Lucky could feel it, deep inside. It was getting easier the more he did it. The last few days had been exhausting, but it had been worth it. Somehow, back on that weird island, Lux had shown him this power that had been inside them all, all along, and now thanks to her strange ability, he had learned a new move. More than one new move, in truth. The croconaw breathed deeply as he swayed to and fro, twirling and spinning.

“[That’s it Lucky, Work on that Dance. if you can’t make it faster, use it to evade instead! Both if you can!]” His trainer fist-pumped the air. “[Get ready!]”

“[Is that a Dragon Dance or a Swords Dance?]” Becca asked her opponent. “[Monty! You too! Don’t slack off, you have to show that croconaw how powerful you are! Bring the rain! Dragon Dance!]”

“[I don’t know, but I don’t think it matters. It’s a Lucky Dance! You ready boy? Now hit it!]”

“[Monty, Dragon Dance into Rain Dance, then Hyperbeam!]”

“[Lucky, hit it with your… your Lucky Beam!]”

Lucky flared his power, feeling the energy inside burst out, filling his whole being as he spun and twirled. He would do it for his trainer. He would do it for himself. And he would do it for her. He spun and shot into the air, rotating slowly until he came level with Monty’s head. He took a deep breath, and violent liquid energy exploded from his gullet to plough into his target.

Monty was no slouch either. The gyarados knew his trainer by now; it had only been a few days in the wilderness, but she was perfection itself as far as he was concerned. She fed him, she brushed him, she instructed him and she let him learn as she lead him forwards. He would show her his power. He leaped into the air, sheer willpower sending him twenty feet up, his head clearing the tallest of trees as he came to rest, hovering. Lightning flashed as the clouds rolled in, empowering him. Rain fell in hot sheets, cleansing his body, warming him. He knew that, thanks to Becca, he could sport in those clouds if he wished, but for now he had a croconaw to show up. He leaned into his power, took a deep breath and let loose. A torrent of white-hot energy exploded from his mouth and spewed forth into the distance.

The innocent hill never stood a chance as two scintillating beams of energy struck it, vaporising the sod and rock alike with a roar of pressure. A cloud of ash and fire rumbled upwards, folding in on itself like a mushroom as it rose into the sky.

Emerging from Ed’s shadow, Guy’s eyes flared crimson and a purple sphere of energy expanded out from the ghost pokemon’s form, encircling the clearing where his trainer and their friend stood. Sod, rocks and gravel pelted the psychic shield, flaring pink and yellow as the detritus bounced off.

Ed and Becca winced a bit, sharing a look.

“[Ziggy! Surf it if you can. Tully, can you take any of that rain and seed the cloud? See if you can, ah, damp it down a bit.]”

Ziggy felt his own power flaring as he mentally dug for it. It would be a worthy opponent to face such a maelstrom, but he didn’t need to do it alone. The wind and rain would work for him. He pulled their power in as the now-familiar surge of water came under his sway. Using that, pushing it to obey his will, he flowed through the forest in a tsunami, ramming trees and rocks alike aside, rushing over the lip of the glowing crater as the swell filled it, feeling the surge of energy as he exploded through the still-fluctuating cloud of smoke and ash, the summoned water drowning the fires beneath. The heat seemed to draw itself up out of the ground, surging through the waters that surrounded him, to enter his body. He watched in awe as his fur began to glow a pure, golden light.

As he hopped off the diminished wave on the other side, he turned to look back at the precisely straight line his course had taken, leading all the way back to the clearing. He stood taller now, in some ways more slender, but obviously more muscular and powerful. A pity, he would miss the zigging and zagging… maybe he could just make more little straight line trips? The linoone looked up into the sky as Tully dragged the storm above with him to encircle and tame the fireball mushroom cloud that was still slowly petering out above them.

The water surrounding the pair was slowly draining into the small pond where the hill had been. Soon it would clear as the silt settled, but for now… Lucky looked down at his fur, stained and muddy. He shook himself, flinging mud and detritus all around, but it only marginally improved things. He shrugged and powered back to the clearing, speeding across the nascent pond so fast his paws didn’t touch the bottom.

