Part CXXXIII: Rapid Fire Evolution
"Alright guys, let's get back to some proper training." Ash said to his Pokémon as they all gathered on a grassy plain to the southeast of the village that had recently hosted the Fire Festival. "We have a gym battle coming up soon, so we need to be at our best for it."
At this Ash's Pokémon all made a chorus of noises at idea of the upcoming coming battle. It had been a while since the battle in Coumarine City and while the last two things they did had been fun they all wanted to get back to the main reason why Ash was in Kalos, to face the Kalos Gym Leaders, enter the Lumiose Conference and win it.
"It's been a while what with the tournament and the festival but now it is time to really get ready for Valerie and the Laverre Gym." Ash continued. "Now we don't know the rules, but we can presume that at least two Pokémon will be used, I've never faced a gym with less that I can recall off the top of my head. I've decided which two of you are one call, but I want all of you ready just in case I need more as I'm expecting at least 3 Pokémon will be needed as that's the usual number. We know that this is the only fairy type gym so steel and poison moves are the best and we can't use dragon type attacks, but I know we can win."
Again, his Pokémon all gave their agreements at that. They were here to win, and Ash always brought out the best in them. Right now, Ash had Pikachu as always along with Lucario, Talonflame, Sliggoo, Noibat, and Frogadier making up the rest of the team for the moment. Ash had sent back Charizard as wasn't going to be used in gym battles or the Lumiose Conference and brought in Frogadier for a bit while the others rested at Sycamore's lab.
It was two days after the Fire Festival and Ash and his group, along with Max, Bonnie and Owen, were still in the village that had hosted it. With all the hardware most of them had won and the help in the aftermath of the Festival they'd decided to stay for a few days to make sure everything was taken care of, and the trophies were sent home. Well, that and the other reason was to ensure that they got to Laverre at the right time.
Laverre City was less than a day's walk to the north east for them, in fact it was so close that they weren't sure how far north all 7 of them could actually go for their mass group training as they weren't sure if they'd breach the 10-mile Bonnie Banishment Zone around Laverre. May had check and it was official, Bonnie was banned from being within 10 miles of the city limits of Laverre for at least a year before she could apply for readmission to the city. That was why they were in the large plain to the southeast of the village as a precaution for Bonnie's sake.
They were waiting to move because they wanted to get to Laverre around the start of the Laverre Fashion Week that began in 3 days, well Ash and his group did as Max's didn't need to go back there and couldn't if they wanted to anyway. That way they'd be in town for the Laverre Contest which was set to take place during Fashion Week and which Serena would enter in order to go after her third ribbon. Meanwhile, Ash would face Valerie either before when they arrived the day before the week started or after depending on how busy Valerie was.
May and Serena weren't much help on understanding the odd woman from Johto that was Valerie. Max wouldn't say anything as he'd already faced her and wouldn't give Ash any tips. just as Ash wouldn't for Max's eventual battle with Viola, and May had only met her once briefly after the incident where Valerie and her Spritzee, her main Pokémon, helped out alongside all the other gym leaders, Sycamore, Diantha, Steven, and one of the Kalos Elite Four. She did recall that the woman had a unique style and odd quirkiness to her though.
They had no idea what to expect from the most unknown of the gym leaders other than the Snowbelle one and were getting ready for it. As for Max and his group, they were staying for training and then heading back to Lumiose for his rematch with Clemont, and to tell him the extent of Bonnie's activities in Laverre, before heading onto Santalune or Anistar, whichever was easier. Likely this would be their last time with Max, Bonnie and Owen before the Wallace Cup so they wanted to get a lot of training in before then.
However, with so many of them and all working with their Pokémon they'd come out to this large plain so that they could work best here and not at the still pretty full Pokémon Center. It would also allow Serena to work with Meowstic for her Contest debut and see what Delphox could do since she evolved while Misty did the same with Ninetales after his evolution with Pyroar and Typhlosion helping briefly. After Laverre Misty would bring in who she needed for her next Showcase as she had a plan for it and this time she'd win a Princess Key.
