Hard Enough
Chapter 251: Darkness rising!

For an instant, I was surprised at Crawdaunt’s appearance.

Why hadn’t she used it earlier? Why bring it out now? Especially this close to Titan.

Karen had to have seen the matches where Titan was called out against a Poliwrath, which was arguably his best counter as a fighting-water type. And we’d demolished that pokemon at close range.

So there had to be some other trick that Karen was trying for, with Crawdaunt being part of her major team.

I hadn’t thought it was a serious contender for her Elite team as she rarely used it. So by that metric it shouldn’t have the experience that would be needed here and now.

But then again, if my suspicions about where Karen had gone to get her Mega Stone were correct, she would have been facing down a lot of Houndoom and Houndour. Which a water type would have been very welcome against. Meaning that Crawdaunt probably saw a lot more combat in the last few weeks than it otherwise had through Ace battles.

Part of me wanted to continue to dominate Karen’s pokemon and style on them by having Titan stay in close, but my instincts were warning against it. Crawdaunt was naturally supposed to be a powerhouse in close, and while on paper he’d be slower and weaker than Titan, that wouldn’t mean much if I was lazy.

Like trying to break a fresh pokemon while Titan had been forced into an endurance battle against Houndoom.

I decided wisdom would win out over valour today as I raised Titan’s pokeball to recall him, instead of making him slog on. “Return,” I commanded.

I quickly selected my next pokemon, taking only a moment to consider if I wanted power with Bertha, or close-range combat with Hypnotoad.

Right, if I wanted to try and clutch this match out, then Bertha should be the safer option, especially with that Harden earlier.

“Go! Bertha!” I shouted, sending out my Rhyperior once more.

Bertha appeared and caused the field to quake with her arrival. She grinned, feeling more than a little lively as a thrill ran through the bond.

“Blast her!” Karen ordered and Crawdaunt raised its pinchers.

Twin blasts of water were launched straight at Bertha, but being able to feed commands through our bond saw her dive underneath them with a quick Dig that saw her darting in and out of the earth.

Both beams cut into the ground where they made impact, causing me to raise an eyebrow. “That’s a strong Water Gun,” I observed, fishing for details while I had Bertha launch a trio of rocks.

“Crawdaunt’s a strong boy,” Karen responded while Crawdaunt sniped down the boulders, forcing Bertha to once more duck and weave to the side.

She did so with a grin, but I could feel her effort in doing so.

Damn, I’d been hoping to get off a Thunder if I could.

I eyed the arena, which had sections of wetland, while others were still glassy in patches from Titan and Houndoom’s earlier fight.

Hmm, that should allow a strong enough Earthquake to propagate along it. I gave Bertha the plan and on the next dodge, she skipped to the side, only for her tail to rise up as she committed more energy into the jump.

When she landed she shook the field, causing a rumble to ripple through it.

Patches of glass shattered while others held true such as the central circle, but more importantly, Crawdaunt was bucked slightly.

It was only a very minor stumble, from which it was quickly regathering with its forelimbs and tail coming into play. But it was enough for me to switch things up and have Bertha unleash a Thunder.

The powerful lightning attack arced up and into the air before descending with an ominous boom.

“Jump to the—” Karen started to shout, only to cut herself off when the attack missed all on its own.

“Tch!” I said in annoyance.

“Shift to the right and return fire with Water Gun!” ordered Karen, quickly making the most of the miss.

Crawdaunt scuttled to the right, putting itself near some broken glass before raising up its pincers once again to fire off another barrage.

Bertha barely had to twist herself to the left before I had her unleashing yet another Thunder upon her foe. This time for sure, it had to hit.

“Throw that glass into the air!” ordered Karen and Crawdaunt grabbed up the glass next to it before heaving and hurling it into the air.

Bertha’s attack descended, only to be aborted due to the glass misleading it.

I clicked my tongue and prepared a third time. Karen couldn’t keep getting lucky like that, and she’d run out of things to hurl.

“Return!” she shouted to Crawdaunt, not willing to risk him. I clicked my tongue but had Bertha perform a quick Swords Dance that had her twirling… and casually obliterating another pane of glass as her tail dragged over the ground.

