The Campus of the Tech and Psychic (Jake Celeste's Secret Base)

[Zorchic]

It turned out that Maribel had withdrawn Hippowdon before Jake had the chance to order a Hex from Charizard, and sent out a Tentacruel in the Ground-type’s place. And not just any Tentacruel, either—this one was decidedly twice as large as the average size for the species.

As soon as the Water/Poison-type was let out into the battle, and as the Sandstorm dissipated, Jake started analyzing the situation in his head as fast as his thoughts would move. He could already sense the power that the Jellyfish Pokémon possessed, to say nothing of its natural type advantage against Charizard.

The Aura Guardian flexed his gloved hands and cracked his knuckles as the battle really got underway. Maribel called for a Wring Out from the giant invertebrate, who reached out a fraction of her numerous tentacles for an attack that would take advantage of the Flame Pokémon’s full health to deal the greatest possible damage.

In response to his opponent’s order, Jake sprang into action. “Charizard, Smokescreen and Fly!” he called out at once.

“Char!” With a quick grunt, the Fire and Flying-type did one forceful flap of his wings, propelling himself backward and upward while sending out a cloud of smoke that would obscure the target (in this case, Tentacruel)’s vision, preventing her from landing the Wring Out. As the cloud billowed outward, Charizard wasted no time, soaring higher with every second. So high, in fact, that had the Smokescreen not been used, viewers of the battle would be able to see the dragon-like Pokémon disappear in the sky with a twinkle.

~

In response to Wurmple’s first question, Ribombee gave a light nod. “I do indeed have a power: the power to sense and read the aura, or life force, of living things,” the Bee Fly Pokémon replied. “That was how I was able to tell that you possess psychic powers—by picking up on your aura.”
At Wurmple’s second question, the Bug/Fairy-type brightened. “Of course, I’d be happy to!” he buzzed cheerfully, waving the group over as he faced the direction of the battle noises that had rung out, and started flying toward those noises at a reasonable speed for the adventurers to follow. “Come this way—my Trainer’s Base isn’t too far up ahead!”

While the group walked, Ribombee addressed Dracen, expecting Wurmple to later translate his words. “If you came here in search of adventure, then you’ll certainly have it!” he chuckled, the pitch of his humming wings rising for a second. “Just, might I add, probably not in the forest itself, but rather, in the Base that lies beyond it. With few exceptions, the Pokémon that live here generally mind their own business. You don’t bother them, they don’t bother you.” He paused for a moment, listening for any other Pokémon that might have happened to be bothered by Dracen and Cy making their way through the Spectral Forest; fortunately, there were none. “Good, it doesn’t seem like you bothered anyone on your way here. As for your question,” the Bee Fly continued, “nah. If anyone would be one, my Trainer is like a ‘guardian’ of Spectral Forest—it’s his family’s property. His name is Jake, by the way—I’m sure he’ll gladly welcome you all. Personally, I enjoy the atmosphere and aura of this place, so I come here to train occasionally, but not much more than that. I didn’t mean to shoot at anyone, though,” he added, answering Dracen’s last question. “I apologize if I almost hit someone. I was practicing my aim at what I thought was a random shadow, but only as I was preparing my attack did I realize, shadows don’t give off auras. Oops.” Ribombee sheepishly scratched his head at the thought, as he continued to fly.

It was not too long before the line of trees up ahead stopped abruptly, leading to a large and spacious clearing. A fence that lined the other end of the property could be seen much farther ahead, though it wasn’t easy to spot with the structures planted around the Secret Base. Ribombee led the visitors into the clearing, before halting his movement forward. “And here it is!” the Bug and Fairy-type exclaimed. “The Campus of the Tech and Psychic, home of my Trainer, his Pokémon like me, and his mom and dad! This place is on the east coast of Fizzytopia, so we’re currently facing east, I believe.” As everyone could see from where they were standing, there were buildings all around the property, including an empty dirt battlefield whose sidelines they were a few paces away from, the back of a large, dome-like building in front of them, what looked like a campus building on their left, and a battle stadium resembling a Palossand to the forward right. To the far right was what looked like an aircraft hangar with a runway directed toward the Fizzytopia coast.

