A Hui Hou Kākou

by BraviaryScout

As they continue on separate paths; the newly crowned champion of Alola, Elio "Sun" Northstar looks back to remember the one person who gave him the strength he needed to complete his island challenge while he awaits her return. Pokemon Moon novelization. Sun X Lillie. Hau X OC. M for later chapters. Cover art by Chocolexii. Same universe as Brendan's Journey by jmoul18.

85. Entry 81: A Thanks

Alola readers! Brav is here with your next AHHK update! Apologies for this one coming later. Was on vacation to Europe, but also able to get some writing in while going through the German countryside and the long flight back to the US. I'm sure everyone's ready to see what will happen now that the main part of the story is all but done.

Let's dive right in.

---

It feels so surreal and I can't believe it. With Elio's help…and Hau's and Gladion's and Professor Kukui's and so many other amazing people. We're finally starting to heal as a family. It's going to be a long fight. Mother did a lot to drive us apart and the ramifications are going to be bigger than family issues.

Interpol is here. Turns out unleashing legendary or super dangerous creatures unwarranted into the world is something that's gonna catch their eye. Agents have swarmed the Paradise and Mother is in their custody, under arrest while she recovers. Gladion has taken over as the interim President of the Foundation and his hands are always tied with the new business. Thankfully Wicke has stepped in to help and Faba…well, after fleeing, he was caught in Circhester in the Galar region, likely to get similarly sentenced for his efforts in bringing over the Ultra Beasts as well as plotting to usurp Mother.

Onto brighter things! Professor Kukui announced the opening of the Alola Pokemon League! The very first one! It may have taken a couple extra months behind schedule, but they're now accepting challengers! It's a long process to get the challenge scheduled, but they're also implementing rules different from many other Leagues around the world! I can't say for certain, but I know Elio's gonna be chomping at the bit to challenge it as soon as he can!

---

Gladion shook himself awake as he heard a light tap on the glass door. Glancing up, he saw Lillie with a concerned look on her face. He nodded, giving her permission to enter the office.

"I figured you'd be pretty hungry." His younger sister walked in with a takeout box in her hands. "You've been cooped up in here all day."

Someone has to not let this place go under. He sighed, rubbing his temples and glaring angrily at the pile of paperwork he still had to review and sign off. Things from contracts, logistics to funding yet to be addressed. Ever since he had taken up the acting president of the Aether Foundation in Lusamine's absence, the paperwork and monumental decisions he was having to make on a daily basis was already eating away at his sanity…or what remained of it. Lillie opened the carton and his stomach immediately rumbled as he peered inside.

"A patty melt." He started.

"With extra grilled onions. Just the way you like it." Plus a ton of fries.

"Thanks. Funny how constantly ordering this at Cutter's made it one of my favorite things to eat."

"Even more crazy that the chef can replicate it almost exactly."

Gladion folded a napkin and took a bite. The sandwich was two slices of toasted rye bread with a beef patty, loads of grilled onions, melted cheese and a creamy pepper dressing.

"Damn…that tastes so good." He popped a fry in his mouth. "It's so strange how this…considered a humble food is something I never thought I'd miss so much."

"Yeah." Lillie said. "Not to diss chef's cooking, but sometimes we all need a big juicy and greasy burger."

"How's Mother today?"

"She's better. Still weak in that it's hard for her to walk around. Just that brief exposure to the poison of Nihilego made her like this."

"And the R and D says they've made zero breakthroughs on developing any sort of antidote." Gladion rubbed his forehead in annoyance. What they did manage was a cocktail that helped to lessen the effects of the toxin by synthesizing it from Lusamine's blood. It would give her a slight boost of energy that would only last for a handful of hours before she became just as lethargic as before. Even more strange was that her overall health was nominal when compared to her last check up.

"They said that a more pure source might be the key they need to cure her for good, but I'm not sure. Maybe there's someone out there that can also help."

"A pure source?" Lillie asked him. Her face told him that she was not going to like what he was about to say.

"Yeah. We might have to capture one ourselves and extract its venom that way."

"How would we do that?"

"I asked Interpol about the solution they proposed." His expression darkened. "You're not going to like it."

---

"Alright. Easy does it."

Bravo cawed as he held the backboard in his talons, flying over the pole that Elio had erected in the side of the driveway to his house. He wiped a bead of sweat off his brow while atop the ladder, using his hands to move Bravo to the left and right. The ring behind the goal fit perfectly into place as he began to fasten it. Not fully attached, he had his braviary hold it very still while using an electric screwdriver to finally secure it. He didn't have anything to measure up to a regular basketball hoop's height of ten feet, so he had to roughly eyeball it to just under double his own.

"Perfect." On his cue, Bravo had let go and Arclight zipped up to him, handing a level over. Elio dropped it onto the top of the goal's frame, checking the center meter. He saw that the bubble was positioned perfectly between the two dark lines, indicating that it was completely flat.

"Well done!" His pokemon held the goalpost as he fully drilled in the six remaining screws, testing the attached rim and checking to see if it was level several times over.

Still just a hair off. Must've shifted when I screwed it in. Elio frowned, loosening one of the screws and having Lochagos hold it in place as he tried again. It took him three tries of loosening and adjusting before the level finally gave off a result that satisfied him.

As he worked on installing the basketball goal, Elio kept his mind going back to his journey of an island challenge.

Three months had passed.

Three months since he had ventured with Lillie into the depths of an unknown dimension that felt hostile in every way to rescue both her mother and Guzma from the clutches of the deadly nihilego. Since then, Nebby attaining her final form of the legendary Lunala and expressing her wish to continue accompanying him on his travels had dominated his thoughts.

I have a legendary. I own a legendary pokemon. The thought continued to ring in his head almost every day since he had caught her in one of the luxury balls that Lillie had instinctively bought for him. At the time, he had plenty of poke balls to use if he ran across a potential capture, but it had been the thoughtfulness that he valued the most.

Not to mention the cost. Luxury balls aren't cheap.

Few trainers had chance encounters with legendary pokemon. Even fewer had used the opportunity to attempt to catch one, with a very small number actually succeeding. Those that did were said to wield incredible power and have strong bonds with their pokemon even prior to the legend's capture. It was a difficult ordeal, not just engaging it in battle and weakening it enough to be able to successfully contain it within a poke ball, but rather finding it.

No. A legendary pokemon is a legendary pokemon. One that I have is mine no matter the method I used to capture it.

Elio had a harder time justifying that the legendary Lunala willingly let herself be captured by him whereas other trainers in possession of a legend themselves had to face it down in battle.

I had to battle. I had to prove myself.

He wondered if that put him in the same company as the others. Brendan Maple most notably, who had the legendary Eon pokemon, Avery the Latias. She proved instrumental in defeating the legendary pokemon of Hoenn, Groudon. Similarly, his wife May was the owner of her brother Drake the Latios. Like her husband, she had calmed and captured Groudon's counterpart Kyogre.

Those two were immensely powerful pokemon and Elio had never seen either of them used in battle by either trainer. Likely because of their tendencies to be highly destructive and endanger countless lives.

Nebby's not like that. Groudon and Kyogre only wrought destruction. Drying up the oceans or swamping it under crushing depths. Nebby knows her power and its limits.

The net was finished being installed on the rim and he dug out a basketball from the garage, dribbling it on the driveway. Although he was disappointed that the concrete mould had a slight downward angle, meaning the ball would roll towards the street, Elio was aware that his mother likely had to put a down payment on a house in a rather short time.

It's crazy how her first and only offer was immediately accepted. The sellers had been an older couple originally from Unova who were intending to move back to Aspertia City in order to be closer to their family and newly born grandchild. Minus a few things that he and his mother had agreed needed some work, she had gotten the house just a few thousand over what she had estimated.

He did remember how his mother had muttered under her breath one time how the Alola housing market was incredibly volatile and that this had been an extremely lucky find.

All of that plus his initial resistance to move away from Kanto into this chain of islands in the middle of the ocean, hot steamy weather and two opposite ends of a lukewarm reception from the locals and welcoming to tourists visiting from the mainlands.

I hated moving to one of the world's most popular tourist destinations.

Somehow he wished that he could've taken back all the fuss and reluctance to move. Probably was no help to the loads of stress that she was under.

But it's changed. This is my home and I actually don't even remember the last time I was actively thinking about Kanto.

Elio's pokemon watched as he dribbled the basketball between his hands, going back and forth between his legs before he finally eyed the goal. With so many years of practice, he raised the ball and let it fly. He held his breath, watching it sail through the air and through the hoop with a swish of the net that sent a chill down his spine in nostalgia.

"I still got it!"

