Building An Empire - Chapter 7 - The Switch

Building An Empire - Chapter 7

Team-

Ashford - Arcanine

Bastille - Tyranitar

Damascus - Machamp

Abrams - Slowbro

Melusine - Dragonite

Hrunting - Scizor

Alex POV

“Easy now, big girl.”

Melusine growled under me as I kneaded the musculature between her wings. I’d always wondered how something as heavy as a dragonite, who didn’t have hollow bones like birds did, was able to fly fast enough to use extreme speed.

The answer was in the wing muscles. The sheer amount of muscularity covered up by dragonite’s smooth scales was terrifying, mostly because of the amount of knots those muscles developed over the course of daily usage.

So here I was, forcing Melusine to take weekly massages to stay limber. Honestly, with how dense the musculature was on her back, it ended up being a workout for me more than anything.

But the effects were obvious, just as obvious as the results of good nutrition and isolation exercises. Metrics of speed, strength, and overall efficiency that I’d taken every week were getting better and better. 

They would taper off. There was a limit to which they could grow, after all. Every athlete had a natural peak. The closer one got to it, the slower their growth got. 

That represented a problem for me. Alessandro’s old friends, my friends, had already caught on to how I prepared for fights. They’d even caught on to my training methods to some extent. Sure, the idea of specialised diets and workouts was still missing, but the idea of studying one’s opponent’s tactics, preparing for them before the fights, nonverbal commands, move combination usage. They’d gotten the idea.

Sure, right now, I held a training advantage, as well as coverage advantage. Some part of me was glad that even with all the changes, I would still hold an advantage when it came to coverage, simply because it was unlikely that trainers who had built their brand on using a single element wouldn’t want to change their brand identity too easily. 

That gave me some leeway, but these were all elite level trainers, each of them would be important to this world, if they weren’t already. In the games, they’d been strong enough to reach and maintain their places in the Elite Four through nothing more than pure ability.

Adaptability was part of ability. I had no allusions that given time, the world would catch up. Even switching pokemon, pivoting, a crucial part of the competitive game, was frowned upon, if not illegal or limited in most formats.

It would instantly nuke my public perception if I pulled out some of the more cheesy strategies from my world. Stall? Sleep spam? Baton pass? I’d instantly be labeled a pariah for destroying the sanctity of pokemon battles.

There was no Smogon council to control me here, true, but it was also more likely for me to be lynched by a mob here than it was, sitting on my pc, playing OU.

I preferred VGC anyways.

Still. I had to stick to hard and fast. Offensive one turn setup sweeps, maybe weather strategies. There were limitations, but then again, the only guy who bothered to use weather in even a rudimentary way in the games was a gen 8 gym leader considered a rival to the champion.

I could do better, but watching me, others would too.

So, I had to protect my strategies. Stomp challengers before they figured out what my plan was. Try to maintain my advantage as long as I can. I wanted this world to come up with their own strategies, their own teambuilding, their own ways to supersede me.

I couldn’t just give them the blueprint, considering I was also trying to apply strategies from a digital game into an analogue world. That would stunt growth. 

My job was to give them a benchmark. A core group of elite trainers that would challenge new aspirants not only on their grit, but also on their strategies, their teambuilding, their adaptability.

“There you go. Should feel a lot better now.” I commented, jumping off Melusine’s back. The shiny Dragonite stood up, experimentally giving her wings a quick flap. She growled, pleased at the action.

Now, if only I could find someone to give me one. My back was killing me, and my only option was Damascus, who was more likely to snap my back in two than succeed in successfully giving me a massage.

“Were you really giving your Dragonite a massage?” Lorelei spoke as she walked into my campyard, her right eyebrow was raised even as her arms were crossed in front of her chest, clutching close to avoid the chill.

“Well, yeah. Helps keep them limber.” I spoke, moving closer to the campfire maintained by Ashford, who was lying next to it with a self-satisfied expression on his face.

“Come along, it’s warmer here. I don’t want you to fall sick before our match.” I beckoned to her, sitting down next to the bonfire, my back on Ashford’s fur. Truly, he was better than any space heater money could buy. 

Thankfully he didn’t choose to lean over and lick me this time. God’s small mercies.

She looked at me apprehensively as she scooted over. Her eyes widened as Ashford’s warmth washed over her.

“Don’t get to experience this much as an Ice Type specialist, do you?” I smirked at her, much to her annoyance.

