Breaking Point

Last time on Danny's journey: The team's Pokémon enter a fighting contest, which has two editions: the regular and the little cup. Squirtle and Krabby manage to get through the first round of the little cup while Grimer and Sandshrew lost their matches. Richard's Machoke starts of the first battle of the regular cup, but is quickly put in a tough situation.

"Battlers ready? Begin!"

Machoke directly turned around to look at Richard for orders.

"Come on Machoke, beat that other Machoke!"

Apparently, that was all Machoke needed to hear. He charged, but the other Machoke simply stepped aside, letting Richard's Machoke trip and towards the line.

"Oh no!" Richard let out.

Machoke saw the battlefield end below his eyes and realized something was wrong. It made an all-or-nothing swing back into the ring that was, while impressive, extremely clumsy, but Machoke was still in the battle, although in a still bad spot.

The other Machoke was a little bit impressed, but had enough confidence to know it was over anyway.

Richard's Machoke wasn't done though. It looked up a bit and saw that it could kick his opponent down, so it did.

Machoke tripped and fell down, causing Kiyo to whistle.

"No kicking! Both contenders stand up."

Both Machoke obeyed and went to their side of the battle stage.

"Set, go!"

Richard's Machoke stormed forward again and the other Machoke stepped aside again. This time Richard's Machoke had planned it, and grabbed the other Machoke instead of tripping. The latter was completely shook. With a simple swing, the opponent fell outside of the battling area.

"And we have a victor." Kiyo announced. "But watch the kicking, next time I'll have to disqualify you."

Machoke nodded timidly and walked towards his trainer, who was overjoyed. The Machamp was looking towards the winner with newly acquired interest. This might be an interesting challenge.

The Machamp was next. It had to face a Primeape and the battle was done within halve a minute. The Primeape let its rage get the better of it and Machamp took full advantage of it.

Charmeleon was getting a bit nervous, seeing the Machamp getting to work. Weepinbell on the other hand looked forward to battling the all-time champion, but first he had to get past another Primeape.

"Just a quick notice, no vines allowed!" Kiyo said, looking at Weepinbell. The latter nodded, like he needed those to get rid of his opponent.

"Ready? Go!"

This Primeape was smarter than the one before. Instead of charging instantly, it circled around Weepinbell. Weepinbell, on the other hand, did charge.

Primeape did not expect the sudden outbreak and was hit, which caused it to do a few steps back. Weepinbell landed and directly started pushing the Primeape towards the edge.

Not knowing what was happening, Primeape tried to push back, but the Grass type had more power and, more importantly, the mentality of a true winner. Eventually Primeape felt the ground disappear below its feet and it fell out of the ring.

"Aaand Weepinbell will advance to the next round. Well played!"

Weepinbell glanced at the Machamp, but the latter hadn't even watched. Something that made Weepinbell a little bit pissed.

The rest of the round flew by. Charmeleon had never felt nervous before a battle, but this waiting killed him. He had to enter the ring last, against a Golduck. With his trainer cheering behind him, Charmeleon managed to overpower the Golduck, which made the Water type enraged and caused it to fire a Hydro Pump. Charmeleon dodged it and the Golduck was disqualified.

After the first round of both competitions had come to an end, the team gathered together. Kiyo had given them a schedule for the second round, which would be held in two different rooms. The little cup would be in a room to the right and the regular cup in a room to the left.

For Danny, Richard and Janine and their Pokémon it meant that they had to run between both rooms to see all their Pokémon compete.

When the group made their way towards the left room to see Squirtle compete, Danny couldn't help but notice the Mankey standing in front of the photo of his brother.

"I'm getting a little bit worried about this Mankey." Danny said to Richard, who had no idea what was wrong with the Mankey.

"Isn't that the one that knocked Grimer out? Are you worried it might be poisoned?"

"No, that's not it. That Mankey in the picture is his brother, I think it feels a little bit worthless."

"Do you really think that? It seems to me that that Mankey is feeling pretty confident." Richard kept on walking towards Squirtle's battle, but Danny decided to walk up to the Mankey and chat with it again.

"Hi there, me again."

The Mankey turned around. It recognized Danny directly and didn't flee.

"Kiyo told me your brother did really great," Dany started. Mankey nodded, with a slight hint of disappointment.

"But you know, you can do that too! I told Kiyo I think you have a great fighting spirit, you don't give up. I can appreciate that within a Pokémon. But I think that you need to learn how to get past your breaking point."

