Serena stared down the girl across the field, trying to get a read on her face.
"Let's do this, Delphox."
"Phox." Delphox chirped, preparing her wand.
"Piplup, you're up."
That's hardly fair, Serena thought to herself, but didn't voice it out loud.
"Channel fire, Delphox." Serena had finally named the combination, and it sounded apt for what it was. Delphox readied the mystic fire and let it loose.
Better, but she still can't quite get it fast enough… Serena thought, as the fire quickly took on a purplish-pink hue around the edges and curved to follow Piplup, who had already begun to dodge. Despite the penguin pokémon's valiant attempt, it was a clean hit, not that it seemed to bother the water type much.
"Bubble bomb," the blue-haired girl commanded, and Piplup used a controlled bubble beam to form a single bubble bigger than it, throwing it at Delphox.
"Fireblast to counter it."
"Follow through with hydro pump." The response came before Delphox had ever finished stoking the flame on her stick to let loose the fireblast.
The bubble bomb and fireblast exploded in a cloud of steam, obscuring Delphox's view. She couldn't see where the hydro pump came from to even try to dodge.
The torrent of water staggered Delphox with far more power than the tiny water pokémon seemed to have any right to.
"Phox!" A clean hit the other way this time, and the type advantage made itself known. It didn't look pleasant. Another hit like that and this would quickly be over with a battle-out.
"Take her for a spin. Whirlpool and drill peck!" Dawn wasn't letting up, and Piplup cloaked itself with spinning water as it flew towards Delphox. Any attempt to counter with a fire-type attack would inevitably be blocked by the thick layer of foaming water. Of course, Delphox wasn't just fire-type.
"Psychic, and launch him into the air!" Serena yelled. Delphox's reaction was swift. She pointed her wand at Piplup and he halted in mid-air. A slight, almost lazy looking upward twitch of it, and the blue pokémon was sent soaring.
From what she had seen in the appeals round, Serena judged that Piplup didn't really have any way of controlling himself in the air. The leaps had been impressively coordinated, but once he was in the air, the pokémon was very much a flightless bird, bound to the trajectory he had set out on. While she certainly hadn't seen all his moves, she was pretty sure the only way Piplup could alter his path was with hydro pump. While the control he had over that move was impressive, she doubted it was fine enough to really use for dodging, and even if he could pull it off, the clumsy appearance would be bound to result in points off.
For what it was worth, Piplup handled the sudden alteration to his path with grace, quickly streamlining himself to soar through the air like he'd almost meant for this to happen.
"Channel fire again, this time with gusto," Serena yelled.
Delphox seemed to get the idea, and this time the flames forked and curved in the double helix they'd rehearsed, with no need to really follow an evasive action. With the psychic channeling ready, Delphox returned her focus to pouring out as much fire as she could through the channel, hoping to overwhelm even the resistance Piplup's nature gave it.
Dawn narrowed her eyes as she studied Delphox's stance. "Bide!"
Serena watched the barrage impact Piplup, and slowly begin to take its toll. Just when it looked like the plan might work, Delphox's focus faltered. Despite the practice, holding up two moves at the same time proved too much for the pokémon, and the flames returned to the natural red. The lines exploded outward, their control loss, and the rest of the planned barrage never reached its destination.
"Let it loose Piplup!"
Serena stared in shock as a white beam surged at Delphox far too quickly to react to. Delphox took the hit like a champ without so much as a flinch, but the damage that had been done was clear. She was trembling on her feet, barely standing.
"Finish her off with brine!" Dawn yelled, a gleeful note almost penetrating the professionalism in her voice. Serena knew if the move hit, Delphox was a goner. Brine was well-known for its perverse tendency to hit harder the more wounded the pokémon, a sort of cruelty seemingly more appropriate to poison-type moves than water-type.
Serena narrowed her eyes. It was also well-known for how painful it was for the pokémon hit. While the move was tactically sound, given the current situation it smacked of a degree of overkill—almost any move in Piplup's arsenal would end this battle prematurely. This was personal.
"Light screen to block," she yelled. A dodge was out of the question with how shaky Delphox seemed on her feet. The attack crashed against the light-screen jetting outward in a spectacular splash.
Their DexNavs took that moment to ring, the time limit running out.
Piplup finally touched ground, breaking it's fall with a quick hydro pump.
"Well, I think we both know how this would've been declared if it were for real," Dawn smirked.
"Speak for yourself, it's a contest battle, not the conference finals. The whole point of the time limit is to avoid a battle-out, so it can be judged on spectacle, and I didn't see Piplup doing a whole lot in the way of that."