She ignored it, pirouetting and grinning like a schoolgirl while I shook my head in exasperation.

Karen eyed Bertha’s dancing about with a glower as she pulled for another pokemon. “Go! Absol!” she said and the herald of disaster pokemon emerged onto the field.

I turned, looking to have Bertha take out this pokemon straight away.

Another trio of rocks were hurled forth with Stone Edge, only for Absol to gracefully skip to the side.

Karen grinned at me and I knew I wouldn’t like what was to come.

“Mean Look!” she said and I knew she was building up to something which I instantly tried to disrupt with another Earthquake, only for Absol to once more avoid the attack with a frankly beautiful skip.

I wanted to call it a leap, as I could see how far it carried from the push-off, but it wasn’t a simple manoeuvre. It floated over the ground, just close enough that at any moment in time, it could kick out with a leg and change its direction.

It was precisely enough to see it avoid any damage once more from Bertha’s Earthquake.

I had to give it to Karen, she’d done right by her pokemon and they were insanely skilled. I couldn’t even think how long it would have taken to get that trick down pat, and it was merely movement, not an actual move, which made it much more impressive.

That Absol was damn good.

Bertha snorted her displeasure at my complimentary attitude toward her foe, prickling her pride.

“Perish Song!” ordered Karen with relish, causing me to growl as Absol raised its head and began to sing a mournful song that I had heard all too many times when I’d been researching for this match.

In the game, I had three turns. In reality, that could mean anything from thirty seconds to one minute.

I decided to not let it get that far.

If Karen wanted to play games like that, I’d just force the issue. Unless she had specialised her Absol’s Mean Look, I just needed to knock Absol out or make it be traded out.

Karen might think she’d backed me into a corner, but as everyone knew, a cornered Raticate is at its most deadly.

I reached forward, playing into Bertha’s need for theatrics to order the next move aloud. “Bertha, Impact Driver to freedom!”

Instantly Bertha hunkered down and began to twitch as she built up power for what was to come.

Karen’s eyes widened before shooting to her still singing Absol.

She could take us out in a minute, but we could take them out in the next ten seconds if she didn’t pull back.

“Tch!” she said, whipping her pokeball up and returning her Absol right as it fell silent.

Bertha growled and I grimaced as I felt something sickly settle into her. Damn. They’d still gotten off the Perish Song. Thankfully I’d been right when I’d guessed that she hadn’t specialised her pokemon’s Mean Look.

However… there was still a chance she might send out a pokemon and let Bertha—

Karen’s flat look as she played with a pokeball, obviously signalling that she was going to wait the minute she was required unless I aborted my attack, had me mentally gnashing my teeth.

The crowd weren’t too pleased with this either as they were more than looking forward to Bertha destroying the battlefield with a well-timed Impact Driver.

Sadly it wasn’t to be. I still decided to play it up with her, interested in how I could feel the Perish Song slowly working its way through Bertha’s body.

“Not going to risk it, eh?” I asked teasingly.

Bertha raised her arms out wide and I knew she was giving the ‘come at me’ sign, which had Karen laughing.

“Nah, I was hoping you’d do something else, but this still works for me,” she said, tossing up her next pokeball lazily.

I huffed. “Well It’s a shame you weren’t willing to try your hand against one of my best,” I said, buffing my nails like I wasn’t worried about the building sickness I could feel within Bertha.

Bertha nodded seriously and put up her smallest finger to wiggle it around in a teasing manner.

Karen rolled her eyes. “You done? I know you’re not green enough to leave her out,” she said with a bored tone.

I shook my head. “No sense of drama,” I replied while returning Bertha, who took the time to give Karen the forks with her giant digits.

I coughed awkwardly, having felt her annoyance, but I still hadn’t expected that from Bertha.

Karen stared, honestly surprised. “You taught your pokemon that gesture?” she said.

I looked away. “No, she, uhmmm, likes to watch television,” I said sheepishly.

Karen nodded slowly. “Riiiiiiight,” she said, tossing out her pokeball, only for Crawdaunt to once more take to the field, this time right at the edge of the circle in the centre.

