When the competition moved on to the main stadium, and on to six-on-six battles, the Elite Four And Various Gym Leaders (Several Of Whom Had Not Yet Arrived) went from the indoor viewing area to sitting in the main box.
"Don't forget to pay attention to the other battles," Lance pointed out. "There could be some impressive trainers coming up through the Conference this year, not just Ash."
Lorelei nodded, considering.
"It's not a bad job, this, is it?" Bruno asked. "There's so much free time Lance goes around fixing problems by himself, and you only have to fight the odd challenger… and a lot of the admin side of things is watching some great Pokémon battles."
He pointed. "Look – that's that Dragonite that Lance keeps talking about… unless Ash has another one now?"
"No, just one so far," Brock supplied. "Of course, I last checked this morning."
Opposite Dragonite, Vincent sent out his Meganium.
"Vine Whip!" he called, as the battle began, and Meganium's vines lashed out. They wrapped around Dragonite, pinning his arms to his sides and his wings to his back, and Dragonite beamed.
"At last!" he said. "A worthy opponent!"
He took off, moving fast enough to yank Meganium off the ground, then spun around to tie one vine tighter and loosen the other. That freed him from one vine entirely, and he repeated the process in the other direction to loosen the second one off – then grabbed onto Meganium directly, close enough that his vines tying Dragonite up would just tie the two of them together.
"Seed Bomb!" Vincent ordered, and Meganium blew them both up with a wham. Dragonite spun backwards, doing a complete backflip before halting in mid-air, and Meganium lashed onto Dragonite's tail with a vine before reeling it in to yank himself up and Dragonite down.
"Body Slam!" the Grass-type announced, and Dragonite whirled around to catch him and soak up some of the impact energy.
"Hyperkinetic hug barrage!" Dragonite replied, and wrapped Meganium's free vine around his arm before flicking the Grass-type off. He yanked on the vine, pogo-ing Meganium back towards him before the Grass-type actually hit the ground, and a repeated wham wham wham echoed as two heavy Pokémon collided with one another at high speed over and over again.
"...huh," Lorelei mused. "I've not seen that one before."
When Vincent withdrew his second Pokémon, to switch to his third, Whitney leaned forward.
"Oh, that's a shiny Magneton!" she said. "That's rare!"
"Ash just sent out an Articuno which isn't even from this landmass," Bugsy pointed out. "Possibly this hemisphere, but I'm not clear on that."
"She's from Galar," Falkner supplied. "I know that much."
"Thanks," Bugsy replied, then turned back to Whitney. "What do you mean, a shiny Magneton is rare?"
"Well, I'm just adapting to the current situation," Whitney replied, primly. "Ash has sent out his Zapdos, his Latias and his Suicune so far at this tournament, and Articuno makes four, but I think that's the only Shiny Pokémon at the tournament so far."
"Ash has a shiny Noctowl," Misty supplied. "Which this might actually be, it's a bit hard to tell with that Pokémon."
"Lock On!" Vincent ordered. "Thunder!"
"Block!"
Articuno sliced the attack in half with her wing.
"...can you do that?" Falkner demanded, leaning forwards out of his seat. "I want my whole team to learn that!"
"I think technically it's Psycho Cut, but don't quote me on that," Brock said, as Articuno dodge-rolled to one side on Ash's orders before firing down a burst of Extrasensory.
Then Magneton caught Articuno with a Shock Wave, fizzing over her feathers from beak to tailtip, and she hovered without benefit of wings before shaking her head and cawing a reply.
"Four out of ten!"
"Articuno!" Ash called. "Freezing Glare!"
Articuno's eyes flashed, and Magneton froze in place.
"Now, Drill Run!"
"On balance, this is probably the actual Articuno," Misty judged.
"Keep it up, Cyndaquil!" Ash called, as his Fire-type bounced around the arena. "Brick Break!"
"Block!" Vincent told Golduck, and the Duck Pokémon raised an arm. A surge of shimmering energy formed on the arm he was using, and when Cyndaquil unballed and delivered a high-speed punch it sent Golduck back a step but didn't otherwise cause him too much inconvenience.
"Now, Psych Up!" Vincent added. "Aqua Jet!"
