Chương 49: 61,62
"Okay..." Ash said, frowning. "Not bad, but I think it needs to be faster."
Understood, Lugia nodded, looking down at the craters. I'll keep working on it.
"Good!" Ash called up. "And Ho-Oh – that curtain of fire?"
"Getting better at setting it up," Ho-Oh reported. "It's certainly helping me out, but-"
"Hey!" a voice called.
Ash turned. "Who is – oh, hey Wes!"
Wes nodded. "Yeah, it's me alright. Don't know if you've been checking the matchups..?"
"Nope, he hasn't," Pikachu chuckled.
"...yeah, Pikachu's right," Ash admitted. "I've got no clue."
"Right," Wes said. "Anyway. It's basically me, and... well, I had this idea."
Ash blinked. "I didn't know you'd entered..."
"Rui insisted," Wes sighed. "Disobey her at your peril... I basically got Celebi to take me around the gyms of Johto and got the badges in a day. Anyway... this idea."
"Oh, right," Ash nodded. "What is it?"
"Well..." Wes paused. "Actually, I don't think you know this stuff. Those jerks in Orre who I stopped had a load of Pokémon they turned into Shadow Pokémon, including the three local Beasts. And I totally stole them back."
He tapped his belt, and an Entei and a Suicune materialized.
"...huh," Ash blinked. "I knew you had a Ho-Oh, but I didn't realize you had Legendary Beasts too."
"It was on the news... in Orre... when you were, what, nine?" Wes shrugged. "Doesn't matter."
"So this is who Ho-Oh mentioned?" Wes' Suicune asked, in a deeper voice than Ash was used to. "Interesting."
"Now now, brother," the Entei smiled. "Ho-Oh was quite impressed – be more positive!"
Suicune looked skeptical.
"I apologize for my brother," Entei chuckled, shrugging at Pikachu.
"Hey, I'm trying to have a conversation here," Wes said without much heat. "Right. So, the idea was – both of us have all three Beasts, so we both use those for our match. It's a three-on-three anyway, so..."
Ash blinked. "Oh, right. Yeah, the idea sounds pretty neat – I'd like to check with them, though."
"Go ahead," Wes shrugged. "I've got a couple hours until Rui's done shopping."
He blinked. "Wait a moment... hey, where's Raikou?"
"Probably asleep," his Entei said, rolling her eyes.
"So, what do you think?" Ash asked, some minutes later.
Suicune smiled. "It does sound like an interesting match – certainly a spectacular one! That Mr. Goodshow might like it a lot."
"Yes, it'd be great to see if this other Raikou has any moves I can learn!" Raikou agreed.
"Question," Entei said, frowning. "How, exactly, will the spectators know which one is which?"
"...good question," Ash admitted.
"Well, I know exactly what I'm doing!" Raikou announced. "I'm getting that scarf out of where I left it and putting it right back on! And, not only that, I'm going to take my signs to battle!"
Suicune blinked. "Well... that will, at least, be distinctive..."
"Would Wood Hammer – well, your version – work on another Raikou?"
"Don't see why not," Raikou muttered defensively.
"Ash, can I borrow your hat?" Suicune asked. "Either one."
"That'd be pretty good," Ash nodded. "What about you, Entei?"
Suicune and Raikou exchanged a glance. Then they both grinned.
"Oh, no," Entei said, shaking his head and backing away. "No, no, no. Not again!"
Ash held something out of his bag. "You'll get this if you agree."
"...fine, then."
"Hi!"
The Houndour pack looked up. "What was that?" the alpha female asked.
Her mate frowned. "Not sure – but it might be-"
A Houndoom came pelting over the crest of the hill, skidded to a halt, and wagged his tail. "I'm back!"
There was a pause.
"Wait," said one of the younger Houndour. "Did you evolve?"
"Sure did!" Houndoom nodded, happily. "I feel all tall now, and it's kind of funny, but at the same time – I feel great! Really strong!"
"Son," the alpha said, looking up – then stepping back, so he didn't have to look up quite so much. "...I'm proud of you. Well done."
Houndoom's tail wagged faster. "That's really nice of you, Dad – thanks!"
"You'll have to tell us all about it," his mother added. "Was this at the Silver Conference you mentioned?"
"Yeah! Okay, so I was fighting this Slugma to start with..."
"Thanks for inviting us into the box!" Molly said brightly, sitting down next to Misty. "It's really big..."
"It's usually less crowded than this, though," Lance said, amused, as he watched the three shiny Beasts sprawled over two or three chairs each. "Don't they have jobs?"
"Most of the Legendaries in Johto are actually within a mile of this building," the shiny Entei said, and Molly translated for him.
"That's quite... wait," Lance said, counting to himself. "That might actually even be true."
"It probably depends where the various Legendary Birds are," Brock volunteered. "I assume there'd be a warning if there was anything major going on."
"That's a point..." Lance muttered. "I think I'm going to just make sure the patrol schedule's up to date, though..."
As he got out a phone, Eevee jumped up onto her trainers' lap and shifted to Sylveon. "This should be fun!"
"Will both competitors send out their first Pokémon!"
Ash chuckled. "Suicune, go!"
The blue-white-and-purple Legendary materialized on the battlefield, a wind whipping around her but not touching her snazzy-looking hat, and there was a ripple through the crowds.
Lance blinked, lowering his phone. "That's quite a bizarre sight, even though-"
Then Wes's first Pokémon materialized too.
"-what the heck!?" he gaped, seeing the Suicune there too. Then he looked between the field and the other Suicune, who craned her neck slightly to watch the battle.
"...this is not a normal day..."
"Well noticed," Misty said, with a chuckle. "I think maybe we'd have been happier if this was the finals..."
Lance recovered a bit, and smiled ruefully. "One of the perils of an elimination tournament, I... think..."
His voice trailed off.
"Didn't you have an Eevee?"
Molly's Sylveon waved, shifting back to Eevee and then through all her other forms in a display of Shininess.
"If you're wondering," Brock added, "She's why there's such a thing as the Fairy-type."
Lance sat down heavily.
"He's funny," Molly said, then turned back to the stadium. "Oh, look, they're starting!"
"May our battle be productive and closely-fought," Wes's Suicune said, bowing his head.
"Indeed, and may both profit from the day," Ash's one replied. Then she chuckled. "Dear me... I hope that sounded formal enough."
"Passable," the male Suicune said, his own lips quirking in amusement. "Right."
He pounced forwards, his wind-swirl abruptly tightening and focusing into a Gust which slapped forwards at Ash's Suicune.
Her reaction was swift. She turned on the ball of her forepaw and pelted to one side, dodging the immediate threat, then strafed him with Bubblebeam – not that it did much damage.
In reply, Wes's Suicune fired forwards a pair of Air Slashes, and Ash's Suicune accelerated away from them – running a complete circuit of the arena in a breathtakingly short time, before coming back in from the other direction entirely and firing an Aura Sphere.
"Interesting!" her opponent said, bursting the incoming Aura Sphere with a blast of Extrasensory – then blinking, as it went on to not affect her at all.
Before he could recover from his surprise, Ash's Suicune bowled him over and got in a quick Stomp before jumping free ahead of a Swift retaliation.
The sparling stars of the Swift attack followed her around the arena, chasing her and giving their master time to stand up, and as they finally arrived she launched out a huge spherical pulse of water to block them.
After that explosive ten-second exchange, the two Water-types went back to circling one another looking for an opening.
"Impressive," Molly's friend Raikou said, watching closely. "They're clearly both very quick – and quick-thinking, to boot."
He glanced aside at his fellow. "What would you do differently?"
"Well, I'm not as good as these two," the shiny Suicune said thoughtfully. "I think I'd just rely on straight-line speed, and use my wind from a distance – but I'm not sure how that would go, with how many ranged attacks these two have-"
The battle erupted into high gear again.
Ash's Suicune darted in, firing another Aura Sphere, and this time her opponent blocked it with a Hydro Pump. She shot a blast of Ice Beam at the attack, realized that meant she was now about to be hit by a lump of ice, and jumped out of the way before volleying in two Air Cutters to keep her opponent occupied.
He grinned, and batted them away with a Gust before retaliating with a Signal Beam. The burst of reddish, Bug-type energy played over her side for a moment, and then she released a big blast of water to diffract and dilute the energy of the attack.
Aside from making the ground more sodden, all this water wasn't filling the stadium like last time – though buried by earth, the cracks left by the Fissure remained, drawing away the water and avoiding flooding.
