"All right! Go, Jolteon!" the blond yelled, gesturing dramatically.

"Flareon!" the redhead yelled.

"Vaporeon!" the blue-haired one rounded out, imitating his brothers' dramatic posing.

"Onto the battlefield!" they all yelled at once—and all at once, the three 'eons named leaped out and landed on the battlefield, poised to charge just as soon as the order was given.

"I'm guessing they've been working on that," Yellow said to Mikey, not taking her eyes off of the field.

"You have no idea," Mikey muttered, rubbing his face.

"Double Team!" Yellow ordered out.

" Quick Attack " Karen called out to her Murkrow

" Aaaa, Eevee use helping hand."

Pichu's cheeks started sparking as she multiplied on the battlefield; Eevee yipped an affirmative, starting to glow with the energy of Helping Hand meanwhile shot at high speeds toward the three eevelutions.

"Helping Hand!" all three brothers yelled.

"Thunder Shock!" the blond added.

"Ember!" the redhead rejoined.

"Water Gun!" the blue-haired brother called.

"Dodge!" Yellow yelled. "Chu-Chu, take the Thunder Shock!"

Pichu nodded and jumped into the air to meet the electrical attack.

"Use Thunderbolt on Vaporeon when you hit the ground!" Yellow ordered.

"Acid Armor, Vaporeon!" the blue-haired brother yelled.

"Jolteon, Pin Missile!" the blond called.

"Dodge! Mikey, start helping!" Yellow shouted, fists clenched, attention riveted on the battle meanwhile Murkrow countered Pin's missile work, Swift.

"Ack, right! Eevee, Helping Hand and then Growl!"

It was a start, and it would wear them down, at least—Chu-Chu was hitting the ground running, aiming right for Vaporeon—

Which melted down into a puddle on the ground, causing Pichu to miss completely.

"What was that!?" Yellow asked, floored.

"Vaporeon can change its molecular structure to match that of water," the blue-haired brother said. "He can dodge any attack you throw at him!"

Really. "Chu-Chu, use Thunder Shock on that puddle."

"Dodge it, Vaporeon!"

The Vaporeon re-solidified and leaped out of the way in one smooth motion—

"Quick Attack!"

Murkrow slammed into Vaporeon's side, knocking the wind out of it—

"Flame Charge on that Pichu!" the redhead yelled.

"Dodge it Chu-Chu! Mikey, come on!"

"Quick Attack!" Mikey yelled.

"Pin Missile!" the blond yelled.

"Quick Attack!" Yellow hollered.

"Flame Charge again!" the redhead ordered.

The three-way battle was quickly turning into a disorganized mess—none of them had any chemistry with fighting in tandem and they were having to hold up Eevee. The Pokémon were all in a tangle, and they were getting harder to see in the dust being churned up by the battle. They needed a way to slow the opposing team down—think, Yellow, think—

Aha.

" Eevee, cover your eyes!" Yellow called. "Chu-Chu, Sand Attack, Frenzy-style!"

Trainer and Pokémon alike paused to give him a nonplussed stare—Mikey looked kind of offended that Yellow had given an order to his pokemon — meanwhile Karen snapped her fingers causing Murkrow to fly up.

And then Pichu squeaked her understanding before ramping to her hind legs and screaming at the top of her lungs.

" Piiiiii !"

Eevee figured it out first, buried his face underneath his paws, and a moment later once Pichu's actions became clear.

Pich had a pit dug out in the center of the battlefield by the time Yellow called her off, and pretty much everyone within ten feet of the battlefield was covered in a fine layer of dust by the time it settled.

It also left three very confused, very blinded 'eons in its wake.

"Okay!" Yellow said, grinning. "Mikey, you're in this too— Chu-Chu, Thunder Shock on Vaporeon!"

"Tackle Jolteon, Eevee!" Mikey yelled.

The brothers scrambled to fight back—their 'eons shot attacks blindly—

An Ember grazed Eevee.

Micky gasped at the sight of the fire staying—Eevee was burned—Pichu took down Vaporeon but got Muddy Water to the face—Jolteon was using Discharge—

( ~ Boom ~ )

Flareon crashed onto the floor as Murkrow's Shadow Ball slammed into it.

