In which the editor gets to see her favorite Hoenn character again. In his Emerald outfit, even.

They managed to beat Drake by cheating, if it could really be called that - trading Pokémon was perfectly legal and they had been doing it for most of their journey. If they got caught, all they had to do was claim ignorance.

Getting caught looked increasingly unlikely. If Drake even knew, he got his revenge by having his Salamence knock May's Swampert around, and he was close enough to winning that Brendan almost worried. But thanks to two Full Restores at the right times and Drake being limited to one, Brendan managed to pull through.

Drake let them pass after that, but he stopped them before he could close the door for the next challenger.

"Do you have a plan to battle the Champion?"

Brendan had some kind of plan, as much of a plan as he ever did. He wasted no time in telling Drake about it: "I was just going to make things up as I go. It's gotten me this far."

"That isn't a plan," Drake pointed out, "but I will give you the point that it counts as a strategy."

"That's thirty-one points for Slytherin," Brendan told May, "and Ravenclaw has twenty-five for all the times you knew what the legendaries were."

Drake didn't even question it. "My advice is to take the Champion seriously," he said as if he hadn't been interrupted. "No matter what you may hear...or see. I think part of his technique is keeping his opponents' guard down."

Brendan caught on. "How many times have you lost to the guy?"

"Four," Drake told him, "and counting. I wish you the best of luck, Brendan."

And he closed the door. May immediately made the trade back, taking Jerry right from Brendan's belt. Brendan watched her, pretending he wasn't scared. "Ready, May?"

"It's your show," was the quiet response. "I'm only here for inspiration and time out of Dad's lab. Are you ready?"

"Nope." Brendan looked up at the Champion's door, and summoned all of his courage. "Now I am. Let's do the thing."

They'd seen the Champion before. They'd even seen him in a less Champion-worthy outfit before. He still had a certain color scheme, but now the most ridiculous thing was the cape.

The fact that they knew the Champion did not surprise either of them. That honor went to the fact that the Champion was Wallace.

"I was expecting Steven," Brendan said, mildly disappointed, as he put Adam's ball down.

Wallace wasn't surprised. "You have encountered Steven more often in your travels," he agreed, "but I was in the Hall of Fame myself and he recently asked me to take over. He apparently decided that avoiding you and having a bigger rock collection were more important than the duties of a Champion. So I left the Sootopolis Gym in Juan's hands once again and came to the League building."

"So that's why Juan came back," May said, reeling with understanding. "He said it was because you got arrested by the fashion police."

Wallace cringed. "Yes, well...the, eh, costume does attract attention, and even after two years I tend to forget I'm not performing."

"And here I thought you'd lost a bet," Brendan commented.

"There was a little of that involved, as well."

The talk aside, Brendan was already making plans. Wallace was once the Sootopolis City Gym Leader, which implied a Water-type specialty. His first choice was obvious. "Breloom, do the thing!"

Wallace had been waiting for Brendan to make the first move, and immediately countered. "My choice...Ludicolo!"

A Water/Grass Pokémon. Brendan should have known he couldn't type-advantage his way to victory against a Champion.

Brendan had switched out for Banette, and she had taken down the Ludicolo and even mocked it.

That should have warned Brendan about what he was up against. Karma was another part of Wallace's battle strategy, and he used a Wailord to deliver it.

"Are you kidding?" Brendan had complained when he saw it. "All that thing has to do is roll over and my Pokémon is dead!"

But despite his complaints, Brendan had Breloom for that. A Mega Drain after each of Wailord's Blizzard attacks and a Mach Punch after each non-damaging move, and Wailord eventually lost. Wallace had expected Mega Drain to run out of power, but Brendan gave Breloom a Leppa Berry. That left the Whiscash open for everything.

Then came Gyarados, the one Pokémon that Brendan actually knew Wallace had. By this point, Brendan was feeling pretty good about himself. As Champion, Wallace should have a Pokémon that could Mega Evolve, and Gyarados going part-Dark would be practically giving Breloom the match.

May managed to ruin that for him. "Don't think you've won because of a type advantage. He's the Champion."

"This guy couldn't teach his own niece to battle," Brendan called back. "I'm sure Gyarados is predictable."

Wallace kept his emotions off of his face, but May could tell that he was faking calm just like Brendan liked to fake innocence. May carefully looked him over for a Key Stone, thinking that it might be what was holding his cape to his shirt.

