Me: Just so you know, the chapter's late because I was so sick I could barely get out of bed. So deal with it.

Jack: He's still a little grouchy.

Me: I AM NOT GROUCHY!

Jack: ...

Me: Anyway, before we get started with the chapter, I'd just like to thank everyone for making the first Q&A such a resounding success. We've gotten no less than four questions in the time since we posted the last chapter, and we're going to answer all of them at the end of the chapter. And don't worry, the Q&A won't eclipse the chapter itself; we'll keep it short and sweet.

Jack: Do we really have to do this?

Me: Yes, and you'll like it.

Jack: Fat chance. Play the episode already…


Jack stepped into the arena with a determined expression; this was it, the last battle of the Sinnoh League. There was no way he was going to lose to Tobias, Darkrai or no Darkrai. They would be fighting on a dirt battlefield, studded with rocks; which suited Jack fine.

"I've heard a lot about you, Jack Storm," Tobias called from across the battlefield, his red waist-length cloak and long blue-grey hair waving slightly in the breeze. "It's fitting, in a way, that it came down to the two of us in the finals; seeing as this battle was inevitable from the moment the tournament began. I look forward to seeing if you're really as powerful as people say you are."

Jack nodded. "Same to you; personally, I look forward to seeing your other four Pokémon."

"You seem awfully confident," Tobias replied, "Considering most people don't get past my first."

Without another word, Tobias tossed a Pokéball onto the field; true to form, it was Darkrai. Now that he was seeing it up close, Jack could tell that it was definitely not the Darkrai he knew; this Darkrai just didn't radiate the same immense power as the real one. Knowing that took a weight off Jack's shoulders, and filled him with renewed confidence.

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

[Jason (Lucario) Age: 19. Ability: Steadfast. Moves: Metal Claw, Counter, Force Palm, Aura Sphere, Bone Rush, Focus Punch, Close Combat, and Psychic.]

Jason appeared in the customary flash of white light and settled into a combat stance.

"Going with your most powerful Pokémon right off the bat as well," Tobias commented with a knowing smirk. "Probably hoping the type-advantage will help you, am I right?"

Jack shrugged. "You seem to have thought out my strategy almost as well as I did. Now then, let's get this started; Jason, Aura Sphere!"

Jason knew exactly what Jack wanted him to do; they'd used this strategy many times before. Instead of charging up one large Aura Sphere, Jason quickly formed a few dozen smaller ones and tossed them haphazardly into the middle of the arena, where they exploded and threw up a thick cloud of dust which rose well above their heads. Both Jack and Jason could rely on their aura vision, but Tobias and Darkrai would be effectively blinded.

Using the dust as cover, Jason closed in silently on his blinded opponent; planting his hind paws carefully, so as to avoid making any noise. As soon as he was within striking range of Darkrai, Jason abandoned stealth for lightning speed; scoring a clean hit with Metal Claw, and then disappearing back into the dust.

Darkrai quickly turned and fired an Ice Beam at Jason's retreating form, but the Lucario didn't stay in one place even for a second, and started running rings around Darkrai; the dust making him next impossible to hit. Jason dove in again, scoring another direct hit with Metal Claw and then retreating before he could be hit; at that point to dust was starting to settle, so Jason landed one more Metal Claw before backing away to a safe distance.

When the dust had cleared, Darkrai didn't show any signs of the damage it had taken; that either meant it was a very good actor, or that this battle would be a tough one.

Darkrai charged and launched a Dark Void attack at Jason, in the form of a pitch-black sphere of energy, but Jason avoided it with ease and charged at Darkrai with Bone Rush. Darkrai fired off another Ice Beam, forcing Jason to strafe to the right to avoid it. As Jason closed in, Darkrai started to back up.

