This is the second of four chapters today.
With a sound like a ringing bell, a pulse of distortion washed over the forest.
"I guess we know what that is," Misty said. "Come on!"
Brock nodded, and they hurried towards the centre of the disturbance.
"Togekiss," Misty said, grabbing the Pokéball as they were moving, "Can you keep an eye out for us?"
Togekiss nodded, and took to the sky. "Sure thing, Misty."
It was a short trip to the shrine, which was quite close to Arborville, and so they got there just about as Celebi's time jump completed.
Brock pointed. "Misty, can you grab Celebi? I'll make sure the boy's okay."
Accepting that, Misty knelt down next to the tired Grass-type Legendary. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Celebi blinked, and looked up at her. A moment of confusion, and then Celebi jumped and hovered away slightly. "No! Stay away!"
"We're not here to hurt you," Misty soothed. Unbidden, Togekiss floated down behind her trainer, and smiled reassuringly. "Poor thing – you're hurt, aren't you?"
"I think Sammy's okay," Brock reported. "Still breathing, and his pulse is strong. I'll give him some water."
"Good idea, Brock," Misty said. "Make sure he doesn't choke."
"I have studied this," Brock pointed out. "I'm not a complete idiot."
"Eh." Misty shrugged, and turned back to Celebi. "Don't worry, you're among friends now."
Celebi blinked slowly, looking from her to Sammy and Brock. "What..."
"She's right," Togekiss said. "Isn't there a lake around here which can heal Pokémon? Let's get you there right away."
Misty nodded. "That sounds like a good idea."
The Legendary frowned. "I... I think... okay."
She glanced over at Sammy. "Is he alright? He tried to save me, in... in the – I think I jumped forwards, so the past."
"He seems fine," Brock reported. "Wait – he's waking up."
Celebi floated into the air, which clearly took a lot of effort, and hovered over Sammy as he woke.
"Celebi?" he asked, and blinked. "Did... where's that poacher!?"
Brock caught him as he surged upright. "Don't worry – Celebi time travelled with you, you left him in the past."
Sammy glanced at Celebi, who bobbed up and down before sinking tiredly to the floor.
"Okay," he said, accepting that, and also deciding these people had to be okay if Celebi wasn't trying to run away from them. "How far did I go?"
"Well... not sure," Brock said, glancing at Misty. "We met someone called Towa, who warned us about the Voice of the Forest..."
"I met her too!" Sammy said. "She was an adult – I don't know exactly how old, maybe a bit more than twenty?"
"Then I guess you came forward something like forty years," Brock said.
"Forty years..." Sammy repeated. "Wow."
He glanced around. "Wait – where's my sketchbook?"
"She might have it," Misty suggested. "Brock, do you think you can take him-"
"I'm called Sammy," Sammy supplied.
"Thanks," Misty said. "I'm Misty, and you heard he's Brock. Brock, can you take Sammy to Arborville? I'll try and get Celebi to the lake of life."
"Wait," Sammy said. "I want to make sure Celebi's okay. I'll come with you."
"Sure," Misty said, thinking. "Okay – Brock, let Towa know what's going on. Togekiss, did you see which way the lake was?"
Togekiss nodded. "Follow me – I'll lead the way."
Sammy reached down and picked up Celebi, cradling her in his arms and making sure to support her head. "Let's hurry!"
Flaring her wings, Pidgeot dumped speed. She decelerated from near-transsonic cruise to landing speed much faster than normal, trying to waste as little time as she could, and Ash jumped off her back before she'd quite stopped moving.
Returning her, he hurried into the Pokémon centre. "Uh... Nurse Joy?"
The Olivine Joy looked up. "Oh – hello, young man. Are you in a hurry?"
"Yeah," Ash nodded.
"Well, it's not busy, so that should be fine. I'll handle yours right now."
"Thanks," Ash said with a quick smile. Pikachu hopped up onto the counter, and as Joy took him Ash also passed over five Pokéballs.
"Thank you. Oh, might I ask what they are?" she said, running the scanner over Pikachu. "If I can set the computer up ahead of time it goes quicker."
Her Chansey looked up, ready to enter the information.
"Let's see..." Ash pointed. "That's a Lucario, those two are Ivysaur and Bayleef..."
