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 36: Opening Ambushes

It wasn't something Max was about to say in a stadium full of Kalosians, but the opening ceremony for the Lumiose Conference had been completely boring. Some kind of release of a flock of fletchling and Diantha saying a few words? Even Serena looked a bit disappointed a few seats down, but Max would have to ask her about it later.

The stadium was as high-tech as the opening was boring, though. It felt futuristic, what with all the hexagons, the metallic blue-purple, and the battlefield just rising up from underneath the ground. It was a huge contrast to the old-fashioned Stade Olympique across town, and while that was okay, Max was looking forward to making it here.

Max, Danny, and Serena left after the first battle was over – a decently close fight between two first-time participants from Kalos, heading to the lobby in the front. Danny and Jane were up in the early afternoon, while Keith and he were up tomorrow, with Max the only one who had to go across town for his battle. There was some time to just relax and have an early lunch before Danny's match against a very familiar opponent.

Speaking of the opponent… Max saw the boy trying to sneak up to them, but the boy and his kirlia abandoned their sneaking when they saw Max looking at them. "Congratulations on evolving, kirlia," Max said as they walked into hearing range. He heard Danny's shoe squeak as the older teen whirled around. "Yeah, your opponent is here."

"Can't believe I'm up against someone I know. In the first round, too!" Hugo's voice was as high as it had been before, and he had lost none of his enthusiasm either. He had grown visibly, though. "And one… Grand-mère, over here!" he interrupted himself, waving as kirlia levitated him up a few feet. "I can't believe it was you who did all that in Geosenge. Weren't you scared?"

"Of course they were," came a voice that tickled Max's memory somewhere, and he turned to find an old woman that he had definitely seen before. "You can't be in yveltal's presence and not feel fear." She smiled at them, and at Max in particular. "I did not realise that the one Hugo was so enthusiastic about was you until he told me after seeing the photographs of the award ceremony."

"Wait up," Serena said, stopping Max from speaking up. "Does that mean you know Maël, Hugo? Is he like your brother?"

Hugo shook his head, red hair flopping to and fro. "Cousin. His parents are my aunt and uncle." The pre-teen from Shalour – who had gotten eight badges in under eight months, Max realised – shot a strange look Max's way. "Hey, guess what Pokémon I traded for last month."

"I thought vulpix weren't native to Kalos?" Max asked as Hugo took a custom pokéball – a Cherish motif, he thought – from his belt. "What did you trade for… her?"

A light erupted into Hugo's arms, an obviously young vulpix yawning cutely. "Him, actually. I had a murkrow, but… It didn't work. She and kirlia didn't get on at all." Left unsaid was that that was completely unacceptable to the boy, not that Max would disagree. "But a Breeder in Pyrocorde was looking for a murkrow and was willing to give me an Egg for it. I asked, and they had one, so..."

Max walked up, offering his hand to the vulpix to sniff. The fox accepted him a moment after, giving the palm of his hand a little lick. "My vulpix isn't here, or I'd send her out." Hugo's Pokémon's ears pricked up. "Yes, I have one. Would you like to meet her later?"

Judging by vulpix jumping ship into Max's arms, he rather thought the answer was yes.

Some time later, when Danny and Hugo had both already left to get ready, Max, Serena, and Hugo's grandmother were finishing a simple lunch in one of the stadium's food courts. "I must admit," the grey-haired woman suddenly said as she put her glass down. "It normally takes longer for my grandchildren to take to their ralts. You must have made an impression in a very short time on that beach."

"Take longer? What do you mean?" Serena asked.

"All of my grandchildren – Hugo is the youngest of four, and Maël has a younger sister – all came to visit me after they started. Hugo was the only one who kept her out most of the time, and who treated her like a friend from the start." A hidden movement sent a gardevoir out, Max and the Pokémon exchanging nods. "Trained ralts and kirlia thrive on positive human contact. All of my other grandchildren only realised that later." She fixed Max with a look. "Your thoughts, Monsieur?"

Max wasn't sure Hugo's grandmother was reprimanding or teasing him. "I just told him that if he cared for her, he'd have a friend for a lifetime." He focused on the gardevoir. "It's hard to tell, but… That gardevoir has been with you since you were my age, right?"

A sudden sensation of surprise flashed through him, foreign, gone as soon as it appeared. "Your intuition is right. We have been together since I was your age." The woman sounded content with that, unsurprisingly. "But it still took me a time to realise that which you made Hugo realise."

"Why didn't you just tell them?"

"My dear," Hugo's grandmother addressed Serena kindly. "In my generation, we had to find out a lot ourselves. I've tried to pass that on to my children and grandchildren, only giving them hints instead of answers. How can you learn when everything is gifted to you?" She shifted in her seat, turning to Max. "But somehow, you proved me wrong. Could you tell an old woman your secret?"

There wasn't anything secret about it, if Max was honest with himself. "I asked him to care for ralts. Hugo promised to..." He stopped himself at a satisfied cry from the gardevoir. "Excuse me?"

