Just as the Zubat was heading straight towards its mark midflight, just as Hazel was seeing his Pokemon and understanding it's imprudent intentions, just as the Sniebel was feeling something being weird and his senses were telling him to watch its back ... Just as all these things happened, a small fist sized object crossed the air around them and hit the Zubat with a blunt force!

The Zubat wasn't halted in its flight, not at all, the object was either too small or too weak or both, but it wasn't enough for a full-stop.

What it did achieve though was knocking the Zubat from its planned route, thus subtly changing the destination the Zubat initially had in mind - right in Sniebel's brain area!

As Zubat had gotten too much momentun, it wasn't possible to readjust into a more favourable position or stop its Crash course at all!

Sniebel felt a sudden breeze cooling down its left side, and sound coming from the same direction that was like a car hitting full on the brakes to stop but still crash-landing into a lamp post. And when the Sniebel looked sideways into the left area the scene in front of him perplexed its weakened mind even more.

As the clouds of dust that were stirred moments before settled down again, one could see the Zubat laying there weakly covered by dust and dirt on a spot farther away. The ground path leading towards it was raised up, perfectly documenting the several meters it hit first upon the crash. Even a small tree wasn't spared from the destruction of this shooting star, broken pieces scattered on several places along the tracks.

On the sidelines, Hazel and Chestnut were standing there with shocked and dumbfounded expressions on their faces. But while Chestnut still didn't get what had occured just now, Hazel was already fuming with rage.

He needed a couple of seconds until he understood why his Zubat was on the ground looking miserable, but as he was enlightened, he couldn't decide on whom he should direct his wrath towards!

To his incompetent Zubat that didn't know it any better and cooked up a plan, that went awry and might have risked Hazel a potential gold mine?

Or towards this new opponent that appeared out of nowhere and foiled Zubat's plans with such a simple attack! As time passed gradually, Hazel realized how unlikely it had been for his Zubat to get hit and get thrown of course!

Their enemy and his Pokemon must have been sharp-shooters, or highly trained in their precision and long-distance assaults, otherwise it was impossible to just call it off as acoincidence or a fluke. The Sniebl might have been a headless corpse by now if it weren't for that one 'lucky' strike!

As these thoughts swirrled through Hazel's mind, goosebumps raised up along his backline and neck upwards!

"Shit, who's this?! Where is that monster, and why is he after us!", suddenly he felt the urge to just leave everything be and run away as far and soon as possible! Fighting against elite combatants wasn't part of deal here!

Cowardly as he might be, he knew were his strengths and limits laid. Bullying children was one thing, coping with hidden elites was an absolutely different thing! They were hardly comparable!

But just as his negative anxiety-stricken urges overwhelmed him, he felt a sudden pull from his sleeves.

"H-haze, look over there! It's that bastard kid!", he heard Chestnut's unpolite but familiar voice and got confused.

"The kid is here ...?", and as Hazel looked up, it was indeed their target that stood in between the woods, one arm holding a pack of small rocks, the other having another rock in its grip.

"It's that kid ... ha ha ... just the kid, ha ha ha, hahahaah, kyakakakaak!", all the anxiety vanished from Hazel's mind and it was as if Hades had pardoned him of his crimes and granted another lease on life. It was just the kid! Just a damned fluke!

It wasn't an elite trainer or its overpowered Pokemon partner that struck his dear Zubat, but just a damned brat that stood on his last legs, barely able to stand right, and who got a lucky shot giving him a couple more seconds to breath before his impending doom!

*Sighhhh*

As Hazel breathed out loud, he felt embarrassed for his short-lived but shockingly stupid fear and anxiety. Why would there be a super powerful trainer in their surroundings? That would be too much of a coincidence, a joke by god maybe.

No, it was a just the last struggles from a stupid boy.

"Well done boy! You got me there for a second! Making me believe you were more than your outer shell made you appear to be! But did you know a flame burns the brightest right before it ends burning at all?! Your glorious moment has passed, what for? Two minutes! Two minutes more that you could enjoy on this earth!", as he finished his speech, Hazel turned back towards his Zubat that still lay there on the ground,

"Enough breaks now! Go and bring me that boy's head! Reclaim your dignity and execute revenge! Or I will release you, we don't need weaklings defeated by mere juveniles here!", he commanded Zubat with harsh words.

And just as they entered Zubat's sharp ears, it arose with new vigor into the air and made itself ready for a new attack! Zubat was tough and although it got hurt during its small escapade earlier it wasn't enough to call it defeated!

No, it energised him even more, as Zubat burned with the resolve to destroy the boy that stole his opportunity at victory!

But just as it was ready for a big mighty Supersonic attack, it sensed a sudden attack coming straight towards it! Its senses foretold danger and the Zubat instinctly avoided the rock that was flying in its direction!

But after avoiding this one rock, another one appeared right beside it right at the spot the Zubat was currently positioned at, and as he dodged that one as well by a swift flapping move upwards ...

*CRACK*

A small rock struck Zubat right at its ears, making it feel slight plain and leaving him in a disoriented state!

"What the fuc# ...", Chestnut exclaimed with his foul mouth wide open.

"What the hell ...", Hazel muttered under his breath, through his pact he could clearly feel the force and pain that Zubat suffered from right now, but what actually astonished him was that the Zubat was hit at all!

