Chapter 59: 9,10
"Okay!" Ash said. "My turn now!"
Brawly nodded. "That it is, my man. Oh – how big are we talking here?"
"Not too huge," Ash assured him. "I'm only using one Pokémon I used in the Johto league."
"Good," Brawly said. "That should mean my eight-badge team isn't too badly outmatched... I hope."
He paused. "It's not Lugia, is it?"
"No," Ash replied. "That would be just cruel."
He frowned, considering something. "I wonder if it'd be possible to battle Winona with some of the flying Legendaries... oh, sorry, just a thought."
"Better her than me, man," Brawly replied. "Okay, let's get on this!"
Ash took the first Pokéball and readied it, and Brawly did likewise.
"Who's first, Ash?" May asked.
Ash replied by throwing the Pokéball. "Go, Squirtle!"
"Pangoro!" Brawly replied.
The panda materialized, gave Squirtle a look, and discarded his bamboo twig. "I see it's time for a fight!"
"That's right!" Squirtle agreed, striking a pose. "This is the battle of great champions! Unmatched across the universe!"
Reaching into his shell, he drew out a pair of sunglasses and placed them carefully on his face. Then went right back to the pose. "With new bonds formed from friendship among brothers, even setbacks are turned into ways to move further forward-"
Pangoro punched him.
"It's a fight, not a posing contest," he said, shaking his head, as Squirtle flipped away and landed with a spray of sand. "Pay attention!"
"Oh, I will," Squirtle assured him. He raised his glasses, flipping them around to wield them like a sword. "Just who the hell do you think I am?"
A flash of light engulfed the glasses.
"...wait, what just happened?" Brawly asked, pointing to the shades which seemed to have gained a certain solidity. "Tell me you guys saw that."
"It's Squirtle," Brock sighed. "I gave up sometime in Johto."
"Right..." Brawly shrugged. "Okay, Close Combat!"
"You got it!" Pangoro agreed, lunging forwards with claws ready.
Squirtle replied by sliding a little to the side, using his glasses to knock the bear-paw aside, then blasted his opponent with a stream of water and dodged a second paw swipe. "You're too slow, you big palooka!"
"That's panda, idiot!" Pangoro shot back. His claws glowed, and he slammed a Dragon Claw into Squirtle's shell.
"Right!" Squirtle announced, withdrawing his arms and legs into his shell. "Hydro Pump!"
Pangoro held up his arm against the spray, watching him go for a moment, then crouched. "Sky Uppercut!"
Squirtle spun faster, waves of water blasting the approaching Pangoro, then popped his limbs out again and launched a blast of near-freezing liquid. "Rime Crasher!"
Blocking with a slap, Pangoro shook the ice off his arms, then blurred out of view.
"Wha-?" Squirtle blinked.
A hand grabbed his leg.
"Vital Throw!" Pangoro announced, and threw him back towards the ground.
Squirtle's response to that was to hold an arm forwards, and bubbling water curled around it. "The ground is no barrier to a drill! Aqua Drill Jet!"
True to his word, he vanished underground without slowing.
Pangoro landed, frowning, and then spun as Squirtle burst back out of the beach in a fountain of spray.
They traded a series of high-speed blows – Pangoro using a quick Close Combat combination, Squirtle using his shades to good effect – then bounced apart again, skidding to a stop in different areas of the beach.
"Pretty good," Squirtle admitted. "You're a canny fighter! This will be a great battle!"
"It'll be a short one," Pangoro replied, and blurred out again.
"Behind!" Ash called.
Pangoro slammed a purple-glowing fist into Squirtle's back. "Venom White Snake Reliable Fist!"
"...pardon?" Ash blinked, as Squirtle was knocked flying.
"I think it's just Poison Jab," Brock said, uncertainly.
"It's completely different! It's a backstab!" Pangoro told him.
Squirtle pulled himself out of a crater. "What the hell did you think that was going to do?"
"...poison you?" Pangoro asked.
"Dig that wax out of those big ears of yours and listen!" Squirtle shouted. "I'm a turtle! I've got a shell!"
"...that does pose a problem," the panda admitted. "Right!"
He dashed in, paws glowing. "Vacuum Wave!"
Squirtle jumped, blocking the one headed for him with a shade-swipe, and retaliated with a blast of boiling water.
"Ow!" Pangoro retorted, swiping at his opponent.
"You know..." May frowned. "For some reason, I was expecting that Scald to do something..."
Max shrugged.
"Okay, you overgrown Zigzagoon!" Squirtle announced, raising his hand. "It's time for you to just accept it! I'm the badass Squirtle who you've heard about, and that means-"
"Hey!" Pangoro interrupted. "Listen!"
Squirtle listened.
"Gurren Lagann sucks!"
With that, Pangoro vanished back into his Pokéball.
A Conkeldurr replaced him, and blinked at the slack-jawed Water-type.
"What's going on?" he asked.
Squirtle ignored him. "Ash! Return me!"
Ash frowned. "Pardon?"
"Return me! That panda is going down, and I want to be the one to do it!"
His trainer complied, returning Squirtle, and switched to Swellow instead. "Okay, if you insist..."
"Right, here we go!" Swellow chirped, hovering for a moment before landing and folding her wings – though remaining crouched, ready for a quick takeoff. "Should be fun!"
Conkeldurr pointed. "I am going to hit a birdie."
She cocked her head on one side. "What's that you say?"
Then she had to rapidly get clear as Conkeldurr tried to use her as a golf ball.
Flipping into the air, she turned in a tight circle and gained height rapidly. "That's not very polite!"
A giant stone pillar swished through the air, once more coming uncomfortably near her. "I'll try for an eagle instead."
"I'm no Braviary..." Swellow muttered. Her split-tail moved, one side going up and the other side going down, steering her as she banked around for an attack.
Conkeldurr swept his other pillar across in a blocking move, and Swellow's beak came up to lift her trajectory just enough that she slipped neatly over the stone.
A white light erupted around her for a moment as she slammed home an Aerial Ace. "Yah!"
Not particularly fazed, Conkeldurr swiped at her with one hand. She dodged back, wings whirring, and dove forwards to slip under his arm and out the other side.
"She's nimble," Brawly noted approvingly. "Just right for a Flying-type!"
"What do you think of Pelipper, then?" Brock asked, with a curious frown.
Brawly shrugged. "It's a very punchable bird."
While they'd been talking, Swellow had come around for another attack. She whistled past Conkeldurr's ear, cuffing him on the side of the head with her wings as she went, and pulled up into a power climb to shed momentum.
A roll, a flip, and she was heading back along the path she'd taken at a higher speed still.
This time, though, Conkeldurr had enough time to line up a trap. He adjusted his grip on the pillars, and then swept them together to offer her no way out.
"Faster!" Ash shouted.
Realizing the danger, Swellow summoned up reserves of speed from somewhere and dove forwards. The two stone pillars loomed up before her – then above and below – then behind, as they collided with an almighty WHAM.
Swellow yelped as a stinging pain hit her. "What was that?"
"It caught your right tail feathers!" Ash called. "I think one of them got pulled out!"
"That explains my balance being all off," Swellow agreed, trimming her feathers to correct for the missing rudder feather. "Okay, that's going to make it a bit harder..."
"I can see," Ash agreed. "Okay, try to make sure you don't lean left too much."
"Got it."
She circled around, maintaining a safer distance, and then bored back in. Her path drifted slightly left despite her best efforts, and Conkeldurr swept a rocky pillar towards her – which she evaded with a wing-flip that turned her base course into a corkscrew, throwing him off.
Staying still just long enough to peck at his knee, she shot past another counterblow and headed skywards.
