Chapter 145 (Patreon)

My laughter continued to ring out as the cheers from the audience began to grow. Gardevoir had succeeded, and Darkrai, a horror story to some, had fainted in an even trade.

This kind of thing did not happen. Legendary Pokémon did not fall to a single Pokémon. They were beings of myth, of legend, yet the crowds had seen one fall here and today.

There was no dragged out team-spanning battle. There was no desperate, last ditch effort to try to pull off at least one faint before my loss.

I had sent out Gardevoir, he had stuck to the plan, and Darkrai fainted just like that. In a way, the match almost felt like a performance.

These musings continued in my mind as my laughter petered off into a sigh. I wiped the tears away from my eyes and sent Gardevoir just the biggest grin. He sent me a smile right back, and for a moment, I felt a faint telepathic warmth on the very edge of my mind. It almost felt like a hug.

Gardevoir was returned to his Nest Ball, and Tobias returned Darkrai as well.

As for how Tobias was looking, his expression was almost unreadable. But something was there.

His mouth was pressed into a smooth line, and his eyes flicked about the field. There wasn’t any evidence of the battle that had just taken place, even the Misty Terrain had faded by now. Yet, he almost seemed to be shocked, in disbelief at the outcome of this battle. It was clear that his faith in Darkrai had eliminated any possibility of such a loss in his mind.

But then, his expression returned to its normal hardened appearance. Without any words, he sent out his next Pokémon, his arm swinging past the boundary of his dark cloak to toss the ball forward.

The moment I laid my eyes on it, one thing was clear:

Latios was not Wilma’s Latias.

It felt funny, thinking such an obvious thought, but this Latios was at a completely different level. Wilma had prefaced our battle by saying that Latias wasn't a dedicated battler, but it hadn’t become clear until now.

Latios was determined to fight. Its sleek, jet-like body hovered in the air with the force of its own psychic powers, and its thin feathers had been flattened to be nothing more than a gray and blue sheen across its form. Two narrowed eyes spoke of a quiet ferocity. Latios did not seek its battles, but it won them, nonetheless.

Altaria appeared across from it. From the start, my plan was still ongoing. The plated necklace around his neck began to glow nearly immediately once the referee called for the match to resume, and within seconds, light faded and broke, then he became the much fluffier Mega Altaria.

Both Pokémon took to the skies. Already, I could tell we had underestimated Latios’s speed.

“Begin with Hyper Voice,” I ordered.

Altaria screeched. His voice caused the air to vibrate, and large circles of pure pink energy chased after Latios. In such a confined space, Latios couldn’t build up its speed enough to outpace sound, but it could easily twist and turn to get away.

More and more Hyper Voices shouted out after it, yet Latios continued to simply dodge without attacking. It was probing Altaria, testing him, seeing if a Mega Pokémon was really something it needed to worry about.

Both Pokémon flew about in the air, one desperately chasing the other but unable to keep up. Latios turned on a dime, moved directly upwards while facing Altaria, and even flew backwards at points. As aerodynamic as it was, it was clear that its Psychic Type let it deny the common laws of physics. Altaria was still beholden to that limitation.

“That’s enough,” Tobias’s voice rang out.

Latios stopped in the air, positioning itself right at the edge of a Hyper Voice.

“Luster Purge.”

And then, the air glowed white.

The feathers across Latios’s body glimmered in the afternoon sun, and those small reflections moved across its body. Each mote of light collected into a sphere, and Latios aimed its head right at Altaria.

A beam shot out, looking not too dissimilar to uses of Hyper Beam I’d seen in the past. The Luster Purge struck Altaria in the side, and he let out a pitiful squawk in response.

He withstood it, but there was something more that this move inflicted on him. Like a poison, his body glimmered and shone, gaining the reflection Latios had used to conjure the attack. He was glowing, almost looking like a target, and as it stood, if Latios used such a move again, I could tell Altaria would take extra damage.

I wanted to wait for this, but we couldn’t afford to wait any longer. Latios would be able to wear Altaria down, so we had to pull out the big cards now rather than later.

“Draco Meteor,” I ordered.

My voice was picked up and sent across the audience. The most powerful Dragon Type move known to the public would be in use here, and it would be used against a Legendary Pokémon, of all things.

Too bad it didn’t look too impressive to start it off.

Latios used another Luster Purge, and Altaria veered to the side. Latios moved to position itself behind Altaria and began to give chase, firing beam after beam at him like some kind of intergalactic spaceship.

