Disclaimer: I don't own pokémon or the people in my story, well I could own Steve. Silly kid. Anyway, on with my story.
The two kids walked into the pokémon center and decided to let their pokémon get healed as they ate and slept. After breakfast they gathered their pokémon, backpacks and newly found map and left the center to look around town. Halfway through the day they both sat down and looked disgusted.
"Zack hasn't left us a single clue. This is the first time he's left us stranded. What an odd man. He wants to fight me yet doesn't stop to take the time to fight me, and only gives me a chance when he knows I can't succeed. Finding him is taking a long time and is quite tiring. We need a damn clue."
"Zack always gives us clues. Maybe this time he'll come to meet us and fight you. If he's beaten me already then you need to fight him. As boring as this is we have to wait. Not to mention we have yet to be challenged in the middle of a town so staying here might let us take a break from fighting on the road. Good enough reasons for you to be quite, stop groaning and loosen up?"
"Fine, though I think he should've given us a clue by now. This place is boring. Towns without things happening in them are just boring and a battle would be nice to spice things up in this place. It's a nice town but it lacks activity. Let's go look in some of the shops."
They went into shops and looked at items until a hitmonchan walked up to them and handed them a flyer. It was for a tournament being held in the village in a week with a $20,000 prize for first place. The two looked at the flyer and went to sign up. They made sure to be in different categories, so they wouldn't have to fight right away.
"If we have to fight, then at least make them work for it. It needs to be like the finals or the semi-finals. That way if we fight it'll be a drawn out fight that will be worth the wait."
Mario smiled, "agreed, though I won't have the heart to beat you."
"Glad to see you'll take it seriously. We'll see what happens in a few days."
The two stayed over night in the pokémon center and were up early training against people outside the village. By the time that day was over, both were panting from the heat and excitement of winning ever match. They let their pokémon rest again and went to sleep while thinking about fighting one another in the tournament. Steve thinking this opportunity perfect to see Mario's fighting ability and other pokémon and Mario as a chance to prove his abilities in real battles.
As the week past, both trained hard to get ready for the tourney and to be at their top awareness. Finally the day arrived when the tournament was to be held and both were up and ready long before the tournament was scheduled to begin. As the both ate breakfast they also thought about the pokémon that were ready for the battles. As they both arrived at the arena a wave of people looked at the different people and cheered on their personal favorite, while Mario and Steve were unknown and not cheered. A few told their friends about the kids and placed bets on them, but they were just trying to show that they had intuition, not really that they cared about the kids. They didn't wait long and had to go to different parts of the arena for their own matches.
"There are four brackets. I'm in the first one and you're in the fourth. The only time we'll meet is right at the end in the final's, unless one of is beaten."
Mario smiled, "Don't lose until you fight me."
Steve laughed, "Fine, but you stay in it till the end. No excuses, unless you want to be left in this town while I go on alone."
"Sure. It's settled then. We can't lose until we meet in the finals. Then you're permitted to lose."
As the fights began the lowest fighters showed too many weaknesses early on and were beaten with ease. After fighting his way past the first of twelve rounds, Steve went to watch Mario's match. Unfortunately the match ended just when Steve got over there.
(So much for seeing more of his pokémon before we fight. I guess I'll just have to go on what I know. He's right, though. I'm a bit fearful since I don't know what I'll face. Then again, he only knows three or four of my pokémon so the same fear must be in him.)
The next three rounds were over in the blink of an eye, all seeming more a waste of time then an actual fight and left Mario and Steve with a feeling of cockiness about such easy victories. As the worst trainers were being weeded out the better one's started showing less weaknesses and also a lot better pokémon. Steve and Mario started having to use more then one pokémon to compensate for experience and type weakness. They still won all the battles, though some drained their pokémon and took hours to finish. At the end of the first day they had gotten through six of the twelve rounds before the semis and the finals.
"That was fun. I think this tournament will be quite an easy thing to win. Not to mention we could use the money for traveling expenses. All in all this has been a good first day. No one has the same record we have. Winning all our matches without actually losing a pokémon is quite good."
"That was a good time, but I don't like how careless you get. You'll end up losing if you underestimate your opponent's so much. Geez Steve, if you lose early I get to leave you behind. Just remember you have to make it to the end."
"I remember and I will. Showing my carelessness is a way I get ready for my fights. Now we need to get some rest or else we won't be able to compete tomorrow."
With that they both turned over and slept, thinking of the battles they were going to fight the next day.
After waking up they took early showers and greeted each other. The battles that day would actually test their intelligence and ability with their pokémon. If they couldn't pull off a win with their regulars then they would have to rely on pokémon they didn't use and trust as much, the thought wasn't that good.
They greeted each other before leaving for the tournament. Steve entered his next match ready to fight, only to see his opponent give up, due to his lack of sleep. He decided to watch Mario's match while waiting for his next match. He made it to the match in time to see Mario's flareon knocked down by a vaporeon. Mario was looking at his belt trying to think of which pokémon to use against the vaporeon. After careful deliberation he took a pokéball from his back pocket and threw it into the stadium.
Mario seemed to smile as he calmly said "Go Draco!"
Steve looked at what was appearing, trying to make sense of it. ((Draco? I wonder what this one could be. That looks a bit like a dragon but I don't think he would have one.))
