บท 14: 34,35,36
With experience from several Leagues, now, Ash knew that there were two ways of doing the last dozen or so matches in a tournament bracket.
One way was to run them all together in a big burst that took a single day, which was better for the spectators but meant that some Pokémon could be enduring up to four battles in a day, and the other was to space them out so that there was time for the Pokémon to be cared for in the Pokémon Centre and get properly rested up. The Indigo League was doing the second option, so it was the day after his battle with Ritchie that Ash went out onto the field for his semi-final.
"I guess the question is, how is this going to go?" Ash wondered, out loud, as he waited for his opponent to turn up.
Then he got his answer.
"Prepare for battle!" Jessie advised.
"You'll soon be rattled!" James agreed, setting off some fireworks.
Ash facepalmed, fortunately choosing the hand that wasn't currently holding a Pokéball. "Really?"
Jessie held up a case. "To collect each badge of our vocation!"
"To show off in battle across our nation!" James said, juggling three Pokéballs.
"To attain a record to be proud of!" Jessie boasted.
"To become as known as the stars above," James said, then looked hesitant.
After a moment's pause, they apparently decided the rhyme had been good enough, and kept going.
"Jessie!" Jessie introduced herself.
"James!" James informed everyone.
"Team Rocket, unmasked on this finals fight!"
James pointed at Ash dramatically. "Surrender now, or face a dreadful plight!"
"All right!" Meowth finished, jumping into the arena and vanishing.
Ash pointed forwards. "Riolu!"
"On it," Riolu said, running forwards.
"Seriously, though, how did Meowth do that?" Ash wondered.
Riolu advanced warily.
Meowth was using Faint Attack, that much was obvious, but… where was he?
Where would he want to attack from…
Riolu whirled, paw glowing with a Force Palm, and slapped the air. A Substitute appeared and burst at the same moment, and he shook his palm before looking around again.
"You know, it's usually Pikachu dat I fight," Meowth said. "I ain't seen you on da battlefield before."
The voice wasn't actually giving a clue about what was going on.
"Don't ninja usually rely on misdirection?" he asked.
"Yeah, and I ain't gonna tell you what I'm actually doin', am I?" Meowth asked. "Or maybe I am. So if I tell you dat I'm just wearin' a disguise as thin air, what does dat tell you?"
"Is that even possible?"
A coin bounced off the back of Riolu's head. "Whatever works, Riolu. Whatever works."
"It's going to take a while to knock me out if you stick to Pay Day," Riolu objected.
"Yeah, but I got a magazine to read," Meowth replied.
Closing one eye, Riolu spun slowly in place.
Normally he'd just be able to see Meowth, but whatever the Scratch Cat was doing it had apparently accounted for something as obvious as that.
Somehow.
Ninja were annoying.
Coming to a conclusion, Riolu compressed Aura in his fist before springing into the air and ramming a punch into the arena floor. The actual power of the attack erupted downwards, rippling out in an Earthquake, and a Substitute popped with a burst of smoke.
Not stopping there, Riolu charged up an Aura Sphere in each paw and rammed them together. That produced a cloud of smaller blue tracer spheres, which spread out across the field, and while they didn't home in on Meowth either they at least made it hard for the cat to hide no matter where he was.
Another Substitute burst as it dodged the wrong way, then Riolu caught a coin out of the air as it came in to hit him. The other paw fired an Aura Sphere back along the path the coin had taken, and Riolu kicked out to the side.
Meowth appeared, little bits of grass camouflage falling away, and staggered back two steps before steadying himself.
"Not a substitute this time."
"How'd ya do dat?" Meowth asked.
Riolu's mostly-closed eye widened a little, letting Meowth see the gleam in it. "Foresight."
"Huh, whadda ya know," Meowth said, shrugging. "Guess we ain't much'a ones for that kinda thing."
He crouched for a moment, then darted forwards to attack.
Riolu slapped aside the first Fury Swipe, dodged the second, then began giving ground as the attacks accelerated.
It turned out Meowth had a lot of speed to him, probably thanks to a combination of training and running away a lot, and it was giving Riolu trouble keeping up.
A swipe to the cheek got through his guard, leaving a hairline scratch. Then a cuff on the arm.
"What's up?" Meowth asked, sniggering, as he dropped down for a sweep-kick and Riolu barely jumped over it in time. "Not wantin' to fight for some reason?"
Riolu shrugged.
Then Meowth noticed something. "Hey, uh… is it me or is it a bit cold? You look kinda blue."
He swiped with a claw, which missed, then looked awkward. "Dat came out wrong."
"I know what you mean," Riolu replied, skipping back a step, then reversed his momentum and darted in for an uppercut.
The spiral clicked over to mix.
"What was that?" the announcer commented, knowledgeably, as a blast of spiralling air from nowhere launched Meowth upwards.
Riolu blurred after him, riding the storm, and delivered a stunning trio of Force Palm strikes that rendered Meowth unable to fight on by the time he hit the ground.
Riolu landed, panting. That had taken a lot out of him.
He had about half a second to catch his breath before a Psywave bored in, and he summoned two sets of flickering Shadow Claws to block the attack.
Abra teleported behind him as the attack reached its target, fired a Psychic, then flashed away again as Riolu reacted.
"Are you on caffeine?" Riolu asked, catching sight of where Abra had gone to this time and charging a Dark Pulse.
I might be.
Abra disappeared as the pulse came in and took telekinetic hold of Riolu with a Psychic attack from behind, then blasted him with Psywave until he went limp.
Next please.
Ash frowned. "Hmm… Pikachu?"
"All right."
Pikachu leapt into the arena with his cheeks sparking, and launched a powerful lightning bolt at Abra.
The Psychic type teleported out of the line of fire. Or lightning.
"Oh, here we go. It's Saffron gym all over again." Pikachu raised his forepaws and tail to the sky, forming a large flat electric structure overhead. "Shockwave!"
The plane of electricity slammed down on the arena.
