Episode 45: Fighting Spirit
"Where is Agent Domino?" Butch and Cassidy paled as their boss asked them the question they were dreading.
"Uhh, we got separated from her boss and lost contact with her. We thought she contacted you." Butch uneasily spoke out.
From his side of the screen, Giovanni seemed contemplative. "… Is that so? Bull, Cassidy, you are still on mission to capture the boy found during the Nimbasa City event, why has your progress slowed?"
"We lost track of our target for a while, but we found him recently. He's currently signed in with the Pokémon league. We'll wait for an opportune time to capture him."
"… Keep that as your top priority. However, keep on the lookout for anything else surrounding the boy. I have the distinct feeling that we aren't the only one after the corpse."
"Yes sir—wait, corpse?" Cassidy spoke out before noticing the word their boss used.
Giovanni spoke in a solemn tone. "I'm sending you a file that will automatically delete itself within ten minutes, read it carefully and show it to no one. I'm not one to say this, but keep an eye out and be cautious. There's something fishing going on in Unova."
With that the boss cut off his communication with Bromeo and Cassidy then sent a copy of the file he was reading.
He looked at another computer beside him that matched facial recognition software.
The boy in question had the same exact face as a dead teenager almost a year ago.
"Anthony Baker… back from the dead? If only the good Dr. Fuji could see this now." He half joked. Still, no matter how hard he stared at the pictures of both the deceased boy and the one photo taken of him during the Nimbasa City event (deformed as it was) there was just this uncanny sensation about the two photos.
He stood up from his desk and leaned in closer as he noticed something off. He stared deeply at a picture of Anthony in his casket before he was buried.
He zoomed in the picture with advance mechanics.
Most embalmers, or people who handle corpses by making them last longer, would place a specialized eye cap that helps keep the lids hydrated and closed. One would assume that Anthony's Embalmer had done the same thing towards his eyes for his eventual funeral viewing or open casket before his proper burial.
So why was there something that looked almost like a faint symbol of a triangle right bulging underneath Anthony's right eye?
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
It was dark as he walked, with nothing but the sound of echoing footsteps bouncing across the walls and the voice in his own mind.
The idea just hit him really. He was here. Here as in the Pokémon League, a place that brings out the best of best of trainers.
Somehow, he had bumbled his way from a hospital bed without even his real name all the way over here in the span of less than a year.
And that was not counting all of the misadventures he had in between waking up and coming here.
If he had his voice he would laugh out loud.
Honestly, he still had a lot to do even afterward, so he wasn't near the finish line yet. Heck it was more like he just reached the half way point.
"…elcome you all to the first battle of the Pokémon League! I, your MC, Guyver, am honored to be the Unova League's host for this year! Now then! On the yellow corner, we have our first trainer coming out right now! Let's give him a warm welcome everyone!"
(The young teen realized something that he really did seem to forget every time he was on this journey.)
The light shined down on him as he exited the hallway; he was greeted by the largest stadium he'd ever seen and surrounded by people all across the area who were all cheering wildly.
"Let me introduce to you all one of the youngest participants of this year's league! Let's give a warm hand to, Anto!" The host threw his hand out to welcome him. He was seen wearing a fancy red tux while wearing sparkling sunglasses and had a swept back blonde hair. He was very eye catching but he had a vibrant personality that really seemed to get people to focus on him.
The crowd cheered louder for the boy as screens showed his face with his Battle AR on. The young boy politely waved at them.
"And on the Green corner, we have his opponent!" MC Gyver pointed to the opposite side as everyone moved all screens and eyes away from the boy to his opponent.
(What he forgot was really simple: for every bad thing in his life…)
Anto smiled and activated his Battle AR, allowing the data to stream in before he slowly reached for a sphere on his belt.
(There was always something fun following it.)
"May I introduce to you, the beautiful, the elegant, Ms. Misoka Kiyomi!" The host exclaimed as out of the other side of the arena, a beautiful nineteen old girl with amber eyes and long, silky silver hair that reached her back walked out from Anto's side.
She was a very exotic looking girl and the crowd seemingly started to cheer louder. The mute sorta expected this, but he couldn't blame them. Misoka was gorgeous and was wearing even exotic clothes. For some reason she was wearing a short Kimono with beautiful spring flower patterns while wearing a long black hair band with ornate designs and a lotus on her right side of her head. The only thing that wasn't exotic were the long brown boots she was wearing as she was walking down the battle field.
But what stood out most to everyone was the fact she was actually carrying a sheathed Katana on her side.
When she and Anto faced each other, she put out a serene smile and said, "May we have an honorable battle." She spoke politely before bowing.
She reminded him of Takezo. How peculiar.
Still, feeling a little overwhelmed, Anto bowed to show his respect as well.
"Trainers, before we begin, we must explain the rules. For this first round, we will be going with the standard 3 versus 3 singles match. Only three Pokémon are allowed to be chosen, you may switch in between knockout, and the first to knock out all three of their opponent's Pokémon will win." The host explained before both participants nodded. "Are you ready? … Trainers, throw out your Pokemon!"
Anto threw Ohko out into the field.
