"Okay, so… there's just eight matches left," Ash said. "Four quarter finals, two semi finals, a third-fourth playoff and the final."

He frowned. "It's actually kind of funny, now I think about it, that the last three rounds have as many matches in as the one round before it."

"Actually, that's just maths," Max said. "If there's a third-fourth playoff, then each of the rounds before the last one always has as many matches as all the ones after it."

"Huh," Ash mused. "I guess I can't argue with Maths."

"Largely because it would be like bringing a feather duster to a Legendary battle," Pikachu said, then frowned. "Wait, hold on, this is Ash, I'm rethinking that."

"Hey!"

"That was actually a compliment, if you look at it one way," Lucario pointed out. "Oh, it looks like it's May's turn again."


"Please give a warm welcome to May and Gary, the first two quarter-finalists!" Nurse Joy said.

May blinked, doing a double-take, then realized this Gary wasn't Ash's friend Gary.

In hindsight, it was pretty obvious that there had to be more than one Gary. This one was wearing an odd costume, one which consisted of a dark red-grey cloak with a long scarf.

"Sandslash!" Gary called, throwing his Pokéball, and Sandslash appeared with a whoosh of smoke. May threw her own Pokéball at almost the same moment, and a three-note chord announced Altaria's emergence onto the battlefield.

Sandslash landed with a puff of sand around her feet, and waved a hand twice around her head as more sand seemed to pour out from between her spines. She let it gather around her, swirling into a denser and denser cloud, then sent it blasting up towards Altaria.

The Dragon-type dove, avoiding the first blast of the attack, but the sandcloud came after him – curling, and clearly being directed deliberately by Sandslash as she moved her arms purposefully.

Sand closed in on Altaria, tendrils separating from the main mass and moving faster to cut him off. Then his wings glowed as he used Safeguard, and a moment after that he began to sing.

The first aching note of Perish Song echoed through the air, making the sand vibrate with resonance, and disrupted Sandslash's control for a moment. Altaria broke off, fired a Dragon Pulse at the disrupted sand, then got through before Sandslash could resume control.

"An interesting escape trick!" Nurse Joy said approvingly. "Though it's a bit discordant."

Altaria didn't stop at that, either, powering for the sky as Sandslash built up more sand before sending it up in a half-dozen densely packed balls. They caught up to the dragon as Altaria had to slow from approaching the top of the stadium, and he did a backflip before using Hyper Voice and smashing one into fragments.

The other five split as well, and all six became a globe of sand which closed in on Altaria from all directions. Green light shone from within the closing sphere, which seemed to hesitate, and then stopped shrinking.

A kind of resonant hum came from inside the sphere, as Altaria sang inside. The musical voice of the Dragon-type started low, but built up and became more and more powerful – making sand cascade away from the sphere, revealing that it was now made of glass.

The glass began to shake as Altaria found the resonant frequency, and Sandslash coated it in more sand to damp the vibrations. Then a golden light flashed inside, and the song abruptly intensified – and the glass shattered.

Mega Altaria flew out, diving hard for the arena floor before pulling out at the last moment, and there was something different about his Singing – more ethereal, lighter, even otherworldly in a strange way that was hard to define. Sandslash sent up a reserve sand dune, and Mega Altaria swept it aside with his wing – then winced, the sound of his voice faltering.

"Watch out," May called. "Dragon Dance!"

Her Fairy-type listened, and accelerated through the air – glittering blue-and-red light trailing from his wings, as his song got louder and more insistent. Sparks built up in his pearly-opalescent clouds, getting denser and brighter as the audience watched, and then Sandslash was ready to try something really big.

The whole arena floor seemed to surge up. This time the sand formed a shape, a giant construct in the shape of a Sandshrew, and it reached up to try and snatch Mega Altaria out of the air.

Mega Altaria replied by turning back along his own path, and used Hyper Voice. The sparks of power he'd been building up came blasting out as a single wave, and smashed into the giant Sandshrew – sending sand cascading in all directions, but not really weakening the construct.

May looked up at the scoreboard, and frowned. Mega Altaria was doing okay, but the fine sand control being managed by Sandslash was really helping Gary's points – she'd have to do a quick rethink.


"Fly inside it!"

Mega Altaria did a double-take, and nearly got clipped by the great big tail of the sand construct as it somersaulted forwards.

"Yes, seriously!" his trainer agreed, nodding a confirmation, and Mega Altaria nodded a little dubiously.

Wings glittering, he resumed his song, and waited until there was a chance – then dove into the mouth of the sand construct.

