This is the second of two chapters today.
Ash was looking at Brandon when the second pulse of heat came, and noticed that Brandon's clothes were completely unaffected by the wind it brought with it.
"How are you doing that?" he asked, interested.
"Solrock," Brandon answered. "Down in the machinery spaces – that's my LinesPokémon, when I need one."
"That's-" Ash began, but the rest of his reply was drowned out by a huge explosion. This one nearly knocked him over, and would have but for his Protect shield – and, when he glanced over, he saw Jirachi's tags glowing as he shielded the spectators.
"Whoa!" Pikachu said, looking off towards the battle, and Ash followed his gaze.
Charizard snarled, wings hammering the air as he fought free of the towering column of red-hot smoke and ash.
It turned out that Heatran had been heading for open ground for a very good reason – she was after ammunition, and now her fire attacks were laced with earth and stone to turn them into miniature volcanic eruptions.
Another pulsed out at him, this one grey shot through with red, and Charizard rolled to one side – avoiding all but the fringes of the attack, but still getting his side scoured by something that felt like hot sandpaper.
Charizard replied by charging an attack in his mouth for a moment, and then launching down a full spread of Draco Meteor. The glowing balls of energy fell downwards, passing through the ash-clouds with ease, and then exploded at what was probably ground level.
The sound level dropped, and Charizard glanced back at his trainer in case Ash had any instructions.
Faintly, he heard Ash telling him that Heatran was going underground.
Snorting, Charizard dropped a little lower – wings hammering the air – and then began to prepare a big attack of his own.
She wanted to go volcanic? He'd match her.
As he got ready to launch the Blast Burn, however, there was a visible wave of pressure that pushed outwards – and, a moment later, a kind of orange-yellow bubble which reached up through the ash towards him.
Charizard recognized it a moment too late.
"Oh, come-"
The Magma Storm hit him in the chest, and splattered Charizard with what had to be half his weight in molten rock.
It wasn't as bad as it would have been for a Pokémon of literally any other type – or even most Fire-types – but it fouled Charizard's wings, making him drop suddenly towards the ground with his wings trying as hard as they could to arrest his fall.
Then there was another pyroclastic blast, and Charizard hit the ground with a crash.
The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was a concerned voice.
"...did I overdo it?"
"Wow," Ash said, blinking. "That was… actually very impressive."
He looked down. "Is it a problem that there's, uh… lava… on your Battle Pyramid?"
"I'll have Heatran melt it off later," Brandon replied. "Good work, Heatran!"
"Right, uh..." Ash recalled Charizard. "I guess Ho-Oh might-"
He stopped, looking up and around, and saw Ho-Oh – currently trying to use his beak to catch Buizel, in the middle of a dogfight several hundred feet up.
"...Squirtle, then."
"Is it over?" Jirachi asked, lowering his hands. "I didn't know I could activate my shield like that..."
"Well, I think Charizard's passed out," May said, looking closely. "But..."
"Yeah, it turns out Heatran was the one to be worried about," Max agreed. "Who's Ash sending out now?"
"Squirtle."
"I think I'm just going to wish that we'll be okay for the whole fight," Jirachi sighed.
As he said that, Brock looked aside at his Pokémon – who, like most of the teams of his friends, were occupying the seats. "Having fun?"
"Hugely," Zorua agreed, tail flicking excitedly from side to side. "This is a very impressive battle!"
She reached up a paw and brushed some ash off her fur. "But there are downsides, I admit..."
"Right, you miniaturized volcano!" Squirtle declared. "I don't know if you can hear me all the way over there, but you'd better focus on that tremorsense of yours and listen anyway!"
He struck a pose. "I'm Squirtle, the leader of the Squirtle Squad! Unmatched in my element and skills! If you don't know about me, that's only because I haven't decided to get involved yet!"
"Do we have to listen to this?" Pikachu asked quietly.
Ash shrugged.
"Now, you may think you're tough just because you have a volcanic eruption under your belt! But that's nothing compared to the might of my burning spirit!"
Squirtle advanced, moving at a walk first before turning it into a run. He spat water out of his mouth, using the Rime attack he'd learned some time ago to produce a slick pathway, and skated along it faster still as he switched his shades into his hands.
As he got closer to Heatran, the latent heat of her earlier attack became an issue, and so Squirtle coated himself in water. He didn't stop, not even slowing down, and brought his arm back for a throw.
"Unmatched among Water-type Pokémon! Take this!"
His shades flashed out, duplicated themselves, and hit Heatran near her front and rear – sinking several inches into the ductile lava of her sides.
"Horn! Drill! Breaker!"
Heatran blasted out a wave of heat and ash, and Squirtle vanished into it as he launched his watery charge.
Then there was a huge white explosion, and Squirtle came flying back out of it at a speed considerably greater than the one he'd approached – arcing high into the air, then hitting the floor of the square Battle Pyramid section with a thwack.
