Solomon was breathing heavily as Nicholas recalled Strike to his Pokéball; the last battle had been a hard one, and the Kadabra had only won by a matter of milliseconds. Solomon wouldn't be able to go another round, and both he and Jack knew it.

"Solomon, return," Jack said as he recalled Solomon to the Pokéball. "You've earned some rest. And besides," he whispered softly, "I think Aura wants to congratulate you or something."

Jack could almost feel Solomon smiling contentedly from inside the Pokéball as he walked over to the Pack and did another quick switcheroo.

"Katana," he said, tossing her Pokéball onto a platform, "You're up."

Katana had suffered only minimal damage, and would have been furious if she didn't get another shot; so Jack figured it was best for everyone if she went next, even though he had a pretty good idea who Nicholas would call out for his final Pokémon. As it turned out, his hunch was right.

"Sunspot," Nicholas said, "Go get 'em!"

The Infernape appeared in the customary flash of white light, and looked at his opponent with a grin.

"Huh," Sunspot said with a shrug. "And here I was hoping I'd get to fight Jason right off the bat; but I guess he'll come out after I've taken you down."

"Why do you want to fight Jason so badly?" Katana asked curiously.

"Isn't it obvious?" the Infernape said. "This is the moment Nicholas and I have been waiting for! Jason is the most powerful of you, and I've been going through non-stop special training specifically so I'd be able to beat him; after that, the rest of the tournament will be a walk in the park, no one will be able to stop us. Then one day, we'll challenge Cynthia and Nicholas will become the Sinnoh Champion!"

"Those are some pretty big aspirations you have," Katana shot back. "You're starting to sound like some cheesy comic-book villain."

Sunspot huffed. "Oh yeah? Well you're starting to 'bug' me; get ready to get squashed."

"Just try it," Katana snarled, raising her scythes and settling into a fighting stance.

"My pleasure."

Without any further warning, Sunspot launched himself at Katana with Fire Punch; Katana could've tried to dodge, but she had a better idea. Instead of avoiding it, she lunged at her opponent with her left scythe outstretched as if to impale the incoming Infernape.

To avoid being skewered, Sunspot was forced to abandon his attack and veer to the left. Katana's left scythe flew past him, missing him by inches, but then she spun and brought the blunt edge of her right scythe down on Sunspot's head; completing her Fake Out technique.

The surprise attack left Sunspot stunned for a second, which was long enough for Katana to turn around and send him flying with a super-effective Air Slash.

Sunspot landed in the water with a large splash and a billowing pillar of steam; the Infernape clambered onto a platform a few seconds later, dripping wet from head to foot. Even his head flame had been extinguished, although he'd barely been out of the water for three seconds before it blazed into life again. Still, it was clear that Sunspot's little dip in the pool had weakened and winded him; his chest was heaving as he attempted to balance on the unsteady platform.

Katana figured it was as good a time as any to press her advantage, and rushed in with Quick Attack. She closed in on Sunspot before he could steady himself, and slammed her shoulder in his chest. Or at least, that was the plan.

At the last second, Sunspot planted his feet and threw a perfectly timed punch into Katana's incoming midsection; using her own momentum against her. A perfect Counter.

The blow knocked the air out of Katana's lungs, and even fractured her exoskeleton slightly; despite it being doubly ineffective based on Type, it had still been a powerful hit.

"Nice try," Sunspot said, waiting for Katana to catch her breath. "But like I said, I've been training to beat Jason; you never stood a chance."

Katana looked at the INfernape, and noted that his fur was completely dry; and the heat coming off of him was so intense it stung her eyes. There was no sign that he'd been submerged in the pool mere moments before.

Jack pulled out Katana's Pokéball. Sunspot was right, Katana couldn't win this fight; he could feel the pain of her cracked exoskeleton as acutely as if it was his own. He had to call her back before she got even more badly hurt.

"Katana, re…"

"Don't you dare!" the Scyther snapped, giving him a look that would've stopped a rampaging Touros in its tracks.

