Episode 28: Whirl Islands Tournament (part 1)

In the aftermath of Niko's outburst, the group sat quietly on gyarados as it ferried them to the Whirl Island's tournament. Fay, JJ, and Brittany would occasionally make small talk, usually amongst themselves or with Niko, who was reluctant to talk much.

It was rare Niko let out his emotions. He was usually pretty good about keeping his temper, even though he generally does wear his emotions on his sleeve. Nonetheless, he tries to moderate himself, even with more positive emotions like happiness and joy. As a kid he certainly had anger problems, sometimes taking them out on his younger brother, much to the little boy's detriment. Being away also seemed to help that, with exceptions like this one. It was clear, at least to him but also to Brittany and Fay, that he was not completely over his loss at Indigo Plateau.

The night before they arrived at the Whirl Islands the two discussed this, with Fay arguing that he should be able to get over that loss. From his perspective, Top 32 is not "something to whine about." Brittany took the opposite opinion, since she heard Niko's true feeling about it just before they left for Johto. Niko himself couldn't hear this conversation, and thus had nothing further to worry about besides his own issues. For the few hours that they spent on the water the following day, Niko made light conversation with his friends. For the moment, it seemed like he had gotten over whatever was bothering him the previous day. At least, this was true on the surface.

They arrived at the stadium, which was, not surprisingly, floating on the water in the center of the four Whirl Islands. They watched in fascination at the enormous whirlpools that surrounded the small caverns on each island, wondering what sort of treasures—or pokémon—lay beneath it.

They jumped off of gyarados at the dock, with Fay returning his atrocious pokémon to its pokéball. As they proceeded up to what seemed to be the registration desk, they noticed a couple familiar faces.

"Jacob? Cody?" Niko said as he waved to their newest rivals. The two black-haired trainers, whom the group had met before reaching Ecruteak City, ran down the steps to meet the group near the docks.

"Hey guys! You're here, too?" Jacob asked.

"Sup everyone," Cody said, his eyes still hooked to his tablet. He looked up to shake Fay's and Niko's hands before returning to whatever he was doing.

"Yeah, our friend Elliot told us about it. We're on our way to Cianwood and thought we'd check it out. What're you doing here?"

"Oh, we actually just left Cianwood. Got the storm badge!" Jacob said, opening up his badge case to show Niko and Fay his collection of four badges.

"Wow! And I see you've got the hive and plain badges, too!" Niko said. "That's excellent!"

"How was the Cianwood gym?" Fay asked.

"Not too bad. Chuck uses fighting types," Jacob explained, "so flying and psychic types would work. He also has a poliwrath, so watch out for that. It's pretty strong."

"Our friend Elliot has a poliwrath, and his is pretty strong, too, so I believe it," Niko replied, thinking about how he could counter it. "Anyways, what do we have to do? Have you already registered?"

"Yep. Just go up there and talk to the lady at the desk. She'll explain everything," Cody said, taking a rare moment to look up from his tablet once again, smiling helpfully at Niko.

"Thanks, Cody! I'm sure we'll see you guys around, then!" Niko responded, patting the two on the shoulders before walking with his friends up to the front desk.

As they were doing so, JJ also happened to recognize a familiar face. He was a tall, black-haired man who was standing alongside his heracross. Squinting his eyes, he finally realized who it was.

"Guys…you remember that guy, David? The one from the bug tournament?"

"Yeah," Brittany asked, turning to look in the same direction as JJ. "Why?"

"He's…here…"

"Oh! Well that's interesting!" Brittany replied, "Go say hi to him!"

JJ shuffled nervously, not wanting to. He just stood there, watching his own rival walking from the registration desk. For a moment the two caught each other's eye, but didn't say a single word. David disappeared into the crowd moments later.

They got to the registration desk and began filling out the forms. Niko and Fay went first while the lady plainly explained the rules of the tournament. The only odd rule was that every trainer must have one water pokémon.

"Wait a moment…" JJ said, "I don't own a water type!"

"Sorry honey, you can't participate then!" the front desk lady said whilst chewing gum, not seeming to give a second thought to JJ's predicament.