Pikachu jumped out of the way as a Signal Beam nearly hit him from behind. Sure enough, Abra was sitting seiza in the sky, having teleported through the attack.
"Right, no more mister nice mouse."
Pikachu's cheeks sparked up, and he launched himself into the air. He formed a Counter Shield around himself, then expanded it by pushing electrical energy into it.
"Yeah, this should work," he decided, before conjuring three electrical rings around himself and winding them up.
Abra began blasting him with Psywaves, but Pikachu darted left and then right with flashes of Thunderbolt aimed either at Abra or to the side from where Abra was. The recoil boost was helpful, and Pikachu did entertain a sort of faint hope that he'd get lucky and Abra would accidentally dodge into one of the bolts, but no such luck seemed about to present itself.
On the other paw, he'd wound up enough charge now.
Pikachu discharged the whole of his knotted-up electromagnetic capacitor into his Counter Shield, and it instantly expanded to the size of the whole stadium. Then it shrank back again as it lost all that charge into the ground, but the bang-bang of two Counter Shields hitting Abra in quick succession had left him paralyzed and shocked enough for Pikachu to actually aim and hit him that time.
James recalled Abra, and Jessie held out a Luxury Ball of her own.
Cubone announced her arrival with a thrown bone, and Pikachu shattered it with a punch rather than dodge – a guess that was borne out, since the areas he could have dodged to erupted in Earth Powers a moment later.
"I am the bone of my club."
She didn't continue the aria, instead throwing bone after bone into the air in curling paths. The first had great, long, sweeping trajectories that blurred past Pikachu in seconds and flew off into the distance. The next ones were slightly slower and on a different path, and the sequence continued without pause until the last one was thrown straight at him.
And all the rest of the Bonemerangs hurtled back into the target area at the same time.
Pikachu jumped – it was about all he could really do, with that many bones coming in – and fended off a blizzard of additional attacks in close quarters. He couldn't change his trajectory in mid air, not with her pressuring him in-close – the momentary lapse in attention that a Quick Attack would take would be an extremely bad idea at this close of a range.
The thud as he hit the ground came as a shock. Wincing, he noticed that the area he'd hit was raised above the rest of the arena.
Like might have happened from, say, an Earthquake while he was focusing on everything else she was doing.
Cubone was pretty much his worst matchup, since she was flat immune to his electrical attacks and knew it. He couldn't even bypass it like he could with enough power for most other Ground types, since she had Lightningrod.
"Fissure!"
Pikachu tried to move out of the way, but she was still on top of him – and, in fact, still hitting him. The white line of the attack connected with him more or less instantly, knocking him out.
Ash frowned for a moment.
Who to use… then he had it.
"Primeape!"
Cubone was knocked backwards by a Mach Punch that blurred in from nowhere, even as Pikachu was removed from the battlefield by the Alakazam acting as linesPokémon.
She backed into the edge barricade and her eyes scanned back and forth under her helmet, looking for any tell-tale that might indicate where the ludicrously fast Pokémon was.
A wash of air… no, he'd already passed it.
A-
WHAM!
She went flying, and skidded to a halt as he disappeared again.
"How are you doing that?" she asked. "I can't see you anywhere, but that attack came in from the side!"
Another blow hit her, this time from behind. "They're called saccades. It's when the eye moves from one place to another."
Another, sending her up into the air, and even looking down she couldn't see her opponent."The brain doesn't register information during a saccade. Normally it wouldn't work on a trained Pokémon because their trainer would let them know where I was, but I have studied you – you don't listen."
It was true, she fought alone. But if that was a weakness, then…
She took a moment to breathe deeply.
"Abra. Please inform Jessie that I will be wanting guidance."
"He's to your left!"
Cubone turned her head, deliberately not letting her eyes twitch. She was staring at the end of her helmet's nose, and letting her peripheral vision pan across the stadium.
Her thick club snapped up and diverted the next attack, the wash from it sending her staggering. A follow-up blow missed as the agile Fighting type left before it could hit.
"Right! No-left again!"
This time she was quick enough, and parried. The club blow knocked both fighters backwards from the impact, and Primeape recovered with a skid along the floor.
"You have learned the lesson. Good."
"So, this was a test?"
"Not all of it. But some." Primeape flickered into motion again, and the two clashed with an explosion of air pressure.
As Primeape dodged back, Cubone followed him. "There we go. I know your bones now – no more hiding for you."
"Interesting trick… impressive, but also infuriating!"
As the tempo of their blows began to increase, Cubone closed her eyes and let herself be guided entirely by that part of her that resonated with her opponents' skeleton.
It didn't make her reactions much faster, but it meant he couldn't dodge through her saccades like he had been. That trick wouldn't work again, in fact – her team would be ready for it, and would train for it. Such was the arms race between rival trainers.
It was like a mental competition to go along with the physical one. And when it was at the cusp, like this…
Cubone felt alive.
At an unseen signal, both fighters separated.
Cubone shifted her grip on her club, taking a stance, and reinforced the internal spaces as much as she could. Primeape drew back a fist and took a deep breath, focusing.
Then, still perfectly in sync, they charged one another.
Ash dove behind his wall just before the shockwave.
"And that's a double KO," the announcer said, thankful to be of some use for once. "Not exactly the first of these from either of our participants, either. Both must now send out another Pokémon!"
"He's acting like these don't happen all the time." Ash said to himself, thinking. "Pidgeot!"
They really don't. You're just lucky in crazy ways.
Pidgeot circled, watching as Jessie released her Arbok to tunnel underground and hide.
The annoying thing was that, with Arbok underground, she couldn't actually attack… but, then again, nor could he.
"Well, we'll see who cracks first," Pidgeot muttered, banking around to orbit.
A minute or so passed, neither participant making any sort of move.
"Okay, I can see this becoming an issue."
Far below, Jessie pointed up at her and said something. Pidgeot strained her hearing.
She blinked.
Surface to air ballistic snake attack? Surely she hadn't heard that right?
As it turned out, Pidgeot didn't have anything to worry about… at least, regarding her hearing. With a crash, Arbok came rocketing out of the ground and upwards at high speed.
