I woke up to the blaring alarm and sighed. Damn, it was tempting to just lay back down today. On the other side of the bed, Sabrina grumbled and telekinetically unplugged the alarm. I chuckled and gave her a kiss before heading to the bathroom to go through my normal routines. The Guardian holopad joined me, allowing me to sit on the toilet and scroll through news about recent events.

A recent meeting where we discussed Will’s upcoming challenges and how we were going to monitor them had raised an interesting point. We were over-reliant on meetings to share information. So a system had been set up for the easy sharing of information, with a morning briefing of any reports that were picked up by the usual Guardian liaisons.

From my understanding, local shrine maidens, Channellers, and Hex maniacs that answered to Agatha had additional funding to talk with locals and people that had their fingers on the pulse around Indigo. From them, we gained a much wider net of information that allowed us to be much more informed.

I knew for example, that the surge of trainers was currently spreading out throughout the central region of Kanto. After Cerulean City, which most people were racing through, they suddenly found themselves with up to seven different gyms they could challenge, three of which were the Big Gyms in Surge, Erika and then eventually Sabrina. Grey, Manny, Kong, and Sophia, as lesser gyms, were also getting serious consideration and coming under pressure.

Sophia had been forced to implement a limit of no more than four matches a day due to her smaller pokemon roster.

Manny was causing a number of trainers to scream in frustration as he beguiled and led them around by the nose during matches.

Kong was making examples of everyone who came in thinking they’d have it easy against him as a lesser Gym. He wasn’t helped by his showing against Bruno, and that Sabrina’s gym was obviously larger and more selective in who could face her. Kong quickly corrected the assumption of weakness and had a few people complaining about how hard a fight he was.

I didn’t have as much insight on Grey, but the consensus was that he was facing a good number of challenges and simply working through them. If anything, he was considered competent, but he wasn’t getting anywhere near as much positive or negative attention as other Gym Leaders. He was popular as a straightforward fight that could lead to another badge for the end of the circuit tally, however.

Lorelei had made appearances in the southern parts of Kanto to offer challenges to some people and was apparently helping to stop trainers from clumping up in certain regions.

All of this and more were now accessible to me at my fingertips thanks to a suggestion by Lucy.

Lucy had noticed the lack of information, or rather, the difficulty in accessing the information. Previously, we’d almost have had to call or set up meetings for each other. Now I got detailed information on everything going on in Kanto, and if I wanted to I could flip through another report on Johto.

It made sense to me that Lucy would have desired this, especially with how she was out on the frontier most of the time. She’d been gifted by the League and Fiore a plot of land along a peninsula and was setting up what she called her ‘Battle Pike’ for the Battle Frontier.

This involved a lot of planning and calming down the local pokemon and what few locals there were. It had been rather interesting to hear how she’d worked with the Fiore Rangers to negotiate with a group of rather hostile Ivysaurs that had been encountered.

It became normal for me to flick through the various reports, like they were nothing more than newspapers in the morning, for anything that immediately caught my eye. I’d look over it a bit more during breakfast, but otherwise… Yup, nothing in here seemed important enough I would need to move.

I tucked the Holopad away and walked out to greet Yolanda for the morning’s training.

With my pokemon fired up, for the past week I’d made serious strides in strengthening my team. Sanchez’s electrical attacks became more intense and more widespread. Don swept through Wing Attacks in tighter and tighter turning circles with Zephyr. Tide was able to endure more hits as well as control his emotional state when deliberately baited a lot more often than previously.

Knight grew stronger, faster, and larger, allowing him to really throw himself around.

Shin and Gawain needed to have some different training partners these days as they were too used to fighting each other to gain much. I’d had them shift to sparring with Jormundgandr, Bertha, Titan, and even Empress on one occasion each. On both occasions, I’d supervised closely.

The concept of sparring as a training exercise was something of a foreign one to Empress and I’d had to have the match run through at half speed to let her know how fights differed. It was a rather nuanced discussion of how intent behind hits and commitment to carry through attacks wasn’t easy to convey.

She understood after a while, though and went easy on Shin, and then Gawain. Both of them only needed a bit of potion after she’d done batting them around.

