Chapter 24
"Rematch"
"He's not coming," Mayo informed us.
Mm……
"It's no big deal, right Asha?" she asked.
Uhh…No…It's not a deal…I mean, it's not big…I mean…ummm…
"We get the point, Ash," Misty jeered.
Uh…yeah………
"Should we use Taper?" Mom asked, "We'll get there faster."
Taper…? Can it handle that?
"Taper's how we found you so fast last time…" Mom answered, "…Even if we were still too late……"
You weren't too late………I was probably too early.
"Don't worry about it, Ash," Billie said, "Everyone's okay, so that's all that matters……Right?"
Um…Right……Let's get going!
"Okay," Mom said.
She let Taper out of its Pokéball without any big motion or anything…That's my mom for you……She was holding my Pokéballs for me, since I didn't really want to wear a Pokébelt while I was a Mew.
Yes…? Taper asked.
I still wasn't used to Taper being a Hypno……I was starting to understand how it must have been for everyone else when I evolved…
Can you handle a Teleport to Indigo? I asked.
I can if you can.
If I……Oh……Okay, I get it. Let's give it a try.
We both divided up the Teleport between us, so it wasn't as hard as it usually was when I Teleported more than just me.
* * *
I think they were expecting us. Maybe somebody called ahead again…Either way, all four of them were waiting in the lobby.
"Welcome back, Ash," Lorelei said.
"Ready to fight Lance?" Agatha asked.
Umm…
I looked at Lance. He was facing the other direction and looking out the window with his arms crossed. He was still wearing the cape and stuff too.
…I'm ready if you are, Lance, I said.
He nodded once.
"Then let's go to the battlefield."
* * *
Mom gave me my Pokébelt, and I held it in my paws as we went to the field.
"Never before has a match been interrupted like that…" Lance said.
Yeah…They sure had a lot of guts, huh?
"You could call it guts if you want to……but they interrupted us at a very critical time."
Yeah, I know…So what are we gonna do?
"I will tell you when we get there, but the four of us have discussed the options while you were gone and we came to a solid conclusion."
I blinked.
…Um……Okay.
* * *
We faced off again.
"Because we ended our last meeting with one Pokémon each, this battle will be one on one. You must choose your Pokémon before either of us send ours out. You may not switch Pokémon, and you must send out your Pokémon at the same time that I send mine out. Understand?"
…Yes.
"Very well then. Are you ready?"
I fidgeted slightly. I remembered something that an Officer Jenny had told me once…
"Ash, a master will never be respected if he won't do something he asks his own Pokémon to do."
"…Ash?" Lance asked again.
Umm…Just a moment.
I dashed over to Lorelei, Bruno, and Agatha.
Can I use a Pokémon other than one of the six that I used last time? I asked nervously.
"Uh…" Agatha said.
She glanced at the other two Elite.
"……Which Pokémon are you planning on using?" Bruno asked.
Well……um……Would I be disqualified if I used a…Mew?
"You're going to battle for yourself?" Lorelei asked.
I nodded.
"…Hold on sec," Agatha said.
The three of them huddled quickly and whispered to each other. When they were done, they turned back to me.
"We don't see why not," Agatha stated, "You're free to use any Pokémon that you wish…Even yourself."
……Thanks, guys…
I went back to my spot.
Lorelei stood up and walked over to the center of the sidelines. She was holding the red and green referee flags. She raised them up.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
…I'm ready…
"Ready," Lance said.
"One Pokémon each. Send them out at the same time…Ready……Go!"
I gulped and stepped onto the battlefield.
"Dragonite! Go!"
"Piika!!?"
'What are you doing!!?'
I'm doing what any real Master would do…if he could……and I can.
"Piika, pikachu!!"
'You're gonna get hurt Ash!!'
I'll be fine…
I noticed that Lance was staring at me.
"It's not polite to stare, Lance," Lorelei said.
"Uh…right…"
"…He wanted to battle for himself, so we decided we might as well let him…You still have to battle him, Lance."
"Yes…I…know that………Eh…Ready Ash?"
I am if you are……
"………Okay……Let's start………Dragonite! Thunder Wave!"
"Dra, gon!"
I quickly hid myself using that bubble thingy that Mewtwo always used. Dragonite's attack didn't touch me.
"…Dragonite! Ice Beam!"
