"The red side contestant in this knockout match is Shun from the Orange Archipelago, student of Elite Four member Bruno. The green side contestant is Reiji, also from the Orange Archipelago."
"Both contestants are among the hottest picks to win this year. Shun showed impressive strength yesterday, while Reiji is the dark horse with the biggest crowd support. Which of these two Advanced Trainers will come out on top? Let's find out."
"The first knockout match of Group B will take place on a standard battlefield. Each contestant may use six Pokémon. Contestants, take your positions and send out your first Pokémon."
"Go, Poliwrath!"
"Go, Poliwhirl!"
"There it is! Contestant Shun is opening with his ace, Poliwrath!"
"Contestant Reiji has sent out a Poliwhirl we've never seen in battle before. Poliwrath against Poliwhirl—this doesn't look good for Reiji!"
"Poli. Hey, little bro. You evolved, huh?" Poliwhirl raised a hand when it saw Shun and Poliwrath.
"Wrath, wrath. Long time no see, boss." Poliwrath gave an awkward laugh. Back when it had been learning Waterfall from Poliwhirl, it had taken more than a few beatings. Even now, it still felt a little nervous around its teacher.
"Poli. You put on some muscle after evolving." Poliwhirl looked at Poliwrath's powerful build. Once it evolved, would it get muscles like that too?
"Wrath. I only evolved yesterday, boss. I'm still getting used to this body." Poliwrath clenched its fists and flexed, and Poliwhirl couldn't help feeling a little jealous.
The audience stared at the two blue tadpole Pokémon catching up with each other. Nobody had expected the two frogs to actually know each other.
In the Elite Four lounge outside the field, Lance sighed to himself when he saw Reiji send out Poliwhirl.
So it really showed up.
"I didn't expect it to still be Poliwhirl. Did he never think about evolving it?" Lorelei was there too. She had actually arrived yesterday, but she had been watching from the Ice Field, so she hadn't run into Bruno or Lance.
"He probably doesn't have a good Water Stone," Bruno guessed. If Shun hadn't already owned a high-grade Water Stone, Bruno would have prepared one for him.
A high-grade Water Stone was easy enough for an Elite Four member to get. A top-grade one was a different story. It wasn't impossible, but applying for one through the League was a pain.
Even Bruno used high-grade Evolution Stones. Shun hadn't proven enough yet to justify a top-grade one.
"He doesn't look like someone who lacks an Evolution Stone," Lance said after thinking for a moment. "There may be another reason."
"You two sound like you've met him before," Bruno said. Lance and Lorelei seemed to know Reiji. He wondered where that had happened.
"We met him once on Mandarin Island South," Lance said. He absolutely was not going to mention that his Dratini had been beaten up. He even gave Lorelei a quick warning look, telling her not to bring it up. It was too embarrassing.
Bruno saw the look they exchanged and thought he understood. He didn't dig any further. As far as he was concerned, if something was going on between two Elite Four members, that was their business. League rules didn't ban relationships.
He had completely misunderstood.
Next door to the Elite Four lounge, Blaine and several Gym Leaders had taken over another room. Amber was there too, along with her mother, Elisia. They had arrived the night before.
They had not gone to see Reiji because they were afraid of disturbing his rest before the match. Instead, they came today to watch him battle.
"Rai-nii, you can do it!" Amber finally got to hold Pikachu. She hugged it as she leaned over the balcony, with Eevee beside her, both of them cheering for Reiji.
"Rai really is strong. He made it all the way into the knockouts." Elisia looked down at Reiji. This was the first time she had seen him so close—the boy who had saved her daughter's life.
"That kid hasn't even gone all out yet," Blaine said. "His earlier opponents were too weak. He couldn't be bothered."
From how calm Reiji looked, Blaine could tell he was confident about this match.
"Amber, once Rai's match is over, should we invite him up here?" Elisia gently stroked Amber's hair. She wanted to thank Reiji properly for saving her daughter.
"Yes! Yes!" Amber had not seen Reiji in a long time. Last time, she had even cried while looking for him.
"That child…" Blaine lightly held Amber's small hand, liking her more the longer he looked at her. He was also grateful to that brat Reiji for letting him see the lively, cheerful Amber again.
