Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.


Chapter 8: Mega Challenge

"So, are you travelling with them?"

The sudden voice from her left made Serena jump, and she took her eyes off of the battle going on below. She saw a young woman on skates, wearing appropriate gear; Serena instantly recognised Korrina from the short glance she'd seen of the Gym Leader on the phone, two days back. "Yeah. How'd you guess?"

"Well, Nurse Joy told me you're staying in the same room. That's a pretty big hint, you know." A crash below and a roar told Serena who had won the battle below. "They're not pulling any punches, are they? I was wondering why one of my medicham was requested, but now I see."

The medicham had probably saved a few walls from damage. Bagon had slammed helioptile into a psionic wall at least three times, and grovyle hadn't fared much better against swampert at first. The boys were doing a Full Battle down below, and Max was in the lead. "They… There was a bit of a..."

"Oh, I get it," Korrina interrupted her as she watched bagon and bunnelby start to battle, Mud Shot meeting Dragon Pulse. "They had a fight, and now they're making up like boys." The Gym Leader tssked. "The one in blue – Max, wasn't it? – is in the lead?

Serena did a quick count. Grovyle beat swampert, masquerain beat grovyle, manectric beat masquerain and magnemite, dusclops beat manectric and tied with honedge, bagon beat helioptile and was now fighting bunnelby. "Five to three."

"Is he that much better? They started at the same time, right?" Korrina asked as bagon rammed himself into bunnelby, who threw up a block with his ears, but couldn't stop the slide back."Ouch. That has to hurt."

"I don't know," Serena admitted, glancing over Korrina. The Gym Leader was holding her left hand behind her back, but otherwise looked completely calm. "Max just seemed to have answers for everything today. I think it's closer normally."

Korrina hummed, but remained silent until bagon knocked bunnelby out, prompting a victorious roar and Max being affectionate with his Pokémon for a second. "They're coming here, right?"

Serena couldn't think of a reason why the boys shouldn't, and a minute or two later, Danny trudged up the stairs, looking as annoyed as Serena had ever seen him. "Oh," he said, pasting something a bit happier on his face. "I guess this is yours?"

Korrina accepted the medicham's pokéball, clipping it on her belt as a rather happier Max walked up, without bagon. "That was quite the battle, you two," Korrina said when Max was in hearing range. Danny's face morphed into a scowl for just a second. "I hope you'll give me a good battle too, but that's not why I'm here." She paused for a second, taking three pieces of paper from one of her pockets. "There's an exhibition match this Wednesday in the Gym. I hope you'll be able to attend."

"But we can see your Pokémon?" Max wondered as he took two pieces of paper, handing one to Danny without even looking. "Is that even fair?"

"Knowing the Pokémon and countering them are two different things," Korrina replied calmly as Serena received her piece, revealing it as an invitation. "Besides, this exhibition is going to be with my Mega lucario." She raised her left glove, which she had been keeping hidden, and now Serena saw the Key Stone in the fabric. "So I hope you can attend. It's at eight in the evening."

Knowing Danny and Max, they would go there, Serena was sure of it. She was feeling excited herself: Mega Evolutions were amazing and still very rare to see.

Korrina left, Danny and Max went back inside, but Serena stayed outside for a bit more.

"Hey," she heard after about a minute, and she turned left, seeing Korrina once again. "They're inside, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Korrina had a look Serena couldn't place. "If you gave Max a difficult challenge, what would he do?"

Serena didn't know where the Gym Leader was going with this, but it was an easy question. "Analyse and adapt," she answered, tilting her head left slightly. "Why?"

"Promise me you'll keep this a secret from them. Girl secret."

"Sure.'

"Max is going to face Mega lucario," Korrina told Serena, who felt her jaw drop. "I was watching from over there earlier," the skater added, pointing at another spot almost behind her. Serena had been there; it did give a good view of the small arena below. "Saw that fight with the Hoenn starters. And I want to see how he does against a Mega Evolved Pokémon."

"And Danny?"

Korrina shrugged, before having to rebalance herself as she nearly rolled away. "Gets a normal mid-tier team for someone with one League under his belt. I have some Pokémon that should be a good challenge for his style." She smirked. "Of course, that's still harder than what most his age face. They're really young to have one League completed already."