“Lucky! Do you think you can wash me off?” Ziggy called as he came to a halt. One spray of cold but refreshing water later, and the linoone felt much better with himself. He stood up straighter as the rumble of thunder finally faded and Monty’s storm passed. This trip into the wilderness had been fruitful, but it would remain to be seen how much.

“Lucky Dance?” Becca asked, a small smile adorning her face.

“Well what do you want to call it?” Ed pouted, arms crossed across his chest.

“I think Lucky Dance is a good name for it,” said Sly, scratching his nose. “It’s not quite Swords Dance and I don’t think it’s Dragon Dance. I have no idea where he learned it but whatever that not-quite-Hyperbeam is, it’s part of it. He’s gotten faster over the last few days too, and more powerful. All your pokemon have.”

The two trainers and their willing accomplice ranger had spent the last few days working from sunup to sun down with their pokemon, fighting each other, fighting the native wild pokemon and fighting the geography. New tricks with current moves had been discovered, and several new moves had begun to mature. They’d taken the champion’s advice to heart, and it showed.

“Yeah. I, ah, hope we don’t get in trouble for that,” Ed said, peering at the long, straight stretch of denuded forest leading to the new lake where a hill used to be.

“Eh, it’s not like we did it on purpose. Besides, maybe we found it like that.” Becky spread her arms wide, fluttering her eyelids innocently at the two boys. There was a sudden crash of somebody stumbling through the undergrowth, and a figure appeared at the edge of the clearing.

“Wahahahahaa! The exuberance of youth!”

A shortish, portly man sporting a large bushy beard strode confidently into the clearing, laughing heartily, his forearms bare and peeking from the camo short-sleeved jacket he wore over his yellow dungarees.

“Fear not, trainers, if you were not powerful enough to deal with the consequences, then the local alpha pokemon would have taught you the error of your ways long since!”

“Y-you’re Wattson!” pointed out Ed. “I thought you were in Mauville!”

“Wahahaa! You are correct, I am indeed gym leader Wattson! Have no fear though, my gym is safe in the hands of my daughter.”

“L-local alpha pokemon?” Becca looked worried.

“You’ll face them soon enough I’m sure, but before that, young ones, we have a battle to get to. I was wondering if it would actually be worth my time, but I see I won’t be disappointed.” Wattson narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Three on six, or however many each of you have! Three each of my personal team versus all of yours! Toe to toe! Claw to claw! How does that sound? Wahahahaa!” He leaned back, placing his hands on his belly and laughing resoundingly.

“Any other rules?” asked Sly, as he shooed various pokemon — wild and caught — out from what was left of their training arena in preparation of refereeing.

“Switch as you like, I know I will, though if your pokemon are down when you pull them out, I’ll count that as them being fainted. How many badges do you all have?”

“Umm, just the one here,” said Ed, his voice small.

“Three, but they’re technically from last season, though I did refresh one of them.”

“And yet I hear that is the least of your accomplishments,” Wattson stated, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

“Well they did kind of go up against Team Rocket,” added Sly, trademarked grin back on his face. “More than once. And then they’ve been thwarting Magma and Aqua’s latest plans, most recent being the reason they’re here rather than at your gym, sir.”

Wattson scratched his bushy beard, then took up station at one side of the clearing. “We’ll see, we’ll see. Young Lance was rather insistent I teach you the error of your ways! This should be an electrifying experience! Raichu, go!”

Not even bothering to wait for a proper introduction, the gym leader threw out his pokeball, and a lively looking raichu took the scene.

“Ladies first?” offered Ed. Becca rolled her eyes.

“Fine.” She thought for a moment, then threw a pokeball. “Bart, you’re up! Keep yourself grounded, mix it up.”

“Wahahaa! Put some swagger in your step, Raichu, make this fight a blast!”

Bart slung low to the ground, claws out, as Raichu hopped and twirled from paw to paw in exaggerated fashion, drawing the sandslash’s eye as the raichu manoeuvred his way around the clearing, making a “come get me” sign with his tail.

