Author's Note: With this chapter we break 50k words without author's notes! In the comics The Electric Tale of Pikachu Ritchie has a charizard named Charley who fights Ash's Charizard almost to a standstill, but Ash's Charizard gets too vicious and starts refusing to listen to commands and going feral so Ash returns his charizard to save Charley's life giving Ritchie the win on a technicality similar to the anime, but with a more exciting battle.
Chapter 25: Creed (A Battle of Legacies) Part 1
I was completely flummoxed when I saw who I was fighting next. Gary Oak. I went back and checked the battle records. He had faced the same Melissa I had seen him fight in a dream years ago, except he had won this time. Odd, was this some kind of butterfly effect of my interactions with Ash Ketchum perhaps? Or with Team Rocket?
Or maybe there was just enough chaos in a pokemon battle that I was just seeing statistically likely or narratively exciting outcomes and a significant amount of the outcomes still could be up to chance?
Regardless, that meant it was time to research my opponent. I of course knew he was the grandson of Professor Oak, and that he had gotten a squirtle as his starter and that it was fully evolved now.
Looking over the rest of his commonly used pokemon I saw he had a wide pool to pull from, but that not all of them were truly at the competitive level.
I compiled a list of those I considered competitively viable enough that he would use them.
Blastoise, both a nidoking and a nidoqueen, a dodrio that had evolved during his Rock Field match, a magmar, a blisteringly fast arcanine, a golem, a scyther, a powerful seadra, a fearow, and an eevee that was very well trained.
I expected him to perhaps skip on the magmar, the arcanine, and the flying types due to my specialization in the earthen types. While the magmar or arcanine could check Rum Tum I was not entirely sure he would count on me using the perrserker with the number of rock and water-type dual types I had showcased. Hypothetically his nidoking and nidoqueen would work just as well, and they would also fight on equal footing with all my own publicly shown pokemon from a typing stand-point excepting for Estella and the fossils.
I had to show off the ancient pokemon again, and this time showcase Hannibal. I also would keep Artagnan on tap to showcase as well if it got down to the sixth team member. Cleo would be quite angry if I didn't give her the chance to prove herself the best of the nidoran line as well.
That meant I only had one slot open. Shahrazad as a foreign pokemon and a dragon would steal the show and I couldn't have that for this round. I really wanted to save her as a hidden ace for the final match if at all possible. For that same reason I couldn't use Mr. Darcy. Lyle had already come out in the tournament, but there was no strategic reason to use him, as much as I would love for my krookorok to get more battle experience.
This meant I should bring Estella to take care of whichever nido Cleo didn't deal with. I'd ask Cleo ahead of time whether she'd rather fight the nidoking or nidoqueen.
A solid line-up, I was confident that my own water types could match his blastoise and seadra. Or at least weaken them enough to be cleaned up. Cleo had finished her coverage move spread after working diligently with Ozma and her Tri Attack. Honestly, once Cleo upgraded Sludge Bomb to Sludge Wave she probably didn't need to learn another move ever, just different tactics and ways of combining the moves she did have.
I had no doubt that Ash was going to be beating Ritchie in his match this afternoon, the last match needed of the three versus threes, but when I looked at the rest of the bracket it seemed like Ash would have to beat everyone on the path to the final round to face off against me. Disappointing, I was sure Ash would reach the Top Eight, but I wasn't sure he could get through all the six versus six matches. He had far more diversity than from my visions, thanks to not giving away any pokemon and in fact adding a few as well. That dragonair of his would be a hidden ace. He had yet to show it or Charizard off. Though I was confident he would make a showing against Ritchie's own charizard, Zippo.
I checked my PokeNav and saw a message from my father.
"Good luck against the Oak kid, son! Your first six versus six battle! Try to use your aerodactyl and that kleavor if you can! I'd love to have more to rub in Oak's face. His pokedex program has been getting him on all the talk shows lately."
I rolled my eyes before I responded, "Just for that talk show line I'll use only my foreign pokemon."
"Don't be like that! :( I was just kidding Izzy!"
My father had an…odd sense of humor. And didn't always seem to know when people teased him back.
"I'm kidding," I typed in response, "I want to show off Hannibal and Artagnan more than you do. They're two of the pokemon who have been trained and drilled the hardest."
"Perfect! We've already generated a lot of interest with the first two publications! My superiors at Silph Co are willing to sponsor both your Grampa Canyon research center and the Sayda Island center for resurrections we've been working for with two of my research aides. The more remote location will hopefully allow us to experiment more with the Old Ambers we've found."
That was exciting for me, more aerodactyls meant more options for my future gym. The League, thanks to my participation and success in the anti-Team Rocket and Mewtwo endeavors had promised that as long as I got to the final round, didn't even have to win it, they could justify me turning the lab that had just been greenlit into a gym to replace Giovanni's. Though with it being a new gym I wouldn't be considered the top of the circuit and could likely expect more low-badge challengers than people like Sabrina or Blaine.
Hopefully upon further delvings into the Grampa Canyon "Underworld" as I was calling it I would find other species of ancient or divergently evolved pokemon. I imagined I probably wouldn't find divergent evolutions outside of my specialization, though I supposed if it stretched on to any of the magma chambers likely near Cinnabar I could find some fire-divergence. Or maybe there would be other exit points? It wouldn't surprise me if some of the ancient ruins around the region secretly went deeper, as I suspected the ruins of the Desert Resort might.
