This is the second of two chapters today.


Hands together, Mewtwo fired out a storm of Shadow Balls at Dusknoir.

Opening its central body, the Ghost-type absorbed the attack into itself. Mewtwo kept up the barrage, swerving them so that Dusknoir had to keep adjusting, and after about twenty seconds Mewtwo finally snuck one past the defences.

There was an almighty explosion, and Dusknoir dissolved into the wind.

I assume they come back at some point... Mewtwo muttered. Right. Four down, one to go.

"That's right!" Ash confirmed. "Hey, can you still use Shadow Ball?"

Mewtwo checked, holding out his hand. Dark energy resolutely failed to form on it, and he sighed.

Oh well. I still have Psychic and Focus Blast, at least...

Agatha chuckled. "Now – ask yourself, child. Why would I sacrifice four Ghost-types without using Curse?"

"It had occurred to me," Ash admitted. "I didn't want to ask, though, because it might give you ideas."

Another chuckle. "Smart boy!"

Agatha sent out her final Pokémon – a Sableye.

Mewtwo frowned. That's not exactly-

"Miracle Eye now!" Ash snapped.

"Too late!" Agatha announced, and there was a flash of bright orange light.

Squinting against the glow, Mewtwo saw the Mega-Evolution faintly. Sableye's body lit up, and then the energy all focused towards the gem on its chest. The red jewel glowed brightly, flaring and expanding, and came loose as it rapidly ballooned to being larger than the Sableye itself.

When the orange power faded, some other changes were visible – mainly cosmetic, such as yellow teeth and red eyes.

The gem was the important one, though. It was so big Mega Sableye was able to use it to hide behind.

"Good luck handling that!" Agatha cackled.

I intend to, Mewtwo informed her calmly. Miracle Eye.

That done, he summoned a ball of glowing psionic energy into his palms, and launched forwards a sparkling Psybeam.

When the dust faded, he frowned. Eh?

Mega Sableye was completely untouched. The gemstone was undamaged, and the ground around it was scarred – but not even the fingers holding the gemstone up had been affected.

"The attack bounced off the shield gem!" Ash told him. "But there was something else... wait, see if you can detect him!"

"Her!" Agatha said peevishly.

Mewtwo extended his mind.

Hundreds of mental whispers, bleed-through from the crowd – mostly tense with anticipation, seeing what Agatha had been building up to all battle.

The shining star that was Molly Hale, still bearing the – thankfully positive – marks of her experience with the Unown last year.

Wily old Agatha, and Ash's determination, and Pikachu and all the rest of them.

...but no Sableye.

You are correct, he informed Ash. Miracle Eye did not work.

"It's Magic Bounce!" Agatha said. "Foresight and Miracle Eye don't work on her now!"

"An ability?" Ash asked. "Huh. I thought you'd just use Magic Coat..."

Any suggestions? Mewtwo asked. I must admit this is a new one on me.

To demonstrate, he hammered down another pulse of psychic energy. It made the ground around Mega Sableye crack and sink a few inches, but the patch shielded by her gem was untouched.

A rock hurtled in from the side, and Mega Sableye demonstrated she could go intangible as well – phasing through the rock without it contacting her.

The Ghost-type then cackled, sounding a lot like her trainer, and her shadow deepened and blackened. It spread out, unhindered by the early afternoon sun, and stretched out towards the hovering Mewtwo's shadow.

"Don't let her connect!" Ash warned, and Mewtwo looked down before swooping away.

A blast of bright light flashed out from Mewtwo's palms, forcing the Shadow Sneak to retreat, and Mewtwo kept it up to try to force Mega Sableye to retreat behind her shield again.

On a hunch, he clenched one fist and sharply pulled on the entire arena floor. It rose up, but Mega Sableye's shield-crystal blocked it from affecting the ground directly underneath her – and her shadow used it as a cover to lash out and claw at his legs and tail.

Another Flash drove it back, and Mewtwo glanced over at Ash – his irritation fading, as he saw Ash deep in thought.

"Okay, Mewtwo!" he said, after a few more seconds' thought. "You know Aura Sphere, right?"

That's not exactly going to-

"It's just the start point!" Ash interrupted him. "Okay, keep high and safe – throw some rocks at her or something – and listen closely!

