Pokemon Hero Trainer

by Thatchickendude

During the Mock Hero vs. Mock Villain exam with Bakugou and Izuku; a very strange portal appeared out of nowhere and spit out a very strange traveler with very powerful creatures at his command. What will happen? How will the story change? What new threats will they face? Will the world be destroyed or grow stronger and evolve? Player character OC.

49. Chapter 49

Pokémon Trainer Hero

Chapter 49: The Sports Festival part. 20- The Final Battle.

Gar wipes off his forehead while saying with extreme relief, "Boy it was sweaty under there! That's so much better!", After shaking his head clean of sweat, he straightens himself and says, "Alright, now for the rules of this battle. Just like last time we are to battle with our Pokemon until either one of us has no more left to fight, thus the winner will be declared. You can change your Pokémon out at any time. For this battle, Rotom will be our referee."

Rotom's smiling face appeared on the jumbo board below the announcer booth before switching to the smaller jumbo board near the field. The larger jumbo board popped into the Battle screen from before, with a pic of Izuku and Gar on opposite sides with Pokémon sickness behind their heads.

"Buzzt. Alright ladies and germs, let's come together and shake hands for a safe and fair battle.", Rotom prompted the two of them.

The two teens came together in the center and grabbed each other's hands while looking each other in the eyes with determination and confidence.

"May the better trainer win, Izuku.", Gar said to him with a smile.

"I intend to.", Izuku stated confidently.

Gar was initially taken back by this and replied back excitedly in his voice, "Oh fighting words! I like that. Hope you're ready to walk the walk, boy."

They both separated and walked off to their opposite ends where Rotom took over.

"The battle shall now commence! Challenger Izuku Midoriya vs the Reigning Champion Garfield!", Rotom announced while pulling up the pokeball icons below each of them.

Izuku immediately noticed something strange and vocally complained about it to Gar. "What the-? Six?!", He half yelled while pointing to the board which did in fact have 6 pokeball icons underneath Gar's picture.

"Hey I'm the boss battle, and the boss never plays fair.", Gar stated nonchalantly as Izuku gave him an unpleasant pouting face. "Don't give me that look. I said I would play fair, not be fair. I told you this wasn't going to be easy.", Gar shot at him while rolling his eyes.

"Trainers! Buzzt. Send out your first Pokemon!", Rotom announced.

Izuku knew exactly who he wanted to use first for the beginning, and unhooked the pokeball from his belt. Gar did the same as he tossed it in his hand. The two then held their Pokéballs out, to challenge each other, and then threw them out on the field while calling their names!

"Gardevoir, I choose you!", Izuku called out.

"Go Gyarados, show em what you got!", Gar exclaimed.

The two Pokéballs flew through the air and popped open to reveal both pokémon called out. Izuku's Gardevoir, that shimmered as it manifested. And Gar's Gyarados, that also shimmered as it manifested. Both pokémon opened their eyes and stared down one another, as did their trainers. The tension could be felt from every person in the stadium and even to the people at home!

"Ready Gardevoir?!", Izuku shouted as the Pokémon replied with it's cry.

"Ready Gyarados?!", Gar shouted.

Gyarados didn't reply with it's cry immediately. Instead he closed his eyes and reminisced of a not too far past, his past to be exact.

---

Gyarados thought back to his time in the Lake of Rage, where he was born. Even as a Magikarp he was bullied by the other Magikarp because of his different colored scales. A golden gleam as opposed to bright orange. He was exiled and alone, and it didn't make it any easier when flying Pokemon tried to snatch him from the air because of his golden scales.

Then things went from bad to worse when the sound came. It wasn't like any sound he heard before. It didn't just hurt his ear holes, but his whole body! It felt like his body was fighting against his mind! And in his mind he felt something other than fear or sadness.

Anger!

And it was that same anger that made him change! In an instant he wasn't just a Magikarp with golden scales, he was a Gyarados with red scales, and he was angry! Years of abuse by others and now this!? He had enough! But even after he changed he still heard the sound, far more clearly, through his new ear fins. He wanted to end it and he was going to!

He wiped up a storm with his new power! He could find it, then he would destroy everything and everyone around him until it did!

But he never got that chance. Even after hours of making it rain in unnatural amounts the sound wouldn't stop! Then to make things worse, some human riding on the back of some Pokemon thought he could fight him?

Gyarados knew he would prove him wrong! Or so he thought. The human sent out a Flaffy and weakened him with multiple electric attacks until he was too exhausted to move. Then he saw it, a small red and white ball flying towards him. Before he could even wonder what it was, it bonked him and he felt himself fizzle and then nothing…..black nothing….. comfortable black nothing.

The noise was gone and for the first time he felt at peace. It was nice. Then something new happened in the comfortable black nothing. The world around him appeared once more. And when it did it was so much different. I stead of water, and dirt, and sand, and rocks, and trees. It was grey. Grey and cold and other things and colors and sounds he's never heard before.

In front of him were two pokémon he'd never seen before, and to his side was another pokémon he'd never seen before. It looked like a dragon. Behind the two Pokémon in front were two humans in black and red outfits with an R on the front. Very sinister expressions painted their faces. He didn't like their faces and hissed at them. In the back was a human with red hair and a cape, and next to him was the same human boy from before.

But this time he felt differently about him. Instead of anger, he felt a sense of trust. Like he could allow him to tell him what to do. Gyarados didn't know how to feel about this. He wanted to ignore it, especially since the boy was making an unpleasant expression. Gyarados didn't like that expression either, but then he noticed it wasn't for him, but for the two humans in red and black outfit. Then the human yelled something, Gyarados didn't know what exactly, but he could at least under the gist.

Apparently the humans in the red and black outfits were responsible for the painful noise. And knowing this, Gyarados was angry again! The human boy was actively trying to stop them, and Gyarados felt a sense of gratitude towards him…. especially for allowing him to unleash his full anger on them! With a simple command for his lips, Gyarados obeyed and tore apart the two opposing Pokemon before the dragon Pokemon next to him got the chance! Gyarados cornered the two humans in red and black while the caped human spoke to them.

"Tell us where your boss and the source for the radio power is and you won't be harmed.", The caped man demands.

"Tch! Yeah right! Like well tell anything to you champion.", One of the other humans sneered at him with another expression Gyarados didn't like.

Seeing as this was going nowhere, the smaller human snapped his fingers and Gyarados instinctively knew what he meant. He slammed his tail against the wall with the two red and black humans pinned in-between! He hissed at them and threatened them with a pre-charged Hyper Beam.

The smaller human approached menacingly and asked the other two humans, "You know what Hyper Beam can do at point blank?", This seemed to get the message across.

After that he was placed back into the comfortable black nothing and taken out when battling more of the bad humans in red and black outfits. Then they finally came to what Gyarados figured to be their leader, and he didn't like him one bit! He mocked him and the small human and accentuated his deeds with the painful sound. Gyarados was angry before, but now he was furious! His pain was joy to him?! Gyarados was gonna show him his full fury now!

And fury he did show! Through his time fighting the other bad humans in black and red outfits, he had gotten strong! So strong! Strong enough to easily beat all the leaders Pokemon one by one until there was nothing left between him and his revenge!

The leader, now no longer boastful and arrogant in his anything, stood there practically shaking in his boots and two seconds from wetting himself as Gyarados loomed over him with vicious and malicious intent.

"You know what happens to a Politoed when it's hit by Lightning?", The smaller human asked as Gyarados charged up Thunder.

The leader tried to escape but the smaller human gave him the go while saying, "Same thing as everything else."

Gyarados then unleashed all his fury and hit the leader with every ounce of power he could muster! Leaving the leader charged and powerless for the human of law to take him away. And leaving Gyarados with a sense of relief and happiness, especially towards the small human.

Who came up to him, petting his side and said, "Good job Gyarados, good job."

---

Gyarados returned to the present and looked back at Gar. The boy who, in a way, saved him from himself and Gave him the clarity and peace he needed. Gar flashed him a confident smile, and Gyarados smiled back with his four teeth before looking back at the field and the opposing Pokémon.

"A little appropriate music, Rotom.", gar called out as Rotom pulled up a quick play list and started up a song titled: Battle! Galar Champion Cup (Elite Four) - Remix Cover.

Once the two Pokémon's pictures were on the board, Rotom announced, "Ready? Begin!"

"Since you're the challenger, I'll let you have the first turn.", Gar offered as Izuku smiled.

He then brought up the mega band to his face and called out, "You ready Gardevoir?!", Gardevoir cried out and Izuku touched the stone. "Key Stone, react to my will."

Beams of light shot out from the stone and connected to Gardevoir making her body glow. "Set me on a path to victory by unlocking the power buried deep within.", A sphere of light began to shape around like rolling waves, making Gardevoir vanish from sight. "Go beyond Evolution. Mega Evolve!", He cried out as the sphere hardened, cracked, and opened to reveal Gardevoir in a new form.

Now her hair was a cool teal color, her arms were covered in black coloring and much thicker, her eyes were amber, sharp four pointed ear fins jutted from the sides of her head and her chest horn had split into two. Her dress was now black and puffy as opposed to being loose, making her look bigger.

The crowd was stunned and amazed at this new and sudden change, ogling at Gardevoir's new and extremely more feminine and refined form streaming with elegance.

"Nice monologue. Almost as good as mine.", Gar comments with a somewhat snarky side smile.

Without a moment to spare, Izuku shot his hand pointing towards Gyarados and shouted, "Gardevoir, use Thunder Punch!"

Gardevoir charged up electricity into his clenched fist and bolted towards Gyarados with speed even faster than she performed before! Before Gyarados can blink, the Pokémon is on his body and lands a decisive punch to what could be considered the fish pokémons rib cage! Gyarados grunts in pain but pulls through and whips the Pokémon off his body with one fling.

Gardevoir, despite being forcefully flung off, managed to land with grace beside Izuku, who was shocked by this event. Surely a move like that would've been enough to severely hurt Gyarados, but the Pokémon barely flicked as he swatted his Mega Pokémons attack like a booger. He looked up at the board and saw that the HP bar on Gyarados had only been knocked down a little bit! Izuku's mouth drops open as Gar catches his attention.

"You see that Izuku!? That is the full extent of a Pokemon and trainers relationship! Thunder Punch might've been super effective against Gyarados, but he hung on and pushed through to not be effective by it!", Gar proclaimed as Gyarados roared.

Gar then shouted his hand out and cried, "Gyarados, use Dark Pulse!"

Gyarados closed it's gaping mouth before shooting out a beam of concentrated darkness!

Izuku almost froze up at seeing this specific move, but controlled himself as he exclaimed, "Dodge!"

Gardevoir then teleported away as the beam just passed her. Once she reappears, Gyarados arches the beam towards her and she teleports again! This continues until the beam is finally done, leaving Gardevoir untouched and the concrete stage broken apart. The two Pokémon and trainers stand there and stare one another down. Izuku with a tense and serious face with Gar's relaxed and confident face.

Gar makes a sound in his throat as he replies, "Not bad. It's been a while since I've battled a Mega, so I've forgotten what it's like to be the recovery of such speed and power. But like everything in life, it has limits!", He exclaimed while shouting, "Gyarados, multi shot Dark Pulse!"

Gyarados opened its mouth again and shot Dark Pulse in rapid succession! Again Izuku told Gardevoir to dodge and she teleported around the battlefield, seemingly always able to predict when and where the Dark Pulse would land! However, Gyarados was starting to figure out Gardevoir's movement pattern and once he shot off the last beam, he arched it over to where he knew the Pokémon would appear and ended up hitting the spot near it instead of a direct hit! Even so it caused a small explosion which sent Gardevoir over in one direction! Izuku saw this and was about to give another command when Gar told Gyarados to let off one last beam!

Gyarados sent the last Dark Pulse it could muster and Gardevoir was almost frozen in place from the last grazing of the attack! Izuku almost froze up too but managed to firm a quick counter. Seeing all the broken concrete parts he knew what to do next.

"Use Psychic on the stage to form a shield!", He yelled as Gardevoir used her mind to lift up a large stone in the nick of time.

The Dark Pulse hit and the rock exploded into tiny fragments and dust! Much of which hit Gyarados in the face! The dust particles attracted his eyes, much to the annoyance of not having hands to rub them, and obscured his vision enough to the point he could only make shapeless colors. Gar had gone on a mini-monologue about being impressed with Izuku's quick thinking, which Gyarados wasn't paying attention to.

