One of the perks of competing in the Silver Conference, just like all the other recognized League tournaments, was that you got a pass for the stands for the whole tournament.

People used it in different ways – most didn't really have the time to watch any matches apart from their own in the first phases, since they were usually doing last-minute training and if you watched all the matches you'd be in the stadium for hours on end – but one thing that was common was that, if someone was knocked out, they'd follow the further challenge of whoever beat them.

Jon Dickson was no different. The day after he'd been beaten, he picked his seat about five minutes before Ash's next match and sat down with a drink.

He contemplated sending one of his Pokémon out to watch with him, but really only Vaporeon and Jolteon were the right size for the seats...

"Excuse me?" someone asked, and he glanced to his side. "Are these seats taken?"

Jon shook his head. "No, go ahead."

"Thanks," the other boy said, taking one. He sent out a Blaziken, who took the seat next to him. "Sorry, there's not many other seats available, especially not two together..."

"No, it's fine," Jon assured him. "Really."

"Thanks – oh, I'm Harrison," the teen informed him.

"Jon," Jon replied. "What's your story?"

"Well..." Harrison winced. "I got knocked out earlier today. Some guy with a ridiculous Garchomp. And... well, I've heard about Ash Ketchum, so I though I'd watch his match since it sounds like it'll be interesting."

"I actually lost to him yesterday," Jon confided. "The guy's quite a sight..."

"Look!" Harrison said, interrupting him. "It's about to start!"

Jon leaned forwards. "Who's that guy he's facing?"

His new friend pulled a rumpled tournament bracket sheet out of his pocket. "Says here... he's called Samurai."

That elicited a blink. "Isn't that a job title?"

Harrison shrugged.


"I will show you how far my Bug Pokémon have come!" Samurai called. "Metapod!"

Ash blinked. "Okay, I'm kinda... whatever. Larvitar, let's see your first go!"


"Neat, he's got a Larvitar," Jon said, leaning forwards a little. "Those aren't exactly common, even around here... usually the parents object."

"Speaking from experience?" Harrison asked, amused.

"Maybe a little..."

They watched as Larvitar frowned, a little confused, and then slowly walked over to the Bug-type.

When no unexpected surprises materialized, he proceeded to punch it.

"Harden!" Samurai called, and the Metapod's case flashed and became harder.

"...have you seen any of this guy's earlier matches?" Harrison asked. "I'm kind of wondering how he got here..."

"Now, Iron Defence!"

"There's got to be something," Jon frowned. "Surely..."

As it turned out, there was something. However, it wasn't something useful.

"Well, at least most Ground types are immune to Electricity still," Jon sighed, as Larvitar pulled the Electroweb off him. "This is a bit-"

Finally getting tired, Larvitar used Hidden Power. The blow knocked Metapod for six, and when it landed it was clearly no longer able to continue the fight. (Such as it was.)

"That... was not really a League battle," Harrison winced. "How did this guy get his badges?"


"Good work for now, Larvitar!" Ash called. "Stay out there, okay?"

Larvitar glanced back and nodded, then turned to face Samurai's next Pokémon.


"Okay, that's a bit more-" Harrison began.

"Wait..." Jon said, blinking, as the Vibrava spread its wings and took off. "Is that even a bug?"

"...actually, that's a good question," Harrison admitted, glancing over at his Blaziken. "You're right, they're Ground and Dragon types – we've met them in Hoenn. Any ideas?"

Blaziken shrugged.

"Maybe it's that it looks a lot like a bug?" Jon suggested. "Even though it's technically a dragon."

"Yeah, but – wait, there it goes," Harrison said, pointing, as the green insectoid did a flip in the air before coming diving down at Larvitar.

The little Rock-type frowned briefly, and drew back his fist. When Vibrava came skimming along the arena floor, touching down for just long enough to produce an Earth Power shockwave, Larvitar jumped forwards and hit the Dragon with a punch to the face.

The force of the impact sent Vibrava skittering off across the arena, his trajectory impaired, and Larvitar landed after the Earth Power had passed him by.

"That's interesting," Harrison said. "It looks like Vibrava will need to come up with a new plan, that Larvitar's quite good near the ground."

Jon nudged him to get his attention. "Look – looks like he has."

Harrison followed his gaze. "I can't see it – what's that?"