"You're injured," Jack said, switching to Pokéspeak. "You need to rest."

"I'm fine," Katana insisted. "I've fought, and won, with way worse injuries than this. Don't worry about me."

Jack sighed, and switched to telepathic communication. "You do realize you can't win this fight, right?"

"Maybe not," Katana said, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Jack; it wasn't like her to admit something like that. "But there's no way I'm going down easy; you can be sure I'll give him a run for his money at least."

Jack considered calling her back whether she liked it or not, but he decided against it. Katana knew her own limits better than he ever could; if she said she was fine, he knew he could trust her.

"Alright then," he said aloud finally, with an air of resignation. "Just make sure you leave some of him for Jason; after all the boasting Sunspot's been doing, Jason will be disappointed if he doesn't get to beat him up himself."

Katana gave him what equated to a knowing grin. "All right then, I'll do my best."

The brief respite over, Katana lost no time going on the offensive; proving Jack's faith in her to be well-placed, she moved as though her injury didn't exist. She opened up with Agility, stretching to relieve the tension in her muscles; then she launched herself into the air with Fly, and began raining down Air Slash attacks on the battlefield below.

The tactic caught Sunspot by surprise, and he was hard pressed to avoid the powerful blasts of compressed air. But as he avoided them, they simply crashed into the water instead; stirring it up and creating waves which threatened to capsize the floating platforms on the surface.

Sunspot struggled to keep his balance on the suddenly choppy water, and would've probably fallen in if Katana hadn't had to rest for a second before continuing her assault; her cracked exoskeleton was causing her more trouble, and pain, than she cared to admit. If she couldn't wrap this up quickly, she knew she would lose.

After catching her breath, Katana resumed her barrage of Air Slash attacks; but this time, Sunspot was ready for it. The Infernape charged up a massive Fire Blast and launched straight upwards; it absorbed the first volley of Air Slashes and exploded in a cloud of smoke.

Sunspot had barely fired the first Fire Blast before he started preparing the next, in anticipation of a second volley from Katana; but the Scyther had other ideas. Instead of attacking from a distance she darted from the sky, using the explosion for cover, and closed in with Shadow Claw.

Sunspot barely had time to unleash a Fire Blast in her face, but she slashed her way through it and kept coming like a juggernaut. Sunspot, who had unconsciously relaxed a little when he saw his Fire Blast seemingly hit her square on, was unprepared for the ferocity of Katana's attack and took a substantial hit.

Katana struck again, forcing Sunspot to counter with Fire Punch; black flames and red flames striking each other again and again. The two traded blows like they were going out of style, neither managing to gain any real advantage.

Then, suddenly Sunspot became aware that his feet were no more than a few inches from the edge of the platform; he'd lost ground to Katana's relentless assault, and he was running out of ground to lose.

Sensing the opening she needed, Katana took advantage of Sunspot's position and launched one final, reckless attack. Bringing both her scythes down over her head in an X shape, she forced Sunspot to block it with both his arms; but as he braced himself against a blow which never landed, he stumbled forward slightly and ran right into Katana's head.

Being a foot taller than the Infernape, Katana was able to throw her entire body behind her surprise headbutt; connecting hard with Sunspot's forehead, and knocking him back into the water with a satisfying splash.

"Ha," Katana exclaimed smugly, if exhaustedly, as Sunspot thrashed desperately to get back to a platform. "That'll teach you to mess with me, kid. Next time you feel like bragging about how great you are, just remember how I sent you butt-first into the pool."

Her pride satisfied, Katana collapsed backwards onto the platform; completely spent. Jack was by her side in a heartbeat, making sure she was alright; her aura was still strong as ever, but she was too exhausted to stand up. Much less fight. Jack returned her to her Pokéball without so much as a complaint from her.

"You fought well," he said as he hopped from platform to platform back to his side of the battlefield. "Take a good rest; this won't take long."

Jack put her back in the Pack and started the almost unconscious action of punching in Jason's number on the keypad, but then he stopped. Jason was the obvious choice to fight next, and yet… Another idea began taking shape in Jack's mind.

