chapter 10: Becoming the Best
we made it to victory road in about a minute. We landed at the cave entrance and went in, my tail flame lit the way across the cave, any wild pokemon that came our way just got roasted by me, and any trainers that wanted to battle us were just blown out of the water, so to speak. eventually we made it to a small portion of water, and Ryan with not having a place to put his clothes, and me without being able to fly that low with guarantee of not falling, Ryan decided to call out Crusher who was tall enough to give Ryan a lift through the water, but not so tall as to bump into the ceiling. we made it across the water and continued on our way across the cave, eventually we found our way out of the cave and walked the pathway to the pokemon league. right before we reached the gates we were stopped by a familiar voice.
"so you're just gonna leave me hanging then and not accept my challenge?" we turned around to see Alex standing behind us with a smug grin on his face.
"hey Alex, didn't see you there, were you waiting here all this time?"
"yeah, well i knew that when you left my place last week you were going to challenge that last gym and go to the pokemon league, and i decided since i started my journey before you, and i had all my badges from Hoenn, that i would just fly by and stop for a quick battle."
"well then i guess you're gonna prepare to lose." they started the battle with no switch outs whatsoever, Ryan sent out Wake, while Alex sent out Shockwave the Minun. you know Shockwave reminded me a lot about Cloud, the Minun i knew back when i was a Charmander. But anyway back on the battlefield, Wake was taking quite the beating, but he had to get some damage in, giving Shockwave a pretty good Earthquake to the face and sending him sprawling on the ground. Shockwave got up, but badly hurt, they each fired one last move, ice beam and thunderbolt, they each got hit, Wake from the top and Shockwave from the front, they both hit the ground at the same time. Ryan then sent out Crusher, while Alex sent out Yugi the Gallade, this battle was pretty evenly matched, with Yugi using close combat for some massive damage early in, but Crusher then got the upper hand by using rock tomb, and trapping him under a pile of rocks, then decided to use stone edge to damage him and trap him even more. Crusher was going to finish the job with an earthquake, but Yugi used bulldoze at the exact same time, when those two moves connected they created a fissure that spread and K.O'd both of them at the same time. this continued ending in ties, with Sharktooth and Chieftain the Sharpedo, Nightshade and Darkclaw the Zoroark, and finally Punchout and Ace the Swellow. it all came down to us, Emburn and Shredder.
"well now Shredder, looks like it's time we end this, and see who is better."
"i'll agree with you on that one, let's go. but we have a little surprise in store for you." it was then that i realized the forest green collar around his neck that held a very familiar stone in the middle.
"wait, you actually have a mega stone?"
"you know it, and now it's time for us to settle this. LET'S DO THIS ALEX!." Alex then clipped on a bracelet with a key stone in the middle.
"whoa, where'd you get that?"
"well it turns out that your region isn't the only one that has legends about powerful transformations." he then raised the bracelet up to the sky, then Shredder started to be encased in an evolutionary shell, when he broke free he was now a few inches taller along with having what looked like a missile tail, he also had leaves in an X shape on his chest, and to top it all off his blades were coated red.
"well now, this is good, but can it stand up to this?" 'now Ryan' i flew behind Ryan, then coated myself in flames and with being totally planned out, i connected my mega stone with his key stone, and transformed into a blue flaming missile, but this was just for show and i broke out of the flare blitz, throwing forward a blast of hot air.
"Alright then, come at me Shredder." we each charged forward with a dragon claw, both connected at the same time, it felt like he was stronger now, it could be because of the mega evoulution or it could be because he could be half dragon. we both were shot back with a power recoil that damaged us both.
"well now, it looks like this new evolution of yours isn't so bad after all, but i still have some surprises in store." i clawed at the air in his direction, it may have not seemed like much, but in the ground sneaking up behind shredder was a stealth attack shadow claw that hit him right from behind. as he turned around i was going to go in for a wing attack, but i guessed he knew what i was up to so he fired an energy ball, along with his tail, it grew back but my suspicions about a missile tail were right, so after i threw the thing aside i rushed at him with a flare blitz, he then knocked me away with a dragon claw, but i managed to get a flame burst in and lay some hurt on him. we were both down to our last wind and the next successful attack wins the battle.
he cleared away the canopy of trees that covered us, and made the sunlight even more powerful. i guess he had something else in mind because this just made my fire moves stronger. i then saw what he was going for when he was charging a solar beam.
"well i knew there was something to that sunny day, but it doesn't matter if you mega evolved because you're still half grass type." i charged up a powerful flamethrower, we both launched our attacks at the same time. as both beams connected i realized just how powerful that solar beam actually was, it was rivaling my flamethrower, but i couldn't let this happen. i put everything i got into that flamethrower and it started pushing back on the solar beam, i just kept walking forward until i reached the point of victory, no matter how much power he puts into that solar beam it won't help him, the fires were getting very close until it hit him straight in the face. i saw him lying on the ground and reverted back to his normal form, i was feeling a little weak, and also changed back into my normal form. i saw some sitrus berries in a bush so i grabbed them, and i gave Shredder a berry, luckily he was still slightly conscious so he ate the berry, and was at least walking again.
