Chapter 49 – In the line of fire
The premier ball cracked open, and James' Blaziken appeared. Standing tall and proud on the burning ashes it caught Gardevoir's eye, and its wrists burst into flames.
"A Blaziken!" A commentator said, "And a powerful one."
"A disadvantage to Gardevoir, though," Said the other commentator, "because of its fighting type characteristics."
"Hopefully that doesn't prevent this from being an incredible battle," The first said. Blaze adopted a fighting stance, so very similar to that Gallade had taken, minutes ago. On the other side of the field, Gardevoir was still standing straight backed, arms hanging at its side, just as it had done facing Gallade. However, this time, James' fighter would not back down.
Blaze never backed down.
"Psychic." Wally said. Gardevoir was momentarily surrounded in an aura, before mental energy was thrown forward. James, from the trainer's box, could see the score board, above the grandstands. It showed both trainers' faces, and five dark boxes representing their fallen pokémon. In the last space of each line were their final battlers – Blaziken and Gardevoir. This battle was the last in the match, and would decide who was staying and who would be expelled from the competition now.
Gardevoir – a pokémon who valued a trainer's life more then its own.
Blaze – a pokémon who had a promise to keep.
One would eventually have to lay down in defeat.
Blaze never backed down.
Blaze leapt into the air, jumping clear out of the way of the attack, which threw ash into the air.
"Brave Bird!" James said. From up high, Blaze's body burst with blue and red energy, and it shot toward Gardevoir like a bullet.
"Psychic!" Wally shouted. Gardevoir reached up with its mind and grabbed hold of Blaze, and threw it aside. Blaze flipped in mid air, its feet slammed into the ground, and it leapt straight back at its opponent.
Its fist burst with fire.
Gardevoir was thrown backward with the force the Fire Punch had delivered, straight to its chest. It caught itself on a cushion of psychic energy, and was lowered easily down onto its feet.
"Charge Beam!" Wally said.
"Gardevoir knows electric moves!" A commentator exclaimed. The blast of electricity shot toward Blaze, so fast that even the Blaziken's reflexes were not enough. The jolt brought the fighting type to its knees, but Blaze instantly rose again, its wrists burning once again.
"Charge Beam, again!" Wally said. Gardevoir shot another burst of electricity toward Blaze, this one bigger then the last, but both trainer and pokémon were ready this time.
"Flamethrower the ground!" James said. Blaze shot fire toward the ground between itself and the attack, and the area where the Flamethrower made contact exploded. Ash, fire and earth flew into the air, and the Charge Beam was defused in the blast.
"Now Brave Bird!" James said. Blaze leapt forward, through the vortex of rising ash and smoke left from the explosion, and at Gardevoir. The psychic pokémon dodged with a Teleport, then grabbed Blaze from behind with a Psychic, throwing it upward once more and blasting it with Charge Beam.
Blaze crumpled when it hit the ground, but with some effort it rose again.
"Wally's using Charge Beam a lot," A commentator noted, "That's probably because it grows more powerful each time its used.
Blaze rushed toward Gardevoir, and threw its fist to the air. Gardevoir Teleported away from the Sky Uppercut, however, and shot another Charge Beam.
"Fire Punch!" James said. Blaze caught the Charge Beam with its burning hands, and just as though it were deflecting a stream of water, kept the electricity at bay using nothing but extreme heat from its hands.
"Teleport and Psychic!" Wally said. Suddenly Gardevoir was right next to Blaze, and the next attack was consequently a critical hit. Blaze rolled to a stop in the dirt, explosive ash clinging to its feathers. But then it rose again, its wrists becoming lit.
"Flamethrower!" James said, "Barrage the area!" Blaze shot bursts of fire in the rough direction of Gardevoir, who Teleported out of the way of one, before being caught by another.
"Yes." James said, in relief. At least something had worked.
"Double Team!" Wally said. And suddenly ten Gardevoirs were flying forward. Some gathering electricity in their arms, others glowing with strange auras.
"Jump!" James said. Blaze had only just cleared the ground when a huge Charge Beam shocked it, bringing it down again.
"Is that it?" A commentator asked. But then Blaze was picking itself up, yet again. James didn't know how much more it could take.
But Blaze never backed down.
And this time, when its wrists burst into life, they weren't the same fire as before. The flames reached all the way up to its shoulders, and they were different colours: first white hot, then blue, then finally red and yellow.
"It looks like Blaze' special ability has kicked in!" A commentator said, having caught on to Blaziken's nickname.
Blaze – when its health was down, fire attacks grew in power. Making it at its strongest while it was at its weakest.
Gardevoir didn't stand a chance.
"Flamethrower!" James said. Fire streamed from Blaze's mouth and fists, joining together to form one huge storm of flames which surged toward Gardevoir.