Clefairy was almost able to not faint after performing Healing Wish, which was incredible progress. He’d ended up being an inspiration to all of my pokemon with his sheer drive and commitment to continue training and growing beyond the morning training sessions, causing others in my elite team to train with him.

Perhaps even without losing to Will, or facing a Moltres, I’d have seen an uptick in strength thanks to his joining the team.

Teddiursa remained the child of the team with how he was training, but his young age was holding him back from seriously training as hard as other pokemon in my team. He probably would have been more frustrated with the games I made him play if it wasn’t for Empress also taking part in the drills.

Jormundgandr and I had continued our aura practice, and I was slowly, trudging my way towards developing the pool of energy that needed to be developed. Slow was smooth and smooth was fast I had to remind myself.

Especially with something that might backfire as badly as Mega Evolution. The stories the Guardians had access to told stories of people attempting it in the past, which almost universally resulted in pokemon becoming crazed due to the uptick in power.

Yolanda was at my side for all of this, asking questions when it didn’t hinder the training and watching with thoughtful eyes. With all the work she was putting into herself and Terra, I couldn’t wait to see how she did when she went on her journey. She’d be a monster.

She’d taken over training Cranidos, Tirtouga, Anorith, and a Lileep of her own, to expand her methods while supervised by me. The Lileep training mostly saw her copying my method with a few adjustments.

When training was done and the pokemon were all fed I gestured for Yolanda to follow me back. We passed Dennis, Jackson, Missy and A.J. all working with some of their personal pokemon, I paused to watch them for a while. Missy’s Rhydon stood out to me.

It was handling the gravity training Missy was doing with it rather easily. I saw that A.J was watching said training rather enviously; apparently, he wanted to put some of his pokemon through the same regime. I’d have to read him in or perhaps supervise Missy teaching A.J. how it was done while Yolanda watched on.

I nodded and waved to Missy to catch her attention. “You interested in evolving your Rhydon?”

Missy’s head furiously bounced up and down. “Yes!”

I chuckled. “Alright, I think they’re at a good enough level that you’ve gotten as much from this training as you can. I’d keep training moves that you want them to naturally know now before it gets too difficult with another evolution slowing it down for him, otherwise, I might stencil in a time to see about getting it all set up.”

I rubbed my chin. “We’ll need a travel kit, and the whole weekend for it.” I glanced over to where the earthworks were for the future volcanic region I’d have the Growlithe and Slugma move into. “Or we need to wait another week or two.”

Yolanda noticed where my eyes had flickered, and her breath hitched. I winked at her but everyone didn’t notice. A.J. tilted his head again. “Huh, Bughead was right! Your eyes do twitch!”

“Bughead?” I asked before shaking it off, he probably meant Bugsy. “What do you mean twitch?”

A.J. squinted angrily, and his eyes spasmed. “Like that,” he said. Jackson, Dennis, and Missy all snickered as I blinked in surprise.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Damn you Bugsy… no they’re not twitching I’m just… winking,” I said.

“Huh,” A.J. said. “Looks like they’re twitching.” This time the others didn’t restrain themselves as Yolanda and I glowered. Damn, Flint’s genetically narrow eyes and A.J.’s bluntness.

I reached out and flicked him on the forehead, and he grumbled.

“What was that for?” he said.

I shot him an unimpressed look, and he stared for a long moment. I could almost hear the gears of his mind grinding together.

“Oh! That was rude wasn’t it?” I nodded slowly. “Oh sorry then!” he said, now chastised.

I shook my head and waved him off deciding to leave that where it was. Yolanda walked alongside me her hands drifting up to pull at her eyelids. “There’s nothing wrong with your eyes,” I said causing her to cough and nod.

“Right! So, does the Rhydon evolution require a volcano?” she asked.

“Yup,” I said, deciding to allow the shift in topic for now. “It requires that you build up clay and fire it while it is slathered to a Rhydon’s body. I theorise that the shape you use can change the armouring of the later pokemon, but evolutionary energy will smooth out some issues.”

“Oh?” Yolanda said.

