Day 2

“Is it normal to be nervous to the point of throwing up?” Wendy asked, staring out at the arena as the stands began filling with students. She knew this was her own fault, she expected to do well in the singles bracket, but she never thought she’d make it this far. Wendy had easily qualified for Day Two along with the rest of Red Velvet and while her matches earlier in the morning were a lot harder to win she’d slowly climbed up the ranks.

And now it all came down to this. The single bracket Finals.  

Seulgi patted her friend on the back but making sure to stay far enough away from the other girl just in case her nerves did get to her. “Relax, you’ll do fine.”

“Yeah, you say that now. You’re partnered with Irene and you two managed to smash your way to the double bracket finals tomorrow morning.”

“Which makes you even more impressive for getting this done solo,” Seulgi pointed out, checking the time on her tablet. It was almost time for the match to begin. “You’re literally amazing, Wendy. I couldn’t be more proud of you. Remember it’s not over until the last Pokémon has fainted.”

Seulgi’s words were comforting. Win or lose, she’d managed to make it to the final match, beating out dozens of other students in the process. Wendy felt her confidence level rising.

“I’ll see you on the other side then, Seul. If I win though you’re taking me out for a nice dinner.”

Seulgi offered up her pinky, her signature smile on her face. “Done. Now go out there and kick some .”

Wendy nodded, inhaling deeply and walking out onto the field. I can do this.

As she walked out onto the field the audience began cheering wildly. She spotted Seulgi sneaking back into the stands and sitting next to Irene. Joy passed her a sign shaped like Wendy’s face before turning around to help Yeri unfurl a banner that read “Wendy is my number Wan!”

Wendy could feel her cheeks reddening in embarrassment as her fellow teammates led the pack in terms of volume. It was a sweet gesture, it really was. But wow.

The cheers began to slowly die down as the audience waited for her opponent to walk out onto the field.

She did so with thunderous applause. 

“I’m glad you made it to the finals, Wendy. I was looking forward to this, Moonbyul said you were the one to watch out for.”

The other girl’s words were so genuine sounding that Wendy couldn’t help but smile at her. You know what, Seulgi was right. She made it to the finals, win or lose that was something to be proud of.

“Then let’s make this one hell of a final match.” Wendy called out her Sawsbuck.

Hwasa smiled and sent out her partner. A menacing looking Absol popped out, pacing back and forth in front of his Trainer and growling at Wendy’s Sawsbuck.

“Let the Singles Bracket Final match between Wendy of Red Velvet and Hwasa of Mamamoo commence!”

XXX

Cue Intro Music: Fanfare by Twice

XXX

Both girls seemed to not want to make the first move. They engaged in a silent battle of wills while their partners stood tense on the field, waiting for the first order to be given.

Absol was a Dark-type Pokémon known for its strong Physical Attack. As a species, they gained a rather unfair reputation as a Pokémon that signified bad luck because of their ability to foretell natural disasters. As a result, Absol were mistaken as bringers of doom instead of protectors that warned people of looming crises.

A regal and powerful Pokémon that exuded an aura similar to its Trainer, Wendy noticed. Just as she observed Hwasa, the other girl was observing her. Belatedly she wondered if Hwasa had written up a dossier on her.

As a freshman, Hwasa’s battle strategy was largely unknown and though Wendy had seen her battle a little bit over the last two days she still wasn’t confident enough to say she knew how to beat her. Hwasa was a huge question mark and Wendy didn’t like that one bit.

The younger girl made the first move.

“Absol, use Torment!”

The Disaster Pokémon leapt forward, its eyes glinting malevolently. It locked eyes with Wendy’s Sawsbuck, who saw the move as a challenge and bellowed loudly, clearly angry. Wendy swore under her breath. In terms of starting moves, Hwasa knew what she was doing.

Torment wasn’t a damaging move, but it caused the opposing Pokémon to be unable to use the same move twice in a row. It forced the other Trainer to think more thoroughly about their strategy. A strategy like the one Seulgi had employed earlier in the semester, where she repeatedly stacked Calm Mind on her Bewear, would be useless.

Wendy decided to retaliate by testing the waters. It would be stupid to use one of her stronger moves just in case she needed it at a later time. “Sawsbuck, use Feint Attack!”

Her Sawsbuck bellowed and charged headlong towards the Absol. It would be no use to try and dodge, Feint Attack was one of the few moves that was a guaranteed hit. Its typing meant that Absol would take very little damage from the move but Wendy wasn’t trying for big damage anyway.

She wanted to see how Absol, and by extension Hwasa, reacted to the blow. That would determine how she played the rest of this fight. Her Sawsbuck’s aim was true and it rammed its horns into the Absol’s side, causing it to fly back several feet.

Absol sprang to its feet a second later, growling under its breath. It looked no worse for wear and the scoreboard above the arena reflected the numbers. Absol was only missing a tiny sliver of its health.

