The Left-Behinds
Dec 27, 2018 2:17:29 GMT
Post by Firebrand on Dec 27, 2018 2:17:29 GMT
A/N: This was written as a Yuletide gift for Dramatic Melody, who gave me the prompt of Wally meeting and battling the rival of another generation.
The wind was blowing down from the north again, carrying with it a promise of winter’s icy bite.
When she had arrived here several months ago, the cooler northern air had been a welcome respite from the heavy, humid weather that was a hallmark of long Kalosian summers. But she had been training here for so long that the cool breezes had become far sharper, and they would only get worse. It would soon be time to move on, whether she was ready to or not.
Here atop Kalos’s Victory Road, she had trained for months in the shadows of the ancient megaliths that dotted the landscape, giant boulders deposited here eons ago by a retreating glacier and reorganized by ancient tribes with help from their pokemon. This was the final summit a trainer had to climb before going against the Elite Four, and that meant any trainer who got this far had to be the best of the best. It was the perfect place to wait for a chance to battle some of the finest and most skillful pokemon trainers Kalos had to offer.
And in the long gaps between battles, she had plenty of time to think.
With winter coming on soon, she was going to have to come down from the mountain, one way or the other. But that meant deciding whether she was ready to admit to herself that she wasn’t ready for what came next and go back down the way she’d come, or if she was going to press onward. Towards the League.
She sighed and leaned back against one of the ruined monoliths, jamming her hands into the pocket of her coat. Staying up here much longer wouldn’t be healthy for her pokemon, or for herself for that matter. But she still wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to challenge the League. She couldn’t believe how naïve she had been the first time she got this far, challenging her rival to one final showdown with all of her unearned confidence. For all her hard work, he had been so much stronger, his team taking hers out almost effortlessly. And even he had a hard time against the champion…
The sound of footsteps against the stone path through the ruins shook her out of her thoughts. Someone was coming towards the summit, which meant she had a new opponent. Since she had arrived here, she had managed to build up something of a repartee with the nurse at the center at the base of Victory Road when she went down the mountain occasionally to get supplies. Now the nurse would give her a call when a big group of league hopefuls passed through, to give her a heads up. But the last call had been several days ago, and only two people from that group had made it to her perch. Whoever this was had probably come alone.
She rounded the standing stones and stood in the middle of the path, jutting her chin up at an angle and fixing her face into something she hoped displayed the kind of stoic confidence she had seen so often reflected in his face. The challenger picked his way slowly across the path, and the first thing she noticed was how remarkably clean he was. All of his clothing was a shade of off-white, contrasting with the pale green of his hair. Despite the long trek up the mountain and through the caves, he’d managed to keep his clothes practically immaculate.
Which meant he was strong enough to have breezed through the lower levels of Victory Road. Perfect.
The young man glanced up, vaguely registering her presence for the first time. “Oh, hello,” he said. His voice was soft, almost stolen away by the wind. He turned in a slow circle. “Wow, the air is so clean up here! And the view… wow!”
She palmed a pokeball. “How was the climb, mon ami?”
“Oh, not too much trouble,” the young man said, still staring out at the view. “Are you the one the trainers down the path warned me about? The final trial before the league?” When she shrugged, the young man finally glanced back her way. “I assume you stopped me so that we can have a battle.”
“Oui.”
The young man walked several paces back. “All right. But I warn you, I’m not going to go down easy. My pokemon and I have become strong together.” He took a deep breath and pushed a clump of green hair out of his eyes. “If we’re going to battle, it’s only polite we introduce ourselves. My name is Wally.”
“Je m’appelle Serena.”
“Okay Serena, what do you say to three on three?”
“Je suis d’accord!” Serena palmed a pokeball and hurled it skyward. “Claire, let’s begin!”
The sphere burst open with a flash of brilliant white light, and a large shape spiraled through the air. Its leathery black and indigo wings flapped as it steadied itself and let loose an ear-piercing shriek that rattled the loose gravel of the pathway below.
Wally calmly regarded the bristling Noivern and inclined his head. “So you want to battle in the sky, huh? I’ve got just the partner for that.” He tossed his own pokeball up. “Veil! Show them what we can do!”
A new pokemon appeared, gliding up higher than Serena’s Noivern on large, feathery wings. Blue and white feathers sparkled in the afternoon sun, and the Altaria’s impressive wings caught a thermal rising from one of the fallen monoliths to ascend higher yet. Claire screamed in indignation at this interloper in the sky and braced to engage, but caught herself and glanced back at her trainer for orders.