“Sandslasssh!” Bart shouted, hurling great globs of ground at the infuriating electric mouse in a sand attack. Raichu used the chance to hide from his opponent, taunting confusingly from inside the cloud, and retaliated with a powerful Focus Blast. It caught Bart upside the head, Bart shook himself to clear it, then dove beneath the ground and exploded upwards under Raichu’s feet, hurling the raichu skywards. Bart then rolled into a ball and flung himself up higher with a skywards rollout as the raichu hurtled back down past him, before Bart followed up with a devastating Bulldoze, cracking the ground as the pair slammed into it.

Raichu wasn’t letting the sandslash have things all his own way, however, retaliating with a glittering, sky-splitting Thunder attack.

When the rolling peals of thunder faded and the lightshow had ceased blinding onlookers, two unmoving forms could be seen at the centre of the battle. Slowly, Bart’s form rose, but then slumped over as Raichu pushed him off to stand on shaking feet. He then saluted Wattson with his tail and dragged the unconscious sandslash off to one side, tending to Bart’s wounds once there.

“Electrifying! That’s one! Electrode, rollout!”

“Umm, Sissy! Take it away!”

The electrode scowled, then grinned evilly, dirt sent flying as it spun in place before rocketing forwards at the mawile. Sissy, however, swung her forepaws downwards letting free a blast of pink energy as she sailed upwards and over the electrode with the power of her Fairy Wind. She spun and tumbled as she did so, blasting the electrode again and sending it bouncing off into some trees, where it ping-ponged about before eventually coming to rest from spinning horizontally in place.

“Trode trode, electrode!” There was no mistaking that tone for anything else than “oh, so that’s how it’s going to be!”

“That’s it! Keep clear! Keep clear!” Becca shouted frantically. She watched as the electrode redoubled his attacks, becoming a blur of motion that time and again slapped the mawile as it went past. It got Sissy on a leg, an arm, her jaws. Becca’s hand strayed to Sissy’s pokeball, but then a hard, glinting look came into her eyes. “Sissy, if you can’t take this, it’s no shame in showing it!”

“Ah, young trainers, this is not so electrifying.” Wattson shook his head as he watched the mawile get pummelled. “Electrode, prepare to end it.”

There was a flash of silver as the large ball-like pokemon impacted Sissy’s head, sending the mawile flying, where she crumpled into a heap, tears bursting from her eyes. Electrode spun to look at Wattson, back to Sissy, then back to Wattson again, who nodded. Electrode looked troubled as he rolled up on the mawile, at a fair clip — after all, he was going to rollout all over his opponent — but just flinched as Sissy turned away, wailing. And then her second set of jaws opened wide in a vicious backwards grin, and she Crunched for all she was worth. Shaking the ball to and fro, she growled fiercely.

“Harder! You’ve got him! Take him out.”

Wattson’s huge smile had returned, but there was a touch of malice there. “Ah, young one, so sneaky at your age! Electrode? You know what to do.”

“Sissy! Quickly!” Becca panicked, considering her options. Electrodes and Voltorbs had their one signature move, and Sissy was right in the thick of it. Throw, or double down? A throw would just move the explosion slightly further away and remove all the damage Sissy could do. She scowled. “Harder,” she said softly, her gaze like ice, gripping her fists so tight her knuckles were white. Sissy closed her eyes, she knew what was coming.

The explosion dug a crater in the field. When the smoke and dust cleared, both pokemon were out cold.

“Forgive me, young one, that is one of his favourite moves, even if it does not benefit this match so much. I underestimated you, that was indeed an electrifying performance! But this match is far from over; go, Magneton!”

Becca cursed, but took a ball off her bandolier. She whispered to it, then threw. Chompy appeared on the scene, causing Wattson to raise an eyebrow. The blade-tailed reptile instantly covered the field in a black hazy mist, disappearing into it.

“Protect, Magneton, into Rain Dance. Clear the field.”

