Chương 50: 63,64
One of the perks of competing in the Silver Conference, just like all the other recognized League tournaments, was that you got a pass for the stands for the whole tournament.
People used it in different ways – most didn't really have the time to watch any matches apart from their own in the first phases, since they were usually doing last-minute training and if you watched all the matches you'd be in the stadium for hours on end – but one thing that was common was that, if someone was knocked out, they'd follow the further challenge of whoever beat them.
Jon Dickson was no different. The day after he'd been beaten, he picked his seat about five minutes before Ash's next match and sat down with a drink.
He contemplated sending one of his Pokémon out to watch with him, but really only Vaporeon and Jolteon were the right size for the seats...
"Excuse me?" someone asked, and he glanced to his side. "Are these seats taken?"
Jon shook his head. "No, go ahead."
"Thanks," the other boy said, taking one. He sent out a Blaziken, who took the seat next to him. "Sorry, there's not many other seats available, especially not two together..."
"No, it's fine," Jon assured him. "Really."
"Thanks – oh, I'm Harrison," the teen informed him.
"Jon," Jon replied. "What's your story?"
"Well..." Harrison winced. "I got knocked out earlier today. Some guy with a ridiculous Garchomp. And... well, I've heard about Ash Ketchum, so I though I'd watch his match since it sounds like it'll be interesting."
"I actually lost to him yesterday," Jon confided. "The guy's quite a sight..."
"Look!" Harrison said, interrupting him. "It's about to start!"
Jon leaned forwards. "Who's that guy he's facing?"
His new friend pulled a rumpled tournament bracket sheet out of his pocket. "Says here... he's called Samurai."
That elicited a blink. "Isn't that a job title?"
Harrison shrugged.
"I will show you how far my Bug Pokémon have come!" Samurai called. "Metapod!"
Ash blinked. "Okay, I'm kinda... whatever. Larvitar, let's see your first go!"
"Neat, he's got a Larvitar," Jon said, leaning forwards a little. "Those aren't exactly common, even around here... usually the parents object."
"Speaking from experience?" Harrison asked, amused.
"Maybe a little..."
They watched as Larvitar frowned, a little confused, and then slowly walked over to the Bug-type.
When no unexpected surprises materialized, he proceeded to punch it.
"Harden!" Samurai called, and the Metapod's case flashed and became harder.
"...have you seen any of this guy's earlier matches?" Harrison asked. "I'm kind of wondering how he got here..."
"Now, Iron Defence!"
"There's got to be something," Jon frowned. "Surely..."
As it turned out, there was something. However, it wasn't something useful.
"Well, at least most Ground types are immune to Electricity still," Jon sighed, as Larvitar pulled the Electroweb off him. "This is a bit-"
Finally getting tired, Larvitar used Hidden Power. The blow knocked Metapod for six, and when it landed it was clearly no longer able to continue the fight. (Such as it was.)
"That... was not really a League battle," Harrison winced. "How did this guy get his badges?"
"Good work for now, Larvitar!" Ash called. "Stay out there, okay?"
Larvitar glanced back and nodded, then turned to face Samurai's next Pokémon.
"Okay, that's a bit more-" Harrison began.
"Wait..." Jon said, blinking, as the Vibrava spread its wings and took off. "Is that even a bug?"
"...actually, that's a good question," Harrison admitted, glancing over at his Blaziken. "You're right, they're Ground and Dragon types – we've met them in Hoenn. Any ideas?"
Blaziken shrugged.
"Maybe it's that it looks a lot like a bug?" Jon suggested. "Even though it's technically a dragon."
"Yeah, but – wait, there it goes," Harrison said, pointing, as the green insectoid did a flip in the air before coming diving down at Larvitar.
The little Rock-type frowned briefly, and drew back his fist. When Vibrava came skimming along the arena floor, touching down for just long enough to produce an Earth Power shockwave, Larvitar jumped forwards and hit the Dragon with a punch to the face.
The force of the impact sent Vibrava skittering off across the arena, his trajectory impaired, and Larvitar landed after the Earth Power had passed him by.
"That's interesting," Harrison said. "It looks like Vibrava will need to come up with a new plan, that Larvitar's quite good near the ground."
Jon nudged him to get his attention. "Look – looks like he has."
Harrison followed his gaze. "I can't see it – what's that?"
"He's charging a Solarbeam," Jon informed him. "That's going to-"
"Bide!" Ash called, just as the Solarbeam reached firing power.
"-oh, nice work!" Jon said approvingly, as a reddish glow covered Larvitar's rocky skin. A moment later, the blaze of greenish light crashed down, and could be seen crashing off in all directions. "I didn't know that Larvitar could learn that move."
He frowned. "Mind you, I've no idea what half the moves his Keldeo used even were, so..."
Harrison shrugged. "I remember hearing there were TMs for it."
The Solarbeam faded, revealing a bright greenish glow on the surface of the red one, and – no fool – Vibrava began to dive for cover.
That was the point when Larvitar unleashed the energy he'd stored.
A column of light speared skywards, sweeping across and hitting Vibrava hard enough to blow it high into the air.
"If that Solarbeam was as powerful as it looked, then getting all that energy right back again is going to be a major pain for Vibrava," Harrison judged. "Wait a minute..."
"Huh," Jon said, shading his eyes. "That happened with me, too..."
"Three times already!" Pikachu said with a sharp sigh. "And two of the other battles it would have been impossible..."
"I don't try to make my opponent's Pokémon evolve!" Ash replied, as Flygon shook out its wings and circled. "It just happens!"
"What are these Pokémon like?" Jon asked.
"They're basically faster, stronger – everything's more powerful than a Vibrava," Harrison told him, and Blaziken nodded solemnly. "One of them was on the team which took us out of the Ever Grande conference."
As they spoke, Larvitar switched to firing Hidden Power attacks skywards. Flygon dodged around them, rolling his long green body and beating his wings with a singing buzz, and then pulled an Immelman turn and swept down towards Larvitar at speed.
Skimming across the grass, he flicked his wing away from another Hidden Power attack and grabbed Larvitar around the chest.
As tactics went, the short term return of this was mixed. Larvitar promptly bit onto one of the arms holding him and began to volley in punches, and what had been intended as a smooth manoeuvre became anything but.
"...what was he planning?" Jon asked, as Flygon flew in erratic circles, shaking his arm frantically to try to remove the clinging Rock-type.
"I think it was Superpower, actually," Harrison frowned. "Blaziken?"
A nod.
"Right – see, Blaziken knows the move, so I thought it looked familiar..."
"Guess that makes sense. It's a Fighting-type move, so..."
A moment later, Flygon managed to dislodge his passenger. Larvitar bit at the other arm, and Flygon basically just dropped him to avoid that happening – adding an Iron Tail to send Larvitar on his way.
The Rock-type curled up, Hardening, and hit the retaining wall hard enough to leave a small crack before dropping back down.
"Okay, Larvitar!" Ash called. "This isn't your kind of fight!"
He held up two Pokéballs. One drew Larvitar in, the other sent out his replacement.
"That's one sleek Pidgeot," Jon said admiringly, as the Flying-type gained height fast with a series of steady wingbeats.
She blew past Flygon at speed, avoiding his Dragon Breath attack, and his wings hummed as he accepted her challenge and followed her up into the sky overhead.
"I guess we're getting an airborne battle, too," Harrison observed.
Pidgeot decided she was about high enough, and settled down from her glide into a more flat, steady pattern.
The Flygon buzzed up after her, taking up his own glide position some distance away, and they regarded one another for a moment.
Then, as though on a signal, both accelerated hard. Pidgeot went wide, building up momentum for an attack run, and Flygon gained a little height to trade for speed if need be.
"That looks really fast," Jon blinked. "I wonder if-"
He saw the shock cloud form, and then a faint shimmer covered the roof of the stadium. It was translucent, and they could see through it fairly easily, but when the sound of the sonic boom came it was only a loud crack rather than the ear-punishing SLAM it had the potential to be.
"I heard about this, actually," Harrison observed. "Last year in Indigo his Pidgeot was making sonic booms-"
Overhead, Pidgeot reached Flygon.