It didn't have a throat, not really, and it was mostly the momentum of his Aerial Ace and the protection of his Fairy-typed Safeguard which kept him from being stalled.

Once inside, trapped in a little bubble of air with sand on all sides, he hesitated – then realized.

When he'd used Hyper Voice before, most of the force had bounced off the hard-packed sand of the construct – but in here, that was simply not possible.

He inhaled.


"Whoa!" Max gasped, as the Sandshrew construct exploded in a plume of sound and glittering light.

Mega Altaria hovered there, exactly where he'd been before he shouted, then rose a little way into the air as Sandslash regained control over her sand. His voice got louder and stronger and richer, rising to a triumphant crescendo-

-and the bell rang.


"You guys just ain't capable of a quick battle, are ya?" Meowth asked. "It's always gotta be right down to da wire, close match, nearly a defeat, an' all dat nonsense."

He scratched his chin. "Granted, it's probably 'cause of how many times it happened to us lot in da past..."

"Maybe it's partly because it's not really very impressive if you beat your opponent in ten seconds," Ash mused. "I mean, I pretty much got told off for incinerating Harley's Cacturne, even though that was an accident."

"That doesn't count, you were told off by Harley."

"Heh," Meowth chuckled. "Maybe dat's why. 'cause nothin' around you guys is simple."

Pikachu raised a paw. "Except-"

"I have a question," Lucario interrupted, nodding to Meowth. "You learned to speak human, correct?"

"It ain't like I was born knowin' how ta do dis," Meowth answered.

"Right. But what I was wondering is – you learned how to speak the human language, but you didn't learn how not to have that accent?"

"What accent?"

As Lucario was about to reply, the score came up on the board – showing that the trick Mega Altaria had pulled had, indeed, won him the match.

"That sand trick was pretty cool," Brock mused. "I wonder if Flygon can learn something like it – it'd be a good way to attack while using Dig."

"That's a good point," Geodude agreed. "It's a little like my own rockcrafting, but not quite the same. And – I wonder if Flygon could use it to block Ice attacks? Those are his biggest weakness."

"Hm, but if he got attacked from behind then it'd be a large chunk of frozen sand hitting his back..." Brock said. "No, wait, that's still better than an Ice Beam. Sounds good to me."


You have one new message.

May frowned, and fished Ethan's core out of her pocket. "What is it?"

It's from Drew. He suggests that Glaceon might want to watch this next one.

May's Ice-type duly emerged from her Pokéball, landing poised on the waiting room floor. "I wonder why… oh, wait, of course!"

She glanced back. "Are you going to need me for the remaining matches?"

"Don't think so," May answered.

"Good," Glaceon said. "I'll be up in the stands."

She loped over to the door, reared up, and turned the knob with one paw before vanishing down the hallway.


"The tricky thing is going to be getting the balance right. If Flygon uses too much sand he won't be able to see where he's going, and there's only so much he can carry – but the denser a shield is..."

"...the closer in it has to be," Brock answered. "And if a Pokémon uses a really strong attack they might get through the shield, so it's probably helpful for it to be a bit unclear where Flygon is."

He thought about it. "But you don't need as much sand if you can get it right in the way of an enemy attack. Doesn't Detect give you the ability to sense danger, kind of?"

"That sounds like it might work."

"You're all as bad as each other at dis kind of thing," Meowth chuckled, and then a blue blur went past him. "Huh?"

Glaceon jumped onto one of the clear seats, parking herself in it and looking down into the field.

"Nice to see you," Max said. "How come you're up here – I thought May went through?"

"I did check," Glaceon replied.

A flash-bang of smoke reminded them that the Coordinators for the next Contest Battle were already on the field, and a Monferno appeared out of the smoke with a crackle of flames.

Then a swirl of petals burst out on the other end of the field, and Drew's Leafeon emerged from it.

"Go Mom!" Glaceon announced, tail flicking from side to side.


"Gold banded cudgel formation, Kong!" called Drew's opponent, and the Monferno crouched – then somersaulted forwards, flame developing around his forearms.

He landed just on the far side of Leafeon, and swept his arms around as if wielding an invisible staff. Leafeon dodged away, calling up petals to hide her form, but when the position of the invisible staff intersected her petal shield it burst into flame and vanished.

Leafeon's tail flicked across, and Magical Leaves began to gather themselves around her. Instead of flashing across to attack in a single burst, however, the multicoloured leaves just built up and built up – Leafeon refusing to use them, even as Kong followed her and continued laying about her with what was either an actual invisible staff or a very well controlled Heat Wave attack.

"Five seconds!" Drew called. "Four – now!"