I nodded. “I studied a lot of older armour styles that medieval knights used in the past.”

“Medieval knights?” Yolanda asked, her head tilting to the side.

“Huh?” I said intelligently back. Oh right, they wouldn’t have had access to that in normal school, would they? “Oh, so before the war there were a number of different regions. Some of them had different styles of trainers and warriors that roamed their lands. Kanto and Johto both favoured wearing leather armour, which I took a bit of inspiration from, but I mostly looked to the trainers that encased themselves in steel armour.”

“Steel armour?” she said curiously.

“Tar?” said Terra with a gleam in her eyes.

I gestured towards my room. “I have a number of drawings I made up from back then. I think I still have them. We can go through them together if you’d like.”

“That would be nice,” Yolanda agreed. “But I’d love to hear more about these knights! What did they do?”

So I told her about the knights of Kalos and Rota, both places that I knew still held to certain knightly traditions. How they lived by a code and mostly favoured steel-type pokemon. She seemed rather interested by it all. When I was done and had some cereal made up for us both she sat next to me in a thoughtful silence. I left her to her thoughts and instead turned on the television.

I chewed my cereal while eying the television that was on in the lounge room. The morning news hosts were detailing what had occurred around Kanto in the past twenty-four hours.

I was amused to notice that some of the more serious incidents, like the attempted theft in Hollywood were rather sparse with details.

Details that I was privy to thanks to starting the morning these days by reading the news feed from the Guardians.

The thefts themselves had been linked back to a couple that were rather odd in that they had decided they wanted to make an ominous house. For that they enticed Murkrow to come to their house with pokefeed. They’d even set up a bartering system that saw the Murkrow able to trade small items to them for more food.

This had escalated until the Murkrow started handing in money to the couple. The couple themselves had thought nothing off it. They’d ended up accidentally teaching a murder of Murkrows to steal pokemoney however, resulting in the pokemon attempting to raid a bank’s security van.

I had no doubt that tonight’s news report would be much more humorous in tone than this mornings serious take on the event. The police themselves were only just learning all of the details and sequence of events.

“You really have to know a lot of different things to make strides with pokemon don’t you?” Yolanda said, speaking up after the last few minutes of silence.

“Hmmm?” I said, turning back to her and considering how the conversation had been going. “Oh, yeah, it helps if you have more experiences to draw from. Thankfully, there’s a lot more access to information these days. The pokenet was fairly new when I started, so most of my research was done at the library after school. Nowadays you can get information with the click of a button.”

Salvadore tilted his head but didn’t say anything.

I grinned at Yolanda. “That being said you can discover a lot of new things without having to go too far, but there’s always more to learn! It makes things so exciting doesn’t it?” I tilted my head at her childishly.

She beamed back at me. “It sure does! I can’t wait to put everything you’ve been showing me into practise properly with my own team!”

I chuckled, and she collected up the dirty plates and spoons before depositing them in the dishwasher. She turned back to me with a wry smile. “You know there’s no way you're going to be able to take me and not Salvadore for this Rhydon evolution right?”

That drew Salvadore out of his musings.

“Huh?” he said taking a swipe at his empty bowl. At his side, Munchlax burped happily and slid the empty bowl towards Yolanda.

I chuckled. I could also think of a number of professors and their assistants that would love it. I’d let that be a consideration for future Brock.

Today I had to go and support Surge while making sure Will didn’t cheat. Or, more preferably, that when he cheated, he got caught and punished.

For that, I was going down to Vermillion to Surge’s Gym.

Or as Surge liked to call it, the Thunderdome.

The Thunderdome of Vermilion City was located in the southern part of the city, along the coast. A position that Surge always lamented due to how exposed it was.

I’d always thought of it as a good position due to accessibility.

In the games, it had been blocked off by some hedges, but in reality, it was a sizeable part of a boulevard that met at a long wharf where people could dock boats. There was even a ferry that dropped people off at various points around the city. The river, further allowed the city to utilise the ferry and have a system in place. Numerous waterways led into canals in the rich part of town while the industrial sector was further in and closer to the hills and forests.

