Chapter 1.

Day 1

Jacob

The triumphant sounds of horns blaring and drums clashing filled the air as the band marched on past the small cafe where Jacob sat outdoors by himself. He lounged back in his chair and began nervously fiddling with the six pokeballs that rested in his belt. He tapped his foot with the beat of the music but his eyes never left the giant structure rising up out of the distance to the east of him. The massive Pokemon Stadium was at the center of the entire village that served as the homes for trainers entering into the Pokemon league as well as a tourist attraction for fans of Pokemon battles. The parade was celebrating the end of the round of 16 in the Pokemon league tournament. That day, eight Pokemon battles had raged in that stadium and by the end of the matches, only eight victorious trainers had remained in the running to be crowned the new Pokemon Champion.

Jacob closed his eyes for a moment and thanked his lucky stars that one of those eight had been him. Today's battle had been brutal. Jacob had one of the earliest battles that morning and had been matched up with an older trainer who had much more experience. Jacob ran a hand through his short blond hair and reflected on how close he had been to elimination.

Jacob had started the battle off with a solid strategy, begin with his Tauros hoping that it being a Normal-Type and therefore not possessing many type weaknesses, Jacob could overpower his opponents first Pokemon and retain the lead from there. He hadn't expected that his opponent would start off with a Primeape, a Fighting-Type Pokemon with a significant type advantage over Tauros. Jacob had decided to try his luck anyways and attacked head on only to watch his Tauros be flattened by a combo of Karate Chop and Mega Punch. Then it got worse, Jacob decided to try out his newest Pokemon, a Pikachu he had met in the forest not long before the tournament started. Jacob had caught the Pikachu because he had been impressed with it's Electric attacks but when faced with his opponents Primeape, it only managed to get off one Thundershock before its poor defense stat caused it to get knocked out by a Mega Punch.

Down 3-1 and knowing that he needed to sweep his opponent's next three Pokemon or he was going home Jacob had been forced to rely on his secret weapon. The first Pokemon he had ever received and his most powerful, his Charizard. Jacob smiled to himself as he thought back on how Charizard's Flamethrower made short work of not only Primeape, but also the Raticate his opponent had chosen next. His opponents final Pokemon, a feisty Pinsir, managed to hit Charizard with a vicious Slash attack before a super-effective Fire Blast put it down for the count.

Jacob picked up Charizard's pokeball and stared at it. He had already gone to the Pokemon Center earlier that day after the match, so he knew Charizard would be ready to battle if he needed the Fire-Type. He gripped the ball more tightly. He knew Charizard was powerful, but he also knew he couldn't keep relying on the dragon. Not in the six-on-six matches to come. And especially not against the opponents he would be facing in the next rounds.

The parade had snaked its way away from the little café a while ago and the streets surrounding the Stadium were starting to clear out as the late afternoon gave way to early evening. They were announcing the seeding for the round of 8 at 9 p.m. and many of the fans were heading to the front of the stadium to hear the matchups. The trainers would be seeded 1-8 and matched up with one another. The first of those two matchups would occur the day after tomorrow and another two would occur the day after that. Then the remaining four would be paired against one another and the winners of those two matches would face each other for the right to challenge the Elite Four and become Pokemon Champion.

Jacob stood up slowly and started walking at a slow pace towards the Stadium. In his black zip-up and jeans he didn't look any different than any of the fans and children milling towards the stadium. He easily fell in with a gaggle of people and, besides a few sideways glances, he mostly blended in despite the fact that these people had watched him battle earlier that day.

"Who do you think will get the number one seed?" a portly man wearing sunglasses asked his rail thin friend wearing a Gyrados shirt as the duo walked on Jacob's left.

"Gotta be Colin, he's won all of his matchups using only one Pokemon!" the thin friends exclaimed. "That Charizard has pummeled everything put in front of it."

Jacob stiffened up as he heard the name "Colin" and he eavesdropped on the rest of their conversation.

"T.J. has won every match with only one Pokemon too." the portly Pokemon fan countered. "And he's used a couple different ones."

"Yeah but he plays around with his opponents too much, he tries to win with style. That Charizard just burns everything to a crisp." The tall friend replied.

Jacob clenched his teeth as he listened to their remarks. He had known Colin for a long time. They were both from Pallet town and had both started their Pokemon journey with a Charmander although Colin had set out one year before Jacob. He and Colin had been friends as kids but after a chance meeting in a field outside Pewter City had lead to a battle between their Charmanders and one of the worst defeats of Jacob's career as a trainer, Jacob now saw Colin as a rival.

Jacob relaxed his jaw and sagged his shoulders. The two fans were right though. Colin's Charizard was undeniably impressive. Colin had yet to use another Pokemon all tournament, Charizard had beaten Water-Types, Rock-Types, Dragon-Types, even other Fire-Types. It's Fire Blast was probably the strongest Jacob had ever seen and it rounded out its attack list with Flying and Fighting-Type moves making it surprisingly versatile. Today Colin had used Charizard to perfection; beating his opponent, a young lady from Celadon who specialized in Grass Pokemon, with a quick string of Flamethrowers and Wing Attacks.

In fact, Jacob suddenly realized. All of the other seven winners from today's matches had impressive victories. His was the only match that had even been close. "Shit" he thought to himself, "Am I going to be seeded last? Am I the worst trainer left?"

Jacob shook his head and chided himself for his negative thoughts. Who cares who was seeded where. Jacob reached into a pouch on his back pocket and pulled out a fistful of small brightly colored ornaments. He looked down at the shiny trinkets in his hand. "These eight gym badges are all the proof I need of my right to be here." Jacob thought. "And on top of that, I've advanced all the way into the round of 8. Nobodies gonna beat me now that I'm this close."

His confidence restored, Jacob returned the badges to their pouch and looked up. He had arrived at the front of the stadium. A crowd of hundreds stood in front of the monolith and looked up at the colossal screen that dominated the building's eastern face. There excitement palpable as they waited to know what would be the next matchup for them to eagerly anticipate would be.

Jacob stood in the back of the crowd and looked down at his watch as the display changed from 8:59 to 9. "Show time," he thought to himself.

The screen let up and crowd let out a gasp as the names and faces of the remaining Pokemon trainers began zooming in and out of the screen until finally they settled into their place. The crowd let out a raucous cheer as the seeding's and matchups finally came into view.

(1) Colin vs. (8) Jacob

(2) T.J. vs. (7) Emelie

(3) Ben vs. (6) Tim

(4) Will vs. (5) Greg

"Of course it had to be him," Jacob thought to himself as he looked up at the screen. A rush of nervousness came over for him but was quickly followed by a rush of adrenaline. "If I'm gonna prove I can be Champion I was gonna have to beat him at some point anyway," Jacob thought, "Now I have a chance to show that my Charizard can more than hang with his. Now I have a chance to show we can win."

Jacob scanned the crowd for a sign of his upcoming opponent but couldn't see anyone in particular in the crowd. He didn't have to search long though. In the middle of the crowd a blinding white light shot into the sky and an orange flash materialized above the throngs of people.

Jacob looked up just in time to see a Charizard rip through evening sky then sail back down towards the earth at shocking speeds. The dragon came down to the ground just long enough for a figure to leap from the crowd onto it's back. The Charizard took off again and began to fly off in the direction of the trainer's cottages but Jacob could clearly see that it was Colin clinging to the back of the Pokemon. Jacob watched Colin scan the crowd as he flew off and saw him smile when he recognized Jacob's blonde head amongst the masses. He met Jacobs gaze and responded to the younger trainers glare with a smirk. "I choose you." He mouthed at Jacob as Charizard whisked him off into the sky.