The arena was huge; it looked about one or two hundred yards across from Dylan's perspective, and twice as long. The stadium itself had no roof but was surrounded by thick glass walls, the floor consisted of a dense, thick type of sand that felt nearly solid under his feet giving way under his shoes just enough to leave light footprints where he walked. Dylan concluded that it was like this so that the pokemon could run without slipping or kicking up a dust cloud but still avoid taking serious damage when falling. A white line running across the width of the stadium divided it into two halves; each of the halves had a short line about one quarter into the half parallel to the center line. These small lines mark the positions where each trainer must be standing at the start of the battle.
Dylan looked around through the thick glass panes that cut the battlefield off from the rest of the world. To his right was the sprawling cityscape of Nimbassa City including the Pokemon Centre he had just come from, and to the left was Driftveil Bridge stretching off into the distance. From somewhere in the direction of the city a loud bell rang sending a flock of Pidove flying from their perch atop the stone statue which marked the battle subway. Dylan, being from Rustboro, didn't know exactly what the bell meant, but he assumed it had something to do with the pokemon sports arenas, located about a Kilometer and a half north of the pokemon centre.
An electronic beeping sound echoed throughout the arena. Dylan remembered that the beep was to tell trainers to prepare themselves because an opponent had been found. The "Online Matchup System" or OMS is an interesting concept that was implemented in the Unova region just recently. In the Nimbassa City Pokemon Centre there is a teleportation platform that will bring you to one of many battle stadiums in Unova, once two people have entered a stadium they will battle. Currently there is only one stadium, the one that Dylan is in, but there are many others under construction, once all the stadiums are complete more teleportation platforms are planned in every other pokemon centre in Unova.
Dylan had just reached the white line about a quarter of the way to the centre line when a pair of mechanical doors at the opposite end of the stadium slid apart to reveal his opponent. A tall lightly tanned boy stood there facing Dylan he looked like he was about 14-15 years old, which was only a bit older than Dylan. His long, ragged, blond hair was parted just wide enough to see his confident but friendly face; he wore nothing but a slightly ragged t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Dylan thought he had the outward appearance on a trainer from the Orange Archipelago.
The boy walked up past his starting point to greet Dylan before the match.
"The name's Will." The older boy said extending his hand.
"Dylan." The other Replied
The boys shook hands, "Good luck" Will said.
"Don't waste your luck on me" said Dylan with a hint of a grin on his face, "you'll need as much as you can get if you plan on winning."
Will chuckled at the joke as he walked back to take his position behind his white line. Once in position Will turned around to face Dylan again. "You're a nice kid" Will said "But no matter how nice you are, I'll never let you win" Will stepped back with his right leg and held out his pokeball in a fighting stance.
"It's on!" Dylan called back grabbing his first pokemon from his belt.
"This" Boomed a loudspeaker "is your automatic judge speaking. This battle will be a 4 on 4 pokemon battle using double battle format, the moves "Sky drop" and "Dark void" are prohibited. Item or Wonder Launcher use is also illegal banned pokemon have already been confiscated and will be returned to you after the battle. Begin!
The arena again grew silent; the boys wordlessly threw their first two pokeballs towards the center of the arena. The silence was broken by the sound of the pokemon emerging from their capsules. On one half of the arena a Glaceon and a Gengar appeared before Will. On the other half, Dylan stood behind his Blaziken and Braviary. The boys were given fifteen seconds to think over their strategy before another buzzer would sound and the battle would start. It wasn't a very long time but it was good to take a quick breath before plunging into the turmoil of the battle.
Both trainers had been equipped with a microphone and headset, the microphone was connected to a bud inside their Pokémon's ear (on rare occasions when there are pokemon like Voltorb who have the ability soundproof are used, accommodations are made). These are used so that the trainers can communicate with their pokemon without giving away their strategy to the opposing trainer.
The buzzer sounded, both trainers gave commands through the microphones and the battle began. Not wasting a second Braviary flew high up into the air to avoid a venoshock from Gengar. Glaceon quickly attacked Blaziken with an ice beam. The fire type saw it coming and smoothly dodged the attack; he then attempted to counter with a Sky Uppercut. The attempt was futile because Glaceon had already moved, and the attack had no effect on the ghost type Gengar whom he ended up swinging at.
The battle had lasted five seconds and not one Pokemon had landed a hit. The four pokemon looked at each other with a newfound respect. They all learned one thing from that quick battle alone; if they wanted to win this they would have to give it their all. Once again the trainers gave commands through the microphones and the battle commenced once again.