"He's charging a Solarbeam," Jon informed him. "That's going to-"


"Bide!" Ash called, just as the Solarbeam reached firing power.


"-oh, nice work!" Jon said approvingly, as a reddish glow covered Larvitar's rocky skin. A moment later, the blaze of greenish light crashed down, and could be seen crashing off in all directions. "I didn't know that Larvitar could learn that move."

He frowned. "Mind you, I've no idea what half the moves his Keldeo used even were, so..."

Harrison shrugged. "I remember hearing there were TMs for it."

The Solarbeam faded, revealing a bright greenish glow on the surface of the red one, and – no fool – Vibrava began to dive for cover.

That was the point when Larvitar unleashed the energy he'd stored.

A column of light speared skywards, sweeping across and hitting Vibrava hard enough to blow it high into the air.

"If that Solarbeam was as powerful as it looked, then getting all that energy right back again is going to be a major pain for Vibrava," Harrison judged. "Wait a minute..."

"Huh," Jon said, shading his eyes. "That happened with me, too..."


"Three times already!" Pikachu said with a sharp sigh. "And two of the other battles it would have been impossible..."

"I don't try to make my opponent's Pokémon evolve!" Ash replied, as Flygon shook out its wings and circled. "It just happens!"


"What are these Pokémon like?" Jon asked.

"They're basically faster, stronger – everything's more powerful than a Vibrava," Harrison told him, and Blaziken nodded solemnly. "One of them was on the team which took us out of the Ever Grande conference."

As they spoke, Larvitar switched to firing Hidden Power attacks skywards. Flygon dodged around them, rolling his long green body and beating his wings with a singing buzz, and then pulled an Immelman turn and swept down towards Larvitar at speed.

Skimming across the grass, he flicked his wing away from another Hidden Power attack and grabbed Larvitar around the chest.

As tactics went, the short term return of this was mixed. Larvitar promptly bit onto one of the arms holding him and began to volley in punches, and what had been intended as a smooth manoeuvre became anything but.

"...what was he planning?" Jon asked, as Flygon flew in erratic circles, shaking his arm frantically to try to remove the clinging Rock-type.

"I think it was Superpower, actually," Harrison frowned. "Blaziken?"

A nod.

"Right – see, Blaziken knows the move, so I thought it looked familiar..."

"Guess that makes sense. It's a Fighting-type move, so..."

A moment later, Flygon managed to dislodge his passenger. Larvitar bit at the other arm, and Flygon basically just dropped him to avoid that happening – adding an Iron Tail to send Larvitar on his way.

The Rock-type curled up, Hardening, and hit the retaining wall hard enough to leave a small crack before dropping back down.


"Okay, Larvitar!" Ash called. "This isn't your kind of fight!"

He held up two Pokéballs. One drew Larvitar in, the other sent out his replacement.


"That's one sleek Pidgeot," Jon said admiringly, as the Flying-type gained height fast with a series of steady wingbeats.

She blew past Flygon at speed, avoiding his Dragon Breath attack, and his wings hummed as he accepted her challenge and followed her up into the sky overhead.

"I guess we're getting an airborne battle, too," Harrison observed.


Pidgeot decided she was about high enough, and settled down from her glide into a more flat, steady pattern.

The Flygon buzzed up after her, taking up his own glide position some distance away, and they regarded one another for a moment.

Then, as though on a signal, both accelerated hard. Pidgeot went wide, building up momentum for an attack run, and Flygon gained a little height to trade for speed if need be.


"That looks really fast," Jon blinked. "I wonder if-"

He saw the shock cloud form, and then a faint shimmer covered the roof of the stadium. It was translucent, and they could see through it fairly easily, but when the sound of the sonic boom came it was only a loud crack rather than the ear-punishing SLAM it had the potential to be.

"I heard about this, actually," Harrison observed. "Last year in Indigo his Pidgeot was making sonic booms-"

Overhead, Pidgeot reached Flygon.

"-and-"

There was a complicated clash with a pulse of wind and a flare of green dragonfire, and when it ended Pidgeot was climbing skywards with Flygon managing to ride her slipstream and stay with her.

"-they got the Alakazam to block it!" he finished. "What just happened? I missed it, it was too quick!"

