Like No One Ever Was (Pokemon SI)

[Skyfyre]

Just when I think I'm out… she pulls me back in. Yes, that's right, we've got our new DLC, exploring Blueberry Academy. We get to meet a bunch of quirky new students, try out the synchro machine for funky Pokemon walking animations, get a bunch of new Pokemon to collect including all the regional starters in the expansive Terarium… and we get another battle against Nemona.
This one is optional after you invite her to the Blueberry Academy three times, and we actually get a bunch of fun interactions with her, talking about her past, how she used to go to BB before graduating and attending Uva/Naranja. But that's all stuff you can find out in game, let's talk about how to beat her.

As this is battle is within BB and she was a student there, she's facing you here in a double battle. Nemona will lead with either a Wash Rotom and Gliscor or Dudunsparce and a freaking Diancie (She even mentions having a mega stone to mega evolve them but says she won't use it because you don't have one which on the one hand is nice, but on the other I really want to see megas again!). And you won't know who she's sending in before the match as it randomizes it every time the battle is initiated so you can't save scum to line up your team right.
Both of the initial teams have different area Moves to spam. Gliscor has Earthquake, taking advantage of Rotom's Immunity to avoid hitting her partner. She also has Taunt, Protect, and Dual Wingbeat. Her Ability Poison Heal and a Toxic Orb to constantly heal over the course of the battle while locking her out of other status conditions after the first turn. The Rotom is in Wash Form giving them only one weakness (and one usually checked by the dual wingbeat of her partner). It has Electroweb for speed control, with Hydro Pump to give them high single target damage. Will O Wisp Burn will cut most Pokemon's Attack, while Pain Split gives them a recovery option, alongside Leftovers.

On the flip side, Dudunsparce has Hyper Drill to make use of his surprisingly high attack and punish anyone that thought they could Protect/Detect to avoid the onslaught of his partner. If that doesn't work he has Glare to cut down an opponent's speed with Paralysis, Helping Hand to boost his partner (despite not having hands...), and Roost to keep him in the battle longer. And what a partner he's paired with Diancie uses the insanely broken signature Diamond Storm to hit both foes with a 50% of a Defense boost by two stages. This fuels their Body Press, making it hit even harder. Moonblast rounds out her offense and makes use of her Fairy STAB. Trick Room turns the abysmal speed those two share into a boon. Dudunsparce has a Lum Berry for a one time status block, while Diancie has a Babiri Berry to cover taking quadruple effective Steel attacks at least once.

So this might not seem great, but you might think of just preparing for one team. Like hey, maybe Gholdengo would be good against the Dudunsparce and Diancie team? Wrong, or at least wrong half of the time. See, there's a 50% chance that either of the leads you see on a given team are actually her Hisuian Zoroark in disguise. This greatly changes things, as you can think that you're going to be clearing out Dudunsparce with a Fighting move only to watch it whiff. Or letting him boost a Move of hers that would have been resisted if they replaced Diancie. H-Zoroark has Hyper Voice for spread STAB damage and Bitter Malice for single target STAB with a nasty attack debuff on top (also, when did we start getting base 75 power Moves with guaranteed stat drops?!) Burning Jealousy is there to give her more coverage, is another spread Move, and will punish you if you want to/have already set up. She's built for speed and power, with her EVs maxed out in speed and special attack, and she's got Protect too, to help keep the disguise going and to stall out things like Sucker Punch for a turn. Her Focus Sash helps with that, so even though she's frail, you'll need two hits to take her out.

The final Pokemon on Nemona's original team is Lucario. She's got a lot of offense with Close Combat, Meteor Mash, and Extremespeed, boosted by her Life Orb. Her last Move is Swords Dance, letting her setup to sweep you, if given a chance. Nemona will send Lucario out a bit later, usually to plug any holes you've poked in the offense going on so far.
Like your previous fight against her Nemona will feel free to switch her team around and Tera whenever she feels necessary. And on that note, here's what she has going for her team.
Tera List:

• Dudunsparce Tera Ghost (Stops Fake Out and gets rid of Fighting weakness)
• Diancie Tera Grass (feels weird, but it covers most of her weaknesses as well as giving Nemona something against powder Moves)
• W-Rotom Tera Electric (Boosts Discharge damage and takes away weaknesses)
• Gliscor Tera Ground (Boost Earthquake damage, not quite as badly affected by Ice after)
• H-Zoroark Tera Normal (Pretty rare to see this one, opens her up to Fighting and Normal attacks but gets rid of Dark weakness and boosts Hyper Voice)
• Lucario Tera Fighting (loses a lot of resistances but also all of her weaknesses while gaining new ones to Flying, Psychic, and Fairy. Also powers up Close Combat)

For this battle, you'll probably want to just pick a starter set and prepare for that, just reloading until you get the right starter set. It's very possible to have answers for one set, and even for either of the two starting Pokemon possibly being her Zoroark in disguise to start. It's a lot more difficult to try and deal with 5 potential different Pokemon to start. If you absolutely feel the need to do so, make sure to have Protect and other stall Moves to get a clearer picture on what she's throwing at you first, then respond. Priority Moves like Sucker Punch can do a lot of damage as she doesn't have many counters to those either.

