Ch19 – The Inevitable Conclusion
The Indigo Plateau Finals
Time between Lina's first and second match passed by quickly. Before she knew it, she was back at the official stadium, against someone named Mazenda, who was dressed in a formal red suit to match her hair and eyes. To Lina, she appeared to be in her older teens, but at the same time had a sinisterly, mature quality to her. The referee announced the start of the match when Mazenda's Kadabra came out to meet Lina's Victreebel. Lina immediately sweated at seeing her opponent – Victor (Victreebel) was her weakest of her chosen armada. However, she had to trust it – her reputation depended on it.
Kadabra started off with a Psychic attack; Lina told Victor to block by using a Vine Whip Fan. By spinning its vines rapidly in front of it, Victor was able to deflect the attack. While it blocked, Lina told him to use the Triple Spin Razor Leaf, which ended up being played to perfection…if Kadabra had not teleported. Thankfully, his return was just in time to be met with the Leaf Boomerang in which the leaves used for Razor Leaf were bunched together to look and act like a boomerang. Kadabra received a massive headache that doubled when the boomerang came back for a second round. Taking advantage of Kadabra inability to attack, Lina told Victor to use Poison Bite. As Victor's teeth sunk into Kadabra, poison entered his opponent's body. Before long, Kadabra was too weak to struggle, though he sent off a Confusion attack before fainting. The crowd erupted into cheers; Lina wondered if their voices were hoarse at the end of every day for cheering so loudly, so much.
The next battle was between Victreebel and Slowbro. Victor started things off with another Leaf Boomerang. To the surprise of everyone but Mazenda and Slowbro, Slowbro caught it easily and crushed it. After doing so, Slowbro used Disable. Fighting it off at the last second, Victor came out unscathed but wiped out. Slowbro launched a Mega Punch that sent Victreebel flying, but not before Victor latched onto his opponent with Vine Whip. Reeling in quickly, Victor met Slowbro with a, this time, Sleep Bite which quickly put the pink pokemon to sleep. Finishing it off with a Whip Toss (as in grabbing the opponent with Vine Whip and tossing it into the wall), Victor forced Slowbro to a state deemed as unable to battle.
By the third battle, Mazenda was sweating with aggravation. Absently, Lina wondered why, but she shook it off in order to confidently continue the match. Mazenda's newest pokemon turned out to be a beautiful Ninetales, who lost no time in barbequing Victor to a crisp. Upon blowing out a puff of smoke, Victor fell back and fainted. Lina growled low in her throat as she returned Victor. She brought the pokeball close to her face, and whispered to Victor, "We're going to have to work on that; you're a disgrace, being the first of my pokemon to faint during this tournament." Out loud, she declared, "Pyro, show 'em what you've got!"
When a Scyther popped out of her pokeball, Lina blinked in surprise. She looked down at her pokeball, and exclaimed before hitting her forehead to punish herself for her stupidity. She had not looked at which pokeball she was releasing it from – she didn't even recognize this pokeball. Lina sighed, and decided to try her luck anyway. The next sequence of events was spectacular indeed.
Ninetales attacked Scyther with a Flamethrower; Scyther seemed to turn to ashes after the flame dispersed, which immediately drew everyone's attention. Just then, a Vaporeon leaped forward from the black dust, and attacked Ninetales with an attack that could only be defined as a Water Blast (the equivalent to a Fire Blast down to the character formation the water took). Caught unawares, Ninetales had been hit dead-on, no defense whatsoever. In an instant, Ninetales was down and out. Mazenda and Lina, as well as everyone else, stared at the Vaporeon, not believing their eyes.
With a start, Lina's mind went back to something she remembered being told. "It's in my Scyther's pokeball now." … Lina whirled and turned to the audience, where a smiling Gourry was waving towards her. Lina let out a small laugh that became a little louder before she stopped it. She gave a victory sign to Gourry, before turning back to her opponent. Mazenda was on the ground, trembling with shock. When both Ninetales and Mazenda suddenly turned to dust and scattered in a wind, it silenced the whole stadium.
After a long pause, the announcer declared, "Um…As it seems that Mazenda is no longer present, by default, I announce Lina as the winner!"