However he did jump to attention when he heard Gar shout, "Hyper Beam Gyarados, let's go!"

Gyarados tried to look for his target but couldn't make out what was what. He saw one blob moving about so he decided to aim for that. He opened his mouth and shot out a beam of energy straight at the blob who didn't even move. Unfortunately that same blob just so happened to be Izuku, who panicked at the sight of the oncoming attack and froze up while trying to shield himself with his arms! Gar also noticed what was happening far too late and tried to yell for Gyarados to stop his attack! The only one to see this coming was Gardevoir with her future vision! With a quick gasp and a rush of determination she teleported herself in front of Izuku and held out one hand. From it came a small black hole that sucked in the attack and left no damage behind.

The crowds gasped as they all realized what almost took place and Gar shouted up at Rotom to call time out! Rotom put up a sign that halted the battle and Gar immediately ran out to check on Izuku. After making sure and asking if he was okay, Izuku assured him he was fine, although a bit shaken up by that experience. Gar, along with many of the UA staff breathed a sigh of relief as Izuku curiously wondered what had happened to keep him safe. He then looked over to Gardevoir who looked back at him, and realized it was the pokémons doing. Izuku looked at Gar and asked him what Gardevoir had done and how she even knew he was in trouble before it happened? Gar gave an amused chuckle at this and looked to Rotom who pulled up his dex mode.

"Gardevoir psychic abilities are so strong that they are able to foretell the future, and warp space in order to create a super miniature controlled black hole. They will even sacrifice themselves in the safety of their trainer. Buzzt.", Rotom listed off.

A slight hushed murmur of shock and confusion emerged from the crowd at this info. Never had they seen an animal, let alone a person, with such untold power! Power that was only known to two heroes, and even they didn't have what Gardevoir had by a mile. Izuku looked over in shock at the femmine pokemon and saw her nod with a smile. Sure they had secured a strong bond with one another, but never in his life did he think that the pokemon he knew for less than an hour would now be willing to die for his safety. It gave him a sense of pride but also dreed at such extremes that the pokemon would perform for him. He shook the thought out of his head as Gar decided to continue the battle since no mishap had happened. Izuku agreed and the two of them took their opposite sides while Rotom took the time out off the battle screen.

Gyarados was still blinded by the dust in his eyes, but now knowing this Gar had a plan, and with a confident stroke he called out, "Gyarados, use Aqua Tail!"

Gyarados did as he was told and generated a torrent of water around his tail fin! He then took the water and splashed himself in his face. The dust was cleared and Gyarados could see once again, now turning his full ire upon Gardevoir. Gardevoir stood firm against the hateful and raged filled glare of the giant pokemon, waiting for Izuku's instructions.

Izuku on the other hand was observing his situation. Instead of using an attack to….well attack. Gar used it as an aid for Gyarados. Gar wasn't a master for nothing, he knew how to think on his toes and Izuku had to be the same if he was going to win by any chance even with a mega pokemon. But then he noticed that Aqua Tail didn't just wash the dust away, but also soaked his body. Izuku knew then what he had to do, but to do it meant he had to get Gyarados a little more wet. Gyarados had already used up Dark Pulse, which meant now it was down to Aqua Tail, Hyper Beam, and Thunder.

Izuku decided to keep himself at a distance and shouted, "Alright Gardevoir, use Moon Beam!"

A moon appeared over Gardevoir and quickly absorbed power before shooting down a beam of energy. The beam hit Gyarados head on, but once it faded the pokemon simply shook off the residual effect of the attack before roaring at the opposing pokemon. Some of his HP had been cut off, but still hadn't even touched into the yellow.

Gar smiled and countered, "Gyarados, use Thunder!"

The crest on Gyarados's head sparked and threw a bolt into the sky that got sent downwards to Gardevoir!

"Counter with Shadow Ball!", Izuku quickly called out.

Gardevoir sent out Shadow Ball but was a little late on the throw and ended up getting hit by the explosive kick back! While waiting for the dust to clear to have a clear shot, Izuku took the opportunity to bait out Gar into his plan. He told Gardevoir to use Shadow Ball again and only the attack cut out of the thick smoke, still leaving Gardevoir hidden. Gar smiled confidently at this and told Gyarados to smack it away with Aqua Tail. Once the shadowy sphere was displayed in the opposite direction, he told the pokemon to disperse the smoke with the same attack, which is exactly what Izuku wanted to happen.

When the giant fish pokemon swept the smoke away with the water acting like an extension of his tail, Izuku immediately put his plan up and told Gardevoir to redirect the water with Psychic! Gardevoir did as she was told and grabbed hold of the water with her mind while causing it to turn around and hit the giant fish pokemon, soaking it even further. The attack almost did nothing to the Pokémons, much to Gar's confidence and Izuku's satisfaction. Without a moment to spare he told Gardevoir to charge! The pokemon broke through the falling smoke and made a Beeline for Gyarados who stood there the whole time, challenging the mega pokemon for a head on!

Gar knew he wouldn't be able to hit a long ranged attack with such speed coming towards him, so he bided his time and waited for the moment to attack with a short range. Once Gardevoir was close enough Gar told Gyarados to attack with Thunder. The very thing Izuku was counting on. When the fish Pokémon's crest just started to fizzle, Izuku told Gardevoir to make its way around the pokémons back. Gardevoir, levitating with great speed, made it behind the very confused and baffled Gyarados. Once there, Gyarados let loose its attack and Izuku hoped his plan would work.

"Gardevoir! Use Thunder Punch to attract Thunder!", Izuku shouted as Gardevoir latched herself to the giant red fishes back and raised her Thunder charged fist into the air!

The attack, which originally was going to miss, suddenly arched around and towards Gardevoir! All the electricity was absorbed into the Pokémon's hand, who then nestled it into her body, and with every ounce of will power she could muster with such strain sent the power into both fists before hitting Gyarados with two hyper charged Thunder Punches to the back! Gyarados's body illuminated like a light bulb as it roared in pain for several seconds! After the flow of electricity had finally stopped Gyarados had just stood there suspended in the air as Gardevoir sat clung to his back. Gyarados was smoking with charred and zapping remains of electricity coursing around it. With one last exhale, Gyarados fell face first to the ground with swirls in his eyes. The HP counter fell down to nothing and the familiar defeat beep was heard off the board as Rotom spoke.

"Buzzt. Gyarados is unable to battle, the winner of this round is Gardevoir."

The crowd cheered and Izuku jumped for joy as Gardevoir floated back to his side, where he leapt into a bear hug with the pokemon. Gar was undoubtedly shocked and also impressed with what had happened. His mouth hung open as his body stiffened up, and for a moment he almost felt like a rookie again, but he quickly shook off this feeling as he walked over to the downed pokemon. Gyarados was feeling great shame in him, and he felt I grow even more as Gar approached him. The one person who helped him so much, and he had ended up failing him in such a grand battle. The pokemon almost felt like crying.

Until his fears were put to rest at gar's gentle touch. The pokemon looked over to the older teen smiling kindly and petting him as he said, "You did a great job. That was one Distortion World of a fight, and you did awesome. I couldn't be any prouder of you.", at that moment Gyarados actually did start to cry at his kind words. Something he hadn't done since he was a Magikarp, and Gar brought it out of him. He nuzzled at Gar's hand, who took out his pokeball and told him, "Now get some rest, you've earned it."

Gar stood up and looked over at Izuku, who was still celebrating his first victory over him with Gardevoir. He smiled as he reminisced his first big victory, but like that one, he had many more hurdles to overcome if it meant true victory. And Gar still had 5 pokemon left. He walked back to his side and rubbed his fingers over the pokeball of the next pokemon he would use, saying silent words of encouragement to it.

He turned around as he announced over the speakers, "Izuku. I have to say, I'm rather impressed with you.", he says as Izuku and Gardevoir turn their attention back to him. "Using my own moves against me and to power yours was a stroke of pure genius! Normally when someone gets hold of a Mega pokemon they just use them to power through any fight without any sort of technique or thought. I almost assumed you'd be no different, though I see now I was wrong. You really do have the makings of a master class trainer."

Izuku couldn't help but smile at the praise, and it filled him with a small sense of pride. Something he normally wasn't used to feeling.

"However!", Gar interjected in his thoughts, snapping out and staring at him in confusion. "It takes more than just one victory to be in my league! And now that I see you using your head I'll be using mine just as much! Let's see who is at the top when it comes to wit!", Gar announced in challenge.

Izuku smiled back challengingly and proclaimed, "You bet! Ready Gardevoir!?", Gardevoir let out her deep and echoing mega cry.

"That's what I like to see. Go Togekiss!", Gar shouted loud and proud while throwing out the next pokeball, which popped open to reveal a very happy and excited Togekiss.

The crowd cheered with excitement in the ensuing battle and Rotom pulled up Togekisses pic on the battle board with a now full HP bar. The two trainers flashed challenging grins at each other as their pokemon also stared down one another. Or Gardevoir did at least while Togekiss smiley smiled while sitting perched on the ground, both waiting for their trainers to shout commands. While this was happening, Togekiss looked back at Gar and reminisced of her first time meeting with him.

---

Before Togekiss was the pokemon she was today, she was just an egg. An egg with no thought and no feeling. Then one day she hatched and the first thing she saw was the smiling face of a strange creature making strange noises at her. She didn't know where she was, who she was, or what this thing was. In her infinite mind, the only sensible thing she could do was cry and cry she did. She cried for what seemed like hours, all while the strange creature held her, cradled her, and made sweet noises. Eventually she melted into the strange creature's embrace and noises and came to trust him.

From there she was thrusted into a whole new world, the world of battling, alongside two other creatures she came to know as Cyndaquil and Mareep. At first she was pinned up against other weaker pokemon, the others told her what she was, and used the only two moves she knew to defend herself. Metronome and Extrasensory. She would get hurt….a lot. And cry…..a lot. But the strange creature, who she was informed by the other pokemon as a human and her trainer, would always cheer her on and make sure she was in proper health. The trainer, who she came to know as Gar, always pushed her to her limits. A cycle that not only made her want to cry about constantly, but also made her stronger with each win. Up to the point she could hold her own against some very tough gym leaders. She did lose….many times and cried many times because of it, but Gar never gave up on her and made sure she was always in top form with tons of encouragement.

All this culminated into her getting stronger and growing closer to Gar until one particularly hard battle with the Fighting type Gym leader nearly leading to their defeat caused her to evolve into Togetic. This gave them the extra edge to prevail and win the battle! Much to Gar and Togetic's combined excitement and joy. Then came the biggest challenge of all….The Pokemon League. The battles were harsh and fierce! Tougher than any battle before! Everyone was on their A-game and trading blow for blow, especially at the Champion Lance!

Eventually it came down to just Typhlosion, Ho-oh, and herself. With everything they had they pushed through to the very end of all his powerful Dragon pokemon! Right to the point of his very last and very powerful Dragonite, who ended up taking down both Typhlosion and Ho-oh, leaving Togetic as the last line of defense! The battle was long and hard with each trading equal blows, but Lance's Dragonite was far stronger! Togetic thought this was the end after receiving a near ending Fire Blast.

But the shouts of encouragement from Gar reminded Togetic of all he had done for her. All the battles, all the care, all the love, all the times she was pushed and how strong she grew from it, and she knew she couldn't give up now! Not when they were so close to victory! With Ice Punch completely drained, their only chance was a well placed Metronome. Togetic flew off from the ground, dodging Outrage, and used Metronome one last time! The strange power filled Togetic's body and the pokemon released a huge Blizzard that completely engulfed the Dragon pokemon! When the mist fell and so did Dragonite, giving Gar the win.

To this day she still remembers the look of joy on Gar's face when he was announced as the new champion, and the feeling of joy she felt as Gar thanked and praised her. A memory she would carry for the rest of her life.

---

Togekiss returned to the real world from her flashback and returned her focus to the Mega Gardevoir before her. Another battle meant another way to show her worth and power to Gar, and show she would, show off that is. She would take down this foe and look amazing while doing it! Gar will no doubt be ecstatic at his coming victory, and Togekiss would be the heralder. Then she heard her favorite person shout out his commands with the same excited zeal she had come to know.

"Togekiss, use Thunder Wave!", Gar shouted the first attack as the bird pokemon did hesitate to take off in the Mega's direction.

