Round 4 - Match 5

Thomas passed the doorway to his box at the top level of the stadium, tapping a finger against his leg to a rhythm playing inside his head. His father and brother used it to watch him during his matches but didn't usually hang out in there anymore. Not since his new friends had invited him to watch the tournament with them, anyway. He occasionally went to check on them and spend time with them, but he enjoyed talking with Kyle and his friends way too much to be there for long.

When Thomas's aunt had given him a shiny Riolu as a present, he had just moved into a new town. His aunt thought that having a rare Pokemon would help him make friends. Unfortunately, it had done the exact opposite.

Most of Thomas's attention went towards Leo rather than his classmates or the other neighborhood kids, and as the pair strengthened their bond, Thomas came to see and understand the auras of others. He could observe their presence in other people and discern someone's personality based on how their aura appeared. He didn't read them well enough to form an exact makeup of a person, but there were things he learned to look for that would reveal information to him.

With this power, he became frustratingly aware of how many people had dark, ugly sides that they didn't reveal to others. No matter how much he tried, Thomas found it hard to overlook some of these flaws. For this reason, having Leo prevented Thomas from making friends rather than helped. These dark parts of aura could be seen in anyone, even Thomas himself, but at least he understood his own darkness.

However, using his and Leo's abilities to analyze aura had never been more important than now. Thomas became more nervous with each passing day, and it was all because of the people he'd met at the dinner party.

After first setting their eyes on Adrien and getting a view of his aura, both Thomas and Leo had been terrified. It was darker and more intense than anything they'd ever seen inside someone. No human could've held something like that inside of themselves.

Adrien's aura made him dangerous. Thomas and Leo weren't exactly sure what Adrien was capable of, or whether he really was much of a threat to others as his aura suggested. The only sensible thing they could think of doing, for now, was keeping an eye on him.

Then there was Kyle. Kyle and Eve's auras were the opposites of Adrien and Chu's. If anything happened, Thomas had determined that Kyle and Eve would need to be the ones to stop Adrien. Unfortunately, as time passed, Thomas was noticing that the intensity of Kyle's aura was dwindling, while Adrien's was only rising. They were on a clock.

Thomas wondered if he could find a way to cure Adrien's aura of its darkness, if it was possible to do so. There was still so much Thomas and Leo wanted to know and figure out, and spending more time talking to Adrien, Kyle, and the others might give him a clue as to what was going on.

Thomas was pulled from his thoughts as the door to the box he was about to pass burst open. Out walked a familiar young man. Thomas froze.

It was a participant from his town. The level 82 Tropius owner. The feeder, Ryan Dell. With his Pokemon's absurdly high level, he'd managed to make it to round 4, unfortunately. He was the last feeder in the competition, and also Thomas's next opponent.

Thomas didn't want to be seen by him, but there was nowhere to hide. His heart pounded as the feeder's friends, whom Thomas also recognized, all followed him out of the box and into the hallway. They were talking and joking loudly amongst each other. Their dark auras' burned inside of them. They all turned in his direction.

Thomas felt a hand on his shoulder. He suddenly felt cold, but it wasn't because of adrenaline. Something frigid was covering him. The space around him became darker. Thomas couldn't move. The eyes of those in front of him swiped over him, and none of them took notice of Thomas. They then turned around and began walking away, their voices fading out.

When they were out of sight, the hand released his shoulder, and the darkness and chill dissipated. Thomas stumbled forward and wheeled around to find out whoever it was that had grabbed him.

He recognized the aura before he saw the owner's face. It was even more threatening than yesterday. Adrien and his discolored Raichu stood calmly with blank faces. Thomas hadn't even known that Adrien had been behind him.

"What was that?" Thomas asked.

Adrien took out a poke ball and tapped Chu on the head with it. The Pokemon returned to its capsule.

"You looked like you didn't want those people to see you," Adrien said, "so I hid you."

"With what?" Thomas asked. "Did you make me invisible somehow?"

Adrien shrugged. "You could say that. It's a move Chu knows." With that, he began to walk past Thomas toward Kyle's box.

"Your Raichu used a move on a human," Thomas said out loud as he realized it.

