Things were looking much better for Gallade than usual as the boy sent a hard punch to Kecleon's face when the chameleon attempted to sneak up on him. Sure, the chameleon had gotten the drop on him at the start of the fight, but now that Gallade knew he was here and since the villain could not hide his stripe, this was shaping up to be a really easy fight for him.

"You know," Gallade said, "after seeing how powerful Blitzle and Aegislash were, I was expecting all of you guys to be super tough. You, on the other hand only have your camouflage technique to give you an edge and it doesn't even work entirely."

Kecleon let out a sigh and looked down, not even sure if he should keep trying. Gallade was right. What could the chameleon possibly do to hide himself? It was just as the boy had said, if his camouflage could not fool his opponents, how could he win? His physical strength was passable at best and while his speed was pretty good, it seemed Gallade's speed and reaction time were nothing to scoff at either.

Gallade noticed the chameleon looking ashamed of himself as he sighed, "Look, Kecleon, I'd feel bad beating up someone so weak. If you back down, I won't think any less of you," the chameleon staring at him as he added, "I'll even tell the others you were a major challenge to defeat. That way, you won't lose any respect."

Kecleon bit his lower lip before shaking his head, sighing, "I know you have the best of intentions, but if I'm going to let my team down, I'll at least give it my best," the chameleon sprinting toward Gallade only for the boy to send a knee kick toward his face.

However, Kecleon saw this coming and dodged to the side only to receive a hard karate chop to his cheek. Right now, he knew he needed more of a strategy as he whipped out his tongue, latching it onto Gallade's wrist.

The boy's eyes widened as Kecleon proceeded to lock his arms around his neck, reeling his head back and pulling on Gallade's arm. A light smile formed on his face as he had not only managed to get Gallade in a submission hold but a rather impressive and complex one at that.

However, Gallade did not feel too alarmed as after a few seconds, the pain he was feeling started to lessen. It seemed Kecleon really was weak as while his tongue was applying a good, strong grip on his arm, his hands were doing next to nothing to his neck. As such, the boy allowed himself to fall backward, slamming the chameleon's back into the ground as he released his tongue, the part slapping the inside of his mouth and curling up.

Gallade took a deep breath, saying, "Not bad, but you'll have to be better than that to beat me," a grin on his face as he thought, 'I can't believe it! I might actually win this match and without breaking a sweat no less!'

All the while, Blitzle and Aegislash were currently keeping their distance from Gardevoir as they needed to find a way around her new power. They could not believe how much stronger she had gotten just like that. Why had she not used this earlier?

However, while the villains were trying to come up with a strategy, Gardevoir remembered she could not spend a long time in this state. As such, she sprinted toward the two with her hands at the ready, Blitzle gulping as Aegislash dashed in front of him and held out her shield. However, this time it was glowing as she figured she would need to apply more force if she was going to block any incoming blows.

"KING'S SHIELD!" the sword exclaimed, throwing it forward as Gardevoir sent a palm punch hard into it.

Luckily for Aegislash, it seemed the attack had prevented the shield from being overpowered as Gardevoir did take in slight pain to her hand. However, things were still looking alarming when Aegislash noticed small cracks forming on the implement, her eye going wide.

Blitzle gasped at the sight of this and spat, "WORRY NOT, I SHALL RETURN THE FAVOUR!" the zebra leaping over Aegislash and aiming his hoof toward Gardevoir's skull only for the girl to use her other hand to blocking the incoming kick, the girl then applying a strong grip to his hoof.

Blitzle sent electricity along his body before covering the girl in it only for Gardevoir to once again ignore the pain as she swung him sideways, ramming him hard into the side of Aegislash's head. Sure, the girl wanted to win, but there was no way she would use the sword's blade to potentially slice the zebra in half.

Lucario's eyes widened as he uttered, "That power of hers has really improved," Talonflame uttering, "I was starting to think she didn't have it anymore."

Once again, both were down, Blitzle lying atop Aegislash's head as the sword groaned in pain. Sure, this was nowhere near as bad as what Gardevoir had done to them earlier but it was still very effective.

Gardevoir smiled, feeling so confident right now. Sure, she had an impressive win and loss record, but it had never seemed this easy to get a victory before. And to make things better, she still had well over five minutes to take advantage of this new power.

With that in mind, the girl leapt into the air and performed a flip forward before planting both of her feet into the villains. However, while this added to the pain, it did not seem to deal as much as it should have, the girl's eyes widening as she leapt off of them, looking at her hands and staring in shock.

As the two villains slowly rose back to their feet, trying their best to ignore all the pain dealt to them, Gardevoir breathed heavily as for whatever reason, the glowing had stopped. But why? Psyla told her the power would last ten minutes.