The rest were just out with their Pokémon as May trained Max for his rematch with Clemont and the team he was planning on using against him, Bonnie groomed and tended to her Pokémon, and Owen did his own thing. It was as they got here, and all let out their Pokémon that they learned that Owen's Hatenna had evolved into a Hattrem in between the Fighting Tournament and the Fire Festival, so he was paying extra attention to her.
Hattrem was slight taller than Hatenna with a full bipedal body that was pink other than her small light blue legs and white chest under a giant blue hat-like thing on her head, complete with strange cowlick at the center, and a pink and white cone to it. Two pink appendages with blue ends that Owen said were braids came from the hat thing and were used when she attacked.
Along with the normal changes evolution bestowed, Hattrem had become more friendly and open with other Pokémon, mainly her team and Max and Bonnie's Pokémon as she knew them best. It was interesting to watch, and Owen was excited for her and hoped that in time she'd evolve into her final form and take on a motherly role within their group the way Togekiss had done so in the past for Misty's Pokémon but only time would tell on that front.
Certainly Ash was hoping to battle Hattrem one day but right now he had to focus on preparing for Valerie and Hattrem wasn't a fairy type. The day before they'd sparred with May's Slurpuff and Serena's Sylveon to get used to facing the type but today was a primary focus on training as there was a move Ash wanted one of his Pokémon to learn to give him an edge against Valerie. He'd see how it worked tomorrow in a rematch with May and Serena as well as doing some training against Owen's Milcery as she too was a fairy type.
As such, they were all focused on their own things and really getting into their training. Naturally they had no idea that they were being watched and were about to walk into a carefully laid trap.
"Ok, it's almost time." Meowth said watching from a safe distance through the high-powered binoculars he had pressed to his eyes. "They are almost in position. This time we won't fail."
"After all the money we spent, and preparations we did last night we can't fail." James said watching as well. "This time we'll get the twerps Pokémon for sure and then some as there are two no twerps there as well with Pokémon to snag."
"The money I earned." Jessie huffed. "I needed it."
"We've been over this, you're established as Jessilee and Jessilina so all the money you earn goes to this." Meowth said. "And as hard as it is to believe given your spending habits we are actually making more than even you can spend. Especially after that last win we had enough to finally get this ready and prepare after watching the twerps closely. Now we can get that Pikachu and all the nice Pokémon there. I can recognize most but some are Galarian or Alolan so rare for da boss and some of those Pokémon have to be rare, after Pikachu they're the ones that we want the most."
"Agreed and they'll be ours before the twerps know what hit them." James said. "We've never been this prepared."
Jessie just huffed but there were some darling Pokémon out there that would suit her like the gorgeous Ninetales that had to be the Sinnoh's twerp Vulpix finally evolved and the cute pink Galarian ones, so she was on board with this even if it was her money that paid for it. Money that she'd earned following her stunning win in her last Contest as Jessilina.
It had been just before the Fire Festival in a town to the southeast of their current location were Jessie was going for her 4th ribbon to become the first Kalos trainer with 4. Also going for her 4th was one of the other Big 3 in Emily so it drew a huge crowd and made sure that Jessie, as Jessilina, would really rake in the dough from her appearance at the Contest. Plus, a win there would ensure that she was higher ranked as a favorite if she beat Emily in the final.
Naturally that was how it went down. Jessie had stunned with an appeal from Frillish followed by a breeze to the final with Gourgeist and Yanmega. Meanwhile Emily had appealed with Klefki and reached the final with Whimsicott and Spritzee. That was what Jessie had been expecting and she'd prepared a special Pokémon for the final as she was sure that she'd be facing Emily's Clefable in the finals.
However, Emily had surprised her with her Eevee instead, but Jessie quickly adapted and fought to win regardless of the Pokémon that she was facing. Then, as Jessie was leading, Emily's Eevee shocked the crowd and Jessie by evolving in the middle of the final, the second time that had happened in a row against Jessie. This time though Arceus had smiled on her and Emily's Eevee evolved into a Sylveon which was the wrong Pokémon to face Jessie's surprise; James's Amoonguss that she'd borrowed for the final.