Pidgeot rolled and spun, shedding her slipstream and diving, and Flygon was carried a little too high to mount an effective attack. He tried anyway, and the Dragonflame he sent forwards this time was whipped into spiral streamers by the wind of her passage before dissipating.

"Okay, I can see why he'd be impractical for fighting on the ground, but wow," Jon said.

"She, I think," Harrison corrected. He glanced at Blaziken, who nodded. "Yeah, the article said she was female."

Pidgeot rolled in, performing an eye-fooling kulbit which shed most of her speed before regaining a lot of it all over again with a powerful wingbeat. She dodged cannily away from a shower of rocks Flygon tried to hit her with by yawing, and one of the wind currents she'd left behind turned into a Razor-Wind sting in the tail which caught Flygon off guard.

She didn't have it all her own way, though. Flygon's next trick was a cloud of sand, which she didn't notice until she hit it – not that the spectators could see it, either, but the way she wobbled with sudden uncertainty showed something had happened.

Her erratic path tempted Flygon, who came in for a telling blow with his fist crackling in a Thunderpunch. The powerful Electric attack was visible from the stadium as the two Pokémon descended, and Jon frowned.

"That looks wrong, somehow," he said, pointing at Pidgeot. "That doesn't look real-"

Pidgeot abruptly proved him right.

She slammed her wings out, white air-shocks forming as she braked with an effective wing surface area over ten times her real one. Wrong-footed, Flygon shot past, and then Pidgeot brought her wings back down again.

Skilled flyer or not, Flygon was completely unready for suddenly being in Hurricane-force winds. He whirled down like a leaf in a storm, and Pidgeot sustained the blast for a few seconds before abruptly pulling up and away.

Her breast kissed the top of the stadium, drawing gasps from the crowd, and then half a second later Flygon hit the ground with a thud.

"Flygon!" they heard Samurai call. "Are you all right?"

A tail twitched feebly, then Flygon pulled his head out of the ground and shook the mud off it. He wobbled a bit, cocked his head to look upwards, and then fell over.

"...so," Jon said, casually. "What would you call that?"

"Crash damage," Harrison replied promptly.


"Okay, Pidgeot," Ash said, as he returned her. "Good work, but I'll keep you in reserve in case there's another high-flyer. Let's see..."

He looked up as the Samurai pulled out a Nest Ball. "Volcarona!"

"I thought those weren't found around here..."Pikachu blinked. "How'd he get a Volcarona?"

Ash shrugged. "Hmm... Dexter, want to give this a go?"

I think I will.


"That's a rare one," Harrison said. He blinked. "Wait, I'm saying that about someone with at least four Legendaries. Never mind."

"Is that a Porygon?" Jon asked. "They're kind of rare, yeah... I heard they're getting a bit more common now, though."

They watched as the Porygon seemed to unfold, going from his normal, almost-avian form to a kind of octagon made of pink and blue facets.

"Okay, I'll admit that looks pretty cool," Jon said, leaning forward a bit. "Wonder if it's like Vaporeon, and changing shape like that is a special way of doing a move?"

Harrison shrugged.

Faintly, they heard Samurai talking. "Fiery Dance!"

Volcarona's wings buzzed, and it began to rotate. Slowly at first, the speed it was spinning quickly increased until it was a kind of localized tornado of fire.

It wobbled in the air, and then the fires spread out. They formed a great disc in the sky, pulsing and spiralling, and focussed in towards the Porygon. It was as though the outwards-spiralling flames Volcarona was sending out were being drawn towards Porygon in a mirror-image inwards spiral.

There was a flash, and the pink facets turned red just before the flames swept down.

For several seconds, the fire poured in. Then light shone from behind the flaming wall.

The red-and-pink petals burst outwards, knocking the flames away, and a beam of tri-coloured energy salvoed out at Volcanora. The Bug-type was forced to temporarily abandon its attack, and produced instead a shroud of flame to obscure its location before dodging away under the cover of the incandescent display.

"That's pretty flashy," Jon observed. "I'd expect that attack to have done more damage, though..."

"Actually..." Harrison leaned forwards slightly, squinting. "I think the fire component of the Tri Attack is stronger. The Porygon changed type."

"Can they do that?" Jon asked.

