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More from Carlito
I wrote this up a whlie ago but completely forgot about it until last night. A follow-up to 
gammaeradon's story http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1050200/ Maybe you can teach a young fox some new tricks after all, though the learning isn't easy.
gammaeradon's story http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1050200/ Maybe you can teach a young fox some new tricks after all, though the learning isn't easy.
Category Story / Pokemon
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 23.1 kB
René exhaled deeply and took a drink from a water bottle. He had been breathing fire for hours and his throat was dry, scratchy, and aching. Even the water felt hot going down, it had been sitting on a chair and had lost its chill long ago. "I've been at this for hours," he sighed. "I think I've got the moves down by now, what more do you want me to do?"
"Knowing the moves and how to use them isn't enough," answered Tessa from the floor of the small gym. "I know you've got the moves down, you're pretty good at throwing fire around. But there's a big difference between knowing moves and knowing what to do with 'em," she explained. "I mean you can throw fire blasts at boards all day, but as a wise 'mon once said, 'Boards... don't hit back'."
"I know, but Coach Marceau stressed the importance of fundamentals," said René in an almost lecturing tone.
"For freshmen, yeah," laughed Tessa. "Most freshmen level battles consist of standing there taking turns throwing big flashy moves at each other and seeing what happens until someone gets tired and passes out," she continued. "You ever watch the upper classmen go at it? I mean the really good ones?"
"Yeah, I've watched a few battles," retorted René, trying his best to sound indignant.
"They blend their attacks, flow from one to the other without hesitation. They incorporate their abilities into their fighting style smoothly, they throw off attacks without thinking about it," she said, gesturing with her hands for emphasis. "The moves you're learning are the building blocks, sure, but I see a lot of battlers who never move past that point. They get such a rigid mindset about what they can and can't do that they really limit themselves."
"I just don't think I'm to that point yet," sighed the vulpix. "I mean I try, but half the time I blow it and choke on the smoke."
"Maybe, but you still have to keep it as a goal. You have to constantly be aware of your abilities and how to use them, as well as your opponent's abilities and how to overcome them," she continued as she rolled her chair away from the bleachers and towards the center of the gym. "I want you to show me, right here, right now."
"What, more drills?" sighed René.
"Screw drills, there's no better teacher than experience," she said as she turned to face him. "I mean a battle, you and me."
René looked at her with a dumbfounded look on his face. "What?" he stammered. "I can't fight you," he protested.
"Why? 'Cause you're afraid you'll get your tails kicked?" she teased.
"No, I mean," he said through a wavering voice.
"Because you can walk and I can't? I thought we went over this," she said, a slight irate tone to her voice. "You think I can't fight back?"
"No, I know you can, it's just," René sighed.
"You would feel bad," she answered for him. "Don't. Look, everyone who gets into this arena knows what they're getting into. I knew what I was getting into the last time I walked in here and I've never regretted it. Yeah, you've got a big advantage over me. But if I were a grassy you'd have a big advantage too," she shrugged. "When you're in this arena you have one responsibility, and that's to do the very best you can, to give that cliché one hundred and ten percent."
"Yeah but it just doesn't feel right when I'm in there against friends," answered René with a sigh.
"Look, I'm not sayin' go out and try to rip off your opponent's head and play pokeball with it, like some seem to think. But you can't hold back because you might feel bad about beatin' somebody," she said. "You can make friends outside of the arena, but inside, you aren't doing anybody any favors by holding back. Not yourself, and not them, trust me on that. I mean how would you feel if your opponent was goin' easy on you 'cause they felt bad about beating you?"
René thought to himself for a moment before speaking. "Kind of insulted I guess," he finally answered.
"So if you're in here against a friend, you should fight even harder, because you wouldn't want to insult them, right?" she grinned.
"Alright, but this is gonna feel really weird," René answered with a sigh.
"Just somethin' to keep in mind foxy, when I was a freshman I was one of the best in my class, and if it weren't for breaking my back during finals I had a shot at dropping that 'one of' clause," she grinned. "And I didn't get to be Coach Marceau's student assistant because he felt sorry for me, there was a long list of 'mon wanting the job. I got it because I know my stuff."
René nodded his head. "I know," he said. "If you don't want me going easy on you, I won't," he said, his voice showing more confidence and comfort than he was feeling.
"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking of ways to use the fact that I can't walk to your advantage, which is good, but probably feeling crappy about doing it, which is bad," Tessa said. "Only thing is, I know that's what you're thinking, so odds are I've thought of a way to counter it. And so the chess game begins, who's thought more moves ahead?" she said with a wry grin. "I'll say this though, if you're second-guessing yourself, it means I've already won. Because I'm not."