“St. George’s folly!” Serena called.
“Veil, hold and brace for impact!”
With three rapid beats of her wings, Claire soared up to match Veil, drew back her head, and roared. From her gaping maw came a massive blast of white and indigo light that enveloped the Altaria. Serena tore her gaze from the sky and looked at Wally. “Tough luck, mon ami. When two dragons clash, it’s the fastest one who wins.”
Wally smiled. “Are you sure about that?”
Serena whipped her head back up and saw that Veil had surrounded herself with a glowing barrier, and was utterly unscathed by Claire’s attack. “Let’s turn that attack back on them, shall we?”
“Dive, Claire! Get out of there!”
As the Altaria released its own pulse of indigo light, the Noivern swooped and dove, tucking in her wings and rolling through the air to skillfully dodge the blasts of raw energy. Each time the Noivern tried to reorient itself and fire off another salvo, Veil harried her with another Dragon Pulse from above. The maneuver denied the Noivern a chance to rest, while simultaneously keeping Claire from ascending to the upper air or take aim for a counterattack.
Serena shouted for Claire to keep dodging as best she could, and furrowed her brow in concentration. “Your Noivern is very well trained!” Wally called across the field. “It’s clear you’ve raised it with care!”
“Merci, but this is hardly the time for compliments!” Was Wally trying to distract her? Draw her focus so that his Altaria could score a lucky hit? She knew that Altaria didn’t pack the raw power of a Noivern, but those pulses looked strong enough to ground Claire, so any hit could put her out of the fight. Serena’s mind raced as she reviewed maneuvers, trying to find a way for Claire to get the upper hand again. How was she supposed to challenge the league when this random trainer had her hard-pressed like this?
“Serena,” Wally said. “Take a second to breathe.”
Serena glared across the field. “Are you talking down to me, mon ami?”
Wally shook his head. “Not at all! I just want to make sure you’re okay.” He flashed what was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile. “This is just a battle for fun, right?”
Wally didn’t understand. Of course he didn’t. How could he know that if Serena was having trouble in a battle like this, there was no way she would be able to hold her own at the league against the best trainers in the region? But Wally was right about one thing; she needed to breathe, to take charge of the situation. She was done freezing up, done losing the initiative.
“Claire! Time to stop playing around! Let’s get loud!”
She saw her Noivern’s chest swell as Claire took a deep breath in, and as soon as Veil released another Dragon Pulse, Claire darted out of the way and unleashed a percussive burst of sound that sent the Altaria reeling head-over-tail feathers through the air. “Go high!” Serena called. Her Noivern furiously beat her wings to rise above Veil. Just as the Altaria had managed to regain its equilibrium, Claire sucked in another breath.
“Go on the defensive!” Wally cried. “Don’t let them ground you!”
Veil created a shining barrier around herself, and the Noivern struck again with another ultrasonic blast. The force of the attack caused Veil’s barrier to crack and then splinter into tiny, iridescent shards that vanished as they cascaded to the ground. The Altaria appeared to be stunned after the force of Claire’s attack, and Serena clenched her fist. “Finish this! Show them the true power of a dragon!”
Claire looked skyward and roared, her entire body radiating indigo energy. The brilliant light coalesced and shot heavenward, and Wally realized what he was seeing. “Quick, Veil! Moonblast!” The Altaria’s body briefly shone with a pale light as a silvery orb appeared at the tip of her beak. She launched it towards the swooping Noivern just as the indigo light descended. The pale orb punched through the comet Claire had summoned, gouging out the core and scattering it into smaller shards of energy. Though the Draco Meteor had been weakened, Veil was still bombarded by the remaining shrapnel from the attack, even as the Moonblast struck Claire full on.
Both dragons shrieked as the attacks connected, and they plummeted towards the ground. Wally and Serena quickly returned them to their pokeballs before the impact could do serious lasting damage. Wally glanced across the field. “I think that’s a draw.”
“It was a clever trick, mon ami, but my next two pokemon won’t go down so easily.”
“You call that easy?”
Serena smiled and waved her hand at Wally. “I chose first last time, so I think it’s your turn.”
“Right,” Wally said, reaching into his bag. “Briar, I’m counting on you!” He tossed out a second pokeball, and when the flash of light cleared, a Roserade stood between him and Serena, her arms crossed, but the small barbs contained within her flower-like hands extended.
“I don’t think this round will go as well as you think, Wally,” Serena said as she tossed out her pokemon. “Felix, don’t waste any time!”