I hummed. Alright, Bertha hadn’t worked out for me, not that I could return her to the field right away, but I had other options.

I sent out Hypnotoad’s pokeball and she appeared in a mirrored position to Crawdaunt’s own on our side of the field.

Karen merely smiled, apparently liking this match up.

I smirked, more than happy myself at the state of play. Hypnotoad, as a fighting type, was perfect against most of Karen’s team if she stuck to a dark type specialisation.

Karen and I locked eyes once more and felt the thrill of what was about to happen race through us.

It was like we’d set two Hariyama against each other in close range. You just knew they were going to come together with an almighty display of power.

With Karen’s Crawdaunt’s earlier display, I knew it was on the level.

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Which was why I decided to not play to the script as everyone expected by having Hypnotoad merely leap straight at her foe.

Instead, I decided to go for a trick play; without the need to shout my orders I had even more advantage as Hypnotoad’s stomach began to twirl and circle in a hypnotic pattern that drew Crawdaunt’s gaze in.

“Craaaaaw,” crooned the lobster pokemon as it began to sway back and forth.

“Crawdaunt no! Don’t! Shit! Harden!” Karen called out, desperate to get something in before her pokemon fell asleep as she realised what I’d done.

She shot me an annoyed look to which I responded with a smirk as Crawdaunt’s body glowed before its head fell forward, indicating it was asleep.

Damn, but it was nice to see all the little benefits to giving silent orders continue to stack up for me.

The instant Crawdaunt’s eyes closed Hypnotoad leapt forward, fist cocked back to deliver a powerful blow in the form of Close Combat.

As soon as Hypnotoad committed to the leap Karen’s scowl shifted into a smirk and I knew she hadn’t left herself helpless in such a state. She’d obviously done her research on me and my pokemon enough to keep this trick of mine and Hypnotoad’s in mind.

“Sleep Talk!” she crowed happily.

I grit my teeth, knowing that this was going to be a roll of the dice as Crawdaunt stopped swaying and oriented on Hypnotoad as she careened into him.

What happened next made me sigh in relief and mentally fist-pump as Crawdaunt glowed.

It had used Harden again.

Hypnotoad landed and slammed a right fist into Crawdaunt’s face.

Crawdaunt rocked back in shock, sadly resulting in the sleep fading away as it did so.

Immediately after that rude wake-up call, Crawdaunt locked its eyes on Hypnotoad at close quarters and glared.

I had Hypnotoad go for another punch and she delivered, this time with her left, rocketing into Crawdaunt’s body, only for it to get its pinchers in the way like it was a boxer trying to block the blow.

The strike still lifted the crustacean pokemon slightly.

“Craw!” barked Crawdaunt as it was raised up in the air, only for it to fight through the pain and snap both giant pincers onto Hypnotoad’s arms. It was locking down my Poliwrath.

I considered going for a kick but thought it might not be as effective. Instead, I decided to go for breaking out of what had to be a Vise Grip.

Bulk Up was the order of the day and like an escape artist, I had Hypnotoad swell her body up with tension as her power grew.

Crawdaunt strained, pincers working to keep Hypnotoad locked in.

Karen gritted her teeth and made a slashing gesture. “Go for it with Guillotine!” she shouted.

I felt another hitch in my mind as I registered the command.

Guillotine, another one hit K.O. move.

My mind took in the situation as I felt Hypnotoad begin to take on a crushing force that sought to break her completely. Both pincers angled inwards while shutting tighter and tighter by the moment.

If Crawdaunt completed that action I could kiss Hypnotoad goodbye as she’d be crushed. Sadly Karen had set herself up by having her pokemon tank the initial super-effective moves with Harden.

Now, locked into a close-range match-up, it seemed inevitable that Hypnotoad would fall.

…

Screw that.

I wasn’t going to just sit by and applaud Karen’s clever move.

I wasn’t giving up on Hypnotoad.

We were fighting through this.

I flooded Hypnotoad and mine bond with as much energy as I could while clenching my fists and bracing as a guttural roar broke its way out of my lips.

“FIGHT THROUGH!” I roared vocally and through the bond, driving Hypnotoad to fight on. I had her do another Bulk Up, and this time her muscles became swollen even as Crawdaunt tried to cut into her.

