Catching Kadabra up to speed on what happened overnight took all of about 15 seconds. It never took very long for Maya's mind to open up to her oldest friend, her little psychic guard; for it to see all of her memories, of all the people they had met and places they had flown over, from the whipping Kantonian currents over the churning Vermilion Bay to the chill of the Dragon Master's whisper in her ear, and of course the unforgettable heat of his embrace. Though Kadabra barely had to look past Maya's wistful smile to understand exactly what had happened that night. It was thankful it had the still-cold Celadon Lemonade to wash the story down with.
Maya slept the entire weekend away, catching up from the lost nights adventure, and found herself racing late to work on Monday morning. Another strange thunderstorm had rolled in hard, delivering a Wailord's worth of rain-dance showers all morning long. It made walking through the trough-like streets of midtown quite a chore to start the week.
Finally at her desk, Kadabra settled at its favorite spot at the window to watch the falling rain. The courtyard below was empty and dark.
Ever since Lance had told Maya about his suspicions about her office, she couldn't stop thinking about it, and about the checks and balances that the Saffron held in such high regard. For a paper that prided itself on integrity and veritas in its reporting, it would be a huge scandal for Team Rocket forces to be infiltrating here, or pushing their own agenda somehow.
I promised him I'd be careful, Maya thought, logging into her computer for the day. Someone could already be watching. That meant everything she did, every search on this computer, every scan of her badge in the building could be being tracked by someone.
She realized something; the Communications emails that she often ignored could hold some important clues.
Opening up her email's Inbox, she scrolled back a few weeks to the internal newsletters that she often left unread. She found headlines about monthly luncheons at the Saffron Café, and about the annual canned food drive being unable to accept berries of any kind due to their fast expiration. Another that grabbed her eye was about the upcoming Mt. Moon festival party that the office held every year, planned for a few weeks from today.
She finally found the email she was looking for: The monthly "welcome" letter, where the team announced new hires into different departments:
"Hey Saffron Family!
It is with great pride that we announce the following new team members that were recently added to our wonderful staff. Welcome to the Saffron Times!"
Maya scanned down the long list of names, and quickly jotted down the departments that each new-hire was added to with a pen and paper. She realized that anything she wrote on her computer would be stored in the office cloud server... she hated to be so paranoid, but Lance had a good point. It wasn't all that long ago that Team Rocket overtook the entire building and terrorized everyone inside.
All finished, she scanned down the final list of departments: Communications (Internal), Communications (External), Studio B crew, Studio C crew, AV Equipment Management, and quite a number of writers in different fields of expertise, including: Celebrity Trainer profiles, Pokemon medicine, Pokemon research, Meteorology, and Local Cinnabar Island coverage.
Maya scanned down the list carefully; none of them really seemed related, but it was certainly a lot of new hires since the company's big transition.
"Dabra?" Kadabra eyed the clock, reminding Maya of the upcoming pitch meeting. It was starting in less than 5 minutes. She folded over the page in her notebook to hide the list, before rising from her chair, gesturing Kadabra to follow.
"Well, she didn't know exactly when it was supposed to bloom," a young writer in the meeting spoke quietly, scanning back over her notes, "But Erika ensured me that it would be worth the extra photographer to have on standby for when it does."
The pitch meeting was a weekly event that Maya always looked forward to. Anyone at Saffron could pitch a story, and if it had traction, the Lead Producer would approve the budget on the spot to cover it. The room was always filled with excited writers and producers, and their journalistic pokémon assistants as well, ready to help however they can. The Lead Producer's Machoke, an office favorite who often worked in the studio to hold the boom microphone for interviews, sat in the chair beside him.
Sitting in the corner of the room with Kadabra, Maya eyed the various new faces around the table, attempting to act as casual as possible. The writer currently pitching was a new face; one of the new hires covering Celebrity Trainers. Her partner, an elegant white-flower Floette, stood daintily just over her shoulder as she awaited her answer from the Lead Producer. It clutched to its little white flower in the same nervous way that its trainer clutched her pen. That seemed normal, Maya thought, for a new writer.