His Zubat wasn't stupid! How could it get hit by some stray rocks thrown by a wimpy little kid!

"Wasn't that supposed to be a fluke?", the question resounded through his head for a while ....

....

"What the heck?!", the person who was the most flabbergasted right now was the initiator of this attack himself!

"How in the name of the great holy Arceus did I do that?!", Atiqo looked at his hand that just threw off those rocks and then back at the Zubat that still flew there like a headless chicken in the air.

"Do I have super powers now?!", he wondered excitedly.

Let's jump a couple of minutes backwards

Atiqo had been busy gathering and looking for rocks that were fist-sized and which felt good in his grip. Small ones wouldn't have an effect, and big ones, well he needed to carry them all the way back as well, he didn't have the power for that!

His plan was easy to understand, the Zubat needed to be distracted somehow from the outside so that Sniebel could take care of Houndour first and then finish the Zubat after that.

Of course Arthur hadn't grown wings now, a head-on confrontation was impossible. But keeping the Zubat at bay for a little while and buying more time with some well thrown rocks should still lie in the realms of possibility!

In addition, he knew for a fact that Zubats, at least on his earth, were based on bats. Bats were blind and only relied on the movement of sounds they received and emitted to be aware of their surroundings. That's why he also wanted to target its hearing organs and create a stunning effect!

Atiqo couldn't be sure that Zubat's and bats worked the same way in this world, but it was something he had to work with right now. And as he finished his mission, finding lots of stones, after he returned to the battlefield, he hid himself behind a tree and used his PokeDex to analyse the Zubat thereby confirming his speculations:

Name: Zubat

Realm of Beasts

Species: Microchiroptera sonus

Type affinity: Wind

Highest Class Recorded: Chieftain

Background Information:

- It is blind and mainly relies on soundwaves to locate its prey and map out its environment.

[...]

Feeling a sort of approval after his speculation was confirmed true, he decided to wait for a moment where Zubat was revealing an opening and strike when he could maximise all his advantages.

Because once he was discovered, it wouldn't take long time until the barrage against Atiqo would overwhelm him and leave him unprotected to their brutal violence.

It was a risky plan indeed, and many many things could go wrong but sometimes, you just needed to risk it to get the rewards!

But as he waited and waited, the opening never came and Sniebel's injuries grew worse and worse! Then the Zubat came into play and descended in a Kamikaze like path towards Sniebel's blind spot!

Realizing that he couldn't wait any longer, Atiqo felt a sudden impulse, grabbed himself a rock and aimed at the Zubat with his complete focus!

It was in that moment that it happened ... the world suddenly froze and turned deathly still. The surrounding areas got a bit blurry in Atiqo's sight, but the Zubat, it stuck there in the air like a statue fully clear and well-defined in his eyes!

No, it was literally stuck mid-air! It didn't move, its wings just lay there still ... wait, no, that's not it!

"Huh?", Atiqo got startled for a second. He felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't pinpoint the exact reason to it.

Atiqo put even more concentration into his eyes, thus noticing slight vibrations coming off from the Zubat's body! It wasn't frozen, but it was moving extremely slowly! It would take ages for it to reach Sniebel's side!

"What is going on!", Atiqo now observed his surroundings and noticed how everybody else on the field also got affected by this slow-motion phenomaena, he himself also couldn't move much either!

It nearly blew his mind away, but his mature self quickly got back on track. He had a target to hit! His life as well as Sniebel's depended on it!

As he turned his attention back onto Zubat, his mind worked like a computer, thoughts popped up in his mind that predicted the Pokemon's movements ahead of its path!

Atiqo somehow knew exactly where and how to throw the rock to strike the Zubat during its flight! Not questioning this weird but benefitial occurence, who knows how long it would last, he gripped the rock tightly in his hand and as if a spell had run out of mana, the world was filled with live again!

Sniebel was still fighting off the Houndour, Hazel and Chestnut spectated from the sidelines, and Zubat was in a direct course towards collision!

However, Atiqo wouldn't let its plan come to fruition! He still remembered the information like an instinct, this feeling of absolute control and clarity deeply imprinted onto his mind, and with the full force of his right arm he swung foward right behind Sniebel's back area!

And it hit! Bull's eye!

It felt like a dream to Atiqo, when did he become such a good pitcher!

But before he could revel in his sudden success, another crisis came in his way! Hazel noticed him and ordered the Zubat for another attack!

"Shit!", Atiqo cursed in his mind. What should he do now?!

He was too slow to run away, Zubat's attacks would hit him either way before he could find a good cover. So he did what he had intended to do from the beginning on.

"Atiqo, use Stone Throw!", he awkwardly reminded himself in his mind and began taking another rock into his fist ... and then it happened again!

Like a magic switch having been turned on, the world regained its deathly stillness and the Zubat's movements and actions lay bare before Atiqo's prying eyes!

He threw one rock, but knowing that it wasn't enough, he made himself ready for another attempt. And the world, as if it was under his command, moved in its own pace when he wanted it to, and slowed down when he willed it otherwise.

Everytime he observed the Zubat, images sprang out of the static Zubat each moving into different directions, his mind predicted different pathways and actions that Pokemon could take, and Atiqo tried cutting off each one with a well aimed rock!

Then after the third throw of a rock, the inevitable came! A solid hit on Zubat's left ear!

"Do I- do I have superpowers now?!"