Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Surge of Power
"Alright, Sylveon, are you ready?" Serena asked.
("Of course! I can't wait,") Sylveon said.
Serena smiled. Though Sylveon still didn't necessarily enjoy the spotlight, she'd definitely become far more confident in her abilities as a performer. That was good, because Glaceon was going to be an incredibly difficult opponent to beat.
Even so, Serena was confident that she'd be able to pull it off. Like Drew and Zoey, May was used to Contest battling, and though those were similarly focused on being visually appealing, contact was still allowed, which wasn't the case in Expositions. Serena had beaten both Drew and Zoey because she knew her way around Expositions better than either of them, and Sylveon's moves were better suited for being used with only visual flair than Glaceon's were. But May hadn't reached the final through luck, and she'd adapted very quickly to the no-contact setting even if her Pokémon's moves didn't necessarily favor that kind of battle.
When they were called into the arena, Serena was nervous, but also excited. Judging by May's expression, she felt the same way.
They grinned at each other, and Nikolaos began the usual announcement.
"On the green side, from Petalburg City in Hoenn, here in her first-ever finals after an incredibly close semifinal, May, and her partner Glaceon!"
May happily waved at the crowd as the spotlight shone on her.
"And on the red side, from Vaniville Town in Kalos, the first Artisan to have qualified for the Grand Expo after her win in Lavender Town, Serena, and her partner Sylveon!"
The cheers in the audience sounded slightly louder than they had for May. Did people really recognize her already, or was it just because of Nikolaos's announcement? Serena waved at the audience, suddenly recalling that in her first final against Dawn, she'd also been on red side with Sylveon, and while Piplup wasn't an Ice-type, he did use Ice-type moves.
This time I'm not losing. Sylveon and I have this, she thought to herself.
Serena and May shook hands and took their spots. It was almost time…
"And…begin!" "Let's go, Sylveon, show them your dance moves!"
"Take the stage, Glaceon! Secret Power!"
Sylveon gracefully flipped and cartwheeled around the field, and Glaceon's body began to glow pink as she too went through complicated dance moves — but she used her Secret Power to briefly leave stationary glowing pink afterimages, creating something like a timeline of her dance moves.
Serena was impressed, but they'd only just begun. "Reach for the stars, Sylveon, Swift!"
Sylveon increased the complexity of her routine, speeding up the dance moves themselves and showering the air above her with Swift stars as she moved, curving and twirling their trajectories along with her own movements and using them to shatter Glaceon's afterimages.
"Shadow Ball, Glaceon!"
Glaceon made a powerful backflip, shooting a shimmering Shadow Ball into the air, which passed cleanly through the storm of Swift stars Sylveon was keeping up because of its Ghost-typing.
"Now follow up with Ice Shard!"
Glaceon landed cleanly after her backflip and immediately shot a wide arc of glittering ice spikes up after the Shadow Ball. Some of the shards hit Sylveon's Swift stars and caused small rains of sparks, but most slammed into the Shadow Ball, blowing it up and creating a rain of glowing black-and purple shards.
"Mirror Coat!"
Glaceon leapt up into the air, her body shimmering, and she intercepted as many falling shards as she could, bouncing them off at odd angles, increasing their speed and creating beautiful streaks of light in the process.
"Fairy Wind, Sylveon, sweep it all up!"
Sylveon flared her ribbons and whipped up a sparkling storm around herself, controlling it neatly to catch the falling shards and creating a shimmering vortex around herself while at the same time depriving Glaceon of anything to work with.
"Now for the finish, Sylveon, shooting star storm!"
Sylveon used her Double Team, Swift, and Fairy Wind together, expanding the sparkling and shimmering vortex to cover the entire battlefield, seemingly surrounding all her illusory clones at once, while once again firing curving Swift stars through the cloud —
"Time!"
Sylveon dispelled the whirlpool of glitter and her clones, and Glaceon let her Mirror Coat drop. Both Pokémon looked tired, yet satisfied with their performances.
"Well played, Serena!" May called out from the other side of the field.
