Chapter Forty-Nine: Welcome to the Jungle

"Alright, Misdreavus… Are you sure about this?" Serena asked.

She, Ash, and the Pokémon were in their room in the Fuchsia City Pokémon Center. Serena had just returned from a shopping trip through the city, looking for a Dusk Stone for Misdreavus, and somehow she'd managed to find one.

("Of course I am! Come on, evolve me!") Misdreavus said impatiently.

Serena giggled at her vehemence. "Okay, okay, calm down," she said.

She held out the Dusk Stone to Misdreavus. "Go ahead, then."

("This is ridiculously uncomfortable to watch,") Pikachu said with a shudder.

("Yeah, I can feel that,") Misdreavus said. ("Good to know…")

("Aaaand my discomfort just doubled.")

Misdreavus briefly grinned at him, and then she reached out with a tendril of hair.

("Here we go,") she said, and then she touched the Dusk Stone.

Immediately, both she and the stone began to glow, and Serena felt the weight of the stone vanishing as it was absorbed by Misdreavus's body. Unlike Pangoro, Mismagius only grew a little bit compared to her previous self, but even so she was grinning wickedly when the light of her evolution dimmed. She raised the two armlike tendrils in front of her to her eyes.

("Awesome!") she said.

"How do you feel?" Serena asked.

Mismagius closed her eyes for a moment, and the gems on her body glowed in response. ("I can feel…more texture in everyone's emotions,") she said. ("And…I can't read minds, exactly, but it's like…I know what I can do to make you feel…anything. With my Confuse Ray I could do whatever I wanted, make someone feel what I want them to feel…")

Her expression became greedier with every word she said, and Serena couldn't repress a shudder.

Mismagius fixed her eyes on her immediately. ("I can feel your emotions churning, too…") she nearly whispered.

Serena swallowed hard and then looked back into Mismagius's eyes, trying with all her might not to blink. Mismagius's infatuation with her new abilities sacred her, yes, but she'd promised to try and deal with it better, to not treat her like a human anymore, and she was determined to keep that promise, no matter how uncomfortable it made her at that moment.

Mismagius cocked her head and her eyes widened almost imperceptibly, and Serena knew she could feel the shift in her emotions. She gave Mismagius a faint smile.

("Thank you,") Mismagius said softly, and then she shook her head as if she was just waking up. ("It's…a bit intoxicating,") she said sheepishly.

Then she looked at Pangoro. ("What do you think? You and Absol are harder to read, probably because you're Dark-type,") she said.

Pangoro grinned at her. ("I think you look great,") he said. ("But you, uh, you already did…") he added, looking away.

Mismagius giggled. ("Thank you,") she said with a smile, and this time it looked like her normal, friendly expression, rather than the greedy look from before.

"Wow, Serena, your team is changing fast," Ash said with a grin. "I can't wait to see your performance in the Exposition."

Serena smiled at him. "We'll come up with a great performance, no doubt!"

She looked at her Pokémon and said, "So let's go outside and start practicing. I think I've got a few ideas…"

It was finally time for the Exposition to begin, and as usual Serena and Ash had arrived at the venue early in the morning. It had taken quite a bit of effort to put together a good Location Round, but in the end, Serena felt she'd come up with something that would show off her newly evolved teammates in the best possible way.

Pangoro and Mismagius would be joined by Delphox, while Sylveon would be cheering them on from behind the scenes. Absol wasn't comfortable enough to come out of his ball with so many people around, so while he had wished Serena luck before leaving the Pokémon Center, he wouldn't be spectating directly. For the Location Round, only Delphox would be wearing an accessory: a stereotypical pith helmet to complement Serena's safari outfit, which included its own pith helmet.

("I can't wait for everyone to see me now!") Pangoro said while Serena was still preparing herself.

"You're definitely going to make an impression," Serena agreed with a smile.

She looked at Mismagius, who floated next to her. "And you as well, of course," she added.

Mismagius smiled at her. ("I'm looking forward to performing again,") she said. ("I really did miss it, when I was watching you last time.")

("This helmet looks terrible on me,") Delphox said with a sigh, as she inspected herself in the mirror.

