Untitled (practice battle)

Author’s note: This was written as a little introductory aside to an ongoing RP, which is set in world with humans for once instead of Mira and Kaia’s normal PMD setting. It feels weird to call it an AU when the same could be said about practically all my RPs, but this one is more of an AU than usual?

Shouts, growls, and clashes of attacks filled the air of the stadium, mostly drowning out the sounds of traffic nearby. A red-haired trainer and her lucario were scouting the scene, walking along the inside of the tall fence separating the battle area from the rest of the city park. It was the middle of the day and the middle of the week; the other trainers present skewed young, having just got out of school.

“You’re sure you wanna do this downtown?” Mira asked her partner, pulling her hand out of her pocket to hold Kaia’s paw as they walked. “There’re plenty of places out in the suburbs with fewer people around.” The short spectator bleachers were mostly empty, but all the courts were in use and tall buildings filled the skyline.

The lucario gave a curt nod. <I already told you. Yes. I have to push myself,> she said, in a series of deep growls and barks.

“Hey, don’t forget this is practice for me, too,” Mira said. The disguised zoroark hadn’t done the “trainer” act in a while.

<I didn’t.>

“Just… don’t push yourself too hard. We’re relying on your senses to find him.”

<Finding him won’t be of any use if I can’t fight,> Kaia growled. <We already discussed this.>

Mira sighed. “We did, you’re right.” Avoiding fights is kind of my specialty, but I told her that already too. I just wish she’d go a little easier on herself. She squeezed Kaia’s paw. “Let’s find a court and get in line. That’s why we’re here, right?”

She squinted around at the courts from under her sun visor, shielding her eyes from the late autumn sun. Painted lines marked out four battlefields on the grass and dirt. “How about that court?” Mira asked, pointing at one where a herdier was growling at an emolga, surrounded by a gaggle of highschoolers.

Kaia snorted. <No. They’re weak.>

“Warm-ups are good too!” Mira protested. “Also, rude. But fine, then. Who do you want to fight?”

Kaia looked around, then pointed to someone standing off to the side. A trainer just watching, much like they were, leaning against the fence. They had four pokéballs on their belt, and Mira could tell just from vibes that they had some experience. She’d crafted her disguise to give off the same impression; she hoped it worked.

“You sure know how to pick ‘em,” the zoroark muttered. “Let’s see if they’re interested.” She headed over and waved to get their attention. “Hey! You up for a battle?”

The trainer jerked in surprise and lifted their gaze to look at Mira from under their baseball cap. The zoroark took stock of them in a few seconds. Short brown hair, brown eyes, slender and tall build, no stubble. Enby flag pin. Reserved. Probably prefers the company of pokémon to other humans. Mira tried to guess their age. Late high school or college? They had a lot of trainer gear for a highschooler. Two badges sparkled on their jacket; Mira recognized them as from the two gyms in this city. Her vibe read had been right on the mark.

Not that badges were the most reliable indicator. Mira pulled out her trainer wallet and flashed her own set while they sized her up. Hers were from cities a few hours away, and were entirely real, at least in the sense that they weren’t illusions. There was no reason to use an illusion when she could get the real thing.

Whatever metric they judged her by, she seemed to pass… almost. “Where’s your team?”

“I only brought Kaia today,” she said, patting the lucario on the back. “Ace vs ace?”

The other trainer shrugged. “Sure, as long as Kaia wants to battle a machamp. I’m Alex.”

Kaia nodded without any hesitation.. <Yes. Tell them yes.>

“Mira. She says yes; no fear, this one.” She was hoping for Alex to laugh, but her little joke fell awkwardly flat.

They got in line for a court. Alex seemed disinterested in small talk, which Mira did not mind at all. Less talking meant less explaining her story, and keeping track of who exactly she was this time was tiring. I bet they’re a lot more animated when they battle.

