«Battle Writing Tournament» The Dragon Games ~ Meet the winners!

[Lady Vulpix]

Established in generations past, the Dragon Games are a series of battles and events that are used to promote training and using pokemon in times of relative peace in the country of Ulthuan. The realm of Caledor is where the games originated, although this time they will be held on a massive floating platform which will travel throughout Ulthuan. The location of the arena will be announced prior to each round.

This is the third time the Dragon Games will be hosted by the Dragon Tamers, making it the most popular Pokemon battling tournament since the organization was created (other similar tournaments have been the Eagle, Griffon, Sphinx, Oracle, Pegasus and Unicorn Games).

Tournament mechanics:

Every trainer may enter one Adopted Pokemon into the tournament. There will be either 2 or 3 main rounds (depending on the number of participants), plus a consolation round. Those who make it to the finals will be awarded the first three prizes depending on their performance in the final round. The winner of the consolation round will be awarded the 4th prize.

At the beginning of each round, each participant will be assigned an opponent. The battles should be described in the same way as at the Battle Range, and stamps will be awarded for the quality of the stories. However, the battles themselves will weigh more towards promotion than the rest of the story, so don't be surprised if someone makes it to the next round with fewer stamps than someone who doesn't. After all, it's a battling tournament, and pokemon will be judged by their battling style.

Participants will be given 3 weeks to post each battle.

Prizes:

The prizes for this tournament are the following:


First Prize: any move from the move pool, plus 5 Rare Candies and the option to take a level 10 Dratini.
Second Prize: any move from the move pool, plus 4 Rare Candies.
Third Prize: any move from the move pool, plus 3 Rare Candies.
Fourth Prize: any move from the move pool, plus 2 Rare Candies.


The move pool contains the following moves: Fusion Flare, Blue Flare, Fusion Bolt, Bolt Strike, Glaciate, Secret Sword, Relic Song, Techno Blast, Ice Burn, Freeze Shock, Psystrike, Searing Shot and V-Create. Given the importance of this tournament, the Pokémon Research and Training Department of the Dragon's Guild has offered their technology to teach any of these moves to one Pokemon chosen by each prize winner.

As of now, you may post in this thread to register and/or ask any questions you may have.

[The Blue Avenger]

I'm going to register, along with Raini, my level 28 Persian.

[Wolfsong]

I'm going to register and I'll enter Sinopa my L.20 Ninetales

[lvl100mewtwo]

I will sign up probably later on, will figure out who I am using for this might take some time... wondering though, when does the games sign up close? and did I take the first one or the second one for Bahamut? I'm trying to remember, lol

[classy_cat18]

I'm entering with my L12 Kecleon, Bandit!

[Lady Vulpix]

Alex: you got Bahamut in the first Dragon Games. And we need at least 6 participants before the games can begin. I'm hoping for more. You can ask around if anyone wants to join.

[DarkestLight]

Oh you knew I was coming for this.

One and only Mossjito, lvl 24 :D

[*Murkrow]

Entering Archie, my L20 Anorith.

[lvl100mewtwo]

I'm gonna enter, I'm just still undecided on who I will be using at this point. I'll decide once I get a few trainings in and edit in this post who I am using!

[Edit] Going with my last battle in the Range, I'll be using Macedon, just hope I can get some training in before the games start...

[mario72486]

I recently joined up, and Vulpix suggested I give this a try.

I adopted a Lv6 Chimchar last week, but I don't want to charge headlong into battle without leveling up first.

[Lady Vulpix]

OK, it's been over a month since the last person signed up. I think I've given you all enough time to get ready. I don't want to postpone the games indefinitely or else they may never come to be.

I've considered my own schedule and I've realized that a certain day will be FAR better than any other for me to read all the battles, so I've decided to start the tournament on Monday to make things easier for everyone (because it's also best for you if I can submit the ratings sooner rather than later).

So the opponents for the first round will be announced on Monday. If you're not done training, fear not, for the Training Grounds will remain open for the duration of the tournament. You can still go there and train between rounds. Also, your Pokemon will be matched against opponents of their level, so leveling up won't necessarily improve your chances (although learning new moves may help).

So make the best of the next few days, and see you here on Monday for the beginning of the Dragon Games!

[Lady Vulpix]

And now, after a long period of preparations, the Dragon Games are ready to begin! The tournament will be held on the magnificent Floating Stadium, which is currently hovering over an open field just West of Brightland, the Capital of Saphery. Thanks to the locomotive capabilities of the stadium, each round will be held on a different location, so participants and attendants will get the chance to visit different areas between battles and thus get to know more of Ulthuan.

The hovering platform which holds the stadium also contains a buffet and a Pokemon Center. There are two arenas available for this round: the Land Arena, consisting mainly of a wide open space covered with a thick layer of earth and some rocks (some seeds may be present under the ground); and the Water Arena, which is a swimming pool large enough to accomodate two Wailords, with some aquatic plants on the surface and stones at the bottom.

The Training Grounds are still open in Avelorn for those who still have some training to do, but please remember to be here in time for your battle.

OOC details: you may post your battle here at anytime as long as you meet the deadline: you must post your battle on or before Monday, 20th of June. That's 3 weeks from now. You may or may not watch other trainers' battles. If two or more battles happen to have some similar content, credit will go to whoever posted it first (I'm not expecting anyone to cheat, of course; just pointing out that it may be harder to come up with original ideas after most other people have posted).

Tournament logistics: at the beginning of each round, each participant will be assigned an opponent of its same level. Battles will be awarded stamps just like at the Battle Range but, since this is a battling tournament, the battles themselves will count twice as much towards promotion as the rest of the story. For example: if someone gets 10 stamps in total, out of which 5 are for the battle and 5 for the rest of the story, the writer's score for the round will be 15. A writer who got 11 stamps, 3 for the battle and 8 for the rest of the story, would get a round score of 14. Promotion will be based on round scores, not awarded stamps. 5 trainers will make it to the next round. If there's a tie on the 5th place - which, as much as it pains me, is something that happens -, I will have to analyze the battles in more detail to make the tough choice that will determine which trainer will make it to the next round.

If you don't make it to the 2nd round, don't worry: you'll still have a chance to grab a prize, since the Consolation Round will be held after Round 2 for all those who haven't made it to the finals. The winner of the Consolation Round will be awarded the 4th place and the corresponding prize. And of course, all the stamps you get from your battles are yours to keep.

Contestants for the First Round:
Raini the Persian vs. Sneasel
Sinopa the Ninetales vs. Jolteon
Bandit the Kecleon vs. Vileplume
Mossjito the Tangela vs. Gurdurr
Archie the Anorith vs. Grotle
Macedon the Magby vs. Aipom
Chimchar vs. Shuppet

The pokemon you'll battle are the same level as yours, and pokemon will gain 2 levels for winning a battle. Let the Games begin!

For a moment I was tempted to match Macedon against a Togepi for old times' sake, but once is enough. ;) This time the matchups aren't as random as that other time.

[The Blue Avenger]

Bam!

Dragon Games: Round 1
---
“Where is he?” Jeff said, checking room to room.

Maza leaned against the doorframe. “Kurtzwick still hasn’t shown up?”

Jeff shook his head. “And he knew we were getting ready to leave for the tournament. It’s not like a six-foot snake can hide in very many places.”

He thought about that for a moment before he and Maza chorused, “Except for Kurtzwick.”

“Kurtzwick will be fine,” Maza said, gently guiding Jeff to the door. “He’s perfectly capable of getting around on his own. Worst case scenario, he comes back and has to fend on his own at the house for a little bit. No big deal; he knows how to get food by his own devices. He’s disappeared off on his own before, remember.”

Jeff hesitantly nodded. “I suppose you’re right, as much as I don’t like to admit it.”

“Now let’s head on out. We don’t want to be late to the tournament you helped organize. Bad form.”

“Agreed.”

---

Some time later, they found themselves at the stadium. Even though Jeff had helped get the thing up and running in the first place, it didn’t make it any less impressive: the entire stadium was floating in the air of its own volition (not, as Jeff had suggested, semi-jokingly, on the backs of numerous Poliwrath). A trio of Abra, as well as their trainers, sat below the stadium, ready to teleport up any and all challengers. Jeff elected not to take advantage of the psychic Pokémon, having his own Teleporter, and he and Maza warped into the building.

His frantic searching for Kurtzwick had run him against the clock. Where most people had taken a train or somesuch to the region, Jeff and Maza had elected to take the scenic route: again, Teleporting. Though Maza’s range wasn’t quite that impressive, over their time setting up the stadium, Jeff and Maza had found several hotspots that Maza could jump to in sequence, teleporting several times in turn. The trip wasn’t long, and it gave them an opportunity to see several different parts of the country. As such, because his attempted location of Kurtzwick had used up too much time, Jeff arrived at the stadium as the opening ceremonies were concluding and the first round was getting ready to start.

“And now, for our first match…” The announcer said over the loudspeaker.

“Ah, just in time, Maza. Go rest up. I think we’ve got a bit before I have to go on; I’m pretty sure I’m second or third.”

“Marcus Wittenberg versus our own Lord Porygon, Jeff Azure!”

“Ah, damn,” Jeff said quietly and sprinted for the arena. “Go rest up, Maza, I’ll catch up with you later.”

Maza nodded and blinked away.

Jeff bolted through the numerous hallways and threw open the doors to the challenger’s side of the arena just as the screens suspended over either side of the arena lit up, showing a picture of each competing Pokémon, along with their names and statistics. Jeff flew to his podium and leaned on it, panting. He took a moment to size up the other trainer: it was a young man, certainly no older than him, with a shaved head and equally broad shoulders and chin. He acknowledged Jeff with a nod.

ROUND 1: FIGHT!
Raini versus Kartzel!
Raini: “…”
Kartzel: “Yeah! Let’s go!”

The Pokéballs were thrown, and their contents released. When Raini appeared, she stretched her lithe form supinely, spreading her paws and slowly extending her claws. A quiet yawn escaped her mouth, and she stood up, shaking her head. The feel of the dirt underneath her pads, though certainly not she was expecting in a man-made arena, was somewhat calming, and Raini allowed herself a brief moment of relaxation before firing up her mind to figure out the strategy for the day.

If I can get in their head right at the start, she thought, that will make this whole match go much, much smoother. An enigmatic smile, the sort that only a cat can really pull off effectively, crossed her face. Her gem glinted in the white light that was beginning to fade as her opponent showed himself.

If an audience member had been watching, they would have been able to pinpoint exactly when Raini’s expression turned sour: it was precisely when her opponent began talking.

“Iiiiiiit’s SNEASEL TIME!” her opponent howled, and when Raini could see, she could tell quite clearly that her foe was in fact a Sneasel. She gave the slightest hint of a slump. “Hey there, catwoman!” the Sneasel continued. “I’m Kartzel! That’s K-A-R… and you can guess the rest!” He began laughing uproariously, and Raini briefly contemplated stuffing dirt into her ears.

Right. So. Psychic is out. What does that leave me with? Raini thought, doing everything she could to ignore the barking laughter from the opposite side of the field. Dark moves are gone too… damn.

“You know, it’s the funniest thing,” Kartzel said.

Somehow, I doubt that.

Kartzel opened his eyes wide and grinned. The effect was unnerving enough that Raini felt a shiver go down her spine. “Every time I leer at a girl,” he said, “they start getting a crush on me!”

Raini tilted her head. The joke suddenly made an abundance of sense when Kartzel jumped into the air and drove his fist down on her head in a Crush Claw aided by gravity. She stumbled backwards, trying to shake the pain away, and noticed between the spots in her vision that Kartzel was wearing an earring in one feather.

As she recovered, Kartzel waggled his eyebrows. “You know it’s true.” In front of Raini’s eyes, a pink haze seemed to descend, and she felt her cheeks flush. Kartzel suddenly seemed much, much more attractive than he had moments earlier… and Raini felt her urge to dig her claws into the little cretin’s skull subside.

“And whenever a girl wants to check me out,” Kartzel continued, skipping back a few feet, “we always find time to have a little fling!” In one swift motion, he undid his earring, wound up, and hurled it through the air. It smacked Raini upside the head, and the pink haze abruptly cleared.

Raini hissed. That’s it! This moron’s going to suffer! She sped across the field and leapt into the air above Kartzel, who, oddly enough, seemed strangely unconcerned. Raini did a flip and brought her tail, coated in a thick metal shell, down on his head with a satisfying crack. Kartzel fell back, and Raini rebounded back onto the ground, gracefully.

“Heh heh…” There it was. That laugh again. Raini growled out of instinct, and it turned out that her instincts were right on the money: Kartzel sprung back to his feet, none the worse for the wear. Aside from a bruise on his forehead, he seemed perfectly okay. “That’s right! It always ends the same way! After the first date, they all want to break up!” Kartzel struck a pose, then darted to Raini’s side and delivered a pair of karate chops into her side, driving the breath from her lungs.

Raini jumped back and, feeling her eyes water slightly, kept her gaze fixed on the Sneasel, who was jumping from foot to foot. She growled. He’s keeping me off-balance! I’ve got to regain control here! Without looking away from Kartzel, Raini dug her paws into the dirt and pulled them back up with a large, ticking seed in each. She flung the left one first, then the right: each one impacted squarely with Kartzel, who still didn’t seem too put out with it, even when each seed messily exploded.

When the smoke cleared, Kartzel was still standing, though he was smoking slightly. “I know how it goes,” he said, his voice not wavering for a second. “The girls always play hard-to-get. But...” Kartzel smirked, and brushed a feather out of his face. A gleam lit up his eyes, and he was at Raini before she could react. “They always return to me in the end!” Kartzel delivered a hammer fist right onto Raini’s back.

“Aark!” Raini grunted as she collapsed. The Return was much more powerful than she had expected. She struggled back to her feet, only to notice that Kartzel was batting his eyes at her again. The familiar pink haze descended once more, and Raini was struck by the sensation of her head being filled with cotton. All the anger that had been filling her up until then seemed to dissipate. How important was it to win this match? Kartzel was such a nice guy… and so funny, too…

“You know, it all leads to one thing in the end,” Kartzel said conversationally. “All of this romance stuff, that is. It always leads to…” He smiled, barely containing his laughter. “punishment.” He delivered an uppercut to Raini’s jaw, his fist awash in dark, pulsating elemental energy. Raini felt the blow somewhat detachedly and heard an unnerving crack, and she reeled. The Attract wore off again, and the rage came rushing back, enveloping her like an old friend.

Raini forced herself to her feet and fixed her eyes on Kartzel. The sheer amount of fire in them was enough to stop him dead in his tracks, the omnipresent smile suddenly dropping.

That is it. He’s played around with me long enough. He’s gone.

She charged at Kartzel, ignoring the pain in her head, her side, her back, her jaw. Kartzel didn’t have a smart comment – he found, like several Pokémon had before, that Raini’s facial expression when she was seriously enraged could freeze a Steelix in its tracks. Raini collided with Kartzel in an explosion of blows. She pulled her legs back and tore at Kartzel with swipe after savage swipe, leaving deep slices in his skin wherever she hit.

It was only after a minute or so of this that Kartzel weakly raised his paw. “I give… I give…” he mumbled. Raini turned an eye towards the referee coming their way and reluctantly backed off.

ROUND 1 ENDS!
Raini wins! Raini grows two levels, to level 30!
Raini learns Hone Claws as her level 30 move!

“And that’s it! Jeff Azure has taken down his first foe! Will it be enough to get him to round two? That’ll be up to our judges!” the announcer said as the crowd burst into applause. “Either way, an excellent match to kick things off at this year’s Dragon Games. Wonderful!”

Jeff exhaled, recalled Raini, and slunk out of the arena.

---

“Was this a good idea, Maza?” Jeff asked, reclining on his bed.

Maza stared out the window of Jeff’s room. He didn’t turn around, something apparently having caught his attention, but he answered earnestly. “Was what a good idea? The tournament? Having it here? Not going after Kurtzwick?”

Jeff thought about that for a second. “It wasn’t any of those, but now you’ve got me worried about Kurtzwick again.”

“Kurtzwick’ll be fine. As long as there are stores to sneak food and stuff out of, he’ll find some way to soldier on. Now, what was it you were actually worried about?”

Jeff cradled a Pokéball in his hands. “Was entering Raini as my Pokémon for the tournament a good idea?”

This got Maza to turn around. He angled a glance at Jeff. “You were the one that decided to do so in the first place, right? Need me to check to see if it was Raini’s influence at work?”

Jeff waved a hand. “No, no. It was all me. But she’s so… so…” He struggled with the word.

“Vicious? Brutal? Mean?”

“Unpredictable, that’s it.” Jeff shook his head. “She just barely pulled through in this match, and that’s only because she managed to intimidate that Sneasel out of messing with her head. If we get to the next round, her next foe’s going to be even tougher, and if she can’t keep her act together, it’s not going to work.”

“Is there anything you can do about it now?” Maza asked.

“What, like training?”

“Or anything, really.”

Jeff rubbed his chin. “I suppose I could have a few words with her, see how that goes.” He swung his feet off the bed and, tossing the Pokéball from hand to hand, walked out of his room, presumably to find somewhere to talk with Raini.

Maza watched them go. “I’ll have the band-aids and antiseptic ready,” he said to nobody in particular.

[DarkestLight]

Objective: Mossjito the Tangela vs. Gurdurr


Gurdurr sounds like a stomachache

Swirling colors were quick to lighten to their consistent hues as Rapp blinked. Having successfully routing Zent's curiosity, calmed down May's incessant preening and stifled Mossy's own pilfering abilities, he earned himself a moment's peace. That moment turned into an entire night.

The three Pokemon in particular were all asleep in a little group, Zent's body flat on the ground with May covering her. Mossy was perched awkwardly on May's head, making for a strange totem pole of Pokemon. After stretching liberally, Rapp stood up and looked over to the Pokemon Center's reception desk. As he suspected, the woman that usually worked the mornings was there, cleaning the area. A lazy wave earned him a hasty set of movements from the woman. Unsure why she seemed frantic, Rapp trotted over.

"Yes? Something the matter?" he asked timidly.

"Why are you still here! Its 11 am! You should be at the Dragon Games by now!"

"Dragon Games? What?" Rapp took a moment to think back. He remembered only the battles he had experienced thus far, and looked back to May and Zent-his two new acquisitions. But there was no memory of him signing up to be anywhere specific. "I'm sorry. I don't recall signing up for the Dragon games."

"Really? Well that's too bad. You did. Here-just go outside. You'll see the stadium. Get up there, I think you are coming up soon. Good luck!" The nurse waved him off, and Rapp took the hint. Something was strangely off about this. He came here to train, when did he enter a tournament? Why would he enter a Tournament?

Reaching his mini menagerie of Pokemon, Rapp poked May's belly a few times. The tongue lashed out defensively, and ended up slapping Mossy across the face. The smell startled the grasser, who in turn flung out defensive vines to grab the nearest object and smash it into the back of said force on his face. Unfortunately that object was Zent, and it only caused Mossy to tilt his own body forward, squishing May's tongue between him and Zent's rocky exterior.

The resulting scream woke Zent up, who was unsure why there was so much squirming over her. So-she bit the smelly mass on top. May twitched, realizing this was getting far out of hand, and kicked Zent's side-only to hurt her foot on that mass of rock. Mossy released Zent and rolled to the side, and Zent crawled over to Rapp. The trio watched as May hopped on one foot while cradling her tongue and glared daggers at Rapp.

The whole scene gave Rapp something to laugh about-and boy did he revel in the moment! "Wow, never disturb you three when you all are sleeping, that's for sure!" A few more snickers exited Rapp before he realized all three Pokemon were glaring at him. Rapp thought fast, and pointed to Mossy.

"Hey, that reminds me. Did you sign us up for some sort of Tournament? Or at least knew about one via a pamphlet?"

Mossy stared at Rapp with a face of amazement, and then fished through his vines. Out slid the teapot first (which earned a smile from the Tangela), and then out fell a contract.

Rapp knelt down to grab the contract before Zent ate it (she had already began eating scraps of paper that Mossy kept throwing out of his vines), and skimmed its contents.

"Well-I'm shocked. We are in this tournament. Well then, I guess we better head over to this "Saphery" place." Mossy agreed, and headed toward the exit, with May and Zent right behind. Rapp made sure to check if they left any of their belongings behind.Nothing spotted, he followed after his group.

---

Outside the Tower, Rapp noticed that there was a train headed to the city in question, Saphery. There were a few trainers boarding as well. Walking over, he was greeted with a wave by the conductor. "I see you are also headed to the Tournament grounds?"

"I believe so, if that's where this is headed?" Rapp asked, as Zent already boarded, led on by some sweet smelling fragrance.

"Yes, yes it is. Hop on, and we'll be leaving shortly. The food car is to the rear, and you can sit anywhere you'd like Mr....Laster."

Rapp nodded, and turned around to see Mossy waving at him from on the train. He quickly stepped in and overtook Zent in 9 steps, stopping her from bursting into the food car. Onlookers watched this boy dive for that small rocky Pokemon, wondering what was the dilemma. Zent struggled against his grip, and turned around to see why Rapp was holding her back. Both would feel a strong jolt, signifying the train was leaving the station. No turning back now.

"No Zent. Not yet. Let's get our stuff straight and then we eat, 'k? I promise it won't take long." Zent huffed, but she agreed, waddling to an empty row of seats. Rapp slid in the row and ushered May and Mossy on the chairs as well. Zent was hoisted on the chairs after the other two Pokemon settled down. May was still stroking her tongue as Rapp knelt down to look at all three of them.

"Ok guys. We're traveling on a train. Should be a great time to see the world as we zip past. We'll figure out this Tournament order when we get there, but I think I'm going to use you, Mossy." Mossy looked over at Rapp when he heard his name-he was entranced with the moving world thus far. He nodded, even though Rapp was pretty sure Mossy wasn't paying any attention. Looking to May, he patted her head "I'll get you some ice for your tongue, K?"

But that notion was quelled when Mossy reached over blindly, holding a baggie of ice cubes. May gleefully accepted-but Rapp stared at the back of vines.

"Ice, really?" May smiled! Just what the doctor ordered!

Looking to each side of him, Rapp dispelled the thought of Mossy carrying a cooler in his vines. Shuffling back into the aisle, Rapp allowed Zent to slowly climb out of the chair and waddle toward the smells she caught a whiff of before. With Rapp close behind to open the door, Zent stepped into a new world of flavors and textures. Lifting her up onto the table, Rapp was quick to explain certain foods to the rock lizard-who's eyes glistened with awe and amazement. In the end, They walked back to their seat with a plethora of food (and a severe dent in Rapp's wallet).

The rock lizard ate her food with extreme vigor. As he watched her consume this enormous amount of food compared to her body size; Rapp idly wondered what she wouldn't eat. It seemed she was as content eating dirt as she was with a hamburger and fries! Or 5, as was the case. May quietly sipped her pineapple juice and her own food, and Mossy lazily reached back with his vines for plant food, all while staring out the window. He had his tea brewed and was sipping it (where he got the ice from still remained a mystery..) With the three Pokemon busy, Rapp found himself dozing off again, idly thinking what waited for him at the stadium.

After an indeterminate time, the train finally pulled into Saphery. Rapp let the other passengers get off first, as some were really eager to battle, other just there to watch. When the coast was clear, he picked up the now sleeping Zent, and wiped her face off with an extra napkin. May started to wake up and Mossy aided in helping her walk out the train. As they all walked back into a brighter area, Rapp and Mossy were slack jawed at the sight of the stadium.

"I-it..its...floating!"

It was. A massive set of floating metallic disks, this stadium was where they were to do battle? This was beyond anything the country boy had ever seen before, and it would be an understatement to say he was having second thoughts. Readjusting the sleeper, Rapp took a few nervous steps forward, as May finally got her bearings and yawned audibly.

"It's alright, Mossy. Don't....be scared. Jus..t a few th..ous..and people." Nervously, Rapp turned to Mossy, who gave him a glare. "Heh. Confident as ever. But how do we get u-"

Before he could finish his query, a flash of light appeared in front of them, and an Abra floated there, spinning slowly. Mossy grabbed onto Rapp, and May felt a vine grab onto her waist. Rapp understood, and reached out to the Abra. In a flash, the quintet vanished, and reappeared atop the Land Disk. As swiftly as it came, the Abra was gone-off to help other lost folks.

"Well, we're here...whereever here is?" Taking a moment to examine their surroundings, Rapp noticed that they were near a stairwell. There were voices coming from the base of the stairwell, so logically, he should find answers there. The trio walked down a stairwell, leading to a hallway where he heard more voices. There was a low roar, along with an announcer shouting something. The low roar turned to a resounding sound of cheering as they turned a corner and reached what seemed to be an exit to the tunnel. Rapp's pace slowed as he realized he was walking toward the starting area.

The tunnel ended, and Rapp could see two people battling it out vigorously. In the end, the small feline form won, and the Trainer hastily slunk out. Rapp watched the man speed by, before looking back at the field. "Well, I'm glad I found the place and all, but how do you know when it's your time to battle?"

The world seemed to have heard his inquiry, as the announcer cheered over the loudspeaker. "Alright folks, are you ready to have your world rocked by another exiting match!" The resounding roar caused Zent to stir, but not awaken. "Alright! The next battle is between Kelly Winzler and Rapp Laster! Get out here!"

"Jeezus right now?" Before Rapp could even react, there was his picture on the Jumbo screen for the audience to cheer or jeer at. Rapp knelt down and set Zent down next to May. His gaze turned to May and became stern. "Watch her. Understand." The seriousness of his tone radiated through to May, who nodded and sat down next to the sleeping Pokemon.

From May's vantage point, she could see the battle fairly well. Rapp ran out with Mossy following, to a round of applause. Across the arena, a slender woman with short shorts and a tank top trotted over to her starting position.

Rapp gave her a wave, but the girl merely kicked one leg in the air, before rotating on her base foot and setting her raised foot back down. Releasing a Pokeball in the air, the contents formed into a massive Pokemon, with a semi-bulbous head, and muscles covering its body. It wielded a steel girder...with ease.

"Never seen anything like that...but Mossy, it looks like a fighter." Mossy nodded and stepped forward, ready to go.

"What's that? A Tangela? Kneecaps, take him out!"

[Lv 24 Mossy vs Lv 24 Kneecaps!]

Mossy looked back to Rapp one last time, before turning to the battle at hand. The foe in question was strong, that girder it carried looked pretty heavy, and here it was, just spinning it on its fingers.

"Alright Mossy. Let's try that plan. Yoko Kurama." Mossy nodded, and began to shiver. He lets loose a seed that wriggles into the ground. Kneecaps sees the Tangela lose a piece of itself and slams its girder on the ground. No more games.

The stout legged beast shuffled forward, and tested the waters with a punch that knocked Mossy back. It wasn't too bad, and Kneecap smirked, while softly murmuring its name. Mossy and Rapp stared-was that his stomach? Mossy however, sprung back onto his bright red shoes and retaliated with a swift Vine Whip. The hit barely bothered Kneecap, and Mossy saw this was going to get nasty.

Kneecap murmured its name softly again, throwing Rapp for a loop. "Is its stomach really that loud?" He bounded in and punched his left hand into his right palm, Focusing his energies. Mossy goes in fast, dropping a few seeds off his body as he flew forward and slammed into Kneecap's stomach.

Bouncing back, Kneecap stood there, seemingly unphazed. Aside from the murmur! Mossy tried to get that murmur out of his head, and that second of distraction cost Mossy. The beast grabbed a hold of the plant and began to spin him by his vines. Seeds went flying all around the arena, and Mossy joins a few of them as he is kicked away! The Low kick didn't hurt as much as Mossy expected, and Mossy decided it was time to quit being a punching bag. Shaking off any more excess seeds, Mossy now crackled with energy. Kneecaps wondered what this meant and went marching back for his weapon. He didn't reach it initially, as a Shock Wave raged across the arena. Kneecap fell to one knee, and wondered when a plant could throw lightning!

"Hey Knee! Get off yourself and beat it down!"

Knee murmured, and grabbed his weapon. Using said girder as a pole vault, Kneecaps covered the distance between him and Mossy in three vaults. On the third vault, Kneecap flung the girder over his head and slammed it into Mossy's back. This hit sent Mossy rolling across the dirt, seeds and dust flying all around. Chipping away at Mossy's patience, the viney fighter quickly retaliated, knowing those hits were filled more power than he approved of. A dust field was fired, streaking for Kneecaps, but the massive beast spun his girder in front of him, deterring the stream of powder!

Mossy ran up to Kneecaps, and the beast went to slam the girder into Mossy's skull again. This time Mossy jumped backwards, the girder slamming in front of him. Running up the girder, Mossy quickly delivered a second Shock Wave to Kneecaps face. The shock caused Kneecaps to drop his weapon and hold his face in pain.

