Disclaimer: Pokémon is owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

Chapter 23: Decision

It was almost eerily quiet as Max walked across town at barely a quarter to eight in the morning. He'd drawn the earliest slot possible, meaning his battle was at nine, all the way across town to boot, and Max had decided to get some breakfast on the way, as opposed to in his hostel. The relative peace and quiet felt good: sometimes he just wanted to be alone to clear his mind and to think, and there was always someone around these days.

This morning, one thought was prevalent: he was lucky to still be in the tournament. His opponent had underestimated him. He didn't say so after the match, but Max knew better. He'd seen gaps in grovyle's defences when his starter clashed with the gabite; Leaf Blade against Dragon Claw. If his opponent or the gabite had noticed them, he would have lost, but they hadn't, and grovyle's Overgrow boost had proved to be able to finish the gabite off.

Going out in the first Doubles round would have been terrible, and it would've been worse if he had gone out to something stupid like that. He'd need to work on fixing those gaps after the League, when they were back in Petalburg. His father's zangoose and one of the vigoroth could probably help with it. And he should really look into getting a good sparring partner for grovyle, because neither he nor Danny really had one, and it was holding grovyle back in the fights that required hand-to-hand combat.

"Hey! You! Max!" Max heard a teenager call behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, and saw his upcoming opponent – a Kanto boy by the name of Dale – a bit behind him in the streets, just outside one of the many other places trainers stayed. The thirteen year old from Cerulean – but apparently doing his first Gym circuit in Hoenn – raised a hand in greeting when he saw Max turn around and stop. "You ready for our battle?" he asked enthusiastically when he caught up with Max. "I saw your battle yesterday. That was awesome!"

"I got lucky," Max replied, grinning despite the message. The enthusiasm was infectious. "But thanks anyway. You did a great job in your battle too. Where did you get the delibird?" They started walking, Max walking slightly slower at first, but speeding up to match Dale's steps as he noticed it.

"Ice Path in Johto, about a year ago. My Yule present, you could say." Max barely restrained himself from groaning at the pun. "And you didn't get lucky. You were better, but gabite are just tough to finish off. Believe me, I had tons of trouble with Reginald's gabite, believe me," Dale told him. "What did Lance say about Dragons again? Hard to catch and raise, but really powerful?"

"Sounds right," Max agreed, keeping a straight face. "It takes a long time to get most of them to evolve, but when you do..."

"Watch out world, here I come!" Dale said, striking a ridiculous pose. He held it for a second before breaking it from laughter. "I don't have the patience for that. Oops, shouldn't tell you that."

"I didn't hear anything," Max replied, grinning, as the two turned a corner, bringing them to their destination. "Well, Stadium A, here we are," he said. "But first, breakfast," he added, making for the supermarket across the street.

"It'll be your last in this tournament, so enjoy!"

"You wish!"

Twenty minutes later, Max was inside one of the stadium's rooms, waiting. Like he had done before his first and second match, he sent out the Pokémon he'd be using. Bagon immediately made motions to climb in Max's lap, settling for leaning against Max's thigh after Max sat down on the floor in lotus position. "You're getting a bit heavy for this."

"Baaaa," came the sound of not caring too much, and Max smiled fondly; something mirrored by clefairy.

"Clefairy?" Max asked, capturing the attention of his Fairy-type. "There's probably going to be a Flying-type up against you. If you can use Gravity on it, then this lump," he said, poking bagon's head gently, "can land some heavy hits."

"Fairy."

They sat in silence until the clock told Max it was ten to nine. At that point, he returned the Pokémon, walked out of the waiting room, and joined Dale and the officials. "Good luck, Dale."

"Same to you. May the best Trainer from Kanto win."

Max's reply was cut off by the doors to the arena opening, revealing a rather empty stand opposite them. Apparently, nine in the morning was not a time for many to come watch.

Max heard Danny and Keith cheer him on as the battling Trainers walked out, but they were the only two his age, he saw a moment later as he turned around. Paul and Linda were nowhere in sight, nor was Jane, but she was preparing for her own battle, done at the same time as Danny's would be. Max's parents and Danny's Mum were also there, sitting a few rows below his friends, and for the first time this tournament, May was with them.

