This is the first of two chapters today.
"...oh, I didn't know there was such a thing as a Mega Gyarados," Liza said, watching Misty's Mega Gyarados roaring, splashing and generally showing off. "He's pretty impressive."
Misty nodded, her bracelet-shaped Key Stone holder pulsing faintly as it sustained the transformation. "Yeah, though it's kind of hard to find a battlefield he can really cut loose on... Ash's Mega, Heracross, is much easier to do that with."
Liza nodded. "I imagine that's a consideration... well, for a Water-type trainer generally, too."
"Water can't be the only type it matters for," Misty shrugged. "I mean, Steel types and Rock types are sometimes heavy enough to be a problem on upper floors, and as for Flying types..."
That earned her a chuckle. "Yes, Charizard mentioned how hard it was fighting inside the Steel-type gym down in Olivine. Until he broke it."
"Ash is making a bit of a habit of it... wonder how Clair's going to handle it," Misty mused.
"Actually..." the Dragon Tamer said, craning her neck a bit. "I think that's her now!"
"Really?" Misty followed Liza's gaze. "Oh, yeah, does look a bit – wait. Why's Raikou with her?"
"...and do you have any idea how much that's going to cost?" Clair asked, exasperated.
Raikou flicked his tail, and rummaged through his huge collection of signs. 'I don't see what you're complaining about.'
He twirled it around. 'It was a legitimate strategy.'
"How many times have you had to – never mind, I don't want to know." Clair rubbed her temples. "Anyway... here's what it means. I'll have to get someone out to cut through eight inches of granite facing in several different places, completely re-wire the entire gym, and then probably get a Magcargo in to replace the rock with some basalt – that's not the same, but it's as close as I can get!"
Raikou rolled his eyes, then looked up as a familiar pair of shapes came loping towards him.
"Aha, Suicune, Entei!" he greeted, fangs flashing in a grin. "Lovely to see you!"
"Where have you been, Raikou?" Entei asked, as he came to a stop. "You vanished weeks ago blathering about sign language... wait a moment."
The Fire-type paced around his brother, and snagged one of the wooden signs. Turning it, he read it.
"...you are a moron," he sighed. "Why didn't you just get a Psychic type to help or something?"
"That would have been boring!" Raikou said firmly. "Anyway, I've got all eight badges, so that should prove to Ash that I'm not holding back!"
Suicune blinked. "...I don't follow the logic."
Ash came running up behind. "Are you the Blackthorn Gym Leader?"
"I am – and you must be Ash Ketchum?" Clair asked, getting a nod in return. "Sorry, gym's closed for now."
"What!?" Ash gaped. "Why?"
Clair indicated Raikou. "This Electric-type idiot blew out all the lights with an electro-magnetic pulse!"
"...well, if you will use a Kingdra on me then I don't see how I can be held responsible," Raikou mumbled.
"Why was Raikou challenging your gym?" Ash asked.
"To prove that I'm dashed well not going to hold back again!" Raikou told him proudly.
"...I'm not sure that makes sense," Ash said slowly. "I mean, just because you got badges doesn't mean you're never going to hold back..."
Raikou started to prance back and forth, holding in his irritation. "Fine! I've taught myself Extrasensory, Dig, Iron Head and Iron Tail, for starters! I'll use them, you'll see!"
"I'm sure this conversation is fascinating," Clair interrupted. "But – hmmm..."
She frowned, then nodded firmly. "Okay, Mr. Ketchum. Give me an hour or so to contact those available of the Clan, and we can have our gym battle. Up there."
Ash followed her pointing finger, which indicated the opening of a little side valley.
"Right!" he said. "I'll spend the time making sure my team's ready!"
Clair nodded. "Very good; I'll be doing the same."
She made to turn away, then stopped. "What's that in the lake?"
"Oh, that's my friend Misty's Mega Gyarados," Ash explained.
"...right."
Around an hour later, they reconvened in the side valley. It was steep-sided, with old terraces cut into the walls, and something of a curve to it so that where they were standing was a little out of view of the main floor of the Holy Land.