"Now, while he's dazed! Sleep Powder"

Kelly yelled for Kneecaps to defend himself, and so the Pokemon began to swing wildly, but he was no match for the dust that was now blowing in his face. The seed spilling Mossy watched as Kneecaps swung blindly for a few more moments, before falling on his back.

Mossy didn't waste any more time, as he rooted two vines in the earth, one on each side of Kneecaps. The murmur was heard again, and that drove Mossy over the edge. Raising himself up wit his vines, he pushed his vines to the absolute limit. Using his body as a slingshot, he slammed into the downed Gurdurr once, twice, three times! Releasing himself on the third slam was the idea, but Kneecap woke up. He sat up as Mossy began to sail up, and grabbed one of those trailing vines. Mossy barely had time to control his trajectory before he felt himself be yanked back into a incoming fist!

The hit caused Mossy to sail back, and for seeds to fly free, but Kneecap never let go of that vine. Mossy knew what this meant, and Kneecaps murmured again, delivering another punch to Mossy, like some sort of grass Yoyo. Seeds went flying with each punch, burying themselves into the ground. Upon incoming for the third, Mossy crackled with electricity, giving Kneecap something to flinch about as he punched a Shock Wave. This forced him to release Mossy, who rolled away and landed on his feet. Tendrils were recalled instantly, and he looked to Rapp.

"Oh! Yer ready? Good. Finish him off them!"

Kelly stared at the very quiet trainer and his Pokemon. The hell were they even talking about. Her Pokemon wasn't even half as hurt as Mossy was, as Kneecaps got up from that blow and picked up his weapon. "Hey Kneecaps. Watch out for those powders! Bash it again."

Kneecaps swung once with its girder, Mossy bouncing backwards to avoid the blow. Kneecaps lunged in and tried for an overhead slam, and Mossy jumped to meet the girder head on. The swing connected, but Mossy's vines wrapped around the girder, using it as one would climb a tree branch. The momentum now on Mossy's side, he roped himself around the girder again, twisting Kneecap's grip on it, and slammed HIM into the ground with said weapon, head first! A nasty Shock Wave sealed defeat, as it ran through the girder and electrocuted the Fighting type before he could get any sort of resistance up.

The Pokemon gave out one last stomach growl, but stayed down, his own weapon falling beside him. Mossy landed, breathing heavily. But at least Phase one was done.

[Mossy wins!
Mossy grows to lv 26!]

As Kelly went over to the felled Kneecaps, Rapp ran over, with a treat in hand. As the announcer got the crowd to cheer for Rapp, he held out the treat to Kelly.

"I noticed your Pokemon was very hungry. Here, its some spare food."

Mossy and Rapp both received a blank stare, as Kelly took the piece of food, and then looked to her Pokemon. "Hungry?"

"Yeah, we could hear its stomach growling. Sounded something like "Gurr..durr"

Kelly stared blankly at Rapp, before her cheeks flushed red and she rolled on her back laughing. "I can't believe I lost to someone that doesn't know what a Gurdurr is!"

"I know what a girder is!!" Rapp scoffed, pointing to the metallic object next to the unconscious Pokemon. "I'm trying to be nice!" But Kelly was in hysterics, wiping tears from her eyes as she laughed. Rapp shrugged, and turned to leave, Mossy taking one last look at the arena.

Yes...this would be a fun tournament-granted if they could make it that far..

[lvl100mewtwo]

Wow, forgot how much I loved writing for tournaments. Enjoy!


Living in the Shadows


Seems like only yesterday
Life belong to runaways
Nothing here to see, no looking back
Every sound monotone
Every color monocrome
Life begin to fade into the black
Such a simple animal
Steralized with alcohol
I could hardly feel me anymore

Desperate, meaningless
All filled up with emptiness
Felt like everything was said and done

I lay there in the dark, I close my eyes
You saved me the day you came alive

My eyes slowly opened, as I noticed that I had once again passed out, listening to my iPod, in the middle of a crowded area. Some passer-by was giving me an odd look while others took a double glance. The last thing I wanted to do was attract attention to myself at this point. I gathered my belongings groggily and managed to pick myself up from the bench I had passed out on.

I looked down at my watch.

Quarter to 5, wow, I was out for a while... Might be time I go pick up the guys and go in for more training I thought to myself, as I started to walk towards the center.

“Good evening Mr. Lavigne, here to pick up Macedon and Rex?” The lovely nurse proclaimed from behind the counter. “Word to the wise, may want to start with kiddy pools for this little guy.” She finished, pointing to Rex as he turned around and stuck his tongue out at her.

“I’ll take it under consideration, thanks.”

Macedon and Rex came around the counter and joined up with me. I searched through my bag and brought out a piece of chocolate and some yogurt for each of them.

The crowded area I was standing in went suddenly silent, everyone turning their attention to the television. A match was finalizing.

“...And with those last few swipes, Raini takes out Kartzel with some devastating blows. I haven’t seen those kinds of exchanges in a very long time Bob, quite the match that just happened here!

“Right Harry, those were some vicious hits lashed out at the end, but what a battle none the less! Quite an impressive display from both Pokemon!”

“Stay tuned with us folks on the EBPN, we’ll be back with the next match from the first day of the first round!”

And with that, people cheered and then went back on to their business and routines. I looked down at my partners. Rex was excited, looking in every which direction while Macedon was quiet, reserved.

“Alright boys, I wanted to get some more training done for you both, but it seems the tournament has already started, so I think we are going to head in early, what do you two think?” Rex gave an excited agreeing nod, while Macedon gave an emphatic one.

Something’s up with Mace right now... I thought, as I gave him a glance

The three of us made our way to the flight centre. I walked up to the counter and flashed my trainer’s card. The lady behind the counter lent me a Pokéball.

“Enjoy your flight! Please leave the Pokémon at the front desk when you get to the floating island.” She gleefully mentioned.

“Wait. What? Floating Island? I don’t remember a Floating Island in Caledor?” I retorted.

“Oh yes! It’s the brand new battle stadium, quite the sight to behold”

“Wow... I’ve been gone for way too long...” I muttered under my breath


------------------------------------------------------------------

I hadn’t felt the cool breeze of the air like this in a long time, high above in the sky, on top of the saddled Aerodactyl. The cool and thin air gave me plenty of time to think out possible strategies, moves and other non-sense for my first round match.

Being this high up also reminded me of the simpler times, when I didn’t have to rent out a Pokémon to get to where I wanted to go. Bahamut would soar at lightning fast speeds, nearly breaking Mach One, just to get us where we needed to go, as fast as possible.

In the distance, a large structure caught my eye. The Aerodactyl started to wail out, indicating that this was where we were headed. The giant floating platform was something that easily took my breath away. What was more intimidating was that even though we were a kilometre or so away from the floating behemoth, I could hear the deafening noises of cheers and cries coming from the stadiums. My blood was pumping, my heart beating strong. I had forgotten the feel of being in a tournament, one that was nationally revered as the top one.

With a sudden burst of energy, the fossil Pokémon bolted to our destination. Macedon and Rex were both holding on for dear life behind me. Both were trying to get a glimpse ahead at what was in store for them. The closer we got, the louder it got.

Finally, the Aerodactyl landed on the strip and gently let us down before putting himself back in the Pokéball. Our trio made our way to the rental office where I gladly returned our friend. For a split second though, I almost felt like keeping the rock / flying type, could have been a good addition to the team.

With our friend returned, I asked for directions to the registration office to sign in. The kind lady at the desk pointed out the direction I was to go towards, and I promptly went that way. Walking on the tournament grounds, I could see the festivities in full bloom. Vendors all over the place, trying to sell memorabilia and refreshments. The odd scalper here and there, trying to get rid of their tickets for already pre-determined matches. Families enjoying their time together. Trainers and their teams preparing for their inevitable battles.

Finally at the registration counter, I gave my trainer’s card, only to find out that my first match would be in an hour or so. This gave me little prep time with Macedon. The gentleman behind the counter informed me that the trainer’s room 34A in the stadium was ready for me and that I could go and get ready there. All I had to do was go through the trainer’s door and go from there.

“Good Luck Mr. Lavigne! I’m sure you’ll do just as great as you did in the first Dragon Games!” Great, he had to go and say that out loud...

People started to stare, not only at me, but at my 2 adjacent Pokémon, as we made our way to the trainers’ entrance. I didn’t want to attract any attention to myself or my team, as I already noticed that Macedon was uncomfortable with the situation. Rex absolutely loved the attention; the gazing eyes of everyone looking at all of us made him feel special.

Getting to the front gate, I noticed all the people marching in and out of the stadium. There had to easily be ten thousand people in there. I veered to the right and made my way to the trainer’s entrance, where I pulled out my trainer’s card once more and made my way in.

“32B... 33A... 33B... Ah, here we go, 34A” I said, walking into the room.

A fruit and food basket was on the table, while a white couch was in the corner, with a flat screen mounted to the wall, showing the latest match going on. I turned to Macedon, seeing him sitting in the corner, alone, staring at the TV and looking intently.

“Macedon, you alright bud? You don’t seem like yourself right now...” speaking with a concerned tone.

Macedon looked up, plenty of worry in his eyes. He seemed nervous and distressed by this match. His inexperience in big matches like this was showing. He seemed at un-ease.

“Look, Macedon, I just want you to do your best at this, win or lose, you know I’ll be proud of you. I don’t see why you have to be so nervous about this. It’s just a match like any other; you just have to remind yourself of that.” That was my attempt at a pep talk, and unfortunately, it didn’t seem to put Macedon at rest. He just kept his eyes fixed at the TV, looking at the match.

Rex was looming around, seemingly throwing comments here and there and putting Macedon more at an un-rested state.

“Rex, will you quit it!” I howled, as I gave him a piece of chocolate. The pup went onto the couch to devour his snack. I turned back to see that Macedon was just observing the match on the television, attempting to understand what he was getting himself into. He still had that nervous look on his face. I decided to leave him alone for a bit, let him calm his nerves, as I sat down on the couch, grabbing a snack for myself.


--------------------------------------------------

<Macedon>

“... And what a turn of events! Mossy with an incredible display of power, taking down Kneecaps with that last jolt of electricity! Bob, I haven’t seen this kind power on display in ages, have you?”

“Nope, can’t say I have Harry! What a fight!”

“And with that fight over, the field will be cleaned up and prepared for the next match, which promises to be a doozy!”

“That’s right Harry! Next up is quite a treat, with a returning veteran coming back into the folds of competition. The first ever champion of the Dragon Games, Alex Lavigne, is back after a 7 plus year hiatus.”

“Rumour has it that he is using a brand new team these days. Unheard of, from our standpoint, for an old champion. Who can forget that memorable championship match in 2002 between Mystic and Machamp...” click

With that, the screen turned black, my heart pounding at a mile a minute. I felt nauseous at this point. I looked back and saw Alex holding a little black controller and placing it down on the table in front of him.

“I don’t think you need to see that bud, I’m here with you tonight, and we are doing this together.” He said in a rather calm voice.

Rex was dozing off on the couch at this point, having eaten his entire chocolate bar then getting into the fruit basket and the mini cold storage box. Apparently Alex didn’t like the fact that Rex found his way into this cold box, saying something along the lines of how expensive the items in the said box were.

A knock could be heard at the door as Alex went to check up on it.

“You are up sir. Time for your match” The man said at the door. Alex turned his attention to me and gave me a nod of confidence, then walked to Rex and woke him up.

“Let’s go Macedon, it’s time.” He said, taking a step outside the room. I followed suit with Rex next to me. My stomach felt like it wanted to jump out of my mouth at this point. I was shaking the entire walk down the tunnel.

The sounds were getting louder and louder, as I could see the light in the distance. Nearing the opening, crowds of people were being held back by metal gates. Alex just passed by them all, not really acknowledging them. Rex loved the attention at this point, taking a few seconds to take poses so that people could take pictures. I just raced past them.

Ten thousand people! All cheering loudly as we all made our entrances. My ear drums vibrated from the deafening screams. My knees were getting weak, my head getting light. Alex turned around and saw my predicament. He came back to see me and kneeled in front of me.

“Macedon, listen to me. The only thing you can do now is drown out the noise. Just think like it’s you and me, in the middle of a field, and our opponents. No one else is around us.” The ironic part of it all was that his encouraging words were being drowned out by the chants of the crowd.

I looked up and around, noticing a giant picture screen, showing a picture of myself, then a picture of Alex. Videos started to go through the screen, old footage of a match between an Espeon and an Aerodactyl. Old footage of a match between the same Espeon and a Machamp came up next. The montage ended with a video of Alex holding up the Espeon on his right shoulder, a giant trophy and light blue egg in front of him.

...And Alex and Mystic have done it! They have won the inaugural Dragon Games! What a match ladies and gentleman! The sounds of the old footage boomed across the stadium. I felt sick again, nervous.

“Macedon!” Alex screamed as he was in his trainer’s box. I walked up to my trainer. Rex was sitting next to him on the ground. “Just go out there and do your best... you know... take it... go out there... your all...” Every time he spoke, all I could grab were glimpses, as the crowd was just drowning out anything that he was saying.

I didn’t know if I wanted to do this anymore. Too high of expectations were left on my shoulders, too much to live up to. I gave one last look of discontent at Alex, to no avail, as he pointed to the field with a smile. I unwillingly nodded and made my way onto the field.

Alex’s trainer box started to rise. Rex looked down, grinning, waving at me. Oh how I loathe you right now... you have no idea how much this is killing my nerves right now.

I stared across the field to see another human, a male, I presumed probably of the same age as Alex. His box was also rising, yet no opponent was released in front of me yet.

The field was rocky all over, boulders and soft sand. I started to assert my situation. I didn’t know my opponent, but I knew how the field worked, what I could use for cover, what I could use for offense. I was planning my moves, trying to calculate what exactly I could do in tight situations.

“Prime, it’s time.” The opponent said, releasing his ball from his hand, as it landed on the ground, revealing an ape. I had seen this type of Pokémon before, an Aipom. He slowly sat down in the dirt, crossing his legs and closing his eyes.

“Trainer’s, are you ready?” The man standing in the middle of the field said. Both Alex and his opponent nodded. “Pokémon, are you ready?” I hesitantly raised my hand, while the Aipom raised his emphatically, eyes still shut.

“And here... We...”


Round 1
Macedon Lv15 v. Prime Lv15!

“Go...” The man in the middle said, his green flags that were raised above his head fell to his side.

“Prime, start this” the opposing trainer said, in a calm manner.

The monkey sharply opened its eyes, glanced quickly across the field and disappeared in a blur. Before I could even blink, the Aipom appeared in front of me, his tail high in the air, coming down at break neck speed, pounding the ground. The resulting shockwave sent me reeling backwards, crashing into a rock. The entire opening sequence had me in a daze, catching me completely off guard. “Oh”s and “Aw”’s could be heard from the crowd.

And Aipom starts the battle off with a lightning fast Fake Out! Macedon seems dazed and confused! boomed over the loud speakers

Slowly standing myself up, I was confronted once more by a blur as Aipom sped in front of me, tail sliding on the ground. The force of the action sent dirt and sand into my eyes and all over the place, as he kept on speeding, launching more and more earth at me. All I could feel was the burning sensation coursing through my eyes.

I screamed and wailed out in pain, launching multiple Embers in every which way, trying to go by sound instead of sight, to pin point my opponent. My attacks proved fruitless, as it seemed that all I could hit at this point were boulders and fin air with the mucus balls of flame.

The sound of pattering feet grew faint, as I took this moment of inactivity to try and rub out the dirt lodged in the back of my retina.

This monkey is starting to seriously tick me off... I kept repeating to myself, as I could finally start seeing again.

With my eyesight finally returned, all I could see was the Aipom standing right in front of me, grinning from ear to ear. I put up my hands to protect myself, only to be met by the hand on its tail holding me back as its small body hands started to rapidly go over my body. I couldn’t control the sudden urge to laugh, as it seemed I was getting tickled to death. The excruciating pain of the slide splitting laughter overtook my whole body, sending me into a laughing fit.

“Enough, Enough, this isn’t fair!” I started to yell out.

In my spurt of laughter, I started to release black smoggy gasses. The Aipom finally released me as it started to cough and wheeze. The monkey started to take a few steps back from the noxious fumes being produced.

The Aipom sat down onto the ground, cross legged. It started to take in deep breaths, seemingly awaiting its next orders.

“Chop him down Prime.” His trainer said.

Without fail, the monkey opened its eyes and launched himself straight into the air. I looked up only to lose him into the stadium lighting. I took one step back and prepared myself into a defensive stance. The nerves were hitting me again, as I kept my eyes fixed into the night sky. A cool breeze passed through me, as I could sense the Aipom drawing near. Just like that, the long tailed Pokémon came crashing down, its tail high in the air. With one fell swoop, his tail came down faster than his falling body, as it connected with the top of my head.

For a second, all I could see was darkness. My vision returned slowly as I looked in front of me only to notice a distracted monkey, holding its tail in pain, burning. This was my opening.

I raced in, hand cocked backwards, ready to strike. Before the Aipom could even figure out what was happening, I came in, bearing a mean right hook straight to his jaw. The force of the impact sent him reeling backwards, knocking him straight into one of the boulders. The loud Smack could be heard throughout the stadium.

For once in this match, I felt like I was in control! I felt like a new Pokémon! Energy was coursing through me; I seemed to be finding my legs. The crowd, as loud as it was, was getting fainter and fainter to me. The booming sounds coming from the announcement system were also becoming a distant noise. At this moment, I finally felt like I belonged at this stage.

And with that thought, I was brought back down to earth like a thunder strike hitting the ground. Meer millimetres away from my head, a strike of electricity crackled by, barely missing. This made me realise that there was still a match to be fought. My legs started to act like jell-o once more, the crowd’s noises coming back with a deafening shockwave.

“Macedon, do something! Don’t stand there and take that Thunderbolt! Double Team!” I could hear Alex’s screams through the crowd, hollering his commands.

I had little time to react, at my opponent started to move at high speeds. I started to take a few steps, trying to pick up my own speed. The better I could move, the easier it was to set up clones of myself all across the field. 2 clones. 3 clones. 4 clones. Soon, clones of me littered the battlefield, as the Aipom tried vehemently to attack each and every clone. Its tail and hand were coming down hard on every one of myself, only hitting clones. With every attempted hit, it was evident that the burn on its hand was becoming more and more painful.

<Alex

The Aipom finally decided to take a rest, as it seemed useless to waste as much energy trying to catch the right Macedon all while letting the burns on his tail hand damage himself more. This was the opening Macedon needed.

“Macedon, Leer!” I bellowed, looking down at the multiple copies of my pokemon.

Without hesitation, Macedon’s eyes lit up a light blue, as the monkey gazed deep into my fire type’s eyes. The look on his face was priceless, as fear started to creep in on it. Macedon, with every passing second, seemed to be gaining confidence in this match, which was an incredible sign. Now if only he could keep this up for the rest of the match.

“Prime, what are you doing? Seismic Toss, now!” My opponent screamed.

With that, the Aipom snapped out of its daze and rushed towards Macedon. Not expecting the attack, Macedon froze into place, unable to move. Aipom easily locked onto my Pokémon, speeding in and grabbing Macedon with his small arms and holding on tight. With a kung fu grip on Macedon, the monkey’s tail propelled both Pokémon high into the air, almost making them unable to be seen. As they seemed to reach their apex of height, they both started to speed down towards the ground. It seemed a small battle for who would be on top seemed to be going on between both Pokémon. None of them wanted to feel the full impact of the fall. With one quick swipe of his tail, the Aipom returned to the dominant position, before both Pokémon crashed into the rocky field.

...I still can’t believe what I am seeing here Bob! Is this match even happening right now? My god these announcers over the loudspeakers were getting annoying.

I tried to look through the rubble and dust to see what had happened. It finally started to clear out, only to witness that both combatants were standing on their feet, still willing to battle it out.

“Macedon, keep it up, we can finish it! Psychic!”

Macedon readily accepted my order, as his body was surrounded by the familiar dark purple aura. With a loud cry, the fire type released all of his energy outwards, covering the field in a few seconds flat. Dust once again covered the area, making it rather difficult to see what had actually happened between the 2 opponents.

Once the clouds of dirt started to dissipate, it was obvious what had happened. Aipom had put his guard up, launching a Protect attack. The green bubble surrounding the ape was slowly de-materializing. You could notice on the ground that even though the attack was blocked, it definitely pushed back the monkey, as tracks were visible in the dirt where his feet and tail had stabilized him.

With the Protect coming down, I knew this was one of the few chances I had to get Macedon in for a clean hit without any chances of it getting blocked.

“Macedon, Mach...” Before I could even finish my command, Macedon, panting heavily, rushed in at high speeds, and connected with a vicious right hook, followed by a left upper cut.

“Prime, don’t take this, Thunderbolt!”

In such close proximity, there was no way that Macedon could avoid the oncoming attack. The force of the electrical surge sent him flying back into my raised trainer’s box. I grabbed the railing in front of me and leaned over to look down. Macedon was hurt, badly. I could hear his heavy panting over the loud crowd, as they started to chant on:

”Aipom... Aipom... Aipom...”

I started to block out the noises from around and concentrated on my Pokémon, pleading Macedon to get up, to give it one last shot. The referee rushed to our side of the field, his left arm rose, waiting to make the call.

<Macedon>

Ai... Pom... Aipom... The sounds were faint, yet that was all that I could hear from the crowd.

“Ma... get u... you can’t...” I could slightly hear Alex screaming from above. I had little energy left at this point.

All I could think of at this point was the disappointment I was being to Alex. I had let him down. All the images that were displayed at the beginning of the match on that giant screen of Alex winning his old matches with his old Pokémon kept flooding my mind, putting more doubt.

What a turn of events! The past champion and his Pokémon seem to be down for the count in this match folks, I don’t think Macedon will be getting up from that close up Thunderbolt! It seemed as though my hearing was returning at this point. I could start to hear the annoying noises of the man over the announcement speakers.

”Macedon, get up! You can’t lose this! Give it one last shot!” I could finally hear Alex completely at this point, as my eyes started to open. I gave a quick stare upwards. I could see the worried look on his face. I couldn’t let him down. I had to give it one last shot as he put it so well.

What’s this! Macedon seems to be getting up! The referee is putting down his flag, indicating that both Pokémon are still capable of fighting! Incredible Harry!

I rolled myself over and planted my arms on the ground. I raised myself, slowly, using the force in my hands and arms to bring myself to my feet. I hazily looked across to see the field to see the Aipom picking himself up from the ground as well, panting heavily and clutching its burnt tail.

It has to end now!

I took a step forward. A sharp pain rose throughout my body, yet I ignored it. I started to suck in air and collected mucus. The Aipom, finally on its feet, started to charge an electrical ball between his hands, preparing another Thunderbolt.

Both attacks were launched at the same time, connecting in the middle of the field. The pure energy that was released from the connections of the attack created a mini explosion, sending dust and dirt all over the field. The shockwave was felt quite instantaneously, making me back up a few inches. I started to launch more and more Embers through the cloud of dirt.

The dust settled quickly, as I spotted across the field the Aipom once again preparing another Thunderbolt. I took one step back, bracing myself for the surge of electricity that would connect.

Suddenly, a look of shock and surprise came across the monkey’s face, as his attack was abruptly interrupted. A loud scream could be heard, as its tail seemed to be catching on fire. The burn damage had taken its toll, as the Aipom finally collapsed onto the ground, unable to handle the pain no more.

The crowd erupted into frenzy...

Macedon has done it! Unbelievable folks! This was one for the ages!

And then darkness...

<Alex>

I looked down to see Macedon. I still couldn’t believe what had just happened. The little guy gave it his all and hopefully it would prove to be enough.

My trainer’s box started to slowly lower, yet I couldn’t wait as I jumped down, making it onto the battlefield, just in time to catch an exhausted Magby. His body was lukewarm at best. I grabbed him in my arms and cradled him. This little guy had grown so much in the past little while, and to give it his all like this, made it unbelievable.


--------------------------------------------------------

Macedon the Magby(Lvl 15) battled Prime the Aipom (Lvl 15) and won.

Macedon grew to level 17 and learned Faint Attack.

[Wolfsong]

It took me to 2 am but I finished.

Before story notes: This is supposed to take place after Jasmine’s training battles but as I was running short of the time I stopped working on that and started on this one. The Dark Pulse TM that Sinopa received was my free gift when the new TMs were introduced. Yana’s I purchased as well as the detect TM for Jasmine. The Shiny Juice was my Birthday present.


(Jasmine’s POV)

When I heard the door to the hotel room open, I lifted my head to see Amy juggling a couple bags as well as a handful of papers and a set of keys. Giving my wings a shake, I slithered out to greet her. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain once everyone is here.”

Without saying a word, I flapped my wings to get airborne where I hovered so I could have a good view. It did no for the time being that wasn’t going t take long for everyone to wake up or approach, which given that we were in a hotel was not a surprise.

“While I was out renting the van, I got the notification that Sinopa’s entry was accepted. We’ll leave in the morning that should give us plenty of time to get there without having to rush.

“What about those of us who still needs to battle?

“Ebony, we’ll come back here, I promise.” I smiled at that. Maybe I’d manage to evolve soon if that was the case. “While I was out, I also managed to purchase a few TMs, two Dark Pulse and one detect. Those are for Yana, Sinopa, and Jasmine.”


(Sugar’s POV)

I couldn’t sleep so once I managed to get Danny to sleep I started pacing back and forth across the floor. What I needed was a good run, but for now that wasn’t going to be possible. As I paced, I couldn’t help but noticed that I wasn’t the only one having trouble sleeping. Sinopa was sitting up and looking over at where Blazer was sleeping. Every so often she’d glance in Kovu’s direction, before she’d lie back down only to repeat the process a few minutes later. Giving myself a full body shake, I approached her.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she admitted when I approached her.

“Sinopa, this is supposed to be for fun. If you win great, if you don’t it’s still okay. All Amy expects is for you to do your best. You’ll do that right?”

She gave a small smile. “Of course I can.”

“Good, now try to rest. I’m sure you’ll want to watch the scenery as Amy drives. Besides, I’ve got enough excess energy for the both of us.” The ninetales chuckled at that. “I’ll try.” With that, she closed her eyes and pressed herself closer to Darin being careful not to squash Rick who had started to sleep between them.


(Sinopa’s POV)

I don’t know how long it was after I had that talk with Sugar before sleep finally claimed me. I was dreaming that I was running in this big grassy field when all of a sudden something slammed into my chest knocking the breath out of me. I yipped, opening my eyes as I looked around wildly only to see Rick running off to hide purring loudly as he did so. Sighing, I stood up and stretched before looking around.

Amy had just finished packing up the last of the suitcases. “I’m going down to the van.”

“I’ll come with you.” I said hurrying after. I wanted a good seat and I knew that if I wasn’t one of the first I’d be crowded. I saw Sugar get up out of the corner of my eye. She picked Danny up by the scruff of his neck before following us to the car.

I hopped up on the back seat and laid down on it. The jolteon hopped in after me and placed Danny down in front of her. As expected, most of the others tried to hop in the van as well. With Kovu, Kiara, Darin, Sugar, Rick, Danny, Colby, and Tiny it was way too crowded for my taste. I was already having trouble breathing at the thought of being stuck in the crowded conditions for a long ride.

“I think it’s already a little crowded in there.

Kiara looked over at Yana and followed her gaze before nodding in agreement. “I think you’re right. Maybe more of us should ride in our pokeballs.”I mouthed the words thank you as all but Sugar, Danny, Rick, and Darin chose to disappear into their pokeballs.

The backseat of the van was rather comfortable. Danny decided he wanted to look out the window so he stood on the back of my head with his front paws perched on my head as he looked out. Rick had dozed off shortly after we had gotten underway.

While we were watching the scenery, Rick must have woken up. He was quiet and that was our first clue that something was amiss. I glanced over at Sugar about the same time she noticed that there was no more soft snoring. “Where’s -” was all that I got out before we heard giggling coming from Amy’s backpack before a silver tail tip, sparking slightly, poked out of the bag.

“Amy?”

“Yeah?” she answered, not taking her eyes off of the road.

“Who did you get the shiny juice for when you got it for your birthday?”

“Whoever wanted it, why?”

Because Rick got into your bag and drank it.”

“How is he doing?”

“It didn’t slow him down.” I told her as he began to chase his tail until he got dizzy and fell down.” I chuckled before closing my eyes and drifted off to sleep.


****

I woke up as Amy was pulling into the parking lot of the hotel. I sat up on the seat, stretching as I did so. Once she got out, Amy let the others out of their pokeballs.

“Just a few things before I go get us our room.” She began as she waited for all of us to grow quiet. “First off, until we find out what is going on with the missing pokemon, I don’t want any of you going out by yourself. If you want to go out and explore, please for safety’s sake go in pairs. I hope we find Flame soon.” We all nodded in agreement at that.