That gave Surge no end of delight. The rich were unknowingly in a terrible position should the war ever break out, while the industry was better defended.

I didn’t have the heart to point out that the rich people owned those factories and refineries.

The Thunderdome itself was another gym that had seen refurbishment since the last circuit. Surge had apparently thrown his winnings from betting big on me against Lance into his Gym.

This was shown with the entry being a smoothly paved walkway that led towards a wide entrance. The roof was slanted and had a slash tracking back on itself, so that the roof and entrance looked like a giant thunderbolt striking the ground.

I walked around to the back. On the roof, I saw some flickers of movement that had me pausing. “That you Janine?” I asked aloud.

Janine appeared by my side. “No, I was running a ground patrol, but don’t worry, the people on the roof are ours. We have people that have also taken up overwatch positions.”

I flicked my eyes up to the building Surge and I had raided weeks ago. There was a certain delicious irony in using an observation base of Team Rocket to defend against them.

We’d also claimed a few other rooftops just to guarantee it. Team Rocket would after all know all about that base’s point of view.

I glanced over a few other rooftops and found some people standing atop and waving flags obnoxiously. “Having them pose as Surge fans?”

Janine shook her head. “Some of them are supportive without knowing they are part of a larger organisation. They think they are performing something called a tailgating party on the rooftops.”

“Surge! Surge! Surge!” chanted one group.

“Thunder! Thunder! Thunder!” chanted another.

I tilted my head. “Are they… competing with each other?” I asked. I could see a few trails of smoke. “Do they have barbecues up there with them?”

Janine nodded. “Indeed, they are, and yes they do. I’ve found them to be very useful idiots. Some have even taken it upon themselves to ‘claim’ other rooftops for their group.”

I glanced at the three groups and scratched my chin. “How are they telling each other apart?”

Janine’s lips twitched upwards. “They don’t; it is extremely amusing to watch, but it works to keep any unwanted parties from taking the rooftops. They are also watching the other roofs as much as they are the projections they have set up to watch the match.

“Huh, neat,” I said. A flash of light announced Sabrina’s arrival.

Janine twitched and threw a kick, only for Sabrina to raise a finger and for Janine to halt. Janine flexed her own aura, and the psychic energy broke. Sabrina took a step back, and Janine slowly lowered her leg.

“I could have hurt you, you need to be more careful!” Janine chided.

Sabrina considered Janine before inclining her head. “My apologies, I did not know you were present when I teleported to Brock’s location.”

Janine blinked. “Oh… I thought you had been trying to tease me.”

“If I wanted to tease you, I’d just tease you,” Sabrina replied. “But I do not wish to.” Sabrina flicked her eyes over Janine and the younger girl tensed up. “I like your outfit, it looks nice on you and suits you.”

Janine gaped. She’d obviously not been expecting that. She shuffled from foot to foot. “Oh, thank you?” she said, squirting at Sabrina as though looking for the trap.

I coughed, reminding the girls that I was there. “Right, I’m not sure what this is beyond awkward teenage antics.”

Janine huffed at me. “You’re a teenager as well!”

I smirked. “I’m an old soul.”

Janine twitched and glanced at Sabrina for support. Sabrina shook her head. “He is very mature… most of the time.”

I smiled at first, only for Janine to chuckle. I narrowed my eyes and huffed. Right, if that’s how they wanted to play it. I rolled my eyes and waved for the girls to follow me.

I knocked on the back door with the classic shave and a haircut rhythm. It opened to reveal what I could only refer to as a sergeant. He assessed me and the girls before grunting. “Gym Leaders,” he said in greeting. Janine twitched with happiness at being greeted in such a manner, but the man didn’t notice.

“Surge’s favourite beer?”

“Juddumber,” I said easily.

“Surge’s favourite colour?”

“Thunderbolt yellow,” I said.

“Got any weapons on you?” he asked.

“None but my fists and my pokemon team,” I said.

He considered that before sighing like I’d disappointed him. He turned to the girls. “What about you girls?”

Janine smiled charmingly. “I am a third Dan Black Belt in Aikido, and it’s not polite to ask a lady if she is armed.” The man stared at her, and Janine smiled. “I have nunchuck, kunai and some throwing stars,” she said proudly.