"You too! Great moves!" Serena yelled back.
"And with that, our final concludes, and we take things to the judges one final time! As ever, we shall hear each judge's thoughts before seeing their final vote! Nurse Joy?"
Serena and May stood next to each other in the middle of the field, anxiously awaiting the verdict.
"This was, by all accounts, a dazzling final to behold," Nurse Joy said. "Both Pokémon showed great skill both in the attacks they used and their movement and positioning on the field. Sylveon's move set is a bit more suited to an event such as this, where contact is not allowed, but it is exactly because of that that I was so impressed by the way Glaceon used hers to still give such a stunning performance. My vote, therefore, goes to May, on the green side!"
The table lit up green and the audience cheered.
Serena clenched her fists. It wasn't over yet…
"Lieutenant Surge?"
"This certainly was a stunning performance. The precision both Pokémon had in executing their moves, and the decisiveness of the Artisans in adapting to one another's gameplans were both top-notch. However, near the end of the battle it became clear to me that one side had the advantage, and was beginning to deprive their opponent of opportunities. That side, for me, was the red side, Serena," Lieutenant Surge said, and his table lit up red.
Serena swallowed uncomfortably. This was exactly the same situation she'd been in in Cerulean City. One vote against, one vote in favor. It all came down to Nikolaos now.
"Come on…" she muttered.
She glanced to her side and saw that May was just as tense, which made her feel marginally better.
"It comes as no surprise to anyone, I'm sure, that the opinions are divided here," Nikolaos said. "The match was simply that close, yet again. Truly, both Artisans have shown that they deserved to be here in this final, but as this is a competition there can only be one winner. The objective of the Showoff Round is to wow the crowd and the judges with spectacular moves and skills, and while both Pokémon have done this, there was a clear winner in my view, and that was Sylveon with her magnificent closing statement, which means my vote goes to the red side, Serena!"
His table lit up red, but rather than cheering immediately, Serena just dumbly stared up at the judges table. Had she really won the biggest Exposition thus far?
"Congratulations," May said, knocking Serena out of her stupor.
Seeing May's genuine smile, with just that little bit of sadness in her eyes, finally made it feel real.
"T-thank you," Serena said. Then she looked down at Sylveon and pulled her into a hug. "And thank you! You did it, Sylveon, you won!"
("I know! I feel so happy I could dance!")
("You're not even tired after that?") Glaceon asked in an amazed tone. ("Congratulations, though. That was a fantastic match.")
Sylveon shook her head. ("I am tired,") she said, ("but I did a lot of training before coming here. I've never done that move in a real Exposition, though.")
"I thought that using Mirror Coat would make the Shadow Ball Ice Shards stronger than low-power Fairy Wind," May said with a sigh. "So I hoped it would be able to just push through."
"It would have, but Sylveon knows how much power she needs to get something done," Serena said with a smile at Sylveon. "We've been practicing Showoff Rounds against Ash's team a lot since we began this journey, and by now everyone has gotten good at estimating how strong their attacks need to be to take over someone else's and then do something really big and impressive to close out. The biggest weakness is that if someone uses something ridiculously strong to open it can be difficult to overtake and then we're on the back foot. We're still working on dealing with that."
"Should you really be telling that to your rival?" May asked playfully.
"I don't think it's much of a secret anymore; I did it twice in this Exposition alone and Ash was the one who pointed it out after he used it against me in a practice match," Serena said.
"Fast and strong is usually Ash's style, I suppose," May conceded.
"I thought you might use it here, but I gambled on Glaceon's moves not really being suited for something like that," Serena said.
("We did consider it,") Glaceon said. ("But we figured we'd be showing our hand too early, and if it didn't work, we'd definitely lose.") She smiled at Sylveon. ("Given what Sylveon showed, I think she'd have been able to deal with it somehow. She can really move.")
Sylveon smiled back. ("Thank you! I'd like to dance with you again, if you want to!")
("Of course!")
