Now we get into the meat of the Indigo League!
Diego sat awake in his room, the preliminary round went by perfectly for him and now he was on his way to the next round. Sixty-four trainers, including himself, his friends, classmates, and trainers he had encountered during his journey so far were all also competing. Soon sixty-four would be cut down to thirty-two. A multitude of thoughts rushed through his head; Who am I going to have to battle next? Are my friends going to be battling me next? What if they don't make it to the next round? What if I lose the next round? ... Nah, I'm making it all the way to the end!
Diego soon drifted off to sleep, eager to face his next challenge.
"Good morning to all!" The MC, Mr. Arlen announced. "With the preliminary round complete, we will move on to the main tournament! Out of the sixty-four of you still currently in this tournament, thirty-two will remain. However, these battles will be more spread out throughout the day and may even go on to tomorrow. Additionally, while the battles of the preliminary round had you all using three Pokemon, these battles will instead be four against four. Now, we will randomize you all again and set up our main tournament brackets into four different divisions: A, B, C, and D respectively, for the sake of organization."
The stadium screen showed the pictures of all the remaining trainers. The pictures then flipped, as though they were cards and shuffled. Once the shuffling was complete, the screen changed to a tournament bracket with the names of the trainers on the left and right sides. Four sections of the tournament bracket were labeled with the letter of each group as well.
"Groups A and B will be battling in Arena one while C and D will be in Arena two. Groups A and C will also be battling first. The current brackets show who will be battling, where, when, and under what conditions. So without further delay, let day two of the Indigo League Tournament begin!"
Styles was in the first battle for Group C and he was currently preparing for his battle. He was looking at one of his pokeballs with mixed emotions. It contained a pokemon he hadn't used in the tournament yet but that wasn't his concern.
He didn't have time to think it over though, as he made his way into the main section of the stadium. The arena theme was "ancient ruins" with pillars and statues littering the battlefield. His opponent was a girl about the same age as him. She had red-orange hair and wore a white long sleeved shirt that was showed her midriff, red shirts, and red sneakers.
"Welcome today day two of the Indigo League Tournament! I'm Mauro Graves, joined by my colleague Corey Ronallo, who I hope will act more professionally today!"
"When have I not acted professionally, Mauro? You should have more faith in me!" Corey replied.
"Whatever, today we're starting off with Styles Kaizu, who dominated in the previous round; up against Sarah, who Juanita and Dallas watched battle yesterday so the two of us unfortunately don't know too much about her." Mauro admitted.
"U-umm, I guess we have to battle now, right?" Serah asked timidly. The two trainers reached for their pokeballs and brought out their first pokemon. Corey couldn't help but laugh at the way Serah meekly threw her pokeball.
"What's so funny?" Mauro asked.
"Nothing, it's just that this girl looks like she's scared of her own shadow!" Corey chuckled.
"Hmph, you might be right for once!" Mauro comented.
The battle had begun, Styles sent out his red Gyarados, which towered over Serah's first pokemon: Carbink.
"And the battle begins! Both sides have a type advantage over the other, so this could realistically go either way." Mauro said.
"Are you kidding? There's no way a Carbink is going to beat a Gyarados!" Corey responded.
"Well we just have to see what these teo are made of!" Mauro exclaimed.
Sarah's timid eyes and shy facial expression suddenly snapped into a more cold, sinister look.
"Stealth Rocks." She said maliciously.
The Jewel pokemon blasted out a large rock that was formed from light it emitted from its crystals. The rock then shattered into smaller rocks with sharp, jagged edges that surrounded Gyarados.
'What the heck?' Styles thought to himself, confused about this girl's sudden change. "Gyarados, use Waterfall!"
The Atrocious pokemon slammed its tail on the ground, creating water from thin air, before charging forward at Carbink, tackling it with the full force of an actual waterfall. Carbink took the full force of the attack, seeming to barely be left standing, but the small pokemon acted as hard as it could to ignore the pain.
"Reflect."
"End it with Waterfall!"
Gyarados charged at Carbink again, however the Jewel pokemon began to glow as a light blue shield of energy formed around its body, cushioning the blow from Gyarados' attack. However this was not enough to stop the attack from picking up the K.O.