“Oh, nice!” he said happily. His gaze turned to Sabrina and she tilted her head in thought.

“I can make you think you are a little girl that needs adult supervision to go to the bathroom.”

The man stepped aside instantly. “Go right through Gym Leader Sabrina and friends.”

Janine clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Blast I should have mentioned my poison mastery instead of going for the straightforward threat.”

Sabrina merely hummed and nodded as she laced her arm through mine.

“I can break boulders with my fists and terrify people with a Glare…” I grumbled.

Sabrina patted my hand. “Those are threats these people are used to. Abstract threats that their minds can’t handle are much more frightening to military types,” she said as we entered another room.

“Ain’t that the truth!” barked a loud voice. I looked up to find Surge in his back training room, sitting on a bench “What you threaten my man with?”

“I told him how I could make him think he was a little girl if I desired.,” Sabrina replied.

Surge snickered at that. “Good one!” He nodded to me and tilted his head towards Janine. “So, you’re little Janine?”

“I am not—” Janine started to say only for Surge to stand up and hold out his hand to her.

Janine seemed to realise how pointless it would be to dispute her size to a man who made grown men look like dwarves. His hand was almost the size of her head alone, and that silenced her as he smiled.

“Nice to meet another young, up-and-coming Gym Leader!” he said amicably. “You got any issues? Come round or call, and I’ll help out! Us Gym Leaders need to help each other out yeah?”

Janine nodded. I smirked up at Surge. “How often has Manny come around?”

Surge’s finger shot in front of my face. “That is not funny! I know he’s playing, but I don’t appreciate his games!” Surge shuddered. “It’s like bootcamp all over again, with having to keep my back to a wall around that man.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t—” I started to say only for Surge to bark a laugh.

“Ha! Don’t let me fool you! I don’t mind a slap on the rear! Ain’t nothing but a compliment!” he said with a snort.

“Ah,” I said eloquently. I shifted and glanced to his pokebelt. “So, you have your pokemon team chosen already?”

Surge sat back down on his bench and hunched forward. “Yup! But if you want to shoot the shit, I’m down. We got another twenty minutes before I got to be out there.”

“What team are you fielding?” Janine asked.

Surge grinned. “Nah, I ain’t rookie enough to say it or even write it down.” Surge tapped his temple. “Gotta be careful with things like that. I have strategies set up though, don’t you worry!”

I nodded. It was a reasonable suggestion. “What are you going to do if he has a Claydol?”

“Hmm that is the biggest threat, ain’t it?” Surge said. “I have a pokemon or two that have options for it though. Depends if he thinks he is going to send those out first. I think he will start with his—”

We traded suggestions and speculation on Will’s team. I’d shot Janine a look during this discussion, and she’d shaken her head, indicating she hadn’t been able to find Will to sneak up and learn which pokemon he was fielding today.

Supposedly, he was going to teleport to the front of the Gym at the start of the match. He’d been rather vocal about the Kanto Gym Leaders not letting him teleport onto the podium and trying to drum up support for this.

Despite some talking heads bringing it up on their shows a lot, not even the Cerulean sisters had lowered their dark emitters to allow him such extravagance.

When it was time, Surge stood and led us towards the tunnel that had three doors at the end. One led to the stands, one led to the podium, and the other led to a Gym trainer area that Surge expected us to sit in.

Surge turned and nodded towards us before moving through the central door. Janine blurred away into the stands, not that I expected her to remain there. It was more than likely that she’d be roaming throughout the entire Gym.

Sabrina and I turned to the leftmost door and walked into the box that overlooked the battlefield. I noticed a number of televisions that allowed the gym trainers to watch the match from multiple angles, along with the glass front that separated the trainers from the stands.

I claimed a plush chair with more than enough room for Sabrina and myself to sit.

“Goooooood evening, ladies and gentlemen! It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Vermillion City Gym, or as we locals know it.” The announcer paused and put a hand to his ear, and the crowd roared the answer.

“THUNDERDOME!” they chanted.

