Linked XY - Rivalry

Page 3

Rules/Premise: jadethestone.deviantart.com/jo…
Next:
Previous: inexsus.deviantart.com/art/Lin…

Team Roster:
Rena's Team:
Gaetan the Chespin
Basile the Pidgey
Charline the Vivillon
Cyrille the Fletchling
Sphairy the Azurill (traded from Barry)

Barry's Team:
Don Gero the Froakie 
Shalla the Pidgey
Silky the Butterfree
Bufé the Bidoof
Edithe the Litleo (traded from Rena)

Trades: Sphairy the Azurill / Edithe the Litleo
Badges: 1
Deaths: 0
Win Count: Rena - 1, Barry - 0

The day after Rena and Barry's hard fought battle for the Bug Badge, the two decided to test out their Pokemon skills on each other. Rena had been asking Barry for a battle for a while, and she managed to convince him to have a friendly 3v3 match after each Gym Battle. At this point Barry was comfortable enough with his team's level to test them out in a match against his friend and rival. The two had worked together to get their gym badge, but now they were going to battle head to head.

Standing in the center of Santalune, next to its beautiful Roselia fountain, the two simultaneously called out their first Pokemon and began their match. Barry's first choice was Shalla the Pidgey while Rena's was Charline the Vivillon. Rena considered the type disadvantage that she was at, but kept her Vivillon in to use a Stun Spore to slow the Pidgey down. Charline's speed allowed her to go first and her Compound Eyes ability upped the accuracy of her paralyzing move, causing the first strike to hit. Barry urged on his Pidgey to fight the status condition and attack with a Gust attack. Shalla heard its trainer's call and managed to hurl a swirling tornado of air at the bug Pokemon. Rena called for a Tackle attack which hit its mark, but Shalla sent another Gust of air to throw Charline back.

With her Vivillon's health low and the Pidgey working through its paralysis, Rena decided it would be best to recall her Pokemon. In its place, she sent out Edithe, the Litleo. Barry had seen the Litleo's strength in their gym battle together, since it was one of the main fighters to take down Viola's Vivillon. Wary of its strength, he also recalled his Pokemon and sent out his starter, Don Gero the Froakie. Don Gero, unfortunately switched into a Headbutt attack from Edithe, which did a decent amount of damage to the little frog. Barry called out for Don Gero to use Bubble on the fire Pokemon, but Rena, realizing that once again, she was at a disadvantage, sent out her own starter, Gaetan the Chespin to take the hit. Being a grass Pokemon, the water-type move didn't do much damage to Gaetan. Barry decided that hopefully speed would win the battle between the two starter Pokemon and called out for Don Gero to use a Quick Attack. The attack managed to throw the little Chespin back, but Rena called out for it to use a Vine Whip and grab the Froakie. Gaetan headed its trianer's call and wrapped its vines around Don Gero, whipping him around and flinging him towards the ground.

Barry cried out and ran to his starter to see if he was okay. Don Gero gave a meek croak, but smiled at his trainer so he wouldn't worry. Barry gave a sigh of relief and thanked Don Gero for his hard work before returning him to his Pokeball to have a rest. Barry looked up at Rena, and the two exchanged a competitive smile, knowing that there was still more of the battle to go. This was their first battle against each other as real Pokemon trainers and they were already giving each other a tough fight.

Barry sent out his Pidgey, Shalla, again to combat the Chespin. Rena commanded Gaetan to use Rollout, which would hopefully gain the upperhand on the bird Pokemon, despite their overall type disadvantage. Gaetan rolled around, picking up speed, and hurled himself in the air to hit Shalla. Barry had Shalla use a Gust attack to try to slow down Gaetan's Rollout, but he managed to swing back around and hit Shalla again. Due to the paralasis still being in effect, Shalla wasn't able to gain the upper hand with its speed, so Barry called out for her to use a priority move, Quick Attack. Shalla managed to fly around Gaetan's Rollout attack to hit its mark and knock out the Chespin. Rena returned her Pokemon and thanked it while in its Pokeball.