"Told you there was no way a Carbink could beat a Gyarados." Corey gloated.
"Aww shut it Corey, you're acting like the battle is over." Mauro replied.
Serah sent out her next Pokemon without a word or change in expression. This pokemon looked to be a much bigger threat; Claydol.
"Oh here we go." Corey said, now interested in the battle. "Things might actually get good!"
Mauro simply chose to ignore his colleague.
'Reflect makes Claydol bulkier than it already is. This won't breat that barrier but it'll at least make it easier to do a bit more damage.' Styles thought to himself. "Gyarados, Dragon Dance!"
"Psychic."
Gyarados roared towards the sky, blue and red enwrgy crackled around it, powering Gyarados up before the energy changed to one of a deep purple color. Gyarados was left unable to move as it was squeezed by the binding energy, causing the beast immense pain before the energy fizzled out.
'What's this girl's deal? It's like battling makes her a completely different person.' Styles got a closer look at his opponent and was a bit unsettled when he noticed Serah was looking right into Styles' eyes from across the field.
"Ice Fang!" Styles ordered. Gyarados' fangs turned icy blue as it slithered over to the Clay Doll Pokemon.
"Stone Edge." Serah growled.
Claydol used its psychic power to destroy a stone pillar and turn it to an almost uncountable amount of sharp bits of stone. Claydol fired the stones at Gyarados, who dodged the attack as best as it could, though it did take several hits before finally getting close enough to bite Claydol.
Once Gyarados had its teeth sunk into Claydol, Sarah grinned wickedly...
"Claydol... Explosion!" She demanded. Claydol's eyes widened as it began to glow white and explode with Gyarados in point blank range. The attack knocked both pokemon out, the audience had been cheering the entire time, but one noise was distinct from that noise. It was the sound of Serah, laughing hysterically at the explosion.
"She's laughing? That girl is officially off her rocker!" Mauro commented, Corey nodded in agreement.
The two trainers sent out their next pokemon, with Serah sending out a Yanmega while Styles sent out his Glaceon. He debated sending out the pokemon that was in the pokeball he was looking at earlier but he ultimately decided against it.
The Stealth Rocks smashed into Glaceon, causing considerable damage to the Fresh Snow Pokemon. Thankfully for Styles, Glaceon powered through the pain.
"Glaceon, Ice Beam!" Styles commanded. Glaceon tried to blast Yanmega with the Ice attack, but the Ogre Darner pokemon simply flew out of its line of fire, causing the attack to instead hit a pillar and freeze it solid.
"Keep using Ice Beam, Glaceon!" Styles said calmly. Glaceon continually used, and missed, every Ice Beam it tried. Every pillar and statue on the field was completely frozen solid.
"Ancient Power!" Sarah ordered. Yanmega began to vibrate its wings in a pattern that caused some of the statues and pillars to rise and glow with a pink energy.
"Now! Ice Shard!" Styles commanded.
Glaceon exhaled, creating shards of ice that flew towards Yanmega, but the Bug pokemon si ply flew to avoid the attack. However, the shard ricocheted off of one of the frozen pillars. Then another shard did the same on one of the statues. This continued with every shard of ice Glaceon created. Then, one by one, every shard of ice slammed into Yanmega, causing it to lose focus and have the stones it levitate crash down onto it. This caused Yanmega to crash onto the ground, more chunks of ice slamming on top of it until it was finally knocked out.
"Wow! What a unique use of ice! Styles Kaizu might just be one of the biggest threats in this tournament if he's able to use his environment to attack like that!" Corey exclaimed.
Sarah sighed and looked down, breaking the gaze she had kept on Styles since the battle began. She reached for her last pokeball and looked back up. Her face looked much less intense than it had been before, as though she knew she couldn't win. She then sent out her last pokemon; a Tropius.
"A Grass and Flying type, bad call by Serah." Corey commented.
"Ah, but we've seen comeback victories!" Mauro added. "Even with type disadvantages!"
Despite being behind, Serah's face became serious again, though much less so than before.
"Leaf Tornado!" She commanded.
"Icy Wind!" Styles retorted.
Tropius flapped its leaf wings, generating a fierce tornado littered with razor sharp leaves. Glaceon exhaled a breath of frozen air that froze the leaves and sent the now cold tornado back at Tropius, tearing it apart with the counterattack.
