The other Masters slowly gathered in the League over the course of the next few days in preparation for the official meetings. Lance didn't oversee all of their move-ins—Brock had been a special case both because of his age and his request for advice—but he only needed to walk through the hallway and feel the latent ozone in the air that crackled across his cloak, smell the cloying perfume that drifted from under another door, breathe in the heavy and humid air that immediately felt unerringly dry against his skin to know that his fellows had arrived. No walls could contain the exuding auras of the Masters, no matter how much money the government threw at a building, especially if they were accompanied by their prized partners at all times, as he expected they would be.
Despite his excitement at meeting Brock, Ash slowly began to withdraw from the League building at large as more Masters arrived. An influx of Masters from South Kanto coincided with Ash refusing to leave his room, and no amount of gentle questioning to him or Mewtwo would reveal anything other than an undercurrent of nervous energy that Lance was hard-pressed to ignore. Even the promise of another playmate didn't convince Ash to leave his haven, and Lance was reluctant to invade it with strangers if he had already decided that he didn't want to be social.
When Lance mentioned these odd tendencies offhand to Brock, the Rock Master almost seamlessly incorporated visiting Ash into his settling-in schedule. Accompanied by his diligent Golem partner, her shiny ward, and his current project of a Pupitar, Brock became a popular figure in Ash's room, and he was more than happy to come talk to the younger boy. Lance wondered if Brock was as intrigued by Ash as Ash seemed to be him or if his interest was based in nostalgia for the gaggle of siblings he left at home when visiting the League.
The day before all of the Masters were expected to be present (and, true to her nature, Green was dragging her heels in arriving), Lance knocked on Ash's door to find the room empty. Perhaps another man would have panicked, but he simply released Deino from her Pokeball and bid her to track the boys down. She led him down the halls into a usually unused training arena, where Lance could feel the slight trembling of the earth and hear halfhearted cracks.
Ash had somehow convinced Brock to let him watch the older boy train, and Brock's protective nature had led him to command his team to underperform. There was a distinct boredom in Rhydon's eyes as he flailed his arms loosely at a rock spire that Brock's Golem had manifested, but even that was enough to send small shockwaves through the earth that made Ash tremble from behind the barrier that Mewtwo had put up. Egg, Amber, and Fossil were hovering in bubbles of Mewtwo's making, chasing each other through the air with bursts of energy. Program was floating around them, as usual.
"What's happening here?" Lance asked as he walked in, undisturbed by the occasional tremors.
"I'm trying to see if I can get Rhydon to use Hammer Arm in a slightly more versatile way," Brock responded. "It's a bit hard to try and convey the message, though, especially when he's not able to go all out like he wants to."
Rhydon's glance towards Brock spoke of disbelief and resignation.
"How about this," Lance said. He lightly trailed a finger over his own team's Pokeballs and settled on one, clicking it off of his belt and activating it. A flash of light revealed a strangely serpentine form with paper-thin diamond-shaped wings. The Flygon trilled in her throat, curving a long neck down to look at the smaller humans curiously.
"Flygon, if you would take Ash up and away from the ground, please," he asked, hands still moving around his team as he considered who else to ask for help. She gave a cry of agreement before swinging a glowing tail down and effortlessly breaking Mewtwo's barrier. The Psychic stumbled at the sudden disconnect before turning to give Flygon a glare, but she had already scooped Ash up, placed him carefully on her back, and flown into the air. Mewtwo projected annoyance and indignity to all who could hear before hovering up to join them, directing the bubbles of Pokemon to follow behind him. During it all, Lance had released two more of his team members. The two golden-scaled dragons that flickered into being must have been of the same species but were very visibly of different lineage, as the first shook off the stasis with a snarl curling from her angular snout and the second stretched out a pair of feathered wings as he cracked out a crick in his neck.
"Wyvern, to me. Coatl, you're in charge of Brock; follow his lead whenever you can."
The feathered Dragonite trilled before plopping down onto all fours and offering his back for Brock to climb onto. The more feral-looking Dragonite did nothing of the sort for Lance, grabbing him by the back of the cape, throwing him onto her back, and taking off with a single swift movement.
After all of the humans were safely in the air, Lance looked to Brock. "Well?" he prompted.
Brock looked much more at ease now that everyone was guaranteed to be safe. After leaning over and asking for permission from Coatl, Brock released his two other Geodude to watch training. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted down at the team members he had left on the ground. "Aida, Stone Spires! Get them moving at eighty percent to start, be prepared to speed up to max!"
The Golem crooned with excitement before she slid a foot over the plain ground. Jagged fingers made of rock suddenly burst from the ground, practically swimming through the packed earth towards Rhydon. The horned pokemon gave a snort of anticipation, crouching fluidly into a ready position and leaping to one side before one of the Spires could ram into him. Rhydon snarled at Aida, who simply smirked and shook herself out, her rocky scales glimmering for a split second, before snickering at Rhydon. The behemoth glared at the megaton for a brief moment before he had to dodge another tower of rock that hurtled towards him.
"Rhydon! Hammer Arm, forty-five seconds! Aida, keep up the Spires; don't introduce anything more yet!" Brock called down. Lance felt a mental brush that fed him confusion and curiosity and merely shook his head to Mewtwo, attempting to convey patience to him. Flygon darted up by Wyvern, who snapped at her briefly before being chastened by the pat to her head from her rider-Trainer. Ash voiced Mewtwo's question to Lance out loud; he told the boy to be patient as well.
Now the two wore parallel expressions of impatience and rebellion.
Meanwhile, Rhydon had been weaving through the set of Stone Spires, speeding up as Aida commanded the ground to accelerate. He didn't target the Spires specifically, choosing to obliterate the ones that came straight for him and couldn't be dodged. Aida didn't change her tactics at all, merely making up for the smaller number of Spires she had to command by sending them flying through the earth at breakneck speeds.
When it got down to five rock formations, Rhydon began to hunt the Spires down in earnest. Aida must have reached her maximum speed because, while she wasn't visibly tired, she had tensed up and was concentrating fully on running circles around Rhydon rather than targeting him with the Spires and then making him chase them as she had been. Rhydon darted around the arena with a speed that should have been impossible for him— Lance had a feeling that Brock had somehow weaponized the bursts of energy that attacks like Fury Attack gave to horned Pokemon—and tore into the rock as though they were made of paper. The last burst of energy resulted in a loud boom that echoed in the arena. When the dust settled, Lance could see Aida deactivating a Protect bubble that surrounded her left arm. Cracks ran through it; Rhydon had managed to damage the summoned armor with his sheer power.
