Story Notes:
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon
Round 4
Vecransyh anxiously looks around tapping his foot, the stadium all around him falling silent as they wait for his challenger to arrive... ten minutes late. One of the judges walks over to Vecransyh and taps him on the shoulder making the Prince blink and turn towards the man, "The waiting period has expired and you may now claim victory." Vecransyh simply shakes his head, his foot ceasing to tap as he looks over at the other entrance opposite himself,
"Give them five more minutes." The judge nods and walks away from him back over to the sidelines. Around four minutes later a girl with long blonde hair runs out onto the field stopping herself from tripping as she gets herself to her square almost out of breath waving to Vecransyh as she's leaned over with on hand on her knee. Vecransyh blinks looking at his challenger. The girl wears a black beanie and has pokeball headphones around her neck. Her shirt is short-sleeved and she has a long-sleeve black shirt underneath. Her pants are long, blue jeans and her shoes are a dark grey color with black bottoms. A moment after she catches her breath she leans up and Vecransyh can see her blue eyes as she smiles at him,
"Sorry I'm late! Wore my headphones to bed again and my alarm clock didn't wake me up!" Across her torso from shoulder to waist is a strap that has two pokeballs on it that is connected to her backpack and a belt that has a single pokeball connected to it. She holds up a pokeball in her red fingerless gloves as she looks at him sadly, "Am I... disqualified?" Vecransyh laughs lightly and shakes his head,
"I got you five more minutes. It's not fair to beat someone by disqualification." Her face glows as she smiles happily to him letting out a happy 'Yay!' The announcer's voice is the next one to grace the stadium,
"THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF VECRANSYH THIS MATCH WILL BEGIN AS PLANNED! SORRY FOR THE WAIT EVERYONE AND WELCOME TO THE START OF THE FOURTH ROUND OF THE TOURNAMENT!!! OUR FIRST MATCH IS BETWEEN VECRANSYH AND AJ NOW BOTH CHALLENGERS BEGIN!!!"
AJ spins her wrist making her first pokeball fly out towards the middle of the field. The pokeball is black with a red circle on the top and a yellow stripe along the button area around the entire ball; a luxury ball to be more precise. From the ball rises a Luxray that roars and flickers with electricity sparking all over his body, "Alright Leon let's do this!!" Vecransyh grins and tosses his own pokeball letting it open in a flash of light revealing Rotom who flies around excitedly before Vecransyh whistles and Rotom turns to face him,
"Battle time. Make daddy proud." Rotom grins and turns around and rushes forward as the battle begins letting out a loud cry that pieces the air as he stops and dances around wildly. Leon finches and closes his eyes before he throws his head up and roars suddenly forming clouds and moments afterwards rain begins falling all around the field. Rotom grins as he looks around and cries out again making Leon cringe as he begins charging electricity into his body. Leon begins pulsing with electricity and suddenly leaps out of the way of hundreds of raining Thunderbolts before he gets hit by one and the momentary pause lets them begin tracking his movements. The Electric type Pokemon closes his eyes taking in all of the hits before he suddenly roars upwards towards the rain clouds sending down an immense Thunder attack that engulfs the tiny Pokemon.
Leon smirks to himself looking over at his opponent before his eyes go wide and the Luxray digs his claws into the ground as a dark purple wind rushes over him filling senses with fear and small shards cutting at his body. He breathes rather weakly as the wind subsides and opens his eyes only to be hit by a shadow ball and hit the ground hard. AJ smirks as she returns Leon to his Luxury ball and she takes another, this time from her belt. This ball has a ocean blue top and what appears to be a fishnet covering the top half; A Lure ball,
"Dang you're pretty good kid!" Throwing her second pokeball produces a Floatzel who goes straight into a battle pose facing the electric ghost with no fear in her eyes but only determination, "Lily's a handful so don't think you've won just because of a type advantage!"
"Trust me I've had experience with Floatzels." Vecransyh looks up towards Drake, who's chuckling,
"I wonder if there's a Luxray and Floatzel with the same letter starting their nicknames for the entire alphabet?" Latias rolls her eyes and leans against him,
"Maybe."
Rotom begins unleashing massive amounts of thunderbolts as Lily's teeth become coated with darkness and she sprints forward spinning and dashing around the raining bolts before she throws her arm forward and slams it down effectively pinning Rotom to the floor and unleashing the fangs of darkness that clamp down on Rotom pulsing the energy through his body knocking him out on the spot. Lily leaps back to her place on the field and smirks, her teeth still coated in the darkness. Vecransyh coolly returns Rotom to his custom ball and draws his second, "Nice hit Lily. Of course you might have a harder time with this guy." The pokeball opens in a flash of light and Gengar cracks his neck grinning up at the rain clouds.
Lily, taking the momentary diversion rushes forward only to suddenly feel a fist in her stomach followed by an agonizingly painful blast of Thunder from the sky. Lily hits the ground hard and leaps back up upper-cutting Gengar and throwing her arms up becoming coated in water and lunging slamming hard into Gengar's stomach. Gengar recoils from the attack and glares at her grapping her by her neck and when Lily's eyes meet Gengar's her eyes slowly become heavy and she falls asleep dropping to the ground. Gengar pulses and Lily begins trembling and flailing about from the plaguing nightmare. Slowly, Gengar leans down to her, "Sssshhh..." He put a finger to her lips as she stops moving. AJ shudders as she takes the Lure ball from her belt and returns Lily to it,
"Okay that Knockout was just scary." Gengar cackles darkly and AJ takes her third pokeball from her strap,
"Oh you think that's funny?" Gengar nods and flexes his fingers. AJ throws her third pokeball, a great ball, and it opens revealing a Gallade, whose arm blades unsheathe themselves with a 'Shing!'
"Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?" The Gallade closes his eyes and chuckles,
"Right here." Romeo rushes forward avoiding a Thunder attack from the dispersing rain clouds and slams one of his blades into Gengar knocking him to the ground with a thud. He throws his fist downwards but suddenly Gengar slides through his legs and lunges only to be punched in the face by a second Psycho cut attack and is sent flying across the field rolling a few times before coming to a halt. Gengar leaps to his feat and the two Pokemon rush at each other, Gengar forming black claws and Romeo's blades becoming shrouded in darkness. Closer and closer till blade meets claw and both Pokemon begin deflecting the other's blows until Romeo is blasted by a Hyper Beam and hits the ground hard, his body smoking from the intensity of the blast.
He struggles to his feet slowly and throws his arm to the side hitting Gengar with a final Psycho cut to knock him out. Vecransyh returns Gengar to his ball and reaches for his third but sees Romeo looking at him shaking his head. Vecransyh lowers his hand to his side and Romeo turns to him dropping to one knee and bowing as he turns into a red silhouette. AJ folds her arms after putting the ball back into place and smiles,
"I love how he does that. Doing the whole bow thing to his opponent when he's beaten. Don't know where he learned that from." Vecransyh nods to her and smiles,
"That was a great battle AJ."
"You too Vecransyh. I hope we can meet again some day." Vecransyh and AJ look at all of the people in the stands as the applause echoes over them and nod to each other before leaving through their respective exits,
"THE FIRST MATCH HAS COME TO A CLOSE AND THE VICTOR IS VECRANSYH WHO WILL BE MOVING ON TO ROUND FIVE!!! OUR NEXT BATTLERS WILL BE ENTERING THE BATTLEFIELD IN TWENTY MINUTES SO WE WILL HAVE A SHORT BREAK AND RETURN AT THAT TIME!!"
The crowd roars in applause as Kazamaru walks across the arena floor looking across to see his opponent. When he reaches his trainer's square he smiles to see a familiar blue-haired girl, "Lookin' good Dawn." The girl adjusts the beanie on her head and smiles drawing a pokeball from her belt and enlarging it,
"Flattery won't make me go easy on you Kaza. How've you guys been since I saw you last? It's been a long time." Kaza nods and takes a pokeball from his own belt,
"Everything's Hunky-Dory. How've the contests been?"
