Water Gun. Tackle. Growl.
Water Gun. Tackle. Growl.
Luvia’s heartbeat was throbbing in her ears. The backwards cap boy had taken his position half-way through one side of the court and called over his pokémon,
“Tyro, get over here, give them room.”
The humanoid pokémon listened immediately, rising from its fighting stance and taking several steps back toward its trainer. Its sharp eyes didn’t leave Mudkip for a second.
Luvia had seen enough battles on TV to know she was supposed to take the other end of the court. She began walking to her side, mirroring the boy, but Mudkip remained where it was, still whining threateningly at the pokémon called Tyro.
Some onlookers snickered with laughter. “That’s a mean eye it’s got!” someone commented.
The sense of surrealism was nauseating. Every step Luvia took toward her side of the court was one of complete disbelief.
How had she ended up here all of a sudden?
Mudkip… The little one took a step toward Tyro, who stood patiently facing them.
The crowd laughed louder. “Get in position, you idiot!” one cried out, followed by more laughter. “That thing’s still wild!” another said.
The jeering got under Luvia’s skin. She felt like punching someone in the mouth.
She could barely see her sister’s face in the crowd. They all melded together like a mocking, scornful mob. Or at least that’s how it felt.
Rather than whimper and stutter, Luvia frowned, more angry than scared, and called out over the noise of the crowd at Mudkip, unable to keep the irritation from her voice. “Mudkip!” she barked.
Mudkip’s tail fin shook angrily, but the little one turned its head toward Luvia.
Luvia spoke, motioning with her hand, “Here. Come.” Her voice was firm and cold almost. A command.
You want to fight. So, let’s fight.
She knew Mudkip didn’t know anything as far as rules came. Luvia was almost as clueless about them herself.
She just knew that you weren’t supposed to call for attacks at the opposing trainer or physically help your pokémon in any way. That was about all she knew.
It was simple enough.
Suddenly, she thought of Ziggy the Zigzagoon. She almost wished it was Ziggy in Mudkip’s place right now. At least with Ziggy, she had experience, even if it had been against the meek and familiar pokémon of Clearcloud Island.
The crowd let out a cheery, “Ahhh…” when Mudkip paced in a slow arc toward Luvia, not taking her beady eyes off her opponent either.
Why is she so angry with it? Luvia wondered.
“We playing for kibs?” the backwards cap boy called across the dozen yard distance to Luvia.
Luvia, still feeling prickly with the crowd, stared. She had no idea what he was talking about. She shrugged.
The boy looked blank for a second. Stumped. He gave a shrug of his own and took another step back.
The crowd fell back down to whispers.
“When you’re ready…” the boy said, and his Tyro began stretching from one leg to the other like an athlete before a sprint.
Water Gun. Tackle. Growl, Luvia repeated in her mind.
…
“Luvy!” Neela’s voice rang over the murmuring crowd.
Luvia turned her head, spotting her sister waving frantically at her, and the crowd turn to look, taking the pressure of eyes for a moment.
Seeing Neela there like that softened Luvia up, and in a moment of absurdity, she made a face at her older sister. She wasn’t alone.
There was someone in the crowd unconditionally rooting for her.
She suddenly felt better. Way, way better.
Neela would be there the moment she got made a fool of by this boy and his Tyro. Neela would be there to pick her up.
Luvia turned back to the boy and nodded.
“Why don’t you start things off?” the boy called out. “I can tell you’re new at this.”
*Hmph…* Luvia wanted to smack him. She hated cocky idiots.
The crowd was silent, waiting.
He’s giving me the first move … The fight will start after I give Mudkip a command…
She had three options.
Water Gun. Tackle. Growl.
The pokémon, Tyro, looked tough.
It knows Ice Punch… Luvia realized then, remembering the boy shouting the move before she stumbled herself into the scene.
…
Mudkip’s tail vibrated violently.
“Growl, Mudkip!” Luvia cried out, the command rushing out from her lungs.
Mudkip’s whine rose to a screech, then to more of a scream or a bark than a growl. “Rwaah!”
Hearing that sound come from Mudkip for the first time sent a wave of goosebumps through Luvia. It was a loaded scream. A threat.
The difference between Mudkip’s earlier angry whining and the move, Growl, was a world apart.
Tyro, and even its trainer, seemed surprised. The humanoid pokémon brought its hands up reflexively and lowered into a fighting stance.
The boy had a wide smile on his face. “Tyro, Bulk yourself Up!”
Tyro shook itself loose then stomped the ground, clenching both its small fists by its waist.
Bulk Up… Luvia had heard of the move somewhere, sometime, but she wasn’t exactly sure what it did. If she had to guess, it was some kind of counter move to Growl.
Luvia’s mouth blurted out the next command the moment that detail clicked.