Altaria continued to build up for his move, making choking noises as if he were a cat. This Draco Meteor was taking longer than normal, as there was a bit of a build up involved for our strategy.

My fists clenched the railing at the edge of my platform as Altaria began to suffer more and more hits from Latios’s attacks. But, when I saw the glow starting to form inside of his beak, I knew now was the time to act.

“Do it!” I screamed.

Altaria’s already puffy wings puffed out, and his momentum came to an abrupt stop in the air. Latios, right behind him, did not have enough time to react given the speed the pair were going, and it immediately slammed into Altaria’s back.

Altaria coughed out an orb, and then the impact of Latios pushed out another one. Literally coughing up the Draco Meteor, not one, but two of the powerful attacks entered the sky, and Altaria puffed up with Cotton Guard just to make Latios get even more stuck in his feathers.

Then it started to rain.

Meteor after meteor exploded out from the orbs in the sky, the two uses of Draco Meteor encompassing the field. Latias, a Pokémon weaker than Latios, had been able to weave through the rain of a single Draco Meteor. With two at once? It didn’t have a chance.

Unfortunately, Latios was able to get away from Altaria’s attempt to trap it, but that just left it handling the starfall around it. Its agility was impressive, but there was simply no room to dodge. The bigger chunks were avoided, but the smaller ones frequently laid into it and clipped its wings.

Latios clenched its eyes in pain, and Altaria faced his opponent. I didn’t even need to call out the move to be used, but I verbalized it anyway.

“Power Swap,” I whispered.

It was fun to be dramatic.

Latios couldn’t resist the move with its focus so heavy on dodging, and Altaria, unaffected by his own attack, easily forced light to exit both Pokémon’s chests and rush at one another. His flying had slowed after exhausting so much of his energy on two back-to-back Draco Meteors, but with Power Swap taking effect, he was pumped and ready to go just like he was at the start of the battle.

As for Latios, it slowed down.

Weakened by Altaria’s inflicted exhaustion, the psychic control it had over its flight withered and caused it to move less accurately. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough of the Draco Meteor left to deal any significant damage, leaving the two Pokémon in the air.

Honestly, this was a gambit. Tobias could easily switch to remove Latios from play, thus resetting the effects of Power Swap, but I could easily do the same with Altaria just as well. If he recalled Latios here, I would need to recall Altaria. But if he left out Latios...

“Latios. Giga Impact.”

I almost wanted to cheer. Power Swap had primarily weakened Latios’s special attacks, but it hadn’t weakened its physical prowess. With Tobias calling for a Giga Impact, that meant Latios would stay in. And if Latios stayed in, we were going to win.

“Altaria, you know what to do,” I said, finding it hard to keep the mirth out of my voice.

Two things happened in quick succession.

First, Latios pulled up and away from Altaria, soaring high into the sky, up to the legal limits of what constituted “in bounds” for this arena. There was a momentary pause, then Latios sailed downwards, its body moving so fast that the friction with the air was causing to appear as if it were aflame.

Altaria also raised in height, but he didn’t go anywhere near as high as Latios had. Instead, he flapped to increase his height and pulled his wings inwards, the Cotton Guard from earlier making him seem like a pure white, vertical cloud. He, too, paused, and right when Latios began to dive, he screamed.

There was a single moment where Altaria’s voice was audible, and in that single moment, almost everyone in the arena had to cover their ears. The protective screens of the field turned almost a solid white, only barely being transparent enough to allow us to see in.

Deafening silence covered the arena. Hyper Voice was a directed attack, but Uproar hit everywhere at once. There was no dodging this sound for Latios, and with it stuck in the process of using Giga Impact, it had to suffer the super effective, Pixilate-boosted soundwaves on its own.

Latios winced, but the Legendary Pokémon held true. The Uproar stopped momentarily as Altaria was forced to wheeze from the impact, but before the momentum had carried him into the ground, he breathed in and kept going.

The two hit the floor, Latios using Altaria as a pillow to soften its own landing. Altaria was ground into the dirt and left a long groove from where he slid. Even still, he didn’t bother to get up, and he kept screaming.

Latios slowly tried to fly up and hover away, but the Giga Impact meant it needed to recharge. When it suffered from another scream of Uproar, it tried to form a Light Screen box around itself, but even then, the defense seemed to do little to help it.

Latios wobbled in the air, weakened from both the Power Swap and Uproar. Altaria’s tantrum stopped, and sounds from the field returned.