Again Braviary moved first and dive bombed the Gengar with incredible speed. Blaziken jumped high in the air and looked down on the three other pokemon who were still fighting. He swiftly angled himself as he descended. He prepared himself to hit the Glaceon with a gravity powered kick from above when a shiny powder that seemed to be covering Glaceon's fur reflected sunlight into his eyes. Half blinded his attack missed and he crashed into the ground. As soon as Blaziken regained his footing Glaceon fired another ice beam, this time the Blaziken wasn't so lucky, the ice beam hit him square between his shoulders and sent him flying forwards, he skidded across the sand. Again he began to rise, his fur and feathers matted with sand, this time he saw the attack coming but barely had enough time to dodge the shadow ball from Gengar. The ghost type's attack exploded when it hit the ground near the Blaziken's feet. The shock from the explosion threw Blaziken head over heels before he landed by a glass wall.
Braviary hated seeing his partner hurt like that, he began to glow dark purple and while bearing his talons he lunged at the Gengar and struck with a supereffective Shadow Claw attack the Gengar skidded backwards through the sand before lying still. Will returned the Gengar to his pokeball reluctantly, but he wasn't going to let Dylan get away with this easily. Following his trainers commands Glaceon fired a powerful blizzard at Braviary. The bird pokemon was frozen solid mid-flight and fell to the ground about as gracefully as a Gigalith doing ballet. Dylan was forced to return Braviary, and the battlefield became even once again.
Blaziken watched as the flying type stood up for him. He was proud to have a partner like Braviary. … Of course, he couldn't let Braviary have all the fun.
As Braviary was being frozen solid a black cloud leaked from the holes in the back of Blaziken's wrists. After Braviary was back in its pokeball Glaceon turned to face her other opponent, but instead of seeing a fire type, she was faced with a massive smokescreen. Behind the veil of smoke, Blaziken scaled the wall to avoid any physical attacks the ice type may foolishly use. Glaceon, refusing to be outshone began charging energy, the air around her steeply dropped in temperature, and the ice type fired a Icy wind toward the black barrier.
The super chilled breeze dissipated the smoke and knocked Blaziken from his perch atop the glass wall. After a not-so-smooth landing, a tiny crack formed in the fire type's beak, Blaziken clenched his eyes shut as he squawked from the pain. Glaceon shot an ice shard at Blaziken in attempt to finish him off quickly but the bolts of ice melted and evaporated before hitting her opponent. Out of nowhere a wave of heat washed over the small ice type. The air itself began to crackle like the burning of dry wood.
Unsure of himself Will pulled out his Pokedex to see what was happening. The small device scanned Blaziken and began to speak in its ever-so-odd electronic voice "Ability: Blaze: The Blaze is a pokemon ability can be naturally obtained by 15 pokemon, 2 other pokemon have also been reported to have been seen with Blaze but it remains unconfirmed, this ability Increases the power of fire type moves when the pokemon is weak or hurt."
"That" said Will to no one in particular "is not good"
Even though every muscle in Blaziken's body ached from the shadow ball, even though half the feathers on his back were stiff from being frozen, even though his throat and lungs burned with every breath, he also burned with a new power he had enough strength for this final attack. Flames shot from Blaziken's wrists. Glaceon was dazzled by the heat and was unable to move. Blaziken glowed white with brilliant heat. The sand below his feet was beginning to turn a dark red. Blaziken crouched like a sprinter to face the ice type, who was now immobilised by both heat and fear, and then, he ran.
It was like watching a firework shot across the ground. The glowing ball that had once been Blaziken flew across the field until he reached his destination. The explosion was enormous; the heat even caused the water around the stadium to start hissing and steaming. Needless to say the trainers were getting a bit hot.
When the light died down and Dylan's sight returned he ran over to retrieve his pokemon. Although his pokemon had used Flare Blitz a few times in the past, Dylan still feared for the Blaziken's condition.
When he reached the smoldering black crater he found Will already there kneeling by his unconscious Glaceon, other than looking a bit rattled it seemed Glaceon was in pretty good shape considering it had just been hit by a 200kmph, white hot, flaming Blaziken.
Dylan followed a short trail of black sand to find Blaziken lying face-first in the sand, the pokemon was covered in dirt and burns but thankfully he too had no ailment that time couldn't fix. The pokemon weakly rolled itself over to face its trainer. Dylan sat down and held the Pokémon's head in his lap.
"Blaz?" the pokemon said weakly
"You did your best." Dylan replied patting the ruffled feathers covering the fire type's head back into place. Although Dylan didn't quite understand what the pokemon had said, his response seemed to calm the fire type. Blaziken exhaled and his body slackened, the pokemon fell asleep, leaving Dylan in a still silence only broken by the slow rhythmic rise and fall of the fire type's chest. "Good job Blaziken." Dylan whispered as the pokemon was sucked into the pokeball with a flash of red light.
"Hey!" yelled Will from across the battlefield "You do realize we have two more pokemon each right?"
Dylan's eyes widened, he had totally forgot! The battle was only half over.