Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Pokemon Quest ❯ Jacob vs. Sampson ( Chapter 50 )

Pokemon Quest

 

While everyone in the stadium slept that night, Jacob lay awake in bed, sighing. He was going up against a very powerful opponent tomorrow. Would he be ready for this?

 

He looked at Lucario, who was sound asleep on a carpet next to the bed and thought, 'I'm sorry, Lucario, but I just can't use you tomorrow.'

 

Yes, Jacob had it all planned out. He figured that with Spiritomb being immune to fighting type moves, it may have been best to go with Manectric, Infernape and Floatzel, all of which relied on elements for battles. Despite this, he still didn't have much confidence. Sampson had proven himself to be a very dangerous adversary. So far, his Pokemon had been the only ones to draw a lot of blood from an opponent. And after seeing what had happened to Russel's Golbat, the boy was even more worried.

 

Jacob let out a sigh and closed his eyes. Perhaps sleep would do him some good. Tomorrow was, after all, a big day for him.

 

And after the night passed, the stadium was filled with spectators, all there to watch the semi-finals take place. Of course, the main battle everyone was looking forward to was Jacob's battle with Sampson, the very first battle.

 

Moro stood on a stage while the crowd glared at him, the man clearing his throat and saying, “I'm not going to let you people intimidate me any longer! I spent 6 hours preparing this speech, and I'm going to give it!”

 

Some of the obnoxious members of the crowd threw empty coffee cups at the man, but luckily, he had come equipped with a garbage pale lid. He didn't hesitate for a minute, lifting up the lid to protect himself from the onslaught of recyclable trash.

 

Nurse Boredom simply yawned and hurled her own coffee cup at the back of the professor's head, hitting him with it successful as, after all, his back was unprotected. What made it even worse for the man was that this cup wasn't empty.

 

The man stood there silent for a few seconds before shouting, “IT BURNS!!!!!!!!” flailing his arms around until the heat finally died down, breathing heavily afterwords.

 

“NEVER do that again!” he snapped as the nurse smiled weakly, Moro's eyes narrowing while the audience laughed and applauded Nurse Boredom.

 

As the audience's noise died down, the professor let out a sigh and said, “People, you have seen many of the best compete. Some battles were a disappointment while others have been very exciting. Now we are down to the semi-finals, the last 4 contestants and the last 3 battles, 2 of which take place today.”

 

The audience sighed as one shouted, “GET TO THE POINT!!!!”

 

Moro cleared his throat, ignoring that obnoxious statement and proceeded to say, “We have seen great talent shown by these young individuals, but as you know, only one will truly come out the winner. The first semi-finalist is Sampson. No one knows where he came from or who this mysterious Pokemon who has helped him win every battle is, but he has truly proven himself more than worthy of being here, even if some of his methods have been a tad unorthodox.”

 

The audience nodded, even the bored ones willing to agree with that as Moro added, “At first, he didn't have much respect. Even I didn't much trust him. But when he showed honor to Sevanne, it was clear that he had a good heart and despite some desperate measures, he is a man to be admired.”

 

The crowd simply sighed again, knowing Moro was going to do the same thing for every other semi-finalist. However, Moro, as he'd explained, spent a long time preparing this speech, so they knew they had to listen.

 

“The next semi-finalist is Jacob,” the professor stated, “He has actually done quite a lot over the past. He single-handedly defeated Miles, a gym leader who took a temporary absence to work for Team Advent. Even though it's unlikely, some of us still like to believe it was this boy who changed Miles' ways and convinced him to rejoin the side of good.”

 

“I get no respect from these people anymore,” Derk muttered with a grimace.

 

“Not only has he done that, but he also made his way out of the toughest of predicaments, even getting that Lucario of his to use an undiscovered attack,” the professor continued as Izy let down a sweat drop thinking, 'He knows that wasn't Jacob's doing, right?'

 

The professor continued to tell of Janette's opponent, a girl named Heather, but that was of no importance, neither to the crowd nor to the main story. Then he proceeded to say, “Our last semi-finalist is Janette. Despite being brought up by a rich family and taught to act like lady-like, she comes to us in the form of a Pokemon trainer and has shown us remarkable skill. No one knows how she does it, but somehow, she always seemed to win even when her choice of Pokemon doesn't make much sense.

 

And with that, the professor's speech was at a close. The crowd cheered wildly, some even whistling, Moro grinned proudly.

 

Nurse Boredom rolled her eyes and said in a drowsy tone, “They're not cheering for you. They're cheering because the speech is over.”

 

Moro's eye twitched until he heard an obnoxious audience member shout, “WAY TO END A BORING SPEECH, MAN!!!!!” as the professor looked down in shame, simply taking his seat.

