"Ninjask, use Agility, now!"
Ninjask began zooming around the stadium at once, after-images appearing in its wake as it went. It streaked through the gap between Houndoom and Quilava, causing both Pokemon to shoot their gazes to the side in an attempt to keep visual contact.
Nate snickered at this. "Looks like they took the bait."
Ninjask continued to the rear of the arena, behind even Trey and Lily, swerving sharply upward right before it collided with the wall. Houndoom and Quilava were still watching it in shock, their backs turned to Regice.
Trey noticed this before too long, and called out frantically to his Pokemon. "Wait, Houndoom, look out!"
"Regice, use Ice Beam now!" Nate ordered, pointing across the field to Houndoom.
"Reeeg-iiiiice." Regice remarked, raising both of its stubby arms and pointing them toward Houndoom. Once in position, two bright blue beams of energy shot forth from them, streaking across the field and hitting Houndoom head-on before it even noticed the attack.
"Houndoom!" Trey cried out, watching as it was slowly frozen solid in a block of ice.
"Uh oh." Lily muttered to herself, gesturing at her Quilava frantically. "Quick, Quilava, use Lava Plume on Regice!"
"Quil!" Quilava chimed, charging over to Regice's immediate area. "Quii-lava!" It took a moment to ready itself, causing the flames on its head and tail to shoot up, and then seemingly combusted in a flash of fire and smoke.
"Grr - Regice!" Nate cried worriedly.
A moment later, Regice stumbled out of the smoke, damaged by the attack, but not severely. "Reg-iiiice." Regice growled, its voice considerably deeper than before. Quilava quickly jumped away as well as the smoke began to clear.
"Now use Flame Wheel!"
"Quiilava!" Quilava cried, leaping forward and curling into a ball in mid-air as flames erupted all around it, encasing it in a sphere of flame as it rolled toward Regice.
"Dodge it, Regice!" Nate commanded.
Regice clumsily jumped to the side as Quilava rolled past, but Quilava quickly changed its course and turned around, heading for Regice again.
"Argh - use Ice Beam!"
"Reeegice." Regice growled, shooting out another pair of light blue streaks at Quilava, but the Flame Wheel attacked simply spun right into the middle of them, deflecting the attack easily. Quilava rolled up and slammed into Regice hard, knocking it back.
"Ninjask, help him out!" Will called. "Use Slash on Quilava, now!"
"Just what I was waiting for." Lily mumbled to herself, smiling. "Quilava, go and hide behind Houndoom!"
Quilava obliged, quickly running over behind the frozen Houndoom as Ninjask closed in, baring its claws.
"N-no, wait! Stop!" Will ordered, but too late. Ninjask had already sliced at Quilava, hitting the frozen Houndoom block instead. The chunks of ice crashed into the floor as the Dark Pokemon freed itself from the remaining ice easily.
"All right." Trey praised, nodding to his girlfriend beside him in thanks. "Now, Houndoom! Hit Ninjask with Flamethrower!"
"Hoooooun!" Houndoom bellowed, spinning to face Ninjask, who wasn't too far away yet, behind it. A stream of flame erupted from Houndoom's mouth, missing the speedy Ninja Pokemon by less than a hair as it looped back to the other side of the field.
"Houndoom, quick, begin charging!" Trey called, causing Houndoom to back down slightly. It bowed its head as particles of light began gathering in the space between its horns.
"Regice, do it now! Hit them both with Blizzard!" Nate ordered, hoping to catch the two off guard.
"Reeg-iiiice." Regice roared, performing a similar gesture to that of Ice Beam, but summoning a howling mixture of ice and wind to blast them instead.
"Not this time!" Lily shot back. "Quilava, use Protect, now!"
"Quii-lava!" Quilava chirped, leaping in front of Houndoom and deflecting the Blizzard attack with an invisible sphere of energy around it.
"Now, Houndoom! Hit Ninjask with your Solarbeam!" Trey boomed.
