Fighting Forward
"Alright everybody!" The announcer cries into the microphone, getting the crowd riled up. "Are you ready to begin round 2 of this exciting tournament?"
The crowd roars out loud.
"Unfortunately, due to an incident last night, today's 5th battle will be moved to the last battle."
Everyone that was involved last night just sat quietly, they all stared at the empty seats that were supposed to be used by Ash and Anabel.
"She doesn't remember?" Lucian asks.
"No, she doesn't remember anything."
"Amnesia," Riley comments. "At least she's alright."
"Yeah..." Ash looks back into the room to see Anabel playing with his Pikachu and her Espeon.
"Ash," Lucian starts. "You better stay with Anabel tonight."
"Huh? Why me? You're her brother."
"I am," the Elite Four tells him. "But she doesn't remember that yet. You were the one that woke her up, she'll be a lot more comfortable with you."
"If you say so..."
"Don't worry about those thieves," Riley told him. "Me and the Champions are working together on it. Just try to jog her memory and enjoy the rest of the tournament."
"The tournament..." Ash looks down.
"..." Lucian tries to read him. "Are you going to drop out?"
"I-"
"Blazekick now!" Sapphire cries to her Blaziken. Her Blaziken strikes hard onto Dawn's Cyndaquil.
"Oh no! Cyndaquil!"
Cyndaquil's eyes swirl, it can no longer battle.
"Use Hammer Arm!" Ruby orders his Swampert.
"Counter with Drain Punch!" Lucian tells his Gallade.
The two Pokemon's fists connect with each other with such a powerful impact that forces them back.
"These two are very strong indeed," Lucian comments.
"I'm sorry Lucian," Dawn apologizes.
"Don't be," Lucian smiles. "I've never had a challenge like this before." He says that staring at his two opponents, a Blaziken and a Swampert.
"We already won this battle," Sapphire tells his partner. "Let's just finish this."
"We shouldn't underestimate him just because we out number him," Ruby cautions her. "On my signal. Swampert! Mud Bomb!"
"Blaziken! Flamethrower!"
Swampert hurls a mud bomb into the air that blows up when Blaziken's flamethrower hits it, causing a rain of mud and fire on Gallade.
Concentrate, Lucian tells himself. They'll try attacking through this veil... NOW! "Gallade! Psycho Cut on one arm, Leaf Blade on the other!"
Gallade charges its arms, one arm is glowing Psychic purple while the other is Grass green. Blaziken and Swampert charge through the veil of fire and mud.
"Block them!"
Gallade blocked Blaziken's kick and Swampert's fist.
"Use Agility and finish them now!"
Gallade moved so fast he seemed to disappear, Blaziken was hit by a purple slash and Swampert with a green slash. Both Pokemon seem to be pummelled by green and purple slashes until Gallade reappears again behind them, the glows on his arms fading away. Both Swampert and Blaziken fall to the ground.
"Blaziken and Swampert can no longer battle, the winners are Dawn and Lucian!"
"Don't say anything yet," Lance interrupts before Ash can say anything. "You and her are partners after all. Don't make this decision on your own."
"Lance..."
"Even if it's for her sake, how would she feel if you just gave up? Cynthia will talk to the officials in the morning, make your decision then."
"Ash!" Anabel calls for him. The boy sees her waving her hand.
"I'm coming!" Ash quickly makes his way over to her.
"Lance," Riley walk up to him. "Were you able to find anything?"
"No," Lance tells him. "But we do know that they came here to look for targets. They were probably watching the tournament. We investigated every participant, everyone's clean. For now we can only look over the coliseum and hope."
"So, we have no choice but to await further developments." Lucian raises his glasses.
"Seviper! Use Poison Tail!" Jessilina orders her snake to attack.
The snake stabs Aggron as hard as it could, but to no effect.
"Hmmhmmhmm..." Conway laughs. "I don't know how you managed to win the first round but Poison type attacks have absolutely no effect on Steel type Pokemon."
"Sudowoodo! Double Edge!" Brock yells.
Sudowoodo tackles Carnivine with all it had.
"Carnivine no!" Jamesilina cries.
"Your turn," Conway adjusts his glasses. "Aggron! Iron Tail!"
