seacub: (: ' D)
Emporio Alnino ([personal profile] seacub) wrote in [personal profile] indigo_league 2022-11-30 11:53 am (UTC)

ITS E4 TIME BAEBYYYY (part 1 of 2 go figure)

Character: Emporio AlniƱo | [personal profile] seacub
Badge/Gym Leader: ELITE FOUR CHALLENGE
Elite/Regular: WHAT PART OF ELITE FOUR DOESN'T SEEM ELITE- i mean what
Team: HERE- Oxy the Haunter (slide 2), Reedy-Weedy the Delcatty (slide 1), Northrop the Drakloak (slide 17), Confetti the Hisuian Electrode, Stoat the Sneasler, Haema the Hisuian Zoroark (all slide 18)
Battle Details: The time has finally come.

After the grueling path that is Victory Road- albeit with the strong advantage that comes from hearing tale after tale of the camping trip up, and the brief break afforded via the altruism of Riegfried and Soy- Emporio is here to take on the League.

Perhaps, given what they know of his sister figure Jolyne, they've been a bit worried. Especially with the trend he's set taking on the gyms- type match handicaping aside, some of those arenas ended up quite a mess! But with teams of level 100s to face, Emporio went into things knowing he couldn't treat this precisely like he did the gyms. He can't go in assuming it takes a self-crippling act to give the league a challenge.

They're the League.

The challenge, this time, is for him.

Emporio has gone in with a mixed team of sorts- the pokemon he brought back from the Past, ready to have their moment in the Present. His Haunter, who while not his starter, has practically taken that role alongside the dragon Emporio brought up against Claire. His dreepy, now a Drakloak- whose sheer enthusiasm brought the little one here today.

And...

...Reedy-Weedy, who once upon a time was a little skitty in a basket back in New Bark.

(He may have sent a letter to that lovely old lady, asking her to please turn the TV on at a particular day.)

With enough stories to prepare though, Emporio hasn't come in underprepared and cocky. He might have faith in his team, but it took work to get there! It took hunting down move tutors to explain the struggles historic pokemon have with TMs- it took scanning table after table of items at the Other Worlder's Tournament- it took training, constantly, and as the doors open to face off against Will it's time to let that shine.

Will

The stage is set. Haema, a normal-ghost pokemon, takes priority; with only one move tutored to her, Emporio is hopeful of the fact that the Bronzong they face is one with Levitate rather than Heatproof. If it IS heat proof of course, he can still get some good shots in with the wannabe-mother; but he has to be careful. Bronzong is slow, but it's also strong in its defenses- and Emporio's counting on Haema's Illusion to help her out for a split second.

Rather than a 'Normal Ghost', Emporio plays along with the boost and calls out the name of the second pokemon in his party line up- Stoat, the Sneasler. Hopefully baiting the Bronzong into wasting energy on a special focused Psychic move (which on Sneasler would hit for a x4 bonus), rather than any Steel moves, Emporio moves quickly with the order for 'Stoat' to 'get even'...And as the shadow and smoke fill the air for Bitter Malice, the broken illusion spells Bronzong's end! Haema focuses largely on ghost moves once she's out in the open, specifically special ones such as her recently tutored 'Flamethrower' ('Turn 'm red!')- but Bitter Malice is the move Emporio leans on in particular, hoping to take advantage of the resulting lower attack.

While Haema is the star of the show against Will, remaining on the field to take advantage of the striking blow delivered between her ghost moves- Shadow Ball ('Back to the basics!') hits particularly hard and is used with priority against Slowbro and Xatu due to the lower special defense- she is ultimately swapped out when Emporio faces off against the rest of Will's team. Psychic pokemon have on average very strong special defenses, and equally high special attack.

What he needs isn't just resistance- it's something that hits with force. Northop the Drakloak ultimately might not be the hardest of hitters, but he's one with the advantage of Infiltrator to get him around any barriers, and more importantly one who hits harder physically than not. Ordered to 'act with stealth', Phantom Force is used to guarantee a free dodge from more than a few situations, and having experienced the pain in earlier fights, Emporio even tells Northop to 'play with [the opponent]' once or twice to get Dragon Dance in...for the attack boost more than the speed of course. With the Drakloak told to 'take aim' using Lock On as well, the living jet isn't about to let the rest of Will's pokemon off lightly.

...But if needed, he has U-Turn for one last painful blow to swap out when Emporio shouts 'TAG OFF!'. Oxy is Emporio's third choice, ready to strike not with ghost moves to start but instead poison, as Emporio reminds her to 'Start slow'; Sludge Bomb is Oxy's only poison move, but as a STAB involved move, a bit of damage is preferred while rolling the dice for poison, over a wasted run using Hypnosis. If he's watched the tournament, Will will know what's coming the minute any poison lands too- Hex comes without anything more than a point, and with any luck Emporio won't need to call out any of the other pokemon to carry on the fight.

If he does, of course, Reedy-Weedy will be making use of Sing and Wake-Up Slap per an order to enact a '1-2-Kiss', while Confetti simply makes use of a tired and true Energy Ball to lower special attack and even the playing field.