"-and-"
There was a complicated clash with a pulse of wind and a flare of green dragonfire, and when it ended Pidgeot was climbing skywards with Flygon managing to ride her slipstream and stay with her.
"-they got the Alakazam to block it!" he finished. "What just happened? I missed it, it was too quick!"
Pidgeot rolled and spun, shedding her slipstream and diving, and Flygon was carried a little too high to mount an effective attack. He tried anyway, and the Dragonflame he sent forwards this time was whipped into spiral streamers by the wind of her passage before dissipating.
"Okay, I can see why he'd be impractical for fighting on the ground, but wow," Jon said.
"She, I think," Harrison corrected. He glanced at Blaziken, who nodded. "Yeah, the article said she was female."
Pidgeot rolled in, performing an eye-fooling kulbit which shed most of her speed before regaining a lot of it all over again with a powerful wingbeat. She dodged cannily away from a shower of rocks Flygon tried to hit her with by yawing, and one of the wind currents she'd left behind turned into a Razor-Wind sting in the tail which caught Flygon off guard.
She didn't have it all her own way, though. Flygon's next trick was a cloud of sand, which she didn't notice until she hit it – not that the spectators could see it, either, but the way she wobbled with sudden uncertainty showed something had happened.
Her erratic path tempted Flygon, who came in for a telling blow with his fist crackling in a Thunderpunch. The powerful Electric attack was visible from the stadium as the two Pokémon descended, and Jon frowned.
"That looks wrong, somehow," he said, pointing at Pidgeot. "That doesn't look real-"
Pidgeot abruptly proved him right.
She slammed her wings out, white air-shocks forming as she braked with an effective wing surface area over ten times her real one. Wrong-footed, Flygon shot past, and then Pidgeot brought her wings back down again.
Skilled flyer or not, Flygon was completely unready for suddenly being in Hurricane-force winds. He whirled down like a leaf in a storm, and Pidgeot sustained the blast for a few seconds before abruptly pulling up and away.
Her breast kissed the top of the stadium, drawing gasps from the crowd, and then half a second later Flygon hit the ground with a thud.
"Flygon!" they heard Samurai call. "Are you all right?"
A tail twitched feebly, then Flygon pulled his head out of the ground and shook the mud off it. He wobbled a bit, cocked his head to look upwards, and then fell over.
"...so," Jon said, casually. "What would you call that?"
"Crash damage," Harrison replied promptly.
"Okay, Pidgeot," Ash said, as he returned her. "Good work, but I'll keep you in reserve in case there's another high-flyer. Let's see..."
He looked up as the Samurai pulled out a Nest Ball. "Volcarona!"
"I thought those weren't found around here..."Pikachu blinked. "How'd he get a Volcarona?"
Ash shrugged. "Hmm... Dexter, want to give this a go?"
I think I will.
"That's a rare one," Harrison said. He blinked. "Wait, I'm saying that about someone with at least four Legendaries. Never mind."
"Is that a Porygon?" Jon asked. "They're kind of rare, yeah... I heard they're getting a bit more common now, though."
They watched as the Porygon seemed to unfold, going from his normal, almost-avian form to a kind of octagon made of pink and blue facets.
"Okay, I'll admit that looks pretty cool," Jon said, leaning forward a bit. "Wonder if it's like Vaporeon, and changing shape like that is a special way of doing a move?"
Harrison shrugged.
Faintly, they heard Samurai talking. "Fiery Dance!"
Volcarona's wings buzzed, and it began to rotate. Slowly at first, the speed it was spinning quickly increased until it was a kind of localized tornado of fire.
It wobbled in the air, and then the fires spread out. They formed a great disc in the sky, pulsing and spiralling, and focussed in towards the Porygon. It was as though the outwards-spiralling flames Volcarona was sending out were being drawn towards Porygon in a mirror-image inwards spiral.
There was a flash, and the pink facets turned red just before the flames swept down.
For several seconds, the fire poured in. Then light shone from behind the flaming wall.
The red-and-pink petals burst outwards, knocking the flames away, and a beam of tri-coloured energy salvoed out at Volcanora. The Bug-type was forced to temporarily abandon its attack, and produced instead a shroud of flame to obscure its location before dodging away under the cover of the incandescent display.
"That's pretty flashy," Jon observed. "I'd expect that attack to have done more damage, though..."
"Actually..." Harrison leaned forwards slightly, squinting. "I think the fire component of the Tri Attack is stronger. The Porygon changed type."
"Can they do that?" Jon asked.
"Apparently – I know Pokémon like Kecleon can, but I've never had a Porygon, so-"
The roar of flame intensified. It seemed Volcarona had picked its next course of action, and waves of heat pulsed out.
"Bit of a one-trick Pokémon, isn't it?" Jon commented, raising his hand reflexively against the heat.
"Well, maybe it just has good Fire moves... or maybe all the moves it has are basically resisted by Fire."
He shook his head. "With that much heat, I'd be worried for Blaziken..."
Blaziken gave him a considering look, then shrugged.
"I wonder what the Porygon's going to do, though," he went on. "Apart from that Tri Attack, it's been very passive."
Harrison had spoken too soon. Dexter reformed from a basic diamond-shape to a more purely offensive tri-pointed cannon, which then fired a blast of electrical energy forwards in a Shock Wave.
Forming flaming walls to shield itself, Volcarona spun skywards away from the crackling beam of electricity. The attack curved, however, twisting up to follow its' foe, and bulled through one of the walls to deliver a fairly convincing hit.
That did not make Volcarona happy at all. It spun faster, a glowing halo of energy forming as it did, and produced a complicated pattern of fireballs which salvoed back towards the Porygon and made him shift to a defensive pentagonal-prism with a Light Screen protecting him.
The situation was further complicated as the grass, for the umpteenth time this tournament, caught fire.
The next few minutes were oddly beautiful, if a bit abstract. The smoke clouds that roiled up made it hard to see anything but the light of a particularly bright section of the fire, and it was hard to tell if the Pokémon inside could see one another either – but the constant crash and rumble of firey blasts combined with the infernal lighting from inside the smoky cloud to give an altogether otherworldly feel.
Eventually, inevitably, the grass burned off entirely. The smoke began to fade, pulled by powerful updrafts, and Volcarona sped it on its way with a whirlwind.
A beam of reddish light played across it as it did so.
"Is that a Lock On?" Harrison asked.
"I guess it must be," Jon agreed, as Volcarona's attention shifted to the Porygon again. It fired a powerful blast of flame – an Overheat, which washed down the sides of the attack-form the Porygon was in – and for a moment it seemed to have forestalled whatever its opponent was planning, as Ash's Pokémon drifted towards the floor.
Then the Porygon fired its Zap Cannon.
The potent, if inaccurate, attack hit and crackled over Volcarona's wings – locking them up with a burst of electricity, and reducing the Bug-type to hovering in place.
"That's a good hit, but is it enough?" Jon asked, glancing at the falling Porygon. It hit the floor none-too gently, still in a long, thin offensive form, and wobbled for a moment before seeming to stand itself fully upright again.
Sharpen.
"Did you say that?" Harrison said.
"No, wasn't me..."
Sharpen. Sharpen.
With each repetition, the cannon-form changed slightly. It narrowed up, the opening at the top becoming narrower until it was sealed before slimming down to a needle-like sharpness, and the base thickened and broadened until the result was a long, thin pentagonal pyramid.
Then it trembled, before rocketing skywards with a crackle of residual electricity.
Aerial Ace.
Volcarona had managed to shake off the paralysis, but it didn't help.
Dexter's form for this was fast enough that the Bug-type could barely move half its own length in the time it took him reach the target, and the powerful blow caught Volcarona on the lower abdomen.
It flipped twice before managing to stabilize, and that was enough time for Dexter to repeat the attack – from above, this time.
The Volcarona's fiery body was clearly having an effect, but not enough of one – Dexter drove his opponent into the floor, reformed swiftly into a five-pointed petal facing directly down, and added a Hyper Beam to the trouble Volcarona was in.
When the dust cleared, Volcarona was clearly out of it.
"...Porygon are strange," Jon decided, and Harrison nodded confirmation.
There was a pause, as both Pokémon were returned. The Samurai sent out his next one first, a glossy-looking Pinsir, and then Ash produced a Tauros.
