Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Pokemon Quest ❯ Reminiscing and a Battle ( Chapter 34 )

Pokemon Quest

 

As Jacob, Anna and Lucario entered a huge stadium located in the middle of Scalboro, they noticed that they had arrived in the middle of the final battle, which was between Izy and a boy named Devin. Izy was using her Noctowl, which made sense as Noctowl was her only bird Pokemon, and her opponent was using Pidgeot.

 

It didn't seem to be going well as Pidgeot had the ring in its mouth, Noctowl reeling towards the ground. Jacob figured she must have just taken in an attack, and a powerful one at that. After all, Pokemon were allowed to use any means necessary to make sure they had ownership of the ring in these contests.

 

“COME ON, IZY!!!!!” Jacob shouted as Izy looked up, smiling when she noticed her friend in the crowd. There was no way she was going to lose the final round, especially not with her friends there to watch. She had lost quite a number of contests prior to this. The very least she could do was enjoy this victory.

 

She mouthed a quick command as Noctowl opened one of her eyes long enough to see the movements of her master's lips. She nodded and just before running into the ground, her wings started to glow as she performed a U-turn, now going upward and ramming her beak into her opponent's gut.

 

Pidgeot and Devin were both too shocked to react as Noctowl snatched the ring from Pidgeot's beak and soared towards a large pole. The entire stadium erupted with cheers when the ring was placed around a smaller pole attached to the main one and Izy was declared the winner.

 

With that over, the trio and Lucario were once again together and feeling quite hungry. Therefore they headed over to the Pokemon Center to not only heal Jacob's Pokemon but also enjoy a lunch from the center's food machine.

 

“That was an amazing victory back there,” Jacob said as Izy sighed, “Well, I would have lost if you hadn't given me the support.”

 

Anna smiled warmly and stated, “No, you would have won without us there.”

 

They needed no reason for that claim. Whenever Anna said something like that, it was normally true. She had a strange knack for knowing these things.

 

“How'd your gym battle go?” Izy asked, “I see Riolu evolved into Lucario again.”

 

“Yes, he evolved during our battle,” Jacob said with a smile, “But something I don't gather is that after doing so, his memory returned.”

 

That was odd news for Izy to hear. The legends said that there was a high chance Lucario would never remember his past. Since he had no idea of his past life when he was born, his memory should never have returned.

 

Nevertheless, this was good news. Because of this, Lucario was having a lot less trouble feeling comfortable around the others. Besides, they'd missed the old Lucario anyway.

 

“Does this mean his powers are back?” Izy asked as Jacob and Lucario sighed, shaking their heads. Well, things couldn't always work in their favor, could they?

 

With their bellies full and their Pokemon healed, the group was headed off towards the next town. Here was where Jacob would face Clarissa, the last of the gym leaders. He was willing to do all he could to win that eighth badge. He no longer had Team Advent to worry about, so nothing could stand in his way.

 

The four started traveling through the forest headed towards fate. Not only did the eighth gym battle await, there was also a contest being held there. Things were fine until the group noticed a patch of thorns blocking their path.

 

“I'll handle this,” Izy said as she sent out Scyther and pulled out a small knife.

 

Jacob blinked and scratched his head saying, “I completely forgot you had that.”

 

Anna examined it and smiled saying, “That's a nice hunting knife.”

 

Izy and Scyther used their blades to cut open the thorny patch while Jacob sighed, looking back to when he and Izy first met. Izy assumed he was a predator and pinned him to the ground, holding the knife up to his neck. Back then, this frightened the boy, but now he couldn't help but laugh on the inside.

 

Once the patch had been cleared, it was back to traveling. The trip came to another halt when they ran into a large boulder blocking a cave that they had to pass through.

 

“This looked like a job for me!” Anna squealed as she summoned Nosepass to lift up the boulder and hurl it to the side.

 

Jacob remembered back when he'd first met Anna. She seemed so gentle and nice at first glance, but while she was certainly nice, gentle was far from the perfect description of her. Jacob remembered very well his gym battle against her. He had almost lost despite his best efforts. He'd often think back to that moment wondering if he'd truly earned that victory or not.

 

Nevertheless, Izy and Anna were truly great friends to him and he cherished his relationship with each deeply. There were times when the odds were against them but they would continue to stand strong to the end either way. Of course, among the two, Anna was the one Jacob was most worried about.

 

Anna was a very strong trainer. There was no doubt about that. But she was also still a kid. She'd witnessed the death of her own father who tricked her into carrying out his evil desires. Sure, Anna was happy now, but even she couldn't toss horrible events such as those aside. Those memories of her time spent with her father stuck in her mind, but Anna refused to allow a few instances such as those to make her life miserable.

 

But while the group continued to pass through the forest, a realization struck Jacob's mind like a rock. All of this would have never happened if he had never met Lucario. His journey, the badges he'd earned, his encounter with the legendary Pokemon and his victory over the most destructive Pokemon in existence: to all of this he owed Lucario.

 

Granted, Darkrai also played a big part in it all, but Lucario was the one who always stood by Jacob's side no matter what. Lucario was Jacob's best friend and it seemed nothing would tare them apart.