"Oh."
Pidgeot slipped sideways in the sky, shedding air from beneath her wings to avoid Arbok's trajectory. Though this meant she wasn't in the direct path, it didn't do much about the poison that he began to spit as soon as he had the altitude.
Gunk Shot attacks went splat splat splat through the air, mostly missing, and the Alakazam who was running the crowd protection shield sighed theatrically as he funnelled the Gunk Shot attacks off to one side and disposed of them.
For Pidgeot's part, she did her best to weave air control layers and help her own defence that way, but Arbok had surprisingly good aim to go with his surprisingly good height on his jump. One splat made it through, hitting her left wing, and gumming up the feathers enough to throw her off course.
And, unluckily for her, she'd rolled out towards Arbok.
He spat a jet of poison behind him, adjusting his trajectory a bit more, then hit her with a Thunder Fang. Pidgeot's wing cuff sent him flying, but the electrical burst also paralyzed her right wing entirely.
Ash judged Pidgeot's flight for a moment, as she began to spin out, then held out her Pokéball and recalled her before she crashed.
"She's out," he confirmed to her referee, passing the Pokéball to Pikachu, and switched to Muk.
"Ah," Arbok said, sibilantly – which was quite a feat for a word without any esses in it. "This, I admit, is something of a tricky one."
Muk rippled in a kind of shrug, then flowed forwards like a purple tidal wave with a Jolly nature.
Ash called Muk right back again before the Rockets could pick their fifth Pokémon, waited until they chose them – a Victreebel – then decided to go ahead with the plan he'd been thinking of.
He'd sent out almost his entire team over the course of the tournament, and while he couldn't quite do every single Pokémon – and he didn't really want to impose on either Mewtwo or Ho-Oh – he could still manage a representative sample, and sent out Tauros Five.
At least, that was Tauros Five if he'd got the notes right. It still took help to identify them.
"So, what's your thing?" Victreebel asked.
Tauros snorted, hooves drumming the ground, and stared at the Grass-type.
"Well, there's no need to be rude," Victreebel muttered. "Come on, then."
The bull rolled his eyes, stamping at the ground again, and Victreebel promptly fell down a fissure.
Still, it was at least good to know that all the earthquakes Oak had been complaining about had been good for something.
Jessie and James glanced at their Pokéballs.
"We don't have much left, do we?" James muttered.
"Gyarados?" Jessie suggested. "Ash has Tauros and Muk active, but that's it."
"We don't have much choice," James agreed. "We could try Lickitung?"
"Of course not!" Jessie retorted. "You can't lick Normal-types, and at that point Lickitung is out of ideas."
"That sounds like a plan," James decided. "Or it sounds like something like a plan. At least Gyarados is less likely to fall down a hole."
Speaking of which…
Abra levitated Victreebel's Pokéball out of the crevasse.
"Oh, thanks!" James enthused. "Right, here goes… Gyarados!"
Tauros jumped to the side as soon as Gyarados formed, avoiding a blast of Hyper Beam, and began running around the sea serpent at maximum speed.
"Get in closer!" Ash called. "He can't turn fast enough to track you if you're close!"
"Not a bad delaying tactic," Jessie conceded. "But not good enough! Thrash!"
Gyarados probably hadn't needed that one as an order, because even an unusually placid Gyarados was still very much all about the occasional Thrash.
Tauros went skidding backwards from the tail blow, and smashed into the retaining wall. A blast of incandescent energy followed him, creating a huge explosion.
"Well?" James said, mockingly. "Going to send out your Muk?"
"No thanks," Ash replied, turning his hat backwards for old times' sake. "Wild Charge!"
With a bellow, Tauros emerged from the dust and rubble. His coat was marred, there were scorch marks down one side and a horn looked like it had just escaped serious damage… but he was still on his hooves. And looked very, very angry.
"Oh, no, if it isn't the consequences of our actions!" James lamented.
"That may have been a tactical error," Jessie said. "Who knew Tauros could learn Endure?"
Meowth raised his paw, looking Mareepish.
Electricity snapped off Tauros's hooves as he charged, enveloping his entire body just as he crashed into the recharging sea serpent.
Both Pokémon collapsed from the titanic impact, unconscious.
The announcer cleared his throat, drawing attention over to him and away from the devastated arena. "Since Ash Ketchum still has one Pokémon able to battle, the victory goes to him. He'll face the other finalist tomorrow! We don't know who it is yet, but we'll find out this afternoon. And that same battle will also reveal who his opponents will be facing for the third/fourth playoffs."
That afternoon, Umbreon dove through a psywave which flared ineffectually from her coat, and charged the Hypno that had been firing psychic attacks at her.
This went badly for the Psychic-type.
Not the best choice from Gary's opponent, but then he had been down to his last Pokémon. The Psychic-type hadn't been able to hit her with a Miracle Eye, despite his best efforts, and that had more-or-less decided the course of the battle.
"Well, suppose that means I'm fighting Gary," Ash said, as the scoreboard flashed. "We both got a lot further than last time."
"Comes of combining talent with experience," Brock replied seriously. "Both of you did well, last time, for first-timers."
The Pewter man stretched as they got up. "You going to use… them, by the way?"
Ash blinked. "Who?"
"You know. Them."
"No, I clearly don't."
"He doesn't," Pikachu agreed. "I think I do, but he doesn't."
Brock palmed his face. "Oh, for… one of them's in a Premier Ball, the other's the first thing you technically caught this time, and you're clearly dense if you don't work out what I mean."
"Right, gotcha," Ash replied. "And I thought about it, but it'd be rude, and plus…"
He shook his head. "I sort of want to prove to myself that I can do it, before I do it that way."
35
"Well, here we go," Ash said, looking across the field.
"Yeah," Gary replied. "Feels right, somehow. The two of us, two Pallet Town kids at the finals."
Ash shrugged. "We may as well get on with it."
"Right. Nidoqueen!"
"Squirtle!"
