A/N: 3 more chaps and we're done! I've finished writing them and will upload daily cause I'm gonna take a long break from this book to focus on the other fics. (And schl's gonna start so I won't be able to write anyways-"
-.-
"Harley?" Arlo said standing infront of the purple haired man
"Oh! Arlo~ my dear what are you doing here?~"
"Harley. Quit pretending and just tell me what are you even doing?!"
Harley immediately dropped off his act and angrily glared at the dirty blonde haired boy standing infront of him and stood up "Tch, you're being pathetic like your sister. If you want to know what I'm doing them listen up small boy, I'm going to make sure that Y/N regrets not helping me and copying my style of performing to scare the audience better!" Harley said before walking away with his Cacturne leaving the boy in shock.
Sixteen coordinators were chosen to move on to the next round.
You and your friends again made it in the new round and were standing with the other chosen coordinators in between of the stadium.
"Looks like we made it here" Solidad winked at you and may.
"Totally!" May said as she looked at you for response only to see you tensed up. "Y/N?"
You looked up from the ground and looked at her "hm?"
"Are you okay? Is it still because of Drew?" She whispered while you shook your head.
It uncomfortable to stand beside Harley. You knew he could backstab you and you would be out of the grand festival.
Him glaring at you, while Drew closed his eyes and looked down made the situation more and more distressing.
"Hey Arlo, why do you look so.... cramped?" Max asked with Arlo's Plusle and Teddiursa in his arms
"It's....it's nothing" Arlo said feeling anxious "I'm fine, don't worry"
"If you say so" Max gave his friend one last confused look before shifting his gaze back to the stadium.
The double battle started with you and some random trainer.
"Go! Pidgeot and Noctowl!"
"Go Horsey and Croconaw!"
"Two pure flying type pokémons vs two pure water types? Looks interesting" Brock said "They both are neutral against each other's type so we cannot easily predict who will win the match"
"Oh it's fine, we know Y/N will win for sure!" "Pi Pikachu!"
"You and pikachu should calm down a bit ahhh!" Max half yelled as an aipom suddenly sat on Ash's shoulder
"It's the same aipom again!" Brock face palmed
Even with the new distraction came, Arlo's eyes were still fixed on the battle 'After what Harley said....I don't even know when he's going to betray Y/N. Hell i don't even know if he and Y/N made up again off stage....if they didn't then the chances of him making sure that this trainer defeat Y/N in any way possible is high. I don't even know who to trust or when Harley will follow his plan' he thought sinking himself in the chair.
The match started as you ordered Pidgeot to start by using Sand attack which made it slightly difficult for the Horsea and Croconow to see while Noctowl took the chance and used Hypnosis which made Croconow to fall asleep
Then dodging Horsea's attack, Noctowl used Take down and Pidgeot used wing attack on the sleeping Croconow knocking it out completely making you win the round.
The next round started as Solidad went on the stage then Drew and then some trainers before your match with Harley started.
"Oh Y/N~ You looked at the man infront of you in the field, and for the first time you felt like you would actually loose even before the match started.
Grabbing onto the two pokéballs tightly you bit your lips, shaking the fear off your head before letting the two pokémons out, Raticate and Spearow.
"Um Y/N? Are you okay?" Lilian asked noticing how you were you looked.... different? While Harley smirked knowing what you were going through
"Y-yeah! I am! Now! Spearow and Raticate! I choose you!"
The boys were now worried about why you were behaving like this
"Guys, is she okay? I'm starting to think that she's going through something right now"
"Hm...I tried asking May and Solidad about this but they had no clue too"
"Guys" Arlo spoke up looking at the others "It's all because of Harley."
Meanwhile Drew who was standing at the entrance of the field narrowed his eyes as he watched you carefully 'Harley..... you're going to regret this.'
"Octillery use water gun and Cacturne use poison sting!"
"Spearow! Use quick attack on Octillery and Raticate use flame wheel!"
Spearow was hit by the water gun but Raticate dodged the poison sting, hitting the Dark-Grass type pokémon directly in the body while Spearow immediately quick attacked the water type.
"Ugh! Since when did your Raticate knew about this fire type move!? Octillery use fire blast on Spearow! Cacturne use needle arm on Raticate"
Raticate was sent flying back while Octillery attacked Spearow making her fall on the field
"R-raticate, Spearow! Stand up and use Hyper fang and Drill peck!"
Harley grinned and snapped his fingers when suddenly his pokémons jumped back dodging the move "Now! Octillery! Smokescreen!"
The field got covered in the smokescreen and surprised everyone by the fact that the Octillery used smokescreen.
"It's amazing that Harley's Octillery can use smokescreen! I never knew that an octillery can learn it" Nurse Joy said gasping and amazed by this new knowledge.
"Spearow! Use Gust to clear the field!"
You waited for the place to be cleared but surprisingly neither Spearow nor Raticate were using any moves. "Spearow! I told you use Gust!"
Time was running out and Spearow wasn't responding; what's worse is that the smoke thickened so much that you couldn't see your pokémons.
"Spearow! Raticate! Can't you both hear me?!"
The crowd were getting bored and so were the judges.
"Ah- looks like if your pokémons doesn't fights back now, we have to disqualify you" Lilian said making your eyes widen in fear
"Y-you can't do that!" You turned your attention back to the field "Spearow, Raticate, do something!"
Drew, who was watching from the entrance, narrowed his eyes and tried to look closely at the field. He was suspecting Harley as soon as octillery used the smokescreen, and now was grinning like a devil.
"Roselia, c'mon let's go" he said looking up at the roof before running there.