"Ivysaur... and Bayleef..." the Chansey repeated, typing away.
"The final Pokéball is Pidgeot."
"Oh, the one you arrived on?" Joy asked. "I saw you through the door. Did you go overhead a bit more than an hour ago? Several people have mentioned it."
"That's right," Ash confirmed. "The Fast Ball is Suicune."
Joy dropped the scanner. "Pardon? Did you just say Suicune?"
"Yeah," Ash said, with a nod. "Still amazed I caught her, but... there it is."
"Well... goodness," Joy said faintly, and picked up the scanner again. She completed her examination of Pikachu, and nodded to Chansey. "Just a bit tired, two ccs of ether and one of regular potion should be adequate."
Chansey nodded, picking Pikachu up and taking him into the back.
"Do you mind if I scan, uh, Suicune next?" Joy asked. "I've only ever heard stories before."
Ash nodded. "Go ahead, she might actually be the worst off."
Joy picked up the lightning-marked Pokéball, and opened it. For a moment, she just stared at the stately blue Pokémon who emerged, then she shook her head and started running the scanner again.
"I don't have a baseline for you," she apologized, glancing between Suicune and her screen. "So I'm going to be guessing slightly..."
Suicune shrugged slightly, and smiled at Ash. "This is convenient, I must admit – Entei was recovering for days after your match with him."
"Really?" Ash blinked. "I thought he was still pretty well off..."
"He tricked you, I see," Suicune smiled. "No, that was Lava Plume, not Eruption."
"But that must mean I... wow," Ash said, shaking his head. "I didn't realize I was that close."
"You weren't supposed to," Suicune reminded him, then winced slightly as Joy sprayed something over part of her leg. "What was that?"
Joy could tell Suicune was curious from body language and the tone of her voice. "It's a spray of test potion – it lets me see how well your body reacts to it... okay, I think I've got a dosage ready."
She tapped it into the computer, and took the resulting printout. "Take this to Chansey, please."
Suicune nodded, carefully took the printout in her mouth, and padded into the back room as Joy started scanning the unconscious Ivysaur.
Ash glanced at the clock. "Man, I hope this doesn't take too long..."
"I'm not exactly dawdling," Joy said, a little peeved. "If I go any faster, I might miss something important. Using just potions like this is quicker, but I have to get the dosage right."
"Right," Ash said, trying to calm down. "Sorry – I found out a short while ago that there's something important going on, and I don't want to be late."
"With a Pidgeot like the one you have, you certainly shouldn't be late," Joy said absently. "Wow, this Ivysaur is tired. What's he been doing? Frenzy Plant?"
"Yes," Ash said simply.
"...oh," Joy replied, blinking.
As they hurried along the forest trails, following Togekiss, both Sammy and Misty noticed the occasional forest Pokémon examining them – seeing if they were a threat.
The result tended to be that the Pokémon melted back into the mists, though one Furret did run alongside them for the whole rest of their journey, dodging in and out of the undergrowth.
After some minutes, they came to the shores of a large, clear lake. The far side was almost shrouded in mists, but a few trees could be seen there rearing out of the mist.
"This must be the Lake of Life," Misty said.
Sammy nodded, looked down at the Celebi cradled in his arms, and stepped into the water. "Okay, Celebi. I hope this works."
He knelt, not caring that his trousers were soaked by the lake water, and placed her into it.
Celebi shifted slightly, seeming to breathe a little easier.
A crashing sound made Misty turn. Crobat glided through the trees, and then Brock came through at a run with Stantler beside him.
"Hey, Brock," Misty said, as the older boy skidded to a halt at the side of the lake. "Why's Stantler out?"
"It made it easier to explain to all the forest Pokémon," Brock said. "But I haven't seen any for a few minutes – look!"
Misty followed his gaze.
Standing by the lakeside, at the other side of a large embayment, were dozens upon dozens of forest Pokémon.
"I... guess they're here to make sure Celebi gets healed," Misty said – she'd never quite had that explained to her, but it made sense. "Maybe she needs to be a bit deeper in the water?"
Sammy nodded, and immersed the Legendary more fully. She fluttered her small wings, then seemed to perk up slightly, and swam out of his arms deeper into the water.
A little green light appeared, visible through the water. It brightened, strengthening as they watched, and got faster and faster.