"Tight, yo! This place is really big!" The energetic Sawk looked around as he fixed his cloak.
Hisoka took out a Poké Ball before throwing it into the sky. "Come forth, Agnar!"
A Conkeldurr appeared in the air before landing hard on the ground, causing dust to kick up. However, this Conkeldurr had blue Viking like painting across his body while he wielded two giant concrete clubs instead of pillars.
"Dah! Tis great day to battle in arena dat suit's the mighty Agnar's tastes!" The Conkledurr put down his clubs and flexed his muscles.
Ohko's eyes widened as he looked towards the floor. "Eating the arena? Yo, I gotta try that!"
"No!"
"Now then!" The MC pointed to one of the main screens of the arena as pictures of Agnar and Ohko appeared on the screen. Suddenly, a large circle of the water element appeared. "Using new technology, the arena before our contestants will change! This symbol means that the water arena is coming up!"
The arena rumbled as out of the ground, a large Windmill started to take form as water filled most of the arena. Beside the Windmill, there looked to be some wet, moss covered rocks while some wooden boards started appearing across the water.
Ohko and Agnar stepped back as the metal beneath them turned into wood and grass.
The crowd cooed at the marvel of such ground changing technology.
"Such a wonderful treat isn't it folks! This state of the art technology is sponsored by Dimension Enterprise!"
Anto blanched at the mention of the name of .
Meanwhile in the stands, Wes, Benga, and Jamie all had their eyes widened.
"You don't think…" Jamie started.
"Jamie, knowing our luck, it is." Wes responded.
Back onto the battle field, the MC dramatically pointed to the sky, "Now then, the stage is set! The combatants are ready! Begin the battle!" He declared.
Hisoka quickly pointed. "Agnar, use Mach Punch!"
Agnar suddenly accelerated with uncanny speed towards Ohko before punching him hard with one of his large fists and knocking the blue fighting type away. Then he was seen raising his fist up in the air, revealing that he had thrown up one of his concrete clubs into the air before the attack was called, and was now seen catching it with one free hand as it came back down.
Ohko quickly got up and threw away his cloak, surprising many that he only had one arm. The one armed Sawk jumped back towards the larger evolved Pokémon and quickly spun kick one of his feet towards his face. However, Agnar lifted one of his gigantic concrete clubs to block the kick.
It didn't stop Ohko from preparing a Focus Blast before the kick connected - then throwing the crushed orb right into the face of the Conkledurr with his hands trying to block his kick.
The boom resonated as dust and water flew from the impact zone. Both Ohko and Agnar were kicked out of their lock and slid back towards their trainers from the clash.
"O! Dis good! Ya gots fight in ya boyo!" Agnar laughed as he gripped his clubs tighter. Despite the hit, he only looked more excited than injured.
Ohko pointed dramatically. "What's a boyo?!"
"Oh gosh, we're back to this again." Anto silently sighed and placed a hand on his face.
Meanwhile, Hisoka was looking at her opponent because she was rather surprised he hadn't made a command yet.
"Agnar, remove your wrist weights!" The exotic beauty screamed out.
The evolved Pokémon quickly tore of his large heavy looking wrist bands, revealing they had indeed been weighted with a significant volume. The fighting type was carrying that along with using those giant clubs so easily!?
"Now we got into real fighting no!?" Agnar flexed again.
Ohko gripped his fist then threw it out towards him. "I have no idea what you're talking about! But I can like a fight!"
"Come at Agnar, blue man!" Agnar laughed in jubilee as he and Ohko ran up to each other—Ohko quickly placing on his Power Band as he ran— then collided with a powerful Power Up Punch and Dual Chop.
Even with the Power Band, Ohko was overpowered and knocked back from the second contact.
Anto's mind raced. He was over powered; how could he—wait a sec that wind mill is really big with its propellers.
Huh…
The propellers…
Quickly, Anto pointed towards the Windmill Ohko was directly under. "Ohko, grab a hold of that slow moving circling thing!" Anto found it much faster to describe things rather than use words Ohko for sure has never heard before.
"Ya mean the giant propeller sails? Just say so man. Yeessh, boss, I didn't know ya didn't know what those things were called."
… Say nothing, Anto, you have a match to win right now.
Ohko quickly got up on the slow moving blade and rode it towards the top before jumping on the cone like top of the windmill.
Quickly, Hisoka wondered what her younger opponent was doing and quickly ordered Agnar to destroy the windmill with Drain Punch.
With one mighty blow, the evolved Pokémon hit the windmill, slowing its spin and letting cracks appear from the bottom to the top.
However, Anto smiled and gave Ohko more silent instructions on what to do.
The one armed Sawk jumped nearby a blade sail before landing with a roll on the watery pool as the dust settled from the crashing building.
"Mach Punch! He's in the water!" The silver haired beauty cried out as Agnar quickly flew out from the smoke towards the kneeling fighting type.
Then everyone in the entire stadium, except two, looked on surprise.
Ohko suddenly turned—then threw a large, crumpled white sheet from the windmill he tore off right into the face of Agnar, blinding the bulky fighting type mid air when it stretched out and hit his face.
