Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.
I found it odd that all my battles so far had some measure of difficulty. I seemed to be running a gauntlet of the strongest trainers in the league. It made me happy, but it also meant I had to spend more time getting treatment for my pokemon.
That's what had me sitting in the lobby of the pokemon centre anxiously waiting for Igneel to be fully healed. Kenpachi had needed very little healing, but Igneel was in bad shape. He'd get better, in any case. The only thing that worried me was the state of his wing. Wings were notoriously easy to permanently damage. It had something to do with the flying-type energy they helped channel; at least, that's what Oak posited, and he was the authority on all things pokemon.
I ended up releasing Ino to join me in my wait. She was the only one of my pokemon that could remain indoors without causing a huge commotion. Kisame and Broly were so rare they were unheard of; Hashirama was a ghost type, and those weren't very popular, Kenpachi wasn't even an option with his current size, and Magnezone would cause more chaos than I was prepared to handle. Besides, his species weren't the most popular at the moment. Gym leaders were celebrities, and killing one off didn't lead to a good reputation.
It ended up taking an extra hour for Igneel to be fully healed. The nurse also instructed me to allow him to rest for an additional two days. That meant he wouldn't be available till the semi-finals. The good news was that we only had a single battle a day from this point. Tomorrow would begin the round of 16. I was already extremely close to the finish line, but that mattered little if I couldn't make it the entire way there.
With Igneel's ball in hand, I had Ino teleport me to the fields where we would take dinner together as a team. I considered making strategies for the contestants I'd gotten to see battle, but that would be a waste of time. I didn't have enough information on anyone's team to devise a foolproof strategy or even the barebones of a plan.
The day dawned bright and early, and I found myself in the stadium before the moon left the sky. I was the only one here, apart from the orderlies setting up the arena. I enjoyed the peace and allowed it to calm my heart rate. My journey started a year ago, and I'd come so far in so little time. When the journey began, I'd thought beating the circuit and winning the conference in two years would be impossible. I used it as my moonshot. But now, I wasn't even sure when my mind changed on this, I believed in myself.
I could do it. The trainers in the conference, the best the league had to offer, would be nothing against me. I'll tear through them like wet paper and make my way to Lance himself. For Quicksilver. I'd become champion for my fallen pokemon, and then I'd find the poacher. The thought of mounting whatever remained of his Gengar on my throne brought a smile to my face. Thinking of what I'd do to the Charizard brightened that smile even more. I kept fantasising about my revenge and am ashamed to note that it took me as long as it did before I realised my thoughts weren't my own. Did I want the Gengar dead? Yes, but I'd never fantasise about drinking from the skull of someone's pokemon.
I looked around for the source of this sudden anger and hatred before I narrowed my eyes at a woman standing on the other end of the arena. I couldn't see her clearly, but I could swear I saw a smile break across her face before she disappeared in a blur of shadow. It was almost like she'd never even been there. The fact that my mind felt free for perhaps the first time since I took a seat at the stadium was the only thing convincing me that she'd ever even been there.
I took a deep breath and released Ino. She connected with me and was brought up to speed at the speed of thought. I didn't send her back into her pokeball till the stands were almost filled, and the chances of me being attacked had gone down tremendously.
"Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, One and all, to the Round of 16 of Silph's biannual amateur pokemon tournament" The announcer's voice reverberated across the stadium with a notable echo.
"We've watched these trainers give their all, and we'll be asking for them to give us a bit more," He said and paused for the crowd to stop screaming.
"Today's battles will be six-on-six engagements. Yes, full teams. From this point on, we'll see the very best these trainers have to offer us. All their strategies, pokemon and hearts will be laid bare to us." The crowd's excitement was so palpable that I could almost taste their anticipation.
"And to you, the trainers, I have only this to say. Give it your all. We're watching." I joined my hands to the applause the crowd gave him for the speech. It was short and impactful.
He started calling out names for the battle, and I was surprised when mine was the first one he called. I stepped out of the enclosure reserved for trainers to applause from the excited crowd. That was new.
My opponent was also surprised since I hadn't even expected Sansa to have made it this far. Last I checked, she'd been struggling against her opponent yesterday. I couldn't see the entire thing since I was called for my battle and had to rush to the pokemon centre immediately after.
I nodded at her without saying anything, and she returned the favour. Sansa had given away most of her pokemon in the earlier rounds. She was a budding fire-type specialist and had the team for it. She lost the coin flip and was forced to release her pokemon first.