Koga

After a quick moment to heal up and patch up as necessary, it's time to take on the poison ninja. Much as Stoat was automatically benched against Will, Confetti is given the last priority due to the absolute weakness. But while that combined with a grand lack of ground moves might make things tricky for Emporio, it's time for the moment that he wanted that little old lady in New Bark to see-

As Reedy-Weedy opens up the floor due to the powerful combination of a Silk Scarf, and Normalize! For all that Skuntank is poison-dark and a bit of a chunky truck next to the lithe kitty, Reedy holds the advantage- just barely- in speed. Has since gen 7 anyway.

Emporio's first move varies with Reedy- he's a male Delcatty, so unless skuntank is female, telling him to 'put on the moves' (and thus use Attract followed by Charm) won't be especially effective. Emporio tells him in any case, to 'follow his heart'- and he uses sing for that reason, before simply wailing on the skuntank with whatever he darn well fancies. Moves like Play Rough and Double Slap will all hit differently, but they'll hit with the same STAB, the same typing- even the same initial attack modifier, on Reedy's part.

All that matters is that the Skuntank is going down.

Against Venomoth however, Reedy swaps out- bringing in Northrop instead, armed with a set of teeth specifically primed for this situation. Striking with the TM learned Psychic Fangs, Emporio counts a good amount on the chances of Northrop's speed perhaps giving him the advantage- while hoping as well that there's enough of a lack of personal weaknesses in the bug's moveset that he doesn't get hit too hard back in turn. After a few good runs following that command to 'Tear with Style', one hopes the bug has been taken out- but while Reedy might just come back to dig into the rest of Koga's standard poison types, namely Muk (whose defense isn't much to call home about, and has even worse speed) and Swalot (whose speed is in much the same boat), the battle with Koga is ultimately a dance between jet fighter and cat.

(Jet fighter who is literally dancing, as Dragon Dance is occasionally of course used to boost that attack just a smidge for some extra chomping.)

Suffice to say, Emporio makes absolutely certain that Northrop is the first thing Toxicroak sees however. With nothing more than a 'Go', the dragon will be biting down with a x4 effective set of Psychic Fangs.

Talking of Koga's crobat however, and Emporio has a bit more flexibility...and thus, is more inclined to send one of the other four out. As a flying type as well as a poison type, it's tempting to take Confetti off the bench to take advantage of the Electricity. But given Crobat's speed, Oxy is instead pulled forward, as Emporio's since added to her TM range. Requesting that she try to keep things 'minty fresh', Oxy lets loose Icy Wind, all while basking in the confidence that only poison types can have when facing off against fellow poison types.

Of course, while Emporio's pokemon might have little to work with against poison, that doesn't mean they're powerless; as needed, Stoat and Haema are also brought to the floor, with Haema specifically making use of Extrasensory ('Baffle them!'), and Stoat in turn relying on the combined powers of Swords Dance and Aerial Ace via the order to 'Strike high'. Fighting moves after all, will do Stoat little good.

As is, with any luck a combination of playing to Reedy-Weedy's strengths, and to the cold bite of ice and psychic, will get Emporio through the match.

Bruno

In comparison to the last fight, the fight against Bruno looks to be something of a cakewalk for Emporio. Most, if not nearly all of Bruno's team, is pure fighting. The main exception is Lucario- and well, he has plans for that one.

Ultimately, Emporio just has to play to the defenses of things- and to the fact that, for most fighting types, a high attack stat is a given. What he needs to do is take advantage of speed- Stoat having plenty of it, alongside a strong resistance to the fighting type over all. Against pure fighting types, Stoat has little true advantage beyond that; but that's not why she's here either.

Told to 'Do what [she] does best', Stoat thus opens with the hard hitting, potentially devastating blow of Dire Claw; a move that even now has the coin toss chance of leaving the enemy pokemon with a status ailment of some kind. This is the opening strike for all five of Bruno's pure fighting pokemon, striking hard, fast, and without mercy.

And in all cases, Emporio has a follow up. If the victim takes the blow without retaining any ailment, Stoat merely hits again without prompting. If they become poisoned, Emporio orders Stoat to 'get close', leading to her onslaught of Poison Jab. If they become paralyzed, he instead tells her to 'shore up', as she switches to using Swords Dance twice before going in with Poison Jab from there. Asleep, however? Asleep, and Emporio instead switches immediately to Northrop for the time being, allowing Stoat some reprieve. Northrop, told from here to 'entertain [the opponent]', opens with Dragon Dance twice...

...And follows with Psychic Fangs, however many times necessary for Bruno's next pokemon to arrive, and for Stoat to come back out.

It is Haema, and only Haema, who is brought forward for Lucario, and there is no surprise as to why. As a ghost type, she can't be struck by Lucario's greatest moves- and steel, while painful, is merely steel. But Haema has the advantage of having learned Flamethrower, and so when Emporio shouts for the ghost to 'light 'm up', no one involved is likely unable to tell what's coming next. Lucario is getting torched. A lot.

As much as it takes to go down, really. But if necessary, Stoat will return, this time to come barreling down with Close Combat in an all or nothing strike- while the ghosts in the meantime come forward with Shadow Ball or Hex on Oxy's part, and Phantom Force on Northrop's own. If it comes down to Confetti...

...Well, Confetti at least can strike first with Thunderwave to paralyze, before going in with Thunder on a STAB.

...as for the rest...

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