Pokémon Trainer Hero
Chapter 35: The Sports Festival part. 7-The Race of a Lifetime act.4
The teens continued to run along the track, side-by-side until they came across a large deep canyon with several ropes stretching from both sides and stretched out from east to west. No way they could just go around, they have to cross. The way down was so deep that, even in the daylight, it looked dark! Izuku saw that several people had caught up and we're already crossing using whatever means they had necessary. Todoroki had frozen the ropes and the sliding along with it all the way to the end, Bakugou simply blasted himself over the chasm, Shoji used the webbing between all six of his arms to glide, and Tsuyu used her natural dexterity to climb across the ropes.
Izuku briefly wondered what made this so challenging, since there wasn't a single Pokemon to be seen, and the only danger came from falling off the ropes if you weren't careful. As he observed the area around him he noticed that a few of the areas had some ropes that were much shorter and connected to pieces of the opposite face cliffs that were much closer to one another. Without thinking he ran towards one of those and tried to cross it with ease. But he soon found out that it was too good to be true.
The rope he was trying to 'tightrope across' was actually a serpent Pokemon, more specifically a Seviper! The Pokemon was actually coiling itself around the pegs on both sides and hiding its head to appear as a simple rope with a shorter crossing distance. Once the young teen was no more than halfway across, the Pokemon immediately revealed itself and hissed at the teen, baring its long red fangs! This made Izuku shudder back in shock, causing him to fall off and plummet straight to the pits below! The last thing he felt before coming to an immediate stop was a sense of pure weightlessness and bliss.
Izuku had expected something horrible to be waiting for him at the bottom: Jagged rocks, uneven ground, huge boulders, long spikes, or even a river of acid. But instead, the only thing he fell on was a pile of bubbles that stretched all across the bottom of the canyon in a thick covering. The bottom of the canyon had a small stream running through it with several different Water-type Pokemon blowing the bubbles creating a natural safety net for anyone who fell down. And from the looks of it, Izuku could see that many people besides him had fallen down or were falling down.
Some of them were attempting to climb back up, but we're shot down by the Water-type Pokemon, slipped off, or we're thrown off by the several Bug types lining the walls. Izuku could see that some of the ropes were crafted by some of the bugs and would be cut when someone tried to cross.
Izuku had to find a way out of this place, but how? He was already damp from the bubbles and sweat from the last obstacles, so slipping was inevitable. the Pokemon could easily knock him down, and they wouldn't….
Just as Izuku was thinking to himself, his eyes caught sight of a Galvantula climbing up the sides of the ball wall. And that's when Izuku felt an idea pop into his brain and something Gar had told him! So he moved his way atop of the bubble net and to his surprise, none of the Pokemon tried to stop him, where he stopped right below where the giant electric tarantula was patrolling. He scaled up the rocky wall and made his way to the Pokemon.
The Pokemon saw him approaching and made a B-line for him! Izuku put his plan into action and stayed on the wall and waited. The pokémon came on a foot from his face and reared up two of its legs to strike and knock him down! But Izuku knew better, and once he saw the underside of the pokémons chin he quickly reached under it with one hand and began to tickle! Galvantula stopped dead in its attack and took a far more calm disposition, as it immersed itself in the sensation.
As the pokémon was fully immersed, Izuku grabbed one of the spider's legs and forced it to flip around! From there he reached under its thorax and began to scratch it fast as his fingers could move. The Pokemon immersed itself in the feeling further and began to wiggle its thorax in delight. When Izuku stopped, the Pokemon positioned itself to face him and made some sounds that gave off a delighted or happy vibe to it.
Izuku heaved out a few hard breaths and asked the Pokemon, "So. Friends?"
Galvantula made a sound with its mandibles as if to say yes.
Izuku sight relieved and told the large spider Pokemon, "Okay, then let's get out of here."
Galvantula then jumps onto the teens back and shoots a web at the adjacent wall near the top of the cliff face. It held the teen in its front legs and pulled itself up with the back legs. Izuku didn't exactly have the best experience, as he had to release the wall he was clinging onto and had to slam back-first into the opposing wall, and then felt his body get dragged up up the rocky surface before being thrown up and over the edge onto solid ground!
Izuku picked himself up in a slow and painful manner, cracked his back, and shouted a thank you to Galvantula before running back on the track.
