Pre-chapter A/N; Since everyone is asking for one of these, here's a breakdown of the character names before we get into things
Broly - Kleavor
Quicksilver - Pidgeot (dead)
Kisame - Milotic
Igneel - Charizard
Kenpachi - Tyranitar
Ino - Gardevoir
Snorlax - Snorlax
Tsunade - Clefable
Gai - Hakomo-o
Magnezone - Magnezone
Hashirama- Trevenant
Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.
I looked between all the people by my side and began to form a plan for passing through this part of the selection process. It had never truly struck me exactly how many trainers were in Kanto. Over a thousand trainers had applied at the beginning after the President truly opened the floodgates, and from there, it was pure chaos.
Even now, months into the selection process, there were still quite a few applicants left. So many in fact, that the penultimate trial was going to be a free for all battle. One hundred and eight trainers were in the arena around me, each one allowed only a single pokemon to prevent the entire thing from becoming too chaotic. We were going to remain in this arena until only 10 trainers were left.
From 108 to 10, that's a hell of a cutoff and I found myself looking forward to it. Especially as I spotted Sabrina at the other end of the arena. Our plan was going to be simple, fight our way to each other, and team up for the rest of the trial. Unlike all the other trials, this wasn't just about the strength of one's pokemon. Numerous factors like luck, tactical awareness, ability to work with others, as endurance would affect everything. It had been the most controversial of all the trials, but this time the president remained blessedly silent. Perhaps, he was wary of overruling Oak too often. The ex-Champion was a patient man and his kind genial old man persona was strong, but anyone with a working brain knew not to pull on his tail. The president had been doing just that ever since this entire thing started.
I took a deep breath and turned to Hashirama at my side with a smile. It had been a more difficult decision than expected, choosing which of my teammates would be at my side for this trial. Hashirama was able to narrowly beat out everyone else because of the sheer area utility being able to create a whole forest would provide in this arena. I'd not, for the life of me, been able to figure out how this had been built. The domed ceiling above me seemed to stretch impossibly high, giving flying types more than enough room to cause chaos. The X-axis dimensions were equally impressive. We all stood in the arena without pokemon and there was still more than ample space. Considering Bruno had brought a gigantic Onix for this trial, that was a lot more impressive than it sounded. Speaking of elite four members, I turned to the woman who had been staring at me since we entered the arena. Agatha of the elite four. Aged and sore, she had a perpetual look like she swallowed a lemon on her face as she glared daggers at me.
Oak had warned me that they had history and she'd probably be coming for me, but I didn't think her focus would be so single minded. I had no doubts that she'd be coming for me the moment this thing started. Not choosing Ino for this seemed to be an even better decision than I thought. If I was going t0 be having a pissed off Ghost mistress on my case, then there'd be no better choices than Hashirama or Kenpachi. Her Gengar stuck out its tongue when it noticed my attention, floating around menacingly. I just smiled at it, baring my teeth and preparing myself for the fight of my life. This trial was definitely going to be the most difficult thing I'd ever faced.
The screen flashed, counting down to 1. 7…6…. I started considering all the strategies I'd prepared while checking my pockets for the ninth time today. I was ready. This was mine. 3…2…1. Once the event started, I sent my aura flowing straight into Hashirama, like a dam releasing all its pent up energy. It was a drop in an ocean when compared to his, but it was more potent. Leaps more potent. He could achieve so much more with my power than his own, at similar amounts at least. He held on to my aura and stoked the growth of the seeds he'd been spreading throughout the waiting time.
They began to sprout, slowly and surely. The ground itself then began to shake in an earthquake. For that move, he hadn't even needed to split his focus much, with most of it already spread into the ground. The seeds had gone extremely far in their spread, so most oof Hashirama's job right now was stoking them and bring them to life, which my ajura made even easier.
As I watched the forest form around us, I couldn't help but smile to myself. At this point, my team was just blatantly overpowered for the setting. Of course, that was the moment life had to bring me down from my high horse. Sometimes, I just love life. Unlike the rest of the trainers, awe-struck at my sudden attack, Agatha was already on the move. All the trees between her and me crumbled to dust as she made her way forwards, her Gengar wrapping her around in a clound of poison so dense, that part of me feared for the old woman's health. Of course, as I heard the insane cackling that matched her presence within the cloud, I flushed that feeling from my body. Agatha was fucking insane. Some people theorised it came from spendinjng so much time around the void creatures known as ghost types, but I had a simpler explanation. She was just born without any screws at all.
"Gotcha little Oaksy. Granny Agatha is here" She said with an obnoxious cackle that mad eme reflexively step back. Her voice grated, hitting a pitch alien to the human ear.
