This is the second of two chapters today.
As the Sound Wave Pokémon materialized, Charizard gave her a considering look.
"I've met Noibat before," he commented. "Are you evolved from them?"
She nodded, silently, and began to climb. Matching her, Charizard beat his wings harder and rose into the sky.
"Hey!" Charla called. "You'd better win this – or we're all going to look like wimps!"
"You know it!" Charizard called back, then returned his attention to Noivern.
"Why are your ears glowing?"
Noivern used Boomburst.
The blast of sound was clearly visible, a pressure wave in the air which turned it whiter and more translucent. Charizard had just enough time to realize it was coming before it hit him.
It was like flying into a plate glass wall. The almightly SLAM of impact passed Charizard in a moment, shoving his wings back to their furthest elevation and making his neck snap back.
"Charizard!" Ash called, startled.
What had just happened?
He watched as Charizard went through a slow backflip, shedding forward momentum before dropping towards the valley below.
Then his wings snapped out again.
Roaring, Charizard shot a pulse of Dragonbreath out at Noivern from below. The Sound Wave Pokémon rolled to the side, wings flapping as she evaded, and fired another Boomburst downwards.
Gritting his teeth, Charizard gave one great wingbeat and flew straight at it.
The sonic pulse blasted over him again, but this time he was ready for it. Wings stooped over to deflect the blast of sound, teeth held unclenched to reduce the impact, Charizard grunted and powered through the sonic attack.
It was still like flying into a plate glass window. But Charizard absolutely could do that, and keep fighting.
Already Noivern was charging again. To avoid her getting too long to build it up, he fired a Dragon Rage at her and followed it up with a less effectual Flamethrower.
Noivern's response surprised him. She fired her half-charged Boomburst, this time directly at the Dragon Rage. It reacted as though it had hit something solid, detonating early, and Charizard had to roll to one side to avoid flying through the explosion.
This was going to be harder than he'd been expecting.
"Why's it a primary Flying-type anyway?" Ash asked, squinting into the sky.
Charizard snatched his tail away from the latest pulse of sound, wings hammering, and fired a roaring pulse of flame to give himself some cover.
When Noivern blew a hole in the smokescreen with Boomburst, she didn't reveal her orange foe. Then Charizard emerged from the smoke with his mouth full of green fire, and scored a line down the side of her body before she fired a point-blank Boomburst which knocked both of them tumbling for a second.
"Oh," Clair blinked, realizing she'd been asked a question. "What's that?"
Recovering first, Charizard spun around in a tight turn and launched a Fire Blast at Noivern. The attack detonated on a pulse of intense sound, but successfully disrupted the attack and prevented it from reaching Charizard in turn.
"I asked how come Noibat and Noivern are primary Flying types," Ash repeated, half his attention on Charizard.
Flaring his wings, Charizard shed speed. Noivern's attack – a Dragon Pulse, seemingly for sheer variety – shot in front of him, and he dove to regain speed.
"Right," Clair said, also a bit distracted by the overhead battle. "Basically, that's what the scanner says."
Pressing her advantage, Noivern stooped towards Charizard to reduce the charge time for her attack. It took at least a little time for her to go from deciding to fire to actually firing, and the closer her target the lower the power she could get away with.
"Really, so – dodge!" Ash shouted.
Noivern rolled and pitched, gaining the right angle, and Charizard dodged to his right just before she fired. The blast of sound rippled out, but Charizard had gotten away with it – his tail flame whipped in the side-burst, but the hammering sonic attack itself missed.
"Break left!" Clair called, seeing something Noivern couldn't.
Under his body, Charizard's mouth was glowing. He pulled his wings in, slamming around in a painful yaw turn, and fired his Draco Meteor.
The glowing orb soared towards Noivern, exploded, and showered the whole area of sky she was in with bright orange projectiles. She blasted one out of the way, dodged another, and then a third one hit her in the small of the back – producing an explosion of orange and purple light.
"Take that," Charizard said, panting, and followed up with a blast of Dragonfire.
Noivern snatched herself away from the gout of mystical flames, hammering a Hurricane back at Charizard to keep him occupied.
As he fought the intense winds, Noivern gained height. She flared her wings, and a pinkish glow enveloped her.
The injury on her back started to fade. Then a Fire Blast detonated near her, and she stumbled slightly in the air.
Charizard climbed up towards her at speed, already shooting out a column of Fire Spin, and she abandoned her healing technique to fire back at him. The Boomburst blasted his Fire Spin apart, and he bulled through it with a grunt of pain.
"Charizard!" he heard. "Use Blast Burn if you want!"
Oh, Charizard very much wanted that.
He sent another salvo of fire Noivern's way, licking at her wings and making her spend energy blowing it out, and gained height.
"Blast Burn?" Clair repeated. "That's the powerful... wait, he's a Charizard. The ridiculously powerful Fire attack? The version they only teach at the Valley?"
"Yep!" Ash replied, hand already up to shade his eyes. "Only thing is... we kind of improved on it."
Clair blanched. "You improved on that?"
She looked around. "I hope everyone's going to be safe when you let that off..."
"No, it's fine," Ash hastened to let her know. "No-one's been hurt yet."