"wow man, that flamethrower of yours really packs a punch, it's a good thing i had some defenses otherwise i would have had more damage than that."
"yeah, it was a good battle." we shook on a slight rivalry ended, and then Ryan and i were off to face the elite 4. it was a good thing that the entrance to the pokemon league came with a pokemon center because the entire team needed some medical support after that battle.
"so, you nervous about the elite four, Ryan?"
"yeah, this is a really big place in my life, why wouldn't i be nervous."
"thought so." the nurse Joy who worked there gave Ryan back the pokeballs, and then we were off, i was placed back in my pokeball until it was time to battle. the first person we went up against was Lorelei who uses mostly water-ice types. Nightshade decided to take the wheel and started taking them down. first came the Jynx, not much of a test, it went down with a shadow ball and a shadow sneak to the face. next came the Slowbro, it would have gone down the same way, if it wasn't for it raising its defenses, but eventually Nightshade used his signature move which also bypasses all defenses, and took that thing down in two hits. after those two Ryan decided to switch out for crusher and take the others down. first came her Dewgong, it hit Crusher with an aurora beam, but before it could use take down Crusher hit it with a stone edge, then while it was launched in the air, Crusher used rock throw and sent it flying into the nearest wall, her next pokemon was her cloyster, this thing would be a little tougher since it basically is a walking fortress of shell. Crusher kicked this round off with a brick break to get through that armored shell, then it was trapped under a rock tomb, but then the cloyster hit Crusher with an aurora beam, them proceeded to shoot off spike shots right at him. Crusher was weak, so to finish this off he hit it with an earthquake. Ryan saw that Crusher wasn't gonna last very long this next fight, so he decided to switch out for Wake, the hilarious thing was that she sent out her lapras, the fight started off with a battle of the hydro pumps, it ended in a tie, this battle was actually an even match and was not one sided. Wake got hit with a body slam, but then decided to throw it off and hit it with a surf, the finale of this battle was a cold one, literally, the opposing lapras hit Wake with a blizzard, but Wake powered through and shot an ice beam full force straight at the lapras, his ice beam hit it with such power it was frozen solid, Wake then finished it off with a hydro pump, it hit the wall, broke out of the ice and was out cold, pun not intended. before we went to the next room Ryan healed up Wake and Crusher.
we then walked to the next room with the fighting/rock type specialist Bruno. Punchout was the main one to choose in this fight, he sent out his onix first, Punchout hit it with a power up punch, to chip away at its health and to increase his own attack, he dodged a rock throw and hit the thing with a force palm. his second onix went down easier because Punchout's attack went up, and it went up even more with another power up punch. the hitmonchan went down with two aura spheres and a force palm to the face. his hitmonlee went down with two more power up punches and an aura sphere, Bruno's last pokemon was his machamp, this was a bit more of a challenge because machamps are some of the strongest pokemon ever, but Punchout managed to beat it with having his strength building up with the previous pokemon. Punchout was healed up and returned, then we went to the next challenge, Agatha, the ghost type specialist who i'm amazed is still alive actually.
Nightshade took over this one, she sent out her Haunter first, Nightshade quickly took over the battle by starting off with a shadow sneak, hitting it from behind, grabbing it, then using a shadow claw in an X type manor to finish it off. she sent out her Gengar, Nightshade threw a shadow ball at it, it hit, but then the other one got a shadow claw off on nightshade. then at the same time both of them fired off their Night Shade attack, but Nightshade's was more powerful being that he was a much stronger. she sent out her second Gengar, and second verse same as the first it went down. she sent out her Golbat next, Nightshade just shadow clawed it and shadow balled it out of here. she finished off with her Arbok, but three night shade attacks and a dark pulse later, it went down.
our final match before the champion was Lance, the dragon type specialist. Sharktooth was the way to go on this battle, but Ryan decided that Crusher would be good for the first round, his Gyarados, ths thing was big and mean, but it had a weakness to rock type moves, and that's just what Crusher had. since the Gyarados was faster it got the first move, a dragon rage, it made crusher wince but he was fine, the Gyarados knew it was in trouble then, Crusher hit it with a Rock tomb, then hot it with a stone edge, then finished it off with a rock throw. Ryan decided to go with Sharktooth the rest of the fight, since dragons are weak to dragon type moves, Sharktooth was cutting through Lance's ranks like butter, it was easy until he sent out his Dragonite, this thing wasn't going to go down easy. Sharktooth launched towards it with a dragon rush, it hit back with a wing attack, Sharktooth used a dragon claw, Dragonite used outrage, these two were evenly matched until it started to charge up a hyper beam, i knew tha if Sharktooth got hit with this thing, he wasn't gonna make it through this battle. but with his will to fight, Sharktooth charged at it with one last dragon rush just as it released the hyper beam, Sharktooth hit the hyper beam with enough force for me to feel it, but he still charged through eventually hitting the Dragonite head on. Sharktooth fainted along with the Dragonite, but at least we won.
