let's go all out (pummeling)!

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

Sena isn't a stranger to extracurricular activities, what with being a school athlete and all. It's not an unfamiliar sight to see him and his Pokemon appropriating one of the school battlefields after class to train his team - heck, maybe others have either trained with him or just watched. He does have a pretty unusual way of training them, after all.

Today is proving to be odder than most, because Sena and Monta seem to be trying something out that's a strange mix of sumo wrestling and...dancing?

A closer look shows that he and Monta are actually trying out a Z-Move with the Fightinium-Z and Z-Ring he'd been given by Hala after completing his trial. Or more specifically, the timing. After all, speed and precision is key in Sena's fighting style, and there's no point in having a powerful new move if they can't use it properly.

Sena and Monta have the moves down. But integrating its wide sweeping, powerful steps with their zigzag, lightfooted pace is proving to be a challenge, if their mock battle against Vee is any evidence. The Jolteon is happily running circles around them, tripping up their attempts to get in sync with precisely aimed Thunderbolts and Pin Missiles at their feet, just as she was instructed.

She's doing her job a little too well. Half of the time, they're tripping up because Monta wants to punch her out, not because he's actually stumbling. actually wait he's chasing her around the field now MONTA COME BACK

"Hah...another failure, I guess..."

Sena sounds resigned. Syncing up like this is pretty hard...maybe he could use the break too.

Comments

[adora_plz]

"I'm just saying hay is a perfectly acceptable food stuff," said Fred, as he and Adora trotted up the hill with Adora on his back. "You should try it some time."

"Ugh, no thanks Fred. I can't digest hay! Can't you like fruit or something?"

"What, and get fat? I need the calories from the hay, and oh hey, it's Sena! Hey Senaaaaaaa! Don't I look fab today? It's my coat, isn't it sparkly?"

Adora sighed as she hopped off Fred. "Honestly you talk as much as Swift Wind."

"Puh-leeze, I'm much more good looking than Swift Wind. I have a flaming mane." snorted Fred. "And I evolve into a literal flaming unicorn. How COOL is that! Get it? COOL?"

Adora slapped her hand to her face and dragged it down slowly before turning to Sena. "Soooo, what'cha doing?" she asked.

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"You, uh...you look great..." Sena's voice trails off awkwardly as Fred interrupts him in favor of sniping back at Adora, and instead settles for laughing weakly.

"Training with Monta...we're practicing our Z-Move." He pauses as Monta screams angrily at Her in the distance and sighs. "We were training..."

[adora_plz]

"Oh cooool, cool! Z-moves! You know, Adora asked for a Z-move but then we went to train with Guzma. He don't like Z-Moves." said Fred. "he don't like going easy either."

"Fred..." said Adora, frowning before sighing. "Hala said we were seeking power for the wrong reasons, so he sent me to Guzma, one of his former students to clear my head and get some real perspective on what I needed to really do. I guess I have a better viewpoint on everything now. But do you need help? With your Z-move I mean."

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"That sounds like Hala alright...I mean, he made me answer a question before taking his trial, and I had to go around getting answers from everyone before he'd let me do anything."

Sena tilts his head, nodding along with her story. He knows a little bit about Guzma, it comes with living in Hala's household. Still, it's a bit odd, being sent to Team Skull of all things...

"Guzma...he uses Bug type Pokemon, doesn't he...? Maybe I could gat some pointers..." oh yeah half of sena's team is bug types

"Kind of..." He looks over the field. "Doing the Z-Move on its own is fine, but trying to use it in battle is something else. We're trying to work on our timing."

[adora_plz]

"He does, but he doesn't use Z-moves. But he could probably give you some pointers in a straight forward battle." said Adora.

"What's Hala's Z-move pose like?" asked Adora curiously.

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"Straightforward battles are kinda my style anyways, so..."

Straightforward in that yes, he's pretty much battling without much ceremony, but nothing about Sena's winding strategies are straightforward.

"Oh, it's like, uh..." And then Sena moves to demonstrate. Except, with his lithe build, him trying to mimic Hala's wide sweeping steps and powerful air-shaking punches is kinda...

Well. Let's just say he looks a tad clumsier than usual, and the feeling is pretty lacking.

"Or something like that, but I can't really nail it down..."

[adora_plz]

"Maaaaaybe that's the problem," said Adora, chin in hand as she circled around Sena. "Do it again. Slowly this time so I can see it from all angles."

She's in Horde Instructor Mode this time, and trying to figure this out. Hala had a very unique style and maybe Sena was doing something completely out of his comfort zone.

