"So, Serena is battling Ash." Shauna commented, she and her friends sitting in the stands with food. "I'm feeling pretty nervous about this."
"So, who do you think is the winner is going to be?" Tierno asked Trevor.
"Well, Ash has the better team. Greninja, Charizard, Lucario and Garchomp? Those are top tier Pokemon. But Serena has a fairly decent counter team while still being well rounded for anybody else. It could go either way."
"I pray that the spirits of the champions will help them to give their absolute best." Monique nodded while clasping her hands together.
("I wonder how Ash will do against his companion that he's been traveling with this entire journey?") Diantha thought to herself. ("They should likely know every strategy they can employ. And when is Olympia's prediction going to happen?")
"And now the second battle of the semi-final round and our trainers are making their entrances. Serena Burton and Ash Ketchum!" Everyone went into a cheer. "Two trainers from Vaniville Town and one that just moved from Kanto! Talk about skill for Ash to be here his first time having only moved less than a year ago. I wonder what his mother is thinking?" As the announcer has said that, we cut to Delia in her home, everything covered in 9-10 months worth of dust as she stood around doing nothing because that's what the game programmed her to do if nothing interacted with her. The dust covered woman was frozen in place, the only thing happening was tears strolling down her perpetually smiling, immortalized cheeks, indicating she's aware but can't do anything about it...
Anyway, onto the battle! The two trainers were walking to their positions while their friends cheered them on.
"Come on Serena, win this!" Monique shouted.
"Yeah Serena, win it for the girls!" Shauna cheered.
"Great, will it sound sexist if I rooted for Ash instead of Serena my own tormentor?" Trevor mumbled to himself before realizing something. "Then again, she hasn't really insulted me or gave me a rough time in a long while. Maybe this journey showed her how to actually treat me well?" As he pondered on this, Alain stood by the sidelines high above, acting all aloof and edgy as he watched like a high school bad boy cliche. I wonder if he had a red streak in his hair he'd be a human Shadow the Hedgehog?
"It's time." Serena said to herself quietly. "He may be my childhood friend and lover, but I've got to beat him. To show that I can be the best."
"To think that I'd face against Serena." Ash chucked. "I think this is our first serious battle. It's strange, yet very exciting. This will be very interesting."
"And now for the battle field, it's a forest!" The battle field around them did look like a forest, heavily populated with trees and bushes, only allowing a straight path between the two trainers to not be obstructed in any way.
"Ash vs Serena, competing head to head in our next semi-final battle!" The referee declared. "Each trainer will have the use of six Pokemon, and substitutions are allowed! When all six of either trainer's Pokemon are unable to continue, the battle will be over! When three Pokemon on one side are unable to continue, the battle field will change! Trainers, begin!"
"Talonflame, I choose you!" Ash sent out his Scorching Pokemon first.
"Espeon, I choose you!" Her psychic Sun Pokemon was summoned first.
"Battle Begin!"
"Espeon, surpass evolution! Mega Evolve!" Serena touched the key stone on her wrist in the fully equipped bracelet, which allowed her Pokemon to transform.
"Talonflame, use Brave Bird!" Enveloping himself in blue fire, the fire/flying type flew with impressive speed, rammed into the psychic type which caused her to cry out in agony, and tumble onto her side, but was still able to stand up with some effort.
"Are you doing okay Espeon?!" Once the Sun Pokemon nodded, Serena did too. "Okay then, use Light Screen!" Espeon proceeded to cover her side of the field with a yellow force field.
"Don't let up, Brave Bird again!"
"Counter with Shadow Ball!" As the Scorching Pokemon made his dive bomb again, Espeon created a black orb which Talonflame smashed into, which created a powerful explosion. When it cleared, the two were out cold.
"Both Pokemon are unable to battle! It's a draw!" Neither of the trainers lost their smiles to this, as they were having too much fun. Returning their Pokemon and thanking them, they sent out their next choices.
"Charizard/Blastoise, I choose you!" To their friend's surprise, the two sent out their respective shiny Kanto starters.
"Surpass Evolution! Mega Evolve!" While Serena's Blastoise had the cannons on his body morph around so that they were on his now shell covered arms and a giant tank like cannon on his back, while Charizard's wings grew longer, grew wings on his arms and became somewhat spikier. Due to his ability, the fire type allowed the sun to shine especially bright.
"Alright Charizard, use Air Slash!"
"Counter with Skull Bash!" While the Flame Pokemon flapped his wings to unleash a barrage of energy blades, the water starter leapt with surprising reach, and managed to smash into the flying fire type, as he growled in pain as he was pushed back above the trees. Blastoise crashed into the ground with enough force to crack the forest floor.
"Charizard, use Fire Blast!
