Author's Note 1: I will explain everything down below.
Nick stepped out of the tram, the arena was a large circular boulder shaved down on the top so it was flat, on the opposite side stood Jacob, his gray shirt was concealed by his long brown cloak, his mustache was freshly trimmed, a shovel was in his hand, and the digging part was touching the ground.
"Well well, I didn't think you'd show up." Jacob smiled "Nicholas Gray."
Nick smiled as Pikachu jumped off of Nick's shoulder and stood on all fours, sparks flying from his cheeks.
"Sorry to disappoint you." Nick replied
"Alright, here are the rules," Jacob tossed his shovel to the side "This will be on a six on six double battle, no one is allowed to make substitutions, you win." He motioned behind him "You take that tram to the next Elite Four member, you lose, you go back the way you came and come back next year."
"I won't be coming back next year." Nick removed his trench coat and tossed it to the side, now just in his dark blue t-shirt "I'll be moving forward."
"Well then, let's begin." Jacob drew two Pokeballs "Golem and Steelix, start digging!"
He tossed them into the air; one was a long snake like Pokemon with metal coating its body, several spikes going out of its body and a giant head, with large white teeth. The other was a medium sized Pokemon covered in rocks like a shell, a small head, and a pair of arms and legs sprouted out.
Nick drew two Pokeballs, he had to think of this carefully about who he would choose "Riolu," he looked down at Pikachu who nodded "Pikachu, stand by for battle!"
Pikachu jumped onto the field, and Nick tossed a Pokeball into the air, the small blue fox took his place next to him.
"Interesting choices, Steelix, dig!"
Steelix jumped into the air and began to dig into the platform with its head first, a large hole stood where the steel snake once stood.
"Will this platform hold up?" Nick asked, fear in his voice
"Don't worry Nick." Jacob responded "This platform goes a hundred feet into the volcano; worse thing that'll happen is we just feel a little tremble."
"Good to know." Nick smiled "Riolu use bullet punch and Pikachu use iron tail on Golem!"
Riolu and Pikachu charged forward, Pikachu's tail began to glow as Golem braced himself.
"Iron defense!" Jacob called out
A thin metal sheet formed on Golem's body as the attacks made impact, first was Pikachu, the attack knocked Golem back, but before it could recover, Riolu began to jab at Golem's body.
"Steelix hit Riolu!" Jacob called out
Nick was ready "Riolu use…" He was stopped in his tracks by a memory
Warm hands wrapping around his body, a smile cascaded her face, Dawn looked at Nick in the mirror "No need to worry!"
Before he could finish his order, Steelix jumped out of another hole, striking Riolu, it cried out in pain, snapping Nick out of his thoughts "Riolu!"
Riolu bounced on the hard surface and landed stomach first, it got up and was breathing hard.
"Pikachu! Fall back!" Nick cried out
Pikachu jumped back away from the two Pokemon, and looked at Riolu, who managed to stand up, he was panting, but okay.
"Alright, let's take a look at our options…" Nick pondered for a moment, but another memory flashed in his mind
A thunderstorm echoed in his ear, a scream in the night, and a warm feeling overcame his tiny body.
"Nicky, its okay. It's okay." A voice said to him
"What is that loud noise Mommy?"
"Thunder, do you know what causes it?"
"What Mommy?"
"Electric Pokemon, right now, they're playing together right now, displaying how strong they've gotten."
"Like a Pichu!?" Nick asked
"Just like a Pichu." Sophia smiled down at him
"Like Daddy's?"
"Just like Daddy's." Sophia smiled "Okay, now try to go back to sleep, I can stay here if you want."
"I'm okay." Nick looked up "Hey Mommy?"
"Yes sweetheart?" She coughed lightly; she knew what was causing that
"Can we have pancakes in the morning?"
"Of course we can." Sophia smiled "I love you son."
Nick was already asleep.
"Nicholas! Stay focused!" Jacob called out
Nick snapped back to his thoughts, he didn't know why his mother and Dawn were affecting him.
"Riolu, run for the hole!"
Riolu ran toward the hole, Steelix growled as he jumped into the hole.
"Follow it!" Jacob called out
Steelix jumped into the opposite hole, Jacob smiled wickedly.
"Hyper beam!"
"Riolu Aura Sphere!"
No one could see what happened, but a large explosion of orange erupted from both holes. Nick's eyes grew wide with fear.
"Riolu, are you okay?"
Riolu spoke with telepathy, Nick thought for a moment, but there was no response.
"I'm okay Nick, better than ever actually."
"What do you mean?"
A bright light erupted from the tunnel and quickly faded, Nick's eyes grew wide as Steelix flew through the other end, and a quick blue blur stood in front of him.
"Riolu?"
"Lucario now."
Riolu had grown two feet in size, its arms and legs had grown in size, a spike was on its hand, its ears had grown, it had gained a pale colored fur on its body, and it had a blue tail and a mix of blue and black colored fur.
Nick took out his Pokedex and scanned it "Lucario, the Aura Pokemon and the evolved form of Riolu, by reading the auras of all things, it can tell how others are feeling from over half a mile away."
"Lucario, use Aura Sphere on Steelix, Pikachu, hit Golem with Iron tail!"
Both Pokemon nodded and charged, Lucario jumped into the air and formed a blue sphere in its hands and fired it, the attack made impact and Steelix fainted in an instant. Pikachu slammed its tail into Golem, only for it to grab Pikachu, laughing.
"Lucario!" Nick called out
Lucario's speed increased as it charged; its fists ready and it began to punch into Golem's side, the Pokemon let go of Pikachu and fell forward as Pikachu slammed its tail again into Golem, causing it to faint.
Jacob recalled both Pokemon back and smiled "Impressive job Nick, but now the real battle starts now."
