I shall present... the next chapter.
(Edit: 4-26-22)
Thanks for all the support on the story so far.
"Now it's a fair fight."
The arena was pin-dropped silent. Anyone who knew Gladion knew of the immense power he had with Type: Null and his other Pokemon. Those who didn't could still feel the power and confidence he and his Pokemon were omitting.
"I'll show you a fair fight! Decideye use Leaf Blade!" Hau put on a brave face as he commanded his Pokemon, but you could see the nervousness in his eyes. Decideye was also nervous from the slight hesitation before he carried out his trainer's commands. Decideye has faced Type: Null before in battle.. and knew just how powerful this one Pokemon was.
Decideye jumped off the metal wall and avoided other walls to reach Type: Null. Decideye eyes sharpened on Type: Null, ready to give it one hell of a Leaf Blade. Gladion smirked seeing the approaching Decideye before he threw the Fire-Type memory card at Type: Null changing its type. Ash watched as the Decideye slashed Type: Null with a powerful Leaf Blade but it didn't look as quite affected as it should have.
"Damnit he turned it a Fire-Type!" Hau complained, smacking his forehead. "Type: Null can change types?" Ash pondered. "No problem, Decideye use Air Slash!" Leaping into the air, Decideye shot down a powerful Air Slash. Gladion watching the air-type move didn't even look remotely worried.
"Dodge it Type: Null!" Gladion said, not an ounce of worry in his voice, his Pokemon leaping away from the attack and turned to look up at the mid air Decideye. Kiawe had enough of standing around and doing nothing.
"Turtonator use Dragon Pulse!" Kiawe fiercely commanded. A beam of draconic power fired toward the back of Type: Null. Gladion saw this and quickly threw the Fairy-Type memory card.
"Use Tri-Attack!" Gladion struck a pose as his Pokemon was engulfed in the Dragon Pulse, but Type: Null didn't seem to notice and launched the three attacks toward Decideye.
"Slash through using Leaf Blade!" Hau called desperately. Decideye was able to slash through the first two if the Tri attack before the last hit. Gladion smirked.
"Now use X-Scissor!" Type: Null leaped into the air to use X-scissor on the falling Decideye, shooting him straight towards the ground.
"Decideye no!" Hau worriedly shouted. Decideye was out cold. Hau returned his Pokemon and gave him thanks before he looked over at Kiawe and Ash.
"He must be able to change typing... which means" Ash quickly thought of a plan to take down this strange Pokemon. Because of the annoyance of the type change, their were two options to defeat this powerful Pokemon. Either be quicker than the type change, or have different type moves hit Type: Null at once.
Ash looked at Pikachu who seem to finally be recovered from the previous move he was able to pull off. That move he performed was a bit taxing on him, and needed a quick recover. Pretty much just like using Giga Impact.
"You guys can beat him if you work together!" Hau cheered. Ash nodded and looked at Kiawe who nodded at him.
"We have to be quicker than him and work together Kiawe! It's the only way we can beat him!" Ash furthered backed up Hau's statement. Kiawe nodded, a fire lit in his eyes.
"We got this!"
"Pikachu use Quick Attack to get behind Type: Null, then use Electro Ball!" Pikachu shot off through the metal walls to find an opening.
"Keep a close eye for Pikachu." Gladion calmly said. He saw the move Pikachu just performed and realized that the black-hair trainer wasn't half bad. But Kiawe wasn't going to let Gladion focus on Pikachu.
"Turtonator get in close and use Flamethrower!" Turtonator avoided some metal walls, nearing Type: Null and fired the Flamethrower.
"Fine you want to get defeated, so be it." Gladion coldly said. "Null, counter with Tri-Attack, then get it close!"
Tri-Attack cut through the incoming Flamethrower with ease and part of it managed to hit Turtonator as Type: Null advanced toward Turtonator.
"Wait for it… Shell Trap!" Kiawe smirk, believing he made the right play as Type: Null leaped forward and wouldn't be able to stop its momentum toward Turtonator who had his back turned.
"Pikachu, now!" Jumping from the side of Type: Null, Pikachu swung its body and released a ball of electrical energy toward Type: Null from behind.
"Gotcha!" Ash proudly shouted, pleased that his plan worked, or he thought it did. Gladion must have gave Type: Null the Ground-Type memory card before engaging because the Electro Ball and no affect whatsoever on Type: Null. If they looked at Gladion they would have saw his cruel smirk.
"Use Hyper Beam!" Kiawe's and Ash's eyes widened. A point blank Hyper Beam directly fired at Turtonator, causing an explosion throwing back Pikachu to the side of the arena. When the dust cleared, Turtonator was unconscious. While a little bruised up, Type: Null appeared fine.