"Well done training them, Brock," Lance said in the deafening silence. With the stillness broken, Ash started whooping on Flygon's back and Rhydon gave Aida a grunt of respect that she returned.
Brock leaned over Coatl's back to give his team a critical look before sighing quietly. "That only barely cut it. Rhydon needs to refine Fury Dash a bit more so that he can phase into it more quickly, and Aida's still taking it pretty easy on him, waiting for him to get rid of most of them before making him run after them. She's only just adapted the shockwaves that Bulldoze makes to be able to direct specific Spires, and from there it's been easy to add additional Spires. We're working on additional layers of Rock Blast and Gyro Ball in there, but that might be too much for her to handle."
"That is a lot of moving parts," Lance said, "though the idea of a cloud of attacks, while not particularly original, is always a good advanced staple. Each of my Dragonite have their own unique blend, as well as most of my other team members. What was Rhydon doing, exactly?" He gestured for Coatl, Wyvern, and Flygon to land.
Brock sighed much more loudly now. "Besides Fury Dash? We're working on the stamina and strength of his Hammer Arm as well as seeing if he can finesse it from just a blunt hit. Might seem like a weird thing to do with a Rock-type, but if Rhydon can get this move down it opens up possibilities for learning elemental moves and being able to include those in already-established techniques." They had touched down now. Ash, as quiet as he had been in the descent, was running up to them now, tailed by Mewtwo.
"How did the rocks swim?" he asked first, practically bouncing with excitement.
"They're technically based in Stone Edge, though Aida breaks them off to control them with Stealth Rock. Some of them aren't actually real and are based in Double Team to try and make the opponent panic more with less energy, and the ones that are physical are moved with a refined Bulldoze. Aida didn't use any of the Double Team ones this time, from what I could tell, so you can imagine just how much mayhem twice as many spires could cause," Brock listed off. It was one of his most complicated tricks, and Lance was impressed by how much it had evolved from the basic Stone Edge-Stealth Rock combo that it started as. Brock had once just wanted a more robust entry hazard; Lance wondered briefly what had inspired him to make it mobile.
Ash seemed lost. "Stone Edge?"
"It's one of the more powerful Rock-type moves," Brock said, apparently unaffected by Ash's confusion. "In its best form, a Pokemon can summon rings of stones around itself that are then thrown into the enemy. They're refined from the Pokemon's actual Aura, so their power is based on the Rock-type energy from the Pokemon's energy levels rather than the surroundings like some other moves are."
"Why not just use that move, if it's so strong?"
Brock took a moment to think on this. "The moves that we throw out as expected are the basic level of Pokemon mastery," he said. "They're not strictly the limit of a Pokemon's power. They're techniques that all examples of that species can use. There are very few Golem with the experience and power necessary to maintain Stone Spires"—Aida visibly preened under her beloved Trainer's praise—"and it's both a display of pride for her to be able to pull it off, as well as a strong technique that other Trainers can't be expected to counter easily simply because they most likely haven't seen anything like it before."
"So, what about him?" Ash had to point at Rhydon to get Brock to understand what he was asking.
"Rhydon wasn't doing anything too big," he responded. "He's just using Hammer Arm. Usually, the pokemon powers up its entire arm and just tries to hit with whatever part of it they can. This requires the entire arm to be powered up to the same degree. Rhydon's working on a version of this move that focuses all of that power to one part of the arm; it's both an attack exercise and a finesse exercise. If he can fully master learning how to localize that kind of energy, then the move pool that Rhydon can learn from increases exponentially." Brock looked over Rhydon critically. "He's almost there. It's just this and Earth Power and then I think Rhydon might be able to consider evolving. I want him to have a mastery of every possible basic technique of his line before getting to that next step."
Rhydon snorted at his Trainer. Brock smiled in response. "It's been a long journey, hasn't it bud?" Rhydon nodded earnestly.
Ash cocked his head sideways. "Why not start that right now?"
Brock scratched the back of his head. "We have, a little bit, but it's extremely complicated if you don't have the control needed to manifest that kind of power."
"He has the power, though?"
"They both do." Brock nodded to where Aida and Rhydon were standing. "They were some of my first, and maybe because of that they are much more in tune to what I demand of them. I've only got one other team member that could try and be a match for these two."
Ash didn't even ask this time. He just gave Brock a beseeching look. The older boy made the mistake of looking him in the eye before sighing good-naturedly and silently releasing the final member of his main trio, tossing the Pokeball as high into the air as he could.
The burst of red light from the capsule quickly expanded and extended into the dark Onix that Brock had with him previously, who roared the second his vocal cords allowed him to. Rather than collapsing to the ground with a heavy thud, Onix somehow twisted into the air, landing surprisingly softly in a ready-attack position. The serpent's segmented body shifted in the sand as he almost instinctually flickered his body into a glossy shine. After the post-release ritual, Onix turned to the humans and ducked his head down in a deep bow to Brock.
"Onix was already older when I found him," Brock said lovingly, looking to the massive pokemon before him. "No one expects him to be quite as agile as he is, maybe because of the rock. We're working on making him the swiftest he can be before evolving, if he wants to evolve at all, since the addition of the armor would make such exercises difficult." Onix gave a deep, unhappy bray that echoed somewhere between the boulders of his body at the idea of losing his speed.
"He's looking magnificent, Brock," Lance said, casting a critical eye over the Rock Snake. Onix didn't quite preen under his gaze, but he did give an appreciative rumble. "I'm not surprised that Flint conceded Mastership to you so quickly, if you were able to command an Onix of that caliber at your age."
Brock stiffened slightly. "Well, Dad probably appreciated being released from his duties on top of that," he said evenly as he reached a hand out to Onix. The Rock Snake Pokemon bumped the hand gently with his head. Lance dropped the subject immediately.
"Actually, Onix has a combo move that combines Stone Edge and Stealth Rock as well," Brock said thoughtfully. "It's very different from Stone Spires, since Aida has a very different fighting style from Onix, but it's still based in the same move set. Do you think you could give me some tips on it?"
Ash nodded vigorously, Mewtwo looking just as expectant. Lance merely leaned back slightly with his arms crossed.
"Onix! Pleochroia! Keep it close and dense!" Brock called out.
