn't know you guys got a box. Had to sprint." He dropped into the empty chair next to Cyrilla and expelled a heavy breath, shifting his sunglasses to the top of his head. "Looks like I haven't missed it."
Aidan nodded; the match was only just getting underway. The empoleon, named Winston if Aidan recalled correctly, coated the field in a thin mist.
“Yeah, that was my fault," Cyrilla confessed before she was shushed by Doc. Cyrilla snickered softly and glanced back out towards the ring. Nero looked like he was having some conversation with Nova before glancing back towards Waters. Nodding his head, he made the first move.
“Use Dig and follow it up with Double Kick."
The sequence was successful; Winston blocked the first of the kicks with a wing, but the second caught him in the side, and stronger. "Hydro pump," Waters commanded, and Winston unleashed the blast at point-blank range.
It was faint, and almost missable, however; there was a smirk crossing Nero's features as the attack landed. “Payback." Nova obliged as a light purple aura enveloped him.
It was an absolutely stellar move to have on a pokémon like Nova, whose defense was sky-high to begin with, and who had a pretty good endurance pool. It was a dark-type move, though, which meant Winston had some protection against it, and though he reeled, he didn't go down.
And he had a similar move up his sleeve, in a way.
"Brine!" The jet of saltwater shot forward.
Ana sucked in a sharp breath, all but falling out of her chair. Even Aidan felt a spike of anxiety.
“Nova, Dig!' Nero said as the attack came in Nova's direction. The umbreon managed to dodge the attack partially. It hit Nova's base where his tail met his back, but he burrowed deep beneath the ground. Nero was silent for a moment, eyes scanning the ground as if he were following Nova's movements.
Nero didn't say anything, however; Nova reappeared behind Winston, a Shadow Ball attack forming near his mouth before he released it.
This, too, was a bit weak against the secondary steel type, but wasn't a bad choice for the stealth of it, and it managed to catch both Winston and Waters off-guard; the old man raised his brows, shaking his head faintly. "That's some connection you've got there," he remarked, no doubt pleased to see it.
"Once more, Winston! Hydro Pump!"
“Sand Attack," Nova obliged, kicking up dirt to blind Winston. It wasn't a bad call, considering that the Hydro Pump missed Nova, and he followed it up with a Quick Attack. It wasn't too effective, but it staggered the empoleon enough that Nova managed to land a Double Kick. Winston dropped to his knees, still reeling from the Sand Attack.
“Iron Tail," was the last attack that landed on Winston's back, forcing the empoleon forward. He did not stir. The crowd was silent for a moment, the obvious tension fading before it dawned on them that Nero had defeated Waters.
“AND THE MATCH GOES TO ERYK NERO!" the announcer shouted, causing an uproar in the stands.
“Whoo!" Doc shouted, standing up abruptly and startling Cyrilla. “He did it!" she continued, doing a strange dance in her spot. Cyrilla tapped her chest a couple of times before shaking her head.
Aidan grinned, shaking his head; Rheinallt stood abruptly and high-fived Doc. "Hell yeah he did!"
Ana looked like she were about to cry, in the good way, but was holding the tears back. "You wanna go see him before the next match?" Aidan asked. "You've got the certs, so they might even let you look after the pokémon with the supplies on hand."
She nodded mutely, still apparently overwhelmed.
His smile softened, but he couldn't help the fact that it wouldn't fade.
-
