A/N

Dark Serpent Cat

When Ash was doing his research into Dark Types, he was unaware of any regions outside of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh. That said, you are right, however, I was counting all unique evolutions as one in their native regions and X&Y hadn't been released when I started this story.

XXXXXXX

Alright, the announcer said. "With the second round over with, we will immediately proceed on to the third, with Ash Ketchum being up first against Fred Forsythe. Hopefully he can make this match as exciting as his last ones." The crowd roared with cheers, giving voice to their excitement and eager anticipation for another spectacular battle. The announcer waited for the crowd to calm down before he said, "Given Fred's strategy when going up against his cousins Golduck, I'm sure that he won't disappoint in this round either." There was lots of clapping for Fred, but that was as far as it went. When the crowd was quiet once again, he continued on to say, "I don't think that this needs saying, but I won't be accepting withdrawals this round either."

Ash, getting to the field as the announcer finished informing them of what they couldn't do, he said, "I wouldn't disrespect my Pokémon by quitting while they still have the will to go on."

"Nor would I," Fred said.

"Very well then. Ash, since you are younger, you can go first."

"Alright," Ash shrugged. "In that case, I'm sticking with Lucario," letting Lucario step forward.

Fred smirked as he thought, 'I thought so. He's only just started, so Lucario only evolved due to that Friend Ball that he used to catch it. It also means that it's on a low level, even if it is probably his strongest Pokémon. That old guy he beat underestimated it and paid the price for his arrogance. That said, he did have a point in that it does have a weakness o fire types…and none of its fighting type moves will affect a ghost type either.' He said, "I choose you, Chandelure!"

"HEY!" Ash yelled before turning to the announcer and saying, "Can't you use only one Pokémon in this thing?"

The announcer said, "There was no rule implemented that restricts the trainer to using only one Pokémon."

Ash grunted and said, "Fine then," turning back to the field to scan Chandelure with his pokédex. It read, 'Error. This pokémon is unregistered in this pokédex.' Ash thought, 'Damn! It must be from a region outside of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh! Well, it certainly looks as if it is a fire type…with that purple, it could have ghost type attributes too. If that's the case, it's like the ultimate counter to Lucario.' With that, he grinned.

Ash's grin annoyed Fred to no end, who demanded, "What the heck's so damn funny? Chandelure is a fire and ghost type! That makes it super effective against Lucario!" Ash started to laugh. "Why are you laughing?"

In the audience, Jessie thought, 'Yeah. That's a pretty good question.'

Ash said, "Thank you for that."

"'Thank you'!?" Fred exclaimed. "Why are you thanking me?"

"Because, the Kanto region Pokédex doesn't register any pokémon outside of the surrounding regions. You just told me that, in regards to Chandelure, type is meaningless against Lucario."

Fred scoffed, "We'll see about that punk!"

"You know…you saying that is just going to make this a whole lot sweeter."

"Makes what sweeter?" Fred demanded, getting well and truly sick and tired of Ash's attitude.

"Why, m y victory of course," Ash said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The announcer said, "Trash talking is great and all, but get a move on already."

"Right!" Ash eeped. Then, in a confident tone, Ash said, "Lucario, use Foresight!"

As Ash told Lucario which move to use, Adelia grinned and said, "I thought so."

"You knew that he'd use foresight?" Celia asked, her sister not usually into analysing and trying to predict what her opponents might do. "How did you know that?"

"It's simple really. Claims like the one that he made are typically only made by elite trainers whose skill is unquestioned. As there is no way that that's the case with young Ash down there, it meant that it knew a move that rendered the type difference moot. There are few abilities and moves that allow a trainer to attack a pokémon with immunity to them and even fewer pokémon that can learn them. Foresight is the only move of that type that Riolu and Lucario can learn."

"Well what do you know. Wait. Why do you know that?"

"Well, before I got Hitmonchan, I did some serious research into fighting types and what they can do. Delving into Riolu and Lucario's abilities was a must."

"I see."

Down on the field, Fred grinned at Ash and said, "So, it can use its fighting and normal type moves now. It's not going to matter in the end."

"Oh? How so?"

"I'll show you," Fred said. "Chandelure, use Will-O-Wisp!" As soon as the order was given, Chandelure was surrounded by balls of purple flame that started to spin around Chandelure. When it deemed there to be enough, Chandelure sent five of the flaming balls at Lucario, who was eying them warily as she waited for an order from her trainer. Chandelure left the others spinning around it, acting as a defensive wall.

