This is the first of two chapters today.
"How are you doing, Delta?" Max asked, looking up.
The Mantine flapped by, fins working frantically, and swerved up just in time to not hit a bush. "Whooooah-"
"You need to glide more, what?" Noctowl advised. "Flap to gain speed, glide to turn it into height, and bally well soar!"
Delta tried to soar.
He managed something more like a stall.
"No, no!" Swellow piped, zooming around under him and pushing his angle of attack back to something more normal. "You're asking too much of your airflow!"
"I used to be good at this," Delta muttered.
"You used to be small!"
"Why can't it be like swimming..."
Viscocity, Kris said bluntly.
"Ash?" Max asked, glancing over. "Do you think he'll be okay for the gym battle?"
"Probably," Ash frowned. "He can fly okay, he did when he caught you – he's just a bit nervous."
Max nodded. "I see..."
"Maybe we should look at it another way," Brock suggested. "Would it work to teach Delta how flying works, and then he can work out how best to do it?"
"That could work," Ash agreed. "I-"
He stopped.
"Mawile? When did you come out?"
"I heard you talking about teaching Delta how flying works!" she said, with a notebook in her hands and a pencil in her false-jaw. "I'd like to take some notes!"
"She's quick," May chuckled.
"Well, now!" Noctowl said, flaring his wings and coming down to land on Ash's shoulder. "That's a dashed good idea!"
Max caught Delta as the big Manta came wobbling down to a landing, and they watched as Noctowl spread his wings.
"Now, there's two ways to fly! The first is to just rely on pure power – it's called thrust – and flap or blast hard enough to stay in the air!"
An illusion formed in front of them, made of shimmering light and outlining several Pokémon – including a soaring Mandibuzz and a hovering Natu.
"These plucky lasses have very different ways of flying! The Natu's using sheer wing strength to keep herself from pranging, flapping away so hard that she can stay up! And as for this Mandibuzz here, she's doing the opposite..."
"Okay, I think I get it," Delta said, watching. "So... which would I be better at?"
"Let's see how you glide!" Swellow grinned. She took off in a clap of wings and began to hover there. "You need speed and height, and then hold yourself as flat as possible!"
As the Water/Flying-Type got to practising, Mawile finished her notes.
Ash crouched down to have a look. "What's that?"
"How to fly!" she said, showing him.
Ash took it.
There was a sketchy blob in the middle of the page, with puffy clouds drawn both above and below it (and labelled with 'cloud'). Speed lines showed that the blob was moving at high speed through the air, and another set of lines denoted a blast of non-specific energy which was shooting down and behind the blob.
There was a bit by the side of the diagram listing possible types of energy. 'Flamethrower', 'Dragon Pulse' and 'blowing really hard' were all on there, as well as a few others that were crossed out.
"So, who's this?" Ash asked, pointing at the blob.
Mawile shrugged. "It's kind of... ge-ne-ric."
"Here we are!" May said, happily. "Lavaridge! Hey, let's go to the hot springs!"
"But..." Ash looked downcast. "Gym battle?"
"Can't it wait?"
"Well, yeah, if I have to," Ash admitted. "But I'd kind of like to know who I should get hold of first."
"Fine," May sighed. "Let's go, then."
"Great!"
"But we're just going to check!" May added. "If you start a battle, I'm going to watch it from the hot springs!"
She turned to Brock. "Think he heard me?"
Brock shrugged.
"Oh, hi!" waved a young woman – Flannery – as they approached her gym. "Are you here for a Gym Battle?"
"Yeah!" Ash and Max both said.
May coughed.
"Later today," Ash amended reluctantly.
"Sure!" Flannery agreed. "I'm just getting Meg and Mag ready for a challenge... they're my mid-league-run team..."
"Wait, look out!" Max said, pointing.
Flannery tilted her head. "What?"
The end of her hair touched her Slugma.
"...you're kind of on fire," Max continued, weakly.
"What?" Flannery repeated, then smelled the burning hair. "Aah!"
"Marshtomp, go!" Brock said, sending him out. "Douse that hair!"
Marshtomp duly blasted water on Flannery's hair, producing a hiss and a horrible smell.
"I'll handle that," May said, "Beautifly, Sweet Scent!"
