Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

Chapter 11: Council and Counsel

He returned often, but as ever, landing in Blackthorn; his birthplace, the ancestral seat of the Dragon Clan, was comforting in ways many would not even understand. Dragons were a way of life, with many families raising their Pokémon through generations, becoming close to their Pokémon and creating bonds that cast shadows over all but a few. It was no coincidence that several past Grand Champions throughout the Home Regions had either been born in Blackthorn or had lived there for an extended period of time in their formative years.

The house Lance kept in Blackthorn was impeccable as always, suffused with the smell of the many Pokémon he did not bring to the Plateau. Technology made that not particularly needed, and even if that wasn't working, dragonite could bring him here in twenty turbulent minutes. He hadn't ever needed to do that, but it was possible.

He wished he could spend some time with the Pokémon, and he saw a bagon peek her head around a corner, but it would have to wait. He had a guest, who was already there, and his uncle, whom he had yet to see, had already placed several refreshments in the traditional room. The partitions were set up for privacy, and Lance could taste the slightly muggy air; a sign that some barrier was present. "Reginald," he greeted the exiled Gym Leader with a nod. It was returned as he sat down; seiza as expected. Traditions were to be observed here. "Would you like business or pleasure first?"

He asked for form's sake. "Business," Reginald replied. "I must admit to being surprised at your offering pleasure."

Lance smiled politely. Reginald had thrown himself fully into working with the G-men to coordinate movements throughout the Home Regions. There had been some friction at first, but it had all resolved itself as personalities meshed instead of clashed. "I believe you will enjoy it. But you asked for business first." The Grand Champion slid forward a piece of paper; half a normal sheet. "What do you know of this company?"

"Not a great deal," Reginald replied after reading the name and description. "Like what's written, I know it's a company specialising in home protection: locks, alarms, baby monitors…" he added, sounding a tad bewildered at the seemingly random item on the list. "They're led by several Kanto expats, if I remember."

All true. And yet… "Read the first word backwards."

"S-I-L-H…" the middle-aged man started, only to stop himself and bury his face in a hand. Lance had felt much the same once it had been pointed out to him. "The audacity is staggering, as is the fact that we had not picked up on it. How was this not noticed earlier on? It's been less than a decade since Silph was dismantled and Team Rocket's influence in Kanto greatly diminished."

"The same way that you and I didn't realise it at first," Lance offered, knowing full-well it was cold comfort. "Just a normal name for a normal company. It does not stand out unless you scrutinise it closely. That they sell in both Kanto and Kalos also threw us off for a while: we'd expected Team Rocket to not be linked to Kanto with their company."

"It is extremely audacious," Reginald repeated himself, shaking his head. "At least they likely don't know that we are onto them. Have you told Diantha just yet?"

Lance shook his head in the negative. "That is part of what I wanted to speak to you about. They know that Team Rocket is in Kalos, but they don't know the identity just yet. They want to identify them, but understandably, the past months have been focused on dismantling all of the Team Flare infrastructure and networks." The Grand Champion paused, remembering yveltal and the destruction it still wrought. "We need to formulate a strategy."

"One that uproots the entire company, rather than rushing in." A short pause as Reginald took a sip from his drink, reminding Lance that he had one as well. "I understand the desire to not see a new Team Flare arise from my Kalosian colleagues, but where Team Rocket is, black market business follows." A sigh. "I believe I shall be spending time in Kalos. Preferably getting in via Prudan."

"Don't book your flight just yet," Lance interrupted the man's visible thinking on what the best angle of approach would be. "You have Gym Leader duties to attend to." That certainly captured the attention. "Danny Birch and Max Maple won their fifth Johto badge yesterday against Pryce. Here is where they'll go next, though they left town northerly earlier today. Are you willing to team up with Clair and fight one of them?"

Lance made sure to hide his smile in his glass as he drank deeply, seeing the Gym Leader struggle with the desire to go back to what he liked doing most of all and the desire to fulfil what he felt was duty. The former won out, of course. Lance would not have proposed it otherwise. "Clair takes one, I take one?"