Brendan decided to switch out. Wallace probably could Mega Evolve Gyarados, so he should fight back with a Mega Aggron. It felt like the right thing to do.

After all, potentially super-effective moves were considerably less awesome than a Mega battle.

Wallace could, in fact, Mega Evolve his Gyarados.

He hadn't planned on doing so, and Gyarados, stubborn as it was, had initially decided to take on Aggron on its own. But once Brendan had brought out the Key Stone, they decided to give the boy what he really wanted.

Gyarados won. Changing its type to Water/Dark left it open for Rock Smash, but it knew Earthquake. Mega Aggron was no match for that.

Fortunately, Adam still knew Double Kick and Aggron had weakened it enough to get him comfortable against a Water-type. Gyarados didn't even get an attack in.

Brendan was very pleased with himself. "Your Mega's down," he said unnecessarily. "You can surrender at any time."

"And why would I do that? I still have two Pokémon left." Wallace's next Pokémon was clearly one he was most attached to, and Brendan briefly wondered why he didn't Mega Evolve that one. "Gyarados may have the Mega Stone, but let's not forget that I rose to fame not as a Gym Leader, but as a Contest star."

He released his Pokémon, and May squeaked. Even Brendan had to admit that it was beautiful. A Milotic, his Pokedex told him.

Pretty as it was, it still needed to go down. "Adam, come back! Grumpig, do the thing!"

"Ice Beam!" Wallace ordered, deciding to jump right into attacking.

"Psyshock!" Brendan retaliated, but Milotic's attack hit first. The Ice Beam left Grumpig cold, but not completely frozen, and the Psyshock didn't do as much damage as they'd hoped.

It was going to be much harder than Brendan had thought.

Brendan had lost five Pokémon. So had Wallace, and he had swapped Milotic for a Tentacruel halfway through the battle. Brendan had called Grumpig back out for that one, and Milotic had returned and gotten revenge.

So now it really was down to Beldum. Or it would have been, if Brendan hadn't used it as a necessary sacrifice to use a Max Revive on Breloom.

Now that Breloom and Milotic were both back on the field, it was time for the finishing blow.

"Mega Drain!"

And just like that, Milotic was down, and Brendan had defeated the Champion of Hoenn.

Wallace was not a sore loser. He actually said that he enjoyed the battle, and congratulated him on becoming honorary Champion. May gave Brendan a pointed look, as if to say 'This is how you handle a loss.'

Brendan ignored her. "So do I get to take your job?"

"Of course not." Wallace opened his own secret door, and May did not get up from her seat. She knew where that door led. "You do get to see what I have back here."

"A zombie army?" Brendan asked, pretending he had no idea what Wallace was hiding.

"The Hall of Fame," Wallace said anyway. "I have not yet been able to raise the dead. That's Phoebe's task."

The Hall of Fame was actually pretty empty. The only things there were a giant healing machine hooked up to some form of computer with a camera, and plenty of pictures of other Champions.

Brendan saw the pictures of Steven and Wallace with their Pokémon, and tried to see if there were other people he knew, but Wallace drew his attention to the machine.

"A Pokémon League Champion," Wallace explained, "is sworn in with this, even if he or she does not take the job. You are now one of us. Place your Pokémon in there, and you will all be recognized forever...which is all you really want, I'm sure."

Brendan started to put Adam's ball down, but pulled it back up to ask Wallace a question. "Drake won't come in here, will he?"

"Drake?" Wallace didn't seem to understand. "I don't think so. He's happy where he is."

"Good." Brendan looked down at his Pokémon. "So when can I see my picture on the wall?"

A week later, May had managed to convince Norman to let her throw a party for Brendan in his Gym. It didn't take much, but she liked to exaggerate on it.

She'd invited Brendan's mother, all of the Gym Leaders and Elites, both Champions, the professor and his wife, and of course Wally and Lisia. At the moment, all of Team Breakneck was gathered in a semi-huddle, Lisia getting to know Wally and the twins by making fun of Wallace's drunk genie costume, which for reasons unknown, he was wearing again.

"I thought he would have burned it by now," Lisia commented. "Why did he wear it again?"

"My guess?" Brendan pointed toward the door as Flannery entered, looking mildly overwhelmed once again, until she saw Wallace and Steven, both slightly smug and very clearly anticipating her reaction.

The reaction was calm, all things considered. She merely looked Wallace right in the eyes and said, "You are not dressing our imaginary children."

Wallace's reply was just as calm. "I love you, too, darling."

