Now, the tournament was truly starting. The 128 people who had joined now dwindled to only 32 trainers remaining. And, in the midst, there was Lucas, Ellie, Harry, Charles, Alex and Bubble, all part of the top 32. And, now, they were each being assigned to their matches.
Lucas, Ellie, Bubble and Harry each got assigned against strangers. However, Alex was picked to be against Charles. Charles smirked as his and Alex's names were called to fight tomorrow. He expected Alex's face to turn to fear as Charles' previous opponents had when they were put against him. But, surprisingly, Alex looked excited to face off against Charles. He looked down at the child standing next to him and said,
"Good luck, kid. Hope Garchomp can carry you through."
Alex then walked out of the hall where every trainer had gathered, leaving an embarrassed Charles standing in the centre of the room under the glare of everyone in the room. The child stomped the floor angrily and rushed out of the building in the opposite direction of Alex. Lucas looked at Charles and commented discretely to Ellie,
"Something tells me he didn't like that."
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Now, came the match that both competitors had been eagerly awaiting since the start of the tournament. Alex had been conducting some research on Garchomp and figured out a strategy that was meant to maximize his Pokemon's abilities so that he could stand up to the brute strength of Garchomp. Meanwhile, Charles had been idle except for the occasional Pokemon he would crush with Garchomp to make him even more confident about the battle the following day. He already knew Garchomp was the strongest Pokemon, and able to trump any individual Pokemon in the tournament. So, when I say he was confident, I mean he couldn't stand the thought of anything other than destroying Alex.
Alex stretched his limbs as he stood awaiting Charles' entrance, keeping a cool demeanour about him at all times. That was part of his strategy, to not be overwhelmed by Garchomp's intimidating nature and utterly monstrous strength. He knew that Charles was banking on Garchomp winning the entire thing with just its power. So, he could just beat Garchomp with the advantage of it being a three-on-one. Then, what did Charles have left?
But, Charles was certain that Garchomp could win the entirety of the tournament. It was the strongest, the best. As long as Charles didn't do anything stupid and Garchomp never gave up, then the shortcut to the Pokemon League would be his, easily. He grabbed Garchomp's Pokeball as he stepped up to the podium with a giant smile on his face. The battlefield rose from the ground as the ground beneath the referee's feet began to ascend with the platform. Then, they found that the battlefield was completely barren of any life, made purely just out of dirt and rock.
"Garchomp will have an amazing time with these sort of conditions!", Charles thought as he tossed his Pokemon onto the battlefield without hesitation. Alex raised his Pokeball to his chest, took a breath then chucked the Pokeball into the centre of the battlefield.
"Haunter, I choose you!"
The ghostly apparition appeared from the Pokeball, sticking out its tongue playfully at Garchomp. Alex smiled as Haunter got ready to fight. The referee looked to both ends of the battlefield and then declared loudly,
"Battle begin!"
"Garchomp, Dragon Claw!"
Garchomp's sturdy claws sliced through the air as they became illuminated with raw power. Then, Garchomp sped its way across the battlefield towards Haunter. But, both Alex and Haunter kept their cool against Garchomp, while Alex thought about the best way to deal with Garchomp currently. Then, Alex yelled out,
"Sludge Bomb, to slow down Garchomp!"
Haunter opened its mouth wild and a pile of slime erupted from its mouth and exploded on the ground in front of Garchomp. The poisonous substance stuck to the ground and Garchomp's feet. Garchomp struggled to move through the sludge towards Haunter and was now open to a free attack. But, instead of attacking, Alex thought of something better.
"Hypnosis!", he cried and Haunter's eyes turned into swirls that ran around and around in the confines of its eye sockets. The swirls caught Garchomp in a strange trance, where it could not take its eyes off of the apparition no matter how hard it tried. Then, the drowsiness began to kick in as Garchomp's eyes began to sag under the weight of the drowsiness inflicted upon them. Charles screamed at Garchomp to remain awake, but it soon found itself a victim of slumber's grip. Haunter smiled alongside Alex, who quickly recalled Haunter. Then, he yelled,
"Kadabra, I choose you!"
A yellow and brown humanoid Pokemon appeared from the Pokeball with a red star engraved on its head, a spoon held in its claws and a thirst for battle. But, Alex didn't plan for Kadabra to do any damage to Garchomp while it was asleep like most people would have guessed he would. He had another idea.
"Calm Mind!", he called out and suddenly Kadabra began to start meditating in the middle of the battle. It didn't appear to be doing anything at first. But every so often, a blue wave of calming energy would fall over Kadabra. It was like the meditation was actively powering up Kadabra. Meanwhile, Charles shouted at Garchomp to wake up and start fighting. But, his ranting and raving fell on deaf ears, as Garchomp appeared to be completely lost in slumber. Then, Charles stomped the ground and cried venomously,
"GET UP!"
