Me: Okay, okay; I'm sorry, again.

Jack: If you don't start sticking to the schedule, I'm going to have to get Jason to keep an eye on you. Seriously, when was the last time you actually had a chapter done when you were supposed to?

Me: The last one was on time.

Jack: Just barely; the fact stands, something has to be done about this. And don't try to pin it on school or work, because you still have plenty of free time after those are done.

Me: *sighs* You're right, you're right; I have been slacking off when it comes to this story. But can I just say something?

Jack: No.

Me: Okay, just checking. Enjoy the chapter everybody.


Jack did his best to smother his apprehension as he looked across the battlefield at Nicholas, who was grinning confidently. He and Nicholas hadn't faced off in quite some time, and Jack was more than a little wary of the red-headed trainer.

Jack knew that of the two of them, Jack's team was almost certainly the stronger, but he also knew that Nicholas was clever; the red-haired trainer would be well aware that Jack had the advantage in power, so he was sure to have some kind of plan.

Jack had watched and re-watched Nicholas's second round match several times, but he couldn't get much from it; Nicholas had made short work of his opponent's team without pushing any of his Pokémon anywhere close to their limit, and probably without even using their full arsenal of moves. That being the case, Jack's couldn't accurately judge how strong they were; and even if he could, Jack had only seen two of Nicholas's team leaving the others a completely mystery.

Nicholas, on the other hand, had seen both Jack's first and second round matches; and during the first round alone Jack had given away more information on his team's strength than Nicholas had. The battle might be no problem whatsoever for all Jack knew, but he wasn't about to bet money on that.

Jack turned his attention to the field on which they'd be fighting; a giant swimming pool dotted here and there with decidedly unstable-looking floating platforms, each one about a meter and a half wide. Water-Types had an obvious advantage here, although Jack noted to himself that Ice or Electric-Type moves could also be decidedly effective. It reminded him of his battle with Crasher Wake at the Pastoria City Gym; although then the element of surprise had been with him.

"Are you ready, Jack?" Nicholas said. "Because I'm about to break that winning streak of yours."

Jack grinned; Nicholas was still Nicholas, and Jack was grateful for that. "You and what army? Katana, you're up!"

"Scatterbolt, go get 'em!" Nicholas said, lobbing the Ampharos's Pokéball onto one of the floating platforms.

[Katana (Scyther) Age: 22. Ability: Technician. Moves: Fury Cutter, Agility, Quick Attack, Fly, Fake Out, Shadow Claw, and Air Slash.]

The two Pokémon appeared in the customary flashes of white light; Scatterbolt standing on his platform, and Katana hovering in mid-air above hers. Jack smiled in satisfaction; a Flying-Type against an Electric-Type might seem like a bad match-up, but Katana had a few tricks up her figurative sleeves.

"BATTLE BEGIN!" called the referee.

Almost before the referee had finished, the arena exploded into a blur of action; surprisingly, to Jack at least, Nicholas beat him to making the first move. Scatterbolt unleashed an intensely powerful Discharge attack which turned the entire battlefield into a minefield, as arcs of electricity crackled through the air and the water; Katana responded quickly with Agility, but she was still hard pressed to dodge the electrical bombardment.

Realizing that she couldn't stay on the defensive forever, Katana decided to take the initiative; with a speed that would've even made Aura proud, Katana lunged in with Quick Attack. Scatterbolt saw the attack coming, but couldn't move fast enough to do anything about it; Katana slammed into him, knocking him flying.

Scatterbolt fell into the pool with a resounding splash, and before the Ampharos could recover Katana fired an Air Slash after him; the second attack landed another resounding hit, and Scatterbolt was plunged underwater.

Katana knew that if she tried going after the Electric-Type, it wouldn't end well; so all she could do was wait for her opponent to resurface. She waited, and waited, and waited…

Katana would've scowled, if her face had been built for such an expression; as it was, she simply let out an exclamation of impatience. Scatterbolt wasn't surfacing, in fact she couldn't see him anywhere.

"He couldn't have been knocked out by just two attacks," Katana thought to herself.

"You're right," Jack suddenly replied telepathically, causing Katana to shudder slightly. "He's definitely planning something; if you sense anything out of the ordinary, fly up. Fast."

"Yeah, I know," Katana replied. "Just… Could you please not do that while I'm trying to concentrate?"

"Oh, yeah; sorry," Jack said apologetically.