“Next,” she continued, looking directly at Sugar. “I don’t want any of you destroying hotel property either accidentally or on purpose. Lastly, I don’t want any of you acting silly or running off with a ham when we’re at the buffet. Understood?”

“We do.”

After that, the others went to look around as Amy went to get our hotel room. Darin and I headed off to look for a secluded area so that I could try practicing my attacks.


****

It was late by the time Darin and I made it back to the hotel room. I didn’t have any trouble with using solar beam. Dark pulse, on the other hand, was a completely different story. I couldn’t seem to get the hang of it. At least, if I needed dark type attacks, I had faint attack and crunch.

I yawned, and hopped up on the couch and curled up on it. It seemed as if I had only just drifted off to sleep when someone was shaking me awake.

“Sinopa, we need to leave if we hope to get to the stadium on time.”

My eyes flew open upon hearing that as I looked around, momentarily forgetting that we were in yet another hotel room. As I woke up, I quickly remembered where we were and why we were here. “Where is everyone?”

“In they’re pokeballs. Talut and Jasmine are waiting for us outside.”

I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, as I followed Amy outside.

“You’ll do fine,” she assured me, before looking over at Jasmine as we walked outside. “If you get too tired to keep going, Jas, let me know.”

“I will, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.” She promised, before flapping her wings and taking to the sky. I watched as Amy climbed up on Talut’s back. He beat his wings until he was airborne and then he swooped low and picked me up.

I made sure that I was as still as I could be because I didn’t want Talut to accidentally drop me. I was grateful that the others were so understanding about my fear of being trapped.

We hadn’t gone very far before we could see the floating platform. Talut increased his speed and before I knew it, he had risen above the platform. He hovered in the air as he took in his surroundings, before he began his descent landing in front of the stadium.

I quickly hopped out of the dragon’s arms glad to have my paws on solid ground again. Amy quickly released the others who ran off to grab some good seats so that they wouldn’t miss a thing.

“Let’s go and let them know that we’ve arrived.” Amy said with a smile.

I nodded in agreement as I followed her. I didn’t even try to talk because I knew that if I did it would reveal how nervous I was when my voice squeak.”

“Do you want to watch the other battles until its our turn?”

Maybe the ones that come after mine, if there are any. I thought to myself as I shook my head no.

“Okay, so you’d rather wait here until they call us?” At that I nodded my head as hard as I could up and down. I didn’t want to watch and get myself all worked up about how good the competition was. I closed my eyes and forced myself to slowly breathe in and out, which helped to calm my nerves somewhat until I heard my name over the loudspeaker.

“Next up is Sinopa Verses Zeus.”

I got to my paws and silently padded after Amy as we walked out into the Arena. My opponent was a strong looking jolteon and he had an anklet on his left front paw. I swallowed at that, as I reached up with a paw to feel my collar. I glanced around and smiled at the location, because it was huge. There was nothing better to me than wide open spaces. I saw Amy walking to the sidelines as the jolteon’s trainer did the same. I could hear his fur crackling with electricity.


Sinopa L.20 Female Ninetales with a rainbow topknot and Crystal Blue Eyes http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/WolsongsWilderness/sinoparainbow3.png Vs. Zeus L.20 M Jolteon

Before I could even think of trying to dodge, Zeus’s fur sparked and three electrical rings flew towards me and, when they hit, I found it hard to move. It was like trying to swim in a barrel of molasses. I did manage to spit out a couple tiny fire balls that slammed into his side leaving him with a nasty burn on his shoulder.

Zeus snarled as his fur began to crackle with electricity once again and a bolt of electricity shot from him and slammed into me causing me to yelp before I felt my muscles locking down to where I couldn’t move.

Zeus used the opportunity to do a little dance as rain began to pour down into the arena. As soon as my muscles locked up, I began to panic. At first, I couldn’t breathe but my muscles quickly loosened up for me to be able to. I was unaware of the black aura that was surrounding me as memories of me being locked in the cage charged to the forefront of my mind and it was only then that I noticed the dark aura surrounding me as it pulsed once before slamming into the jolteon who yelped as the memories of what I felt slammed into him, as the smell of burnt fur lingered in the arena.

The rain was not a good sign for me but, fortunately for me, he wasn’t making good use of it yet. I watched him carefully. Instead, Zeus sat down on his haunches and pawed at the air as if he was ringing a bell. In response, a bell chimed and the burn healed and there was no trace that it was ever there. I repeated the motions that I had seen Zeus make and I heard a bell chime for me as well and suddenly, I could move freely again.

The jolteon growled in annoyance at that. I just gave him a smile as I threw back my head and called the sun out to end the rain.

Zeus immediately began tunneling underground. I watched the area around me warily as I howled this time to boost my confidence and immediately felt myself getting stronger.

Suddenly, the earth beneath my paws erupted sending me hurtling through the air. I couldn’t help the yelp that escaped as I landed hard on my side. I coughed, spitting out flames, as I climbed to my paws before charging forwards as fast as I could run slamming into Zeus sending him tumbling and me reeling from the force of the impact.

I panted, and Zeus did the same. We both eyed each other warily for a moment before Zeus, his teeth crackling with electricity, lunged at me. I felt his teeth, which sent pins and needles tingling through my body from the electricity that they were emitting; graze my neck but failing to get a good purchase as I used the opportunity to hit him with a stream of fire, courtesy of my hidden power, to his face.

Zeus froze momentarily, before he went down in a yellow and white heap. I just stared, waiting on him to get back up. It wasn’t until the announcer started talking over the speakers that I realized that the battle was over. I sat down hard. I had won this battle, but was it enough? I wasn’t sure because it had been a tough battle. With a last look around, I rose to my paws and slowly made my way over to Amy.


I won!
I grew to L. 22!
I learned Imprison.

[classy_cat18]

This takes place after my upcoming Desert Room battles, by the way.

Bandit’s POV

<A floating stadium. The Dragon’s Guild really pulled out all the stops this time,> Jewel mused telepathically when she got out of her pokeball to get a good look around the place.

“Yeah, it’s like Glitzville,” Circe said in awe.

“It’s so cool, isn’t it?” Bo asked Shonta. She didn’t respond. “Miss Shonta?”

<She’s been pretty quiet ever since she left the Training Grounds.>

I shrugged and dug through her backpack until I found the two TMs she got for me. Fire Punch and Camouflage. These would probably be handy.

Shonta’s POV

My first tournament in years. I should’ve been psyched like the rest of the team but instead I was more nervous than Bandit. And considering Bandit was the one that was getting into the ring, that was pretty nervous. My palms were sweating, my heart pounded like it was ready to burst out of my chest…

I would’ve been fine if it wasn’t for the fact it felt like I was about to have a freaking heart attack!

“Shonta? Shonta!” Katana’s voice sounded so far away. I felt myself being shaken. “Say something, dammit!”

I finally looked down at her. “Hey,” I said to her, my voice sounding dull and flat.

The Zangoose sighed and let go of the front of my shirt. She had been sitting in my lap without my knowing. “Shonta, were you having a panic attack?” she asked me with worry-filled eyes.

“Sorry,” I replied.

“Shonta, this is not life-or-death. We’re not staring the Black Dragon in the face. None of us will respect you any less if you don’t win.”

“I will,” Trinity grumbled.

“TRINITY! Pep talk, not guilt trip!”

All of us shot up in alarm. That wasn’t Katana that said that in anger. It was Moriko. Cheerful Moriko, who wasn’t known for being mad. “Shonta! You must believe in yourself! Do you wanna know why?” she continued.

“Oh no, not that song,” Trinity groaned.

“’Cause baby you’re a fiiiiiirework! Come on, show ‘em what you’re wooooooorth!”

“Moriko, shut up before I start singing along!”

Someone knocked on the door. “You’re up, ma’am. Please make your way to the Land Arena.”

“Okay. Why don’t ya’ll get to your seats and watch?” I asked my team.

“Not yet! Katana, could you stay by Shonta’s side?” Athena asked kindly.

The Zangoose sighed heavily. “I guess so. Let’s go, you crazy bundle of nerves.” She took my hand and led Bandit and me to the Land Arena. “Remember the three B’s.”

“What B’s?” I asked her.

“Believe, breathe and blink. Please blink.”

I took a deep breath. “You just gotta igniiiiiite the liiiiiight…”

“Shonta!” Katana barked.

“What? Moriko got that song stuck in my head!”

Ladies and gentlemen, our next battle is about to begin! Shonta and her Kecleon will face off against Moe and his Vileplume!

”Let’s have a good battle!” Moe said to me.

“Let’s do this!” I announced.


L12 Male Kecleon (Bandit) vs. L12 Male Vileplume (Lucky)

“Let’s incapacitate that Kecleon first, Lucky! Go for Poisonpowder!” Moe shouted.

Figures he’d open with that. Even if I bounced it back with Magic Coat, it wouldn’t have affected the Vileplume.

“Blow that away with Icy Wind!” Shonta shouted. I took a deep breath and blew a cold gust that pushed back the purple dust. “Now use Camouflage!”

My scales instantly changed color to blend in with the rocky terrain. I wasted no time to crawl up the nearest boulder to gain the upper ground. Unfortunately, my zigzag refused to be anything else but yellow. “Vileplume, fire at the zigzag with Magical Leaf!”

“CRAP!” I yelped. My zigzag had become a big bullseye on the rock! What’s worse was that I was a Rock type!

“Conversion!” Shonta commanded.

I changed my color to the first type I could think of, which was a rusty red. Fighting type. The leaves blasted into my back, making me lose my balance. I landed on my head and rolled on my back. “Owww…” I groaned while looking up at the swirling lights. My three right hands were now a slightly darker green than normal.

“Get up, Bandit!” Katana yelled at me.

“Solarbeam him!” Moe told his Vileplume.

“GET UP!” Shonta hollered in panic.

I stood up and faced my opponents, who had their big heads bent over while they gathered solar energy. Which one is the real one? My vision refused to clear. I started to run but I stepped on a loose pebble and…

Drat.

Bright light filled my field of vision, which was followed by a burning pain all over as I was blown back. For a Grass-type move, it felt a lot like a Fire-type one.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does not look good for Bandit! He took a Solarbeam head-on!

No, I didn’t. I was trying to get away so it was more like I took it side-on.

We might have the shortest battle here at the stadium yet!

“BANDIT!” I heard Katana and Shonta cry out together.

I forced every muscle to move, very slowly rising to my feet even though my head was still cloudy. Guess again, commentator. No way I’m going to stay down after one measly Solarbeam! My chest heaved with each heavy breath I took. It’s time to break out my second wind moves.

“BRING IT ON!” I hollered at Lucky.

I slumped over in relief. “He’s still in this.”

“No time to relax,” Katana warned me. “We gotta figure out how to attack that Vileplume. Bandit won’t be able to take another Solarbeam! If only he could get in close…”

She was right. It was a case of physical attacker vs. special attacker. Short-range vs. long range.

“Petal Dance!”

Crap.

“CRAP!” I yelped.

Lucky slowly spun around in a clumsy dance, petals coming out of nowhere and rising into the sky. That’s almost as bad as Solarbeam! If I get caught with that, I’m done for!

“Faint Attack!” Shonta yelled.

I turned invisible and ran, the petals following me closely. There was an inexplicable boost of speed that kept me from being hit so far. But they slowed down a little when I got close to Shonta’s box. “Grr, where is he?” Moe growled from far off.

He can’t see me now! I turned sharply and managed to dodge the petals. Lucky must’ve been having a problem following my movements while I darted around the boulders. He stayed in my sights, getting closer as I kept circling him.

“Lucky, Petal Dance at 12 o’clock!” Moe told his Pokemon from his box. He had found me since the middle of the field was more open.

The petals immediately changed course and were closing in from behind! Feet, don’t fail me now!

“Whoa!” Lucky yelped as I reappeared right in front of him.

“Disable,” I muttered. My eyes flashed.

The petals were brushing against my tail before they dropped to the ground.

“Fire Punch now!” Shonta commanded. My fist reached back, surrounded in flames, and slammed into Lucky. We rolled around until we stopped with me on top of him. “Don’t let up! EMBER!” I blew a small stream of fire right into Lucky!

“AAH!” the Vileplume cried out. I had to stop to take a deep breath for another Ember.

Moe shouted some gibberish before he shrieked, “TOXIC!”

I gasped and slashed Lucky’s face out of panic. He swallowed whatever gunk he had swirling around in his mouth.

“Get off of him, Bandit! There’s more Poisonpowder coming from his petals!” Katana told me.

I jumped off and backed up to get some distance between us, ignoring something tightening around my right ankle until it was too late.

THUMP! Tripped and landed on my back. I tugged at my foot until I saw the vine wrapped around my ankle. “Crap!”

“Alright! Nice job with that Grass Knot, Lucky! Now charge up for another Solarbeam!” Moe said happily.

“Try another Ember, Bandit!” Shonta told me.

I fired off another one, but Lucky was too far away. He winced from the heat but other than that he was okay. The Vileplume was already bent down and charging up. Switching tactics, I held up my hands and fired a Psybeam. He yelled from the pain but still kept at it. This is it! He’ll get me with this one! If it wasn’t for this vine binding me…

Wait, Bind! That’s it!

I lashed out my tongue as far as it would go, and wrapped it around Lucky’s ankles. Then, with a smirk, yanked at it.

Even though I wasn’t paying attention to the commentator or the spectators, I could still hear one big collective gasp as Lucky’s feet were pulled out from under him. And he was still charging his Solarbeam.

And was about to fire it when I tripped him.

The attack fired in the opposite direction, at Moe’s trainer box. Moe lurched forward and clung to the railing but all the platform did was shake. “Close call,” Moe said shakily.

“Whew,” Shonta exhaled. “PSYBEAM!”

I jumped in surprise at her vicious tone of voice before firing another multicolored beam of psychic energy at Lucky while he was still down. “Can’t do much from over here,” I groaned. I fired a small ember at the vine around my ankle to burn it off me.

“Lucky!” Moe cried out to his Pokemon. “Get up and use Toxic!”

I raced for Lucky with a fist already ready to burn him with. He got up and spit a glob of purple goo right between my eyes with good accuracy. My steps fumbled a bit when the poison seeped in.

Gotta…keep…running…

“Magical Leaf!”

“Ember!” I countered with a flame enough to burn away the colorful leaves away. The Fire Punch was still ready!

“No!”

“YES!” I jumped up and punched him again.

He went down! I fell on all fours but forced myself to stay up long enough for the call.

The match is over! The winner is Bandit the Kecleon, and his trainer Shonta!

“Whoo-hoo!” I hooted before blacking out.


Bandit won and grew to level 14! He learned Feint!

I didn’t know how long it was while I was out, but I’m sure Shonta rushed me to the Center since I was badly poisoned. But I got a face full of red eyes when I came to.

“Uncle Bandit!” Bo said cheerfully.

“Dude! You’re up!” Circe said, bending over so I could see her eyes through her bangs.

I sat up and nudged Bo aside to face the other twelve Pokemon and my trainer. Shonta was arguing about something with Katana. No, scratch that. Katana was arguing; Shonta was putting up a lame defense about something.

Moriko got up and shook my hand so hard my brain rattled around in my head. “That was the most awesome battle you’ve ever had! I didn’t think you had that much in you!” she praised in a loud voice.

“I gotta admit that you were one sturdy lizard,” Trinity said to me with a slight smirk.

“Houn! Houn houn!” Destai barked.

“Destai said that his fur was standing on end!” Bo translated.

“Dude, when that Vileplume had his Petal Dance, like Byakuya uses Senbonzakura, I thought you were done for!” Circe commented. “But you were running around like Ichigo out there!”

“He wasn’t that fast!” Ali argued. “But it was fast for you.”

“That tongue just shot out like Shinsou! No no, like—“

“Okay, that’s enough otaku talk out of you!” Trinity interrupted.

Katana glanced at me and lightly punched Shonta’s hip. “Shonta wanted to apologize for her shoddy performance. It could’ve gone better for us.”

The human rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m too hungry to think about that right now. Where’s that buffet?”

At least she wasn’t panicking anymore.

[Lady Vulpix]

...And thus concludes the first round of the third Dragon Games! I'm afraid only 5 people have posted. It's not the best start for the games themselves, but it's good news for the 5 of you, as you're all making it to the 2nd round. I'll rate your battles and award you the stamps by Thursday (points too, while they won't affect your promotion they can serve as guides for the next round).

We can all take a break and begin round 2 by the end of next week... I think the 3rd of July will be a good time for it.

Those who didn't make it can still have a shot at the 4th place if they participate in the consolation round, which will come after Round 2.

See you all soon with the ratings.

[Lady Vulpix]

OK, I'm rather sleep-deprived so I don't think I can submit the individual comments yet, but I do have the ratings done. Here they are!

WriterStampsScoreHypotenuse Man1623DarkestLight1318lvl100mewtwo1926classy_cat1 81421Wolfsong1216

Good battles, everyone. I think it was a good start in spite of the missing trainers. Thanks for participating, and see you soon! I'll PM the remaining comments to Alex, Amy and Shonta as soon as I can.

[Lady Vulpix]

Sorry about the delay. Work problems, connection problems, computer problems... I'm having them all right now. But I promised to start the new round today and I will, even if I didn't get to post the story I intended to, and there won't be much of an introduction to this new round. Some things would make more sense if I'd managed to post. Maybe I will, eventually. :\ Oh, and Alex, we need to talk if you want your upcoming stories and mine to make any sense. Otherwise there will be continuity issues and that won't be good.

The second round of DT-hosted tournaments is usually the trickiest. You should be able to realize why as you write your battles. This time the Floating Stadium will be hovering above Gaen Vale, the capital of Avelorn and, technically, of Ulthuan (the provinces are mostly autonomous, so only the critical nation-wide decisions are made in Gaen Vale). There are numerous cultural and historical monuments in this island city, most notably a number of ancient temples which used to be among the most important in the times before the Sundering. Participants are encouraged to visit at least one of them during their stay in Gaen Vale.

Also, everyone please check the map (http://forboards.tripod.com/Ulthuan.html) in order to avoid geographical mistakes.

The stadium is the same as before, but the arena will be adapted before each battle, providing a landscape that is suitable for each pair of contestants (make of that what you may).

Contestants for the Second Round:
Raini the Persian vs. Gengar
Sinopa the Ninetales vs. Vespiquen
Bandit the Kecleon vs. Whismur
Mossjito the Tangela vs. Dewott
Macedon the Magby vs. Skiploom

You all have time until then 25th to submit your stories. I recommend that you start writing them right away. Feel free to contact me if there's anything you need to know.

[lvl100mewtwo]

First Togepi now this? lol, alright, good to know :P

[DarkestLight]

Dewott..OOOH !! Man I just finished playing MK too :/ I see water blades in my future.

[Lady Vulpix]

I told you this round was tricky! Now you'll have to figure out how to make a good battle with an apparently easy opponent. :P Also please note that Hoppip does have some mean moves. Use your creativity.

I'm having computer problems, Alex. When will you be online to chat? I'll try to get online by then so we can finally roleplay our encounter (which, of course, should not be part of your post for this round, but you can post it at the Battle Range or make a reference to it).

[DarkestLight]

Water is not our friend.

With the first round behind him, Rapp quickly made an exit. Retracing his steps, Rapp was greeted by a vigorous tongue licking. “May may may! Calm down. You really should be giving adoration to Mossy! He’s the real champion.”

Zent, whom woken up some moments prior to Rapp’s and Mossy’s victory seemed to take a renewed interest in the green phenom that bested that fighter. Running up, she wrapped her small arms around him. Mossy returned the gesture, using some vines to augment his lack of arms.

“Come Mossy, we have to get you healed up in order to survive the next round...lets all get out of the spotlight!”


Some time later...


The expanse of green that dotted the land underneath these saucers was seen from miles away. The hills were dotted with many a building, some seemingly as ancient as the earth they stood on. These lands, these hills were all familiar to the lad, he gazed at them from the edge of the saucer he was on, pointing out areas that he and Mossy walked through. Maybelline and Zent looked on with interest-their new trainer was well versed in the grassier areas.

Taking a moment, both Rapp and Mossy took a deep breath. The air was invigorating, the pollens of the flora wafting up in patterns indiscernible to the natural eye. The quartet took a moment to admire the clear sky and green landscape they were traversing over.

Maybelline-checking her flanks to ensure she was not being watched, flicked her tongue around, to get a good pile of pollen on her tongue. It was the only way to taste the air. Her mistake. The bitter taste of the pollen immediately caused her to sneeze. The sound snapped the others out of their moments of silence, and also gave Rapp a new focus.

They had company. An Abra teleported to their location and held up a placard. Reading it, Rapp nodded. They were up for the next battle. Maybelline lashed her tongue around Zent and Mossy, while Rapp held onto Abra’s tail with his left hand, and Mossy’s outstretched vine with his right. In a flash, they were back at the Trainer’s brackets.



Mossjito the Tangela vs. Uru the Dewott

[lvl 26]


“Now –we have Mossjito, that spectacular Tangela we saw earlier versus Uru, the Dewott sensation! Let’s see a great battle!”

“Alright Mossy. We’re up again.” Rapp glanced back to the other two. “You two keep out of trouble, alright?” Zent nodded, while looking around her feet for morsels of food, while Maybelline stroked her head.

Striding out, the overture of applause and cheers was deafening. Rapp had to admit to himself, this was getting fun, even for his tree dwelling self. His original mission was slightly sidetracked by this Tournament, but this was a grand learning experience. Mossy however, was focused on the opponent that came into view as they reached their side of the arena.

The field was filled with water, but there were massive lily pad platforms all over, allowing for adequate stability for most terrestrial Pokemon. Rapp hung back as Mossy jumped on a pad, floating toward Uru.

Uru smirked, and looked up to his trainer. The older man raised his head to take a batter look at Rapp, and then to Mossy. His left hand lowered from twirling his moustache’s end, in order for his command to be heard clearly.

“Leave not one vine uncut.”

Uru bowed, dove off the edge of his lilypad, and swam over to the platform where Mossy resided. In one massive lunge, he burst out of the water-trajectory taking him overhead and landing behind Mossy. The planimal paused, and immediately whipped out two vines in order to test out his hypothesis. In swift fashion, the Dewott whirled around and swung his hand up. In his grasp was a seashell of some sort. This was more than just a shell-as Mossy learned-when his vines fell limp to the ground.

Mossy freaked, and recoiled what was left of his vines for the moment! This thing fought with sharp edges! Rapp caught the slicing action and realized this was going to be a more difficult match than it looked. “Ok Mossy! We gotta play fast. Get in close and try a Poison powder!

Mossy ran forward, keeping his vines draped backwards to avoid any more Razor Shell cuts from this so-called ”Uru”. Uru took two steps backwards in order to adjust his stance for any incoming attack. Spying the change in stance, Mossy welled up the spores necessary before he skidded to a stop. The Powder flew forth due to the change in momentum Mossy had attained before.

Rapp found it impressive that those shiny red soap shoes were able to attain a grip, even on water puddles. Uru swung out with both arms-each hand grasping a shell that was hung on his kneecaps. The shell’s impact on Mossy wasn’t the focus of the attack, but rather the air whipped around due to the swift motion.

These cuts of air were deadly, and Mossy watched as his Poison Powder was sucked into the array of wind buffets and cut into ribbons. Uru smirked as the remnants of the Poison cloud floated in thin trails around the edge of the lily pad, out of range to be effective. The Air Cutters themselves continued on their outward paths, striking Mossy back as well.

Mossy tried again, releasing a second, faster Poison powder shot. The brazen shot flew at Uru who made sure to back flip over the blast as it came within striking distance. Two more swipes and the blast was cut apart, leaving the Dewott in the clear when it came to his health. Uru landed on one knee, head down, with both arms outstretched. Looking up at Mossy, Uru smirked, before lowering his arms to the lily pad.

Mossy, stunned that this beast stopped his cloud tactics twice, fell back a step. How was he ever going to get close enough to even touch this creature? It was a water type for Pete’s sake! This battle shouldn’t have even lasted THIS long. Mossy’s concentration lapsed into internal discord, clouding his view of the battle, and of Rapp’s next commands.

*What was next? How can I continue to fight? Would my vines be ok? Should I use the water balloons? What was that blue light coming my way?*

The myriad of sounds began to sharpen, and all Mossy heard was an intermittent series of shouts, before something icy and cold and blue struck him in the chest! The force of the Ice Beam carried Mossy off of the lilypad for a while before Mossy showed signs of falling free of its grasp.

Mossy slammed into the water from that well-aimed Ice Beam-and floated there for a moment. The uneven sensations of chill snapped him out of his thoughts, and he looked around, confused.

The confusion left him when he saw a blue shape dive off the pad, and into the water without as much as a splash. He was in trouble now. Fighting on an aquatic turf was a huge risk. Dunking his head underwater, he spied the cunning Uru swimming up toward him from underneath. Doubt seemed to cloud his judgment, but something loud and adamant came his way in the form of a command.

“MOSSY! OUT THE WATER NOW! Propeller Whip!

Hearing the intensity of his Trainer’s voice, Mossy did the only thing he could do-obey what he was told! He spun his vines in the water as hard as he could. Uru unknowingly swam right into a slew of vines as they all began spinning, giving him a nasty lashing as Mossy began to propel himself across the watery arena. Not one to be bested by a non native swimmer, Uru gave chase, holding one shell in his mouth.

The Dewott was uncanny in its swimming ability, but Mossy was giving him a hell of a chase. The two Trainers watched with bated breath as Mossy banked left, barely avoiding a sweeping slash from Uru-that spliced the water into an X-shape. Keeping left, Mossy headed for another lilypad. Uru had other plans for Mossy, and gave suitable chase. When he was close enough, he threw one his Razor sharp shells into the “motors” Mossy had employed as locomotion. The shell cut through another few vines, and Mossy immediately went into a tail spin. His right side vines gave out and Mossy wound up skipping across the water at a high speed like a stone, before hitting the side of a Lily pad with some force.

“Your Tangela is spirited, but spirit alone will not win this bout.” remarked the older gentleman to Rapp. Rapp looked over to the man, and nodded. “Yeah, I have to hit the otter. It’s just hard to hit something that always block—That’s it!”

“Mossy! Get on that pad buddy!”

Mossy, groggy from the last series of events, used his vines to pull himself onto the pad. As he flopped his soggy mass on the “ground” Mossy watched a small shape speed under the lilypad. Knowing whom that was, Mossy righted himself and sat there. He was already in a critical state, what could he possibly do?

“Alright! Mossy! Throw yourself up, and throw a Shock Wave down!”

Hearing the command issued, the older gentlemen seemed a bit perturbed. He watched through slitted eyed as Mossy seemed toregain his focus in this match. Uru flipped onto the lilypad, both shells back in his grasp. Knowing the plant had hardly anything left; Uru gleefully swiped the shells in front of him in an overhead fashion. A massive Air Cutter whizzed free from the focus, and headed for Mossy. Mossy did as told, slamming his mass into the lily pad. This vaulted him skyward, and the resultant Shock Wave that emanated from his body rained down in a diagonal pattern. The Air Cutters missed Mossy, as he flew in between the twin slices Uru created. Uru’s eyes opened wide as he was encumbered by the electric current. Instinct kicked in, and Uru jumped in the water, only to prolong the electric effect for a few more seconds.

Mossy landed, and knew what had to be done. It wasn’t about getting close, it was more about misdirection with this fighter. He always swung, and since his attacks were moreso physical, the trick was making them work for him! He closed his eyes for a moment to feel how tired his body actually was. Assessing he was at critical, Mossy immediately began to glow. Uru bobbed out of the water just long enough to make eye contact with Mossy-and to attract the ire of an Absorbing plant.

Uru ducked back under the water, trying to remove this aura off his body with a myriad of slash motions, but all he felt was his health leech away. Following his health, Uru swam under the Lily pad, and sank down a few feet. Mossy-relishing the nice chunk of health he attained back, looked down to see the shrinking dot now start to grow. Knowing that Uru was planning to sink the lilypad, he…stayed right there.

“Mossy move! He’s gonna strike you and you may not be healthy enough.” Mossy waved Rapp off and stared at the rising dot. The water being displaced began to bulge the base of the lily pad. Mossy smirked and stayed away from the bulge, his body starting to generate a thick cluster of spores.

Uru blasted though the lily pad, cutting it wide open with an X-pattern once more. As he flew up, Mossy released the spores all around him, while whipping his vines toward Uru. The water around Uru’s body was being populated by the spores, and they began having the desired effect; weakening Uru’s resolve. Uru felt this, and tried to dive toward Mossy in order to slash at him with another heavy bladed attack, but he found his descent paused. Mossy’s vines wrapped around Uru, and as the spores began to clear, Uru found himself being held by his arms and legs back from completing his strike on! Holding him in this position, Mossy lashed out with his vines, striking Uru across the chest a few times.