Onix gave a vicious Roar that made even Wyvern flinch for a split second before she shook it off with a disgusted growl. The stone serpent flexed into an ouroboros of boulders before beginning to spin rapidly. He began to exude a light blue glow that immediately solidified into small chips of rock that spun in the opposite direction. Some of them flickered out of the halo, planting into the ground around him, but a majority of them hovered around Onix's gyrating form. Onix suddenly snapped out of the repetitive swirling into his ready form again, the rocks around him continuing to orbit him like a cloud of asteroids. Onix gave another bellow that sang out his triumph and power. He coiled into a ready position: his head angled towards the ground and the base of his body wrapped into a spring prepared to leap.
"Very impressive combination, Brock. This move is far more based in Stone Edge than Stone Spires was, but it maintains the same level of discipline that you demand in Aida's combination move," Lance spoke almost absent-mindedly, voicing his immediate observations without thinking too hard about them. He walked around the cloud of Pleochroia to examine it more closely, knowing that he was missing some element and almost hoping that he didn't understand what it was. "I'd like to see the two of them spar one day, or even all three of your first few members of your team. It might provide some insight to their instincts and give you more ideas on further training for them."
'Make-move-move-rock-rock-burst-protect-shield-protect-rock?' Brock didn't seem to sense Mewtwo's train of thoughts, and after a moment of no response, Ash vocalized it to him.
"Pleochroia wasn't designed as a defense, as much as it looks like it," Brock said. "It's more of a long-delay offensive maneuver that Onix can set up and use as he wants. After the crystals have formed around him, he can throw out as many or as few as he wants. It's a controlled version of Stone Edge, boosted by the stickiness that Stealth Rock gives." Brock smirked; it was an odd expression to see on his face, filled with a pride that bordered on arrogance as he gazed upon the leviathan that he commanded, surrounded by a bubble of rock that hadn't wavered even in the minutes since he had summoned it. "There are few Onix that can master Stone Edge to this capacity without evolving into Steelix, and even fewer with this level of control. Most others would develop something like this as a shield, like you assumed. Only the best can learn to combine techniques like these after years of growth and training. You have to develop these kinds of techniques to earn your Mastery, and Onix was how I proved myself. He's gotten even better since then. I couldn't be happier with him."
"How do you come up with techniques like that?" Ash was almost vibrating at the thought, despite the fact that Egg had once displayed a similar prowess.
Brock gave Onix a hand signal. Upon seeing the cue, Onix dropped Pleochroia. The rocks rained onto the ground with a loud rumble; Onix shook himself off, relaxing into a coil on the ground, slithering over to Brock almost lazily.
"Instead of trying to explain it, why don't I show you how we develop them?" Brock proposed. Lance raised an eyebrow at that suggestion. The Rock Master shrugged at him. "Maybe Ash'll give me some ideas; you never know. Forrest was adamant about making Stone Spires move."
"Wisdom in the mouth of babes and all of that?" Lance joked. Brock just chuckled in response.
"Ash, if you have any ideas of moves to try and add to whatever you saw today, let me know," Brock said.
Ash must have picked up on the conversation because he was regarding Aida and Rhydon with a strangely keen look.
"Can he…" Ash stomped his legs around before looking up to Rhydon and chirping at him. The Pokemon looked thunderstruck at being directly spoken to by a human but simply responded by Stomping a foot down, sending tremors through the ground. After the Stomp, he looked to Ash expectantly. The child shook his head and stomped around again. Rhydon looked confused but gave two Stomps this time. Ash didn't look appeased yet and turned to his own team, who darted over to him and chattered to each other for a second. Lance wasn't too sure what was happening.
And then he was immediately sure.
Egg started darting around, his calls starting to sound strident and almost jeering. Amber cooed with a similar tone, though she didn't leap forward with him. Fossil didn't say anything, merely scuttling forward with a burst of speed more befitting his evolved form. Program stayed by Ash, almost curled up around his neck, as did Mewtwo.
Aida rolled away to stand by a confused Brock, and the two Geodude that he had observing the spar hopped onto her back. Rhydon seemed faintly amused to start with, grunting back good-naturedly and occasionally holding a foot out when Egg or Amber got too close. It didn't take too long before the mass of smaller Pokemon began to visibly irritate Rhydon. He began to swing his arms down to try and bat away the determined creatures. Amber deflected the first with a well-placed Force Palm before kicking at his leg and dancing out of reach.
It had taken the team of Pokemon all of five minutes to completely deplete Rhydon's patience and taunt him into roaring at them and stomping all around the ground. Wyvern, Coatl, and Flygon quickly darted over, picked up the humans they were carrying earlier, and took off again.
There was something distinctly different in the effects of Rhydon's movements this time, the shockwaves from his gestures more erratic and rumbling through the earth in a sharper thunder. Amber picked Fossil up as she and Egg leapt back and forth in between Rhydon's movements. One time they were ever slightly too hasty and ended up being thrown into the air from the power of Rhydon's stomping. Flygon had to quickly dart out so that Ash could catch the screaming Pokemon.
It took Brock a short while to convince Coatl to swoop into Rhydon's hearing range. "Rhydon! Calm down!" Brock shouted at his Pokemon. The authority in his voice cut through Rhydon's rage and the Pokemon relaxed immediately. Amber and Egg whined piteously, still panting slightly from exertion, though Ash looked victorious.
Lance stared in honest curiosity; he had never heard of a move that became more powerful as an opponent grew tired, as was implied by the strength behind Rhydon's final stomp. Even the pokemon himself looked surprised at how worn out Amber and Egg appeared, though their respective levels explained that more clearly to Lance.
"What move was that?" Lance asked Brock.
"I'm not sure, honestly. I haven't heard of a move that had that sort of effect," Brock mumbled in response, brow furrowed in concentration. "I'll check later. It'll definitely be helpful once I work out how to incorporate it into some technique of ours." He gave Ash a grin. "Thanks for that, though I'm not sure what it is exactly that you did. Rhydon's never been the quickest learner."
Rhydon grumbled at his Trainer's statement.
Brock's expression gained a craftiness that Lance had rarely seen in the boy. "Do you have any ideas for Pupitar, Ash?" he asked.
Ash's enthusiastic response meant that they would be in the arena for a while longer. Lance left them to it, returning to his office to tend to his own team.