Mewtwo did so, exerting his telekinesis to rise higher into the air and away from attacks. A few Shadow Balls whipped up at him, but he avoided them with relative ease – most of his attention on Ash.

"Okay, build up an Aura Sphere, then – concentrate on the Aura itself," Ash began. "Everything about how it feels, everything about how it moves. How it's basically life energy, concentrated into a sphere."

Mewtwo nodded slowly, listening.

"It's just energy, at the moment – but it can be more. Think about that energy, and remember – life is like a flame." Ash's voice was low but urgent, and Mewtwo could hear him quite clearly. "It spreads, and burns up, and once it's strong enough it's impossible to blow out. Aura warms you deep inside, and it's got the potential to be not just warm but hot."


"What's he doing?" Norman asked.

May frowned. "I think... no, I know what he's doing."

"Do you?" Max asked. "I sure don't..."


"Understand?" Ash asked.

I believe I do.

"Now, just bring that heat to the surface!" the trainer finished. "Make it move faster, swirl so it rubs against itself and heats up!"

Putting both hands around the ball of Aura, disdaining the Power Gems and Shadow Balls whipping past his floating form, Mewtwo concentrated and split his Aura Sphere down the centre – setting one half spinning one direction, the other half directly opposite it, and the central plane a place of clashing opposites.

For a few seconds, that was that. Then a spark caught.


Ash spotted it as soon as Mewtwo did, thanks to his Aura Sight. "Right!" he called up. "You got it! Now – throw that flame!"

Mewtwo needed no further prompting. He threw the ball of flaming Aura downwards, and it exploded on Mega Sableye's shield sending a roar of fire in every direction.


"...oh, that's what he was doing," Norman realized. "He just taught Mewtwo a new move mid-battle."

He considered it.

"Neat trick, if you can do it."


Now he had an attack that could actually work, Mewtwo went back on the offensive. He built flaming balls of Aura in both hands, and sent them out on curving paths which intersected Mega Sableye from perpendicular directions.

"One step back and shield to the front!" Agatha ordered.

Mega Sableye did so, planting her shield so that both the balls of fire hit it the other side to her – just about.

The concussion was impressive, knocking her back despite the steadying influence of her shield, and then Mewtwo launched down a third fireball.

This one – finally – connected.

Mewtwo pressed his advantage, growing increasingly confident with pyrokinesis as the battle went on, and about a minute later Agatha sighed and raised her hand.

"Okay, you win. Well done."

The words were not exactly enthusiastically said.

Excellent, Mewtwo said, and settled gently to the ground. That was a great deal of fun, and an amusing mental puzzle. Ash – thank you for your assistance. I am glad to see that your mind is as sharp as ever.


Brock nearly choked on some popcorn.


Incidentally, Mewtwo added, raising his head and looking around the stadium. I am going to be signing copies of my book in the Pokémon Centre later.

He spread his arms, and rose steadily into the air until he was out of the stadium and out of sight.

After a moment of silence, Lance turned on the microphone.

"I'm sure we all enjoyed that," he said, with a smile on his lips. "That's Agatha for you, ladies and gentlemen – the most tricky of our number."

A smattering of applause.

"And – well, we know who's next, don't we?" he added. "There'll be a short break, but I will be facing Ash myself soon!"


"Thanks for coming on such short notice," Ash said gratefully. "I kinda didn't think to..."

The girl smiled, a little uncertainly. "The journey was certainly quick."

"Yeah, that was nice of Mewtwo too," Ash nodded. "You know what-"

"Of course I do," she replied. "I've been learning everything I can about the subject for over a year, since it's apparently all completely true."

"I'd do that," Ash admitted. "But I don't really have the time..."

"Yeah, at least I can focus on... well, legend singular."

Melody adjusted her outfit. "Right, let's go do this."


"Did you have any advice for this one?" Norman asked.

"Yeah, actually," May confirmed. "It took us a while to work out what would be best, but we finally got it this morning."

"Any spoilers?" her mother asked cheekily.

"No, wait like everyone else has to!" May laughed. "Look, here we go."

