Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Pokemon Quest ❯ Round Two Preparations ( Chapter 41 )

Pokemon Quest

 

Many rounds had passed and the battles were, for the most part, exciting. After many a great battle, the final battle was between a boy named Jeremy and a girl named Janette. Janette was a truly lovely sight to behold with her elegant blonde hair and her rich dress. Some would have never guessed she was a trainer from the get-go because of how formal she looked.

 

The battle was almost at a close, each trainer down to the last Pokemon. Jeremy felt nervous while Janette had a calm, lady-like expression as if she knew she was going to win.

 

Jeremy had a small crow-like Pokemon called a Murkrow while Janette's Pokemon was a fierce metal bird known as Scarmory. The battle went for quite some time, but in the end, Scarmory defeated the small crow Pokemon.

 

Jeremy sighed as the girl smiled saying, “You did a good job out there,” the boy running from the arena completely ignoring her words.

 

Janette simply rolled her eyes and exited the battle area while the crowd cheered for her. She figured she'd have to deal with poor sports, just not in the first round.

 

“And that concludes our first tournament round!” Moro exclaimed as Nurse Boredom simply had her head up against the table waving her hand around as if to say 'Hurry it up'. This actually got a few good snickers from the crowd as Moro scowled at the nurse.

 

Jenna sat in the audience looking down in the dumps as Donavan simply rested a hand on her shoulder saying, “Don't feel too bad. You did your best.”

 

“I can deal with losing,” the woman remarked, glaring at him, “The reason I can't accept this loss is because I didn't even defeat ONE of his Pokemon!”

 

Jacob looked at the board and noticed his next opponent was a young boy named Harold. The boy had a clean green haircut and a pair of glasses. Since Harold had partaken in the ninth battle, Jacob saw how he had won. The only reason Harold won his battle was because his opponent had fallen ill before the battle and had to give up on the Pokemon Challenge. This meant Jacob had no idea what Harold was capable of, and this made things a bit harder.

 

“Don't feel too nervous,” Izy stated, placing a hand on his shoulder, Jacob turning to her and asking, “Whatever do you mean?”

 

“I can see that look in your eyes,” Izy remarked with a devious grin, “You're nervous because you haven't seen him in action.”

 

Jacob looked over at Anna who smiled warmly and nodded, the boy letting out a sigh. It just wasn't worth it trying to get anything past them, was it? Lucario quickly turned to his owner and patted him on the shoulder giving him a “There, there” look. Even his own Pokemon, the infant who was originally afraid of humans, was trying to calm him down.

 

“Did you forget?” Izy added with a wink of the eye, “we can look at his profile, remember?”

 

That gave the boy more confidence. Izy was right. Between battles, trainers were allowed to research their opponents. Jacob had no reason to be afraid. Course, the next tidbit Moro was about to add would surely take more pressure off of the boy.

 

“For the next round, we're going to mix things up a little,” the man said as the previously uninterested trainers started to listen.

 

Sampson's eyes perked up as he thought, 'Mixing it up... this had better not make my victory more difficult to obtain.'

 

Moro cleared his throat and pointed to Nurse Boredom who unenthusiastically handed him a sheet of paper with the round 2 rules on them. Just what would it take for the woman to start caring?

 

“Round 2 is what I like to call the fusion round,” the professor explained while the audience tilted their heads, wondering just what the man was yacking on about. Luckily, their question was soon answered when Moro added, “In this round, the trainers will not be going up against those that came after them. By that, I mean the winner of the first battle will not be going up against the winner of the second battle and so on and so forth.”

 

“That doesn't explain why it's called a fusion round, moron!” Miles spat as Veronica smacked him on the back of the head.

 

“Thank you, Veronica,” Moro stated, glaring at the former Team Advent general, “In the fusion round, you will be teaming up with that trainer rather than facing him or her.”

 

The crowd was shocked at the sound of this as Jacob breathed a sigh of relief thinking, 'This saves me a bit of trouble.'

 

Some trainers didn't quite understand, so Moro continued, “Let's put it this way. The winner of the first battle will team up with the winner of the second battle. Said duo will go up against the winners of the third and forth battles. To avoid making battles too long, each trainer can only use one Pokemon, leading to a total of two Pokemon per team. Am I making myself clearer?”