The dragonite appeared above the other pokémon and knocked it down with a hyper beam. The other trainer looked at his pokémon with disgust at the fact that it couldn't take such an attack being as it couldn't lift itself off the ground. "Worthless vaporeon. That attack shouldn't faze a champion. I guess you aren't my ticket to fame." He puts the vaporeon back into the pokéball and releases a lapras into the arena. "Lapras, you can beat that flying thing. Just focus on its weaknesses."
The announcer was keeping up with the match, "The lapras shoots a beam at the dragonite, which engulfs the spectacular pokémon in a shell of ice. The dragonite is unable to move in its icy coffin. This seems like the end of the dragonite. What will Mario's next pokémon be?"
Mario calmly laughed at the announcer's comment and makes a motion with his hand. The dragonite responds by breaking out of the ice and creating a blizzard to over power the lapras. As the ice started forming in the sky it rained in sheets down upon the unsuspecting pokémon, who obviously already thought it had won the match. As it turned to see what people were shouting about he was pelted with hail stones the size of a bowling ball. As it fell to the ground the man gasped at the sheer sight of such a powerful pokémon. "I can't beat you. I'll throw in the towel."
Mario returned his dragonite with a smirk and stepped down from the platform to escape the reporters heading his way. As he briskly walked from the area he saw Steve to his right. He headed towards him with an odd look on his face.
"Why aren't you at your match?"
"I already won. Great job Mario."
"Thank you. How much of the match did you see?"
"I came just as your flareon got knocked out."
"Good. Just checking to see how many pokémon you saw in that match. Since you won your match then I guess we're still on for meeting in the finals."
The next five matches were easier then the first six, though Steve and Mario couldn't figure out how such weak opponent's got through to the end. They rested after their twelfth and final match ended and let their pokémon regain their power. They woke up and left for the tournament after eating little food. As they arrived at the arena they placed their pokémon on their belts, ready to fight the next opponent and left each other with smile words to get each other through the semi-finals.
As Steve walked up to the place where he was supposed to fight he looked at his opponent and wondered what type the man looked like he would use.
((He'll probably use a fighting pokémon judging by the build of the man. He looks like he's obsessed with his looks and muscles. I need to think about which pokémon to use.))
As the man looked him over he walked over and shook his hand. He smiled at Steve for a bit, then walked away and got to his position on the opposite side of the arena. "Ready to begin when you are, lad."
Steve got to his position and finally figured out which pokémon he'd try first. "Alakazam, don't fail me. Show this man your own fighting ability."
The man shook with laughter, "Have it your way, kid. Go gengar. Let's see who can win this one."
The gengar glanced at the alakazam and laughed at it. They both used a hypnosis attack, which put them both to sleep. As the man waited for his pokémon to wake up the alakazam started mumbling in his sleep. The gengar's smile contorted in pain as words were muttered by the sleeping alakazam. The gengar opened his eyes and fell to the ground in a heap as alakazam stopped speaking. The crowd gasped at the odd occurrence. The man scuttled in an imitation of Zoidberg at the situation of his pokémon. He returned the gengar and thought about his next phase of attack. He sent out a raticate to fight the sleeping psychic. As he approached the alakazam, he jumped and bit down on the alakazam's head with his hyper fang attack. The alakazam couldn't react in time and fell against the raticate.
"Go hitmonchan, return alakazam."
The battle began again, this time with a fighter against the rat. The rat had the obvious speed advantage but lacked a bit of power, while the hitmonchan had the power but lacked a bit in speed. The two hit each other, dodging in and out of attacks and seemed to be on an equal level of experience. As the two broke away from each other, panting and huffing at the other, they seemed to be preparing an attack. The hitmonchan used a fire punch as the raticate tried its water gun. As they collided, they each came out suffering from the previous attack, the raticate burned and the hitmonchan wet and angry. The hitmonchan used its agility to speed up against the opponent and attack while the raticate used a quick attack to take down the faster opponent. As the battle wore on the pokémon were slowly wearing down, though the raticate faster due to an unhealed burn. Finally the hitmonchan used a comet punch to repeatedly knock the raticate down. The raticate finally stayed down after the long battle.
"Incredible. No one's lasted so long against my raticate, not to mention its never been beaten. I wouldn't stop you from going on in the tournament unless I knew I had a chance, which I don't. I'll concede now, but I'll fight you later. Good bye for now, kid."
Steve finally breathed easy after the drawn out match with the man. ((That was a fun match, but that raticate was way to strong. I'll need to heal to get ready for tomorrow. I wonder how Mario's doing.))
As he thought it a cheer went up on the other field. Mario was once again walking away from cameramen when he saw Steve. "Walk with me and hurry up." As they walked to the pokémon center, Steve stopped occasionally for some people wanting to congratulate him. Mario turned down their compliments and walked on, acting as though he hadn't noticed them.
"Will you be ready for tomorrow, Mario?"
"I'm always ready to beat you in a battle Steve."
"We'll see. After today, I think the battle tomorrow will be fun."
"Fun? Your battle didn't seem like it would end. That's fun for you? Having to watch a match that you know you'll win in the end? You're a bit odd. Don't get too cocky over winning today. I still have some tricks up my sleeve."
They both went to sleep, dreaming of the fight that would take place the next day.