Slowly, the amount of applause increased from nothing to an uproar. Lina breathed a sigh of relief and returned Vaporeon. To her surprise, the ashes formed a Scyther again before it was sucked into the ball. After the match, Lina made sure to give the Vaporeon back to Gourry. Haughtily, she remarked, "I don't need anyone's help; I can win my matches by myself." With a sidelong glance and a slight blush, she added softly, "But thanks anyway." Lina stalked off alone at that point.
Her next match came quickly. A teenage boy by the name of Kyzeil, that wore the same sinister expression as Mazenda, walked into the opponent's trainer box. Lina called out her Arcanine for this match, while Kyzeil chose Blastoise. Arcanine showed everyone his amazing resistance to water attacks when he took a Bubble attack dead-on effortlessly. While moving forward, he decided to use Take Down on Blastoise. The Blastoise caught him, however, and threw Archie over his head. Arcanine yelped when his enemy jumped and slammed into the poor dog-like pokemon. Blastoise finished him off with a severe Hydro Pump into the farthest wall. Not even one of a prized pokemon of Lina could have stood up to that.
Lina snarled in frustration as she returned Archie in exchange for Raichu. Making full use of his thunder attributes, Lina called for a Thunder attack. To Lina's surprise, Blastoise dodged it easily. From where he stopped, he turned his heel, bulldozed Raichu, and sent him flying, which forced Lina to return her second pokemon of the match. Disgruntled, Lina selected Gyarados for her next pokemon.
After a flurry of Skull Bashes and Bites, Gyarados ended it with a Dragon Rage attack. Surrounded by ten monstrous images of rotating Gyarados, Blastoise became dizzy before being attacked by a torrent of red explosions. The stadium spectators were blinded momentarily by the bright light of the attack, but when the dust dispersed, it was clear who the winner was – Gyarados.
Lina stayed with Gyarados as Kyzeil unleashed a Tentacruel. It tried to Poison Sting Gyarados, but Gary's Hydro Pump rendered them useless before hitting Tentacruel on his ruby-red jewel (^_^). Gary then used an empowered Tail Whip to knock Tentacruel up and out of the stadium, to be crushed to the ground upon his return. Kyzeil called back the fainted Tentacruel, with a confident smile still on his face.
He released Hitmonchan next. By using very speedy movements, Hitmonchan would attack with a Thunderpunch here, then a few seconds later, there. It was unquestionable that this attack effected Gyarados, but Lina was calm as she told Gary to just lie in the middle of the field curled up like a snail's shell. Then, when Hitmonchan stopped for another punch, Gyarados unwound himself in a furious backlash, sending Hitmonchan all over the place like a pinball gone berserk. Eventually, he stopped, and Gyarados' tail swatted him like a fly.
Fighter number four for Kyzeil was a Magmar, which Gyarados won over easily by scarfing him into his mouth, biting down, using Hydro Pump Mouth Wash, and spitting Magmar out. The water-logged Magmar didn't stand a chance.
Kyzeil released an Exeggutor with a smile of puzzling origins. Lina knew it had to be a bluff, but she was still a bit worried. She had Gyarados use Hyper Beam, but he really didn't need to use such intensity. As soon as the attack hit him, he fainted which, in turn, gave Lina a false sense of security. It was 5-2 in Lina's favor, but there was still one more opponent to go.
Kyzeil's final pokemon turned out to be an Alakazam. Its opening move of Psybeam must have confused Gyarados, because it suddenly starting bashing itself into everything but his opponent. Having been severely weakened by previous pokemon attacks, the self-inflicted hits forced Gyarados into an unconscious state. Grimacing, Lina was forced to return him and use her fourth pokemon, Charizard. Alakazam used Psybeam again, but it was not nearly as effective, considering that Pyro had taken to the skies to avoid it. But then, Alakazam teleported to his back, and let him have a point-blank Psychic attack.
As Lina clenched her fists, with her mind whirling in an attempt to come up with a quick plan, she heard a voice behind her taunt, "Oh, come now, Lina. You're actually letting someone like this get the better of you?"
Lina swiftly turned to see Xellos watching her, from the top of her entrance-way. Growling, she turned back and muttered, "Shut up. Just wait and see. I'll do this my way, and win."
