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 25: Dignity
Professor Birch brought his hands together one last time before stopping, the applause Max deserved tapering off as the victorious pre-teen walked off the field into the stadium catacombs. The announcer's voice echoed once more, announcing the next match, but Birch instead looked at his companions: Max's parents and sister, his own brother and sister-in-law, and one of Danny and Max's classmates – Keith, Birch realised – with his mother. That boy had been especially loud during the battles.
"Congratulations Norman and Caroline," Birch said, finally able to convey his words without having to shout. "Your son just became the youngest to win five times in a Hoenn League Tournament since our current Grand Champion." Keith's utterance, and his mother's remonstration at her son's words, Birch ignored. "I don't quite think any of us were expecting this."
"His opponent helped, but Max won that fair and square," Norman said. His tone was somewhat neutral, but the face was anything but. "And yes, Gregory, you don't need to remind me again. You've gloated plenty."
"Huh? His opponent helped?" Keith echoed, confused. "What's that mean?"
"Ryan was arrogant," May spoke up. "He underestimated Max and got angry when Max wasn't a pushover like he was expecting. If he'd been smarter, he would have won." The fourteen year old shrugged, her hands making a 'what can you do' gesture. "Just because someone is young doesn't mean they're a bad trainer. Max and Danny were even on TV, for manaphy's sake."
Birch remembered that day. Idly turning on the TV while making a late dinner and seeing your nephew seated in Wattson's Gym, answering a question about an escaped crime boss was quite the shock.
"May is correct," Norman agreed, interrupting Birch's quick reverie. "Arrogance has no place in battle. If you're so confident, you should be able to back your words up with actions." The Gym Leader turned to the thirteen year old. "If you came into my Gym all arrogant, you would face harder Pokémon than just being respectful and polite would have you face."
"Right," Keith said, putting one hand in front of his torso. "Don't piss off Gym Leaders," he added, miming writing on a note, ignoring the half-hearted reprimand his mother gave him. "Do we know Max's opponent yet?"
"Match after this one," said Gregory as he got up, stretching once for good measure. "I'm going for snacks and drinks. Who wants some?" Nearly everyone wanted something, and the elder Birch brother turned to the younger one. "Care to give me a hand, Maxim?"
Birch acquiesced and they made their way to one of the machines in the stadium's interior, which was thankfully empty of anyone else. "What is it."
To his brother's credit, he didn't try to fob an explanation on why he had asked Birch, and not Keith or Caroline, who had seats next to the steps. "May reminded me of something. Why exactly were Danny and Max with Wattson again?"
"The official story was that they saw Wattson hurrying and they decided to help him go to New Mauville. Danny did catch his magnemite there," Birch explained calmly as he inserted coin after coin, placing the cans that fell down the machine on the ground.
"And do you believe that?" his brother replied as he gathered his stack of snacks.
"Your point, Gregory? Not everything needs to be as contrived as the plots of the plays you work with."
Both of them had finished their tasks, but the food and drinks lay forgotten. "The official story smells worse than a hostile gloom. I know my son: he's nothing if not cautious, and for him to just jump aboard with Wattson just doesn't fit his thinking."
That assessment, Birch could agree with, but he felt obligated to play the devil's advocate. "It has come to mind that adolescents change rapidly, I assume."
"Of course. Groudon knows I see that every day this month." The smile on his brother's face was most definitely fond. "But no, Maxim. At heart, he is still the same cautious boy you had to prod into taking care of that tame dragonair; the same caring boy who hovered around me every day when I broke my ankle this time last year. I know this, straight from the ponyta's mouth." Gregory tilted his head. "On more than one occasion, I should add."
"Yes," Birch agreed. "Evidence does bear that out." A wave of sound from outside indicated that the match had started. "So you think he was what? Persuaded by Wattson?"
His brother shook his head, even as he picked up the snacks, cradling all the packets of crisps and chocolate in his arms. "Not Wattson. Danny had never met him, and while he used to be a bit shy around VIPs, it didn't make him a pushover for them. If anyone did the persuading, it was Max." Gregory let out a deep, world-weary sigh, and Birch didn't feel like it was exaggerated. His sense for that was excellent, and it wasn't going off. "You know that thing Dad used to ask us? About jumping off bridges?" He paused just long enough for the memory to make itself known. "For Max, Danny would. There'd be a discussion, but there can be no doubt as to the outcome."
"That goes both ways, I am certain," Birch soothed as he balanced cans in his arms.
"I know, but it is a sobering feeling to know that your only son's loyalty is no longer purely yours."
Translation: Gregory was feeling melancholy about the bonds of friendship Danny and Max shared. "You could have just said so."
"Ah, but where is the fun in that, oh brother."
Sometimes, his brother managed to get under his skin, despite the forty-odd years of history that should have inoculated him. This was one of those times.
Birch wouldn't have it any other way.
~~§~~§~~
Ash found Max on a hill overlooking the town, far after sundown the day following the well-deserved victory in the round of 64. The younger boy hadn't been too hard to find: swellow had located him in an instant, but without charizard on his team, Ash had to go around the long way, which involved a path around the steep cliff. It took a while, and other interruptions hadn't helped. He wasn't sure he was ever going to get used to signing autographs for Trainers. "Hey Max."
"Took you long enough," Max shot back. The pre-teen was lying on the ground, something that Ash couldn't make out under his head. A small fire, barely embers, glowed nearby, Max's vulpix curled up next to it. "What's up? Danny send you?"
"Good guess," Ash said as he sat down next to Max, pikachu jumping off to go play with the bagon lying on the hill.
"Not exactly hard." Max pushed himself into a seated position. "I missed two of his calls. And one of yours."
"Why didn't you answer?"