Tropius fell to the ground and struggled to get back on its feet, letting out a battle cry, being determined to fight until the end.
"Ice Beam!" Styles ordered.
Glaceon sent out one last attack that blasted Tropius head on and brought it down for the count, giving Styles the victory.
"And there you have it!" Corey announced. "Styles Kaizu moves on to the next round!"
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause, in one of the seats was a man wearing a black hoodie that was obscuring his face. The onky noticeable feature he had was a familiar platinum blonde hairstyle...
Time eventually passed until it was time for Snow to battle. The sun shone brightly between several clouds as Snow stepped onto her side of the arena for her battle. The arena field this time was themed after a forest. Her opponent was a girl that was a bit older than her with short blond hair, she wore a navy blue coat with gold buttons that covered her entire torso and a bit of her legs. It was hard to see but if one looked closely enough they would see she wore white shorts underneath the jacket as well as white boots.
"Welcome back to day two of the Kanto Tournament!" Corey greeted. "If you're just joining us then you've come in right on time! The third match of the day is just about to start."
"That's right!" Mauro added. "And up next we have an interesting matchup that might end up being one of the more unique matches of the tournament!"
"Hi! I'm Illana! So you're Snow?" The girl said greeted cheerfully. The general feeling Weiss got from this girl was that she knew this battle was serious, but she couldnt5 help but have fun with it.
The two girls sent out their first Pokemon. Snow sent out a Snorlax while Illana used a Castform.
"And the battle is officially underway!"
"Let's get thid party started!" Illana cheered. "Castform, show everyone our sunny disposition with Sunny Day!"
"Snorlax, quick, use Body Slam!"
Castform began to glow orange, the clouds above cleared as the sunlight grew insanely bright, the temperature also rose as well. While the sun shone brightly, a heavy shadow was cast over Castform. The shadow was Snorlax, falling straight towards Castform, who ended up crushed under Snorlax's immense weight.
Once Snorlax got back up to its feet, Castform was revealed to have been knocked out from the attack before it could even transform with its Forecast ability.
"Looks like we're in for another quick match." Corey sighed. "The first few rounds are always the most boring."
Mauro stated silent, he felt as though he would sound like a broken record if he told Corey to remain professional.
"Aww!" Illana whined, "I wanted to show everyone that it's always sunny in Kanto! Oh well, guess I have to use my next pokemon! Go, Lilligant!"
The Flowering pokemon spun around cheerfully as it was sent out, looking just as cheerful as her trainer.
"Snorlax is known for sleeping, right? Let's see if that's true! Lilligant, use Sleep Powder!"
Lilligant spun around in place, releasing blue spores from the flower on its head. Snow allowed the spores to put Snorlax to sleep. The lumbering giant fell flat on its back and began snoring loudly.
"Ugh, I hate when pokemon get put to sleep! It makes battles so boring!" Corey moaned.
"There are actially a few things that could happen right now. It all depends on how Ms. Weiss raised her Snorlax." Mauro commented.
"So, I guess you're a bit stuck right now, huh?" Illana asked.
"I suppose." Snow replied. "Or, I would be if I couldn't do this! Snorlax, use Sleep Talk!"
Snorlax yawned as it lumbered it's way to its feet. It yawned again, this time glowing red, with blue lines of energy rising up Snorlax's body. Once the energy , Snorlax's body was tinted red slightly, but it was back to being asleep on its feet.
"Now there's the move I was expecting!" Mauro announced.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that! But too bad you didn't actually attack. Now Lilligant, use Energy Ball!"
Lilligant created a sphere of glowing green energy and hurled it at Snorlax, who was hit directly, but ignored the attack due to it still being asleep.
"Sleep Talk, again!"
Snorlax gave another deep yawn, but this time nothing happened.
"See, now this is the one fatal flaw of Sleep Talk." Mauro stated. "The user has to be asleep for it to be used. The common strategy is to use it alongside Rest, but since Sleep Talk uses another move the pokemon already knows at random. This means that Sleep Talk can reroll into using Rest, which means that nothing will happen."
"Uh-oh! Lokks lime you're screwed! Lilligant, Solarbeam!"
