Chapter 5

Both trainers were down to their last pokemon. Black Jack was using Tyranitar and Ash was using Pikachu.

“Black Jack,” Ash called.
“Ketchum?” Black Jack asked.
“It has been a real honour battling you.”
“Likewise. And I’m sure our pokemon feel the same way. But now, we must finsh this match to see who gets to battle Mane!”

At the audience balcony, tensions were so high that you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.
“Both of them are down to their last pokemon,” Max said.
“There will be some heavy fighting,” Brock said.
“Pikachu shouldn’t be counted out here,” Cecilia said. “Despite Tyranitar’s size and power advantage, Pikachu’s electric attacks are effective against him and his speed is much higher.”
“I’m getting so nervous, just watching this,” Mrs Ketchum said, knowing what was on the line in this battle.
“I feel it too,” Misty replied, also knowing what was the line.

“Tyranitar!” Black Jack yelled. “Dynamic Punch!”
“Pikachu! Ash cried. “Dodge it!”

Tyranitar clenched paw glowed energetically as he aimed it to slam Pikachu. But missed as Pikachu leapt into the air to dodge it, making him punch ground instead, creating a deep hole.

Pikachu safely landed on Tyranitar’s head. “We got them now, Pikachu!” Ash cried. “Thunderbolt it!”

Pikachu gave a massive cry as his electricity spread onto Tyranitar’s body! “Tyranitar!” Black Jack yelled. “Shake it off!”

Tyranitar ran round the field like a madman as he tried desperately tried to shake Pikachu off and his electric powers. After a long run, Tyranitar began to slow down.

Tyranitar fell to his knees and then on his front. Pikachu was still wearing out Tyranitar with his electric attack. “That’s enough, Pikachu!” Ash cried. “You can come off now!”
“Pika!” Pikachu cried as he leapt off Tyranitar’s back.

Black Jack’s face became emotionless, even after seeing his Tyranitar lying unconscious on the floor.

The ref raised his flag. “Tyranitar is…”

Suddenly, Tyranitar quickly stood straight up as Black Jack smiled confidently.

“… Standing up!” the ref cried in shock. Pikachu and Ash were also shocked.

“You should’ve used Pikachu against Feraligatr!” Black Jack said in a confident tone. “Now get ready for a pounding of a lifetime!”

“Tyranitar!” he ordered. “Dynamic Punch again!”

Tyranitar’s clenched paw glowed again as he aimed his attack on Pikachu.

“Pikachu, dodge it!” Ash yelled.

Pikachu leapt into the air and was about land on Tyranitar again but the opposition saw it coming. “The same trick doesn’t work twice,” Black Jack said. “Tyranitar grab it!”

Tyranitar quickly stopped his Dynamic Punch attack to successfully grab Pikachu in mid-air.

“Now… Body Slam and Fissure attack!” Black Jack yelled.
“Fissure!?” Ash cried.

“Oh no!” Brock yelled from the audience balcony. “A one-hit attack like fissure and it’s all over!”
“That means Ash won’t be able to save the pokemon,” Misty cried.

“TAAAR!” Tyranitar cried, which meant “Big one!”

Tyranitar slammed Pikachu hard on the floor like he was nothing. The impact was so hard that it made a huge crack on the floor.

After the slam, Tyranitar looked down on Pikachu and smiled, thinking that he’s knocked out. But to everyone’s shock, Pikachu slowly started to get his feet. Unlike Tyranitar, he was battered and bruised. “I’m impressed, Pikachu,” Black Jack said. “You do have a lot of guts.”

“Pikachu…” Ash whispered with worry. Pikachu instinctively sensed Ash’s worry and turned to give a determined look.

“Pika Pikachu! Pika Pipi Pikachu!” Pikachu cried, which meant, “Ash, don’t give up because of me! We can’t let Mane get away like this!”

Ash couldn’t understand what Pikachu was saying but by the tone of Pikachu’s voice, he knows that Pikachu wouldn’t give up when something very important was on the line. He gathered his courage again. “Okay!” he cried. “Pikachu, quick attack!”