"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence," she muttered.
The two Pokémon were both rising further and further into the heavens, as Charizard drew the battle higher – climbing whenever possible, firing attacks down from his position of height, and refusing to give up any of his hard-won altitude even if it would improve his chances of dodging.
Since distance reduced the effectiveness of her attacks, Noivern was forced to come climbing after him and keep him within effective range. Both Pokémon were fit, and well-used to hard flying, but she was tiring just that little bit faster.
Or so Charizard thought, anyway.
As he considered that, she fired out another Boomburst to make sure he wasn't getting complacent. The attack spread as it climbed, losing some of its force, but still retained enough to rattle his bones and click his teeth painfully together.
Snarling, Charizard pulled around in a tight turn, inhaling. Blue light shone from his throat, and he launched out a jet of Aura-saturated hydrogen gas.
The gas reached the distance he set within a couple of seconds, and spread out into a sphere as Noivern stopped climbing – turning to stay a reasonable distance from this unknown attack.
Smirking, Charizard triggered his Blast Burn.
It began at his mouth, flashing down to encircle the bluish globe evenly. The explosion flashed inwards, growing stronger and more powerful as it approached the centre-
And then Noivern hit it with a full-power Boomburst.
The delicate conditions which would have led to the micro-fusion explosion were disrupted by the wall of sound. There was instead a complicated BANG as the remaining gas detonated all at once, producing a wash of heat and pressure but nothing like what Charizard intended.
"That's just not fair!" he shouted, highly offended, as the cloud of smoke from his fizzled attack spread. "Do you have any idea how much work that took?!"
Noivern replied by launching a Dragon Pulse at him.
Charizard slipped sideways in the air, avoiding the attack, and blasted a stream of Dragonbreath back down – diving, now that he had less need for his height advantage, and managing to get close enough to score on Noivern.
Pressing his attack, he swiped out at her with a Dragon Claw attack, and barely missed. He took a hasty Boomburst to the side as Noivern rolled clear, which came in at an oblique angle and didn't get proper purchase.
Snapping around in a turn, Charizard decided on a new strategy.
She didn't want to fight him close in? That's exactly what he'd give her.
Mouth flashing with an eerie green light as he repeated his earlier Dragonbreath, Charizard lunged forwards. He fired it ahead of Noivern, making her instinctively slow to avoid the sheet of green flame, and he managed to get close enough to swipe at her wing – scoring a hit, and making her hiss in pain.
As Charizard continued going for close-quarters attacks, Noivern pulled up into a wingover to stymie him. She managed to evade his attempt at a Bite, but shed a lot of speed in doing so, and Charizard – experienced at fighting other dragons – performed a dizzying forward roll to come up below and behind her as she tried to regain speed.
Mouth flashing with blue light, Charizard volleyed in one of the lesser, 'normal' Blast Burns he had learned before. Noivern was hit for just a moment before managing to slip out of the line of fire, but the momentary contact was clearly painful despite her Type advantage.
Swallowing as he waited for his flames to build back up again, Charizard banked after his opponent – noticing as he did that they were losing height rapidly.
That gave him an idea.
He stayed on her tail as she tried to jink and lose him, focusing hard to make sure he caught every last indicator of her next moves, and as soon as it was feasible he shot out a Fire Blast just below her.
Instinctively, she pulled up slightly – losing a bit of speed. Then the Fire Blast detonated, producing a rippling air current which knocked her flight path off further, and by the time she'd made up the speed deficit he was close enough to grab her tail and yank.
He lost his grip quickly, but it was enough. She stumbled slightly in the air, slowing further, and Charizard slammed bodily into her before fouling both her wings with his claws.
They were falling much faster, now, as Noivern lost the ability to control their flight and Charizard wrenched them around into a dive.
Struggling, she fired a Boomburst at him at point blank range. The concussion made Charizard's head swim, but he held on gamely – and blazed a Dragon Rage ball right back at her from just as close.
As she tried to charge another attack, he slapped her neck aside with his horns – making it go wide – and kept one eye firmly on the uprushing ground.
"Are they about to-" Clair began, then interrupted herself. "Look out!"
She ducked reflexively as Charizard abruptly pushed Noivern away from himself. Wings straining, he bottomed out a few feet above the valley rim and swept inches over the head of the watching Suicune – who skidded backwards a little before regaining her footing.
Noivern wasn't so lucky. She made a good effort to stop herself, but hit the valley side with a concussive WHAM. Staggering back into the air from the glancing crash, she flapped once, then hit the upper branches of a tree and went tumbling to the ground in a tangle of branches and dust.
"Is she okay?" Ash asked, wincing. That hadn't looked pleasant...
"I hope so," Clair admitted.
After a moment, Noivern's head was seen shaking. She stood, wobbling a little, and as she did Charizard came flying back over the valley side and hovered menacingly overhead.
"Noivern can't battle on," Clair decided. "Well done once more, Ash Ketchum. Though I think you and Charizard were both a little surprised by Noivern there..."
"Yeah, she was really good," Ash agreed. "Blocking attacks like that was neat!"