'With the sun beaming down on the battlefield, the Solarbeam doesnt need to spend time charging.' That was the thought that went through Snow's head right before an intense beam of light crashed down on Snorlax.
The attack was enough to wake Snorlax up, allowing Snow to take the offensive.
"Snorlax, quick, use Body Slam!"
"Oh no you don't! Use Solarbeam!"
Despite its size, Snorlax took a running start as the Solarbeam came crashing down on where it once stood. The beam then began to follow Snorlax. Just as it was about to reach Snorlax, the Sleeping pokemon leaped forward, Lilligant's eyes widened in shock and horror as she realized Snorlax was falling straight at her.
Lilligant lost her focus on the Solarbeam and tried to run, but she wasn't able to get very far as Snorlax crashed into the ground, with her right under him.
Snorlax slowly got back to its feet, revealing Lilligant unconscious underneath.
"And Snorlax is on a roll tonight! We just might get a clean sweep today!" Corey exclaimed.
"Ugh, man! Oh well, it isn't over yet. I got just the thing to turn the tables!" Illana said pridefully as she sent out their next pokemon; Ninetales.
As Ninetales was sent out, the sunlight harshened again, and Illana was quick to take the offensive.
"Ninetales, use Fire Blast!"
Ninetales' tales extended and its eyes began to glow deep red. It then exhaled an insane flame that blasted Snorlax faster than it could respond. The attack left a trail of fire with Snorlax blacked out in the blast zone.
"Ohhh and Snorlax goes down!" Mauro exclaimed.
"At least this match got more interesting." Corey added.
'Now what do I do?!' Snow thought, '...Okay, it's a long shot but this might work...'
"I choose you: Blastoise!"
Snow's Blastoise roared is it was sent out, Illana looked intruiged at the idea of Snow sending out a water type in this situation.
"A water type in the sun against a pokemon that obviously has Solarbeam in the sun, not really a smart move by Weiss." Mauro noted.
"Do you not have a counter to my Ninetales? Oh well..." Illana shrugged. "Ninetales, use Solarbeam."
"Not so fast!" Snow exclaimed. 'Lets hope this works...' She thought. "Blastoise, use Rain Dance!"
Ninetales was seconds away from firing the Solarbeam when Blastoise began to glow blue, dark grey clouds grew over the battlefield. Rain started to pour onto the field, interrupting Ninetales' attack and forcing it to charge another Solarbeam.
"And Weiss turns the tides, almost literally, with Rain Dance!"
"Wha-?!"
"It was a gamble, and it looks like luck is on my side! Blastoise, Mega Evolve use Hydro Pump!"
Blastoise was engulfed in the coccoon of Mega Evolution and as it emerged, it used the new cannon on its back to send an enormoud blast of water at Ninetales, who was still stuck charging its attack.
The Hydro Pump struck Ninetales full force, knocking it out almost instantly.
"And just like that, the battle keeps flowing in Weiss' favor!" Corey stated.
"Nice one! We're really having a weather war here!" Illana giggled. "Still, whenever there's rain, the sunlight will always shine through, even if it doesn't happen right away!"
Illana sent out a Cherrim as her last Pokemon, it's Downcast form matched the rain rather well with its gloomy appearance.
"Another Grass type!" Mauro stated. "Can Illana find a way to pull through and take the victory?"
"Hah, nope!" Corey laughed.
"One day you know you're going to be fired, right?"
"Nah, color commentators are a necessity in announcing!"
"If you say so... Anyway, let's focus on the action."
"Blastoise, use Ice Beam!" Snow commanded.
"Nuh-uh! You're not getting away with that! Cherrim, Sunny Day!"
Blastoise charged up its attack using its arm cannon and launched the blast at Cherrim, who changed the weather back to the bright sun and clear sky. But just as Cherrim was about to be hit by the Ice Beam, it jumped skyward and its leaves began to unfurl and change color until it finished its morphed into its Sunshine form.
"Cherrim, Solarbeam!"
"Ice Beam, again!"
The two pokemon's attacks colored, resulting in an explosion that generated smoke that would have obscured the battlefield, but the sunlight passed through the smoke in a way that made the battlefield look ethereal in a certain way.
"Man this battle is too much fun!" Illana cheered. "Too bad it'll end, but let's make this the best battle it can be!"