A soothing pulse of tulip rolled out, replacing the smell.
"Thanks!" Flannery said brightly. "Sorry, I'm kind of new..."
She trailed off. "Wait... you're Ash Ketchum, aren't you?"
"That's me," Ash agreed.
"Great!" Flannery grinned. "Hey – would you mind doing me a favour?"
She lowered her voice. "My grandpa used to run this gym, but I think he keeps creeping back to see how well I'm doing. So I want to show him that I'm able to handle a big battle – even if I don't win."
"Who did you beat in the Elite Four?" Brock asked, curious. "I'd have thought that would settle the question..."
"Who do you think I beat?" Flannery shrugged. "Glacia, of course – but I managed to edge out a win against Phoebe, too, just by setting the whole arena on fire so her Ghosts got hit whenever they phased."
"Ouch," May winced.
"Yeah, but Gramps didn't see it, so he doesn't really believe me. Oh, yeah, speaking of arenas..." Flannery rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "Can we battle outside?"
"Why?" Max asked.
"I broke the floor," she said simply. "Heatmor tore it up going after a Dig user."
"Geodude can fix that up for you," Brock volunteered.
"Yeah, that would be cool," Flannery grinned. "Thanks!"
"I'd still like mine outside," Ash requested. "Given who I'm planning to get – if he's willing – then the battle wouldn't fit in the gym..."
"Cool," Flannery nodded. "There's a big flat place cut into the slopes of Chimney a little way out of town, come back here when you're ready and I'll show you."
"Sounds good," May smiled. "And it gives us time for a quick go in the hot springs, I've been looking forward to them for a week!"
"These are quite nice," Absol said, stretching in the luxuriant warm water.
She glanced up at Mt. Chimney. "Though if I couldn't tell that volcano is uninterested in erupting, I'd be a bit worried about it."
Ash followed her gaze. "Yeah, I can see that..."
Pikachu floated past.
"Make sure you don't zap us," Ash pointed out.
"Yeah, yeah..."
Ash lay back, sighing. "I guess May did have a point, we've been on the go a while..."
"It's been the most event-filled few weeks of my life, so far," Absol nodded. "And... this is normal for you?"
"Fairly."
"Excuse me," Lucario requested.
Absol shifted to one side, and Lucario got in.
"Good training session?" Ash asked.
"Very good, thank you," Lucario nodded. "I think we really are on the verge of a breakthrough with Sacred Sword."
"That's great news!" Ash grinned. "What's the trick?"
"I'll tell you on the other side of the actual breakthrough," Lucario informed him.
"Fair enough..." Ash shrugged. "Oh, sorry, Absol – you were saying?"
"Well..." Absol gave a sinuous shrug, sending ripples across the water. "I'm fully aware that I joined you essentially to see how you handle the chaos that swirls around you... but since then, I've been thinking quite hard."
"Oh?" Ash asked.
"I've enjoyed it," Absol said, then glanced up at Chimney. "Mostly. And the mention of Absolite... sort of brought a question into quite sharp relief."
She took a deep breath. "I'd be willing to become your Pokémon in truth, if you'll have me."
"Sure!" Ash agreed. "It'll be great to have you!"
Absol let out a little breath.
"Are you glad?" Ash asked, curious.
"Well, yes... but not – not just – for the reason you're thinking. As I asked the question I was keeping careful track of just how dangerous my life was – and joining you didn't do anything."
"I guess that's... a useful thing to check," Ash agreed. "So – should I ask Gary for the Absolite?"
Absol blinked. "Huh, now there's a blip..."
"Okay, ready?" Flannery asked. "Two on two!"
"Sure am!" Max agreed. "Okay, let's give this a go!"
"That's the attitude I like to see!" Flannery grinned. "Okay, Meg!"
"Morning," Meg said, waving a pseudopod.
"Is that one of the Slugma you had earlier?" May asked. "They're pretty neat – if dangerous around flammable objects."
"Yeah, like hair," Flannery said, unfazed.
"Delta, here we go!" Max called, and sent his Mantine out.
"Okay, not bad!" Flannery agreed. "Okay, Water and Flying type that's not a Gyarados... right!"
