7/5/20

2:00 pm

Grassland Stadium

A long shudder exited my mouth as Phoenix shakingly circled the Alakazam, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. I'm pretty sure she was still confused as to what was going on, but let me explain to the rest of you. How I was blind enough not to notice, I don't know, but Malum is a member of the Darkness. Darkrai is the head of it, and they've been causing a lot of trouble as of late. I don't even know why they're doing it in the first place.

"So are you going to explain what this is?" 'Nix yelled at the Alakazam with a tilt on her head. "Because I'm not sure it's an ability I've seen before."

"It's not an ability," he said while chuckling softly. "It's my mark." He turned around to gesture at the flaming eyes. "It's who I am, it's who I always wanted to be. You may not see that. That's okay, I'll make sure you know." His eyes started glowing with another smirk forming on his mouth

She flinched slightly, taking the entire stinging attack before being able to jump away. Her head looked at her stomach area before looking at her opponent. "That was a Psychic move...," She said out loud. "How?"

A chuckle came out of Malum as he gripped his spoons tighter. "I wanted to make this fight a bit fair, right? Besides, it's not everyday that a Pokémon has Miracle Eye in their moveset."

"Miracle Eye?" Cord hollered out. "Of course, why didn't I think Malum had that! That's why he only had three moves when he fought me."

My head turned to the Raichu confused. "What's Miracle Eye?"

"It does two things;" he explained quickly, "it resets the speed stat and makes Psychic moves able to hit Dark types with regular effect." The Raichu looked back to the battle to see Phoenix shakingly miss her three shots of Ember.

"Oh boy," I realized when looking at her shaking paws. "She's afraid." The Houndour just stands there, starting to take the attacks of pink blades going in multiple directions. I was actually surprised it didn't make her fall out of the ring yet. "I'll be right back. Laevo!"

Turbo Boost was activated as I jumped from the stands, grabbing Phoenix's back. This quickly made her eyes glow blue with sparks on all four of her paws. The Houndour looked around before noticing me. "What's going on? Why are my paws sparking, How are your—?"

"Not telling you now." I quickly interrupted. "Look, I know you still got this."

"How am I supposed to do that?" She retorted. "I just lost my only advantage against him. Malum can attack me with no problem now!"

I shook my head while looking at Malum. One of his arms was ready to fire one of those pink blades again. "Listen to me carefully. Just because he can now attack you doesn't mean that you still have the advantage. Your Dark type moves still are super effective against him. Use them to your advantage."

"...I thought you said Beat Up was a crutch?"

The Alakazam was throwing the attack toward us before I chuckled. "Well, sometimes I'm wrong. Crutches can help you." My face glanced at the current move flying towards Phoenix before I chuckled. "I suggest you dodge that Psycho Cut."

My paw released Phoenix from my grasp before jumping out of the stadium and back to my seat. With the snap of fingers, time went back to normal, and the Raichu and Glaceon next to me could see Phoenix dodging the attack barely. "That was quick," Cord remarked before thinking. "Did you use Turbo Boost?"

"I didn't get caught, Cord." I reassured him. "Just gave a little talk." The Houndour got up quickly before starting to run around, firing shots of Ember every so often. A few of them were immediately redirected towards the ground, while some were just waved off by Malum.

The Alakazam quickly clenched his spoons before making them cross like an X. A pink and purple beam immediately shot off the spoons and directed it towards 'Nix. I wasn't sure if the attack hit since a cloud of dust spawned in before contact. A pair of pink eyes formed in the dust before charging towards the Alakazam.

Her entire body was glowing black as she used her paws to start clawing and punching away health from Malum. But it would end up backfiring when Malum quickly predicted where a punch would land. He quickly grabbed Phoenix's paw before launching her towards the opposite side of the battlefield.

Phoenix's claws kept her in the stadium, just barely. A stern came out of her when she heard her opponent start laughing. "Phoenix, I'm going to be serious right now. Do you even know how strong are you? That Beat Up barely did anything. Are you even sure that—?" Malum immediately got bashed in the stomach by 'Nix, sending him sliding a few feet from the center.

"You talk too much."

The Alazakzam wiped off the dust that came with the attack before one of his fists suddenly started sparking with electricity. He suddenly dropped to the floor before charging towards the Houndour.

Heh... This next part just got me good. Since Malum was running on the floor, Phoenix jumped to the side when he swung his fist early, sticking out one of her paws to trip the Alakazam on the floor.

Malum would end up sliding head first towards the metal wall, knocking him out.

And as the crowd cheered, and Castform congratulated 'Nix for the final spot, all I could do was give a thumbs up and mouth the words "Congrats."

***

5:00 pm

Treasure Town (Outside Guild)

"Guys!" A familiar Glaceon ran out of the Wigglytuff entrance to see all three of us packed up and ready to go. Her red beanie was a few more inches to fall off, so she readjusted the hat before starting to speak so quickly, I couldn't understand anything.

"Okay, let's move it two steps back," I said trying to calm her down. "Can you please repeat that again?"

Abby sighed before repeating herself. "I got our new badges because SOMEONE here forgot to change our team name!" At the mention of my mistake, Cord and Phoenix turned to me and gave something pretty similar to a death stare.

"In my defense, I completely forgot about that until just now."

"Unbelievable," the Raichu shook his head while paying attention to Abby. "So what did you do anyway?" The Glaceon threw three badges towards all of us, each with the same style in the front, but a new team name in the back.

Team Iluminate

"...That has a nice ring to it," the Houndour responded while trying to find a place to bury it with her fur.

Abby glanced at me before looking at the other two members. "Well, it made sense to me. We're fighting the Darkness, so it'll be best to 'shed some light.'" She chuckled at the thought. "Alright, we'd best be going. Don't wanna be late!"

"Don't want to be late for what?" I said, following along to the Glaceon. The four of us could hear a loud horn blaring at Treasure Town. When it came in view, a ship close to a large yacht was parked on the beach, having a ramp connecting to the beach.

And if it wasn't obvious, a sign said "For competitors in the World Pokémon Tournament."

*Game File Saved*