"Approved," the Lead Producer called out, "Go ahead and hire the photographer. But try to see if you can get someone in Home and Garden to weigh in on when the bloom is actually going to happen. We can't keep the guy on hold forever."
The writer nodded her head in thanks, scribbling some notes down on her pad. Her Floette grinned with a small smile of relief.
"Before we continue," The Lead Producer called out to the group, "I want to make a quick announcement about a call we got this morning from our rep at the Indigo Plato."
This grabbed Maya's attention; her heart dropped into her stomach. That was the official representative of the Elite Four.
"They let us know that Champion Lance and Bruno will be holding an Elite exhibition match at the end of this week at Indigo Stadium. However..." His voice grew serious, "Lance has called on the press to ban all cameras from the event. He wants the event to be live for an in-person audience only, with no broadcast, no photos, no video coverage of any kind, for a, and I quote, 'unique experience never to be seen again'. And, to encourage attendance, of course."
"Why would he do that?" One of the beat writers laughed, "Imagine hating being on camera so much that you ban them from your battles."
The room chuckled; Maya's face burned. She pushed the feeling down... It was well known among the staff that he disliked the press.
"You know Lance," the Lead Producer continued, "He'll do anything to avoid an interview. But I want to make sure everyone in this room respects his wishes. Do I make myself clear? No cameras at his match." He turned to Maya's seat in at the end of the table. "That means you and Kadabra have that day off."
The room chuckled again. Maya tried to laugh it off; but she prayed that they couldn't see through it. Kadabra gave her a knowing look.
"Actually," she began slowly, clearing her throat to cut through the laughter, "I think it's a good idea. It'll force everyone to actually pay attention to the match instead of sit on their phones and record it for later."
Some of the writers around her nodded in agreement. Some did not.
"He's putting you out of work," another writer piped up, "And you think it's a good idea?"
Maya shrugged with a smile, hoping the room would quickly move on. And thankfully, the Lead Producer then changed the subject.
"I also need someone to do another story on these thunderstorms," he started again, "I know we just did one, but we need one that focuses on safety."
"I got one for that," another writer with thick-framed glasses raised a hand, his other hand busy petting his petite male Meowstic as it slept on the conference table before him. "I'm on my first draft now that focuses on how dangerous the storms have gotten, and warning trainers to stay away from areas where the storms seem to be focused. We've had reports of some kids intentionally playing storm-chaser, thinking that a legendary like Zapdos or Lugia will appear if they time it right. But it's just not true; the storms are actually very dangerous, and our meteorologists say they have nothing to do with any Legendaries."
"Great," the Lead Producer called out, "Have your first draft on my desk by tomorrow morning."
Maya peered out the large bay window across the room that overlooked Saffron's business district. The rain was still coming down in windy sheets.
For a moment she wondered how Lance could even fly on Dragonite in such weather.
She wondered what he was doing right now.
Her eyes lost focus, casting off in the rainy streaks on the window. This storm had just barely begun.
Returning home from work, Maya lead Kadabra through the door of their apartment drenched from the rain. Kadabra gave a full-body shake, it's golden fur sticking out in all directions.
"I can't believe it, it's still really coming down." Maya thought out loud, shaking off her umbrella and removing her soaked bomber coat to hang on the hook beside the door to dry. Clutched in her hand was a stack of letters from her mailbox, which was thankfully located safely inside in the mailroom in the lobby of the building & dry as a bone.
Sitting at her little kitchen table, she sorted through the letters. The electric bill, the Internet bill. A flyer for a new dumpling place that opened near the Fighting Dojo uptown.
But the last envelope in the stack grabbed her attention.
No return address. No stamp. Just her name, written in a slick cursive handwriting with her address. A red holo-foil sticker with the symbol of the Indigo League was pressed to the back, sealing it closed.
