Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Pokemon Quest ❯ Jacob vs. Sally ( Chapter 48 )

Pokemon Quest

 

Jacob was feeling very confident about this battle. Sally seemed like nothing more than a bragger, someone who overestimated herself. Her team of Pokemon didn't necessarily look threatening, so in Jacob's mind, this would be a cinch.

 

The arena put in place was the forest arena. This didn't seem so bad for Jacob as he had fought in a forest-themed gym before.

 

Sally grinned sending in her first Pokemon, a small pony with a mane and tail made of fire known as Ponyta. Anna's eyes sparkled in the crowd at the sight of this. The girl found Ponyta especially to be a very pretty Pokemon, and why not? It was a pony after all.

 

Jacob saw this and needed to think quickly. He placed his hand against his chin and thought, 'The forest environment is perfect. All of my Pokemon can fight in one. Also, Floatzel has a huge advantage over Ponyta.'

 

That was more than enough for him to send Floatzel into the battle, the crowd cheering as the weasel Pokemon flexed for the crowd, grinning seductively. Sally smiled and said, “Y'all think ya can beat me with that just cuz it's a water type, eh? Well, type advantages ain't everything.”

 

Jacob did know from experience that this was certainly true, but that wasn't going to stop him. Seeing as Sally's Ponyta was still a Ponyta, it couldn't have been all that powerful.

 

The second the battle started, Jacob gave Floatzel a command as the weasel nodded, grinned and sped towards the fiery pony, her body covered in water for Aqua Jet. Sally noticed Ponyta's uneasy look at the sight of that and smiled saying, “Now, y'all just stand there and take it, ya hear?”

 

Ponyta put on a more serious expression and nodded while Jacob just blinked. He knew Sally was old-fashioned, but he didn't think for a minute that country-folk could be this rash.

 

Nevertheless, Ponyta took in the blow at full force, flying into a tree while the crowd cheered for Jacob's Floatzel. Jacob was still in shock at how easy the girl was making this for him. Ponyta was weak against water attacks. To not even attempt to dodge or counter such a move seemed stupid to the boy.

 

“So, how strong is he, Ponyta?” the country girl asked as the pony rose to her feet, shook the pain off of her head and lifted up her hoof, dangling it in a 'just okay' sort of motion.

 

“Um... what does that mean?” Jacob asked as Sally laughed saying, “Y'all didn't think I was really lettin ya walk all over my dear sweet Ponyta, did you? Why, she was jus sizing the girl up.”

 

Izy tilted her head to the side, feeling rather confused while Jacob scratched his head. Such a thing seemed like a big risk, especially against a water type, but what really confused him was that Ponyta didn't seem the least bit impressed by the attack despite it being a powerful blow, her weakness and used by a Pokemon's second form.

 

Then before Jacob could even blink again, Sally nodded at Ponyta, the small horse-like creature nodding back and charging towards Floatzel for a take-down attack. Now, normally, this wouldn't have been as fast as something like a tackle attack, but strangely enough, Ponyta was moving at such a fast speed, even fast for Ponyta standards, that Floatzel was unable to respond, taking a heavy blow to the chest and flying into a tree, head ramming hard into said tree before she slid down the side of it, falling into a pond in front of the tree.

 

Jacob's eyes went wide at the sight of that. It didn't even seem as if Ponyta had taken in recoil damage from the attack, let alone the fact that it seemed even more powerful than it was known to be, and that was saying something when considering the fact that Take Down was already a fairly powerful move.

 

However, Ponyta had made one fatal flaw, and when Jacob realized it, he was ready to take full advantage of it saying, “Well, it seems as if Floatzel isn't going to leave that pond. I guess your Ponyta will have to go in there and finish her for good.”

 

Izy and Anna were both rather uncertain about Jacob's strategy here. On one hand, it was smart to try to lure Ponyta into the water, especially since Floatzel could breathe under the liquid, but it was also risky to just assume that Sally would fall for it.

 

“Alright,” Sally said with a fold of her arms and grin on her face, “Ponyta, go and get that Floatzel out, ya hear?”

 

Izy, Anna, Lucario and Jacob all stood with wide eyes. Even Jacob hadn't expected that to work. Nevertheless, he said nothing as Ponyta starting running towards the pond.

 

However, instead of diving into the water, the pony opened her mouth, unleashing a flame in the shape of the kanji for fire. This was even more confusing. There was no way fire could effect water.

 

However, this thought was proven wrong as the flames hit the water, bubbles starting to rise up from it. Sally simply grinned wickedly while Jacob's eyes went wide, the boy now speechless. Had that girl just boiled the water?

