640 CH21 (635), Sailor’s Club

Mankey's Close Combat proved to be too much for Buizel, and it eventually slumped to the ground. "Buizel is down. Hank recall it and call out your next Pokemon," the acting referee lady declared. Hank recalled his Buizel, and I followed suit, returning Mankey after praising him for his victory. Hank gave me a look before putting Buizel's ball away and pulling out his second one.

"Silver," he announced and I nodded before taking out Borr/Eevee's ball. "Ready?" the lady asked once we both had our balls in our hands, and we both nodded. "Alright, on my signal then," she instructed before she began to count down. She finished with "Go", and we simultaneously released our Pokemon.

"Go, King" Hank said as he released a Kingler on his side. I was hoping that the Kingler had Sheer Force and Hyper Cutter as its abilities since I was not planning to let Eevee get close to it either way, so the loss of beneficial secondary effects would be more useful to us.

"Don't Mind the crowd and Shield, Borr," I opened up, as my Eevee appeared on my side of the battlefield. There was some excitement when the crowd noticed the shiny Eevee, and I heard the referee lady say "How cute", but we ignored all that. Borr directly opened up with Calm Mind, though I saw his tail move happily showing that he had heard the compliment.

"Mud Shot," Hank directly ordered upon seeing Eevee. Kingler followed suit, but the mud balls/blobs got intercepted by the Star Shield that Borr set up after completing Calm Mind. "CC, then Mind the distance," I ordered, which had Borr copy Kingler's Mud Shot before firing his own mud barrage at Kingler.

"Protect", Hank ordered, and while they were dealing with the mud, Eevee made sure to maximize the distance between himself and Kingler before using another Calm Mind. "Bubble Beam, then Dance," Hank ordered, following which Kingler flooded Borr's direction in bubbles.

"Swift Mimic" I ordered, and Borr first blocked the deluge of bubbles with stars before copying another useful move. Meanwhile, Kingler performed Sword Dance to boost its attack, but I was not all that worried about this since we had no plans to let Kingler make use of all that strength.

"Bubble Beam," I ordered which Hank had Kingler blocked with Water Gun. "Calm Mind, then Shield" I ordered while they were busy. Borr first completed his third boost before replenishing his shield since it had suffered during the Mud Shot.

"King get close then end it," Hank shouted sounding a bit frustrated. "Stay Calm until it is close enough then HV followed by SP" I counter-ordered, and Borr began to perform one Calm Mind after the other while Kingler closed in.

When it reached the 5-meter mark its large pincher began to glow, which could have indicated the use of Hammer Arm, Crabhammer, or Guillotine, though Hank's earlier command had me believe that it was preparing a Guillotine. Either way, once Kingler came that close, Borr stopped boosting and performed the Hyper Voice I ordered in case they tried to use Protect. However, it appeared that they were going to endure the attack in hopes of ending the fight in one move, so I immediately reacted.

"SP, NOW," I ordered and Borr aborted Hyper Voice. He then moved on to Stored Power moments before Kingler came close enough to deliver its attack. The 10-parameter boosted Stored Power hit just as Kingler struck out with his big claw. The released energy impacted Kingler's claw and hurled it away. Kingler crashed onto the ground nearly 15 meters away from its initial position.

Yet, Kingler managed to endure the point-blank attack with nearly double the power of a Hyper Beam and struggled back on its feet. While that was impressive, we naturally would not allow it to do so. "Shadow Ball until it's down," I ordered, and Borr directly sent a Shadow Ball flying as soon as the first word left my mouth. "PROTECT," Hank yelled out, delaying the inevitable since a second Shadow Ball followed moments after the first.

Kingler's Protect held firm against the first Shadow Ball and Kingler tried to keep it up as long as it could. The second Shadow Ball caused it to flicker, and the third broke the shield it erected. The fourth Shadow Ball hit home and thankfully proved enough to take Kingler down since Borr had to take a slight breather from releasing so many Shadow Balls back to back.

"Kingler's down. The little cutie wins," the referee lady declared with a wink in my direction. "Thank you for the battle," I said to Hank after I praised Borr while we recalled our Pokemon. Hank gave me a taciturn nod obviously not happy with his loss. "Your next drink is on me," I announced, which quickly had Hank put away his frown and release a happy chuckle. I was planning on doing that for everyone who did not purposefully muck things up during our battle.

"Thanks," he returned with a nod. "Your Pokemon fight pretty well," he said before vacating the battleground. "So, wanna keep going?" the ref-lady asked. "Yeah, I'm going to be here for as long as possible," I returned and she actually giggled at that. "Hear that, the cutie plans to continue, so who wants to earn a free drink?" she addressed the crowd. There was a moment of silence before someone shouted "I will". With that, another sailor pushed his way to the forefront and moved across from me.

"Silver," he directly declared before taking out a Pokeball. "Skip the useless stuff, Diana," he said, which had the ref-lady throw him a dirty look. "Rude as always Jeff," she retorted before turning to me. "You ready?" she asked and I gave her a nod after bringing out Ferrus' ball. She then began counting down, and when she said "Go", we released our Pokemon. On Jeff's side, a Tentacruel appeared, while on mine another Eevee made its appearance much to the wonder of the crowd.