"Promises are important to ralts and its evolutions," came the explanation, the words soft, but intense. "He promised of his own accord?" Max nodded slowly. "And his ralts kept him to it. Not that my grandson minded, I presume."

Max didn't think so either.

~~§~~§~~

Being one of the Trainers battling was something else. Not because it was a League or anything, but because he hadn't a clue of how many people were actually watching, cheering for him as he entered. He recognised the dampening barriers, but even through it, he could feel the energy of the crowd, of literal thousands of people watching right there, and the stadium wasn't even full.

He hoped Hugo wouldn't be too intimidated. They'd skipped the traditional separate preparation, instead spending the time before the match telling each other travel stories and occasionally trying to sneak a preview of the Pokémon the other was going to use. It was actually quite fun to rib each other like that.

He adjusted the microphone as he stepped onto the metal Trainer's box, floating above a gap of nothingness. The battlefield would soon come up, but for a moment, Danny gazed down into black, stepping back when he felt the pangs of vertigo start.

The field was nothing like he'd ever seen before. It was mostly flat, covered with black and grey both. Ash, he noticed a moment later. Volcano field? Cool. There were things he could do with that.

He touched a hand to his new necklace, ever so slightly jostling the triangular pendant at its end as it rested against his breastbone. He probably wasn't going to use that, but he had the option, and it felt good to keep the Key Stone on him at all times.

A signal lit up overhead, telling both Trainers to select their first Pokémon. Danny thought for a second before going for klefki, holding the ball up and seeing Hugo do the same at the other end.

This was going to take a while, he realised as he saw Hugo's roselia appear on the ground, sending up a small puff of ash. Steel was resilient to Grass and outright immune to Poison, but roselia resisted Fairy and they were deceptively nimble on their feet, making the narrow beam of Mirror Shot a tricky thing to use and he couldn't send Spikes flying at it.

Roselia opened with a long-ranged barrage of Leech Seed; the draining pods crossing the distance fast and forcing a Protect as an opening move from klefki, and in that time, Hugo's Pokémon sent up a quartet of Sunny Day orbs.

Danny didn't know if roselia could learn Weather Ball. "Scatter Spikes around," he spoke into his microphone, seeing klefki already move after the first word. The Steel-type started spinning, spreading the attack over a wide area, puffs of ash thrown up wherever the caltrops landed.

Then he decided to stop, dropping down to the ground to dodge a Solar Beam. It was narrow, focused, breaking apart in a glittering display on the shields, and the follow-up was a quick Magical Leaf.

Klefki saw an opening, taking the attack in exchange for a Mirror Shot that shot between the circling petals, hitting roselia as it jumped up – well anticipated. "Closer in, more Spikes."

More caltrops buried themselves in the soft soil, but in doing so, klefki was just too slow to dodge a second Solar Beam. Light enveloped him, but he soon emerged from it, looking fairly unscathed, as far as Danny could see. Too unscathed. Was roselia deliberately hol…

Oh, that was it. It was sacrificing power for speed, and hoping Danny would fall for it by ordering heavy-handed responses to attacks that didn't need them. "Protect from Leech Seeds only," he ordered klefki, just as the Steel-type did exactly that; green energy blocking green seeds.

Roselia started moving for the first time now, using small hops to do so. It only went sideways from where it had started, because forwards was a field of caltrops, and after every few hops, it would launch an attack – Magical Leaf, Leech Seed, Magical Leaf, Leech Seed, Leech Seed, cleverly – but Danny wasn't worried about klefki being hit, or hitting back. Fairy Winds blew back the Magical Leaves and the last barrage of Leech Seeds, while Protect took care of the rest.

Danny's Pokémon didn't even need to move while doing that. He was an easier target for it, but dodging Magical Leaves was annoying. Better to save the energy.

Meanwhile, Danny had been looking at roselia's movement as carefully as he could from a distance. "It attacks every four hops," he said after the seventh attack in total. "Mirror Shot."

One, two, three, bingo. Roselia did its thing, but klefki had seen the same thing Danny had, and had probably studied the movement pattern a lot better to boot. The Mirror Shot hit the small Pokémon somewhere on its lower half, sending it tumbling through the air, ash thrown up as it landed. "Don't!" Danny countermanded klefki instantly, knowing his Pokémon was ready to slam himself into the fallen opponent. "Keep distance. No need to force something."

The faint yellow sheen to the ashes – though it could be the lighting – made Danny suspect he had been right. A Stun Spore was an instinctual reaction for many Grass-types, and roselia probably weren't different. The Thorn Pokémon got up, launching a thinner-looking Magical Leaf, and a Fairy Wind dispersed it without any trouble.

Then more of the same Magical Leaves came, perhaps a bit more powerful, but it was suspicious because it was different from the pattern it had used before. "It's hiding something."