"How do you know that?" Serena was certain it hadn't been mentioned during the call. "Did you hear from other Gym Leaders?"

Korrina laughed. It didn't feel hurtful, but Serena still blushed. "Oh, we can't talk about every single trainer we see. There's too many of them. They had to use their Pokédexes to make an appointment, and then we have all the data." Okay, now Serena could see the funny bit. Kind of. Good enough. "I'll probably see them Wednesday. Are you coming?"

"Uhuh."

"Okay. See you Wednesday… What's your name?" Serena told her. "Well, Serena. See you Wednesday, and keep those boys out of trouble. We're the smarter part of the population, remember."

~~§~~§~~

Korrina's heracross landed another strong Arm Thrust on Danny's swampert, and Max still didn't understand why Danny had chosen his starter as his final Pokémon. As much as type advantages weren't a be-all-end-all, as Ash had shown them yesterday morning when weavile demolished an emboar through sheer speed, there was no reason for Danny to skip out on using froslass. Heracross hadn't shown any sign of knowing anything but Bug, Fighting, and Normal-type moves while taking out masquerain, and Max knew heracross were unable to learn Foresight like the machop line could. Swampert made no sense at all.

Torrent activating meant Danny would probably still win, but it was a weak showing. For jirachi's sake, Korrina used the same anti-Protect strategy Max had been using for a few months now. They had talked about that strategy a few times as well.

Swampert did end up washing heracross out with a well-aimed Water Gun, and Max was happy for Danny, but he had to wonder what went wrong. Danny was better than this. Their full battle the week before had been better, and Max had won that in dominant fashion thanks to Danny's bad choice to start with swampert.

By the time Max had made it down from the terrace he had been watching from, Danny had already received a Rumble Badge, if the badge case held in his hand was any indication. "Now, Max, are you ready for our battle?" Korrina asked after Max had exchanged a high five with his friend. "I've got a treat lined up for you. Just give me a minute so I can do something."

She skated off and Max watched her go, wondering what that was about. He figured she had to visit the toilet or something: Gym Leaders were human after all. Korrina returned too fast for that, though, leaving Max guessing, but only for a second or two. "Sorry to keep you waiting," Korrina told him, speaking louder to reach the few onlookers: Danny, Serena, Korrina's grandfather, a Gym Trainer or two maybe. "I just had to get this."

It took Max a moment to realise Korrina was holding her left glove up, but only fractions of a second to see that it wasn't the same glove as before. This one held a Key Stone, and something settled in Max's stomach. It intensified when a lucario came out, already wearing the bracelet with the Lucarionite. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am," Korrina said, smiling broadly. "Now, you get three Pokémon to beat lucario, and if you draw – except if you use Destiny Bond 'cause that's cheating – you also get the Rumble Badge." Both she and lucario made a punching motion. "Do you think you have what it takes?"

Unasked for, Max remembered his Dad saying something about challenges over the Yule holiday. "We Gym Leaders want you to win. Generally, if you're not as arrogant as that Unovan kid," he had said as they groomed slaking. "I want to challenge anyone who comes here. Sometimes I win, sometimes they win, but none of us Gym Leaders go out with the idea to beat challengers at any cost. Anything I do, they should be able to counter."

"It's on."

It was en-route to the trainer's box that Max realised this meant two of his Pokémon – honedge and natu – were really not the best idea any longer. He knew for a fact that the lucario knew Foresight, courtesy of the exhibition battle and blaziken's Double Team, which eliminated honedge's advantage. Natu plain didn't have the power to fight it: she was quick and nimble, not powerful or sturdy. One or two hits would knock her out flat.

And ninjask had issues getting in close and relied heavily on Double Team, Max thought as he turned around to face Korrina. Above the arena, he heard Danny and Serena wish him good luck.

He was going to need it.

After a moment's deliberation, he sent out grovyle first. He knew his starter had improved in the hand to hand department over the past few months, but this was a challenge on a whole new level.

He waited patiently as the Mega Evolution took place; lucario being engulfed in the red energy the temporary evolution gave off. It gained a few inches in height, several spikes, more free-moving appendages on the back of its head, and dark-ish red markings on several parts of its body.

A signal from the side, and the onslaught began.