Clair nodded, returning her Pokémon. "Overwhelming force doesn't just mean being able to knock out your opponent – it means being stronger, in some way, and forcing your opponent to think to react. My gym's purpose is to ensure trainers cannot rely simply on strong Pokémon."
"Right!" Ash realized. "So either they have to do something you've not seen before, or they have to come up with something on the fly!"
"Very good," Clair smiled. "Now, my turn. Dragonair, your time to shine!"
"Squirtle!" Ash replied promptly.
"Ooh, that looks pretty," Mawile said, looking down with interest at Clair's Dragonair. "Is it a Water-type as well as a Dragon?"
"No, just pure Dragon," Misty replied.
"Thank you!" Mawile glanced up, smiling, before returning her attention to the battle. "What moves does Mister Squirtle know?"
Misty rolled her eyes. "I'm not even sure he knows..."
"Okay, Dragonair!" Squirtle announced, sliding down the terrace slope with one arm used for braking his fall. "You're not the first dragon I've fought, but you're the first in a good long while that wasn't a Dragonite!"
Dragonair tilted her head slightly. "...are you well?"
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Squirtle reached the valley floor, in a different patch to the one Lapras had frozen solid. "Of course I'm fine! I'm better than fine, I'm the badass leader of the Squirtle Squad!"
Over on the valley side, Charizard cleared his throat. "He gets like this," the Fire-type told Dragonair succinctly. "You may as well get on with it."
"Very well." Dragonair rose up with the upper third or so of her body, her beaded tail waving lazily and producing a series of ripples.
"...in the world!" Squirtle finished. He pointed at Dragonair. "So eat this! Rime!"
Inhaling, Squirtle fired out a jet of super-cooled water.
Dragonair reacted by briefly drawing back, and then darting to one side – moving with blurring speed, and easily getting clear before the water froze into a complicated splash-shaped structure on the valley wall.
"Interesting," she said. Her tail tip rose again, describing a circle, and a wind picked up.
Squirtle fired another attack, this one an Ice Beam, then jumped into the air and used Hydro Pump to get clear of the Twister attack.
Behind him, the Dragon-typed whirlwind scoured a semicircle out of the terrace side, with some of the earth slumping into the space it left.
"That's a powerful Dragonair," Ash commented, wincing as the wall of the next terrace up slumped slightly.
"She wouldn't do so much damage if the walls hadn't been weakened by... well, everything else," Clair admitted. "But yes, she's quite strong."
There was a small explosion, as Squirtle's Ice Beam hit a Dragon Rage ball and detonated it about halfway between the two battling Pokémon. Dragonair followed up her attack with a Twister, and Squirtle plucked his sunglasses from his face to swipe at the tornado – breaking it in half.
"How did he-" Clair began, then shook her head. "Never mind, I'm not sure there's going to be an explanation I'd be happy hearing..."
Dragonair ducked under the next Ice Beam, and launched a wave of Dragonbreath at Squirtle. The Tiny Turtle retaliated with a huge wave of water in a Surf, which extinguished the mystical flames more by hammering them flat than by elemental advantage, and threw his glasses into the next Dragon Rage ball.
It went skidding off course, almost back towards Dragonair, and blew another crater into the valley wall.
Following straight up on his previous attack, Squirtle launched a wave of water at Dragonair again. This time, it was a steaming Scald, which underwent a series of steam explosions as it travelled in order to fling it into the evading Dragon-type, and while she was focused entirely on dodging he managed to lead her enough with an Ice Beam to freeze the lower part of her body.
The Scald quickly melted the ice, but it had held her still long enough for Squirtle to get in a full Rime. Freezing near-instantly on contact, it solidified Dragonair to the place her dodging had taken her – two terraces up.
"Good work, Squirtle!" Ash called. "Now she's frozen, she can't-"
He noticed Clair smirking.
"...Aspear Berry?"
Clair shook her head. "Something else entirely."
Light began to emanate from the ice. Then it exploded, and an orange-cream Dragonite went soaring skywards.
"She deliberately held back from evolving!" Clair explained, as Dragonite blocked Squirtle's quick Ice Beam with a Flamethrower.
"I prefer it when it's me doing things like that," Ash said ruefully.
Squirtle gestured with his glasses. "Not going to stay down here and fight?"
He put the glasses back on, firmly. "Right! That's it, I'll come up and fight you!"
Withdrawing his arms, legs, head and tail into his shell, he fired a Hydro Pump and went flying into the air.
Dragonite retaliated by flying higher, and crackling light flickered between her palms for a moment.
"Look out!" Ash called. "That's-"
The light focused on one hand, and Dragonite flicked it downwards. A Thunder slammed down, hitting one of Squirtle's water jets and conducting up to him.
Shocked and stunned, Squirtle wobbled out of control and crashed about halfway up the valley side.
Ash scaled the terrace behind him and ran along to where Squirtle was. "Squirtle, are you okay?"
The Water-type shook his head, standing on wobbly legs. "Ow," he reported. Taking a breath, he produced an Aqua Ring around himself. "Okay. It's time to break out the big guns."
"The big guns?" Ash repeated, glad Squirtle seemed to be recovering swiftly. "You mean that Drill Break?"
"Bigger! It's time to use... that," Squirtle said ominously.