In order to break free of his predicament, Uru did the only thing he could. He puffed up his cheeks and began to shake. Mossy stared at the puffer faced otter, until a steaming blast of HOT water flew out of his mouth!! This instantly forced Mossy to release Uru and cover his eyes.

“That thing just spat hot firewater into his face!” Rapp exclaimed, as the crowd roared. Looking up at the scoreboard, Uru was a little under half health, while Mossy was sticking it out at a quarter health. Looking back to the match, Rapp saw one sign of salvation. The Dewott was groggy, clumsy in his movements. But he put nothing past the Trainer of such an exceptional Pokémon.

“Mossy, calm down! Its still just water! Absorb and regroup!”

Hearing the call for an Absorb, Mossy carefully peeked out of his vines, to see the Dewott trying to stand on the torn edge of the center of the pad, as it began taking on more and more water. Staying away was vital to surviving, and Mossy did just that, even as the edge of the pad began to rise at a steeper gradient with each passing second. Mossy’s enchanting aura swamped over Dewott once more, and that health gain equalized the pair. Water now flooded up to level out the lily pad, but this only meant Mossy would be swimming again. Uru seemed at peace with the water around him, and he made a dash for Mossy. Mossy freaked as his body sluggishly waded through the water. Uru reached Mossy, and grabbed a handful of vines off the top of Mossy. One Razor slice later and Mossy now sported a hi-top fade instead of his S-curl vinelocks. In protest, Mossy flung what was left of his vines at Uru, knocking the groggy Pokemon on his back. Uru laughed, before falling to a deep sleep.

Infuriated that his vines were cut all over, Mossy vehemently released a Shock Wave through the water. This caused backlash for Mossy as well as Uru, but Uru had no defense for the blow. The resulting shockwave swept through the pool, and caused the aquatic fighter to sink through its depths. Mossy shivered from the Shock Wave’s residual effect in the water, but he was fine.

Using whatever vines were left, Mossy propelled himself toward the lilypad that Rapp stood on. Rapp didn’t wait for Mossy to come near, diving in after Mossy as soon as he was sure the match was won. Scooping Mossy up and seating him on his head, Rapp swam back to the lilypad, only to look at the elderly man offer him a hand out the water.

“Spirit and skill. It’s rare for one from Gaen Vale to have both honor and smarts these days. I shall hopew you make it farther, young woodland dweller...” The elderly man walked off, having already recalled his Uru before it sank too far. Rapp wasn’t sure what to make of that, as he sat there. Adhering no more attention to the elderly Trainer. Mossy was subsequently pulled off of his head and examined, as he left the field.


[Mossy wins the match!!]
[Dunno how many levels we gain-I'll wait for confirmation.]


“I don’t know Mossy-aside from the slightly burned ones around your eyes, the rest of your vines look fine. Think they’ll heal after a quick trip to the center, But I kind of like the crew cut on y—“

Rapp received a flurry of water balloons to the face. Hot water Balloons. May and Zent ran over to help Rapp deal with the pain, as Mossy walked off toward the Trainer waiting area. His vinestyle was abominable at this moment.. He pulled out a brush, and tried to muss them up, but no, they were all stubbly and flat ended. Not very Tangela-y at all.

[The Blue Avenger]

Dragon Games: Round 2
---
Raini lounged on top of a brick platform. This in and of itself wouldn’t have been so odd for her, but what set it apart from her normal days was that the brick platform was, in fact, a ledge in a nearly-completely-crumbled temple. All that was left of the ancient monument was a layer of brick acting as a floor, and bits and pieces of the walls. Raini was reclining on what looked like it could have been the temple’s entranceway.

“Come on, Raini,” Jeff said. He sported large bandages that wound their way up and down his arms, a testament to previous training sessions with the Persian. “You made it through the first round. Great! But we can’t count on everything else going our way. You barely got through the first round, and it was against a Pokémon you should have had right down! What if our next foe is a Machamp?”

“Or, even worse,” said Maza from behind Jeff, “a Medicham, say. Devastating attacks, and able to resist your psychic manipulation.”

Raini’s ears perked up. They knew. More specifically, Maza knew. The pieces began falling into place. She hadn’t been able to keep Jeff from running her through the training sessions when she wanted because Maza knew. Maza had thrown her psychic attacks back on her. A snarl rolled across her face, and she nimbly dropped from the entranceway. Raini locked eyes on Maza. He didn’t flinch; instead, he only idly tossed a spoon in the air.

“Are you ready to start training now, then?” Jeff asked hesitantly. Even he could sense the tension. “Raini?”

Raini didn’t listen to him. With a yowl, she jumped through the air at Maza, all of her claws extended to their limit. Maza parried her off with his spoons, then began glowing a bright blue. Raini floated into the air, entirely against her will.

“Listen to me, Raini,” Maza said, his voice dropping to an unnaturally somber tone. “I thought you had gotten this out of your system already, but I suppose I was wrong.” He approached her slowly, the glow reaching his eyes and lending him an otherworldly appearance.

Raini blinked. As her fur turned a deep purple, she tried to not be intimidated. It was a new experience for her.

“I do not appreciate you manipulating my family.” Maza pressed a spoon against the gem set in Raini’s forehead. The touch of the utensil was cold, and Raini shivered involuntarily. “You are, I’ll admit begrudgingly, part of this family too, but rest assured that I value the rest of our team over you. If you try anything like that again – if you try to manipulate our friends, or if you try to attack one of us again – I will do more than freeze you in your tracks. I will fight you. And I will win. Do you know why?”

Raini said nothing.

“I will win because I am better at being psychic than you. You may have a lot of fancy ways to claw someone, but I have better ways to dodge. You may have a level advantage, but I don’t need one. I have strategy. It is painfully easy to beat someone who is dead set in their ways.”

Raini bared her fangs and hissed.

“Oh, yes, tell me all about it,” Maza continued, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “If you want to ever have any chance of standing up to me, Raini, you need to drop the berserker act. You are a perfectly intelligent Pokémon, as much as it pains me to admit it. If you actually put effort into your strategies, you could have every Pokémon in this tournament eating out of your paws. But you won’t. Do you know why?”

Another hiss was the only answer he got.

“It’s because you are lazy. It’s easiest for you to either head foes off with your psychic prowess, or to overwhelm them with brute force. You have no other modes. And why should you? Both of those strategies have always worked for you. But here’s the kicker. They won’t. Not always. You need to step up your game, Raini. Try battling stealthily, maybe. I know you know Faint Attack.”

Raini’s mouth curled upwards very slightly, at the corners. Faint Attack. That was it. She focused on the shadows clinging to the temple, the trees, everywhere around her and willed them to accept her. With a smile worthy of the Cheshire cat, she began to fade away into the darkness. She reappeared, free of the psychic cage, and took a swipe at Maza, her claws glinting in the shadows like scythes.

Except Maza wasn’t there. Moments before Raini could land the blow, Maza disappeared. He reappeared immediately behind her. As Raini whipped around to face him, his eyes flashed blue, and a blue binding wrapped itself around Raini. It disappeared soon after, but the Disable’s effects were still there. As she tried to sink into the shadows, Raini found that she couldn’t pull the move off again. Maza raised his spoons and froze Raini in place again.

“Nice try,” Maza said. “And I mean that, too. That’s precisely the sort of thing I’m talking about. You need to be subtle more often. You could even play defensively if you wanted to; you certainly have enough moves designed to keep everyone else off balance. Now. Let’s talk about this tournament.” He began walking a circle around Raini. She angled her head to keep an eye on him. “You very nearly lost because that Sneasel, Kartzel, had a better strategy than you. He naturally kept you from using psychic manipulation, and his entire movepool was geared around keeping you off-balance when he went in for strikes. The only reason you won is that he didn’t quite have the backbone to back it up. I’m going to guess that you don’t particularly care about the outcome of this tournament, am I right?”

Raini flinched at that phrase, but gave no other reaction.

“I will tell you why you should care. First. You may not care now, but I can tell. If you lose, you will go ballistic. I know your type, Raini. You cannot stand to lose. I expect that right now you’re planning how to take your revenge on me.”

Again, Raini said nothing. Why, she figured, confirm what everyone knew to be true?

“So keep that in mind. If your precious ego can’t stand a loss, you had better shape up. Speaking of your ego, that brings me to my second reason. If you win, everyone watching this tournament will be fawning over what an impressive Pokémon you are. Everyone will know how strong you are. But if you lose, you’ll only be known as that Person who almost won but couldn’t quite take it. Or worse.” He smiled, a grim smile that was immediately at odds with the fierce look in his eyes. “Would you rather be known as the Persian who got beaten down in the second round? I can see it now.” He puffed out his chest and adopted a scowl. “That freaking cat,” he said in a pitch-perfect imitation of Groviglio. “I coulda swung that entire tournament. But noooo. That idiot went and ruined it for all of us.” His face went blank. “By my calculations, there would have been several team members better suited for this task.” A smile, this time, as genuine as he could make it. “Ah, well, I suppose there’s always next time, right? I’m all fired up for next year! Just maybe we don’t choose Raini .” Maza leaned in close to Raini’s face. “Is that what you want everyone in that audience, everyone in our team to think of you? Do you really want everyone to think you’re weak?”

The pause that followed was all the answer Maza needed.

“That’s exactly what I thought.” Maza dropped the psychic hold on Raini. “Train yourself, then we can talk.” With a faint whispering noise, like wind passing through the bough of a tree, he disappeared.

Jeff, having watched all this with his jaw hanging open, shook his head, trying to get his thoughts back together. “So, uh,” he started nervously, “what do you say, Raini? Shall we train?”

Raini looked towards Jeff. A grin that spoke of malice and brutality crossed her face, and her fangs glinted in the morning sun. “Let’s win this tournament,” she said, her voice soft, putting a purr in every word.



***


“Bob, tell me what we’re about to see here.”

“Well, Harry, we’re about to see Jeff Azure, the recently-promoted Lord Porygon, face off against Anton Nein. What do we know about these combatants, Harry?”


“I’m glad you asked. Azure’s favorite sandwich is the French Dip, but I have a credible source that says that Nein favors a Monte Cristo—”

“Let’s try something related to the tournament, Harry.”

“Ah yes. Well, Azure barely scraped through the first round, after his Pokémon almost fell prey to Marcus Wittenberg’s Sneasel’s charms. Azure’s Persian, Raini, managed to pull through after a devastating combination of Frustration and Fury Swipes, but I don’t think that’s going to fly in this match.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, Bob, that brings me to Anton Nein. I don’t think most people expected much out of this oddball competitor, but we were all floored when his Gengar, Sasha, absolutely wiped the floor with their first competitor, Jackson Johns’ Steelix.”

“Now, why do you call him an oddball?”

“Oh, I can’t say that. It’d ruin the surprise for anyone who hasn’t seen them battle. But let’s just say that Nein’s strategy revolves around Sasha setting the pace of the battle and keeping it.”

“Understood. What say we get things going, eh, Harry?”

“You got it, Bob. Let’s get this match of Round Two underway!”

ROUND 2: FIGHT!
Raini versus Sasha!
Raini: “…”
Sasha: “Once you lose control, it's very hard to get it back.”

Jeff stood on his platform, raised over the battlefield. As opposed to the loamy ground from the last round, the field this time was covered in gravel. Columns of stone rose out of the ground in roughly equal numbers on each half of the field. Across the field, on the other trainer’s platform, stood a man, bundled up in a thick overcoat despite the pleasant weather. He had a thick mop of hair that just about covered his eyes completely. The coat was long enough that it brushed the floor and completely swamped the man’s arms; between that and the hair, it was near-impossible to see much of the man at all.

“Let us have a good match, yeah?” Anton said, tossing a Pokéball into the arena.

“Same to you.” Jeff threw his own into the arena as well. They opened at the same time; from one, Raini appeared, stretching out and grinning unnervingly. From the other appeared a Gengar, matching and exceeding Raini’s unnerving grin by a factor of ten.

“Sasha,” Anton said, “I leave this battle to you.”

Jeff nodded. “Hear that, Raini? Take your initiative on this one as well.”

“And remember our talk, Raini,” Maza said. Raini looked up. Maza was leaning on the railing around the audience’s seats, and grinning. He disappeared, and Raini turned her attention back to Sasha.

Sasha bowed, a gesture oddly foreign on a Gengar. “Let us have a fair fight,” he said.

Raini only grinned in response. It wasn’t a new strategy, sure, but it was tried and true… and she had a type advantage on this one. She pressed a paw to her forehead, and her gem sparked with a blue light. She reached out a psychic tendril towards the Gengar, and…

…A wall of psychic energy deflected it, then rushed towards her. The psychic power completely overwhelmed her, and forced its way into her mind. “Fair is fair, after all,” Sasha continued in a level tone.

Raini retreated back to a detached part of her mind as Sasha’s Psychic wormed its way through her brain. Her limbs started moving completely independently of her thoughts, and before long, Sasha had Raini dancing like a puppet. Not even her facial expression changed, despite the fire raging in her mind.

“You see?” Sasha said. “This is fair. You attempt to psychically manipulate me, and I successfully psychically manipulate you. Now.” Sasha threw his arms up, and the Psychic launched Raini like a cannonball. She flew across the arena and impacted with a pillar. She slid to the ground, but wasted no time in getting back up. Raini growled, and without a word, she silently slunk into the shadows.

“You think you can hide from me?” Sasha faded into the shadows as well. Clouds of dirt began to get kicked up at random places over the arena; that and the occasional sounds of punches and blows landing were the only hints at their location – Raini’s Faint Attack and Sasha’s Shadow Punch/Mega Punch combo allowed them to invisibly strike at each other. Eventually, both Pokémon faded back into view, neither looking too worse for the wear. “You’re good, Raini,” Sasha said, angrily. “Let us continue to test our wits against one another…”

Then he opened his mouth wide and started laughing. This threw Raini for a loop. “But how many wits do you have?!” Sasha screeched. With a crazed look on his face, he began to waggle his fingers back and forth. There was an audible clicking noise, and a powerful heat rolled through the arena. With a brilliant light, a ‘V’ flared up on the Gengar’s forehead. Sasha charged at Raini, the ‘V’ getting larger and larger with each step, until he eventually tackled the Persian with a flare larger than either Pokémon. A plume of smoke rose from the site of the impact, and when it cleared, Raini was gone.

“Well, Bob, it looks like Sasha just used Metronome! His signature move! And he pulled out the rarely-seen V-Create!”

“Yes indeed, Harry. But where has Raini gone?”

The answer to that question came in the form of a hole that appeared behind Sasha. Silently, Raini sprung from it and tackled the Gengar, knocking it to the ground. Raini landed on all four feet, and Sasha slowly picked himself up.

“Thank you,” Sasha said, the frantic tone gone. “Let’s keep going, eh?” As Raini reared back, he pulled back his fist, ready to rush in and jab at Raini when she tried to attack.

Raini, however, only responded by widening her eyes. A coy smile appeared on her face, and the entire audience, as one, went “Awwwww.” Sasha looked unnerved by the change in mood, and he put his fist down, the Sucker Punch not working like planned. Raini took the lull from him as opportunity to run her claws against each other. Sparks flew off of them, and when she finished, her claws looked longer and sharper.

“So you’re buffing yourself up,” Sasha said bluntly, narrowing his eyes. “That is unfortunate. I had prepared for your trademark assault.” Raini felt slightly relieved that she had forgone that path in this match as his face turned manic again. “Let’s see you prepare for this!” He gave a screechy laugh as he waggled his fingers again. A pale black gas spanned the distance between them, and Raini felt herself feeling a little better. Sasha’s face fell; presumably, Raini thought, because he was feeling a little more pained.

“Harry, it looks like Sasha rolled for Pain Split. Not good on him this time around.”

“That’s right, Bob. Anton better hope that Sasha’s rational side can end this before too long.”

Sasha’s expression turned calm again. “I can end this,” he muttered. “But I’ll be ending it at my own speed.” He coughed and hacked, eventually horking up a ball of bright purple ooze. He tossed it up into the air like a softball, and at the other end of its parabolic arc, it hit Raini. Raini immediately gagged and felt sick to her stomach.

“There we go! That’s the type of strategizing that we’ve come to expect out of Sasha, Bob.”

Raini began to waver. The Toxic was started to affect her. Her vision was swimming, and she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She shook her head. Nothing had changed. She just had a time limit, that was all. She closed her eyes and focused her thoughts. Okay. So the Gengar had some sort of split personality, it seemed like. It seemed to come out when he was angry… or maybe it was when he was experiencing a strong emotion? Either way… Raini grinned despite the poison working its way through her system. She knew what she had to do. It was all a matter of keeping the foe off balance.

Raini stood up. She flashed Sasha a coquettish smile, and fluttered her eyes at him. Sasha looked back, utterly boggled. As Raini continued to flirt with him, she noticed his eyes getting more dazed, until eventually they just started to spin.

“That was an excellent Flatter! But does Raini really have the time to be wasting it on attacks like that right now?”

“I don’t…” Sasha stuttered. He stumbled around a bit, waving his arms. “I can’t… I can’t think…” In his flailing, he accidentally brought his arm too high; with a dull thwack, he nailed himself right in the face. As Raini had expected, this brought out his other side, and a wide, leering grin replaced Sasha’s confused look. “I may be confused,” Sasha said with a sneer, “but I can still take you on!” He cackled and wiggled his fingers. This time, he brought a finger to his chin and began pondering some hidden idea. The idea obviously amused him, because he snickered throughout the process.

“There’s a Nasty Plot, Harry! Sasha’s special attack is boosted dangerously high!”

“Ludicrously high, Bob?”

“Ludicrously high!”

Raini felt another stab in her gut, this one worse than the last. It told her that she needed to wrap things up quickly. She flew at Sasha and raked her claws across his face, leaving deep black lines that pulsed with arcane energy. As she stepped back, Sasha howled, his manic face still present. “Why do you do that?” he yelled. “It hurts! It hurts! Heheheh…” He called upon Metronome again. This time, he mimicked Raini and scratched his claws, ethereal as they were, over Raini’s chest. The Slash brought up small beads of blood, but Raini ignored both them and the more and more powerful stabbing pains in her stomach. She opened her jaws and clamped down on Sasha’s ear, shaking her head around a bit for good measure. The dark energy poured forth into the wound, and Sasha grimaced.

“No! No good! No good!” Sasha pulled away, the teeth marks in his ear sealing over, before shaking his fingers again. This time, he held his hands out. In between his palms, streams of blue energy materialized into a ball of ice, which he shot forward, a trail of freezing cold following it like a comet. The Ice Beam hit Raini hard, and she fell back.

“That was a triple-boosted Ice Beam! Can Raini recover?”

Raini groaned. The poison was sapping almost all the energy she had, and the Ice Beam had hurt much more than she was expecting. She weakly got to her feet. She gathered what little energy she could and charged at Sasha, preparing to use the strongest Dark move she had. Raini felt her strength draining as she ran circles around Sasha. Sasha, in turn, tried to land several blows on her as she darted past, but each one missed. As she sped up, she waited for the opportune moment…

There. There it was.

Sasha was beginning to attack, right when Raini was directly behind him. As he moved his center of gravity forward to throw a punch, Raini tackled him from behind, using his momentum to drive him to the ground.

“That was Foul Play! A brilliant move!”

“I believe that move, Harry, uses the foe’s own strength against them. It can be deadly.”

Raini closed her eyes. At this point, her energy was exhausted. She tried not to move as the poison lanced its way through her system. The results of the match were immaterial now. There was nothing she could do.

She collapsed.

But Sasha had collapsed first.

“And that’s Raini bringing home the bacon on that match! She yanks another victory from the jaws of defeat! What an amazing match, Harry!”

“Yes, Bob, that’ll be one for the record books!”

Match over! Raini grows to level 32! Raini learns Power Gem!



***


Raini woke up some time later, out of her Pokéball. She was on the bed in the hotel room. Maza was standing nearby, staring out of the window. It seemed to be a thing with him. Raini ignored him for now and checked herself out. The poison was gone, and the aches and pains she had built up in the match had disappeared as well. She, in fact, felt very well-rested – the sort of well-rested that accompanied a trip to the Pokémon Center.

“You’re getting better,” Maza said. “That was some halfway decent strategizing out there.”

Raini scowled.

“You can get better. Sure, it was good that you recognized that he started losing control of himself when you knocked him off balance. But that Toxic nearly finished you. Always have a contingency plan. You’re also quite lucky he didn’t do more with his Psychic. He could have had you under his power the entire match, and it would have been your fault for trying to go after a Pokémon with strong psychic powers with a psychic attack of your own. You need to read your opponent better.”

The scowl on Raini’s face grew larger, and she began letting out a low growl.

Maza did not turn to face her. “If you want to eventually settle the score with me, you’ll need to do better than that. Let’s hope for your sake that you made it to the next round. If you can practice your strategizing until then, maybe – just maybe – you might have a chance to bring home the gold.” He turned around slowly, a fierce look in his eyes. “But remember. If you so much as think about trying to manipulate anyone in our family, I will know. I will find you. And so help me, I will ensure that you can never do so again.” He stalked towards Raini. “Are we clear?”

Another growl was the only response he got.

“Perfect. Go train, Raini. You sorely need it.”

[Lady Vulpix]

Update: since Macedon has leveled up, I will assume that his opponent has done the same and has now evolved into Skiploom.

Also, both battles so far are good. I do hope everyone else gets to post their in time, but I'm also afraid I'll probably have a hard time choosing who will make it to the finals. Only 3 can proceed to the final round and if the next 3 battles are as good as these two, someone will have to get the 4th and 5th place in spite of having written a really good piece. I hope there are no hard feelings regarding this; I'll just try to be as objective as I can.

Oh, and remember the Consolation Round will take place before the finals. Even those who missed their chance to post on the first round get a chance to take part in it. The Consolation Round will determine who gets the 4th prize.

[Wolfsong]

Before story notes: Ebony and Kiara’s battles are supposed to take place during this though I still need to write theirs and Jasmine’s. A case of writer’s block didn’t help matters either, but I managed to get it done on time.


(Sinopa’s POV)

After the battle, Amy took me to the Pokémon Center. They looked me over to make sure that I didn’t have any serious injuries, before giving me a few potions. When they were done, I was free to leave. By that time, I was ready to get back to the hotel where I could relax and rest for the rest of the night.

On the way back to our hotel, I had to ask. “Did… did you hear anything yet?”

Not yet,” she answered, shaking her head. “It will probably be a few days, if not longer before we’ll hear anything.”

I gave her a nod of my head as we rode the elevator to our floor. After Amy unlocked the door, I ran over and hopped up on the couch where my eyes drifted shut. I must have dozed off because the next think I knew, Yana was nudging me awake. “Huh?” I muttered as I stretched.

“We’re getting ready to leave. Amy’s going to try and hit a few more of the training rooms while we have some time. Ebony is excited because she’s getting to battle next.”

“What about Tiny?” I asked. I thought that he was going to battle in the Blizzard room with her.” Yana frowned.

Tiny, while he isn’t leaving, gave up his spot as a battling member of the team. Colby’s more interested in battling than he is. He told us while you were resting.

“But…” I looked over in his direction and he was busy playing with Danny with Sugar watching over protectively her fur sparking occasionally.

“We decided to let Kiara have the battle that the spot opened up. Jasmine is hoping that she can have another battle or two as well.”

“How do you think I did?”

She nuzzled me. “You had a rough start, but you pulled it together and won. Sinopa, you did your best and for that we’re proud of you. All of us.”

”Do you think my mom would have been?”

Wherever she is, I’m sure that she is rooting for you. I know that I am.”

I gave a small smile at that before my attention was caught by Ebony. She was racing around the parking lot, occasionally kicking out with her hind legs as well as periodically bucking. I guess she was working off some of that excess energy we all got from time to time.

Chuckling, I nuzzled Yana before racing after Ebony and quickly passing her. In response, the ponyta snorted and increased her speed but she couldn’t catch up. I slowed down to let Ebony close the gap but before she could pass me I sped up. We kept that up until the two of us were too tired to run anymore.

Amy chuckled as we slowly made our way over to her. Ebony and I were both panting. Glancing around, I saw that she hadn’t been the only one watching us. However, the audience that we seemed to have gathered also appeared amused.

The car trip back was as uneventful as the previous one. After registering for another hotel room, we went their separate ways in pairs of course. We were all supposed to be back at the hotel room by nine/

Amy had decided to let Ebony have her battle the next day after they had rested. Most of the others decided to go with them when they left in the morning to watch Ebony and Kiara’s training battles, but Darin and I had other plans.

The next few days, a routine developed. Darin and I would go somewhere where we had some privacy and practice my attacks. Then we would rest and talk for a while and the two of us grew even closer.

Darin was nuzzling me during one of those breaks when a couple of shadows appeared above us and steadily grew larger. Looking up, I saw that it was Jasmine with Talut.

“There you are!” She exclaimed as she landed on my back.

“What’s going on?”

“Amy received an email and she sent us to go find the two of you.”

“Did she happen to mention what it was about?”

The dragonite shook his head no. I swallowed, suddenly nervous. It had to be the results from Round One. Darin nuzzled me as I slowly stood up.

By the time that the four of us made it to the hotel room, the rest of the team had gathered around. It grew silent when they noticed us and I swallowed nervously.

“Good,” Amy said, with a smile when she spotted us.

“Did you open it yet?”

“Not yet, I was waiting for you.”

I held my breath as Amy opened up her email program on the laptop. She was quiet as she read the email. Finally, it got to be too much. “Well?” I asked.

“Congratulations, Sinopa. You made it to the next round!”

I didn’t hear anything that was said after that. It took me a few moments to comprehend what Amy had just said. I blinked before looking around. Everyone was smiling and I ducked my head.

Darin licked my muzzle and after the excitement died down, Amy pulled out her map and started to work on a plan to get there.

“Sinopa, do you want to go up to the roof and watch the stars?”

I nodded my head yes and, after letting Sugar know, where we were going to be we headed out.


(Yana’s POV)

I watched Sinopa carefully after Amy had announced she had progressed to the next round. She seemed to be a little overwhelmed by the attention. She said something to Sugar before she and Darin headed out of the room. I started to follow, but she stopped me.

“What?”

“I think the two of them need some time alone. They’re just going up to the roof.”

“But…”

“If something were to happen, Darin could easily let us know via his psychic abilities and Blazer could teleport there in a flash.”

I had to admit that Sugar had a point. I watched her as she gave Danny a bath, remembering how I did that with Sinopa shortly after we found her.

After a while, I padded over to where Blazer was watching Amy as she plotted the route that we would take.

“Everything going okay?” I asked.

“I think I’ve figured out how we’re going to do this. I’ll drive for as far as we can go. Then, Talut will fly us the rest of the way to Green Vale. Stopping periodically to rest and camp out along the way. When we arrive, we’ll check into a nearby hotel. After Talut is fully rested from the trip, he’ll take Blazer up to the floating platform. From then on, at least until it moves again, Blazer should be able to teleport two and from the platform so Talut will only have to fly Sinopa the day of her battle. What do you think?”

“It sounds good, but we’d have to leave early tomorrow to even have a hope of arriving in time if we end up camping a couple nights along the way.”

Amy nodded in agreement before clapping her hands as she closed her laptop and put it back in her bag. “Okay, we need to call it a night so that we can have an early start tomorrow.” She said, as she looked around.

“Where did Sinopa and Darin go?”

“They went to the roof to get away from the excitement for a little while. I think Sinopa was getting a little overwhelmed.


(Sinopa’s POV)

I woke up with a start. The sun had risen and we were still outside. “Darin!” I hissed.

The only response I got was some incoherent mumbling as he buried his head under my tails to drown out the light from the sun. I stood up and raised my tails as I did so. “Darin!” I hissed again a little louder this time.

“What?” He asked, stretching as the sun lit up his purple coat.

“We fell asleep on the roof. We need to get back to the room before anyone comes looking for us.”

Darin blinked as what I said sunk in. The two of us quickly hurried down the stairwell and back to our room. We were lucky in that the only one still up was Sugar.

She just looked at me but didn’t say anything. I blushed a little but was relieved that she was a jolteon, not an espeon. Before she could come over and ask any questions, Amy was beginning to stir.

Once she was up, Amy was in a hurry to get a move on. I could sense that I was being watched, and sure enough I could see that Sugar was keeping a close eye on me. I shrugged as I followed Amy down to the car and hopped into the back seat.


****

The last week had been rough travel wise. I yawned and looked around and saw yet more water as Talut carried me.

Suddenly, I yipped with happiness. I saw land in the distance. It was still far off, but it meant that our travels were almost over. We’d be sleeping in a comfortable hotel room tonight and not in a tent outside. I could feel the rumbles in Talut’s chest as he chuckled at my reaction.

“I know,” he replied as he beat his wings harder and poured on a blast of speed by using agility.