From what he'd seen so far it seemed his fears as to Nicholas's strength were largely unfounded; he was strong to be sure, his team was one of the most powerful Jack had ever fought. Still, after fighting toe-to-toe with Katana, even Sunspot must be feeling a little fatigued.

Jack remembered what Nicholas had said some time ago, and came to a decision; not only would it be the perfect counter to Sunspot's fighting style, but if what Nicholas said was true then they might even be able to expect a few surprises mid-battle.

Jack punched in a different number, to the surprise and alarm of everyone inside the Pack, save one, and walked back to the battlefield. He grinned confidently at Nicholas, who suddenly looked a little bit worried.

"Come on!" Sunspot shouted, his head-flame flaring up like a bonfire. "Call him out already; let's get this over with."

Jack shrugged. "Alright, you asked for it."

With that, he tossed the Pokéball onto a platform; the Pokémon who appeared, however, was quite a bit smaller than Jason.

"Wendy, you're up," Jack said with a smug grin.

[Wendy (Kirlia) Age: 12. Ability: Trace. Moves: Magical Leaf, Hypnosis, Psychic, Teleport, and Light Screen.]

"Are you kidding me!?" Sunspot exclaimed. "She's just a kid; you expect me to fight a kid?"

Wendy folded her arms. "Who are you calling a kid; Aunt Katana says I'm a young adult, and old enough to stand up for myself."

Sunspot looked at her standing there, arms crossed defiantly, and broke out laughing.

Wendy huffed. "I'll teach you to laugh at me, Mr. Sunspot."

Without any further warning, Wendy's eyes glowed with Psychic energy and she telekinetically flipped the platform on which Sunspot was standing; dumping him unceremoniously into the water once again. Now it was Wendy's turn to giggle uncontrollably.

Sunspot was in a much worse mood when he clambered out of the water for the third time that day.

"Okay," he growled, "That's it; no more mister nice guy. I'm gonna… H-hey, what're you doing?! Put me down!"

Before he could finish his threat, Wendy picked him up with Psychic and began waving him around in the air like a ragdoll; before letting him fall into the water again with a splash.

This time as Sunspot clambered onto a nearby platform, he didn't waste any time in charging up a quick Fire Blast and sending it in Wendy's direction; it looked like a direct hit, but when the smoke cleared there was no trace of Wendy.

Sunspot turned around quickly, and found himself staring into a pair of… beautiful, ruby-red eyes; like the sun just before it dipped below the horizon. Then, he heard a voice.

"Sleep," it said. "Close your eyes and take a good long nap."

It was the most beautiful sound Sunspot had ever heard; like a choir of angels singing in harmony, like the tinkling of chimes, it drowned out any other. He longed to hear that wonderful voice, and stare into those beautiful eyes, for all eternity. Their effect was almost mesmerising.

No, that wasn't the right word; but for the life of him he couldn't find a right one, and the attempt was tiring him out. Maybe he should take the voice's suggestion and go to sleep, but what was that word? It was... His eyelids were getting heavy, but what was that word? It was… It was… It was…

Hypnotic.

Sunspot snapped out of the trance with a roar of extreme disapproval, startling Wendy nearly out of her wits. Before she could comprehend what had happened, Sunspot had charged up a Fire Blast and spat it, point blank, into her face.

Wendy was blasted into the air by the roaring column of flames, and fell into the water; which in all probability is what saved her, since when she resurfaced she was covered in burn marks. She telekinetically levitated herself out of the water, but didn't shake the water off; she realized now it might come in handy to be soaked to the skin.

Before Sunspot could launch any more attacks, Wendy quickly used Light Screen; a good thing too, because Sunspot wasted no time in firing off another Fire Blast at her. She managed to use Psychic to deflect most of it, but the heat was still intense. And no sooner did the last of the flames blow past her, then she saw Sunspot closing in.

