Pokemon University

by Gyvarius

Welcome to Pokemon University, where we teach the next generation of Trainers! There is never a dull moment here, and every day is one of adventure and discovery! Join our students as they experience secrets and adventures beyond their wildest dreams...

22. Freshman Cup: Round 2

AN: So you all have probably been wondering why this chapter was taking so long. And the truth is, writing these battles really isn't that fun for me, especially with how many there are. It is just so draining and exhausting and hard to make each one new and exciting.

To make it far easier on me, and speed things up a bit, we're gonna do a little trick for these first rounds called a summary montage! Any important battles later on I'll do a full write for, but for these ones we're gonna test that maneuver out. Hopefully it won't ruin the story for you all, but it is necessary for my own personal sanity and enthusiasm.

KedharS: Glad you enjoyed it!

coolhuh0526: That's sad that the early battle wasn't too interesting…but the movesets didn't give me much to work with. But the later half definitely made up for it!

Yup, Alastor and Sally go well together.

Salvador does have weaknesses…what those are we'll just have to see.

Daniel is just that kind of guy. Everyone is his friend, except when they're not.

Yup, Trixie got off easy here. The move generator might turn on them later though…

Arondite's true power is only unlocked when held as an actual sword, indeed…

Yup, Azumarill is no joke. And don't worry, the breaking and entering thing won't take place until the first round of battles are over.

jjjdunk1: Very special, divine moves are.

Trixie is a very interesting character, that's for sure.

No worries, someone will put an end to their tricks. One day.

Victor John Foxfire: Yup, good observations on Jennifer!

Oh boy, angry Victor isn't good to run into. Dravilius will certainly need to be wary.

Oh, but Trixie is no normal Trainer, and these are no Pokemon. They ARE very real though, although your theory is an interesting read!

As for Trixie's true nature…we'll just have to see.

AnonChan1: Glad you're liking all this so far! More surprises await.

Well, Psychic IS weak to Ghost…

Yup. Depressed Yamask is depressed.

Sally is definitely a real monster. And she loves to draw things out, unless someone forces her under control.

Alastor likes things that are new and surprising, so of course Jennifer's team lured his interest.

Hmm…what Pokemon do we know can manipulate dreams…

Don't expect any happy endings here.

It's fun writing a genderfluid character! Never had one before, but I did really like one that I read in another story.

Yup. Trixie loves her tricks. Or his. It depends.

Indeed they do…the amount of control and training necessary is intense.

You don't want to know what Ylva said. Her swearing rivals that of a thousand sailors.

Yup! I thought that was a cool idea.

So far, Trixie's Alpha is the only one.

Hmm…who knows? Kiyoko's story will be told later, I promise.

Well, can you blame them? Azumarill is terrifying.

Victor might not feel that way…

Rescue Wolf: I'm pretty sure you guys already know Jennifer and her sister's situation…no transformation involved.

Yup, Daniel would do anything for his friends.

We'll have to see on all that ancient Pokemon lore…

Omesta: It's been a long time!

Yeah, Owen is in big trouble here.

Don't worry, I thought carefully before putting Salvador in. There are weaknesses to exploit.

And who says Jennifer ever met a god?

Welp, that's all of them! Montage, start! (-o-)

Victoria stared defiantly across the battlefield, her ferocious orange eyes staring deep into the strange shimmering green eyes of Vanessa. Victoria was determined to prove her strength, and was prepared to fight almost everyone in the tournament after careful analysis of everyone's battles.

But by sheer luck, Victoria's first opponent was the one who had no data at all. Vanessa was a mystery to her - she had never seen that girl around on campus, and there was no footage of her battling anyone. For all she knew, this girl had never fought in her life.

And yet, looking into Vanessa's eyes…Victoria feared what this opponent might be capable of.

"Alright, gals, let's hurry this up so we don't sit here all year!", shouted Alastor, "Let the battle begin!"

"Erik, let's feel her out, shall we?", Victoria purred, slipping out a Pokeball and releasing her Galarian Yamask. The ghost stared vacantly at Vanessa, the true mind hidden away in the stone he carried.

"Bakudan.", Vanessa whispered, tossing up an old wooden Pokeball. Appearing was…an old wooden Pokeball, but much larger.

Then it spun around, revealing an engraved glaring face.

"Huh, I didn't realize there were any of those left!", commented Shi, "Wooden Pokeballs went out of fashion years ago, and with them went that variety of Electrode. After all, what's the point of pretending to be a Pokeball no one uses?"

Robin said, "Let's see what this one does! Who knows what tricks modern Electrode have forgotten?"

Victoria ordered, "Erik, use-"

"Self-Destruct.", interrupted Vanessa.

Bakudan exploded, and Victoria rolled back to shelter herself from the shrapnel. Erik wasn't so lucky. The damage cleaved through his body and sent him flying, and with an angry hiss dissolved back into his stone. The first knockout of the match.

Angered by this awful start to the fight but still playing cautiously, Victoria sent out her Sobble James. But the Pokemon Vanessa sent out next proved a terrifying threat. A great white Braviary, with a crown of eerie purple flames. Another Hisuian form, a far more powerful one by the name of Seji.

Victoria shouted quick commands to help James dodge around the many attacks the Braviary fired at him, shooting Water Guns at the wings whenever he got the chance. While none were strong enough to knock the bird out of the air, it was definitely doing some damage.

Then Seji managed to pinpoint his next location, swinging her wing around and blasting James down with a wave of psychic power. The poor Sobble couldn't withstand it, the second knockdown of the fight.

Victoria decided the time to go easy was over, sending out one of her strongest Pokemon - Eleanor, the Meowstic. Vanessa tried to call back Seji but the cat trapped the Braviary with a fearsome look. The two zipped around the field, locked in a mental battle and using their minds to try to overpower the will of the other. It was a very long time of the two orbiting each other, but finally Eleanor broke through and sent Seji crashing to the earth. Finally, Vanessa had lost her next Pokemon.

The next one took everyone by surprise - a giant fish with a vast array of spikes as long as Victoria was tall. Supaiku the Overqwil was, like all other fish Pokemon, employing the trick of hovering in a large bubble so I could fight on a dry field - with the additional defenses of its spikes jutting out of said bubble. The thing tried to fire a volley of toxic spines, but Victoria expertly switched Eleanor out for Sting, her Venipede.

This Venipede was a very interesting Pokemon of hers. She knew she had received it from somebody as a gift, but all other details had been mysteriously erased. There was a notable six month gap in her memory, one she had never found any clues as to what had happened or what caused it. All she knew was that Sting was strong, fast, and brought an odd warm feeling to her heart.

Sting managed to dodge around the spines easily, and started darting around the Overqwil as it struggled to shoot at him. While Supaiku was big, bulky, and powerful, he was also very slow - something Victoria eagerly took advantage of.

After a steady series of Rollouts that knocked the Overqwil around, a weakening Sting managed to take it down. But then came Chouna - a fearsome Kleavor who did not appreciate the Venipede jabbing it with poisonous spines.

Sting scurried away as fast as he could, leading Chouna into a merry chase around the arena. The Kleavor tore through the area like a hurricane, ripping up chunks of earth and throwing them all around the area. Sting held out for quite some time, but then the Kleavor leaped down from above and knocked him out with one heavy blow from its axe.

Pressed against the wall and infuriated by how easily Vanessa was dominating, Victoria sent out her best playing card - Zoyle, the Poipole. Her presence sent everyone into startled and confused whispers, for after all no one had ever seen such an odd alien Pokemon before. But Victoria didn't pay attention to that. Her mind was only on the foe before her.

"Zoyle, that thing is made of rock. You'll need to use your strongest poisons!", Victoria shouted, "Target the joints!"

"Whee, I love fighting things!", squealed Zoyle, gliding around the Kleavor. It roared and swiped at her, but Zoyle dodged around the axe blade, giggling.

Then she sprayed a strange blue poison right between its arm and torso, which stuck like glue on contact and started eating away at its armor. Chouna bellowed in pain.

"Ooh, you don't like that, do you?", chirped Zoyle, "Here, let me help."

She focused, and suddenly the poison turned into daggers, stabbing deeper into Chouna's body. The Kleavor fell to one knee, screeching.

Zoyle giggled. "Ooh, not so scary now, are you?"

Robin declared, "While I have no clue what that Pokemon is, it appears it is doing lots of damage! That Venoshock certainly looks like it hurts!"

Alastor commented, "Such a fascinating Pokemon…the Doctor certainly must know about it!"

Shi growled, "No way he's getting his hands on that. Keep your twisted experiments away from the freshmans' Pokemon!"

Alastor scoffed. "And what can you do about that?"

Shi growled, "You wanna find out?"

Robin glared at them. "Cut it out, we have battles to watch!"

Chouna roared, pulling herself back up and charging for Zoyle. Zoyle tried to dodge, but the Kleavor was smarter this time, whirling around her good arm and slamming the axe into Zoyle's chest. The Poipole gasped as the air was knocked out of her lungs, and she fell into the sand. Chouna prepared to attack again, but Zoyle quickly zipped away, jabbing her tail into the poisoned area.

Chouna bellowed in pain, and fell over, the poison overwhelming her and knocking out the Kleavor. Vanessa seemed mildly impressed - her eyes widened slightly and a tiny smile appeared on her face.

Then she sent out her last Pokemon.

"Legion!", it roared, a giant fish consisting partially of swirling white spirits. The wrath of hundreds of fallen Basculin emanated off its body, and Victoria shivered. Zoyle looked rather nervous.