Lucario rushed towards grovyle, effortlessly creating a bone staff from thin air, jumping, and lunging towards grovyle, the staff used two-handed in an overhead swing. Grovyle avoided it, rolling twice and also dodging a sideways swipe after the staff hit the ground. Lucario followed after grovyle a moment later, staying on the ground this time and forcing grovyle to block with a Leaf Blade.

The blade held, but barely so. "Stay on the ground!" Max called as grovyle was forced back by the blows coming fast and hard, lucario also mixing in a leg sweep every few hits. Max couldn't see a pattern to that, but staying in close was going to end up bad. "Quick Attack, create distance!"

Grovyle sped out from underneath another swipe, going to his right. Lucario followed, staff held at the ready in one of lucario's paws, spinning it to deflect the seeds grovyle spat out before slashing it at grovyle's head.

Max's starter had ducked, and managed to send a Leaf Blade into lucario's left leg before being thrown through the air by the staff connecting. He landed safely, blocking the incoming one-handed swing with two Leaf Blades before moving into lucario's guard, twisting the staff out of the Fighting-type's hand and somehow avoiding the other arm trying to hit him.

The weapon fell to the ground and vanished, not connected to its creator any more.

They traded blows: grovyle landing a cut on lucario's torso before receiving a kick to the torso himself, sending him to the ground, where he rolled out of the way of two more Bone Rush staves. These were shorter, more obviously tailored for one hand. "Get ready!"

The staves were smaller, and there was only one arm's strength behind the attacks, but every swift slash was hard to block for grovyle. He kept on the defence, meticulously moving his arm-blades only just enough to block and continuously moving back to stay out of easy kicking range.

Then the Mega locked the weapons instead of removing its own when two – grovyle's right blade, lucario's left staff – met, pushing in.

Grovyle suddenly pushed back, throwing both arms into the staff as he turned sideways, avoiding the other bone and throwing lucario slightly off-balance. It was enough to knock the blocked staff out of lucario's hand, and grovyle immediately grabbed the wrist with both hands, draining energy.

Korrina's Pokémon kicked, but grovyle had seen it coming, lifting himself up on the still outstretched arm and using it to push off as he backflipped into the air.

It looked very cool, but lucario immediately aimed a Metal Sound at where grovyle was going to land, and while the landing wasn't ruined entirely, it was awkward enough to stagger Max's starter for a split second. The delay was enough to allow for a small Aura Sphere to be charged up and sent into grovyle's abdomen, negating the effects of the Mega Drain handily. A second Aura Sphere followed.

And grovyle deflected it up with a quick swipe.

Elated that it worked – they'd been practising it on and off on their own for a few weeks – Max saw lucario try one more Aura Sphere, to the same result, before reforming the two-handed Bone Rush staff.

Lucario used it to deflect another round of Bullet Seed as the Aura Pokémon closed on grovyle, resuming the close range combat. This time, it kept its paws around the middle of the staff, probing with quick pokes and prods to find ways around grovyle's guard.

Grovyle's defences held, for a short spell at least, but attacking wasn't an option. Max bit his lip; he knew this wasn't the path to winning and Korrina had full control of the battle.

Then lucario dipped low, the staff rapping grovyle's ankle quick and hard. Instincts told grovyle to protect his ankle, but that left his guard open, and lucario immediately took the staff in one hand and lit the other hand up with an attack, landing a powerful punch that sent grovyle flying several feet through the air, following immediately.

A swift recovery let grovyle avoid the lunge, even as Overgrow activated. "Leaf Blade!"

Large empowered blades sprang from grovyle's arms, and quick slashing motions forced lucario to block them. No matter how quick grovyle was, though, lucario was always faster, using minimal motions to manoeuvre the staff into just the right position to keep the Grass-type from landing painful cuts.

The staff was maintained by lucario's energy, so hitting it was good, but it wouldn't be enough. Max knew he needed more to defeat Korrina. "Grovyle, middle!"

Lucario blocked grovyle's attempt to get at its paws with a Leaf Blade, but the staff was now vertical, unable to block grovyle's other arm reaching around to the Fighting-type's shoulder.

Finally, a sound of pain from the opponent. The retaliation was brutal: a poke and a jab with the staff, both in grovyle's stomach, and while he was staggered, the staff swept his legs before a punt kick sent grovyle sprawling to the ground near Max.