"Looks like my brother is doing well so far." Hailey smiled
The rest of the gang had stopped when Nick had begun his match, their tram was the same as Nick's only difference is that there were many screen monitors around them, one in each corner, and two along the right side, which when they looked out, gave a clear view of the battle field.
"Riolu evolving seemed almost like a life saver for him." Tom remarked
"Looks like Jacob is taking an advantage here."
The battle progressed with Pikachu fainting on the screen and Lucario following close after.
Nick ran out onto the battle field and held Pikachu in his arms; Lucario was already away in his Pokeball. Jacob stood on the field with a wide grin on his face, in front of him stood two Pokemon, one was Metagross, and the other was a Durant.
"You okay buddy?" Nick asked
"Pika...Pikachu." Pikachu said weakly
"Alright, take a rest buddy. I'll take it from here." Nick smiled
He walked back to his position, a frown spread and anger showed on his face as he took two Pokeballs from his belt.
"Flareon and Croconaw, stand by for battle!"
With the two Pokeballs in the air, the seals broke and the fire Pokemon and water Johto starter stood their ground on the field.
"It's time to end this!" Nick raised his hand "Flareon, flame thrower on Durant!"
Flareon unleashed a stream of flame, the heat from the burst did not seem to compare to the heat coming from the inside of the volcano. The bug Pokemon moved out of the way, but the attack still made impact, causing the Pokemon to faint automatically.
"Incredible." Jacob remarked That Flareon is incredibly powerful, I wonder if Team Rocket or Team Anubis was behind that.
He returned Durant as both Pokemon charged at Metagross.
"Wait!" Jacob called out
Nick looked at Jacob, a curious look on his face. Jacob raised a white flag and threw it on the ground.
"Bit too obvious that you're Flareon could take down my whole team with one attack. You can finish this battle in four seconds. You're good enough in my opinion to move on to the next member of the Elite Four." Jacob smiled and motioned to the tram
Nick smiled and picked Pikachu up in his hands as he returned both Flareon and Croconaw into their Pokeball.
Both men shook hands and walked into the tram for the second member, as he moved on, so did Tom, Hailey, Kara and Holly.
The healing machine dimmed as it finished its process. Nick silently placed each Pokeball on his belt; Pikachu jumped off the scanner and sat looking out at the volcano's crater.
He smiled and rubbed his head "You okay Pikachu?"
"Pikachu Pi (Yeah, I'm better.)."
Nick smiled, he couldn't believe Jacob surrendered, it wasn't something he was used to, but he was glad Jacob saw reason.
A lot of thoughts crossed his mind, mostly his parents, with his mom being so close to being a Pokemon Master, he always wondered if she was proud of him or if she was even watching over him, and now Dominic was with her, he just wondered if they were proud of him, in the years before he couldn't care less about his dad since he left, but now that he was alive, and he always cared about him, he just wondered if it was a façade or if it was the truth.
"Your next challenger awaits. Next up is Elite Four member Francine Morrison."
Josh's mom!? Nick always remembered Josh's mom being a tough trainer, let alone tough on her son to be the best, in a way, it was a reason for Josh to push himself so much. He was ready for this, and the league was right in front of him.
He silently took out the locket from his pocket and opened it, he smiled as his thumb traced over the picture of him and his parents.
I'll make you two proud.
Unity Island sits on the outside of the NeoTerra Region, to most trainers, its considered to be the Battle Frontier, or the first one at least, but to him it was his home, at least for a few years anyway.
A hooded figure silently walked the halls of the Champion Villa, whenever a champion is named in NeoTerra; they are awarded the space as well as the title, he held that title once before, but when Champion Dominic decided to become a roaming champion, he took it over, he had it taken from him.
He opened the door to the master bedroom, inside, sat a woman, about in her late thirties to early forties, shoulder length blonde hair and emerald green eyes.
She looked over at the man, anger and pain in her eyes "Your back. I take it he defeated you?"
The man raised his arm, revealing prosthetic, robotic arm "Obviously. He's gotten better now, and he's close to finishing."
"My son will stop you, you know that?" The woman backed away as the man moved quickly, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall, one of his eyes, a deep ocean blue glared at her through his hood
"Oh he thought he did, but I have just begun to fight my dear Sophia, soon Nick will come here, and when he does, I will be waiting."
The man lifted his hood, revealing black slicked back hair now with multiple touches of gray, ice blue eyes, scars running down the right side of his face, Jack Gray was back and ready for revenge.
Author's Note 2: Wow, so I have a ton of explaining to do huh? Well for starters, college has been kicking my ass lately and its been really hard to update as frequently as I did over the summer, not to mention life in general.
Second, and I'm going to be brutually honest, I lost inspiration for this story, now when I loose inspiration for a story, I take it down, but I didn't want to do that with this one, not only is this the highest rated story I've ever written on this website, but I also wanted to finish it, I'm so close to the end now and I want to get this story complete.
But my biggest inspiration for at least publishing this story came from Blaze210, his story Pokemon: A New Beginning made me want to at least finish this one cause its been halfway done for almost a month, the problem is that I want to finish this because for awhile it was becoming almost a chore for me, but I promise you all it will be done...the sequel definitly will not be as long as this one!
Anyway, back onto the story, I know your all probabily wondering how Sophia is alive considering she had a sickness, well don't worry, I will explain all of that in the chapters to come, same thing with Jack Gray being alive, again, it will be explained.
So expect the chapters to be short like this from here on out, I hope I didn't loose all of my fans! I missed you guys and I'm gonna definitly try to get this story complete!
One last thing, HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY POKEMON: THE NEOTERRA JOURNEY! You are definitly my favorite story to date!