As soon as the trio rushed out of the stadium to confront the Gigantamaxed Drednaw Ash did exactly what Harmony didn't want him to do, which was call out to it.
"Hey there you gotta calm down!" Ash calls out.
"If you keep wrecking the place there won't be a stadium for long!" Goh calls out as well.
"Ash...Goh...that's not...that's not how this works!" Harmony says with a gasp. "We needed to do a surprise attack not do this!" she says as Chu lets out a battle cry, "I know Chu...we could attempt to G-max since there's energy but I don't want to destroy any more than has already been destroyed."
Of course, while they spoke it irritated the Drednaw as it extended it's head nearly biting them as Harmony shoved them all out of the way with a groan. "Okay...new plan...we take this as a raid battle and attack it, Chu you're on the duty to try to hit its face okay?" she says, "Ash Goh..please try not to upset it more but still attack it...we can take it down…"
"Right! Time for a Pokemon Battle!" Ash says as he gets up, Pikachu and Chu getting in battle-ready positions.
Goh however was not convinced with this plan, "Are you sure this will work!? How can you battle a Gigantamaxed Pokemon!?" Goh says as Harmony groans.
"Goh I would explain it to you but we really don't have the time to do so! Chu start out with a good electro ball wind up! Spiky you stay in my bag understand?" she calls out to her partner and the baby of their family who coward in her bag. Chu charged up a rather large ball of electricity before tossing it up and using Iron Tail to bat it straight towards the Drednaw's face.
It hit, but as usual, it didn't do that much damage making Harmony groan, "Of course you're a high leveled G-max pokemon for Arceus' sake this is gonna be harder than I thought,"
Ash followed by trying to use a Thunderbolt, along with Goh having Scorbunny use double-kick to attack it, them to having little to no effect on the G-max Drednaw.
As most of the move did little to nothing, the Drednaw took control and it lowers it's head only to go and extend its neck again, Ash tries to stop it with Pikachu's Electroweb, but it ends up only momentarily slowing Drednaw down.
"Move it!" Harmony says shoving Goh and Ash once more in front of her biting her lip as she skidded against the broken ground.
Drednaw chases them, but it soon extends its neck to its maximum length, preventing it from chasing them any further.
The trio and their Pokémon have stumbled upon a bunch of glowing red cracks in the ground, with red lights flowing out of them and into Pikachu. "What's going on?" Ash asks confused.
Having spotted this Harmony lets out a small curse, "Oh bloody hell, nope we need to move," Harmony says tugging at Ash.
"Hey wait what about Pikachu?" Ash says confused why his girlfriend was dragging him away from his partner.
"Pikachu's gonna go big…and in this amount of space you're nearly going to get squished," she says with a gasp as Chu watches a bit in horror. Trying to control a Dynamax without a band was not recommended or even common.
"Pikachu just Dynamaxed?" Goh cries out in confusion.
"Gigantamaxed Goh! That's not Dynamaxing! I'm more concerned because Ash doesn't have a wristband, but then again mine is glowing so it could have reacted badly to it...oh shit this might go terribly," Harmony says clearly panicking.
Ash finally shook out of his gasping look and ordered Pikachu to use Quick Attack.
"Ash it's not Quick Attack! It'd be Max Strike!" Harmony says with a gasp her eyes widening as she watched, much to her horror this close to Pikachu using a move against the Drednaw his usually great speed is reduced to slow lumbering, giving Drednaw plenty of time to use G-Max Stonesurge. The G-Max Move causes Pikachu to stumble back and hit the stadium, shaking it and causing panic inside.
"Guys there's still a ton of fans in the stadium…" Goh points out as they heard the screams.
"Yeah I know, they can't clear it fast enough probably. They don't want people trampled, we'll have to try and get it to go back down to normal ourselves!" Harmony calls out to them.
Ash next calls for an Iron Tail, and as Pikachu prepares to attack, which Harmony again attempts to correct him but spots Leon up on the balcony area and sighs in relief. Just as As Pikachu executes Max Steelspike, successfully hitting Drednaw it winds back up in order to use Max Rockfall making Harmony panic a bit.
"If that hit Pikachu first it's game over, it's way too effective!" she calls out just as Leon calls from the balcony.
"Ask it to use G-Max Voltcrash!" Leon calls out and Harmony groans smacking her head.