As they watched, a girl clad in a red-fringed white robe walked out onto the grass. She bowed, then took an instrument from her sleeve and began to play.

Sweet, pure notes resonated out into the arena, describing a simple and haunting tune. It had a slow time signature, and it took about thirty seconds to get through the first five or six bars.

Once it reached that point, Ash threw the final Pokéball.

It exploded outwards in an enormous cloud of towering white smoke as the half-dozen white smoke seals detonated, and then a second voice wove into the song. Deep and rich, it formed a counterpoint to the ocarina's tune, and a moment later a great whirlwind of air and water streamed out of the cloud and up into the arena.

A shadow moved across the stands, the sunlight picking out something moving within the Twister-

And, with a sweep of his wings, Lugia emerged. The Psychic-type dismissed the swirling wind, and hovered there beating his wings.

"May?" Norman asked, calmly. "At some point I'm going to ask Ash for a list of Legendaries he doesn't have, and it's going to be shorter than the list of ones he does."

"...yeah, probably," May agreed. "How was the intro? The music's Lugia's song, by the way, it actually helps heal him if he's injured."

"I think it worked quite well," Caroline told her. "How did you manage the water?"

"Splash seals."

"Good thinking, they're underused."

Max leaned forwards in his seat. "Let's see how Lance does!"


Lugia hovered there for a moment longer, and then Lance sent out his first Pokémon – an Aerodactyl.

He glanced down at Ash. I will be listening. But I think this might get a little far for you to shout.

With that, he brought up his wings and beat them – hard. He went soaring up into the air, and Aerodactyl followed.

Servos clicked, and the roof retracted all the way to give people a better view as the two Flying-types swept skywards.


Neck craned back, Melody watched as the Great Guardian went to battle.

His wings beat, churning the air, but his speed was much greater than that alone could explain. Glowing softly, he wove around Aerodactyl's Rock-type attacks and countered with battering blasts of psionic energy.

The Rock-type was overall coming off the worst, she thought – which wasn't surprising, given Lugia was a Legendary.

She glanced over at Ash, and blinked. His eyes were shut.

"Uh-"

Ash held up a hand. "Sorry, concentrating."

"Right..."


Lugia rolled, avoiding a shotgun-blast Rock Slide from his opponent, and hissed as it clipped his tail.

Down!

Diving for a moment, he flared his wings and twisted around to get a bead before launching out a wave of water from his maw. The blast met a Stone Edge coming the other way, which attritted it down, and Aerodactyl snapped around in a manoeuvre riding the edge of a stall to get out of the way.

As he came back up to speed, Lugia's fins folded in and he rolled. Wings spreading, he whipped up a horizontal Twister and curved it around to hit Aerodactyl.

The Rock-type got blindsided by the attack, and whirled towards the ground – then levelled out and came back up, wings beating hard.

Twister from below.

Lugia absorbed the suggestion Ash had sent, and nodded. His wings whipped up another Twister, and he sent it lashing past Aerodactyl before making it whip around in a U-turn and come from behind.

Caught off guard, Aerodactyl was carried past Lugia early, and his Rock Slide spread went awry – mostly. He did manage to hit Lugia in the side with two or three of the rocks, which stung but didn't do any real harm.

A Psyshock met a quick Stone Edge, and the two Flying-types began circling for another clash.


"Hmmm..." Brock said, looking up. "That's interesting."

Philena glanced at him. "Oh?"

"Oh, just..." Brock shrugged. "I can really see how Lance got his title, that's one well-trained Aerodactyl."

Professor Ivy nodded silently, as Aerodactyl managed to flip around and get a bearing on Lugia from behind. The big Psychic-type was already turning out of the way when Aerodactyl lined up, and a crackling Light Screen expanded out to protect Lugia from whatever Aerodactyl was planning.

As it turned out, Aerodactyl had something big planned. He gave a hissing roar, and as he did a red-glowing ball of grey rock formed in his claws.

Turning to match Lugia's dodge, he released the ball of rock – which snapped forwards with startling speed, directly at Lugia.

Brock half-stood. "That's Rock Wrecker!"

The potent Rock-type attack slammed into Lugia's shield and smashed it aside, detonating as it did with a mighty BANG. Rock fragments sprayed Lugia's back for a series of painful impacts, and he let out an audible cry of pain before snatching himself up into a flip.

