[X] My Assistant

[Living Arrow]

Travelling back to Port Barley after the events at the Petropolis Grand Invitational had been a long and gruelling affair for Lori. Well, it had involved public transport which inevitably meant sharing elbow room with all manner of undesirable and social reprobates. If she was not worrying about her bag being stolen from off of her shoulder, the young Trainer was replaying the events of the tournament again and again to find the moment that had made her act so foolishly.

*Who really thinks they can play the hero and go down some stupid hole to save random people they’ve never even met before!?* She demanded of herself for the fiftieth time as the stench of body odour from her latest ravel companion drifted her way. Holding back a gag, she politely turned her head the other way and cried inwardly. *At least Cesc smelled good!*

*Hey! Stop thinking about him, dammit!* Lori blushed in spite of herself, heat rising in her cheeks to decorate her skin with blotches of ruby embarrassment.

The coach pulled up to a stop at the edge of the town in the later hours of the sunny morning, a couple of miles from her final destination, and freedom announced itself as the coach doors clunked open.

*Close enough!* Lori told herself, springing up from her seat without a backward glance for the stinking hobo next to the window. Cuddling her bag close to her chest with one hand while squeezing the length of her intensely red hair in the other, she hurried to the front of the vehicle.

“Thanks!” She smiled and bowed her head politely to the driver (a sweet old man who she doubted spoke any English) and skipped down the steps to the sidewalk. The coach pulled away with the hiss of its brakes releasing to leave her drinking in the fresh air of the coast. It had been a while since she had been in Barley, and the town hadn’t changed a bit, but she felt like a different person to the rookie that had picked fights with bullies on her first day in the town.

*Never again, Lor.* She reminded herself of the boys that had threatened to cut off her hair when she’d defended another beginner trainer at the bus station. She shuddered at the memory, pushing those thoughts down to her toes where they couldn’t plague her thoughts anymore.

“Pipster,” Lori clicked open the green-capped Pokeball of her Piplup and grinned as he materialised in front of her, “we’re back in Barley.”

“Lup, Piplup!” His cheery reply was a welcome change to the dismal mutterings of the ‘people’ on the coach.

“And you know what that means, right?” She prompted him. A blank expression was her response. She rolled her eyes and pumped her fists energetically, the infectious enthusiasm of her naturally bold demeanour finding its way back to the front of her otherwise woolly teenage brain. “It means we get back on a ferry and go to Fidona! That Gym badge won’t win itself, y’know?!”

“Lup!”

“So, let’s go!” Lori cheered, breaking into a run down the final slope into the town with her Penguin Pokemon close on her heels.

[Kamaitachi]

With a powerful flap of her leathery wings, Tiamat once more flew forward towards the Ampharos. Tag watched intently, his hands balled into fists, as Enka began to charge up a retaliatory Dragon Pulse to intercept the attack.

The glowing orb of bright energy appeared in her mouth as she reared back, then simply fizzled out, leaving Enka looking momentarily stunned. Tag's heart froze as the Charizard wreathed herself in flames before slamming into his Pokemon with terrifying force.

Enka lay on the ground, still for the moment, but slowly, she was propping herself back up. She rested on all-fours for the moment, eying the Charizard with a mixture of weariness and fear. It had taken attack after attack from her and still had not fallen. Tiamat, meanwhile, stumbled back, dazed from the force of the hit. Tag watched as little arcs of electricity danced along the black skin of his enemy.

He would have an opening, but Enka didn't have enough steam in her for another Dragon Pulse. He could go with his not-effective STAB attacks, or he could go with Non-stab Super Effective Power Gem...

"Enka. Power Gem."

As if she'd been waiting for the command, Enka sprang up into the air, flipping into an aerial somersault, she slammed her tail into the ground, apparently shattering the 'orb' at the end of her tail. A barrage of brilliant, glittering gems lanced out, laying on an onslaught of rock-type attacks on the Charizard.

"Tiamat, break through it with Flamethrower!"

Tiamat reared back, forming the wicked flames in her toothy maw, but as Tag had hoped, she stopped short of completing her attack. Enka's power gem slammed repeatedly into her, toppling her backwards from the constant blows.

Settling back onto her feet, Enka teetered dangerously backwards. Before he could even form the thought in his mind, Tag had rushed out to the field, catching his tired Pokemon as she fell.

"How cute." The other man sneered, recalling his defeated Charizard from the field. Tag's hand flashed to his belt, ready to summon another Pokemon to meet whatever his opponent brought. "Nah. Tiamat's my strongest by far. If you can beat her, then there's nothing else I think I could do." The man shrugged, clipping the minimized Pokeball back to his belt. "Don't think this is over though."

He turned his attention away from Tag, watching the last battle between his comrade and Lori passively. Tag turned his head as well, watching as Roxxy moved towards the ferry. Marwan, however, was moving to join him and Lori. Well, one of them had listened to him and gone for the ferry as he'd suggested earlier.

Standing, he recalled Enka, placing his hand on the pokeball for Suzu, ready to jump in to Lori's defense.

[Living Arrow]

“Ha! What's that supposed to do!?” The grunt laughed at Lori, his Vigoroth giving an equally as mocking guttural snort. “Fangirl us to death?!”

Lori’s brow turned down. This guy was starting to get seriously annoying! But, if he didn’t recognise the move that Chico had just used, she still stood a chance at beating this guy…

*Clearly he’s not as smart as he is tough… That Vigoroth only uses head-on attacks so as long aas Chico doesn’t get hit, we can wear it down until we win!*

“Vigoroth, Fury Swipes!”