There was a pause.
"What?" Ash asked.
"No, That! It! The Thing!" Squirtle went on, waving an arm encouragingly. "Plan S!"
"I have no idea what you mean, Squirtle," Ash explained. "What is It?"
Squirtle rolled his eyes, then reached into his shell and produced... it.
Ash did not find the sight encouraging.
There was a deep, indigo blue sphere, striated with cool and watery markings – though so faded they were barely visible.
There was some kind of greyish sphere rammed into a hole drilled in the side, blocking off the hole.
And, through the crystal, Ash could faintly see something glowing.
"What is it, Squirtle?" he asked.
"It's Squirtilite!" Squirtle told him. "It's much more likely to work than last time!"
"Last-" Ash stopped. "No, I don't want to know."
"Good!" Squirtle said firmly. "Now, light up that staff of yours and let's do this!"
Dubiously, Ash swung his staff off his shoulder, and concentrated.
Squirtle, one of his first Pokémon. Kind of strange – this being one example – but certainly brave, strong and loyal.
Ash remembered Squirtle saving his life, back when they first met. He remembered the times Squirtle had fought for him, worked to keep his friends safe, and gone to his limits and beyond in battle.
No, Squirtle wasn't perfect. But Ash didn't care, since he was still great.
Then there was an orange glow.
"What the heck!?" Pikachu gaped. "That shouldn't even have been possible!"
"He got it working," Suicune sighed. "He asked me for advice, but... I can't believe he actually got it working."
As the light faded, they saw what had happened
Standing there was, unmistakeably, a Mega Squirtle.
His glasses had gone along with the Mega Stone – replaced by a pointed pair of black markings around his eyes, forming the outline of his signature shades.
On his wrists, just above the hands, bands of what looked like semisolid water supported a pair of drill-like gauntlets – one per arm – and a similar-looking material formed a pair of tiny water cannons on his back as a separate, almost backpack-like unit.
Misty sighed, facepalming. "I don't believe this."
"That's right!" Mega Squirtle announced, not quite gloating. "My indomitable will has overcome all obstacles in its way! Even the rules which dictate what can evolve and what can't stand no chance against the power of a hot blooded mon's friendship!"
"How the heck did that even-" Ash shook his head. "Okay, I'm not questioning it. Uh – Heracross had trouble knowing what his body did when he Mega-Evolved, are you-"
"I'm fine, of course!" Mega Squirtle announced. The gun pack swivelled, pointing down, and he pointed one fist skywards. "All right, you overgrown Dratini, I'm coming up to-"
A Thunder speared down out of the sky, and Mega Squirtle just about managed to jump out of the way.
"Right, then," he said, cracking his knuckles, and raised his fist again.
Then his cannons fired.
In a stream of high-pressure water, Mega Squirtle ascended skywards. Ash raised an arm to fend off the rushing water, and then the jets altered slightly so they were spraying the valley floor instead of the terraces.
There was a moment of near-silence.
"...what just happened?" Clair asked plaintively.
Rolling his neck as he ascended, Mega Squirtle considered his options.
A Thunderbolt crackled down at him, and he batted it aside with one of his water-drills. There was a hissing BANG as the water reacted violently, making him roll once to the side, before he steadied down and ascended further.
Levelling his other drill, he fired a blast of water at the Dragon-type. Dragonite rolled away from it, losing a little height, and then found Mega Squirtle adjusting the angle of his gunpack to follow.
What resulted was an unlikely dogfight, with Dragonite finding herself pursued by the jet-powered Mega Squirtle in a series of close engagements mixed with sudden, wide, swooping curves.
Neither was all that good at flight – Dragonite had flown as a Dragonair, but more of a lazy levitation than the kind of high speed Dragonite could produce, while Mega Squirtle was basically going off what he'd seen on TV – but it all seemed to cancel out, resulting in a very evenly matched aerial battle.
Dragonite took an Ice Beam that clipped her wing, making her snatch it away from a follow up blast – she spun into a tight turn, managing to get inside Mega Squirtle's turn – Mega Squirtle was nailed by a Thunderbolt as he sought to evade, then switched his gun pack briefly to Ice Beam and hit Dragonite that way – Dragonite fired out a Dragon Pulse, clipping Mega Squirtle and sending him into a spin – Mega Squirtle recovered...
They flashed back and forth across the sky, jockeying for the advantage, until after several minutes Dragonite managed to hit Mega Squirtle with a Dragonbreath.
Mega Squirtle tumbled for a few seconds, jets firing away, and stabilized in a much lower hover.
"Finish him off, Dragonite!" Clair called, her voice just about audible over Mega Squirtle's jets. "Use Outrage!"
Mega Squirtle jinked to the side as Dragonite's first attack run of the Outrage came in. "That's your mistake! You're trying to finish me off! And if there's one thing the Badass Leader of the Squirtle Squad never is, it's be in a position where he can be finished off! Just get that through your thick head!"
Coming in on the second attack, Dragonite caught him a glancing blow. Mega Squirtle grinned, rubbing at his cut lip.
Both drills began to glow, and then shot off streams of water that dripped as they arced off into the sky. Again, and the second pair were dripping water that froze to ice beneath them.
