31,32,33

Quinn strode boldly out into the Grass field area, and looked across the field.

She couldn't see anyone at the other end.

"Hey, where's my opponent?" she asked, raising a hand.

"Don't worry," the referee replied. "He put in an application for a flyover, so-"

A moving sliver of colour shot over the outer retaining wall of the arena, banked in a high speed circle over most of the crowd, and slowed into a stall over the side of the stadium opposite the female trainer.

As it did so, it became clear that the moving shape was a Pidgeot. Just at the apex when Pidgeot was no longer rising, a blue human shape dropped straight down twenty feet and landed in a crouch.

"Morning!" Ash said pleasantly, rising to his feet. "Ten AM, right?"

The hand which hadn't braked his fall held up a Pokéball, and returned Pidgeot.

"…yes," the referee said, shaking his head. "I've seen a lot of entrances in my time, so don't think that impressed me or anything, but how exactly did you survive that fall without breaking a leg?"

Ash shrugged, stepping back to the box he was meant to stand in as a trainer. "It's… kind of a long story."

"Fine, then." The referee turned and activated his microphone. "The rules are, three Pokémon each. We have Lines-Pokémon in place, but please be careful about attacks that would endanger the crowd."

Pikachu muttered something into Ash's ear, who relayed it. "How are weather effects?"

"They're fine, the stadium has a retractable roof. We cover everything but the central arena itself if one is let off. Now, trainers… begin!"

Both trainers threw their first Pokeballs at the same time. Quinn led off with a Flareon, whereas Ash sent out his Pidgeot again.

"Damn!" Quinn muttered. "Match can't use his best attack if she's up there. Oh, well. Flamethrower!"

Pidgeot danced to the side as a blast of flame shot skywards, before wheeling back in on the tail of the fire to use the thermal.

She could always give herself an updraft, but a free one was good too.

"Grass…" the trainer muttered. "Pity to do this, but it's my best chance. Match! Flare Blitz, inward spiral!"

Ash ducked as the Flame Eevee-lution dashed past his box. "That's impressive! I've never seen a Flareon use that move before, Virgil's one stuck to Fire Blast."

Apparently some of them can do it. It's a good thing Pidgeot can stay out of the way of that attack, though, it would be devastating.

He licked his finger and held it out, testing the air currents. "Yeah, that's pretty hot. And it looks like it's starting to rotate, too. Firestorm?"

Likely.

"Right." Ash gauged things for a moment, then held up a Pokéball in each hand. "Pidgeot, come back here! Squirtle!"

"This blazing spirit of mine will always overcome! If faced with evaporating heat, there'll just be more water to make up the difference! This is my Pledge!"

Ah, Water Pledge. Interesting move.

Ash looked down at his Pokédex. "That's like Fire Pledge, right? Pignite has that."

Yes, there's three Pledge moves. They get stronger in a chain, so if Fire Pledge came first it powers up Water Pledge-

A series of pulsing explosions sounded as a column of water hit the firestorm from above, throwing droplets of water all over the stadium.

-and I think he just managed to get it to trigger on the flaming tornado of doom.

"Yep, that's Squirtle," Ash agreed.

Match, Quinn's Flareon, broke off his Blitz and danced out of the way as the water finally broke through the core of the firestorm and slammed into the ground.

Braking to a halt, he let off a quick Inferno and drove away what water there was near him.

Squirtle and Match faced one another warily over a landscape of scorched ash and crumbling grass skeletons.

"And the battlers have completely destroyed the field, in under a minute! That's close to the league record!" the announcer said.

Ash poked his head over the armoured box. "What's the record?"

The referee was close enough to hear his question, and answered it. "Two seconds. Ice field, high powered Camerupt, first move Eruption."

Everyone winced. "Ouch…"

"Right!" Quinn said, pulling out a second Pokéball of her own. "If this is a chance, I'm using it! Blossom!"

Blossom turned out to be an Ivysaur, who slung some Razor Leaf attacks at Squirtle, and Squirtle dodged out of the way with his shell as a shield.

"Pidgeot, back out there!" Ash decided, waiting until it was obvious Blossom wasn't about to hit Squirtle so that Squirtle wouldn't be disqualified.

"Blossom, send up some Stun Spore cover!"

Pidgeot knifed in, launched a Defog, and was gone so fast that Blossom couldn't really keep track. Then a one-layer Razor Wind stirred up the ashes of the grass field, causing a few of them to flicker feebly, and spread them throughout the area as a Smokescreen.

The Ivysaur looked around through the smoke that made it so hard to see, then caught a disturbance in the swirling clouds and lashed out with his vines.

They caught, and he began to capitalize on this with a Power Whip – and then was pulled into the air with a sudden intense tug.

Pidgeot completed a backflip, hauling on Blossom's vines, and her relatively small-but-strong movements whipcracked the Ivysaur into the air, around in a great, nearly-circular arc, and sent him crashing back into the ground.

Sometimes it was very useful to know a little physics.

A red beam caught the groggy Blossom, returning him before he passed out completely, and Quinn took her third and last Pokémon for the fight out. "Polaris!"

"Polaris?" Ash repeated to himself. "Wonder what that might be…"

"Thunderbolt!"

Pidgeot danced aside from the quick bolt of lightning, a series of air layers attempting to buffer the voltage that did catch her wing, and upon seeing that the Pokémon was a Starmie replied with an Ominous Wind that blew the smoke away from the centre of the arena.

Pikachu shivered as the wide-area move touched him. "That's really creepy, you know. It feels like a breath of cold air in an empty room."

"I know what you mean." Ash shrugged. "But I've used Ghost moves myself, so it's something I'm more ready for now. Felt really strange when I was one, though. Sort of like everything real was the opposite, so it was all warm."

"Yeah, I remember that." Pikachu pointed into the arena, as a series of thunderbolts snapped skywards in an increasingly dense pattern. "You think maybe I should go in instead of Pidgeot?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. Pidgeot, return!"

Pikachu jumped over the retaining wall, cheeks snapping, and drank in the next volley of thunderbolts in his Lightningrod. "Thanks for the pick-me-up!"

The Starmie spun in place and fired out a shot of Brine at Pikachu, and instead of dodging Pikachu lit his cheeks up so they glowed an angry red and tried to blast a Thunderbolt back down the stream. The Starfish Pokémon had apparently thought of that, though, spacing out the stream in discrete blasts to break the circuit.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted, as he realized what their plan was. "That salt water's going to stop your attacks from getting anywhere, they'll just conduct straight back into your own Lightningrod!"

"Now you tell me!" Pikachu yelped. "That's almost as cunning as that thing Pidgeot just did!"

Now safe from electric attack, Starmie hovered slowly upwards and began sending psychic blasts at Pikachu, who ran in a random evasion pattern to dodge.

"Any ideas?"

Ash thought for a moment. "That smokescreen's still there… run through it! The water will settle the smoke and hopefully get used up!"

"If you say so!" Pikachu dashed off to the edge of the arena, and began to do as Ash had specified. It wasn't long, though, before a Psybeam caught him and sent him flying into the air.

"Pikachu!"

Or at least that's what all the humans watching heard Ash shout. Pikachu, however, along with every other Pokémon, heard something rather different.

"Natural Gift!"

The Rawst berry that Ash had passed him earlier at the sight of Match was consumed, and a blast of condensed sunlight hit Polaris from a completely improbable source.

Thus stunned and driven back towards the ground, the Starmie's first notice that Pikachu was on the way was when the Volt Tackle arrived from above.

"Well, I didn't think it would be useful, but I was wrong," Pikachu commented, before running back over to Ash's side of the arena to take his beloved Light Ball back.

"The move or the berry?"

"Both."