"Are all of Vanessa's Pokemon species that are supposed to be dead!?", cried Shi.

Robin smiled. "A Basculegion…I've always found that Pokemon to be impressive. To finally see one before my own eyes…why, it is a truly wonderful experience!"

Alastor groaned. "Yay, more Ghost-type fanboying. Fantastic."

Vanessa whispered, "Tamashi…end this!"

The Basculegion roared in reply, summoning a powerful wave around it before slamming into Zoyle at full force. She wailed in pain, the roaring waters threatening to throw her all across the battlefield.

The fish vanished into darkness, before reappearing behind her as she spun around in the current. It tackled her with full force, ghostly energy striking her and sapping her strength. Zoyle sprayed poison over the Basculegion, but she was too weak to do anything else. Victoria turned pale as she recalled the little alien. Only Eleanor remained.

She sent out the already weakened Meowstic, but she already knew how this was going to end. To lose in the first round of a tournament of freshmen…a low blow for a secret agent like her.

The Basculegion bellowed, ghostly energy welling around it, before blasting Eleanor with an orb of shadows. Eleanor summoned a light screen to try to block it, but it was too late. She took most of the damage and collapsed, her defeat marking the battle's end.

"Victoria has no Pokemon remaining! Vanessa wins!", shouted Robin, "Now that was an impressive fight. I bet we all look forward to seeing Vanessa's future battles with her ancient Pokemon!"

Victoria scoffed, returning Eleanor and storming off the battlefield. She supposed there was one bright side to losing so early, though. Now she had extra time to investigate those weird rifts her equipment had been picking up. And this time there would be no interruptions. (-o-)

The next match was Donovan versus Devon, and it was shaping up to be quite exciting.

Donovan stared at the big kid across the field from him, marveling at how small he was in this thirteen-year-old body. He remembered in the original timeline that he had been intimidated. Not so much now, now that he had seen some of the most horrifying things in existence.

Devon grinned. "Try to put up a good fight, will ya?"

Donovan shrugged. "We'll see."

Alastor declared, "Yes, indeed we'll see! How did such a young trainer get such a powerful team? Was it all luck, or genuine skill? Let's find out! Battle!"

"Blade, go!", shouted Devon, sending out his new Skarmory. Meanwhile, Donovan quietly sent out Locke, his Bisharp. Blade shook his body, showering spiked feathers across the field before zipping around and boosting its speed. Blade dived down, slashing with his steel sword-like wings and pecking at Locke's armor, while the Bisharp used his Magnet Rise technique to glide up and start dueling the Skarmory, blades meeting blades. The duel lasted for quite some time, and Donovan knew that he could end up much faster with some Aerial Ace/Dual Chop combos. However, the younger him had never used combo moves, and he dared not tip his hand now.

Finally, Blade decided enough was enough, and slammed into Locke, slamming him down and crushing him into the earth. Locke's body creaked and strained, but the Bisharp managed to strike the Skarmory's face with a well-aimed blow. Blade screeched and fell over, and Locke fainted as well, his duty done.

The next two Pokemon were Moro and Tulip - Donovan's Greavard and Devon's Hisuian Lilligant. Everyone was astonished by how fast Tulip moved, dancing around in a way unfamiliar to almost everyone there. Buffing her stats, Tulip then showered Moro with spores as he tried desperately to dig away. Donovan winced, knowing he could have ordered Moro away faster…but he was too afraid of disrupting the timeline to allow that. Moro struggled to chip away at Tulip's health, digging up, biting her ankles, and recurring, but she was too strong. On another one of Moro's digs, she struck him down with her Leaf Blade, knocking him out.

Donovan sent out Brave, knowing the elderly bird was both very powerful and had no need for orders. Brave swooped high above Tulip, avoiding her attacks as he fired off blades of wind at her. She danced around as many as she could, and filled the air with Petal Blizzards, messing with Brave's flight pattern. Finally, with a ferocious Screech, Brave dives in with a Brave Bird, slamming into her and knocking her down…but not before she could spray him with a Stun Spore.

Devon decided to unleash his strongest Pokemon - King, the Tyrantrum! With a mighty roar, the dinosaur charged, summoning rocks to crash down from the sky and trap Brave long enough for King to crunch down on his leg. Brave screeched angrily, and struggled to escape. He managed to kick the jaws open long enough to escape into the sky, but struggled from both his injury and the paralysis. More rocks rained down, and Brave began to fall. But as he fell, he charged up a powerful beam of energy, blasting the Tyrantrum in the face with a Hyper Beam before crashing into the sand and fainting.

Donovan then sent out Kay. The blind Krokorok, while normally at a disadvantage, was more than capable of tracking King on a sandy field. She sharpened her claws as the Tyrantrum approached, before leaping back and triggering an Earthquake. King roared and stumbled, before charging towards Kay and headbutting her. As she was thrown into the air, King's claws lit up with volatile energy, and he swatted her back with his Dragon Claw.

The two sparred for quite some time, Kay weakening King as he charged for her, only to be smacked back again with a Dragon Claw or Iron Tail. And while she did a fair bit of damage, King did far more. She finally fainted, leaving Donovan only to fight with his last couple of Pokemon.

Next up was Skitter the Whirlipede, who immediately sped into action, rolling into King's legs with her Rollout. King staggered, and she continued cutting away at him, until the Tyrantrum fell. He shook the earth as he collapsed, sending Skitter teetering off-balance. King took that moment to charge psychic energy into his fangs, chomping into the bug's flesh.

Skitter screeched and tore free, as King fainted. But she had taken a large chunk of damage from that hit.

Devon was down to his last Pokemon, and his eyes lit up. "You really are a tough kid!", he declared, "But there's hope for me yet! Sweets, go!"

Appearing was a white Alcremie with ruby swirls, a pair of heart-shaped candies sitting on her head. She twirled around elegantly, and decorated herself with more whipped cream. It seemed to boost her strength, and she sent a storm of Mystical Fire hurtling towards Skitter.

The Whirlipede screeched, rolling around it and spitting a wave of toxic gunk at Sweets. Sweets tried to dodge it, but lots splattered onto her anyways, and she cried out in pain.

Skitter pressed the attack, using the tried-and-true strategy of Venoshock. Sweets started using Mega Drain, but the poison was stacking up faster than she could heal. Skitter was growing less steady on her feet as her health was sapped away, but she was determined to finish the attack.

And finish it she did.

With one last Venoshock, Sweets wailed and dissolved into a pile of cream, which Devon swiftly returned. He smiled cheerfully, before striding off, leaving Donovan standing in the stadium and trying to make sure he had followed the timeline correctly. (-o-)

Ray and Owen stood across from each other, both studying each other carefully. Ray had been itching to try his hand against Owen ever since he had realized that he, too, liked to analyze opponents.

Ray knew Owen was gonna have quite a bit of difficulty countering him though. All Owen had to work off of was that first battle against Gwendolyn (a spectacular loss that made everyone vastly underestimate Ray's true power) and the few practice battles they had in the Battle Course. And in every single one of those Ray had held back, keeping many of his combo moves a secret.

But now it was time to start revealing a few.

Alastor shouted, "Let's go, you two! Show me your smarts! The Doctor is watching…"

Robin sighed. "Let the battle begin!"

Ray sent out Falco, knowing that the Pidgeotto would be best for starting seeing as he had few weaknesses. Falco wheeled into the sky, surveying Owen to see what his opponent would be.

"Archeops, go!", Owen cried, sending out one of the telltale rental Pokeballs. Appearing was a very odd dino bird, who started flapping its wings into a frenzy and threw itself at Falco.

Ray knew that the Archeops would be a nightmare to fight if he wasn't careful, and he shouted, "Falco, pull back! That thing can't fly for long - let's make it even harder with a Dust Storm!"

Falco spun around, summoning a Whirlwind, before flying down and scraping up a large glob of sand. He tossed it into the winds and created a miniature sandstorm that tossed Archeops all over the place.

"And our first move of the match is one of Ray's signature combo moves!", declared Robin, "A rather simple one, but quite effective! Now that Archeops doesn't know where to go!"

Shi asked, "But isn't that gonna affect Falco's combat ability as well? It must be very hard to see through that, especially if you aren't a Ground-type!"

Robin replied, "The Pidgey line often hunt bugs from above, swooping down whenever they see a meal. To do that, they need keen eyes - which prevents them from losing any accuracy even in sand storms!"

"Impressive, very impressive! But I'm certain Owen has a clever plan!", declared Alastor.

Owen did not have a clever plan. The Archeops was no match for Falco's speed, who zipped around and carved away at the dino bird's health. Owen finally had the idea to use Ancient Power, filling the winds with large fossil rocks. Falco ended up taking several hits but it was not enough to finish him, and the Archeops gave up, only half-heartedly defending itself from Falco's attacks.

After Archeops went down, Owen sent out his Luxray, which charged at Falco angrily. However, Falco dodged around it, firing an Air Slash that dispelled the illusion and revealed the Luxray to be Sylvia, Owen's Hisuian Zorua!

Ray assumed that she'd be easily taken care of, but using her Shadow Sneaks to dodge around his attacks and blasting Falco with surprise Flamethrowers she managed to take the bird down.

However, Ray wasn't fazed. Falco had managed to weaken her somewhat, and he decided to send out his Honedge. As Sylvia went after him, Ray pulled another one of his combo moves - Iron Wall! Oliver stabbed himself into the ground and started stacking Iron Defenses, deflecting Sylvia's attacks with his banner and smacking her around with his sheath. Try as she might to weaken him, he was stronger than her and took the little Zorua out.