Jessie had borrowed it to counter Emily's fairy types with a surprise poison type that wasn't her Seviper, and it had worked. Sylveon's evolution made it a fairy type and weak to Amoonguss who knocked it out a few seconds later with a poison type attack giving Jessie her 4th ribbon and ensuring that both her personas were now only one win away from their goals.
Of course, Jessilina was going to go for her 5th ribbon in the Wallace Cup and thus could take a break and focus on her other endeavors surrounding her marketing of her personas before them. All 3 favorites were aiming for 4 ribbons before the Wallace Cup so that they might be the one to qualify with it and both Emily and Brianna were on 3 ribbons each, so they needed one more.
This was going to be a big Wallace Cup because Misty wasn't eligible for it due to her status as a Top Coordinator and location of the cup in an expansion region which added the rule that you couldn't compete in it as a Top Coordinator. For the first time in 4 years a new champion would claim the Aqua Ribbon and Jessie was determined that it be her who won it.
Not just because it was her time but because the marketing of her 'Sinnoh' native persona being the first to win that wasn't Misty, an actual Sinnoh native, in 4 years would be incredibly lucrative. It also didn't hurt that Jessilina, though it was James dressed as Jessie in her Jessilina persona, had been the last coordinator to beat the Prodigy of Sinnoh before a final and the only active coordinator in Kalos with a win over a Top Coordinator. The stars were aligning for Jessie, and she'd hit new heights of fame and wealth with a win in the Wallace Cup.
In the meantime, though, she would focus on getting her 3rd Princess Key in the Dendemille Showcase and her side gigs for her personas but that was a ways off. Right now, they were going back to their old ways for a moment and stealing the Pokémon from the twerps and the two they'd never dealt with before and then giving them to the boss to show that they were still doing their day jobs for him.
"Right, it's time." Meowth said with a grin as their prey were now all in place. "Let's spring da trap."
With that Meowth pressed a button on a remote he held in one of his paws and a series of explosions went off on the plain. This time nothing would stop them as they made their way to their captured twerps to appear as the debris and smoke cleared, net guns ready just in case any Pokémon had been lucky enough to avoid the traps.
The explosions came out of the blue. One moment Ash, his friends, and their Pokémon were all training or doing whatever they were doing, and the next there was a series of at least a dozen explosions and the ground fell out from below all of them. Ash and his Pokémon fell down into a deep pitfall trap and as soon as they hit the bottom of the hole a spring activated trap was triggered and a net sprang up around them capturing all 6 of the Pokémon with their trainers before any of the flying types or flight able Pokémon could escape.
This was the same for all but one of the others who'd been thrown sideways and clear with one Pokémon by the explosion though the others all fell and were caught in that pitfall trap. They had all fallen for the traps and were now caught.
Little did they know that the night before Team Rocket and their Pokémon had dug a dozen pitfall traps and placed the special contraptions at the bottom to catch them with the sizes all large enough for May's Tyrantrum as that was the biggest one of the Twerps Pokémon. They also shot up high enough catch any flying types or floating Pokémon like Phantump should they try to fly but as a backup Team Rocket had net guns though as they looked down at some of their captured twerps.
"A throwback pitfall for you." Jessie said grinning down at Ash in his hole as she got ready for their motto.
"An old school view." James said to May in her hole as she'd been caught in a few of these holes before.
"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie said moving to begin their motto for all to hear.
"And make it double!" James added leaping next to her as habit took over.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples within our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth that's right!" Meowth as he took his position in front of his teammates.
"Wobbuffet!" Wobbuffet added bursting out of his ball.
"Mime, mime." Mime Jr. said doing the same thing.