"Still working on getting all the master ranks but I'm almost there." The announcer's voice booms over the stadium causing the applauding crowd to quiet a bit,
"WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN TO THE SECOND MATCH OF THE FOURTH ROUND!! THIS MATCH IS BETWEEN DAWN ROWAN AND KAZAMARU!!! WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!!" Kazamaru and Dawn throw their pokeballs and in two flashes of light Kazamaru's Aggron stands across from Dawn's Empoleon.
Kazamaru's eyes go wide as Empoleon begins to glow and inhales deeply before unleashing a Hydro Cannon attack that barrels towards Aggron. The Triceratops looks back at Kaza and smirks taking the full blast of the attack. Aggron is blasted over backwards and lands on the ground lying still for a moment before his eyes snap open and Metal Bursts form in his claws. Leaping from the ground the massive Pokemon dashes towards Empoleon fully taking advantage of his momentarily low energy. Empoleon throws up his shielded arms to try and make the blow cause less damage but it does no good and Empoleon is blasted into the wall behind Dawn with one mighty punch. Empoleon hits the ground hard lying unconscious before Dawn returns him to his pokeball, "Dang... looks like you got me with that one." Dawn looks back towards Kazamaru but instead sees Aggron grinning and punching his own fists together as he roars.
Dawn throws her second pokeball releasing her Mamoswine to the field and the Mammoth roars stomping the ground hard creating a massive earthquake that throws Aggron off balance. He then begins running forward and lunges expecting to throw his entire weight into Aggron but his eyes widen in shock as the massive, armored, triceratops grabs his tusks and pushes stopping his movement immediately. Mamoswine stares for a moment before Aggron opens his mouth with a large Metal Burst forming like a giant lazer in his mouth. Mamoswine roars unleashing Blizzard on his captor but the Metal Burst absorbs the attack and a moment later Mamoswine disappears into a Metal Burst that resembles a silver version of Hyper Beam. After Mamoswine is recalled Aggron wipes the drool from his mouth and glares at Dawn who draws her third pokeball from her belt, "There's no way you're going to beat me that easily!!"
In a bright flash of light Dawn's Lopunny appears from her pokeball and goes into a battle pose. Aggron smirks and lunges forward swiping at the bunny Pokemon with his massive claw. To his surprise she leaps into the air and comes back down with a punch directly into his skull plate. She touches back down to the ground and steps out of the way as Aggron falls over forward and turns into a red silhouette disappearing into his ball.
Kazamaru smiles and switches out Aggron's ball for his second enlarging it in his hand before throwing it out onto the field and releasing his Tyranitar in a burst of light, "Okay buddy. Let's try something new before I let ya loose." Tyranitar leans in close to hear Kaza's words and leans back up before nodding and heading out onto the field. Lopunny prepares for another attack but pauses as she looks at him and becomes slightly entranced by his... broad shoulders and... muscular form... Before long she begins to drool and if it were possible her eyes would turn to cartoon hearts. Tyranitar chuckles to himself as he walks up to Lopunny raising a fist and the behemoth brings it down on her head leaving it there for a moment before she sways a bit and falls over.
Dawn blinks in utter disbelief at one of her best Pokemon being brought down by nothing more then attract and she returns Lopunny to her ball putting it back on her belt a moment later, "Well that sucked." Kazamaru laughs as he recalls Tyranitar to his ball and places it back on his own belt,
"Ya win some ya lose some." The announcer's voice fills the stadium again and a few minutes later the field is prepared for the next match.
Stratos walks onto the field and looks across at Neo, Luna and Asia walking toward him. The two trainers lock eyes as they both arrive at their trainer squares. Neo's gaze drifts to Stratos' belt and he looks back up at Stratos with a confused expression,
"No Pokeballs?" Stratos grins as he looks across the field at the three opposing him,
"Well, the Pokemon I have fighting with me don't have pokeballs." Luna simply smiles as she claps her paws together a few times,
"You chose well Stratos. I'm really proud of you kid." Neo blinks as he looks over to her,
"Who'd he choose besides Latias...?" Luna simply points at Stratos and Neo's gaze returns to the Lucario in time to see two bursts of psychic energy on either side of him and once they've dispersed three more Pokemon have appeared. Latias floats to Stratos' left while Latios is on his right with Shaymin on his head. Stratos looks up at Latios and Shaymin with a smile as something clicks in his mind,
"Glad you could make it uncle Latios." Latios nods with a soft smile on his face,
"Well, it's been a while since I've had a good battle and when Latias told me it was against Neo I couldn't say no." Neo's and Latios' eyes meet and the two of them grin, "I've been itching to have a battle against him ever since he brought me back to life." The announcer's voice booms through the stadium as always naming the battle number as well as the round along with naming both trainers in the battle itself. Neo folds his arms as soon as the announcer's voice fades out signaling the start of the battle,
"So how should we do this?" Stratos looks back and forth between Latias and Latios noticing that Shaymin is gone,
"Where's Shaymin?" Latios looks down at Stratos,
"I sent her back to the garden. Latias requested that I bring her only for a little while." Stratos nods and looks back to Neo,
"Well Neo it seems like everything is pretty set in stone as far as the battle goes. Latios seems pretty adamant on fighting you and there's no way I'm not going to be fighting Luna in this match." Neo nods twice,
"I see, I see... so do you want to make this a two out of three so everyone gets to battle?" Stratos looks to Latios and Latias at his sides,
"What do you think Mom? Uncle Latios?" Neither of the Eon Pokemon objects and Stratos nods as Latias floats out onto the field to meet Asia who trots out onto the field with a big smile on her face. The Eon Pokemon and the Lucario go into battle poses and neither of them moves as if waiting for the other to attack or even make the tiniest of flinches. Suddenly in a burst of speed both Latias and Asia run/float forward and their hands clash together to test the other's strength. The two stay in a deadlock pushing against one another for a number of moments before Latias opens her mouth forming a huge ball of purple energy in her mouth and she fires blasting Asia away. The Lucario skids a few feet before she plants her feet and jumps up becoming engulfed in a purplish black aura as a spike of the same color rises from her chest. Latias slams the ground making an earthquake and Asia loses her balance teetering for only a moment but a moment to long as Latias rushes forward slamming her full weight into Asia but the Lucario blasts her away with a Dragon Pulse before she throws an aura sphere of the same ghostly color. Latias takes the hit thinking about the horrible type disadvantage of a fighting type attack but instead takes a super effective hit from the now ghost type attack. Latias shakes off the hit and her eyes narrow at the Lucario who returns the glare and the two run at each other Latias with a powerful mix of who knows how many attacks and Asia with what appears to be what can only be described as a giant ball of ghost matter in between her paws. The two suddenly spring forward and collide sending a shockwave in all directions along with a powerful explosion of intense, raw power. The smoke leaves the crowd, Neo and Stratos in suspense but when the cloud finally does begin to clear Latias is breathing heavily floating in front of an unconscious Lucario sprawled out on the ground. Latias scoops her up into her arms and floats over to Neo to drop her off and she smiles at the Umbreon boy,
"I'm glad you're on our side." Neo smiles lightly as he sits Asia up next to him and Luna begins healing her,
"That battle ended pretty fast though. You were both putting a lot of power into your attacks that's for sure." Latias smiles as she begins to float away,
"Yeah, that hit at the end hurt a lot but it wasn't as strong as it looked... could just be me though." Latias floats back over to Stratos and Latias and Latios tag out and the blue Eon Pokemon floats onto the field. On the other side Neo cracks his neck walking out onto the field in his black cloak,
"Been a while Latios." Neo reaches the middle of the field and Latios simply smiles at him,
"Yeah. How about you show me how much stronger you've gotten since I kicked your sorry butt up and down the garden for all that time all those years ago?" Neo jumps back and strikes a battle pose as he smirks,
"I'm a lot stronger then I was back then but it's really thanks to you that I'm this strong anyway." Latios nods,
"Yeah, I can see that you've matured quite a bit. So then... LET'S GO!!!" Neo is surprised by a sudden Dragon Pulse and he dodges throwing out his arms sending a dark pulse at Latios who cringes in response to the attack before he rushes forward while he begins to glow a blinding white. Neo closes his eyes from the sheer blinding force and his ears perk up sensing the fast movements but the swiftness of Latios combined with his not touching the ground make him almost untraceable and Neo feels himself attacked from all angles smashed back and forth making his body look like a pinball stuck in the bumpers before he finally gets punched forward and he lands on one hand looking back at Latios upside down before he vaults back to his feet,
"You're not pulling any punches!!" Latios smirks and Neo dodges out of the way of a thunder attack,
"Of course not Neo! I can only hope to beat you if I try my hardest!" Neo nods and runs forward dodging Latios' sharp claws as he slashes wildly and Neo uppercuts Latios before hitting him with a dark pulse sending the dragon away from him. Latios flies forward in a burst of speed but stops as he nears Neo and he spins powerfully as his wing glows silver and he slams into Neo who's guarding his face and he skids backwards about a foot before he throws his arms outward and charges forward. He leaps into the air spinning and he disappears into a black fog in midair and Latios closes his eyes before throwing his claw out and catching Neo's fist before spinning him around and he slams Neo into the ground cracking the field under him then Latios throws his own weight down onto the Umbreon crushing him into the dirt before Latios leaps back unleashing a Dragon pulse into Neo on the ground.
