I Want To Lay the Very Best!

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."

"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."

Calcine had complained about her lack of speed. That could be why Incinerate had grown, to let her have more mobility. Brandy would have to keep an eye on it, make sure to send her on the offense when she heated up, and have everyone pick up the slack so she could recharge when she ran out.

"Smack Down is my ranged move. I set a rock aflame and throw it like a meteorite. It hits hard," Calcine stared at Sparky. "Or makes a perfect rock-palmed slap up close."

Sparky blew her kisses and wiggled her butt in Brandy's lap. "Seriously, it's to die for."

"Oh, I've tried it," Saffira nodded, "Keep that one. It's ... woof. Very good."

Brandy needed a turn with that, it seemed. She wasn't a big spanking girl, but a fiery, empowered one from a complete hottie she could try out.

"The two I think we're leaving short are Rapid Spin and Smokescreen." Calcine shrugged. "Smokescreen worked great when I was alone, but it doesn't help the team much now as everyone needs to see what they're doing. Rapid Spin is okay, too, but I can cover most of it with my other moves."

"Sounds like you need to consider if you want to keep moves that are useful in only a few situations," Victoria said, "Smokescreen might be useless a lot of the time, but the one time you'll want it, you'll really want it. Ranged-heavy teams really hate having their ability to see taken away. It's no Supersonic, but it'd work perfectly for that."

Calcine didn't look convinced. Brandy liked plenty of options, but Calcine was more concerned about the maximum effect of her tools. She'd probably lose it after a sleep in the Binding Ball. Brandy wasn't going to argue to keep it. Hiding away wasn't Calcine's thing anymore. She'd come out of her shell, her Moves needed to reflect who she was.

"Sparky likes Rapid Spin." Brandy said, "You should keep it. Being able to wind things up, make people dizzy, or do a long bomb with whatever you get your hands is useful."

"Yeah, you can throw me so far with it!" Sparky grinned. "Keep it. I don't get dizzy, and it's pretty great how you use it in bed. Remember how we used it on Mercury?"

Brandy certainly did; she sometimes woke up in a sweat, dreaming about that. The good sweats, heart thumping, and mind fizzing.

"There's something to be said for a Move that's good between the sheets," Victoria nodded. "It'd be embarrassing to win the fight and somehow get ruined even when you're on top with them all worked up."

"I could barely keep up with her," Saffira laughed, "And I'm a bit of a beast. She's outstanding. Anything that makes her better in bed, you should keep. Maybe it'll turn into Fire Spin if you keep it, and that Move is absolute gold."

Calcine seemed happier about that than Smokescreen; Sparky's enthusiasm had rubbed off on her. "I'll give it a shot. Smokescreen too, if we don't rest up before the Tournament. I'd rather not. Fenny's Fire Stone is almost recharged; I'd rather we had that ready to go for the fight than a new Move I'm not used to."

The Fire Stone will let Calcine try out her final evolution, Coalossal. It was a fairly rare Pokémon. Most Third Stage Evolutions were almost impossible to attain in the wild by all but the most fearsome of wild Pokémon, and any that pulled it off attracted Trainers like honey attracted Combee's. Brandy had never seen a Coalossal except in Cartoons, and you couldn't rely on them to give a proper impression. She knew they were big; the name was a giveaway, but she hadn't looked up how big they were.

She didn't want to ruin the surprise. Calcine was going to be her first.

They had a few more minutes going over the finer details of Calcine's power before it was Sparky's turn to be pushed into the circle. She snagged Calcine before she could leave, clambering up on her to stand atop her shoulders. Calcine wobbled to try to balance her, but it didn't even matter. Sparky danced over her back and shoulders with the effortless grace of a mountain goat.

"Okay!" Sparky said, "I am the queen of Electroweb and Bug Bite, so I don't need tips. Sticky Zappy Web isn't a big puzzle, and we covered Bug Bite with Morgan's Feint Attack. My impeccable balance here is thanks to Agility. Calcine hand up high!"

Calcine raised an arm, her palm out, and Sparky bounced over onto that, lightly balancing one foot atop it, one leg bent for balance and hands behind her back. She made it look effortless. "It's terrific."

"Bet you can't do a finger," Saffira said, "It's only so good."

Calcine didn't even need to be told. She flipped Saffira off, and Sparky hopped atop the outstretched middle finger. The Rock Type didn't even sweat about having the weight of a whole Joltik balanced on the end of a digit while Sparky took a bow atop it. "You owe me a bet."

"We didn't really say what the bet was," Saffira shrugged.

"You're going to travel with us. I'll think of something." Sparky grinned. "But first, my other Moves! Thunder Wave and .... Brandy?"

"Infestation." Brandy snapped right back.

"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.