51,52

"...oh, I didn't know there was such a thing as a Mega Gyarados," Liza said, watching Misty's Mega Gyarados roaring, splashing and generally showing off. "He's pretty impressive."

Misty nodded, her bracelet-shaped Key Stone holder pulsing faintly as it sustained the transformation. "Yeah, though it's kind of hard to find a battlefield he can really cut loose on... Ash's Mega, Heracross, is much easier to do that with."

Liza nodded. "I imagine that's a consideration... well, for a Water-type trainer generally, too."

"Water can't be the only type it matters for," Misty shrugged. "I mean, Steel types and Rock types are sometimes heavy enough to be a problem on upper floors, and as for Flying types..."

That earned her a chuckle. "Yes, Charizard mentioned how hard it was fighting inside the Steel-type gym down in Olivine. Until he broke it."

"Ash is making a bit of a habit of it... wonder how Clair's going to handle it," Misty mused.

"Actually..." the Dragon Tamer said, craning her neck a bit. "I think that's her now!"

"Really?" Misty followed Liza's gaze. "Oh, yeah, does look a bit – wait. Why's Raikou with her?"

"...and do you have any idea how much that's going to cost?" Clair asked, exasperated.

Raikou flicked his tail, and rummaged through his huge collection of signs. 'I don't see what you're complaining about.'

He twirled it around. 'It was a legitimate strategy.'

"How many times have you had to – never mind, I don't want to know." Clair rubbed her temples. "Anyway... here's what it means. I'll have to get someone out to cut through eight inches of granite facing in several different places, completely re-wire the entire gym, and then probably get a Magcargo in to replace the rock with some basalt – that's not the same, but it's as close as I can get!"

Raikou rolled his eyes, then looked up as a familiar pair of shapes came loping towards him.

"Aha, Suicune, Entei!" he greeted, fangs flashing in a grin. "Lovely to see you!"

"Where have you been, Raikou?" Entei asked, as he came to a stop. "You vanished weeks ago blathering about sign language... wait a moment."

The Fire-type paced around his brother, and snagged one of the wooden signs. Turning it, he read it.

"...you are a moron," he sighed. "Why didn't you just get a Psychic type to help or something?"

"That would have been boring!" Raikou said firmly. "Anyway, I've got all eight badges, so that should prove to Ash that I'm not holding back!"

Suicune blinked. "...I don't follow the logic."

Ash came running up behind. "Are you the Blackthorn Gym Leader?"

"I am – and you must be Ash Ketchum?" Clair asked, getting a nod in return. "Sorry, gym's closed for now."

"What!?" Ash gaped. "Why?"

Clair indicated Raikou. "This Electric-type idiot blew out all the lights with an electro-magnetic pulse!"

"...well, if you will use a Kingdra on me then I don't see how I can be held responsible," Raikou mumbled.

"Why was Raikou challenging your gym?" Ash asked.

"To prove that I'm dashed well not going to hold back again!" Raikou told him proudly.

"...I'm not sure that makes sense," Ash said slowly. "I mean, just because you got badges doesn't mean you're never going to hold back..."

Raikou started to prance back and forth, holding in his irritation. "Fine! I've taught myself Extrasensory, Dig, Iron Head and Iron Tail, for starters! I'll use them, you'll see!"

"I'm sure this conversation is fascinating," Clair interrupted. "But – hmmm..."

She frowned, then nodded firmly. "Okay, Mr. Ketchum. Give me an hour or so to contact those available of the Clan, and we can have our gym battle. Up there."

Ash followed her pointing finger, which indicated the opening of a little side valley.

"Right!" he said. "I'll spend the time making sure my team's ready!"

Clair nodded. "Very good; I'll be doing the same."

She made to turn away, then stopped. "What's that in the lake?"

"Oh, that's my friend Misty's Mega Gyarados," Ash explained.

"...right."

Around an hour later, they reconvened in the side valley. It was steep-sided, with old terraces cut into the walls, and something of a curve to it so that where they were standing was a little out of view of the main floor of the Holy Land.

"Is this place used for battle often?" Ash asked, looking around at the occasional burn scar and the variably-aged greenery.

"Occasionally," Clair agreed. "Lance and I come up here to keep one another in shape – he usually wins, though..."

She shook her head. "Anyway. Do you know what the secondary challenge of the Dragon Gym of Blackthorn is?"

"Not really, no," Ash admitted.

"It is – overwhelming power," Clair informed him. "Now, in your case, that's caused me a bit of a problem – but, fortunately, I have a solution."

She reached into her pocket, revealing a Mega Necklace holding a Key Stone – and no fewer than three Mega Stones.

"I had to borrow over half the ones the Clan has, so I hope you appreciate this," she told him, as Ash blinked in shock. "Anyway. This will be a set of six one on one battles. If you win all six, you win automatically – otherwise, it's up to how the Clan thinks."

She pointed skywards, indicating the valley rim on her side. Ash looked up, and saw a dozen or so trainers standing there – each one next to a Dragon-type or similar Pokémon.

"Do you understand?" she resumed.

Ash frowned. "Uh, I guess, but – question?"

"Go on."

"The river here's only a few inches deep. Is your Kingdra going to be okay?"

Clair sighed. "Kingdra's in the Pokémon Centre. Raikou electrocuted him – that's when he blew the lights out."

Ash tried not to breathe a sigh of relief – that actually made things quite a bit easier, since it meant he didn't have to save one of the Pokémon with Freeze-Dry to handle Kingdra.

"Yeah, I understand," he said, after a moment.

"Good luck, Ash!" Misty called down from the valley rim on his side.

"Yeah!" Brock added. "Last Johto badge!"

"Thanks, guys!" Ash called back up. He turned to grin at Clair. "Who's first?"

Clair carefully took the first Pokéball off her waist. "Right. First is – Ampharos!"

Ash blinked. "Isn't that... whatever. Donphan!"

Donphan stood on one of the lowest terraces before the valley floor itself, looking across at the Electric-type sheep facing him.

"I thought this was the Dragon-type gym?" he asked, curiously.

Ampharos shrugged. "You'd be surprised."

He cracked his knuckles. "Okay, let's get started here."

Electricity crackled around his fur, and then he faced Donphan and fired a Dragon Pulse.

"Whoa!" Donphan yelped, jumping back out of the way. He balled up, pushed off with his trunk, and rolled a few feet up the wall of the next terrace up before coming back down faster.

"Rollout!" Donphan stated, rather obviously, and ramped off his terrace straight at Ampharos.

In reply, Ampharos streamed electricity across his fur again and stepped to one side. Donphan tried to correct in towards Ampharos, and then some crackling electrical sparks appeared on his tusks and he found himself swerving aside.

"What was that?" Ash asked, looking closer.

"It's magnetism," Clair explained. "Magnetic Flux exploits the positive charge Ampharos has, and diverts objects away by inducing a current in them too."

"Then we'll just have to hit harder!" Ash decided. "Donphan, you know what to do!"

"Not really..." Donphan admitted, turning some way down the valley to face Ampharos again.

"...that thing we worked on?" Ash asked.

"Oh, right!" Donphan nodded. He skidded briefly, then accelerated, steering for a small fold in the ground. Hitting it, he went flying into the air.

Arms out, Ampharos refreshed his Magnetic Flux. "That's not... wait..."

Donphan plowed into the ground several feet from Ampharos – and used Magnitude.

The ground shook, making several of the spectators stumble, and Ampharos nearly fell over.

While he recovered his footing, Donphan came speeding out of the small crater he'd made and hit home with a Rollout.

"Mister Donphan's doing well, isn't he?" Mawile asked, watching the fight closely. "Is this what most Gym battles are like?"

"It's much quieter," Pikachu told her. "Well, it's early days yet..."

Mawile nodded.

"I don't like it when the ground shakes like that," she said after a moment, as Donphan pulsed out an Earthquake. "How do I make it stop?"

Misty reached down and picked the Fairy-type up. "That better?"

"Kinda," Mawile nodded, her false-jaw moving a bit as she did. "Thanks!"

Donphan just barely missed with his latest Rollout, and got hit in the side by a well-aimed Iron Tail as he went past. He skidded a little, bounced into the air with a push from his trunk, and came back down with another Magnitude.

This one, unfortunately, hit fairly strong rock. It produced only minor shaking, and Ampharos kept his footing with ease.

"Let's go all the way, Ampharos!" Clair called.

The Electric-type looked back towards her, and caught a thrown Mega Stone.

"So Ampharos has a Mega Stone?" Ash asked, and then the answer became obvious. Clair's Mega Necklace shone with a bright orange light, matched by the Mega Stone in Ampharos' paw, and then the valley was lit by a flash.

Arm thrown up to block the light, Ash noticed another Ampharos on the valley rim nodding to itself with satisfaction.

That must be the Pokémon who normally used the stone, then... so that meant this Ampharos was Clair's. He'd wondered.

Then the light died down, allowing everyone to see Mega Ampharos.

