Walking down the forest path, the sun shone in between the trees, creating patchy spots of shade and sunlight. We left Cyllage City a few days ago, and Ash battled against the Gym there and won. Now we were heading for Shalour City to challenge the Gym there.
"What beautiful weather!" Serena said, stretching hers arms to the sky.
"The best thing to do on a day like this is run!" Ash said.
"Are you sure that's the best thing?" Clemont said.
"Come on!" Ash ran ahead of us. Clemont sighed.
"Maybe if you didn't carry so much stuff, you'd be able to keep up with everyone." I said.
"Let's get going, shall we?" Clemont ran ahead. I rolled my eyes and jogged to catch up to the others.
While running down the path, a girl burst from the trees and landed in front of Ash. "I found a trainer!" she cried, skidding to a stop on her roller skates. She had long, blonde hair tied back in a high ponytail and gray eyes. She wore a white and red dress with black bike shorts underneath, white boots with red heart decals that also functioned as skates, and a red, white and back helmet. She had red and white gloves, and I noticed a Key Stone on the back of her left hand. "Number 99, and that's gonna be you!"
"Um... What?" Ash said.
"Whaddya think? I'm talkin' about you and I having a Pokémon battle!" the girl said. "Korrina's my name. My partner's over there!"
We turned, and a Lucario dropped down from the trees. He gained a running start before leaping over us and landing at Korrina's side. The two high-fived.
"This is perfect! We're in top form today!" Korrina said. "So, how about it? A battle, here and now!"
"You're on!" Ash said. "I've been wanting to do some training before I challenge the Shalour City Gym."
"Interesting! Are you all trainers, too? Are you planning on challenging the Shalour Gym?"
"Ash is the only one who'll be doing the gym battles in this trip, but we are all trainers." Serena said.
After introducing ourselves, we headed to a large, open meadow for the battle. Ash used Pikachu and Korrina used Lucario. The rest of us stood on the sidelines and watched.
"'Kay, Ash, you make the first move!" Korrina said.
"Pikachu, Quick Attack!" Pikachu lunged at Lucario.
"Lucario, stop them!" Lucario met Pikachu halfway. Pikachu slammed into Lucario's stomach.
"Iron Tail, let's go!"
"Quick, block it!" Lucario lifted his arms in front of his face, and Pikachu smacked his Iron Tail into them. Lucario shoved Pikachu back.
"I'm starting to get the feeling that Lucario is capable of much more." Clemont said.
"This battle might be more complicated than we thought." I said.
"Come on, Ash and Pikachu! You can do it!"
"Pikachu, use Iron Tail!"
"Dodge it, Lucario!" Lucario jumped away as Pikachu chased him with Iron Tail. "Now use Swords Dance!" Lucario lifted his arms to his side, and glowing swords appeared and swirled around him for a few seconds. The swords disappeared, and Lucario briefly glowed orange.
"Swords Dance raises the user's attack power." I said. "If Lucario's capable of deflecting so easily, then his attacks must be twice as vicious."
"Lucario, Bone Rush!" Lucario brought his paws together. As they separated, a long, glowing bone formed. Lucario lunged at Pikachu, covering several feet in the blink of an eye. Lucario reared the bone back like a baseball and swung it. Unable to react in time, the bone slammed into Pikachu, and he tumbled back.
My friends gasped in surprise. I crossed my arms and watched Lucario and Korrina.
"Bone Rush is a Ground-type move. Not just that, but Lucario got a huge attack boost." Sylveon said.
"In order words... Yikes, that has got to hurt." Zoroark said.
"All right, now that's what I call a hit!" Korrina said, pumping her fists in the air. "Let's keep it up with another Bone Rush!"
"Pikachu, get up!" As Pikachu struggled to get back on his feet, Lucario attacked again. Swinging the glowing bone, Lucario launched Pikachu into the air.
"Attack one more time!" Lucario ran to Pikachu's destined landing point and smashed the glowing bone into him a third time, keeping him in the air like a tennis ball. Lucario pulled his arm back as his fist glowed orange with Power-Up Punch. He thrust his fist at Pikachu, erupting the air with orange energy.
Pikachu landed on the ground in front of Ash, unconscious.
"Pikachu! Are you okay?" Ash said as he scooped him into his arms. We gathered around Ash.
"It looks like we won." Korrina said as she and Lucario approached us. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a Sitrus Berry. "Here, have this."
"Uh... Thanks..." Ash said, giving the Berry to Pikachu. He munched on it.
"That Pikachu of yours is pretty strong, but you're not going to be able to beat the Shalour Gym."
"How can you be so sure?" Serena said.
Korrina and Lucario glanced at each other before smiling at us. "You see, I'm the Shalour Gym Leader!" Korrina said.
"What?! No way!" Ash said.