As she said this, Fay reached into his back pocket and tossed JJ a pokéball, then as he finished the form, handed it to the lady, he finally turned around to an awestruck JJ, only winking as he walked with Niko, away from the line. JJ and Brittany then went up and filled out their own forms, with JJ writing "gyarados" under the line that said to specify at least one water type pokémon he was using.

"Hey, Fay…" JJ said, catching up to his friends alongside Brittany, "thanks for that. I owe you one."

Fay waved his hand casually. "No worries bud. I saw that guy David here. If you end up against him, you can win with gyarados. I'm sure of it."

"Anyways…thanks…" JJ said, smiling a little.

They took their seats in the stands as the tournament was about to start. As it turned out, they barely made the registration deadline. Colton Goodshow, the president of the Pokémon League, was the host.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the annual Whirl Islands Tournament! Hosted at, as you can imagine, the Whirl Islands in the Johto Region!

"We've got a great show for you all over the next couple of days. We have 32 wonderful trainers who have travelled from all around Johto, and even around the world, to come and participate in this tournament! Now, for a quick run-down of the program. The tournament will be administered in two stages. The first stage is a race. The second is the battle tournament.

"We will begin the first stage—the race—in a few hours' time. In this portion, each trainer will compete in one of eight heats, where their water pokémon will race against three others. Each place will count for points based on their finish. For instance, first place gets four points, and last place gets one. These will matter later on when we count up the results in the battle tournament.

"Which brings me to stage two: the battle tournament. Starting tomorrow and running through the following day, the 32 trainers will battle it out in a tournament style match. Each winner gets three points, the loser gets one, and in the case of a tie each trainer gets two points.

"And now, without further ado. Let's look up at the screen and see who will be racing against whom!"

Colton Goodshow then motioned to the big screen monitor, displayed just as it was in the Indigo League. Up on the screen showed all 32 trainers, each being randomly grouped into eight heats, with four trainers in each. As it showed, JJ and Cody were in the first heat; Niko and Fay in the second; Brittany in the seventh; David in the sixth; and Jacob and…Elliot in the fourth.

"Looks like I'll get to meet this Elliot guy you've talked about, right?" Jacob said as he and Cody sat down next to the group during a brief lunch hour.

"I wouldn't underestimate him, Jacob," Niko said, "If we know him at all, he'll probably use poliwrath. That thing is a monster."

"Monster, as in…strong?" Jacob wondered. Niko nodded, having fought poliwrath himself back in Kanto. "Well, I look forward to it. My politoed will do just fine, I think."

"Politoed?" Niko asked out of curiosity. Jacob nodded, and the brown-haired trainer pulled out his trusty pokédex to look up this new pokémon:

"Politoed, the frog pokémon. Water type. When it expands its throat to croak out a tune, nearby poliwag and poliwhirl gather immediately."

"Sounds like an interesting pokémon, Jacob. Looking forward to seeing more of it," Niko replied, pocketing his pokédex. Jacob nodded, and continued eating his lunch.

The first heat was about to begin, and JJ and Cody got to the starting line alongside two unknown trainers. Colton Goodshow explained the rules via microphone, so the rest of the audience could hear. It was a 100-meter dash, and the first water pokémon to get to the finish line would be the winner. In the unlikely event of a tie, both winners would receive four points.

JJ summoned Fay's gyarados as Cody send out a kabutops. Both were joined by a vaporeon and seaking. Goodshow then blew the whistle, and the four were off. At first it seemed like kabutops and vaporeon were leading, but gyarados quickly overtook both to ultimately win the round, with kabutops finishing a close second, vaporeon third, and seaking last place.

"Hey, JJ, nice job," Cody said, shaking the curly haired trainer's hand. JJ returned the gesture, walking off the field with Cody, continuing to talk.

The second heat featured Niko, Fay, and two other trainers. Niko used totodile, Fay used horsea, and the other two trainer's used cloyster and staryu. The whistle was once again blown, and the four pokémon were off.

Totodile took the early lead, but began to exhaust itself quickly from expending too much energy, allowing the other to quickly catch up. Horsea and totodile were briefly tied for second place behind staryu, with cloyster bringing up the rear.