“I generally don’t have to. Almost all hotels have internal heating.” She pouted. 

“Tell me of one hotel that gives you this view though.” I spoke, looking into the star-speckled night sky. “Plus, it’s free.”

That prompted a giggle from her. “You really have changed, haven’t you?”

I mean, I was a whole different person wearing the skin of her lifelong friend like a sock-puppet. Alessandro was a lover of the high life. Fancy hotels, great restaurants. He wouldn’t camp outside unless there was no other option. 

Meanwhile I loved the great outdoors. In my old life, my main joy came from travelling, from camping, from trekking through the great outdoors with nothing but my trusty travel backpack and a compass.

And a Garmin watch, because getting lost in the wilderness stopped being funny after the first three times.

“People change, you know.” I answered. “Just need to give ‘em enough of a wake-up call.”

“Yeah. I’m… I’m still sorry I couldn’t be there for you.” She spoke, her head lowered. “We didn-”

“Now now.” I cut her off by putting a finger on her lips. “There’s no blame. I brought it all on myself. No apologies needed, especially before we’re going to have our match.”

She glared at me for that, but the blush on her face was easy to see. “You better be ready for tomorrow. My team is very well-placed to counter most of yours.”

I gave her a smile. Of course seeing my team had given her something of an advantage. I knew what pokemon she had too, but that wasn’t something she knew. Then again, four out of my six pokemon had direct counters on her team. 

Then again, if my strategy was to pan out the way I wanted it to, I might not even need the majority of my team. Then again, this was likely to be my hardest battle to date. Just how much of an upgrade it would be over my fight against Giovanni? Well that depended on just how creative Lorelei could get,

“How we work around counters is what defines us as trainers.” I replied with a smile. “I mean, you know that, ice-type trainer and all.”

“You bet I do. And you best believe I’m ready for that Scizor of yours, as menacing as he looks.” She answered, her terse glare fading as she got a good look at my friendly gaze.

“It’s so weird to have you look at me like that.” She commented.

“Like what?” I asked, genuinely confused. 

“Well, more like, you just looking at me as a person is kinda new.” She said with a humorless chuckle. 

“I wasn’t that bad, was I?” I asked, because there was no indication in Alessandro’s memories that hinted at him not valuing her as a friend. Memories that he had inherited, so he too saw her as a friend.

“Well, no. But when we all got together, it always felt like you only had eyes for Karen.” She commented matter-of-factly. 

“You know how crushes are. I’m sorry if I made you feel under-appreciated.” I replied.

“It’s… it’s really not your fault. You brought me into this friend group. You know how I was as a kid. You’re basically the only reason I have friends.” She sighed. “I’m oversharing, ain’t I?”

I shook my head. “No, not at all. Your feelings are important. I just, I’m not sure exactly what I can do to help, you know?”

She chuckled at that. “No, I don’t think help’s what I need. I think what I really need to do is to prove myself.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And how do you plan to do that?”

“Just gotta beat you and Karen, don’t I?” She spoke with a taunting smirk, something that, while it looked odd on her younger self, I could see perfectly her grown-up self.

“Those are fighting words, ya know?” I joked, as Ashford hummed in agreement. “Also I take offense to the order you put me and Karen in. I’m the person to beat.”

“Just paying you back for your transgressions.” She teased.

“Ah yes, my transgression of not having a baseless childhood crush on you. How can I ever be forgiven?” I joked.

“Well, as long as you give our fight your all. I’ll consider forgiving you. Just don’t complain when you lose.” She teased.

“I really do feel that I should be the one saying that.” I shot back. “Didn’t Will tell you what I did to him?”

She nodded, looking at the starry night sky. “Yeah, which is why I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I can’t stand by your side as an equal if I don’t try to beat you, can I?”

It was a pretty image. Her, unconsciously leaning against Ashford, staring up at the sky. Her red hair almost looked alive in the firelight, and I found it hard to believe that this girl had been nursing feelings for someone as clueless as Alessandro.

Even more so the fact that Alessandro was only interested in Karen. Then again, neither was a bad overall choice. Lucky bastard.

“Well, you sure can try.” I commented, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Just don’t be disappointed if you don’t quite get there this quick.”

LB

I took a step up towards the podium. 

The floodlights were blinding. So was the crowd. Incomparable to the size of the crowd at even Nationals. This was their mecca, their football world cup, their NBA finals. 