Blood trickled down Hypnotoad’s arms as she ignored the pain and pushed back.

“POOOOOOOOOOLLIIIIIIIII!” she roared, taking up the cry.

Karen glared and leaned forward. “CRAWDAUNT! CRUSH THEM!” she roared in response, not willing to back down. I could feel dark energy flowing around her and into her pokemon and soon both pokemon were emitting the overflow of energy as they both heaved and struggled against each other.

Slowly, Hypnotoad began to exert her strength; the Bulk Ups that she’d gotten off had increased both her attacking and defensive strength, allowing her to endure and push Crawdaunt backwards.

“Craaaaw?” whined Crawdaunt as it began to be lifted off the ground.

Sadly that was when tragedy struck, as an aspect neither Karen nor I had considered came into play.

The ground broke before either pokemon did, causing a smash of shattering glass, but rather than give up Crawdaunt held on, using its legs, flipper tail and small forelimbs to steady itself.

Hypnotoad didn’t have that anatomical advantage and when the ground broke she slipped on the glass, going to her knees as she continued to struggle.

My heart lurched, knowing that we’d been moments from victory before her footing had given out.

“Give up Brock! I have your pokemon dead to rights!” Karen called as our pokemon continued struggling.

“Like hell you do!” I barked back, refusing to give up, not while I felt Hypnotoad’s determination to fight on. I grit my teeth and tried to focus on the struggle.

“Your Poliwrath is goners!” teased Karen and I found I didn’t have anything to say, which just annoyed me more.

When Karen next opened her mouth to no doubt continue trying her mind games, I beat her to the punch.

“Your pokemon is weakened, and nowhere near as strong as mine!” I shouted, going for a psych out even if it was merely a denial.

I could feel Karen’s supply of energy to her pokemon falter momentarily only to resume, which was good, so I kept talking, “It’s failing and you know it! Each second it fails to crush my pokemon is another victory for us, and we’re wearing you down!”

I considered my own options, wondering even as I talked trash if I could get Hypnotoad out of this situation with a Protect. I doubted it though, Crawdaunt was too close and moments from claiming victory. I needed a way to flip the table... I needed… something.

My eyes searched for a solution only to be beaten to the punch by Karen further applying pressure.

Karen frowned at the developing situation and through my peripherals, I could see doubt creeping in, only for a flash of victory to appear as she caught sight of something.

It had to be something that could grant her the advantage, so I redoubled my efforts to— shit, the tail!

“Push yourself forward with your flipper!” she ordered, making use of Crawdaunt’s anatomical advantage once more to make her pokemon propel itself up and over, granting it further leverage.

This proved enough as Crawdaunt squeezed hard and I felt a sudden wrenching pain shoot through me and cause me to almost white out.

A moment, or perhaps an hour later, I blinked, unsure what had just happened.

I shook my head to get rid of the lightheadedness and found myself looking down at Crawdaunt as it staggered to its feet, shaking and exhausted.

But sadly victorious, as it stood over Hypnotoad’s broken form.

Damn, Hypnotoad had absolutely destroyed all my expectations of her when she’d fought back against what should have been a guaranteed one-hit KO It had still ended in her defeat but damn, she’d made it so close.

I knew it.

Karen knew it.

The entire crowd watching on knew it too.

It didn’t change the result, though.

And the result was, that through a tiny advantage caused by the ground giving way underneath her, Hypnotoad had fallen.

It didn’t stop me from feeling proud of her, though. I recalled her and raised her pokeball up to tell her just that, only to stiffen as I spotted a warning light on the side.

The pokeball’s health register for Hypnotoad was flashing orange, indicating that Hypnotoad had been rather seriously hurt in that last exchange.

I held her pokeball up and off to the side, indicating that she was hurt and I needed some medical attention for her.

A Nurse Joy sprinted out to take hold of her before departing to an alcove off to the side of the field. She quickly shot back a thumbs up and everyone in the stadium joined me in breathing a sigh of relief.

She’d be fine.

I turned back to the battlefield, my mind racing at what had occurred.

A thought stuck with me, however.