"Because the Pokénav was muted," Max told Ash matter-of-factly. "What's the point in going off alone for peace and quiet and then answering calls?"
"Touché." Silence fell between them; the only sounds those of nature and the occasional playful snap by bagon. Max seemed perfectly comfortable with it, but the silence stretched long enough to make Ash uncomfortable. "What were you thinking about?"
"Before swellow flew up?" Max answered, and Ash nodded. "Just something Danny said about how eventful everything was."
"Eventful?" Ash replied, puzzled. From what he'd heard, Max and Danny had had a fairly calm journey with the occasional thing happening. "But..."
"Yup," Max interrupted Ash. "He thinks what we did was eventful. And sure, stuff happened, but it didn't involve angry Legendaries, or the destruction of a town, or Team Rocket, or… Eh, you get the picture. It was a little boring, to be honest. Didn't even see one Legendary."
Max's words echoed Ash's own feelings on his trek through Sinnoh. Sure, there was the incident with dialga and palkia, and he'd still met about half of the region's Legendaries at some point or another, but the rest was just simple travel the way others described their journey. "Maybe you'll get lucky in Kalos."
"No thanks," Max replied instantly. "Three of them ended up destroying large parts of Kalos 3000 years ago. One of them they call the Legendary of Death. Don't mind me if I run the other way."
Ash snorted at Max's deadpan delivery. Figures Max would have read up on the region he was going to visit. "Can't argue with that." Across town, over the main stadium, thunderclouds gathered, closely followed by a bolt of lightning streaking down. Ash recalled Danny telling him that his last opponent had used that combination in their battle, and he figured she'd done it again. "You nervous for tomorrow?"
"Not really. Just hoping I don't get 6-0'd."
"You won't." Ash was confident of that. They'd seen the match, and while Max's next opponent was just a cut above him – and not arrogant like Ryan – she was not that good. "I'd have trouble 6-0'ing you by now."
"If you would switch out, you could, or if you started off with having charizard flambé all my Pokémon."
"But I wouldn't want to," Ash replied, and he saw Max look at him weirdly, or at least he thought Max did that. It was hard to see between the darkness and the reflection of the fire on Max's glasses. "Going out to beat someone like that is just bad. All it does is strip them of their dignity, and make you look petty."
Max looked down, and Ash recognised the pose as one of the boy's thinking poses. "Pikachu?" Max called, prompting Ash's starter to run over, bagon behind him. "Are you sure this is Ash? He's saying smart things again. It's not right."
Pikachu sniffed a few times, very exaggeratedly. "Pi-ka," he spoke solemnly. "Pi-ka-chu."
"Thanks Pikachu." Max looked up again. "Sorry, had to check. You know Team Rocket likes to run cons."
"Do I ever."
~~§~~§~~
Clefairy against gligar was the first battle in Max's round of 32 match. His opponent was another sixteen-year-old, but from some "hamlet" in Kanto, and with a lot less arrogance. They had talked before the match, mainly about their round of 64 matches and a bit about their tournament so far. Normal stuff, instead of arrogant boasting.
Max liked this more.
Isabella's gligar shot into action at the referee's signal, opting to close the distance. "Metronome."
The infamous randomly generated attacks had been working well for Max so far, and his luck held even now. Clefairy summoned a wave of purple, poisonous, sludge, and launched it at the gliding gligar, who was just too late to avoid the attack. It crashed onto the ground, and Max was fairly certain that he saw some of the goo make its way into gligar's mouth.
The painful-sounding cough and retch confirmed that, just before clefairy hit it with a Disarming Voice.
Then gligar pulled itself together and came back in, its pincers starting to glow with a bright light blue. The X-Scissor clipped clefairy on the foot as she jumped out of the way, sending her tumbling over gligar, who couldn't turn around in time to hit clefairy in mid-air. It landed, swivelling on its left foot and shooting several Poison Stings that annoyed clefairy as she got up, and interrupted her just long enough that she couldn't use another Metronome before gligar was on her. Instead, she had to Doubleslap to fend off white glowing claws – Slash probably.
Clefairy couldn't last in hand to hand, and Max ordered her to get out, but when she tried to jump, gligar slipped a last Slash in, unbalancing her. She rolled on the arena floor after an uncontrolled path through the air, but got up without a problem, unleashing a quick Disarming Voice at the gligar who tried to catch her off-guard, and he, too, took a dive onto the floor. "Metronome."
Clefairy whirled around, creating Ice Shards that gligar desperately tried to avoid, to moderate success. The few that hit weren't enough to deter the Ground-Flying hybrid, though, and events of not half a minute before repeated themselves. Slash met Doubleslap, although clefairy was able to keep up better this time as the earlier Sludge Wave and continued wear started to work on gligar.
Still, gligar's endurance was greater than Max was hoping, as it showed no signs of letting up despite the poison running through its veins, and the continued barrage proved to be too much for clefairy, unused to defending like this. A claw slipped through her guard, punching her in the torso and sending her into a nearby rock.
The gligar concentrated, and a silvery-steel glow appeared on its claws. It jumped at clefairy, but fell short as the Fairy-type obeyed Max's order, creating a patch of dense Gravity, eyes black as night. The attack allowed her to make a get-away, but gligar had kept the Metal Claw active, and it resumed its chase the moment it could. "Magical Leaf."
Green-white crescents flew at gligar, who took a fair number of them, even as it used one of its claws to deflect others. The other claw hit clefairy, flinging her into a nearby rock, prompting Max to wince. That hadn't been the best positioning. Once that was done, gligar wobbled, and fell.
"Clefairy and gligar are both knocked out."
Max wasn't sure if he should be relieved or disappointed at the result: it really could've gone either way. The early poison had been immensely lucky. He sent out his baltoy, keeping an eye on his opponent's pokéball.