Adrien stopped. Thomas immediately realized that he should've kept his mouth shut. What if Adrien was with Team Dominion, the organization was gone, and he was supposed to be one of the ones that had taken it down, but there was no other reason his Pokemon would be able to use a move on Thomas.

Will he threaten me? Thomas wondered. Or will he actually hurt me?

But Adrien just let out a deep breath and said, "Yeah, I guess so." Then he continued to walk.

Thomas blinked. Is he serious? Does he not understand himself?

He rubbed the shoulder Adrien had grabbed when hiding him. He still didn't know how it had happened. But Adrien had seen that Thomas was in need and had lent a hand. It didn't seem like something someone with his aura would do. Thomas scratched his head, more confused about Adrien than he'd ever been.

Hannah stuck her hand forward to shake Oliver's. The referee stood by and watched them, but didn't repeat the rules. There was no need to go over them again. Everyone who'd made it this far had heard them plenty of times by now. They were in the fourth round, with less than sixteen fighters left.

She examined her opponent closely. He was smiling, with his chin held high and his back straight. He was obviously confident and had no reason not to be. Hannah wasn't as strong of a trainer as Kyle, not even close. It wasn't as if she was weak, however. She had proved herself by making it this far in the tournament. She and her Blissey, Oscara, made a great team. But if Oliver could beat Kyle and Eve, Hannah and Oscara surely didn't stand a chance. Even with Oscara's incredibly high HP and Special Defense, it would likely only withstand a few more Blizzards than Eve had, at most.

But, even if she couldn't win, maybe she could find out what it was that made his Smeargle, Monet, so deadly.

Hannah returned to the green side of the battlefield, palming Oscara's poke ball and tapping its surface with a finger. She remembered how Kyle's body had reacted to Monet's Blizzard hitting Eve. The Battle Bond between them had transferred the pain to him, causing him to collapse. Hannah's bond with Oscara was on a much lower level than that, but it was nothing to overlook. How much would it hurt?

Taking a breath and squeezing the poke ball, Hannah turned and waited for the announcer to call for the battle to begin. Oliver appeared eager for the battle to be underway. Hannah wondered if it ever became boring for him to take down every opponent he faced with just one attack. Her friends certainly would, especially Jordan.

"Begin!" the announcer called.

Both trainers unleashed their Pokemon, who both stood their ground. As a Blissey, Oscara was more of a defensive Pokemon. Not to mention, keeping her distance would keep Hannah in the fight longer, giving her more time to observe the Smeargle.

To Hannah's disappointment, there wasn't anything she could see about Monet she hadn't already noticed from watching its matches from up in the box. Still, she was bothered by the feeling that something was off about it.

Seeing that Oscara wasn't attacking, Monet advanced, brandishing its paintbrush. Hannah knew Oscara's attacks wouldn't do much to faze her opponent; Eve had thrown out countless waves of Judgment, and it still hadn't managed to win. So she focused on slowing it down and weakening it to give herself time to focus.

Oscara fired off an Ice Beam. In a flash of ice-blue light, the beam streaked toward Monet, who swiftly painted a barrier in the air that blocked the attack. Oscara used Ice Beam again. Monet couldn't use Protect a second time in a row without taking a risk.

Instead of using Protect again, Monet moved faster than a Smeargle should've been capable of, darting to the side. The Ice Beam struck the floor where it had just been, freezing a small area of the battlefield.

Monet was closing in. Switching plans, she had Oscara use Charm. The Blissey blew a kiss to the Smeargle as it approached, briefly stopping it in its tracks. It gazed warily at Oscara as if trying to decide whether or not to proceed with the fight.

Another Ice Beam struck Smeargle in the chest and spread over its entire body. Oliver grimaced and shouted at his Pokemon, yelling for it to snap out of its trance. Monet growled and resisted the frost enveloping its body. Hannah grimaced. Still, she had succeeded in lowering Monet's attack power, raising her chances of surviving the first Blizzard.

Monet waved its paintbrush through the air, trailing more ice-blue particles through the air. Hannah narrowed her eyes. Here it came. Oscara curled up defensively and prepared to use Soft-Boiled. Hannah hoped it might allow Oscara to heal herself through Monet's attack, then again after it was finished.