She lacks most methods to remove your buffs, terrain, entry hazards, or weather (thankfully), but given how hard she'll hit, often nailing both Pokemon on your team twice, Nemona will quickly tear through your team if given the chance. There's no competing weather or terrain setters so any Pokemon with Abilities that can set up those up for you without giving up a turn are quite handy.

Your Pokemon for this battle are going to vary wildly, it really depends on what combos you have ready. While her Pokemon are decently fast, Gen 9 metagame is insane so a lot of Paradox and Legendary Pokemon beat her for speed, which is good… unless she sets Trick Room up. Room Service may be an item you can consider using for those Pokemon. Here are a few others that we've found generally handy:

Scrappy Flamigo is a solid counter to H-Zoroark and Dudunsparce even if they Terastalize. Storm Drain Gastrodon can block Rotom, and can threaten Diancie and Lucario, and even Gliscor with Ice attacks. Maushold can be either an offensive threat with Technician Beat Up/Population Bomb and Wide Lens to threaten all but Diancie and Lucario, or as a support with Friend Guard and Moves like Helping Hand, Follow Me, Encore and the like. Rillaboom sets up Grassy Terrain to limit the effectiveness of Gliscor's Earthquake, while also threatening Diancie. Palafin outspeeds all but the H-Zoroark, so you can Flip Turn easily, or just switch out if you're scared of that with a bunch of support options in Haze, Encore, and Taunt, as well as just insane stats once Zero to Hero is triggered.

Incineroar or any Intimidate Pokemon are generally traps here. Nemona has three physical attackers, but only one (Gliscor) can be affected by Intimidate. Lucario has Inner Focus which stops flinches and Intimidates as of this gen, and Diancie has Clear Body making them immune to all stat drops from enemies. You can aim for a Trick Room team of your own, but that can be difficult to set up given how much offense Nemona has, and you need your team's speed to be really low so that Dudunsparce and Diancie can't take advantage of it themselves.

It'll be a tough fight, but try it a few times, get a feel for how she tends to respond and do your best to predict her Moves and switches because she will be prepared for you. If you show up with two Pokemon that know Steel Type attacks, don't be surprised if she swaps her Diancie for Rotom as you try to double tap them, etc. With enough perseverance you'll emerge victorious.

After all of that? She'll do the trade like every other mentor you can call into the club does, with Nemona offering a Shiny Dunsparce. Which might not seem like much until you learn it's guaranteed to evolve into a three segment Dudunsparce, saving a bunch of time for collectors… or not depending on how long it took you to beat her, haha.

Spoiler: A/N:

The second one of these! This time we get to see her original team in double battles (those are going to be fun/complicated to write). I originally planned to have Nightwing use her Fling → Acrobatics strategy I have in the story, but with how long it would take to set up Toxic Orb self poison, Fling to get rid of it, then Acrobatics, it just seemed too easy to see through in a video game and made Nightwing way too open to counter play. Miles' Moveset got changed around dramatically as well, as I realized I was hewing too closely to what their Moves are now, in the story. Which works there, but wouldn't in a double battle, especially in a game with move limits and the like.

 

[Skyfyre]

I have some exciting news. King crimson over on Sufficient Velocity has just posted a lovely omake over on their quest Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest, and with their permission, I'm crossposting it here. This is the first part, and even without specific knowledge of their fic, I think you'll enjoy it too (but definitely do check the quest out if you have the time, it's great).

Like No One Ever Was Crossover omake Part 1
Cassandra Luthor (several years in the past)
Cassandra Luthor was born to be better. There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it, Cassandra was a Luthor which meant that she was better than virtually everyone else. Of course as Father's chosen heir, Cassandra had to prove she was the best. LexCorp was an industrial titan, easily cornering the power generation market in Unova, as well as the far less public facing weapons industry. They'd attempted to enter into the phone market but were beaten out by the Glitteratis. LexCorp had better hardware but raw machines couldn't compete with the Rotom-Phone's versatility.

She hadn't thought much of the Glitteratis at first. They were competent enough but there was nothing especially exceptional about them. They were too soft where it counted and whilst others might underestimate them, Cassandra could easily see through their facade. They'd be beaten and conquered before long. Cassandra had risen up to each and every challenge her father had placed before her, a bunch of tacky, would-be business rivals would fall just the same as everything else.

The eldest daughter, Cyan Glitterati, wasn't a real peer in any way that mattered. A weak soft-hearted little sheep coddled by over-indulgent parents. She wasn't nearly as imbecilic as other children her age, but that by no means put her on Cassandra's level. Cassandra would easily run roughshod over her if need be, especially in any relevant field that required drive and competitiveness.

The younger daughter, closer in age to Cassandra appeared to be the same at first. A foolish little girl strutting around with her parent's toys and playing the video darling for tapioca brained masses to coo over. The girl's musical ambitions were equally insipid, a bunch of mealy-mouthed sentimental mush. Cassandra paid it no mind, she had tutors upon tutors and countless academic and practical subjects to master in order to prove herself a worthy heir. And Cassandra would prove better but her perception of Nemona did change with time.