After a few moments Neo bursts from the ground with a huge ball of darkness in his hand and Latios charges a dragon claw. The Umbreon and Latios rush forward and their attacks slam together but Neo rolls his attack around Latios' claw slamming the Payback into his chest blasting him away with all of the built up energy. Latios skids across the field and Stratos jumps over him and turns to face the unconscious dragon and he looks at Latias,
"It's one for one now. My turn. You tend to Latios." Back on the field Neo lets out a long breath as he stretches his back walking back over to his trainer square. He looks over to Luna with a smile,
"Man that was rough... you're up Luna. Don't beat him too bad, okay?" Luna nods with a slightly devious smile,
"Oh come on Neo you don't know me at all!" Neo rolls his eyes,
"Uh-huh... I've been looking forward to this battle for a while so make it a good one without just taking him out immediately." Luna smirks,
"I'll give the crowd a good show." Stratos takes off his hat and belt and walks onto the field till he reaches the center just as Luna does and the two simply look at each other,
"Hard to believe we're really going to be fighting each other. Seems kinda weird to me."
"Yeah it does but you've got to remember that no matter how close you get to someone there's always a chance that you can become enemies. Think of this as a test just in case it happens to you for real." She goes into a battle pose, "I'm not pulling any punches Stratos so if you want to win you're going to have to do the same. Just think of it as sparring till one of us falls unconscious." Stratos takes a few steps back and goes into his pose as his eyes are locked on her,
"Alright then... I'll do my best to beat you." Luna shakes her head,
"You're not in the right state of mind Stratos; Try again." Stratos looks down before his expression turns angry,
"I will defeat you Luna!!" Luna giggles,
"Much better, but can you keep that word?"
"I'll win our bet too." Luna blushes lightly but dodges bending over backwards propping herself up on one arm and she looks up fairly unaware of anything other then she just dodged an attack. Above her is Stratos with his paw forward and Luna smiles before she slams her foot into his stomach kicking the Lucario into the air. Stratos gags but recovers quickly and throws an Aura Sphere into Luna who catches it and she throws the orb into Stratos sending him flying back onto his back skidding a few feet and before he can react Luna is standing above him with a Dark Pulse charged in her paw,
"You're going to have to do better then this Stratos..." Stratos simply smiles,
"You're the one who fell right into a trap." Luna goes wide-eyed and her gaze rests upon Stratos' paw to see it glowing red and he throws the attack up at her engulfing the shiny Umbreon in the Sacred Fire attack. Stratos stands and looks several feet in front of himself to see the smoking form of Luna smiling darkly as she looks up at him,
"Now that's what I'm talking about!!!" Luna runs forward in a sudden burst of speed and goes low sweeping her leg at Stratos' feet but he jumps into the air inhaling some of the dust from the field she kicks up before he throws an Aura Sphere down and Luna gets blasted in the shoulder letting out a cry of pain and she rubs her shoulder as she punches Stratos away from her, "Why does that hurt so much?!" Stratos answers by leaping forward with a roar unleashing an Aeroblast from his mouth and Luna bats the attack away before she unleashes her Dark Pulse at him but the edge of the Aeroblast clips her damaged shoulder causing her to wince. Stratos punches the ground making the field start to crack and splashes of lava begin forming as the cracks spread across the arena. Luna runs forward throwing spheres of dark energy at Stratos who dodges most getting hit by a few and he slams his paws into the ground making lava burst from all around them and he crosses his arms making the lava coil around her.
Luna is lost from view, her smile being the last thing to be seen. Stratos holds out his paw and coils in his fingers making the tornado of lava become thinner and Stratos looks up to see a figure jump from the top of the tornado and Luna lunges flying down towards Stratos who begins charging a giant Aura Sphere. Luna forms dark energy in her paws as she picks up speed and as the two close in on each other Stratos moves his paws forward as Luna moves her paws forward and the two attacks collide making a huge explosion covering the field in a thick black fog but it suddenly begins to swirl and moves up revealing Luna standing across from Stratos but Stratos has his paw in the air and all of the smoke is swirling and disappearing into Stratos' fur and the two look at each other breathing heavily before they both run forward trading strikes that make flashes of light and small pulses of energy from the force of the blows,
"You gonna lose yet?" Luna hits him with a few rapid blows,
"Not likely kid! I'm just a little winded that's all!" Stratos suddenly glows brightly and explodes out in all directions in a powerful pulse of green energy. Luna flies backwards but springs back on her hand and lands back on her feet looking bewildered as she looks at Stratos, (What the hell is wrong with me?! I feel... weak! Like my energy was sapped and it won't come back like it usually does! I'm... running low and these hits aren't doing me any favors.) Stratos' eyes glow silver as he places Doom Desire on Luna and he runs forward with his paws coated in aura and Luna dodges his attacks left and right along with the occasional kick. She dodges for nearly a minute before she finally sees an opening and kicks Stratos in his chest sending the Lucario flying backwards but Luna's eyes go wide when he turns in the air and long claws for from his paw and he cuts a dimensional rift disappearing into it before it closes. Luna's eyes zip back and forth as she tries to locate Stratos' exit point and she suddenly sees the ground tear open and Stratos jumps from it throwing two Aura Spheres that are infused with the Spatial Rend attack,
"I wanted to fight as fairly as I could Stratos but it looks like I can't beat you like this!" Stratos smirks as he lands on the ground with his paws still burning with aura but his smirk fades when Luna shines brightly and changes into an Aggron. Stratos takes a step back as the two Spatial Rends impact Luna and simply dissipate against her now steel body but she winces from the Aura Sphere side of the attack and she forms Metal Bursts in both her clawed hands as she charges Stratos and the Lucario stands his ground narrowing his eyes,
(Sure she's stronger in that form but she's much bigger so dodging is nearly impossible for her now.) Suddenly Luna groans as a pulse of silver electricity bursts from her body and Stratos grins seeing his opportunity and he runs forward charging an Aura Sphere mixed with a Sacred Fire in one hand and a Superpower in the other. Luna looks up weakly before her eyes widen and she watches the two attacks slam into her torso. Luna gags and spits out a small amount of blood and she stands for a moment before she starts to fall backwards slowly glowing as she changes back to her Umbreon form. Everything seems to slow down and Neo simply stares in shock as Luna falls out of consciousness and Stratos catches her in his arms before he picks her up sideways and carries her over to Neo. The Umbreon takes his daughter from the Lucario and the two smile lightly and nod not wanting to say anything. The announcer's voice booms over the stadium,
"NOW THIS IS A SHOCK LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! HAVING AGREED TO A BEST OUT OF THREE BATTLE OUR VERY OWN NEO EON HAS LOST TO STRATOS THE LUCARIO!!!! THAT WAS TRULY AN OUTSTANDING MATCH AND I BELIEVE IT'S SAFE TO SAY THAT ANYONE GOING UP AGAINST STRATOS WILL HAVE THEIR HANDS FULL!! THE NEXT MATCH IS SCHEDULED TO START IN JUST UNDER FIFTEEN MINUTES SO DON'T GO TOO FAR AND BE SURE TO BE BACK TO WATCH ANOTHER GRAND BATTLE!!!!!"
