Hey everyone! Still a bit late on getting these out, I know. Stuff continues to be going on with my life as of late. Sorry again for the delayed updates. Hopefully I should be back on a regular schedule with these within a couple weeks or so.
As usual, I hope you all enjoy!
"Lucario, Mega Evolve!"
At Korrina's words, Lucario instantly became enveloped in the telltale rainbow-colored glow that Ash had come to learn signified Mega Evolution.
"Pii-ka?!" Pikachu exclaimed in surprise, recoiling in shock as it watched Mega Lucario emerge from the aura a few moments later.
"K-Korrina?!" Ash stammered, his brain working overtime in a desperate attempt to fit the pieces together in his head. "What's going on?! What do you mean, last battle?"
"You heard me." Korrina replied wickedly. Some semblance of her former jubilance seemed to still be present, though now it was almost as if it were a twisted form of its former glory. "Me and Lucario are going to beat you here, and then we're going to take the two of you back to – " She stopped a moment, seeming to catch herself and think for a second before going on. "Oh, wait, I can't tell you about that just yet! But anyway, don't worry too much about it. It'll be fun, trust me!"
Despite her smile, Ash was sure that whatever it was she was talking about, he most certainly was not about to trust her words. "I don't think so. Pikachu and I aren't going anywhere!"
"Piiika!" Pikachu growled in affirmation.
Korrina chuckled to herself. "Oh, I was just waiting for you to say that!" She gestured forward toward Pikachu. "Lucario, let's go! Power-Up Punch!"
"Rrrru!" Lucario grunted, charging forward in a flash.
Ash tensed, watching Mega Lucario charging toward them and prepared to fight back. However, before he could even call out a command to Pikachu –
"Aggron, Iron Defense!"
A blinding surge of white light surged into view between Lucario and Pikachu, quickly taking form as what Ash recognized as an Aggron. Without wasting a second, it raised its arms defensively and took the brunt of Lucario's attack head-on.
"What - ?" Ash looked to his right across the clearing and was met with the sight of Serena and a guy he didn't recognize sprinting toward him. "Serena!"
"Oh? What's this?" Korrina remarked with genuine interest as her Lucario withdrew to her side, its eyes locked on Aggron.
"Ash! Pikachu!" Serena cried as her and Seth drew closer to him. "Are you two okay? What's going on?"
"I was about to ask you that." Ash answered, his gaze drifting over to Seth. "Who're you?"
"I'm Seth, I'm a friend of Serena's." Seth explained quickly. "We can catch up with each other later."
Ash hesitated for a second before nodding in agreement. The three of them turned toward Korrina defiantly.
"Korrina, what's going on? Why did you just attack Ash out of the blue like that?!" Serena demanded.
"Well…I was hoping to get away without any of you noticing…" Korrina answered, seeming to be talking more to herself than anyone else. "But I guess it doesn't really matter now. Hey, you!" She called out, pointing across the clearing at Seth. "This Aggron is yours, right? You wanna find out how tough it is?"
"Oh, don't worry. I've got a pretty good idea already." Seth shot back, his voice brimming with confidence without crossing the line into arrogance.
Korrina grinned at his words. "Lucario, use Bone Rush!"
"Aggron, Head Smash!"
Aggron suddenly broke into a sprint as its head plate began to glow a brilliant white. It met Lucario's bone club head-on, merely lowering its head and plowing forward as the Aura Pokémon swung its weapon. The force from the attack shattered the bone club instantly and sent Lucario flying back across the clearing and straight into a tree.
"Wow, you're not bad." Korrina chuckled as Lucario picked itself back up in no time and got back into a battle stance. "Ready for some more, Lucario? Jump above it and use Power-Up Punch!"
"Use Superpower, Aggron!"