The line moved quickly; soon, it was their turn. Mira and Alex took up opposite positions on the court. Alex adjusted their hat, then picked a pokéball off their belt. As Mira expected, their demeanor was dramatically different on the court. “Zoe, let’s go!” they called, releasing the machamp from her pokéball onto their side of the court.

Meanwhile, Kaia simply walked forward, taking her spot opposite Zoe. The lucario reached behind her head with both paws and released the aura-blocking rings from her rubbery sensors. Immediately the dull field snapped into vivid focus. Her aura sensors quivered from the sudden rush of sensation and she wobbled on her feet. It was like putting on glasses and taking out earplugs both at once; the world before had been numbed and dim, but now she could truly see. The human and machamp across from her, the zoroark behind her, the crowd around them, the train rushing by below their feet…

She didn’t even notice she was about to lose her balance.

Mira’s voice cut through the rush. “Focus, Kaia! Eyes on target!”

Kaia took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She struggled with focus, but it wasn’t that her own thoughts were disorganized or chaotic. The trouble was that everyone else’s feelings were too loud, and unlike most lucario, she struggled to tune them out. In crowded places, the aura was downright overwhelming, but it helped to have something to focus on. Kaia focused her minds’ eye on the machamp and let everything else blend into white noise. Like it was just the two of them, surrounded by a blizzard. She found her footing and tossed the rings to Mira.

Zoe had been watching with a mix of confusion and concern. <You good, hon?>

<I’m fine,> Kaia said. She bowed to the machamp across the field.

A full foot taller than Kaia and built like a brick shithouse, Zoe brought both pairs of hands together as she returned the bow. <Good. We’ll see if you still say that after I’m done with you!> She was confident, Kaia felt. Cool and collected. Kaia liked her already.

<We will see,> Kaia agreed, unruffled.

The two trainers watched and waited while their pokémon exchanged pre-battle pleasantries. As the lucario and machamp dropped into combat-ready stances, Mira and Alex locked eyes. It was time.

“Zoe, get in there with close combat!”

“Kaia, don’t let her land a hit!”

Kaia watched the machamp charge her and stood her ground. Her ears perked and a smile creased her muzzle. She liked fighting. Not the violence, or pain, or intimidation, but the dance of combatants, the ebb and flow of the battle. She could focus fully on her opponent, move in tune with them, and let her anxieties fade away. Nothing else mattered in a fight.

Zoe threw the first punch, but Kaia stepped past it and ducked under her followup swing, constantly staying inside her reach. The lucario barely seemed to move, taking a step here, a twist there, but no matter where Zoe struck, her fists found only empty air or were batted aside just enough to whiff.

Kaia’s eyes were closed and her aura sensors were fully splayed out behind her head, soaking in the feelings radiating from the machamp. Surprise turned to incredulity. Triumph, denied. She slipped behind Zoe’s back, paws mirroring the machamp’s footwork as Zoe twisted and spun around to try and catch her, always right where the machamp couldn’t quite reach. She felt Zoe’s mounting frustration; the machamp would go for something risky any moment.

Right on cue, Zoe leaned back, swiping for the lucario with her back set of arms. Instead of the grab she wanted, she felt a pair of paws on her bicep. Kaia turned her shoulder into the machamp’s lean, pulling Zoe against herself and using the momentum to fling her to the ground.

Zoe rolled forward and used her four arms to spring back up, landing on her feet. She huffed. <Know how to do anything besides dodge?>

Listening in, Mira grinned. Yes, actually. “Kaia, go on the offense with bone rush!” That was a command she’d been giving a lot.

The lucario nodded and let out a short bark. <My turn.> She held her paws together and yanked them apart, smearing a bright blue orb across the air between them. The aura kept going past her paws until it was as long as she was tall, forming into a solid staff with little nubs at each end like some impossibly long femur. Kaia charged in, twirling the staff to deliver hard raps and thwacks against Zoe’s legs and blocking arms. She batted aside a counterpunch and kept up the pressure, stepping forward each time the machamp stepped back.

The machamp’s trainer pondered and made a call. “Zoe, vital throw!”