Two pairs of glasses spiralled down after him. One shattered on impact with the floor, the second bounced on its point and clattered to a halt next to him.
"Ow," Squirtle muttered.
"That's new," Pikachu observed. "Squirtle, what happened?"
"Nothing important!" the Tiny Turtle said, rolling back upright, and replaced his glasses in their normal position. "And on a completely unrelated note – Ash, get that staff of yours out and let's do this!"
Reaching into his shell, he produced one of his homemade Squirtilite.
"No mere volcanic eruption can compete with the burning spirit of a Squirtle, joined to the will of his trainer!" the bombastic Squirtle continued. "Now, let's COMBINE!"
Ash blinked.
"I… don't think that's physically possible," he said. "Do you want me to Mega-Evolve you?"
"Yes," Squirtle confirmed."Yes I do."
Ash nodded, and concentrated – letting his staff light up, followed by Squirtle's shell flashing a blazing orange-gold.
"...what?" Brandon asked. "You actually… how does that… I thought that's what you were saying was impossible!"
"Ask him, he invented it," Ash replied, as the glow of Mega-Evolution died away.
Mega Squirtle struck a pose, the drills on his arms spinning for a moment, then set himself and began to approach Heatran again.
"So you're one hot-blooded Legendary!" he told Heatran. "That's great! That's just what I like to see!"
He cracked his knuckles. "Unfortunately, it's time for you to learn some basic physics!"
For some presumably unrelated reason, Pikachu fell off Ash's shoulder and collapsed to the floor howling with laughter.
"That fire of yours is blazing hot! But its loud roar only tells me how to defeat you!" Mega Squirtle went on, water pouring out of his shell and forming layer after layer over both the shell and his leathery skin. "The size of a steam explosion is related to the amount of steam involved – but that means the force is smaller for a smaller Pokémon!"
Brandon shook his head, trying to get himself back in the swing of things.
"What is your Squirtle doing?" he asked Ash. "And – is your Pikachu well?"
"I think he's just overcome with irony," Ash answered, picking Pikachu up as the Electric-type was overcome with another fit of giggles. "And… I'm not sure, actually. He's talking a lot about overcoming density with the sheer force of his dedication."
Brandon decided to interpret that one later, and watched as Mega Squirtle – two words which really shouldn't go that close together – reached the outer range of Heatran's attacks.
She began with a Fire Blast, which engulfed Mega Squirtle and raised a cloud of steam – but which didn't seem to have even slowed him down, as he continued to advance inside his thick layer of watery armour.
Heatran dug herself a few inches into the charred soil, then made use of a full-on Eruption – sending a massive pulse of heat in all directions, along with a physical blast powerful enough to raise a plume of pulverized soil and make Solrock raise its shield.
When the shield went down and he could see again, Brandon saw to his surprise that Mega Squirtle had barely been pushed back – even though he could see the dissipating cloud from another steam explosion.
"Heatran!" he called. "Magma Storm!"
This time, Solrock didn't even wait for him to finish speaking before raising the shield. There was a brilliant yellow light followed by an explosion of ash and dust, and the whole Battle Pyramid jumped slightly beneath his feet.
"Just so we're sure," Officer Jenny said. "You were certain that Ash Ketchum went in that direction?"
Flint nodded.
"Right, probably just a Pokémon battle then."
As the ash swirled, Ash closed his eyes to see better.
"How is he?" Pikachu asked.
"Still there," Ash replied.
A moment later, a suspiciously dramatic gust of wind blew away the smoke and scorched earth and steam.
"If you haven't worked it out yet, then I'll just have to tell you!" Mega Squirtle said, standing in the middle of a steaming puddle. "No matter how hot you make your attack, there's only so much steam it can produce! No matter the strength of the air, it's only able to act on the same surface area! But my indomitable spirit has compressed this water, so it's got way too much pressure for the likes of you to overcome!"
He gestured, and more water swirled out – forming a kind of shimmering, semitranslucent cloak. "That's just how I roll! There's nothing that you can throw at me that will make me move aside, so-"
Heatran's patience apparently ran out, and she launched a torrent of liquid lava at him.
Mega Squirtle thrust out his right fist, drill spinning, and that met the lava with a continuous, vicious hiss that diverted it around him.
"Let's end this!" he pronounced, cape swirling around him, and the pair of small water cannons on his backpack rotated to point downwards. They clicked once, and Mega Squirtle flew into the air before landing next to Heatran.
His left fist flashed out, punching Heatran in the side. In flagrant defiance of how her surface temperature was currently hot enough to melt tin, the impact connected and sent the Steel-type skidding backwards several feet.
Mega Squirtle's backpack triggered again, and he launched himself forwards – this time using his right fist to punch her square in the jaw.
Heatran unleashed another Eruption, and the entire fight was shrouded in heat and smoke and steam – but Ash could see them both outlined in Aura, seeing Mega Squirtle apparently completely unaffected by the volcanic temperatures all around him as he boxed Heatran with great enthusiasm.