It was certainly... different.

The wool that a Flaffy mostly divested itself of when evolving to Ampharos was back, in the form of a long, stylized mane coming off the back of his head and a similarly styled tail with several red orbs on it.

There were also a few changes to the general black/yellow colouring.

Mega Ampharos reached one arm up, and brushed at the hair. "There we go. Dragon."

"How is that a dragon?" Ash asked, blinking. "I mean, he's certainly a Mega Evolution, but... dragon?"

"You think I'm not a dragon?" Mega Ampharos asked. His orbs flickered red, and electricity shot between them.

As Donphan came charging back in, Mega Ampharos jumped into the air – and didn't come back down again, using Magnet Rise. Donphan went rolling past underneath, a little startled, and then got hit from behind by a Dragon Pulse.

Coming to a halt in a pile of soil and shaking his head, Donphan frowned. "Right."

He got moving again, just ahead of a Dragon Pulse which blew a crater in the ground.

Ash watched Mega Ampharos' fighting style, trying to work out if there was something exploitable in it.

It was a little hard to tell, in all honesty. Mega Ampharos was floating in mid-air using Magnet Rise, several feet off the ground, and was also using Dragon Pulses quite liberally – with a lot of punch behind them. Donphan was having to weave erratically to avoid being hit, and near misses were still sending him skidding across the ground for a moment before he recovered.

If the Mega had been firing them from his mouth, that would have been bad enough – but those red orbs of his seemed to focus dragon-type energy. Balls of green light periodically jumped from one of the orbs to his paws, then got fired out at the evading Donphan.

Wait...

Ash looked closer. That was clearly Magnet Rise he was using to stay in the air, not something that he could just do as a matter of course. That meant...

"Donphan!" Ash called. "Bounce!"

Donphan responded by rolling straight at the wall of the lower terrace. He rolled up it at full speed, just ahead of a Dragon Pulse which blew the wall to bits, and pushed off with his trunk as the Pulse hit home.

"Mud Slap!" Ash added.

Suddenly realizing what Ash was doing, Mega Ampharos changed the electric fields holding him up to try to move out of the way. He didn't quite manage it, though, and Donphan's trunk fired a spray of mud – some of which was deflected by the electromagnetic fields, but they were unable to block it all at such a close range.

There was a crackle as the mud interrupted Mega Ampharos' ability to keep himself in the air, and he dropped back to the ground.

Any celebration was premature, though. Just as Donphan landed, Mega Ampharos fired a pair of Dragon Pulses at him.

One went wide. The other hit hard enough to slam him through the packed-earth terrace wall, and part of it collapsed on him.

Ash clenched his fist. "Come on, Donphan!"

"Might be a problem, there," Clair told him. "Mega Ampharos can overload abilities like Sturdy, so your Donphan won't still be able to... eh?"

Light shone from behind the earthslide, and then it exploded outwards. The fragments of earth, some quite large, pelted Mega Ampharos – surprised, he'd not got his electromagnetic shield up in time.

Donphan panted, tired from the effort of the Hyper Beam he'd used to blast through the earthen wall, then focused. He reared up, glowing with a brown aura, and slammed his forelegs on the ground.

The whole valley shook as Donphan used Magnitude 10. A few small rocks fell down the sides, trees and bushes trembled, and at least one member of the Dragon Clan was grabbed by their partner to make sure they didn't fall. But that was only the side effects.

The main, unfortunate target of the attack was Mega Ampharos himself. The ground under his feet became unstable, like quicksand, and he sank into it up to the waist before the trembling stopped.

No longer able to draw power from his tail-orbs, Ampharos was forced to rely on the single ball on his head. It pulsed, building power, but Donphan simply rolled around behind to where Ampharos couldn't aim.

"That's enough," Clair said, before Donphan decided to Rollout her Ampharos. "Good work. I can see we need something better against Ground-types, though..."

Mega Ampharos transitioned back down to Ampharos. He picked up the Mega Stone where it had fallen, threw it back to Clair, and she caught it before returning him.

Ash did likewise with his tired Donphan.

"Good work," he said, then looked up at Clair. "Uh – is it okay if I use Legendary Pokémon?"

"Yes, that should be fine," Clair agreed. "That's part of why I requested the six one-on-one battles format, since it means no one Pokémon can face more than one member of my team."

"Thanks," Ash nodded. "Right, Suicune!"

Clair smiled. "Sceptile!"

Suicune's first action upon materializing was to leap up several flights of the terraces, until she was a little way up the curving valley and well above the Sceptile facing her – who was clambering down, having been sent out just next to Clair herself.

"So," she said, looking down – well down. "I think we both know where this is going."

Sceptile frowned. "How so?"

"Well, clearly you're another of the ones with a Mega Evolution that turns them Dragon-type. Sceptile isn't normally Dragon-type."

Sceptile raised clawed hands in a shrug. "Lance's main team includes a Gyarados and an Aerodactyl – I've met them."

Suicune nodded. "Fair point, I suppose. Well, let's get started then."

The wind picked up in the valley. A tendril of it curled around Suicune, making her streamers flutter in the wind, then launched forwards at the Grass-type.

Sceptile's arms glowed. She swung the flaring blades on her arm into the swirling Air Cutter, and her Leaf Blade blew both attacks apart.

The back-blast sent her back a step, but otherwise she was unscathed.

"Interesting," was Suicune's only comment. She began to pace, slowly, and then called the north wind to her once more.

This time it was stronger and more intense, and the plants growing on the valley sides fluttered – a few leaves being whipped off the trees.

Both Suicune's streamers flared, and whipped back and forth. This time, two Air Slashes came off each streamer, resulting in four separate blades of wind curling in towards Sceptile.

Faced with this more powerful assault, the Grass-type burst into movement. She jumped to the left, evading most of the reaching blades, and spun her thick leafy tail into the fourth with the unmistakeable glow of an Iron Tail.

The impact produced a bang, and sharp eddies cut blades of grass around Sceptile. The Pokémon herself, though, was fundamentally undamaged.

"My turn," Sceptile stated. She swung her tail around, scattering glowing green leaves, which showered towards Suicune.

Suicune opened her mouth slightly, charging an Ice Beam. She waited until the Magical Leaves had almost arrived, then produced an instant wave of water with Hydro Pump and released the Ice attack into it at the same moment.

Sceptile's Magical Leaf attack expended itself on the icy sphere, which then shattered as Suicune burst out of the weakened side facing away from Sceptile.

Paws flashing as she kept running, Suicune fired another Ice Beam towards the Grass-type. This one, Sceptile blocked in an entirely different way – she volleyed in what looked a lot like a Drain Punch, which made the Ice attack scatter off in all directions.

She gestured, tail slapping the ground, and a tornado of grass and plant matter erupted from the earth just in front of Suicune.

Fortunately for the Water-type, she reacted fast enough to slow down – and to keep her Tailwind going at full speed. The powerful wind smashed into the Grass Pledge, breaking the column up, and by the time Suicune arrived it wasn't very coherent.

She still had a problem, though – the ground where the attack had been launched had been torn apart by the Grass Pledge, and her footing was uncertain. It took her a moment longer to accelerate to full speed, and that meant she was caught by the fringes of a Giga Drain attack.

Wincing, Suicune leapt clear and ascended two terraces, running along some distance above Clair while building up her next response.

The wind, ice, and water she summoned combined into a Blizzard, which howled down from the terrace towards Sceptile.

Sceptile's response was... unexpected.

She inhaled, then shot a roaring gout of Dragonbreath up at the incoming storm of ice and snow. The mystical fire wasn't nearly as hot as genuine Fire-type attacks, but it still took the worst off, and by the time Suicune could get a clear line on Sceptile again the Grass-type was brushing the frost off her leafy arms.

"Hmmm..." Suicune pondered, as she jumped down a terrace and used the momentum thus gained to cross the valley at speed. "Ash? Any ideas?"

Ash frowned. "Yeah, actually! Hit her with Hydro Pump!"

"If you say so," Suicune said dubiously, then jumped to a higher terrace as the one she was on was hit by a Seed Bomb. "Okay, here goes!"

Keeping an eye on Sceptile, she waited until the Grass-type was just about to fire – then spun, skidding to a halt so fast that the Giga Drain aimed at her running form missed entirely.

Before Sceptile could retarget, Suicune fired a full-force Hydro Pump at Sceptile. Water went everywhere as Sceptile raised her arms to block with a Leaf Blade, and by the end of it Sceptile was standing in a muddy field and absolutely drenched.

"Now, quick! Bulldoze!" Ash told Suicune. "Then Ice Beam!"

Suicune pounced, paws slamming into the mud of the valley floor, and fired off a Bulldoze.

Sceptile sank into the grassy mud, but only an inch or two, and when Suicune followed up with an Ice Beam the effects weren't what they could have been. Sceptile was clearly caught, but just as clearly capable of escaping.

