A Postponed Battle

The tables had completely turned. Now, a pseudo-king rank Pokemon was fighting against an elemental rank Pokemon. Crobat won the fight easily. It was healed after it ranked up and Heracross was already very tired.

Now, everyone was wondering what would happen. Crobat had ranked up to pseudo-king rank, so technically it should fight in the pseudo-king rank section not in the elemental rank section. 

If that happened, did it mean that Tyranitar won by default? That didn't sound right cause it didn't have to fight anyone to get to the top. 

Agnes came to the stadium to clarify the confusion.

"First, let's congratulate Crobat and its trainer K for the rank up. It is not easy to rank up from elemental rank to pseudo-king rank. Being a pseudo-king rank Pokemon, it is sure to rank up to king rank someday and that is a fact and a blessing.", said Agnes. She seemed to have mastered the art of talking in the stadium.

"Now, to the issue at hand. Crobat had ranked up to pseudo-king rank in the battle. So, would it be transferred to the pseudo-king rank section or would it fight the battle in the finals of elemental rank?

The issue is not very hard to solve. Crobat would fight in the elemental rank battle against Tyranitar."

Some of the people in the crowd cheered for the idea as they wanted to see Crobat beat the shit out of Tyranitar. Most of these matches were close matches. They wanted a battle where a Pokemon would dominate the field.

Yet, there were some people, that were booing to the idea. It was not fair for a pseudo-king rank Pokemon to fight against an elemental rank Pokemon. 

Agnes tried to calm down the crowd. Kate was also not having it. How could her Pokemon fight against a pseudo-king rank Pokemon and win? Crobat had just ranked up and Tyranitar was a pseudo-legendary Pokemon. Kate knew that even though Crobat was a pseudo-king rank Pokemon, it would be a close battle and Tyranitar might also win but before Kate was sure that Tyranitar would win.

"Now, now. Please let me complete my statement.", said Agnes.

Since she was known as the Hakone princess and she was cute as a button, everyone agreed. 

"We have reasons to make that decision. First of all, the battle lineup of Pokemons had already been decided before the competition. So, it would not be a just decision to change it if a Pokemon ranks up to a higher rank. 

We make a fighting sequence based on ranks. But have you thought about other things? Ranks are not the sole thing to determine the power of a Pokemon. 

Just see the example of Togetic and Riolu in the common rank section. Togetic had evolved once and Riolu had not even started its training from the trainer. But I didn't see anyone here complaining about it.

Tyranitar is also a pseudo-legendary Pokemon, so it is obviously more powerful than other normal Pokemons. Yet, I didn't see you guys complain about it.

That Crobat had worked very hard and it was finally able to reach pseudo-king rank what do you want to do? You want to reward it by putting it on pseudo-king rank so that it would lose.

Is that what you want?"

The people who were booing were now silent. They had not thought about it on such a deep level. Now, almost all of them agreed to the battle.

"Now, we are also not heartless. The battle of the finals will happen. Tyranitar will fight against Crobat but not today. It would happen on the last day. This is to give Tyranitar to train and to rank up to pseudo-king rank. If it could not, then it would only have itself to blame.", said Agnes.

Kate was even more angry after hearing it. How could a Pokemon rank up to a pseudo-king rank within a few days? Waiting for a few days would let Crobat to adjust to its new power and it would be even more deadly. They were clearly playing favoritism. Kate thought to have a word with Axel after today's competition.

The crowd agreed and today's competition was over. The next day would be of pseudo-king rank Pokemon.

"Now, before the end of today's competition, let me tell you that there are a lot of pseudo-king rank Pokemons in tomorrow's competition. There are a total of 31 pseudo-king rank Pokemons so it would take 2 days to complete the pseudo-king rank section. 

I hope everyone is excited about it. I know I am."

###

"Axel, why did you do this? Now my Tyranitar might lose the competition.", asked Kate fiercely.

"Agnes told all the reasons on the stage. You have heard of it."

"Yes, but those are just bullshit."

"Kate, I have already thought of such a thing before the competition and I went with it. Furthermore, this is not a competition. You are not going to lose anything. This is just training for your Pokemons. I made this competition so that me and my friends could properly train their Pokemons and know the reality of the difference between them."

Kate had not thought of it from that angle. Axel was right. This was not a competition, though it was called 'Blaze Pokemon competition'. Kate could see the powers of other trainers and also note down the mistakes of her Pokemons. 

She could then rectify that mistake. This was a golden opportunity for Kate and her Pokemons. She was not going to miss it.

###

"Son, we earned 3 million Poke dollars today. The money just doubled. Hahaha", laughed his mother.

His mother had now become very greedy with money. Before, they were just a middle-class family and they didn't have so much money. So, Cerlin didn't care about it thinking that her children were the real asset.

But after the money started coming in from the restaurant, she became very greedy.

"I think we can make around 15 million Poke dollars by my estimate.", said his mother.