"And, now, the end!" his voice rose over the roar of Heatran's Fire-type attacks. "Torrential Pugilist Style!"
The final punch unleashed all the water Mega Squirtle had summoned, and it abruptly expanded back to the size physics insisted it should be. The net effect on Heatran was as if a geyser had detonated under her with the output of a small lake, and she went flying thirty feet into the air in a hazy cloud of steam before coming back to earth with a wham.
Mega Squirtle walked out of the cloud a moment later, arms folded.
"You can't fight the sea," he announced.
"Nooo!" Brandon groaned. "That was the last thing I was expecting!"
"Don't say that around Squirtle," Ash warned him. "He tends to take that as a challenge."
Squirtle said something as well, but Brandon didn't have a clue what it was.
"Well, then, I can see I will have to try something different to deal with your Squirtle!" Brandon announced, returning Heatran. "Regice!"
"So, I wanted to check," May said, looking down at Ethan's screen. "Does this count as a terrifying new chapter in the mystery that is Squirtle, or is it just business as usual?"
It's a little of column A and a little of column B, Ethan replied. The water thing is nothing new, that at least he has done before. But the thing which is most concerning is that he has apparently been reading a physics book and using it for suggestions.
"You're right, that is the most concerning thing," May agreed, then watched as they saw Regice appear. "I wonder how a Regice is going to help?"
Knowing how skilled a trainer Brandon is, I think we are going to find out.
"Isn't Regice new?" Ash asked Pikachu.
"I definitely remember him having one," Pikachu replied. "But it's going to bug me for a while as to when he got it."
"All right, you icy excuse for a small giant robot!" Mega Squirtle pronounced, picking up the water on the ground as though it was a piece of cloth and throwing back around his shoulders again – recreating his cape, and making more water flow down his arms and torso to recreate his water armour. "Let's see how you deal with the mighty Super Galaxy Squirtle!"
Regice examined him, eyes flashing in sequence. "..!"
"Huh?" Ash said, blinking. "That was… what was that?"
"Regice, show this Mega Squirtle the error of his ways!" Brandon ordered.
Regice's eyes flashed again, and it spoke. "..."
The sound made no sense, but Ash's Aura senses tried to translate it anyway – and, quite suddenly, a picture appeared for a moment in his mind.
"Dexter?" Ash asked. "What did I just hear? You recognized what Regirock was saying, right?"
And I thought the last one was bad, Dexter groused. This is another esoteric language – the code is actually pictures.
"That doesn't sound like how computers work," Pikachu said, a little hesitantly.
It is not supposed to be.
While they had been talking, Regice had continued speaking – the odd pattern of beeps producing one bitmap after another, until it concluded with a complex graph of temperature and pressure.
"What do you mean, phase diagram?" Mega Squirtle demanded. "What's that to the badass leader of the Squirtle Squad?"
"..-..-" Regice stated, highlighting the way the diagram showed that water could not exist as a liquid above a certain pressure, and that as such the water Mega Squirtle was using was technically supercooled.
Mega Squirtle shook his head. "So what if it shouldn't exist? That's no reason to say it can't! My indomitable will holds this water the way I say it is!"
"*", Regice concluded, forming a beautiful picture of a frost crystal out of the rapid pattern of bleep sounds, and fired an Ice Beam.
The moment it contacted Mega Squirtle's watery corona, there was a transition so fast it was hard to keep track of. Only a tiny crystal of ice formed at first, on the very edge of the water bubble, but then the water around it froze into ice – which disturbed the water next to it, so that froze into ice as well.
It took less than a second for the effect to spread through all the water Mega Squirtle was holding in place, which swelled out as it went from ultra-high-density water to merely very dense ice-X.
The practical upshot of all this was a ball of frosty ice, about five feet across, containing within it a completely immobile Mega Squirtle.
"...I… think that might mean he's been defeated," Ash said, a little hesitantly. "I'm not sure how you'd tell, though."
"See if the ball moves."
The ball failed to move.
"I think your Squirtle has been defeated," Brandon supplied.
"Yeah, you're right," Ash agreed. "Uh… okay. Lucario?"
Lucario emerged from his Pokéball, one paw going to his Lucarionite.
"Wait a moment," Ash requested. "Can you break Squirtle out of the ice ball first?"
Lucario nodded. "Will do."
He lifted the ball, hefted it for a moment, and was about to kick it when it exploded in his face with great force – sending water and chunks of ice in all directions, some of them bouncing off the lips in front of the seats.
Squirtle clattered to the ground, the shock seeming to wake him. "Huh? Whah?"
He looked around, then saw Regice. "Aha!"
"Sorry, Squirtle," Ash said. "You got defeated. Then the ball of ice you were in exploded."