As the fireballs shot at Lucario, Ash thought, 'I don't like the way that those balls are moving in multiple directions around it like that. It's almost like it can…hmm…better test it.' He said, "Okay Lucario, I need you to run around the battlefield." Lucario glanced back at her trainer to double-check that she had heard right. When she saw the look on Ash's face she figured that he had something planned, so did as ordered and started running around the battlefield, the wisps chasing after her, causing her to side step occasionally when one got too close.

Fred, seeing Lucario running around, dodging his Chandelure's attack, said, "Okay, that's great 'n' all, that Lucario can dance around like that, but how about you call out an attack now, hey?"

"Oh, I will," Ash said, "…eventually."

In the stands, celia said to herself, "What's he thinking? Goading Fred like that?"

Adelia said, "He's trying to see just how good Chandelure's control over all of those wisps is."

"How good its…I don't see why that matters."

Adelia sighed and said, "That's the Coordinator in you talking. If Lucario is to take Chandelure out, its either going to need to get those wisps out of the way, or it'll need to get burnt to do it."

"Maybe so, but with Foresight active, Lucario can use all of its moves, so…"

"Maybe so, but you said it yourself, Ash is clearly a trainer that thinks like a coordinator, and Chandelure can learn a lot of moves that double in power when certain conditions are met."

"Hm," Celia said, shaking her head, considering her sister's points. After a couple of seconds, she shrugged and said, "Fair enough."

As the sisters' conversation unfolded, Chandelure had sent more of its wisps in to chase Lucario down. When he saw them break away from Chandelure, as the ones already after her continued to chase Lucario, Ash thought, 'So, it does have the ability to finely control them.' He called out, "Alright Lucario, run to the far right side of the field."

Fred thought, 'To the…well, in that case…' He said, "Chandelure, you heard him." Chandelure bobbed in acknowledgement and sent more flaming balls to where Lucario was headed, timing it so that they would reach the spot at the same time as Lucario.

Before Lucario reached the spot that Chandelure had send its wisps to, Ash called out, "Lucario, use Feint to get above Chandelure!"

Fred exclaimed, "What!?" his eyes widening as he saw Lucario appear above Chandelure.

Ash said, "Now, use Blaze Kick, back to back!" Lucario flipped in mid-air, heel-kicking Chandelure towards the ground with hits blazing foot. Chandelure recovered halfway to the ground, but when Lucario landed its second flaming kick, Chandelure hit the ground, losing its focus momentarily, causing all of the wisps to pop out of existence.

Fred exclaimed, "What in the…!?" dumbfounded at what just happened, despite seeing almost the exact same thing happen in Lucario's previous battle. "Wait…did you just…" as he thought, 'All that running around before must have been just to bait me into reducing the number of wisps that Chandelure had defending itself.' He said, "Well, I'm not above giving credit where it's due. You did well in getting me to lower Chandelure's defences. But don't think that a fire type move form a non-fire type will have an effect on Chandelure."

"Oh, you seem to be misunderstanding something," Ash said.,

"A…what do you mean?"

"The Kanto Region's Pokédex doesn't have any data on Pokémon outside of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn And Sinnoh. Chandelure seemed to be a fire type, so I was wondering if it had something like Flash Fire or Flame Body as its ability. But, since it got hit with two Blaze Kicks and nothing happened, it's pretty safe to say that it doesn't."

Fred thought, 'He's testing Chandelure out? Is he serious?' He said, "You know that we are supposed to be focusing on beating each other, right?"

"Yeah. But if I come up against another Chandelure later, I want to know what it can do."

Fred sighed and said, "Fine. To save you the trouble, Chandelure generally do have access to both of the abilities that you mentioned, but, occasionally, a Pokémon can have an ability beyond the norm. in Chandelure's case, it's Infiltrator. Can we get on with the battle now?"

"Sure," Ash shrugged, both Lucario and Chandelure now back in their starting positions.

"Now," Fred said, "Chandelure, use Will-O-Wisp again. This time forget about defence and swamp the battlefield!"

Chandelure let out a high-pitched, "Chaaaaaannnnnnn!" and spun around, shooting wisps in every direction and didn't stop until there were about forty spread all over the battlefield.

