All on the field watched with varying looks as Shuckle trudged forward—the creeping death. Of course, Cynthia and Lucario didn’t know about that title, but they’d find out soon enough.
Tinkatink had righted herself after being punched and was looking at Ethan for orders, unsure what to do. Normally, she’d just… run in and bash until the thing she hit stopped moving, but she was learning slowly but surely. Lucario was obviously on guard, feeling the effects of Shuckle’s Power Split. The bi-pedal fighter took up a fighting stance as he waited for any incoming attacks.
Cynthia and Lucario were clearly taking it easy on them, which was fair. Ethan hoped his Shuckle surprise would earn them a quick and undeserved win… When Shuckle reached his opponent.
“Tinkatink, Taunt!” Ethan ordered.
Tinkatink gave the all too classic Kung-Fu movie finger pull and spoke some nonsense, which caused Lucario’s eyebrow to twitch in annoyance. In return, Lucario blinked forward once again and slammed her with another Bullet Punch. This time, she wasn’t knocked back at all, but still took some damage. Lucario seemed momentarily surprised by the lack of power, but Tinkatink’s hammer slammed into him before he could adjust.
The next few seconds showcased the abnormal power of pokemon. Tinkatink and Lucario danced in a wild fight—no moves, just physical hits. Tinkatink was wild and agile with nimble hops and hammer swings while Lucario deftly redirected attacks and slipped in his own in a mastery of martial art. Ethan could see the growing frustration growing on Tinkatink’s face as she attacked more and more ferrally. Each time she swung her hammer, Lucario would dodge by only an inch.
Suddenly, Tinkatink backed off with a face full of rictus fury… then turned and sprinted off into the berry fields?
“Uhh…” Ethan was pretty sure Tinkatink knew that the field was the boundary for the battle… although he couldn’t remember specifically telling her. “She’ll come back once she realizes she's out of bounds?” Ethan offered to Cynthia and Lucario who both had singular raised eyebrows aimed at him. Like Trainer like Pokemon, he supposed.
“Shuckle! Now!” Ethan yelled again, causing Lucario and Cynthia to once again pay attention to his slow bug… but he wasn’t where he left off. There was only a hole.
From beneath the ground, Shuckle’s forelimbs breached the surface like two yellow worms thirsting for the rain and wrapped around Lucario’s ankles. Instinctively, Lucario hopped backwards, yet Shuckle’s Wrap pulled him along for the ride, plucking him from the Earth like a large red potato.
“ShuuUUUUuUUUuUUuUUuUUUuuuuuUUUuUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuUUUUUUuuu!!!!” Shuckle screamed as he twirled about in the air, Lucario’s leg flicking kicks in an attempt to dislodge him. Eventually, Lucario stilled and launched a Bullet Punch instead. Shuckle’s head and legs zipped back into his shell, leaving only his arms out, wrapped around Lucario’s foot. The Bullet Punch slammed into the hole in Shuckle’s shell where his head had been, and Ethan heard the cry of pain from the super effective move.
“Hug of love! You can do it!” Ethan shouted encouragement.
Whether by luck or skill, Lucario winced from the tightening of the Wrap around his foot, right as Shuckle pulled himself close to press his body onto Lucario’s leg. Like being tasered, Lucario body locked up and spasmed from the sudden and unexpected pain of the super effective 480 defence boosted Body Press. “Lu!”
In a flash, Shuckle was shunted off Lucario’s leg by a non-held back Bullet Punch that Ethan barely registered, blasting Shuckle off towards Ethan’s side of the field in a tumble of red and yellow.
“Lucario!” Cynthia’s commanding voice called out in admonishment, unaware of the damage the little bug had inflicted. She was storming forward onto the field when Lucario limped back in a series of practiced hops, keeping his wary eyes forward and his hands raised toward Shuckle. That stopped her in her tracks.
Ethan ran forward and checked on Shuckle, who was tucked up in his shell. He heard his berry buddy’s whimpering from inside, signalling that he wasn’t unconscious. “Are you alright Shuckle? Come out.”
Slowly, Shuckle’s head peaked out of one of his holes. His berry good friend was whimpering and sniffling his tears. “Do you wanna stop? It’s okay if you do.”
Shuckle sucked in a ragged shuddering breath, the one everyone knows from crying, then nodded weakly. Ethan didn’t hesitate to pick up Shuckle and hold him in his arms as he walked back towards his spot on the field. “Shuckle’s done.” He called out to Cynthia, who was checking over Lucario.
“What did he do?” Cynthia asked incredulously after thirty seconds of silence, finally finished with her inspection of her own pokemon.
“Body Press.” Ethan answered, earning a gobsmacked look in return,
“... You’re joking?” Cynthia tried to see reason, but Ethan just nodded. His very slight enjoyment from the battle had been washed away as he held his crying Shuckle. “A fighting type move from a Shuckle nearly took him out? Care to explain?”
“Body Press uses the physical defence of a pokemon to determine how much power it has.” Ethan offered. It was fairly difficult to explain game-like terms in real world application. “Some pokemon are good at absorbing physical hits. Some can go on and fight through what appears to be devastating attacks—I think those are the pokemon with high health totals? Those more specially defensive are better at taking moves like Flamethrower or Earth Power, you know… Special moves.”
Cynthia understood what he was saying, judging by her intriguing look. “Shuckle,” Ethan buoyed his boy in his arms. “Has the highest special and physical defence of all pokemon. Mega Aggron and Mega Steelix have the same amount of defence as Shuckle does. Shuckle doesn’t have a lot of health though. So, not long lasting. Does that make sense?”