Aggron's tail glows as it swings into the Seviper.
"The winners of this match are Brock and Conway!"
"What was going on out there? You all looked so serious," Anabel tells the boy.
"Um... You and I... we're partners in a tournament near here," Ash begins to explain. "I was thinking about dropping us out because you don't have your memory yet."
"Yeah," Anabel looks up. "That is a problem."
"Hmm..." Ash's head hurts.
"But," Anabel starts, looking straight at him. "Don't you dare drop out!"
"Huh?"
"You can still fight, can't you?"
"Y-yeah but-"
"You don't have to worry about me," Anabel smiles at him. "Who knows? If I watch you battle, it may trigger something."
"I never thought of that," Ash admits. "Alright, I'll battle tomorrow if I can."
"That's the spirit!" Anabel smiles. "Now..." the girl shifts over to one side of the bed.
"Uh... what are you doing?" the boy wonders.
"You're going to stay with me tonight, right?" she asks happily. "We might as well sleep together."
"WHAT?!" Ash jumped. "I-I-I-I'm okay just sleeping by the bed!"
"Oh phoo," Anabel looked disappointed. "You're no fun." She shifts herself back to the center of the bed.
Espeon and Pikachu just laugh at each other. Ash sits beside the bed.
"Um... can I at least hold your hand?" Anabel reaches over to him. "I want to dream about you."
"Ugh-ah-um..." Ash looks at his hand, he remembers the handshake they shared a long time ago. "Alright."
"Thank you."
"Come on Empoleon!" Barry yells to his Pokemon as it struggled with Diamond's Empoleon. "Show that penguin who's boss!"
"Concentrate Torterra!" Diamond calls.
Torterra's Leaf Storm was having a hard time trying to hit Wally Ace's Milotic, who was flying around every one of its attacks.
"That's it!" Barry sounds agitated. "Empoleon! Use Hydro Cannon!"
Barry's Empoleon blasts back Platinum's Empoleon with a huge rush of water. Several large ice chunks fall on Barry's Empoleon.
"That looks like Avalanche," Wally observes. "Since you hit her first, it deals twice the damage."
"What?"
"Empoloen, Aqua Jet." Platinum calmly orders.
Her Empoleon charges in to finish off Barry's penguin.
"My my, can't have that now." Wally Ace smiles. "Milotic, time to get serious. Use Dragon Pulse!"
Milotic aims a Dragon Pulse at the speeding Empoleon, stopping it in its tracks.
"Now let's take care of that Leaf Storm with Twister!"
His Milotic creates a powerful whirlwind to counteract the Torterra's Leaf Storm.
"No way!" Diamond's jaw dropped.
"Oh Yeah!" Barry jumped. "That's the way to do it!"
"You might want to move your Empoleon out of the way," Wally warns Barry.
"Um-right! Empoleon! Get out of there!"
"Now Milotic! Surf!"
A giant tidal waves lifts up from underneath Milotic, the wave flies forward, looming above Diamond and Platinum's Pokemon.
"Torterra! Solar Beam!"
"Empoleon! Blizzard!"
Half of the wave was blasted away by the Solar Beam, the other half was frozen.
"Oh no you don't!" Barry yells. "This is payback for that Avalanche! Metal Claw on that ice!"
Barry's Empoleon crushes the frozen wave, sending it crashing down on Platinum's Empoleon.
"Now Empoleon! Hit the Torterra with a Hyper Beam!"
"Counter with Solar Beam!"
The two beams exploded in between the two Pokemon, but a Dragon Pulse flies through the smoke and KO's Torterra.
"The winners of this match are Barry and Wally Ace!"
"Have you made your decision Ash?" Lance asks him.
"Yeah, I'm going to continue fighting."
"That's good to hear," Lance tells the boy. "Listen, Cynthia just talked to the tournament officials. They say they'll let you battle on your own, but you can't use two of your Pokemon. You need to use one of Anabel's too."
"Really? But, there's no time to practice with them."
"You don't have to worry, the officials said that since it was an emergency, you can practice with her Pokemon until it's your turn to fight. I'll stay here as well, so we can use my Dragonite to get there much faster. They also agreed to make your match the last one for today to give you more time."
"Thanks Lance!"
