The New Normal - 8-6

The New Normal – 8-6 – A Display of Power

I didn’t need to wait long, because Cynthia quickly made up her mind as she fished up her last Pokéball. I leaned forwards instinctively, waiting to see which of her Pokémon she had chosen.

“Lucario. Defeat them.”

And her Lucario was her answer, which came sprinting out of its Pokéball in a blur as it immediately charged into the fight. Before Smough could even brace himself, Lucario suddenly exploded forwards in a burst of Extreme Speed and delivered a critical volley of strikes towards Smough with a barrage of Mach Punches.

Smough let out a groan of pain and instinctively reacted with a swift jab, but Lucario instantly parried it with an arm and smashed another fist into Smough.

“Hammer Arm, Smough! Fight back!”

“Close Combat, Lucario! Keep going!”

Smough let out a roar as he raised his arm threateningly into the air, looking to slam Lucario with a devastating Hammer Punch. Smough’s arm came down with surprising speed, but Lucario was faster.

Instead of moving to dodge, Lucario fully committed to its attack, following up with a brutal assault of punches; each punch from Lucario landed with an audible thump and left visible indents into Smough’s body that sent Smough reeling back in pain. Short grooves were formed in the ground as Smough skidded back from the force of the assault.

“Protect, Smough!”

“Low Kick, Lucario! Trip it up!”

Trying to buy time, I had Smough try to set up a Protect shield to halt Lucario’s offensive momentum and give Smough a chance to reorient himself. But before the Protect shield formed, Lucario had already rushed forwards and lashed out with one of its legs, striking decisively at one of Smough’s legs and causing the heavy Pokémon to let out a surprised groan as he tripped over himself.

“Brick Break! Combo it!”

“EARTHQUAKE, SMOUGH!”

Thinking Smough was vulnerable, Lucario’s arms started glowing a powerful white as it prepared to chop down with what would have been a crushing Brick Break. However, Smough was not as helpless as Lucario expected, and retaliated by slamming into the ground with his full body weight and letting out a powerful Earthquake that caused the already destroyed arena to break apart entirely.

The ground exploded from beneath them; what remained of the arena was little more than small islands of rocks barely joined together.

Lucario let out a cry of pain as it fell to its knees; it failed to dodge away in time from the sudden eruption of explosive tremors.

“Body Press, Smough!”

“Extreme Speed and Force Palm!”

Leaping off the ground, Smough let out a ferocious roar as he tried to squash the smaller Lucario beneath the full weight of his body. However, recovering quickly, Lucario dashed out of the way with another Extreme Speed, and Smough suddenly found himself being smashed with an upright palm to the face that struck with such force that it created an audible bang.

The force of the attack was so great that, despite his weight, it still sent Smough flying through the air. And unwilling to leave things at that, Lucario rocketed forwards in a blue and black blur as it dashed after him, driving into him with a High Jump Kick that punted Smough straight into the psychic barriers.

The crowd went wild as Smough smashed limply into the barriers; they must have been pleasantly surprised by the power displayed by Cynthia’s Lucario.

After all, my Smough had a reputation of victories against very well-established and powerful trainers. So to put up this good of a fight against him was far beyond many of their expectations for Cynthia. But Lucario was doing more than ‘putting up a good fight’. It was overwhelming Smough with its ridiculous speed.

I knew I needed to deal with Lucario’s insane speed advantage over Smough, or else he would not last much longer. There was still a limit to how much punishment Smough could take.

Nor could I reuse the method that I used against Karen’s Weavile. Trying to set up with Belly Drum right now would be idiotic, as with Lucario’s power, Smough would find himself quickly finished off before he could even make use of his boosts. Furthermore, relying on his self-healing moves would only be delaying the inevitable; Lucario didn’t seem like it could be worn down like that.

I only really had one recourse.

“YAWN!”

“Aura Sphere, keep your distance.”

We both ordered our Pokémon at the same time. Cynthia must have thought that I would have tried to catch Lucario off-guard with a surprise attack and played it safe with a barrage of Aura Spheres instead. Despite it being the weaker of the two choices, the attack was no less devastating as a barrage of orbs exploded before Smough even landed on the ground.

However, for a fraction of a second, Smough managed to land his Yawn on Lucario, and the Fighting type suddenly stumbled over as drowsiness began to set in.

Cynthia frowned, but so did I. Lucario falling asleep would be utterly detrimental. It would be completely helpless to whatever attack Smough could fire off; and it was very likely it would not be able to endure through it. Its offense might have been very impressive, but I suspected the same could not be said for its defenses.