"At last, we have you caught, your Pokémon are ours." Meowth said with a grin. "And don't try to use any moves to free yourselves, those nets are custom and can withstand fire, electricity, brute force, and anything else that you might throw at them. Expensive as hell but well worth it now that we have all of you.
"You haven't caught all of us." A voice said to the side and the trio, along with Wobbuffet and Mime Jr., turned to see who was speaking. "Two of us are still standing and can fight."
"Litwick, lit." Litwick said ready to battle like he enjoyed as the smoke cleared to reveal a dusty and battered Bonnie standing next the hole for her with Litwick in front of her ready to battle.
When the explosion in Bonnie's location had gone off she'd been sitting on the ground unlike the others with Litwick in her lap as she did her special grooming for him. She was also near the edge of the pitfall and not the center of it. As such, she was thrown to the side by the blast and though she had to struggle as she almost fell in she managed to pull herself out while Team Rocket spewed their motto having already inadvertently thrown Litwick clear. Now it was up to them to save their friends from these incompetent crocks that May had told her many stories about.
The sight of the dusty, dirty, small, blonde girl and her angry looking Litwick caused the trio to burst out laughing. They hadn't expected this, but it was normal for at least one twerp or twerp Pokémon to avoid them, so this was the one even if they didn't know who she was but facing them made her a new twerpette. At least this time Arceus had been kind to them with who it was. This was going to be easy.
"Back down girlie, we're going to take all your Pokémon and there's nothing you can do about it." Meowth said though he didn't activate the one move he knew as he remembered that Litwick was a ghost type so he couldn't. "Jessie, James, that Litwick is a ghost and fire type. You have Pokémon to counter it."
"Oh yes, Frillish, come on out." Jessie said tossing her ball into the air. "You're perfect for this."
"You too Inkay." James said. "With these Pokémon it will be easy to beat you."
"Litwick, Fire Spin." Bonnie ordered. "Target them all."
The group was too clustered in the center of their handy work thanks to their motto to move as Litwick let out a war cry as best he could and sent out the vortex of fire. It struck a surprised Wobbuffet and blasted him back and into Meowth leaving both dazed before the vortex appeared around all of them and did damage. It wasn't good but Team Rocket were used to pain, this was nothing to them.
"Frillish, Bubble Beam." Jessie ordered through the vortex.
"Inkay Dark Pulse." James said.
"Let's see you handle two super effective attacks you pesky candle." Meowth said as he pushed Wobbuffet off him and snarled at Litwick as the battle began.
"Dodge and get in close to Frillish for Astonish." Bonnie said going with what was best though she wasn't sure what types the Frillish was as she'd never seen one before. "I know you can do it Litwick."
Litwick just nodded as he leapt up and at the pink Pokémon as it had to be the Frillish, he recognized an Inkay, and cleared the Bubble Beam. However, Inkay had held back and sent the Dark Pulse into his side as he was closing in on Frillish with what would be a super effective attack and blasting him down and into the ground with the dark type attack. It was super effective and Litwick grunted as he hit the ground.
"Hold in there Litwick." Bonnie said the love for him in her voice as the Fire Spin activated again causing a brief window. "I know you can win."
His human was right, he could win. He was strong, he liked to battle, and he'd been close for a while. Now with his human and friends on the line he knew that he could do it, but he had to embrace what he was ready for to win this battle. It would make him stronger, and then he'd beat these bad Pokémon and their humans for sure. With a yell, Litwick triggered the change as the Fire Spin died down and turned bright white.
All those able to watch could do was stare in shock as Litwick grew, his body getting taller as an orb formed around his flame and his base became pointed like a spinning top with a narrow cylinder between the ball and pointed base. As this was happening two arm like things shot out of the cylinder thing and what looked like a pointed hat or lampshade formed over his head. Then the light faded and Lampent was now before a stunned Bonnie.
Lampent's body was black though the inside of his lampshade was lilac. The only thing that wasn't black was the orb which was now clear like a light bulb with the purple and blue fire in the center burning brightly, a mouth thing at the base of it and two yellow eyes on either side of it.