"It looks fine," Serena said. "I know it's not quite as elegant as what we sometimes wear, but the performance will be fun, I'm sure. And I bet the audience will love it."

("I guess,") Delphox said. ("But I'm still glad I don't have to wear it for the Showoff Round…")

Serena finished her preparations and she and her Pokémon made their way back to the waiting area, where she found out that she would be fifth to perform that day.

Now that all she could do was wait, the familiar nerves returned, that odd combination between wanting to get on stage and just wanting to have the whole thing over with. No matter how often she performed, that feeling would probably never change, but somehow it felt quite comforting in its familiarity.

And, of course, they had practiced hard, and even though both Pangoro and Mismagius had changed a lot, the control they had over their moves, at least, hadn't suffered in the slightest. On the contrary, they seemed sharper than ever. The only thing that had significantly changed was that Pangoro wasn't quite as nimble anymore as he used to be, though he was still capable of impressive acrobatics for someone his size.

Then, it was finally Serena's turn to go on. Sylveon wished them all luck, and Serena and Delphox stood in the small tunnel leading to the court while Mismagius and Pangoro took their places in the darkened arena.

The music, a slow and ominous drumbeat, began to play. Delphox lit up the tip of her branch to function as a torch, and she and Serena slowly walked onto the stage, which was still shrouded in shadows, shadows which weren't merely caused by shutting off the lights.

And while the only music that was playing was the slow drumbeat, the arena was far from silent. Mismagius was using her Hex to create a veil of darkness, from which glowing red eyes periodically regarded Delphox and Serena as they slowly, tensely moved along the battlefield. At the same time, she was chanting, using her abilities to project her voice from all directions at once, giving the impression of a noisy, oppressive jungle.

When Serena and Delphox had completed a circuit along the battlefield, the drumbeat began to speed up a bit, and Mismagius's whisperings, as well as the number of glowing eyes within the Hex shroud, began to increase in intensity.

Delphox reached out with her torch, and Mismagius split the darkness ahead of the flame to reveal Pangoro, who towered over both Delphox and Serena and glowered at them. He took a menacing step forward, and Serena backed up fearfully while Delphox took a battle stance.

She fired off a Psyshock at Pangoro, who merely smirked and cracked his knuckles, entirely unaffected by the move.

His left fist glowed green and he forcefully threw it at Delphox's head, who reinforced her branch with Psyshock to block the hit, unwilling to move aside to risk exposing Serena to attack.

Serena, meanwhile, was looking around at the still blinking eyes, gesturing to ask them for help, but Mismagius merely made the sound of giggling resound through the dark cloud that still surrounded most of the battlefield, leaving only its center open and illuminated by a single, faint spotlight.

Delphox now fired a blast of Mystical Fire at Pangoro, who dodged, moving like a boxer slipping a punch, and even as he slipped the attack his right arm already glowed green, throwing another Drain Punch which Delphox was forced to step back from, since her wand was still out of position from her earlier attack. She bumped into Serena, and they got tangled up and fell.

Again, Serena pleaded with the sea of eyes around her, but they all went dark as the drums became quicker still.

Pangoro grinned wickedly and his right fist glowed green once more — but just as he swung it down, the music stopped and a purple glow appeared around Serena and Delphox and forcefully yanked them back, while Pangoro's punch passed right through Mismagius, who had now finally revealed herself.

She answered Pangoro's cocky expression with a mischievous smile of her own. The red gems on her body pulsed softly, exactly the same shade of the red as all the eyes had been.

Serena and Delphox scrambled backward, and Mismagius raised one of her 'arms', tauntingly beckoning Pangoro to attack her.

He obliged the second the drums started up again, but rather than being steady and ominous, the beat was now much faster. Both of Pangoro's fists glowed green, and Mismagius just allowed them to pass through her, giggling evilly all the while.

Pangoro's fists then glowed white, and this time Mismagius reacted, encasing Pangoro in the same purple Hex-glow she'd used to move Serena and Delphox.

Pangoro strained against the binding, but he seemed unable to move, and Mismagius spread her arms before giving a short, loud chant.

A glowing blue pillar shot up around Pangoro and slammed in on him hard, bending around his body and turning him into a glowing statue.

Mismagius giggled again, then turned around to look at Serena and Delphox, still on the ground.