"No, you do a Double Battle against Birch," Lance corrected. "Think of it as an eighth badge challenge, only different." Reginald's challenge had been a four-on-two Double Battle. "Talk to her about a format. I shall be exercising my prerogative as Grand Champion and Master Dragon Tamer to test Maple myself." He allowed a smirk. "Is that okay with you?"

"As long as you either let us watch or you record it," came a surprising reply, and one that swapped the smirk from one Dragon-type Trainer to the other. "Your idea of what makes a proper battle test tends to… How do I put this correctly..." Reginald said, not fooling Lance for a moment. "Oh, yes. Throw someone into the windswept ocean, expecting them to stay afloat."

~~§~~§~~

Ducklett's Air Slash split the starmie's Water Gun, causing the attack to fall to the sides, onto the soaked ground. It cost Serena's opponent a few more points, but before she could check if it was enough, a buzzer rang out. "Time!" was announced, and a look upwards didn't tell Serena anything anyway. From her angle, it was impossible to find out which of the Coordinators was in the lead. The battle had been close. "And the winner is… Anna, by two points!"

That stung a bit, but Serena was happy for her opponent nevertheless. The red-haired girl was a few months younger, going for her first Grand Festival, and this was her qualifying Ribbon. It would've been the same for Serena, but seeing the utter joy on the girl's face made the loss bearable. She was showering her starmie with praise, having run out to join it.

Ducklett had waddled back, looking a bit sad. "You did great," Serena told her Pokémon, kneeling, stroking the feathers in the duck's neck. "We've got plenty more chances. And you're definitely getting better at that Air Slash."

The duck preened before hopping back into her pokéball, where it was… Something suitable for Pokémon. It wasn't like Serena had ever asked her Pokémon what it was like in there. She looked up, seeing Anna walk over, her own Water-type also gone. "That was close," she said by way of greeting.

"It was, and congratulations!" Serena agreed, holding a hand out and getting a shake. "I'll just get it elsewhere. Plenty of places I can go." Maybe something near Fuchsia. She hadn't gone out there yet and the Safari Zone sounded interesting.

"Why are you here anyway? Isn't Kalos all the way across the world?"

Serena shrugged as she saw the water on the arena floor being siphoned away. "Couple of reasons," she said. "And I've got family living in Viridian. It's not the first time I've been here. Just the first time I've been here this long."

Anna didn't seem to understand. "But… Isn't it hard? To be half the world away from your parents?"

"I can still talk to my Mum," Serena replied. "I can write, too, but we just plan when we want to talk. Normally Sunday evening, but if Mum's out for work, we change it up."

"I don't think my parents would like it if I went that far away… They don't even want me to go to Sinnoh after the Grand Festival."

That was kind of stupid, Serena thought. It wasn't like Sinnoh was that far away, and it shared a time zone with Kanto, being almost straight north. "Do you know why?" she asked, and Anna shook her head. "Maybe ask them why they don't want you to go there. You've got some time to spare before the Grand Festival. Go visit them."

Anna's reply was stopped as her name was called for the Ribbon ceremony, which was Serena's cue to get off the stage. Her time in the spotlight would come.

~~§~~§~~

Ash found his mother tending the small vegetable garden out in the back, mostly just checking to see if there weren't any bugs trying to eat the food. From what little he knew, it looked like it would be a good harvest later in the year, but it was early days yet, as Mum was fond of reminding him. "Hey Ash," she said as she saw him. "I didn't hear charizard."

"Landed at Professor Oak's lab," Ash replied, sharing a brief hug. "Had to talk to him for something, and charizard wanted to rest."

His Mum didn't say anything as they went inside. Mimey was folding laundry, cheerfully greeting Ash as he entered, but the Pokémon stayed with the clothes for now. Mum went and put some water in the kettle for tea, sitting down afterwards. Pikachu had already taken up his usual position on the back of Ash's favourite chair. "I guess you're leaving soon then?"

Dropping by Professor Oak before going on a journey, or to Unova to help defeat Team Plasma, not that she'd known that at the time, was a bit of a habit of his. "Kinda," Ash said, and he saw confusion appear. "Remember me telling you about Scott asking me if I wanted to become a Frontier Brain?" That was nearly three years ago now, though Scott had repeated his question after Ash had come home with the Sinnoh League trophy – at which point Mum had also found out.

