Collections of Elegant Formulas: Chapter 6
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Iris and Skyla stood on the runway under a large umbrella, Iris frowning.
“Are you sure you can’t just take off in the rain?”
“Johto has rules about this sort of thing.” Skyla waved over at the control tower. “I mean, so does Unova, but I make them, so I can break them if I really want. I’ve taken off in worse than this.”
“Can’t you tell them that so that we can go?”
Skyla shook her head. “No one here takes me seriously. Apparently pilots here wear very different uniforms and they all think I’m kind of a joke? But I think they’re ridiculous. They don’t even all train flying Pokemon!” She stared out into the rain. “It looks like they’re sending a car though, maybe they’re finally going to let us go.”
Iris watched the car approaching them. Something was flying above it and keeping pace with the car, a wide orange streak bending the rain around it. If the airport staff had Pokemon, she thought, why not just have someone use Sunny Day in a situation like this? A few minutes would be enough to get a plane into the air. It would be a bit of an odd choice for a flying Pokemon, but plenty of trainers who didn’t battle regularly would be able to keep such a utility move. Maybe that’s what they were driving out for? It wouldn’t even be unreasonable on a Tropius, if you could get one of those around here...
“Wait.” Iris nudged Skyla, shaking some water off of the umbrella. “Is that a Dragonite?”
The car pulled up, stopping around twenty feet away, kicking water up around its tires as it stopped. The passenger door opened, and out stepped Lance, cape clashing with the blues and white of the airport logo on the car door. He pointed at Iris. “You, girl.” Dragonite landed beside him, flexing its claws. “Give me the Sacred Ash. It belongs to Kanto and Johto, not to you.”
Skyla turned to Iris and spoke quietly. “You know this guy?”
“Unfortunately.” She watched him stand exposed in the rain for a moment before raising her voice. “Hey, Lance. You don’t get to talk to me like that. My name is Iris.” Lance’s cape blew in the wind, periodically shaking off a sheet of water, but he did not respond. She stepped forward out from under the umbrella, letting the rain hit her face. “Try it like this: Hello, Iris. I want to talk to you about the Sacred Ash. I think it might belong in Kanto. Do you have a reason for taking it away? Oh, you want to use it to prevent Unova from being overrun by Kyurems? Well that sounds like a pretty good use!” She pointed back at Lance. “See, wouldn’t that have been easy?”
“I don’t care about your Kyurems. The Sacred Ash could bring back the people who Giovanni killed. It could heal the wound left in our regions. It could make my family whole again, restore our gyms, make our people feel safe again. It is my obligation to do what I can to heal those wounds. So hand it over.”
Iris looked at Skyla, and then back at the car. Morty stepped out of the driver’s side door, looking as if he hadn’t slept. Iris tilted her head and stared at Morty. “This is your fault?”
He sighed and rubbed his hair as the water weighed it down. “It’s true that the Sacred Ash can bring back dead Pokemon. No one’s ever tried it on a person. I can’t blame Lance for wanting to try, though I thought that if Ho-Oh believed it was the right thing to do, it would have given its ash to me.” Morty covered his face with his hand and looked into the car. “I want them back, too.”
“If we use it to stop Ghetsis, then we can stop anyone else from dying.” Iris turned to Lance, both of them standing straight up in the rain while Morty slouched to keep the water out of his eyes. “That’s a way better reason than I expected, and I’m sorry for your losses, but no. If it doesn’t help us, I’ll bring it back, and you can try.”
Lance grabbed a Pokeball from inside his cape, and Dragonite dropped into a fighting stance. “It wasn’t a question, trainer.”
“Oh, now you want to battle? Sorry, I’m a little bit busy at the moment. You don’t have any Pokemon with Sunny Day, do you? Because getting rid of this rain would be great.”
Lance gestured to Dragonite. “Hyper Beam the plane.” Dragonite started to charge its attack, and Iris went stonefaced, holding an arm out to stop Skyla from moving.
“Three Pokemon.” Iris grabbed a Pokeball out of her sash. “Single battle. No items. Winner keeps the Sacred Ash, loser gets out of the way.”
“Very well,” said Lance, and Dragonite cancelled its move, returning to a ready position. “Release your spiral mole.”
Iris pushed the button on her Pokeball, otherwise not moving, and released Hydreigon. The dragon flew up into the air, roaring, wings cutting through the rain and sending sheets of water down onto the runway. Dragonite also flew into the air, both of them rising up into the clouds, all of Hydreigon’s heads locked onto Dragonite.
“Air traffic control is going to love this,” said Skyla, watching them.
