Booth exits the cave and gets on the trail to town. He is tired after the battles today, but he still enjoys the quiet trip back. The walk back is much less eventful until he sees something off in the woods.
In the distance there is some sort of natural monument sticking out of the ground. The monument is a large stone about 5 feet tall with an odd glow surrounding it. Around the rock there are two pokemon fighting for the stone.
'Seeing as they are fighting over it. It must be something good. It's a shame Pansear is tired, or I might have joined in too. At the very least I can observe from here.'
The two pokemon are a Trumbeak and a Tangela. The Trumbeak has the advantage early on thanks to the mobility of flying types. Currently the Trumbeak is suppressing the Tangela with a Fury Attack.
The Tangela seems to be struggling until it finally catches the Trumbeak's leg with one of its vines. The Trumbeak stops attacking to try to remove the vine at it's leg. A few seconds later the Tangela wraps another vine around the Trumbeak's neck.
Trumbeak goes into a frenzy and gets free, but it's too late. Tangela has already released a Poison Powder and Trumbeak continues to slowly lose power. The Trumbeak looks at the rock sadly, but still chooses to flee.
The victor, Tangela, moves to the stone to claim its prize. It sits near the stone for a while and doesn't move much. Booth is curious of the significance of stone and watches it carefully. As time passes the stone monument gradually loses its glow and turns dim.
After a few minutes the stone loses its glow completely and the Tangela gets up and leaves. Booth doesn't notice anything different about the Tangela, and decides to check out the rock. He climbs off the trail to get a closer look.
The rock now looks like an ordinary rock. Its size hasn't changed, but it no longer has the eye-catching glow. He looks at the rock with Pansear's senses and doesn't see anything different. Booth finds an odd mark on the other side of the rock and briefly takes note of it.
'I can look at the rock at a later time. Whatever glow that surrounded the rock isn't around for now. I don't even know what it does, so It's not like I'd be able to use it.'
It's evening now and Booth is feeling hungry as well as tired. He walks back to the trail and makes his way home.
---
With just a few more days to the team competition Damon is having one more practice battle for the team. The team is currently working on their teamwork and techniques.
"Hey Booth, check this out." Ben calls out to Booth. Then he focuses and commands his Buizel.
Buizel turns around and shoots a blast of water from its palms instead of its mouth. The Water Gun shakes as it comes from Buizel's slightly unsteady arms. The blast itself hits the wall with about the same power as the ones Ben normally uses. Booth is impressed with Ben's new ability.
"That's Amazing! How did you do it?" Booth asks excitedly.
"I knew you'd be interested! To do it you just have to send the power through your arms instead of to your mouth. Also make sure to only collect the power in the arms and not absorb it. It's a little tricky to learn, but it should add more versatility to your moves if you learn it."
Booth smiles and thanks Ben for the tip, "Thank you. I'll try to get it to work too. There are a couple days until the tournament, maybe I can have it ready by then."
"Alright! Keep at it, buddy. Also if you learn to run away better, then our teamwork would be perfect." Ben gives his encouragement.
"Sure," Booth says and laughs.
---
A few hours later the team starts its second team battle. This time, the teams don't preview their pokemon, but get right into the battle. When the game is signaled to start the two teams send out their pokemon.
The opponents lead with a Dratini and a Purrloin. Dratini is a dragon pokemon that can be really slippery at times. It also has the move Agility which greatly increases its mobility and its ability to make tight turns. The Purrloin's job is to obstruct the opponent from attacking Dratini with Sucker Punch. Or keep them occupied with Fury Swipes.
Damon and Ben lead for Booth's team. Their pokemon, Morgrem and Buizel, have good synergy together and take their positions in no time. They begin the battle by taking the center of the court. Then they slowly pressure the opponents in the corner.
'The opponents really want to get their Dratini set up with Agility. I think their lead could have been better if that's the case. Purrloin is a good support pokemon, but it doesn't have the ability to take on two opponents all on its own.'
The Dratini is busy setting up its Agility, while the Purrloin is trying to defend it. Ben catches the Purrloin slipping up and hits it with an Aqua Jet. In an excellent show of teamwork, Damon goes straight towards the Purrloin and uses Assurance. The Purrloin loses its footing after taking Morgrem's hit. Damon rushs in after it and pummels it with ordinary attacks and manages to finish it.
