Pokémon: Midnight Blue

Only One

The match was not over yet. The terms included a five-on-five fight, so while Robin was in the lead, he still had not won. I began to debate whether or not I should let him. It seemed to me that he was very annoyed that I was not fighting back the way he expected me to, but I felt like he deserved the title more than I did. Robin hurt one person on his journey, and he did it with no intent to harm whatsoever. I had knocked down countless people with the darkest of intentions; to destroy my best friend. This convinced me that I was unfit to be a champion. I would continue to feign an effort, while giving Robin the opportunity to win.

"Go, Gengar!" I summoned the only Pokemon I had left that stood a chance against Jynx.

"Too easy," Robin replied, "Psychic!"

"You would think so, right? Hypnosis!"

Before Jynx had a chance to obey, it fell right asleep.

I continued, "Night Shade!"

Night Shade's purpose is not to be a lethal attack, but judging from the power of my Gengar, it dealt a good amount of damage to Robin's Jynx. I followed up with a Giga Drain attack, and that was enough to keep Jynx from waking up.

"Not bad, Brian," Robin called out to me, "This is the kind of fight I'm used to you putting up. Go, Blastoise!"

"Gengar, Night Shade," I hissed. I decided to put up a decent fight against Blastoise and pull back on Robin's last Pokémon to make it more believable.

Blastoise took the Night Shade attack with resistance. It smirked at me, then at Gengar.

"Hydro Pump." Robin commanded, sharing an identical smirk as his Pokémon.

Gengar was sent flying backwards and crashing into the stadium wall, but it got back up, struggling somewhat, and stood its ground.

"Blastoise, finish it off with a Blizzard attack!" Robin roared.

"Giga Drain, right now!" I yelled.

Gengar attacked immediately, but was caught in the Blizzard in the process. As the ice cleared, my Gengar was revealed to have fainted.

I stayed quiet for a moment, but then I looked up at Robin chuckling heavily, "You know what has to happen now, don't you Robin?"

"I've got a pretty good idea," he smirked back.

I flung my Pokéball onto the field with all my might, "Raichu, Thunderbolt, now!"

My Raichu flew out of its Pokéball and surged Blastoise with a powerful blast of electricity. Blastoise quickly toppled over and fell unconscious. Robin twitched a bit at the sight of Raichu's strength.

"Alright, fine." Robin grumbled, "That's how you wanna play? Works for me. Go, Electrode!"

Electrode grinned widely at Raichu and me. It waited, expecting either an attack from Raichu or a command from Robin.

"Use Sonicboom!" Robin almost used the attack himself.

Raichu quickly evaded the attack. Electrode continued attacking as Raichu kept dodging. I had instructed Raichu not to lay a paw on Electrode and to act only defensively. With every dodge, the crowd jeered more and more, but I had already drowned out the unpleasant noise. Robin noticed I was not attacking and called me out again.

"Come on, Brian!" he yelled. "Quit pulling back! Fight like a man!"

"I can't, Robin," I finally came out with it. "You deserve this win way more than I do. I can't take this from you."

"That's horseshit, Brian Tobias Phoenix! You're not about to give this up! If I'm not good enough for you to put up a real fight, then maybe I shouldn't beat you anyhow!"

"That's not how it is, Robin, I swear!"

"It doesn't matter, Brian. This is the final battle. Do you know what that means? It means one of us has to come out on top. Maybe you're right. Maybe I do deserve it more, but you know what, Brian? You need it more. You have more important things to take care of as a champion. I signed up for this tournament knowing that. Knowing that you and I are both the best of the best. Knowing that only one of us would become the winner. Resigned to knowing that it had to be you, Brian."

"Robin, what are you doing?"

"Electrode, Explosion!"

"No! Robin, stop this right now!"

"It's too late, Brian. This is the way it has to be. But don't worry. I'll kick your ass some other time."

And true to the command, Electrode rolled as far away from Raichu as possible and brought itself down in a massive detonation. The crowd immediately fell silent as Robin forfeited his final Pokémon, along with the tournament itself.