"What!?" Ash asked, sounding personally offended, as Sceptile smashed out of the ice and barely missed Suicune with a Leaf Blade. "I – wait a second..."

"Grassy Terrain," Sceptile said, smirking, as Suicune leaped clear from the valley floor to the terrace above Ash. "Good try, though."

Suicune's reply was to charge up another icy attack. This one, though, was clearly not an Ice Beam.

She fired it, then added to the general theme with a Blizzard.

Sceptile tried to deal with the Ice attack with a Drain Punch – and that first icy attack burst, flash-freezing her wet arms in place as the Freeze-Dry detonated. Sceptile was hit next by the blizzard, and staggered backwards – using her tail to hold her up.

"Sceptile!" Clair called, her necklace glowing again. "Now!"

An orange light flashed from something half-hidden under the foliage at the base of Sceptile's tail.

"Oh, come on!" Suicune said, exasperated. "I thought she said-"

"Thinking back, she never actually did," Ash replied. "Oh, great..."

The glow grew and crescendoed, then subsided – revealing Mega Sceptile.

There were much more prominent head crests than a regular Sceptile, and her eyes had narrowed and gained red markings. Red markings also circled the tail, some of her claws and striped her lower belly, and her tail had gained a red tip.

The seeds on her back had grown substantially larger, some of them changing colour, and plates of dark green leaves formed armour at the shoulders and across the front of her chest.

She waved her tail back and forth, facing Suicune – then brought it around, over the top of her head, and fired the red tip at Suicune.

The Aurora Pokémon blurred into motion, jumping down almost to the valley floor, and successfully avoided the red plant-missile as it exploded into a storm of leafy fragments which peppered her former position.

"What was that!?" she asked, glancing back at it.

"Leaf Storm," Mega Sceptile replied. Her tail-tip had apparently regrown already, and she fired it a second time at Suicune – who, predictably, dodged to avoid being hit by the cloud of razor-leafed shrapnel.

Ash watched the third Leaf Storm, and then the fourth, and frowned. Something didn't seem-

"Suicune!" he called. "It's not getting any weaker! I don't know why, but-"

"Oh, that's just perfect," Suicune muttered, pelting down the valley terrace. She kicked off, avoiding the latest shrapnel-storm, and landed on a terrace on the other side of the flat valley floor.

Since her original strategy of waiting out the Leaf Storm's normally-considerable burden on the user wasn't going to pan out, she decided to instead take advantage of her opponent's own Mega Evolution.

If, as she suspected, it had given Sceptile the Dragon-type... well, that just made her more vulnerable to Ice.

"Look-"

Ash's voice gave her warning. This time, the Leaf Storm missile burst earlier – covering more of the valley, and giving her less of a chance to evade.

She fired her Ice attack – an Icy Wind, this time – early, and then pulsed out a great spherical flood of water. More than she usually did, in fact – purely to try to resist the impact of the high-speed leaf shrapnel.

It almost worked, in fact. The few green-glowing fragments which connected with her had been significantly slowed, and she shook off the impact with relative ease.

As the water sluiced off her and down onto the valley floor, she jumped clear to avoid any follow-up and sought out Mega Sceptile with her eyes.

The Grass-type was... unscathed, actually, though she was only just regrowing her new red stinger to use. That was curious.

"Ash!" she called, before summoning another wave of water and using it as cover to change position – it worked, and leaf shards peppered the ground some distance from her. "What happened?"

Ash raised his voice, to be sure Suicune could hear him. "She kind of... summoned a storm of petals from the seeds on her back, which took the attack, and then regrew them first!"

Trying a new trick, Suicune battered the Leaf Storm projectile with an Air Slash before it detonated. It tumbled, pointing in a different direction, but the shower of fragments went in the original direction anyway.

Looked like it was the speed of the stinger which was moving the shrapnel, not that they were being launched from the stinger mid-flight. That was a pity...

"Any ideas?" Suicune asked, snapping off an Aurora Beam at the Mega Sceptile to see for herself. Sure enough, pink and yellow petals promptly came seething out of the seed pods on her back, ablating away and preventing the Ice attack from reaching her.

"Uh... yeah!" Ash said, suddenly. "Right – head around the curve of the valley, out of sight, and use that to build up speed. Then come charging back in as fast as you can!"

"I refuse to dignify that with the word plan," Suicune deadpanned, wincing as one of her dodges wasn't quite fast enough.

"No, seriously, do it!" Ash instructed. "I'll give more instructions in a moment!"

Suicune considered that. Actually, that was probably the best choice, if she wanted to avoid Mega Sceptile from countering whatever Ash's plan was.

She skidded out of the way of a Leaf Storm, and pelted along the valley floor at maximum speed – aiming for the very far end, which was as Ash said out of direct line-of-sight.

Turning, she began to accelerate. Wind at her back, she fairly rocketed along – body flat to the ground between the moments where her paws landed, and she coiled-stretched-sprung again.

To make sure she could corner this hard, she was running close to the outer wall of the curve. She sighted Mega Sceptile, and the Grass-type swung up her tail to fire again.

"Icy Wind!" Ash called, just as the Leaf Storm fired.

Suicune reached the wet patch from her earlier Hydro Pump shield, but her paws found it just as sure footing as the grassy ground. She snapped off an Icy Wind, which spread out in front of her and hit the Leaf Storm projectiles the moment after they burst.

Since Ash had said what she was to do out loud, Mega Sceptile had overheard – meaning the detonation on the tail missile had been set late, to do the most damage. But that also meant they were close together, all caught by the same Ice attack, and while the frozen projectiles hurt as they bounced off they weren't nearly as powerful as the unaffected Grass attack would have been.

"Ice Beam!" Ash added, as Suicune pelted along towards the reloading Mega. "And – Extremespeed!"

Suicune's Ice attack flashed out, and Mega Sceptile formed her petal-shield automatically. The Ice Beam splashed off the shield, freezing it but going no further-

At which point a large, powerful Legendary moving at speeds considerably faster than a runaway train hit it, shattering it into a thousand pieces of ice-encrusted plant matter.

They, and Suicune, hit Mega Sceptile all in one go.

Mega Sceptile was driven back across the Grassy Terrain, feet scrabbling for purchase, and slammed into the lowest terrace retaining wall. As she tried to pull herself out of the mud, Suicune hit her with a Blizzard at point-blank range.

"Good match!" Clair called, and Suicune stopped attacking.

She took a deep breath, and exhaled it.

That had been... interesting. And invigorating.

With a wet, muddy sound, part of the terrace wall collapsed.

Oops...

"That was cool!" Mawile smiled. "Mister Ash was smart!"

"More like crazy..." Pikachu muttered.

"Don't be like that, Mister Pikachu," Mawile admonished, shaking her head. "That's not nice!"

Mega Sceptile transitioned back down to Sceptile, and Clair retrieved the Mega Stone from her before returning the Grass-type.

"Very good," she said again. "Not many are ready for that little trick of hers – but you managed to work around it. Well done."

"Thanks," Ash said, as Suicune jumped from terrace to terrace to join the spectators. "Uh... whose turn is it to pick who goes out next?"

"I think mine," Clair smiled. "Flygon, your turn!"

Ash glanced down at the floor. Well, it was now or after Squirtle, those were the times there'd be enough water... "Lapras, you have a go!"

Lapras splashed into the water, grounding out with an oof before floating back up to a still-uncomfortable float an inch or two above the submerged valley floor.

"You couldn't have made sure there was more water?" he asked, grumpily.

"It was now or after Squirtle, and who knows what he's going to do..." Ash replied. "Anyway, can't you fix it?"

Lapras nodded. He inhaled, and got hit by a rather nasty Iron Tail as Flygon swooped down on him.

"Ow!" he snapped, and fired his Hydro Pump. The broad blast of water whipped around, spraying the nearest terrace and eroding off some of the earth making it up, and tracked around towards the evading Flygon.

Some of the water spatter did hit the insectile Dragon, but he performed a roll away from the reaching Hydro Pump and gained altitude.

Lapras ended the Hydro Pump, now floating considerably higher off the ground, and sculled around to face Flygon directly.

"Well, I think we all know what I'm going to be using..." he muttered, charging an Ice Beam.

When it fired, snapping out into the sky, Flygon dodged with relative ease – the Ice Beam was a long, thin line, and even when Lapras swept it across the sky the agile Dragon was able to keep one step ahead.

As soon as the Ice Beam ended, Flygon retaliated. Wings blurring, he came diving down towards Lapras with his foreclaws glowing.

Hurriedly, Lapras pulled another Ice attack together – this time, a potent Frost Breath which he exhaled just as Flygon arrived for his melee attack.

There was a crashing sound of splintering ice, the crack-thud of an impact, and Flygon was pulling away again with a dusting of ice falling from his wings.

Lapras came bobbing up out of the water again – Flygon's Superpower had knocked him down, and it had taken a moment for his bouyancy to reassert itself – and turned to face the next attack.