I jumped up and let the attack hit the ground where I had been just a second ago.
Hey, Pikachu! What attacks are good against Dragonite? I asked.
"Pikachu!?"
'How would I know!?'
Well, it looks like a flying type, so I guess electric attacks should work, right?
"Mmmeeww!!!!"
I gave Dragonite a Thunderbolt attack.
"Dragonite, Thunder Wave," Lance said quickly.
The two electric attacks hit each other, but Dragonite's Thunder Wave absorbed my Thunderbolt and hit me.
"Mew!!"
I fell…It was getting hard to move…
"Pikapi!!"
'Ash!!'
"Dragonite, Slam!"
Dragonite moved next to me, then spun around to whack me with its tail. I flinched, but tried to Teleport anyway. It worked, but just barely.
"Dragonite! Dragon Rage!"
Not good…
"Dragon……nite!!"
A cyclone appeared in front of it and came spinning towards me. I began to get déjà vu.
Time to even the odds…
I tried using Thunder Wave. I think it worked, but I couldn't tell, because the Dragon Rage hit me before I could check. The first hit was very strong, then I lost track of everything else as I was spun around crazily for a minute or so. When it finally stopped, I hit the ground headfirst and just kinda lay there, watching the clouds spin around in the sky…
"Pikapi!! Pikachu!!!"
'Ash!! Watch out!!!'
Huh?
I looked around. Dragonite was charging towards me. I could feel the ground shaking…
Whoa!
I decided that Teleport would be a wise move. Dragonite kept going until it realized that it hadn't hit me. Then it doubled back at me.
This isn't good…
I had an idea…but I'd never really used that attack before……even though Mewtwo had taught me.
Okay, Ash. You're a psychic Pokémon. You should be able to use Psychic……
I stared at Dragonite as it approached me rapidly. Gradually, my vision turned pink. I began to feel things more than I could see or hear them…First, I stopped Dragonite from finishing its attack. It was surprised that it suddenly couldn't move and fought viciously against me. I ignored that and lifted it up a little. Not much though, because it was a very heavy creature. I then flung as far away from me and as hard as I could, all the while remembering the trick Mewtwo had taught me.
You have to make them feel pain, Ash. Otherwise, it's just another Confusion attack. Psychic eats away at them…
I didn't particularly like that idea, but it was true. Mewtwo had, uh…demonstrated the difference for me……Afterwards, it became very clear to me how to tell the two attacks apart…
"Draagon!! Nite…!"
Dragonite crash-landed, and for a second, I thought I had won…
"…Dragonite! Hyper Beam attack!"
Dragonite heard his order and stood up quickly. It briefly powered up a small orange ball of energy, then blasted its attack straight at me. I didn't even have time to react. Its Hyper Beam was overpowering…It drove me straight into the ground and kept going…It took me a while to realize when it was done…
"Pikapi!!"
'Ash!!'
I couldn't get up…
No! I'm not gonna lose like this!!
I closed my eyes and imagined a nice egg…I imagined eating the egg and feeling a lot better…
I opened my eyes and sat up.
This…isn't over…yet!
I floated up, then created a mirror-image of the energy ball that Dragonite had used against me. I kept growing it until it was almost as big as me.
"MEWW!!!!"
"Dra…?"
I shot it straight at Dragonite with all the force I could offer.
"Dra…gon!"
Dragonite dove to the side, and my Hyper Beam completely destroyed the wall that it had just been laying against.
I dropped to the ground again. That had completely wasted me…
"…Dragonite, Slam!" Lance said.
"Gonite!!"
Oh no…
Dragonite ran towards me again. This time, I couldn't do anything about it. It spun around at the last second and knocked me to the side of the arena using its tail…I felt more as if it had hit me with metal baseball bat…or maybe it was worse than that…
"Skull Bash! Now!"
"Draagonite!!"
I pushed myself up. The earth kind of tipped when I did that, but I ignored it.
Dragonite…should be weak against………
I couldn't think straight……I looked up again. It was getting so close…
…Ice? It's worth a try……
I summoned up the biggest Blizzard I could manage. From out of nowhere, huge shards of ice appeared in the air and slammed into Dragonite…Dragonite simply shrugged them off though…
This is impossible…
The next thing I knew, Dragonite rammed its head into me and I hit the wall………The world flashed painfully and became black…