Mathieu sits on his side of the field with his arms folded and his eyes closed. He sits cross-legged as if meditating as he waits for his challenger to arrive.
Meanwhile Kazamaru is running down the street towards the stadium having left after the last match to get a bite to eat, "Can't be late... can't be late... can't be late!!" He bursts in through the doors and towards the archway to the field. He reaches his destination and heaves heavy breathes as he leans against the wall. Onym blinks as he looks at the winded boy and is holding a pokeball in his hand as Molly stands beside him,
"Uh... what's up Kaza?" Kazamaru catches his breath and looks up holding up a red sash to the boy,
"I... forgot... to... give this... to you... earlier..." Onym blinks as he takes the sashes and notices that there are three,
"What are these for...?" Kazamaru regains himself and leans up,
"These are focus sashes. You need to put one of them on each of your Pokemon but don't worry, they'll become invisible as long as their effect hasn't been used once in the battle. They prevent your Pokemon from being knocked out immediately and I think without them Mathieu would wipe you out in an instant even with your strategy." Onym nods knowing full well what kind of power Mathieu wields. He'd taken down Ash Ketchum like he was nothing and he could use all the help he could get if he hoped to defeat him now,
"Thanks Kaza." Kazamaru grins and nods,
"No problem Terra. Just take a sec and put the sashes on them now." He then waved as he walked in the direction of the stands. Onym releases Jellyfish and Supersonic and places the sashes on them. Molly giggles when he puts it on her and watches as it shimmers and disappears,
"Let's do this!" Onym nods and returns Supersonic and Jellyfish before walking through the archway into the blinding sunlight.
The crowd roars in applause as the boy walks towards his square with the female Umbreon trotting right beside him and Mathieu opens his eyes when he sees him. Mathieu's palm plants on the ground as he lifts himself not taking his eyes off of the boy the entire time,
"You are the one who will next feel the mighty blows of my Pokemon." Molly rolls her eyes as she looks at the buff teenager,
"More comforting words have yet to be spoken..." The announcer's voice booms over the stadium soon after that,
"WELCOME ALL TO THE FINAL MATCH OF THE FOURTH ROUND OF THE POKEMON LEAGUE TOURNAMENT!!! ON THE BLUE SIDE IS ONYM TERRA AND ON THE RED SIDE IS MATHIEU, THE TRAINER WHO KNOCKED ASH KETCHUM OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT WITHOUT LOSING A SINGLE POKEMON!!!" Onym looks up at the announcer's booth and yells,
"YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT MAKING ME FEEL ANY BETTER ABOUT THIS!!!!!"
"YES... UMM... MY APOLOGIES... WELL... ANYWAY!!! WITHOUT FURTHER ADO LET THE FINAL BATTLE OF THE FOURTH ROUND COMMENCE!!!" Mathieu cracks a smile as he holds out all three of his pokeballs,
"Choose; one, two, or three." Onym scans the pokeballs as if looking for some way to detect what's inside them but finally sighs and points to the center one,
"Two." Mathieu moves his hands to the sides and the middle pokeball falls opening and releasing Javert the Raichu to the field,
"Excellent choice." Javert sparks with electricity as he stands opposing Onym who tosses his own pokeball releasing Jellyfish the Wobbufet to the field,
"Not like a gamble helps me anyway."
"Actually it could have. You know, type advantage and whatnot." Onym simply blinks as he listens,
"You're a very strange guy." Mathieu simply shrugs,
"I try."
The battle begins and Javert dashes forward coating himself in electricity and Mathieu chuckles and makes the 'slitting his throat' gesture with his fingers. The attack impacts Jellyfish and Javert leaps back standing fully as he smirks. Jellyfish stands still for a moment before he glows lightly and the Focus Sash appears around him. Mathieu's eyes go wide as he sees the item, "FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU--" Jellyfish glows brightly and explodes in a huge pulse of energy. Javert covers his face to shield himself from the blast but it's no good as he feels the same hit he just dealt be doubled in power against his own body. Javert flies through the air for a few seconds before slamming into the ground in front of Mathieu unconscious.
Mathieu remains silent as he takes out a pokeball and returns Javert to it. He pauses before finally speaking as he takes out his second, "Well... that kinda sucked." He tosses his second pokeball releasing a giant Snorlax to the field, "This is Hercules. Hercules, Onym. Onym, Hercules. Now that we have introductions out of the way... Hercules, go beat that Wobbuffet." The giant Snorlax begins pounding on his own stomach like a drum and Onym returns Jellyfish to his pokeball and sends out Supersonic,
"Nice try, go! Perish Song!" Supersonic claps his hands as he begins to sing the eerie melody of the attack but Mathieu looks unfazed as Hercules disappears into a substitute. Onym clenches his teeth and he returns Supersonic to his pokeball as the substitute begins to glow with brown energy and Jellyfish reappears. The substitute disappears revealing, once again, Hercules. Onym closes his eyes as the giant bear runs over slamming his Focus Punch into Jellyfish. A blast of wind rushes by both Onym and Molly and Onym returns him to his ball. Onym closes his eyes to think about how to defeat this strategy. He remembers seeing Kazamaru use it during a training battle and asked him if it had any weaknesses.
'After using both Belly Drum and Substitute he's pretty low on health but restoring it is easy with Rest... of course that's quite a while to leave your substitute open. We usually just Focus Punch and don't even really need to heal. The main weakness though is the substitute itself.'
"The Substitute itself... He's got 2 more counts of Perish song left so if I can hold out till then I'll have him..." Molly looks up at him,
"Onym? What's the plan?"
"You're out next. We need to stall for Perish song." Molly nods and grins running out onto the field. The substitute reappears and begins glowing again as Focus Punch is charged. Molly looks up at the sky and smiles as the Substitute vanishes in a puff of smoke. Hercules runs forward and throws his punch but instead of Molly he hits a powerful shield of energy around her. Hercules growls and jumps back retreating to his Substitute. Mathieu throws his arm forward and grins,
"No retreat!!! Full power forward!!!!" Molly shuts her eyes tight after she tries to make another protect but it shatters under the weight of the fist and the force explodes into her body making her fly across the field and skid for a bit landing near Onym. He leans down to her with a worried expression,
"Are you okay...?" Molly smiles as the sash appears on her body,
"Yep." Mathieu rolls his eyes and folds his arms as he watches Hercules fall victim to Perish Song,
"More focus sashes? Be more original bro." Mathieu returns his Snorlax to his ball and takes out his third, "Well, you gave it a good try and if you were any more powerful you might have won." He tosses his final pokeball releasing an Alakazam to the field, "This is Matsui." In a single flash Molly is struck my Dark Pulse and falls unconscious at Onym's feet, "When he comes out it means play time..." A dark smile appears on his face, "Is over." Onym picks Molly up into his arms and returns her to her pokeball. He takes out his final and tosses it releasing Supersonic, once again, to the field,
"There's nothing I can do... even with the Focus Sash I can only get one attack off..." Supersonic and Matsui rush at each other and the frog dodges blast after blast of Psychic and Dark energy. Onym is watching in utter amazement at the incredible agility the frog is putting out. Mathieu narrows his eyes watching as the Politoad continuously strikes Matsui without getting hit himself until finally Matsui lands a Psychic blast, point blank, right in Supersonic's face blasting him across the field. He lays there for a moment as his sash appears but before he can do more then open his eyes Matsui is standing over him with a Dark Pulse in his spoons and in that final instant Politoad lost consciousness when the attack landed. Mathieu returns Matsui and nods,
"You still have a long way to go. You rely to much on luck in your battles and that is why you lost. Your strategy is good but it's not perfect." He then walks out of the stadium saying nothing more. Onym returns Supersonic to his ball and falls to his knees hanging his head,
"I got so close..." The announcer's voice booms over the applauding crowd,
"AND SO ENDS THE FINAL MATCH OF THE FOURTH ROUND!!!! THE WINNER, MATHIEU, WILL BE ADVANCING TO ROUND FIVE!! UNTIL TOMORROW, I BID YOU ALL, ADO!"Chapter End Notes:next chapter is being written already so it shouldn't take a whil
"Give them five more minutes." The judge nods and walks away from him back over to the sidelines. Around four minutes later a girl with long blonde hair runs out onto the field stopping herself from tripping as she gets herself to her square almost out of breath waving to Vecransyh as she's leaned over with on hand on her knee. Vecransyh blinks looking at his challenger. The girl wears a black beanie and has pokeball headphones around her neck. Her shirt is short-sleeved and she has a long-sleeve black shirt underneath. Her pants are long, blue jeans and her shoes are a dark grey color with black bottoms. A moment after she catches her breath she leans up and Vecransyh can see her blue eyes as she smiles at him,
"Sorry I'm late! Wore my headphones to bed again and my alarm clock didn't wake me up!" Across her torso from shoulder to waist is a strap that has two pokeballs on it that is connected to her backpack and a belt that has a single pokeball connected to it. She holds up a pokeball in her red fingerless gloves as she looks at him sadly, "Am I... disqualified?" Vecransyh laughs lightly and shakes his head,
"I got you five more minutes. It's not fair to beat someone by disqualification." Her face glows as she smiles happily to him letting out a happy 'Yay!' The announcer's voice is the next one to grace the stadium,
"THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF VECRANSYH THIS MATCH WILL BEGIN AS PLANNED! SORRY FOR THE WAIT EVERYONE AND WELCOME TO THE START OF THE FOURTH ROUND OF THE TOURNAMENT!!! OUR FIRST MATCH IS BETWEEN VECRANSYH AND AJ NOW BOTH CHALLENGERS BEGIN!!!"