"Apparently – I know Pokémon like Kecleon can, but I've never had a Porygon, so-"

The roar of flame intensified. It seemed Volcarona had picked its next course of action, and waves of heat pulsed out.

"Bit of a one-trick Pokémon, isn't it?" Jon commented, raising his hand reflexively against the heat.

"Well, maybe it just has good Fire moves... or maybe all the moves it has are basically resisted by Fire."

He shook his head. "With that much heat, I'd be worried for Blaziken..."

Blaziken gave him a considering look, then shrugged.

"I wonder what the Porygon's going to do, though," he went on. "Apart from that Tri Attack, it's been very passive."

Harrison had spoken too soon. Dexter reformed from a basic diamond-shape to a more purely offensive tri-pointed cannon, which then fired a blast of electrical energy forwards in a Shock Wave.

Forming flaming walls to shield itself, Volcarona spun skywards away from the crackling beam of electricity. The attack curved, however, twisting up to follow its' foe, and bulled through one of the walls to deliver a fairly convincing hit.

That did not make Volcarona happy at all. It spun faster, a glowing halo of energy forming as it did, and produced a complicated pattern of fireballs which salvoed back towards the Porygon and made him shift to a defensive pentagonal-prism with a Light Screen protecting him.

The situation was further complicated as the grass, for the umpteenth time this tournament, caught fire.

The next few minutes were oddly beautiful, if a bit abstract. The smoke clouds that roiled up made it hard to see anything but the light of a particularly bright section of the fire, and it was hard to tell if the Pokémon inside could see one another either – but the constant crash and rumble of firey blasts combined with the infernal lighting from inside the smoky cloud to give an altogether otherworldly feel.

Eventually, inevitably, the grass burned off entirely. The smoke began to fade, pulled by powerful updrafts, and Volcarona sped it on its way with a whirlwind.

A beam of reddish light played across it as it did so.

"Is that a Lock On?" Harrison asked.

"I guess it must be," Jon agreed, as Volcarona's attention shifted to the Porygon again. It fired a powerful blast of flame – an Overheat, which washed down the sides of the attack-form the Porygon was in – and for a moment it seemed to have forestalled whatever its opponent was planning, as Ash's Pokémon drifted towards the floor.

Then the Porygon fired its Zap Cannon.

The potent, if inaccurate, attack hit and crackled over Volcarona's wings – locking them up with a burst of electricity, and reducing the Bug-type to hovering in place.

"That's a good hit, but is it enough?" Jon asked, glancing at the falling Porygon. It hit the floor none-too gently, still in a long, thin offensive form, and wobbled for a moment before seeming to stand itself fully upright again.

Sharpen.

"Did you say that?" Harrison said.

"No, wasn't me..."

Sharpen. Sharpen.

With each repetition, the cannon-form changed slightly. It narrowed up, the opening at the top becoming narrower until it was sealed before slimming down to a needle-like sharpness, and the base thickened and broadened until the result was a long, thin pentagonal pyramid.

Then it trembled, before rocketing skywards with a crackle of residual electricity.


Aerial Ace.

Volcarona had managed to shake off the paralysis, but it didn't help.

Dexter's form for this was fast enough that the Bug-type could barely move half its own length in the time it took him reach the target, and the powerful blow caught Volcarona on the lower abdomen.

It flipped twice before managing to stabilize, and that was enough time for Dexter to repeat the attack – from above, this time.

The Volcarona's fiery body was clearly having an effect, but not enough of one – Dexter drove his opponent into the floor, reformed swiftly into a five-pointed petal facing directly down, and added a Hyper Beam to the trouble Volcarona was in.

When the dust cleared, Volcarona was clearly out of it.


"...Porygon are strange," Jon decided, and Harrison nodded confirmation.

There was a pause, as both Pokémon were returned. The Samurai sent out his next one first, a glossy-looking Pinsir, and then Ash produced a Tauros.

"Oh, I heard about this..." Harrison mused. "Someone was talking to me about it yesterday. Apparently he used three Tauros, and they all had different moves."

"Right," Jon said. "Did you hear what they were?"

"One of them walked on water, if you can believe it..." Harrison said, to a startled look. "I know. And – look, they're starting!"

Tauros stamped the floor, then thundered forwards. He was met by Pinsir, who lowered his horns, and they clashed – horn against horn.