Tessa's eyes lit up with an electric blue glow as sparks of electricity arced off of the three large metallic spikes jutting from her tail. Within seconds electricity was arcing over her body and over the metal parts of the wheelchair she was sitting in. Her tail spikes were pulsating with electricity like tesla coils, shedding a bluish light over the dimly-lit gym.
Despite being tired from training René reacted quickly, narrowly dodging the incoming thunderbolt. Unfortunately he couldn't protect himself from the accompanying shockwave that struck him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him sprawling. Forcing himself to move, René rolled to the side, stood up, and performed a diving roll all in one motion, evading another thunderbolt that struck the arena floor where he had been only a fraction of a second ago.
With some momentum on his side René dashed to the side, flinging a series of rapid-fire embers at Tessa as he did so. She proved to be a bit more maneuverable than he had thought though, leaning back in her wheelchair and rolling backwards to dodge two of the three small blasts of flame. The last of them collided with a field of electricity and dissipated, showering her with sparks to no real effect. "Not bad," she nodded as she continued to move. "But you're still fighting like a freshman."
Annoyed, René's eyes lit up with a fiery radiance. A blazing circle of fire began to surround Tessa but she unloaded another blast of electricity, this time at the floor, using the impact to send her backwards and out of the encircling fire spin. This time however René had counted on her avoiding it and so hadn't actually devoted any energy to completing the circle of flame. Instead he concentrated for a moment, gathering up the flames and sending them chasing the pachirisu. Although she had momentum on her side the fire caught up with her, hitting her in the chest and knocking her back. As she fell backwards she arched her back and extended her arms behind her, using the momentum to shove herself up as the weight of the wheels on her chair carried her over to land upright, leaving René dumbfounded as to how she did that. "Ain't static cling great," she laughed, answering his silent question.
René once again heard the distinctive crack of electricity though he momentarily lost track of where Tessa was through the leftover flames. Again he dove to evade her attack but was surprised to find that no such attack was incoming. Too late he realized that she had created a small thundercrack as a decoy, and that he had fallen for it. Her actual thunder attack hit him low, taking his legs out from under him and causing him to fall to the floor. René tried to stand but couldn't move his legs, he was numb where the electrical blast had hit him. "Welcome to my world," snickered the pachirisu as she lined up another attack.
"That's not funny," he muttered. Concentrating for a moment he called on his ongoing training in the safeguard technique to will the paralysis from his legs, just barely getting to a knee and countering her lightning bolt with a fire blast of his own. "I can't be in your world, I can stand up straight without falling on my face!" he yelled as he rushed towards her, his legs still tingling. The vulpix threw another fire blast which Tessa tried to deflect but this time she was the one who had been fooled, as the fire blast came up way short, causing the ground in front of her to erupt in flame and smoke.
René charged through the fire, using his flash fire ability to protect himself from the flames and in fact drawing strength from them. Tessa was unable to see him through the flame and smoke until he was on her. Leaping forward René tackled her, chair and all, knocking both of them to the floor. That strong of a hit was enough to dislodge Tessa from the static cling she used to stay upright earlier and she fell out of her wheelchair, landing sprawled out on her back, slightly dazed, as René got to his feet above her. "Give up?" asked René after a deep breath.
"Not even close," she grinned as she looked up to meet his eyes. René was ready with another fire blast locked and loaded, waiting for the slightest spark of electricity from her to set it off, but what hit him was something he could have never ever expected. Tessa's right leg, lying sprawled on the ground, snapped up and forward in a sweeping arc that caught him across the jaw, spinning him around. The impact was very hard but it was difficult to say whether the physical force or the surreal shock of what had happened stunned René more. The pachirisu sat up and grabbed his right leg from behind, slamming the vulpix down on his back beside her, knocking what little wind was left out of him. Just as quickly she turned over without letting go of his leg, carrying him over her own body to land face first on the other side of her.
Suddenly René felt a tingle coursing through his entire body and felt every muscle of his body tense and lock up. Tessa lay beside him with her hand pressed firmly against the small of his back, pulses of electricity arcing between them in a rhythmic fashion. René felt as though his entire nervous system was on fire and could feel his body contorting in uncontrollable, rapid spasms. All he could do was mouth the words, "I give."
With a deep gasp he fell back onto the floor as Tessa released him. He spent a while laying there panting, his body still tingling all over and all of his muscles beginning to ache at once. "How... how in the heck... did you do that?" he finally gasped.
"I sent a focused electrical current rushing up and down your spine," she panted in turn. "Shorted out your entire nervous system," Tessa grinned as she sat up and started scooting backwards to where her chair had landed. "Like a taser, but worse."
