Pokémon - The Journey Begins

Chapter 14: Tournament Battle



Another long night passes by, as the sun rises for the next day. For this day was unlike every other day; this was the day of the big tournament being held in Dellesse Village. Though the sun had risen, the sky was filled with many clouds, as the temperature was not particularly warm, yet not very cold either. Matt was worried, for he feared that it could rain, which would delay the tournament further.

Outside the tent were Lizzie and Jordan, as Matt had just joined him with Squirtle right beside him. Matt did a head count for the Pokémon trainers he could see. "Wow, there are twenty-four competitors here!"

Lizzie shook her head. "No, Matt. Some people may just be tagging along, twenty-four is far too much for this tournament, although it would make it a little bit more interesting."

Jordan nodded. "That's true. This should really be fun. We all trained hard, so let's all battle hard. And of course as Lizzie said earlier, hopefully one of us can get that prize!"

"Second prize isn't that bad either!" Matt said, pointing to a large poster hanging from the shelter; others were hanging outside of the other buildings as well. "You can win five free Greatballs. That's still pretty cool!"

"Oy, third prize is just a gift certificate at a Pokémon store," Lizzie said. "Sheesh, I seem to think that for once, first prize is worth it."

"Okay!" a voice called out. Matt looked over to see what it was; there was a man speaking into a microphone on top of a podium. Other trainers gathered, while Matt, Lizzie and Jordan all dashed so they could see who was speaking. "The matches are all planned out. For those who lose in the first round, they will have a chance to redeem themselves in the Revitalization Round, or the 'Loser' Round, but we don't like to say that." The announcer took out certain a large sheet and placed it on top of the podium.

"The first round matches will be: Andy verses Tyler, Jennifer verses Ken, Matt verses Eric, Dylan verses Bob, Rachel verses Jordan, Corey verses Lina, Stephanie verses Kaitlan and Lizzie verses Phil. Those are the matches, now here is Cody with the regulations."

Cody from backstage took the microphone. "All right, I am here to perform certain rules that must all be followed if you are to succeed in this tournament. Number One: You may only choose four Pokémon to battle per match. During the entire tournament, you are only allowed to replace two fainted Pokémon, but this can only be done after a match. If you happen to lose four times in one match, you cannot use replacements; therefore the match is over. Those who lose in the first round may only use their two Pokémon to redeem themselves in the Revitalization Round. Those who pass are then allowed to the small shelter to have all of their Pokémon brought back to consciousness, since the machine which other Pokémon Centers use was recently installed this morning. Also, poor sportsmanship during a match will be decided to the opponent. Are there any questions?" Cody looked around. He saw a hand. "Yes, sir?"

"So does that mean only those who lose in the first round will be able to fight in the Revitilization Match?" a boy asked.

"Yes. I know it sounds strange and rather unfair, but really there isn't much to the Revitilization Match. Those involved will only battle for fourth place. It wins nothing, but it goes onto your Pokédex as how you placed, which can look good. Other than that, if you are defeated in second round of play and further, you will not be permitted to battle again." After seeing no questions, he then wished everybody luck and stepped down from the podium. The small crowd in front of it cleared out, as everyone went to their specified fields for their matches.

"Well, good luck to both of you," Matt said. "We trained really hard, now let's get as far as possible."

"Oh yes..." Cody shouted, jumping back on top of the podium, as the parting crowd was forced to return. "I would like to welcome Jordan of the Elite Four! Some of you may know him, but Jordan, please come see me right now."

"Oh crap..." Jordan said.

"That's not cool, you may not be allowed to fight!" Matt said.

"It's all right, you two go to your fields and win for me, okay?" Jordan dashed towards Cody, as he was led into a nearby house. The crowd once again cleared.

"Good luck!" Matt said.

