Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)
Chapter 164

Nina's next pick was Sir Clodington, who came out fuming with rage, the Dragon Scale buried under the skin of his forehead gleaming a subtle iridescent light. The loyal knight cried in his usual baritone voice, eager to avenge Nitey, the subject of his devotion. 

The Clodsire swam through the water with the ease and grace of a majestic whale. Despite lacking the Water Typing like his cousins, theirs was a species that lived close to bodies of water and were very proficient swimmers despite the spiny fish Pokemon’s bulky build. 

Nina hummed, wondering if it was possible to drown the Steelix if they stalled for long enough, but ultimately dismissed that notion with a shake of her head. “Can't rely on what ifs… Clody! Swampy Terrain!”

This was Sir Clodington’s original move that Nina devised with him; a combination of Muddy Water and Sludge Wave, tied together using the Clodsire's incredible talent in Ground Energy manipulation. 

“CLOOD!” With a powerful heave, Sir Clodington widened his maw to ten times its original size and began spewing a deluge of mud and Poison into the water, causing his surroundings to turn beige, then brown, then a sickening greenish purple. 

And just as the name of the move implied, the underground lake that Nitey created soon turned into a toxic swamp, exuding noxious gas into the enclosed environment. 

Nina smirked as she put on her rebreather, even producing a spare for Espy who was furrowing her brows next to her.

“Interesting…” said the muffled voice of Forrest. “Is that an original move?” 

“Who knows…” Nina replied with a scoff. 

Poisons would not be effective against the aberrant Steelix, but that was besides the point, the benefits of the sticky terrain were already showing, as evident by Steelix who was struggling, but failing to surface from the swamp — just like quicksand, the more force that was applied to it, the more viscous the Swampy Terrain became.

Sir Clodington was fine though, wading through the muck like he was a fish in water.

“What’s wrong?” Nina taunted. “Don’t tell me, does your Steelix not know any Ground Type moves? Quite ironic, don’t you think? Get it? Ironic, iron, steel?” Nina guffawed, cackling like a villainess before tempering her gaze with vindictive rage and telling Sir Clodington to “Rock that Steelix’s world!”

In response, Sir Clodington zoomed towards Steelix and slammed his bulbous tail into her metallic head, using the close contact Earthquake that he learned from Beverly’s Quagsire. 

The swamp bubbled and stirred as Steelix roared in pain, feeling the agony of a large magnitude Earthquake reverberating through every segment of her expensive looking body.

“Enough!” Forrest called with a raise of his hand. “I’m withdrawing Steelix from the match.” He continued, with a glance at his brother who just let out a helpless sigh and responded with a nod.

“I’m sorry but I would prefer Steelix not come to permanent harm. She’s more fragile than she looks,” said the Gym Leader, before sheepishly asking if Nina could help bring the Steelix to the surface so that he could return her.

Nina hummed before obliging. “Hmm… So she’s weak to physical attacks. Why didn’t Nitey’s attacks work then? Or is it because of her fragile internals?”

“No comment,” said Forrest. He then expanded another Pokeball and summoned his next pick — an Omastar.

Nina was not sure how it was being done, but the Omastar seemed to be able to stand atop the sticky swamp with its wriggly tentacles and traverse it without issue. That said, the Rock and Water Type seemed reluctant to dive into the noxious swamp for fear of being Poisoned.

The girl chuckled. “This is going to be an easy win.” She mused, opting to stay silent and let Sir Clodington handle things.

The moment that Omastar appeared, it immediately summoned another Rain Dance and Surf in an attempt to dilute the Swampy Terrain, turning it into a boggy terrain instead.

Sir Clodington just let it happen. And when the swamp became thin enough for Omastar to comfortably dive into, he waited for the prehistoric shellfish Pokemon to appear right in front of him before letting out another deluge of sludge from his maw, once again trapping Forrest’s Pokemon in the sticky swamp

Omaster wasn’t as immobile as Steelix, but was still helpless in front of Sir Clodington, who went in with another close contact Earthquake that completely cracked the shell of the Omastar. The Clodsire’s assault was relentless since he barely got to vent his anger during the previous round. 

And by the time that everything was done, a fainted Omastar was unceremoniously tossed out of the swamp with a roaring Clodsire that followed suit.

“Very impressive…” Forrest praised. “You know, I wouldn’t mind telling you everything that I know about my Steelix in exchange for some information on that move.”

In response, Nina just chuckled. “We’ll see,” the girl said coyly.

Forrest laughed. “Well then, can’t just let you take down my Star team so easily. So I’m afraid I’m going to have to put an end to this. Go, Rhyperior! Pierce the heavens!”

“RHYYY!!!”

Nina frowned. The Rhyperior was Forrest’s ace, his true ace, if the anime was to be believed. In fact, she distinctly recalled Forrest’s Rhyperior took down a Legendary Pokemon in that particular episode.

The Rhyperior splashed into the sticky swamp without any reservations, its feet were instantly swallowed as the hefty drill Pokemon slowly sunk into the poisonous sludge. And speaking of drills, Rhyperior activated its nose drill with a roar, the shrill sound of it grinding against the Pokemon’s rocky exterior permeated the air.

And instead of panicking and struggling in vain to extricate itself from the swamp, Rhyperior dove face first into the terrain and drilled his way down, all the way to the bedrock of the cavern and disappeared.

Nina frowned. “Is he trying to drain the swamp?”