Suddenly, klefki shot forward, enveloping itself in a Protect to power through a barrage of Leech Seeds and diving low to the ground. Ash shot up behind him, blocking Danny's sight of both Pokémon.

And then a Solar Beam shot through the middle of the arena, scattered by something, but still powerful enough to throw up ash and caltrops alike. It petered out before it could reach Danny, but he couldn't see anything of what was going on at the other end.

A buzz in his ear announced a referee call. "Roselia is knocked out."

He had no idea how it had happened – though he thought he understood what roselia had done: using one rose to gather sunlight for a Solar Beam while trying to take advantage of klefki's defensive position. Still, there was no reason to complain, especially after he saw klefki look scratched, but nothing more; the Key Pokémon having made his way over to Danny's side of the arena.

Hugo's second Pokémon was cause for Danny to check if the Sunny Day was still in effect, and he resisted the urge to groan when he saw that two of the orbs were still burning bright in the sky. Fletchinder resisted literally everything klefki knew at range, and even plain old tackling it would be risky: the Fire-type could raise its body temperature to heights that would leave a burn on steel.

There was always the option of swampert or helioptile, or even diggersby, who would have a field day with the soft soil, but all of them did have to contend with the caltrops klefki had so liberally spread earlier. He was certain Max was having a good laugh at his expense right about now.

Well, swampert could ignore it, but he didn't really want to use swampert or aggron against Hugo. He wanted a good battle for both of them, and not some massacre.

Klefki would have to do. Maybe he could trick the fletchinder into crashing into the ground.

Flame Charge was an obvious opener, and a fireball streaked through the sky, heading straight for klefki. When Danny's Pokémon dove lower to get closer to the ground, fletchinder followed without hesitation. It missed klefki by a foot or two, instantly changing into a vertical climb before a quick u-turn sent it plummeting back down at the Steel-type.

The miss was too rehearsed, Danny felt. "Careful," he warned, even as klefki threw up a Protect to shield itself from the flames.

Fletchinder itself wasn't hit, and with a lurch that almost defied physics, it wheeled around to deliver a fiery tackle to the keychain. Klefki sailed through the sky, unable to stop himself before fletchinder sped onto him again with more fire, and another hit that batted klefki away. "Protect as soon as you can!"

That turned out to be when fletchinder next came knocking, and it bounced away on the shield, some of the energy bleeding through, pushing klefki back as well. Danny's Pokémon immediately started spinning, releasing more spikes and forcing Hugo's Pokémon to go up before it could attack klefki, or risk being hit by sharp things.

A Mirror Shot missed, fletchinder dodging out of the way when it didn't need to. The reason for klefki's poor aim became clear immediately after as as an explosion rocked the air above both Pokémon, eliminating the last orb of sunlight and powering fletchinder's Fire-type moves down further.

It was worth nothing if klefki kept getting hit, though. He really needed to practice with Max's ninjask more. "Go low and use Fairy Wind down."

The attack worked as Danny wanted, throwing up an improvised smokescreen that forced fletchinder to back off before rearing up in a Gust.

And the moment it unleashed the winds, klefki took advantage of his opponent finally staying still for a second, with a Mirror Shot that hit it straight on the wing. It fell maybe fifteen feet, saving it from a second Mirror Shot, and immediately started moving again. It went higher first, but then dove low by the ground, igniting into flames again as ash flew up in the wake of its path.

Klefki tried to dodge, but sheer speed sent him spinning. He Protected a second fly-by, but this time, fletchinder was wise to the trick, going up and over before turning tightly and slamming into the Steel-type from above, sending him into the ash.

And then nothing happened for thirty seconds. Visibly, anyway. Most of the area was black with ash and soot blocking any look in. Danny was fairly certain klefki had been knocked out, though: with fletchinder being as fast as it was and the double Sunny Day-boosted hits earlier… If klefki wasn't knocked out, he was weak enough to not do anything visible up close.

"Klefki and fletchinder are both unable to battle."

Wait, what?

He looked up at one of the big screens, hoping the camera could give him more information. It did, showing him a twitching Fire-type that, while conscious, was delirious with pain as one of the many Spikes had somehow pierced its wing. Danny bit his teeth, barely keeping in a hiss of sympathetic pain, and he resolved to apologise to Hugo the moment he could. This was just unfair.

But it was how battles went. Sometimes, luck was on your side.

Danny was certain he knew what Hugo's third Pokémon would be, and he took a moment to think about what he wanted to send up against the kirlia. Swampert and aggron were still too much, and helioptile probably wouldn't work too well, what with the Spikes…

Masquerain would avoid those if he didn't bodily tackle the kirlia the same way fletchinder had done to klefki, and he could stay far enough away that kirlia making a psychic grab was avoidable.