"You, too! You'd better win!" Lizzie replied, waving as she ran to find out in which field she would be battling. Matt then checked to see where he would be fighting and walked towards his portion of the field. All in all, Matt noticed that the fields were rather scrambled, and somewhat disorganized. He felt that he could very easily get lost if he wasn't careful.

When Matt arrived, much to his surprise and disgust mixed bizarrly enough with delight and determination, the kid with whom he argued with two nights before was there, standing with his arms crossed. Matt groaned.

"Oh great, don't tell me I'm facing YOU."

The kid turned around and shot an angry look at Matt. "My name is Eric, you jerk!"

"Your name isn't important to me; just don't go crying to your mother if you lose," Matt replied, knowing the kid wouldn't like that response.

"Don't go killing people when YOU lose!" Eric stuck his tongue out.

"Me? Kill people? That seems more like the thing YOU would do. What a stupid thing to say; you're such an idiot."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Eric exclaimed.

Matt started to laugh; he found this sadistically amusing. "Sheesh, you have a short temper, you do."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Eric yelled.

"Eric, that is very rude!" a femal voice shouted, as Matt looked towards her. She had long, brown hair, and she was wearing a short, white skirt, and a cyan blouse along with gold studded earings. She approached the two and looked at Eric. "Go over there until the match begins!" Eric hesitantly and grumpily walked away. She then turned her attention to Matt. "I'm really sorry; you see my mom made me go with him on his journey, and he's been a total brat since than. I saw what he did to you the other night, and no matter how many times I talk to him and scold him, he just doesn't stop. I don't know what I'm going to do with him."

"That's all right, you shouldn't be in charge to take care of him," Matt said.

"Do me a favour and beat him, will you? He hasn't lost since he started training, and he really needs a lesson that winning isn't everything," she replied.

"That's no problem," Matt said.

Approaching the opposite side of the field was a referee dressed in black shorts, a white hat, and a vertically striped black and white T-shirt. "All right, boys, take the side of the field. You will choose one Pokémon at random to start; you both throw them at the same time, got it? Please select four of your six Pokémon that you plan to use."

Matt walked to his end of the field and selected three Pokéballs, while Eric dashed to his side of the field and did the same. "All right, Zenigame. I'll let you go second unless my first Pokémon gets knocked out," he whispered in Squirtle's ear, "so be ready." Matt shuffled the minimized Pokéballs in his hand and selected one and enlarged it.

"On three. One, two, three, THROW!" the official waved his flag. Eric threw an enlarged Pokéball the same time as Matt did on the vast, grassy battlefield. A Poliwhirl appeared out of Eric's Pokéball, and Pikachu came out of Matt's.

Eric gasped and began shouting to the referee: "He knew which Pokémon I was going to use! He's cheating!"

"Don't be a whiner you little brat! I just got here!" Matt yelled.

"CHEATER, CHEATER, CHEATER!" Eric complained.

"Eric, be quiet and fight!" His sister yelled. "Life can't always be what you want; so just shut up and fight!"

"Poliwhirl, Water Gun!" Eric yelled.

"Pikachu, Agility!"

The larger, evolved form of Poliwag suddenly released a large wave of water towards Matt's Pikachu, but his quick response allowed Pikachu to very quickly avoid the attack with ease.

"STOP CHEATING! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE BETTER TRAINER!" Eric was now in tears.

"Young man!" the referee began, "stop your complaining or the match will be decided to your opponent!"

"THAT'S CHEATING!" Eric yelled. "YOU'RE JUST SAYING THAT BECAUSE YOU WANT HIM TO WIN!"

"Sound the bell!" the referee shouted, waving his flag. The judges, sitting in chairs next to the battlefield rang a loud bell. Other trainers from other fields staring at the sidelines watched in awe; for a match had already been completed. "Matt is the winner."

"WHAT?! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Eric started to sob louder and dropped to his kneed, pounding the ground. "CHEATER, CHEATER, CHEATER!"