She pointed. "Okay, Meg, show them what a volcano means! Lava Plume!"
"Whoa!" Delta gasped, hammering at the air with his fins to gain height as a blast of flame went skywards with a dull whoosh.
"Delta, stay clear!" Max called, as the arena began to smoke and smoulder. "How are you setting that on fire? It's rock!"
"Actually the fire's not really burning the basalt itself," Flannery told him, as the flames spread out to cover most of the arena in a flickering, dancing web of conflagration. "It's just sitting on top – but it looks cool!"
"I guess it does," Max admitted.
"Max?" Delta called down, wobbling through the air.
"Oh, right!" Max winced. "Uh – Bubblebeam!"
A stream of bubbles speared down into the firey cauldron. Some of them were on target, but the recoil quickly pushed Delta wildly off course and he began to tumble.
"Don't panic!" Max called. "Spread your fins, tail to the right – and flap!"
The calm instructions helped more in abstract than in specifics. Merely knowing that Max was there to help let Delta recover his confidence, and he pulled up out of his tumble before soaring back skywards.
"Phew," Max sighed. "But – wait, what happened to the bubbles? I swear some of them were on target..."
"They vanished in the heat!" Brock realized. "She's made the area hot enough to boil water!"
"Well, it's not quite that hot yet," Flannery replied, as the Lava Plume continued. "But it's certainly hot enough to disrupt a Bubblebeam!"
"Okay, that's not good," Max frowned. "Okay, stay high for now! And – try short bursts, to get used to firing in the air!"
Delta inhaled, and fired a short burst of Bubblebeam. The recoil jinked him, and he flapped in an undignified way for a few seconds before recovering.
"Good!" Max said. "Keep it up!"
Some distance away, Flannery's grandfather lowered his binoculars.
"Okay, now she's setting rock on fire. I guess that's a good sign?"
"Wait!" Delta called down. "I think I worked out something!"
He banked in, dove slightly, and fired out a torrent of water.
"That's more like it!" Max grinned, watching as the water steamed its way through the firestorm.
"Back, Meg!" Flannery called quickly.
Her Slugma slipped backwards, resulting in an interruption of the Lava Plume, and avoided the blast of water – though some splashed her, making a hissss sound.
"Fire Blast!" she ordered.
Meg nodded, and blasted a star of flame into the sky.
Delta yelped, inhaled, and fired another blast of water. The attacks detonated in a huge cloud of steam, and Delta emerged from the other side of it wobbling slightly in the air but broadly fine.
"Fire around the Slugma!" Max ordered. "Then right at her!"
Delta banked around again, and fired his newly-mastered Surf attack in a hose-like stream.
His wingfins trembled as he held himself on course, and a Flamethrower shot past his ear a little close for comfort, but the attack pattern worked – hot, steaming water splashed down around Meg and then hit her head-on.
There was a BANG.
"Meg!" Flannery called, squinting through the steam. Overhead, Delta circled watchfully.
Then, as the steam cleared, it revealed Meg.
"I'm okay-" she began, and was hit by a blast of Bubblebeam.
"...oh," Flannery said. "Ah well... one down, one to go!"
With a flash, the second Pokémon appeared.
Max frowned. "...that's another Slugma."
"Yeah," Flannery shrugged. "But he's different."
"Really?" May asked, looking closer. "Different how? Is he Shiny?"
"No, but... well, there's two things. First, he's male – Meg's female."
"Right," Brock said. "That's a pretty important difference."
Mag nodded.
"Second – well, he knows different moves." Flannery pointed skywards. "Rock Throw!"
Mag's skin bubbled for a moment, then he opened his mouth and fired a flaming rock larger than he was into the sky.
"Turn left!" Max called quickly.
Delta jinked, diving out of harm's way, and the rock whistled just over his tail – then exploded.
"Whoa!" Max said, half-raising a hand as some bits of rock pinged off Delta's upper surface. "What happened?"
"It's basically like Rock Blast," Flannery told him brightly. "It's a rock which is superheated on the inside, so it bursts!"
"That sounds tricky to handle..." Ash admitted.
"How would you deal with it, Ash?"
"In all honesty I'd probably have the Pokémon punch the rock," Ash said. "Sorry."