Katana was about to respond, when her combat reflexes kicked in; developed over years of clan-wars, they propelled her into the air before she even realized she was in danger. Barely a heartbeat later, the platform she'd been standing on was knocked to the side like a hockey puck on ice; if Katana had still been standing on it, she would've been knocked off her feet and fallen into the water.

As it was, Katana kept the presense of mind to fire up and launch another Air Slash straight downwards; right where she figured Scatterbolt should be. Her attack collided with a brilliant ray of multi-coloured light, a Signal Beam technique, and the two canceled each other out.

"Nicholas has gotten strong indeed," Jack commented for the benefit of the readers. "He didn't give Scatterbolt any audible instructions about that little trick; he just said 'Iron Tail', and Scatterbolt knew to knock the platform out of the way. And by the time Nicholas called for Signal Beam, Scatterbolt had already prepared the attack. They must have practiced that manoeuvre, or something like it, until they knew it off by heart. Either that, or…"

Or Nicholas had some sort of psychic connection with his Pokémon just like Jack himself did; although, Jack guessed that Nicholas probably didn't realize it. From extensive research on the subject, Jack knew that weak, latent telepathic connections weren't uncommon between trainers and their Pokémon; not enough for them to consciously transmit thoughts back and forth, even if they tried, but enough to make them uncannily good at anticipating each other.

"If that's the case," Jack thought to himself. "Then this fight just became harder; I'll need to keep on my toes. I'm glad Katana's on point, it's almost like she can feel their moves coming before they make them; I guess experience helps."

Those thoughts flashed through Jack's head in the time it took him to blink, and then he was back to focusing on the battle. Katana was still hovering above the water, waiting for Scatterbolt to show himself; at that point, it was her only real option. If she went in after Scatterbolt he'd just zap her with an Electric-Type move, and Katana didn't have any moves that could force his hand, or paw; so she had to wait for him to come to her. The only problem was, Scatterbolt had a serious advantage in long-ranged combat.

Scatterbolt surfaced suddenly and fired off another Signal Beam from the water; Katana evaded it easily and was quick to retaliate with Air Slash, but Scatterbolt just dove underwater again. The Ampharos was surprisingly agile in the water.

It didn't take a strategic genius to figure out that they were at a stalemate, so Jack sighed and recalled Katana to her Pokéball; despite numerous, and loud, complaints from the Pokémon in question at being taken out of battle so soon. Jack made a show of rummaging around in his backpack for a second, while deftly and discretely placing her back in the Pack and retrieving someone more suited to the task at hand.

His covert operation complete, Jack turned back to the battlefield and released his one 'mon army.

"Solomon, you're up!"

[Solomon (Kadabra) Age: 18. Ability: Magic Guard. Moves: Teleport, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Sleep Talk, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam.]

Solomon's diverse moveset had come in handy more than once; against the Snowpoint City Gymleader, for instance. Plus, Nicholas had no way of knowing how Solomon fought since the Kadabra hadn't participated in Jack's first or second round matches; the advantage was solidly with Solomon, and Nicholas knew it.

Before Jack could so much as call out a command, Nicholas once again beat him to the punch; Scatterbolt resurfaced and fired a Signal Beam at Solomon, but the Kadabra simply teleported out of the way.

Scatterbolt tried to dive back underwater again but Solomon re-appeared levitating above him, stretched out one hand, and fired an Ice Beam straight downwards; the attack hit Scatterbolt square on the head and froze the water around him solid.

Scatterbolt was caught by the ice in a rather undignified position; lying horizontally, half-submerged in the ice with his rear end sticking up. Fortunately, the Ampharos's head was also above water.

Solomon's eyes glowed with purple energy as he used Psychic to lift Scatterbolt, iceberg included, up into the air; Scatterbolt desperately attempted to break the ice with Iron Tail, but it didn't work.

Solomon flicked the Ampharos-icle up in the air above him, turned his head upwards to look at his opponent, and then unleashed a powerful Flamethrower at him; the attack hit the chunk of ice, and Scatterbolt, full on. The collision raised a large cloud of steam which obscured the results; Solomon could feel that the iceberg had vaporized, leaving only a slightly crispy Ampharos behind, so he released his telekinetic hold and let Scatterbolt drop into the water to cool off.

As Scatterbolt fell however, his eyes opened and his tail started to glow; spinning in the air to gain momentum, Scatterbolt attempted to bring an Iron Tail attack right down on Solomon's head, but was met with a Psychic hand that swatted him out of the arena and into the wall of the colosseum. That time, he decided to stay down.