Then Celebi burst through the water, glowing with psychic energy. "Yay!" she called, spinning around as water droplets fell around her. "I feel much better!"
"Celebi!" Sammy called. "You're all right!"
Celebi smiled at him, and at Brock and Misty – then stopped, looking into the distance. "Wait – what's that?"
A beam of orange energy slashed out of the trees, barely missing her, and blew a tree to splinters – scattering the forest Pokémon.
Misty winced. "Oh, no..."
The giant spider-like war machine of the Iron Masked Marauder stomped into view, with a Tyranitar by its side and crackling with dark energy.
"At last!" the Marauder said, triumph in his voice. "I've found you, Celebi!"
He looked down at Tyranitar. "Get it!"
Brock and Misty exchanged glances, then both sent out every Pokémon they had.
"Leave Celebi alone!" Sammy shouted, taking his own handmade Pokéball and opening the top. "Charmeleon – we're going to help Celebi too!"
Tyranitar fired another Hyper Beam at Celebi, again narrowly missing, and then Misty's Gyarados slammed into him and drove him backwards.
Vicious scowled beneath his mask. "Right – you asked for it! Skarmory, bring me that Celebi!"
Brock blinked. "He didn't have a-"
With a flash of light, a Skarmory materialized overhead. It cawed, a horrible tooth-grating sound, and swooped in towards Celebi.
Panicking, the little Psychic-type fired an Extrasensory attack and dove out of the way of Skarmory's attack.
Vicious released several more Pokémon – dark-balls producing a Houndoom and a Venomoth, who started attacking Brock's Pokémon, and regular Pokéballs producing three more. The Weavile, Scizor and Girafarig teamed up on Misty's Pokémon, quickly forcing them away from the Dark Tyranitar.
Around this point, Sammy noticed a strange noise. He pointed up. "What's that?"
Brock and Misty followed his finger.
"I... don't know," Misty admitted. "Well, it's some kind of flying machine, but..."
She stopped talking as it transformed, flipping up the outer half of each wing so the propellors on the outer edges were now facing down.
"Prepare for trouble!" boomed a very familiar voice.
It didn't get much further, though, because they had to jink out of the way of a powerful Psybeam from the Girafarig.
"Hey!" shouted another voice. "You wrecked da motto! Now dis is personal!"
The tiltrotor moved to the right, avoiding another attack by one of Vicious' Pokémon, and opened up with its chin gun. Dozens of small bullets per second sprayed across the war machine, denting the armour, though Vicious himself escaped harm by way of a quickly-deployed armour plate.
"Scizor!" he snapped. "Stop them!"
Ninetales snatched her tails away from a powerful Dark Pulse, and snarled at the Houndoom who had fired it. Her tails weaved together a low-powered Fire attack – a little below even an Ember – and shot it at the Houndoom.
It splashed across him without making a mark, and she hissed – Flash Fire. That would make things tricky, not that they weren't already.
Another Dark Pulse shot out, forcing Ninetales to jump away from it, and then Growlie landed on the Houndoom hard enough to crack the floor underneath him.
"We've got to stop meeting like this," she quipped, glad to see him, and he grinned.
The Arcanine then turned towards their foe, frowning in confusion. "Wait a minute-"
Houndoom nearly took his leg off, erupting forwards and slamming his jaws together in a Crunch which went where Growlie's knee had been a moment before.
"Well, I suppose it wasn't going to go that easily," Growlie commented, licking his fangs as they circled Houndoom.
There was an ear-splitting crash as the giant robot threw an Ursaring into a tree hard enough to crack the heartwood.
"Any ideas?" Ninetales asked, feinting forwards with her tails and decoying a Dark Pulse out of Houndoom – then wincing as it blew several branches off the tree it connected with. "Well, that wasn't a good one..."
"I know," Growlie said, turned his back, and ran.
Ninetales didn't follow his movement – knowing she could, but also that it might be a terrible mistake to do so. Instead she built purple witchfire on her tails and spun forwards a Hex – the best of a bad lot, for the moves she knew.
Houndoom didn't even bother to dodge, taking the attack with a contemptuous ease, and then pounced forwards to use Crunch on her.