"No, I mean, how did you kick me?" asked René in disbelief as he rolled over onto his back. "I thought," he paused.
"Yeah, I know," smiled Tessa as she leaned back on her hands. "The thing is my legs work just fine, there's nothing wrong with the muscles and tendons," she said, taking a deep breath. "A lot of the therapy I go through is to keep 'em exercised so they don't atrophy," she explained. "It's just that the signals from my brain can't get down there to tell 'em what to do. But a direct electrical current sent straight into the muscles will cause them to contract, very violently," she said with a satisfied smile. "It's just a matter of knowing which ones to hit. Now doing that would hurt like hell, but since I can't feel anything down there," she shrugged.
"That," said René, still breathing hard. "Is just crazy," he said, shaking his head.
"Well it was either that or flash my tits as a distraction, and I thought kicking you would be less likely to cause a nosebleed," she teased.
"I think you should have gone with that first idea," muttered René as he reached up to his muzzle and pulled back with some blood on his fingertips.
"Yeah you'd like that wouldn't you," laughed Tessa as she pulled herself back into her wheelchair. "Sorry about that, problem with doing that is I literally don't know my own strength."
René nodded as he stood up, still wobbly. "There's just no way I could have expected that."
Tessa just shrugged in response. "A good fighter learns to expect the unexpected. A great fighter learns to expect the impossible. You were doing really well, only problem was in doing the victory dance before it was over. If someone really wants to give up, trust me, they'll tell you. You don't have to ask them."
"So I should have just roasted you while you were laying there on the floor?" asked René, leaning his head back to try to slow the nosebleed.
"Yep. Though I'll give you credit, I don't think you were trying to go easy on me as much as you thought you'd won. But taking me out of the chair wasn't the goal, it was a step towards the goal. You gotta keep those two straight in a battle," she said. "That was definite progress though, you were thinking ahead, not waiting to see the results of your attack before starting the next one."
"Thanks," answered René as he nodded his head. "Oh and hey, about that whole standing up without falling on my face comment, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. I was trying to make fun of you for having a large chest, not for being in there," he said as he nodded his head towards her chair. "It just really came out wrong."
"No it didn't," laughed Tessa. "I got it. And thanks. Really all I want is to be treated just like any other girl with a big rack who wears shirts that are too small."
René smiled weakly, the pain in his muscles having caught up to him. "Yeah, me too," he laughed in spite of the pain. "Except for that whole big rack and small shirts part."
"Knowing the moves and how to use them isn't enough," answered Tessa from the floor of the small gym. "I know you've got the moves down, you're pretty good at throwing fire around. But there's a big difference between knowing moves and knowing what to do with 'em," she explained. "I mean you can throw fire blasts at boards all day, but as a wise 'mon once said, 'Boards... don't hit back'."
"I know, but Coach Marceau stressed the importance of fundamentals," said René in an almost lecturing tone.
"For freshmen, yeah," laughed Tessa. "Most freshmen level battles consist of standing there taking turns throwing big flashy moves at each other and seeing what happens until someone gets tired and passes out," she continued. "You ever watch the upper classmen go at it? I mean the really good ones?"
"Yeah, I've watched a few battles," retorted René, trying his best to sound indignant.
"They blend their attacks, flow from one to the other without hesitation. They incorporate their abilities into their fighting style smoothly, they throw off attacks without thinking about it," she said, gesturing with her hands for emphasis. "The moves you're learning are the building blocks, sure, but I see a lot of battlers who never move past that point. They get such a rigid mindset about what they can and can't do that they really limit themselves."
"I just don't think I'm to that point yet," sighed the vulpix. "I mean I try, but half the time I blow it and choke on the smoke."
"Maybe, but you still have to keep it as a goal. You have to constantly be aware of your abilities and how to use them, as well as your opponent's abilities and how to overcome them," she continued as she rolled her chair away from the bleachers and towards the center of the gym. "I want you to show me, right here, right now."
"What, more drills?" sighed René.
"Screw drills, there's no better teacher than experience," she said as she turned to face him. "I mean a battle, you and me."
René looked at her with a dumbfounded look on his face. "What?" he stammered. "I can't fight you," he protested.
"Why? 'Cause you're afraid you'll get your tails kicked?" she teased.
"No, I mean," he said through a wavering voice.
"Because you can walk and I can't? I thought we went over this," she said, a slight irate tone to her voice. "You think I can't fight back?"
"No, I know you can, it's just," René sighed.
