Chapter 110; Rise of a coordinator
"Combusken! Double kick!"
Combusken landed double kick on Raichu. The attack managed to shove the seasoned electric type back.
"Good. Aron your turn! Headbutt!"
The attack landed right at the center of Raichu's stomach. Raichu gasped at the extreme force applied due to aron's massive weight.
"Great! Tropius! Magical leaf!"
The magical leaves came down on Raichu like a razor ninja stars shaped like leaves. Raichu deflected as many as it could before the attack finding its mark due to its nature of always landing.
"Nicely done you two. Everyone stand back. Raichu ready?!"
"Rai rai!"
Sonic charged the homing attack and launched away, heading for Raichu.
Unlike back on Dewford island, Raichu used iron tail to deflect the attack. Spinning perfectly as always, the attack acted like a baseball bat, sending Sonic's ball form backwards into a tree, denting it deeply.
Although it wasn't their intention, Sonic smiled at their work. Every day they were getting stronger and stronger.
Pity there was no gym here, even if it would be an incorrect challenge order.
As his pokemon took a break, Sonic looked around, wondering when May would come.
Having talked in greater detail over the phone about the upcoming contest, Sonic managed to get a better understanding of May's progress in her training to master contest battles.
After the Slateport contest, Ash finally agreed to spar with her, their primary focus being her Beautifly as her other pokemon needed more go grow more before taking place in contests.
Ash had been a great assistance to May both as a sparring partner and as an idea generator.
May had insisted that she shows her strategy up close instead of explaining over the phone, which had Sonic intrigued.
"What crazy idea did you come up for her now you crazy son of a gun?" Sonic wondered with a smile.
As he waited for May to arrive, Sonic wondered how things would be between them. The adventure with Jirachi had been a rollercoaster and had complicated things to an almost extreme level.
"Navigating this mess won't be easy. I wonder what things are like right now in their gang after the mess I pulled them in during the millennium comet week".
If he had a chance he would definitely bring the subject up. Although chances were he hadn't blundered his chance at redemption yet, it wasn't for certain. But Sonic had refused to overthink this, distracting himself with training instead.
Finally May arrived.
"Hey. Sorry I'm late".
"Don't worry about it. We weren't doing anything to begin with".
The duo exchanged a handshake.
"It's good to see you" Sonic said.
"You did find your way after all".
"You ever doubted I would?" Sonic asked jokingly.
The two shared a small laugh before Sonic brought up training.
"So. What's your and Beautifly's plan for tomorrow?"
"Following Slateport city we continued training on dodging attacks as you instructed us. Pikachu specifically was a big help. It's almost as speedy as your Raichu, although I need to admit it's more agile".
"That is to be expected. Raichu is bigger in size, which makes slightly less agile compared to a pokemon like Pikachu with a smaller stature. But what progress did you two make?"
"After a while we began experimenting more with Beautifly's moves. Its current moveset is Silver wind, gust, tackle and string shot. At first sight it seems like an underwhelming moveset. But Ash had a great idea the other day of using Silver wind and gust to redirect attacks".
Sonic's eyes widened in realization of what May was inferring.
"Wait… for physical attacks I get it, they get caught up in the move and fail the attack. But for projectiles… you mean get the projectiles caught in the moves and redirect them?!"
"Yes".
Sonic grabbed the sides of his head in surprise and awe.
"You crazy son of a gun. You never seize to amaze me" he said referring to Ash.
He then turned to May again.
"Alright then. Call out Beautifly and show me what you two got".
May excitedly took out the pokeball.
"Alright Beautifly! I choose you!"
Beautifly emerged.
"Ash is rubbing off on you isn't he?" Sonic joked.
May immediately got to work, giving Sonic a showcase of Beautifly's moves. Just as Sonic imagined, both Silver wind and gust were whirlwind based moves.