Thrusting its paintbrush forward, Monet sent the ferocious Blizzard rolling onward. Hannah braced herself for the cold as the attack ran over Oscara's body. Hannah gasped as she immediately started shivering, rubbing her arms to warm herself up. Oscara cried out in pain while it used Soft-Boiled. The Blizzard had been weakened with Charm, and it was still this powerful?

Hannah shockingly felt Oscara's consciousness fading. Not even a Blissey could withstand it?

The ice cleared away, revealing Oscara's limp body. Oliver and Monet had claimed another victory.

Kyle sighed as the announcer presented Oliver as the winner of the match and the crowd erupted into cheers. The rest of his friends in the box were silent. All of them were just about fed up with the way Oliver had won so many matches, but they no longer found a point in complaining about it.

He watched Hannah, who had fallen to her hands and knees. Jordan was already by her side. After what had happened to Kyle, Jordan had been worried about what would happen if Hannah had lost, too. She didn't appear to be having as severe of a reaction as Kyle had, thankfully. Her bond wasn't quite as strong, and Charm had weakened the Blizzard. She would be fine.

Noah tugged on Carol's sleeve beside him on the couch. "Hey, I'm hungry. Can we go get something to eat?"

"Yeah, sure," Carol said, a bit quieter than normal. She stood and turned to everyone else. "You guys want anything?"

Kyle didn't have much of an appetite at the moment. He shook his head, as did Adrien and Thomas. Jordan was waiting for Hannah near the battlefield, so he wasn't in the room.

Carol and Noah both left, leaving the box in even deeper silence. Kyle wondered what Thomas and Adrien were thinking, Adrien especially. Were they growing nervous? Did they think they could win against Oliver?

After a few minutes, the door to the box opened again, and Jordan and Hannah entered. Hannah's teeth were still chattering. Nobody wore any kind of jacket, except for Adrien, so Hannah simply had to fight off the cold herself while Jordan wrapped an arm around her.

"That was bullshit," Hannah muttered.

Kyle and Jordan both raised their eyebrows. Hannah wasn't one to complain about a loss.

"You think something was wrong?" Jordan asked. "Like he cheated?"

"I still don't know if it's cheating," Hannah said. "But there's no way his Smeragle managed to sweep Oscara without something weird being at play here."

"The referees and proctors haven't said anything," Kyle said. "They've probably looked over the situation, by now. Monet is just that strong."

Hannah shook her head. "Something's still wrong."

Kyle sighed again. "Look, Thomas said that Oliver's Aura was strong, so I'm not that surprised that–"

"Actually, I didn't say that," Thomas interrupted. "I wouldn't call it strength. Auras are . . . well, they're strange."

"How so?" Hannah asked.

Thomas leaned back and let out a slow, deep breath from his nose. "Auras have . . . patterns. These patterns appear differently from person to person based on their personality, morals, ideals, their Pokemon, and whatever else."

Kyle nodded to himself. He'd heard most of this from Thomas at the party when he'd found Kyle to be one of the Justice Champions and asked about his and Adrien's peculiar Auras.

The strength of their 'Battle Bond,' as you guys called it, can also be seen," Thomas said. He glanced at Kyle. "Some other factors come into play, too."

"How hard is it to read those patterns?" Adrien asked.

"Very, for humans," Thomas said. "Leo can make and evaluate differences and connections between the Auras of two people, but that's about all. Neither of us can tell for sure what causes a different pattern to appear, but we've made three determinations we believe are true. The first is that the Aura patterns of humans all seem to have the same foundation. The same is true with Pokemon.

"The second is that the pattern of a Pokemon's Aura will swirl with greater intensity the more experience it has.

"The third is that both a trainer's aura and their Pokemon's aura will begin to blend as their Battle Bond grows stronger."

"Then how blended was Oliver's Aura?" Kyle asked.

"Not very," Thomas said. "Especially compared to all of yours."

"So, his Pokemon's strength isn't coming from a Bond?" Jordan asked.

Thomas shook his head.

"So his Pokemon's a high level, then?"

"Nope. Monet's Aura isn't that intense."