"Is this place used for battle often?" Ash asked, looking around at the occasional burn scar and the variably-aged greenery.
"Occasionally," Clair agreed. "Lance and I come up here to keep one another in shape – he usually wins, though..."
She shook her head. "Anyway. Do you know what the secondary challenge of the Dragon Gym of Blackthorn is?"
"Not really, no," Ash admitted.
"It is – overwhelming power," Clair informed him. "Now, in your case, that's caused me a bit of a problem – but, fortunately, I have a solution."
She reached into her pocket, revealing a Mega Necklace holding a Key Stone – and no fewer than three Mega Stones.
"I had to borrow over half the ones the Clan has, so I hope you appreciate this," she told him, as Ash blinked in shock. "Anyway. This will be a set of six one on one battles. If you win all six, you win automatically – otherwise, it's up to how the Clan thinks."
She pointed skywards, indicating the valley rim on her side. Ash looked up, and saw a dozen or so trainers standing there – each one next to a Dragon-type or similar Pokémon.
"Do you understand?" she resumed.
Ash frowned. "Uh, I guess, but – question?"
"Go on."
"The river here's only a few inches deep. Is your Kingdra going to be okay?"
Clair sighed. "Kingdra's in the Pokémon Centre. Raikou electrocuted him – that's when he blew the lights out."
Ash tried not to breathe a sigh of relief – that actually made things quite a bit easier, since it meant he didn't have to save one of the Pokémon with Freeze-Dry to handle Kingdra.
"Yeah, I understand," he said, after a moment.
"Good luck, Ash!" Misty called down from the valley rim on his side.
"Yeah!" Brock added. "Last Johto badge!"
"Thanks, guys!" Ash called back up. He turned to grin at Clair. "Who's first?"
Clair carefully took the first Pokéball off her waist. "Right. First is – Ampharos!"
Ash blinked. "Isn't that... whatever. Donphan!"
Donphan stood on one of the lowest terraces before the valley floor itself, looking across at the Electric-type sheep facing him.
"I thought this was the Dragon-type gym?" he asked, curiously.
Ampharos shrugged. "You'd be surprised."
He cracked his knuckles. "Okay, let's get started here."
Electricity crackled around his fur, and then he faced Donphan and fired a Dragon Pulse.
"Whoa!" Donphan yelped, jumping back out of the way. He balled up, pushed off with his trunk, and rolled a few feet up the wall of the next terrace up before coming back down faster.
"Rollout!" Donphan stated, rather obviously, and ramped off his terrace straight at Ampharos.
In reply, Ampharos streamed electricity across his fur again and stepped to one side. Donphan tried to correct in towards Ampharos, and then some crackling electrical sparks appeared on his tusks and he found himself swerving aside.
"What was that?" Ash asked, looking closer.
"It's magnetism," Clair explained. "Magnetic Flux exploits the positive charge Ampharos has, and diverts objects away by inducing a current in them too."
"Then we'll just have to hit harder!" Ash decided. "Donphan, you know what to do!"
"Not really..." Donphan admitted, turning some way down the valley to face Ampharos again.
"...that thing we worked on?" Ash asked.
"Oh, right!" Donphan nodded. He skidded briefly, then accelerated, steering for a small fold in the ground. Hitting it, he went flying into the air.
Arms out, Ampharos refreshed his Magnetic Flux. "That's not... wait..."
Donphan plowed into the ground several feet from Ampharos – and used Magnitude.
The ground shook, making several of the spectators stumble, and Ampharos nearly fell over.
While he recovered his footing, Donphan came speeding out of the small crater he'd made and hit home with a Rollout.
"Mister Donphan's doing well, isn't he?" Mawile asked, watching the fight closely. "Is this what most Gym battles are like?"
"It's much quieter," Pikachu told her. "Well, it's early days yet..."
Mawile nodded.