He frowned, watching as Flygon did a complex series of loops and turns at the end of his run. A lot more than was necessary...

"He's using Dragon Dance!" Ash called. "Watch out, he's going to use it to negate the drawback of Superpower!"

"Oh, great..." Lapras sighed. He fired another Ice Beam – to no effect, the speedy Ground/Dragon type evaded it almost casually – then paused, to consider how to best hit Flygon.

He could just save his attacks for when Flygon came in close – but that didn't sound like a good idea, to him. It was passive and would normally work quite well, but with the Dragon Dance boosting him Flygon would only hit harder and harder. Perhaps hard enough to win with ease.

No, Lapras had to pre-empt him. And the best time would be during his attack run.

Thrashing his fins, Lapras began to charge another attack. This time, the blue ball of Ice energy was different – smaller, and harder, with a blue core.

Flygon finished his Dragon Dance, and dove. He bottomed out just out of sight, then came charging along the valley floor – his green colouring making him a little harder to spot.

Lapras smirked, and fired the ball of ice. As it shot forwards, he added to it with an Aurora Beam – weak, from being given so little time to charge, but he didn't need power.

Inside the icy sphere was a core of unfrozen, supercooled water. As the Aurora Beam hit it, it all froze at once – expanding, and making the sphere explode into a shower of Ice Shards going in all directions.

Several of them peppered Flygon, and he wobbled in the air. One wing brushed close to the water, then he pulled up again and prepared for his attack.

He flew into another Frost Breath – one he was at least a little better prepared for, this time – and in return hit Lapras with another painfully hard Superpower.

This one sent Lapras skating back through the water, despite his best efforts. He turned, firing another of the bursting Ice Shard bombs, and managed to clip Flygon with a couple of the fragments.

Flygon did another of his looping wingovers, and came in again – dodging from side to side, this time, so Lapras couldn't line up a good attack.

"Sheer Cold!" Ash called.

As soon as he said it, Flygon began to slow – not wanting to be caught in the potent Ice attack.

"Should I still-" Lapras asked, glancing back. Flygon was circling, looking for an opening, but staying out of range.

"Yes! Right now!" Ash ordered.

Feeling a little confused Lapras complied. The surface of the water around him froze, and then the ice quickly spread out to cover the entire elongated lakelet.

As the Sheer Cold went on, the ice creaked – and exploded upwards, the whole thing acting like a gigantic version of Lapras' earlier ice bomb.

Blindsided from below, Flygon was bounced about thirty feet into the air by an upwards shower of ice. He described an arc through the air, wings twitching and then flapping frantically as he fell, and hit one of the terraces with a thud.

Pushing off, he tried to gain height again, but Lapras hit him with a well-placed Ice Beam.

"There," Lapras said, feeling satisfied, as Flygon crashed into the next terrace down – snapping through a few bushes before skidding belly-down on the earth of the terrace. The ice shattered off as he spun to a halt, but Flygon was in no further shape to battle.

Clair nodded to herself. "Ice is one of the banes of all dragons," she agreed, returning Flygon. "Fairies are the other – you don't have any of them, do you?"

"Aside from Mawile, no," Ash said. "And she's a bit young for battle at the moment."

Mawile seemed very amused by the idea of battling. "That'd be fun!" she said, one hand over her mouth as she giggled. "I'd be all sneaky, and then BOO!"

Her false-jaws half-opened and closed, though not in time with her words.

"I'm sure you would," Misty agreed. "You'll probably need some training, though."

"Sure!" Mawile agreed readily. "Training sounds fun too!"

"Okay, that's three down and three to go," Ash said, withdrawing Lapras. "Who's fourth?"

"It's your choice," Clair reminded him.

"Right." Ash frowned, considering.

He didn't know what Clair had, but... oh, why not.

"Charizard!" he called.

"Took you a while!" Charizard chuckled, as he emerged. He rolled once, then turned over and began hovering in place over Ash's head.

"Ah, your Charizard. A familiar sight around here," Clair told him. "Well... how about this?"

She took a fourth Pokéball "This is one of the few Pokémon whose primary type is Flying. Though in practice it's no different from having a secondary type of Flying, apart from academic curiosity. Noivern!"

52

As the Sound Wave Pokémon materialized, Charizard gave her a considering look.

"I've met Noibat before," he commented. "Are you evolved from them?"

She nodded, silently, and began to climb. Matching her, Charizard beat his wings harder and rose into the sky.

"Hey!" Charla called. "You'd better win this – or we're all going to look like wimps!"

"You know it!" Charizard called back, then returned his attention to Noivern.

"Why are your ears glowing?"

Noivern used Boomburst.

The blast of sound was clearly visible, a pressure wave in the air which turned it whiter and more translucent. Charizard had just enough time to realize it was coming before it hit him.

It was like flying into a plate glass wall. The almightly SLAM of impact passed Charizard in a moment, shoving his wings back to their furthest elevation and making his neck snap back.

"Charizard!" Ash called, startled.

What had just happened?

He watched as Charizard went through a slow backflip, shedding forward momentum before dropping towards the valley below.

Then his wings snapped out again.

Roaring, Charizard shot a pulse of Dragonbreath out at Noivern from below. The Sound Wave Pokémon rolled to the side, wings flapping as she evaded, and fired another Boomburst downwards.

Gritting his teeth, Charizard gave one great wingbeat and flew straight at it.

The sonic pulse blasted over him again, but this time he was ready for it. Wings stooped over to deflect the blast of sound, teeth held unclenched to reduce the impact, Charizard grunted and powered through the sonic attack.

It was still like flying into a plate glass window. But Charizard absolutely could do that, and keep fighting.

Already Noivern was charging again. To avoid her getting too long to build it up, he fired a Dragon Rage at her and followed it up with a less effectual Flamethrower.

Noivern's response surprised him. She fired her half-charged Boomburst, this time directly at the Dragon Rage. It reacted as though it had hit something solid, detonating early, and Charizard had to roll to one side to avoid flying through the explosion.

This was going to be harder than he'd been expecting.

"Why's it a primary Flying-type anyway?" Ash asked, squinting into the sky.

Charizard snatched his tail away from the latest pulse of sound, wings hammering, and fired a roaring pulse of flame to give himself some cover.

When Noivern blew a hole in the smokescreen with Boomburst, she didn't reveal her orange foe. Then Charizard emerged from the smoke with his mouth full of green fire, and scored a line down the side of her body before she fired a point-blank Boomburst which knocked both of them tumbling for a second.

"Oh," Clair blinked, realizing she'd been asked a question. "What's that?"

Recovering first, Charizard spun around in a tight turn and launched a Fire Blast at Noivern. The attack detonated on a pulse of intense sound, but successfully disrupted the attack and prevented it from reaching Charizard in turn.

"I asked how come Noibat and Noivern are primary Flying types," Ash repeated, half his attention on Charizard.

Flaring his wings, Charizard shed speed. Noivern's attack – a Dragon Pulse, seemingly for sheer variety – shot in front of him, and he dove to regain speed.

"Right," Clair said, also a bit distracted by the overhead battle. "Basically, that's what the scanner says."

Pressing her advantage, Noivern stooped towards Charizard to reduce the charge time for her attack. It took at least a little time for her to go from deciding to fire to actually firing, and the closer her target the lower the power she could get away with.

"Really, so – dodge!" Ash shouted.

Noivern rolled and pitched, gaining the right angle, and Charizard dodged to his right just before she fired. The blast of sound rippled out, but Charizard had gotten away with it – his tail flame whipped in the side-burst, but the hammering sonic attack itself missed.

"Break left!" Clair called, seeing something Noivern couldn't.

Under his body, Charizard's mouth was glowing. He pulled his wings in, slamming around in a painful yaw turn, and fired his Draco Meteor.

The glowing orb soared towards Noivern, exploded, and showered the whole area of sky she was in with bright orange projectiles. She blasted one out of the way, dodged another, and then a third one hit her in the small of the back – producing an explosion of orange and purple light.

"Take that," Charizard said, panting, and followed up with a blast of Dragonfire.

Noivern snatched herself away from the gout of mystical flames, hammering a Hurricane back at Charizard to keep him occupied.

As he fought the intense winds, Noivern gained height. She flared her wings, and a pinkish glow enveloped her.

The injury on her back started to fade. Then a Fire Blast detonated near her, and she stumbled slightly in the air.

Charizard climbed up towards her at speed, already shooting out a column of Fire Spin, and she abandoned her healing technique to fire back at him. The Boomburst blasted his Fire Spin apart, and he bulled through it with a grunt of pain.

"Charizard!" he heard. "Use Blast Burn if you want!"

Oh, Charizard very much wanted that.

He sent another salvo of fire Noivern's way, licking at her wings and making her spend energy blowing it out, and gained height.

"Blast Burn?" Clair repeated. "That's the powerful... wait, he's a Charizard. The ridiculously powerful Fire attack? The version they only teach at the Valley?"