Her brow furrowed; she quickly broke the seal and opened it.
Inside she found: Two tickets, to the upcoming Elite Exhibition battle at Indigo Stadium. Between the famed Fighting-type master Bruno of the Elite Four,
and Champion Lance.
Maya smiled. His name was printed into the ticket so neatly; so distinctively royal in the bold, black font.
Beneath the names were the ticket's assigned seats: Row A, Seats 1 & 2.
Wow, Maya thought. That's the front row, right up against the closest barrier wall.
Along the bottom of the ticket, written in tiny fine print, was the little warning about the cameras: NO PHOTOGRAPHY OF ANY KIND WILL BE ALLOWED AT THIS MATCH. CAMERAS WILL BE CONFISCATED.
Her smile grew sly, the thought dawning over her; is this why he called for no cameras, she wondered? So that she wouldn't have to work the event with Kadabra & miss all the action?
A small folded note fell out from between the two tickets.
Maya reached for it, unfolding it gently in her fingers to find a tiny hand-written message, three curious little words that made Maya's heart flutter:
"Enjoy the View."
The roar of the crowd at Indigo Stadium was positively electric. Despite the camera-shy rules of the match, fans from all across Kanto and Johto had filled the stadium to the brim, taking up every seat in the house to witness this brawl.
It was rare to get a chance to see Lance battle in person, so that fact alone had the stadium teeming with excitement. Not to mention that the fan-favorite Fighting Type master Bruno of the Elite Four was rarely ever seen outside of the Indigo Plato, as he made even less appearances than Lance did to the public. So to the watching masses of Kanto, he was more myth than man at this point.
Maya and Kadabra slowly made their way down the long corridor to their ticket's section, turning out from the meandering crowd of the bordering halls to emerge into the light of the arena onto a long pair of descending stadium stairs. The vibe in the seats around the dome was contagiously excited, with trainers young and old and their pokémon in witness; entire families from cities far and wide holding hand-made signs and banners big and painted, eagerly awaiting the start of the match, the rolling cheers of the crowd just barely overtaking the stadium's backdrop of dramatic music.
Further and further Maya descended down the steps, Kadabra close behind as she noticed a distinct change in the crowd the closer she got to the front row. She suddenly found herself surrounded by members of Kantonian high-society, from new-money Celadon Beauties sitting posh in designer dresses, to wealthy clans of sharply-dressed Cooltrainers, their leather belts lined with Ultraballs and the latest version of X-series Rotom Phones. Maya certainly felt out of place, her thrifted leather moto-jacket clinging loosely to her (quite plain) black cotton tank.
Approaching the front row with only the guardrail left before them, Maya and Kadabra finally found their seats and peered out with wonderment down to the empty open stadium. It looked so massive up close, the standard dirt ground painted over with the white boundaries of the League, and nearly dead center of the stadium's circle where the match's fires would certainly start. It was quite an impressive view.
"Dabra?" Kadabra glanced over its shoulder at the row of seats just behind them. Maya turned to look and found Lorelei sitting there just a few chairs away, with Erika sitting beside her. Their eyes met, and Lorelei gave a happy little wave. Maya waved back, relieved to have spotted a familiar face in the dauntingly unfamiliar crowd.
On Lorelei's other side sat an elderly woman who Maya only recognized from photos from the Times: Agatha of the Elite Four, the Ghost Type master, sat leaning forward on a mystic-looking cane. Her gothic attire and wispy white-blonde hair, paired with what looked like a scowl on her face, gave her an intimidating, witchy presence. But it was a look of experience, for which Maya had a lot of respect. She had read many stories about Agatha, and about how being the third member of the famous Four didn't just mean she was an extraordinary trainer; it meant she was the stopgap between the will of a new challenger and a brawl against the Champion. That responsibility came with a lot of power; the power to deny anyone an audience with the Dragon Master himself.
The stadium lights dimmed; the music turned up.
The audience CHEERED!
