Chapter 49: The Tiebreaker

Mike entered the Pokemon center, and asked Nurse Joy to heal up his Pokemon. Mike then sat in a lounge chair inside the Pokemon Center and decided to think about the Pokemon he would use. He already knew that Jessica had used Nidorino, Beedrill, Toxicroak and Toxtricity. Then a spark came into Mike's head. Jessica was a smart gym leader, and obviously would not use a Pokemon she already used because Mike would have a strategy to counter it, so Jessica would use a Pokemon she did not use in the gym battle previously.

Now, Mike was deciding on what pokemon he was use for this intense battle. He eliminated Lampent, because he believed it was not strong enough to battle in an important battle like this. He also eliminated his ace, Decidueye since it was weak to poison typing. It was between Zoroark and Lucario. Mike chose Lucario because it had steel typing, so it was immune to poison attacks, so Jessica would have to work her way around. Mike took out Lucario out of its Pokeball and took it to the nearby training fields, so it can get more stronger for the battle.

Carson and Georgia looked determined in Lucario and believed he can win the tiebreaker. The evening came, and the three of them walked to the gym. Jessica met them at the front of the gym and said the tiebreaker will not be happening at the gym, but it would be happening at the Renimba Training Fields. When the four of them walked to the fields, they approached a group of around 25 people clapping for them and they were surrounding the battlefield. They walked to each end of the battlefield and the battle has started.

Jessica exclaimed that she knew that Mike would figure out she wasn't going to use a pokemon she had already used before. Mike sent out his trusty Lucario, and Jessica claimed that she knew that he was going to send in Lucario, so she sent out Salazzle. Jessica said that since Lucario was immune to poison, she would sent out a fire and poison type so it would be super effective against Lucas. Jessica had recently caught a Salandit, and trained it up and it eventually evolved into a Salazzle. She had not used Salazzle in an offical Pokemon league match, so it was her first time using it.

The battle had started. Lucario started off with Power-up Punch, which hit Salazzle lightly, but surprising it had used Poison Gas. Lucario had been poisoned, Mike was confused as Lucario couldn't be affected by poison moves because of its steel typing. Jessica claimed that her Salazzle had the ability Corrosion, which allowed it to poison Steel and Poison types. That meant Lucario only had a little bit of time to defeat Salazzle. Lucario came back with super effective Bone rush, which did a lot of damage to Salazzle. Salazzle retaliated with Incinerate, which brought down Lucario. Lucario walked backed up and give a big roar with pride. Its eyes glowed blue, Mike had never seen anything like that. Lucario then took poison damage, but ran at full speed at Salazzle and used Brick Break.

Salazzle then used Shadow Claw, and Lucario was still up and good. Mike then ordered Lucario to finish off Salazzle with a Power-up Punch. Lucario powered up this punch like nothing before, its fist had turned bright blue, Lucario's veins had popped and punched the Salazzle at full force. Salazzle was knocked out. The force of the impact had made rock shards fly everywhere, Lucario's power up punch was so strong, it had made a 2 feet crater on the ground. Jessica then congratulated Mike for the win and handed him the long waited Venom badge. He now had 5 out of 8 badges collected. A news reporter for the Hammerton Times was watching the battle and took a picture of Lucario and Mike holding his brand new gym badge.

Mike walked back to the Pokemon Center with Carson and Georgia. Mike asked Carson if he was going to battle for the badge, but he said he did not want to fight in the Pokemon league anymore and that he wanted to become part of the Hammerton Pokemon Patrol Group, which was the police of the region. Georgia said she already had the badge from this gym and was surprised that Jessica did not recognize her. They took a quick rest at the Pokemon Center until Jessica met them there an hour later. She once more congratulated him on the battle, and as a second reward for being the hardest trainer she's ever fought, she decided to give him a Mega Keystone in the shape of a ring. Jessica said that if Mike got the Lucarionite, he could mega evolve his Lucario into Mega Lucario. Jessica said Mike and Lucario's bond was impeccable and deserves to Mega Evolve to make that bond even stronger.

They exited the Pokemon center to a hotel that Jessica booked for them, until they heard a loud bang coming from an island off the shore. Jessica said the island was called Emblem Island and had been abandoned for years with no one going there. Mike and the gang decided they wanted to check out what had happened there, and Jessica decided to go with them for safe measures. When Jessica went to get the boat, Mike saw the legendary Pokemon, Articuno fly above them heading to the island. Small dust sprinkles of snow on them as Articuno passed by.

Mike told Jessica that Articuno was headed to the island, Jessica said Articuno would most likely go to Emblem Island because there was danger happening there. They all hopped on to a boat, turned on the engine and headed to Emblem Island. Meanwhile at Team Boom's base, Mike's mom, Sophie was given a newspaper to read in her cell and on the front page was her son with Lucario holding up his fifth badge. She was proud of her son and knew that he would come to save her.