Dawn shrugged. "Well, I guess we'll see whose style the judges like more if we face each other for real."
Serena glared at her. "Were you even trying to practice, or just going for the kill? If it were for real, we would've chosen our pokémon before the battle. That was a dirty trick, waiting for me to pick Delphox and stacking the type advantage like that."
The Top Coordinator gave her an indignant look. "You're one to talk about going for the kill."
So that's what this was about. It figured. Serena looked at Ash, who was in the middle of facing May in an even less contest-looking battle.
She'd done a bit of research on May. Literally half of her contest battle victories were battle outs, and she made it seem so effortless that even when the aggressive strategy failed to work out as planned, they were still often called in her favor, since the defending pokémon made a complete fool of itself just trying to survive the onslaught. For comparison, the usual number was more like one in ten, or one in five if there were power coordinators on both sides of the field.
The fact that her Scizor was currently easily matching Ash's Noivern blow for blow stood testament to the sheer damage her pokémon could dish out. Serena found herself wondering how a girl like that had ever ended up doing contests.
"This was a bad idea. I don't know how May ever talked me into it," Dawn remarked.
"Right back at you." Truth be told, when May had called her and suggested the group training session, Serena had jumped at the chance. It wasn't uncommon for coordinators to train against each other during their down time at the festival. Any information disadvantage you incurred against that potential opponent was matched the other way, and you both got valuable last minute practice.
A chance to hone her skills against Top Coordinators? Serena hadn't been a tough sell. Of course, the fact that May had immediately put her against Dawn so that she could fight Ash had made her question if she should've agreed.
Serena attended to Delphox's wounds with a super potion, while Dawn did the same for Piplup.
She addressed Dawn.
"Look, I don't like you, and you don't like me, but it looks like we're gonna be seeing each other a lot more often than we like, at least until the Festival is over. Can we try and not jab at each other at every opportunity?"
Dawn glanced at Ash for a moment before leveling her gaze back at Serena. She sighed.
"Fine. Maybe I went a bit too far just now. Don't think I'm gonna go easy on you in the festival though, if you make it that far."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
They both turned to watch the battle which was still raging on. Thus far, neither pokémon seemed to be even close to faltering. If a hit had landed while they were turned away, it had only been a glancing one, since neither pokémon seemed to have taken damage.
The practice field they were on, on the other hand, had seen better days.
"Boomburst!" Ash yelled. There was an explosion of dust as the attack struck where Scizor had been standing a moment before. Serena scanned the field, trying to find the red bug type.
"Bullet punch!" May ordered, and there was suddenly a cloud of dust a distance behind Noivern where Scizor kicked off into the air. It crashed through Noivern, revealing the giant dragon bat to be a double image.
"Dragon pulse!"
"Dodge!"
Another exchange without blows.
"How are they both so fast?" Serena muttered.
"If I had to guess, I'd say it's the good ol' trainer's favorite, agility." Serena looked over at the unexpected voice, to see a young boy who looked to be about ten, with a Munchlax by his side.
He adjusted his glasses up the bridge of his nose with one finger. "You're probably more accustomed to its briefer uses, but a particularly well-practiced pokémon can maintain it almost the entire battle, making it faster and faster as the battle goes on."
"Max!" May yelled, and the battle came to a swift halt. She and Ash both rushed over to hug the younger boy.
"Munch munch!" Munchlax threw itself into the pile, which burst into laughter.
"What are you doing here?" May asked, once she'd managed to compose herself.
"I can't come see my sis compete in person? Sorry I missed the appeals round, it took me two tries to beat Juan in Sootopolis and I missed the ferry. Until Swablu evolves I don't have anyone who can fly me." He scratched his head in a manner resembling Ash.
"You already beat Juan?" Ash said, seemingly surprised.
"Yeah!" Max flicked open his badge case, showing the full complement of eight he needed for the conference. Ash looked impressed.
"Does this mean we might end up battling in the conference?" Ash asked.
"You're here for the conference?" Max asked. "I figured it was kinda your thing to only do each region once."
It was Ash's turn to scratch his head, and he had a bit of a blush at the same time.
"Uh… I didn't actually know you could try again…" he coughed out.
Max's face met his palm so fast Serena was worried he might break his neck.
"I was right. I tried to tell May we couldn't let you go off alone, but she wouldn't listen. You need someone with some common sense in your life. You're gonna get yourself killed one of these days, and it's gonna be something like 'How was I supposed to know I shouldn't run up to the Aggron and try to hug it?'"