Which was nice.
Suicune's paws dug into the muddy ground, and she put on a burst of speed before shooting an Icy Wind at her opponent. He gave her a vaguely disappointed look and took the attack, not really bothering to dodge, and used the time to charge up something much more potent.
Ash's Suicune recognized the incoming Hyper Beam just in time.
She dropped the attack she was charging in favour of a massive, overloaded water-shield, then pivoted on one foot and ran for it – using the sudden cloud of steam as cover, so by the time the Hyper Beam burned through her watery defence she was somewhere else entirely.
"She's to your left!" she heard, over the roaring of the attack, and hissed – of course, Wes was helping his Pokémon.
As he should, of course... still, it gave her a problem, as her opponent promptly swung the Hyper Beam in her direction. She jumped over it, taking a nick to the ankle, and watched it finally fade out with some relief.
Then she tripped over.
"Ow..." she muttered, then scrambled to her feet and got out of the way of an Air Cutter.
"That wasn't very like Suicune..." Misty said, looking closer. "Wait-"
"I saw it too," Brock interrupted.
Ash cupped his hands around his mouth. "Suicune, look out! He's using Grass Knot!"
"That explains that!" Suicune said, noticing another one forming and jumping over it. "Thanks!"
Another Extrasensory hit Suicune in the flank, and she ignored it completely – feeling very grateful indeed for the hat she'd borrowed. The next attack missed, and ironically did more damage – blowing a hole in the ground ahead of her and making her break stride to avoid the hole.
She skidded around, shedding momentum as she did, and fired an Aura Sphere before breaking back into a blisteringly fast sprint.
Wes' Suicune dodged the Aura Sphere and broke into a run after her, and for several seconds the two of them jockeyed back and forth in a run so fast the wind snatched at the sleeves of people in the front rows.
Eventually, something gave. Ash's Suicune was forced a little too close to the retaining wall, scraped into it, and bounced off in a complicated skid which knocked her opponent over. Both came rolling back to their feet in an instant, mud streaking their pure white-blue coats, and Gusts exploded between them.
Ash's Suicune followed that up by charging up another white-frosted, icy attack, and her streamers whipped in a powerful wind. Her opponent, for his part, charged up a purplish Shadow Ball.
"That's not going to-" he began, and then Suicune fired.
Much to his surprise, it turned out she'd used Freeze-Dry. The ball of cold exploded as it reached him, drawing out moisture from him and from the air, and he went skating backwards on an instantly-icy floor before regaining his footing.
The Shadow Ball whipped out in reply, and Suicune ran forwards – not avoiding it, but rather aiming directly for it.
"Mirror Coat!" she announced, and her body briefly flashed silver – sending the Shadow Ball right back at Wes' Suicune.
That, finally, was too much.
Misty glanced at her watch. "...that took a lot less time than it seemed to."
"We're kind of fast," Molly's Entei said, shrugging his head. "I suspect it would have taken longer in a more open space, though."
"Good point."
Eusine glanced over at Morty.
Morty glanced back.
They both looked around at the various Pokémon also spectating from the Ecruteak Gym.
"...that was cool," Morty said after a moment.
"Please tell me you recorded that," Eusine said suddenly. "That was one of the most amazing-"
"Suicune vs. Suicune, eh?" Morty chuckled. "Why Suicune especially?"
"...grace, I think," Eusine said, after a moment's thought. "Entei and Raikou are fast and sleek, but Suicune has an air of indefinable... precision. Purity."
He nodded at the screen, which showed Ash's Suicune walking back over to her trainer's box. "Look at her! She's been battling another of near-equal power to herself, and she looks gorgeous!"
"Okay." Morty raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, I get it..."
Ash took his hat back. "Nice work, Suicune. We should probably have you work on Grass Knot, it's one of those useful moves."
"Very true," Suicune nodded. "Who next?"
Ash plucked the second Fast Ball from his belt. "Raikou," he said. "Wes and I worked it out."
"Right." Suicune dipped a paw into his pouch for a moment, and withdrew a small flag. "I think I'll go spectate from the box."
With that, she darted back out onto the field, and loped quickly up the central rail of one of the flights of steps before leaping into the box.
Thus positioned, she began waving the small flag with Ash's name on it.
"Okay, here goes!" Ash said, then glanced over at the referee. "By the way, Mr. Referee? We worked this out first."
With that, he sent out Raikou. As did Wes.
"Here we go," Ash's Raikou said, rolling his neck around and adjusting his scarf. "That's better – now, time for a right rollicking battle!"
His counterpart blinked. "...why do you have a bundle of signs across your back?"
"Why not?" the first Raikou asked. "Anyway, let's get on with this!"
He pawed the ground, then pounced forwards. "Bulldoze!"
The other Raikou's tail snapped across. "Reflect."
Raikou ran into a wall of force.
"Ow!" he said, shaking his head. "Right, take this!"
Electricity snapped out, a great crackling blast of it which enveloped his opponent completely and turned the nearby grass brown and black from proximity.
"...was that supposed to do anything?" Wes' Raikou asked, blinking.
"...not really, no," Raikou replied, shaking his head. "Right!"
He pounced forwards again, this time ready for the Reflect. Wes' Raikou jumped away as Ash's one broke through the wall of force, and the two darted back and forth for several seconds exchanging physical blows or the occasional ranged attack.
This time, it was Ash's Raikou who brought out something new. He skidded to a halt, paws slipping a little on the muddy ground, and – as Wes' Pokémon came in for an Extremespeed – swung his sign bundle off his back.
"Wait, what the-"
Wes' Raikou had just enough time to realize what was about to happen before it did.
"Wood Hammer!" Raikou called, and smacked his opponent in the side with the signs.
"...is that legal?" Lance asked, blinking.
Bruno shrugged. "Gurdurr can use their, well, their girder. And Marowak can whack their enemies with their marrows."
"It's certainly... inventive... of my brother." Suicune shrugged, twirling her little 'Ash' flag. "It does give him options."
"I wouldn't want to be hit by it," the shiny Entei said, to general agreement.
"Is it actually Grass-type?" Brock asked with a frown, and got shrugs.
"...what the heck was that for!?" Wes' Raikou said, shaking his head and feeling his fangs. "Phew, you didn't knock one of them out..."
"It's Wood Hammer, of course!" Ash's Raikou replied with a chuckle.
"That makes very little sense." Sighing, Wes' Raikou formed Double Team images and charged forwards – making the images overlap and swap places with his real body to obscure his location.
Ash's one replied with a much simpler expedient. He dug a hole.
The doubles fizzled out, and Wes' Raikou looked annoyed. "...oh, now that's not-"
He jumped backwards, and fired a burst of Extrasensory which hit the ground just as Raikou burst out of it.
"Whoops!" Ash's Raikou chuckled, not particularly bothered by the psychic attack due to the shielding effect of the ground. "Right, take this!"
He pounced forwards again with the Wood Hammer ready to go.
Unwilling to be hit by it, the other Raikou darted away and formed Double Team doubles again, using the confusion caused by them to refocus and pick a new attack method.
As the Wood Hammer smashed another illusion and went for him, he snapped out at it with a Crunch.
This may have been a mistake, as he got a mouthful of splinters. Then he was forced to let go as the indignant wielder snatched it back and slapped him in the muzzle with a Rock Smash.
"This is so cool," a young trainer said, watching with amazement as the two Electrical beasts blazed back and forth across the battlefield. "Raikou are amazing!"
"Again with the Raikou," his friend chuckled, shaking her head and sharing a glance with Little Miss. "You weren't like this over the Suicune."
Jimmy shrugged. "Raikou are better."
"Okay, we're pretty evenly matched," Ash's Raikou said, some minutes of slogging, snarling battle later. "I'll give you that! But! This is my newest move!"
Electricity began to collect in front of his muzzle, and he focused half on it and half on his opponent – wary for a surprise attack from the other Electric-type.
Slowly, gradually, a ring of lightning formed. Then another.
Misty blinked. "Wait, is that..."
"...oh, dear," Suicune sighed. "This could get loud."
"Is this that move he wanted to throw the fight just to learn?" the shiny Entei asked. "I didn't know he'd learned it yet."
"Well, last I heard..."
Frowning, Raikou managed to complete the third ring. "Aha!" he said, and set them independently rotating around one another.
The magnetic field within began to twist up into a complex coil, holding more and more energy stored within.
"What, exactly, is that?" his opponent asked, looking a bit closer. "There's a lot of power going into it..."