Sensing an opening, Jason shot forward and covered the remaining distance between them in a heartbeat; lashing out with Bone Rush. However, Darkrai was ready for him and, a split second before Jason's attack hit, the Pitch Black Pokémon summoned a Dark Void sphere in front of it; Jason ran right into the attack, and a cocoon of dark purple energy encased him. From the trainer's box, Jack could feel Jason's consciousness slipping away as he fell into a deep sleep; his arms falling limply to his sides as he stood with a blank look on his face.

Jack gritted his teeth; this was what he'd tried to avoid. Darkrai closed in on Jason and put its two black, claw-like hands on either side of his head. Jack could practically feel Darkrai draining Jason's stamina with Dream Eater, and restoring its own in the process. He tried waking Jason up telepathically, but the Lucario wasn't responding; it was no normal sleep Jason was in, Dark Void's effects ran deep into his subconscious.

Darkrai continued its mental assault for several agonisingly long seconds, but then Jack felt Jason's mind stir slightly; Dark Void was wearing off, and a spark of consciousness was all Jack needed.

"WAKE UP!"

Jason's eyes shot open, and he quickly assessed the situation; Darkrai was right in front of him giving him, quite simply, the perfect opening. Before Darkrai could react, Jason launched a devastating assault with Close Combat; landing hit after hit in one continuous stream. It was a testament to Darkrai's strength that it didn't go down then and there.

Jason finished up his technique with a staggering uppercut from the right, tossing Darkrai backwards like a ragdoll. The Pitch-Black Pokémon righted itself and hovered mid-air and, once again not showing any signs of pain from the hits it had taken, fired off another Dark Void. Jason saw it coming and avoided it easily, firing off an Aura Sphere in return which Darkrai countered with Dark Pulse.

Jack scowled; with Darkrai hovering in mid-air like that, Jason couldn't get close without becoming an easy target as soon as he left the ground. But if Jason didn't get in close, Darkrai would have the edge since Jason's only long-ranged move was Aura Sphere.

"Then again," Jack thought, grinning suddenly, "Now that I think about it, that's not really much of a disadvantage."

Jason agreed heartily, and began charging up as many Aura Spheres as he could hold together at once; they floated around him like will-o-wisps, constantly getting bigger. Darkrai, not liking where this was headed, fired off a barrage of Ice Beams which Jason only narrowly avoided.

Darkrai kept on flinging Ice Beams at Jason in an attempt to forestall his technique, but Jason managed to stay one step ahead; mostly thanks to Jack's superhuman reaction speed and sense of timing, calling out directions at exactly the right moment for Jason to dodge the incoming attacks.

When Jason decided that he had enough Aura Spheres, nine of them in total and all of a decent size, he launched three of them like heat-seeking missiles at Darkrai. The floating Dark-type countered with Ice Beam and managed to destroy the first wave, but was unprepared when another three Aura Spheres came at it from a different angle.

The second three Aura Spheres scored direct hits on Darkrai, and so did the three that came after them. By the time Jason had unleashed all nine auric projectiles, the battlefield was covered by a cloud of smoke. Jack could sense Darkrai's aura, but he couldn't sense its mind; probably because it was a Dark-type. As such, he was forced to wait with bated breath until the smoke cleared.

When he finally caught a glimpse of Darkrai, Jack let out a deep sigh of relief. Darkrai was lying on the ground, unconscious.

The crowd understandably went berzerk; Jack had just taken down Tobias's Darkrai using only one Pokémon. Jack however saw little cause to celebrate; Jason had taken a bad hit from Darkrai's Dream Eater and, even if he didn't show it, he was still feeling a little unsteady from the attack. With that in mind, Jack decided to play it safe.

"Jason, return," he said, recalling Jason to his Pokéball. "Rest up, you'll get another chance."

As Tobias recalled his defeated Darkrai, Jack quickly did his customary slight-of-hand routine with the Pack; at this point he had it down-pat, and could switch Pokémon in less than five seconds total.

"I have to say," Tobias called from across the arena, "That was a very impressive manoeuvre you pulled off there with the Aura Spheres. I've been preparing for this fight for some time now, but you've still managed to catch me off-guard several times already; but I won't underestimate you again."