"Twin Dragons!" Anto cried out the fusion move as Ohko ran up to the disoriented evolved Pokémon mid air and kicked him hard in the stomach before using the second half to flip kick Agnar back into the ground and kick Ohko higher up into the air.
"Good thing fusion moves aren't affected by the move lock of choice items. Now, Focus Blast!"
While still mid air, Ohko quickly gathered a crushed sphere and threw it right towards where he had kicked the Conkledurr. One explosion on top of another explosion before Ohko landed on the shallow water area of the arena. Then the one armed fighter quickly removed and placed his Choice Band back on to reset his move set.
As the dust settled, Anto glanced over to Hisoka, the much older teen looked surprised, but she still remained calm. He didn't know if she was just as reserved as Takezo, but he already figured that it wouldn't be that easy to knock his opponent down.
His eyes widened as he saw Hisoka point an arm out. "Use Ice Punch!"
Ice Punch? Why would she—OH CRAP! "Ohko, get out of there!" Unfortunately for Anto, he figured out a second too late.
Near the edge of the shallow pool, where the dust cloud was covering the field, the water quickly turned to ice then covered the pool complete with frozen water, trapping Ohko's feet.
Agnas jumped out of the smoke and quickly swung one of his giant concrete clubs at Ohko, knocking him like a baseball out of the frozen ice, and right into the rocks at the other corner of the arena.
"Ya gots fight in ya! O'l Agnar will enjoy this battle!" The damaged evolved Pokémon raised one of his clubs in the air as if he didn't even look tired.
Ohko walked out of the miniature mountain he was knocked into and dusted himself off. "I feel the same way yo! But I am to win it!"
The two grinned at each other as they went back into fighting stances.
Suddenly the pool started to shake, all over where the wooden boards were covered over shot out of the ground and water started gush out like geysers.
Hisoka saw something in them. "Agnar, freeze the pillar of water closest to you!"
The fighting type punched the water pillar closest to him, freezing it in an instant, before swinging his club to break the giant frozen water then carrying it over his shoulder as it fell over him.
"Oh Snap." "Bring it!" Anto and Ohko spoke out at the same time.
Agnar threw the seven foot tall frozen water at Ohko like a missile.
The fighting type inhaled deeply as he clenched his fist. Dragonic energy flowed through his fist before it suddenly became much more vibrant and stronger in light. He opened his eyes and quickly unleashed a punch right for the speeding ice chunk as it exploded on impact as ice chunks flew over the place.
Ohko slowly reached his one arm out before a nicely shaped ice staff fell onto his palm and he started expertly spinning it in his one hand that prevented any ice chunks from hitting him on the head. As he stopped spinning it around, electricity cackled around the make shift ice staff.
Ohko smiled as he then pointed the temporary weapon towards his opponent. Anto rolled his eyes; looks like Ohko did pick up some techniques and forms from Takezo after all that training the two did together.
Agnar chuckled heartily before beating his chest and picking up his clubs.
However, Misoka noticed something strange about the Sawk. No it wasn't the arm, despite the impairment it obviously a very well raised Pokémon. However, what got her attention was the fact that the way it moved that staff looked awfully familiar.
"Not bad, but how ya going to do better than last time boyo?" Agnar placed one of his giant clubs on one of his shoulders.
Ohko looked over to Anto, and the young boy pressed his Battle AR
-SYNERGY BURST ACTIVATED-
A quick swirl of rainbow lights engulfed Ohko.
Misoka placed a hand over her eyes to shield herself from the light. "Wait, Mega Evolution!?" She yelled as everyone else shielded their eyes from the light show.
As the light died down, everyone saw Ohko wrapped around in a visibly rainbow aura.
Boom!
Ohko exploded towards Agnar with renewed speed and a punch right into the stomach again—some people swore they actually saw the thick Pokémon's back actually bend like rubber from the impact—before he flew right back into the land.
The Mc suddenly pointed. "Unbelievable folks! This is quite rare! For those that do not know, allow me to explain: Synergy Burst is—"
"Ohko don't listen to him! Synergy Burst has a time limit unlike Mega Evolution!" Anto spoke out as Gyver droned on the history of Anto's Battle AR.
"Oh." Ohko then quickly used his staff to launch himself into the air and land back on the grass to face Agnar.
Agnar came out of the smoke—he was far more durable than even Anto imagined to take on so many blows from Ohko—and quickly swung his clubs at a faster rate to hit the one armed Sawk.
"Agnar, focus on the left side!" Misoka cried out.
"I'll do it Mistress!" Agnar cried out as he suddenly stepped to his right and Ohko's left and swung both his clubs towards the undefended area of the one armed Sawk.
Anto knew that Ohko had an obvious hole, but they both prepared something just in case enemies abuse this fact.
Quickly, Ohko removed his Power Band over his head and kept it in his kata.
"Stand your ground!" The Synergy Burst was already fading so that meant Ohko had to finish this quick.
The two giant clubs swung over towards and hit the blue fighting type where he could not defend.
To everyone's surprise, and despite the huge wind and shockwave that parted the dust cloud to the Sawk's right side, Ohko held his ground.