“Chico, dodge and use Swifft, now!”

The angry monkey leapt in, swiping and slashing for the nimble little rodent as he danced and flipped out of its way expertly. With a final spring, Chico launched himself away from the Vigioroth’s razor-sharp claws and brought his tail around in a neat arc. A flurry of golden stars poured forth, battering the opponent’s face and shoulders like a thousand stinging Combee while he retreated to a safe distance.

“C’mon, Vigoroth! Don’t just take it!” The tough-guy’s voice carried more than a hint of irritation. “Shrug it off and hit it!”

With a roar, the Vigoroth swung his arms to and fro, knocking stars out of his way as he closed in on the little Chinchilla. Bit by bit the white monster closed in on Chico’s position, stimulating a shocked widening of the Minccino’s eyes as realisation hit; there was no way to dodge the next attack!

“Slash!”
Two heavily clawed fists dug down, shattering stars from the Minccino’s tail and impaling themselves straight into the grey mouse’s body. For a moment, all went quiet as the dagger-like nails of the Vigoroth pierced through the rodent’s body, nailing him to the ground.

“Huh. It’s over.” Goon-features muttered with distaste. He noticed Lori’s wry smile all too late.

“Not yet it’s not.” Lori sucked her teeth with anticipation. “Let’s go, Chico!”

PAFF! The impaled body of the Minccino exploded in a puff of white smoke, his form replaced with a block of wood where he lay.

“NOW!”“CHINO!”
Another PAFF resounded in the air, Chico’s tiny body materialising behind his opponent, and Lori’s focus shifted completely. Trying to set up a status early in the battle had failed and the combination of a Sitrus berry and dodging had only bought her some time: now was the time to attack!

“Tail Slap!”

“What?! No!”

FWAPPFWAPPFWAPPFWAPPFWAPP! Chico’s hardened, glowing tail rained hits directly into the Vigoroth’s back, crushing it into the ground on top of the log that its claws were still stuck in. It grunted heavily, the attack clearly hitting harder than it had expected, and its limbs visibly shook as it rose when the assault ended. With a primal scream, the Vigorth pulled its claws apart and shattered the log into splinters.

“Finish it now, Vigoroth! Fury Swipes!”

“Kage bunshin!” Lori screamed, her fingers crossing in front of her chest quickly. In perfect unison, Chico’s paws mirrored hers and instantly six copies of the grey mouse burst from the same spot to scatter in all different directions before the angered ape. “Now! Swift!”

The circling stream of chinchilla’s threw forth wave after wave of stars into the normal-type opponent, wearing it down even further.

“COME ON, VIGOROTH!”

With a final cry, the ape lunged at the copies of Chico with fervour born of desperation and slashed through the copies one by one until only one panting chinchilla remained. Its eyes narrowed on Chico cruelly before it dove headlong towards the mouse with murder in its eyes. Lori’s hands snapped into a different hand seal.

“Kawarimi no jutsu!”

“It’s using a Substitute!” The goon realised, yelling at his Vigoroth angrily. “It’s in the back, turn around!”

Swiftly, the Vigoroth spun about and slashed at the air, razor-claws tearing at the space where Chico was about to appear…

“Tail Slap!”

Chico’s ‘substitute’ dashed at the Vigoroth’s exposed back and, in rapid succession, rained heavy blows on exactly the same spot he had hit before: FWAPPFWAPPFWAPP! Then, with a final almighty swing, set the finishing hit as a blazing uppercut that catapulted the Vigoroth high into the air to come splashing down into the harbour. A moment later, the unconscious form of the ape came bobbing to the surface.

“WHAT!?” The goon yelled, literally stamping his foot like a child. “But how!?”

Lori’s face twisted into a wicked smile. “Substitute spends HP to create a copy that the opponent attacks instead of the real target.” She supplied with a condescending, lecturing tone. “After you had seen the move once, I knew it wouldn’t work again. So, when I realised that Chico’s HP was too low to use it again, I called it anyway so you’d take the bait and turn your back on the real Chico. Then, all we had to do was attack the same spot that had been weakened earlier in the battle.”

“That’s sick and so… deceptive! What kind of Trainer are you?!” He retorted.

“A Trainer that never gives up or makes the same mistake twice.” Lori snorted. “And soon to be the Furoh League Champion.” She added pompously while looking him up and down with disgust. “Get out of here.”

Her hardened eyes glared at him as he recalled the fallen Pokemon and regrouped with his black-clad ‘friends’. Together they shared meaningful looks before their leader muttered: “You may have won this round, but we’ll be back.” Together, the four men dropped smoke bombs that exploded in a cloud of purple which, when it cleared, showed no trace of the gang’s escape route. With them finally out of the picture, Lori began to breathe again.

“Holy crap…” She muttered holding a hand to her breast to feel the hammering of her heart in her ribcage. “That was close…”

“Chino.” Chioc muttered at her ankle, leaning on her calf for support. She scooped him up and kissed his forehead.

*Good job Chico – thanks to you, I have a new strategy to win at the Fidona Gym!* She mused silently before turning to Tag and Marwan who stood close by. Roxxy was nowhere to be seen.

“I guess this means we can take the ferry now?” She asked, sparing a moment to scan the boardwalk for any more idiots dressed in mobster black. “Right?”