There was a brief moment where Altaria pushed to his feet, and both Pokémon stared off at one other. Though, before anything else could happen, I returned Altaria.

Yeah, Altaria wouldn’t be the one to win this battle.

He was returned, and in his place was Mawile.

“Taunt!”

The moment the referee called the match to resume, Mawile threw two things at Latios.

The first was a string of insults, causing it to freeze, stopping the move it was about to use. The second was an Iron Ball.

I wasn’t a fool. Unlike Darkrai, trainers that had a Latios or Latias on their team weren’t too uncommon. They were Legendary Pokémon, but the species had shown up several times in the past.

With that, there were recordings of their battles online, and alongside of that, there were also listings of moves they could learn.

I stopped Latios from using Recover before it could start up the move. The Taunt had caught it off guard, causing it to stall in their air as it processed its own anger, and then the Iron Ball hit it in the face.

The same Iron Ball given to us as a training tool now slammed into Latios. Dark Type energy wrapped around the attack, enhancing its power as well as making the move super effective, and then Latios fell to the ground.

“Latios is unable to continue!” the referee announced.

I...

I let out a huge sigh of relief.

There were still four Pokémon to go, yet I felt as if the first hurdle had been overcome. Other than his Salamence, Tobias could still have three more Legendary Pokémon, but that didn’t matter.

These two matches had been won. These two Pokémon were all that were ever revealed. Ash had taken out both before he lost the match in the anime, but here, Tobias had lost those two Pokémon to me and my team. My Pokémon were strong. My Pokémon were prepared. And my Pokémon would win the rest of the battle.

“Great job, Mawile. Your ranged attacks are as accurate as ever!”

Mawile smiled, and she shifted her jaws to her side as she waved to the crowd. There was a satisfied look on her face as she took in the cheers. She’d been kind of down since losing the Grand Festival, and I was glad to see this victory was allowing her to get past that.

I would need to praise Altaria later, too. After everything with Latios, he deserved a rest.

“Trainer Tobias. You have fifteen seconds left.”

That comment shocked me out of my satisfied fugue, and my eyes glanced over to Tobias. Latios had been returned, but just like what he did after Darkrai had fainted, he seemed to be staring out over the field, looking somewhat dazed.

He stared at Mawile, watching as she skipped over to pick up the Iron Ball and put it back in her mouth. When she noticed him staring, she gave him a smug wave.

His jaw clenched, and his expression hardened. Seemingly coming to a decision, Tobias sent out his next Pokémon seconds before his switch time was up.

“Salamence,” he announced.

“Oh, shit.”

The referee blew the whistle to start the match. I withdrew Mawile the very moment he did.

“Sorry, Mawile. You won’t be able to win against a Mega Salamence on your own.”

I knew she would protest, but this wasn’t a match to take risks. Salamence could learn Flamethrower. There was no way I’d subject her to that so easily.

Similarly, almost immediately backtracking, I had no choice but to send Altaria back out.

“Look alive! It’s Salamence!” I yelled.

Altaria was injured, and even with his use of Power Swap, he was tired from the exertions from his match. Fighting a Legendary Pokémon was no joke, but he needed to be able to put a dent into Salamence now so that Ninetales could finish it off.

On the field, Salamence took a step forward and roared. Rather than entering the air, its heavy body stayed on the ground, the way its body was moving making it clear the power it wielded.

The match resumed. Tobias and I gave our orders.

"Hyper Beam!" I yelled.

"Shadow Ball," Tobias said.

Altaria shifted in the air as a ball of ghostly energy shot at his position, but it had less force than I expected. Salamence ran over the ground, its head held low and wings held out, and several more Shadow Balls followed the first.

Altaria easily flew around all of them. His Mega Evolution was still up, and he was just taking his time to properly gather up all of the energy he had left.

"Salamence, Dark Pulse," Tobias said.

From the ground, Salamence jumped up into the air. Its wings were held out as if to facilitate flight, but they never flapped. In an area blast around it, a pulse of Dark Type energy spread out like a wave. It hit Altaria, but he easily resisted it and aimed his head to track Salamence.

The Dragon Type fell to the ground, not even bothering flying. Something about this felt off. Salamence were creatures known for flying, and now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure the species couldn't use Shadow Ball or Dark Pulse, either.

My eyes went wide. I realized my mistake.

"Altaria, wai—"

I was too late, and Altaria unleashed his attack. So much energy was contained in the Hyper Beam that I stumbled where I stood, feeling the energy drain out of me in waves to support the move. It might have looked strange to the audience, but I took a page out of Dawn's playback to slap my face to help me stay awake, and Altaria unleashed every bit of his energy in the attack.