"Okay, let's give it a go!" Ash told her.
"Right!"
Swellow swerved to the right, and accelerated. A white shock built around her wings for a moment, and then she curved sharply in towards Conkeldurr – then away, and the shock didn't turn with her.
Her Air Slash whipped out, knocking a few chips from Conkeldurr's columns, and Brawly frowned.
"That's going to make things harder... Conkeldurr! Rock Throw!"
"That doesn't mean what I think it-" Swellow asked.
She got her answer. It was those rocks he was carrying.
Two enormous stone pillars spun up at her, and she dodged the first with a sideslip in the air before braking and stopping just ahead of the second one.
"Ha!" she called. "Missed me, missed-"
"Dive!" Ash called.
Swellow did, and the rocky cylinder merely passed close rather than actually knocking her out of the sky.
"They're boomerangs!" Max realized, as Conkeldurr caught his weapon and the second one crashed into the sand next to him. "How does that work?"
Brawly shrugged. "It just does."
Not one to waste time, Swellow swooped around and fired another Air Slash. This one was less potent as she'd fired it from further away, and Ash frowned.
"This could take a while..."
"Yeah," Swellow agreed, willing to take the time to grind Conkeldurr down but not particularly relishing it. "Do you have any ideas?"
"I might," Ash agreed, and grabbed Dexter. "Hey, quick question?"
Go ahead.
Swellow missed the next bit of the discussion, as Conkeldurr smashed one pillar against the other and produced a spray of high-speed gravel.
She dodged and weaved, tail flipping back and forth frantically as she compensated for the injury and steered through the dozens of potential hits, and then had to climb just as fast to avoid being smacked by the whole mostly-intact pillar.
"Okay, Swellow!" Ash called. "We've got a plan – go high!"
Swellow rose, spiralling up until she was a good hundred metres in the air. "What now?"
"Use the dive speed and try to go straight past with an Air Slash! The speed should help!"
"My kind of plan!" Swellow flipped a wingtip and dove, air streaming out from her wings and thickening rapidly into the white shock of an Air Slash.
Conkeldurr swept both columns up, one into her path and one to her left.
So she went right.
Ash had hinted at the plan without ever actually saying it – having seen that she was inclining right due to the drag from her mussed right tail, he'd promptly told her to act as though it was making her incline left.
The practical upshot of all that was that she rolled right faster than Conkeldurr thought she'd be capable of, and her Air Slash battered him harder than ever.
"Great work!" Ash called as she pulled up again, then noticed her sudden frown.
Pulling a sharp Immelman, she shot back down again, opened her mouth – then stopped.
And shouted.
The blast of sound formed a visible shock wave in the air, hammering into Conkeldurr and making him stagger backwards with his arms windmilling.
"Whoa!" Max yelled, hands on his ears. "What was that!?"
"I think it was Boomburst!" Brock said, also a bit loud. "I didn't know Swellow could learn that!"
"It's kinda new to me too," Swellow admitted, panting. "I remembered that thing with the pillars, and it suddenly-"
She broke off and dodged a thrown pillar.
"Follow it!" Ash called. Swellow nodded, then did a high-speed loop to avoid the return arc and paced it as it came back in.
The Flying-type put on a burst of speed and overtook the stone column just before it arrived, hitting Conkeldurr's catching arm with an Air Slash that made him flinch.
There was a loud THUD as cranium met conglomerate.
"Oh, look, more birdies..." Conkeldurr said, pointing around him, and then crashed to the floor.
"Is that how battles usually go?" Goomy asked, tilting his... face... on one side. "That seemed to be awfully fast."
Mawile shrugged. "I guess they usually go a lot of different ways! I had my first battle recently, it was fun!"
Goomy considered that. "I see," he said, eventually.
Their ride shifted slightly. "Mawile, can you not move too quickly? I think I came close to falling over..."
"Okay!" Mawile agreed, making sure to hold on more tightly. "I wonder who's next?"
"Should you be worried you keep having your Pokémon knock themselves out?" Brock asked.
Brawly shrugged. "It's a compliment, man – the only thing strong enough to knock out my Pokémon are my Pokémon!" A chuckle. "Well, sorta."
"Right..."
"You okay to stay out there, Swellow?" Ash asked.
"Sure thing!" Swellow chirped. "I want to test this new move, too, that was pretty cool!"
That got a nod.
"Okay, then!" Brawly said, grabbing a Pokéball. "Go!"
Pangoro materialized, and cracked his knuckles. "I see that fool Conkeldurr had trouble with you."
"Yeah, that's right!" Swellow agreed, flapping back into the air. "Okay, how did I do this..."
She flipped around, climbing rapidly, and then turned over into a dive – beak open.
The pressure built up, but she lost her control and coughed – resulting in a pulse of sound, but nothing like a Boomburst should be.
As the faint white pressure wave reached Pangoro – he vanished, as the Double Team image burst.
Swellow pulled up to hover. "Wait, where-"
"Look-!" Ash began.
A Faint Attack hit her from behind, producing a cry of pain, and she dove to try and get clear of the attack. A second came in, this one an Ice Punch, and Swellow's dodge took her so close to the ground that she kicked up a wash of sand with her slipstream.
"Swellow, you're too tired!" Ash called. "Come back-"
As he raised the Pokéball, Pangoro blurred forward and hit Swellow with a nasty scything kick. She spun out of control, stalling, and hit a wave just as she recovered her angle of attack.
"I think that's Swellow out of the battle," Brock said as Ash recalled her. "Not bad."
"Pangoro's kind of a dirty fighter sometimes," Brawly agreed. "Anything goes with him."
Ash switched out Squirtle. "Okay, Squirtle, your turn!"
Squirtle nodded silently, and pointed.
"...yes?" Pangoro asked. "What is it?"
"Surf," Squirtle explained.
Pangoro frowned.
His trainer, who wasn't looking directly away from the sea, gasped. "Whoa, dude... isn't that kind of an overreaction?"
Pangoro glanced behind him, then gaped. His hands flashed, and he fired an X-shaped pattern of air pressure blades at the massive oncoming wave.
Plunging through the hole, he spun to face Squirtle – and was met by Squirtle wielding his glasses like a sword in a series of close-in blows.
"Your disparaging words and petty glances may make you feel all big and important!" Squirtle called, as water fountained up around them from the collapsing wave and the push launched them both into the sky. "And you may try to sap the will of fighting mon with your damp, weak spirit! But that's not how I roll!"
"It's just a TV show," Pangoro began, knocking aside a succession of attacks and snapping off a few counterpunches in between Squirtle's strikes. "I don't see why you're so-"
He had to duck back as a Rime attack splashed out at him, and then pushed violently to jump clear and get some distance.
Squirtle smirked.
A drop of water flashed green-blue, and then the glow expanded to cover the entire cascade of water that had been carried skywards by Squirtle's moves.
"Gurren Lagann is a TV show! That's true!" Squirtle called, as the water became a swirling vortex. "But it's more than that! It's a philosophy, a way of life, a reality!"
Pangoro blinked as the watery drill formed. "What...?"
"Taste this, panda-brain! Horn! Drill! Breaker!"
There was an explosion in the sky high over the beach.
"Your Squirtle's something else, man," Brawly said, squinting skywards.
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "He sure is."
The tiny turtle Pokémon landed with a soft thump on the sand, and posed. "That's how team-"
Pangoro landed on top of him.
"Ow," Pangoro said, shaking his head ruefully. "I-"
Several tonnes of water landed on top of him.
"...I think they might both be knocked out," Max said hesitantly.