Shortly after, the awards ceremony took place, after which Serena quickly got changed and met back up with Ash in the lobby of the stadium. She held out her medal to him.
"Ta-da! Gold medal number two!" she said proudly.
"Great job, Serena!" Ash said. "Your matches were really spectacular today. You keep getting better at this!"
Serena felt herself blushing at the praise. The sincerity in Ash's voice really made it feel even better.
("Sylveon was brilliant in that last match. That storm looked absolutely stunning,") Pikachu said.
"Thank you, both of you," Serena said.
Dawn and May joined them, both also showing off their medals.
"Congratulations to both of you, too," Ash said with a smile. "You've done really well. And Dawn, you're into the Grand Expo as well now, aren't you?"
Dawn nodded. "Yep! So I guess bronze is acceptable. I could just take the rest of the season off now and just show up at the Grand Expo," she said.
"Will you, though?" May asked.
Dawn grinned and shook her head. "Of course not! I'll definitely do at least one more Exposition before then to get ready. What about you?"
"Well, I've got my Contests to get back to, but since I got this silver medal…I definitely want to try and make it into the Grand Expo too." May grinned at Serena. "Gotta get my revenge somehow, right?" Then she looked at Ash and said, "But first, it's your turn, isn't it? Your own revenge match against Lieutenant Surge."
"Oh yeah, Misdreavus said that if she beat Mismagius, it would be a good omen for your battle, Ash," Serena said.
Ash smiled and said, "Well, then we definitely won't lose. You'll see tomorrow. We're going to win that badge!"
After a celebratory dinner in one of Vermilion City's many restaurants that night — in which several people had asked Serena, May, and Dawn for autographs after recognizing them from the Exposition — Serena had the best night's sleep she had in days now that all the tension was gone, and the next morning they set out early for the Gym, so Ash could finally have the rematch he wanted.
While Ash was his usual self, Pikachu was much quieter, and more serious than Serena had ever seen him outside of dangerous situations. Even in battle he was usually eager and confident, not grimly determined, like he seemed to be now. She hoped it wouldn't affect him in the battle, though since Ash didn't seem worried, there was probably nothing to fear.
They entered the Gym, where Lieutenant Surge was already doing some drills with younger Trainers, all of whom were dressed in what looked like military clothes. When he saw Serena and the others, he gestured for another instructor to take over the group and approached them.
"Well, well, three of the four Exposition finalists," he said. "And another familiar face! I haven't seen you in quite a while, son! You look much stronger…but then, I would expect nothing less from a Kalos League finalist."
"You know about that?" Ash asked in surprise.
"Of course, son. You're quite the legend at this Gym. Taught me and Raichu some humility and it's made us into far stronger Trainers."
Ash smiled and said, "That's good, because we're here for a rematch."
"A rematch? Now, that's something you don't hear every day," Lieutenant Surge said.
"I'm retrying the Indigo League, and there were some Gyms where I…didn't feel like I earned the badge. Since I wanted to retry those, I figured I might as well rematch them all," Ash said.
Lieutenant Surge laughed. "I like your style, I'll give you that! But alright, then, a rematch sounds like fun! Raichu will enjoy it too, I'll bet. He's been training hard ever since his loss to your Pikachu."
("He'd better have…") Pikachu muttered, but if Lieutenant Surge could understand him he didn't mention it.
"Come on then, follow me to the arena. I imagine you'll want a proper three-on-three?"
"Absolutely," Ash said.
"Good! Ladies, the stairs to the stands are the second door," Lieutenant Surge said.
"Thanks, Lieutenant," Serena said. "Ash, Pikachu, good luck!"
"You've got this, Ash!" May said.
"Yeah, no need to worry! We're cheering for you!" Dawn said.
"Aren't we popular with the ladies," Lieutenant Surge said with a grin.
"I'm glad to have them supporting me," Ash said, looking at Serena in particular, who felt a rush of affection for Ash.
She, Dawn, and May made their way up the stairs, and as usual Serena called out her Pokémon so they could watch as well.