"Yep!" Ash replied, hand already up to shade his eyes. "Only thing is... we kind of improved on it."

Clair blanched. "You improved on that?"

She looked around. "I hope everyone's going to be safe when you let that off..."

"No, it's fine," Ash hastened to let her know. "No-one's been hurt yet."

"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence," she muttered.

The two Pokémon were both rising further and further into the heavens, as Charizard drew the battle higher – climbing whenever possible, firing attacks down from his position of height, and refusing to give up any of his hard-won altitude even if it would improve his chances of dodging.

Since distance reduced the effectiveness of her attacks, Noivern was forced to come climbing after him and keep him within effective range. Both Pokémon were fit, and well-used to hard flying, but she was tiring just that little bit faster.

Or so Charizard thought, anyway.

As he considered that, she fired out another Boomburst to make sure he wasn't getting complacent. The attack spread as it climbed, losing some of its force, but still retained enough to rattle his bones and click his teeth painfully together.

Snarling, Charizard pulled around in a tight turn, inhaling. Blue light shone from his throat, and he launched out a jet of Aura-saturated hydrogen gas.

The gas reached the distance he set within a couple of seconds, and spread out into a sphere as Noivern stopped climbing – turning to stay a reasonable distance from this unknown attack.

Smirking, Charizard triggered his Blast Burn.

It began at his mouth, flashing down to encircle the bluish globe evenly. The explosion flashed inwards, growing stronger and more powerful as it approached the centre-

And then Noivern hit it with a full-power Boomburst.

The delicate conditions which would have led to the micro-fusion explosion were disrupted by the wall of sound. There was instead a complicated BANG as the remaining gas detonated all at once, producing a wash of heat and pressure but nothing like what Charizard intended.

"That's just not fair!" he shouted, highly offended, as the cloud of smoke from his fizzled attack spread. "Do you have any idea how much work that took?!"

Noivern replied by launching a Dragon Pulse at him.

Charizard slipped sideways in the air, avoiding the attack, and blasted a stream of Dragonbreath back down – diving, now that he had less need for his height advantage, and managing to get close enough to score on Noivern.

Pressing his attack, he swiped out at her with a Dragon Claw attack, and barely missed. He took a hasty Boomburst to the side as Noivern rolled clear, which came in at an oblique angle and didn't get proper purchase.

Snapping around in a turn, Charizard decided on a new strategy.

She didn't want to fight him close in? That's exactly what he'd give her.

Mouth flashing with an eerie green light as he repeated his earlier Dragonbreath, Charizard lunged forwards. He fired it ahead of Noivern, making her instinctively slow to avoid the sheet of green flame, and he managed to get close enough to swipe at her wing – scoring a hit, and making her hiss in pain.

As Charizard continued going for close-quarters attacks, Noivern pulled up into a wingover to stymie him. She managed to evade his attempt at a Bite, but shed a lot of speed in doing so, and Charizard – experienced at fighting other dragons – performed a dizzying forward roll to come up below and behind her as she tried to regain speed.

Mouth flashing with blue light, Charizard volleyed in one of the lesser, 'normal' Blast Burns he had learned before. Noivern was hit for just a moment before managing to slip out of the line of fire, but the momentary contact was clearly painful despite her Type advantage.

Swallowing as he waited for his flames to build back up again, Charizard banked after his opponent – noticing as he did that they were losing height rapidly.

That gave him an idea.

He stayed on her tail as she tried to jink and lose him, focusing hard to make sure he caught every last indicator of her next moves, and as soon as it was feasible he shot out a Fire Blast just below her.

Instinctively, she pulled up slightly – losing a bit of speed. Then the Fire Blast detonated, producing a rippling air current which knocked her flight path off further, and by the time she'd made up the speed deficit he was close enough to grab her tail and yank.

He lost his grip quickly, but it was enough. She stumbled slightly in the air, slowing further, and Charizard slammed bodily into her before fouling both her wings with his claws.

They were falling much faster, now, as Noivern lost the ability to control their flight and Charizard wrenched them around into a dive.

Struggling, she fired a Boomburst at him at point blank range. The concussion made Charizard's head swim, but he held on gamely – and blazed a Dragon Rage ball right back at her from just as close.

As she tried to charge another attack, he slapped her neck aside with his horns – making it go wide – and kept one eye firmly on the uprushing ground.

"Are they about to-" Clair began, then interrupted herself. "Look out!"

She ducked reflexively as Charizard abruptly pushed Noivern away from himself. Wings straining, he bottomed out a few feet above the valley rim and swept inches over the head of the watching Suicune – who skidded backwards a little before regaining her footing.

Noivern wasn't so lucky. She made a good effort to stop herself, but hit the valley side with a concussive WHAM. Staggering back into the air from the glancing crash, she flapped once, then hit the upper branches of a tree and went tumbling to the ground in a tangle of branches and dust.

"Is she okay?" Ash asked, wincing. That hadn't looked pleasant...

"I hope so," Clair admitted.

After a moment, Noivern's head was seen shaking. She stood, wobbling a little, and as she did Charizard came flying back over the valley side and hovered menacingly overhead.

"Noivern can't battle on," Clair decided. "Well done once more, Ash Ketchum. Though I think you and Charizard were both a little surprised by Noivern there..."

"Yeah, she was really good," Ash agreed. "Blocking attacks like that was neat!"

Clair nodded, returning her Pokémon. "Overwhelming force doesn't just mean being able to knock out your opponent – it means being stronger, in some way, and forcing your opponent to think to react. My gym's purpose is to ensure trainers cannot rely simply on strong Pokémon."

"Right!" Ash realized. "So either they have to do something you've not seen before, or they have to come up with something on the fly!"

"Very good," Clair smiled. "Now, my turn. Dragonair, your time to shine!"

"Squirtle!" Ash replied promptly.

"Ooh, that looks pretty," Mawile said, looking down with interest at Clair's Dragonair. "Is it a Water-type as well as a Dragon?"

"No, just pure Dragon," Misty replied.

"Thank you!" Mawile glanced up, smiling, before returning her attention to the battle. "What moves does Mister Squirtle know?"

Misty rolled her eyes. "I'm not even sure he knows..."

"Okay, Dragonair!" Squirtle announced, sliding down the terrace slope with one arm used for braking his fall. "You're not the first dragon I've fought, but you're the first in a good long while that wasn't a Dragonite!"

Dragonair tilted her head slightly. "...are you well?"

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Squirtle reached the valley floor, in a different patch to the one Lapras had frozen solid. "Of course I'm fine! I'm better than fine, I'm the badass leader of the Squirtle Squad!"

Over on the valley side, Charizard cleared his throat. "He gets like this," the Fire-type told Dragonair succinctly. "You may as well get on with it."

"Very well." Dragonair rose up with the upper third or so of her body, her beaded tail waving lazily and producing a series of ripples.

"...in the world!" Squirtle finished. He pointed at Dragonair. "So eat this! Rime!"

Inhaling, Squirtle fired out a jet of super-cooled water.

Dragonair reacted by briefly drawing back, and then darting to one side – moving with blurring speed, and easily getting clear before the water froze into a complicated splash-shaped structure on the valley wall.

"Interesting," she said. Her tail tip rose again, describing a circle, and a wind picked up.

Squirtle fired another attack, this one an Ice Beam, then jumped into the air and used Hydro Pump to get clear of the Twister attack.

Behind him, the Dragon-typed whirlwind scoured a semicircle out of the terrace side, with some of the earth slumping into the space it left.

"That's a powerful Dragonair," Ash commented, wincing as the wall of the next terrace up slumped slightly.

"She wouldn't do so much damage if the walls hadn't been weakened by... well, everything else," Clair admitted. "But yes, she's quite strong."

There was a small explosion, as Squirtle's Ice Beam hit a Dragon Rage ball and detonated it about halfway between the two battling Pokémon. Dragonair followed up her attack with a Twister, and Squirtle plucked his sunglasses from his face to swipe at the tornado – breaking it in half.

"How did he-" Clair began, then shook her head. "Never mind, I'm not sure there's going to be an explanation I'd be happy hearing..."

Dragonair ducked under the next Ice Beam, and launched a wave of Dragonbreath at Squirtle. The Tiny Turtle retaliated with a huge wave of water in a Surf, which extinguished the mystical flames more by hammering them flat than by elemental advantage, and threw his glasses into the next Dragon Rage ball.

It went skidding off course, almost back towards Dragonair, and blew another crater into the valley wall.

Following straight up on his previous attack, Squirtle launched a wave of water at Dragonair again. This time, it was a steaming Scald, which underwent a series of steam explosions as it travelled in order to fling it into the evading Dragon-type, and while she was focused entirely on dodging he managed to lead her enough with an Ice Beam to freeze the lower part of her body.

The Scald quickly melted the ice, but it had held her still long enough for Squirtle to get in a full Rime. Freezing near-instantly on contact, it solidified Dragonair to the place her dodging had taken her – two terraces up.