Mankey didn't seem to follow anymore.

"You see, every Pokémon has a breaking point." Danny had heard his dad talk about a breaking point, but that was back in the real world, when his dad was watching a wrestling match, not much different from this one, Danny thought.

"It is the point in which body and mind don't sync anymore." He tried to copy his father's words as closely as possible. "Your mind might want to continue, but your body simply can't keep up. That's not because of the lack of training, but you might not train the right way."

Although the Mankey seemed offended, it kept listening.

"When you train, you set the bar quit high, don't you?"

The Mankey nodded.

"And you usually don't reach it, right?"

Once again Mankey nodded in approval.

"You should start setting lower bars, bars that your body can handle. If you keep hitting the bars you will get more motivation, which will do wonders for your body."

Suddenly, they heard people and Pokémon cheering from the little cup battle.

"Crap, I think I need to go. Remember, don't set the bar too high."

Danny ran towards the battle area but was too late to see Squirtle advance to the next round.

"Did I miss anything?" He whispered to Janine.

"Squirtle had barely any trouble with that Mankey. Where were you? Busy with that phone number again?" She returned the question.

"What? No. I was giving someone some advice."

Janine had to time to snap back, as Squirtle walked towards them with a triumphant smile on his face.

The rest of the tournament flew by quickly, with Danny, Richard and Janine running from room to room to make sure they could watch every single battle of the team. Squirtle managed to reach the Quarter Finals, but lost against Mankey, who, after a tough fight, managed to swirl Squirtle out of the ring. Mankey even made it to the Finals, where, to everyone's surprise, Krabby was the opponent. But first, the two semi-finales of the 'Big League' had to be fought out: Charmeleon against Machoke and Weepinbell against Machamp. These were, just as both finals, in the main battle room of the dojo.

Charmeleon was pretty relaxed, he knew he would probably not last against Machoke in a wrestling match, he just wanted to go out with a bang.

"No stress on who's going to win, right?" Richard asked Danny, knowing the latter could be a bit competitive.

"No of course not, one of ours will hit the finals, that's really good" he responded. "Would be really awesome if Weepinbell would be the other one."

Richard leaned in to whisper his reaction into Danny's ear so Weepinbell wouldn't hear.

"Not that I don't have faith in Weepinbell, but I'm afraid Machamp will advance through. It has the most experience after all."

"You might be surprised by Weepinbell." Danny reacted while laughing.

Machoke and Charmeleon went into the ring and from both signs it was going to be a friendly match, even Machoke had quickly learned that that his opponent was a friend so he couldn't go all out, which he had been doing since the first round. With easy wins over two Machoke's, a Primeape and a Golduck he had quickly shown himself to be a title candidate. Charmeleon had struggled more, so the Machamp was watching at Machoke as his biggest rival.

The match went on for a good 10 minutes and Machoke had more trouble with Charmeleon than with any of the other opponents, which may or may not be because he was trying his hardest to keep it friendly, but eventually he managed to push Charmeleon out of the ring.

"And the first finalist of this league is known as well! Newcomer Machoke ravaged his way through the bracket and will enter the finals. Charmeleon, you did extremely well this tournament, a round of applause please!" Kiyo was excited with the newcomers, who had all done quite well.

Danny cheered the loudest, but his Pokémon came close second.

Translated from Pokémon language

"Get here you!" Kadabra fist bumped his close friend and they hugged. "That was one hell of a fight."

Weepinbell agreed. "I guess we will have to see which one of us is stronger later, but first I will defeat this Machoke."

Machoke had joined the group and listened and started to smile. "You are quite funny."

Those words came as a surprise, as the fighting type hadn't talked at all since joining them, so Weepinbell had no answer ready.

"Well, I suppose you do have to beat that Machamp first." Kadabra added.

"Piece of cake, that thing is dead already." The Grass type laughed as he went into the ring.

"You look worried, what's up?" Pidgey asked Charmeleon.

"That Machamp is a brute, what if Weepinbell gets injured?"

"Weepinbell has been in worse odds and come out on top, no need to worry." Pidgey said with a cheerful tone.

"Worrying is my job." Charmeleon sighed.

Back to human language

"I hope you are not too over-excited yet, cause the other semifinal will start now!" Kiyo really wanted to see Weepinbell compete against the massive Machamp, so he gestured both to hurry up. Machamp didn't even feel the need to fight Weepinbell though.