"What?" Misoka looked on with surprise.
Anto pointed. "Now! Counter!"
Ohko's eyes glowed blue as well as the rest of his body as he suddenly stepped forward, crushing the earth beneath him more and then giving him a counter boosted Synergy Burst.
If people thought the shockwave from Agnar was strong, they quickly changed their mind when Ohko's blow made an entire area of the stadium feel a strong gust of wind that scattered snacks and other loose objects.
Despite that, Agnar also stood still after the attack made contact.
Ohko's rainbow aura died down as the Synergy Burst times out.
Agnar looked back up. He smiled.
Then he fell over.
"And the first knock out of the tourney goes to Anto! What an amazing display folks!" Guyver the MC shouted out as the crowds cheered wildly from the first battle of the league. On the large screen, the picture of Agnar darkened which meant he was knocked out cold.
"Your Pokémon fight well." Misoka managed to tell the boy.
Anto nodded… then realized it would be too awkward to use his telepathy on this person. Instead he just did some hand gestures to see if that would work.
"Hmm? Are those?" Hisoka tilted her head.
"Oh right! How could I forget!? Believe it or not folks, our young competitor Anto here is a mute! He can't actually speak!"
The crowd started murmuring at that.
"Still isn't that interesting how someone with a voice can make it to being here in the Pokémon league?! We all saw that splendid battle, so who knows what this surprisingly mysterious kid has up his bag of tricks!"
For some reason though, it looked like the crowd seemed more confused than anything.
Misoka looked around and sighed. "Come forth, Shin!" She quickly took out another Poké Ball and threw it into the field after recalling Agnar.
Out of the field, A Grovyle came out wearing a suit that looked like something a ninja would wear, he even had a ninja mask on.
A ninja? Hmm, Ohko isn't that good against mobile opponents yet. Takezo is my best bet, but… I have this feeling she actually has a Pokémon that has a fighting style like a samurai if she's already had a ninja and a Viking, and I kinda wanna see that.
So who do I pick?
Anto thought about it for a second before reaching for his Dusk Ball and calling back Ohko.
Sentinel appeared onto the field and instantly scowled at the ninja grass type.
"Sorry, bad habit." Sentinel quickly apologized to the grass type.
The grass type raised a brow behind the mask and simply just nodded.
The ground beneath started to shake as the MC explained they were changing the field. The debris and the water seemed to shrink into the ground while a new symbol appeared on the screen that looked like a grassy plain.
The field shot up, and now trees with wooden bridges scattered across the field. The ground beneath Sentinel revealed that he was under one of these wooden bridges that lifted him up towards the trees.
He quickly looked for his opponent, but the grass type already vanished.
Anto knew that was a bad thing if even his Battle AR couldn't detect the Grovyle anywhere.
"And the Grassy plain is next! Trainers, the next match starts now!" The MC cried out as pictures of Sentinel and Shin appeared on the screen next.
Sentinel looked around, but saw no trace of his opponent.
"Sentinel, I choose you since you have the most experience fighting ninjas." Anto recalled how Delta Wartortle was styled after a ninja and the two have battled before many times.
His delta Pokémon turned back to him. "You do remember I never beat him before right?"
…
He didn't.
Sentinel heard a snapping twig from the branches and quickly looked in the opposite direction and firing.
Before Anto could ask why he did that, the ninja Grovyle jumped out of the tree and quickly escaped into another one before the Shadow Ball hit the first tree.
"How did you know that?" Anto blinked. That was the opposite side where the sound came from!
"Wartortle did it too. He made me look the opposite way before attacking my blind side. Though now this guy is probably going to use more advance moves on me since he knows I won't fall for basics."
Crud. That did not sound… wait… that sudden breeze did not feel normal.
SNAP! SNAP!
Anto followed that sound and quickly saw that one side of the wooden bridge Sentinel was on got cut and quickly the bridge gave way for the ghost dragon type to fall down.
Sentinel regained his balance on his feet as he landed back on the grass before diving into the shadows of the tree.
"Huh. Well folks it looks like this battle is going to be like hide and seek. Anto's strange ghost type and Misoka's Groyvle are hidden in the arena and I don't think they can be easily spotted."
It was at that instant, one of the trees froze over and the shattered into tiny pieces. Everyone looked over towards that tree before on another side of the arena, then another tree froze over and shattered.
The younger boy wondered what Sentinel was doing.
A few more seconds passed as more and more trees started getting frozen over and shattered.
Eventually, the field was frozen over before Shin jumped out into the open, quickly followed by Sentinel trying to hit him with Shadow Claw.
The delta Pokémon followed through with the attack to hit—a doll?
"Sentinel that's Substitute!" The boy panicked as the doll Pokémon was split into pieces by the Torren Pokémon's claws.
"I was sure I got him this time!" Sentinel snarled as he looked around. His trainer then panicked as he saw the claw that Sentinel used to his the doll.
Leaves started sprouting out of the boney claw of Sentinel, making the dual type look at his arm strangely. "This looks familiar."
"Sen, it's Leech Seed! Kill it quickly with a soft frost breath on your arm!" The cold air should freeze it from forming completely.