"Wait until the Discharge hits, then use Refresh!" Mikey called.

"Chu-Chu, up!"

Chu-Chu jumped over the major part of the electrical attack—the airborne bolts hit but didn't do nearly as much damage as they would have on the ground.

Eevee braced himself, took the attack—

And then glowed the burns and the electricity dancing along his fur disappearing.

"Refresh gets rid of any status conditions," Mikey told Yellow, grinning now. "Eevee! Use Return!"

" Quite the battle strategy," Karen said with a smile as Murkrow's dark pulse tore through the battlefield with Flareon as its target.

Meanwhile, Yellow had a puzzling moment of wondering just why Mikey was forfeiting the match—was even more so when Eevee started glowing, charging across the field, and aiming for Jolteon—

"Dodge it!" the blond gasped—

Too late—Eevee connected with Jolteon, hitting it so hard that the brothers across the way had to dodge out of its way as it went flying. Jolteon skidded along the ground and didn't get back up.

The dust of Dark pulse cleared revealing a knocked-out Flareon causing Karen to smirk.

Sometimes playing with these low-level trainers is a joy in itself.

" Burrowing Electric Impact !" Yellow called out as Pichu blasted up from the ground using Dig in conjunction with Quick Attack.

Pichu's cheeks glowed as she released a bolt of electricity attacking Vaporeon front and center.

Pichu landed, bounced a little—lifted her head when she realized she'd won.

"And the three 'eons are unable to battle, so Karen, Yellow, and Mikey win!" Someone called.

"All right!" Yellow cheered, jumping up and down before running over to Mikey, who looked stunned. "Did you hear that? We won!"

"We did," Mikey said blankly. "That's…wow…."

"VEE!" Mikey's Eevee cheered, running circles around Pikachu and Murkrow before launching itself at Mikey, practically glowing—

No, it was glowing—it hit Mikey's chest—

And then he was holding an entirely different Pokémon.

"Espyyy!"

"Woah!" Mikey—and pretty much everyone in the vicinity—gasped. "What—"

"Eevee…evolved, wow," Yellow noised, checking her Pokédex—frowning when it came up empty since her Pokedex didn't have the national Dex, unlike Austin's Pokedex.

"That's an Espeon," Karen said. "It's a Psychic type. They evolve—" Snap her fingers. "They evolve when they reach max happiness during the day! I bet you that's why it evolved!"

"But," Mikey noised, confused. "I thought you didn't want to evolve."

"Es," the Espeon chirped, before snuggling up against Mikey's neck and purring.

Karen was looking back and forth between Mikey's brothers. "Hey—I think I know. You three were only shilling Jolteon, Flareon, and Vaporeon, right?"

The three brothers looked at each other, and their Pokémon…started rubbing their heads sheepishly.

"You can't fault us for being passionate about our Pokémon," the redhead said.

"No," Karen said. "But I bet that's why Mikey's Eevee didn't want to evolve—it didn't want to evolve that way."

"Max happiness, huh?" Mikey murmured, rubbing Espeon's back—and then hugging it. "Me too."

Yellow smiled, and looked at Chu-Chu "What do you guys think? Maybe someday?"

Pichu squeaked with excitement.

" Kyaaaaa !"

A scream came from the party causing everyone to turn to it.

And suddenly everyone froze as they saw a giant figure wearing a black cloak, a mask of ice with two black eyes and a black mouth, and long white locks of hair.

Everyone looked confused at this mysterious figure who suddenly teleported out, appearing and disappearing without a word.

Yellow was the most confused as she could sense that man was Austin in disguise but why?

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

[ Stone Town - Forest ]

Austin in his masked man disguise sighed as Ditto removed himself from Austin's body with help from Clefable.

" Did you find out what you were hoping for ?" Lucario curiously asked while Ditto was nervous that he had disappointed his trainer.

Ditto's mouth whimpered as he hugged his trainer's leg who just smiled and said.

" That would depend. What did that woman feel when she saw me ?"

" Confusion and intrigue."

" No shock," Austin asked with Lucario shaking his head.

'Looks like Karen isn't one of Masked Man's children in this world. That's one more headache that is avoided. With team rocket and Mewtwo here, I don't want one of the powerful trainers to be added to that list for now.'