"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Ash protested.
"Pika!" Pikachu told him.
"You too, Pikachu?" Ash gave Pikachu a betrayed look.
"Well, I don't think we're gonna be getting much training done for a bit," May assessed the situation. "Let's get some food!"
"Of course you'd say that!" Dawn and Serena practically reacted in sync, which promptly made both of them huff at each other.
May glared at them.
The tension was broken as Ash's stomach grumbled, settling matters. Serena was starting to think that the thing had a mind of its own with a penchant for comedic timing.
~ ⁂ ~
They sat at a picnic table, having successfully completed their expedition to the food trucks. Munchlax, for its part, was happily munching on a pile of purple pokéblocks almost as tall as it.
Serena stared at it.
"Munchlax loves May's Purple Surprise," Max commented, before explaining, "It's this absolutely disgusting pokéblock which May 'invented' when she was first learning to make them. No other pokémon will even touch them, but Munchlax can't get enough of them. I actually have May send me some of them from time to time, since even with the recipe I can't seem to manage to replicate that cooking catastrophe…"
May gave Max an offended look, but Munchlax distracted her with a happy chirp.
"Munch!"
"Wait, didn't you just become a trainer? How would Munchlax know what May's first pokéblock was like?"
"Munchlax used to be May's technically, back when I was still way too young to be a trainer."
Serena looked at the pokémon. It didn't strike her as something May would have.
"Don't let his looks fool you, Munchlax is surprisingly powerful, even if he is more suited to a more defensive combat style than May prefers."
"So, Max," Ash interjected. "How long have you been a trainer? You sure seem to have gotten those badges fast."
"Since my birthday! That's… what, six months now? But after you and May both abandoned me, I spent my time training with dad at the gym, so I kinda started out prepared. I haven't actually been journeying the way we used to, since I wanted to make sure I'd get the badges I need on time. Hoenn's pretty connected by transit now.
"Remember Prof. Lund from LaRousse City? He and Watson have been spearheading this massive infrastructure project. There's a high-speed monorail connecting Rustboro and Lilycove, through Mauville and LaRousse. The new high speed ferries hook up the coastline pretty well too. The days of trekking through Hoenn on foot are slowly coming to an end."
Ash looked a bit less thrilled by that pronouncement than Max did.
"Kinda takes the charm out of it, doesn't?"
Serena gave her boyfriend a peck on the cheek. "Hey, nothing stops you from hiking out if you want. We could've taken the TMV anywhere in Kalos within hours, but we still travelled the old-fashioned way."
"I guess…" Ash reluctantly agreed.
Serena noticed Max staring at them in shock.
"Ash… got a girlfriend?!" Oh… that was right, no one had really explained the group dynamic to Max yet.
Ash for his part was annoyed.
"Why is this so shocking to everyone?! I swear, now all we need is Bonnie to show up and I'm never gonna hear the end of it."
Serena laughed. Actually, she hadn't called Clemont and Bonnie in a while. I should catch up with them by phone sometime.
"I mean, honestly, I was starting to think you might be gay. Nothing wrong with that, but I was 7 and even I could see my sis practically throwing herself—" He was suddenly cut off by a steaming red May strangling him.
"Learn when to keep your mouth shut, you little brat!" She let him go, and Max gasped for air. "That was a long long time ago," she explained to Serena. "More of a schoolgirl's crush on her teacher than anything else."
Serena had to concede that Ash had that quality to him. At the same time, finding out that yet another one of Ash's travelling companions had harbored feelings for him was not a comfortable feeling.
Ash for his part was gaping at the revelation. Well, at least unless someone flung herself at him as blatantly as Miette had, Serena doubted she had anything to worry about. The problem was a certain other blunette who seemed to be exhibiting Miette-like tendencies. She glanced at Dawn, who was staring at the commotion, her conversation with May having been interrupted by the latter's sudden teleportation.
"So, Max, what pokémon do you have?" While the group normally would've let out all their pokémon for a meal, due to the sheer crush of people there were signs posted around the picnic area declaring a limit of one pokémon out of its pokéball per person.
"Well, you've actually already met most of them," Max replied.
"Huh?"
"The first thing I did was to go pick up some of my friends from our travels. Here, we're both done eating, let me show you." He and Ash headed off to the practice fields, leaving the three girls to finish their meal.
"I'm sorry about Max," May said. "He has a tendency to run his mouth. I swear, any interest I had in Ash that way ended a long time ago."