"Enough," Max said, speaking up to reach the referee. "Grovyle's out." He walked on to the field, shields parting to accommodate his passage, and he knelt by his starter, who was trembling with pain. Still, he smiled when Max heaved him into a sitting position. "You were amazing," Max said, studying grovyle's front. The attacks hadn't broken skin, but there was some discolouration on the red hide and the green band. That'd bruise. "You've improved so much since December." He made to return grovyle, but the sight of his pokéball made grovyle shift, eliciting more obvious pain. "What is it?"

"Vyle, gro-gro."

The tone and grovyle's weak gestures from his head to the arena gave Max an idea of what was up. "You want to watch?" he asked, and grovyle confirmed it. "Okay. Can you walk?"

It was slow, and Max had to keep a steadying hand on grovyle's shoulder, but the Grass-type settled against the wall after a minute or so.

The time-out had given lucario some rest, Max knew, but some things were more important. The Glittering Cave incident had made that clear. "Time for round two," he muttered, holding up his second pokéball, containing the first Pokémon he had ever caught. Sorta. "Baltoy, it's your turn!"

It was a shame baltoy and lairon hadn't worked out how to teach the former Earthquake yet – the attack always faltered or was some weak rip-off that wouldn't make a toddler fall over – but Max had confidence baltoy could weaken the lucario enough for his third Pokémon to come through.

He wasn't delusional enough to think baltoy was going to win it for him. Not unless it evolved into claydol and learned Earthquake mid-battle, and he was lucky on top of that.

Predictably, lucario rushed in the moment the battle resumed. Perhaps Korrina felt a baltoy couldn't stop her Pokémon, and normally, she'd be right. Lucario were about as heavy as Danny's aron had been, and were Steel-types with their many, many resistances.

But they had exposed soft tissue, unlike aron and many other Steel-types. "Psychic spike, stomach."

Lucario ran straight into the concentrated psychic energy, sort of impaling itself on the spike. It took the attack better than grovyle had a few days back, but it was staggered long enough for a Rock Tomb to erupt from underneath, forcing the lucario back and buying baltoy enough time to layer a Light Screen dome.

Lucario destroying the rock with an Aura Sphere was fine, and the Light Screen further diminished the attack as it homed on baltoy. The result was an attack that baltoy ignored, instead throwing a Shadow Ball at the Fighting-type.

It missed, but the dodge forced lucario away from baltoy a bit more. "Cosmic Power," Max told his Pokémon.

Baltoy concentrated, a short shimmer of stars visible around it. Between it and Light Screen, the next projectile sent its way – the green colour telling Max it was a Dragon Pulse rather than an Aura Sphere – didn't even make baltoy hesitate in its levitation, and a second Dragon-type attack met with a Shadow Ball, to explosive results.

"If that's what you do," Max muttered as smoke obscured his sight, baltoy moving back a tiny bit to give lucario less chance to sneak up. "Shadow Balls, low spread."

Four purple balls skimmed the ground, picking up dust and debris in their wake before vanishing into the cloud. There was a sound of annoyance that told Max lucario had been hit, which had been more than he had been expecting, but the retaliation was swift as a Metal Sound pierced the Light Screen, forcing baltoy to abandon the attacks.

Unfortunately for lucario, the Light Screen did have a slight sound dampening effect, and lucario's attempt to rush, looking to punch baltoy with a paw glowing orange was averted as baltoy threw a wide area Confusion pulse around. It didn't stop lucario, but the Aura Pokémon did get knocked just off course, allowing baltoy to barely avoid the attack with some quick movement, a Shadow Ball already dancing on its arms.

Lucario turned around a few feet away from Max, deflecting the attack to the side with a precise jab, but Max had noticed something while Korrina's Pokémon was near.

Its left arm was… Not looking good. When lucario had executed its turn, the arm had looked like it flopped behind with inertia. Max remembered grovyle landing a harsh slice on it earlier, but he had had no idea it had done that much damage. "Lucky hits," he mumbled, quickly formulating a plan to exploit the new weakness as baltoy forced lucario away with three visible stakes of psionic energy. "Try to hit its left shoulder."

It wasn't going to work; lucario would guard the hurt spot, but that would create openings, and sure as that, when lucario made another run in to try and land a punch, a carefully manipulated Shadow Ball, thanks to baltoy's Confusion, forced it to deflect the orb.