When the Hyper Beam faded, the Mega Evolution dropped. Altaria fell to the ground, panting heavily, and he stared at the unconscious form across from him.

It was not a Salamence.

It was a Zoroark. Salamence had been an Illusion.

Zoroark might not have been a Legendary Pokémon, but the species was incredibly hard to find and often actively avoided people, placing them among the level of mythical Pokémon, in some people's minds. Seeing one here in Sinnoh was a rarity (at least, this Dark Type Unovan variant), but now it laid fainted, knocked unconscious in one attack.

Altaria hobbled over to me pitifully, looking guilty as he did. Zoroark wasn't a threat to waste his Hyper Beam on, and now he was too tired to continue.

But, I couldn't blame him for the attack. I was the one to panic and order it, having him use the move in my haste before thinking about what was going on.

"You still did a good job. That was an easy knock out."

He bobbed his head before letting it rest on the ground. He wasn't fainted, but he would effectively be useless for the rest of this match with how much energy he expended.

I had to choose whether to use one of my limited switches now to keep him in reserve in case of a tie.

Across from me, Tobias returned Zoroark. Despite having his Pokémon faint, it had contributed to tilt the match slightly back in his favor. My mistake had meant he no longer needed to worry about Altaria.

"I'm using another switch," I announced.

The referee nodded. I would have two left after this. I needed to make them count.

As it stood, the field was effectively reset. Ignoring Altaria, I had a slight advantage as I had four Pokémon left whereas Tobias had three, but there was no telling what he would send out.

Unless, of course, he sent out his Salamence, which he did right here and now. I eyed the plated necklace around its neck, admonishing myself for not noticing its absence before.

That was such a dumb mistake. I hadn't even stopped to consider a Zoroark.

“Carbink, go for the fast strat,” I told Carbink.

The gem of a Pokémon nodded as they appeared floating in the air, and the second the match resumed, a poison cloud puffed out of the fluff on the top of their body. Across from them, Salamence glowed with a rainbow light, and its form shifted into the aerial-only form of Mega Salamence.

I leered at its sharp, crescent shaped wings as it took to the air, its speed almost matching Latios. It easily flew above the cinnabar cloud Carbink sent forward, completely avoiding getting poisoned.

“Salamence. Iron Head.”

Salamence dropped from the sky, its head turned a solid steel. I called for Carbink to use Protect, a move they had picked up when working alongside Whimsicott, and thankfully, the four times effective move went without damage.

The impact still caused Carbink to get knocked back, but the impact also meant more clouds of Toxic were sent out from their mane. I let out a sigh of relief as I saw the move sink into Salamence. Even though Whimsicott hadn’t figured out Toxic in time for the Conference, I was glad some of his tricks had rubbed off on Carbink.

With that out of the way, I used my fourth switch of the match. I only had one left after this.

"Ninetales, you're up."

She hit the field, her head held high with confidence. She did her best to stare down her nose at Salamence, almost looking haughty as she did.

The Mega Pokémon looked unamused.

"Resume the match," the referee announced.

A storm formed around Ninetales, and the weather over took the field. She immediately hopped into the falling ice, hiding herself from a quick swoop from Salamence. As it pulled back up, dark snow clouds lingered above it, and its cruel eyes searched the field to find where Ninetales was staying hidden.

Tobias gave a basic order to assist with that effort.

“Dual Wingbeat."

Dual Wingbeat was usually a close-ranged, physical move that required the user to move in. Here, the Mega Pokémon pulled up in the air and used it to strike nothing. However, that strange, seemingly meaningless attack had the power of infinity energy backing it, and a burst of wind shot out over the field.

Part of the clouds were pushed back—but only momentarily. Ninetales's control over the weather was simply too strong to cause anything like that to clear the field.

An Ice Beam shot out of the snow, and Salamence dipped in the air to just barely dodge. A second one followed up soon after, and a Flamethrower seared from Salamence's mouth to melt the move before it hit it.

Both attacks were aimed dead on. All of her training with Altaria to help him practice dodging had let her aim be better than ever before.

Though, the use of the move let Salamence home in on her position. Tobias called for another Flamethrower, but we were expecting something like this.

I stayed quiet, not giving an order, as Ninetales let herself be revealed for only a moment to use Confuse Ray. The gray-tinted beam struck Salamence in the eyes, and she darted away with Agility.

