The opening matchup looked ridiculous on paper. Travis sent out Metagross, while Sabrina once again started with Abra. Anyone looking only at size and evolution would have expected Metagross to crush it.
The crowd backed Sabrina anyway, and before long, they were proven right.
Abra evolved into Alakazam during the battle, and Metagross simply could not overpower Alakazam while Sabrina was adding her own psychic power to the fight. Once Metagross went down, the rest of Travis's team followed one after another. None of his Psychic types had reached quasi–Elite Four tier, and none could match Sabrina's Pokémon head-on.
By the end, Travis had burned through all six Pokémon just to take down two of hers.
Alakazam was not one of them.
"Travis's Starmie is unable to battle! The winner is Sabrina!"
The stadium erupted before the referee had even finished.
"Psychic Queen! Sabrina! Psychic Queen! Sabrina!"
Reiji watched from the waiting room and shook his head. "These people are insane."
If Sabrina had never gotten involved with Team Rocket, she probably could have gone very far in the League. It was not as if nobody there was capable of beating her; Giovanni had simply gotten to her early enough to shape the way she saw the world.
Trying to straighten that out now might already be too late.
The next match brought out two more Trainers Reiji knew: Rudy and A.J., both of whom he had shared drinks with when they first arrived at the Trainer Village.
Reiji remembered A.J.'s ace particularly well. Sandslash had already reached Elite Four tier, but Rudy was a bad opponent for it. Trovita Gym favored Water types, and if Rudy had an Elite Four-tier Water Pokémon waiting in reserve, Sandslash was going to have a miserable time.
The battle turned fierce almost immediately. Pokémon were knocked out on both sides, their portraits turning gray across the big screen, and neither Trainer managed to build much of a lead. By the time they reached the final stretch, A.J. was down to his last Pokémon while Rudy still had two.
Everyone knew the real fight was about to begin.
A.J. threw his final Poké Ball.
"Go, Sandslash!"
"Slaash!"
Sandslash hit the field and released the full pressure of an Elite Four-tier Pokémon. Rudy's battered Ninetales nearly collapsed on the spot, its legs giving way as it stared across the field.
"Come back, Ninetales."
Rudy recalled it immediately. Ninetales had just beaten A.J.'s Scizor and was already exhausted and injured; leaving it in against Sandslash would accomplish nothing.
That Scizor had been strange enough. Fire should have been devastating against it, yet even x4-effective attacks had struggled to put it down. Whatever A.J. had done during training, Scizor had developed an unusual resistance to Fire.
None of that mattered now.
Rudy reached for his last Poké Ball and threw it.
"Go, Blastoise!"
Blastoise landed with a heavy thud.
Reiji leaned forward when he saw it. "A.J.'s in trouble."
Sandslash had shown absurd physical strength from the first time Reiji met it, but this was an Elite Four-tier Blastoise. Against an opponent at the same tier with a clear type advantage, brute force alone would not be enough.
The referee started the battle.
Sandslash curled into a ball and launched into Rollout, tearing across the field before Blastoise could line up a clean shot.
"Blastoise, Hydro Pump!"
Water blasted from its cannons, but Sandslash changed direction too quickly. Hydro Pump ripped across the battlefield behind it without landing.
Blastoise eventually pulled into its shell and started rolling as well. The two Pokémon raced around the field, slamming into each other, separating, and coming back for another pass until one collision finally landed square.
The impact exploded through the stadium.
Both Pokémon were hurled backward and crashed into a transparent wall of energy surrounding the battlefield. Pale pink hexagons flashed across its surface for an instant before fading again.
Reiji shot out of his seat.
"What the hell?"
He knew that pattern.
The protective barriers used during the Masters Eight had looked almost identical, built to keep spectators safe once battles became too destructive for an ordinary stadium. Even the hexagonal surface reminded him of Aegislash's King's Shield.
Seeing technology like that here was not something he had expected.