"Yeah, looks like," Brawly agreed, recalling Pangoro. "Okay, dude, what's your final Pokémon? Something not from the Silver Conference, right?"
"That's right!" Ash confirmed.
"It's not one of those?" he added, indicating Tyranitar and the Pokémon on his shoulders.
"No, Mawile and Tyranitar both got used, and I'm still giving Goomy his early training," Ash replied. "Okay, Latios!"
Brawly took a surprised step back. "Latios?"
"La-ti-os!" With a flicker of blue, Latios decloaked.
"...how about that," Brawly said. "At least it's not Lugia..."
He frowned, thinking hard about his choices. "Well, I guess there's no point sending out Toxicroak... right, I know."
Brawly tapped a Pokéball. "Mienshao, let's do this!"
A Mienshao emerged, complete with boogieboard.
"No, dude, break in the surfing," Brawly explained. "It's a gym battle."
A nod, and the mustelid discarded his board before taking a ready stance.
"Right!" Ash called. "Latios, remember what we discussed – your biggest advantages aren't moves at all!"
"Got it!" Latios agreed, and shimmered back out of the visible spectrum.
Mienshao's stance changed slightly, becoming more open and less focused – ready to spring in any direction.
"I guess we've started," Brawly said, in one of the less formal match starts Ash had experienced. "Okay, start us off with an Aura Sphere!"
"Wait, your Mienshao knows how to use Aura?" Ash asked. "Uh-oh – look out, Latios, he can tell where you are!"
A blue sphere snapped off one of Mienshao's furry arms, curving in the air and following a barely-visible moving blur.
"Counter Shield!" Ash called, and Latios sent out a blast of green Dragonbreath. His psychic powers caught it, warping and shaping it from a cone of flame into a shimmering shield, and the blue Aura Sphere detonated on it instead of following through to hit Latios himself.
"Okay, that worked well!" Ash told him. "Let's see – right, stay at a good distance so you get time to block his Aura Sphere..."
Latios squeaked agreement, swerving out over the water and reapplying his cloak – making it harder to see him, if nothing else.
"And... right," Ash added. "Try an Extrasensory!"
Tilting over so one wing was nearly straight down and the other a little the far side of straight up, Latios conducted a hairpin turn and locked onto Mienshao.
The circle of naturally-white fathers on his forehead began to glow an eerie gold, and a beam of opalescent golden light fired out at Mienshao.
Just as the beam shot out, though, Mienshao exploded into motion.
He jinked to one side, letting the attack hit the sand of the beach and blow up a plume of yellow grains, and charged.
When he reached the surf, he kept moving – jumping across the water in great skipping leaps.
It wasn't the water-walking that Lucario and Ash could do. It was simply that Mienshao was moving so fast that he could jump from wave-crest to wave-crest before he had time to sink.
"Look out!" Ash called. "Climb!"
Tilting back, Latios gained height as fast as he could, aiming to get above any possible direct attack.
In reply, Mienshao jumped into the air.
The water dished away around his takeoff point, forced by the sheer impulse of his takeoff, and Latios found himself having to dodge a very nasty high kick over a hundred feet in the air.
Mienshao's follow-up to the High Jump Kick was to bring his whips across in an X-pattern, then bring them back out again to cross a second time.
Both Dual Chops hit Latios in the chest, the first harder than the second, and he cried out in pain before expanding out a Safeguard shield and knocking Mienshao away.
The agile Fighting-type flipped once, skipped off a wave, and returned to running across the water while positioning for his next move.
"He's got to have a limit how high he can jump!" Ash reasoned. "So stay high!"
Latios nodded.
As he did, Mienshao swerved towards a breaker and ran up the crest – using it as a ramp, and kicking off to get high again.
Rather than go for a direct attack, he fired out a pair of Aura Spheres, and followed them up with a dense shower of Swift stars.
"Safeguard!" Ash reminded Latios, who formed his shield out again and dodged frantically.
One of the Aura Spheres struck the shield, making it ripple alarmingly, and a few of the Swift stars broke through but did little actual damage.
"Man, you're on fire today," Brawly complimented. "Okay, U-turn and back to shore!"
"What's U-turn again?" Latios asked, and formed a Counter Shield out of dragonfire on the grounds it would probably help no matter what U-turn was.
"Bug type contact move!" Ash summarized quickly, and then Mienshao used U-turn.
He broke through the flaming shield, whipping his arms across to blow a hole, and slammed both feet into Latios' chest to use him as a bumper to change his direction.
Air whooshed out of Latios' lungs accompanied by a pained squeak, and he slid backwards in the air before recovering.
"And I thought my sister was fast and annoying..." he muttered, shaking his head and watching Mienshao land back on the shore.
"Okay, new plan!" Ash called. "Catch!"
He threw something into the air, and Latios dove to catch it.
"What's that, man?" Brawly asked, as the Dragon-type rose back into the sky.
"Kind of a speed booster," Ash replied, and his staff began to pulse.
Orange light shone overhead.
"Oh, ouch," the Gym Leader winced. "A Mega Legendary? I guess I'll just take it as a compliment..."
Ash shrugged. "Right! Mega Latios, ready?"
The purple-white Mega overhead did an easy roll, then pulled up to hover and nodded.
"Okay! Basically – he wants speed, we'll give him speed!"
"Right!"
Mega Latios pulled over into a dive.
"Everyone cover your ears!" Brock called urgently.
A moment later, Mega Latios hit the sound barrier.
It lost.
Water crashed out either side as Mega Latios blew past, forming a trough in the ocean that sliced through waves like nothing, and spraybows shimmered in the air overhead.
Mienshao wasn't nearly fast enough to keep up – but his ability to use Detect was giving him an offsetting advantage, and he was still managing to land the occasional glancing blow.
"Ash, I'm having trouble focusing at this speed," Mega Latios called, slowing enough that he could manoeuvre. "What should I do?"
"Try a Psywave!" Ash decided. "Make it really wide!"
"Won't that weaken it?" Mega Latios asked.
"Yeah, but it'll hit!" Ash countered.
Mega Latios nodded. His eyes lit up, and he pulsed out the widest psywave he could.
The pulse of psychic energy expanded rapidly, and Mienshao was left unable to get far enough away to avoid being hit.
Mega Latios was right, that did make the attack weaker... but given it was fuelled by a Mega Evolution, there was still quite a lot of force.
Mienshao was knocked backwards, hit a wave with a smack, and nearly sank before swimming back to the surface.
"Reversal!" he called, and sent a blast of energy right back at Mega Latios.
"Zen Headbutt!" Ash called.
Mega Latios charged. The psychic energy of the Zen Headbutt attack formed around him, blunting the Reversal, and then he smacked into Mienshao hard enough to send them both underwater.
For a moment, there was only the crash of the waves. Then Mega Latios emerged from the sea, saltwater streaming off his feathers and dripping from his wings, and with the bedraggled-looking Mienshao in his claws.
"Does this mean I win?" he asked.
"Well, guess you get the badge, dude," Brawly decided. "Interesting style that Latios has."
"We're kind of still working on it," Ash admitted. "Most of it involves stealth, and that kind of didn't work here..."
"It's showtime!" Professor Akibahara announced, and activated the latest attempt at an Upgrade.
The Porygon in question (Porygon-twelve) emitted a rising hum.
"How likely is this to work?" Akiyama asked, leaning back into his chair.
"Nearly certain!" the eccentric professor said. "I've calculated out all the variables!"
"That's what you said last time," Katou sighed, running a brush along the hot fur of her partner. "And what happened then?"
"...yes, yes, it took Porygon-nine a week to defragment itself, but this is different!"
"How so?" Katou pressed.
