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Would it make sense to deploy a single pokemon against an unknown threat?[break][break]

Bailey Cooper held her breath as Hawkins' efforts to strike the unknown Ultra Beast were fruitless; she does not seem surprised. In fact, she only blinked when her hands shot down to her belt to grasp at the many capsules that awaited her. Weapons pinched between her fingers, she let them slip and fall to the ground with a flick rather than a toss.[break][break]

The rest of the roster; krookodile, male and female meowstic, solrock, gliscor, and gigalith.[break][break]

Hawkins knew that the strike was coming, knew that it would come with a thunderous force.[break][break]

But there was an art to being struck, just as there was an art to a strike.[break][break]

Flame Charge came simultaneous with the sudden kick; flames bursting to carry the Blaziken with the force rather than against it. In some ways, it would mitigate damage as the insect-like appendage collided against Hawkins raised block.[break][break]

Blaziken would be dazed, but not unconscious, as another round of Speed Boost was able to be processed; it would take time to recover from the strike, but that could be time spent waiting on the next opportunity to strike.[break][break]

“Whatever you say, Lopez,” and Bailey let it all come out. “Just don't run on me.”[break][break]

Gigalith would allow its ability sand stream to activate, tossing the surroundings in a hazardous fashion as a sand storm manifested; its winds buffeting against the meowstics who took the discomfort in silence. Then, iron defense.[break][break]

Harking back to strategy used against the first Ultra Beast she had ever encountered, both male and female meowstic glowed with psychic energy: helping hand and psychic in an attempt to restrain the Ultra Beast's limbs to hamper its movement.[break][break]

Solrock activated gravity, just for an additional level of pressure, unfazed by the sand storm.[break][break]

Then, Gliscor, who activated sand veil and felt more evasive as it prepared itself for combat with swords dance.[break][break]

Krookodile went into the pitch of the sandstorm, then vanished seemingly without a trace; dig.[break][break]

9QrpRTGY

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They said it would taking a fighting master.[break][break]

“Did they mean literal fighting, or did they mean the typing?” The newly dubbed champion mused aloud, hand cupped to her face as she stared at the ashen expanse that stretched before her. Her backpack was filled to the brim; a sign that she had learned from past expeditions, and now knew how to prepare herself.[break][break]

Improvement came two ways for Bailey Cooper. It came gradual, or it came so rapid that she struggled to sense if anything had changed at all.[break][break]

She had been appointed champion. She had been appointed avatar.[break][break]

They felt like gifts, rather than rewards.[break][break]

“Guess I'll find out...” and she hoped that something in this training could validate the League's trust in her.[break][break]

She stared at the long chain of pokeballs; hands reaching to allocate them to her person. Some went to her belt. Some went to her holster. The remaining were tucked inside her jacket. They were kept close for ease of access, and also because it felt more personal than lugging them around in a duffle bag.[break][break]

Some were newly gained pokemon, and this would be their chance to acclimate themselves with their new trainer.[break][break]

She released Machamp. “Huh... You look like a Brutus. How's that for a nickname?”[break][break]

And before the adventure could begin, she took the chance to familiarize herself with them.[break][break]

---

[break][break]

She left Fallarbor at dawn, just as the early rays of the sun started to stretch across the quaint little town.[break][break]

Primal energy served to speed her pace. It served to power her through the most arduous parts of the climb, where stamina was what was necessary for ascent; long, stretching trails that zigzagged up mountains, making the air grow thin and her breaths grow short.[break][break]

She had embarked on a hike like this.[break][break]

Last time, she had fought a legendary pokemon that she still could not name; the twirling, serpent-like greens of the Rayquaza still lingered. Its screams, its might, and its distortion as it underwent a premature primal evolution still strong in her memory; strong enough to kill, as that draco meteor had intended.[break][break]

But, not strong enough.[break][break]

She still breathed. She still walked. When she reached the top of the incline, her eyes could stare into the distance and see the faraway shape of a mountain that seemed to have been shaved; solar beam had clipped its tip and curved it like a hand pressing down on a sand castle.[break][break]

If she smiled, it was only because she thought of Clifford.[break][break]

“I'll get you next time, fucker,” and she kept moving.[break][break]

It was because of her pokemon that she was still alive.[break][break]

---

[break][break]

From this height, the ashes that coated the distant fields of Fallarbor curved like dunes.[break][break]