Their first exchange showed that Tentacruel had a slight stage advantage with its (high) silver stage compared to Ferrus' (mid) silver stage, but we did not let that deter us at all. Ferrus' fight went completely different than Borr's battle. Ferrus went up to Tentacruel and beat it up using close-range moves while dodging as well as blocking Tentacruel's tentacles and attacks. The fight took some time, and Ferrus did get hurt in the process, but he eventually managed to take Tentacruel down with a final Iron Tail on its forehead. Diana declared Tentacruel beaten, and we recalled our Pokemon.

Jeff announced that his second Pokemon was at the silver stage as well, and this time I decided to go with another reserve team member. Hypno got to make his "official" debut by facing Jeff's Corsola. Both Pokemon happened to be at the (high) silver stage, but Hypno had an obvious advantage during the whole fight.

Corsola had a solid defense, but its bad agility/speed offered Hypno a pronounced advantage, and while it ended up taking close to 5 minutes, Corsola eventually fell after Hypno teleported behind it to deliver yet another Thunder Punch. I felt like Hypno had an easier time beating Corsola than Ferrus had beating Tentacruel, even if the time they took to do so was not that far apart.

Anyway, Diana once more declared me the victor and I told Jeff that his next drink was on me. Diana called out for the next challenger after Jeff left the field, and this time around a lady stepped onto the field. She actually declared that she was going to use an iron stage Pokemon and sent out a (high) iron Marill. I naturally matched her and sent out Squirtle, who managed to beat the water mouse after a somewhat equal match thanks to Marill's typing and Huge Power.

The second Pokemon she sent out was at the (high) iron stage as well, and Beldum was the one that got to face her Shellder. That battle ended up being the longest one so far because Shellder bunkered down on its defense, forcing Beldum who currently only had physical moves to chip away at it until it finally got knocked out. Nonetheless, the lady did have my Pokemon work for their victory, so after Diana declared me the victor I told her that her next drink was on me.

"Do you still want to continue?" Diana came up to me and quietly asked while putting a hand on my arm, which had me move my arm away before I gave her a nod. She chuckled at my action. "How cute. No need to be shy" she teased me, before turning back to the crowd, that was teasing Diana, having witnessed the byplay. "The cutie's on a winning streak. Does anyone else want to try their luck?" Diana asked, ignoring those who teased her.

Another challenger stepped forward before she even finished her sentence. "Silver," the sailor simply said after taking his position before pulling out a Pokeball, and I followed suit. He ended up sending out a (high) silver Crawdaunt, while I sent out Hestia/Eevee, who was at a slight disadvantage stage-wise. Nonetheless, after a protracted battle, Hestia managed to beat Crawdaunt thanks to controlling the pace of the battle by relying on her Star Shield and the fact that she focused on both her long-range as well as close-range moves.

However, even if Hestia ended up winning, she did get hurt a decent bit since that Crawdaunt was pretty strong, so I promised to pamper her a bit later on before I recalled her. "Silver" the sailor once more declared, and his second Pokemon ended up being a Pelipper, which had me wince a bit since I sent out Freyja/Lopunny. The battlefield was a bit lowered and the ceiling was a bit higher than usual. That gave Pelipper only 12ish meters of room to fly, which limited it a bit but still allowed Pelipper to fly properly.

Still, it was that limited height that allowed Freyja to put up a fight since she could reach that height by jumping. She used moves like Bounce, Jump Kick, and High Jump Kick to close in on Pelipper for close-range attacks, and Swift as well as Aura Spheres whenever she could not close in. Unfortunately, Pelipper used the fact that she had a hard time finishing it off while it was in midair to use Stockpile and Recover to, well, recover twice, and once Freyja started to visibly tire, Pelliper began to Stockpile a whole lot before using a devastating Spit Up in exchange for being hit by her Dizzy Punch and a Force Palm.

It was a lucky coincidence that Pelipper ended up being both paralyzed and confused as a result of those hits, causing it to fall out of the "sky" together with Freyja, who got hit by that Spit Up at point blank and got knocked out. I quickly recalled her before sending out Hestia once more. We/Hestia made use of the fact that Pelipper was confused and paralyzed to release an onslaught of attacks, that thankfully managed to knock Pelipper out while it was debilitated.

Honestly, had Freyja's final effort not triggered a double whammy, Hestia would have most likely lost against Pelipper as well due to being weakened after her first fight. Nevertheless, Hestia did end up winning which was why Diana once more got to declare me the winner. "That was a great fight," I said, fully aware of how close I had been to losing.

"Since you managed to knock out Freyja, I'll pay for your next two drinks," I announced and the sailor gave me a thumbs up without complaining about me being lucky or anything like that before leaving the battlefield. Once he was gone, I kneeled down and pat Hestia on the head. I praised her for ending the fight in our favor before recalling her after promising to extend her planned pamper session.

"Let's continue," I said to Diana afterward and she nodded before addressing the crowd. "Tim came pretty close there. Is there anyone that wants to try their luck?" she asked, and it did not take long before another guy stepped onto the field.

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