That let him target the tired Aerodactyl squarely, and a Hydro Pump forced him to the ground.


Ash frowned up as Lance recalled his Fossil and switched Pokémon. "Lugia? Are you okay?"

I am fine, Ash. I have taken knocks harder than this from my charges before.

Reassured, Ash nodded. He watched, then frowned and warned Lugia – silently this time. That Salamence has a neck band. I think it's a Mega Stone.

Understood.

Ash spared a moment to smile. The fact they could communicate mentally – when close, when both were concentrating on it – had been a nice surprise to confirm, and it had the potential to be useful in other situations too.


"We're certainly getting to see a lot of Mega evolutions," Misty observed.

Bruno nodded. "I'm still looking for one," he admitted. "I've heard of a stone that works on Medicham, so that's my goal for now."

Misty smirked slightly.

"Yes, we know you've got one already," Lorelei smiled. "Lance told us about it. I actually think he plans to use his Gyarados you caught for him today."

"That was one strong Gyarados," Misty agreed. "But – has he managed to train him yet?"

"Mostly. I think it involved beating it up a couple of times..." Bruno shrugged.

There was a whipcrack of air as Mega Salamence rose skywards, and they leaned forwards to watch.


The path crunched softly as Todd walked up it.

"This is quite nice," he said, stamping one foot on the springy gravel-topped path. "I wonder how they do it... moss?"

Sneasel shrugged.

"I suppose there's no real way to know," he admitted, and resumed walking. "Man, but the air here's lovely!"

His assistant chuckled softly, and he joined in after a moment. "I guess so... but when we were in Saffron, that was pretty bad."

Sneasel waved a claw, indicating she wasn't sure – then tensed slightly.

"What is it?" Todd asked, all business now.

In reply she pointed ahead, and Todd shaded his eyes before nodding.

"That looks like it, alright. Okay..."

Swinging his bag off his shoulder, he got out the big camera. He had hopes of being able to get close, but if he wasn't able to then distance shots would be fine.


A gasp ran around the stadium as Mega Salamence and Lugia exchanged powerful Flying-type blasts of energy.

An Aerilated Hyper Beam met a powerful Aeroblast coming the other way, and the two attacks clashed violently and birthed a short-lived ring-shaped vortex. The shock cloud dispersed, and then the two Flying-types passed one another at close range before turning around for another high-speed attack.

If Aerodactyl had been a close-in dogfight, this was more like boom-and-zoom. Both Pokémon were using their great speed to attack on the fly, hoping to limit the engagements and avoid too much trouble if they happened to be the one who came off worst, and neither had yet taken too much of a hit.

"Okay, change of plan!" Lance called up. "Boomburst, then get Thrashing!"

"Boomburst?" Ash repeated. Lugia, ready a Light Screen -and a Protect too!

A moment later, the roar of sound came blasting out from Mega Salamence's maw. It spread in a cone pattern, visible as a solid wall in the air, and Lugia whirled to accelerate away as he built his shield – anything to reduce the impact.

Behind the wavefront, Mega Salamence's whole body pulsed a faint red. A visible air shock formed around him as he prepared for a series of agile passing attacks, intended to outpace Lugia's ability to rebuilt his shield.

There was a flash as Lugia's shields firmed-

Contact.

The impact knocked the Great Guardian through the sky, and he flipped twice before regaining his flight regime. As he did, he whipped out a wing, and cuffed the skewing Mega Salamence.

That didn't seem to faze the powerful Dragon-type, who performed what would have been a tumble had it not been so exquisitely controlled and slashed up at Lugia under his guard.

Lugia's reply was a powerful Hurricane, but he was scrambling – reacting, not taking the initiative – and Mega Salamence rode his advantage to deliver a one-two punch of slashing air-bladed blows with the wind on his wings.

Aeroburst! Ash sent up.

Lugia complied, building energy and letting the air rush towards his mouth. Mega Salamence came in for another run, aiming to be behind and safe when the attack finished charging-

And Lugia used Aeroburst, abruptly releasing the energy that corralled the high pressure air for his attack.