 

Soon enough, the group arrived in the last town they would need to go to before the Ultimate Pokemon Challenge, Grandin Town. Despite being but a small town, it was certainly full of life. There had to be at least 500 people living here, all friendly and kind to one-another. And in the middle of this town was the gym where Jacob would face Clarissa, the strongest of the eight gym leaders.

 

“You'll do a great job, I know it,” Izy said as Jacob nodded with a smile and said, “I have to admit, I'm a little nervous.”

 

“It's okay,” Anna replied, “Don't forget that if you lose, you can always try again.”

 

“Exactly,” Izy said, placing her hands on Jacob's shoulders, “Even though I won't be there, just remember, I'm routing for you.”

 

“Thanks,” Jacob said before taking a deep breath, “You guys are the best friends anyone could ever ask for. And Izy, don't forget to win that contest.”

 

Anna knew that Ninetails liked contests better and followed Izy to the contest arena saying, “Good luck, Jacob!”

 

The boy took one last deep breath and turned to Lucario saying, “Let's do our best, shall we?” the infant putting on a serious look and nodding. This was it. There was no turning back now.

 

Jacob slowly walked into the gym, noticing that the battle area was made of water. Infernape would have to sit this one out. Jacob had never seen Clarissa in battle, but just by the design, he figured that the woman must have been a water trainer. This meant that Cacturne, Electrike and Floatzel would be great choices for this one.

 

Clarissa rose up from the water in a bikini and noticed Jacob standing there. Jacob simply blinked as the woman blushed saying, “I didn't hear you come in. I was busy cleaning the pool walls.”

 

Clarissa then pulled out a cloth as Jacob blinked again asking, “Don't people normally empty the pool before cleaning it?”

 

“Why would they do that?” Clarissa asked as Jacob shrugged, figuring that it wouldn't be worth it to explain the concept to her.

 

The woman climbed out the water, drying herself off and said, “Excuse me, I need to change into something more battle-appropriate.”

 

Jacob's eyes went wide when Clarissa immediately removed her bikini with complete disregard for that fact that she was out in the open. Lucario still failed to understand what the big deal was. Sure, males and females had different body structures, but the infant saw this as nothing unusual.

 

As the woman finally dressed herself up in a T-shirt and pair of shorts, she blinked, seeing Jacob's face red and asked, “What's wrong?” an explosion of steam forming around the boy's head as he passed out.

 

Meanwhile, Izy had blown the audience away in the first round of the contest. Luckily for her, this contest had been given a special doubles rule for the first round, meaning that she could use the team of Plusle and Minun to stir up a beautiful display of electric sparks that twinkled over the arena.

 

Anna cheered and clapped while Ninetails gave a howl of support. Needless to say, Izy moved onto the next round.

 

And who else should be in the contest but Roxanne? Now that she had six Pokemon, she felt a lot more confident.

 

`Which of my little cuties should I choose today?' she thought, and ended up sending in a large pelican-like creature named Pelipper.

 

Unlike her Turtwig, which had evolved into Torterra during her travels, and Farfetch'd, Pelipper actually liked having Roxanne as an owner and gave his best effort. He was more like Sentret, who had only recently evolved into Furret.

 

Pelipper's partner for this one was a small yellow mouse known as Pichu, Pikachu's pre-evolutionary form. The crowd was very impressed by the team work shown by Pelipper and Pichu, the pelican using his Watergun attack like a fountain while Pichu danced atop it.

 

After the first round of the contest ended, Jacob finally awoke from his short coma to see Clarissa's face right up to his. Jacob started to panic as Clarissa sighed with relief saying, “Thank God you're okay.”

 

Jacob breathed deeply, clearing out his head and saying, “Alright, I'm ready to battle now.”

 

“Excellent,” Clarissa said, pulling out her Pokeballs, “Say, if I'm not mistaken, you have a fire type, don't you?”

 

“Yeah…” Jacob said, blinking, “and…?”

 

“Well, it would be unfair to have it battle,” Clarissa stated with a smile, “So how about this? I'll hold onto one of my Pokemon and make this a 5-on-5 battle instead of 6-on-6.”

 

Jacob felt grateful for that. While it was true that gym leaders weren't allowed to show mercy, it was their job to make gym battles fair for the opponent. Clarissa's suggestion was certainly more than fair.

 

Clarissa looked through at her Pokeballs and asked herself out loud, “Who should I remove? I know! I'll take out Mantine!”

 

Clarissa summoned her first Pokemon almost immediately after making this decision as out of the ball emerged an ocean-blue lizard-like creature. It had large aqua-colored fins atop its head and a tail fin that was the size of the two head fins combined. With its beady yellow eyes and what looked like yellow spikes coming out of its cheeks, this Pokemon was known as Swampert.

 

Jacob needed to be smart with this one. Electrike would have been useless as while Swampert was a water type, it was also a ground type. However, due to its ground DNA, grass type attacks would be more effective. Jacob grinned and sent in Cacturne.

 

Clarissa smiled, clapping her hands together and said, “That was a very smart move, Jacob.”

 

But this didn't mean the battle would be easy, and this was made clear when Swampert dove under the water. Jacob gulped, realizing his Pokemon would have to do the same.

 

“Cacturne, dive in after it!” he shouted as Cacturne started to panic. What was wrong? Didn't plants like water?

 

Then the horrid truth hit Jacob like lightning. Was Cacturne afraid of water?