Somehow the Glitterati girl proved to be a remarkably competent battler. Cassandra could acknowledge that much. In a real fight Cassandra was confident she would win, real fights didn't have judges or rules and Cassandra excelled at interpersonal violence, but in an official match it was far less clear.

And official matches were important. Being able to succeed in the various leagues against gym leaders was a sign of competence and was internationally lauded. Being able to defeat Elite Four members and even champions would open up countless doors. Cassandra liked battling and alongside her starter Nibbler, Cassandra was confident that she could dominate the actual league, but so far it appeared Nemona might have a leg up on her.

The last straw was when Nemona took on the gym leader Clay and won. Cassandra had plans. She was going to attend Blueberry Academy eventually, it would be useful for connections at the very least, and she wanted a debut wherein her battling prowess wasn't in doubt. The plan was to take on several gym leaders in a row, and then come to the Academy before going on to clear the league as the youngest to ever do so. Of course Nemona had to go and beat a gym leader first. Now when Cassandra did take on Clay, her debut would be marred as Nemona had already done it first at a younger age.

It was infuriating, that all of Cassandra's plans would be thrown off by an outside factor but that was fine, Cassandra could pivot. She would prove she was the best one way or another. Now it just meant that she had to crush Nemona first.

Cassandra promptly accelerated Nibbler's training. She'd evolved her starter into a Gabite on her own following the instructions experts on LexCorp's had provided, but it was clear that it wasn't fast enough. He was bred to be the ideal battling Garchomp eventually, and Cassandra greatly enjoyed spending time with him, but she also had to learn to take over the company. As such there was only so much time she could spend training him. From now on Nibbler would be regularly trained by the best money could acquire. She was confident that Father could get some of the Dragon Tamer Clan in Opelucid to contribute. Nibbler would have a whole team of professionals dedicated to ensuring that he was the best. Cassandra would still train with him when possible but this would make sure that Cassandra came out on top.

Of course Nibbler on his own wouldn't be enough. Cassandra had an entire team to fill out. She had some ideas on what to do and sooner or later she'd be able to get the best breeders to provider her with the best eggs and she'd have the best team possible. Those new members would need to be trained up as well, but Cassandra could deal with it. There would be some struggle in finding time to ensure that Cassandra herself did not become the weak link, but Cassandra was confident she could manage.

Cassandra smiled as she prepared her arguments for Father to set things in motion. She was going to crush Nemona and prove to everyone that she was the best.

Nemona Glitterati (a few months later)
It wasn't often I took the time to think about how far I'd come. There was always something to do or somewhere to go, and that naturally meant there wasn't a lot of time to spend navel-gazing. Still as I was hiking in the wilds I couldn't help but think that I'd come fairly far.

I was going to take on the Elite Gauntlet and the Champion soon and I'd proven immensely successful in the Paldean League. True the Paldean League wasn't considered as intense as some other regions, but it was still a solid accomplishment. I had an excellent team, and while there were rough patches, like with Radiance, we were coming together as a unit remarkably well.

Raifort was still on the loose and Turo was still a problem but I'd made friends and come out on top. The future wasn't certain but I was confident we could take it on regardless.

I was getting ready to keep heading further when I spotted someone approaching me. I wasn't used to being famous still, and it was a little weird to be approached in the middle of nowhere, but it couldn't hurt to be friendly to a fellow trainer.

As she got closer I got a better look at the person in question. A dark haired girl, about my age approached us. The boots and the fingerless gloves she wore seemed practical at least but while I still didn't get fashion, my sister had chatted about it enough that I could vaguely recognize that the other girl's collared shirt and slacks were expensive and likely some kind of designer brand. The luxury balls tied to her belt only further solidified the impression that whoever she was, she wasn't shy about throwing around money.

It might be a little hypocritical but it felt a little weird to encounter some rich girl out in the middle of nowhere. That wasn't a thing people normally did. I couldn't recognize who she was off of my time on the internet looking into previous trainers, and my general metaknowledge of the games was also drawing a complete and total blank. It was certainly a surprise.

"You're Nemona Glitterati, right?" The girl asked, her voice flat and level. She seemed to kind of have a resting scowly-face. It was kind of cute on a kid, but I could see her coming off as intimidating or scary to other people my age. She wasn't nearly as bad or as aggressive as some other kids I'd encountered on my journey so I just assumed she was kind of bad with people.

"Yeah?" I asked somewhat confused but hoping to get to the bottom of things quickly. The other girl remained placid but I could see a bit of a competitive spark light up in her eyes.

"My name is Cassandra Luthor" the girl semi-dramatically introduced herself. She seemed to expect me to recognize her name but I was drawing blank. Maybe she was the daughter of someone who worked with my parents? I could figure it out some other time though as the other girl continued her declaration.

"I've come to challenge you to a pokemon battle" Cassandra stated. I was certainly interested. A weird rich girl tracking me down to battle me wasn't something that I was expecting but it wasn't overly unpleasant. I hadn't planned on a battle but I wasn't opposed to it one way or another.

"Alright, sure" I responded. "How many badges do you have?"

Cassandra seemed to get visibly irked by this question.