 

It was still a tad confusing, but the trainers understood nonetheless. This meant Jacob would be teaming up with Harold to take on the winners of the eleventh and twelfth battles.

 

The boy walked over to the small boy who looked up at him nervously. Jacob held out his hand and said, “Nice to meet you. I'm Jacob. I'm sure together, we can make it to the third round.”

 

The boy simply bit his lip, not sure what to do here. Should he even give Jacob eye contact? Truth be told, Harold was actually a very shy kid and wasn't good at making friends.

 

The boy simply bowed with respect for the boy and walked off in the opposite direction, Jacob blinking while Izy stated, “That was rude.”

 

Sampson wasn't particularly too fond of this fusion round idea, but he needed to get through it. He just hoped that his team mate would be a good one. She was a young redhead named Sevanne and from what Sampson saw from her battle, she did show some promise, but was it enough?

 

The girl simply let out a sigh of relief thinking, 'Thank god I'm not facing Sampson in the next round. If I did, I'd surely lose.'

 

She held out a photo of her family and thought, 'I promised I'd get at least third place. I might be able to do it, mom and dad.'

 

Harold walked off to a secluded area and let out a sigh, sitting next to a wall not knowing that there was another in the room with him. “What do you think you're doing?” the stranger asked as Harold's eyes went wide and he looked up.

 

The figure was wearing a black cloak to conceal his real appearance, but Harold seemed to know right off the bat who this was. The boy looked at the stranger and exclaimed, “I don't know if I can do this!”

 

The figure struck the boy on the side of the face, a hand mark forming and Harold letting down a tear shouting, “WHY DID YOU HIT ME!?”

 

“Because you're being a wuss,” the stranger remarked, shutting Harold up, “Do you want to win this tournament or not?”

 

Harold let down tears and weakly let out the word, “I-I do...” the stranger letting out a sigh and proceeding to say, “If you want to win, you're going to have to accept Jacob as a team mate. If you can at least pretend to make friends with him, not only can you win the next round, he may even let you win the third one.”

 

“Why would I be fighting him in the third round?” Harold remarked as the figure rolled his eyes under his hood and explained, “I gathered info on how every round works. After the fusion round, you're going to have to face your team mate in the third round.”

 

Harold had to admit that this worried him. He was secretly hoping his partnership with Jacob would last the whole tournament so he would win and the two could share the glory.

 

Nevertheless, for the time being, Harold needed to put his trust in Jacob otherwise he wouldn't win. And so he ran off to find his partner.

 

Jacob was looking up his next two opponents, Bert and Greg, when he noticed Janette sitting on a bench with her Pokeball spread out in front of her. She looked long and hard before smiling and picking up a specific ball saying, “I think I'll use you for my next battle.”

 

The boy blinked, rather intrigued by this girl's behavior. She seemed very interesting. However, his interest ended when Izy placed her hand against his head and turned his gaze back to the computer screen.

 

“Both of these guys rely heavily on ground types,” she explained, “I think your best bet would be to use Floatzel.”

 

“Why not Cacturne?” the boy remarked as the girl rolled her eyes saying, “Some of their Pokemon don't have a weakness to grass type moves, but they're all weak against water type attacks.”

 

Jacob had to admit that he couldn't argue with that logic. If Floatzel was who he needed, Floatzel was who he would use. Lucario folded his arms as Jacob patted his head saying, “Sorry, Lucario, you're just not the one I need for this battle.”

 

At this exact moment, a certain kid approached the boy with a nervous look. Jacob smiled at the sight of his team mate while Izy glared. She hadn't forgotten about how the boy had fled without warning. Anna, on the other hand, wasn't really reacting to anything these last few hours since she'd returned to her friends. She was too focused on Sampson's Spiritomb.

 

“Hey, Anna,” Izy said, nudging the girl on the side, Anna's eyes widening as she turned to smile at Izy asking, “What's up?”

 

Izy had a concerned look as she asked, “Are you alright?” Anna nodding her head and replying, “Why wouldn't I be?”