Ash looked at the placement, and number, of the wisps and thought, 'Oh, that's just great! With that many wisps out he wants to ensure that Lucario gets hit!' Ash said, "Lucario, generate a bone." Lucario clutched her hands together and spread them apart, generating a blue energy bone between them and held it out in front of itself. As Lucario stood there with the bone in its hands, Fred thought, 'What the heck's going through this kid's mind? Bone rush may be able to affect my Chandelure thanks to Foresight, but Foresight can be particularly unreliable when the Pokémon doesn't have that much experience with it.' He sighed and said, "I don't know what you're thinking kid, but it won't help you get out of this situation."

'You may not' Jessie thought in the audience. 'But I do, and if it works, and there is a very good chance that it won't, then you are going to be on the back foot for the rest of this match.'

On the deck above, Celia said, "Oh, that is a novel idea."

Adelia looked at her sister and said, "You don't think that he'd going to try to…" Celia nodded. "He's got guts then. Not too sure about brains though. Even I wouldn't try that with Medicham."

"Oh yeah. You were training it to use its Baton Pass in other ways, weren't you?" How did that go?"

"It's actually going pretty well. It can use it to effectively defend against Hitmonlee now. That said, the technique is only good for defence, and even then, only when its other effects are unable to be executed."

"I see. So you are saying that its far from battle ready for now then?"

"Pretty much. Maybe you could give me a hand if you want to travel together agai…!" Adelia stopped talking as her eyes shot wide open, amazed at just how well Lucario was using its bone to defend against the wisps, moving as it spun the bone in itsd hands, turning the fast paced battle into a kind of dance, Ash calling out directions when it was being targeted from behind, or in another blindspot.

Fred couldn't believe what was happening. Nor could just about anybody else viewing the battle. Then, just as he was about to fall to his knees, he saw what should have happened ages ago. The bone shattered in Lucario's hands. He started to laugh as the wisps closed in on Lucario, about to contact it and inflict a burn. But Ash dashed his hoped when he said, "Lucario. Detect." Lucario's eyes glowed green as it sensed where each and every wisp was and started sidestepping, flipping and spinning around the field, avoiding each and every wisp as they came after her. As she spun around a wisp, Ash saw the green glow in her eyes start to fade and said, "Alright, the next time that you flip over a wisp, generate another bone." Lucario didn't bother acknowledging the command, too busy trying to keep detect active so that it could predict where the wisps would be.

Lucario cartwheeled and backstepped around two more wisps before she had to flip over one coming towards her and did as she had been ordered, generating a bone, slamming it into the wisp that passed under her as she came out of the spin. She then moved quickly through them all, no longer on the defensive, having memorised where they all were destroying the wisps with her bone. When the last one was gone, Fred collapsed backwards, losing all of the strength in his lower body, blinking in stunned disbelief at what he had just seen. Ash wasn't going to let the chance go, now that all of the wisps were gone from the field. He said, "Lucario, Feint into Force Palm." Lucario disappeared from sight and reappeared in front of Chandelure, spinnign on its left foot before slamming its paw into Chandelure's main body, inflicting the damage from Feint, but, before it could move away, activated Force Palm, a large beam of energy slamming into it from very close range, knocking it from the field, and out, at the same time.

The announcer said, "That was…I don't even have the words!" Neither did the audience, who, after the announcer finished speaking, let out an unintelligible cheer fro a battle the likes of which they'd not seen before.

They all shut up when Lucario fell to the ground backwards, propping herself up with her arms, smiling tiredly. Ash walked up to it and said, "Yeah, I'd be pretty tired too after doing all that," with a smile as he reached a hand down to help Lucario up. Lucario smiled as she accepted Ash's hand and placed her arm over his shoulders as he helped her to Nurse Joy, hearing, but also not hearing, the cheers of the crowd.

Once the crowd had settled down, the announcer said, "Well, after a battle like that one, I'm not sure that the next one can do anything other than disappoint, but it's going to be Avery Leverton vs Jane Smith. Apparently she's the wife of Ash's opponent in the last round." After he was done, he covered his microphone and quietly said to the captain, "Though I doubt it."

The captain mimicked the announcer's actions and said, "Maybe so Virge, but he is widely recognised as the youngest linguistic anthropologist to graduate with honours, so he may be able to do just as well as young Ketchum did. After all, his first matches were complete mismatches. Gallade versus Charizard though, that is a whole other battle."