Jack shrugged. "Famous last words."

"True," Tobias replied with a smirk, "But we'll see how this plays out."

Without another word, Tobias sent out his second Pokémon; a Salamence, and a large one at that. It landed on the ground with a thud, and let out an ear-splitting roar. Jack didn't so much as flinch.

"Wendy, you're up!"

[Wendy (Gardevoir) Age: 17. Ability: Trace. Moves: Magical Leaf, Hypnosis, Psychic, Teleport, Light Screen, and Moonblast.]

Wendy appeared in a flash of white light, and immediately began to stare down her larger opponent. If she was at all intimidated by Salamence, she didn't show it.

"Using a Fairy-type against a Dragon-type," Tobias commented. "You really do like to use type-advantages, don't you."

Jack shrugged again. "Better to have it with me than against me."

Tobias grinned. "A wise philosophy, but let's see how far it gets you. Salamence, Flamethrower!"

Even before Tobias gave the order Salamence had drawn in a deep breath, and then it breathed out a white-hot stream of flames at Wendy who teleported out of the way not a second too late.

Wendy reappeared and hovered a few meters above Salamence, and began gathering ribbons of silver energy into her hand; not seeing the point of beating around the bush when she had an attack that could probably take Salamence down in one hit. But before she could fire the Moonblast, Salamence suddenly leapt off the ground straight at her with Double-Edge.

Wendy barely even had time to drop the half-formed Moonblast on Salamence's head, but the Dragon Pokémon ploughed through the unfocused blast of silver energy as if it wasn't there. Double-Edge hit Wendy like a ton of bricks and flung her across the arena like a ragdoll; although Salamence took significant recoil damage as well. Wendy hit the ground hard, but when the dust cleared she was still standing; and she seemed thoroughly ticked off.

"You'll pay for that," she said menacingly, holding her midriff where Double-Edge had hit. "No more Miss Nice-Guy."

Salamence didn't so much as bat an eyebrow, but both Tobias and Jack flinched slightly at the intensity of her gaze. Wendy was an intimidating figure when she was angry, especially as a Gardevoir. Of course that may just have been her ability, Trace, copying Salamence's ability; which Jack would've bet any money was Intimidate.

But whether Wendy's frightening demeanor was the result of an ability switch or not, her desire to beat Salamence black and blue wasn't. Before the Dragon/Flying-type could even register what was happening, Wendy flicked it into the ground with a powerful Psychic attack.

Salamence got up without so much as a groan of exertion, but it found itself looking into a pair of beautiful ruby-red eyes. A second later, Wendy's Hypnosis had the Dragon Pokémon sleeping like a rock.

While her opponent was asleep, Wendy took a brief moment to catch her breath; Salamence's Double-Edge had done serious damage. Fortunately, that also meant that Salamence had taken a lot of damage from the recoil.

Once Wendy had caught her second wind, she started powering up another Moonblast; gathering as much energy as she could, and focusing it as much as possible. The orb of silver energy was glowing brighter than the moon itself before Wendy was happy with it. With a confident smirk, she held out her hand and fired. The Moonblast crossed the arena in a heartbeat, and scored a direct hit on Salamence's sleeping form; on impact it exploded into a nimbus of silver energy which completely engulfed Tobias's side of the arena, forcing the blast shield to rise up around him.

Wendy turned confidently to Jack. "Well, how was that?" she asked with a grin.

"That… was pretty impressive, I'll be honest," Jack said, slightly shell-shocked; Wendy was turning out to be even more of a powerhouse than he thought.

"Jason had better watch out," Jack mused. "Or Wendy might just take his spot as our heavy-hitter."

Jack scanned the battlefield to see if Salamence was still conscious or not, although he didn't see how it could be after that. But although he could still sense Salamence's aura, he couldn't find its mind no matter how hard he looked.