“We slept on him! We thought he was knockout round fodder, but young Alessandro Bernardi has proven us wrong again!” the male commentator yelled from his stand, his speaker-boosted voice cutting through the droning noises of the crowd.

“Indeed! Many wrote off the young man after his derailed gym circuit! Then again, Koga has been known to be harsh on youngsters!” The female commentator added as I climbed atop the podium and placed my pokeballs on the dais. 

“True! We had actually expected Koga to participate this year. He was vocal in his bid for the Elite Four. Do you think he saw something in this batch of young trainers that made him reconsider his chances?” The male commentator added, bringing a smile to my face.

That old, weak fuck had no place in a place reserved for the Elite. On that, Allesadro’s hatred and my disdain for his paltry team were absolutely in agreement.

“Well, if he ran afoul of ‘the darkest horse’ here, I can see why! We haven’t even seen all six members of his team yet,” The female commentator added. “Was he just lucky? Did he go through the weaker side of the bracket?”

Still looking down on me. To be expected. There were enough no-names that made it to the tournament, of course. Getting all eight of your badges was something people took three, even four or more years doing. Those guys didn’t make it far often, and my path to the semis had been littered with them.

Then again, the same could be said for all three of my friends, but the way they had ripped through the gym circuit lossless was enough to generate the kind of hype that completely overshone everything else.

“Well if he did, then this will be an eye-opener. His next opponent is anything but ‘weak’ after all!” She spoke. “Our very own ‘Ice Queen’ has dazzled her way to the semis without so much as a hard fight along the way!”

I saw Lorelei climb onto the podium on the opposite side. Her face was frozen in a neutral expression, not because she was trying to play into the ‘Ice Queen’ role, but because she’d always been bad with crowds. 

Her expression was frozen, and not by choice.

“Even with the defensively shaky Ice type, Lorelei wrapped up her gym circuit early in the year!” The female commentator shouted.

“Watching her is like watching Pryce during his prime days! Turning her element into art, destroying all who dare fight her, the majestic ice queen!” The male commentator finished, and the crowd went wild.

Banners went up, so did boards ranging from cutouts of her in a victory pose, to a banner that read ‘Step on me, mommy!’ I had to hold back a laugh as I caught Lorelei’s reaction to it from the corner of my eye.

Her face was absolutely ashen. Had she not been petrified by the audience, I could perfectly imagine her mortification. Her fans were numerous, and they were deranged, to say the least. 

Almost made me wonder how Karen’s fans would behave. Definitely something to look forward to.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” The male commentator yelled, hyping the crowd up till they were deafening. “Your first Semi-final match! A battle between crowd favorite Lorelei, the ‘Ice Queen’ and surprise contender, Alessandro, the ‘Darkest Horse’ starts…” The female commentator paused, letting the hype build to a crescendo.

And as the matchside referee blew his whistle, signalling the release of our first pokemon, the hype reached a breaking point.

“NOW!” She yelled, and both me and Lorelei flung our first pokemon into the fray.

“Go, Damascus” I stated, throwing my pokeball.

“Sandslash. You know what to do.” Lorelei spoke, letting her Alolan Sandslash out.

I watched as her Sandslash landed. A regional variant was not what I’d expected her to have, but her team in that one switch game that must not be named had an Alolan Sandslash, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise.

The real surprise was watching the Sandslash instantly set up snow. Damascus didn’t even have time to set up his first bulk up before not only the snow was up, but an almost-ethereal, rainbow-colored barrier was wafting around the Sandslash. 

That, plus it looked like the Sandslash was almost fading into the snow, I had to admit, I was impressed. Aurora veil, and snow, coupled with snow cloak, set up seconds after entry, a better setup than my single bulk up leftovers-holding Machamp.

Too bad I’d already planned for screens. Damascus moved in, his hand raised to deliver a devastating, super-effective brick-break. The Sandslash melded into the Snow, hiding itself to such an extent that it wasn’t even visible, but it was never the target.

The Aurora Veil shattered the moment Damascus’ palm-strike made contact with it, but as it passed through the air, it went completely past where the Sandslash should have been.

And the fact that I wasn’t even looking for the telltale red hue of a pokeball activating was testament to the fact that I’d been had.

Completely, utterly fucked, as instead of the Sandslash that had been there moments ago, A Jynx emerged from the snow, firing a Psychic into Damascus at practically point-blank range.

The effect was instantaneous as the Psychic sent Damascus flying back. He crashed into the ground and bounced twice, before hitting the podium I was standing on and coming to a halt. I had to hold on to the railing because the impact was enough to jolt me, wobbling my knees.

