Why do I suddenly feel so outdated writing BW when XY has been released for so long (but I haven't been able to play it)?
Quick Reminer of Touya's Pokemon:
Yamiro (Liepard), Mizuki (Swanna), Shinoba (Serperior), Hinomi (Chandelure), Denchi (Zebstrika), Mienou (Mienshao).
Chapter Six
The stadium was exceptionally full today, the crowd chattering excitedly about the upcoming battle they were about to witness – it was the Champion's first title-defending battle in two years, and with all the glorification of Touya being the "Mythical Champion", the producers of the programme had successfully garnered all the public attention.
Everyone was excited to watch the Champion's first ever public battle – well, except for two in the VIP seats.
"This is so unfair," Shauntal gripped the arms of the chair tightly, her teeth grinding in agitation, "Why is it that those two get to battle Touya-kun when we're stuck up here? Why couldn't we have two double battles anyway?"
Marshal leaned back in his seat tiredly, "Bad luck, Shauntal, we just didn't draw the right straw."
The gym leaders started laughing quietly behind their backs, who would have guessed that the Elite Four drew lots to decide who had the privilege of challenging their Champion?
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the first challenge battle against our Unova Champion – Touya! For those of you who aren't updated on the news, Touya-kun is one of the first challengers who have defeated all members of the Elite Four within ten minutes when he ventured into Victory Road! And as I'm reliably told, even Alder-san was overpowered by Touya-kun's battling skills barely fifteen minutes into their battle! While our newly crowned Champion disappeared into the wilderness for two long years to hone his skills further, our long wait has finally been rewarded!" The commentator's voice bellowed through the microphone, "Then what are we waiting for? Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome The Mythical Champion – Touya-kun!"
Touya stepped into the field, completely overwhelmed by the cheering crowd. He wondered what story did the gym leaders and the League feed to the reporters to have this battle and broadcast arranged…
"Look at that," Elesa giggled, "Isn't that bewildered look on his face so cute? I bet he never knew he had so many fans."
"The Champion should never show that weak expression before battle," Clay grunted.
Skyla glared at him, "Oh, shut it, Clay, that's his charm point!"
Drayden wisely kept quiet even though he shared the same sentiments as Clay.
"And now, on the other side, it is none other than two members of our Elite Four – Shauntal and Grimsley! Each side will be allowed to send out six Pokemon, however, the Champion will have to hold his ground in a double battle against both Shauntal and Grimsley at the same time! Will the Elite Four successfully trump the Champion in this battle, or will the Champion reign on? Let the battle begin!"
Shauntal and Grimsley sighed inaudibly at the antics of the commentator – really, you'd think that this is the battle of the century or something. As much as they would like to deny it, they had a feeling that they would probably be defeated quite easily by Touya, again. Unless the Champion decides to prolong the battle…?
"Go, Confagrigus!"
"Go, Scrafty!"
Touya watched the two Pokemons appear on the field, and decided to send out Yamiro and Mizuki. Grimsley's eyes almost lighted up immediately when he saw Yamiro. If it wasn't that they were in a battle now, he'll probably send his Liepard out and compare the both of them, to see how the two dark-type Pokemon fared under different trainers.
As their trainers issued the orders, Confagrigus sent out a Will-o-wisp and Scrafty darted behind Touya's Pokemon, prepared for a Brick Break. Touya narrowed his eyes, and called out his own moves.
"Defend, Mizuki!" The Swanna hovered beside Yamiro and released a wave of water, putting out all the wisp flames before it came into contact with them, and skidded on the wave towards Confagrigus, its eyes taunting the Pokemon to brace for impact, before rising sharply into the sky and watching the tide of water crash over the Pokemon.
"Dodge, Yamiro," The Liepard leapt backwards, Scrafty's attack narrowly missing its target. Touya immediately followed with an "Aerial Ace, quick!", and Yamiro bounced back towards Scrafty –which was still in the midst of recovering from the missed attack– its paw striking fiercely against Scrafty, sending the Pokemon flying across half the field.
Scrafty staggered to its feet, but Confagrigus had already recovered from the previous attack, using Psychic on Mizuki on Shauntal's behest, trapping the Swanna's movement in the sky.
"Yamiro, Dark Pulse!" Touya's eyes darted towards Mizuki before issuing the order, and Yamiro instinctively understood its trainer's intentions. Leaping out of the way that Scrafty was coming towards, a pulse of dark energy was released from its mouth, crashing directly into Confagrigus, forcing it to lose its hold on Mizuki.
Seizing this window of opportunity, Touya commanded Mizuki to use Hurricane. The strong gust of whirlwind swept across the field, and knocked out Scrafty instantly.
Grimsley cringed, "You'd think that he'd go a little easier on me this time… Well, a loss is still a loss. Go, Krookodile!"
Raising an eyebrow at Grimsley's choice of Pokemon, Touya simply looked at Mizuki, and the Swanna –as though they had some sort of telepathy– launched another wave of water.
"I'm not that stupid, you know," Grimsley grumbled, he trained his Krookodile hard for this. "Krookodile, show them!"
Krookodile gave them a toothy grin and jumped when the wave crashed towards him, riding the wave on its belly leisurely.
Touya's widened his eyes, well, that is a surprise.
"Did we just see Krookodile ride a wave? This is unbelievable, folks, Grimsley's Krookodile overcame the natural fear of water that all ground-type Pokemon have! What will the Champion do now?" The commentator's voiced boomed from the stadium speakers.