[Missingno. Master]

The Sandstorm had subsided around the time Tentacruel had entered the fray, allowing Jake to see all the more clearly what a formidable opponent he and his Charizard were up against. Tentacruel was not to be taken lightly, as anyone who had been present for the Battle for Sludge Wave Coast could attest to. But even having not been present for that battle, Jake still had no intention of taking Tentacruel lightly, knowing right away that something with full health had no business being on the business end of a Wring Out attack, and so immediately called for Charizard to try and evade the Wring Out, doing so with Smokescreen followed by Fly.

Maribel's smile did not fade at this; if anything, it widened. "Do it!" she called out.

"Tentacruuuuel," rumbled Tentacruel. The Smokescreen billowed out towards her, but she stretched out her tentacles heedless of the thick cloud, not faltering for so much as half a second. And what Charizard would quickly discover, perhaps to his surprise considering he hadn't hesitated to comply with this order, that the Smokescreen had had no effect whatsoever- the allegedly obscuring cloud seemed to pass right through Tentacruel's Body, leaving her vision crystal Clear; indeed, she seemed to be able to see Charizard just fine all the while, her tentacles having not so much as slowed down in their pursuit. It was, in fact, almost a certainty that they would have caught up by now, in fact, seeming to shoot through the Smokescreen with almost unnatural precision and accuracy. Unnatural, that is, unless Tentacruel hadn't lost sight of Charizard for even a second.

"Smokescreen won't work on my Tentacruel!" Maribel stated proudly as Tentacruel's tentacles made to try and squeeze Charizard with great force. "Tentacruel, straight into a Wrap attack from there!" she ordered. "Then follow up with Toxic!"

"Tentaaaa..." Tentacruel rumbled in response, acknowledging the orders. Once the Wring Out was done, instead of letting go, Tentacruel would only keep squeezing, trapping Charizard in her grasp, while doing to him exactly what his teammate did to her teammate earlier. Not that Tentacruel knew of that particular parallel, but it certainly wasn't lost on her Trainer.

"Y'know, I'm of the opinion Liquid Ooze is where it's at for a Tentacruel," Keith remarked. "But there's no denying Clear Body has its uses," he added, unable to stop himself from smiling. "Oh, if Jake hadn't counted on that, Charizard's in trouble."

"Indeed," Willa nodded. "Though Jake can absolutely think fast," she reminded her husband. "Even if he didn't see this coming, I would be astonished if he did not have a way to try and fight this. Our girl had better not get complacent."

"With the stories us and Gavin all told her about Jake's battles? She'd be a fool to get complacent," Keith stated. "And we didn't raise a fool."

"We certainly did not," Willa agreed, continuing to nod slowly. And the couple continued to watch the battle, both of them very interested to see how this matchup would play out.

[Zorchic]

Revealing her Ability to be Clear Body, Tentacruel was far from impaired by Charizard’s Smokescreen. In fact, she was easily able to stretch her tentacles through the smoke and latch onto the Fire/Flying-type. When the Wring Out made contact, Buizel winced perceptibly from his position by Jake’s side, but the Trainer himself did not seem fazed.

“Oh, we’ve got more than that!” Jake replied to Maribel, before advising his battling Pokémon on the predicament at hand. “Don’t panic, Charizard!” he instructed. If they couldn’t avoid the challenge, then they would meet it head-on. “Use Sizzly Slide!”

Charizard grunted as he was forcibly squeezed by the Jellyfish Pokémon’s tentacles, but even as Tentacruel went into a Wrap, he cloaked himself in flames that were intense enough to cause a burn to anything that touched it. And although the Water/Poison-type would take less damage than expected of the attack, her tentacles were tightly wrapped around the Flame Pokémon, and Sizzly Slide would take advantage of that with its effect of guaranteed burn.

As for the Toxic that came next, whether it would end up disintegrating in the Sizzly Slide, or pass through it and badly poison Charizard, Jake wasn’t too concerned about the result. He knew his Charizard was a resilient Pokémon—why, the part Fire-type had to be if he wanted to become even more powerful—so the Aura Guardian waited until Tentacruel had used the attack to issue his next command. “Stay strong and wait,” he instructed, and once the Water and Poison-type had finished her given orders, whether or not the Flame Pokémon was badly poisoned, the Trainer pointed dramatically at Charizard’s opponent. “Power Whip the tentacles, let’s go!” he exclaimed.