The Charizard she sent to the field looked ferocious, and I was sure Igneel would want a crack at it- injured or not. I'd have to rechallenge her later since Igneel wouldn't be getting the opportunity in this battle. None of my other pokemon would.
The battlefield had been greatly expanded for today's battles since there would only be one battle happening at a time. Now, It wasn't just a field separated into two halves; there were a smattering of environmental factors in the area. The small artificial pond to my left was the most important one.
I took a deep breath and sent Kisame to the field. This would be her first professional battle in so long, and I felt her excitement to prove herself. She wasn't as battle-hungry as Igneel or even Kenpachi, but she'd been bored of only getting to battle her teammates for the past few months.
My opponent and I ignored the crowd's whispers of amazement. The referee signalled for the battle to begin, and the pond came to life under Kisame's control. The Charizard tried roasting her with a flamethrower, but it was blocked with a wave of water while the rest of the pond wrapped around Kisame's body.
The Charizard's strongest attacks couldn't break through Kisame's shield, and she whittled it down with ice beams before dispatching it with a trio of hydro pumps. I could empathise with Sansa's shocked expression. Watching Kisame in action still astounded me at times. She'd been my strongest pokemon for a very long while, and while that distinction was no longer as clear, she was an impressive specimen either way.
Sansa returned her Charizard with a less than friendly expression before sending out a Pikachu that brought a smile to my face. Of course, she'd have an electric type or two to help dispatch troublesome water types. Too little, too late, however. Type advantage alone had little chance of overwhelming Kisame.
I was proven right when she used the water around her to swerve around the Pikachu's attacks before covering the field in a blizzard. I'd hated having this tactic used against me yesterday but being on the other end of this had a smile breaking across my face.
After very little time, the field stopped being visible, and I gave Kisame her next orders. I only saw a pitiful bolt of electricity before the ice and wind from Kisame's blizzard cleared up to allow me to see the field. The Pikachu was encircled in a water prison and looked to be drowning.
Sansa returned her pokemon with prodigious speed before sending out her next choice with a deeper scowl than the one she'd already been sporting. The Vulpix that came on the field melted the ice around its form with a single breath. I watched in appreciation as the fire fox used a fire spin to melt the ice around the field. I could have prevented it, but she was only making conditions more favourable for my water type.
After all, the Vulpix's flames weren't hot enough to evaporate the ice entirely, and it made several puddles around the field. She saw the error of her ways when the Vulpix started storming at Kisame with a flame charge. It barely even made it half of the distance when a bolt of water from one of the puddles blasted it in the side. Kisame followed up with a barrage of water guns that had the Vulpix reeling. She was about to trap it in its own water prison when Sansa had the good sense to return her pokemon.
I was too far away to see her face clearly, but her rage was quickly felt. The commentator's comments about her being completely out of her depth probably did little to alleviate her anger. At this point, I'd taken out half of her team with only one of mine. The logical thing would be to forfeit, but the commentator seemed intent on preventing that. His comments continued to get increasingly mocking until Sansa sent out her next pokemon, and even then, he didn't stop.
I had no doubts that the man knew exactly what he was doing, and I couldn't quite grasp his motivations for making sure Sansa didn't forfeit, but it wasn't my business. Forfeit or not, this battle had only one outcome.
Her Rapidash did an excellent job of twirling around Kisame's attacks. It maintained an aura of flame around it that was hot enough to evaporate the lighter tendrils Kisame sent at its feet. The battle managed to last longer than all the others by virtue of the fact that I instructed Kisame to allow the pokemon to tire itself out instead of dedicating more power to taking it down. Rapidash could be a very hardy pokemon, but running around the field with an aura of powerful flame tired it out in a few minutes, and Kisame barely had to even attack it to knock it out.
What's the point of wasting energy to defeat an opponent already defeating itself? The commentator's disparaging comments continued. They were subtle insults; this crowd wouldn't appreciate more overt slights. That didn't make them any less hurtful, though, and Sansa still declined to forfeit.
Her next pokemon was a Magmar that had evolved recently. I wasn't deducing that with some prodigious skill of observation. I'd seen it as a Magby battling with an opponent's Oddish yesterday.