"Volt Crash," Raikou said absently.
"What?" Wes' Raikou replied, blinking. "I've never heard of that before..."
Ash's Pokémon didn't answer for a moment, as he twisted the fields tighter and tighter until they were wound up like a spring. "Hold on, nearly got it..."
Suddenly getting a sinking feeling, Wes' Raikou formed a Light Screen and crouched – ready to dive for cover from whatever this was.
Pikachu blinked. "Wait, that's not quite how it works. He's not doing the backstop step."
Ash put his hands over his ears, and after a moment Pikachu followed suit.
"HA!" Raikou grinned, deciding it was charged up enough. "Volt Crash!"
The rings locked together, allowing all the coiled potential to escape at once.
Unfortunately, in his eagerness, Raikou had forgotten one of the steps.
When Pikachu used it, he made sure that there was one path that was much easier than the other one – usually by charging his own body up to the point that it repelled the charge and made the other route the easiest.
As Raikou had forgotten this, the Volt Crash fired in both directions at once. Both he and his opponent were hit by an earsplittingly loud horizontal lightning bolt, hurled against the wall of the stadium nearly at the top, and slid limply down opposite walls.
"...ow," Wes said faintly, blinking away the flash blindness. "What just..."
He squinted through the flash, and saw that both Raikou were unconscious.
"Huh," he said, shaking his head. "That's a new move on me."
Ash recalled Raikou, and switched to the third and last Fast Ball.
"Okay, we've probably got this," he said, remembering Suicune was still available. "But let's make it a good one."
With that, he sent out Entei.
As Wes sent out his own Entei, the people in the stadium realized that – yes – they were watching a match that was one hundred percent Legendary Beast.
There were some cheers, though not many – most were a bit stunned.
Lance craned his neck. "I think Charles Goodshow is about to explode."
"Well, I suppose this is certainly a spectacular match," Brock chuckled. "What do you guys think?"
"It's been good so far – wait, what exactly is my double wearing!?" Molly's friend Entei said, staring down into the arena.
"I helped do them!" Molly announced proudly.
Wes' Entei held a paw to her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter.
"Not. One. Word," Ash's one growled, as the ribbons tied on his mane, spikes and tail fluttered in the wind.
"I'm sorry, I just-" the female Entei began, then broke down in giggles.
"You realize I'm the girl here, right?" she asked, between fits of sniggering.
"It's a long story," Ash's Entei muttered. "Anyway."
He took a deep breath, then pounced forwards – opening matters with a Stomp.
The female Entei replied by feinting left and jumping right, avoiding the paws aiming to hit her in the flank, and skidded around to swipe with her paws at him in turn.
She followed that up with an Incinerate attack, producing a plume of smoke and flame as it licked along his side – not doing anything in particular to him, though, being nowhere near hot enough to do serious damage.
"Whoops!" she said, then avoided a sudden darting Rock Smash and gained some distance.
The male Entei grinned, charging an Aura Sphere, and fired it out as he ran after her.
As it spun after her, the female Entei reached the side of the arena. She jumped, using it as a springboard to pounce off in another direction entirely, and produced an almighty BOOM as she fired off an Eruption in the middle of the arena.
"What was that in aid of?" Ash's Entei asked, suspiciously, as the cloud of smoke roiled skywards. "That wasn't even trying to hit me..."
"You'll find out," she twitted him, before jumping at him in a spark-strewing Flame Charge and snapping with Bite.
Ash watched the pure-white smoke cloud rising into the air. "Hold on a moment... that looks familiar. Isn't that what the smoke-cloud looks like when Charizard uses the full version of Blast Burn?"
"It does," Pikachu agreed. "And I guess that means-"
Ash's Entei jumped back, firing a Lava Plume to cover his departure, and the Orrean one glanced skywards.
"Ah," she said, satisfied. "It's ready."
"What's that?" Ash's one asked. "What's-"
A water droplet landed on his nose.
"No," he said, with a sigh. "You're kidding."
"What is the problem?" the female asked, cocking her head and shaking her fur out as the rain began to fall out of the steam cloud. "I happen to like how I look in the rain."
"I don't like you," Entei informed her. "Not one whit."
"That's okay, then," she replied. "It's a battle, after all."
With that, she dug in her claws and darted forwards.
"Silly Entei!" Molly said, shaking her head. "She summoned rain! Why would a Fire-type do that?"
"Well, her opponent's a Fire-type as well," Suicune pointed out. "So maybe she felt the disadvantage was even."
"I suppose that's possible," her doppelganger mused. "How did she do it, though?"
"I think it's hydrogen," the shiny Raikou said.
They looked at him.
"It's simple – hydrogen explodes, and it creates water vapour – which cools to form a raincloud," he explained. "She just did it that way. Interesting form of Rain Dance, if you ask me."
"Yeah, that could be it," Brock agreed, listening in.
From the drumming rain that filled the stadium and nowhere else, flash-bangs of Fire attacks and the occasional sign of something else could be seen.
"Aura Sphere!" Entei announced, firing it off into the rain. It curved, hitting his opponent as she dodged, and he followed up on that by pouncing in and hitting her with a Crunch.
One of his ribbons came off in tatters as she retaliated, her paws raking down his side, and he grunted before being blasted away by a Lava Plume.
Skidding to a stop, he took stock.
Fire moves were being weakened by the rain.
Aura moves still worked, but they didn't have much punch – and he needed to win this fairly fast, she was more used to the rain than he was.
That left...
"Right," he said, shaking his fur out. "Still not very good at this..."
His opponent pounced forwards, and he went flat before rolling and kicking out as she went overhead. That staggered her slightly as she landed, buying him time.
The ribbon tied closest to his forehead pulsed slightly, and he launched a barrage of rocks at his opponent with a Stone Edge.
They hit Wes' Entei hard, and she skidded backwards on the slick earth.
"I see this isn't working too well," she said, then formed a Smokescreen before the second Stone Edge came crashing in. "Right, let's change this up!"
Another huge explosion covered the battlefield. This one blew the entire Rain Dance cloud away, and made everyone in their seats feel a bit overwarm.
"What was that?" Ash's Entei asked, blinking in the sudden light, and frowned as the scorched grass disintegrated.
He looked up for a moment, and saw that there was a lot of ash and dust spiralling skywards as the heat drew it out of the stadium roof.
More air rushed in at ground level to replace it, and the quickly-drying earth of the stadium floor began to flake up.
"I love this," Mr. Goodshow said, in tones of great joy.
"Did she just use Sandstorm?" the shiny Entei asked, blinking. "That's new..."
"I wonder why she did it," Misty frowned. "Maybe it's to hide in?"
In a Pokémon centre a little north of New Bark, Nelson was glued to the television.
"This is so cool!" he said, and his Croconaw chuckled.
I guess at least he's seeing Entei on TV...
In the swirling, growing sandstorm, Entei emitted a subsonic growl.
He'd hoped the Expert Belt-boosted Stone Edge would take the edge off her – no pun intended – and this sandstorm was quite unwelcome.
As he considered, she loomed up out of the dust in a shower of sparks. She pounced at his ruff, he retaliated with a quick, half-formed Aura Sphere, and they shared ten seconds or so of snarling combat before she bounded off back into the Sandstorm.
"She'll be making it hail next..." Entei muttered, then frowned – struck by a thought.
This whole thing was one big cyclone – hot air fuelling a vortex.
But so was that move of Lucario's he liked to show off – the Dragon Uppercut or whatever it was.
So perhaps he could intensify it and hijack it.
Entei saw a shape prowling in the sand, and fired an Aura Sphere to keep her honest. It popped, revealing itself to be a Double Team, and he hissed.
Better make this quick.
Flame sparked around his paws and along his back as he charged up and inhaled. A heavy feeling developed in the air.
Karen's Absol blinked, from where she and her team were watching the match on television half a mile away. "I just got some very mixed messages," she muttered.
"What's that?" her teammate asked with a caw.
"It felt like there was about to be a very small volcanic eruption-"
Entei roared, using Eruption.
The column of fire that normally distinguished the move, however, did not form. Because he had used Eruption underground.
The whole surface of the arena trembled, then burst upwards at the centre in a shower of pebble-sized lumps of hot rock. All that extra heat fed into the Sandstorm, hijacking it, and Ash's Entei directed the majority of the wind by heating it in specific places.
The practical upshot of which was that Wes' Entei was hurled into the air, pelted by lumps of rock, then crashed back to the ground as it rained rocks in all directions.