My hand came up, retrieving the now knocked-out Damascus. My mind was still reeling from being blindsided, but there was a stupid grin stuck on my face, because Lorelei had done the one thing I was worried about.

She had used a pivot, weather, and used an aurora veil as a distraction. She knew how much I valued setup because she’d watched the simple setup strategies I’d used to take out the rest of my opponents. 

She wasn’t lying when she said she was going to bring her A-game, and in doing so, she had opened my way to show people how exciting a battle of pivots could be.

As well as how you countered such a strategy.

“Hrunting, you’re up to bat.” I commented. My tone was neutral, but she’d opened the door for me. Now, I couldn’t disappoint.

My Scizor appeared, and shot forward. The concept of a revenge killer was not lost on Lorelei, and this time, I didn’t miss the red flash of a pokemon being switched. Slowbro came out, and I could see the self-satisfied look on her face. 

She knew I would do this. She knew I would try to get rid of her ice-type with a STAB-boosted, Technician-boosted bullet punch. She knew her Slowbro could tank it with ease, and the way embers were forming around its mouth, the flamethrower that was coming would be enough to destroy my Scizor, with its quad weakness.

Sadly, even as she had discovered Pivoting, she had yet to meet its greatest nemesis.

He eyes widened as dark energy coalesced around Hrunting’s pincers. The life orb around his neck started to glow a deep crimson, and the technician-boosted pursuit slammed into Slowbro.

Anticipation and coverage, the easiest way to punish a careless pivot.

The Slowbro crumbled like a sack of potatoes, and Lorelei wasted no time calling him back and sending out her Lapras. Yet, the damage was done. Hrunting had already set up a swords dance as the Lapras landed. The snow was subsiding as well. In all circumstances, Lorelei’s perfectly set up trap to remove Hrunting from the field had failed.

One Bullet punch, and Lapras was back in its pokeball. Hrunting was wincing now. The Life orb was taking its toll, and that was not lost on Lorelei. 

Out came Dewgong, possibly the weakest pokemon on her roster. Another bullet punch was launched by Hrunting, but the red band I saw around the Dewgong’s neck gave me pause.

Using my own strategies against me? How cheeky of her!

The focus sash broke, dropping off Dewgong’s neck like a necklace with a broken clasp. The Dewgong didn’t bother with anything risky. A quick Ice Shard fired off, and even the paltry dent it put into Hrunting was enough to take him down in conjunction with all the damage done by the Focus Orb.

I couldn’t help the mad grin that had appeared on my face. Lorelei had told me she was going to give it her all. I’d expected that she’d maybe be able to take down a pokemon of mine. Yet, she had half her team alive, and I was down two pokemon. A one pokemon difference, and she’d taken out my strongest win condition.

“Go, Melusine.” I spoke. All I wanted to do was to set up tailwind before she was able to get her next pokemon out, establish speed control and enable my slower pokemon before she could somehow manage to get a shell smash out of her cloyster. Yet before Melusine could even hit the ground, I realized that her bag of tricks was not yet empty.

Even as her Cloyster came out on the field. Something rocked Melusine hard. A wave of pure psychic energy slammed into her, sending her straight to the ground, close to being knocked out. She’d set up tailwind, her job was done, but the fact that I hadn’t even noticed the Jynx set up a future sight before attacking and taking out Damascus was pissing off, to say the least.

What little health Melusine had left was taken out of the equation by a quick ice shard from the cloyster. And for the first time since I’d come to this world, I was at a disadvantage. 

And it was exhilarating!

“Yes! Yes! This is what I wanted!” I intoned, knowing full well that my voice wouldn’t reach her. I was trembling with excitement. 

This! This was the excitement that I craved. The combination of war and chess. The cerebral competition that had taken me from a nobody to a Pokemon pro. 

Too bad that for all her tricks, for all her strategies, this was her endgame. The cracked shell of the Cloyster in front of me. The idea that this was enough to run roughshod through the rest of my team.

She had forgotten that in her haste to get rid of my Scizor, she had gotten rid of the biggest threat to my remaining three pokemon. Even though she held a numerical advantage, a Dewgong at 1 HP was not going to contribute much anymore.

The final part of why I was about to win was because for all her training, she didn’t understand that the moment that tailwind went up, any chance she had left of winning had evaporated.

