Chapter 26-27

I found it odd that all my battles so far had some measure of difficulty. I seemed to be running a gauntlet of the strongest trainers in the league. It made me happy, but it also meant I had to spend more time getting treatment for my pokemon.

That's what had me sitting in the lobby of the pokemon centre anxiously waiting for Igneel to be fully healed. Kenpachi had needed very little healing, but Igneel was in bad shape. He'd get better, in any case. The only thing that worried me was the state of his wing. Wings were notoriously easy to permanently damage. It had something to do with the flying-type energy they helped channel; at least, that's what Oak posited, and he was the authority on all things pokemon.

I ended up releasing Ino to join me in my wait. She was the only one of my pokemon that could remain indoors without causing a huge commotion. Kisame and Broly were so rare they were unheard of; Hashirama was a ghost type, and those weren't very popular, Kenpachi wasn't even an option with his current size, and Magnezone would cause more chaos than I was prepared to handle. Besides, his species weren't the most popular at the moment. Gym leaders were celebrities, and killing one off didn't lead to a good reputation.

It ended up taking an extra hour for Igneel to be fully healed. The nurse also instructed me to allow him to rest for an additional two days. That meant he wouldn't be available till the semi-finals. The good news was that we only had a single battle a day from this point. Tomorrow would begin the round of 16. I was already extremely close to the finish line, but that mattered little if I couldn't make it the entire way there.

With Igneel's ball in hand, I had Ino teleport me to the fields where we would take dinner together as a team. I considered making strategies for the contestants I'd gotten to see battle, but that would be a waste of time. I didn't have enough information on anyone's team to devise a foolproof strategy or even the barebones of a plan.

The day dawned bright and early, and I found myself in the stadium before the moon left the sky. I was the only one here, apart from the orderlies setting up the arena. I enjoyed the peace and allowed it to calm my heart rate. My journey started a year ago, and I'd come so far in so little time. When the journey began, I'd thought beating the circuit and winning the conference in two years would be impossible. I used it as my moonshot. But now, I wasn't even sure when my mind changed on this, I believed in myself.

I could do it. The trainers in the conference, the best the league had to offer, would be nothing against me. I'll tear through them like wet paper and make my way to Lance himself. For Quicksilver. I'd become champion for my fallen pokemon, and then I'd find the poacher. The thought of mounting whatever remained of his Gengar on my throne brought a smile to my face. Thinking of what I'd do to the Charizard brightened that smile even more. I kept fantasising about my revenge and am ashamed to note that it took me as long as it did before I realised my thoughts weren't my own. Did I want the Gengar dead? Yes, but I'd never fantasise about drinking from the skull of someone's pokemon.

I looked around for the source of this sudden anger and hatred before I narrowed my eyes at a woman standing on the other end of the arena. I couldn't see her clearly, but I could swear I saw a smile break across her face before she disappeared in a blur of shadow. It was almost like she'd never even been there. The fact that my mind felt free for perhaps the first time since I took a seat at the stadium was the only thing convincing me that she'd ever even been there.

I took a deep breath and released Ino. She connected with me and was brought up to speed at the speed of thought. I didn't send her back into her pokeball till the stands were almost filled, and the chances of me being attacked had gone down tremendously.

"Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, One and all, to the Round of 16 of Silph's biannual amateur pokemon tournament" The announcer's voice reverberated across the stadium with a notable echo.

"We've watched these trainers give their all, and we'll be asking for them to give us a bit more," He said and paused for the crowd to stop screaming.

"Today's battles will be six-on-six engagements. Yes, full teams. From this point on, we'll see the very best these trainers have to offer us. All their strategies, pokemon and hearts will be laid bare to us." The crowd's excitement was so palpable that I could almost taste their anticipation.

"And to you, the trainers, I have only this to say. Give it your all. We're watching." I joined my hands to the applause the crowd gave him for the speech. It was short and impactful.

He started calling out names for the battle, and I was surprised when mine was the first one he called. I stepped out of the enclosure reserved for trainers to applause from the excited crowd. That was new.

My opponent was also surprised since I hadn't even expected Sansa to have made it this far. Last I checked, she'd been struggling against her opponent yesterday. I couldn't see the entire thing since I was called for my battle and had to rush to the pokemon centre immediately after.

I nodded at her without saying anything, and she returned the favour. Sansa had given away most of her pokemon in the earlier rounds. She was a budding fire-type specialist and had the team for it. She lost the coin flip and was forced to release her pokemon first.

The Charizard she sent to the field looked ferocious, and I was sure Igneel would want a crack at it- injured or not. I'd have to rechallenge her later since Igneel wouldn't be getting the opportunity in this battle. None of my other pokemon would.

The battlefield had been greatly expanded for today's battles since there would only be one battle happening at a time. Now, It wasn't just a field separated into two halves; there were a smattering of environmental factors in the area. The small artificial pond to my left was the most important one.

I took a deep breath and sent Kisame to the field. This would be her first professional battle in so long, and I felt her excitement to prove herself. She wasn't as battle-hungry as Igneel or even Kenpachi, but she'd been bored of only getting to battle her teammates for the past few months.

My opponent and I ignored the crowd's whispers of amazement. The referee signalled for the battle to begin, and the pond came to life under Kisame's control. The Charizard tried roasting her with a flamethrower, but it was blocked with a wave of water while the rest of the pond wrapped around Kisame's body.