The resultant omnidirectional attack hit both him and Mega Salamence, but he'd been ready for it. Mega Salamence had not.


Walking cautiously down the path, Todd kept his camera half-raised for a quick snapshot if something turned up.

"I didn't imagine it, right?" he asked, after a few minutes of slow walk had taken them around into a narrow draw. "We did see-"

Sneasel tapped his arm urgently.

"What?"

She pointed.

Todd looked up.

Hello, the Lugia hovering overhead said, speaking as well – presumably for Sneasel's benefit. What brings you here?

"I just want to take some photographs," Todd said automatically. "How did you manage that without my noticing?"

I've had quite a lot of experience staying hidden, the Lugia informed him. Speaking of which, why are you up here to take photographs?

"Uh... I got a tip from my friend Ash," Todd explained. "He said-"

The Lugia visibly brightened, and drifted downwards. Ah, I see. That would be my mate he sent you after – I'm afraid he's away at the moment.

She frowned, legs taking her weight as she landed. Actually, if I understand it right, he's probably battling in the Silver Conference today.

"He's – wait," Todd said slowly. "That implies... oh."

He and Sneasel exchanged an astonished look.

"I said Ash was catnip for legendaries, I guess I should have expected this," Todd sighed. "Oh. Well... can I wait around until he gets back? Or... would you mind if I took photos of you?"

He saw the female Lugia consider it.

I might be alright with that, she said, after a moment. And... knowing what I do of Ash Ketchum, if he sent you our way then you can be trusted.

She raised her mental voice. Silver?

A cry answered her, and Sneasel blinked in shock.

"What?" Todd asked, and she pointed.

A moment later, a smaller Lugia came half-hopping half-flying over the low ground. He said something Todd didn't understand, and the female – the mother – Lugia smiled.

He's one of Ash's friends, she told him. He'd like to take pictures of us. Doesn't that sound nice?

"I seriously need to thank Ash for this," Todd said absently. "Hello."

The young Lugia waved, and bugled a question at his mother.

Yes, I'm sure you'll get to keep some. Oh – if you stay around long enough, she said, turning to Todd again, I'm sure that my mate would be willing to have a few taken as well.

"That would be lovely," Todd smiled. "Thank you."

Of course, depending how his battle goes he might need a bath first...


A torrent of raw orange energy traced a path skywards, meeting a red blaze heading down and impacting it a little above the stadium roof.

Hyper Beam clashed with Aeroblast, producing a ball of bright energy, and then the whole thing destabilized and fell apart with a crash and a brief cloud of smoke.

"You fought that?" Brock called over the din to Misty.

"He did knock out my entire team except Mega Gyarados!" Misty replied, also shouting. "But some of those moves are new!"

The Shiny Gyarados let out a roar as Lugia swooped overhead, and launched himself skywards.

Ice blasted out, and scraped along Lugia's wing, but the Flying-type was too high to get a Bite into and Lance's Gyarados hit the floor again a few seconds later with a thump.

Unconcerned, the Atrocious Pokémon charged something else and spat it skywards as Lugia came around for another run.

The Zap Cannon hit Lugia's shield, crackling against it, and some of the energy bled through into his fine white-and-blue feathers.

Fighting off the paralysis with an effort of will and the benefit of his earlier Safeguard, Lugia dove and got out of line-of-sight.


Sweeping low over the buildings of the town itself, Lugia turned in to stay close to the stadium.

He couldn't just wait it out, he had to stay in battle... but how was the question, as Gyarados was proving a powerful opponent with a good mix of moves and excellent aim.

Lugia, time for the last trick, Ash sent to him.

After considering it a moment, Lugia nodded to himself. Ash was right – this was exactly the situation his final new trick would be most useful in... and it wasn't worth saving it for shock value, not really. (Besides, Lance's final Pokémon would probably be another Flying-type.)

Very well, he sent back. Please – concentrate on where the Gyarados is.

Ash complied, and Lugia managed to get the very rough sense of where Gyarados waited – in the middle of the stadium, offset a little away from Ash's box.

That would be enough.

He turned to face the stadium, hovering, and tilted so he was looking a little way up.

Then he began to inhale.


