A New Dream

Battle On!: Dawn's POV

"Jump sideways and use Fire Fang!" Paul ordered and instantly Torracat was moving, dodging the attack easily and then snapping its fiery fangs onto Machoke's extended leg. Machoke grunted in pain, crashing into the sand on his side. "Now Double Kick," Paul said with finality and Torracat's back legs turned white as he unleashed two successive kicks into the Machoke's stomach, shoving it through the sand towards me where it rolled several times before coming to a stop in an obvious faint.

"Machoke is unable to battle, Torracat is the winner!" I proclaimed, smiling at Torracat who was still tense, his tail flicking this way and that as if in anticipation of the fight to come. Hau returned his Machoke and I saw him speak something under his breath to it before taking his next Pokeball out.

"I wasn't expecting that, to be honest, Paul. You've really been able to pull out Torracat's potential," he remarked with an approving nod at Torracat. 

The cat pokemon flicked his tail up high in acknowledgment of the compliment. With that Hau released his second pokemon and I gasped in delight when I saw that it was a Pancham. Memories of traveling with Serena and her Pancham, which was one of the best pokemon dancers I'd ever seen, flooded through me and I had to forcefully turn my attention back to the match I was supposed to be refereeing.

This time Hau took the first move, calling for a Dark Pulse, which Torracat dodged at the last second. To my surprise, Paul called for an Ember attack. I watched as Torracat aimed his fiery bullets towards the little Pancham's feet, causing him to yelp and jump around, trying to keep his little paws from getting burnt.

"Shake it off, Pancham, and use Rock Slide!" 

I heard Paul yell out a 'No!' as huge rocks formed over Torracat and began to tumble down, trapping it in a circle before a large rock finally found its target. Torracat roared with pain and struggled to get up but I noticed that he was panting heavily and some of the confidence in his yellow eyes had disappeared. 

Torracat must not have very good defense. Not to mention rock type moves are super effective against fire types, I thought with some worry. 

Paul called for another Ember attack which Hau met directly with a Dark Pulse. The two attacks pushed against each other but Pancham's proved the more powerful and forced back the ember. The attack smacked against Torracat's shoulder, sending him tumbling into the sand. Stubbornly though he stood on shaky legs and growled at the little Pancham, anger, and frustration obvious in his expression.

"Use Rock Slide again," Hau said at the same time as Paul yelled, "Get in close and use Fire Fang!" 

Pancham raised its arms to call down another barrage of rocks but Torracat somehow found the energy to run forward, dodging the rocks as they rained down around him and creating his fiery teeth that rushed ahead of him. At the same time that the Fire Fang attack connected with Pancham, a rock slammed into Torracat's side. They both fell into the sand and I stood on tiptoe, craning my neck to try and see how they fared. Soon the outcome was obvious and I announced that they both were unable to battle. The two boys returned their pokemon and Hau grinned.

"I don't think I've been this excited by a battle since I took on the Kanto pokemon league!" he said with a fire seeming to burn in his green eyes. 

Paul didn't respond though, simply sending out Torterra who roared his eagerness to battle. I felt a little bad for Hau as he chose a Crabrawler for his final pokemon. Torterra had been Paul's first pokemon, and I could only imagine how strong it had gotten during their eight years of traveling together. I didn't think that Hau had much chance of winning this.

"Torterra, use Earthquake," Paul called and immediately Torterra lifted up on his back legs and slammed down onto the ground, causing the battlefield to roll up and down as if we were in the middle of the ocean.