109 Finals

"The winners of this match are Hisoka and Ran from Kanto!"

The two of them stood in the arena, waving their hands at the cheering crowd.

In this battle, Hisoka used his long time-partner, Gardevoir. While the Pokemon used by Ran was Beedrill, a Pokemon that was very familiar to Kanto locals.

After they left the field, Vivian took the stage. She glanced at the card in her hand and said, "Congratulations to Team Hisoka for entering the finals. Let's give them a round of applause!"

Clap! Clap!

After the cheers died down, she continued, "Let's proceed with the next match. Team Harrison and Team Reggie, please enter the arena right now. Your match will start soon."

At the same time, the display on the screen above the stadium turned at rapid speed before stopping at what appeared to be a picture of rocky terrain. Then, the arena automatically switched into a new field covered with rocks and had nothing growing on it.

"Trainers! Are you ready?" The referee shouted, holding both flags in the air.

Team Harrison and Team Reggie had already entered the arena. Both of them faced each other square in the eyes and nodded.

"The battle begins!"

As soon as the referee brought his flags down, both teams threw their Pokeballs at the same time.

"Go! Blaziken!"

"Let's do this, Swampert!"

Team Harrison sent out their Pokemon, which was already quite familiar to the crowd.

Meanwhile, Reggie and Paul released an Empoleon and a Grotle for the very first time in the tournament.

***

While the battle was in progress, three people had just arrived at Celadon Game Corner. They entered the building and made a beeline for a simple poster near the back.

Seeing no one was around, they flipped the switch behind the poster and quickly walked through the secret door that suddenly appeared on the wall. The door then closed automatically before merging with the wall again, as if it wasn't there in the first place.

Rocket Hideout beneath Celadon Game Corner.

"Hey, Carr, do you know why Proton called us here?" A man asked.

He had short, slicked-down, black hair on his large and squarish head. He wore a grey jacket with the Team Rocket logo etched onto his left chest, gray pants, and black shoes. The large, muscular man was also holding two red shells in his hand.

The person he was asking to was Carr, a young man who was very short in stature. He had short, spiky yellow hair. Dressed in a white Team Rocket uniform, the man lay on the sofa with his eyes closed.

Carry opened his eyes and yawned loudly.

"I don't know, Orm. Why don't you just ask him?" he stretched his body.

Bang!

Suddenly, the door was pushed open to the side.

Then, Proton walked into the room with his hands in his pockets, followed by a tall woman and slender woman. She was around her thirties and had silver-colored hair.

Proton sat at the table and tapped on it several times as Carr and Orm scrambled toward him.

"Sir!" They stood in front of him respectfully.

Proton gave a simple nod at them and snapped his fingers.

"Sird, tell them about our current mission," he said to the woman behind him.

"Yes, Sir!"

Sird stepped forward and said, "After the tournament, we are going to join forces with Petrel to steal the Pokemon from the trainers who made it into the quarter-finals. The most important targets are these three people."

After saying that, she handed several photos to Carr and Orm. It was the pictures of Hisoka, Reggie, and Harrison.

After briefing the mission details, Carr, Sird, and Orm changed their clothes. In case someone would recognize them, Petrel also asked them to disguise themselves.

Carr only dyed his hair black. His short height and small body proportions became the perfect disguise for him, allowing him to impersonate a child.

Meanwhile, Orm's noticeable appearance needed to be changed. So Pretel made him wear a skin mask, turning him into a simple middle-aged man.

Sird's disguise was the most simple yet the most time-consuming. She only needed to wear a wig and put on some makeup on her pale skin.

After that, they left the Game Corner and walked toward the stadium while mingling with the crowd.

***

The battle in the stadium was reaching its climax. Swampert and Grotle were already out of the fight, leaving only Blaziken and Empolean in the field.

Both Pokemon were panting, obviously tired. There were two bruises on his flippers courtesy of Blaziken.

Blaziken was also hurting. The fire around his fists was getting weaker after being repeatedly attacked by Empoleon's Water-type moves.

"Empoleon! Use Surf!" Reggie commanded, trying to conner the opponent with a large-scale move.

Blue lights flickered in Empoleon eyes as he created a huge wave of water and crashed it down on his opponent.

Hearing that, Harrison immediately shouted.

"Dodge it using Bounce!"

"Blaze!"

Blaziken bent his knees slightly and jumped high into the air, landing at a tall rock beside him.

"Flamethrower! Now!" Harrison continued.

The counterattack began. Blaziken shot a stream of fire from his mouth toward Empoleon. After that, he kicked a rock at Empolean, not giving him any time to relax.