This triggered Lisia's attention span, and she gestured at her uncle with something remarkably similar to rage. "So are you ever going to bother to give me an explanation for this, or what?"

"They're mocking the internet," Steven said at once.

"He won my hand in marriage through a poker game," Flannery explained.

"They're taking a joke too far," Winona added, not taking her eyes off of her Altaria, who was playing with Ali.

"Making headlines," Wallace corrected, "though the primary factor is seeing how far we can push it. There's something most Champions have in common, and that is a love of misleading those simple-minded enough to believe what they're told without question. Flannery and I have just gone a step further than Steven did, because I don't have to pay her to play along."

Lisia sighed. "Forget I asked. Just say I'm a bridesmaid and pretend this whole conversation never happened."

"Already done." Flannery looked over at Brendan, almost curious. "So how is the whole Champion thing working for you so far?"

"Boring," Brendan answered, "but you probably knew that."

"I suspected." But she was grinning. "You topped your father's accomplishment, though. Isn't that what was motivating you?"

"And now I don't know what to do with myself," Brendan finished. "I'm not thought of as Norman's son anymore, he's thought of as Brendan's dad. I'm in the middle of an identity crisis."

"So find a hobby," Winona suggested. "I'm sure there are plenty of things for boys your age to do. You'll have homework soon enough."

All six kids covered their ears at the same time. Even Tate and Liza - apparently, being Gym Leaders was not good enough to get them out of school. It must have been a part-time job.

Brendan looked up before the rest, and saw Norman getting up from his conversation with Juan (about old man problems, no doubt, even though Norman was only in his thirties and Juan didn't look older than fifty) and looking through the window. Then, seeing his son, he called him over, just as the door to the Gym opened.

"We heard the kid defeated the Champion," a familiar, rough voice said, and Brendan's confusion matched Norman's. "Don't worry, we're here to congratulate him. No more making trouble."

May looked up, too, but she was not surprised to see Archie and Shelly there. "I didn't think you guys would actually do it," she said instead, glaring at the twins.

"Why wouldn't we?" Liza asked, faking innocence. "It was the least they can do."

"Besides," Tate added, "they would have shown up anyway, Team Magma's coming too."

"And who invited them?"

"Tabitha, probably," both twins said together.

Sure enough, Team Magma came to the door shortly after, where, after congratulating Brendan on his new title, Tabitha had to restrain Maxie to get him to stay. They stood awkwardly with Team Breakneck until Brendan had finished explaining to Norman that there were probably not going to be any big dramatic battles to decide the fate of the world this time.

"How are you guys still out of jail?" Brendan asked, and the former villains' heads all turned to Tate and Liza. The Gym Leaders shared a short telepathic conversation, and then the clarification began.

"They did get arrested," Tate started. "Liza and I just got them out with a combination of bribery, Gym Leader authority, and Jedi mind tricks. They're out of prison, but we're their wardens."

"And the judges," Liza added. "We decided to sentence them to Team Breakneck initiations. And then we put them online."

"So what did they do?" Brendan asked, almost begging for a chance to watch.

Tate made awkward eye contact with May, and broke it off immediately so he could use his words. "Well, since Liza ships anything with a pulse..."

"And Tate has a not-so-secret interest in really bad romantic comedies..."

"Only for making fun of them, I swear..."

"We decided to make them all read off a script we wrote for the world's worst mermaid romance, casting Shelly as the mermaid and Archie as the pirate who fishes her up and falls in love with her." Liza shot the humiliated pair a smug look. "And then the Biscuit Incident got out of hand and we had to cut the scene," she finished.

"Let's not talk about the biscuits," Shelly hissed.

"Fine." Liza pointed to Maxie and Tabitha. "And the skinny dude can't act. At all. The other guy's decent, but not really the 'rival sea captain' type."

Lisia's eyes lit up. "Where did you upload this? I will pay you to let me see this."

"It's free."

"Better."

Brendan didn't care as Archie and Shelly tried to object, or even that they eventually left to 'walk the plank' or something. He only really cared about the people he was watching with.

He hadn't had many friends, even in Johto. But now he had not only a best friend in May and faithful companions in his Pokémon, but all of Team Breakneck (including the former villains, if forced) would stand behind him whenever he asked.

And that the twins were horrible script writers. But if he could handle Archie and Maxie, he could handle a bad thirty-minute short film where the actors had learned their lines in about the same time span.

He could handle anything.