"Evasion!" Ash called, and Cyndaquil raced away again at speed – followed now by Golduck, who was chasing him with a cloak of water all over his body to further boost his speed.
The two Pokémon were about evenly matched in sheer agility, now, and Cyndaquil moved on an erratic path to stop Golduck from flinging up an obstacle in his path – then reached the arena wall, hitting it with a crunch, and scaled it in seconds with Rock Climb.
"Now, jump to the middle!" Ash added, prompting Cyndaquil to push off from the arena side, and his quills flared up to boost his jump into a glide.
"...wait, Golduck, predict him!" Vincent called. "He said the middle, go to the middle!"
Golduck Aqua-Jetted to the middle of the arena, getting there just before Cyndaquil, and swept up water around himself ready to attack.
"Aqua Tail!" Vincent ordered.
"Circle Throw!" Ash countered.
Cyndaquil balled up for a moment, quills flaring up as he blocked the Water attack itself, then snagged onto the end of Golduck's actual tail just before it went out of reach. Golduck's spin carried him until Cyndaquil could set his hind paws on the floor again, then Cyndaquil flexed just so and threw Golduck across the arena.
There was a brilliant red flash as Golduck dematerialized, going back into his Pokéball, and was replaced by a slightly startled Golem.
"How did that work?" Vincent asked, confused, then shook his head. "Golem – Rock Blast!"
"That's more like it!" Ash announced. "Rock Smash!"
Cyndaquil skidded under the Rock Blast and punched Golem twenty feet into the air.
"What is he feeding those Pokémon?" Lance asked.
"Mostly my cooking, actually," Brock said.
Lance suddenly looked contemplative.
"When we were in the Orange Islands we tended to get takeout or forage," Misty supplied. "That didn't stop all this happening, Snorlax was caught and learned Agility in that period."
"...fair enough," Lance decided. "It was worth a thought though."
So, yeah, Dragonite asked for you to visit Pallet Town sometime, Latias 'pathed to her brother. He says he's interested in, um, something about a consulate? I'm not sure of the exact details, but once there's more than one Dragonite in the Kingdom they might be able to assign someone to watch over Dad's Soul Dew. Then we could both spend a long time outside Altomare together… but like I say you'd need to get the details from him.
Got it, sis, Latios agreed. I'll have to find the time after the Silver Conference. Speaking of which, which of us is up next?
You, I think, Latias replied. It's okay though, I don't think Ash is going to use you in this battle, and we're not that far from Altomare. You can hurry over here when you get the word… until then, let's watch the battle!
Latios began sight-sharing, and watched from the viewpoint of his invisible sister as Ash's opponent – a boy from Hoenn called Harrison – sent out his first Pokémon, a Houndoom.
Ash replied with Silver.
"Absolutely one hundred percent top marks!" Whitney squealed. "It's a tiny Lugia oh my word I'm going to die-"
"That's quite a reaction," Morty chuckled. "But I can't blame you, that really is a cute Pokémon."
"Flamethrower!" Harrison ordered, and Houndoom launched a jet of fire into the air. Silver countered with Hydro Pump, on Ash's orders, then held it as a kind of watery shield.
"Sunny Day!" Harrison added.
The sun shone brighter, and Misty frowned.
"That would normally mean a Solarbeam, but that wouldn't work as well against Silver," she said.
"Dark Pulse and Inferno!" Harrison finished.
A wave of Dark energy pulsed upwards, interfering with Silver's psychic hold on the water of the Hydro Pump, and then the heat-spike of the Inferno burst through the weakened shield to splash off Silver's scales.
The Diving Pokémon yelped, and Ash pointed. "Aeroblast! A close swipe!"
"He did just say Aeroblast, right?" Falkner checked. "That's supposed to be really loud."
"It is," Morty said.
"It's pretty though!" Togetic added brightly.
"Dark Pulse!" Harrison called – though, this time Silver had a proper Safeguard up, and the attack made him wince and knocked him into the air at the same time.
Most of his focus, though, was on the Aeroblast. He opened his mouth, and air rushed into a ball held within his muzzle – glowing blue as the air pressure built up, higher and higher.
Then it suddenly lit up red instead.
"It didn't do that when it was used in my gym," Morty said.