"Dodge!", Izuku called out.

Gardevoir then avoided the flying egg before she got close enough to let loose the weak paralyzing electric attack.

"After it!", Gar called out as Togekiss flew after the fleeing Pokemon. Although Gardevoir was Mega evolved she was still keeping good pace with her and slowly starting to gain. Once close enough for his liking, Gar called out, "Air Slash!"

"Shadow Ball!", Izuku called to counter and the two attacks collided into a small explosion. "Now Moon Beam!", Izuku followed up and Gardevoir stopped, turned around and summoned the moon once more to let loose its death beam from above.

"Dodge!", Gar called as Togekiss took off into the air, preventing the beam of light from being able to arc around more freely, until it dissipated.

From there the pokemon stayed in the air and watched down at its enemy. Gardevoir looked up, clearly annoyed at its enemy's ability to fly and keep distance.

Gar then shouted out, "Now Togekiss, Dazzling Gleam!"

From its perch in the air, Togekiss showed its belly and shot out several particle beams of shiny light that pelted down on Gardevoir. Luckily, due to the distance, Gardevoir was able to dodge some of the attack instead of the full brunt. Izuku knew a well placed Thunder Punch meant victory, but since Togekiss had the advantage in the air, he'd have to use long ranged attacks for now.

"Shadow Ball.", Izuku commanded as Gardevoir shot a ball of darkness at the flying pokemon.

Who, with elegant and flamboyant aerial movements, grabbed the attack and threw it away like a stray booger from the tip of her wing. She opened her eyes that were closed during the performance, and smugly looked down at Gardevoir who gave an annoyed expression in return.

"Shadow Ball, rapid subsection!", Izuku quickly called out, needing to buy time to think.

Gardevoir did as she was told and let loose several Shadow Balls, only for Togekiss to easily and animatedly swat them away or dodge them. While this was happening, Izuku was going through his mind to come up with a quick counter strike against Togekiss. But Gar was watching Izuku this time. Not just standing there proudly and expecting the best, this time he looked at the teen planning and watched him carefully. Making sure not to misstep again.

Then Izuku had an idea cross his mind and he called out to Gardevoir, saying, "Grab Togekiss with Psychic!"

Gardevoir stopped her barrage and used the power of her mind to hook onto the smug Pokémons wings. Togekiss was ripped out of her flamboyant self loving display of power as she felt her body stop and sit in mid air while turning upside down. Her expression was caught in shock and confusion as she twirled about with no movement from her wings. Gardevoir, meanwhile, looked on from below with her own smug expression at the star struck Pokemon.

"Now bring her down!", Izuku called as Gardevoir didn't hesitate to obey and bring Togekiss down with all her might.

Togekiss sails down at an ungodly speed, screaming in her descent, with the ground about to hit with the moments. Luckily Gar already has a plan when Togekiss is held in the air, and just as she is sent down he calls out to her.

"Slow your descent with Dazzling Gleam!", Gar called out as quickly as he could.

Togekiss stopped her screaming and opened her eyes at the eureka moment. Then shot dozens of light particles from her chest which hit the ground and caused a repelling force to hit against her descent. This did help, but not enough to give her a soft landing. The pokemon still hit the ground with sheer force and caused her HP to drop down to the yellow. The egg Pokemon felt the pull of Psychic come off her wings and she used them to pull herself off the ground. While pushing herself up from her painful fall, she managed to keep one eye open as she looked around for her opponent. Unfortunately the crash left her dazed and her vision blurry.

However she did manage to catch sight of a black and cyan blue in the dust, and she didn't have to wait long for that blur to be revealed as a very angry looking Gardevoir, ready to cave her face in with a powerful Thunder Punch! Togekiss almost froze in the moment, but reacted at Gar's call, telling her to use Thunder Wave! She stretched her wing out and let loose the small rings of paralyzing power that crossed paths with Thunder Punch! Both attacks cancel each other out but both Pokemon get the residual effect. Leading both to being paralyzed.

Both fell to the ground with spikes of electric coursing through their bodies and preventing them from moving. Both managed to open one eye each and glare hatefully at each other. Izuku tried to have Gardevoir get up and attack while Togekiss was down, but not even the Mega could not force herself to stand in the moment. Rotom pulled up a yellow icon under each of the Pokémons pic on the board before making an announcement mid battle.

"Buzzt. Gardevoir and Togekiss are paralyzed."

Gar, seeing the state of both pokemon, took a chance and quickly shifted gears, saying to Togekiss, "Use Roost!"

Togekiss managed to flap her wings a few times and a ring of feathers danced around her, causing her HP to rise. Then the egg-shaped pokemon sucked in a deep breath and with all its might cried out in a loud yell where the electricity coursing around its body immediately dissipated and Togekiss flew up into the air completely cured! The crowds of onlookers, Gardevoir, and Izuku all stared in wide mouthed shock at what just happened! By willpower alone, Togekiss managed to cure herself of her own affliction by reason that didn't seem to add up at all!

It was here that Gar went into his proud batting rant. "Did you see that Izuku? That! That right there was the true extent of a trainer and his pokemon. Your bond with your team is strong, I'll give you that, but it's nothing like the relationship I have with my pokemon! By just her connection and love for me, Togekiss expelled her affliction just so I wouldn't feel sad. This is what it truly means to be a trainer! Giving everything you got for them, so in return they give everything they got for us! And this is only the beginning!", he then shot his arm out and called out, "Togekiss, give Gardevoir a hailstorm barrage of Dazzling Gleam!"

Togekiss flew up and back a bit before diving down and swiping Gardevoir with a quick Dazzling Gleam. After flying by she turns around and swipes at her again with another quick Dazzling Gleam. Repeating the attack over and over from all sides, with Gardevoir barely able to move enough to simply dodge or counter fast enough! Izuku didn't know what to do, now with no longer having the advantage of both pokemon being unable to move so freely, he had to think of something before Gardevoir's HP got knocked down to nothing! He is so reliant on the Pokémons speed that he didn't think she would be encumbered by it, along with the fact that if he didn't take out Togekiss quickly she would just use Roost and heal up once more.

Then in a stroke of genius, Izuku came up with a new strategy and decided to use Gardevoir's new handicap to his advantage. And he knew exactly how to do it! He called out to Gardevoir and begged her to stand. The Pokemon tried to stand, but even natural afflictions affected a Mega, and probably even more so. Gardevoir did her best but could only get to her knees before getting knocked over flat by Togekiss and her speedy attacks!

Izuku grit his teeth and shouted, "I know you wanna win as much as I do! And even if you can't, I still believe in you just as much as I did before! So please Gardevoir! If you trust me, stand up and get ready to strike at the right time!"

On the ground, Gardevoir's eye shot open at the rush she felt in the last battle. The same heat and euphoria when she forced herself to evolve, now drove her to stand up despite the loss of sensation in her everything. She finally stood up, despite the electricity coursing around her body, preventing her from making any quick movements and looked back at Izuku while giving him a nod. Izuku smiled brightly at Gardevoir, but then had to watch her nearly get toppled over by a fast flying Togekiss.

From there Izuku got serious and called out, "Gardevoir, calm your mind and watch for where Togekiss will attack next. Then get ready to strike."

Gardevoir did as he said and closed her eyes, drowned out the calling of the crowds, the loud music playing, and only focused on the wheezing sound made by Togekiss as she flew by. Using her psychic powers she looked into the future and saw exactly where the Pokemon would strike! She shot open her eyes, a sign to Izuku, who shouted for her to use Shadow Ball! Even though she couldn't move her full body fluently, she could still make short movements in her limbs, which she used to raise up one arm and shoot a Shadow Ball at the diving Pokemon.

However Togekiss saw this and used her already prepared Dazzling Gleam to destroy it from a distance. Causing another smoky explosion that obscured the Mega Pokemon. Taking the smoke to her advantage, Togekiss dashed through, expecting to pop out and hit another successful attack on Gardevoir. However in her state of pride and self assuredness, she didn't notice the familiar pull of Psychic on her wings and got drawn even faster towards Gardevoir.

She finally noticed something was aerie when she couldn't move herself out of the way from the very angry Thunder Punch that Gardevoir was preparing to rail her with! When Togekiss finally realized what was happening and that she fell right into the trap, she immediately and frantically began flapping her wings to get away but the attempt was petty at best. Leaving Togekiss with the repercussions, those repercussions being a stomach full of Thunder Punch that managed to KO her in one hit! Togekiss flew back from the impact and slid along the ground before finally stopping in a long skid with swirls in her eyes.

The HP counter fell, the board beeped, and Togekisses pic darkened as Rotom made the announcement. "Togekiss is unable to battle. The victory once again goes to Gardevoir."

The crowd erupted with cheering along with Izuku and Gardevoir at yet another victory! A near slim one, but a victory no less! As the crowds revealed with glee and Izuku praised the still paralyzed Gardevoir, Gar made his way over to the downed Pokemon.

In that moment Togekiss truly wished she was more like Latois or Latais so she could just vanish like they do. But she couldn't do that and instead had to wallow in her own misery and shame. So many battles she's won over the years, so many fights, so many times Gar's victory rested upon her shoulders, and one time he needed her most in the face of such an event, and she failed due to her own arrogance and pride mixed with her animated and flamboyant nature. She expected Gar would chew her out for this, though he only had done that once before when she evolved from Togetic into Togekiss, and hoped he wouldn't be so merciful. Fully expecting and accepting that she mucked up and shouldn't be coddled for such unprofessionalism in a battle.

But instead of getting her tongue lashing, she got a soft hand and a reassuring smile with words of praise from Gar. Togekiss felt tears stream from her face and she chirped with glee and sadness while wrapping her wings around him. Gar smiled and laughed while returning her back to her pokeball for a rest. Once safely back inside her ball, Gar turned back around at the happy Izuku and exhausted looking Gardevoir.

He looked at the jumbo board and saw that her HP was just touching the red zone. A few more attacks, even from his weakest pokemon, and Izuku's Mega would be taken out of commission. Leading to a landslide victory he was sure of! And even on the chance he did manage to knock out another of his pokemon, he had the perfect pokemon to use that would ensure him a victory even at a loss. And this one didn't have a weakness to Gardevoir or her moves, but instead was the one with the upper hand.

Without any words to Izuku, he took out his next pokeball and threw it onto the field while shouting, "Volcarona, you're up next!"

The ball popped open and the giant fiery moth pokemon emerged from it in a display of ember and ash that circled and danced around it like a storm as it took off the ground, causing the pavement to turn black. The crowd roared with cheers at the sight of the new giant bug Pokemon, and the bug seems to soak in all the positive attention. Volcarona looked back at a smiling Gar and reminisced about his first meeting with him.

---

Many years ago in the Region known as Unova, in a location known as Desert resort, a pokemon made its home in the deepest part of the Relic Castle. That pokemon was known as Volcarona. A great and mighty pokemon whose ancestor was revived as a god by the ancient people for saving their lives, who all once lived in this once fertile land but no more. Now….he was the only one left. The only one in an age long forgotten. The only one to stand the test of time and wait for a great force to come by. The only one left.

Well actually….he wasn't the only one. For he wasn't the last or the one currently in battle. No, the Volcarona we know was actually the small young Larvesta who hid itself away behind the pillars. He knew all their history thanks to his elder, how to find food in this rough and unforgiving terrain, and most importantly how to fight. Their days went one like this, milling around the ruins for anything to eat or drink and fight whatever would invade their territory.

Then one day the elder sat in his favorite spot in the ruins and simply waited there for days on end without eating or drinking. When the young Larvesta asked what this was about, he was told by the elder that he sensed a strong presence in the area and was waiting to meet it and then fight it. A chance to have one last brawl and hopefully be defeated, since before the elder would do this same thing long before Larvesta's hatching.

Then just as the elder had predicted, something powerful did enter the Ruins and make it to the lowest floor where the elder came face to face with a strange creature that stood on two legs and covered its body while holding command over several other Pokemon. Larvesta hid behind the pillars and watched with bated breath as the elder and the strange creature fought until the elder collapsed. The creature threw something at the elder and he disappeared in a stream of red light. A small thing appeared on the ground where the elder was and glowed and glittered as the strange creature took the device and put it into its coverings.