Owen, starting to feel pressured, ended up sending out his Bisharp. With one clean swipe, the Bisharp took out Oliver…then fell into the same stupid trap everyone else did.

Destiny Bond. Owen was suitably embarrassed to have forgotten that trick, and his performance dropped even further. As Ray sent out a dolphin, Owen sent out his new Scyther in preparation for a trick…

And the dolphin flipped into the bug, and spun back to swap into Mona the Charmeleon, who burned through the Scyther effortlessly.

Owen, super panicking now, sent out his real Luxray - which was promptly countered by Ray using one of his three permitted swaps to send in his rental Alolan Dugtrio. Maxwell tried to escape but the Dugtrio trapped him, and demolished him with earthquakes.

However, the Luxray had managed to greatly weaken it with Fire and Ice Fangs. The Dugtrio wasn't looking so good, but Ray wasn't worried. He still had his strongest weapon, and Owen only had one Pokemon left.

"Go Orchid!", he cried, sending out a Lurantis. Ray smiled slightly.

"Owen is on his last Pokemon!", declared Shi, "Looks like we have a winner!"

He smirked at Alastor, who just rolled his eyes.

Owen desperately cried, "Orchid, Superpower! We can't lose now!"

The Lurantis focused her strength, before slamming her claws into the heads of the Dugtrio. It was crushed into the ground, and Ray called them back, still smiling, even as the contrary Lurantis buffed her stats immensely.

"Mona, let's get this all wrapped up, shall we?", he said, sending out the Charmeleon. She growled excitedly at the Lurantis, prepping her flames.

"Orchid, Superpower again!", Owen cried.

"Cursed Blaze!", Ray countered.

Mona lit up with an aura of dark blue flames, hurtling for Orchid. As the Lurantis prepared to strike, Mona unleashed a draconic roar, slamming into Orchid with all her might. The flames burned away at Orchid, and the Lurantis staggered and fell. Mona blasted her with a Flamethrower for good measure.

"Orchid is unable to battle! Ray has won the match!", declared Robin.

Shi laughed happily, and his body seemed to distort wildly as if there were four different people laughing inside his cloak. "Ooh, Alastor, that was your scary new disciple!? Bet you're super embarrassed now!"

"On the contrary, this is exactly what I was hoping for.", Alastor said cryptically.

"Whaaat!?", cried Shi, "But why!?"

Alastor simply smirked.

Ray didn't stay to hear what people said next. He simply strode off the field, giving Owen a quick handshake as he went. He immediately started planning on how he was going to fight his next opponent, knowing that they would probably prove a far stronger challenge. (-o-)

Alastor declared, "Now, I know these two have not forged any sort of personal connection with you lot yet. But that does not mean this battle is not worth watching!"

"Anyone know what he's going off about?", Shi asked. Robin shrugged.

"Let us see what happens when fire and water collide, with Gregor versus Kyosha!", shouted Alastor.

Down on the field, the two immediately leaped into action.

"Downpour!"

"Snelo!"

Appearing was a Pelipper and Magcargo, which promptly began facing off. Rain began to fall around the battlefield, the droplets hissing as they made contact with Snelo's body.

Downpour flapped its wings and honked, summoning a rushing tailwind to boost its speed. The Magcargo struggled to hold strong against it, little lava droplets being thrown everywhere.

The lava snail then managed to launch a counter attack, throwing a large rock at the bird. But Downpour swerved around it, striking the blazing shell with a strike of its foot before swooping back into its Pokeball, replaced by Kyosha's Lanturn.

Snelo immediately focused its power and allowed the sun to slice through the clouds, but almost immediately Typhoon the Lanturn blocked them again. The two squabbles over the weather a bit before the Lanturn suddenly charged a ball of electricity and blasted Snelo with it. As the Magcargo recoiled, Typhoon sprayed a powerful Bubble Beam that cracked the shell and turned parts of the Magcargo's body to steaming stone.

As Snelo hissed violently, Typhoon continued barraging him, until finally the Magcargo collapsed. Gregor swapped in Viel, his Gloom, but Kyosha promptly switched in Vortex the Sealeo. A few Aurora Beams and the flower was toast.

Angered, Gregor sent in Camru the giant Camerupt, who blew the seal sky-high with an Earth Power and summoned Sunny Day. But then the giant camel faced something even bigger.

Kyosha had used Tsunami, the Wailord, who filled half the arena and looked very angry. Camru was blasted by a devastating Water Spout, and rain began to fall once more. Camru blasted Tsunami with Lava Plumes, but it was like the whale didn't even feel the hits. Camru finally failed the battle of endurance, and was replaced by Buber the Magmar. With an excellent Low Kick, the whale was thrown onto its side, its immense weight used against it.

But then Typhoon made his triumphant return, drenching the Magmar in bubbles and shocking him half to death. The Magmar fell, and Gregor then sent out his ace.

"Go, Serren!", he cried, releasing a Sceptile. There was a strange stone hanging around its neck, and many of the gathered Trainers gasped in recognition.

"Now, let's unleash your rage!", Gregor roared, his eyes blazing and the mark on his shoulder starting to burn with an orange light.

As they watched, energy swirled around Serren, causing to grow larger, gain new markings, and his leaves to extend greatly. His eyes narrowed excitedly, as he unleashed the power of his Mega Evolution.

"In a shocking development, Gregor has revealed a Mega Pokemon!", declared Robin, "Will this power be enough to turn the tides of battle? Or will he falter to the might of Kyosha's Pokemon?"

Shi exclaimed, "Ooh, this looks exciting!"

Serren roared, and charged for Typhoon. The Lantern fired an odd energy beam at Serren's face, but that was all he could do before being struck down by a glowing blade.

But Kyosha didn't look fazed. In fact, she started grinning.

"What?", snarled Gregor, "Why are you smiling!? I will annihilate you! Your ace, Swampert, can't stand a chance against my Sceptile!"

"You fool, Groudon may have filled you with great strength, but you don't have a mind to wield it with.", Kyosha purred, "Did you not think I planned for this? Did you believe one magic stone would give you victory? No…"

She slipped out her next Pokemon. "I believe this is where it ends."

She then sent out a majestic Lapras, who sang an excited tune as she landed on the drenched battlefield. The Lapras smiled at the Sceptile cruelly, mirroring her Trainer.

"My ace isn't that Swampert, even if he is the only one I can Mega Evolve or my first Pokemon. While we are close, your strongest Pokemon isn't necessarily the biggest or oldest.", Kyosha said, "No. It's the one that resonates with you most. And I don't believe you've found that yet."

The mark on her crown began to glow, and her eyes seemed filled with raging waves. "Good-bye, Gregor."

She and her Lapras shouted at the same time, unleashing a devastating Ice Beam far larger and stronger than any other. It slammed into Serren and threw him into the sand, freezing him solid in an instant. As they watched, the energy exploded away, and Serren shrank to his normal state.

"Impossible…", whispered Gregor.

Kyosha scoffed. "Nothing is impossible. You need to learn that, so you can prepare for anything. I believe you still have one Pokemon? Let's end this quickly."

Gregor spat. "I concede! There's no point in letting you rub this in my face. But I will remember this. We are not done!"

Kyosha smiled. "How wonderful. I loom forward to it."

Gregor stormed off the battlefield, and everyone was left wondering what the heck just happened. (-o-)

Sherman stared across the field as Dravilius stood before him, the dragon master's robes billowing in a breeze that had seemed to rise up just for that dramatic effect.

Sherman grinned. "I am a mighty knight, and now comes my first true test! To defeat the so-called master of dragons!"

Dravilius nodded. "And I am here to show you that you are far from mighty!"

Sherman smirked. "Let's test that! Lindworm!"

He sent out his new Tynamo, which hovered in the air and looked very confused.

"Daenerys!", shouted Dravilius, "Let's give him a taste of our power! Your wings are the sourest!"

"What the fu-", began Shi.

"Language.", hissed Robin.

Daenerys wasted no time on her attack, whipping down and summoning a raging Twister towards Lindworm. The poor Tynamo was thrown all around by the Twister, disorienting it as Daenerys began to dance around, woven with volatile dragon energy.

Lindworm feebly tried to blast her with a Spark, but Daenerys weaved around it effortlessly. She stopped in and unleashed a fearsome roar, blasting a pulse of dragon energy right in Lindworm's face, knocking it out instantly.

Sherman hissed under his breath and sent out his Tranquill, Wyvern, hoping that it would persevere against the Flapple. But as the two engaged in battle, Daenerys summoned a giant apple to fall down and strike Wyvern, pinning him to the ground and allowing her to finish him, even as he summoned blades of wind to slice away at her. Finally the two finished each other, an Air Cutter slicing Daenerys down, her Dragon Pulse knocking Wyvern unconscious.

Sherman sent out Amphithere the Servine, and Dravilius countered with Smaug the Turtonator. This one lasted longer than most, as Amphithere managed to land a Leech Seed on the Turtonator. But then when she tried to attack she detonated the shell, which exploded her instantly and knocked her out. Desperately Sherman sent out Tarrasque, who managed to blast down the Turtonator with a Hydro Pump. The Carracosta embraced itself for the next opponent, which turned out to be Tiamat. It was a battle of ace against ace.

And unfortunately for Sherman, Tiamatres was in charge this time. Which meant her attacks were swift, powerful, and relentless. The turtle held his ground quite well, but he could not withstand the raw power of Dravilius's Dragalge.