“Yes… Yes, that does make some sense…” Cynthia stood and recalled Lucario, who flashed her an unhappy look before being whisked away into his ball.
“Just wait until I teach him Power Trick. Nobody will be laughing at me being afraid of Shuckle when you see that monstrosity. Power Trick swaps the attack and defence of a pokemon. Imagine Shuckle hitting harder than your Mega Garchomp.” Ethan winked, knowing that Shuckle had finally calmed down and was watching him from within his shell. “Of course, he’d be as flimsy as paper if he did that, but if you knock out your enemy before they can hit you? Sometimes the best defence is a proper offence.”
Before Cynthia could speak again, Tinkatink burst through the edge of the berry fields onto the battlefield. She skidded and hopped to a stop, then dropped an armful of metal onto the ground at her feet. Without even looking around, she crouched down and began working on her hammer.
“You wanna let Lucario back out so that she can finish her fight?” Ethan asked. Technically, their little battle wasn’t over. If you discounted Tinkatink getting disqualified for exiting the boundary, that is.
Cynthia threw out Lucario’s ball once again, releasing the formidable fighter right next to her. “Heal Pulse your ankle. Your Taunt is gone now after being recalled.”
Lucario looked miffed at needing to be recalled at all, but he listened and healed his ankle… twice. Shuckle might have been close to knocking him out…
In the distance, Tinkatink’s heavy hammer blows grew frantic in a blacksmithing zeal formerly unknown. Her small hammer, which was formerly rattle-like, bashed on two heavy plates, flattening them out. Then, she twisted the metal, folding them into a weird ‘U’ shape. Next, she worked on a weird empty-topped handle. Cynthia, Ethan, Shuckle, and Lucario watched in silence at the impressive display of skill being shown.
“What is the making?” Ethan asked, hoping Cynthia knew more about the species than he did. Not that he really expected an answer.
Cynthia crossed her arms and a slight smile tugged at her lips. “I think she—”
“Tinka—”
Tinkatink cried, slamming her rattle-hammer into the center of her new contraption. As soon as she did, the entirety of the metal flared into a bright orange glow. Tinkatink wiped the sweat off her forehead as she clambered up onto her feet. Slowly, she reached out to the red-hot metal…
“Tinkatink! Don’t—” Ethan shouted, fearing that she’d burn herself.
The red hot metal flared brighter than the sun above their heads. Tinkatink herself also began to glow in a bright white light. Ethan aborted his attempt to stop her, as the light of evolution took hold. Slowly, the blob of white double in size, the small top-knot that Tinkatink had grew outwards, creating a ponytail that drooped down to her shoulderblades. The diamond of metal that graced her chest flattened, and two small flaps appeared at her waist. Gone was the foot tall gremlin, now he had a two-foot battle manic.
“TUFF!”
The white light flared out, blasting away in an unseen wave of power. Tinkatin—No, Tinkatuff raised her new and improved and much larger hammer to slap it onto her shoulder, resting it in place. With a vicious smile, she scanned the field, eyes finally landing on Lucario. One handed, she lowered her hammer, which was now taller than herself, toward her foe.
“Tinkatuff! Tinkaaaa!” With a cute roar, Tinkatink blitzed into battle.
In a blink, she appeared in front of Lucario and clapped her hands—a Fake Out—A move he hadn’t taught her. Lucario didn’t even appear phased at the move, darting off away from the group to lead the battle into the field proper.
Tinkatuff, of course, gave chase to her prey.
Lucario twirled and came to a comfortable stance, waiting for the slower pokemon to arrive. What he didn’t expect though, was Tinkatuff’s lunge into his face instead of a swing with her newly improved hammer. “Tuh!” She screamed an inch from his snout, throwing out an Astonish.
Lucario grimaced faintly, but once again didn’t flinch. Inner Focus was a pain. The fighter then sent a palm thrust straight towards Tinkatuff, who blocked with her hammer and was blasted away. Now that Lucario had been recalled, Power Split had also ended.
Tinkatuff then made an error, using Brutal Swing in a twisting and twirling rise with her hammer, coated in dark-type energy. Instead of dodging, Lucario raised a paw to block the move, taking the brunt of the attack. The dark energy appeared to recoil from him. It also boosted his attack, due to Defiant.
Ethan would have normally facepalmed at the mistake, but he was too shocked and proud at Tinkatuff’s evolution to care.
Sadly, even through evolution, Tinkatuff didn’t stand a chance versus a Champion level Lucario. After all, this wasn’t the anime where mid evolution during a fight guaranteed a win. A minute later, Tinkatuff was flat on the ground, wheezing for air, tired and frustrated at her loss. Lucario stood over her, clearly the victor… then held out a paw to help her up. Tinkatuff huffed, swatted the paw away, and then stood by herself, using her new hammer as a walking stick.
Ethan met the two pokemon half way and placed Shuckle down onto the ground to scoop up his newly evolved Tinkatuff… Only to be rewarded with a palm to the face a wiggles of wanting to be put down. With some embarrassment at being rejected by his own pokemon, Ethan put her back down onto the ground. Instantly, she picked up her hammer and held it close to her chest… Then she looked up at him with those all to asking eyes.
She just wanted her hammer to be picked up as well.
Without further ado, Ethan grabbed Tinkatuff and then reached for her hamm— “Jesus Christ!" Ethan grimaced in surprise. Tinkatuff’s hammer had to weigh at least fifty pounds!
Ethan nearly threw out his back from the unexpected weight, but eventually had it in hand. “I think we’re due a trip to the pokemon center. Let’s go see Nurse Joy, shall we?”