DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon, but I do own several on my copy of Pokemon Pearl... although not in an illegal kind of way.
MESSAGE TO READERS: This chapter was seriously difficult to write, especially the final few parts of the battle. But first, I thought I would answer a couple of the questions that certain people have asked in their reviews. Firstly, I decided to put Cynthia in the mix as she provides a sense of frightening power, yet she is NOT unbeatable, hence the fact that James managed to defeat her Lucario. I'm not trying to make her look weak, not at all. But like I said, she isn't unbeatable.
Secondly, Quaystor's question regarding Team Rocket's disguises… the answer, yes! Have you noticed in the anime, particularly the earlier series that the Rocket's disguises get more and more surreal, yet they still don't get suspected. Meowth's costumes have become more popular and recent lately as well, so I thought I'd try it too.
Now regarding Ash's Turtwig and Chimchar… don't worry, they will be making appearances in later chapters. Don't forget that Ash is in the tournament too and his array of Pokemon is a lot different. You'll also notice that some of the other characters have Pokemon they didn't have before too. (eg. Misty now has Marshtomp, Ash has Staraptor (rather than Staravia) and Paul has a Shiny Metagross).
And finally, the Charizard that James used against Cynthia belonged to Darkhan. Darkhan joined forces with Team Rocket apparently to get revenge on Jonathyn for not only thwarting his plan to capture Azelf, but also for defeating him in the third round.
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask and I'll answer them from now on at the beginning of each chapter in these small messages. So until then, go grab a lemonade or something, kick back and enjoy!
THE LEAGUE OF CHAMPIONS
CHAPTER 28: CLIMACTIC FIGHT! THE LOSING EDGE!
I was beginning to get exhausted from the pace of this battle. It seemed to have been going on for hours and we still had two Pokemon left with to battle. The crowd's energy seemed to be infinite. Despite the battle going on for this length of time, they were still willing and able to cheer on. The entertainment they were experiencing from this sole battle could well have been the best they have seen so far. Not being modest, but it made me feel good inside. It made me want to battle even harder, despite the tiredness that I was now starting to feel. My mind felt a little muddled. I didn't know how to attack next. This Kingdra of Sandra's… it had the ability to raise its speed and attack power in one go and then send ferocious attacks at its opponents. I had already withdrawn Aggron after just two attacks. Now my hopes lay with my Quagsire, which had already eliminated Sandra's Flygon and held its own against her Dragonair. The best thing about Quagsire, however, was the ability to heal itself whilst it was submerged in the water. That meant that Kingdra's Water Pulse was rendered useless. All these things played over in my mind for a matter of seconds, before I knew that I had to make the next move. Yawn had failed once, so I decided to approach it from a different angle.
"Quagsire, Focus Punch!" I called. The problem that Aggron had when it battled Kingdra was that it was limited to where it could go. It was unable to use physical attacks like Iron Head, whereas Quagsire had the freedom to move in the water and still attack at great speed and power. Quagsire darted forward like a torpedo, clenching a fisted fin and swinging a punch at the Kingdra, but it quickly swam to one side, evading the attack. It's speed really had excelled as well, due to it's Dragon Dances.
"Kingdra, Dragon Pulse again!" Sandra ordered. Quagsire had already managed to evade this attack once, but at such close range the attack wouldn't miss. Quagsire was struck hard by the Dragon move, yet it still did not appear to be greatly damaged.
"You alright, Quagsire?" I called to it from above the water. How it heard me, I did not know. But it appeared to bob its head under the water. "Good, then let's go for another Focus Punch." Quagsire swung back, this time the attack hit its mark, crunching against the side of the Kingdra's body. It did not get forced away by the attack, which I thought it would do. "Quickly come out of the water!" I called to it, expecting Sandra to order her Pokemon to use another close range attack.
"Dragon Dance!" she called as Quagsire leapt out of the water onto one of the pontoons. Yet again, the Kingdra began to boost the power of its attacks and its speed level by performing the strange ritual.