"It'll work this time!"
Configuration loaded. Beginning testing.
"See?" Akibahara said, pointing. "It's never got that far before!"
Then the lights went out.
In the darkness, a blue-pink Porygon materialized itself out of the same flat polygons as always. Power drain excessive, program terminated unexpectedly. Would you like to file a Bug-type report?
"You were saying, prof?" Akiyama asked.
"...maybe I should refactor the code a bit..."
"Okay, Power Gem!" Gary ordered.
Sableye snapped his fingers, producing a gemstone. It pulsed briefly, and he sent it flying out towards the target.
Fearow slipped sideways, evading the Power Gem attack and making it look easy, then flared his wings and launched a blast of wind towards Sableye.
Ducking briefly into the ground, Sableye avoided the improvised attack, and emerged again just in time to get a faceful of Drill Peck.
"Ow!" Sableye winced, as the beak spanged off his eye-gem. "Don't chip it!"
"Power Gem again!" Gary called.
Sableye jumped backwards, evading Fearow's second stab with his beak, and threw another gemstone. This one hit with a crack, and Fearow wobbled before spreading his wings and ascending higher into the air.
"Can't we get to the Mega Evolution thing already?" Sableye asked, rubbing his right eye-gem.
"We could try," Gary stressed. "I'm not sure how much of a bond is required to activate the Mega Evolution... hmm... Dee?"
Listening.
"Take a note – we should test Mega Evolution twice a day with the Sablenite, and also record how strong Sableye's Return is. They might just run off the same resonance..."
"And how do you suggest I do that?" Sableye asked, tossing a Power Gem from hand to hand. "Headbutt a rock?"
"Yes," Gary told him, after hearing the translation.
"...oh, okay then..."
"How's things going, you three?" Gary added, over his shoulder. "Done yet?"
"It's five-three to me!" Arcanine yapped.
"Only because of some most questionable tackles..."
With a pop, Umbreon's Reflect ball collapsed, and she staggered in a circle before slumping to the ground. "I feel ill..." she said faintly. "You're evil."
Gary shrugged. "Well, if you can keep Reflect up for that long and avoid being disoriented when it's used as a football..."
"Yes?" Umbreon pressed, tilting her head on one side to hear the rest of this.
"...you'll be better able to deflect attacks by staying in Reflect?" The trainer shrugged again. "Makes sense to me..."
Umbreon gave him a death glare, though her line of sight was a bit wobbly.
"Okay, new idea," he added. "You try to hit them through the Reflect ball with Dark Pulse, and try not to make the ball collapse completely when you do it."
"I'm glad I'm not trying to maintain a haircut," Furfrou observed. "This second session sounds much more difficult for us."
"...have you been reading Ash's training session notes?" Umbreon asked. "This sounds like the sort of thing he'd do..."
Fearow crashed to the ground, shook his head irritably, and clawed skywards again.
"Direct hit!" Sableye crowed. "Take that, beakbrain!"
A gimlet gaze focused on the Dark/Ghost type, who promptly tried to hide behind Gary's leg.
"Here you are, sir," Amber reported, handing a cylindrical case of burnished wood to Archie. "The idiots provided the perfect distraction."
"They did?" Archie asked, and chuckled. "Well, that was the plan... so, where are they?"
"They got caught." The Admin shook his head. "The Pokémon Centre turned out to have the latest Silver Conference champion in, his Pikachu beat the lot."
"Electric-types..." Archie shook his head. "Clearly allies of Groudon, the lot of them."
Breaching the seal, he slid a rolled-up scroll of paper out from its hiding place.
"It's never been opened," he observed.
"The fool didn't know what he had," Amber replied. "Just a curio, he thought – flotsam, nothing more."
The boss of Team Aqua chuckled again. "More's the better. But if Maxie had gotten his hands on this..."
A shake of the head, and he unrolled it.
"What's this..." he began, then smiled. "Ah. A map of major research sites of Pokeatlantis... very good indeed."
His finger stabbed at the paper. "Here. This is what we need."
Amber leaned over. "The... no, I'm no good at reading those characters."
"The Blue Orb," Archie translated for him. "It was built to allow Pokeatlantis to empower their greatest ally... and, of course, to interfere with the ability of their great rival to use Groudon for their own aims."
The burly man stood up, and clapped Amber on the shoulder. "You're promoted," he said without fanfare. "Commodore rank. And I've got a new task for you..."
"...so, it's mainly telling us that we need to make sure your attacks are faster," Ash explained. "A spherical pulse would be perfect, but I'm not sure how easy that would be."
Latios nodded, keeping pace with the motorboat carrying them towards Slateport. "Psychic?"
"That might work," he agreed. "I guess Butterfree can help teach you when he has the time."
The Eon Pokémon nodded. "What's the plan for changing me with my sister, by the way?" he asked.
"Well, if you feel like swapping we could do it pretty soon," Ash agreed. "You've still got some practice to do on aiming Steel Wing, and that's practice you don't really need help with – just a target."
Latios nodded thoughtfully. "Thanks for the assessment," he added. "I can see that gym leaders really put a lot of effort into making a strong team for their Type."
"That's right," Ash agreed. "The next one's going to be Mauville, which is Electric-type... I wonder..."
Reaching for a Pokéball, he sent out Goomy. "Hi!"
Goomy looked up at him. "Hi?"
"Everything okay?" Ash checked. "I know it's not been long since we met, and I was kind of occupied training the others..."
"It's okay," Goomy said quietly.
"No, I should have given you more attention," Ash insisted. "So – want to start training properly?"
Goomy looked a little nervous.
"It'll be fine, don't worry!" Ash crouched down, and held out his hand. "You don't have to – but I promise, I'll make you a stronger Pokémon if we work at it together."
Goomy considered that, then nodded.
"Great!" Ash grinned. "Let's see... what moves do you know?"
"Rain Dance."
Ash waited for a moment.
"...no, that's it," Goomy clarified.
"Okay," Ash said, not particularly daunted by the shortness of the list. "Well, you're a Goomy, and Dexter says you've got Hydration... I guess a good first step is just learning to use Rain Dance really quickly. Just being able to slip about in the puddles will help."
Goomy nodded, taking that in.
"After that... well, I guess a Water-type move would be good to make use of that rain," Ash went on. "How does that sound?"
Whatever Goomy thought of it would have to wait, as Max pointed over the port side of the boat. "What's that?"
"What's what?" the driver asked, leaning out of the wheelhouse. "Oh, that's Sea Mauville."
"Sea what?" Brock asked.
He exchanged a glance with the others – that wasn't there last time.
"Yep, Sea Mauville," the driver confirmed. "It's a place that did some kind of research – don't know what, and I guess it's probably a good thing they didn't-"
The engine of the boat gave a worrying cough sound.
"Is it supposed to sound like that?" May asked, worried.
"Nope," the driver said, and there was another sputter. The engine died for a moment, then picked up again before cutting out.
"What do we do now?" Max asked.
"Any of you guys have Pokémon that can tow us?" the driver asked. "I've got enough parts to build a spare engine, but it'll take a while – and it's a bit hard to work on the engine of this thing when the propellor's in the water."
"I've got a few," Ash volunteered. "Sorry about the bother, Latios – think you can give us a tow?"
"No problem," Latios agreed.
10
"Good work," the driver said, nodding as Latios released the rope. "The little sandbar here is just what we needed."
He rummaged in his pocket and sent out a Machoke, and the two of them heaved the boat onto its side.
"How long is it going to take?" Ash asked.
"Could be a couple of hours..." the driver hedged, unlatching his toolbox. "Go explore or something."