AJ spins her wrist making her first pokeball fly out towards the middle of the field. The pokeball is black with a red circle on the top and a yellow stripe along the button area around the entire ball; a luxury ball to be more precise. From the ball rises a Luxray that roars and flickers with electricity sparking all over his body, "Alright Leon let's do this!!" Vecransyh grins and tosses his own pokeball letting it open in a flash of light revealing Rotom who flies around excitedly before Vecransyh whistles and Rotom turns to face him,
"Battle time. Make daddy proud." Rotom grins and turns around and rushes forward as the battle begins letting out a loud cry that pieces the air as he stops and dances around wildly. Leon finches and closes his eyes before he throws his head up and roars suddenly forming clouds and moments afterwards rain begins falling all around the field. Rotom grins as he looks around and cries out again making Leon cringe as he begins charging electricity into his body. Leon begins pulsing with electricity and suddenly leaps out of the way of hundreds of raining Thunderbolts before he gets hit by one and the momentary pause lets them begin tracking his movements. The Electric type Pokemon closes his eyes taking in all of the hits before he suddenly roars upwards towards the rain clouds sending down an immense Thunder attack that engulfs the tiny Pokemon.
Leon smirks to himself looking over at his opponent before his eyes go wide and the Luxray digs his claws into the ground as a dark purple wind rushes over him filling senses with fear and small shards cutting at his body. He breathes rather weakly as the wind subsides and opens his eyes only to be hit by a shadow ball and hit the ground hard. AJ smirks as she returns Leon to his Luxury ball and she takes another, this time from her belt. This ball has a ocean blue top and what appears to be a fishnet covering the top half; A Lure ball,
"Dang you're pretty good kid!" Throwing her second pokeball produces a Floatzel who goes straight into a battle pose facing the electric ghost with no fear in her eyes but only determination, "Lily's a handful so don't think you've won just because of a type advantage!"
"Trust me I've had experience with Floatzels." Vecransyh looks up towards Drake, who's chuckling,
"I wonder if there's a Luxray and Floatzel with the same letter starting their nicknames for the entire alphabet?" Latias rolls her eyes and leans against him,
"Maybe."
Rotom begins unleashing massive amounts of thunderbolts as Lily's teeth become coated with darkness and she sprints forward spinning and dashing around the raining bolts before she throws her arm forward and slams it down effectively pinning Rotom to the floor and unleashing the fangs of darkness that clamp down on Rotom pulsing the energy through his body knocking him out on the spot. Lily leaps back to her place on the field and smirks, her teeth still coated in the darkness. Vecransyh coolly returns Rotom to his custom ball and draws his second, "Nice hit Lily. Of course you might have a harder time with this guy." The pokeball opens in a flash of light and Gengar cracks his neck grinning up at the rain clouds.
Lily, taking the momentary diversion rushes forward only to suddenly feel a fist in her stomach followed by an agonizingly painful blast of Thunder from the sky. Lily hits the ground hard and leaps back up upper-cutting Gengar and throwing her arms up becoming coated in water and lunging slamming hard into Gengar's stomach. Gengar recoils from the attack and glares at her grapping her by her neck and when Lily's eyes meet Gengar's her eyes slowly become heavy and she falls asleep dropping to the ground. Gengar pulses and Lily begins trembling and flailing about from the plaguing nightmare. Slowly, Gengar leans down to her, "Sssshhh..." He put a finger to her lips as she stops moving. AJ shudders as she takes the Lure ball from her belt and returns Lily to it,
"Okay that Knockout was just scary." Gengar cackles darkly and AJ takes her third pokeball from her strap,
"Oh you think that's funny?" Gengar nods and flexes his fingers. AJ throws her third pokeball, a great ball, and it opens revealing a Gallade, whose arm blades unsheathe themselves with a 'Shing!'
"Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?" The Gallade closes his eyes and chuckles,
"Right here." Romeo rushes forward avoiding a Thunder attack from the dispersing rain clouds and slams one of his blades into Gengar knocking him to the ground with a thud. He throws his fist downwards but suddenly Gengar slides through his legs and lunges only to be punched in the face by a second Psycho cut attack and is sent flying across the field rolling a few times before coming to a halt. Gengar leaps to his feat and the two Pokemon rush at each other, Gengar forming black claws and Romeo's blades becoming shrouded in darkness. Closer and closer till blade meets claw and both Pokemon begin deflecting the other's blows until Romeo is blasted by a Hyper Beam and hits the ground hard, his body smoking from the intensity of the blast.
He struggles to his feet slowly and throws his arm to the side hitting Gengar with a final Psycho cut to knock him out. Vecransyh returns Gengar to his ball and reaches for his third but sees Romeo looking at him shaking his head. Vecransyh lowers his hand to his side and Romeo turns to him dropping to one knee and bowing as he turns into a red silhouette. AJ folds her arms after putting the ball back into place and smiles,
"I love how he does that. Doing the whole bow thing to his opponent when he's beaten. Don't know where he learned that from." Vecransyh nods to her and smiles,
"That was a great battle AJ."
"You too Vecransyh. I hope we can meet again some day." Vecransyh and AJ look at all of the people in the stands as the applause echoes over them and nod to each other before leaving through their respective exits,
"THE FIRST MATCH HAS COME TO A CLOSE AND THE VICTOR IS VECRANSYH WHO WILL BE MOVING ON TO ROUND FIVE!!! OUR NEXT BATTLERS WILL BE ENTERING THE BATTLEFIELD IN TWENTY MINUTES SO WE WILL HAVE A SHORT BREAK AND RETURN AT THAT TIME!!"
The crowd roars in applause as Kazamaru walks across the arena floor looking across to see his opponent. When he reaches his trainer's square he smiles to see a familiar blue-haired girl, "Lookin' good Dawn." The girl adjusts the beanie on her head and smiles drawing a pokeball from her belt and enlarging it,
"Flattery won't make me go easy on you Kaza. How've you guys been since I saw you last? It's been a long time." Kaza nods and takes a pokeball from his own belt,
"Everything's Hunky-Dory. How've the contests been?"
"Still working on getting all the master ranks but I'm almost there." The announcer's voice booms over the stadium causing the applauding crowd to quiet a bit,
"WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN TO THE SECOND MATCH OF THE FOURTH ROUND!! THIS MATCH IS BETWEEN DAWN ROWAN AND KAZAMARU!!! WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!!" Kazamaru and Dawn throw their pokeballs and in two flashes of light Kazamaru's Aggron stands across from Dawn's Empoleon.