"It is a good way to learn different Aura types, though," Ash muttered, and threw Squirtle's Pokéball back into the arena to face off against Match.

Squirtle shot a blast of water at Match, who evaporated it with a Flamethrower.

"Hmmm… interesting. Aha!" Diving out of the way of a Flare Blitz, he retracted his limbs and shot into the air with a Hydro Pump.

After a moment, much of the released water began to form a sort of cocoon around him, rotating rapidly as he spun. "There's a big difference between the temperature of the air and the temperature that water boils at. All it takes is a moment out of the line of fire and it cools down. So take this!"

The flying turtle began to shoot downwards towards Match, the water in his outer layer never exposed to the Flareon's fire for more than a second or so. "Water Impact!"

Ash frowned. "Does that move exist?"

I think it's Waterfall with a fancy name.

Mud and water fountained into the air, along with an unconscious Flareon. Quinn returned him, then threw up her hands. "I forfeit. Blossom is too beaten up and your team is still pretty much intact."

"Winner, Ash Ketchum!"

Ash felt his cheeks heat as the crowd applauded.

Sure, it was only the first step, but… it was good to be back in the Pokémon League.

Three days later, Ash's second battle came around. This time, on the Rock field.

"And facing him, Jaxon!"

Jaxon was a big guy, who looked like he was on the other end of his teens from Ash. He lost no time, starting with a Muk.

Ash promptly replied by sending out Ivysaur. "Make sure to keep your distance!"

"I don't exactly intend to charge, if that's what you mean," Ivysaur replied, launching a Mud-Slap at Muk.

"Muk, Flamethrower!"

Ivysaur vanished underground with Dig as the fire approached, popping back out a couple of dozen feet away. "This is going brilliantly."

"Hey, it's not like I know what moves other Pokémon have! I don't know which poison types can arbitrarily use fire techniques!"

Ivysaur ducked down again as another blast of fire went over, and didn't return to the surface. Muk looked around, confused.

"Ash Ketchum's Pokémon has Dug underground!" the announcer said. "There's a limit to how long they can stay down there, though."

Ash closed his eyes, did a double take, and ducked down into his box.

A rumble heralded Ivysaur returning to the surface, some distance from Muk.

"Well?" the Grass-type asked, already absorbing sunlight, then fired it in an intense Solarbeam. The light jet hit Muk in the side, not injuring him as much as it could have, but it was still a powerful attack.

"Fire Blast this time!"

Muk inhaled, and then exploded violently.

A Light Screen, courtesy of Dexter, blocked some wayward sludge from entering Ash's box.

"Wh-what was that?" the commentator shouted, sounding almost panicked.

"Poisonpowder released from underground, I think?" Ash said, glancing down at Dexter. "Then it all exploded at once."

Correct.

A few seconds later, the commentator came over the speakers again. "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, after a talk with our local Joy, I can tell you that Jaxon's Muk is not permanently harmed. If you have a piece of sludge near you, those in the front rows, please signal and a bag will be provided. Muk is going to be reincorporated later, and will be fine so long as not too much mass is missing."

"Your Pokémon's got style, kid. I like that." Jaxon then took a second Pokéball. "Kadabra! Take this 'saur down!"

Ivysaur disappeared underground again, but a few seconds later that area of the field creaked, cracked, and gave way – and Ivysaur came bursting back out again, entirely involuntarily and enveloped in the glow of Psychic.

"Oh, this is going to-"

Kadabra sent him soaring into the air, and began sending up powerful psychokinetic blasts to injure Ivysaur, and keep the Grass-type (but more importantly, Poison-type) juggled. Without being close to the ground, he was unable to escape or anchor himself, and after a few seconds Ash raised his voice. "Vine Whip the ground – and Seed Bomb yourself!"

Both vines lashed out, and Ivysaur detonated a Seed Bomb just over his head. The blast knocked him backwards, towards the ground, and Ivysaur managed to throw out some Magical Leaf attacks which distracted Kadabra for just long enough to get Ivysaur back on the ground.

Now Ash could recall the Grass-type without the Pokémon being disqualified, and he did so. Then he thought for a moment, and sent out Kingler.

"Kadabra, keep it up! Charge Beam!"

As the bolt of electricity formed, Kingler dodged sideways behind a boulder. Since it was neither a homing attack nor being fired by an Electric type, it hit the boulder and did very little apart from blowing a few chips out of it.

Kingler clicked his pincers, and lifted the boulder a few inches in his claws.

Kingler used Strength. Kingler can move boulders.

Ash frowned. "Pardon?"

Sorry, I thought I should point it out.

One of Kingler's claws began to glow, and he advanced slowly, looking around him and keeping up his impromptu shield.

"Behind!" Ash suddenly yelled.

Kingler threw the rock unceremoniously into the air and released his charged Hyper Beam, catching Kadabra as he materialized with a glancing blow. The impact sent the Psychic type skidding backwards, but only seemed to have done a little damage.

"Oh, no!" the commentator shouted. "This is going to be a blow for Kingler, as after an attack of that magnitude it could take quite some time to recharge!"

"Yeah, we know!" Jaxon called back. "We're not stupid."

"This commentary is for the benefit of the viewers at home!" the commentator said, quite offended.

"And if they can't tell what a Hyper Beam does, what are they teachin' at school?"

The commentator's reply went unheard, as the rock finally came screaming back down on Kingler.

He swung a claw upwards as it approached, and the Crab Hammer blew it into dozens of smaller rocks that went all over the place.

Kadabra had instinctively teleported as a reaction to the explosion, but – since the shrapnel went everywhere – he materialized somewhere else about to be hit by a rock, took one on the forehead, and collapsed.

Kingler too staggered, the effects of the blasted rock having pummelled him with a number of small, high speed stones.

"Dang, kid, what is it with you and explosions? Tangela!"

Ash returned Kingler, sending Ivysaur back out.

The two Grass-types stared at one another for a second, then both whipped out their vines and began a complex vine war in the space between them. Ash could see that Ivysaur was at a disadvantage – he couldn't get close enough to use a Poison attack, his Razor Leaves couldn't cut away Tangela's vines, and the pure Grass-type simply had more vines. Including one…

"Ivysaur! Below you!"

Ivysaur jumped straight away, but Tangela caught one of his vines. The Vine Pokémon pulled hard, making the second time in Ash's League challenge so far that an Ivysaur had been whipcracked into the ground, before the vine Tangela had sent underground ensnared Ivysaur's body.

"Good, Tangela!" Jaxon said. "Constrict!"

Ivysaur thrashed, trying to use Poisonpowder on Tangela, but the vines were too far from the main body mass and there were too many of them. After a minute or so he went abruptly limp, and Ash retrieved him.

"Ash's Ivysaur has surrendered after being captured in an unbreakable Bind!" the announcer explained to the audience. "While Ivysaur got out the first time he was trapped, and so could be used again, this time was different. This means he has not passed out, but will no longer be able to compete in this battle!"

"Yeah, thanks, we get it," Jaxon shouted at the booth.

"Not everyone watching this is a Pokémon League fan!" the announcer retorted.

"Why not, then? It's not like we have any other competitive sports in Kanto."

"Not true! We have, er… um…"

Ash sent Kingler back out again. "Ice Beam!"

Tangela dodged, mostly, but one of their vines was caught by the ice and frozen, rendering it a stiff and useless weight.

Undaunted, the Grass type launched up a Sunny Day and began to quickly melt the affected vine, staying away from Kingler to gain more breathing room. They used Solarbeam, as well, and Kingler scuttled behind a rock to get away from the beam of light.

Ash and Pikachu shared a look.

"Should I?"

"Be almost rude not to."