"Hey, uh, Seth?" Ash began slowly, trying to remember his name as he spoke. "Are you sure you can take her alone? Why don't I get Pikachu to – "
Ash was cut off by the sound of the shockwave created when Aggron, who was now sporting a glowing blue aura around its entire body, slammed its fist into Lucario's as it descended from the sky above it. The two punches met in midair with such force that Ash was surprised that the nearby trees weren't uprooted.
"…help…" Ash finished rather lamely. Seth glanced back over his shoulder and shot Ash a thumbs-up.
"Don't worry about it. Me and Aggron can handle this." He grinned at Ash before turning his attention back to the battle.
"Uh…" Ash mumbled, unsure of how to respond, or if he should even respond at all. He looked over at Serena, but she was smiling back at him knowingly.
"Trust me, Ash. I think we can leave this one to Seth." She turned her attention to the battlefield for a moment before frowning, as if he she had just remembered something important. "But you know…something doesn't seem right about this. And I don't just mean how Korrina's acting."
"What do you mean?"
"Well…think about it. Weren't those two having trouble controlling their Mega Evolution before?"
Ash pondered her words for a moment, watching Lucario trade blows with Aggron. "Yeah…you're right. How did they learn how to control it all of a sudden?"
"Pika pika…" Pikachu mumbled warily.
"I don't know. Maybe we can get some answers after this battle…"
As Aggron and Lucario's battle wore on, however, it became increasingly apparent that despite Aggron's strength, Lucario was simply too quick, and with every Power-Up Punch it landed, it grew that little bit stronger. Before too long, Seth could tell that Aggron was beginning to lose ground.
"I've gotta say, you're a lot better than I thought you'd be!" Korrina conceded after Lucario landed yet another Power-Up Punch, this one bringing Aggron physically down to one knee. "But you can't really compete with Mega Evolution, no matter how good you might be."
Seth's concerned frown suddenly shifted into a sly grin at her words. "You might have point there, you know."
Korrina blinked, not understanding his words. "Lucario, let's finish it! Use Bone Rush!" She called out a moment later, dismissing his statement as nothing important.
Seth's smile widened as Lucario summoned its ethereal weapon and charged across the clearing to deliver the final blow to Aggron.
"I guess it's about time we show you…" Seth began, slowly raising his left arm to allow his sleeve to fall back and reveal the black Mega Ring hanging off of his wrist. "…what we can really do."
Korrina's brain registered what the accessory was almost immediately, but before she could say anything, Seth cut her off prematurely with a statement she'd only ever heard her own family members utter.
"Aggron, Mega Evolve!"
Ash audibly gasped as Aggron became enveloped in the same warm rainbow-like aura that had surrounded Lucario only a few minutes prior. Lucario's attack slammed into the energy field and bounced off harmlessly, allowing Aggron to complete its transformation untouched.
"What…" Korrina trailed off, visibly aghast for the first time since Ash had met her as she stared at Mega Aggron emerging from the evolutionary field. "You…how did you get a Key Stone?!"
Seth beamed triumphantly at her as Aggron loosed a deafening battle cry. "Guess that's for me to know and you to find out, huh?"
Korrina gritted her teeth angrily. "Well…it doesn't matter anyway. Come on, Lucario, let's show them our ace in the hole! Use Aura Sphere!"
Even Ash knew that Aura Sphere against an Aggron should, by all intents and purposes, finish it off in one or two shots, and that was without factoring in Aggron's prior damage. "Seth - !"
Seth gestured for Ash to stay back. "I told you, we can handle this. Aggron, get ready!"
Aggron grunted in reply and appeared to tense up, spreading its legs and arms apart as if to catch something roughly its own size. Lucario, meanwhile, had finishing charging and was just finishing shooting off the Aura Sphere.
Time seemed to slow as the blueish-white ball of energy streaked across the clearing, heading straight for Aggron's chest. A second before it hit, Seth spoke up again. "Metal Burst, now!"