He was slightly wrong-footed by an Earthquake some way across the chaotic battlefield, but recovered before he even reached Ninetales. His jaws opened-
And closed on air, as her illusion dissipated.
Ninetales slapped him with all nine tails, bundled up into a single package, and he staggered sideways slightly before recovering. He barked, hugely, the sound lashing at Ninetales' ears, and leapt forwards again.
Several seconds of snarling, biting combat on the forest floor, and she was more grateful than ever before for her dates with Growlie. Their play-fighting had given her a few tricks for this very real fight, and she managed to avoid taking a Crunch anywhere important.
Eventually, she managed to get her feet between them, and pushed him off with a grunt of exertion. Hurriedly coming back to her feet, she was able to stop him simply jumping back at her by dodging out of the way.
A few more seconds of circling, and this time it was Ninetales who jumped in. Houndoom feinted left, then came forwards and in under her guard.
At that point, Growlie arrived with another bone-shaking high speed impact, knocking Houndoom sprawling. He followed up with a powerful series of blows, taking a few hits in return as he focused entirely on hitting Houndoom instead of defence.
That clearly hurt, but it didn't take him out of the fight either. The Houndoom blasted a Fire Blast at Growlie at point-blank range, producing a huge explosion of flame which didn't harm the Arcanine but did startle him, and then followed that up with a Dark Pulse and made it clear.
Rather than follow up, Houndoom turned his head and blasted Crobat out of the sky with an Inferno, then turned back to the other two Fire-types as if daring them to react.
"You son of a-" Ninetales bit the words off, because they were unhelpful and also true, and swirled her tails around again. Both she and her mate vanished from sight.
Houndoom spat a Dark Pulse, which hit nothing, and started sniffing – trying to locate his opponents by scent.
Cubone ducked, barely avoiding being hit by a leg of Vicious' war machine.
Forming a large femur, she swung it at the closest bit of it she could reliably reach – another leg – then jumped back as the retaliatory blow from one of the arms came in.
This all posed an interesting question. How did she kill a machine?
Normally the answer to that would have been easy – pull it into her Marble, then hit it with bones until it stopped moving. But that was... less of an option, since she could no longer sustain the Marble for long.
So she was reduced to the other kind of brute force attack. Try things until something broke.
Forming a knucklebone from something large, she used her Thick Club to hit it like a baseball into the body of the machine. This produced a clang, a curse, and a ball of Grass energy from Vicious' Girafarig which she barely evaded in time.
Cubone switched tactics, throwing a pair of bones on long, looping trajectories out into the distance. They curved back in on themselves, and she judged the timing by eye – then threw two more directly at the machine.
All four hit at the same time, and the whole complicated war machine rang like a bell.
Cubone watched it vibrate, seeking out the points which might be vulnerable. They weren't very vulnerable – the spider-tank was well armoured – but they were there, which was good enough to be going on with.
Jumping forwards, she avoided another Energy Ball and sent a Bonemerang back at the Girafarig to keep him busy. At about the same time as that connected, a Stantler charged in, and got blasted backwards by a Psybeam.
Cubone formed a set of Sharpedo teeth, concentrating to maintain them all at once, and used them as pitons to start climbing the side of the striding war machine.
If she could hit the weakest point enough, it might work...
More than once, she had to stop climbing and just cling on as hard as possible to avoid being flung off, as the machine shook its leg hard to try and dislodge her.
The tough Ground-type had a good grip, though, and managed to avoid being shaken off. A few minutes had her next to what she thought was something important, and she began driving a chisel-like modification of an Omastar spine into the weak spot.
Then she had to fend off a snapping grabber-arm as the Marauder noticed what she was doing, and abandoned her break-in attempt for now.
Gyarados – both Gyarados – roared, blasting away at the corrupted Tyranitar with Dragon Rage and Hydro Pump respectively.
Their target roared back, taking surprisingly little damage from the blow, and blasted a Hyper Beam back at the collection of Water-type Pokémon in the lake. The impact knocked Politoed flying before he managed a single attack, and Kingdra dove underwater to avoid being hurt.
The Tyranitar stepped a few paces further forwards, producing splashes of water as he walked into the littoral of the lake, and stamped down hard in an Earthquake. This destabilized several of the Water-types by making the water they were resting on shake back and forth, and threw their attacks wild until they restabilized.