The Charizard's strongest attacks couldn't break through Kisame's shield, and she whittled it down with ice beams before dispatching it with a trio of hydro pumps. I could empathise with Sansa's shocked expression. Watching Kisame in action still astounded me at times. She'd been my strongest pokemon for a very long while, and while that distinction was no longer as clear, she was an impressive specimen either way.

Sansa returned her Charizard with a less than friendly expression before sending out a Pikachu that brought a smile to my face. Of course, she'd have an electric type or two to help dispatch troublesome water types. Too little, too late, however. Type advantage alone had little chance of overwhelming Kisame.

I was proven right when she used the water around her to swerve around the Pikachu's attacks before covering the field in a blizzard. I'd hated having this tactic used against me yesterday but being on the other end of this had a smile breaking across my face.

After very little time, the field stopped being visible, and I gave Kisame her next orders. I only saw a pitiful bolt of electricity before the ice and wind from Kisame's blizzard cleared up to allow me to see the field. The Pikachu was encircled in a water prison and looked to be drowning.

Sansa returned her pokemon with prodigious speed before sending out her next choice with a deeper scowl than the one she'd already been sporting. The Vulpix that came on the field melted the ice around its form with a single breath. I watched in appreciation as the fire fox used a fire spin to melt the ice around the field. I could have prevented it, but she was only making conditions more favourable for my water type.

After all, the Vulpix's flames weren't hot enough to evaporate the ice entirely, and it made several puddles around the field. She saw the error of her ways when the Vulpix started storming at Kisame with a flame charge. It barely even made it half of the distance when a bolt of water from one of the puddles blasted it in the side. Kisame followed up with a barrage of water guns that had the Vulpix reeling. She was about to trap it in its own water prison when Sansa had the good sense to return her pokemon.

I was too far away to see her face clearly, but her rage was quickly felt. The commentator's comments about her being completely out of her depth probably did little to alleviate her anger. At this point, I'd taken out half of her team with only one of mine. The logical thing would be to forfeit, but the commentator seemed intent on preventing that. His comments continued to get increasingly mocking until Sansa sent out her next pokemon, and even then, he didn't stop.

I had no doubts that the man knew exactly what he was doing, and I couldn't quite grasp his motivations for making sure Sansa didn't forfeit, but it wasn't my business. Forfeit or not, this battle had only one outcome.

Her Rapidash did an excellent job of twirling around Kisame's attacks. It maintained an aura of flame around it that was hot enough to evaporate the lighter tendrils Kisame sent at its feet. The battle managed to last longer than all the others by virtue of the fact that I instructed Kisame to allow the pokemon to tire itself out instead of dedicating more power to taking it down. Rapidash could be a very hardy pokemon, but running around the field with an aura of powerful flame tired it out in a few minutes, and Kisame barely had to even attack it to knock it out.

What's the point of wasting energy to defeat an opponent already defeating itself? The commentator's disparaging comments continued. They were subtle insults; this crowd wouldn't appreciate more overt slights. That didn't make them any less hurtful, though, and Sansa still declined to forfeit.

Her next pokemon was a Magmar that had evolved recently. I wasn't deducing that with some prodigious skill of observation. I'd seen it as a Magby battling with an opponent's Oddish yesterday.

It sent out an impressive flamethrower that Kisame countered before getting halfway through the field. I watched it use quick attack to run at Kisame while holding a fist behind it. Thunder punch, my brain supplied when I saw the yellow outline around its fist. It crossed the arena with good speed but was left swinging at air when Kisame simply moved her bubble of water to a different part of the field. Her use of the water prison was definitely her strongest advantage.

It growled and entered another Quick attack as it reached my seasnake. A bolt of water separated from Kisame's bubble and slammed into the Magmar when it was a few inches away from my pokemon. I watched as the electricity from its own thunder punch shocked it into unconsciousness with a satisfied smile on my face.

I watched expectantly as Sansa prepared to send out her last pokemon.

An Arcanine? A fucking Arcanine? How the fuck did she get one? They were called the legendary pokemon for a reason. Powerful and rare. Even from behind the barrier, I could feel the heat the pokemon was releasing. I prepared Kisame for the first move. It was easy to predict with what I knew about the pokemon.

The referee began the battle, and the Arcanine blurred across the distance between him and Kisame. If I hadn't told her to expect extreme speed right off the bat, she would have been caught off-guard. I watched my seasnake dodge around the Arcanine's straightforward attack with ease and command the water bubble the Arcanine had burst with his charge to wrap around him.

I wasn't the only one shocked when the Arcanine evaporated the water the moment it got within a few inches of his body. 'Rain dance', I commanded and watched as the arena started to become flooded with Kisame's element.

I couldn't close my mouth when the Arcanine just overpowered her rain dance with his own sunny day. It started to approach to end the battle at a more sedate place when I returned Kisame to her pokeball. I had no doubts about her ability to win, but allowing her to get injured at this tournament stage would be stupid. Besides, I had another pokemon that I needed to fight this Arcanine.

Luckily, the legendary pokemon's body heat was enough to evaporate all the water that had gathered on the field. I waited out my entire 1 minute to hopefully run out the Arcanine's endurance. Maintaining that kind of aura had to be draining. The referee had to begin a countdown before I released Broly on the field.

