Hana smiled at this, for even though such a strategy is not that impressive in relation to herself, it's still a moment of pride to see his son able to quickly find a way to fight an opponent effectively without relying on the randomness of the battle. She's so sure that even if Anthony didn't say it directly, he was still happy to have this moment for himself.
Slowly, the smirk on the face of Hana disappeared as she continued to watch the monotonous yet reverberating match in front of him.
_... And I will not let those bastards destroy this happiness because of their impotence._
For some reason, Hana Dover's seatmates in her back and sides snapped their heads simultaneously towards her as a slight cold sweat seeped out of their temples.
All of them felt like they were about to get pounced on by a ferocious predator, though this feeling immediately went away.
___________________
Anthony and Mary looked at their respective Pokemons as if the cheers of the crowd didn't exist. This is because both of them have two very pressing questions in their mind right now, despite the fact that their Pokemons are proven to be of the same strength: How would they break the deadlock and gain an advantage against their opponent? Because of this question, they were like two statues, looking at their Pokemons with frowns on their faces. Obviously, this is very different from the very dynamic battles in the Pokémon League or the Elite 4 and Champion Challenge.
This is because of a very simple reason: Pokemon League worthy trainers, irrespective of age, can use one moment and branch them to different strategies. For a good reference, the last battle between Hana and Ben showcased the quick shifting of type advantage, move power level, and aerodynamic-based strategies in a very few couple of minutes.
Mary and Anthony can't just do that, no matter how they're training to be a field researcher. There is no need to explain Mary's situation, she was just a child in both body and mind while Anthony while already mentally old is used to turn-based strategies and finds it rather hard to adjust to a 'who wanted to hit first have to be faster' strategies, if anything it was impressive of him of being the one having the slight step ahead in strategic thinking than a native of this world.
Surely, the girl in front of him has already targeted becoming an associate field researcher and has been trained for a longer time than Anthony.
... that, or Mary just wanted to copy Anthony's mom.
In any case, the two trainers waited for each other to make a move. The two of them obviously already formulated ways to get out of the deadlock; it's just up to which one between the two of them to decide on whose strategy will be seen by the audience first.
Anthony and Mary continued to silently look at their Pokémon's sustained high speeds that would put some vehicles to shame, and soon, Anthony and the whole audience heard a sigh.
"1 minutes and 27 seconds..."
Anthony looked at Mary and the clock; surely a lot of time had already passed relative to the time limit of the fight. At this moment, Anthony realized something as his eyes froze whilst he made his head forcefully crane back to the battle, causing him to frown. Surely, he saw that Pikachu had already been 'tidally locked' in the arm of Miltank, where the whole Rollout and Defense Curl was anchored; not only that, Pikachu is only just inches away from the hand!
"Dodge it!"
Anthony did his best to belt out a command while cursing himself for his unconscious enjoyment of the battle and neglecting some basics of the fight he was in: both Pokémon can move semi-independently and were trained to fight alongside their trainer and not just for them, which means that Mary or Anthony doesn't need extensive commands to properly make their Pokémon battle.
Unfortunately for Anthony, it was already too late, and the right side of Miltank had already collided with Pikachu's silver aura-enlaced head, causing a dull explosion to ring out and some dust to explode up in the air. This explosion of dust then spat out two figures, Pickachu, which bounced once on the floor before shaking its head, and Miltank, that has a hanging and immobile hand, whilst the red aura in its body had become a tad bit brighter.
Anthony, however, shook his head and sighed in disappointment.
"Protect your arm for now and make all attacks land on your belly!"
Miltank immediately abided and didn't ask why it was not allowed to use Milk Drink; it immediately crouched down whilst a silver streak of a dashing Pikachu appeared in front of it, Miltank then belted out its belly and counteracted the Quick Attack.
With this damage, Miltank's red aura becomes brighter, but still, Anthony is not satisfied.
_This is me and my damn short attention span, I was hoping on making Miltank use the 'agile playground' to lure Pikachu into fighting with lots of zigzag and jump high for a Rollout, no matter what, Miltank will receive damage from the most protected area of its body during this state and have Bide strengthen without compromising any of its limbs... I was too focused on the battle that I got too distracted once I pulled out of it..._
Anthony felt like he had been a minute away from being outsmarted by a kid, an embarrassing moment for an adult like him.
____________________
Hana's smile went back to her face as she nodded approvingly of this strategy. Now, Pickachu just needed to make Miltank release Bide and successfully dodge it for it to reset with a fully broken arm that can't support a moving move like Rollout. However, Karen, Prof. Oak, and the panelist, as well as Agatha, who is watching somewhere in the lab, are of a different opinion.
Mary should know that Pikachu is naturally lighter than Miltank and thus can last longer in a full speed chase, in theory as long as Pickachu is able to make Miltank use its full speed, the worst case would be a draw and the best case is a Miltank rolling out of Rollout and Defense Curl move without stacking with its Bide, then speed blitz Miltank and effectively dodge the Bide beam or attack. This will make neutralizing the 3 combo move much safer, with the panelist immediately knowing when the bell rings that Miltank is technically more exhausted than Pickachu.