"That's pretty clever of them, eh partner?" Flint smiles to Volkner as they battled with their Magmortar and Electivire against Brendan and Lucas' Rhyperior and Altaria.
"To use a Flying type as a partner so Rhyperior can use Earthquake and hit us both, yeah," Volkner agrees. "But it's going to take more than that to stop us."
"Yeah!" Brendan screamed. "We got them on the ropes now! I knew this strategy would work!"
"I'm surprised too," Lucas observes. "I didn't think it'd be so easy."
"Well thanks to your research into their specialty types! We made the perfect countermeasure! We already won this battle!"
"Yo!" Flint called from across the arena. "Are you sure about that?"
"What?"
"We didn't want to do this," Volkner tells them.
"But now it's time to battle for real!" Flint yells. "Magmortar! Rest!"
Magmortar fell backwards, asleep.
"Oh no!" Lucas cries. "If he finishes resting-"
"Not gonna happen!" Brendan tells him. "Rhyperior! Another Earthquake!"
"Electivire, use Strength and swing Magmortar around!" Volkner commands.
The ground shakes as Electivre tries to grab Magmortar's arm and swing him around and around and around and around...
The shaking stops as Magmortar wakes up.
"What are they doing?" Brendan looks on.
"NOW!" Volkner screams.
Elictivire throws Magmortar at Rhyperior!
"Now speed up with Flamethrower!"
Magmortar fires streams of flame backwards, speeding up greatly. Magmortar's body crashes into Rhyperior and both of them into the wall.
"Rhyperior!" Brendan cries as Magmortar walks away, revealing Rhyperior with swirly eyes.
"Now that just leaves..." Volkner looks up at the Altaria. "Electivire, Charge Beam!"
Electivire begins charging up electricity.
"Eek!" Lucas panics. "Altaria! Solar Beam!"
Altaria gathers sunlight.
"FIRE!"
Electivire and Altaria fire their beams, Charge Beam quickly engulfs the Solar Beam and knocks out Altaria.
"The winners of this battle are Flint and Volkner."
"Oh man," Brendan couldn't believe it. "We were so close too."
"Hey, don't sweat it." Flint comments. "Like you said, you were really close to winning, that battle was fun too. Let's do it again sometime!"
"Ah!" Brendan's eyes glittered. "To be complimented by an Elite Four..."
Lucas knocks some sense back into this partner.
"Okay everybody," Lucian tells them all. "We'd better go now if we don't want to be late."
"Huh?" Dawn looks puzzled. "What about Ash?"
"He has to get some training done with Anabel's Pokemon," the Elite Four informs. "They moved his match to be the last one of the day."
"He's going to battle alone?" Zoey asks worriedly.
"Anabel talked him into it, he was originally going to give up."
"Thank goodness," Candice sighs. "If he just gave up now, I would've whacked him with a Hi Jump Kick. Glad to see he still has his keyai!"
"Come on now," Flint tells everyone. "We don't want to be late."
"Ash," Zoey looks back at the Pokemon Center.
"How in the world did I get stuck with you as my partner," Silver grumbled.
"Hey," Gold placed his cue stick on his shoulder. "I could ask you the same thing. Typhlosion! Blast Burn!"
"Feraligator! Hydro Cannon!"
A massive display of fire and water jets through the stage. But there was no target! Just a couple holes in the ground.
"They're under!"
"I can see that!"
Drapion and Flygon bursts out of the ground and tackles Typhlosion and Feraligator!
"Drapion!" Leo yells. "Aqua Tail!"
"Feraligator! Ice Fang!"
Drapion's water covered tail is stopped by the freezing fangs of Feraligator. The water surrounding the Dark Bug's tail freezes, locking its tail with the gator's mouth.
"Now swing it around!"
Drapion spins around wildly, the gator flies by its teeth.
"Rrrr!" Gold growled. "Fire Blast now!"
"Hit back with Dragon Pulse!" Gaia orders. The two attacks explode in between the Pokemon.
The ice keeping Drapion and Feraligator together cracks and shatters. The Water Pokemon is sent flying into Typhlosion.
"Now Flygon! Sandstorm!"
Flygon creates a twister of sand the surrounds the fully evolved starters.