"...okay," Max said, blinking. "Fair enough."
"Seriously, look around!" the driver added as he got out a screwdriver. "This place is a nature reserve now – after it got damaged, enough Pokémon moved in they decided it would be best to not just scrap it. Maybe you could find a Pokémon or two in there."
"I guess that sounds like a good idea," Brock agreed. "Let's see if there's anything interesting to find here."
There were several nods.
"See anything?" Brock asked Ash. "You're the one who can see through walls."
"It's kind of hard here," Ash admitted. "The walls are kind of thick, and this is a big place."
Brock nodded. "Right. Crobat's not come back, either."
A moment later, on cue, the Flying-type came zooming around a corner. "Brock, I found someone!"
"You did?" Brock asked. "Who was he?"
"A couple of years younger than you, I think..." Crobat shrugged, an elegant thing involving all four wings. "Want me to show you?"
"Sure," Ash agreed.
"Should I go invisible?" Latios asked.
"Good idea," Ash agreed. "I'm sure it's fine, but it's probably best to stay out of sight."
There was a bluish shimmer, and Latios vanished.
"Okay, Crobat, lead the way!" Brock instructed.
"I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to see anyone else out here," the boy said, shaking Brock's hand. "I'm Tommy, by the way. What brings you here?"
"Brock," Brock replied. "And – well, we were taking a boat across to Slateport, but the engine died. We're basically having a look around while the owner fixes his boat."
"You are?" Tommy asked, and smiled. "That's nice. Hey, if you're not all that busy, could you help me with something?"
Ash and the others exchanged glances.
"Sure!" Ash agreed, seeing no particular complaint. "What is it?"
"Well, I've been looking for my old Marshtomp," Tommy explained. "I came along with a friend's Kadabra and scanned the ship we were on when I lost him, but there was no sign of him – but just yesterday I realized I'd forgotten to check this place."
"Right," Brock nodded. "So you think your Marshtomp might have come over here?"
"Since it was abandoned, yeah," Tommy agreed. "The ship – the Cactus – ran aground years ago, and no-one bothered to clear her up. I never got the chance to look until last week, but I really hope Marshtomp's still somewhere I can find him. Otherwise he's probably lost forever..."
May looked sombre. "He was your starter, I guess?"
Tommy nodded.
"Well, we'll help!" Ash decided. "Let's get looking!"
He frowned momentarily. "Right... okay, Lucario!"
The deck creaked slightly as Lucario emerged.
"Can you help us look for the Marshtomp?" he asked.
Lucario nodded. His eyes flared for a moment before he closed them, and he began to reach out with his Aura – seeking a signature similar to Brock's own Marshtomp.
"You know that's the same guy from last time, right?" Max asked.
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Brock and I are kind of used to this by now... you just have to try to remember what the other person knows, and as far as he's concerned we've never met."
"Doesn't that mean his Swampert is around here, though?" May added.
"I don't know, actually," Ash admitted. "Remember, Sea Mauville wasn't here last-"
There was a screech of rending metal, a crash, and a splash.
"Lucario!" Ash called. "Are you okay?"
"I'm a little startled..." Lucario said, from through the hole in the floor. "Stand back. It looks like the deck is more rusted than we expected. My weight was too much for it."
"What's down there?" Brock asked.
"Actually it seems to be some kind of control room," Lucario said. He looked around, then up through the hole. "Perhaps you should come down here? Can anyone make sure the fall doesn't hurt too much?"
Ash glanced next to him, and a high-pitched sigh was followed by a slight shift in the air.
"Latios can," he said.
Tommy blinked. "...who? Latios? Okay, who the heck are you?"
"Ash Ketchum!" Ash said.
"Oh, right..."
There was a blue shimmer as Latios decloaked, and held out his arms. "Who's first?" he asked, and Ash conveyed that.
Max decided he should go first, and Latios picked him up carefully.
Before he could carry the young boy through the hole, though, Ash pre-empted him by jumping down and absorbing the force of impact with bent knees.
"Show off!" Brock called.
"Found anything?" May asked, shutting another one of the books. "This is all technical stuff about how the dredge thing works."
"Yeah, I've got something," Max said. "Look at this!"
The friends crowded around.
"So," Brock said, reading through the page. "It was built to dredge the seafloor for minerals?"
"Not just minerals," Max said, pointing. "Look!"
"...Mega Stones?" Ash repeated. "They were trying to get Mega Stones?"
"Well, I guess there might be some there," Max admitted. "If they got washed into the sea, I mean, I guess they'd end up somewhere."
"So what happened to it?" May wondered aloud. "I mean... what could knock it about this much?"
"Is there a map anywhere?" Tommy asked. "Maybe Marshtomp's gone further underwater..."
He paced in a circle. "Sorry, but... I'm worried for him. If he's here."
Latios splashed up through the water visible via a hole in the floor. "I think I found him!"
"You did?" Ash asked, looking over. "Where was he?"
"Well, if it is him... he's a Swampert now. Hold on, I'll get him."
Spinning around, Latios plipped back into the water.
"Did he say he'd found Marshtomp?" Tommy said, breaking into a smile. "That is what he said, right?"
"That's about right," Ash agreed. "Only-"
"Oh, that's what happened," Max said, reading from another document. "Apparently Kyogre showed up kind of annoyed, they're not sure why, and knocked out one of the legs of the platform."
"Was anyone hurt?" Tommy asked.
"No, it says everyone was fine, but they decided to stop after that and leave," Max said. "I can't blame them!"
It was a few minutes after that that Latios came surging up through the hole in the floor again. "Got him!"
"Is it really him?" Tommy asked, crouching down. "Marshtomp?"
A Swampert head came out of the hole.
"...in retrospect, I really should have anticipated that," he admitted.
"Who are you?" the Swampert said, tilting his head. Then he frowned. "Wait... Tommy?"
"It's him," Ash confirmed – for both of them.
Tommy hurried over and took Swampert's shoulder as the Water-type hauled himself out of the hole, leaning back and pulling to help. "I'm so sorry I didn't come back for you before, Swampert! I tried, but without a Pokémon I wasn't able to... and when I asked for..."
Swampert wrapped a sopping wet arm around him. "I'm just glad you came back."
After a minute or so, the two stepped apart slightly.
Reaching into his pocket, Tommy pulled out and expanded a dinged, scratched Pokéball. "I kept it all this time," he said. "Through three house moves – and a shipwreck..."
Swampert reached out, touching it, and vanished inside with the red flash of a return. Then, a few seconds later, he came out again and picked Tommy up in a rib-creaking hug.
"You'll have to meet my friends!" he announced. "I met a Tentacool, and an Octillery, and a nice Clamperl..."
"Apparently the Swampert knows a Tentacool," Ash commented – keeping an eye on May.
As he'd guessed, she overreacted. "Ew, Tentacool? No thanks!"
Max chuckled.
"Hey, Max?" Brock said, frowning. "That folder said they were after Mega Stones, right?"
The young trainer nodded. "Right."
"Well... do we know if they actually found any?"
"They mentioned at least a couple," Max hedged. "But not what they were... oh, I see what you mean. Hey, Kris?"
Understood. Booting into scan mode.
Max held the Pokédex up, and it flashed before slowly drawing out the holographic map.
The walls are quite dense, scan efficiency is impaired. Calibrating...
Kris paused for several seconds.
There is a signal, but it is extremely faint. I cannot localize it.
A broad area lit up at one edge of the map, which was by this point nearly incomprehensibly fuzzy.
"Can you make the image better?" Max asked.
Not without getting closer – and, unfortunately, that's almost directly down underwater.
There was a silence for several seconds, as everyone thought it over. Then Ash frowned.