Ash pulled out another Pokéball. "Charizard!"

Jaxon's eyes widened. "Wait, what!"

"Ember!"

Charizard rolled his eyes, and blew a tiny flicker of blue flame. This promptly set Tangela on fire.

"And I think we can call that a victory for Ash Ketchum!"

"What's next, Ash?" Brock asked him that night.

"Water field. It's really strange, doing them in a different order…" Ash replied. "In fact, last time this was where Kingler evolved, and he swept the field. I can't count on him to do that again, though."

"No, it must have been at least partly luck," Brock agreed. "Especially since you're now at the point where everyone has won two matches. Given the field I expect your opponent will send out at least one water type, so Pikachu is indicated right from the start. Which reminds me – can he manage that water walk trick?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, and so can I, though you likely saw that in Pallet."

"I'm right here, you know," Pikachu grumbled.

"Sorry," Brock said, and Ash chuckled nervously.

"I guess it's just hard to remember we can understand you, sometimes?" he tried, earning a sniff from Pikachu.

"Right," Brock resumed. "Him, Ivysaur – makes sense – and decide the third at the time. But you do need to lock in your other four options."

"I agree." Ash thought for a moment. "I'd better start with Ivysaur, as well. See if I can draw out any non-Water types."

"Okay, Ash. This is a lot more thought than you put in last time, you know – I'm proud of you." Brock flashed a quick grin. "Apart from revealing Charizard so early. That was a mistake, though I can see why you did it."

"He can't. Says it was 'beneath him'."

"He's a grouch sometimes. At least he doesn't set you on fire. As much."

32

Just as he'd discussed with Brock, Ash opened with Ivysaur.

"And Ash leads in with his Ivysaur! Ivysaurs have been a feature in all his matches so far. Has? Have… there's been Ivysaurs. How will this go?" the announcer wondered.

His opponent smirked, and threw a Pokéball straight into the water. With an eruption of slightly salty water, a Gyarados appeared.

"Dean, meanwhile, has sent out a Gyarados! We haven't seen this Pokémon before from him, probably because the Grass and Rock fields aren't especially good for Water types like this!"

Ivysaur looked up from his platform at the frankly enormous Water/Flying type. "Ash… can I get a raincheck here?"

"Come on, give it a go!" Ash invited. "Use something your, I don't know, Electric type ancestors knew!"

" I don't have any Electric type ancestors! Or at least, not that I know of,  genealogical research is difficult ."

"Rock type?" Ash asked. "You have those moves, I know that."

" And how do you expect me to hit  them  with an Ancientpower?"

The Gyarados had been gradually moving deeper into the water. Now it leapt out, with a great roar, and went flying high into the air.

Ivysaur tapped the platform, which wobbled slightly. "Oh, this is going to be embarrassing…"

Gyarados cannoned back into the pool with a great Splash, sending water everywhere – and the floating platform out of the arena entirely, Ivysaur still on it and hence losing by ring out.

Ash raised his hand. "Hey, uh… I'm curious. What exactly counts as ring out here?"

"Anything that lands or would have landed in the audience, basically," the referee replied, pointing to where Ivysaur was held in the psychic grip of an Alakazam. "Or outside the stadium boundaries."

"Okay, so going what must have been a hundred metres into the air doesn't, because it was straight up. Good to know…" Ash sighed. "Pikachu?"

" On it, Ash."

Pikachu hurried into the arena, stopping at the edge of the pool itself before launching an enormous Thunderbolt at it. The Gyarados promptly rose to the surface, twitching.

"Damn, forgot you had that," Dean muttered.

"Really?" Ash asked. "...uh, how? He was on my shoulder."

"Look, it was a calculated risk," Dean replied, digging through his bag for something. "Aha. Cloyster!"

Ash blinked. "Er, what?"

"Withdraw!"

The Cloyster shut its shell tightly, with a crack, situated on the poolside instead of in the water. Pikachu wandered over and zapped it.

Then he frowned, because Cloyster was still there and that offended him. "Shouldn't something have happened by now?"

"Dexter?" Ash asked, holding up the scanner.

Calcium c arbonate, the material forming the base of the shells of Bivalve Pokémon, is non-conductive.

"Well, that's new. Okay, Pikachu… you know what to do," Ash said, deciding to not really bother with telling Pikachu something Pikachu would have to know what to do already.

"I certainly do!" Pikachu steepled his paws, pushing them out to get ready, and drew one back before thrusting it forwards. "Force palm!"

The impact sent Cloyster skidding across the poolside, and its shell opened for a moment before shutting again.

Pikachu followed, paw lit up with blue light, and delivered another palm strike. He tried to send electricity in before the shell closed again, but failed to get his attack in quickly enough. "Ah, great, I'm no good at these reaction time games!"

"Just electrify the water and do it in there!" Ash called, since now Pikachu was struggling.

"Oh, yeah, good plan." Pikachu bodily lifted the Cloyster, winced as his spine gave a sort of creeeak noise, and threw it into the water before anything too permanent happened.

" Now, as I was saying…"

Pikachu's cheeks blazed up, and he electrified the entire pool of water. Then he sprang into the air, doing a somersault for extra momentum, and slammed a Force Palm home with a shout.

This time the electrified water meant that Cloyster took a zap as soon as their shell opened, which meant they couldn't get it closed quite as fast, and that gave Pikachu a chance to get leverage. He swiped his tail into the gap, protecting it with Iron Tail, and pried the shell open all the way between bolts of electricity.

" Done! What's next?"

"By the looks of this guy, another water type," Ash guessed.

"That's where you're wrong!" Dean answered proudly "Diglett, get him!"

"Dig." The little mole Pokémon appeared in front of Pikachu, who kicked at it.

"Lett." Without any discernable actual movement, it was behind him. As he spun, the Ground-type fired a mud-slap at him.

"Ugh. That's really annoying…" Pikachu muttered as he cleaned his face off. "And why isn't it actually saying anything?"

"Dig."

A Magnitude 6 sent Pikachu stumbling. The security Alakazam's eyes glowed as he isolated the ground from the stands, and the ground shook only within the stadium.

Most of the water that had survived the Splash drained away through fissures that opened up in the ground. Pikachu eyed the instability, and decided on a course of action.

Tapping his Light Ball, he jumped into the air and hovered there.

" What are you going to do now?"

"Lett." It disappeared underground again, and came back out with an enormous globule of mud.

"Oh, come on!" Pikachu complained.

He flared his electric aura, and went sliding through the air away from the Mud Bomb. "Ash? How am I supposed to catch this mole if he keeps moving around at the speed of light?"

"Hmm… it sounds impossible… Pikachu, get back over here! Squirtle, you handle this!"

Squirtle ran onto the field as Pikachu retreated, skidded to a halt, and looked around as Diglett appeared from first one hole and then another.

He frowned.

" My enemy moves at the speed of light. They can be anywhere… so I have to attack everywhere! Scald!"

Squirtle pushed out a bubble of superheated water in all directions, and there was a sudden BANG from the direction of one of Diglett's holes.

Confused, Squirtle walked over to it, and found a thoroughly concussed Diglett. "Okay, what just happened?"

Diglett must have run into the water at the speed of light – or very fast, anyway.

" This means I win, right? I'm not actually sure."

"And Ash Ketchum is through to the fourth round, which will be on the Ice field for him!"

"I'm going to guess that means yes," Squirtle decided.

At the start of his next battle, Ash had already been announced, and he looked up to see who he was going to be battling against. He'd been announced first, this time, which meant it was up to his opponent how they entered the field.

"...and his opponent, Eric!" the announcer said.

A large, beefy man strode to the opposing side of the arena. By the looks of him, he'd walked straight over the mountains to get to Indigo rather than bothering with the roads.