My hope was that being exposed to a pokemon that had extreme speed would be the final push Broly needed to develop the move for himself. The Arcanine blurred across the field and found one of Broly's axe hands waiting for him. It jumped over the attack and slammed into Broly from behind. My rock type went flying till he collided with the barrier and fell to the floor.

He was barely fazed from the attack and prepared to tango with the Arcanine again. As the fire type blurred across the field, Broly tried to use an Earthquake to destabilise its footing, but even that was useless, and he was forced to dig into the ground to avoid the arcanine's charge. He came up at a different end of the field and sent a hyper beam screaming straight at the Arcanine.

It dodged with little effort and was running at Broly again. My starter was forced to dig to escape the fire type's next attack. 'Have you got it?' I asked him, and his reply was the concept of not yet. I watched as Broly used the same hit-and-run tactics over and over again.

It was like a real-life game of whack-a-mole. It wasn't till the Arcanine made his seventh attempt at catching Broly that my pokemon moved across the ground to meet him. I smiled a wide, proud smile when I couldn't even see Broly's blur as he rushed to meet the Arcanine head-on.

They slammed into each other and shattered the ground around them with their impact. They made a few passes at each other before I truly understood the situation. While Broly had cracked the secret to extreme speed, the Arcanine was still faster by a noticeable margin. That mattered little, though. Broly had been fighting opponents much faster than him for a month, and my new perspective told me the Arcanine didn't have any experience against opponents that could match its speed.

From that point, it was only a formality. The battle ended when Broly smashed a Stone Axe into the Arcanine's skull and blasted the pokemon with a hyper beam when it was dazed for a few seconds. Sansa returned her pokemon with what looked like disappointment on her face and the crowd went wild.

I rushed into the field and wrapped my starter in a hug. A very short hug. His body was burning hot. "You were amazing. You've got extreme speed now." I said with a proud smile that he returned before I returned him to his pokeball.

I walked across the field toward Sansa. She was staring at her pokeball and looked to be holding back tears. She didn't notice me until I was right before her. "Good battle," I said while stretching out my hand for a shake. She looked into my eyes searchingly before she put her hand in mine. The crowd went wild at the display of sportsmanship, and the commentator finally shut up. He'd actually been shockingly silent since Sansa sent out her Arcanine.

I escorted Sansa out of the field to applause from the crowd while searching my mind for a polite way to ask her about the arcanine. We were halfway to the pokemon centre when she turned to me and asked, "What do you want?" That's oddly blunt of her.

When I was too shocked to reply, she said, "Let's not pretend that you care about me or my pokemon. You want something from me, so what is it?"

She had me there. "Your Arcanine. I'm curious about it and why you didn't use it earlier."

"I already explained this to your dad. Growlithe went wandering off one day and he came back to me as an Arcanine. I have no idea how he evolved. I didn't use it earlier because your dad told me not to use it since it would gather too much of the wrong type of attention. I failed in that mission too," She said with a despondent look.

"Oh…" I didn't have anything to say to that, and we spent the rest of the journey in silence. She gave me something to think about though. Oak advised her not to use her Arcanine, but he didn't give me any of that kind of advice with my admittedly more rare team. I had a practically unheard-of species of pokemon, and he'd never warned me to be careful.

Did he trust me to defend myself or did he just not care? It was difficult to tell either way. When we got to the centre, we split ways, and I had Ino teleport me to the fields we used for our training. None of my pokemon were hurt enough to require a session at the centre and something was beginning to rub me wrong about the whole affair. I used some potions I had to heal Broly back to full health since he'd taken a few hits from the Arcanine.

We weren't going to be doing much training today since we had another battle tomorrow, but I needed Broly to adapt to his new speed. Having Ino use gravity on him while he battled three of my other pokemon seemed to be the most effective strategy so we continued with that. He could access the move now but was still raw with it. Not as fast as the other pokemon I've seen with the move but much faster than any pokemon I've seen without it.

The battle was much different from the earlier battles I'd seen this month. With Extreme speed, Broly could almost ignore Ino's gravity and attack as was his want. The battle wasn't any easier for him since Kenpachi, Snorlax, and Hashirama were tough opponents, but when Ino finally released the move, he gave them a run for their money.

He lost in the end, but it was closer than ever. Extreme speed was the bridge I'd hoped for it to be. The best part was that the more Broly used the move, the better he got with it. Eventually, he'd be able to take out elite-level pokemon in blinks like Lance's own starter was capable of.

The rest of the training was working with both Igneel and Kisame on mastering dragon dance. Hashirama was working on something else that I couldn't quite determine. He looked to be communicating with the grass around him.

The next day, I found myself in the arena, standing opposite another trainer, a Kyle Mckain. The most NPC-looking character I'd ever seen. The most notable thing I could see about him was his height. He looked to be over 6 feet tall. Definitely taller than anyone I'd ever seen in this world. He could have had a profitable character as a basketball player in my original world.

I lost the coin toss and was forced to send out the first pokemon. Since I'd already shown off Broly yesterday, I decided to start things with him this time. He hadn't gotten to battle much in recent months, so I needed to fix that. My opponent seemed to consider things for a pit before sending out his own pokemon. A Gengar that made me grit my teeth. I had to forcibly remind both Broly and myself that this wasn't the Gengar. The one that had taken from me. This one was innocent.