The banquet-style dinner planned for the Masters to gather was beautiful in its opulence. Royal blue carpets with golden silk trim and exquisite cream embroidery of the League's logo were laid out carefully, and atop them, intricately carved red-wood tables boasted mountains of decadent dishes that ranged from a carefully prepared cut fruit centerpiece to a tower of sandwiches filled with rich, creamy cheeses and thinly cut vegetables. An arrangement of rare meat-substitute products was available at one end of the table, complete with little bits of toasted bread to enjoy them on. It was a setting that inspired high-class dressing and manners and encouraged the haughtiness that both required.
Needless to say, this was perhaps the Masters' least favorite part of the meeting.
Sure, the food was good. They enjoyed the freedom to mingle with the others and nibble on appetizers and banter. Contrary to popular belief, the Masters were at the very least friendly colleagues, some of them very good friends. Their lifestyles typically meant that they couldn't see each other too often so getting a chance to relax and converse was always welcome.
What the League didn't account for was their preferred method of conversation.
Battle spoke louder than words to the Masters, and many an unspoken word had been exchanged via spars that could destroy the surrounding battlefields and rain destruction. The ground was torn up, the air thick with dust and debris—usually Sabrina spent as much of her energy in battle as she did in setting up psychic barriers to make sure that others' skirmishes didn't get too out of control. Very few Masters left the arena only bruised. Most of the time, it took the League the upcoming year to repair what damage had been done.
That being said, there were usually a few days of peace wherein the Masters limited themselves to discussion, the first battle of the week sparking a cascade of challenges and posturing whenever possible. Since the meetings had just begun, no one had challenged another quite yet.
At least, that's what Lance was counting on when he was nearly thrown to the floor by an enthusiastic pat to the back that was immediately followed by a fierce static shock. He choked slightly on the wine in his hand before looking to see who it was that hit him. He wasn't surprised to see the broad build of Lieutenant Matis Surge behind him, grinning openly.
"Lance, my man!" he said, his voice a thunderous boom. Lance returned his smile with a pointed smirk, the pride that sang in his blood snarling at the near-affront that Surge had cast on him by almost throwing him to the ground.
"Evening, Lieutenant," Lance said mildly.
Surge snorted. "It's just barely thirteen-thirty," he said. "Not anywhere close to evening."
Lance briefly looked at the clock on the wall, which dutifully read 1:24 pm. "If you're relying on that," he nodded at the clock, "it stopped a while ago. We have to put new batteries in."
Surge hesitated and looked back at the clock, uncertain now. "Feels like a mighty oversight," he grunted.
"It's not too high on our to-do list," Lance said.
"Don't tease the man, Lance, he can't tell when you're fooling him." A lilting yet monotone voice sounded behind him, an impression of faint amusement and mild exasperation brushing his consciousness (Lance realized that he had never noticed her do this before). Sabrina floated over to them, her feet barely skimming the ground in an illusion of walking, her long hair skimming her arms in a facsimile of a slight breeze. Her sharp magenta eyes were slightly obscured behind a light cyan glow.
Lance sighed. "You always ruin my fun," he complained.
Surge gave a bark of a laugh. "Always got my back, Sabrina—I appreciate it." He raised a hand as if to slap her on the back as well but a pointed look from the Psychic Master stopped him.
"I'm sure you do, you muscle-headed Unovan," she said with a disdainful expression. "Perhaps you should learn to be more observant, or at least wear a watch."
Surge scowled at her. "I shouldn't have to think of wearing a watch to not be tricked to doubting my sense of time," he said.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to be certain of your sense of time?"
Surge paused, trying to wrap his head around Sabrina's words before giving up a few seconds later. "Whatever," he said, "I'm gonna go mess with that Brock kid before Daisy and Duplica get to him. I'll see you sticks-in-the-mud later." The giant of a man was already moving away before either Lance or Sabrina could think of giving him a farewell.
The glow in Sabrina's eyes faded and she very gently set herself back on her feet on the ground. "I feel you have something to ask of me, Lance. My dear friends wish to know what sort of request would come from someone as auspicious as you."
"You flatter me," he said dryly. "This isn't the place to talk about such things—could you find me once this entire charade falls apart and we can go to my office? Less chance of being overheard."
Sabrina deliberated for a few seconds; Lance had the feeling that she wasn't really pondering and just choosing to make him wait for a little bit longer than he necessarily had to. "That seems satisfactory. I believe that time may be sooner than you may think." She gave him one last nod before glowing and slowly lifting herself back into the air.
Lance sighed before turning back to the room. He wondered if he should go and search out Brock before Surge embarrassed the boy. He might have been an adult under the law for going on his third year, but he had only just wandered into puberty and he didn't deserve more than a bit of light needling. He soon found Brock standing with another man that towered over him, though this man was just taller than average and not the monster of a human that Surge was. The man ran his hand over a slick head of cropped hair as he seemed to think through a question that Brock asked him.
"The Rhyhorn line's armor is thick enough to handle that sort of training," the man was saying. "You shouldn't worry too much about any damage, and besides, if you're close enough to your Pokemon to convince it to undergo that sort of thing, it should be more than willing to communicate back to you when it's not doing well."
"I guess," Brock responded haltingly. "It just seems cruel to have him ramming into a mountain over and over again, not to mention a bit boring for everyone."
"Then make it more interesting for it, boy," the man said with a snort. "Have it dodge attacks from the rest of your team and use the mountain as a target. Better than testing its abilities out on a sandbag that it'll be afraid to hit too hard lest it destroys everything." The man glanced up as Lance approached and nodded to him brusquely. "I see you're doing well, Master Lance."
"Well enough, Giovanni," Lance said, returning the nod. "What have you got our newest Master doing now?"
Giovanni's eyes slid to Brock again. "The boy asked me for advice on advancing the potency of his Rhydon's power, specifically that of its Drill Run. I told him when last I saw him that if I felt as though the Pokemon had reached its potential in its form, I would gift him with a Protector with which he could help the creature attain its next stage. It seems as though this is the final hurdle to that lofty goal."
Brock's chest puffed up slightly before he physically held himself in a humbler position. "Well, Rhydon's been doing really well in training ever since hearing about Master Giovanni's offer," he said. "I have an idea for a combination attack that needs the furrows that Drill Run naturally forms, but Rhydon's not able to make them quite deep enough. I'm sure this is all that he needs to be able to challenge Rhyperior for his honor and earn his name."
Giovanni scoffed almost silently. "Why you insist on such asinine traditions, I don't understand," he muttered. "I thought you'd have some sense in that head of yours."