"I do?" Mum said, and Ash could her trying to remember that. "Didn't you say no because you wanted to keep travelling?"

"I did, and I had the offer from Drake that I wanted to pick up after I won in Sinnoh," he said, glancing at the trophies standing on matching wooden plinths. "Then the Champion's League happened, and..." he trailed off, figuring he didn't need to say much more. "But Scott contacted me last month. Asked if I wanted to replace Spencer as the Palace Maven. He was looking to retire." Ash hadn't thought it at the time, not with how spry the man was, but Spencer was in his seventies. "And I accepted this time."

A few moments passed as his mother processed what that exactly meant. Then she hugged the life out of him, luckily stopping before his fingers started tingling from lack of blood coming in. "That's wonderful!" she enthused. "Oh, my baby all grown-up and moving out. Spencer's the Palace Maven, right? Out near Seafoam?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah. That's why I was at Professor Oak's… I'm going to move nearly all of my Pokémon there, and there's just a lot to do before I take over. And I'm moving there too."

"And you're frightened about that because you've been travelling for so long, aren't you?" Mum asked shrewdly, prompting a blush and a sheepish grin. "You'll get used to it, Ash. You got used to travelling years ago, and that is harder to do. And isn't that island big and warm enough for you to sleep outside if you want to anyway in summer?"

"Uhuh," Ash said. He didn't know for sure, but it was pretty far south.

"And I'll make sure you get all the furniture you need." Mum fixed him with A Look. "I'm sure we can borrow one of the Oak Pokémon for transportation so I know what I'm dealing with."

Oh, right. "Actually, Mum… I'm taking the boat up to Sinnoh the day after tomorrow," Ash told her. "I need a second Pokémon I can fly on because charizard, well… I want to be able to get off the island, raising a Psychic-type takes ages to get anywhere, and if I used charizard only for flying, he'd barbecue me."

A smile danced on his mother's face. "Yes, he would, wouldn't he? Is there a Pokémon that you're trying to find?"

"Tropius live in the Great Marsh and are large enough to support flight," Ash said. "Professor Oak also told me to try and catch an abra anyway, but that's… Well, it's not easy."

"How did Gary catch one then?"

That was a good question. "Guess I should ask him before I leave. Thanks Mum!"

~~§~~§~~

The Lake of Rage was very tranquil as Danny and Max arrived there. The irony didn't escape Danny, and it probably didn't escape Max either. "So, where's the spot?"

Danny took a folded picture from his pocket and held it up. Max came closer to have a look. "Some kind of cliff," he said, trying to find any other detail that would allow identification, but most of it was just his parents in their twenties looking completely besotted with each other. "Looks to be a bit narrow, but that could be just a trick."

"Well..." Max said. "There's something there on the east bank. Maybe a mile away?" he added, shrugging. "Can't say much more than that. We didn't buy new binoculars after Serena left."

A mile looked about right. "You up for walking there before we set up for lunch?" Danny asked, checking the time. It was half past eleven, not that it felt like it after Max had woken them up way before sunrise.

Max gave him the predicted half-glare, as usual when he'd woken up due to some nightmare. Suggest anything that even resembled taking it easy on these days and he'd take it as a slight against his ego. Danny was pretty sure Max wouldn't exactly hold back if someone else tried to suggest the same. "Can do that, sure."

The mile walk turned out to take close to an hour, thanks to a lot of Trainers all wanting to battle. Danny wasn't sure where they'd come from, but they had shown up anyway. Most of them had been good practice for various Pokémon, and already, Danny had a decent idea of how he could use litwick in battles.

The downside of all the battles was, of course, that their stomachs were complaining loudly, and both of them opted to skip out on using bowls, instead just upending the package to throw the nuts and dried fruit into their hands for food. It took a few of those before Danny felt like he had enough brain cells left over to check if it was the place that he wanted to visit. "Let's see..." he said as he took the picture out of his pocket once again. "Sure looks like the place."

Max grabbed the picture without saying anything, but Danny had seen the movement. There was a bit of humming – full-sounding due to the food in Max's mouth – before he, too, came to a conclusion. "Yup. The cliff's a lot less deep, though."