Out came a swellow. Max could live with that, though the Flying-type's speed meant he couldn't try to capitalise off of Cosmic Power. Baltoy would just be interrupted or be a sitting ducklett. Neither was an option: he needed to take swellow out of its rhythm of attacking and flying off.
Max wasn't surprised at all when he saw swellow open with a Quick Attack, flying low. "Rock Tomb twice."
The first slab of rock that baltoy summoned was one swellow easily dodged: Max's Pokémon had been a bit too early in lowering its foot to the ground. The second rock, however, baltoy summoned with nearly perfect timing, throwing it up a few feet ahead of swellow, who couldn't dodge it, instead ramming it beak-first. The slab broke, and debris plus forty-odd pounds of bird slammed into baltoy, sending both of them to the ground.
"Confusion pulse."
A flash of blue-violet light, and psionic energy threw everything around baltoy back, including swellow, while Max's small Pokémon righted itself with ease. It gathered some of the debris scattered around it, but it didn't launch the remnants as the swellow had flown back up into the air. Instead, baltoy held the pebbles and chippings in a loose circle around itself, waiting for whatever attack would come down next.
Swellow circled overhead, waiting for just the right moment. When it apparently found that, it straightened up, flapping its wings with great force, creating several spinning white-ish blades that flew down at baltoy.
It wasn't a very powerful attack. Two of the Air Slash projectiles were blocked outright by baltoy throwing its protective ring of stones into them, while three others missed with minimal adjustment, none of them doing too much to the ground.
Then swellow suddenly appeared in a low dive, hitting baltoy with a picture-perfect Aerial Ace, and Max understood his opponent's strategy. The Air Slash had been a diversion so that swellow could get in closer. "Light Screen dome above you."
A transparent barrier formed over baltoy's head, covering a circle maybe twenty-five feet across at its widest, around 4 feet in the air,. It was enough; baltoy didn't need to move too much.
Swellow tested the barrier with an Air Slash, and found that the sole projectile barely made it through. The bird sped up, diving into another Quick Attack, combining with a Double Team that created four other criss-crossing swellow. "Rock Tomb," Max said, trusting baltoy to reach out with its Psychic powers to identify the real one in time.
Baltoy identified the real one, but whiffed the Rock Tomb slightly, throwing it up off-centre and late. It hit the swellow's tail, adjusting its flight downward. Its altitude meant it couldn't flap its wings to gain height, leading it to crash into baltoy's foot before hitting the dirt itself. Baltoy, on the other hand, was able to remain afloat through heavy use of a pulse of Psychic energy to stabilise itself. Max's Pokémon lashed out with a rock before swellow could regain height, but an Ancientpower sent after its opponent was a near-miss.
Swellow flew up, beyond easy reach of baltoy, and gathered speed. Through the Light Screen barrier that distorted the light slightly, Max saw a blue aura flare around the swellow. "Rock Tomb, send it off-course," Max said. Letting Brave Bird hit baltoy would be a bad thing, but swellow was too fast to easily dodge.
The plan didn't work out. Baltoy was slightly too early, and swellow crashed right through the rock before hitting Max's Pokémon head-on. Even worse, baltoy couldn't get up, and although swellow was clearly at the end of its tether, baltoy was out.
The swellow landed on one of the rocks, heaving with feathers dusty and out of place. If Max could get a quick knock-out, he'd be fine. "Natu, it's your turn," Max said, sending the natu out way further than he would normally do. "Hidden Power."
Natu correctly predicted the path swellow would take in flying away, and the quick bird fell. Not even a minute after going one Pokémon down, it was a tie again.
Max awaited Isabella's third Pokémon, and he didn't have to wait long. Out came a bronzong, and after a similarly short deliberation on his end, Max signalled that he wanted to make a substitution.
The Psychic mirror would just lead to natu being slowly crushed, and even if Ominous Wind was a decent attack to use against bronzong, it wouldn't be enough, probably. The rocks lying around, providing ample debris to pelt natu with, were also a factor. Max needed more powerful attacks to deal with a bronzong, and for that, he had just the Pokémon. "Vulpix, you're up."
The roles were the reverse from the match between baltoy and swellow. Bronzong stayed in place, summoning a Safeguard that would protect it from being burnt, while vulpix went on the immediate offensive. Her Flamethrower pierced the Light Screen dome effortlessly, and the slow bell-like Pokémon suffered the attack for a moment before a psionic pulse violently disrupted the tail end of the attack, also throwing off a wave of Embers.
"Hex it," Max ordered, and vulpix gladly obeyed, summoning the purple-red eye above herself with a fierce bark, channelling the attack for a moment. Purple spirals flew forth at bronzong, who took the attack as it started to spin, white energy appearing at the end of its arms in a Gyro Ball. The Steel-type attack served as a shield for the Hex as it spun in.
Vulpix easily avoided the Gyro Ball, but now bronzong was also inside the Light Screen barrier, and though the shield was weakening, it wasn't gone yet. Either vulpix was at the mercy of the bronzong in a small area, or she got out, but had to wait with her attacks for a while, as Light Screens didn't distinguish between who set it up, merely what direction the attack came from.
"Move away," Max said, pointing down the field to vulpix's right. "Wait the Light Screen out."
Vulpix wasn't clefairy, but she could do keep-away, avoiding a multi-coloured Extrasensory beam as she sped out of the dome. She hid behind a rock, only to abandon it not long before a second Extrasensory smashed it to pieces, and the follow-up wave of debris – courtesy of a powerful pulse much like baltoy had done earlier – was unavoidable, but also fairly weak at that distance. Better she be hit with that than with an actual attack: the bronzong looked powerful, Max thought as a wave of stones flew in, forcing vulpix to duck behind one of the rocks that remained standing.
