Thanks for the review and noticing the mistake in the previous chapter; the battle was actually four-on-four with a tiebreaker, so that's five each! Also, I added parts to chapter 27 (Dig Those Digletts) in the story "Two Escapades In One", so you can re-read that if you'd like. For now, here's the next chapter! Don't own Pokemon, happy reading!
Chapter 26: Dark Dueling
Angelina entered the stadium, and then froze in awe at the enormous roar of the crowd, apparently cheering for her. Some of them even held up signs reading: "Go, Angelina, go!" and "Angelina all the way," and, one of Angelina's favorites, "I love you, Angelina!"
Angelina pulled the Pokéball containing Charizard off of her belt and held it in her hand. She stared forward as the fourth and final member of the Elite Four approached. A young woman slightly taller than Angelina in her mid-twenties with shoulder-length silvery-and-rippling blonde hair wearing a long-sleeved black dress. Her smooth complexion and almond-shaped brown eyes lent her an almost mystical, elf-like appearance.
"So I see you made it this far, I'm impressed. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the authority on Dark-type Pokémon, the mistress of the night. I am Karen of the Elite Four. My Dark Pokémon will be by far the most powerful Pokémon you'll ever face."
"Okay," Angelina smiled. "I'm Angelina Murakami from Pallet Town, and ready to take you on."
"We'll use four Pokémon each," Karen informed. "Let's go, Umbreon!" she threw a blue Pokéball into the stadium, and out of the shimmering white light emerged the sleek and black-skinned Pokemon.
"Then I choose you, Blaze!" Typhlosion roared as he emerged.
"Start off with a Confuse Ray," Karen ordered, and her Umbreon's eyes started glowing ethereally.
"Blaze, Quick Attack before Umbreon can hit you," Angelina said. Blaze darted forwards and slammed into the foe.
"Umbreon, Faint Attack!" Karen said, and her Pokemon charged towards Blaze and vanished from sight.
"Blaze, use Quick Attack to dart around everywhere so Umbreon can't hit you!" Angelina said. Blaze was a red and yellow blur as he shot around the battle-field, his silvery trail glowing brightly behind him. As Angelina had planned, Blaze stuck to no pattern or reason, so Umbreon was eventually forced to reappear in defeat, which Typhlosion closed in on Umbreon quickly.
"Now use Strength!" Angelina ordered, and Typhlosion gripped the slender Umbreon around the middle, reared up, then slammed his foe into the ground. Typhlosion continued to slam and pound Umbreon even after the Dark Pokemon had fainted.
"Umbreon, return. Gengar, it's up to you!" The Ghost Pokemon appeared, grinning viciously as it contemplated Typhlosion.
"Blaze, come back. Have a nice rest. Charcoal, come out and use Fire Blast!" Angelina called out the fire dragon Pokémon, Charizard. She wanted to go all-out and get this battle over with as fast as possible. Charizard inhaled deeply and spat a flame wall at Gengar, burning it.
"Gengar, Curse!" Karen commanded.
Gengar's grin slightly diminished as his health was drained slightly while he laid a curse on Charizard. A little ghost-thing started flying around Charizard's head, taking away a bit of the fire-dragon's health after every turn.
"Ha, I'll just call back and send out my Absol," Angelina said simply, taking out Charizard's Pokéball.
"Gengar, quick! Mean Look, now!" Karen commanded.
Gengar glared at Charizard, rendering the Pokéball helpless.
"Damn it!" Angelina cursed. "Charcoal, use Bite!"
"Gengar, hit Charizard with Night Shade!" Karen said as Charcoal sped towards Gengar, and powerful black bolts of sizzling energy blasted from Gengar's eyes again, striking Charcoal hard.
"Come on, Charcoal! You can work through it! Try you're Flame Wheel!" Angelina encouraged, and Charcoal gritted its teeth as it struggled forwards through the beams, finally shrugging off their power and jumping at Gengar, snapping his teeth and released a funnel of flames that engulfed the ghost Pokemon and fell to the ground unconscious. Gengar's Curse, however, knocked out Charizard as well.
"Charcoal, come back!" Angelina recalled her fire-flying Pokemon, then threw out a rhinestone-studded Pokeball. "Shadow, go!" she sent out the Disaster Pokémon and awaited Karen's next Pokémon.