All of them just stared in shock at the evolution as another Fire Spin aftereffect was triggered. All Team Rocket could think was why was this happening again to them when everything seemed to be going right at last. That was all they could think of before Lampent attacked with two stronger moves he'd learned upon evolving and didn't need Bonnie's commands to use.
The first attack was an intense fire type attack that engulfed all of Team Rocket and their Pokémon with the hot flames spewing from Lampent's mouth thing leaving the Pokémon burned. Then, as another Fire Spin vortex was triggered and they were all recovering, Lampent formed a ball of ghost type power between his arm things and sent the Shadow Ball right at Team Rocket.
It hit the group center mass and the expected result occurred. There was another massive explosion and Team Rocket, along with their Pokémon, were blasted off and into the sky to disappear as a star on the horizon.
"We're blasting off again." Was carried back to Bonnie and Lampent on the wind but she ignored that as she rushed to her newly evolved Pokémon and embraced him.
"You saved us Lampent, you evolved and learned two new moves just to win this and save all of us." Bonnie said as Lampent hugged her back. "You're so strong."
"Um, what's going on?" Ash's voice called up from his hole.
"Did they get defeated?" May asked. "I didn't see the sky to confirm."
"I heard the blast off, so I assume so." Misty said. "But I'm stuck here with my Pokémon and Piplup's beak is in my back.
"Piplup." Piplup's muffled protest came from where he was at the bottom of the pile with everyone in his team and his human on top of him because it was just his luck to be stuck here. "Pip, Piplup."
"Who did it?" Serena asked her voice sounding muffled and strained.
"Meowstic." Meowstic said sounding affronted and pissed.
"I'm sorry, we're crammed in here Meowstic." Serena said. "It's not my fault you're on top of Rhydon's horn, I'm currently underneath him!"
"Rhydon." Rhydon said sounding sorry.
"Not your fault Rhydon, don't worry." Serena said.
"Well, it wasn't me." Max said. "I'm in my own hole and Simisear is making this really uncomfortable, not her fault but she is a fire type."
"Simisear." Simisear apologized.
"By process of deduction it has to be Bonnie then." Owen said. "I'm in my own hole and Beedrill's stinger is in my gut right now because he's hugging me for protection."
"Yup I wasn't captured." Bonnie said happily as she went to Ash's hole deducing that he was the best to help as he had the most experience with those fools according to May. "Me and Lampent held them off."
"Lampent." Lampent said happily as Bonnie reached the hole and looked down.
"Wait Litwick evolved?" Max asked. "So cool."
"He did so to save me, and he was amazing." Bonnie said as she noticed a release on the outside of the net in a place that Ash and his crammed Pokémon couldn't reach. "I see how to free you. Lampent, will you do the honors."
"Lampent." Lampent said as he hopped down and onto the net to press the release switch before floating up as the Pokémon were freed from the trap.
Talonflame was at the top and cawed in thanks as he shot up and flew to help out the others going to Misty's hole to free her while Bonnie and Litwick went to Serena's as Meowstic might be of some use if she knew Psychic. Meanwhile Ash and his other Pokémon disentangled themselves and began to work their way out as best they could with Noibat going to help as well, heading to May's hole on Ash's orders.
In short order, with the aid of Lampent, Talonflame, Noibat, Phantump, and Beedrill when the latter were freed they were able to release all the nets. Then Malamar, Machamp, Talonflame, Rhydon, and a reluctant Meowstic helped everyone out of their holes. It was only after everyone was out and their bags were with them when the next surprise happened.
They were all standing around as Bonnie's bag was the last thing brought up and Lampent went straight to it. He knew what was in there, Bonnie had bought it for when he was ready, and he knew that he was already ready. He didn't need to stay as a Lampent, he was going to get stronger and protect his human and team even more than he already was. That's why he dug in the bag until he found the item and pulled it out in one of his arms and held it high for all to see. That was when Bonnie saw it and her eyes went wide.