Suddenly, Garchomp woke up and began finally starting to move. It roared as it broke the ground around it into chunks. The poison drained into the cracks in the Earth and Garchomp shook off the rest of the sticky sludge with just a strong shake. Then, Charles commanded,
"Dragon Claw!"
Garchomp's razor-sharp claws sliced through the air, and Garchomp into the air, rapidly approaching Kadabra. However, before it could land a clean strike, Alex cried,
"Baton Pass!"
Kadabra raised its spoon into the air and the spoon gained a psychic aura. It began to morph into a baton that it threw into the air as it returned to its Pokeball. Then, another Pokemon switched in. A small Pokemon with a giant swirl on its torso and what looked to be stubby fists at either side of its body. Lucas scanned the Pokemon from the sidelines and found it was named Poliwhirl.
Poliwhirl, the Tadpole Pokemon.
The surface of Poliwhirl's body is always wet and slick with a slimy fluid. Because of this slippery covering, it can easily slip and slide out of the clutches of any enemy in battle.
Poliwhirl jumped into the air and grabbed the baton. The white rod phased into the palm of Poliwhirl's hand, and the Pokemon suddenly felt a giant wave of energy pass over its body. Poliwhirl flexed as Alex suddenly commanded,
"Ice Beam!"
Poliwhirl raised out its hands in front of itself and created a giant stream of ice that was blindingly fast, and strikingly deadly. Garchomp couldn't even react and got struck directly in the torso by the Ice Beam. Normally, the blow would have only landed a scratch on the goliath dragon. But, with the Baton Pass, the Ice Beam packed a punch and more. Garchomp resisted the Ice Beam, slashing the ice into shards. But, it had already taken considerable damage from the Ice Beam. Charles' face turned to despair as Garchomp went down to a knee for just a second, before getting back up and fighting again.
"Draco Meteor, full power!"
Garchomp dug its claws into the ground, as thunderclouds appeared above the stadium, crackling with power. Then, Garchomp let out an earth-shattering roar as a sudden onslaught of powerful meteors came down to earth, each having the individual strength to break a normal Pokemon into two. But, Alex looked at the onslaught and thought of it as just an obstacle in their way.
"Don't let up, Poliwhirl. We can do this! Water Pulse!"
Poliwhirl outstretched both its hands, where a sphere of water began to build in the palm of its hand. Then, it rapidly began to push back and then release the pulse forwards. Focusing on one meteor at a time, it would send one Water Pulse to grind against the surface of the rock, only to then be blasted by another Water Pulse. And, the collision caused the gigantic meteor to shred into pieces like paper. Poliwhirl repeated this over and over again, not once letting up even if the stamina required to take out these meteors were something else for certain. But, when it came down to it, Poliwhirl's Water Pulses couldn't keep up with the sheer amount of meteors. With a final water pulse to break some of the meteors, Poliwhirl became crushed by a meteor. Poliwhirl fought back. But, when more and more meteors attacked from the side, Poliwhirl crumbled under the pressure and disappeared.
Alex began to sweat suddenly, as Charles's face began to stretch into a smirk. While Garchomp looked exhausted from the Draco Meteor, Charles laughed and shouted to Alex on the other side of the battlefield,
"Well, there goes your chance at winning. You might as well give up now."
Alex gritted his teeth, but then, a feeling deep down told him that something was happening here. He smiled and shouted back,
"Never! Me and my Pokemon have trained to get here, unlike you! So, we're not going to let some snotty kid beat us here!"
Suddenly, a Water Pulse flew out of the meteor and into the sky above. Then, the meteor began to crumble as Poliwhirl began to rise from the dust and debris. Alex laughed triumphantly as he shouted to Poliwhirl,
"Give him everything you've got!"
Poliwhirl formed its hands together and let out the greatest Ice Beam it had ever done. The entire air of the stadium became frostier as the beam soared across the battlefield. Charles was in a panic and exclaimed,
"Uh- Dragon Claw!"
Garchomp raised its claws and began to slice at the ice beam at Mach speed. But, despite Garchomp's incredible speed and power, the ice beam just kept on coming and getting stronger. Garchomp was beginning to become worn down over how much energy it had to put into every single one of its swings to keep Ice Beam at bay. So, when the gas began to run low, the Ice Beam punched through and knocked Garchomp at the feet of its trainer. Garchomp rose again, but with clear damage amid the scaley dragon's body. But, Charles didn't care and saw that Garchomp was okay to battle. And, that was all that mattered,
"Earthquake!", Charles barked and Garchomp dug its claws into the earth, sending shockwaves rippling through that tore the ground apart without any sort of issue. The destroyed and tattered ground from the meteors became even more destroyed as the land began to shift and put Poliwhirl in a precarious situation. But, Alex wasn't fazed at all and shouted,
"Poliwhirl, hop to the most stable ground you can find and use Rest!"