In the spectator stands, the Cerulean sisters had also come over. After performing water ballet for so long, all three of them were almost dead tired. They planned to relax and watch a few matches that afternoon. The organizers had more than one performance team anyway; there was no need to work themselves into the ground.
When they saw Reiji enter the field, the three sisters shouted beside Misty, "You can do it, handsome!"
"My sisters? You know Rai too?" Misty hadn't expected them to be that enthusiastic. When had they met him?
"When you weren't home, we asked Rai to act as the stand-in Gym Leader for Cerulean Gym," her second sister said, not even trying to hide the jab at Misty for never being home.
"Hmph. I can be the Gym Leader too," Misty said, refusing to back down. Her sisters had her Pokémon and still hired someone else to fight for them. That was just embarrassing.
"You can't be the Gym Leader anymore, Misty. The inspector shut the Gym down," her third sister said, looking far too pleased with herself.
"What? How did that happen?" Misty froze at the news. She had only been away for a few months. How had the Gym been forced to close already?
"Oh, right. The inspector is here too." Her third sister looked to the side, where Inspector Joy sat beside Daisy Oak, wearing a hat that hid her red hair. She waved at her. "Hello, Miss Inspector."
"Ahaha… hello." Inspector Joy was painfully awkward. She had shut down someone's Gym, and now the Gym Leader herself was sitting right there. Of course it was awkward.
If Daisy had not dragged her here to watch some random match, she never would have come to the Indigo Plateau Conference. Her Latias still had not fully recovered, and she wanted to stay and take care of it. The scrapes on her own body were mostly healed, though.
"Inspector?" Misty stared at the heavily wrapped-up Joy until Joy started to feel uncomfortable.
"Hello, Gym Leader Misty." Joy tugged at Daisy. Daisy still had not told her why she had called her over.
"Stop pulling. Watch the match," Daisy said. She still hadn't told Joy that the person who had saved her was the boy battling below. After all, she still wasn't completely sure.
Elsewhere in the stands, Paul and Reggie were watching too. When they saw Reiji and Shun both send out the frogs, they both found it interesting.
Judging by how those two frogs moved, they clearly knew the same burst technique. Reiji and Shun might have learned from the same source, and now they had ended up facing each other. This was going to be a good match. The only question was who would win.
On the battlefield, Shun couldn't understand what the two tadpoles were muttering about. He looked toward Reiji and sighed inwardly. As expected of Reiji-nii. He had probably guessed what Shun was thinking from the start and opened with Poliwhirl.
They had chosen the same approach.
Shun didn't dare take Reiji's Poliwhirl lightly, even if it was still a Poliwhirl and not a Poliwrath.
The referee dropped his flag, and Reiji and Shun shouted at almost the same time.
"Poliwhirl, Belly Drum. Full burst. Mega Punch!"
"Poliwrath, Belly Drum. Full burst. We'll use Mega Punch too!"
"Poli!" Poliwhirl drew in a deep breath. A terrifying pressure surged from its body as Belly Drum pushed its Attack to the limit.
"Wrath!" Poliwrath did the same, finishing its own Belly Drum just as fast.
Both Pokémon spent half their HP to max out their Attack. Then the two blue fighters locked eyes, exploded forward at a speed they had never shown before, and charged straight at each other.
Their fists, both glowing with harsh white light, collided in the middle of the field.
Boom.
The impact detonated across the battlefield. Light and heat burst outward, and a huge cloud rose from the center. For a moment, the entire stadium fell silent.
The shockwave swept through the arena. Spectators who had stood up were blown back into their seats. Floodlights around the stands burst one after another, and even the giant scoreboard sparked several times before going dark.
After throwing that all-out punch, Poliwhirl was blasted back from the explosion. A sphere of water wrapped around its body, and when it hit the wall beneath the spectator stands, the water burst apart. Poliwhirl landed steadily, but it was breathing hard. That one punch had drained almost everything it had.
The cost was massive. Belly Drum had taken half its HP first, then it had squeezed out the rest for the punch. What little strength remained went into Protect to block the blast, plus the water sphere that softened the recoil.