"Focus Punch again from above!" I shouted, hoping that I could at least interrupt the stat-increasing move. Quagsire focused even more energy than it had done before and leapt into the water, swinging the Focus Punch at the Kingdra. As it faded into the clouds of electricity in the water, I could not tell whether or not the move had landed. I found out as the ground beneath me shook. Quagsire quickly leapt out of the water again, as I could see the Kingdra was now right at the bottom of the pool. The move had obviously hit it's mark, but this battle was certainly not over yet. The Kingdra surfaced for the first time in a while, trying to shake the cobwebs from the two consecutive Focus Punches.
"Kingdra, use Flash Cannon," Sandra said with an irritated snarl. Kingdra aimed its snout towards Quagsire, before a silver formation began to form inside it. It suddenly blasted a comet of light energy towards Quagsire. The move was so fast, that Quagsire did not even see it coming. It fell backwards into the water, but it's smile grew wider as it began to wriggle it's body around. The Water Absorb ability was proving to be a real life saver at the moment. "That darned Quagsire," Sandra scowled. "A true trump card, indeed. But Flash Cannon sometimes lowers a Pokemon's special defense. And with Kingdra's boosted attack, it's only a matter of time before it falls."
"That may be," I grinned. "But as soon as Quagsire moves out of the way, you have Kingdra use that Dragon Dance. And that is when it is totally unable to avoid Quagsire's attacks." Everything seemed to stop at that point, as Sandra absorbed in what I had said. Neither of us wanted to make a move. Kingdra and Quagsire now seemed to look both as blankly as each other. "Take your time, Sandra," I taunted her slightly. "I've got all the time in the world." Sandra began to think a little.
"Water Pulse!" Sandra seemed to question herself as she called for the attack. I immediately began to let out a grin, just as the Dragon Breeder realised her mistake. "Wait, stop!" she desperately called, but Kingdra had already launched the attack. The pulse of water rippled towards Quagsire.
"Let it hit you, you can absorb the power from the Water Pulse!" I called to it. Sandra buried her head into her hands, apparently disbelieving the foolish error she had made. The water engulfed Quagsire, it's skin glimmered once it had fully dispersed. "Now use Body Slam!" I called to it. Quagsire, still airborne from absorbing the Water Pulse managed to redirect itself towards the Kingdra.
"Submerge under the water!" Sandra cried out to her Dragon Pokemon. It quickly lowered itself beneath the waves, Quagsire's Body Slam turning into what looked like a painful belly flop. The sound of it's thick body impacting the water made most of the crowd cringe, yet some of them actually laughed. Even I let out a small chuckle, but at the same time was concerned in case Quagsire had hurt itself. "Now use Dragon Pulse." Another shot of dark green and purple energy was fired directly at Quagsire, knocking it out of the water and back onto the podium where it was before. This time, Quagsire looked as though it had taken a lot of damage from the move. "I thought I'd give you a chance, but I think I'd best wrap this up now," Sandra tried to cover up her error. "Dragon Dance, quickly!" Kingdra sank even further to the bottom of the pool, before performing the strange dance once again. I thought to myself that it was a shame that Quagsire could not use it's Ice Beam as effectively as it could do against the other dragons… then I suddenly had a thought!
"Quagsire, use Ice Beam on the water!" I shouted. Quagsire quickly fired the freezing cold beam towards the surface of the water, immediately solidifying the surface. Sandra gasped when she noticed what I was doing.
"Kingdra, come up quickly!" Sandra shouted, but Kingdra seemed to be so far down and concentrating so hard on completing the Dragon Dance that her instruction did not get through.
"Full Power!" I shouted. The Ice Beam suddenly became a lot larger as Quagsire focused as much power as possible into the attack. The Kingdra seemed to notice what was happening and desperately tried to reach the surface before the whole pool was frozen. It began to swim upwards, but it was no use. Just a couple of feet from the surface, it grinded to a halt. The whole pool was now frozen solid, with Kingdra encased in the ice. There was literally nothing that Sandra could do to help it. "Alright Quagsire, use Focus Punch, max power!" Quagsire leapt forward, with it's fin clenched into another fist. Right on the ice above Kingdra, it smashed through the ice and delivered a crushing blow to the aquatic dragon. It flew up, small shards of ice scratching against it's scales. It fell on top of the frozen pool on its side with a dazed look in its eyes.