"Alright! While they're confused and weakened!" Leo cries. "Cross Poison!"
"Dragon Claw!"
Drapion and Flygon fly towards the whirling sand.
"Super Power!" Silver yells out.
Feraligator destroys the sand twister and punches Drapion and Flygon. Drapion faints, but so does Feraligator.
"Tch, Cross Poison managed to connect and Poison my Feraligator."
"Now that my partner is out of harm's way," Gaia starts. "Flygon! Earthquake!"
Typhlosion is hit from below by jutting rocks and dirt. The Fire Pokemon faints.
"The winners of this round are Leo and Gaia!"
"Ash?" Anabel looks surprised to see him return. "What are you doing here?"
"They told me I can continue battling but I need to use one of your Pokemon."
"Oh, really?" Anabel searches herself and finds her Poke Balls. "Here they are. But I don't even remember what I have, except for Espeon of course."
"Espiii!"
"They gave me some time to think about who'll I'll be using, as well as train with them," Ash tells her. "I'll be checking them out outside."
"Let me come with you then," Anabel gets up.
"Are you sure? Shouldn't you be resting?"
"I have amnesia, I'm not bedridden."
"Zippo!" Ritchie calls to his Charizard. "Flamethrower!"
"Bayleef!" Lyra cries. "Razor Leaf!"
"Lax! Harden!" Red orders his Snorlax.
"Gravvy!" Yellow calls to her Golem. "Rock Blast!"
Snorelax takes the Flamethrower as leaves and rocks fly between Bayleef and Golem.
"Cover them with Fire Spin!" Ritchie tells his Pokemon.
Charizard emits a circling flame around Snorlax.
"Now Heat Wave!"
A strong, burning wave hits Golem and Snorlax.
"Lax! Belly Drum then Rest!"
Snorlax whacks its belly a couple of times and goes to sleep.
"Good," Red smiles. "With this, Lax will have maximum attack when he wakes up. Yellow, think you can handle them?"
"You can count on me!" Yellow nods.
"Zippo! Brick Break!"
"Gravvy! Get in front of Lax and use Defence Curl!"
Golem jumps in front of Charizard's path and curls up, taking the full force of the attack. Charizard takes to the sky once again.
"Defence Curl weakened the power of Brick Break," Ritchie observes.
"That's not all!" Yellow yells across the arena. "It also strengthens the power of my next attack! Gravvy! Use Rollout!"
Golem starts spinning from where it is and begins to roll towards Bayleef.
"Oh no!" Lyra worries. "Bayleef! Reflect!"
Bayleef creates a physical barrier that stops Golem, but Bayleef is struggling against the rolling boulder. The Grass Pokemon is being pushed back.
"I thought you might do that," Yellow tells her. "Gravvy! Increase speed and take off!"
Golem sped up its spinning and launched off the Reflect into the sky, into Charizard!
"Zippo!"
Charizard is knocked out of the sky as Golem still rolls around. Ritchie sees Charizard's eyes swirl.
"Whoa," Red observes. "Double super effective, ouch."
"Bayleef! Use Razor Leaf!" Lyra quickly calls.
The Grass Pokemon fires off several sharp leaves at the rolling Rock, but they just seemed to bounce off. Bayleef is hit hard!
"Bayleef!" Lyra cries as her Pokemon glows white. "What? It can't be..."
"It's evolving!" Yellow yells out.
Bayleef evolves into Meganium and lets out a howl! Meganium gathers energy into its mouth.
"That's Energy Ball!" Lyra jumps for joy. "Meganium learned Energy Ball!"
Meganium fires the ball right at Golem, sending the Rock Ground Pokemon into the sky above it.
"Meganium! Solar Beam!"
Meganium charges energy as the Golem drops closer and closer. The Grass Pokemon fires a massive blast that knocks away Golem and knocks it out.
"Yahoo!" Lyra jumps excitedly. "I can't believe I did it! And Bayleef evolved in Meganium too! Yes!"
"Body Slam!"
Snorelax flattens Meganium. Lyra was petrified, she couldn't say a word.
"The winners of this battle are Red and Yellow!"
Ritchie had to drag Lyra off and call her Pokemon back for her.