The announcer nodded. “I’m Mayor Quimby and Lt. Surge has given me the pleasure of introducing the combatants for this match! I hope you’re all ready for a good fight tonight! Please remember not to climb up the poles around the sides of the battlefield, as those poles are there for your safety!” he said, indicating a number of large poles that had small prongs sticking out of them.

“What are those for?” I asked.

“They appear to be attachment points for the barrier projectors,” Sabrina said after considering the poles.

“That’s only half right,” said the Gym Trainer who had opened the door for us. “The Gym Leader’s more serious battles run the risk of shorting out the barriers and putting people in danger. So we installed earthing rods so that the lighting hit the machines if it gets fired off at a bad angle. With the pylons, it doesn’t hit the barrier or run the risk of bringing down a section of barriers.”

“That’s happened before?” I asked.

“Once,” the man said. “The Ace trainer was good about it though and waited for the barrier to be reset so the crowd could be safe.” The man worked his jaw, and a dark look crossed his face. “Somehow I don’t think that Will would care; he might even aim to short them out.”

“Yeah,” I said. I glanced towards a section in the middle of the battlefield, directly underneath the referee’s podium. “You have something set up in case he tries to Mean Look, stall you out for an advantage?”

The man nodded. “Oh yeah, we’re not letting him pull that shit.” I grunted, and the man blinked before realising why that would annoy me. “Oh shit sorry man. It was pretty badass watching you carry your pokemon out of there like that. How heavy do you reckon he was?”

“About two hundred or so,” I said casually.

The man nodded and gained a thoughtful look. “Huh, and you picked that Aggron like it was a child…” He considered me. “If it wasn’t for the Trick Room… you’d have gotten your pokemon out of there, wouldn’t you?”

I nodded but frowned. “Yeah…”

Had I been impacted by that, or had Mewtwo been hindering me even then? I had dark energy coursing through me… but it was a Legendary pokemon at the end of the day, and if my encounter against Moltres had taught me anything, Legendary pokemon were different. Some of their abilities were outright bullshit.

“—this corner the man of mystery! So much so that we don’t even know his town of origin! The masked Challenger! Give it up for Will!”

I was surprised to see a number of people rising to their feet and boo loudly.

Surge, as ever, had been extremely vocal in his opinion of Will’s battle against me and that had transmitted to a lot of his supporters.

The diehard fans of Will were once again present, but they were easily shouted down.

The Mayor chuckled and shook his head halfheartedly before gesturing to the other side. “And now! Your big bad Gym Leader! The man who makes women swoon wherever he goes! The thundering storm of Kanto! Lieutenant Surge!”

The Gym darkened only for the tunnel to light up faintly illuminating Surge. Around the Gym the earth rods suddenly jolted with lightning and a harsh zap shot between them caused a jolt of lightning and a rumble to fill the room.

The Gym trainer from earlier shot Sabrina and me a smug look. “They also work like Tesla coils and add some serious cool factor, no?”

I chuckled and nodded.

Surge stepped out of the tunnel and locked eyes with Will. His grin stretched his face, and I leaned forward as he strode towards his podium.

The crowd went nuts, cheering for him. He strode through them and raised his hands out to the side, allowing people to high-five him and clap him on the shoulders as he marched past them. I was pretty sure someone threw underwear at him but those vanished so quickly that I wasn’t sure if I had just imagined seeing them.

The announcer nodded to Surge and then waved to the crowd. “And now! I hand over the show to our referee, please give a round of applause to a representative from the Indigo League! Referee Timothy!”

I sat up at that and noticed the mild-mannered auditor standing in front of everyone. I shot the Gym trainer I’d been talking to a curious look. He grunted. “If it came down to us letting something cheap through, we wouldn’t let it ride. Surge reached out to the League for a neutral ref.”

“Ah,” I said in understanding. “To be fair, I think Dennis made the right call as much as it frustrated me. I don’t doubt that Dennis was hurting having to do that but did his job very well.”

“Yeah… well we couldn’t be that impartial,” said the man with a dark glower at Will.

“Thank you!” Timothy said, with a surprisingly powerful oratory tone.