A rock was sent flying one after another. Whether they hit or not, Blaziken didn't care as he kicked another large rock. Relying on the power of his legs, he was able to keep Empoleon at bay while restoring his energy.

Empoleon's response was quite good. First, he used Bubblebeam to stop the fire, and then he used his Metal Claw to block all the rocks sent by his opponent.

***

"Blaziken is getting close to the trap I left earlier. You only have one chance at this," Paul reminded.

"Got it," Reggie smiled.

When Grotle was knocked out just now, he had actually left some Leech Seeds near the rock area Blaziken was standing at. Even though Grotle had already fainted, they would still work as he had left some energy in the seeds before being knocked out by Blaziken.

Also, the seeds spread on the ground were too small to be noticed by their opponents.

"Empoleon, use Whirpool!"

"Poli!"

Empoleon raised his flippers and formed a large whirlpool. He then threw it at Blaziken at a fast speed.

Whirlpool was not a particularly strong move, but it worked very well to trap a Pokemon for a short time while injuring the enemy slightly.

Empoleon then moved through the whirlpool, making it impossible for the crowd to see the match clearly.

Blaziken was at the center of the cyclone, trying to find a way out of this trap. Unbeknownst to him, vines were slowly growing from the ground. The vines then latched onto the unaware Blaziken and restrained him.

"Blaze?"

Blaze tried to summon his fire but failed. His energy was quickly being drained by the vines.

"Hydro Pump!"

As soon as the whirlpool disappeared, Reggie immediately ordered Empoleon to use the strongest move he had.

With a loud cry, Empoleon blasted a powerful jet of water at Blaziken.

"Blaziken!" Harrison shouted in worry.

Blaziken tried to break free from the vines, but the water blast was approaching fast. He couldn't even muster a small amount of his strength as if all of his energy had disappeared.

Bang!

The powerful water discharge went on to knock Blaziken onto a large rock. Letting out an unwilling cry, he slowly fell to the ground with a thud.

Victory!

Whoooo!

Before the referee could announce the result of the match, the audience stood up, clapping their hands loudly. Such a wonderful battle deserved their heartfelt cheers.

The reason why a Pokemon battle was always so attractive was because of its uncertainty. No one dared to say they would always win. Not even a champion dared to say that.

The strongest Pokemon in Harrison's hands, Blaziken had performed well in the knockout rounds. Unfortunately, they both lost in the semi-finals.

"Blaziken has lost its ability to fight!" The referee raised a red flag.

"The winner is Team Reggie from Sinnoh!" he announced.

"Nice one, Reggie!"

"Great match!"

The crowd gave Reggie and Pual a big round of applause for winning this match.

"Harrison! Don't give up!"

Some people also gave a word of encouragement to Harrison. Although Empoleon won, some people felt sad because of Blaziken's loss. Many of them had a soft spot for the cool-looking Blaziken.

***

Time passed by. Soon, night had arrived.

Overlooking the night sky, the bright city lights flickered all over Celadon City.

The stadium was at its full capacity. The organizer even had to install a large screen outside the stadium for the crowd to watch the final match of the tournament later.

During the day, many residents of Celadon City had no time to watch the tournament because of work. Luckily for them, the match would be held at night. Needless to say, everyone in Celadon City wouldn't want to miss the finals.

Besides that, millions of people sat in front of the television, waiting for the match to start. Many of them regarded this tournament as a warm-up for the upcoming Kanto League Conference.

In fact, most trainers thought that the Double Battle tournament was even more exciting than the League Conference because of the higher overall strength of the participating trainers.

***

Bang!

As the fireworks exploded, Vivan, dressed in a luxurious, white ball gown, was slowly being raised on a platform, catching everyone's attention.

She slowly walked down the platform and raised the mic to her mouth.

"Welcome to the Double Battle Tournament finals!"

Clap!

The crowd clapped loudly and cheered.

She waited for the crowd to settle down before continuing, "Let's welcome Team Hisoka and Team Reggie onto the stage!"

She finished loudly.

"We are rooting for you, Hisoka!"

"Defeat them, Reggie!"

Hisoka, Ran, Reggie, and Paul entered the arena at the same time. The contestants then walked toward their respective stands and waited for the match to start.

Pop!

Pop!

The lights in the stadium dimmed as two bright lights shined down on the field.

Compared to the calm Hisoka, Ran was in high spirits. She had never expected being a Pokemon trainer was this great. It was her first time receiving so many cheers and supports from countless people.

***