Twenty seconds later, after the match had resumed, Danny was suddenly very glad for that distance, yet also annoyed with himself for not thinking this through more. Kirlia had immediately flared a Psychic aura, drawing ash and spikes into a loose formation several feet away from her, before launching the gathered materials. She sent everything at masquerain with sufficient velocity and psionic guidance that the ash only dwindled away halfway through. The spikes defied gravity, and Danny's small Bug-type had to make a quick dodge left and down to avoid the same fate as fletchinder.

Masquerain tried to whip up ash to block sight, but after he had done so, a second barrage of spikes flew his way, more scattershot this time. It forced a Protect, which disintegrated a few of the spikes while the rest missed naturally. "She can sense you,' Danny warned. "Just dodge. Spikes are limited."

The very last barrage scored a glancing hit, masquerain dropping a few feet in surprise, but nothing too serious. Then, as Danny snapped his eyes back to kirlia to see what she was up to, the Psychic-type vanished. "Behind you!" Danny immediately shouted, not waiting to locate her. There was only one place that made sense for her to go to. "Gust!"

Spikes struggled to make their way through a wall of wind, eventually losing out, but kirlia managed to get out of the way of the Gust before it hit her, reappearing closer to Danny and immediately gathering more of the caltrops.

Only for her to scatter them throughout the arena and vanish the moment after, reappearing elsewhere and pelting masquerain with a couple of projectiles. Danny's Pokémon had to dive low to the ground to avoid it, unable to react before the kirlia Teleported elsewhere.

He needed to break the pattern kirlia had fallen into, but he couldn't just order masquerain up close. That'd end up badly. "Defend and dodge for now."

It took at least two minutes – masquerain avoiding most of the attacks and occasionally using Gust to little or no effect – for Danny to realise that there wasn't any pattern he could exploit, and though kirlia was slowly becoming weaker, he would really like to not lose masquerain.

Max would never let him hear the end of it.

"Up high, and the most powerful Stun Spore you can manage."

The blue Bug-type flew upwards, not quite out of kirlia's range, and gathered the paralytic spores on his wings, focusing on spreading them across the wide area.

But Danny didn't wait for them to slowly sink down. "Gust them!"

The kirlia called forth a psionic shield – a barrier to burn all the spores coming near her, and not Protect – to defend herself, and it was just the opening Danny thought he needed. With a swift hand motion and a snapped order, he told masquerain to dive in.

The Bug-type let loose one last powerful flap of its wings before diving into the winds he had created himself, enveloping himself in a Quick Attack and heading straight for the kirlia.

Hugo's Pokémon reshaped the shield into a powerful grab as kirlia dug into the ground with her feet, but that was what Danny wanted. Masquerain had too much momentum to be stopped by Psychic energy, and though he lost a lot of speed, he still crashed into the kirlia, sending ash up and obscuring everything. "Don't let up!"

Spores mingled with ash as masquerain tried to unleash a Stun Spore while grappling with the kirlia, but the Emotion Pokémon Teleported out anyway, to a position straight in front of Danny. She was heaving, but clearly having fun as well. She sent a Disarming Voice forth, masquerain barely flying over it before trying for a Quick Attack.

And then he dropped the Quick Attack, instead going for a Bubblebeam as kirlia Teleported twenty feet to her right.

And for some strange reason, she wavered too long for either a Teleport or a block, though something psionic danced on her skin. The Water-type attack wasn't a full-on hit, but it was close enough to knock kirlia off her feet, and into the soft soil.

A look at his masquerain revealed more. He was struggling with what looked like the onset of Stun Spore paralysis, but Danny knew the Eyeball Pokémon was more careful than that. He hadn't inhaled spores in forever, and being able to produce them gave a certain tolerance as well.

But some kirlia had the Synchronise Ability, which would cause paralysis and the like to be mirrored on a nearby target. If Hugo's kirlia had that… "Fight through it. Bubblebeam!"

It was an undeserved end to the battle. Kirlia tried to muster energy, but it fell apart as she twitched and fell over, her legs giving out under her. Bubblebeam hit, kirlia had a short flight that ended in an ashen landing, and did not get back up, giving Danny the win.

Arceus, that had been far more challenging than he had anticipated. Perhaps picking masquerain had been a mistake, but that was on him, and not on his Pokémon. The blue Pokémon, looking tired to the point that he couldn't even look satisfied, landed on it. "You made the best out of a bad match-up," he said softly, seeing the bug perk up at the praise. "Take a long rest. You earned it fair and square."

He returned his Pokémon, took his microphone off, and proceeded to wave all the way until he was in the catacombs proper, at which point he dropped his arm, rolling his shoulder before striking a right. He had an apology to make.

Hugo was a bit faster in walking, already waiting at the agreed-on point, leaning against a pillar with folded arms and a laid-back posture. The boy's attempt at looking cool was completely ruined by the boyish grin on his face – and by the cheerful exclamation when he saw Danny. "That was awesome!"

That was… not what Danny had expected. "Not upset about fletchinder then?"