"None but don't think that means you can afford to hold back, I want to beat you at your best!" Cassandra declared. Badges weren't a surefire way to tell how capable a trainer was but it was still a decent shorthand. The fact that Cassandra had none made me pretty sure she was new on her journey. I figured I could afford to take it a little easier. I wasn't going to underestimate her, but I'd be putting Bahamut out first. This was a friendly match against a rookie, I could afford to take things a little easier.

"Got it" I answered "Ground rules for the match?"

"Six on six standard Unovan League rules" Cassandra responded before handing me a blocky device. I couldn't make heads or tails of it as the design was well past the level of tech I knew how to work. Apparently Cassandra picked up on my lack of knowledge because she quickly came over to assist.

"It's basic battleshield tech" Cassandra grumbled "You plant it on the ground in front of you, activate it and then we can go all out without needing to worry about hitting each other"

Huh, neat. I revised my assessment of Cassandra a bit, she was definitely some wealthy tech guy's daughter. Once the battle was done I'd have to ask her for one of these, it'd be nice to be able to recreate gym conditions out in the wild.

We each took up a spot a fair bit away from each other and readied ourselves for the battle.

"Go, Bahamut!" I shouted as I tossed the relevant pokeball. Bahamut let out a roar as he loomed over the battlefield. If Cassandra was at all unnerved by facing down a large pitch black Haxorus, she didn't show any signs of it. She merely ran a hand through her hair and smirked before tossing out her own ball.

"Snowy, you know what you have to do"

With a name like Snowy I was expecting some kind of ice type, an Alolan Ninetales or an Abomasnow would've made sense to me. Instead Cassandra apparently named an Annihilape of all things Snowy. I was kind of curious as to the story behind that.

The Annihilape let out a ferocious howl as it seemed to size up Bahamut. It was time for the match to begin.

"Bahamut, Aerial Ace!" I cried out, deciding to take the initiative. Cassandra did say she wanted me to try my best so I figured I might as well set the tempo. Bahamut leapt into the air and gathered flying type energy around himself before then diving down.

The blow easily connected with the Annihilape which made no move to dodge. The fact that Cassandra was entirely unreactive, just smirking a bit lead me to believe that either she had no idea what to do and was relying on strong pokemon someone else had given her, or she was setting some kind of trap.

"Leg breaker low sweep!" Cassandra called out, confirming that it was a trap.

The Annihilape lashed out and swung its foot outwards, breaking Bahamut's balance and sending him tumbling to the ground. I didn't quite know what Cassandra's game plan was but I know that I needed Bahamut to get up and get distance.

"Dragon pulse!" I commanded.

"Dragon breaker" Cassandra calmly responded.

Bahamut heard my command and did manage to fire off a purple pulse of power but the Annihilape danced around it and closed the distance, promptly landing an ice punch hard enough to turn Bahamut's head.

The Annihilape promptly then grabbed one of Bahamut's tusks and roughly pinned his head to the floor. At the same time the Annihilape began to repeatedly strike the back of Bahamut's head with ice punches.

Cassandra's strategy made sense in hindsight but I needed to come up with a counter to it. As is, she'd used Annihilape's strength and Bahamut's body type to pin the Haxorus to the ground in such a way where Snowy could hit him, but he couldn't hit the Annihilape back.

"Bahamut use breaking swipe, try to weaken its hold!" I cried. I wasn't sure it would work but Cassandra had completely thrown off my intended strategy by using a strategy that would only work against pokemon with the same body type as Haxorus. Still I needed to try something.

Bahamut unfortunately wasn't listening to me. Getting pinned to the floor and repeatedly punched was frightening and he was openly panicking, firing off moves and desperately trying to get free. They were connecting but there wasn't any sort of strategy and the Annihilape seemed to be content taking the blows.

Bahamut was a big fully evolved dragon but at the same time he was still pretty young. Something like this was a little too intense for him.

I made my decision promptly.

"You did good Bahamut" I reassured him as I recalled my Haxorus and thoguht of what my next move was going to be.

"This is not a switch" I informed Cassandra "I'm retiring Bahamut from the rest of the match"

Cassandra seemed taken aback by this before her smirk once more reasserted itself.

"I thought you were better than that" The other girl taunted "One thing goes wrong and you immediately fold? You might as well give up now"

"Thanks but no thanks" I responded to the other girl, doing my best to ignore her attempted taunt. "You caught me off guard but it won't happen again"

"I'm sure you'll find some other excuse for your loss" Cassandra fired back. I did my best to ignore her taunts as a game plan settled in my mind.

I grabbed Phantasm's ball and readied myself. I hadn't gotten to see much of the Annihilape but I knew it was fast and strong. However I know that a Hisuian Zoroark would be immune to both its fighting type and ghost type attacks, and Phantasm's illusions could be used to bait both Cassandra and the Annihilape into using fighting type moves by making them think they were fighting Dun, against whom such moves would be super-effective.

"Alright Dun, you're up to bat" I loudly called out. Phantasm quickly set up an illusion of Dun calling out.

Cassandra kept grinning, confident she was going to win but I wasn't intimidated. This match was far from over.

"Snowy, cloud cover!" Cassandra yelled as soon as the battle began. The Annihilape promptly slammed its fist directly into the ground, kicking up a massive amount of dirt and dust, obscuring it from view. Phantasm meanwhile had kept the false Dudunsparce in place while invisibly moving to the right.