Meowth, riding on James' Gyarados, plinked away with his coins using Pay Day – it didn't do much, but it made him feel better.
"Any idea how we can actually hurt dis guy?" he asked. "I'm open ta suggestions – yipe! Look out!"
An Ancientpower rock went just overhead, and Meowth swore he felt his fur ruffle as it shot past.
Gyarados roared again, firing a Hyper Beam back.
"Jump kick!" Stantler said, galloping forwards. His Soothe Bell jingled, announcing his presence even before he started the attack, and Tyranitar slapped him aside with his tail with contemptuous ease – barely needing to exert any effort at all.
"Kid!" Meowth called, concerned. "Ya okay?"
Then he spotted something, gaped, and shut his mouth quickly.
Switching topics, he tapped his mount on the head. "Don't ya know any better Water attacks? Dis is barely hurtin' him!"
Gyarados' reply was to thrash his tail, sweeping a deluge of water forwards with Aqua Tail, and the impact – coinciding with a Hydro Pump from Misty's Gyarados – made his target skid backwards a bit.
Another Hyper Beam roared out in response, sending Seaking staggering backwards and barely conscious in spite of the shielding effect of the water. It also clipped across Kingdra, knocking that Pokémon backwards, and knocked Starmie out with relative ease.
"Ah, great..." Meowth said, looking for Politoed and seeing him still knocked out. "Looks like da lake's already busted... ain't no healin' for us."
Tyranitar slammed his tail into the ground, this time producing a shower of rocks in Stone Edge. Meowth was the only Pokémon to escape injury out of the half-dozen or so targets, and it also finished Seaking off.
"Dis ain't goin' as well as it could," Meowth winced.
"Ice punch!"
There was a sound like a beautiful crystal sculpture hitting a bouncy castle.
"Night Slash!"
This one sounded like an exquisite katana being driven into a large blancmange.
"Icicle Crash!"
Wobbuffet rocked backwards as the attack hit, then rocked forwards again and released a pulse of energy which struck Weavile and made him wince. "N-ice try, there, but not good enough! Want to go for the double hit?"
"Punishment!"
"Yes, I do a lot of them, don't I?" Wobbuffet agreed, unfazed.
"Shut up! X-Scissor!"
"I prefer my scissors to still be intact!" The patient punster returned this attack as well, grinning all the while. "And that's nothing to Sneasel at!"
Weavile looked like he might be about to have some kind of breakdown. Snarling, he formed shadow claws and slashed them across Wobbuffet's face.
Then got hit by the Counter of that, too.
Misty spoke softly. "How long can you keep this up?"
Stantler turned to her, bereft of his usual Soothe Bell to avoid the betraying jingle. "Quite a long time, as long as it doesn't get attacked."
"Right," Misty nodded, again softly. "Did you put us anywhere?"
"I made you run into the trees," Stantler supplied, turning back to watch the air over the lake and concentrating – directing an illusion of Celebi dodging and weaving around the Venomoth. "And I made my double crawl into the undergrowth before he vanished."
"You're getting really good at this," Brock said, approvingly, and Stantler smiled.
Misty pointed. "Hey – look! To the south!"
Brock, Sammy, Stantler and Celebi turned to follow her finger.
A tiny line of white, visible in the bright blue sky overhead. And, in the centre of it, a cream-brown dot...
"That's Pidgeot," Misty identified. "That means-"
"It's Ash!" Brock said, just about remembering not to raise his voice.
"Who?" Sammy asked.
"Ash Ketchum," Misty clarified. "He's our friend – he wasn't here when you came back, but I phoned him to let him know to get here fast. He's a really strong trainer, and-"
Pidgeot arrived. Her white air-control wings beat once, moving a huge volume of air, and a Gust attack so strong it was visible blasted out along her line of attack. It reached the spider-walker moments before she did, making it stagger, and then the remnants of her sonic boom slammed into it moments later.
As Pidgeot shed speed, pulling up into a wingover, Ash let himself fall clear of her back. He twisted himself in the air as he fell, aiming to land on his feet somewhere clear, and a branch of Pidgeot's tailwind carried him to the ground a little faster and more smoothly than he would have managed alone.