Squirtle started off with a simple Water Gun attack, testing his opponent. He couldn't remember fighting her offhand, so he needed some idea of what she was capable of.
Nidoqueen replied by throwing a punch crackling with electricity. Squirtle barely broke off his attack before the stream electrified, escaping a zapping by a narrow margin.
"Not exactly a one trick Pokémon, are you?" he said, grinning. "Bubblebeam!"
"Why do you keep calling out what your attacks are?" Nidoqueen asked, mystified, as she brought up a rock shield to take the impact of the Water attack.
"It focuses my burning spirit into an almighty flame!"
"Oh." She looked disapproving as she slammed an Earth Power at him, which he dodged by taking to the air with a whoosh of water out of all four arm- and leg-holes on his shell. "You're the one who got Blastoise into that ridiculous anime, which admittedly is quite an impressive feat what with how he's apparently never actually seen it."
"How dare you!" Squirtle asked, shocked. "It is the ultimate expression of manliness, the truest signifier of unbound spirits meeting in blazing union to defeat malicious fate and determine what will be!"
"If you didn't see how ironic what you just said was, there's no help for you."
Nidoqueen sighted on the flying Squirtle, and thumped the floor with her tail to bring up a rock. A quick tail sweep sent the rock flying upwards in a Smack Down.
"Wait, that looks-" There was an audible crack, and Squirtle hit the ground hard.
"How did that even work?" Ash asked. "The rock came from below, shouldn't it have knocked him upwards?"
Don't ask me.
Squirtle staggered upright, shook his head to clear it, and cracked his knuckles. "Right, you asked for it!" Water saturated in Aura began to flow from his shell. "I could forgive opposing me in battle, but there is no other punishment appropriate for this insult to Gurren Lagann. This water is my will!"
"Here we go again," Nidoqueen muttered, slamming the ground with her tail repeatedly.
"It flows to reach the lowest point, wearing away boundaries and obstacles that rise in its way! Nothing can stop it on that journey, for it is the essence of movement itself!"
By now cloaked in the water, Squirtle pointed at his foe. "Horn Drill Breaker!"
A horizontal waterfall shot across the arena, cannoning into Nidoqueen in a blaze of red light as she returned to her Pokéball from the impact.
Squirtle skidded to a halt at the end of his track, chest heaving but still standing. "I am not unbowed! I… no, I am unbowed, that's…" he stopped, noticing something.
"Where'd the sandstorm come from?"
A second later, the sirocco winds reached ground level and blew Squirtle over like a feather.
"Suppose he's still only barely able to do that attack without passing out," Ash muttered, returning his Water type and pointing to the materializing Fearow. "Pikachu, you're up."
Pikachu squinted upwards at the circling Fearow, blue aura covering him to protect against the sand. "Shouldn't you have sent out Pidgeot for this? I can barely see him."
"Those two have bad history between them," Ash shrugged. "Only she has the details, but still. Besides, you're an Electric type, aren't you?"
" Yeah, I get your point."
Pikachu gestured, enveloping himself in electricity, and began shooting thunderbolts skywards. The sandstorm drew off some of the power of the bolts, but not enough to render them ineffective.
Fearow abandoned his slow circling to slip-dodge sideways, trading height for speed to keep ahead of the thunderbolts. Turning towards Pikachu, he began to dive at an oblique angle to throw the Electric-type's aim off.
"Aggressive guy, aren't you?" Pikachu said, trying to lead his target to the right degree. "Not that I'm exactly surprised…"
He watched as Fearow began to spin. "Drill Peck? Not bad, but not enough."
Ash frowned. Something seemed off… then he got it, and raised his hands to amplify his voice. "Pikachu! It's not Drill Peck, it's Drill Run! He's using a Ground-type attack!"
Pikachu blurred into Agility and dodged away from the hurtling Flying type, the chance of damage from Fearow running into his lightning shield no longer worth the impact of such a powerful attack. "Sneaky! I didn't know Fearow could learn that move."
"That's the point," Fearow replied, slowing his spin and flaring his wings to send downy feathers everywhere – incidentally also dispelling the Sandstorm. "It's an unusual move."
"I have to say, you're remarkably civil," Pikachu said, trying to pull off the feathers stuck to him thanks to static cling. "Not what I expected from what I've heard about you."
" It's useful to keep the enemy off balance."
"Wait, what did you just-" Pikachu ducked as a long beak nearly speared him. "Gah! Stop it!"
Fearow kept trying to hit, stabbing rapidly in a Fury Attack. Pikachu couldn't use any Electric-type attacks because of all the feathers messing with his charge, and had to resort to repeated Agility dodging.
As it turned out, the point wasn't Drill Run, it was Fearow's beak.
Pikachu thought rapidly, trying out a few plans before discarding them.
Riolu had done something that had helped with this...
His right paw blazed blue, and he slammed it into the ground, then stabbed down a bolt of electricity at the same time. He was just far enough ahead of Fearow to have time for the trick he was about to pull off – and he used Iron Tail, sticking his tail into the hole he'd just made, then flicked sharply to catapult a lump of the arena floor at Fearow.
Fearow provided most of the impact speed.
The Flying-type shook his head, recovering from the dazing impact, and looked around for Pikachu. There was a pile of feathers on the floor, but where-
" Volt Tackle!"
The shout came from above him, and he hit the ground hard as Pikachu slammed into him.
" How-"
"Quicker Attack, Quick Attack and Agility. I blew the feathers off. Cunning trick, by the way." Pikachu clung on as Fearow reflexively tried to gain height, and shocked him again. "You are surprisingly persistent."
Fearow flipped over and slammed himself into the ground back-first in an attempt to scrape Pikachu off. The impact shook the arena and made a crater.
Pikachu's quick defensive flick of an Iron Tail had kept him in the fight, though the impact had still hurt. "What is your problem? That was a Frustration! How psychopathic are you?"
His opponent didn't reply, instead going into a spin to throw the Electric-type off.
" Thunder, dammit ! Thunder! What is it going to take to make you give it up?"