"Oh, I heard about this..." Harrison mused. "Someone was talking to me about it yesterday. Apparently he used three Tauros, and they all had different moves."
"Right," Jon said. "Did you hear what they were?"
"One of them walked on water, if you can believe it..." Harrison said, to a startled look. "I know. And – look, they're starting!"
Tauros stamped the floor, then thundered forwards. He was met by Pinsir, who lowered his horns, and they clashed – horn against horn.
The two pushed at one another for a few seconds, then backed off as if by mutual agreement before coming in again.
"Okay, so I don't see much water..." Harrison said. "So I guess it's one of the other ones?"
"What did they have?"
"There was one with Counter, and the other one had Solarbeam." The Hoenn trainer frowned. "But I guess if this was the Solarbeam one then it wouldn't be able to use it much – we might not find out."
Another bang of impact, then Pinsir's grip improved. It fell backwards, levering Tauros into the air, and slammed him down with a crash.
Tauros shook his head, and replied by Stomping at Pinsir's hide.
"Storm Throw!" Samurai called, and Pinsir adjusted its grip slightly. A glow built around its pincers, and it then lifted Tauros up again – and over.
The bull hit the ground upside-down with a painful-sounding crash, and rolled over befoe getting up as quickly as possible. Pinsir drove in another hard, painful hit before Tauros managed to gallop clear.
"That's just nasty," Jon winced. "I think my back kinda tingles myself now... hey, what's the Pinsir doing?"
Rather than pursuing, Pinsir was flexing. A reddish glow began to build around its body, and it seemed to be bulkier.
"That's Bulk Up, I think," Harrison told him. "I guess maybe it's to counteract the effect of that Superpower?"
Tauros was coming in again, this time with his head down and his horns glowing. The two Pokémon collided with a bang, bounced off a little, and began grappling again.
"Good!" Samurai called, watching Pinsir carefully. "Don't let him Counter you!"
That was what he was most worried about, so it made sense to assume it was that one. If he was wrong it wouldn't have much in the way of repercussions...
"Right!" he added. "Now, push him away!"
Pinsir tossed his head, sending Tauros hurtling off to the other side of the arena. He bounced once, rolled, and got up.
"Wonder why Pinsir did that?" Harrison began, then they heard Ash's voice.
"Now!" Ash shouted.
Tauros nodded, shaking his head, and began to storm forwards.
"Okay!" Samurai shouted. "Hyper Beam!"
Light began to glow on Pinsir's horns.
Then Tauros used Fire Blast.
"What the-!?" Jon gasped, as the flame shot forwards. The orange Hyper Beam lashed out a moment later, piercing through the middle of it, but the five outer lines kept going.
Both Pokémon were enveloped in explosions at once.
"You didn't mention Fire Blast!" Jon said, blinking.
"I didn't know about it!" Harrison replied. "Are they just three really talented ones, or does he have loads?"
The smoke began to clear, revealing that both were still standing – though, in both cases, it was a close-run thing.
Tauros shook his head, looking a little dazed, and charged forwards. His horns flashed, as he prepared a fairly straightforward Horn Attack.
As he arrived, though, Pinsir swung down his horns, and a glow enveloped them.
They snapped shut on the charging Tauros' neck-ruff, and the Guillotine attack triggered – knocking Tauros out.
Unfortunately for Pinsir, doing that to a charging Tauros didn't make it stop moving. The Bug-type was rammed back into the wall, took a wobbling step out of the crater, and slumped forwards.
Ash returned Tauros, and frowned.
Now it was his turn to send one out first. Who to pick...
"Noctowl!" he decided, sending the avian out.
Samurai threw his own Pokéball a moment later, and a Vespiquen emerged.
"Right, let's get to it!" Noctowl said, dipping his wings. "Time to be about it, and all that rot."
"I beg your pardon, good sir?" the Vespiquen said, hovering in the air with her arms folded. "Do you seriously inform me that you intend to challenge Her Majesty?"
Noctowl blinked. "...what, what?"
"I may have the body of a Bug and Flying type, but I have the Power Gem of a Rock-type!" she informed him, making a gesture, and Noctowl was forced to bank away from a hexagonal gemstone moving rather faster than was safe.
"That's just not cricket!" he replied, spinning off an illusion and phasing out of visibility.
"Tallyho!" the Vespiquen responded, and dozens of miniature Combee doubles swarmed out of her dress. They spread out across the stadium, until one of them hit something invisible and the others began to converge on that location.
"Extra-bloody-sensory!" Noctowl shouted, forcing them away in a pulse of psionic energy, and salvoed in Air Slashes at his opponent.
"Protect me, my guards!" Vespiquen said sharply. More miniature Combee appeared from her abdomen, forming a wall which took the impact of the Flying-type attack, and Noctowl used the distraction to phase out of visibility again.
Vespiquen sent out the Attack Order again, and there was nothing for several seconds. Then Noctowl briefly flickered into visibility, and she ordered a concentration on him there – only to be hit by a sudden Air Slash from behind her, revealing that the first flicker had actually been a fake.
"You are no knight, but a knave!" she hissed, calling on her bees to heal her... somehow.
"I resent that implication and all it stands for!" Noctowl replied hotly, and flicked a wing away from renewed attack by another Power Gem.
"What." Ash said, blinking.
"I think they're having a Battle of Brit-ing," Pikachu observed.
Ash gave him a glare. "That was terrible."
"...you're right, it was. Sorry."
"You had to fight this one, right?" Harrison asked, as Noctowl jinked back and forth across the stadium.
"Yeah, I-" Jon paused, as another Noctowl was swarmed by bees and turned out to be a fake. "I don't really follow how illusions like this work... anyway, yeah, my Rapidash had trouble with him."
"Right." Harrison said. "By the looks of things, there's not much that you could do against him... what did you end up having to do to find him?"
"Actually, it was mostly because of all the smoke and flame," Jon said. "He disturbed it, and I managed to spot a ripple in the smoke quick enough to let Rapidash know about it in time."
"That's pretty impressive, I'll admit," Harrison said, then both were interrupted by a sudden amplification of the buzzing sound from the battlefield.
Vespiquen had apparently tired of the situation. She was sending out huge numbers of bees to sweep the whole battlefield, sweeping her arms as she ordered them around.
"Question," Jon said, blinking. "How, exactly, is this one Pokémon?"
"...I think they're constructs?" Harrison asked, uncertainly. "Probably?"
"It's even more confusing than Zweilous..."
After a minute, Vespiquen turned with an air of triumph and pointed.
"Aha! The blaggard is revealed!" Vespiquen crowed, as Noctowl began to lose his cloak due to the sheer number of bugs clinging to him.
"You have me at a disadvantage, madame..." he muttered, trying to shake the Combee-constructs off.
"Now, witness the power of this Royal Bee Force! Attack!"
Dozens of red glows began to light up the whole arena, as the Bug Buzz attacks charged.
"Pity, really..." Noctowl mused, shaking his head. "You only went and forgot the most British thing of all."
Vespiquen frowned.
"Why, to spit fire of course!" Noctowl's eyes flashed, and his beak opened. "Heat Wave!"
The spherical blast of flame sent the constructs showering in all directions, and Vespiquen hissed. "No! Off with his top hat!"
"It's only a bally illusion," Noctowl muttered, and flapped hard. He carved a path of flame through the bee formation, and dove down on Vespiquen with an air of smugness.
"Destiny Bond!" she managed, the moment before he hit, and there was a flash of fire and smoke which flashed from Combee to Combee and sent her whole construct force up in smoke.
It smelled of wax and honey.
When the scented smoke cloud had streamed out of the roof, both Pokémon were crashed in long furrows on the arena floor.
"You know..." Jon frowned. "I have this vague sense that we missed something there."
Blaziken held in a snicker.
Harrison shrugged. "Let's see.. okay, the bug guy has one Pokémon left, and Ash has... well, his Pidgeot, which isn't very manoeuvrable in tight spaces; his Larvitar, which is kind of slow; that Porygon, who seemed pretty hurt... and whatever else he's got now. Well, I guess the bug guy could pull it out of the hat..."
