{RP} The S.S. Wishmaker - Tides of Witchcraft

[[Desolate Divine]]

Jon Drake
Private Booth
Affected RPers: @Neo Emolga @Chakramaster

Jimmy and Jirachi explained what happened earlier, leaving Jon slightly irritated that Jimmy seemed to be babying the Pokemon that could cause more trouble than the Diamond Ladies and Lance did, without even intending to. However his attention was drawn to the screen.

"Goddamn, she did it." Jon said, pointing to the monitor that declared Cassandra the winner, showing the last moments of battle, where Avery's Shaymin reverted back to its Land Forme at the worst possible moment.

The time in the bottom corner of the screen said 8pm, which meant Jon had half an hour before his match was due to start. Between the time to get back to the waiting room, and brief his team, he didn't have any more time to spare on Lance.

"I have to go, but can you make sure they're safe?" Jon asked Steven, gesturing towards Violet and Jarena, "Lance had four operatives follow him in here, as well as someone in data analysis willing to tamper with evidence to cover up him murdering them, so I doubt these are the only people out for blood."

"I'll watch the match here with them, then escort them personally to one of the lesser known Safe Houses." Steven explained, "Will lock it down with my own key so only I can enter the room overnight."

"Thanks. I owe you one." Jon explained, "Wish me luck tonight. As much as I am glad Cassandra won, it means I now have to make sure that I beat Ethan no matter what..."

"Good luck." Cynthia replied, "You know especially how much is riding on this match."

Jon nodded, before leaving the room, Latios, who had reverted to his normal form, now in tow.

*********

Twenty minutes later Jon found himself in a private locker room, moments away from entering the battlefield to face Ethan. Each competitor was given five minutes prior to pep talk their team. In front of Jon stood Blaziken, Jolteon, Nidoking and Latios, even though he was only allowed three Pokemon for the fight. Jon however, preferred to use this time to talk tactics. Unlike most trainers, Jon wasn't a fan of the back and fourth, calling out of moves that most trainers tended to use. Instead, his training focused on different tactics for battles, using the individual Pokemon as part of a larger unit, and improving their ability to make their own decisions on the spot. Jon viewed himself more as a coach to the athletes than the athlete himself. Just like his grandfather taught him.

"So tonight, we have to win." Jon explained, "Not just for the sake of the competition, but more so, some stuff bigger than this tournament is happening tomorrow night in the Grand Final, and I need to be there."

Blaziken looked at him confused, before Jon continued.

"For that reason, we will use the tag strategy."

Blaziken, Jolteon and Nidoking looked at him in shock, whilst Latios seemed giddy. Jon didn't blame them. Tag was a risky strategy, but if it paid off, would secure them an easy win.

"Blaziken and Jolteon, you two will be the main force." Jon explained, "If all goes to plan, Nidoking shouldn't need to make an appearance, but we will keep him in reserves in case we need him. If this goes pear shaped early on though, Latios, I will need you to take it home. But if we can avoid that we will, because your real show will be tomorrow night."

Jon spent the next few minutes running through the plan with the team, before being called out onto the battlefield.

Jon entered at the call of his name, before making his way to the centre, shaking Ethan's hand, before making his way to his side of the battlefield, sending out his first Pokemon simultaneously with Ethan. Blaziken.

"Blaziken, you will be out first." Jon explained in the locker room earlier, though Blaziken knew that would be the case, "Your focus is to build strength and speed. The reason I sent you out first every battle was in case we did this plan. If Ethan has paid attention, he should be able to guess you will be my first, and will act accordingly..."

As Blaziken materialized on the battlefield, Ethan's first Pokemon also materialized. A Feraligatr. Jon hid a grin at the fact that this was going to plan.

"No matter what he sends out, I know you can take it. If he sends out a Pokemon with a type advantage, that will set us up well for the rest of the match." Jon explained, "We don't want to beat the first Pokemon quickly, because we need time for your ability to work..."

The two Pokemon stepped forward before the bell rang, signalling the start of the battle. Not wasting a second, Ethan called out a command, as Feraligatr leapt forward, attempting an Aqua Tail, which Blaziken leapt away from.

"If your opponent uses any moves that are going to hit hard, do what you can to dodge them, but don't be too quick about it. We don't want them to realize you are getting faster." Jon explained, "If they are moves that aren't going to hit too hard, use Bulk Up instead.