Oddly, bronzong hadn't yet tried to grab vulpix itself with Confusion, and Max wasn't certain why.
The Light Screen was so far gone that it was barely visible, and Max decided it was time to go back on the offensive. "Move closer, then Flamethrower."
Moving closer was easier said than done. Vulpix had to drop and roll to avoid a burst of Extrasensory, use Ember to diminish a wave of light debris, and a big rock, close to the size of one of baltoy's Rock Tombs, pelted her as bronzong shattered it overhead, psionically exploding it and creating a rock shower.
At least the Flamethrower was a full-on hit, but vulpix paid for it as she stood still just long enough. Bronzong fought through the attack and managed to finally grab hold of the brown-red Pokémon, who immediately sank into Ghost-type energies, to no avail.
Bronzong flung vulpix through the air from one end of where the Light Screen had been to the other, releasing her as soon as he had flung her and sending an Extrasensory at where vulpix was going to land, the front of the beam connecting with perfect timing. Two rocks flew in from the side, seeking to crush vulpix between them.
The Fox Pokémon dodged those, jumping up high and launching an immediate Flamethrower to interrupt the next Confusion that was coming. The Fire-type attack hit, but so did the Confusion, and once again, vulpix was caught in a web she could not escape out of.
Total control. Max had read an article by Lucian, shortly after natu had joined his team. In it, the Sinnoh Elite Four member had extolled the virtues of controlling the battlefield, and he was seeing the fruits of that approach right now. Vulpix wasn't powerful or slippery enough to break the hold, and the battle was over. Bronzong held vulpix's legs in place as it levitated another rock to slam into her.
Vulpix got off one last burst of Flamethrower, but she stopped as the slab hit her over the head. The short tongue of flame did lick at bronzong, but the Steel-Psychic-type didn't appear to care, just as it hadn't outwardly cared about the earlier Fire-type attacks. Vulpix fell, and Max was down one Pokémon at the break.
Max took a seat on the stairs to the arena, feeling rumbling underneath as the machinery started to work at switching the field from Rock to Grass. He had nobody to talk to this time: their spots had been up high and the stadium was filled to capacity, leaving no chance for any of his friends or family to sneak down to grab a seat closer to him.
He held no illusions: it was going to be tough. Isabella's Pokémon were well-trained and precise, and that bronzong was just… It resisted like half the type chart, floated so it was effectively immune to one of Steel's few weaknesses, and it apparently was able to withstand fire as well. If manectric had been on his team, he would've sent her in, but Isabella's line-up in previous rounds had included a rhydon, an ivysaur, a blitzle, and the gligar he'd already seen. Too many Pokémon just countered manectric, and so he'd left her out, helped by the fact that she wasn't fully recovered yet. She'd pushed harder than Max had thought, and Nurse Joy hadn't been too happy with him.
But no matter how tough it was, he was going to do his best. He'd settle for nothing less.
Natu took the field to oppose the bronzong now that vulpix had tired it out a bit and, more importantly, now that the field had switched. The foot-high grass completely hid natu from sight, at least for now. Once a few attacks had cut through, parts of it would be flattened or destroyed, but until that time, Max's Pokémon could hide from Isabella, and maybe bronzong as well. There was a light breeze as well, which blew over the softly rustling green-and-yellow grass.
Max directed his natu to start moving before launching an Ominous Wind, and natu hopped off, careful to stay concealed. He revealed himself to have moved right, blasting bronzong with an Ominous Wind while the Bronze Bell Pokémon… Did something.
Bronzong – the soft glow of Safeguard long extinguished – was glowing again; a vague red, close to pink, this time. As Max watched, the aura blossomed and then exploded, covering the entire arena, stopping just short of Max and Isabella thanks to the shields.
He had heard no cries of pain, so Max assumed it was some status-like move. It wasn't Trick Room; he would've noticed that. Which move it actually was, he didn't know. "Keep moving, attack at will."
Bronzong started slowly moving around the arena, seemingly at random, and its movement allowed it to avoid a Hidden Power from a blind spot that left a momentary trail of frosted tips on the grass, probably giving it some much-needed moisture, though a follow-up burst of Ominous Wind from nearly the same spot wasn't dodged as natu took better aim.
Then bronzong summoned a rock from underground, quickly lifting it up and shattering the Rock Tomb slab in much the same way as it had done to vulpix earlier. "Deflect with Confusion."
No deflection happened, and natu chirped loudly a few times as pebbles and stones crashed into him.
Somehow, bronzong had disabled natu's Psychic powers without using Disable. That must have been the effect of the red attack earlier. Okay, Max could work with that. "Need to keep moving. Stick to Ominous Wind, but lay low for now."
Bronzong tried to flush natu out of the grass, continuing to summon rocks before shattering them at ever-increasing heights to widen the spread of the debris, but if natu was hit, he wasn't making a peep. The scattershot strategy continued for around a minute before Max's Pokémon revealed his position.
The Ominous Wind hit home, as did the quick and cheeky Hidden Power follow-up, enabled by natu hitting from bronzong's blind spot.
Isabella changed strategy, abandoning the rain of debris in favour of summoning slabs of rock and sending them in every direction. It had the effect of temporarily flattening some of the grass with each rock, but natu was still too quick to be hit by one.
Then bronzong barely missed natu, revealing a wing, and it immediately pounced, casting a psionic net that caught natu. "Ominous Wind!" Max ordered.
The Ghost-type attack took shape, natu manipulating the attack even as he chirped in distress. Bronzong was holding him tightly, and a rock was moving into position from behind fast. "Release it now."
Both attacks collided with their respective opponents, and while bronzong stayed afloat – barely, Max noticed – natu didn't reappear from the grass.
"Natu is unable to battle," were words Max didn't want to hear, but he did. He thanked natu for his hard work and eyed the bronzong. It had to be near fainting by now.