Ready for Drew to change his mind, Leafeon turned as soon as he gave the order. Her Magical Leaf swarm trembled for a moment, then came barraging in on Kong all at once.

"Intelligent Stone Monkey formation!" Wu ordered, and his Monferno rolled into a ball before using Protect – scattering the leaves in all directions, not letting any of them actually reach him.

Leafeon's paws glowed green as she ran, using the time Kong was protecting himself to set something else up. She used Grassy Terrain, making the grass grow taller and fresher, and by the time Kong was ready to attack again Leafeon had disappeared into the thick grass.

Flowers joined the grass, growing visibly, and their petals opened to send Sweet Scent into the air – producing a beautiful recreation of a springtime meadow.

Crouching, Kong jumped – getting high into the air, at least halfway to the top of the stadium, and identified where his target was from overhead. He did a mid-air somersault, flames coiling around his arms and legs to steer a little, then raised his hands as if grasping a giant staff again.

"Overhead!" Drew called. "Cottonwood!"

Leafeon's tail flicked across, and a Petal Blizzard erupted from nowhere. It swept up all the seeds, pollen and everything else flammable – hitting Kong with a diffuse cloud of flammable material suspended in air.

The resultant explosion was quite impressive.

A moment later, Kong emerged from it, landing with a roll to absorb some of the momentum, and lashed out with a Blaze Kick – only to find his target missing entirely.

There was a flicker of movement, and Leafeon used Leaf Blade – cutting a huge swath out of her fresh grass, forming a briefly-visible arc in the flowers before her still-running Grassy Terrain healed it up again.


"This is a real work of art," Dawn said, as she watched the overhead view of the combat. Leafeon wasn't doing much actual damage, she could tell that easily, but her continual Grassy Terrain coupled with her flicking Leaf Blades and X-Scissors produced stark geometric shapes which lingered for at least a second before being slowly erased.

The Monferno swung both hands behind his back, paused, then turned and swept the invisible staff around in a wide arc at about the height of his collarbone. The heated air of his Heat Wave blasted out, shrivelling the grass and flowers it touched and making them smoulder, and cut a widening swath through the grass as the Heat Wave reached out further.

It was like watching the line on a radar screen, except that this line kept getting longer and longer.

By the third revolution, the grass nearest to Kong was dry enough to catch into flame, and a moment later Leafeon appeared mid-leap as the heat washed over her. She bounced backwards, rolling, then disappeared into the grass again.

"Reverse!" came Wu's order.

Even now, Kong kept up the pretence of his weapon being an invisible staff. It slowed instead of stopping instantly, the line of smouldering grass holding steady for a moment before reversing course, and swept back across the same area as before as a line of flame developed behind it.

A flicker of X-Scissor sliced away the grass that was burning, ending the flame, and Kong adjusted his Heat Wave to get the targeting right.

Then he tripped over.

Leafeon burst out of the grass startlingly close to Kong, tail slicing away the grass with a Leaf Blade to reveal the Grass Knots that had tripped her Fire-type opponent, then let her Grassy Terrain unravel around her to leave them standing on bare earth. More Grass Knots sprang up, lashing Kong to the floor, and he destroyed them with a burst of flame but took long enough that the match timed out.


"Well, I must say – that use of Grassy Terrain was very impressive," Mr. Contesta observed. "Did you see how the Leafeon was producing certain flowers on demand?"

"Yes, and I agree," Joy nodded. "But that Heat Wave was good as well – I was pretty convinced until he fell over, where the staff would have supported him. I think that's the main mistake in the miming."

"This is a difficult one," the Contest judge said. "I think they both get points for style. What about for battlefield control?"

"Leafeon," Joy decided, after a moment's pause. "For a lot of the battle Kong was reacting."

"I concur," Raoul nodded. "How do you think she did?"

"Remarkably!" Mr. Sukizo pronounced.

"I see you're diversifying..."

Mr. Contesta tapped his pen. "And what about move contact? I saw plenty of misses, but not many hits from Kong – though they did usually have a lot of impact. While Leafeon got a lot of hits by comparison – especially that one where she made Kong explode."

"I think we're going to need a decision soon," he added. "We've got more time to deliberate than the early rounds, but not that much more."


"We're sorry for the delay," Mr. Contesta said over the PA system. "This quarter-final showed some very impressive skills on the part of both contestants, but after long consideration… Drew goes through to the next round."

Leafeon let out a sigh of relief, looking up at her trainer and touching her forepaw to his hand, then turned at the sound of a familiar voice.

"Good work, Mom!"

She smiled, waving up at Glaceon, and flicked her tail in a salute.