Samurai sent out his last Pokémon, and the Hoenn trainer blinked. "Okay, wasn't expecting that..."
"What is it?" Jon asked.
"It's an Armaldo – they're fossils. Where'd he get that?"
"I guess... the ground?" Jon asked.
"...yeah, fair point," Harrison admitted with a laugh.
Ash sent out his own Pokémon, and they examined it.
"Well... it's a Kingler," Jon said, not sure what else to say about it.
"Is that kind of like a Crawdaunt?" Harrison asked.
"...I'd know if I knew what a Crawdaunt was."
"They're kind of crustaceans. Big claws, Water and Dark type..."
"Oh, okay." Jon frowned. "No, they're just pure Water."
Kingler flexed his claws, and advanced on the Fossil. Armaldo examined him for a moment, then accepted the challenge and advanced.
There wasn't much subtlety to this particular battle. The ancient Fossil and the more modern crab engaged one another in a brutal, percussive slugfest.
Claws clashed against pincers, Armaldo working up a rhythm with his Fury Cutters in between the occasional blast of water from Kingler's Crabhammers as they impacted.
"There doesn't seem to be any strategy going on," Jon said, sounding a bit disappointed. "I mean, it's alright, but..."
His new friend had already spotted something, though. "Is it me, or is that water getting deeper?"
Jon looked again. "...you're right. That's already at least a foot deep..."
"Kingler, now!" Ash called. "Surf!"
Kingler stepped back a pace, making Armaldo whiff his Fury Cutter and interrupting his rhythm.
The Bug-type scowled, seeming offended, and readied to charge in – and then Kingler's Surf happened.
The water deepened nearly instantly, as Kingler produced a kind of continual wave which deepened the pool by a factor of two at least.
Armaldo was carried backwards by the wave, and took a moment to right himself. He scowled, then dove into the water with a plip.
"Okay, this is much more interesting," Jon said happily, as he tracked the high-speed ripple of Armaldo swimming through the shallow water. "Wonder why Ash had Kingler do that, though – I mean, it seems like it's just making a disadvantage."
"I don't know, but I'm sure there's a reason," Harrison shrugged. "After all, why would he do it?"
At that point, Armaldo got close enough to Kingler that the Water-type tried his luck.
"Whoa!" both trainers said, echoing the response of most of the stadium, as a plume of water geysered skywards from Kingler's Crabhammer – carrying with it the Armaldo.
The baffled Bug-type described an arc through the air, and Kingler got in a salvo of Bubblebeam which detonated along his side before he plunged back into the water – taking a more cautious approach angle, this time.
"Armaldo!" Samurai called. "Armaldo!"
The second time, his Fossil heard him. It kicked up spray as it swam over to the booth, and popped out next to its master.
"You're going to have to close in faster than Kingler can react!" he said. "For the honour of Bug-types!"
Armaldo saluted, then plipped back into the water.
A moment later, a yellow-violet light began to shine from beneath the surface.
"That's a Giga Impact!" Ash realized. "Kingler – on my mark!"
Kingler's claw clicked open under the water, ready to fire.
Ash closed his eyes, and located Armaldo. The Bug-type was swimming in a circle, accelerating – then he changed course and came straight in at high speed.
Unlike Kingler, Ash could see exactly where Armaldo was as he did that – so he could tell Kingler-
"Now!"
The Crabhammer fired, producing a tiny bubble of superheated water which expanded to steam. The bubble promptly collapsed under the water pressure, but not without blowing a huge hole in the water – and deflecting Armaldo upwards.
Kingler then learned the same lesson Pinsir had, and was struck between the eyes by seventy kilos of Armaldo still cloaked in the energy of Giga Impact.
Ash wasn't sure if he'd miscalculated or whether that was just going to have happened anyway, but he reacted fast. He called back the knocked-out Kingler and sent out Pidgeot in the same movement, and she swept forwards.
One wingbeat, and then her wings were sliding up into a configuration with the leading edge vertical. Her tail flicked from position to position as she extended her claws, and she snagged Armaldo just before he made it back to the water and safety.
Still tired from the exertion, Armaldo was unable to take any quick countermeasures. Within a few seconds, Pidgeot had him up as high as the stadium roof, and she pulled around in a tight, air-control-boosted turn before flinging him right back towards the water again.
The final step was a Gust. That sped him along, but more importantly it dished the water in at his impact point – so there wasn't nearly enough to provide a cushioning effect, and he hit with a splattering crash.
"With Pokémon still able to battle, Ash Ketchum wins!"
"Exciting enough for you?" Harrison chuckled, as he joined in the applause.
"Pretty much, yeah," Jon agreed. "I'm kind of glad he didn't have to use that Pikachu, though, I feel proud of forcing him to!"
64
Casey took a deep breath, looking out at the field.
She was... well, she kind of had mixed feelings about this one.
It still amazed her how far she'd got. She was in the quarter finals! And... every time she won, she felt a kind of mixture of triumph and queasiness.
"Master."
She looked down, and smiled. "I was doing it again, huh?"
Riolu nodded to her. "You were. It does not matter if you win, merely that we all do all we can."
"Right." Casey took another breath, happier this time. "Okay, let's do this."
There was a grating on the floor as Riolu moved the chair over, and hopped onto it so she could see out across the battlefield.
"Who first?" she asked, rolling her neck.
Casey took out two Pokéballs, both marked with a little lightning-bolt.
"Uh... let's see..."
After a moment of thought, she put one away. "Sorry, Elekid, not your turn this time."
The referee raised his flag. "Will both competitors please send out their first Pokémon!"
Casey bounced Pichu's Pokéball for a moment, then threw it with a practiced skill.
It burst open in the air, releasing her little Electric-type mouse, and she noticed Ash had sent out a Butterfree before catching the 'ball as it returned to her from the backspin.
"Okay, Pichu!" she called. "Do your best!"
Pichu nodded to her, then turned back to the battle. He touched his tail for luck, a spark jumping from it to his hand, then set his stance.
Butterfree began by swooping down for a moment, producing an Air Cutter out of his wake, and sent it down towards Pichu.
The Electric-type jumped over it, took a moment to aim at the fast-moving Flying-type, and launched out a bolt of crackling lightning.
Butterfree dodged away, and Pichu's attack missed – but barely. His eyes glowed, and he fired down a hammer of psionic energy which Pichu avoided with a sprint and skid-dive to a safe area.
"Good start!" Casey called. "You know what to do now! Play!"
Pichu clapped one fist into the other palm as he got up, a mischievous grin on his face. Lightning crackled around his cheeks, and he sent another burst skywards.
As Butterfree had done the first time, he slipped out of the way and began to prepare a Psychic counterattack.
That was about when he discovered what Casey had meant by 'play'. Pichu had followed the nasty plot they'd prepared before the battle, and used a hidden ball.
Specifically, a hidden Electroball, which came flashing out from behind the Thunderbolt towards right where his opponent was trying to dodge to.
Butterfree managed to divert the Psychic energy to a shield in time to avoid the worst of it, but the Electric attack still clearly hurt. He wobbled before recovering, and fired down a Bug Buzz while sustaining his psionic shield.
Pichu dodged that one, too, though he took a hit to the tail as he cleared the area. Glancing up as he ran, he fired another bolt skywards (a fastball, this time) and Butterfree decided that discretion was the better part of valour.
Wings beating steadily, the Bug-type ascended to the apex of the stadium, and Casey frowned.
"Pichu, how are you feeling?" she asked.
Pichu threw her a thumbs-up. "Pichu pi!"
"He says he is full of energy," Riolu translated.
"That's what I like to hear, Pichu!" Casey enthused. "Okay, Charge for now. I want to see what he's planning next..."
For several seconds, not much happened. Butterfree stayed high, out of trouble, and Pichu stood ready on the battlefield with electricity crackling around him.
Then Butterfree came swooping down again – with a powerful psionic shield visible around him.
"Looks like he's been using Quiver Dance..." Casey mused. "Right! Okay, Pichu – start off with a Charge Beam!"
Pichu nodded. "Chuuu!"
Electrical energy built, crackling around his ears, and he gestured up. The beam hit the edge of Butterfree's shield, and he dodged away and built up an attack.