"Hoooun-doooom!" Houndoom bellowed, leaping over Quilava as the Protect sphere faded. A massive blast of light shot forth from between its horns, catching Ninjask off guard as it slammed into the Ninja Pokemon. It went flying back across the stadium and collided with the far wall.
"Ninjask! No!" Will cried helplessly. Ninjask slowly got up from the ground and began hovering again, muttering softly to itself.
Nate, who had been glaring at Will for his failure just now, suddenly glanced to his Regice, noticing that Trey and Lily's guard had been dropped by their success just now. "Regice, attack! Use Blizzard now!"
Regice took aim quickly and fired off another Blizzard attack at both Quilava and Houndoom, who were seemingly taken by surprise.
"Dodge it, Quilava, quick!" Lily cried hastily, knowing that Protect more than likely wouldn't work twice in a row.
Trey, however, had other plans in mind. "I don't think so! Houndoom, Faint Attack, go!"
"Houn-doom!" Houndoom growled in agreement, staring down the Blizzard attack rushing toward him. Just before it hit, he vanished on the spot, right as Quilava leaped out of the way.
"Grrr..." Nate growled, glancing around the stadium for it.
Suddenly, it reappeared, directly behind the now-defenseless Regice. "Hooun!" It struck out with its horns, goring Regice in the back and sending it toppling to the ground.
"Ninjask, go! Use Slash on Houndoom!" Will ordered desperately.
"Ninjaaaask!" Ninjask screeched, charging toward Houndoom with claws bared.
"Jump backward and dodge it!" Trey called quickly.
Houndoom did as it was told, jumping backward as Ninjask soared past it before swiftly looping around again near Regice, staring down its opponent. However, what Nate and Will failed to notice was that Quilava and Houndoom were now on opposite sides of the arena, with Regice and Ninjask wedged in-between them.
Trey and Lily glanced at each other briefly before smiling and nodding as they turned back to their Pokemon.
"Houndoom!" Trey called.
"Quilava!" Lily echoed.
"Finish this with Double Overheat!" They cried in unison.
"Huh - !" Nate grunted, quickly glancing behind him and noticing Houndoom and Quilava's positioning, albeit far too late.
"What - !" Will grunted in a similar tone, looking at the two opposing Pokemon as well as they quickly charged up their attacks.
"Hooooun-dooooooom!" Houndoom bellowed, blasting a ridiculous amount of fire from its mouth at Ninjask and Regice.
"Quiii-lavaaaa!" Quilava roared, the flames on its body erupting as it fired a similarly-sized stream of fire at the two enemy Pokemon.
"No!" Nate remarked angrily, watching as Regice and Ninjask were engulfed in the all-consuming wave of fire from Quilava and Houndoom.
When the flames cleared, both Pokemon lay on the ground in a heap, both of them unconscious and heavily injured.
"And that, Will, is game." Trey said, shrugging his shoulders as Houndoom walked back across the field to its trainer.
"You do know where you're going, right?" Max inquired as himself, Ash, May, and Brandon raced down the long corridor supposedly leading to the control room.
"Of course I do! It's my facility, after all!" Brandon assured him roughly.
"Pika pi..." Pikachu muttered softly.
They were all running down the tight metal corridor with Brandon leading in front. Ash was directly behind him, with Pikachu perched on his shoulder as usual, with May and Max behind him, in that order.
"It shouldn't be much farther!" Brandon told them confidently. "I hope your friends can hold those two lunatics off until then!"
"Trey and Lily? I wouldn't worry too much about them." Ash told him, chuckling.
"Well, they did put up quite the fight against me, but still - one of those men made copies of my Regis with his Ditto!"
"Yeah, we've run into that guy once before, at the Battle Palace." May explained.
"You what?" Brandon exclaimed in confusion, turning to face her as he continued running.
He was swiftly cut off, however, by the lights in the hallway shutting off and large metal dividers springing up from the floor simultaneously, leaving Brandon in a space by himself at the front, Ash and May together in a space, and Max in his own space in the back.