 

The answer soon became clear as Floatzel let out a cry of pain, leaping out of the water, steam coming from her body as she deliberately fell on her back, rolling around in pain. How was such a thing even possible? Well, nevertheless, the strategy had worked and Floatzel was unable to respond as Ponyta stomped on the weasel with her front hooves.

 

All was silent as Floatzel simply lay there, unable to move as Ponyta ran over to her owner, Sally stroking her mane. See, Ponyta had the power to turn off the heat in her mane when she felt comfortable, so that's why it didn't hurt to touch her fiery mane.

 

Jacob returned Floatzel, looking down with shame as Sally smiled and said, “Y'all thought I was too stupid to come up with a good strategy, didn't ya? Jus cuz I'm from the country doesn't mean I'm dumb. We country folk teach ourselves ta be resourceful, unlike lazy city folk who only work when they have to.”

 

“For one thing, I'm not from a city,” Jacob remarked, “I'm from a town. Secondly, I don't judge anyone by how they look. That's just biased.”

 

“Thank ya,” Sally said with a smile, her hands behind her back as the boy continued, “I'm just surprised that your Ponyta is so strong for its level.”

 

The crowd listened with interest except of course for Nurse Boredom who just wished they'd stop talking and get back to the action. Everyone else wanted to know where this power came from too.

 

“Ya see,” Sally said, pulling out a Pokedex, “Ponyta could easily be a Rapidash by now, but she ain't.”

 

“Why is that?” Jacob asked, “And what does that have to do with an electronic encyclopedia?”

 

Sally grinned and replied, “I thought you'd never ask. See, every Pokedex comes with a button simply labeled the B button.”

 

She pointed to the button with the letter B on it while the audience looked rather startled. Many had certainly seen this B button before, but they always thought of it as nothing more than a decoration. They had no idea what the B button actually did.

 

'How interesting,' Moro thought, 'The girl actually uses it. No one's ever used that feature before.'

 

The man chuckled to himself, quite satisfied by the fact that his addition to the Pokedex actually worked, but it was still unknown to others what it did. Even the gym leaders were unaware of its abilities.

 

“So, what exactly does that B button do?” Jacob asked as Sally's grin grew wider, the girl explaining, “See, I didn't want my Pokemon to evolve. They're jus too cute. So I use this B button here. See, if you press it right before a Pokemon evolves, it sends out a signal canceling the evolution, so the Pokemon never evolves.”

 

Jacob's eyes sparkled at the sound of this. This was truly fascinating. Even Anna was quite enthralled with this, but Izy just folded her arms thinking, 'How is that a good thing?'

 

The rest of the crowd had mixed feelings about the feature as well. Some thought it good for keeping a Pokemon as cute as it could possibly be, however, others thought it stupid as it meant the Pokemon couldn't learn their absolute best attacks or gain a stronger body. However, it was also good at deceiving an opponent. After all, this feature had tricked Jacob into thinking Ponyta was a weakling with little experience.

 

'I need to be careful,' Jacob thought with a grimace, 'What if her other Pokemon are like this too?'

 

Before he could think of that, the arena had been switched with light themed one. Bright sunlight surrounded the area. Jacob knew just who to use for this portion. The boy grinned as he whipped out a Pokeball sending in his trusty Cacturne.

 

“Interesting choice,” Sally said, tilting her head to the side as Jacob explained, “With all of this sunlight, Cacturne will gain extra strength from the Vitamin D provided.”

 

Izy was a bit skeptical about this, and even Anna felt uncertain. While that was good logic, Cacturne was also weak against fire types.

 

“Cacturne, before doing anything, lay down a row of spikes!” Jacob shouted as the cactus nodded, shooting spikes across the ground. Sally was impressed. This meant that any other Pokemon she chose would be damaged the second she sent them into the arena.

 

She simply grinned at Ponyta who nodded and charged towards Cacturne, her body covered in flames. Clearly, she was setting up for Flare Blitz. However, Jacob felt very confident about this as he said, “Cacturne, counter with Needle Arm.”

 

Everyone stared in shock. Izy thought that move was rash, Anna found it interesting, Lucario looked at his master like he was crazy and everyone else thought the boy had lost his mind. This strategy would only hurt Cacturne's arm. What was Jacob thinking?

 

Despite that, Cacturne's arm rammed hard into the incoming pony's face while Jacob grinned, the pony flying into a wall, even Sally in total shock. Sure, Cacturne's caught flame as predicted, and the sunlight only made it stronger, but Cacturne managed to roll the flame out quickly enough while Ponyta just lay on the ground against the wall, unable to get up.