"congratulations young trainer, you now have permission to advance to challenge the champion, i wish you the best of luck." we walked through the bigger set of doors that led to the champion's room. inside the room was enormous, most likely to endure large pokemon battles, but at the other end of the room the doors opened, and out walked the champion, he looked about 16 or 17 with dark brown hair and a decent tan.
"well it seems that you made it past the elite four, i congratulate you. my name is Eric, i am the son of Red and the pokemon league champion, i had to beat my father in order to get this title, but with it he gave me some of his own pokemon, plus some that i caught myself, but enough about me, let's get this battle over with.
"i agree, i've been waiting for this day ever since i beat Brock." the battle started, Eric sent out his Jolteon first, Ryan of course went with Crusher, one earthquake later and that thing went down. he sent out his Sawk next, it took out Crusher with a close combat and a brick break, but it did take some damage from a rock throw distraction then a brick break to the face. Punchout was sent out next, it was the machamp incident again. these fights were between some evenly matched pokemon, Sharktooth and Altaria, Nightshade and Clefable, then Wake and Scizor, it was all up to me and his last pokemon.
"GO TIDAL." my eyes suddenly snapped open, did i hear that right? did he say Tidal? well if it was, then i'm not gonna lose this round. Ryan sent me out, sure enough standing before me was Tidal, now grown into a full Blastoise, although i realized that he had a harness on his chest that held a mega stone in place.
"well now fire breather, looks like we meet again."
"it appears so, and my name is Emburn, and right now, i'm not gonna lose to you."
"hey what's going on Emburn."
"i knew this guy back when we were just a Charmander and a Squirtle. and now he's going down"
"well then it appears that our pokemon have a bit of a history together, perfect, this will make an even more exciting battle."
"time to fight Emburn"
"yes it is." this fight was one i would not lose nor would i tie with, i would win. Right off the bat we each mega evolved.
"well looks like you also learned a few tricks while you were away."
"you'd better believe it." He shot at me with a water pulse, i countered it with a flame burst, i charged forward and struck him with a dragon claw, i managed to dodge his slash, but i didn't dodge his pound. I quickly recovered from that hit, and snuck in an attack with shadow claw. i charged forward in another dragon claw attempt, but i was caught in his grip and got slammed into the ground. i knocked him down with a dragon tail, then as i flew back up, i realized that he was charging up a hydro pump.
"give it up Emburn, even you can't survive this hydro pump." if i got hit with that i would be done for, but i wouldn't go down without a fight, i charged up a flamethrower, more powerful than I've ever created, and as he launched his hydro pump, i shot my flamethrower right at the combined streams. the struggle was starting to lean into Tidal's favor, but i wouldn't give up, i gave it everything i had to balance out the match, but it wasn't working, then in my memory i recalled when we first battled, we tied, i was on the verge of losing but so was he, that being my first almost victory made me realize that i could stand up to this and take out this Blastoise, and after that i gave that flamethrower more strength than i could ever achieve by force alone. the water current started to go down, i could feel my flamethrower overpowering the hydro pump, i flew steadily downward until i had an idea to flare blitz him right there, i stopped the onslaught of fire and lit myself, i charged forward out of the reach of the hydro pump and covered by the steam, i hit Tidal directly, i then kept launching forward, smashing him into a wall, i then hit him with my flamethrower, it engulfed Tidal in a sea of blue fire, and i stopped just to give the last word to the loser. i walked up to a still barely conscious Tidal.
"remember who you're dealing with, the name's Emburn." i finished it with one last dragon claw. Tidal went back to his normal form and so did i, i felt really weak, but i managed to beat him.
"i...lost, i don't believe it, but rules are what they are. Ryan, you are now the new pokemon league champion of the Kanto region." this was the best day ever, and now we are the best in the region, but next comes the rest of the regions. we went into the hall of fame room, we were registered in as new pokemon league champions of Kanto.
we left the pokemon league, leaving Eric to take on the challengers, and only calling us up when someone wanted to face the real champions. we flew in celebration all over the world, visiting different regions and knowing what we'll be up against, and why wouldn't we celebrate, we just became the best in the region.
Author's note: well that was an exciting chapter, but just so you guys know, the next chapter will be the second to last one, i already have the ending typed up and everything, plus i'm running out of ideas, so be prepared because the next time i update this thing, it's gonna be complete. till next time.