Ash looked at the smirking Gladion in shock. In a few moves he was able to take out both Decideye and Turtonator. Type: Null pranced back onto the other side of the arena, awaiting his trainer's command. Ash clenched his fist, wondering how he was going to defeat this extremely powerful trainer.
Back in the stands, Moon had her hands in her lap, clenching them tightly watching the battle in front of her. At first, the battle went well for Ash and his team. They took out two of the other team's Pokemon pretty easily. Ash even performed some crazy Electric-Type move that shocked the entire area. The crowd cheered watching this Pikachu trainer kid battle. She most definitely was one of the loudest. While she just met Ash, she already vibed really well with the teen. However until heard what Gladion said.
She felt the aura he and his Pokemon were giving off. Pure confidence and malice. The entire arena must have felt it because they all went quiet, some people in fear. Moon heard a bit about the recent Alolan League, how a trainer completely dominated the competition including the final battle, loosing only two Pokemon before winning. She didn't watch the battle but she saw it on the news but didn't pay too much mind to the blond-haired kid.
Now that blond-haired kid was dominating exactly like reporters said he was during the Alolan League. Quickly taking out Hau's Decideye and Kiawe Turtonator. Now it was Gladion versus Ash and things weren't looking too well, but she believed in him.
Up on the roof of the stadium, looking down at the battle, perched a ball bird Pokemon. The Pokemon watched the trainer with the Pikachu with interest. Rowlet, the Grass Quill Pokemon, saw the trainer perform such unique and powerful moves not only in this battle, but Rowlet watched the battle he had with the green haired kid.
"Spear!" Rowlet turned his head, without moving his body, toward a Spearow who cried out with anger. The Spearow looked at him in disgust with his talons looking ready to attack.
"Row?" Rowlet didn't know what it was so upset about. He didn't have any time to ponder as the Spearow flew toward him. In defense, Rowlet fired some leaves at the Spearow, causing the Spearow to drift from its intended path and it flew away.
"Rowlet." He sighed and turned back around, pleased he was able to scare away the Spearow. Now did he want to watch the rest of the battle or sleep, the most important question.
"SPEAR!" Rowlet turned around again, intent on using another Leafage on the Spearow but he noticed that it wasn't just one Spearow, but a dozen and they were all angry.
"SPEAROW!" One of the Spearow charged, the one who he scared off, and the rest followed. The peaks of the Spearow glowed, some using Peck while others using Fury Attack.
"Rowlet row!" Rowlet, understanding a Leafage wouldn't do him any good, jumped off the edge and started to fly down toward the seats. The Spearows followed him and some were faster than him. Some of them managed to nick part of him but they didn't get a clean hit yet. Rowlet didn't know what to do.
"Pikachu use Thunderbolt!" In a flash, all the Spearow fell to the ground before they picked themselves up and flew away. Rowlet looked to see the Pikachu of the trainer having faint sparks of electricity. He flew down toward Ash. The crowd looked flabbergasted at what just happen. All of the sudden a pack of Spearow was chasing a Rowlet, completely interrupting the battle. In the front row, Kukui looked interested.
"Not what I had in mind when I said I was expecting an interesting battle..." Professor Kukui muttered, but overall was still pretty happy with how the battle was turning out.
"Row, rowlet!" He chirped at the trainer who just saved his life, flying right above the trainer and Pikachu.
"Hey you kind of look like Hau's Pokemon." Ash observed. The Pokemon chirped happily before landing himself onto Ash's head, or rather cap. This indeed was turning into a strange battle.
"That's because he's the pre-evolution of Decideye. That Pokemon is Rowlet." Kiawe explained to him.
"Well I'm Ash and the Pokemon who saved you from the Spearow is Pikachu!" Ash introduced the Pokemon who was still perched on his head. He felt a bit dumb because he couldn't see Rowlet so he was looking toward the battlefield.
"Are we going to battle or are you to have to tea with that Rowlet!" Gladion yelled on the other side of the field. Ash, while not liking the guy's attitude, turned his attention back toward the field.
"We are going to battle, and I'm going to beat you!" Ash stated fiercely, a confident look on his face. He felt his blood pumping and the adrenaline rushing and he knew that Pikachu felt the same.
"Pika!" Gladion scoffed but Ash could tell his interest was peak, and he was about to know why. Gladion laughed, not one of humor, but a cruel laugh.