She looked like she'd rather be in bed.

"Prepare your Pokémon," the referee called as Max and Dale moved into their trainer's boxes. Max grabbed the two Pokéballs he wanted, and he saw Dale do the same. "Release!"

As Max had expected, Dale sent out a flying Pokémon, as he had done in the two previous matches. In the first, it had been a pelipper, and in the second, it was delibird. This time, it was a pidgeotto, paired with a flaaffy. It seemed an unorthodox pairing, because flaaffy couldn't really send electricity out when pidgeotto was coming in, but the safe guess was that they had trained for that.

Besides, he had the same issue with clefairy's Disarming Voice and bagon.

Max did send Dale a cheerful wave as the Cerulean-born teen took in bagon. He'd hear afterwards if Dale had caught it, because any reply was cut short by the referee yelling "Begin!"

Bagon, as he usually did, shot an opening salvo of Dragon Pulse at the other end, while Max ordered clefairy to use Metronome, resulting in two blue-purple balls that clefairy aimed at flaaffy, who'd already had to dodge the Dragon Pulse from earlier. One scored a grazing hit, while the other missed miserably.

Pidgeotto had flown up, and now dove down at speed, a faint glow forming around it. The bird passed right in between the dodging bagon and clefairy, It then executed a sharp turn right and up, before banking tightly about fifty feet up in the air, flying down at clefairy.

"Dragon Rage in front of clefairy," Max ordered as the pidgeotto banked, and bagon's attack ended up blocking a Thunderbolt sent clefairy's way. "Dragon Pulse on clefairy."

Pidgeotto shifted her path, missing clefairy and avoiding the Dragon Pulse that would have hit it otherwise. The flaaffy covered its retreat with a beam of pink and white light that passed between bagon and clefairy, who didn't need to move.

"Metronome again. Bagon wait," Max ordered.

The finger-waggling caused clefairy's foot to glow. "Dragon Pulse flaaffy," Max said as clefairy brought her foot down, sending a rippling effect down the arena. The Ground-type move – Max wasn't sure which one exactly – naturally missed pidgeotto, but flaaffy had to jump to avoid it.

It jumped right into the Dragon Pulse. "Great! Dragon Rage and Disarming Voice!"

The pair of attacks missed pidgeotto, who flew to the halfway line before flapping its wings harshly, producing a swirling tornado that connected to the ground near bagon and started moving. The tiny dragon scrambled to get out of the way, but he was still picked up and tossed about by the Twister, and flaaffy sent a Thunderbolt after it as well. Bagon caught only the faintest of edges of that as he rolled out of the way before getting up, roaring a challenge to the heavens.

"Easy now," Max coached, keeping an eye on the pidgeotto circling above. "Move closer together and let them come to you." Even as he said it, pidgeotto dove once more, wings aglow, going for clefairy. Excellent. "Now!"

Pidgeotto let out a high-pitched screech as a localised patch of Gravity overpowered its flight, sending it flying to the ground in front of clefairy. It crashed hard, and bagon had the easiest shot he would ever make with Dragon Pulse. He didn't miss it before leaping towards the pidgeotto.

Clefairy dropped the Gravity, but did it a moment too early as a Thunderbolt broke her concentration, and that allowed the flyer to narrowly avoid bagon's leap, instead cuffing him over the head with a wing. Bagon snapped at it, but the flyer was out of reach already, resuming its position overhead before flying back, moving towards the ground.

"Oh no you don't," Max muttered, assuming it was going to try to Roost. "Bagon, keep it off the ground. Clefairy, Metronome!"

A barrage of low-powered Dragon Pulses threatened to intercept the pidgeotto, and it flew back up, wary of being hit by one of the green globes once again. Metronome went off, and clefairy bounced across the field, nails glowing. "Shit," Max cursed. "Bagon, after her!"

Clefairy bounced far and high, easily avoiding the Power Gem flaaffy sent before descending on the pink Pokémon, scratching at its statically charged wool. Luckily, Static didn't seem to activate, and flaaffy was prevented from delivering a Thunderbolt by bagon's timely intervention.