Even before the light from her pokeball resolved itself into a physical form, a tongue of fire lashed out, forcing Wally’s Roserade into a hasty retreat. As the grass type darted backwards, the flames abruptly changed direction, angling towards the Roserade. Briar jumped up and back, narrowly avoiding the conflagration. By now, the initial flash of light around Serena’s pokemon had resolved itself, revealing a Delphox with small embers dancing through its lustrous coat.
The vulpine fire type gave Briar no quarter, drawing complex patterns in the air with a smoothed branch of hawthorn, and new conflagrations erupted all around the Roserade. “Keep the pressure on, Felix!” Serena shouted. The Delphox snarled and redoubled its efforts, not giving Briar a chance to even catch her breath. Serena spared a glance at Wally, and saw that the young man seemed remarkably collected. Certainly, he was watching his pokemon with concern, but he kept his composure, and his eyes were narrowed in concentration.
“Go on the offensive!” Wally shouted.
Briar slid underneath a stream of conjured fire, and before Felix could redirect the flames, the Roserade brought her flowered hands together and released a pulsing spectral orb that seemed to drink in the light around it. The orb flew with unerring accuracy and struck Felix in the center of his chest, breaking the Delphox’s concentration and allowing Briar to close the distance between them and leap at the fire type. Briar struck with a quick one-two punch, the poisoned barbs hidden within her roses scoring tiny scratches on Felix’s pelt. Felix yelped in surprise and conjured a pulse of telekinetic energy in the air in front of him, hurling Briar backwards. The Roserade slid across the ground, but turned the motion into a somersault and landed on her feet, glancing over her shoulder to give her trainer a cocksure smirk.
Felix raised his wand to call down another barrage of fiery explosions, but he winced in sudden pain and used his free paw to lightly probe at one of the scratches Briar had made. Serena bit her lip and scowled. Despite its effectiveness, the shadow ball had only been a diversion to get Briar in close enough to poison Felix, and the Roserade had already proved that she could evade Felix’s attacks with relative ease. If Wally managed to drag out the battle, Briar’s poison would eventually weaken Felix to the point where he wouldn’t be able to continue.
Wally seemed to read Serena’s thoughts, because he gave an apologetic shrug. “There’s more to winning battles than type advantages. Briar, keep your distance and stay on your toes!”
“Pas si vite!” Serena said. “Felix, give it everything you have!”
Her Delphox howled and spread his arms wide, summoning every scrap of power at his command to make the air itself erupt into brilliant bursts of flame. Each blast caused Felix to wince, and the slightest movements made the Roserade’s potent poison course through his veins. Felix sensed the direction of Serena’s thoughts and glanced over his shoulder, giving her an abrupt shake of his head. He wanted to finish this himself, not rely on another teammate to pick up the slack.
The fire bursts cast strange shadows on Wally’s face as the battle raged on, but despite the fury of the attacks, Wally’s pensive and calm visage never so much as cracked. He raised his voice only loud enough for Briar to hear him between each percussive boom, and the Roserade responded to his orders without a second’s hesitation.
Wally’s calm unnerved Serena, but not in the way that her friend’s had. His manner had been icy and unrelenting, not even balking in the face of true primal terror that had left Serena frozen in place and given her nightmares for months after the fact. He had calmly called out to his equally terrified pokemon, his voice cracking like a whip to cut through their fear and order them forward to victory. After winning a battle like that, Serena was certain, taking on the League wouldn’t seem nearly so daunting a prospect.
Wally wasn’t like that at all. His calm was like that of still waters running deep, and there was a light dancing behind his eyes as he studied the movements of his pokemon and their opponent, rapidly taking notes on a mental slate. Wally projected calm, but just beneath the surface was an active mind racing through possibilities and stratagems, not at all like the decisive and commanding nature of her one-time friend.
But she had to admit, Wally was pushing her and her pokemon harder than any opponent had in months. Wally might not have been on the level of her former rival and traveling companion, but he was undoubtedly an elite trainer. If she managed to pull off a win in this battle, then maybe, just maybe, she would finally be ready to take on the League…
Felix’s enraged snarl snapped Serena back to the present. Fire blazed from the Delphox’s ears, and the fur around his legs crackled with flame. Serena’s pokemon was pushing himself to the limit, but Briar was proving too dexterous a foe to pin down, even with an unceasing barrage. Serena knew how Felix got when the rage of battle took him, so it was time she took back control.