The two pushed at one another for a few seconds, then backed off as if by mutual agreement before coming in again.

"Okay, so I don't see much water..." Harrison said. "So I guess it's one of the other ones?"

"What did they have?"

"There was one with Counter, and the other one had Solarbeam." The Hoenn trainer frowned. "But I guess if this was the Solarbeam one then it wouldn't be able to use it much – we might not find out."

Another bang of impact, then Pinsir's grip improved. It fell backwards, levering Tauros into the air, and slammed him down with a crash.

Tauros shook his head, and replied by Stomping at Pinsir's hide.

"Storm Throw!" Samurai called, and Pinsir adjusted its grip slightly. A glow built around its pincers, and it then lifted Tauros up again – and over.

The bull hit the ground upside-down with a painful-sounding crash, and rolled over befoe getting up as quickly as possible. Pinsir drove in another hard, painful hit before Tauros managed to gallop clear.

"That's just nasty," Jon winced. "I think my back kinda tingles myself now... hey, what's the Pinsir doing?"

Rather than pursuing, Pinsir was flexing. A reddish glow began to build around its body, and it seemed to be bulkier.

"That's Bulk Up, I think," Harrison told him. "I guess maybe it's to counteract the effect of that Superpower?"

Tauros was coming in again, this time with his head down and his horns glowing. The two Pokémon collided with a bang, bounced off a little, and began grappling again.


"Good!" Samurai called, watching Pinsir carefully. "Don't let him Counter you!"

That was what he was most worried about, so it made sense to assume it was that one. If he was wrong it wouldn't have much in the way of repercussions...

"Right!" he added. "Now, push him away!"


Pinsir tossed his head, sending Tauros hurtling off to the other side of the arena. He bounced once, rolled, and got up.

"Wonder why Pinsir did that?" Harrison began, then they heard Ash's voice.

"Now!" Ash shouted.

Tauros nodded, shaking his head, and began to storm forwards.

"Okay!" Samurai shouted. "Hyper Beam!"

Light began to glow on Pinsir's horns.

Then Tauros used Fire Blast.

"What the-!?" Jon gasped, as the flame shot forwards. The orange Hyper Beam lashed out a moment later, piercing through the middle of it, but the five outer lines kept going.

Both Pokémon were enveloped in explosions at once.

"You didn't mention Fire Blast!" Jon said, blinking.

"I didn't know about it!" Harrison replied. "Are they just three really talented ones, or does he have loads?"

The smoke began to clear, revealing that both were still standing – though, in both cases, it was a close-run thing.

Tauros shook his head, looking a little dazed, and charged forwards. His horns flashed, as he prepared a fairly straightforward Horn Attack.

As he arrived, though, Pinsir swung down his horns, and a glow enveloped them.

They snapped shut on the charging Tauros' neck-ruff, and the Guillotine attack triggered – knocking Tauros out.

Unfortunately for Pinsir, doing that to a charging Tauros didn't make it stop moving. The Bug-type was rammed back into the wall, took a wobbling step out of the crater, and slumped forwards.


Ash returned Tauros, and frowned.

Now it was his turn to send one out first. Who to pick...

"Noctowl!" he decided, sending the avian out.

Samurai threw his own Pokéball a moment later, and a Vespiquen emerged.


"Right, let's get to it!" Noctowl said, dipping his wings. "Time to be about it, and all that rot."

"I beg your pardon, good sir?" the Vespiquen said, hovering in the air with her arms folded. "Do you seriously inform me that you intend to challenge Her Majesty?"

Noctowl blinked. "...what, what?"

"I may have the body of a Bug and Flying type, but I have the Power Gem of a Rock-type!" she informed him, making a gesture, and Noctowl was forced to bank away from a hexagonal gemstone moving rather faster than was safe.

"That's just not cricket!" he replied, spinning off an illusion and phasing out of visibility.

"Tallyho!" the Vespiquen responded, and dozens of miniature Combee doubles swarmed out of her dress. They spread out across the stadium, until one of them hit something invisible and the others began to converge on that location.

"Extra-bloody-sensory!" Noctowl shouted, forcing them away in a pulse of psionic energy, and salvoed in Air Slashes at his opponent.