Kiyo noticed the lack of interest and responded directly. "If you don't enter the ring within 5 seconds you are disqualified."

Machamp gave Kiyo a mean look but did obey.

"Good. Let's start!"

Weepinbell had planned to surprise the fighting type by being all out offensive, which it had been the entire tournament. It worked though, as Machamp had never really paid any attention to the matches of the Grass type.

The first attack almost drove Machamp near the edge, but the champion could maneuver it's way around Weepinbell, who directly charged again.

Surprised by this attacking force the fighting type had to other option than to be cornered, quite a bad position to be in. It quickly realized this opponent was far better than any of the ones it had ever had before. Than again, Machamp never really tried before.

Out of nowhere, it grabbed Weepinbell and threw him out of the ring, all in the blink of an eye. Weepinbell never saw the hand coming.

Kiyo was shocked too. "Well, that escalated quickly. Machamp looked to be on the losing side, but came back and conquered. Good luck in the finals! Everyone, a big applause for Weepinbell though, the first real challenger of Machamp."

Danny and the others cheered, but Weepinbell was quite pissed off and went outside, followed by Danny.

"You did really good" he tried, but Weepinbell didn't want to react.

"You cornered the reigning champion and almost defeated it. That's an achievement. And besides, Machamp hasn't been on the losing hand all tournament.."

"… Try all tournaments." Kiyo finished Danny's sentence as he closed the door behind him. "But that's not all, Machamp never even tried. It did the first tournament to show off, but after that it just waited for the opponent to attack and could make it easy for itself, this battle was the first time I saw a glimpse of the Machamp that won the first tournament, quick, focused, deadly."

"But Weepinbell also attacked straight on, why didn't it act then?" Danny asked confused.

"Because usually only the Fighting types do that. Pokémon from other types are generally less aggressive, so Machamp needs to out-bulk those. Your Weepinbell is quite an extraordinary specimen, so Machamp was caught completely off-guard. But the best part was that your Weepinbell didn't lose control, it had Machamp and if Machamp hadn't moved as it did, it would have lost."

Those words cheered Weepinbell up quite a bit. It nodded towards Kiyo in thanks and went back into the dojo.

"So the real Machamp is more powerful than we've seen him so far?" Danny asked concerned.

Kiyo nodded. "I don't think anyone will ever be able to beat it, although I must say your friends Machoke is quite the challenger, maybe my halls will finally have a new photo."

Behind them, Mankey overheard what they where saying and made its way towards the hall of the little cup and looked at all the pictures. A lot of Mankey's and Machops. It realized it didn't agree with Kiyo one bit, this hall didn't need a new species, it needed another Mankey. With its newly found confidence, it walked towards the ring, ready to win.

Translated from Pokémon language

"Ready to win?" Sandshrew asked Krabby. As the last team member still in the race of the little cup, they all cheered for the little crab Pokémon.

"I don't know, that Mankey is pretty strong." Krabby answered.

"Don't be so insecure." Weepinbell interfered. "Everyone thought that Machamp would beat me."

"It did beat you." Eevee responded quickly, which earned her a mean look of Weepinbell.

"Everyone thought that Machamp would beat me." The Grass type tried again but louder. "But no-one expected it would be this difficult. If I can hold back the champion and even almost beat it, you can beat a Mankey."

Krabby seemed to get more confidence due to this. "Thanks!"

"I know I'm not always nice to you, but one of our team has to lift a trophy. Preferably two." Weepinbell pointed towards Machoke.

"Where did this sudden team spirit came from?" Kadabra wondered, which made the Grass type smile.

"I don't know" Weepinbell admitted.

Back to human language

Meanwhile, Machamp was a bit worried for the finale, something it had never felt before. Weepinbell had surprised and almost defeated it, so that Machoke might be even more difficult. At that point, the all-time champion decided games weren't going to win it the tournament, but going all-out would.

Kiyo and Danny also entered the room, the Karate King took the microphone and started speaking. Well, yelling.

"Are you all ready for the final!?"

A big cheer game from all watching.

"Let's get this on the road than! Krabby, Mankey. If you would like to enter the stage."

The two Pokémon obeyed and walked into the ring.

"You can do this Krabby." Danny cheered. He really wanted Krabby to win, but at the same time he felt bad for Mankey. The latter didn't seem to mind it though. Danny had helped it, but Mankey didn't expect Danny to cheer against one of his own.

