Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Pokemon Quest ❯ Jacob vs. Harold ( Chapter 45 )

Pokemon Quest

 

After a battle between two other trainers, it was finally time for Harold's battle against Jacob. Moro stood tall and announced his name, Harold slowly entering while trembling at the same time. He had felt awful about what the stranger had done and it had eaten away at him. The boy knew he was going to get away with another unearned victory.

 

Moro proceeded to announce Jacob's name as the mystery man in the audience grinned wickedly thinking, 'Wait all you want. He's not showing up.'

 

But that thought was soon put to a halt as a familiar boy entered from the other end of the battle area. The crowd cheered wildly as Jacob stood tall and proud with Lucario by his side, Harold's eyes wide with shock. However, the boy refused to say anything. If he did, he was sure to blow his secret.

 

'How is that possible!?' the cloaked figure thought while gritting his teeth, 'He should be back home with his mommy by now!'

 

While Harold was relieved to see that the stranger's plan had failed, he was also scared. Unfortunately, it was as the stranger had said. He and Harold both knew that Harold could not win this battle fairly. Harold's only strong Pokemon was his Meganium. His other partners were useless.

 

Nevertheless, Harold knew that he couldn't just give up. With that, he whipped out a Pokeball summoning his Meganium. Maybe, just maybe he could win the battle without the need to switch Pokemon.

 

“Somehow, I figured you'd use Meganium,” Jacob said with a grin as he sent out his Infernape and Harold's confidence seemed to die.

 

'Dammit...' the stranger thought with a grimace as Harold gulped thinking, 'How can my grass type beat his fire type?'

 

“What's wrong?” Jacob asked, seeing the nervous sweat going down Harold's face, then it soon hit him. Harold wasn't sure about his chances.

 

“Harold, calm down!” Jacob shouted as Harold looked at him, still trembling, then the boy continued, “Harold, from what I saw yesterday, you are a very good trainer. I came expecting a challenge from you. Don't disappoint me.”

 

Harold's eyes sparkled as a smile crossed his face. Jacob had a point. After all, Meganium had defeated a fire type in the previous round. Perhaps he could do it.

 

Izy was quite surprised to see that Anna's eyes were sparkling at the sight of Meganium today. Now things were at least starting to look normal again. She was more used to this look.

 

“MEGANIUM!!!” Harold shouted, “START THINGS OFF WITH POISONPOWDER!!!”

 

That said, the plant dinosaur unleashed a purple powder from his petals. However, one must not forget that Infernape was a fast Pokemon, much faster than Meganium. As such, the monkey simply dodged the incoming dust and aimed to scratch Meganium's face.

 

Luckily, this was just the advantage Meganium needed as Harold shouted a command, the dinosaur unleashing its Petal Dance striking Infernape hard in the face. Harold's eyes widened as he just stood there thinking, 'Did I just do that?'

 

Unfortunately for the kid, grass type moves were weak against fire types. As such, Infernape recovered with ease as Jacob gave the monkey a command, Infernape covering her body in flames, charging towards Meganium in the form of a wheel.

 

“MEGANIUM, DODGE IT!!!!” Harold shouted as the flower dino leapt to the side, but wasn't fast enough as his foot was grazed by the flames.

 

Meganium cried in pain as he was unable to respond when Infernape turned herself around and rammed into the plant dinosaur's backside. Meganium cried out in more pain as Harold started to tremble again.

 

'No,' he thought, his eyes wide open, 'If Meganium loses, I don't stand a chance!'

 

“INFERNAPE, FINISH IT WITH MACH PUNCH!!!!” Jacob shouted as the monkey leapt at Meganium with her fist out.

 

'No,' Harold thought, 'I've come too far to lose now...'

 

But much to his surprise, an aura surrounded Meganium's body. When the dinosaur took the hard punch to the face, he miraculously ignored the damage dealt and used that as a perfect opportunity to unleash Body Slam, his weight pushing down on Infernape's back, the monkey crying in pain.

 

Harold let down a tear of joy with sparkles in his eyes as the crowd cheered. Jacob blinked and asked, “What just happened?”

 

“Yeah, this confuses me too,” Izy stated as Anna had her neutral look explaining, “What Meganium used back there was a move called Reflect. It cuts the damage dealt by physical attacks in half, so thanks to that, Meganium was able to withstand the Mach Punch with ease.”