"We seem to find the strangest places to do this," Casey's Lucario observed, looking around her at the rising slopes of Mt. Moon. "It's going to pose an interesting challenge."

"Yeah, but if you only play on a regulation field then you're in trouble if the other side's home plate is underwater," Casey replied.

"That makes absolutely no sense," Lucario chuckled. "But as a more general rule, I do approve."

She readied the baseball. "Fielders ready?"

Pidgeot waved from the backstop position, Electabuzz and Pichu stood at two of the bases, and Meganium, Raticate and Shinx were standing in the outfield. Shinx was a little unsure about the large glove in his mouth, but seemed excited enough by the idea of the game.

Lucario was glad to see her fellow Shiny was getting into it. The game had a lot to offer, both as entertainment and as training.

Taking a step back, the Fighting-type tensed. Then she wound up and pitched, her baseball curving slightly as it sped towards Casey.

There was a loud crack as the bat connected to the ball, and Casey broke into a run as it shot into the air.

Judging the positions, Lucario bolted for third base. The ball was on quite a high arc, and it looked like Casey would get past second before any of them was able to catch it.

Then a blur shot across the sky, and neatly plucked the ball from the air at the apex of its arc.

Lucario slowed, staring, and Casey powered past her – making it all the way to home base and skidding to a halt there.

"Phew," she gasped. "I must have hit that one really high!"

She frowned. "How come none of you caught it?"

Lucario pointed, and Casey looked up to follow her pointing finger – then stared.

"Is this not how the game works?" asked a Zapdos, hovering overhead with a mildly puzzled expression and a ball in his beak. "I thought the idea was that one of you hits the ball and the others try to catch it."

"Oh, I think I understand the problem," Lucario said. "That's only if she has two strikes, because you're a flying Pokémon. Otherwise you'd need to pass it to the… base..."

She paused. "Hold on, I may not be understanding something. Why are you asking for baseball rules clarifications?"

"Is that what he's doing?" Casey asked.

"Sorry, I should have remembered," Lucario winced. "Yes. He's asking if this is how the game works."

"If it helps, I would like to learn to play," Zapdos continued. "It seems like an interesting game and I am intrigued to learn more."

Lucario relayed that.

"Okay..." Casey began, frowning. "That… okay, I think maybe we should do some fielding practice. Your job is to try and catch the ball, then pass it as quickly as possible to whoever's on one of the bases. You want to stop the runner as soon as possible, either by touching a base ahead of them while they're running to it or by blocking the base after that."

Zapdos nodded, releasing the ball, and Shinx caught it on his glove.

He looked very self-satisfied about that.


"Okay, here we go," May said to herself. "Semi final."

This one felt… important. She'd not actually managed to defeat Solidad last time, and they'd met just the once – in the semifinal of the Kanto Grand Festival, just like this time.

"Let's do this," she decided, and walked out onto the arena floor.


"It's kind of a pity, in a way, when friends make it to the last rounds," Brock observed. "There's not nearly enough time for them to watch each others' matches – we saw how hard it was for Glaceon to get up here."

"It's not like there's really a better solution," Flygon said, thinking about it. "The only ways I can think of would be a bit more convenient for the contestants but loads less convenient for the spectators."

He stretched his wings, until Ninetales pushed one of them down gently from the row behind.

"Please don't get in the way," she requested.

"Sorry," Flygon winced.

He furled his wings again, looking a bit embarrassed, then turned to Brock to take his mind off it. "By the way, that sand thing does sound like a good idea… just like it did last time you mentioned it to me."

Brock did a double-take. "We really – of course, you wouldn't say otherwise. Um… sorry?"

"I wouldn't mind, but I've been trying to get it to work for weeks."

They were interrupted by a whoosh and a bang as Solidad sent out both of her Pokémon. Her Lapras materialized on the floor, accompanied by a splash of water, and then her Pidgeot appeared already moving at speed to do a lap of the stadium. The smoke from his seals was whipped by the wind, moving in an ascending spiral, and it dissipated a moment later into the air.

A moment later, May threw both Pokéballs at once. There was a musical note, and Manaphy landed on the stadium floor.

"Did she forget someone?" Max asked. "And… uh… that pair Solidad has could literally be from Ash's team."

"She didn't forget," Ash supplied, checking with Aura Sight. "Huh..."


"All right, let's go!" Manaphy said, flippers up by his mouth, then exhaled a Hydro Pump.

The water shot out at speed, but slowed so quickly it only got a few feet – instead being gathered together into a big blob, ready for Manaphy to use for his attacks.