"Good work, Squirtle!" Ash called. "Now she's frozen, she can't-"

He noticed Clair smirking.

"...Aspear Berry?"

Clair shook her head. "Something else entirely."

Light began to emanate from the ice. Then it exploded, and an orange-cream Dragonite went soaring skywards.

"She deliberately held back from evolving!" Clair explained, as Dragonite blocked Squirtle's quick Ice Beam with a Flamethrower.

"I prefer it when it's me doing things like that," Ash said ruefully.

Squirtle gestured with his glasses. "Not going to stay down here and fight?"

He put the glasses back on, firmly. "Right! That's it, I'll come up and fight you!"

Withdrawing his arms, legs, head and tail into his shell, he fired a Hydro Pump and went flying into the air.

Dragonite retaliated by flying higher, and crackling light flickered between her palms for a moment.

"Look out!" Ash called. "That's-"

The light focused on one hand, and Dragonite flicked it downwards. A Thunder slammed down, hitting one of Squirtle's water jets and conducting up to him.

Shocked and stunned, Squirtle wobbled out of control and crashed about halfway up the valley side.

Ash scaled the terrace behind him and ran along to where Squirtle was. "Squirtle, are you okay?"

The Water-type shook his head, standing on wobbly legs. "Ow," he reported. Taking a breath, he produced an Aqua Ring around himself. "Okay. It's time to break out the big guns."

"The big guns?" Ash repeated, glad Squirtle seemed to be recovering swiftly. "You mean that Drill Break?"

"Bigger! It's time to use... that," Squirtle said ominously.

There was a pause.

"What?" Ash asked.

"No, That! It! The Thing!" Squirtle went on, waving an arm encouragingly. "Plan S!"

"I have no idea what you mean, Squirtle," Ash explained. "What is It?"

Squirtle rolled his eyes, then reached into his shell and produced... it.

Ash did not find the sight encouraging.

There was a deep, indigo blue sphere, striated with cool and watery markings – though so faded they were barely visible.

There was some kind of greyish sphere rammed into a hole drilled in the side, blocking off the hole.

And, through the crystal, Ash could faintly see something glowing.

"What is it, Squirtle?" he asked.

"It's Squirtilite!" Squirtle told him. "It's much more likely to work than last time!"

"Last-" Ash stopped. "No, I don't want to know."

"Good!" Squirtle said firmly. "Now, light up that staff of yours and let's do this!"

Dubiously, Ash swung his staff off his shoulder, and concentrated.

Squirtle, one of his first Pokémon. Kind of strange – this being one example – but certainly brave, strong and loyal.

Ash remembered Squirtle saving his life, back when they first met. He remembered the times Squirtle had fought for him, worked to keep his friends safe, and gone to his limits and beyond in battle.

No, Squirtle wasn't perfect. But Ash didn't care, since he was still great.

Then there was an orange glow.

"What the heck!?" Pikachu gaped. "That shouldn't even have been possible!"

"He got it working," Suicune sighed. "He asked me for advice, but... I can't believe he actually got it working."

As the light faded, they saw what had happened

Standing there was, unmistakeably, a Mega Squirtle.

His glasses had gone along with the Mega Stone – replaced by a pointed pair of black markings around his eyes, forming the outline of his signature shades.

On his wrists, just above the hands, bands of what looked like semisolid water supported a pair of drill-like gauntlets – one per arm – and a similar-looking material formed a pair of tiny water cannons on his back as a separate, almost backpack-like unit.

Misty sighed, facepalming. "I don't believe this."

"That's right!" Mega Squirtle announced, not quite gloating. "My indomitable will has overcome all obstacles in its way! Even the rules which dictate what can evolve and what can't stand no chance against the power of a hot blooded mon's friendship!"

"How the heck did that even-" Ash shook his head. "Okay, I'm not questioning it. Uh – Heracross had trouble knowing what his body did when he Mega-Evolved, are you-"

"I'm fine, of course!" Mega Squirtle announced. The gun pack swivelled, pointing down, and he pointed one fist skywards. "All right, you overgrown Dratini, I'm coming up to-"

A Thunder speared down out of the sky, and Mega Squirtle just about managed to jump out of the way.

"Right, then," he said, cracking his knuckles, and raised his fist again.

Then his cannons fired.

In a stream of high-pressure water, Mega Squirtle ascended skywards. Ash raised an arm to fend off the rushing water, and then the jets altered slightly so they were spraying the valley floor instead of the terraces.

There was a moment of near-silence.

"...what just happened?" Clair asked plaintively.

Rolling his neck as he ascended, Mega Squirtle considered his options.

A Thunderbolt crackled down at him, and he batted it aside with one of his water-drills. There was a hissing BANG as the water reacted violently, making him roll once to the side, before he steadied down and ascended further.

Levelling his other drill, he fired a blast of water at the Dragon-type. Dragonite rolled away from it, losing a little height, and then found Mega Squirtle adjusting the angle of his gunpack to follow.

What resulted was an unlikely dogfight, with Dragonite finding herself pursued by the jet-powered Mega Squirtle in a series of close engagements mixed with sudden, wide, swooping curves.

Neither was all that good at flight – Dragonite had flown as a Dragonair, but more of a lazy levitation than the kind of high speed Dragonite could produce, while Mega Squirtle was basically going off what he'd seen on TV – but it all seemed to cancel out, resulting in a very evenly matched aerial battle.

Dragonite took an Ice Beam that clipped her wing, making her snatch it away from a follow up blast – she spun into a tight turn, managing to get inside Mega Squirtle's turn – Mega Squirtle was nailed by a Thunderbolt as he sought to evade, then switched his gun pack briefly to Ice Beam and hit Dragonite that way – Dragonite fired out a Dragon Pulse, clipping Mega Squirtle and sending him into a spin – Mega Squirtle recovered...

They flashed back and forth across the sky, jockeying for the advantage, until after several minutes Dragonite managed to hit Mega Squirtle with a Dragonbreath.

Mega Squirtle tumbled for a few seconds, jets firing away, and stabilized in a much lower hover.

"Finish him off, Dragonite!" Clair called, her voice just about audible over Mega Squirtle's jets. "Use Outrage!"

Mega Squirtle jinked to the side as Dragonite's first attack run of the Outrage came in. "That's your mistake! You're trying to finish me off! And if there's one thing the Badass Leader of the Squirtle Squad never is, it's be in a position where he can be finished off! Just get that through your thick head!"

Coming in on the second attack, Dragonite caught him a glancing blow. Mega Squirtle grinned, rubbing at his cut lip.

Both drills began to glow, and then shot off streams of water that dripped as they arced off into the sky. Again, and the second pair were dripping water that froze to ice beneath them.

The third pair were ice, and they stayed connected to Mega Squirtle's fists.

"Mega Squirtle Ice Drill Break!" the chelonian Pokémon announced, and all six drills converged on Dragonite.

There was a very loud explosion.

Jets flaring, Mega Squirtle came down to a landing in the centre of the valley.

Behind him, covered in ice, Dragonite crashed to the floor of the valley.

"And that's why I'm the badass leader of the Squirtle Squad," Mega Squirtle finished.

"...I have no idea what we just saw," Clair admitted.

"Not surprised, I don't either," Ash confessed.

Clair shook her head, and went on. "Still, I think that counts as a win for you. Impressive, if baffling."

"That was cool!" Mawile announced. "Mister Squirtle's amazing!"

Charizard sighed. "I really hope you don't take too much inspiration from him..."

"Why not?" Mawile asked, turning to look at him.

"He goes a bit... too far, sometimes," Pikachu volunteered. "It's okay to be strong, certainly, but Squirtle overdoes other things."

Mawile nodded seriously. "Okay."

As Dragonite was returned, Mega Squirtle exhaled. "Right, now we're done-"

He flashed orange, and reverted to Squirtle. His glasses were back on his face, and the homemade Squirtilite was in his left hand. "I- eh?"

Immediately obvious was that the Squirtilite was not behaving as it should. It was crackling with energy, the water-stone component was a deep, night-dark black, and the Everstone component was fizzing like limestone in water.

"What's-"

Finally overloaded with strain, the makeshift Mega Stone detonated into a tidal wave of water. The sudden rush splashed both Clair and Ash as it briefly overtopped some of the terraces, then flowed back – carrying large amounts of mud and silt with it, along with a startled Squirtle.

A blue blur came leaping down from the valley side. Pausing a moment at each terrace to kick off, Suicune landed on the rushing water rapidly draining out of the side valley. She plucked him from the water, her powers purifying the flood as she did so, and then jumped clear and skidded to a halt.

"Got him," she announced, depositing the bedraggled Squirtle on the grass.

Ash returned him. "Thanks, Suicune."

She nodded. "I'll go make sure no-one else is caught in the flood." With that, she jumped off down towards the Dragon Holy Land proper.

"Okay... well, I guess we're both down to one left," Ash went on. "And that means it's Keldeo!"