Larvesta knew that the elder had been taken by the strange creature in the strange objects and an angry spike boiled in Larvesta that caused him to jump from his hiding spot and bluff an attempted attack! Unfortunately his fearless determination faded as the creature looked right in his direction, causing the little fire bug to get cold feet and immediately back away in his hiding spot. Larvesta squeezed himself against the wall as much as his fat body could and watched as the strange creature came to him and attempted to grab him. But one snap of his mouth and a sharp hiss drew him back, much to Larvesta's pridefulness.

But then the strange creature took out the same device from before and threw it into the air where it opened to reveal the elder! Larvesta was shocked and confused, but also happy and relieved to see him again! Larvesta calmed down, loosened up, and stopped tensely pushing himself against the wall between the two pillars. But oddly enough the elder seems to take an immediate liking to the creature; something he wasn't known for in their aloof and semi-disconnected elder student relationship. The elder assured him this creature was to be trusted and to come out.

Larvesta did so, slowly, and inched his way out of his hiding spot to the crouching creature. The creature held out its hand, causing Larvesta to flinch and back away! But he was forced by the elder who pushed him with his thorax stinger. Larvesta came up to the creature's hand, inch by inch, and ended up carefully placing his own limb on it, and was almost taken back by how soft and cold it was. Larvesta looked up at the creature's face for the first time and saw a smile radiating like no sun or fire he had ever seen before. It was…...nice…..very nice.

He then heard the creature say his first words to him, who said with equal brightness in his voice, "Hey there little fella."

It wasn't long before Larvesta was placed in one of the creatures' devices(which he'd come to learn are called Humans and Pokeballs) and came to get the strange sense of trust with him as well. From there he and the elder were taken from the Relic Castle and to the farthest parts of the desert where he discovered a whole new world. Everything was wonderful and new and exciting! He got to meet all of Gar's other Pokemon, didn't have to fight for survival, learned about the world, and lived a life beyond anything he thought and with the elder no less! Everything was perfect…..until it wasn't.

One day in a location that Larvesta didn't know just yet, a volcano had erupted by a nearby town causing mass panic and hysteria amongst the people and Pokemon! In the ensuing chaos and destruction he was separated from Gar and the elder and completely freaking out as buildings around him crumbled, the ground shook violently, and people and pokemon ran around him! Nearly squishing him several times in their panicked fleeing of the disaster! Then he heard Gar's voice call out to him and in the now dispersing crowd he saw him and the elder coming his way! He immediately felt relief and joy at seeing them, but did not notice the building in back of him about to fall!

When he did turn around, the building was already crumbling down and Larvesta had frozen in fear! Just before he was flattened by the rubble, Gar had jumped in a slide and shoved Larvesta out of the way! Larvesta was thrown in the opposite direction and Gar had disappeared in the falling building and dust! Larvesta quickly shot up from the ground and looked around for any sight of Gar or the elder, but only saw the dusty building that Gar had shoved him away from. Then he heard the one thing he dreaded to hear the most, the sound of Gar screaming in pain.

A cold chill ran up Larvesta's spine and he ran as fast as he could into the dust and quickly came upon the sight of the elder trying to move rubble out of the way and Gar laying on the ground, and his legs caught under rubble at his knees. The young teen was breathing heavily, trying to restrain his cries of pain, his face red as he bit his lips, and sweat poured down his face! The elder was doing all he could to move the huge rocks and wood beams off his legs, but in his old age could barely lift one stone.

Larvesta was nearly frozen at the horrific sight, he could even see blood leaking from where the teens legs got crushed. Though even through this he managed to force a smile in front of the small pokemon. The sight alone made Larvesta cry and immediately dash in to try and dig out Gar's legs with the elder! The two of them worked harder and faster when the volcano started to produce even louder booms and shakes! Black smoke thickly covered the sky, nearly blocking the sun as it showed just moments before eruption.

Larvesta cried harder as he desperately tried to save the human who just saved him! Tears mixed with the dust and dirt as he started to use his mouth to bite away at the stone with little results. Gar took a deep and harsh breath as he tried to pull his legs out, but he only managed to make himself cry out in pain with a wail of agony! This only caused Larvesta to dig even harder and faster to the point that its little legs began to bleed! Gar saw this and got the small pokemon to stop by calling for his attention.

"Larvesta.", Gar called him, making the pokemon stop and stare at him with tear stained eyes. "It's okay, really. I'll get through this. Just like I always do."

That was a lie and Larvesta could tell. Larvesta then watched as Gar pulled out his and the elders Pokeballs while saying, "How about you and Volcarona go back into your balls and wait this out."

Larvesta immediately knocked both balls out of the teens hands and out of reach, where he immediately went back to digging and picking.

"Just stop you guys!", Gar yells at them, causing both pokemon to stop their project. Gar breathed heavily and told them, "There's no way I'm getting out of this. Even if you do get me out, I can't even stand, let alone run in time to escape. Volcarona, you should grab Larvesta the others pokeballs and get out of here while you can.", Gar then dropped his head, a shadow covering his eyes as he said, "At least you'll all be safe."

Larvesta immediately ran into Gar's lap and held tight to his pants, refusing to let go of the teen even if the elder did try to take him. Then he heard the sound of the elders' wings flutter and Gar called out to him. He lifted his head to catch sight of the elder flying away. Was he abandoning them? No, that couldn't be right! He'd never do that! And the small Pokémons thoughts were confirmed as he saw the elder fly in the direction of the volcano! At seeing this his mind went back to a particular moment the elder had told him. They didn't just control fire like the sun, they were fire of the sun, and able to manipulate it in any form, even the earth's Lava.

"Volcarona! You don't have to do this! Just take Larvesta and leave!", Gar begged the old pokemon, and Larvesta immediately knew what the elder was going to do.

Larvesta cried out to the elder, begging him to stop with tears running down his face. But the only thing the elder did was turn around and give a reassuring chatter at the two of them. Larvesta could have sworn he saw the stoic elder shed a single tear before turning around and flying off towards the volcano. Gar still tried to call out to the pokemon, and even tried to command him to return with Larvesta screeching at him. But they both watched as the pokemon shrunk into the distance where only the glow of his wings could be seen through the smoke.

The glow then dipped over the lip of the volcano before dipping down and disappearing. The young teen and pokemon both looked on with bated breath and silent tears, their eyes locked onto the volcano, and watched as the rumbling stopped and the smoke cleared to reveal a blue sky.

The moment the sky cleared an echo ran across the town as cheers of celebrating people and pokemon cried out in the distance with glee at the halted disaster! There was revelry and joyful sounds from all except one. Gar, who was still trapped in rubble let out a horrible cry of suffering at the loss of his pokemon, his cries getting swamped out by the cries of joy from all else. The teen was crying harder than he had before, pounding on the ground with his bare fist in frustration.

Larvesta, meanwhile, didn't make a sound or move as his tearful eyes were kept locked onto the volcano that the elder disappeared into. The cheering of the people in the distance was almost enough to snuff out Gar's sobs of misery, but eventually the cheering died down enough for him to hear Gar's sobbing and looked over at the teen.

He wasn't like the human he knew before. No longer the strong, confident, ambitious, peppy teen with a heart of gold, and a smile to give anyone hope. Now was reduced to a red faced, snot dripping, bloody handed, bent over, mess of his former self, and it broke Larvesta within. In the moment there was only one thing he could think to do. So he crawled up on the teens lap and laid on his stomach, the tip of his mouth touching his chin.

Without warning he was suddenly scooped up in the young teens arms and held tightly as Gar continued to wail in sadness. Larvesta sat there, letting himself get squeezed uncomfortably and letting his natural heat comfort him. It was all he could do at the moment. But from there the young pokemon made a solemn vow to the boy who gave him so much and saved his life. He promised he would get strong, he would be strong, he would make sure he could take out any obstacle, see that Gar never get hurt, never lose…...and never cry again.

---

Gar came back to the real world from his flashback and put his eyes back on the field where his weakened opponent now stayed in one place for him to take down with ease! Volcarona smiled at this, knowing that once the mega was gone, it was only a matter of time before each and everyone of his other pokemon fell to him one after the other. He was going to win this battle or take that mega down with him, and he had the strength to do it. His opponent? Not at all.

Volcarona readied himself with a war cry, giving the signal to Gar that he was ready! Gar smiles at this and says, "Alright Volcarona, use Bug Buzz!"

Volcarona then flapped his wings hard and fast, producing a sharp and irritating sound in Gardevoir's direction! The sound was so loud and harsh that it not only made Gardevoir fall to her knees in pain while grabbing her ear fins, but also made Izuku and several onlookers try and cover their ears! When the noise finally subsides, Izuku looks to the board to see that the sound attack did do damage and caused Gardevoir's HP to fall down to the red! It would only take 1 maybe 2 more attacks before Gardevoir finally fell! And even if that had happened, he still wanted to at least weaken the pokemon before his next, since he had a feeling that he would need another mega to take down the rest of Gar's pokemon! The fact that Gardevoir made it this long, taking down the amount of pokemon she had thus far is a miracle.

Izuku uncovered his ears and shouted to Gardevoir, without thinking, "Gardevoir, use Psychic!"

The pokemon stood up and using the power of her mind she caused her psychokinetic energy to envelope the bug and crush him with it! But once the attack landed, Volcarona simply shook off his body and fluffed up his fluffy scales while exhaling black smoke! Izuku's jaw dropped at this and briefly ogled as to why the attack did almost nothing. Then he remembered that Bug types are not weak to Psychic types. Izuku gulped as he knew that he was in trouble, and the smile on Gar's face told him exactly that!

Deciding to play with him for a bit, Gar opted to use a non-Bug type move to really give Izuku a first hand experience of fighting a master. Shooting out his arm he called, "Use Fiery Dance!"

Volcarona then flapped his wings in quick but also fluid motion as he moved his giant body around in some sort of tribal-like dance. Fire danced around him before sailing off towards Gardevoir, who could tell from which side the petal shaped fire was coming from or moving towards! Before she or Izuku could think quick enough, Gardevoir was quickly encircled by the flames, preventing her from moving even more! Gardevoir looked around in a panic as Izuku tried to think of something to do but was just as frazzled and confused as his pokemon!

Seeing Izuku not acting, Gar took advantage and followed up saying, "Now Hurricane!"

Volcarona flapped his wings hard and quick, causing a huge torrent of wind to get stirred up until a mock hurricane was created and immediately swept up the distracted pokemon! But just before that, Izuku tried to counter with Shadow Ball, which dissipated once it hit the wind attack. Gardevoir was tossed into the air and spun around and around while Izuku could only watch helplessly as the pokemon was flung around like a rag doll! Izuku tried to call out to Gardevoir, but the rushing wind was too strong for his voice to carry or be heard by the pokemon!

With this, Gar commanded, "Now follow up with Fiery Dance!"

Volcarona knew exactly what he was doing, they had practiced this routine many times before, and now they had it down to a science. Volcarona performed the same dance with fluttering fire pedals and threw it at the hurricane where the fire got caught into it and blew up into a huge fire hurricane! Gardevoir screamed in the flaming cyclone as Izuku watched with shock at seeing two moves so effortlessly combined! Luckily the extra heat caused the hurricane to dissipate quickly and Gardevoir fell to the ground! Izuku shot his head to the jumbo board and saw that the HP counter was deep into the red! One more hit and Gardevoir was done for!

Izuku watched as Gardevoir picked herself off the ground with her psychic powers, only to scream as a rush of flaming embers rushed up her body! Izuku gasped at this and heard Rotom announce that Gardevoir had now suffered through the Burn effect. Izuku knew about this one and it was bad! So long as Gardevoir fought she would receive the backlash pain from her previous wounds due to fire!

If he didn't act fast or Gar didn't draw this out, then Gardevoir would be finished without Gar needing to take further drastic measures. He had to at least weaken Volcarona to some extent, cause right now the pokemon was still fighting strong. Izuku grit his teeth as he looked onto the field with the hope to realize something fast! On the plus side, Burn had canceled our Paralysis and Gardevoir could move just as fast as she did before.

Seeing Izuku falter to act again, took the opportunity to finish this section of the battle off. "Now Volcarona, let's finish this off with Vitality Syphon!", he called out to the pokemon, who did not hesitate to act.

His mandibles spread apart and revealed a short yet sharp proboscis. The large bug took off on his huge wings with head pointed directly at Gardevoir, who was momentarily frozen by the sheer force of the incoming attack! At this point Izuku had gotten some semblance of an idea, or at least knew how to buy himself time, and gave a quick ditch command to Gardevoir before Volcarona's attack hit.