****

I had to fight hard to keep from wagging my tails as the land was in sight and Talut began his descent. I didn’t want him to drop be because while we were still high up, we were also still over water and that would not have been fun to land in.

Once we arrived at the hotel, Amy quickly checked in and got a room key. Talut soon after retreated into his pokeball for a long rest. I shivered when I watched him go.

We had arrived a few days before we were scheduled to battle which was a relief. It meant I could rest. When I wasn’t resting, Darin and I were off working on my attacks. As the day that I was scheduled to battle in the second round approached, my appetite began to slowly decrease.

“Are you okay?” Sugar asked me after I refused breakfast for the second day in the row.

“Sugar, I’m fine. Just nervous that’s all. Nothing has changed since you asked me yesterday. I’ll be the same tomorrow until I get through the battle.”

“If you say so,” she said, not quite believing me.

“I do.”

After that encounter, I quickly found Darin and the two of us disappeared to practice my attacks again and just to bounce ideas about what to do if I was paired against a type I was weak to.


****

All too soon, it was the day of the battle. We arrived early and Talut took the team’s pokeballs and flew up to the stand. I looked over at Blazer and Amy and they both smiled at me reassuringly.

As I watched, Blazer lowered himself to the ground so that Amy could climb up on his back before he stood up. He took a deep breath before draping his front paw across my shoulder and the next thing I knew, we were in front of the stadium entrance.

Amy slid off of his back as we us were escorted through a side entrance into a waiting area. Blazer gave the two of us a small nod and me a reassuring nuzzle before he slipped away to join the others in the stands.

I looked over at Amy as we waited to hear our names called. It turned out we didn’t have to wait long. There were only a few battles before ours.

“The next round brings us Amy Wolfsong and Sinopa Versus Clyde and Queen Bee.”

I glanced over at Amy as we walked towards the center of the arena. It was impossible to miss the shiver that went through her body as she caught a glimpse of our opponents. I was confused until I looked up. When I saw the Vespiquen, it made sense.

Amy was scared of bees and wasps because she wasn’t sure if she was allergic or not. While pokemon weren’t the same as the actual insects, they still made her a little uncomfortable.

As Amy and Clyde approached each other and shook hands, I glanced around. I used the opportunity to take note of my surroundings, the arena. I relaxed slightly as once more there was nothing in sight that could trap me.

There were a few trees scattered around the perimeter of the grassy field. As I watched, their branches danced in the wind. I was able to relax a little further when I didn’t see any waterholes.

Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was our trainers retreating to the sidelines so that the battle could take place.

<Be careful, Sinopa. You know how much we talked about what to do if you were sent up against a pokemon you had a type disadvantage to. I’m sure they did the same. Good luck.> I glanced over towards the stands but I couldn’t see him, and giving my head one last shake I turned to face the Vespiquen.


Sinopa L.22 Female Ninetales with a rainbow topknot and Crystal Blue Eyes http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/WolsongsWilderness/sinoparainbow3.png Vs. Queen Bee L.22 Vespiquen

I circled around Queen Bee as I focused on my hidden power. As I did so, I felt my body heat begin to increase as the vespiquen watched me closely. A split-second before I released the fire that I could feel building, I caught a glimpse of red and blue as I opened my mouth and exhaled the blast of fire. The next thing that I knew, half of the flames made it through the red and blue shield that she was holding. The rest, hit it was absorbed into it and transformed into a stream of water that completely soaked me and a yelp of surprise escaped. As I was busy shaking the water from my coat, Queen Bee was watching me. As soon as I looked up, I was enveloped by a glowing white light.

I blinked, shaking my head as I tried to get rid of the disorientation I felt from the attack. AS I looked around, I saw her hovering in front of the closest tree. I charged forwards, expecting to slam into her with all of my weight. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened. I slammed into the tree headfirst and, while it did hurt, it also knocked me out of my confusion. Shaking my head, I scrambled to my paws and spun around. In front of me was my opponent and the gem on her forehead was glowing. AS I watched, the gem caught the light and began sparkling causing me to swallow. That couldn’t be good. I tried to dodge, but I was still woozy from the collision with the tree. I bit back the yelp because I refused to let her know how bad that attack hurt.

Taking a deep breath, I began to focus on my newest attack because I couldn’t afford to be confused anymore. I also couldn’t rely on my fire attacks, which was my main strength, as long as she had that double shield. As I concentrated, transparent pink bars began to appear around the vespiquen until she was surrounded by them and then they disappeared. Queen Bee shook her head unsure of what happened. She then tried to use another confuse ray only this time it failed.

Quickly taking advantage of her inability to attack, I raced over to the vespiquen and raked my claws down her front. She buzzed angrily but didn’t waste the energy to speak. Instead, the gem on Queen Bee’s head began to glow once again. I braced myself for when the attack came and thankfully it didn’t hurt as much as the last one, but it was still painful. However, there was a reason that I was glad she had chosen to use another power gem.

I had been watching Queen Bee carefully as she had been preparing the last power gem. In doing so, I knew that I had no way of avoiding the attack but on the plus side, I would now be able to use it thanks to mimic. If I couldn’t use fire then rock was the next best thing. As I watched her, I began to imitate Queen Bee’s movements and, while I didn’t have any gems, my topknot began to glow as if it was made up of precious gemstones and the light shot out and slammed into her. Queen Bee gave a pained cry before crashing to the ground.

When I was sure that she wasn’t going to get up, I stumbled over to Amy’s side and sat down, panting.


I won!
I grew to L. 24!
I learned Flame Burst and Flamethrower.

[lvl100mewtwo]

Alright, here we go again... Thank god I hit my groove last night or I wouldn't have been able to finish this battle in time... Hope you enjoy!


Catching up with the past

<Onlooker>

You could feel the electricity in the air, the excitement of everyone around. Everyone had what seemed to be a giant smile on their face. Trainers and their Pokémon walked the grounds, content with the recent battles that had just happened. Families held hands and travelled around, taking in the many tourist traps and money pits.

I on the other hand stood in the shadows, not wanting to be seen or heard. I overlooked all the people and caught the odd battle here and there, hopefully catching a familiar face.

I missed the thrill of the battle, the anticipation of facing off against a strong opponent. It had been far too long since I had found myself on a battlefield.

As I thought back on the vast and rich battle history I had, a figure stood out in the crowd. He seemed to be pressing for time, pushing people out of the way, holding a small fire type in his arms. There seemed to be a look of pain on his face. Maybe the fire type was burning him up? I took a closer look at this trainer that was in such a hurry. He was closely followed by what appeared to be a small blue fox. I then recognized the unmistakeable face. It was Alex...


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<Alex>

Macedon had been in the care of the Center for well over a day, giving us barely half a day to prepare before our early morning battle. I had just received a stern talking and stare down from the attending nurse, letting me know of the dangers that I had just put Macedon through. She went on to say that I was lucky that he made it out with minor injuries after all was said and done. She did inform me that his limp would still be quite noticeable, something about his knee being a bit enflamed.

All in all, I just had to let Macedon rest before the next battle, where hopefully the swelling would go down. Then maybe the limp would start to be less noticeable.

Macedon was finally released back into my care, as I kneeled down and patted him on the head, telling him how proud I was about his recent workout. I knew that the training was important to him. I could see it in his face that he did not want to be caught off guard anymore in any battle. He genuinely wanted to get better to face any adversity that would be sent his way. Macedon was a true battler, a true fighter. He was the type to not give up. Yet somehow his confidence level just wasn’t where I thought it was. It seemed that he was second guessing himself at all times, over thinking and over analyzing everything.

This confidence issue lead to his constant pursuit of perfection. He would not be denied a victory, yet doubt always loomed around in the back of his mind. Macedon at this point was incredibly tough to read, to know which one would come out to battle.

As I slowly stood up, all I could hear in the Center was a woman frantically screaming my name.

Great... Another crazy fan... just what I need

I turned around, waiting to see who this crazy person was, only to be met by a giant hug.

“It's been a long time.”
“Long time doesn't begin to describe it!” Gabi responded, she seemed a bit nervous and in shock. “What have you been doing all this time? Where's the rest of your team? Why didn't you tell me you were back?! I saw your name on the participants' list, but I couldn't be sure it was you until you were suddenly on TV. The media found out before I did!”
“I've just been trying to keep a low profile I guess since I got back, I wasn't sure if anyone was still around.”
“Many things have changed and some people have left... with one crisis after another, I think you've seen that yourself. But some of us are still here.”
“Yeah, it seems that way... seems like its forever that I went away... and now I found my way back somehow.”
“But how? What happened?”
I paused and looked at her dead in the eyes
“It's something I don't really want to get into to be honest.” The thoughts raced through my head as all the events of my past came back. These were the things I was trying to forget at this point.

“OK, leave me wondering...” she sighed. “I guess you have the right not to talk, but...” she paused for a moment and looked at her Charizard. “I think Amber deserves at least some information after all this time,”
“If I knew where V was, I would definitely let you know. Unfortunately, the last time I saw him was just when I was getting into school.”
“You mean... he's missing too?! How long has it been?”
“The whole team is gone, all I have now is Macedon and Rex, they are resting.” As I looked down at them.
“Oh... that's terrible! I'm so sorry... Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“I don't think there is at this point, the gang could be anywhere at this point, maybe I'll fun into them at some point.” Maybe I was getting a little too repetitive at this point?

“But how did it happen?” She asked, with a worried look on her face.
“It's a long story at this point, the team just decided to leave one by one.” At this point, just the thoughts and memories of all the events made me a bit nauseous and weak in the knees.
“Oh, I'm really sorry to hear that. But at least they weren't kidnapped or disappeared without a trace like some other Pokémon have.”
“Yeah, no, it's a little more complicated than that unfortunately.”

“Well, if you ever feel like talking about it, I'll be there. Here, wherever. I still have the same phone number. Same old PokeGear, even. It still works and I've never felt the need to change it. “
“I really appreciate it, I really do. Hopefully someday I'll be able to get into great details about it.”
“So where are you living now? “
Thanks Gabs for changing the subject I thought to myself
“I haven't really got a place to live right now, just crashing at the PCs for the time being, or camping out.”
“Ouch, that's bad. I know the Dragon's Guild offers lodgings for its members, but it can take too long sometimes.”

“Are you a member? Sorry, it's been so long...”
“Pretty sure I was back in the day? I'm not 100% sure.”
“If you don't remember, then you probably aren't. You'd have a rank and should at least have done some work for the Guild. I could help you join, but you'd have to have a job there. The Dragon's Guild doesn't give out homes for free. I don't think anyone does.”

Having pushed everything in the back of my mind after all these years, I had actually forgotten if I had held one of these roles with the people I knew and trained with, in the past. This was odd, even for me.

“Do you have a job?” She asked.
“No, I just got back.”
“Well, I'm sure we could use an extra hand at the Dragon Tamers. Things haven't changed that much since you were here: we have new items and some new Pokemon, but the job is basically still the same. Would you like to have your old job back?”
“Yeah, of course. That would be great.”
“Well, I'm glad there's something I can do to help.”

Dead silence seemed to creep in at this point.

“Good battle, by the way. It reminded me of some of Tsunami's old battles. I was wondering why you seemed so worried, but I think I can get an idea now. If it helps, I don't think that Macedon was ever in real danger.”

I gave a good laugh and looked down at Macedon. He seemed to enjoy the comment, kind of giving him a small boost in confidence.

“It's good to have you back,” she said. “I'll have to introduce you to Jeff and Shonta... And you remember Amy, right? They all work at DT, and they're all in the tournament too.”
“Yeah, I'll be honest, I don't.”
“Oh... I'll make sure not to tell her that,” she shifted her eyes. “I'll find a way for all of us to meet at some point. In the worst case we'll end up meeting back in Caledor after the tournament ends. I just hope people don't get the wrong idea from seeing the judge hanging out with some of the competitors... I can't help it if they're my friends and co-workers, but I won't let that affect my judgment at the end of each round... for better or worse.“
“Good to know,” I gave a little laugh.

After a good long conversation, it was good to know that some people hadn’t left. I found it was odd that I had not clued in that she was one of the judges for this, how could I have missed that one? We kept the conversation to small talk for a bit until it was time to move on. We hugged once more and parted ways.

I looked down at both my Pokémon and decided that it would be time to call it a night. All 3 of us made our way to one of the many rooms for trainers in the Center and set up for the night. I set my alarm fro bright and early in the morning, hopefully giving us enough time to go over strategy and tactics before our 9 AM fight.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<Onlooker>

I hadn’t been able to sleep in the past day or so. I had made my way to the roof of the Center to make sure that it really was him as it was the only place I could think of that he would be at. As I peered down the skylight, I had noticed that he was there, saying goodbye to who seemed like an old friend. The lady seemed very familiar to me, yet I just couldn’t place exactly who she was due to the fact I had yet to see her face.

Alex had turned around, petting both his Magby and Riolu on their head and then walking towards what seemed like the dormitory area of the Center.

I remembered those days when that was me that would go back there with him. I remembered the days when it was me that would get those pats on the head. I really did miss those days.

Then I remembered when it all changed. I remembered why I didn’t get those pats on the head anymore. I remembered why I had to leave, why I had to tread my own path.

All 3 of them seemed to be enjoying the moment. The Magby seemed to have a slight limp in its walk while the Riolu seemed to have what I considered a real cocky swagger in his. The blue fox took a look down at the light hitting the ground and seemed to notice something. He looked straight up at the skylight which I was peering into. I quickly hid out of the skylight and made my way down from the Center and back into the shadow.

I’m pretty sure he didn’t see me... Yeah, I’m pretty positive...


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<Macedon>

I stood up and made my way to look through the window at the night sky. It was pretty late yet with all the lights being used for the tournament, it seemed as though it was still early in the evening. I remembered the simple times, when I was out in the wild. No pressure of battling. No pressure of pleasing a human. All I had to do was to survive and stay out of the rain. Everything was so simple back then.

Even in this moment of deep thought, in the back of my mind was that slight pain that was still apparent in my leg. I wanted to train so hard to be ready for tomorrow’s battle and it seemed that I only set myself back even more. This was adding additional stress that I did not just need right now.

Alex woke up, seemingly disturbed by myself being up.

“Hey Macedon, are you alright little guy?”

I just shot up a stare at him. The look on his face was that of sincere concern.

“Macedon, maybe I pushed you too hard yesterday. Because of me, your leg is clearly bugging you, and I feel like I set you back a bit.” His tone drew more and more serious.

“I just want you to know that I am very proud of what we have accomplished so far, you and I. You’re doing a great job out there. You just need to be more confident in what you are doing. You can’t let your environment bother you. And certainly, don’t let my past bother you!” He gave me another stare.

This whole speech wasn’t very appeasing to my nerves, as the stress just seemed insurmountable. I gave Alex a half hearted smile and thumbs up, to make him believe that everything was alright. He lightly patted me on the head and returned to sleep. I on the other hand kept staring outside through the window, wondering what to expect tomorrow.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<Alex>

Somehow, I found myself to have overslept. I raced out of the room we were staying in at the Center and made our way to the stadium. The crowd was starting to gather as I bolted to the trainer’s entrance on this hot and cloudy day, Macedon and Rex following suit behind me.

We only had 30 minutes to prepare for this, take care of any last minute changes to our strategy and make sure that Macedon was ready for this battle. We walked into our trainer’s room and the setup was just the same as the last time. I put my backpack down and took out my computer, logging onto the wi-fi inside the room.

“Alright Mace, I think we need to figure out who we are fighting.” I told my Pokémon, as I looked down. He climbed onto a chair to look at the screen with me.

Getting on Youtube, I found the footage of the match in the first round of my opponent.

”Well Harry, what a glorious day we’ve been having today. So many amazing battles and we are all ready for the next one up, as the trainer’s have already released their Pokémon.”

“You’re right Bob, so let’s get to it why don’t we, as we are seeing on the field now Steve’s Hoppip up against Mary’s Larvesta.”

This battle seemed like a total mismatch. Clearly Macedon would be battling the Larvesta in the next round, so I had to pay close attention to that Pokémon’s fighting style.

I looked down at my fire type who had his eyes fixed to the computer screen.

”Incredible, it doesn’t seem like the Larvesta can even land a hit at this point!”

“Bob that is one resilient Hoppip! It seems like it’s setting up clear skies with its Sunny Day attack!”

“Look at that speed Harry! The Larvesta can barely keep up with her at this point, let alone keep an eye on it!”

“Seems that little Grass Type is faster than your Volkswagen there Bob.”

“Wow! Look at that close range Solar Beam, clearly hitting it’s mark and knocking out the Larvesta! This battle was faster than your second marriage Harry!”

I closed the lid on my laptop and looked down at Macedon. He probably had a more disbelieved look on his face than I did. That little grass type had just taken down a rather powerful fire type with barely 1 move. We were in for it.

“Macedon, we can’t let him set up, we have to hit him hard and hit him fast, you saw what he did to that bug, he obliterated it. You can’t let him get in close for any attacks.”

Macedon just looked at me, clearly stressed out after watching that video. Maybe watching that together wasn’t the best of ideas I thought to myself.

A knock came at the door, as we were instructed that we had 10 minutes to our match. Macedon and I gave one last look at each other, as we gathered what we needed and exited the room with Rex. Walking down the hallway once more, you could hear the deafening crowd up ahead. It seemed that they were only getting louder and louder, with every round coming up. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. People were again lined up on each side of the entrance, looking for a piece of memorabilia or a signature. Rex once again loved the attention. Macedon just walked slowly forward, doing the best he can to not show his slight discomfort.

We walked through the Parthenon like pillars, only to be met by a booming sound wave of cheers for Macedon and me.

<Onlooker>

I found myself a spot to watch the matches for the day, hidden from all the crowd and officials. I looked down at the field to notice that Alex was entering the battle ground, followed closely by his eccentric Riolu and what seemed like a very uncomfortable Magby.

”And back for the second round, the past champion Alex and his Magby, Macedon!”

“These two had quite the first round a few days ago! That little Magby sure gave a lot in that battle, hopefully he still has some left in him, right Harry?”

“For sure Bob, this should prove to be another entertaining match!”

Why did I have to hide myself near the speakers? I asked myself, as I contemplated moving spots.

Alex reached his spot up to his trainer’s box while the little Magby made his way around, taking a somewhat relaxed stance on the rocky field.

This was going to be an interesting battle if the little guy could hold his own.

<Macedon>

I peered across the field. The other human still had not made his way to the trainer’s box and I was left alone on the field, being looked at by thousands of other humans. I looked up to see moving images on the screen of my last battle. Every big blow was shown in a slower pace, making me somewhat relive the damages that had occurred in that fight.

I started to tremble a bit at this point.

The crowd erupted in a loud cheer as the other human popped his head out of the tunnel. He walked towards his trainer’s box with his head held high, a little smirk plastered on his face. As he entered his box, it started to rise up from the ground. I turned around to take a look behind me, as Alex was already a few feet above my head.

Rex seemed to be pre-occupied next to Alex, looking up at the rafters. I looked up as well, only to see humans cheering loudly. Suddenly a shadow could be seen. As soon as it appeared, it disappeared behind the rafters. Oddly enough, I felt like I had seen that shadow before.

I turned my attention to across the field once more. The other human was waving at the crowd and blowing kisses. He seemed to relish in the lime light. He then fixated his attention to the field and grabbed a ball in his hand.

“To beat an old Champion, that’s gonna make me the next legend!” He screamed from across the field at Alex.

With that, he hurled his ball onto the battle field, releasing a pokemon I had not seen before.

”OH! And it seems in recent events, Grace the Hoppip has evolved into a Skiploom Bob!”

“I can see that Harry, I’m not exactly blind.”

“In a pre-game interview, Steve informed us that he has had Grace with him since the Johto province. It is a very well seasoned Pokémon as we have seen from the previous battle.”

“Should make for a great fight between these 2 lightweights Bob!”

“You’re right Harry. Macedon isn’t to be underestimated either. Even after Grace’s dismantling of the Larvesta in the first round, this should get interesting!”

Those 2 kept going over and over on the speakers that boomed across the stadium. Yet with the deafening noise of the crowd, I could barely hear them much more. I looked across the field to my opponent. I noticed that around her head, a small red rock was attached. I could not figure out what this item was.

A human walked into the middle of us and raised both his arms, flags flapping in the air.

“Trainers, are you ready?” He bellowed from the top of his lungs at both trainers. Both responded with a resounding “Yes”.

“Pokémon, are you ready?” He gave us both a look. I nodded while my opponent just jumped up and down.


Round 2
Macedon Lv20 v. Grace Lv20

“GO!” were the only words I heard, as the man in the middle dropped his flags and backed off as soon as he could.

I took no time in starting this affair, as I rushed in full speed ahead, right hand cocked behind my back, looking to connect. The Skiploom almost seemed surprised to see me rush in so fast. I didn’t want to let Alex down this time, as we had talked about starting this match off fast. I had to maximize the amount of damage done before this plant could set up any form of strategy. With one quick movement, I found myself in front of my opponent, hand striking forward, using the kinetic energy of my run. Skiploom, completely unprepared for the strike was sent reeling backwards, straight into his trainer’s box.

What a vicious way to start the fight! Macedon clearly is not taking any time for granted as he sends Grace flying into her trainer’s box!”

The Skiploom slowly made its way back to its feet and looked up at the cloudy sky. A small white orb of energy formed on top of her flower. The red rock hanging around her neck started to glow, as the white orb also seemed to turn an odd red color. I had seen this in the moving images during the pre-battle tactical analysis Alex and I watched. I had to hurry before it could summon forth more sunlight.

Grace took a few steps forward, giving herself space between herself and her trainer. The red orb was nearing its proper size. I went on full on assault, reaching deep within the confines of my stomach, summoning as much energy as I could. I released a pillar of fire straight at the grass type, engulfing it in a towering inferno. As the pillar seemed to be enclosing on my opponent, the red orb blasted through it, launched straight into the atmosphere.

A burst of energy could be felt throughout the arena, as all the clouds present in the sky dissipated into nothingness. The sun came out in full force. I could feel its energy beaming through my body. I added extra flames to the pillar of fire, in the hopes of knocking out my opponent immediately, before it could get going.

The flames subsided. The opposing human looked down at his Pokémon, a giant smirk on his face.

I don’t think the attack was enough I thought to myself, as I took a defensive stance.

Across the field stood a semi-charred Skiploom, eyes closed. It shook around a bit, trying to get some of the dead and burnt leaves off of her body.

“Grace, show him what real power is.” The opposing human said, calmly.

The plant type opened its eyes and glared across the field at me. As fast as she opened her eyes, she disappeared into thin air. A blur would appear here and there but it would never completely materialise. I had to keep a keen eye on where she would end up. I started to listen to the winds, in the hopes of catching noise of where she would reappear.

“NOW GRACE!” I could hear the scream from the opposing human.

For a split second, I heard the Skiploom stop in its tracks. I could feel the energy that it was emanating. I spun around just in time to see the solar energy being assembled on top of the flower of the plant type. The green orb pulsed on her head, aching to be released.

Grace released the energy, concentrated into a giant beam of the sun’s energy, directed in my direction. I could see it now, coming full force.

“Macedon, what are you doing?” Alex screamed. “Protect!”

With milliseconds to spare, I put forth a force field using my psychic energy, barely in time. It deflected the oncoming hit of the Solar Beam. Even with the shield up in time, the attack hit with enough force to move the shield inwards, almost caving in on itself. I concentrated and looked ahead to see it bend and not break. It started to dissipate the energy around it, saving me from any damage.

What a reactionary move by the young Fire type! Blocking that attack was no small feat let me tell you that Harry!”

With the shield disintegrating around me, I hoped that I would not be met with another attack like that any time soon. I feared that another one would most likely break through the barrier itself and cause severe harm.

<Onlooker>

I had to give it to the little Magby, not many Pokémon could block off a fully powered Solar Beam from such close range. At the same time, I had to applaud the grass type for its pure brutal strength it was displaying.

Looking down, I noticed that the burned leaves on the small Skiploom’s flower were starting to reform. It seemed as if it was taking in the sun’s rays and healing itself. It then hit me that it must be using Synthesis to bring itself back to 100%. You could see that the solar energy was engulfing the grass type and expelling all wounds from its body. Within a matter of seconds, it was back to complete health, just as it was before the fight had even begun. This match was back to ground 0.

”And will you look at that Harry! Grace seems like it hasn’t even been hurt at all!”

“I see that Bob, as does everyone else in the stadium. With this gorgeous weather that we are having, it seems as if Grace’s Synthesis healing is working overtime.”

The small plant type took an offensive stance, readying itself for its next attack, awaiting it from its trainer. He barked out his orders and the plant went on the offensive. From where I was watching the match from, it made it near impossible to hear what was being said on the field, so I had to be extra attentive to what was happening.

The Skiploom started to launch seed after seed, littering the field in them. They started to burrow their way into the rocks and ground. One had the misfortune of connecting with the Magby. Vines exploded out of the seed, wrapping up the fire type. It let out a cry that even I could hear from up in the rafters, as one could notice that it was sipping the energy out of Macedon.

The fire type turned up the heat, as the vines started to burn up on its body. He was finally released from the confines of the attack. As soon as he was liberated, you could see a dark aura forming around his body. Macedon started to speed up on the field, disappearing and reappearing all over the place. The Skiploom started to follow suit at high speeds. Both Pokémon seemed to be evenly matched when it came to speed, yet it was apparent that Macedon was struggling in keeping his speed up. Macedon disappeared once more and reappeared behind Skiploom, catching it off guard, smacking it into the ground at high speeds. It seemed it anticipated the chase that it was going to get and used the speed of its opponent to his advantage.

<Alex>

Even with the bummed leg, Macedon seemed to be holding his own when it came to his speed, which was a good sign. This Skiploom wasn’t going to be a pushover and we had to be careful how we would approach it. As soon as Macedon stopped to catch his breath, vines erupted from the ground, grabbing at his bad leg and started to drain his energy. He screamed once more in pain. This one seemed to be hurting more.

While Macedon was being distracted by the Leech Seed, Grace recovered herself from the last hit. While being back on her two feet, she started to speed up and created copies of herself with a powerful Double Team attack. An army of Skiplooms littered the battlefield, surrounding Macedon as he was heating himself up. Once the vines were burnt off, he took the time to look around, seeing that he was surrounded by a fleet of grass types.

“Leer it down! You’ll hopefully be able to find the right one Macedon!” I screamed as my Pokémon started to look around.

With a vengeful look in his eyes, he scanned the battle field at all the copies. None seemed to be budging at his glare. All the copies were making Macedon more and more confused, as he didn’t know which way the next attack could be coming from. Suddenly, one of the clones started to jitter from his look. Macedon took no time in this and launched out a full barrage of Embers in the direction of his opponent. The attack destroyed multiple copies as well as knocking back Grace into another rock. The embers seemed to have done an immense amount of damage, burning the plant type. We had to act fast, before the Skiploom could recover.

Unfortunately for us, we had spoken too soon as Grace started to take in the rays of the sun once more, giving off a light glow. The burns of the Ember attack were minimized and the plant on her head was revitalized to a full yellow color. It seemed that some of the burn lingered on, as her right “flap” seemed to have been charred pretty badly. Maybe we had caught a break at this point. Yet even with this advantage, Grace was still back to near full health.

“Grace, let’s help the healing process, Giga Drain!”

The Skiploom rushed in, at abnormal speeds. Macedon had little time to react as he took one step on his bad leg, cringed and then started to take another step. Macedon was stopped dead in his tracks as another vine came up to grab Macedon by the waist, draining more energy. While he was pre-occupied with the Seeds, Grace came in up close, green energy emanating from both its flaps.

With Macedon momentarily distracted, the Skiploom unleashed her attack. The green energy wrapped itself around Macedon, taking in more energy from my poor Magma Pokémon. Macedon’s life was being drained bit by bit with every second and Grace was just healing itself more with every passing moment.

Grace released Macedon from her grasp of the attack, and he feel onto the dirt, kneeling in front of the little Skiploom. Macedon had taken an immense amount of damage at this point. I didn’t know how much more he could take.

“Macedon, you have to keep trying! Do something!”

Macedon slowly rose to his feet, clenching his leg. Pain could be seen all across his face, yet it seemed he didn’t want to quit. The magma Pokémon started to split into multiple copies of him, using Double Team to try and fool the grass type. Several copies of Macedon started to appear across the field, outnumbering the few left of Grace.

Grace didn’t seem phased at all by this outnumbering. Steve didn’t seem too worried himself. The Skiplooms started to hop around the field, as all the copies started to release a dark hazy cloud. It was impossible to tell which one of them was really releasing this toxic gas into the air. All the copies of Macedon started to imitate the originator, as he coughed and wheezed from the noxious gasses.

”What an incredibly smart move by Grace! She is littering the field in a Poison Powder!”

“Very smart indeed Harry, Macedon can’t seem to shake off the effects of the poison!