"Grovyle, I need you."
Bronzong went for a grab on the grovyle as soon as it was allowed to, but the Grass-type dove into the grass to avoid that, coming up from a roll several feet away, zigging and zagging his way to his opponent. "X-Scissor."
Grovyle did jump into a psionic field, but the blue glow on his arms cut right through the hold, even if it was slower than grovyle would normally move. The X-Scissor landed, and bronzong lost its levitation, falling to the ground with an almighty pair of clangs: one as its bottom hit the ground, one as its head hit one of the rocks it had summoned.
Isabella's next Pokémon was one of her wormadam, floating above the grass, and its beige colour told Max it was the Sandy Cloak version, meaning a Ground subtype to go along with its – her, Max remembered, as male burmy evolved into mothim – Bug physiology. It wasn't as bad as her other wormadam would have been: the Trash Cloak variation was terrible for grovyle, but Max could've switched bagon in against that.
The two Pokémon started off with ranged projectiles. The singular Rock Blast overpowered the multitude of Bullet Seeds at first, but the attack fell apart before it could make its way to where grovyle had been.
"Leaf Blade." Grovyle moved into some of the uncut grass, his form vanishing from sight as he went into a lope. It was possible to follow him, unlike natu, as his body caused grass to shift where he walked, and Isabella ordered wormadam to launch a Psybeam. "Feint right."
Grovyle obliged, drawing two off-target Psybeams before jumping out of the grass to deliver an overhead slash on wormadam.
And the attack bounced off a green shield, and a Rock Blast followed it up, hitting grovyle in the stomach, though he got up undeterred, vanishing into the grass once more, moving slightly slower to not give away his position as badly.
Protect was something Max could deal with. How couldn't he; it was only Danny's favourite move. All he had to do was be patient. "Circle around, then Mega Drain."
The more deliberate movement gave Isabella and wormadam less clues to grovyle's whereabouts, and the Psybeams went wide; the second one going the complete opposite way of where grovyle jumped up a moment after wormadam finished the attack. He latched onto wormadam from behind, forcing her to the ground and draining energy for a moment. Then, he leapt out, avoiding the Rock Blast that went high into the sky, and launching a burst of Bullet Seed that hit the wormadam as she ascended.
"Leaf Blade, draw out the Protect."
The plan nearly worked perfectly. Grovyle feigned an attack, but changed direction at the last second, instead diving into the grass underneath wormadam, slicing some of it away. The Protect faded, and grovyle tried to make a grab for wormadam, intent on draining more energy. He did, but wormadam was able to latch onto his shoulder, biting into it.
At this distance, Max couldn't see if there was anything else to the attack, but he assumed there wasn't. Grovyle certainly didn't appear poisoned as he flung wormadam off with a heave before speeding after her in a Quick Attack that intercepted her, sending the Bug-type flying even further back, all the way to Max's half of the arena. "Careful now. Need to draw out the Protect again."
Grovyle obliged, slinking back into the grass. Max was able to track him, but Isabella probably wasn't: the Pokémon were maybe twenty feet away from Max. Wormadam wasn't able to track him either, it seemed, as she fired Rock Blasts at places Max knew grovyle wasn't at. Then she fell silent, just floating in mid-air.
Max recognised a trap when he saw one. Now to spring it, and he knew just how. "Feign Leaf Blades until I say go."
As Max expected, wormadam didn't even flinch at the first Leaf Blade that slashed the grass underneath her. The second Leaf Blade that sliced the air next to her, however, drew a response, and she threw up Protect to avoid being hit.
Too bad Max's Pokémon hadn't put much into that slice either. "Go!"
Grovyle jumped up from the grass to wormadam's left, arms aglow in the blue light of X-Scissor, the blades parting the Psybeam that was meant to stop him. His left arm went up, slamming down on wormadam a moment later, knocking her to the ground, and the right arm intercepted her en-route with a precise jab that cut across the Bug's body.
Max's order of Mega Drain wasn't even needed. Sadly. Grovyle could've used the extra energy. It wasn't as if he looked that tired, but more energy never hurt.
Isabella's fifth Pokémon was a gallade. The Blade Pokémon cut some of the grass upon coming out, and then he bowed deeply; a sign of respect for his opponent.
Max and grovyle returned the bow, and then the battle began.
Gallade vanished from sight, Teleporting in above grovyle, elbow blades glowing blue – Psycho Cut – in an attempt to cheap shot the Grass-type. Grovyle nimbly dodged out of the way, ducking under a head-height horizontal slash as gallade spun on his feet, creating a small arms-reach area in which no grass came up to his own arms. A quick arm downward blocked grovyle's attempt to X-Scissor the gallade's legs, and the hand to hand combat began.
Grovyle brought an arm up, and light blue met blue-violet. He pushed in, and out his right arm went when gallade pushed back, making room for a left-handed slash across the midriff as grovyle carried momentum into it.
Gallade parried, a quick downward motion before an upward one, knocking grovyle's arm away, scoring a glancing blow with his own left before closing his guard, blocking an X-Scissor, but taking seeds to the face.
The Bullet Seed made the guard falter. Grovyle dropped low, swiping, using the hasty parry as a springboard to deliver a cut with the leaf on his head.
Gallade's retaliation pushed grovyle back in mid-air, his landing awkward despite blocking the jab. Isabella's Pokémon sprang forward, cutting grass with his right arm, the left held across his body defensively until he reached grovyle. Then, the left attacked, and the right moved back.
Grovyle countered the blow wrongly, overextending into the block and paying for it with a quick slash across his body. Green light flared, once on his body, once on his arms, and grovyle pushed gallade back, breaking the parry and reaching through to the gallade's hips. The Blade Pokémon hissed and retreated with a jump. Grovyle advanced on him.