The announcers voice BOOMED over them all:
"Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Indigo Stadium, the best stadium in all of Kanto!"
The crowd bellowed loudly with his words.
"We're here to present you an amazing one-on-one exhibition match for the ages! The Elite Exhibition!"
The crowd was on its feet now, all eyes now on the doors situated on either end of the battlefield as they dramatically lifted open.
"Hailing from right here in Kanto, I am pleased to present the Fighting-type Master of the prestigious Elite Four, the almighty method strength trainer extraordinaire who faces and defeats challengers every day right here at the Indigo Plato: let's hear it for BRUNO!"
From out of the right corridor walked Bruno of the Elite Four: an enormous, shirtless brute of a man, donning his traditional torn white trousers and chained cufflinks over his colossal forearms, his bare abdominals rippling with every step. Towering way over 6 and a half feet tall, he stomped with confidence into the stadium to the ROAR of the crowd, a stoic glare painted over his prominent black brow as he clenched his fists tight, flexing the rippling muscles that lined up his arms as he basked casually in their cheers.
He stopped at the edge of the arena beneath the throes of the crowd, cracking his knuckles soft.
The audience then turned their attention to the door on the opposite side of the stadium, the cheers growing louder as a tall shadow of a figure appeared inside.
"And Ladies and Gentleman, I am proud to present his opponent for this match. The legendary final guard of the Kanto Elite Four, who recently battled his way into becoming one of the Top 8 Pokemon trainers in the entire WORLD, here he is: Your Champion of Kanto, your Champion Johto, the Dragon Master himself: it's Lance!"
From out of the shadows of the corridor walked Lance, his navy blue suit shining under the stadium lights, his thick black cape whipping behind him with his daring, confident stride.
The crowd EXPLODED into cheers, clapping and yelling and bellowing and hollering;
But Maya; she found herself frozen. Silent at the sight of him, like the porcelain statue atop her balcony that morning. She attempted to put her hands together in applause, but could only bear to clasp them together as his face came into view beneath the spotlights of the arena. From these front row seats, her view of him was perfect.
And then she saw them again; those silver eyes, with the cold, mysterious glare painted over them, cutting through the heat of the crowd above as they radiated down onto him, his garnet locks of hair coursing with his every step. Stopping at the edge of the battlefield, he grabbed onto the lip of his cape and gave it a casting whip out to the side; a move of pure serious showmanship in greeting to the massive audience.
And the crowd went WILD.
Those steely eyes scanned the crowd for a moment, a tiny smile crossing his lips.
He knew she was out there.
And Maya's heart began to jump, an iron coil pulling in her chest as the memories rushed back to her in an instant; Those lips on her lips, that cold whisper teasing in her ear...
"Trainers of Kanto! Travelers from Johto, and beyond!" Lance's voice boomed over the stadium as the crowd continued to cheer, "Thank you for bearing witness to our battle today! This battlefield is sacred, and so will be our memories of this day!"
They let the crowd settle in another round of cheers again, before Bruno's brutal voice cut through it all.
"Enough talk!" Bruno called out, "One on one! Show me your Pokémon!"
With the sly grin taking over him now, Lance reached into the first slot of his belt and retrieved his pokeball. With a winding stance, he pitched it out to the center of the field.
"Dragonite!" He commanded, the crimson beam of light bursting from the ball to form the massive orange beast.
"ROAR!" It called out to the cheering crowd. It found its stance near the center of the circle, its wings casting wide at the ready, all eyes now turning back to Bruno.
Without a word, Bruno swung his arm out and launched his own pokeball up high into the air.
The crowd let out a collective GASP as the beaming light from the ball exploded out and up, taller and taller above the battlefield in a snaking avalanche of red radiance, slowly taking the shape of a massive, coiling stone snake:
It was Bruno's famously colossal Alpha Onix, blessed with the size and strength from the secret soils of Mt. Hideaway.
"RAWWWRR!" The Onix cried out to the watching crowd, who cheered in equal parts excitement and terror at the gigantic stone beast.