"Ice field… nice Pokémon for it," he said. "Dewgong!"

Ash thought for a second. "Pikachu!"

"On it!"

Pikachu had to dodge almost immediately, as an Aurora Beam swept out between two of the pillars that marked the Ice field and barely missed him.

He looked at the frost scarring on the pillars, and winced. "That's a powerful Dewgong…"

A fast one, as well, as it skidded over the ice like it was born to it. Which it was.

Pikachu caught sight of some juice around its mouth, as he dived from one cover to another, and knew what that had to mean. "I hate Wacan berries. They're just not fair."

"You used a berry yourself earlier!" Ash called.

"Yeah, but that wasn't Wacan!" Pikachu shot back.

With a gesture, he created a Shockwave in planar form above the arena and brought it down, but Dewgong reacted quickly.

The Water- and Ice-type sprayed out a fine coating of Brine above and onto a random ice pillar, and Pikachu couldn't adjust his Shockwave form fast enough. The slab of electricity connected with the briny pillar, and discharged into it like it had hit a lightning rod.

Muttering curses about quick-thinking Dewgongs, Pikachu skidded around a corner on a cushion of electricity. Then he used Iron Tail to control his movement, slowing down faster with the ground anchor than he could have done without it, and came to a sudden halt as he disengaged Magnet Rise.

The halt wouldn't have been that sudden without one of Riolu's Aura tricks, but sticking to ice was a bit like sticking to a wall.

Then it began to hail. Pikachu shot an annoyed look at the sky, and charged himself to try to repel the stinging ice.

It worked, to a point, and the impacts didn't sting as much, but they were still there and it was still cold. It meant Pikachu was still on the clock, and he frowned for a moment as he thought about what else a combination Ice and Water type would be weak to.

That gave him an idea.

Pikachu created a pair of Double Team images, and sent them charging alongside him against the Dewgong.

Unable to target Pikachu specifically with a pinpoint Aurora Beam, Dewgong reacted by exhaling a blast of icy cold air. It intercepted the charging Pikachus, eliminating the doubles and slowing Pikachu himself with ice build-up.

Just after being hit by the attack, though, Pikachu used his tail to flick himself slightly into the air. That gave him a good angle and he slammed his palm into the ice with a shout, breaking it up with a Force Palm and causing the heavier Dewgong to slump slightly into the ice.

That earned Pikachu a moment to act, and he fully capitalized on it with an Agility to boost his speed. Lunging forwards out of the cracked area of ice, he readied an Aura Sphere and charged straight at Dewgong.

Panicking, the Dewgong released a Sheer Cold – a blast of freezing air which froze Pikachu in place instantly. The Aura Sphere, on the other hand, kept going and hit Dewgong, sending the Water-type sliding backwards and into a pillar.

Which then fell on it.

The announcer hesitated for a moment, then on the signal of the referee declared that both Pokémon had been incapacitated at the same time and so both trainers should send out their next Pokémon at once.

"Can I get a break?" Ash asked. "I'd like to retrieve Pikachu first, he doesn't like his Pokéball…"

Ash did his best to handle retrieving and defrosting Pikachu quickly.

That done, and while Pikachu was still wrapped in a blanket for warmth, Ash exchanged a glance with Riolu.

"You want to do this?"

Riolu nodded gravely. "I do. Don't worry, Ash, I won't fail you."

"Never even crossed my mind."

Ash smiled gently for a moment, before gathering himself and pointing out onto the field. "Riolu!"

"Onix!" the Hiker replied, sending his own Pokémon out at the same time, then frowned and checked a small guidebook about Sinnoh. "Wait, that's a Riolu? How'd you get one of those, kid, they're rare – not to mention from a long way off!"

Ash gave a half-shrug. "Luck, I guess."

Riolu closed his eyes, feeling his Aura flow as faint wisps thatmisted from his body and began to interact with the aura of the outside world. It was quite impressive, this Ice field, actually – it was so often used for these battles that the area itself had acquired a taste of the glacial. It reminded him of another life, when he had visited the high mountains of Sinnoh.

Presumably the other three arenas had the same attribute, but this was the most incongruous.

Mind you, the enormous rock snake was interfering with the feng shui.

Riolu jumped over a thrown rock, studied a second for a moment and detonated it with a tiny pulse of Aura on the most critical structural point, then landed and set off running. As with a water battlefield, he was using his little pads of Aura to maintain traction rather than skidding out.

Fortunately, the Onix had replaced the Hail from before with a Sandstorm – and Riolu's airslip trick, while not up to deflecting large hailstones, could manage the sand.

So, really, this was a weather condition having no effect at all.

Barrier. Barrier. Barrier.

The wind finally subsided in Ash's box. Coughing, he tried to get the sand out of his hair. "Took you long enough…"

I established shields sufficient for the hail. I did not expect more than one weather condition in the same battle.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand. It's just a bit startling to get a face full of desert. Pleh, I think I swallowed some…"

Riolu skidded around the tail swipe of the Onix, and delivered a Force Palm to one of its larger segments. The impact made it flinch back, but it was clearly a very tough Onix – it didn't go down, and it released an Earthquake that finished what Pikachu had started.

The Ice field was… not how it had started.

Running up the edge of an ice floe, Riolu jumped into the air again – earning a near miss from a ballistic hunk of ice for his troubles – and finished Onix off with a second Force Palm to the forehead.

Slightly altering his Aura walking technique, he flipped once in his air time from the recoil and landed on the icy water. "Right, next?"

The hiker returned his Onix, and got a positively evil grin. "Haunter!"

Riolu heard the words, and as the Pokéball flew began isolating a fragment of his Aura from all his emotions.

A null structure, with no psychic signature… and make it self propagating…

"Dark Pulse."

The Haunter barely had time to look annoyed before the pulse hit, and it dispersed into an irritated cloud of slightly darker air.

"Huh. Didn't know they could learn that," Eric said, agreeably. "You're certainly a smart one, Ash Ketchum. Or your Pokémon are, anyway."

"Hey!" Ash shouted back in protest. "That's hardly a fair thing to do! Either just praise them, or them and me, but don't give me false hope!"

Brock checked the schedule. "Your next match is tomorrow evening. About five. Looks like the rest of today and most of tomorrow are free."

He noticed that Ash was a little subdued. "What is it?"

Ash shrugged. "Ah, just that this is how far I got last time. Remember – Ritchie beat me."

"I do, and I know you lost for a number of reasons, most of them not your fault."

Ash winced. "Wow, that's not great-"

"Some of them were things you learned from, Ash," Pikachu pointed out. "Making mistakes happens, especially that early."

Brock frowned, and checked the schedule again. "Wow, it looks like if you and he both win your next matches, you'll face each other as your entry into the matches with full teams."

"You mean he's here as well?" Ash asked, then frowned. "Well, I guess I should have expected that. Wonder where I can find him…"

He took out one of his Pokéballs. "Hey, Pidgeot? Up for a fly?"

Finding Ritchie turned out to be surprisingly easy, though mostly because there were less than twenty trainers left in the League and so it could just be a process of elimination.

He also seemed okay with Pidgeot landing next to him, and waved.

"Hi, there! I'm Ritchie Getem. Nice to meet you."

Ash smiled. "Ash Ketchum, the same. You're in the League too, I guess?"

"Yeah! Actually, now I think about it I do recognize you. You're that trainer they were calling the Gym Destroyer on the TV commentary, right?"

Ash blushed. "I didn't know they were calling me that."

He paused. "Though… I have to admit it's pretty accurate, thinking about it."

Ritchie grinned, and at that point Ash noticed something… off about him.

"Ritchie, is it me, or is there a Pokémon hiding behind your torso?"

