The next day: Red vs Lucas

"This first battle of the second round will be between Red Satoshi of Viridian City and Lucas of Twinleaf Town! Trainers, we're excited to see what spectacle will you offer!"

"Hmm.. Twinleaf Town. Same place as… Barry, and… yeah."

"Competitors", the referee said ,"this will be a three-on-three battle. The first who will render the other's Pokemon unable to battle will be declared the winner. Additionally, in this battle, you will be allowed to use one of the following: Mega Evolution, Z-Move and Dynamax."

"Understood", Lucas went. "Red, good luck."

"Good luck to you as well, Lucas."

"Trainers, send out your Pokemon! Battle start!"

"Torterra, let's go!"

"Dracovish, battle stance!"

As the two Pokemon were sent out of their Poke Balls, Red noticed Torterra. Yes, a Pokemon he owned. "I wonder what is my Torterra doing. I kind of miss him."

"Dracovish." Ash thought. "This Pokemon will use brute force. We have to be quick." he said.

"Torterra! Use Stone Edge!"

"Dodge it and charge towards Torterra!"

As the Sinnoh starter threw out a lot of hard stones at its opponent, Dracovish ran straight through it. It was fast enough to dodge the attack core, but it was still hit by some stray stones.

"Ugh… Dragon Rush!"

"Torterra, take it!"

"Huh?" Ash thought.

Dracovish leapt towards its opponent and hit it at point blank, causing a strong, draconic explosion. When the dust cleared… Torterra seemed unfazed.

"What's this?! Torterra took no damage whatsoever!" the announcer said. That was not quite true – Lucas's Torterra was extremely good at absorbing pain, to the point where it seemed like it took no damage whatsoever.

"Torterra, catch it!"

"Fishious Rend!"

Torterra was faster and managed to trap Dracovish under its shell. It was so heavy that Dracovish could barely hear Ash's orders. But the Fishious Rend command registered. Dracovish bit Torterra's belly hard. That's gotta hurt a lot…

"Hey, Torterra, are you… okay?"

"Tort."

"We have to finish it quick! Frenzy Plant!"

"Dracovish, one more Dragon Rush!"

As Torterra began to throw huge vines at its opponent, Dracovish took the same strategy, but ran straight through the vines. Its apex predator abilities from ancient times were paying off in spades, it seemed. Dragon Rush hit at point blank.

The dust settled.

"Torterra…?"

"Dracovish!"

"Torterra and Dracovish are both unable to battle!"

"Oh no…" Lucas thought. "That was my first Pokemon… why did I send it so early?"

"Good job, Dracovish. You did well."

"Thank you, Torterra." was heard, as both trainers returned their Pokemon.

"Hey Weavile, can you please bring me a beer?" Jira said, from the stands. "I kind of need to see this. And I need to have my mind cleared. If it's true that she has a Diancie…"

"Dracovish. I'll repay you."

"Bastiodon, let's go!" Lucas shouted.

"Sirfetch'd, battle stance!" Ash replied.

"A courageous decision from Red Satoshi allowed Dracovish to take out Torterra, which now seems to pay off, as the Fighting-type Sirfetch'd will look to take advantage of its superior match-up!" the announcer said.

"Bastiodon, we need brute force again." Lucas said. "Charge towards it! Iron Head!"

"Sirfetch'd, let's finish it off quickly. Meteor Assault!"

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Galar

"Ash… Ah, Dracovish and Sirfetch'd…" Goh thought. "You still have them with you." he smiled.

"Oh crap… someone's coming." as he closed the transmission quickly and started to put his phone away.

"Hey Goh, what are you looking at? I want to watch with you." Gary suddenly spoke, entering his room.

"Ah, no… nothing much…", Goh said with thoughts racing in his mind, "just a short video about catching legendaries. I wanted to get some motivation about Celebi."

"Goh, you jerk, I don't think that's what I heard", Gary spoke. "But I digress. Goh, tomorrow it looks like we're going to get a two-week break."

"Seriously?" Goh gleed. "That's awesome! I'm so tired by now. Someone looking from outside would say this whole project would be military training or something."

"Yes. Professor Amaranth gave us a break, finally. I miss Pallet Town."

"I kind of want to get home, as well." Goh said. But that's not what he really was thinking.

"Ash," he thought, "I'm sure you will beat this guy. I'll be there for you in the quarter-finals."