"I don't like it when the ground shakes like that," she said after a moment, as Donphan pulsed out an Earthquake. "How do I make it stop?"
Misty reached down and picked the Fairy-type up. "That better?"
"Kinda," Mawile nodded, her false-jaw moving a bit as she did. "Thanks!"
Donphan just barely missed with his latest Rollout, and got hit in the side by a well-aimed Iron Tail as he went past. He skidded a little, bounced into the air with a push from his trunk, and came back down with another Magnitude.
This one, unfortunately, hit fairly strong rock. It produced only minor shaking, and Ampharos kept his footing with ease.
"Let's go all the way, Ampharos!" Clair called.
The Electric-type looked back towards her, and caught a thrown Mega Stone.
"So Ampharos has a Mega Stone?" Ash asked, and then the answer became obvious. Clair's Mega Necklace shone with a bright orange light, matched by the Mega Stone in Ampharos' paw, and then the valley was lit by a flash.
Arm thrown up to block the light, Ash noticed another Ampharos on the valley rim nodding to itself with satisfaction.
That must be the Pokémon who normally used the stone, then... so that meant this Ampharos was Clair's. He'd wondered.
Then the light died down, allowing everyone to see Mega Ampharos.
It was certainly... different.
The wool that a Flaffy mostly divested itself of when evolving to Ampharos was back, in the form of a long, stylized mane coming off the back of his head and a similarly styled tail with several red orbs on it.
There were also a few changes to the general black/yellow colouring.
Mega Ampharos reached one arm up, and brushed at the hair. "There we go. Dragon."
"How is that a dragon?" Ash asked, blinking. "I mean, he's certainly a Mega Evolution, but... dragon?"
"You think I'm not a dragon?" Mega Ampharos asked. His orbs flickered red, and electricity shot between them.
As Donphan came charging back in, Mega Ampharos jumped into the air – and didn't come back down again, using Magnet Rise. Donphan went rolling past underneath, a little startled, and then got hit from behind by a Dragon Pulse.
Coming to a halt in a pile of soil and shaking his head, Donphan frowned. "Right."
He got moving again, just ahead of a Dragon Pulse which blew a crater in the ground.
Ash watched Mega Ampharos' fighting style, trying to work out if there was something exploitable in it.
It was a little hard to tell, in all honesty. Mega Ampharos was floating in mid-air using Magnet Rise, several feet off the ground, and was also using Dragon Pulses quite liberally – with a lot of punch behind them. Donphan was having to weave erratically to avoid being hit, and near misses were still sending him skidding across the ground for a moment before he recovered.
If the Mega had been firing them from his mouth, that would have been bad enough – but those red orbs of his seemed to focus dragon-type energy. Balls of green light periodically jumped from one of the orbs to his paws, then got fired out at the evading Donphan.
Wait...
Ash looked closer. That was clearly Magnet Rise he was using to stay in the air, not something that he could just do as a matter of course. That meant...
"Donphan!" Ash called. "Bounce!"
Donphan responded by rolling straight at the wall of the lower terrace. He rolled up it at full speed, just ahead of a Dragon Pulse which blew the wall to bits, and pushed off with his trunk as the Pulse hit home.
"Mud Slap!" Ash added.
Suddenly realizing what Ash was doing, Mega Ampharos changed the electric fields holding him up to try to move out of the way. He didn't quite manage it, though, and Donphan's trunk fired a spray of mud – some of which was deflected by the electromagnetic fields, but they were unable to block it all at such a close range.
There was a crackle as the mud interrupted Mega Ampharos' ability to keep himself in the air, and he dropped back to the ground.
Any celebration was premature, though. Just as Donphan landed, Mega Ampharos fired a pair of Dragon Pulses at him.
One went wide. The other hit hard enough to slam him through the packed-earth terrace wall, and part of it collapsed on him.
Ash clenched his fist. "Come on, Donphan!"
"Might be a problem, there," Clair told him. "Mega Ampharos can overload abilities like Sturdy, so your Donphan won't still be able to... eh?"