A glance at Fearow's eyes gave the answer. By now they were pinpricks – the Flying type was losing himself and going into a Rage.
"Okay, forget this." Pikachu jumped off Fearow, releasing the most powerful Electroweb he could, and used Magnet Rise to float down from the height they'd reached.
Fearow hit the ground before him, the electric net rendering him unable to fly.
" Referee, I don't know if this counts as knocked out but he's certainly not able to fight… or capable of conscious thought, by the looks of him."
The referee frowned at Pikachu. "I don't understand what you just said, if you're expecting a response. You're a Pokémon."
"Right, right, I sometimes forget that bit where people don't understand me." Pikachu turned back to Fearow and hit him with another Thunderbolt.
Gary pressed a finger into his ear for a moment, then recalled Fearow. "Referee, in my opinion Fearow isn't able to fight properly anymore. I'm conceding his part in the match."
"Okay, it's your choice," the referee replied. "Next Pokémon, then."
Pikachu groaned, as opposite him Gary sent out his Alakazam. "Why do I always get you guys?"
"It's okay, Pikachu!" Ash called. "All that practice dealing with Abras, Kadabras and Alakazams will give you the advantage!"
"I'm sure," Pikachu replied, not sure, then dodged a Psybeam and an errant Psywave. "Any advice?
"Yeah!" Ash told him. "Charge up your Iron Tail and use it as a shield!"
"Got it," Pikachu retorted, doing just that, but instead of using the charged-up tail as a shield he used it to swipe in the direction of Alakazam's Psychic attack.
The combination of the momentum and the electricity sleeting off the tail were too much for Alakazam's Psychic, and the attack fell apart before it reached Pikachu.
"Now, use your Light Ball to let you do attacks at the same time!" Ash said.
Pikachu began firing Thunderbolt or Shock Wave attacks back, and Alakazam raised both his spoons to catch the Electric attacks and nullify them.
There was a lot of charge in Pikachu's powerful attacks, and when Pikachu started running in to get close Alakazam had to divide his psychic powers between trying to force Pikachu away and actually blocking attacks.
That meant he got hit by a Thunderbolt.
"Focus Blast!" Gary called.
Alakazam shrugged, then used a spoon to block Pikachu's attack.
"What do you mean you don't know it?" Gary demanded. "I thought… gah!"
He paced back and forth for a moment, then winced as Pikachu managed to sneak a Shock Wave past Alakazam's defences. "Okay, you know what? Kinesis, lift yourself into the air."
Alakazam did just that, pushing off from the ground and floating skywards, and finally stopped having to use psychic pushes to drive Pikachu away from getting close enough for a Volt Tackle.
Instead the Psychic-type was hovering overhead, throwing off Pikachu's aim with his Thunderbolts, and was firing down Psywave attacks.
"Oh, not again," Pikachu said, then let out a sort of squeak noise as a Psywave compacted the whole arena down an inch.
"Thunder!" Ash called.
Pikachu used Thunder, this time, and Alakazam had to divert all his attention skywards to catch the incoming lightning bolt… at least, until he realized Pikachu was not only below him but jumping upwards in an Agility-boosted Volt Tackle.
The Electric Mouse Pokémon slammed into Alakazam from below, and that was enough distraction that the Thunder also hit home.
Pikachu did two backflips, landed, and behind him Alakazam smacked into the ground covered in electricity.
"Well, Gary?" Ash asked, as Gary recalled Alakazam. "What's next?"
"Arcanine, Flare Blitz!" Gary ordered, holding out the next Pokéball.
"Flare what?" Pikachu asked.
There was an eruption of flame, and he went flying clear out of the arena.
It was an impressive angle, really.
Ash threw Pidgeot's Pokéball after his flying Pokémon without a moment's thought, and turned back to Gary now Pikachu was safe.
"That wasn't exactly fair."
"We're at the finals," Gary shrugged.
"Good point. Kingler!"
The crab Pokémon launched a Surf as soon as he came out of his Pokéball, aiming not at Arcanine but at the arena.
There was an almighty splash as Kingler landed, the water already several inches deep from the sheer scale of the Surf attack. Storm clouds rumbled overhead as Pidgeot hopped back into the stadium to return Pikachu, and water began to fall.
"Nice," Gary said, appraisingly. "Simultaneous Rain Dance and Surf. But Arcanine's ready for it."
"Yeah, about that. What's he doing?" Ash asked, pointing at the Arcanine running in blurred circles on top of the water.
"Extremespeed," Gary replied. "Means he moves fast enough to not sink. Speaking of which… Arcanine, get him!"
Kingler's shell gave a dull thud as Arcanine's claws hit it, then Arcanine scrabbled at the seams before the crab sank underwater. The Fire-type dodged away, turned, passed Kingler's position at great speed to blow some of the water away with the wind shock, and lunged again with his Flamethrower out ahead of him.
A Crabhammer met him coming the other way, hitting home with a stunning crack. Arcanine flopped backwards, dazed, and into the water… which quite quickly solved his problem with being dazed.
The big Fire-type let out a startled yelp as he came back to awareness, shaking himself frantically and doing little besides sending water everywhere.
Kingler's eye twinkled as he lined up a shot, and fired Crabhammer underwater. The supercavitating explosion sent Arcanine twenty feet into the air in a fountain of water, finishing the process of soaking him and more or less putting him out of the fight.
"It's water, is it?" Gary asked, switching his fainted Pokémon out. "Blastoise!"
" Rime crasher!"
Supercooled water shot into the arena, freezing it solid instantly and trapping Kingler in the ice. Blastoise lumbered over and launched a pair of Flash Cannon shots, breaking the ice and knocking Kingler out.
" That's for dampening the flames of my almighty ally, Arcanine!"
Then he looked up, and saw his next opponent. "Wait, this doesn't seem right…"
"Why not?" Butterfree asked, flaring his wings as the rain stopped and gave way to bright sunlight.
" It's not awesome enough! I mean, come on. A Butterfree?"