“Come, Ashford.” I spoke, and my shiny Arcanine appeared in sparks of red. He hadn’t been used all the way till now, mostly because using him against the rabble I’d face up till now was like using a nuclear bomb where a butter knife would suffice.

The issue with Shell Smash, in essence, was that it reduced a pokemon’s defense massively. While Cloyster, under normal circumstances, would have been switched out against an Arcanine to Pokemon who could take an unboosted Extremespeed. 

Lorelei’s only option, to her sudden realisation, was that Dewgong sitting at 1 HP. 

It was sent out, it ate a quick extremespeed, and it was sent back the way it came. Yet, I could see a plan forming, I could see that the momentary look of horror that had dawned on her face was gone now, replaced with a calculative, hopeful gaze.

Her Sandslash came out again. It took an extremespeed, but hung on to dear life, setting up the snow again with a quick spin. I frowned. I hadn’t expected him to be that tanky, but then again, I’d forgotten that these weren’t perfectly EV trained, perfect IV having pokemon. 

Yet, the problem with Lorelei’s strategy was that at this point, nothing was hidden to me. I knew exactly which pokemon she had left. I understood everything she could do, so as the Sandslash started to set up another Aurora Veil, I played my final move.

“Go, Bastille.” I whispered, and my second strongest pokemon entered the Indigo arena for the first time since I’d started fighting here. 

The sandstorm that followed him, on the other hand, was what finally broke what little hope Lorelei still had. The snow was blown away by the sheer might of the raging sandstorm, and the Aurora Veil that Sandslash was desperately trying to use fizzled out with it.

She didn’t even get to react, didn’t so much as get to pull out her pokeball before jagged, spiked rocks erupted from the ground in front of Sandslash, finishing its untouched spree and knocking it out. 

One stone edge was all it took, and any and all plans Lorelei had made were rendered moot. Bastille let out a bellowing roar, one echoed by the crowd. In their eyes, Lorelei still had two pokemon left, one of which was her ace. In their eyes, she still had a chance. 

She knew better, and I could see the look of resignation on her face from where I was.

The fight had been wrapped up. There was nothing she could do from this point on that could end in a win. If she sent out her Jynx, it was hard-countered. If she sent out her Cloyster, there was nothing it could do to take down Ashford.

And even if miraculously, through sheer luck and grit, she was somehow able to take down my two aces, she knew Abrams was still waiting in the wings, and neither of her two pokemon were capable of taking out the absolute tank that was my Slowbro.

So she did what any self-respecting trainer would do in such a situation. Her hand reached down and pressed the red button on her dais, and the display screen above us changed.

“I can’t believe it! Lorelei has given up this close to the end!” The female commentator shouted, looking down from her box with a surprised expression.

“An understandable move. Going further would have only caused more damage to her partners.”  The male commentator interjected. “I’m just… at a loss of words to say.”

“Truly! What we witnessed today flies in the face of traditional pokemon battle history.” The female commentator continued.

“But it was the best fight we’ve had all tournament, by a long shot at that! Wouldn’t you agree, audience?”

The deafening cheers from the crowd was like music to my ears. It was acceptance, it was enjoyment. They didn’t understand the nuances of everything that had occurred on the field. In fact, I believed that pundits would be covering this fight and all the strategies used in it for days to come. 

I wanted that. I needed this to become a new phenomenon. I needed people to realize that there was more to pokemon battles than just picking type advantages and hoping your opponent was dumber than you.

I ran down the podium, completely blowing past the horde of reporters that were making their way towards me. I found Lorelei descending from her own podium. There was a faraway look on her face, which morphed into shock when I grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the exit.

“Run! The press is right there!” I hissed. She looked back once at the encroaching flood of reporters that were flooding into the arena behind her, and without thinking twice, she picked up the pace.

“Where are we going?” She asked, and for a second, even I was at a loss. Melusine was knocked out, so I couldn’t exactly take to the skies and escape.

So, it was time for creativity.

“Find a boutique, get two hats.” I spoke, taking a right the moment I got out of the arena. “After that, let’s get some dinner. I think we’ve earnt it.”

“Are… are you offering me a date?” Lorelei teased. 

I replied by looking straight at her. The adrenaline of the fight, followed by even more adrenaline from the escape fueled me on.

“After that fight? A date’s the least I can give you, ain’t it?” I answered between breaths. 

The way her cute face reddened at my proclamation really was the cherry on top of the cake.

LB

Next chapter in 2 days.

-Cold Daylight