Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman

Chapter 47

I figure Ledyba will be faster, so I just let the battle start. I already know what I’m going to do I mean... I’m using an Oddish.

“Alright, Ledyba, let’s start with... ooh, what moves do you know...” Rarity stops and pulls out her éTech, pulling up the information and looking at it with a serious air to her.

It’s just two words, do I say them now? Sure, why not. “Sweet Scent.”

Ledyba immediately turns to Oddish, eyes wide and a goofy grin on it face.

“Wait, Ledyba, where are you going?” Rarity asks as she looks up, Ledyba hovering calmly towards Oddish.

“Sleep Powder,” is my next command and, due to Ledyba’s current proximity and sensory inebriation... the bug is on the ground catching Zs in seconds. “Battle’s over, no harmful moves used. I win.”

“Oh... well that rather defeats the point of this exercise! The point was for Ledyba to receive some training!”

“And if you really aren’t going to be that interested in battling regularly, you’re most likely only going to be in battles where your safety is concerned, and in that case you wouldn’t pick up your damn phone and try to remember what you can and can’t do.”

“I suppose... I suppose I’m not very good at this. However, I’m not trying to become a trainer.” Rarity heaves a sigh. “I will admit... I would like to be better at this, but I don’t think it’s my forte.”

“Alright then, Sewaddle. This shouldn’t be too hard on it but I do warn you that while I can go easy on you, there’s only so much restraint my pokémon can show before they start acting stupid, and I won’t have stupid pokémon.”

“Alright, and I’ll try to be a little more... active.” Rarity pulls Sewaddle’s ball free, and releases the pokémon. “And I’ll have her move list opened in advance, at least until I know the list better.”

“Good plan. So, Bug and Grass against Grass and Poison, no real type imbalance here so... go first I guess.”

“Ooh! Well, Sewaddle, try a Bug Bite!” Rarity yells, only glancing at her device once. The little pokémon makes a charge-leap at my Oddish.

“Acid.” I say, shrugging. With Sewaddle’s typing, it’ll only do typical damage, so it’s not going to be that spectacular, but I am trying to at least give her a chance.

“Tuck in your little head, dear!” Rarity shouts, and Sewaddle does exactly that, the splash of acid rolling off its coat of leaves. Huh... must have Overcoat. Either way, Sewaddle is able to get close enough to rear back and chomp on Oddish’s leaves, making the plant pokémon stumble and start trying to shake off the worm.

“Poison Powder, give it a bad taste in it’s mouth.”

Oddish shakes up a plume of green-purple powder, and Sewaddle lets its dogged grip go. Rarity glances at her tablet again. “Wrap it up with String Shot, and make sure to weave it for extra strength.” Sure enough, Sewaddle fires a blast of sticky thread, then another, and another, the three braiding into a vastly stronger cord.

Y’know, if she would just memorize the movepool of her pokémon, this would be vastly easier for her.

“Alright, Poison Powder again, and make it stick.”

Oddish goes to comply, but the strands of silk splatter its leaves, though the length quickly becomes dyed purple and green from the powder sticking to it. Huh, well guess it’s good Oddish is a Poison type. If I used Stun Spore that could’ve been bad.

“Now pull it off its feet, dear!” Rarity yells, “But gently, we don’t want to hurt the dear.” Sewaddle looks like it wants to contest that, but complies, staggering Oddish until my pokémon tips over. Without being able to spread and move its leaves for balance, Oddish can’t stand up, and is stuck face-down.

“Well, I’m not all out of moves, Oddish is still conscious.” I ponder for a moment. “Acid, melt your way out. The thread is strong but not invincible.”

Oddish tries to fire a blob of acid, but the attack has to be fired from the mouth and... oh crap. Oddish starts flailing and rolling to get out of the puddle of its own making, but the puddle has melted a divot into the floor.

“Sewaddle, pull the poor thing out!” Rarity says, her pokémon pulling out Oddish. Oddish looks really disgruntled.

“Hey, it was an idea and it could have worked, don’t act like this is all my fault.” I recall Oddish. Sewaddle looks fine but... “Hey Rarity, you been growing Pecha berries? The heart-shaped pink ones? Give one to Sewaddle, it’ll clear out any lingering poison, wouldn’t want it to suffer before we notice.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. Come here, dear, you’ve earned a treat.” The berry is pulled out and Sewaddle admittedly looks pretty adorable, munching on the pink fruit that is literally bigger than it’s head. Rarity grew a ripe one... she is pretty good.

Rarity hugs her pokémon, cradling it like a child. That’s... oddly attractive.

“So yeah, sleep isn’t a terribly bad affliction, just let Ledyba rest and she’ll be up and perky as ever. As I said, non-damaging moves used on her. But yeah, you show skill at execution, but you really need to memorize what you can do so you can use that skill effectively.”

“Well, it just came to me.” Rarity tittered.

“Really? A professional seamstress using a silk-based move? That must not have taken long to ‘come to you’.”

“Well, I’d seen Sewaddle use String Shot before, and realized that it’d be far more effective braided. Like a silk rope!”

“Yeah, just need to figure out how you’re going to use that in a competition where the goal is to look good, not just tie up the other competitors, which, now that I think of it, would be totally illegal and have you disqualified.”