"Oh ho! What's this folks? Someone actually managed to scale the gorge and get back in the race? I'm thoroughly impressed!", Gar announced from above. "But let's see if our re-contender can make it through the Boulders Blister!"
Izuku ideally wondered what that meant and physically and mentally prepared himself for what was to come soon after! Judging from the name alone, it must do something with rocks. Izuku was already shuddering at the thought of what Gar was having his Rock types do for an obstacle! Unfortunately, he got his answers very quickly….and right in the face no less. Izuku pulled himself off the object and saw it to be a large slab of rock that appeared to have quite literally forced up from the ground he tried to peek around the large rock, but quickly had to duck back when a stone flew near his head! Izuku stayed behind the rock as he heard something pelting his hiding spot over and over again! Eventually his hiding rock was reduced to pebbles and the teen had to make a run for it! He quickly found another stone slab to hide behind and finally was able to observe the new obstacle.
Like the Tri Elemental challenge, this one had all the pokemon at the side lines and launching their respective element. In this case, Rock. The path itself was void of anything other than a very rocky road and multiple stones and boulders littered about. Everyone who tried to run through was either met by a huge boulder thrown and blocking their path, a flying stone aimed for their body or legs, a pillar or wall of rock blocking their way, or even a landslide that would knock them off their feet and off the track. Izuku sighed in relief knowing that the pokemon, like all the others, weren't trying to hurt them, just impede them. Izuku noted that many of the Rock types were also following a very repeated and obvious pattern. The green teen then knew exactly what he had to do.
So he ran from his hiding spot and began to run in a very disorganized pattern! The Rock types noticed this and tried to block or pelt Izuku, but to no avail. Every boulder missed, every rock wall or pillar was placed in the wrong spot, every stone has dodged or jumped over, every landslide was outmaneuvered or timed wrong! Eventually the Rock Types began to get frustrated and started to throw and summon huge stones at random making the entire track and lateral hell zone! Now everyone was in danger of head trauma as huge stones rained down and up and all around, and the very ground moved and shook violently like a tidal wave!
Even Izuku was having a hard time trying to keep his balance and had to stop in place as stones rained down from all sides and the earth jiggled like jelly! Izuku knew he had to use his quirk to get him out of this, but he was still so far from even getting the feel for it! If used now, it would mean the possibility of not getting to the next round and sacrificing all his limbs!
So now he had to improvise, and looking around at all the scattered rocks, he knew how. So he picked up a stone and lobed it at one of the Rock types, hitting it in the face, and causing it to flinch. This caused the rock stone to slow down, but only by a bit. So Izuku put his plan into full swing and grabbed as many stones as he could, and started to throw them one after the other at any and all Rock types he could. Each one that hit a pokemon caused it to flinch and made the hell zone less hellish. After several stones, the war zone returned to a more normal state where it could be finished. Izuku took his chance and dropped his stones while running as fast as he could!
However, one of the pokemon shook off the flinch effect and saw Izuku running. It grabbed two rocks and threw them directly at him! Izuku noticed this and immediately turned around in a fluid motion while grabbing one rock out of the air, hurtling towards him, and then immediately threw it right at the other! Causing both stones to smash to pieces and release something from within one of them! Izuku noticed this and looked to the ground where he saw a very small dark orange hermit crab pokemon, only without a shell, scrambling along the ground trying to look for something in a panic. Izuku immediately recognized the pokemon as a Dwebble, and immediately felt guilt rush over him.
Dwebble is a pokemon that protects its soft body with a stone it carves out and lives in, and Izuku just destroyed it…..accidently. Now the poor pokemon was scrambling to find a suitable stone and so far only found ones that are too big, too broken, or too crumbled. All while rocks still fell and broke apart around them threatening the small soft pokemons well being. The pokemon eventually stopped scrambling and began to weep into its claws. Izuku felt the guilt hit him even harder and knew he had to make this right…...somehow.
So he scooped up the pokemon, all before another stone could fall on it, and placing it into his shirt he said, "I'm sorry about that Dwebble. I wish I could help you, but I can't right now. So i'll just keep you safe until I finish the race."