“Go, Mudkip! Tackle!”
Mudkip shook its tail and dashed at Tyro with surprising speed. Not just fast in water it seemed, though definitely not as fast.
“Protect, and follow with Tackle!” the boy commanded.
Luvia saw an odd glaze come over Tyro’s eyes and just as Mudkip closed the several yard distance to it, the little one struck an invisible barrier that shimmered from the impact.
Mudkip let out a loud whine as it bounced off the barrier, but before it could even land back on the ground, the shimmering barrier dissipated and Tyro darted with an elbow that struck and sent it tumbling back toward Luvia.
The crowd whooped.
Luvia almost lost her cool. Almost stepped in – but she didn’t. She let Mudkip pick herself up. And Mudkip did. Eagerly.
“Maadh! Maadh!” the little one cried emphatically, much to the crowd’s pleasure.
Luvia relaxed. She looked barely hurt.
If it can use Protect too… Tackling will be pointless, Luvia thought, brow creasing. She was in deep waters. Out of her depth.
“Growl, Mudkip!”
The boy barked out instantly, casually cupping his hands to his ears. “Brace yourself, Tyro – Bulk Up!”
Tyro stomped his foot again, and when Mudkip’s loud scream came, neither pokémon nor its trainer looked affected in the least.
Growl was a move that worked by intimidating the opponent, making its victim second guess whether attacking the growler was worth the risk. It didn’t work as well on pokémon that knew the user couldn’t follow through on its threat.
…
Tackle cancelled out by Protect.
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Growl cancelled out by Bulk Up.
That left…
“Water Gun!”
Not the time nor place to sing it out as Mudkip seemed to like. It didn’t matter. Mudkip knew.
The little one hopped closer to the Tyro and sent a large blob of water that hurtled straight at its target.
“Protect!”
Luvia’s heart sank when the blob of water splashed hard against another invisible barrier, what must have been inches away from the small humanoid pokémon.
Come on! That was annoying.
“Tyro, use Mi-”
“Ghhh!”
A jet of water shot out of Mudkip’s mouth, right as the invisible barrier shimmered out.
*Bfffff!*
It buffeted Tyro right on the face, knocking it off its feet and making it land on its little backside.
The crowd roared and laughed, and a rush went through Luvia’s skin that felt like a million little needles. A grin broke out on her face. A grin and a bucketful of relief.
She swore she heard the squeal of Neela’s voice amongst the thrum of the crowd.
The backwards cap boy looked slightly taken aback, taking a step toward the battlefield and looking intently at his pokémon.
Tyro sprang back to its feet and shook its head quickly. It blinked a few times, squinting, shook its head some more and widened its stance, finally looking serious.
“Mind Read, Tyro…” The boy had stopped smirking too.
Mind Read? … Another move Luvia wasn’t sure about. It sounded like a psychic-type thing. What did it do???
Luvia felt a dark, boding feeling as Tyro’s eyes gave an eerie glint and it raised both hands toward Mudkip. She said the first thing that came to mind.
“Growl, Mudkip! Growl!” If there was a chance Growl would soften whatever blow was coming next, it was worth a shot.
For some reason, the boy suddenly looked flustered, taking another step closer to the battle and flinging out an arm when he said, “Stop, Tyro!”
“Rwaah!” Mudkip screamed, and this time, Tyro flinched. An actual flinch. The way you flinch when you’ve just been slapped on the face.
What … ?
Luvia was confused.
“Damn it!” the boy blurted out amidst a grave, “Oooo!” from the crowd.
The boy's and Luvia’s eyes met, and the young Juneworth saw an almost incredulous look in them. It still didn’t make sense.
Tyro shook its head again as the crowd quietened down.
Growl did that? Why? … What move did he call out right before? Mind Read? …
The girl wasn’t sure what it meant, but by the way the boy had tried to stop his pokémon, she assumed that Growl was not a good thing to listen to during whatever Mind Read was.
“Don’t miss then – Ice Punch!”
Luvia gasped involuntarily, the word for her next move stuck somewhere in her throat.
Mudkip was whining as Tyro cocked a fist by its waist and let out a low, concentrated hum from its mouth. In a few moments, the air around the fist began swirling with trails of white, smoky fog.
“Go, Tyro!”
“Gurohh!” the pokémon cried, shooting toward Mudkip like an elite-level sprinter.
The crowd rose back to an excited din and Luvia’s mind went blank.
Luck had run out.
“Rwaah!” Mudkip screamed again, unasked. Luvia saw the little one crouch as low as her little legs allowed, and Tyro leap the last few feet at her, glowing fist of ice leaving a thin trail of fog in its wake.
Luvia wanted to help, to say something, but she didn’t know what.