Serena sighed. "It's fine. I couldn't fault you even if it hadn't. Just don't make any moves on my boyfriend and we're good." Though nominally addressing May, Serena looked at Dawn as she said it.
"Like I said, nothing to worry about," May replied.
Dawn stared back at Serena, before slumping her shoulders defeatedly. "Look, if I didn't do anything about it when we were both single and travelling together, I'm not gonna do anything now."
"Huh?" May looked from Dawn to Serena and back again confused. Dawn put two fingers against her forehead, scrunching her eyebrows.
"I swear, May, for all you make fun of Ash, you might just be worse than him. I like him too. Unlike you, I never stopped."
May's eyes widened.
"Oh–!
"Oh… that explains…" she once more flicked her look between the two. "... I got this whole thing together to try and get you two to be friendlier with each other…"
"Yeah, and you couldn't have been any more obvious about it," Dawn dryly remarked.
"Well, excuse me for wanting two of my friends to be friends with each other…" May gave a harumph.
Dawn rolled her eyes and smiled before giving May a playful smack on the back of the head.
"You're right, you two never would've worked out. You're basically twins. It would've been… personality incest or something."
She turned to Serena and sighed. "Look, I wanna hate you. I really wanna hate you. But I just can't, you're too damn nice. If not for this thing with Ash, we probably would've hit it off as friends right away…" She paused. "The way things are, I don't know if that's possible, but I'll try and be a bit less of a… well, honestly, bitch to you. No need to worry, while you're together, I'm not gonna make any moves. Full warning though, if you fuck this up, if you hurt him, I'll be the first to offer my shoulder for him to cry on. Sound fair?" She offered Serena her hand.
Serena looked at the offered hand and thought about it for a moment. In truth, if the roles had been reversed, she wasn't certain she would've been so generous.
"Sounds fair." She took the offered hand and shook it.
"Yay! We can all be friends now!" May pumped her fist.
"May, we literally just said we weren't gonna be friends," Dawn pointed out, but May's head was already in the clouds.
"Alright, how about I mock judge another practice battle for you two?"
Serena gave Dawn a look of defeat and shrugged.
"Fine," Dawn said.
~ ⁂ ~
Max let out the rest of his pokémon.
"Wait, is this Katrina's Mightyena?" Ash asked, fending off the dog pokémon, who had jumped on him and was insistently licking his face.
"Yeah, I had to bike to Rustboro. There's technically a ferry, but it would've almost taken longer. They still haven't rolled out the jet ferries on the western side of Hoenn. On the way there I stopped by the reserve, and Mightyena was so happy to see me that Katrina decided she'd be better off travelling with me than patrolling the reserve."
"Loom," Breloom commented.
"You might not recognize this guy, but Breloom is one of the shroomish from that mansion by Rinshin Town."
Noticing the pattern, Ash commented. "I assume Kirlia's that Raltz from Izabe Island?"
"Yeah, I had to keep my promise to go back for her."
Ash thought for a moment about some of the pokémon he'd befriended in the past.
"You went back for all of them, huh?"
"I mean, they're my friends," Max beamed with pride. "You're the one who taught me that. If it wasn't for stupid League rules, I never would've left any of them behind."
Ash didn't really want to comment on that.
"And these two guys?" He pointed at a Swablu and a small vaguely familiar fox-like pokémon he couldn't quite put his finger on. "I don't recognize them."
"They're new introductions to the team. I caught Swablu in Sootopolis. Vulpix meanwhile is freshly hatched. Prof. Birch gave me him as an egg instead of a starter, since I already had Munchlax."
"That doesn't look like any Vulpix I've ever seen."
"Apparently Prof. Birch got him from a colleague in the Alola region. Some pokémon are a bit different there," Max explained.
"Interesting. Lance tells me they're setting up the first local League chapter in Alola. I might have to visit sometime," Ash commented. "See some of those unique pokémon."
"Wait, Lance as in Champion Master Lance?" Max asked.
"Yeah, he's mentoring me right now. Though that's kinda on pause since we're both watching the Grand Festival."
"I forgot the sort of people you somehow meet," the younger boy replied dryly.
"Well, actually travelling the region kinda helps with that," Ash pointed out. He still felt like Max had kinda robbed himself of half the experience of a pokémon journey by doing it the way he had.
Max laughed. "Well, some of us aren't lucky enough to have a birthday early enough in the year to do that and still make the conference."