"Way ahead of you! Blastoise, use Ice Beam!" Snow commanded.
Blastoise sent out another beam of freezing energy at Cherrim.
"Quick, Cherrim, dodge it and use Solarbeam!"
Cherrim dashed to the side to avoid the attack, however it was still clipped by the beam and took a rather heavy hit. Still able to attack, Cherrim sent out a beam of its own at Blastoise, who was unable to dodge the attack and took the full brunt of it.
The dust finally settled and Blastoise was revealed to have fainted from the Solarbeam.
"Intense! But I still don't see Illana bouncing back." Corey shrugged.
'Ok, Blastoise managed to get a good hit in, maybe I can end this quickly.' Snow thought. "Ok, it's all up to you Roserade!"
"Ohhh a Poison type, you have an answer for everything I have, don't you!" Illana chuckled. "Cherrim use Weather Ball!"
Cherrim raised its arms above it, forming a sphere of white energy. The sphere suddenly burst into flame as Cherrim hurled it at Roserade.
"Sludge Bomb!" Snow ordered.
Roserade countered the flaming ball with its own bomb, genersting an explosion. The ensuing smoke was cleared by another flaming Weather Ball.
"What?!" Snow said in shock.
"And the surprise second Weather Ball!" Corey announced excitedly.
"Where was that enthusiasm before?" Mauro asked.
'Crud, now what?' Snow thought. '...I got it!'
"Roserade, use Sludge Bomb at the ground below you!"
The Bouquet pokemon followed its orders, albeit with a bit of hesitation. The attack sent Roserade upwards and over the Weather Ball.
"Now use it one more time to end this!"
Illana's Cherrim could only look up for a few seconds, it saw the bombs of gunk fall right towards it, but there was nothing that could be done.
The resulting blow was enough to finish Cherrim off, securing the victory for Snow.
"And Snow secures a victory and advances to the next round!" Mauro proclaimed.
"A two-nothing victory ain't bad! But this tournament is only gonna get tougher for her and everyone else." Corey added.
"Aww, I wanted to get a come from behind victory!" Illana groaned. "Oh well, good luck in the tournament!"
Snow smiled to herself, another victory and one step closer to winning the tournament!
In another, less inhabited section of the Plateau, Julia and Renée we're called over behind a currently closed shack.
"So, why are we here again?" Julia asked.
"Because mom called you over here." A young woman's voice responded. The twins recognized the voice and looked in the direction it came from. A girl who was about a year older than the twins approached them. She had brown hair tied down in a ponytail, she wore a blue short sleeved shirt and grey pants with blue sneakers. For sone reason though she also had a large straw hat, sunglasses and a blue bandanna as a mask.
Julia gasped in joy when she heard the voice.
"Cousin Verity! Is that you?"
"Eeeek! I'm so happy to see you two again!" Verity squealed as the three girls got into a group hug.
"Where's Aunt Cynthia!?" Renée asked.
"Over here! I wouldn't miss this for the world!"
The Champion if Sinnoh approached the three girls, instead of her usual attire she wore a light blue sun dress and had similar headwear to her daughter. She gave her nieces hugs as well. But the two girls were confused at the fact that there was a third woman with them.
This woman wore a red sun dress, the same headwear as Cynthia and black high heels. Her red hair seemed to almost match her dres.
"Oh, excuse me for interrupting your family moment. My name is Lorelei and-"
"Wait!" Julia interrupted. "You mean former Ice type member of the Elite Four? That Lorelei?"
"Why, yes, I am." Lorelei chuckled. "You see, my daughter is actually taking part in the tournament and I wanted to support her. But, as you know, with my former position comes much media attention and in a place like this I can't support my child. So I had asked your aunt to help me."
"Really? Your daughter's in the tournament?" Renée asked.
"Yes, her name is Sandra. I know this may be a bit sudden to ask, but if you know where and when she has her battle I would appreciate it. The three if us were unfortunate enough to not get a schedule of the battles today." Lorelei explained.
"Oh of course!" Julia replied, getting a schedule for then to see.
"So how long are you abke to stay?" Renée asked her aunt.
"I requested a vacation from the Sinnoh League so I'm free until this event is over. Unless some catastrophe happens in Sinnoh, I'm staying here!"
