Pokemon Legacy

Finally, the day of the second round of the Ultimate Pokemon Challenge had arrived. The seats were once again full as the remaining trainers felt ready for their battles. Dana was especially focused knowing she'd need that when facing her opponent.

But of course, she wasn't sitting with the other trainers in the reserved bleachers. She was in the back, waiting for her name to be announced. She still couldn't believe she had gotten this far.

One thing that interested the spectators most of all, however, was what this new gimmick Yae had spoken of was. She'd mentioned things being mixed up a bit in this battle, but no one really saw anything new. What was this update she'd mentioned?

Either way, that thought would have to end as Yae held up her microphone shouting, "Alright, everyone, welcome to the second round of the Ultimate Pokemon Challenge! For anyone who forgot, and shame on anyone who did..." the audience staring wide-eyed as the professor laughed a bit before adding, "I am your host, Professor Yae, and this is my co-host, Nurse..." turning and noticing Pep wasn't there, her eyes going wide.

Suddenly, everyone pointed toward the arena as Pep was down in the field performing a cheer of some kind and waving her pom-poms around, Yae groaning and slapping her forehead. After a bit more cheering, Pep proceeded to perform a handstand followed by a flip into her seat shouting, "WHOO! That was fun!" Yae scowling at the nurse and muttering, "I hate you so much right now..."

After a while, Yae took a deep breath and said to herself, "Right, time to introduce the trainers," then held the mic up again shouting, "On the Western side, having just defeated Russel in the first battle of this very tournament, Dana!" the crowd cheering and clapping for the girl as she entered the arena, a big smile on her face.

"Alright, show em a thing or two about real skill!" Jason shouted, Lucario holding up a sign that said 'Dana rules', Carmen and Mighty both rather envious of this simple yet superior cheer method, the monkeys folding their arms as Steve pinched his forehead, rather annoyed by this.

"And on the Eastern side, coming to us from Green City..." Rocky nudging Pamela and saying, "That's where I come from," Pam nodding and saying, "I know, dearest," Yae adding, "Introducing Trent!"

The buff man entered the arena, looking completely focused. Even the applause he received as common courtesy didn't seem to faze him. He just wanted to win really badly. However, after entering the arena, his eyes then darted across the crowd as if he was looking for a certain someone, but who?

After a few seconds, Trent noticed a young woman and some kids in the crowd, all of which had their arms in the air cheering, Trent smiling and waving while shouting, "Hi honey, hi kids!" the kids exclaiming, "HELLO, DAD!"

"Aw, you family came?" Dana asked, her eyes sparkling as she squealed, "That's so sweet!" Trent looking at the girl before sighing, "Please pay attention to the battle and not on my affairs. If I beat you, I want it to be truly earned, not the result of you not paying attention," Dana then folding her arms, pouting and grumbling, "I was just saying..."

Nathan himself wasn't so sure what to think of that. On one hand, it was good to know this Trent guy had good determination. On the other hand, Nathan saw nothing wrong with being friendly towards an opponent, be it before or after a battle. Still, Trent couldn't have been all bad if he was a family man with kids who clearly loved him as opposed to fearing him.

With that, Yae cleared her throat and said, "Alright, now you're probably all wondering what the new rules for this next set of battles is," everyone looking at her and nodding, finally about to get the answer they'd wanted to hear since they'd arrived.

Yae then pointed at the arena while saying, "Watch very closely," before pressing a button a suddenly, things like spikes, flames, fog clouds and puddles of water appeared in random places on the ground, soon vanishing when Yae pressed a button labelled 'hide'.

"As you can see, the arena is now covered in traps," Yae stated as the crowd gasped, rather amazed and scared by this, the professor adding, "The area in which the trainers are standing and anywhere in front of them is a safe zone, meaning that's the only place where you can guarantee there are no traps. Everywhere else, however, is dangerous and there's a fairly big chance a Pokemon will run into a trap or two."

"My god..." Jason said, his eyes wide open with terror, "That's just... cruel..." Jacob nodding and adding, "The only gimmicks were ever had to deal with were slight changes in the number of Pokemon we could use and that strange rule they had for the quarter-finals in which the battle arena would sometimes change to one representing some kind of element."

"That sounds a lot safer than this trap thing," Jason replied, "I mean, seriously, spikes and flames? Are they trying to amp up the challenge or kill those poor Pokemon?"

Either way, the battle was about to begin as the roulette was spun, Dana a bit worried about the traps while her opponent thought little of it. Trent wasn't going to let something like this get his spirits down. After all, he had his family there to support him.

Soon, the roulette stopped on Dana as she figured she'd use Electra seeing as the rodent could simply fly over the traps, but before she could do so, Queen had once again summoned herself to the arena as Dana sighing, "Queen, how many times do I have to tell you to only come out when I want you to?" the spider simply bowing at Dana, the girl slapping her forehead.