However, there was one problem with that. The girl had not tested this theory out, and she could not believe even her aunt had not taken that into consideration. Both had just assumed the power would have the same time limit, and yet it had only been with her for three minutes. This was not good.

Aegislash groaned and uttered, "Perhaps forfeiting is not such a bad idea," Blitzle tapping her on the side of her guard and exclaiming, "Look!" pointing at Gardevoir as the sword looked at her, a wicked look forming in her eye when she noticed the glowing had stopped.

"Excellent," the sword said, "Now we might just be able to stop her after all," Gardevoir trembling when suddenly, she felt rough skin touching her shoulder as she turned, her eyes sparkling at the sight of Blaziken standing right behind her, a smile on her face.

"Thanks for keeping them busy," the chicken said, rubbing the girl's shoulder as she whimpered, "My power's gone, though," Blaziken rolling her eyes and sighing, "You were doing fine even before you used it. Now that I can fight with you again, things will be okay."

Lucario took a deep breath and said, "I have to admit, I was worried there," Talonflame smirking and saying, "Hey, Blaziken's no quitter. I'm just amazed it took her that long to get up."

With that, Blaziken thought hard and said, "Alright, it looks like you managed to do a lot to them, so I have an idea," Gardevoir nodding, feeling up for pretty much anything the chicken had in mind as she smirked and said, "First things first, we gotta destroy that shield. I don't know what you did, but you really pulled a number on it."

Gardevoir nodded, not so sure if another hit would work. Without her power, could either one even hope to make those cracks bigger?

Blaziken seemed to think so as she said, "Alright, you think you can lift me?" Gardevoir nodding with a light smile. Sure, a younger her would have never been able to pull off something like that, but after all of her strength training, she could do this easily, especially since Blaziken was not exactly heavy.

With that in mind, the girl held her hands out as Blaziken leapt on top of them, Aegislash asking, "I say, whatever are you trying to accomplish?" Blitzle uttering, "We might want to be careful."

Blaziken smirked and said, "Now launch me forward," Gardevoir nodding and propelling her arms up thus letting Blaziken fly toward the two villains, her feet bursting into flame.

Blitzle held up his arms defensively when Aegislash got in the way, holding out her shield and saying, "Worry not. My shield may be cracked, but without that girl's power, they have no hope of breaking it."

However, she seemed to be wrong about that as Blaziken's feet collided with the object, the cracks getting bigger before reaching the edges. Aegislash's eye went wide as the shield came open, breaking into many fragments and falling right in front of the sword's tip.

Talonflame grinned and held his fist forward, exclaiming, "YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! YOU ROCK, BLAZIKEN!"

However, Aegislash relinquished her fear in seconds and replaced it with rage as she spat, "YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT, YOU HELLSPAWN!" a dark aura once again surrounding her blade as she spat, "SACRED SWORD!" leaping up and spinning toward Blaziken like a wheel.

Gardevoir squeaked in terror when the chicken dodged to the side only to take in a small cut to her shoulder. However, she ignored the pain when Blitzle was about to attack her only for Gardevoir to dash in front of the chicken, taking an electric shock to her chest and wincing in pain.

It seemed as if Aegislash was right. With Gardevoir's power gone, she and Blitzle stood a chance again. Could the heroes still win? Sure, Gardevoir had done a lot of damage, but was it enough?

During this time, Gallade was still on the defensive, feeling really good about himself as Kecleon gulped, thinking, 'What place do I have in this team? He's right, everyone else is so tough and I'm so weak, and with my best skill being so useless, what can I do? I may as well give up right now and let him cut me to shreds.'

The sad fact was that Kecleon had always been a disappointment when it came to his fighting skills. His lack of physical strength had been inherited by his family, but if there was one thing they always had on their side, it was camouflage. They were all able to hide their entire bodies.

Unfortunately, Kecleon had always been slow to learn how to blend in with his surroundings. He was even unable to hide his head until he was eight, four times longer than it had taken his mother and younger sister. It was so embarrassing, and even when he finally gained the ability to blend his entire body with his surroundings, he could never change the colour of his stripe no matter how hard he tried.

It always ate away at him, and to make matters worse, his parents had an alarming definition of what being supportive was. While his father would always scold him for not learning fast enough, his mother would try tirelessly to get him to master the camouflage technique, wanting him to get it down before adulthood.

Unable to tolerate it anymore, Kecleon ran away from home in the hopes that he could figure it out on his own. In fact, the whole reason he had even joined the side of evil was because he figured this would give him more of a reason therefor it would motivate him to finally get it down completely.

Clearly he had still failed to do so. The only reason his allies had not kicked him out was because unlike most villains, Missingno and the others were not heartless and cared about their allies as if they were family. And when they were not performing evil tasks, they gave him the support he wished his parents had given him.

