Bronzong fired at the dragon, as master ordered. Came the mechanical voice in his mind.

What the-?

"Checkmate."Cynthia's clear voice was heard from the other side of the battleground, as the apparently-illusory forms of Garchomp, none of them even registering the effect of the much-weakened Confuse ray, delivered successive dragon-claw attacks on Bronzong, who was thrown off from his position, tumbling, bruising his way through the grassy floor.

"Flamethrower." Cynthia calmly ordered.

"Gaaah!" The several illusory forms of the dragon roared, before throwing in a frightening amount of scorching flames from their maw, all of them converging into Bronzong, causing an explosion, proving that all of them were, original flames, and not mere illusions.

"But…. How?" Lucian almost stammered. "They were illusions. They have to be."

"If you say so." Cynthia mused as the apparent non-illusions faded, revealing a single Garchomp, standing in the middle of the arena, looking downright formidable and menacing. "Use fire blast."

"Chomp!" The great dragon summoned its inner flame to a superlative degree, before throwing a formidable fire blast, head-on toward the fallen Bronzong, who looked already exhausted.

Light screen. Lucian commanded hurriedly, as Bronzong created a light screen in front of itself, as the wall of fire slammed into it. Just like with a light screen, it reduced the attack power by at least fifty percent, which in the case of someone like Bronzong, became a little more than ninety percent.

"Incinerate. Don't let it get control."

And Garchomp did the same. With the efficiency and control that would send any self-respecting fire-type into a massive inferiority complex, Garchomp kept on throwing in a continuous shower of never-ending torrential flames, right ahead on the light screen, which served its purpose perfectly.

"Your flames will not burn my Bronzong." Lucian returned.

Cynthia smirked. Of course, Lucian was right. Light screen was a perfect counter to a special attack like Incinerate, and there was a little more than zero chance that it would burn someone as powerful as Bronzong. But that didn't take into account the other part of the equation.

"Who said anything about burning it?" Cynthia asked.

And sure it was. Bronzong was safe from the scorching flames, courtesy of the powerful light screen. But as powerful as the psychic defense was, it lacked certain fundamental attributes.

Like the attribute of protection against raw, overwhelming heat.

Not a good thing for a pokémon with part-psychic typing.

A thin smile twisted its way through her lips. "Sunny day."

And overwhelming sunlight descended into the stadium, increasing the power behind the Incinerate attack by another overwhelming fifty percent, enough to melt its way through the defenses.

"Enough!" Lucian bellowed. "Use payback, and return with hyper beam!"

It was a testament to Bronzong's incomprehensible innate strength that the bronze bell-pokémon was able to use Payback, doubling the remnants of his declining power reserves to form a powerful hyper beam, aiming it straight at Garchomp, who was currently using incinerate on him. The effects of Sunny day only hastened the process.

"Use substitute, and finish it." Cynthia calmly ordered.

The solar beam came in and smashed into a life-sized illusionary decoy created by Garchomp, created at the cost of his power, as the real dragon vanished again, only to appear right behind Bronzong at an incomprehensible speed, before spearing the two blades into the steel-type from behind.

"Solo meteor." Cynthia calmly muttered as Garchomp belched out an orange blob onto Bronzong, covering it with a bright, sticky orange semi-solid, before throwing it high up into the air.

"What was-?" Lucian's words remained behind inside his throat, as Bronzong exploded alongside the orange substance, as smaller Draco meteors began to fall to the ground, one of them being the form of smoking and completely unconscious and broken Bronzong.

"Bronzong is unable to battle." The commentator announced. "Garchomp wins the battle. The first point to Cynthia."

The crowd cheered madly.

One down. Two to go.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

[ Lavender Tower - Ruined Graveyard ]

" C...can you do that? Can you truly help me in getting my revenge ?"

Buried Alive smiled at Austin's question as he answered.

" Of course, I can, but you have to help me."

" Fear !"

Fearow screeched at Austin as it spread its wing as if it was intimating Austin who just tried to calm the angry avian down.

Buried Alive frowned as it missed a black shadow escape from Austin's feet.

" Fearow, I know you are mad but please just calm down."

Fearow grumbled and looked away while Austin's turned to Buried Alive and asked," Team rocket is an international criminal organization, how can you help me get my revenge against them ?"

" Hehehe, Boy! You don't get it, I am a servant of the void, the darkness that Arceus banished for this plane of existence. You think I can't help you get your revenge."

Austin took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down before asking, " Why did want to help me ?"

" When I look at you, I see myself when I was but a naive fool who was struggling to get my justice against the world for taking my precious Eevee."

' I have to say this guy is a really good manipulator. Putting on an act that would make me sympathize with him and subconsciously trust him due to our similar circumstances.'

Austin closed his eyes before saying," What do I have to do to get my revenge ?"

Buried Alive smiled as he outstretched his hand which began to be covered in a ghostly aura.

" I want you as my vessel. You will become the strongest. All this power you see before you, all of this will be yours as long as you become my vessel."

' So that's what his plan was ?'

Austin took a step forward as he asked," Will I become as powerful as you ?"

" No, U will become even stronger."

Buried Alive replied with a smile as Austin took a step forward with Pidgeot and Fearow screeching while outstretching their wings.

( ~ Sigh ~ )

Austin suddenly opened his pokeballs as he returned the two avians causing orbs of white to form around them that suddenly disappeared.

Austin returned Wortortle, Charmeleon, Krabby, Ninjask, and Bulbasaur

Walking alongside Pikachu, Austin took a step forward as he returned Shedninja.

Seeing Austin's discomfort from the white hand, Buried Alive willed it to back away from his vessel.

Buried Alive's smile never left his disgustingly disfigured face as he anticipated every moment of Austin getting closer and closer.

Just a foot away, Austin. suddenly stopped causing Buried Alive to frown.

" What's wrong ?"

" Can I ask you something?"

" You may."

" Did you meet Giratina before or after you died ?"

Buried Alive's eye widened at Austin's words before it could even respond, Austin's jacket opened up revealing a miniature Clefairy whose entire body was covered in a psychic aura.

With stored power, Clefairy converted his belly drum and Butterfree's Quiver Dance into pure psychic energy that had only one target.

Buried Alive and more importantly the alpha haunter.

Clefairy's eyes glowed an ethereal blue as it released all the psychic energy in an omnidirectional burst.

The walls of the graveyard were blasted away as Buried Alive and the alpha shiny haunter were launched back into the wall.

( ~ Boom ~ )

Scizor emerged from Austin's shadow using pursuit as he clashed with the white hand using brick break.

The floor beneath Scizor's feet cracked as he threw a device with a crystal embedded into it towards his trainer who activated the device suddenly dark type energy flowed out covering Austin and Pikachu who seemed to turn invisible to the ghosts of Lavender Tower.

Scizor mocked the white hand before disappearing into the shadows.