Dwebble didn't seem to mind this and stayed perfectly still and motionless pressed between Izuku's body and shirt to not hurt him. With the small pokemon in his shirt, Izuku ran off and out of the course to the next obstacle and the finish line hopefully nearby.
Back at the announcer booth, everyone was watching the jumbo scenes with great intent and excitement! The crowd would chear every now and again when one of the students would do something to grab the attention of the cameras! Even Aizawa was starting to get swept into the excitement and would jiggle in his seat every now and again at the excitement, much to the observation of Present Mic.
Not wanting to throw off his vibe by teasing him, he instead decided to announce the last part of the course. "It seems a few of our racers are now headed their way to the final part of the obstacle course, and also the hardest! The Minefield!",Everyone in the crowd seems to stop and give confused or disinterested looks at the underwhelming name for the 'last and hardest' obstacle. Mic noticed this and argued back, "What? We ran out of catchy names. But from there it's a straight shot to the finish line! Let's hope they can make it through, Pulse Ultra!"
This time Izuku didn't have to wonder what the main gist of this obstacle was. No doubt a flat piece of land that had bombs layered all around them, and some pokemon Gar had definitely put in to stop or catch people off guard. And much to Izuku's unsurprise, it was just as he thought. He stopped at what he thought was the edge of the minefield and observed the surroundings. A piece of flat land with no distinguishable features, not even an disturbed soil to check for the bombs, but straight ahead was none other than the stadium and the finish line! Izuku was so excited to see this that he almost lost control of his legs and tried to take off.
However, he stopped when he heard a loud KABOOM! In the not too far distance and Dwebble poking at his body. Izuku looked over and saw a small ploom of smoke rushing up from the ground and heard someone yell something about an exploding beach ball with eyes. Izuku wondered what that meant until Dweebles many attempts to grab his attention finally yielded results from hitting Izuku's nipple! Izuku yelped in pain and jumped back while opening his shirt and looking down at the small pokemon with a mix of pain and anger!
Dwebble then pointed its poker to the ground where Izuku was just about to stand on. Izuku looked at where the pokemon was pointing, but saw nothing. So he took a small stone and threw it near the spot. Immediately a pokemon burst from the ground and began to glow a bright light! Dwebble hid in Izuku's shirt while Izuku ran in the other direction! But the detonation was too fast and Izuku got the after shock! The teen fell to the ground while clutching the pokemon for protection. After the blast died down, Izuku got up and saw a passed out pokemon that looked like a pokeball with very angry eyes. A Voltorb. Before he could examine it further, the pokemon suddenly disappeared into smoke!
"Double Team.", Izuku said to himself.
Izuku looked around and saw several other people also hitting unexpected spots, only for a Voltorb Double Team to pop out and explode! Was the whole field covered with buried Voltorb clones?! Nope. Soon after he saw someone get flung into the air by a regular bomb. Though the Voltorbs were more precise and would detonate even if someone didn't run on top of their spot!
"That's right folks!", Izuku heard Gar from above. "The field is not only covered with normal bombs, but Voltorb Double team clones as well! They may expire faster than the original, but they still pack more than enough punch! They'll detonate even if you don't walk on them! But don't worry, they won't take your leg off. But they will knock you clean out, so be extra careful of them! And the other dozen or so different pokemon I've hidden around here. Good Luck!"
"The other what?", Izuku squeaked out in dread.
Then like clock work, Izuku saw immediately what Gar mentioned! One person fell down a sandy pit trap and then their leg was caught by a Trapinch in the hole. One person was knocked off their feet by Serperior popping out of the ground and then coiled up by the snake. Several others had fallen down another sand pit trap created by a Hipowdon. And not too far in the distance was a Flygon that was whipping up a very powerful Sand Storm! The storm was so intense that even Bakugou and Todoroki were having trouble getting through at all!
Izuku had to think up a plan. So he stood there and thought as fast as he could. He quickly came up with something and knew he had to get rid of all the pokemon nearby first, otherwise it wouldn't work. So he looked to the small pokemon in his shirt and asked, "Do you think you can find the original Voltorb?"