This time, Pichu was a bit slow in dodging. The Psychic slam hit him hard, knocking him backwards across the arena, and he bounced several times before managing to turn it into a foot-first slide and shed the rest of his momentum.
The electricity skirling around him was as strong as ever, though, and he threw another electrical attack skywards. This one was a Shockwave, curling around at speed to hit Butterfree despite his attempt to dodge, and Casey grinned.
"Yeah!"
Butterfree was not happy – that much was obvious. He fired down a Signal Beam which hit Pichu on the side, then swooped down a little and added to that with another – and more powerful – Psychic.
"Pichu!" Casey called. "Endure!"
The little Electric-type flashed red just before the Psychic arrived, and managed to survive the impact. His cheeks flared through the dust cloud, and as it began to fade he crouched.
"Okay, go for the home run!"
Butterfree would have blinked if he were biologically equipped for it. "Home run? What's that supposed to-"
As it turned out, that meant Volt Tackle.
It hurt.
Casey recalled Pichu before he hit the floor, checked Butterfree's condition for just a moment, and sent out her next Pokémon. "Okay, Beedrill! You know what to do!"
She opened the Pokéball again, and gave Pichu a look over. "I think he's okay..."
"Just exhausted," Riolu judged.
There was the woosh of a psychic attack from overhead, followed by a thwack.
"All right!" she said, as Butterfree began to fall. "Great shot, Beedrill!"
She felt quite triumphant about it all. Fell Stinger was not an easy move at the best of times, but actually getting it to work?
Yeah, this was a good start.
A moment later, a red beam lashed out and caught Butterfree.
Ash's next choice surprised her. There were several she was afraid of – Lucario, Pikachu, Charizard, or any of the Legendaries – but what she actually got was that Larvitar they'd both helped save.
"Huh," she said, then cupped her hands around her mouth. "Outfield, Beedrill!"
Beedrill flipped up his pointed stinger, and saluted her. Then he buzzed back around to the front... contemplated Larvitar, and looked just a bit confused.
"Beedriiilllll?" he asked, in a buzzing tone.
Riolu blinked. "He... asks how exactly he's supposed to fight Larvitar."
"Uh... good point..."
Larvitar frowned up at Beedrill, then decided to take matters into his own hands.
He concentrated, forming a circle of Hidden Power orbs, and threw them at Beedrill.
Unfortunately for him, while the Bug-type may have not had many ideas what to do now he was still alert. He zipped aside, and the balls of energy missed.
"Aha!" Larvitar heard Casey shout, and winced. Things might have just got difficult... it sounded like there was a plan afoot.
In preparation, Larvitar hardened his skin a little and set his stance, before beginning to charge more Hidden Power attacks.
"He's a Rock-type!" Casey reminded Beedrill. "So he's weak to Ground-type attacks! Use Drill Run!"
Beedrill heard her, and flitted sideways out of the attack path of a second shower of Hidden Power orbs before putting his spikes together.
There was a pause as he lined up, and then he came down in a high-speed drill-based attack run.
Larvitar met the attack with one of his own, drawing back his fist and punching at the stinger. It clearly did some damage, but Larvitar just as clearly came off worst – he was knocked backwards by the heavy blow, his feet making twin furrows in the dirt, and he wasn't able to do any kind of follow up before Beedrill was skywards and safe again.
"Good work, Beedrill!" Casey called. "Don't get cocky!"
Beedrill began to reply, but was interrupted and nearly hit by an explosion just behind his shoulder. Deciding not to stay within range of Larvitar's accurate Hidden Powers, he gained height before reversing and going in on a second Drill Run.
This time, Larvitar seemed to try a different approach. Rather than face the attack head-on, he did just about the opposite – and dug a hole.
Beedrill aborted his attack run, buzzed for a moment, and then dove down the hole.
There was a second when nothing moved, then both Larvitar and Beedrill burst from the ground. Larvitar was volleying in a series of punches, and Beedrill was blocking and jabbing with his arm-spikes in a complicated Fury Attack.
The combat continued until they landed – which, since it happened to be upside down, imposed a sort of halt as both righted themselves.
"Beedrill, stay outfield!" Casey called, and her Bug-type duly shot skywards away from the Rock-type as he readied what looked like an absolutely devastating headbutt. "He's mainly good close in!"
Beedrill replied with a frantic buzz, and Casey glanced over at Riolu.
"He was reminding you that so is he," she said.
"Right, true... uh..."
Casey frowned, thinking.
She could switch out, here... but that would mean losing the effect of that boost Beedrill was on. That would be a real shame...
Wait.
That boost meant that some of Beedrill's attacks would be much more effective than they normally would be. And that meant-
"Beedrill!" she called, and the Bug-type backflipped away from one of the Hidden Power orbs and glanced over. "Pin Missile!"
Beedrill's reply was to launch a shower of homing needles. They spread out, then converged on Larvitar.
"Now Twinneedle!"
Wings humming, Beedrill followed the shower of missiles down. He put both stingers out in front, one a little ahead of the other, and reached Larvitar almost before the impacts had stopped.
The first stinger hit, empowered by Beedrill's earlier success with Fell Stinger, and he brought up the second one to deliver that as well.
Larvitar's counter to that was somewhat unorthodox.
"Ow!" Casey winced, clapping her hands to her ears, as the little Rock-type Screeched.
It was loud, and shrill, and atonal, and it hurt her ears.
She saw Beedrill wobble a little drunkenly through the air as he tried to gain height, the sound clearly disorienting him. This meant he was in trouble when Larvitar pushed off from the ground, leaping for his opponent (though mercifully ending the Screech) and managed to grab the Bug-type around the thorax.
As Larvitar weighed between two and three times as much as Beedrill did, this was a quick ticket to a crash landing.
"Drill Run!" Casey called, trying to mitigate the situation, and Beedrill managed a few revolutions before they hit the ground with a crash.
Larvitar finished the battle off by a close-range spread of Hidden Power, which seemed to do enough damage to Beedrill to knock him out.
Casey winced. "Okay, that wasn't good..." She raised a Pokéball and returned Beedrill, then frowned. Meganium or-
"Master?" Riolu asked. "May I?"
"Sure," Casey nodded readily. "Go get 'im, girl!"
"Thank you." Riolu hopped up onto the viewing slit, then out onto the field.
"Watch out, Larvitar!" Ash called. "She knows Aura Sphere!"
Larvitar nodded, and vanished underground for a Dig – the best way he had of avoiding being hit, at least short-term.
Riolu stood poised, one foot slightly ahead of the other and her paws together at about waist height. She turned back and forth a little in the wind, and Ash frowned.
What was she-
Larvitar burst from the ground behind her, readying a Hidden Power attack, and Riolu exploded into motion.
Her left leg pushed off a little from the ground and came up, sending her spinning towards Larvitar, and her clasped paws came up towards her right shoulder before separating out.
A blue light flashed between them as her arm movement revealed the Aura Sphere she'd had charging in her right palm, and as she came to the point she was facing Larvitar she put her leg back down again – then her right arm came whip-cracking around, and the Aura Sphere flashed across the stadium towards Larvitar.
The Rock-type was still charging his attack, and Riolu's devastatingly accurate fastball came by surprise. It hit his readying Hidden Power, bursting it, and carried on to hit him on the nose with a crash.
A moment later, and Larvitar was out for the count.
Pikachu blinked. "Okay, she's been playing a lot of baseball..."
"Nice work, Riolu!" Casey cheered. "Great pitch!"
Riolu smiled back at her, then turned as Ash sent out his third Pokémon.
"Primeape, huh..." she said, frowning. "Let's see what this means! Riolu, play it safe for now..."
The yellow-and-black Fighting-type's stance changed, subtly, as she followed Casey's general directions.
Between her paws, a little blue spark could be seen.
Then Primeape exploded forwards, Riolu countered with a thrown Aura Sphere, and things got very fast very quickly.
Riolu took a quick step back as soon as she'd pitched her sphere, feeling a distinct satisfaction as it hit Primeape on the cheek, and her paws glowed as she pushed Aura into them.
Primeape launched a punch, and Riolu reacted with the kind of speed she'd learned through playing considerable amounts of baseball. She jinked a little to the side – not much, not in the time she had, but enough to get herself away from the path of Primeape's punch – and brought her right paw around for a Force Palm strike at the side of his elbow.