As Charizard was spinning down to the ground, severely weakened by the attack, Lina commanded it to use Rage. Alakazam had teleported back to the ground, and disappeared to another area just before Charizard released a Trailing Fireball. Little did Alakazam know, this Fireball wouldn't stop until it hit its target. Alakazam stopped, charred, just in time to receive Pyro's Charcoal Dragon Rage. This attack had a much similar effect to Gyarados', but much more powerful and concentrated on one spot, not to mention that it was a darker black lance rather than a huge Mega Brand. If you asked her, Lina would have no answer for you as to why that was; she just might say something like, "It gives Pyro a personal flare." To conclude the semi-finals, Lina had won this match with surprising ease, in comparison to what she thought it would be like. Little did she know, it would soon become apparent that it was the "calm before a storm."
Afterwards, Lina went to a local buffet for contestants that had an All-You-Can-Eat-For Free deal. This was like an endless abyss of happiness for Lina, but not exactly so for the caterers who had to make all the food. To help out, Lina soon learned that her sister was working there part time, so that she could watch over Lina a bit more closely, cinching Lina's immediate lack of normal appetite. Nevertheless, Gourry, as well as anyone else that they knew who happened to pass by, soon learned that Lina was at her most vulnerable state of mind during this time. Therefore, Gourry was free to ask questions, dumb or not, and not get pounded for them. But only ask; Lina's barrier had not gone done so low that she would answer every single one of Gourry's questions without hesitation or thought. For instance…
"Hey Lina?"
"Mm?" Lina had a glazed look in her eyes as she made her monosyllabic response.
"Umm…I just remembered something…"
"Good for you."
Gourry ignored this and continued, lest he forget. "Uh…why did you get all those badges for anyway? I overheard someone say how you only needed eight badges to compete and you have like, fifty-something badges."
"Don't exaggerate; I only collected eighteen. And try not to use 'like' like that – you sound like the Cerulean Sisters."
"I do? Hm… I never really paid attention to how they talked but…Hey! You're changing the subject on me!"
Lina yawned in a tired way. "Whatever. If you must know, after this tournament is over and the next one begins, my sister is making me sell my remaining badges to the highest bidder at whichever market I decide on – black, flea, mini, whatever. The more money I make for my sister, the less I have to work during summer and between tournaments. When this is over, I'll go off and find somewhere where I can do the same, and I'll repeat the process. That's all there is to it."
It took a long period of eating, five plates to be exact, before Gourry finally pieced together, "So your sister is using you to earn more money?"
Lina shrugged and responded, "I suppose you could put it that way."
Gourry was quiet for a moment before asking, "Isn't that called blackmail or something?"
The red-headed finalist stretched and shrugged again. "Maybe, maybe not. Onee-san is my elder, and she takes care of me when I'm home, so I have to listen to her. Besides, getting those badges is just another form of training, so I don't mind. She told me that if I can bring home the ultimate title home with me, I get to spend a whole year with just my pokemon."
The usually-clueless Gourry inquired, truly perplexed, "Doesn't that just mean she's kicking you out?"
Without a second thought, Lina nodded. "Of course. I couldn't ask for anything better. If that's the case, I can set up my own lifestyle and live on my own completely. That way, I won't have any reason to be bounded to any one hometown."
"…You have more than one?"
"In a sense; Zephilia and Pallet. I was born and spent my infant years in Zephilia. That's where I learned to communicate with fire-pokemon; I left before I could learn the other dialects. During a um.. small civil war, my sister and I crossed the sea to Pallet Town and settled down there for the next several years."
When Gourry said nothing in response, Lina yawned and stood up. "I think I'm going to go to sleep now; need to rest for the finals."
"Lina…"
"What?"
"Have you looked outside yet? It's not even past noon yet."
Lina gave Gourry a grumpy frown. "What's your point? I'm tired."
A voice from behind Lina answered, "It'll ruin your sleeping pattern, Lina-chan."
Lina jumped, even though she was already standing, and turned. Xellos was sipping tea in the next booth over. She growled at him for interrupting their previously short conversation. "What are you doing here? This is for contestants only."
To which Xellos calmly replied, "So what's Gourry-san doing here?"
That stopped the girl in mid-speech, since she really didn't have an adequate answer. In the end, she gave up trying to explain and then stalked out. "Forget this, I don't care. See you later Gourry; Hope I don't see you Xellos."
Xellos pouted as Gourry chuckled slightly. The young ninja called to the retreating back of Lina, "You say that like you can control the future. But you have to expect the unexpected in order to win this tournament."
Lina did not respond as the door bell tinkled, and slammed shut behind her.
