Pokemon Journeys: Masters 8 Tournament

Chapter 44 - The 6th Pokémon

Previously, on the Masters 8 Tournament...

During the finals to determine who was the strongest pokemon trainer in the world, both Ash and Leon had used up four of their pokemon in their teams. Until it was the time when their aces, Pikachu and Charizard, fought against each other with everything they've got.

After a series of gimmick clashes, Pikachu and Charizard knocked each other out at the same time. Each side was down to their final unrevealed pokemon, and the two trainers were drained and exhausted from the intensive battling.

Ash (5): Pokeball (0), Sceptile (1), Gengar (1), Lucario (1), Charizard (1), Pikachu (1)

Leon (5): Pokeball (0), Dragapult (0), Aegislash (1), Mr. Rime (0), Urshifu (1), Charizard (3)

[Bold is the pokemon currently battling. Italics is the pokemon that is resting. Underline is the pokemon that is knocked out or disqualified, Pokeball is the pokemon that is not revealed yet. Number in brackets is the number of pokemon that the person/pokemon has knocked out.]

Now, back into the story...

--------------------------------

"Both Pikachu and Charizard are unable to battle!"

Panting heavily from exhaustion, Ash slowly walked to Pikachu, who was lying on the broken ground with swirly eyes. He carried him in his arms.

"This is the best battle I have ever had with you, Pikachu."

"Piiikaaaa..."

Ash weakly grinned. He was too weak to smile with his teeth. They've done it. The toughest and most exciting part was over, and they emerged victorious. The protagonist returned to his trainer position and placed Pikachu next to him.

The 10-year-old boy subconsciously put his hands together and prayed: Please...for the love of Arceus...don't send out that pokemon, or we will all be in trouble.

Leon also walked to Charizard, who was on the floor with a slowly weakening flame on his tail. The undefeated champion hugged his ace pokemon, "Thank you. That was amazing."

Leon was emotionless when he returned Charizard to his Pokeball. For the entirety of the 6v6 battle, the only moment he truly enjoyed was when Charizard battled Pikachu. That fight allowed him to unleash their full power and most of their groundbreaking strategies. It was also a fight where he was so focused and did not think about his promise to Amaranth to send out Eternatus during the finals...

But a promise is a promise. That's a professional quality that a public image should uphold. Eternatus was Leon's final available pokemon. He had to defend his promise to his past mentor and send it out during the finals, even though it would violate the "Restricted Pokemon Rule" in the tournament.

Once he revealed Eternatus, he would automatically lose.

Leon sighed, "Guess I already lost."

"No, you haven't."

!!

"That voice...wasn't familiar!" Leon thought to himself.

He turned around and noticed Eternatus's Pokeball levitate in mid-air. It was emitting weak, purplish shockwaves. Leon was sure the voice came from the Pokeball. Was it Eternatus's voice? Was it someone else's?

"Do it now."

But that wasn't the thing Leon was concerned about the most. It was a floating Pokeball, and the live cameras were filming and streaming this. This kind of weirdness was going to make a scene, not just at the Stadium where so many people were watching, but also on online streaming platforms.