The third pair were ice, and they stayed connected to Mega Squirtle's fists.
"Mega Squirtle Ice Drill Break!" the chelonian Pokémon announced, and all six drills converged on Dragonite.
There was a very loud explosion.
Jets flaring, Mega Squirtle came down to a landing in the centre of the valley.
Behind him, covered in ice, Dragonite crashed to the floor of the valley.
"And that's why I'm the badass leader of the Squirtle Squad," Mega Squirtle finished.
"...I have no idea what we just saw," Clair admitted.
"Not surprised, I don't either," Ash confessed.
Clair shook her head, and went on. "Still, I think that counts as a win for you. Impressive, if baffling."
"That was cool!" Mawile announced. "Mister Squirtle's amazing!"
Charizard sighed. "I really hope you don't take too much inspiration from him..."
"Why not?" Mawile asked, turning to look at him.
"He goes a bit... too far, sometimes," Pikachu volunteered. "It's okay to be strong, certainly, but Squirtle overdoes other things."
Mawile nodded seriously. "Okay."
As Dragonite was returned, Mega Squirtle exhaled. "Right, now we're done-"
He flashed orange, and reverted to Squirtle. His glasses were back on his face, and the homemade Squirtilite was in his left hand. "I- eh?"
Immediately obvious was that the Squirtilite was not behaving as it should. It was crackling with energy, the water-stone component was a deep, night-dark black, and the Everstone component was fizzing like limestone in water.
"What's-"
Finally overloaded with strain, the makeshift Mega Stone detonated into a tidal wave of water. The sudden rush splashed both Clair and Ash as it briefly overtopped some of the terraces, then flowed back – carrying large amounts of mud and silt with it, along with a startled Squirtle.
A blue blur came leaping down from the valley side. Pausing a moment at each terrace to kick off, Suicune landed on the rushing water rapidly draining out of the side valley. She plucked him from the water, her powers purifying the flood as she did so, and then jumped clear and skidded to a halt.
"Got him," she announced, depositing the bedraggled Squirtle on the grass.
Ash returned him. "Thanks, Suicune."
She nodded. "I'll go make sure no-one else is caught in the flood." With that, she jumped off down towards the Dragon Holy Land proper.
"Okay... well, I guess we're both down to one left," Ash went on. "And that means it's Keldeo!"
Keldeo emerged with a flash, and gave a determined nod. "I'm ready!"
"We are indeed down to one left," Clair agreed. "This one determines if you win automatically, or if the Clan is to judge you. Altaria!"
Keldeo looked Altaria over, head tilting slightly.
The Humming Pokémon leant down to receive a Mega-stone charm from Clair, then ascended to hover several feet in the air as Keldeo set his stance.
"Begin!" Clair said. "Sky Attack!"
A silvery-orange glow flashed into being around Altaria's body, growing in intensity. Altaria circled once, then came diving down to deliver the Sky Attack.
Keldeo stamped a hoof on the ground, and formed a ball of bluish Aura in his mouth. As he concentrated, the colour leached out of it, resulting in a near-pure-white sphere.
He then leaked a bit of his own Aura back into it, adding water to the ice, before releasing it just as Altaria came down.
The shotgun-like spread of the Icy Wind attack peppered Altaria as he stooped, making the Sky Attack ripple and weakening it considerably, and one of Altaria's semisolid cloud wings managed to clip the dodging Keldeo.
There was a flash as the energy of the attack released, knocking Keldeo onto his side, and then Altaria scraped the next terrace up as he climbed frantically to avoid crashing into the earthen wall.
Keldeo pulled his hooves in and pushed himself back to his feet, shaking his head. "That didn't go too well..."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "But I guess – wait, look out-"
There was a flash of multicoloured light from Clair's Key Stone, and Altaria's Altarianite charm responded.
Incongruously, as the orange glow lit the valley, Ash noticed someone moving up on the rim. A young man with an Altaria beside him.
He looked familiar...
A moment later, though, the transformation was finished, and Ash returned his attention to Mega Altaria.
Compared to some Mega Evolutions, there weren't many obvious changes to Mega Altaria's body. His semisolid cloud-stuff had shifted, revealing different parts of his draconic form, and his tail feathers had grown to long, opalescent streamers.
The biggest change, however, was to the cloud itself. Normally, the cloud for an Altaria was clumped in a fairly spherical blob around its main body. Mega Altaria had distinct wings around his arms, a diffuse tricorn-like hat on his head, and a great mass of it behind him.
It was all also shimmering with an eerie pinkish-silver shading, as though the light itself was just beneath the surface.
"Wow..." Mawile said, both mouths slightly agape. "That's pretty!"
"It's certainly different," Pikachu decided.
Lucario nodded. "Hmmm..." He closed his eyes, frowned, then glanced around at the spectators.
His lidded eyes flicked between Togekiss and Mawile, then to the Mega Altaria.
"That's interesting..."
"Tyl..." asked a Salamence, slowly. "What types do you get when you go Mega?"
"Oh," Tyl replied, shrugging under his cloud. "I become Dragon/Fairy, of course!"
"...that's vaguely disconcerting," commented a Dragonite absently.