"I should have had you do that from the start, shite, I got carried away," she grumbles.
"Leon!?" Ash says in a gasp clearly not expecting him to be there.
"Your Pikachu can do it! G-Max Voltcrash!" he yells out.
"Okay! I'll try it!" Ash calls out back to him before turning his attention back to Pikachu, "Pikachu! G-Max Voltcrash!" Ash calls out to his partner just as the Rock starts falling down and the move not only ends up stopping Max Rockfall on its tracks but also sends Drednaw flying back. Upon landing, it quickly reverts to its normal form and size causing Harmony to sigh in relief collapsing on the ground with a groan.
"Never ever again, that was far from safe and never should have been able to happen," she grumbles with a groan.
"Does that mean it worked?" Ash asks as he glances at Harmony on the ground moving to grab her and get her up, "No laying on the ground, it's bad for you," he scolds with a smile as she shakes her head.
"It sure did, G-Max Voltcrash huh?" Goh says smugly
As Pikachu also reverts to normal, Ash congratulates him on the job well done with Chu and Spiky jumping away from Harmony to go nuzzle and cry out to Pikachu. Spiky was incredibly awed at him and was animatedly chatting a mile a minute as Pikachu and Chu tried calming his excitement down before he shocked himself.
"Harmony!" Leon calls out having raced down to greet them, his arms moving to quickly check her over as she rolls her eyes.
"I'm fine, stop it, you're being that overprotective brother movement, and it's not cool," she mumbles shoving him away a bit as she snakes herself around Ash. "What a way to meet my boyfriend and friend huh?" she jokes.
"When you said he gets into trouble a lot I didn't think it'd be this much…" he says making her glare at him.
"I told you that it's the trouble that follows us, but you never believe me, now you do and I ugh you're annoying," she grumbles.
"Er..well uh, aside from that Thanks for helping me back there," Ash says with a smile on his lips, "I really appreciate it."
"Well I should be the one thanking you mate, so you must be Ash...and Goh?" Leon says glancing at them.
"Yes, I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and Harmony's boyfriend," he says grinning at the woman beside him who kissed his cheek.
"And incredibly sappy," she murmurs, "But he's lucky I love him,"
"I'm Goh from Vermillion City" Goh introduces.
"And as I'm sure you know I'm Leon," Leon introduces himself.
Ash cracks a smile, "Oh I know you, you get lost all the time and give Harmony a heart attack every so often when you do get lost," he points out with a smirk as Leon groans.
"You told him that? I thought we were friends?" he jokes.
"We are, but I have to embarrass you brother dear," she jokes.
"You know what...I'd like to ask a favor!" Ash says a look on his face that made Harmony shake her head.
"No...Ash get that thought out of your head, nope I don't think…."
"Would you please have a battle with me?" Ash asks ignoring Harmony and Goh who both groaned at his asking.
Leon seems a bit shocked by the offer making a face as Harmony shook her head, "Of all the insane things you're pulling a Paul and asking Leon to battle like he did with Cynthia…and Diantha" she grumbles with a groan.
"You know you can't Gigantamax your Pokemon here, what do you think you're doing?" An annoying voice calls out making Harmony turn and glare.
"I believe it was okay given the circumstances," she says viciously. "And if I recall I have given them access to things, therefore they can do what they want. Especially since the Champion himself encouraged him to use it to save the Stadium, otherwise we'd still be in a mess with even more damage," she says with a glare making the man back down with wide eyes.
Leon was trying to hold back a snicker, Harmony may be short, but she knew how to put people in their place. He cleared his throat and nodded, "Yes..what Harmony said, it's fine, without them the Stadium would have been destroyed. At least treat them with respect," he says.
"Oh please forgive me for being so very rude," the man says bowing but Harmony still glared at him as Ash squeezed her arm.
As Harmony got changed for bed she noticed Ash was lost in thought and as she was braiding her hair she sat beside him, "Okay I know you've got a lot on your mind, and today was quite a bit of a shock, but Leon is rather busy. It's really hard to actually get to battle him and I get to battle him when I'm here!" she says softly moving to take his hands in hers.
"You think he'll actually battle me though? He didn't take me up on the offer when we left." Ash points out.