"What the - ? What's going on here?" Brandon roared incredulously. "Who put us in lock-down?"
"May? What's happening?" Max whimpered from behind them.
They could all still hear other, but only barely, and the voices were muffled at that. "Brandon, what's going on?" Ash asked.
"Apparently, someone at the control room put the whole Pyramid in lock-down!" Brandon explained angrily. "Every hallway in the building is shut up just like this one, and only the arena lights still have power!"
"What?" May replied in disbelief. "But why would someone do that?"
"Someone in the control room must be a traitor!" Brandon deduced, anger still in his voice.
Suddenly, the lights flickered back to life, and the hallway dividers slid back into the floor.
"Huh...?" Max mumbled, quickly making his way to May's side.
Brandon glanced around for a second before speaking again. "I don't know why this's happening, but I'm gonna go find out!"
Ash nodded to him, but May turned back to face Max. "Hey, Max, maybe it wasn't the best idea for you to come with us..."
"Yeah..." Max agreed slowly.
"Maybe you should go back to the arena..." She offered, not wanting her brother to get involved in whatever was going on in the control room.
"Yeah...I guess you're right." Max agreed, taking a moment with May for them to say goodbye to each other before waving to Ash and Brandon and heading back towards the light, where they knew Brock's Marshtomp was standing guard.
Brandon looked to Ash and May after he was gone. "All right, are you two ready for this?"
They both nodded in unison, but before they could take off again, the hallway was swept back into lock-down, the lights shutting off and the dividers springing back up from the floor.
Brandon turned and narrowed his gaze at the opposite end of the hallway before sprinting forward, narrowly dodging each and every divider, making it through the entire hallway before he was trapped again.
"Oh, no..." May mumbled softly, glancing around at the enclosed space they were now trapped in. "I hope Max made it out okay..."
"Yeah..." Ash mumbled in response, presently trying to figure a way out instead of actually paying attention to what May was saying.
"Pika-chu..." Pikachu murmured helplessly, staring at the large metal divider before them, along with Ash.
However, their mutual thought process was soon broken by the soft sound of May...crying.
Ash turned to her in surprise, instantly forgetting about escaping for the moment. "May?"
"I...I just..." She muttered softly, wiping a tear from her cheek with her hand. "I don't want Max to get hurt...he's just a...a little kid, and these guys here...they're..."
"May..." Ash said softly, as Pikachu jumped down off of his shoulder and decided to busy itself with attempting to break out of the small room.
"If I had known...that...those guys would be here..." May continued, still crying softly.
"May, don't worry..." Ash told her in an attempt at reassurance. "I'm sure Max will be fine. Trey and Lily are back there, and even Brock!"
"I - I know that...but I just..." May breathed, collapsing to her knees all of a sudden.
Ash looked at her for a moment sadly, trying to figure out a way to reassure her that Max would be all right. After a moment, he bent down to her level. "May, listen...there's only one thing we can do for Max right now."
May looked up at him slowly, Ash noticing each and every tear that dotted her flawless face.
"We just have to believe in him."
"Believe...in him...?"
"Yeah." Ash said, nodding. "It's just like with your Pokemon. As long as you believe in them and what they can do, they'll always come through for you. Right?"
"Y-yeah..."
"So all you have to do is believe that Max will make it through okay, and he will! Just like your Pokemon do." Ash told her, smiling.
"A-Ash..." May breathed, locking eyes with him as they shared a mutual moment of understanding. Then, disregarding the fact that Pikachu was present, she leaned in closer to him.
Ash froze for a second, anticipating her action. But then the strange side of his mind that had caused him to do it the first time urged him forward, and he leaned forward as well, catching her mouth with his, and causing them to share their second kiss together.
Pikachu turned and saw this as it happened, chuckling to itself as it did. "Pii-ka..." It murmured, shaking its head.
Please R&R!