Elite Four: Fighting

Sceptile rose back up to its full height. The glow from the yellow bulbs along its back faded away. Across the field, the leaf storm my pokemon had just unleashed left a large poliwrath in a heap.

"Poliwrath is unable to battle!" the ref declared. "Sceptile is the winner!"

From the other trainer's box Bruno of the Elite Four scowled at me. After his poliwrath had traded shots with Swampert, I had switched out to Sceptile and dispatched it was relative ease after a leaf blade followed up by a leaf storm. Bruno's dark eyes bored a hole through me as he stared out from underneath a mop of black hair. To be honest, I was glad that he was across the field from me because the guy was huge. Toned muscles covered his body and it was obvious too because for whatever reason, all he wore was a pair of ragged pants.

"Not bad," he growled in a low voice. "But things are just getting started. Hitmonchan, your time is now!"

I had been wondering if I was going to get to see the Punching Pokemon. As a master of fighting-types I had no doubt that Bruno had a hitmonchan. It was merely a matter of whether he brought it with him or not. I waited a few seconds as the tan-skinned pokemon shadowboxed for a moment with those big boxing gloves it had on its hands. As it bounced around on slender legs, I could see that this particular hitmonchan seemed exceedingly nimble.

"Enough dancing!" I declared with a sweep of my arm. "Sceptile, use dragon pulse!"

"Mach punch!"

Sceptile had barely spat out the purple orb when Hitmonchan was upon it. Its right arm was glowing from fist to elbow. It slammed the punch into Sceptile's face, flipped it over completely. Before my pokemon could get up Hitmonchan was there again and delivered a second mach punch that sent Sceptile skidding across the field.

"Leaf blade!" I yelled.

"Ice punch!"

I don't know why I found the use of ice punch peculiar but I did. The light blue mists swirled around Hitmonchan's fist and was deflected aside by the glowing green of the leaf blade. The two pokemon went blow for blow.

"Mach punch!"

Hitmonchan exploded forward with a punch that sent Sceptile flipping over backwards.

" Leaf storm!"

Sceptile came down on all fours and its yellow bulbs already glowing. Green leaves began shooting out of the bulbs into a giant cloud of neon green. They swirled forward and raked across the fighting-type pokemon, sending it crashing to the ground.

"Sceptile, return!" I ordered. I had a hunch about Hitmonchan that I wanted to test. "Staraptor, go!"

Hitmonchan lifted its fists closer to its face in preparation to defend itself most likely. It also told me one of two things: either Bruno was waiting for me to attack so he could counter-attack or that my hunch was right and Hitmonchan only knew physical, short-ranged attacks. That could make things interesting.

"Staraptor, start us off with feather dance!"

Staraptor beat its wings and lifted higher into the air. As it did, golden feathers began to rain down. The honed in on Hitmonchan and began pelting it. The feathers did no actual damage to Hitmonchan but instead reduced its ability to do damage. It wasn't one of my usual tactic which was why I thought it might be good to try.

"Now use aerial ace!" I shouted.

"Hitmonchan, use thunder punch!"

Staraptor came streaking down out of the sky, stream of energy coloring the sky behind it. Hitmonchan swung a fist encapsulated in yellow energy up at the incoming pokemon. The feather dance turned out to be a good idea. Staraptor easily overpower its opponent and plowed right through.

"Hitmonchan, return!" Bruno ordered. "Go Scrafty!"

What came out of the pokeball was some kind of orange-skinned pokemon that almost appeared to be wearing baggy trousers. It took me a moment to realize that it wasn't wearing pants but its lower body was covered in loose skin as well as a pouch that hung down its back. The already far apart eyes looked even more so when separated by the mohawk-like fin that crested the scrafty's head. Yet another Fiver that I hadn't seen before. I was starting to wonder if they'd plan this.

"Staraptor, return!" There was little sense in leaving Staraptor on the field considering that I didn't know what all this new pokemon could do and that I had one that was immune to fighting-type moves in my party. "Go, Gengar!"

"Scrafty, use ice punch!"

Hefting up the baggy skin that covered its legs with one hand, Scrafty launched itself at Gengar. Luckily I could almost always count on Gengar having a speed advantage. The ghost pokemon darted backwards in its herky-jerky way that it moved about. Encumbered by its excess skin, Scrafty had trouble stringing punches together. It couldn't switch hands quick enough so it had to resort to swinging wildly.