"It's not a sign of senselessness to want to reward your Pokemon with a standalone name. Some of them wear nicknames as a badge of honor, as I'm sure Aida does," Lance said.
"You've memorized the unnecessary," Giovanni said. "Language is meant to communicate. Referring to Golem as if it were a separate entity hides your meaning."
"Aida isn't all other Golem, and other Golem cannot pretend to be Aida. Why not celebrate that difference?" Lance shot back before Brock could stammer a response out.
Giovanni studied Lance briefly before shaking his head. "Once again, we will agree to disagree, Dragon Master. One would think that if you didn't insist on commanding multiples of the same species that you might find my position more palatable. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to see how Master Koga is doing. Perhaps he would amuse me a match." The brusque man walked off before Lance or Brock could entice him to stay.
Lance noticed Brock's slightly downcast expression. "Don't mind him," he said. "Giovanni is prickly at the best of times."
"I guess," Brock said. "I just don't think the method he gave me would work for Rhydon, and I have no idea what else to try."
"There's nothing wrong with adapting a training technique to suit you better," Lance said. "Perhaps you can take out some of the brutality in Giovanni's method and apply something else. I'm not sure if I know your team anywhere near well enough to give you that basic idea; have you considered asking Cobalt for help?"
Brock wrinkled his nose at the thought of asking the Steel Master for help. "I could," he said reluctantly. "Cobalt's annoying to be around, though."
"That's an understatement," a blonde-haired woman said, not even bothering to hide her eavesdropping. She reached under the large straw hat she always wore and brought out a small baby Rattata, which gave a happy squeak as she scratched the back of its ears. Brock seemed startled by both her propensity to be followed by baby forest Pokémon as well as her popping into the conversation
Lance left Yellow to draw Brock into her mischief, continuing to uphold the charade of mingling as other Masters began to very obviously get bored. Tensions weren't running high quite yet, though the amount and size of egos would definitely encourage it more than anything. Lance decided that now was as good a time as any to duck into his office and give Sabrina a chance to have their conversation.
Also, he had left Deino by herself in his office. She was most likely bored by now.
When Lance entered, Deino clicked at him from where she had curled into a small ball by his desk. She crawled over and headbutted his leg gently before sitting down at his side. Lance gave her a brief smile and reached down to pat her head. She squeaked in response.
He had barely sat down when the door swung open again and Sabrina floated in. She gently set herself down after closing the door behind her and trod forward uncertainly.
It was a well-kept secret that Sabrina de Nostredame wasn't invincible. Once mentioned it was almost obvious (she was so slight, so delicate, as though a sideways glance could knock her over) but she had carefully constructed a myth around herself of a demigod, a person who had passed the limits of humanity, someone who could not be matched by a mortal, just below a legend. Her innate Psychic energy had developed too quickly when she was younger, redirecting her growth away from developing the robustness that most humans had to finessing her mental capacities. For most of her still-short life, Sabrina had hidden behind thick, somewhat baggy clothes that concealed her dangerously slim figure from anyone who might think her more vulnerable than she actually was, and truly the visual of a young girl, glowing green and effortlessly floating across the ground, was more than enough to silence any disbelievers.
Lance saw a girl who was barely able to hold herself together with a diet meticulously put together to keep her health perfectly balanced and her body functional. When she fully relinquished herself to her physicality, Sabrina was a waif of a person, easily tired by a walk up a staircase or a somewhat lengthy conversation. She was one of the very few human psychics who was so ruled by their talent that they could barely function without it. Her affinity for the Abra line was no wonder; the closest parallel for her was a Pokemon that required its abilities to keep its head up.
When Sabrina had folded herself into a chair and taken a couple of deep breaths, she turned to Lance. The sharp intelligence in her eyes hadn't faded at all; if anything, she scrutinized him more firmly now than she had previously.
She had more than proven herself an adept Master of her Type; nothing she did now could truly disrupt her perch on her throne.
"What is it that you needed to pull me away from the others?" she asked.
Lance sat back in his own chair, meeting her gaze with little worry. "I'm in a little bit of a predicament, shall we say," he started.
Sabrina raised a single eyebrow, silently gesturing for him to go on.
"To get to the point, I've got custody over a young boy and his companions, and I'd like for you to give him a general intake and possibly train one of his partners in particular. They would both have to meet you before deciding on this, but I'd prefer to get your affirmation before introducing the idea to them."
Sabrina coughed out a not-quite suppressed laugh of surprise. "Well, Lance, that wasn't quite what I expected this conversation to be about." She tapped her chin with a finger as she thought. "I would have to close Saffron Gym for longer than I anticipated. Granted, it is early enough in the Championship Season that no one of true merit would be coming through, and I could perhaps ask one of my better trainees to judge, and you do intrigue me with this." Lance had the feeling that Sabrina was thinking out loud more for his benefit than her own. "There's merit in my staying here to work with whatever child you found somewhere, and there's merit in my saying no and returning to my life. You clearly want the former, and many would expect me to choose the latter. What's your argument against those?"
Lance held his hands up in a mockery of a shrug. "You could very well tell me to stuff it and go back to your life, Sabrina, or you could choose to acknowledge your curiosity and stay to work with the kid. Either works for me; I'd have to track down another specialist to work with him if you say no or I'd have to jump into preparing him to meet a new person. All you're deciding for me is how long I have to wait to make those kinds of entreaties to him."
Sabrina gave Lance a rare smile. "You truly do know how to be persuasive when you want to be," she commented. Lance decided not to respond. After pausing to see if he would, Sabrina began to glow again and slowly unfolded herself from the chair, holding herself up with her telekinesis.
"Well, Lance, I would love to accept right now, but I'm afraid that isn't quite how we work, is it?" she said, a wicked smirk beginning to curve on her face. "It would be simultaneously rather wonderful and rather boring if that's how things were done, but you know the formalities."
"But of course. One-on-one, plain arena two if it isn't already in use, perhaps? I don't want to make the reason known to every Master present, but we should be able to mask it in such a way that they can still decide our representatives for us."
Sabrina nodded to him. "Indeed. I will set aside ten of my brightest and expect the same from you. Whatever the outcome, all I need to feel is how steadfast you will be in this pursuit."
"Your prowess is already unparalleled, so I won't offend you by saying that's my main focus," Lance responded. "All I need from you is a good show. I trust in your ability to choose the outcome of this battle."