"Shh, I want to watch the match," Maurice said, waving a hand. "That Altaria's stronger than Tyl is, I want to see how he handles being Mega!"
Keldeo contemplated his opponent anew, examining the shimmering energy that seemed to fill his cloud.
"This could be tough, Keldeo," Ash said, frowning. "I think you should-"
"Right," Keldeo nodded, filling in Ash's meaning. He stamped a hoof on the floor, and transitioned to Resolute Form.
"I didn't know Keldeo could go Mega," Clair said, interested. "And – I thought the staff was your Key Stone, but-"
"No, that's a Form change," Ash explained.
"Right, I see..." Clair nodded.
Keldeo grinned, then lit his Sword. "Okay, let's do this!"
He cantered forwards, gaining speed quickly, and launched himself off the terrace side.
Mega Altaria promptly used Fairy Hyper Voice.
A wavefront of sparkling light spread out towards Keldeo, and hit him all across his front from hooves to horn. The shimmering sparkles detonated on contact, halting Keldeo's charge and knocking him back into the upper wall of the terrace he'd just left. Wincing, he slid down the wall, regaining some control over his position, and jumped clear before the second one arrived – making the ground shake slightly, and the terrace collapse behind him.
"Whoa!" Ash said, blinking. "Was th – look out!"
His warning came just in time. Keldeo jumped down a terrace, avoiding a Fairy Hyper Voice which made where he'd been running crack visibly, and skidded around in a turn to fire his Icy Wind.
The gust of chilled air spread and expanded out, reaching for Mega Altaria, but he ducked down underneath it with ease and fired a Pixilated Hyper Beam.
Yelping, Keldeo interposed his Secret Sword into the way of Mega Altaria's attack. The howling, sparkling beam of energy crashed home, making Keldeo wince, and he braced his hooves and leaned into the attack to avoid being knocked flying.
Side-blast snapped off in smaller beams, carving lines into the sides of the valley, and the spectators took some nervous steps back. Ash spotted that Clair had her – now recovered – Ampharos setting up Light Screens to protect her, and Dexter started to do the same.
After some seconds, the Fairy-typed Hyper Beam sputtered out.
Keldeo looked a little the worse for wear, but still hale, and his Secret Sword blazed back up again as he focused.
"Take this!" Keldeo called, swinging his horn down sharply. "Secret Sword!"
The golden blade separated from his horn, exploding forwards in a curved scythe of energy, and Mega Altaria brought up his tail to block. The tail collided with the Secret Sword with a bang, shielding Mega Altaria's body from the main attack, and his type advantage removed a lot of the sting of the blow.
Dodging back and to one side to prevent Mega Altaria lining up easily, Keldeo fired another Icy Wind. This one he charged with more power, and filled with his Aura until it was barely stable before firing, but even that attack – which was approaching the strength of a Blizzard, if not the speed – didn't connect. Mega Altaria simply swooped down to the surface of the valley floor, squeaking underneath the attack, and launched another beam of Fairy-typed energy.
Reigniting his sword, Keldeo blocked again. This time, the beam was much lower, and he had to crouch to make sure it wouldn't push his head up and out of the way.
Clair glanced over to her opponent, and saw Ash seemed to only be keeping one eye on the battle. Half his attention was on his palm.
Curious, she looked closer, and saw a faint white sparkle there.
"Okay, Keldeo, I've got an idea!" she heard Ash call. "First – as soon as you can, get moving! This could take a while!"
The blast of Fairy-typed energy finally subsided, as Mega Altaria stopped using Hyper Beam.
Keldeo glanced up, coming back to his full height, and saw the Dragon-type was already recharging. Pink-silver energy flowed through his cloud, gathering on his neck ruff and crown, before streaming from there towards his mouth.
Deciding he'd got more than enough of a look for now, Keldeo spun on his forehoof and got moving – leaping up three terraces in a row, then running along to look for a good place to jump up again.
A Hyper Voice slammed into the ground behind him, making it crack and fall away.
"What now?" he called, most of his attention on his headlong gallop.
"Okay!" Ash replied. "Now – do the first step of how you form an Icy Wind! Just the first step, the cold ball of Aura!"
"Right," Keldeo replied, nodding and leaping up to a new level as he did so. Mega Altaria sent a blast of Fairy-energy at him, and he jumped straight back to the old one – forming the ball of cold.
"Got it!" he called, a few seconds later. "What now?"
"Now – keep it going, and focus on how it feels!"
Keldeo skidded as he reached a particularly broad tree, ducked – the tree exploded into splinters as Mega Altaria blew it up – and skidded down a level before deciding to cross the valley and start coming back the other way. "I'm concentrating as much as I can!"
The next thing Ash said was lost in the sound of an explosion.
"Pardon?"
"I said to concentrate on how your Secret Sword feels too!" Ash repeated.
Keldeo duly did so, concentrating on the rippling Aura of his Secret Sword and the nascent ball of cold in his mouth at the same time. "Ash, is this-"
"Look out!" Ash interrupted.
Keldeo glanced ahead, and yelped as he reached one of the sections damaged earlier in the fighting. A hasty jump carried him over the slumped part, and he accelerated further.