We wouldn't be trying to kill it. If we were a bit rougher than usual, that was how things went. I waited for the referee to start the battle before Broly blurred across the field, and his axe went straight through the space the Gengar's head had occupied. The pokemon dissolved into shadows and retreated from Broly's attack.

Broly wasn't to be deterred, though. I had studied up on killing ghosts, and while they were highly resistant to physical damage, enough hits concentrated in a short period could overcome their ability to reform.

Broly took the lessons we'd learned to heart as he didn't allow the Gengar a second's respite. He followed it across the field, appearing at its blind spot when it tried to resurface and attempt an attack. What moves it managed to use were dodged with contemptuous ease. I turned my eyes from the battle to look at my opponent. He looked very calm even with all that was happening. I saw him look from the battle to me, and then he clapped twice with an arrogant smirk on his face.

I saw his Gengar dissolve into a poisonous cloud that surrounded Broly. His next words made me look at him in astonishment. "I hope your pokemon isn't gassed out. Hah. Get it? Gassed out"

I turned away from the clown and looked at Broly's still form. To an outsider, it might have looked like he couldn't move with the poison, but he was simply gathering his energy for a different move. After a few more seconds, he started twirling around and creating a whirlwind that dispersed the poisonous cloud that surrounded him into the sky.

When he stopped moving, he was alone on the field, with clear air around him. 'Keep your guard up, the Gengar isn't down yet.' I instructed him through our aura bond. I was surprised I could even convey complex messages like this through aura's imprecise medium. He stood still for a few more seconds and then moved to the left. I watched in shock as a shadow claw occupied the space where he'd just occupied. His senses were truly top-notch.

Broly went back on the attack, and the Gengar just couldn't keep up anymore. I guess having its body scattered to the winds was less than ideal for its health. It took a few more exchanges for Broly to wear his opponent down and then my opponent stomped his feet three times. I kept a close eye on both pokemon, and that's why I noticed the dark aura that surrounded both Broly and Gengar for a second.

'Destiny Bond', I thought with a derisive snort. Such an underhanded tactic. Technically legal, but no less despicable for it. I stopped Broly from pushing the attack and started wondering how I was going to be able to stop the move from coming into effect. I could admire the strategy in his actions. Start with a Gengar that knew Destiny bond to take out one of the stronger members of my team. I felt that if I'd started with any other pokemon, he might have chosen a different pokemon to take them out.

I didn't have to do much thinking because Broly pointed something out to me. The Gengar was already on its last legs. Its floating was less steady than it had been at the beginning of the battle, and its smile was more strained. My next orders were obvious. 'Wait, let the Gengar come to you. Destiny bond can be a draining move'. That was one of the obvious disadvantages of the move. It took energy from the pokemon, using it to create the bond and kept taking energy to maintain the bond.

It's why it was used when the battle was guaranteed to be over in the next few moves. Normally, a Gengar would have more than enough energy to maintain the move. Still, this one was already exhausted from Broly's attacks and then had to reform its body after being dispersed into the wind.

My opponent figured out what was going on and shot a panicked look at his Gengar, that was already succumbing to exhaustion. He did as expected and ordered his ghost to throw everything it could at us. Not an unwise choice but Broly had an easy time weaving through the Gengar's attacks and resisting his instincts to counterattack. After a few minutes, the Gengar fainted into unconsciousness on its own.

I saw a second dark aura appear around Broly's body before dispersing. I looked at my opponent expectantly, and he returned his pokemon before sending out a Kadabra. The fox pokemon looked to be the opposite of intimidating when I'd been seeing his evolved counterparts throughout the tournament.

It proved my initial expectations wrong when it tore multiple boulders out of the ground that it sent at Broly the moment the referee started the battle. Broly had a field day taking control of the rocks from the Kadabra with his terrakinesis before setting them gently on the floor next to him. He blurred across the field to introduce the fox's head with his axe when it was gone with a blast of light.

It appeared in Broly's blindspot and fired off a psybeam that was easily dodged. Broly was too fast for a battle like this not to turn into a chase. He moved across the field after the teleporting Kadabra, and the pokemon conducted itself well by disappearing whenever Broly got too close for comfort.

After it went on for a minute or so, I had Broly stop. We needed to change tactics. Broly hid it well, but he was already tired. Extreme speed was tiring, and Broly had been using it for too long. Broly brought the boulders around him to life and sent them hurtling at the floating psychic type. It blocked all the attacks with a telekinetic shield, but this played into our plans. Broly crushed the boulders against the shield, creating a cloud of dust covering the entire arena and blocking his opponent's visibility.

Broly could have done that with a single move if he knew sandstorm, and I, once again, lamented his relatively small movepool. He dug into the ground and made his way towards where the Kadabra had last been. I shouldn't have been surprised when the dust cleared, and I saw both Broly and Kadabra where the other had been when the battle started.

I grit my teeth in irritation before an idea came to me. 'signal beam. Rapid fire,' I instructed my starter. He turned his two axe hands towards his opponent, and bright green beams of energy came out of them like bullets from a canon. The Kadabra was able to dodge the first few by teleportation, but when it eventually got hit by one of them, his ability to teleport was greatly diminished.