Before Touya could issue a next command, Krookodile attacked first. "Krookodile, go with Foul play!"
Touya winced as Krookodile slammed into Yamiro, he knew that Yamiro had a high attack coupled with weak defence, usually he could get away with dodging…
"Yamiro, return!" He was a little peeved at the weakened state the Liepard was in, and switched it out for Shinoba. At the same time, Mizuki flapped its wings and drew up another Hurricane, finishing off Confagrigus.
Just as Shauntal called upon Jellicent as her next Pokemon, Touya returned Mizuki to its Pokeball and released Hinomi instead. Shauntal adjusted her glasses and peered at Touya inquisitively, did the Champion purposely send out a Chandelure when she just released a ghost- and water-type Pokemon?
Knowing that Grimsley's Krookodile could handle many water-type moves just fine, Shauntal ordered, "Jellicent, surf!"
Touya smiled, "Spin, Hinomi, and follow up with a Shadow Ball."
The Chandelure went into a high speed spinning, effectively slicing the water coming towards it into two, and sneakily hurling the Shadow balls when it neared the opponent Pokemon.
Krookodile lunged towards Shinoba, intending on a Crunch, but the Serperior was faster, slithering out of the way and slamming its tail down hard on the Krookodile's back with a Leaf Blade.
Krookodile quickly retreated and turned to attack Hinomi with a Dragon Claw under Grimsley's command, but Touya swiftly countered, "Psychic, Hinomi."
A blue aura surrounded Krookodile and stopped its movement completely, its arm still raised and poised with a Dragon Claw attack, and then Touya added, "We'll go with a Flame Burst, Hinomi."
The instant the blue aura disappeared, Krookodile was hit head on with a burst of fire, forcing it to fall back and dissolving its attack.
Jellicent sneaked behind Chandelure to fire a Shadow Ball but was intercepted by Shinoba's Energy Ball crashing into it, causing a mini-explosion. Touya ordered a Leaf Storm after that, drawing both opponent Pokemon into the whirlwind of leaves.
Hinomi added to that by sending several Shadow Balls into the centre of Leaf Storm, and the audible booms of explosion within sent a sense of dread up Shauntal and Grimsley's neck.
As they expected, both Pokemon were knocked out when they Leaf Storm finally subsided. Grimsley shook his head in exasperation, "The results seem to be quite apparent now, don't they? Shauntal."
Shauntal simply shrugged –not that they didn't foresee this–, "Nonetheless, we'll have to go on to the epilogue."
Looking at Bisharp and Golurk, Touya sent out his final two Pokemon – Denchi and Mienou. He had been lectured very thoroughly before the battle that no matter how it turned out, he was supposed to let the audience have a glimpse of all six Pokemon he carried to battle.
Bisharp dug its blades into the ground to steady itself as Golurk launched an Earthquake, fully intending to create a high damage, especially to the Zebstrika. But the curl of Touya's lips told Shauntal that she thought wrong – the Mienshao jumped gracefully into the air, taking long and wide strides, only allowing the tip of its feet to touch the ground before leaping into the air again; and the Zebstrika Stomped onto the ground fiercely, the steady and rapid movements allowing it to stay grounded to a spot even in the midst of an Earthquake.
"Oh my, isn't that Zebstrika simply amazing!" Elesa swooned.
Burgh stared at the battlescene, completely fascinated. "Look at that movement, it's so beautiful! Oh, I've found the inspiration for my next piece!"
Brycen and Drayden shook their heads at the over-reaction from their fellow gym leaders. Clay was totally immersed into thinking how other trainers might try to emulate the Champion when they challenged his gym.
The battle didn't last long as eventually Bisharp was bled out by being poisoned ("Who in the right mind teaches their Mienshao Poison Jab!" Grimsley was furious.), and the Aura Spheres coming from Mienou. Golurk, being paralysed by Zebstrika's electric moves, was sent flying across the field by a Wild Charge, crashing into the wall with such force that Shauntal didn't even want to look at it ("Really, Champion, this is not a life-or-death situation!").
Touya sighed in relief as the battle ended (Shauntal and Grimsley as well – it was one thing to get the chance to battle the Champion, it was another to witness their Pokemon being completely trampled over, even more so than their last battles with him), though he was curious as to why they requested that he released all six of his Pokemon onto the field.
"–and the Champion has successfully defended his title, ladies and gentlemen! It's no mystery to how powerful the Champion's Pokemon are right now!" The commentator was still very excited. "And I have even better news for you now, folks! In celebration of the return of our Champion Touya-kun, we have invited a special guest over for a demonstration battle a couple days later!
"He gained his title of Champion at a mere age of twelve, and has held the title for six years in running! He is the youngest to have ever accomplished such a feat, and I have been told that his training has never stopped after that – this young Champion continued to better himself in the freezing mountains for these six years!"
Touya saw a person walking towards the field from the entrance that Shauntal and Grimsley came out from, followed by six Pokemon that were unfamiliar to Touya – three towering over their trainer, two following diligently at his side, and the last hovering by his shoulder.
The boy looked straight at him with almost an impassive look, but Touya could sense some exasperation (probably directed to the situation) and approval (he hoped it was directed towards him) underneath. Even without words exchanged, Touya could tell he was experienced and skilled.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome the Champion of the Kanto region – Red!"
I love Red as a character, I don't know why, but I do...
If anyone is wondering, I won't be writing the battle between Touya and Red (it's way above my imagination)... Anyone wants to take a guess at which Pokemon Red will be bringing to battle (it's based off my team in Fire Red)?
YUU