Kazamaru's eyes go wide as Empoleon begins to glow and inhales deeply before unleashing a Hydro Cannon attack that barrels towards Aggron. The Triceratops looks back at Kaza and smirks taking the full blast of the attack. Aggron is blasted over backwards and lands on the ground lying still for a moment before his eyes snap open and Metal Bursts form in his claws. Leaping from the ground the massive Pokemon dashes towards Empoleon fully taking advantage of his momentarily low energy. Empoleon throws up his shielded arms to try and make the blow cause less damage but it does no good and Empoleon is blasted into the wall behind Dawn with one mighty punch. Empoleon hits the ground hard lying unconscious before Dawn returns him to his pokeball, "Dang... looks like you got me with that one." Dawn looks back towards Kazamaru but instead sees Aggron grinning and punching his own fists together as he roars.
Dawn throws her second pokeball releasing her Mamoswine to the field and the Mammoth roars stomping the ground hard creating a massive earthquake that throws Aggron off balance. He then begins running forward and lunges expecting to throw his entire weight into Aggron but his eyes widen in shock as the massive, armored, triceratops grabs his tusks and pushes stopping his movement immediately. Mamoswine stares for a moment before Aggron opens his mouth with a large Metal Burst forming like a giant lazer in his mouth. Mamoswine roars unleashing Blizzard on his captor but the Metal Burst absorbs the attack and a moment later Mamoswine disappears into a Metal Burst that resembles a silver version of Hyper Beam. After Mamoswine is recalled Aggron wipes the drool from his mouth and glares at Dawn who draws her third pokeball from her belt, "There's no way you're going to beat me that easily!!"
In a bright flash of light Dawn's Lopunny appears from her pokeball and goes into a battle pose. Aggron smirks and lunges forward swiping at the bunny Pokemon with his massive claw. To his surprise she leaps into the air and comes back down with a punch directly into his skull plate. She touches back down to the ground and steps out of the way as Aggron falls over forward and turns into a red silhouette disappearing into his ball.
Kazamaru smiles and switches out Aggron's ball for his second enlarging it in his hand before throwing it out onto the field and releasing his Tyranitar in a burst of light, "Okay buddy. Let's try something new before I let ya loose." Tyranitar leans in close to hear Kaza's words and leans back up before nodding and heading out onto the field. Lopunny prepares for another attack but pauses as she looks at him and becomes slightly entranced by his... broad shoulders and... muscular form... Before long she begins to drool and if it were possible her eyes would turn to cartoon hearts. Tyranitar chuckles to himself as he walks up to Lopunny raising a fist and the behemoth brings it down on her head leaving it there for a moment before she sways a bit and falls over.
Dawn blinks in utter disbelief at one of her best Pokemon being brought down by nothing more then attract and she returns Lopunny to her ball putting it back on her belt a moment later, "Well that sucked." Kazamaru laughs as he recalls Tyranitar to his ball and places it back on his own belt,
"Ya win some ya lose some." The announcer's voice fills the stadium again and a few minutes later the field is prepared for the next match.
Stratos walks onto the field and looks across at Neo, Luna and Asia walking toward him. The two trainers lock eyes as they both arrive at their trainer squares. Neo's gaze drifts to Stratos' belt and he looks back up at Stratos with a confused expression,
"No Pokeballs?" Stratos grins as he looks across the field at the three opposing him,
"Well, the Pokemon I have fighting with me don't have pokeballs." Luna simply smiles as she claps her paws together a few times,
"You chose well Stratos. I'm really proud of you kid." Neo blinks as he looks over to her,
"Who'd he choose besides Latias...?" Luna simply points at Stratos and Neo's gaze returns to the Lucario in time to see two bursts of psychic energy on either side of him and once they've dispersed three more Pokemon have appeared. Latias floats to Stratos' left while Latios is on his right with Shaymin on his head. Stratos looks up at Latios and Shaymin with a smile as something clicks in his mind,
"Glad you could make it uncle Latios." Latios nods with a soft smile on his face,
"Well, it's been a while since I've had a good battle and when Latias told me it was against Neo I couldn't say no." Neo's and Latios' eyes meet and the two of them grin, "I've been itching to have a battle against him ever since he brought me back to life." The announcer's voice booms through the stadium as always naming the battle number as well as the round along with naming both trainers in the battle itself. Neo folds his arms as soon as the announcer's voice fades out signaling the start of the battle,
"So how should we do this?" Stratos looks back and forth between Latias and Latios noticing that Shaymin is gone,
"Where's Shaymin?" Latios looks down at Stratos,
"I sent her back to the garden. Latias requested that I bring her only for a little while." Stratos nods and looks back to Neo,
"Well Neo it seems like everything is pretty set in stone as far as the battle goes. Latios seems pretty adamant on fighting you and there's no way I'm not going to be fighting Luna in this match." Neo nods twice,
"I see, I see... so do you want to make this a two out of three so everyone gets to battle?" Stratos looks to Latios and Latias at his sides,
"What do you think Mom? Uncle Latios?" Neither of the Eon Pokemon objects and Stratos nods as Latias floats out onto the field to meet Asia who trots out onto the field with a big smile on her face. The Eon Pokemon and the Lucario go into battle poses and neither of them moves as if waiting for the other to attack or even make the tiniest of flinches. Suddenly in a burst of speed both Latias and Asia run/float forward and their hands clash together to test the other's strength. The two stay in a deadlock pushing against one another for a number of moments before Latias opens her mouth forming a huge ball of purple energy in her mouth and she fires blasting Asia away. The Lucario skids a few feet before she plants her feet and jumps up becoming engulfed in a purplish black aura as a spike of the same color rises from her chest. Latias slams the ground making an earthquake and Asia loses her balance teetering for only a moment but a moment to long as Latias rushes forward slamming her full weight into Asia but the Lucario blasts her away with a Dragon Pulse before she throws an aura sphere of the same ghostly color. Latias takes the hit thinking about the horrible type disadvantage of a fighting type attack but instead takes a super effective hit from the now ghost type attack. Latias shakes off the hit and her eyes narrow at the Lucario who returns the glare and the two run at each other Latias with a powerful mix of who knows how many attacks and Asia with what appears to be what can only be described as a giant ball of ghost matter in between her paws. The two suddenly spring forward and collide sending a shockwave in all directions along with a powerful explosion of intense, raw power. The smoke leaves the crowd, Neo and Stratos in suspense but when the cloud finally does begin to clear Latias is breathing heavily floating in front of an unconscious Lucario sprawled out on the ground. Latias scoops her up into her arms and floats over to Neo to drop her off and she smiles at the Umbreon boy,
"I'm glad you're on our side." Neo smiles lightly as he sits Asia up next to him and Luna begins healing her,
"That battle ended pretty fast though. You were both putting a lot of power into your attacks that's for sure." Latias smiles as she begins to float away,
"Yeah, that hit at the end hurt a lot but it wasn't as strong as it looked... could just be me though." Latias floats back over to Stratos and Latias and Latios tag out and the blue Eon Pokemon floats onto the field. On the other side Neo cracks his neck walking out onto the field in his black cloak,
"Been a while Latios." Neo reaches the middle of the field and Latios simply smiles at him,
"Yeah. How about you show me how much stronger you've gotten since I kicked your sorry butt up and down the garden for all that time all those years ago?" Neo jumps back and strikes a battle pose as he smirks,
"I'm a lot stronger then I was back then but it's really thanks to you that I'm this strong anyway." Latios nods,
"Yeah, I can see that you've matured quite a bit. So then... LET'S GO!!!" Neo is surprised by a sudden Dragon Pulse and he dodges throwing out his arms sending a dark pulse at Latios who cringes in response to the attack before he rushes forward while he begins to glow a blinding white. Neo closes his eyes from the sheer blinding force and his ears perk up sensing the fast movements but the swiftness of Latios combined with his not touching the ground make him almost untraceable and Neo feels himself attacked from all angles smashed back and forth making his body look like a pinball stuck in the bumpers before he finally gets punched forward and he lands on one hand looking back at Latios upside down before he vaults back to his feet,
"You're not pulling any punches!!" Latios smirks and Neo dodges out of the way of a thunder attack,
"Of course not Neo! I can only hope to beat you if I try my hardest!" Neo nods and runs forward dodging Latios' sharp claws as he slashes wildly and Neo uppercuts Latios before hitting him with a dark pulse sending the dragon away from him. Latios flies forward in a burst of speed but stops as he nears Neo and he spins powerfully as his wing glows silver and he slams into Neo who's guarding his face and he skids backwards about a foot before he throws his arms outward and charges forward. He leaps into the air spinning and he disappears into a black fog in midair and Latios closes his eyes before throwing his claw out and catching Neo's fist before spinning him around and he slams Neo into the ground cracking the field under him then Latios throws his own weight down onto the Umbreon crushing him into the dirt before Latios leaps back unleashing a Dragon pulse into Neo on the ground.