On the other hand, Smough was in a terrible state. He had barely managed to pull himself up from the ground, his arms shaking as he did, and it was clear that the previous onslaught of attacks had really done a number on him. It was never a good sign when your Pokémon was heaving for breath and standing uncertainly.

He looked like he was already on his last legs. How hard did that Lucario hit?

It had been a very long time since I saw Smough completely outclassed like this. This couldn’t have been a worse matchup for him. Worse, I couldn’t tell if Cynthia’s frown was a bluff or not; did she have some way of dispelling the Yawn that I wasn’t aware of?

However, I did not have the luxury to think of what my next best move would be, as Cynthia went back on the offensive.

“Extreme Speed into Close Combat, Lucario. Finish it off.”

“Counter, Smough! Punish it!”

Lucario disappeared once more as it rushed forth with Extreme Speed, doing its best to suppress the forced drowsiness. In the meanwhile, Smough began glowing orange as he prepared to Counter any attack Lucario made, ready to retaliate with the full amount of energy absorbed. I could only remain confident that Smough could withstand the attack.

My confidence was instantly put to the test as Lucario reappeared directly in front of Smough, striking with a flurry of explosive punches that caused Smough to groan out in pain. But just like I hoped, Smough endured, and with burning rage filling his eyes, he transformed all of that absorbed energy into his arms as he smashed down with a cataclysmic Hammer Arm that would shatter all in its wake.

However, with reaction speeds that bordered on precognition, Lucario perfectly manoeuvred out of the way of the attack, causing it to go wide and merely strike the air next to Lucario.

It was a perfectly executed Detect.

And as Smough’s rage turned to horror as the realisation of his missed attack, Lucario leapt into the air and delivered a head-snapping High Jump Kick to the back of Smough’s head.

The attack landed with an audible crack, causing Smough’s entire body to twist briefly through the air as he was sent crashing painfully into the ground. Not letting anything up to chance, Lucario crushed whatever defiance remained in Smough by driving a merciless Cross Chop straight into Smough’s neck, cracking the ground around it and knocking out my Snorlax.

It was only after my Snorlax fainted, and the adrenaline had begun to run out, that the earlier effects of the Yawn began to settle in. Lucario wobbled in place as its eyes drooped, and I could tell that it was using whatever willpower it could to ensure that it did not fall asleep.

I could have immediately returned Smough to his Premier Ball and send out my final Pokémon while Lucario was still trying to fight off the effects of the Yawn, but that was far too unsportsmanlike – especially for a ‘for fun’ battle. So instead, just like the rest of the crowd were doing, I waited patiently to see if Lucario had the mental strength necessary to ward off the sleep.

At some point, Lucario began glowing a bright blue as it channelled its internal aura in a last-ditch burst of willpower in an attempt to steady itself. Yet even then, it still wasn’t enough. After all, I hadn’t trained up Smough’s Yawn for nothing and Lucario eventually succumbed to the effects of the Yawn and collapsed to the ground, fast asleep.

It was only then did the referee speak up, “…AND THAT PUTS THE MATCH AT 2-2, WITH JOHN’S SNORLAX GOING DOWN TO A POWERFUL COUNTERATTACK FROM CYNTHIA’S LUCARIO! AND WHO WAS EXPECTING THAT LEVEL OF POWER FROM OUR CHALLENGER?! TO BE ABLE TO BRING DOWN THE POKÉMON THAT WON AGAINST DRAKE’S GYARADOS! INCREDIBLE!”

I finally decided to withdraw Smough to his ball, giving an acknowledging nod to Cynthia in recognition of her skills to be able to train her Lucario to this extent. I took a moment to think about who I wanted to use next.

If I wanted to ensure my victory, then Vordt or Tyrant were the most obvious options. But using one of those to defeat a sleeping Lucario would not be in the spirit of things. And most importantly, I wouldn’t learn anything with that.

I reminded myself that this was an opportunity to learn. To test out that I was training my weaker Pokémon correctly. Winning was not everything here.

Thus, with that thought in mind, I selected my next Pokémon.

“Klaus, show off your new training!”

I released Klaus onto the field, his magnificent horns gleaming brightly in the sun. He stood tall, looking down regally at the sleeping Lucario, his eyes shining with Psychic power. Ever since my last battle with Bruno, I had done much to train up Klaus, and I wanted to use this battle to show it off.

“Calm Mind, set yourself up.”