When the Annihilape burst out of the cloud of smoke at frightening speeds, we were ready for it.

"Blizzard!" I yelled as Phantasm moved her illusion to make it seem as though Dun had dodged the attack. When Phantasm and the illusion were aligned, Phantasm let out an icy wind attack, faking that Dun had launched a blizzard attack.

The Annihilape wasn't quick enough to dodge and instead it rushed after what it thought was Dun, constantly trying to connect with a fighting type move as Phantasm peppered it with icy winds. The Annihilape slowed down and I decided to switch tacks.

I signaled to Phantasm to use shadow sneak to close the gap and get in close. The Annihilape swung its fist but the move completely missed.

"Night slash, full swing!" Cassandra commanded, causing the Annihilape to charge its fist with dark energy as it swung its arm in a full 360 degree motion.

"Abort and shadow ball" I fired back. Phantasm promptly stepped out of range of the Annihilape's attack and launched a sphere of dark ghostly energy directly into the Annihilape. The ghostly pokemon stumbled back before it regained its balance. It then lout out a massive earsplitting rage filled shriek.

I was ready to exploit the Annihilapes anger when a red beam struck the pokemon. Cassandra had recalled her pokemon.

"I'll be making a switch now" Cassandra said as she placed the luxury ball back on her belt before picking up a different one. "Hunter will be dealing with your Zoroark now"

From the luxury ball, a male Pyroar with a resplendent fiery mane burst forth. It did not roar and instead seemed to stare at "Dun" with snooty disdain.

If she'd figured it out that quickly it was probably better to change things. Most of Phantasm's ranged options were something a Pyroar would either be resistant or immune to. Yes I did still technically have Hyper Voice to fall back on, but I figured I'd be better off saving her for later, especially since Phantasm was my best answer for Annihilape.

"I'll also make a switch then" I replied, causing Cassandra to frown "Notch, come on out!"

Notch swiftly appeared in a flash of white light. As a Carbink, Notch wasn't the most expressive but I could tell they were ready for a fight. Cassandra meanwhile seemed utterly unmoved by what was going on. Where she'd been frowning before she now seemed to be grinning again. The battle swiftly began once again.

"Noble Roar!" Cassandra ordered and the Pyroar let out a bellowing roar in response. This seemed like an amateur mistake. Notch was resistant to both fire and normal type moves. In theory boosting up her Pyroar's offensive moves was the right play, but Notch could easily hold out against it for quite a while. If Cassandra wanted to try breaking through Notch, I was happy to set the field and punish her for it.

"Light Screen!" I called out in response. Cassandra meanwhile merely ordered another noble roar. It felt like I was missing something but I wasn't sure what. I'd underestimated her once and Bahamut had got taken out fast. Still I couldn't spend too much time dwelling on hypotheticals and what-ifs, I had a battle to win.

I gave the order for stealth rocks and then for three layers of spikes, all the while Cassandra continued to order more and more noble roars, boosting up Pyroar's offensive capabilities. The ground was littered with hazards and I was fairly confident that I had managed to get things to work out. Maybe Cassandra had made a mistake. She was still entirely focused on buffing Pyroar.

As such I made the call to try and go for an iron defense, raising Notch's defensive capabilities. Yes Pyroar were typically special attackers and iron defense boosted physical defense, but the increased damage of body press, which should be Notch's most powerful move as it was super effective against normal type pokemon like Pyroar, did offset that.

"Hunter, no more nobility" Cassandra commanded. I took a second to ponder what that meant, as it wasn't a straightforward command. That one second was all it took for Pyroar to let out a massive full bodied roar which promptly forced Notch back into their ball. I couldn't help but grimace again as once more I was put on the back foot. I had to come up with some way to throw Cassandra off her rhythm or else I'd end up losing the match.

Cassandra Luthor
Cassandra was ecstatic as she saw the grimace on Nemona Glitterati's face. She delighted in seeing the other girl lose her composure. It was satisfying seeing that the time spent practicing and studying how the other girl might choose to battle and having it pay off. She'd finally be able to prove that without a doubt she was the best.

Then the other girl let out a smile.

"Don't count me out just yet!" Nemona said "I'm not giving up!"

Fine. It was all fine. Cassandra would just need to knock her down again. She'd knock her down again, and again, and again, and again until she utterly, totally and completely crushed Nemona. She'd make Nemona regret continuing to battle. Cassandra had set the stage and now she was going to beat the other girl effortlessly, and utterly one-sidedly.

When the other girl sent out a Lucario, Cassandra was still confident she'd end up winning. Yes Lucarios were impressive and their fighting type capabilities did match up well against Pyroars but Pyroar's fire type attacks were super effective against steel types like Lucario. Cassandra was going to melt Nemona's pokemon if a single attack so much as grazed it.

Cassandra focused on the battle as Nemona promptly mega-evolved her Lucario. The blue jackal-like pokemon was enveloped in a cocoon of energy before bursting out in a new more powerful form. Cassandra scowled. She'd looked into mega-evolution and found it lacking. She'd purchased a mega ring and the appropriate stones and attempted to do so with Nibbler. It should work with a Garachomp and Cassandra was certainly bonded with her starter. And yet no matter what she did, Cassandra couldn't get the mega-evolution to work.