"Let the game begin!"

Krabby slowly walked around on the battlefield, waiting for Mankey to attack. The latter wasn't that crazy though, a direct attack from the opponent was the way Krabby won its semi-finals. Instead, Mankey started to follow the crab's movements and copy them, so both were walking around without doing anything. For Krabby, who never attacked first, it was a nerve-racking opening.

Eventually, even Mankey couldn't resist and charged, right at the moment that Krabby seemed distracted. The latter wasn't distracted at all though and could easily jump away. It put Mankey in a difficult position. The water type was now behind it and the edges of the plateau quite close. It quickly turned around and managed to dodge one of Krabby's Claws, ready to grip the opponent.

The two were back to where they started: circling around each other. Mankey wouldn't fall for the temptation to attack again, at least that's what it told itself. Fact was, Krabby had no intention to attack at all, so the battle would drag on quite long.

"Will one of you attack already?" Kiyo sighed. Mankey looked up for a second, but Krabby didn't. Instead, it finally charged. Mankey responded too late and fell down. Krabby's claw closed around the Fighting type's arm and the latter felt it was being lifted up. All the struggling didn't stop it from being thrown out of the ring.

Danny's mouth had fallen open and all his Pokémon went mad with excitement.

"With a surprise turn of events, Krabby managed to beat Mankey and take the Little Cup!" Kiyo screamed through the microphone. "Put your hands together for both of these formidable fighters!"

Danny jumped into the ring to lift Krabby up, followed by his team.

Krabby felt more confident than he had ever felt. He won!

Kiyo took the cup and officially gave it to the little crab Pokémon, after which a picture was taken.

"This will look quite good on my walls, how the unlikeliest Pokémon took the cup" Kiyo said with a wide smile.

Mankey looked disappointed, but remembered Danny's advice. After all, it had never reached the finals before. Next time, he would win them. Although, after trying so many times, it had gotten a bit sick of losing. Maybe a different type of training was necessary to win…..

Kiyo didn't want to waist anymore time, so Machoke and Machamp were directly summoned to the battlefield.

"Let's see if we can get another surprise" Kiyo wondered through the microphone. "Contenders ready?"

Machamp was more than ready. That trophy would once again be his. Machoke on the other hand had learned a lot during this tournament and had no fear for the title defender.

"Begin!"

Machamp moved extremely fast, faster than it had shown before. Machoke could keep up though. The reigning champion tried to find a way to reach Machoke, without the opponent being able to react in time, but the newcomer had everything under control, something that bothered Machamp.

It made feints left and right to unbalance Machoke, which seemed to be working a bit, but other than making Machoke back down they had no effect, but Machamp knew that if Machoke would be too close to the edge, it would be easier to unbalance him, so it kept the feints up.

It didn't predict a counter though, something Machoke was planning. You see, right after Machamp made a fake attempt to grab Machoke, there was a brief moment of weakness, which could be exploited.

Another diversion, Machamp used its left arms to seemingly grab Machoke but pull back last second, but making it seem good enough that Machoke did do a step back. When he pulled back Machoke jumped forward and threw himself into Machamp, causing both Fighting types to fall to the ground. Machamp directly tried to grab Machoke, but the latter rolled aside and got up quickly, but not quick enough.

Machamp grabbed the newcomer will all four arms and lifted Machoke into the air, ready to throw him away, but Machoke leaned backwards, causing Machamp to become unbalanced and fall. Machoke managed to free itself and jumped to the edge. Machamp, on the other hand, hadn't had a real challenge in a while, but did get up quick enough to corner Machoke.

Richard looked up in fear, cornering usually mend the end of the game, but Machoke seemed confident. Machamp was ready to push Machoke out of the ring, but as it leaned forward, Machoke crouched and pushed Machamp, that had put some power behind the push and fell slightly forward, up and away. The champion tumbled over Machoke out of the ring.

Kiyo dropped his microphone in shock and did a clumsy attempt to grab it. The crowd went wild. A new champion had emerged.

"It seems like we have a new champion!" Kiyo couldn't hide his excitement. Now it was Richard's turn to jump into the ring.

"That was amazing!" He said as he hugged Machoke.

Machamp stood up and walked back into the ring, looking furious at Machoke and ready to fight for real. It lifted it's fists and would have hit both Machoke and Richard, but a blast of water hit Machamp in its face, making it step back. Squirtle jumped into the ring, followed by Kadabra, that made himself levitate.