Hugo's smile turned into a frown, just for a few seconds. "It was the risk I took for flying so close to the ground with that many Spikes… It's not fun, but..." He shrugged with one shoulder; the other still leaning against the pillar. The frown went back to a grin. "'sides, kirlia used those Spikes as well."

Had she ever. Danny still wasn't sure how masquerain hadn't suffered the same fate as fletchinder had. "I noticed," he said, trying for deadpan and hoping to amuse his opponent. It worked, and a weight that had already been lifted in part finally left him. He turned left. "That kirlia… I think I know now how annoying Max would have been with one. That was a great show."

"We've been focusing on overwhelming," Hugo said as he produced a pokéball. He didn't open it. "I… I don't know if it is the right thing, but kirlia's a bit weak defensively."

"You could ask Max. He's got a style that's a lot more like yours." Though Danny had to admit Hugo was more all-out offense to Max's more tactical approach. "I hope I selected the right Pokémon for you. Didn't want to just have you go up against aggron and be able to do nothing."

"One Steel-type was enough," Hugo told him as they started walking up some stairs. Danny quickly checked the section, confirming they were heading towards where Max, Serena, and Hugo's grandmother had said they would be sitting. "Klefki felt stronger than masquerain. Why'd you send it out first?"

"Because he's safe. Klefki resist lots of types. Fire isn't one of them." He grinned at Hugo, who returned it before swiping red hair away from his eyes. "Besides, you had a plan with that roselia. What was it?"

Hugo waited for them to pass through an automatic door. "She knows Toxic," he said. "Hoped I could get it on your Pokémon."

Danny could understand why he'd go for that kind of gambit, but he didn't reply as they exited into the stadium itself. A quick look around located Serena – or rather, her hat – and they sat down to enjoy the rest of the battles.

Perhaps he should try to get Hugo to help them with training this week. It'd give the younger boy something to do.

~~§~~§~~

After he had watched the youngest Maple direct his Pokémon through two Pokémon of his second round opponent, Gary Oak was impressed. Scratch that. Very impressed. He had been older when he had gone up against Ash in his last formal Pokémon League, instead switching to research and individual tournaments, and there was no way the him back then could have pulled off the poise and general collectedness the boy was broadcasting with every sparse command.

Whatever Pokémon he had beyond manectric, the youngest Oak didn't know nor care about. When the ninjask had come out, Gary had assumed it would lead to a battle straight from Ash's playbook – hit fast, be daring, unconventional angles that shouldn't work except for some infernal lucky charm Ash had probably ingested at some point during his childhood. Just as an apprentice copied his master, so would the younger copy his idol, probably.

There were hints of that, but mostly, the teenager was using ninjask far more tactically, looking to entice his opponent into making mistakes. The boy opposite him – one of the first-timers, Gary hadn't cared to learn the name of someone irrelevant like that – eagerly accepted the bait, following a ninjask into the sky with a wingull. Water and Ice both shot across the air as the ninjask expended minimum energy for maximum effort, occasionally passing so close-by that frost should have formed on the tips of its wings.

The one time ninjask had been hit with a full-on Ice Beam, Max had barely blinked an eye. Gary had seen far too many Trainers recoil when their Pokémon were hit – up to beyond Max's age – but rarely had he seen someone this stoic. A two-word order – "speed up" – was the reply, and from there, ninjask took the fight in both pincers.

The wingull fainted without getting another attack on target. Decisive.

And when the opponent sent out a nosepass, which was usually a sign for any Trainer to switch out, Max kept ninjask in. That was Ash's signature, to scoff in the face of type advantage, but this was different. A simple order was uttered, one that Gary did not understand, but could intuit the meaning of. "Like aron," obviously meant that there was an aron on his team or maybe on the Birch boy's team, and that they had strategies to deal with it.

Ninjask only fell because Max didn't feel the need to switch, but the lack of surprise and the instant sending out of a swinub told Gary all he needed to know.

The teen knew full-well that he was better, and that he didn't need to show more than needed.

Swinub took out the nosepass in a two-hit combination of Dig and some Ice-type move, again sticking to the minimalist approach that showed nothing anyone with a quarter brain didn't already know, and his opponent asked for – and received – a time-out.

Ridiculous, that, but apparently Kalosians were a whiny bunch who needed breaks even in simple three-on-threes.

The big screens in the four corners of the old stadium showed a split screen focus between the two opponents – Max looked calm and collected, while his opponent was visibly trying to get his nerves back under control. He'd started nervous, too, probably from sheer reputation. Bad form, that.

An arbok wasn't the best choice, but it could poison and strike fast. Good length on it, probably a family Pokémon passed down, but there was no way it could knock out two Pokémon. The skill the boy had portrayed up until now was at least three steps too slow and arbok were easy to exploit with the right Pokémon.

The first attack was Mist, causing shimmering cold air to obscure most of the field, to vocal disagreement of people next to Gary. He sent them a withering glare before looking back down at the field. Swinub – who was already hard to see between the grassy field and the height at which they sat – had vanished completely, either underground or into the Mist. Underground was the obvious option, given the cover didn't extend to arbok.