"Gengar, use poison jab!"

Waiting for the opening that an awkward backhanded ice punch made, Gengar stabbed forward with a glowing purple fist. It struck Scrafty right in the black stripe that ran up its chest and knocked it back a few steps.

"Here we go!" I announced. "Hypnosis!"

Faint images of Gengar's eyes shot out. They made contact with Scrafty and were absorbed into its body. Already off balance, the sudden onset of drowsiness caused Scrafty to collapse completely. It was quickly snoozing away, flat on its back.

"Dream eater!"

My first warning should've been when Bruno didn't recall Scrafty right away. My second and much more obvious warning was when the shadowy image of Gengar swept right through Scrafty and it didn't so much as stir.

I stood there, dumbfounded. "The hell…?"

"Scrafty!" Bruno thundered. "Dark pulse!"

The sound of Bruno's voice or the volume of it snapped Scrafty out of its nap. The pokemon rolled backwards onto its shoulders and then snapped its body forward to land on its feet. The roiling ball of black rings formed quickly between its hands. Gengar only had a second to react and the surprise of its dream eater not working hadn't quite worn off yet. The beam hit Gengar full force. The ghost pokemon rode the explosion down to the ground where it skipped a few times before coming to a stop just inside the edge of the field. I could hear it groaning all the way over where I was.

"Gengar, return!" I ordered. There seemed to be only one conclusion I could draw from the ineffectiveness of dream eater and the power of that dark pulse: Scrafty was part dark-type. You learn something new every day. "You aren't the only one with a Fiver! Go, Haxorus!"

Bruno sniffed the air. "An interesting challenge. Let's see what you've got. Scrafty, use high jump kick!"

Scrafty launched itself into the air much higher than I would've expected. As it started coming down, I saw that one knee was starting to glow a red-orange color. It started to spin around to bring the knee to bear on Haxorus.

"Block it with dragon claw!"

A big green outline of a three-fingered claw burst to life around Haxorus's right hand. It stabbed upwards, driving the claws right into the oncoming knee. The result was an explosion that threw the two pokemon apart.

"Haxorus, use dragon dance!" I ordered.

Haxorus lifted its arms in the air, palms up to the sky. The pokemon then swung them out and away from each other in a circular motion. When they had gone all the way around and completed the circle, Haxorus pulled its elbows in against its body. An explosion of purple flames erupted from around the dragon's feet, swirled up around its body and then dissipated into the air.

"Scrafty, use ice punch!"

"Dragon claw! Take it out!"

The glowing outline of a claw now appeared on both of Haxorus's hands and was much bigger than it had been just a few moments ago. With the first it swatted the ice punch away. With the second it slashed upwards, knocking Scrafty completely off its feet.

"Giga impact!"

Haxorus shot forward, cloaked in a faint purple energy with orange streams swirling off the front of its energy cocoon. Scrafty had managed to catch itself on its fingertips and spring back to land on its feet but it had no time to adjust for the oncoming dragon. The explosion and damage was tremendous. Scrafty was hurled across the field, skidding to a stop outside the official battle zone. I would've liked to press the attack but that was the downside to giga impact. Scrafty slowly sat back up and tried to regain its senses.

"Ice punch!" Bruno shouted.

With more gusto than I would've expected, Scrafty shot back to its feet and charged at the still unmoving Haxorus. Light blue mists began to swirl around its fist.

"Dragon pulse!"

Haxorus's head swung around and hurled the purple orb from its mouth. Expecting a few more seconds of inactivity, Scrafty never saw it coming. The dragon-typed attack blew apart right in Scrafty's face, sending its head and the rest of its body travelling in different directions to make it collapse strangely.

"Dragon claw!" I yelled. "Finish it!"

Suddenly Haxorus loomed above Scrafty. It raised the glowing green claws above its head and slashed them both down at its opponent. To my surprise, an explosion enveloped the two pokemon. It wasn't green either but black. Somehow Scrafty had gotten off a dark pulse. I saw the fighting pokemon roll out of the explosion. Haxorus quickly followed after it, stomping angrily out of the explosion.

"Focus punch!"

As Scrafty continued to roll, something on its body began to glow a bluish-white. Suddenly it came to its feet and launched itself, one glowing fist cocked back over its shoulder. Haxorus tried to dodge but the focus punch connected. My dragon's head snapped around, the motion causing its entire body to twist and fall.