"Counter with Water Pulse!" Firing up a 火 shaped kanji, Blastoise created an especially large large orb of water which was launched at a powerful speed, which the Flame Pokemon was unable to fire in time, and the two attacks met in the middle, both exploding which created a lot of steam.
"Come on, do your best!" Monique encourage them.
"Yeah, you have to keep going! Win!" Shauna screamed.
"We believe in you!" Trevor added.
"Solar Beam!"
"Aura Sphere!" The Shellfish Pokemon created another blue orb, this time made of fighting energy, and fired it at the same time as Charizard. However, unlike the last time, the constant stream of green nature filled energy stream was pushing back harder than the Aura Sphere, pushing it back until it exploded in the water starter's face, not having the dexterity to dodge. Ash smiled until he heard her say, "Water Pulse again!" Shooting from the smoke, Charizard was too shocked to think of evading, and was hit by the Mega Launcher enhanced attack, and roared as he fell to the ground, reverting back to normal.
"Charizard, no!" Ash cried out.
"Charizard is unable to battle! The winner is Blastoise!"
"Thanks Charizard, return."
"See, I told you I was making a team tailored to counter yours." Serena boasted with a triumphant grin. "Even back when we first got Charmander and Squirtle, I knew I had to make my Blastoise specially defensive if he was going to survive your Y Mega Form."
"So her plans against Ash are going good so far." Trevor nodded. "While his Talonflame was just to test the waters, she managed to counter one of his stronger Pokemon perfectly, despite having a weather advantage and Solar Beam."
"I wonder how much they can plan ahead of each other. Like a game of chess." Shauna pondered.
"No matter who wins though, I'm going to cheer and be there for both of them." Monique proclaimed. "They're both equally excellent to me."
"Lucario, I choose you!" Sending out his Aura Pokemon out next, Ash took the first move. "Close Combat!"
"Iron Defense!" Serena's Blastoise withdrew his cannons and gained a metallic shine, raising his defense. However, as soon as the Mega Evolved jackel started pummeling into the Kanto water starter, the damage was starting to become too much, and with a palm forced into its armored gut, the Shellfish Pokemon could withstand no more as he transformed back to normal and fell to the ground with a groan.
"Blastoise is unable to battle! The winner is Lucario!"
"Blastoise, return. You did great hanging in there. That Light Screen really helped. Now it's time to go on the defensive. Aggron, I choose you!" Sending out her Iron Armor Pokemon, she touched another key stone. "Surpass Evolution! Mega Evolve!" Once that was done, Ash took the first move.
"Close Combat!"
"Counter with Stone Edge!" While Aggron formed white orbs that turned into rocks, and fired them, Lucario took to the trees to dodge them, leaping from branch to branch faster than the stones can reach him. Eventually, he leapt straight towards the bulky steel type and landed the first blow against the side of its head. Proceeding with further punches and kicks, it was unsure how Aggron was reacting given its face remained mostly stoic. By the time he finished his assault, Lucario leapt back, and saw the only thing he did was leave dents in the thick armor like underside of the Iron Armor Pokemon. Just then the Light Screen wore off.
"Great! Lucario, use Aura Sphere!"
"Charge with Iron Head and use your tail for Brick Break!" While he was slow, Aggron was building up momentum while both his head and tail glowed. Lucario meanwhile was charging up an orb of fighting energy, and shot it out with such speed and force it exploded against the steel types head. However, the Pokemon charged through the smoke, and whipped around faster than Ash could tell it to dodge, and was smacked hard in the chest. He howled as he smashed into a tree, and transformed back as he slumped down.
"Lucario is unable to battle! The winner is Aggron!"
"Wow, they're both doing equally well!" Shauna cheered.
"Serena's maintaining a good lead." Monique remarked.
"This battle certainly is intriguing." Trevor noted. "That's two Pokemon she beat him with that should've had a disadvantage."
"Come on guys! Keep up the powerful energy!" The dark toned girl shouted at her friends with excitement.
"Lucario, return." Once he was, Ash said, "You did great. Thanks for all the help. Serena, you keep surprising me. Your bulky Pokemon are certainly holding out against my stronger Pokemon."
"Thanks to my tactics. Strong as you are, I'm just as determined and resilient!" The blonde tomboy laughed. She then returned her Pokemon for the field change.
"Now that Serena has won three rounds, it's time to change the field." The forest lowered into the ground, and were replaced by badlands. Once Serena sent Mega Aggron out again, Ash yelled,
"Garchomp, I choose you!" Serena smirked, having predicted that. "Surpass Evolution! Mega Evolve!" As Garchomp glowed brightly, his arms started to melt into scythes, and his chest broadened out, along with gaining more spikes.