"Gardevoir! Use a Shadow Ball on Volcarona's face!", Izuku called out as Gardevoir's eyes snapped back to the same serious and fiery determination before!

Without hesitation and proper timing coupled with her rediscovered speed, she created the sphere of darkness and plowed it directly into the incoming bug's unsuspecting face! Volcarona was sent into a toppling tumble as the opposing forces caused his body to fly off in both directions! The counter attack was so hard it caused the pokemon to flinch long enough for Izuku to make a follow up, shouting for Gardevoir to use Thunder Punch, which she did….right on Volcarona's stomach!

This time the opposing forces on the bug got equaled out, and he was sent flying across the field! After finally coming to a skidding halt, Volcarona quickly rose back into the air and chattered angrily at being had so easily! Even Gar looked surprised by the turn of events, drawing a shocked look before going to a down facing smile.

"Not bad Izuku. Not bad at all. Either you're a strategic genius like I thought or the power of Victini is on your side. Either way I'm impressed.", he said over the speaks before raising his head and proclaiming, "But it'll take more than that to beat me! People of Japan! How about I wrap up this section of the battle in an over the top display!?", the crowds roared with cheers of approval and Gar smiled at the reaction, along with Izuku's 'oh shit' face.

"Volcarona, use Hurricane followed by Fiery Dance and Bug Buzz!", Gar commanded.

A weird smile formed on the Pokémon's insect face as he did as his trainer instructed. Volcarona created another Hurricane that he launched at Gardevoir, then added Fiery Dance causing it to expand into the fire hurricane, then emitted Bug Buzz to stun the pokemon, keeping her in place as the attack sail ever closer towards her. Gardevoir was sent to her knees at the noise once more and was powerless to stop the upcoming attack! Izuku almost panicked at this but kept his composure long enough to try and call out to her.

But like the last time his voice was swallowed up by the whipping winds. Izuku panicked as he tried to think of something to do while Gardevoir was down. Then it struck him. Thinking...the mind….mind reading. Gardevoir was a Psychic type, and in mega form her powers were increased ten fold! No doubt that also meant mind reading. So he closed his mouth and tried to speak to her though his mind.

'Gardevoir. Gardevoir! GARDEVOIR!', he called out in his head, until he eventually felt like something clicked in his brain and he knew that he had made a connection to the pokemon. 'I know this is hard for you right now, but if you wanna survive this and hopefully win, then you gotta push through Plus Ultra style! I have a plan, but I need you to go beyond!', suddenly he felt like something had tickled his brain and knew Gardevoir was not only listening, but agreeing with him.

Izuku smiled as he commanded the pokemon in his mind, 'Great! Now with everything you have, stand up and grab the fire hurricane with Psychic!'

Gardevoir did as Izuku commanded, standing to her feet and placing her hands out towards the incoming attack. Gardevoir dug in and with every bit of her mind she grabbed hold of the duel attack and made it fly away from her. This shocked both Volcarona and Gar, not only for her strength but also sheer willpower and tenacity even while physically weakened to the breaking point. They, along with the crowd of gawking people, watched as the fire hurricane not only arched out of the way, but then arced around the pokemon before being thrown right back at the stunned Volcarona! Unfortunately this also caused Gardevoir's burns to act up, but she pushed through and threw the attack like a giant frisbee!

The giant bug yelled as it was hit by its own combo attack, getting burned up and whipped around violently in the torrent that even Gar was shocked to the point of gaped maw! As both pokemon and trainer were distracted by the reverse card, Izuku took a deep breath he was holding alongside his pokemon and put the next part of his strategy into play.

With the wind no longer obstructing his voice, he called out, "Now use Psychic to grab the concert slabs and slam them into Volcarona!"

He knew that Volcarona had only three weaknesses; Water, Flying and Rock. Izuku knew he couldn't do any due to Gardevoir's current move pool, so he decided to improvise for the last two. Gardevoir, using the remaining strength she had, grabbed the broken up field with her mind and sent the chunks into the air. At this time Volcarona had stopped spinning around, the fire hurricane weakening yet still remaining, and was now staying aloft in the air by its strength despite the rushing winds. Bad place to be as all sides for an escape had been cut off due to several chunks of earth floating menacingly around him.

Without even a chance to realize what was happening the chucks hit him from all sides, causing the remainder of the fire hurricane to speak outwards in a fizzling display of sparks and glittering dust! The crowd cheered with excitement of the over the top spectacle, ecstatic that in the end they got their over the top finisher….even if it was from the opposite end. The chunks fell to the ground along with a KOed Volcarona with swirls in his eyes. The HP counter fell, the board beeped, and Volcarona's picture darkened.

"Volcarona is unable-.", Rotom began to announce until the sound of Gardevoir's cry drew their attention.

Everyone looked at the opposing pokemon and saw her body flare up once more from her Burn status. From there her Mega form disappeared and she fell to the ground with swirls in her eyes! The HP counter finally fell, her pic darkened, and Rotom looked hard pressed for a moment, not knowing what to do.

Then he finally got it together and announced, "Volcarona and Gardevoir are both unable to battle. Buzzt. Which makes this a Double KO and this round a Tie!"

As the crowd awed at seeing something like this for the first time, Izuku and Gar both went out towards their pokemon. Izuku picked up Gardevoir like a downed person and the pokemon refused to look at him, showing signs of shame.

Izuku smiled brightly at her, knowing this was the best thing he could do, and said to her, "You did awesome Gardevoir. In fact, you did even better than I expected. You might've lost but that's nothing to be ashamed of, you should be proud of what you did accomplish."

Gardevoir looked back at the young teen and smiled at his kindness and praise. Izuku then returned the Pokemon and said to the Pokeball, "Now you rest up."

Gar went over to Volcarona who was covering himself in his wings, not wanting to look at his trainer. But he couldn't fight back, mostly because he didn't want to, as Gar pushed the wings away. Volcarona couldn't even bring himself to look at him so opted to keep his eyes shut, but then felt a hand get placed softly on him. He relencultently opened his compound eyes and looked at Gar, expecting him to be crying. The very thing he hated to see the most, but instead he caught sight of a smile in place of a frown!

Initially shocked, he lay there and listened to Gar's words. "You did an amazing Volcarona! I'm so proud of you! You even managed to finally take down their Mega! You alone have turned the tide of this battle in our favor. Thanks for giving it your all, you really are the strongest on the team."

Even though he did prevail over all obstacles before him, even though he couldnt be strong, even though he lost, at least he got to see Gar smile in place of sobs. Volcarona was satisfied with that at least. He gave one sigh of relief at his words and relaxed on the ground waiting to be recalled into the pokeball. Gar returned him and smiled as he looked at the pokemon's pokeball before a shadow covered the upper portion of his face. He may not have shown up in front of his pokemon, especially Volcarona, but he really was starting to be brought heavily down by his win lose ratio. It had taken him three pokemon to take down one weaker Mega, and Volcarona only managed to do it by way of status effect.

It really was starting to affect his self esteem, something he really didn't want right now. He knew if he went all out right, the Izuku would just get curb stomped even with a Mega. But he didn't want to do that, he wanted to help boost Izuku's self worth and self esteem. Not so long ago he was that very same boy and it took him a long and winding trail to get to where he was. Just once he'd like to help him feel good about himself even if it did seem disgraceful of him.

Don't get it wrong, he is putting up a fight like any other! Though he is holding back more than he usually does, in the name of Izuku's broken spirit. It didn't sit right even then, and coupled with his own emotions mixing him up and his already present stress at other surrounding circumstances, he wasn't feeling all that good about himself as is. He thought this would be fun, but now it's just reminding of his past as a nervous rookie who alway lost no matter what he or his pokemon had done. It was so bad he opted to quit long before he even got to the first gym.

He had wished someone was there to help him, or lead him, or give him words of encouragement, or atleast hold back a bit in the name of his self esteem. But no, that never did happen and he was lost and alone while feeling like a joke for the longest time. But that was in the past and this is the present. Now there was someone like him and he needed encouragement and help he never got, and he would do it even if it hurt his emotional state all over again! He couldn't let someone else go through it alone! Not when so much damage had already been done.

He took a deep breath and decided to be the bigger man here and give tomes to his opponent. "Izuku. You and Gardevoir have done well thus far. Very very well indeed. It took three pokemon for me to take down your Mega. That was a smart move on your part. Normally the heavy hitter is saved for the back in case of emergency or just to show off, but you used yours to pick me down some. Impressive.", he praised Izuku for his skill.

Izuku stood up and looked at Gar, but with a determined, challenging smile like he did before. Now there was an expression of neutral seriousness, and it almost took Gar back by it. Especially as Izuku just stood there for several drawn out seconds and stared at him. This started to spook Gar more than anything, but he kept up his cheerful demeanor in the name of the onlookers.

Even though his voice was low, Gar could easily hear him over the many voices and loud music as he asked, "Gar, you're not...throwing the match for me, are you?"

Gar's eyes widened at the accuracy of the statement, and he almost felt like his sins, or nerves, were crawling down his back! He blinked a few times and almost wandered in a panic as to how he figured this out! Honestly he should've seen it coming as is, Izuku was alway bright as a Volbeat and sharp as a Bisharp with observation skills like no other. Of course he'd figured out that Gar was holding back! So he tried to play it off cool.

"What? Psh! No way!", okay…..not cool at all. Seeing no reason to lie he decided to just dance around the truth a bit, hopefully enough to convince him. "Okay maybe just a teeny bit! But I do have the advantage in many regards. I just wanted to give you a fighting chance to even out the playing field before I reveal my own trump card.", hopefully that did it.

And it did work as Izuku gave him a close eyed sideway expression of thought before saying with a shake of his head, "Geeze Gar, I told you I wanted to fight you with no restraints. And here you are holding back on me? Honestly I'm just disappointed you lack any faith."

"Alright alright. You caught me red handed.", Gar joked with him as he mentally sighed that his half truth worked. "But if you really wanna go all out, then that'll show you the massive distance between us!", he triumphantly stated while taking out the next pokeball! "Serperior, get ready for battle!"

Izuku half smiled at this before turning into a grin and throwing out his next pokeball, proclaiming, "Now Houndoom, you're up next!"

Both pokemon emerged in a cascade of blue light and let out their unique cries of battle readiness! On all sides of the crowds, they all seemingly gasped at the sight of the terrifying looking pokemon! Muttering about true monsters or how terrifying they looked while glaring each other down! Until Houndoom saw who was his current trainer and promptly charged him while tackling him into a slobbery embrace that only a dog could manage! Houndoom sloppy and rapidly licked Izuku's face up in sheer excitement of seeing him again, as his tail wagged so fast it looked like it would fall off!

"Bleck! YUCK! Houndoom, UCK! Stop that! I'm happy-Bleck-happy to see you too! But, UGH, we're in the middle of a battle!", Izuku tried pleading with the hellhound, only to receive more wet kisses.

Izuku tried to push the pokemon off his body, but Houndoom switched gears and opted to just flop his whole body weight on Izuku's chest and arm! Essentially pinning him down as he went from licking to straight breathing on his wet face with his hot brimstone breath. Izuku exhaled in shock at the weight difference on his chest and once he caught enough air back, he apologized to Gar for letting this go on. Gar however wasn't at all irritated by this, and instead laughed happily at the sight while wiping a tear from his eye! Houndoom alway loved people, but took a special liking to izuku back when they met on the school grounds after the USJ incident.

"It's okay Izuku, I get that all the time. Some pokemon can't help but love you.", Gar assured him while looking at Serperior who seemed to glare at his indentation.

Gar opened his arms, offering himself, but the grass snake quickly looked away with embarrassment clearly being shown. Gar snorts at this and says, "Oh come on Serperior, I know you used to love wrapping around me when you were just a Snivy and still do."

Serperior huffed, tensed her body, then slithered towards Gar with full speed! The large snake then jumped and wrapped her body around him while squeezing him with a little too much might.

Gar gagged as he choked out, "ToO-MuCh-WrApPiNg!"

Serperior immediately loosened up as Gar turned blue and the older teen's normal color returned with one big breath and several dry heaves after. While spit rolled down his face while taking air back in, he looked over and saw Izuku still trying to fight off Houndoom. Taking the moment he turned to the embarrassed Serperior and whispered something to her.