That Dragon immunity Fairy types had was really coming in useful this match, Max mused idly.

Flaaffy unleashed several balls of white – Cotton Spore – at clefairy while pidgeotto swept down on bagon, with the Dragon doing a sideways roll to get out of the way. "Encore flaaffy!" Max yelled across the field.

The white orb hit flaaffy by the tail as it tried to dodge out of the way.

The pidgeotto wasn't having an easy time hitting bagon hard, as the Rock Head Pokémon made every attempt at biting the wings it was being attacked with. The bird held back from going for a full-out offensive because of that, but it also meant that it only really scored glancing hits on bagon's hard head, instead of across the more vulnerable body.

The pidgeotto flew up, and Max saw another round of Cotton Spores being fired, this time at bagon. "Ember!"

Most of the cotton on the field went up in flames as bagon spewed fiery cinders indiscriminately. Some of them hit clefairy, but that also burnt off the spores that clung to her, which was a trade Max was okay with. It enabled clefairy to be faster, which was one of her big advantages. "Get the flaaffy," he called.

Ember burnt most balls that might have been an improvised defence, and clefairy unleashed a Disarming Voice that obliterated the few that bagon hadn't. The attack missed flaaffy as the sheep-like Pokémon jumped over it, and bagon was prevented from landing another aimed Dragon Pulse by a hasty Twister that blocked the attack in a small explosion.

Encore was probably still active, and pidgeotto was hovering close to the flaaffy, intent on unleashing more Twisters to defend it if need be. Perfect. "Gravity!"

Clefairy was further away this time, and trying to control a greater area to boot, but pidgeotto did drop like ten or fifteen feet, and flaaffy was locked in place.

The pidgeotto created a Twister, but far too late, and the Dragon Pulse, which was on the way to flaaffy, instead blew up the tornado, which sent the bird to the ground, spelling the end of pidgeotto.

Clefairy released the Gravity, hopping out of the way as a habit as Dale returned his Pokémon. "Split up now."

To flaaffy's credit, it was pretty fast, and good at charging a Thunderbolt mid-trot, using it to block a Disarming Voice and to push through to clefairy, who stayed put for a tiny bit too long.

But fighting two on one with the way Max's Pokémon were split up meant that there was always someone you couldn't see in your back, and the Power Gem that flaaffy tried charging rooted it in place long enough for bagon to set fire to the Pokémon's wool, interrupting its concentration and disrupting the Power Gem.

A few seconds passed in which the Electric-type dodged another Disarming Voice, but then, the flaaffy broke into a run, surrounding itself in bright gold electricity and moving faster than Max had expected. "Jump out!"

Clefairy did jump, but so did flaaffy, and the attack – whatever it was, Max didn't actually know – hit, sending the Fairy-type tumbling through the air before it bounced on the ground. Max returned clefairy without a thought, but when he looked up again, he also saw the flaaffy being returned, and he hadn't heard bagon do anything.

"Flaaffy is also knocked out. The winner is Max from Petalburg!"

Danny's cheering was definitely the loudest in the stands as applause greeted the Trainers while they walked out of the arena, bagon by Max's feet. The field had actually been damaged more than Max had thought, with several charred spots indicating Thunderbolt hits or explosions, and a small furrow from the Twister that had hit bagon as well. It hadn't felt like a match that caused damage, but it was one. Nothing too serious, and there were Pokémon on hand to repair the field if things got out of hand too much.

Dale and Max met at the exit and entrance, and they shook hands. "Great match. Awesome pairing, too." They moved inside, passing by the next two trainers to fight. "Did you select it just because of what I said earlier?"

"Nope," Max replied as they sat down on a bench, bagon climbing up in between them. "This was planned from last night, when I checked your Pokémon from the first two rounds." Max grinned at Dale, who returned it. "I have manectric for flyers, but you had that graveler."

Dale shook his head for some reason. "She wasn't cleared. Flaaffy was the next best counter I have. Wasn't quite good enough, but it was a fun battle. That's all that matters to me."

"Words to live by," Max agreed. "What was that last move?"