Keldeo emerged with a flash, and gave a determined nod. "I'm ready!"

"We are indeed down to one left," Clair agreed. "This one determines if you win automatically, or if the Clan is to judge you. Altaria!"

Keldeo looked Altaria over, head tilting slightly.

The Humming Pokémon leant down to receive a Mega-stone charm from Clair, then ascended to hover several feet in the air as Keldeo set his stance.

"Begin!" Clair said. "Sky Attack!"

A silvery-orange glow flashed into being around Altaria's body, growing in intensity. Altaria circled once, then came diving down to deliver the Sky Attack.

Keldeo stamped a hoof on the ground, and formed a ball of bluish Aura in his mouth. As he concentrated, the colour leached out of it, resulting in a near-pure-white sphere.

He then leaked a bit of his own Aura back into it, adding water to the ice, before releasing it just as Altaria came down.

The shotgun-like spread of the Icy Wind attack peppered Altaria as he stooped, making the Sky Attack ripple and weakening it considerably, and one of Altaria's semisolid cloud wings managed to clip the dodging Keldeo.

There was a flash as the energy of the attack released, knocking Keldeo onto his side, and then Altaria scraped the next terrace up as he climbed frantically to avoid crashing into the earthen wall.

Keldeo pulled his hooves in and pushed himself back to his feet, shaking his head. "That didn't go too well..."

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "But I guess – wait, look out-"

There was a flash of multicoloured light from Clair's Key Stone, and Altaria's Altarianite charm responded.

Incongruously, as the orange glow lit the valley, Ash noticed someone moving up on the rim. A young man with an Altaria beside him.

He looked familiar...

A moment later, though, the transformation was finished, and Ash returned his attention to Mega Altaria.

Compared to some Mega Evolutions, there weren't many obvious changes to Mega Altaria's body. His semisolid cloud-stuff had shifted, revealing different parts of his draconic form, and his tail feathers had grown to long, opalescent streamers.

The biggest change, however, was to the cloud itself. Normally, the cloud for an Altaria was clumped in a fairly spherical blob around its main body. Mega Altaria had distinct wings around his arms, a diffuse tricorn-like hat on his head, and a great mass of it behind him.

It was all also shimmering with an eerie pinkish-silver shading, as though the light itself was just beneath the surface.

"Wow..." Mawile said, both mouths slightly agape. "That's pretty!"

"It's certainly different," Pikachu decided.

Lucario nodded. "Hmmm..." He closed his eyes, frowned, then glanced around at the spectators.

His lidded eyes flicked between Togekiss and Mawile, then to the Mega Altaria.

"That's interesting..."

"Tyl..." asked a Salamence, slowly. "What types do you get when you go Mega?"

"Oh," Tyl replied, shrugging under his cloud. "I become Dragon/Fairy, of course!"

"...that's vaguely disconcerting," commented a Dragonite absently.

"Shh, I want to watch the match," Maurice said, waving a hand. "That Altaria's stronger than Tyl is, I want to see how he handles being Mega!"

Keldeo contemplated his opponent anew, examining the shimmering energy that seemed to fill his cloud.

"This could be tough, Keldeo," Ash said, frowning. "I think you should-"

"Right," Keldeo nodded, filling in Ash's meaning. He stamped a hoof on the floor, and transitioned to Resolute Form.

"I didn't know Keldeo could go Mega," Clair said, interested. "And – I thought the staff was your Key Stone, but-"

"No, that's a Form change," Ash explained.

"Right, I see..." Clair nodded.

Keldeo grinned, then lit his Sword. "Okay, let's do this!"

He cantered forwards, gaining speed quickly, and launched himself off the terrace side.

Mega Altaria promptly used Fairy Hyper Voice.

A wavefront of sparkling light spread out towards Keldeo, and hit him all across his front from hooves to horn. The shimmering sparkles detonated on contact, halting Keldeo's charge and knocking him back into the upper wall of the terrace he'd just left. Wincing, he slid down the wall, regaining some control over his position, and jumped clear before the second one arrived – making the ground shake slightly, and the terrace collapse behind him.

"Whoa!" Ash said, blinking. "Was th – look out!"

His warning came just in time. Keldeo jumped down a terrace, avoiding a Fairy Hyper Voice which made where he'd been running crack visibly, and skidded around in a turn to fire his Icy Wind.

The gust of chilled air spread and expanded out, reaching for Mega Altaria, but he ducked down underneath it with ease and fired a Pixilated Hyper Beam.

Yelping, Keldeo interposed his Secret Sword into the way of Mega Altaria's attack. The howling, sparkling beam of energy crashed home, making Keldeo wince, and he braced his hooves and leaned into the attack to avoid being knocked flying.

Side-blast snapped off in smaller beams, carving lines into the sides of the valley, and the spectators took some nervous steps back. Ash spotted that Clair had her – now recovered – Ampharos setting up Light Screens to protect her, and Dexter started to do the same.

After some seconds, the Fairy-typed Hyper Beam sputtered out.

Keldeo looked a little the worse for wear, but still hale, and his Secret Sword blazed back up again as he focused.

"Take this!" Keldeo called, swinging his horn down sharply. "Secret Sword!"

The golden blade separated from his horn, exploding forwards in a curved scythe of energy, and Mega Altaria brought up his tail to block. The tail collided with the Secret Sword with a bang, shielding Mega Altaria's body from the main attack, and his type advantage removed a lot of the sting of the blow.

Dodging back and to one side to prevent Mega Altaria lining up easily, Keldeo fired another Icy Wind. This one he charged with more power, and filled with his Aura until it was barely stable before firing, but even that attack – which was approaching the strength of a Blizzard, if not the speed – didn't connect. Mega Altaria simply swooped down to the surface of the valley floor, squeaking underneath the attack, and launched another beam of Fairy-typed energy.

Reigniting his sword, Keldeo blocked again. This time, the beam was much lower, and he had to crouch to make sure it wouldn't push his head up and out of the way.

Clair glanced over to her opponent, and saw Ash seemed to only be keeping one eye on the battle. Half his attention was on his palm.

Curious, she looked closer, and saw a faint white sparkle there.

"Okay, Keldeo, I've got an idea!" she heard Ash call. "First – as soon as you can, get moving! This could take a while!"

The blast of Fairy-typed energy finally subsided, as Mega Altaria stopped using Hyper Beam.

Keldeo glanced up, coming back to his full height, and saw the Dragon-type was already recharging. Pink-silver energy flowed through his cloud, gathering on his neck ruff and crown, before streaming from there towards his mouth.

Deciding he'd got more than enough of a look for now, Keldeo spun on his forehoof and got moving – leaping up three terraces in a row, then running along to look for a good place to jump up again.

A Hyper Voice slammed into the ground behind him, making it crack and fall away.

"What now?" he called, most of his attention on his headlong gallop.

"Okay!" Ash replied. "Now – do the first step of how you form an Icy Wind! Just the first step, the cold ball of Aura!"

"Right," Keldeo replied, nodding and leaping up to a new level as he did so. Mega Altaria sent a blast of Fairy-energy at him, and he jumped straight back to the old one – forming the ball of cold.

"Got it!" he called, a few seconds later. "What now?"

"Now – keep it going, and focus on how it feels!"

Keldeo skidded as he reached a particularly broad tree, ducked – the tree exploded into splinters as Mega Altaria blew it up – and skidded down a level before deciding to cross the valley and start coming back the other way. "I'm concentrating as much as I can!"

The next thing Ash said was lost in the sound of an explosion.

"Pardon?"

"I said to concentrate on how your Secret Sword feels too!" Ash repeated.

Keldeo duly did so, concentrating on the rippling Aura of his Secret Sword and the nascent ball of cold in his mouth at the same time. "Ash, is this-"

"Look out!" Ash interrupted.

Keldeo glanced ahead, and yelped as he reached one of the sections damaged earlier in the fighting. A hasty jump carried him over the slumped part, and he accelerated further.

"Now..." Ash's voice hung on the word for a moment. "Swap them around!"

Keldeo blinked. "What?"

He stumbled, almost fell, and went back into a canter. "I don't see-"

"You did it!" Ash told him. "Or, started to! Just keep it up!"

A Fairy Hyper Voice went a bit long, and knocked a chunk from another tree.

Keldeo lost the ball of frost as he switched focus, and felt a tendril of aching cold on his horn.

But – that could mean...

He switched all the attention he could spare entirely to that nascent chill, and pumped energy into it. His Sword changed colour, going from a glowing gold to a frosty silver, and by the time he was getting close to Mega Altaria again the transition was complete.

"Good work!" Ash congratulated, as Keldeo shot past on the next terrace down. "Now – fire!"

"Ice blade!" Keldeo shouted, launching the silvery blade-beam from his horn. It snapped out towards Mega Altaria, and the slightly startled dragon fired his Pixilated Hyper Beam early.