Whilst Jon had plenty of faith that Blaziken could beat this Feraligatr with only fighting moves, what most people didn't realize about Blaziken is a special ability few of them have called Speed Boost. As the match goes on, Blaziken's natural speed increases, topping out at roughly quadruple what it was at the start of the match. The longer the fight gets drawn out, the faster Blaziken will get. Paired with the Bulk Ups, Blaziken will reach a point where it will hit harder and faster than any other Pokemon in this tournament, second possibly to Latios. It also helped that Feraligatr was naturally slower and less nimble on solid ground than Blaziken.

"We have to drag out this first fight, but not make it look like we are doing that." Jon explained, "If they realize we are leading them on, it might click what we are doing, so he may change his strategy. We need to make him think that his own strategy is working, so that he doesn't change it, and the match is drawn out like it needs to be."

About a minute had passed of Blaziken appearing to be on the defensive. Whilst it seemed like Blaziken hadn't sped up at all, really he was just finding it easier and easier to keep out of reach. Feraligatr alternated between hard hitting water attacks and physical attacks, slashes and bites and such. What Ethan hadn't seemed to notice was that Blaziken was dodging nearly every water attack, whilst taking the hits of the physical attacks, using Bulk Up during those few moments, building resistance and strength. Finally Jon heard what he was after. Blaziken who had been silent until now, crying out.

"Don't make any noises until the right moment. You calling out will be the signal." Jon explained, "When your buffs have reached their max, or you can't take another hit, make some noise, and we will move to the offensive."

Blaziken had made the signal as Feraligatr was readying a Hydropump attack, and was waiting for Jon to instruct one of two things. Fight, or...

"Switch!" Jon shouted, gripping Jolteon's Pokeball, as Blaziken erupted into a white light.

"When I yell switch, use Baton Pass." Jon explained, "That's where you come in Jolteon. In battles where Blaziken can't hit as hard as we'd like, you will hit for him."

The Hydro Pump hit its target, however its target had changed, revealing a now soaked Jolteon where Blaziken stood, now carrying all of the stored strength, speed and constitution that Blaziken had gathered.

It was almost instantaneous, the gap between the attack landing, and Jolteon launching forward, managing to land a Thunder Fang on the very confused Feraligatr. Jolteon sunk his fangs into the water type, as a discharge of electricity flooded from his body, amplified by Blaziken's Bulk Ups, creating several large bolts of lightning that launched in all directions, before a large bang was heard, and Feraligatr was launched across the stadium, crashing into the wall, knocked unconscious before it even hit the ground.

"The moment you find yourself out of a Pokeball, launch an attack. Don't give them any time to react." Jon explained, "This is how we will win this. Strike hard, strike fast, and cover each others weaknesses."

"Feraligatr is unable to battle! Ethan Caldwell has two Pokemon remaining. Jon Drake has three."

Ethan called back his Feraligatr, before summoning his next Pokemon to the field. Skarmory.

Jon cursed under his breath, knowing a flying Pokemon, whilst not impossible to beat, would not be easy. Whilst Blaziken could jump to land attacks, he was probably more tired from dragging out the fight with Feraligatr, and taking the hits, than Jolteon probably was. That and Jolteon had means of regaining energy. Jolteon could use ranged attacks, however they were not powered by Blaziken's Bulk Up, so Jon wanted to avoid using them outside of very specific circumstances. Lucky however, that Skarmory knows very few ranged attacks as well. It would not be able to attack Jolteon without getting close, however it came down to how many hits Jolteon could take, and how easily Skarmory could avoid Jolteon's attacks being able to fly.

This was one matchup Jon hadn't accounted for, so began speaking up.

"Wait for it to attack, and try and strike then!"

Jolteon waited, as Skarmory circled above before diving down, landing strikes on the electric type, who was unable to strike back, due to Skarmory's exit trajectory being near impossible to predict in the open air.

Jon scowled, as he tried to think of a way out of this that didn't involve sending out Blaziken. Blaziken had some heavier hitting moves than Joleton, but Ethan had one more Pokemon after this, and Jon wanted to save Blaziken as a one hit wonder in case Jolteon couldn't handle whatever was coming. There was a way out, Jon knew it. Thinking back to his instructions, he remembered something he told Jolteon.

"Truth is, in the next fight, I am going to pretend to be a bad guy. If there is any way we can hint towards that now, without seeming too obvious, people will be more likely to believe I'm the bad guy tomorrow evening. So tonight, if we have to tow the line between what is good sportsmanship and what is battling dirty, we do that. Enough to cause the crowd to dislike me, but not enough they can kick me out of the tournment tonight." Jon explained, "One thing we can do, Jolteon, if you're every low on energy, remember, you can absorb electricity, and it doesn't have to be from a Pokemon attack. There are stadium lights right on the edge of the battlefield..."