Broly fired two more signal beams that were blocked with a protect before he disappeared and appeared inside the shattering protect with a stone axe raised to his opponent's head. My opponent returned his pokemon, and I breathed a sigh of relief before I followed suit in returning mine. Broly had been unable to complete his attack. He'd hesitated, and I was glad my opponent had enough honour not to punish him for his mercy.

The next pokemon he sent out was a pidgeotto, and I sent out Kenpachi to finish the battle.

The battle between Kenpachi and the pidgeotto was too short to be notable. The bird gave a valiant effort, but even a thousand brave birds would have no chance of breaching Kenpachi's armour. At the end of the day, It was a battle decided before it even began. The Pidgeotto even evolved into a Pidgeot at the ending stretch of the fight, but it was too little and came far too late.

Kenpachi struck it down from the air with a powerful rock throw and knocked it out with a hyper beam. He turned to look at my opponent, waiting for the next pokemon as if he hadn't just finished a battle. I understood the sentiment, though. To a pokemon as strong as Kenpachi, that battle must felt more like a warmup than an actual fight.

With three of my opponent's pokemon down, he had to make his next choice count, and I had to admit being disappointed when he sent out an Exeggcute. A grass/psychic type against a rock/dark type wasn't a fair type matchup, so this pokemon either had something that made it special, or he was already out of options.

It would be preferable if it was the latter, but some of me hoped it was the former. When the Exeggcute began to try using vine whip to set up a seed drain, I shook my head in disappointment. Oak had pointed out to a younger Donnel when he was younger when they were watching the conference that most trainers tended to focus on one typing that played well to their strengths and ignore the other when it came to dual-type pokemon. It was a bit hypocritical of me to point out here since I did the same thing with many of my pokemon. Still, when the pokemon in question had such a clear weakness as a psychic type, then this overreliance was just stupid.

I had Kenpachi ignore the pokemon's attacks, allowing them to wash over his form before targeting the grass type with a storm of shadow balls. I felt my mouth drop when the grass-type pokemon somehow floated around Kenpachi's attacks before doubling the intensity of its own attacks.

It took me a second to realise I'd been had. The Exeggcute was better at grass-type moves than it had initially shown. The strength of the vine whip it was using almost tripled, and I gritted my teeth as Kenpachi was sent reeling. "Protect", I barked out in irritation. In between one second and the next, the vine whip was bouncing away from a bright green shield before being sent right back at the shield.

I considered my next course of action very carefully. He'd baited me into overextending on that last pass, but we'd managed to avert disaster. Before I could give any orders, Kenpachi decided to take the initiative. He dropped the shield before catching both vines in his claws and ripping them apart.

More shadow balls went flying at the egg pokemon, but a shield of psychic energy managed to avert most of the damage. In that time, Kenpachi used earthquake on the field to destabilise the grass type's footing before sniping it out of consciousness with a hyper beam. I watched with a smile as the trainer across from me returned his pokemon.

I resolved to have some more faith in my pokemon. They'd been battling each other for months, after all. Basic tactics weren't beyond them.

My opponent's next pokemon was a smoochum. I watched with a smile as the funny pokemon appeared on the field and was forced to immediately dodge a shadow ball from Kenpachi. We got a warning for that.

The ice/ghost type put on a terrific effort, but Kenpachi had been battling stronger pokemon even as a pupitar. His evolution made him much stronger and more versatile. The ice type's beams were deflected with protect, and the ghost moves it could call upon were torn apart by Kenpachi's own dark type offerings.

I was surprised when the pokemon attempted to use attract, but even that was of no utility. They were of egg groups that were simply too different for the move to work. Multiple rock throws were what sent the Smoochum into unconsciousness.

My opponent's last pokemon caused whispers to spread among the crowd. An Espeon. Eevee were considered some of the rarest pokemon in indigo, and this was the third one to show up in this tournament.

This was truly a bad matchup for him. Kenpachi was uniquely suited to fuck up most of his team by type advantage alone and strong enough to prevent any of his opponents from overcoming that type advantage.

The Espeon was a magnificent specimen still, larger than most eeveelutions I've seen and more graceful. I didn't understand why he'd saved such a strong pokemon for last until it started running at Kenpachi the moment the battle began.

It was injured. It had a small limp on its right back leg; even though it wasn't exaggerated, it was still easy to see. Kenpachi wasn't too enthused about fighting an injured opponent and tried to end it with a nonchalant earthquake.

Will proved to be as cunning a trainer as any when his Espeon jumped right as Broly triggered his earthquake and let his guard down. I watched in shock as the orange aura of Giga impact appeared around the psychic type as it ran in the air to charge my pokemon.

Kenpachi was caught off guard and could only cross his arms in front of his face for defence. The attack slammed into his midsection, and I saw my pokemon fold over before being sent flying into the arena barriers. He was slumped on the floor for a bit before letting out a groan and beginning to regain his feet. I snapped out his pokeball and returned him before replacing him on the field with Ino.

She was barely on the field for a few seconds before the Espeon's mind gem glowed for a second, and I felt her get sucked into a mental battle. A battle she was losing very quickly.

It got so bad that she had to lean on my mental strength to bolster her own. While on her own, she might not have had the strength to overcome the Espeon, my strength, as little as it was, was enough to overcome the gap.