"Aggron, use Dragon Claw!" As Aggron charged with green aura covering his arms shaped into claws, Ash countered,
"Charge ahead and use Dig!" With supreme speed, the Mach Pokemon zoomed across the badlands and jumped, momentarily resembling like a jet of death before slashing into the ground just as Aggron was going to run across it, resulting in the 800+ lbs. Pokemon to partially fall into it was a surprised roar. While Serena isn't expecting her current Pokemon to win, her eyes widening did she wasn't expecting that. Soon, the helpless steel type was rammed into from the same hole, sending the Iron Armor Pokemon flying while yelling as he transformed back to normal, and crashed into one of the rocks, knocked out.
"Aggron is unable to battle! The winner is Garchomp!"
"Aggron, return. You did truly well. Thank you. Alright Ash, here's my next counter! Weavile, I choose you!" What happened next was probably the quickest draw anyone has ever seen. When Weavile Mega Evolved, the ice/dark type used Ice Punch, the dragon/ground type used Brick Break, and both struck at the same time. With both having a 4X weakness exploited, they were both down for the count. Which led to this.
"Altaria, I choose you!"
"Florges, I choose you!"
"Surpass Evolution! Mega Evolve!" As Altaria became fluffier, the Garden Pokemon's white flowers around her head grew to be of greater volume, and the tails at the end of her body split to four.
"So what are you going to do now, huh?" Ash goaded. "While Mega Altaria may be part fairy, it's dragon type is still predominant. Meaning Moonblast will still hit it."
"Not if you can't hit us very well! Altaria, fly up and use Hyper Beam!" Ash gasped as the Humming Pokemon Flapped up high and prepared a pink colored attack.
"Dodge it!" Moving swiftly, Florges was able to get out of the way before the place she stood exploded powerfully. Ash saw that Altaria was hovering high above the air.
"Use Moonblast!" Charging up her attack, she launched it high into the air, but Altaria was easily able to dodge.
"Now see, at this distance, even if Florges's Moonblast can travel farther then Altaria can move, there's enough distance for her to react." Ash frowned in thought.
("She even had a plan against Florges with Altaria? She really thought of everything, has she?")
"Now dive in and use Toxic!" Realizing what she was going for, the male trainer pleaded,
"Use Moonblast!" Firing another ball, the dragon/fairy type swerved around the ball and spewed purple liquid all over the Garden Pokemon, whom was quivering from the poisonous effects. "No!" "Ash knew the effects of Toxic. Even with Wish and Calm Mind, he knew his partner wouldn't be able to handle both Altaria and the maximum effects of Toxic if allowed to reach that point. He'd have to utilize his defensive Pokemon more offensively than normal.
Altaria, use Hyper Beam again!" As the Humming Pokemon swooped so that it could attack the pure fairy type without missing.
"Jump then use Energy Ball to get higher!" As soon as Altaria fired her attack, Florges jumped as high as she could while forming an attack, firing it down at the ground so that the force would push her forward right at the shocked dragon/fairy type, and thus had got tackled and grappled, unwillingly giving the Garden Pokemon a ride.
"Try to shake her off!" Serena pleaded. While the flying Pokemon tried to get rid of her passenger, Ash commanded,
"Moonblast!" Creating a pink orb, she slammed it into the back of the dragon/fairy type, creating an explosion that forced the Garden Pokemon to fall off, and crash into the ground, groaning from both the impact and poison.
"Quick, use Hyper Beam! Seemingly for revenge, the Humming Pokemon fired the pink blast so that it exploded against Florges, resulting a scream from the explosion. In two moves in which Florges was too injured to defend herself, and was consequently defeated.
"Florges is unable to battle! The winner is Altaria!"
"Now for his ace Pokemon, and this will be the hardest." Serena whispered to herself.
"Greninja, I choose you!" Once the shiny water type appeared, the blonde tomboy realized that she ran out of contingencies. The closest she had was Aggron and Weavile to both tank and then try to rival her speed. Closing her eyes, she let the very likely outcome of her defeat seep in, and took a deep breath to try and accept it. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw her Altaria already down, frozen by Ice Beam while the Ninja Pokemon transform into her Ash-Greninja form.
"Altaria is unable to battle! The winner is Greninja!"
"Altaria, return. Thank you. You did so good." Taking another breath, the tomboy was resolved that if she was going to lose, might as well make it look good. "Foxie, I choose you!" Serena's eyes connected with her boyfriend's, and seeming to have understood her, he nodded to make this a spectacle for everyone.
"Water Shuriken!" Forming and throwing three stars made of compressed water, to which Serena countered,
"Return them with Psychic!" Waving her wand like stick, she took control of the shuriken and spun them around herself before flinging them back to Greninja, which have exploded against her feet as she jumped back, creating a small explosion letting dirt and water droplets obscure the starter. "Grass Knot!" The water starter was then entwined in grass which has grown below her feet, and was lifted into the air.