Light shone from behind the earthslide, and then it exploded outwards. The fragments of earth, some quite large, pelted Mega Ampharos – surprised, he'd not got his electromagnetic shield up in time.
Donphan panted, tired from the effort of the Hyper Beam he'd used to blast through the earthen wall, then focused. He reared up, glowing with a brown aura, and slammed his forelegs on the ground.
The whole valley shook as Donphan used Magnitude 10. A few small rocks fell down the sides, trees and bushes trembled, and at least one member of the Dragon Clan was grabbed by their partner to make sure they didn't fall. But that was only the side effects.
The main, unfortunate target of the attack was Mega Ampharos himself. The ground under his feet became unstable, like quicksand, and he sank into it up to the waist before the trembling stopped.
No longer able to draw power from his tail-orbs, Ampharos was forced to rely on the single ball on his head. It pulsed, building power, but Donphan simply rolled around behind to where Ampharos couldn't aim.
"That's enough," Clair said, before Donphan decided to Rollout her Ampharos. "Good work. I can see we need something better against Ground-types, though..."
Mega Ampharos transitioned back down to Ampharos. He picked up the Mega Stone where it had fallen, threw it back to Clair, and she caught it before returning him.
Ash did likewise with his tired Donphan.
"Good work," he said, then looked up at Clair. "Uh – is it okay if I use Legendary Pokémon?"
"Yes, that should be fine," Clair agreed. "That's part of why I requested the six one-on-one battles format, since it means no one Pokémon can face more than one member of my team."
"Thanks," Ash nodded. "Right, Suicune!"
Clair smiled. "Sceptile!"
Suicune's first action upon materializing was to leap up several flights of the terraces, until she was a little way up the curving valley and well above the Sceptile facing her – who was clambering down, having been sent out just next to Clair herself.
"So," she said, looking down – well down. "I think we both know where this is going."
Sceptile frowned. "How so?"
"Well, clearly you're another of the ones with a Mega Evolution that turns them Dragon-type. Sceptile isn't normally Dragon-type."
Sceptile raised clawed hands in a shrug. "Lance's main team includes a Gyarados and an Aerodactyl – I've met them."
Suicune nodded. "Fair point, I suppose. Well, let's get started then."
The wind picked up in the valley. A tendril of it curled around Suicune, making her streamers flutter in the wind, then launched forwards at the Grass-type.
Sceptile's arms glowed. She swung the flaring blades on her arm into the swirling Air Cutter, and her Leaf Blade blew both attacks apart.
The back-blast sent her back a step, but otherwise she was unscathed.
"Interesting," was Suicune's only comment. She began to pace, slowly, and then called the north wind to her once more.
This time it was stronger and more intense, and the plants growing on the valley sides fluttered – a few leaves being whipped off the trees.
Both Suicune's streamers flared, and whipped back and forth. This time, two Air Slashes came off each streamer, resulting in four separate blades of wind curling in towards Sceptile.
Faced with this more powerful assault, the Grass-type burst into movement. She jumped to the left, evading most of the reaching blades, and spun her thick leafy tail into the fourth with the unmistakeable glow of an Iron Tail.
The impact produced a bang, and sharp eddies cut blades of grass around Sceptile. The Pokémon herself, though, was fundamentally undamaged.
"My turn," Sceptile stated. She swung her tail around, scattering glowing green leaves, which showered towards Suicune.
Suicune opened her mouth slightly, charging an Ice Beam. She waited until the Magical Leaves had almost arrived, then produced an instant wave of water with Hydro Pump and released the Ice attack into it at the same moment.
Sceptile's Magical Leaf attack expended itself on the icy sphere, which then shattered as Suicune burst out of the weakened side facing away from Sceptile.
Paws flashing as she kept running, Suicune fired another Ice Beam towards the Grass-type. This one, Sceptile blocked in an entirely different way – she volleyed in what looked a lot like a Drain Punch, which made the Ice attack scatter off in all directions.