He hadn't known arbok could learn Bulldoze. The boy looked triumphant, certain he had caught the swinub out, but there was no reaction at all from the other end.

Except for a pair of words. "Take Down."

The Pig Pokémon rushed in, faster than it had any right to be, and arbok leapt into the air to avoid the attack, but that was too obvious. Swinub adjusted its path, leaving the Take Down and snorting upwards, a short blast of ice catching arbok's tail and changing the snake's trajectory just enough for the landing to be awkward.

Better Pokémon could have recovered, but this one didn't. It was a mistake swinub ruthlessly exploited, spinning on its axis to send dirt and mud and grass flying in all directions, including arbok, who coiled in on itself, using its hood as cover against the Mud Slap. Of course, that was defending, and not countering, which was generally bad in a battle – though he had seen a few Trainers use those styles effectively. Boring, in his opinion, but definitely efficient at lower levels. Probably less-so once they started reaching later stages, but it was perfectly acceptable for now.

Not for the arbok, though. Swinub immediately closed the gap, and instead of lashing out with its tail – which would have been tricky, but doable – the arbok turned to use Poison Stings. Bad decision, and the stings didn't make it through a blast of Icy Wind cold. Swinub finished by Digging into the ground, coming back up behind the arbok before a Bulldoze could force it up.

Gary stood up. There was nothing to be seen any longer. If the arbok was the starter, the boy hadn't trained it for independent action all that well. Pathetic, and to be expected at this stage. The first few rounds of any League-style tournament were to separate the hobbyists, the babies, and the one-trick ponyta from those who actually possessed a modicum of skill. No matter if the tournament was the size of this one or of the bigger ones in the Home Regions. These things never changed.

Gary made his way over to the catacombs, but found himself stopped by a pair of security guards. "You are not allowed past this point," the left one – brain, to the other's brawn, relatively speaking – told him. "No entry to non-participants."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Gary replied, waving a hand that drew both of their gazes. Idiots. "I need to talk to one of the boys who just finished. Maple's the name. Tell him there's an Oak waiting for him."

"We are not..."

"Yes, yes, you're not to leave this position. Here's the deal. I stay here and guard this place from whatever pitiful remnants of Team Flare would attack the off-stadium instead of several better targets in Lumiose. You go collect Maple. Both of us happy." To demonstrate his willingness, Gary walked up to the last corner he had turned, priming one of his pokéballs in an exaggeratedly obvious manner.

The attempt at whispering would have been amusing had it been a pair of five year old boys instead of two grown men. As it were, Gary heard every word from twenty feet away, and the call that it would happen was superfluous to an extreme.

Seven minutes on a clock later, the heavy-set footsteps of the guard announced his return. Gary turned around to see Max come into view, the bespectacled teenager immediately taking him in. Recognition dawned a moment later, and Gary gestured for him to follow.

"Should have known it was you," Max remarked as he turned the corner to find Gary waiting for him. A brief exhale through the nose revealed some amusement. "Your grandfather wouldn't use the indefinite article, Gary Oak."

"No, Gramps wouldn't," Gary agreed as they resumed walking. "He also would have waited for you elsewhere. Not his style. Congratulations on the win, by the way."

The corner of his eyesight revealed a shrug. "It was a good attempt by Victor, but he really should have switched to nosepass before wingull was knocked out. Too much reliance on thinking Ice Beam was going to cut it. Could have made it easier for myself if I switched ninjask out, but it's been a while since he fought a Rock-type of that size."

"You mentioned an aron."

"Danny's aggron," Max replied, and Gary remembered the name from a call with Gramps after he had arrived three days prior. "Hasn't been an aron since January and ninjask always had trouble, but the strategy is the same."

"Ninjask lost."

"And swinub cleaned up. It's good practice. Just sending sceptile in to waltz over all of Victor's Pokémon felt like bad form and it wouldn't help me improve." They reached one of the entrance lobbies. "I have a feeling I know what you want to talk about."

Ah, competence and intelligence. Traits few had in conjunction. Ash was certainly borderline on the latter, though he made up for it. "Let's leave that for later. Gives me time to formulate research questions." They exited the building, walking into brisk November air, and Gary tapped the primed pokéball again, releasing his alakazam. "Let's get to know each other first. The Trainer way."

A good half hour later, in some badlands Max had told him were north of where they'd been – after basically demanding that they fight there, and not in Lumiose – Gary returned his unconscious umbreon, saluting Max with his other hand. That had been a battle he could get behind, and it hadn't even included the Mega manectric. Two wins on each side, his first loss coming from stupidly underestimating a baltoy and the second from the starter sceptile.

"Thanks for not using blastoise," the teen said as he came into hearing range, wiping his brow. "Don't think anything but manectric could stand up to him."