To test their effectiveness, Sonic had combusken attempt double kick. The attacks were not strong enough to deter it - after all it like all of Sonic's Pokemon, had been trained extensively to fight off distractions or fight through obstacles – but it did cause the attack trajectory to alter a few centimeters which, was rather impressive for a relatively untrained pokemon in terms of power.
"There is always room for improvement though. And improvement is what we should strive for".
With all those facts in mind, Sonic decided their training session was to be focused on two things. One, they were to train to increase the power of Silver wind and gust. That way if an opposing pokemon was to try a physical attack on Beautifly, the attack could either be dodged or redirected and May's points would be safe.
The second objective of their training would be inspired by Ash's mindset of turning a pinch into an opportunity.
"We will have Beautifly train to not just redirect moves but deflect them altogether and return them to sender".
"That sounds hard" May commented.
"That's because it is. Now you've probably seen Ash's Pikachu attempting to use iron tail to redirect projectiles. The core difference between his case and yours is that, Beautifly has to use a wind move. Wind is very unpredictable and hard to control, almost impossible. Iron tail, with enough training and very sharp reflexes, has a far easier time deflecting projectiles. You and Beautifly will need to learn to redirect them to the opposing direction which we will dub deflecting".
To make the training easier, the two focused on the first objective first, training Beautifly to increase its power so that it would get acclimated to the training and make the 2nd part slightly easier.
The training of course included sparring with all of Sonic's pokemon except Raichu as it was crystal clear since last time that pitting it against an inexperienced pokemon like Beautifly was a bad idea.
Combusken was the first to spar. Its double kick and peck were redirected although it took a few tries.
Along the way Sonic asked May if the effectiveness of an attack based on types affected how much points one lost in a contest. May explained that type advantage mattered not as long as the competing pokemon wasn't knocked out.
After training with a speedy pokemon like combusken, it was a slow but heavy one's turn like aron. Its headbutt was slow and gave Beautifly a few seconds to judge what the best course of actions would be.
In the end however it was obvious that not only due to the less effectiveness of the moves on a steel and rock type but also the extreme weight of aron, Beautifly should not try to redirect the attack of such a pokemon but instead dodge it altogether.
Although May was disheartened by the little progress they were making, Sonic comforted her, reminding her that her opponents wouldn't he as hard to combat as he was. The difference in the nature of his training with that of her future opponents was probably the biggest deal in her road to success. So training with him would give her an edge.
Lastly, Sonic went with his tropius, not only to teach May that to combat a bigger opponent, Beautifly would have to be quicker but also because of magical leaf.
Once May tried to have magical lead deflected with silver wind, it failed miserably.
At first the coordinator-to-be was saddened, thinking she was suddenly taking steps back, but once again, Sonic comforted her, explaining it was a necessary part of her training.
"Magical leaf would never have been deflected. Its nature makes it impossible. And it's in cases like this that you need to know, not how to escape unscathed, but to make sure that you can get the best out of the situation. The courses of action will vary greatly and the best one to choose will be a result of your experience, that is not something I can teach you".
To prove his point, Sonic had Tropius fire magical leaf on Raichu.
Raichu delfected as many as it could with iron tail but eventually was struck.
Sonic then pointed at Raichu's position, showing May a crucial detail.
With each leaf deflected, Raichu was taking a little step forward, having trained to deflect with iron tail as a second nature, making it as natural as walking.
Therefore after the magical leaf had ended, Raichu was in a much better position to launch an attack than it would have been if it had simply braced itself.
May was amazed by the display and understood that she would need to do a lot of studying on pokemon moves. She would need to know the nature of all moves she could learn about, for more reasons than the one she was currently training against.
With that piece of info now in mind, Sonic had Tropius launch another Magical leaf.
This time May chose to show a bit of Ash in terms of reaction; creating a small ball with string shot, she tackled the ball towards the magical leaf, knocking several leaves away while trying to get as close to Tropius as possible.
The magical leaves eventually overpowered the string shot and landed on Beautifly but the bug and flying type was now a lot closer. The next use of gust actually caused Tropius to let out a cry leaving Sonic impressed.
