191 – Firefly Talent Show

191 – Firefly Talent Show

Calcine stood in the middle of the group with her head held high. Hip cocked, she'd already been soaked before joining them to clean off, and her body heat was causing a little steam to curl off her body. Her fluttering cape behind her cast a warm glow over the cavern. She had a presence that grabbed the attention, which was perfect for her role of soaking up the hits for her squishier partners.

"I love this Move," Saffira sighed, "Best Move."

"I'm just standing here," Calcine said.

"Yeah. Love that."

Brandy snorted. Saffira would hopefully help out once she stopped being so distracted. At least if they ever fought, Brandy knew exactly what Saffira's weakness was. Not that she was much better; it was awfully nice to stare at Calcine.

"Start with Rock Tomb!" Tansy called out, "We're Move buddies with that one."

It used to be Rock Polish and was probably the Move Calcine used the most. The ability to quickly reshape earth and rock was so helpful in a fight it had really overshadowed her other Moves. Rock Tomb was more explosive than Rock Polish. Calcine gestured down low with a hand, and a pillar of rock shot up from behind her for her to lean on.

"You've no idea how confusing that is to me." Victoria said, "My girls' sound waves get all confused for a moment. It's like you shimmer, and then there's a wall behind you. Worse than Psychics for my senses."

"No way it's the best. So useful," Brandy grinned. "Calcine can completely reshape a fight. She cut a floor out of an office block once, and we just used it as a ramp to run right up. Or made a big donut arena for us to fight in vs. a whole bunch of fliers."

"You broke a whole office?" Nova perked up. "I want to break a whole office."Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

"It was trying to beat us up," Calcine said. "And I only broke a little bit of it."

"We probably don't have time to unpack that. I can certainly see why you love it," Victoria nodded, "It lets you control the battlefield and disable fighters. I wish I had something that effective; it'd go great with Supersonic. Change everything around them after they lose their senses, so they can't even use their memory."

Something to bear in mind if Brandy got some confusing moves of her own. There were plenty of options; maybe Sparky or Morgan might pick one up as their Moves grew. "Flame Charge is a big Carkol move. What about that one?"

"One of you send in a Double Team, please," Victoria said. "Let her show off."

A Noibat clambered out of the pile in a way that made the eyes water. Very briefly joined with another, it was like she budded into two, dusting herself off and flapping up out of arm's reach of Calcine. Calcine let flames wreath her arm, sizzling hottest where her skin glowed red until Brandy had to shield her eyes from the bright flame. When Calcine threw it, she did it fast, blink, and you'd miss her arm stabbing out with a lance of flame that drilled into the Noibat clone and broke her apart in a show of sparkles.

Pokémon could take some pretty big hits, and Humans had inherited a lot of that toughness, but it was still pretty shocking just how powerful their moves could be. It was hard to imagine anyone getting hit by that and not getting put on their ass.

"Oh fuck yeah," Nova whistled. "Hit me, hit me!"

Nova waved her arms as Saffira wrestled the excitable blue lady back into her lap. Calming her with some playful slaps to her belly. It made sense that a Pokémon with Explosion would love the chance to test her toughness. That wasn't a Move you picked up if you had a lot of self-preservation. Strong as it looked, Brandy had to remember it might not phase anyone who was a Rock Type. Or Water. Or Dragon. Or ... okay, maybe quite a lot of Pokémon could take that hit and even enjoy it, but it was still really impressive.

"You move a lot quicker when on fire. Do you have to throw it out when you hit?" Victoria said, "Or could you use it as a personal boost?"

"It bleeds off," Calcine says, holding a fireball in her hand and showing them. It swirled in her palm, little bits of it flicking off in small arcs of fire as it shrank down. "And it takes a few moments to get it going."

Right. Flame Charge. Because you had to charge it up.

"Rock's big weakness is they tend to be slow," Saffira said, Nova blowing on her palms to help soothe the sore palms she'd got from drumming her belly. "People will try just to avoid you. Why Tansy is so great, she's got a lot of really quick moves and ways to keep people still so Nova can light them up."

"Aw, thanks, boss," Tansy bounced in her seat, leaning until she tipped onto Saffira's side. "I guess being able to go fast in bursts is almost as good as me."

"You do know?" Sparky said, dropping back to sit on Calcine's shoulder, hugging around her head. "Crazy. You never use it."

"Covering people in lil' yellow bugs isn't exactly sexy."

"Fair," Sparky shrugged. "But it is funny! We'll find someone you don't mind using it on."

"Thunder Wave is a big indiscriminate blast of Electricity." Saffira said, "It's kind of like a much weaker Explosion. You have to be careful of hitting your own side, but the increased sensitivity it gives can be really distracting."

"So getting Sparky amongst them fast could give you a big early advantage. Or use it as a panic button if you're being overwhelmed." Victoria said, "If you'd used it against me, I'd have been in trouble. Don't need to be able to see to hit with an explosion."

That is a good point. It was a helpful way to hit things that hid or tried to swarm. She really should get Sparky to use it more. Infestation though...

"I just feel bad covering people in bugs. I mean, all the bites must suck."

"They're cute bugs!" Sparky huffed. "Do I need to cover you in them?"

"Don't you dare," Brandy felt itchy just thinking about it. "If you want to keep it, I'll work with it. Can you control the bugs?"

"Now, that is a good question," Sparky said, rolling her hand and producing a small, fuzzy little yellow bug with four legs. It bounced about on her palm. "I can't really ask them to do anything complicated. They're stupid."

"Unlike you," Morgan said.

"Unlike me, who is a big, genius, smart girl." Sparky cackled. "I can give them simple commands. Go here and jump someone. Chase them. Hide. And I can only have one swarm at a time."

The cute little bug on her palm sparkled with electricity, a tinny clicking snap as it rolled out into the air.

"So they don't have to bite?" Brandy raised an eyebrow. "They can just give little shocks?"

"Yeah, I guess, but it's not as effective. Or funny."

"That I could work with." Brandy bit her bottom lip. "Oh yeah, I got some great ideas for that."

"Dibs not it on that experiment," Morgan said, "I'm happy to train, but I draw the line at covered in bugs. No matter how fuzzy they are."

Sparky set the bug down, and it began bounding towards Morgan, who teleported back in a flash of black feathers. "Don't you dare!"

"She loves you, Morgan. You're just so alluring!" Sparky cackled as the Infestation bug bounced after her, "Just one hug and she'll be satisfied."

"Calcine, save me!" Morgan yelped as she flapped over the bug to the other side of the cavern. "Keep that thing away!"

Chaos was a good sign the show was over, but it brought up a lot of good ideas. Brandy could weave some of those together, and it felt like everyone had a clearer picture of what they wanted to do for the tournament fight.

Now, the only big question was, who would be their opponent?

Also, how fast could they get to the beach? Maple in a swimsuit was waiting, and it was insane they weren't already running to get there.