Suddenly, the iced ground beneath the skeleton cracked before Shin shot up, uppercutting the delta into the sky before smacking him down with a Leaf Blade.
Sentinel bounced on the ice before forcing himself to stop with his claws and talons. However that delay made all of the sprouts spread around him and trap him in leech seed.
Anto quickly noticed the Grovyle dive back in to the ground.
"He's using Dig! Follow him into the ground with Shadow Sneak!" Sentinel quickl faded into the shadows and went in after the evolved Hoenn starter.
Again a few seconds passed with nothing happening.
"Well ladies and gentlemen this definitely is one of the strangest battles I've never seen!" The MC admitted simply because most of the action was between these two very stealthy Pokémon.
Suddenly, the ground beneath the ice started shaking…cracking… and purple light shined that only got brighter and brighter with the ice getting pushed upward—
Everyone shielded their eyes as chunks of earth and ice flew into the air with Misoka's Groyvle, damaged from being blown out of the ground.
Sentinel, still covered in Leech Seeds, jumped on chunks of earth to get to Shin faster with Dragon Claws set ablaze.
The Torren Delta caught up and made an attempt to slash his opponent.
But it was too slow for Shin and he quickly used Substitute to avoid—
"Got—" Sentinel used Specter Step to teleport right behind Shin when the grass type fled just before his attack connected with the substitute. "—YOU!" He followed through with his swipe as much as he could to hit the evolved Pokémon into the ground.
Shin's impact to the cold frozen ground did not look in anyway comfortable, especially being hit with that much force and being sent falling that fast.
Sentinel Landed on the ground as most of the debris stopped falling. "Yep. I still hate ninjas."
The leaves all around him started to glow, signaling that Sentinel's energy was being sapped.
Slowly but surely, Shin rose up from the dust. He was quivering from the damage but still held on for his seeds to work their magic.
He ignited his Leaf Blades one more time, but this time they had a much stronger glow and longer reach. His Overgrown Ability had activated.
Sentinel looked back at his seeds. If this went any longer, all the damage he would have done would have been for nothing.
He set his claws ablaze and Specter Stepped right in front of the Grovyle. However, this time, the grass ninja was waiting for it.
The two unleashed their attacks…
…
…
Thud!
Shin fell to his knees after the final slash between the two, he removed his mask and gasped for breath as he looked behind him to Sentinel's knocked over figure.
"And Anto's Pokémon is now down! So far, both combatants have shown amazing skill from both of their Pokémon! But look out folks, anyone can win this match!"
Anto recalled Sentinel then he heard the symbol change as the arena started to disappear. It amazed him how technologically advanced the field was to fix and simulate any area so far. But a small part of his brain was worried since this was made by the same people who have been after him all throughout his journey.
Let's hope he doesn't have to cross that bridge when he gets there. Team Plasma came first.
Anto threw out his next Pokémon, Takezo, his friend that started it all.
Misoka and her Grovyle eyed the normal type strangely.
"Oh!? It seems like Anto has his own themed Pokémon as well! A sword user! Who knew such a little guy could wield cute blades?" The MC explained before the next arena was displayed.
This time, and earth symbol appeared and then it looked liked the field turned into some mining valley with huge rock walls surrounding the participants. There were metal pillars, beams and some scattered mining equipment nearby.
The battle was called to begin once more between Takezo and Shin.
Shin slowly moved around his new opponent, eyeing him carefully as Takezo continued to stare down his opponent.
He suddenly leapt at Takezo with his empowered Leaf Blades ready to strike as Takezo quickly placed a hand on one of his blades. However, it looked like the Patrat wasn't going to draw his blade even as the blade came closer.
Takezo gripped his blade tight then swung his blade. Shin noticed this small action immediately mid-attack and acted quickly.
A sudden puff of smoke appeared before Groyvle, replacing himself with a Substitute doll the split second before the attack connected.
But the attack never connected…
The doll fell harmlessly into the ground while Takezo froze his blade a few centimeters before hitting the doll.
Takezo turned around towards a pillar and pointed one of his palms. A small spark of electricity danced on his hands before a small bolt of electricity shout out and hit the metal beam, making Shin jump out of hiding and exposing himself back into view.
The Samurai put down his blade and moved his body to face the now sweating Shin.
He then bolted right for the evolved grass type with his wooden blade ready. The Ninja used Dig to vanish into the ground, yet it didn't stop Takezo in the slightest. The normal type activated Detect, his eyes glowing vibrant blue as he suddenly sidestepped towards the right and avoided the ground right in front of him cracking up.
Shin panicked as he saw his attack miss and leave himself exposed mid air as Takezo jumped…
Blam!
…And knocked the opposing ninja into the wall.
From the fight with Sentinel, Shin fainted from the hit of the smaller Pokémon.
The crowd cheered as this next battle ended.
Misoka stared in disbelief at the Patrat. She quickly recalled her Grovyle and looked over towards Anto. "How does your Patrat know Kenjutsu?"
Anto raised his brow before looking towards Takezo.
"Kenjutsu is a study of martial combat." He elaborated.
