Pokémon – Final Battle

Secrets of the Sea Sceptre

It was 6:30 by the time the audience had poured into the arena for the second day of the contest. Ash, Brock and Max had been there since six and watched a display of fantastic water moves put on by Misty. Yesterday's chill had passed and it was a warm and pleasant morning. Ash still hadn't forgotten what he did but thanks to Misty he was trying to enjoy himself and not think about it too much. Pikachu seemed pleased with himself as if it was him who snapped Ash out of his depression. All morning he'd been walking around with Ash's hat on, until Ash realized and took it back of him. At the minute Pikachu was playing with Max's Ralts.

The judges took their seats seeing the stadium was full and the announcer pronounced the day had officially started. First up was Zoey Dawn's rival from Sinnoh region, who won and moved onto the next round. At 11:00 Jessie (who'd cheated to get in) was knocked out the contest by a co-ordinator only known as J. The contest continued like that, the rounds were over quickly and it wasn't until 4:00 that Dawn was finally up. By that time there was only 51 co-ordinators left. Dawn and Piplup moved to the next round by using Hydro Pump and Drill peak making a beautiful display of water as Piplup went through the beam of high pressured water. By 10:00 the second round was nearly over with 30 left in the contest and tomorrow until twelve they would get down to the semi-final then there'd be a short break and at one thirty they reconvene for the last two rounds, the commentator said.

Night drew in quickly and Ash, Misty, May, Brock, Max and Dawn headed to the restaurant to celebrate Dawn getting so far in the Contest. The group were just about to order when the Co-ordinator J walked in surrounded by people in business suits and the waitress ran over to greet them ignoring the people trying to order food.

"Ah, Mr J your usual table is ready and the food you ordered yesterday is already cooking as we speak." With that J and the suits moved to a large table in the corner of the room that was surrounded by sound proof glass. "Sorry about that, what were you going to order?"

"Who is that guy?" Ash asked once the waitress had left.

"I hear he enters the contest every year trying to win the Key."

"Ok, so what is the Key and why is it so special?"

"Did you pay any attention in that lecture we went to?"

"No not really."

"Well if you had you would have learnt that the Key is used to unlock the top part of the Sceptre."

They all fell silent as the waitress came back with their food. Once it was on the table and she'd gone again they ate in silence for a few minutes and then continued their conversation in a whisper just in case J was listening. "They say the Sea Sceptre can be used to open the Temple of the Sea but you need the top half open."

"But the spectre is locked away isn't it?"

"Actually it hasn't been announced publicly yet but it was stolen a week ago"

"So, you think J wants to open the Temple of the Sea?"

"I hope not, it is said that that's where Mew locked away one of the ancient forces. Releasing it would be catastrophic!"

They ate the rest of their meal in virtual silence other than to congratulate Dawn and when Max's Azurill jumped on the table and started to play with the candle. After that they all headed to bed ready for the next day of the contest which to Ash's delight didn't start until eight.

'Beep, beep, beep' the alarm clock woke Ash up at around at half seven despite Pikachu's many attempts to wake him up earlier. As he made his way down he met up with Brock who told him that most people were already at the arena so they made their own way down together. As they went through the corridor to the stands Ash noticed the businessmen from yesterday talking quietly about something, he heard something as they passed them, "Kevin is in position with the Earth Sceptre if J doesn't hurry up..." Kevin, could it be the same person that beat Ash in the Sinnoh tournament? He doubted it and anyway that tournament had nothing to do with any Earth Sceptre or Key.

They took their ring side seats next to Max who now had Ralts on his lap instead of Azurill and just in time and the announcer shouted once again the tournament had begun. By the time 12:00 came there was only four co-ordinators left Dawn, Zoey, a young boy name Jack and J. The arena drained of life and the six of them met up in the courtyard outside the hotel. Misty said in a whisper to Dawn, "I'm not meant to tell to you this but your friend Zoey is against J next so there is a good chance it will be you and J in the final. You cannot let him win I did some research and the Earth Sceptre was stolen too."

Ash suddenly remembered what he'd heard, "I overheard those businessmen from yesterday talking they said, 'Kevin is in position with the Earth Sceptre.'" They all stood staring at each other in silence for a while thinking.

It was Max that finally spoke, "Dawn, the final round you can use two Pokémon right? So far J has used only a Sceptile suggesting to me that he may also have a Swampert as Kevin used a Blaziken. You should use Piplup and Thyphlosion they should give you the type advantage."

At one they headed back to the stadium for the final time worried now of what could be a dangerous outcome. Dawn was up first against Jack the round ended quickly and Jack ran off crying because he'd lost. Zoey walked into the arena with her head held high ready to win.

"Glameow take the stage!" Zoey shouted.

"Sceptile finish her!" J's Sceptile came out and almost instantly used Agility to get behind Glameow. "Now use Leaf Blade," Sceptile slashed at Glameow who took a nasty hit from behind. Glameow fell to the floor unable to get back up but still conscience, "Now use Slam from above!" with that it was all over, there was nothing Zoey could do to stop it J had won the battle in about 30 second. There was no cheering audience, no applause from the judges, J had won fair and square but to have done it so brutally to train a Pokémon to do that was just in-human. There was a silenced shock as J returned Sceptile and left Zoey to cry of over her Glameow's body.