Primeape turned the punch into a kick, accepting the elbow blow and even using it for extra momentum on the volleyed-in impact, and air whooshed out of Riolu's lungs as he caught her on the side of her chest.
She rolled with the blow as much as she could, flipping backwards and onto her feet again, and forced down a deep breath before throwing another whiplash-fast Aura Sphere.
Again, it was so fast that Primeape couldn't really get out of the way in time. He tried, but the globe of Aura still burst on his glove as he headed sideways.
This seemed to annoy him.
Casey watched with a mix of pride and apprehension as Riolu and Primeape blurred back and forth.
There was a definite pattern emerging, though only a general one – things were happening too fast for her to be specific. But it looked like, generally, Riolu was managing to get off her high-speed Aura Spheres whenever the range opened – though the range was usually opened by Primeape hitting her very hard – and then the resultant close-quarters exchange overall favoured the bigger monkey, though Riolu was still getting some licks in.
The main question now, for Casey, was how she could help. This wasn't like the earlier battles – this was all happening a bit fast for her to keep track of, and that felt like she was letting Riolu down.
There was a thud, and Riolu rolled backwards before coming to her feet – favouring her right arm a little.
"Are you okay?" Casey called, worried.
Riolu glanced back. "It's nothing."
"I don't think it is," Casey replied. "Okay... right. New plan. We practised for this, right? Left hand pitch!"
The Fighting-type shiny nodded, and shifted her stance a little. Another Aura Sphere sparked to life in her palms, and she threw it just as Primeape came in again.
"I have to admit, this worked out really well," Ash said, as the high-speed battle continued. "I didn't even realize the baseball thing until just now, but – yeah, that worked out nicely."
"You seem oddly pleased that Casey's currently about even with us," Pikachu pointed out.
"I like Casey," Ash replied with a shrug. "She kind of... well, it's a bit like I imagine I'd be if my life wasn't an endless parade of chaos. Or, rather, what I'd like to be like."
Pikachu nodded, considering. "Right. Because she's got a good team..."
"...and she's doing well with it, and because she's good at getting them all involved," Ash agreed.
A pause. "Plus it's nice to see a Riolu fighting again. Lucario's great, but there's still a difference."
"I do know what you mean."
Riolu threw another Aura Sphere, panted, and swivelled on her right foot to kick out at Primeape's oncoming fist.
That deflected the blow away from her centre-of-mass, though she still took a glancing blow to the shoulder.
She rolled with the blow, her right hand coming out to slap at Primeape's back, and he shifted enough that the attack failed to connect.
Taking advantage of the lull, she pushed back and opened the distance again as soon as her foot reached the floor.
This was going to be a tricky one.
So far, she'd been pitching. Time to field.
Primeape kicked off and plunged towards her, by now moving fast enough that most Pokémon wouldn't have been able to properly track it.
To a Riolu used to catching attempts at home runs, it was merely very fast.
She reached for the boxing glove as it approached, stepped just a little to one side, and her hands closed over it – then, before the force of the blow could transmit itself to her, twisted sharply to one side.
She rotated through a quarter turn, and then the effort of holding on was too much. Her grip broke.
The whip-crack effect was brutal – on her end, let alone what happened to Primeape.
Riolu went over on her back with a thud, wincing, and skidded along for several paces before stopping.
Primeape, on the other hand, went hurtling towards the arena wall. He managed to turn himself, so he was moving feet-first, but the impact still produced a small crack and quite a loud noise.
By the time he'd dropped down to the floor and crouched down, Riolu had come back to her feet – and, cheekily, she even threw a new Aura Sphere at him with a left-handed curve pitch.
She realized that antagonizing him might not have been a great idea when his Anger Point activated.
Ash, prudently, put his hands over his ears.
"You're doing-" Casey began, and then there was an earsplitting CRACK-BOOM. Dust blasted up from the arena floor with the instant wash of wind, and she threw up an arm to protect herself from it.
When it faded, she looked out in apprehension.
Riolu was out cold, but it looked like the effort had exhausted Primeape as well – as she watched, the fuzzy Fighting-type dropped to his knees and supported himself with one arm.
"Excuse me?" she heard Ash call. "Referee?"
The ref duly looked over to him.
"My Primeape can't fight any more... and probably needs medical attention... so I'm withdrawing him. It's going to take a few minutes to arrange, if my opponent's fine with it."
"Sure!" Casey called, relieved for the chance to let Riolu recover.
Sure, the Emanation Pokémon wasn't going to be able to participate in the match – but it'd be nice to have her watching.
Fortunately, Riolu had managed to get her paws up in time to block. The attack – apparently a Master Blow, whatever that was – hadn't done much more than knock her out, and a quick spray of Potion had her up and ready to watch the next part of the match.
That done, Casey considered her options.
She was worried about... Lucario, Pikachu, Charizard, or any of the Legendaries.
The one who gave her most options was-
"Pidgeot, go!"
"Snorlax!" Ash shouted, at the same time.
"...oh, great," Ash winced, as Casey's Pidgeot climbed smoothly into the stadium's large open air zone. "Might not have been the best choice..."
"What were you thinking?" Pikachu asked, curiously.
"Meganium," Ash replied. "Do you want to give this a go, Snorlax? I can call you back-"
Snorlax replied in quite a direct way, by firing a blast of orange energy from his eyes up at the circling Pidgeot.
"Whoa!" Casey said, as Pidgeot weaved away from the Hyper Beam. Snorlax corrected it once or twice, and it swerved briefly across his body near the tail before running out. "Okay, Pidgeot, stay high and stay fast! Don't let him get you!"
Her Pidgeot beat his wings hard, letting out a defiant cry and ascending skywards. A Gust blasted down as he did, hitting Snorlax and making him scratch an itch, and he then replied with a second shot of Hyper Beam.
Reaching a more comfortable altitude and speed, Pidgeot started to prepare a larger attack.
He started off with a Twister, a tornado laced with mystical energy which lashed down around Snorlax. The Normal-type didn't seem to mind much, yawning, and after a few seconds the Twister faded leaving a circle of affected grass behind it.
"Snorlax!" Casey heard Ash call. "Fire when I tell you!"
"Look out, Pidgeot!" she said in response. "He'll be trying to get you when you slow down – so keep the speed up!"
Another cry from Pidgeot, and she glanced over at Riolu.
"He is quite ready for this," she assured her trainer. "Most of that was aimed at Snorlax."
"Now!" Ash called suddenly, and orange energy lashed skywards.
Pidgeot slammed his wings up, shedding speed, and then rolled and dove as Snorlax retargeted. The beam hit him for a moment, but he powered away from it, and then pulled up and increased speed again to make himself a harder target.
"Okay, Pidgeot!" Casey called. "Home run!"
Pidgeot obliged, levelling out, and then began to turn inwards. Faster and faster, tighter and tighter, reaching for a goal of a barely-subsonic circuit no wider than a baseball diamond – until a windstorm developed.
He was forced to leave it for a moment as Snorlax fired again, but then the miniature tornado whipped downwards and crashed into the ground – well away from Snorlax.
That was exactly what Pidgeot was aiming for, though. The impact kicked up a plume of grass and dirt, which was promptly swept into the vortex and began to fill the stadium with dust.
Ash squinted through the dust. "Snorlax – down a bit, down a bit – fire!"
Orange light flashed, and he hissed – Snorlax had missed.
Not surprising given the sand everywhere, but annoying.
As he watched, the blue aura signature of Pidgeot threw himself into a turn. He dove into the cloud, and aimed for Snorlax.
"Look out!" Ash called. "Ready an Ice Punch!"
There was a crash, and Pidgeot's Sky Attack hit. The Ice Punch connected, hitting his leg, but the Flying-type's attack was far more of a problem.
Snorlax bounced backwards, staggered once, and shook his head as Pidgeot climbed back into the swirling dust storm.
"This isn't your kind of fight, Snorlax!" Ash called, raising a pair of Pokéballs. "Return!"
Casey heard the return-beam and the sound of a Pokéball opening, and squinted. "What's he-"
"Charizard," Riolu said tersely, and then there was a roar and the sound of wingbeats.