"Remember what I told you before? About holding back in this fight.", Serperior nods. "Well forget that. We're going full force the rest of this battle, give it everything you got. He wants us to be serious, so let's show him what 'serious' really looks like.", Serperior nods while letting out its distinct reptilian bird-like cry.

Seeing Gar like this really got her blood pumping with excitement and brought her back to her younger days when they first met. Also known to her as the greatest day of her life, for the rest of her life.

---

As a Snivy in Professor Junipers' lab, she was treated much like her other starter friends. Space to run and play, things to eat, places to fight, lots of naps with the occasional and very uncomfortable checkup. Life was pretty good apart from one small detail. Choosing. Every so often a few trainers would come in and pick one of the three starters as their first pokemon to help them with the professor's research, and every time she was never picked.

It had eventually gotten to a point where she had lost count of how many other Tepig and Oshawott got picked instead of her. She had even stopped trying to befriend her other starter roommates, knowing they would leave her eventually. She tried to put out a confident and don't care attitude as both a coping mechanism and a way to draw attention, but even that didn't work. Even Professor Juniper tried to console her, but with little results. He isolation really was eating at her from the inside, and the hurtful comments by the children that passed through did help either.

Weak, ugly, stupid, scary….that's the words she heard a lot.

Then one day only a single new trainer came in and of course Snivy knew she wouldn't be picked, so she just decided to ignore them when they did come to pick. That and the fact she had a Tepig and Oshawott that were exceptionally touchy feely with little regard for personal space or social cues, really grinding her gears. Even attacking them did little for them to learn.

Then the teen came in and Snivy didn't bother to even look in their direction. The Professor gave her blah blah blah speech that she could recite word for word if she could speak human garble, and then heard the excited footsteps come to the table where the three of them sat. Just by scent and footstep cadence alone she could tell that this kid would choose Tepig.

"Thats one!", the voice, a male, declared.

Snivy sighed in frustrated sadness until she heard the professor ask, "Snivy?", Snivy immediately whipped her head around and looked to see a young teen dressed in purple, pointing his finger excitedly at her! "Are you-?"

"YES!", he interrupted her while pointing her closer.

Just then Tepig rubbed his face against his finger before jumping on it all lovey dovey. Snivy deflated at this, knowing that the trainer would just choose him. Then he did something that Snivy never expected.

He pushed the Tepig out of the way while stating, "Outta the way you! I don't want you.", he then picked up Snivy under her short arms, lifting her into the air while saying, "I want this one."

Snivy was enamored at what just happened! She honestly couldn't believe it! Was she having one of those lucid dreams? If so then she hoped no one would wake her! The teen then held her close to his chest where she heard his living heartbeat and knew this was reality. This was real! She was being chosen…..for real! HER!

The young teen smiled as the pokemon hugged him back and said to her, "You and I are going to be the best of friends. And together we will beat the league!"

But Snivy had already decided to make this kid her full friend, and she intended to help him get to this 'league' by any means! And so…..she did.

---

Serperior blinked several times, coming out of her flashback, and looked at Gar in understanding. She wouldn't fail him at all costs! Or at least put in her full power, no holding back! Houndoom was going down one way or the other! She slithered onto the field and waited there for Houndoom to finally end his obliteration of affection, as gross as she found it. And eventually Izuku did manage to get Houndoom back onto the field and into the battle! Then without needing the okay from Rotom, they both attack, calling out their commands in unison.

"Houndoom, Flamethrower!", Izuku called out.

"Serperior, Dig!", Gar called out.

Houndoom let loose a column of fire but missed entirely as Serperior vanished underground. Houndoom looked around panicked, trying to figure out where the pokemon would pop out from. Izuku told him to keep calm and react at the first change. Houndoom did as he was told and evidently observed the area for any disturbance. However it was all in vain as Serperior surprised him with her lightning fast speed, knocking into his side and causing the pokemon to be sent flying away!

Izuku was shocked by just how stealthy and fast Serperior was! He would've thought that Houndoom could've detected her with his senses, but no. He was taken by surprise regardless of Houndoom's canine senses! He looked at Gar and saw him smile in his direction, which sent a cold chill down Izuku's spine! When he said he wouldn't hold back for real, he was serious! But he couldn't give up! He recindled his determination and gave his next command to Houndoom.

"Houndoom, use Iron Tail!", Izuku shouts as the hell hound's tail turns into a hard organic iron and charges at the snake.

"Serperior, use Leaf Storm!", Gar shouts as the snake conjures up a whirlwind of razor sharp leaves that tunnel towards Houndoom, and hit it long before he could get remotely close.

Izuku's mouth drops open as he watches his pokemon get stopped and over taken yet again! Gar really was serious now! If Izuku wasn't careful in this fight then Gar may end up sweeping him with just one pokemon. He had to think of a strategy, but what could he do!? He thought for a moment as Houndoom rose from the ground and managed to scrape by with a general idea of what he could try.

He then commanded, "Houndoom, use Dark Pulse!"

Houndoom released a beam of darkness from his mouth directly at Serperior, who just stood there with disinterested confidence.

"Dodge.", Gar told the pokemon, who easily moved out of the attack like it was going in slow motion.

The attack hit the ground where the pokemon was and created a black cloud in its wake.

Seeing his opening, Izuku called doubt, "Charge into the smoke!"

"Oh no you don't! Follow it!", Gar commanded as both pokemon dashed into the cover of the cloud.

Houndoom made it into the cloud a bit before Serperior could follow. Taking his cover to full use, he caught his breath and relaxed for a moment. However he tensed back up at the sound of hissing and a long body slinking in the broken ground. The hellhound jumped to his toes and looked around, but was unable to see anything. Houndoom switched to his infrared vision and servaded the area while listening closely. Every time he heard something that resembled a hiss, he'd jump in that direction with a snarl, only to jst catch sight of a small heat signature.

Then he finally saw her, standing only a few feet away in all her snobbish glory. Staring him down, waiting for an opportunity, but Houndoom wouldn't let that happen. He started her abc and growled swiftly as he heard her reply in a hiss and the crunching sound of her coils tightening like dead leaves.

"Flamethrower!"He heard Izuku call out, and the pokemon wasted no time in releasing the flames that dissipated the smoke and revealed the upturned nose of Serperior.

"Constrict!", Serperior heard Gar call out, as she smiled wickedly and curved around the fire attack and slithered around the outside of it as cover.

She then jumped at the dog, causing him to stop his flaming breath, and wrapped her body around the pokemon. Keeping him from taking enough of a breath to release any attack from there, along with his tail. The pokemon struggled as hard as he could, but couldn't even wiggle out of the snake's powerful grip! Gar expected to see a panicked expression from Izuku after witnessing his plan of attack and attack all get evaded with ease. But was instead greeted by the sight of him smiling like he knew something the other didn't.

Gar was pretty good at reading lips, and definitely saw Izuku mouth the words, "Gotcha.", then the younger green teen pointed his hand out and shouted, "Overheat!"

Gar's eyes widened in shock at this and he quickly looked over to the pokemon to catch sight of Serperior losing her grip on Houndoom's already boling body! Gar opened his mouth to give a counter command, but ended up coming up too late a Serperior completely let go of Houndoom who shot a blast of highly concentrated heat directly at the Grass type! Serperior fell back and hit the ground with her face scrunched up by the intense heat, and her HP bar falling down to the yellow in an instant! Gar was truly shocked by this reverse card move from Izuku and was almost impressed for real this time, but quickly went back to his serious self as he told Serperior to get up as 'play time' was over! Serperior smiled, despite her burnt face, and rose up to give Houndoom a death glare!

Izuku could tell that Gar was gonna do something, so he quickly commanded, "Quick Houndoom, Iron Tail!"

Houndoom whirled around and hardened his tail, preparing to mocked his opponent over the head with it! But when it landed, Serperior didn't so much as flinch! She only glared down at Houndoom with malicious intent. Houndoom almost went as pale as his horn at her expression and knew he was in trouble.

"Poison Fang.", Gar told her, as the snake quickly smacked up the tail and bit down!

Now to add insult to injury, the snake didn't pick up the smaller pokemon by his tail, instead let him howl in pain and try to pull away, only to watch him scrape up the ground in vain. Then the snake lifted the dog and slammed him onto the ground repeatedly! She spun him around her head and finally let go, letting him fly like a discus!

Houndoom hit the ground and tried to get up again, only to be quickly snagged up in Serperior's Poison fang again! This time around his body! The hellhound tried to fight against the snake's jaws, kicking and digging into her burnt face with his claws, but they only slid off like the stalks of bamboo.

"Now Serperior, Dig!", Gar quickly followed up and Serperior dug underground with Houndoom still in her mouth.

After the snake disappeared, Izuku and the crowd waited with baited breath for the pokemon to reemerge. It was an agonizing several seconds before Izuku saw the slight rumbling of the ground and Serperior finally shot out of a new hole before diving back down again, and then popping out again, and again and again! Until Serperior, flying through the air on her last accent, threw the pokemon out of her mouth and nearby Izuku!

"Houndoom!", He yelled in panic at seeing the pokemon splayed on the ground! Luckily since the pokemon was flung into his corner he was able to actually go to the pokemon. He gently placed his hands on the dog and asked, "Are you okay?", to which the pokemon raised his head and barked once.

Feeling relief washed over him for a moment, he allowed the pokemon to pick himself up while he looked at the board. The system of attack had ended up severely weakening Houndoom. In fact his HP bar was already in the lower yellow! Izuku paled at this and knew he had to have Houndoom take Serperior down! Houndoom, apart from one other pokemon, was the only one capable of taking down this Grass type. He did have another but wanted to use them as an emergency trump card, so now he had to think of a winning strategy. He could use Overheat again, that would definitely secure a victory, but there was no way that after the first time Gar would use Constrict again.

He knew he would have to think outside the box for this one. If normal moves wouldn't work, then what would? He looked around, observing the field, and saw the many new holes that Serperior had dug. And in that very moment a plan had hit him! He looked to Houndoom and told him in a hushed voice to be ready to act. Houndoom nods with a bark and hop back to the field, waiting for his new orders.

"Houndoom, give them a Dark Pulse!", Izuku shouts as Houndoom releases the dark spriling beam of darkness from his mouth!

"Overpower it with Leaf Storm.", Gar called out as Serperior dissipated the attack with a hurricane of leaves that continued to go after Houndoom!

But Izuku was prepared for this and shouted, "Flamethrower!"

Houndoom released the fire at the leafy attack and immediately upon coming into contact the storm effect dissipated as the leaves burnt away into a cloud or embers and soot. Houndoom charged forward, still blowing fire as the leaf storm continued to pile in more leaves creating a bigger and bigger blanket of darkness. Gar saw what Izuku was trying to do and told Serperior to go after the pokemon. Then in a voice only high enough for Houndoom to hear, Izuku told him to vanish.

Gar told Serperior, once she was in the cloud, to swipe it all away and prepare to use Poison Fang. She did, with her teeth out and ready, only to find nothing at all. Just burnt up leaves and soot but no Houndoom. Serperior looked around but still saw nothing….apart from the many holes littered around. Gar knew at that moment what izuku had done and quickly devised a strategy.

He told Serperior to tread carefully and sniff around the holes for the hellhound. After she pinpinted him, he told her to immediately use a Poison Fang. Serperior obliged and began to licked the surrounding air with her tongue. It was hard since the smell of the burnt leaves mixed with the smell of Houndoom's burning flesh smell. But she eventually stopped by a hole that smelled ripe with burnt dog smell.

As she looked, she saw a pair of red eyes gleaming and glaring back at her. Without a moment to spare, Houndoom burst from the hole with jaws open and ready to bite, but Serperior countered by grabbing one of the hellhound's horns in her teeth. Gar thought he had an assured victory and was about to give a command when Izuku beat him to it, and then pulled a true 210 IQ moment.

"Houndoom, wrapped around Serperior's mouth with an Iron Tail!", with the command the pokemon arched his body up and then wrapped his tail around the snake's mouth, where it hardened, keeping its locked jaw closed over his horn.

Serperior tried to shake off the pokemon, even slamming him to the ground a few times, but Iron Tail kept the pokemon locked together and Houndoom's mouth completely free. Gar immediately knew what Izuku was going to do and didn't even listen to the younger teen give the command. He just saw his mouth move and Gar shouted a counter attack, but Serperior refused. Well not really refused, rather too scared and shocked to obey or hear him! Serperior watched in fright as Houndoom's body rose up and glowed like a forged ingot and knew that this would hurt badly!