Machamp saw no change to beat the Psychic type ánd Machoke so he stormed off, hitting the wall with a gigantic punch while storming out.

"I don't think you'll see Machamp ever again." Richard laughed.

Kiyo nodded and took the trophy from the closet and gave it to Machoke. He proudly took his camera to make a photo, when a rumble was heard throughout the dojo and dust came falling from the ceiling. Janine was the first to notice it.

"The roof's coming down!" She screamed.

In panic, all Pokémon stormed out, as the punch of Machamp had damaged the main building severely, causing it to collapse.

"Run!" Danny shouted, as his team also made their way outside. "Kadabra, try to hold the roof steady for as long as possible!"

Kadabra used Psychic and the first piece of ruble that was about to fall down was stopped in its tracks.

In the chaos, Mankey was walked into by a Machoke and fell. With all the Pokémon practically running over it the Fighting type couldn't get up. But nobody noticed as everyone was trying to get outside as fast as possible.

Kadabra felt it was losing control, as small parts of wood and stone started falling down. Not big enough to injure anyone, but a indication of what was to come in a matter of seconds.

"Time to go!" Danny ordered, as everyone was outside, Kadabra teleported itself out directly and the roof, without anything holding it back, came falling down with all force.

Mankey uttered a scream of help, which made Danny turn around and look in horror as the Mankey was about to be buried. He ran back and jumped over the Pokémon, protecting it.

"Danny!" Richard screamed, Charmeleon ran back inside but was stopped by falling rocks.

They all feared the worst. Seconds felt like minutes and no sound was heard. Richard almost started digging when Kadabra popped up in front of them, with Danny and Mankey. He had teleported as soon as he realized Danny was going back in and teleported back just in time before anyone could get hurt.

"Thanks Kadabra." Danny said. Richard, Janine and their Pokémon ran in to make sure their friends where save.

Kiyo, on the other hand, fell on his knees before the main battle room. The halls had survived and so had the smaller halls, but the biggest room was gone.

"At least the photo's are save…" he said weakly.

"I'm really sorry Kiyo" Danny said, laying his hand on the Karate King's shoulder.

Kiyo stood up and looked around.

"Everyone. I am so sorry this happened. I don't have the money to repair the building and with all the ruble it is not save to go in, so this was the last installment of the tournament." His voice broke and he started crying.

The Pokémon didn't agree though. A Machoke stepped forward and started pulling away the ruble, a Primeape followed and soon most wild Pokémon were busy getting rid of the mess.

Kiyo couldn't believe his eyes.

"Maybe not" Richard said with a warm smile.

"Well, I think this might be working" Kiyo responded, drying up his tears.

Danny looked at the horizon and realized there might still be some good hours left for travelling. Kiyo saw him looking. "I assume you want to hit the road again?"

Danny wanted to object and say that they will help clean up, but Kiyo smiled. "I was once like you, travelling around. You should. We've got this covered. Besides, it seems like I can barely help, let alone you guys."

Danny started to laugh. "Well than we will be on our way."

"Richard, I'm very sorry that your trophy is buried underneath this mess. I'll contact you when I get a replacement. I still need that picture."

They all laughed.

Danny did want to say goodbye to Mankey.

"I assume you will have to put your champion dreams on hold for a while now."

Mankey turned around and jumped into Danny's arms and started hugging.

"I'll miss you too" the trainer said.

"You know, rebuilding will take a while, maybe you can train Mankey, so it can win next time." Kiyo suggested.

"Are you sure?" Danny asked.

"It's not my decision, you need to ask Mankey."

"Would you like that? To join my team?" Danny asked. "You will be send to the professor first, but I will pick you up as soon as I can."

Mankey nodded heavily.

Danny started smiling and took a Pokéball out of his bag. "I'll see you soon than." He ticked the Pokéball onto Mankey, which absorbed the Pokémon with a bright red light. It clicked directly and disappeared.

"You'll have to come back when I'm done restoring" Kiyo said. He wrote his phone number on a piece of paper. "Call me as soon as you have a cellphone."

Danny nodded as he took the piece of paper and they waved goodbye.

"Don't tell me he has quite handwriting too." Janine joked, but Danny didn't react. He had switched papers and was now looking at Maisie's number again.

Janine sighed and was joined by Charmeleon, but Richard started to smile. What an adventure, now on to the next.