Though I was holding back, I wasn’t going to sandbag to the extent that I would ignore the advantage of a sleeping opponent. Thus, I had Klaus start buffing up his own Special Attack and Special Defense while Lucario continued to snooze unaware on the ground.

“WAKE UP LUCARIO! OR ELSE YOU’RE IN BIG TROUBLE!”

“Agility, Klaus.”

Unfortunately, despite Cynthia’s shouting, Lucario remained fast asleep. All the while, Klaus continued to channel his internal energies as he now began buffing up his speed; a necessary action considering just how fast Lucario was. Klaus may have been naturally faster than Smough, yet Lucario’s Extreme Speed was on a whole different level.

Eventually, with the first round of buffs settled in, I didn’t feel like taking the risk that Lucario would wake up on its own accord. So I decided to start the battle on my own terms.

“Earth Power, Klaus! Give it a nice wake-up call!”

The ground erupted with power, and the arena was already so utterly destroyed at this point that it couldn’t be any further damaged. Yet Lucario was suddenly jolted awake with the tremors exploding from underneath its sleeping form, pain coursing through its body as it was rudely awakened by the supereffective attack.

It let out a surprised yelp, but its focus instantly returned as it retaliated by firing off a quick barrage of Aura Spheres towards Klaus.

“Light Screen and Psychic, Klaus!”

“Extreme Speed and Drain Punch, Lucario! Move quickly!”

“Teleport and Psychic!”

With impressive discipline, Lucario shrugged off the pain and rushed forwards with another Extreme Speed, one of its fists raised threateningly as it readied to deliver a powerful Drain Punch into Klaus. However, making use of his Agility boosts and all his previous training, Klaus suddenly disappeared into a shimmer of light and reappeared a slight distance away, and behind, Lucario.

This was what all that training had been for. The ability to Teleport in battle, as Will demonstrated in his spar against me, was an excellent thing to have. All of a sudden, Klaus’ mobility was upgraded by a significant degree as he was now able to appear and attack from practically any angle on the battlefield. I thought that, with such a surprising move, Klaus would be able to surprise and land a successful hit on Lucario.

To my OWN surprise, it did not work out that way.

As Klaus’ flashed into existence behind Lucario, it reacted as if it had eyes on the back of its head. Moving by pure instinct and experience, Lucario dove to the side into a forward roll, creating just enough distance to narrowly dodge out of the way of the incoming Psychic blast, an explosion detonating on the ground where Lucario was in previously.

Disgruntled or offended by Lucario’s dodging skills, Klaus immediately tried to follow up with another wave of Psychic, one powerful enough that it tore up the ground as it travelled, yet Lucario had already disappeared from its position, dashing around and dodging out of the way with an Extreme Speed.

I was shocked; but my gut was screaming at me that I needed to shut down Lucario’s insane speed.

“Thunder Wave, Klaus!”

“Vacuum Wave, Lucario!”

However, Lucario moved first, firing off a twisting wave of Fighting Energy that caused Klaus to stumble back, hitting him with just enough force to interrupt his Thunder Wave.

“Stone Edge, Lucario! Use the broken arena!”

“Teleport and Psychic!”

Pushing its advantage, Lucario’s eyes flashed as huge chunks of the arena were ripped out of the ground and thrown like javelins towards Klaus, leaving giant gaping holes in the ground in their wake. Klaus immediately Teleported out of there just before the stones crashed and destroyed his previous position, repositioning slightly away and prepared to fire off a retaliatory burst of Psychic.

“EARTHQUAKE, LUCARIO!”

However, as if she had anticipated this, she reversed the tables on my plan by having Lucario unleash a wide Earthquake that took Klaus by surprise. The intense shaking and explosive tremors from the Earthquake caused Klaus to stumble and fall over as he lost his balance.

“Bullet Punch and Meteor Mash, Lucario!”

Lucario seemed to have limitless stamina as it blurred forwards once again, appearing on top of Klaus and hammering down with a ferocious flurry of Steel punches that pummelled and devastated the vulnerable Klaus.

“Thunder Wave, Klaus! Paralyze it!”

Except Klaus was not on my Elite team for nothing. Just as Lucario raised its arms for another attack, Klaus made use of that small window of opportunity to sneak in a small wave of paralytic electricity that forced itself into Lucario.

The paralysis immediately set in, and Lucario’s muscles began to lock up. Yet Lucario persevered.

Its face was one of exertion and conviction as it pushed through the effects of the Thunder Wave, forcing its muscles to obey as it drove a savage Meteor Mash that collided deeply with Klaus’ face.