Sherman looked panicked. "No no no, this can't be happening! I can't lose!"

He sent out Knucker, his Sandile, who tried to burrow into the sand. Tiamat didn't give him the opportunity, and blasted him out of the sand with a Water Pulse. He tried to bite her tail, but with a snarl she blasted him again, and this time he did not move.

Sherman turned ghastly white. "No…no no no!"

He turned away and ran out sobbing, and Dravilius looked bewildered.

"I am certain nothing tragic just happened, why is he crying?", Dravilius wondered, "I barely even hurt his Pokemon. Humans are very weird."

And then he turned and strode off the battlefield. (-o-)

Grant punched his fist into his palm. "Alright, let's do this."

"Please avoid embarrassing me publicly.", Tom Tom requested.

Ahead of them, Avery looked mildly amused.

"You think you got what it takes to beat my team?", he asked, "We may be normal, but we're so normal that we break the scale of normal and defy all existing concepts of normal!"

"Did that make sense to anyone?", asked Shi.

Alastor shrugged.

"Rascal, go!", shouted Grant, sending out his Raticate.

Tom Tom groaned. "Of course. Very typical. It's either the rat or the spiny thing. That gets super duper predictable you know!"

Avery shouted, "Lento I choose you!"

Appearing was a very hyperactive sloth-looking mon - a Vigoroth. It immediately leaped at Rascal, who hissed and bit onto its leg. Rascal's incisors lit up, cleaving away half the Vigoroth's health instantly.

Avery scoffed. "Rude."

The two wrestled with each other for some time, but finally Rascal won out - he was bigger, stronger, and had the advantage of already cutting half Lento's health.

Avery sighed, sending out his next mon - an Ambipom! It screeched fiercely, leaping at Rascal…and promptly got Super Fang'd as well. The monkey did not relent though, hacking away at Rascal with its high speed. It finally managed to beat him out, then came face to face with Grant's newest Pokemon, his Mankey!

"Go get him, Grant Junior!", shouted Tom Tom.

"I told you, that's not his name!", yelled Grant.

"But his personality is a perfect match for you!", Tom Tom replied.

Alastor scoffed. "How narcissistic, naming your Pokemon after yourself. Truly dreadful showing from Mr. Meathead down there."

Grant yelled with rage, and his Mankey mirrored him, punching away at the Ambipom before finally taking it down.

Which led to Avery's next Pokemon - Rueda the Cyclizar. It roared in with lightning speed, and managed to wipe out Grant Junior effortlessly. The Mankey was followed up by Grant's Scraggy, Pants, but that too was obliterated by the motor dragon.

However, Grant managed to finish it with Smolder, his loyal Charmander, who managed to trick it with a Smokescreen and burn it up. Rueda, however, was followed up by Conejo the Diggersby, who toppled the poor Charmander with a Bulldoze and overwhelmed it with endless barrages of Mud Shot.

Bro the Geodude came next, who managed to deal a few blows before the Diggersby before being knocked down to near death. However, Bro wasn't about to be defeated by a hoe - and evolved into Graveler! Using his newfound power he struck down Conejo, and now they had reached the finale.

Avery smiled. "You're doing surprisingly well, 'Mr. Meathead.' Color me impressed. Now Imma give Arceus a turn."

"What did he just say!?", yelped Tom Tom, "He doesn't have a pocket god, does he!?"

Avery smiled. "Actually I do."

And then he sent out…a Bidoof.

Tom Tom stared. "You gotta be kidding, right?"

Bro frowned. "Grav?"

Avery grinned malevolently. "Let's see about that."

Suddenly a strange light started emanating from the Bidoof, rising up and forming a sphere around the battlers, hiding them from the crowd. The sphere shimmered, and suddenly they appeared to be floating in space, surrounded by ancient wooden ruins.

Arceus the Bidoof continued to glow, and suddenly took on a very strange form, as if there were a bunch of fractal versions of him fused together. Radiant wings extended off the swirling mass of Bidoofs, and a golden ring of Bidoof faces spun into existence.

"Be not afraid.", it squeaked, "Thy defeat shalt be swift."

Then it blasted Bro with a powerful laser, and he toppled back silently, fainted. Grant only had one more Pokemon he could use.

"Prickles!", he cried, "Save us from…whatever that thing is!"

The Bidoof chortled. Its ring began to spin, blasting Prickles with glowing arrows. The Nidorino leaped around, but panicked as it realized it was floating in space. It started shooting spines every which way, which while some hit the Bidoof many either missed or hit Grant and Tom Tom. Miraculously Avery was unharmed.

"Come on, now.", he said smirking, "Surely you can fight a Bidoof."

"That's no Bidoof!", Tom Tom yelled.

Avery shrugged. "I suppose there are a few minor differences. Arceus, let's end it."

The Bidoof focused, and suddenly reality seemed to shatter. They were all falling through a broken mirror, distorted faces appearing in all the glass shards. Strange things moved around them, glowing green eyes opened, and tentacles began writhing all around, unknowable horrors taking shape. Grant felt his body changing, cracking, mutating…a horrible scream rose from his throat…

And then suddenly he was face-first on the arena sand, Tom Tom lying next to him. Ahead, Prickles fell over, knocked out by whatever that thing had been. There was Avery standing in front of him, the Bidoof just a Bidoof…

But everything else was twisted and wrong. The arena was shattered and blackened, floating in fragments all around in a starlets sky. Instead of people there were glowing green lights, all whispering unintelligibly. Twisted black plants weaved all around, crystals growing off them instead of leaves.

"I offer you a taste of what is to come.", Avery said calmly, "What my master has sent me to do. You fought well today. You defeated most of my normal team. But there are things you can't win against. This is one of them."

He flicked his fingers, and a strange gem appeared in his hand. "You aren't gonna remember any of this. You'll wake up in the hospital tomorrow, a victim of an unfortunate misfired attack. I will be gone, having been disqualified for injuring a fellow student…and having more important things to do."

He started walking towards Grant, who tried to pull away in horror. "However, when the time comes, this third eye will awaken. It will guide you to where you need to go. And my master and I…we will be waiting."

"No, no, no, get away you creepy kid, get away-", cried Grant, but then Avery pressed the gem onto his forehead, and everything became nothing but pain. (-o-)

Robin sighed. "These students really need to control their Pokemon better. But this should be a more peaceful fight."

After carrying the unconscious Grant off the field and puzzling over Avery's mysterious disappearance, the tournament had been temporarily held up. But now the next battle was underway - Kealoha versus Lucas!

Alastor sighed as the two opponents danced around each other. Right now it was Kea's Stufful versus Lucas's Mienfoo, who were sparring fiercely, each one successfully moving around each other's blows. "Man, I wish there was more carnage. This is just getting dull now."

Shi gave him another bonk.

Finally Kaipo the Stufful gave a frustrated yell and tackled Menard, surprising the Mienfoo as they tumbled into a flailing pile of limbs. Kaipo seemed to be throwing a tantrum that he hadn't been able to hit the Mienfoo, and was clobbering the poor weasel relentlessly about it. Lucas seemed torn between grimacing and chuckling.

After a few moments, Kaipo rolled away, leaving Menard lying in a crater of sand, his eyes spinning. Lucas returned him, and then sent out Gilda the Girafarig.

"Go get em, Kea!", shouted Kailani, "Kick his a-"

"Ahem." U'ilani gave her a stern look.

"-ggravating team out of the stadium!", Kailani finished sheepishly. She looked nervously at the phone she was recording with, worried if that was gonna be in the video.

Gilda the Girafarig reared up and charged, using their psychic powers to lock Kaipo in place. Kea winced as Gilda rammed into the bear, throwing it towards their feet. Kaipo waved cheerfully before passing out, leading into Kea's next and newest Pokemon. Keone the Maschiff.

U'ilani's eyes were filled with stars. "Oh my gosh when did they get a puppy! It's so precious I just wanna hug it!"

She glared towards Lucas. "You better not hurt him too hard you bas-"

"Mom, now you're doing it.", grumbled Kailani.

U'ilani looked mollified. "Ah. Yes. Sorry, I got carried away."

"Listening to the audience is just as fun as watching the battle!", declared Alastor.

Kailani and U'ilani gave him glares that would paralyze an Electric-type.

Meanwhile Keone leaped at Gilda's neck with a snarl, startling her and giving him the opportunity to bite on with all his might. The giraffe struggled to throw him off but he only bit down tighter, weighing her down and weakening her bit by bit. She ran around the arena trying to knock him off, to little avail.

Suddenly Keone didn't seem so cute anymore.

Finally after a long struggle, Gilda staggered and fell over, Keone rolling onto the sand next to her. Lucas returned her, looking mildly impressed.

Then he sent out his Fraxure, Jerome, and the tides began to turn. Jerome wrecked Keone, mainly because the poor thing was still rather low-leveled, and then when Kea sent out Nani the Galarian Ponyta (who attracted much awe from the audience for her beautiful coat and shiny colors), Jerome managed to overpower her too.

However, fighting the pony had weakened him, and when Kea sent in Iolana the Swablu with her many dragon attacks, the Fraxure finally fell. This made way for Lucas's ace - Helia, the Talonflame.

She burned Iolana out of the sky, and now it was time for the final fight - Lehua the Dartrix versus her, a battle of ace against ace, of bird against bird.