The dust storm collapsed as its momentum slowly ran out, and Charizard climbed into the sky after his opponent.
Camera flashes started in the stands.
"He is well anticipated, it seems," Riolu noted.
"Not surprised, he's been on TV a lot," Casey replied. "Okay, Pidgeot! Don't let him get too close!"
Charizard took a deep breath, and let it out with a rush of air.
This was going to be interesting... by his count, Casey had all three of the Pokémon who'd fought him last time still available to her.
Pidgeot first.
"You're bigger than last time," he observed neutrally, and Pidgeot chuckled – then flipped a wing, and bored away at high speed.
Charizard saw the sonic boom cloud form a moment before he heard the SLAM that proved it, and winced to himself – fighting a Pidgeot was always a tricky mental exercise. They were so dang fast...
He gained a little height, then settled down to hover.
Pidgeot wasn't long in coming back. Brown-cream wings showed for a moment as he turned, and then he was on the way back in.
Wind swirled around his wings.
Right.
Charizard inhaled, then began to Flamethrower – a long, rolling gout of fire that just kept coming and coming and coming. Twisting his neck, he sprayed it out in all directions, forming a continually-replenishing sphere of flame which covered all possible directions.
A moment later, a hammer of air hit him – blowing the counter shield away, but disrupted sufficiently that it didn't hit as hard as it might otherwise have done.
Charizard frowned, wings crackling as they spread to full extension again to arrest a momentary drop, and surged to the side after Pidgeot. His Flamethrower clipped the feathers of his opponent, and then the faster Flying-type was away and safe.
This could be a tricky one.
"I'm so glad we spent so long training to handle Charizard," Casey admitted. She cupped her hands around her mouth. "You're doing fine! Just make sure you take a wider line!"
"This is the Charizard who fought legendaries?" Riolu checked.
"Yeah – though I'm not sure if he's got the Mega Stone to transform here, Ash said it was kind of strange..." Casey shook her head. "Kind of wish I had one..."
Pidgeot rocketed past Charizard again, waves of Air Cutters slicing across in a diagonal wave which flicked at the Fire-type's orange scales.
"Okay!" Casey shouted. "Now, try to get him out!"
Pidgeot heard, and interpreted what his trainer meant.
Leaning back in a climb, he soared upwards – thousands of feet in seconds, then came curving around upside-down in preparation for his dive back towards Charizard again.
As he flew, wind began to gather under his wings for a Hurricane – the strongest wind-blast he had, intended to knock Charizard out of the sky entirely.
Even if he wasn't knocked out by it, being driven into the ground had to hurt.
Reaching the turnover point, he dove – ready to attack.
Then he spotted a bluish shimmer in the air.
Charizard felt quite proud of this one.
That Noivern he'd fought back in Blackthorn had given him the idea. His Blast Burn didn't detonate all at once – which led to the conclusion that, if he planned specifically, the explosive lensing that resulted from a cloud of gas exploding just right could be put to very useful purposes.
Pidgeot stooped towards him, then his tail suddenly changed shape – aborting his attack run early.
Can't have that, Charizard thought cheerfully – and spat a shower of Embers.
A cloud of bluish hydrogen shaped a little bit like an inverted cone exploded. Rather than from the tip to the base, though, this one flashed into flame along the entire curved surface at once – the blast racing inwards and contracting, until it reached the centre of the base and produced a huge overpressure wash aimed straight up.
The hammer of hot air smashed into Pidgeot as he tried to pull out of his dive, wrenching his wings back with a painful suddenness and sending him tumbling.
Charizard most certainly did not have it all his own way, though. Pidgeot's Hurricane was mostly unhindered by the highly-focused blast, and hit the Flame Pokémon in the chest – missing his wings, but driving him towards the ground as well.
Casey watched, heart in her mouth, as both Flying-types fell from the sky.
Pidgeot's tail was flaring from side to side as he fought to control his tumble – she could see his spin slowing, but he was running out of sky-room.
There was a ripple of indrawn breath all around the stadium as the battling Pokémon fell into it. Distantly, she was aware Charizard was falling faster than Pidgeot was, and then Pidgeot's beak began to come up as he broke the stall-
Bottoming out so low the grass caught fire, Charizard swooped up underneath the recovering Pidgeot and strafed him with green dragonfire.
That seemed to do the trick. Already tired, Pidgeot wobbled – then flopped down onto the grass in a relatively soft landing.
His trainer held out her Pokéball and returned him. "Good work," she said, then frowned. "Hmmm... who now..."
One of her Pokéballs wobbled, and she glanced down at it. "Really?"
Another wobble.
"Okay, sure." She threw the 'ball. "Meganium, your turn!"
Charizard blinked. "...okay, wasn't expecting that."
His opponent shrugged. "Perhaps you should have."
"No, I mean – seriously. Grass-type. Can you see the problem here?"
Meganium smiled thinly. "Not at all."
"Whatever." Charizard shook his head, wings beating as he came down to land. "Okay, this is mainly going to be difficult in terms of how to do it without hurting you too badly-"
Meganium's vines lashed out.
Charizard rather abruptly found himself under attack from four directions at once, as Meganium's well-conditioned vines whipped towards him. He inhaled in surprise, and then one of the vines lashed around his muzzle and held it shut.
The snort of flame that issued from his nostrils was bright and potent, but went nowhere near where it would need to go to damage the Constrict.
Meganium's other three vines were just as well aimed. One whipped up around his leg, another his arm, and the fourth one scored the most important success. Passing twice around his torso, it trapped his wings and tail beneath it – preventing him from simply flying away.
"Mrrf!" Charizard roared, enraged, and pulled violently on the vine on his wrist with main strength. It creaked, but held, and then the trailing end of the one holding his leg came up and snagged his other wrist as he tried to use his claws to cut one of the vines.
Snarling, he bent his neck to try and flame one of the vines – and then saw Meganium's flower glowing.
A large rock floated up in front of her face.
"...mff."
Then Meganium used Ancientpower.
"What."
Liza stared at the screen, as a barrage of small rocks repeatedly knocked Charizard's head back before the vines pulled it forwards into position to be hit again. "Is this actually happening?"
Behind her, Charla collapsed on the floor in fits of giggles.
"This is working," Casey said, mostly to herself. "This is actually working."
She could see the strain on Meganium's face, the sheen of sweat as she struggled to hold Charizard down – even off balance and being continually beaned in the head with rocks, the Fire-type was powerfully muscled and Meganium was having trouble holding him despite the two Ancientpower boosts she'd gained already.
Another curl of flame escaped Charizard's mouth, and she winced. That was a bad sign...
"Keep it up!" she shouted to Meganium, getting a determined nod in response. "Don't let him refocus!"
"...this is strange even by my standards," Ash observed.
Pikachu nodded.
Ash raised his voice. "Charizard! Try to go over backwards!"
Charizard seemed to hear him, though it was probably a little hard for him to interpret anything with the rhythmic thwacks of rocks against his forehead. He flung his neck back hard when the rock hit, wobbled, and crashed to the ground.
The abrupt change in position threw Meganium off a little, and fouled her aim. She staggered forwards a step and a half as Charizard pulled on the taut vines, and that made the others – including the one holding his right forearm – go slack.
"Dragon Claw!" Ash added.
The reminder seemed to help. Charizard slashed out with his forearms – one was caught, but the other was held loosely enough that it had some play. The sudden tug pulled the remainder of the vine off his arm.
Then Charizard's mind got enough traction to take up the fight again.
Casey winced as Charizard's claws flashed – and cut the vine holding his other arm, just before Meganium recaptured his first one.
"Okay, Meganium!" she called. "Grand Slam!"
Meganium pulled with her three remaining vines with all her strength, flipping Charizard over onto his front, then withdrew the vines just ahead of a vengeful blast of Flamethrower.
She skipped back a step, then shouted. "Me-ga-UM!"
The ground trembled.
Charizard pushed himself back to his feet, shaking his head to remove the residual dizziness.
He wasn't sure how many times he'd been hit in the forehead by rocks, but it was going to give him one heck of a headache in the morning...