She ultimately came to the conclusion that all those people talking about bonds being the key to mega-evolution were lying in order to protect their secrets. By saying that the key to the technique was friendship, they'd waste everyone else's time and keep the real secret to it hidden. When it didn't work, they could just claim that whoever attempted and failed just didn't love their pokemon enough. Well Cassandra wasn't going to give them the satisfaction. She didn't need mega-evolution, it was a dumb gimmick hidden by protectionist liars. She'd win on her own terms in her own way. She wasn't going to open herself up to some ridiculous notions that she didn't love her own pokemon enough. She'd just demonstrate that mega-evolution was nothing more than a crutch for people who couldn't get strong with their pokemon as they were.

Cassandra refocused her attention back to the fight proper.

"Flamethrower" Cassandra commanded, and Hunter promptly responded letting out a billowing stream of fire. The Lucario still managed to dance around the fire, bounding off of the rocks put into play by the Carbink earlier. Annoying. Still no matter, Cassandra would win in the end eventually.

"Hyper voice" Cassnadra commanded as Hunter let out a mighty bellow in response. Unlike flamethrower this move was significantly harder to see and as it traveled in a cone rather than a stream like flamethrower it was significantly harder to dodge.

The Lucario ended up getting clipped and Cassandra heard a cry of concern from Nemona. Cassandra wasn't done yet.

"Fire Blast to finish it!" Cassandra ordered as her Pyroar promptly shot out a searing hot cavalcade of fire, directly at the Lucario which hadn't quite recovered its footing. This match was over.

"Endure it Athena!" Nemona cried out right as the move connected. Cassandra readied another fire blast. She'd end it one way or another. Then she heard Nemona command the Lucario to use detect, enabling it to avoid the follow-up.

Cassandra wasn't worried. She just had to get more accurate with her attacks and wait till the Lucario got burned. She had her Pyroar fire off another torrent of fire and this time the Lucario endured it again. Once more and once more further the same pattern emerged. Cassandra kept up the pressure but Nemona's Lucario just would not go down. Fine if that was the game she wanted to play Cassandra would flip the table and win anyways.

"Will o' Wisp" Cassandra commanded, hoping to end this. Hunter let out a small collection of dancing blue ethereal flames which flickered towards the Lucario. Unfortunately the Lucario managed to avoid them once more.

Nemona made a move to try and use Dancing Sword and Cassandra moved to cut her off at the pass.

"Taunt" She ordered, with Hunter promptly letting out a mocking purr towards the Lucario, staring down at his inferior. It appeared to work as the Lucario was properly enraged.

No more power-ups, no more enduring, no more dodges, Cassandra was finishing things now, this was checkmate.

"Earthquake!" Nemona suddenly cried out. Cassandra outwardly kept cool as Pyroar leapt into the air to avoid the shockwave. Apparently they'd both forgotten the Lucario had that move. Hunter let out a pained yowl as he landed atop some of the spikes scattered earlier.

An aura sphere promptly shot out towards Pyroar. Cassandra immediately ordered Hunter to intercept the move with his own flamethrower. She was not going to lose this! She was still in control.

"Extreme speed!" Nemona followed up and the Lucario blitzed right into Hunter's space. The blow itself wasn't all that damaging but the problem was that now Hunter had to turn to get at Lucario. As a Pyroar all of Hunter's most powerful moves were launched from his mouth. With the Lucario standing to the side, Hunter wasn't able to leverage his most powerful attacks.

Cassandra wasn't going to be caught out like that by any fighting type moves, she wasn't going to give Nemona the chance to ruin everything again.

"Dig and get out of there!" Cassandra ordered. Hunter quickly disappeared under the ground, having learned to rapidly dig in order to escape close ranged pursuers. Cassandra knew that Nemona wouldn't be able to hit Hunter with any fighting type attacks.

"Alright then, earthquake" Nemona ordered, seemingly pivoting plans. Cassandra felt rage. How could she have forgotten about earthquake? Now that Hunter was underground, he could no longer dodge it and he'd take extra damage. Somehow some way Nemona had managed to get Cassandra to make a mistake.

Her poor Pyroar was promptly pushed out of the earth and sent flying through the air, his fur matted with dirt. Once more he was hurt by the spikes and stealth rocks the stupid little pebble Cassandra had outmaneuvered had set up. Cassandra wasn't going to let this go. Nemona wanted to play the game of undodgeable attacks? Cassandra would give her an undodgeable attack.

"Burn it all down!" Cassandra cried out. "Full power!"

Hunter knew the command and promptly launched a ball of fire up into the air. Nemona seemed confused as to the move. This was the advantage of using more obtuse commands instead of conventional attack names, trainers who were used to familiar cues would get thrown off. Cassandra had hidden that she'd ordered a sunny day to be used first.

Unfortunately for Cassandra, Nemona was also good enough that the momentary confusion didn't slow her down much as the Lucario continued to race in. There was no commitment to extreme speed but Cassandra knew she and Hunter were running out of time.