She gestured, tail slapping the ground, and a tornado of grass and plant matter erupted from the earth just in front of Suicune.
Fortunately for the Water-type, she reacted fast enough to slow down – and to keep her Tailwind going at full speed. The powerful wind smashed into the Grass Pledge, breaking the column up, and by the time Suicune arrived it wasn't very coherent.
She still had a problem, though – the ground where the attack had been launched had been torn apart by the Grass Pledge, and her footing was uncertain. It took her a moment longer to accelerate to full speed, and that meant she was caught by the fringes of a Giga Drain attack.
Wincing, Suicune leapt clear and ascended two terraces, running along some distance above Clair while building up her next response.
The wind, ice, and water she summoned combined into a Blizzard, which howled down from the terrace towards Sceptile.
Sceptile's response was... unexpected.
She inhaled, then shot a roaring gout of Dragonbreath up at the incoming storm of ice and snow. The mystical fire wasn't nearly as hot as genuine Fire-type attacks, but it still took the worst off, and by the time Suicune could get a clear line on Sceptile again the Grass-type was brushing the frost off her leafy arms.
"Hmmm..." Suicune pondered, as she jumped down a terrace and used the momentum thus gained to cross the valley at speed. "Ash? Any ideas?"
Ash frowned. "Yeah, actually! Hit her with Hydro Pump!"
"If you say so," Suicune said dubiously, then jumped to a higher terrace as the one she was on was hit by a Seed Bomb. "Okay, here goes!"
Keeping an eye on Sceptile, she waited until the Grass-type was just about to fire – then spun, skidding to a halt so fast that the Giga Drain aimed at her running form missed entirely.
Before Sceptile could retarget, Suicune fired a full-force Hydro Pump at Sceptile. Water went everywhere as Sceptile raised her arms to block with a Leaf Blade, and by the end of it Sceptile was standing in a muddy field and absolutely drenched.
"Now, quick! Bulldoze!" Ash told Suicune. "Then Ice Beam!"
Suicune pounced, paws slamming into the mud of the valley floor, and fired off a Bulldoze.
Sceptile sank into the grassy mud, but only an inch or two, and when Suicune followed up with an Ice Beam the effects weren't what they could have been. Sceptile was clearly caught, but just as clearly capable of escaping.
"What!?" Ash asked, sounding personally offended, as Sceptile smashed out of the ice and barely missed Suicune with a Leaf Blade. "I – wait a second..."
"Grassy Terrain," Sceptile said, smirking, as Suicune leaped clear from the valley floor to the terrace above Ash. "Good try, though."
Suicune's reply was to charge up another icy attack. This one, though, was clearly not an Ice Beam.
She fired it, then added to the general theme with a Blizzard.
Sceptile tried to deal with the Ice attack with a Drain Punch – and that first icy attack burst, flash-freezing her wet arms in place as the Freeze-Dry detonated. Sceptile was hit next by the blizzard, and staggered backwards – using her tail to hold her up.
"Sceptile!" Clair called, her necklace glowing again. "Now!"
An orange light flashed from something half-hidden under the foliage at the base of Sceptile's tail.
"Oh, come on!" Suicune said, exasperated. "I thought she said-"
"Thinking back, she never actually did," Ash replied. "Oh, great..."
The glow grew and crescendoed, then subsided – revealing Mega Sceptile.
There were much more prominent head crests than a regular Sceptile, and her eyes had narrowed and gained red markings. Red markings also circled the tail, some of her claws and striped her lower belly, and her tail had gained a red tip.
The seeds on her back had grown substantially larger, some of them changing colour, and plates of dark green leaves formed armour at the shoulders and across the front of her chest.
She waved her tail back and forth, facing Suicune – then brought it around, over the top of her head, and fired the red tip at Suicune.
The Aurora Pokémon blurred into motion, jumping down almost to the valley floor, and successfully avoided the red plant-missile as it exploded into a storm of leafy fragments which peppered her former position.
"What was that!?" she asked, glancing back at it.