Lehua zipped into the shadows almost instantly, knowing that brute-force wasn't gonna end well. Helia began to use Agility, increasing her already enhanced speed from her Gale Wings. Lehua saw that and struck, knocking her away and disrupting the smooth air flow around her wings. She screeched angrily, and flew back towards him, fire lighting up around her wings.

Lehua blew a Ominous Wind at her, cutting away at her health. But she struck far harder than him, burning him and causing him to fall back. She let out a victorious cry, but Lehua hooted angrily and flew right back towards her, firing off a barrage of Razor Leaves. Helia cried out, many of them embedding into her wings and messing with her flying. The two were about even now.

Lucas knew that his victory was assured. This was Kea's last Pokemon, while he himself still had another very strong one.

"Helia, let's end this now! Flare Blitz!", he shouted.

Helia began charging up a ferocious halo of flames, her eyes glowing as they stared into Lehua's. The Dartrix scrunched his face up defiantly.

Kea knew their time was up. But there was no reason they couldn't go out with a bang.

"Lehua, counter with Sky Attack!", they shouted.

The two birds screeched out an echoing cry, and hurtled towards each other, Helua wreathed in flames and Lehua wreathed in howling winds. The two slammed into each other at the exact center of their flight paths, creating a massive explosion that shook the stadium and threw fire and feathers everywhere.

Both Trainers returned their Pokemon, both having fainted from the brutal attack.

However, only one had more to fight with.

"Lucas has won the match!", declared Robin, "But an impressive showing from Kealoha! I am certain that given time, they will be just as strong if not more so than everyone else here!"

Kealoha and Lucas strode towards each other as burning feathers continued to rain, and shook hands.

"Good match.", Lucas said.

"Great match!", Kealoha replied, seemingly unfazed by their loss, "That was fun."

Lucas smiled softly. "Indeed it was." (-o-)

Winona and Asher faced off, staring into each other's face and refusing to be intimidated. Asher couldn't help but notice how tired Winona looked, or how her vibrant red hair seemed to have faded in tone.

Alastor smiled. "This should be an interesting battle. A far better showing than Owen put up! Asher will regret teaming up with that foolish Sensei. We would make far better use of their gifts."

Shi glared at him angrily, before shouting, "Alright Asher, you've got this! Make Alastor eat his words!"

"If you are done with your little rivalry, I believe there's a battle to be observed.", Robin said, "Asher versus Winona! Let's go!"

Winona growled, "Vigo! Get them!" Appearing was their Eevee, who growled in an endearingly cute way.

Asher sent out the first of their two rental Pokemon - a Furret! As the two Pokemon leaped into battle, Asher looked towards Winona.

"Are you okay?", they asked worriedly, "You look like you've been up all night, and we haven't seen you since the expedition two weeks ago."

Winona hissed. "I am fine! I've just been…busy…"

She suddenly seemed a little dazed, but then it was like she hadn't. "Come on! Fight!", she growled.

Asher carefully ordered their Furret around, using its speed and long body to stay ahead of Vigo and exhaust him. After all, while fast and energetic, Eevees also often got sleepy easily, especially when they were playing with something that could easily keep up with them.

Which a Furret was. Known for being extremely hyperactive and very fast, Furrets were fun but rambunctious critters. They were known to be full of energy all day, and barely slowed down. Asher knew this was a battle of endurance Eevee could not win.

And sure enough, Vigo grew dizzy and yawned, although still attacking the Furret with any attack he could muster. But he was easily defeated, and Winona growled angrily.

"Wally, crush them!", Winona shouted, sending out a Wailmer. It bellowed angrily, and sprayed a powerful jet of steaming water at the Furret. It squeaked in pain, and the Wailmer hurtled towards it, slamming into the Furret at high speeds. The Furret fainted, and Asher returned it, frowning.

They proceeded to send out Arlen the Snivy, who fought with all his might to try and prove himself. Wally continued to barrage him with various water attacks, all boiling hot, and Asher was starting to notice something odd.

"What have you been doing to your Pokemon?", Asher asked.

"I have done nothing!", Winona hissed, before suddenly clutching her head. "Wh-what..grrr!"

Asher felt a cold shiver. Something wrong was going on here.

Then she was distracted as Arlen cried out, Wally crashing down on top of him. The Snivy struggled and squirmed, but could not move. He gave Asher a sad, forlorn look.

Asher shouted, "Hang on, Arlen! You can do it! You've escaped bigger Pokemon!"

Arlen struggled more, constantly looking towards Asher as they cheered him on. His face set with determination, and then suddenly he began to glow, growing in size and transforming into a Servine!

The crowd cheered as the newly evolved Servine grabbed onto Wally, lifted the whale with all his vines and strength, and threw it across the battlefield, where it bounced along and sprayed out a mess of scalding water before rolling to a stop by Winona, fainted.

Winona shivered as she returned him, before shouting, "Strato! Eliminate him!"

Appearing was her Swablu, which immediately locked on to Arlen and started flying all around him, pecking at all the weakest spots and blasting him with Disarming Voice. Arlen struggled to fight it, but managed to repel the Swablu with a well-placed Leaf Tornado. As it spun around, he slammed the bird down with a Vine Whip, causing it to suddenly go berserk, flapping all over the place and shooting attacks everywhere. Arlen, unprepared for that, was taken out, but not before he took the Swablu down with him.

Winona hissed again, as if every defeat was a direct blow to her. She proceeded to unleash her Piloswine, Tusk.

Asher, recognizing that this particular one was quite foul-tempered, sent out her rental Hypno to incapacitate it. But when it tried to put Tusk to sleep and eat its dreams, Tusk woke back up almost instantly and started trying to crush Hypno into the ground. Asher switched to a different strategy, having Hypno teleport around and overwhelm it with psychic attacks. Tusk started using Earthquakes, nearly throwing Asher off their feet and rapidly injuring the Hypno. But finally, Tusk fell, and Winona seemed to be getting pushed to practical feralness.

Asner felt scared and alarmed as Winona growled and hissed as she grabbed her second-to-last Pokemon. She chanced a look at the announcers and saw that Alastor was unusually quiet and serene - as if his mind was elsewhere. Asher started putting two and two together - but that was impossible, wasn't it?

Winona's next Pokemon was a Morelull, which immediately dug its roots into the ground and started glowing. The Hypno yelped as impossibly long roots tore through the ground, wrapping around him and draining all his energy. He collapsed, and Asher sent in the big guns - her Braviary.

Aster tore through the Morelull, his powerful wind attacks tearing it down. As Winona returned the mushroom, she suddenly clutched her head and fell to her knees, screeching, "Get out! Leave me alone!" Asher tried to run over, but Winona snarled and pulled back. Everyone in the audience was terrified.

Alastor suddenly flinched, and Winona stopped thrashing. She took one look around the stadium, shouted, "I forfeit!", and fled. Asher waited a moment, then ran after her, hoping desperately Winona would be all right. (-o-)

The next match was between Evan versus Barbara. Which…did not go how anyone expected, or particularly appreciated.

Barbara had actually shown up this time. Her hair looked like a tornado had swept through, and had been dyed a sickly green color. Her eyes were red and wrinkled into a perpetual frown, and a long scar crossed her face. She wore a very muddy set of overalls over a black shirt declaring 'F*ck the Government!' and pants that had been purposefully slashed open at the knees. She had her arms crossed as she glared towards Evan, who strode out expecting a fun fight and blissfully unaware of how things were about to go.

"Let's do this!", Evan declared, "Let's have a nice awesome battle!"

Barbara scoffed. "Fine."

"Go, Lumen!"

"Go, Ledian!"

Appearing was Evan's new Pawmi, while across from him was a big red bug. And so the battle began.

Lumen was proving very aggressive, trying to zap down the Ledian, but the bug kept summoning barriers and using Agility to boost its speed, getting faster and faster as Lumen tried to hit it. Evan started having the Pawmi use Agility as well, to make things more fair, but by then it was too late. Ledian reached max speed, summoned a Safeguard, used Roost to recover all its health, then Baton Passed out of there.

Evan frowned. "Grr, I should've known that was gonna happen! Watch out Lumen, this next one's gonna be coming out fast!"

Appearing was a massive Pinsir, who bellowed and started throwing the Pawmi around left and right. Lumen squeaked in pain as it tried to zap the Pinsir, but just wasn't strong enough. Lumen fainted, and Evan took the first loss of the match.

Knowing that he was gonna need more firepower, he sent out Stoker, who brute-forced his way through the Pinsir's defenses and managed to take it down. But Stoker was damaged now, and it was gonna be harder to use him later on.

Barbara sent out her Vespiquen next, who buzzed excitedly at a true threat. Evan decided to return Stoker, using one of his three charges, and sent out his first rental Pokemon - Klinklang! Klinklang fought as hard as they could, doing as much damage as possible, but Barbara had other plans. As Klinklang tried to zap it down, Barbara swapped it out, replacing it with Heracross.

Upon zapping it and Paralyzing it, Heracross was filled with defiance and, toughing out the status condition, attacked with greater force. As Klinklang kept zapping it, Heracross grew stronger, until it finally smashed the gears across the floor.

Evan, growing desperate, pulls Stoker back out knowing that the Emboar is his strongest Pokemon. Since the Heracross is still Paralyzed, Stoker lands several powerful punches, but the beetle manages to weaken him further before it falls.