"Psychic! Contain it!" Wally said. Gardevoir caught the storm with its mental attack, but the fire threatened to flow over.
"Trace!" Wally said. A fiery red aura burst around Gardevoir this time, and the fire began to be pushed back.
"And that's Gardevoir's ability, Trace," The commentator said, "Which copies the ability being used by the opponent. Now Gardevoir has the same heightened control of fire that Blaze has."
That was true, but there was another factor. Attacks were more powerful when they matched the pokémon's type. Blaze's fire attacks were more powerful because of its fire characteristics; and even though Gardevoir was now receiving a boost, it still didn't have the little extra push that a same type would bring.
"You can do it!" James screamed. And Blaze did. It forced the fire back, and over Gardevoir, entrapping it in a storm.
"Brave Bird!" James said, "Finish it!" Blaze roared, red and blue surrounded it, and it flew into the firestorm. Suddenly the blaze was ripped into nothingness as Blaze entered it, and it connected with Gardevoir at full speed. Gardevoir was thrown backward, and James knew the instant that Gardevoir hit the ground, and wasn't caught by any psychic barrier, that they had won.
"YES!" James yelled, his arms in the air.
"Gardevoir is unable to battle," The umpire said, throwing up the red flag, "Wally is out of useable pokémon, and James Millar is the winner of the battle!" The stadium erupted in cheers, confetti was raining down from who knows where.
In the centre of the arena, Blaze pulled Gardevoir to its feet. The two of them had never met before, but Blaze knew all about Gardevoir from Gallade, with whom it often sparred. Gardevoir looked sadly at Blaze, before returning to its master. And Blaze walked toward James, showing dignity to which its other sparring partner, Sceptile, would never have been capable of.
It was a few days after the first battle. All the top sixteen had battled, and eight had been eliminated. After a day of sulking, Wally had become completely fine with James beating him, and his journey ending – for the moment anyway. Since then the two friends had enjoyed going to the other battles together. The Lugia trainer's battle was very spectacular, if a bit violent. James hadn't thought it possible to make pokémon battles more violent, but Matt managed it. Even from the beginning. Faced with a charging Rapidash, using Mega Horn, Matt ordered his Sableye to attack its legs. The ghost type leapt under the horn and grabbed hold of its opponent's front hooves, flipping Rapidash over like a bicycle with a stick through the front wheel.
All in all, James was in a good mood by the time the first round came to a close, and he was smiling when he walked, Wally at his side and Eevee at his ankle, to the administration building, to find out who he would be battling, and when. He also needed to talk to a person at the desk on booking a water field for the battle. Environments could be booked by trainers up to two days before a match. If you booked the field, it was guaranteed to be in the battle, however your opponent was given an advantage. They were told of your booking an environment, and they were also given the chance to book their own field. If they wanted to, then this field would not be disclosed to the trainer who booked first. James thought it risky booking a field, but he thought it the only chance he would be able to use his Sharpedo. Because the pokémon could only battle on a water field, unless James could be sure such an environment would be in the battle, he couldn't risk it wouldn't.
A few minutes after they arrived, the giant screen flashed on. There was only eight trainers this round, so the board displayed the trainer's pictures much larger, as well as times and environments. Every one of the environments was represented as a question mark, except one.
"Must have booked it early," Wally said. James however, wasn't paying attention. He couldn't believe it – he was going to battle Matt, the Lugia trainer.
"Bad luck there mate," Said someone behind him. James turned, and to his surprise it was Matt in the flesh, standing right behind him.
"Oh," He said, before holding out his hand, "May the best trainer win."
"Yes," Matt said, shaking his hands. The three of them stood in silence for a moment.
"Well, see you Friday," James said, heading toward the front desk. Wally followed him.
"Hey," James said, "I'd like to book a water field for my next match," The attendant ran through the rules with him, James agreed, and signed something, before the attendant began typing away at a computer.
"Your booking a water environment?" came Matt's voice from behind him. James turned to face him.
"Yes," He said, "You going to?"
"Oh I definitely will," Matt said, "You see, my battle style is very into strategy. What I do is I watch the opponent, find out about their battling style, and figure out ways to shut them down. Your choosing a field gives me the advantage of knowing something you don't. You know all my pokémon, everyone does, and I will soon know all yours-"
"How will you know all James' pokémon?" Wally interrupted, "You gona facebook him or something?" James instantly tried to recall whether he had adequate protection on his facebook page to prevent Matt from accessing his photos.
"I don't need to," His foe said, "But I assure you, by Friday, every one of my pokémon will have a strategy to deal with each and every one of yours."