Grabbing it before it rolled onto the street; he took two more shots, each one a few more steps back. The second swished just as easily as the first, but the third hit the backboard, falling through the hoop.

"Okay one more."

He stepped back even further, deciding to take the shot at nearly a distance where it would be half court.

A blur of motion caught his eye as he suddenly saw Strongside blitzing forward and raising his hands.

"Oh you trying to block?" Elio smirked, quickly taking the ball down and dribbling behind his starter. Strongside growled in confusion, turning around, but Elio had stopped short and doubled back, jumping up and shooting.

His release was just a little early, hitting the rim's front and bouncing right towards Strongside. The big cat caught it and jumped up to throw it into the hoop.

Elio flinched as he scored the dunk, but his claws had snagged into the white net, easily shredding and tearing through. He saw the large backboard had canted to the left as Strongside had held on before dropping to the ground.

"Ah shit." Apparently he hadn't tightened the screws in far enough.

Strongside flexed his arms in triumph and stopped when he saw his trainer sighing. The ball took off down the street and Arclight suddenly raced after it, determined to not let it get away.

"And we're back to square one."

"I've seen you deal with worse."

Elio stopped, eyes widening at hearing the familiar voice from behind him. He spun around.

Gladion Hyacinth stood at the edge of the driveway, arms crossed and a rather bemused expression on his face. It took him a second and he blinked, almost not recognizing the boy in front of him.

Gladion's unkempt icy blonde hair was smoothed back and had a slight sheen from the conditioner and it was swept along the side, neatly combed without so much as a strand out of place. Seeing more of his face, he saw the familial resemblance. Like Lillie and Lusamine, his strong jawline and nose were nearly the same shape and he had bright emerald green eyes. Unlike earlier when they were cold and brittle, they gazed at him with an even-keeled temperance, which complimented his more reserved gait.

"That new look suits you." Elio wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or thrilled with Gladion showing up unexpectedly to his house. The former Skull enforcer was dressed far differently too, with a heather gray polo tucked into a pair of muddy brown shorts that were held up by a dark leather belt that had a well polished buckle.

Gladion's business casual look contrasted with Elio, who wore an old faded shirt and striped green basketball shorts. He was outside to install the basketball goal and hadn't had anything else in mind. Despite relieved to be home, he was incredibly bored, deciding to start on the improvement projects he and his mother had brainstormed.

Once all this is done, I'm fixing the backyard so that my pokemon have a place to practice spar battling and stuff. Since then, he kept his team in shape by their practice sessions at a secluded section on the beach, away from the tourists and the majority of anyone else that could potentially interrupt.

His mother hadn't noticed the scars on his arm from Lusamine's knifework and he was determined to make sure she'd never know either. The next morning after Elio had finally returned home, he had gone to the store to buy a black arm sleeve to cover the scarring from her and anyone else who happened to catch a glimpse.

The pain still burned, even as the scars turned into scabs and slowly shed. But he saw the markings remain as distinct lines on his arm that were in a random pattern to the untrained eye.

He knew the signet of the Aether Foundation still laid under all that healed skin. Ever since, he had worn the arm sleeve any time he was not alone in his room.

Elaine had asked him about it and he waved her concerns off, saying that it was that his shoulder was acting up from a bit of soreness and swelling in his deltoid muscle. She had bought the story, but Elio knew that the longer he wore it around her, the more suspicious she'd get of him.

I wouldn't put it past her to already be wondering.

"I've been meaning to speak to you." Gladion said, looking rather indifferent to Elio's more modest attire compared to his casual long shorts and striped shirt. "To thank you."

"Oh?" Truth be told, he was expecting more of a confrontation.

Still. Three months of seeing neither Hyacinth sibling and getting next to nothing on what they were up to was just a bit of a slight insult to the least. "Well for what it's worth," he started. "You're welcome. But you didn't have to wait three months to walk up to my house in person to tell me that. A text or call would have sufficed."

Irritation bubbled in Gladion's throat and he took a deep breath. "Maybe. But I feel like what you did for Lillie and our mother deserves more than a thanks over a phone call."

Fair enough.

"Elio!" His mother Elaine, had opened the door, peering out to the driveway. "What do you want for dinner?"

"Whatever's fine!" Elio called back. "I'm not picky."

"Oh," Elaine had noticed Gladion with him. "Is this a friend of yours?"

"We're not friends…exactly." The blond quickly said before he could reply. "I'm uh…Gladion. I've known Elio for some time. You also probably know Lillie too…I'm her older brother."

"Right." He nodded after getting a rather weighted stare from the older boy. "Gladion and I met on Akala Island and have had a few battles and run-ins. He's quite the strong trainer."

Elaine's features softened and she broke out into an easygoing smile. "I see. So you're the Gladion that's been talked about quite a bit by people nowadays."

Gladion nodded. "Well yes, I am the acting President of the Aether Foundation…which has had a bit of a shakedown as of recently. Elio was very helpful in helping me with it."

"Ah." It surprised him that Elaine was rather calm about hearing it. His own mother would've flipped out. "I'm glad you were able to turn to my son when you were in need. Elio's always had that sense of loyalty to others. I feel like he gets that from his father."

"I was hoping if I could have a word with him?" Gladion wanted somewhere private, trying to mask his annoyance as best he could.

"Oh of course. But he's nearly seventeen and can take care of himself. He doesn't need my permission for that kind of stuff, especially if he clearly trusts you." Elaine smiled at him before turning to her son. "It was very nice to meet you. Elio, I'll need to make a grocery run here in a few minutes."

"Sounds good Mom. Gladion and I are gonna talk for a little while and I'll be back soon."

"Don't forget that Hau is going to be by later so that you can go downtown."

"Oh yeah, for the Maple Apparel Outfitters store opening. Right, we'll be back in time for that."

---

Elio and Gladion walked along the shoreline of Waimanalo beach in silence. The only sounds were their footsteps on the concrete sidewalk and the roar of the waves as they crashed against the sandbar. The surf was a lot more vigorous today with waves much bigger than normal surging ashore. Several people were ahead on the beach's public areas, some with surfboards and wakeboards used by the less enthusiastic. Pikipek and wingull soared overhead and he saw a pair of yungoos vanish into the brush as they passed by.

All the rush of doing the island challenge made him nearly forget how serene the Alola region could be. Life moved at such a slower pace compared to the urban sprawls of the mainlands. People were hardly ever in a hurry, easing away their stresses laying on the beach after a morning of work, their noses buried in magazines or tanning in the fierce sun. Children and small pokemon laughed with one another, playing in the light surf, throwing beach balls around. Others smiled at the two teens, some having hiking gear to wander the trails that led to Kala'e Bay on Melemele Island's eastern coastline, said to be one of the best oceanic views in all of Alola when the dawn broke the night sky.

Elio had to admit that it finally felt good that not only did he fully accomplish the island challenge, but it was also an opportunity to actually appreciate all the wonders of his new home. There had to be things on Melemele and all the other islands that he hadn't seen before.

He and Gladion found a spot that looked like a semicircle outlook over a bluff of beaches down below. Trail goers passing by could take a few moments to admire the gorgeous view. Waves crashed against the sandbar, consisting of far fewer people than the beaches closer to his home. This suggested that one here was more frequented by the locals instead of the tourists staying at the hotels in the Jookiba District.

"You look sharp." Elio said, finally breaking the silence as they stood side by side, looking out towards the ocean. A gentle breeze tousled their hair and Elio fiddled with his 'Canes cap to tighten the strap so that it wouldn't unexpectedly blow off his head.

"It's…better than having to wear a scuffed hoodie and pants. Especially after having to teach myself how to sew and patch it multiple times." Gladion's shoulders rose in a shrug. "But business is business. Nobody in this region wears a suit and tie anyway."

"And your sense of humor has greatly improved."

Gladion's lips curled upward and he turned away, but Elio knew that it had gotten a silent chuckle out of him.

"Does your mother know? About your arm?"

Elio looked at his arm sleeve. The other boy had noticed.

"No. She doesn't yet. But I don't know how much longer I can keep it from her. Moms have that sixth sense and she'll eventually pick up that I am hiding something. I…I don't know how I'm going to tell her."

More silence.

"How is everyone?"

"Better." He said. "Lillie's been caring for our Mother at Aether Paradise. She's very lucky that their close bond has pulled through. So far it's touch and go with her being very weak when the two of you found her. The doctors were grim in saying she might not have lasted much longer."

His voice dropped. "Mother was so…fixated on these beasts, she had neglected everything else. Her family, the Foundation and even herself. She has lapsed in and out of consciousness for the first few days, but she's regained some strength to be able to walk…for a time before she becomes exhausted again."

"But she's alive."