It sent out an impressive flamethrower that Kisame countered before getting halfway through the field. I watched it use quick attack to run at Kisame while holding a fist behind it. Thunder punch, my brain supplied when I saw the yellow outline around its fist. It crossed the arena with good speed but was left swinging at air when Kisame simply moved her bubble of water to a different part of the field. Her use of the water prison was definitely her strongest advantage.
It growled and entered another Quick attack as it reached my seasnake. A bolt of water separated from Kisame's bubble and slammed into the Magmar when it was a few inches away from my pokemon. I watched as the electricity from its own thunder punch shocked it into unconsciousness with a satisfied smile on my face.
I watched expectantly as Sansa prepared to send out her last pokemon.
An Arcanine? A fucking Arcanine? How the fuck did she get one? They were called the legendary pokemon for a reason. Powerful and rare. Even from behind the barrier, I could feel the heat the pokemon was releasing. I prepared Kisame for the first move. It was easy to predict with what I knew about the pokemon.
The referee began the battle, and the Arcanine blurred across the distance between him and Kisame. If I hadn't told her to expect extreme speed right off the bat, she would have been caught off-guard. I watched my seasnake dodge around the Arcanine's straightforward attack with ease and command the water bubble the Arcanine had burst with his charge to wrap around him.
I wasn't the only one shocked when the Arcanine evaporated the water the moment it got within a few inches of his body. 'Rain dance', I commanded and watched as the arena started to become flooded with Kisame's element.
I couldn't close my mouth when the Arcanine just overpowered her rain dance with his own sunny day. It started to approach to end the battle at a more sedate place when I returned Kisame to her pokeball. I had no doubts about her ability to win, but allowing her to get injured at this tournament stage would be stupid. Besides, I had another pokemon that I needed to fight this Arcanine.
Luckily, the legendary pokemon's body heat was enough to evaporate all the water that had gathered on the field. I waited out my entire 1 minute to hopefully run out the Arcanine's endurance. Maintaining that kind of aura had to be draining. The referee had to begin a countdown before I released Broly on the field.
My hope was that being exposed to a pokemon that had extreme speed would be the final push Broly needed to develop the move for himself. The Arcanine blurred across the field and found one of Broly's axe hands waiting for him. It jumped over the attack and slammed into Broly from behind. My rock type went flying till he collided with the barrier and fell to the floor.
He was barely fazed from the attack and prepared to tango with the Arcanine again. As the fire type blurred across the field, Broly tried to use an Earthquake to destabilise its footing, but even that was useless, and he was forced to dig into the ground to avoid the arcanine's charge. He came up at a different end of the field and sent a hyper beam screaming straight at the Arcanine.
It dodged with little effort and was running at Broly again. My starter was forced to dig to escape the fire type's next attack. 'Have you got it?' I asked him, and his reply was the concept of not yet. I watched as Broly used the same hit-and-run tactics over and over again.
It was like a real-life game of whack-a-mole. It wasn't till the Arcanine made his seventh attempt at catching Broly that my pokemon moved across the ground to meet him. I smiled a wide, proud smile when I couldn't even see Broly's blur as he rushed to meet the Arcanine head-on.
They slammed into each other and shattered the ground around them with their impact. They made a few passes at each other before I truly understood the situation. While Broly had cracked the secret to extreme speed, the Arcanine was still faster by a noticeable margin. That mattered little, though. Broly had been fighting opponents much faster than him for a month, and my new perspective told me the Arcanine didn't have any experience against opponents that could match its speed.
From that point, it was only a formality. The battle ended when Broly smashed a Stone Axe into the Arcanine's skull and blasted the pokemon with a hyper beam when it was dazed for a few seconds. Sansa returned her pokemon with what looked like disappointment on her face and the crowd went wild.
I rushed into the field and wrapped my starter in a hug. A very short hug. His body was burning hot. "You were amazing. You've got extreme speed now." I said with a proud smile that he returned before I returned him to his pokeball.
I walked across the field toward Sansa. She was staring at her pokeball and looked to be holding back tears. She didn't notice me until I was right before her. "Good battle," I said while stretching out my hand for a shake. She looked into my eyes searchingly before she put her hand in mine. The crowd went wild at the display of sportsmanship, and the commentator finally shut up. He'd actually been shockingly silent since Sansa sent out her Arcanine.
I escorted Sansa out of the field to applause from the crowd while searching my mind for a polite way to ask her about the arcanine. We were halfway to the pokemon centre when she turned to me and asked, "What do you want?" That's oddly blunt of her.