"You would feel bad," she answered for him. "Don't. Look, everyone who gets into this arena knows what they're getting into. I knew what I was getting into the last time I walked in here and I've never regretted it. Yeah, you've got a big advantage over me. But if I were a grassy you'd have a big advantage too," she shrugged. "When you're in this arena you have one responsibility, and that's to do the very best you can, to give that cliché one hundred and ten percent."
"Yeah but it just doesn't feel right when I'm in there against friends," answered René with a sigh.
"Look, I'm not sayin' go out and try to rip off your opponent's head and play pokeball with it, like some seem to think. But you can't hold back because you might feel bad about beatin' somebody," she said. "You can make friends outside of the arena, but inside, you aren't doing anybody any favors by holding back. Not yourself, and not them, trust me on that. I mean how would you feel if your opponent was goin' easy on you 'cause they felt bad about beating you?"
René thought to himself for a moment before speaking. "Kind of insulted I guess," he finally answered.
"So if you're in here against a friend, you should fight even harder, because you wouldn't want to insult them, right?" she grinned.
"Alright, but this is gonna feel really weird," René answered with a sigh.
"Just somethin' to keep in mind foxy, when I was a freshman I was one of the best in my class, and if it weren't for breaking my back during finals I had a shot at dropping that 'one of' clause," she grinned. "And I didn't get to be Coach Marceau's student assistant because he felt sorry for me, there was a long list of 'mon wanting the job. I got it because I know my stuff."
René nodded his head. "I know," he said. "If you don't want me going easy on you, I won't," he said, his voice showing more confidence and comfort than he was feeling.
"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking of ways to use the fact that I can't walk to your advantage, which is good, but probably feeling crappy about doing it, which is bad," Tessa said. "Only thing is, I know that's what you're thinking, so odds are I've thought of a way to counter it. And so the chess game begins, who's thought more moves ahead?" she said with a wry grin. "I'll say this though, if you're second-guessing yourself, it means I've already won. Because I'm not."
Tessa's eyes lit up with an electric blue glow as sparks of electricity arced off of the three large metallic spikes jutting from her tail. Within seconds electricity was arcing over her body and over the metal parts of the wheelchair she was sitting in. Her tail spikes were pulsating with electricity like tesla coils, shedding a bluish light over the dimly-lit gym.
Despite being tired from training René reacted quickly, narrowly dodging the incoming thunderbolt. Unfortunately he couldn't protect himself from the accompanying shockwave that struck him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him sprawling. Forcing himself to move, René rolled to the side, stood up, and performed a diving roll all in one motion, evading another thunderbolt that struck the arena floor where he had been only a fraction of a second ago.
With some momentum on his side René dashed to the side, flinging a series of rapid-fire embers at Tessa as he did so. She proved to be a bit more maneuverable than he had thought though, leaning back in her wheelchair and rolling backwards to dodge two of the three small blasts of flame. The last of them collided with a field of electricity and dissipated, showering her with sparks to no real effect. "Not bad," she nodded as she continued to move. "But you're still fighting like a freshman."
Annoyed, René's eyes lit up with a fiery radiance. A blazing circle of fire began to surround Tessa but she unloaded another blast of electricity, this time at the floor, using the impact to send her backwards and out of the encircling fire spin. This time however René had counted on her avoiding it and so hadn't actually devoted any energy to completing the circle of flame. Instead he concentrated for a moment, gathering up the flames and sending them chasing the pachirisu. Although she had momentum on her side the fire caught up with her, hitting her in the chest and knocking her back. As she fell backwards she arched her back and extended her arms behind her, using the momentum to shove herself up as the weight of the wheels on her chair carried her over to land upright, leaving René dumbfounded as to how she did that. "Ain't static cling great," she laughed, answering his silent question.
René once again heard the distinctive crack of electricity though he momentarily lost track of where Tessa was through the leftover flames. Again he dove to evade her attack but was surprised to find that no such attack was incoming. Too late he realized that she had created a small thundercrack as a decoy, and that he had fallen for it. Her actual thunder attack hit him low, taking his legs out from under him and causing him to fall to the floor. René tried to stand but couldn't move his legs, he was numb where the electrical blast had hit him. "Welcome to my world," snickered the pachirisu as she lined up another attack.
"That's not funny," he muttered. Concentrating for a moment he called on his ongoing training in the safeguard technique to will the paralysis from his legs, just barely getting to a knee and countering her lightning bolt with a fire blast of his own. "I can't be in your world, I can stand up straight without falling on my face!" he yelled as he rushed towards her, his legs still tingling. The vulpix threw another fire blast which Tessa tried to deflect but this time she was the one who had been fooled, as the fire blast came up way short, causing the ground in front of her to erupt in flame and smoke.