After a few moments Neo bursts from the ground with a huge ball of darkness in his hand and Latios charges a dragon claw. The Umbreon and Latios rush forward and their attacks slam together but Neo rolls his attack around Latios' claw slamming the Payback into his chest blasting him away with all of the built up energy. Latios skids across the field and Stratos jumps over him and turns to face the unconscious dragon and he looks at Latias,
"It's one for one now. My turn. You tend to Latios." Back on the field Neo lets out a long breath as he stretches his back walking back over to his trainer square. He looks over to Luna with a smile,
"Man that was rough... you're up Luna. Don't beat him too bad, okay?" Luna nods with a slightly devious smile,
"Oh come on Neo you don't know me at all!" Neo rolls his eyes,
"Uh-huh... I've been looking forward to this battle for a while so make it a good one without just taking him out immediately." Luna smirks,
"I'll give the crowd a good show." Stratos takes off his hat and belt and walks onto the field till he reaches the center just as Luna does and the two simply look at each other,
"Hard to believe we're really going to be fighting each other. Seems kinda weird to me."
"Yeah it does but you've got to remember that no matter how close you get to someone there's always a chance that you can become enemies. Think of this as a test just in case it happens to you for real." She goes into a battle pose, "I'm not pulling any punches Stratos so if you want to win you're going to have to do the same. Just think of it as sparring till one of us falls unconscious." Stratos takes a few steps back and goes into his pose as his eyes are locked on her,
"Alright then... I'll do my best to beat you." Luna shakes her head,
"You're not in the right state of mind Stratos; Try again." Stratos looks down before his expression turns angry,
"I will defeat you Luna!!" Luna giggles,
"Much better, but can you keep that word?"
"I'll win our bet too." Luna blushes lightly but dodges bending over backwards propping herself up on one arm and she looks up fairly unaware of anything other then she just dodged an attack. Above her is Stratos with his paw forward and Luna smiles before she slams her foot into his stomach kicking the Lucario into the air. Stratos gags but recovers quickly and throws an Aura Sphere into Luna who catches it and she throws the orb into Stratos sending him flying back onto his back skidding a few feet and before he can react Luna is standing above him with a Dark Pulse charged in her paw,
"You're going to have to do better then this Stratos..." Stratos simply smiles,
"You're the one who fell right into a trap." Luna goes wide-eyed and her gaze rests upon Stratos' paw to see it glowing red and he throws the attack up at her engulfing the shiny Umbreon in the Sacred Fire attack. Stratos stands and looks several feet in front of himself to see the smoking form of Luna smiling darkly as she looks up at him,
"Now that's what I'm talking about!!!" Luna runs forward in a sudden burst of speed and goes low sweeping her leg at Stratos' feet but he jumps into the air inhaling some of the dust from the field she kicks up before he throws an Aura Sphere down and Luna gets blasted in the shoulder letting out a cry of pain and she rubs her shoulder as she punches Stratos away from her, "Why does that hurt so much?!" Stratos answers by leaping forward with a roar unleashing an Aeroblast from his mouth and Luna bats the attack away before she unleashes her Dark Pulse at him but the edge of the Aeroblast clips her damaged shoulder causing her to wince. Stratos punches the ground making the field start to crack and splashes of lava begin forming as the cracks spread across the arena. Luna runs forward throwing spheres of dark energy at Stratos who dodges most getting hit by a few and he slams his paws into the ground making lava burst from all around them and he crosses his arms making the lava coil around her.
Luna is lost from view, her smile being the last thing to be seen. Stratos holds out his paw and coils in his fingers making the tornado of lava become thinner and Stratos looks up to see a figure jump from the top of the tornado and Luna lunges flying down towards Stratos who begins charging a giant Aura Sphere. Luna forms dark energy in her paws as she picks up speed and as the two close in on each other Stratos moves his paws forward as Luna moves her paws forward and the two attacks collide making a huge explosion covering the field in a thick black fog but it suddenly begins to swirl and moves up revealing Luna standing across from Stratos but Stratos has his paw in the air and all of the smoke is swirling and disappearing into Stratos' fur and the two look at each other breathing heavily before they both run forward trading strikes that make flashes of light and small pulses of energy from the force of the blows,
"You gonna lose yet?" Luna hits him with a few rapid blows,
"Not likely kid! I'm just a little winded that's all!" Stratos suddenly glows brightly and explodes out in all directions in a powerful pulse of green energy. Luna flies backwards but springs back on her hand and lands back on her feet looking bewildered as she looks at Stratos, (What the hell is wrong with me?! I feel... weak! Like my energy was sapped and it won't come back like it usually does! I'm... running low and these hits aren't doing me any favors.) Stratos' eyes glow silver as he places Doom Desire on Luna and he runs forward with his paws coated in aura and Luna dodges his attacks left and right along with the occasional kick. She dodges for nearly a minute before she finally sees an opening and kicks Stratos in his chest sending the Lucario flying backwards but Luna's eyes go wide when he turns in the air and long claws for from his paw and he cuts a dimensional rift disappearing into it before it closes. Luna's eyes zip back and forth as she tries to locate Stratos' exit point and she suddenly sees the ground tear open and Stratos jumps from it throwing two Aura Spheres that are infused with the Spatial Rend attack,
"I wanted to fight as fairly as I could Stratos but it looks like I can't beat you like this!" Stratos smirks as he lands on the ground with his paws still burning with aura but his smirk fades when Luna shines brightly and changes into an Aggron. Stratos takes a step back as the two Spatial Rends impact Luna and simply dissipate against her now steel body but she winces from the Aura Sphere side of the attack and she forms Metal Bursts in both her clawed hands as she charges Stratos and the Lucario stands his ground narrowing his eyes,
(Sure she's stronger in that form but she's much bigger so dodging is nearly impossible for her now.) Suddenly Luna groans as a pulse of silver electricity bursts from her body and Stratos grins seeing his opportunity and he runs forward charging an Aura Sphere mixed with a Sacred Fire in one hand and a Superpower in the other. Luna looks up weakly before her eyes widen and she watches the two attacks slam into her torso. Luna gags and spits out a small amount of blood and she stands for a moment before she starts to fall backwards slowly glowing as she changes back to her Umbreon form. Everything seems to slow down and Neo simply stares in shock as Luna falls out of consciousness and Stratos catches her in his arms before he picks her up sideways and carries her over to Neo. The Umbreon takes his daughter from the Lucario and the two smile lightly and nod not wanting to say anything. The announcer's voice booms over the stadium,
"NOW THIS IS A SHOCK LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! HAVING AGREED TO A BEST OUT OF THREE BATTLE OUR VERY OWN NEO EON HAS LOST TO STRATOS THE LUCARIO!!!! THAT WAS TRULY AN OUTSTANDING MATCH AND I BELIEVE IT'S SAFE TO SAY THAT ANYONE GOING UP AGAINST STRATOS WILL HAVE THEIR HANDS FULL!! THE NEXT MATCH IS SCHEDULED TO START IN JUST UNDER FIFTEEN MINUTES SO DON'T GO TOO FAR AND BE SURE TO BE BACK TO WATCH ANOTHER GRAND BATTLE!!!!!"