"Yeah, Delta doesn't have fists... pull up!" Max warned, and Delta did so.
This time, the rock didn't burst, and reached an apex some distance away before falling to the ground.
"There's no-one nearby, right?" Brock asked.
"There shouldn't be," Flannery said, frowning.
There was a wham as the rock landed.
"Okay, you've got a good point... Mag, we're not in the gym any more, make sure to aim so the misses don't land outside the cleared zone!"
Ash looked to his left. "Can you handle any that do go out of bounds?"
"Sure!" Latias squeaked.
Flannery hadn't noticed. "Right – now, use Inferno!"
A blast of heat plumed skywards, and Delta spread his fins to ride it.
"Look out!" Max called.
Delta side-slipped, and the rocks fired through the obscuring curtain of flame whipped past and missed him.
"Can you gain more height, Delta?" Max added, cupping his hands. "Try and get out of range!"
Delta pulled up, rising into the sky, and before long he was only a small shape.
"Ancientpower!" Flannery said, pointing, and Mag fired a glowing red rock into the air.
"Bubblebeam!" Max said, as loud as he could.
Delta heard his trainer, and turned to aim better.
As the rock left the region of intense heat, he opened fire – barraging Bubblebeam into it, in short bursts so he didn't accidentally flip himself over and start tumbling again.
The blue stream pounded into Mag's Ancientpower, and it resisted for a few seconds – then, came apart as it reached altitude, and Delta evaded most of the bits with relative ease.
Latias shot past, grabbing the largest bits to stop them falling on anyone.
"...is that yours?" Flannery asked, distracted.
Ash nodded.
"Right – okay, let's try this! Flame Burst!"
Mag inhaled, and his magma-like body bubbled and swelled up.
Then he fired a great big ball of flame, which flew skywards in a stream of firey tendrils and detonated into a great cloud of fire.
"...no, a bit higher," Flannery said. "Man, that Mantine's really high up..."
"I don't think he wants to be fried," Max replied.
"Well, he's got to come down sometime..." Flannery muttered. "Wait, can I set a time limit? I can, right?"
Brock nodded. "That's allowed."
"Brock..." Max sighed.
"No, it's legitimate," May agreed.
"Okay – Delta, surf!" Max shouted.
Delta waved his fins, then fired down a blob of water.
Mag watched it come in, charging his attack, then fired – and, a second or so later, the falling water hit the rising flame.
There was a bang and a cloud of steam, and water splashed down all over the place.
"Cargo?" Mag asked.
"What was – you evolved?" Flannery realized, looking down and seeing her Fire-type was now a Fire-and-Rock-type. "That's great! Now – uh, try loads of Fire Blasts! Make some turbulence!"
Mag nodded, and leaned back. His shell began to light up, in an uncoiling spiral, and then a series of flaming stars reached for the heavens.
Delta dodged and wove, trying to avoid the pillows of overpressure produced by the Fire Blasts, but he couldn't avoid them all – one slapped into him from the side, then another came up from underneath and made him take a tricky up-and-over manoeuvre.
"Delta!" Max's voice came faintly from the ground below. "I've got a new plan – dive and use Surf as you do!"
Considering that, the Mantine wove around a Fire Blast and then tilted forwards.
Inhaling, he fired a Surf – and the next Fire Blast came straight for him.
There was a bang as the attack detonated on the water, leaving Delta pretty much uninjured.
"Keep it up!" Max encouraged.
"He's building a water shield," Flannery realized. "Cool tactic! Okay, Mag – blast through it! Fire Blast!"
The second Fire Blast aimed at the diving Mantine went skywards, and did little better than the first. It produced a huge, beautiful disc of water as it blasted gallons of the Surf away, but some of the shield remained and Delta just rebuilt it faster.
Flannery blinked. "Wait – try a Rock Throw!"
The Rock Throw was duly used.
It dished out a kind of reverse splash in Delta's progressively-thickening watery wavefront, then exploded – but the water soaked up most of the explosion, and by now Delta was getting close.
"Overheat!" Flannery finally said.
Mag's shell glowed again, and he fired the almighty blast of heat.
"Dive!" Max called out, and then both shielded their faces from the sudden blast of hot steam.