"Kingdra has been eliminated, Quagsire wins!" the official declared, signalling to the crowd that Sandra's third Dragon Pokemon was now eliminated. Quagsire once again had its wide gaping smile across its face. My expression was incredibly similar.
"There's no way you can win, Sandra!" I smiled. "All you have left is your Dragonair. And I think we've already established that it can't do a thing to my Quagsire."
"Don't count on it," Sandra retorted, yet I could tell by the tone of her voice that she herself was unsure of this. She had already called back her Kingdra, before throwing another Poke Ball in its place. "Dragonair, let's go!" she shouted. The serpentine creature appeared once again, staring at Quagsire. "Use Thunderbolt!" she ordered. The Dragonair's gem beneath its chin glowed a yellow colour, before a bolt of electricity struck Quagsire, but it had hardly any effect at all. Sparks scattered across it's body, but not in a damaging way. She whimpered a little, her mind apparently blank. "Aqua Tail!" she shouted, as the Dragonair swiftly slithered in mid air towards Quagsire, slapping its tail across the face. Water droplets splashed across its face, but once again Quagsire did not look at all phased. In fact, the Water Type attack had healed it even further. Sandra let out another whine, before hanging her head. What looked like a tear drop fell from her face to the ice below.
"Sandra, focus!" I shouted to her. She suddenly lifted her head up. "Listen, you're a great trainer, one of the most talented I've faced in a long time," I tried to comfort her in her distress. "You know full well that electric attacks don't do a thing to Quagsire, which is a part Ground type. And you also knew that Quagsire has the ability to absorb Water type attacks, yet you still had your Kingdra use Water Pulse and your Dragonair use Aqua Tail."
"You're right though," she sighed, weeping slightly. "There's no way that my Dragonair can defeat it…"
"Get a hold of yourself, Sandra!" I frowned at her. "You're an exceptional trainer. You just need to focus on just what you can do to win. If your attacks don't work, try something else." Sandra seemed to stare at me a little. She wiped some tears from her eyes, before nodding to me.
"Dragonair," she sniffed sadly, "Use Flamethrower." Dragonair spat out a stream of flame at my Quagsire.
"Dodge it!" I shouted. It evaded backwards as the fire scorched the surface of the ice where Quagsire was stood. What was left was a small hole, some water could be seen right underneath it. Sandra noticed this and smiled a little.
"Dragonair, use Flamethrower on the ice just in front of you!" her frown now a smile. Another blaze of fire struck the surface of the ice, creating a small pool of water that seemed to just go downwards. "Go into the hole!" Sandra grinned.
"She's thinking a lot harder now," I smiled, relieved that even thought she was my rival, she had found that fighting spirit once again. "Quagsire, just stay still for a moment." The Quagsire looked on vaguely, awaiting for something to happen.
"Hyper Beam!" Sandra called, the fire returning to the battle. I felt the ground move as a beam of energy blasted through the ice, knocking Quagsire high into the air. It crashed down with a mighty thud. I was shocked that this had actually happened. The Hyper Beam had somehow blasted right through the thick ice and scored a direct hit on Quagsire. "Good job, Dragonair!" The dragon, happy with it's trainer nodded appreciatively of the compliment.
"Much better," I too congratulated the Dragon Trainer for her efforts. "But Dragonair will be too worn out from that Hyper Beam to avoid this attack. Ice Beam down that hole that Dragonair's attack made!" I grinned. Quagsire smiled too, before sending another one of its powerful Ice Beams down the crevasse that the Hyper Beam had created.
"Dragonair, use Flamethrower!" she called. I could then see a burst of flame heading up towards the Ice Beam. Both attacks met, but the Flamethrower immediately negated the Ice Type attack and erupted from beneath the frozen pool into Quagsire's face. It stumbled backwards as the attack hit. The crowd began cheering for Sandra, as her Dragonair re-emerged from the hole that it had originally created. I noticed that Quagsire's skin had been scorched. I even noticed a small flame flicker from the scald. My eyes widened when I noticed what had happened. Sandra simply smiled, happy that something had gone her way.