He raised his hands to both Will and Surge. “Gentlemen it is my, and the League’s hope that we will have a nice clean match!” He pointedly looked at both men before nodding to himself, ignoring how both of their lips twitched into dark smirks.

“This match will be a standard Ace match with six trade-out options allowed! Any dodges performed by the trade-out will result in penalties with the severity including the loss of said pokemon from returning to the battle! I will be calling it if I think a pokemon cannot battle anymore! I don’t want any accidents or cripplings with this match!”

The nearby trainer snorted, and I got the feeling Timothy was calling out Surge more than Will with that last statement.

“With that said! Both trainers! Select your first pokemon!”

Surge and Will selected their pokemon.

“Trainers! Are you ready?” said the referee.

Both men nodded, and Surge leaned forward slightly. Will perked up, and as the flags dropped, I had an ominous premonition. Will’s eyes weren’t visible behind his mask, but I got the feeling they were glowing.

Will revealed a Mr Mime that leered across at Surge’s revealed Jolteon. I rubbed my chin in thought.

That was a good matchup. Lots of speed, utility, and some powerful matchups if Will had gone for Starmie, Exeggutor, or something from the Slowpoke line such as Slowbro or Slowking.

My awareness became hyper-focused as I watched each moment crawl forward.

“Hit him!” roared Surge with a gleam in his eyes as he punched forward. Jolteon began to spark and I saw it twitch and blur forward.

As this was going on, Will clenched his own fist in front of himself. “Protect!“ he said instantly.

Mr Mime crossed his arms in front of himself, and Protect formed up causing the oncoming thunderbolt that Jolteon was in the middle of to slam face-first into the barrier.

Jolteon staggered at the impact as the electricity washed over the Protect impotently.

The Protect dropped away, and Mr Mime leered at Jolteon. “Confusion!” Will said with a hand extended as though he was imploring his pokemon. Mr Mime’s fingers twitched back and forth in a no-no-no gesture. Jolteon twitched only to the snake itself.

“Shake it off Jolteon! Bite them!” Surge commanded.

Jolteon lunged to the side and gnashed its teeth. I cursed as the Pokemon hurled itself to the side of Mr Mime instead of locking its fangs on the other pokemon.

“Calm Mind,” said Will happily.

“JOLTEON!” roared Surge, “I will have you up on insubordination! If you’re dizzy always lunge at the one in the middle dagnabit! Missiles go!!” he ordered.

The edges around Jolteon’s body bent forward and glowed with green bug energy before lancing out with Pin Missile.

“Mr Mime do your best! Reflect it!” he said a light sheen of a barrier forming up in front of his pokemon only for the Pin Missile to stab straight through it like bullets through cheap glass.

Mr Mime took the hits and staggered to the ground. His head dropped as he knelt gasping in pain.

“That’s it!” Surge said. “Now Bite him!”

Jolteon lunged, its jaw glowing darkly, only for Mr Mime’s head to snap up with a sneer as a fist encased in dark energy of its own slammed upwards straight into Jolteon’s jaw, sending the pokemon sailing away.

“Excellent draw in Mr Mime! Control the pace with another Confusion!” Will ordered causing Jolteon to take another hit. Interestingly, Mr Mime was already acting before he’d even spoken.

“He’s psychically connected to his pokemon isn’t he?” I tilted my head. “He’s being very inconsistent with how he gives orders. What’s up with that?” I asked.

Sabrina nodded and I clicked my tongue.

Sabrina made a so-so gesture. “It is a sign of him not being used to projection like that. He has some skills as a psychic but it is not something he is used to using. Most of the time he only starts off that way as he has time and feels safe linking his pokemon. When he is flustered, he reverts to speaking orders.”

She inclined her head towards me. “As shown when you fought him. There was too much risk of you disrupting him with some of your pokemon. He knew you had lots of pokemon that had dark-type moves or something that would daze him. You were able to blindside him with your Kleavor’s Stone Axe’s special ability. He was too focused on fighting well to take in the entire field. Right now, he is using it to give orders faster but he is also ordering with his voice.”