Barbara decided that it was about time she started rubbing things in, and sent out her Shuckle. Evan decided to use his second switch and replaced Stoker with his more versatile Mismagius. But then things got messed up. Shuckle's only attack was Wrap, which Glynda was immune to, so it turned into a long, frustrating stall as Shuckle kept building defenses and healing itself, while Glynda tried futilely to damage it down. The fight lasted for ages, until finally the two Pokemon grew drained of energy and simply started struggling. The audience was growing sick of this, and Barbara was finally looking happy, spiting everyone by refusing to back down and continuing doing nothing but stacking defenses.

However, at the struggle phase, Shuckle could not hit Glynda. Glynda could hit him. And without any way to recover its health, the Shuckle fainted, although Glynda fainted as well simply from pure fatigue.

As Barbara sent her Ledian back, Evan angrily sent Stoker out, one-shotting the Ledian with a Blast Burn. But Stoker and him were exhausted, as Barbara sent out her Scizor to finish him.

Stoker tried to land a hit, knowing at least one Blast Burn would annihilate the Steel-Bug type, but Scizor effortlessly dodged around them, slicing away at Stoker's health until finally, the Emboar fell.

Evan was breathing heavily, looking exhausted and outraged. He quietly returned Stoker, grabbing the Pokeball that contained his other rental Pokemon. But he and everyone else knew this match was over.

"Ugh…I knew I was probably gonna lose, but in the first round? To nasty tricks like that?", he grumbled, "I guess I should've expected things weren't gonna go well."

Barbara smirked.

"I forfeit."

Evan blinked. Everyone in the audience stared at her.

"You what.", Evan said.

"I forfeit.", Barbara repeated, "I hate these stupid tournament things anyway."

Then she strode off the battlefield.

Everything was so quiet the whole stadium would've heard a badge drop.

"Well…it appears Evan is the winner!", declared Robin.

"Thank goodness.", said Shi, "I don't think any of us could've stood another Barbara battle."

They both looked towards where Alastor should be, but he was mysteriously absent.

Evan didn't care though. He felt a smirk come onto his face, realizing he wasn't out after all. He took care not to act too excited, though, in case Barbara decided to come back and finish wrecking his face. (-o-)

The next match ended up very anticlimactic, and the most crippling defeat of the entire tournament.

Eliot versus Jason.

Eliot looked incredibly nervous just standing in the stadium, constantly giving horrified looks at the sand floor as if it was going to eat him alive. Jason, meanwhile, looked as calm and carefree as a Slowpoke, as if he was used to this much attention.

Eliot nervously grabbed his first Pokemon. "Let's go, Fang!"

Appearing was his Mawile, who growled menacingly.

Jason sent out his Torracat, Blaze. He knew that Eliot was a Steel-type Trainer, and while he was probably gonna feel immensely guilty about this afterwards he wanted to win so he could challenge Evan in the next round.

Fang started trying to look cute and helpless, but she was also still being very bitey. As such, Blaze had no trouble blasting her down with a Flamethrower.

Jason noted that Eliot's team seemed ridiculously underpowered. No fancy move combos or even more than the basics from him. This would've been a sweep no matter what he'd used.

Eliot sent out his Piplup next, hoping that the type advantage alone would be enough. But it only attacked with Water Guns, and while Blaze was hurt by those attacks it still wasn't enough to faze him. Blaze struck him down with a fearsome Shadow Claw, forcing Eliot to switch again.

The rest fell the same way. Next was Dash the Electrike, who zipped around energetically and managed to Paralyze Blaze, but fell almost instantly anyways. Shock the Magnemite came next, but one Flamethrower and it fell out of the sky. The Shiny Honedge that came after that succumbed to the same fate, although it lasted a little longer thanks to Protect.

Eliot was shivering as he sent out his last Pokemon. A small treasure box.

"Huh? What manner of Pokemon is that?", asked Shi.

Alastor shrugged. "I dunno. You think there's cash in there?"

Shi jumped. No one had seen Alastor return.

Robin said, "That, my dear friends, is a Gimmighoul. Very odd, though…those things are terrible competitively unless you collect 999 coins for them."

"999!?", cried Shi, "That's like, enough to buy…9 Pokeballs?"

"Not Pokecoins.", Robin said, "Gimmighoul coins. Rare, golden coins that can only be found in Paldean ruins or dropped by a Gholdengo. A very hard, long challenge…with quite the Pokemon at the end."

Alastor frowned. "Why not sell the coins?"

"Oh, the people who do that generally vanish under mysterious circumstances never to be seen again.", Robin replied cheerfully.

Alastor frowned.

Down below, Blaze was sniffing around the chest, seemingly confused. He batted at it softly, and growled. When nothing happened, he knocked it over, spilling coins across the sand.

And a very angry gray thing.

It screeched furiously, grabbed a coin, and started repeatedly whacking Blaze on the nose with it. The Torracat yowled and leaped back, but the Gimmighoul simply leaped onto Blaze's head and kept whacking away, screaming some very foul things that thankfully most people couldn't understand.

Jason shouted, "Blaze, roll over and knock it off with the ground!"

The Gimmighoul's eyes widened as it heard Jason's command, and then Blaze rolled over and shoved it off with the sand. But the ghost had a new target now.

"Gimmighoul!", it screamed, running across the sand towards Jason. Jason realized too late what it was doing, and tried to cover his face.

"GHOUL!", it shrieked, climbing up his pants and wriggling into his shirt. It started biting and clawing and whacking its way up, and Jason started jumping around and swatting at his shirt, a hilarious yet terrible scene. Eliot was just staring in horror, not expecting any of his Pokemon to ever do something like that.

"Get it off me!", yelled Jason, as it scurried up his neck. It leaped onto his ear, biting down hard while whacking at his face with its coin in one hand and ripping out chunks of his hair with the other. No one was sure whether to laugh or call for help.

"Blaze!", Jason cried.

The Torracat growled, eyes focused on the Gimmighoul. Blaze bent into a crouch and shook his butt, and Jason realized that once again he had made a mistake.

"Wait, Blaze, don-", he started, but the cat pounced at the Gimmighoul on his ear…tackling Jason and slamming him into the sand in the process. Jason yelped in pain, and the Gimmighoul took off running. Blaze's eyes narrowed on it, and he pounced once again, this time managing to snatch it. Blaze blasted it with more fire, and the Gimmighoul fainted.

Eliot returned the Gimmighoul and immediately fled the stadium in a panic. Jason groaned as he sat up, covered in sand. Blood dripped down his ear and bruises were forming on the side of his face. Blaze jumped up and started licking Jason's face clean.

"Well, after that unusual exchange, Jason is the winner of the battle!", declared Robin, "Let's see…how many more of these do we have to do?" (-o-)

Charlie and Deborah were next in line, and this fight turned out to be quite interesting.

Deborah sat in her wheelchair, calm and quiet, while Charlie seemed pretty antsy. He was looking around anxiously and couldn't stand still.

Charlie noticed Deborah readying a simple worn Pokeball. He noticed she had no others. He wondered why.

She smiled, and then flipped the Pokeball into the air. Charlie readied his first mon as well, preparing himself for what appeared.

He was not expecting what did.

"Shaymin!" Appearing was a small, strange white Pokemon, with a large bush on its back and bright Gracidea flowers growing off its ears. It smiled cheerfully at Charlie, and growled in a cute way.

Everyone in the stands burst into whispering.

"Why, I've never seen that Pokemon before!", Alastor cried.

Shi said, "What even is it? It looks cute though."

Robin sighed. "No one reads anymore do they. That, I believe, is the mythical Shaymin, though how one of those ended up in our girl's hands I have zero clue."

Charlie frowned. A mythical Pokemon, huh…now this would be an interesting challenge. He then sent out his chosen Pokemon.

"Natu!", chirped Linus as he fluttered into the air, looking down at Shaymin. Shaymin beamed, and then leaped up and kissed him.

Left very confused, Linus hovered in place, and the Shaymin fired several seeds from its back, which lodged into the Natu's feathers and started sapping his strength. Linus chirped angrily, and started pecking at Shaymin. Shaymin retaliated by firing a storm of magical leaves at him.

Linus squawked and fluttered back, before squinting and firing a eerie beam of energy into Shaymin's eyes. The hedgehog started stumbling around, disoriented by the move. It started using Growth, getting larger, more vibrant, and stronger. Meanwhile, Linus started playing hit-and-run, but since the kiss had confused him so much he often missed and crashed into a wall or the sand instead.

The two exchanged attacks for some time, half the time missing each other and hurting themselves, but Shaymin managed to win out. Drained by the Leech Seed, Linus fell into the sand, and Charlie swapped in his next Pokemon.

This one was Sally, his new Charcadet. She seemed a little startled to be facing the Shaymin, giving it enough time to leap forwards and kiss her on the forehead. Sally looked dazed and flustered, her flames flickering. Charlie recognized now that this must be the Shaymin's strategy.

Shaymin fired a Leech Seed at Sally, but her fiery body lit up and burned it away before it could take hold. Annoyed, she kicked several Embers at Shaymin, who yelped as they scorched its fur.

The Shaymin started using Growths and firing Magical Leaves again, but Sally dodged around them, charged in, and started spinning around Shaymin, creating a Fire Spin to trap it. The constant burning neutralized Leech Seed's efficacy, and the Shaymin was losing health faster. Shaymin wasn't going down that easy, though, blasting Sally with a direct Magical Leaf that sliced through the weak points in her armor and dealt a critical hit. Sally, still relatively young and weak, fainted.

Charlie frowned. This was it. Time for the big guns.

"Snoops!", he declared, sending out his Quilava. Snoops growled, his flames flaring up, and Shaymin looked alarmed.