"Quagsire's been burnt!" I gasped. "I've got to end this quickly, otherwise Quagsire won't last much longer. Use Ice Beam one more time!" Quagsire fired another beam forward.
"Flamethrower!" Sandra shouted in response. The Dragonair quickly used the fiery move, once again negating the super effective move. Quagsire held it's face where it had been scalded, the burn now causing it some grief. The longer the burn lasted, the more damage it would inflict on my already tired Quagsire. "Now Hyper Beam!" Sandra called. Dragonair launched another immense streak of energy towards Quagsire, who was distracted by the pain it's burn was causing.
"Watch out!" I called, Quagsire quickly looked up to see where the danger was coming from, but the powerful attack slammed into it with brutal lethality. Quagsire skidded back on the slippery ice, before crashing to a stop at the foot of the platform on which I was stood. I let out yet another exasperated gasp, as Quagsire lay motionless on the floor, yet it still had that same smile on it's face. I knew by the look in its eyes that it was completely knocked out.
"Quagsire can no longer battle," the official affirmed. "Dragonair wins." I withdrew Quagsire back into its ball. "Hey, you were absolutely fantastic," I bowed to the ball. "You've done a great job. Now take a good rest." I grabbed a hold of the final Poke Ball that contained the fourth Pokemon I had. Although it had already taken some damage from her Kingdra, it would now be a better time to battle. The Water Field was still mostly frozen, with the exception of two large holes from which the Dragonair had launched its attacks. So now, it would be able to utilise all of its power.
"You see, Sandra?" I grinned, happy that I was getting such a good battle. "You thought that you couldn't defeat Quagsire, but you have. Even though your attacks did not do much damage to it directly, you managed to suffice with using them differently, such as your Flamethrower to melt the ice and the Hyper Beam to strike from below. But as glad as I am that you have regained your fighting prowess, I cannot afford to lose this battle. Aggron, you're on!" The giant metallic lizard appeared on one of the podiums, which was frozen at a slightly tilted angle, yet Aggron still stood on it with no sign of slipping. I knew that Dragonair would need time to recharge from using a second Hyper Beam, so now would be a good time to use a powerful attack. "Use Iron Head!" Using the ice to gain extra speed, it hurtled towards Dragonair, smashing it's hard skull into the limbless dragon. It skidded back, but managed to get back up. "Follow it up with a Shockwave!" Just as it had done against Kingdra, Aggron discharged sparks of electric power straight at the Dragonair. The unavoidable attack struck the Dragonair, but did not cause much damage to it.
"Use Aqua Tail!" Sandra shouted, knowing that the move would no longer heal my Pokemon. The Dragonair slithered towards Aggron, somehow doing so through mid air, something that perplexed me. It whipped its tail over it's body, smacking it into Aggron's side with a blue glow. Aggron roared as the move hit.
"Iron Head again!" I shouted. Aggron glared at the Dragonair, who was still following through with the attack. With a thrust of its head, it headbutted Dragonair with such force that it smashed it back into the ice. A small cloud of icy dust billowed from where the Dragonair had impact the frozen Water Field.
"Dragonair, use Hyper Beam!" Sandra called. With Aggron still stood over it, it began to charge the powerful attack from below it.
"Protect now!" I desperately called. Aggron focused a little, it's skin beginning to cover itself with a safeguarding layer of light. Dragonair fired the attack at point blank range. What resulted was a huge explosion, rocking the whole stadium. They crowd gasped in awe, as a billowing black cloud filled the battlefield. I only hoped that Aggron had fully protected itself from the blast. Once the cloud dispersed, I could see that both Pokemon were indeed still alright, although both looked as though they had taken some damage as a result of the explosion. Dragonair looked exhausted from the attack, which led me to wonder with move would be best to use. "Aggron, use Iron Head!" I instructed. As Dragonair lay vulnerably on the icy surface, Aggron pulled its head back before slamming it downwards and striking the opponent with another massive blow. How much more punishment could these two Pokemon withstand? The Dragonair, despite taking the full brunt of the attack managed to disappear from sight. Where had it gone? I looked all around to see where it might have vanished to. Then I realised just where Aggron was stood. Aggron was now right by one of the holes Dragonair had made during the earlier battle with Quagsire. "Aggron, get away from the hole!" I shouted, expecting the worst.
