Chapter 17: Fox-man and Wolf-Scythe

Karma chucked her pokeball at Sabrina. The throw had enough force to send it 
smashing into the gym leader's face but this was a pokeball and it opened 
midfield. With the usual flash of red light, the white Absol, Noche, 
appeared.

Sabrina's eyes widened, "A dark type? We don't see a lot of those here in 
Kanto..."

Karma smirked, "Yeah I figured so. Psychic type pokemon have few weaknesses, 
and here in Kanto, it must be pretty rare you actually go up against a 
pokemon type where you have a type disadvantage. Even more rare must be 
facing an opponent who has a decent Special Defense stat." Karma's smirk 
widened a bit, "Unfortunately for you, Noche here has both advantages."

Noche peered alertly at Sabrina and Alakazam but then turned and sniffed in 
the direction of Karma. What's going on? it was probably asking...or 
something like that, Chris figured.

"Think of this as training," Karma simply said. "In case we end up meeting 
that cat again, we need to be able to know how to best deal with the psychic 
type."

Sabrina frowned, "Psychic cat? I'm not familiar with such a pokemon. Is it 
from a foreign region?"

"Don't worry about it," Karma said. "The only thing you should be worrying 
about right now is the thrashing Noche is about to hand Alakazam."

The two stared at each other in silence, their pokemon attempting to best 
imitate their trainers and produce a tense atmosphere. "Fair enough," Sabrina 
finally said. "Let's begin."

Alakazam raised its arms and directed its two spoons toward Noche, bringing 
their ends together in a cross. Without any direction from its trainer, it 
produced a strange rainbow ball of light above the spoons and with shocking 
speed, it covered the distance between itself and Absol. Before Absol even 
had time to move back or dodge in any manner, Alakazam was above it and the 
ball of rainbow light expanded out into a colored wave of energy. The field 
exploded.

Colored light and dust covered the makeshift arena. Chris nearly fell over, 
the ground had shaken at the force of the blast and suddenly he was bathed in 
a brown air. Karma was still infront of him but she hadn't moved at all.

Alakazam appeared to their left. It had stepped out of the smoke and clearly 
thought the match was over. With a lazy wave of its right hand, blue light 
appeared and cleared the dust away. 30 different Absol jumped out of the 
remaining dusty coverage and surrounded the arena. None of them even looked 
ruffled.

"What?" cried out Chris in surprise. "Oh! Double team!"

"What'd you expect? That we wouldn't counter attack?" Karma asked. She called 
to Sabrina, "That's no good! Psychic can't effect the dark type!"

Behind her Chris said, "No. No. It's just that you didn't even give a command 
so it just sort of surprised me..."

Karma turned to him, "That's stupid. Pokemon need to be able to know what to 
do without you telling them. There will be times when you just can't give out 
orders. Be it because the opponent has decided to drown you out with sound or 
turn the arena blind. Trainers should work these situations into their 
training regime and be ready for such situations."

Alakazam veered into the double team fray bravely and two Absol jumped 
straight at it. Fakes, they dissipated upon contact with Alakazam. A third 
jumped at it and this one seemed real; Alakazam was knocked off its feet by 
the sudden charge. A fourth jumped over the downed figure and the real body 
became lost in the haggle of fakes.

"I've taken it a step further than that. I recognize that there is a time 
delay between a trainer giving an order and the pokemon executing it. It's a 
small delay but a delay all the same. My pokemon have been trained to be able 
to execute adaptive responses to battle situations without me having to call 
them out," Karma said. "It's useful for surprising the enemy and getting an 
advantage."

"Ok, ok. I understand. So is that what Sabrina's done? She hasn't given an 
order either yet," pointed out Chris.

"No...she's psychic. It seems she telepathically can instruct her pokemon," 
Karma mused.

Alakazam floated off the ground and righted itself, before standing on its 
legs again. It lifted its right leg and it became surrounded in a blue light. 
With a swift tap, Alakazam brought its now blue leg down and the light spread 
out over the ground. The entire makeshift arena became eerily blue. The 30 
white Absol stopped in their tracts as if unsure of how to proceed. Alakazam 
raised it hands and 28 small pebbles rose into the air, they stayed there, 
rotating in blue light.

Karma seemed at a loss, "What?"

"If psychic attacks wont directly harm your pokemon then I will use secondary 
tactics," Sabrina explained. "Go, Alakazam!"

The blue bathed pebbles that were floating and rotating in midair stopped, 
and disappeared. 28 flashes of blue light filled the arena space and each 
struck a different Absol. 27 Absols dissipated as they were struck. One, in 
the far north-western part of the area, was struck with such force that it 
was sent flying. It didn't look like it had been hit with a pebble but rather 
with a boulder.

Alakazam sped at the downed figure and touched it with one spoon. The spoon 
had strange blue electric flashes coming from it and when it made contact 
with Absol's body, the blue electricity branched off and surrounded Noche.

"Disable," Sabrina explained. "It's a useful normal type attack. Double Team 
is now one less thing I need to worry about. Don't underestimate me, I am a 
gym leader after all."