"You love making an entrance, don't you?" Pikachu quipped, jumping from his shoulder and building his first electrical charge. As he did so, Ash grabbed two Pokéballs and released Bayleef and Lucario, then another two which produced Primeape and Muk.
For now, the Legendaries would be his reserve. He didn't want the Marauder to know they were around.
"Guys!" Ash called, taking in the situation. "Try and get his Pokémon! Then focus on the tank!"
Pikachu opened the hostilities by charging a Thunderbolt, and then fired it off at the Tyranitar. Unlike its earlier evolutions, Tyranitar was not immune to Electric attacks, and the hit made it turn slightly to examine the new arrivals.
Ninetales' latest illusion dissolved as Houndoom bit into it, and then shook his head like he was worrying at a Ratatta.
That done, he looked around, sniffing, and followed the scent.
"Any plans?" Growlie asked, keeping his voice down.
"I lure him, you hit him," Ninetales summarized. "You're the one with a Fighting move, it's the best we have."
"Fair enough," he replied, and nuzzled her briefly. "Be safe."
"He won't get any more than the tips of my fur," she told him – then broke cover, running at an angle to Houndoom's path, and fired a Dark Pulse. It didn't do much to the Dark-type, but it was better than a Fire attack, and he bounded after her with a howl.
Then something blue and black and moving very fast indeed cannoned into his flank, bowling him over. Houndoom rolled over with the force of the impact, came to his feet, and had just enough time to begin to snarl before Lucario kicked him in the chin.
Following up from that blow, he delivered another kick to Houndoom's chest with his other foot, and then kicked off into a handspring which took him out of the way of a retaliatory Flamethrower.
"Hello," the Fighting-type said, glancing at Ninetales for a fraction of a second. "Need help?"
"It wouldn't go amiss," Ninetales summarized.
Lucario nodded, and blocked a Flamethrower with Protect. It kept coming, though, a continuous rolling stream of fire, and he charged an Aura Sphere with his free hand before throwing it just as he dove aside and let his Protect collapse.
Houndoom began to turn his Flamethrower to follow, then noticed the blue-glowing Aura Sphere, and had to jump out of the way of the attack instead. The Sphere tracked around to follow him, and collided with a fallen log.
The Fire-type snarled at his opponents as the log showered him with splinters, then shot a Dark Pulse at Growlie as his prowling around for an opening revealed him.
That took his attention off Lucario for a moment, and the Fighting type capitalized to the full.
Lucario's muscles bunched up as he channelled Aura to his feet, crouched, and kicked off with startling speed. He wrong-footed Houndoom by going overhead, launched an Aura Sphere as he went past, bounced off a tree and slammed both feet into the canine's rear leg.
Houndoom stumbled forwards as that leg abruptly refused to bear any weight, and Lucario pressed his advantage, ramming home a series of Force Palm strikes and finishing up with a paralyzing Thunderpunch.
"There," he said, stepping back, and looked around for how else he could help.
Primeape ran through the undergrowth, focusing Aura into his hands. Compressing it gradually tighter and tighter, building a reserve for the fight to come.
Arriving at the battle, he skidded into a tight turn. His feet produced a huge sweeping wave of water as he turned a complete half-circle running on the lake surface, and launched himself at Tyranitar with fist cocked back.
The saurian Tyranitar growled at him, then went skidding slightly backwards in the lakeshore mud as Primeape's punch hit with a hollow boom.
Roaring, the Tyranitar switched his attention fully from the Water-types to the irritating Primeape. His foot slammed down in a Stomp, aiming for the Pig Monkey Pokémon, and hit nothing.
Primeape jumped back, skidding along the surface of the lake as though it was an ice rink, and then his feet abruptly dug in and used it for purchase. Water fountained back in recoil as he launched himself forwards.
A Close Combat hit Tyranitar with a hollow boom, sending him rearing backwards again, and he screamed his rage before firing a Hyper Beam.
Primeape grinned beneath his fur.
He raised his right hand, and the Aura in it became a visible bluish-silver layer. Then he scythed it forwards just as the Hyper Beam hit.
The impact sent him crashing backwards several feet, feet sinking several inches into the water surface as his water-walking aura trick began to cut out, and orange energy sparked and crackled off in all directions.