I watched as the battle went on for a few more minutes before the Espeon slumped into unconsciousness. I smiled at my psychic type, and she smiled back before I returned her to her ball. I couldn't revel in my victory for long because the stadium suddenly exploded around me.

I felt heat on my skin as I was blown backwards. I couldn't even feel what I crashed into as I kept moving. It took a few minutes for me to overcome the dizziness and pain plaguing my mind.

It took me a few more minutes to feel strong enough to open my eyes and look around me. It was all chaos. I saw the stadium falling apart and heard screams of terror from practically everything in my vicinity. I needed someone. Someone from my team.

I could barely move my hand out from under my body, and it took a fierce application of will to force my hand to move to my belt and press the release button on the first pokeball I felt. I watched Magnezone appear on the field with what I'm ashamed to say; I felt only disappointment.

They appeared in red light and looked ready to bolt off to play a prank before realising what was happening around us. They turned back to me and started jabbering in pokespeak. I ignored the antics of the steel type as I tried to get a good look at what was happening.

The stadium was in chaos, and figures in black were swarming in. My confusion was cleared when I saw the emblems on their chests as they got closer to me. A bright R. Team Rocket, of course.

I couldn't see the point of attacking this event at this point, but I still ordered Magnezone to roast anyone who got too close to us. I forced my body to begin moving and found Ino's ball before sending her out of her ball.

I waved away her concern and had her use her senses to get me a clear picture of what was happening in the stadium. She closed her eyes for a few minutes while I sent Broly out of his ball next. Magnezone was quickly returned after I thanked him for his help. He wasn't a battling Pokemon, and there was no need to risk unnecessarily having him out of his ball.

Ino finished searching and sent the information she found straight to my head. Battles were going on across the stadium. The rockets' main force was concentrated at one of the private booths, and they were being fiercely opposed by a whole squad of trainer security. I wasn't a betting man, but there was little I wouldn't stake on the bet that the booth was occupied by Silph's president. So the attack was to get to him.

Why today, though? Wouldn't the finals be a better time to attack? Ino broke through my thoughts to inform me of something else she'd found. Sansa was being attacked. I looked around for her and could barely spot her in a corner of the arena, surrounded by four people dressed in the rocket uniform and another man in white.

I didn't need to give any orders for Ino to teleport me to her side. Whatever the one wearing white had been saying was interrupted by my arrival, and I didn't waste the element of surprise; to be more accurate, my pokemon didn't waste the element of surprise.

Broly blurred across the distance and sent his axe hand. However, the skull of one of the attacking Zubat and Ino used her telekinesis to snatch the rest of the Zubat from the air and slam them into the ground.

The rocket grunts looked at me in shock while the one I suspected of being an admin jumped back and took out a pokeball. I ordered Ino to use her telekinesis to stop him. Still, a dark aura covered him, and her move was ineffective.

The pokemon he sent out sent chills racking through my body. A metagross. My thoughts of him being an admin were confirmed, and I sent both Igneel and Hashirama to join the battle.

While Broly and Ino occupied themselves cutting through the grunts' pokemon like hot knives through butter, I directed Igneel to attack the Metagross.

His flame charge was held at bay by the pseudo-legendary's protect, and Hashirama used sunny day to prepare the field for the strategy I'd come up with.

My ghost type sent multiple shadow balls slamming into the Metagross's protect, and it was forced to teleport out of the way when Igneel managed to crash through the protect. It started charging up a flash canon but was forced to abandon the move to use another protect to deflect Hashirama's enormous solar beam.

I watched the admin across from me pick up another pokeball and send out a fucking Salamence. This had to be a rocket admin, which made me wonder what a rocket admin was doing attacking Sansa. The girl was cowering over the body of her dead Vulpix behind me, so I chose to pay her no mind in the meantime.

I sent out Kenpachi, and he crashed into the Salamence with a roar when he came out of his ball. The two pseudo-legendaries started rolling across the floor, wrestling with each other, and I turned to the battle going on between Igneel, Hashirama and the other pseudo-legendary.

The Metagross was amazing. Its power terrifying, but Hashirama and Igneel provided the right combination of weakness to take it down. It was fending them off for now, but that would end soon. I could already see Hashirama using his control of the environment to herd it to certain places.

Igneel was undoubtedly waiting to hit with a devasting fire-type move the moment they managed to immobilise it for longer than a few seconds. The Salamence was doing a good job of matching with Kenpachi in their physical scrap, but there was little it could do to gain an advantage.

Its claws raked across Kenpachi's body with little effect, while Kenpachi never hesitated to punish it with devastating punches whenever he could get the leverage. I could see the moment the Salamence decided that close combat wasn't going to cut it for this situation, and I ensured Kenpachi was ready.

The Salamence managed to disengage from my Tyranitar and fly a few feet into the air. It didn't get far because Kenpachi was able to send out a couple of shadow balls that hit the moment it took off the ground. It didn't come crashing down like I'd hoped and just remained hovering there, a little dazed by the attack but otherwise unaffected.

I used the pokeball next to me and sent Kisame out to the field. I'd normally keep her in reserve, but I doubted the Rocket admin had any stronger pokemon than these ones, and I didn't want to expose Kenpachi to unnecessary risk. The scars from Quicksilver's loss still ran deep in my psyche. I saw him fall from the sky every other night.