Pidgeot came stooping down on him, wings beating to accelerate the Flying-type to impressive speed, and Solidad's Lapras fired a Thunderbolt at her teammate. It hit Pidgeot's wings as they transitioned smoothly to Steel Wing, and the Flying-type swept his wings forwards in a slamming stop – releasing Feather Dance feathers which became electrified steel bolts.

Manaphy yelped, and froze all his water at once. It deflected the feathery weapons away, but Pidgeot was well clear by the time he could start throwing a retaliatory snowball.

Clenching his flippers, he made most of his water melt again – then got out of the way as Lapras shot a Freeze-Dry attack at him. The Legendary sent a kind of shotgun-blast of water back at Lapras as retaliation, most of which fell short, then doubled back towards where he'd originally been sent out.

"Spring Tide!" May called.

Manaphy glanced upwards, seeing that Pidgeot was coming down in a stooping charge with wind gathering under his wings, and used Water Pulse for more material to work with before dissolving himself with Acid Armor.

Pidgeot's Hurricane surged down, running into a Powder Snow from Lapras halfway through the path from Flying-type to target, and the combined attack hit Manaphy's melted form hard enough to produce a big splash.

The water rose into the air, then came back down again – and Manaphy came flying out of the water, forming a pair of Beautifly wings out of water to increase his agility and speed. He clapped his flippers together as he reached the apex of his jump, sending the wings forwards as streams of water, and froze them with an Ice Beam so Pidgeot had to quickly dodge out of the way of a fast-freezing helix shape.

Landing back on the now-wet stadium floor, Manaphy began moving much faster – jumping from puddle to puddle by using his hydrokinesis on his own water, moving as a kind of continuous stream of water lit from within by Tail Glow.

"We're still not sure what's going on!" Contesta said. "But this is quite a fast-paced Battle Round, with Manaphy coming back fast after an early dip!"

Lapras fired an Ice Beam at the oncoming stream of Manaphy, which jinked to one side and avoided it. Then the Water-type was too close, and went soaring at Lapras – and over.

The tip of Manaphy's stream exploded, and an Electroweb snapped out at Lapras from only a few inches away.

"What!?" Solidad asked, completely caught off guard. "How did-"

The Electroweb spun out over all of Lapras' limbs, including her neck, and tightened. As it did, it became clear that the source was a moving spark of light, using beams of electricity to clamber all over the trussed-up Lapras and build up more and more momentum.

Manaphy turned in his puddle, firing a blob of water, then froze it with Ice Beam and let Joltik catch it in her Sticky Web. That gave her a second object to manage, and she whirled it like a bolas as she bounced around the electrically-bound Lapras.


Solidad closed her jaw with a snap.

She had to admit, it was an impressive gambit. Her style was based around careful preparation, and she'd noticed May Maple's habit of spreading out her Pokémon as much as possible – and with her known roster, the Blaziken and the Manaphy had been her most powerful remaining Pokémon. With Lapras and Pidgeot working together, it should have been easy to neutralize the best moves for one or both of them.

But a surprise Joltik – and one which was so small it was almost impossible to see even now – had caught Solidad off guard.

"Song and Dance!" she called.

Lapras opened her mouth, difficult with the Electroweb shocking her, and began to use Perish Song. The notes resonated out across the stadium, painful to hear, and Pidgeot flipped over to dive and hit the whole area with Feather Dance.

This would be a tricky one.

Then Joltik fired a Sticky Web at Manaphy, and detached herself from Lapras at the same time. The high-speed chunk of ice went down, Joltik and Manaphy went up, and they were suddenly hurtling towards Pidgeot – a move neither she nor her Flying-type had seen coming.


Solidad's Pidgeot yelped, wings slamming out to either side to brake, and a moment later he swerved – aiming to get away from the sudden danger.

Joltik fired a Sticky Web attack at him, and he blocked it with a desperate Feather Dance. That got the Bug-type attack out of the way, but it also meant his dodge was delayed – and Manaphy had time to use Water Gun, then distort the water with hydrokinesis to form a lasso.

It didn't get Pidgeot's neck, as the Flying-type powered upwards and out of the trap. But Manaphy did manage to snag Pidgeot's foot, and then both he and Joltik were holding on as firmly as they could.

The Flying-type looked down as a sensation tugged on his foot, and did a sudden kulbit flip – trying to turn so fast that he broke the grip holding onto his leg. It almost worked, but then Manaphy froze the part of the lasso which connected to him and Joltik hit it with a strand of Electroweb.

The electrical energy conducted into Pidgeot, making him yelp, and that was just the beginning – Manaphy's hydrokinesis jumped into overdrive again, turning the water of his lasso into something like a living thing, bouncing from wing to breast to back to tail and constantly recharged from the Electroweb Joltik was pouring energy into.