"But she's alive." Gladion echoed. "We're still trying to figure out the properties of the toxin possessed by nihilego and I'm not sure our research teams can synthesize a better antidote without having a pure source of it…which means we might have to find a live beast."

Elio felt himself blanch. "You said a better antidote. You have one already?"

"Sort of. More like a cocktail from the diluted toxins we found in Mother's blood. It's another thing that helps her regain some energy so that she's not completely bedridden. But it doesn't last…and we have no idea if this is something that stays in her system forever or if it can be flushed out."

Gladion turned to him. "Ever since the incident of the Ultra Beasts appearing all over Alola, Interpol has been constantly at our headquarters. It sounds like as we work on her recovery, Mother's going to get put on trial for endangering an entire region of people and pokemon for her own selfish gains."

"How do you feel about that?"

"I…I don't know." Gladion's expression darkened. "Not sure if I should be outraged because Lusamine is our mother…or relieved that if she does go to prison…that she won't be able to hurt anyone else like this again."

"I'm sorry…for what it's worth."

"Don't be." Elio glanced up at that. "Thanks to you, we've managed to put a stop to whatever my mother had schemed. We saved that cosmog…who's now the legendary pokemon of Alola and Lillie and I can start making our Aether Foundation…and our family what they're originally meant to be. It's not an easy task for either, but I'm confident we'll be able to see it through."

"You have my support for that." His hand fell on Gladion's shoulder, causing the boy to nearly flinch. "As would Hau, Leilani and many others too. We're with you. For however much you'll need us for."

"Thanks." Gladion nodded, unsmiling. One of the things he had also noticed was that the blond had seemed to have done away with that brooding, edgy pose. Elio wondered if he was so astounded by his refined appearance that it hadn't crossed his mind until now. "I appreciate everything you did. Truly. More than you know."

"Gladion, we've been over this before. You don't need to thank me with anything."

"Is that so?" Elio saw a slight bit of a smirk on the other boy's face. "Then how about a battle? Something I can and know how to express my gratitude. A full…real battle. With the Z-Power ring the old man gave me!"

---

They had taken their battle to one of the paved courts just down the road that Elio sometimes used for his practice sparring sessions with his pokemon. Part of his new routine he had settled in was to make sure they were in top battling shape, continuing to train constantly. In the three months after finishing the island challenge, he and his pokemon got stronger, learned new moves and tried out different strategies. Elio had even set up his phone and computer at home to be able to record tapes of various battles by other Pokemon Leagues. A few champions dominated his film study including Brendan Maple of Hoenn and Leon the Unbeatable from Galar.

The match where Leon finally gets beaten is gonna be one for the ages.

The court was close to the beach, but had more than enough room for large pokemon to easily maneuver. Elio took the far side and met Gladion in the middle as he set his Rotom Dex to a full six on six battle.

"Thizzzz izzz a six on six battle between Elio Northstar and Gladion Hyacinth. Battle will be clinched when all pokemon on one trainer'zzzz zide are unable to battle further! Both zidezzzz are allowed zubztitutionzzzz and azzz many azz they like! Bzzt! Do both trainerzzz accept?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Then zzzzend out your pokemon and let the battle begin!"

Elio and Gladion brandished a poke ball.

The blond was first, "Swift! Lead us off!"

Elio saw a large batlike creature emerge from the thrown ball, a crobat. Much larger than its pre-evolution of golbat, it had two long thin purple wings with a teal green membrane that were nearly twice as long as the inferior lower ones. Unlike the golbat; crobat's flapping was much less frequent, relying on the faint currents and updrafts to stay aloft.

"New pokemon detected! Bzzt! Crobat. Bat pokemon. It is the evolved form of golbat and the final form of zubat. It feeds on the blood of people and pokemon. If unable to find blood for a short time, it can become lethargic and unable to fly. Crobat is a poison and flying type. Additional information is available upon catching this pokemon."

"Don't worry," Gladion smirked, hearing the data dump. "Our science division has developed a synthetic blood that works just as good as the real thing. So he's not hungry and going to come after you."

"I guess that is a good thing. Suppose I should fight one air fighter with another." Elio took out Bravo's poke ball. "Bravo, let's show them who really rules the sky!"

Gladion was far less surprised to see that Elio had managed to not only fully heal his little rufflet, but evolved it as well. He was known as the valiant pokemon for a reason.

"I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do."

Bravo cawed loudly, but he showed no signs of ill will to the trainer that had broken its wing just a couple of months ago.

"Tailwind!" Both boys shouted the moment that Rotom's buzzer sounded for the battle to commence. They each wanted to set up a speed advantage the first chance possible. Both Bravo and Swift whipped up a gust that blew from behind. Instead of canceling each other out, the currents were now overlapping up and around one another. While virtually invisible, they created lanes and corridors where one current was overpowering the other.

Both pokemon charged into the fray, swooping dangerously close to each other in a clash of aerial aces. Swift looped around while Bravo spun up and back, executing an Immelman. Similarly, the two attacked like a pair of dogfighting fighter jets. Swift's clawed long wings glowing a sickly purple as he nimbly closed in with a cross poison attack.

Thank goodness Bravo's just as quick. Elio thought to himself, seeing the big eagle easily tilt his wings for a sudden gain in altitude. Swift's attack missed by a wide margin. Bravo then leaned forward and pitched down, descending to the opposite direction headwind and did another Immelman. Now he was behind Swift and closing fast.

Elio knew that this was his advantage, seeing this had been like how he had practiced.

"Brave bird!"

Oh yeah, this is one of many new moves my pokemon have learned since all this training!

Bravo straightened his wings, becoming more streamlined as he picked up speed. Despite his namesake, Swift wasn't as able when it came to flying against the wind which dragged him out into being an easy target. Bravo's entire airframe began to build up energy, a white hot streak as he accelerated like a comet.

"Shit!" Swift was hit from behind, tumbling end over end before finally flexing his own wings to stabilize himself. He glided shakily around.

"When did you get such powerful attacks?" Gladion murmured to himself. He had to wonder, but the battle was going on now. "Okay, Leech life!"

Swift was still just as maneuverable and elusive when Bravo redoubled for another attack. As he passed by, the crobat snapped its jaws forward, jabbing Bravo's underside with a pair of long fangs. Swift siphoned off some energy before being dislodged in another loop. Bravo regained his altitude and came down, delivering a powerful aerial ace.

"Wait until he comes in for another attack." Gladion told his pokemon. "When he's close, use confuse ray."

On the other side, Elio watched as Bravo climbed again to gain his advantage in altitude and dove back down. He folded his wings in to minimize resistance as friction built up around him for another brave bird.

Hold on, another brave bird? This means I can get another leech life off and he won't be able to counter me in time.

"Nevermind the confuse ray," Gladion pointed up. "Latch on with leech life!"

Bravo was on them in seconds, but he peeled off at a wide angle as Swift snapped his jaws forward in another bite, causing him to miss. With the tailwind at his back, he took off after him and closed in to attempt it again.

Elio's own smirk made Gladion realize he was being set up.

"Now Bravo, steel wing!"

The shout to stop was halfway out of Gladion's mouth when Swift bit down right on the closest part he could get, Bravo's right wing. At the perfect time, his fangs crunched against the metal surface that nearly broke his teeth. Swift hissed angrily, trying to shake it off while seeing Bravo turn around for another brave bird.

"Dammit," Gladion cursed to himself. "Swift, U-turn. Get outta there!"

Now it was Bravo's turn to be surprised. Swift darted forward, immediately adjusting up when Bravo tried to shake him at the last moment. Though not a very effective move, the bug type U-turn combined with the heavy knockback damage suffered from brave bird's raw power did a number on him.

Swift rushed back, not slowing down as he was sucked back into his poke ball. Gladion grabbed another off his belt and tossed it onto the court. The creature revealed was unlike anything Elio had ever seen before.

It was a mixture of cyan and magenta colors with gold eyes. Instead of defined limbs and body, much of it was rounded and ovoid in shape. What constituted arms were two of the cyan ovals and a third on the bottom that he couldn't tell was either a leg or a tail. The pokemon hovered noiselessly in the air just like Swift had, but instead he didn't see any movement made such as flapping of wings or levitating function to keep it off the ground. Every few moments, it moved in a jerky and spasmodic manner.

"New pokemon detected! Bzzt!" Rotom flipped to an image. "Porygon-Z. Virtual pokemon. It is the evolved form of porygon2 and the final form of porygon. New advanced software was introduced to enhance this pokemon's capabilities. While it has powerful offensive capabilities, its behavior is unstable and it often acts oddly. Porygon-Z is a normal type. Additional information is available upon catching this pokemon."