"Mr. Ketchum?" the referee asked. "I've just been told your Pokémon is charging an attack – and aiming it at the stadium. I hope you're not planning on blasting through the stands..."

"Of course not!" Ash replied. "People might be hurt!"

"Yes, that's why we're worried..." the referee explained.

"Oh, right... uh, anyway, it's not a problem!"

The referee was about to ask for more information, but that was about the point Lugia fired.


Ash had gone back and looked at how Aeroblast worked – more specifically, how the blast managed to collimate itself into one beam.

(Ash couldn't actually spell 'collimate', but that was the general gist of what he'd been working on.)

Together, he and Lugia and Pidgeot had worked out that the main Aeroblast was actually the rushing air around it – the red beam was carried along by it, and in fact would follow it if it bent.

Which led to this attack – where Lugia's Aeroblast swept up into the sky, curved in a shallow, graceful loop, and slammed down onto the startled Red Gyarados before he could fathom what was about to happen.

It was quite painful.


"...well, that's a new one on me too," Lance admitted, as his Gyarados measured his length on the floor. "New move?"

"Just an adjustment to an old one!" Ash replied. "It's kind of tricky to set up, though..."

"I imagine so. Well." Lance recalled Gyarados, and took his final Pokéball. "Okay, Ash – you may be interested to know that this is my starter. He's been with me for decades, and he was there when I qualified for the Elite Four."

"Neat!" Ash replied.

Lance waited a moment, then finished. "Against Palkia."

With that, he sent out his Dragonite, who wasted no time in blurring skywards with a crack of air.


Giovanni made some notes on a pad of paper.

"Eight," he said out loud. "Possibly more."

Persian glanced up.

"The number of Legendaries that the boy actually has and has used," he explained. "There's also that Orrean who had three confirmed... that's more Legendaries in one place than I think have been recorded in decades."

The Normal-type yowled-yawned, and shook himself.

"My primary concern is making sure that the information is disseminated widely," Giovanni went on.

Persian gave a limber shrug, and Giovanni chuckled harshly.

"Well, at least if everyone's warned the ones who do press the issue are too foolish to have on the team."

That got a nod.

Giovanni thought for a moment more, then turned back to the screen. He blinked.

"I see Lance hasn't lost his touch..."

The Rocket leader was pleased to see that his long-term strategy of keeping out of the way of the Dragon Clan was fully justified.


Lugia rolled, avoiding a Thunder. A second followed almost on the heels of the first, and he plunged into a Twister to get a moment of respite.

Safe within his energy-laced whirlwind for the moment, Lugia curved around to try to get behind Dragonite. The crack of an Extremespeed penetrated the rushing sound of the wind, and he felt like chuckling.

Of course that wasn't going to work so easily...

He came out of the Twister with his mouth glowing, and launched the Ice Beam towards Dragonite. A trio of shields sprang out from the orange Dragon-type nearly instantly, Barrier layered on Light Screen layered on Reflect, and the Ice Beam stalled out before breaking through the Light Screen.

A moment later the shields came down again and Dragonite shot out of the way of a Sky Attack. He came around in a tight hairpin curve, passing Lugia at a distance of feet, and volleyed in a Blizzard as he did so.

Lugia pulsed his Safeguard to block the ice, and shook his head.

Fighting Zapdos and Articuno usually involved harder-hitting attacks, but not nearly this much speed!

Right, time for a change of pace.

Lugia dove, trading height for speed, and began to gather the air for his signature attack.

A Thunder attack sizzled past, and he knew exactly what Dragonite was going to expect him to do. The most sensible move – and the likeliest one – was to charge the attack, come around in a wingover and fire it as he rolled back to horizontal.

So Lugia didn't do that.

Fins snapping up for better manoeuvre capabilities, he pitched forwards – coming so close to the ground below that he had to tuck in his tail as he bottomed out upside down in a valley – and Dragonite's Blizzard went harmlessly past, way overhead.

Then he fired his Aeroblast, aiming up from below at the evading Dragonite.


A red beam lashed out from somewhere the spectators couldn't see, and reached for Dragonite.

The Dragon-type moved with shocking speed to evade as Lugia's Aeroblast played across the sky to get him, but his luck ran out about two seconds in. An explosion went off, and the orange dragon came out of it tumbling before righting himself.