She had never battled like this before. She had never seen Bulk Up, or Mind Read with her own two eyes, let alone Ice Punch.
She watched wide eyed as Mudkip hopped backward right when Tyro brought its fist crashing down where she’d been.
The fist smashed against the court floor with a snapping flash of light, and Mudkip landed a mere yard away.
“Ghhh!”
The little one had taken the battle into its own hands, buffeting Tyro with Water Gun at near point-blank range.
“Graaah!” Tyro screamed as a burst of cold fog erupted around them. The crowd blew up in a deafening roar.
…
…
When the fog dissipated, the crowd held its breath as the scene unfolded before them. Tyro was grimacing. A glistening mass of ice had covered its arm all the way up to the shoulder, pushing up against its face, even.
It was frozen to the spot, straining to wrench its arm free.
Mudkip stood a yard away, vibrating its tail in short bouts, watching.
Luvia blinked, took in a shaky breath, and closed her mouth. She hadn’t even realized it was open. She swallowed.
Mudkip was fine!
“T-tackle!” she yelled, voice almost breaking, and the crowd followed with an encouragingly loud and short whoop.
Mudkip whined and circled around the frozen-in-place opponent before darting at its side.
*Thud!* Mudkip smacked into Tyro , making it grunt loudly and strain even more against the ice encasing its arm.
“Again, Mudkip – Tackle!” A burning feeling was rising up Luvia’s chest. The crowd whooped again for them. A short roar of encouragement. A wave of chills rushed past her neck. They were going to win!
“Tyro!!!” The boy yelled, “Break out with Rapid Spin!”
*Thud!* Mudkip smacked into it once more, but this time, the little fighter lashed out with a kick, only landing a glancing blow which Mudkip shrugged off.
“Tackle, Mudkip!”
As Mudkip reared up for another strike, Tyro’s toddler-sized body shook. The ice cracked. It burst! And Tyro became a blur of motion, spinning like a twister and flinging brittle shards of ice off of itself.
“Rock Smash!”
Tyro stopped spinning on cue and used the last of its momentum to wind up a dangerous-looking strike. One knee raised up over its waist, it stomped on the ground and shot out its fist as Mudkip rammed at it with another tackle.
Fist collided with head, and Mudkip let out a cry that pierced at Luvia’s eardrums and stabbed at her chest. That had hurt.
Tyro was growling and grimacing, knocked several steps back from the force of the impact, but it didn’t lose its footing. It gave a quick shake of its hand, probably feeling the sting of the blow too, and bent on its knees, once more assuming its fighting stance.
“Finish it, Tyro!!! Rapid Spin into Tackle!”
The Tyro lifted one leg, twisted on its waist… and spun, becoming a whirling blur again.
Mudkip was a few yards away, getting up on trembling paws, lightly shaking its head.
Luvia had tuned everything out. She could hear Neela’s voice in the crowd, but she couldn’t make a single word out. Her eyes were fixed on Mudkip, and on the whirling twister that sped toward her.
“Water!” Luvia yelled, voice cracking on the last syllable.
Mudkip whined, gave a rapid shake of its tail fin, and vomited a chockful of water at the whirling Tyro, only a few feet away.
The water splashed against its spinning form, sending a volley of rain in all directions and noticeably altering Tyro’s path.
The small fighter whizzed past Mudkip, missing by a margin, but it followed through with its trainer’s orders…
It stopped spinning for a moment, appearing only the tiniest bit dizzy as it found its footing, then wound up on its waist once more and spun even faster on the spot.
For a few seconds, it kept spinning there amidst the cheers from the crowd.
“Dodge it!” someone yelled urgently. It wasn’t Neela.
“Dodge! Dodge!” more of the crowd called out.
Luvia wasn’t sure whether they were telling her or telling Mudkip.
She called for the only move that had proved to work against Rapid Spin.
“Water!!!”
Tyro shot forwards like a bullet. Mudkip let out a thick, continuous stream of pelting water.
The spinning fighter spun through it like a saw through timber, sprinkling the court violently and ramming straight into Mudkip as the crowd went up in uproar.
The impact went *splat!* like a water balloon against a wall and both pokémon were knocked back. Mudkip tumbling and rolling almost all the way to Luvia’s feet.
Enough.
That was enough.
Luvia jumped to her pokémon’s side. She didn’t care.
She felt the pokéball pressing against her thigh near the knee, in her pocket, and looked up at the boy as she clutched Mudkip and pulled the little one closer to her.
The noise from the crowd of on-lookers became a mix of cheers and disappointed groans.
Tyro looked real dizzy now, staggering on its feet and holding its head with one hand.
“Mudkip,” Luvia said worriedly. Mudkip whined, but it sounded more frustrated than in pain. Luvia felt the little one’s muscles flex under the plump skin as it tried to worm its way out of her grasp.