As soon as the info passed on from Rotom Dex, Elio saw the rising motion of a stat flare surrounding Prototype. Looking back at the analytic display, he saw that there was a boost in his opponent's special attack.

"Prototype's ability," Gladion said proudly. "Download gives it a boost to either its attack or special attack depending on which of its enemy's defense is lower."

Shit.

Elio had no time to say anything in response before Prototype went on the attack. The artificial pokemon conjured a discharge of electricity incredibly quick that Bravo immediately zoomed forward, lowering his head to maximize attack speed. The thunderbolt was easily dodged, but Prototype kept firing well placed lances.

Elio knew that Bravo couldn't dodge forever and he'd have to go on the offensive eventually. Using brave bird meant he would not be able to dodge and Prototype didn't seem to have a blind spot. Elio was about to have Bravo go in for another aerial ace when Prototype had blasted another thunderbolt that went backwards. Bravo flinched and nearly crashed to the ground, spreading his wings to avoid skidding.

But that meant he was close enough.

"Bravo, superpower!"

The braviary screeched and lunged forward after taking flight again. Similar to the burning meteoric streak with brave bird, Bravo moved slower and had his talons pointed in front as if he were swooping down to snatch a fish for food. Prototype wasn't able to get off a thunderbolt before Bravo slammed into his side, sending him crashing to the ground.

It didn't stay down for long, floating back up with ease though now the heavy damage from the superpower caused those erratic movements to be slower.

"Thunderbolt!"

And the serious damage didn't do much to slow down how fast it was able to get a shot off either. Bravo swooped to the right as the artificial pokemon once again traversed and fired another. This was unavoidable.

In the last moment, Bravo's wings hardened into steel when the first volts struck him. Amazingly, the electrical arcs seemed to flay away from his midsection, going straight for the metal. Bravo had winced from the painful super effective attack, but the electricity quickly found its way out, discharging through the metal tipped feathers at either end of the wing. During one earlier practice, Elio had noticed that Nani used iron tail towards the ground when she had been hit by one of Arclight's discharge attacks to dispel electricity for a very limited time.

It seemed that Bravo was learning from his teammates too.

"Ah shit." While Elio was focused on his pokemon, he looked back over to see Gladion's quickly healing itself with recover.

Time to hit it before it can hit back. "Bravo you ready?" He got a caw in affirmative. "Alright, use superpower again. Follow it with aerial ace!"
Bravo looped in the air and rushed forward, gaining speed and power in a growing roar. He stuck his talons out, ready to deliver the devastating blow.

Except Prototype was ready in moments. Instead of a thunderbolt this time, it launched a spinning triangle that had three distinctly colored points that hit Bravo in the center. Elio's eagle screeched and immediately stiffened, falling down towards the ground. To his horror, he saw a thick buildup of rime ice covering his wings and body.

"Tri attack." He told himself. "A special attack that has a chance to burn, paralyze or freeze." And Gladion had gotten lucky that it was a freeze that had been inflicted. Bravo was frozen solid and completely immobile.

"Finish it with thunderbolt!"

Prototype floated up and launched another thunderbolt that hit Bravo, cracking some of the ice and causing his limp form to finally collapse onto the ground.

"Bravo izzz incapable of battling further! Bzzt! Prototype winzzz! Six to five, Gladion in favor."

Both boys heard hands clapping and saw that a couple of people had gathered to watch around the court. The commotion seemed to be attracting more people of all ages. Elio saw that two parents had hands on the shoulders of young kids who had eager eyes wide at the match going on.

Gladion made an amused huff glancing back to see the onlookers. "Guess we got a show to put on huh?"

"Looks like it. I ain't letting up easy just because you got a win." Elio's face split into a competitive grin. Gladion felt the urge to return it, in all the battles he has had with the other boy, this one felt the most exhilarating.

He returned Bravo back to his ball, slipping it on his belt.

"Okay Lochagos, let's ride!"

Gladion looked with barely concealed surprise as Elio's new Kommo'o hit the ground and roared proudly.

Oh wow. Okay, time to strategize. This guy might be a problem.

Rotom's buzzer started for them to begin and both boys launched into issuing commands to attack.

Lochagos was the quicker of the two, smashing both his huge fists into the ground to send a nasty tremor across the court. Prototype jerked from side to side as the earthquake shook it down to its core. The movements slowed, a sign that it had been inflicted with serious damage.

"Shit, I can't use recover in time." Gladion muttered to himself. "Tri attack!"

Protoype moved into position thanks to the still active tailwind, charging and shooting the triangular ray as Lochagos charged forward. Instead of using his legs as the main form of locomotion, Lochagos had leaned forward to use his huge gauntlet arms and knuckles which had proven useful for moving across rough terrain to attack. The armor plating on the front was easier to bring up if faced with oncoming attacks or if he had to repulse. Walking on his knuckles allowed him to have a lower profile as well as some other tricks the Elio hadn't yet shown to people.

Lochagos was able to jump to the side of the tri attack as he closed in, readying a fist to deliver a sky uppercut.

"Psybeam!"

Prototype formed a single purple orb in front before shooting a fine purplish beam that hit and slowed Lochagos down. The psychic type move was quite effective and had even shimmered on the scale armor which the dragon had found to be uncomfortable.

"Come on, it's nothing. Push forward!" Elio shouted. Lochagos heard him and bulled through the attack, swinging his fist. Prototype effortlessly floated up and out of his reach before launching another tri attack. This one was much closer range and Lochagos wasn't able to dodge in time. Elio winced as the flames, electricity and frost splashed over the frontal scale armor, but uttered a silent thanks that none of the three status conditions had been inflicted. Lochagos snarled, crouching down and springing up to meet Prototype. His fist balled and he swung like a boxer, casting a perfect sky uppercut that sent the porygon-Z into the sky where it slowed down and spun back to the court, crashing into the ground. It had been on perfect timing too as the two tailwinds set up by Bravo and Swift finally dissipated.

"Prototype izzz incapable of battling further! Bzzt!" Rotom declared. "Lochagos is the winner. Five on five!" At the announcement, the crowd clapped once again.

"Good job Lochagos." Elio gave him a once over, seeing that he hadn't sustained much damage in the battle. "You good to keep going?" He got a nod in return.

"Not bad. I'm gonna be turning things around, so just you wait." Gladion had returned the defeated Prototype to its ball. "With Crimson!"

Another dragon materialized in a flash of light on his side. While not as big as Lochagos, Elio saw that it had rows of sharp spines running across its blue and yellow body. Two small stubby wings sprouted from its back though Elio was wondering if that meant it was capable of flying or if they were vestigial. The most striking feature was its dark red head that was elongated and lines of sharp jagged teeth.

"New pokemon detected! Bzzt! Druddigon. Cave pokemon. An extremely vicious and cunning pokemon, it sits silently in caves and waits for prey to attack. It has red skin on its head that is harder than rock. Druddigon is a dragon type. Additional information is available upon catching this pokemon."

A dragon type huh? Elio wondered as Crimson roared loudly in challenge to Lochagos. Though taller than his adversary, he could see that the other dragon's bulky frame would give it a good advantage in a close fight.

Rotom's buzzer sounded.

"Crimson, dragon claw!"

The druddigon leapt into action, brandishing huge claws that it dashed forward and swiped down. Lochagos threw up a protect barrier to dispel the attack, but as it dissipated; Crimson charged through to deliver an iron head.

"Lochagos!" Elio cried, seeing his pokemon keel over. The smaller dragon's stockier frame allowed it to rush forth. He stuck his arms into the ground and stamped his foot to create an earthquake just as Crimson was trying for another dragon claw. The druddigon's movements were slightly sluggish, which made Lochagos' job of seeing attacks coming much easier.

Crimson growled in annoyance as the tremors caused it to stagger and hit the ground.

"Oh no! Crimson, sunny day!" Gladion called out.

As the dragon launched an orb into the sky, Elio immediately felt the heat intensify and brighten the field.

Then something changed in Gladion's pokemon.

Crimson seemed to be smiling and his movements became more fluid. Bathing in the sun looked to empower it. Similarly, Lochagos' scales took on a sparkle upon being hit with the light, some of the people had gasped and pointed at his pokemon.

Almost like it has the ability chlorophyll.

Gladion smiled at him. "No more slowing around."

Crimson's attacks weren't any more powerful, but now his movements with sunny day active were equal if not on par.

"Iron head!" Elio shouted. With a grunt, Lochagos stood upright and rushed forward; lowering his head so that he smashed through Crimson's chest. The druddigon snarled in anger, reaching up to try and hold him off, but Lochagos kept pushing forward, finally knocking him over.

"Crimson, dragon claw! Let's see how he likes it when we can be just as fast!"