"He probably could," Gary said, throwing a thumb in sceptile's direction. "If he's good at avoiding Blizzards. Megas aren't unbeatable, just very powerful." So powerful that he had doubts alakazam could contain the attacks with shields. The Psychic-type was looking peaky already. That might have been from having to deal with umbreon's Dark-type moves, though. "So, when to talk about your experience," he resumed, spinning alakazam's pokéball on his finger. "You mind if I drop by after dinner at some point? Call you before, obviously. Just you and me – your friends would be dead weight because they don't have any Megas."

"Danny should join," Max interjected, and the pokéball nearly hit the ground before alakazam intercepted it. "Reward for Geosenge. Got it to work last week. Aggron, before you ask."

Gary had been about to ask, but instead he kept his mouth closed, fishing the pokéball out of its levitation. "You realise you're smashing scientific consensus here, right? Teenagers your age aren't supposed to have the bond or knowledge to enable Mega Evolution. You I could barely fit within the framework with your previous exploits of following Ash around, but your friend as well?" It beggared belief, and he foresaw many a mail and call to discuss hypotheses with Gramps. And probably less sleep than he really wanted, but he could live with it for a while. "Any more exploding forretress you want to drop, or can we return to Lumiose now?"

"Nah, we're good." Gary saw him check a watch. "Can you drop me off at the same stadium? Couple of sort-of-friends battle in like half an hour."

~~§~~§~~

Serena sat in the smaller of the two Lumiose stadiums, a free seat to her right, as the movable field vanished with a grinding sound. She was going to watch the fourth of five battles she really wanted to see today. Not for the first time, she thanked whoever did the scheduling that she was able to do that. Literally none of her friends had matches at the same time– something that Max and Danny had said had happened to them in Hoenn. Multiple times at that.

Their group, consisting of Serena herself, Danny, Max, Jane, and Keith, had started the day in the main stadium, where both Jane and Keith had been knocked out before lunch. Jane's elimination was a bit of a disappointment, the girl herself admitted, but Keith had stood no chance against an older and ruthlessly efficient teen from Sinnoh. The froslass had been doable – Keith had thanked Danny profusely over lunch, when he hadn't been busy making sure Jane actually ate something – but the magmortar had been too much.

Then they went here, watching Max give what the announcer called a clinical performance at around two. He'd vanished afterwards, reappearing with Professor Oak's grandson in tow. They'd been hush hush about where they'd gone or what they'd talked about, but Serena wasn't that stupid. She knew that the orange-haired man had held the record for youngest to achieve Mega Evolution until Max had done that. Both of them were sitting somewhere higher up, Serena thought.

Danny was here, relaxed, and eating some early dinner as he tried to balance a salad in a plastic container without spilling it over any of the others. He was up around dinnertime, and while you could eat all you wanted in the audience, you couldn't while you were fighting a battle.

Or maybe you could, except it'd be seen as rude. Serena honestly didn't know if anyone had ever done that.

A quick look over to the left and she saw Jane still leaning into Keith. It looked more like their regular lovey-dovey stuff instead of consolation, at least, but she still averted her eyes. Even in a stadium this size, she didn't really feel like she should watch them. Instead, she turned right, spotting the empty seat.

What was taking Shauna so long? The announcer was already introducing the two Trainers up next. Not that Serena needed to listen this time. She already knew both of them.

Trevor and Tierno walked out of the catacombs onto the field. Both were mostly their normal selves – Trevor giving a shy little wave, only looking around once, while Tierno looked like he could burst out into dance at any moment, an entirely too big grin on his face.

Serena wasn't sure if it was real or if he was just doing it to cover his nerves. She didn't know the boys as well as she did Shauna, but the other Vaniville Performer had told her that they'd been a bit downcast at being drawn against each other so early on. Neither of them really wanted to fight the other in the second round, and it had taken adult intervention to sort them out.

Not for the first time, Serena compared the two boys with Danny and Max. She didn't remember them ever talking about it – not recently, anyway – but she was fairly certain the two would hold nothing back against each other. Maybe they would've, before she'd met them, but after all they'd been through? No way.

Shauna sat back down beside her, handing her two bottles of something fizzy. She passed one on to Danny. "Here you go. Fuel for the battle."

Danny mumbled something that sounded like thanks, but with his mouth full, Serena had no idea if it actually was. "Who do you think will win, Shauna? You've been with them for a year now."

The thirteen year old put a hand on her chin as a rumbling announced the field coming back up. Rock, but with an oblong pond on one side. Nothing you could keep gyarados in, but smaller Water-types would be fine. "Trevor's generally been better with the Gym Leaders, but… Tierno's really been on a roll the past weeks. Going to be close, though!" She paused as the referee gave a quick recap of the rules – Serena couldn't understand why that was being repeated every single time. "Be honest, Serena. Both of them are going to lose to Max no matter what."