He raised his other hand to supplement it, feeding in more and more energy to his unorthodox form of Focus Energy, and the Hyper Beam continued to push him back and claw at his control.
Then, slowly, the attack dissipated.
Tyranitar panted, staring at the fuzzy Pokémon facing him.
"Revenge!" Primeape shouted, and pounced. His silver-blue right hand, now cloaked in a layer of orange energy from the Hyper Beam, hit with a BOOM which shook the ground as Rage fed into Revenge fed into Primeape's diamond-like control of his own Aura.
The impact knocked Tyranitar backwards again, and he staggered. His tail went out to support him, preventing him from falling over, but it was a near thing.
"Focus Punch!" Primeape added, leaping into the air and pulling back his other fist.
What Primeape hit Tyranitar with was not a Master Blow – but the main way of telling that was that Primeape was not completely exhausted by the devastatingly powerful impact. It produced a series of concentric ripples in the lake centred on the point of impact, and there was a telltale crack which indicated that the punching fist had gone supersonic at the moment of impact.
Tyranitar finally overbalanced from that blow to his chin, teetering backwards and then crashing to the floor like a felled oak.
Panting, Primeape landed back on the water of the lake, and smirked slightly.
Bayleef exchanged a look with the Scizor facing her.
She remembered this Pokémon from last time this had happened.
Specifically, she remembered that she had beaten him. Despite his being a Steel/Bug type, and her being a relatively recently evolved Grass-type.
"How long have you been a Scizor?" she asked, a little curious.
Scizor blinked. "About three days," he said, then scowled. "Hey! Don't try to distract me! X-Scissor!"
Bayleef's vines whipped out behind her, latching her to a tree, and she pulled herself backwards and out of the way of his close-quarters attack.
She released the vines at the point of greatest extension, drawing them back in, and swirled the leaf on her head as Scizor charged in again.
He was so new to his new body that he didn't know about the greatest advantage a Scizor had... its armour.
"Petal dance!" she called, unleashing a storm of unnaturally sharp cherry blossom.
Scizor blinked, waving it away from his face using his pincer-like claws, and advanced steadily through it. He readied another X-Scissor, and Bayleef's vines lashed out again – forwards this time, past him on either side.
She used them for a sudden burst of forwards acceleration, using her blizzard of petals to hide her position until it was too late, and kicked off his forehead on the way past to disorient him.
Bayleef landed a bit badly, and stumbled as she turned. The potion hadn't properly fixed her up – not really – and she was already feeling the pang of fatigue from earlier.
But she just had to – there!
She'd been focusing her petals on one very specific spot on the armour, scratching away at it again and again. Now she'd gotten through it, and Scizor didn't notice because he was unused to how his new Steel-typing made him so much tougher – the pain, slight as it was, should have been an alarm bell.
Bayleef lashed out with her vines one more time. This time, she put more energy into it than was probably wise, and her Power Whip smashed into the weak spot hard enough to send Scizor flying backwards into a tree.
She panted, but grinned on seeing the small cracks around that weak spot on his armour. She'd got him! The triumph felt good, blowing away her fatigue, and she called up her Petal Dance again to hit him there once more.
Stumbling to his feet, Scizor scowled at her and charged-
And a Flamethrower hit him in the side.
A Charmeleon she recognized as Sammy's waved at her. "Nice work, Meganium!"
It was at that point she realized she'd evolved.
"Huh," she said, glancing down. "Didn't expect that..."
Ash winced as Ivysaur's Leaf Storm attack crashed into the Marauder's Girafarig without any noticeable effect, and then the Psychic-type retaliated with a Psybeam.
"Ivysaur – fall back!" he called. "It must have Sap Sipper! Pikachu, can you handle him?"
Pikachu nodded, running forwards. "Take this! Volt Ta-"
Ash spotted the object at the same time Pikachu did – a sliver of a second before it hit.
"Look out!" he shouted, though far, far too late.
AN:
I feel sort of sorry for that Joy... incidentally, this is my way of getting game healing in the anime. Carefully measured potion doses. Less effective, but much quicker.
The Marauder came prepared this time. If nothing else, he's been watching some of those lectures Jessie and James gave.
That's what in our world is an Osprey the Rockets are using, by the way – in this world, of course, it's got a different name.