Rather than scolding him or pushing him to the next limit, they simply told him he tried his best and assured him he would master the camouflage some day at his own pace. Not only that, but he was at least able to take out guards and other minor threats with his stealth, so he was still an asset to the team.

But this was not good enough. Unlike all the other assignments, something really major was on the line. With that in mind, Kecleon gritted his teeth and spat, "I'M NOT GOING TO LOSE!" his entire body blending in with the ground, Gallade's eyes widening when he noticed the stripe vanish.

Kecleon looked down at that very spot and noticed this as well, a big smile forming as he quickly got up, a wicked grin on his face. He had finally done it. He had mastered the camouflage technique. Now nothing would stand in his way.

With that in mind, the chameleon sprinted toward Gallade who was unable to figure out he was there. Once he got close enough, he sent a karate chop into Gallade's cheek, the boy's head turning sideways as he rubbed the spot.

After taking another strike to his other cheek, the boy swung his arm sideways only to end up missing as Kecleon sent a roundhouse into the back of his head. Sure, due to his lack of physical strength, these hits were a tad on the weak side, but as long as Gallade was unable to prevent them from hitting him, that hardly mattered.

Blaziken and Gardevoir, all the while, were backing up in order to get away from their opponents and think up a plan. Luckily, Blaziken already seemed to have one as she noticed Gardevoir's fear, saying, "Don't look so discouraged, okay? I got me a plan that'll guarantee us victory."

Gardevoir looked at her with big eyes as the chicken said, "You've done a very good job up to this point. Don't start wimping out on me now. I can't even remember the last time I saw you scared during a match, even in the face of defeat."

While that was certainly true, Gardevoir had only lost to other heroes before so she was okay with that. However, these were two villains who could potentially kill them both and Gardevoir was not sure if she could deal with death just yet.

Lucario could sense this as he let out a sigh, saying, "Gardevoir, trust in Blaziken," the girl biting her lip as the dog added, "She's right. You've done an incredible job. Up to this point, I have not seen you as the type to give up after being struck."

Blaziken nodded and added, "Yeah, and when you lost in the past, you didn't let it get you down. You instead made yourself stronger so such a thing wouldn't happen again."

Gardevoir smiled lightly and nodded, a look of confidence forming. They were both right. After winning her fight against Scrafty, the girl felt motivated to try harder. When she found out about her power, she used it as a reason to toughen herself up so she would not have to rely on it all the time. Where was this sudden lack of confidence coming from? She certainly could not figure it out.

With that in mind, she glanced at Blaziken and asked, "What do you want me to do?" the chicken saying, "We're gonna finish off that sword girl first. She's clearly the strongest of the two, and with her shield gone, we can do it," Gardevoir nodding as the chicken added, "I'm going to need you to throw me again, only this time spin me around and then fling me feet-first toward her. It's a long shot, but if done right, it should be able to finish the job."

Gardevoir would have felt nervous about the idea if not for the fact that Blaziken was rather light in weight. And besides, the girl had managed to lift her up even after the chicken had jumped onto her hands. This could very well work.

"Okay, I am tired of all this talking," Aegislash groaned, Blitzle asking, "Should we just finish them off now? We could have done so while they were talking," the sword nodding when suddenly, she sported a look of confusion when Gardevoir took hold of Blaziken's hands, lifting her up and swinging her around like a spinning top.

Blaziken's feet then caught flame as Blitzle gulped, uttering, "I'm afraid to try hitting them," Aegislash nodding and saying, "Don't bother. You might get hit by that. I'll take care of this," but just as she was about to prepare her own countermeasure, Gardevoir saw this as just the right moment, the girl releasing her hold on Blaziken as she flew toward Aegislash while shouting, "ROARING PHOENIX!"

At that moment, the fire surrounding her feet formed a phoenix head as she rammed hard into the sword's face, her eye wide open and her arms spread out. With that, Aegislash fell backward and hit the ground hard, her eye closing as everyone stared in silence.

Blaziken took a deep breath and stared at her, Blitzle exclaiming, "OH MY GOD! YOU MURDERED HER!" before running to the sword's side and whimpering, "Alas, she was so young!" Blaziken rolling her eyes and grunting, "Please, she's not dead. I just knocked her out," the zebra hearing a small heart beat and blinking before saying, "Oh, yes, of course."

However, before he could do a thing, Gardevoir ran behind him and wrapped her arms around him, saying, "I hate to take advantage of you like this, but we need to get going," the zebra groaning, "I understand, but let it be known we almost defeated you!" Blaziken groaning, "I'm ashamed to admit he's actually right about that."

With that, Gardevoir took a deep breath, looking back to her training with Psyla. One thing the wolf did teach her was a new finishing move that she knew the girl could pull off. It was not exactly a highly advanced technique or anything, but it would still be effective as the girl knelt down, propelling herself gracefully into the air and twirling her body around like a dancer.