“Can I borrow your umbrella?” Morty slipped underneath it when Skyla nodded, and the two watched the dragons battle, Hydreigon and Dragonite launching energy at each other. Every once in a while Morty covered his ears at a particularly loud explosion. “So what were you doing while Iris and I argued with Lance repeatedly and paid a visit to a self-immolating bird?”
“Catching and training Pokemon, mostly, with a side of flying around all of the islands. The views are amazing when the weather is good.” She looked up to see Hydreigon falling from the sky, hit by a Draco Meteor. At once Hydreigon vanished and Haxorus jumped up into the air, bringing Dragonite down with her. They smashed up the runway, concrete flying up into the air in a ring of rocks. Haxorus got up; Dragonite did not.
“That’s a fast Haxorus,” said Morty, watching Lance release his second Pokemon. “But I’m not sure she’s going to have an answer to Charizard.”
“For a Dragon type expert, he sure seems to like Flying Pokemon.”
Charizard kept the aerial advantage against Haxorus; it had to swoop down to claw at Haxorus, but when it did Haxorus wasn’t able to fully capitalize on the opportunity. Charizard gradually wore it down, despite Iris shouting into the wind at Haxorus and moving side to side to mimic the pattern her Pokemon should follow to dodge. Eventually, Haxorus took a hit from Charizard and didn’t get up, and Iris recalled her, looking down at the two Pokeballs left in her sash.
“They both have a type disadvantage,” said Skyla. “Kyurem and Excadrill. She’ll go with Excadrill, I guess, even though it’s probably the wrong choice.”
“How could she not use Kyurem against a Dragon Master?”
Skyla looked at Morty. “Excadrill was her starter.”
“It’s ground type! Most of Lance’s Pokemon are flying!”
“And you’d call on the ice dragon instead?” Skyla watched as Iris selected her third Pokeball and threw it in the air, Excadrill standing in front of her and staring up at Charizard. She put a hand on the Pokémon’s shoulder, and Excadrill nodded.
Lance raised a fist in the air. “You’ve done better than I expected, but this ends here. Charizard, Hyper Beam!” Charizard focused energy on the spot where Excadrill stood, and the flash of light forced all of the trainers to turn away. When they looked back, they saw Iris, pushed back from the impact, lifting herself off of the ground in front of a hole in the runway where Excadrill had been.
Lance lowered his arm, and Charizard returned to the ground, roaring up into the storm. “It was noble of you to recall your Pokemon and take the hit yourself, but the battle is over.”
“Excadrill is part Steel-type,” said Iris through gritted teeth, favoring one leg.
“So?”
Iris grinned as Excadrill burst out of the ground underneath Charizard drills first, sending the fire Pokemon up into the air and then back down into a pile of rubble. “Steel resists Normal.”
Morty turned to Skyla as Lance recalled Charizard. He spoke quietly. “Should have just used Flamethrower, the cocky bastard.”
Lance pulled out his final Pokeball and called forth Salamence, the dragon flexing its wings and staring down Excadrill. Both Pokemon waited for a command, and both trainers stood still, Lance’s cape blowing wildly, Iris’s hair and clothing weighed down by the water.
“Rock Slide.”
“Flamethrower.”
Excadrill slammed drill-hands into the runway, kicking a volley of concrete up at Salamence, who inhaled deeply and formed a ball of fire in its mouth, prepared to launch. Salamence started its fire breath first, but a large piece of concrete slammed it in the face and made it flinch, the bust of flame only grazing Excadrill and scorching a line in the grass next to the runway.
“Again!”
Excadrill plunged drills into the concrete again, reaching further down. Salamence opened its mouth, sputtering small gouts of flame.
Lance pumped his fist. “Salamence, again!”
Salamence closed its mouth and shuddered.
“Flamethrower!!!”
Salamence closed its eyes and collapsed. A moment later, so did Iris, Excadrill catching her before she hit the ground.
-
“He left to go challenge them on his own. I want to follow him, but I can’t battle them properly. I just freeze up.” Silver balled his hands into fists. “I’m useless, really.”
Cynthia kicked her car into its highest gear, turning onto the highway. With the top down, she had to raise her voice. “You’re not useless. But you’ll never beat them fair and square.”
“Even all three of us? We’re not good enough?”
“It doesn’t matter!”
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?”
“They’re not playing by the rules! If you show up and try to beat them with Pokemon, they’ll just shoot you! If you try to beat them with weapons, they’ll drown you in Kyurem! So what are you going to do?”
Silver watched the trees go by. “Fail?”