Ash's Entei did not escape unscathed, either. Two or three of the smaller ones hit him in the sides and back, then a particularly large piece of glowing stone bounced off his chest and made him cough, winded.
It seemed, though, as if that had been as much as his opponent could handle. Entei waited a moment longer, to give her the chance to stand again (and get his breath back) – then roared again, this time in triumph.
"Well done, Entei!" Ash called. "That was pretty cool!"
He looked at the smouldering crater, the piles of rocks, and the irritated Alakazam levitating the debris down to ground level. "I think you might have overdone it, though..."
The referee coughed in the smoke. "Uh... I guess... Ash Ketchum wins?" he said, questioningly. "Why were there so many Legendary Beasts?"
"Some of them are Orrean!" Wes shouted. "Long story!"
"That was great fun!" Molly said with a smile. "Are you that powerful?"
"Not quite, Molly," her friend Suicune told her. "Not yet. We're working on it, though, when we get the time. A lot now, actually, since most Legendaries of Johto and Kanto are in the building."
"I do wonder who's taking over their duties, though..." the shiny Raikou mused. "Lugia, especially."
"Oh, not again..." Lugia sighed. "Silver?"
"Yes, momma?" Silver replied, looking up from playing a game of polo with Slowking.
"Stay here for a bit, okay? Ask Slowking to call Melody over if you're bored. I've got to go and teach some naughty Birds a lesson."
She spread her wings, and took off into the sky over Shamouti Sound.
"It's good of her to do this," Slowking said placidly.
"I guess..." Silver nodded, and swung his neck. "Hey, look, it went through the hoop that time!"
"You've got good aim," Slowking smiled.
There was an explosion out over the sound.
"Momma's powerful," Silver said, glancing up at the very one-sided battle. "Lots more since that time she got all scary."
Overhead, another Shadow Blast cannoned out and smacked into the fleeing Moltres.
"And stop setting fire to the other islands!" Lugia shouted after him as he dove for safety on Fire Island.
Professor Oak sat back. "Well," he said, shaking his head. "That was impressive..."
A roar sounded outside.
"Oh, what is it now..." he asked the air.
A Charizard, Damos replied promptly.
"Thanks," Oak nodded, and stood. "I wonder who that could be..."
He opened the door, and was confronted by the Charizard Damos had mentioned.
"Hello-" he began, then stopped. "...I know you, don't I?"
The Charizard nodded, looking a little shame-faced.
"Oh, dear me..." Oak said, shaking his head. "Don't be ashamed, Charizard! I knew you were going, and I gave my blessing. I'm glad you've come back at all – it means a lot to me."
He stepped back from the door. "Do come inside – I'll get some of that pocky you like."
Charizard perked up, and he growled a question.
I can translate for you, Damos volunteered. Free of charge.
62
"Hey, Ash?" Pikachu asked, looking over the bracket list as they waited in the box.
"What is it?"
"Remember who Jon Dickson was? The name seems familiar."
"I think..." Ash blinked. "Oh, wait. Yeah, I remember him. Last time. We didn't fight him, but..."
"Oh, yeah. Oh." Pikachu blinked. "What's up with the random slot assignment for this tournament? First Wes, now the guy who won this last time around."
Ash shrugged. "I'll take it over Rocket attacks every other day."
"True..."
"Will both contestants send out their first Pokémon?" the announcer asked. "And a reminder that this is a six-Pokémon match!"
"Right!" Ash said, taking his first 'ball. "Meganium, go!"
Meganium materialized on the field. She took a breath, and let it out. "Right."
Her opponent formed a moment later – a finned blue Vaporeon, tilting its head to regard her.
For a couple of seconds, they both looked for an opening.
"Ice beam!" Jon called, and Vaporeon sprang forwards.
Meganium waited for a moment longer, until the Water-type was preparing his Ice Beam, and then shook out her leaf. Petals shot forth, forming a dense cloud around her in the twinkling of an eye, and she nodded forwards. "Petal Blizzard!"
Vaporeon's Ice Beam crashed into the cloud of petals, freezing them and making them shatter or fall to the floor, but was unable to do more than keep a tunnel open for the Water-type to run up – it didn't have the throughput to actually break past and damage Meganium, at least not at first.
Seeing that the beam's leading edge was approaching her, Meganium kept up the blizzard of pinkish blossom. Her vines whipped out, reaching for the Vaporeon's tail, and she managed to snag him with her second attempt.
The Ice Beam splashed across her flank just as she caught him, and she winced before pulling with all her strength. The Vaporeon yelped as it was unceremoniously thrown into the distance, then dissolved into a ball of water before it hit the ground and reconstituted once it had finished splashing.
Meganium exhaled a cloud of glowing pollen over her own flank, healing herself a little, then ran to one side as she was targeted by a jet of Icy Wind.
Her flower pulsed, and she salvoed out a dozen Magical Leaves which homed in on her opponent – and the Vaporeon dissolved back into water again, so the attacks barely did anything.
"That's going to be tricky," she mused, electing to fire some more Razor Leaves to try and catch him when he reformed. Unfortunately, though, Jon's Pokémon seemed to be familiar with this trick – he stayed liquid for several seconds, then jumped back to solidity as soon as her barrage paused and began a quicksilver run across from one side of the arena to the other.
Catching her breath, Meganium launched into a Leaf Tornado – spraying much of the battlefield with leaves, though they were so diffuse that only one or two actually connected.
"Blizzard!" Jon shouted, and Vaporeon jack-knifed into a turn that avoided the main focus of Meganium's attack before firing a wet, swirling cloud of cold air and water at her.
Meganium stepped back, wincing, and took the brunt of the icy attack with a grimace. Frost formed on her petals, and she shook it off as soon as it began to fade.
She began to heal herself again, then switched tactics abruptly and fired a Seed Bomb at her opponent.
That connected – caught off-guard, Vaporeon didn't have the time to go liquid, and the blast blew him halfway across the arena.
Meganium healed the worst of the ice damage, frowning at the sight of her browned petal-tips, then summoned another wave of petals and streamed them forwards as her opponent came back in.
"Meganium's having a few problems doing good damage," Ash said, frowning. "Perhaps she needs to – yeah. Meganium!"
Meganium began to turn to him, but was abruptly a bit busy. Vaporeon launched a wave of water at her, melding into it and attacking out of it at unusual angles as it crashed to the ground, and Meganium's petal blizzard tightened in around her body for defence.
Vaporeon got hit painfully as he tried to jump out, then just as he retreated Meganium blasted the petals out in all directions and hit him solidly.
"Yeah?" she asked, as Vaporeon hit the wall with a splash in water-form.
"Sweet Scent!" Ash ordered. "As much as you can do!"
"Right!" Meganium replied, and began to pump the soothing, distracting pollen out from her flower. It filled the air as a faint pink mist, and Vaporeon paced around the outside of it – not wanting to get closer.
"Okay, Vaporeon!" Jon called, frowning. "Blow that scent away with an Icy Wind!"
Vaporeon nodded, and inhaled – building the power for another Ice attack. He launched it, and immediately ran up behind it as he sustained it – carving a shimmering-blue path into the pinkish mist.
The Meganium watched him coming, and her vines whipped out again. Vaporeon dodged left, then right, tail whipping around to stabilize him and keep him inside the swept zone, and then he was close enough and dropped the Icy Wind to instead fire a full-on Blizzard.
The attack crashed out, breaking easily through a petal shield the Meganium threw up, and Vaporeon had just enough time to feel gratified before he felt the vines coming back for another go.
Instinctively, he used Acid Armor to dissolve into a puddle of water, and the Sweet Scent cloud closed over him.
...that may not have been the best plan, he thought to himself. Mentally gathering himself, he jumped back out of his puddle-form to try and either hit Meganium with another attack to finish her off or just to gain a greater distance before trying something else.
Neither happened. Instead, as soon as he emerged, a horizontal tornado of petals and leaves and grass hit him and drove him into the arena wall.
It did smell nice, though. There was that.
Meganium panted as the Leaf Storm aftereffect bit into her reserves.
There was at least half an inch of ice cracking off her front, her petal was very cold indeed and she was fairly sure that if she moved her antennae they'd turn out to have snowballs on them.
But, as her attack faded, she was fairly sure she'd handled the Vaporeon.
"Good work," she heard the other trainer say, returning his unconscious Vaporeon.
"Ash?" she asked, plaintively. "Can I have a rest now, please?"
"Sure!" Ash told her, and she vanished in a beam of red light.
