Chapter 36 – The League Final.


Hiro’s reflexes were quick, and the red and white ball had been thrown from his tense fist almost before the bell rang. He had thrown it a good distance, and it landed a quarter-way across the dusty field. Exploding into the arena came a dark, greenish-black Heracross.

Lisa recognised it from the Bug Catching Contest, but it looked much more fierce now. And taller.

The response from Lance came with a dark smirk; he twisted his wrist and tossed the pokeball into the air, it popped open after a couple of seconds and a glimmer of whiteness streaked up into the open-roofed stadium, before slithering back to the ground. There were oohs and aaahs from the crowd, and Lisa cringed. It didn’t look like Heracross would be able to pull this off.

The Gyarados was blue but its scales looked like steel, and Lisa stared at them as though she knew they were harder than diamond.

“Heracross – start with Quick attack,” cried Hiro, leaning forward anxiously at his Heracross, dwarfed by the massive Gyarados. It really did look hopeless, but Hiro was determined. Lisa watched eagerly.

“Gyarados, evasive flight!” called Lance calmly, his eyes and voice steady.

Heracross had the advantage at first – he raced out towards the centre of the field where the serpentine form of Gyarados lay, and launched its horn out to scrape the side of Gyarados’ scales. The big blue creature was slow to react, but once it understood its commands, it was quick off the mark. Heracross had clanged its horn against his opponent twice, with a metallic clink, before Gyarados had flown up.

The huge form of Gyarados rose into the air and hovered about two feet above Heracross, who was totally useless, unable to reach his enemy for any physical attack. It was a fairly actionless moment – Gyarados just hovered there, while Hiro looked confused and Lance’s face remained still.

“More like evasive float,” observed Lisa, and Gavin nodded.

The commentator had been dribbling away for awhile, but Lisa hardly noticed the noise. She was trying to listen to what Hiro was saying to Heracross. But it was obvious within moments. Heracross’ eyes lit up crimson, and he stared into the evil eyes of Gyarados, who blinked back, nonplussed. Evidently the leer hadn’t worked.

Lance spoke finally. “Hydro Pump.”

“Get away from it Heracross!” screamed Hiro. “Use dig!!”

Lisa had to bite her tongue to stop herself from yelling out. Hiro was digging himself into a defeat, but, unlike his battle against Tyler back in Goldenrod, this time she couldn’t help out.

It was over very quickly. Heracross was adept in its digging skills, and had soon used its sharp claws to burrow a fair way underground to escape the blast of water. A few clumps of earth hit Gyarados with no effect whatsoever. The serpent then responded by belching out a massive stream of water from its mouth, gushing across the field and beneath it to where Heracross was digging underground. The tunnel filled up almost instantly, and Heracross came bursting through the earth, covered in dirt and swirling grey mineral mud, panting and looking half-dead. Gyarados stopped the attack on Lance’s command, while Hiro quickly recalled Heracross, very disappointed.

“AND HIRO FERGUSON RETURNS HIS HERACROSS AFTER A VERY QUICK VICTORY BY LANCE’S BEST OPENER, GYARADOS!” boomed the commentator; obviously the volume of the microphone had not yet been lowered. Half the stadium was covering their ears, the other half were already deafened (Lisa among them). “WHO WILL THE CHALLENGER CHOOSE NEXT?”

Hiro threw the ball out without much deliberation. “I should have done this from the start.” Lisa could see him mouthing to himself as she dried herself a bit. Being in the front row seats, Gavin, herself and the boy beside her had copped a lot of the rebounding Hydro pump.

A Magneton appeared from the ball, looking very shiny and powerful. “Magneton, Thunderbolt!” yelled Hiro urgently.

Lance remained perfectly calm and still, as though he was observing a rookie trainer make his first commands against a wild Caterpie. “Look out, Gyarados. Dig if you need to.”

Lisa watched, expecting Magneton to power up for a moment, and she watched Gyarados dive underground swiftly, thinking that Hiro was again going to lose. But she had obviously underestimated Magneton. It zoomed down the hole immediately, firing off thunderbolts everywhere, on Gyarados’ tail as though the serpent was a refrigerator. There was a sudden almightly blast of yellow from somewhere underground, and Gyarados came flying upwards through the soil, a deadweight.

The crowd ooohed, Hiro and Lance were silent, and even the commentator seemed to have nothing to say – well, for a moment. “ACCORDING TO THE INFRA-RED UNDERGROUND CAMERAS, GYARADOS HAS JUST BEEN DEFEATED BY A THUNDER ATTACK, FOLLOWED BY A SPEED STAR!” he boomed. “HIRO’S MAGNETON WINS ROUND ONE!”