Once high enough, she flipped herself over and spat, "TORNADO BUSTER!" spinning toward the ground and sending Blitzle's head hard into the surface, the zebra gritting his teeth as blood tried to escape from his mouth, his eyes wide with shock before the girl released him, allowing him to collapse.

All went silent as it seemed Gardevoir's initial theory had been correct, much to her relief. She would not have to end Blitzle's life as his unconscious state was more than enough for the electricity surrounding Lucario and Talonflame to disappear.

Lucario smiled at the girls as Talonflame exclaimed, "Alright! I knew you could do it!" before sighing, "I had to be rescued by someone," Lucario rolling his eyes and patting him on the shoulder.

Even so, both Gardevoir and Blaziken were relieved as the chicken turned to Talonflame and smiled, saying, "Thanks for the encouragement. I hate to admit it, but your words actually helped."

The falcon blinked and asked, "Really?" the chicken nodding and saying, "Yeah, I already trusted you when Gardevoir saw honesty in you, but now I know for sure that you're not pretending," the chicken holding out her hand as the falcon smirked, shaking it.

At that exact moment, a familiar high-pitched voice entered the area, squealing, "OH MY GOD, WE FINALLY FOUND YOU GUYS!" the others turning to see Aipom running toward them and breathing heavily, Gardevoir squeaking, "Aipom!? What are you doing here!?" the monkey pointing a tail finger behind her and replying, "Looking out for him."

Everyone went wide-eyed when they noticed Machoke along with Octillery and Gothitelle standing there, though their gaze was mainly focused on the boy right now. Gardevoir bit her lower lip, tears welling up in her eyes as she ran over, squealing, "MACHOKE!" running into him and wrapping her arms around him, Machoke wincing as his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, the boy groaning, "Have you gotten stronger?"

The girl released her hug and sniffed, "Sorry," before holding his shoulders and adding, "Why did you run away?" Blaziken folding her arms and sighing, "Yeah, that's a good question. Everyone was worried sick about you."

Machoke laughed nervously and replied, "Sorry about that. It's just-" only for Lucario to cut in, the dog asking, "Was it because of me?"

The boy turned, his eyes going wide. Sure, he had tried to convince himself that he had forgiven Lucario for beating him, that he had accepted the dog as a friend and yet just looking at him at this exact moment filled him up with a great deal of negativity. But why?

However, it seemed to leave as he grinned, fibbing, "Of course not. Glad to have you on the team," Talonflame smirking and saying, "I'm on the team too, kid," Machoke and Aipom both staring in shock as Gardevoir nodded, saying, "Don't worry. He's not tricking us," the boy and monkey both shrugging and saying, "If Gardevoir says so, it must be true."

Blaziken then took a good look at Octillery and Gothitelle, the octopus waving happily as the goth gave a light one, Machoke turning to them and saying, "Oh yeah, this is Octillery and Gothitelle. They helped me get here," Gothitelle nodding and adding, "We're also going to help you fight."

Octillery shook her head and remarked, "That sounds so unenthusiastic!" the goth sighing, "You know I'm not the kind of person who emotes when talking."

Machoke took a deep breath and said, "Anyway, I'm over my personal issues. I'm just here to help my best friends in the whole world out right now," Gardevoir smiling bright as Blaziken rolled her eyes, stating, "We'll forgive you this time, but next time you run out on us without saying anything, we might just consider booting you off the team."

Machoke panicked as Gardevoir squeaked, "Really!?" the chicken chuckling and saying, "Come on, I thought you two had a sense of humour," both narrowing their eyelids and retorting, "I didn't think that was funny."

Either way, the conversation would have to end as Machoke asked, "Hey, where's Gallade?" Gardevoir squeaking, "Oh no, he ran off to fight the bad guys by himself!" all going silent as Aipom screeched, "OH MY GOD, HE'S GONNA GET HIMSELF KILLED!" the group just about to race off when Octillery noticed Throh and Sawk lying there, asking, "Should we leave these two here?"

Blaziken nodded and replied, "That's a good point," the octopus smiling and saying, "Don't you guys worry about a thing. I'll carry them back," Blaziken shaking her head and replying, "Thanks for the offer, but Gardevoir and I just finished a really difficult fight. As much as it pains me to admit it, we might not have enough strength to deal with another one, so I'll take them back."

"Are you sure you don't need me to help out?" Gardevoir asked as Blaziken shook her head, saying, "Oh no, your brother's gonna need all the support he can get," before thinking, 'Not to mention Machoke.'

Gardevoir nodded as the chicken humped the brothers over her shoulders and ran off with them, though she was running slower than usual. Not only was it the extra weight but the damage she had taken in earlier had not been helping things.

Even so, the rest of the group wished her the best of luck before taking off. And Blaziken was right. Gallade would definitely need their help, especially with how things were going for him right now.