"Flaaffy's? Wild Charge."

"Of course," Max said, feeling a tiny bit stupid. "I thought it was Volt Tackle, but that's only the pikachu line, and it looks different."

"I see someone looked up the pikachu family after that charity match," Dale said drily. "I hadn't thought a pikachu could go toe to toe with a dragonite like that." The Cerulean teen shook his head. "Scratch that. I hadn't thought raichu could go toe to toe with a dragonite."

"Ash's pikachu is an exception. A very big small one," Max said. His mind briefly went back to the last fight against Brandon. "I know he's beaten a regice."

"What?"

"I was there."

By the time Max had finished a brief explanation of how he knew Ash, and a recap of the fight between regice and pikachu, the match on the television, showing what was happening in the arena they left earlier, had finished.

~~§~~§~~

The two new trainers took the field, and Norman recognised one of them: a twenty-something man who'd fought against some of his strongest Pokémon, securing a draw with a cheeky Destiny Bond. The other one, some teenager from Johto, he didn't know, but just by age and experience, he was going to give it to the one he'd met.

"Norman?" Elizabeth said from his left, and the Gym Leader looked up from the field. "I believe this is yours by right." She placed a folded piece of paper in his hand, and when Norman looked down, he saw it was a banknote.

"We agreed round of 64," Norman replied, aware that May was looking at them weirdly. "Max just qualified for the round of 128."

"We agreed the round of 64, but the tournament grew, and so the actual round of 128 is the round we agreed on," Caroline countered. "Three wins is three wins, and neither of us foresaw the tournament growing past the apparent cap of the previous years."

Norman pocketed the money. "You make a compelling enough argument, and I get money out of it. What more could I want?"

"A daughter who knows what's going on?" May cut in harshly, all vestiges of sleep gone. "Did you bet on Max? You always tell me not to bet."

"I have guaranteed income, you..."

"Heard it before Dad. Stop saying the same thing over and over." Before Norman could say more, May stood up. "I'm going back to the hotel."

There were days that having teenage children was a curse, friends had told him. This looked like one of them alright.

~~§~~§~~

Max and Danny left Stadium D in good spirits after Danny had joined Max in the round of 128. Aron and marshtomp had been able to withstand the rampant explosions and poisonous gases of the enemy grimer and slugma. It was nearing two in the afternoon, and they had about half an hour to make it to Paul and Linda's match.

The sight of a klefki floating by a young girl jogged Max's memory. "Danny? You decide Sinnoh or Kalos yet?" Max asked. He hadn't heard anything on it from Danny, but he hadn't asked either.

"Yeah. Last night."

Max saw that Danny was smirking, and he rolled his eyes. "Fine. What did you decide?"

"Kalos." Danny broke into a smile. "Dad and I talked a bit, and he told me I quote 'should not go to Sinnoh just because your parents met each other there' unquote. My journey, my Pokémon, my path." Danny placed a hand on Max's shoulder, slowing down. "And you're my best friend too. That's got to count for something, right?"

"I would have gone to Kalos alone," Max said softly. "Didn't even think about you until I told you about it."

Danny pulled Max onto a nearby bench, the sudden tug and Danny's greater strength making sure Max couldn't resist. "I know. And I don't care. Haven't cared about that since you left with Ash. Sure, I was angry first. That's why I didn't reply to your first letters."

"You were angry? I thought the mail had lost them." That had actually happened to one of May's first letters.

"I was angry because you just left. One day you're in school, and then you're not." Danny smiled sheepishly. "I wasn't happy, and that took a bit. Then Dad stepped in." Danny coughed, and Max braced himself for Danny's impression, but it didn't come. "He told me that some things were worth doing, and that you didn't just stop being my friend. He also told me you probably didn't think about leaving me behind, because you were too excited."

"Got that right," Max muttered. "But… Who wouldn't be?"

"Your sister back then, from what you told me," Danny replied drily. "Anyway, I replied, and you told me about amazing stuff." He paused. "I read through some of the letters last month. There wasn't even a hint of all the bad. With how much trouble you got into… That must've been hard."