And when she tried to kiss him, Snoops avoided the move, zipping around and ramming into her from the side. As she staggered, Snoops summoned a Smokescreen, shrouding most of the field from view. Flashes of red and green could be seen in the smoke, until finally there was a pained squeak and then nothing.

The smoke cleared, revealing a proud Snoops standing above the fainted Shaymin. He seemed to almost be smirking, loving the attention. Deborah returned Shaymin, gave Charlie a reverent bow, then wheeled out of the stadium. (-o-)

Cristian stared across the battlefield towards Jeremy, both certain he had this in the bag (one Pokemon against six! Ha!) but also concerned about how confident this made Jeremy in his Pokemon's skill.

Jeremy certainly didn't look confident, sweating up a storm as he was and constantly shifting about, but Cristian knew better than to let his guard down here.

It was growing late and it was clear the announcers were getting exhausted - Robin yawned before murmuring, "Go."

The Shuckle immediately leaped out from behind Jeremy, causing Cristian to flinch, before he sent in his Ferroseed Trod. The spiny iron seed buried into the ground, before firing off a floating array of rocks that quickly turned invisible. Stealth Rocks were very hazardous terrain even if your Pokemon was already out on the field, and it made switching Pokemon around considerably riskier for the rocks were attracted to the energy signal given off by Pokeballs, damaging any mon switched in.

Of course, Jeremy had no other Pokemon to switch in to. But Cristian hoped it would make it far harder for Jeremy to do anything.

However, Jeremy didn't even seem to be giving commands. Shelly leaped into action instantly, doing everything of his own volition.

And suddenly it became very clear why Jeremy had figured one Pokemon would be enough.

Shelly glared at Trod, and lashed out with one of his legs, which stabbed into him. As they watched, Shelly glowed, his attack growing stronger.

Then, much to everyone's horror, Shelly wrapped his tentacles around the Stealth Rocks and jabbed them into his sides, causing him to hiss but grow much larger and tougher.

"What the heck are those moves!?", cried Shi.

Robin frowned, "They look kinda like Power Split and Acupressure…but they're not doing the same effects. It's almost like something else entirely."

Trod leaped into the air, spinning around and ramming his spiky steel body into Shelly's side. To any normal Shuckle, this would've hurt quite a bit…but Shelly was no normal Shuckle.

With an angered screech, Shelly grabbed Trod with his tentacles and threw him, sending the Ferroseed hurtling towards the ground. As he fell, strange black crystals tore out of the ground, smashing into Trod and cracking his steely shell. The Ferroseed tried to escape, but then one of Shelly's tentacles stretched impossibly far and lit up with eerie green energy, before smashing Trod through the crystals and claiming his first victim of the match.

Cristian sent out his Sewaddle next, who immediately started scurrying around and trying to tangle Shelly's limbs with String Shot. Shelly's tentacles seemed to sharpen into blades, though, slicing through the silk, and grabbed some of the Stealth Rocks. Lixx fired several Poison Stings at him, but they seemed to have zero effect. Shelly then THREW the Stealth Rocks, which smashed into Lixx and took her out.

Everyone gasped. No one had ever seen anyone use Stealth Rocks against the opponent who fired them before. They resisted psychic control, sliced anything that touched them, and were completely invisible. But Shelly didn't seem to care for these laws of nature. It was as if they didn't affect him.

The next Pokemon Cristian sent out was his Baltoy, Tiny. True to her name, she was considerably smaller than average. Cristian winced as the Stealth Rocks Shelly had thrown over cut into the Baltoy. This was ridiculous!

Tiny used Confusion, hoping to use her psychic powers to confuse Shelly and make it far easier to fight him. But she looked quite alarmed - the psychic attack had done absolutely nothing!

But Shuckles weren't Dark-types. How could this be?

Tiny tried to spun around and escape, but Shelly locked eyes with her and glared. She sat there, Paralyzed…then clutched her head and began to scream.

Everyone in the audience looked on edge, having no idea what the heck was going on. As Tiny kept screaming, Shelly stretched his tentacle out again and whipped her into the ground, cutting off her screaming. Cristian returned the Baltoy, looking thoroughly unsettled now.

Next was Warrel the Sandile, who started sharpening his claws and seemingly designing some master plot. Much to everyone's bewilderment, Shelly simply sat there and waited. As Warrel's stats reached max, however, Shelly suddenly made his move. Lashing out with his tentacles, he used Power Split again…which seemed to suck out all of Warrel's buffs.

Cristian's eyes widened. What the heck was this!?

Warrel growled angrily and summoned a Sand Tomb, but Shelly barely even blinked. Another tentacle whip and the Sandile was flattened.

'Is this thing even defeatable!?', Cristian thought incredulously, swapping in his Skwovet, who also suffered from the Stealth Rock. Shelly once again sat silently, as Cheeks began stockpiling and building up her defense. Recognizing Shelly was hoping to steal the buffs again, Cristian shouted for Cheeks to use Spit Up.

As the squirrel bombarded Shelly with berries, the Shuckle summoned a glowing green Protect shield. After the last berry hit, the shield shattered, and turned into a bunch of sharp floating fragments. Shelly lazily flicked his tentacle forwards, and all the fragments stabbed into Cheeks, who gave a pathetic squeak before fainting.

"What in the actual Distortion!?", spluttered Cristian, "That's not how Protect works!"

He reached to his belt, realizing only one Pokemon was left. Cristian felt a deep chill, realizing this was probably the end, but sent out the Pokemon anyways.

"Ivy, go!"

The Ivysaur glared defiantly at Shelly, and Shelly glared back. The sun began to shine above as Ivy focused, the light greatly boosting her speed.

Shelly snarled and lashed a tentacle out at her, but rather than getting one-shotted like the rest Ivy deflected it with her own Vine Whip. She hissed as it injured her, and Cristian realized Shelly's tentacles were poisonous. Thankfully, Ivy fought off the poison quite well, seeing as she was a Poison-type herself.

But now Cristian knew poison wasn't gonna work here, either.

However, he had other methods.

Ivy shook her bulb, spraying out a fine powder that showered all over Shelly. The Shuckle looked dazed and sleepy…but snarled and tried to shake it off. Ivy, sensing it wasn't working, started running around, lashing at him with her vines. The Shuckle screeched angrily, and a sickly green light seemed to start rising up in his eyes.

Suddenly black crystals erupted all around Ivy, trapping her. Shelly's eyes glared into hers, and she started growling and struggling. Shelly rose his tentacles, and smashed the walls down on top of her, and gave her a few extra whips for good measure.

And like that, it was over.

Cristian felt ill. There was something very wrong about that Shuckle, and this battle had only just confirmed it. He glared at Shelly, but it seemed like the Shuckle had simply shrunk down and had returned to his quiet, oblivious state. Jeremy whistled, and Shelly scooted over, climbing up onto Jeremy's back.

Cristian set his face in determination. "I'll find the truth about you.", he said fiercely, "I'll find out just what you are, and how to stop you. I will!"

Shelly simply stared at him, but there seemed to be a challenge in that stare now. It was as if Shelly was aware of what Cristian had said and was saying the equivalent of 'Go ahead and try.'

Cristian huffed, then stormed out of the stadium, the Shuckle's eyes following his back. (-o-)

Continuing the streak, the next battle was also one-sided.

And that was Frederic vs Danforth.

Frederic seemed to chill the entire arena as he stood on the field, his cold eyes glaring darkly at everyone. He had rolled up the sleeve of his armored suit, revealing an intimidating scar - a burnt ring around his wrist, as if left by a blazing manacle. He seemed to be challenging the world with his aura, and people suspected he could give it a decent fight.

In comparison, the normally intimidating Danforth seemed helpless before him.

"Let's get this over with, weakling.", Frederic growled, "I have bigger fish to fight."

Danforth huffed. "And I need to take you out. Come on then. Show me what you've got."

Frederic grinned cruelly. "Oh, I will."

He tossed a Pokeball into the air, shouting, "Go, Mordred!"

Appearing was a towering, terrifying Pokemon. It had dark diamond-like scales covered in a thin layer of frost. Thick ice covered its face and chest, and a massive sail jutted out of its back. It gave a mighty roar that shook the area, and marched forward.

A Baxcalibur, one of the mighty pseudo-legendaries of the world, and a fearsome dragon of ice.

Danforth looked panicked. A fully-evolved pseudo was very rare, and very powerful - the strongest Pokemon that existed besides the legendaries. Every champion generally had at least one, and it was very hard to deal with it.

With his team, he didn't stand a chance. But he had to try anyways.

"Vulk!", he cried, sending out his Magby.

Frederic scoffed. "Really? You're starting with that little thing? It looks like it can barely stand!"

Vulk growled and sprayed out a thick smokescreen, and Mordred snarled furiously. Frederic gave him a nod, and then the Baxcalibur launched its rampage.

Vulk squeaked and ran as the Baxcalibur charged through the smoke, but was caught by its swinging tail. As Vulk flew through the air, Mordred leaped up and caught it with a Crunch, before crashing down and throwing him across the field. Vulk skidded to a stop by Danforth's feet, struggled to get up, but then fainted.

Mordred roared triumphantly, and Danforth felt sweat start trickling down his face as he readied his next Pokemon. Mordred stomped his foot, and snow started falling across the field, quickly turning it into a winter wonderland. Or, perhaps, a cold freezing part of the Distortion World.