"You actually damaged Tropius. Nice going. I'm sure you will dominate this time".
"Thanks. Are you going to be there?"
Sonic shrugged.
"If the others are ok with it, of course".
"I'll talk them into it. Tomorrow morning. Look out for my text! Thank you for the training!" she said as she left to meet her friends.
Sonic watched her leave, proud of how far she had come up to this point.
As he and his pokemon decided to take it easy for the rest of the day, he allowed them to play with each other and be innocent as he introspected a little bit.
Sonic allowed his mind to return to Forina. To the moment May sacrificed her wish to save his life.
She owed him nothing. In fact she would have been justified to leave him dead after all the danger he had out them in and the lies he had said.
And yet she had saved him. Without any hesitation. Without even considering what she could do with that wish.
"Knuckles would probably say something along the lines of 'if your wish is something you can grant yourself with your actions, what would its worth be if it was gifted to you?" Sonic thought imagining it spoken with Knuckles' voice.
As he stared to the sky, trying to relax, he understood this was the lesson from that adventure.
As complicated as the situation with Ash was, the fact that May was certain she would convince him to allow Sonic to watch the contest with them gave him hope.
He had not blundered anything beyond fixing yet. And it was up to him to earn that redemption.
Eventually nighttime came. After a talk with his parents after a very long time -they hadn't actually talked since his departure from Green hills at his own insistence as he sought to walk that path alone at first – Sonic told them about his close encounter with death and assured them he was going to be ok before expressing his gratitude for their support and promising to keep in touch more. Following the talk, he received a message from May.
The message contained the address of the contest Hall, along with the time of the contest and a phrase.
"You better be there" the phrase read along with a smile emoji.
Sonic smiled, typing that he would be.
The night was uneventful and quiet with his pokemon getting a well deserved rest.
Sonic took a while before falling asleep.
He was thinking about a matter he had not addressed yet.
His powers.
Lately he had not been drained because of their use.
But that made it all the more confusing.
Sonic recalled all the times he had used his powers since that weird phenomenon occurred but couldn't find a reason that explained all of them.
The original reason, that his powers were draining him when misused were explained only some of the times. And also, if one took into consideration his ill intent of planning to use his wish to get Ash's forgiveness which equalled misuse of his powers as it was for a wrong cause, the reason didn't hold up. He wasn't being drained of his energy then.
"What the heck is the common factor in all those cases?" he wondered.
The blue hedgehog never even realized he had fallen asleep.
But the time he woke up, he saw he only had 3 minutes to get to the contest Hall.
"Thankfully I'm Sonic the hedgehog" he said as he quickly recalled his pokemon, gathered his stuff and raced away.
30 seconds later he had arrived, quickly buying a ticket and going to the stands.
Before he could decide where to seat, he saw Brock waving at him, calling him over.
Sonic quickly headed to the gang, finding they even had a seat reserved for him.
"Hey" Sonic greeted.
Brock and Max greeted as normally as they could. Ash's hi felt forced and he struggled to meet Sonic's eyes.
Sonic could tell Ash's harsh words in Forina were eating him alive.
He made a mental note to address it first chance he got.
As the contest announcers welcomed the viewers to the Hall, Sonic remembered another matter he wanted to address.
"How are you holding up kid?" he asked Max, who was sitting next to him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean are you ok? You know, after Forina".
Max was saddened.
"Yes. I'm glad we all came out unscathed. But I miss Jirachi… I miss it badly".
His eyes looked like they would tear up.
Sonic put his hand on Max's shoulder.
"I did tell you then about my friend Wave right?"
"Yes. But it's not the same. I will never see Jirachi again, you and Wave reunited".
"Indeed we did. But when she was leaving we didn't know that. Back then it was the last time we would ever see each other. And we cried, my friends and I. We cried a lot. Both before and after she left. We didn't have cell phones then so we couldn't keep in touch. But we assured each other that despite her departure we would always be friends".