("This is going to be so cool,") Pancham said to Misdreavus. ("Just watch; you'll see how strong they are.")
("Good luck, Ash!") Sylveon said.
("You can do it!") Delphox added.
Ash grinned and raised his arm as if he'd already won.
"Man, it's been a long time since I last watched Ash battle," Dawn said. "It feels nostalgic, almost."
"I know what you mean," May said. "I feel like we're back on our journey like this."
Serena said nothing, but she felt she would probably be feeling the same thing, if she hadn't been with Ash for a while. Gym and League battles just seemed to be where Ash belonged, somehow.
"This will be a three-on-three Gym battle between Ash from Pallet Town and the Vermilion City Gym Leader, Lieutenant Surge," the referee, also clad in combat gear, announced. "Only the challenger will be allowed to switch his Pokémon, and the battle will end when all Pokémon on one side have been defeated. Are both Trainers ready?"
"Ready," Lieutenant Surge said.
"Ready," Ash said with a grin.
"Then you may begin!"
"Alright, come out, Electabuzz!"
"Krookodile, I choose you!"
Lieutenant Surge grinned when he saw Krookodile and said, "I didn't expect to see any Pokémon from my home region all the way out here in Kanto! Still, I won't hesitate to knock him out! Electabuzz, Ice Punch!"
"Show him what you've got, Krookodile! Dragon Claw!"
Electabuzz and Krookodile lunged at each other, Electabuzz with his fist glowing an icy blue-white and trailing frost, Krookodile with his claws glowing light blue. The attacks met with an explosive force, and the two Pokémon barreled past each other, turning around to face their opponents once again.
"Low Kick, Electabuzz!"
"Stone Edge, Krookodile!"
Electabuzz's leg glowed white as he lunged forward once again, and Krookodile roared and stomped the ground, causing a glowing rock spike to erupt from it directly into Electabuzz's path.
Electabuzz, however, didn't even slow down and kicked the pillar in half with tremendous force, before continuing forward, his other leg now glowing, and delivering a similarly forceful kick directly into Krookodile's body, blasting him backwards.
"Great job, Electabuzz, now finish him! Ice Punch!"
"Dig, Krookodile!"
Electabuzz carried his forward momentum, but when he swung his fist, Krookodile had already tunneled into the ground, and Electabuzz backed up, arms raised in a fighting pose.
"Be ready, Electabuzz, and Ice Punch as soon as he comes out," Lieutenant Surge said.
For a moment, nothing happened — and then Krookodile burst from the ground, directly underneath Electabuzz, sending him flying up.
"Dragon Claw, now!"
Without giving Electabuzz a chance to react, Krookodile swung his claw down, smashing Electabuzz into the floor with a resounding thud.
The referee waited a moment, but when Electabuzz didn't get up, he said, "Electabuzz is unable to battle! Krookodile is the winner!"
("That was pretty impressive,") Misdreavus said.
("I told you Ash and his Pokémon were crazy strong,") Pancham said.
"That really does bring back memories," May said, watching as Ash excitedly celebrated his first win with Krookodile, while Lieutenant Surge recalled Electabuzz.
"A good start, but we're not there yet," he said. "Go, Magneton!"
"Alright, Krookodile, return!" Ash said, pulling out another Poké Ball. "Bayleef, I choose you!"
Bayleef looked incredibly excited to be on the battlefield again, and she impatiently hopped in place waiting for Ash to give her a command.
"Flash Cannon, Magneton!"
"Dodge it, Bayleef, and then use Body Slam!"
An orb of glowing white-and-blue energy appeared in front of Magneton's body, and a moment later a bright beam shot out from it — but it didn't connect, because Bayleef had slammed her vines into the ground, lifting herself up into the air and launching herself at Magneton with the same motion, slamming herself into it and ramming it into the ground, before hitting the ground with her vines one more time to create some distance.
Magneton immediately rose back into the air, not really looking worse for wear.
"Good movement, but that won't be enough against Magneton! Lock On!"
"Keep moving around, Bayleef, and use Razor Leaf!"