"No wonder you're so strong!" Bonnie said.
"That's 99 wins! One more to go!" Korrina said to Lucario. A low rumble filled the air, and Korrina clutched her stomach. "Having a Pokémon battle saps up a lot of my energy. I'm starving!"
"I know how you feel." Ash said.
"Let's take a break and have some lunch, then." Clemont said.
"Yes, please!" Korrina and Ash cried.
"Korrina, if you're the Shalour City Gym Leader, then why aren't you, you know, there?" I said as we ate lunch.
Korrina held up a finger as she chewed a sandwich she shoved into her mouth. She swallowed and reached for another one. "Because of this." Korrina lifted her left hand and showed us the Key Stone attached to it.
"I noticed that when we first met. I don't see a Mega Stone on Lucario, though."
"That's because I don't have one yet. My grandfather gave this Key Stone to me. It's Shalour Gym tradition that the Gym Leader has a Pokémon that can Mega Evolve." Korrina said. "Lucario and I decided to get 100 victories in a row before we go to Geosenge Town and get a Lucarionite. It's taken a long time, but we've finally almost done it. Just one more to go!" Korrina pulled out a notebook. "Check out this notebook. After every battle, I asked the Pokémon we battled against to stamp their paw on a page."
Korrina flipped through the pages of the notebook, giving a small story to each one. At the second to last page, Korrina gasped.
"I almost forgot to ask Pikachu to stamp its paw!" Korrina jumped out from the picnic table, grabbing her notebook and a bottle of ketchup, and hurried over to Pikachu. "Excuse me."
She grabbed Pikachu's paw and squirted ketchup on it. She placed his dirty paw on the empty page.
"Perfect!" Korrina jumped to her feet and showed us the ketchup-stained page. While the rest of us cleaned up lunch, Korrina paced back and forth and daydreamed. "I wonder who my 100th trainer will be..."
A blue-gray van with the silhouette of a Mismagius and a Lunatone pulled up behind us. "Attention, miss!" a woman through the intercom said, referring to Korrina. "Is that Lucario your partner?"
The side of the van opened, and three people stood on the inside: two of them, a man and a woman, dressed respectively in blue and purple robes, and a miniature man in brown robes.
"Oh, my gosh..." I mumbled exasperatedly.
"We're the Mega Evolution Consulting Group!" James said as the three descended down the stairs.
"Our job is to give you a consultation concerning how strong your Pokémon will become and what kind of moves it'll use once it Mega Evolves!" Meowth said.
"We're also aware that your Lucario wishes to Mega Evolve using the Mega Stone from Geosenge town." Jessie said.
"How do you know that?" Korrina said, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
Oh, please don't be as clueless as the others.
"When it comes to Mega Evolution, we know all the ins and outs!" Meowth said.
"A thorough consultation is in order. I sense our encounter was meant to be." Jessie said. The three approached Korrina and Lucario.
"There's no need for that. We already know how strong we are. When Lucario Mega Evolves, we'll only get better!" Korrina said.
"This consultation is free, so there's no reason to decline." James said, placing a hand on Lucario's back.
"Step right this way!" Meowth said. Jessie took Korrina's hand, and the Team Rocket members dragged them towards the van.
"We're going to need this." Jessie pulled Korrina's glove off, the one holding the Key Stone.
"Hey, that's mine!" Korrina said.
"Fear not, it's with us!" Jessie hopped into the van with Lucario.
"Since we're here, let us take a look at Pikachu's Mega Evolution!" Meowth said.
"We'll tell you everything, like how strong Pikachu will become when you use the Mega Stone from Geosenge Town." James said.
"Hold on a minute!" Korrina said. "How do you know about Geosenge Town?"
"Our job is to know all of that stuff!" Meowth said.
"Along with a Key Stone, it's needed to facilitate a Pokémon's Mega Evolution." James said.
"Everybody knows that!" Jessie said. "A Pokémon will Mega Evolve with the use of two stones."
"You're wrong!" Korrina said. "There are different Mega Stones. Each Pokémon requires its own specific stone to Mega Evolve. The Mega Stone in Geosenge Town is Lucarionite, and only Lucario can Mega Evolve with it!"
"Very enlightening, Korrina." I said, walking over to her side. Team Rocket started to sweat. "While we're at it, since you people claim to know all about Mega Evolution, then you should also know that Pikachu can't Mega Evolve."
"O-Of course it can!" Jessie said.
"In order for Mega Evolution to occur, Pokémon who can evolve normally must be in their final evolution state. Pikachu is in its middle evolution state, with Raichu as its final. And scientists don't know if Raichu even can evolve." I raised a cheeky eyebrow.
"Spoken like a true twerpette!" Meowth said.