Ash winced. "That was not the best choice of words."
" Solarbeam."
A laserblast of light a foot thick came down from the sky and hit Blastoise, melting the ice he was standing on. A torrent of water from his cannons shot back up the path, turning it into a sparkling column of side-scatter a hundred feet high before the Bug-type left off his attack to gain height.
The crowd gave an appreciative "Ooh…" at the light show.
Butterfree's wings shimmered as he repeated his Quiver Dance, occasionally dodging bullets of water or streams of energy from below.
" Okay, I want to make one thing clear. Yes, I'm a Butterfree. But that means nothing to how good I am."
The Bug's form shattered into dancing Double Teams, which scattered and recoalesced somewhere else entirely before launching a Razor Wind at Blastoise. The moment it contacted his water stream, an Energy Ball flew in through the gap and exploded.
Four Solarbeams combined at a single point, and lanced down at the recumbent turtle, causing an explosion.
When the smoke cleared, Blastoise was mumbling something about Mugenn and Grapearls.
"I think he's out of it."
"So do I," Gary allowed. "Umbreon, you're up!"
"Hello," Umbreon said, politely. "It's been a while since I've seen such a well coordinated attack. But using four solarbeams at once seems a little like overkill, to me. Surely you could have stuck with finesse? Repeating an attack is hardly a demonstration of skill, just mindless persistence."
Butterfree frowned. "That's hardly fair."
"Well, it's just my opinion. And besides, you were using the effects of your status boosting moves at the time. It's a way of making the playing field unfair, isn't it?"
" I'm not sure I follow. He had as much opportunity as me to use them."
Umbreon smiled, showing her teeth. "Oh, perhaps. But there are downsides to them as well." Shockingly suddenly, she launched a wave of darkness upwards.
Butterfree dodged most of it, but the fringes hit like a freight train. "Argh, what was that?"
"Punishment, for playing so unfairly with your Quiver Dance." She flicked her ears. "Oh, but where are my manners – here. A gift."
Her tail curled around something, invisible in her shadow until now, and threw it up with a sound like a whip-crack. It hit Butterfree on the wingtip, and purple mist puffed out from the impact.
"Like it? It's a Toxic Orb."
"Shouldn't that have, well, poisoned you as well?" Butterfree asked, launching a Bug Buzz downwards as his wing started to burn from the poison.
"I have poison glands in my skin. It's hardly dangerous to me." Umbreon sniffed. "Unlike that attack! It's not fair, attacking a lady like that!"
By now Butterfree was thoroughly confused. "But… battle?"
"Is that any excuse for poor manners?" Tears trickled down her cheeks. "I thought you were elegant from your battle style, but now I have to question that."
"Okay, look!" Butterfree said, shaking his head to clear it. "We're in the middle of a battle!" He shot down in an Aerial Ace, determined to show her that he could win without just repeating the same attack type over and over-
Her jaws snapped shut barely behind his wing, with a loud snarl. "Don't presume!" The force of the shout sent him tumbling, and he recovered just before hitting the ground.
Wait…
Oh, now he got it.
Butterfree ascended back into the sky, one wing stinging badly by now. He wasn't going to last much longer before he was unable to fly…
" You can stop with the psychological warfare now. I get it. You nearly beat me, but I should have remembered sooner. You're a Dark-type."
A fine dusting of his scales started to come off his wings, glowing with an inner light.
She grinned, baring her teeth once more. "Took you quite a long time to work it out. That's what Dark-types do."
" Yeah. By the way, Silver Wind."
The shimmering dust swirled like a tornado, and washed over Umbreon just as the Bug type finally succumbed to the Toxic Orb's poison.
"Double knockout. As Ash Ketchum is the only one with any remaining Pokémon for this battle, he has won the battle and the League!"
Ash's face shone with mingled triumph and embarrassment. Finally. After everything, including the end of the world, he'd come out first in a standard Pokémon League.
At least nobody had shown up with Legendaries this time…
"Congratulations, Ash," Gary said, walking over. "You've trained a hell of a team."
"I could say the same for you," Ash replied. "Nice work, Gary. You gave us a lot of trouble. Especially Umbreon – she's taken to the Dark type philosophy well."
"Yeah. I thought it'd be better for her to have a recourse against Bug or Fighting types, so I focused on misdirection… or did I?"
Ash snorted.
"Ahem," the referee said, impatiently. "While I'm glad to see there are no hard feelings, we do need to give you two your trophies for first and second. And Mr. Ketchum, please report to the League Building tomorrow night for your battle with Lorelei. They're held in seclusion to reduce the pressure."
"Okay, gotcha."
"Now, come on. Mr. Goodshow's waiting."
36
"Now, the first thing you have to understand is that this isn't your only chance," Lorelei said, opposite Ash in an icy underground grotto. "League winners are entitled to keep scheduling challenges until we say they're not, usually if they get too obsessed or they're not showing improvement. This is your first time, of course, and since you're young for a League winner you're likely to be looked on favourably as far as that goes."
She pulled a Pokéball – a Lure Ball, by the looks of it – from her pocket. "Second, you know my typing of Pokémon, and I know your order of battle from the League battles. This isn't a test of type advantage. It's all about raw skill and power. Can you overcome Ice in this most pure form?" She threw the 'ball. "Show me."
Ash pointed forward, sending Pikachu into the battle as Lorelei's Dewgong appeared.
"Stay alert, Pikachu. We don't know what she's capable of."
" Got it."
Pikachu opened with a Thunderbolt, which sizzled through the air towards Dewgong. A moment before it would have hit, it splashed off the air.
Closing his eyes, Ash gasped. "That's ice! Really, really cold ice!"
"Correct," Lorelei said, a note of approval in her voice. "Ice is not conductive of electricity. When it is cold enough, there is none of the water that could allow a current to flow – and so it is immune."
"Ash, the temperature's dropping. I'm getting cold fast," Pikachu said worriedly, rubbing his paws together and shivering.
He wasn't kidding. In fact, it was so cold that hailstones were beginning to fall from the roof.