"Was it the Mega Stone again?" Lucario asked, using Aura to strip water off his body with his paws. "I seem to remember that has a tendency to explode. When are you going to fix that?"
"Fix it?" Squirtle asked. "Why would I want to fix it? It's perfect!"
"Squirtle, ladies and gentlemen," Pikachu said.
Lucario examined himself for any residual water, then nodded to himself.
"Should we start my section of the battle, then?" he requested.
"Sure, hold on a sec," Ash agreed, checking his Key Stone staff. Then he concentrated, and the light of Mega-Evolution washed over Mega Lucario.
"Okay, this is getting silly," Ho-Oh said, shaking his leg to try and extract the Buizel from it. "At this point it is just lowering both of our dignities."
He reached up with the other leg to scrape Buizel off, but the quick Water-type saw him coming – and dropped off the foot early, briefly pointing down before using Aqua Jet to loop down-around-and-up to where he was almost directly behind Ho-Oh.
Four of his Water Pulse attacks flicked away in quick succession, two of them connecting before Ho-Oh engulfed himself in flames for an emergency ascension, and then another two came a moment later with cores frozen using an Ice Beam.
Those had enough penetration to get through the flaming shield Ho-Oh was using for all around cover, and he banked around sharply so he could hit the third volley with an aimed Flamethrower to destroy them.
Aggravatingly, however, that had produced a cloud of mist – one which Buizel shot through to make his trajectory a little uncertain, then dropped out of Aqua Jet in order to Aqua Tail his opponent in the flank.
Ho-Oh reacted to that by using his Weather Ball, drawing together everything in the air to fire out at his opponent – only to discover no opponent.
Then Buizel burst out of the Weather Ball, taking a glancing blow from Ho-Oh's beak as he swung it reflexively – but managing to get out of the area of influence of Ho-Oh's more powerful fire attacks.
Down below, Mega Lucario bowed to his opponent.
"Let us begin," he said.
Regice replied with a picture of an ice crystal, then froze the entire arena floor solid – helped in no small measure by all the water Squirtle had left all over it.
There was a faint tchik as Mega Lucario drove spikes of Aura through the ice, giving him the grip he needed.
Regice leaned forwards slightly, saying a bitmap image of an arrow, and shot forwards – tiny feet skating on the ice, allowing it much greater mobility than the other Regis had had in their battles.
Seven eyes flashed, and Regice fired an Ice Beam – one which Mega Lucario was fully ready for, and which hit his Aura-coated palms before flashing off into the sky and dissipating.
The attack lasted a full second as Regice curved around, trying to get a good angle, and Mega Lucario tensed – then it ended, and the Fighting-type dug in his Aura spikes and launched himself forwards.
Rather than letting the Aura he'd pushed into his forepaws fade away, he intensified it – building a pair of Aura Spheres, one of which went directly at Regice.
The other went into the icy floor, shattering it and spoiling the skate trick Regice was using to get around. The Ice-type didn't seem bothered, however, and stuck a sharp foot into the mess of cracked ice before using it as a pivot – fast enough to avoid the Aura Sphere which had been aimed at its torso.
"-!" announced Regice, eyes flashing, and Mega Lucario realized what was coming – launching himself into the air, and using a blast of Aura-jets to avoid the Hyper Beam.
Keeping the propulsive Aura beams going for a moment longer, he landed on the other side of Regice and lashed out with a powerful kick – one which knocked Regice skidding away across the still-slippery floor.
A flicker of frost appeared around Regice, then burst outwards as a howling Icy Wind – and the leading edge gathered around Mega Lucario's limbs, slowing them down for a moment and letting Regice recover.
Mega Lucario shattered the ice with a movement, then had to block again as Regice fired a burst of electrical energy at him. It only scored a glancing blow, but charge crackled on Mega Lucario's exposed steel surfaces for a moment as the excess electricity bled off.
Another wave of Icy Wind, and Regice skated off while Mega Lucario was recovering.
"It's kind of a relief there aren't any volcanic eruptions going off any more," Max said.
"Yeah, those suck," May agreed. "Even with Jirachi's shield, it's still pretty loud..."
"Why is that, actually?" Max asked, flipping Kris open. "Shields stop objects, right – including shockwaves? And a shockwave is just loud sound?"
Shields tend to be partially permeable to sound, Kris supplied. They become harder the louder the sound is, so an extremely loud sound becomes just a very noticeable bang.
"Okay, right," Max said. "Thanks."
He looked up at the battle, and saw Mega Lucario get punched in the chest by Regice – sending the Fighting-type skidding backwards several feet, ice ripping up around his paws, before launching himself into the air with a burst of blue Aura and coming to a stop that way.
A moment later, an Ice Beam flashed out at Mega Lucario – hitting his Protect, but spreading out around it as Regice added an Icy Wind to the onslaught. The combination produced a hemisphere of frosted ice, concealing Mega Lucario and Regice from one another, and Regice skated slowly sideways before charging up a Hyper Beam.