 

Sally sighed and returned the pony before grinning at Jacob saying, “What you did back there was certainly brave, ya know that?”

 

“To be honest,” Jacob said with a grin, “I wasn't completely sure that the sunlight would give Cacturne that much of an advantage.”

 

Izy slapped her forehead, shaking her head and let out a low chuckle. She couldn't believe that such a rash decision had worked. But none the less, the battle was far from over.

 

Sally smiled and said, “I reckon that's the best you're gonna do,” before sending in a two-headed kiwi bird known as Doduo.

 

As soon as the kiwi emerged, he felt a sharp pain in his foot as he danced around, trying to ignore the pain with all his might. At least the spike trap had worked.

 

Despite having no wings, Doduo was a flying type, and with the arena being replaced by a wrestling ring, clearly meant for fighting types, Jacob knew that had to return Cacturne to his ball. He wasn't going to take another risk like that again. Using Cacturne against his own weakness was too risky as it was.

 

With that, he smiled at his partner who nodded and ran into the ring, the infant punching his fists forward showing off his strength before Jacob sighed, “This isn't a wrestling match, Lucario.”

 

Lucario blinked before letting down a sweat drop, blushing from embarrassment. Sally chuckled and said, “That Lucario of yours is cute.”

 

“Well, he was only born a little over a week ago,” the boy said as the crowd gasped in shock. Even those who didn't seem to care were amazed that an infant could show such a display of power in battle.

 

With that out of the way, it was time for the battle to resume. Lucario needed to be careful. While he was fast, Doduo was known to be much faster, so the infant needed to think carefully about his moves.

 

Jacob thought hard and figured the best move to start with would be a quick attack, so he told Lucario to do just that as the infant nodded, rushing towards Doduo while Sally gave Doduo a nod, the bird charging towards his target as well. Lucario quick attack hit hard, his elbow ramming into Doduo's face, but for some strange reason, Doduo hadn't felt any pain, but instead, the sound of blood squirting was heard.

 

Jacob's eyes went wide as Lucario backed away from Doduo, letting down tears while his elbow started to bleed. Sally's eyes widened as she gasped, “IS THE LITTLE ONE OKAY!?”

 

Doduo looked at his master with fear in his eyes as Sally glared saying, “I don told you ta use your own Quick Attack, not Drill Peck!”

 

Lucario sniffed as Nurse Boredom sighed, “He's okay, just a little wounded. As if this hasn't happened in previous battles already. Can we get back to the action already?”

 

Moro simply glared at the woman, but she did have a point. Sevanne's Blaziken had taken in a number of cuts but ended up okay. Russel's Golbat lost a wing and ended up fine. Lucario had also taken in blows like this before.

 

“Lucario, I know it hurts,” Jacob said with concern in his eyes, “If you don't feel you can continue, I'll switch you with Cacturne so you can rest.”

 

Izy sighed with relief at the sound of that. It sounded like a good idea. Even Sally had to admit, she was impressed by this decision as it certainly showed that Jacob cared for his partner.

 

However, Lucario shook his head and turned back to the battle, folding his arms and ignoring the pain. Jacob smiled and said, “I knew a wound like that wouldn't get you of all partners to give up.”

 

Sally had to admit, this display was actually quite touching. She then proceeded to laugh saying, “Wow, y'all very interesting figures, ya know that?”

 

With that, the battle commenced. Izy noticed that Anna was neither smiling nor neutral. What was up with that?

 

She placed a hand on Anna's shoulder and said, “Anna, don't be so down in the dumps. So one of your predictions was wrong. It's not a big deal.”

 

Anna sighed and looked up with a smile saying, “Well, I believe Lucario could win this, but maybe it's time to stop relying on my own intuition and see how things will turn out.”

 

Doduo rushed towards Lucario as Lucario went in for another Quick Attack. He managed to elbow the kiwi hard in the chest, but Doduo responded with a series of pecks simply known as Fury Attack. After taking in a few blows, Lucario leapt back and cupped his hands together, preparing an aura sphere.

 

The crowd cheered was Lucario unleashed the orb of light energy, ignoring the pain in his elbow and knocked out Doduo for good. Sally's eyes were wide not just with shock but with admiration. She hadn't expected Jacob to win so easily.

 

“Well, you've been a very fine opponent,” Sally said, folding her arms with a grin, “But this is where you lose.”

 

With that, she sent in her Tauros. The bull stood there, tall and proud, showing off his bulk. As the ring was replaced by an electric-themed one, lighting rods set up all around it and releasing an electric current around the area, Jacob put on a serious expression. No one knew just how powerful this Tauros would be, and by Sally's expression, it was clear that this was her strongest ally.