“No, Mudkip… enough.”
Mudkip’s tail vibrated, flicking against her calf.
She still wants to fight!
“No, Mudkip!” She grabbed onto the little one tighter. She didn’t know how far Mudkip was from fainting – and she didn’t want to find out.
Thankfully, she saw her opponent, the backwards cap boy, step in and put a hand on his pokémon’s head. He didn’t look too happy as he gazed down at Tyro.
At that, the crowd broke and entered the court, pouring through to both battlers.
In a moment, ten or so people were all over Luvia and Mudkip, saying things like, “That was wicked!” and “Good battle!”
Neela weaved through them and knelt by their side, and Luvia was almost too happy to see her. She felt herself begin to relax.
“Luvy!” Neela whispered excitedly in her ear. “Luvy!” She pressed her younger sister’s shoulder with an encouraging squeeze.
Other strangers also reached down to give her a congratulatory pat on the back or the arm, and the two Clearcloud girls smiled at the strangeness of the situation.
Wait… I won? …
Luvia shifted, looking past the small crowd around her at the boy with a little crowd of his own. He was nodding and shrugging, holding a pokéball in his hand, Tyro no longer visible.
Soon enough, he made his way over to Luvia, some of the crowd walking beside him as he approached.
What’s happening …
The boy reached Luvia and stuck out his hand. “Good fight.”
Luvia took it, still on the ground with Mudkip sat in the space between her knees, and nodded.
“Was that your first fight?” someone in the gathered crowd asked.
Neela answered loud and clear on her behalf. “We got Mudkip yesterday! It’s her first battle!”
They crowd loved it. They whooped. A few of the guys gave the backwards cap boy a playful shove, a playful slap on the shoulder, and the boy could only smile.
“What absolute luck,” he said, voice barely audible over the din.
“Give her the kibs!” someone shouted, and the others cheered in agreement. “Pay up!”
The boy was taken aback, shoved his arms down, still smiling, looking around the crowd in denial. “I didn’t lose though…”
“Give her the kibs!” they insisted.
That word again. What the heck is kibs? Luvia wondered. She didn’t like the sound of it. It sounded a bit too close to kiss.
“I didn’t lose though!” the boy insisted, spreading his arms out in complaint. “She went in first!”
The crowd wasn’t having it. “It’s her first battle, man! Come on!”
“Do you know what they’re talking about?” Neela hissed in Luvia’s ear.
Luvia shook her head.
Eventually, giving in to the pressure, the boy put a hand in his pocket, crowd cheering loudly as he did, and stuck out a similar fistful of bank notes Luvia had seen him receive from Pidgey’s trainer.
Luvia stared at the money for a second, crowd still blaring, and Neela’s voice in her ear going, “Take it, Luvy!”
Luvia put out a shaky hand and the boy dropped the money on her palm.
One, two, three – five Poké Dollar notes, two of them fifty dollars and the rest ten-dollar ones. A hundred-and-thirty dollars in all.
“Here! For knocking Joney down a peg!” another member of the crowd said, slapping another 50-dollar note on Luvia’s hand. The backwards cap boy scoffed as a cheer went around the crowd.
“Good fight!” said another, adding a 10-dollar note on top of that.
“Well done!”
“Nice battle!”
…
By the time it came to an end, Luvia had to use both hands to hold the notes, and Neela had a mischievous smile forming across her lips. Mudkip looked up from face to face, unbothered.
“What’s your name?” an older guy chimed after the shower of money had stopped. The crowd quietened down, and even her opponent turned from his friends to listen.
“Luvia.”
A few of them repeated the name like a word they’d never heard before.
“That Mudkip’s insane!” a younger one said. “It jumped in to help Pidgey out!”
Some of the crowd grunted in agreement.
Oh… Was that what it had been???
Luvia remembered how Mudkip crossed the street the moment it heard Pidgey’s pained cry.
That’s why she looked so angry with that Tyro pokémon…
She looked down at the little one, sat quietly by her and felt like she understood a little better.
She was trying to protect Pidgey…
Luvia put a hand on Mudkip’s plump back and the corners of her mouth perked in a smile.
Good girl.
“Meehd…” Mudkip purred.
She was a protector.
…
Like Mida.
Mida, an ancient goddess of the region. Mida the Defender. In folk tales, she blew hurricanes away with her breath, she moved mountains with the stomp of her feet, and uprooted trees to build bridges between villages. She was not a goddess related to the water or anything, but that wasn’t the important thing. Same difference.
Goddess Mida protected people from rampaging demons.
Mida, that’s her name. The moment she thought it, she knew it was right.
“Meehd…” Mudkip purred again as Luvia gently rubbed her back.
The nickname was too fitting to pass up.