Serena had to give Shauna that point. She'd battled Tierno and Max, and there was just a world of difference in how much they knew and how they were able to take hold of the battle and use the circumstances to their advantage. "I'm not sure there's anyone his age who's better." Serena certainly couldn't remember the last time he'd lost to anyone up to six months older, training battles with Danny excepted. "We," and she pointed at the eating boy to her left to tell Shauna who exactly she was talking about, "have joked about getting autographs from him before he wins a tournament."

"Not this one. That teenager who beat one of your other friends was really strong too." Serena looked past Danny, but Keith hadn't noticed, or hadn't responded. "But I did bet with my Mum that one of your friends would make it to the quarter-finals. If they do, I get to eat all the ice-cream I want for a week."

"And if they don't?" Serena asked, poking Danny in the side as covertly as she could. "What's your mother getting out of it?"

Shauna made a face. "Me having to cook the main dish for Yule for a dozen people." Commotion around them made the two girls look around, then down. "Mawile and lombre. That's a weird start."

"Weird how?" Danny asked as he leant forward, putting the empty packaging under his chair for now and grabbing something from the backpack in front of him.

"It's the same two Pokémon they started with the last time I saw them battle each other, like a week ago. Lombre won that, but it was close."

Serena shook her head as she focused on the battle below. Mawile had opened with a gust of Fairy Wind that lombre cartwheeled out of the way of before retaliating with a Bubblebeam. "Mawile always gets me. You'd think the big jaw was its mouth, but no."

Danny and Shauna both laughed heartily. "Yeah, I had that," Danny said as mawile used Flamethrower – somehow. "Confused seven year old me a lot when I first saw one at my uncle's lab. They're kind of weird Pokémon."

Lombre had dodged the Flamethrower, and decided to move closer to mawile, running across the arena on all fours as it charged a blue orb on its dish. "Tierno really likes dances, right?"

"That's so bad," Shauna replied, faking shock. "Lombre's pretty good in the rain, and it weakens fire." Rain started inside the shielded bubble. "And this time, I don't have to get wet because Lombre started using it."

Serena poked Danny in the shoulder. "You hear that, mister 'Hail is fine to walk in'? I'm not alone!"

"Say it one time," Danny said far more put-on than Serena thought he actually was. "Why is lombre not heading for the water? Shauna?"

Mawile managed to tag the speedy lombre with a Fairy Wind, but the Grass-type didn't break its lope, instead trying for a flank and an attack that made the dish on its head glow blue. "Mawile knows Charge Beam from Trevor's raichu," Shauna said as the Steel-type jumped over the lombre. Its big jaw snapped with a Thunder Fang, hitting, but lombre shook itself loose. "Trevor needs to be careful. Lombre knows Absorb."

Serena gave her friend a weird look. Absorb was okay, but mawile had the huge jaw that would do more than lombre could. Another Thunder Fang nearly hit, forcing lombre to do an awkward jump that ended with it having to roll to move away. "I think lombre's actually too close. One good Thunder Fang or Bite and lombre's going to hurt."

Tierno seemed to agree with Serena as he ordered lombre away. Trevor replied with an order for Charge Beam – which missed – and then he ordered mawile to stay still, telling her to use Fairy Wind.

Lombre unleashed a Hydro Pump that nearly washed mawile away in response. "Oops," Shauna muttered.

Mawile started moving around a bit more after that, landing a few hits on the lombre in the process, but in the end, the rain and repeated Hydro Pumps – Tierno choosing to go for power over conserving energy – ended up winning the day for the Jolly Pokémon. Serena wasn't sure it had been worth it. Lombre looked tired from the heavy attacking, and mawile was just too slow to consistently dodge all attacks, no matter if it was Hydro Pump or Bubblebeam.

Lombre looking tired was borne out a minute later as Trevor's florges equalised the score with a single Moonblast.

Tierno sent out his raichu, the large mouse immediately sending a Rain Dance pulse up into the air to keep the rain going. "That's going to make things harder for Trevor," Danny muttered. "Hope florges is up to the task."

"Why?" Serena wondered, only for a blinding flash to appear in the clouds above the arena. "Oh. That."

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

I was in Lumiose today. Watched most of the Ro64 matches in the lower half of the schedule. Only saw a couple of really good Trainers, and nearly all of 'em are already marked Ace or Expert. One exception is that Maple teen – the one who's marked I/E. He's definitely solid E – check the match if you don't believe me. He kept a ninjask in against a nosepass and nearly won. Then he used a swinub to clean it and the next arbok up decisively. I looked his used Pokémon up, and so far, he's only used four Pokémon total in two matches. Three of those are new since last year, too.

– Pokébet Lumiose Conference forum thread

Author's Note: And we're off. Several returning faces this chapter, and more than you think.

Hugo's team is loosely based on pre-evolutions of Wally's final Battle Maison team. Tierno's lombre is sort of canon (ludicolo in the anime), while Trevor's mawile is a replacement for his aerodactyl. (Fossils are generally rarer in this story than they are in the anime and ferocious and aggressive aerodactyl never seemed to fit with Trevor stylistically.)