Macedon was in serious jeopardy. The poisonous cloud seemed ominous at this point. Grace was on her side of the field, cringing a bit due to the burns from earlier. Macedon, In his coughing and wheezing fit, was again grasped by another vine from the ground, draining his energy. I had to do something fast or this match would be over in a matter of seconds.

Macedon started to heat himself up to release himself from the grasp of the leech seed. I looked closely at Magby, as I noticed that the heating up part of him was reacting with the leftovers of the poison powder left in the air. It seemed that the powder was quite flammable and reactive.

“Macedon! The powder is flammable! Fire-Spin the field!” I screamed from the top of my lungs.

Macedon, understanding what was happening, summoned the fire within and released a towering inferno of flames. The minute it hit the small patch of powder left in the air, it was an instant reaction. The field lit up in a fire. I had to duck down as the battle grounds were engulfed in flames. Just as fast as the field was light up like a ball of flame, it returned to normal. One slight difference could be seen though, as the fire seemed to have destroyed the dormant seeds that were lying on the ground or just underneath. We had killed 2 Pidgeys with 1 stone. No more Leech Seeds on the playing field, this was to our advantage.

<Macedon>

I felt sick to my stomach. I had little energy left and I was praying that that last attack would do enough damage to finish it off. Clearly I was wrong, yet it did do substantial damage and as an added bonus, I didn’t have to deal with the seeds of hell anymore. My leg was in excruciating pain, the poison was seeping slowly into my body and I was running out of time.

“Macedon, we can still do this, try a Psychic!” Alex bellowed from above.

I had to try it. I summoned the energy from deep inside as I lost myself in a psychic trance. I could feel the bubble form around me. The energy was gathering, itching to be released. I looked up to see that Grace had not yet moved. A smirk was plastered across her face as energy was starting to gather on her head. I had to hurry.

I felt rushed, yet with the battle on the line, I had too. I released the psychic energy prematurely as the Solar Beam was launched in my direction. The psychic dome expanded at exponentially increasing speeds across the field. Grace’s Solar Beam pierced right through the dome and hurled itself straight at me. I couldn’t move. The Solar Beam connected and knocked me backwards. I couldn’t see if my attack had connected.

I started to see only darkness. The energy in me was disappearing. I couldn’t hear anything. This was it. I had failed Alex. I had failed myself.

“Macedon!” It was faint, yet I could hear Alex’s voice. “Macedon, you’re still in this! Don’t quit on me now!”

I could slightly hear the crowd going into a frenzy. All I could think about at this point was if I even had enough energy to stand up. The pain and nauseous feeling weren’t leaving. I slightly opened my eye to see across the field that Grace had been knocked back hard on her side, into a rock. She was grasping her burnt flap.

I mustered whatever energy I had left in me, rolled over onto my stomach and put my hands down into the dirt. I wasn’t loosing this match, there was no way. I slowly pushed myself onto my feet. My leg started to pulse with pain. I fell back to my knees. I looked across the field to see that the Skiploom was also trying to make her way back to her feet. Her trainer was barking orders left and right, yet my hearing was going in and out.

“Gra... can’t lose... he’s pathe... you are better than... use Synthesis...” was all that I could grasp. It took a few seconds to process the information. Alarms went off in my head as I realized what was going on and what Grace was preparing to do. I couldn’t let her heal again, this would be too much for me to handle.

I finally stood up onto my feet and noticed that Grace was preparing to take in the sun’s rays. I had to act fast. I took one step, then another. Pain was all I could feel, yet I couldn’t stop now. The steps came faster as I rushed towards the plant type. I cocked my hand behind my back and got in close to the Skiploom. I launched my fist at full strength, catching the grass type in my paw and pinning it on the trainer’s box, lifted off the ground.

I could still see her taking in energy from the sun. I looked up to see that the clouds were starting to return. The Sunny Day was wearing off, meaning that her healing abilities wouldn’t be as great at this point. This also meant that my Fire attacks wouldn’t be as explosive. I looked at the Skiploom dead in the eyes.

“You’re toast!” I said, as I released a close range Ember barrage. The numerous attacks picked up a dust cloud, veiling us in it.

<Onlooker>

The referee raced in near the final blow between the Pokémon. He tried peering through the dust to see who was still standing. His arms were raised with his flags flapping in the wind.

The dust cloud started to settle back down, as both the Magby and the Skiploom were on the ground, lifeless. The crowd held its collective breath, awaiting the referee’s call. It seemed like it was taking forever for one of them to even move. A winner had to be determined and I didn’t think that the cameras in this stadium had captured who was the first to hit the ground.

The crowd started to lean forward, a few cheering. I looked down to see that the Magby had just raised his arm, trying to grasp a rock to leverage himself up. The little guy had the true warrior’s spirit, not giving up. He slowly stood up, grasping his leg. He turned around and started to scream at Alex. Alex raced to his side.

The referee made the call official, even though everyone in the stadium already knew the end results. I looked down to see the overjoyed look on Alex’s face. I remembered that look on his face, that look of enjoyment.

Maybe he’s getting that old charm back. Maybe he’s getting the trainer’s will back. I thought to myself. He was thoroughly enjoying himself out there. It brought me back to the days when we battled alongside each other, the good days of the past. I think I may have to pay him a visit after all!

The Magby was clearly exhausted, as it passed out again, in front of Alex.

I turned around and made my way down from the rafters. I could hear the commentators in the background.

”UNBELIEVABLE! JUST UNBELIEVABLE HARRY!”

“Calm down Bob, you know you have a very excitable bladder.”

“TOO LATE FOR THAT HARRY! I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THIS MATCH THOUGH, ONE FOR THE AGES!”

“Yeah, we are going to need a mop and a fresh pair of pants here. Thank you for joining us on this first match of the morning, plenty more action to come throughout the day!”


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Macedon the Magby(Lvl 20) battled Grace the Skiploom(Lvl 20) and won.

Macedon grew to level 22

[classy_cat18]

After the Training Grounds battles...

“Breathe in. Come on, take a deep breath!”

“…”

“Now let it out slowly. Make sure you pay attention to your heartbeat.”

“…”

“Good!”

I opened an eye and glanced at Shonta. “Is it working?” I asked her.

“It’s no use. My heart’s still trying to break through my ribcage,” she groaned.

“You heard her, Lily. It’s not working.”

The Bellossom pouted and bounced around. “Awwww! You haven’t even given it a chance! I know it’ll work!”

“What would work is if we could get her to do something that would take her mind off of the tournament until it was time for my second battle.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be gathering information about the Black Dragon’s whereabouts? We’re here in G.V. and this is a very good place to tour ancient stuff.”

“G.V?”

“Gaen Vale,” Shonta clarified. “And I wanted to wait until after the second round to concentrate on research.”

“Sitting around and doing nothing is not going to help us,” I grumbled.

“I have a cheer squad meeting in a couple of minutes,” Lily said sheepily. “The team is supposed to get together and practice our pom-pom routine.”

“Cheer squad?” Shonta and I questioned together. “Pom-pom?”

“Moriko’s idea, of course!”

“Why didn’t she tell me?” I squeaked.

“Because you weren’t supposed to know,” Lily answered plainly. Then she blushed. “Oopsie.”

There was a knock on the door. Our first thought was that it was the guy announcing that we were up but instead we heard two Pokemon’s voices. “Open up! Open up!”

Against my better judgement, I opened the door and was immediately glomped by two shiny Kecleon. “Hi!” the one on the right said brightly. “I’m Magenta and this is my sister Lavender! We wanted to meet you!”

Lily grinned but I could tell that she was nervous about the Pokemon. “Isn’t this off limits to most spectators?” she shyly asked.

“Oh, we know how to get around that silly security!” Lavender giggled.

Oh boy. Crazy stalker fans.

They surprisingly got off without my having to tell them. “We are thrilled to have one of our kind competing in the Dragon Games!” Magenta told me. “As such, if you need anything from our art store we’ll give you a great deal!”

“Buy two Sensational Silvers, get one Ostentatious Aurum free!” Lavender joined in.

“Aurum?” Lily whispered to herself.

“Gold,” Shonta clarified. When I gave her a “how did you know that?” look, she added, “I learned it in chemistry class.”

“Just come see us after your battle!” Lavender continued. The two ran out, tackling the unsuspecting staff member on the other side of the door.

Shonta gasped and helped him up. “Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah. You’re up next. Head to the arena now, please.”

"Sorry about that." We left the room, Lily going in another direction to sit with the rest of the team.

The arena was different than the last ones. The field had a little bit of everything this time. Grass covered most of it, with patches of tall grass that Shonta could disappear in easily. Each patch of tall grass had a big rock in the middle. In the very center of the field was a shallow pool.

Shonta took a deep breath and looked down at me. Katana popped out of her pokeball and squeezed her hand. “You ready for this?” she asked our trainer.

"No."

"Too bad."

“I might as well be,” I said with a smirk. I jumped down from the trainer’s box and waved to the cheering audience.

Bandit is on the field! Everyone seems to be rooting for this underdog!

“I’m the underdog?” I muttered to myself.

The girl on the opposing side threw her pokeball. “Go, Usagi!” she shouted.

A shivering Whismur popped out and faced me from the other side of the pool. “G-Good e-evening,” she whispered in a voice almost too soft to hear.

“Yeah, hey,” I said back.

“Th-that’s not h-h-how you’re supposed to g-g-greet me.”

“O…kay, sorry?”

Lisa has let out her Whismur, Usagi! Both battlers are at the ready! LET THE BATTLE START!

“EEEEEEEEEEEK!” Usagi shrieked in terror. Being a Whismur, that shriek put everyone in pain, especially me.

“Gah!” I groaned, falling to my knees and wincing in pain.

Usagi stopped and fidgeted. “S-sorry, the announcer scared me.”

That wasn’t meant to be an attack!?

“Usagi, use Hyper Voice!”

The scream that rang out would’ve needed a size 30 font to describe. Hundreds of people groaned and shouted in pain. I couldn’t even hear the announcer…

Wait, that means I won’t be able to hear commands from Shonta!

Sure enough, as soon as Usagi’s scream died down, I could hear Shonta’s shouts start from mid-sentence. “—in!” she ended.

“What?” I asked.

Wow! That Whismur knows how to hold a note, folks!

Shonta facepalmed. “I said—“ she started.

“Another Hyper Voice!” Lisa shouted.

“Sucker Punch!” Shonta growled in frustration.

I jumped over the pool and headbutted Usagi between the eyes before she could scream again. “I’m trying to listen to my trainer!” I told her.

“Owwww,” the Whismur whimpered in her soft voice. “Th-that was mean.”

“It’s a battle!” I socked her again with an icy fist.

“Eeek!” She stumbled back and shivered harder, sniffling as tears started to fall. “Th-that f-felt c-c-cold. I don’t like cold.”

“Guess I could’ve done Dizzy—wait a minute! I can’t go easy on you!” She squeaked and sobbed.

“Don’t cry, Usagi! Please don’t!” Lisa said. “Don’t let that mean Kecleon get to you!”

“My Kecleon is not mean!” Shonta yelled in defense. “How was your Whismur able to get this far with that attitude?”

Trainers, less fighting and more battling!

Usagi stared from one trainer to the next, and then to the audience. “Everyone’s... so… MEEEEEEEAN!”

As Shonta would’ve said, that scream had some bass in it. It wasn’t one of her cowardly screams, oh hell no. This one was full of rage. My eardrums threatened to bleed. I turned and ran blindly in one direction, right into the pool.

The scream continued for just a couple of seconds longer but the water acted as a buffer, giving me some much-needed relief. Shonta’s going to be no help this time if that Whismur keeps screaming. I’ll have to do this—WTF!?

I hadn’t been paying attention to Usagi, and now I could only gawk as the shadow of the little brat hovered above the pool and shot a Shock Wave in it! I yelped and jumped out, little sparks racing through my body. “Paaaain,” I moaned.

“NO MERCY!” Usagi shrieked at me.

“That’s it, Usagi! Give him a Rollout while he’s an Electric-type!” Lisa cheered.

I gulped and tried to catch my breath. Usagi gave a creepy cackle and rolled until she gained enough speed to resemble a little pink rock. “Bandit, push her back with Water Pulse!” Shonta told me.

I shot a quick stream of water that knocked her back but didn’t stop her spinning. In fact, she got faster with each shot. She was determined to get me! Not able to get another shot in, I rolled out of her way. She kept going, straight into a patch of tall grass and right into a boulder.

Whoa! Someone needs to learn to drive!

Usagi ran back out but tripped on her feet twice on her way to me.

“She’s confused, Bandit!” Katana shouted. “Get her!”

She opened her mouth to scream again. I covered my ears and lashed my tongue at her, not to lick her but to bind her. Bind her mouth shut, that is.

“Mmmf!” she protested. She turned a slight green from having a lizard’s gross tongue over her mouth.

“Reel her in and wail on her!” Shonta said excitedly.

I pulled her in and scratched on her face over and over, until she caught one of my hands and headbutted me hard enough to knock me back. I accidentally let go of her.

“HAMMER ARM!” Lisa roared.

“BRICK BREAK!” Shonta roared.

Usagi jumped in the air with a war cry and brought down both arms on me. I shielded my head with my arms, grunting from the surprising force behind it. I couldn’t use the attack I intended to do but an Ember in the face while she was in close range didn’t need hands to work. “Eek!” she squeaked after bouncing back from the attack.

I rushed in and slammed my left elbow in her face, then spun around and used my right fist to use Ice Punch. Ice crept over her body until she was covered in it.

“Alright, she’s frozen!” Katana said happily. “Go in for the final blow!”

“Don’t say it like I’m going to kill her!” I told her. I smashed the ice cube with both fists in one final Brick Break, ignoring the pain in my arms from that Hammer Arm. The ice block cracked and broken, and Usagi fell flat on her face, knocked out.

Bandit is the winner! He grew to level 16!

“USAGIIIIII!” Lisa sobbed. She jumped down from her trainer’s box and hugged the little Pokemon to her chest.

I tiptoed back to Shonta as she came down too. “Let’s get out of here before that trainer decides to go after me,” I whispered to her.

Katana rolled her eyes. “What a chicken.”

I rubbed my sore arms. “You weren’t down there! That pipsqueak was a powerhouse! And my ears are ringing!”

“Awww, poor baby.” To my surprise she pulled me into a tight hug and patted my back. “Let’s get you some ice cream.”

“BAAAAANDIIIIIIIT!”

Oh no. I recognize those two screams.

The twins had watched the whole thing as promised and had made their way down to the field to congratulate me. Magenta shoved Katana aside and Lavender gave me a hug of her own, only this one was almost enough to break bone. “Congrats, congrats, congrats!” they said together.

“Um…thanks?” I was too busy watching Katana get up and glaring at the two. “Listen, can we talk later? I was hoping to celebrate with my team.”

“But what about us?” Lavender whined.

“Yeah, what about her?” Katana growled while tapping her foot.

“Keep out of it, kitty!”

“KITTY?”

“RUN!” I warned. I squirmed out of Lavender’s hold and took off. Over my shoulder I could see that the fighting types on my team had gotten down to us and were now holding the twins and Katana back.

Women.

[Lady Vulpix]

Wow, Shonta, you made it at the last minute!

Well, after the last minute, really, but I believe it was still Monday somewhere in the world.

I'm in Rosario now, with a little computer, a terrible connection and no printer, so I won't be able to rate Alex's and Shonta's battles until after I get home on Sunday, sorry. This trip came as a surprise to me. I'll try to get done with the rating on Monday. Until then, enjoy the break!

Edit - And here are the results for Round 2 of the Dragon Games!

* Hypotenuse_Man and Raini <- 20 stamps, 29 points.
* Wolfsong and Sinopa <- 17 stamps, 20 points.
* classy_cat18 and Bandit <- 13 stamps, 19 points.
* DarkestLight and Mossjito <- 18 stamps, 27 points.
* lvl100mewtwo and Macedon <- 14 stamps, 18 points.

This means the finalists are Raini, Sinopa and Mossjito! These 3 Pokemon get to take a break while everyone else tries to grab the 4th prize at the Consolation Round.

I enjoyed reading all those battles. If I haven't PMed you yet, you can contact me for comments; I think it'll be easier that way.

Let's take a few days before the consolation round (I know Macedon needs them) and we need to gather the two missing players. We'll start the Consolation Round on Thursday.

Until then, feel free to use this topic for comments, questions or discussion about the games.

[Lady Vulpix]

And now we're ready for the Consolation Round!

After 2 rounds of intense battles, the Floating Stadium will be undergoing some maintenance in order to be ready for the final round. In the meantime, our good friends at White Mountain are letting use use the Wing Stadium for this round. The outer walls of the stadium are carved in the shape of open wings, welcoming all who come to visit.

The Wing Stadium is located on top of White Mountain (named after the color of the rocks that cover most of its surface), and was once host to the Pegasus Games (except, ironically, the Consolation Round). The following is a quote from a Wing Stadium brochure that was printed for the occasion. Its contents still hold.


If you look down from the viewpoint you may see the clouds (which, of course, you must have seen on your way here) and beyond them you can enjoy a clear view of the towns and wildlands that surround this mythical place.
You must be tired after such a long trip, so you may want to take some time to relax before your battles. Pokemon trainers may enjoy free meals and drinks, have a look at the various sculptures of our museum and make use of the Pokemon Center whenever they need it. It's said that a real pegasus family lives somewhere in this mountain. If you're lucky, you may see one of them.

In fact, the legend has already been proved true, and some of us have seen them. But after the battle with Yssera, odds are that they'll be taking a break and staying away from the crowds.

As for lodgings, there are a couple of good hotels in Sybyll, a town which is within walking distance from White Mountain. If for some reason you cannot get a room, the Pokemon Center on White Stadium has rooms to accommodate several trainers. Also, on the other side of the mountain there's a rather new hotel named Pacing Ponyta. It's somewhat out of the way and few people have found it, but if you want an unusual experience you can go looking for it (the hotel is said to be run by the Ponytas and Rapidash who live on White Mountain).

Here are the contestants for the Consolation Round:
Bandit the Kecleon vs. Porygon 2
Archie the Anorith vs. Dwebble
Macedon the Magby vs. Growlithe
Chimchar vs. Torchic

Again, you have time until then 25th to submit your stories. And I again recommend that you start writing them right away, and I will be available if you need any information.

[DarkestLight]

I would just like to say that-as a new member to AC/CC that this Tournament thus far has been very inviting and invigorating :O. Thank you all.

Side note: Is it fine to write a character building story during the Tournament, or should that be posted in the Battle Range..or..? I was thking of helping May out a bit, but I wasn't sure about the placement of the tale...since it would take place in..Sybyll now, lol.

[The Blue Avenger]

As I understand it, if it isn't a tourney battle, it should go in the Battle Range.

[Lady Vulpix]

Jeff got it right. You can use the Battle Range for any stories that take place outside the tournament. Of course, you can also include some character development in your tournament battle stories (it's generally a good idea to do so, as long as you don't stray too far from the main subject; feel free to consult me about how far is too far, and that goes for everyone).

You don't have to go to Sybyll if you don't want to. Watching other people's battles may be an enlightening experience, but if you have other plans, that's perfectly acceptable.

[classy_cat18]

We had returned to Sector Alpha for a while, just so Shonta could get some proper rest in her own bed. She barely left her room for a while. The poor girl was devastated by the results of the Second Round.

“And now for the results of the Second Round of the Dragon Games!”

Ali changed the channel immediately. “Ugh, we already know this. Why torment us with it again?” she grumbled.

<That was for the public,> Jewel explained. <They tend to show it for days, along with interviews of the finalists and such.>

“No wonder Miss Shonta’s so bummed out,” Bo said. “At least we still got the Consolation Round.”

“Why do they have to give it that name? Might as well call it the Loser’s Round,” Ali said.

“Uncle Bandit ain’t a loser!” Ken shouted.

Katana looked at me. “How do you feel about this?” she asked me.

“Me? I dunno. A part of me is disappointed, but the rest of me is relieved that it’s almost over. After this battle, you guys can take over for a while. No battles for me period.” We both looked down at Nama. The Slakoth had been either in her pokeball sleeping or sitting quietly away from us. “Hey Nama, we can still score two Rare Candies for you.”

She slowly shook her head. “Don’t forget we’re still up against the top scorer of the First Round,” she reminded me.

“Oh crap, I did forget that.”

“That’d make this victory all the sweeter!” Moriko said happily. “In fact, better than winning the Dragon Games!”

Several of us turned our heads to the Heracross. “I’m sorry, could you clarify for us?” I asked her curiously.

“That top scorer used to be the champion! It doesn’t matter if we’re in the Final Round or the Consolation Round; beating the former champion will still be a big accomplishment!”

Katana got a small smirk on her face. “That makes a lot of sense.”

“Of course it does! So let’s not throw in the towel!” She picked up Nama and shook her. “And put a smile on that face! We will make you a Vigoroth, darn it!”

“O-Okay…” Nama said shakily. She gave Moriko a lazy smile.

Shonta walked out her room and looked at us strangely. “What are you all talking about?” she questioned.

“Oh, just plotting the downfall of the former champion,” Moriko said with a devious smile.

Our trainer blinked twice before shrugging. “Okay. As long as I don’t have to dispose of the body.” Then she laughed at her own joke.

“So now what? Where is the floating stadium going to be?” I asked her.

“You didn’t hear the news? That stadium is undergoing repairs so the Consolation Round is going to be at Wing Stadium.”

There was a long stretch of silence, then Lily said what was on our minds. “Isn’t that at White Mountain?”

“Yeah.”

“Where—“

“Yeah.” She didn’t lose her casual attitude.

“But—“

“It’s safe now; otherwise we wouldn’t be having it there.”

“Should any of us be writing our wills right now?” Trinity snarked.

“We can always chicken out and get nothing for this round. I’m down for whatever Bandit and Nama want, but I want to finish this.”

I sighed heavily and raised my hand. “I second that.”

“The cheer squad votes to go on as well!” Moriko said cheerily. The cheer squad consisted of the three Fighting types, Lily, Ken and Bo. Actually, more than half of the team could be called a cheer squad. Even though Destai only barked and howled, and Rose did little more than shake her bouquets like pompoms.

No one went against the cheer squad, especially when Moriko was leading.

“Great, now we have to go,” Trinity groaned.

“We leave for Ellyrion in the morning. Sleep well!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

We were surprisingly early to our train, with good reason. During the Dragon Games, the trains were always full with passengers. If we were late to the train, we would miss out on the ride and would have had to wait later. That would’ve meant a tougher time finding a room.

Our earliness didn’t help things.

“What do you mean, there’s no room? It’s the Pokemon Center for crying out loud! You ALWAYS have room!” Shonta said in panic to the Nurse Joy at the Sybyll Pokemon Center.

“I’m very sorry for the trouble,” the nurse apologized. “There has been a surprising number of trainers here for the Dragon Games, as well as exploring the area around White Mountain.”

I walked with her, Katana and Lily out of the Pokemon Center. “Well, this was the cheapest and nearest place to stay. Too bad everyone else got the same idea,” Shonta grumbled.

“I’m sure there are other places to stay,” Lily assured her. “Let’s ask around.”

Two small hotels and a bed and breakfast later, we were sitting at a café with depressed looks all around. “This town is kinda small,” I commented. “And that last place was kinda expensive.”

“Well, it did offer a Parisian-style breakfast,” Lily tried to rationalize.

“I don’t even know what people in Paris have for breakfast,” Shonta said. “Just give me some bacon and eggs and I’ll be happy.”

“WE CAN HELP YOU!”

“Hoooooly crap!” I howled before falling out of my seat.

Two familiar, identical faces stared down at me. “Hiiiiiiiii!” they said together.

Katana glared at them. “You two again?” she growled.

Lavender (don’t tell me how I can tell them apart) glared back at the Zangoose. “If you don’t want our help, you’re more than welcome to sleep in the forest,” she sneered.

“With the hanging corpses,” Magenta added.

“Now now, there’s no need to get violent like last time,” Lily said soothingly.

“Do you share a mind with our trainer or something?” I asked the two Kecleon while still on my back, remembering Shonta’s remarks on White Mountain.

“Silly billy! We’re not psychic!” Magenta said.

“Then how did you know where I was?”

They looked at each other. “They said on TV that you’d be battling here!” Lavender answered.

“Not here, but at Wing Stadium! Sybyll is the closest town to Wing Stadium!” Magenta said.

“But we weren’t looking for you!”

“Not at first!”

Neither of them had noticed that they were now pushing down on my chest. “Can’t… breathe,” I gasped.

“Ooops!” they said together, taking a few steps back from me.

“Thanks.” I sat up. “You said something about getting us a place to stay?”

“Oh yes! We live here!” Magenta chirped.

“You didn’t mention that before.”

“We didn’t?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“We apologize!” Lavender told me. “Our trainer can give you a place to stay! She always has an extra bed available!”

I tugged on Shonta’s sleeve. “These two say that their trainer can give us a room for the night.”

“Is that okay with the trainer?” the human asked, her eyes brightening.

I relayed Shonta’s question, and the twins ran into the café without another word. Shonta put her head in her hands while she waited. I got back in my chair and glanced at a table near us. The Machoke at that table glanced back and smirked. I gave him a nervous smile, not really knowing what the smirk meant although I started to regret giving him any attention when he stood from his seat and went over to me.

“Haven’t I seen you somewhere?” the Machoke asked in a gruff voice. He snapped his fingers before I could answer and laughed. “Dude, you’re the Kecleon in the Dragon Games!”

“What makes you think he’s the Kecleon and not just a Kecleon?” Katana questioned. Machoke pointed at Shonta. “Lucky guess. We could have two Kecleon.”

“Yes, I’m the Kecleon,” I clarified before the two got into an unnecessary argument.

“This is just awesome!” Machoke exclaimed. He got a small notebook and ink padfrom the table he was sitting at. “Can I get your print?”

“Sure.” I pressed my hand down on the ink pad and then pressed it down on an empty page, right next to one marked “Usagi”.

Is that the Whismur from the Second Round?

“Thanks man. Good luck with your battle; I’m gonna be rooting for you.” He left, probably to tell his teammates about his meeting. Right after he left my sight, the twins returned with a tall girl with black hair.

“So you’re the trainer. I’m Violet.” She shook my hand.

“The name’s Shonta.” I grinned.

“And we already know Bandit. We’ve become big fans.”

“Yeah, we’ve noticed,” Katana whispered.

“The twins told me you needed a place to stay. Follow me.”

She led us to a nice-sized house in an open area. A farm was close by, and a store was next to them. A small herd of Tauros grazed in the fenced-in field. “This place is beautiful!” Lily squealed.

“My family owns this land. We breed Tauros and also help rehabilitate other grazing Pokemon people find injured. We also sell art supplies.”

“Wooooow, that sounds so wonderful!” She tugged on my pants leg. “Shonta, I wanna do that too!”

The team looked around the property, half of them breaking off to the art store to buy supplies. By the end of the day, we had eaten dinner and sitting on the porch.

“Wow, this Ostentatious Aurum looks great on black paper,” Trinity complimented as she dipped her paw into the paint and pressed it on the banner we were making for Bandit.

“We gotta use bright colors for this,” Moriko reminded her.

Violet sat on the front steps with her Kecleon. “How do you manage such a big team?” she asked in awe.

“It hasn’t been easy,” I replied, feeling embarrassed.

“I used to be in the Dragon’s Guild. I had a team of ten, but then I had to release most of them when my mom fell ill. She was the one who started the art store, and I didn’t want it to close.”

“How long have you been raising Tauros?”

“Thirty years. It was Dad’s idea.”

“Those Pokemon are grumpy! They didn’t let us play with their tails!” Ken complained.

“We have plenty of people to work here. The problem is that I can’t leave Mom when she’s this sick,” Violet continued.

“I understand,” I said.

The twin Kecleon climbed off of Violet and helped the team with the banner. She giggled and stood up. “I gotta get ready for bed. Got a Girafarig coming here in the morning and I want to be ready for it. You’re welcome to stay up a little longer.”

The sun was still setting but I didn’t argue. “Have a good rest,” I told her as she went back inside the house.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“That looks great!”

“We worked really hard on it!” Bo said proudly.

The team’s banner really did look fantastic. The twins even drew a good picture of Bandit that stood out against the black paper.

I had found out that my battle was first of the day, so I ended up hurrying to Wing Stadium. Violet helped me find an express lift up the side of the mountain, and left Lavender and Magenta with me so they could enjoy the battle.

“No, you can’t stand in the trainer’s box with us!” Katana growled at the two Kecleon.

“Come on, let’s go,” I said to Katana. She was dragged away before she could get into another fight with them.

For our first battle of the day, we have Shonta facing off against Skye!

“Here we go.” We boldly stepped into the trainer’s box and hung onto it as it rose a few feet above the ground. On the other side, a blond boy rose with us. “Good luck!” I called out to him.