With a roar, he drew his hands and swiped up, half blindly due to him falling face down. Lochagos barely had enough time to put up a protect, but it wasn't enough.

Crimson's claws raked him across the side, the first knocking away the large scales on his shoulder and the second delivered a powerful slash right at the inside of his shoulder. Lochagos roared in agony, mustering just enough strength to shove Crimson off him.

"Taunt!"

Lochagos roared again as Crimson spread his arms and wings out in a challenging retort. Cursing silently to himself, Elio knew that Gladion having him use taunt meant he couldn't use protect to guard against attacks for a time.

Worse is that the sunny day is still up and Crimson moves just as fast to counter our moves.

Elio was in a bit of a bind.

He decided to let Gladion come for him. The sunny day would hold up only for so long and he'd have to attack eventually to make the most of it.

He didn't have to wait, Crimson readied another dragon claw and jumped forward. Lochagos somehow saw it coming and used his longer arms to parry the strike and then deliver a sky uppercut. The other dragon's head snapped up and it stumbled onto its hind leg as the back wings flexed, allowing him to remain on his feet after receiving the unexpected blow.

So that's what the wings are for. Elio thought to himself. Not that it's gonna help now. "Finish it! Clanging scales!"

His pokemon's armor quickly began to vibrate and reach a fever pitch to where he slammed the two largest scales together like a pair of cymbals, causing a deafening shockwave of pure sound and dragon power rippling across the court in an indescribable wave of shimmering energy. Crimson flexed his wings and snarled in protest before even his balancing aid had failed and blasted him backwards.

"Crimson no!" Gladion gasped as he took one step forward and collapsed onto the floor with a heavy thud.

"Crimson izzzz unable to battle further! Lochagos izzz the winner! Five to four! Elio in favor!"

"Hmph. Pretty good. You've raised the kommo'o of yours well." Gladion returned his defeated pokemon, whispering a thanks.

"Well thanks." Elio told him over the following clapping from their growing number of spectators. "He was a handful when it first started. And that's a very nice druddigon. I haven't seen one in person until now."

Gladion nodded his thanks. As much as he wanted to continue talking, he had a battle he had to win.

There has to be something to crack this kommo'o and that crazy defense. He had noticed that after the clanging scales, Lochagos was afflicted by a down cascading stat flare, physical defense had dropped.

Maybe if he could exploit a chink in the armor that Crimson had helped expose before he was defeated.

"Come on out!" It was Elio's turn to be surprised when Gladion had thrown out his Silvally. Behind them, the crowd gasped and the murmurs grew to the point where they had noticed the amount of onlookers had nearly doubled while they were occupied with their battle. People pointed and sounded excited at the sight of Gladion's mysterious pokemon that they had never seen before.

Though Elio was not sharing the awestruckness that everyone else was fooled by.

Something isn't right. No way Gladion brings out his strongest pokemon straightaway.

Rotom's buzzer sounded to start the fight to interrupt his musings.

"Lochagos earthquake!" The kommo'o roared and stamped the ground to create another seismic shockwave. Silvally exploded forward with blinding speed, easily jumping over and moving to intercept. He zigged and zagged from side to side in an effort to make his own angle of attack unpredictable.

"Get ready," Gladion had shouted. "Flamethrower!"

"Hold on a second!" Elio blurted out and quickly stopped himself from talking further.

He had seen this exact thing before. Back at the Aether House.

Silvally opened his mouth to breathe a stream of fire. Boosted by the harsh sun still active overhead, the attack was bigger than a typical one. Lochagos grunted as the fire scorched his scale armor and he had fallen onto his elbows.

Elio knew that battling for so long was starting to take its toll on him. He considered taking him out for Strongside.

Lochagos finally managed to shakily stand and extend his gauntlets out into the throwable scale shields. Before Silvally could react, he tossed them both in quick succession. As Silvally jumped, Elio immediately noticed that there was just something off in the way he did, like he could see multiple motions in what should have been a simplistic evasion.

However the time he had spent dodging was enough for Lochagos to close in and hit Silvally with a sky uppercut. As the large quadruped pokemon had sailed through the air from the blow, the crowd gasped as it flickered and shimmered like a broken screen. Silvally crashed to the ground…

Revealing the kneeling form Zion the zoroark in his place.

"Nice try." Gladion smirked at him. "But this is gonna be over soon."

He gestured. "Flamethrower!"

With a howl, Zion blasted forth another huge column of fire that Lochagos had to put up a protect to guard himself from. Now that it was useable after the defeat of Crimson had lifted the effects of its taunt. The red flames splashed around the green skin like a surge of water, but most importantly it had briefly concealed Zion from view.

"He's trying to flank you!" Elio shouted at him, immediately noticing the ruse. "Earthquake!"

Lochagos stamped the ground, but came up short as Zion again had managed to skate around the edge of the earthquake's effective range. The zoroark spun in midair to launch a shadow ball that was aimed perfectly down at the chink in the scale armor that Crimson had attacked earlier.

Only for the dark lumpy orb to splash over without as much as any damage at all.

"What the-" Gladion nearly cursed out loud. "Dammit, of course it has the ability bulletproof!"

He had to change strategies right away. "Zion, U-Turn! Get out of there!"

"Lochagos don't let him escape!" Elio shouted. Lochagos swung anyway, but his fatigue was starting to get the better of him. Zion struck him in the chest, easily ducking to avoid the retaliatory sky uppercut before dashing back into his waiting poke ball. Gladion seamlessly switched to another and Elio was once again faced with Swift the crobat.

Again, he was faced with a distinct disadvantage. Swift could dart in and out with precise strikes and without Bravo to match, there was little he could do about it.

"Lochagos return." Elio thumbed his poke ball, but stopped as he saw his pokemon jumping right into the action. Swift had whipped up a tailwind the moment he was sent out and used it to fly laterally and avoid another thrown scale shot.

"Use confuse ray!" Gladion said. Swift released a blinking light as he passed by that enveloped Lochagos.

"Shit." Elio knew that being both confused and nearly spent spelled disaster. Worse was that his own pokemon was refusing to quit and would rather go down swinging.

Lochagos shook his head in a vain attempt to clear it and readied a dragon claw that ended up hitting himself. He snarled, standing upright and moving around dizzily.

"Now Swift! Take it out with air cutter!"

Gladion's crobat flicked the two bigger wings and sent two scythes of glowing power forth. Boosted by the tailwind, they slammed into Lochagos' chest, hitting the exposed armor plating with enough force to topple the giant dragon onto his back. The noise of all the scale armor hitting the floor sounded like an entire shelf of china had crashed down and shattered into countless fragments.

Rotom didn't have to, but was in the midst of declaring Lochagos knocked out as Gladion made a triumphant fist.

Finally knocked that damn thing out.

Elio let out a heavy sigh as the crowd burst into applause, he wasn't sure if it was for Gladion or him. Both trainers were giving it their all, so he chalked it up to them putting on a hell of a fight.

I have to get that part under control. Lochagos likes to battle and I really really respect that. But he has to know when enough is enough.

He looked up, still seeing the harsh sunlight active. It would probably be gone at any minute, but maybe he could take advantage of that too.

He chose Strongside. His starter and longtime partner flexed his lanky arms and grinned devilishly at Gladion.

"We're kicking this off now. Flame charge!" Just a tiny bit extra speed and we can draw this sucker in for a knockout.

Swift was able to easily dart out of the way as Strongside had barreled past while covered in flames. The attack may have missed, but his speed had been slightly increased from the rising stat flare.

"You're not really gonna get anywhere with that while Swift flies." Gladion told him. "You're gonna build up speed to try and match the tailwind."

"Yeah and you don't have much time to keep using that advantage regardless." Elio countered.

He was right. The more time Swift spent in trying to avoid his attacks and staying airborne meant less time for him to go on the offense.

"No shame in U-turning out!"

Though the jab wasn't meant to be offensive, Elio winced internally at how it was delivered. Gladion had started to have more and more of a central strategy, especially now as a full fledged trainer.

Using Zion and Swift to probe what the foe does and then U-turn to hit and literally bug out for a switch into something more favorable. They think you're running, but you're really just trying to see their hand and adjusting accordingly. Elio had to admit that the style was fitting considering the blond boy's own attempts to run away from his past.

Gladion shook his head, not wanting to be baited.

"Swift, close in and use air cutter!" He didn't want Strongside to escape.

Swift strafed to the left, giving his wings a single flap to stay airborne and closed in rapidly. Strongside wasn't quite fast enough to match speed, but he remained patient. To force him in another direction, he unleashed a powerful flamethrower that the bat pokemon evaded with a barrel roll. The leading edges of the wings began to glow as he readied the air cutter attack.

