107 – Battle on the Big Bridge

107 – Battle on the Big Bridge

Cassidy might still be worked up over Morgan, but she'd learned from last time that she couldn't just barrel over Brandy's team even with her numbers. Calcine and Sparky were both strong against Flying types and Calcine, especially, was almost untouchable. If Brandy's team could go on the offense, they'd win easily, and that's exactly what'd happened last time.

It wouldn't be an easy win this time.

A second set of rolling waves of wind came rushing down the bridge. People were already scattering off it to watch the fight from afar. Calcine's walls were thick enough that she had time to add a curve to the top so the hammering winds passed harmlessly over them. Only a little wind spilled into their shelter as the two Tailwind waves crashed together, blowing in the gap she'd left for them to escape.

"The Corvisquire doesn't have the wind Move," Sparky said as she bounced on her heel. "Why doesn't she go 'round to attack?"

"Morgan said they work as a tight team," Brandy said as she held onto Calcine. "She's probably there to defend them from attacks. This would be a solid play if we didn't have such a good counter. I could see a lot of Trainers going down to just this."

Calcine couldn't entirely hide her small self-satisfied smile as she lowered her hands. "I can hold all day. How are we going to get them to come down?"

Good question, they could just wait until they tired out, but it's more likely they changed their attack angles to try to knock them out of Calcine's shelter. They had a commanding position at range and wouldn't give it up without reason. Harper and Basilah's tail swishes were quick and powerful, with the little Fletchling slightly behind in trying to add her strength to the sweeps. Morgan had never mentioned her, and no one had called her by name, so maybe she was new to the team. Fresh Wild Pokémon often took a while to settle on a new name.

"Sparky, try to pepper them with Electroweb. We need to disrupt their formation. Calcine shield off the whole bridge so they can't just sweep us if we get distracted."

As Calcine turned her wall into a bowl for them to stand in, Brandy had to admire her talent with Rock Polish. Calcine used it much more than any of her other moves, and it never let her down. General Trainer Wisdom did not consider it all that powerful, but perhaps other Rock Types just needed to be more creative. Battlefield control, Entrapment, and Calcine was even using it right now to steady herself with some of the bridge's stone melted up to anchor her feet to the ground.

Their hair blew about as another wave of wind crashed over them. Then Sparky bounded up Calcine's smoothed walls, jumped off the top, and stabbed her arms out towards the Flock. Thin streams of web shot crackled with electricity as they arced out of her fingertips, and the four fliers nimbly darted to avoid them.

"Catch me!" Sparky called as she jumped back off the wall, wrenching her arms around with her and turning her web lines into a sweeping net. Brandy ran forward, arms out as she watched Sparky's body twirl and wrap her up in her own webs. The sharp pulls as they wound over Sparky's body made the webs snap so quickly that the Flock all got snagged, a loud round of screeching as electricity crackled along the net and into the fliers.

Brandy didn't have time to slow down, so she caught Sparky at full speed, their bodies crashing into each other. Brandy wrapped her arms around Sparky to protect her from the impact as Brandy hit the edge of Calcine's arena-like bowl and bounced off. Brandy staggered to keep her footing with Sparky in her arms.

"Success," she said. Voice muffled by Brandy's chest. Her face had gotten stuck right in there, and she wasn't making any move to get out.

Heck, she'd earned it. Brandy wasn't going to kick up a fuss.

"Not quite," Calcine called from behind them. The Fletchling's feathers were burning, and she was flapping madly to batter the webbing off her, flecks of flame from her wingtips also slowly freeing the others. "They're going to get out."

"I'm a big deal. You're going down."

"Sparky!" Brandy called again, squeezing the Joltik's side, but it was useless. The Corvisquire was her whole world now. Some kind of trick had her locked into a duel. "Fuck, Calcine Rock Polish Basilah!"

No use there either. Calcine was squirming under Basilah's grip as the mix of Claw moves crushed her defenses, turning all that pain into thought-robbing pleasure. Brandy had never felt so useless. Without a Pokémon to listen to her, she could only try to distract them. The Corvisquire only had eyes for Sparky, and if she got anywhere near Basilah's claws, she'd be a moaning mess too.

She had to protect her own, but she only had moments before the rest of Cassidy's team would capitalize on this. There was nothing left for it but hope.

"Basilah. Feint attack."

Basilah snorted. "I don't have that Move, and the only thing I want to listen to is this Rolycoly cumming her brains out." She turned and smiled at Brandy, her fan of white feathers around her head fluttering in the heat of Calcine's excited breaths. "I'll teach you what I can do next,"

Basilah blinked as a black feather drifted down and slapped right into her face. Smaller than the Corviknights, she didn't have time to guess where it came from before a hand grabbed the white feathery mane and pulled hard, dragging the Braivary down to eye level.

"She wasn't talking to you," Morgan said with an evil smile before slamming the shocked-looking Braivary's face down onto her knee. The colossal bird bounced right off it, freeing Calcine from her grip as she collapsed into a spluttering heap.

"You look a mess," Morgan tipped her hat at Calcine. "Have a lie-down, and let me win all this for you. You look better on your back."

Morgan disappeared again in a flurry of black feathers before Calcine could reply.

"I'm going to fuck that attitude right out of her one day," Calcine growled as she got up, smoke pouring out of her mouth. She coated Basilah in rock with a foot stomp to the enormous bird's feathers and then turned her baleful glare on the Corvisquire. "I'll get Sparky. She's been Taunted."

"No," Brandy said, "She'll win the duel. Can you pin down the Swanna?"

"Easy." Calcine laughed. Flames glowed in the cracks in her skin, but she didn't seem to pay it any mind. Pokémon could take a ridiculous amount of damage before they were actually wounded, and even the most frenzied stopped when things got that serious. Didn't make the damage any less worrying to Brandy. If she needed a reminder Calcine wasn't invincible; this was a painful one to see.

"I want to get the Fletchling alone. Keep Cassidy and Harper occupied for just a little while. Asking a lot, but do that for me, and we got this."

Calcine cracked her knuckles and looked at the Swanna soaring in. "Fuck a trainer and her best Pokémon for you? Yeah, I can do that."

Not entirely what Brandy had asked, but it'd do the trick. A fired-up Calcine was kind of terrifying.