He didn’t say anything, but he did give me a thumbs up before throwing his pokeball. “Go, Iron!” he yelled.

“Hey, it’s a Porygon2,” I commented with a smile as the Pokemon materialized.

“Too bad we haven’t seen 99 in action,” Katana said. “Then we would’ve known what we were up against.”

“I’m getting excited. Dunno why. Go, Bandit!” I threw my pokeball.

The strange Pokemon stared intensely at Bandit before his eyes flashed twice. “TrAcE cOMplEte. AbiLiTy CoLoR ChAnGe acQUireD.”

“Oh crap,” Katana and I said together.

This will be a tough battle. At least the guy is more stable than GLaDOS, although he sounds just like her. I nervously looked at the Porygon2. “So… your trainer seems pretty quiet. He called you Iron, right? Your name is Iron? Really? You mean like the metal?” My eyes darted to the huge screen where our pictures and names were displayed.


L16 Male Kecleon (Bandit) vs. L16 Porygon2 (iRon)

“That’s your name? Your trainer really named you that? HAHAHAHAHAHA!” I fell on my back and rolled around.

“Bandit! Battle!” Shonta snapped.

I stood only to be knocked back by a Zen Headbutt to the gut, tumbling backwards until I hit the trainer’s box. Ugh. One of these days I’ll remember to not push my opponent’s buttons.

Skye and iRon take initiative with a Zen Headbutt! Will Shonta and Bandit step up their game?

I got to my feet and raised my hands for a Psybeam but stopped.

He’s pink?

“It’s Conversion, Bandit! He’s a Psychic type too!” Katana told me.

“Pay attention to the match!” Shonta told me.

“This would be a lot easier if I had watched 99 battle before,” I grumbled.

“Shadow Ball!” Skye shouted.

“Sucker Punch!” Shonta shouted at me.

I rushed in and smacked iRon before he could finish charging his attack. Heh, that Conversion doesn’t seem like a good idea now—

“Signal Beam while he’s up close!”

A bright beam of light knocked me back again.

His trainer was using my advantage to his advantage. This was going to take a bit more effort.

“Aerial Ace!” Skye commanded.

The black iRon rose high, did a loop and dove for me. I stood my ground as well as possible on shaky feet. Trying to dodge would be useless.

“Bandit, meet his attack with Brick Break!” Shonta told me.

I braced myself and rammed him with a headbutt. While I was just knocked on my butt, iRon was sent back several feet but stayed floating. “Ugh, that did not tickle,” I complained.

“Use Recover!” the two trainers said together.

Oh, come on! We can’t both have this move! I sighed and healed myself, trying to finish first. It was tough to speed up since it was my first time using the attack and I didn’t even really know what I was doing.

iRon finished first. “Use Thunder,” Skye instructed calmly.

Crap! I looked up at the growing thunderclouds above me.

“Stop healing yourself and dodge!” Katana yelled.

I clumsily rolled forward to avoid the lightning that rained down on the spot that I was standing seconds before, then kept running as soon as I heard more rumbling. After two more failed attempts, iRon was able to predict where I would go and aimed another Thunder in front of me. “Psybeam!” I called out as I raised my hands and shot iRon with a quick multicolored beam of psychic energy. His focus was broken, and the clouds in front of me dissipated.

“Good move!” Katana cheered.

“Go for a Faint Attack!” Shonta told me.

“No, wait!” I said back. If I tried to get in close, iRon would just blast me again. I stayed at a distance and raised my hands again. Glowing orbs swirled around and slammed into the Porygon2.

Nice Ancientpower from Bandit!

Both of us were panting (although it was hard to tell with iRon). We were both exhausted; Recover took a lot of energy to use. We would probably drop after another couple of attacks.

Skye looked like he was sweating bullets. “Time for drastic measures. Use Lock-on,” he told iRon.

“TarGeT LoCKed,” iRon confirmed. One red eye was locked on me.

Oh boy. That did not sound good.

“Bandit, use Conversion!” Shonta yelped while leaning a little too far over the railing.

I changed color, turning a blazing red.

“CHarGinG ZaP CaNNoN,” iRon said next.

“That REALLY does not sound good!” I squeaked. I wasn’t going to be able to dodge!

“Use Metronome!” Shonta said.

“WHAT!? ARE YOU INSANE?” Katana roared.

I was already doing it, probably because we were both feeling lucky. Something kicked in when it was almost ready. My body temperature was rising… something was fighting to get out…

“FIRE!” Skye ordered.

I couldn’t hold it back! “FWOOOH!”

A giant beam of electricity! And a humongous pillar of fire!

Ladies and gentlemen! It’s Zap Cannon versus Sacred Fire!

The two attacks collided and set off a big blast!

“Is he okay?” I asked as I strained to look through the smoke and dust.

Katana growled and punched my hip. “You idiot! If Bandit loses, I will kick your ass until I drop!”

The arena started to get clearer. Everyone was quiet. Then…

I can’t believe it! Both Pokemon are still standing!

“WHAT!?” Katana and I said together.

Both Bandit and iRon were still standing!

“What the hell?” I squeaked.

“iRon—“ Skye started. His voice died out immediately. The Porygon2 had made a weird whirring-and-clicking sound and dropped to the ground. Bandit’s knees were shaking but he still managed to stay standing and conscious.


Bandit won! He grew to L18!

I jumped over the railing and ran over to Bandit. The poor Kecleon was having trouble just standing, let alone walking anywhere. “It’s okay, Bandit! You won! You don’t have to stay awake!”

Bandit glared at me. “Hell no. I did that bit in the first round. This time I’m staying awake.”

“Fine. At least lemme give you a piggyback ride.” I kneeled and let him climb on.

Katana ran over to me and kicked me in the shin. “You got lucky! You shouldn’t have done that! You could’ve done an Ember or a Fire Punch! Why the hell did you use Metronome?”

“I dunno,” I replied lamely.

“YOU DON’T KNOW!? IDIOT!”

I heard Bandit chuckle. “That was awesome though.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

[Lady Vulpix]

Wow, that was a weird round... 4 contestants and only 1 got to post!

Congratulations, Shonta! You get the 4th prize for being the only one who met the deadline. >_> I will read and rate your battle soon.

If anyone else has started writing a battle but hasn't been able to finish it yet, s/he can still do it. They won't get the prize, but they can still get the levels. I wouldn't want all that work to go to waste.

The final round will begin on Monday. I believe that should give me enough time to set things up.

[Lady Vulpix]

Alright, I'm done rating! Shonta gets 17 stamps (22 points) for her story. Well done! I enjoyed reading it. :)

I have more comments, but I haven't posted previous comments on this thread and I'm not going to start now. :D

[classy_cat18]

Sweet! Since I can get a move from the movepool, I choose Freeze Shock for Nama.

[Lady Vulpix]

The move is yours. I hope she can make good use of it. :)

[Lady Vulpix]

And now at last... the Final Round has arrived!

The Floating Stadium is back in business, and now hovers over a small valley just south of Sector Alpha, Caledor. To those participants who live nearby, welcome home! And to those who come from other lands, welcome to Caledor and I hope you enjoy your stay here.

From the hovering platform you can see the mountains on the west and south, and on a sunny day you may see the coast to the southeast. And to the north lies Sector Alpha, the bustling capital of Caledor, home to the Dragon Tamers and some of the main offices of the Dragon's Guild.

The stadium itself has been equipped with different arenas in order to make the best of every battle. We have the Sand Arena, the Wood Arena and the Steel Arena.

Sand Arena:
The whole field is covered with a thick layer of soft sand. Good for throwing or digging, but watch out for hidden rocks!

Wood Arena:
Wooden poles of different heights are scattered all over the place. They're thick enough for a small Pokemon to stand on, but not too hard to cut. It is also possible to jump from one to the other if the path is chosen properly. The lower half of each pole has been covered with wax in order to avert a disaster should any of them catch fire. The poles are firmly fixed to the floor, whose surface is covered in slightly humid soil.

Steel Arena:
A massive metallic structure, akin to an abstract sculpture, covers most of this arena. Steel bars stick out at different angles, as well as a number of irregular shapes. A skilled Pokemon may use the various sections of this structure to his/her/its advantage.

You can choose the arena you want to battle in, but (here's an incentive for people to post early) please try to use one that hasn't been used by someone else. If you want, you can talk to the other competitors to decide which one each of you will use.

Contestants for the Final Round:
Raini the Persian vs. Metang
Sinopa the Ninetales vs. Rhydon
Mossjito the Tangela vs. Crobat

You have time until Monday, 19th of September to post your battles. Best wishes to everyone!

[DarkestLight]

Guess since Jeff went first last time, I'll go first this time :p


Thrown in the mix!

“Ladies and gentlemen! We are here in the final round of our Dragon Games. Through the battles we’ve had here, we’ve been privy to a variety of attacks and a bevy of Pokemon! It all comes down to these three battles to discern what place everyone falls into. The three battle arenas are set up and the crowds are ready for epic battles.

In the Sand arena however, we seem to have a problem. While Patti is there with her Pokemon…which we can’t see, her competitor is not to seen. It looks like this battle may be over before it even starts!”

The Sand arena came with a high temperature and an even louder, raucous crowd. Even with the lack of a competitor, they seemed anxious for a display. With the countdown clock winding down, Patti huffed and crossed her arms. ”Well, I guess I’ll be receiving the prize here.” She turned back toward the clock, and counted down with the referee.

5..

4…

3…

2..

*plop*

The sound of something colliding with the sand caused Patti to turn her head, and the referee raised his hand to stop the clock. On the field was an Abra, staring at a green mass that was face down in the sand. In a flash, the Abra vanished, and reappeared next to the referee. A mental discussion took place, before the ref nodded and pointed to the green mass. “There’s your opponent. There seems to be a problem with his trainer, but he’s ready to battle. He will be here shortly.”

“Are you serious? Well, this is a joke of a battle. Anyway, Rex. I guess we’ll begin.” Patti stated, with a disappointed tone. On the other side of the field, the green mass finally stood up, and walked into view. His vines were coiled tight, freshly grown from that last incident. Mossjito seemed uneasy with the way things had turned out currently, if his agitated state was any indication. But he had to be here. Rapp believed enough in him to make it this far-he had to give it his all!

The battle started with a streak of sand searing by. The wake left sand all over the place, and Mossy was rendered visually impaired. He looked left and right, trying to get a better grasp of the situation before he was knocked out before he even tried! So, remembering the early battling days he had with Rapp, he tried to start off with pollination. The first he tried to throw out was of the poisonous variety. As another sand streak blazed by him, he forced the cloud around his body. In a swift left turn, whatever it was that was zipping around the area doused Mossy in sand once again.

Mossy watched as the streak kept along its path, shooting back to strike him once more. Mossy knew these were just test strikes, not even real attacks…but why hadn’t the powder worked? Maybe he was too slow? That couldn’t be it. Mossy welled up a second set of spores again, and stood directly in the path of the sand. There was a hint of purple in the sand blitz, and Mossy went flying backwards from the force of the attack. Vines stabbed out all over the area, and he slid backwards to a stop in the sand. A few vines grabbed onto a rock, and saved Mossy from experiencing a nasty sand burn. Picking himself up, the planimal was washed over with sand once more, before catching another glimpse of purple head skyward.

It was obvious that the battle was with a speed demon, and that the poison powder was not working. So maybe it was time to ensure there was something to fight. The resilient plant began to spin, and seeds were thrown all over the immediate area. The streaking foe flew through the littered field, evading most of the seeds. Mossy turned as the beast shot away a third time, and hissed. What WAS this thing?

He had no time to dwell on this. The next strike was almost impossible to counter. A blitz of purple seemed to come from three directions, and Mossy was their focal point. Almost instantly, Mossy was sent flying through the sands. He rolled to a stop aside a dune, and reached his vines in the ground to try and stabilize. Deep in the dune, he found a rock and coiled his vines around it, in order to stand up. However, standing was almost out of the question. He felt pain all over his body, almost as if he was stabbed with a poison!

“The enigmatic Rex strikes Mossy with a bevy of Quick attacks-and follows up with a Cross Poison! This plant is all but gone! With no help from his trainer, it looks all but lost for this resilient plant. Can he come from this enormous deficit to win this match?”

The announcer was right! Mossy was on the brink of life from that strike, and he still didn’t know what he was fighting! But he had a sliver of a chance. Somehow, from somewhere, he could feel health seeping into his body. One of his seeds had to have landed. That was all he needed to know. With his time running out, Mossy created the only thing he could think of: a distraction.

Spinning his vines hastily, Mossy whipped sand right and left. As he did that, he moved backwards, stepping over the dune. Vines still whipping, Mossy hunkered down behind the sand dune, hoping this would work. The speedstreak of sand that was heading toward Mossy sped right through the whipping vines-aiming to blast Mossy from behind that dune. Mossy grinned as that beast flew through the dune…and into the rock! Screeching, a purple mass sat up, sporting a new bruise atop his head. Mossy peered out from behind the half buried stone, to see his adversary for the first time. Long appendages helped the round body assert itself, eyes glaring down at him. Mossy glared right back, unafraid. It was then that he saw it.

It barely hung off of one of the Crobat’s tails.

It was a seed, a solitary seed.

That little seed was saving his life. Not to alert “Rex” to its existence, Mossy went for the offensive, as the Crobat was gearing to fly. Knowing that was the secret to its success, Mossy knew he either had to get atop of it, or slow it down. “Rex! Looks like the plant is down on its last legs. Get back in the air and bite it and be done with it.”

Mossy jumped upward to try and thwart his escape, but Rex’s wings were of a faster nature. In three short flaps, his body went skyward, creating a Whirlwind behind him. Sand and small stones were brought up in the cyclone, along with Mossjito! As the winds tossed Mossy upward, he generated a spark. That spark shot out from the plant and whipped through the whirling storm. Rex dove down to try and bite Mossy, but wound up flying into a web of electricity! Screeching ensued, and the pair landed back on the sands. Mossy sighed; glad the landing didn’t take much out of him.

Rex however, fluttered in anger. This plant was barely alive, and yet it was still striking! The plan was still to bite Mossy, and he was going to accomplish this. Especially since Mossjito was so close. A low land lunge brought Rex within biting distance, but Mossy was ready this time. Realizing this thing struck him with a poisonous move, Mossy switched up what spores it should be using. The spores that Mossy created lathered all over Rex, even though the bat bit down on a few vines. Mossy backed away, and left Rex to fend for himself. Rex angrily screeched and skittered backwards, trying to fly.

Mossy reeled back as well; glad to have landed a successful few hits to this cretin of the poisonous world. Rex finally gained lift, and swooped down at the plant. Mossy ducked, and fired off two vines. One latched around each main wing, and Mossy was yanked sideways and upward. With the new weight, Crobat faltered for a moment in flight. That dip was all Mossy needed to reel himself in via his vines and Body Slam into Crobat’s midsection. Rex groaned and spiraled down, hoping to crash Mossy into the sand and end this fight for good.

The Sky Attack seemed to be the end all for Mossy. As he held on for what he felt was dear life. Mid-flight however, a strange series of muscle spasms began to take over Rex. He tried to control his descent, but his flight path began to corkscrew. With no control over his descent, Rex was flying blind. Mossy however, had an idea. Still holding onto Rex with those vines, he swung over and stood on Rex’s back as the Crobat skidded across the sands. As Rex lied there, Mossy complemented the downed flier with a second Body Slam!

“No! How is this possible?! Rex, get up and Air Cutter! You can do that from the ground. I will NOT lose to this prick! He does not even have a Train--”
Patti looked over to the side of the arena where there should have been a Trainer. Instead of an empty spot, there stood a ragged form, rasping for air. To its side was a smaller green Pokemon holding up both arms, and a pink Pokemon cheering on the green monster. “Hey! Who are you?” Patti shouted, as Rex skittered and flipped, slicing the air around him. Mossy saw this coming and slapped the ground, throwing himself backwards to avoid the Air Cutter. The streak left a nasty groove in the sand, but Mossy did not fear the outcome. He was feeling better every half a minute, and he knew Rex was going to fall soon. The problem was that any one attack could send him into unconsciousness.

“M-Mossy! We-we’re here! Go for broke! And to answer you ma’am” Rapp shouted, as he pointed to the scoreboard “I’m the one who fought my way here to make sure I didn’t miss the end of this match.” Mossy looked away from the new arrivals, as he heard Rex finally flap his wings in succession, and vaulted into the sky once more. What he saw amazed even him.

“Can you hear the crowd today here in the Sand Arena. This unknown Trainer and his Tangela have round after round amazed us all, and they’ve evidently saved the best for last! In 4 moves, this methodical mass of moss has evened the playing field. Any one attack could end this battle for either Pokemon. But don’t count Rex out yet, he’s back in the sky and ready to dive!”

Rex flew skyward and circled around Mossy, eyeing the ground. Thinking that Mossy was weak enough to take down, Rex swooped in for a Quick Attack. With the speeding purple lightning coming down, Mossy didn’t know what to attempt next. Rapp’s command came through loud and clear.

“Mossy! Shock Wave it again!”

Well, that was new. Mossy didn’t even think. He just reacted. A yellow halo encircled him, but Rex was too fast and tackled the plant. Mossy groaned and held on-using his vine to transfer the electric blast. Rex snarled and flapped upward, irate the bolt seemed to follow him even at this speed. Mossy landed as Rex gained altitude, panting heavily.

Rapp finally seemed to gain his energy and looked up at the Crobat, and at its Trainer. She seemed like a woman that lived for the battle-as she was pointing and tense with every motion of her Pokemon. But he didn’t care now. The last few hours gave Rapp a better understanding of what it meant to be a Pokemon Trainer-and he realized this was another defining moment-one he had to help Mossy realize as well.

“Mossy, I know you’re hurt. Heck, we all are. We’re here now however, and you got this far without us, so you know how to win. You got to slow him down one more time!” Moss glanced up at Rex, who flapped his wings, but only pointed them down at Mossy. The winds around Moss began to pick up, and he quickly thought up the only plan he could.

A nasty gust picked up, throwing all the sands and Mossy’s vines upward. Mossy began to tilt over, all the health he had accumulated was rapidly vanishing with this attack. But so were the spores he released, and they whipped around and up at Rex. Rex flew back to try and cast them down into the sand, but they got in his face and eyes.

Rex sped away from Moss, and tried to bank back in order to collide with the plant, but fell short, and crashed in the sand. The Crobat did not stop moving, his speed sent him skidding for a good 25 yards. Mossy-completely drained, just stood still as the bat came closer and closer...and then stopped, mere centimeters from his face! Mossy fell on his rump, staring as the bat slept!

That miraculous seed leeched a miniscule amount of health to Mossy once more, giving Mossy the energy to walk backwards, weakly. It looked over…it had to be over. Rapp, Patti, the announcer, even the crowd went silent to see if this match reached its conclusion. But Rex took a deep breath, giving everyone the realization he wasn’t out…yet.

Before Rex had a chance to attack any further and knock him out of this sand studded match, Mossy did the only thing he could. He called upon his plant instinct, and began to Absorb any and all health out of the sleeping titan. With a low growl, Rex finally stopped twitching, and lied still. Mossy finally lowered his vines, and hissed in approval. That was a battle he was glad was over.

[Mossy wins! Mossy reaches Lvl 30! Mossy learned Morning Sun!
Mossy reaches lvl 30. Mossy will learn Thief (to come up in a new and exciting chapter.)]

“Did you see that? After trading moves for 7 strikes, Mossy manages to best Rex and takes him down with-of all attacks-a Sleep Powder-Absorb combo! His Trainer Rapp gives him the moral support deserving of a king! Everyone give a mighty round of applause for this magnificent duo!”

Rapp looks around-to see both television monitors and actual audience members throw their hands up in supreme adulation. Picking up Mossy with his good arm, Rapp waved modestly and looked to his small brigade. “I’m sorry we weren’t here for the beginning Mossy, but you did fantastic. You can sleep now, we’ll take care of the rest.” Mossy weakly snaked a vine up to pat Rapp on the head, and subsequently passed out. May reached up to take Mossy, as she pointed to the west. Rapp handed Mossy over, and turned around, to be greeted by a stern face, extending an equally stern hand.

“Hmph.”

Rapp nodded. Her look said it all. No respect for him. “Look. I don’t know you. I just know that I had to get my Pokemon out of the situation that came upon us. I’m sorry that I was-“ Rapp’s lips were silenced by her index fingers over his lips.”

“Stop. At first, I thought you were a jerk for not showing up. But seeing your ragged state, you must have fought through hell to get here.” Rapp nods, holding up his arm which was hanging in a sling made from his own vest. “If you only knew…but I have to run. My Pokemon and I are to our limit, we need medical care.”

Patti nodded, and backed away as Rapp made a hasty escape, with May holding Mossy above her head. The small Larvitar growled at the crowd as they threw all sorts of confetti out in the air. Curiously, she bit at one of the flakes, and immediately spat it out. After that nasty webbing, things began to taste funny.

((Will edit learned move in soon, gotta get to a new Wi-Fi place.))

[The Blue Avenger]

I'm not late!

Also, man, this one turned out long. That's what happens when you pit a Pokemon with high physical defense against a Pokemon that excels in physical attacks! There may also have been a lot of dodging too.

I wrote this while sick. I hope you all appreciate that. :P

---

Dragon Games: Final Round

“Here we are, Bob! The finals! Just listen to that crowd!”

“Yes, Harry, it certainly does sound quite a lot like a crowd. The match we’re about to see promises to be a good one, too. In one corner, we have Jeff Azure and his Persian, Raini. Together, the two of them managed to scrape through both rounds so far, barely eking out victory. In the other corner, there’s Kismet Yilmaz and her Metang, Malzem. Unlike Jeff and Raini, Kismet and Malzem have absolutely thrashed both of their prior opponents. In fact, in round one, I believe they set a record for how quickly they fainted Madrigal Blanco Montilla’s Houndoom.”

“So Jeff and Raini are in for a treat, Bob?”

“If by ‘treat’ you mean ‘incredibly tough battle,’ it certainly seems that way.”

“Fantastic! Let’s get rolling!”

Jeff held Raini’s Pokéball in his hand. “Good luck, Raini,” he muttered before tossing the ball onto the field. Raini appeared with a flash, opposite a Metang that had likewise been chosen by the woman on the other side of the arena.

Raini glanced around. All eyes were on her and her foe. An Alakazam – one that could have been Maza, but he was too far away to tell – leaned on one of the guardrails, watching her intently.

FINAL ROUND! RAINI VERSUS MALZEM!
Malzem: “HOO-HAH!”
Raini: “…”

“I know what you’re thinking, hey?” Malzem said, slowly floating around the arena. Raini scowled and pawed the ground. The soil was moist and stuck to her pads whenever she moved them. Ick. She idly shook one paw, sending a shower of dirt to the ground, and noted with a frown that the soil wasn’t deep enough to try to Dig through. “You’re thinking that it’s going to be soooo easy to win this match! Why, it’s just a little old Metang! How bad could it possibly be?”

Raini turned a stare on him with her best “you’re serious” look.

“Well, I’m here to tell you…” Malzem paused, then grinned. “No. Let me ask you something.”

Raini’s claws extended, sinking into the dirt, completely unconsciously. Steel and Psychic. A lovely combination. Don’t let him get under your skin like that fool Kartzel did. Don’t let him put a timer on you like that psychopath Sasha did. Just see what he can do first…

Malzem spread his arms and raised them to the sky. “Can you SMEEEEELL… what MALZEM IS COOKING?!” Inexplicably, even though most of the crowd likely couldn’t understand what he had said, the audience began to roar.

Okay, Raini thought. This guy is a hack.

“And I tell you what!” Malzem continued. He floated behind Raini, and she padded in a circle, keeping her eyes locked on him. “You’re not leaving this arena conscious! Because the way I do things, I’m going to stomp you, I’m going to walk all over you, I’m—”

The Bullet Punch that hit Raini right in the middle of Malzem’s monologue, to put it lightly, took her completely by surprise. Malzem socked her in the chest with a fist and she tumbled back, coming to a rest against a wooden pillar. It took a moment for her head to stop spinning.

“Looks like Raini wasn’t expecting that one, Harry!”

“Yes sir, Bob, Malzem has taken first blood in this match. Raini’s got her work cut out for her!”

“Boom!” Malzem yelled, following it with a snide laugh. “That’s how I roll! You better step up your game!” As Raini got back to her feet, he darted in and threw another punch, this one right between the eyes. Raini’s head snapped back, hitting the pole and making her ears ring. “What’s the matter? Don’t tell me this is your A-game?” He tsked. “How’d you even make it this far?”

A quiet hiss accompanied Raini’s rise back up. Her eyes glinted and she gave Malzem a small smile, revealing a fang, before disappearing into the shadows.

“Oooh, too bad!” Malzem clicked his claws together as a cyclone of yellow, cartoony stars began to circle him. One by one, they spread around the arena, then homed in on an otherwise-innocuous spot in the dirt. “That’s what you get for messing with an all-star, yo.” The stars impacted with Raini in mid leap, pulling her back from the shadows, throwing her off her stride, and knocking her, tumbling, to the ground.

“Raini better look out, Bob. She’s falling into the same problem she faced in her last matches: her opponent is setting the pace before she can even get her feet under her.”

“Right you are, Harry. Raini needs to come up with something and quick!”

Raini slowly picked herself up. That Swift hurt more than it should have. She narrowed her eyes. There. Precariously attached to one of Malzem’s spikes was a small earring, glinting in the light. Her eyes darted down to the crystal key hanging from a chain around her neck. As she and Malzem circled each other, her mind kicked into overdrive. Will this Metang use any barrier moves? So far, he’s been centered around throwing quick attacks and catching me by surprise… so his battle style doesn’t seem to involve defensive ploys. Good. With barely a twitch of her haunches, Raini disappeared, leaving only a small puff of dust in her wake.

“Nice try!” Malzem said, and summoned a cloud of stars again. Before he could loose them, Raini reappeared behind him and, with a quick paw motion too fast for the eye to follow, she swapped her key with the earring. With another cloud of dust, she retook her original position on the other side of the field, the earring clipped onto one of her ears. Malzem let fly the Swift, not even paying attention to where it went; instead, he looked appreciatively at the crystal key hanging from one of his arms. He laughed.

That can’t be a good sign.

“You are a trip, you know that?” Malzem said, swinging the key around in a circle in an annoyingly casual fashion. He slammed his claws together, and a sphere appeared around him, composed of blue hexagons. It quickly faded, but every so often, as Malzem hovered in the air, it glinted in the light, revealing its continued presence. “Have fun with that Reflect. I didn’t use it earlier because, hey, your key was kind of obvious!”

“Oooh, Bob, Raini’s Switcheroo gambit has backfired on her! Malzem just keeps knocking down everything she does!”

“She hasn’t even landed any damage yet, but Malzem’s been chipping away at her health!”

Raini growled. The constant narration was getting on her nerves. Let’s review. This Metang has a wide variety of moves, and everything I use, he has a counter for. If I leave him with the key, he can use Reflect to block most everything I can do. If I let him have the earring back, his projectiles will just hurt more…

You could almost see the lightbulb appear over her head when Raini’s inspiration struck. This’ll be tricky, but it might start throwing him off-balance… Appearing behind Malzem again, Raini adeptly switched the two items, appreciating the familiar weight of her key.

“Oh, you want the key back?” Malzem said, smirking. “Fine! It was trash anyway.” He opened his mouth wide and spit up a glob of purple, oozing muck. It flew up into the sky, traveling slowly enough that Raini was more than able to dart out of its way, leaving it to splash and sizzle against a wooden pillar. She dashed at Malzem, her key glowing; the Reflect shattered into its component hexagons and she latched onto Malzem’s arm with a savage Crunch. Ordinarily, biting something made of steel would have been a poor move on Raini’s part, but her teeth, flaring with ethereal black wisps, sank in easily.

“Gah!” Malzem hissed and flailed his arm. Raini let go and slid back, grinning triumphantly. “Nice try, but you—” Once again, he cut his sentence short and threw a punch at Raini, but she saw it coming and disappeared. One swap later, and Raini was once again wearing the earring. “I thought we already went over how that was a bad move, huh?”

Raini didn’t say anything in response. She only stuck out her tongue and waved her paw in the universal gesture for “bring it on.”

“Oh, that is it!” Malzem howled. “You’re going down!” He hovered in the air over Raini and plunged a fist down, but Raini had the presence of mind to not be there when it happened.

“Are things starting to swing in Raini’s favor, Bob?”

“Looks like it, Harry! Malzem’s fallen for her Taunt, and now he can’t bring out his Reflect!”

“That’s some nice strategizing by Raini, right there!”