His grip on Max's shoulder strengthened for a moment, to show he understood.
"You and Jirachi will always be friends. And you can be sure Jirachi is also saddened. In 1000 years it will wake up and for it, it will only have been a moment. It will still remember you with love and always consider you a friend until the end of time. Which if you think about it is an extremely big deal".
"How so?"
"We're talking about a pokemon that sleeps for a millennium, wakes up for 7 days to absorbs the comet's power then returns to hibernation. Living in a faraway land away from humans. What are the odds it would meet anyone, let alone become their friend?"
Max understood and smiled brightly.
"You're right. I am very lucky to have had the chance to meet Jirachi".
"Shhh. Quiet. The contest is starting" Ash berated them.
"Ok sorry dad" Sonic teased him.
The contest began like the Slateport city one; With the first round being the coordinators showing off their skills with their pokemon and the top 4 advancing in the finals.
After a long and grueling showcase, the top 4 were determined; May, a girl named Grace, a boy named Drew who seemed to be a little too competitive with May and, to Sonic's surprise and annoyance, Jessie of team rocket, masquerading as a performer named Jessica.
"She can't even get a proper alias" Sonic thought in disappointment.
Looking around for her comrades, he noticed Meowth, hiding in a corner. The talking pokemon was holding a remote control.
"Huh, so it's not only capable of talking but also able to operate complex devices. Tails would give his soul to study this Meowth" Sonic thought.
As Jessie performed with a pokemon identified as Dustox which, according to Sonic's pokedex was the final form of the other evolution line Beautifly's first form, wurmple, could take, it became incredibly obvious the two were cheating; Dustox's moves released rainbow trails, something Sonic knew was impossible to any pokemon that wasn't Ho-oh.
"That remote is obviously connected. Question is do I expose them?"
It wasn't a matter of whether he could or not. They were jokes, it would be a walk in the park. But at the same time they were not harming anyone, merely cheating to win a contest. For all Sonic knew, this was a new path for them, following their devastating encounter at the millennium festival.
"But they're cheating… alright, if this idiot gets into the top 4 and wins, I will rain on her parade before she can ruin the finals as well".
To Sonic'a dismay, not only did Jessie make the top 4, she also had the highest score out of all the coordinators. Sonic smirked, knowing he was going to end her whole career in that moment if she managed to beat her top 4 opponent.
May also qualified for the top 4 but barely scraped by, getting the lowest score of all the 4 semifinalists.
Sonic wished he could have helped May with this part of her training but he had no idea how. This part would have to be Ash's job as it involved fantasy and strategy.
But now that May had qualified to the 2nd round for which their training had actually been aiming, he was confident in the young coordinator's abilities.
The matchups were determined and May was pitted against Jessie. That gave Sonic even more reason to expose the three idiots' cheating.
"I won't let May's hard work go to waste" he thought determined, waiting for the opportune moment to make his move.
To his surprise, he didn't need to. Dustox couldn't hold a candle to the training Beautifly had undergone. The rainbow cheating allowed Jessie to keep up with May, but her training in dodging and redirecting/deflecting attacks allowed her to remain in the lead regardless.
And of course as is the case for all cheaters, karma was about to hit them.
After a particularly strong tackle which Sonic was even impressed by, wondering if it was a result of May's training with his aron, Dustox plummeted to the ground. When it got back up, Jessie demanded a rainbow enhanced psybeam again which failed.
"The machine broke. Well, guess my work here's done. And I didn't even do anything" Sonic thought with a smile.
After a small tantrum by Jessie, obviously directed at Meowth unbeknownst to everyone else, Beautifly delivered another devastating tackle at Dustox, causing it to faint and crash into Jessie, disqualifying her as May advanced to the finals.
And for the cherry on top, when Dustox was lifted off of Jessie, the machine was discovered prompting an outrage from the crowd and the judges as well as a outburst of laughter from Sonic.