"That looks like it was broken off by force," Danny said. "Maybe that Lake of Rage thing that happened here years ago?"

"Nah, that was closer to the river exit on the south end," Max corrected, and Danny conceded the point to him as he shook the bag of nuts one last time, getting a handful and starting to eat them. "But with so many magikarp and gyarados in the lake, maybe another evolution at the time?"

Both of them looked at the alert manectric, who was watching the water with at least an eye and a half as she carefully nibbled on a Pokéblock. For that matter, aggron's pokéball was also lying on the ground instead of being on Danny's belt, but he wasn't going to send the heavy Pokémon out unless he had to. Aggron wasn't much a fan of that, which made him a bit of an outsider in their teams. "I almost pity any gyarados who tries something funny."

That got a laugh out of Max. "Could be good preparation too. They're honorary Dragons after all. Clair might bring one out for you." He looked down, and Danny followed the gaze towards the wristband. "I think I'm going to use manectric anyway if she doesn't pull out a garchomp or something. It's been far too long since she got to cut loose in something that isn't our sparring."

And that sparring was pretty rare anyway, because when manectric really cut loose, there was environmental damage. Neither of them really wanted to uproot trees or set fire to them from lightning strikes, so it only happened in rocky areas that weren't at risk for avalanches. "How long has it been anyway? Ash at Indigo?"

"The tournament near Union Cave," Max corrected. "When we had simultaneous matches in the round of 32. Opponent had a lucario and an espeon left with a bit of switching, and I didn't want to go out."

"You ended up winning that tournament. Beating me in the final match." Which hadn't featured any Megas, but that was a rule they'd agreed on.
Max smiled happily. "Yeah. That battle was better than any other." Danny just rolled his eyes. "But yeah, everyone sent out Ground-types for their last Pokémon if they could after that. Imagine that, huh." Both of them snickered. "You planning to use aggron?"

Danny shook his head. "Probably not. Froslass is a given, and I haven't used drapion at all so far in Johto, so that's two Pokémon already locked in. Maybe klefki as the first Pokémon to stall and get a feel for how Clair fights."

"And hope it's not a fire-breathing dragon," Max pointed out drily. "It's pretty… Wait, you hear that?"

Danny didn't hear anything strange, but he could follow Max's look upwards, and that revealed a Pokémon flying past at incredible speeds, some distance in the air. The shape was hard to see, but colour was at least visible against the grey background of the clouds: orange. "Wait, that's..."

"That's a dragonite," Max confirmed, trying to track the Pokémon as it turned around over the Lake of Rage before diving down, dropping a lot of speed and throwing the lake into turmoil underneath it. "You think it's friendly?"

"What are you asking me for?" Danny said as he got up. One foot started protesting. "You're the one with the Dragon-type and more experience with dragonite. I was the one scared of a dragonair, for crying out loud."

The dragonite had nearly crossed the distance, and Manectric barked over Max's answer, loudly and very happily. A gentle, almost melodic, sound floated back over the water. "Is it friendly, girl?" Max asked, and two very enthusiastic barks later, Danny was pretty sure that the answer was yes. "Wait a minute… Is that one of Lance's?"

The seven foot something Pokémon landed in front of Max before manectric could answer that, but it answered the question by itself, placing a hand on the teen's shoulder and letting out a happy cry. "Think so," Danny said, and he felt some tension leave his body. "One of the two you fought with in Geosenge?"

Electricity danced between the antennae on its head for a moment, and that answer was good enough for the teens. "Sure looks like it," Max said, grinning widely. The dragonite sat down, but even seated, it was taller than Max was. "Were you just out for a flight before you spotted us?" A shake. "Okay… So there's a purpose to your flight."

"Were you looking for us?" Danny asked, and that got him a nod. "But, why?" he asked as he ran a hand through his blonde hair. "The last few times we met Lance, it wasn't happy. Nothing to do with him," Danny added quickly.

The response was swift, but kind, as the dragon put a paw on Danny's wrist, warmth pulsing underneath the leathery skin with every heartbeat. It let out a low and long cry that felt like understanding, and the heat on his wrist expanded, but comfortingly so. Eyes met, and there was nothing but compassion rushing out to meet him.