Baltoy didn't need Max's order of Rock Tomb to drop to the ground to make a slab of rock appear underneath lucario's feet, and the Aura Pokémon was launched into the air.

It recovered rather well, firing off a quick Aura Sphere that blocked a cheeky Shadow Ball follow-up while landing on its feet, but it was yet another hit.

Baltoy collapsed the rock into rubble before sending the debris outwards, and then things happened really fast.

Lucario ignored the debris pelting it, instead gathering a larger and more powerful Aura Sphere that went straight through the diminished Light Screen. It barely lost any power, and while baltoy had the defensive boost of Cosmic Power, the attack wasn't really aimed at it.

It was aimed at the ground.

The explosion rocked baltoy, and it needed half a second to stabilise itself, having braced against a direct attack. That time was costly, as lucario was on it with purple claws already visible over its paws. The Shadow Claw punch launched baltoy into the air, and lucario leapt off after baltoy, intent on landing more hits.

"Psychic spike, shoulder!" Max yelled to his flying Pokémon, and baltoy abandoned its attempts to stabilise itself to focus its energy.

Lucario yelped with pain as the spike pierced into the shoulder, but it kept on going, slamming another Shadow Claw into baltoy, and without baltoy stabilising itself, the attack launched it halfway down the field, where it landed hard as lucario executed a perfect three-point landing near Max.

Max returning baltoy was done as soon as the referee ruled it out, but while returning the pokéball to its place on his belt, Max saw the area he had left grovyle at, off to his right. Apparently, someone had brought down a chair for grovyle to sit on, and there was a second chair for Max's second Pokémon.

He walked over, releasing a groggy baltoy from its capsule, and Max knelt by the low chair, looking at his second Pokémon. "Thank you for trusting me," Max said, thinking of the last move he had made baltoy do. "Watch if you want, or rest up."

He heard baltoy's foot scrape the chair seat as it levitated itself into another position. Max glanced over when he had returned to the box, his third and final Pokémon ready to be released, and saw that the small Psychic-type was watching, same as grovyle.

"Manectric, let's show her what we're made of!"

Max suppressed a chuckle as he realised he was using his three oldest Pokémon to fight. Funny little coincidence, but now was not the time to think about that.

It was time to win a Rumble Badge.

Manectric's opening move of a wide-area Thunder Wave deterred lucario's attempt at rushing in as the electricity threatened to lock up some muscles, and a quick Thunderbolt forced the lucario back a few steps.

Max couldn't be completely sure, not at the distance lucario was at, but the left arm looked utterly useless. That, he decided, was the way he was going to have to win. Even now, lucario's attacks still looked plenty powerful, and it didn't show a lot of signs of tiring out naturally. A knock-out was his best bet. "Draw it in, and block Aura Spheres," Max told manectric, even as he saw the first of the homing projectiles form already. "Thunderbolt them, and keep moving."

The canine broke into a lope. She was fast enough to dodge any Dragon Pulses lucario might try to use, and she was far enough away to avoid any of them that lucario might try to lead into her path. Meanwhile, the less resilient Aura Spheres were deftly dismantled by quick arcs of electricity, with manectric only pushing the bare minimum needed into blowing the spheres up as far as Max could tell.

He had forgotten about Metal Sound, though.

The harsh noise assaulted manectric, causing her to seize up, allowing a Dragon Pulse to land. She flew through the air, landing on all four feet and avoiding a second wave of Metal Sound as she jumped left, retaliating with a sharp crackle of electricity.

Lucario launching a Dragon Pulse instead of coming in close like it had done to baltoy made Max assume it wanted to stay far away. "Going to need to get in close," Max told manectric.

"Tric!" the canine replied as she disrupted an Aura Sphere. She didn't wait for Max to give another order as she launched herself into her favourite combination attack of Spark and Quick Attack.

She met a glowing fist, but while it probably hurt, lucario didn't come off free. Inertia carried manectric into it and the electricity manectric had built up sought the path of least resistance out – through lucario's body. Sadly, the Fighting-type was able to kick manectric off in the scrap, but both Pokémon looked like they took some good damage there.

Lucario fled from two quick Thunderbolts, coming close to Max's position as manectric chased. It didn't stay put for long, but Max could confirm the left arm being useless.

Then Max's sight lit up with a flash of electricity splashing against shields two feet away from his eyes.