Pikachu ran at Tyranitar with the speed of a speeding bullet. “Tyranitar!” Black Jack yelled. “Mega Punch attack!”

Tyranitar aimed his punches at Pikachu but kept on missing as Pikachu kept on dodging and attacking at the same time.

“Pikachu!” Ash cried. “Jump on Tyranitar’s arm and paralyse it with your Thunder Wave!”

Pikachu leapt on Tyranitar’s left arm and shocked it until the arm was paralysed, while Tyranitar let out a huge roar in pain. After Pikachu’s Thunder Wave attack, Tyranitar quickly grabbed him and slammed him on the ground, injuring it even further.

Pikachu quickly stood up, trying to ignore the aching pain with every inch of his body, while Tyranitar was suffering the paralysing pain on his left arm.

“Tyranitar!” Black Jack yelled. “Dynamic Punch attack!”
“Pikachu!” Ash yelled. “Thunder attack!”

Tyranitar’s clenched paw glowed more energetically than his previous Dynamic Punch attacks as he charged forward at Pikachu, while Pikachu gathered his electric powers as he charged at him. A huge explosion came upon impact. The explosion was the same size as the explosion a battle with Feraligatr and Swellow!

After the impact, Tyranitar and Pikachu were knocked down but they slowly got back up to their feet, much to the surprise of the audience.

“I never thought Ash and his Pikachu would be so tough against Black Jack and his Tyranitar,” Gary thought. “He has certainly came a long way since the Johto League!”

Both Tyranitar and Pikachu were breathing heavily for air. Both pokemon were sweating, they have been battered, bloodied and bruised.

Suddenly, a strange dark and light aura surrounded Black Jack. The same aura also surrounded Tyranitar. But neither of them could feel it nor see it.

A strange aura also surrounded Ash and Pikachu, but it was mixture of the colours of the rainbow but they, too, couldn’t feel it or see it.

Everyone in the audience couldn’t believe their eyes as they stared in bewilderment and shock, seeing what was happening between the trainers and their pokemon.

“What’s going on?” Misty asked in shock.
“Could it be?” Cecilia said. “Are they…?”

“This has been an awesome match, Black Jack,” Ash said.
“Yeah,” Black Jack replied. “You fought well, Ketchum, and I don’t want this to end. But it must end now!”
“Good idea! Let’s end this with one final attack to see who gets to battle Mane!”

Both trainers yelled their attack at the same time.

“Tyranitar!” Hyper Beam attack!”
“Pikachu!” Thunder attack!”

Tyranitar quickly shot out a gigantic and powerful Hyper Beam out of his mouth while Pikachu screamed his battle cry as he shot out an enormous lightning out of his body.

“What the…?” Max cried in astonishment. “I’ve never seen a Hyper Beam that big!”
“I never a Thunder attack that big in my entire life!” Prof. Oak cried, also in astonishment.

Before anyone could say another word, both attacks collided and caused a massive explosion upon impact! The explosion was much bigger than the collision impact caused by Swellow and Feraligatr earlier as it knocked Black Jack and Ash off their feet. Everyone covered their eyes to protect themselves from the blinding light and dust of the explosion.

As the dust cleared, Black Jack and Ash slowly picked themselves up and saw their pokemon unconscious on the field. No one knew who was knocked out first. Even the replay cameras had no idea of who fainted first because the explosion covered up the cameras.

Everyone seemed confused about the whole situation, except the Black Jack and Ash as they ran to their unconscious pokemon.

“Pikachu!” Ash cried as he ran to him.
“Tyranitar!” Black Jack cried as he ran to him.

As they touched their pokemon, both pokemon slowly opened their eyes as they woke up from their unconsciousness. Both trainers became relieved after seeing that.

“Looks like we have healing hands, Ketchum,” Black Jack said. Ash smiled at that remark.

“Both pokemon are no longer able to battle!” the ref cried. “This means that this battle is a draw!”

