Nowhere to Hide

9: Endurance

A/N: I guess this is my late Christmas present to you.

If you started reading the story a few months ago, I did some major rewrites and changes between then. Now, you don't have to reread the book or anything, but if you started reading this a few months ago there might be some stuff I added that you didn't see.

Anyway, back to the story...

Where was it? 

As the dust cloud settled, Pikachu, Froslass, and Gardevoir were on the battlefield but Iris's Haxorus was nowhere to be found. I suspected it might've used Dig, but that would be hard given the...state... of the battlefield.

"Pikachu, stay on guard!" I shouted, unsure of what to make of the situation. 

After Paul stopped coughing, he tapped my shoulder.

"What?" I asked. He just pointed to the Champions' side of the battlefield, where Iris was guiltily holding up a Pokeball.

She cleared her throat and turned to face the battle arbiter. "I, um... returned Haxorus."

The audience erupted in murmur.

"WHAT?!" The arbiter yelled. "I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!"

"I would like to withdraw Haxorus from the battle," Iris repeated. "He definitely couldn't take-"

"NO NO NO, YOU WILL BATTLE TILL YOU PHYS-" 

"Enough." a commanding voice said from behind the battle arbiter. The audience immediately quieted and the arbiter froze. The man took the microphone from the battle arbiter and seemed to turn towards the Champion side of the battlefield. "This matchup is too marvelous to be ruined by bad judgment," he said, then turning to address the audience. 

"My name is Professor Augustine Sycamore, and I will now be refereeing this battle."

A wave of applause came from the audience. Either Professor Sycamore was popular, or the last guy was unpopular. Maybe both. Either way, I was glad to see the Professor after all this time, but his being here scared me a bit. Sycamore is a loudmouth, and well...if he found me out during the battle...

"This battle will continue with Paul and Froslass and er... Tom and Pikachu versus Gardevoir and Our Champion Diantha. The battle will marvelously resume!"

"That's twice on the marvelous counter. Agility, Pikachu!" I said as the mouse ramped up his speed another time. 

"The second was an adverb." Paul (unhelpfully) added. "Froslass, use Icy Wind." He said, immediately catching on to my strategy. Froslass obliged and fired a forceful flurry of freezing fell at the opposing Gardevoir. 

"That was a direct hit! It seems like the challengers are trying to slow Gardevoir, but the Pokemon seems unaffected by the attack!"

"Her special defense is raised." Paul noted. I thought nothing of it. "Pikachu, use Electro Ball!"

In seconds, Pikachu, now as quick as the thunderbolts he fires, quickly whipped up a gargantuan-sized Electro Ball. Since the size of the Electro Ball varies on how fast you are compared to the target, I thought a direct hit would end the battle.

The Electro Ball rushed towards Gardevoir, who waited till the last second. Diantha nodded and Gardevoir used one of the most powerful Psychic attacks I've ever seen.

"Wow, this is incredible. Is Gardevoir redirecting this Electro Ball?"

Pikachu dodged effortlessly, but Gardevoir wasn't targeting Pikachu. "Protect." Paul called. Though Froslass caught the massive redirected Electro Ball in time, her Protect was cracking. "Helping Hand," I called quickly, reinforcing Froslass. The Protect held, but barely.