"Time for this combo!" Gladion felt the adrenaline pumping. "Leech life and cross poison!"

Wait what about the air cutter? Elio wondered and then mentally hit himself. Gladion was fucking with me the whole time with that! He never intended for the air cutter to be an actual thing.

Swift unleashed it anyway and Strongside had to use a second flame charge to dash out of its path. Swift had closed in, extending his fangs for the siphoning bite as well as readying the edges of the wings for the follow up poison slash.

Elio had to admire it for a second. Gladion could then confuse him or U-turn back for an easy win of one of his other Pokémon.

But he wasn't the only one to have used new moves and tried new things.

"Just like we practiced." Elio stayed surprisingly calm. "Ready?"

His Pokémon had just a second to prepare. Swift lunged.

"Double blaze kick!"

Thanks to the boost of speed and the waning sun, Strongside had waited for the perfect time as Swift came within striking distance. His back foot ignited in orange fire and he swung it up with deadly precision. The balls of his foot connected with the bat's side, stopping him in his tracks. Across the way, Elio almost laughed as Gladion's disbelief was etched on his face. Strongside went low, crouching as he spun to hit a second roundhouse that tossed Swift into the ground where he had laid unmoving.

"Swift izzz incapable of battling further!" Rotom Dex made the buzz call. "Strongside izzz the winner! Four on three! Elio in favor!"

"YES!" Elio jumped up in victory just as the harsh sunlight was now fading away. "How about that?!"

The crowd shouted with him and he heard more applause. Even more people were coming to watch now.

After some of their practice sessions and watching film of official League matches, Elio ended up getting the inspiration of Strongside's newly learned move from Miranda, the blaziken that belonged to Hoenn's Top Coordinator May Maple. She had used it in a finals round at a contest in Verdanturf. Miranda had hit the opposing dodrio two times in rapid succession so quickly that the other coordinator had failed to notice and was still in the midst of giving commands by the time their pokemon had long fainted. Though she had longer legs and a quicker speed than his own fire type starter, he figured once Strongside was able to perfect a blaze kick, being able to use it quickly twice in a row would be a cinch at a much closer distance.

"You…wow. I can't even believe that." Gladion said.

"Me neither." Elio was about to congratulate Strongside when he realized that the fire cat was grimacing in pain and clutching his lower abdomen. "What's wrong?"

Then he saw it. A thin noxious film was covering his body and slowly sapping his strength from a small mark right in the spot he had his paw.

Swift poisoned him. That cross poison must've hit in the middle of the double blaze kick. His own pokemon didn't let him down.

"I'm gonna need you for later okay?" Strongside nodded reluctantly. He was not liking being sidelined but unlike Lochagos, he knew that his trainer had the final say. Elio recalled him and instead sent out Arclight. On the other side, Gladion sent out Zion.

"I am guessing that the disguise ability of a zoroark only works once. After it's broken, you can't deceive again."

Rotom buzzed to start.

"Arclight use charge!"

She conjured electricity to charge herself up, but stopped as Zion extended a hand and waggled it in a taunt. The charge stopped her short.

"What? Taunt again?!" Elio cried in disbelief, gritting his teeth. "Great, the usual strat I had with her is off for now."

No longer having to hide behind a disguise, Zion went on the offensive. His legs made him move much quicker than any other of Gladion's pokemon, hardly slowing down as Swift's tailwind finally petered out.

Elio breathed a slight sigh of relief at that. Now neither of them could really use a consistent speed advantage anymore.

Zion attacked with shadow ball again, but now the tables had been turned around with Arclight being the airborne fighter. The only difference was that she was also able to use her more powerful attacks at a distance and remain far away.

She just had to stay away from Zion's flamethrower.

"Let's try paralyzing it. Zap cannon!"

Arclight's sole stored charge let her shoot immediately. Not a moment after a flash of electricity appeared in her jaws, she fired the gold orb. Somehow, Zion seemed to have sensed it coming and used a shadow ball to perfectly counter it in midair. Both attacks collided, creating a blast of wind and a loud thunderclap that caused many in the crowd to jump or gasp in surprise.

Zion thrust his arms out, spreading a wave of inky black energy that seeped up and hit Arclight. She stalled out, disoriented from the night daze.

"Shit." Elio said. "Bug buzz! Don't let it come near you!"

Arclight buzzed her wings, creating a group of powerful sound waves, however Zion was once again quick to evade them and used the dark concealment to rush behind. Seeing her weaker backside, the dark fox unleashed a hellish flamethrower that immediately produced disastrous results. Arclight stiffened and fell from the sky, crashing to the ground in a loud thud.

"Arclight izzz incapable of battling further! Bzzt! Zion izzz the winner! Three on three!"

Damn this is really a fight for the trenches. Elio thought to himself. No longer did he really have much of a distinct advantage as he did when they had battled previously. Gladion had amassed a considerable amount of skill and he was more than a proficient tactician.

"Mahalo Arclight." Elio returned his fallen pokemon. "You did well."

He took another ball.

"Okay Akela. Let's do this." He launched into action as soon as he appeared out of his ball. A paw was extended out, curling in another taunt attack which had halted Zion and prevented him from executing his own taunt.

"Shit, the hell did he know I was going to do that?" Gladion wondered to himself.

I can't use physical moves, which means U-turning out. He'll just counter them.

He was snapped out of his muse as Akela attacked, summoning a rock slide wave. Zion was still keeping up his impressive dodging skills, but to his surprise, Akela was just as quick to evade a close up flamethrower. Coming out of the dodge though, Zion found an opportunity to blast him with a night daze. As Akela stumbled trying to regain his bearings, he glanced around and hit the court with both fists, creating multiple pillars of stone edge. With them erected, Zion was forced to go through several tighter choke points in order to attack.

That meant that Zion would have to either use a physical move, which risked being countered…or wait until Akela regained his bearings from the night daze.

And Elio was too smart to fall for that trick twice.

Or was he?

Akela climbed over and around one of the tall stone edge pillars, sighting Zion and snarling in fury.

"Zion, get Akela to follow you!" Gladion shouted. "See if you can taunt him!"

I hope it's been long enough that his taunt has worn off. Sure enough, it had. Zion's taunt caused Akela to come out of his hiding area and hastily unleash another rock slide. This one was easier to dodge thanks to the slowly receding stones, but all Gladion needed was to get him out in the open again.

"Perfect. Flamethrower!"

As Akela jumped out to attack again, Zion had a perfect bead lined up and blasted the werewolf with a powerful jet of fire. Akela was knocked down, quickly rolling to the side and escaping just as Zion had pounced to deliver another night daze.

"Stone edge once you hit the ground!"

Akela deftly landed on his feet and struck the ground once more to deploy another set of jagged rocks. Zion was caught in the middle having jumped too early for the night daze. He was hit with a squeal of pain, tumbling down, slow to get back on his feet.

Gladion was a bit confused as to why Zion was so exhausted, but suddenly remembered that Lochagos had hit him earlier with a sky uppercut. He hadn't much energy left.

"I gotta risk it." He said to himself. "U-turn!"

Zion sprinted forward, hitting Akela after just getting up. Gladion let out a breath he had been holding. No counter.

Except Elio hadn't explicitly said so. Now that some damage had been inflicted on his pokemon, he was in a prime position to deliver another fatal blow.

"Akela, reversal. Before he gets away!"

Akela took off after his target, intercepting a tired Zion before Gladion could recall him. His paw reared back and he swung a tight punch that hit the tricky fox pokemon from behind. Despite not having nearly as much damage as the other times, the reversal was enough to knock Zion out of the fight.

"Zion izzz incapable of battling further! Akela izzz the winner! Three on two! Elio in favor!"

"You're not making this easy are you? Still just as frustratingly good." Gladion sighed, recalling Zion. "Still plenty left."

Elio gripped Akela's poke ball. "Still plenty left."

Gladion threw out his next pokemon, a bipedal blue and black creature with pointed ears and a cream colored belly. In contrast to his previous pokemon who were either odd or aggressive in temperament, this one kept a balanced, calm demeanor and cooly eyed Akela in front.

"A lucario." Elio breathed. "Woah."

"And it'zzz a new pokemon to be regizzzztered! Bzzt!" Rotom made the switch to his info dump mode. "Lucario. Aura pokemon. It is the final form of Riolu. Not only does it perceive auras, but it controls them. It employs it in battle while being able to perceive the aura waves of its opponent. Lucario is a fighting and steel type. Additional information is available upon catching this pokemon."

Akela growled and summoned a stone edge, creating rows and rows of protective rocks around. Gladion's lucario seemed to shake its head with mild annoyance and merely conjured its palms together. A blue and yellow sphere of energy formed in between its palms and it flicked it out, hitting the outermost rocks and shattering them into millions of fragments.