Her smirk softened back into the smile from before. "That's what makes you different from the previous Champions, doesn't it?" she said softly. "They did not trust. You do, for reasons unknown to me."
Lance actually shrugged this time. "I have to. You're my Kanto Masters for a reason; I trust each and every one of you implicitly because you've proven yourself to me."
Sabrina's eyes misted over slightly. "Perhaps to your downfall." Before he could ask her to elaborate, she turned and floated to the door, opening it silently without lifting a finger. "In two hours, we reconvene in plain arena two. We fight on the honor of your request to me. We settle separately from the outcome. May our words ring true today." She gave him a slight bow before leaving the office, closing the door with a quiet click. Lance watched the green glow fade through the crack under his door.
Deino gave a confused squeak. Lance looked to her, patting her on the head. "You're about to see how we truly decide the answers to our problems," he told her. "It's harder to hide behind commands and Pokemon. We speak our truth then. You must understand." Deino chirped an affirmative.
Lance sighed before looking to the team on his hip. He would have to decide who would be put into the possible pot soon. Trying to convince a dragon that just because it got taken off of one roster didn't mean that another was being chosen over it was probably going to be a two-hour job. Lance wondered if that was why Sabrina had dictated those specific terms. He wouldn't quite put it past her.
"I didn't think that you'd be the first to crack, Lance." The mirth in her voice has grown at this third repetition. Tired of the charade, he decided to finally respond.
"I didn't crack," Lance said. His slowly growing impatience with his companion was audible.
The woman smirked at his irritation, readjusting the brim of her hat. "I'm sure, I'm sure," she said with an almost lofty tone. She examined her nails with an air of faux nonchalance. "It's not like it isn't so important that literally no other Masters know what's going on—oh wait!" She looked to him with mock surprise. "That's exactly what's happening! How strange!"
"I know you're peeved, Green, but that's no reason to get this ruffled about it," Lance growled back.
She raised her hands in surrender, taking a step back, her smirk still dancing on her face. Green had always loved getting under his skin. "No, no, I get it! You and Sabrina are just filled with secrets that we wouldn't be able to keep. It's not fair for us to have to know something so great—you two are truly looking out for our best interests in not telling a single soul what's going on."
"You're only here to get on my nerves because you think my team can't do anything against yours," Lance said bluntly, pushing past her and towards the arena.
Green continued to dance along behind him, completely nonplussed. "I'm not that dumb. You could probably wreck my team just as easily as I could wreck yours," she said. "I do, however, believe that I'm allowed to be smug since half of your techniques rely on dragon-type moves that you can't use against us. That's a win if you ask me."
"Is that a challenge?"
Green snorted. "Focus on the one you've got right now, flame-head. Check back in once Sabrina's done flinging your ruffians across the room."
"Ruffians?" Lance asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"So eager for battle," she said with a sniff. "I'm sure none of your Pokemon have experienced the true loveliness of a tea party in the summer."
"Neither have yours."
"Details." They arrived at the arena. "Well, this is where we part ways. I'd say good luck, but then you'd say that you don't need it, and you don't deserve a cool one-liner like that." Green flounced off before he could respond.
He scoffed quietly. Fairies.
There was more of an audience forming than Lance expected: Giovanni and Koga were lingering in the back and quietly conversing to each other (the former making eye contact with Lance and giving him a brusque nod), Brock nervously bobbing his leg in his seat next to a bored-looking Yellow, the three other League-bound members unafraid to be caught staring directly at him. Green had skipped off to stand with Duplica, Erika, and Daisy, joining in their conversation without missing a single beat.
Sabrina was serenely floating, already in position in the trainer's box on the other side of the arena. She didn't acknowledge Lance until he took his own spot across from her, instead concentrating on the circle of Pokeballs that orbited her. Lance didn't have anything quite so fancy at his disposal; he just put his possible representatives in the tray carved into the protective barrier that surrounded his box.
The other Masters present must have already discussed the proceedings of the match because Duplica and Daisy broke away from their conversation with Green and Erika to approach Lance and Sabrina respectively.
Duplica was a somewhat recent addition to the Masters, having easily wrested the title from her predecessor by showing an ingenuity that most didn't attribute to the Normal-type, despite its known reputation for adaptability. She had perhaps the expected powerhouses on her team, Pokemon that took advantage of the relatively robust nature that their typing gave them naturally, but her true trump cards were her two Ditto, synthetically created pink blobs that were known for their ability to Transform into any Pokemon species whose genetic material they acquired. Most Ditto were reserved for medical use or scientific research, and many regarded them as useful for only that. Duplica had found a seed of a potential and pursued it relentlessly. After many months of work, she finally reaped what she sowed in Ditto and Mini-Dit. They didn't even need a visual stimulus to Transform anymore, nor were they held back by the move set that their opponents boasted. Perhaps their only laughable trait was the idiosyncratic errors in their Transformation; all of Ditto's attempts sported its typical beady-eyed blank face while Mini-Dit's forms never grew past two feet tall. Neither of these handicaps affected their fighting ability. It didn't matter what face your attacker wore when it demolished you, and Mini-Dit's size was in many ways an advantage rather than an issue.
Duplica had turned a pile of sentient pink goo into a veritable army.
A blank-faced Pidgey sat perched on her shoulder today. It sat just slightly too still to be a nervous bird in a room filled with badly hidden powerful auras, and it gave him a calculating look that Lance didn't quite trust. Duplica absentmindedly reached a hand up to scratch under its beak as she addressed him.
"How're you doing, Lance? Having a good time? A good day?" she asked.
"Good enough," he responded before taking her entire outfit in. "What are you wearing?"
She smiled at him and twirled around. "It's a new imitation! Don't I look just dashing in it?" She flicked a wrist, allowing a stream of shimmering red-gold fabric to catch the light more successfully. Besides the strange wrist and ankle decorations, she was wearing a long headscarf of the same material and a cone on her forehead, as well as a cream-colored dress that hovered over her knees.
"Indeed."
Duplica chuckled at his short response. "I appreciate it. Let's see if Ditto has any thoughts on who you should use, then?" She put her fist to the Pidgey at her shoulder, coaxing it to hop onto her knuckle, before extending her arm and encouraging it to peck at Lance's Pokeballs. The bird cooed before fluttering over and giving the prepared spheres a critical eye. It decidedly marched over to one and nudged it with its beak.