Magneton's eyes glowed red for a moment and it focused on Bayleef, who'd gotten back into motion, using her vines to quickly change direction while firing off her Razor Leaf. Sharp as the leaves were, against Magneton's steel body they didn't do much damage, and Magneton didn't waver at all as it kept tracking every move Bayleef made with ease.
"Now, Magneton, Zap Cannon!"
"Use your vines, now!"
A crackling ball of electricity appeared in front of Magneton, who was still tracking Bayleef's moves.
Bayleef shot out her vines and grabbed Magneton, slamming it into the ground hard just when Magneton fired its Zap Cannon.
For a moment, Serena thought that Bayleef had managed to avoid the attack completely, but then she saw the crackle of electricity around her body, making it clear that she'd still taken at least a partial hit, which seemed to have managed to paralyze her.
"Great job, Magneton! Flash Cannon, one more time!"
"Bayleef, Headbutt!"
("How can she use Headbutt when she's paralyzed?") Misdreavus asked.
"Ash wouldn't be Ash if he didn't have a plan," Dawn said, once again displaying her knack for understanding Pokémon.
Serena just kept her eyes focused on the battle. Come on, Ash, Bayleef, you can do this… she thought.
The bright white light appeared in front of Magneton again, but he didn't get a chance to fire it. Bayleef's vines had fallen to the ground when the Zap Cannon hit her, but she'd never retracted them.
She grabbed onto Magneton and pulled it towards her with all her strength, slamming her head into Magneton with the highest possible speed as she reeled it in.
Magneton was momentarily stunned, and Ash instantly made use of it.
"Body Slam, now!"
Grimacing to force herself through the paralysis in her body, Bayleef reared herself up onto her rear legs and then dropped forward, ramming Magneton into the floor with her body weight for the second time in the match.
She struggled to get back to her feet…but Magneton remained on the floor.
"Magneton is unable to battle! Bayleef is the winner!" the referee announced.
"Yeah! Go, Ash and Bayleef!" Dawn yelled.
"Great job, Ash!" May said.
"Well done! Come on, Pikachu, now it's your turn!" Serena shouted.
Pikachu took his eyes off Lieutenant Surge just for a moment to give Serena a confident fist-pump that reminded her a lot of Ash, but then his expression became hard again, and he was clearly ready for a fierce fight.
Ash, who was praising Bayleef, recalled her, and Pikachu quietly said something to him. Ash grinned and nodded.
Lieutenant Surge meanwhile, had recalled Magneton. "I seem to be in a bit of a pinch," he said. "But I saved the best for last. Raichu, it's time!"
Raichu appeared on the field, grinned cockily, and flexed his muscles.
"Alright, Pikachu, I choose you!" Ash said, but rather than yelling a command, he said, "Lieutenant, Pikachu wants this to be an all or nothing. If Raichu beats him, I'll forfeit the match!"
Serena's gasped.
("That's insane!") Delphox said.
"That's so Ash," May and Dawn said at the same time, with near-identical groans.
"That is, on both a strategic and tactical level, an extremely dumb thing to do," Lieutenant Surge said bluntly. Then he grinned. "But I do like that gutsy attitude. Alright, Ash from Pallet Town, all or nothing it is! Raichu, Agility!"
Raichu smirked and then blurred into motion.
"It's all yours, buddy!" Ash yelled.
Pikachu stood completely still in the center of the arena while Raichu sped around him, dashing incredibly closely past in an attempt to psyche him out, but Pikachu didn't even flinch.
Just when Serena wondered if anything was going to happen, Lieutenant Surge yelled, "Take Down!"
"Iron Tail!"
Raichu finished his dash past Pikachu, turned around, and dashed forward again, directly at Pikachu's back…but just before he hit, Pikachu jumped up, a white glow instantly appearing around his tail, and with a backflip and every bit of strength he had, he slammed the attack into Raichu's back, smashing him into the arena floor with such force that the ground cracked.