When I was too shocked to reply, she said, "Let's not pretend that you care about me or my pokemon. You want something from me, so what is it?"
She had me there. "Your Arcanine. I'm curious about it and why you didn't use it earlier."
"I already explained this to your dad. Growlithe went wandering off one day and he came back to me as an Arcanine. I have no idea how he evolved. I didn't use it earlier because your dad told me not to use it since it would gather too much of the wrong type of attention. I failed in that mission too," She said with a despondent look.
"Oh…" I didn't have anything to say to that, and we spent the rest of the journey in silence. She gave me something to think about though. Oak advised her not to use her Arcanine, but he didn't give me any of that kind of advice with my admittedly more rare team. I had a practically unheard-of species of pokemon, and he'd never warned me to be careful.
Did he trust me to defend myself or did he just not care? It was difficult to tell either way. When we got to the centre, we split ways, and I had Ino teleport me to the fields we used for our training. None of my pokemon were hurt enough to require a session at the centre and something was beginning to rub me wrong about the whole affair. I used some potions I had to heal Broly back to full health since he'd taken a few hits from the Arcanine.
We weren't going to be doing much training today since we had another battle tomorrow, but I needed Broly to adapt to his new speed. Having Ino use gravity on him while he battled three of my other pokemon seemed to be the most effective strategy so we continued with that. He could access the move now but was still raw with it. Not as fast as the other pokemon I've seen with the move but much faster than any pokemon I've seen without it.
The battle was much different from the earlier battles I'd seen this month. With Extreme speed, Broly could almost ignore Ino's gravity and attack as was his want. The battle wasn't any easier for him since Kenpachi, Snorlax, and Hashirama were tough opponents, but when Ino finally released the move, he gave them a run for their money.
He lost in the end, but it was closer than ever. Extreme speed was the bridge I'd hoped for it to be. The best part was that the more Broly used the move, the better he got with it. Eventually, he'd be able to take out elite-level pokemon in blinks like Lance's own starter was capable of.
The rest of the training was working with both Igneel and Kisame on mastering dragon dance. Hashirama was working on something else that I couldn't quite determine. He looked to be communicating with the grass around him.
The next day, I found myself in the arena, standing opposite another trainer, a Kyle Mckain. The most NPC-looking character I'd ever seen. The most notable thing I could see about him was his height. He looked to be over 6 feet tall. Definitely taller than anyone I'd ever seen in this world. He could have had a profitable character as a basketball player in my original world.
I lost the coin toss and was forced to send out the first pokemon. Since I'd already shown off Broly yesterday, I decided to start things with him this time. He hadn't gotten to battle much in recent months, so I needed to fix that. My opponent seemed to consider things for a pit before sending out his own pokemon. A Gengar that made me grit my teeth. I had to forcibly remind both Broly and myself that this wasn't the Gengar. The one that had taken from me. This one was innocent.
We wouldn't be trying to kill it. If we were a bit rougher than usual, that was how things went. I waited for the referee to start the battle before Broly blurred across the field, and his axe went straight through the space the Gengar's head had occupied. The pokemon dissolved into shadows and retreated from Broly's attack.
Broly wasn't to be deterred, though. I had studied up on killing ghosts, and while they were highly resistant to physical damage, enough hits concentrated in a short period could overcome their ability to reform.
Broly took the lessons we'd learned to heart as he didn't allow the Gengar a second's respite. He followed it across the field, appearing at its blind spot when it tried to resurface and attempt an attack. What moves it managed to use were dodged with contemptuous ease. I turned my eyes from the battle to look at my opponent. He looked very calm even with all that was happening. I saw him look from the battle to me, and then he clapped twice with an arrogant smirk on his face.
I saw his Gengar dissolve into a poisonous cloud that surrounded Broly. His next words made me look at him in astonishment. "I hope your pokemon isn't gassed out. Hah. Get it? Gassed out"
I turned away from the clown and looked at Broly's still form. To an outsider, it might have looked like he couldn't move with the poison, but he was simply gathering his energy for a different move. After a few more seconds, he started twirling around and creating a whirlwind that dispersed the poisonous cloud that surrounded him into the sky.
When he stopped moving, he was alone on the field, with clear air around him. 'Keep your guard up, the Gengar isn't down yet.' I instructed him through our aura bond. I was surprised I could even convey complex messages like this through aura's imprecise medium. He stood still for a few more seconds and then moved to the left. I watched in shock as a shadow claw occupied the space where he'd just occupied. His senses were truly top-notch.