 

And so, Sampson entered the arena while the crowd broke out into heavy cheering. The man simply let out a sigh and thought, 'Alright, Spiritomb, I know I won't need you for this one.'

 

Jacob followed suit, walking to his side of the arena while the crowd cheered almost as hard. Jacob may have had respect, but Sampson had a lot more. Izy and Anna stood in the crowd cheering for their friend while Harold held up a sign that said 'Jacob Rules'.

 

Sampson proceeded to do something very unexpected. The crowd's eyes went wide, the area silent as the man slowly walked over to Jacob and held out his hand. It took a few seconds for the boy to realize what the man meant as he held out his own hand, the two shaking.

 

“Best of luck to you,” Sampson said with a compassionate look as he let go and headed back to his side, the crowd cheering while Moro exclaimed, “What a nice person! Sampson has just shown us good sportsmanship! We could all learn a thing or two from him!”

 

“Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all,” Harold said with a shrug of his shoulders. However, Anna and Izy were both suspicious. Sure, Sampson had shown a friendly side to him when he battles Sevanne, but there was just something about him that seemed shady. It was like he was hiding something.

 

However, Jacob was a bit mixed about this. On one hand, it was clear that Sampson must have respected him as the man had explained that he only talked to good trainers during battle. However, there was the possibility of this being an act.

 

While Sampson walked towards his side, he heard a voice say, “Use me first! Don't let him get the upper hand!”

 

Sampson grimaced and whispered, “Shut up. I refuse to let him kill you, Spiritomb.”

 

Upon walking to his side, Sampson pulled out a Pokeball and hurled it into the arena. Out of it appeared an odd monkey-like creature. It had long white hair that covered its face much like the fur of a baboon, but rather than covering the entire body, it hung down the back of his head like hair. He also had a long needle-shaped nose and leaves where his hands should have been. This was Shiftry.

 

Jacob grinned, knowing exactly who to use for this. Luckily, this didn't ruin his plan in any way possible. With that, he pulled out his own Pokeball shouting, “Go get him, Infernape!” the monkey standing tall and proud while the audience cheered. To see Infernape again was certainly a treat in their eyes.

 

Sampson grimaced, realizing that this wasn't a good sign, but nevertheless, he refused to let it get to him. He had to win this battle no matter what happened.

 

Before Infernape could do a thing, Shiftry threw his leaf hands forward, unleashing a torrent of leaves, which sent the monkey flying into a wall while being pelted with hard, sharp leaves, cuts also forming on her body. This was an attack known as Leaf Storm, one of the most powerful grass type moves in existence.

 

Jacob's eyes went wide as the sight of this, but he breathed a sigh of relief when Infernape covered her body in flames, burning the leaves off of her. He knew there was no way a grass type move could defeat his fire type Pokemon.

 

As Infernape charged at the tree monkey, Shiftry simply narrowed his eyes before leaping to the side, Infernape running past him. However, Infernape was fast and nimble, being a monkey and all that, and there was no way she'd let her opponent dodge her that easily. As such she shifted her body and leapt towards him.

 

However, Shiftry saw the attack coming and leapt to the side again, and this went on for well over a minute, Infernape's body still covered in fire while Shiftry dodged each and every move.

 

However, Shiftry was starting to breathe rather heavily while Infernape still seemed to be full of energy. Jacob grinned and shouted, “That's it, Infernape! You've got him on the ropes now! Keep it up!”

 

Sampson's eyes went wide when soon enough, Shiftry took the fierce Flare Blitz to the back. This attack was more than enough to knock the tree baboon out, the Pokemon unable to move.

 

Sampson sighed and returned his partner thinking, 'Damn. That Infernape of his is more of a threat than I first thought.'

 

Izy cheered, pumping her fist in the air shouting, “That was a close one!”

 

Anna sighed and said, “Don't be too cocky. We've seen other opponents get this far before. Don't forget, Jacob hasn't won the battle yet.”

 

However, Jacob simply smiled and hugged his Infernape saying, “Great job, Infernape! We may actually win this battle!”

 

Sampson sighed, pulling out another ball and hurled it into the arena, this time a wolf appearing. It wasn't his Absol but a different wolf. This one had black fur along with a red muzzle around her mouth. She also had bones across her back and a skull necklace along with ankle bracelets also made of bone. And to top off all that and her pair of bull horns, her tail was in a shape similar to what many believed the devil's tail looked like, a spearhead shape on the end of it and everything. This Pokemon was known as Houndoom.

 

Jacob was a tad confused by this move. Why would Sampson try fire with fire? He was smarter than that, wasn't he?

 

Nevertheless, the boy knew he had something better to use against the wolf, so he returned his Infernape and replaced her with Floatzel.

 

Sampson frowned and thought, 'I should have seen that coming,' as he sighed and simply pointed at Houndoom, the canine nodding before opening her mouth, flames spewing out.