"I think you made a very big impression on Leon, that's for sure, and I think maybe if you give him some time he'll do something about it." she points out. "But for now, let's just spend some fun here in Galar before we have to leave later tomorrow," she whispers. "And if it makes you feel better I'll try to find a Raid den that we can battle in? One that is empty and we can do some more Dynamaxing. I'm sure I can find a spare band somewhere around here."
"That sounds like fun, thanks Harmony, you always know what it is to cheer me up," Ash says his arms wrapping around her and his chin resting on her shoulder.
"I can think of a few other things that cheer you up, but I kinda want to sleep...unless you can convince me otherwise?" she points out his cheeks flushing a bit. What happened after that was between the two of them, that's for sure.
The following morning Harmony was seated with Goh and Ash during a late breakfast, tapping away at her phone. -Where are you? I think I want to take up Ash on his request- came from her phone making her smirk and glance at Ash who was clearly daydreaming.
-In front of the Pokemon Center, we're having a late breakfast, please don't get lost-
-Great! And I don't try to get lost, I just don't know where I am half the time-
-Haha yeah right, see you in five minutes!-
-Lol yeah right, I'm timing you World Champion!-
"The scones in Galar are the best you can get anywhere!" Goh declares making Harmony snicker.
"Well that's what we are known for, our tea is better too, non of that water down stuff you call tea back in Kanto," she teases.
"Ash? What's wrong?" Goh says turning to glance at him only to be a bit shocked that Ash clearly wasn't paying attention. "I've never actually seen you turn down the change to eat before...is he sick Harmony?" Goh says slightly panicky.
As Harmony was going to open her mouth to respond a Skwovet rushed onto the table gobbling up a scone set in front of Ash.
"Ahh! There's a Pokemon I've never seen!" Goh gushes, grabbing his phone and scanning it.
'Skwovet, the Cheeky Pokémon. A Normal-type. Skwovet keeps Berries in its cheeks, but if its stomach is already full, it can temporarily store food in the tufts of fur on its tail.'
"Pokeball Go!" Goh cries out, tossing it as Harmony shakes her head.
"Every single new Pokemon, at least Skwovet's are easy to handle," Harmony points out to him.
'Skwovet has been registered to your Pokedex!' Goh's Rotophone calls out.
"Another Pokemon! This time it's from Galar!" Goh says excitedly shoving the phone in Ash's face only for him not to react.
"Oh my gosh, Ash Ketchum!" Harmony hisses kicking Ash in the leg causing him to jolt.
"Ash, what's bothering you!? If you want to talk about it we're here for you," Goh points to himself and Harmony.
"Huh!?" Ash says finally snapping out of it causing Harmony to groan and bang her head on the table. "Oh...I was just thinking about Leon's awesome battle yesterday that's all," he says his cheeks flushing.
"Really!? That's what you're thinking about! Ugh, Ash, I told you it's going to take a lot more to get even close to Leon with battling skills," Harmony tells him with a shake of her head.
"Yeah, I'm not sure I'm surprised anymore…" Goh says with a sigh.
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Ash points out confused.
"If there were 25 hours in a day you'd have one more hour to think of Pokemon Battles," Goh says in a monotone voice.
"You know I don't think so…he thinks about a lot of other stuff…" Harmony mumbles as her cheeks flush slightly.
"C'mon if I don't get ten hours of sleep I start acting goofy…" Ash points out.
Harmony snorts, "Wait so you never get enough sleep, you're always goofy," she jokes and he glares at her poking her side making her squeal a bit. "I take it back! I take it back!"
"This is about how you want to battle Leon right?" Goh says. "Trying to get a battle with Leon is not as easy as you think…" he points out.
"But Harmony knows him! Can't that help?" Ash whines making her gasp.
"You're not using me to get to Leon! Do it yourself, join the World Championships and then you just have to rank up," Harmony says with a huff as Ash's eyes widen.
"I wasn't going to use you to get to Leon! I'm not that low...don't be mad my love!" Ash cries out his arms wrapping quickly around Harmony and a pout forming on his lips.
"Fine...I forgive you, but you have to work your arse off to get up there you understand?" she points out.
"So how does it work?" Ash asks Goh, his arms still wrapped tightly around his girlfriend.
"Yeah, you register online then you get your rankings through battles and all that. Then it's the top eight that make up the Master Class. At the end of the Class-match season, there's a tournament, where trainers in the Master Class battle each other…" Goh explains.
