I lunged forward, just barely staying ahead of a rising wall of water. I glanced to find it's source already falling behind, with only the Duo staying by my side.
"HEY! I SAID TO WAIT UNTIL YOU'RE..." Twilight's voice faded away as we ran. We didn't care. We just kept our eyes out for the blue flags. They were big enough that we didn't need to worry about missing them. We quickly neared the edge of town.
"You think that the other's will ever catch up?" Vince asked, the next flag snapping straight as he past.
"Nah." Cy shook his head. He had to break his stride with a hop to avoid a pot hole, but he quickly caught back up. "We're going too fast for that. They should be able to follow the glowing mote trail our Agilities are leaving behind, though."
"Look lively." I warned. "We're coming up on the park." We began weaving through the park benches, noting that the flags would be leading us around the lake. I hopped over one of those wobble toys all parks and playgrounds seem to have. I winced as a small headache came and went, causing me to stumble on the landing.
Shaking it off, I took off running. I decided to take a short cut through the swings, and, noting that the Duo were following me, got a impish idea. I began to weave between the saddles and rockets that swung wildly back and forth. I had to duck and weave around the launch pad before running headfirst into the swings support poles. I didn't even notice I had hit it before both Cy and Vince had ran into me.
I squeezed my way out from under them in time to see Yomega leading the rest of the pack towards the lake's edge. "Okay, boys." I growled, Glaring after the smug evolution. "New plan. Let's get rid of the psychic type."
"Just for the race, I hope." Cy groaned.
"Of course."
"I'm game." Vince sighed. "We just need to catch up, now."
I nodded, and began channeling my Agility again. I watched as the Pack swung to the side to run along the shore. Except for Lulu, who just dove right in.
"Cy, I've got an idea." I yelled back to him.
"Oh, crap..."
"Vince, you Quick Attack Yomega while running through the Pack." I ordered as the water's edge neared. "Cy, Extreme Speed after me."
"Wha-?"
My paws left dirt, and my next stride pushed off of water. With the ease of long practice, I kept my focus on both my target and where my paws were falling. At the speed I was now running, the last thing I needed was to trip on one of the frozen waves. After a few strides over the water, I could feel my back paws tingle. A quick, risky glance back showed why.
Cy was about two pony lengths behind me, framed by the water our paws were kicking up behind him. Electricity was grounding itself from his fur, arcing out across the water much faster than it did in the air at our training yard. It flowed in a beautiful display up and between our rooster tails like a fancy Jacob's Ladder.
It was also arcing through a very surprised looking Vaporeon.
I returned to facing forward with a grin on my face. Yomega was only a couple of feet away now, and Vince was just starting to bull his way through the back of the Pack. A quick calculating look, and I jumped into a shoulder check on Yomega, dropping out of the move just after impact.
I rolled off of Yomega and used my momentum to return to a running speed, all while staying at the head of the Pack. A snap-crack of electric discharge caused me to risk another glance back. Almost the entire Pack had become entangled with each other, the mass of multicolored fur twitching with the aftershocks Cy was still releasing.
Only two were spared the pile up: Lulu and Zann. Lulu was just emerging from the water, electric sparks jumping from the former to the latter. She stumbled into a run, flinching whenever the Pack's attempted Snorlax impression discharged at her.
Zann was spared said attempted impression simply because of his abysmal speed stat.
I kept an ear on the commotion behind me while returning my focus to looking for those blue flags. I didn't bother smirking when I heard a sizzling crackle nearing me. I casually side stepped the lighting bolt that someone shot at me.
"You asshole!" Cy bellowed at me. "You planned that, didn't you!"
"Maybe!" I did me best to singsong back to him, weaving between the trees the flags were taking us through.
"Get back here, fucker!" He seethed. "I'll fucking END YOU!"
I began laughing back at him. "Can't. We're racing. So, if you want to- Oop!" My mad laughter was cut off when I tripped over a root that I could've sworn wasn't there before. I turned to glare at it as Cy's glowing form sailed overhead. My suspicions were confirmed when the root sank back into the ground. I got up to continue running, but paused when I saw that Cy had nearly knocked himself out on a nearby tree. And...
I just couldn't help myself.
I sat down beside him and started laughing, waiting for Conner to arrive. Almost everyone passed us, only Vince and Conner stopping. I paw-bumped Vince as Conner set himself to healing Cy and raced to rejoin the Pack.
I slipped around my packmates, letting them know that Cy was fine as I did so. I very quickly passed Yomega and retook the lead. Rounding the final bend, I could see the finish line, our mares already waiting for us there. I aimed for the finish line, and launched into another Extreme Speed.
The ponies' cheers faded as the world slowed.
The finish line inched towards me.
Two more strides, and I'd win this.
A black shadow zipped under me.
... Wait, what?!
Abes slammed up into me, knocking me out of my move. He jumped across the line a step ahead of my mad flailing. I stopped rolling at the hooves of my mare, Glaring back at the smug bastard. "Alright. How'd you do it?"
