Oh the Orthmanity

[schachmeister]

Who: Armin, Emporio and Louie
Where: Pelagic Gym
When: June 9th, Wormageddon.
Summary: Orthworm displeases several people severely by trying to eat their house.
Rating: Gen; will edit if anything comes up.
Log:




Armin doesn't end up seeing the news broadcast -- primarily because by the time it airs, he's already dealing with A Situation of the Worm Kind.

It starts with a weird low rumble. And then a tremor. An earthquake maybe? It's certainly enough to make Armin look up from where he is doing paperwork. The area isn't really known for earthquakes, but then, they do happen randomly too. Luckily, it doesn't really feel severe enough to be concerning. The water in the glass on his desk ripples as another tremor hits.

Then a whole fucking Worm crashes through the wall.

"What the--" Armin swears, ducking down to avoid the shower of glass as the giant Orthworm head retreats again, happily chewing on a mouthful of gym. And listen, Armin loves pokemon, he really does. Even the ones that are not alltogether charming or rather dangerous. But he is not going to sit here and let this weird pokemon eat his gym and endanger the people and pokemon living there.

Thankfully (in so far as we can be expected to be thankful for anything when a giant worm takes a bite out of your wall), there are no gym challengers or other visitors here now. Good. The fewer people are here now, the fewer are at risk of this... this strange pokemon.

Armin sprints to the opening in the wall, his hand going to the pokeballs on his belt. Another thing to be thankful for: there might not be any challengers here now, but the gym is open; which means, he does have his full gym team on him. Watching the Orthworm rear up and get ready for another bite, he quickly tosses out one poke ball, and right before the Orthworm can bear down, Octavius the Dhelmise slams into it, forcing it back from the building.

Comments

[schachmeister]

Armin frowns a bit, trying to do the numbers in his head.

"There are advantages and disadvantages either way. It might boost my water pokemon, but it'll completely nullify the advantage your fire pokemon have. We might be better off not messing with the weather. At least not yet."

Maybe when they have the worm on the ropes, they could make the sun shine bright, and try and finish it off with a few well-placed fire moves.

"But if it isn't a ground type then--" Armin pulls out a pokeball, withdrawing Octavius the Dhelmise for now. He might be back later; his ghost moves could still be off use. Instead, Armin brings out another pokemon -- his slinky bastard of an Eelektross Julius.

"Let's paralyse this big guy, shall we? Julius, use Zap Cannon!"

Julius, always happy to cause trouble, gathers a crackling bolt of electricity in his maw, before firing it at the Orthworm.

[pennyloafer]

"Oh! Peso, help slow it down with Scary Face."

It would seem the Corviknight is more than ready to get into the fight at least. A couple powerful flaps of her wings bring her up overhead to crow menacingly at Orthworm, the red of her dark eyes glowing. As soon as she dips a bit lower, at Louie's command Cavendish floats up to take her spot and fire off an attack with ember. It may pack less punch than fire blast, but the better accuracy is a boon, especially when fighting indoors.

On the ground, Louie addresses Armin, "Do any of your hard-hitting physical attackers have a way to get around confusion? Peso could swagger 'em."

[seacub]

With a nod, Empoorio tries to get himself more into a battle focus. "Got it," he answers Armin, instead pointing toward the worm to better direct Haema.

"Haema- use Flamethrower, and then Bitter Malice!"

With any luck, at least one of the moves they've used will give a status condition- and if that happens, then they should be able to power down that worm a little using Bitter Malice!

And. Then there's Pequin.

...Alright if Pequin's not retreating then fine- "Pequin- if you're fighting, you're starting with Yawn!"

The crocalor seems to take this compromise rather well, and does just that, letting out a looooong 'yawn' as a small cloud of smoke wisps out and forward. Who knows if this will Actually get the worm asleep but. Eh. Worth a try.

Emporioo looks to Louie. "At the very least, if this last one connects we won't have to worry about it attacking as much..."

[schachmeister]

"I don't. I guess we could try withdrawing our pokemon before the Swagger hits, but it might be safer depending on other status effects."

After all, if the worm does end up confused and it rampages towards the gym, they won't have any pokemon out on the field to stop it.

Armin commands Julius to use another Zap Cannon, even as he gestures Farida to use her Hydro pump on the worm. He wishes he had Athena on him, for a good ol' soak strategy, but who knows where the Golduck is on the island right now. It'd certainly take far too much time to go find her.

"Do either of your pokemon know any ground moves? Those work well on Steel types as well."

[pennyloafer]

Louie frowns for a moment, though he's trying not to lose focus on the battle as he thinks. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work, and right when an idea hits him, Orthworm hits Peso with its tail. She's not downed, or anything, but it's still not ideal.

"Peso, fall back and work up some Hone Claws for Power Trip!" he calls, before turning to the other two. "I'll run to the PC, I can get Artifact for help!"

He hesitates, though, before he runs off, making eye contact with Emporio specifically. "If Cavendish is looking bad, tell Peso to prioritize getting him out of there."

Castform is simply not a powerful Pokemon, and as sappy as it is - in other words, he would be reluctant to admit it - Louie's very protective of his brother's former starter. And Armin may be the gym leader, and a good guy, but Louie's connection with Emporio (plus the fact that Cavendish was temporarily in his care while Louie was gone) means he trusts him most to keep an eye on the Pokemon.

apparently roar always fails when the levels lower but LOOK,

[seacub]

Ground moves, ground moves...Emporio thinks about what his pokemon has been learning thus far, knowing right from the word 'Ground' that Haema wouldn't be the answer. Ground...

"No, it's mostly 'Basics' right now actually," he confesses, backing up a step. The teen's eyes move over the worm's form, and he frowns. "The best I can do is-"

Louie, at that point, runs.

"Louie-!" It's not the worst idea, honestly. A better pokemon will even the field. He almost considers following, but then realizes something that Pequin does have.

"Oh...OH! Armin- what if I used Roar?" Probably won't flee entirely but...

...it might at least encourage them to back down a little right?

[schachmeister]

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea. It's a good thought but-- if it does flee, who knows where it'll go. We wouldn't want it to put anyone else at risk, right?"

Deep down inside, Armin is still a soldier. To protect others was (partially) why he joined the corps and then later the scouts.

"Right now, we just need to keep it here for as long as we can until Louie returns. Try using Yawn again to put it to sleep. Even if it doesn't last, it'll buy Louie some extra time!"