Crimson and light-blue replaced blue-violet, and grass fell as green met crimson, the red blade glowing as the Pokémon separated. A diagonal slash met grovyle's deflection. The Fury Cutter was extinguished, unable to block both Leaf Blades, but as they slashed into gallade, so did X-Scissor into grovyle.
A cry of pain rent the air, green aura faltering, but not falling. Furious, uncontrolled, slashes followed, grovyle cutting grass, not gallade. He was back where they first fought, a Teleport having brought him there. "Calm down," Max said.
Grovyle obeyed, his charge forward fast, but not reckless. Leaf Blade clashed with X-Scissor left, high, and Fury Cutter right, low. A blast of seeds, head reared back, missed, gallade twisting his way out of the locked blades. Grovyle lurched forward, unbalanced.
Gallade sent both blades into his opponent's back, and green was quenched.
"Grovyle is unable to battle."
Max returned his starter, and shook his head, looking up, seeing the rest of the arena as overgrown as before. He nearly forgot it was there. The duel had been entrancing, commanding his attention like few things ever had. His mouth was parched, and he grabbed the bottle of water next to him, draining the last mouthful. He grabbed a pokéball, his last. Only one Pokémon left, and Max held no illusions. This was probably his last in the tournament.
Time to make it a good one. "Bagon, I choose you!"
The first thing bagon did, as ever, was a Dragon Pulse. The second was to duck into the tall grass as gallade Teleported in, intent on delivering a Psycho Cut. "Keep hidden," Max said, inklings of a plan beginning to form.
Isabella had no Fire-type Pokémon at all, and her sole Water-type was a lombre that had been knocked out hard in the previous round. Maybe she had her lunatone or rhydon as her last Pokémon, but he'd cross that bridge if it came to that.
Gallade was chasing bagon, missing, but slowly cutting away the grass so that bagon had less of it to hide in. Isabella's Pokémon was also going about the task methodically, creating sections of grass separated by cut paths. Max listened for footsteps, and he heard soft cracks as gallade moved across the arena. The tips of the grass – the parts that suffered the most whenever the grass was cut – were dry.
He'd lose in a straight-up fight, so Max needed every advantage he could get. He had to try. "Bagon, Embers on the ground when you can, as hot as you can."
It probably wasn't the most amusing experience for the audience, Max realised with a grin as the battle continued. One Pokémon hiding, and the other playing lawnmower didn't make for the excitement of the other fights. They'd have to wait.
Soon, Max saw smoke starting to spiral up from two separate spots, and it wasn't long after that when a small flame appeared at one of those spots far behind gallade's and bagon's current location. "Just a bit more."
Gallade Teleported forward, slashing the grass around it immediately, and he missed bagon by inches because the dragon had been hunched over, launching embers that caught falling strands and gallade's feet. "Headbutt."
The jump surprised gallade, and bagon's head hit the gallade's torso without being blocked. A Psycho Cut ran across his back, but once again, the bagon dove into the grass for safety. He hadn't needed to, as gallade had noticed he was standing in a small fire, Teleporting away to a safer place. "More Embers."
Four, then five, then even six, sets of flame appeared as gallade searched for bagon, his methodical cutting of before now working against him as he had a large uncut rectangle to search and slice, but eventually, Isabella spotted the bagon, ordering a Teleport and delivering a quick jab that sent bagon flying back to one of the paths.
Bagon immediately set that on fire too before rolling out of the way of gallade as he lunged in from above. A quick, but weak, Dragon Pulse bought bagon enough time to get to his feet, and another one exploded on gallade's blade, creating wind that spread the flame.
"That's enough," Max said before telling bagon to just hide. The fire was spreading, and smoke was starting to reduce Max's sight of Isabella already: she appeared as if in a heat haze in July, not an afternoon in December. If the battle moved to Isabella's half, soon Max wouldn't even be able to see it.
But this was his strategy, and he would work with it or lose. Gallade was certainly being affected, as Max saw it carefully avoid some of the burning patches of grass, and Max also saw bagon hiding behind one of those. "Dragon Rage now."
The bushfire fed the attack, and gallade was engulfed in the dragon's flame, far too late at retaliating with a weak Disarming Voice. Bagon wasn't even near. "Dragon Pulse."
Gallade deflected the attack on a Psycho Cut, sending it up and reminding Max that he was still decently hale. A second Dragon Pulse was deflected back with an angry slash, but bagon avoided his own attack, going back into the fire to hide.
And gallade remained where he was, his eyes now closed, as if waiting for something.
Bagon sent a Dragon Rage, and that was the sign gallade had been waiting for. He Teleported in and immediately swept an arm down on bagon's right. The dragon had dodged to that side every time before and gallade had figured it out as he landed a purple-black attack on bagon with one arm. The second arm would have delivered a Fury Cutter, but bagon bit down on gallade's left arm, stopping that. "No!" Max yelled.
It left him completely open. The right blade hit bagon from below, dislodging the dragon and sending him flying upwards, unable to control his path. Gallade tracked it, adjusted his stance and position slightly, and simply hit bagon as gravity did its work, ignoring a hasty Dragon Pulse as well.
The two blades gallade hit with gave bagon enough speed to ram into the side of the arena with a loud thud, right underneath the referee. The man looked down, and raised the green flag. "Bagon is knocked out. Isabella is the winner."
He had tried, and he had lost. Max returned bagon, noticing gallade Teleporting out and a triad of blastoise moving in to extinguish the fire. Max hoped the next match didn't require this field as he walked down the stairs, passing through the shielding that kept the sound out.