Delphox got up defiantly, ready to defend Serena yet again…but Mismagius just smiled and faded back into the shadows.

Serena slowly got to her feet, and she and Delphox walked over to the Pangoro statue. Serena reached out with her hand, and just before she touched the stone, the music ended and the light went out. Pangoro shattered his Stone Edge just when the crowd began to applaud.

"And yet another great performance by Artisan Serena!" Nikolaos said. "Audience, please cast your votes now!"

Unlike during the performance, when Serena had been constantly surrounded by glowing red eyes, this time she saw green everywhere she looked, and she happily smiled and waved at the crowd.

"And without a doubt, the audience votes for Serena to move on to the Showoff Round!" Nikolaos said. "Then finally, we turn to our judges! Nurse Joy?"

It didn't even take a second for Nurse Joy's table to turn green, so Nikolaos went on, "Gym Leader Koga?"

Though Koga's expression was stern and unreadable, it barely took him any longer to cast his vote, and his table too lit up green.

"And finally, my own vote," Nikolaos said, and his table too lit up green. "And with that, Artisan Serena moves on to the Showoff Round! Congratulations!"

Serena bowed politely in the direction of the judges, and then made her way backstage again.

"Great job, all of you!" she said once they were back in their spot. "Our training really paid off. Mismagius, fantastic work on the special effects, and Pangoro, that Stone Edge control was great, and you really sold the expressions, too! Delphox, great job on the short battle and your performance as my safari guide."

("Man, it feels so good to finally be intimidating for a change,") Pangoro said with a grin.

("You did really well,") Mismagius said with a small smile. ("I could feel your confidence.")

("Your Hex was really good, too,") Pangoro said quickly. ("Keeping up that shadow even when you were 'fighting' me was really cool.")

("I wish I could've shown my own skills off a bit more,") Delphox said, ("but I was happy to let you two show your new stuff this time.")

("It looked really good, even on the screen,") Sylveon said. ("And the people loved it, too! They were super impressed!")

"Alright, then, let's decide the order for the Showoff Round," Serena said. "I was thinking Delphox first, then Mismagius, then Pangoro."

("Aw, then I don't get to do the finals,") Pangoro said. ("But I guess I got the final last time, so alright.")

"Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet. We still need to make it there," Serena said, even though she wasn't too worried about it. Everyone had performed incredibly well in the Location Round, so as long as they kept their focus they'd have a good chance to win.

After everyone had performed, Serena was ranked first, and twenty Artisans in total had managed to make it through this time.

Delphox overwhelmed her opponent in the round of sixteen, her performance boosted even further because Serena's opponent seemed to be a bit scared of her, but the round of eight would be more challenging.

Mismagius would face off against a Ninjask, who would be making full use of his natural speed and agility for sure. Even so, Serena wasn't too worried.

"Let's show them speed isn't all there is to it," she said, and Mismagius grinned wickedly.

("They won't know what hit them,") she promised.

Serena and her opponent, a young man named Shinta, took their places on the battlefield, and a moment later Nikolaos said, "Begin!"

"Alright Ninjask, let's go! Double Team and Sand Attack!"

Ninjask blurred into motion. His Double Team copies looked even more solid than Sylveon's usually did, and while he moved around the field, he kept whipping up dust from the floor with his wings.

"Take him to the jungle, Mismagius," Serena said.

Mismagius's gems glowed, and the same Hex-shadow she'd used during the Location Round instantly shrouded the battlefield, glowing eyes already appearing and disappearing within it.

"Swords Dance!" Shinta called out, invisible to Serena on the other side of the arena. Even his voice seemed a bit muted by Mismagius's darkness. Serena smiled as an idea began to form in her head.

In the shroud of darkness, Serena saw Ninjask's arms beginning to glow, and each copy swung them around in perfect sync.

"Make it even darker! And add some ambiance, too!"

Mismagius began to chant and project her voice, making Ninjask almost impossible to see for the audience.

"Give us a show!" Serena yelled, and Mismagius began to fire off Shadow Balls, using her Psybeam to link them together, all the while keeping up her Hex and chanting.