Dwebble seemed to understand and quickly crawled out of his shirt and onto the ground. The pokemon would tap its claws on the ground and then move in one direction or another. Izuku followed closely behind and followed its path until it stopped and motioned to a certain spot. Izuku patted the crab's head and put the first part of his plan into action. He took a stone and threw it near the spot. Voltorb original popped out and Izuku immediately dove in and grabbed the pokemon before it could start glowing! One he had it in his hands, he threw it into the air while giving it a spin! The pokemon spun in the air and the glow died down to nothing once Izuku caught it again. When Izuku caught the round pokemon, Voltrob looked absolutely delighted by what happened and was buzzing happily, as if screaming with delight or asking for more!
"You want another spin?", Izuku asked the pseudo pokeball.
Voltorb made several buzzing sounds and Izuku threw the pokemon into the air with all he had while spinning it as fast as he could! When Voltorb was caught again, it continued to make happy sounding buzzing and beeping noises at the fun! Once Izuku was sure the otherwise explosive pokemon was full and well calmed down, he went in for the big question.
"Say, think you get rid of your doubles for me? In exchange for this?"
Voltorb seems to regard this, then closes its eyes, and a moment later over several dozen areas of the field seems to explode with non-lethal white clouds! From that alone Izuku could tell Voltorb did as he asked. So he put the pokemon down and put the second part of his plan into action.
He quickly ran through the field to where the Trapinch was still holding one of the other racers in its maw. Izuku slid down behind the pokemon and tickled it under its chin. The pokemon let its prey go and Izuku quickly ripped it out of the sand and threw it back onto solid ground. Izuku and the previously trapped person quickly climbed out and Izuku ran over to the Trapinch, now on its back, and tickled its belly to incapacitate it.
Izuku then made his way to Serperior, where he snuck up behind the pokemon, who was still squeezing the life out of another person, and began to scratch its back while working his way up to its head and behind its ear holes. Serperior immediately loosened its coils and fell to the ground in delight.
Izuku then made his way to where Hipowdon was and stopped when he was at the edge of the sand trap. He looked down and saw that several people had been buried up to their necks and several more littered around. Hipowdon had been moving around, albeit very slowly. Though, Hipowdons sand pours were leaking sand at a much slower pace than normal. He looked closer at the openings and saw that several of them had been blocked up by large stones. Izuku wondered how he was going to help and stop the pokemon from attacking him, but then he remembered the little pokemon still in his shirt.
He saw Dwebble eye up the logged stones and remembered that Gar told him the relationship between Dwebble and Hipowdon. Hipowdon swallows stones whole and grind them into sand, but sometimes the stones don't get ground and get stuck in the pours where Dwebble comes in and knocks the stones loose for a new home. So he threw the small bug at the hippo pokemons back and the small creature set to work with zeal! In a matter of moments, all the pores on Hipowdon's back were cleared and Dwebble found a new home. Hippowdon then showed its gratitude towards Izuku by climbing up to the surface of its sand pit and spraying him with sand from one of its pours.
Izuku tried to cover his face while coughing and spitting out sand, and once the pokemon was done he quickly felt Dwebble showing its apparition by slamming into his head with its new rock shell, causing him to fall to the ground. Izuku saw spots in his eyes as the small bug pokemon scuttled around his back.
Izuku regained his senses as he said, "Glad to see you guys are happy.", Izuku shook the feeling of dizziness and pain away while standing up and continuing, "But now I have to take care of Flygon. But how?"
Izuku's eyes then sat on Hippowdon and the feeling of something in his back pockets. He reached behind himself and pulled out the half melted remains of the berries he was carrying, which was now starting to solidify.
An idea ran across his mind and looking at the Hippo pokemon he asked it, "Hey Hippowdon. Think you can get me over to Flygon?"
Without a reply, Hippowdon burrowed under ground and quickly appeared beneath Izuku's feet. Then with a loud cry the pokemon rocketed through the soil at top speed, heading straight for the giant dragon pokemon! Izuku nearly fell off in the sudden movement and had to hold onto the pokemons head for balance! Hippowdon curved and weaved around the bombs placed all around, like it could tell, and passed several people in the process! Once they were in range of the pokemon, Izuku balled up the berries into one giant, and prepared to throw them!
However, Flygon saw them approaching and whipped up a sand storm in their direction. Izuku couldn't see past the sand to throw or throw accurately, and had to shield his eyes! Even Hippowdon was having trouble advancing and quickly changed tartics by picking up a chunk of earth in its mouth and throwing it at the flying bug dragon! The rock hit and Flygon wasn't able to keep the storm up, which gave Izuku a change to see clearly and throw the berry mush! He realized his arm was back, and threw it directly at the flailing pokemon.