Hwasa didn’t look at all fazed by the attack, calmly reassuring her Pokémon and calling Absol to disengage from the Sawsbuck. At close range those horns were dangerous. Wendy noticed that unlike its Trainer, Absol wasn’t the picture of calm indifference. It was angry that it got hit. An emotion that Wendy could use to her advantage. An angry Pokémon, no matter how well trained, could let its emotions get the better of it.

“Shake it off and use Payback, Absol!”

Absol’s fur began to glow as it seemed to gather up all the energy that had been generated when it was struck. It really didn’t appreciate getting hit with an unavoidable move. Sawsbuck flinched backward as the crescent-shaped horn on the side of Absol’s head grew larger. With a roar, the disaster Pokémon retaliated, smacking into Wendy’s Sawsbuck with twice the amount of power that had been aimed at it.

Sawsbuck faltered, clearly hurt by the attack. Wendy gritted her teeth. The move wasn’t strong enough to knock out her partner but that didn’t mean it hadn’t done some good damage. She glanced up at the scoreboard, noticing her Sawsbuck was missing a sizeable chunk of health.

So maybe anger wasn’t the way to play this. Wendy wracked her brains for a possible solution. Their Pokémon were actually fairly evenly matched with each other. Actually, their speed stats were even tied, not that it mattered very much in the long run. If they were similar to each other stats-wise, why didn’t Wendy change that?

“Sawsbuck, Safeguard into Swagger!” Hwasa raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t expecting this kind of strategy from the older girl.

Sawsbuck’s antlers glowed a bright white color, enveloping the stag Pokémon in a thin film of white energy. It would now be immune to any status conditions, a useful thing since Absol could use both Will-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave.

But it was the choice of Swagger as a move that made Irene smile in the stands. Wendy certainly had the creativity to be a potential Champion.

Sawsbuck then reared up on its hind legs, puffing out its chest proudly. Its eyes glinted and the air around its hooves appeared to become charged with static electricity. The scoreboard beeped twice, signifying a major boost in Sawsbuck’s attack stats.

“That’s actually pretty genius,” Seulgi whispered, unable to take her eyes off of the battle. Normally Swagger came with a pretty serious trade-off. It drastically raised the user’s Attack but caused them to become Confused. A risky play normally, but Seungwan had negated the move’s side-effect by using Safeguard beforehand to protect Sawsbuck from any status conditions. Now the stag Pokémon was a lot stronger than Absol.

Absol retaliated with a vicious Razor Wind attack, taking another serious chunk out of Sawsbuck’s health. Hwasa seemed to know that if Sawsbuck wasn’t eliminated quickly its Torment would wear off and it could easily mow through her entire team.

Whatever Seungwan had planned needed to happen quickly.

“Sawsbuck, use Horn Leech and take out that Absol!”

The stag Pokémon charged for Absol again, and this time when the attack connected Absol didn’t get up.

“Absol is unable to battle, Sawsbuck is the winner.”

The stands erupted into cheers as Hwasa nodded thoughtfully, recalling her fainted Absol.

“Nice going Wendy, I admit I didn’t see that coming.” Hwasa’s hand hovered over her belt and she pulled out her second Pokémon. “Absol was only the first though, I look forward to seeing how you handle Maria.”

Maria turned out to be the biggest Pyroar that Wendy had ever seen. She gulped as the lioness Pokémon stared down her Sawsbuck and made him bleat nervously. There was something about Hwasa’s signature Pokémon that unnerved Wendy.

It wasn’t much of a match between the two of them. Sawsbuck was already missing a good bit of health and was at a type disadvantage to boot. Adding in Pyroar’s blisteringly fast speed and it was no surprise that Sawsbuck fell with one well-aimed Fire Fang.

“Sawsbuck is unable to battle, Pyroar wins.”

Wendy recalled her partner, assuring him that he’d done a very good job. As she did so, Hwasa’s Pyroar let out a loud roar, flames at its paws. The scoreboard beeped once, causing everyone to look up at it in shock. Maria’s attack had risen.

“But how?” Seulgi asked Irene, who looked a little shocked herself. “Fire Fang doesn’t boost stats.”

“Hwasa’s Pyroar must have Moxie as its ability,” Irene replied. “It’s a rare ability, most of the Pyroar I’ve seen usually run Rivalry. Wendy needs to play this very carefully.”

Wendy’s second Pokémon hit the field and a collective ‘aw’ rippled through the crowd. Facing the giant lioness and looking just as determined as his Trainer was the chinchilla Pokémon Cinccino.

Hwasa narrowed her eyes at her deceptively small opponent. Her Pyroar could easily take the Cinccino on, but Wendy didn’t appear to be worried about the power difference between the two. She was up to something, but she’d never find out what it was if she didn’t take the initiative.

“Maria, go for another Fire Fang.”

The Pyroar growled and leaped for the Cinccino. To everyone’s surprise the smaller Pokémon didn’t even flinch. It took the attack easily, the scoreboard showing that only a small amount of health had been taken off.

“You’ve trained your Pokémon for defense?” Hwasa sounded a bit surprised. Cinccino was like Pyroar, a Pokémon known for its high attack and speed stats. “Why?”