"And I'm stsying here regardless!" Verity chimed in with a giggle.
"As much as I want to talk, I have to get ready for my battle soon. Will you all be watching?" Julia explained.
"Of course!" Cynthia replied. The five women headed over to Arena 1 for Julia's battle, which still had a bit of time before it started.
"Agent Dakota, how goes things?"
Dakota had already finished his battle, which resukted in his victory. He had returned to his room and was on call with Typhoon.
"Just fine on my end, sir. If you don't mind me asking, what's this big plan the you and the rest of the admins have?"
"That's classified, besides the orders come from the boss himself. Admins Sirius and Meridia will be heading to your location to act as recon for the time being. Any further instruction will be from them until I join you at a later time."
"So for now should I just focus on the league?"
"Exactly. At ease, we'll contact you if anything important comes up." Typhoon said finally.
Typhoon ended the call, Dakota sighed and laid on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He hated not knowing what his superiors were planning. Being left in the dark was so frustrating to him. Villainoud teams like Team Rocket, Aqua and Magma were dangerous, there was no doubt about that. But their plans were at least known to those involved. But from everything he was told and learned from his time in Team Dark Star, it was that the strongest and most frightening things in this world are the unknown...
Time continued to pass. By this time it was just around noon, a girl with white hair was casually walking through the area as if trying to find someone or something. She had a Weezing behind her so that nobody would approach her. This still proved to be unsuccessful when it came to the paparazzi following her.
In addition to her white hair, the girl wore a blue and purple shirt, black jeans and sneakers, and a guitar strapped on her back.
"Sister! It's fantastic to see you again!"
Luna approached the white haired girl and hugged her, to which she returned the hug.
"Good to see you Lulu! You seen Margie around?" The girl asked.
"No, she must not want to appear until the winner of the tournament challenges her. You know how she enjoys making a grand entrance." Luna replied.
"Right... So, since we're here why don't we get some food and watch some battles. We can go see Margaret later."
"That sounds nice! ... But Roxie, perhaps having a Weezing right next to you is not such a good idea..." Luna suggested, Roxie simply laughed.
"Well it isn't easy being a rock star and former gym leader. But I get your point." Roxie said, she ordered her Weezing to use Smokescreen in order to allow the two sisters to escape.
They ran until they were sure the paparazzi was nowhere to be seen.
"Well that takes care of that!" Roxie said pridefully.
"Why didn't you try that earlier?"
"I do that all the time, I just don't like doing it unless I'm memory ticked off or annoyed."
"I see..."
The two girls suddenly heard what sounded like whistling coming from a large building they were standing in front of. The two looked at one of the windows amd noticed a shadowy figure standing behind one of the windows holding something that could not be identified. Whoever the figure was, they were the one whistling. The two sisters gave the figure a knowing smile, they knew that even if their third sibling was too busy at the moment to see them personally, she would be watching over the two.
"Alakazam, use Psychic to end this battle!"
Celeste's Mega Alakazam held its arms forward, the spoons that were floating around it turned towards her opponent's Swallow. Swellow was blasted by an almost invisible sphere of psychic energy and sent flying into a now cracked wall.
"And the victory goes to Celeste in what has to be one of the more dominant performances we've seen in this tournament so far!" Mauro announced.
"Following this match we'll be having a short intermission before entering the second half of battles we have today!" Corey added.
Celeste headed back to the locker room where Shade was waiting for her. The two smiled at each other, both being victorious in their battles.
"Looks like we both won!" Shade said. "I wonder who we'll battle next."
"Well there won't be another randomization." Celeste stated. "But by the looks of it, we'll be battling each ofher next round."
Shade's eyes widened a bit. Celeste was a good friend of his and his travelling companion. But every time they had battled, Celeste would come out on top. Now Shade was worried history would repeat itself again.
"Yeah, well, things will be different this time!" Shade said, he didn't mean it intentionally but he sounded more bitter than he wanted to. It didn't help that he walked away immediately afterwards...
And so the chapter ends. Sorry it isn't as long as the previous chapter, I just don't want to overload you with battles all in one chapter. But I hope the battles are growing better in terms of quality. Next chapter, the battles of Round 1 will continue!