"Now..." Ash's voice hung on the word for a moment. "Swap them around!"
Keldeo blinked. "What?"
He stumbled, almost fell, and went back into a canter. "I don't see-"
"You did it!" Ash told him. "Or, started to! Just keep it up!"
A Fairy Hyper Voice went a bit long, and knocked a chunk from another tree.
Keldeo lost the ball of frost as he switched focus, and felt a tendril of aching cold on his horn.
But – that could mean...
He switched all the attention he could spare entirely to that nascent chill, and pumped energy into it. His Sword changed colour, going from a glowing gold to a frosty silver, and by the time he was getting close to Mega Altaria again the transition was complete.
"Good work!" Ash congratulated, as Keldeo shot past on the next terrace down. "Now – fire!"
"Ice blade!" Keldeo shouted, launching the silvery blade-beam from his horn. It snapped out towards Mega Altaria, and the slightly startled dragon fired his Pixilated Hyper Beam early.
The blade shot past the Hyper Beam, eroding a little as it clipped the edge of the energy stream, and hit Mega Altaria's left wing – producing a musical crash as the icy attack connected, and a thin layer of ice over the cloudstuff covering the wing before Mega Altaria shook it off.
"All right!" Ash grinned. "You know what to do!"
"I sure do!" Keldeo agreed, his grin matching Ash's. Reigniting his sword, he cloaked it in ice and fired a second scything ice blade – one Mega Altaria only barely dodged.
Clair blinked. "Did you just invent a move in the middle of a battle?"
"Yeah, why?" Ash asked, puzzled.
"...nothing."
Keldeo fired out another Ice Blade, and Mega Altaria's tail snapped up to block.
Having taken three hits already, it was caked in layers of ice, and this fourth one seemed to reach a critical mass- it lowered again only slowly, and Mega Altaria bobbed side-to-side slightly before recovering.
Cantering out of the way of a Fairy Hyper Voice, Keldeo charged his next one. His horn was beginning to tingle with the effort of sustaining all that throughput, but it was paying off!
This time, though, he'd barely fired the Ice Blade when it was hit by a Flamethrower.
Mega Altaria followed that up with a Fire Blast, and Keldeo rocked back on his hind legs and used a Hydro Pump jet to negate the flames in a hissing explosion of steam.
As the steam cleared, Keldeo saw that Mega Altaria had used the Fire Blast as a cover to switch back to charging Hyper Beam.
"Keldeo!" Ash called, in the moment before Mega Altaria fired. "Go for melee!"
Mega Altaria heard Ash as well, and began to ascend into the air.
"Right!" Keldeo called, his sword flashing from gold to icy silver, and interposed the blade between himself and Mega Altaria. The beam of Fairy-typed energy hit and splashed off, blowing holes in the grass around him, and he jumped.
All four hooves erupted with water, sending him soaring skywards, and he gritted his teeth – wobbling around a bit, trying to make sure he kept his Ice Blade in the right place.
Rising faster than Mega Altaria, he rode the Pixilated Hyper Beam right up to the Dragon-type himself, and slammed his Ice Blade into Mega Altaria's chest – then pushed as much Aura into it as he could.
The pink and icy silver explosion was about half as wide as the valley.
Keldeo landed on three hooves, stumbled, and stood there panting for a long moment.
"Ow," he said, shaking his head. "That kind of stung."
He looked up at a slithering sound, as Ash came down the side of the lowest terrace and ran over to him.
"Nice work, Keldeo!" he said, grinning. "Really – that was awesome!"
"Thanks," Keldeo replied, reverting to his Ordinary Form. "Phew... that was intense."
He and Ash looked around the side valley.
It was a wreck. Trees were blown to bits, there was water and ice damage everywhere, a number of long furrows had been carved by attacks that had missed or gone wide, and about a third of the terraces had collapsed completely.
"Uh... sorry about breaking the battlefield!" Ash called up at Clair.
"...I think I'm now much less upset that Raikou broke my gym lights," Clair sighed. "Otherwise you'd have ruined the entire building. Well, you won, Ash Ketchum – and won outright. Congratulations."
"Thanks!" Ash said, with a relieved sigh. "That was a really good battle!"
Clair inclined her head slightly. "I'll give you the Rising Badge in a moment. Now... who would like some lunch?"
"What!" Raikou roared.
He came bounding down the slope, and skidded a halt in front of Ash. "When are we going to have our bally race, then? It's always something!"
"Raikou!" Ash shook his head. "We'll have the race – in fact, we'll probably have it today. Just let me get everything else sorted out first..."
The Electric-type Beast subsided, somewhat, but looked mutinous.
Gary Oak yawned. "Oh, that was a terrible night's... what is it, Dee?"
He glanced at the clock, and blinked. "It's four in the morning. Why did you get me up at four in the morning?"
Ash just fought Clair, thus earning the Rising Badge, Dee explained.
"So?" Gary bunked sleep out of his eyes. "This better be good..."
In reply, Dee's projector sparked to life. She hovered into the air, and showed a flat-screen image of Mega Squirtle.
Gary stared at it for several seconds, as his brain booted up.
"...what is that?" he asked, carefully.