Shun's side was the same. Poliwrath had used Protect to shield itself from the explosion, and it had a water sphere around it too. He and Reiji had clearly reached the same idea.
It was probably from some casual discussion in the past. Shun had remembered it, then gone out of his way to have Poliwrath learn Water Sport so it could reduce the backlash from this move.
As the explosion died down and the smoke cleared, the audience was still stunned.
What had just happened?
Was this still a Pokémon battle?
Was this still the Indigo Plateau Conference, or had someone dropped them onto a battlefield?
How could two tadpoles produce an attack that powerful? Did the audience not understand Pokémon anymore, or had the world they thought they knew suddenly become unfamiliar?
"Poliwrath!" Shun shouted and rushed down from his platform. Machoke ran beside him, the Pokémon he had used to protect himself from the earlier blast. Reiji had done the same on his side. Both of them had plenty of experience with situations like this.
Shun helped his exhausted Poliwrath up. After clashing head-on with Poliwhirl, Poliwrath had been thrown a long way back and had almost collapsed from overexertion. He had no idea how Poliwhirl was doing.
Poliwhirl was in slightly better shape. It could still stand, but only barely. Just like the last time at Cinnabar Gym, there was no point thinking about another proper fight after this. That full-burst attack could only be used once.
"Unbelievable. What did we just see?" The announcer lightly touched the cracked window. The moment his finger touched it, a sharp cracking sound ran through the glass, and the whole pane shattered and fell. It scared him half to death.
"Ah! It broke! It broke!" The announcer screamed into the microphone before he could stop himself. His hand was shaking, but as a veteran announcer, he quickly pulled himself together and looked down at the battlefield.
After Pidgeot cleared the smoke, a deep crater in the middle of the field came into view.
"What kind of explosion was that? The battlefield itself has been changed! There's a huge crater in the center! Was that really an attack from a Poliwhirl?"
"Gulp. Reggie, that… that…" Paul was so shocked he could barely speak. Was that really an attack a Poliwhirl could unleash? The stadium screen had gone dark, and even the announcer room's window had shattered.
"You absolutely cannot get hit by that move," Reggie said, clenching his fist. "If it lands, you're out."
He remembered his Gabite getting knocked out instantly.
He had studied the recording and the marks left at the scene over and over. After ruling out every other possibility, he reached one conclusion.
It was a burst technique.
For some reason, that Poliwhirl's explosive power was absurd. Reggie had even caught a Poliwhirl to study it, but after testing it, he found nothing special. He still had no idea how that burst was supposed to work.
Later, he managed to recreate something similar with Electivire by bending the twin cables on its back into spring-like coils to increase its explosive power.
But compared with what he had just seen, the extra burst from his Electivire was child's play. Electivire couldn't produce anything close to that kind of impact unless he used electric stimulation to boost its muscles.
That would need more research. For now, the announcer was speaking again, so Reggie looked back down at the field.
"The two blue tadpole Pokémon that unleashed that terrifying clash have returned to the battlefield! Can they still continue? This is incredible!"
"Poli. Not bad, little bro," Poliwhirl said to Poliwrath. Its junior really had grown. If Poliwhirl had not compressed Waterfall to its absolute limit, it would not have been able to hold the clash even.
It was running on fumes now. It had no idea how Poliwrath was doing, but if they fought again, Poliwhirl would be exposed almost immediately. It wouldn't last long.
"Wrath. I'm still nowhere near you, boss. I have a lot more to learn." Poliwrath clasped its fists respectfully. It was already the evolved form, yet it still hadn't overpowered its senior. That was honestly embarrassing.
It still didn't have enough control over its newly evolved body. It had to train harder.
"Poli…"
"Come back, Poliwhirl." Reiji had no idea what the two frogs were talking about, but he recalled Poliwhirl with its Poké Ball.
After a clash like that, recalling Poliwhirl was the safest choice. If he let it keep fighting and it got hurt, he would lose one of his main Pokémon for the rest of the tournament, and he didn't want that.
This was perfect. As long as Poliwhirl rested until tomorrow morning, it would recover and be ready for the next knockout match.
It had only thrown one punch, but that one full burst had traded evenly for one of Shun's Pokémon without taking real damage. That was more than worth it.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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