The announcer said, "I sure hope so, because a lacklustre battle after one like the one that we just had could cause a very adverse action in the crowd."

This prompted the captain to look up at the crowd and said, "I see your point," noting that every person in the audience was chatting together, completely ignoring the battlefield.

Avery leapt over the railing of the first deck to the battlefield, shocking most of the audience with his apparent eagerness to battle. Given what he'd done thus far, they were almost all questioning exactly why, his Gallade having shown that it was a close-ranged specialist while Jane's Charizard was a ranged specialist with some close combat abilities.

When Jane got there, she said, "I applaud your guts, facing me with Gallade," which Avery had just released.

"Gee, thanks," Avery sarcastically said., "But I think that that can wait until after we are done with this battle."

Jane smiled and said, "Very well," slowly nodding once. "But know this. You will need more than guts to defeat my Charizard," as she released it.

"Good to know. Gallade, use Fury Cutter!" With the order given, Gallade's arms were surrounded by a glowing red energy and ran at Charizard."

Jane simply said, "Charizard, fly up."

As Charizard flew up, Avery thought, 'Damn! I'd hoped to save this move to use against that brat's Lucario,' completely overlooking the fact that he was only a few years older than Ash himself.

Up in the stands, Jessie thought out loud, "Why would he use Fury Cutter against Charizard?"

Ash, not realising that Jessie wasn't actually asking him anything, said, "Sleep Talk is out, Leaf Blade has the same problem as Fury Cutter and the drop in attack from Close Combat this early in the match…" Ash said, trailing off, leaving Jessie to come up with her own theory. Not due to some intrinsic altruism, but to check if he was right.

Jessie sighed and said, "It was rhetorical Ash."

"Re…"

"It means that you didn't need to answer it."

Ash shrugged and said, "Well, if you say so."

Down on the field, Jane said, "Charizard, use Dragon Pulse." Charizard moved its hands so that they were about a foot apart and a green orb coalesced between them. When it was done it thrust its hands forward, shooting the orb of draconic energy at Gallade.

Avery bit his lip and said, "Gallade, use Leave Blade!" A bright green energy blade appeared off of Gallade's right arm and it brought it up from its hip and actually managed to split the orb in two and let both halves soar past his head on either side before they crashed into the wall behind Avery.

Jane let a strange smile come on to her face as she raised her right eyebrow, thinking, 'He's trained that Gallade better than I'd thought if Leaf Blade could cut through Charizard's Dragon Pulse as easily as that.' She said, "Well done Avery. My Charizard's Dragon Pulse is by far the strongest of all of the Charizard we have at our ranch. To cut it in half like Gallade did means that you have trained it well."

"Thanks," Avery said. "But I'm not in this for the praise."

Jane raised an eyebrow and thought, 'Then what are you in this for? To train Gallade as well as he has means that he has some goal driving him.' She glanced up at Ash and thought, 'Young Ketchum's goal is obviously masterdom, though of what exactly seems to be up in the air right now. His companion's though, isn't. she's clearly aiming for the Grand Festival. Maybe if I get up close I'll find out.' She called out, "Charizard, us…"

But she was cut off by Avery calling out, "Gallade, use Psycho Blade!"

'Psycho Blade? Not Cut? What is…' then her eyes widened as she saw a blade of green energy form on Gallade's arm before, not a second later, it was coated in a pale pink-purple energy. She thought, 'It's layered a Psycho Cut over Leaf Blade.' But what it did next caught her off guard. Gallade swung its arm in the direction of her Charizard and a spinning crescent of energy flew at Charizard. But, due to her long experience in battle, her shock passed almost as soon as it appeared and she said, "Charizard, use Dragon Claw!" Charizard's right hand glowed with the same green energy that it had used in the earlier Dragon Pulse and extended about a foot from the tips of its fingers. It brought the energy claw down onto the spinning blade, but it cut through the Dragon Claw with ease.