The diving manta ray landed squarely on the snail.
"Delta!" Max called, running onto the hissing battlefield as it cooled rapidly. "Are you okay?"
Delta mumbled something about Octillery, visibly draped over something large.
"How's Mag?" Flannery asked, worried.
Max pulled, and decided he wasn't going to be able to lift his Water-type up. Taking the Pokéball, he returned him in a flash of red light.
With the weight removed, Mag fell over with a thud.
"...I think he's out too," Ash volunteered.
"Right," Flannery agreed. "Well, I guess that's a win for you!"
"But..." Max blinked, then realized. "Oh, right – two on two."
"That's right," Flannery confirmed. "Who's your number two?"
Max sent Guy out. "Him, probably."
Flannery gave the Grass-type a bemused look over. "Wouldn't he catch fire?"
"Nope, he's already poisoned," Max explained.
"Huh, neat trick... okay, here!"
Flannery tossed him a Heat Badge, and Max caught it – then fumbled it, and Guy caught it for him.
"Thanks," he said, smiling.
"Okay!" Flannery snapped her fingers. "Your turn!"
"Right!" Ash agreed. "Oh, what's the rules?"
"We'll do that... uh, extra battle... at the end," Flannery decided. "You know, just to end on a high note. Apart from that, three on three."
She took a Pokéball from her belt. "Ready?"
"Sure!" Ash agreed.
Both threw their Pokéballs.
Corphish formed on the battlefield in a flash of white light, and looked around.
He didn't see his opponent.
"Up here," she said.
Ash's Water-type looked up.
He turned to Ash. "Okay, explain this one."
"I don't know myself," Ash admitted. "Why is there a Blaziken hanging from a balloon?"
Flannery shrugged. "Don't knock it, it works."
"It does?" Pikachu asked.
"Blaziken, Flamethrower!" Flannery said, pointing.
Blaziken inhaled, then blew a gentle stream of fire onto the hand not holding onto the colourful little balloon.
The hand swirled for a moment, and then she lashed out with a billowing wash of flame.
"Yah!" Corphish cried, opening both claws and firing a stream of Bubblebeam.
The Water and Fire attacks hit one another, producing a side-scatter of flickering flames and a cacophany of popping bubbles, and after a few seconds the Bubblebeam won out and the flames dissipated.
Blaziken just hung there for several seconds as bubbles peppered her entire half of the arena – most of them not coming near her, let alone close enough to hurt.
"You're not very good at this, are you?" she asked, once he finally stopped.
"I'm good enough," Corphish replied. He fired another shot, which went nowhere near her.
"You're manifestly not." Blaziken swung herself by the string connecting her to her Air Balloon, and kicked a wash of flame at Corphish.
"I'm Water-type, you know," he said, firing away again to defeat this attack.
"Look out!" Ash called.
Corphish ignored it.
When the flames subsided, he looked at Blaziken again – and saw a green glow in her free hand.
"Ah," he said, and sprinted to his right.
The beam of solar energy that emerged from Blaziken's palm hit the ground just behind him, and swept across to follow him.
As he ran, Corphish aimed both claws directly at Blaziken and began to fire Bubblebeam again.
This time, paradoxically, they were a bit more accurate – at least two bubbles actually hit Blaziken's hanging body – but nowhere near enough to make her stop her Solarbeam or even significantly affect her aim.
"I thought those things just made it so Ground-type attacks didn't work," Max said, frowning.
"Well, she's ten feet in the air," Brock pointed out. "It's not as if he can hit her with Razor Shell..."
"Why's he missing with Bubblebeam, though?"
"I think his aim's just absolutely terrible," Pikachu opined.
"Yeah, probably," Ash agreed, as the Solarbeam faded – it had scored a few glancing hits on the exoskeleton, but Corphish was mostly fine. "Corphish, don't hit the balloon! Aim for her feet!"
"Wait, what?" May asked.
Corphish continued to spray Bubblebeams semi-randomly across the battlefield, but his point of aim drifted downwards as he ran – staying ahead of Ember attacks that starred the ground – and came to focus on Blaziken's feet.