Maya had never seen an Onix so massive in her life; it towered far above Bruno, far above the first few rows of the stands, certainly nearing 50 feet in height, its massive jaws so wide that they looked as if they could easily crush the S.S. Anne in a single bite. Its cold, stone face was lined with deep-cut scars and grooves, proud fault lines from decades of carving into Kanto's toughest tunnels. It was a good thing they weren't in Galar, Maya thought; if that thing Dynamaxed, it wouldn't have fit in the stadium at all.
Lance stood unimpressed, the smile still painted over his face. The two men fell silent in a standoff as the announcer made his final call:
"BATTLE, BEGIN!"
"Onix, Stone Edge!"
"Hyper Beam!"
As the crowd exploded into cheers, Onix's massive stone tail whipped into the earth, kicking up mountain after mountain of glowing jagged rock, now descending across the field like a granite wave right toward Dragonite.
But Dragonite stood unafraid; it drew in a deep breath, tiny particles of light filling its jaw, before letting out a bellowing ROAR!
The hyper beam's radiant shaft of light LAUNCHED out from its jaws, crashing straight through the stone edge waves of rock with a deafening CRASH, one after the next,
BAM,
BAM,
BAM!
The stadium SHOOK with the rage of the exploding rocks. The detonating recoil had not even fazed the massive Onix, but had left Dragonite's body forced to brace against the blast with all its might, it's wings beating, its feet dragging back into the dirt against the wind as it struggled to recover from the hyper beam's release. Even when the wind died down, it struggled to move.
Lance could feel it too; he gritted his teeth and balled his fists, enduring the searing fatigue in his every muscle as his Dragon struggled to regain control.
"Onix!" Bruno yelled out, "Dig, let's go!"
"RAAWWR!" Onix lept high into the air, the crowd's collective jaw dropping at the sight of the diving beast, before CRASHING into the soil to dig beneath the stadium's floor. The ground SHOOK with the tease of an earthquake as it coiled beneath them all, growing closer and closer to Dragonite's paralyzed body.
"Fight it, Dragonite!" Lance called out to his ace, "Fly up high!"
Dragonite braced its body; bending it's knees in pain as it trembled with the searing sting of the recoil...
...Before LEAPING into the air, its wings beating faster and faster as it shook off the paralyzing tonic in its blood. The crowd let out a collective CHEER for the dragon as it made its way higher, but was it too late?
"NOW, ONIX!"
CRASH!
Onix BURST through the ground right beneath Dragonite's feet, leaping like a Milotic from a Galarian lake up from the surface to chase down the dragon. Its massive, scarred face SLAMMED into Dragonite's feet, crashing upward into its body, throwing the dragon off balance in the air & causing big damage. The orange beast was sent flying, before falling in an arcing feathery curve back down to the battlefield.
The crowd cheered at the first hit; Bruno had set the pace. His massive mountainous snake CRASHED back into the earth first, kicking up a field of dust and dirt to the entire stadium as it gazed up at the flailing Dragon, wondering where it would land.
Lance grit his teeth in anger; how could a massive pile of rocks move so quickly?
He would have to match the speed.
"Dragonite!" He called out, his red brows furrowing with the rush, "Dragon Dance!"
Still spiraling out of control from the hit & losing altitude fast, Dragonite suddenly turned the off-balance flight path into a swirling curl of a dance, spinning around and around as golden lights suddenly appeared before it, dancing alongside its massive orange body like Clefairy under the moon. The dance immediately balanced the dragon's wings, and instead of crashing into the field, it gracefully whipped just above the ground & cast back upward, kicking up a parting of dust as it launched again into the waiting sky across the arena.
The crowd CHEERED at the dragon's sudden recovery.
Like a searing Latios jet, it flew right by Maya's section with a WHIZ of the air, its body kicking up a sudden warm gust that blew the entire section's hair back. Dragonite hung just above them now, in perfect view of Maya & Kadabra, spinning around and around with the rhythm of the dance as the glow began to fade.