"Latios, how good is your Psychic by now?"
"It's okay," Latios hedged. "Why?"
"Ash, you're not thinking of doing something stupid, are you?" Pikachu asked, worried.
"...actually, I pretty much am," Ash admitted. "Latios, how big an air bubble could you pull underwater?"
Ash held on to Latios' back with one hand, holding Kris with the other and trying to remember to breathe evenly.
It was kind of a hard thing to remember. Latios' air bubble was quite big, covering his entire back, but beyond the glowing, shimmering surface was the ocean nearly a hundred feet underwater.
"How's it looking?" he asked, as they dropped towards the sea bed.
The image is clearing up considerably, Kris reported, her plot zooming in and getting clearer by steps. The signal seems to be coming from that mound of debris over there.
Ash squinted through the bubble surface. "Looks like a lot of stuff slid through a hole in the platform, or something..."
A sensible supposition. Kris let out a beep. Localized.
Ash examined the map for several seconds, then nodded. "Right. A bit closer to the pile, please, Latios."
Latios' squeak of agreement resonated through the water, transmitting itself to Ash's bubble of air.
Taking a Pokéball, Ash spoke to it. "Corphish, it's in the big pile of debris that will be on the other side of you to Latios and I. There's something just a bit to the right of the centre, facing it – it should be a kind of sphere a couple of inches across."
Once finished, he pointed the Pokéball. "Go!"
Corphish duly emerged. He looked around, locating Latios and the pile, and then scuttled forwards and a little to the right.
"That's right!" Ash called. "Just a bit... there!"
Corphish looked at the revealed Mega Stone.
Then back at his trainer.
Back to the Mega Stone.
"What now?" he asked.
Ash frowned. "What did he say?"
"He said 'what now'," Latios relayed.
"What's that?" Corphish asked. "I didn't hear."
"He asked what you said," Latios said.
"I said-" Ash began, just as Corphish repeated what he'd said as well.
This could take a while, Kris observed.
"Latios!" Ash decided. "Tell Corphish that he needs to pick up the Mega Stone and then come back over here!"
Corphish nodded as the instructions were relayed, and picked up the Mega Stone in his pincers before bringing it back over.
Latios took it with his clawed right hand, and then Ash returned Corphish and they headed back to the surface.
Remember to ascend slowly, Kris cautioned. Humans suffer from the bends if they decompress too fast – it is extremely dangerous.
"Slow and steady it is," Latios agreed, steering for the hole he'd come down through.
"That was pretty brave," May said. "I don't think I'd have been that calm for long enough."
Ash shrugged. "I've been underwater before, remember?" he said, trying to play it down.
"Yeah, but that was in the Temple of the Sea," May replied. "You nearly died."
"...I was trying to forget that bit," Ash admitted.
"So, any idea what Mega Stone this is?" Brock asked. "It looks kind of familiar..."
"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "I think it might be a Lucarionite – like that one Gary borrowed! Hey, Lucario, let's test it!"
Lucario nodded, taking the stone from Brock's palm, and clutched it in his fist.
Unlimbering his staff, Ash concentrated.
Several seconds passed.
"Or maybe it's not Lucarionite..." Max said, with a chuckle. "Worth a try."
"Should we go and see if the driver's got the engine fixed?" May suggested.
"Good idea," Brock agreed, as Lucario passed the Mega Stone to Ash and Ash put it in his bag for later checking. "He should be about done. Are you going to be okay, Tommy?"
"I'll be fine, now," Tommy smiled. "Thanks for your help, Mr. Slate!"
"What did you help with?" Ash asked, curious.
"He and Swampert had a chat, and then Swampert talked a couple of his friends into going with Tommy," Brock summarized. "Clamperl, Remoraid and... Carvanha, I think."
Tommy nodded. "That's right. Well, it was nice meeting you all – thanks so much for your help!"
"I forgot how crowded Slateport is," May said, as they walked along the beach. "How easy is it going to be to find a place to practice?"
"Not easy, I'm guessing," Brock agreed. "Maybe we should just go as far along as we can?"
"Sounds like-" Max began, then ducked as a spray of water whipped past. "Whoa!"
"Sorry!" a girl with an Azumarill called. "We're still practicing this one!"
"Just be careful!" May called back. "Don't splash my brother!"
"... it is kinda hot," Max said. "A little splash would be okay, I guess..."
"How's this?" Ash asked, looking around the small field.
"It'll do," May agreed. "Okay... it's a one-Pokémon contest tonight, so I'll use..."
She frowned hard.
"Blaziken," she said. "I'm happier with our routine, the new one with Beautifly is a bit more touchy still."
Blaziken emerged, and nodded. "The fire dance?"
"I..." May frowned. "I almost got that."
"Fire dance?" Ash repeated. "Sounds neat."
"Blaziken and I worked on it while we were back at home," May explained. "It was good practice, right Blaziken?"
The Fire-type nodded.
"Right," May added, swinging her bag down and looking through it. "Let's see... here we go."
She drew out a pair of wooden batons.
Brock blinked. "How long have those been in there?"
"A while," May replied, applying some paste from a jar. "Okay, Blaziken, let's see if they still work!"
Blaziken sent a thin beam of flame out, and the baton in her right hand lit up with a flicker of yellow-orange flame.
"Flame gel?" Brock asked, interested.
"That's right," May agreed. "It lasts a few minutes at least... right, let's see if I can remember how to do this."
She held the inert baton up, then rolled her wrist and let the baton drop. It clung to her hand as she made a small, practiced motion, and flipped back around to where she could grab it again.
"Good," she smiled. "That's a start..."
"Should I have Delta ready in case you set yourself on fire?" Max asked.
May was about to retort, but a voice interrupted them.
"Not half bad," the boy said, drawing their attention. "I've not seen you around before – new coordinator?"
"Isn't that Drew?" Max asked quietly.
"That's right," May said, answering both questions. "What about yourself?"
"I've been doing Coordinating for a couple of months," Drew said, looking pleased with himself. "Three ribbons already... If you're new, then you've trained that Blaziken really well – he looks very sleek."
Blaziken nodded acceptance of the compliment.
"Thanks," May smiled. "I... well..."
She tried to pull together all the times she'd rehearsed this second first meeting. She'd never imagined Drew would be so complimentary – did Blaziken really make that much of a difference?
"But you'll have to try harder to beat me," he went on.
That put things back on track.
"I'll certainly try just as hard as you deserve," she said, earning an amused snort. "How hard is that again?"
"All out!" Drew replied. "Roselia and I aren't amateurs, and don't think type advantage will save your Blaziken!"
"May?" Ash began.
"Well, I look forward to seeing it," May replied. "What's your name?"
"Drew," Drew replied. "And you?"
"May – May Maple," May told him.
"May, this is-" Ash tried
"Wait..." Drew blinked. "Maple – isn't that the surname of one of the gym leaders?"
He whistled. "Now I know how come you've got a Blaziken..."
"May, he's remindable," Ash said into the first pause he could.
"...he is?" May asked, startled. "But I thought-"
"What's that?" Drew asked.
"It's kind of a long story," Max said.
"...okay, I think I understand," Drew said, some minutes later. "So... you guys have saved the world, what, five times?"
"That's how many times May has helped Ash," Brock clarified. "Ash has done it over a dozen times."
"And... wow." Drew shook his head. "This is so bizarre, I mean, you warned me – but... it's like we've gone back to when we first met... because we have."
His Roselia gave him a worried look, and he sighed. "Sorry, Roselia. I'm just... it's a lot to get my head around. I remember time with you you never had with me, and..."