René charged through the fire, using his flash fire ability to protect himself from the flames and in fact drawing strength from them. Tessa was unable to see him through the flame and smoke until he was on her. Leaping forward René tackled her, chair and all, knocking both of them to the floor. That strong of a hit was enough to dislodge Tessa from the static cling she used to stay upright earlier and she fell out of her wheelchair, landing sprawled out on her back, slightly dazed, as René got to his feet above her. "Give up?" asked René after a deep breath.
"Not even close," she grinned as she looked up to meet his eyes. René was ready with another fire blast locked and loaded, waiting for the slightest spark of electricity from her to set it off, but what hit him was something he could have never ever expected. Tessa's right leg, lying sprawled on the ground, snapped up and forward in a sweeping arc that caught him across the jaw, spinning him around. The impact was very hard but it was difficult to say whether the physical force or the surreal shock of what had happened stunned René more. The pachirisu sat up and grabbed his right leg from behind, slamming the vulpix down on his back beside her, knocking what little wind was left out of him. Just as quickly she turned over without letting go of his leg, carrying him over her own body to land face first on the other side of her.
Suddenly René felt a tingle coursing through his entire body and felt every muscle of his body tense and lock up. Tessa lay beside him with her hand pressed firmly against the small of his back, pulses of electricity arcing between them in a rhythmic fashion. René felt as though his entire nervous system was on fire and could feel his body contorting in uncontrollable, rapid spasms. All he could do was mouth the words, "I give."
With a deep gasp he fell back onto the floor as Tessa released him. He spent a while laying there panting, his body still tingling all over and all of his muscles beginning to ache at once. "How... how in the heck... did you do that?" he finally gasped.
"I sent a focused electrical current rushing up and down your spine," she panted in turn. "Shorted out your entire nervous system," Tessa grinned as she sat up and started scooting backwards to where her chair had landed. "Like a taser, but worse."
"No, I mean, how did you kick me?" asked René in disbelief as he rolled over onto his back. "I thought," he paused.
"Yeah, I know," smiled Tessa as she leaned back on her hands. "The thing is my legs work just fine, there's nothing wrong with the muscles and tendons," she said, taking a deep breath. "A lot of the therapy I go through is to keep 'em exercised so they don't atrophy," she explained. "It's just that the signals from my brain can't get down there to tell 'em what to do. But a direct electrical current sent straight into the muscles will cause them to contract, very violently," she said with a satisfied smile. "It's just a matter of knowing which ones to hit. Now doing that would hurt like hell, but since I can't feel anything down there," she shrugged.
"That," said René, still breathing hard. "Is just crazy," he said, shaking his head.
"Well it was either that or flash my tits as a distraction, and I thought kicking you would be less likely to cause a nosebleed," she teased.
"I think you should have gone with that first idea," muttered René as he reached up to his muzzle and pulled back with some blood on his fingertips.
"Yeah you'd like that wouldn't you," laughed Tessa as she pulled herself back into her wheelchair. "Sorry about that, problem with doing that is I literally don't know my own strength."
René nodded as he stood up, still wobbly. "There's just no way I could have expected that."
Tessa just shrugged in response. "A good fighter learns to expect the unexpected. A great fighter learns to expect the impossible. You were doing really well, only problem was in doing the victory dance before it was over. If someone really wants to give up, trust me, they'll tell you. You don't have to ask them."
"So I should have just roasted you while you were laying there on the floor?" asked René, leaning his head back to try to slow the nosebleed.
"Yep. Though I'll give you credit, I don't think you were trying to go easy on me as much as you thought you'd won. But taking me out of the chair wasn't the goal, it was a step towards the goal. You gotta keep those two straight in a battle," she said. "That was definite progress though, you were thinking ahead, not waiting to see the results of your attack before starting the next one."
"Thanks," answered René as he nodded his head. "Oh and hey, about that whole standing up without falling on my face comment, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. I was trying to make fun of you for having a large chest, not for being in there," he said as he nodded his head towards her chair. "It just really came out wrong."
"No it didn't," laughed Tessa. "I got it. And thanks. Really all I want is to be treated just like any other girl with a big rack who wears shirts that are too small."
René smiled weakly, the pain in his muscles having caught up to him. "Yeah, me too," he laughed in spite of the pain. "Except for that whole big rack and small shirts part."
Too much awesome! I love this! I can't write battles to save my life and you made Rene look more than half-competant in this! Brava!
And Tess is fun, oh yes. I can see her sending that picture of her (mostly) in bathing suit to him just to mess with his head. :)
You sirrah, rule!
And Tess is fun, oh yes. I can see her sending that picture of her (mostly) in bathing suit to him just to mess with his head. :)
You sirrah, rule!
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