As Danforth watched, the snow seemed to attach to Mordred's scales, increasing their toughness. That wasn't good. Now it was going to be even harder to defeat it.

He then remembered his newest Pokemon. Varoom. A Steel-Poison type, according to his research, which meant it would be really good here. But was it strong enough to face off against a dragon with this much power?

There was only one way to find out.

Sending out his Varoom, he immediately had it use Poison Gas. Mordred was immediately caught in it, choking and snarling, and Danforth smiled at the knowledge it was Poisoned. All he had to do was endure-

Mordred bellowed, tackling the Varoom and trapping it against the ground. The Baxcalibur crunched the steely body, spraying toxic gas everywhere, and smashed it around. The poor Varoom fainted almost immediately, dropping Danforth to two Pokemon.

'Damn it, I should've grabbed some rental Pokemon…', he thought angrily, recalling the Varoom, 'This stupid thing is absolutely too powerful.'

His next Pokemon was his Gible. She growled and breathed blue flames at Mordred, but the ice dragon barged through them and summoned several shards of ice. The Gible barely managed to summon a Sand Tomb around Mordred before the ice shards struck her down, dealing severe damage due to her Ground-Dragon typing.

Mordred was definitely taking damage now, though, as the poison and sand wore at his health. Yet he still stood strong and proud, in anticipation of Danforth's last Pokemon.

"Alright Wukong, don't fail me now!", Danforth declared, sending out his Monferno. The monkey shouted a battle cry, and leaped towards Mordred with his fist raised, slamming into the dragon's side with a Fire Punch.

But all the heat seemed sucked away, and Mordred roared with newfound power. He swiped at the Monferno, which barely rolled away in time.

"Face it, Danny.", Frederic declared mockingly, "You don't stand a chance, even with your little monkey. I'm not even using my true power, with how pathetic you are."

"Don't call me Danny!", snarled Danforth.

Frederic smirked. "Let's see you try and stop me."

Wukong screeched angrily, and leaped at Mordred, striking with a Mach Punch. The icy scales cracked, and Mordred roared in pain. Wukong leaped over the dragon's next strike, zipping around and striking with another Mach Speed, attempting to knock Mordred's legs down.

Frederic sighed. "You're getting annoying. Mordred, Glaive Rush."

The Baxcalibur roared, and ice and energy rose up around it. Wukong's eyes widened as Mordred turned into a spinning blade, hurtling towards the monkey faster than it could react. Wukong was crushed into the snow, and Mordred screeched to a stop beside him, looking dizzy and momentarily stopped.

But it was already over. The power of that attack had been unbelievable, and now Wukong had fainted. Danforth sighed, returning Wukong.

"One by one, each of you will learn to fear my power and what it can do.", Frederic declared, "I am done hiding. I am done playing games. I was gifted this strength for a reason, and I will enhance it! Every battle fought, I grow stronger. And soon…soon, you will see exactly what I mean."

He looked up to the stands, gave Cynthia a knowing look, then marched away, leaving everyone bewildered as the snow started melting away. (-o-)

"We're finally here, folks.", Robin said, "The last battle of the day. Penelope versus the Aura Knight."

"This has been an exhausting day in more ways than one.", Alastor said, "We're tired of talking, these battles are getting all dragged out, and the very teller of this story is probably gonna go collapse after this."

Shi frowned. "What the heck are you talking about?"

Alastor waved his hand in the air. "Oh, you know…chatting with the fourth wall. The usual."

"Uh-huh.", Shi said.

Down below, the two girls were preparing for battle as the sun set. Penelope was frowning at the Aura Knight, who was absolutely not Gwendolyn trying to hide.

Of course, just about everyone already knew it was Gwendolyn. No one was quite sure why she was doing this.

Penelope readied her Pokemon, and Gwendolyn did the same. Neither spoke a word.

"For the final time tonight…go. Battle. Don't be afraid to make it quick.", Shi said.

Penelope sent out her Roselia, Serena, who in a fluid motion twirled around and showered the field with Toxic Spikes. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn sent out her Weavile, Yaga, who cackled and started focusing her strength and power. Serena tried to land a Leech Seed on her, but Yaga used Agility to roll aside and boost her speed.

Serena started slashing at Yaga with Magical Leaves, but they didn't do much. Yaga started countering with shards of ice, throwing them like daggers. The Aura Knight seemed to be guiding her, recognizing that the poisonous spines on Serena were not something they wanted to get near.

After some time, Yaga nailed a direct strike on Serena, knocking her out. Penelope quickly sent out her follow-up attack.

Sophia the Fidough, which sent U'ilani into delighted squeals and alarmed threats.

The bread dog wasn't interested in playing nice, either. As soon as Sophia was out, she went into violence mode, barraging the Weavile with bites and magically enhanced paws, greatly weakening Yaga. However, Yaga dealt her own fierce blows, striking with Metal Claws and unleashing a Revenge after a particularly hard walloping. However, Yaga eventually grew too weak, and flopped face-first into the sand. Sophia barked happily, but her sides were covered in deep gouges where Yaga had been slicing her.

Gwendolyn sent out her faithful Grotle next. He winced as the Toxic Spikes poisoned him, but countered by landing a Leech Seed on Sophia. The seeds easily took root in the doughy flesh, and Geb started healing anything the poison did to him. Sophia started leaping and clawing at him, but he was far tougher than Yaga. He started using Mega Drain to drain even more of her health, and soon the Fidough fainted.

Penelope's next Pokemon was her Bayleef, Stevia, and it turned into a fight of Grass starter versus Grass starter. Stevia spun her Leaf, wafting a soothing scent that weakened Geb. However, he also used the opportunity to land another Leech Seed, continuing his strategy. He also curled up and started using Growth, getting tougher and tougher by the second.

Stevia started attacking with a storm of Magical and Razor Leaves, and Geb finished his growth curl. Gwendolyn started focusing her aura into him, helping keep his health up as he started draining Stevia's health. As the two were not particularly effective against each other, this exchange took quite some time, but thanks to a combination of his buffs and Gwendolyn's aura Geb managed to overpower Stevia. But he looked quite fatigued, and Gwendolyn wasn't much better, feeling the poison in her veins as much as Geb felt it in his. But she had suffered far worse, and persevered.

Penelope, feeling pressured, sent out her partner Pokemon - a Sylveon with the very creative name of Silva. Silva danced around the slow Geb, meowing loudly and striking him with Disarming Voices before leaping and draining his HP with a Draining Kiss. Geb tried to keep up with Mega Drains, but it wasn't enough. The turtle fell, and Gwendolyn winced in pain.

However, Geb had left a Leech Seed on Silva too, which led quite nicely into Gwendolyn's next Pokemon.

Jeanne, the Ceruledge.

Behind her mask, Gwendolyn's eyes lit up with power, her bond with Jeanne nearly as strong as her bond with Sashimi. The two had not known each other nearly as long, but their shared feelings of anger and pain led to them resonating quite closely with each other. Now things were getting serious.

Silva leaped in, foolishly believing her type advantage would secure victory here. But Jeanne, her mind linked close to Gwen's, effortlessly fought Silva back, twirling her blades and boosting her attack. Silva tried to drain Jeanne's health, but Gwendolyn fought it, using her power to keep as much energy contained as possible.

Jeanne flicked her blade out, firing a stream of eerie fireballs into Silva. The Sylveon cried out as they burned her, and Jeanne sensed weakness. Twirling in, she slashed through Silva's defenses effortlessly, her body lighting up with flames. Silva wailed, dealing as much damage as she could, but Gwendolyn simply pulled on the power of the cursed blades of a Ceruledge and drained her health away.

Silva finally fainted, and Penelope sent out her final, strongest Pokemon. Balto the Stoutland.

The dog barked furiously, sensing how dangerous Jeanne and Gwendolyn were. He lunged forth, striking with Play Rough. Any lesser Pokemon would have fallen under the force of his charge and the strength of his blows. But Jeanne was not most Pokemon.

She danced around the dog's blows delicately, as Gwendolyn shared countless dark nights of her twirling, dancing style. For years Gwendolyn had suffered, and she had had to learn how to defend herself all alone - for no one else would. She poured her knowledge and anguish into Jeanne, filling the Ceruledge with greater strength. The fight was long, Balto striking heavily and swiftly, Jeanne dancing fluidly and viciously.

Both Pokemon were strong and unyielding. But only one could win out.

At last, Balto staggered, falling to the ground and giving Penelope a sad look as he fainted. Jeanne sank to her knees, closing her eyes and bowing reverently as Gwendolyn cut away the connection. As she did so, Gwendolyn realized just how drained she felt, and nearly collapsed from exhaustion. But she dared not do so publicly, and quickly hurried out of the stadium.

"A good battle!", declared Robin, "And that concludes the first round! Time to rest, recuperate, and prepare for tomorrow. Who else will fall, and who will triumph? We will soon see!"

"Thank Giratina this round is over.", groaned Alastor, "I could not do it for a second longer."

Shi huffed. "You still have to do this for two more days."

Alastor paled. "NOOOOOOOO-" (-o-)

AN: After months of waiting, and endless sweat and tears on my part, this chapter is over.

A huge thank you to all who have bothered sticking around long enough to read this, and I hope it still manages for you to enjoy it! In the future I will probably avoid tournaments, and when I do end up doing them they will all feature this shortened battle format (and probably skip a bunch of them too).

However, next time is a break from battles. It is time for LORE.

Lots. Of. Lore.

I hope you all are excited! And hopefully it doesn't take me nearly as long to write as this one.

See you all next time!