"That was pretty cool," Max said, adjusting his glasses slightly. "I guess the type advantage was all over the place there – Meganium had the upper hand on type, but Vaporeon was really good at avoiding taking that kind of damage."
"Right," Norman agreed with a nod. "Some Pokémon have unique powers which make the normal type chart nearly meaningless. I actually think an Ice-type attack would have worked best against it, to try to freeze it in puddle form."
"Ice-type, eh..." May grinned. "Hey, maybe I could try something with Wartortle and Glaceon..."
Her expression sobered for a moment. "I miss them."
Caroline squeezed her hand wordlessly.
"Hey, look!" Max said, pointing to the arena. "They're sending out their next Pokémon!"
Jon's Rapidash formed first, a fine mare with a sleekly groomed coat. She stamped a hoof, glaring proudly across at her opponent as he formed.
"That's a Shiny Pokémon, isn't it?" Caroline asked. "Your friend is very lucky, they're so rare!"
"Right, you fine filly, let's do this," Noctowl said, flapping his wings and ascending. He soared skywards in a glide, letting his momentum die down until he hung for a moment in the air, then turned downwards and accelerated.
White wakes formed around his wings, and he rolled out of the way of a Flamethrower before spinning off a pair of Air Slashes and pulling back up.
The blades of wind struck Rapidash across the side, and she snorted with contempt before launching another jet of flame skywards. It washed across Noctowl's path just ahead of him, and he wove skilfully out of a collision course with the flaming blast.
He performed another flip, spinning wind around his tail, and dove in with his wings crackling with golden fire. "Tally-ho!"
Rapidash broke into a canter, and then a gallop, circling the arena with a trail of fire behind her flying hooves. Her movement forced Noctowl into a tighter turn, and his Sky Attack failed to connect as she jinked away from his path.
Leaning forwards on her forelegs, Rapidash kicked out behind her at Noctowl – aiming to knock him down. The hooves whistled around him, and he wove a complicated path to dodge below her first swipe and come out from under her body barrel before she could readjust.
As a parting gift, he spun off another Air Slash and flicked it along her flank. That didn't actually hurt her much, but it did seem to make her annoyed.
Ash watched the battle, squinting against the occasional flashes of intense flame. "Good work, Noctowl!" he called. "Keep it up!"
"Why haven't you sent me out yet?" Pikachu grumbled.
"I want to see what he's got," Ash told him. "I only really know he's got a Rhyhorn..."
"I can handle a Rhyhorn any day," the Electric-type muttered, shaking his head. He sighed. "I know, I know, let everyone else have a go... but I'm getting bored."
"You seemed to be having fun sparring with Raikou last night," Ash pointed out.
"Beaning him in the head with his own signs, you mean. Volt Crash is not a toy!"
Rapidash shook her mane out, sparks falling from it, and broke into a canter again. She crouched, legs bunching, and sprang into the air in a Bounce.
Noctowl rolled sideways, trying to get away from her as she climbed, and she launched out a Fire Blast which forced him to abandon his attempt to get away.
Turning towards her as she reached the apex, Noctowl fired an Extrasensory, and Rapidash shook her head before forming a curtain of flame all across her body and kicking out at Noctowl.
He burst.
Rapidash blinked, before falling back earthwards and landing lightly. "What-"
"Noctowl!" Ash called. "Any luck?"
"Dashed if I've been trying and trying, but she's not really being hurt much!" Noctowl said, dropping his illusion and revealing himself to be hovering just in front of Ash's box. "That's one resistant Rapidash!"
"Okay," Ash said, frowning, as Rapidash began to come over. "Keep it up, though – you'll do some damage eventually!"
"Agreed, but it might take a while..."
Rapidash arrived, horn stabbing forwards, and discovered that Noctowl had left another double.
Another version of the Flying-type dropped down towards her, and she kept one eye on it as it formed an Air Slash and attacked.
This time, she paid more attention, and felt the impact of an Extrasensory on her flank just as the Air Slash hit. It felt subtly different, enough she could tell now she was paying attention...
She pushed out a wave of flame in all directions, which popped the illusion but didn't do much beyond that.
"I think I've lost track," Norman said quietly, as Rapidash burst illusion after illusion with waves of flame. "Where's Ash's Noctowl?"
"I have no idea," his daughter replied. "I think only Ash knows, because he can apparently do things like that now."
Rapidash looked around, flanks heaving.
Where was the infernal Noctowl!?
She'd landed dead-on hits on what had looked like him at least twenty times now, and of course none of them had been the real-
"Overheat to your left!" her trainer snapped.
Rapidash didn't question it. She turned, and launched out a sudden intense torrent of flame.
There was a pop, and a caw, and Noctowl rose out of the blast on smouldering wings. He flapped hard, smoke streaming from his feathers, and managed to get out of the attack basket.
"Ow," he said faintly, glancing back and noticing his tail was smouldering. "I've only gone and bally well caught fire, haven't I?"
Ash waited a moment, then called out. "Noctowl, you may as well come back! Good work!"
"Positively delighted to be back, old bean..." Noctowl replied, just before Ash returned him.
"Right." Ash frowned, judging the state of his opponent's Rapidash. Kind of tired, but still ready for a fight... and if she went back now, then she'd just be back stronger.
His best choice was probably-
"Lapras!"
As Lapras appeared, Jon did his own set of calculations.
Rapidash was tired, right enough, but she could probably keep it up for a bit longer. And at least she had a trick up her... well, hooves.
"Stay out there!" he called, and Rapidash gave him a proud glance before turning back to her opponent.
Before Lapras even hit the stadium floor, he fired out a blast of water.
Not at Rapidash, though – at the ground, which was still uncomfortably warm from all the times the Fire-type had stampeded over it.
There was a hiss, and the grass cooled and stopped smouldering. Lapras followed that up with a blast of ice, creating a cold area to rest on – then had to switch to Hydro Pump to ward off a blast of flame from Rapidash.
The duel of attacks went on for several seconds, with the Fire Blast blowing water droplets in all directions, and when it ended a large section of the arena floor near the centre was dampened – if still quite hot.
Wasting no time, Lapras fired another Ice Beam at it, and pushed off with his flippers to gain mobility on the now-frosty ground.
"That's an interesting trick," May mused. "I'll have to remember that one, it could be useful."
Norman nodded, as Lapras skidded sideways and fired a Hydro Pump at Rapidash. She whirled and cantered out of the way, before countering with a blast of flame aimed at the floor – trying to melt Lapras' icy rink, to no particular avail. "I'm more used to Normal-types, of course, but I suppose an aspiring Coordinator has to think in terms of all the types."
May nodded. "Skitty, uh, will have Blizzard, she uses it a lot."
"That must be nice," Caroline said with a smile. "Oh, look-"
Another blast of flame from Rapidash collided with a Hydro Pump from Lapras. This time the water overpowered the flame, and made it nearly to the Fire-type before Lapras had to pause to recharge.
"Now!" Jon called suddenly.
Rapidash pounced forwards, stampeding towards the startled Lapras with flame-mane and tail whipping in the wind she made as she ran. Flame began to spread across her body in a Flare Blitz, and she whinnied a challenge to her foe.
Lapras blinked, not sure how this made much sense, then decided to capitalize on it and sent forth another Hydro Pump.
Eyes closed and steam hissing off her form as the water fought with her Flare Blitz, Rapidash powered up the stream. She slowed just before she reached Lapras, and thrashed out with her hooves-
"Look out!" Ash called, a little late, as he realized what was about to happen.
Rapidash slammed home a Double Kick into Lapras' body either side of his neck, making him cry out in pain and skid backwards. Panting, she followed up with another hoof-blow, hitting Lapras in the side this time, and then he got his act back together and skated backwards out of the way – splashing an Ice Beam across her side as she tried to follow.
The chill, coming on top of her earlier exertions, was too much for Rapidash. She stumbled, hard hooves slipping on the icy ground, and then fell to her knees.
There was a flash of red light as Jon recalled her, and Ash frowned – wondering what he'd send out next.
Ash could see why he'd won the tournament last time. His Pokémon certainly had a lot of skill, so far at least...
As he was wondering whether to switch Lapras out, Jon's third Pokémon materialized.
"A Rhyhorn..." he said to himself. "Okay, Lapras, see what you can do!"
Lapras nodded to him, then turned back to the battle.
"This is a tricky one..." Max mused. "Rhyhorn has a major weakness to Water, but they learn a lot of attacks with effective types – and Lapras is already tired."