"Dig!" Being brought down into the obscuring dirt and water droplets, they had to wait and see that in place of where they thought they'd see Greninja, it was a hole and used grass. Within seconds, the Ninja Pokemon burst from the ground, giving an uppercut to Foxie's chin in a display so epic, the action was repeated not once, not twice, but three total times like you see on an action TV show before she was allowed to fall to the ground. However, that was not the finishing blow as the Fox Pokemon was still able to get up, raising her wand as a final stand.
"Water Shuriken!"
"Flamethrower!" Flipping back with her hands and feet, Greninja formed a water star on her back which she grabbed, and leapt high into the air to deliver the final strike. As Foxie let loose a stream of fire which encompassed the shiny water starter. She hissed from the pain while closing her eyes, only to open them again with determination and delivered the last slash as she landed behind the shiny Fox Pokemon, spinning the shuriken around in her hand above her head before placing it on her back, just before Foxie fell onto the ground with a moan, defeated.
"Foxie is unable to battle! Greninja wins, and the match goes to Ash Ketchum!" Foxie opened her eyes with pained effort as she saw Greninja, reverting back to normal, offering a hand. Smiling in graceful defeat, the Fox Pokemon accepted the gesture and was helped up. The two Pokemon nodded, acknowledging each other for their spirit.
"And that's that! It's decided: Ash will be moving on to the finals with Alain!
"Ash did it!" Shauna cheered. "Way to go, yay!"
"Way to go indeed Ash." Trevor chuckled.
"Congratulations!" Monique gave her own positive encouragement.
"Whoa, Ash is awesome! What a win!" Tierno remarked, causing Shauna to giggle.
"That's our Ash, but only Serena could push him so hard. They both were equally great."
"Let's give another big round of applause for this stupendous battle!" The announcer suggested, and the trainers were given a loud cheering for as Ash walked up to Serena.
"So, our first battle together and you beat me." The blonde tomboy sighed.
"But hey, you were doing pretty great." Ash pointed out. "You were the most difficult challenge I've faced yet. You really pushed us to our limits, and I couldn't be more grateful. Except that I'm more grateful I could love someone like you."
"Oh, Ash!" Serena hugged her boyfriend, and the crowd went wild. The trainers then turned to their Pokemon.
"Thank you." Both of them said.
"I'm so proud of you Foxie."
"You were awesome, Greninja." The two Pokemon blushed from such compliments and chuckled.
("How incredible.") Diantha thought to herself. ("If Ash and his friends can display that kind of tenacity and power for the incoming crisis, all hope may not be lost.")
"There's my amazing boyfriend!" Shauna ran into Ash's arms in the waiting rooms as they hugged and kissed.
"Hey, don't leave me out." Serena giggled as she got his lips as well.
"You made it to the finals Ash!" Trevor said. "Congratulations! How do you feel?"
"That I could win this whole thing. Alain's the only one left."
"To think though..." Monique's face filled with worry. "We've only ever seen him use Charizard. We don't know what the other five is."
"He may have the element of surprise, but my team is the best of this whole tournament." Ash reassured her. "So don't worry. I'm going to win it for us, and those who couldn't compete like Shauna tried to do." As they talked, Alain walked through the hallways, thinking about the match he'd have tomorrow.
"Enjoy your victory while you can. I'm going to prove that I'm the strongest. Not even your special super form with your Greninja will help you now."
A/N: Well that was cool. So, to let you know, here is the original or improved stats of each Mega Evolution/Battle Bond form.
1. Espeon: atk/def: 30/90 spa/spd: 150/130 spe: 150 ability: Magic Bounce
2. Charizard Y: Same canon stats.
3. Blastoise: atk/def: 101/135 spa/spd: 135/135 spe: 45
4. Lucario: atk/def: 150/60 spa/spd: 150/60 spe: 135
5. Aggron: atk/def: 150/180 spa/spd: 30/180 spe: 20
6. Garchomp: atk/def: 180/125 spa/spd: 37/125 spe: 125 ability: Tough Claws
7. Weavile: atk/def: 150/110 spa/spd: 15/110 spe: 150 ability: Moxie
8. Florges: atk/def: 30/120 spa/spd: 124/150 spe: 150 ability: Serena Grace
9. Altaria: atk/def: 30/125 spa/spd: 105/140 spe: 115
10: Delphox: atk/def: 59/120 spa/spd: 150/120 spe: 120
11. Greninja: atk/def: 120/44 spa/spd: 180/44 spe: 180
Let me know what you thought of this chapter.