"Who do you think is winning?" May asked, glancing at Brock.
The ice shattered as Mega Lucario launched a huge Aura Sphere – one which homed in unerringly on Regice, reminding them all that Aura sight could see through solid objects. It burst as Regice hit it with the Hyper Beam, but all the smaller fragments simply formed into smaller spheres and came crashing down on Regice from all directions.
"It's hard to tell," Brock admitted, as Regice burst out of the cloud of smoke and rammed into Mega Lucario. "By the way, Regice just said a picture of a bulldozer. This is starting to give me a headache..."
Mega Lucario's outflung paw caught the edge of the arena, and he used the impact to stop the rest of his body hitting the wall at the same speed.
The lights on Regice's face lit up again. "…-!" The bitmap this time was recognizable, and Mega Lucario dove to one side to avoid the Hyper Beam.
The problem was – there was no hyper beam. Instead, a flicker of red light hit him and outlined his body as he rolled and came back upright again.
Then came the attack – a Focus Blast which knocked Mega Lucario into the air.
"Mega Lucario!" Ash called, as the Fighting-type landed on his hands and sprang back upright. "Dexter says his programs can look similar but actually mean different things!"
Mega Lucario nodded, confirming the information, then sprang off the wall he'd been resting on.
His hands came together, one slightly above the other, and blue light flashed from them – forming a blade, one coloured like the clear sky.
"Sacred Sword," Mega Lucario announced, Aura fizzing from his newly made attack, and transferred it to his right hand the moment before he reached the ground – using his left hand and both feet to control his landing, skidding around in a curved trajectory and avoiding the Icy Wind Regice threw at him.
The Legendary quickly retargeted, and shot out a second Icy Wind to try and lock down Mega Lucario's position.
So Mega Lucario drove his sword into the ground, stopping himself in an instant and letting the second attack miss ahead of him. Raising one paw, he let it glow with Aura and then slammed it down – driving a hole in the ice as though it was a Reflect screen, before ramming a surge of Aura down it to shatter all the ice into a thick cloud of powder-snow fragments that obscured all vision.
Only then did he take the Sacred Sword construct up again, and charged.
"What's going on?" Brandon asked. "Regice? Are you okay?"
There was a screech of sound, and then a chik-chik-chik noise loud enough to make it hard to hear anything else. Brandon could hear the occasional crackle of a Charge Beam, or the whang of a punch connecting with a Steel-type, but that only seemed to cause a momentary pause in the rhythmic chipping noise.
Then Regice used Hyper Beam, and the air scatter from the attack was enough disturb the obscuring icy mist.
Mega Lucario was spinning like a dancer, using the big Aura construct sword Brandon had seen earlier, and driving it repeatedly into two spots on either side of Regice's torso.
"Explosion!" Brandon ordered immediately.
Regice didn't hesitate, and promptly blew up – giving up a rush of stored energy to produce a shockwave which launched Mega Lucario into the air.
The result was actually very impressive, just in terms of hang time. Mega Lucario spent over two seconds in the air, before coming back down in a three-point landing – and caught his sword a moment later.
Standing back up, he examined Regice carefully.
For its part, the Ice-type wobbled, then fell over backwards.
Brandon spotted Mega Lucario let out a quiet sigh of relief, and filed the information away for later.
"Think you can handle the next battle, Mega Lucario?" Ash asked.
The Fighting-type gave him a thumbs-up, and Ash nodded. "Right!"
"This has been an impressive battle," Brandon said. "But I think I have a Pokémon who will be able to defeat your Mega Lucario."
"Okay, who thinks Celebi?" Pikachu asked. "I think Celebi."
Ash gave him a look.
"What?" Pikachu asked. "After the Heatran I don't even know any more."
That did make Ash laugh.
"I need your help, Dusclops!" Brandon announced, sending out the Ghost-type."
"Despite that being one of the Pokémon we did battle last time..." Pikachu began, slowly. "That… was unexpected."
Mega Lucario's eyes flashed red as he used Foresight, and blue Aura flowed down his Sacred Sword. It gathered at the tip, forming an Aura Sphere, and he pointed the blade for a moment before firing out the attack.
There was a momentary flicker when the attack hit Dusclops, and then it vanished.
"That was unexpected," Mega Lucario said. "Was that Protect?"
"I don't think so..." Ash replied. "That would have made the attack splash off, right? And it didn't go through either..."
Dusclops decided to get involved with the battle, and threw a Shadow Ball at Mega Lucario.
The Fighting-type promptly blocked with his sword – trying to get used to it – and sent the attack flicking off to one side. He adjusted his grip a little-
"Behind!" Ash called.
-and turned, batting away the Future Sight ball coming at him.
He whirled back to his original stance, and tucked into a forwards roll with the Sacred Sword in one hand. The other lit up with a purplish black-light, and Mega Lucario launched a Dark Pulse up at Dusclops as he came back to his feet.