To say that Lina was surprised by her final opponent, would have been an understatement, for she would have never guessed that he would be her opponent. She wasn't even aware that he had pokemon to use. The announcer started things off with a longer introduction than usual, as this would be the last viewed match – the winner would go on to face the elite four and the reigning champion.
"Welcome to the Final match of the Indigo League Tournament everyone!" The crowd erupted in cheers; as they died down, the announcer continued. "Yes, we have witnessed countless spectacular battles in the last nine days, but I'm sure this battle will top it all off! In the red corner, we have our league favorite, Lina Inverse from Pallet Town!" The crowds cheered even louder, and Lina waved back in response.
"During her matches, we have witnessed her amazing ability to communicate with her fire pokemon in their own language. Not only is this rare to find in any person at all, but to have it in a child pokemon trainer, is phenomenal! For most of her first matches, she made a lot of Total Knockouts with using only one pokemon per battle. Even while struggling in the last few matches, she has shown extreme skill in the way that her pokemon were trained, obeying her every command. Now in the Blue corner, we have Xellos Metallium."
There were some murmurs and talking, but he only received a light, unsure applause. The announcer explained, "We have not seen Xellos until now, because his previous opponents throughout the tournament had not shown up for the match, thus allowing him to win by default. He is from a ninja family, a relative of the Fuschia City Gym Leader. As we have yet to see him battle, his technique and pokemon are a complete mystery to us, as it should be, with his ninja background. Alright! Let's get this show on the road! Trainers! Please select your first pokemon!"
Fired up, Lina chose Pyro as her naturally first pokemon. Xellos chose Jynx with a polite flare. Lina decided to use English with all of her commands. "Pyro! Let's heat things up with a nice, big Fireball!"
Softly, Xellos told his Jynx, "Dodge it just before it hits you."
Both pokemon did as they were told, ending up in a missed Fireball that came back for seconds and was again rejected. Lina grimaced and switched to Fire-nese. "Pyro! (Try Fire Spray!)"
Nodding, Pyro released another Fireball, but this one traveled quickly to the center of the field, and extended into a narrow pole about the width and height of an English lamppost. From there, the fire immediately burst in all directions, sending a flurry of fire towards and around Jynx, preventing the ice pokemon from escaping the attack. Xellos merely smirked as he watched his pokemon take the hit. When the attack stopped, and the resulting dust cleared, it revealed a completely uninjured Jynx, smiling with her puffy lips. Lina wasn't quick to be worried, but that didn't mean she couldn't be just a little perturbed… No, she wouldn't lose hope; there was no way that she could lose hope so early in the game. Not if her name was Lina Inverse.
Lina had Pyro attack with a close-up Flamethrower. When he got close however, he was in for a lip-to-lip kiss. Lina blushed while Pyro's flame was extinguished; within an instant, Pyro was sound asleep. Shaking in shocked embarrassment, Lina returned Pyro to his pokeball. Smiling cheerfully, Xellos returned his Jynx as well when Lina replaced Pyro with a Magmar. He released an Ivysaur, which made Lina facefault. Her immediate thoughts were, "Why on earth would he return a winning pokemon and replace it with a pokemon with a type disadvantage? Oh well, better make use of it while I can."
"Magmar! (Fire Blast!)"
Once again, Xellos' pokemon allowed the attack to connect, but it still did not affect them. Ivysaur shook it off as if it were nothing, before using Stun Spore. Magmar did a spectacular jump in order to dodge it, but was unprepared when Ivysaur caught him with Vine Whip and reeled him back to Stun Spore range. Unable to escape, Magmar twitched on the ground, paralyzed from fighting. Lina groaned and returned her Magmar. She looked across the way at Xellos to see him smiling just as happily as ever. It was then that Lina realized his objective. She called out to him to affirm this.
"Hey, Xellos. Are you just doing this to…to embarrass me?"
If possible, Xellos' grin widened, but he waggled his finger in front of him. "Not 'embarrass' you, Lina-chan. Simply, how do I put it? Render your pokemon useless."
Embarrassment gave way to anger as an eerie red glow emitted from Lina's body. Raising her head, everyone saw the demon red glare that Lina gave Xellos. Xellos' smile faltered a little, but he recovered relatively quickly.
Lina did not notice, for now she was piping mad. "I'll destroy you! I've had it with this! Sleepy! I choose you!"