"And some of those moves are Rock-type, yes," Norman agreed. "Good spot."
"I guess this is a battle where the first moves really matter," May said.
Rhyhorn's body-plates glowed and flashed red, and then he pounced – far, far faster than Lapras was expecting, startling him.
Rocketing forwards under the effect of Rock Polish, Rhyhorn covered the distance between himself and Lapras at a run. He rammed into the Ice-type, knocking Lapras' neck aside and making his hasty Ice Beam miss, then followed that up with a point-blank Rock Blast that only added to Lapras' woes.
The force of the impacts did give Lapras a chance to recover a bit, sending him skidding backwards as far as the icy area extended, and he capitalized on it by firing a blast of water at Rhyhorn.
Rhyhorn grunted as the water struck home, and then stamped his foot on the ground.
There was a crackle, then an almighty BANG as Rhyhorn fired a Thunder at Lapras from the tip of his horn.
The blow arced over Lapras' body, fizzling between points on the shell, and when it faded the Water-type was out for the count.
Max blinked. "...or, okay, maybe it's not so tricky. Whoa!"
"I didn't know Rhyhorn could learn Electrical moves," May blinked.
"They've got quite a talent for learning unusual moves," Caroline smiled. "My main rival when I was doing the Kanto circuit years ago had a Rhyhorn – she taught it everything from Ice Beam to Fire Blast."
"I didn't know you had a rival," May said, interested.
"We'll discuss it later, look," Caroline told her.
"Great..."Ash said, wincing as he recalled Lapras. "Pikachu, I guess you're the last-ditch option for handling that Rhyhorn... I'll try Meganium first, though. We've already seen his Water-type."
"So you're going to send her out because he's unlikely to have something else she's good against," Pikachu nodded. "Right."
"That's the plan," Ash agreed. He sent out Meganium, who looked a little more hale than she had before.
Jon replied by promptly withdrawing Rhyhorn. He took a moment to switch, and then sent out a Jolteon.
"Okay, Meganium!" Ash called. "Just do your best!"
Meganium nodded, and took a deep breath.
"Okay," she said, giving her opponent a quick look. "Petal Blizzard!"
Petals formed from her flower, drifting in the wind for a fraction of a second, then came rocketing forwards towards Jolteon.
Jolteon bolted to his side, dodging away from the shower of plant material, and fired a crackling bolt of electricity back. Meganium blocked with her vines, using them to conduct the blast into the floor before it could reach her, and for a moment there was an uneasy silence.
This time, Jolteon broke with it first. He darted forwards, avoiding a vine-blow from Meganium, and jinked to the side just before he would have hit her. Meganium's Petal Dance went mostly wide, only a few of the sharp petals hitting her opponent, and Jolteon was able to make his next attack mostly unopposed.
Electricity snapped between the tips of his sharp yellow fur, and arced forwards – enveloping Meganium in a cocoon of snapping, crackling electricity.
"Ow..." she muttered, shaking her head and releasing a cloud of scent. The Aromatherapy ate away at the paralysis, but by the time she could move again Jolteon was some distance away – and attacking again.
"Look out!" Ash called, suddenly recognizing it. "That's Pin Missile!"
As he said it, Jolteon fired.
A barrage of white missiles sprayed out from Jolteon's fur in all directions, then converged on Meganium.
She crouched, bending her knees for a moment, and pushed off with her vines and all her strength – sending her skywards, in a forwards leap towards Jolteon.
Several of the missiles crashed into the ground, throwing up dirt, but the rest changed course and soared up after Meganium.
"Behind you!" Ash shouted to her, and she heard him – summoning another storm of petals and directing them back along the path she'd taken, forcing the Bug attack to chew through the petals before reaching her.
They still hurt as they hit home in a series of miniature explosions, but she was able to handle it. Her petal storm switched directions as she landed, barraging towards Jolteon and catching him a glancing blow on the flank.
Her reward was a second salvo of Pin Missiles, and this time Jolteon was ready for her. He kept up the barrage as she dodged skywards, and the strain of keeping up the Petal Dance coupled with the damage from the impacts was too much.
She crashed back to the stadium floor in a rain of petals, wobbled for a moment, and fell forwards.
Ash recalled her. "Good work, Meganium. You deserve a rest."
He switched 'balls. "Okay, Quilava, you go! Show that Jolteon what fast means!"
Quilava appeared on the stadium floor, flared her quills, and faced Jolteon.
Then she began to speak.
"For what you've done today – for the terrible pain you've inflicted on one of the sun's proud children, you will be punished! In the name of the sun, I will defeat you!"
Jolteon blinked. "...you what?"
May blinked, as she read off what Quilava had just said. "Huh. I always thought Ash said Squirtle was the Otaku..."
"Oh, no," Pikachu groaned. "Not another one."
"Squirtle was bad enough," Ash agreed.
Quilava shook her head, grinning. "Nah, I'm messing with you. I just like the show, I'm not obsessed... mainly, I wanted to shock my trainer."
She balled up, and darted forwards. "Flame wheel!"
Somewhat taken aback, Jolteon was a moment late dodging and Quilava hit him in the thigh. "What the – ow!"
He shook himself. "Okay, you want a race?"
Bunching up himself, he used Agility.
"Wow, that's fast..." Max said, watching as the flame and lightning darted across the arena – Quilava tending to move in faster, gentler curves while the slightly slower Jolteon threw himself into tight corners. "I wonder if Arc could learn to move that quick..."
"Electrike are able to use electricity to power their movement, so it's possible," Norman smiled. "Just keep training!"
"Yeah, I know..." Max chuckled. "That's the impression I get from Ash, anyway..."
Turning as sharp a corner as she could manage, Quilava avoided a Thunderbolt so barely it passed through her firey ruff and launched herself into the air.
She paused for a moment, then jetted towards Jolteon's current position.
There was a yelp, and she bounced away with a feeling of satisfaction before spindashing up to speed again and evading another attack.
He'd stood still for just a moment too long. A bad mistake.
Still, the battle was taking a while, and she'd taken a hit or two already. If she got hit by a Thunderwave, that would be... inconvenient.
Dodging quickly, Quilava launched herself at the retaining wall and rolled up it. Uncoiling as she reached the apex and bounced out into the air, she located Jolteon – already preparing to hit her as she went through the air.
His Thunderbolt crossed her Fire Blast in mid air.
Jolteon was blown sideways by the force of the explosion, smoke and ash streaked with mud across his flank, and stumbled back to his feet as the smoke cloud faded.
Quilava came off only a little better. The Thunderbolt strafed along her side as she moved, and she let out a cry of pain before balling up to take the landing.
She bounced twice before coming to a stop, and winced. "Ow."
"Look out!" Ash called.
Quilava looked to her side just as Jolteon came in and hit her with a slashing Thunder Wave.
The electricity crackled across her fur and locked up her muscles, and she grimaced as her opponent came to a halt halfway across the field.
She gave him a baleful look, and he smirked.
"Care to give up?" he asked.
Quilava frowned, shuddering briefly as another pulse of electricity crackled across her body, and shook her head. "Pikachu shocks harder."
She took a deep breath, then dipped her head under her body and used Flamethrower.
The blast of fire acted as an impromptu form of jet propulsion, and she bounced twice painfully on the ground as she shot towards the surprised Jolteon.
Then she used Eruption.
The blast produced a towering column of flame in the centre of the arena, and when it faded Quilava was barely able to keep to her feet..
Jolteon, on the other hand, was unconscious in a heap up against the arena wall.
Ash had decided to call back Quilava even before her last-minute Eruption, and did so as Jon called his own Pokémon back.
A Slowbro replaced it, and he frowned. "Hmm... let's see... Meganium's out, Ivysaur's weak to Psychic..."
He spotted Pikachu looking eager, and smirked. "Houndoom's weak to Water..."
"Oh just send me out already!" Pikachu snapped.
"Well, if you really want to..." Ash said, then laughed. "Fine. I choose you, Pikachu!"
Max leaned forwards. "Oh, this should be good."
"Pikachu's his starter, right?" Caroline asked.
"Yeah, and he's really powerful," May assured her.
"Slowbro!" Jon called. "Amnesia!"
Slowbro frowned, confused. (This was a normal state of affairs.)
His skin glowed slightly, as the sheer force of his forgetfulness gained expression in reality – forming a barrier against attacks.
Pikachu's cheeks sparked. "Right! I've been waiting for this for days!"