“Felix! Les fouet!” She saw Felix’s lips pull back from his fangs in something like a grin. His left hand flashed out, summoning a psychic pulse to knock aside one of Briar’s shadow balls. Then he held his wand out to the side, parallel to the ground, and began to move it in small figure-eight motions. A trail of fire followed the end of the stick like a comet’s tail growing brighter and longer with each flick of Felix’s wrist.
Briar seized the opportunity to rush in again, her hidden talons popping out from their sheaths. “Ếclater!” Serena cried, and Felix thrust his left hand out in front of him. The air exploded in a conflagration of light and smoke, and Briar dropped into a slide to get underneath the explosion. Felix whipped his hand down, and another explosion tore up the ground to Briar’s right. She started to dodge left, and an instant too late, Wally saw through Serena’s plan.
“Briar, no!”
But Felix was already in motion, swinging his fiery whip across his body and right into Briar’s flank. The flaming brand struck with a sharp crack and hurled Briar head over heels across the field. Before the Roserade could rise, Felix brought the whip around again, this time cracking it just before Briar’s face, and the grass type tumbled back towards Wally.
The green-haired young man held up a hand. “She’s down! It’s over.” Serena shouted a command at Felix to halt, and the Delphox dissolved the flame whip with a flick of his hand. Wally returned Briar to her pokeball and looked across the field at Serena. “Do you want to call yours back too?”
Serena looked at Felix. “Comment tu te sens, mon ami?” Felix pulled his lips back to bare his teeth in a savage smile again. Serena knew the poison must be causing him serious pain, but he seemed determined to fight on. Serena turned back towards Wally. “He’s not giving up. And neither am I!”
“Then for your pokemon’s sake, I’ll end this quickly.” Wally dropped a pokeball at his feet with no flourish. “Percy, if you would.”
Felix barely waited until Wally’s final pokemon was out of the ball before attacking. He summoned a massive inferno and sent the conflagration hurtling across the field at the new pokemon. Serena only saw the vaguest silhouette of a human-shaped pokemon before it was engulfed in flames, reducing it to nothing but a hazy shadow. Felix sank into a crouch, and Serena could see his back heaving as he struggled to stay upright and watch the fight to its conclusion.
Then to her amazement, the fire engulfing Wally’s pokemon seemed to ripple. The shadow within the blaze shifted, and the inferno simply parted, as though cut by a blade. The figure within the flames moved almost too fast for Serena’s eyes to track, sprinting across the fields as a black aura spread along its arms. It stopped just before Felix, pivoted on one heel, and slashed both of its arms across Felix’s torso as the Delphox struggled to rise.
Felix dropped with a mournful howl, and Serena saw that the black aura that surrounded the blades on the pokemon’s arms was dotted with hundreds of tiny pinpricks of light, like stars in the night sky. When Felix collapsed on the ground, the Gallade briskly raised its right arm in front of his face and then down to the side in an imitation of a dignified fencer’s salute.
Serena recalled her Delphox and clenched her third pokeball. Normally, between Claire and Felix, she could dispatch any opponent who made it to her perch. But she still had one last trick up her sleeve, and it was perfectly suited to taking out Wally’s Gallade. “Celeste! It’s time to shine!”
She cast out her third and final pokemon, revealing a four-legged creature with gleaming silver-white fur and a single black horn that curled wickedly from the side of her head. The Absol braced her clawed feet on the gravel, threw back her head, and howled. Wally nodded slowly. “A good choice. Percy, stay on your toes.”
“That’s not all,” Serena said. “Get ready to experience true power, Wally!” She raised her right wrist skyward, making the black stone bracelet there glint in the evening light. She tapped the iridescent multi-colored stone set into the ring and a streak of light shot upward, arcing over the battlefield to descend on Celeste. The Absol tilted her head back, letting the beam of light strike the stone hanging from the pendant she wore around her neck, and then Celeste was enveloped in a chrysalis of light and wind.
Serena instinctively raised her arm in front of her eyes as the sudden gust blew her hair back from her face. When the explosion of power cleared, Celeste stood before her transformed. Her fur was far longer and more voluminous, having spread out behind her in two tufts that appeared to be almost like wings. Her horn had thickened and curved further, and she seemed to shine with a lustrous inner light.
Celeste tossed her head and screamed at the heavens, summoning another gale-force wind to whip up around her. Wally and his Gallade braced themselves against the sudden blast, and in their moment of hesitation, Celeste focused her psychokinetic power to send the wind howling across the field at Percy.