"Looks like the jig is up." James lifted his wrist, a watch attached to it, and pressed a button. An energy box surrounded Pikachu and Lucario. James pressed another button, and the van doors closed. While Ash and Korrina pounded their fists against the vehicle, the roof opened, and Team Rocket's hot air balloon lifted into the air.
"How in the world did they fit that in there?" Zoroark said.
Team Rocket recited their motto and flew away. Meowth threw a smoke bomb at us that covered the area. When it subsided, they were gone.
"I'm not gonna let those chumps take my Lucario away!" Korrina said.
"Then how do we find them?" Serena said.
Clemont smiled. "That's easy! I have the perfect device for this situation! The future is now, thanks to science! Clemontic Gear-!"
"I'll handle this!" Korrina sprinted towards the forest.
"Wait, Korrina!" Ash cried, chasing after her. Serena and Bonnie followed while Clemont dug inside his backpack for his invention.
"H-Hey! What about my invention?!" Clemont called.
"Save that for another time!" Sylveon said.
"Yeah, it has a few more hours of life left before it, too, explodes." Zoroark said.
"Come on." I said. Clemont pulled his backpack back on with a grumble and we chased after the others.
The path took us from the forest to a rocky canyon. Ash sucked in a deep breath and called out for Pikachu and Lucario. Meanwhile, Korrina walked to the edge of the cliff and closed her eyes. After a few moments, she opened them again and smiled.
"Lucario's here. I can sense it." she said.
"You can really sense where Lucario is?" Serena said.
Korrina nodded. "The two of us have been together ever since we were young. We played together, laughed together, ate together, fought together. We grew up like siblings. Lucario and I share an unbreakable bond. That's something that will never change." she said. "Lucario is waiting for me to save it."
"Isn't that a little more than a hunch, though?"
"This is the same thing that happened with Diantha and her Gardevoir." I said. "The bond between them is so strong that they were able to find each other."
"I know what you mean, Korrina." Ash said. "Pikachu and I have been together since the very beginning. We've trusted and helped each other and battled as a team. It's the exactly the same as us as it is for you."
Korrina smiled and looked out at the canyon. "Leave it to me!" she said. She pointed to the bottom of the canyon. "We need to get down there."
"How are we supposed to do that?" Bonnie said.
"No worries. We'll take care of this." I said, and Sylveon and Zoroark leaped to my side. Each of us summoned a platform of Protect. Korrina and I rode on my own, Clemont and Ash rode onto Zoroark's, and Serena and Bonnie rode on Sylveon's.
"Whoa." Korrina said as we traveled to the ground. "How are you doing this?"
"Explaining would take a long time. Just go with it." I said.
Korrina raised an eyebrow, but she shrugged it off. We hopped off and hurried down the path. I noticed a cloud of smoke rising into the air. A couple hundred feet later, we saw Pikachu and Lucario, as well as Team Rocket.
"Lucario, you're all right!" Korrina hurried to his side and hugged him. Lucario handed Korrina her glove. "And you got the Key Stone back! You're the best!"
After pausing to enjoy this moment, we all turned our anger to Team Rocket.
"I say we settle this with a Pokémon battle, and may the worst twerp lose!" Meowth said.
"Looks like you've found your 100th battle, Korrina." I said. Korrina grinned deviously at Team Rocket.
"How about a tag battle?" Ash said.
"Gladly." Korrina said.
Serena, Clemont, Bonnie and I took a few steps back while Korrina and Ash approached Team Rocket.
"Pumpkaboo, Shadow Ball!"
"Inkay, use Psybeam!"
"Lucario, use Bone Rush!" Lucario spun the glowing bone in its hand like a helicopter propeller, and the enemy attacks were deflected.
"We're not through! Inkay, I want you to use Tackle on Lucario!" Inkay lunged at Lucario.
"Lucario, Power-Up Punch!" With the glowing bone in his right hand, Lucario pulled back his left hand as it glowed with orange energy. With a grunt, he thrust his fist into Inkay, launching it up into the sky. He leaped after it and swung the glowing bone, rocketing Inkay into the ground.
"Must I fix everything?! Shadow Ball!" Pumpkaboo began to form its attack.
"All right, Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Pikachu's attack hit Team Rocket, and they went blasting off into the sky.
"Aw... I forgot to get their footprints." Korrina said. She giggled. "Guess it's too late now."
"Thank you all for helping me get Lucario back." Korrina said after we climbed out of the canyon. "Now that we've gotten 100 victorious battles in a row, we're heading to Geosenge Town."
"Hey... Can we go with you?" Ash said. "I'd like to see Lucario's Mega Evolution."
"We all do!" Serena said, clapping her hands together.
Korrina smiled. "You bet you can! We'll all get to see it!" she said. "Now that that's settled, let's go!"
Korrina and Lucario took off into the forest.
"Do we really have to run?!" Clemont said. "It's like you guys are trying to kill me..."