Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Pokemon Quest ❯ Gym Badge and Contest Ribbon Won ( Chapter 5 )

Pokemon Quest

 

Jacob was now in a bit of a pickle. That Geodude was hard enough, but now he had to face a Nosepass. Riolu looked far too scared to stand up to the beast and Jacob didn't even think for a minute that the infant could handle a fight against something so big anyway.

 

He did feel a bit skeptical about using Chimchar, though, but then he remembered that while fire wasn't exactly a weakness of rock types, they didn't necessarily have a big advantage over it either. (Seriously, in the games, fire attacks deal about the same amount of damage to rock types as normal attacks would deal to something like a Bidoof)

 

With that, he threw his Pokeball shouting, “GO CHIMCHAR!!!” the monkey Pokemon emerging from his Pokeball with a grin on his face. Despite Nosepass' incredible size, Chimchar seemed completely unfazed.

 

Anna smiled her warm, gentle smile saying, “You are so lucky to have a Chimchar. I'm so jealous of you. You even have a Riolu!”

 

Jacob blushed while Riolu just blinked. He still didn't understand why childish girls had this disturbing attraction to him.

 

The battle resumed as Anna became serious again shouting, “Nosepass, use Block!”

 

The large totem's red nose glowed as a strange aura surrounded the monkey. Chimchar looked around, noticing it had taken in no pain, Jacob wondering what had just happened.

 

“Thanks to block, you can't return Chimchar if he's in trouble,” Anna explained as Jacob started to panic. Sure, he had confidence in Chimchar for sure, but what if the monkey couldn't manage against a Nosepass? The poor monkey would need healing again but that was just how gym battles worked. Gym leaders were, after all, some of the toughest trainers in the world.

 

Jacob was well aware that none of Chimchar's other attacks would do much, but he also didn't know any other attack of that the monkey had, so he shouted the first attack that came to mind: Ember. The monkey opened his mouth firing small fireballs at the large totem who was too large to dodge it. However, it seemed to take in minimal damage as Chimchar started to panic.

 

“USE ROCK THROW!!!” Anna shouted as Nosepass slowly lifted up all of the arena's rocks, mashing them together to create one large boulder. Jacob's eyes went wide as Riolu started to tremble, clinging onto the boy's leg. There was no way he could let this hit.

 

“CHIMCHAR, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS!!!” the boy spat, “HIT THAT MONSTROCITY WHILE IT'S STILL PREPARING ITS ATTACK!!!”

 

Chimchar nodded as its hands glowed, Nosepass surrounded by an aura. Jacob hadn't even given the command for the monkey to do this, but he was glad to know that Chimchar knew Leer.

 

Chimchar proceeded to deliver furious scratches to the totem's face. Sure, these didn't do much, but they left a few claw marks while the monkey unleashed another ember attack.

 

Unfortunately, this onslaught had only done a little damage and didn't even get so much as the reaction from the totem beast as it finished sculpting its boulder and hurled the large rock at Chimchar, the large stone crushing her. A shockwave emitted and a crack climbed to the top of the rock before it broke into many pieces, Chimchar just barely able to breathe.

 

`Darnit,' Jacob thought, returning the monkey to her Pokeball with a sigh. He knew it was going to be hard, but this was just ridiculous. But at least Chimchar had managed to halve Nosepass' defense. This at least gave him a slight advantage.

 

“Alright, Riolu,” he said, “Make me proud out there.”

 

While Riolu would normally rush into battle when his master needed it, he seemed too scared to even move from his spot. When Jacob looked at the Pokemon with concern, the infant crouched down sobbing heavily.

 

“Well, Heracross didn't exactly lose,” Jacob said with a smile, “If I'm lucky, he can finish the job.”

 

And so he sent out the beetle Pokemon who was breathing heavily, Anna with a very confident smile. While she along with every other gym leader had little to gain from beating trainers, she felt good knowing that her Pokemon were still strong as ever.

 

“HERACROSS, USE NIGHT SLASH!!!” Jacob shouted, but rather than doing what he was told to, Heracross charged at Nosepass with his horn lowered. Jacob cringed at the sight of this, spellbound by this rash action. Didn't Heracross remember that his horn had a chip in it from the battle with Geodude? We didn't want the beetle to lose his mighty horn completely.

 

“HERACROSS!!!” he shouted, “YOU ALREADY CHIPPED THE CORNER OF YOUR HORN!!! DON'T BREAK IT FOR MY SAKE OTHERWISE YOU CAN'T USE HORN ATTACK ANYMORE!!!”

 

Heracross' eyes widened when it heard this. Jacob had a point, so it repositioned its body raising its head and ramming it into Nosepass' chest for a tackle attack. The attack dealt some minor damage to Nosepass, but Heracross ended up hurting himself even more as Nosepass unleashed a Zap Cannon from its magnetic nose and knocking Heracross out for good.

 

Anna gasped, eyes sparkling as she shouted, “I didn't even know you could use that!”

 

Riolu was still crying into Jacob's pant leg as the boy sighed and turned to the infant saying, “Riolu, you need to get in there. Don't do it for me. Do it for your fallen comrades.”

 

Riolu wiped its tears and looked up at his master, nodding in understanding. Anna smiled warmly once again, quite happy to see Riolu with confidence now.

 

“RIOLU, USE FORCE PALM!!!” Jacob shouted as Riolu nodded charging at Nosepass with a glowing palm and slamming it into the totem's face. See, Force Palm was a fighting type move and while rock types could stand up to normal attacks, fighting type moves had a large advantage over them.

 

“Good job!” Jacob shouted as for the first time in the entire battle, Nosepass started to show a sign of pain.