"Maybe you should beat a Pokemon League first before you start yapping!" Gladion fired back, a sinister smirk on his lips. He knew about this kid he was facing. While it took him a while to remember, he finally realized he's most definitely seen the Pikachu trainer on TV. Gladion's interests was on battling, why wouldn't he watch and hear about this kid was regularly placed in the Pokemon Leagues. He had slightly admired Ash, until he took part in the Alola League and won so easily. The kid has been in so many leagues in and hasn't won yet, in his mind, he must be weak.
"Grr… we did our best and almost won!" Ash, while shouting fiercely, knew it was a weak reply and Gladion knew it to. A dry chuckle escaped Gladion's lips.
"Almost doesn't get you anywhere! You're a powerful trainer, but I'm so much stronger. You've battled in countless leagues, Kanto top 16, Johto top 8, Hoenn top 8, Sinnoh top 4, Unova top 8 and Kalos runner up. In all those leagues you couldn't win, while in my first league I swept the competition and dominated!" Gladion proclaimed. While to the regular onlooker he it seemed Gladion was gloating, the people who watched the Alola League knew of his strength, and that he wasn't lying.
Kiawe and Hau looked at Ash in mild shock. Surprised that he's been in so many leagues. In fact, a majority of the audience were left in shock by the credibility the young teen had, surprised with the amount of league placements he had. Hau also looked a bit hurt, hearing Gladion claim that he crushed the competition, but it was true.
Kukui cursed under his breath. While the majority of the audience was enjoying the battle, he was starting not to like wear this was turning up. He knew of Gladion's taunting and cruel attitude, but wouldn't imagine that he would spit down on Ash like this. He had no idea Gladion knew of Ash. This wasn't some normal battle that only had a purpose of pleasing fans, but it held a much deeper purpose and he knew that deeper purpose was going to be harder than he imagined.
Ash didn't know why Gladion knew all those things about him but he didn't care as rare anger started to form inside him.
"Pikachu, Quick Attack!" He shouted with anger laced into his voice, had enough of the jarring. Pikachu also was angered by what Gladion said and quickly, much faster than before, zipped through the metal walls.
"Let's clear the battlefield shall we. Null, Earthquake!" Gladion struck his signature pose as Type: Null front half raised up before slamming its limbs onto the battlefield. From Type: Null's ground typing, the move was even more powerful. The Earthquake shook the entire stadium and the metal walls were uprooted into the air. The audience gasped but Ash didn't hear them, focused on the battle.
"Pikachu, grab onto one of the walls!" Ash quickly commanded. Pikachu grabbed onto one of the metal walls before it was flung into the air. Ash seeing all the metal pieces in the sky, formed a plan.
"Use Iron Tail on the pieces as projectiles!" Pikachu tail glowed that shiny silver and started to hop from piece before rapidly hitting the pieces toward Type: Null. A pleasant smirk appeared on Gladion's face, not the sinister one of toying with opponents who were much weaker than him, but a smirk of a battle actually getting him excited. Type: Null was pelted with iron pieces and it screeched with mild pain.
"Blast Pikachu out of the sky with Tri-Attack!" Type: Null's eyes sharpened, ignoring the stinging pain of the metal pieces hitting his skin and launched the attack at Pikachu.
"Thunderbolt Pikachu!" Pikachu glowed with electric energy and released the Thunderbolt. Tri-Attack and Thunderbolt struggled against each other, before an explosion occurred. Gladion and Ash were already calling out their next moves.
"Quick Attack into Iron Tail!"
"X-Scissor!"
Pikachu flipped onto the floor before dashing toward Type: Null, his tail once again turning metallic. Type: Null's front limbs turned turquoise. Without the metal walls in the way, the Pokemon quickly reached each other. The attacks collided with each other, and a struggle for power was seen but ultimately Type: Null was stronger and launched Pikachu away.
"Pikachu are you okay?" Ash asked. Pikachu had already battled today and it took a bit to defeat Gengar and Vikavolt from earlier. Pikachu, while panting heavily, nodded, still having fuel in the tank.
"Don't let it end so soon! C'mon Ash! Null, Earthquake!" Gladion taunted, actually enjoying the battle. The arena was rocked with the powerful Earthquake but Ash already had a counter.
"Pikachu, slam your tail into the ground and launch yourself up and toward Type: Null using Iron Tail!" Pikachu did just that, avoiding the Earthquake before coming down and slamming it tail downward at Type: Null, crushing him into the ground. Ash didn't have a moment to celebrate the success attack as Gladion yelled out his move. To most Pokemon, a direct Iron Tail by Pikachu from above would usually be the end, Type: Null like most Pokemon.