"Lampent…" Was all she could say as they turned in time to see the Dusk Stone in Lampent's arm thing turn white and for the second time in mere minutes, Lampent turned bright white and began to change, again.
As with last time he grew bigger. This time however, the orb that was his head became more of a sideways sphere as the hat shrunk in on itself and turned upwards to form a spiked top from which a flame shot out. The cylinder at the base collapsed in on itself as the head grew but so too did the spike though the arms stayed were they were. Instead, they got longer and two branches on either side grew out of them a little past midway that ended with flames on their own. Finally, the change ended, and the color faded to reveal Chandelure, Litwick's final form.
Chandelure's body was black like Lampent's, and the flames were purple with a blue base like Litwick's while the eyes remained yellow, and the orb color stayed the same. The biggest difference was that there were now vertical lines on the orb with black circles around the eyes that were also bisected by the lines and the eyes were connected by another black line that formed what could pass as a mouth with twin small lines between the eyes and a line bisecting the connecting line as if it was a nose.
"Chandelure, the Luring Pokémon and the final form of Litwick." A Pokedex that turned out to be Max's chimed out as they all stared open mouthed at what had just happened. "Being consumed in Chandelure's flame burns up the spirit, leaving the body behind."
"What is it with ghost types and having the strangest entries." Misty said as they all stared at Chandelure with only Ash having ever seen one before. "Banette's and Spiritomb's are freaky as hell. The former's is actually useless as well, most of them seem to be."
"Something about the type though Aegislash's wasn't too bad if I recall." May said still in shock at what had happened so not able to really recall Aegislash's entry at the moment. "But, um, has anyone ever seen this before?"
"Not this fast." Ash said shaking his head. "And it can only be done with stone, trade, or move based evolution I believe. Even so, only stone or trade could really be this quick as moves can be unpredictable."
"I bought that Dusk Stone when we were in Geosenge." Bonnie said still recovering from the fast, complete, evolution of her Litwick. "I was saving it for this as both Litwick and Flabébé need stones for their final evolution though I could only find the one for Litwick. Still, I wasn't expecting him to use it so fast."
"Sometimes a Pokémon just knows that it is ready and if it knows where the item it needs should it be that kind of evolution it will take it." Owen said. "But this was faster than I've ever known."
"Well, I have a Chandelure now." Bonnie said with a smile as she approached her Pokémon however that smile fell as she reached him. "Um…"
Chandelure hadn't really thought the evolution through as much as he should have as now he was so strong that Bonnie's experience level was too low and the power gap between him and the others in his team was too great causing him to not listen to her. Instead, he just fell to the ground and decided to go to sleep. Bonnie would need to prove herself to him to command him.
"I've seen that before." Ash said quietly. "My Charizard was like that when he evolved both times and that was a pretty fast one after his first evolution. Chandelure isn't going to listen to you right away, you're going to have to earn it."
"Oh." Bonnie said a little crestfallen at that and not sure what to do. "So how to I go about that?"
"For now, it would be best to recall him." Ash said. "And we need to get everyone checked out by Nurse Joy as we were in holes with our Pokémon. From there we can suggest things, most of us have dealt with this kind of situation before."
"Yeah you're in good hands Bonnie." May said as Bonnie reluctantly recalled her newly evolved Pokémon feeling unsure of herself now. "Don't worry about it."
"Th, thanks." Bonnie said as her other Pokémon came up to her to try and comfort her and let her know that they too were here to help her with this as best they could.
"Let's get back." Max said. "It is getting late, and we have a lot to do."
The others nodded but one of their group looked at Bonnie closely knowing what she was going through better than probably anyone else. It would take a call and a transfer but there was some advice that person had for Bonnie, and it would help the girl deal with what was going on.
Tomorrow, when the moment was right, Bonnie would learn of another Pokémon's rapid evolution and disobedience and how it was ended. Then Bonnie would have a sense of what she had do. This was just a hiccup on Bonnie's journey, she'd get over this as they all continued to face the many trials that a Pokémon journey entailed.