Determined to get her revenge, Jessie smoke bombed the Hall with a yellow pokeball smoke bomb and proceed to try and make their speech about how they will steal all the pokemon there, although the laughing Sonic made it hard for them.
"Ash, could you do the honors? I can't take this seriously" he said as he wiped a tear from his eye, still holding his stomach in laughter.
"With pleasure! Pikachu! Thunderbolt!"
The electric mouse sent the 3 idiots flying straight through the contest Hall's roof, as they rightly deserved.
Following the mishap, and after one of the judges apologized to the crowd for it, the contest continued with the second match of Grace vs Drew.
As the match went underway, Sonic asked Brock what was the deal between May and this Drew. Ash replied for Brock, explaining how Drew had declared himself May's rival after the Slateport contest following a quite competition-driven first encounter.
The match between Grace and Drew was kinda fun to watch, especially because Drew only talked a big game. His roselia had many great moves, including magical leaf but, just like Sonic had explained to May, the best choice when faced with such a move, was to take the hit while placing yourself in a better state to fight back.
Grace had done just that, having her medicham use ice punch from a better angle although it had been avoided by roselia. The long term advantage was was worth it as roselia tried to initiate a petal dance while twirling which medicham deflected back, damaging roselia.
Drew attempted one last attack but a clever combination of using ice created by ice punch to seal roselia in an ice cage and high jump kick knocked roselia and Drew out of the match.
After a small break before the final, during which May met up with them and admitted she was nervous as she didn't want to mess up now, receiving encouragement from both her mentors, the final match began.
Upon the beginning of the match, May went on the offensive, trying to tackle Medicham. Clever use of meditate allowed Medicham to dodge the attack and set itself up for an ice punch.
May's training under Sonic kicked in in the moment, using gust to batter Medicham away successfully. It was indeed a lot easier when your opponent wasn't a four time resistant tank that was also being hypertrained.
Again clever use of confusion on itself allowed Medicham to lessen the impact and therefore the points lost.
The match went back and forth for quite a while with both coordinators landing major hits on the their opponent as well as performing near misses.
In the end May secured her victory by redirecting a high jump kick with silver wind, causing the psychic and fighting type to crash land, costing Grace major points and giving Beautifly the opening to ensnare it in string shots, ending the match.
Following May's victory and awarding of the Fallarbor contest ribbon the equivalent to gym badges for coordinators, she and Ash's gang were about to bid Sonic goodbye for now, until they were approached by Drew.
"Beginner's luck. Had we been pitted against each other things would have been way different".
"It wasn't luck" May countered with pride "I won fair and square. I trained a lot for this with the help of my friends".
Drew sized up Ash's gang until his eyes found Sonic and widened.
"Training with the hero of Kanto. Now it all makes sense. But then again, this just proves my superiority. Without his help, you wouldn't stand a chance".
"Buddy, she won because she worked for it. Maybe you will win the next one if you stop acting like a drama queen and put in some work instead of catering to your already massive ego" Sonic put Drew in his place right away.
Drew tried to find a good reply but failed and left in defeat, but not before promising May she had not seen the last of him.
"Thanks. There was no need for that though, I can handle him just fine".
"I don't doubt that but why waste time on him right?"
"Well I can't disagree" May smiled as she looked at the Fallarbor ribbon in pride.
After that Sonic bid farewell to the group and left to plan on his trip back to the cable car of mt chimney. Enough time had been spent.
He of course didn't leave without Ash reminding him of the league that awaited them both and suggesting Sonic makes sure he quickly secures the remaining badges, starting with the Lavaridge gym one, the heat badge.
But of course, as is always the case in life, problems come with the worst possible timing.
"Help somebody! Thieves!"
Sonic, not even skipping a beat, rushed to the source of the voice calling for help.
He arrived outside a research building. Above the entrance there was a sign.
"Fallarbor town space research Center, founded by professor Cosmo".