"Good pick, Ditto! I'm sure your champion will be as fierce as you could be," Duplica cooed, holding her hand back to her shoulder for the false Pidgey to perch on again. "Don't let me down, Lance! And stop keeping secrets from us; you know how nosy we all are."
Lance heard the echoes of warning in her lighthearted banter and simply nodded in response. Daisy must have given Sabrina a pep talk as well, as the two Masters rejoined their Fairy and Grass counterparts at around the same time.
Most of Sabrina's team were tucked away into her belt, a single Pokeball hovering in the air. She seemed victorious already, though the expression probably meant nothing as none of the Masters could be considered immune from arrogance. Bruno had taken it upon himself to referee and was joined by both the Pancham he had tailing him everywhere as well as his signature fighter, Machamp.
"On my count, release in unison," Bruno called out. Lance picked up the ball that the false Pidgey had chosen and prepared it, waiting for the signal.
"Three!"
Lance briefly wondered if this was the best way to go about this. There must have been more quiet ways of solving this.
"Two!"
He also had the feeling that Ash would be particularly disappointed to miss this event.
"One! Release!"
Two flashes of red light.
Lance realized why Sabrina had been smirking now. He could hear Green cackling maniacally from the sides above everyone's sudden murmurs as they analyzed the Pokemon that had been released, filing away every detail spotted or pointed out to each other.
Altaria was hovering in the air, choosing to remain airborne as he made almost lazy circles around Lance's side of the field. Lance wasn't fooled by this nonchalant behavior—he could see Altaria's wary gaze as he took in the curve to his enemy's head, the strange hair-like helmet that framed her face like a bob-cut, her wide red eyes fixed on his, the almost fragile nature of her thin limbs and the illusion of flowing fabric that her white body gave off.
Gardevoir regarded Altaria with a sense of academic interest before her eyes started glowing. The glow spread to the rest of her body, twisting white as it did, before settling onto her like a faint armor that then completely faded from view. Lance's eyes narrowed. If that was how Gardevoir's Synchronize manifested, then he would have to be careful with the strategies he used. It would be his luck for his Pokemon to apply the status condition that was his own downfall.
Random chance would have chosen the exact member of Sabrina's team to perfectly counter the partner that had been chosen for him.
"Prepare for combat. Dazing Dance to start, then Divine Light until my next command." Altaria crooned his understanding, making tighter circles in the air in preparation.
Sabrina remained silent, but Gardevoir's eyes began to pulsate with the same eerie light that shone from her Trainer's. Mental link established, the lithe Psychic- and Fairy-type bowed to Altaria's flying form before crouching in anticipation.
Bruno didn't have to announce the battle starting. He simply clapped once, a strident sound that echoed through the arena.
Immediately following the signal, Altaria gave a proud cry before flicking his wings, sending a Mist of dust falling from between the fluffy down. He began to make tighter circles, singing further cries that began to resonate with a given power that radiated from him, making his wingbeats stronger until he was practically diving into the Mist he had formed and sent sprawling throughout the battlefield. Altaria then soared, turning on a hairpin to fly directly up as he glowed with a shining light, one that pulsated with pink and lavender light.
Gardevoir for her part refused to stay motionless for this. She held her arms out to her side, summoning a pink smoke that rolled onto the ground as the Mist from the Dazing Dance touched down. The two fogs didn't compete for presence, instead beginning to mix together into an ethereal haze that shimmered in the white light of the arena and the strange light Altaria was beginning to emit. Gardevoir then closed her eyes and seemed to visibly relax, the tension in her body fading ever so slightly. When her eyes opened again, she looked almost insurmountable, a staunch figure that was adamant about not letting Lance cross her.
Altaria gave a mellifluous screech as he reached the zenith of his flight, his body shining as though he were about to evolve yet again. He flashed red for a split second. The Humming Pokemon sang a single clear note before diving towards Gardevoir at a speed she could not react to, expertly turning to run into her side with the full force of the Sky Attack fueling the move. The harsh light burst from his body as it hit her, almost latching onto Gardevoir in its haste to explode out of Altaria's body. She flinched from the hit but managed to regain her footing, once again closing her eyes and centering herself. A tangible power began to form around her.
"Give us another Dance, Altaria," Lance called out. Altaria didn't verbally respond to that command, merely diving straight into another complex swirling choreography, his body surrounded by the combined fogs, the deep magenta light from his movements refracted in those barely visible particles.
Gardevoir finally moved at that very second, moving her foot back and crouching slightly. Her eyes flickered, glowing an ice blue for a split second before fading into a light fuchsia and then into a shade that matched Sabrina's green glow once more. Mists of power in those ephemeral colors flashed in her hands for a split second before she flung them both into the air, the ice blue light carving a path through the air effortlessly while the light pink light immediately burst into a cloud of rapidly dissipating sparkles. Something hung in the air as the mist around the two Pokemon faded back into an innocuously normal state. Lance didn't trust how normal it all felt.
"Wing Blades. Get in close," he said tersely. He didn't have to call it out too loudly for Altaria to hear; a barely-there shimmer of silver on the typically delicately soft feathers of Altaria's wings was the only indication that the bird in fact had. Altaria whipped himself into a spiral, wings flickering into and out of a blur that gained a sheen unnatural to his feathery down. In a single movement, he cracked out of the spiral and into a dive straight towards Gardevoir, the wind singing as he zoomed through the air towards her. A strident note warned of the unavoidable attack, and Gardevoir's answering cry was drowned out by the whistling wind that followed him. As Altaria began to regain altitude while nimbly shedding the final remnants of the Wing Blades, Gardevoir closed her eyes and took a deep breath, closing her eyes yet again and gaining a now very visible glow to her.
Lance narrowed his eyes as he tried to analyze Gardevoir's specific strategy. She had already mostly abandoned the typical technique that Sabrina's team adopted, having stood her ground and chosen to power herself up somehow (Lance suspected Calm Mind). He didn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Gardevoir's move set, as the species was neither a dragon nor originally discovered in Kanto, and the focus on powering herself was beginning to make him nervous. Whenever Gardevoir landed a hit on Altaria now, it was guaranteed to be extremely painful, and it would be harder to use any of the techniques that Lance was already limited in by Pokemon-type alone.
It was time to start playing a little bit risky.