"Long-range support", I ordered Kisame, and she performed excellently as her barrage of hydro pumps and ice beams helped keep both enemy pseudo-legendaries on the backfoot.

It was only a matter of time before we overcame them, and I was proved right when Hashirama managed to connect with the Metagross with a devastating wood hammer. Igneel's blast burn slammed into its dazed form a few seconds later, and I smiled as when the smoke cleared, it showed an unconscious pokemon.

The Rocket admin tried to open another pokeball, but Ino had already finished her battles and appeared behind him with one hand on either side of his head. Whatever had been keeping him shielded from Ino's influence couldn't do it when she was so close, and he fell unconscious a second later.

The salamence's pokeball came floating over to me, and I returned it to save my team the stress of knocking it out. It was already injured and probably only had a few good attacks left in it.

I also returned the metagross to its ball and looked around at the situation in the stadium. The rockets were already retreating, and I saw a group of them running out of the stadium with a man I could recognise as the president of Silph over one's shoulder. I wondered why they didn't think of teleporting out as I returned my pokemon to their balls and prepared Ino to help me chase after them.

She teleported us in front of the exit they were planning on using and used her telekinesis to lift them all up into the air and retrieve the president. She was about to knock them all out when one of them, an admin if his attire was any indication, managed to break out and send out a massive Machoke.

Ino knocked out the rest of the grunts and appeared right behind the Machoke in the same instant. She sent a dazzling gleam that hit it right between its shoulder blade. It went flying right past me, and she followed. A moon blast crashed into the pokemon before it could even recover, and two psybeams followed suit. It had managed to use a protect to save it from the last two moves since Ino had taken a few seconds to charge up. The protect was shattered, though, and Ino appeared right behind the pokemon again. It was ready, and turned around almost instantly when she disappeared from his sight.

She must have been expecting it since she instantly teleported again to what was once the space in front of it; I watched as she stretched out a hand and touched its back before forcefully teleporting it away. When she returned, she looked exhausted but was still able to knock out the admin as he approached me threateningly. I breathed a sigh of relief as I turned around and saw the Silph president looking at me with wide, shocked eyes.

XXXX

The attack led to the cancellation of the tournament. Even though I'd managed to prevent the rocket from achieving its primary goal, they were still able to steal dozens of pokemon and kill dozens more. Only one trainer had lost their life, and the media took great pains to ensure the public knew it was an accident.

Having a terrorist agency like the Rockets around was bad enough; finding that they were willing to break the most sacred combat laws would cause mass panic. Not like anyone was being terribly calm right now, but things could be worse. Much worse.

I took a deep breath and pressed the number for the top floor on the elevator. The president of Silph had requested this meeting through an intermediary a day ago, and I accepted with virtually no hesitation. When I'd rescued him yesterday, I'd done it with the full knowledge that there would probably be some reward offered for the act.

I wasn't a good enough person to risk the lives of my pokemon for no reason. At least, I liked to tell myself that. What I did for Sansa during the attack was only to prevent Team Rocket from getting their hands on an Arcanine. With a few days to think, I'd come to the conclusion that Sansa had been purposefully targeted, and I was even beginning to suspect that the commentator that goaded her during our battle had done it for the sole reason of making her reveal that trump card. The elevator let out a chime and opened.

I walked into an office much larger than any I'd ever found myself in. I was surprised to note that there was no secretary or receptionist's desk. The entire floor was his office, and what an office it was. Larger than any office had any right to be. It looked more like a playroom in some parts than an office. There was a billiards table, a large television, and even a basketball hoop and golf hole, which also surprised me. Sports like basketball and golf weren't anywhere as popular as they'd been in my old world. Here, they still existed but were more niche things. In a world where pokemon battling was the only sport that mattered, all the others were rounding errors.

I saw him at a desk at the far end of the office, and he waved me over excitedly. As I got closer, I was forced to amend my position. Calling it a desk was a disservice. It was longer than I was, tall and wide enough for me to sleep on. I wasn't surprised to note that only a small portion of the desk seemed to actually be in use. It was just big, defying reasonable scale for some reason alien to me.

"Good morning, Sir" I decided to start things off. I couldn't just skip the pleasantries with someone as powerful and rumoured to be mercurial as Silph could be. Pissing him off would be catastrophic to my plans.

"Ahh. Good morning, Mr. Oak. Welcome, welcome, take a seat," He said while pointing out one of the seats in front of me.

"I'm sure you know why I called you here today."

"To thank me, I presume", I replied with a smile. I was going to be polite, but I was still proud of how my pokemon had conducted themselves.

"Yes, yes, to thank you. Also to get to know you. To know what kind of man would risk his own life to save mine. I've seen footage of the attack. I wasn't the only person you saved, was I?"

I just replied to his rhetorical question with a smile. I hadn't saved either of them out of the goodness of my heart. Even when I did the actions, the thought of my reward wasn't far out of my mind. I was nowhere near selfless enough to do something like that without expecting anything in return. The only question was, what was it going to be? What would I be getting from this man?

"A true hero, I'd call you. This isn't a comic though. Here, heroes get rewarded. What reward do you desire. Ask me anything, absolutely anything and it'll be yours to keep."

I swallowed the smile that threatened to break across my face. "No. No. Sir. I did it for no reward. Your thanks are enough. I couldn't ask you for anything else." This was a calculated risk. I had the feeling that anything I could think to ask for would be nothing compared to what he could give me of his own volition. That's why I was going to leave it up to him. Acting like I didn't want a reward should make him more likely to want to reward me.