"Victreebel, go!"
Angelina was stunned as Karen released a large, yellow, bell-shaped Pokémon with a long vine growing from its back. Victreebel leered as it opened its large mouth and screeched loudly, but Shadow didn't look intimidated at all.
"Lead with Razor Leaf!"
"Counter with Will-O-Wisp!"
Victreebel spun around in circles with green razor-sharp leaves flying all around it. The deadly petals blasted towards Shadow. Shadow responded by summoning a trio of blue fiery orbs. The flames managed to hit most of the leaves, burning them. Only a few of the leaves reached him, and he easily slashed them away with his claws. Victreebel, however, was struck by the flames and was instantly inflicted a burn, screeching in pain.
"Victreebel, use Toxic!"
Victreebel stretched its mouth open wide and released a blast of toxic sludge toward the Absol.
"Shadow, dodge with Aerial Ace!"
Shadow suddenly disappeared into thin air as the Toxic slammed into the empty target on the opponent's side of the field. Then, just as it reappeared, Shadow came up from behind Victreebel and slammed the powerful Flying attack onto the fly-trap Pokemon. Victreebel was knocked back, but quickly shot back up to stand on its base.
"Victreebel, Acid!" A hissing blob of dark liquid was spat out of Victreebel's wide mouth, sailing towards Shadow and causing the ground to steam as droplets fell from it.
"Shadow, Flamethrower it!" Angelina said, and her Absol blasted the glob of acid with a jet of fire. However, this seemed to be exactly what Karen had wanted; the acid blob split into a thousand fiery droplets and splattered Shadow. The Dark Pokemon hissed with pain as he tried to shake the painful acid off him, staggering backwards.
"Victreebel, Razor Leaf!" Karen said triumphantly. A cascade of sharp leaves span towards Shadow from Victreebel's own leaves, hammering the Dark Pokemon just as he had managed to get the last of the acid off him. Shadow was hurled backwards off his feet and landed heavily; the leaves hadn't done as much damage as they usually would against another Pokemon, but they had done enough. "Victreebel, another Razor Leaf! Keep up the barrage!" Karen encouraged, and Victreebel launched another volley of sharp leaves at Shadow.
"Shadow, Quick Attack to dodge! Get as close to Victreebel as you can!" Angelina ordered, and Shadow flipped back onto all fours, darting away and causing the leaves to embed themselves in the field behind him like ninja stars. Victreebel merely stayed where he was, trying to cover the entire battle-field in a swathe of flying leaves, but Shadow managed to slip away from most and suffered the rest, eventually spotting a gap and hurtling through it to batter Victreebel viciously, knocking him to the floor. "Now, Flamethrower!" Shadow took advantage of Victreebel's temporary stunned state and let loose one of his most powerful flame bursts.
Victreebel was hit full-on by the powerful blow, and hurtled backwards with a screech of pain, landing with a pathetic thump on the floor, and wheezed out some smoke as it collapsed in a heap.
"Yes! Great job, Shadow!" Angelina yelled.
Karen called back her fly-catcher Pokémon and sent out her final Pokémon. "Now I introduce one of the most powerful Dark-type Pokémon, go!" she hurled a yellow and black Pokéball into the ring, and from the shimmering light appeared a large dog-like Pokémon; it had shiny jet-black fur, two demon-like horns upon the base of its head backwards, silver bracelets around its paws and silver bones on its back.
"Wow, that's a shiny Pokemon!" Angelina awed, taking out her Pokedex.
"Houndoom, the Dark Pokemon," Dexette informed. "Upon hearing its eerie howls, other Pokemon get the shivers and head straight back to their nests."
"Yes, mine is superior to other normal Houndoom," Karen smiled. "Now, Houndoom, finish off this battle for me with a Crunch attack," Karen gave the first command, and Houndoom padded forwards with a snarl, opening his vicious jaws wide.
"Shadow, Quick Attack! Try and hit Houndoom from the side!" Angelina said. Shadow charged forwards, changed direction, and head-butted Houndoom from the left; Houndoom, however, was ready and waiting, and caught Shadow in his jaws as he made to move away. He had fastened his teeth around Shadow's front leg, and was shaking his head savagely to do the maximum possible damage. "Shadow, use Shadow Ball!" Angelina ordered desperately, and her Absol created and blasted a crackling purple ball of electricity at Houndoom, miraculously forcing him backwards, achieving Angelina's objective of freeing her Absol.