"Renko get in there! Flush him out with close combat!"

Odd. Does he not know that I have counter? Elio watched as Renko used the upper parts of the rocks to search for Akela, smartly keeping at least one limb ready to spring away in case of a surprise attack. Akela was close to the bottom, trying to remain in a blind spot.

I don't think this one has a blind spot. If lucario can sense auras, he probably doesn't even need to have his eyes open.

His intuition was right. Renko kept well out of Akela's reach, smartly staying behind at least one of the stones for a quick block in case he decided to attack again.

"Aura sphere! We'll flush him out that way!"

Renko formed another one in his hand and flicked it. Akela jumped away in time as it exploded with incredible power and a loud bang that shattered the stone. The following shockwave had knocked him to the floor.

Akela turned to see Renko right on him, launching into a flurry of blows and strikes that was so fast that he only had enough time to block a couple before it sent him crashing to the ground. In the middle of the close combat, Akela was able to get off a counter that disrupted Renko's onslaught. The lucario shook off the damage and looked in much better shape while Akela was already struggling to stand.

"Let's finish this shall we?" Gladion's eyes glinted as he pulled up his wrist. Elio saw that he had a Z-Power ring that was activated with a single crystal.

"Here it comes." He felt his heartbeat quicken and hoped that his own pokemon had enough strength left to survive what was coming.

Gladion tapped his fists together twice and then punched them both out in front of him to complete the ritualistic dance. The energy flickered and surrounded Renko, empowering him even further.

"Channel meteor mash into corkscrew crash!" No sooner had the words left his mouth when Renko twirled on the spot, moving fast enough that he was covered in a fine steel bit that spun faster than the eye could follow. Like a shell from a cannon and just as fast, he shot forward towards Akela, who remained calm despite the situation. The combined power made a whining noise that reached a fever pitch and whipped up fierce winds battering both trainers.

"Now."

Just moments before he was hit, the werewolf had initiated a reversal strike, hitting and punching through the thin metal shell of Renko's zenith move at the same time he was struck. The abrupt hit took Renko by surprise as the lucario got the wind knocked out of him in an explosive whoosh. He kneeled over in complete surprise before fatigue took over and he collapsed onto the ground.

Though Akela succeeded in knocking out his opponent, he had still taken a vicious beating from the zenith move and had been flung into the metal barrier, very nearly ripping a huge hole through. He had sprawled out on the ground, laying there unmoving.

"Bzzt! Both pokemon are unable to continue battling! Bzzt! Two on one. Elio in favor!"

The crowd erupted into another round of applause and whistles. Now cheers began to come from several people. Gladion heard his name shouted in encouragement.

Thanks. I know I can do this!

He glanced back up and met Elio's eyes, who was just as into it as him. It was coming down to the wire and Gladion knew that both him and his final pokemon had one last hope to make one final push to edge Elio out.

"I gotta admit that I'm having some of the most fun battling you. Never thought I'd say that." Gladion cradled his final poke ball close to his chest. "You've gotten incredibly strong and I can tell your training has paid off. But I'm damned if we're going out without a fight!"

He smiled, "Get ready for this! Right Silvally?!"

The crowd gasped a second time as the chimeric creature deftly landed on the court. He stood up and raised his head haughtily. Murmurs began to grow and some of the spectators had their phones out to take pictures of the mysterious pokemon.

"Nani, you're up!" Elio threw out his milotic. Now the crowd was getting more excited, a rare milotic against a pokemon they've never seen before.

"And now we shall show you the true power of what Silvally and his RKS system is capable of." Elio watched Gladion draw a small disk from his pocket and he slung it forward. A small socket opened up from the circular part of Silvally's jaw to suck the disk inside. His fin colors shimmered to a bright yellow and Elio saw sparks of static electricity coursing along the body like conduits.

"You changed its type?"

Gladion nodded proudly. "The RKS system was meant to allow Null to be able to integrate into any type asked, consisting of cells with properties from the eighteen known. The Foundation was able to project them into these little drives that can be inserted and removed at any time."

Wow. "That's incredible."

"It truly is. I'm so glad that I was able to finally save Null and show that he isn't some experiment or reject to be hidden. To hell with hiding."

Elio nodded. "Right. For what it's worth, I'm sorry again…for saying that stuff. I…I didn't know all that I was saying as hurtful at the time. I know what it feels like to not feel wanted, but also how you can count on your friends and partners."

Silvally rumbled and Sun thought he saw a slight nod.

Gladion chuckled. "I'd say he's forgiving you if you face us with your full strength. I'd expect nothing less."

"Me neither." Elio made sure Nani was prepared. "Are you ready?"

Gladion nodded and Rotom set off the start buzzer.

"Nani, set up aqua ring! Let's see what he does."

Silvally moved laterally as Nani began to conjure a veil of water to surround her from all sides in a circle. There was no loud clanking of heavy metal now that it was no longer Null and despite its size, Silvally's footsteps were as silent as a liepard.

In the blink of an eye, it lunged to attack. Silvally's claws lashed out, arcing bright yellow traces as they swiped through an opening in the aqua ring. Even Nani's fast reflexes weren't quick enough to avoid them. It continued its assault, slamming its head down with the three long fins on its crest glowing the same color.

Nani hissed in protest, finally able to slither away from the aqua ring and Silvally. As she retreated, her head spun around and launched a hydro pump that caught it by surprise. Silvally was lifted off the ground and sent tumbling backwards.

It dug in a claw to slow its momentum and shook the water off from its mane, charging once again into the fray.

"Nani, hydro pump again!" Elio called.

As she fired another blast of high pressure water, Silvally didn't slow as he opened his own mouth to counter it with a needle-thin beam of icy white energy. The ice beam intercepted the hydro pump, freezing it on contact and hitting the court in shards.

It didn't stop there. After finishing the ice beam, it shot another triangle of the same three colors that Prototype had done. Nani wasn't fast enough again to dodge and was hit squarely in the chest with enough power to knock her down.

Elio was slightly relieved to see that the tri attack hadn't done any of the statuses, but he was concerned about how he was going to be able to match Silvally's speed and its resilience. It had taken Nani's hydro pump and continued attacking without so much of a pause.

Silvally must've caught onto Nani's plan to heal herself when it rushed forward and put itself between her and the aqua ring. She couldn't go to heal herself without having to confront it.

"Tri attack again!" Gladion knew that it continued to work and pressed his advantage.

"Nani, dragon pulse! Go high!"

Both pokemon unleashed their attacks, though this time, Silvally fired his shot a little too early as Nani began to dodge. The tri attack hit the ground of the court uselessly as she spiraled up to gain a better firing position. Green draconic power coalesced into a sphere sailed overhead, hitting just the tip of Silvally's crest and detonating with a thunderous explosion. While thrown back to the ground, its attempt to get back up was foiled by the two secondary explosions.

Nani saw her chance, shooting yet another ice beam and using the distraction to jump back into the safety of the aqua ring. Almost instantly, the wounds on her lithe serpentine body began to ebb away.

Silvally was less fortunate. Gladion gasped, unsurprised that his pokemon managed to survive, but more so that its hind legs were firmly frozen to the court.

Dammit, Elio made for the dragon pulse to keep him down and then the ice beam to immobilize him.

On the other side, Elio didn't know how long that ice would hold his adversary, so he had to make the most of it. At least Nani was back in the confines of the aqua ring.

Silvally can find an exploit in the aqua ring, so I can't rely on it to save our hides all the time.

A roar of fire caught his attention and he saw that Silvally had blasted free of its prison with a flame charge and leapt through the air to run forward at full speed.

"All right Silvally! Double-edge!"

Nani saw it coming, quickly sharpening her tail into her signature sword and slashing at the first thing she could see.

Her timing was a bit off, doing little damage, but it had struck and sent Silvally off course with the double edge. The creature stumbled, now heading for the metal fence and trying in vain to stop itself from falling. Several onlookers in the path had gasped, jumping away for cover.

"Get behind it now!" Gladion formed a fist, knowing that the battle was far from done.

Elio's eyes went wide as Silvally grasped the wall with its claws, pulling itself close and then springing off in a backflip that cleared Nani by several feet.

"Oh shit! Scald! Behind you!"

Silvally landed on the ground, seeing an opportunity with Nani's back to him. His claws and crest blazed to life with electricity and he jumped forward, delivering two strikes with each and then a fine cleave with the fin. Nani hissed in protest, shooting a wide spray of scald that did manage to hit. Silvally flinched and Elio couldn't believe his luck seeing the burn that it had done.

The victory was short lived as the chimera opened its mouth once more and launched another tri attack that hit Nani just as she was about to make it to the aqua ring, pushing her into the ground in an explosion of dust and smoke.