After a few seconds, Pidgeot furled his wings enough to use Feather Dance. The downy feathers burst out in all directions, interrupting Manaphy's water snake, and then he slammed his wings down again to blow both of them out of the sky amidst a feather-storm.

The two other Pokémon were still bound together by Sticky Web, and Joltik reeled hers in as they headed back towards the ground. Then they passed by Lapras just as the feathers shorted out the Electroweb, and Joltik used a Sticky Web to attach herself to Lapras' head.

They swung around and up all over again, this time getting out of the way just before Lapras attacked, and May cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Electrostorm!"

Manaphy used Hydro Pump to produce a huge rush of water as he rose into the air, pumping out the water as fast as he could. A moment after appearing, it began to disperse into smaller blobs, so that before a few seconds had gone by the air was full of thousands of hovering droplets.

Joltik's Electroweb flicked out to the nearest droplet, then spread to the two or three closest to that one.

The electricity spread, faster and faster. Some of the drops were only touched for a moment, but others were linked into the growing electrified web Joltik was producing.

Each individual droplet's charge was tiny – the Electric-type had charged up before the battle, but she wasn't unlimited. But the droplets were so small that they were picking up a bit of natural electricity from static as well, and that amplified what she could do.

Within a few seconds, the whole hovering cloud was sparking back and forth with lightning. Pidgeot's wings were just coming back, ready to blow them to the floor away from his teammate, but May's Pokémon moved first.

The water fell out of the sky – far faster than it would naturally do, as Manaphy pulled it all towards the ground at once.

And Pidgeot was hit by electrified rain.

Each individual droplet was too weak to damage him – but in aggregate they made him shout in surprise and covered him from wingtip to wingtip with sparking coronal discharge.

The rain hit Lapras as well, though the effect on her was less as she was able to heal from her Water Absorb at the same time as she was damaged by the electricity.

Then the timer went off, just as Manaphy landed with a splash and the near-invisible form of Joltik came down to touch his head – both of them standing untouched in a small clear patch of the electrostorm.


Casey wound up, and pitched the ball.

Zapdos swung the bat in his beak, and sent the ball flying.

"Strike!" Lucario called, holding up her hand as a signal. "Sorry, Zapdos, but you left the batting zone."

The Flying-type looked down, and shuffled his feet a little to get back into the Batter's Box. As he did, Pidgeot swooped down – collecting the rolling ball from the grass, and circling to bring it back to his trainer.

"Out of interest," Lucario said, looking at Zapdos. "Why are you learning Baseball from us?"

"Well… it seems interesting," Zapdos replied, mumbling a little around the bat. "It's something you – humans do a lot, and I wanted to see what it was like to take part with you."

"To do Baseball, or to be with us?" the Fighting-type asked.

"...I think the answer to that is 'yes'," Zapdos told her. "It's something I'm considering."

"Okay, let's try again," Casey called, throwing the ball into the air and catching it. "Ready?"

Zapdos nodded, then swung and hit the baseball with a satisfying crack.


"Great work, both of you!" May said, collecting Manaphy with one hand and lifting Joltik with the other.

Her hair almost immediately poofed out slightly, and she chuckled.

"I'm glad that rain trick worked," she added. "It's really fiddly, but I think it was a great finisher."

"I agree," Solidad said.

May jumped slightly.

"That was a good ruse," she added. "I was expecting one thing, so you led me astray with a Pokémon making their Contest debut."

"That was the idea," May agreed. "I know it's kind of a cheat, but-"

"It is not," Solidad denied. "To be able to train a Pokémon without Contest experience enough to be useful this way is a good demonstration of skill."

She looked up as the score was announced, confirming that Manaphy and Joltik had won, then shook May's hand.

"Good luck in the final," the older Coordinator said.

"Thanks," May smiled. "And good luck for you too, in the playoff – and in the future."

"That was great fun!" Manaphy added. "Can you thank your Pokémon for us too?"


"I think this works pretty well," Dawn said, sitting back on the bench. "We got all the important points from that battle."

Piplup nodded to her, then took a sip from his drink and bounced a little on his cushion.

In front of them, the whole wall of Dawn's house had been turned into a screen by a projector – something the Coordinator had set up so all her Pokémon could watch, including Mamoswine.

"Let's see… Drew and Jessie next," she remembered. "That should be interesting."

The two Coordinators duly walked out onto the grass, and she heard Nurse Joy mention that Jessie had picked up all her ribbons in a very short space of time, while Drew was a previous finalist.

Then they sent out their Pokémon.