This was what people meant when they said dragonite were gentle giants, Danny realised suddenly. The orange Pokémon barely even knew him, but the empathy was staggering.

Then the dragonite looked up and let out a loud – but not painful, despite being so close – cry; one that was answered by a sharper, but lower, bellow from up on high, and both boys looked up to see a figure up in the air, though some distance away. Danny was reasonably sure it was another Pokémon, but the shape was too unclear at the distance – it was probably close to a mile away all things considered.

The Pokémon started closing in, and Danny and Max met eyes, shrugging and agreeing silently to wait and see what would happen. Danny didn't feel like the dragonite would call for a Pokémon that was going to hurt them, so he chose to pack away the food.

When he looked back up a moment later, the Pokémon – a salamence – was clearly visible. There was a rider as well; a teenager, Danny thought as the salamence landed nearby. Seventeen or so? Couldn't be much older if the hair on his face was anything to go by. "Ah, there you are. Was expecting you to be closer to the Ice Path..." The teenager shook his head. "I'm here to get you into Blackthorn all quick-like." He fiddled with a set of pokéballs, and out came a pidgeot and a flygon. The latter tittered happily when it was released. "We're flying, so get to a Pokémon and hop on."

Great. Just great. The last time Danny had been on the back of a flying Pokémon, he'd felt like throwing his breakfast up for like half the flight, and that had been over an hour and a half after he'd actually eaten. "Er… Which Pokémon is..."

"Inexperienced flyer?" the Blackthornite – Danny guessed – asked. "That explains why Clair made me take pidgeot. She's gentle."

"Any reason why we're flying there?" Max asked as his hand rubbed flygon's neck. "We would've been there in a week anyway."

A shrug. "Dunno. Didn't ask. When Clair wants something done, she doesn't share reasons. You can ask her yourself in an hour and a bit."

Danny opened his mouth to ask about their packs, but then he noticed that dragonite was standing next to them, and rope flew across his vision a moment later. "Wait a moment," he told dragonite as it started to tie the packs together. "Going to empty water bottles."

Doing that took a moment, during which Max had already gotten on flygon's back. The green Pokémon hovered close to the ground, with the teenager on its back looking completely at ease. "Good idea," he complimented. "Don't fancy having to clean everything because water spilled. That'd suck."

That, at least, made Danny laugh a bit. Max hated doing laundry. "Well, nothing for it."

Pidgeot's flight was a lot calmer than the salamence back in November, but Danny still didn't like the way the ground blurred below them as they flew at altitude. He didn't know what it was, but he couldn't get comfortable on the back of a flying Pokémon. He wasn't even afraid of heights, but this just… Got to him.

He wished he could talk to someone. Maybe that could help to distract him. It had helped back in December, so… Maybe it was the same here? Trying to talk to others flying at arceus only knew how fast didn't work, though...

The mountain range surrounding the Blackthorn valley soon came into view, its unnaturally cold climate standing out. Snow-topped peaks, not even that high, this late into spring was just stupid. The snow and ice caused the temperature to drop, and Danny found himself hating his short-sleeved shirt and trying to get close to pidgeot didn't do too much for warming up. Luckily, It didn't last long, as the range wasn't that big, and Blackthorn came into view on his right.

One of the largest buildings in town was the Gym, and the Pokémon flew straight there, using the lawn to land on. Danny dismounted as quickly as he could, sitting down on the ground, breathing slowly, deeply. His stomach feebly threatened to revolt, but it was easily quashed.

Pidgeot craned its head into his view, looking concerned, and Danny tried for a smile. "Not your fault," he said, almost whispering. He cleared his throat. "Dunno what it is. Flying doesn't work for me. Nothing to do with you."

"Some people have that," a strong female voice rang out from behind him. "You could have told us this."

"I had thought it to be the circumstances, not something deeper," Reginald spoke up. Danny half-turned around to see him next to someone he recognised as Clair a moment later. "My mistake."

"We could've told you it was deeper," Max said as he held out a hand for Danny to grab. He pulled the older boy up to his feet with surprising strength. "Hell, you were there on the ship. You saw how fast he recovered."