"Practice makes perfect, and I had a lot of it. May too."

"I bet. Anyway, so last night, Dad reminded me of that, and I decided staying with you and seeing a new region together sounded like a lot more fun. Besides," Danny added, breaking out a mischievous grin, "I think I'll be a better trainer if I stay with you. You've got amazing ideas, and I'm happy to use them."

Max's face went nought to searing in no time. "You can stop now."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Learn to take a compliment, sheesh. You're terrible at them. That certainly wasn't the case before you left, I remember that much."

"Can we go watch Paul and Linda now?"

"Sure. Race ya!"

The head start Danny got from calling the race ended up being more than enough to let him win that particular race, even with Danny nearly stumbling over a croagunk trying to cross the street.

They quickly located Alice in the stands, and with a bit of asking, the boys got seats next to her just as the match before Paul and Linda's started. "Slow matches, huh."

"Just a dugtrio destroyin' the arena earlier," Alice replied. "Him 'n a tauros earlier. Took a while to repair. Least this looks less destructive," she added with a nod at the Pokémon on the field.

Max had to agree with her. Wigglytuff and machoke against croagunk and monferno just had less arena-destroying potential, and the worst that ended up happening was a few Pokémon being slammed into the ground. Standard fare, really.

"Well, here we go," Danny said as Paul and Linda walked into the arena, casting a few looks around. The trio waved at them. "Oh man, they look nervous."

"Fighting a friend isn't fun," Max replied. Morrison had taught Max that lesson all too well, right here in Ever Grande. "Not when the stakes are high. Sure, one of you is guaranteed to win, but the other loses."

Four flashes of light revealed the Pokémon that would do battle. "Oh no," Alice muttered, causing both Danny and Max to send her a look. "Hope Paul can keep it together."

Max could only agree, remembering more than a few remarks about Ghosts, and Linda had to have heard Paul talk about them as well. Had she sent out her yamask on purpose, to rile Paul? The hitmonchan was a good partner too: durable and with many different types of punches. "Sandslash is his starter, right?"

"Yeah. Pineco is pretty new. Caught it after we met ya in September. She likes exploding."

"That's not going to work against yamask," Danny remarked. "She's fast at disappearing."

Max nodded as the battle started. "Yeah. Had ninjask practice a bit with her."

Linda's hitmonchan blurred and vanished, opening the battle with a Mach Punch that pineco couldn't block before jumping over the same rippling effect clefairy had produced in his match. This time, the jumping Pokémon wasn't intercepted, and hitmonchan landed easily, bending his knees before pushing off to his right, towards the sandslash. The two then engaged in a spar: hitmonchan trying to land precise jabs from up high, and sandslash defending with glowing claws and ferocious slashes.

Yamask, meanwhile, had floated in pineco's general direction and was sending some fast but weak attacks attacks the Bug-type's way. They were all from medium range, though, and pineco was able to dodge most of them, even as she was forced ever closer to the edge of the arena.

Finally, pineco had come too close to the edge, forcing Paul to get her out of there. He did so by ordering a Gyro Ball on yamask.

The Ghost-type let the move hit her without even trying to dodge. Purple surrounded pineco's glow, and pineco herself once she stopped spinning. The purple was then replaced by light-blue: the same colour yamask was glowing ever so briefly. "Disable?" Danny asked.

"Yeah. And Mummy. Clever."

"Mummy?" Alice broke in without turning her head from the battle. "What's that?"

"Yamask's Ability. It suppresses the Ability of any Pokémon touching her for a while, replacing it with Mummy. It's harmless for pineco, but does Paul know that?"

Judging by Paul's orders to sandslash – apparently to disengage from the sparring match with hitmonchan thanks to a quick Dig and to attack yamask, he hadn't. The Dig hit yamask, and history repeated itself: purple, followed by light-blue. "What's sandslash's Ability again Max?"

"Sand Veil or Sand Rush. Does sandslash know Sandstorm?"

"Yeah," Alice confirmed. "And here it comes."

Sandslash spun on the ground, creating a storm that easily engulfed the middle half of the field, dense sand making it harder to see all the Pokémon, though not impossible, and sandslash was just as visible as the hitmonchan who rammed a blue-glowing fist into it.