"Altaria! Toxic!" He called out. Lance saw Sabrina's eyes widen, startled for a second. He himself had observed Gardevoir's Synchronize taking effect. There was every reason to believe that by choosing a crippling toxin, one that he had worked with Altaria to develop and begin to incorporate his type Aura into. There was no reason for either of Altaria's types to be useful in this situation, but if Gardevoir were to be hit by a potent poison, she would be incapacitated for the rest of the battle. Gardevoir's rather flimsy but effective shield against that was the notion that to debilitate you would debilitate yourself. Only a fool would knowingly inflict damage of that caliber to his own Pokemon just to win.
Of course, Lance was no fool. A fool would not be a Type Master, let alone Tohjo Champion.
Altaria's wings began to glow a violent violet as a caustic sweat began to bead up between his feathers. He sharply turned and flew directly at Gardevoir, wings spread open. Gardevoir suddenly vanished from where she stood as Altaria was about to hit her, but almost as if predicting her next location, Altaria turned on a dime and slammed right into her. The purple glow immediately enveloped both Pokemon before Altaria visibly shook it off, forcefully flapping his wings so that he could fly back into the safety of the air, completely unaffected.
Lance allowed himself a small smile at Sabrina's sudden clarity and narrowed eyes. Altaria had long since learned to incorporate the accuracy of Aerial Ace into any of his maneuvers in battle, and a Safeguard quietly hidden within Divine Light had been all that was needed to ensure that Sabrina entered the battle slightly too cocky.
Gardevoir let out a choking sound, suddenly losing her grace in a single moment. She buckled over, the purple oil that Altaria had thrown onto her absorbing into her body and racking her body. The light that Gardevoir had released earlier suddenly manifested again, one spiraling to crash into her while the other fashioned itself into a projectile that hurtled towards Altaria. In the brief moment that Altaria was hit and stumbled through the air, Gardevoir seemed to stand slightly more steadily, cuts from the earlier Wing Blades healing rapidly. When the Emotion Pokemon looked back up, she looked almost murderous. It was an expression that Lance didn't think he'd ever seen on a Pokemon of her species before.
A furious fuchsia blaze lit in her eyes and she let out a cry. A faint image of a full moon fluttered around her before Gardevoir pulled in the power that manifested it into a tight ball of energy. With the flick of a wrist, she threw it towards Altaria. The orb exploded into a ray of concentrated power halfway to him; Gardevoir's eyes flashed a stark red and the power was suddenly enveloped by a light blue glow that neatly split it into a countless number of smaller rays that twisted through the air to form a cage around Altaria.
"Dragon Beam! Get out of there, now!" Lance barked. Altaria screeched as he was embraced by the countless lines rushing towards him, wincing as some began wrapping around him to bring him deeper into the lines. The Humming Pokemon paused for a second before letting out a far more piercing cry and directing a startling neon green beam of energy towards the origin of the trap. Gardevoir quickly cut off the move to Teleport a yard away, neatly avoiding the Beam, and Altaria managed to shake off the last few dregs that trailed on him. The two Pokemon looked to each other, both images of elegance shattered by the sneers that they wore. Gardevoir's body pulsed from the Toxic once more; she let out a painful croon in the back of her throat but shook it off otherwise.
Gardevoir did not seem happy by the turn of events. She had long since abandoned her previous nobility and now favored a rigid posture, crouched over herself, ripping away the impression of effortlessness in favor of looking every inch the calculating adversary that she was. She straightened and held her arms out in the posture of a martyr, her eyes drifting half-closed.
She began to sing.
Altaria began to drift towards the ground, one cautious eye on Gardevoir as he attempted to slowly approach his Trainer.
He immediately shot back into the air when Gardevoir's gaze snapped open and her entire body glowed a violent magenta light that carved vertically into the air. The Emotion Pokemon's eyes never wavered from Altaria's downy form and she slowly moved an arm in front of her, ensuring that the bird was in her sights.
"Altaria, be ready!" Lance barked out, wishing that he could give a longer command but knowing that Altaria needed every millisecond to avoid the incoming blow. He cursed to himself—Sabrina's underground plot had finally revealed itself.
Stored Power. A strange move that benefited more strongly from a Pokemon bolstering itself. A move that many Psychic-types soon learned to bend to their whim, as Gardevoir had through her multiple Calm Minds earlier in the battle.
A move that was directed straight towards Altaria.
Gardevoir gestured downwards. The ground immediately below Altaria burst into a column of magenta light that seared the eyes, shooting upwards towards him. Altaria gave off a piercing cry, his pain magnified as he struggled to stay aloft during the duration of the move.
"Break out! Final hit!" Lance roared. Altaria gave an answering screech before forcing himself to twist into one last Dragon Dance while still encompassed by Gardevoir's Stored Power. The last spiral transitioned into Altaria lazily floating into the sky. At his zenith, Altaria adopted a fiery red glow that he quickly forced into a comet-like shell as he dove towards Gardevoir at breakneck speeds, a sonic boom accompanying his sudden descent. Gardevoir quickly moved her arms towards her torso just as Altaria seemed to hit the ground with a loud BOOM! and a cloud of dust.
When the dust cleared, Lance and Sabrina could see that Altaria had just barely managed to hit Gardevoir, who was visibly struggling to maintain the thin blue border that held Altaria in place one foot away from her. The Humming Pokemon was making incremental progress towards his opponent and was refusing to drop his attack. Gardevoir seemed exhausted but determined to hold him off. Her body rippled with the earlier Toxic attack; she stumbled and for a second Psychic seemed to fail but she managed to hold onto it long enough to prevent the full weight of Altaria's Sky Attack from hitting her.
"Draw," Sabrina called out verbally, her worried gaze never leaving her trembling Pokemon.
"Accepted," Lance responded immediately. "Altaria, ceasefire. Stand down."
Altaria immediately dropped Sky Attack and drooped slightly, wearily looking to Lance as he sat down on the floor and puffed his feathers up. Gardevoir let her arms fall down gracelessly, shivering still from the Toxic within her. She soon vanished into a burst of red light. Sabrina set Gardevoir's Pokeball onto a small divot at the back of her Trainer's box that quickly transported it into the healing bay before turning back to Lance.
"You've made your point, Dragon Master Lance," Sabrina called out. "I will meet with you tomorrow morn. Please be prepared." With that, she left.
Lance quietly cursed her dramatic nature and returned Altaria. He immediately left the room, ignoring the other Masters staring at him as he went to get his partner healed and then immediately to Ash's room to explain what would happen.