The answer came a few moments later when the Rhyperior reemerged, bursting out of the purple sludge, into the air and continuing to drill into the ceiling with an unstoppable momentum, nearly grazing Sir Clodington along the way.

The Clodsire surfaced, looking towards Nina for instructions on how to deal with this situation.

Nina frowned, trying to recall everything that she knew about the Rhyperior line. “Dilute the swamp.” The girl called. “Rhyperior is weak to Water and Earth.” Not that a change in the environment would deter the veteran Pokemon very much, but it was better than doing nothing.

“Clod.” With an affirmative nod, Sir Clodington opened up his mouth and inhaled some of the sludge, all the while using his Earth manipulation to divert the excess mud into the hole that Rhyperior drilled to plug it up and adjust the viscosity of the swamp.

However, during this process, Nina’s Clodsire was immobile from being deep in concentration. Which was when Hyperion reemerged from the ceiling and slammed into Sir Clodington with a Horn Drill, viciously pressing against him at the bottom of the cavern until Sir Clodington fainted.

Nina growled and returned Sir Clodington, muttering an apology to his Pokeball all the while for not being a good enough trainer. “Stupid one-hit KO moves!” It was a good thing that Rhyperior didn’t drill a hole into the Clodsire as that move was liable to do. As expected of a Gym Leader’s number one ace, its control was immaculate.

Nina sighed, she only had three Pokemon left but the choice was obvious — an ace for an ace. The girl turned to her side, to look at the Espeon whose violet eyes and silver collar were gleaming an ominous light.

Espy strutted forth wordlessly, her each step held up by a Psychic aura as she stood in mid-air. Nina’s princess was too dignified to play around in the muddy waters like those that came before her.

Her opponent Rhyperior charged out of the murky waters and stuck a hand into the ceiling, his hefty body dangling in the air and looking down on Espy with a severe glint in his blood red pupils. And Forrest’s Rhyperior was indeed a male, not that Nina could tell the difference. She only found out thanks to Espy.

“Es.” Espy taunted, willingly ceding the first move to her opponent.

Rhyperior growled and let out a haughty smirk, which Nina perceived, via her mental link with Espy, as; “You’ll regret this.”

The Ground and Rock Type raised his arm, aiming the cannon hidden within its palm towards the pretentious Espeon before him. But then, nothing. Just a silent glaring contest between the two Pokemon

At first Nina was confused at the lack of activity. That was, until the already dim cavern that they were in became dimmer — all the available light in the surrounding area sucked into the black void at the center of Rhyperior’s palm.

“Rhy!” He cried, which Espy interpreted as; “Behold, the power of the universe!” Nina couldn’t help but chuckle. It seemed Forrest’s partner was a bit of a chuuni.

And with another roar, Rhyperior unleashed a destructive beam towards Espy. A beam which looked like someone had tried to contain the galaxy in a jar, but failed and was now exploding back out of containment. The black beam contained within it countless stars in a myriad of colors, all crashing towards Espy at the speed of light.

However, midway through its trajectory, a mirror appeared, deflecting the Meteor Beam to the side, where it was intercepted yet again and reflected elsewhere, and again, and again, until the beam was routed back to Rhyperior and struck his orange chest plate.

Rhyperior cried out in pain at the powerful force of his own attack, causing him to let go and fall back into the muddy waters down below.

But Espy wasn’t done yet. Because the moment that Rhyperior entered the water, he was immediately encased in a Trick Room — a Psychic maze surrounding the drill Pokemon that Espy constructed with her mind.

In the games, Trick Room was a utility move that reversed the turn order of the fastest and slowest Pokemon. But in real life, the move took on a more literal interpretation. Espy’s trick room though, was special, just like her. Because there were mirrors hidden in every corner of the maze.

Nina smirked. Her princess had been training hard after her defeat by Mob the Alakazam. And while the Espeon may never reach the Alakazam in raw Psychic prowess, it did not mean that she couldn’t improve in other ways.

“Es!” And with a haughty cry, Espeon let loose a barrage of Psybeams into the maze that she constructed. The beams of Type Energy, upon reaching every corner, deflected off the mirrors and shot to the next junction, all converging towards the center where Espy’s opponent stood, rapidly forming a complex series of purple geometric patterns in the water. All of that time Espy spent perusing interior design magazines paying off in an unexpected manner.

“Rhy!” Rhyperior cried in a panic and slammed his drill into the Psychic wall encasing him, but even after he destroyed one, there were a hundred more layers to get through and not enough time. Because immediately after, the first of the Psybeams arrived, piercing into his wide back, then another and another and another. Rhyperior could barely recover from the previous attack before getting struck by the next. 

Espy’s barrage was ruthless and overwhelming, shooting out new Psybeams every so often to keep the assault going. It was a sight unlike anything that Forrest had ever seen as the Gym Leader yelled out for his Rhyperior to use Protect.

However, after everything that Espy had been through, Protect was now the Espeon’s most treasured move — the move that allowed her to protect her loved ones and the move that she was most familiar with. So she knew better than anyone its limitations.

With a few well placed Deflects, Espy’s Psybeams targeted the weakest point on Rhyperior’s Protect, shattering his defenses in a few hits and ultimately fainting the Star Pokemon.

Forrest was flabbergasted. He had fought against Psychics before. Even some of the most talented trainers of the Summers clan. But never had he seen anything quite like Espy.

“Es, espeon.” Espy said to the flabbergasted Gym Leader, which Nina interpreted as; “So, what’s next, Diglett head?”

***

Author's note:

FYI, the move that Rhyperior used was Meteor Beam.