Jack furrowed his brow; Darkrai he understood, but Salamence wasn't a Dark-type. There was something strange going on…

Jack's eyes widened as he felt Salamence's aura move.

"Wendy, MOVE!" he shouted, a split second too late.

Salamence shot out of the silver cloud like a vengeful torpedo; Wendy turned around just in time to see Salamence crash into her with Shadow Claw, scoring a clean hit. Wendy was flung backwards by the hit, and bounced a few times on the ground before coming to a stop. When the dust cleared, she was unconscious.

Jack stared blankly at Wendy, then at Salamence who, although it was covered with burns and bruises, didn't look like it even felt them.

"It's not possible," Jack muttered incredulously to himself. "It's… just not possible."

"Says the boy who defeated the Legendary Bird Trio with his bare hands," Tobias said. "I thought you would've known this, but nothing's impossible; some things are just less likely than others."

Jack shut his mouth with a snap, and fixed his eyes on the trainer standing opposite him.

"Wendy, return. You were amazing," he said softly. "Don't worry, we're going to win this for you."

Jack did another quick switch, and withdrew his third Pokémon.

"Solomon, you're up!"

[Solomon (Kadabra) Age: 18. Ability: Magic Guard. Moves: Teleport, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Sleep Talk, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam.]

Solomon appeared a few feet above the ground and hovered there, looking Salamence over from head to tail. It had obviously taken a lot of damage, but you wouldn't know it from the way it stood.

"I can take it," Solomon assured Jack. "Easily."

Jack nodded. "I certainly hope so. Remember, that thing took down Wendy with two hits; so be careful."

As soon as the round started, Solomon flicked himself higher into the air to avoid the attack he knew was coming. And come it did; Salamence opened its mouth and fired a beam of purple energy, a Dragon Breath attack, at the spot where Solomon had been about half a second ago.

Salamence looked up to follow Solomon's movements, and was hit full in the face by Shadow Ball. Salamence roared, in annoyance rather than pain, and launched itself into the air after Solomon; readying another Shadow Claw. It barely made it five feet before Solomon disappeared. Salamence looked around for a second without finding Solomon, before it heard a whistle from directly above it.

Salamence looked up, and was once again hit directly in the head; this time though, by a powerful Ice Beam. Before Salamence could even react, it was frozen solid inside a chunk of ice which then plummeted to the ground. The giant chunk of ice shattered on impact with the ground, releasing an unconscious Salamence.

"Well," Jack commented to Solomon. "You certainly made that look easy…"

Solomon floated back down to ground level and smiled slightly. "Well, both Dragon and Flying-types are weak to Ice; and it was already on its last legs as well."

"Well, Mr. Storm," Tobias said, drawing Jack's attention back to him, "You've officially surpassed the record; you've beaten two of my Pokémon with three of your own. I find that impressive in and of itself."

"Save being impressed for later," Jack replied. "I'm not nearly finished yet."

"Fair enough," Tobias said, pulling out another Pokéball. "I'm interested to see how much farther you can get."

Tobias tossed his third Pokéball onto the battlefield, and white light started flowing out of it in a stream about twice as wide as Jack's waist. But as Jack looked on, wondering what kind of Pokémon it was, the light just kept on coiling upwards; ten, twenty, thirty feet it rose into the sky. Then, to Jack's amazement, the light dissipated to reveal a gigantic green serpent; a Pokémon spoken of only in legends. Rayquaza.

Jack stared at the Legendary Pokémon of the sky with awe, and then at Tobias.

"Who is this guy?" Jack asked himself incredulously. "Even if there is more than one Rayquaza, how on Earth did he catch one?"

Then, a thought occurred to him; an itch that refused to be scratched. He sent a mental probe up to Rayquaza's towering form but, although he could sense an immense amount of aura, he couldn't sense Rayquaza's mind; just like with Darkrai and Salamence.

"It just doesn't make any sense…" Jack muttered, before turning to Solomon. "Alright, get ready; this isn't going to be easy."