He didn't acknowledge the applause as he moved past the blastoise fighting the fire, nor did he as he walked up the other set of stairs. Isabella hadn't heard him approach, but gallade had sensed him, and the Blade Pokémon sank into another short bow that alerted his trainer. Max returned it once more. "Congratulations," he said, his voice steady. "That was fun." And that sounded lame.
Isabella took his proffered hand and shook it. "It was a great battle," she agreed, returning the tired gallade by her side. "Very calculated. I wasn't expecting that out of someone your age." She smiled broadly. "Shows what I know. If we meet next year, I'll be the underdog for sure."
Max blushed slightly. "We'll see. A lot can happen in a year."
"Good point." They walked down the stairs, Isabella waving at the audience. "Hey," she said, giving Max a nudge. "Wave. You deserve the applause as well."
It certainly wasn't Max's imagination that the applause swelled when he gave a first hesitating wave, and it didn't go down until both of them were in the catacombs. They thanked the referee, with Max apologising for torching the field and the referee waving that off, and made to walk back to separate rooms. "Just a moment. Why did you bow?" Isabella asked. "I've only ever seen others with a Pokémon from that line do that, and you don't have one, right?"
Various ideas shot through Max's mind, quick as lightning, of how to respond. He went with the truth. Of sorts. "A friendly gardevoir taught me, and it just felt right to do."
"I see," Isabella said, and Max had the feeling she actually did. "Well, I… This is where I leave. See you around, Max Maple." She nodded to somewhere behind Max and left.
Max turned around, and there his parents were, Danny and May half-hidden behind them. Max walked up, head held high. He'd reached far, and it had been amazing. He had even managed to bow out with his dignity intact. "Hi."
"Hi to you too," his father replied drily. "Just so you know, I don't plan on allowing hiding spots in our battle."
"You take away all the fun, Dad."
"That's what parents are for. Now, let's go back up. Maybe we'll see something half as good."
~~§~~§~~
It was the day before the last two matches, December 15th, and Max's little hide-away away from everyone else wasn't his alone any longer. Instead, everyone of their group was there, all seven of them, and most of the Pokémon were out as well, with a few exceptions. Keith had begged off sending onix out, and Jane hadn't wanted to send her shellder out. That still left seven teenagers and thirty-nine Pokémon – Alice only had five – on a crowded cliff.
There was a reason they had four picnic baskets filled to the brim with food and drink. Danny and Keith had been up since pretty much dawn to make some of that stuff, with Danny even calling in Ash's help for food ideas the night before. That had ended up with an hour-long call to Kanto as Danny met Brock for the first time, coming away with several ideas and, apparently, some of Max's favourites.
"My lords, ladies, and Pokémon," Danny spoke up pompously, channelling his father, "lunch has arrived."
"We hope it's tasty. The failures sure were!" Keith added, to chuckles.
It was tasty, and everyone seemed to agree, to the point of Max having to keep Alice's growlithe out of the basket he was sitting next to. Thankfully, Max was somewhat immune to sad puppy eyes after spending time with the Birch growlithe, manectric, and vulpix, and he was able to tell the canine 'no' before putting some extra Pokémon food in the bowl to keep Alice's Pokémon happy.
"Hey, everyone," Keith said as everyone was pretty much done with the lunch. Max certainly was: he felt full to bursting. "So we've all been out for about a year, unless your name is Birch or Maple, in which case it's nine months." He waited for Max and Danny to react, and they happily obliged. "And we've all met tons of Pokémon, but is there any Pokémon you wanted to meet, but you haven't?"
"The one askin' should be the one answerin' first," Linda replied as she lazily ran her hands through her swinub's fur. "Don'tcha think so too?"
"Seconded," Danny said quickly, and both Paul and Alice added their agreement. "So, Keith?"
"Any Legendary," Keith said without dropping a beat. "Just to see one. They're amazing forces of nature. I'd be amazing to see one of the Birds or Beasts, and I don't mean one of Wattson's mechs!" That got a round of laughter, as everyone had visited the jovial Gym Leader on their journey. "And because I went first, I'll pick who goes next. So, Linda, which Pokémon?"
"Well, Legendaries sound great," Linda started, giving Max a feeling he knew which one in particular. "And I like Ground-types," she added unnecessarily. Her baltoy, golett, swinub, and trapinch were all hanging around. "So groudon, but I understand there was some kinda trouble with him 'n kyogre a bit back, so maybe it's better I didn't see him. Dunno any other Pokémon, really." She shrugged. "Anyway, Alice?"
Alice and Paul both chimed in with Legendaries as well. Alice expressed a preference for articuno due to their grace, and Paul hoped to one day see a jirachi.
It was a good thing Max wasn't eating or drinking anything at the time, because it probably would have caused a mess.
"Right," Danny said, having been passed the turn. "I'm boring. I don't want to see a Legendary. I just want to see an espeon for once. It's the only eeveelution I haven't seen, and it's really annoying."
"Where did ya meet the others?" Paul wondered.
"Flareon, leafeon, sylveon on Trainers. Umbra has an umbreon for her signature Pokémon, Wattson has a jolteon, May has a vaporeon, and I'm missing one now… Max, help me out."
"Glaceon at the lab."
"Thank you. Just for that, you get to go last. Jane?"
Max resisted the urge to look at her. Jane was almost painfully shy, more comfortable with Pokémon than humans at times. Only Keith really managed to get her out of her shell. "I just want to see mew," she said, softly, but everyone heard her anyway, and none of them pressed her on it.
All eyes went to Max. "There isn't a Pokémon I want to see, but if I had a chance to meet one..." He took a deep breath. "Ralts."