“No!” Cynthia slid into the left lane and let up on the accelerator. “Well, maybe. But I have a bit of engineering to share with you! Under your feet is a black bag.” Silver reached down and pulled it up. “There’s around fifty black Pokeballs in there, as well as a computer. Each ball - Amanita calls it the Recover Ball - has a Patrat in it. Instruct the Patrat to use Foresight, and then the ball will capture the Kyurem you’re battling and release the Patrat.”
“That... really works?”
“We’re four for four! Amanita thinks it will take them a few days to redo the cloning, so we’re trying to catch as many as we can. If you can’t battle, maybe you can at least force their hands.”
“How did you find all these Patrats? Isn’t Foresight an egg move?”
Cynthia laughed, the wind catching her hair and whirling it around behind her. “Lucario is very, very upset with me right now.”
-
“I just can’t battle my father again.” Julie sat in the tent with Zoroark, talking with the Pokemon while going through her things. “But I can’t leave Black alone. I said I’d support him, and I meant it, and...”
“Hush, child.” Zoroark pulled out a pair of yellow dresses from Julie’s bag, one of them with an orange sash, the other plain. “You will be there for him when he most needs you. It is only fair that he make you follow him, for once. What about this dress? You almost have two of them and it looks loose enough to fit.”
Julie felt the fabric. “I... don’t know why I thought I would ever wear this. It’s too much.” She looked at the lace trim and frowned.
“Sometimes too much is exactly what is needed to sell the illusion. Try it on?” Julie slipped off her outfit and worked her way into the dress with the sash, tightening it. At the same time, Zoroark put on the other dress, shifting forms to squeeze it on, looking awkwardly elegant. “Ha, this is ridiculous without the illusion. What happened to the waist-piece on this dress?”
“It came off, or something. I don’t know. We could replace it? I have a Focus Sash that’s almost the same color.”
“That will do nicely.” Zoroark tied the Focus Sash to mirror Julie’s dress, and then shifted forms, gradually taking Julie’s appearance.
Julie turned to look at herself. “We look like drag queens, Zoroark.”
“They expect to see drag queens, because they have never truly seen you.” Zoroark laughed, the sound comforting Julie even though it made her shiver. “And they have always looked right through me.”
“What if Silver can tell?”
Zoroark laughed again, sounding more than more like Julie as the illusion set in. “For that boy, what is one more secret?”
-
Iris and Skyla stood on the runway under a large umbrella, Iris frowning.
“Are you sure you can’t just take off in the rain?”
“Johto has rules about this sort of thing.” Skyla waved over at the control tower. “I mean, so does Unova, but I make them, so I can break them if I really want. I’ve taken off in worse than this.”
“Can’t you tell them that so that we can go?”
Skyla shook her head. “No one here takes me seriously. Apparently pilots here wear very different uniforms and they all think I’m kind of a joke? But I think they’re ridiculous. They don’t even all train flying Pokemon!” She stared out into the rain. “It looks like they’re sending a car though, maybe they’re finally going to let us go.”
Iris watched the car approaching them. Something was flying above it and keeping pace with the car, a wide orange streak bending the rain around it. If the airport staff had Pokemon, she thought, why not just have someone use Sunny Day in a situation like this? A few minutes would be enough to get a plane into the air. It would be a bit of an odd choice for a flying Pokemon, but plenty of trainers who didn’t battle regularly would be able to keep such a utility move. Maybe that’s what they were driving out for? It wouldn’t even be unreasonable on a Tropius, if you could get one of those around here...
“Wait.” Iris nudged Skyla, shaking some water off of the umbrella. “Is that a Dragonite?”
The car pulled up, stopping around twenty feet away, kicking water up around its tires as it stopped. The passenger door opened, and out stepped Lance, cape clashing with the blues and white of the airport logo on the car door. He pointed at Iris. “You, girl.” Dragonite landed beside him, flexing its claws. “Give me the Sacred Ash. It belongs to Kanto and Johto, not to you.”
Skyla turned to Iris and spoke quietly. “You know this guy?”
“Unfortunately.” She watched him stand exposed in the rain for a moment before raising her voice. “Hey, Lance. You don’t get to talk to me like that. My name is Iris.” Lance’s cape blew in the wind, periodically shaking off a sheet of water, but he did not respond. She stepped forward out from under the umbrella, letting the rain hit her face. “Try it like this: Hello, Iris. I want to talk to you about the Sacred Ash. I think it might belong in Kanto. Do you have a reason for taking it away? Oh, you want to use it to prevent Unova from being overrun by Kyurems? Well that sounds like a pretty good use!” She pointed back at Lance. “See, wouldn’t that have been easy?”