After a minute or so, he looked up. "So. What do we do now?"
"What we've been trying to do is to make sure that we don't break the timeline too badly," Brock summarized. "If we can get to Cyrus and stop him, we will, but thus far we've not found him – and we've been looking."
"Right," Drew nodded. "And... my Pokémon? Absol? Flygon? Butterfree? What about Dodrio and Nidorina? Even little Cherubi?"
"I think you should run into them about the same time this time around," Ash volunteered. "That's been how it works so far. If we run into Celebi I'll ask her to make sure... but you'll need to get to know them all over again. I can't restore your Roselia, and I'm not sure about the others."
Drew nodded. "Got it."
He sighed. "Man, I don't know how I'm going to compete, now... May and I have been rivals for, what, five regions?"
"That's right," May confirmed. "Counting the Orange Islands and Sinnoh."
"And now she's... well, you've got a massive head start..." Drew shook his head. "I don't know..."
"Actually, keep trying," May said, and he looked up. "I'm not going to reuse any of my routines from last time, don't worry – they'd be too easy. Just..."
She shrugged. "Think something new up, maybe you'll beat me on appeal points."
"Hey, I can battle too!" Drew replied, stung. "I'll beat you easily-"
He stopped, and smiled. "Okay, I get the point. You had to catch up to me, now I have to catch up to you."
"It's this or I'll end up stuck with Harley," May added, with a wince.
"Right!" Drew added, and stood up. "You're right, and you did offer me the choice... okay, Roselia, we've got a lot of catching up to do! I'll-"
He stopped.
"Did you just say you'd put in a good word for me with Celebi?"
"Welcome to life around Ash Ketchum," Brock said.
"Okay."
May took a deep breath, checking her outfit.
"Think we can do this, Blaziken?"
Blaziken shot her a smirk.
"Yeah, I know," she agreed. "But it is the first contest we've done in over a year."
A frown.
"Well... less than a year for you, I guess. Time travel's confusing..."
Blaziken chuckled, then brushed at his shoulder plumage to make sure it was all properly aligned.
"Right," May said, and returned him before slipping the 'ball into her pocket. "Let's do this."
"That was pretty cool," Max said. "That bit where she evolved Nidorino to Nidoking as a finisher – I wonder how much time that took to set up?"
"Yeah," Brock agreed, as the applause died down. "Wonder who's next?"
"And next," the announcer went on, conveniently, "A first time contestant – May Maple and Blaziken!"
Max leaned forward in his seat. "Okay, this is going to be great!"
"Do you know what she's going to do?" Ash asked, as May took the stage.
Max hesitated. "Well, I saw her doing bits of it..."
"I guess we know what she was buying at the Slateport department store," Brock pointed out, nodding to her dress.
It wasn't particularly extravagant, per se – just a short, practical dress made of orange-dyed material. But the way it fluttered at the edges as she moved gave it a certain... flamelike quality.
She curtsied, then released Blaziken.
"Flame Wheel!" she ordered, and Blaziken's arms snapped out – flame roaring up from his wrist-feathers as he rolled his shoulders, before diving forward onto his palms and spinning his legs around as they ignited in turn.
The flame described three complete revolutions, broadening into a disc for a moment before vanishing all at once as Blaziken launched himself into a roll and came back to his feet.
May tossed him one baton, then the other, and he lit them in turn before throwing them back with a flicking motion. She caught them, one in each hand, and spun both about her hands with the same roll-of-the-wrist she'd practiced earlier that day.
Once that was done, she nodded to Blaziken. "Fire Spin!"
Blaziken began a kind of looping, whirling dance – flames blazing at his wrists and ankles, he spun first upright on both feet, then on one leg, then flipped over onto his palms again and produced a swirling tornado of fire which keened and roared.
May's dress whipped in the instant wind, coming close to the flames but not close enough to catch fire, and she waited for several seconds until Blaziken was back on his feet and the flames began to die – then stepped forwards.
Blaziken formed a stirrup with his hands, took her foot and hoisted her into the air.
"Whoa!" Max gaped. "I didn't-"
Back upright, Blaziken took her ankles before she began to fall, and held them in a grip of iron. May held her arms out to either side and spun the batons again, and this time when Blaziken did a spin he moved them both.
Her batons traced out a complicated pattern, spinning in two separate planes at once, and then she brought them together in front of her and began to juggle them.
"Did she join the circus?" Ash asked, blinking.
"Not that I noticed!" Max replied.
After throwing and catching each baton about six times, May threw both of them at once high into the air, towards the peak of the stadium. Blaziken crouched, she quickly jumped off, and as the batons came down Blaziken caught them both and threw them backwards to his trainer.
May caught them, spinning them around her wrists. "Spiral toss, Blaziken!"
Blaziken crouched, then leaped skywards. He turned a complete somersault as he ascended, and as he approached the apex May sent both batons at him. "Skyfire!"
The Fire-type sent a stream of flame downwards, which shot past ahead of the batons and exploded as they were just over it.
The smoke and flame obscured both him and the batons for a second, and then Blaziken came rolling back out of the smoke with an unlit baton in each hand.
A tongue of flame licked out as he reached the ground, forming a rippling semicircle in the air before vanishing.
There was a second or so of silence as Blaziken stood, and returned the batons – then the applause began.
"Ladies and gentlemen, May Maple!" the announcer said, apparently refusing to be flapped. "What an appeal!"
"That was pretty cool!" Ash said, clapping as hard as everyone else.
"Don't you mean hot?" Brock asked.
Back on the hall floor, May breathed a sigh of relief.
The hardest thing to set up had always been that finisher. They'd actually prepared several versions of the finale – one had been the one they'd used, where it had snuffed the batons like they'd hoped as the flame gel all burned off in the blast.
There was also the one where the batons were still on fire, which would have had Blaziken use them to breathe a Flamethrower, and finally the slightly more embarrassing version where Blaziken accidentally blew the batons to smithereens.
That one was basically 'act like we meant to do that'.
"Good work, Blaziken," she said quietly.
Her starter nodded in return. "It was a pleasure, May."
May blinked, and tears came to her eyes. "Oh!"
"Excuse me, ma'm?" one of the organizers coughed. "We do need the stage."
"Oh – sorry!" May winced, and made for the stairs.
Drew blinked.
"Okay, Roselia..."
The Grass-type looked up at him.
"We need to seriously up our game. How do you feel about learning Dazzling Gleam? I think we could do something neat with Petal Dance..."
Roselia nodded thoughtfully.
"Okay, so..." Ash glanced over at Brock. "Can I just check I understand how the battle bit goes?"
Brock nodded. "Sure."
"So... it's a knockout tournament... but you get judged on your performance during the knockout section," he said slowly. "And you can lose but still win, it's just that the better you do the better your score tends to be because you get more time to show off."
Brock shook his head. "No, not quite. You lose points for being boring or your Pokémon being hit, and you can knock points off your opponent for hitting them with a good-looking move. So being a good battler helps, but so does being flashy – though I guess you could just knock out your opponent before the time limit, which is five minutes. At the end of that whoever has the most points wins."
"Oh, yeah, I remember," Ash said. "It's kind of bizarre how the appeals are just to get into the knockout round... who do you think May's going to have trouble with?"
"Well, there was that guy with the Milotic..." Brock frowned. "He got a really high score too, after all, which means he'd do well on points."
Max nodded. "He got almost exactly the same score as May!"
"And he's got type advantage... I guess he's the one to beat, then," Ash nodded to himself.
"What would you have done for this contest, Ash?" Brock asked, curious. "Do you have any routines ready?"
"I did have one for Meganium," Ash said. "We've worked on it a bit, and I guess it's about ready..."