Maya's eyes watched on in wonderment; to see such a dance up close!
"ROAR!" The dragon cried with the blessing of its new agility and strength.
"Rock Slide!" Bruno called out, pointing a finger up to the dragon's position. Onix let out another crying ROAR as it lurched forward, summoning an oceanstorm of boulders into the air before launching them out to Dragonite's position in the sky like a hurling school of meteors.
The boulders came FLYING over in a flurry of cannon fire; Maya and her entire section put their hands up in fear to brace for the hit, some diving beneath the rows of the seats on instinct alone. Maya's heart slammed about, her arms raised to her face, the pull in her chest now throbbing at the sight of the avalanche of rocks hurling toward them.
"Like we practiced, Dragonite!" Lance called out, "Twister!"
"Roaaaaaaaar!" With a wailing cry into the open sky, Dragonite summoned a mighty, yet narrow, twister of winds right before its paws.
Maya's eyes grew shocked at the sight; a dragon's Twister was usually enormous, wide and devastating, enough to pick up a barn in Pallet Town and crash-land it in Goldenrod City. But this Twister was focused; slender and tall, and held closely to the whim of Dragonite's paw like a protective shield of brute-force wind.
The Rock Slide's boulders began CRASHING up into Dragonite, some of them cutting right through the shielding currents of the Twister to slam into its body. The dragon whimpered out with pain as it took hit after hit, attempting to hold the Twister still; but the plan was working: The majority of the boulders became swallowed up into the fury of the concentrated storm. Around and around these boulders spun, faster and faster in a raging tornado of rocky debris.
Lance's voice cut through the winds: "Now, Dragonite!"
Dragonite threw its paws together to shape the winds, and the rocks came FLYING back out in a whipping rage, right back down to Onix where it stood on the battlefield.
CRASH, CRASH, CRASH!
The Onix CRIED out, it's own attack turned against it.
And the crowd CHEERED!
Maya clutched at her pounding chest as the crowd roared around her, now holding onto Kadabra's arm in a panic. The dust from the Twister had kicked up a lot of whipping sand from the field, which was now triggering the battlefield's digital barrier net, a glowing red crosshatch of invisible fencing.
There was no real danger here; the stadium would protect them.
But Maya's heart still pummeled in her chest; the thrill was still there.
She cast her eyes back down to Lance, who was still wearing that confident little smile. He had turned his offense into a defense, she thought.
"Onix!" Bruno called over the winds, "Dig! One more time!"
With another calling cry, the massive serpent DOVE into the ground below once more, shaking the entire arena again with its every movement beneath the topsoil as it bored deeper and deeper.
Lance quickly eyed down the previous tunnel that Onix had dug itself; it was enormous, a great burrowing subway between both ends of the stadium. He studied the earth carefully, watching for any sudden movements between the shakes. Bruno was waiting for them to get closer, he thought.
At that moment, Dragonite's Twister came to an end; the dust settled and the sand died down. Dragonite was still floating just a few feet above Maya's seat in the stands, awaiting its master's next move.
Her eyes studied it closely as it suspended itself in place, wings beating, eyes peeled, muscles still aglow from its graceful Dragon Dance. Its aura had been so friendly when it had kindly chauffeured her and Lance around the other weekend, but now, it looked positively menacing; its coat of scales war-torn with dirt and grime from the field, its body bruised with a substantial amount of damage.
Her cerulean gaze then shifted from Dragonite down to the Dragon Master himself, only to find his shining silver eyes locked directly onto her; brows sharp and conniving, cape whipping in the wind, that cold expression softening the slightest bit at the sight of her.
It was positively exhilarating to see him like this; thriving beneath the roaring sea of the crowd & swimming so gracefully among it; among the elemental essence of his dragon.
Her hand was still clutched to her chest, her excited eyes growing more and more curious as they studied his steely gaze.