Back to the battle

As the dust settled, both Bastiodon and Sirfetch'd seemed to take a lot of damage. And their huffing and puffing was heard throughout the whole stadium. But both of them signaled they could still go on.

"Bastiodon, Flash Cannon!"

"Detect!"

Sirfetch'd proved to be much faster and immediately dodged the powerful steel-like wave. It was in prime position to take advantage of the opponent's very low speed.

"One more Meteor Assault!"

The duck immediately listened and charged towards Bastiodon, hitting it at point blank.

"Bastiodon is unable to battle! Sirfetch'd wins!"

"Return, Bastiodon. Thank you."

"Sirfetch'd, return as well." Red said. This surprised Jira, knowing that Ash wasn't really the type of trainer to switch Pokemon around.

"It looks like competitor Lucas has only one Pokemon left. And competitor Red is trying to take advantage of this to finish it off quickly, as he switches Pokemon around."

"Mamoswine, let's go!" Lucas shouted.

"Lucario, battle stance!" Red said.

"Oh god… a Mamoswine. Another Pokemon that keeps bringing back those memories. No matter what I do… or maybe, just maybe... I can still clear them… no…"

"Mamoswine! Ancient Power!" Lucas quickly said.

"Lucario, take it." Red said, as he was preparing his Key Stone.

As Lucario took some rocks to the face, he didn't seem fazed too much.

"The bond between us… Mega Evolve!"

"So this is what a Mega Evolution is…" Lucas thought.

"Red," Lucas said, "I'm curious about the power of your Lucario. We don't really have Mega Evolutions in Sinnoh. Show me what you've got!"

"Sure, Lucas!" Red said. "Lucario, Aura Sphere!"

"Ice Shard!"

"Wait, what? Ancient Power and Ice Shard? Just like…"

The jackal and the mammoth charged their attacks at each other and formed a powerful explosion.

"We're just getting started, Red. Ice Fang!"

"Ice Fang too? No way… is this…?"

"Lucario, charge towards it! Bullet Punch!"

As Lucario and Mamoswine met at the center, Lucario managed to grab the powerful, frozen tusks of Mamoswine, as it tried to use Ice Fang. Lucario quickly took away his left arm and started punching hard. But its right arm was starting to freeze. This was not good.

But it wasn't good for Mamoswine either. The mammoth looked damaged, and was starting to get a little tired.

"Let's try this as well, Red." Lucas shouted. "Mamoswine, use Stone Edge!"

"Whew. Stone Edge. This Mamoswine is not... hers."

Mamoswine took a page from Torterra's book and charged up heavy stones towards Lucario. But Red noticed that Lucas's battle style in general was relying on strong grounded Pokemon. Just like Bastiodon and Torterra, Mamoswine was a bulky Pokemon, reliant on sheer force.

"Lucario, Bullet Punch through the stones!"

Lucario did not use much effort this time around, and charged up towards Mamoswine again, this time with both of its arms punching the mammoth. It felt like Mamoswine was on the brinks of defeat, when Lucas suddenly revealed something.

"Hey… a, Z-Ring? Am I seeing clearly?" Red said.

"That's right. Mamoswine, it's come down to this. Let's defeat Lucario!" Lucas shouted.

"Lucario, get ready. Charge up your Aura!"

"We're gonna bet it all on this, Mamoswine."

As Lucario was charging up its aura, a huge ice platform was building up on the other side. Lucario knew that it would have to use a lot of its life force. So it instinctively built a big sphere of aura, in order to meet what was known as…

"Subzero Slammer!" Lucas shouted.

"Kyodai Aura Sphere!" Red responded.

"Incredible! What power from the two battle-ready Pokemon! This must be the power of a Mega Evolution against the power of a Z-move! Who will stand out in the end?!" the announcer shouted in a very excited manner.

And the dust cleared. Both Pokemon collapsed. Mamoswine, with its last effort, tried to stand up, knowing he has one more Pokemon left for Lucas to advance to the quarter-finals.

"Lucario is unable to battle! Mamoswine wins!" the referee said.

"Oh no…" Ash thought.

"Mamoswine! Are you okay?" Lucas shouted.

But it was just a fluke.

"Mam… mam—ooo…" as the poor mammoth collapsed.

"Mamoswine is unable to battle! Competitor Lucas has no Pokemon left! Therefore, the winner is Red Satoshi of Viridian City!"