"Brother, Get him" She shouted at the cloud around her and I scowled in reply. There was something wrong here. There had to be. This wans't just missing screws. It seemed like she'd lost the whole fucking car.
"Hashirama, keep it low-key. Conserve your strength. His poison is strong, but that will be no issue to you, will it?" I spoke to my partner in whispers and he just swayed one of his branches in reply.
THe Gengar formed out of the cloud and flew right at us, but Hashirama had been waiting. A branch from one of the few intact trees around us slamed right into the Gengar. It folded its body around the attack, continuing its approach, but that was what we'd wanted. The time taken there had been enough for Hashirama to charge up a solar beam. The blast of light energy slammed straight into the Gengar, actually driving the ghost backwards and we got right into the strategy for dealing with this species that I'd come up with. After all, we had a date with a Gengar set for one of these coming days. Hashi was careful to avoid attacking with any of his core branches, lest they be consumed in this particularly corrosive poison, but he also wasn't shy about letting the forest he'd made lose a few trees as he animated them to do the attacking for him. One branch went right for its head, but as it dodged that, it was met with another going for its midsection. Both missed their marks along with the solar beam Hashirama tried to cleave iot with. As they fought and danced, I kept an eye on the surroundings. Hashirama's forest had caught most of the other contestants off guard, but that surprise had quickly worn out, and now they fought their way through the environment, splitting trees apart and battling their way through and around the forest. Part of me could somehow tell that Sabrina was off towards the east, relatively unmolested. She'd probably wait for me to finish with Agatha before approaching.
It was the smart thing to do, and Sabrina had always been a smart woman. After all, what psychic master would stroll into a fight with a Ghost type elite trainer.
I turned to the fight in front of me, taking note of the fact that Gangar had managed to get even closer to Hashirama's body after completely destroying close to a dozen trees. More trees sprang up from the ground, shaped to entrap the poison type, but it just fazed through them in a cloud, not allowing them touch it.
We waited a few seconds for it to become solid again before lashing out with another attack. I was being constantly reminded of the saying, 'no plan survives first contact with the enemy'. My anti-Gengar strategies weren't proving nearly as effective as I'd hoped. Even though in an ideal situation, I'd have Igneel here to run interference and threaten with flying type attacks to disperse the Gengar to the winds if it dared phase out for too long, I still expected that Hashirama alone would be enough to deal with the threat.
It was now, that the Gengar won first blood. They'd danced for close to ten minutes, neither one winning the advantage, until Gengar suddenly changed tact. He;d previously been kept at bay by a mixture of physical attacks from the trees around him and solar beams, I thought we'd gotten the right rhythm, until he threw everything into disarray by turning completely into gas, splitting up ito several streams to dodge around the solar beams, and then phasing his poisonous body right through the arm Hashirama raised to attack him. I watched the branch wither with a wince as Hashirama instantly retreated, taking refuge underground when his opponent didn't press the attack.
Gengar stood still, waiting for Hashirama to resurface as I detonated the plan for retreat. I jumped backwards and blew on the whistle clutched in my hand. Alakazam appeared right behind me, and with a palm on my shoulder teleported me, kilometres away, to where Sabrina stood looking at something I couldn't quite see.
I took a deep breath and instantly reached out with my aura. Hashirama was making good speed towards us. I'd have been worried about one of the multiple rock or ground type pokemon getting him off guard while he was so injured, but the fact was that with so many roots underground, I found it unlikely that anyone who got into combat with him as he was submerged would be making their way back up. Especially as injured as he was right now.
"That was a mess" I said with a deep breath, finally able to talk to Sabrina after making sure my teammate was alright and on his way. "Indeed. I did not expect Agatha's Gengar to represent such a threat" Sabrina replied, not really doing much for how I felt. Fuck, I thought myself powerful. Thought myself strong. We had a plan. Everything was going so well, and then it turned out the fucking Gengar was just holding back. We'd never had the advantage. We had nothing against that pokemon, and that was just insane.
"She is making her way over here" Sabrina said, pointing me over to a line of collapsing trees. He arena was big, and Sabrina had kept her distance from oir battle, but as it stood, I didn;t give Agatha more than five minutes to arrive here. "Fuck" I breathed out, trying to think of a way out poof was coming right for me, and I couldn't be near Sabrina when that happened, or even leave her on the way to me.
"Teleport away. I've got this" I said, putting on my most confident smile and shutting down all my thoughts on the matter so she couldn't see them.
"Alright" She said simply, and disappeared with Alakazam. She was much too trusting. Her psychic abilities made her supremely difficult to deceive, but it also made her even easier to fool for those who could get around those psychic abilities. She had no skill for reading body language or facial cues. She quite literally took everyone at their words, mental or otherwise.