"Ice punch!"

"Dragon claw!"

Haxorus swung its claws together as Scrafty dropped its fist. Scrafty's thin arm seemed to get through Haxorus's defenses but Haxorus closed its claws and suddenly Scrafty found its arm trapped between the glowing claws with its own fist a mere foot from my pokemon's face. The two pokemon struggled and strained. The ice punch slowly advanced and then retreated only to advance again.

"Haxorus, dragon pulse!"

With a yank, Haxorus managed to move its own claws and Scrafty's arm aside. Now with an unimpeded view Haxorus spat out the purple orb. It exploded against the fighting-type pokemon's chest. The arm that Haxorus still had a grip on suddenly went slack. Seizing the opportunity, Haxorus released one claw and pulled Scrafty closer before striking with the first claw. Scrafty flipped a full three-hundred and sixty degrees in the air before crashing down.

"Scrafty is unable to battle!" the referee announced. "Haxorus is the winner!"

I was smart enough to not say aloud that beating Scrafty had been easier than I had expected. Granted though, I had had Haxorus for longer than Bruno had had his scrafty. That wasn't really his fault though since I was there when both species arrived in our world. I wasn't really about to feel bad for him since he did have several decades of training experience on me.

"Blaziken, your time is now!"

The strategy of not just Bruno but the entire Elite Four was starting to come into focus now. Almost every one of the ten pokemon I had seen had a secondary typing. That was how they planned on countering whatever pokemon that I might bring to battle. I was willing to bet that the other two pokemon Bruno had also had a secondary typing.

Running down the rest of the fighting-type pokemon I could think of, I made a switch of my own pokemon. "Good work Haxorus. Go, Swampert!"

There was actually some reservations in sending Swampert out. The last time my swampert had faced a blaziken, it had been bested. I knew that had weighed heavily on the pokemon. No pokemon ever liked losing to a type it was supposed to be super-effective against. I would have to play this carefully.

"Blaziken, use high jump kick!"

The fighting/fire pokemon jumped so high into the sky that I actually lost sight of it in the waning sunlight. Suddenly I spied a red blur coming down at an extreme speed.

"Dodge Swampert!"

I took pride in the speed of my pokemon. During my time at Professor Oak's over the summer I had devised a training course to help them all work on their speed and agility. Even pokemon that were traditionally slower like Swampert moved with a speed that was at least slightly above average for their species. However no amount of training could've prepared Swampert for the speed at which Blaziken came in at. It slammed a knee right between Swampert's big yellow eyes. Swampert's snapped backwards with such violent force that I thought something more than just typical battle damage had been done. However Swampert had merely just been stunned for a moment. After crashing down it had managed to roll aside to avoid a blaze kick that was sweeping down at it.

"Good work Swampert!" I didn't offer the praise lightly. I really had been impressed that it had kept enough of its wits about it to avoid the second attack. "Hydro pump!"

Swampert let loose with the giant burst of water. Blaziken dodged with a leap to the side and then continued doing so, varying the direction of its leaps to make Swampert try and anticipate where it was going to be next. The fire pokemon always seemed to be just a hair faster.

I swept an arm out. "Enough of this! Earthquake!"

Slamming its hands down, Swampert created a mighty tremor that ripped its way across the field. It slammed into Blaziken and knocked the pokemon back and down. Blaziken tried to roll back to its feet but a secondary tremor knocked it back down to all fours.

"Hydro pump!"

"High jump kick!"

Blaziken shot back into the air and over the blast of water. It didn't get quite the velocity it had before and was easier to track. This time Swampert watched it all the way in and hurled itself backwards at the last possible second. Blaziken's knee slammed into the ground with tremendous force. The fire pokemon roared in pain, falling over and clutching at the knee. I had forgotten how devastating missing with a high jump kick could be.

"Third time's the charm!" I shouted. "Hydro pump!"

The third time was not the charm. Blaziken rolled to the side and to safety.

"Sky uppercut!"

Bad knee and all, Blaziken charged in at Swampert with its right fist glowing white.

"Block it!"

Blaziken swung with all its might. The glowing fist rocketed for Swampert's head, aimed for a knockout blow. It made a thwump noise as Swampert enveloped the fist in one of its big hands. Blaziken squawked in surprise. Swampert let out a low chuckle.