A short old man walked out on the battlefield with a confused look on his face. He had long white beard and long white hair. He also wore shorts, trainers and cap. “This never happened before,” he said.

“President Goodshow!” Ash said. “It’s been a while.”
“A long while if you ask me, Ash,” Goodshow replied. “I like to have a chat, but I have to decide to pick the winner of this league since we never had a draw before.”
“Let Black Jack have it,” Ash said. “He has been away for so long from pokemon leagues. Now it’s his turn to take the glory.”

“I don’t think so, kid,” Black Jack replied. He took Ash a few distances away from Goodshow so that he wouldn’t be able to hear what he was about to say. “I had my reasons why I participated this tournament,” he said. “One of them was to find someone who was to find someone worthy challenge me. After what you have done in this battle, Ketchum, I knew that you were the one.”

“Another reason why you should take the title is because of what I have done in the past. I was a grunt of Team Rocket, I have been injuring pokemon and people and stealing and selling stolen goods. Even though I knew that everything I did was wrong, I did those to protect my pokemon. After the pokemon have been toughened up, we decided to give up our wrong ways and started our winning streak by battling trainers who had the potential to become pokemon masters, but they were all small fries to us. We saw ourselves as tough nuts to crack, but after helping Cassandra out with the kids, I had second doubts about it…”

Black Jack then remained silent for a few seconds, thinking about the questions that he asked himself a lot. “So until I can find myself, I want you to take the title. I won’t be needing it anyway, I don’t need a title to make a name for myself.”

Ash smiled. “I admire you, Black Jack,” he said. “And besides, I heard everything last night. For a trainer who looks like a bad guy, you’re not all bad.”

Black Jack smiled at remark. “Tell you what,” Ash said. “Why don’t we let Goodshow decide. After all, we could arguing about who keeps the title all day.”

“Good idea,” Black Jack replied as Ash offered his hand of friendship to him. Black Jack accepted it as they both shook hands. What sportsmanship!

They both walked back and told him about their discussion. “This is going to be tricky,” Goodshow said as he scratched his head. Then he had an idea. “I know! How about I make you both joint champions!”

The trainers, ref and announcer gasped at that announcement. “Who’s going to keep the cup?” Ash asked.
“I can’t take it,” Black Jack replied. “I have no where to put it anyway.”
“Well, it can’t remain here,” Goodshow said.
“I have an idea,” Ash said with a smile.

After he, Black Jack and Goodshow discussed the idea, they all nodded in agreement. “President Goodshow has made both Ash and Black Jack joint Hoenn League champions!” the announcer cried.

Back on the audience balcony, the crowd went wild, except Misty, Brock, May, Max, Lao Ping, Cassandra, Cecilia, John, Prof. Oak, Gary and Delia.

“So now that Ash and Black Jack have drawn,” May said. “Who is going to face Mane?”

A tear was dropped from John’s eyes as he began to sob again. “Even if Black Jack doesn’t get to face Mane,” he thought to himself. “I can’t help but thanking him for trying his best…”

The others couldn’t help but feel sad for John.

Elsewhere, Mane smiled as his henchman, who was sitting next to him asked, “Sir, now that Ketchum and Black Jack have drawn in this match, should we cancel your match?”
“No,” Mane replied. “I have a better idea… I’ll challenge them both!”

His henchman became shocked at that announcement. “Sir… But why??” he asked.
“I like a little bit of challenge,” Mane replied confidently. “Hmhmhm…”

The next day, an old janitor was sweeping around inside a corridor. The corridor he was sweeping was famously known as the Hoenn League’s Hall of Fame. The janitor stopped to look at the photo that contained Ash and Black Jack and all the pokemon that they used in battle. Behind the photo was the cup that was given to the joint champions. “I have never seen a match that was good as that,” he said with a smile. “And there won’t be another one like it. He he.”

Next episode: Black Jack and Ash gets invited by Mane into his base for one last battle before John’s family and the legendary pokemon can be released. What does Mane have up his sleeve?
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More coming! Reviews please!