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"H-huh?" That's weird. It's like her whole demeanor changed - she actually has the tone of a leader of sorts in her voice now. "Sure...? Hey, Monta, you come too..."

wow this is kinda...embarrassing, actually. Waiting for his partner to stop fighting with Vee and come over feels a little awkward, and going through the Z-move pose without actually trying to do the move while someone is watching? hhhhh.

but okay maybe she can figure something out.

[adora_plz]

Adora watched, circling around. It's like she's got a switch or something in her hand as Fred is all "Oh yeah I've seen this before. She used to be a team leader in a evil organization, so this is 100% super intense Adora. Uh huh."

Still, Adora was laser focused as she watched Sena go through the moves and when he did so, she said, "Stop, I see what the problem is. You're not making the Z-pose your own. Look at this for a moment."

Moving to the side, she started moving through Champion Ash's Z-move. And then Kiawe's. And then Lana's. Each one of them flawless from countless hours of repetition and study.

"See these? These are copied, executed from studying the people of Alola. But... they're not my own. A Z-pose is unique to each person. you're just trying to copy the Kahuna, and you've got it in your head that you have to use the same pose as the Kahuna. Notice that while the Champion and Kiawe and others have the basics down in each pose, they add their own unique flourish to them? That's the same with Hala."

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

Sena immediately snaps to attention when she tells him to stop. It's eerie, this demeanor, and he can't help but be reminded of Hiruma - much louder and bombastic, obviously, but with that same laser point focus on everyone's actions. However, he's immediately perplexed by what she says afterwards.

"Not making the Z-pose...my own...?"

It's not until she starts going through the Z-move dances herself before he realizes what the problem is. They're perfect replications, and yet...

"I think I get what you're saying...compared to the way you do them...even if it's the same pose, it doesn't have the same energy or feeling behind them..."

It's like when he tried to copy Panther's weightless running. Sena just didn't have that physique, that style honed by jumping and leaping and making impossible distances. He'd honed his craft in tight, crowded places, and the stark differences in their running style showed...trying to copy Panther only slowed him down severely, to the point where he was running slower than the average person.

"Making the Z-move mine, huh...?" But what is his own special skill...? What is it that he and Monta share, that could make that Z-move stronger...?

"You've given me a lot to think about..."

[adora_plz]

Adora smiled, relaxing her stance and demeanor. "Yeah, you get it! I'm glad you figured it out immediately. I'm glad you get what I mean."

"Making it your own, and figuring out what you want to do with an ability is something that you want to do is always a key part of battle and learning things."

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"Yeah, it is...I can't believe I forgot that. Thanks, Adora." He nods gratefully at her. "It's how I've always played...how I've trained my Pokemon."

To get past all those players who were perfect in every way...with all that he had. To find that thinnest, barely visible path to victory and force his way through...

"...I guess what's really throwing me off is the way I've seen Z-moves used, honestly..."

[adora_plz]

"I know what you mean. Guzma doesn't use them but to be able to pull off a incredible dance in the heat of battle and unleash you full power all at once while someone's barreling down on your Pokemon? What a rush." said Adora.

"Adora still loses her cool when Guzma comes at her," said Fred, looking up from a Sweet Apple basket he was munching on.

"Not helping Fred!"

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"It's really something...but the timing on that, it's really something. Still..."

Sena frowns, crossing his arms.

"Maybe it's because I've really only seen Hala do it close up, but...during the trial, the way he used the Z-move, it was like part of a ceremony. He managed to execute it even while Monta and I were barrelling down on him, but to devote that much time to a single move..."

Sena scratches his head. To someone who lived each battle in the moment, making snap decisions...a ceremonial-like Z-move really doesn't suit him at all. Adora's seen him fight before, she probably can guess what he's aiming at. Still, he chuckles weakly at Fred's interjection.

"I guess he must come at you pretty fast, huh?" Maybe?

[adora_plz]

"Yeah, it's a heat of battle thing but... to be able to wildly adapt to a situation, and to do a Z-move in the same breath? It really makes you think, doesn't it? Which is why Guzma doesn't let you think, or at least forces you to think. I dunno. Maybe if you come by before the school trip, we'll show you the ropes." said Adora.

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"I don't think it's that you're not allowed to think...you just need to be really good at making snap decisions."

At least, that's how it works for Sena. It's a difficult skill to master, and out of all his Pokemon only Monta has really internalized it the same way Sena has.

"And then communicating that to your Pokemon at the same time...you really need to be in sync for that, you know? Feels like Monta and I are learning that all over again..."

He shrugs a bit, but raises an eyebrow at Adora's offer.

"You mean you and Guzma?"