If the League was already developing equipment based on Pokémon from Kalos, then how far away was Galar really?
That thought immediately led somewhere worse.
Leon.
Ash had only just finished the Orange Archipelago. If Leon suddenly appeared now at anything close to the strength Reiji remembered, that would not be a fun surprise.
It would be a horror story.
"Reiji-nii?"
Shun walked onto the waiting-room balcony behind him. "You've never seen one before?"
Reiji sat back down. "You know what that barrier is?"
"I only found out recently. Bruno told me about it." Shun nodded toward the battlefield. "It's new League technology. They copied the principle from one Pokémon's signature move and built it for high-level battles. It keeps the shockwaves away from the audience without blocking the view."
"So that's all it is."
Reiji gave an awkward laugh.
He had almost convinced himself that the timeline was collapsing.
At least it was not Dynamax. Mega Evolution showing up early would have been strange enough, and even Z-Moves would have been easier to accept than Leon suddenly walking into the stadium.
Shun sat beside him, and they turned their attention back to the battle. The barrier blocked the shockwaves completely, leaving only the occasional tremor under their feet to show how violent the fight had become.
Sandslash and Blastoise kept going for more than ten minutes.
Rudy eventually won, just as Reiji had expected.
A.J.'s Sandslash had reached Elite Four tier, but probably not long ago. Blastoise was more experienced at that level and had the matchup advantage on top of it. Even so, Sandslash handled Water much better than Rudy had anticipated and pushed Blastoise hard enough that the win came at a real cost.
Rudy advanced, but his ace was badly worn down. It could probably still overpower something below Elite Four tier, but sending it straight into another battle against an equal would be a much harder decision.
The spectators did not care about the damage.
They had just watched an Elite Four-tier fight in the top 64.
The protective barrier had kept the worst of it away from the stands, but nobody could mistake the shaking beneath their feet. By the time Rudy and A.J. left the field, the whole stadium was still buzzing.
Reiji stayed on the balcony through several more matches. None reached the same level, but he kept watching and taking notes, paying particular attention to the winners. Anyone who advanced could end up across the field from him later.
Eventually, the speakers called his name.
"Reiji, please report to the battlefield. Reiji, please report to the battlefield."
Reiji closed his notebook and stood. "That's me."
Shun watched him head for the door, then remembered something Bunta had told him.
"His brother's Electivire reached Elite Four tier..." he murmured. "I wonder if Reiji-nii knows."
There was only one way to find out.
Shun got up and followed. He was not missing this match.
...
"Reiji! Reiji! Reiji!"
The cheering started the moment Reiji walked onto the field.
"Entering from the green side is Reiji of Mikan Gym! His support is as strong as ever, and now that we've reached the full six-on-six stage, everyone wants to know whether we'll finally see the Poliwhirl that stunned the crowd at the Indigo Plateau Conference!"
"And entering from the red side is Taro of Kinnow Island! After fighting his way through round after round, Taro has built a strong following of his own and become one of this tournament's biggest dark horses. Let's see what both Trainers have prepared!"
The referee waited for the field selection to finish. The cursor stopped on the grass field, and the stadium machinery began replacing the previous battlefield.
"This match will use the full six-on-six format," the referee announced. "Once either Trainer has lost three Pokémon, there will be a five-minute intermission and the battlefield will be selected again."
Reiji and Taro both nodded and reached for their Poké Balls.
The whistle blew.
"Go, Electivire!"
"Go, Poliwrath!"
The two Pokémon landed almost together, and the pressure rolling off them told everyone in the stadium what kind of match they were about to see.
The commentator reacted immediately. "Electivire and Poliwrath! Both of them are giving off Elite Four-tier pressure! We have another Elite Four battle, but this is a terrible matchup for Poliwrath. Electivire has the type advantage—will Reiji switch, or is he really going to fight this out?"
"Elite Four! Elite Four! Elite Four!"
Taro stared at Poliwrath.
So it had evolved.