"Hail," Ash mused. "That gives us a time limit. Pikachu, I think the best way to stay warm is to get physical."
"Gotcha." Pikachu shivered once more, then clasped his paws one into the other and let a blue fire flow over them.
"Aura?" Lorelei said. "Impressive. I'm guessing that is how you detected the ice wall yourself. Rare, to see a human Aura adept."
Pikachu hadn't been idle. He blurred with speed as he charged, punching into the wall of ice with the speed of an Agility and smashing it into shards that pelted the escaping Dewgong.
"You're not getting away that easily," Pikachu said, slamming a fisted paw into the ground and causing an earthquake that made the grotto jump. The vertical movement knocked Dewgong out of his high speed slide and gave Pikachu a chance to close in, slamming a pair of fast Force Palms into his target's side with a wham as Dewgong's blubber absorbed some of the impact.
The Electric-type's feet stood on pads of blue Aura to avoid slipping as he followed Dewgong, not letting up his bombardment. Not only was he tiring with every moment in the hailstom, but he'd spotted that this Dewgong had Ice Body – the very same hail was healing him.
"Come on… what does it take?" Pikachu muttered, his muscles burning with cramp from the cold. It was frigid enough to be a hostile environment, and Lorelei was exploiting that for all she was worth with her style.
Ice grinds forwards, wearing down rock and outlasting heat. The temperature sapped energy from challengers.
Pikachu couldn't remember a battle quite like this, or if other Elite Four members did the same thing, but it was certainly having an impact on him.
Finally, Dewgong seemed to be pushed beyond endurance and passed out. Pikachu wasn't much better, however, countless small injuries from ice shards and the low temperature meaning he was heaving with exhaustion.
"Come on, Pikachu." Ash said, gesturing. "No point you staying out, especially since we can't warm you up in a Pokéball. Get in my jacket. You've done well."
" Thanks."
Pikachu stumbled across the ice, his feet sliding occasionally on a smooth patch, then reached Ash and his trainer hoisted him up into the warmth of his jacket.
"Okay. I've tried electricity, which didn't work… Charizard!"
The Fire-type roared. "Bring it on!"
"Charizard, no restrictions."
"A good decision," Lorelei allowed, throwing her second Pokémon into the mix. "But perhaps not the best… Lapras!"
"I remember my Lapras," Ash said, to himself. "Not long now."
Bolts of fire shot across the grotto, raising the temperature from bone-chilling cold to merely a little cool. Charizard broke off for a moment to plaster the ceiling with fire and cease the Hail effect.
Water pummelled him in the chest as his inattention cost him. "Right, you're getting on my nerves."
Ash had said no restrictions, right?
That was enough for Charizard… and, just as importantly, it was enough for Charizard's subconscious.
He inhaled, letting his fire build, and unleashed a Blast Burn.
The wave of heat that punched out from the impact point – on the floor, rather than Lapras himself – sublimated the ice within fifteen feet of the explosion, punching it straight to boiling in one blast.
Further away it became merely liquid, but the effect was more or less the same. Instantly, the whole chamber went to hot and humid, more like a rainforest than anything.
"Now there's something I haven't seen in a while," Lorelei said. "That's a very powerful move. But there's a disadvantage with it, in this situation. Lapras – Frost Breath!"
The Ice-type exhaled a wash of icy breath, which picked up the moisture in the air and flash-froze it to result in a powder-snow attack mixed with an Icy Wind and mixed again with the move he'd actually used, all rolling forwards in a torrent of freezing air.
When it hit Charizard it caused his wings, damp with the moisture filling the room, to ice up in seconds and made him crash into the ground.
Lapras followed it up with a Hydro Pump and an Ice Beam, freezing Charizard into place.
"Well?" Lorelei asked, turning her attention to Ash.
A second later, the ice exploded in a burst of fire as Charizard unleashed a Flare Blitz, cannoning into Lapras with force enough to finish off the Water-type – and nearly him as well.
Shards of ice shot from the Cloyster that was Lorelei's next Pokémon to hit Charizard as he panted, knocking him out of the fight, and Ash recalled him in favour of Riolu.
Riolu opened with an Aura Sphere, slamming it into the Cloyster's now closed shell and raising sparks.
" Ash, we may have a problem. This shell's even harder than Cloyster shells usually are."
The temperature rapidly fell as Riolu spoke and it began to snow, then hail again.
"Rgh…" Ash muttered. "Okay, back here Riolu. If you can't break the shell then he can just wait you out in the hail. New plan. Dexter!"
I would suggest-
"No, I mean go Dexter!"
Oh, right.
Stand by, ready. Set up.
Dexter's solidified form drifted out into the area of battle. Well, this is most interesting. It seems the cool temperatures will be helpful for me.
His form shattered and reformed as the diamond, which deformed into a six-petaled flower. Lock on. Tri Attack.
The tri-elemental stream of power poured forth, striking Cloyster on a flat plane of the shell. Dexter's attack form gradually rotated clockwise, bringing each of the three aspects of the beam to bear in turn on any given section of the impact area.
Lorelei frowned. "I'm not sure what that's supposed to do, exactly."
The core, visible at the centre of the flower, began to glow with waste heat – but much slower than normal, and the heat increase stopped completely after a minute or so.
"Oh, I see," Pikachu said. "The core's being cooled by the air, so he's not having overheating problems."
"You better, by the way?"
" I'll live. Probably have a sniffle for a few days, though."
"Wait…" Lorelei breathed. "Cloyster, get out of the beam!"
Cloyster tried to comply, but as he started to move his shell gave a crack where the Tri Attack was hitting, and electricity flooded through the gap.
I think that's it for him.
"Nice one! What was that, by the way?" Ash asked.
Thermal expansion and contraction. The repeated fire and ice attacks in succession made the patch of shell grow and shrink, which eventually made it fracture.
"Wow, that's smart," Ash said. "I guess I'll have to try to remember that's an option…"
Thank you. Dexter reformed back to his default shape, and turned around in time to meet a Mamoswine coming towards him at enormous speed. His manifestation shattered, and his projector went an inch into the wall.