Unfortunately Izuku missed its open mouth and ended up hitting its face. Flygon pulled the mush from its eyes and was about to whip it off its fingers when it took a sniff of the goo. After a few more sniffs, Flygon put the mush into its mouth and immediately calmed down to the point where it landed on the ground. Izuku jumped off Hippowdons back and rushed over to Flygon still enjoying its treat and then petted its head.
"Think you can hold off on the sandstorms until I do something?", he asked the pokemon, who replied with a round of incest and bird-like sounds.
Izuku sighed and then said to himself, "Okay, now that the pokemon are taken care of. Now all I'll need is to find the other bombs laying around here. But where can I find-?"
As if Arcus himself answered Izuku's prayer, a large piece of metal from one of the three pointers in the first obstacle flew through the sky and landed right at his feet and embedded in the ground! Izuku jumped away from the debris and shielded himself! Once the dust settled, Izuku opened his arms and stared at the piece while saying how convenient it was. He then grabbed the metal chunk and started to go around the area digging up bomb after bomb while pilling them up. He hadn't even started digging when he felt something nudge against his leg and looked down to see Voltorb bouncing near his feet.
Izuku smiled and said to the pokemon, "Sorry Voltorb, but I can't play right now. I have to dig up more bombs or I'll never get ahead."
Izuku went back to digging, but quickly stopped when he felt something jump onto his back. He dropped the metal slab and grabbed at whatever was on him, only to see it was Voltorb again.
Izuku sighed and told the pokemon more firmly, "I really can't right now! I'm already going to fall behind from taking so much time!"
Before Izuku could continue his rant, he heard something hard and metallic. Like a hammer on metal. He looked down and saw Dwebble leaking a fluid from its mouth, which softened the metal slab, and then struck it with its claws to smooth and reshape its edges until it was shaped like a surfboard. Izuku was confused by this until Dwebble pulled the reshaped metal towards Izuku and made little bug sounds, as if trying to tell him something.
"For me?", Izuku asked, as Dwebble nodded. "Is this so I can dig up more bombs easily?", he asked while picking the metal up, and Dwebble seemed to shake its head.
Izuku was confused by this and even more so when Hippowdon and Flygon joined in the group. He looked at the pokemon who all looked like they were trying to tell him something with their unique cries, leaving the poor teen even more confused and a little overwhelmed. Then it dawned on him that they wanted to help him advance in the race. Izuku quickly shushed the pokemon to silence and then thought up a quick plan.
Once he did, he looked to the pokemon and said, "I know you all want to help, and I've got an idea of how. Think you're up for it?"
All the pokemon cheered!
Izuku smiled and said, "Great! Then let's go!"
Izuku then grabbed Voltorb and placed the pokemon on his back. How the limbless pokemon could hold on the entire time was beyond him. He grabbed his new reshaped metal piece and jumped on Hippowdon's back while telling Flygon to follow. Izuku told Hippowdon to charge forward, and the pokemon roared before taking off! The hippo pokemon tore through the earth like it was water with Flygon by its side! Weaving in and out and around every bomb and person that got in the way!
Eventually they got to what was called "A Last line of Defense'. Three lines of Bombs all buried in a row through the whole track horizontally; meant to throw off or blow off any would be racers thinking it was a straight shot from here and to weed out the competition further! Izuku knew Hippowdon couldt make it through without getting blown out of the ground, so he hopped onto Flygons back and soared along the ground and straight over the last line of defense. Just before leaving the defensive line, Izuku jumped off Flygons back and used his metal slab to hit one of the bombs and sent himself skyward! Izuku quickly started to descend as fast as he ascended, but with the help of a powerful Sand Storm from Flygon, Izuku was able to ride the wind like a surfer even further!
"Oh my goodness folk! I cant believe what I'm seeing!", Gar shouted in excitement in the sky, after nearly being rear ended by a flying Izuku! "It seems that one of our back of the line runners is now literally bursting to the front with a little help from the obstacle pokemon! And now he is quickly closing into our lead runners Katskui and Shoto! Watch out boys! You may just come in second!"