Klaus was seeing stars as he skidded backwards across the ground; his head falling limp as he became completely disorientated. And while the Paralysis continued to hamper Lucario’s efforts, it defiantly refused to allow itself to become fully paralyzed. Almost as if it was ordering its arms to move, Lucario took advantage of Klaus’ momentary confusion to unleash another barrage of Aura Spheres that exploded on Klaus’ mid-air form.

I frowned as I took stock of Klaus’ injuries. He was never the most durable Pokémon on my team, and I recognized that if he didn’t heal himself up right now, he would collapse from the accrued injuries.

It wasn’t ideal, but it was also my only available course of action.

“REST, KLAUS! Heal yourself up!” I ordered, hoping that the paralysis would buy enough time for Klaus to heal himself and wake up before Lucario could get into position to finish him off.

Cynthia hesitated, though it was only for a brief moment before all of that hesitation was turned into unyielding determination. Her eyes steeled themselves as she made the order, “Go, Lucario. Full combo.”

Klaus rested his eyes the moment he landed, his entire body glowing with a pink aura as he entered a psychically induced trance as he began to heal himself up.

In the meanwhile, Lucario shot forwards, only to find itself stumbling as the electricity locked its muscles together. Yet Lucario simply grit its teeth and WILLED itself to move forwards, ignoring the ongoing effects of the paralysis as it forced itself to break into a sprint.

There was nothing but the pure blazing determination of a Pokémon that had seen a perfect opportunity to win, and will do anything to follow through for the victory. Paralysis or not, Lucario was not about to allow Klaus’ sudden Rest to become unpunished.

It was this determination that allowed it to disappear into a blur, reappearing in front of Klaus as it delivered a shattering Cross Chop to his neck.

Klaus was painfully forced awake as he instinctively let out a strangled groan, the sound hindered by the sudden chop to the throat. Yet before Lucario could follow up with a Brick Break, Klaus surprised Lucario by unleashing a crackling explosion of psychic energy, detonating a fully charged Stored Power that it had secretly been charging up right on top of Lucario.

At such close range, Lucario was completely unable to dodge. However, its insane reaction speed allowed it to make a valiant effort to create a Protect shield that managed to partially block some of the damage, but Lucario still skidded backwards as it fell to its knees.

“Luca…” Lucario breathed heavily as it still took a significant brunt of that attack; its injuries were starting to become untenable.

Not needing me to signal his next move, Klaus let out a noble roar as he unleashed an Earth Power, sending out even more explosive shockwaves through the ground that would have knocked the already-wounded Lucario out.

However, with its last drop of energy, Lucario forced itself to its feet and burst forwards once more with one last Extreme Speed, appearing right in front of a shocked Klaus with its palm gleaming with power.

“PROTECT, NOW!”

Realizing that Lucario had just used Detect to dodge Klaus’ attack once again, I immediately ordered a Protect, thinking that Lucario was about to slam an all-out Force Palm into my surprised Klaus.

I was wrong.

“Low Sweep.”

Instead of going for the obvious powerful blow, Cynthia cunningly had Lucario trip up Klaus, with it striking at Klaus’ legs just before the Protect shield managed to block it. With a startled cry, Klaus fell over once again, and this was when Cynthia decided was the moment to go all-out.

“High Jump Kick! Finish it!”

“Psychic!”

As Lucario descended with a devastating High Jump Kick, instead of the look of surprise that Lucario was expecting, it was met with Klaus’ shimmering bright blue eyes; a destructive blast of Psychic charging up within his defiant eyes. Klaus hadn’t trained up all that mental discipline for nothing.

It was now a matter of who could land their attack first.

This was when the injuries of both Pokémon finally revealed itself. With its paralysis, Lucario was just unable to reach Klaus in time before a torrential wave of Psychic energy came crashing into it. At the same time, Klaus’ attack came just a moment too late as Lucario’s brutal kick landed like a guillotine straight into his neck.

The attack caused Klaus to collapse to the ground; it was the perfect execution. Yet Lucario fared no better, being mercilessly flung backwards as it took the full force of Klaus’ Psychic. It crashed helplessly into the ground, similarly unconscious.

A moment of silence descended on the battlefield as everyone stood there, stunned at the outcome of the match. Until it was interrupted by the voice of the referee, “…I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! JOHN’S WYRDEER ACTUALLY GOES DOWN TO CYNTHIA’S LUCARIO, BUT IT BROUGHT THE LUCARIO DOWN WITH IT! YET CHALLENGER CYNTHIA HAS DONE IT! PULLING OFF A COMEBACK TO SECURE HER MATCH INTO A TIE! THE SCORE’S 3-3!”