Impossible. That was what Aria had said when they told her of their meeting with Matt. However even her resolve quavered when she saw the email which had appeared in James' inbox. From an address he did not recognise, it contained an attachment, an no message. James clicked on the attachment. A web page loaded. When it had, James saw that it was part of the Pokémon League web site. This page was devoted to him. James smiled when he saw it, but his grin faded when he spotted the video playlist on the right of the screen. Each of his gym battles was listed there. He clicked on 'James Vs Roxanne' and watched as his digital self brought out Grovyle, Blaze (a Combusken at the time), Tropius and Gallade, to battle Golem, Steelix, Nosepass, and Rampardos, who had still been Roxanne's at the time. Scrolling down the lists of videos, James found not only the complete history of his gym battles, but also his previous battles in the pokémon league. He had of course seen the cameras in the gyms, but he had assumed they were there for security, not this.
By the end of the next day, a Wednesday, his plight was looking hopeless. While James, Wally and Aria stressed and worried about strategy, Matt was building a seamless plan. James had nearly twenty pokémon, but when Matt said he could think up a battle plan for each one, James couldn't help but believe him. They had tried the same thing, but the amount of notes was horrific, and it took them several watches of a single battle to work out his strategies. Then, when the opponent sent out a new pokémon, Matt's battle plan was completely different. It was nearly three o'clock in the morning of Thursday, by the time Aria thumped the screen of the laptop closed, before opening it again in frustration and holding down the power button to turn it off properly.
"What?" James said, sleepily.
"Think I know how to get him," Aria said, with not so much pride, as exhaustion.
"How?"
"He isn't good at thinking things up on the spot," she said, "That's why he plans ahead so well. That works because he plans for every single pokémon he could possibly encounter."
"Your not making me feel better," James said. However, when Aria had finished explaining her plan, a smile had returned to his face.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to today's battle!" The crowd responded enthusiastically, although this could be simply because, at that moment, James and Matt were walking onto the arena. In the centre field they shook hands, before turning and walking back to their trainer boxes.
"Oh yes," Said the second commentator, "today's match should be very good." James frowned. He knew that voice, though from where he couldn't quite place. It was surly, and didn't seem the type to ever become ecstatic. Although it certainly seemed excited about something.
However, James had more important things to worry about at the moment. The concrete field was folding away, and any moment the environment for the first half would be appearing. It might be comprised of water, or any other environment of Matt's choosing. From his ankle came a purr, and James looked down, meeting Eevee's reassuring gaze.
"And James seems to have brought an Eevee onto the field," Said the second voice.
"Oh come now, it isn't illegal to have a partner with you, Scott."
Oh no. James said. The last thing he needed right now was Scott Johnston, a commentator which a personal dislike for James, possibly helped along by James successful finding of a Poliwrath, which meant Scott had lost his two star pokémon, Espeon and Umbreon. James tore his mind away from the league's unfortunate choice of commentators, in time to see Matt's choice in field appearing. It was a simple stretch of lawn, with no obstacles whatsoever.
A grass field.
Why did Matt choose a grass field? The one environment that suited every single pokémon, except of course those dependent on water.
"Sableye!" Matt said, throwing forward his first pokémon. Sableye, the pokémon he used so much that it could be treated as his trademark – that is of course, he didn't have that Lugia.
"Manectric!" James said, throwing his electric type forward.
"Begin!"
"Spark!" James said. The trap was set.
"Go!" Matt said, simply. Sableye darted forward, and Manectric, acting to the plan James had told it, readied itself to catch Sableye in a Bite attack. The ghost type simply span in the air and sent the full force of the sprint into Manectric's leg. The discharge pokémon crumpled.
"STOP THE BATTLE!" The umpire yelled, running onto the field. Sableye leapt back.
"And it looks like James' pokémon is down already, it mustn't have had very good training," Scott was saying. The umpire was bending over Manectric. James was very confused. The usual procedure, when a pokémon was knocked out, was to say the pokémon couldn't battle, and hold up a flag; screaming to stop and running onto the field was something new.
Perhaps this umpire was new.
The crowd was muttering. The battle had only just started and it was paused already. Some were booing. James stepped off the trainer's box – as long as the battle had been stopped this was legal – and started to walk toward the umpire. Manectric's eyes were open, it wasn't unconscious, but it was on the ground.
Something was wrong.
As James started to run, a stretcher complete with nurse came hurtling onto the field. The Umpire was in his way, and the nurse reached Manectric first. They were already wheeling his pokémon away when James caught a look at it. Manectric was whimpering, his back left leg was sticking out at a bad angle. The front leg, where Sableye had actually hit, was exposing bone.
As the group hurried from the field, Matt looked after them. James sending out Manectric was more then he could have hopped. It was obvious the pokémon had arthritis, a hard enough hit was all it took to break a weathered beam.
He smiled.