Mulling over her remaining Pokemon, she called out her Litleo, Edithe. Again, making use of its speed, Barry called out for Shalla to use another Quick Attack. The attack was a powerful one and managed to bring Edith down to low health. However, Edithe managed to defeat the flying Pokemon with use of her flames. Barry returned Shalla, and remarked on how he was impressed with her managing to hang in there despite being paralyzed.

Barry finally sent out his last Pokemon, Sphairy the Azurill. Sphairy was a small baby Pokemon, and was one of the lowest leveled on his team. However, it was at full health while both of Rena's Pokemon were in the red. Despite this, and despite her type-disadvantage, Rena called out for Edithe to attack with Ember. Barry commanded Sphairy to use a Bubble attack. Edithe ran forward, with flames licking around her mouth to damage the fairy Pokemon. However, the Azurill was remarkably fast and used his tail to bounce around the flames and hit the Litleo squarely in the face with his bubbles. Thus Edithe, too, was knocked out.

Rena sent out her final Pokemon, Charline the Vivillon, who had taken major damage in her fight with Barry's Pidgey. Rena thought much more carefully than she normally did for her next move. She finally had Charline use Stun Spore to slow Sphairy down. The Stun Spore sprinkled over the little fairy Pokemon and the paralysis managed to take effect. Sphairy was unable to move while Charline relentlessy tackled the little Azurill. Barry urged for his Pokemon to attack again, and with confidence given to him by his trainer, Sphairy sent out a stream of bubbles to knock Charline out of the air. Rena called out her bug Pokemon's name. Both she and Barry held their breath. Charline was down, but she wasn't out! The Vivillon flapped her wings and took to the sky yet again. Rena gave a cheer and had her use one final Tackle. The bug pokemon obliged and managed to knock out her opponent.

The down-to-the-wire battle had ended. Rena yelled excitedly and praised her butterfly Pokemon. Barry returned his Azurill, but gave a small smile having fought a hard first battle against his friend.

He walked over to Rena and held out his hand, "That was a really great battle. Congratulations!"

Rena grasped his hand in both of her own and shook it excitedly, "Thank you! That was an amazing first battle! I mean, I thought we had lost, with your Azurill hanging in there like that! Your Pokemon worked really hard!"

"Yours did, too! I was surprised when your Litleo charged in there, and of course your Vivillion is awesome!" exclaimed Barry.

"Thanks!" said Rena with a wide smile.

Barry paused for a moment, thinking, before he said, "Hey, I have an idea."

"What is it?"

"Well, I was thinking that since you want to battle with me after every gym battle, how about we also trade after we do that? It would be a cool way to increase our teammwork and stuff during gym battles if we are both using Pokemon that the other has used before."

"That actually sounds like a cool idea! Let's do it!"

They looked at their current teams and realized that they were both missing some type coverage. Rena would have trouble if she ever came across fire type Pokemon, and Barry had been having trouble against grass types. Having seen how well their Litleo and Azurill fought during their battle, they decided to trade those two between them. Thus Edithe the Litleo joined Barry's team and Sphairy the Azurill joined Rena's. With a new deal set in place to battle and trade after every gym battle, their teams and their teamwork grew stronger.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, here is page 3 of my Tradelocke with !
Sorry it took so long! Both of our schedules haven't really been working out really well. We're hoping to start over with our monthly, on the 1st of each month, update schedule starting with the New Year. The next update will be a collaborative piece, so that'll be fun!

As for this piece of artwork, I tried my hand at no lineart and just colored over a rough sketch that I had done of this scene from our first battle. I'm really happy with how it came out. I wanted to keep it kind of simplistic, and drawing the Pokemon, even line-less, turned out to be fun and not as difficult as I thought it would be. I did, however, spend a lot of time on the fire and bubble effects. These tutorials helped a lot. The background was kind of lazy, but I wanted a darker background for the effects and the Pokemon to stand out.

Writing-wise, I followed 's example and got a bit more descriptive, and tried to shy away from it being too dialogue heavy. I added a bit of flare to the fight, but most of what I wrote is what really happened! It was a really cool first fight in-game. By the end Charline the Vivillon had like 5hp left before she managed to win. This tradelocke really made me love Vivillon!

Anyway, hope you continue to enjoy this tradelocke! Follow us both to keep up with the story and the art.

Barry belongs to
Rena belongs to me