Then came about fifteen seconds of cheering, allowing Magneton to show off, then a hushed silence came over the crowd, which was still growing with many late arrivals, having only just heard the news of “Lance has a challenger!”

Lance reacted quickly and calmly, and Lisa stared from her vantage point. What does it take to break him, she thought. How much does it take to push him over the edge?

The Charizard whipped out of the ball dangerously. The boy beside Lisa made a sudden movement, as though he was stunned by the choice. She turned to look at him, but he jerked his head back to the action.

“Fire Blast,” Lance’s clear voice wafted across the arena, amplified by the microphone on his collar. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Lisa realised that Gyarados had been Lance’s starter – the pokemon to test the opponent’s strength. Charizard would be able to handle Magneton with ease, surely?

“Magnetic Field, then attack with Thunder!” bellowed Hiro instinctively. He didn’t realise how incredibly clever his idea had been.

Charizard flapped its wings hard to propel itself skyward. Just to show off, Lisa thought with disgust, until the commentator pointed out that flight would give Charizard greater mobility. Magneton fired up quickly, a soft static glow appearing around it, slowly emanating outwards. And then, very gradually, the iron filings packed in the battlefield began to unearth themselves. The audience was silent as the iron zipped through the air, faster and faster, sticking onto Magneton’s body. The commentator was going off on a tangent about how the mineral field had been made up, but did comment that the iron filings might act as some sort of shield for Magneton.

Charizard warmed up and spat the fireball at Magneton, and at the same moment Magneton had collected a heavy layer of iron and its magnets spun around somehow. Instantly, the filings were repelled and collided with the burst of flames, screening Magneton into safety. The metal dropped to the ground, burning red. Quickly, Magneton’s magnets glowed bright yellow and split the air with three Thunder attacks. Two of them hit the airborne Charizard, hopefully injuring it considerably.

And now, while the crowd cheered and Lisa clapped louder than ever, Hiro’s plan was formulated. It would, hopefully, be an easy pattern – attract metal, repel it and make a shield, then thunder. Plan, defend, attack.

“Magneton, repeat thac exat – blaaaah … that exact method!” yelled Hiro, his voice amplified by the microphone.

Lance was looking very interested in the battle now, and he was not a Champion for no reason, Lisa decided. She looked through her binoculars at him, and saw that he was playing with a chain on his neck. Nervousness? She wasn’t sure. But a smiled broke out over Lance’s face and Lisa realised he now had a plan.

“Nice try, Hiro,” Lance’s voice was magnified around the stadium. “But you have a long way to go yet! Charizard, flamethrower the ground as much as possible!”

“Yeah whatever,” spat Hiro. “Magneton, repeat it now!!”

Magneton created that same magnetic field, and it began to grow again, a huge hemisphere of magnetism. But Charizard was quicker than it this time, and for a very scary moment Lisa realised it had not been working as hard as it could, not to its full capacity. This time, it breathed a steady stream of flame directly at the ground within the electrostatic orb. The sand and average dirt was not affected, but the iron began to glow red, and then the plan was clear.

“LANCE’S CHARIZARD USES FLAMETHROWER TO HEAT UP THE IRON FILINGS!”

“Bastard, you can’t do that!” Hiro said to himself more than to Lance, then cringed as he realised his voice had been amplified throughout the stadium. Lance smiled anyway.

The filings, still burning red-hot, zipped through the air and latched onto Magneton, burning it all over. An eerie call screamed out of it, (and if you have ever heard a Magneton screaming you will know that it was a dreadful sound; a dull, echoing, hollow drone of pain) and Magneton descended to the ground, but not before launching a final, vengeful Thunder at Charizard – and the lizard must have been becoming complacent, because all three beams struck, each stronger than the last one, fuelled by Magneton’s burning. And with another shriek, Charizard dropped heavily to the ground, having been thundered five times and defeated.

“Both competitors are unable to fight any further!” the commentator’s voice came quieter now, and Gavin unplugged his ears (“What’d I miss?”). “Because Lance has lost two pokemon to Hiro’s one, a field change is in order!”

There was no talk between the battlers, just the dull beeping sound that accompanied the red jet of light. Then Hiro and Lance stepped back, and allowed the field to change over. It sank away from view slowly, leaving a gaping hole. It would be replaced after the five-minute break.

“Good battle, eh?” said the boy next to Lisa.

“Yeah, definitely,” Lisa agreed whole-heartedly. “I’ve never seen the field used to such an advantage. Except water I spose.”

“Once my Dragonair iced a whole water battlefield up,” admitted the boy, who grinned and Lisa saw two pronounced dimples. “It was really funny, the Mantine we were fighting got its tail stuck in the ice, we had to chip it out for hours.”

Lisa listened attentively. “You’re kidding, you have a Dragonair? How’d you get hold of one? You a gambler or something?”