Lugia swept back into view, wings churning, and fired an Ice Beam which Dragonite countered with a precise Fire Blast.

"This looks like a battle of equals," Norman said, squinting. "Or... I suppose Lugia's got more power, but Dragonite's still controlling much of the course of the battle."

"Who do you think will win?" Max asked.

Norman shrugged.

Then there was a bang overhead.


Lugia, you still okay? Ash asked, as the instant snowcloud began to fall.

I am, Lugia confirmed, and then his wings swept away the cloud.

His voice sounded tired, and there was a sheen of ice on his wings that was falling away as Ash watched. I think that got both of us.

Yeah, he's – behind!

Lugia went straight back to a Twister, and the Thunder attack spalled off the surface of the draconic whirlwind.

Undaunted, Dragonite flew alongside it and fired in a Blizzard – one paw glowing blue, the other yellow, as he kept up the alternating thunder-snow barrage which was wearing Lugia's impressive stamina down.

When the Psychic-type burst out of his Twister, he immediately went into another one, which managed to confuse Dragonite for a precious second. This second Twister went on the attack, hitting Dragonite twice on the flank and producing flashes of light as it did so.

Wait – try and get him with a Hydro Pump! Ash instructed, realizing something.

Lugia muttered something mentally about how that was easier said than done, and swerved to try and get a bead on Dragonite. The highly-trained Dragon was already gone, though, and a moment later a fresh Blizzard arrived on Lugia's right rear side.

Can't I just use Rain Dance?

It has to be another Water attack, Rain Dance would just make his Thunder stronger! Ash replied. Okay, try Aqua Tail – left now!

Lugia turned, lashing out with his tail, and it connected with a thwack as Dragonite got just a little too close. The impact produced a wash of water, and Lugia's neck snaked around ahead of his turn to add to that with a blast of Surf.


"Dragonite!" Lance called up. "Don't use Blizzard – your paws are wet, it would hurt you more than him!"

Dragonite agreed, and switched to evasion. He dodged between the stadium roof and an Icy Wind, then rocketed around in a wide turn for speed. He gained height as he did so, and by the time he turned in again for an attack run he was visible from inside the stadium itself.

"Dragon Rush!"

"He's coming to you!" Ash called up, close enough to be heard for once. "Aeroblast, you can't miss!"

The trainers looked at one another for a moment, looking for clues as to whether the other was planning something extra.

Aeroblast roared out, and Dragonite dove directly into it.

Ash's grin turned into a frown. "Wha – dodge!"

Unfortunately, Lugia simply didn't have the time to get out of the way. Protected from the Aeroblast by a layer of Barrier shields, Dragonite hit Lugia directly in the chin.

This destabilized what was left of the Aeroblast, which exploded, and a moment later there was a CRASH from the arena floor.


"What just happened?" Lorelei asked. "I can't see – there's too much smoke and dust!"

Bruno frowned. "Was that a very big Pokémon hitting quite hard, or quite a big Pokémon hitting very hard?"

"That's what I'm wondering!" Lorelei replied, willing the debris to settle.

The first thing to emerge as the dust slowly cleared was an orange tail, twitching feebly. Then a series of dark blue fins.


"...wow," Misty said softly, as she saw the damage that had been done.

Both Pokémon had clearly managed to get up some kind of shield in the last moment before impact, as they were in spherical craters at the end of their crash scrapes instead of something shaped more like their bodies.

"I just – wait!"

She pointed.

Below, Dragonite stirred. He shook his head, then pushed himself clumsily to his feet and kicked off from the ground.

Lugia tried to rise as well, but his strength failed him halfway up and he collapsed.

"Didn't you say that's the Legendary whose job is subduing three other Legendaries?" Philena asked. "And Lance beat him?"

"I guess that's why he's the Grand Champion," Brock agreed. "Close match, though..."


AN:

And that is the end of Ash's Silver Conference run.

For these matches, I've tried to show why the Elite Four are who they are. In particular, why Agatha's been in post for decades, and why Lance is in charge.

Put simply, he's just really good. Dragonite can manage supersonic speed? He trains his one intensely so that his Dragonite can manoeuvre and react at that kind of speed.