“Chaaarr!” With a revving battle cry, the Fire and Flying-type formed a green aura around both his arms, reaching out and grabbing as many of Tentacruel’s extended tentacles as he could in his “hands”. Charizard then proceeded to Powerfully shake those tentacles like Whips, in an attempt to slam his opponent repeatedly onto the ground from the seismic waves traveling up her limbs.

“Bui, Buizel,” Buizel murmured to himself beside his Trainer, processing the situation and trying to put himself in his peer’s figurative shoes. Knowing the Fire and Flying-type’s situation, trying to pull a trick to get out of Tentacruel’s Wrap was made all the less feasible by the simple fact that Charizard’s mobility was limited, but there was still a fair number of techniques that the draconic Pokémon could utilize here, as proven by Jake’s command for Sizzly Slide and Power Whip. While the Sea Weasel Pokémon couldn’t remember all the techniques in question, it would be unwise to say that the Flame Pokémon had no way out.

[sixdragons_in_atrenchcoat]

Ribombee led the way through the forest, explaining a few things as he did so. Wurmple translated as necessary, Dracen enthusiastically hanging on every word and Cy rolling his eyes as he followed. Wurmple noted Ribombee's strange power, and though he did not respond telepathically, he did reach out and attempt to track down the abnormality in Ribombee's mindscape. Wurmple still hadn't gotten the hang of reading minds, but it wasn't difficult to find the Ribombee's power - an odd blueish shine like the Northern Lights permeated the place, which gave Wurmple all the information he needed. Shaking his head, the Worm Pokemon retreated from Ribombee's thoughts, blinking quickly as he snapped back to reality. He went back to translating, hoping he hadn't missed anything important. Gah, he thought to himself. I definitely need more practice at that.

Dracen looked around wonderingly as he listened to Wurmple's translation. "Ah, don't worry about it." He said reassuringly as Ribombee apologized for almost shooting them. "I coulda handled it anyway - My Pokemon aren't nearly as careful as you are, I get pelted with moves all the time during training. Cy here's the one you oughta worry about hurting, but I'm here to protect him and so are his Pokemon, so we've got it covered." He shot Nincada a grin, and the little Bug raised a fist in agreement. Cy snorted in amusement or annoyance, but gave no further response.

The sounds battle began to grow louder, and the trees began to thin - then all at once they dropped away, leaving the group in a large clearing.

"Whoa..." Dracen breathed, and even Cy looked impressed. The Campus stood before them in all its glory, battlefields and grand buildings in every direction. Ribombee introduced them to the Secret Base with enthusiastic pride, which was well-deserved. Dracen took a step forward, half-listening to Wurmple's translations as he gazed around. "Campus of the Tech and Psychic, eh? Fancy name... I like it." He said, nodding. Ribombee noted they should currently be facing east, which Wurmple relayed - and even without reading Dracen's thoughts, he could hear the younger brother's sense of direction kick into high gear as he put the pieces together, mapping this place out relative to everywhere else he'd ever been and-
By Arceus, is your brain ever quiet? Wurmple swore, snapping Dracen out of his geography-laden reverie.

"Heh, sorry." Dracen said, embarrassed. "I keep forgetting you can do that."

Right. I'm still getting used to it myself, if it's any consolation. I apologize for snapping at you. Wurmple replied quietly.

Dracen would've said something more, but their conversation was then intruded upon by a ferocious battle cry off to the right, and Dracen was very quickly reminded why they'd run into Ribombee in the first place. He put on his most adventurous hero face and cried, "The battle! Right, no time to waste - Cy, c'mon!" He beckoned to his older brother with one arm as he started towards the distant stadium, but Cy planted his feet and fixed Dracen with a stern glare. "Just what in the Distortion World do you think you're going to do, jump in yourself?" he admonished.

"Of course not, I just want to watch. Battles are awesome, and there's so much to learn from studying them! Well, OK, I was planning on challenging somebody to a battle afterwards..." Dracen admitted.

"Of course you were. Have you ever considered what would happen if somebody refused your challenge, or do you only ever think one step behind?" Cy retorted.