"What about it, then?" Hannah asked. "You could tell from Oliver's Aura that he would win against a Gyrados. What made his Aura stand out to you?"

"I don't know," Thomas admitted. "When looking at Auras, we're always able to see what's there, but it's rare for us to know what's causing it. I think it's coming from his Pokemon, though, so whatever it is that's making them so strong, it's from Monet."

Hannah turned to Kyle. "We need to find out what's going on," she insisted.

"What's the point?" Kyle asked. "We've already lost. Following some conspiracy isn't going to change that."

Hannah narrowed her eyes. "What happened to that 'sense of justice' Jordan's always telling me about? Weren't you the one who convinced those three to help you take down Team Dominion?"

Kyle opened his mouth, then closed it. She had a point. Before, he would've been all over this. Why was he so resistant now?

Ignoring his thoughts, Kyle said, "Yeah, and I almost got us all killed. In case you forgot, Jordan was in a wheelchair after that."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "This is a competitive tournament, Kyle, but it's not that kind of tournament. Nobody's going to try to kill you for trying to expose them."

"We should at least tell the proctors, if anything," Jordan suggested. "Couldn't hurt."

"No," Kyle said firmly. "We don't need to."

Kyle was afraid of going to the proctors. If they complained that they thought Oliver was up to something, then it turned out that there was nothing wrong and he and Hannah were just paranoid, how would that look? He would be even more humiliated. He couldn't handle that.

Eve was speaking to them. It wondered if something was wrong with the two of them, agreeing with Kyle's earlier thought that he was acting differently than usual.

"Look," Kyle said. "Like I said, if the proctors see something, they'll do something about it. Until then, we just have to wait. If nothing comes up, it's fine."

Jordan frowned. "I get that you've lost a lot of chances you wanted by losing to Oliver," Jordan said. "But you've been pissing me off, lately."

The two of them stared angrily at each other. Everyone but Adrien became tense.

Carol opened the door and entered with Noah. They both paused when everyone turned toward them.

"What's up?" Carol asked, eyebrows raised. "Something wrong?"

Hannah and Jordan both sat down without a word. Carol narrowed her eyes at Kyle, who turned away. Thomas let out a deep breath. Noah sat next to Kyle and began to talk while eating. Kyle forced a smile and nodded, trying to ignore his own thoughts.

Thomas headed down the stairs to the bottom floor of the stadium, where his family was waiting for him so they could return to the hotel. He'd wanted to talk to Kyle some more about Adrien, but since Kyle appeared to be going through some issues, he'd decided to leave him alone.

I wonder if the depletion of his aura has something to do with why he's acting so strange, Thomas thought. But is it a cause or an effect?

He heard the sounds of more steps echoing up the staircase. He ignored them until he saw who it was the was climbing the steps toward him. He paused at the top of a set of steps.

It was the Tropius trainer, Ryan. Adrien wasn't there to help Thomas, this time. Nothing could stop the feeder from looking directly at Thomas, his eyebrows rising in recognition.

"Hey there," Ryan said with a grin. His aura pulsed. Thomas had come to learn that this kind of pulse meant the person was amused.

Thomas didn't have anything to say back. He kept his eyes down and hoped that Ryan would just walk by.

He didn't.

"It's cool that we've both made it this far," Ryan said, walking up the steps. "I guess we both trained our Pokemon pretty well, huh?"

Don't ever compare my training method with yours, Thomas thought, growing repulsed as Ryan's aura came closer.

"Well, I guess I'll see you in the next match," Ryan said. "I'm looking forward to it. You were probably the only person I enjoyed fighting back at the qualifier match. Nobody else really stood a chance. Not even the people here are that good."

Thomas gritted his teeth. "Maybe if you didn't abuse your Tropius to win, you might find it a little fairer," he said bitterly.

Ryan's smile faded, his attitude changing instantly. "Don't give me that shit. You just don't have the balls to push your Pokemon like I do."

Thomas chuckled. "You believe that?"

"Last time I checked, your Lucario ate dirt against my Tropius," Ryan said. "So yeah. You're doing something wrong." He brushed against Thomas's arm as he passed by. "Good luck tomorrow, I guess."

Thomas clenched a fist. He'd never wanted to win at something so badly in his life.