She smiled.
Yes... he thought. My Vermilion Voyeur is enjoying the show.
An idea suddenly dawned on him.
"Dragonite!" His voice called to his ace, "Aim for the ground, and give me a BLIZZARD!"
"ROAARR!" Dragonite launched off toward the middle of the battlefield, before shooting down like a comet to swoop across the pitch, taking in a big, cold breath as it descended.
And then, as it swept along the arena, the dragon unleashed a massive BLAST of freezing subzero wind and a flurry of snow from the depths of its lungs. The icy air immediately began freezing the battlefield, changing the topsoil's color from a golden brown to a snowy white lot.
In a flash, Dragonite had swept across the entire length of the arena, leaving it as cold and sparkling white as a cliffside off the summit of Mt Coronet. Lance grit his teeth in a devious smile, his heavy breath now visibly curling up into the new icy air, as he watched the tiniest look of worry cross over Bruno's face.
"Onix!" Bruno called from the sidelines.
Nothing at first;
But then the ground began to SHAKE, wildly and violently. Fans in the stands looked at each other in concern, gripping to the guardrails and bracing themselves to their chairs.
"Onix!" Bruno called again, the worry now laced in his voice.
"Get ready, Dragonite!" Lance took his power stance, pointing out to the middle of the arena and Dragonite obeyed, flying off into the center again above the new icy turf.
Dragonite's blizzard had penetrated deep into the field, freezing even the deepest layers of dirt beneath which the massive Onix was hiding.
Because that's what it was doing, Lance hissed to himself, his fists curling closed with a quiet rage, his teeth beginning to snarl; Onix was hiding. Just like Diantha's pokémon had hid behind their cowardly little shields. He growled at the memory, his chest burning with the thought:
There is no hiding from me!
CRASH!
"ROARRR!"
From out of the center of the quaking field, Onix's body finally crashed up through the surface covered in bitter ivory frost, its face twisted in an icy burn of pain. Instead of launching itself into the sky as it did last time, its body could only just barely crawl out from the frozen earth before it began to keel over, enormous ice crystals now formed between the grooves of its serpentine stone torso.
Unable to move, the massive snake peered up to find Dragonite flying not 15 feet above its frozen position.
Bruno's face fell.
"Hyper Beam!" Lance cried out, taking a confident step onto the field with his command.
"RAWWWR!"
At this point-blank range, Dragonite BLASTED a beam of pure white-hot energy out from its jaws with the heat of 1000 suns, crashing into Onix with a mighty FLASH that lit up the entire stadium. The burning of the beam combined with the frozen granite snake, creating a deafening EXPLOSION that launched a cloud of dirt and frost up into the open air.
The crowd fell silent;
Until the dust began to clear.
Onix was down!
The crowd went wild!
"Onix is unable to battle!" The referee called, "Dragonite is the winner! Which means the winner of this match is Champion Lance!"
As the crowd erupted again, Lance coolly basked in the radiance of their cheers with a humble little grin, eyes closed, breathing in their applause. He drew in a deep, cold breath as he opened his eyes again and flared his cape out once more, lifting up an arm to lay across his chest in a noble little bow.
It felt good to win.
Maya stared down to him, the wonderment still gleaming in her cerulean eyes.
How scary it must be, she thought, to have to face a crowd of this size. To have to entertain them; to earn their respect again and again.
But he seemed to do it so effortlessly; all he had to do was be himself.
Something stirred inside her now as she watched him bask in the glory; a powerful feeling of her own. It was something about the biting word of his battle commands that lingered in her mind, and the lips from which the words cast out to his fiery dragon; she knew just how soft those lips really could be.
She watched as he and Bruno met in the middle of the battlefield and shook hands, giving the cheering crowd a wave. The masses proudly lifted to their feet for these heroes; these tall and honorable men of the famous Elite Four.
Bruno, the immense and mythic brute of undeniable strength.
And their Champion, who they could always count on to give them one hell of a show.