"Leaf Storm," Mega Sceptile replied. Her tail-tip had apparently regrown already, and she fired it a second time at Suicune – who, predictably, dodged to avoid being hit by the cloud of razor-leafed shrapnel.
Ash watched the third Leaf Storm, and then the fourth, and frowned. Something didn't seem-
"Suicune!" he called. "It's not getting any weaker! I don't know why, but-"
"Oh, that's just perfect," Suicune muttered, pelting down the valley terrace. She kicked off, avoiding the latest shrapnel-storm, and landed on a terrace on the other side of the flat valley floor.
Since her original strategy of waiting out the Leaf Storm's normally-considerable burden on the user wasn't going to pan out, she decided to instead take advantage of her opponent's own Mega Evolution.
If, as she suspected, it had given Sceptile the Dragon-type... well, that just made her more vulnerable to Ice.
"Look-"
Ash's voice gave her warning. This time, the Leaf Storm missile burst earlier – covering more of the valley, and giving her less of a chance to evade.
She fired her Ice attack – an Icy Wind, this time – early, and then pulsed out a great spherical flood of water. More than she usually did, in fact – purely to try to resist the impact of the high-speed leaf shrapnel.
It almost worked, in fact. The few green-glowing fragments which connected with her had been significantly slowed, and she shook off the impact with relative ease.
As the water sluiced off her and down onto the valley floor, she jumped clear to avoid any follow-up and sought out Mega Sceptile with her eyes.
The Grass-type was... unscathed, actually, though she was only just regrowing her new red stinger to use. That was curious.
"Ash!" she called, before summoning another wave of water and using it as cover to change position – it worked, and leaf shards peppered the ground some distance from her. "What happened?"
Ash raised his voice, to be sure Suicune could hear him. "She kind of... summoned a storm of petals from the seeds on her back, which took the attack, and then regrew them first!"
Trying a new trick, Suicune battered the Leaf Storm projectile with an Air Slash before it detonated. It tumbled, pointing in a different direction, but the shower of fragments went in the original direction anyway.
Looked like it was the speed of the stinger which was moving the shrapnel, not that they were being launched from the stinger mid-flight. That was a pity...
"Any ideas?" Suicune asked, snapping off an Aurora Beam at the Mega Sceptile to see for herself. Sure enough, pink and yellow petals promptly came seething out of the seed pods on her back, ablating away and preventing the Ice attack from reaching her.
"Uh... yeah!" Ash said, suddenly. "Right – head around the curve of the valley, out of sight, and use that to build up speed. Then come charging back in as fast as you can!"
"I refuse to dignify that with the word plan," Suicune deadpanned, wincing as one of her dodges wasn't quite fast enough.
"No, seriously, do it!" Ash instructed. "I'll give more instructions in a moment!"
Suicune considered that. Actually, that was probably the best choice, if she wanted to avoid Mega Sceptile from countering whatever Ash's plan was.
She skidded out of the way of a Leaf Storm, and pelted along the valley floor at maximum speed – aiming for the very far end, which was as Ash said out of direct line-of-sight.
Turning, she began to accelerate. Wind at her back, she fairly rocketed along – body flat to the ground between the moments where her paws landed, and she coiled-stretched-sprung again.
To make sure she could corner this hard, she was running close to the outer wall of the curve. She sighted Mega Sceptile, and the Grass-type swung up her tail to fire again.
"Icy Wind!" Ash called, just as the Leaf Storm fired.
Suicune reached the wet patch from her earlier Hydro Pump shield, but her paws found it just as sure footing as the grassy ground. She snapped off an Icy Wind, which spread out in front of her and hit the Leaf Storm projectiles the moment after they burst.
Since Ash had said what she was to do out loud, Mega Sceptile had overheard – meaning the detonation on the tail missile had been set late, to do the most damage. But that also meant they were close together, all caught by the same Ice attack, and while the frozen projectiles hurt as they bounced off they weren't nearly as powerful as the unaffected Grass attack would have been.
