Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon however I hopefully will publish my own book soon.
The problems started in the second round. Both Scyther and Lucario were knocked out of the tournament, but that wasn't the problem. During Gallade's fight the field had shrouded itself in smoke and when it cleared Gallades opponent, an Alakazam had been cut in half. Gallade denied it but due to the type disadvantage, David's earlier use of a smoke bomb and the blades on Gallades arms it wasn't looking good.
Gallade had denied it using telepathy and another Alakazam had stood in as a living lie detector. He passed but still the crowd was feeling more than a little vicious towards the trainer and his pokemon, public opinion had done a U-turn.
Also two trainers had had their pokeballs stolen, there was no news of any discoveries and as they were considered to be the two to beat other than the gym-leader-to-be the finger was being pointed for that as well.
Then there were the appeals, One quirk of David's training was that he no longer gave commands, relying on his pokemon to make the right choice, the two trainers Empoleon and Gardevoir had beaten were both trying for appeals saying that their pokemon had been recklessly endangered and that for all they knew their opponents were actually wild pokemon.
It wasn't looking good and with at least eight rounds after this one it wasn't going to get better
David had two hours till his second fight and was busy trying to research his opponent – only the first match was random, every match afterwards was paired up.
His opponent shouldn't be a problem really but with a match this easy something had to be up. His opponent was a Magikarp, how it had gotten through the first round was anyones guess, either that or the trainer had something up their sleeve.
With this unexpected turn of events he was checking every move Magikarp could learn, still drawing a blank on anything remotely useful. What was really, really strange was that it had been tough enough to make it through round one yet hadn't evolved, after all who used an everstone on a Magikarp?
The Magikarp just flopped around, not attacking. Two wooden stumps were all that was left of the bokken which had shattered on the hard scales.
David sat in the centre of the arena meditating, the crowd were mainly asleep at this point. The battle had literally dragged on for hours extending the expected time of the competition to at least an extra day.
The judges were conferring with each other.
"Karp. Karp."
David opened an eye and glared at the offending fish. Aura Sphere and even medium level telekinesis had bounce of the bloody fish, his blades were splinters. Needless to say he was not amused.
He slowly got up and stretched, multiple joints clicked. Then he jogged over to the edge of the arena and began talking animatedly to Gardevoir.
"So how are the other winners doing?"
'Sleeping, hoping to conserve their energy'
"Yet you decided to watch me fight, how sweet." Sarcasm oozed from the comment at an almost visible level. It wasn't anything personal it was just how the pair cooperated, pretending to hate each others guts when training, battling or working, so far it had been very effective – well at least thats what they said.
'you are my trainer, if you lose I must protect you.'
"Karp, Karp." The Magikarp soared past David's head and out of the arena having mistimed it's Splash completely.
A small cheer rose from the crowd which gradually became a roar as more of the audience woke up, even the refs looked relieved.
The referee for this fight shook the trainer's shoulder till she woke up before informing her she had lost.
David bowed then legged it for his room falling asleep almost as soon as he hit the bed – sustained boredom really can be quite draining.
David awoke slowly, drifting in and out of consciousness till finally as though a switch had been flicked he leaped out of bed in a single movement.
Five minutes later he was out of the door, there was no natural light within the cave so he had no idea of the time. Groggily he made towards the main hall. It was vacant but the clock said that it was 7am. Strange, there was only two hours till the next round surely the trainers would - for lack of a better word - be training.
Confused and still half-asleep, David made his way to his pokemon's quarters. Just as he made the turning there was a loud crack behind him and the tunnel he had previously been in caved in. There were another couple of ominous cracks and as David looked up rocks from the ceiling began to fall. He ran, trying to outrace the cave-in. Somehow he made it.
He walked on to the his pokemon's rooms. He arrived at last. Slowly he pushed open one of the doors, seeking reassurance that he was not alone.
David averted his eyes for the room was a site of destruction. Gallade had a gaping hole in his chest and all the furnishings had been destroyed in what appeared to be a psychic battle.
He moved onto the next room, Scyther's. Something was obviously wrong before he even opened the door. Green ichor was oozing under the small gap at the bottom. The door opened with a sick squelch. Scyther lay in pieces, each joint had been cut with a near surgical precision. This room showed little sign of a struggle though, just a few cuts in the bark of the tree where Scyther slept, which due to Scyther's quick temper was to be expected.
'What's behind door no.3?' Lucario was missing but again no signs of a struggle.
With mounting dread David moved onto Empoleon's room, both pokemon were there, Empoleon sleeping in his pond while Lucario was sitting against the wall watching the door. David let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.
"Thank Arceus you two are ok."
"…."
"Guys?
"...."
"Guys....?"
David walked over to Lucario and poked her in the shoulder, she fell sideways, her neck at an unnatural angle. With even greater trepidation he moved to the pond but stopped when he heard a snore. 'At least Empoleon made it' he thought.
The next room along was Machamp's , the room was relatively normal except for two things, one it's occupant wasn't there and two there was a scorch mark with a Machamp shaped void. Sadly in this case two add two definitely made four.
David walked right past the next room, it was permanently unused as the pokemon it was intended for was currently in it's pokeball.
The last room. 'please be alright, please be alright, please be alright...' David repeated it in his head like a mantra as he pushed open the door not yet daring to look. He opened one eye then the other, his Gardevoir lay unconscious on the floor but was not obviously injured.
He took the few steps to cross the room but was thrown back against the wall as he hit a psychic shield. 'what the!?'. He took a step back then lunged trying to punch through the shield by surrounding his hand in aura. The shield threw him against the wall once more.
"Ow."
He threw himself at the shield again. Same result.
"Oh, no you don't." He growled drawing on his psychic power preparing to release a pulse of energy to disrupt the shield. Instead of stopping it at his usual point he contained to store more energy in the ball within his palms till he had to use some to shield the ball and stop it exploding. Of course this was dangerous if his concentration slipped then there wouldn't even be a bloodstain.
The ceiling cracked slightly as the compound threatened to give way completely, David couldn't help it, he looked up and then his vision went white.
David bolted upright in bed accidentally headbutting the person standing over him worriedly. He was covered in a cold sweat and now to top it off he had a headache.
He looked up.
"Sorry."
'Thats okay, what's wrong' Gardevoir asked.
"Just the nightmare again. I got further this time."
'Why don't you call me by my real name anymore?'
"It's the tournament, I have got to remain professional till all this is over, if I'm laughing and joking with you and Emp then the entire side could lose, Scyther and Lucario are already out. Once this is over then win or lose things will return to normal." David paused before continuing, "If any more fall out next round I'll have to choose a poke'mon to specifically be trained above the others."
With this said David settled back down into the bed to sleep and was only slightly surprised when Gardevoir joined him. Without a word and just a mental shrug he focused on getting to sleep.
If either of them had looked they would have seen a wisp of black smoke disappear into the walls.
Author's Note: I forgot how fun it is to be able to give little pointers and cues like the last line.