Footsteps echoed down the hallway as an elite trainer prepared himself for the final battle. For his destiny.
He sighed deeply and entered the huge stadium.

His final opponent, the last obstacle in his way, She stood directly in front of him. A slight smirk on her face in direct contrast to Cain's somber expression.

The Announcer began to speak, getting the crowd riled up.
"Here are our finalists, people!"

Cain grasped one of the three pokeballs latched onto his belt, smearing moisture from his sweating palms all over it in the process.

"On the Right we have The Amazing, fan favourite, Cain!"

Cheers burst forth from every direction, assaulting Cain's eardrums.

"And on the left we have, the unpredictable underdog, Illyana!"

More cheers erupted from the crowd.

"Trainers!" called out the Referee, his voice echoing as thousands of people held their breath.

"Battle!" he yelled, the Crowd cheered as the finals of the year's Indigo league commenced.

Cain thought for a second before cautiously sending out the first of his three pokemon.

"Do me proud, Arcanine" He encouraged, his oldest friend.

Illyana, His opponent followed his lead, and sent out her first pokemon: A ditto.

This didn't surprise Cain in the slightest, he'd spent the hours leading up to this battle studying his opponent's battle strategies, Ditto was Illyana's signature pokemon.

The girl gave Cain a wink and then began to command her pokemon.

"Ditto!"

"Arcanine!"

"use transform!"

"use extreme speed!"

The purple blob morphed into an exact replica of Cain's Arcanine, but that didn't stop it from being hit full in the face by a lightning-fast attack.

Cain could only look on as the Ditto-Arcanine morphed to absorb the force of the attack, rendering it useless.

"Arcanine, use sunny day!" Cain was desperatly trying to get Illyana to slip up somehow, just to give him even the slightest edge.
If she did that, He was sure that he would win immediatly.

The large canine let out a ferocious howl, and as soon as it stopped, the sun began to shine with a harsh light.

"Ditto, use Overheat!" Yelled out Illyana, she was shaking with uncontrollable laughter as the enormous eruption of flames engulfed the enemy Arcanine.

When the smoke cleared, Arcanine was on the ground, it had fainted.

Cain cursed under his breath, and returned Arcanine to it's pokeball.
He mentally kicked himself for falling into her trap, then he sent out his next pokemon.
"Go! Hitmonchan!"

"Ditto, keep the Arcanine form, and use overheat!"Illyana cried, as soon as Hitmonchan was sent out.

"Hitmonchan, use detect!"

Once again flames engulfed Cain's pokemon. When the inferno dissapated Hitmonchan was completly fine.

Cain decided to wait and see what Illyana would do, deciding that it was her turn to sweat.
She didn't do anything for at least ten seconds.
Not even blinking, she analysed the situation.
'Okay,' she thought.
'He focuses all of his energy on speed, and hit and run moves, so his Hitmonchan probably has something like mach punch up it's sleeve...'
Her eyes widened as she came up with an idea.
"We'll just have to fight fire with fire" she mumbled.

"Ditto! use extreme speed!"

The Replicanine became a blur as it sped towards it's foe.

And right into a mach punch.

Ditto lost it's canine form as it sailed through the air and landed on it's trainer's trainers.

Illyana said nothing as she sent out her next pokemon.

Cain, the referee, the crowd, they all burst into laughter, as her magikarp flopped onto the ground.

Angrily, Illyana yelled to her Magikarp, "Use bounce!"

The fish pokemon hurled itself into the air and straight towards Hitmonchan.
Once again, Cain didn't need to say anything, nor could he even if he wanted to, Hitmonchan just used mach punch to score a direct hit on Magikarp.
This cycle happened twice more, every time Magikarp was hit the laughter just grew louder.

Illyana was getting annoyed at the laughing people but that only helped to clear her head of the increasing worry that her strategy would fail.
"Magikarp, I need one more bounce!"

The crowd roared with laughter.

Magikarp flew towards Hitmonchan for the fourth time.

Hitmonchan prepared to used it's Mach punch once more.

"Flail, now!" Illyana crossed fingers and toes as her pokemon managed to use the move, It's extremely weakened state empowered the move to a godly level for a Magikarp.

Hitmonchan hit the ground.

Magikarp landed on top of Hitmonchan.

The two had defeated eachother.

The spectators stopped laughing, and Cain kicked himself for underestimating his opponent.

The two finalists recalled their pokemon, and sent out the last pokemon in their teams.

Cain angrily hurled his pokeball onto the battlefield.
A large Arbok emerged from the ball.

Illyana let her last pokemon out, A gleaming, Kabutops with razor-sharp scythes on it's arms appeared.

The two trainers wasted no time in beginning the final phase of their match.

"Arbok, use poison jab!"

The snake pokemon's tail began to glow purple and it raced towards Kabutops.

"Kabutops, use night slash!"

Kabutops' scythes were shrouded in a dark aura, and the two creatures rushed towards one another, each eager to be the first to land a hit on the opponent.

"Kabutops use aqua jet!" called out Illyana.

Water surrounded the fossil pokemon's body as it surged forward at an incredible speed.
As it sped past Cain's Arbok, it tried in vain, to take a swipe.
But it missed entirely and kept speeding onwards.

Directly into the wall of the arena.

Cain saw his chance. "Arbok, use dark pulse!"

A wave of black energy smashed into the dazed Kabutops, knocking it off it's feet and into the dust.

"Arbok, dark pulse again!"

Kabutops was hurled from the ground and into the air.

Illyana watched, waiting for the perfect moment, just like with the previous strategy, this plan relied on both luck and perfect timing.
She saw her chance.

"Arbok use dig!"

The serpent dove straight into the ground. Just as Illyana was about to make her move.
Kabutops landed on the ground, confused.

"Kabutops!" Called the panicking Illyana. "Use aqua jet, so you fly into the air!"

Water blasted the pokemon high into the sky.

When Arbok failed to appear Illyana called for Kabutops to come back down.

As soon as it's feet touched the ground globs of brown sluge erupted forth from under the ground.
They blasted into the air, then plummted back to earth, coating the ground in a deep layer of sludge.

"Arbok, use Dig!" commanded Cain.

"Kabutops, left!"Illyana, practically screamed. Kabutops dove to the left, as Arbok burst forth from the ground.
"Okay, now use Aqua jet!" she nervously started twiddling her thumbs.

Kabutops jetted, right at Arbok, this time scoring a direct hit. On Arbok's dark pulse.
Both pokemon flew backwards, sliding through the thick sludge.

"Get up!!!" Screamed both trainers. Illyana was gnawing at her fist, and Cain was on the verge of ripping his hair out.

Slowly, the two managed to drag themselves out of the goop.
They staggered towards eachother, exhausted.

When they finally met eachother, neither of them could muster the strength for even a simple scratch attack.

They stood there. Simply staring at eachother.

In the background, the two trainers were screaming, begging, and crying for their, pokemon to do something, anything.

Kabutops lifted a scythe, and gently pushed the serpent over.

"We have a winner!" called out the referee. Cheers erupted from the crowd.

Cain, dropped to his knees, unable to say a word.