The Infernape had launched himself off a platform, and was heading straight for her; she Teleported away almost reflexively, but was then almost immediately hit by a Fire Blast from behind. He never seemed to run out of them!

Wendy was blasted into the air, but caught herself with Psychic before she could fall again; Light Screen had absorbed a lot of the damage from the attack, and her watery second skin had protected her a lot as well, but she was s still a little shell-shocked from the explosion.

Wendy had barely recovered from the blast before she was forced to defend against yet another one; blowing it aside with Psychic, and preparing to swat Sunspot out of the air as well if he was using the Fire Blast for cover again. Her guess was correct, but the attack came from behind.

Sunspot had once again leapt straight up into the air, until he was right above Wendy; then, after spinning to gain momentum, he brought his outstretched leg down on Wendy's head. A move called Acrobatics.

The powerful attack knocked Wendy to the ground, and right into a platform; no soft, watery landing this time. After a hit like that, Wendy was at her limit; she struggled to stand up, but the effort proved to be too much for her. She collapsed on the platform and didn't move.

The referee looked at Wendy, then at Jack; the blue-clad trainer didn't seem at all concerned that his Pokémon had been knocked out, in fact he was smiling slightly. The referee started to announce Sunspot the winner of the fight, but Jack held up a hand.

"If you'd wait just a moment, this fight isn't over," he said.

"Your Pokémon is clearly defeated," the referee said. "In her condition, there's no way she could…"

Then he noticed something; a light coming from the battlefield. More specifically, the light was coming from Wendy. Jack grinned; it had been sheer torture for him to watch Wendy get beaten up, even more than it had been for Wendy herself, but they'd both agreed that the end result was worth it. Wendy was evolving.

The light grew stronger by the second, until it was almost blinding; it filled the entire coliseum until people were forced to look away or risk being blinded. When the light finally faded, and the spots cleared from people's eyes, Wendy was standing tall and proud; as a fully evolved Gardevoir.

She cracked her neck, and then her knuckles. "Alright then, Mr. Sunspot," she said, with a voice that sounded more like a much older teenager's, "Let's finish this."

"My pleasure," Sunspot agreed with a grin. "You might actually be a worthy opponent now."

Wendy folded her arms. "I'll take that as a compliment; now, en garde!"

Without another word, Wendy pointed her right arm at Sunspot and streams of silver energy began raining down from the sky and collecting in the palm of her three-fingered hand. The ribbons of energy gathered together and spun themselves into a sphere of crackling silver light.

It was a powerful technique that had only recently been discovered in the Kalos region, and Wendy had only heard about by watching the news; once she'd read up on it, she had tried many times to master it. This was the first time she'd actually succeeded, and she was ecstatic about it; she was using Moonblast.

"Nicely done, Wendy," Jack said, "Now maybe you could actually throw it at him?"

After basking in her own glow for a moment, Wendy figured that Jack was right; it was about time she tested her new move in combat, by beating the ever-living daylights out of Sunspot with it.

"Right," she agreed. "One Fairy-type special, coming right up!"

With that, she launched the Moonblast like a silver bullet at Sunspot; who was starting to feel a little nervous. He fired off a Fire Blast to try and cancel it out, but the bolt of light cut through it like a hot knife through butter and hit him square on the chest, where it then exploded.

The blast flung the Infernape backwards like a ball from a cannon, and he hit the wall of the arena behind Nicholas with a crash; and speaking of Nicholas, he was pretty much in a state of panic at this point. Things were not looking good for Sunspot; the watery battlefield had wreaked enough havoc on their battle strategy already, and now this. They only had one chance now; and it looked like this was it.

Sunspot, seemingly miraculously, peeled himself off the wall and walked back to the battlefield; taking a ready position on a platform. Wendy was about fire off another Moonblast, but then something caught her eye; Sunspot was glowing. The Infernape was surrounded by a fiery red aura, and Jack knew exactly what it meant; he'd seen it often enough. Blaze.

"By now you've probably guessed what Sunspot's ability is," Nicholas said. "While Blaze is active, Sunspot is almost unbeatable."

