Cyg’s best battling strategy was that she didn’t have a strategy. She dominated her opponents with overwhelming force. It had it’s perks and drawbacks, the biggest drawback being she was absolutely fucked if she engaged with an opponent who was stronger than she was.

That was a large part of what training with MATIAS SILPH was supposed to do-- help her figure out other tactics besides Hulk Smashing her way through every conflict.

She’d only had ‘power’, quote-unquote, for a short time and was already finding that she really liked it. So the next logical deduction (not that Cyg was super great at these, but anyway) was growing that power. And that meant she had to learn.

The door to the training room slid open with a pneumatic hiss, LED light flexing and bending off the metallic surface, and Cyg stepped in, boots heavy on the floor. Fresh from the garage, she was wearing her old GMH coveralls, Mauville yellow, tied round the waist by the sleeves, and a black tank top.

She’d never met Adrian Malcolm but there was a first time for everything, right?

She removed one hand from her pockets and offered a simple wave. “Hey. I volunteer as tribute, or whatever. I’m Cygne.”

Adrian Malcolm

☉

Cyg’s unique approach to battling was to hit everything really hard. Sorry, Adrian Malcolm . Sorry to disappoint.

“Yeah, of course,” she said, flashing him a finger-gun and shrugging like she could be anything but candid, anything but 100% herself. “So you ready to beat the crap out of my kids, or what?”

The more he talked, the more her heart sank, the more oh, nos piled up in her brain. Diverse battle strategy? “You mean there’s other strategies besides hit it really hard?” she asked, throwing in a laugh to diffuse tension. “Kidding, kidding.”

Wow, Adrian had a whole ass collection of badges. Cyg just had the one, and she didn’t even keep that thang on her.

He explains that he does, indeed, like to hit things really hard, and she nods along with him. He releases his Pokemon and Cyg realizes she should do that, too. But she doesn’t have a strategy, as has been previously mentioned. Her brain falls into the same, well-worn treads: play to the type matchup. But that’s just what Adrian told her not to do, kind of?

“Uhhh, okay. Give me a second to… use my brain. Get the little hamster running.” She goes to the kiosk and scrolls through her PC, thinking. So many ideas, so little time. She takes a couple options (three different combos, to see if any of them have any success) and returns to her place.

She releases first her Venusaur, Mairwen, and her Spiritomb, Sinistree.

Adrian lays his caltrops down and-- tells his Oranguru to use instruct. Which should fail, if no moves have been used before it. Right?

“Mairwen, use poison powder on the Oranguru. Sin, follow it up with hex.”

Because she knows that hex is extra powerful against Pokemon with status conditions. See? Strategy.

SPIRITOMB is exerting her PRESSURE!
SPIRITOMB is poisoned by TOXIC SPIKES!
VENUSAUR uses POISON POWDER on ORANGURU!
SPIRITOMB uses HEX on ORANGURU!

Adrian Malcolm

☉

Oops!

Oops oops oops oops oops!

Cyg went through all of the stages of grief in a five second timeframe, pulling out her phone and looking up Oranguru on Bulbapedia, trying to make it look as casual as possible. She visibly winced but her smile was huge. What do you do in these situations besides laugh?

“Right,” she said cheerily, sliding the device back into her pocket.

God fucking damn it, this is why her strategy was hit it really hard.

Well, in her defense, Adrian Malcolm had a little bit of time in advance to think about the strategy. She was just going in blind. But she was, also, just an idiot. She had attacked Oranguru because she figured it would be the stronger of the two adversaries but, again, idiot.

Locked into only damage-dealing moves and Hex, Cyg was forced to stare down the double barrel of her hit it really hard strategy. There was very little she could do except hit it really hard.

God damn it.

Oh well. Nothing to it but to do it.

“Mair, double edge on Oranguru; Sin, hex on Runerigus.”

Mairwen, to her credit, heaved a sigh like she was getting too old for this shit; Sinistree just cackled, her mocking laughter echoing from corners of the arena she wasn’t even in.

SPIRITOMB is exerting her PRESSURE!
SPIRITOMB is poisoned! SPIRITOMB is affected by ENCORE (1/3)
SPIRITOMB uses HEX on RUNERIGUS!
VENUSAUR is affected by TAUNT! (1/3)
VENUSAUR uses DOUBLE EDGE on ORANGURU!

Adrian Malcolm oops

☉

Much to Cyg’s surprise, Mairwen had some major giddy-up and go, as the dinosaur hurtled towards the seated simian as fast as her pudgy green legs would allow, launching herself at the last second to land her massive body on top of Oranguru in a chunky-sounding bellyflop.

Likewise, Sinistree’s hex on Runerigus left the disembodied chunks of stone discolored at the edges.

Meanwhile, Runerigus’ Toxic Spikes were slowly poisoning Sinistree-- but not as much as they would have another Pokemon. And Mairwen, as a Poison-type, was immune to poison! Not too shabby, Cygnet.

Adrian Malcolm ’s Runerigus lashed out at Sinistree with a purple beam of energy that punched a hole through the Spiritomb’s gaseous body; the aubergine miasma writhed and rolled, her gleaming, jagged face marred by the swirl. The mocking laughter faded then grew.

From under Mairwen’s bulk, Oranguru made a hand signal-- and, upon being instructed, the Runerigus fired off another hex, and this time Sinistree’s keystone shivered on the spot. She sank downwards, billowing around her base, shrinking in size and significantly weakened-- but not quite out, yet, though she wouldn’t last much longer.

Mairwen lowed, having moved off of the Oranguru like a truck shaking a crushed bicycle from under its bumper.

“Mair, take down! Sin, do your thing!”

Mairwen looked directly at Adrian with a tired look on her face-- then bent her legs, and, with great effort, lifted herself onto her hind legs (sort of) and flopped back over onto Oranguru in a great imitation of WWE Raw combat. Sinistree’s keystone glowed purple, firing off another lazer hex beam at the Runerigus.

SPIRITOMB is exerting her PRESSURE!
SPIRITOMB is poisoned! SPIRITOMB is affected by ENCORE (2/3)
SPIRITOMB uses HEX on RUNERIGUS!
VENUSAUR is affected by TAUNT! (2/3)
VENUSAUR uses TAKE DOWN on ORANGURU!

Adrian Malcolm oops

☉