Legs tensing, he sprang upwards on the heels of the Dark Pulse itself, and – still running his Foresight – swept his Sacred Sword through Dusclops.
The sword imploded, breaking apart into thousands of Aura motes which swirled into the Ghost-type and vanished.
"What!?" Ash said, startled. "Okay, how did that work?"
Mega Lucario landed, paws sliding for a fraction of a second on the ice, then looked down at it. Around.
His paws snapped out to either side, one lighting up with the orange flame of a Fire Punch and the other crackling with the blue light of an Ice Punch. He dodged a Shadow Ball, and got moving – alternating between skating along the shattered ice and running where it had given way.
Behind him, the air began to roil.
"You know..." Ash began. "We… might want to step back."
"Seriously?" Pikachu asked. "You weren't this worried about an ongoing volcanic… wait, hold on."
"Yeah," Ash agreed.
He put his hands around his mouth. "Brandon! I think you need to leave the arena area!"
Mega Lucario ducked under a Will-O-Wisp, and adjusted his path a little to allow for the flicker of extra heat. A few more seconds, and he turned into a sliding tackle which he controlled with the spikes on his wrist.
Reaching the middle of the spiral, he punched up – and the air clicked over to mix.
With everything that had happened during the battle so far, especially the contributions from Heatran and Regice, there was a huge amount of energy stored up. The Rising Dragon Uppercut produced a sudden rush of tornado-force winds, plucking Mega Lucario off his feet and whirling him into the storm, and he kept a keen eye out for how Dusclops was affected.
Much to the irritation of the Fighting-type, Dusclops wasn't affected. The whirlwind was picking up all the ice and water from the arena floor, along with plenty of the ash and dust Heatran had produced, but Dusclops was just hovering in place, unaffected – and barely moving.
There did seem to be something odd about the way the air was moving around the Ghost-type, though. And it looked like there was less debris above him...
Frowning, Mega Lucario cupped his palms together and produced a huge Aura Sphere. He let it grow until it was about the same size as he was, then shattered it into dozens of conventionally-sized spheres which homed in on Dusclops from all directions.
Even if they were going to pass through Ducslops individually, they would collide with one another and explode anyway – and that, at least, might do something.
Then the Aura Spheres reached Dusclops, and a moment later Mega Lucario found his own attack coming back at him much faster than he had sent it out. Aura Spheres hammered into him in quick succession, half a dozen of them in a row before he began to use Protect to shield himself.
His shield went down as soon as the last Aura Sphere detonated, and Mega Lucario prepared himself for another attack – only to find that, at last, Dusclops had moved.
There was a brief sensation of vertigo, and Mega Lucario hit the arena floor very hard. Then he went up-and-down, up-and-down, crashing into the floor with a whang whang whang sound.
Okay, even for you that would be ridiculous, Dexter stated.
"What?" Ash asked. "Isn't it Psychic or something?"
No, Dexter replied. That is a micro-singularity.
"...I don't get it," Ash admitted.
Ridiculous sums it up, Dexter told them. That Dusclops is essentially able to control a small black hole.
Mega Lucario hit the ground again, then got snatched upwards, and Ash noticed that there was a Mega-Lucario-shaped imprint in the floor.
"Pikachu?" he asked. "Do you think you can beat that Dusclops?"
"Let's find out," Pikachu decided, cheeks sparking.
"Right," Ash agreed, then cancelled Lucario's Mega Evolution and recalled him. The Fighting-type vanished out of mid-air just before hitting the ground yet again, armband vanishing with him into the Pokéball.
"That's a disqualification for Lucario," Brandon spoke up, stepping out from behind the armoured walls as the wind began to dissipate.
"Yeah, I know," Ash agreed. "Okay, Pikachu, let's do this!"
"Sure thing!" Pikachu agreed, jumping off Ash's shoulder and landing.
Electricity sparked around his cheeks as he built it up.
"Begin!"
Pikachu opened with a Thunderbolt attack, one which blazed across the distance between him and Dusclops in a fraction of a second. The attack curved, however, missing slightly and disappearing into the sky.
"Okay, that's odd..." Ash said. "Why didn't he just absorb that one?"
"Uh… Brock?" Zorua asked. "Did you know about what's going on overhead?"
Brock looked away from the main battle, where Pikachu was darting around with Agility and throwing thunderbolts up at Dusclops – trying to feel out the Ghost-type and work out a strategy – and looked at her. "What is it?"
Then he looked up, and did a double-take.
"...what?"
"We've been watching it for the last few minutes," Zorua supplied. "Apparently it's been going on for a while?"
"Yeah, Buizel challenged Ho-Oh during the start of Charizard's battle," Ambipom confirmed. "I think he's kind of… I don't know how to put it, really. He's got some good tricks, though."