"X-Scissor again!" Type: Null sprung back up, limbs glowing with power. Pikachu stuck in mid air couldn't dodge.
"Block with Iron Tail!" Ash worriedly yelled, a feeling of dread picked up on his spine. The X-Scissor didn't have much effect as Pikachu used his tail to block the hit, but Gladion smirked as Pikachu was sent flying in the air.
"End this with Hyper Beam!" Gladion struck his pose, which some people, including Moon, rolled their eyes at. Ash's eyes widened and he called the only attack that could possibly block the Hyper Beam.
"Thunderbolt!" Ash yelled. Pikachu channeled his power and released his most powerful Thunderbolt of the day. For a second the attacks seemed even and Ash had a look of hope on his face. Before the Hyper Beam overpowered the Thunderbolt and directly struck Pikachu.
"It's over." Gladion sharply said. An explosion occurred from the Hyper Beam, plowing dust and some of the small metals walls away from the field. Everyone in the stands figured the battle must be over. The explosion cleared to
"Pi...ka…" Pikachu moaned but was still hanging on to consciousness. The referee was about to call Gladion's team the winner, but Pikachu was trying to get up.
"No way." Both Ash and Moon mumbled at the same time. Gasps arose from the crowd, watching as Pikachu got up, determination and pain on his face. In Pikachu's mind, he wasn't going to lose again, not twice in a row.
"How is that even possible?" Sophocles asked himself.
Gladion eyes narrowed and his face remained stoic, but he was impressed that Pikachu was still standing.
Ash looked at Pikachu in awe and Pikachu looked at him with determination. He couldn't believe he thought the battle was over. Maybe he wouldn't win, but Pikachu still wanted to fight.
"We aren't finished!" Ash prided as Pikachu got back up. Gladion was shocked with how much their eyes blazed with determination.
Ash saw the scattered pieces of the metal walls. There was still a good amount as Pikachu wasn't able to hit all of them. Using Gladion's shock to form a plan, he yelled out to Pikachu.
"Pikachu use Iron Tail on the ground. Then uxd Thunderbolt on the metal pieces. Pikachu carried his trainer orders no matter how weird it was he knew Ash had a plan. Hau and Kiawe stared at him in confusion. The unorthodox moves Ash came up with still left them in confusement.
The Thunderbolt struck some of the pieces, and what happened next was odd. The pieces, fueled with electricity, shot off in a random direction while also blasting some electricity elsewhere which hit other pieces. Soon the battlefield was filled with zipping metal pieces, but a majority heading toward Gladion who was able to break out of his shock seeing Type: Null getting pelted once again by smaller metal pieces, but a lot more. While the electricty coming off the metal pieces didn't affect Type: Null, the metal pieces pelting it harder and faster was. Gladion gritted his teeth as Type: Null schreeched. He was foolish to let his guard down and to become shocked.
"Pikachu use Quick Attack!" Pikachu dashed and slammed into Type: Null before Gladion could say a command. Now Type: Null was starting to look worn out and tired. Ash's confidence soared. Blood pumping through his veins, fire in his eyes, a wide grin plastered on his face. "We can do this!"
"Pounce on him with X-Scissor!" Type: Null roared before leaping to strike down Pikachu with X-Scissor.
"Get under him and use Iron Tail!" Ash sucked his breath knowing if Pikachu got struck with any attack, it would be all over. Fortunately, Pikachu was quick enough to dodge Type: Null by going under him and then delivering a powerful Iron Tail to its stomach and sending it up.
"I've had enough!" Gladion shouted, throwing the Normal-Type Memory Card into Type: Null, "Tri-Attack!" His Pokemon maneuvered in the air to fire the attack downward toward Pikachu.
"Thunderbolt!"
"Pikachuuuu!" The attacks collided, but because of Type: Null typing, the normal type attack was starting to overcome the Thunderbolt.
"Come on PIkachu!" Ash yelled, motivating Pikachu to reach down and increase the power of Thunderbolt, able to disperse of the attack. Pikachu panted, nearly falling over, but in that time, PIkachu forgot about Type: Null who now fell right infront of Pikachu.
"Earthquake!" There was nothing Ash or Pikachu could do as Type:Null used Earthquake, sending Pikachu flying back. Once the Earthquake subseceeded, Pikachu was clearly knocked out.
"Because Pikachu is unable to battle, and the rest of the team is unable to battle, the winners are Gladion, Acerola and Sophocles!" The referee announced. The crowd, albeit small, roared loudly at the climax of the battle. Gladion recalled his Pokemon, smirking, before walking off. Sophocles and Acerola barely felt like winners after Gladion was able to defeat their opponents all by his lonesome.