 

Jacob grinned, seeing a perfect opportunity and said, “Alright, Floatzel, counter with Water Gun!”

 

The weasel nodded and sent a water gun towards the flamethrower. Despite having a power advantage over water gun, it took a lot for fire to overpower water. As such, Houndoom took in a fierce blow to the face and backed up a bit, planting her feet hard against the ground to avoid going too far back.

 

Izy threw her fist forward with a grin saying, “It looks like Jacob's definitely gonna win this one!” however, Anna wasn't so certain. Sampson didn't even look worried after his Houndoom succumbed to the water gun.

 

The wolf simply shook off the pain and ran towards her opponent. Jacob was very surprised by this rather rash action, but this was certainly something to take advantage of.

 

“Alright, Floatzel, hit him with Aqua Jet!” the boy barked as Floatzel nodded, her body soon covered in water as she sped towards the incoming wolf. However, rather than continuing the assault, Houndoom froze on the spot. She didn't even skid forward a little bit like most would. She simply came to a complete stop with little to no effort. After doing so, she unleashed another flamethrower, this one colliding with Floatzel, however, the attack had once again proven useless as all the fire did was turn into steam on contact.

 

'This is strange,' Jacob thought with a grimace, 'Sampson's making this too easy. What's he planning?'

 

Soon enough, Floatzel's entire body was covered in a cloud of steam. Sampson grinned and said, “Perfect,” while Floatzel emerged from the steam cloud, coughing as she lost focus, falling to the ground, her water shield now gone. With that, Houndoom leapt atop Floatzel's back and bit hard into her shoulder, electricity coursing through her veins.

 

“Oh, I get it,” Izy said as Anna and Harold both looked at her asking, “Get what?”

 

“The reason he had Houndoom use flamethrower was because Sampson knew that water and fire combined to create steam,” the girl explained while the others still looked confused, “See, the flamethrower turned the water surrounding Floatzel's body into steam. As such, Floatzel lost her focus along with her water shield, making her wide open for Houndoom's Thunder Fang.”

 

Jacob groaned at the sight of this while Harold covered his eyes saying, “I can't watch this!”

 

However, despite all the pain, Floatzel was still far from done as she started to rise back up to her feet, Houndoom's fangs still stuck in her shoulder and sending electricity through her body. The crowd gasped as she grabbed Houndoom's head, forcing the fangs farther inward.

 

“What's she doing!?” Izy spat as Jacob's eyes went wide, the boy shouting, “Floatzel, what do you think you're doing!? That'll only hurt you more!”

 

However, Floatzel's plan was made perfectly clear when the weasel used all her might to lift Houndoom up above her head. The wolf's eyes widened as she tried her best to pry her fangs out of the weasel's flesh, but Floatzel had dug them in too deep, and as such, the weasel leaned backwards, slamming the wolf's body hard into the ground.

 

All was silent as Houndoom lay there, now in extreme pain before breaking out into cheers, Moro's eyes wide as he shouted, “DID YOU SEE THAT, NURSE BOREDOM!!!!!”

 

The nurse slowly turned her head to him saying, “I saw it, alright? You act like this is something special.”

 

“But it is,” Moro replied while folding his arms, scowling. What would it take for that nurse to show some enthusiasm?

 

But it didn't end with that. Houndoom started to rise back to his feet as Floatzel quickly whipped her tail around, unleashing her Sonic Boom, the wolf flying hard into the wall as his eyes started to swirl.

 

Jacob's eyes sparkled as he shouted, “FLOATZEL, THAT WAS AMAZING!!!!!” while Sampson sighed, returning his Houndoom. That truly had been an amazing sight. Floatzel had pulled off a miracle.

 

“Well, I must say, Jacob,” the man said with a grin, “You're the best opponent I've had so far, but I'm afraid your luck has run out.”

 

Before throwing his last Pokeball into the arena, he heard a voice say, “Well, it took you long enough!”

 

He glared at the ball as the voice came out again saying, “If you had used me from the get-go, you would still have 2 other Pokemon and he's most likely be down to his last one.”

 

Sampson simply rolled his eyes, ignoring the words of his partner, even if they were true. That said, he hurled the ball into the arena as Spiritomb took form. Jacob gulped and thought, 'I've been preparing for this,' and decided to replace Floatzel with Infernape, the monkey taking a battle stance. He was going to win this no matter what.

 

However, Anna had a look of uncertainty on her face as Izy placed a hand on her shoulder saying, “Come on, don't doubt Jacob's abilities. He has the upper hand in this battle. He could win.”

 

“Yes,” Anna said nodding, but she was still unsure. Spiritomb was a Pokemon full of surprises. This would be no easy battle.