"That's it!" His older sister came and grabbed his younger brother violently in the arm, trying to force him to stand up. "I've just about had enough of your attitude! You deserved to lose; you'll never be a Pokémon Master that way!"

"LET GO, LET GO, THE REF IS A CHEATER, A CHEATER!"

Suddenly, Cody came over to the referee. "I heard screaming, what's going on?"

Matt called Pikachu back in his Pokéball and walked over to Cody. "Well, first of all, the kid complained that I knew which Pokémon he was going to use, and--"

"Did you?" Cody interrupted.

"No! But anyway, his Poliwhirl does one attack, I have my Pikachu evade it, then he starts to complain. The official warned him to stop complaining or else the match would be over. The kid protested against it, and continued to argue, so I won."

"Is this true?" Cody asked the official.

The official nodded. "I warned him, but he wouldn't listen. So I decided to call the match to this gentleman here."

Cody nodded. "Very well, you now advance to the second round. And you, Eric--"

"Stand up, Eric, Cody's trying to speak to you!" His sister called out, continuing to get him to stand up. He eventually stood up and wiped the tears away from his eyes.

"Now look," Cody began, "I explained the rules, and poor sportsmanship was one of them. You didn't go by the rule, so you got disqualified from the match. You are permitted to go to the Revitilization match, but just one complaint out of you, and you will be removed from the tournament, am I making myself clear?"

Eric turned his head, his eyes never meeting Cody.

"Eric! Answer him, now!" His sister ordered.

"You're always bossing me around; you're always telling me what to do! I'm getting very sick of your bossiness, I HATE YOU!" Eric then ran away, starting to cry again.

His sister let out an aggrivated sigh. "I'm so sorry," she began, "if I never came along with him at all, he would be much worse; he's really got a temper that's hard to control...."

"Speak to him then," Cody said. "If he wants to continue, he is permitted to, otherwise, he will be removed from the tournament. And Matt, you're free to go until the next matches are decided."

"All right," Matt said, "I'll go watch Lizzie or Jordan fight next." He checked a nearby poster to find out where Lizzie's next match was, and watched as they were just about to throw their Pokéballs onto the field to commence the battle.

Suddenly, there was an announcement over the podium. "Hi everyone, this is Cody. The tournament will be delayed for twenty-five minutes due to a possible disqualification. You may rest during this period. There was much disappointment in the voice of the trainers everywhere, who were already in an intense battle situation.

Lizzie shook her head, while Phil at the other end of the field shrugged. She then looked over and noticed Matt. "Hey there! How did you do? With the look on your face, you must have won. My you're fast!"

"I won by decision. This little brat that I was facing really was a little brat; he hasn't lost many matches I can tell you that," Matt grinned. "Well, with this delay, we should try and find the gym here; I want to get another Crystal Badge."

"Can we wait until AFTER the tournament?" Lizzie asked. "First of all we have to find the gym, and then wait in order to battle. I can't leave! You can though; you have at least an hour until the next matches begin."

"Fine, I'm finished for now, so I'll go find it. Good luck!" Matt walked off with Squirtle. He set a timer on his watch, knowing that he had to return in fourty-five minutes if he couldn't find the gym. While walking around in the vast forested area around the gym, Matt noticed a building surrounded by trees. To his surprise, it was exactly like the other gym near Route 6.

Matt checked his watch; he had plenty of time left, and he watched carefully where he was walking so he wouldn't lose his way returning to Dellesse. While examining the interiour of the gym, there was nobody inside. A few windows lit the room, barely. It was plain and dull; no carpets, no paintings, just a wall covered in wood, with wooden-manufactured tiles on the floor. Nobody was around.

"Hello...?" Matt called out, continuing to look around, but found a door which lead to a long, even darker hall. At the end was a strange-looking picture.

"What the...what kind of picture is this?" Matt examined the photo carefully. It was a photo of at least one hundred Pikachu, all of them with different emotions on their faces. "Something's bothering me about this." He looked around again to make sure that nobody was there, he then took the picture off the wall and found what looked to be a lightswitch. He made a face.