Mathieu sits on his side of the field with his arms folded and his eyes closed. He sits cross-legged as if meditating as he waits for his challenger to arrive.
Meanwhile Kazamaru is running down the street towards the stadium having left after the last match to get a bite to eat, "Can't be late... can't be late... can't be late!!" He bursts in through the doors and towards the archway to the field. He reaches his destination and heaves heavy breathes as he leans against the wall. Onym blinks as he looks at the winded boy and is holding a pokeball in his hand as Molly stands beside him,
"Uh... what's up Kaza?" Kazamaru catches his breath and looks up holding up a red sash to the boy,
"I... forgot... to... give this... to you... earlier..." Onym blinks as he takes the sashes and notices that there are three,
"What are these for...?" Kazamaru regains himself and leans up,
"These are focus sashes. You need to put one of them on each of your Pokemon but don't worry, they'll become invisible as long as their effect hasn't been used once in the battle. They prevent your Pokemon from being knocked out immediately and I think without them Mathieu would wipe you out in an instant even with your strategy." Onym nods knowing full well what kind of power Mathieu wields. He'd taken down Ash Ketchum like he was nothing and he could use all the help he could get if he hoped to defeat him now,
"Thanks Kaza." Kazamaru grins and nods,
"No problem Terra. Just take a sec and put the sashes on them now." He then waved as he walked in the direction of the stands. Onym releases Jellyfish and Supersonic and places the sashes on them. Molly giggles when he puts it on her and watches as it shimmers and disappears,
"Let's do this!" Onym nods and returns Supersonic and Jellyfish before walking through the archway into the blinding sunlight.
The crowd roars in applause as the boy walks towards his square with the female Umbreon trotting right beside him and Mathieu opens his eyes when he sees him. Mathieu's palm plants on the ground as he lifts himself not taking his eyes off of the boy the entire time,
"You are the one who will next feel the mighty blows of my Pokemon." Molly rolls her eyes as she looks at the buff teenager,
"More comforting words have yet to be spoken..." The announcer's voice booms over the stadium soon after that,
"WELCOME ALL TO THE FINAL MATCH OF THE FOURTH ROUND OF THE POKEMON LEAGUE TOURNAMENT!!! ON THE BLUE SIDE IS ONYM TERRA AND ON THE RED SIDE IS MATHIEU, THE TRAINER WHO KNOCKED ASH KETCHUM OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT WITHOUT LOSING A SINGLE POKEMON!!!" Onym looks up at the announcer's booth and yells,
"YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT MAKING ME FEEL ANY BETTER ABOUT THIS!!!!!"
"YES... UMM... MY APOLOGIES... WELL... ANYWAY!!! WITHOUT FURTHER ADO LET THE FINAL BATTLE OF THE FOURTH ROUND COMMENCE!!!" Mathieu cracks a smile as he holds out all three of his pokeballs,
"Choose; one, two, or three." Onym scans the pokeballs as if looking for some way to detect what's inside them but finally sighs and points to the center one,
"Two." Mathieu moves his hands to the sides and the middle pokeball falls opening and releasing Javert the Raichu to the field,
"Excellent choice." Javert sparks with electricity as he stands opposing Onym who tosses his own pokeball releasing Jellyfish the Wobbufet to the field,
"Not like a gamble helps me anyway."
"Actually it could have. You know, type advantage and whatnot." Onym simply blinks as he listens,
"You're a very strange guy." Mathieu simply shrugs,
"I try."
The battle begins and Javert dashes forward coating himself in electricity and Mathieu chuckles and makes the 'slitting his throat' gesture with his fingers. The attack impacts Jellyfish and Javert leaps back standing fully as he smirks. Jellyfish stands still for a moment before he glows lightly and the Focus Sash appears around him. Mathieu's eyes go wide as he sees the item, "FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU--" Jellyfish glows brightly and explodes in a huge pulse of energy. Javert covers his face to shield himself from the blast but it's no good as he feels the same hit he just dealt be doubled in power against his own body. Javert flies through the air for a few seconds before slamming into the ground in front of Mathieu unconscious.
Mathieu remains silent as he takes out a pokeball and returns Javert to it. He pauses before finally speaking as he takes out his second, "Well... that kinda sucked." He tosses his second pokeball releasing a giant Snorlax to the field, "This is Hercules. Hercules, Onym. Onym, Hercules. Now that we have introductions out of the way... Hercules, go beat that Wobbuffet." The giant Snorlax begins pounding on his own stomach like a drum and Onym returns Jellyfish to his pokeball and sends out Supersonic,
"Nice try, go! Perish Song!" Supersonic claps his hands as he begins to sing the eerie melody of the attack but Mathieu looks unfazed as Hercules disappears into a substitute. Onym clenches his teeth and he returns Supersonic to his pokeball as the substitute begins to glow with brown energy and Jellyfish reappears. The substitute disappears revealing, once again, Hercules. Onym closes his eyes as the giant bear runs over slamming his Focus Punch into Jellyfish. A blast of wind rushes by both Onym and Molly and Onym returns him to his ball. Onym closes his eyes to think about how to defeat this strategy. He remembers seeing Kazamaru use it during a training battle and asked him if it had any weaknesses.
'After using both Belly Drum and Substitute he's pretty low on health but restoring it is easy with Rest... of course that's quite a while to leave your substitute open. We usually just Focus Punch and don't even really need to heal. The main weakness though is the substitute itself.'
"The Substitute itself... He's got 2 more counts of Perish song left so if I can hold out till then I'll have him..." Molly looks up at him,
"Onym? What's the plan?"
"You're out next. We need to stall for Perish song." Molly nods and grins running out onto the field. The substitute reappears and begins glowing again as Focus Punch is charged. Molly looks up at the sky and smiles as the Substitute vanishes in a puff of smoke. Hercules runs forward and throws his punch but instead of Molly he hits a powerful shield of energy around her. Hercules growls and jumps back retreating to his Substitute. Mathieu throws his arm forward and grins,
"No retreat!!! Full power forward!!!!" Molly shuts her eyes tight after she tries to make another protect but it shatters under the weight of the fist and the force explodes into her body making her fly across the field and skid for a bit landing near Onym. He leans down to her with a worried expression,
"Are you okay...?" Molly smiles as the sash appears on her body,
"Yep." Mathieu rolls his eyes and folds his arms as he watches Hercules fall victim to Perish Song,
"More focus sashes? Be more original bro." Mathieu returns his Snorlax to his ball and takes out his third, "Well, you gave it a good try and if you were any more powerful you might have won." He tosses his final pokeball releasing an Alakazam to the field, "This is Matsui." In a single flash Molly is struck my Dark Pulse and falls unconscious at Onym's feet, "When he comes out it means play time..." A dark smile appears on his face, "Is over." Onym picks Molly up into his arms and returns her to her pokeball. He takes out his final and tosses it releasing Supersonic, once again, to the field,
"There's nothing I can do... even with the Focus Sash I can only get one attack off..." Supersonic and Matsui rush at each other and the frog dodges blast after blast of Psychic and Dark energy. Onym is watching in utter amazement at the incredible agility the frog is putting out. Mathieu narrows his eyes watching as the Politoad continuously strikes Matsui without getting hit himself until finally Matsui lands a Psychic blast, point blank, right in Supersonic's face blasting him across the field. He lays there for a moment as his sash appears but before he can do more then open his eyes Matsui is standing over him with a Dark Pulse in his spoons and in that final instant Politoad lost consciousness when the attack landed. Mathieu returns Matsui and nods,
"You still have a long way to go. You rely to much on luck in your battles and that is why you lost. Your strategy is good but it's not perfect." He then walks out of the stadium saying nothing more. Onym returns Supersonic to his ball and falls to his knees hanging his head,
"I got so close..." The announcer's voice booms over the applauding crowd,
"AND SO ENDS THE FINAL MATCH OF THE FOURTH ROUND!!!! THE WINNER, MATHIEU, WILL BE ADVANCING TO ROUND FIVE!! UNTIL TOMORROW, I BID YOU ALL, ADO!"Chapter End Notes:next chapter is being written already so it shouldn't take a whil