"Oh no… Mamoswine… thank, thank you." Lucas said.

"Thank you, Lucario. We've dodged another bullet." Ash thought.

"Lucas, you were great out there. Good game." Red said to Lucas, as he shook his hand. "That Mamoswine of yours", he spoke before thinking, "reminded me of someone else's."

"You mean Dawn?" Lucas went.

"Uhhh, no, no… It was…" Red thought as he was struggling to say something, "I think it was… wait… oh yeah, Pryce, Pryce! Pryce from the Johto region."

"He said one of those names… from my past… it's clear he knows Dawn after all, since they are both from Twinleaf, but… just him mentioning her was…"

"Good luck in the next round, Red." Lucas said, and the two parted ways. Ash however, looked extremely shaky and his body was twitching.

But he thankfully won the battle, and advanced to the quarter-final round.

Later: Paul vs Nando

Ash went down to his room, where Pikachu was waiting. The electric mouse shared a high five with Ash as the two were ready to watch Paul's battle against Nando.

"You know, Pikachu," Ash thought, "I might have judged Nando too harshly. It's not his fault that coordinators are treated as fucking celebrities by the media these days."

"But I would rather have Paul win. Not only because of this, but also because Paul is the opponent I want to reveal myself against."

"Electivire, battle standby!"

"Altaria," Nando said, as he played the harp, "please help me."

"Electivire, that's gotta be an easy opponent for you. That Altaria is trained for contests."

"Altaria! Use Fly!"

"Electivire! Thunder!"

As Altaria flew up high, Nando thought they were safe. But Electivire had other ideas, as a sudden cloud formed above the battlefield and struck Altaria at point blank.

"Ahh... Altaria? Are you okay?"

"Alt..."

"Then let's try this…" Nando smirked.

"Is he going to…?"

"Fluffy clouds galore! Mega Evolve!"

"Hmm…" Ash thought, as Mega Altaria suddenly appeared. Nando's idea about Mega Evolution came from a well-known coordinator from the Hoenn region, Lisia.

"Altaria, charge at Electivire! Use Dragon Rush!"

"Electivire, catch it!"

Although Altaria gave its all, and managed to hurt Electivire quite a bit, the electric-type caught the wings with its antennae, before Paul gave the last command.

"Ice Punch!"

"Hell yeah." Ash smirked.

"Altaria is unable to battle! Electivire wins!"

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Johto region

"We had to run from that Donphan… thank goodness we're safe."

"Mt. Silver is just… too heavy for us. I have no idea how we climbed that mountain."

"I'm so sad he is not there either."

"Ash… Ashy… where are you?"

"I miss you…"

"We all do…"

Back to Paul vs Nando

"Kricketune is unable to battle! Electivire wins!" the referee said.

"One more…"

"You're my last hope." Nando looked at his Pokeball and played the harp one more time. "Roserade, let's go!"

"Use Leaf Storm!" he immediately shouted.

"Protect!"

Roserade's powerful grass-type attack did not affect Electivire thanks to its quick reaction speed. But Nando wasn't going to let it go.

"Roserade! Charge towards Electivire!"

"Catch it, Electivire!"

"Poison Jab!"

This time Paul's tactic failed. Electivire was hit at point blank and took some serious damage. And what's more…

"Electivire? Are… are you okay?"

Electivire was struggling already. It was poisoned.

"Electivire", Paul smiled, "let's finish this, shall we?" as he revealed… a Dynamax band.

"He learned Dynamax. That's cool." Ash thought.

"Answer my call! Dynamax Electivire!"

As Roserade was facing down the gigantic electric-type Pokemon, Nando realized at this point that he is done for. But he did want to go out in style.

"Roserade! Leaf Storm and target its head!"

"Electivire. Max Hailstorm!"

This caused one more huge explosion, as everyone was familiar with at that point. When the dust settled…

"Roserade and Electivire are unable to battle. Competitor Nando has no Pokemon left! Therefore, the winner is Paul of Veilstone City!"

"Yeah." Ash smirked.

"You were good out there." Paul smirked.

"You too."

"But… please go back to your coordinator career." Paul said. "That suits you better."

Later: Jira vs Tara

"Do your best out there, Jira." Leon said.

"Yeah. I'm sure Ash will cheer for you."

"He already does, Hop. Haven't you seen him in the first round?"

"Well yeah, but he was Red Satoshi there."

"He still has to play it dumb for now." Jira said.