The Pokémon in question made a small, frightened sound and ducked back from where it was peeping. Ritchie sighed. "Calm down, Cid, you can feel he's friendly just like I can."

Ash glanced surreptitiously at Pikachu, who shrugged. "Beats me."

"Oh, come on, now," Ritchie said, and gently lifted a Kirlia out from behind him and up onto his shoulder.

"I should introduce you," he decided. "Cid here joined me about a year ago, said he recognized a great deal of untapped psychic potential in me. We've been working together to draw it out, and he says that eventually we'll be able to go and sort out some problems in his homeland of Almia."

Riolu, Pikachu and Ash looked between one another. Ash eventually spoke up. "Ritchie, mind if my Pokémon and I have a chat for a second?"

"Not at all, go ahead," Ritchie agreed.

"Okay, guys, any idea what's going on?" Ash asked, quietly but fervently. "He's different to last time, and the Kirlia's new."

Riolu covered one eye and looked between the two trainers. "And you say you were uncannily similar then as well?"

"Yes, and I have no idea what could have changed him."

"Well, I've got an idea," Riolu said. "I'm going to make a guess about when he caught Cid. There's this thing I've heard about, it's called… entangled souls, I think, or entangled destinies. It means that two people have corresponding lives, in some way."

He shrugged. "I never studied it, but I've heard stories about it. It doesn't always last a long time and it can be hard to notice because they don't have to be nearby or meet. But what it means is that the things that are different about your life this time would be different about his in some way too."

"Like what?" Ash asked.

"Aura potential and psychic potential, similar Pokémon – this is for you and him, obviously. So his Kirlia and I would correspond together, and I suspect he caught Cid the same day you hatched me."

That is strange to think about, Dexter said. So I would have a counterpart as well? What about Ho-Oh?

"I don't know, for either of those," Riolu shrugged. "It's like a guess, more than anything, but they look similar in Aura sight and it reminded me of the thing I'd heard. I guess we'll find out for sure if you battle him, though."

Ash winced. "That is just strange… can we break it somehow?"

"Would you want to? It's about the shape of your lives, and it's just how you two are."

"I suppose so," Ash said, before shrugging and heading back over. "Sorry about that… Riolu had a guess about something. Anyway, I noticed that we're in the same block, and we'll be in the same last 8 match. I just wanted to wish you good luck."

"Does that mean you're saying you hope I win?" Ritchie asked, grinning.

"Only your next match," Ash shot back. "It's way better for you if you get finally defeated by me, because that'll mean you were only beaten by the winner!"

"Such a lucky situation!" Ritchie said pompously, then sniggered, but kept going. "That the gods would deliver me a quarter final opponent I can defeat in a truly spectacular way, showing off how arrogant he has become."

"Oh, did they change your slot?" Ash asked. "Huh, you'd think I'd know about it…"

The two kept it up for a few more minutes before finally agreeing to call it a no-score draw, and parted ways to prepare for their next matches.

Ash's next opponent, Torren, slammed his fists together with an almighty bang.

"I have seen your Pokémon fight, and they have good Ki. They are tough! I will prove that I am tougher!"

Ash frowned, then shrugged. "If you say so. Didn't I see you at the P1 grand prix?"

"Yes. I was defeated by the one you faced in the finals." Torren took up his first Pokéball. "But enough talk! Machoke!"

Ash threw his own. "You know, I feel kind of bad about this…"

The Machoke landed in a crouch, Focusing his Energy to the optimal concentration for martial arts. Placing his hands on the floor and rising to a starter's crouch, he readied himself to launch across the stadium in a Mach Punch…

Then he saw his opponent.

Butterfree floated gently about ten feet above the stadium floor on slight air currents. "Well, that was all very impressive, but I'm up here."

Not one to give up, Machoke punched at Butterfree so fast that the air from his attack made a bullet – a Vacuum Wave.

The butterfly took the hit, and barely flinched. "That's it?"

He began to circle in a set of loops in the sky, gradually accelerating. "You're not going to make much of an impression with Fighting type moves."

Machoke's fist caught fire, and the Fighting-type crouched to spring into the air.

"…that is a substantial improvement." Butterfree slipped sideways in the air as the first Fire Punch came in, dancing around the fist as it overextended and exploiting the thermals to rise much higher into the air.

"Machoke, use Flamethrower!"

Butterfree's eyes bugged out, at least as much as they were able to do with being made up of ommatidia. "Oh, that can't be normal or safe."

Machoke rubbed the palms of his hands together, vigorously enough that after a second or so a bright glow appeared. Snapping his fingers over it produced a spark, which turned the glow into a pool of burning light, and he blew a great tongue of flame from the kindled fire in his hands at Butterfree.

Riolu took notes."…ignite with spark…"

With a backflip and dive, Butterfree evaded the first few Flamethrower attacks. "Okay, enough is enough. Psybeam!"

The coruscating beam of psychic force hit Machoke in the chest, sending him staggering backwards and breaking the stance he was using to project fire.

Butterfree flashed past, the wake from his wings sharpening and cutting small gashes in Machoke's arms and chest, before dousing the Fighting type in Sleep Powder and finishing him off with Dream Eater.

In addition to knocking Machoke out, that also gave Butterfree back a lot of the energy he'd lost from glancing blows by Machoke's fire jets.

"Most impressive," Torren said, retrieving his Pokémon. "Are you truly a Butterfree, or a martial artist at heart dreaming he is a Butterfree?"

"Was that supposed to make sense?"Butterfree asked Ash uncertainly. Ash shrugged.

"I think it's a Koan. They're supposed not to."

Torren threw a second Pokémon into the arena. "Face Zen!"

A Mr. Mime materialized. Immediately upon doing so, he sat down seiza and began to glow.

"Is that Pokémon called Zen?" Ash asked. "Or are they just Zen without being called it?"

"I think that's a Koan," Pikachu contributed.

Butterfree fired a Bug Buzz at his opponent experimentally, producing a beautiful flare as the energy deflected off a Light Screen – and very little else.

"Oh, brilliant. A Barrier warrior. I don't like these."

Mr. Mime's eye glinted for a second, and a thunderbolt speared down from the sky, clipping Butterfree's rear right wing.

"Gah! Okay, how… right. They can learn that, of course." Butterfree shattered his form into a dozen Double Teams, which began evasion manoeuvres.

Offence… defence… weaknesses.

Butterfree wasn't a barrier master himself, but he knew a lot of the theory.

A defence simply couldn't be invulnerable everywhere, not without an enormous disparity in strength. The attacker always had the advantage of selecting where to attack, the defender an advantage that the same amount of energy was stronger blocking.

And there were three basic types of shield. Point of impact, where the shield only protected the exact places where the attack was coming in. Bubble, which was a globe of equal strength. And plane, where it was a wall of energy.

Butterfree decided to do a bit of experimenting.

He built up a bit more height, then his doubles took up positions with him in an orbit around the Mr. Mime. In unison, they began an Air Cutter, then dropped and gained speed in a blur of movement. Razor wakes forming from their wings, the Butterfrees went shooting around the Psychic type in a circle made of individual hyperbolae and soared up again.

Two feet from the Mr. Mime, the real attack was deflected by a flash of light. But the deflection scatter formed a circle, flickering around Mr. Mime, who then retaliated with a Thunderbolt attack.

That meant it wasn't a plane shield – the circle alone disproved it. That left point of impact and bubble, and both of them could be beaten… in different ways.

Butterfree did a roll, making sure he couldn't be targeted easily, then decided to try point of impact first.

It was a type of shield which worked best against strong attacks, but you couldn't use it to cover a large area cheaply. Which meant…

"Sunny Day!" Butterfree pushed out what clouds there were, and intensified the evening sunlight bathing him as he soared near the top of the arena.