"It makes me wonder if this photo was put here on purpose." He pressed the switch as suddenly, the building began to shake. "What is this?!" Matt quickly put the picture back and ran towards the entrance to the long hall. He stopped suddenly, noticing that the doorway was now impassible as what seemed to be a rising dirt wall filling the space.

"What the...?! Are we going underground?!" Matt shouted.

A few moments later, there was a loud crash, as Matt and Squirtle tumbled onto the floor. When Matt looked at the doorway, he noticed that he could now pass through it.

"Let's go," Matt said, passing through the doorway. He saw a long hall with many torches on a brick wall. In a few minutes, Matt reached another door. He constantly looked at his watch, for he didn't want to be late for his next match. After a while, Matt calmed himself and opened the door. He saw what he thought was the gym leader, who was reading a book, sitting in a throne at one end of a wooden battlefield. Matt couldn't quite get a good look at the face, but he was wearing a red robe, with formal, shined shoes.

The leader put his book down and looked at Matt. He was pale faced with glasses and a beard. "Well, there's something you don't see everyday: a Pokémon trainer stumbling upon this hidden gym. I assume you'll want to know the rules?" he asked.

"Yes, please hurry; I'm going to compete in a tournament soon," Matt said.

"No problem. We shall use three Pokémon. It will be a best-of-five, meaning that the first two reach three Pokémon victories is the victor. If you win, you shall receive the Red Crystal Badge."

"Let's get started then..." Matt decided that the Pokémon currently with him will have to do, since the other Pokémon were waiting for him at the shelter in Dellesse.

"Seadra, go!" The leader threw a Pokéball as a large, sea-horse like Pokémon appeared. It had large, blue thick scales, and very angry, determined eyes.

Matt suddenly knew the best choice for this, since it was a water Pokémon on the field. "Pikachu, you're up!" He threw an enlarged Pokéball on the field, as Pikachu appeared.

"Ha! Predictable at best. Seadra, Bubble!" the leader commanded.

"Agility!" Matt quickly yelled.

Like the battle with Eric, Matt quickly called out for a speed attack as soon as an offensive attack was ordered. After Seadra unleashed several sharp bubbles towards Pikachu, it quickly shifted to the side, and slid itself right behind Seadra.

"Thunderbolt," Matt said calmly. Pikachu quickly shocked the Seadra, knocking it out cold. Since Seadra is a water-type, electric attacks become more effective against it. Matt had the advantage now.

"Return," Seadra was absorbed back inside as the leader chose another Pokéball. "Geodude, go!" As the Pokéball opened, the same Pokémon that Brock used appeared on the field, though this one looked a little different, according to Matt.

"Crud," Matt muttered under his breath, knowing that the leader now had a type-advantage on his side. He still knew that he must weaken it as much as he could, so Squirtle could finish it off.

"Geodude, Rock Throw," the leader commanded.

Dashing quickly outside the battlefield, Geodude launched several rocks towards Pikachu with quickness. Pikachu watched every rock coming towards it and jumped aside, dodging most of them. It was grazed by the last one, but it slowly got back up to its feet.

"This may not work to well, but, Quick Attack!" Matt yelled.

Quickly acknowledging the command, Pikachu very quickly stepped off of its feet and struck Geodude roughly. However, since Geodude's body is literally rock-hard, the physical attack did little damage.

"Tackle!" the leader yelled.

Geodude clasped Pikachu tightly within its large, rocky hands and crushed it hard into the gym floor. Matt decided to call Pikachu back, for he needed Pikachu for the tournament. They were tied with one victory a piece.

"Go, Zenigame!" Matt said, Squirtle jumps into the battle field.

"I knew this might happen, so it's pretty obvious of the outcome." The leader called back Geodude, now giving Matt a two to one advantage, to his surprise. He then threw out another Pokéball, as a skinny Pokémon with roots as its legs, leaves as its arms, a strange looking flower and flopping eyes appeared.