But that was neither here nor there, I had my match against Gary Oak tomorrow. It was time to debrief the team and then get some rest.
I ran my hand along my pokeball belt as the announcer began.
"And the first of our full six versus six battles is about to begin! Both trainers are heavy contenders for Rookie of the Year, though the Red Trainer, the prodigal Gary Oak is also one of the youngest rookies in the running for that title! The Blue Trainer has shown himself to be a talented tamer of ancient and newly discovered pokemon! A researcher and explorer, Isaac Beech!"
The crowd went wild for the both of us, I saw signs for both of us in the crowd, and a patchwork of red and blue shirts. Giving each trainer colors had been a genius marketing move by the League, as they could sell merchandise with just the colors and reuse old stock whenever needed. No customization necessary.
Contemplating my first choice I finally decided to go for a big splash as opposed to my smart set up, I was finding I had quite the flare for the dramatic. Plus I wanted to try and tilt Gary early, if I could win the psychological battle I could leverage it to win the entire match.
"Trainers release your first pokemon!"
"Go, Eevee!"
"Soar, Aerodactyl!" I called out, using Hannibal's species name for greater impact.
Oof, this was going to be a rough fight…for Gary, and I didn't like the optics of thrashing an eevee on national television.
"Gary Oak has led with the evolution pokemon, eevee, and Isaac Beech has once more astounded the region with being the first person outside of Elite Four Lance to showcase an aerodactyl! In fact, this pokemon is only resurrected and given out to experienced trainers, based on the recently published study on an underground cavern system discovered by young Isaac this aerodactyl was actually captured from a wild state! Two rare pokemon, trainers, begin!"
Hannibal eyed the eevee hungrily and I pulled up my tin whistle and blew twice with a specific break between. It basically was meant to communicate 'behave, reward after'.
That got him in line, Tauros steak was much tastier and less hairy than an eevee.
"Tailwind!" I called out for a strong start, also a less vicious opening.
"Double Team!" Gary called out, quickly realizing I am sure that this was going to be a rough match up.
Winds whipped around the arena, speeding Hannibal up as dozens of eevee images appeared around the arena.
I was impressed, it seemed to have almost as much control over the ability as my kleavor did.
"Now, Calm Mind while it's distracted!"
Oh that was dirty, surely Gary's eevee wasn't a…damnit I bet it was.
"Don't let it work up too many boosts!" I called up to my aerodactyl, then I blew a sequence of whistles out, basically combining the commands for dive bomb, Crunch, and keep it up but don't do any permanent damage.
Hopefully Crunch would reduce some defense so that if what I was worried about came to pass…
Hannibal rocketed down and harassed the images, punching through first one, then three, then five.
But he wasn't whittling them down quickly enough.
Damnit, I thought to myself, I focused Hannibal too closely on his moves that were boosted by his ability. I need to make sure he has Rock Slide for some spread and range in the future.
Still there was one move he had that could help here, "Ancient Power!" I cried at the top of my lungs, as he didn't have a whistle command for this infrequently used move. It focused a lot more on mental energy than physical.
Hannibal cried out and formed a silvery sphere of primordial rock-type energy in front of his maw and shot it out obliterating another five illusions in one go.
That spooked Gary out of going for another boost, "Baton Pass!"
Damnit, it was exactly what I worried about. This also dodged the withdrawal clause, allowing the eevee to come back out later. However, as the red beam pulled the eevee back in without any input from Gary, I noticed Hannibal's eyes glowing a dim silver. That would work for me.
"Go, Electabuzz!" I raised my eyebrows in surprise, Gary hadn't used this pokemon publicly yet.
"Buzz buzz!" The yellow brute shouted as it appeared. With his special stats boosted from the Calm Mind showing in a purple halo around his head.
I cracked my neck, things had just gotten fun.
I blew the whistle another few times, telling Hannibal to get some distance in the air and go for strafing runs of Crunch and Fire Fang. I didn't need him to go for a Dragon Dance with both Tailwind and an Ancient Power boost.
"Thunder Wave!" Gary immediately tried to hobble my aerodactyl with a status condition. Luckily his electabuzz had been aiming at or near where Hannibal was, not fifty feet up in the air where he ended up.
Gary groaned at the miss but recovered quickly as my dinosaur pokemon peeled around and reversed course for his strafing run.
"Thundershock! Pepper it!" A series of low power bolts fired out at Hannibal who with his twice boosted speed wove between them effortlessly, his maw glowing with the dark energy of Crunch.
However, Gary was no idiot, he had a plan in mind, one I didn't necessarily see coming.
At the moment of impact of the Crunch, while Hannibal was biting down, he had electabuzz launch a hail Mary, "Discharge!"
I winced in sympathy as a burst of electricity blasted out from the electabuzz and ran through my aerodactyl. Hannibal wasn't taken out of the fight, but he was definitely left hurting, I was certain that the Ancient Power boost was all that kept that from being a one hit knockout.
Except it hadn't been a knockout, and now Hannibal was angry. And I wasn't going to stop him from getting a little payback, the electabuzz looked sturdy.
Like a meowth with an ekans he shook his head back and forth violently, slamming the electabuzz into the ground on either side of him repeatedly.
When Gary pulled up his pokeball to return his pokemon I did the same.
"And with that both contestants have returned their pokemon! Gary has revealed his eevee, and both contestants are not down one! What match-up is coming next?"
I grinned at Gary, who seemed a bit shaken by Hannibal's viciousness.