"I was expecting teenage boy machismo there," Reginald replied. "Though in retrospect, that seems a foolish decision given your personality profiles. It matters not," he declared. "Welcome to Blackthorn."

"Thanks," Max said, and Danny muttered the same. "Did save us some time. How long were we in the air?"

"Thirty-five minutes?" the teenager that had found them said, speaking up for the first time since they'd landed. "Loads faster than walking it."

"All of us need to prepare for the Gym Battles you will want," Clair stated, brooking no disagreement. "We will meet here in three days, on Thursday, at ten in the morning. If you're up for it, of course," she added.

Danny didn't particularly feel like he could say 'no' anyway.

~~§~~§~~

He should have known that something was going to be out of the ordinary, but it still came as a surprise to Danny when Clair revealed that their Gym Battles would be split up and that they'd be some of the hardest challenges they had ever faced. Max had been told to leave on a familiar flygon that would take him elsewhere – to Lance! - while Danny would have to face the might of two Gym Leaders working together.

Words Max had said a few times rang through his mind. Gym Leaders did not set challenges they thought Trainers couldn't do, basically always, but if he was completely honest, knowing that two dozen years of Gym Leader experience was about to go up against him in a Double Battle was a tiny bit intimidating.

"This will be a three on three Double Battle," the referee explained, mostly for the camera that had been set up to the side of the second field in the Blackthorn Gym. Clair had explained that she regularly recorded battles for other Dragon Clan members to watch and work with. It'd also allow Max to watch the battle back later. "The challenger, Danny Birch of Petalburg, will be allowed to switch out Pokémon at leisure, while the Gym Leaders cannot. If a Gym Leader Pokémon is knocked out, the Gym Leader it belonged to will send out a replacement for the third and final Pokémon. Is everyone ready?"

If Danny were completely honest, he'd probably say he wasn't, but it was too late to back out now. He enlarged the two pokéballs he was going to throw, one in each hand, and waited for the referee to give the sign.

Dragonair and a Pokémon Danny had only seen once before took the field. That had been in the charity match between Drake and Ash, ages ago.

Druddigon, the Cave Pokémon. The skin on its face is harder than rock, and it uses both claw and head to fight in close quarters.

The dragonair would probably stay at range while druddigon came close to use those claws. Danny would have to wait and see the exact methods, though. Swampert could probably meet druddigon head-on, but Doubles were different.

Clair's Pokémon led with a weak Twister that threw up dust and sand from the floor, prompting swampert to move in and block it for drapion, who used the time he was hidden from sight to ready a Poison Sting. He stuck his head beyond swampert and launched them straight forward, where they impacted on a charging druddigon outlined in blue.

A Protect appeared and the blue Pokémon crashed into the shield, which visibly shook. It wouldn't hold long; especially not when dragonair was also there. He scanned the arena for signs of where the flying Pokémon was.

The glint of orange was a shock. "Yank swampert!" Danny yelled, and he saw drapion wrap a claw around swampert's right leg before doing just that. The act dropped the Protect, which caused the druddigon to fall forward, but it also made the Hyper Beam that dragonair had launched from behind miss by inches.

Then the world turned vivid orange-white for a moment, and Danny had to close his eyes to make sure he wasn't blinded. The attack's strength was palpable through the protection: definitely something that would break drapion's Protects and push Swampert's to the limit.

He regained vision of the battle to see that his Pokémon had split up. Drapion had gone past the druddigon and swampert and looked to try and get at the dragonair while it was recovering from the powerful attack, without too much success. A jump to try and grab it failed miserably, but the Dragon Rage that was sent back was outright blocked by a swift Night Slash.

Swampert and druddigon were deadlocked. Bright green slashes met powerful punch-like blocks that forced the Dragon-type to get as good as it gave. Both of them were only focused on their direct opponent. and drapion thought he saw an opening to exploit, going in for a Night Slash from behind.

The druddigon adjusted its feet and then swung itself to its left. Drapion suddenly went flying as the tail slammed into him, while swampert half-stumbled forward. Danny saw a half-block on the Dragon Claw as he followed drapion's flight through the air, straight into a Thunder from the dragonair.