“I don’t care about your Kyurems. The Sacred Ash could bring back the people who Giovanni killed. It could heal the wound left in our regions. It could make my family whole again, restore our gyms, make our people feel safe again. It is my obligation to do what I can to heal those wounds. So hand it over.”
Iris looked at Skyla, and then back at the car. Morty stepped out of the driver’s side door, looking as if he hadn’t slept. Iris tilted her head and stared at Morty. “This is your fault?”
He sighed and rubbed his hair as the water weighed it down. “It’s true that the Sacred Ash can bring back dead Pokemon. No one’s ever tried it on a person. I can’t blame Lance for wanting to try, though I thought that if Ho-Oh believed it was the right thing to do, it would have given its ash to me.” Morty covered his face with his hand and looked into the car. “I want them back, too.”
“If we use it to stop Ghetsis, then we can stop anyone else from dying.” Iris turned to Lance, both of them standing straight up in the rain while Morty slouched to keep the water out of his eyes. “That’s a way better reason than I expected, and I’m sorry for your losses, but no. If it doesn’t help us, I’ll bring it back, and you can try.”
Lance grabbed a Pokeball from inside his cape, and Dragonite dropped into a fighting stance. “It wasn’t a question, trainer.”
“Oh, now you want to battle? Sorry, I’m a little bit busy at the moment. You don’t have any Pokemon with Sunny Day, do you? Because getting rid of this rain would be great.”
Lance gestured to Dragonite. “Hyper Beam the plane.” Dragonite started to charge its attack, and Iris went stonefaced, holding an arm out to stop Skyla from moving.
“Three Pokemon.” Iris grabbed a Pokeball out of her sash. “Single battle. No items. Winner keeps the Sacred Ash, loser gets out of the way.”
“Very well,” said Lance, and Dragonite cancelled its move, returning to a ready position. “Release your spiral mole.”
Iris pushed the button on her Pokeball, otherwise not moving, and released Hydreigon. The dragon flew up into the air, roaring, wings cutting through the rain and sending sheets of water down onto the runway. Dragonite also flew into the air, both of them rising up into the clouds, all of Hydreigon’s heads locked onto Dragonite.
“Air traffic control is going to love this,” said Skyla, watching them.
“Can I borrow your umbrella?” Morty slipped underneath it when Skyla nodded, and the two watched the dragons battle, Hydreigon and Dragonite launching energy at each other. Every once in a while Morty covered his ears at a particularly loud explosion. “So what were you doing while Iris and I argued with Lance repeatedly and paid a visit to a self-immolating bird?”
“Catching and training Pokemon, mostly, with a side of flying around all of the islands. The views are amazing when the weather is good.” She looked up to see Hydreigon falling from the sky, hit by a Draco Meteor. At once Hydreigon vanished and Haxorus jumped up into the air, bringing Dragonite down with her. They smashed up the runway, concrete flying up into the air in a ring of rocks. Haxorus got up; Dragonite did not.
“That’s a fast Haxorus,” said Morty, watching Lance release his second Pokemon. “But I’m not sure she’s going to have an answer to Charizard.”
“For a Dragon type expert, he sure seems to like Flying Pokemon.”
Charizard kept the aerial advantage against Haxorus; it had to swoop down to claw at Haxorus, but when it did Haxorus wasn’t able to fully capitalize on the opportunity. Charizard gradually wore it down, despite Iris shouting into the wind at Haxorus and moving side to side to mimic the pattern her Pokemon should follow to dodge. Eventually, Haxorus took a hit from Charizard and didn’t get up, and Iris recalled her, looking down at the two Pokeballs left in her sash.
“They both have a type disadvantage,” said Skyla. “Kyurem and Excadrill. She’ll go with Excadrill, I guess, even though it’s probably the wrong choice.”
“How could she not use Kyurem against a Dragon Master?”
Skyla looked at Morty. “Excadrill was her starter.”
“It’s ground type! Most of Lance’s Pokemon are flying!”
“And you’d call on the ice dragon instead?” Skyla watched as Iris selected her third Pokeball and threw it in the air, Excadrill standing in front of her and staring up at Charizard. She put a hand on the Pokémon’s shoulder, and Excadrill nodded.
Lance raised a fist in the air. “You’ve done better than I expected, but this ends here. Charizard, Hyper Beam!” Charizard focused energy on the spot where Excadrill stood, and the flash of light forced all of the trainers to turn away. When they looked back, they saw Iris, pushed back from the impact, lifting herself off of the ground in front of a hole in the runway where Excadrill had been.