Somewhere in the audience, Maza nodded almost imperceptibly. Raini didn’t notice. The taunt had served to infuriate Malzem enough that he was throwing Bullet Punches with no down time in between. They were easy enough to dodge – his rage was throwing off his aim more than he probably would have liked – but Raini could feel herself lagging. Okay, shut down his defensive moves. Now to keep him from using that same move over and over… This’ll take some good timing.

Immediately after Malzem’s latest Bullet Punch missed its mark, Raini skipped back and stomped her paws on the ground. She let out a wordless yowl, and Malzem squinted. “I see how it is!” he hissed. “You don’t think I can do anything else! I’ll show you exactly what I can do!” Moving more slowly without the aid of Bullet Punch, Malzem floated to her and threw out another punch – this one slower, but with more force evident behind it. “Chew on this Meteor Mash!”

“Niiiice, Bob! Raini’s completely turned the tables on Malzem! Now he’s been Taunted and Tormented!”

“I’ve always heard about cats playing with their victims before they deliver the final blow, but Raini seems to be raising it to an art form!”

Raini smirked at the praise. She still had enough presence of mind to roll to the side before Malzem hit her. The announcers had the right idea – she certainly was messing with Malzem – but for the wrong reason. Sure, she was regaining the advantage, but actually dealing enough damage to knock Malzem out would be hard. So let’s take the time to swing things further my way… Raini smiled and opened her eyes wide, suddenly appearing significantly more cute than she had moments prior. This served to have absolutely no effect.

“Raini used Charm, Bob! But it had no effect!”

“Stop playing games, Harry. Looks like Raini didn’t know about Malzem’s Clear Body.”

Raini cursed herself. If she had paid more attention to Trezzatura when he was still around, she would have realized that Charm wouldn’t have worked. He can’t use defensive moves, he can’t repeat the same move, I can’t drop his attack… there’s just one thing left to try. Raini prepared to flash Malzem another unnerving smile, but before she could, he smashed his fists into the ground. The earth shook, and the tremors struck Raini, knocking her off her feet. The move didn’t hurt quite as much as Raini was expecting – it obviously wasn’t a full-blown Earthquake – but nonetheless it took her by surprise.

“Hah! You might be good at dodging, but I’m got you covered!” Malzem crowed. “I can still slow you down!”

Raini wavered to her feet. The Bulldoze had shaken her enough that she was having a hard time standing. She did her best to ignore it, and focused her attention back on Malzem. She aimed another smile at him, this one more coquettish, and noted with some pleasure that it made his eyes spin.

“Bob, Raini’s still trying to impede Malzem! Even with her speed dropped from his Bulldoze attack, she used a Flatter to confuse him!”

“Is Raini ever going to get to the meat of this battle? She can’t win through status moves alone!”

Thank you both, I understand that. Raini rolled her eyes. The trick will be preventing as much damage as possible before I can whittle him down. But that shouldn’t be too hard. I think I’ve got this one covered.

That was, of course, when the battle turned a rather sharp corner.

First, Raini, when she dodged another Meteor Mash, noticed that, though confused, Malzem’s rage seemed to have subsided. The Taunt had worn off. She took that to mean that the Torment would be done shortly too. With Charm not an option, that meant that the only thing keeping him from attacking her was his confusion. And she knew that she couldn’t risk trying to confuse him again – that would only drive his special attack up even further.

That meant that she would have to finish this now. If she waited, she wouldn’t have another good opportunity for the rest of the match.

Well, Maza, here’s where strategizing got me. Hope you don’t mind if I do things my way now. Raini scowled and faded into the shadows, just as she had at the beginning of the match.

“Trying that again? Forget about Swift?” Malzem said. He waved his arms, summoning the familiar cloud of stars, but this time, they rushed inwards, impacting against him.

“Malzem’s confusion gets the better of him, Bob!”

“Raini ought to take advantage of it!”

And so she did: Raini reappeared without warning and body-checked Malzem in the back, knocking him out of the air. He skidded to a stop, then rose up, an expression that could be best described as a cross between extreme annoyance and rising rage on his face. “You’ve done it now,” he muttered, all traces of lightheartedness gone. “You’re done for.” He rushed into the sky, about halfway up one of the pillars, and with a quick swipe of his claws, he sent it falling to the ground. Raini neatly backed out of the way, avoiding its landing. Malzem flew to the next pillar, then to the next, repeating the process each time. It became harder and harder to dodge each log, but Raini managed until all of the poles were cut down.

“What’s Malzem doing, Bob?”

“Who can say, Harry? Either way, it looks like Raini’s forcing his hand. He’s resorting to some interesting strategies.”

Raini was similarly confused. As Malzem floated back down to ground level, she eyed him warily. This didn’t stop her from disappearing, then reappearing with her teeth latched around Malzem’s arm, but he took the blow stoically and flung her off. Raini flew through the air, landing painfully against one of the fallen logs. She winced as she got back up, then jumped when she realized she was face to face with a pole hovering in the air. It was cloaked in the familiar blue glow that denoted psychic manipulation.

“I’ll give you a chance to concede,” Malzem said quietly. “Otherwise, I’m going to beat you with a wooden pillar. It will be painful.”

Raini’s only response was to focus her attention on another log. Her own psychic powers wrapped themselves around the wood, trying to coax it into the air… but all that happened was that the log rolled slightly to the side. It was just too heavy, especially for how tired she was.

“I warned you, bro,” Malzem said. The log swiped in a vertical semi-circle, catching Raini, knocking the wind out of her, and launching her into the air. The blow sent her higher than she expected, and, in a detached part of her mind, she noted as she flew up how she could see the whole arena. One of the pillars flew up from the arena as well, neatly catching her right as she began her descent. Malzem followed her up shortly afterwards. “One last chance,” he said. “If I let this log drop, you’re going to go with it. Don’t think I won’t do it. I’m only offering this so your trainer won’t have to see his Pokémon fall from… however high up we are.”

Raini looked off the edge of the log. They were up awfully high. She could barely hear the announcer chatter from where she was; they sounded suitably amazed. The fall would hurt. A lot. She wasn’t sure if her own psychic powers could let her cushion her fall; the last time she had tried it, she had been much smaller and much less exhausted. She looked back at Malzem, who was waiting patiently, and hissed.

“So be it,” Malzem said simply. He let the log go. Just as it began to drop, Raini sprung off of it, jumping through the air. She tried very hard not to look down, and there was a heart-dropping moment in which she thought she wouldn’t make her goal. But just as quickly, her paws latched onto something solid again – Malzem himself.

Malzem yelped and started ducking and weaving, trying to throw Raini off. “What do you think you’re doing?!” he yelled, but his protests turned into a cry of pain when Raini sunk her fangs into him. He grabbed her with both arms and tried to hurl her to the ground, but she kept a tight grip and used his arm as a lever to swing herself back up. She landed back on top of him with a heavy blow; the momentum he gave her was more than enough for an effective Foul Play. Malzem winced and started flying a little lower, seemingly as much from surprise as anything else. He spun around in a tight circle, but Raini didn’t give; she latched her teeth back into Malzem and hung on for dear live. The Crunch prompted another yelp, and Malzem ducked a bit further down. At this point, they were not very far from the arena floor again, and Raini nimbly jumped off from Malzem, onto one of the pillars’ stumps, and from there to the ground. Malzem followed her and, as soon as she turned back around to face him, he met her with a Bullet Punch. She tumbled backwards over a log, and took a little longer than normal getting back up.

“After a high-flying battle in the sky, Bob, it looks like both competitors are on their last legs!”

“Does Malzem even have legs?”

“You’re missing the point here, Bob. One more attack should decide it!”

Raini locked eyes with Malzem. As fast as the two of them could manage, they raced at each other. Malzem held out a fist, winding up a punch, but at the last minute, Raini darted sideways and into the shadows. Malzem drove his fist into the ground, then got tackled from behind, sliding into the dirt once more.

Raini held her breath. Did that do it?

The same question was on everyone’s lips. The referee inched closer, keep a close eye on Malzem… but the Metang twitched, then slowly rose back into the air. He must barely have any health left… this really will be the last exchange! Any attack will work!

“You are getting on my last nerves,” Malzem muttered in a wavering voice. “I’m going to beat you. I’m going to—”

“Stop.”

A hush silenced the arena. It was the first time anyone in the tournament had heard Raini speak. Even Jeff was surprised; the number of times Raini had spoken to him could be counted on one hand, even if two of the fingers weren’t there.

“I have something to say to you, Metang,” Raini said in a voice no higher than a whisper. “You have done nothing but assert your superiority over me since we began this match. After this point, I think—”

She stopped her monologue in mid-word and hurled a pawful of coins at Malzem. They struck and deflected off of his hard metal shell, but it was enough. He sunk back down to the ground, and his eyes stayed shut.

“And there it is! Knockout!”

“That was an incredible match, Harry! Neither Pokémon let up for a second! And for this victory, Jeff Azure and Raini are in the running to be the champion of this tournament!”

The crowd roared, but the sound seemed oddly distant to Raini. She barely noticed it when Jeff ran into the field, neatly running around all the fallen logs. He put his arms around her, seemingly not caring about the bandages that still wound up and down his arms. “You did it, Raini. You won. I’m so… so proud.”

“And for his troubles, it looks like Azure is also taking home… Help me count here, Harry. You’ve got better eyes than I do.”

“Sure thing, Bob. Raini just used $160 in rare, old coins as projectiles. Collectors around the world must be weeping.”

ROUND 3 ENDS! RAINI WINS!
Raini grows to level 34!

---

Jeff sat in his room. The tournament was over. All that was left was the announcement of the rankings. That, however, didn’t mean that the stresses on his shoulders had gone away. Kurtzwick was still missing in action, and nobody had heard from him. Gabi had asked him to go investigate a place where they could hopefully dig up some information on the Black Dragon. And on top of that, he hadn’t heard from Sydney for a while – efforts to locate her through the Guild had failed, and she hadn’t shown up online at any point either.

He sighed. Sitting in his room turning it over in his head wasn’t going to help anything. “Maybe I need a soda,” he mumbled to nobody in particular, then left.

Raini remained on her perch on the bed. She yawned lazily. Though a trip to the Center had fixed her right up, it had still left her exhausted. She hissed as Maza teleported into the room. That was exactly who she didn’t need to see at the moment.

“I hate to admit it, Raini, but I’m impressed,” Maza said.

Raini’s head perked up. That wasn’t what she expected.

“You did show a lot of good moves out there. Even if all of your status moves didn’t take, you kept him off-balance instead of the other way around. You were at a severe disadvantage, but you got through it anyway. Plus…”

Raini listened carefully, her expression neutral.

“That Metang was a jerk. Seeing you shut his mouth with the same trick he kept pulling on you was very satisfying. See? If you strategize well, you can be effective and stylish at the same time.”

Raini gave Maza a smile – a very wide smile that showed an impressive number of her fangs.

“But don’t mistake me. If you lay a paw, psychic or otherwise, on anyone in our family again, I’ll still be the one to take you down. Remember that, Raini. You’re making good progress. Don’t waste it.” Without so much as a noise, Maza disappeared.

Arrogant Alakazam, Raini thought. But she didn’t spend long on that train of thought, and instead fell asleep.

[Wolfsong]

Before story notes: Hannah gave me the Hydro Cannon (for Colby), Energy Ball (for Sinopa), Mimic (for Rick) and Ice Beam (for Rick) TMs. I bought the Fire Pledge TM for Sinopa and the Hail TM for Rick. I’ve had the Essence of Ice Rock for a while now. I also hate writer’s block and that was why it took me a while to get started… Finally got it done. ^.^


(Darin’s POV)

After Sinopa’s battle was over, the two of them joined us. I smiled as Sinopa sat down beside me, and purred as I nuzzled her. She nuzzled me back before our attention was drawn to the arena. Amy had decided to stay until the remaining battles were over.

Unfortunately, before I could even witness the first move I felt something nip my tail. Turning my head, I saw that it was Rick. With an amused purr, I lifted my tail up and he leaped, swiping at it.


(Sinopa’s POV)

As much as I wanted to watch the rest of the battles, my attention was soon drawn to Darin and Rick. Before I knew it, it was time to go back to the hotel room. Once we made it back, Amy had ordered a couple pizzas. Then, we all settled down in front of the television to eat and relax.

I picked at my slice, eventually managing to eat it. One I had finished, I watched as the others devoured the rest of the pizza. Shaking my head, I started to doze off when I heard Amy calling my name.

Yawning, I opened my eyes and saw that Colby was opening a TM box and Rick had already opened his and was playing with the lid. A chuckle escaped before Amy placed the last two TM boxes in front of me. I looked down at them before giving her a questioning look.

“It’s Energy Ball,” she said, tapping the first box. “I know you already know solar beam, but I thought that this might come in handy. The other one is Fire Pledge.”

“Thanks,” I told her with a smile, as I pawed at the first box. It opened fairly easily, and I sneezed at the face full of powder that flew at me when it opened. Giving my head a shake, I opened up the other box and the powder gently swirled around me, before disappearing altogether.

Darin shook his head, an amused smile playing at his features as he curled up beside me. As my eyes drifted shut, I heard Jasmine talking with Amy about having another training battle. She wanted to battle even more now that she was so close to evolving.


***

The next few days passed by in a blur. If I wasn’t sleeping, I was spending time with the rest of the team. Darin and I didn’t do any training during that time because we still hadn’t heard anything about the results from the second round.

I was dozing off when I heard a frightened squeak and felt the breeze as Rick leaped off the back of the couch into Amy’s backpack which I had been resting my head on.

Yawning, I opened my eyes to see what it was that had startled him and grinned when I saw Dodger perched on the balcony. I chuckled softly as I nudged the bag. “It’s okay,” I reassured Rick before hopping off the couch and heading into the bedroom to get Amy.

“You’ve grown,” Dodger told me when I returned.

“Thanks,” I told him, ducking my head a little embarrassed at the compliment.

“Dodger,” Amy said with a smile as she greeted the aerodactyl. “Any luck on finding Flame?”

He shook his head, sadly. “Not yet, but I’m not giving up.

At that moment, a sneeze was heard before Rick peeked out from his hiding spot in Amy’s backpack. Only, instead of an eevee, he was now a glaceon. She hurried over and lifted him out as well as two empty boxes, which turned out to be a couple of TMs. Hail and Ice Beam, to be exact.

“Who is this?” Dodger asked, as Amy carried him over.

“This is Rick,” Amy said, trying to introduce him. Rick, however, buried his head under her arm. Evidently, his experience at being chased by the pair of heracross in the Jungle room was still bothering him.

“He’s a little nervous around strangers, after he had two heracross chased after him.”

Dodger’s eyes narrowed. “Where can I find them?”

“They’ve been dealt with. Although if they bully anyone else,” Jasmine said, as she lowered her voice, “have no doubt, I’ll get word to you.”

I cleared my throat and tilted my head at Rick. “They’re just making sure that they won’t pick on anyone else like they did you.” He sniffed, gave a nod of his head, and hopped down out of Amy’s arms.

As I watched, he took a step towards Dodger. However, the phone rang at that moment, startling him and he took off running towards the bedroom where he dove under the bed.

I sighed and followed into the bedroom, but I couldn’t crawl under the bed, especially now that I’d evolved. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too much longer until he was back to his enthusiastic old self.

It took several minutes, but I was able to coax him out from under the bed. When he did crawl out, I nuzzled him. Rick purred softly and hopped up onto my back. My breath caught as his paws landed on my back. They were freezing but it was something that I could and would get used to given his new form.

I smiled to myself as we headed back into the outer room of the hotel. Amy was smiling as were all the others.

“What?”

“Congratulations.”

“For what?” I asked, still not following what was going on.

“That was Gabi on the phone.”

I blinked as I finally caught on to what Amy was saying. “I… Are… Are you sure?”

Amy just smiled. “I’m positive.”

I blinked, sitting down so suddenly that Rick had to nip my ear to keep from sliding off of my back. Suddenly, I was surrounded by well-meaning teammates congratulating me. All too soon, the bodies felt like they were crushing me and I began to panic. I backed up quickly, until I could turn around, which I did as soon as I was able to. Then, I took off racing for the door which opened for me as I ran up the stairs to the roof and sat there panting as I tried to calm myself down.

Rick whimpered, his cry cutting through my panic. As, I calmed down, I soon became aware of his needle sharp teeth still digging tightly into my ear. Wincing slightly, I laid down on the roof, where he more or less rolled off of me before pressing himself close.

Before I could even give him a reassuring lick, I heard the roof door opening. Growling softly, I turned my head only to relax when I saw that it was Darin.

“Are you okay Sinny?”

“I am now,” I answered, giving him a small smile. “Thank you for opening the door for me.”

He just nodded his head. The three of us stayed out up on the roof until I felt comfortable enough to go back downstairs to the hotel room. I held my breath as we entered, but everyone gave me some space that I usually needed after I had a panic attack, and for that I was grateful.


***

The next few weeks kept me busy. The training sessions that Darin and I were having kept getting longer and when we were done, I was usually starving. At least I was getting exercise from the training, otherwise…


***

It was good to be back at home, and it was easier on Amy in that she didn’t have to worry about the stress of locating a hotel room during this time. We all noticed that it was getting busier the closer it got to date of the final round.

This meant that we were going to need to get an early start if we wanted to arrive with plenty of time to spare and avoid the worst of the traffic. Once more, Amy had rented a car. At least this time, the back seat was even more comfortable than the other one had been

All too soon, it was the night before the final round of the Dragon Games. Once again, I found myself unable to eat because of my nerves. I also couldn’t sit still, and was pacing back and forth across the floor in my room.

It wasn’t long until Yana, padded into the room. “Sinopa?”

“Yes, Yana?”

“You should be getting some rest. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day and we have to make an early start.”

I sighed. I know, it’s just…” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s just that I can’t sleep.”

“Do you want me to stay in here with you?”

“I… you want to?”

She nodded as she padded over to where I was and nuzzled me. The nuzzle brought back memories of right after Amy and the others had rescued me.

“Of course,” she assured me.

“Thanks,” I whispered as I rested my head against her side. She started humming and I as I listened to that, everything that was keeping me awake faded into the background and pretty soon I was able to drift off into a dreamless sleep.

All too soon, someone was nudging me awake. I yawned and fought the urge to close my eyes again.

“It’s time to go. The others are in their pokeballs.”

I yawned one last time before I gave my head a shake and struggled up onto my paws. Then, I followed Darin down to the car where Amy and Rick were waiting.

She smiled when she saw me as she opened the back door to the car and I hopped in and Darin curled up beside me as Rick jumped up onto my back and looked out the window. I nuzzled Darin once before laying my head onto my paws and I was asleep before Amy had even pulled out of the driveway.

However, I woke up a short time later and, despite the early start, the sun was already up by the time we made it to the Floating Stadium. Amy parked the car, before climbing out and opening the door for me. She then released Talut who stretched his wings and took to the air, circling around as Amy recalled Darin and Rick.

“Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” I answered truthfully, taking a deep breath as Talut landed in front of us. Once Amy had climbed up on his back, he picked me up and then took to the air once more.

When we had reached the floating stadium, he gently set me down and I gave myself a rough shake as Amy released the others and they disappeared. While she was busy finding out where we were supposed to go, I looked around. There were people everywhere.

“Sinopa?”

I jumped, having not heard her approaching.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, but we need to get a move on. Your battle is scheduled to start shortly. We have enough time to get to the arena before it starts. On the plus side, our opponent hasn’t arrived yet.”

“It is?” I asked, my voice squeaking slightly as I followed her.

“Yeah,” she answered as we passed through a set of double doors leading into the behind the scenes area of the Stadium. When Amy slowed to a stop to look at the sign on the door I looked up as well. It read ‘Sand’. The rooms must have been soundproofed because I couldn’t hear anything going on inside as Amy started walking again.

“Which one are we looking for?”

“You’re supposed to be battling in the Steel Arena. The others have gone to try and find some decent seats.”

She grew silent as we padded along down the hallway. A short while later, the two of us passed a door on the opposite side of the hall that had a sign reading ‘Wood’.

We continued onwards, until we finally reached our destination. Amy opened up the door to the Steel Arena and we followed the signs until we stepped through one last doorway and into the actual arena.

I blinked as I looked around. There was no mistaking why this arena had the name it did. My claws clicked on the metal floor as I walked out into the arena at Amy’s side. There were metal posts sticking up and facing every which way. Towards the middle, I saw one that formed a ring that was just big enough for me to jump through if I absolutely had too. There were a few other bars that had random shapes scattered here and there.

Suddenly, the loudspeaker came to life, startling me, but I managed to keep from jumping this time.

“Welcome everyone to the final round of the Dragon Games.”

Get a grip, I told myself as Amy and I made our way to the center of the arena.

“It’s been a long and difficult road with many fascinating battles. Through each round, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to several contenders until now where we have six finalists competing in the last three battles of these Games. Here in the Steel Arena, we have Amy Wolfsong and her ninetales Sinopa facing off against Cassandra and her rhydon Sela. Who will win? Who will go home disappointed? We shall soon see. Let the battle begin.”

I swallowed when I heard that my opponent was a rhydon. I hoped that the sessions that I had with Darin were going to be enough. At least I had one more attack in my arsenal that was going to be useful.

I saw Cassandra approaching by herself. She was a petite woman with jet black hair and a confident expression on her face as she nodded at Amy. When I saw a flash of red, I followed its trajectory until I was staring at my opponent. She had an earring in her ear and had an eager look on her face.

The referee stepped between us and raised the flag before lowering it and taking off to the sidelines as Amy and Cassandra stepped back giving us room.


Sinopa L.24 Female Ninetales with a rainbow topknot and Crystal Blue Eyes http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/WolsongsWilderness/sinoparainbow3.png Vs. Sela L.24 Rhydon

I took a deep breath and before Sela could do anything fired off a ray of whitish energy at her. She blinked as the confusion sat in. “Don’t let it get to you Sela,” her trainer stated before giving a grin that send shivers down my spine. “You know the strategy we came up with if we ended up having to battle her.” I swallowed at that as Sela shook her head before looking at me. With a smirk, the horn on her face started to spin as the air between us got colder. Suddenly, the rhydon opened her mouth and a beam of ice shot out. It slammed into me, and I was pushed against a steel bar. It didn’t do much damage, but she didn’t stop once she hit me and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded in a block of ice, the only thing free was my nose.

“Nice work. Now, use horn drill.”

“Sinopa!”

I didn’t hear what was being said, the fact that I couldn’t move had my heart racing. I couldn’t think much less breath as the panic set in. Neither did I realize that the air around me was getting hotter. Suddenly, a jet of flames shot out of my mouth and circled around me melting the ice before dissipating. Once I was free from the ice, the panic began to subside. I looked around wildly for my opponent and found her attempting to drill one of the steel bars. I sighed in relief as I took a deep breath and let it out.

I needed to end this and end this fast if at all possible. Immediately, I began to concentrate on one of my newest attacks. As I did so, I was surrounded by a greenish hue as an orb began to form in the air in front of me. Once it had gathered up enough energy, I sent it hurtling towards my opponent only to stare as it slammed harmlessly into an invisible barrier.

I took a deep breath, not really looking forward to this but knowing it was something that would help me in the long run. Letting it out, I ran towards the steel post that had the circle at the top. Sure enough, I could feel, as well as hear, that Sela was following me. Saying a silent prayer that I wouldn’t get stuck, I leaped upwards sailing through the circle before skidding to a stop and whirling around where I launched a flamethrower at the steel post just as the rhydon tried to stop, but she was going too fast for her to stop in time, her head getting stuck in the hoop. I kept up the flamethrower until the post was glowing red. Only then did I back off, panting slightly as I tried to catch my breath as I glared at her. Turnabout is fair play, I thought to myself.

Before she could recover, I spit a couple tiny fire balls at her. Sela roared a combination of pain and frustration as the will-o-wisp hit as she struggled, unable to get free. In her anger, she stomped at the ground. I glanced around nervously as the arena starting at the rhydon’s location and heading straight towards me began to rumble. As I watched, the posts between her and me were toppled over as if they were dominoes. The one around her neck came loose from the arena floor but stayed firmly attached to her neck.

I winced, my entire body hurting from being bounced around. When I climbed back to my paws, I was immediately award that I couldn’t’ move as fast as I could earlier, but I was still faster than Sela. I began to weave my way around the posts while I concentrated on energy ball again. Sela smirked and didn’t even try avoiding the attack this time which puzzled me until I saw that she was still standing. I blinked. How? I thought until Sela’s trainer answered my unspoken question.

“Now follow that endure up with rest.”

I couldn’t believe what I heard. Giving my head a shake, I blinked at the fact that she was using rest. In doing, I inadvertently gave the rhydon the time she needed to curl up asleep. Snarling to myself, I began exhaling flames until my entire body was surrounded by them and then I rushed towards the sleeping figure slamming into her as hard as I could.

I winced from the flare blitz’s recoil but I quickly jumped out of range. It wasn’t a moment too soon as she began to mumble something before a large wobbling ball of electrical energy shot from her mouth wobbling erratically, and barely missing me by a couple inches. I could feel my fur standing up on end as it sailed past.

I couldn’t take another hit. I knew it and so did everyone else. I panted, as I focused on my best bet in this situation. Once more, I began to glow green as the energy began to create an orb in front of me. As I was focusing on my attack, I could hear Sela muttering in her sleep but I didn’t risk a glance in her direction until I was no longer able to hold on to the ball of energy. As I watched it rocket towards the sleeping rhydon, I noticed that she was faintly glowing a reddish-brown color just before the energy ball slammed into her. I held my breath, but there was no movement coming from the Rhydon.

“Sela, get up.”

There was no response. I sat down, panting heavily as the ref hurried over to check.

“Sela is unable to battle. Sinopa is the winner.”


I won!
I grew to L. 26.

I blinked, as I looked over at Amy. She had a big smile on her face as the applause broke out.

<Way to go, Sinny!>

I looked towards the crowd for the first time trying to see where my teammates were, but I couldn’t. Instead of continuing to look, I got up and padded over to Amy, so that as soon as we could, we’d go meet up with the rest of my team.

[Lady Vulpix]

The results of the Final Round are here! Rapp Laster and Mossjito: 16 stamps, 25 points.
Jeff Azure and Raini: 17 stamps, 30 points.
Amy Wolfsong and Sinopa: 18 stamps, 23 points.


This is a rare case in which the writer who got the most stamps also got the least points. I believe that Amy must have focused more on the introduction than the actual battle, which was good nonetheless. All the stories were good, so congratulations to everyone!

And now, what you were all waiting for: the prizes!

-As the winner of the third place, Amy gets any move from the move pool, plus 3 Rare Candies.
-As the second place winner, Will (or Rapp, depending on how you look at it) gets any move from the move pool, plus 4 Rare Candies.
-And as the tournament champion, Jeff gets any move from the move pool, plus 5 Rare Candies! Since he already has 15 Pokemon, he may not claim the Dratini for himself, but he can give it away to someone else if he so chooses.

And thus conclude the 3rd Dragon Games! I hope you all enjoyed them. I certainly did. :)

[The Blue Avenger]

Oh man! Rock on! That was some tough competition! This was an amazingly fun tournament. Thanks for putting it on, Gabi. :D And right on, Amy and DL! Tense final round too. XD

For the free move, I think I'll have Kurtzwick learn V-Create.
One Rare Candy will go to Kiva, one will go to Anzu, and the other three will go to Kurtzwick.

Aaaand... dunno what to do about the Dratini. I'll think on it.

[Wolfsong]

Congrats Jeff and DLl. This was fun. I think i'll take V-Create for Sinopa (if i can't choose that becuase Jeff chose it then let me know and i'll pick another). I'll hang on to the rare candies for now.

[Lady Vulpix]

I suppose you can both have that move. I'm glad you had fun. That alone makes the Dragon Games a success. :)

[DarkestLight]

Sweet. Good on ya Jeff and Amy :D. Great ending to a great Tournament.
I'll stock up the Rare Candies, and..instead of V-Create, which seems to be the creme-de-la-creme, I'll go for Ice Burn.

Tactics over power :D Can't wait for the next one.

[The Blue Avenger]

Right! Since I can't take on the Dratini, I've decided to give the Dratini to DL.

[DarkestLight]

Wait...the move pool move can be learned by anyone in your party? Or just the one in the Tournament?

[classy_cat18]

Of course it can be learned by anyone. I gave the one I won to Nama.

[DarkestLight]

Oh what the deuce? That changes everything :o. I was under the impression it was for the one you used.

....but my other two are super versatile when they get bigger, so I'll stick with what I chose. :p

And thank you Jeff! I will try to open my piece of coal that replaces my heart toward this little living whip :o

[Lady Vulpix]

A piece of coal? O_o Where did that come from?

It's funny how changing everything can have the same effect as changing nothing.

Anyway, I'm glad that the Dratini has found a home. :)

[DarkestLight]

Gotta update and write a story about winning!

[Lady Vulpix]

Yes, and I suppose our characters should meet at some point now that Rapp has gained so much notoriety.