Hunter managed to leap into the air just in time to avoid a drain punch from the oncoming Lucario. This was it. Cassandra figured, now the Lucario was finished. Cassandra couldn't help but giggle a little bit, giddy from how she'd still managed to overcome Nemona after everything that the other girl had pulled out. Mega-evolution, a Lucario that wouldn't go down, and Cassandra making mistakes like forgetting about earthquake and it still wasn't enough. Cassandra was going to win!

Hunter launched a blisteringly hot overheat attack at full power right down into the arena they were fighting in. It had taken Hunter months of specialized training but these full powered wide range overheats should be completely unavoidable from the angle he'd jumped at. Lucario was as good as gone.

Cassandra smirked as the massive attack hit the ground and the barrier flickered to life as flames washed against it. Everything burned and Cassandra had come out victorious.

The fire slowly cleared and Cassandra was ready to let Nemona know of the futility of continuing to fight when she saw that the Lucario was some how still standing. Hunter was winded the massive overheat had a side effect of completely exhausting him. He was a sitting duck. Cassandra did her best to hide her horror as Nemona ordered a drain punch and the Lucario promptly knocked out her Pyroar.

Cassandra bitterly returned Hunter to his luxury ball.

"You should have won, you did everything right" Cassandra whispered, unwilling to let the other girl hear her moment of weakness "I messed up and I'm sorry you ended up losing because of my mistakes"

Cassandra didn't dwell on her frustration for long. She considered how the Lucario could have survived that last attack. She wracked her brains for a few seconds before coming up with an answer. The Lucario must have shaken off the taunt from earlier and been able to endure. It was irritating but at least it meant Cassandra could bring it down if she just blitzed the Lucario. She was still going to come out on top, she just had to not make any more mistakes.

"You doing okay over there?" Nemona asked, seemingly out of kindness considering Cassandra had taken a while to pick her next pokemon.

"I'm perfectly fine" Cassandra said as she imagined landing a fist right in the middle of Nemona's stupid face. She wasn't going to let the girl with the green fringe ruin this for her or get into her head. "I just was contemplating my next move"

Cassandra knew what had to be done.

"Ravager, come on out!" Cassandra called as she tossed out her next pokeball. The luxury ball activated and her red Scizor emerged, almost completely ignoring the various rocks and spikes she landd on. As Ravager's wings beat and she rose above the ground, her carapace gleamed in the mid-day sun like bright red battle armor. She looked more than ready to fight while the Lucario looked tired and worn down. Cassandra was still in control.

"I'll make use of my last switch then." Nemona stated as she returned the Lucario back to its ball. "You're up Nightwing!"

Nemona's Gliscor popped out of the ball and soon happily flitted about. Fine then, this was still within what Cassandra had expected of the match. She was going to win this. She'd planned on using Drakul to crush the ground type but she was confident that Ravager could wreak some havoc first. All of the research she'd done showed that the Gliscor didn't have a fire type move beside fire fang and if she played things carefully that would never be a threat. This was still Cassandra's battle to win.

Cassandra prepared herself as the battle began in earnest once more.

"Vacuum Wave!" Cassandra commanded. She would've preferred opening with a harder hitting move but at least now she could see if Nemona had a way to retaliate at range. Ravager promptly snapped her claws shut at a massive speed, leading to a blast of pressurized air flying towards the bat-like pokemon

"Tailwind!" Nemona fired back. That was enough to seal in Cassandra's mind that Nemona's Gliscor didn't have a ranged option to deal with long ranged attacks, save perhaps for earthquake, whose viability as a response had been nullified through Ravager's flight. That meant that she didn't need to bother with using struggle bug to weaken that option into nonexistence. She could begin the beatdown now.

Of course the tailwind likely was an attempt to increase the Gliscor's speed to enable it to close the distance, but Cassandra already had an answer prepped for that.

"Tailwind in return" Cassandra answered. A turbulent wind picked up and Cassandra saw the spikes and stones the Carbink had set up earlier rescatter across the field. Ravager seemed unaffected so she paid them no further mind, she had a fight to win and time spent second guessing herself would cost her in the long run. Now though the speed was equalized which meant that Nemona's Gliscor wouldn't be able to rely on raw speed to close the distance.

"Air cutter barrage!" Cassandra continued. Arguably swift might've been the more optimal attack, due to its homing properties, but Cassandra preferred the increased likelihood of hitting a weakpoint for extra damage that air cutter brought to the table.

Ravager seemed to enjoy using her wings to shape crescents of violent wind to fling into the Gliscor. The large scorpion-bat was getting hit every so often but the damage wasn't all that impressive. Cassandra was relying on a lucky strike and sooner or later Cassandra would get it if things stayed the same.

"Quick attack!" Nemona called out, clearly hoping to use the speed of the attack to catch Cassandra off-guard and allow for the fight to be shifted into close quarters. Cassandra was well aware that Nemona had at least three pokemon with moves that involved incredible amounts of speed in a short burst, the Lucario, the Gliscor, and her strange Zoroark. Three was a large enough number that Nemona was going to use one of those techniques eventually. As such Ravager had been trained to use quick guard, an attack designed to specifically block those techniques, automatically without any input from Cassandra.

Cassandra smiled as the Gliscor bounced off the brief energy shield Ravager had formed.