More importantly, the pressure coming from it was every bit as heavy as Electivire's. There was no mistaking that kind of presence.
Poliwrath had reached Elite Four tier too.
Reiji gave a resigned sigh. There was no point trying to avoid the matchup now.
"Poliwrath, don't hold back. Ice Punch!"
"Electivire, Thunder Punch!"
Poliwrath clenched its fists and rolled its shoulders, but instead of charging immediately, it pulled water around its entire body. The sphere began spinning faster and faster until the surface froze solid.
Cracks spread through the ice a moment later.
The frozen shell split apart, revealing Poliwrath inside wearing a fitted layer of clear ice armor. It covered the body and torso while leaving the arms and legs free, protecting Poliwrath without interfering with the explosive movement it relied on in close combat.
Ice gathered around one fist as Poliwrath raised its hand and crooked a finger toward Electivire.
Come on.
Electivire stared at the armor for a moment, then answered with an eager roar.
Taro was much less comfortable.
He knew about Poliwrath combining its full-power bursts with Protect. He had never seen this.
The ice armor gave Reiji another way to cushion the recoil and incoming damage without spending energy on Protect every time. Taro could back out of the exchange, but one look at Electivire told him how well that suggestion would go.
"What is that?" the commentator shouted. "Armor made from ice? Is this a new technique?"
Blaine recognized the idea immediately from his seat in the stands and smiled.
So Pryce had been busy.
That stubborn old ice specialist really could not stand being outdone.
Amber noticed his expression. "Grandpa Blaine, is Rai-nii in trouble?"
"Not at all." Blaine chuckled. "He's doing just fine."
If Pryce wanted to turn this into a competition over who could teach Reiji more, Blaine was perfectly happy to play along. Retirement could use a little entertainment.
The commentator suddenly raised his voice again.
"They're going in!"
Poliwrath and Electivire charged without waiting for another command. Neither slowed as they crossed the field, and Ice Punch crashed straight into Thunder Punch.
The collision shook the stadium.
Even through the protective barrier, seats rattled beneath the spectators and the ground bucked hard enough to throw people off balance. Inside the field, the impact swallowed both Pokémon in smoke and tore open the grass beneath them.
The referee's Pidgeot took off and beat its wings, clearing the haze.
A crater had been blasted into the middle of the battlefield, with cracks spreading out from it in every direction. Poliwrath and Electivire had been thrown to opposite sides of the field and lay near the barrier.
Most of Poliwrath's ice armor was gone, but the broken pieces still clinging to its body showed that it had done exactly what Reiji wanted. The armor and the water around Poliwrath had absorbed part of the collision, letting it commit everything to Ice Punch without spending extra strength on Protect.
The clash had been brutal, though not quite as destructive as two fully developed Elite Four-tier moves colliding. Neither Ice Punch nor Thunder Punch had reached that level of mastery yet, which was probably the only reason Poliwrath's armor had held together long enough to protect it.
Poliwrath tore away the shattered remains and forced itself back to its feet, chest heaving after putting everything into that first exchange.
"Poli..."
Across the field, Electivire got up as well.
Its arms were still working. Unlike Ejiro's Electivire, it had trained well enough that throwing a full-power Thunder Punch had not wrecked its own joints.
Its back had taken the punishment instead.
The impact had launched Electivire straight into the barrier with nothing to cushion the collision, and the pain showed every time it tried to straighten up.
Poliwrath did not give it time to recover.
It stamped one foot into the ground.
Earthquake rolled across the battlefield.
Electivire tried to answer with the same move, lifting one foot to slam it down and cancel the incoming shockwave. The moment it put its weight on the injured leg, however, pain shot through its body and it dropped to one knee.
"Vire!"
That was enough.
Poliwrath was exhausted too, so its Earthquake had nowhere near full power behind it. Electivire simply had no way to defend itself in its current condition, and it could no longer use its own Earthquake to meet the attack head-on.
The ground was already breaking beneath it.
[End of chapter]
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