Ow. Why is it always blunt physical trauma with me?
"Who knows. Riolu, you ready to give this guy a go?"
" Alright."
Riolu's main problem a minute into the battle, as far as he was concerned, was that Mamoswine was just too big and tough to actually hurt. Slamming a Force Palm capable of breaking rock into a layer of blubber a foot thick just meant the power of the strike was absorbed and lost.
Why, exactly, was it always him who ended up trying out new things in fights?
Then Riolu remembered that they all did, before focusing on what he was actually doing.
He took a moment to focus, and summoned Aura into one palm. Feeding it to make it burn brighter, he began running – no longer attacking, simply evading and moving around Mamoswine.
Doing it like this it was much harder to control, but he had it in paw. Now, there was still one question…
Where should he deliver the uppercut?
There were several options, but- that one seemed to work.
From above, Riolu's path would have been like a spiral picked out by the blue flame in his palm. And as he spiralled in, he slid under Mamoswine's left tusk and smashed a fist into it.
The hot and cold air formed a whirlwind, weaker than usual but still there, and sent Mamoswine flying about five feet and onto his side.
The slam of impact shook the room.
"Phew." Riolu staggered on suddenly wobbly legs, the effort of controlling the reverse form of the temperature spiral having taken its toll. "That was-"
"Look out!" Ash shouted, pointing frantically.
He was too late. Mamoswine hit Riolu with a Superpower and knocked him into the air, and Ash snagged him before he hit the wall with his rarely-used Pokéball.
"Primeape, you've got to take him down!"
"Understood." Primeape focused, standing in an easy fighter's stance and stretching. He bounced on his feet, bent his legs into a crouch, clenched one hand into a fist-
BOOM .
The Master Blow sent Mamoswine into the wall of the grotto almost as fast as he'd knocked Riolu earlier.
I don't think he's going to be much more use, Dexter observed. Not that tired in a cold environment.
"Ergh. That's me down to one."
"I am at the same," Lorelei said calmly. "League members use five Pokémon in their team, to foster skill."
"Oh, okay, so…"
Ash thought through his choices. Not many of them would be much help – he was dry of Pokémon with type advantage.
"Tauros!"
"Jynx," Lorelei replied calmly. "Sheer cold."
Ash's eyes widened. "Fissure!"
He flinched, raising a Protect shield as the side-scatter from the blast of cold arrived, and only opened his eyes once he was sure it was over.
Tauros was lying on the floor, frozen solid. And Lorelei's Jynx was standing, supporting herself with a stalagmite – and a focus sash falling in fragments from her waist.
"...damn," Ash heard himself say.
His mind was freewheeling, two thoughts chasing themselves around his head.
I lost.
I just pushed Lorelei to the wire.
"Well done," Lorelei said, breaking him out of his reverie. "Extremely well done. You've trained your Pokémon well. Last time I was pushed that hard recently was by a Gym Leader, and of course they can call on the resources of their entire gym."
"…thanks," Ash managed. "So… what happens now?"
"Well, you're not going to challenge any of the other Four this time. But you can come back next year and try again – perhaps with a different team?"
Ash smiled at that, a thought coming to him.
He wasn't sure yet, but coming back with a different team was… tempting.
The Legend of the Storm's End, for one.
"But for now…" Lorelei paused. "I suggest you go and continue your journey."
"I think I will," Ash nodded. "Thanks again."
"Well done both of you," Oak said to the two Pallet finalists. "I'd have been impressed if one of you made it to the last sixteen..." he winked, "let alone the two of you in the final! You've certainly made me more popular, let me tell you…"
Ash and Gary shared smirks.
"Now, where are the two of you going? I seem to remember you're off to the Orange Islands, Ash?"
"Yeah," Ash confirmed, with a shrug. "I've got business there, and besides it'd be nice to have a cruise. I've been doing too much walking."
"The opposite, for me," Gary said. "I'm going to do some fieldwork in the Safari Zone. Living rough for a couple of months."
"Actually…" Ash said, thinking. "There's a family doing research on a herd of Kangaskhan, if it's the Kanto safari zone you mean. Weird people, but nice enough. They could probably show you around."
"I'll probably go ahead with that, then," Gary agreed. "May as well meet them to see, anyway."
A letter appeared in a flash in front of Ash, interrupting the conversation. After a moment he picked it up, frowning. "Wonder who this is from."
"Well, go on," Misty said, peering over his shoulder. "Open it."
"Alright, alright, I'll get to it." Ash slit the envelope's tab and pulled out the paper inside. "It's from Jessie and James. 'Congratulations on your first place. We're headed off to Valencia Island in two days, and there's space on the blimp – apparently transporting League placers is good publicity. It's certainly how we got on board.' That's nice of them."
"Jessie and James?" Gary checked. "Weren't they the two Rockets who followed you around? I thought I saw them in the third-fourth playoff. Were they the ones with the Cubone?"
"Yes, that's them. They've improved a lot recently…" Ash shrugged. "But they weren't terrible before, either. Either as people or Pokémon battlers."
"Ah, Valencia," Brock said, in the background. "Maybe this time things will work out better with Philena."
"We never did get a straight answer from you about what happened there," Misty muttered, as Ash's mother got his attention and took him over to the side.
"And I'm not about to give one," Brock replied. "That's between me and any therapists we can find who are qualified to talk about time travel."
"Hey, look!" Ash said, calling his friends over. As they turned, he held up a small lapel pin.
"That's nice. What…" Misty tailed off, looking closer. "It's a flower."
"Yep!" Ash said. "Mom got it for me. It's an indigo flower. She says it's for winning the Indigo League."
"And you'd better be able to add an orange to it!" Delia Ketchum said with a smile. "Seriously, Ash, well done. You're making me regret my decision to let you keep going a little less. I'm proud of you, never forget that."
"Thanks, mom," Ash said, hugging her. "That means a lot to me."
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