The crowd went crazy at the outcome. Oh, most of them knew that this wasn’t a proper fight and that both trainers were holding back, but to see someone with my reputation NOT able to secure a win and drawing? To a ‘no-name’ trainer!? That was not what they had expected when they had just come to watch this match today.

Especially considering how the fight started, with me completely dominating Cynthia’s Spiritomb with Luna. Only to have her Lucario 2v1 my own Pokémon. That was an incredible comeback.

“…I SERIOUSLY CAN’T BELIEVE IT! BUT WHAT A PERFORMANCE FROM CHALLENGER CYNTHIA!!” The referee declared, and the crowd exploded further into rapturous cheering and applause.

Cynthia only shot off a polite smile towards the crowd, though her eyes revealed her true elation. I moved to withdraw Klaus, making sure to pet his Premier Ball comfortingly in reassurance as she basked in the attention for a moment.

“…An excellent fight. Truly.” She said as she approached, “I know that if I had anything weaker than my Lucario, it would have been my crushing defeat. If I was honest, I wanted to see how Lucario would have matched up to the likes of your Ursaluna or Slaking, but I knew Lucario likely would have lost.”

“I’m sure your Lucario would have put up a good fight either way.” I praised, “But yes, it was a very good fight. I certainly learnt more than I expected to; it’s not often when I can afford to not fight with my all to secure victory.”

“Though if you could satisfy my curiosity for a moment, how much were you holding back?” I asked.

She tapped her finger on her chin, “With Lucario? Not at all. I consider him the second strongest Pokémon on my team.” She admitted.

“I wanted to show off his new training with the Teleports, so I thought that this was an excellent opportunity for it.” I replied, “But…well, maybe I overestimated its effectiveness.”

“I wouldn’t say that. I’m just very experienced at fighting against Pokémon that make use of Teleport.” She said matter-of-factly, not a hint of boasting in her voice. “And if I may be so bold, there were better ways to use Teleport. I know you can make use of Psychic platforms with your Wyrdeer, so you should have combined those two moves to have your Wyrdeer appear in the air. That would add another level of unpredictability.”

I stared at her, stunned at her ability to suddenly piece things together like this. It was obvious in hindsight, but to be able to think of something like this in an instant was extremely impressive. Was this the mark of a true genius?

“…I will put that into consideration.” I responded, still a little taken aback. “Though I have my own suggestion for you. It’s something I picked up from my training against Bruno. Watch my battle against him, and you can see that his Fighting types are able to break through Psychic moves with some very precise channelling of Dark type energies. Maybe you can do the same.”

“…I DO remember seeing that.” She nodded slowly, “...Yes, that’s something I’ll look into.”

“Perhaps we could discuss more about this battle soon?” I suggested, “I personally have plenty to ask.”

“Same here.” She replied, “I find that I learn the most after a good battle like this. And I did note that I definitely need to spend more time practicing against Fairy types. My Spiritomb’s performance was far more underwhelming than I hoped for.”

“But first we have to deal with the crowd.” I responded sarcastically, “I can’t wait for the news headlines reporting about the fact that I drew against you.”

“It’s your first draw, is it not? At least, since you became Elite Four?” Cynthia asked, and I nodded in return. “Hm…I hope I haven’t caused you any trouble then.”

I shook my head, “It was bound to happen one day. If anything, I felt that you were a worthy opponent to have drawn against. I greatly anticipate what you would do next, if your team is this strong.”

She laughed, “I’ll try to not let your compliment go to my head.” Then the two of us turned to face the crowd and prepared for the upcoming slog of interviews.

As the horde of reporters made their way towards us, I took a moment to reflect on how I felt after this battle. In truth, I felt a little disappointed that I hadn’t won.

But then I acknowledged that this had been a great learning opportunity for me. As Cynthia had pointed out, just because I had learnt a new move doesn’t mean that the move could be successfully utilized. It was a timely reminder to not become too tunnel-visioned into relying too heavily on surprise and new attacks.

It was better to have learnt this lesson now, when they were still no consequences. The next time might not be so forgiving.

A.N. And Cynthia beats John! Yes, they were both holding back – John more than Cynthia, but I wanted to portray that John got a little overconfident in Klaus’ new move, but it wasn’t enough to defeat Cynthia’s second most powerful Pokémon.

Her Lucario is no joke. As you would expect. Plus, Cynthia is certainly no average trainer to be underestimated, and her ability to think on the fly and adapt to new situations is incredible. Hope you enjoyed the fight!