For maybe ten seconds, or an eternity, Max couldn't see anything, his eyes overwhelmed by the sudden light. He heard manectric yelp as an attack probably hit her, and as his vision returned, spots dancing in it, he heard lucario roar in return amidst what sounded like a Thunderbolt.

A Quick Attack made a Metal Sound ineffective, but a Dragon Pulse intercepted the Thunder Wave sent back in return. The two fighters kept moving, circling each other around the middle of the arena, trading attacks whenever one of them thought they had a good shot.

Max blinked a few more times to get his vision back completely, and focused on lucario. It was still protecting its left side, blocking all attacks manectric sent its way while sending only safe and quick Aura Spheres back. Manectric, on the other hand, was working as fast as Max had ever seen her, mixing Thunderbolts and Thunder Waves up with almost reckless abandon, only blocking the bare minimum of what was needed.

At this rate, her electricity would run out before lucario would slip up, Max felt. It was a good strategy, but it wasn't working. "Stop attacking!" he shouted across the field.

Manectric obeyed immediately, giving Max precious seconds to think up a plan. All ranged attacks were being blocked, and getting up close and personal with a lucario was a bad idea.

A thrown staff was blasted clean out of the air, landing near lucario before dissipating.

Ah, idea. Why hadn't he thought of that earlier? "Discharge!"

Manectric rushed in, jumping over a Dragon Pulse as her fur lit up with the uncontrolled electrical Discharge. Lucario was ready, aiming a Metal Sound at her, but the attack was too far through and all Metal Sound did was make manectric lose her concentration in holding the attack back.

Yellow spread in all directions, engulfing lucario and stopping the Metal Sound. Manectric landed harshly, but sprang up immediately. "Thunder Fang!"

With a snarl so loud Max could hear it from fifty feet away, manectric jumped onto the staggered lucario, landing on its head and forcing it to the ground as she bit down on lucario's injured shoulder, pushing as much electricity into it as she could.

She flew off as a surprisingly powerful punch hit her in the flank, but a red aura shattered at the same time. That could only mean…

"Lucario is unable to battle. Manectric wins."

Max saw Korrina enter the field as he did, but lost sight of her as manectric barked happily beside him. He sat down on the ground, hugging his canine and ignoring the short zaps of electricity she was leaking. "You did it girl," he said, rubbing her belly gently, feeling his hand rise and fall rapidly with her panting. "That was great work."

Grovyle and baltoy joined them, and Max removed both arms from manectric, throwing one around grovyle, carefully, and the other leant forward to touch baltoy. Manectric laid down beside him, her head half-leaning on his thigh. "Thank you all so much," Max told them. "You were completely awesome."

"Yes, they were," Korrina agreed, and Max looked up, seeing the Gym Leader tower over him. She was smiling, as always, and lucario stood beside her, looking decidedly hurt, but happy as well. "That was very clever, focusing on lucario's hurt shoulder like that. You found that weak point, and used it. Just the way you should fight a more powerful Pokémon."

Korrina looked on as Max carefully stood up, placing one hand on grovyle's head and one in manectric's mane. Baltoy leant against his right calf with a portion of its weight. "That was tough," he admitted. "Lucario was brutal at punishing openings."

Max heard running footsteps behind him, and he didn't need to turn around to know whose they were. "You did it!" Serena shouted as she joined the group, Danny a few steps behind her. "Congratulations!"

"I think," Danny started before a sneeze interrupted him. "Sorry. I think you're better than me again. Like, way better, not the normal better."

Max rolled his eyes out of sight of his friends, though Korrina saw him, smiling and winking ever so slightly. "Well. You were both better than what I put up, so you both get this Rumble Badge," she said, producing two of them out of nowhere. "Oh, and Danny?" she added, making the teenager look at her. "Don't sell yourself short. I used to do that too, and it caused me, and lucario too, all sorts of trouble."

"Oh?" Serena replied. "Like what?"

"Lucario going out of control in Mega form," Korrina told them lightly, scratching her Pokémon on the head to soothe it. "It took some work for us to fix it." Then, softer, though Max was certain she meant them to catch it, "It also took a lot of work to fix the arena."

The group laughed merrily, even lucario.