Damn, but there were certainly a few more one-hit KO’s floating around than I’d seen in previous years' Ace matches.

It only took a moment to realise why that might be. “You’re all taking inspiration from Bertha, aren’t you?” I said with a smile.

Karen shrugged. “It has proven to be a good strategy,” she said.

I nodded, eying the distances involved between my side of the field and where Crawdaunt was. It was practically on the line now.

Karen had let herself relax after her victory.

Alright then, time to punish that.

Karen glanced down only to stiffen. “Retreat!” Karen called, having caught my look. Her pokemon hopped back with another flip of its tail, but in doing so it committed to a larger jump than it strictly needed to.

Unlike Absol earlier, this jump caused it to become properly airborne with no chance of changing its trajectory. I whipped out my next pokemon, practically smelling blood in the water.

Bertha emerged with Crawdaunt only just falling back. I snapped my hand forward and mentally barked the next order for Thunder.

Bertha didn’t hesitate to clap her hands together and bring the Thunder with a vengeance.

Sparks flew and I clenched my whole body as I could only watch and will the bolt of lightning to strike true.

The Thunder arced from Bertha straight at Crawdaunt as it landed.

“PROTECT!” Karen snapped her hands up and roared out her command, and Crawdaunt tried, but its jump saw it slip and falter.

And then the Thunder struck home and it was a done deal.

Crawdaunt’s body was overwhelmed with electrical power and it fried with a warbling cry of pain before toppling to the side.

I struck my fist into the air as it fell, feeling a wellspring of vindication run through me. Karen had baited and switched me,, but I’d hit back the instant she’d tried to draw us up even in score.

Crawdaunt had been a good pokemon for Karen, she’d made it work, but now I was building momentum, I could feel it, and I knew Karen had to as well.

Bertha gave Crawdaunt a firm nod, only to surprise everyone by turning and raising a fist towards where Hypnotoad was being cared for. She held it up in respect to her friend and I grinned, touched that she was all but announcing that most of the work had already been done by Hypnotoad’s earlier efforts.

I sent a wave of pride towards both pokemon, only for Bertha to return a gleeful flood of emotions as her eyes darted about, taking in how the crowd were lapping up the gesture.

I sighed exasperatedly and turned my attention to Karen as I let Bertha have her damn moment.

Karen returned her pokemon and inspected the pokeball before setting it aside like I had with Hypnotoad.

Huh, it must have been a critical hit to do that much damage to need Nurse Joy to take it away.

Then the roar of the crowd caught my attention and I glanced around. They were chanting and waving. Our names were in the air, carried by the lungs of thousands as the air shook.

It seemed they were loving the back and forth, the power on display and the way the fights were right on the edge of skill and strength.

I glanced back to Karen and realised that she was playing into the crowd by sending off her Crawdaunt to be looked after now.

It made her look pitiable and drew people’s affection.

She wasn’t just thinking of the fight here, was she? She had to be doing this so she also crafted an image for the much larger audience.

In a way, she was rewriting her brand or image in people’s minds by bantering with me in an almost companionable manner. She’d win a lot of points for showing compassion for her pokemon.

Huh, it was almost impressive to see her working on multiple objectives while we fought. I toyed with what it would end up looking like, win or lose for her.

She was locked in a fight against me, a Kanto favourite. Because of this, she had to tread carefully but perhaps, just maybe, she might also respect our… comradery. We’d brought down Team Rocket together after all, and faced down Mewtwo.

Perhaps there was more to her than Sabrina and the others had believed. She’d certainly defied expectations by not trying to hit me in my blind spot.

Now she was fighting skillfully. She was throwing banter, yes, but it was enjoyable and it merely added to the fight rather than detracting.

So she was thinking about this fight on multiple levels.

Respectable, and rather surprising all told, I concluded mentally.

it might even be a sign that she was growing up?

I discarded that after a moment’s thought.

There was a much stronger possibility that someone wiser had leaned on her.

I tossed aside that line of thought and I turned my attention fully back to the battlefield where Bertha was shifting.

With her on the field, I knew that Karen would have to respond with something that could defeat her. With Karen’s pokemon pool, I knew of two good options.