She tried her best to shake him, not to get free, she knew that was useless, but to make the pokemon lose concentration and hopefully lose control over the attack! But the hellhound didn't falter. He stayed firm and concentrated while being whipped around widely until he felt his body heat reach the point of no return. In that moment he opened his mouth, once Serperior took a break from all the thrashing, and let loose one more huge concentrated blast of heat, from point blank.

Serperior was engulfed from her head to her lower body and the blast went on for several seconds as the pokemon stood there! Once the flames died down some, the end result was a nearly tuckered out Houndoom and a Serperior that looked like a new shiny form, with most of her body completely covered in black markings. Houndoom released his tail from around her mouth and the pokemon dropped him from her mouth before also collapsing with swirls on her very black burnt face. The HP counter dropped, her pic darkened and Rotom made his announcement.

"Serperior is unable to battle. The winner of this round goes to Izuku and Houndoom."

The crowd cheered with Izuku and Houndoom once again tackled him into a spree of affectionate licking! Gar knew that Serperior, out of all his pokemon, would definitely not be able to interact with him after that kind of attack. So he decided to give her some words of encouragement and love after the battle. He took out her pokeball and returned her.

He looked at the ball and said, "Thanks for all your hard work. You did amazing. Now get some well deserved rest."

He looked at Izuku, still being licked to death by Houndoom, looked at the cheering crowds of people, he looked at the sun and smiled. Even if he was losing, it was still a great day for it, especially to see Izuku so happy. He then looked at the small pokemon sitting on his shoulder, almost completely forgetting he was there and acknowledged him after a long time.

Scratching his real face he said to it, "You ready to show this newbie what you got?", Mimikyu makes a strange noise and Gar nods with a smile. "Then go get 'em big shot."

Mimikyu brushes his face against Gar's cheek and reminisces of the time they first met.

---

Life for Mimikyu was….tough to put it lightly. From his first memory he remembered his parents clothing him in rags, bags, and leaves. They always told him how he should hide his body, but never understood why. Then one day while trying to play with some other ghost pokemon, they teased him about his ragged covered body to no end. Finally getting fed up, Mimikyu ripped off the sheet and revealed what he was hiding. If ghosts could die again, then they all would have when they saw Mimikyu. Their faces both stiffened and contorted before they all disappeared in screams of terror. Mimikyu never saw them again.

Eventually, after realising why he needs to hide his form, took a note from the rest of his kind and crafted a makeshift disguise that vaguely resembled a Pikachu. Though even with this on, no one wanted to come near him. They were all afraid or disgusted by him. Made sense, even Mimikyu started to hate the thing that looked back at him in any mirror, with or without that crude costume.

Eventually, like the rest of his kind, went into hiding and stayed that way for…..well time has no meaning to one who isn't affected by it, but it was a long time. He took refuge in the Abandoned Thrifty Mart in Ula'ula Island. A store that was meant to bring in tourists and money for the financially unstable island. However its island protector, Tapu Bulu, had other ideas about that and now the mart stays as a warning to the islanders and a home for all things creepy and crawly.

Mimikyu sat on a shelf amongst their stuffed pokemon that no doubt would have been picked out long before him if this place was operational. Mimikyu sat there all day and night, spacing out and dreaming of what acceptance and love really felt like. Every so often a young trailer would come in for the island challenge. Mimikyu never paid them any mind since the other ghosts and the Totem Mimikyu in the back were the real challenge. So he started off as they passed him by and wondered if any of them would take notice…..but they never did.

Then one day the Thrifty Mart doors opened and a new trainer stepped forth. Like all the others, Mimikyu didn't pay him any mind and let him mosey about. Though that quickly seems like the wrong option as he didnt go to the back like all the others did. Usually anyone who came here was either a challenger or a lost torioust. He then threw out one of those pokeball things and a large owl pokemon with a green leafy hood appeared. He then went on a complete ramage of K. every single ghost type in the Thrifty Mart!

Mimikyu was frightened for a while, but he never seemed to notice him. Once all the other ghost types and even Zubat were all defeated or had fled, the trainer dropped to his knees and screamed out in frustration! The owl pokemon just looked at him with an awkward sweat drop as he seemingly raged for no reason. Then another pokemon appeared by the trainer, floating near his head, in the shape of a strange orange triangle. Then the triangle began to speak to the raging trainer.

"Oh come on Gar. Buzzt. Cheer up. It's not all that bad. Buzzt.", the talking triangle tried to comfort him.

The trainer, Gar, whipped his head from the ground and yelled, "Not all bad? Not all Bad!? Of course it's all bad, Rotom! It's nothing but bad!", he stood up while waving his arms around the mart and shouted, "We've been here for several hours and haven't even found one! THIS! IS! HOPELESS!"

"Maybe..there's just none here today? Buzzt.", Rotom offered.

Gar grabbed and pulled his face in frustration as he exclaimed, "This is the only place in all of Alola where they can be found! AND THERE ISN'T EVEN ONE!"

Gar then fell to the ground and began to sob bitterly as the owl pokemon, who Mimikyu realized was a rare Decidueye, looked down at his state in disapproval.

"Oh come on Gar, chin up. It's not a total loss. Buzzt. Decidueye got plenty of exp from all this grinding. And look. Buzzt.", Rotom tried to cheer him up with words of reassurance and floated over to the shelf that Mimikyu was sitting on. Rotom then grabbed Mimikyu, not knowing he was alive and brought him over to Gar while saying, "Free plushie! Buzzt."

Gar picked up his face, propping himself on his knees and wiping his face while grabbing Mimikyu and stated, "How is this supposed to make me feel better? Plus even if this place is abandoned it's still technically…..", Gar zoned out while staring at Mimikyu, his saddened expression dropping into something else, and Mimikyu became increasingly worried and fearful.

"Technically what Gar? Buzzt.", Rotom pipes up at seeing his blank expression and loose figure just stare at the toy with concern.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!", Gar suddenly screamed!

Followed by Rotom playing a warning siren on his screen in shock and Decidueye giving off a surprised screech of his own! While Mimikyu managed to hold back its own scream and hold up the loose plushie facade.

"WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING! BUZZT!", Rotom finally found his voice chip and yelled at him.
Gar held up the 'plushie' and exclaimed back, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS!"

There was silence for several seconds as Rotom looked worried between Gar's excited expression and Mimikyu, while offering, "Buzzt. A pikachu plushie?"

Gar shook his head violently while shouting in excitement, "NO! This is what we came here for! This is what I've been after for the last several hours! A MIMIKYU!", he exclaimed while holding up the Pokémon!

Rotom looked flattened, like he realized that everything he knew before was a lie until now. The expression on his screen said it all: confusion, shock, disbelief, and a mixture of other things his hard drive couldn't process. With his mouth slightly agape to the side.

He then shook himself and put up his previous mannerisms, saying proudly, "Uhhhhhhhh, no need to thank me!"

"YES! YES! YES! FINALLY! I've been looking forever for you!", Gar cheered while bouncing up and down with the small pokémon in his arms.

At this moment, Mimikyu also looked flattened. Though it was hard to tell since it's whole face was just eyes. Feeling the same mix of emotions that Rotom felt. When he finally shook himself back to sense, he looked at Rotom and pointed to himself.

"Yes you. Buzzt.", Rotom replied with a nod.

"Oh I've been looking for you for ages! I'm so happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy!", Gar squeaked and cheered as he happily hugged the Pokémon to his chest and nuzzled it's fake head.

Mimikyu felt like…..well actually, he didn't know what to feel. The closeness, the comfort, the warmth, the excitement, lack of any fear or disgust, it was….unreal, and it was all directed at...him. All this, what did they call it again? Positivity? Yeah! Positivity was all in his name and being.

Is this what love felt like? If so….. Mimikyu wanted to feel this all the time! He was so….happy? Yes, that's it! Happy! He was so happy to be loved, to be wanted, to be…. himself. He cried tears of joy that were so powerful they caused Gar to stop his frantic excitement and look down at the small pokémon.

"Huh? I didn't know Ghost types could cry?", Gar commented as Rotom and Decidueye looked over his shoulder at the crying, dead weight Pokemon.

Then without warning Mimikyu shot his arms out and wrapped them around Gar's body while pulling himself into the older teens chest for a hug.

Gar was taken back by this, before accepting the returned affection by cooing, "Awwww! I love you too."

---

Mimikyu hops off his shoulder and shuffles his way over to the center of the field where he waits for Houndoom to finish his affection attack on Izuku. Once the younger teen gets ahold of the dog, he commands him to place himself back on the field. Houndoom does as he's told and squares off with Mimikyu. Izuku looks at the board and sees Houndoom's HP at the lower yellow, nearly at the point of red.

One hit and Houndoom would be in trouble! Houndoom was one of just two pokemon with a move that had an advantatge against Mimikyu. And knowing that Mimikyu wasn't holding back like Serperior, it would be much harder! Though he was confident of one thing, Mimikyu, being such a small pokemon, wasn't that strong in general. Even if he wasn't holding back now, he had hoped that he would be able to weaken the pokemon. But to ensure any sort of victory, he had to deal with the pokemon's ability, Disguise.

Before using Iron Tail he'd have to use another move so it would actually hit and do critical damage, and knowing that Houndoom was already tired from fighting Serperior, he'd have to play smart and not just rush in hoping to get two consecutive hits at once. So to give his pokemon some breathing room and himself some thinking space, he told Houndoom to attack with Dark Pulse. Houndoom released the spiral of darkness from his mouth at Mimikyu, which appeared to hit and caused a small explosion cloud.

When the dust settled there was a broken charred spot from the attack, but no Mimikyu in the area. Instead the pokemon was in a completely different spot a few feet away. Izuku was sure the attack hit, but there was Mimikyu, still standing there with its disguise still active. Once again he told Houndoom to attack, and yet again what looked like a direct hit resulted in an unharmed Mimikyu. Izuku looked at the board and saw that Mimikyu really wasn't injured at all! Its HP bar was still full, and Izuku was baffled to know what exactly Mimikyu was doing to prevent damage.

He then told Houndoom to attack with Flamethrower and when the hellhound spewed out the fire, Izuku was gifted with the sight of Mimikyu's speed! Effortlessly dodging the attack like it was moving in slow motion! Izuku knew from first hand experience that Mimikyu was fast, but never this fast! It was like looking at a small blurr for a few seconds! He saw Gar smile and knew that trouble was emanating!

"Shadow Caw.", Gar said in a smile and calm voice.

Mimikyu's eyes went wild with golden glitter as its body lurched forward and sped off towards Houndoom with lightning fast speed! One clawed hand protruded from him under its rag and threatened to lash out at Houndoom! Houndoom was almost paralyzed with fear at the monstrous speed until he heard the command to block it! Houndoom managed to move his head just enough so the attack would hit his horn instead of his body! It worked and the attack only sliced one of the hellhounds horns, causing three gashes to form in the strong bone.

Houndoom almost untensed with relief at being able to block the attack but soon tensed back up when he caught sight of Mimikyu glaring insanely over his shoulder at him, looking ready to strike again! When Mimikyu looked in Izuku's direction, the young teen tensed up in panic and nearly felt like running away at the small pokémons expression! Despite his normally cute and approachable nature, Mimikyu was still a terrifying Ghost type Pokemon through and through!

Gar made a humph sound in his throat as he said to Izuku, "That was quite the move you and Houndoom pulled there. One second off and you'd have to bring out a new pokémon. Now I'm sure you both are confused and terrified at seeing Mimikyu battle.", Honestly, Izuku was one of those things. "And I can't blame you, but one thing in any pokémon battle or rather any fight, is that you should never estimate an opponent by the size of their body. Mimikyu might be small, but he's able to use that in order to move so fast."

Izuku's mentally slapped himself for making such a rookie mistake! Gar obviously favored Mimikyu in many ways. Of course he'd train that Pokémon to the outermost efficiency in battle! Mimikyu, like any of Gar's Pokemon, was a force to be reckoned with at full power, and it looked like he was only getting warmed up!

"Shadow Claw again.", Gar called out in a calm tone.

"Block with Iron Tail!", Izuku shouted at his counter.