Jolteon looked at Jon, waiting for direction, before taking another attack from Skarmory, and looking back to his trainer. Jon's eyes darted towards the stadium light nearest them, which caused Jolteon to realize what he had planned.

"Don't just straight up attack it. That will be too obvious. Instead try and line up a shot where you look like you're attacking the other Pokemon, but if it dodges, the nearest thing for it to hit is the light." Jon explained, "Hit it hard enough with a thunderbolt, you might be able to tap into its power source and get some energy back. You want it to be obvious enough that people think it may have been intentional, but not too obvious that the league isn't going to risk disqualifying a competitor over what could be a complete mistake. Don't worry about the bill. It's nothing compared to what Latios has cost me so far..."

Going on the defensive, Jolteon darted to the side, as Skarmory began to follow from the air, diving down, occaisonally striking the Pokemon, but managing to miss a considerable amount of times. Jolteon ran towards the stadium light, then as Skarmory dived down, dug his paws into the ground, laying flat as the Steel type Pokemon flew over him, now sitting between Jolteon and the Stadium Light.

Jolteon cried out, as it let out a Thunderbolt, which Skarmory avoided with ease. What nobody saw coming was the thunderbolt hitting the casing of the main pole of the stadium light, breaking through it, and connecting with the power wires. The wiring became overloaded, blowing the globes out of the lights as broken glass rained down, and the power flowing from the power source to the wiring, now flowing into the circuit that existed between Jolteon and the pole, giving Jolteon a boost of energy, but doing something that Jon didn't intend for when he first gave Jolteon the idea.

The giant steel bird was like a giant lightning rod, and whilst the lights weren't high voltage, the amount of current that was flowing from the light was enough to do a significant amount of damage. The ark of electricity shifted from Jolteon to Skarmory, as fusebreaker finally kicked in, cutting off current, leaving Jolteon healthier than ever, and Skarmory unconscious on the ground.

"Skarmory is unable to battle! Ethan Caldwell has one Pokemon left. Jon Drake has three. However Jon Drake has received a warning, and any other incidents like that will result in instant disqualification."

Ethan looked at Jon furiously as the crowd booed, with Jon making a mental note to apologize to him later. Whilst he wanted to tell Ethan the plan, and apologize in advance for the underhanded techniques he was going to use, he didn't want Ethan trying to throw the match and it being obvious.

Ethan called back Skarmory, before sending in his final Pokemon. Golem.

"F***..." Jon muttered, realizing how much trouble Jolteon was in, and thanking God that he kept Blaziken aside. However he soon realized getting Blaziken out would be more difficult than he intended. Golem leapt forward, curling up into a ball, launching itself at Jolteon, who barely had a second to spare before being hit by it. If Jon switched out Jolteon without Baton pass, all the work Blaziken did before would be for nothing, and the best way to end this would be with Blaziken. Same thing if Joleton fainted. However, the only reason Blaziken was able to Baton pass so quickly was because he was the one signalling to Jon to do it. He was prepared, whilst with Jolteon, Jon had to make more decisions in this fight. Jolteon would need a second to use the move, however kept getting hit by Golem before he could.

"S**t..." Jon muttered, as he tried to remember what moves Jolteon knew that could help in this situation. Electric moves were out of the question, and whilst Jolteon knew double kick, getting that close to Golem was too risk. Suddenly, it hit him.

"Use endure!" Jon shouted, as Jolteon took a direct hit. He was knocked into the air, though whilst that should have knocked Jolteon out, instead, he was still conscious, with a sliver of energy. And this time being airborne would provide enough of a gap between barrages to...

"Now Switch Jolteon!"

A moment or two later, Jolteon was absorbed in a white light, before disappearing and being replaced by Blaziken, who remembered Jon's advice from earlier.

"Strike fast, strike hard, cover eachothers weaknesses. As soon as you're out of the Pokeball, attack."

"Revenge!" Jon shouted, as Blaziken took another hit from Golem, who still seemed to think it was battling a Jolteon half its height and a tenth of the weight.

Blaziken took the hit from Golem, holding back a cry of pain, before rotating around, seeming to roll off the side of the Pokemon, and launching a roundhouse kick into the Rock type, causing it to stumble in confusion at what had just happened.

"Now one last hit!" Jon shouted out, "Close Combat!"

Blaziken leapt forward at the dazed rock type, letting out a barrage of quick and powerful kicks, before jumping in the air, spinning around and striking the rock type with one last finishing kick. Golem was launched back, rolling backwards into the wall of the arena, leaving a significant dent, and laying unconscious. When Blaziken realized the fight was over, he sighed, before collapsing down into a sitting position on the ground, taking deep breaths.

"Golem is unable to battle. Jon Drake has won the battle!"