"Stupid, idiot, brainless, mother-" Curses were spewed by a clearly enraged individual who couldn't believe what she saw. For those who knew her, which wasn't many, would not believe the girl was spewing out the words that she was, but she had good reason.
Lillie huffed as she stormed out of the stadium, heading outside with more anger than she ever felt before. Well actually, this is the second most angry she has been. The first being when Gladion left her and her mother a few years ago. Coincidently, he was the cause of her anger yet again. Then her anger started to head toward antoehr individual - her mother. Her mother most have known he was here, espically since she was one of the biggest funders for Melemele Academy.
"He never came back. Why didn't he come back! And mother... she must have know!" Lillie kicked a rock which happened to head toward a pond, hitting a Pokemon who was relaxing. She couldn't apoligize as a Houndour, a vein showing on his forehead, turnder towards her and growled at her menacilingly. Fear kicked into Lillie, and luckily, it wasn't paralyzing fear as Houndour released a smog toward Lillie was able to barely get out of the way.
"I-I-I'm s-sorry-y!" Lillie wailed but Houndour refused to listen, and dashed toward Lillie, preparing to use Bite. Lillie ran away from the Houndour who used Smog and Ember, but after a while, the Houndour quit chasing her. Lillie sighed of relief but the sigh quickly became a sigh of frustration upon seeing the sight of her now, very dirty clothes.
"Great, my clothes are dirty and I saw that idiot because dear ole' mother decided it was a good idea to send me to this stupid academy!" Luckily no one was around her and didn't hear her rant on.
She made her way toward the girls dormitory. She saw some staff who were surprised that she was there so early. The orientation was still going on but she left when she heard and saw her brother getting onto the stage. Using the key card, which fortunately worked, she walked into the room she would call home for the next couple of months and threw her bag down on the ground angrily.
"Don't fret on the lost Ash. Right now let's just enjoy eating." Moon smiled brightly at him, hoping to up his mood. His mood wasn't the best after losing to Gladion and previously to Hau, though the latter didn't affect him as much. Gladion had called him out on his failures and then proceeded to wipe the floor with one of his strongest Pokemon. He gave her a half smile, still feeling down about the battle.
"And enjoy this food, we must!" Hau proclaimed, stuffing a malasada comically into his mouth, nearly causing him to choke. Moon shot a glare at him, not seeming to notice the downcasted Ash. Hau had tagged along with Ash and Moon to eat something, then Hau claimed that he knows where they go, to eat the best food in the world, malasadas. They were currently at a Pokemon Center which also had a food joint that served malasadas, so they took a table while Pikachu and Decideye recovered.
Ash took a small bite out his food as his mind went elsewhere. As much as he didn't like to admit it, Gladion was right that he was better and that his losses in the league proved so. According to him and Hau, he was able to destroy the competitors in the Alolan League a few months ago.
Moon stared worriedly at Ash, concerned over his behavior. Even though she only just met him a few hours ago, Ash was an upbeat kid who was extremely passionate in Pokemon battles. Seeing him moping didn't suit him or her.
"Row?" Rowlet was on the table and stared at the trainer who he's perched on top of earlier. He witnessed the loss of Ash but couldn't understand why the trainer was acting as he did.
"Your Pikachu is all nursed back to health." Nurse Joy told the group. Blissey was wheeling a cart with an injured-free Pikachu.
"Pi Pika!" Pikachu leaped off the cart into his trainer's arms.
"Woah!" Not expecting Pikachu to leap off, Ash fell off the chair into the ground, landing hard on his butt.
He couldn't help but laugh, which caused Moon to give a soft smile at the look of joy on the trainer's face.
So originally the battle between Ash and Gladion was going to be shorter. RIght where Gladion uses Hyper Beam, I was going to have the battle wrapped up, but I felt that the battle was a tad short and having Ash lose so one-sided, even against Gladion, wouldn't be right. I also was in a writing battle mood.
For the tiny Lillie segment, answers will come in later chapters.
Okay for reviews
Chimera608 - It's a big possibility. If I were to give him Naganadel, it wouldn't be a rotation Pokemon. But I'll probably put him in the story, albeit later, and if I do, he will have a time to shine.
Lu - Yes he will be using old Pokemon and some of his old Pokemon will evolve, but it will only be a few.
Sakura Bum - I'm glad to hear that, even if you're comment was a bit strange.
That's it for now
Thank you guys for the support again
Read and Review
I'll catch ya in the next one