Just before he crashed into the shields on the side, though, drapion made a grab for the dragonair through the electricity and found his mark. Dragonair was yoinked along, and momentum transferred so that it, too, slammed into the shields, and both Pokémon went down onto the ground, where drapion was able to land a good two or three hits with his claws before the lithe Pokémon could slither away. A Pin Missile salvo sent after it missed, but it did force some contortions that would keep it from attacking swampert for the moment.

Somehow, Danny's starter had found the upper hand. A puddle of water revealed how: Water Gun to the stomach at no range whatsoever was enough to force nearly anything back, but it wouldn't do more than that. "Pull back a bit."

Swampert obeyed, using a localise Bulldoze to unbalance druddigon just long enough to move away. Drapion created a Poison Sting distraction that kept the dragonair away, instead forcing it to use a small body Protect to shield the unprotected back of the land-bound Dragon-type

The manoeuvre did buy him a moment, but then the Gym Leader Pokémon went back on the attack. Druddigon stomped once before lowering his head and rushing forward with its scalp glowing, and Danny also saw the dragonair rush in from above with a glowing tail. Both of them went for swampert. "Protect!"

The shield held without any problems, but dragonair hadn't actually hit it. Instead, it had veered off to the side, where another Hyper Beam was charging, out of easy reach for anyone. The angle told Danny that it was going to go for swampert, who couldn't use Protect, and drapion wasn't nearly close enough to intercede.

"Forward!"

Swampert dove into the druddigon that had been glowing that same blue, and the two started brawling immediately, focusing on making sure that they weren't the one in the path of the Hyper Beam. Drapion added to the fray by launching a Pin Missile into it, and then orange met that, and everything exploded.

Danny lost sight of his Pokémon again, but an immediate blue glow erupting told him that swampert hadn't been knocked out just yet. "Go for it!"

The dust hadn't cleared up yet when he saw a fountain of disrupted water spray out the back end, and druddigon roared in anger, somehow holding its ground. A red glow started to surround it, and drapion, who Danny had noticed to be looking for a flank, decided to rush towards dragonair, who was off to the side and preparing a powerful Twister to send forth at just the right time.

Swampert was going to get knocked out here, Danny knew. The trick was to get druddigon to get knocked out along with him.

Danny's starter let out a cry, and drapion seemingly answered, and as the Outraged druddigon attacked; and the Twister rushed forward, the scorpion-like Pokémon jumped up in the air as swampert put as much force as he could into creating an Earthquake. It unbalanced druddigon just a bit, jaw and claws hitting tougher hide instead of weaker skin. Icy blue washed over the Unovan Pokémon just before the Twister hit, and then a Pin Missile also joined it, creating another explosion; more volatile than the one from Hyper Beam.

Drapion ducking an Iron Tail in the distance was all Danny saw before his vision was taken away, again. This time, blue suffused the explosion, but it died out pretty fast, so at least swampert had been knocked out, but he had to wait for the dust to clear. Off to the side, he saw dragonair being flung away, but it righted itself before hitting anything.

Then the referee stuck a flag up. The blue flag: the one for Danny's opponents. "Swampert is knocked out," she stated as drapion and dragonair moved away from each other, eager to put distance between them while the fight was paused. "And druddigon is knocked out as well," she added as the other flag went up. "Both Pokémon were knocked out simultaneously."

Not that it mattered, Danny realised as he returned his starter, whispering thanks for withstanding a Hyper Beam, an Outraged druddigon, myriad Dragon Claws, a few Twisters, and whatever that blue attack had been. There was only one option for him to send out in a fight with this much power being thrown around, and Reginald knew that as well.

"Froslass, get those dragons!"

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

In Johto. Targets are known to be in Blackthorn at the moment. We are some days out, taking the southern mountain range to avoid easy detection. Next place of interest is Carnation for targets; we'll seek to intercept.

Author's Note: Funny story: my pre-writing draft for the Gym Battle had both other Pokémon getting knocked out first, but then the scene started making sense for it to be this way.

I'm hoping this comes out without any issues with paragraph spacing... The Lake of Rage scene went weird, and though I know why it happened, I'm not quite sure how to make that unhappen without the solution of manually entering in FFN.