Resolving to take Meganium as seriously as possible, he spread his wings and launched himself skywards.
Flame came to his mouth – this time not being penned in by the stupid vines – and he fired a Fire Blast down at her.
It didn't knock her out, not with the reddish enhancement energy crackling over her, but she was clearly badly affected by it nevertheless.
Swinging around for another attack run, Charizard prepared to finish the job.
Then the arena floor erupted in four different places, and huge root-like constructs grew out of it with shocking speed. They reached towards him in a kind of diamond-shape, and he switched targets to them with an almighty WHOOMPH of Inferno.
That reduced one of the towers of roots to a smouldering mess, but then another one smacked him in the side and knocked him towards the floor.
He rolled and landed in a long skid, braking his momentum with his hind legs, and had just enough time to be proud of avoiding a crash before all three other pillars of the Frenzy Plant landed on him.
"Did that do it?" Casey asked, anxiously.
Riolu closed her eyes, reaching out with Aura sight.
"...he's not moving," she said after a moment, then gasped. "Wait-"
The towers of plant matter exploded.
As flaming debris crashed to the ground all over the stadium floor, Charizard loomed out of the smoke. His mouth flashed with orange heat, and Meganium was knocked out by a direct hit from a Fire Blast.
Once Meganium was recalled, Charizard let out the breath he'd been holding.
"What's she been feeding that Pokémon?" he asked rhetorically. Then he frowned. "Wait..."
Turning, he pointed a claw at Casey. "Have you been training your Pokémon specifically to fight me?"
Casey glanced over at her Riolu, who muttered something.
"Oh! Uh... yes?" Casey said, with a shrug.
"That explains a lot..."
Casey scooped up her final Pokéball for the match. "Okay, Raticate! You know what to do!"
Charizard had, by now, learned his lesson. As Raticate formed, he blew a stream of fire at her.
A plume of smoke fountained up, and then Raticate blurred out of it with a whoosh of wind – yellow-black scarf fluttering behind her.
"Oh-" Charizard began, then took off in a clap of wings to try to get clear – too late.
As he rose, Raticate jumped and grabbed onto his tail. Her fangs flashed briefly, then she chomped down on the tip.
It hurt. A lot.
"Hold on, Raticate!" Casey called, as the Fire-type thrashed his tail around to try to throw the Normal-type off. "And keep working that Super Fang!"
Riolu winced. "That looks painful."
"I know, but-"
There was a whoomph of flame, as Charizard sent a blast back down his own body to try and force Raticate off. The Mouse Pokémon scampered to the lee side of his tail, avoiding the worst of the flames, and bit down again on the orange scales of her opponent.
Charizard roared something, and bashed his tail into the floor.
Casey glanced over at Riolu.
"He asked why it was always the tail," she supplied helpfully.
Charizard felt yet another stab of pain from Super Fang, and snarled – this was not fun!
He inhaled, then whip-cracked his tail upwards. The force seemed to be just enough to dislodge Raticate, and he gave an evil grin before bathing her in the purplish fire of an Inferno.
The wash of flame hid her for at least a full second, and then a tattered Choice Scarf fell out of the fire.
Charizard blinked. "Wasn't that-"
Raticate dropped out of the smoke cloud.
Her tail and some of her fur were on fire, but that only seemed to have made her angrier – a violent red aurora of energy swirled around her, and she fell past his head before grabbing onto the top of his neck.
"Get off!" Charizard snarled, as the large rat clung to his neck and started to swipe with her free paw – knocking his head back and forth while dodging out of the way of his attempts to grab her and physically pull her off.
"That looks about right!" Casey called. "Now!"
Raticate used Thunder.
By itself, her attack wouldn't have done much to Charizard – he was, after all, used to Pikachu. But he had not been having a good day, and the blast of electricity came at a bad time.
Raticate jumped off just before her opponent plowed a furrow in the dirt.
"Right," Charla said.
Liza glanced back. "What is it?"
"He's never – never – living this one down," she chuckled.
"Nice work!" Ash called, recalling Charizard. "I guess he needs to learn to take his enemies seriously!"
"Thanks!" Casey replied, feeling really quite pleased.
She'd beaten Charizard. Sure, it had taken three Pokémon to do it, but... well, this was Ash's Charizard she was talking about.
"Okay, Raticate!" she added. "Let's see what he's got!"
After a moment, there was a flash of white light – revealing Squirtle.
Squirtle rolled his neck. "All right, you rat bast-"
"I'm a girl," Raticate interrupted.
"Right," Squirtle said. He blinked. "Uh – anyway! As I was saying – all right, you dirty rat-"
"I washed this morning!"
"Just let me get started!" Squirtle rejoined. "Okay, you... female... rodent... you may have beaten my comrade, Charizard, but that means nothing! I'm Squirtle, and-"
"You realize I electrocuted-"
"That's it!" Squirtle announced, removing his glasses from his eyes. "You're going down! Eat this, Hydro Cannon Fodder!"
A tiny sphere of water shot towards Raticate. No fool, she jumped- and was above and a little to the right of it when it detonated.
The sudden eruption of water knocked her skywards, and she tumbled for a moment before steadying herself. Electricity crackled around her fang and whiskers, then lanced down towards Squirtle.
He raised his glasses and blocked, sending the bolts of lightning skirling off to blow holes in the ground in three places.
As she ended the barrage, Squirtle switched the grip he had on his weapon and charged.
There was a clash of fang against glass, and the two bounced off where they'd collided – skidding to a halt, neither particularly beaten up from the experience.
Eyes narrowed, and they jumped towards one another again.
The two engaged in combat, Super Fang against enhanced glasses, for several seconds. Then Squirtle locked blade with her, and pushed her back with a shout.
Raticate spun away, landed on her feet, and fired another bolt of Thunder. Like the previous one, it made little impression, as Squirtle simply blocked with his glasses.
"Take this!" he announced, drawing them back, and threw them. Halfway there, they flashed with Aura and duplicated themselves.
Raticate glanced between them, then darted for one and chomped down on it with a Hyper Fang.
It broke.
The other pair of glasses vanished.
Ash blinked.
"...that's torn it."
"Shut up and get down!" Pikachu advised.
"...what?" Squirtle asked, astonished.
Raticate fired another Thunder at him. This time, he had nothing to block with, and the Electric attack knocked him bouncing across the stadium.
"You're not so tough without your-" Raticate began.
"Shut up!" Squirtle replied, pushing himself back to his feet.
"Those glasses were a sign of friendship," he said firmly. "A symbol of the unbreakable bond between fighting Pokémon! They're what show me to be the badass Squirtle, leader of the Squirtle Squad!"
"They're just glasses, steady on," Raticate said.
"Just glasses? Just glasses?" Squirtle repeated, sounding scandalized. "Is a letter from a loved one just paper and ink? Is that scarf of yours just wool and dye? No!"
Water began to swirl around him.
"It's what it means that matters! The symbology of friendship! And that's why I do this!"
Getting a little worried, Raticate fired a blast of electricity at him. It bounced off – Squirtle was too worked up to care about little things like lightning any more.
"Horn!"
The Aura-saturated water began to coalesce around Squirtle's out-thrust hand.
"Drill!"
This was not a drill. This was seven of them, layered on top of one another and whirling frantically in alternating directions.
"BREEAAA-KKERR!"
The moving sliver of bluish light shot across the stadium, shedding water in a mist of tiny droplets. It rode up a yellowish flicker of Thunder, then turned up – towards the sky, and making it instantly rain inside the Silver Conference main stadium.
The movement continued until both Pokémon were a tiny dot in the sky.
Then it exploded.
"...what?" Casey asked, baffled. She glanced down at Riolu, who shrugged helplessly.
After about a minute, Raticate landed in the foot-deep water with a splash and floated to the surface.
Squirtle came down a few seconds later, hitting the ground feet first and absorbing most of the force. He turned triumphantly to Raticate, said "Squir-" and fell over.
"I believe he just said, 'and that's'," Riolu reported.
"Um..." the referee said, hesitantly. "Do either of you have any Pokémon left?"
"...sorry, no," Casey told him.
"I've got Snorlax," Ash volunteered.
"Right." The referee raised his flag. "Ash Ketchum is the winner!"
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