Poliwhirl began to hop from shattered piece of earth to shattered piece of earth, navigating through the area quickly and effectively. But, while it was hopping, it felt the vibrations in the earth to see if the shockwaves were in any danger of destroying this piece of rock. Most chunks of earth sent messages of doom to Poliwhirl. But, eventually, the Tadpole Pokemon found a solid piece of rock and fell into slumber immediately. But, by some sort of a miracle, the many wounds on the aquatic Pokemon's body began to fade away as the sweet release of sleep began to heal Poliwhirl. But, it seemed to be a dream for Charles.
"You've just left yourself open!", the child shouted as Garchomp began to dig through the shattered earth towards Poliwhirl's location. But, halfway across the battlefield, Alex commanded,
"Sleep Talk!"
Poliwhirl's eyes remained shut as it was still healing. But, its body began to move with Poliwhirl having a weird form of control over its body, forming a Water Pulse that Poliwhirl threw into a crevice in the earth where Garchomp was digging through. The Water Pulse exploded and threw Garchomp high into the air, with a look of complete bewilderment on its face. Then, Poliwhirl gathered its hands together and produced a giant ice beam that landed right on Garchomp's torso, sending the Garchomp flying back to Charles' feet. Except, this time, Garchomp didn't get up. It remained on the floor, with apparent swirls in its eyes.
"Get up, Garchomp. GET UP!", Charles barked at the Pokemon, but the dragon stayed completely still. The referee rushed onto the battlefield, looking over the defeated Garchomp and declaring,
"Garchomp is unable to battle! Poliwhirl wins therefore the winner is Alex!"
Alex rushed onto the battlefield immediately, throwing himself at Poliwhirl. But, he found that the Pokemon promptly went to sleep after the sleep-talk, unable to join in the embrace over winning the battle. But, Alex didn't mind. Poliwhirl had put in enough work already, it deserved to rest. Then, once Poliwhirl was returned to a safe spot in its Pokeball, Alex's attention turned to the crying child on the battlefield. He was kneeling next to Garchomp, trying to get Garchomp to get back up. But, as it became more and more clear just how it wasn't going to work, the child began to weep even more and more. Alex could've gone away from the battlefield as soon as he gained his victory. But, he didn't feel right doing that.
Alex slid down the rocky edges of the battlefield stylishly, taking leaps across the stones to make his way to Charles. He knelt next to Charles and looked at Garchomp. Bruises and scratches became apparent all over the Pokemon's body. But, even more pressing, was just how upset Charles truly was.
"I w-was supposed t-to win...", his voice cracked into a thousand pieces, "Wha-how-why couldn't I win?"
"Because your bond isn't strong enough. You've been gifted a Pokemon that's won countless battles and done amazing things. But, it's not your Pokemon, is it? It's someone else's."
"Wh-What should I do then?", Charles asked, and Alex thought for a second. Then, he reached into his backpack and brought out a Pokeball,
"Here, have this.", he said as he popped open the Pokeball. Then, a Swablu appeared from the Pokeball and looked confused as to why it had been released. Then, it looked at the crying child and immediately began to wipe away tears of Charles with its cotton-like wings. Charles began to smile, then began to laugh as Swablu began to sit on the top of Charles' head like it was a cotton hat. Alex smiled and said,
"Hey, it already likes you."
He placed the Pokeball in Charles' hand and then looked Charles deep in the eyes.
"I want this to be yours. Not anyone else's Pokemon. Not mine, only yours now."
Alex then lifted himself back onto his feet, leaving Charles to reflect with Swablu. He grabbed the Cotton Bird Pokemon and held it in his hands. The bird gave a joyful chirp as Charles began to consider what Swablu could do in a battle. It wouldn't be nearly as powerful as Garchomp, by far. Garchomp was superior in talent, battle prowess, and experience in battle. The perfect battle companion. So, why couldn't he win?
He looked to Swablu again, and the bird began to rub its soft head against Charles' arms. Charles' eyes began to water again as he gave Swablu a giant hug, then raised it into the sky and said confidently,
"Welcome to the team, little one!"
Notes:
Hey everyone, thanks for reading. And, Happy New Year! Hopefully this one is better than 2022 but I'm not entirely sure about that. Also, sorry for not posting this on New Year's Eve. Was too tired to proof read and publish, sorry about that. But, yeah, hope you enjoyed and I'll see you guys later!