Switching methods, Blaziken inhaled and let out a Fire Blast. She swung backwards with the recoil, then punched out behind her with a Fire Punch that mostly reversed the effect, and continued to keep up her barrage of flame.
All through this time, not a single Bubblebeam bubble hit Blaziken's feet.
One hit the balloon, though, making it boing and wobble slightly back and forth. Then a second.
"Look out!" Flannery called. "He's hitting the balloon!"
Then a Bubblebeam finally reached its target, and the balloon burst with a pop.
Blaziken fell and landed on two legs and one hand, and her wrists smouldered faintly as her head came up in a smooth motion.
"Oh, I get it!" Max said. "His aim's so terrible you told him not to hit it!"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "And that meant he did."
"That doesn't make sense," Brock said weakly. "Unless his aim is never accurate."
"Did you see what just happened?" May asked. "It kind of looks like it is never accurate."
She sent out Blaziken, just so he could watch the next part of the battle.
"Thank you," he said gravely, and sat down to spectate.
Blaziken crouched, muscles tensing, and then exploded forwards at her crustacean of an opponent.
Crossing his claws, Corphish ignited his Razor Shellsabers, and met her first snap-kick with a glowing blade of water-typed energy.
The contact produced a hiss and smoulder, with a little flame leaking past the blade to reach his exoskeleton, and he swung his other blade to try and hit her while she was stalled.
Unfortunately for him, though, the Blaziken was observant as well as athletic. Pushing hard on his interposed saber, she pushed him back a step – despite his supporting legs – and got clear fast enough that his swing met only air.
Corphish frowned, and scuttled forwards to resume the battle.
Another clash – this time of shellsaber versus Fire Punch, followed by a hard impact of kick on shell matched by a painful Razor Shell to the knee – and the two gained distance once more, feeling each other out.
"Try another Solarbeam!" Flannery called.
Nodding, Blaziken cupped her hands. As Corphish charged to try and interrupt her attack preparation, she ran backwards fast enough to keep her distance before springing into the air.
She executed one slow backflip, and then brought her hands together and fired.
Corphish crossed his beam-like blades, holding them in front of his face, and the blaze of green light hit just off-centre of the X.
Light glanced off, mostly to the right, and carved a thin path through the ground.
"Who do you think's going to win?" May asked, as the green light ran out.
"Hard to say," Brock admitted. "They're not really damaging one another..."
Blaziken landed with a crouch-squat, and stayed for a moment before springing forwards again.
Her foot glowed blue, and she lashed out with a one-two Double Kick at Corphish.
Razor Shell blades swinging up, Corphish blocked both the attacks – though he was sent back a step by the force – and fired a conical blast of Bubblebeam.
Most of them missed – but this close, some of the attack actually hit. Blaziken sprang quickly back out of range, and blurred around to come in on a new vector.
A punch flashed out, flame skirling, and Corphish blocked it with one saber. He stepped to the side, relaxing his muscles, and the remaining force of Blaziken's blow made her stumble forwards for a moment.
Swinging his other claw, Corphish hit her in the back of the knee, and the impact caused Blaziken to fall forwards.
Already recovering, she landed on spry forearms – coming into what looked like a push-up position – and made ready to launch herself back upright.
Then Corphish used Crabhammer.
Directly on her nose.
"...ouch," May said weakly.
Her own Blaziken touched the front of his face a little gingerly.
Blaziken did not get up as smoothly as she had hoped.
Stunned by the impact, she reeled backwards – managing to not fall over backwards, though it was a close thing – and shook her head before recovering.
Waving away the shower of terribly-aimed Bubblebeam headed at her, she wound up and lashed out in a Blaze Kick – one that was noticeably more cautious than her earlier attempts.
Corphish blocked this one, too, and swiped at her ankle with a Razor Shell which missed.
"Fire Blast!" Flannery called.
Blaziken obliged, inhaling and then letting loose a burst of star-like flame.
Corphish didn't have time to dodge this one.
The star-shape detonation covered him for a couple of seconds, and when it faded there were a few small scorch marks on Corphish' exoskeleton.
"Keep it up!" the fiery Gym Leader said. "Blaziken – Overheat!"
Heat sparked between Blaziken's fists.
She sprang back, away from a charge by her Water-type opponent, and brought both fists down on the ground.