Silvally was ragged and tired, but still standing at the end. Nani had crumpled herself in the middle, knocked out from the combo of multi and tri attack. The aqua ring lost its shape and splashed onto the floor.

"Nani izzz incapable of battling further! Bzzt! Silvally izzz the winner! It'zzz one on one! Winner of the next battle clinchezzz!"

Elio let out the breath he had been holding. Sweat began to slick his palms and like he had initially expected, this was coming down to the wire, the final pokemon either had.

"So it's up to this." Gladion said from the other side. "My first partner…against yours."

He returned the defeated Nani and slipped her ball on his left side. Only one remained on his right.

"Okay Strongside. It's you and me. We got a battle to win."

The applause from the crowd was growing as Strongside took his spot opposite Silvally. The poison from Swift's previous attack continued to whittle at him while on the other end, Silvally still was suffering from the burn.

I've got the worse of the two status conditions of our pokemon. Gladion thought to himself. That burn means Silvally's multi-attack won't be as strong. Let's try something else.

He had his pokemon attack from range. Silvally opened up with an ice beam that Strongside quickly jumped to the side to avoid. The incineroar returned fire with a flamethrower that was similarly dodged, but Silvally instead used a flame charge to gain a considerable amount of distance, able to close to half the original distance between the two.

"Multi attack!"

While Silvally had his own physical attack suppressed, it hadn't slowed him down considerably. At close range, he rushed forward, slashing his knifelike claws. Like he had done earlier, Strongside used flame charge to jet himself out of harms way and stay just out of arm's reach. He stumbled as the poison whittled more of his strength and Elio saw Silvally flinch as well from the passive burn damage.

"No more dodging like that!" Gladion shouted at him. "Imprison!"

"Oh shit." Elio muttered to himself as Silvally flashed a light that caused a second one around Strongside. Since both of them knew the same move of flame charge, imprison would now permanently disable Strongside from using it.

And it remains in effect until whoever used imprison is out. We have to win without it.

Silvally closed in, knowing that Strongside wouldn't be able to escape with flame charge this time. He timed the incoming slashes and swung his arms in a darkest lariat that stopped the larger pokemon short. The attack had pushed it back, but it seemed ready for it by springing off its hind legs to rush forth in another double-edge.

Gladion either doesn't care about the burn weakening or he's using his most powerful attacks in hoping that plus the poison takes Strongside out.

The fire cat was able to latch out with his hands and grab ahold of Silvally just as it reached him. Strongside growled in strain, trying to keep a larger and heavier pokemon from prevailing as Silvally began to slowly overpower him, pushing through. It was like he was trying to stop a charging tauros full on.

"Double kick! Go for the legs!"

Keeping his grip, Strongside swept his foot out to hit Silvally's left foreleg. The first one didn't do much and the stance was a little awkward since he had to keep a stiff arm to avoid getting hit by the lowered crest of Silvally's head. As it continued to shove him back, even overpowering his strength, Strongside executed the second kick on the same foreleg as Silvally lifted and was just beginning to settle and apply its weight.

The blow was perfectly timed like a low sweep. Silvally's leg buckled and he fell with a sharp cry. Spending the time he had taken to regain his balance was what Strongside needed to muster enough energy to unleash a white hot overheat. Silvally had stood, only to get knocked down again as the superheated blast of fire scorched its hide, further smoldering in the aches from the burn.

"No! Get up! We can do this!"

But Elio had that fierce glint in his eye. He smelled blood and was ready to ice the match.

The Z-Power ring flared to life as he slotted in the incinium Z. He felt the sudden surge of energy as the radiant light easily drew the gazes of everyone present.

He formed the dance, an X with his arms before crouching down and raising them high above his head in a menacing pose.

Though empowered by the zenith energy, Strongside was still in agony over the lingering poisoning. He staggered to kneel down, knowing that this was their last chance to seal a win and put Silvally down.

Gladion wasn't going to go quietly if he had a say. Elio could not hear him shouting, but saw that the chimeric creature had its claws and crest glowing as it lunged forward, leaving bright yellow traces behind in its wake.

"Now! Channel darkest lariat into Malicious Moonsault!"

With the full power of the z move complete, Strongside jumped up into the air, higher than he could do on a normal feat. Around them, everyone had craned their heads up, having to shield their eyes from the bright sun as Strongside began to arc down on a direct heading for Silvally. Gladion's Pokémon sprang up as well, determined to meet the challenge and get one final blow in before it was inevitably over.

Strongside angled his body and Elio saw that he was descending with his crooked elbow. He met Silvally with it first, hitting with a sickening crunch that easily disrupted the oncoming multi attack it had ready. The two Pokémon disappeared in a cloud of thick dust that had been thrown up once they met the ground in a loud crash.

Elio and Gladion held their breath, looking and trying to see through who was still standing and who was not.

Strongside's triumphant growl caused his heart to jump and he saw a faint glow of the heel Pokémon's flame belt as the dust cleared enough for him to see through.

Silvally was lying on its side, the long graceful coat was battered, mouth hanging open as if it were about to launch another attack before the Moonsault. Nearby, Strongside was on a knee and blinking his yellow eyes constantly in an attempt to stay conscious and avoid fainting.

Holy shit. I won.

Rotom Dex hovered over Silvally's spent form. "Silvaly izzzz incapable of battling further! Strongside izzz the winner! Bzzt! The match hazzz been clinched to Elio!"

"Yeah! Oh yeah!" Elio made a fist and jumped up, his blood already pumping even as the sizeable crowd was well into cheers and applause.

"You go Elio!"

"Great battle!"

Gladion shook his head for a moment and then the disappointment vanished off his face. "Hmph. There's nothing more to say."

He crossed over as Elio was returning Strongside and nudged Silvally to rouse him. The unique pokemon stared back with a hint of sadness, like he had let his trainer down.

"You fought extremely well. I'm very proud of you."

Silvally crooned softly and nudged the boy's hands with the tip of his beaked mouth.

"Heh. We gave it our all. Take a good rest." He was returned to his ball and he stood up, meeting Elio at the center of the court.

"That was…wow." The younger boy blew out a sigh of relief. "I'm honestly glad the battle is over because no idea how much more my heart could take."

Gladion almost laughed out loud and he was surprised that it even crossed his mind. "Same. I've…always wanted to see what would happen when I finally achieved what I wanted in getting stronger. To fight for my family."

Elio stared as the blond broke out into a thin smile. "You've got good pokemon. I know what kind of trainer you are now and the journey you've been through."

"Same."

"Lillie jumped when I said I was hoping to run into you again. I…never knew I'd see the day where my sister smiled and was so happy again. I'm glad you're one of the people that helped change her into the person she truly is."

"Where is she?"

"Looking after our Mother at Aether Paradise. She wanted me to tell you that she thinks you're incredible and the best pokemon trainer in the world."

A bit of an exaggeration. Though coming from her? I'll take it.

"Thanks."

"You're most definitely not the best trainer." Gladion smiled despite the contradiction. "But you're pretty damn good. Average trainers don't give a battle that thrilling."

"That makes you up there as well." Elio said.

"I even battled Hau. He's working to get stronger too…over training with that trial captain…Ilima or whatever his name is."

Oh. "Did you win?"

"I did." There was no hint of smugness or matter-of-factly this time in his voice upon the declaration. Gladion's expression darkened. "But he's not a pushover anymore. If I had to describe it, my win was just about in the same manner as you had won against me."

"He gave you a run for your money." Elio couldn't help the earsplitting grin. "Atta boy."

"Hmph. If the two of you are continuing to get stronger like this, I guess I can't let my guard down now can I?" He stepped forward. "I know we aren't friends. But we're not enemies anymore."

"What? After all that, you still not admitting it huh?" Elio's grin refused to fade.

Damn this guy. Him getting under the skin time and time again.

"We went through our journeys at the same time, starting separate and then found a common goal to join up and take on an entire battalion of crazy employees working for your crazy mother. And we won in spite of all odds triple stacked against us. What else is there to be done after that life changing field trip?"

"Okay, that's fair enough. Either way," Gladion paused for a moment before offering his outstretched hand. "Keep on winning. Perhaps I'll see you again if you do."

Elio stared at it for a moment.

Then clasped his hand in a firm shake to the cheers of the onlookers.

---

And that does it! This was also a bit of a test run of sorts to see how I'd fare in writing a full six vs six battle that incorporates a bit more strategy and cohesion compared to the previous battles I've had in other chapters. Besides the Lusamine battle in Entry 72, this was only the second one and I've got quite a few more to do before closing the story. I hope everyone enjoyed it.

As always, mahalo for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.

Brav