'So she starts with the Galvantula she used during the race,' Trent thought, 'Figures she'd try to surprise me with a Pokemon she didn't use in her previous battle to throw me off. Well, little does she know I was paying attention to the screen when it showed that creature using its attacks. I know exactly what it can do.'

After that train of thought, Trent pulled out a Pokeball and let out a battle cry, hurling the ball forward as his Sandile took form. Dana thought this was a rather odd choice but decided it didn't matter too much.

Trent then proceeded to bend down, stroking the top of the crocodile's head and said, "Alright, girl, let's make this one count," Sandile nodding with a big smile on her face, Dana about to react to the cuteness of this scene but remembered how Trent had responded earlier.

Yae signalled the beginning of the battle as Dana shouted, "QUEEN, OPEN UP WITH THUNDER WAVE!" the spider unleashing an array of thunder, Sandile standing there and taking it. To make things even stranger, the attack didn't even do anything. Sandile simply ignored it and charged toward Queen, who was spellbound along with Dana, the spider taking in a fierce Bite to the forehead, some blood trickling down before the spider pried open Sandile's mouth, forcing the reptile off.

"Nice try," Trent said, "but my Sandile is a ground type, meaning she's immune to electric attacks," Dana's eyes wide with shock as Nathan slapped his forehead, Jack sighing, "How did she ever make it this far with such a lack of knowledge? Everyone knows ground types are immune to electric types."

However, knowing this now, Dana was sure she wouldn't make such a mistake again as she had Queen use String Shot. Unfortunately, this proved ineffective as well as Sandile simply opened his mouth, clamping her jaws down on the string and snapping it open, swallowing the portion she'd bitten off.

Now Dana had to be more serious about this for sure. Clearly, this Sandile was a force to be reckoned with. However, Trent didn't seem all that happy about this, and it clearly showed. His expression was one of annoyance rather than confidence. He must have thought Dana was an idiot for making two obvious mistakes in a row.

With this in mind, Dana took a deep breath and said, "Alright, Queen, no more mistakes. Let's do this right!" the spider nodding as Dana proceeded to have her unleash Signal Beam, Sandile quickly leaping to the side to avoid it. However, seeing this, Trent was now worried, and with good reason as Sandile landed against a certain spot on the ground, flames shooting up and covering her body, the crocodile crying out in pain.

"Alright, now we got her!" Dana squealed as Queen then proceeded to unleash a loud noise by rubbing her feelers together and emitting a sound wave. This attack was called Bug Buzz, and as it his Sandile, the reptile's eyes went wide as she felt intense pain from this.

However, the crocodile refused to accept this as she dug underground, the area going silent. Queen was now desperately trying to figure out where the reptile had gone, looking back and forth as Dana gulped, not sure what to do to help her spider avoid this.

While Sandile was digging, though, she had a rather tough time getting to where Queen was, especially with her almost running into the underground spikes, flamethrowers and fog machines. However she eventually found the spot where she could swear she smelled the spider, shooting herself up out of the ground and sending Queen up into the air.

Dana's eyes went wide with absolute horror as the spider fell on her back just a bit away from the air, a bit of the ground opening up under her and revealing one of the puddles, the spider falling into it. Clearly these puddles were deeper than they looked as Queen was now struggling to get out.

Seeing this, Sandile was about to rush forward and finish the job she'd started when Trent said, "Wait, don't Sandile. You might step on another trap," the crocodile nodding in understanding, holding her ground as Dana reached for Queen's Pokeball, about ready to return her.

However, Queen, despite being a spider, managed to climb out of the puddle as she knew it was time to end this as soon as possible. With that in mind, she proceeded to unleash her String Shot again, Sandile opening up her jaws.

"What are you doing, Queen?" Dana asked with worry, "Don't you know how pointless that is by now?"

However, Queen seemed to have an idea as she rotated her head in a circular motion, causing the string to swirl toward Sandile, forming what kind of looked like a lasso as it latched itself to the crocodile's mouth, forcing it shut. Everyone stared with admiration, Dana's eyes sparkling at such a brilliant tactic as even Trent was taken aback, Queen thrusting her head back and pulling the Sandile inward, Sandile skidding across the ground as a set of spikes rose up, her body scraping against them thus causing small cuts to form.

With that, Queen had gotten the reptile close enough for her to ram her forehead into Sandile's face, taking the crocodile out for good as she lay there in agony, Trent sighing and returning her, glaring at Dana. Now he knew she couldn't be taken lightly as Dana returned Queen, hugging the Pokeball and saying, "Wow, that was awesome!"

Trent took a deep breath when he saw his family cheering for him, his wife saying, "Good try, honey. You did a good job," Trent smiling as his kids continued to cheer for him. This brought back a bit of his confidence as he proceeded to send in a large rock-like creature.