Not knowing how to answer her, all Anto did was shrug his shoulders to her.
Misoka looked shocked before shaking her head. "You don't know? But your Pokémon, he moves just like… I digress. Apologizes." She suddenly stopped as she picked up her next Pokémon after recalling Shin. "Come forth, Musashi!"
Out of this Poké Ball, a Farfetch'd wearing a straw hat appeared onto the field with her leek on top of her shoulder and the hat tilted down to prevent anyone from seeing her eyes.
Takezo repositioned himself back towards Anto as the field started changing again.
"Oh wow folks! I never thought I would see something like this! This looks straight out of an old Samurai movie! … And it looks like the next stage is the normal stage!" The MC cried out as the field started to change.
The filed looked more like a standard battlefield. Except there were two large flying platforms nearby both sides where the trainers currently were.
The MC then signaled the beginning of this next round between Takezo and this female Farfetch'd.
Takezo raised his blade over his head. Musashi lowered her leek blade beneath and tucked under her wing.
The two stared at each other for a second like statues, not moving in the slightest and almost looking like they didn't realize they were being watched by over millions of people.
Anto's Pokémon moved first, Takezo bolted from his spot like a bullet with his sword drawn.
It was then a loud musical clashing noise echoed throughout the arena. Both sword users were locking blades against each other.
Takezo quickly eyed her style of sword usage. "Iaijutsu?" The small samurai showed surprise as he eyed her stance.
"Perceptive, sir." She admitted as she pushed the blade forward against her opponent. "You obviously are well versed in Swordplay."
"I did not expect to meet another bushido user." An amused smile spread slowly on Takezo's face.
Musashi raised her straw hat, returning a smirk towards her opponent. "Oh? How do I know you are not a true sword user?"
She then suddenly hit his blade up and quickly made a horizontal slash that Takezo quickly blocked with his sword. The instant Takezo parried the blade, he went on the offensive with his own slash towards Musashi, only for her to back flip away from Takezo.
And that move all happened within less than three seconds.
Takezo went on the offensive as Musashi countered all of his blows in quick session. The sounds of weapons clashing almost became quick and rhythmic like fast-paced music.
Musashi jumped into the air then bit her leek in her mouth as she started flying towards one of the large platforms. Takezo sped after her. Instead of landing on one of the platforms, Musashi folded her wings, dove, and flipped over as she landed on the platform with a slide, using the momentum to grab her blade as Takezo jumped on the platform after her.
This time, Musashi attacked Takezo as he landed, but in one instant, a flurry of petals exploded on the small area, blinding all outsiders which was quickly followed by several rapid sounds of clashing before Takezo was thrown out of the platform.
The normal type regained momentum mid air and landed on his feet as he slid on the ground to stop the throwing momentum.
As he landed, Takezo looked back up as Musashi looked at him down from on top of the platform. Takezo felt drained for a reason as he stood back up.
"Takezo that was Feather Dance! Your attack has been cut! Use Swords Dance to repair it!"
He did so but then he noticed something quickly: Musashi was also using Swords Dance.
Takezo's trainer had his eyes wide open. "Takezo, keep up with her, use Swords Dance!"
Takezo was about to do that until Musashi flew down on him with renewed vigor in another crowd pleasing sword duel. This time, Musashi knocked away his wooden blade at the end.
Farfetch'd pulled her blade back before stabbing forward. Takezo rolled away then stepped back before using Swords Dance and using the energy blades. The opposing flying type smirked before another explosion of feathers happened.
In that instant, many things happened: Takezo barely saw her move behind her feathers; Musashi went into another sword stance; and the energy swords Takezo was wielding instantly faded.
Within the storm of feathers, Musashi kept trying to hit Takezo, but the normal type dodged deftly thanks to the use of Detect. However, the fighting move didn't last as Musashi scored a clean hit into Takezo's stomach with her blunt end, knocking him into the middle of the field.
Anto sweat dropped. He never expected Takezo to get out skilled of all people—and he did his best not to underestimate the League darn it! "Takezo! I have the Synergy Burst charged up again, but I don't know when to use it!"
His normal type paused for a second before turning back towards his trainer. "Use it now!"
"Wait what?!" Anto looked confused.
Takezo eyed his opponent who was stalking over towards him while performing another Swords Dance, making this her third power up and her strikes far more damaging.
"Trust me!" The Samurai declared as turned towards his opponent.
As the Rainbow Aura started to wrap around him, Musashi pounced on her opponent.
A small voice popped into his head as time slowed down almost to a complete stop. (Alright, little one, today's lesson is my favorite: I'm going to teach you the technique that scored me my wife! … Wait, I don't think Pokémon can impress their opposite gender with—getting out of topic, but the bottom line with this stance is that it is surprisingly helpful against those that practice Iaido and-slash-or Iaijutsu.)
Time moved again as Musashi cut through the rainbow Aura, but then Takezo clasped his hands and caught her super powered leek. He quickly stepped closer to her and grabbed her shoulder.
Musashi looked up to her opponent to see a smirk.
"You halted my attack power, yet you neglected my Special."
She was shocked…
…Mostly because Takezo used Thunderbolt at such a close range with the empowered Synergy Burst.