He had a point. Ash had had about eleven months from his birthday to the conference, more than enough time to travel all of Kanto on foot. Max had more like eight, he would've almost certainly had to wait a second year to make the conference.
"Fair enough, I guess," he conceded.
"You wanna have a sparring match?" Max asked Ash, clearly eager to battle the older trainer.
Ash looked at him. He was never one to turn down a battle, but he was pretty sure he could already see how it was going to go, and he wasn't sure Max would be anywhere near as thrilled by the end of it. On the other hand, he had gotten eight gym badges, and Ash was interested in seeing how he fought.
"Alright, how about a one-on-one against Oshawott?"
"Wott!" The pokémon chirped happily.
"Alright!" Max replied. "Kirlia, you up for it?"
"Kirlia!" She replied affirmatively, and quickly took her place at one side of the field.
Oshawott moved to stand opposite it.
"Feel free to take the first move," Ash told Max. The boy nodded.
"Kirlia, psychic."
Ash's eyes narrowed. Psychic was a versatile move, and not only would the way Kirlia used it dictate his reaction, it was a good thing on which to base how much he was going to hold back.
Kirlia let loose a wave of psychic energy towards Oshawott. Ash was a bit disappointed. The imitation psystrike was certainly the most common form of the move, but honestly by far the weakest. Kirlia likely didn't have the sheer power for a crush attack yet, and positioning wise, Oshawott was at ground level, so the also somewhat common technique of using psychic for its telekinetic properties wasn't really viable as an offensive move, but at the same time, there were plenty of better options.
"Aqua jet to dodge," Ash gave the command almost lazily. "Retaliate with water gun, then follow through with aqua jet, razor shell. If you can, point-blank hydro pump." He watched Max struggle to react to the series of instructions. It was clear the younger boy had a long way to go if he wanted to make it through even the first round of the league.
Kirlia flinched as the water gun hit it. No response. I wonder how he even got those gym badges, Ash thought to himself. Max wasn't bad per se. Not a lot of trainers could cope with this sort of onslaught. But not just anyone could get eight badges either. The conference entry requirement was far from a mere formality.
Oshawott jetted towards Kirlia to close before she could get her bearings.
"Double team!" Max yelled.
Ash smirked. A clever trap. Of course, timing was everything, and he'd gotten impatient. Or perhaps Kirlia can't react to the command quick enough for him to wait…
"Drop the charge, hydro pump to arrest, and aqua jet skyward!" Ash yelled.
Oshawott promptly obeyed, a huge blast of water functioning as a retro-rocket to stop him in place before he jetted upward.
"Psychic!" Max gave the order. Ash's eyes widened. He'd gotten a bit overconfident and he'd made a mistake.
Right as Oshawott reached the peak of his trajectory, a pinkish-purple glow surrounded him, and fired him into the ground with the speed of a bullet. That one had to hurt. Oshawott was more than durable enough to withstand a blow like that, but a couple more and this battle would be at an end.
Ash thought for a moment. He could easily end it right here, but going no holds barred wasn't really fair to Max. It was tough, holding back enough to make the fight fair, but not enough to make himself too vulnerable.
Kirlia's use of double team had been primitive, merely comparable to a much faster side-step. It was clear where Max's vulnerability lay. He'd been studying tactics since long before he was a trainer, but his pokémon had a long way to go before they were up to the same level.
In truth, the picture was rapidly becoming clear to Ash—Max had gotten his badges because the gym leaders had toned down their pokémon choices. A gym was technically supposed to be a challenge for the trainer, not the pokémon, and gym leaders tended to pick their pokémon to roughly match the level of the trainer's pokémon. Max was a well-studied trainer, but one with very inexperienced pokémon.
"Get in close with aqua jet, but be careful. Stay low to the ground, and be ready to dodge."
"Wott!" It jetted towards Kirlia again.
"Double team to dodge!"
"Stop on its mark, and keep your guard up!"
The mirage vanished as Oshawott stopped exactly where Kirlia had been standing.
"Draining kiss!"
So that's what he's been trying to do, Ash thought. Primitive, but it actually would work on a lot of trainers. The thing was, Oshawott was particularly fast on the mark.
"Block and counter," Ash gave the command, but it was more for show than anything, Oshawott had already grabbed his scalchop, which glowed with the characteristic light of razor shell. Kirlia's lips met nothing but shell, and Oshawott flipped over her head, slashing at her back.
"Kirlia!" Ash wasn't sure who had yelled louder, the pokémon or Max.