The blade shot past the Hyper Beam, eroding a little as it clipped the edge of the energy stream, and hit Mega Altaria's left wing – producing a musical crash as the icy attack connected, and a thin layer of ice over the cloudstuff covering the wing before Mega Altaria shook it off.

"All right!" Ash grinned. "You know what to do!"

"I sure do!" Keldeo agreed, his grin matching Ash's. Reigniting his sword, he cloaked it in ice and fired a second scything ice blade – one Mega Altaria only barely dodged.

Clair blinked. "Did you just invent a move in the middle of a battle?"

"Yeah, why?" Ash asked, puzzled.

"...nothing."

Keldeo fired out another Ice Blade, and Mega Altaria's tail snapped up to block.

Having taken three hits already, it was caked in layers of ice, and this fourth one seemed to reach a critical mass- it lowered again only slowly, and Mega Altaria bobbed side-to-side slightly before recovering.

Cantering out of the way of a Fairy Hyper Voice, Keldeo charged his next one. His horn was beginning to tingle with the effort of sustaining all that throughput, but it was paying off!

This time, though, he'd barely fired the Ice Blade when it was hit by a Flamethrower.

Mega Altaria followed that up with a Fire Blast, and Keldeo rocked back on his hind legs and used a Hydro Pump jet to negate the flames in a hissing explosion of steam.

As the steam cleared, Keldeo saw that Mega Altaria had used the Fire Blast as a cover to switch back to charging Hyper Beam.

"Keldeo!" Ash called, in the moment before Mega Altaria fired. "Go for melee!"

Mega Altaria heard Ash as well, and began to ascend into the air.

"Right!" Keldeo called, his sword flashing from gold to icy silver, and interposed the blade between himself and Mega Altaria. The beam of Fairy-typed energy hit and splashed off, blowing holes in the grass around him, and he jumped.

All four hooves erupted with water, sending him soaring skywards, and he gritted his teeth – wobbling around a bit, trying to make sure he kept his Ice Blade in the right place.

Rising faster than Mega Altaria, he rode the Pixilated Hyper Beam right up to the Dragon-type himself, and slammed his Ice Blade into Mega Altaria's chest – then pushed as much Aura into it as he could.

The pink and icy silver explosion was about half as wide as the valley.

Keldeo landed on three hooves, stumbled, and stood there panting for a long moment.

"Ow," he said, shaking his head. "That kind of stung."

He looked up at a slithering sound, as Ash came down the side of the lowest terrace and ran over to him.

"Nice work, Keldeo!" he said, grinning. "Really – that was awesome!"

"Thanks," Keldeo replied, reverting to his Ordinary Form. "Phew... that was intense."

He and Ash looked around the side valley.

It was a wreck. Trees were blown to bits, there was water and ice damage everywhere, a number of long furrows had been carved by attacks that had missed or gone wide, and about a third of the terraces had collapsed completely.

"Uh... sorry about breaking the battlefield!" Ash called up at Clair.

"...I think I'm now much less upset that Raikou broke my gym lights," Clair sighed. "Otherwise you'd have ruined the entire building. Well, you won, Ash Ketchum – and won outright. Congratulations."

"Thanks!" Ash said, with a relieved sigh. "That was a really good battle!"

Clair inclined her head slightly. "I'll give you the Rising Badge in a moment. Now... who would like some lunch?"

"What!" Raikou roared.

He came bounding down the slope, and skidded a halt in front of Ash. "When are we going to have our bally race, then? It's always something!"

"Raikou!" Ash shook his head. "We'll have the race – in fact, we'll probably have it today. Just let me get everything else sorted out first..."

The Electric-type Beast subsided, somewhat, but looked mutinous.

Gary Oak yawned. "Oh, that was a terrible night's... what is it, Dee?"

He glanced at the clock, and blinked. "It's four in the morning. Why did you get me up at four in the morning?"

Ash just fought Clair, thus earning the Rising Badge, Dee explained.

"So?" Gary bunked sleep out of his eyes. "This better be good..."

In reply, Dee's projector sparked to life. She hovered into the air, and showed a flat-screen image of Mega Squirtle.

Gary stared at it for several seconds, as his brain booted up.

"...what is that?" he asked, carefully.

Mega Squirtle.

"Okay, how?"

I'm not sure of the details, Dexter sent me the picture... Dee broke off for a moment, then resumed. Right. Squirtle put together some bizarre bodge-job Squirtilite. It handled one battle and then exploded, but...

"...but it's flat impossible under what we think of as the rules of Mega Evolution. Right." Gary shook his head. "When's the paper due back from peer review?"

Two days from now.

"Right." Gary yawned. "Okay, I'm not going to pull it out of review, reformat the references, and go through all that faff for this. I'll just... write an addendum or something." Another yawn. "Maybe a monograph, always wanted to write one of those..."

Umbreon came out of her 'ball, looked at the picture, and rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I forget that Ash's one is the worst of the lot."

Gary was already back under the covers. "Wake me sometime after nine, then we can go to that Fairy-type gym..." he mumbled.

"What does Mister Raikou mean a race?" Mawile asked, nibbling on some pocky.

"The three Legendary Beasts of Johto have been challenging me," Ash explained. "I have to beat them in a race followed by a battle, and if I do then I can catch them."

"Right!" Mawile nodded. "I see! Are you going to catch Mister Raikou?"

"I'll certainly try," her trainer chuckled. He passed her another piece. "This one's strawberry."

"Thanks!" She took a bite, and beamed. "I like strawberry!"

"Okay, I'll remember that in future!" Ash chuckled.

He pretended not to notice that the dragons were still giving them quite a wide berth.

Except one...

"Hi, Ash," one of the dragon riders said, walking over. "How's things been?"

"Uh..." Ash frowned momentarily, trying to place the man, then realized. "Oh! You're Maurice, right? The guy who J captured?"

Maurice shrugged. "Yeah, that's me – seriously, thanks for saving Tyl and me back then. And, uh – sorry about loaning Clair that Altarianite."

"That was yours?" Ash asked. "Huh. Well – congratulations, I guess, for having it. They're pretty cool."

"The cloud dragon was pretty!" Mawile said.

"I guess they are cool," Maurice agreed. "So – guess you're off to the Silver Conference, then?"

"Yeah," Ash confirmed. "But we're going on holiday for a couple of days before I get down to training hard, pretty much."

"Oh?" The dragonrider nodded. "Sounds cool. When and where?"

"Altomare," Ash said – simplifying things a bit. "Should be in a few-"

"You've not forgotten about-"

"No, I haven't!" Ash replied, turning to Raikou. "So stop asking! We'll do it once I've put together a team for it!"

"Then do it now!" Raikou whined. "I've been waiting for this for weeks!"

"You've been running all over Johto fighting Gym Leaders, I thought..."

Maurice raised a hand. "Is that a speed run?"

One of the other riders made to throw something at him.

"So that's your newest Pokémon, Ash?" Delia asked, looking at the screen. "She's such a cutie!"

Mawile waved, and said something.

Delia waited for a moment. "What did she say, Ash?"

"Oh, sorry!" Ash blushed. "She said it was nice to meet you, too. Hey, Mawile, do you want to meet her in person?"

Mawile nodded.

"That's good – I'm going to be shifting a few Pokémon around, so you can head to Pallet Town for a bit." Ash thought for a moment. "Oh, and don't forget to see Molly, she can understand Pokémon too."

That sentence seemed to puzzle Mawile a bit. She asked what Delia could clearly tell was a question.

"No, only some humans can understand Pokémon. I'm lucky to be able to," Ash said with a smile.

That satisfied the little Fairy-type, and she nodded again.

"Okay, let's see..." Ash said, counting under his breath. "Pikachu, Lucario, Houndour... Pidgeot, of course... Donphan... and Meganium."

"Interesting choice for Meganium," Pikachu said, as Ash sent out Pidgeot and clambered aboard. "Why her?"

Ash shrugged. "She's not got a disadvantage, and her petal storms are surprisingly potent – and, of course, she can keep everyone else healthy. That could be important, remember Raikou's been basically training for the last few months."

"Fair point." Pikachu hopped up onto Pidgeot. "We ready?"

"We are ready," Pidgeot replied, raising her wings briefly to feel the wind. "Okay, not too bad..."

"I guess I'll see you in Altomare!" Ash called to Brock and Misty. "Oh – do you want me to leave you Entei and Suicune so you can get around faster?"

"We'll be fine!" Misty told him. "There are these things people use, they're called boats!"

"Sounds boring!" Ash laughed.

"Right, shall we do this?" Raikou asked, crouching down. "Three, two, one..."

He set off with a crack of thunder, and Pidgeot launched herself into the air. Cream-brown blur chased streak of moving lightning southwards, and then they were gone.

"...well, I guess that's that," Brock said. "Where's the nearest port?"

Clair frowned. "Tell you what... I'll give you a lift. Where's Salamence..."

"That's very kind of you," Misty said gratefully.