 

“INFERNAPE, COME ON!!!” Jacob shouted with fear, “YOU'VE DEALT WITH FAR WORSE!!!”

 

Unfortunately, Infernape's scrawny arms weren't quite enough to lift a large dinosaur off her back. After a few more seconds, she gave out as Jacob sighed, returning her to her ball saying, “Sorry to have pushed you so hard.”

 

The boy then turned to his Lucario who had a serious look in his eyes. Jacob grinned saying, “Go get him, Lucario.”

 

The infant stood tall and proud while Harold, now with a new sense of confidence, grinned and said, “Just try. Lucario will fall just like Infernape!”

 

“We'll see about that,” Jacob replied before shouting a command.

 

What Harold hadn't taken into account was that due to his steel attributes, Lucario was strong against grass type moves. But right now, the boy was too into the moment to care.

 

As Lucario charged towards Meganium with his hand glowing, the plant dinosaur started gathering up energy in his mouth. Anna simply smiled as if this attempt at a Solar Beam so early in the battle was a bad idea.

 

This belief was proven as Lucario rammed his palm hard into the dinosaur's face seconds before he could unleash the powerful beam. Meganium had taken in so much damage from Infernape in the previous battle that he couldn't handle this one Force Palm and passed out, eyes swirling.

 

Harold's eyes went wide as all of his confidence left him. With Meganium done for, the boy no longer stood a chance, the cloaked stranger sighing as if all was lost now.

 

“Way to go, Lucario!” Jacob shouted before smiling at Harold and saying, “This battle's not over yet.”

 

That said, Harold slowly pulled out another Pokemon and sighed, dropping it into the battle area, a small Pokemon that resembles a little girl named Smoochum appearing. Smoochum went down in only a matter of seconds as Harold returned her to her ball and sniffed.

 

“What's wrong, Harold?” Jacob asked with concern, “Aren't you going to send in your last Pokemon?”

 

Harold looked at the audience to see that the cloaked figure was no longer there. It was likely he had just given up hope, and sadly, so had Harold. He knew that it was hopeless. He knew that he had lost. He had nothing that could stand up to Jacob's Pokemon now.

 

“I give up...” he said quietly as Jacob tilted his head to the side and asked, “Can you repeat that?”

 

Harold looked up at the crowd with tears running down his face then at the judges and shouted at the top of his lungs, “I GIVE UP!!!!!!!”

 

The crowd gasped as Jacob's eyes went wide. Harold simply turned his back and said, “I bet you don't think so highly of me anymore, huh?”

 

Jacob walked over to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder saying, “It's okay. We all get scared sometimes. But are you serious about this?”

 

Harold nodded his head and said, “Jacob, did anything odd happen to you last night?”

 

Jacob thought hard before remembering how he'd been given a fake note to trick him into returning home. He turned to Harold with wide eyes and asked, “Did you send me that fake letter?”

 

“No,” Harold replied, shaking his head, “My brother, Manfred, did.”

 

He said no more after that. He simply turned around and fled from the battle area, Jacob's eyes wide open. This was all very confusing to him.

 

While the following battles took place, Izy, Anna, Jacob and Lucario weren't there to watch. They needed to find Harold and ask just what was going on.

 

However, Harold was nowhere to be found. He stood outside of the stadium and sighed as the cloaked figure appeared right behind him with his arms folded.

 

Harold turned to him trembling and said, “I'm sorry, Manfred. I tried all I could...”

 

The boy glared, removed his hood and struck the boy hard. Harold let down tears and bit his lip as the boy, Manfred, fumed and snapped, “IT SEEMS ALL YOU COULD DO WASN'T ENOUGH!!!!”

 

“What was I supposed to do!?” Harold remarked, “It was your plan that failed!”

 

“Yes, it did,” Manfred replied with a cold glare, “If I'm not mistaken, you were the only one who knew about my plan.”

 

Harold's eyes went wide. That was true. Harold did know of Manfred's plan. But did this mean what the boy thought it meant?

 

“Listen,” Harold replied while trembling, “I didn't do anything to stop it. I knew it would be stupid to try, so I just stayed in my room all night to avoid temptation.”