"I also think that too. The Momo be popular as expected.", replied Axel.

As they were talking, Agnes came and asked him a serious question.

"Brother, can I have another Pokemon?", asked Agnes.

"Why do you need another Pokemon? You already have Dragonite to take care of."

"But you have so many Pokemons and this would give me a head start during my journey."

"But you cannot take care of so many Pokemons. How are you going to support so many Pokemons when you start your journey?"

"Aren't you giving me any money when the journey starts?", asked Agnes in a shocked voice.

"No, I will only give you initial funds and then you would have to carry yourself. I can not do it for the rest of my life.", replied Axel.

"But… But.. Why?"

"Cause you have to train hard. You can train your Pokemon with my money cause you are not an adult but after you become an adult, you will have to take care of it by yourself."

Axel was not going to spoil her. Axel had worked his ass off to reach this stage and knew that hard work was necessary to become a qualified trainer. His sister needed to know how hard it was to take care of a rare rank dragon-type Pokemon on her own.

Dragonite consumed a huge amount of food as every dragon-type Pokemon did. The recipe for Dragonite also cost a lot and other training expenses were also very high. 

"But I want to have another Pokemons!!!"

"Ok, If you want to have another Pokemon, then you need to fulfill some conditions of mine."

"Oh, what is it?", asked Agnes with excitement. Can she really have other Pokemons?

"You need to have a stable source of income by the time you are 10 years old. The income should be high as you will have to support multiple Pokemons.

You also need to train your body now and train in martial arts.", said Axel in a serious voice.

"But that would take some time. Can't I have a Pokemon right now?", asked Agnes.

Young kids were very impatient, so Axel had to give her some leeway.

"Ok, you can have one.", said Axel.

"YEAHHHH!!!", shouted Agnes in excitement.

 "But if you fail to fulfill all these conditions till you turn 10, then then you cannot take that Pokemon on your journey, and that Pokemon would be a family Pokemon."

"That is not fair!!"

"And you asking your rewards before you completed my conditions is fair? This is how the world works and now you need to understand it too. 

This is the deal. You can take it or leave it.", said Axel.

Agnes would not always be protected by Axel and the family. She had to start taking care of her own decisions.

"Ok, I will take the deal.", said Agnes.

"Good, we will get you a new Pokemon after the competition is over. You can start to choose which one you like."

"Can I choose from other regions too?"

"Yes. Except for legendaries and mystical Pokemons, you can choose anyone.", said Axel.

Agnes became immediately happy when she heard it and ran to her room to choose her Pokemons. She wanted to surf the internet. She had a couple of Pokemon in her mind and she just had to narrow it down to one.

###

Next day,

Pseudo-king rank Pokemons started to battle today. The crowd had increased a lot today as it was the battle among pseudo-king rank Pokemons.

Mostly, the Pokemons of Axel, K, and Lance dominated the competition. Axel's Pokemons were very well-trained. Most of Lance's Pokemons were dragon-type Pokemons and most of them were very hard to defeat. Lance had trained his Pokemon very wisely and Axel could see a lot of hard work in there. That Salamence was especially very powerful. It had very high defense and powerful attack moves. 

K's Pokemons were also very powerful. They had higher defense than other Pokemons. This must be due to the use of ever stone. Even though K was behind others and didn't even have a king-rank Pokemon, his Pokemons had a good foundation. His Pidgeot was the star and the fan favorite of the crowd. 

Even though it was a normal flying-type Pokemon that could be found almost everywhere in the Kanto region, it was very powerful. Its speed was very high for a pseudo-king rank Pokemon and its flying-type moves looked majestic.

There were other Pokemons that caught the eyes of Axel. Gengar of Kate and Rampardos of Ryker were also very promising Pokemons. K's Venusaur had also grown well and Lyra's Blastoise was a beast. Most of these Pokemons were the best Pokemons of some of the trainers, so they were bound to be good.

Noah's Scizor also did well but it was nowhere as powerful as others. This could be understood as it could not train for 9 years. However, Axel felt that if it was given some time, then it would be a powerful Pokemon in the future.

Finally was Hymer's Pokemons. Aggron and Sceptile. 

Axel had a hunch before but now he was sure. This Hymer must be some hidden genius of Toise family. Hymer's Pokemons outshined Lyra's Pokemons by a large margin. That Aggron was not as broken as Steven's Aggron but it was still very powerful. 

The strategy used by Hymer's Pokemons was also very unique and creative. Sceptile was very fast and it used its grass-type moves to create a number of openings and then delivered a decisive blow.

Finally, this competition saw the first pre-domain move and it was used by Sceptile. The crowd cheered as the pre-domain move was very flashy but it was also very powerful. It increased the speed of Sceptile by a good margin and there was a passive healing effect too.

As Axel was marveling at the powers of others' Pokemons, others were looking at Axel's Pokemons with a serious expressions. Specially, Venusaur.