"Aqua Tail!" Sandra shouted. Aggron took some paces backwards, but from beneath the ice, a burst of water splashed against Aggron side once more, before the tail of Dragonair shot up through the hole and impacted the same spot. Aggron once again roared out in pain, the super effective move causing great damage. It looked like a critical hit. This wasn't a good sign, but there was only one thing that I could do that could truly end this battle for good!
"Metal Burst!" I shouted. I knew that the damage done to Aggron was more severe than what one would think. The Metal Burst attack struck the Dragonair with dominating force. I thought for sure that it had defeated it, but I was only slightly surprised to see that the Dragon had managed to withstand the attack. Sandra's dragons had so far been extremely resourceful and I now understood the capabilities that the Dragon Breeder's Pokemon had.
"Dragonair, use Hyper Beam with everything you've got!" Sandra called. Even though I knew that the attack wasn't that effective against a Pokemon like Aggron, it could still be powerful to knock it out, as it had already taken significant damage. The beam was fired at such a velocity that not even Aggron knew what had hit it. Aggron slowly got up to its feet having been knocked down by the Hyper Beam. But once again Dragonair was wiped out, it's energy levels drained by using such effort to launch the powerful attack.
"OK, Aggron. We can do this!" I encouraged it, hoping that now we could finally end this tiresome battle. "Use the biggest Metal Burst you can!" Aggron began to charge the powerful attack and unleashed it as strongly as it could. The Dragonair was sent hurtling back into Sandra's platform. She gasped with shock as the Dragon's skull smashed against the metal platform. Knowing that it was still recovering, I could not let up. "Iron Head with everything you've got left!" Aggron charged forward, lowering its head and crushing the dragon against Sandra's podium. She seemed to lose her balance, but managed to somehow stay upright… but this was a completely different story for the Dragonair. It slumped down to the ground.
"Dragonair is not able to continue. That means that the winner of this Fourth Round Battle goes to Jonathyn and his Aggron!" the official finally decreed that the match was over. The crowd went absolutely wild, cheering and celebrating my victory. I let out the longest sigh of relief of my entire life, I think. Aggron had fallen onto its knees in exhaustion, shuffling away as Sandra went over to ensure her Dragonair was not seriously hurt from the two deadly Steel Type attacks. I climbed down from my podium and made my way across the ice. I gave my Aggron a pat on the back as I passed it, also concerned for Sandra's Dragonair.
"I'm sorry," I said softly, looking at the Dragonair's limp body.
"It's fine," Sandra said with a faint smile. "Dragonair just needs a good rest at the Pokemon Center." Her dragon gave a small whine in response, before being called back into the comfort of its Poke Ball.
"Good job, Aggron. You deserve a good rest too!" I grinned, withdrawing the goliath back into the ball. As the red light faded back into the ball, I glanced over to Sandra, who was still a little upset. I placed my hand comfortingly on her shoulder. She took hold of it, which made me jolt a little. She turned around and burst into tears, burying her head into my shoulder. I comfortingly patted her on the back. "Don't worry," I tried my best to comfort her further. To be honest, I did not really know what to say. She eventually released me, wiping tears from her eyes. "Come on, let's go inside," I smiled caringly to her. She walked at my side, hooking her arm around mine. The crowd applauded as we both left the arena together, although what terrified me the most would be Misty's reaction. I knew that she would be watching…
TO BE CONTINUED!
NEXT TIME: Sandra finally tells Jonathyn what she knows about Darkhan as well as some other secrets that she has, which will completely blow Jonathyn's mind! What does she have to tell? And how does it involve Misty? You won't want to miss the next heart-pounding chapter!