Taking a long swig from her water bottle, Bailey had to tell herself to not cough as her eyes followed the slow fold of its gray expanse; imagery harked back to the expanse of Ultra Space, where forest had bled to desert in an odd conflict of landscape.[break][break]

Hand grasped to Tink. Hand grasped to man. Speed. Light. Burning.[break][break]

Red rocks served familiar and kept her from drowning; her feet planted to the ground of Hoenn, not that alien landscape that had nearly killed her.[break][break]

“Kapow, if you see a hyper beam, just... I dunno. Let this one hit me, this time?”[break][break]

They looked at each other and laughed.[break][break]

Like they would ever let that happen.[break][break]

---

[break][break]

The volatile enjoyed the warmth.[break][break]

Sun beat down upon her shoulders, making her shudder as she stared at her resting pokemon. They huddled by the side of a cliff, seeking shade as they took a short break. What was unbearable for them was tolerable for her.[break][break]

Still, shadows ran thin, and there was little refuge to be found as the mountains continued to grow higher before them.[break][break]

“Lemme try something,” and she pressed her hand flat to the sheer cliff, trying to imagine the jutting of ridges as she urged the earth to move; soft, like a request, as she envisioned a canopy. Her avatar powers ran forth, and without any knowledge of what was necessary, she let it all pour.[break][break]

She wanted more shade.[break][break]

She made a rock slide.[break][break]

“Fuck! I fucked up!”[break][break]

They ran.[break][break]

---

[break][break]

She never knew restraint.[break][break]

In this world, Bailey Cooper never had enough. She never had the luxury to slack—if she wanted something done right, it meant putting all of her effort and all of her strength into it.[break][break]

With avatar powers, that was no longer the truth.[break][break]

Earth could be hard, but it could also crumble.[break][break]

As the first day of the hike came to its end, she took time after dinner to find a flat expanse of land for her to practice on; somewhere she could let loose and see what these powers could do.[break][break]

And she was not alone in this show of fissures and eruptions.[break][break]

Large attacks could be executed without hesitation. It was the smaller strikes, the subtle ones, that baffled her and made it difficult to remain in control.[break][break]

An attempt to create a pillar of rock underneath herself had been more comparable to a springboard.[break][break]

“Gentle, gentle...” and as she took a stance, she felt Paddington nudge her leg just to make sure her legs were shoulder-length apart. “Okay... so... just... real smooth, right?”[break][break]

The Bewear nodded.[break][break]

Fellow fighting-types watched. Some snickered. [break][break]

“Guys, come on! I'm learning, okay?”[break][break]

They decided to impart their knowledge. Even if they were not ground-types, there was some degree of similarity. They showed stances. They showed the right way to breathe before a strike. They showed her how to collect herself before committing to her next action.[break][break]

Break it down like steps.[break][break]

Breathe, step, breathe.[break][break]

Stance.[break][break]

Her shoulders rolled back, and with one simple glide of the hand, executed a simple palm strike.[break][break]

From that punch, ground in the distance parted like a wake as a jutting spike emerged at her command.[break][break]

Then, clench fist, as its tip glowed orange before its ear-shattering eruption.[break][break]

“Fuck yeah!”[break][break]

---

[break][break]

Travel through the rocky landscape gave time for these lessons to refine themselves.[break][break]

She experimented while walking; taking pebbles and crunching them in her palm to reform them into different shapes. Like charms, she started simple with shapes like hearts and stars.[break][break]

Sometimes, when the path was not wide enough, she would expand it.[break][break]

Sometimes, she would sink her fingers into sheer cliffs, and let them glide into their surface like they were pitons being driven; it made climbs all the more simple to perform.[break][break]

Subtlety in combat was simple to understand, but hard to execute.[break][break]

In an odd twist, lessons that she had imparted onto her pokemon were imparted onto her.[break][break]

---

[break][break]

The dojo came into view.[break][break]

As it did, Bailey Cooper felt a resurgence of strength. After hours of climbing, hours of walking, it was as if the location had unveiled itself; had she not glanced back in its direction, she felt like she could have missed it entirely. It had only been at the right angle, as she had gazed down from a precipice, that the estate could be viewed from above.[break][break]

She walked across its grounds, noting the emptiness.[break][break]

The sliding doors parted to reveal the old man and another; her eyes glancing to Kazimir Wynter without a hint of recognition.[break][break]

“Shit, am I late?”

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