“Yes, yes, I know. But pokémon aren’t only used for battling and contests, dear.” Rarity says.

“If they were, this place would be boring as hell. You should see what a garden run by Grass types can look like. Just, y’know, what knows what a plant needs better than another plant? Anyway... this might help you out if you actually need to fight occasionally.” I open up my TM case and, taking out Aerial Ace, tap it to Ledyba’s head and the not-light thing says it transferred. “There, Aerial Ace, a high-power move that actually gets a boost from Ledyba’s typing. Most offensive moves it learns are just poke damage and don’t get STAB. This would help against other Bug types and Fighting types.”

“Ah... what is ‘stab’? I mean, other than an action.”

“It’s more trainer lingo. STAB is an acronym for Same Type Attack Bonus. A move of the same power is more effective if used by a pokémon with the same type. Sure a ghost type could learn, say, Flame Wheel, but even if the ghost type has the exact same stat in Attack as a Fire type using the move... who do you think is going to pull it off easier and better?”

“That does make sense.” Rarity says.

Twilight, joining into the conversation, asks, “So are there moves with more than one type, and can get this stab-bonus twice?”

“No, as far as I know moves only fall into one type, while pokémon can have one or two. It gets pretty important to remember the bonus as it really is useful. I mean, Ledyba as a species don’t really do well with straight out physical combat, but since it’s a Flying type, the only way she could be outperformed in the same move by a non-flying-type would be if she was outclassed in pure strength. There are a lot of variables, but once you start to see the mathematics behind it all, it really comes down to a few simple equations.”

“Oh, well that should make it easy.” Twilight comments.

“Yeah. You don’t have to be good at math to do this, but it does help. Anyways, I’m thinking Spearow could also benefit from Aerial Ace and since this thing won’t run out, we should probably spread it around. It is a good move and all. Guaranteed hit, won’t miss, perfect accuracy no matter what as long as the target hasn’t made itself physically inaccessible to the attacker like being underground or such.”

“That does sound like a useful move to have.” Twilight says, pulling out Spearow’s ball. The angry-looking bird appears in a flash of light, and hops grumpily across the ground.

I kneel down to the ornery fledgling. “Hey there buddy, wanna learn how to really kick some ass?” I ask, holding up the disk.

Spearow caws, and pecks at my hand, making me drop the disk. A moment later, the bird leans over, and rests its head on the TM. The light goes again, and Spearow hops away, no longer apparently interested.

“Feisty little guy you got there Twilight, just be sure he doesn’t get too out of hand.” I begin sucking on the sore spot on my finger. That really hurt, even though my time with chickens has seen me pecked not that rarely.

“I try not to... he’s very well behaved with me.” Sure enough, the feathery nuisance caws again and hops onto her shoulder before nuzzling her hair.

“Alright. Still, now he should do better... but I think that’s as far as Zap Cannon or Aerial Ace will go for our current team. What was the TM you got again, Twi?” I return to my TM case, still idly sucking on my damaged finger. “Roh Shah... Rock Smash. That’s a good Fighting move. You mind?” I ask, waving the disk slightly.

“Uhm, go ahead. And sorry about Spearow, he doesn’t seem so angry around me.”

“I can tell. And don’t worry, I’ve had worse.” I get Geodude out again. “Alright, this time I got something for you to learn.” I apply the TM to Geodude’s forehead and after the typical light of success, I smile. “Alright, now you can even show those other Rock types what kinda heat our team’s packing. Actually... Hey Rarity, how about Ledyba fights Geodude when she wakes up? With her typing, I just rule out Rock moves and she’ll stand a pretty good chance.”

“Hmmm... Perhaps another time. If you’re alright with it, perhaps we should return to our rooms, and go training outside the city tomorrow? I’ve rather dried off with all this exertion, but I’ve become rather fond of bathing like a human.”

“Yeah, let’s have a rest, and I admit that that was kind of unfair; but seriously, that’s what moves that don’t do damage can do. You don’t have to punch the other person’s face in to win a battle with pokémon. Keeps things a lot more professional and a lot less messy that way.”

Rarity seems a bit confused. “I never took you for the type to want fighting to stay clean...”

I shrug. “It’s standard trainer etiquette. I mean if you just go around blasting everything in your path out in the wild you’ll just wreck the scenery and environment for everyone else, and in an urban setting you could tear up a road if not careful and it’s just plain rude to leave a public battlefield a crater-pocked mess.”

Comments

[catfire13]

“Really? A professional seamstress using a silk-based moved? That must not have taken long to ‘come to you’.”

moves

:3333

[SilentMech]

Rarity is go to be surprised when her Sewaddle becomes a Cascoon. Bets on her almost never using her when she does? Then again, she does have advice from Anthony to tap into. That is, if any of her pokemon do evolve...

[the-pieman]

6550390 Sewaddle into Cascoon?

What are you smoking and why aren't you sharing?

[SilentMech]

6550610 I had to go double check, and you're right. How did I forget Swadloon?

[the-pieman]

6552274 This is taken directly from the movie which more people are likely to see than anything else. Also, I gave a very abridged version in my explanation.

Secondly, Arceus can suck Mewtwo's dick.