"A Bellsprout, eh? Zenigame, Bite!" Matt said quickly.

Squirtle wasted no time; he dashed towards his opponent, sinking his deeth deeply into Bellsprout's head, injuring it greatly. Bellsprout then fell on its knees, almost as if it was begging for mercy. The leader had called it back inside its Pokéball.

Matt was slightly disappointed with the outcome, although he had won. "This was a bit easy," he muttered. "But a win's a win I guess. I have five badges now; all I need are three more."

"Wow," the leader said, somewhat dumbfounded. "This is honestly the first time I have ever been beaten as long as I've been the gym leader here. Your Pokémon's strength seemed to surpass mine today."

That's right! Matt thought. I had trained my Pokémon really hard for this match, so they must have gotten much stonger and had complete advantage over the gym leader here!

"Take the badge; you did very well. The Red Crystal Badge belongs to you." Matt received a badge which had a design that was very similar to Blue Crystal Badge, except it was red, hence its name..

"Let's go, we have to finish the tournament!" Matt then quickly ran out of the gym with Squirtle in his hands and into the building. He pressed the secret switch again as the building rose to ground level in the forest. As Matt exited the building, other trainers noticed the building and entered it. Matt wished good luck to them.

"I was wrong to say how easy it was, I was just advanced." He looked at his watch. "We still have some time left; come on Zenigame, let's go watch the other battles!"

"Squirtle!" Squirtle replied.

Matt found Cody and asked for an update of the situation. The tournament had just recently begun once again after the twenty-five minute delay. Matt and Squirtle ran over to Lizzie's corner, for she was about to do battle. It lasted about ten minutes, for Lizzie won with using just her Vulpix. Matt was rather excited as Jordan came to them and told both Matt and Lizzie that he won as well, using his recently evolved Poliwhirl and Sandshrew.

"Wow! All three of us advanced! But we may have to face each other!" Lizzie said. "Oh, and weren't you going to find the gym here?"

Matt took out the Red Crystal Badge. "It wasn't a trainer gym after all; I didn't have much of a difficult time finding it. I'll show it to you later, if I remember to."

"Well, we have at least a twenty minute break, why don't we get some lunch?" Jordan asked.

"Good idea, I'm getting rather hungry," Matt replied, clenching his growling stomach.

Matt, LIzzie, Jordan and Squirtle returned to the restaurant where they had been eating the past several days. Matt ordered a large cheesburger, Lizzie ordered a club sandwich, but Jordan only ordered a milkshake.

"So, how hard is the gym leader?" Jordan asked, sipping his drink.

"I've been training really hard for the past little while, so I found it rather easy. The only sequence I lost was because I had to call Pikachu back. I didn't want to risk him being knocked out; I need PIkachu." He then checked his watch. "Yikes, it's almost time to find out who's fighting who next!"

After paying the bill, Matt found a hiding spot, quickly took out a potion, and began to rub it on Pikachu's body when nobody was looking. If anyone asks, he could just explain his business. After applying two potions, he quickly popped Pikachu back inside his Pokéball.

Back at the podium near the shelter, Cody was back on the microphone. "Congratulations for those who passed the first round! Here are your matches: Matt verses Andy, Jennifer verses Lizzie, Stephanie verses Lina and Jordan verses Dylan."

"This isn't good," Matt started, "if all of us lose, it's over for us!"

"I saw some of these guys fight. I don't want to sound like I'm underestimating them, but they really don't have very good Pokémon to begin with. We just have to use at least one of our best Pokémon," Jordan said.

"Right, it doesn't seem critical yet," Lizzie said. "There's no need to get nervous, but there's also no need to completely relax, either."

"Okay then, I'll see you all later, and good luck!" Matt said, heading towards his field as the others did as well.



TO BE CONTINUED.