A Thunderbolt slashed forwards. It hit the Amnesia barrier, crackled over it looking for purchase, and then earthed through Slowbro's tail.
"Huh?" Slowbro asked, frowning. "That hurt. Was that you?"
"Who did you think it was?" Pikachu muttered, already building up to a bigger attack.
Then a sudden powerful blast of psychic energy hit him, knocking him backwards.
"Right!" he said, shaking his head. "You get the full treatment!"
Bolts of lightning crackled outwards from Pikachu, and began to form a sphere of electricity around him. They multiplied and intensified, getting denser and denser, until Pikachu was almost covered in a ball of electricity.
Slowbro yawned, and frowned slightly- firing forwards another bolt of psionic energy.
It hit the shield, making it bend inwards as though it were a balloon in a high wind, but then snapped back to spherical and pushed the psionic pulse away.
Then it, and Pikachu, blurred into motion. He ran at high speed along the ground towards Slowbro, his Counter Shield resisting another psychic attack, and then Slowbro decided to try a Water-type attack instead.
This went poorly. Not because it was a bad idea – Slowbro cut off the attack before it reached Pikachu, so the electricity didn't conduct up the stream to him – but because Pikachu simply jumped out of his Counter Shield while the attack was being fired, using the electrostatic forces to propel him higher and out of Slowbro's line of sight.
Slowbro blinked, looking up – and met an Electroball larger than he was coming out of the sky.
It exploded as it hit Slowbro's defensive barrier, and enveloped him in a crackling curtain of lightning which pressed across the entirety of the shielding layer at once.
Then Pikachu plunged into the zone of clashing psychic and electrical energy, and slammed home a Wild Charge into the bargain.
There was an almighty CRACK, and Pikachu bounced back out of the ball of lightning faster than he'd come in.
When it faded, Slowbro was lying on his back. It was hard to tell if he was out or just staying still, but – when Pikachu started to build what was unmistakeably the same attack as Raikou had used earlier on – Jon gave up, and recalled his Pokémon as defeated.
"That was the quickest battle so far," Norman noted. "Big attacks, too – I see what you mean about how powerful Pikachu is."
"Yeah," Max agreed. "Hm... wonder what Ash's opponent's last Pokémon is?"
"We'll have to wait a bit to find out," May said, nodding. "That's the Rhyhorn again."
On seeing the Rhyhorn emerge, Pikachu's response was to grin.
"Okay, let's see if this works."
Rhyhorn blinked. "Why... why isn't your trainer recalling you?"
"He has his reasons." Pikachu's cheeks sparked, and he jumped into the air. There was a crackle, and he stuck there as he used Magnet Rise.
"...right," Rhyhorn said. He shook his head, pawed the ground, and charged.
As he did, a globe of orange energy formed in his mouth.
"That's Smack Down!" Ash warned. "Look out!"
"Don't need to tell me twice..." Pikachu said to himself, and gestured forwards.
An enormous lightning bolt BOOMed across the space between him and the Spikes Pokémon, and checked his charge – making him stumble, and letting Pikachu cancel his levitation and jump nimbly aside.
Jon blinked "What just-"
Pikachu fired another Thunderbolt, as a test, and this one splashed off Rhyhorn's hide without working.
Any hope the first one had been a fluke vanished, though, when the third attack hit – hard.
The blazing line of electricity crashed home across Rhyhorn's flank, making him jerk involuntarily at the foreign feeling of actually being affected by an Electric attack, and when it ended he shook off the tingling sensation and regarded Pikachu warily.
Jon pushed away his shock. "Okay, Rhyhorn!" he shouted. "So what if his attacks work – just treat it like fighting an Ice-type!"
Rhyhorn nodded, grateful for the advice, and winced as Pikachu strafed him with electricty again.
He raised his foreleg, and brought it down with a crash.
Pikachu yelped, and dodged the incoming Earth Power attack snaking its way along the floor. He evaded most of it, but took a hit from the fringe of the Ground-type attack with a wince.
"Might have expected I'd not have it my own way..." he said, shaking his head, and set himself before the charging Rhyhorn.
He waited a moment, until the Rock-type was nearly on him, then launched himself into the air and fired downwards with a more powerful Thunder attack.
Whatever his ability was doing wasn't very consistent – this time, the attack bounced off at first but suddenly grounded through the Ground type as he turned at bay.
Pikachu judged how much damage he'd done, and frowned. This could take a while, and all Rhyhorn needed to do was get in one solid hit with a Take Down to give him a lot of trouble-
Jumping backwards, Pikachu avoided a Megahorn and switched tactics. This time, a blue-white sphere flashed out, and Rhyhorn batted it aside with a BANG as he charged.
"...did I just see that?" Norman asked, glancing between his children. "Tell me I just saw that."
"We're as lost as you," Max reported. "Kris? We didn't just imagine that, right?"
You did not, Kris informed him. That was indeed an Electric-type attack working on a Ground-type.
Kris paused. Ah, I see. Dexter has just informed me that Pikachu has been discovered to have a new – and, as yet, not officially classified – ability.
"At this point I'm just glad there's an explanation," Norman admitted, then his attention was drawn back to the battle by a loud crash.
Pikachu's paws blurred as he fended off the shower of rocks avalanching down at him.
He destroyed one with an Aura-infused palm strike, dodged the second, jumped on the third and used it to launch himself over the fourth and fifth, and spun up an Iron Tail to smash his way straight through the last one aimed at him.
Landing with a forwards roll, he evaded an Earth Power and fired another Electric attack straight at Rhyhorn to keep him busy.
This one glanced off his horn and hit the stadium behind him, throwing up clods of earth and browned grass, and he winced.
"Rhyhorn!" Jon shouted. "Use the mud to weaken that Pikachu's attacks!"
"Great..." Pikachu muttered, shaking his head, and gathered together more electrical power.
He lashed out with a four-pronged Shock Wave, aiming to get in one last good hit before Rhyhorn was covered in mud, and was rewarded as two of the homing attacks hit true on Rhyhorn's rocky skin.
Then a familiar glow lit the stadium.
"Oh, come on!"
"Great..." Ash said, shaking his head. "How often does this happen to me?"
Both your last gym battles and two League battles so far.
"Yes, okay, thank you..."
Pikachu looked up at Rhydon. "Okay, fine. So you're bigger."
"Yep," Rhydon nodded. He slammed his foot down on the ground, and the stadium trembled as he used Magnitude.
From Pikachu's perspective, the ground dropped abruptly and left him behind, then it got a run-up and came back to hit him.
He bounced once, righted himself, and skidded to cancel the last of his momentum. "And heavier," he amended, cheeks sparking. "Okay, take this!"
An almighty Thunder attack blazed out. It crashed home on Rhydon's rocky skin, crackled over it, and made the Rock-type stagger back a step before the attack wore off.
Then Rhydon used Fire Blast.
Rather startled by the attack, Pikachu was a little slow to respond. He jumped directly away from the impact point, and discovered that Rhydon had actually planned for him to do that – though he'd rather have discovered that a bit earlier, as the realization came in the form of a Drill Run.
Hit three times by the rapidly-spinning drill before finally being knocked clear, Pikachu bounced across half the stadium before managing to brake.
"Good work, Rhydon!" Jon called. "Just keep it up a bit longer, you've got to be damaging him!"
In the back of his mind, though, there was a little alarm warning him. He had one Pokémon left after this, and Ash had several – though they were mostly tired, there was still a fresh Pokémon that could be just about anything.
After seeing three Legendary Beasts earlier, Jon couldn't help but be a bit worried about that...
Pikachu had regained his footing and was building that blue-white attack again. An Aura Sphere?
"Get him before he can use it, Rhydon! Outrage!"
His reply was a roar, and Rhydon charged – head-down and cloaked in violet energy.
How many moves does this Pokémon have? Pikachu asked himself, then realized how hypocritical he was being – what with the Aura Sphere he was about to use.
He built it for as long as he dared to as Rhydon came charging in, shaking the ground, and then smacked it with his other palm – bursting it, and producing a cloud of a dozen seeker spheres which salvoed in on Rhydon from all directions.
Using the distraction, Pikachu called on his Light Ball for a quick boost, and electricity formed around him in a great crackling layer.
It was going to take something special to handle Rhydon, right now...
He waited a moment longer, then formed just the beginning of another Aura Sphere. It had barely grown to more than the size of his closed fist when Rhydon was close enough he had to act, and he jumped – forwards, Aura Sphere first, and fuelled by the force of his Volt Tackle.