Dratini is done setting up Agility and goes on the offensive. Damon and Ben immediately switch gears and start playing defensive. Here the opponent's team sends out Oddish to help.
'The Oddish is interesting. It has good bulk and some tricky moves, but I don't think it can catch us if we play safe?'
Damon sees the Oddish and decides to make a switch with Booth. Booth nods and sends out his Pansear. He turns on his Integrator and as he does, he is quickly flooded with a seperate set of senses.
While Booth is getting ready, the Ben's Buizel is busy with the Dratini, and the Oddish is slowly spreading Sleep Powder at its enemies across the field. Booth prepares an Incinerate and finally realizes the opponent's main strategy.
'This makes more sense. The team sacrificed Purrloin to set up Dratini. Oddish came in to slow us down with Sleep Powder and take back the lead. It's not a bad plan after all.'
With the Sleep Powder fully spread across the field, Booth fires an Incinerate which causes the Sleep Powder to erupt. Booth's vision is mostly covered, but he anticipates an attack from Dratini and pulls Pansear back. Sure enough Dratini slides by and tries to catch Booth. Pansear successfully dodges the attack and counter attacks with some basic claw attacks.
"Good job Booth!" Ben says after seeing Booth taking his advice.
Booth nods and continues to focus on the fight. Buizel comes in to assist Booth, but ends up getting caught by Oddish's Acid attack. Dratini also comes in and sweeps Buizel with its tail to knock out Ben. Ben recalls his Buizel, then Damon brings his Morgrem back into the battle.
The Dratini's movement is extremely evasive. It darts from one side to the other, managing to fake out Booth multiple times. Seeing that things aren't getting anywhere, Booth chooses a risky play.
He turns around and suddenly charges the Oddish. He runs straight at the Oddish to build up momentum for its attack. The air around Pansear heats up, while a burning smell creeps out of Pansear's mouth. From the left side of the court, the Dratini starts to follow him. It leaps off the ground and takes aim with its tail.
"Crack!"
Booth smiles as his Pansear spins around to face the Dratini. The fire snaps and a fireball breaks into the air at the Dratini. Surprise quickly fills the opponent's face. While an Incinerate fills the Dratini's.
It's location in the air makes the Dratini unable to dodge. The fireball collides with the Dratini, knocking it out of the air. Damon moves in to help Booth as the two inflict as much damage on the Dratini as possible.
Booth and Damon soon manage to knock out the Dratini. The last pokemon that comes out for the opponent's team is a Chinchou. Like the Oddish the Chinchou is great at slowing the opponents down with its moves.
Chinchou gains the advantage by taking the open center of the court. It catches Booth with an Electro Ball, which stuns him for a second. Next it manages to trap him in the corner and knock him out with a critical hit from a Bubblebeam.
'Electric moves seem really good. They stun for more time than other moves, which makes it pretty hard to use your pokemon's power. It's a little frustrating to be honest. I have my own electric pokemon, so hopefully I can find a way to lessen the effects of such moves.'
Tyler and his Sandshrew come in last. He tries to deal with the Oddish first. He starts rolling with Sandshrew to build up speed. Next a strong tackle from the Sandshrew strikes the Oddish and puts it in a tough spot.
The opponents begin to play even more defensive. This makes the battle slow down much more. Damon, however, thrives on this kind of careful play. His ability to find anxious behavior in his opponents and punish it makes his opponents likely to crack eventually.
Morgrem defends itself from the Chinchou's Bubblebeam and runs in closer. The Chinchou trainer panics and tries to defend itself. Damon predicts this and hits a False Surrender to gain the upper hand.
The Chinchou and Oddish are unable to create space with the constant pressure from Damon and Tyler, and make their last mistakes. For Chinchou it's a Sucker Punch that finishes it. The Oddish starts an attack, but is painfully stabbed by an Icicle Spear which ends the match.
"Beep Beep!"
After the match is called the two teams get up to meet and congratulate each other. As with most practice sessions, the teams share their thoughts on the match. While also happily answering questions.
By the time the battle was done it was just past 11. Although Booth doesn't feel that hungry he decides to go for lunch with the others. He had quite a bit of his own training to do later in the day, and he figured he should take a break to eat.