"Three, two, one..." the announcer said. "Begin!"
"Water Pulse!" Robert ordered to begin the battle. His Milotic's tail swirled, water bubbling around it, and she launched out a pulse of water at Blaziken.
"A beautifully formed move!" Contesta said, as the shimmering globe of water shot across the stadium.
"Double Kick, Blaziken!" May instructed, and her Fire-type leaped forwards. "And Heatwave!"
The first kick which snapped out burst the Water Pulse, giving it enough momentum that it sprayed in all directions instead of hitting Blaziken specifically. A flash of flame from a Heatwave punched out from Blaziken a moment later, pushing the water aside in a wash of heat and shimmering air.
Still moving fast, Blaziken snapped off a second kick at Robert's Milotic. Her reply was to form a shimmering green shield, and his kick hit the Safeguard instead of continuing on to strike the Pokémon herself.
"Knock him back with a Twister!" Robert said, and Milotic's tail spun again – producing a swirling, shimmering vortex of wind.
"Back, Blaziken!" May called, and he duly kicked off in a backflip which gained him some space. The Twister continued to build up, though, and Milotic sent a whirlwind laced with sparkling draconic energy straight towards him.
"Now, put Water Gun in it!" Robert added, and Milotic cooed before spraying a beam of water into the twister.
The extra weight made the vortex slow, developing a ponderous quality, and it came crashing down towards Blaziken as it began to unravel.
"Upper Spin!" May called.
Blaziken sprang backwards, balancing on his hands, and whipped up a Fire Spin with both legs just as the Twister-turned-Waterspout reached him.
"This is interesting!" Sukizo observed. "We're not sure which move is winning here, so we don't know who gets the better of this clash!"
The water was shimmering orange underneath, and what looked like a bubble was growing underneath – then it burst in a plume of steam, and Blaziken pushed himself into the air in a half-flip to land on his feet once more.
"Very impressive!" Contesta said, noting that Blaziken hadn't come off entirely uninjured and deducting points from both Pokémon.
"Let's go for another Water Pulse!" Robert told his Milotic.
"Friction Jump!" May called.
Blaziken crouched, palms crooked slightly, and pressed the tips of his fingers into the floor – not hard enough to damage it, just enough to get friction. Then, as Milotic launched a barrage of Water Pulses, he sprinted sideways.
Sparks flew from his hands as they dragged along the floor, and light began to grow on his knuckles. Then he turned towards Milotic as she fired another Water Pulse, and snapped up his Sky Uppercut-boosted hands to block the Water-type attack.
He knocked it to both sides in a V-shaped splash which hung in the air for a moment, and then jumped skywards in a forward roll.
"Look out!" Robert called. "Use another Twister to keep him off!"
Milotic's tail began to swirl as she formed a Twister, and a splash of fire came snapping down at her as Blaziken took the opportunity to distract her.
"Now, Rising Sun!" May said.
Blaziken landed on a wet patch of the stadium floor, and made use of it – his right foot skidded out in the direction he'd been going, and his left foot dug into the stage itself for a secure point.
Rolling his body as he bled off momentum, Blaziken switched from facing away from Milotic to facing towards her, and his left talons got a good grip on the stage to use as leverage.
Pushing himself hard forwards using that leverage, he lunged at Milotic with a sweeping low kick.
Flicking her tail, Milotic sent a horizontal whirlwind of a Twister at him, and the buffeting wind slowed him down considerably. His foot barely made contact with the underside of her serpentine body.
At which point Blaziken flipped backwards, lashing his foot up and sending Milotic into the air.
Completing the somersault and coming back to his feet, Blaziken brought his hands together by his right hand side. A faint shimmer came from within, almost hidden by the taloned digits.
"This looks bad for Robert's Milotic!" Sukizo said. "What will May's Blaziken do now?"
"Jump now!" May said, as Milotic reached the apex of her trajectory.
Crouching for a moment, the Fire-type launched himself powerfully into the air and passed Milotic on the way down. She fired a Water Pulse at him which smacked into his chest and winded him, and then they were far enough apart that he could bring his legs in and roll forwards.
"Milotic, Water Gun and Water Pulse – make it a big one!" Robert said quickly, as she hit the ground and recovered with supple grace.
"Oh, and this could change everything!" Contesta said, leaning forwards slightly.
Taking just a moment to aim at Blaziken's somersaulting form, Milotic fired her Water Pulse – then kept feeding it with water from a Water Gun, making it quickly grow to a size much greater than a normal Pulse.
Blaziken revealed what he'd been charging.
Legs coming out of his tuck to reduce the speed of his roll, he fired the Solarbeam directly at the oncoming Water Pulse.
Rainbow light went in all directions as the Solarbeam shattered the leading edge of the Water attack into a frothy mess of bubbles and air, and then was refracted and reflected and sent off every which way.
Then the beam got through the globe of the pulse and reached the stream of the Water Gun feeding it.
That acted like a fiber optic cable, and blazed intensely green as the Solarbeam followed it straight through Milotic's shield.
There was a wet splash as Blaziken hit the soaked battlefield, making a three-point landing without any extra risky tricks.
He turned to check on his opponent-
"May and Blaziken are victorious!" the Nurse Joy said. "A victory by knockout – and a spectacular one!"
"Phew," he said, breathing a little heavily. "I'm glad that was the last battle, I got kind of wet..."
"Great work, Blaziken!" May called over. "And yeah, I think we might need a towel..."
"Congratulations, Ms. Maple!" Mr. Contesta added. "You've done remarkably well – are you sure this is your first contest?"
May chuckled nervously. "Well, I only got my pass a couple of weeks ago, but my mom did give me some tips..."
"Nice work, May," Max said, smiling. "Bet it's good to be back to contests?"
"Oh, yeah," May agreed with a broad grin. "It's so exciting! You should give it a try some time!"
"I'll think about it," Max hedged.
"So, where next?" Brock asked.
"Forina!" Max said firmly. "It's not long until the festival, remember!"
"That's right," May agreed. "Ash? What's our plan here – I guess you've got a plan, right?"
"Sort of," Ash said. "The main thing is just making sure that Butler doesn't make that wish, and then everything's a lot safer."
He winced. "I hope you and Jirachi have fun together, Max, but I'm not sure we can get things to work out so he can stay awake. I mean, a wish didn't do it..."
"I actually met a Jirachi once in Unova," Pikachu contributed. "It was about the same time we were travelling around with Meloetta."
"Did this involve those Pichu you mentioned?" Brock asked.
"Now you mention it, yes," Pikachu confirmed. "Which probably explains why you didn't notice..."
"Okay, that's strange," Ash frowned. "But maybe it's good news – I mean, if a Jirachi's able to keep going without the Millennium Comet..."
Max looked pensive. "I hope so."
"So do we," May told him.
"Interesting," Maxie said, nodding. "Thank you for the report, Blaise. So... Team Aqua found something new?"
"That's right, sir," Blaise confirmed. "Archie recognized something on a map they have, and translated it – the exact meaning was something like 'the granter of the heart's desire..."
"...which means Jirachi," Maxie agreed. "Well, well, well. More than just a myth after all."
He adjusted his glasses, then clicked a ball-point pen and indicated Blaise with the tip. "Head back and follow them. We want to make sure that if anyone gets Jirachi's wish it's us. Take a team."
Blaise nodded. "Will do."
"See you do, we can't afford for Team Aqua to gain an advantage on us. I already have our own teams looking for a map from Pokémonopolis sites... failing that we can try a geophysical survey, of course..."
Blaise took the trailing off for a dismissal, and left the room.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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