He met Danny's eyes, his best friend asking several questions silently. Max hoped his slight nod was good enough an answer. "Yeah, I know," Max said in reply to several verbal questions. "I've met ralts. They're rare, but not that rare. It's just that..." He fell silent, biting his lip. "You know I travelled with Ash." Everyone nodded in response to that, having been told that at some point or another over the course of the last two weeks. "That was fun, and I saw enough Legendaries to last me a lifetime. But when we'd been going around Hoenn for eight months, I rescued a ralts. Pneumonia, and some poachers intent on taking him. I brought him to the Pokémon Center, and we made a promise that I would come back for him. But by the time we got to Izabe, a week after my birthday, ralts was gone. Poachers, his mother told us. I… I didn't like that."
All the others were silent, maybe a bit surprised by the story. Only Danny and Linda knew of it before. "That's why you had a Dawn Stone," Jane said. "Because of a male ralts."
"Ash gave it to him," Danny added. "For his birthday, just like he gave May a Water Stone for her vaporeon. Eventually, Max decided he wanted me to have it, and, well…" Danny shrugged. Froslass wasn't here, but if she had, Max knew Danny would have pointed at her.
Keith raised his hand. "Uh, question. Why didn't you catch another one? I mean, you could, right?"
"Max doesn't capture Pokémon. He sweet-talks them," Paul drawled, smirking. "Unlike us normal Trainers."
"Hey, I caught three of them. That's got to count for something, right?" Everyone laughed. "Maybe I'll catch more in Kalos. Who knows."
"Oh, you're going to Kalos too? Wicked!" Keith said, leaning in for a high five. "Where's everyone else going?"
"Kalos," Danny said instantly. "As if I'd leave Max alone. Someone needs to pop his ego from time to time."
"That's not what you said last week."
"So? Doesn't make it any less true."
Max had no response to that, nor did he really want to reply. "Where are you going, Linda?"
"Actually, all of us," Linda said, gesturing to include Paul and Alice," are goin' to Kanto, and I'm gonna be at Alice and Paul's home for Yule. Y'know, since Unova..." Nods greeted her trailed-off statement. "We'll be travellin' apart, but I'm sure we'll meet up a lot. Kanto didn't look that big, and there's only so many Gyms too." She looked at Max, Danny, Keith, and Jane. "Hope we can keep talkin' to each other, even from that distance."
Max smiled at her. "We'll figure something out."
~~§~~§~~
The group that walked onto the flat arena was small: there were only sixteen of them. The organisers were calling everyone up in order of elimination, and so Max had to wait long after his friends had left, something that wasn't helped by the announcer reading out the names of everyone who had been eliminated in the Victory Tournament.
They passed the ones who'd gone out in rounds before them, and as the groups became smaller, the formation became more organised. The first two groups were nothing more than blobs, but the round of 64 group were standing in four lines of eight. Max saw Ryan standing in the back right, close to the round of 128 group; and the sour look on the Unovan's face was so sweet.
They made four lines of four, and while Max tried to hide in the second row, an arm pulled him forward. "No hiding for you today. Be proud," Nicholas said as he ushered Max to the centre-right spot in the front row, to his left. "And maybe you can see something now, non?"
Max ignored the dig at his height, though it drew a deep chuckle from the man standing to his left. "I could put you on my shoulders," he said, and Max didn't doubt him for a second. Just the man's arm was half as wide as Max's entire body, and he had to be at least seven feet tall.
They joined the round of applause for those who had gone out in the round of sixteen, and Max saw Isabella smile as she spotted him. She'd lost to Maria, barely, and Maria had gone out in the quarter-finals.
Eventually, after the three on the podium walked in one by one – the fourth placed man having slunk in with the ones who had gone out in the quarter-finals – and after the Kanto national anthem had played to honour the winner, Mr. Goodshow stepped up to a lectern. "Dear Trainers, we're here at the end of another Conference," the President of the Pokémon League spoke.
"There were great battles, big turnarounds, and a deserved winner. There were losses too, and great passion was felt in the hearts of everyone watching or participating. There can be only one who wins the tournament, but to me, everyone standing in front of me is a winner."
Clapping interrupted the speech for about a minute, and Mr. Goodshow let it go. The moment he stepped back up, the audience fell silent. "The old generation came through with the oldest podium in all my years as President. The young generation came through with unprecedented numbers, and many gems awaiting their turn. You'll be great one day, and let nobody convince you otherwise."
The lights in the stadium started dimming. "This tournament was truly remarkable! At its end, let us remember that the bonds we forge here, in battle and camaraderie, are those that should last in this marvellous world."
The only source of light was the bowl with moltres's fire far above them; the stars absent due to cloud cover. "And now, I declare the 164th Ever Grande Conference to be over, and I call on all trainers to set their eyes towards the next Lily of the Valley Conference, come a month and a half from now. Thank you, and fare well!"
And the flame atop the stadium went out.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
[…] Though they are all part of the same series of tournaments, League Conferences in the Home Regions do have differences in execution. The Ever Grande Conference, for example, prides itself on its tradition of boosting promising youngsters to prominence, helped by a favourable system and spacing that doesn't put stress on team depth until the televised rounds start. At the opposite end, the Lily of the Valley Conference prides itself on being the consistently toughest League according to polls, with preliminaries weeding out weak trainers before the tournament even starts. The Indigo and Silver Conferences hold a middle ground: Indigo is often seen as the golden standard of Conferences, and the Silver Conference creates its own niche through innovative and ever-changing rules in the earlier rounds, emphasising creativity as well as team depth.
From: Trainers in the Home Regions, Chapter 10: Conferences.
Author's Note: Not quite as long as last chapter, but close, and Max's inevitable loss. It happens - as much as he got a head start from his childhood and first time around Hoenn (and Kanto), he's just not that experienced compared to older trainers. They will punish him for that: see grovyle and bagon making fatal mistakes vs gallade, or vulpix being too slow on her get-aways after attacking.
Metronome moves: Sludge Wave and Ice Shard.