"Come on out everyone!" Anabel tosses all her Poke Balls into the air, releasing all her Pokemon. Metagross, Alakazam, Starmie, Gardevoir and Froslass looked so happy. "It's nice to see you all."
"Espeon," Ash kneels next to the Eeveelution. "Do you mind explaining to them what's been going on?"
"Espi!" the Pokemon nods and walks forward to talk with them all.
"Do you think they'll understand?" Ash asks Anabel.
"I'm sure they will," Anabel assures him.
Her Pokemon seemed to mumble a bit among themselves before they all looked at Ash and nodded.
"Was that a yes?" Ash tilts his head.
"They're saying that because you're a close friend of mine, they'll agree to let you borrow them."
"Huh?" Ash looks at her, puzzled. "You can still sense their emotions?"
"After playing with Pikachu and Espeon last night and this morning, it just came back to me." Anabel looks at her hand. "But I still don't have any memories before that. Espeon and Lucian tried to remind me of my past but I still can't seem to recall any of it."
"No need to worry, Anabel," Ash puts a hand on her shoulder. "I know you'll get it all back sooner or later. After this tournament is over, I'll help you out in any way I can."
"Thanks Ash," Anabel smiles. "Now, who're you going to borrow?"
"Well..." Ash scratches his head. "I've never had much experience with Psychic types, I should take a look at what moves they know first." Ash takes out his Pokedex. "Then I better practice with them for as long as I can."
"I can help you with that," Anabel offers. "May be I'll be able to regain some of my battling experience from it at least."
"Arcanine look out!" Marley calls as Arcanine barely dodges a Thunderbolt from Jasmine's Magnezone.
"Glaceon! Ice beam!" May yells.
"Shadow Sneak," Janine silently commands.
The Poison Bug quickly tackles Glaceon, forcing it to fire Ice Beam into the sky.
"Arcanine! Flare Blitz!"
"Magnezone! Thunder Wave!"
Magnezone releases a paralyzing bolt to stop the flaming Arcanine.
"Arcanine!" Marley worries for her Pokemon, which can't move because of the paralysis.
"Ariados," Janine takes advantage of the situation. "Signal Beam."
"Manezone! Thunderbolt!"
"Glaceon! Mirror Coat!"
Glaceon jumps in front of Arcanine and takes both attacks.
"Arcanine! Helping Hand!"
Glaceon's body glows as power is being absorbed into it. The Ice Pokemon deflects back the Thunderbolt and Signal Beam at triple strength!
"Arcanine! While they're down! Flamethrower!"
Flamethrower covers the Steel and the Bug in a massive flame. Magnezone manages to fly up to avoid any more damage then what was already dealt. Ariados can no longer battle.
"Finish this with Water Pulse!" May excitedly commands, sure of victory.
Glaceon gathers water above it, and fires at Arcanine!
"What?" a shocked May asks as Arcanine faints.
"Signal Beam has a chance of confusing the target," Janine informs. "You just had some bad luck."
"It's my turn now," Jasmine warns. "Magnezone! Flash Cannon!"
"Glaceon! Get away!"
Glaceon merely chases its tail around in circles. Magnezone fires Steel energy right at the Ice Pokemon, knocking it out.
"The winners of this battle are Jasmine and Janine!"
"Are you ready Ash?" Lance walks up to the young trainer.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Ash replies. "Pikachu, you stay here with Anabel, okay buddy?"
"Pika!" the Pokemon nods.
"Alright, it's time to go." Lance calls out his Dragonite.
"Hey Ash," Anabel walks over to him. "Those two are pretty strong, so good luck. I'll be rooting for you." She stretches out a hand.
"Anabel, thanks." Ash takes her hand for a few seconds before climbing onto Dragonite.
"See you guys!" Ash waves as they all wave back.
Anabel watches as they fly off, she then takes a look at her hand sensing something... familiar... She blushed lightly and held that hand closer to herself.
Author: With this, round 2 is nearly complete. There's just one battle left and it's Ash vs Zoey and Candice. Which one of Anabel's Pokemon did Ash choose? Which one of his own Pokemon will he choose to battle alongside it? Can Ash battle both an experienced Coordinator and a Gym Leader by himself? Find out next time!