Despite that, the Mega Salamence released its Flamethrower where she just was. Its confusion meant it was now seeing illusions under Ninetales's control.

Tobias actually looked annoyed. Mega Salamence was primarily a physical attacker, but that meant nothing if it couldn't find Ninetales. Not only that, but its moves were limited as the classic Dragon Claw or even Outrage, if it knew that, would be useless as she was completely immune.

He used a different attack.

“Heat Wave!”

I hated to say it, but he made a good decision. Heat Wave was a low accuracy move, but that was mostly due to the time it took to build up. Mega Evolution granted the power to negate that, and the searing wave that spread out from Salamence all around it was wide-ranged enough to cover most of the field.

Around Salamence, the ground turned red-hot. Pure Fire Type energy pulsed out in all directions. The snow thinned, and the air itself sizzled from the effects. Salamence chose to then fly straight up and use the move again to destroy the clouds.

Even with Ninetales's impressive control, she wasn't about to fight back against that. A hole in the sky opened up, effectively deleting the snow in a circle beneath it, and Ninetales was caught exposed.

But, Salamence was confused. It couldn't see her thanks to the effects of the illusions.

Recognizing this, Tobias, frustrated, gave another command.

“Earthquake!”

The Mega Pokémon immediately dived. I only managed to get “Aurora—” out of my mouth before it hit, but thankfully, Ninetales knew what to do.

Her icy shield protected her from the surging stone and rubble that was knocked up from the broken floor, but the flashy effect exposed her at the same time. Not only that, Salamence’s head snapped up to face her. The impact with the ground had managed to break it out of its confusion.

“Agility!”

Though Ninetales was using Agility, Mega Salamence was a Pokémon made for speed. Ninetales ran as fast as she could to try to get away, but Salamence was already almost on her.

But then, it stumbled.

There was no other way to describe it. A wince went through Salamence’s body as it messed up a turn. Rather than following Ninetales, it returned to be high up into the air and looked back down at the field.

I looked closer.

It was panting. Tired. All of the moving it had been doing only served to exacerbate the Toxic in its body. It was doing its best to hide the damage it was slowly taking, but Salamence was growing closer and closer to succumbing to the status.

“Salamence, Flamethrower,” Tobias ordered.

Ninetales heard the move, and rushed to dodge. She crossed the field width-wise, rushing past me with flames hot on her tails, and we made eye contact for the briefest of moments.

She saw my expression. She knew what we needed to do.

The remnants of Heat Wave lingered, and the Flamethrower continued to shoot forward. Despite that, the air turned cold. Though I was outside the psychic barriers, I could feel the rapid rate at which the temperature was dropping. I breathed out, and a cloud of mist left my mouth. Across from me, Tobias pulled his cloak tighter.

“Hyper Beam,” he said all too casually.

Sheer Cold was capable of taking Pokémon out in one go, but we still hadn’t got it to be used in a single moment. Ninetales needed to spend time to make it cold enough to support the attack, so when Hyper Beam was ordered, Salamence was able to strike first. A blazing, pure white beam of raw energy seared through the air and struck Ninetales through her icy shield. A horrible whine rang out, and I felt my heart drop at the sounds of her pain.

Just like what had happened to Zoroark before, the beam completely encompassed her as it lasted far longer than a normal Hyper Beam would last. I could hear Ninetales, but I couldn’t see her.

I felt that this was how we were going to lose. The Hyper Beam would faint her, Salamence would get a boost to its power from its ability, Moxie, and then it would would tilt the scales just enough before it fainted for the rest of Tobias’s team to finish us off.

I shut my eyes, my heart pounding. When I saw the light dim through my eyelids, I opened them back up to see how Ninetales was. Even though the attack had finished, and Salamence was in the air, unmoving to recharge, I could still hear Ninetales’s screams. At first, I thought something had gone horribly wrong, but then, I realized she wasn’t screaming.

She was laughing.

Her coat burnt, and patches of her fur missing in parts, Ninetales strode forward, her Aurora Veil glittering around her. The defensive screen had been just barely strong enough to let her remain conscious, and she stared at Salamence with a cruel glimmer in her eyes.

I took a moment to add it up.

Toxic. Weakness from Hyper Beam. And all of the damage Salamence had taken so far.

That didn’t even account for any negative effects the cold environment might have caused a dual Dragon and Flying Type Pokémon like Salamence.

As it stood, even with Salamence’s Mega Evolution, Ninetales was stronger.