Jane thought, 'Okay, don't try that again. Hmm…that move was executed in three stages. The coating of Psycho Cut around Leaf Blade took the longest to complete. That means that to counter it, I need to attack within that time. Fighting from a distance against close combat types is a basic strategy, but that didn't work for John when he went up against young Ketchum, and it seems that Avery here will be much the same. The only difference being that Avery's Gallade has some distance attacks as well. Some pretty strong ones too by the look of it.' Jane sighed and said, "Well well well. You are a most interesting trainer Avery. It would seem as if normal battle tactics shall be as useless against you as they were against young Ketchum. Up there," nodding towards Ash.

"Normal…what are you…"

Jane smirked and her eyes turned a matte orange as her pupils became slitted. She said, "Charizard, Close Combat!"

"What?!" Avery exclaimed. "But Charizard can't learn Close Combat!"

Jane just smirked as her Charizard got closer and closer to Gallade. When it was close enough, it used Dragon Claw and Dragon Tail and slashed at Gallade with its right claw in an uppercut. As Gallade was lifted into the air, Charizard spun around and slammed its tail into it, sending it tumbling backwards.

Due to Gallade being halfway across the field when Charizard hit it, there was enouigh room for Gallade to recover, spring up from its tumble and come to a stop after slidingbackwards for a couple of metteres, stopping just inside the field. Avery grunted as he thought, 'That's not Close Combat! It's more like Dragonic Combat!' Even as he did, he saw Charizard flying at Gallade, its hands and tail still clad in green energy. When it was almost on Gallade, Avery said, "Use Shadow Sneak!" as he thought, 'That Hitmonchan earlier was disqualified for going out of bounds. This should do much the same.'

Jane said, "Hn. A copied strategy like that won't work against me." As she did, Charizard spread its wings wide, stopping itself mid-flight.

Avery smirked as he said, "I wouldn't count on it," as Gallade reappeared behind it, swinging a glowing green blade at Charizard's back.

Jane said, "Charizard, your tail!" and Charizard moved its tail to intercept Gallade's attack. As Gallade pushed harder, Charizard spun around, knocking Gallade off balance and used the chance to bring its right claw into its head, knocking it staggering to the side. It didn't do too much damage though, as Gallade had managed to get an arm up between the attack and its head that was glowing red and braced with its other arm, which was also glowing red. Jane said, "See?" with a grin.

Avery growled in angger and said, "Gallade, use Close Combat!"

Jane thought, 'Oh? ' raising an eyebrow. She mentally communicated, 'Charizard, see what it can do,' to Charizard. Charizard let out a roar as it spread its arms wide and its tail flame turned blue. It then shot forward at Gallade, almost twice as fast as it had been. The members of the audience could only descreibe what happened after they met in the middle as brutal. In the end though, the attack boost that Gallade received from using Close Combat made the difference, collapsing just after Charizard did.

When Gallade collapsed, just after Avery was declared the victor, the announcer said, "Right. The both of you, get your Pokémon to the Pokécentre immediately!"

"Yes sir!" Avery said, not liking how angry the announcer seemed to be.

As Jane and Avery left the top deck, the announcer thought, 'Great. Now we're going to have to postpone the next rounds until tomorrow.'

The captain, seeing the announcer's glowering eyes, sighed and said, "You know we have to, right?"

The announcer sighed and said, "Yes. But that puts the other events off and for the ones that got on in the Orange Islands…"

"You know as well as I do that even if we wanted to, the Nurse Joys on this ship wouldn't allow it."

The announcer sighed and said, "This is true."

"You might as well make the announcement now."

"I suppose," the announcer said and grabbed his microphone. He said, "Okay all. Fiven what just occurred, we have decided that the subsequent rounds will take place tomorrow, so if Ash Ketchum wants to give Lucario over to Nurse Joy, then you are more than welcome to take it down. The same goes for the victors of the remaining matches too."

Hearing that, Ash let out a sigh of relief, not wanting to continue battling without giving Lucario a proper rest after what it had already been through that day. Hearing her friend sigh, Jessie said, "So, relieved, huh?"

"Yeah. I don't think that Lucario could handle another battle like the ones that its been through today."

"Yeah. Fair enough. Say, do you want to train Deino a bit and use him tomorrow?"

"No. It's not strong enough to face off against those that have made it this far."

"Fair enough."

"Besides, I would have thought that you would want to talk to that Jane person that was battling just now."

"Ye-eahh well…can you blame me?" Jessie said, smiling sheepishly.

"No," Ash said, focusing back on the field now that Natalie Gineuva and Celia Adler were facing each other in opposing trainer boxes.