It was a good thing for now though, much more convenient, at least. I looked at the rapidly approaching line of destruction and promptly began heading east. The arena was a few dozen kilometres in every direction, so we had more than enough space to avoid each other all through the event. I started running, jumping over a root and trusting myself to figure out something to solve this.
XXXXXXX
And finallyyyyyyyyyy. For the final battle of the first round of the Sinnoh Representative Qualifying Tournament, we have Aaron of the Elite four facing off against Volkner, Gym Leader of Sunyshore City.
I took a deep breath as I prepared myself to head out. Of course, my first battle just had to be against an elite level trainer. At this point, I'd given up on trying to predict my luck. Going against a trainer everyone recognised as being on Flint's level for my first battle hadn't been the optimal outcome, but I still had a plan prepared for him.
His first choice would be that Jolteon of his. He had a 69% chance of using her as his first pokemon in serious battles, and an 85% win rate for when he did. It was unlikely he'd use anything else. However, I had to choose my first pokemon carefully. I needed to bait out that pokemon to deal with first, but the fact of the matter was that the stronger the pokemon I sent out, the less likely he was to use her first. I fucking hated going first. Way too inconvenient.
I sent out Drapion after a few seconds of consideration. He lazily sent out the electric pokemon I'd wanted him to, and I just smiled in satisfaction. Everything was going according to plan. Of course, this was often the time when things started to go pear-shaped.
The referee pulled down his flag to begin the battle, and they blurred into motion, Drapion retreating to get distance from the physically dominant pokemon, and Jolteon covering the ground at amazing speed, keen on achieving the exact opposite goal. Jolteon moved at extreme speeds, but we had a bit of a surprise prepared with Drapion. He moved across the ground, dropping poison spikes as he moved, intent on getting the electric type pokemon with his poison. Of course, there wasn't much chance of something like that happening. I just needed the field to be prepared and poisoned against his other pokemon after this battle. The truth was that I'd spent so much time thinking about what would happen if I was faced with any of the remaining elite-level trainers in Sinnoh, that I'd come up with a unique strategy for each opponent. Valkner was one of the easiest to plan around. A powerful trainer, yes, but not a very imaginative or tactically sound one.
Lazy. That was the word most accurately used when describing the man in front of me. His Jolteon kept approaching the retreating Drapion until I whistled and my pokemon suddenly held his ground, waiting for the approaching pokemon with visible menace wafting off him. As a bug type master, Drapion was one of my only pokemon who didn't meet the required typing. I'd been reluctant to catch him when we met, but that hunger, that drive I saw in his eyes was just too much to turn down. Yes, training him in a team of bug types was often inconvenient, but we'd moved past that quickly. He was just too good at what he did.
He waited for the very last second in Jolteon's charge and leaned out of the way of the wild charge before smashing right into its midsection with one of his pincers. I almost winced along with the rest of the audience at the sound of the impact. Drapion hadn't held back one whit, and his species were known for being strong enough to crush steel between their pincers. As he held the electric rabbit-like pokemon down and prepared to inject his poison, Valkner suddenly shouted, from his end of the field, "Transform". I watched in shock as the electric pokemon suddenly turned to nothing but pure electricity, phasing through Drapion's hold, leaving him slightly shocked and retreating. What was that? That couldn't have been possible. I studied Valkner's previous battles with an obsession. If he had some form of trick like that up hios sleeves, he'd have used it much earlier.
"I find it so funny how so many trainers assume they have a monopoly on improvement. They study their opponent before battle, and then become surprised to find that all they had learned had become obsolete. The fact of it is this; This is a world of infinite growth. To be a truly great trainer, one needs to feel it intuitively. Studying your opponent is useless. Battling is all about the feeling of it. If it doesn't feel right, there can be no battle. However, the moment it does, that's when battle becomes something truly extraordinary." He said, with a loud voice portraying passion that I'd never have expected from the gym leader who literally spent all his time hiding from his own gym. Fuck. Of course, even the simple assessment of his personality had proven to be wrong. Just the kind of life I lived these days.