"And now… Solarbeam!"

The Solarbeam was nowhere near as focused as the ones he normally used. In fact, it was spread over the entirety of Mr. Mime's surface and the area around him.

It was present for just a moment, then a fireworks display of shield dazzle outshone it, and Butterfree knew he'd guessed right.

The point of impact shield didn't work well against area attacks. It was far too costly to defend the entire surface, which was one of the big problems with it, and Mr. Mime couldn't even see Butterfree to counterattack… at least, in the few seconds he had before his shield collapsed, leaving him tired enough that Torren withdrew the Psychic-type.

"I can see that you are too skilled in the art of aerial combat to defeat with one who is tied to the ground," he said, putting his hands together. "In that case, you will face my master of Kendo. Scyther!"

The two Bug types opened their fight by circling warily in the air, neither wanting to make the first move.

Butterfree felt the Sunny Day expire, and didn't bother to sustain it. Keeping it up in the evening was tiring anyway, and against a Scyther the move he used with it most often was effectively useless.

Scyther finally attacked with an Air Slash, the bigger brother of Butterfree's Air Cutter. Butterfree slipped around it with an Aerial Ace, and the two began jousting in the skies.

"He's really got good at that." Ash commented absently, as the action continued to climb. Both Pokémon were enhanced by some kind of move, either Quiver Dance for Butterfree or Swords Dance for Scyther, and they were leaving trails in the darkening sky.

"I suppose he's had a lot of time to practice. I-wow!"

Apparently something else had happened, as now every time the points of light met they produced a shower of sparks.

Set up. Analyzing… I think it's their wakes meeting. They're still getting faster, by the way.

"I can explain."

Ash looked around with a start, to see Butterfree on the ground next to him. "Er, hang on…"

He tried pointing without being too obvious. "Shouldn't you be, well, up there?"

"Substitute. It's provoking him into going for an all-out charge to finish the fight. Kendo masters are suckers for that."

"So how's that going to end without the Substitute just falling apart and him realizing the mistake?"

"Iron defence. In the second before it evaporates, it's going to feel like hitting a brick wall."

Torren finally spotted the butterfly and called up a warning, but Scyther was too far up to hear him. A final explosive burst of light lit up the dusk, and the Mantis Pokémon fell out of the sky in a daze.

"And that's me three for zero. Not bad for my debut, I think."

33

At the start of Ash's next match, the referee reminded them that they could use six Pokémon each in the quarter-finals and onwards.

Ash had known that, but it was nice for the reminder, and he locked eyes with Ritchie for a moment.

Then neither trainer went for their Pokéballs. Instead, both pointed forwards. "Pikachu/Sparky!"

Both Electric-types jumped into the stadium proper, cheeks sparking, and Ash's Pikachu opened fire with a Shock Wave attack.

Sparky absorbed it with a brrzt of electricity into his cheeks, and Pikachu flicked his tail for a moment. It would have been nice if Sparky had lacked Lightningrod, but it was worth checking.

Then again, he had other options.

Pikachu charged forwards, slamming down an electric curtain between the two of them, and broke through his own brief visual shield with his paws shaping an Aura Sphere. Sparky retaliated, ears glowing for a moment, and a Confusion attack hit with enough force to disrupt the Aura Sphere – meaning that when Pikachu tried to ram it into Sparky, he just ended up tackling his opponent instead.

Undeterred, Pikachu flipped into the air and used Iron Tail. Sparky tried to deflect that one with a burst of psychokinetic energy as well, but Pikachu's Iron Tail was too fast, and the blow sent him rolling and bouncing across the arena.

The moment Pikachu landed, he darted towards his opponent, aiming to catch Sparky before he got up. The other Electric-type saw him coming, though, and held out a paw to launch a psychic push that tripped Pikachu up and slowed him down.

Now upright again, Sparky swung his tail at Pikachu for a Slam attack, and that met Pikachu's Iron Tail with a whack. Pikachu followed up with a Force Palm, but Sparky darted away, then Pikachu charged up briefly and blew a hole in the ground to catch Sparky with the spray.

"Battling like this is weird," Sparky said, shaking the dirt off himself, then kicked out at Pikachu and missed. Pikachu responded with a Force Palm, and that missed as well, then Sparky used Quick Attack and hit Pikachu's Iron Tail coming the other way.

The impact was enough to stun Sparky, for a moment, and Pikachu whirled. He charged up a proper Aura Sphere, a full-size one, then jumped over it and slammed it towards Sparky with his Iron Tail.

That meant Sparky didn't have time to respond with a Confusion attack, and the other Pikachu jumped over it instead. That made the sphere miss, and Sparky charged in to close range before alternating tail slaps with bursts of psychic energy and Slams.

Pikachu responded with Iron Tail attacks, Force Palm strikes, and flashes of distracting electricity, accompanied by a Counter Shield that surrounded them both with a tooth-grating hum, then after a few seconds he pushed Sparky away. "Hey, guess what."

"What?" Sparky replied, then frowned and looked up. "Wait-"

Pikachu cancelled the Counter Shield that had surrounded them, and revealed his 'missed' Aura Sphere was on the way down after a high curving three-quarter-turn. Ritchie hadn't been able to shout a warning, and apparently wasn't up to telepathic communications instead, and it was too close for Sparky to react.

It hit Sparky with a wham, digging out a crater, and Pikachu dusted his paws off.

Then frowned, because Sparky wasn't done yet.

"Hey, watch this," Sparky replied, then darted out of the crater in a charge. "Endeavour!"

The blast of energy from the attack hurled them both backwards, and they were caught by their trainers.

Though, unfortunately, the wrong trainers.

"Shall I take care of Sparky for now?" Ash called. "We can swap back after the battle."

"Sounds good to me," Ritchie agreed, taking his first actual Pokéball, and Ash did the same. "Cid!"

"Riolu!"

The Kirlia and the Riolu began with an exchange of martial arts.

Riolu noticed quickly that Cid's style seemed to revolve around physical psychic attacks, using the direct contact to apply low powered psychic Confusion attacks directly without having to face the opponent's mental defences.

This meant he had to avoid directly blocking entirely and focus on redirecting the attacks, otherwise the effects would quickly build up.

His own attacks, on the other hand, were rebuffed by a telekinetic force field that exerted pressure on anything close enough to Cid's body.

The overall result was incredibly aggravating to fight – it meant, in fact, that it was almost like being consistently overpowered by a Pokémon with much less actual strength.

"This is very annoying," he said, as another strike got deflected.

"Thank you," Cid replied.

"It wasn't-" Riolu said, then stopped himself. "Actually I guess that is a compliment."

Finally he decided to fall back, jumping with a push of Aura to gain distance and throwing a quick Aura Sphere. It missed, of course, curving a little off course and detonating behind Cid.

"You are surprisingly good."

That won him a shrug. "I got a mental training package from one of the Gallade in Almia. You're good as well, but I expected you would be."

Riolu blinked.  "Um. Now I think I've been rude or something…?"

Cid focused, compressed air as if he was going to use it for a Psycho Cut, and separated it from his hand. Then he took the resultant object and whirled it as a spear.

Riolu glanced back at Ash. "Now do you see the worth of all that Bokken training?"

"Yeah, fine. You win."

With a sound not entirely unlike smashing glass, Riolu created a Bone Rush staff a bit longer than the length of his arm and gripped it in his right paw. Then, summoning his Shadow Claws, he honed it once – twice – three times. A quick check showed that it had a small amount of Ghost energy clinging to the surface.

"That should be enough."

The two charged one another and began to fight again, this time with weapons instead of bare paws.