As Musashi got blasted off, she regained her conscious mid air and caught her blade before looking back towards Takezo, adding his own Swords Dance to the Synergy Burst Power up.
"Musashi, end it now before he can get you!" Misoka cried out. "Use Retaliate!"
The Flying type performed another Swords Dance before diving into towards Takezo.
Takezo jumped and wielded his Thunder Katana on his other hand. When the two clashed, an explosion of feathers and light shined through the filled as everyone averted their eyes once more.
…
The dust settled down…
And…
"OH. MY. ARCEUS! Folks, we just had a DRAW! Both Pokémon are down! But Anto is the only one with a usable Pokémon left, so our first league winner is Anto!" MC Guyver cried out as the stadium roared with applause.
Anto quickly ran up to his Pokémon, who woke up and had another memory surface…
(So when you performed this technique, you gained a spouse?)
(Well sorta, I beat her with it, but then afterward she trained like crazy to counter that move. Still! It's always good to keep new moves.)
Despite being injured, Takezo was wondering how on earth did his former teacher become such a competent sword user with a personality like that?
The young winner walked up towards Takezo and then kneeled down to him. "So, you can catch blades with your bare hands now huh?"
"And if I was to mention that was my very first time trying that?" Takezo admitted with an honest smile?
"… Say what?…"
"That was a truly impressive battle." Anto and Takezo looked up to see Misoka offering him a hand.
The younger boy took it and shook hands with her, but for some reason she looked a little sad.
"I am… a little disheartened that I was defeated so soon. However, I do find relief that it was from a worthy battler."
The young boy nodded before bowing respectfully, Takezo did as well.
"Let's give a warm hand for our participants!" MC Guyver declared as the crowd cheered wildly.
Still, why did Misoka look worried to Anto?
[Later on]
Anto had just received his Pokémon back when he heard a voice behind him.
"That was some awesome battling, Anto!"
He recognized that voice. Quickly, the amnesiac turned around to see someone he wasn't expecting.
"Black!? But how!? I thought the League started without you! I didn't see your name anywhere among the 31 contestants!"
The black haired boy smiled. "That's 32 contestants now. There was a loop hole that allowed me enter the second before your battle started. I had to beat Drayden before that though. But here we are, the Pokémon League!" He sounded excited.
"Wait, Black, what about the gym leaders? Team Plasma? What happened to you? And why did Drayden and Brycen tell me about you being Reshiram's chosen?"
The cap wearing boy laughed. "Well that's a long story… but wait a sec! Even what I went through is nothing to what you went through! You met your family?! You're an Immortal!?"
Anto looked around, seeing people staring at Black strangely before the mute teen pushed him towards a more secluded area outside the Pokémon League Tournament.
The two compared stories. Apparently, Black went through some identity crisis when his Munna, Musha, quote-on-quote 'abandoned' him when in reality he was just looking for a way to get more power and evolved into a Musharna. There was also him battling with N—
"By the way, Anto, N was asking me why you were dressed like a girl when he met you at The Iccirus City Ruins?" Black stopped explaining briefly.
…
"Tell me your story first before I tell you mine."
—before he got trounced and woke up in a strange place called Entralink where he was spoken to by some weird voice coming from a twisted tree.
"Are you sure that I have the weirder story?"
"Do you see me dressing up as a girl?"
"Don't make me pitch that idea to White, Mr. I'm-Still-In-Debt-To-Her."
Eventually White, with the help of Summer and Ben—who by the way thought they found a lead to their missing friends and dropped him and White back here before going back—they brought Black to the League where Black abused one loophole that he could still enter into the league since it hadn't 'officially' started yet, which means he was going to use a loop hole.
"So here I am. Drayden pulled some strings and got me into the last fight of the first rounds." Black finally finished.
"But wait, now that both of us are here, who's going to face N and tell him to stop… whatever bad thing he was going to do? I'm sorry but this was more of your thing since I was still being chased around by assassins." Anto admitted.
"He's trying to separate Pokémon and People, Anto!" Black declared.
"He is!?" The other teen blanched in shock. "All the times I met him I thought he was just trying to make Team Plasma some deep Theatrical club with all his poetic words!"
[Elsewhere.]
"Achoo!"
"Bless you, my lord." Rood quickly said to N.
[Back with the two.]
"What kind of theater freak needs the power of Zekrom to handle a play!?" Black yelled.
"I dunno, Star power? I had a lot on my mind at the time! … And I was shot in the head!" The boy pointed to where the bullet wound was supposed to be, but not even a trace of it was left.
Black put a hand on this face. "See—this is why you're the strange one between the two of us: our conversations goes to places even I don't expect! And I'm the one that usually does this for my friends! Do you know how weird it is to have a crazy friend be the sane one here?"
"I am sane! You're the one who yells at the highest points of places just to renew a promise?! How the bloody freak does that work!?"
If this was a cartoon, Black would have had a vein pop on his forehead for the insult to his daily promise. "Oo! It's on now! You're going down, you Crossdressing Mute!"
"Bright it on, Forever in Debt!"