Brock nodded, watching as Buizel twisted in mid-air and threw out streamers of water like a kind of spherical cage, then dove through it with an Aqua-Jet boost.
Flipping over, he reversed and ascended back through the water, then froze it with an Ice Beam and carried it along with him.
"I think what we're seeing is basically Buizel using a year or so of anti-Charizard tactics," the Normal-type mused. "You know, since by now Charizard has an unfair advantage."
Ho-Oh melted the entire water cage and made most of it flash into steam in a second, but the time that took gave Buizel enough time to flick off several more watery missiles before dodging out of the way.
"Do you think Ho-Oh knows he's missed this battle?" Max asked.
"Probably not," Ludicolo said sagely. "He will be loco."
"Okay, Ash, I think I'm going to need some suggestions on this one," Pikachu said, paws throwing up a cloud of dust as he skidded past Ash's position.
"Right," Ash said, frowning. "Uh… okay, so he's doing that black-hole gravity thing..."
He looked down at Dexter. "Quick! I need to know about how black holes work!"
Let's try a plan which doesn't require you to get a physics Ph.D. in about two minutes, Dexter said, deadpan. Firstly, I'm not sure it would help. What Dusclops has there is something that acts like a black hole sometimes in some ways, but not all of the time. Otherwise it would either have gone off like a nuclear bomb, done nothing like what we've seen, or essentially be drawing in air constantly like a gradually amplifying hurricane.
Pikachu went past in the other direction, firing out a Shock Wave which got close to Dusclops before being warped around and shot up into the air.
"Then, uh… how do black holes react to being hit by electricity?" Ash asked. "Do they just eat it up and it vanishes?"
They absorb energy, but three things stay the same – mass, spin and charge. All of those are things that a black hole can't get rid of.
"Okay, that's… right," Ash decided. "Pikachu!"
Lightning flashed around Pikachu's tail, and he flicked it towards Dusclops – frowning as the attack was once more dodged, distorted by the field of gravity around the Ghost-type.
"Hit the distortion with lightning!"
"What do you think I've been trying?" Pikachu asked.
"I don't mean hit Dusclops!" Ash clarified. "Try and hit everything, it doesn't matter how hard!"
"Sure, you're the boss," Pikachu decided.
His cheeks sparked, and he curled up for a moment – then shouted, and emitted a spherical wall of electricity. The upper half spread out as a fizzing dome of sparks, while the lower half bounced off the Battle Pyramid floor and continued upwards as a second slightly slower dome.
Dusclops hurled a Shadow Ball at the dome, making a small hole in it, and dove through. Then he approached Pikachu more closely, moving fast, and yanked him into the air with a reverse-gravity field.
Before the Electric-type was ten feet off the ground, he let out another burst of electrical energy which reached out to connect to the domes as they began to fragment. Yanking the sparks composing them back down, Pikachu began to twist them in the now-familiar pattern of a Volt Crash.
Four weaving rings of electricity wound around one another faster and faster. Then, suddenly, they lined up – and Pikachu hit them with his tail, launching them out as two pairs of rings full of potential energy.
Dusclops dodged two of them, but the other two managed to bracket him – whereupon they were attracted to one another, locking together into a ball, and shrunk abruptly towards Dusclops.
Unable to evade, Dusclops was forced to absorb most of the energy of one ring before managing to push through it as it weakened.
"Thunder!" Pikachu shouted, every strand of fur lighting up as he shot an enormous bolt of electrical energy at the Ghost-type.
Dusclops dodged, but this time something was different – in addition to the gravity distortion they'd both seen several times, there was plenty of electrical charge that Dusclops couldn't correct for properly.
Pikachu, however, could sense exactly how much charge Dusclops had picked up. His Thunder curved beautifully, and hit Dusclops right above the eye.
When the smoke cleared, Brandon was lowering his Pokéball.
"Excellent!" he pronounced. "Stellar work!"
"Great one, Pikachu!" Ash said. "That means we win the-"
"A-hem!" Brandon coughed, and sent out Registeel.
"...oh, yeah, forgot," Ash admitted.
"Well, he's had a good rest," Pikachu said, trying to pat down his fur before shrugging. "Let's see if I can get this finished."
His tail flicked out, a blue glow chasing across it for a second.
"How would you have beaten Dusclops?" May asked. "With that odd absorbing thing, I mean?"
"Future sight!" Jirachi suggested.
"Well, apart from that," Max said, thinking. "Well, I suppose Roland could do some cool stuff with teleporting. Or a Fire-type could raise the whole temperature enough that Dusclops couldn't stand it. The tricky thing is trying to circumvent the gravity field..."
"All right," Ho-Oh said, wings beating and dispersing the mist and smoke. "We'll call it a draw."
Buizel considered, sitting on a plume of water, then signalled his agreement.
"That's certainly got me warmed up," Ho-Oh added. "I wonder who Brandon has left for me to fight."