"Ice Beam!" Ash added, as Suicune pelted along towards the reloading Mega. "And – Extremespeed!"
Suicune's Ice attack flashed out, and Mega Sceptile formed her petal-shield automatically. The Ice Beam splashed off the shield, freezing it but going no further-
At which point a large, powerful Legendary moving at speeds considerably faster than a runaway train hit it, shattering it into a thousand pieces of ice-encrusted plant matter.
They, and Suicune, hit Mega Sceptile all in one go.
Mega Sceptile was driven back across the Grassy Terrain, feet scrabbling for purchase, and slammed into the lowest terrace retaining wall. As she tried to pull herself out of the mud, Suicune hit her with a Blizzard at point-blank range.
"Good match!" Clair called, and Suicune stopped attacking.
She took a deep breath, and exhaled it.
That had been... interesting. And invigorating.
With a wet, muddy sound, part of the terrace wall collapsed.
Oops...
"That was cool!" Mawile smiled. "Mister Ash was smart!"
"More like crazy..." Pikachu muttered.
"Don't be like that, Mister Pikachu," Mawile admonished, shaking her head. "That's not nice!"
Mega Sceptile transitioned back down to Sceptile, and Clair retrieved the Mega Stone from her before returning the Grass-type.
"Very good," she said again. "Not many are ready for that little trick of hers – but you managed to work around it. Well done."
"Thanks," Ash said, as Suicune jumped from terrace to terrace to join the spectators. "Uh... whose turn is it to pick who goes out next?"
"I think mine," Clair smiled. "Flygon, your turn!"
Ash glanced down at the floor. Well, it was now or after Squirtle, those were the times there'd be enough water... "Lapras, you have a go!"
Lapras splashed into the water, grounding out with an oof before floating back up to a still-uncomfortable float an inch or two above the submerged valley floor.
"You couldn't have made sure there was more water?" he asked, grumpily.
"It was now or after Squirtle, and who knows what he's going to do..." Ash replied. "Anyway, can't you fix it?"
Lapras nodded. He inhaled, and got hit by a rather nasty Iron Tail as Flygon swooped down on him.
"Ow!" he snapped, and fired his Hydro Pump. The broad blast of water whipped around, spraying the nearest terrace and eroding off some of the earth making it up, and tracked around towards the evading Flygon.
Some of the water spatter did hit the insectile Dragon, but he performed a roll away from the reaching Hydro Pump and gained altitude.
Lapras ended the Hydro Pump, now floating considerably higher off the ground, and sculled around to face Flygon directly.
"Well, I think we all know what I'm going to be using..." he muttered, charging an Ice Beam.
When it fired, snapping out into the sky, Flygon dodged with relative ease – the Ice Beam was a long, thin line, and even when Lapras swept it across the sky the agile Dragon was able to keep one step ahead.
As soon as the Ice Beam ended, Flygon retaliated. Wings blurring, he came diving down towards Lapras with his foreclaws glowing.
Hurriedly, Lapras pulled another Ice attack together – this time, a potent Frost Breath which he exhaled just as Flygon arrived for his melee attack.
There was a crashing sound of splintering ice, the crack-thud of an impact, and Flygon was pulling away again with a dusting of ice falling from his wings.
Lapras came bobbing up out of the water again – Flygon's Superpower had knocked him down, and it had taken a moment for his bouyancy to reassert itself – and turned to face the next attack.
He frowned, watching as Flygon did a complex series of loops and turns at the end of his run. A lot more than was necessary...
"He's using Dragon Dance!" Ash called. "Watch out, he's going to use it to negate the drawback of Superpower!"
"Oh, great..." Lapras sighed. He fired another Ice Beam – to no effect, the speedy Ground/Dragon type evaded it almost casually – then paused, to consider how to best hit Flygon.
He could just save his attacks for when Flygon came in close – but that didn't sound like a good idea, to him. It was passive and would normally work quite well, but with the Dragon Dance boosting him Flygon would only hit harder and harder. Perhaps hard enough to win with ease.