Falkner put his hands over his ears.
Silver used Aeroblast. The reddish-orange core beam swept across the ground, tearing a furrow into it, and didn't quite actually make contact with Houndoom – though the sheer force of the windstorm around the core beam drove Houndoom into the ground and then bounced him into the air, paws grasping for support.
"Mach Punch!" Ash called.
Silver folded in one wing as the Aeroblast ended, dove, and used the other wing to punch Houndoom straight back to the ground instead.
"I would have put money on most avian Flying types not being able to do that sort of thing," Falkner sighed.
"Ready for this?" Ash asked his next Pokémon. "If it's not okay, just don't come out and I'll move on to the next."
He held out the Pokéball, and after a moment's pause Larvitar emerged onto the field.
Opposite him, Harrison sent out a Steelix.
"Okay, here goes!" Ash called. "Ready?"
Larvitar looked back at him, and nodded – a little hesitantly, but with enough confidence that Ash was fairly sure he was sincere.
The referee signalled for them to begin, and Ash pointed. "Sandstorm!"
"Iron Head!" Harrison called. "Before you lose track of him!"
Sand whirled up in a cloud around Larvitar, and the Rock-type took a glancing blow – sliding backwards along the ground – before it got too thick to see him clearly.
"Iron Tail!" Harrison added. "Sweep along the floor – and if you don't hit him, then Earthquake!"
Steelix swept his tail through the space where Larvitar had been, got nothing, then lifted his top half and slammed down in an Earthquake.
Neither move produced a response from Larvitar.
"Scorching Sands!" Ash called, and Steelix roared as a jet of sand shot out from the sand-cloud and hit his flank.
"...wait," Harrison said. "That came from above. Steelix – Smack Down!"
Steelix hurled a rock into the cloud, and there was a wham as it struck something.
"Iron Tail!" Harrison added. "Blow away the sand!"
Waving his tail back and forth, Steelix created a wind that blew enough of the sand to one side that everyone could see what was actually going on.
Larvitar was hovering on a cloud of sand, at least eight feet above the floor. Even as they watched, the Smack Down rock fell from where it had hit a sand cushion to thump to the ground.
The Rock-type crossed his arms, and another Scorching Sands attack roared out at Steelix.
Huh, Latios said. What do you know.
I'm not sure if it technically counts as the move Fly, or if it's just a weird interpretation of Sand Veil, his sister admitted. But close enough, right?
"That's… strange," Clair said, some minutes later, seeing Ash's penultimate choice. "Even by the standards of what he did at my gym, that is strange. I don't think that Pokémon exists."
"Oh, yeah, that one," Misty agreed. "It doesn't. What's he sent them out against…"
Harrison sent out a Kecleon.
Misty sighed. "Okay, I wonder what Harrison's using next."
"That's a bit pessimistic, isn't it?" Lance asked. "Kecleon are quite versatile Pokémon."
"Just watch," Misty advised.
"Dracozolt!" Ash called. "Open up with Freeze Shock!"
"...ah," Lance winced, as Kecleon dove for cover and only got hit by the fringes of an extremely powerful Ice attack that crackled with residual voltage. His type visibly clicked over to Ice, and Dracozolt used Heat Crash, Sand Tomb, Ice Burn, Rock Wrecker, Earth Power and a second Freeze Shock in the space of about ten seconds. "That was unusually versatile even for Ash's Pokémon."
Misty pointed. "That's because that's actually Mew."
"…Ash caught Mew?" Lorelei asked.
"Ash caught Mew about five times," Vulpix yawned. "These days he's mostly to be found in Ash's backpack, mind you."
Harrison called back his Kecleon, replacing him with a Blaziken, and Ash switched as well – calling in Dracozolt and replacing them with Pikachu.
Pikachu's fur immediately stood on end as he drank in all the spare electricity from the two Freeze Shocks, while Harrison held up a bracelet and Mega Evolved his starter Pokémon.
"This should be great fun!" Togetic enthused. "It's always fun when Ash's strongest Pokémon gets to play!"
"It's good when the strong ones are the cute ones," Whitney declared, nodding to herself.
AN:
I'm not necessarily showing all of each battle, as should be obvious…