 

“A LIKELY STORY!!!” Manfred snapped before sending out a Scizor to hold Jacob against the ground by the neck.

 

“You also wanted to win fairly, did you not?” Manfred proceeded to ask as Harold nodded, Manfred grimacing and shouting, “Ah-hah! You DID sabotage my plan!”

 

Harold wanted to say more, but he couldn't. Not only did it look like Manfred wasn't afraid to have his Scizor chop off the kid's head, but how was he supposed to convince his brother that he was innocent? All he could do was swallow and let out a weak, “I'm sorry...”

 

“That's more like it,” Manfred said, calling off his Pokemon, “Unfortunately, it's because of your actions that mom is going to die!”

 

Harold got up and lowered his head as Manfred left. He refused to escort what he viewed as a loser home. Harold was on his own. Luckily, there was transportation for the trainers to use.

 

Unbeknownst to him, Jacob and the others had witnessed this whole event. As Harold sat with his hands covering his face, the boy and his friends ran over to the kid.

 

“What was that all about?” Jacob asked as Harold sniffed, “That was my older brother, Manfred...”

 

Jacob placed a hand on his shoulder and asked, “Why did you apologize for something you didn't do?”

 

Harold turned his gaze to Jacob and sighed, looking away from him. He didn't want to talk about this with anyone. He just wanted to be alone.

 

However, Izy marched over to him and snapped, “Harold, you need to start standing up for yourself!”

 

The kid shook his head and said, “I'm incapable of that,” as Izy slapped him and shouted, “Stand up to your brother and stop letting him push you around!”

 

Harold just looked into the girl's eyes and shook his head saying, “I can't do it...” Anna placing her hands on his shoulders, giving him a sympathetic look and asking, “Harold, would you please tell us what's going on between you and your brother?”

 

Harold sighed and decided he was cornered, so he reluctantly told the whole story. He told of how his mother had a deadly illness and how he needed to win the prize money to pay for her treatment. He also explained how he was still a beginner when it came to training and how his other Pokemon were weak. He told of how it was really his brother who had helped him cheat his way into the tournament.

 

“I don't fully understand,” Izy said stroking her chin, “Why didn't your brother enter? He's clearly the better trainer.”

 

“See,” Harold stated, “truth be told, he did enter last year. The problem was that he was caught playing dirty, bribing people to lose to him and using the same underhanded tactics he's been using so far. As such, he was disqualified before the final round and barred from ever entering the Ultimate Pokemon Challenge again, so I had no choice but to enter.”

 

“It's sad, really,” Jacob said with a sigh, “While it was wrong to cheat your way into getting this far, Because of your loss, you won't be able to save your mother.”

 

“Yes,” Harold sniffed, “But I didn't want to beat you by cheating. I wanted to win fairly, and I've seen today that I just can't do it.”

 

Much to Izy and Anna's surprise, Jacob smacked the boy upside the head. Harold looked at him with wide eyes, the two girls also in shock as was Lucario. Jacob had never hit a friend before.

 

“Harold, you can't just give up!” Jacob snapped, grabbing the boy's shoulders, “Your other Pokemon may be weak, but how often did you focus on training them!?”

 

The boy had to admit, Jacob did have a point. He'd only really ever focused on evolving his beginner, a Chikorita, into a Meganium, and for the most part, he wasn't even aiming for that. He only used Meganium so much because he knew that was the strongest Pokemon he had.

 

“You're right,” Harold said, a fire burning within his eyes and his tears dried, “I just need to train my Pokemon more!”

 

He smiled and said, “Thank you, Jacob. I promise that when I enter the next Pokemon challenge, I'll be much better!”

 

However, one fact still remained. Harold couldn't stand to face his family after his loss. He agreed to at least postpone his trip home to watch the rest of the tournament, but he knew he had to face his brother again sooner or later.

 

Meanwhile, Sampson was also outside of the stadium looking at his partner.

 

“Well, you seem fine,” the man said with a smile before looking at the bottom of the keystone with fear in his eyes.

 

This couldn't be. It seemed as if that Dig attack had been more effective than Sampson had expected. There was a small crack on the bottom of the stone. His partner was bound to that stone. If the stone was destroyed, the mystery Pokemon would die.

 

“We need to be more careful from now on,” Sampson said with a sigh, “Don't forget, we need that medal.”