"Nonsense, my boy. I know you didn't do it for any rewards but I'd feel bad to have you do so much for me and not even repay it in the smallest of ways, you know? Ok let's do this instead. The tournament has been cancelled as you well know. The only problem with that is that the rewards had already been procured so to prevent them from going to waste, we'll give them to you instead. My analysts tell me you were a favourite to win the tournament either way. Not just that though, I'll also add a pokemon that Silph recently came in contact with. Our scientists have finished all the studying they could do on it in a lab so having someone with a lab experience training the pokemon would surely be a boon to our efforts," He said with a pondering look on his face.

"Thank you very much, sir. Not to seem ungrateful but I don't think I have the space for two new pokemon; I'd dread rotating my team around on such short notice." Here, I wasn't even lying. I wanted new pokemon but appreciated the ones in my team even more than I did any others. Even Magnezone, which I'd previously been planning on sending back to the ranch, had begun growing on me.

"Ahh. Your carry limit. Such a pesky thing. I'd never ask you to rotate your team to include two new additions just like that. Consider it upgraded."

"Thank you so much, Mr. President. This means so much to me." I injected as much gratitude as I could into my tone. He'd given me more than I'd ever have been able to ask for.

We spent the rest of the meeting discussing curious pokemon. He was a well-travelled man, and I was surprised to note that he'd almost become a pokemon professor. He had lots of questions about Broly, and he'd already given me so much today that I couldn't find it in me to refuse not to answer his questions.

I gave him the same bullshit about his evolution that I'd fed Oak, but I also confirmed he was an evolution of Scyther and that he was dual rock and bug. Most of the conversation centred around his use of extreme speed and how I'd managed to teach it to him; he'd even asked if I was willing to have Broly record the move into a TM but considering that he'd end up forgetting the move if he did so, my refusal wasn't surprising.

We kept talking till we heard a soft chime from the speakers around the room. He told me it symbolised the end of the meeting and wished me luck with my journey before I left the office and went down to the reception to pick up my rewards. I checked my Pokedex on the way out and noted that the money had already been transferred to my account with a smile.

The receptionist called me over the moment I got to the lobby, and she led me out of there into a room inside the building.

"Mr Oak, welcome to Silph. You're now a silph trainer with all the duties, responsibilities and privileges that position guarantees," She said in a stiff tone that had me nodding along in boredom,

She reached into a briefcase and passed me two ultra balls that were already occupied. I clipped them to my belt, put the black credit card she gave me in front of my Pokedex and scanned it to add to my trainer ID, and then I slipped both of them into my pocket.

She passed along the empty pokeballs I'd won, which I'd have little use for in the coming months.

"We've already sent the orientation package for Silph trainers to your email. I've taken the liberty of setting your first health checkup for tomorrow. I'm sure that won't be a problem." I nodded at the unasked question and picked up the backpack containing the pokeballs.

I put it on and left the Silph building after thanking her for her help. My first destination? My hotel room.

XXXX

I was relaxing on a bed far softer than the one I'd spent the last few weeks sleeping on. I looked around my new room with a smile on my face. Money was no longer an issue with the Silph credit card on my belt. There were a few things the company would be opposed to me spending their funds on.

Silph trainers had the essentially unlimited resources of Silph at their back. Quite a few of them had managed to use these resources to make it to the finals of the conference, but no sponsored trainers had won the competition so far. Pokemon purists took it as proof that anyone who accepted battling as a business or way to make money could never be successful in the field.

The failed trainers had quickly been shuffled out of the Silph program and were rarely heard of again. I knew this, though, I knew the risks, but failure wasn't an option for me. Silph was going to back my ascension with their training resources, health care and money. I was going to pay them back by winning the damned thing with their logo on my chest.

Did I feel like a bit of a sellout when I looked at the clothes that would now be my daily attire? Yes. But feelings like that disappeared when I looked around the room I was in now and noted that all my friends could be out of their pokeballs simply because the room was that good.

Besides, the clothes were comfortable. I'd tried the jumpsuit on a few minutes after unpacking, and it felt good. It wasn't the competition attire, though; that one was more elaborate. This was a simple green and silver jumpsuit for use on everyday occasions.

I played with the pokeballs the receptionist had given me. I'd wondered what pokemon were inside each pokeball, and a quick look at my Pokedex answered my questions. One of the pokemon wasn't on the Pokedex's database, but that was a matter for later.

Tonight was just me and the family I'd built enjoying the fruits of our labour. Tonight was all about driving home the fact that hard work had rewards, and we'd worked harder than anyone else, hadn't we?

XXXX

I stood outside the Silph building, considering my next moves. I could either take a teleport to Cinnabar or make my way there on a trek through the region. While the later option wasn't something I was looking forward to, the two unopened pokeballs on my belt weighed heavily enough on me that I ended up making my way to the department store to get some bug spray.

Since I was travelling by land, there was no need to save Giovanni for last. Blaine would get that honour instead. I didn't have to buy any survival gear or food since Silph had given me the very best of their pokemon and trainer rations. They even had their own Snorlax packages, which I was incredibly grateful for.

Snorlax had told me the league's fare was filling but tasted like cardboard.