~~§~~§~~

Ash nodded to himself as he returned charizard. The match had slowly tilted in his favour over the previous nine Pokémon, leaving him with two left. His opponent, the runner-up in the most recent Indigo League: Monica… something from Hoenn, only had one Pokémon left. All Pokémon were completely fresh and the field had once been a grass field. Then Monica's simisear and later Ash's own charizard had happened, and by now, it was little more than a barren arena that had a bit of burnt grass on it. No hiding, nothing to hide behind, just straight up battling. Just the way Ash liked it.

They had to select both Pokémon at the same time, but no matter what Monica was going to send out, Ash was confident his Pokémon could beat hers. She may have been his newest Pokémon, but she hadn't been used at all during the tournament yet.

Ash's absol and Monica's jynx took to the field, and Ash felt a brief moment of pity. Jynx could still affect the terrain with her Psychic powers, but absol was straight up immune unless Miracle Eye was used. Ash wasn't sure jynx could learn that.

Max or Gary would know and plan around it, but he didn't care. There was a battle to win.

"Is that a MEGA STONE tied around absol's neck?" the announcer roared. "Is this the Pokémon Ketchum's Mega Ring is for?"

The answer to that, Ash thought as he started to concentrate, was obvious.

Absol's Mega Stone and Ash's Key Stone began to glow simultaneously as Trainer and Pokémon concentrated on what they were to each other: partners, friends, allies, equals. They weren't just Trainer and Pokémon, they were two beings working in tandem, trying to protect as much of the world from disaster as they could, seeking it out to help those caught by it.

A rush of energy slipped from the Key Stone, throbbing around Ash's wrist.

Whether the threat was of a Pokémon or of humans, or both, that didn't matter. They would be there to shield the bystanders, to bring people to safety, to stop the rampage, to eliminate the threat. Ash and absol had done that, and would do that until they could no more, and then they would try anyway. Giving up was not an option.

The Key Stone energy met the Mega Stone energy, connecting with the comforting shock and jar, and pink-red erupted.

Mega absol stretched out and howled to the night sky, her wing-like fur bristling as power coursed through her.

A simple motion of his right hand set her in motion as she started running, veering right, then abruptly dodging left, right, left to dodge a trio of quick Ice Beams, easily skipping over the trails of ice that had been put down. Her horn glowed a dark purple, releasing a Night Slash that spiralled through the hastily created icy block jynx threw up.

A Quick Attack let absol avoid half the field breaking out in Grass Knots, and she jumped over the second round, releasing a Psycho Cut with a fierce nod of her head, allowing it to block an Ice Beam with a small explosion. She glowed blue as she landed, before jumping away again from the rushing jynx. The Ice-type's lips were glowing pink – Draining Kiss – and absol had decided tripping over a Grass Knot on landing was a better proposition than having her energy drained. "Fire beats Ice," Ash reminded his Pokémon.

The next rush towards absol, the jynx this time aided in her movement by one of the icy paths she had created earlier, was stopped by a Flamethrower. The Psychic deflected it upwards, but jynx had not enough time to redirect it back as absol launched another Night Slash from a greater distance. Monica's Pokémon avoided it with a deft and minimal dodge, but absol was on the move, continuously closing on on jynx as well as launching attacks from all angles, using her better speed and better mobility to great effect.

The wind was already starting to pick up, slightly surprising Ash, but he could work with it. "Pressure."

Absol accepted Ash's suggestion without hesitation, switching from larger and more powerful Night Slashes to a mixture of weaker Night Slashes and the occasional Psycho Cut to mess with jynx. Monica's Pokémon was better at blocking these, throwing up shield of ice after shield of ice, reusing the debris of one shield for another and reusing that debris to spray where she thought absol was going to be with icy needles.

Except absol was never there, always out of range by at least a few feet, if not more. Whatever her talents, precognition wasn't one of the jynx's, and it was absol's best skill.

The winds turned harsh, and Monica must have recognised what was about to happen as she ordered jynx to create a large ball of ice around herself as a shield after absol was standing down the wind.

It was a good idea, but absol had foreseen it and had adjusted her Future Sight so that it came from above her, not from behind jynx. Future Sight cracked the dome, and an almighty Night Slash shattered it, sending its creator flying uncontrollably, her path tracked by Mega absol, who sent an impeccably timed Night Slash skimming over the ground to coincide with jynx's landing.