With that, Lina released a Snorlax onto the field. The size of it was monstrous; it took up half the field with just its body. Xellos grinned, and released his next pokemon nonchalantly. Beside the enormous pokemon, now lay a tiny-in-comparison sleeping Abra. As the two snored on, nothing happened before Lina began whistling the poke-flute tune, which was hard considering how angry she was. But she did just enough to make Snorlax roll over on top of Abra. She showed no surprise when Abra appeared again next to Snorlax, awake and breathing hard. Lina whistled the tune louder now, and the Snorlax awoke completely. She commanded it to use Toxic Gas. As invariably as with a human the toxic smelly gas emitted from Sleepy's bottom. Everyone groaned as they smelled the horrible scent. Though supposedly used to the smell, even Lina wrinkled her nose. Abra was knocked out by the scent, as well as half the audience, by the time it subsided; Xellos seemed to be the only one not affected at all.
Unchanging in expression, Xellos returned Abra, and waited patiently for everyone to recover before releasing his fourth pokemon, Weedil. Lina blinked. Her anger completely vanished in place of disbelief. But it quickly returned as she exclaimed, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!"
Xellos grinned at this and said in reply, "Why would I be 'kidding'? This is the final match; are you scared of a little Weedil?"
This only served to make Lina angrier as she commanded Snorlax to "squash the little bug." When Snorlax's foot fell on the Weedil, there was a visible wince in the audience. Suddenly, a large white light shined from underneath, and Snorlax had a clueless look on his face. His face became very uncomfortable as he was forced to raise his foot by a large scale, tipping him off balance. Where his foot had previously rested, was a Beedril, drill stinger facing up. Lina suddenly understood Sleepy's actions, and it only annoyed Lina more. She told Sleepy to use Hyper Beam, but Sleepy could only sit on his bottom holding his stomach. His blue face was a tell-tale sign that he had been poisoned. Lina groaned again, and drooped her head as she returned her fourth pokemon.
Lina was beyond irritated now. She had four pokemon that could not fight for the duration of the match, while Xellos still had all of his pokemon. Said Xellos interrupted her thoughts just then with, "Oh, don't give up Lina-chan! You're closer to winning than you think!"
To which Lina replied, "YOU IDIOT! WHO SAYS I'M GOING TO GIVE UP OR THINK I'M GOING TO LOSE?! Gyarados go!"
Xellos grinned, and chose Magikarp, which, flopping uselessly on the ground, gave everyone a bad impression of him. Lina retorted, "WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TRYING TO DO HERE ANYWAYS?!"
The purple-haired junior-ninja waggled his finger again and replied, "Now that's a secret." Very much annoyed, Lina went on the offensive. "If I could reach over there, I'd strangle you right now, Xellos. Gyarados! Dragon Rage!"
As the explosion hit, Magikarp stopped moving. It lay there very still, but when the attack subsided, it began flopping again. Before Lina or Gyarados could realize what had happened, Magikarp attacked with Flail. Though one would think that such an attack would prove to be useless, it was quite the opposite in this case. Gyarados made a pained roar before keeling over. Lina looked to where Magikarp had made contact, and found that the area was scathed and bruised. Lina's thought analysis determined that it was a burn. Lina returned Gyarados reluctantly, and thought over her choices, but she had no other alternatives. Lina took a deep breath and called for Dragu, her Dragonite.
With a roar, Dragu appeared on the field. Xellos looked it up and down like an animal buyer. Nodding, he returned Magikarp in exchange for his final pokemon, Dewgong. Dewgong started things by freezing Dragu's head. But it didn't affect him as he picked up Dewgong, and bashed his head into him. Not only did the ice shatter, but Dewgong received a massive headache. Then, Dragu lost no time in throwing Dewgong into the ground, and stomping on him. When he got cold feet as a result, he moved his foot, and kicked Dewgong across the field with his other. Xellos put a hand in front of him in all seriousness and told Lina to stop her pokemon. When she asked why, Xellos replied with a formal bow. "I've done what I came here to do, and so, I forfeit this match to you, Lina-chan. You're too much for my pokemon."
Before Lina could protest, or even say something back, the referee announced her as the winner as a result of a forfeit. The crowd cheered not for Lina winning only, but the tournament being over at last.
A/N: That's the end of it. ^_^ Oh, yeah, I should put an epilogue, huh? Okay, see you in a week then.