Broly went back on the attack, and the Gengar just couldn't keep up anymore. I guess having its body scattered to the winds was less than ideal for its health. It took a few more exchanges for Broly to wear his opponent down and then my opponent stomped his feet three times. I kept a close eye on both pokemon, and that's why I noticed the dark aura that surrounded both Broly and Gengar for a second.
'Destiny Bond', I thought with a derisive snort. Such an underhanded tactic. Technically legal, but no less despicable for it. I stopped Broly from pushing the attack and started wondering how I was going to be able to stop the move from coming into effect. I could admire the strategy in his actions. Start with a Gengar that knew Destiny bond to take out one of the stronger members of my team. I felt that if I'd started with any other pokemon, he might have chosen a different pokemon to take them out.
I didn't have to do much thinking because Broly pointed something out to me. The Gengar was already on its last legs. Its floating was less steady than it had been at the beginning of the battle, and its smile was more strained. My next orders were obvious. 'Wait, let the Gengar come to you. Destiny bond can be a draining move'. That was one of the obvious disadvantages of the move. It took energy from the pokemon, using it to create the bond and kept taking energy to maintain the bond.
It's why it was used when the battle was guaranteed to be over in the next few moves. Normally, a Gengar would have more than enough energy to maintain the move. Still, this one was already exhausted from Broly's attacks and then had to reform its body after being dispersed into the wind.
My opponent figured out what was going on and shot a panicked look at his Gengar, that was already succumbing to exhaustion. He did as expected and ordered his ghost to throw everything it could at us. Not an unwise choice but Broly had an easy time weaving through the Gengar's attacks and resisting his instincts to counterattack. After a few minutes, the Gengar fainted into unconsciousness on its own.
I saw a second dark aura appear around Broly's body before dispersing. I looked at my opponent expectantly, and he returned his pokemon before sending out a Kadabra. The fox pokemon looked to be the opposite of intimidating when I'd been seeing his evolved counterparts throughout the tournament.
It proved my initial expectations wrong when it tore multiple boulders out of the ground that it sent at Broly the moment the referee started the battle. Broly had a field day taking control of the rocks from the Kadabra with his terrakinesis before setting them gently on the floor next to him. He blurred across the field to introduce the fox's head with his axe when it was gone with a blast of light.
It appeared in Broly's blindspot and fired off a psybeam that was easily dodged. Broly was too fast for a battle like this not to turn into a chase. He moved across the field after the teleporting Kadabra, and the pokemon conducted itself well by disappearing whenever Broly got too close for comfort.
After it went on for a minute or so, I had Broly stop. We needed to change tactics. Broly hid it well, but he was already tired. Extreme speed was tiring, and Broly had been using it for too long. Broly brought the boulders around him to life and sent them hurtling at the floating psychic type. It blocked all the attacks with a telekinetic shield, but this played into our plans. Broly crushed the boulders against the shield, creating a cloud of dust covering the entire arena and blocking his opponent's visibility.
Broly could have done that with a single move if he knew sandstorm, and I, once again, lamented his relatively small movepool. He dug into the ground and made his way towards where the Kadabra had last been. I shouldn't have been surprised when the dust cleared, and I saw both Broly and Kadabra where the other had been when the battle started.
I grit my teeth in irritation before an idea came to me. 'signal beam. Rapid fire,' I instructed my starter. He turned his two axe hands towards his opponent, and bright green beams of energy came out of them like bullets from a canon. The Kadabra was able to dodge the first few by teleportation, but when it eventually got hit by one of them, his ability to teleport was greatly diminished.
Broly fired two more signal beams that were blocked with a protect before he disappeared and appeared inside the shattering protect with a stone axe raised to his opponent's head. My opponent returned his pokemon, and I breathed a sigh of relief before I followed suit in returning mine. Broly had been unable to complete his attack. He'd hesitated, and I was glad my opponent had enough honour not to punish him for his mercy.
The next pokemon he sent out was a pidgeotto, and I sent out Kenpachi to finish the battle.
A/N; Thanks for reading. We're done with chapter 33 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you dare to. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile.
Just added in one of the OCs suggested by one of my patrons on the place that shall not be named. Thank you, dull pen, for the character. I hope I do him justice.