Ash noticed that the crowd had gone quiet. Apparently this was something outside their normal experience.

Presumably, that meant that the Rockets hadn't properly shown off yet…

Closing one eye, he watched the fireworks display that Aura sight revealed. Both Pokémon were using the elemental effects of their respective weapons to probe at the defences of the other, and the tempo was only increasing.

In fact, pretty soon it was going to…

Lavender and bright opal lights erupted into visibility around the battling Pokémon, as the energy reached the point anyone could see it.

"Whoa!" the commentator gasped, softly.

Riolu currently had a slight advantage, but that was starting to change – his Ghost typing of the short staff he'd made had been very much ad hoc, and it was beginning to degrade with time. Cid's strikes with his weapon were being stopped less and less firmly, meaning he was losing the type advantage, and once that happened it was going to make a lot of things happen very fast.

With a cry, he locked staff with spear-shaft and pushed both weapons out of the way, then brought his off hand around with a rippling violet coating.

The Dark Pulse at such short range was too much for the already tired Kirlia, and he collapsed.

"Nagi!"

"Pidgeot!"

Ash looked at the Spearow. "Nagi?"

"Naginata. A kind of spear, as in Spearow," Ritchie replied, as the two Flying types began to gain height. "I do my best with nicknames."

"Huh. You learn something new every day…"

Pidgeot and Nagi had already ascended to a height of a good few hundred feet, and the little Spearow displayed no concern whatsoever at the size of his opponent.

"So. We shall fight?"

Pidgeot's trajectory dipped slightly – a nod. "That's why we're here, after all."

"Then let us make a good show. Work Up."

As she circled slowly, Pidgeot watched a construct of wind form around Nagi. By the time it had finished, he was enveloped in wings of air similar to the ones she used at her highest speeds, for greater manoeuvrability. They were big enough that he was more like a Fearow, by size at least.

"And they weigh nothing, of course, so if you're careful it can put you up to Mach one thanks to the greater driving force…" Pidgeot swept her wings forward, then back with a massive gust of wind. "But I can do it without concentrating on air control."

She shot away, about half a mile in six seconds, then swept back around and in with her wings ready to strike him. Just as she reached him, though, Nagi moved his own wings sharply.

There was a crack as they moved, and he was no longer there. Her stiff wings hit nothing, spoiling her Wing Attack, and it took her a moment to stabilize again.

"What was that? That's far too fast!"

Nagi looked at her, watching her bank around. "I have trained to move my wings as fast as possible. That was the tips breaking the sound barrier."

She revised her estimate of his speed up, for a moment, then reconsidered. "But hang on. You can't do that for very long at a time, the sound barrier break would dispel the wings of air. You're not doing it the way I am so you can't tolerate that."

"Correct. But it makes me very manoeuvrable over short distances."

She gritted her beak (which was quite difficult), frowned for a moment, then moved away again. She could predict his maximum speed with that ability… and then if she was careful, aim an area effect attack to catch him for certain.

"I can barely see them," Ash muttered.

Allow me. Set up. Light screen, concave.

Two pairs of light screens formed above Ash's box, each pair focused on and showing one of the Flying types at about the size of an outstretched hand.

"Good thing they retracted the roof all the way for this, we'd never have the angle for it otherwise…"

Pidgeot turned, this time two miles distant and about a mile up, and came back in. She was building up speed very fast…

Ash saw the conical cloud form and break around her, and covered his ears.

Most of the audience didn't have the same warning, watching as she closed in on Nagi… and then launched her Razor Wind, which came boring in on him.

And he created a similar attack from thin air – or, rather, from nowhere – and countered it.

The crowd had barely begun to react when the sonic boom arrived.

She circled him, now more than a little indignant. "How?"

"Mirror move."

Pidgeot considered cursing. That was very, very annoying. And it also meant that the same thing would happen with more or less whatever she tried except physical attacks – and physical attacks would just miss thanks to that dodge move of his.

Okay, she needed a new plan.

How did this work, again?

Nagi watched as she took off again, this time straight up. And faster still. By the looks of things, she was using a tailwind formed from her air control to increase her height faster.

It was good to know the key point of his strategy was taking effect. Picador, then Matador. Taunt, goad, then let the opponent make a big mistake and capitalize on it.

In this case, he thought, as she reached an apex so high he could only see her by squinting… she was going to try a Brave Bird attack. The kind of speed she could manage like that would, if she knew her air control as well as it looked, actually cause her to go into dynamic equilibrium and become more unstable in flight. A useful trait for catching an evading target.

But he would be able to counter her expectations by flying at her and hence through the narrowed window she had to react. With that missed, she would be startled, and either crash or injure herself as she dropped subsonic.

He watched her approach and raised his wings of air, ready for the evade.

Three seconds… two… one-

Then something hit him from the side, grabbing his wing and trapping him.

The diving Pidgeot passed through him and melted like a dream.

A Double Team? But then where was-? How?

"'aint attack,"She mumbled around the Spearow wing. "S'w it once from a P'dgey."

Nagi surrendered. There wasn't much else he could do, not held in the beak of a Pokémon weighing so much more than him.

"Butterfree!" Ash said, sending the Bug-type out for the second time in the League.

"Happy!" Ritchie responded, throwing the Pokéball he already had ready.

"Wow," Sparky said, impressed. "That's, what, four times that's happened now?"

"Yeah, it's weird," Ash said.

Out on the field, the two Butterfree faced one another, and Ash's Butterfree began by spreading his wings.

Glowing balls of light formed on them, ready for Psybeam attacks, and Butterfree did an aerial shrug. "I haven't quite worked out how to do a Rock attack yet."

Happy started flying in a kind of evasion pattern, one that was sort of familiar to Butterfree but not really familiar enough. It was like the ones Butterfree himself used, but it seemed like Happy was flying in straight lines too much – both for too much of the dance, and also for too long each time.

Well, it just made aiming easier.

Butterfree opened fire – and Happy dodged, sidling away from the attack as if he'd planned it all along.

And Butterfree had missed the point he was aiming for. Something wasn't right…

Butterfree fired off the rest of his Psybeams all at once, in a grid, and watched as they all missed their point of aim somehow. Then he used Sunny Day, and followed it up with a wide area Solarbeam like the one he'd used against Mr. Mime.

What had been a wide, flat beam when it flashed out from Butterfree's wings lensed crazily all over the place, which confirmed Butterfree's suspicions – Happy was using his powders, like Stun Spore and Sleep Powder, and manipulating them psychically to make them refract light.

It meant Butterfree couldn't actually target Happy properly… at least, not using his eyes. Or his psychic powers, either, because of how much psychic static Happy's own powers were throwing out.

But he had other options.

"Supersonic," Butterfree announced, echolocating a rough position, then flapped his wings hard and zipped in for an Aerial Ace.

One. Two. Three. Happy was looking a lot worse for wear after the third, but he flapped his slightly tattered wings and bored in on an attack of his own.

Butterfree was in better shape, so he was going to win this. He sped up, accepting the clash, and if Happy wanted to match him Aerial Ace for Aerial Ace, he was game.

Then Happy's wings lit up purple with Venoshock.

"Now that's just not fair," Butterfree muttered, just before impact.

Though, in hindsight, flying straight through a cloud of powder moves could have gone worse… and that was the main thing he was thinking about as he passed out.

Instead of a Pokéball, Ash took Dexter's projector.

"Watch out," he said. "I'm not sure what your counterpart is, but be careful."

Then he threw the little golden-yellow triangle out onto the field.

"That's… not a Pokéball," the referee objected, then blinked. "Huh?"

"Huh?" the commentator echoed.

Stand by, ready. Set up.

I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever use me.