"And the one who succeeds in winning goes to battle against Leon to try and claim his title," Harmony finishes with a small smile. "It's really rough, I've done it once before, but even then it's still rough. I wouldn't say it's horrible, but it's rough to keep up. It's why I settled with just doing it once," she explains.
"So does that mean if I submit my entry then I can battle against Leon!?" Ash says rather excitedly.
"Well I mean if you can rank high enough, yes, yes it does," Harmony says with a nod of her head groaning when Ash let out a what he would claim manly squeal as he squeezed her.
"Harmony's right, it's based on how many wins or losses you have, that gives you a number, where the ranks are as followed: Normal Class is 1,000 and above; Great Class is 999-100; Ultra Class is 99-9; and Master Class is the top eight, with number one being the World Champion," Goh explains with Harmony nodding along.
"And in order to get to Leon you have to make your way up those ranks," Harmony says softly rubbing Ash's arm as he thinks.
"Hmmm...Well, all I gotta do...is win battles right!?" he says rather excitedly.
"Well and not lose any battles...which could be hard to do, everyone usually loses every once in a while…" Harmony points out softly.
"Eh...I'm sure I'll just keep winning!" Ash says rather determinedly. "Got it!" Ash says standing up excitedly and shoving two scones in his mouth quickly.
"Ash no! Last time you did that…you needed something to drink…" she says with a groan only for Leon to sneak up from behind her.
"Drink this," Leon says with a small smirk on his lips as Harmony glared back at him.
"Ahhh I'm fine...thank you...LEON!?" Ash says with a gasp, "Harmony why didn't you tell me he was here!?" he says, trying to keep his cool.
"What are you doing here!?" Goh says just as surprised.
Harmony rolled her eyes, "he just got here, he likes to think he was sneaky but he asked me if we were still here because he had something to ask you, so why don't you go on and say it?" she says shoving her best mate forward as he nearly tripped but caught himself.
"Hey, shoving isn't nice," Leon points out childishly.
"Neither is being late and you said you'd be here five minutes ago," Harmony bites back just as childishly before the two crack a smile at each other.
"You did say you wanted to battle me right?" Leon points out making Ash's eyes light up and Harmony and Goh groan.
"Oh come on! We just explained to him that it's not that easy!?" Goh cries out pouting off to the side a bit at how his whole presentation about the World Championship League was backfiring slightly.
"Calm down Goh, Ash impressed him last night," Harmony points out.
"In more ways than one, also Harmony always praises you for being really good...have to make sure you're good enough for my little sister," Leon points out making Harmony glare at him.
"Stop it! No...no stop Leon...I don't need a battle to defend me, I 'know' Ash is right for me!" Harmony growls out with a huff. "Also I'm not your sister, you're my best mate!"
"Eh, you're still practically my little sister," he says with a shrug, "So what will it be Ash? Want to have a battle?"
"I don't care what it's about but battling you would be...so AWESOME!" Ash cries out excitedly making Harmony laugh a bit.
"That's Ash for you," Harmony says turning to face Goh who looked on in disbelief. "He'll never say no to a battle,"
Once at the stadium the two lined up with an official ref, even if the battle was one just for fun, no stakes involved. Harmony and Goh moved to sit in the stands, with Chu and Spiky cheering on for Pikachu and Scorbunny watching with slight awe.
"Hey what'd Leon give Ash?" Goh asks.
Harmony narrows her eyes before grinning, "Dynamax band, like mine!" she says tugging her sleeve down where her band was, "Though of course mine is more custom with yellows and blues to match my types I like...that one is a more basic one. I just don't know how Ash'll use it. Pikachu doesn't go back in his Pokeball like most Pokemon." she says rubbing Chu's head lovingly.
"So how does Chu do it then?"
"It's similar to a mega-bond I'd say, where our hearts connect and she's able to harness the power that way, I'm sure Ash will be similar in that sense. Chu and I usually don't go G-max though, Toxy my Toxtricity, Hatters my Hatterene, and Blaster my Blastoise are the ones that I tend to G-max.
Goh nods and soon the battle was underway.
Ash of course chose Pikachu, while Leon called out Charizard, just like Ash had hoped he would.