"I notice you said 'almost'," Jack pointed out, to which Nicholas said nothing.

Wendy, realizing that she should probably be careful if Blaze was really that powerful, decided to play it safe and hit him from a distance with Psychic. But before she could even start to attack, Sunspot launched a roaring, and gigantic, Fire Blast at her; it was so massive it covered the entire width of the arena, and so hot the audience could feel it from the stands.

Wendy took one look at the wall of flames bearing down on her, and knew what she had to do; she poured every drop of energy she had into one move. Psychic. But instead of focussing on Sunspot, she directed the telekinetic energy to the roaring inferno in front of her; and not to dispel it, but to control it.

With sweat streaming from her forehead and instantly evaporating from the heat, Wendy gathered the flames towards her; compressing them into a sphere the size of a small car, but as bright as the sun. Then, she launched it back at Sunspot.

I say launched, but all she had to do was give it a little push and release her Psychic grip on it; the flames naturally expanded in the path of least resistance, which was in the direction Wendy was pushing, which was directly at Sunspot. The blast of flames crashed into him like… actually, I don't even know what analogy to use; suffice it to say, it was pretty impressive to watch.

Wendy sighed in relief. There was no way Sunspot could take a hit like that and walk away from it; this fight was over. She turned and smiled sweetly at Jack, who had been encased in a bulletproof glass box by the emergency systems of the arena when they registered a move that could potentially harm the trainers; across the field, Nicholas would be in an identical box.

Jack didn't know whether to be impressed, or a little scared by what Wendy had just done; as the glass box around him descended back into the floor, he decided on impressed.

"That was amazing Wendy!" he said. "How did… LOOK OUT!"

The last part was shouted to Wendy, as Jack saw another Fire Blast headed for her; she turned just in time to be hit full on by it and flung backwards. She caught herself midair with Psychic and tried to see where the attack had come from, but then she realized what Sunspot was doing; sure enough, she felt the wind from Sunspot coming up behind her, and spinning to deliver one final Acrobatics attack.

But he was too slow; Wendy, knowing he was coming, grabbed him with Psychic and threw him up higher into the air. Then, gathering the same silver energy as before, she fired a powerful Moonblast up after him; then another, then another. After the third attack she was pretty sure he was well and properly unconscious, so she let him fell back down again; catching him with Psychic before he could hit the ground. Sure enough, he was out cold; no pun intended.

The referee confirmed it. "SUNSPOT IS UNABLE TO BATTLE; THE WINNER IS WENDY, AND THE VICTORY GOES TO JACK STORM OF GREENWOOD!"


Me: Well? Was that a suitably epic finale?

Jack: What else can I call it without both Katana and Wendy coming to get me.

Me: There is that. Anyway, I know we kinda missed our update time again; still, at least this time I have an excuse. The Christmas holidays have been kinda hectic for me; I didn't get as much time as I wanted to work on the story.

Jack: As much as I hate to admit it, this time he's got an alibi. He was pretty swamped.

Me: Thank you. Now it's a little late to wish you all a Merry Christmas, your Christmases were either Merry or otherwise and there's not much I can do at this point to change that. What I can do, is say happy 2016; we did it guys, we survived another year. Three cheers for us.

Jack: *deadpan* Yay.

Me: In any event, I know a lot of you have joined us more recently; and some of you probably weren't around last year when I advertised...

Jack: *cough* Shameless self-plug. *cough*

Me: *continues undaunted* ...my Christmas one-shot; Christmas Storm. And I'm going to give it to you straight, if you haven't read it yet I urge you to; it's a touching excerpt from Jack's early life, namely his first Christmas. It has even received an extremely favourable review from Keldeo the Critic where he calls it, and I quote, "The Little Drummer Boy of Pokémon fanfiction." If that's not high praise, I don't know what is.

Jack: I have to admit, it does make a good story.

Me: I know, right? Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you all have a happy new year.

Jack: See you in the next chapter.