Wendy tilted her head at her Pokémon. “That’s why.”

Hwasa looked to her Pyroar, who had sat down abruptly on her haunches and was now crawling belly-first towards the chinchilla Pokémon, an apologetic-sounding purr rumbling in her chest. dropped open. Why was her most regal Pokémon acting like a smitten kitten?

Laughter rippled through the stands as Maria ignored Hwasa’s orders to attack the Cincinno, choosing instead to look at the smaller Pokémon with a lovestruck gaze.

Irene stifled a giggle, “That was a well-thought out play. Wendy’s Cinccino is male and has Cute Charm as its ability. All contact moves have a chance to cause the other Pokémon to become infatuated. She knows Hwasa’s Pyroar is a female because Pyroar are one of the few Pokémon that have a noticeable difference between the genders.”

“But she’s counting on Maria staying infatuated, isn’t there a chance that the compulsion will break?” Seulgi watched as Cinccino began to Tail Slap the smitten Pyroar, slowly whittling down its health.

Irene nodded. “I don’t know what Wendy’s plan B is if that happens though. Because Cinccino is built defensively his attacks won’t hit for very much.”

Hwasa meanwhile was wracking her brains for an appropriate counter to Wendy’s strategy. Thus far Maria had been completely ignoring her orders to snap out of it. She knew that Pyroar would eventually break the infatuation on her own, but as for when that happened she didn’t know.

Wendy’s Cinccino kept attacking Pyroar until the lioness Pokémon’s health was almost depleted. Hwasa noticed that her Pokémon was slowly coming out of the infatuation, but at this point it might be too late.

“SNAP OUT OF IT!” Hwasa was visibly frustrated and it seemed like her desperate call was what shook Pyroar out of her stupor. Her Pokémon cleanly dodged an incoming Tail Slap and backed away from the other Pokémon, no longer madly in love.

“,” Wendy swore under her breath. She almost had the Pyroar down. “Hold on buddy, this is gonna .”

“Finally! All right girl, time to show that Cinccino that no one messes with a queen,” The Pyroar roared an agreement. If physical moves that made contact were a no-go, then she’d have to pull out her strongest attack. “Pyroar, Overheat!”

Even built as defensively as he was, the tiny chinchilla Pokémon, didn’t stand a chance against one of the most powerful Fire-type moves in existence. Though the attack wasn’t boosted by Moxie, the flames still blasted through all of Cinccino’s remaining health.

“Cinccino is unable to battle, Pyroar wins!”

The scoreboard beeped again, signifying another boost in power as Moxie activated again.

Wendy gritted her teeth as she recalled Cinccino. Her hand hovered over her belt as she considered her last Pokémon. This decision would determine if she took home a gold medal tonight. She needed the perfect Pokémon to retaliate against the Pyroar. Retaliate…

She chuckled to herself. Really, she should have thought of this earlier. “Marowak, clean things up!”

Her Pokémon burst out of its Pokéball, waving its bone menacingly at the weakened Pyroar. Marowak had a type advantage against Pyroar since it was a ground-type.

“Pyroar just took out your teammate, let’s show her how angry that makes you,” Wendy shouted. “Retaliate!”

Hwasa nodded, admitting her defeat as the Bone Keeper Pokémon chucked its bone towards her Pyroar, hitting Maria square in the face with a nasty sounding crunch. Retaliate’s power doubled if an allied Pokémon had fainted the previous turn. Not that it mattered much anyway, Pyroar had been left with such little health that one move from the Marowak would have knocked it out.

“Pyroar is unable to battle. Marowak wins!”

It all came down to this now. Both girls were on their last Pokémon.

“Let’s make this last fight one for the books,” Hwasa shot Wendy a smile, which the other girl returned. No matter how this last battle played out they both knew it would be a fantastic match. There wouldn’t be any hard feelings. After all, that’s what a true Pokémon Trainer was all about. Grace under pressure. “Aurorus, lets go! Start things off with a Take Down!”

The crowed ooh-ed and ahh-ed as the beautiful Tundra Pokémon hit the field with a massive thump. Seulgi had to crane her neck to see the dinosaur Pokemon’s head. Even Wendy looked impressed.

She quickly had to jump out of the way though as the gigantic Pokémon came careening towards her and Marowak, sideswiping her partner and tossing him clear across the field. The attack looked like it hurt a lot too, which she found unusual. Wasn’t Take Down a normal-type attack?

Marowak’s portrait on the scoreboard was now flashing red, a sign that it had only a small sliver of health left. That should be impossible…

“Wondering why it dealt so much damage?” Hwasa couldn’t help but swagger a little bit, her Pokémon had almost successfully one-shot Wendy’s. This battle was as good as over. “Aurorus has the Refrigerate Ability. All Normal-Type moves become Ice-type, which your Marowak is weak to.”

Wendy swore again. Her Marowak managed to pick itself up off the ground and grab ahold of its favored bo