[X] My Assistant

[Kamaitachi]

Back in the Zone

Suzu
Bachi
Tobi
Tonbo
Kana
Uchi

It had been only a day since Taggarty Lee's Nightmare World ordeal, and he had already returned to the streets for more training. Taking on uppity trainers was something of a speciality to him, but today his training objectives were twofold: Get strong enough to beat Justin Smart's Hitmontop in fair combat, and get ready for a battle to earn the Stonebloom Badge.

He'd earned a bit of notoriety in Furoh as a trainer for the continental broadcasts of his gym battles, as well as his companionship with the now missing Raven Amaranth. The paparazzi had photographed them together during their time in Arasam, since she revealed herself to the world again, but she'd disappeared since.

Tag no longer felt the need to wander around searching for her, especially since he had no more leads. More importantly, he'd come to realize that he had other companions in Furoh, and didn't need to cling so heavily to someone who clearly didn't want to be found by anyone. He'd consciously made the effort to return to his vagrant ways and storm the final two gyms before making his way to Daioh.

He wanted the Champion's title, for once. He wanted the income as well, so as to build a trainer's school for himself. It was something of a pipe dream, but it was a better goal than finding a girl only to stand awkwardly around her.

But, of course, to do all this, he'd have to get stronger. Much stronger.

"Gothitelle! Psyshock! Samurott! Razor Shell!"

The newly arrived pokemon from Unova were a big problem for Tag. He'd faced quite a few since their appearance, and they always served to give him a hard time. In his vast experience, the former Dragon Trainer had squared off against probably every pokemon from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh. (Excluding the 'legendary' pokemon, of course). With the arrival of a hundred or so more new pokemon, dozens of new techniques and abilities, Tag was a bit at a loss when facing them. Fortunately for him, several trainers now commanded these Unova-brand pokemon. One of the battles he'd engaged in today held two formidable looking foes that Tag had never seen before.

The Gothitelle raised her arms near her head, summoning a whole array of little motes in the air. Throwing her arms forward with a battlecry, the little psychic lights blasted forward, lashing towards Tag's Spinda, Kana.

The much smaller pokemon fell backwards from the assault, but hopped back up almost immediately thereafter. She smiled at her opponent cutely, placing a paw to her mouth as her ever-spiral eyes stared her down.

Meanwhile, the rather large looking...nautilus-otter-samurai pokemon lashed out with the shell he wore as a helmet. The blade looked vicious as it struck Tag's other pokemon, a Slowpoke named Tonbo, but the Slow Pokemon looked rather unfazed and retained his constantly dopey face.

Tag had given the first move to the opponent trainer, a tomboy looking girl wearing torn jean shorts, a tank top, and a white baseball cap. She was very attractive, but Tag paid that absolutely no heed (there were more important details to notice), and set about his counterattack immediately.

"Tonbo, disable Gothitelle. Kana, use Teeter Dance."

Kana bounced forward and immediately threw herself into a wild, flaily 'dance'. As she moved about, the eyes of the two enemy pokemon honed in on her, and the combination of her haphazard body spots, swirly eyes and erratic swirly dance moves imprinted on the brains of the two, and suddenly their eyes were spinning. Teeter Dance was a move that served to confuse all pokemon on the field, but Tag had calculated the abilities of his two pokemon into play as well: Both Tonbo and Kana possessed the "Own Tempo" ability, and were unable to be confused by any means. The enemy trainer's pokemon were now both confused, and Tag's remained perfectly sane.

Meanwhile, Tonbo glowed with a radiant blue aura for a moment before locking eyes with the already dizzy Gothitelle. Disable immediately locked off a section of her memory, disabling access to the Psyshock move she'd used last.

The enemy trainer clenched her fists in frustration: She'd hoped to sweep Taggarty Lee in a few rounds, but on his first move, he'd already proceeded to set her back on the defensive, despite no damage being done.

"Gothitelle, Future Sight. Samurott, Razor Shell on the Spinda!"

The Gothitelle nodded, looking through her muddled mind and drumming up the psychic energy for a future sight. Nothing visibly happened, but Tag knew from experience that she'd simply predicted an attack, that would now come to pass through precognition. It would come to pass because she willed it so. A terrifying ability indeed.

Meanwhile, the Samurott stumbled over himself, slamming his head into the ground. For all of his skill, Tag often relied heavily on luck as well, especially when using confusion gambits.

"Tonbo, use Amnesia. Kana, Psych Up on Tonbo!"

He had time for a little set up play now. His Slowpoke concentrated on what appeared to be...forgetting. Even with no discernible effects, Tag knew that Tonbo was clearing his mind into a Zen-like state, making special attacks less effective. Kana, meanwhile, used her Psych Up technique to copy the changes as well, clearing her mind in a way that would boost her own special defense as well.