You could probably tell this was serious (And amazingly stupid) when both boys threw away their jackets before tackling one another.
To the passerby in this secluded area, she thought she heard grunting and panting coming from behind a few bushes.
Imagine her surprise when she saw two, dirty, stripping, teen age boys on top of each other with no one around to see them?
Black and Anto stopped when they looked over to see someone was watching them?
"I umm… pray thee am not interrupting something?" Misoka had a red face as she asked.
"NO!" Black (and Anto) yelled and quickly got out of each other's way like they were infected with a transferable fatal disease.
"Hey wait, aren't you Misoka?" Black pointed to the Samurai trainer. "What are you doing here?"
Instead of her returning the question, she looked sad and worried as her expression changed grimly.
"Well, I—"
"There you are, Kiyomi!"
Black, Hisoka, and Anto looked over towards the cocky voice.
It was at this instant, Anto started to realize this was not even going to be a normal tournament, wasn't it?
{Author Notes}
Hey guys, trying something different this time. Sorry for the lateness in this one. Had trouble with the fights.
Also if there area errors, I sorta… was in a hurry. Will fix later.
So this league is off to a spanking new start, but it seems like there's a little more drama going on.
Is Black joining in on Anto's Harem!? (NO.) (And I have nothing against Gays! Do not misinterpret! This is supposed to be a joke! And not even a good one!) (Oh and more importantly, Anto DOES NOT have a Harem to begin with.)
Anywho, this league is going to be shorter since it follows somewhat the old Black and White Manga where there were not that many people that made it to the league in the manga, and here it's actually a lot compared to that like 3 or 4 times more?
I hope you like how I've taken things so far. I always worry that action is hard to write in box when TV and movies can do it a lot better with actual visuals, music, and effects. So when it comes to text, I know it should be different, but what I envision is mostly visual and hard to put down in words in such a entertaining way.
Next time… I'll keep it a secret, but here's a little extra I wrote that I thought was a shame to delete.
[Anto stands by the fact his mornings suck]
Anto had this feeling that Jamie was still mad at him for some reason he just could not explain.
As the four of them were eating breakfast, Jamie didn't even look at him once the entire time nor did she say anything the entire time.
In fact, Anto didn't even notice Jamie leaving from across the booth and leaving him with Wes and Benga from finishing her food quickly.
The mute's two friends looked over to the amnesiac.
"You messed up." They both said at the same time.
"What the freaking heck is everyone talking about!? I have no idea what's with her ever since she met with Tiana and Bianca!"
Wes and even Benga gave Anto a look. The brown eyed boy raised his brow and wondered why they were both looking at him like that.
…
"Oh. My. Arceus." If the Amnesiac was drinking, he would have done a spit take.
Instead he banged his head on the table. "S-She likes me!? Wait a sec they all like me!?"
It was somewhat weird for Anto to be 'speaking' despite his head facing the table, but by now Wes and Benga were both used to this by now.
"Anto, you're freaking everyone out that isn't to having another voice in their head." Wes spoke out as he motioned to everyone in the vicinity looking around looking spooked.
Currently, they were all out with their Pokémon in one of the outdoor courtyards. Thankfully there weren't that many people.
Back with young teen whose face was beet red and still planted face first into the desk, "Oh Arceus, I have more than one girl that likes me!? And I didn't even notice!? Have I become one of those oblivious, idiot main male characters they show in poorly written but rather well animated cartoons!?"
"Well, you figured it out yourself, so you're not oblivious." The fact Wes didn't comment on the idiot part made it obvious that he wasn't going to deny that part.
"I thought she was just crushing on you." Benga played with his fork on his eggs. "I mean from the sound of it, I bet all three girls were crushing on you and then they found out that there were two other girls who were close to you that you never mentioned."
Anto planted his face into the table again. His two male friends held their drinks from spilling form the impact.
The black haired teen raised his head again. This time a noticeable red spot was appearing on his forehead. "I thought trying to beat the league was going to be tough, but romantic drama!? How on earth am I going to deal with that!?"
The two teens shrugged.
The mute sighed and looked back at his meal, it was then he noticed something that hadn't occurred to him in quite a while. "Ahh that reminds me, where exactly does 'Mamoswine Bacon' actually come from? We're not actually eating Mamoswine, are we?"
The other two boys froze.
"You know, I never thought of that." Benga asked.
"Wait, do we eat Pokémon?" Anto asked before he saw Benga and Wes staring at him.
All three of them turned to all of their Pokémon on the side of their outdoor table who were staring right back at them.
"I no longer feel hungry." Takezo pushed his food away.
"You know what this problem needs!?" Kryx floated up with glowing eyes. "Science! I shall find the answer to this problem!"
She teleported away excitedly.
She came back a second later like a zombie.
"Kryx?" Anto raised his brow.
"I learned things. Things I must never reveal to the public." She droned with an eerie lifeless tone.
Everyone looked towards the human food. "Wait, so does this mean—"
"That question cannot be denied nor validated." The usually energetic and peppy scientist droned on like some lifeless machine.
…
The black haired teen blinked several times before finally stating, "This is an awkward breakfast."
Everyone agreed to that.