Both pokémon came blow for blow as claws and an iron hard tail clanged off one another in a display of sparks. Both pokémon glared at one another with snarls and glimmering eyes.

"Wood Hammer, multiple subsections.", Gar called out again.

"Keep using Iron Tail!", Izuku immediately called out.

The two pokémon broke out into an all out sparring section with Houndoom just barely able to keep up with Mimikyu's quick and precise movements, even while backwards! Then Houndoom heard Izuku see a windmill, and knew what to do. The hellhound spun his tail like a propeller and hit Mimikyu's tail in rapid succession.

Even though Mimikyu was quick, even it could hold up against the rapid and yet erratic movement of the hellhound's tail. Until eventually he faltered and ended up taking a deviating Iron Tail to the face…..his fake face. The head on Mimikyu dropped and the disguise became obsolete, leaving Mimikyu wide open to any attacks. Unfortunately this little act caused Mimikyu to go absolutely ballistic with rage? The little Pokemon dry heaves like it was exhausted before making a strange crooning sound that led into a full on ear piercing screaming that sounded like it exited from the guts of Hell!

Gar, Izuku, Houndoom, and even the patrons in the very front row covered their ears at the intense painful sound! Mimikyu had foam emerging from the underside of it's disguise, showing him throthing at the mouth with anger! Both his clawed hands emerged and his eyes looked more like stars waiting to fall right on top of the opposing Pokemon! Without any word of command from either Trainer, the two pokémon engaged one another in combate, using their last moves.

The two pokémon continued to clang their attack against one another until Mimikyu preformed a fake out, pretending to move to one side only to move the exact opposite! This gave the small pokémon an opportunity to give a decisive strike in its weak opening!

Houndoom was knocked clean into his ribs and sent flying back for several feet before quickly getting back up! Luckily the attack hit his rib bone armor, so the damage was minimalized. Still, it left Houndoom's HP in the red!

Seizing the opportunity, Gar quickly shouted, "Wood Hammer! One last time!"

Mimikyu dashed forward with his tail at the ready to club Houndoom into unconsciousness! Izuku nearly froze up at everything going down, but in his panic a last ditch plan sprouted in his head and he quickly gave Houndoom new commands.

"Knock Mimikyu's attack up with your horns!", Izuku shouted out.

Houndoom stood there and waited for the small pokémon to get close enough. When he could see the insane glint in its eyes, it jumped into the air and went to slam it's wooden tail on Houndoom's head! The wrong spot. Using the horn that had been gashed, he knocked the attack away and caused the small and light Pokemon to cascade into the air with no control!

Unfortunately the end result was that same horn breaking off at gash marks and a chunk of it flying off in a different direction! Izuku didn't have time to worry about this and while Mimikyu was still helpless in the air, he gave Houndoom a new command.

"Quickly Houndoom, Overheat!", Izuku exclaimed as Houndoom quickly reached the point of no return temperatures.

The Pokémon opened his mouth and shot another ball of concentrated heat right at Mimikyu! The small pokémon was engulfed in the air, but quickly fell right back to its….feet(?). The attack, although powerful, was not very effective, and Izuku thought his plane, like the fire attack, had gone up in flames. Then the small pokémon cried out in pain as embers and red marks danced around it's small body and it's HP bar fell down slightly.

"Mimikyu has been subjected to Burn. Buzzt.", Rotom announced.

Izuku snapped his fingers and with a smile stated, "Alright! That's what I needed!"

"So that was his plan, eh? Get a status ailment on Mimikyu to knock him down bit by bit. Not bad, he got real lucky, but not bad.", Gar commented to himself.

Mimikyu then looked back at Gar with tears pricking his eyes and saw the older teen give him a confident smile. Mimikyu huffed a few times before looking back at Houndoom with relight determination and drive! Gar kept up the confident and assured smile as he said, "But it'll take a lot more than that to bring Mimikyu down."

He then jerked his hand out and shouted, "Now Mimikyu, use Play Rough!"

Mimikyu dashed forward with an excited expression that melded with his insane one while Houndoom attempted to dodge. Though he faltered and only managed to jump back a few times as Mimikyu closed in! Just before closing the small gap, Mimikyu's burns began to act up and the small pokémon hesitated for a moment, but a moment long enough for Izuku to counter.

"Iron Tail!", He shouted as Houndoom whipped his body around and slammed his glowing hard tail into the small pokémons body!

Mimikyu was flung back by the deviating attack and skidded along the ground before stopping at Gar's feet! The hit from Iron Tail was massive, being on the weaker side for defense, Mimikyu's HP dropped to yellow immediately pulse from the Burn ailment. Izuku pumped a fist into the air at the success, but Gar only glared downwards. Not at Mimikyu, but for being so hastey. It's true what they say; the fight ain't over till the enemy is down. Houndoom is weak, but not out. Gar was going to finish this, one way or the next!

He looked at Mimikyu, who was picking himself up and said to the Pokemon, "You got this little buddy."

Mimikyu gave a shocked look to Gar, before turning into a happy yet determined one. He finally stood up at Gar's feet and screeched into the air! The burn marks on Mimikyu glowed and then vanished into thin air, with this the burn status on the jumbo board vanished and Rotom made another announcement.

"Mimikyu has cured itself it's Burn status. Buzzt."

Izuku and Houndoom's face both went pale at this news. So much effort to get that one status affliction to nearly getting K. , and it was all gone in a moment by nothing but sheer will power and friendship. Gar smiled at Izuku, and Izuku knew he was in for it now!

"Mimikyu, use Seal of the Damned!", Gar called.

Mimikyu's body began to produce a strange aura that spread across the whole field like a wave. His fake broken head swayed back and forth in a rhythmic and calming manner that just seemed…. unsettling. Small hisses and groans escaped it's mouth like some kind of chant, and Izuku felt cold and stiff. Like his body had been frozen in place, he could even see his own breath.

Mimikyu's little black eyes turned white and the strange aura wafting off him suddenly dispersed like an explosion and His arms pierce out from under his rag, and then away from him! The arms flew through the air like wicked spirits, producing a scream-like sound as they whistled through the air! Then several dozen more flew out from under his rag and zipped around in the air, sounding a very frightened Houndoom.

Then without warning the arms sunk into the ground and vanished with the strange and unsettling aura. Everything was dead quiet and still for several seconds. Even Izuku began to calm down thinking the move failed or it was just for show. Boy was he wrong when the arms crust from the ground, surrounding and then wrapping up Houndoom!

Once they caught the hellhound they all dragged him into the ground where he was buried up to his neck on the concrete. Once he was securely secured in the ground, the ghostly arms of Mimikyu began to fly around him in a distracting manner, drawing all of the Pokémons attention as he pitifully attempted to snap at them.

Izuku was really nervous now as even when he tried to call out to Houndoom, the Pokémon appeared to be unable to hear him due to the distracting arms. He looked over at Gar and nearly turned pale as he saw the older team smiling confidently at him!

"Well Mimikyu I think it's time we wrap this up! Finish him off with another Play Rough!", Gar shouted excitedly.

Mimikyu dashed over to the distracted Houndoom and both pokémon disappeared into a cartoonist style cloud with attack effects all over the place! Izuku tried to call out a command to the dog, but the sound effects of the attack kept Houndoom from responding. When the dust settled, Izuku was expecting to see a K. Houndoom laying in the ground, but instead he saw Houndoom still very much conscious. Izuku whipped his head to the board and saw that Houndoom managed to just hang in there and had 1 HP left! If Izuku was to pull a last minute win, this would be it.

"I'm impressed! Mimikyu went all out and Houndoom is still fighting….but not for much longer. Okay Mimikyu, one last Wood Hammer!", Gar called out as Mimikyu jumped into the air and prepared to send down his wooden tail on the Pokémons head!

Izuku almost froze up at his pokémons emanating defeat until he noticed something. Houndoom was no longer distracted by the ghostly hands of Mimikyu! If he was gonna get another hit in, now would be it!

So with all his courage he could, he yelled out, "Houndoom, use Dark Pulse!"

Houndoom was too weak to open his mouth and expel the attack, so instead he charged the darkness through every fiber of his being and then released it outwards in a….Pulse of pure darkness that was completely unavoidable for his airborne opponent! The two attacks collided and sent off an explosion that kept the victor from being seen. From the jumbo board the two trainers heard a defeated beep but didn't look as they kept their eyes pinned on the cloud!

When it finally subsided, Houndoom's head was laying in the concrete with swirls in his eyes and his tongue sticking out with Mimikyu just barely standing up.

Izuku dropped his head in defeat and Gar was about to celebrate his victory when Mimikyu suddenly screamed and fainted as well. Both teens were confused by this, and as both their eyes drifted to the jumbo board they were met with the sight of two empty HP bars. Both their jaws dropped along with a near collie rive gasp for the audience! This is when Rotom took the stage and made his announcement.

"Both Mimikyu and Houndoom are unable to battle. Buzzt. Which makes this a Double K.O!"

As the crowd cheered and excitedly numbered to one another about this outcome, both trainers returned their Pokemon. Since Houndoom was already half buried, Izuku decided to just return him and give his words of thanks and encouragement later. Gar on the other hand was able to walk into the field and pick up the fainted Pokemon into his arms.

For this action, Mimikyu began to shudder with sadness. He was told to go all out and essentially win with a sweep of the whole opposing team, and he's done that before! But not this time….this time he failed. He was ashamed and sad but also fearful of the repremaind. He knew Gar hadn't been doing well today, and no doubt he'd take it out on his failure. He would probably shun, shame, and abandon him….just like everyone else has before. He would be back at square one, and that thought terrified him to his core.

But then those thoughts were burnt away with the words Gar spoke to him in a voice that sounded like a sweet song, "Mimikyu. I am so very very very proud of you!"

This brought the small pokémon out of his self deprecating mind, forcing him to open his eyes, and listen to Gar speak.

"You truly did go above and beyond today, just like every day. I told you not to hold back and you did just that. Even if you lost today, that's okay. The main thing in my mind is that you gave it your all, and you did. We just kept getting tricked. I hope you feel proud of yourself, cause I sure do.", Gar finished up his speech to the deadweight Pokemon flopped over limp in his hands.

Mimikyu could hold it back any longer. The feelings welling up inside of him were just too much to handle. Before he knew it they all spilled out and Mimikyu began to sob uncontrollably from the older teen! He so wanted to hug him, but in his half dead state he couldn't, so he let his arms flop down as he balled even harder. Up to the point a torrent was streaming out of both his eyes.

Gar held the small pokémon up to his chest and said, "Awwwwww. It's okay Mimikyu. You didn't think I'd just abandon you, did you? That's just silly, I'd never do that. You're my little pogchamp and always will be."

Mimikyu only cried harder at this, getting Gar soaking wet at this point. So he used his discarded sweat shirt to wrap up Mimikyu and then tire it around his waist with Mimikyu hanging in the front like a baby Kangaskhan in its mother's pouch. Gar dusted off his hands, shook off the tears, and then looked over to Izuku, who was looking back at him with a challenging expression. Gar smiled at this, happy to see Izuku still so full of fight in him….at least for now.

He took up his mic once more and said into it, "Well Izuku...you got me down to my last one. I don't know how, but you did. Even when my Pokemon amped it up you still somehow pulled through and out thought me and my Pokémon in any given moment. You may be a rookie, but you certainly got the makings of a Gym Leader level trainer.", Izuku smiled at the compliment and proudly held his next Pokéball tight, confident he would win!

But then Gar gave him a sinister looking smile that held no teeth, only lip. The feeling this smile gave off made Izuku shudder under his gum uniform. Gar gave a slight chuckle in his throat as he spoke into the mic and told him, "But that's gonna change here. Now you're at the final stage of the boss, the hardest one. The one that makes you start over….but not in this case.", Gar then reached to his belt and pulled off a purple pokéball with a yellow M printed on it. "Just remember what I said before.", He said while pushing the button, making it expand to full size. "I would play fair, not be fair.", He then threw the Pokéball into the air and called out, "Go Mewtwo!"

---

Chapter 50 is coming soon…. mostly cause this chapter is so long as is. Stay Tuned for more Pokemon Plus Ultra.

Fun Fact: Mimikyu and Rotom do not get along at all! Mimikyu considers Rotom to be a pseudo ghost. A fake. A pretender.

Fun Fact: Gar does have a last name, but doesn't like to be referred to because it's silly sounding and he used to get bullied for it.