"That's incredible!" the commentator said, as Dexter floated out into the middle of the field. "That's a synthetic Pokémon! I've only ever seen one on Doctor Akihabara's CyberMon show before!"

"CyberMon?" Ash asked.

"I've seen a few episodes, if it helps," Sparky contributed. "It's kinda a reality TV show, kinda embedded reporting. Solving problems inside computers, that sort of thing. He's got a troubleshooting group who are pretty good at their jobs, I guess."

Ash nodded. "Thanks…"

Then he saw the Pokémon Ritchie had sent out.

"Eevee, get ready!" Ritchie called, and Ash tried not to snort.

Of course it'd be a Pokémon without a nickname.

"Oh, hi!" the Eevee said, curvetting and bouncing around as he walked a circle around Dexter. "You're interesting. I've never seen a Pokémon like you before!"

Thank you, Dexter said. Tracing… Adaptability copied. How useful.

"That sounds like the name of my Ability!" Eevee realized. "Is that one of your abilities too?"

In a way, Dexter replied. His form shattered into a cloud of polygons, then reformed into a simple blue-and-pink octahedron. Analyzing.

"...oh, what's that?" Eevee said. "Is that a new Form I haven't seen before? What are you doing?"

The octahedron quivered, then reformed into a hexagonal flower with three glowing outer petals. Tri Attack.

Eevee yelped, jumping away as the three-element blast hit the arena floor and blew a divot out of it. "Okay! Okay, sorry, I forgot this was a fight! Um, Dig!"

He dug quickly into the ground, leaving a small hill.

Dexter powered down, his tri-attack cannon switching to an octahedral shape, and slowly lowered himself to the ground. A drill emerged, and plunged an inch or so into the ground.

Scanning.

A low rumble pulsed out from the drill.

Processing… inversion complete.

Quick as a flash, the drill retracted and Dexter switched back to attack form. A Solarbeam knifed into the ground and cut a trench, and Eevee burrowed out of the side less than a second later.

And promptly fell in.

"Hey!" Eevee complained, looking around in confusion. "Where'd the ground go?"

Ice Beam, Dexter answered, which wasn't an answer but sort of a hint.

Eevee got hit on his flank by the beam, shook it off, then sprang out of the trench and began to run as fast as he could… jump.

Dexter kept firing, but he couldn't quite get the angle consistently right as Eevee's bouncy curvetting running style kept throwing him off.

Then he got a warning, which brought itself to his attention in the same way as strained muscles but more precisely: capacitors at twenty percent.

With regret, Dexter ceased fire and returned to his default bird-form, levitating higher to avoid attack while his capacitors recharged.

Eevee noticed the change and ran over to underneath him, before jumping up frantically. "Er, tackle! Take Down! Bite! Shadow Ball? Baton Pass? Return?"

What are you even doing? Dexter asked. They can't reach me up here.

His capacitors were quickly recharging, so not long to go.

Come to think of it, Shadow Ball doesn't even affect me.

"Bounce!" Eevee cheered, soaring up to Dexter's height with a powerful kick of his hind legs.

It wasn't a normal move for Eevee to learn, but then again his normal way of running around probably helped with that.

"Um, I think that's all of them… let's find out! Last Resort!"

WHAM.

Ash called a time out and walked over to the crater, extracting Dexter's projector from the hole. "This is what happens when you underestimate an adorable little Eevee, Dexter. You all right?"

Never better, Dexter beeped. Please restore my pride from the most recent backup.

Pikachu came running back over during the break, and Sparky left, and Ash counted in his head.

He still had Riolu and Pidgeot, and Ritchie still had Happy and Eevee. Depending on the way that shook out, either of them could win a battle of their remaining Pokémon… but that wasn't really how they were going to do it.

Ash wouldn't mind losing to Ritchie, not really. And he didn't think that Ritchie would mind losing to him.

So it was down to their last Pokémon, winner takes all.

"So, you ready?" Ash called. "One last battle!"

"Yeah!" Ritchie agreed. "We're having a resurgence and we'll ride it to victory!"

"Sure!" Ash replied, in a way that said he wasn't. "On three. One, two…"

"Zippo/Charizard!"

There was only one way the last match could have worked out, really.

Zippo looked up at Ash's much bigger Pokémon, and gulped, then set his stance anyway.

He was a brave Pokémon.

"Come on, Zippo!" Ritchie shouted. "Ancientpower!"

Zippo dodged away from an opening Flamethrower, slapped the ground with his tail, and brought up a piece of rock from the gash Dexter had left. The rock lit up with a white glow, and he slapped it at Charizard with a quick tail slap.

Charizard was just a little too big to dodge away from it, but he got close, and the projectile hit him on the wingtip.

"Ow!" he bellowed.

"Calm down, Charizard!" Ash called urgently. "Don't make mistakes! Think how you'd feel being beaten by a Charmander!"

Zippo threw another Ancientpower rock, and Charizard just blew it to bits with a jet of flame. The rock wasn't the only thing that was glowing, though.

"Wow," Ash said, wincing, as Zippo evolved to Charmeleon. "I know I've said it before, but when that happens it's really annoying."

"Unless it's happening to us," Pikachu replied. "Well, mostly to you, or to us-the-team, not to me."

"Yeah, and now I feel sorry for all the people I beat that way," Ash said.

Zippo charged in, one arm crackling with the electrical energy for a Thunder Punch. He countered a Flamethrower with a gout of Dragonbreath, and leapt at Charizard as he took off.

The punch connected, but more importantly it meant that Zippo came along for the ride as Charizard rose into the air.

The Flying-type shook his leg, hard. "Get off!"

"Not a chance! Have you seen how high up we are?"

"Of course I have, I'm the reason we're this high! I'm driving, so – aah!"

Zippo had charged another Thunderpunch, which discharged straight into Charizard, and followed that up a moment later by opening his other clawed hand and slamming the glowing Ancientpower rock he was carrying into Charizard's leg.

The Flying-type slapped at Ritchie's Pokemon with his wing, trying to get Zippo to let go, but it was too much of a twist and he just got tasered again for his trouble.

"Get off get off get off!" Charizard roared, and blasted his own flank in flame to try and blow Zippo clear.

This was actually really painful! In fact, it was enough to-

Charizard realized something.

Looking down for a moment, just to make sure he was still inside the stadium's limits even though he was much higher up than that, he twisted his tail so that his tail flame was just underneath Zippo.

Zippo punched him again, and Charizard's Blaze activated with a dull whumph. His tail flame became huge and blue, surrounding Zippo completely in flames, and the shock was enough to make his grip loosen.

Charizard kicked his leg again, and this time it worked. Zippo fell free.

The Charmeleon tried grabbing for Charizard's tail, but didn't quite make it. Then he looked down, gulped, and turned to look up at Charizard.

The Flying-type was already diving down, ready to catch Zippo, but being rescued from a crash would count as a loss.

And Zippo didn't want to let that be the end of it.

His own tail flame flared up, more strongly now, and he began to glow.

"That's new," Ash said, shading his eyes.

"Little bit, yeah," Pikachu said. "Chain evolution is not bad, but I don't think it makes the top five."

"…huh?" Ash asked. "There's an actual list?"

Yes, Dexter confirmed. Time travel is involved in one and three, and an alternate dimension at four.

Above the arena, Zippo finished evolving, flared his new wings out, and… piled straight into the floor, because he'd finished evolving too late and hadn't had time to actually stop.

Ash's Charizard landed next to Zippo, arms folded, and raised an eyebrow at Ritchie.

Ritchie visibly mulled it over, then raised his hand. "Yeah, I concede. And, uh… I'd like to thank my opponent, because he saved me a lot of time with Zippo!"