"Koizumi will attack first, Ash second. Begin!" The referee raised both flags as the randomizer display settled on the arena's overhead screen.
"Go, Ariados!" Lenny released his first Pokémon, the spider-type unfolding its long legs as it landed across from Ash.
Ash's eyes narrowed slightly. The level reading on Ariados was modest, solidly late near-championship tier, but something underneath that reading didn't match. A second layer of energy, dense and unstable, pulsed beneath the surface.
He filed it and moved on. Stalling now would only give Lenny room to think his way out.
"Rhydon."
The Poké Ball opened on its own at Ash's quiet word, and Rhydon's massive frame thundered into existence, letting out a bellow that shook dust from the upper stands.
"Here we go," the commentator called. "Ash brings out his Rhydon, a rare and powerful Pokémon, against Koizumi's Ariados! What a matchup to open this final!"
Lenny's expression soured immediately. Rhydon's Ground typing eats my Poison advantage alive. First strike penalty, and now this.
"Earthquake."
Rhydon slammed both fists into the ground three times in succession. Cracks spiderwebbed outward from the impact point, and the entire arena floor buckled and resettled into uneven, broken terrain.
"Incredible! One move and the whole arena's terrain has changed!" The crowd roared its approval. This was exactly the kind of spectacle they'd come for.
Lenny adjusted fast. "Ariados, Poison Sting, blanket the ground around Rhydon."
A spray of purple needles rained down, coating the broken terrain in a haze of toxin. It wouldn't do much against a Ground-type directly, but it would make any approach costly, and more importantly, it kept Rhydon's bulk from getting close enough to finish things in one hit.
"Dig."
Rhydon sank smoothly into the cracked earth without disturbing a single patch of ground around him, vanishing completely.
"Did Rhydon just... disappear into the ground without leaving a trace? Is this another of Ash's self-created techniques?"
"He buried his own Pokémon," Ferb muttered from the stands, leaning forward. "No tunnel, no displacement. That's not standard Dig."
"Forgot his own student's skillset," Sam said dryly, watching Lenny's panicked scanning of the arena. "He should know what's coming."
Lenny didn't. "Ariados, keep moving, full speed, don't stop!"
Ariados scrambled into rapid, erratic movement across the arena, looping and doubling back, trying to deny whatever was tracking it underground any clean read on its position.
Ash watched, unimpressed. "If this were an actual Dig, that might work. My Rhydon doesn't dig tunnels. He swims through stone like it's water."
The strike came from directly beneath Ariados without warning, Rhydon erupting from the ground mid-stride and driving a fist into its abdomen.
"Chapter," went the sound of impact, soft tissue meeting hardened knuckle, and Ariados sailed backward across the arena.
It landed, flipped, and rose again like nothing had happened.
"That's... that's not possible," the commentator said. "Rhydon's attack should have done significant damage. Ariados looks completely unaffected!"
In the stands, murmurs of suspicion rippled outward.
"That's not normal recovery."
"Definitely not legal recovery."
Ash's Sharingan spun, reading the spider's internal structure with clinical precision.
There it is. Black, unstable energy threading through Ariados's nervous system, the same general signature he'd seen in Mewtwo's gene-splicing, except crude, unrefined, clearly assembled without any concern for the subject's long-term survival.
Team Rocket work. Lenny's been dosed up by people who don't care if his Pokémon survives the season.
The healing wasn't healing at all. It was forced cellular regeneration, burning vitality reserves to patch damage instantly, the same fundamental principle behind the Sea Crown, just sloppier and far less stable.
"Ariados, Tackle!" Lenny called out, getting his composure back now that his card was working.
"Spider silk first," he corrected, pivoting. "Bind it!"
Ariados sprayed a thick web around Rhydon's bulk, wrapping coil after coil in an attempt to immobilize him before he could vanish underground again.
"Roar!" Rhydon flexed both arms and tore through the webbing like wet paper, closing the distance to Ariados before it could react.
"That's not possible! That speed, with that body mass—"
"It's Soru," half the stadium said in unison, the explanation already common knowledge among anyone who'd followed Ash's tournament run.
Lenny's expression cracked with genuine confusion, which told the whole stadium something uncomfortable about how little he actually understood his own borrowed power.
"BOOM." Rhydon's fist connected again, sending Ariados skidding hard across the cracked terrain. The black energy flared visibly beneath its exoskeleton, recovery kicking in once more, but slower this time. Noticeably slower.