Zoe swung her arms out to create some space and took an open stance, all four palms out.

Mira narrowed her eyes. That’s bait. If she knew, Kaia certainly knew. “Kaia, like we practiced!” This was her favorite callout. What did they practice? Who could say? It could mean anything, and it made whatever trick Kaia pulled off look like a slick, coordinated move.

Kaia lunged in with a telegraphed overhead strike. Zoe caught it with two hands, ready to use her superior strength against the lucario. But it didn’t stop Kaia at all. The staff melted like water, its aura flowing back to whirl around the lucario’s paws. She continued her motion uninterrupted, grabbing the machamp’s chest with one paw while her other drew back, glowing bright.

Zoe reached to try and grab her—

Kaia slammed her paw into Zoe’s chest. The explosion had enough force to send the machamp skidding back ten feet, stopping just short of the field’s painted edge. Kaia remained where she stood, one paw outstretched, wisps of blue trailing off it.

To her credit, Zoe kept her footing and shook it off. <Gonna feel that one tomorrow,> she said.

Mira tried not to look too impressed. She’d sparred with Kaia before, but watching her partner dismantle someone else never got old. The compliments she wanted to give were probably not appropriate for a trainer, so the disguised zoroark settled for “Attagirl, Kaia!”

Alex had been watching closely, brow furrowed. “She’s really slippery up close, huh?”

Mira grinned. “The fighting mirror is actually our specialty.”

“I can see why. Seems tough to fight her head on with reads like that.” They reached up to adjust their baseball cap. “Let’s slow things down. Zoe, bulldoze!”

“Kaia, up high!”

The machamp raised a pair of shimmering yellow fists and slammed them into the ground, her knees bent like a sprinting start. The dirt rippled, the shockwaves rushing across the field towards the lucario.

Kaia was already in motion. She conjured another staff and planted it in the ground as it formed, using its growth to vault into the air, high over the grounded attack.

Which was exactly what Alex had been waiting for. “Bullet punch, now!”

It was a sprinting start. Zoe lunged forward, faster than seemed possible for her bulk.

Mira’s eyes widened. Oh fuck. Kaia’s precognitive reads of her opponent’s movements weren’t of any use when she couldn’t move. The zoroark’s mind raced, offering up unbidden options. Double team. Make it look like Kaia’s stalling her descent. Flashbang the machamp. But she couldn’t—wouldn’t—do anything. This was just a friendly battle. It was okay to lose.

But that didn’t make the next hit look any less painful. The machamp’s uppercut hit Kaia square in the gut, breaking the lucario’s fall with enough force to fold her in half. It knocked the wind from her in a wheezing yelp. Pain smashed through her focus, ripping back the mental curtain she’d drawn to muffle the background aura. It exploded into brilliant prominence; Zoe’s triumph, Mira’s fear, and Alex’s satisfaction all flashed through her mind, followed by the emotions of everyone else at the stadium, like overhearing fifty phone calls at once.

Mira cringed. Shit. I should’ve called something, anything out—too focused on what I could do, not her…

Alex flung their hand out to the side. “Finish it with close combat!”

Mira would have found the flashy gesture funny if Alex weren’t winning. “Make some space!”

Head spinning, Kaia felt a pair of hands grab her around the chest, pinning her arms to her sides while her legs dangled. Zoe’s aura swam in and out of focus, but she sensed the machamp’s intent to strike. Holding me up to pummel me, thought Kaia, barely audible through the clamor in her mind. She bent her arms at the elbows and shoved her paws out, channeling her energy into a point-blank focus blast. The overwhelming emotional cacophony drowned out what Kaia was doing right in front of her; instead of a controlled blast, it exploded in her paws. Blue flame roared and flung the two pokémon apart, sending Kaia sailing through the air and Zoe tumbling along the ground.

Mira bit her lip and clenched her fists. That’s not supposed to do that. Arceus judge it, this is exactly what I was worried about! “Pull it together, Kaia!”