Pineco did manage to get close enough to hitmonchan that her Explosion forced the hitmonchan away from the sandslash, but she, in turn, paid for that as an Ominous Wind washed over her.

The Pokémon went back to their own halves of the field, sandslash staying in the Sandstorm while the rest stood or hovered in less sandy air. Yamask sent two quick Shadow Balls into the storm, but they didn't do anything.

Max felt a tap on his arm. "Look at Paul," Danny whispered in his ear, and Max did so, even as the sandslash sent out another ripple attack.

Paul was leaning forward, with balled fists that made quick and harsh movements whenever he loudly ordered something. "Oh," he whispered back. "He looks pissed off."

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "Not as bad as… What!"

Danny's exclamation made Max jump in his seat, but it was for good reason. Yamask was doing something… different. He wasn't even sure what it was, but it involved apparent chanting and moving in a pattern while power visibly started building up around it: a purple-black aura that was almost sickening to look at.

Mutters erupted around them, and from what fleeting words Max caught, none of them knew what was going on. In one of the big stadiums, the announcers might be able to fill the audience in, but here, announcer-less, everyone seemed to be in the dark. Paul certainly was, but he also guessed that whatever yamask was doing was dangerous, and he ordered both his Pokémon to interrupt it.

Hitmonchan was a capable defender for his partner as he forced the sandslash back with a quick Drain Punch jab, before Mach Punching pineco back to Paul's half. He then returned to punch sandslash with a second Mach Punch, sending the Ground-type off course just enough that it didn't disrupt the pattern that was forming.

Yamask's movement had begun to trail energy behind it; an off-white that formed a five-pointed star on the nearly black canvas in mid-air. Pineco tried one last Gyro Ball to disrupt it, sandslash being kept busy by hitmonchan, but it was too late. The attack formed, shooting a spear of energy at the duo fighting right in front of Linda.

Hitmonchan locked gloves with claws as he kept sandslash in place until the very last second, at which point he quickly moved out of the way. The bolt pierced an afterimage, and sandslash was hit head-on.

And the attack apparently did nothing.

Meanwhile, pineco hit yamask with another Gyro Ball, and to Max's surprise, the yamask lost her levitation, falling to the ground. There was a flash of purple as she hit the floor, and moments later, the referee ruled her out.

Pineco quickly followed suit, and Max remembered a battle two years back. "One on one now."

"Why did yamask fall? She's tougher than that," Danny said as sandslash dug its way into the ground, prompting Linda to order hitmonchan to move around. "At least it's equal still, but Paul might be able to come back now."

Sandslash sprung from the ground, missing hitmonchan with the jump, but hitting him with a claw on the way up. Hitmonchan then returned the favour with a regular jab as sandslash went back down, and the two resumed their spar for round three.

It started out equal. Hitmonchan hit another jab, but paid for it as a Crush Claw slammed into his stomach, and the next few attacks were all sandslash as the Fighting-type fought to recover and not suffer another hit like that. His parries were on point, as were the dodges, and slowly, he regained his footing, launching an Ice Punch to block another Crush Claw.

Sandslash yelped, and hitmonchan took the offensive, launching quick punches that Paul's Pokémon had to block to not be overwhelmed. At first, it did so relatively easily, using its smaller form to its advantage, but then, the speed started to wane.

One punch slipped through the sandslash's guard, then another one, and a third one, and Paul called sandslash back, the Ground-type escaping via Dig – the Disable having worn off at some point – a moment before an Ice Punch would have hit it.

It resurfaced about twenty feet away from the hitmonchan, and raised its foot to do that same ripple attack – and Max really needed to find out which move it was – for the third time in the match.

The ripple was far smaller than it had been earlier, requiring a simple hop rather than a full-on jump by hitmonchan.

Another tap on his arm. "Look at Laura." Max followed Danny's directions. "She's smiling like she's won."

Linda did look very relaxed as she didn't even order hitmonchan to attack, and the Fighting-type didn't. He just dodged whatever sandslash sent at him, which included another weak ripple, and then a Poison Sting that Detect cancelled out.