 

Riolu delivered three more as Anna grinned, feeling quite satisfied with this comeback. This was the kind of fight she had been waiting for but she would not allow her opponent an easy victory.

 

“NOSEPASS, USE ZAP CANNON!!!” she shouted as the totem's nose started to electrify again. Unlike Nosepass' other techniques, this one didn't require props to perform. Also, tackle attack, which Nosepass was known to start with, would have taken far too long for its slow body to use.

 

But just as the electricity came close to hitting Riolu, the creature's body glowed violet as a barrier surrounded it sending the attack back at Nosepass. Jacob's eyes sparkled as he knew what this was. This was known as Counter.

 

Sure, Nosepass felt no pain from the attack whatsoever, but the fact remained that Riolu had survived it. The infant went in to deliver one last Force Palm and planted his palm hard into the totem's face. Nosepass fell on its back and would not get up as Anna smiled calmly, returning her prized Pokemon.

 

Jacob stood there breathing heavily as he asked, “Did I just win?” Anna smiling warmly while saying, “Yep, you beat me fair and square!”

 

Jacob's eyes sparkled as he embraced Riolu dancing around happily. He had just earned himself his first gym badge. He was so happy he could cry.

 

Anna skipped merrily over to Jacob and handed him a badge shaped like a totem pole head and said, “You have earned this Totem Badge!”

 

“What is this?” came a voice as both turned to an older-looking teen girl with long green hair, “Are you trying to steal my job again, Anna?”

 

Anna started to panic for the first time since Jacob had met her. He never would have expected to see her tremble, and here she was… trembling.

 

“Sarah, you're back from your trip to the store,” Anna said, “It's good to see you home, big sis!”

 

Sarah sighed as Jacob asked, “Are you the real gym leader?”

 

“Of course I am,” the girl replied, “Anna keeps trying to pose as me. Still, it's rather impressive that you beat her, so I feel you have earned that badge.”

 

Jacob sighed with relief. The last thing he wanted was to go through with that again. After all was cleared up about how Anna was the gym leader's little sister and how Anna only took over because she was bored of her normal life, Sarah agreed to let Anna travel with Jacob. Jacob and Riolu were both skeptical at first but decided to accept it in the end.

 

Jacob also knew that Izy's contest was still going on, and with how long he had been gone for, he assumed it had reached the final round by now. Whether Izy had made it that far or not, Jacob knew that it was only right to accompany her anyway.

 

And would you believe it? Jacob was right on the money. The finals had indeed started as an announcer stood tall to introduce the finalists.

 

See, contests composed of five rounds. The first round was a simple beauty contest and challenge show combined while the last four played out like a tournament in which trainers would battle, but rather than having to win, they would have to earn points by looking good and pleasing the crowd.

 

“Izy's not in the audience anywhere,” Jacob said while Anna smiled saying, “Perhaps she's in the final round.”

 

Riolu had to admit, he was a bit nervous being in the bleachers sitting on Jacob's lap. He had never been in a single area with so many people in it at once sitting so close to one-another. But he refused to cry as after that gym battle, he felt a little more obligated to think of Jacob's feelings ahead of his own. If Jacob wanted to stay, Riolu would have to endure it.

 

“Introducing our finalists!” the announcer shouted, “First up is Roxanne!”

 

Jacob groaned, not feeling in the least bit happy to see Roxanne in the finals. He should have seen it coming.

 

Roxanne saw Jacob in the front row and waved to him shouting, “HI, JACOB!!! DID YOU COME ALL THIS WAY TO SEE LITTLE OLD ME!!!?? YOU'RE SWEET!!!”

 

Jacob wanted to cry so badly right now as Anna smiled and asked, “Is that a friend of yours? That's wonderful.”

 

“We're acquaintances,” Jacob muttered, “To call me one of her friends is like questioning my sanity.”

 

“And our other finalist is Izy!” the man shouted as Jacob clapped wildly for his friend who entered the stadium from the other side. She saw Jacob in the crowd and smiled, but she refused to wave as she figured it would break her concentration.

 

And so the battle began as Roxanne sent out a small raccoon-like Pokemon with arms similar to a flying squirrel's called Sentret. Yes, surprise of surprises, she actually managed to catch something. Go figure.

 

Izy smirked knowing that she had the upper hand as she summoned her precious Hoothoot, the crowd cheering for both Pokemon. Anna smiled and said, “Two of your friends are in this. It must be hard deciding who to route for.”

 

“I'm routing for Izy,” Jacob said almost abruptly before quickly adding, “Roxanne's not my friend.”

 

Roxanne started by having Sentret perform Quick Attack. Jacob had to admit she had taught it pretty well before the contest had started as it ran in a beautiful pattern similar to a figure eight. Each time it hit the middle of the eight it would land a blow on Hoothoot, but Izy grinned as if she'd expected this before mouthing a command, once again using no actual words.

 

But like always, Hoothoot understood and took off into the sky causing Sentret to become dizzy. Roxanne was a little worried as the owl's eyes glowed a brilliant shade of blue, more so than it had in combat and Sentret falling victim to its confusion attack.

 

To make a long story short, Izy wound up victorious over Roxanne who had been pretty much defenseless from the point Sentret got hit in the first place. She gladly accepted her prize ribbon and medal while Jacob and Anna both applauded her, Riolu starting to actually get into the action himself, showing support for his friend as well.

 

Izy smiled as Jacob grinned saying, “You were great out there,” Izy nodded in understanding before asking, “What's that girl from earlier doing here?”

 

As Jacob took his Pokemon to the centre to recover from his gym battle, he explained every important detail leading up to Anna being placed in their group. Anna and Izy introduced themselves to one-another and all was looking well for the team now. But don't think it's all sunshine and smiles from here because we cannot forget, Team Advent is still out there plotting world domination.