Sabrina narrowed her eyes. “He is more assured of himself against Surge, so instead of hiding his commands, he is going for speed, which is not a terrible idea as Surge will otherwise sweep him with how fast his pokemon move.”

I clicked my tongue at that as Jolteon staggered. Surge narrowed his eyes and raised a pokeball. “Return Jolteon, we’re not dancing to his tune let’s shuffle it up!” Surge selected another pokemon as Will had his Mr Mime perform another Calm Mind quickly.

Another pokemon appeared on the field a moment later. “Let’s rock Ampharos! Use Electric Terrain!”

I whistled; that was a different order.

“Mr Mime! Use—” I watched as Will spoke, only for his pokemon to already be moving. Now That I was aware of it, I couldn’t miss the faster reactions occurring with Will’s pokemon.

Mr Mime used another move that buffed itself up. Part of me was pleased, as I suspected that it was a third Calm Mind which wouldn’t offer as large a benefit as another move would have. It did make me worried for how hard that Mr Mime would hit.

Surge seemed just as aware of this however as he smirked. “Light em up!” he barked.

A moment later, a spark blazed atop Ampharos’ head. Sabrina suddenly reached out and put a hand over my eyes. I had a moment to open my mouth only for a blinding Flash to blaze out of Ampharos.

Mr Mime, Will, and everyone in the stadium cried out in shock.

Sabrina dropped her hand and shook her head. “Apologies, I couldn’t delay. I have seen Surge do that before.”

I nodded and ran some Dark energy up to my eyes to get rid of any other residual after images from the Flash.

Will had been caught out and his attention seemed to waver. Heh, it seems like Surge had gotten him twice with how Will had linked himself. That was if his mask didn’t block it? Was it like taking a double flash bang? I really hoped so. I grinned when I noticed tears trickling under the mask on Will’s face. Nice one Surge.

“Baton p-pass!” Will slurred out, holding out a pokeball towards Mr Mime.

Instead of trading out with the closer pokeball something must have gone wrong; as Mr Mime, still rubbing at his eyes returned to his pokeball, only for another pokeball, notably not the pokeball Will was holding out, opened.

“No!” Will gasped as his Alakazam appeared on the field, unfolding itself from its meditative position to stand.

The crowd roared their approval. I grinned. “Hmmm, Surge just forced Will’s strongest out onto the field.”

Will bared his teeth, and I noted there was wetness trickling under his mask. So, it didn’t block it as the crowd cheered for Surge.

“Psychic!” barked Will. His pokemon raised up its spoon as blue energy built up around Ampharos. Alakazam flicked its spoons, and Ampharos was hurled to the side.

“DP!” snapped Surge causing his pokemon to erupt in purple energy aorund itself, disrupting the Psychic and dampening the impact as it hit the wall. I breathed out in relief. Damn, that had been close.

“Good reactions,” I said before glancing around. “Anything from the others?” I said, checking my transceiver.

Sabrina shook her head. “No, it doesn’t seem Will has had his hand forced as yet.”

I grimaced. Will was starting out quite strongly here, wasn’t he?

“Again!” ordered Will.

“Blast him!” snarled Surge. From Ampharos’ maw, a ball of energy was built and fired straight at Alakazam.

“Teleport,” Will said causing his pokemon to vanish to the side and out of danger.

Will smirked only for the expression to vanish as the beam bore down on his position. He flinched for a moment before the barriers lit up and absorbed the attack.

Will sighed in relief, then he straightened and waved a dismissive hand towards the gasping Ampharos. “Finish it, Psychic!” he said, making sure his pokemon did not close with the electric pokemon.

This time, Ampharos was hurled straight into the wall with nothing to lessen the impact. It went down and Surge clicked his tongue as he withdrew his pokemon. “You did well, bud,” he said before locking eyes with Will. “You’re a slippery one ain’t you?”

Will glowered. “I’ve drawn first blood, as it were? No?”

“I saw you flinch,” Surge said with a smirk. Will glowered at him. Surge selected another pokemon. “This is way too early for anything. After all, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”

He threw out his next pokemon, and I settled in for the fight, wondering how Surge would win.