"Protect me, my guards!" Vespiquen said sharply. More miniature Combee appeared from her abdomen, forming a wall which took the impact of the Flying-type attack, and Noctowl used the distraction to phase out of visibility again.

Vespiquen sent out the Attack Order again, and there was nothing for several seconds. Then Noctowl briefly flickered into visibility, and she ordered a concentration on him there – only to be hit by a sudden Air Slash from behind her, revealing that the first flicker had actually been a fake.

"You are no knight, but a knave!" she hissed, calling on her bees to heal her... somehow.

"I resent that implication and all it stands for!" Noctowl replied hotly, and flicked a wing away from renewed attack by another Power Gem.


"What." Ash said, blinking.

"I think they're having a Battle of Brit-ing," Pikachu observed.

Ash gave him a glare. "That was terrible."

"...you're right, it was. Sorry."


"You had to fight this one, right?" Harrison asked, as Noctowl jinked back and forth across the stadium.

"Yeah, I-" Jon paused, as another Noctowl was swarmed by bees and turned out to be a fake. "I don't really follow how illusions like this work... anyway, yeah, my Rapidash had trouble with him."

"Right." Harrison said. "By the looks of things, there's not much that you could do against him... what did you end up having to do to find him?"

"Actually, it was mostly because of all the smoke and flame," Jon said. "He disturbed it, and I managed to spot a ripple in the smoke quick enough to let Rapidash know about it in time."

"That's pretty impressive, I'll admit," Harrison said, then both were interrupted by a sudden amplification of the buzzing sound from the battlefield.

Vespiquen had apparently tired of the situation. She was sending out huge numbers of bees to sweep the whole battlefield, sweeping her arms as she ordered them around.

"Question," Jon said, blinking. "How, exactly, is this one Pokémon?"

"...I think they're constructs?" Harrison asked, uncertainly. "Probably?"

"It's even more confusing than Zweilous..."

After a minute, Vespiquen turned with an air of triumph and pointed.


"Aha! The blaggard is revealed!" Vespiquen crowed, as Noctowl began to lose his cloak due to the sheer number of bugs clinging to him.

"You have me at a disadvantage, madame..." he muttered, trying to shake the Combee-constructs off.

"Now, witness the power of this Royal Bee Force! Attack!"

Dozens of red glows began to light up the whole arena, as the Bug Buzz attacks charged.

"Pity, really..." Noctowl mused, shaking his head. "You only went and forgot the most British thing of all."

Vespiquen frowned.

"Why, to spit fire of course!" Noctowl's eyes flashed, and his beak opened. "Heat Wave!"

The spherical blast of flame sent the constructs showering in all directions, and Vespiquen hissed. "No! Off with his top hat!"

"It's only a bally illusion," Noctowl muttered, and flapped hard. He carved a path of flame through the bee formation, and dove down on Vespiquen with an air of smugness.

"Destiny Bond!" she managed, the moment before he hit, and there was a flash of fire and smoke which flashed from Combee to Combee and sent her whole construct force up in smoke.

It smelled of wax and honey.

When the scented smoke cloud had streamed out of the roof, both Pokémon were crashed in long furrows on the arena floor.


"You know..." Jon frowned. "I have this vague sense that we missed something there."

Blaziken held in a snicker.

Harrison shrugged. "Let's see.. okay, the bug guy has one Pokémon left, and Ash has... well, his Pidgeot, which isn't very manoeuvrable in tight spaces; his Larvitar, which is kind of slow; that Porygon, who seemed pretty hurt... and whatever else he's got now. Well, I guess the bug guy could pull it out of the hat..."

Samurai sent out his last Pokémon, and the Hoenn trainer blinked. "Okay, wasn't expecting that..."

"What is it?" Jon asked.

"It's an Armaldo – they're fossils. Where'd he get that?"

"I guess... the ground?" Jon asked.

"...yeah, fair point," Harrison admitted with a laugh.

Ash sent out his own Pokémon, and they examined it.

"Well... it's a Kingler," Jon said, not sure what else to say about it.

"Is that kind of like a Crawdaunt?" Harrison asked.

"...I'd know if I knew what a Crawdaunt was."

"They're kind of crustaceans. Big claws, Water and Dark type..."

"Oh, okay." Jon frowned. "No, they're just pure Water."