The hardy viper appeared and disappeared, biting, slicing, crunching as she leapt out of and back into the haze, but as the rain started up, Becca recalled her, then threw out Monty. The sea-serpent roared as he appeared, causing tremors in the floating motion of the magneton.

“Aqua Tail,” Becca ordered. “And… Hydropump!”

Monty roared, spinning around. He tail-slapped the magneton, sending it careening skywards before taking a deep breath and sending a torrent of water bursting at the creature… who suddenly split into three, the blast passing harmlessly through the middle.

“Don’t hold back now! Light him up!” Wattson ordered, and punished Monty with a powerful sonnet of lightning strikes called forth from the rainclouds. The sea-serpent was revealed slumped in a heap, twitching, when the rumbling finally faded away. He roared, weakly, but Becca shook her head.

“It’s okay buddy, you did good.” She turned to Wattson. “I’m pulling him out,” she said as the red return beam enveloped his form, “we’re nowhere near a pokecenter and I don’t want him injured. He’ll be fine with some rest up tonight.”

“Wise words, young miss. Now send out your next pokemon, I see you have at least one fresh ‘mon whilst I have two that are battle-worn. Unless you plan to forfeit.”

“If… if you don’t mind, I won’t field Chompy — my seviper — any further, she’s a poison type and is a poor match up to your magneton, unless you’re going to send out your raichu again? Otherwise this is my last pokemon.”

Wattson nodded slowly. “A fair trade, given the circumstances.” He turned to look the girl square in the eye. “Gym leaders exist not to merely test the strength of your pokemon, your convictions nor all your skill in battle, they are also charged to judge your temperament, and it is a poor trainer indeed who asks their partners to put themselves in danger for a mere mark of approval.”

Becca breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, then threw out Shadow. “This is a hard match up for you, pup, but I believe in you! Bring the thunder!”

The manectric burst onto the scene in a cloud of thunder and lightning, already galloping at close to top speed. He barked loudly, calling a ringing barrage of lightning down from the receding Rain Dance as Thunder took effect. Magneton played keep-away but returned the attack in kind, sending down pot-shot lightning strikes that the manectric swiftly moved to avoid.

“You’ve got to get up close somehow, Shadow!” called Becca desperately as she watched the circus. The electric hound loped around the clearing, juking left and right as lightning strikes fell all around in a tit-for-tat play of attacks.

Skidding to a halt, the hound narrowed his eyes and growled up at the floating creature, before bunching his muscles and, moments ahead of another attack, leaped upwards in a vertical charge. He slammed past the magneton, only just missing as the creature twirled like a penny on edge. Tumbling end-over-end, his claws glowed and spat sparks as he flexed his electro-magnetic powers against thin air itself, and leaped downwards. This time, though, the magneton was ready, and split apart once more into three, surrounding the manectric. As Shadow passed through, a heavy barrage of lightning strikes arced earthwards, and the manectric dropped.

“Shadow!” Becca cried, and slumped, before running to her partner. Shadow whined pathetically, but licked her face, Becca’s korviknight blue hair frizzing extravagantly as the pup’s residual charge flowed through it. “You did good, buddy. We lost, but you did good.”

She drew her arm swiftly across her dark blue eyes, wiping the tears, before recalling the last of her pokemon and standing up.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice hoarse and strained. She wiped her hand across her face again, sniffling. “That… that was a good battle.”

“Wahahahahaa! Well fought indeed! Rest yourself, young trainer, we shall discuss it later. Young sir, are you ready to step up?”

Ed gulped, took Becca’s recently vacated spot, and grabbed onto a pokeball. “Ready when you are,” he said, though he wasn’t sure who he was trying to kid.

“Let’s start off with an easy one for you, if you’ve been fighting your rival! Manectric! Out you come!”

“Easy, he says,” grumbled Ed. “Alright, let’s pick… Guy! Give him nightmares!”

“Gen-gen-gen-gen-gen…” chuckled Guy darkly, as he sank into his own shadow, and disappeared from view.

Battle was joined.