"Bullet repositioning into head grip" Cassandra promptly announced as Ravager moved to executed the command.

Her Scizor promptly used bullet punch, not to strike the Gliscor, but instead to reposition behind it. From there Ravager could promptly used her claws to grip the Gliscor's head, keeping it so that it couldn't turn and land any bite based attacks.

"Bring it down" Cassandra commanded as Ravager moved to pin the Gliscor against the earth to limit the space it could use to struggle.. She would've preferred having Ravager fire flash cannons at the back of the Gliscor's head, but she couldn't afford to have Ravager's grip weaken and give the Gliscor the chance to break loose as the other pokemon was wrestled to the ground slowly but surely. For now the ball was in her court so Cassandra figured she could afford to engage in some taunting, to try and distract Nemona and prevent her from calling out useful command.

"Seem familiar?" Cassandra mocked as Ravager seemed to solidly get the upper hand "The last time you had a pokemon in this position you had to recall it, give up now and save us both some time and suffering"

Nemona seemed unphased by the trash talk and merely quipped back.

"I think you're going to regret making comparison's too quickly" the other girl singsonged as Ravager finally pinned the Gliscor to the ground. What was different? What had Cassandra missed? She couldn't afford to make mistakes, so what had Cassandra not seen that Nemona seemed to have observed. Cassandra's eyes quickly swept back to the fight.

"Let loose an earthquake!" Nemona commanded right as she realized what was happening. The Gliscor hadn't been panicking the entire time. It hadn't had a fun time getting pinned as it was, but now that Ravager was touching the ground to pin it in place, Ravager could no longer dodge the Gliscor's earthquake attacks. In a way Nemona had turned Cassandra's pin into a double edged sword, as if Cassandra sought to maintain it, the fight would turn into a battle or endurance. While Ravager was strong, she couldn't heal over time like the Gliscor could and Ravager's best attacks were physical attacks that couldn't be pulled off easily while pining the Gliscor in place. Cassandra grimaced.

She ordered Ravager to enter into the air, weakening the pin but once more allowing Ravager to avoid the opposing Gliscor's earthquake attacks. Cassandra hoped this would be enough

"Breaking swipe, from the tail!" Nemona promptly cried out, finding a clear cut weakness in the current pin. Ravager didn't have the room to fully lock down the Gliscor and it showed as the move promptly connected, once, twice and then thrice. Ravager's grip slackened and the Gliscor resumed thrashing, slowly breaking loose of Ravager's grip. The fight would be over for Cassandra. She didn't want to deal with any potential fire fangs from this close up and Ravager's weakened attack meant she likely wouldn't deal much meaningful damage if this did turn in to a slugfest. She could try and gain range again but that was unlikely to work when the distance had already been closed. Cassandra needed to retreat.

"U-turn, you've done your job" Cassandra ordered. Ravager appeared displeased by the order but did as Cassandra bid, unleashing the bug type attack and promptly returning to her ball. U-turn was a fairly unique move in that it more or less allowed a pokemon to switch out of the field and back into its ball without counting as an official switch in these sorts of regulation matches. This meant that Cassandra still had one switch left while Nemona had none. It also meant that Cassandra could afford to have Ravager soften up her opponent and then retreat as Cassandra sent out her intended counter.

The Gliscor annoyingly enough seemed to have not taken too much damage but that was fine. Now Cassandra had the fight she wanted. Drakul would utterly and entirely crush the other pokemon and Cassandra would finally be able to offset her mistakes and make it so that Nemona needed to keep up with her rhythm. Not wanting to give the Gliscor any more time to heal, Cassandra promptly tossed out her next ball and in a burst of white light, Drakul emerged out from her Luxury ball.

Drakul was a Gyarados but she wasn't just any Gyarados. She was the biggest, meanest most aggressive Gyarados money could buy. Cassandra was fairly certain if she'd been bought as a Gyarados, and not as a Magikarp, Drakul would've never followed Cassandra's orders. As it was it had still taken Drakul longer than Cassandra had liked to realize that Cassandra was still in charge. Still the obedience issues had been worked out and now Cassandra's big danger noodle knew who the boss was.

Drakul also knew that as the boss following Cassandra's orders was the key to victory. There was a plan in place for this Gliscor and they were going to execute it perfectly. Drakul let out a massive roar as Cassandra contemplated the sheer size disparity between the two of them. Drakul could fairly easily swallow Nemona's Gliscor whole.

If the other girl was intimidated by this at all she showed no signs of it. The black and green haired girl seemed to still be grinning at some mistake that Cassandra hadn't noticed yet. That pissed Cassandra off.

Just what did she notice that made her think she could win such a lopsided match-up? Cassandra let the glower on her face fester. She'd wipe that stupid smirk off the Glitterati's face. Cassandra Luthor didn't lose! Especially not to two-bit, plan ruining, mega-evolution hiding, spoiled little princesses who looked at her like a Mandibuzz eyeing its next meal.

"Crush them into paste!" Cassandra screamed, forgetting entirely about decorum for a short while and just giving into instinct. The earth rumbled as Drakul roared in response and yet Nemona stood unflinching.

Cassandra Luthor didn't lose!