Mega Squirtle.
"Okay, how?"
I'm not sure of the details, Dexter sent me the picture... Dee broke off for a moment, then resumed. Right. Squirtle put together some bizarre bodge-job Squirtilite. It handled one battle and then exploded, but...
"...but it's flat impossible under what we think of as the rules of Mega Evolution. Right." Gary shook his head. "When's the paper due back from peer review?"
Two days from now.
"Right." Gary yawned. "Okay, I'm not going to pull it out of review, reformat the references, and go through all that faff for this. I'll just... write an addendum or something." Another yawn. "Maybe a monograph, always wanted to write one of those..."
Umbreon came out of her 'ball, looked at the picture, and rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I forget that Ash's one is the worst of the lot."
Gary was already back under the covers. "Wake me sometime after nine, then we can go to that Fairy-type gym..." he mumbled.
"What does Mister Raikou mean a race?" Mawile asked, nibbling on some pocky.
"The three Legendary Beasts of Johto have been challenging me," Ash explained. "I have to beat them in a race followed by a battle, and if I do then I can catch them."
"Right!" Mawile nodded. "I see! Are you going to catch Mister Raikou?"
"I'll certainly try," her trainer chuckled. He passed her another piece. "This one's strawberry."
"Thanks!" She took a bite, and beamed. "I like strawberry!"
"Okay, I'll remember that in future!" Ash chuckled.
He pretended not to notice that the dragons were still giving them quite a wide berth.
Except one...
"Hi, Ash," one of the dragon riders said, walking over. "How's things been?"
"Uh..." Ash frowned momentarily, trying to place the man, then realized. "Oh! You're Maurice, right? The guy who J captured?"
Maurice shrugged. "Yeah, that's me – seriously, thanks for saving Tyl and me back then. And, uh – sorry about loaning Clair that Altarianite."
"That was yours?" Ash asked. "Huh. Well – congratulations, I guess, for having it. They're pretty cool."
"The cloud dragon was pretty!" Mawile said.
"I guess they are cool," Maurice agreed. "So – guess you're off to the Silver Conference, then?"
"Yeah," Ash confirmed. "But we're going on holiday for a couple of days before I get down to training hard, pretty much."
"Oh?" The dragonrider nodded. "Sounds cool. When and where?"
"Altomare," Ash said – simplifying things a bit. "Should be in a few-"
"You've not forgotten about-"
"No, I haven't!" Ash replied, turning to Raikou. "So stop asking! We'll do it once I've put together a team for it!"
"Then do it now!" Raikou whined. "I've been waiting for this for weeks!"
"You've been running all over Johto fighting Gym Leaders, I thought..."
Maurice raised a hand. "Is that a speed run?"
One of the other riders made to throw something at him.
"So that's your newest Pokémon, Ash?" Delia asked, looking at the screen. "She's such a cutie!"
Mawile waved, and said something.
Delia waited for a moment. "What did she say, Ash?"
"Oh, sorry!" Ash blushed. "She said it was nice to meet you, too. Hey, Mawile, do you want to meet her in person?"
Mawile nodded.
"That's good – I'm going to be shifting a few Pokémon around, so you can head to Pallet Town for a bit." Ash thought for a moment. "Oh, and don't forget to see Molly, she can understand Pokémon too."
That sentence seemed to puzzle Mawile a bit. She asked what Delia could clearly tell was a question.
"No, only some humans can understand Pokémon. I'm lucky to be able to," Ash said with a smile.
That satisfied the little Fairy-type, and she nodded again.
"Okay, let's see..." Ash said, counting under his breath. "Pikachu, Lucario, Houndour... Pidgeot, of course... Donphan... and Meganium."
"Interesting choice for Meganium," Pikachu said, as Ash sent out Pidgeot and clambered aboard. "Why her?"
Ash shrugged. "She's not got a disadvantage, and her petal storms are surprisingly potent – and, of course, she can keep everyone else healthy. That could be important, remember Raikou's been basically training for the last few months."
"Fair point." Pikachu hopped up onto Pidgeot. "We ready?"
"We are ready," Pidgeot replied, raising her wings briefly to feel the wind. "Okay, not too bad..."
"I guess I'll see you in Altomare!" Ash called to Brock and Misty. "Oh – do you want me to leave you Entei and Suicune so you can get around faster?"
"We'll be fine!" Misty told him. "There are these things people use, they're called boats!"
"Sounds boring!" Ash laughed.
"Right, shall we do this?" Raikou asked, crouching down. "Three, two, one..."
He set off with a crack of thunder, and Pidgeot launched herself into the air. Cream-brown blur chased streak of moving lightning southwards, and then they were gone.
"...well, I guess that's that," Brock said. "Where's the nearest port?"
Clair frowned. "Tell you what... I'll give you a lift. Where's Salamence..."
"That's very kind of you," Misty said gratefully.
AN:
The second, longer, half of the gym fight.
Boomburst is loud. Very loud.
As for Mega Squirtle... yeah. That happened. Though many will want to forget it.
And finally, Keldeo vs. Mega Altaria. It is interesting how many cosmetic similarities Resolute Form has to a mega evolution, at least in the film/anime.