Pikachu landed lightly on his back legs and glow disappeared from around his tail. Raichu didn't move at all. Everyone in the Gym just stared at the scene with an open mouth, even Lieutenant Surge.
Ash, though, smiled proudly. "Referee?" he asked politely.
The referee recovered and said, "Oh! Uh, yes! Raichu is unable to battle! That means that the match has been won by the challenger, Ash from Pallet Town!"
Pikachu turned around and jumped into Ash's arms.
("In your face!") he shouted, not at Ash but into the air, and that shook Serena awake as well.
"Congratulations Ash, Pikachu! That was amazing!" she yelled.
"You complete showoff!" Dawn yelled, but she was grinning from ear to ear.
"You haven't changed at all, have you?" May asked fondly with a shake of her head.
Lieutenant Surge walked over to Raichu, who was scrambling back to his feet. "Are you okay, Raichu?" he asked.
Raichu nodded slowly and looked up at Pikachu atop Ash's shoulder.
Now, for the first time since that morning, Pikachu gave a genuine, friendly smile. ("Thanks for the fight,") he said.
Raichu bowed his head and then said, ("You too. Well fought.")
"Well, Ash, congratulations once again," Lieutenant Surge said. "First you beat me with speed, and now you do it with raw power instead. It's almost as if our roles have been reversed since our first battle — though I suspect that was your intention from the start, wasn't it?" he asked, looking at Pikachu in particular.
("Yeah. I wanted to…set the record straight,") Pikachu said.
"Clearly, you were successful. It is with pride that I once again award you the Thunder Badge," Lieutenant Surge said, as he handed Ash the badge.
"Thank you, Lieutenant. It was a good match," Ash said with a smile.
He looked up at Serena and the others and held up the Thunder Badge. "Yes! I got the Thunder Badge!" he yelled.
("Alright!") Pikachu added.
("That was incredible,") Misdreavus said. ("No wonder I can't scare Ash if he and his Pokémon are that strong.")
("They really are something else, aren't they?") Pancham said.
"I'm glad we came to watch this," May said. "It's never boring to watch one of Ash's fights."
"It definitely isn't," Dawn agreed. "If we're at another Exposition in a city where Ash has a Gym match we should go and watch again. If you're okay with that, Serena," she added with a suggestive look.
Serena smiled brightly at her and said, "Of course! I'm sure Ash would appreciate the support as well."
For some reason, she felt no jealousy at all at the thought of having Dawn and May supporting Ash for other Gym battles. It seemed like she was finally getting more confident, both in her own feelings for Ash, and his for her.
She looked down at Ash, who was excitedly talking to Pikachu, and smiled. This trip was getting better and better, and she couldn't wait to find out what would be next. Only time would tell…
A longer chapter this time, but that's fine, I think. I liked writing the finals of the Exposition and the Gym battle.
I know 'ta-da' is Serena's catchphrase in the anime, and I haven't really used it once in this story, because I didn't really have any good moments for it, so I figured I'd just throw it in here to show I haven't entirely forgotten about it. And yeah, she understood Raichu this time. Sue me for being inconsistent, I guess.
I've been watching some FlygonHG Nuzlockes lately, and in one of them, I think the FireRed Water-type run, he described Surge as 'a deeply unwell man', which I found way funnier than it has any right to be and it was constantly in my head as I was writing this chapter.
I also went the One Piece route by having Pikachu and Raichu re-enact the old 'Luffy vs Bellamy' scene from years and years ago, because it was awesome, and I felt Pikachu deserved a win like that after everything he's done on his journey. The odds of a Pikachu with a Light Ball using Iron Tail to KO Raichu with a crit with neutral Natures and perfect IVs across the board are about 12.5%, provided Pikachu is 22 levels higher than Raichu (88 vs 66) and has 126 Attack EVs, so I don't think it would've happened in the games, but hey, this is anime logic, here, so Rule of Cool it is.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to post tomorrow, so in case I don't, it'll probably be Thursday. Definitely not Friday, though, since I'm busy that day. Anyway, as always, let me know what you think, and see you in the next one!