"Interesting opinion. I'll give you a better idea of what battles are about. Feelings don't matter. Emotions don't matter. It's a contest for who is the superior tactician. Who has the best information, the best analysis of that information, and who is most capapble to turn all of that into strategy to overcome their opponent. The truth of the matter is this; You stand no chance against me. One simple trick will never be enough. Drapion, strategy two"
My dark-type just nodded as he heard the words addressed to him. This time, he wasnn't retreating or stepping back. No, he was moving forwards with all he had, rushing right towards the wounded Jolteon. It might have been able to escape being badly poisoned but that had done nothing for the impact that had put it down in the first place. He didn't seem keen on recognising the injury, though, as he just shook off his fur and ran right at Drapion. I smiled, watching the movement. I could already see how it had adapted from the first exchange. Of course, that meant nothing, this strategy was markedly different. As both pokemon got even closer to each other, Drapion took in a deep breath and bathed the area between them in a purple cloud. Jolteon was much too close to avoid inhaling any of it, and though it managed to find itself out of the cloud in short order, it was still much too late. That was one of our designe posions. The magnum opus of my litle project had been the abillity to design poisons more likely to be effective against certain types or even whole species of pokemon.
The cloud had been made up of a paralytic specially designed to be more effective and fast-acting against electric types. We already tested it on Galvantula and a host of wild electric pokemon, to guarantee it worked, and as I saw the Jolteon's leg begin to seizem I knew this one would be no different from the others. This was the power of preparation. "Know thy enemy, and know thyself, and thou shalst not fear a million battles" I quoted from one of the multiple nameless journals in the elite library.
"Transform" Valkner shouted from one end of the field, and I watched the wildcard move I'd never expected come together right in front of my eyes. I just scowled at it.
"Dig" I commanded Drapion, instructing him to go underground and wait out this last ditch prayer. It was obvious that Jolteon could not maintain the transformation for long periods. If it could, it would have transformed from the beginning and ended the battle there. As Drapion began to submerge himself in the ground, the whisker of electricity I identified as Jolteon suddenly moved. Drapion was on the floor, knocked out, and twitching, a second later, and Jolteon was back in its body. What the fuck?
What the actual fuck was that? I ignored the twitch I unconsciously made as I swore, and focused on trying to unpack what just happened.
XXXXXXX- DONNELL OAK
I looked to my left and right as I continued my escape from the crazy old woman. Choosing Hashirama for this battle seemed to be the wrong idea. In my defense, I'd never have expected the Gengar's poison to be corrosive enough to wear through the body of a fucking pokemon. Things like this weren't even meant to be possible.
I took a left, covering ground as quickly as possible, as I felt Hashirama moving underneath me. I wasn't going to have him trigger the trap until I was sure we'd get them. Agatha's cackles brought shivers to my body as they echoed around the forest. It hadn't taken me long to figure out that we weren't really in an arena. It was just too large to be one. Consulting Hashirama's aura told me he hadn't even noticed the illusion of the arena. I had no idea why the league had spared the time and energy for such a large illusion but it wasn;t even my major focus for now. All my attention was spent trying to figure out a plan to take out this crazy old day and her pokemon if the trap we had, failed to work. I'd never have even considered such a plan failing, but since my first experience with the crazy old lady managing to overcome everything I threw at her, I was becoming more and more doubtful of Hashirama and I's ability to overcome them.
Finally, we arrived at the clearing Hashirama scouted out ahead of time. IO dove right down as a cloud of gengar poison sailed over my head. "That's against the rules" I screamed at the cackling woman.
"Oh pipe down, whippersnapper. You're still alive, ain't ya? For now" The last two words were whispered with a menace that no human being should have been capable of. The sun above us seemed to intensify in strength, as Hashirama used his signature sunny day, preparing himself for the expenditure I needed. The trees around us seemed to sway with an intangible wind as they came to life around us.
"This same trick again?" The old woman asked before rearing her head back and unleashing a deep hearty laugh that seemed to wrack her whole being. It struck me then, how old Agatha truly looked. She was skin and bones. Every bit of skin I could see was wrinkled. Her hair was completely white, even the black edges I'd been able to make out just a month ago were completely gone. This woman was supposed to be Oak's age? Oak looked like he could run a marathon at any time of the day. She looked like she could barely make tea without killing herself in the process.
"What do you want Agatha? Is this really the best use of your time?" I asked, trying to create some dialogue, both to buy time for my trap and to try to understand what she actually wanted.
"Nothing but you, boyyo. You and Daddy. More Daddy than you, but Daddy isn't here right now. I'll take you to bring Daddy here." She said, voice seeming to echoe with a deeper tone than what should be humanly possible. Everything about Agatha seemed to be unnatural.
And as I stared in her eyes, the flash of black I saw in them made me fall backwards, tripping over my feet.
A/N; A/N; Thanks for reading, guys. We're officially Sixty-one chapters in. Isn't that something? We've finally hit the last part of the last arc, so things are very much in their endgame. Let's go, I guess. We've got the next seven chapters available on pa-treon, and you can read all of them right now just by heading to the link on my profile or searching for my username up there. I also have a new story I'm working on, so you can also check that out here.