Ash and Brock immediately understood that it was Harley's plan after hearing what Arlo told them.
"Max, Arlo, stay here. We'll be right back" Ash said as he ran away with Brock
"Hey! Where are you both going?!" Max called but they already left.
"Max, let them go. I'm pretty sure that they suspected something fishy"
"Alright! I can't wait any longer" Harley said pretending that he was innocent. "Cacturne! Finish this thing off by going inside the smoke and hit the two pokémons with Needle arm!"
Cacturne nodded as he carefully stepped inside the smoke.
Meanwhile....
Drew along with Roselia immediately went to the roof of the stadium which had a wooden floor full of wires connected to the lights and other electronics of the hall.
"Hey! What are you doing here?!" Ash yelled as he saw Drew
"I'm trying to expose Harley, so don't get in my way" Drew replied as his eyes laid on the Ariados who was looking down on the stage through the creeks of the woods. "Aha! Knew that it was Harley's plan all along!"
"Hey! You three what are you doing here?!" A familiar voice called out as everyone turned around to see Team rockets
"Team Rocket?!" Ash and Brock yelled backing away
"Ugh! We gotta stop them before they ruin our plan and make Harley mad at us again!" James said to his friends
"So you three were helping Harley to disqualify Y/N?!" Brock angrily shouted which made the other two boys grit their teeths in anger
"Or who else do you think will help him out?" Meowth started "It all happened because of how we-"
"Oh shut your nonsense immediately!" Drew groaned turning to Ash and Brock "can't you two handle these idiots? I'll try to blow up Harley's cover now, we don't have much time left!"
Ash wanted to protest but after realising that the time was indeed running out he agreed and Pikachu came down from his shoulders to battle.
Drew towered over on the Ariados who was scared of him now. "Look. I won't hurt you if you don't use your sting shot to trap Cacturne immediately." He said as Ariados immediately nodded in fear and trapped down Cacturne.
On the stage.....
"Uhh...I think there's something going on inside the smoke because even Cacturne is not coming out or using any moves" Mr. Contesta said looking at the timer where less than two minutes were left.
"I agree" Mr. Sukizo nodded "should we stop the timer and see what's going on?"
"I don't think that something's good happening there, we should indeed check" Vivian said.
At this point everyone was curious and worried instead of being bored.
Arlo and Max wanted to help but didn't knew where the two went so they were trying to figure things out from their seats.
May and Solidad were suspecting that Harley was doing anything but seeing Cacturne also not doing anything gave them second thoughts.
"Do you think it's part of Harley's plan?" May asked worried about you
Solidad furrowed her brows and watched Harley's expression closely through the screen where he was ordering Octillery to go inside angrily but the poor pokémon was scared that something might happen to it also and refused to go.
"I thought that it might be Harley too, but look at him closely, he's beyond frustrated now and even Octillery is not listening to him, so I don't think that he's doing anything" She spok slowly worrying about it as well.
The judges were about to cancel the match and find out what was happening inside the smoke filled place when suddenly a huge tornado of silver wind arose from the top of the hall and cleared the place and saw Cacturne, Spearow and Raticate all struggling to free themselves.
"Aha! Looks like a silver wind attack helped in clearing the field and it looks like the three pokémons were somehow stuck in string shots and were struggling to get up! Looks like it was Spearow who somehow used a Silver wind attack!" Lilian yelled as the crowd roared in joy again
"HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!" Harley screeched in anger and looked up to see a Roselia and immediately understood that it was Drew who did that "*sigh* guess my little plan blew up" He whispered in pure anger "But that doesn't mean that I'll loose! Octillery! Fire blast on that damn Spearow and hyper beam on that Raticate!"
.
B E E P
Everyone looked at the score board and saw Harley win.
"Woohoo hoo! Looks like I won the match!~~~ mwah mwah! Thank youuuu<3" harley started to dance weirdly
"I-I lost....?" You stared at the board and your pokémons looked at you weakly with sadness "it's okay guys! You did your best"
....
You started to cry in the backstage while hugging the two pokémons with your friends around you "why....just why...."
"Y/N...it's not your fault that you lost, it's Harley's...." Brock consoled feeling terrible for you
"*Sobs* I should've been more careful...maybe if I had threatened him back, I might've won...."
"Y/N, don't cry...please...I'll go and talk to Harley"
"What's the use now?" You replied wiping away your tears
"Can't I just go and inform this to the judges?"
"Max is right, I think if we both go and tell what happened, Harley will be disqualified" Arlo said almost running to the judges
"No..it's of no use anyways, I still lost" you sobbed before getting up weakly "May, the next to next match is yours with him.... promise me that you'll defeat him anyways!"
"I absolutely will! You can trust me Y/N." She reassured patting your back.
"Y/N" you heard Drew approaching "Can I just talk to you for a bit....in private?" He said getting a whine from Ash which he ignored and you nodded before following him
"what d-do you want?"
"You were awesome there. Trust me, if Harley wasn't doing all these, you would be the one to win. You trained your pokémons hard and they did their best for you, you deserved to win, only if i knew about this plan from before, i would've helped you out a lot sooner...I'm sorry too"
You wiped your tear and looked at him confusedly "they did their best? didn't you said that I was a wimp for only seeing how best they did-"
"I know Y/N, and I'm sorry for that, i shouldn't had yelled at you like that....I thought about what you said earlier and realised that you were right" he sighed before continuing again "I should go, the next match is mine"
You nodded "Best of luck! I know you'll win!"
He chuckled before patting your head and left the corner as you went back to your friends, feeling better than earlier.
...
Words: 2253
Published: 28/10/23
Updated: --/--/--