The Flamethrower follow-up was perhaps too much.

Fight over, absol went back to her normal state, and the strain of maintaining the evolution vanished. Ash's face appeared on all six of the big screens around the arena, along with his final placement in the group: second, very closely behind Josephine. If only he hadn't lost that first match against her. Monica had ended up third with this result, and while that was still good, only Ash had a shot at winning the tournament still.

Three hours, a shower, a post-battle press conference, and a celebratory dinner later, Ash was on the phone with the one travelling companion that wasn't in Kanto right now. "So that's Mega absol, huh," Max said by way of greeting, a brown-haired girl sitting in vision, but remaining silent. Serena never spoke much. "That was some slick dodging. Mega Evolution amplifies absol's disaster senses?"

"Probably," Ash said, having heard Gary express the same sentiment earlier that week. "And hello to you too. Danny not here?"

"He's ill," Max replied, concern flashing across his face. "It's… I know it's probably just a bug, but he was coughing his lungs up last night, and the fever..."

Ash felt a tap on his shoulder, and he stood up, allowing May to sit down in the chair. "He'll be fine, Max," the boy's sister said soothingly. "It sounds like he has the flu. Does he just want to rest in bed and does walking hurt?"

"Uhuh," Max nodded. "He was tired after walking back from the Gym yesterday."

"See? Flu," May told her brother. "Unless you had to hike for this Gym too."

Max shook his head while Serena smiled a tiny bit in the background. "Beach walk for this one, sis. Only reachable at low tide. Thank jirachi the Center has rubber boots for rent." He reached into his pocket. "And yes, both of us won. See?"

"Max beat a Mega lucario for his badge," Serena piped up, and Ash's attention immediately snapped to the brunette. "It was amazing! It really packed a punch, but Max was better."

Max was smiling from ear to ear, clearly proud of what he had achieved. "Korrina – the Gym Leader – decided Mega lucario against three of my Pokémon was my challenge. It was hard, but grovyle, baltoy, and manectric pulled through. Grovyle wounded its shoulder, baltoy made that arm useless, manectric finished it off." He leant back in his chair, looking smug, and Ash couldn't blame him. Beating any Mega was difficult, and lucario had a habit of hitting hard and fast, so disabling an arm was a great strategy. "By the way, sis, how's your Ribbon hunt going?"

"One for now, and second in another one," May informed Max. "But Contest season hasn't really started yet. I'll get my Ribbons, count on it."

Max made to reply, but May's Pokénav went off, and she left, but not before sounding surprised that Drew was calling her. "Your next opponent is from Sinnoh, right? Daniel?" Max asked unnecessarily. Ash would have bet good money Max knew that better than he himself did. "Does he have a Mega?"

"Don't think so." Ash tried to remember if he had seen something like a Mega Ring, but all he remembered was the man wearing long-sleeved shirts all the time. "He did get first in the other group with five wins." And some of those had been dominating. Wesley hadn't stood a chance, to say the least. "But that doesn't mean he's unbeatable."

Max smiled, and the call ended soon after, with Max and Serena wishing Ash good luck for the battle the next day. It reminded Ash that he couldn't use weavile – Nurse Joy had taken one look at the agile Pokémon and said that the burns she had sustained were too serious to heal in anything under 48 hours. She was the only absent Pokémon, though, and weavile would be available for the next match.

"Do you know what was wrong with Max?" May asked as she came back to the lobby, tucking her Pokénav away. "Worrying like that isn't like him. About Danny, I mean."

"Maybe he's just being you. You know you worried about him whenever he was ill."

"Yeah? I'm his sister. I'm allowed to do that. It doesn't work like that for friends. Especially not boys."

Put like that, May had a good point, but a nagging doubt remained.

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

The final of the inaugural Champion's League will be between Sinnoh's Daniel Black and Kalos's Josephine's Chevalier. Both first-placed seeds defeated their opponents in the semi-finals. Black won 6-4 in the Kanto Indigo Stadium over local hero Ash Ketchum, while Chevalier edged out a win 6-5 over Karen Peterson from Unova, in a match that went down to the absolute wire. For detailed reports, see pages 14 and 15.

From: Home Regions Journal (Kanto edition), March 12th.


Author's Note: Mega Evolutions make a return. We are in Kalos, after all. We'll see plenty more of it before all is said and done.