Jessie opted to stagger the appearances, with Marowak appearing first about six feet above the ground, and the Ground-type landed with a large bone club supporting her hands – then flicked another longer one out to one side, and Jessie's second Pokéball opened in a shower of sparkles.

Arbok dropped out, landing neatly lined up along the long bone, then slithered off it to coil on the nearby grass as Marowak dismissed the bone.

On the other side of the arena, Drew's Pokémon came out at the same time – their musical-note seals producing a five-chord fanfare, as Absol and Arcanine landed side-by-side on the arena floor.

All four Pokémon paused for a moment, then got moving all at once.


Absol's muscles bunched, and his claws dug into the grass – then jumped, getting away as Marowak's club struck the ground and a fencelike line of bones erupted out in a path leading towards him.

Landing, he skidded a little, then his ear perked up at a bark from Arcanine. She ran behind him, getting so that he was between the Fire-type and the Ground-type, and then Arcanine used Flamethrower.

Working in combination with his teammate, Absol used Dark Pulse. The attack flicked forwards, intersected with the Flamethrower, and swelled up into a ball of flaming blackness until Arcanine ended her Flamethrower.

Then the ball exploded as Marowak hit it with a Bonemerang.

Her other hand flipped the club around, and she struck the ground again with it. More bones appeared, rising up in rows, and the two quadrupeds found themselves inside a fence made of tall projections.

Absol swung his horn, using Slash to cut their way out, and Arcanine jumped through the gap. Then a Bonemerang came whistling towards Absol, and he turned to block – only to blink, surprised.

Arbok launched himself off the Bonemerang he'd been wrapped around, and fired a barrage of Poison Sting down at Absol. He flinched as some of the needles hit, then summoned up a Razor Wind to blow the rest of them away and launched it at Arbok.

Courtesy of their training, Arcanine reacted quickly. She fired a Flamethrower into the gathering wind, and it roared skywards as a combined attack which produced a cylinder of flame and blew Arbok backwards.

Halfway to landing on the grass, he stopped – suddenly, as if he'd come to the end of a safety cord – then dropped gently to the ground.

Absol frowned, his disaster-sense itching a little.

He'd never trained to use it in combat – chance-dancing was a difficult skill to learn – but now he was starting to feel like that was a mistake.


"What just happened?" Ash asked. "I didn't know Marowak was psychic now."

"Eh, she ain't," Meowth shrugged. "Not really. It's kinda… somethin' else."


Marowak threw a pair of bonemerangs, one with each arm, then put both paws on the ground and focused. Her eyes glowed a little, and a great big construct – like the skull of a Rayquaza – burst out of the ground next to Arcanine before trying to chomp down on her.

Moving with alacrity, Arcanine dodged out of the way. She moved fast, turning her speed into a Flare Blitz, and Absol threw another Razor Wind her way to accelerate the flames.

Arbok's tail flicked out in front of her, glowing with purple energy as the Poison-type used Dragon Tail, and Arcanine jumped over him with a powerful surge of strength. The heat of her Flare Blitz trailed out behind her, shaped by her tail into two streams and making her look like a twin-tailed comet, and she smashed through a manifested Bastiodon shield and drove Marowak skidding backwards.

"A fine hit!" Contesta said, nodding. "But what's this?"

Arcanine turned to see, then stared in shock.

Arbok was flying towards her – literally flying, levitating some way off the ground, with his tail still glowing with the Dragon-type energy he'd been using before. Arcanine dodged to the side, sliding along the ground, but Arbok twitched to the side in a thoroughly odd way and wrapped around Arcanine's leg.

Marowak cupped her paws together, then threw out a sudden storm of small bones towards Absol. The Dark-type dodged away from most of them, but the bones curved to follow him and forced him to run away or be hit – giving Arbok time to wind his way around Arcanine, twisting around her torso once before rearing up in front of her face and Glaring at her.

Shaking the effects off, Arcanine roared and blazed up – only for Arbok to fly backwards away from her before the flame reached him, and end up with his tail in Marowak's paw.


"...okay, I'm lost," Ash admitted. "Is that Marowak doing that?"

Meowth looked exceedingly smug about Ash's admission, which was saying something given he was a cat. "Well, ain't dat a surprise… so, how dis works is dat she's worked out how his bones work. Took a lot of trainin', but it's cool!"

"That barely makes sense next to her normal powers," Pikachu observed.

"An' you're one ta talk?"


Absol ran up to join Arcanine, his horn crackling as he got ready to channel a Play Rough through it. It would sort out Arbok, that was for sure, and it might work against Marowak quite well too.