A mad grin appeared on my face, and I pointed forward, aiming right at the heart of the Mega Dragon Type in the air.

“Ninetales,” I said, “use Sheer Cold.”

The field froze. All movement ceased. And Salamence—

Its body became completely covered with ice.

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Somewhere, in the far northern reaches in Sinnoh, a certain Ice Type Gym Leader cheered with pride.

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Tobias returned his Mega Salamence while I counted the numbers.

Gardevoir was fainted, of course. Altaria was capable of fighting, but he didn’t have the energy to pose a threat. Carbink and Mawile were basically untouched, but Ninetales was on the verge of toppling over. I had three healthy Pokémon with two heavily injured.

I paused.

That couldn’t be right.

That meant only Gardevoir was fainted.

Tobias was down four Pokémon, and I had five Pokémon left. In truth, that was effectively only three and a half Pokémon, when accounting for Altaria’s exhaustion and Ninetales’s energy, but this battle was going far better than I ever expected.

That realization made me tense. Things were going well. Almost too well. There was no way Darkrai was Tobias’s strongest Pokémon. He had to have at least one more, right?

At any moment, I expected the other shoe to drop.

On the field, Ninetales stayed out as the weather built back up. She was panting, injured, and exhausted, and we waited for Tobias to send out his next Pokémon. His eyes scanned the field in thought, taking in the cracks in the floor from Salamence’s Earthquake and the half-melted snow that now littered the ground.

Then, he spoke.

“Congratulations,” he said. “Very few trainers have ever pushed me this far.”

My knuckles turned white. Tobias didn’t even look worried at his current disadvantage.

He sent out his next Pokémon.

Appearing on the field was yet another Dragon Type. It was large, about twice the size an individual of its species usually stood. Its body was covered in scars, and its scales were rough and worn from years of use. Thick claws extended out from its hands, and while it almost appeared to have a protruding stomach, its body was actually almost entirely muscle.

The monster of a Dragonite turned its head to the sky and roared. Its eyes then snapped forward to lock onto Ninetales.

So this is the reason for his confidence.

The battle resumed.

"Fire Punch," Tobias ordered.

"Ice Beam!"

Ninetales opened her mouth to shoot out crackling Ice, but it never hit its target. Dragonite flapped its wings a single time before its thick legs sent it forward.

An Extreme Speed. It was on Ninetales in a blink, and a flaming punch slammed into her side.

She was knocked into the air before crashing into the ground, then she skidded across almost the entire battlefield before stopping, back pressed against a psychic barrier.

She didn’t get up. The Hyper Beam had been a lot, but the force behind that super effective Fire Punch was similarly ridiculously strong.

I returned her to her Premier Ball.

With Ninetales fainted, this Dragonite served as the next threat to our victory. It stared at me, eyes locked on my form as I glared at it in defiance.

It was feral. Mad. It looked like it was ready to lunge at any moment, and despite its combination of moves from before, I could tell it wouldn’t use any special strategy. After all, it didn’t need to. Pure strength was a form of battling in and of itself, and that was how it chose to fight.

I was sensing a theme in Tobias’s team, now that I had seen so much of it. Outside of Zoroark, his entire battling style was built around overwhelming his foes with pure strength. Mawile was healthy and ready to fight, but I could already tell sending her out was a mistake. The sheer power at Dragonite’s disposal would be too much to handle on her own, and it had already demonstrated a Fire Punch that would be super effective against her.

Being able to Mega Evolve her here would have been nice, but I had never tried to use two Mega Pokémon in a single match before, and the League rules mandated that only a single Mega Evolution could be used per match. Though, with how tired I was feeling, a second Mega Evolution would have likely knocked me out, anyway.

To beat this Dragonite, we would need to resort to something that wasn’t strength; we needed to use a strategy that could counter this behemoth. I had one Pokémon on my team that was perfect for this role, and so, another member I had already sent out made their reappearance.

Carbink hit the field, and Dragonite grinned. It was a pebble versus a goliath, yet that pebble would be the one to win.

Dragonite would learn to fear the Fairy type.

The second the whistle blew, Dragonite lunged forward. I blinked, and its fist slammed into Carbink’s side.

Carbink was turned into a golf ball. They didn't resist the attack, purposefully minimizing the damage by allowing it to push them instead of smashing into their side. Carbink went flying through the air, barely managing to restabilize themself before hitting the psychic barrier.

A burst of wind crossed the field as Dragonite soared towards Carbink. They hurriedly set up a Reflect over their body right in time for Dragonite to quite literally grab them.