 

Izy simply narrowed her eyes suspiciously before turning back to Jacob and Harold, who had finally gotten to talking to one-another. Harold apologized for his actions earlier saying he was just nervous at the time. Both Izy and Jacob nodded in understanding, Izy feeling a bit more sympathy towards the boy now. And after a good conversation about battle strategies, Harold offered to buy the three kids and Lucario a fancy dinner.

 

Jacob, Izy, Anna and Lucario were very happy with this offer, but Harold didn't share their enthusiasm. However, he didn't show it. See, this invitation to dinner wasn't his idea. The cloaked stranger had set him up to this. He wanted Harold to get on Jacob's good side so maybe Jacob would go easier on the boy when the two had to face off in the third round.

 

Meanwhile, Sampson was sitting outside of the building on a stump in a meditative position when Sevanne slowly approached him and tapped him on the shoulder. The boy opened up an eye briefly and asked, “What do you want?”

 

“I just wanted to say that I'll do my best to make sure we both make it to the next round,” the girl stated as the man smiled and replied, “It's good to know you're not stupid like my first opponent.”

 

Sevanne blinked while Sampson continued, “I was worried you'd expect me to do all the work for you. I may have strong Pokemon, but I can't win the battle for you.”

 

The girl nodded and ran off, feeling rather pleased with this. She was worried Sampson would hate her and see her as a nuisance. Luckily, he actually seemed nice.

 

The next day, everyone had gathered in the stadium for the third round. Jenna and Donavan sat in the crowd while Jenna growled saying, “I swear, if Jacob doesn't win this tournament after beating me so badly, I will NEVER let my loss go!”

 

Donavan sighed and thought, 'I liked it better when she could accept a loss.'

 

Moro and Nurse Boredom stood towards the impatient crowd as Moro exclaimed, “Welcome, one and all, to the fusion round!”

 

“SHUT UP AND START THE BATTLES ALREADY!!!!” snapped an obnoxious audience member while many others joined him, calling Moro names such as 'Smartypants', 'Professor Boring' and worst of all, 'Killjoy'.

 

The man was about to lose his temper until he heard snickering coming from Nurse Boredom. He smiled feeling that the sight of her showing some positive emotions was worth the ridicule.

 

“Let's skip the boring speeches and let the first battle get underway!” he shouted as the crowd broke out into cheers, a teenaged girl shouting, “THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!!!”

 

The first to enter the battle area were Sampson and his partner, Sevanne. Sevanne looked very confident while Sampson simply sighed thinking, 'I really hope these two don't disappoint me.'

 

Their opponents were not just a good duo, they were twin sisters, Mary and Susan. Each had short hair and wore knickers and tennis shirts for some strange reason. The differences between the two, however, was that Mary's hair and shirt were red while Susan's were blue.

 

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Mary exclaimed while Susan screeched, “I know! I just hope mom and dad are watching!”

 

They noticed one of the cameras circling the stadium and waved at it shouting, “HI MOM AND DAD!!!!”

 

Sampson groaned and slapped his forehead thinking, 'Good god, what is it with these staff members giving me stupid opponent?'

 

Nevertheless, he and Sevanne would have to beat both of them. The battle began as Mary and Susan sent in their Pokemon without any warning or even taking strategy into consideration. Mary's Pokemon was a cow-like being named Miltank as Susan's was a small teddy bear-like Pokemon with swirling eyes called Spinda.

 

Sampson gritted his teeth at the sight of Spinda as the Pokemon started tottering from side to side. He had always found their movement to be irritating even as a child.

 

“Are you alright?” Sevanne asked as Sampson forced a grin muttering, “Peachy keen!”

 

Sevanne sent in her Pokemon first as it took form. Her Pokemon was a slim fighting type Pokemon with a pink cap known as Medicham. This was both a fighting and psychic type, so he was a good choice as Spinda and Miltank were both weak against fighting type moves.

 

Sampson, much to everyone's expectations, sent in his mystery Pokemon whom only Anna knew the name of. As a response to this, Mary and Susan both panicked shouting, “EW, GROSS!!! THOSE POKEMON AREN'T CUTE AT ALL!!!!!”

 

'Okay, how did these two make it through the first round?' Sampson thought, his eye twitching. He really felt uncomfortable around these two. Never before had an opponent made him feel so annoyed. He could usually keep his calm, but not with these two. But would this hinder his performance?