No, Lapras had to pre-empt him. And the best time would be during his attack run.
Thrashing his fins, Lapras began to charge another attack. This time, the blue ball of Ice energy was different – smaller, and harder, with a blue core.
Flygon finished his Dragon Dance, and dove. He bottomed out just out of sight, then came charging along the valley floor – his green colouring making him a little harder to spot.
Lapras smirked, and fired the ball of ice. As it shot forwards, he added to it with an Aurora Beam – weak, from being given so little time to charge, but he didn't need power.
Inside the icy sphere was a core of unfrozen, supercooled water. As the Aurora Beam hit it, it all froze at once – expanding, and making the sphere explode into a shower of Ice Shards going in all directions.
Several of them peppered Flygon, and he wobbled in the air. One wing brushed close to the water, then he pulled up again and prepared for his attack.
He flew into another Frost Breath – one he was at least a little better prepared for, this time – and in return hit Lapras with another painfully hard Superpower.
This one sent Lapras skating back through the water, despite his best efforts. He turned, firing another of the bursting Ice Shard bombs, and managed to clip Flygon with a couple of the fragments.
Flygon did another of his looping wingovers, and came in again – dodging from side to side, this time, so Lapras couldn't line up a good attack.
"Sheer Cold!" Ash called.
As soon as he said it, Flygon began to slow – not wanting to be caught in the potent Ice attack.
"Should I still-" Lapras asked, glancing back. Flygon was circling, looking for an opening, but staying out of range.
"Yes! Right now!" Ash ordered.
Feeling a little confused Lapras complied. The surface of the water around him froze, and then the ice quickly spread out to cover the entire elongated lakelet.
As the Sheer Cold went on, the ice creaked – and exploded upwards, the whole thing acting like a gigantic version of Lapras' earlier ice bomb.
Blindsided from below, Flygon was bounced about thirty feet into the air by an upwards shower of ice. He described an arc through the air, wings twitching and then flapping frantically as he fell, and hit one of the terraces with a thud.
Pushing off, he tried to gain height again, but Lapras hit him with a well-placed Ice Beam.
"There," Lapras said, feeling satisfied, as Flygon crashed into the next terrace down – snapping through a few bushes before skidding belly-down on the earth of the terrace. The ice shattered off as he spun to a halt, but Flygon was in no further shape to battle.
Clair nodded to herself. "Ice is one of the banes of all dragons," she agreed, returning Flygon. "Fairies are the other – you don't have any of them, do you?"
"Aside from Mawile, no," Ash said. "And she's a bit young for battle at the moment."
Mawile seemed very amused by the idea of battling. "That'd be fun!" she said, one hand over her mouth as she giggled. "I'd be all sneaky, and then BOO!"
Her false-jaws half-opened and closed, though not in time with her words.
"I'm sure you would," Misty agreed. "You'll probably need some training, though."
"Sure!" Mawile agreed readily. "Training sounds fun too!"
"Okay, that's three down and three to go," Ash said, withdrawing Lapras. "Who's fourth?"
"It's your choice," Clair reminded him.
"Right." Ash frowned, considering.
He didn't know what Clair had, but... oh, why not.
"Charizard!" he called.
"Took you a while!" Charizard chuckled, as he emerged. He rolled once, then turned over and began hovering in place over Ash's head.
"Ah, your Charizard. A familiar sight around here," Clair told him. "Well... how about this?"
She took a fourth Pokéball "This is one of the few Pokémon whose primary type is Flying. Though in practice it's no different from having a secondary type of Flying, apart from academic curiosity. Noivern!"
AN:
It's the final gym in Johto, so it's a bigger fight than usual.
Inspirations here: Ampharos-M is taking a bit from Dragonball, what with his floating, his dragon-type orbs, and his energy blasts from the hands.
Sceptile-M is pretty much an artillery piece.
And Lapras vs. Flygon took on a bit of an anti-air gun vibe.