Nicholas recalled the battered (and fried) Ampharos to his Pokéball with an almost apologetic expression, mumbling something that Jack didn't quite catch. The red-headed trainer then unclipped another Pokéball from his belt and tossed it onto one of the platforms.

"Strike, go get 'em!" he shouted.

The recently evolved Ninjask appeared in a flash of light and hovered above the water for a second. Then, it was off; it was fast, but nowhere near fast enough. Solomon readied a Flamethrower attack, intending to fill the air with cinders to impede his opponent's movements, but Strike beat him to the punch.

"Sorry about this," the Ninjask said as he blinked into existence behind Solomon, and landed a super effective Feint Attack which knocked him into the water.

As Solomon levitated himself out of the water, he noticed that Strike was glowing with an eerie green energy.

"I see you've noticed," Strike buzzed. "My ability is Speed Boost; I'm afraid you have no chance against me now."

The green aura around Strike momentarily flashed white as the Ninjask used Agility, increasing his speed even more; Solomon fired blast of Psychic at him, hoping to catch him off guard, but Strike disappeared in a blur before the attack could hit.

Solomon quickly sent out a mental probe to find the Ninjask, but before he could he was hit by an attack from behind; another Feint Attack, even more powerful than the last. Solomon was knocked flying again, but he caught himself before he could hit the water.

Solomon's mind raced in an attempt to come up with a counter-strategy; something, anything, to counter Strike's intense speed. After two powerful, super effective attacks, Solomon couldn't afford to take any more.

Strike readied another Feint Attack; Solomon knew that if it hit, he'd be in serious trouble. He knew Strike's attack pattern, but it didn't do any good if he couldn't move fast enough to counter it; he had to catch Strike by surprise somehow.

Then, he got it; it was something he'd seen some of Ash's Pokémon do on multiple occasions, and it seemed to be singularly effective. But best of all, neither Strike nor Nicholas would see it coming. Solomon quickly shared his idea with Jack.

"It's so crazy," Jack said with a grin, "It just might work."

With a new plan, Solomon conjured up a Flamethrower in each hand; Strike saw it and moved in to attack pre-emptively, just as Solomon knew he would. With Jack providing the split-second timing required for the plan to work, Solomon started building up as much telekinetic energy as he could; waiting for the perfect moment.

Strike blinked out of existence, almost definitely to make another sneak attack from behind; Solomon couldn't see him, and he wasn't trying to. That was Jack's job. Jack had extended his aura over the entire battlefield. He could sense every move the Ninjask made at the exact moment he made it. Was it cheating? Probably, but Jack couldn't afford to lose this fight; for several reasons. So as guilty as he felt, Jack didn't hesitate.

"Now!" Jack shouted into Solomon's mind.

The moment he registered Jack's order, Solomon released the telekinetic energy he'd been building up all at once; but not at Strike, that would be too obvious an attack. He'd sense it coming and avoid it. No, Solomon directed the energy and the twin Flamethrowers he was holding; fanning them up into a roaring inferno and then spinning them around himself like a cocoon. Or a tornado. A technique Ash seemed fond of calling a 'Counter Shield'.

Jack's timing was dead on; the blast of fire came around behind Solomon at the exact same moment that Strike did, crashing into the unfortunate Ninjask's left side. Strike was instantly swept up by the fiery vortex, and tossed around like a leaf in the wind for several seconds before Solomon let the whirlwind die down.

No sooner did Solomon release his control over the fiery tornado than Strike was right back on the offensive, diving down at Solomon with another Feint Attack; but this time Solomon managed to teleport away in plenty of time. Strike had taken a lot of damage from Solomon's attack, and the Ninjask seemed to be slowing down.

Strike tried one more time, rushing in with Quick Attack; compared to his former speed, it looked like he was flying in slow motion. Solomon saw it coming from a mile away and intercepted it with a powerful Thunderbolt, and then a blast of Psychic. Strike was down for the count.


Me: Well, how was that for action?

Jack: Not bad, not bad; although I notice you leave us on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Me: That was unavoidable; this was always going to be a two, maybe even three-part battle. Any less wouldn't do it justice.

Jack: True that; anything else to report?

Me: Not really; although I'm looking forward to writing the second part of the battle, it's gonna be good. To all you readers, I hope you enjoyed this chapter; and I'll see you in the next one.