Korrina's eyes widened as the Aura Sphere attack, instead of slamming into Aggron's armor as it should have, was instead seemingly absorbed as Aggron began generating a white aura around its entire body. A moment or two later, its mouth opened and the aura converged there, sending a massive blast of white energy surging across the field toward Lucario, who appeared to be just as shocked as its trainer.
A titanic explosion rocked the entire clearing, blinding everyone present with a cloud of smoke. "Lucario - !" Korrina cried out through the dust, gritting her teeth before silently deciding to take a chance.
"Oh, man!" Ash exclaimed, too taken aback by the sudden turnaround to even be excited about it. "That was crazy!"
"I told you we could trust him!" Serena chided, smiling over at Ash through the smoke.
Seth turned and smiled at their words as well. The next second, however, he heard something moving in the smoke, and turned back to the battlefield only to see –
Seth gasped and recoiled in shock as Lucario, now powered down to its original state, streaked past him in a second, using the smoke cloud for cover. It zipped past everyone and swiped Pikachu from the ground before disappearing back into the cloud of dust.
"Huh – what – " Ash stammered, attempting to register what had just happened. "Hey – PIKACHU!"
"Was that Lucario?!" Serena said, squinting through the smoke as it gradually began to dissipate. "It was so fast!"
"To be honest, I wanted you to come with us, too, Ash!" Korrina's voice echoed through the area. "But I guess there's always next time, right? See you guys later!"
"Hey! Korrina! Get back here!" Ash roared angrily, taking off in the direction of where she'd been standing before the smoke appeared. "KORRINA!"
"Ash, wait!" Serena urged, reaching out to stop him as the dust cloud finally dissipated into the wind.
The clearing was empty, save for the three of them and Aggron, who'd also taken the liberty of powering down to its original form just as Lucario had. Korrina, Lucario, and Pikachu were nowhere in sight.
"Let go - I've gotta go after them - !" Ash insisted, fighting against Serena's grip.
"Ash, wait – you can't just run off like that – we've got no idea where she could've gone!"
"I said let me go!"
Seth watched the two of them solemnly as he walked over and patted Aggron on the head in thanks. Aggron grunted sadly, both of them aware of the gravity of what had just happened.
"Ash…I'm sorry. This is all our fault." Seth admitted.
"Rrrnnn…" Aggron mumbled in agreement.
"No, it's – not – it's – Korrina's – and if – Serena – would just – let – me – GO – I'd - !"
"Ash, stop it!" Serena cried out, desperate to keep Ash from running off and doing something stupid. "If you don't, you're going to end up just like Pikachu!"
Ash froze. He blinked, letting the silence hang in the air as he processed what she'd just said.
Serena tightened her hold on him and pulled him a little closer toward her. "Didn't you hear what Korrina told you…? You can't disappear…"
Seth watched Serena's face and realized that Ash disappearing meant the same to her as Pikachu disappearing did to Ash. He allowed himself a small smile despite the situation.
After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Ash brought his hand up and placed it over Serena's on his chest. "…Okay. Let's go get the others and…I dunno. Think of something, I guess." Despite his agreement to stay, Serena could tell that with Pikachu gone, a piece of his own self was missing, as well.
"Yeah." Serena replied softly, nodding in agreement.
Seth recalled Aggron and the three turned to head back into town. Before they could even get back to the main road, however, they were met with the sight of Clemont and Bonnie happily strolling back toward them, both of them carrying two drinks each.
"Hey, Serena! We didn't know you were gonna be back already, or we would've gotten you something, too!" Bonnie explained cheerfully.
"Hey, wait…" Clemont began, scanning the area behind Ash and the others for the missing member of their party. "Where'd Korrina go? I thought you two were going to be practicing together for the rest of the day."
Ash and Serena glanced over at each other uneasily.
"She's…she's gone."
A little shorter than usual, but hey, when shipping moments are as few and far between as they've been in this story so far, you can't really complain when you finally get one. Also plot is finally happening so hey.
Hope you all enjoyed, and have a good Halloween later this week!