Serena could hear that Shinta was yelling something, but Mismagius had made sure that her own chants sounded near all the Ninjask clones, and whatever order Shinta gave, Ninjask couldn't hear it. When he went for a synchronized X-Scissor at one point, seemingly out of desperation, the audience was hardly paying attention because Mismagius was weaving her chain of Psybeam-linked Shadow Balls through her Hex cloud, creating a maelstrom of shadow around Ninjask's performance.

When Nikolaos called time, it came as no surprise when all judges voted in Serena's favor.

When she and Mismagius were making their way back to the other, a girl who looked to be around years older than Serena, with long black hair and dark brown eyes, approached them.

"We're facing each other in the semifinals," she said with an expression that was hard to read. She was smiling, but her eyes seemed angry. "I've been wanting to face off against you ever since Pewter City, and now I finally get the chance!"

"You participated in all the Expositions too?" Serena asked, trying to recall if she'd seen the girl before. She probably had, but she was usually mostly focused on her opponents' Pokémon in their location rounds, and less on the Artisans themselves.

The girl, evidently, took Serena's question as an insult. "Of course I have! I've been on the podium three times already!" she said.

Serena blinked. If she'd been on the podium with this girl, then surely she would have remembered her, right?

"I'm…sorry, I don't recognize you," she said apologetically.

The girl flicked her hair disdainfully, but then said, "Well, I suppose that's not too strange. I…change my hair style a lot. It was curly and blonde in Pewter, and I believe it was short and blue in Lavender Town…"

Serena gave her a blank stare as the girl continued to sum up hairstyles she'd used. Eventually, the girl seemed to catch herself, because she shook her head and said, "Never mind that! The point is, if I beat you here, I qualify for the Grand Expo, so you're going down!"

"Um…well, I'm looking forward to our match, then," Serena said with a nervous smile.

She knew Ash would've told someone this belligerent to bring it on, but while she'd certainly have done that if this were someone she knew well, being boastful toward someone she was only properly meeting for the first time now seemed a bit out of place.

"Could you…tell me your name, first, though?" she added.

"I didn't mention that yet?!" the girl said in shock. "My name is Erin! You'd better remember it!" With a last, haughty glare at Serena, she marched away.

"Well…she was certainly colorful," Serena muttered to Mismagius as they began to walk again.

("Be careful about her,") Mismagius said. ("She might've been acting a bit floaty, but her emotions were cold as ice the entire time. I think she's trying to get you to get your guard down.")

Serena nodded slowly. "Right. Thanks for the warning. I think Pangoro's got this, though."

("I hope so…")

Serena felt a bit nervous when she and Pangoro made their way over to the arena for their match against Erin, who would be using her own Sylveon for this round.

Pangoro had immediately proclaimed that he was going to win, because he was used to training against a Sylveon was much stronger, and when Serena had warned him not to take his opponent lightly, he'd simply shrugged. Even when Mismagius had repeated the warning, he hadn't seemed impressed.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it now, except give it her best. She stood across from Erin, whose expression was confident and calm, which was mirrored by her Sylveon.

Pangoro drew himself up to his full height and rolled his shoulders.

"Begin!"

"Alright, Pangoro! Show them what you can do!"

Pangoro gave a nod and lifted his foot, ready to create a Stone Edge, but before he could, Sylveon had already dashed forward to sit right in front of him, grinning cheekily up and forcing Pangoro to abandon his attack or risk hitting Sylveon, risking disqualification.

Pangoro glowered at him, but Sylveon just winked and jumped backwards.

"Double Team!"

Still grinning, Sylveon split up into a swarm of copies. While they weren't as impressive as Serena's Sylveon's, they were still incredibly numerous, making it difficult for Pangoro to risk using his Stone Edge.

"Switch to Dark Pulse, then, and use your feet!"

Pangoro began to move, switching fluently between various martial arts stances he'd been practicing even as a Pancham, and for which he now finally had limbs long enough to do it. With each punch in the air, he fired off a Dark Pulse, making sure to launch them upward to avoid hitting Sylveon.

"Disarming Voice!"

When Pangoro fired another Dark Pulse, Sylveon immediately fired off a heart-shaped sound blast to intercept it, which dispersed the Dark Pulse even as the heart itself momentarily lingered in the air.

"Pillar smash!"

