Looking up who's skirt?!

AN: Happy new year, everyone! I wish you all a wonderful time, and a bright and fruitful year.

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The shout from Blastoise finally awoke Garry, who finally reacted to the attack. He looked at his pokemon's shell and then at the Toxicroak opposite him with a startled expression. Finally, his gaze drifted up to his opponent with a satisfied smile settling upon his lips.

"Aqua Mortar, please."

BLAST!

Without any unneeded movement or pause, Blastoise fell on all fours as his cannons rose slightly at a 45-degree angle. Large amounts of water began to condense around his entire body like a whirlpool.

BOOM!

The stage rumbled suddenly, causing the gears holding it in place to cry out from the pressure. the ground directly beneath Blastoise crumbled and shattered from the kick of the cannons.

In the air, a huge ball of water made a beautiful parabola across the murky sky.

The frail-looking man and his Pokémon looked up in unison and stared at the incoming attack with flat expressions.

"You missed?!"

"Are you blind?!"

"How can you miss like that?!"

Hundreds of shouts collided against the barrier as the audience watched with mouths agape. The only thing they could do was swallow their ineffective shouts and watch with bated breath as the attack seemingly missed its mark and collided several meters short of its intended target.

Toxicroak continued to stir its stored poison and scratch its head in confusion as it watched the attack that was intended for it. Yet its laid-back expression froze instantly.

Without time to react, a massive explosion swelled up like a tsunami. Everything was flattened and shredded to nothingness in mere moments.

BANG!

The attack sent the frog flying, illuminating its twisted expression of pain as it landed before its trainer. Small but incredibly numerous amounts of small cuts covered every inch of its body.

"What?!"

"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?"

The once exasperated crowd instantly exploded furiously in confused shouts.

James sat up from his slightly comfortable position and stared at the result with wide eyes. clearly not expecting that result, either. Elesa beside him wasn't too different in her reaction.

{If I'm not mistaken-}

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! ~~~

Before the crowd even got an answer from their commentators, cannon-like fire engulfed the stadium causing everyone's backs to become instantly drenched in sweat. The image of what they had just witnessed was being constantly magnified by multiple times, growing larger with every subsequent shot fired.

Everyone watched in horror as the sky was blotted out by an uncountable number of mortar shots. Like disco balls, they refracted what little light seeped through the cloudy sky, like a starry night.

[What beautiful violence,] James commented unconsciously.

***

[Garry oak has just won his first battle,] Gaia said suddenly as Rex stopped his bike outside of the base the league had built beside Mt Moon. He stared at the buildings through his binoculars as he silently listened to Gaia's announcement.

He lowered his binoculars to reveal a surprised expression mixed in with sudden realisation, "fuck, I completely forgot about that twerp's existence. Who did he go up against?"

[A poison-type user. His ace was an unusual Toxicroak with extraordinary flexibility and agility.]

Rex cupped his chin in thought, "considering Garry's pokemon choices. It should have been a rather difficult fight. This is based on your previous words. For you to praise a Pokemon as 'extraordinary' means it's not normal. I would probably employ area of effect attack like Nidoking/queen earthquake, heat wave Charizard or surf Blastoise to counter its agility."

[Those are good choices. What all of those have in common is that they're all long-range attacks that maximise your output while also minimising the danger you expose your Pokémon to. Essentially counter Toxicroak's superb close combat threat.]

Rex hummed in agreement, "so what did he end up using?"

[Blastoise, but he used a move called Aqua Mortar with a huge area of effect. It seems to contain very small but extremely sharp water blades that are pushed outwards by the shockwave caused by the initial explosion on impact with the ground. Quite an ingenious move.]

Rex laughed slightly, "quite rare of you to praise someone. but I do agree; it seems that the butterfly effect has already begun to take effect. And the gale blowing is quite strong. Garry is much more impressive in this universe than in the anime. Maybe I will have the chance to meet him in battle..." He thought before focusing back on the base before him.

It covered the entrance of the mountain, wrapped in tight security, with biosensors and armed personnel. "It seems that the preliminary results have come back positive. So much so that they decided to beef up security. But to this extent?" A puzzled yet curious expression surfaced on his face.

[I have hacked into their network via one of their satellites linked to the public server, which is used to issue notices to the populace. From there, I hacked into their personal database and bypassed the encryption hiding an additional list of informants who receive direct orders from a separate satellite network. I found one who hooked their device into a computer that has been connected to this public server and hacked into it.]

Rex creased his eyebrows, "shouldn't that be impossible? I mean, they should never do that, right? Once a device has been connected to a specific server, it can be traced forever. Usually, agents are sourced with 'virgin' devices, meaning devices that have never been connected to such servers. Only the private one. It's impossible to hack…" he mumbled.

[That would be the case, but if they connect this device to one that is connected to a public server, I can first hack that device before migrating into the virgin one, like I just did. From there, I have free reign to do what I want once connected. Funnily enough, they seem to not think anyone would get passed that point and lumped everything together from there.] Gaia explained in an amused tone.

Yet Rex didn't find it as amusing, "we can't let something like this happen to us. I know you hold the fort, but I refuse to believe I'm the only one who gets to peek up lady luck's skirt."

[That's… such a vulgar way of putting it Rex…] Gaia said speechlessly.

"Haha…" an awkward laugh squeezed out of his mouth as he scratched the back of his head.