Even though Pikachu has a type advantage, Leon reminds Ash of his unbroken winning streak.
The ref starts the battle, and Ash makes the first move by ordering a Quick Attack, which gets countered by Charizard's Thunder Punch.
Ash follows up with an Iron Tail, but once again, his attack is blocked by a Thunder Punch.
As Charizard goes on the offensive, Ash calls for an Electroweb, but Charizard breaks through it with Thunder Punch before using Air Slash, scoring a direct hit. Despite this, Pikachu is still standing strong, and Ash has him use Thunderbolt. Charizard answers by using Flamethrower, which starts pushing the Thunderbolt back, leaving Pikachu with only a struggling barrier of electricity to protect him from the Fire-type move.
Fueled by Ash's determination, Pikachu starts applying more power into his attack.
Responding to this, Ash's Dynamax Band starts to glow and sends Dynamax energy into Pikachu, causing him to start growing again.
As the Gigantamax process takes effect, Thunderbolt is transformed into G-Max Volt Crash, which overpowers Charizard's Flamethrower and actually managed to hit it, knocking it to the ground.
Ash is happy to have successfully achieved Gigantamax again, but Leon responds by recalling his Charizard and Gigantamaxing it as well.
Ash tells Pikachu to use Max Strike, but Charizard easily dodges it before using Max Airstream. Pikachu struggles to stand up in the face of the powerful blast of wind but is eventually thrown back.
Ash calls for a Max Steelspike, but as Pikachu struggles to stand up again, Leon tells Charizard to use Max Lightning, which interrupts Pikachu's Max Move before he can execute it. Ash decides to go all out and orders a G-Max Volt Crash, and Leon responds with his own G-Max Move, G-Max Wildfire.
Both attacks connect, but Charizard manages to endure the Electric attack, while G-Max Wildfire's secondary effect is too much for Pikachu to handle, and he shrinks back down, defeated.
Harmony, Goh, Chu and Scorbunny raced back onto the field just catching the tail-end of the conversation Ash and Leon were having.
"I want you to break out!" Leon says, raising his fist excitedly.
"Break out?" Ash asks confused.
"Let it rip, do your best, cause you have the potential to battle him again," Harmony says as Chu jumps off her shoulder onto Ash's in order to give Pikachu some reassurance, while Spiky still sits on Harmony's head. "Which I'm sure you're totally capable of, in fact with how that battle was I think with enough training you have the potential to actually beat Leon here,"
"Ha! He'll have to get through more of my team to get there, I gotta get going, See ya Ash, Harmony," Leon says waving at them.
Harmony smirks, "Don't get lost! The exit is straight ahead!" she calls out.
"I won't! Don't forget to text and all that, can't have my sister ignoring me!" Leon retorts back.
"I wouldn't dream of it, you'll be hearing from me too much Lee!" Harmony calls out, her arms slipping around Ash in a grin. "Your battle was great!"
"Leon! Let me have a battle with you in the future okay!?" Ash calls out determined.
"The next time we'll be in a tournament Ash!" Leon says grinning tipping his hat.
"Okay!" Ash says excitedly, moving to kiss Harmony's cheek gently as she beamed at him her eyes shining brightly.
As the trio exited the stadium Ash let out a cry of excitement, "I've decided! See I'm going to enter this competition and battle Leon again! And I'm going to win it too!" Ash says jumping a bit, "That'll be my next step into becoming a Pokemon Master!"
"Perfect, that plan has Ash written all over it!" Goh says with a grin on his face.
"Oh it sure does, and I know you'll go far with this. I believe you've got what it takes to actually beat Leon, just you wait," Harmony beams as Chu chatters excitedly to Pikachu about it.
"Now can we go eat?" Ash says sheepishly his stomach growling.
"Gosh you and food, yeah I know a place, Goh you want to join us?" Harmony says turning around to Goh.
Goh shakes his head, "Nope, you two go do your date night, leave me out of it!" Goh says, making a disgusted face.
"Your loss, let's go, Ash! You'll love it! We've got the rest of the day before our night flight so might as well spend more time here, who knows when we'll get to come back!" she says tugging his arm as the couple rushes off to go spend time with one another.
"Those two are so weird...but guess that means we can try to find more Pokemon, right Scorbunny?" Goh says excited about what this next chapter of their journey would bring them.