"You a coward or what, you're not going to attack?" the girl taunted, pointing an accusing finger at Tag. Nothing came to Tag's face as he stared blankly back at her, giving her as little to read as possible. The combination of sharp eyes and multiple facial tattoos served their purpose, and the girl found herself a bit unnerved. Tag stood before her, back straight, hands in pockets, staring her down from across the field. "Uh...Gothitelle, Psyshock on the Spinda. Samurott, Razor Shell on Spinda!"

"Kana, Sucker Punch"

With speed surprising for a creature that stumbled over herself constantly, Kana launched forward, punching the Gothitelle in the face as she stumbled to remember how to perform Psyshock. With Tonbo's disable still in place, she hadn't been able to pull it off, and also got a solid dark type move in the face. As Kana fell away from her, the confusion-muddled Samurott's shell slash missed his intended target and slammed into his psychic teammate.

"Tonbo, Zen Headbutt."

As the Samurott reeled back in surprise from hitting his teammate, Tonbo slowly lifted himself off the ground using his own psychic energy, and threw himself into a flying headbutt, slamming heavily into the otter-thing. As Kana trotted back to Tag's side of the field triumphantly, Tonbo remained over on the girl's side, looking up at her with his adorable face.

"Uh...uh..."

"Breathe." Tag cut the girl's stammering off. "Clear your head and think how to handle this situation."

It sounded really condescending, due to his harsh tone of voice. However, this was his way of teaching. There was no time for fluff and praise when there was a problem to be faced. The girl drew a deep breath and suddenly pointed at the Slowpoke still situated happily on her side of the field.

"Samurott, Fury Cutter! Gothitelle! Faint Attack!"

Tag shook his head slowly. Fury Cutter was a deplorably weak attack unless it was used repeatedly, and Faint Attack lacked any power due to Gothitelle's lack of physical strength. She went for type advantage, true, but Tonbo had a pretty strong defense, and it would not do much damage.

"Tonbo, Slack off. Kana, Psycho Cut on Samurott!" Tonbo shrugged off the two attacks with his typical slowpoke indifference, then nestled happily onto the ground, appearing to take a little breather in the middle of the match. Ostensibly, he did nothing. In actuality, he was healing.

Meanwhile, Tag knew Kana to be short on offensive power, but still ordered a Psycho Cut. The Spinda's newly awakened move formed a psychic blade, which lanced through the air at the Samurott. It was a powerful move, even despite Kana's lack of offense. The creature slammed into the ground, just as a future sight came soaring out of the sky, landing on the resting Tonbo.

The attack was powerful, but Tonbo had upped his already impressive defenses earlier with Amnesia, and he seemed to also shrug this off.

"Gothitelle, use Flatter on Slowpoke! Samurott, Water Pulse on Spinda!"

Tag grinned. He watched as Gothitelle moved to flatter his Slowpoke to boost his special attack at the cost of his confusion...but as aforementioned, Tonbo's ability was Own Tempo.

The Slowpoke tilted his head at the Astral Body pokemon, not confused like she'd hoped, but blank as always. Meanwhile, the Water pulse struck Tag's Spinda, sending her spinning. It appeared that Samurott's Torrent ability had activated, because after just that blow, Kana was looking rather ragged.

"Kana! Tonbo! On the Samurott: Dizzy Punch! Zen Headbutt! " One of the few moves that gained the Same Type Attack Bonus, Kana toddled forward one more time and punched the Otter Pokemon square in the chest (Where she could reach), while Tonbo lanced forward glowing with his psychic aura, using himself as a body projectile. With a croak, the Samurott fell to the ground defeated.

"Gothitelle, Psybeam on Spinda!"

"Kana, Sucker Punch!" As the Astral Body pokemon started to charge up her power into a beam, Kana socked her a good one with her cute little paw once more. Before she could recover:

"Water Pulse!" A blast of water engulfed her and threw her to the ground. The gothitelle lay there, defeated from the powered up Water Pulse from the nearby Slowpoke. The girl recalled her two pokemon and frowned, running off to the pokemon center.

Tag stood, looking around at the makeshift crowd that had gathered around their battle. Slipping his hands out of his pockets, he knelt down to greet his two victorious pokemon. They still needed training, but he definitely enjoyed battling with them.

"Well done you two." Tag reached out, patting their heads as they smiled appreciatively up at him.

"Da." "Poke."

"Agreed." their trainer nodded, recalling them to their pokeballs to rest. He looked around once more at the crowd, and it appeared no one wanted to step forward at the moment. That was fine too, he figured. He was sure there'd be more trainers closer to the gym.