Kingler flexed his claws, and advanced on the Fossil. Armaldo examined him for a moment, then accepted the challenge and advanced.

There wasn't much subtlety to this particular battle. The ancient Fossil and the more modern crab engaged one another in a brutal, percussive slugfest.

Claws clashed against pincers, Armaldo working up a rhythm with his Fury Cutters in between the occasional blast of water from Kingler's Crabhammers as they impacted.

"There doesn't seem to be any strategy going on," Jon said, sounding a bit disappointed. "I mean, it's alright, but..."

His new friend had already spotted something, though. "Is it me, or is that water getting deeper?"

Jon looked again. "...you're right. That's already at least a foot deep..."


"Kingler, now!" Ash called. "Surf!"

Kingler stepped back a pace, making Armaldo whiff his Fury Cutter and interrupting his rhythm.

The Bug-type scowled, seeming offended, and readied to charge in – and then Kingler's Surf happened.

The water deepened nearly instantly, as Kingler produced a kind of continual wave which deepened the pool by a factor of two at least.

Armaldo was carried backwards by the wave, and took a moment to right himself. He scowled, then dove into the water with a plip.


"Okay, this is much more interesting," Jon said happily, as he tracked the high-speed ripple of Armaldo swimming through the shallow water. "Wonder why Ash had Kingler do that, though – I mean, it seems like it's just making a disadvantage."

"I don't know, but I'm sure there's a reason," Harrison shrugged. "After all, why would he do it?"

At that point, Armaldo got close enough to Kingler that the Water-type tried his luck.

"Whoa!" both trainers said, echoing the response of most of the stadium, as a plume of water geysered skywards from Kingler's Crabhammer – carrying with it the Armaldo.

The baffled Bug-type described an arc through the air, and Kingler got in a salvo of Bubblebeam which detonated along his side before he plunged back into the water – taking a more cautious approach angle, this time.


"Armaldo!" Samurai called. "Armaldo!"

The second time, his Fossil heard him. It kicked up spray as it swam over to the booth, and popped out next to its master.

"You're going to have to close in faster than Kingler can react!" he said. "For the honour of Bug-types!"

Armaldo saluted, then plipped back into the water.

A moment later, a yellow-violet light began to shine from beneath the surface.


"That's a Giga Impact!" Ash realized. "Kingler – on my mark!"

Kingler's claw clicked open under the water, ready to fire.

Ash closed his eyes, and located Armaldo. The Bug-type was swimming in a circle, accelerating – then he changed course and came straight in at high speed.

Unlike Kingler, Ash could see exactly where Armaldo was as he did that – so he could tell Kingler-

"Now!"

The Crabhammer fired, producing a tiny bubble of superheated water which expanded to steam. The bubble promptly collapsed under the water pressure, but not without blowing a huge hole in the water – and deflecting Armaldo upwards.

Kingler then learned the same lesson Pinsir had, and was struck between the eyes by seventy kilos of Armaldo still cloaked in the energy of Giga Impact.

Ash wasn't sure if he'd miscalculated or whether that was just going to have happened anyway, but he reacted fast. He called back the knocked-out Kingler and sent out Pidgeot in the same movement, and she swept forwards.

One wingbeat, and then her wings were sliding up into a configuration with the leading edge vertical. Her tail flicked from position to position as she extended her claws, and she snagged Armaldo just before he made it back to the water and safety.

Still tired from the exertion, Armaldo was unable to take any quick countermeasures. Within a few seconds, Pidgeot had him up as high as the stadium roof, and she pulled around in a tight, air-control-boosted turn before flinging him right back towards the water again.

The final step was a Gust. That sped him along, but more importantly it dished the water in at his impact point – so there wasn't nearly enough to provide a cushioning effect, and he hit with a splattering crash.


"With Pokémon still able to battle, Ash Ketchum wins!"

"Exciting enough for you?" Harrison chuckled, as he joined in the applause.

"Pretty much, yeah," Jon agreed. "I'm kind of glad he didn't have to use that Pikachu, though, I feel proud of forcing him to!"


AN:


Remember this guy?

He's been improving.

Also, this is what happened to Harrison – I have plans for the remaining three battles, and he's not in them.

Hopefully this framing device was interesting...

As for the Noctowl-Vespiquen battle, all I can say is - sorry...