"Careful, big bro. I'll challenge you to a battle if you keep talkin' like that." Dracen said, pointing a warning finger.

"That isn't a threat!" Cy laughed. "You haven't won a single one of our practice matches!"

"Yeah, because I'm trying to train. I bring my weaker Pokemon to those fights on purpose. I've got six of my strongest here with me right now."

Cy narrowed his eyes, but took a breath out. He stuck his hands in his coat pockets and shook his head. "Nah. I'm not gonna let you rile me up just so you can get the battle you want. I'll go with you and we'll watch the other Trainers' battle." Dracen crossed his arms and the pair of brothers stared at each other quietly for a long moment... then Wurmple started laughing.

Please. Neither of you want to battle. Those were all empty words, and all three of us just want this argument to be over. Let's go already, shall we? I would also like to study the ongoing battle. Both brothers jumped as his telepathy broke the silence, but neither could disagree. Dracen ran his fingers through his hair, then sighed and stuck out his other hand. "Yeah, alright. We cool?"

Cy shrugged and halfheartedly high-fived his brother, then returned his hand to his jacket pocket. "We're cool." In his mind, Wurmple heard a quiet message from Cy as the group started to head for the stadium. ...Thanks for de-escalating the situation. I s'pose I'm just worked up from being lost in the forest.

Of course. Wurmple replied matter-of-factly. We all are a bit, I think. Though I get the feeling this place will be good for us...

[Missingno. Master]

Charizard was bound by the Wring Out, so that much worked out in their favor, but Jake was ready to work with that, and commanded a Sizzly Slide attack from the Flame Pokémon. Tentacruel took the move well, but it was the side effect that had Maribel worried- Sizzly Slide involved such intense flame that a burn was guaranteed upon contact. And with Tentacruel holding Charizard tightly in her tentacles, aforementioned burn was unavoidable. "Cruuuuel," grunted Tentacruel, but her focus was not broken, and neither was her grip- yes, the burn smarted, but it was nothing a well-trained Water-type couldn't cope with, and Tentacruel definitely qualified!

"Oooh, yeah, that's gonna make things tricky," Keith frowned as he watched this. Meowth said nothing, but winced at the sight of the burn- whether it weakened any of Tentacruel's particularly pertinent attacks or not, it still couldn't have been a picnic.

"Not necessarily," stated Willa. "It won't build up over time like Toxic poison, so it's not the same situation as with Hippowdon, and Tentacruel doesn't typically use physical moves in any case. Besides, this is but a minor setback," she added. "Tentacruel's got Charizard right where Maribel wants it."

This, however, was looking less than likely as Jake gave a follow up order, telling Charizard to grab some of the tentacles and use them for Power Whip. But Maribel didn't look worried. Trying to fight such a forceful technique was a waste of time, and she knew it. Thus, there was only one logical thing to do here. "Move with it!" she called.

"Tenta! Cruuel! Tenta! Cruuel!" grunted Tentacruel as she moved, not against the movement, but with it. She could surely do this. The constant, forceful up-and-down motion, how was this all that different from dealing with the movement of the water, the waves on the ocean? All she had to do was stretch and contract her tentacles in time with the attack. It's not that she wasn't feeling the effects of the move, of course, but her actions were able to mitigate the worst of the damage. And more to the point, Charizard was still in her grip. Moreso than before, in fact- Tentacruel was steadily sneaking more tentacles onto this, trying to restrict Charizard's movement all the more. And not just around the torso, either- restricting the arms, the legs, the wings, the tail, that was all just as important. A point Charizard had driven home quite well with his little Power Whip trick, in fact. Keith and Willa said nothing more for the moment- highly impressed with their daughter's answer to Power Whip, the couple waited to see how things would proceed from here.

And Maribel did not keep them waiting for very long. Seizing her opportunity, the young Trainer took full advantage of this steadily intensifying state of immobility. "Now, Tentacruel! Muddy Water!" she commanded.

"Tentacruuuuel," rumbled Tentacruel. The red orbs atop her changed color, turning from a glistening ruby color to more of a murky brown. At the same time, a powerful torrent of murky water shot out from beneath that blue topmost part, aimed directly at the mostly-immobilized Charizard.