Flames skirled around the impact point, forming a circle, then in less than a second pounced forwards to form a moving curtain of intense heat that roared and hissed.
What looked like a great, indistinct bird keened and lunged down onto Corphish, who raised his glowing Razor Shell blades to protect his face.
There was an almighty hiss.
"Corphish!" Ash called. "Are you okay?"
There was no answer for a second or two, then glowing blades cut through the swirling flame and dissipated it.
Corphish looked pretty badly scorched by now, with blackened marks running down his claws and ash on most of his body except for his face.
His opponent, meanwhile, looked quite enervated from the effort of the powerful Fire-type attack. She was visibly panting, but seemed capable of continuing the fight.
"Great!" Flannery complimented, glancing between the scorched Corphish and the tired Blaziken. "Now – finish him off! Focus Blast!"
Blaziken nodded firmly, and steadied herself before forming a globe of blue light.
A second, and then it fired.
Corphish crossed his shellsabers.
Much to the surprise of just about everyone, the Focus Blast bounced off the X-shape of glowing light and rebounded on an unsuspecting Blaziken.
That was finally too much for her.
"I can honestly admit I didn't know he could do that," Ash told Flannery.
"Really?" Flannery asked, interested, as she returned Blaziken. "I thought all the crazy things your Pokémon did were planned out in advance."
"Some of them are," Ash agreed. "Some I make up as I go along."
He returned Corphish. "And some I don't even know..."
May stifled a giggle.
"Okay, next up – Pyroar!" Flannery said, sending him out.
Ash considered that, looking the Pyroar over. "Cool Pokémon."
"Yeah, she's from Kalos," Flannery nodded. "Got her on my gap year."
"You had a gap year?" Brock asked. "I never got a gap year..."
"Okay, Goomy!" Ash decided. "Ready?"
"No," Goomy replied, materializing on the battlefield.
"You can do it!" Mawile said, waving. "Good luck!"
Goomy looked back, and smiled faintly. Then he turned back to face the feline Pokémon, and nodded. "Okay."
"Begin!" Flannery called.
"Ah, good," Giovanni said, looking up from his desk at the grunt. "You have what I asked for?"
The grunt nodded, placing a Pokéball on the desk. Persian paced up and sniffed it.
"Excellent. You may go – and tell my next appointment to come in."
He adjusted the placement of the Pokéball slightly, and then looked up again. "Good. Do you know why I called you in here?"
"Well... dat's pretty much a no," Meowth admitted.
Giovanni nodded. "Indeed. Well, it did not escape my notice that you were lucky to escape serious injury on that last mission."
"Yeah," James agreed. "Poor Growlie, he could have been badly hurt..."
"Indeed," Giovanni nodded. "Which is why I am providing you with assistance."
He picked up the Pokéball. "Jessie. Your friend from nursing school, Chansey – now Blissey, of course – was quite willing to help."
"Is that her?" Jessie asked.
"No," Giovanni informed her. "She's unavailable due to prior commitments. It is, however, her student."
He passed the Pokéball across the table, and Jessie took it.
"I advise you get to know him before your next mission," the Boss added.
He let a few seconds elapse.
"Now, I do have other appointments today..."
"Sorry boss!" Meowth said, standing up quickly. "Didn't mean ta hang around!"
"We'll just be going," Jessie agreed, and they hurried to the door.
"So, dis Pokémon's been trained by dat Chansey you used ta know?" Meowth asked, when they were back in the vehicle bay.
"That's what the boss said," Jessie agreed. "I didn't know she even did training..."
"Any idea what he is?" James asked, curious.
I know, Abra noted idly. There was quite a lot of discussion about it.
"There was?" James asked. "We didn't hear it..."
Of course not, there was a wall in the way.
Before he could be asked to explain that cryptic comment, Abra promptly returned himself into his Pokéball and went to sleep.
"One of these days we should remind him to explain himself," James said. "Okay, I guess we should have him look at Growlie?"
Jessie nodded, and opened the Pokéball.
AN:
So, Flannery!
Fire-type gym leader, so everything gets very... no, not going to do the pun.
By the way, Mawile kind of likes the idea of flying.
And Team Rocket have another new team member.