"Hydro pump!" Ash felt bad taking advantage of Max's distress, but even if he was holding back, this was still a battle after all. Kirlia didn't stand a chance of dodging the point-blank attack.
She was carried practically to the other side of the field.
The mist cleared from the air and she was somehow still standing.
Impressive. Ash thought. Most pokémon with so little training would be out cold by now. It reminded him of Pikachu when he'd first gotten him.
Ash thought about what Lance had said, about not every battle needing to go to knock-out. This battle was clearly over. On the other hand, he wasn't sure Max would take kindly to him announcing that.
That said, Kirlia's well-being took priority.
"Forfeit, Max."
"What?!" Max yelled. "I'm not gonna give up."
"Kirlia's done. There's nothing you can do. Don't force me to have Oshawott knock her out cold."
Max looked at him angrily. "Aren't you the one who says never to give up?"
"Max, it's a sparring match, not a tournament. If I have Oshawott finish this when she's already barely standing, it's not gonna be something a full restore can heal. You're gonna be waiting for the next few hours in a Pokémon center."
"Kirlia psychic!" Kirlia let off a haphazard wave of psychic power.
"Oshawott, aqua jet to dodge," Ash thought for a moment.
Did he finish this, or commit to ending it?
"Now retreat." Oshawott jetted over to stand by his trainer. "It's over Max. Heal up Kirlia, and we can spar again."
Max was clearly fuming. Suddenly, there was a hand on his shoulder. Never had Ash been happier to see May.
"He's right Max," the girl told him.
"Fine. Kirlia, come here." But Kirlia wasn't in a state to go anywhere at the moment. She was still on her feet, but she took a staggering step towards Max, and dropped to her knees. Still awake, but definitely unable to battle.
Max tore away from May to run to Kirlia's side. "Kirlia? Are you okay?"
Ash ran over as well. "Here," he handed Max a max potion. Max generously sprayed his pokémon, and she staggered to her feet, uninjured, but clearly exhausted from the ordeal.
Ash looked at Max. "You did well. That was some battle. Kirlia just needs a bit more training is all."
Max looked at him dejected. "I guess I thought after eight gym battles, I could actually at least put up a fight against you. You were holding back, weren't you?"
"Yeah…" Ash replied. "But Max, you've been training your pokémon for six months. I've spent over a year with Oshawott, and I've been training for seven years. You may have gotten a big head start on learning tactics, but you still need practice, no matter how many books you have copied up in there," he poked at the younger boy's forehead. "You still caught me off guard with the psychic."
"Really?" Max asked, perking up. "The way things went down right after I was starting to think you'd just faked me out."
"Nah, I got overconfident. When your first psychic was so rudimentary, I just assumed you and Kirlia hadn't trained anything more potent."
"That worked?" Max asked. "I was trying to bait you but I didn't think you'd fall for it."
Ash laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Y'know, someone really good at battling told me not too long ago that I fight with more talent than brains."
Ash saw Serena and Dawn running to finally catch up to May's sprint.
"What happened?" Serena asked.
"May, why'd you just run off like that?" Dawn added.
"Max and I… got a bit carried away," Ash said, nodding towards Kirlia, who was currently moping on the ground. "Let's just say Kirlia narrowly avoided a long stay in the pokémon center."
Serena was instantly on him. "Are you kidding me? That's like setting Hawlucha on Bonnie's Dedenne. What were you thinking?"
"It was Max's idea! He's a trainer now! He has eight badges, I wasn't gonna turn him down if he beat Juan!" Ash defended himself.
"He has eight badges, and you have…" Serena paused for a moment. "...forty-eight! How do you think you from 7 years ago would fare against you now?"
Ash felt a sweat drop forming on his brow. "Uh… probably about like that…"
May put her hand on Serena's shoulder.
"Don't be too hard on him. Max has a lot to learn, but believe me, he would've taken it hard if Ash had turned him down. He looks up to him like a hero."
"Do not!" Max yelled.
May looked at him. "Remind me, how many of my contests have you watched on TV? Compared to… oh, every tournament Ash has competed in since he left? I do talk to mom and dad, you know."
Max turned red and looked away.
"So uh, what were you guys planning on doing before you got here?" Ash asked.
May instantly had Serena and Dawn by their arms, who were both trying desperately to get away. "I'm gonna mock judge a contest battle between these two!"
"Sounds awesome, can I watch?" Ash asked. Suddenly, Serena and Dawn weren't struggling out of May's grip anymore, instead glaring at each other with fire in their eyes.
"Pika-pi!" Pikachu facepalmed.