Solomon nodded. "You don't need to tell me twice."

As soon as the round started, Solomon began teleporting erratically; firing Ice Beams at Rayquaza from every conceivable angle. Rayquaza barely moved, and just let itself be attacked. Parts of its body got completely frozen over, but it didn't so much as flinch; or show any signs of pain whatsoever.

Jack gritted his teeth; this was not good, Solomon was just tiring himself out at this point. And he imagined that Rayquaza wouldn't stay docile for much longer. Just then, Solomon reappeared in front of him looking decidedly out of breath.

"It's no good," Solomon said, breathing heavily. "My attacks are doing nothing to it."

"Try Shadow Ball," Jack replied. "You might be able to decrease its special defense."

Solomon nodded and teleported away again, reappearing several meters above the ground. He started gathering a sphere of black energy in his hand, but then Rayquaza started to move; the ice from Solomon's attacks shattered like so much sugar glass and fell to the ground as Rayquaza's lower body started to glow with energy.

With a speed that seemed almost impossible for such a large creature, Rayquaza suddenly twisted its body around and lashed out with a vicious Iron Tail at Solomon; who just barely teleported away in time.

Solomon reappeared on the other side of Rayquaza and started charging up another Shadow Ball, but Rayquaza twisted around and lashed out with Iron Tail again. Once again, Solomon only barely managed to Teleport away in time; but he couldn't keep up that pace for long.

Rayquaza tried Iron Tail one more time, and Solomon avoided it with Teleport again; but this time Rayquaza didn't wait for Solomon to reappear. Almost as if it could sense where Solomon was going to Teleport, Rayquaza swung its tail around behind it. A split second later, Solomon popped back into existence right in the path of Rayquaza's tail.

With no time to do anything, Jack watched helplessly as Solomon was smacked out of the air by Iron Tail and crashed into the ground. When the dust cleared, Solomon was out for the count.


Me: And yes, I was intending to make this chapter a lot longer; except I ran into a roadblock and, since the chapter was dead late already, I decided to just clip it short and upload it as soon as possible.

Jack: That was probably a wise move.

Me: Thanks. Anyway, time for the first Q best behavior everybody. I'm looking at you Jack.

Jack: *grumbles*

Me: Alright then, let's begin.

Cabob1021: So, I'm feeling evil, Jack and Jason, what's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to both of you? :)

Jack: Really? First question, right out of the starting gate, and we get this?

Me: For me, probably that time Jack locked me in a closet and did the Author's Notes without me. What about you Jack?

Jack: This Q&A…

Me: Shut up.

GameManiac: How did you get into Pokémon?

Jack: I didn't have much choice, now did I.

Me: Don't be like that. As for me, I watched a little of the Hoenn Anime when I was little; but I grew out of it fairly quickly. But then when I grew up I started seeing Pokémon everywhere, and I remembered how much fun I used to have watching the show; so I went back and started watching the Sinnoh series, and from then on I was officially hooked. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Anonymous silhouette: Is Paul going to show up again?

Me: And finally we get into Spoiler territory.

Jack: You can't say you didn't know it was coming.

Me: True, true. Anyway, to answer your question… I'm really not sure at this point. I haven't specifically planned for Paul to make another appearance, but it's certainly a possibility. I can't promise anything though; and it won't be any time soon, that much I can tell you

Anonymous silhouette: Why are you such a noob (you asked for it)

Jack: No, you asked for it.

Me: Now now, let's not get hostile. Even though I know for a fact that this question came courtesy of my little brother.

Jack: You know, that sentence doesn't even have a question mark at the end. So are we sure it's actually a question?

Me: Hmm… my Grammar Nazi side agrees with you. We are disregarding this comment due to lack of punctuation.

Jack: At least I now know you can be reasoned with.

Me: And that's the last of the questions. So, was it really so bad?

Jack: I guess not…

Me: Anyway, we'll see you all in the next chapter; and remember if you have any questions for me and Jack, don't be afraid to ask.