"Hammer arm!"

Swampert's free arm began glowing from the elbow to the hand. It swung it sideways in a vicious, clubbing blow that sent Blaziken skipping across the field. The fire pokemon grabbed at its knee again as it slowly raised itself back up.

"Blaziken, return!" Bruno ordered. It appeared for all intensive purposes that I actually had the man on his heels. "Gallade, go!"

I'd always thought gallades were weird looking pokemon with their baton-like arms and that odd circular bulge they had for hips. And the spike that seemed to be piercing their chests, can't forget that. Luckily I had encountered them before so I at least had a reasonable idea of what they were capable of.

"Ok Gallade," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "Let's see what you've got. Hammer arms!"

"Leaf blade!"

That was not what I expected. One of the baton arms extended further out at the elbow as a neon green glow that was very familiar to me swept over it. Swampert leapt up to deliver the crushing blows. Gallade slashed its blade up, carving a neat green line right up the center of my pokemon. Swampert crashed back down and I quickly recalled it.

So much for having Bruno on his heels.

"Staraptor, let's go!"

"Bring it down to your level," Bruno demanded. "Psycho cut!"

"Dodge!"

Both of Gallade's blade arms glowed a light blue and extended. It made an uppercut motion with each arm and each time the arm would release a barrage of glowing blue circles that honed in on Staraptor. Staraptor used a sky attack to counter them, using the white energy that cloaked it to blast right through them. This lead to a string of attacks and counterattacks as each pokemon looked to finally get a good hit in. Each exchange took something out of each of the pokemon but neither could land a single, tide-turning strike.

Then Staraptor mistimed a wing strike while using close combat.

Gallade and Bruno immediately saw the opening. The light blue aura returned to Gallade's arms and it slashed both of them across my pokemon's exposed chest. Staraptor was knocked backwards and off balance. I called for an aerial ace but at that point it was too late. Before Staraptor could build up any kind of useful speed Gallade already had a focus blast honing in on it. Staraptor disappeared into a blue and white explosion.

"Staraptor is unable to battle!" the ref declared. "Gallade is the winner!"

"Good work Staraptor," I said to the pokemon through its pokeball. "I won't waste your effort."

I eyed the gallade that wasn't looking particularly fresh at the moment. There were numerous ways I could go from here. The only pokemon I didn't consider for this situation was Gengar because I had a hunch what Bruno's final pokemon was. If I was right, I was going to want my one and only ghost-type pokemon available. There was, however, one option that made a lot more sense than all the others.

"Charizard, go!"

Concern flickered across Bruno's face if only just for a second. Charizard was my sixth and final pokemon, but more importantly it hadn't seen battle yet. With the exception of Bruno's own final pokemon all of his had been roughed up to some extent by my pokemon. He made to me what seemed like the logical decision for him and left Gallade on the field.

"Charizard, flamethrower!"

"Dodge and use close combat!"

A spear of fire cut across the field. Gallade came racing out beneath it on those weird stubby legs, bent down low to keep its crest from getting scorched. When it got close enough, it lept into the air and swung around to deliver a kick that knocked the flamethrower right out of Charizard's mouth. Gallade moved in close and unleashed a flurry of jabs into my pokemon's large midsection.

"Grab it!" I yelled.

Charizard sidestepped a front kick and locked its claws down on Gallade's skinny upper arms. Gallade dug its feet into the ground and tried to break free. Charizard simply lifted them both into the sky with a few flaps of its wings. Soon they were high above the field.

"Shadow claw!"

Black outlines of claws swirled to life around Charizard's claws, making them seem much bigger than they actually were. Charizard tightened its grip and they detonated. Gallade suddenly found itself falling helplessly and heavily damaged from the super-effective ghost-type moves.

"Flamethrower!"

Like a meteor streaking down from the heavens, the flamethrower slammed into Gallade and drove it towards the earth. Gallade got reacquainted with the battlefield at a tremendous speed. Charizard added one last bit of intensity to its flamethrower and it erupted atop Gallade in a beautiful fireball.

"Gallade is unable to battle!" the ref declared. "Charizard is the winner!"

I knew I shouldn't get overconfident but I couldn't help but grin like a fiend as I rejoined my friends for the brief intermission.