And then the sandslash just keeled over out of nowhere, to general confusion around Max.

The applause was just a tiny bit muted.

Alice, Danny, and Max rose, making their way to the passages that would lead them into the stadium's interior, and they soon found their friends. It wasn't hard to find them: Paul was close to yelling, and when Max turned the corner, he saw Paul stomping off in the opposite direction. Alice, with a look at her taller companions, hurried after him, while Danny and Max joined Linda. "What was that about?" Max wondered.

"Paul's angry I used yamask," Linda said, and though she tried to sound nonchalant, Max detected a hint of annoyance. And a stronger accent, too. "It's his problem he can't deal with yamask though. I mean, it's only a weak Ghost-type, what could it be doin' to your Pokémon all match long."

Yup, definitely annoyed.

Linda sighed. "Sorry y'had to hear that, but I won fair and square, and the referee said so too. He's just a sore loser."

Neither boy really knew what to say about that. "What was that move anyway?" Danny wondered, moving the subject away from uncomfortable stuff about your friends.

"You don't know it? Not even you, Max?" When Max shook his head, Linda giggled weakly. "It's a Ghost-type move, but a very dangerous one. Your Pokémon starts channellin' its life force into a Curse that'll drain the Pokémon that's hit by it. It takes ages to set up, but Paul's Pokémon were havin' trouble getting to her, so I told yamask to do it, and it worked out great for me."

Max went through what Linda said. "Life force? So that's why yamask fainted so quickly!"

Linda let out another, stronger, giggle, smiling broadly as well. "Yeah, and she knows Destiny Bond, so I could just take out the pineco with it as well. Paul really played into my hands in that match, and he's real pissed 'bout that."

"So, recap. Yamask gave sandslash and pineco Mummy, Cursed sandslash, and used Destiny Bond on pineco?" Danny asked, receiving a nod in return. "Remind me not to underestimate you next time we spar," he added drily, to more laughter. "Yamask did work."

"Sure did."

There was one thing Max was still not sure about. "Did you choose yamask on purpose? Because Paul hates Ghosts?"

Linda gave him a weird look. "No. I just thought hitmonchan and yamask would be good against what I've seen from Paul. I didn't mean to do that, but I guess it did work in my favour."

"It probably did," Danny agreed.

It was another hour until Paul and Alice reappeared, and he gave Linda a grudging congratulation, and an apology as well. Privately, Max thought Alice was behind that, if the glare she sent her twin was any indication. It was a silent group of six – Keith and Jane having reappeared after Jane's elimination, while Linda had left – that went off to dinner a bit later.

Inside the restaurant, Paul excused himself, and the moment he left, Alice turned to Max and Danny, who were seated opposite her. "What happened? Paul wasn't tellin' me much."

"Short version," Max said with an eye on the door, "yamask Cursed sandslash. Costs life-force, but continuously saps energy from the target."

"She got Curse to work?" Keith chimed in. "Wow. Paul really screwed up there. It's really easy to interrupt the attack and it takes sableye about 30 seconds just to make it work! And he's angry about that? Stupid."

Alice's cry of protest barely met the absolute minimum required by the unwritten brother-sister pact.

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

One-hundred and twenty-eight Trainers remain after Day 3 of the Ever Grande Conference. None of the top favourites have been knocked out yet, nor did any of our team see them in real trouble. The Rookies have largely been eliminated, with only six Rookies remaining in the tournament, down from the starting number in the high four-hundreds, and all of them are facing high Intermediates, Experts, and even one Ace, in the next round.

[…] Of the Rookies, users requested we paid special attention to the sole Gym Leader child currently in this tournament. Max Maple has currently battled his way through two other Rookies and an Intermediate second-time participant, showing a couple of rare Pokémon along the way. He is the youngest remaining participant. A link to his results can be found in the footnotes.

– Pokébet Ever Grande recap, December 3rd.

Author's Note: Abusing type-immunities in Double Battles: old hat since the original RSE games. Looking at you, Tate & Liza in Emerald.

Metronome usage: Psyshock, Bulldoze, False Swipe.