He began to circle down towards the seating, and Buizel dodged around before cutting his Aqua Tail and landing on Ho-Oh's neck.
"Don't push it," the Legendary muttered, feeling Buizel shifting to get a good seat.
"Okay, let's see..." Pikachu muttered to himself, dodging away from a Flash Cannon attack. "I know there's got to be something around here that will work."
"Registeel!" Brandon called. "Lock On and then use Hyper Beam!"
"target_obj = lock_on('Pikachu')", Registeel complied.
"Aha!" Pikachu declared, skidding to a halt.
He glanced up, seeing the orange light building up rapidly, then used Iron Tail and coated it in a layer of Aura to strengthen it.
Flicking his tail towards Registeel, he used the stiff surface as a mirror – reflecting most of the energy of the Hyper Beam back at Registeel, using the first rush of the blast to hit the Legendary in the forehead and knock his aim off.
As the rest of the orange Hyper Beam lanced off into the sky, Pikachu used his still-steely tail to buzzsaw off two long willow branches.
Taking one in each paw, he ran back towards the unfolded Battle Pyramid with the branches trailing behind him – dodging a few smaller attacks as he came, until he was within a few feet of the big Legendary Titan. Then he flicked the willow branches out at his opponent, with each one coming in from one side of the Steel-type.
Registeel blocked them both with its hands.
"Is… that supposed to do something?" Brandon asked, looking at the long trail of willow branch running off behind Registeel. "Was it a Vine Whip?"
Pikachu grinned, and put both the fresh-cut edges to his cheeks.
There was a brief fzzzzt as he powered up, followed by a loud BANG as Registeel vanished in a blur of grey and white.
"...huh?" Brandon said, looking along the line from Pikachu to Registeel, as coronal discharges flickered on a few exposed surfaces.
Pikachu held up a paw, counting under his breath, then relaxed.
"Good," he said. "I didn't miss."
"Miss what?" Ash asked. "I didn't see what happened..."
Pikachu tapped one of the willow branches with his tail, and it crumbled into black soot – absolutely everything except the carbon having been burned off. "I made a makeshift railgun and fired Registeel at that mountain over there."
He indicated the peak with a nod of his head.
"Pikachu said he fired Registeel at a mountain like a railgun," Ash supplied. "Does that count as ring out?"
"...almost certainly, yes," Brandon agreed.
He chuckled. "Well done, Ash! That's earned you my Symbol, and the Battle Frontier with-"
"Hold on a moment!" Ho-Oh said. "What's this about the battle being over?"
"It was a five a side," Ash replied. "Pikachu just beat Registeel."
"It was? He did?" Ho-Oh asked. "Do you mean to say that I missed the entire battle?"
"Kind of, yeah," the trainer agreed. "Sorry. I wanted to bring you in, but… well, uh, you were busy."
Ho-Oh groaned, shaking his head. "Well… well, then. Fine. I suppose you're going to run into something on the right scale eventually."
"Did I miss something?" Brandon asked. "Only, I'd quite like to go and get Registeel back. I heard the thump a moment ago, and I'm not sure how far into the mountain a Registeel can get going faster than sound."
"Hah!"
Cobalion swept his horn down, and a curl of blue light came off it. The light travelled a few feet, a little further than Cobalion's own body length, then collapsed in on itself.
"That keeps not working," he sighed. "Keldeo, do you have any ideas?"
"I have a few," Keldeo said, thinking. "How are you handling the matrix?"
"I had thought I was doing it correctly," Cobalion answered. "But it just unravels from both ends."
"Oh!" Keldeo realized. "No, that's probably what's wrong. I started using a double-layer format on my Sacred Sword a while ago, because it starts at my horn but that's not long enough in my regular Form to properly stabilize it. So it loops back, and there's no ends to unravel – it's not actually harder to do than the normal one, at least in energy terms."
Cobalion thought about that, then nodded. "I see. So you have two layers, each weaker than my single one – but they reinforce one another, and it means there is no actual end."
He lit his horn again, this time taking a little longer to do so as he copied the format Keldeo had mentioned.
Then he tossed his head, and a line of blue light flicked out before digging a furrow in the ground.
"That's it!" Keldeo agreed. "Okay, now let's try it with Night Slash!"
"Perhaps later, Keldeo," Cobalion said. "I would rather master this move, and all it does for my fighting style, than to collect a grab-bag of attacks I cannot use with skill."
"Oh, right..." the Water-type said. "You mean like this?"
He reared up, horn lighting up with a Sacred Sword of his own, then brought his hooves and horn down at once.
The blue light on his horn brightened, then came off in a wave of light.
Cobalion took a step back, examining the three-pointed trident scar on the ground in front of Keldeo. "And what was that?"
"Not sure," Keldeo said. "I was thinking of calling it Meteorain, but that sounds kind of over the top..."
AN:
And here's the second half of the battle.
Regice speaks Piet, another Esolang by David Morgan-Mar.