With its flight, it spun in a circle before dunking Carbink into the ground like a basketball. A crater formed and a dust cloud blew up all around them. Dragonite dove down, not even noticing how that cloud had a strange, red tint to it.

We had a timer to win, and now we just had to wait.

"Protect!" I screamed.

Carbink's body went hard. A Thunder Punch slammed into them, dealing no damage thanks to the reinforcement their body underwent. Dragonite only served to get angry from that result, however, and it picked Carbink up to hold in front of its face in one hand.

"Hyper Beam," Tobias said.

Dragonite unleashed a close range Hyper Beam on Carbink, took a deep breath, then released a second Hyper Beam without even recharging. The two beams seared over Carbink, and the sheer power of the attacks meant the barrier in the distance behind them had turned completely solid.

Carbink had the advantage of being a Rock Type and resisting the move, and a Light Screen helped to reduce the damage even further. Their body was steaming by the time the attack had finished, and parts of their rocky body had chipped off from the force.

I felt an eye twitch as Dragonite took a breath for a third use of Hyper Beam. I opened my mouth to try to call out for Carbink to use a move, but they were already on it before I spoke.

Something stuck Dragonite’s forehead, and the Hyper Beam was interrupted as its head was knocked back. There was a pause on the field as Dragonite walked over to pick up what had hit it, staring at a small stone from Carbink’s Smack Down that landed on the ground next to it.

Dragonite slowly turned to face where Carbink was still being held in its hand. Carbink stared up to it, defiantly. They were unafraid.

The pair of antennae on Dragonite’s head began to raise from anger. Its two eyes gained a crimson red glow.

My own eyes narrowed.

This wasn't just a normal Dragonite. It was too large for that. But, the red eyes now explained everything.

Just like the mystery of however Tobias obtained the rest of his team, somehow, he had an alpha Dragonite with him.

Dragonite’s arm drew Carbink back and threw them forward like a pitcher in baseball. Before Carbink could travel that far at all, Dragonite moved in front of them to interrupted their launch and slam them into the ground.

Upon impact, Dragonite was already there to kick Carbink's side, and a Flamethrower burned their body as they were knocked high into the sky.

"Hurricane," Tobias ordered.

Dragonite grinned, and its wings flapped furiously. Harsh winds whipped around it, and a veritable tornado formed in the center of the field.

Despite that, Carbink still gave their all to resisting the moves. Their body glowed from a combination of Light Screen and Reflect around them, and they were still managing to use Protect in intervals to reduce how much damage they were taking.

And even with all of that, from within the Hurricane, several glowing rocks from Ancient Power sailed out towards Dragonite. It easily knocked them away with a few backhanded slaps, but the rate at which its wings flapped was slowing down. It was giving its all, but Toxic was doing its work.

Eventually, when the Hurricane ended, Carbink was pushed back towards the floor. Their body was scuffed and their impossibly hard crystals were chipped and cracked, yet they hadn’t fainted just yet.

Dragonite held back a wince. I could see its shoulder start to slack.

"Carbink, how many times have you used Iron Defense so far?" I asked.

Carbink’s eyes curved slightly to signify a grin, and they tilted down to let the lights over the field glint off their body. A metal sheen became obvious over their stone, as they had somehow worked in a few uses of Iron Defense between everything else they were doing.

I had talked to Carbink about them being a nigh-indestructible wall in the past. It seems Carbink had almost already made that happen.

I sent a smile back to them right as Dragonite rushed forward once more.

"Whenever you're ready," I said.

Carbink did the unexpected. They actually attacked.

Dragonite, having grown used to landing hits without resistance, didn’t expect Carbink to lunge forward. The gemstone Fairy Type used their entire, sturdy body to slam into Dragonite’s stomach, ducking under an attack and landing a powerful Body Press.

The impact almost happened in slow motion. Dragonite’s eyes bulged, and its mouth opened as the air was knocked out of it. The entire center half of its body bent from the impact as the maximized Body Press was unleashed right when it least expected to be hit.

Carbink had somehow managed to land a critical blow.

Dragonite was launched back, sailing through the air and skidding over the floor. Stone and dirt were knocked up around it, and it bounced and rolled only to hit the barrier. Its red eyes faded as it rubbed its head, dizzy and injured. Clearly visible to everyone watching was a nasty bruise forming through the scales on its stomach.

A low growl rumbled over the field. My eyes widened when I realized Dragonite had not fainted. It began to reorient itself to be straight up and push to its feet—

Then a single stone struck it between the eyes with a speed no one expected.