“Let’s go! Gengar!” barked Karen as she whipped out the pokemon that had started the battle once again.

I tried to have Bertha meet the ghost pokemon with a giant rock to the face, only for Gengar to blur to the side with barely a twitch.

Gengar leered at us with its long tongue twitching back and forth mockingly. Bertha shuddered at how creepy it was, but I reaffirmed her resolve with a quick reminder that most magical girl villains were creeps.

That was enough to have Bertha firing off an even bigger Stone Edge with a sweep of her tail.

Gengar once again evaded with a burst of speed, but it was much closer this time as Gengar had to throw itself out of the way before catching itself in a three-point kneeling pose.

This time it didn’t leer and instead looked at us with a glare from its crouched position.

“Toxic!” Karen shouted, changing things up from evasion, attempting to get off one of the methods that had proven effective against Bertha. That had been against a young trainer with a much weaker team, though.

Gengar, as a partial poison type, would unleash a much stronger Toxic that I had no doubt would sap Bertha much quicker.

There was no way I was letting Karen’s Gengar get off a Toxic.

Instead, Bertha dove into the ground, falling to the side almost lazily with a playful wink at Gengar.

The Toxic splashed harmlessly against the ground, but I gave it a worried eye due to the way it sizzled and hissed.

Hmmm, I’d been right.

That had been extremely potent poison.

I then turned my attention to where Gengar was levitating just above the ground, looking this way and that in some pantomime of concern. It shot me an amused grin before winking and holding up a hand to its lips.

Hmmmm, it must have known that I was feeding Bertha its position on the battlefield.

… that or it was just screwing with me.

“Fade back into the corner,” Karen ordered and her Gengar zipped to the rear of the battlefield quickly. There it levitated up a little before turning to look down slightly.

Ah, they definitely had realized what it meant that I could communicate without words to my pokemon.

A move like Dig became much more powerful for us, but if they were to limit where we could emerge then they didn’t have as much to worry about.

They might even turn the attack into a terrible mistake.

I aborted the Dig and instead had Bertha pop up with roughly twenty metres between her and Gengar.

They both locked eyes and Bertha shook her head, an amused thought bubbling up that made me want to roll my eyes.

Yes, this was like a standoff right before the hero and villain traded blows but we weren’t going to make this a singular exchange. If I went for Seismic Twist or Impact Driver there was every chance that Gengar could evade with its speed.

I needed to create more options for myself, or force something to change.

Hmmm, Bertha had been the answer against Crawdaunt after Hypnotoad had exhausted it, but Gengar… No, another could take over.

“Return!” I announced whipping Bertha’s pokeball up and pulling her back, which I was happy to do while Gengar was on the field. It had thus far displayed no buffing abilities, no field moves, nor did its species know Pursuit. Not unless Karen had trained it specifically for that, but I doubted it.

“Pursuit!” Karen shouted, causing me to blanch.

Gengar knelt and began to sprint forward only to abort by twirling away with a laugh. “Gar Gar Gar!” it cackled.

I blinked, completely caught off guard only for Karen’s laughter to catch my attention. “Oh, Arceus! Your face! You just thought you were safe but then I whipped that out and Gengar was… Hahaha!” she shouted as she clutched her stomach.

I sighed.

I shook my head and felt a flush of shame. She had actually gotten me with that little fake out. Karen stopped laughing as I clutched my next pokeball.

Right then and there I made a decision.

Alright, plan ‘turnabout is fair play’ was a go.

Karen quickly waved her hand at Gengar, though. “But seriously, Toxic his side of the field,” she said.

Gengar, like Karen, stopped laughing instantly and sprayed a gout of noxious liquid on the ground where it splattered and began to sizzle. I eyed the field and noted that she’d just denied roughly an eighth of what was available to me with those two Toxics.

Not the best, but certainly still noticeable.

“Let’s go Tide!” I called, returning my Lapras to the field.

He landed slightly adjacent to the poison and gave Gengar another bark of agitation to which the ghost pokemon merely waggled its fingers in greeting.

And just like that it almost seemed like we’d returned to the start of the match.

The difference was that I was winning, and that more than anything would make the biggest difference going forward.