"Totodile, come one! Beat horsea, you can do it!" Niko shouted out. Fay turned to give him a bemused look. Why was Niko so intent on beating Fay and horsea? "Totodile! What are you doing? Horsea is beating you!" Niko continued shouting. Ultimately, totodile placed third, horsea second, cloyster fourth, and staryu first.

Niko walked over to totodile, who met its trainer halfway, rather disappointed. He didn't say much to his pokémon, instead returning totodile and walking over to join Fay, who was holding horsea in his arms.

"Hey, Niko, good job, bud. I can tell totodile was trying," Fay said rather politely.

"Yeah, I just hoped it would do better, you know?"

"I get that. But you can't let it get to you. Just remember that your pokémon are always trying their hardest, and all for you."

"I know that!" Niko said, his voice rising slightly as they made their way back to the stands. "I just know totodile can do better!"

Fay sighed softly, choosing not to respond to his friend as they went back to join JJ and Cody in the audience. The third heat didn't feature anyone that they knew, but a totodile did end up winning that one, much to Niko's displeasure.

The fourth heat featured Elliot and Jacob, who used poliwrath and politoed, respectively, against another vaporeon and a golduck. Fay commented how this should be an interesting race, as all of them seem to be pretty fast, with the possible exception of politoed, since he was unfamiliar with it. As the whistle blew, it was clear that poliwrath was going to win, as it took a rather large lead to start, and maintained it throughout the rest of the race. It placed first, with the vaporeon placing second, politoed placing third, and the golduck finishing last. With the exception of poliwrath, the race was relatively close.

There was no one of note for the fifth heat, but in the sixth JJ recognized David and his blastoise up against a tentacruel, a poliwhirl, and another totodile. David and his blastoise won this heat, with the poliwhirl in second, totodile in third, and tentacruel in fourth place.

The seventh heat featured Brittany and her wartortle, who seemed more than amped about the race. In the minutes before, the group could see her sitting next to wartortle, feet in the water as she was trying to pump it up. This made Niko smile a bit. He knew how close those two had always been, as well as how rarely they got to compete in competitions like this. Here was a chance to prove themselves. They were up against a tentacool, quagsire, and chinchou, the last two of which none of Brittany's friends were entirely familiar with. Cody had heard of chinchou, but noted that they weren't particularly fast, although compared to the rest it was possible chinchou could win. It ultimately did, with wartortle coming in second, tentacool in third, and quagsire in last place. The final heat featured random trainers as well, with a mantine winning that particular match.

"Well that was the first stage of the Whirl Islands Tournament, folks! Tune in tomorrow for the beginning of the second stage: the battle tournament!" Colton Goodshow announced as the total points appeared on the screen. There were eight trainers who were tied for first, including Elliot, David, and JJ.

"Wow, JJ! You're winning right now!" Niko said, patting his friend on the back.

"Heh, yeah I guess so!" JJ said, albeit a little nervously.

"Well, that's because you're borrowing my gyarados. Don't forget that, JJ," Fay said, smirking at his friend as they left the stands to grab dinner. Cody and Jacob decided to join them for a bit before heading off to the hotel rooms provided to them by the tournament staff.

The extended group talked endlessly about the various races, noting how fast Elliot and David's pokémon were. Jacob in particular was shocked, after seeing it firsthand. Niko and Fay just nodded, as they had both faced poliwrath in battle. When the topic of David came up, JJ joined into the conversation, telling Cody and Jacob about him and his heracross in the National Park bug tournament, and how he didn't seem surprised that David had destroyed the competition so easily. At this point, he seemed quite nervous at the idea of having to possible battle his new rival.

The group, after hanging around and talking for hours about their travels with Cody and Jacob, exchanging stories of their most recent gym battles and other things, finally retired to their own hotel room which, due to the size of their group, was more like a suite. As they began to fall asleep, Niko continued to think about totodile. It was inevitable that they would have to battle tomorrow, but he seemed worried that his own emotions would get in the way again. A rather self-conscious person by nature, Niko was aware of his actions and what he said about totodile, but also realized that he didn't feel any different about it. Did he really feel like him and totodile were growing further apart?