The lucario landed and rolled limply, her spikes leaving gouges in the dirt. Get up, Kaia thought, lying in a heap. Her breathing came in short, pained gasps. She felt Zoe stand. For some reason, she herself was still on the ground. Get u— Mira was about to run over and get involved. I’m strong en— Vibrant imagery derailed her thoughts: on the next field over, a teen clenched their fists over a stinging defeat. Their herdier looked up to them with a plaintive whine, worried, anxious the trainer was mad at them. They weren’t. Kaia could tell. She watched the human crouch down and hug the dog to reassure them, her eyes unfocused, all thoughts of getting up forgotten. Her focus jumped to the next spike of aura instead…

Mira stopped holding herself back when Kaia slumped. She recognized the signs. “Wait!” she shouted, dashing forward. “We concede!” She flung her arms out in front of the machamp.

Zoe skidded to a stop. She looked a little concerned. <I didn’t think I hit her that hard,> said the machamp, peeking around Mira at Kaia lying in a tangle of her own limbs.

Mira glanced at the machamp’s trainer across the field; far enough away to be out of earshot. “You didn’t,” she told Zoe. “Don’t worry. She’ll be okay.”

Zoe let out a sigh of relief, then did a double take. <How did you—> Red light engulfed her, cutting her off.

“Good job, Zoe!” Alex put her pokéball back on their belt and jogged over to Mira. “Everything all right? Sometimes Zoe gets excited and overdoes it.”

“No, no. Zoe didn’t do anything wrong.” Mira crouched by the catatonic lucario and pulled the four aura-damping rings from her pocket. “Kaia just gets overwhelmed in places like this. We knew this might happen.”

“Overwhelmed? By what?”

Mira waved a hand in a circle. “Everyone’s aura. She’s really sensitive to it; that’s how she was always two steps ahead of Zoe. When there’s so many people, this can happen when she loses her focus.” She slipped the paired rings back onto Kaia’s aura sensors and locked them on with quiet clicks. Each set was fitted for two sensors, one pair on each side of Kaia’s head. “These help block it out.”

The next thing Kaia knew was silence and darkness. The kaleidoscope of aura reverberating inside her skull withdrew, becoming muffled and distant. She blinked, her eyes refocusing. Why am I on the ground? <Nngh… what happened?> Slowly, the lucario started picking herself back up.

“Hey, Kaia. Welcome back.” Mira ducked under one of Kaia’s arms, supporting the lucario against her invisible shoulder fluff. Lucario were short, but Mira was only a bit over five feet herself, so it wasn’t too much of a struggle to help Kaia up.

Kaia brushed the dirt off her fur with her free arm and noted how tender her belly was. Her head ached, but steadily she remembered. <Right, the fight… the fight!> Her red eyes widened, darting between Alex and Mira. No machamp in sight. <…I lost.> Her posture sagged.

Alex looked relieved to see Kaia up and woofing. They noted her dejection and crouched to put their head level with hers. “Hey—Kaia, right? I was going to tell your trainer, um, but now that you’re up I can tell you instead.”

Mira concealed a chuckle. Of course they remember Kaia’s name better than mine.

“I wanted to say, even if the battle got cut short, that you did a great job! Nobody’s given Zoe trouble like that in ages.”

Kaia stared at them. Humans didn’t usually talk to her. That alone was unexpected enough to jolt her out of her moping.

“Want a rematch sometime? Somewhere you won’t get overwhelmed?”

Mira chuckled out loud this time as Alex kept talking to Kaia and not her. So enthusiastic after a battle. “We’re only in town for a bit, and we’re pretty busy. But hey, give me your number and I’ll poke you if something frees up. If you’re interested, Kaia,” she added, looking at the lucario leaning against her.

Kaia looked between them both, then nodded. <Yes. It was fun, despite…>

“Great! You in town for the gyms? If the rest of your team is even half as good as Kaia here, I’d love to see them in action!”

“Yeah…” Right… the rest of my “team”…