Then Mary will win.
_This girl really modelled her strategies with Hana... she wants a knockout and not a unanimous decision when winning..._
This is very typical of children, and if one observes, even the calm-looking Anthony also wanted to have such a victory. It was only Hana, as well as several people who have 'succeeded' in being someone like her, who have reckless strategies, proving that one can become successful while still holding on your childhood dream of knocking out Pokemons with brute force.
Unfortunately, it would take a very long time for the panelists, as well as the people who have an acumen in battles, to see if Mary embodies such a talent. For now, they knew that Mary, Anthony, and their respective Pokemons have a high level of bond as they can properly articulate in fast speeds the commands of their trainers.
__________________
Anthony ignored the worried shouts of his partner, Pokémon Zubat, as well as Treecko's, as he watched the 3rd Iron Tail of Pikachu hit the belly of Miltank, something that was intentional for the Pokémon. This made Mary quite nervous as she didn't know what move made the belly so important to be hit, except Bide, so she made Pickachu make attempts to hit the other parts of Miltank's body, but this strategy is for 'Miltank' to once again drag Pickachu on its own 'playground'. If Pickachu is best when fighting using speed, then Miltank is most comfortable if it's tanking and counterattacking, as seen in its fight with Zubat.
In this form, it was able to properly dodge despite having one compromised arm and make sure that every hit that would land would be on its belly. This made Mary anxious, wondering what in the world is in the belly of Miltank that it was allowed by its trainer to absorb all hits over other parts of the body when Bide can be loaded up even when the attack hits a Pokémon's ass.
_I thought I had the initiative, but to some extent, I have to accept a unanimous decision that Miltank has more injuries than my Pickachu..._
Mary felt indignant about this; the slowly dwindling time made this stubborn girl feel like she didn't have any choice.
_45 seconds and counting..._
Mary and Anthony watched as Miltank twirled and made its belly protrude as if an alcoholic to face the Iron Tail or Quick Attack of Pikachu, that seem to only have zigzagging as a contingency in this very bizarre fighting style. Even the audience finds it confusing, or perhaps interesting.
Not to mention the fact that no attacks landed anywhere away from the belly, which made this situation even more interesting.
30 seconds remaining, the crowd cheered louder while Zubat made more worried noises for its two friends; however, only the fourth attack of Pickachu is on its way to land on the belly of Miltank.
_Sigh..._
At this moment, it seems like both Anthony and Mary have already resigned to the end of their match. Mary took the bitter win while Anthony had to accept that not everyone has to win their first semi-official fight; this made the cheering transition into claps as if wanting to console both the trainers... or interns on their unsatisfactory results that were imposed on themselves.
The clapping continued... or it will if only Miltank didn't raise its uninjured arm to the air, causing Pikachu's eyes to widen only for a split second before it curled its body in mid-air to dodge anything that would come its way. However, Miltank doesn't have any move that uses its arms, and its aim is the hardened tail of Pikachu, something that was not protected by its friend.
And thus it was caught almost without a hitch.
"Pickachu! Thunder Wave!!!"
Mary's teeth were gritted together, anger on herself and to the boy in front of her surged as she felt like she was made a fool of using something so simple... or something that she also used against Anthony.
_The belly is just a distraction! It's not there to defend the busted-up arm, but to make sure that Pikachu and I will focus on the reason why he commanded Miltank to do such a thing! The sigh is a sign for Miltank to catch Pikachu's tail! HE TIMES IT WHEN THE TIME IS ALMOST UP!_
Mary realized all of the misdirections done by Anthony, who also had his pride hurt because of being misled by a basic 'what's that?' misdirection. He felt like he have the justification of using some semi advanced misdirections of hismelf.
_Reading Klein vs. Amon made me something of a scammer myself... I hope they can understand the reference..._
Pikachu immediately heeded the command while the crowd again burst in amused and amazed cheer (there was even a very obvious laugh of a woman), small bolts of electricity flowed from its cheeks to its tail. However, Miltank doesn't need any command for this action as it was already briefed on what it would do on to deal with Pickachu after it was caught in any way before the fight, something integral in Anthony's strategy. It again raised its arm and slammed Pikachu to the ground, the Pokemon that is still trying to load up its Thunder Wave was unable to react except to whimper loud with a 'Pikaa!" as its head was banged to the floor.
Mary doesn't have any solutions except shouting the name of her Pokemon.
"Bide."
Anthony again sighed while watching his Pokemon get its hold of Pikachu's tail to loosen and slump the Pokemon that still has its eyes spinning before coagulating all of the Bide force it accumulated in its mouth into that of a white glowing orb.
From that orb, a laser-like light shot out towards Pikachu, making the soil beneath it to cave in for a little and create a 3 feet crater that spew out smoke and dust. Mary didn't even waited for the announcement and ran towards the crater, her eyes teary while in her mind, she wanted to bang her head to the floor because of her carelessness as she saw Pikachu's eyes closed.
"Pickachu is unable to battle, Miltank and Anthony Dover is the winner."
Anthony also didn't stand on ceremony and instead jogged towards the fainted friend of his Pokemons. Zubat, Treecko and Skitty went forward too.