Pangoro stomped the ground, launching himself into the air with his own Stone Edge. He was clearly angry, because he was launched much higher than he'd been in training, but Serena was sure he'd be able to land without injuries, and already his fist was glowing green in preparation to smash the Stone Edge.

"Moonblast!"

Sylveon fired off a glowing pink ball of energy directly into the Stone Edge pillar, and it disintegrated into pink sparkles just before Pangoro could strike it.

Serena winced. Normally, Pangoro would have been faster, since his pillar smash was one of his most-practiced moves, but because he'd launched himself higher than usual, he'd missed his chance. Had Erin really spotted that, or was she just lucky?

Pangoro, having punched nothing unexpectedly, heavily landed on the ground, uninjured, but beside himself with anger.

"Disarming Voice!"

Sylveon fired off another heart-shaped blast, and tauntingly hovered it just above Pangoro's head as all the Double Team clones winked.

"Cut it with Aerial Ace!"

Pangoro wildly swung his arm up, the glow appearing around it so fast that Serena only knew it had worked because the heart was bisected. Even so, the movement had been too big and uncontrolled, and Sylveon mockingly looked at Pangoro, pretending to cry at having his heart broken.

A Double Team clone appeared right next to Pangoro, and immediately Pangoro's arm glowed white again, clearly intending to destroy it.

"Pangoro, no! Focus on your own actions!" Serena shouted.

Even though this was probably an illusion, if it was the real Sylveon, Pangoro would be disqualified for sure. But worse than that, this was the first time she'd ever seen him this angry, and though he managed to redirect his swing, it was once again wild and unsightly.

"Disarming Voice and Moonblast!"

Sylveon blew a kiss at Pangoro, riling him up even further, and then fired several glowing hearts into the air from the corners of the arena, before placing a Moonblast orb in the middle of it. The hearts shimmered and distorted, and the Moonblast was off-center, but Pangoro wasn't able to make use of it, instead looking like he wanted to smash Sylveon into the ground…and then, Nikolaos yelled, "Time!"

Pangoro whirled around and glared up at the judges, fists still balled, and Serena quickly ran over to him.

"Pangoro, stop!"

His head whipped around, and for a brief second he stared at Serena with a truly terrifying expression, a look so furious she instantly felt her legs turn to jelly and she stumbled, rather than stepped, back.

Pangoro's arm shot out and Serena flinched and closed her eyes — but Pangoro had just gently caught her to prevent her from falling.

Slowly, Serena opened her eyes again and looked up at him, and all the anger she'd seen in his eyes just seconds before had been replaced by shock and disbelief.

("I'm…I'm sorry…") he whispered.

Serena couldn't reply. In Kalos, she'd seen Korrina's Lucario go out of control when he Mega-Evolved. That had been terrifying, but Pangoro wasn't Mega-Evolved. He was just himself. And the look in his eyes had been downright murderous. He'd never liked losing, but to look at someone like that, to look at her like that…

It had been so clear that if he'd attacked her, she would've died. Not injured, dead. The more that realization washed over her, the more she felt her breathing becoming irregular.

("Serena…")

Serena wildly shook her head. "No!" she shouted.

Then, calming herself down with the greatest force of will, she added, "Not…not right now. Please…"

Pangoro took a step back and hung his head. Serena was so caught up in her own thoughts, at the image of Pangoro glaring down at her with that rage in his eyes, an image that would surely haunt her dreams for a while, that she didn't even listen to the judges' explanations of why she'd lost the round. The loss of the match felt like nothing, regardless. Somehow, it felt like she'd lost something far more important.

A much longer chapter than I anticipated, but I like how it came out. Despite it being nearly 3 AM here and me needing to work tomorrow, I just wanted to get this done.

So…the evolutions in Serena's team aren't just positive. Honestly, it was time for her to lose an Exposition again, but I do think I found a suitably dramatic way for her to do it. Feel free to let me know what you think about it.

Oh, and about Erin…I like the Unknown Rival trope, and while the Doylist reason for Serena not recognizing her is obviously that I didn't invent her until recently, I think the Watsonian reason worked fairly well here. She…will be returning, clearly.

In any case, next chapter should be up a week from now at the latest. See you then!