“Nup. My dad had three, so he gave me a spare …”

“Three dra-?” Lisa’s jaw dropped. She jerked her head at Lance out of the field. “He’s your dad?”

“Yeah. Don’t look so surprised. He’s not a celebrity or anything.”

“You’re so lucky, I only got Aipom from my parents!” Lisa said, as Aipom yanked her ponytail angrily. The boy laughed. “So I spose you’re going for Lance then, in the match I mean?”

“Not really,” he admitted. “Dad’s always winning, I think he needs to lose sometimes. He lost three times this year already, which is really good for his ego.” The dimples winked at Lisa again. “One of the girls who beat him was really cool – she used a Ledyba to beat Charizard. It was fantastic!”

Gavin nudged Lisa sharply in the ribs. “Oy Lisa, look over there! Is that who I th-”

“Sssh Gavin I’m talking!” she said, and went back to flirting with the guy. “Do you like dragon pokemon then? Because –”

“Your name’s Lisa?”

“Yes,” she said. “Lisa Walters. And while we’re on the subject, you are …?”

“Darius Hudson,” he told her, fiddling with a little chain on his neck. Lisa looked at it closely, and realised it matched exactly with Lance’s. It was silver and thin, and hung down low beneath Darius’ shirt.

“Is that the same one as your Dad’s?”

“How’d you know about that?” asked Darius, pulling the necklace up until it surfaced just below his neck. “Yeah, it is. I have Dragonair on the end. It’s this new technology they’ve invented.” On the very end of the chain was an indigo-coloured Dragonair, curled up in coils.

“That’s cool,” remarked Lisa.

“It’s like a personalised Pokeball. The Dragonair charm on the end is the pokeball where its kept, and the position its in shows you what its doing inside its home.” He gestured to the coiled up Dragonair. “He’s sleeping at the moment.”

“I t-” began Lisa, but at that moment there was a huge whirring and the new playing field emerged. It rose up and locked into place, and Lisa thought it was the most interesting field she had ever seen. A man-made mountain was in the centre, rising about twenty metres or so, capped with clean snow. A very wide pool of ice surrounded it not unlike a moat, and there were small patches where the water was on the surface instead of the ice. Snow blanketed the remainder of the field.

“Gentlemen, please step up to the trainer’s box.”

“BEGIN ROUND THREE ON THE ICE FIELD!” the volume was back up again, but somehow everyone’s ears had adjusted – either that, or they were too intent on the battle now to see notice how loud the commentator was.

Hiro had washed his face and freshened up, and already had a Friend Ball in hand. Lance, on the other hand, looked as calm as ever but had his hand in his pocket, as though trying to make up his mind which ball to pull out.

“I SAID BEGIN!”

With two flashes and two well-aimed throws, a Dewgong splashed into the ring-shaped pool, while Aerodactyl emerged onto the summit of the mountain. Hiro broke into a grin, while Lance actually showed some emotion and cringed. It looked like an easy loss for him. But, for some reason, he did not recall the flying fossil straightaway, as Lisa knew she would have. Instead, he mouthed something to himself, then spoke “Aerodactyl, Ancient Power!”

“Ice Beam, Dewgong!”

Swooping down to the ground, Aerodactyl snapped his teeth at Dewgong’s head as he went past, just to show he meant business, before taking back to the sky, circling around and around the spire of the hill. Dewgong was much more sensible and much less cocky. He flipped a long slippery tail and delved underwater, knowing that he would be safe there for at least a few minutes. Quickly, the sealion set its concentration to forming an orb of ice in its mouth.

Aerodactyl had paused, waiting for Dewgong to resurface before it made the attack. But it waited one minute. Then two. And although the tension did not break for the pokemon and their trainers, it lapsed into boredom for the crowd. Underneath the water, a small light was forming, and once Lance saw it he knew immediately what he had to do.

“Don’t hesitate Aerodactyl, do it now! Ancient Power!”

It responded with glowing golden and exploding in a burst of bright light.

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Next up on Lisa the Legend

What exactly is Aerodactyl doing?

“I told you so,” Lisa said smugly to Gavin, who squirmed in his chair, but she looked amazed all the same. Darius gave them an amused sidelong glance, but turned back to see his father’s fight.

Whatever the case, the battle must go on.

“Throw snowballs at him!” cried Hiro. His pokemon emerged from the water and quickly headed for the ample fields of snow.

Does Hiro still have the upper hand or not?

“Damn this is embarrassing – and dangerous,” muttered Hiro through clenched teeth. Fifty feet in front of him, Furret was bouncing around, just barely evading the dripping fangs ready to slice into it.

Chapter 37 – Secrets on the Ice Field.