"If Absol won't go down gracefully, we shall have to force it down. Flamethrower, Houndoom! And make it as wide as possible!" Houndoom barked in assent and sprayed out a wall of flames. Shadow couldn't go left, right, under or above them, as Karen's order had made Houndoom fashion an unbreakable, inescapable net of fire. Shadow stood defiantly as the flames wrapped around him, battering and burning him mercilessly. When they flickered out, Shadow staggered forwards for a moment before collapsing in a heap.
"You did great, Shadow. Meanwhile, Rocky, you can finish Houndoom off," Angelina pulled out a Pokeball and released her Golem.
"This is your last Pokémon, you realize," Karen commented.
"Yeah, I know." Angelina nodded. "Rocky, Earthquake!"
"Not so fast. Literally, your Golem isn't fast." Karen cautioned. "Houndoom, Sunny Day!" With that, Houndoom howled and launched a beam of perpetual light towards the sun. The sun in turn began to radiate stunningly brightly.
Angelina pulled out some Matrix-style sunglasses and placed them on, but then realised Karen's mistake. She watched her Golem strike the ground with his massive body, shaking the ground and knocked down Houndoom, but the demon-dog wasn't out as it growled menacingly.
"So, you think that boosting your Fire Type moves will stop my Golem?" Angelina laughed boastfully. "Think again. Sunny Day boosts ALL fire type moves, not just your own. Fire Blast, Rocky!" she began to smile uncontrollably as Golem shot out a star of burning fire, the symbol of a Fire Blast towards Houndoom.
"Houndoom, dodge to the side!" Karen said, a simple order but nonetheless effective; Houndoom rolled out of the way of the oncoming Fire Blast and was unharmed.
"Come on, Rocky! Use Rock Slide!" Angelina ordered. Golem slammed himself onto the ground forcefully, creating such an impact that chunks of rock were torn loose from the stadium floor, hurtling towards Houndoom in a wave of debris.
"Houndoom, finish Golem off with Solarbeam!" Houndoom opened it's mouth and fired a golden beam of light after leaping into the air and dodging the Rock Slide by a hairsbreadth.
"Oh no, Rocky!" Angelina shouted. "Harden!" Golem's shell grew harder and harder but the beam penetrated through each layer of hardening. "Then use Defense Curl!" she commanded.
Golem curled up into a ball, increasing his defense but not exactly blocking the beam. Angelina started worrying, she was watching her Golem being defeated before her very eyes. Her mind was racing, she couldn't think of any attack that Golem knew that could block Houndoom's devastating attack. Then, she remembered attaching Focus Band to Golem. She looked down at Golem after Karen's Pokémon stopped the attack.
"Victory is mine," Karen said calmly.
Angelina kept on staring at Golem, hoping that he had somehow survived. After a few minutes, the referee ran over to Golem and inspected it.
"Golem is unable to battle," the referee said. "Karen is th-" But all of a sudden, Golem uncurled and stood up. "I take that back. Golem still has the ability to battle."
"Yes!" Angelina cheered, the Focus Band had worked. "Now, follow through with Rock Slide!" Golem launched boulders at Houndoom and knocked it out.
"Oh my goodness!" Karen exclaimed in shock, then sighed and held out the black Pokeball. "Houndoom, come back! You were exceptional nonetheless, my friend." the shimmering Pokémon disappeared in a red beam and back inside the Pokeball, then Karen walked up to Angelina to shake hands. "Very good battle," she said.
"Yeah. I thought I was done for," Angelina responded, smiling somewhat. "But your Pokemon were really strong and tough to beat!" she added, meaning every word, but Karen smiled wistfully.
"Strong Pokemon... weak Pokemon... these pathetic descriptions are useless labels invented by those too blind to see the truth. The real power of a Pokemon comes from within. You understand this. You use your favourites to battle, as I do. You are a worthy contender for the Champion. He shall be waiting tomorrow." Karen said over her shoulder as she left.
§To Be Continued§
Okay, you can take a guess what chapter is up! That'll be a toughie, but very fun to plan out! Stay in your seats, the next update will be posted very soon! Later!