Lance lowered his arm, and Charizard returned to the ground, roaring up into the storm. “It was noble of you to recall your Pokemon and take the hit yourself, but the battle is over.”
“Excadrill is part Steel-type,” said Iris through gritted teeth, favoring one leg.
“So?”
Iris grinned as Excadrill burst out of the ground underneath Charizard drills first, sending the fire Pokemon up into the air and then back down into a pile of rubble. “Steel resists Normal.”
Morty turned to Skyla as Lance recalled Charizard. He spoke quietly. “Should have just used Flamethrower, the cocky bastard.”
Lance pulled out his final Pokeball and called forth Salamence, the dragon flexing its wings and staring down Excadrill. Both Pokemon waited for a command, and both trainers stood still, Lance’s cape blowing wildly, Iris’s hair and clothing weighed down by the water.
“Rock Slide.”
“Flamethrower.”
Excadrill slammed drill-hands into the runway, kicking a volley of concrete up at Salamence, who inhaled deeply and formed a ball of fire in its mouth, prepared to launch. Salamence started its fire breath first, but a large piece of concrete slammed it in the face and made it flinch, the bust of flame only grazing Excadrill and scorching a line in the grass next to the runway.
“Again!”
Excadrill plunged drills into the concrete again, reaching further down. Salamence opened its mouth, sputtering small gouts of flame.
Lance pumped his fist. “Salamence, again!”
Salamence closed its mouth and shuddered.
“Flamethrower!!!”
Salamence closed its eyes and collapsed. A moment later, so did Iris, Excadrill catching her before she hit the ground.
-
“He left to go challenge them on his own. I want to follow him, but I can’t battle them properly. I just freeze up.” Silver balled his hands into fists. “I’m useless, really.”
Cynthia kicked her car into its highest gear, turning onto the highway. With the top down, she had to raise her voice. “You’re not useless. But you’ll never beat them fair and square.”
“Even all three of us? We’re not good enough?”
“It doesn’t matter!”
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?”
“They’re not playing by the rules! If you show up and try to beat them with Pokemon, they’ll just shoot you! If you try to beat them with weapons, they’ll drown you in Kyurem! So what are you going to do?”
Silver watched the trees go by. “Fail?”
“No!” Cynthia slid into the left lane and let up on the accelerator. “Well, maybe. But I have a bit of engineering to share with you! Under your feet is a black bag.” Silver reached down and pulled it up. “There’s around fifty black Pokeballs in there, as well as a computer. Each ball - Amanita calls it the Recover Ball - has a Patrat in it. Instruct the Patrat to use Foresight, and then the ball will capture the Kyurem you’re battling and release the Patrat.”
“That... really works?”
“We’re four for four! Amanita thinks it will take them a few days to redo the cloning, so we’re trying to catch as many as we can. If you can’t battle, maybe you can at least force their hands.”
“How did you find all these Patrats? Isn’t Foresight an egg move?”
Cynthia laughed, the wind catching her hair and whirling it around behind her. “Lucario is very, very upset with me right now.”
-
“I just can’t battle my father again.” Julie sat in the tent with Zoroark, talking with the Pokemon while going through her things. “But I can’t leave Black alone. I said I’d support him, and I meant it, and...”
“Hush, child.” Zoroark pulled out a pair of yellow dresses from Julie’s bag, one of them with an orange sash, the other plain. “You will be there for him when he most needs you. It is only fair that he make you follow him, for once. What about this dress? You almost have two of them and it looks loose enough to fit.”
Julie felt the fabric. “I... don’t know why I thought I would ever wear this. It’s too much.” She looked at the lace trim and frowned.
“Sometimes too much is exactly what is needed to sell the illusion. Try it on?” Julie slipped off her outfit and worked her way into the dress with the sash, tightening it. At the same time, Zoroark put on the other dress, shifting forms to squeeze it on, looking awkwardly elegant. “Ha, this is ridiculous without the illusion. What happened to the waist-piece on this dress?”
“It came off, or something. I don’t know. We could replace it? I have a Focus Sash that’s almost the same color.”
“That will do nicely.” Zoroark tied the Focus Sash to mirror Julie’s dress, and then shifted forms, gradually taking Julie’s appearance.
Julie turned to look at herself. “We look like drag queens, Zoroark.”
“They expect to see drag queens, because they have never truly seen you.” Zoroark laughed, the sound comforting Julie even though it made her shiver. “And they have always looked right through me.”
“What if Silver can tell?”
Zoroark laughed again, sounding more than more like Julie as the illusion set in. “For that boy, what is one more secret?”
-