Abes sauntered over as the rest of the Pack crossed the line. He leaned down, and whispered a single word in my ear. One that would forever make me worried about racing him.
Oh, of course. Pursuit.
I'm thinking pursuit or obstruct.
Except Pursuit doesn't turn oneself into a shadow. That's something a Ghost-Type move like Shadow Force could do, though. But it's the closest we've got because most Ghost-Type moves are at least two words.
10064412
Black shadow might’ve just been a descriptor of Abes moving quickly.
Or he might’ve used Shadow Sneak and whispered “Luna” instead.
10064422
But the wording was that the shadow passed under him, not over him or past him. And Abes emerged from the shadow to attack him, so most likely, it was Shadow Sneak and Abes said "Shadows".
I kinda expect Leo to pull a mini rainboom or something.
10064393
But pursuit doesn't work like that it deals extra damage to a Pokémon that is retreating from battle and will go off before that Pokémon returns to their ball pursuit doesn't have priority and as far as I can tell the moves that are canon to Pokémon have been following the game logic mostly pursuit only like that on a retreating foe and it wouldn't be able to catch up to extreme speed or quick attack and the way he described the attack being a shadow from beneath sounds more like shadow sneak which still can't beat a Pokémon using extreme speed.
10064428
I dunno, I kinda just imagined Extreme speed as taking long bounding strides, leaving some room to dart underneath.
10064504
Abes has never been shown using Extreme Speed, I don't think. Besides that, the POV Character was already using Extreme Speed when Abes Slammed up into him. Since the POV character doesn't mention Abes until after the shadow had already gone under him, Occam's Razor would suggest Abes was the shadow until that moment.
10064508
True, but still begs the question. Extreme Speed is basically The Flash, slowing down everything else in the world, even making water Solid to run on. So HOW did Abes not only catch UP TO, but to went FASTER than that to over come his speed and then hit him hard enough to knock him out of the move without being slowed down, and wasn't also Extreme Speed. As far as I know, there are no moves that could do that.
Either way, it better be explained next chapter, with the word said, and not just have it be Vague just for the sake of saying Abes won and Leo didn't.
10064548
It doesn't make water solid to run on. The user is just running so fast, and their paws are touching the water's surface so briefly, they are able to take advantage of surface tension. Beyond that, shadows have infinite speed and are not affected by such paltry things as friction.
10064549
Shadows actually do have a strict speed, that being the speed of light. But even then, that would only explain the SHADOW moving so fast (And even then, it's only so fast because of Light, light shines and Shadows speed away from it as fast as it appears. When shadows aren't effected by light, they would NOT be anywhere even NEAR as fast. At most they would be the user's normal travel running speed.), but the second he appeared in reality, he would be at normal speed and thus showed down and Leo would have been able to dodge.
10064558
Shadow Sneak allows the user to extend their shadow and attack the opponent from their blind spot. This is a correction I am making after looking the move up on Bulbapedia.
So, my first thought was Snatch on one of the guys still stuck with Agility. Mostly because Trick Room, like the Shadow Sneak the rest of seem to have settled on, is two words.
Shadow manipulation the deus ex machina of cheap race wins and any assassination masters wet dream skill
10064570
Shadow Sneak is 2 words tho, not 1. So can't be that~
10064621
Quash? The user suppresses the target and makes it’s move go last? It ignores priority so if Abes used it before Leo launched that last Extreme Speed then Abes would have gone first.
I'm gonna guess that he used Copycat to copy Extremespeed at the last minute.
He said one word so that cuts down A LOT of attacks. I mean it could be pursuit BUT only if running away from the user is enough to trigger its priority. But it doesn't do that in games if a wild pokemon CAN run away it doesn't trigger pursuit to go first because i remember trying it with the legendaries in gen 2. Hmm it might not be a dark type move. So yeah thinking Copycat to get extremespeed... but he still wouldn't outrun cause they are going the same speed.
Agility?
Surf?
Shadow Sneak. Or whatever Grenija’s side b is.
Teleport, and Pursuit seem like the only two that could do that. I like it. ^^
I Wana say he hitched a ride in a shadow the entire race
10065438
Pursuit is where I'd put my money, too.
I'm guessing Sucker Punch or pursuit.
Hmmm. I don't know enough about the rest of the games to make a guess.
I'm just going to say it because my mind works that way.
But he has to keep up with Luna.
Enough said there!
10075830
Going from a closing shift to an opening shift, I'll fix these as soon as I can.
aaaand that's me caught up. Apologies for the many comments you'll need to look through of mine. :P
10076064
Alright, That's all of those gone through and fixed. Hope you're enjoying the story so far.
10079539
I have definitely been enjoying the story, looking forward to what is going to come next.
My.
I’m loving this story man! Keep up the good work and stay safe!! :D
That was a awesome race looks like the da type won.
This was fun.
Some Pokemon moves are simply mindblowing effective. Great chapter. Loved this chaotic fun between friends.
How’s wilheim (leafeon) doing?
"Pursuit"