Todoroki and Bakugou both looked up and behind themselves only to see Izuku quickly descending from a stream of wind and closing the distance between them! For a while they were neck in neck, and now Izuku was gonna break that tie! Though they both knew that Izuku didn't have enough lead to land and then ran ahead of them, so they both knew they only had to out ace one another! Though this delusion was quickly washed away when Izuku suddenly did a mid air spin and threw something large and round in front of the two teens.
Time seems to slow down around the two teens as they looked down to see a very angry looking pokeball! And things got even more slow when their perception completely changed as Izuku shouted at the pokeball.
"VOLTORB, USE EXPLOSION!"
The two teens ran directly in between the pokeball pokemon, as Izuku arched his metal board over to slam down on the pokemon, while Voltorb made a buzzing sound as bright light emitted from its body! In a mere moment three things happened at once; Voltorb exploded, Todoroki and Bakugou were both flung to the sides, and Izuku was sent skyward once more shooting him even further to the fishing line on a trail of screams! Izuku quickly descended to the ground and slid along the dirt for several feet before popping to his shoes and ran as hard as he could push his legs to the nearing finish line!
"OH MY ARCEUS EVERYONE! Izuku has now closed the gap and blasted ahead of our front runners, pulling a fast one on both of them! He may just bounce back and take first place!", Gar exclaimed before turning his eyes to two steadily approaching figures in the near rear! "Uh-oh! Looks like our previous front runners are gunning to take back their top spots from Izuku. Izuku better keep ahead or he might just get left behind or maybe Katskui and Shoto will prevail from this challenge. Who knows!?"
Izuku didn't want to look behind himself! If he did, he would slow down and lose his place! He was already in the front and worked so hard to get it, and now he was gonna keep it by every means possible! So he ran fast, faster than he had ever run before, faster than his legs should allow him to go! And he kept that speed while keeping his eyes ahead! Bakugou and Tordoroki were only keeping their eyes on Izuku and not on each other any longer! Now the only thing they wanted to do was surpass the green teen! And even though he was in the lead, they were steadily catching up to him!
"Katsuki and Shoto are ganging up on Izuku and the finish line is just within shouting distance! Can he make it?! Can they make it?! Who will take first place!?", Gar shouted as the cheers of the crowd rang clear out the stadium!
While Izuku held back the urge to shout at Gar to stop his stressful play by play! And the green teen could practically feel the hot and cold breath of Bakugou and Todoroki on his neck!
"The finish line is here and now our three boys are nearly neck n neck! Who's it gonna be!?", Gar sounded off as the cheering crowds got even louder in their ears!
Izuku closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and gave it all he had in one last push! He let out a war cry and gave it the last he could! With that he tripped over his own two feet and face planted face first into the dirt while sliding along in a painful skidding!
Izuku lay on the ground huffing and puffing for air to fill his lungs again. He laid there in his own sense of failure. Thinking to himself that he lost. All the hard work and effort he put into this whole race, the first event no less, and he ended up being done in by himself. He wanted to lay in the dirt motionless and cry as everyone passed by his nearly unconscious body, but the sound of Gar's voice snapped him out of his own disappointment as he heard the older teen scream out loud.
"And Our first place winner is….IZUKU MIDORYIA!"
The crowd cheered like crazy and Izuku forced his head up! He looked around trying to blink off the dirt and saw that he was already in the stadium! Halfway through the whole place no less. Behind him were an equally exhausted Bakugou and Todoroki. All around him were thousands of cheering people, cheering his name. And on the big jumbo board behind the umpire stand was the leader board with his name at the top! His name, in first place! And he couldn't believe it! He was so overwhelmed that he dropped his face back on the dirt and began to weep tears of joy.
While Gar flew from above with a look a pure joyful pride on his face for the young green haired boy. He was so proud he felt a single tear roll down his face. But that feeling soon fled as he knew he had to look into that weird Rain Storm from before. And thinking the absolute worse, he could only assume it was Bayo and Team Freak. He prayed to Arcuse that it wasn't the case, and the two Eon pokemon near him could feel his growing stress.
So without a second thought he turned off his headset, placed in his ear piece, turned off the camera on Latias, and streaked Latios towards the meeting spot where the other heroes were no doubt waiting for him.