He saw as Arcanine glanced at his horn, then crouched slightly – letting him take the lead, and preparing to augment his attack by lighting his horn on fire.

Both Pokémon's paws brushed the ground, ready to spring. Then, before they moved, Marowak formed a bone in each hand and hit both of them to the ground.

Her skull pulsed blue, and then something began to move in the ground below.

Absol's attack faded on his horn as he stared. Bones – glowing a faint blue, either from their creation or from Marowak's control – rose from the grass, tearing it asunder, and began to assemble into larger patterns.

The dozens of bones of a great clawed foot. A tail, long and oddly slender without the flesh. Two small arms, and a mouth large enough to fit both Arcanine and Absol into it at the same time.

Marowak stood on top of a huge skeletal Tyrantrum, and it roared to the heavens.

"Victory for Jessie!" called Mr. Contesta.


Max blinked. "...what?"

"How does that work?" Meowth asked, puzzled. "Sure, dat was a pretty cool move but it weren't like it hit or nothin'…"

"To clarify the recent ruling, we decided that the move by Marowak was very impressive," Nurse Joy explained. "However, the number of points it scored on top of the previous point awards meant that the Contest Battle was won by Jessie's team. We know this doesn't normally happen in a Grand Festival, but that's just an expression of the skill of the combatants here – Drew still did well, and we'll look forward to his performance in the playoff!"

The giant Tyrantrum began to dissolve back into individual bones, shattering into pieces and becoming a cloud of dissolving sparkles, and Marowak walked down the tail before stepping off as it fell apart completely.

"Well… I guess we know what the final's going to be," Max observed. "I wonder what Pokémon they'll use..."


"Did you see that?"

Dawn jumped. "Wha – Barry?"

Barry nodded, pointing at the screen. "That Marowak made a giant bone Tyrantrum! I didn't know Marowak could do that, but she did, so that means they can… but if she can make bone Tyrantrum, can she make bone Salamence as well? Does that mean she could use one to fly?"

"I… don't know," Dawn admitted, turning in her seat so she could talk with Barry. Behind her, her Pokémon watched the analysis section of the TV coverage. "Maybe it's something that takes a lot of training on the specific subject?"

She looked down, at the Pokémon next to Barry. "Is that Smeargle new?"

The Smeargle gave her an eloquent look, saying more with raised eyebrows than Barry could in five minutes of nonstop talking.

"Yeah, he's new," Barry confirmed. "I asked my Dad about it, and he said Smeargle was the safest Pokémon I'd ever suggested getting so I could actually ask around and trade one, and he caught me the Pokémon to trade for as well! He's kind of quiet but I think he's pretty interesting!"

Smeargle held up a blank piece of wood, then wrote across it with quick strokes of his tail.

It's a living.

Dawn snorted, trying to hold in her laughter at the canine artist's expression, then looked back to Barry. "So, uh… I know you, Barry, what's your plan with Smeargle?"

"Well, I thought about it, and I realized it'd be a lot harder to get most Legendary Pokémon than to get a Smeargle, but if you have a Smeargle you can just visit legendary Pokémon and then get their moves," Barry rattled off. "It's kind of like really powerful autographs."

Smeargle's eyebrows went through a remarkable range of expressions, mostly on the theme of 'fine, then, this is clearly going to happen anyway', then scrubbed off his wood and wrote again.

I'll make sure he doesn't break anything too important.

"I think you and Smeargle are going to work well together," Dawn said. "I really do."


On the other side of an ocean, in Orre, a shopkeeper stared at his counter.

Then he looked up at the customer.

"You're… sure about this?"

Contentment. Confirmation.

Deoxys-Orange levitated a small pile of notes and coins onto the counter. Exactitude of value.

The shopkeeper counted through the money on autopilot, confirming it was correct, and nodded. "Yes, it's right… but do you really want a tube of wasabi paste, four cinnamon buns and a box of salmiakki? I didn't know we had some of these things in stock..."

Interest in cuisine.

Shaking his head at the odd sensations, the shopkeeper waved his hand. "Go ahead, then."

Deoxys-Orange picked up his bagged purchases, inclined his head slightly, and walked outside.

Through the shop window, the owner could see as he took one of the buns and fed it into his orange core.

Tilting his head, Deoxys-Orange then did the same with a sample of the salty liquorice. Beginning to float into the sky, he remained grounded for just long enough for the shopkeeper to see the wasabi paste go the same way.

"...he didn't even open the tube," he said to himself, blinking.


AN:


And a few more Contests, bringing us nearly to the end of the Kanto Grand Festival.

Nearly.

Also, a few things happening elsewhere in the world.