This creature had red eyes carved into his face and was made of dark blue rocks with some red ones sticking out of certain sections of his body. With four huge spider-like legs, this was Gigalith.

Dana stared at this with shock, not really sure who to use for this. However, she had to be confident as she gulped and remembered by Gigalith was a rock type. With that in mind, she sent in Pyro, the pig flexing his muscles for the cheering crowd who remembered his impressive performance in the previous battle.

Trent gulped a bit, knowing that Emboars could use fighting type moves, decided to keep his chin up. He wasn't going to let that one fact ruin his chance at victory. With that, he had his Gigalith start the battle up by using Rock Blast, the rock spider sending rocks flying toward Pyro who simply blocked the incoming projectiles by holding his arms in front of his face. Sure, his forearms took in a bit of damage, but not a whole lot.

With that, Pyro charged toward Gigalith, the rock creature focused hard as his body temporarily became metal, an aura surrounding him. This was to show he had used Iron Defense. He then proceeded to ram his front legs into the sand, kicking up quite a bit as it went into Pyro's eyes.

However, despite this, Pyro still had a clear idea of where Gigalith was as he unleashed Arm Thrust, hitting Gigalith a few times with the palms of his hands before raising his fist and sending it crashing it down on the rock monster's head, using Hammer Arm.

The crowd cheered as Gigalith stood his ground. Trent smiled when he saw his Pokemon was ignoring the pain to his head and said, "Alright, Gigalith, let's give this pig a little payback, shall we?" the rock spider nodding as he proceeded to hold his head back for a few seconds before sending it forward, slamming it hard into Pyro's face, causing the pig's snout to start bleeding a bit as he cried out in pain.

It didn't end there as the gems coming from Gigalith's body glowed, the rock spider shooting a beam shaped like a gemstone and hitting Pyro with his Power Gem technique. Pyro squealed in pain as Dana clasped her hands over her mouth, rather scared now. Pyro wasn't doing such a good job anymore, and now that he was farther away from Gigalith, he could barely see the creature with his blinded vision.

"This is just a minor setback," Dana said, gulping, "Come on, Pyro, let's hit him with with Flamethrower," Pyro unleashing a stream of fire from his nostrils only for end up aiming a little bit away from his target, Gigalith summoning a set of small stones and shooting them hard into Pyro with Stone Edge, putting various scrapes on his body now.

As the boar held onto some of his wounds, breathing heavily, Dana held out her Pokeball and said, "Maybe you should return for now," Pyro shaking his head and fuming. He knew that none of her other Pokemon would be nearly as good for this battle. But what could Dana possibly do?

"Your trainer as a point," Trent said, folding his arms, "I admire your bravery, Emboar, but you're not looking so good right now," everyone rather confused by this sudden display of good sportsmanship.

However, Pyro was certain he could finish the job as Dana said, "Well, alright, but we gotta do something about that sand in your eyes first," then thinking for a bit, her eyes sparkled as she slammed her fist into her palm squealing, "I got it!" everyone staring with confusion as Jason asked, "What's she gonna do? Have Pyro wipe the sand out of his eyes? I don't think sand from a sand attack can be rubbed off."

However, Dana's real idea was an even stranger one as she spat, "Pyro, set up for a Flare Blitz but don't actually use it!" the boar even considering this idea strange but went with it anyway, lighting his whole body on fire. After this, the strangest of things happened, everyone staring in absolute shock as the sand covering Pyro's eyes became glass, almost resembling monocles now, Pyro allowing his flames to die down.

Now he could not only see, but he could see better than ever before. A smile formed on his face as Dana gave the pig thumbs up and said, "Alright, let's finish this."

Trent was too spellbound to respond to this as Pyro rushed at Gigalith, ramming his arm hard into the rock spider's face again. But just as Gigalith was about to fall, Pyro turning toward Dana and raising his arms in the air, Nathan remembered a little fact related to Gigalith's first form, Roggenrolla, and spat, "DANA, IT'S NOT OVER YET!"

But it was too late as Gigalith recovered from the damage quickly, sending an array of rocks into the back of Pyro's head. The pig's eyes went wide as he fell forward, falling flat on his face as the ground shook a little bit under his weight. However, this hardly mattered as Dana stared with her eyes wide open, the glass she'd had Pyro create now shattered.

"Goddammit, how did she forget about its Sturdy ability?" Nathan groaned as Jack said, "Oh, so that's why the Hammer Arm didn't finish the job," Dana letting out a sigh and returning Pyro while looking down, Trent smiling and saying, "Man, you almost had me there."

Dana looked up as Trent beamed and said, "That thing where you had him use Flare Blitz to turn the sand in his eyes into glasses... that was amazing. I would have never come up with something like that," Dana's confidence returning as she grinned and said, "Well, this battle's far from over."