The Smack Down hit, and Dragonite fell to the floor.

Tobias’s hidden threat had fainted.

There was one Pokémon left.

_________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

"So let me get this straight, a random trainer no one ever heard about before randomly shows up to a League Conference, and he sends out not one, but two Legendary Pokémon, two different fully evolved Dragon Types, and..."

Laura paused, her brain wracking through her memories as she tried to remember what Thomas had said.

"What did you call it? A Dark Type so rare that some people consider it to be a mythical Pokémon?"

"For Zoroark, yes," Thomas replied.

Laura shook her head, looking aghast.

"So that guy randomly shows up, Alex is matched up against him, and then Alex's team beats the crap out of all those Pokémon."

Laura sat back, her arms crossed.

"I'll say it now, I'll never be able to beat Alex in a match."

The woman next to Thomas laughed. Wally continued to stare at the screen.

"Tobias isn't beaten yet. He still has one more Pokémon."

Laura shifted to get more comfortable to watch this final battle.

"And Alex has four left, with two of them still completely undamaged. Heck, Alex hasn’t even revealed who’s their sixth!” Laura laughed. “Well, Tobias is screwed. What can he even have left?"

"I don't know,” Wally replied. “Probably something like a—"

_________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

"A third Dragon Type?" Hope suggested.

"It would be his fourth when you account for Latios," Sycamore provided.

"I meant a third non-Legendary Dragon Type. I mean, it would match the rest of his team. Given he's in Sinnoh, it's probably a Garchomp."

"I think it’s a Dark Type," Ramos supplied.

Everyone turned his way. He chuckled at their confused expressions.

"Well, consider it. Tobias has used two Dark Types and three Dragon Types. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was some kind of pseudo-specialist split between the pair.”

"But that's kind of a bold assumption, isn't it?" Hope said. "That means Alex would have the Type Advantage, yet again.”

"Unless it's a Dark and Steel Type, like Bisharp," Sycamore interjected. "He clearly has some connection to Unova, given the Zoroark on his team."

“Could be a Hydreigon, then,” Ramos said. “That’s both Dragon and Dark.”

As the room paused to consider that, the sole person here who wasn’t directly involved in battling finally spoke up.

“Actually,” Lacey interjected. “I don’t think it’s going to be any of those.”

“Oh? Then what do yeh think it’ll be?”

“I think he probably has—”

_________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

“A third Legendary Pokémon,” Cynthia declared.

Flint, Fire Type expert of the Elite Four (though, only partially given his penchant for generalist teams), spoke up in confusion.

“You’re kidding. I don’t think I’ve ever heard about a trainer with three Legendary Pokémon at their disposal.”

“You mean like Brandon?” Aaron, Bug Type Elite Four member, said.

Flint rubbed the back of his bright red afro in embarrassment.

“Oh. Yeah. Forgot about him.”

The room went silent as the upper echelons of Sinnoh’s Pokémon League considered what Tobias might have. It was the guest to this Conference that broke that silence.

“I know what it is,” he said.

“You do?” Flint, Aaron, and Cynthia all said in unison.

Steven sent them an amused look, then turned back to the field, trying his best to hide his smile.

“It says a lot that none of you bothered to check. You understand trainers need to register their teams for this Conference, right?”

Three smacks rang out, and in the back, Lucian and Bertha, the other two members of Sinnoh’s Elite Four, chuckled at the sight of the synchronized facepalms.

“So, what is it?” Flint asked.

“If you really wish to ruin the surprise, I suppose I might as well say it. First seen in the heart of Johto, but soon seen rarely across the world over...”

_________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

Tobias grabbed his last Pokéball and gave it an unreadable look. I stood here, four Pokémon remaining, though two in poor condition, waiting to see what it was.

Darkrai could have been his strongest, or, like most other trainers, he could have been saving his toughest for last. I half expected another Dragon Type, but his team had been so wild I couldn’t be certain what he had for sure.

Eventually, as the referee informed Tobias his time limit was approaching, he casually tossed the basic Pokéball forward.

There, appearing in a geyser of flame, was a great, maned beast.

Tobias had a third Legendary Pokémon.

An Entei appeared on the field.

====================================================
Author Note:

We've had one, yes. But what about a second cliffhanger?

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:
Bisharp
Darkrai
Dragonite
Entei
Garchomp
Hydreigon
Latios / Latias
Salamence
Zoroark

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