Karma surveyed the fallen Absol and then smiled, "Don't underestimate me. 
Mimic!"

Absol had been a sprawled mess on the floor when it suddenly lounged and sank 
it's fangs into Alakazam's left leg. Blue electricity ran from Noche's fangs 
into Alakazam: disable.

Sabrina looked shocked and practically spat, "You mimicked our disable?"

"You said you were going to use secondary attacks to harm us right?" Karma 
said smugly. "Actually what you meant was that you were going to use psychic 
to control the environment and attack Noche. Nice try, but now Psychic is 
disabled and you're left with no offense and a poor defense. Looks like a win 
for me."

Alakazam jumped back, out of range of Noche, and fled to the opposite side of 
the arena. Chris thought Karma was right. Alakazam couldn't use psychic 
attacks to harm Noche, so most of its attacks were useless anyways. Now it 
couldn't even use psychic to control the environment. Worse yet, Alakazam as 
a species had a notoriously weak constitution and could get wipped out in a 
hand-to-hand battle easily. The only thing it had going for it now was its 
speed and Noche wasn't too slow either. It might be able to keep up. If there 
was a road to victory for Sabrina, he certainly didn't see it.

Sabrina was studying Noche through slitted eyes. Then Karma called, "Enough 
playing around! Noche, D-"

Suddenly Alakazam was behind Noche. It had happened too fast for it to be 
simple speed. It had teleported. Absol sensed it behind itself and it jumped 
backwards, but Alakazam was gone again. It reappeared behind Noche again, 
this time however it took a large breath and when it blew out, Noche was 
bathed in an eruption of fire. From the fiery explosion, a large flaming 
figure blew out; the Japanese Kanji for 'fire' was formed from the flames. 
Noche's white body could be seen in that flaming figure.

"Fire Blast!" yelled Chris. Karma was speechless.

The fiery kanji dissipated and the burning Noche dropped unto the floor. Its 
white fur was burned black and covered in smog. Noche shakily rose to its 
feet but Chris could see it was hurt. It had taken the hit at point blank 
range and had been propelled off the ground. It was burned.

Then Alakazam dropped unto one knee. Sabrina raised an eyebrow in surprise, 
"What?"

"Pressure," Karma explained simply. "It doubles the amount of energy any 
attack performed against the target requires. Looks like Alakazam is 
definitely starting to feel it."

The two tired pokemon faced each other while their trainers racked their 
brains for strategies. Finally Sabrina raised her hand, "You're definitely 
not a bad trainer. It's time to finish this." She waved her hand and Alakazam 
crossed its spoons. An orange ball of light appeared at the end of the 
crossed spoons; Chris recognized Hyper Beam.

"Noche, Giga Impact!" cried Karma. Orange and yellow energy surrounded 
Noche's body and formed itself into a peculiar glowing and blazing cocoon.

Noche sprung forward, the bright energy that emanated from Noche made a weird 
blazing trail as Absol moved. The orange light that formed at the end of 
Alakazam's crossed spoons sprang out into a bright orange beam and it 
collided with Noche in a booming explosion that cratered the ground. For the 
second time, deep brown dust blotted out the arena and the result of the 
attacks was made unclear.

The dust settled and only Alakazam was standing, albeit on one knee. A long 
trail of uprooted ground had been made and it became obvious that the force 
of Alakazam's Hyper Beam had been greater than Noche's Giga Impact. Noche had 
been flung across the arena and lay crumpled in a heap of trashed earth.

Chris sighed, the battle was over. Then Noche stood up and Chris could have 
sworn he nearly screamed.

Noche was a mess. Bleeding and covered in dust and smoke. It breathed 
haggardly and yet, it stood. It wasn't out yet.

"H-how? This isn't right..." mumbled Sabrina.

"Simple," said Karma. "I told you we've prepared certain responses 
beforehand, and this is one. Instead of rushing blind into a power struggle, 
Noche pretends to attack with its all and before impact, it uses endure."

Sabrina's face was frozen in bewilderment. Alakazam was still on one knee, 
but its eyes were widened.

"Battles are not won by luck or by the moment!" cried out Karma. "They are 
won with preparation and this," she pointed at her head. "You pity those 
'fighting fools' next door so much but in fact, you're just like them."

Sabrina's mouth dropped open. With that, Karma called, "Noche! Night Slash!"

Noche sprang forward with surprising speed, considering how hurt it was. The 
blade-scythe attached to its head glowed with a thick black energy that 
trailed Absol like a long dark tail.

Alakazam was helpless to stop it; Hyper Beam had left it temporarily without 
the energy to do anything. Noche's pressure only made this worse for Alakazam 
by doubling the energy Hyper Beam had required. All it could do was stand 
there and watch as Noche crossed the distance and slashed it with its dark 
blade. Blood cascaded out of the newly open wound and Alakazam was thrown by 
the black energy as it fell over backwards.

It landed unconscious, the match was over, Karma was the victor.