There was a very loud bang, and a swirl of dust hid the participants for a moment.
"What was that?" Caroline asked, wide-eyed. "I mean – what?"
May was glancing down at Ethan's screen. "Outrage colliding with an Aura Sphere and a Volt Tackle, apparently."
"That sounds like a painful-"
"Look!" Max interrupted.
As the dust cleared, they saw a large form lying in the dirt.
Rhydon was flat on the floor, unconscious. And, standing atop his tail with cheeks sparking wearily, was Pikachu. Panting, but still standing.
"Great work, Pikachu!" Ash called. "Come back over here now, okay?"
Pikachu was only too glad to, and hopped through the window of the box as Jon Dickson recalled his Rhydon. "That was a lot harder than I was expecting."
"At least we got proof that your ability works in battle," Ash pointed out. "Okay... right, you're tired, Quilava's tired, Noctowl's a bit tired... I think there's actually a really sensible choice here."
He took a Pokéball. "Keldeo!"
Keldeo glanced around a little nervously as he formed, trotting around in a circle as he took in the size of the crowd.
There were a few cheers, and what sounded like a strange squee noise, and he smiled uncertainly – sure, he was cute, but he didn't exactly go out of his way to be...
Jon sent out his last Pokémon a moment later, and Keldeo turned to look.
It was a Pokémon he was only passingly familiar with – Exeggcute. It was, he recalled, six egg-like seeds.
They were, now he could see them, really egg-like.
"Sunny Day!" Jon called, and the six Exeggcute eggs briefly formed a hexagonal formation before bouncing off in all directions.
As they moved, the sun brightened, and Keldeo glanced up at it before looking back down at the Exeggcute. "Uh... okay!"
He charged his horn, and swept it down. "Ice Blade!"
The scything beam of ice came slicing out, and crashed into one of the Exeggcute. It went over backwards as the icy attack detonated, twitched, and went still.
"This is easy!" Keldeo said – then gulped, as he noticed the other five.
"Solarbeam!" one said, and all five remaining eggs began to glow brightly.
Keldeo took the simplest recourse available to him, and launched himself skywards in a massive spray of water.
"...that is, I will admit, a novel way to Hydro Pump," Norman said, blinking, and shaded his eyes as the five beams of intense light refracted in all directions to fill the arena in a pretty array of spraybows. "How does that work?"
"I guess he just uses a lot of water?" Max asked. "I'm impressed he can do it under the effect of Sunny Day, though."
"I'm getting so many ideas from this," May enthused. "Wait – look."
The rest of her family followed her finger.
"...that's not good for Keldeo," Max said.
Keldeo landed a little hard, having had to work more than usual to keep his jets going, and turned at bay.
Fortunately, with the arena wall right next to him, he was much harder to surround.
He focused on one of the nearer Exeggcute, and fired an Icy Wind at it. The blast of cold knocked it out, and then he dodged aside at a gallop as streams of Bullet Seeds peppered the wall just behind him.
A moment later, one of the streams swung past him, and he jumped to avoid running into it.
This wasn't going too badly, despite how much he was being shot at.
Skidding to a halt as he arrived next to another component egg, he hit it with a Night Slash, and then five beams of intense light blazed towards him-
Five?
One of the Solarbeams – one coming from somewhere Keldeo had been sure it couldn't – hit him in the flank, spinning him around, and he winced.
The Exeggcute seemed unwilling to sustain the beam more than a second or so, though. Maybe it was how there were so many of them, they were individually weak?
Keldeo's more immediate question, though – how come there were still so many Exeggcute – was answered a moment later, as he saw the Grass-types use Synthesis.
Not only the conscious ones glowed. The unconscious one did as well, got up, and seemed just as hale as ever.
Then it got hit by an Ice Blade, and Keldeo had a second to feel faintly satisfied by that before being peppered with Bullet Seeds.
"Okay, that's a new one on me," Ash admitted, as Keldeo flashed over to Resolute Form and started to swing his Secret Sword in a series of arcs to catch incoming attacks. "How do we handle that?"
"I guess by beating them all at once?" Pikachu suggested.
"Yeah, I suppose..." Ash agreed, still frowning. "But I don't know a good way to do that, not with Keldeo's attacks..."
The salvos of seeds finally stopped, and Keldeo panted for a moment.
His neck kind of hurt after that... blocking one seed would have been easy, but blocking dozens of them in quick succession had tested his skills to the limit.
Then he saw what the six-bodied Grass-type had switched to, yelped, and jumped out of the way before half a dozen Seed Bombs blew a crater where he'd been standing.
Cantering around in a half-circle, he batted away the one bomb that managed to predict where he was going next before firing another Ice Blade at the closest egg.
The impact came just before the other five renewed their assault, and Keldeo multiplied himself with Double Team to spread the attacks. It resulted in a cacophany of bursting clones as the attacks swept the whole region of the arena he was in, then they followed him skywards as he shot into the air on wavering pillars of water.
Three clones remained of the great horde he'd produced, all standing there inert without orders.
Jon frowned. "Wait – how could he have left Double Team when he took off, his jets would – Exeggcute! That's not the real one!"
The three remaining Keldeo bolted in different directions, and the one flying overhead vanished. Jon winced – that had cost valuable time, and the Sunny Day wasn't going to last forever...
"Extrasensory!" he said.
The eggs glowed, charging beams of golden light.
One of the Keldeo turned at bay, charging a black-glowing Night Slash on his horn, and Jon pointed at it. "That one!"
The beams jetted out – and burst their target like air.
"Keldeo!" Ash called suddenly, as the final Double Team double popped under a barrage of bullet seeds and the real one deflected a Solarbeam attack. "I've got a plan!"
"Good, because I haven't!" Keldeo called back, most of his attention on parrying attacks.
"Can you do any of your blade moves as a projectile?" Ash asked.
"I think so!"
"Good – now, Hydro Pump! Head to my left!"
Following Ash's instructions, Keldeo launched himself skywards in another blast of water. This time the Exeggcute knew he was going to do it, but it still made him a harder target than he would have been on the ground as he could dodge in more dimensions.
"Land on that one and kick it into the middle of the arena!" Ash went on, with a focused intensity.
Across the field, he caught a glimpse of Jon frowning – trying to work out his plan.
Keldeo landed with a teeth-rattling impact just behind the egg indicated, and kicked it into the middle of the arena with a powerful blow of his rear hooves.
"What now-" he began.
"Fall over!" Ash said.
Keldeo blanched. "-What!?"
"Fall over, tail towards the wall!" Ash repeated.
Gulping, Keldeo trusted Ash. He leaned over, and crashed to the ground at an awkward angle.
And he saw it.
Every single Exeggcute was now in front of him. They hadn't been evenly spread, and with the one Ash had had him kick away they were all visible at the same time and along the line of the floor.
"X-Scissor!" Ash finished.
Keldeo didn't need to be told that twice. His horn flared into brilliant blue life as he poured as much energy as he could spare into it, and he swung it from 'up' to 'down' with a shout.
The silver-blue blade that resulted swiped across the arena from one side to the other, and hit all six component parts of the Grass-type in one fell swoop.
"Whoo!" May called, clapping.
She wasn't the only one. The back-and-forth battle had had everyone glued to the arena, and when Keldeo pulled off the unorthodox plan it released a wave of tension.
Keldeo clambered back to his feet, shaking his head. "My horn hurts..."
He looked up, and saw Ash climbing out of the box with Pikachu beside him. "Ash?"
Ash came over, slipping a little on the damaged ground, and grinned. "Great work, Keldeo!"
"Thanks," Keldeo said with a chuckle. "I didn't realize what you meant until I did it, but..."
"Yeah, I just... looked at it from a different angle, I guess," Ash shrugged. "Oh, wait a minute, there's something I want to do."
Jon recalled Exeggcute, and sighed.
Well, that was it for this conference, then.
Still – it had been a lot of fun. He felt he'd really made his opponent work for the win, and that was great.
"Hi!"
He looked up, and saw his opponent at the box window.
"Just wanted to say – that was an awesome battle!" Ash said, with a grin. "Seriously, I think it's a pity that wasn't one of the semifinals or finals."
Jon chuckled. "That's the most polite way of saying you beat me that I've ever heard," he joked. "Still – yeah, that was a good one."
He pointed. "You'd better win, though – I'm not losing to someone who gets knocked out in the next round!"
"I'll certainly try not to," Ash agreed, with a chuckle of his own.
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