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Pokemon, Asylum of the Damned

Chapter L

Saga XI- The Pokemon League Saga

Chapter V- Round Four

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Ironically, Tom never felt fully comfortable around the mountainous 
bodyguards that surrounded him. They never spoke or change their ever stern 
faces at all. It was as if they were lumps of stone chiseled out of a 
compressed granite slab instead of a fellow human being. Tom could not tell 
why, but something told him that the match he would be in next, which would 
start in only a few minutes, would be a special one.

Once again, the bodyguards left Tom on his own as he entered the arena and 
walked to the battle field as his music echoed over the stadium. This time 
around, Tom's presence in the middle of the arena provoked a loud cheer from 
the audience, louder than any applause Tom had received before. "They really 
do love me," Tom quietly laughed to himself.

Suddenly, Tom's custom rock music was abruptly replaced with a rock melody 
much softer than his own. If the crowd's response to the new trainer walking 
onto the field being just as loud as Tom's was not enough to surprise him, 
the identity of the trainer that approached the other end of the battle 
field made his jaw drop open.

"And coming from St. Baers," came the voice of the unseen announcer echoing 
over the stadium, "winning a total of forty-five badges, Jennifer Halsen!"

As soon as Jen mounted her trainer stage, Tom, immediately put his headset 
on. "Jen!" Was all Tom could manage to blurt out when Jen put on her 
headset.

"You made it this far too, huh?" Jen asked.

"Forty-five badges!" Tom gasped.

"Took me a long time," Jen sighed as the field split apart again to reveal a 
large tank of water, the tips of the sides protruding just centimeters above 
the ground, making a small swimming pool with one large platform in the 
middle. "But it was worth it."

"Remember," came the voice of the announcer again as the referee made his 
way out to the field, "This is a three-on-three with two Pokemon out at the 
same time. The trainer has to defeat all three other Pokemon to win."

"Trainers, choose your Pokemon!" The referee called.

Jen's hand immediately flew to her side where she picked two Pokeballs from 
her belt and released the Pokemon inside. Tom followed suit and did the same 
thing with two Pokeballs of his own. Feraligatr and an Exeggutor appeared on 
Jen's end of the field, while Skarmory and Ursaring appeared on Tom's.

"Trainers ready," called the referee, "Pokemon ready, begin!"

"Feraligatr and Exeggutor, Body Slam and Poisonpowder!" Jen ordered.

"Ursaring and Skarmory," Tom commanded, "Slash and Steel Wing!"

The four Pokemon converged at each other all at once. The bone-shattering 
thud of their bodies smashing into one another made Tom and Jen both wince, 
thankful that they were not in the melee. Before any of the Pokemon could 
recover, Ursaring had raised her paw and took a vicious swipe at 
Feraligatr's cheek. The brutal Slash was enough to knock down Feraligatr and 
let the two tear into each other away from Skarmory and Exeggutor. After 
watching Ursaring and Feraligatr fight each other for a while, Jen decided 
that Feraligatr was fully capable of fighting Ursaring on his own, so she 
shifted her attention to Exeggutor and Skarmory. Tom quickly noticed Jen's 
attention shift and thus he refocused hsi attention from Ursaring to 
Skarmory as well. "Skarmory," Tom commanded, "Drill Peck!"

Immediately upon Tom's command, Skarmory spun her neck around and smashed 
the tip of her beak into Exeggutor's belly. Exeggutor managed one groan 
before he fell over on his back and collapsed. Before Tom coul celebrate, 
Feraligatr had Ursaring's arm wedged in his jaws and swung his head to the 
side, wrenching Ursaring off her feet and slamming hard into the water. 
Feraligatr quickly dove into the water after Ursaring and the rest of the 
arena was silent.

Jen quickly zapped her defeated Exeggutor into his Pokeball. "Go, Aipom!"

Jen's newest Pokemon fresh from being released from his Pokeball stood on 
the platform in front of Skarmory. "An Aipom?" Tom asked skeptically.

"My Clefairy's got a flu, okay?" Jen growled testily.

"Don't you have any other Pokemon?" Tom asked.

"No," Jen muttered bitterly, "not here anyway."

Tom sighed. "I'm still not going to go easy on you."

"Well don't," Jen snarled suddenly.

"What a temper problem," Tom thought to himself. "Skarmory, Steel Wing!"

With one quick swoop, Skarmory whooshed past Aipom and smacked his stiff 
metal wing into Aipom's jaw, knocking the Pokemon over. With just one little 
sigh, the Aipom remained still. "Shit!" Jen growled, zapping Aipom back into 
his Pokeball. Tom could her Jen gritting her teeth angrily on the other end 
of the headset.

Suddenly, Ursaring was launched out of the water and landed on the platform 
with a shaking thud at Skarmory's feet. Feraligatr crwaled back onto his end 
of the platform soon after, smiling a toothy smirk, bearing most of his 
razor-sharp teeth. When Tom saw Ursaring lying on the platform breathing 
weakly and not even moving an inch, he quickly zapped her back inside his 
Pokeball and quickly replaced it with a new one. "Go, Primeape!" Tom 
commanded as he unleashed his last Pokemon. Primeape's body quickly 
materialized beside Skarmory's as Feraligatr glared at both of them.

Tom was sure he could have tasted victory until Skarmory suddenly collapsed 
on her belly and began to weeze. "I knew that Poisonpowder would work!" Jen 
taunted on the headset, "Finish her off, Feraligatr!"

Before Tom could order a counter-attack, Feraligatr ran by Skarmory and ran 
his claws across Skarmory's face as he went by, spraying a shower of sparks 
all over the field, leaving Sakrmory to flop to the floor, motionless. 
Primeape immediately leapt onto Feraligatr's back and started swiping away 
at the back of Feraligatr's neck with claws of his own in a Fury Swipes 
attack. As Tom zapped his defeated Skarmory back into her Pokeball, 
Feraligatr tried his best to grap Primeape off his back, but his short 
stubby arms made him look more clumsy as he flailed them towards his head, 
failing to come within even seven inches of Primeape. "Dive in the water 
again, Feraligatr!" Jen commanded. As soon as the order was issued, 
Feraligatr flung himself, and Primeape, into the water in a large splash.

When the ripples on the surface died away, the arena was once again silent. 
"I've got this one won, Tom," Jen taunted again in a half-growl.

"We'll see about that," Tom growled.

"I've won and you know it," Jen snapped back.

Suddenly, Primeape sprung out of the water with Feraligatr's tail in his 
grasp and slammed Feraligatr unforgivingly onto the platform. With a roar 
from Primeape, Feraligatr gave a weak, defeated sigh.

"And the winner of this match his Tom Simms!" the referee declared.

Jen hastily tore off her headset and threw it to the ground. Tom could hear 
Jen swearing heatedly from the other stage as she zapped Feraligatr back 
into his Pokeball.

Tom sighed with a quiet smile on his face, watching Jen's temper boil. "I 
almost feel guitly enjoying her temper flares," He silently smirked to 
himself.

-End

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