The wind whipped up a cloud of dust as it screamed through the ancient monoliths, and soon it had gathered a massive wall of debris. Serena could vaguely see Percy move in front of Wally and drop into a ready stance, but then Celeste’s attack hit, and her opponents were lost in the chaotic haze of wind and dust. Serena let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. It was over. She hadn’t yet met an opponent who could stand before Celeste’s raw power after using mega evolution.
And then the cloud of debris contorted in on itself as a force inside created a second, stronger gale. The dust cloud whipped away, scattering gravel and rocks around the field of monoliths.
“Non,” Serena whispered. “Non, c’est impossible.”
Wally reached out and put his left hand on his Gallade’s shoulder. “Well done,” he said. His right hand held a simple wooden pendant that appeared to be hand-carved. A multi-hued stone glimmered there, but that wasn’t what held Serena’s attention.
Wally’s Gallade had changed, the crest atop its head extending and sharpening. The bony green spurs that jutted from the Gallade’s arms had extended into proper blades that bore a wickedly sharp red edge, and a protrusion that looked almost like a cape flapped from the Gallade’s shoulders. But despite the physical changes, the Gallade’s eyes still burned with the same steely resolve it had before its sudden transformation.
“You can use mega evolution?” Serena gasped.
Wally nodded. “My friend mastered the power of mega evolution a long time ago. If I’m going to keep up with her, I need to learn it too.” Serena blinked in surprise. That sounded familiar. Wally took a deep breath. “Come on, Percival! Let’s show them how strong we’ve grown together!”
The Gallade surged forward, the blades on his arms beginning to glow. Celeste danced backwards, the black gem on her forehead glowing with pink-white light. The dazzling pulse shot across the field at Percival, but the Gallade simply ripped through it with his glowing blades without losing momentum, and Celeste was forced to use her horn to stop Percival’s descending strike. Her eyes flashed as she channeled psychokinetic energy into the horn, lashing out with the jagged-edged crescent and forcing Percival into a quick retreat.
They battled back and forth, and with each exchange of blows, every block or parry, the two pokemon caused depressions or craters on the battlefield as the power surging through their veins was made manifest in the physical world. Every strike was accompanied by a flash of light and a concussive burst of sound, to the point where Serena felt as though the battle was being waged in the heart of a thundercloud. The noise of the struggle would have overpowered any spoken commands, leaving Wally and Serena to trust in the training they had given their pokemon and their desire to win to carry them through.
And yet, Serena could feel the same prickling sensation in the back of her skull that she got every time Celeste mega evolved. Every time she saw Percival approaching from Celeste’s blind spot, the Absol moved just in time to block the Gallade. She wasn’t sure if Celeste’s instincts were simply that good or if mega evolution gave them a form of communication that went beyond simple speech and very nearly transcended cognition. All she knew was that when they battled like this, Serena had no need to brief Celeste on strategy or call out any commands. The Absol just knew precisely what Serena’s plans were and acted accordingly.
Celeste’s horn pulsed with indigo light as she shoved Percival backward, knocking the Gallade off-balance just long enough for Celeste to coalesce the energy surrounding her head into a scythe blade of pure light that flew across the ground at the opposing pokemon. Percival’s blades became coated in a black substance dotted with hundreds of tiny glimmering stars, and he slashed clean through Celeste’s attack. With a dexterous flick of his arms, he dispelled the black coating and his blades once again began to glow with harsh white light.
Black energy gathered around Celeste’s horn, but unlike Percival’s, her attack was not marred by glittering pinpricks. Instead, it seemed to drink in the light around it, shrouding the Absol in a shadowy aura. Celeste whipped her head around, and Percival caught the horn on his blade. Celeste’s back legs dug into the ground for purchase as an echoing boom echoed across the mountaintop, the sound magnified by the standing stones. Percival’s eyes narrowed as he pushed back against the attack, the brilliant glare from his arm blades melding with Celeste’s inky blackness. The horn and the blade ground against each other as both pokemon pushed with all their strength.
Percival’s entire body began to glow as the darkness that surrounded Celeste intensified, and the ground beneath their feet began to crack. “Allons-y Celeste!” Serena shouted. “We’re nearly there, mon ami!”
“Don’t give in, Percival!” Wally cried. “I believe in you!”
Serena didn’t know what happened next. All she saw was a rapid series of brilliant flashes and explosions of light in the air between Percival and Celeste, followed by a series of pops, a sudden rush of air, and then a final boom that shook every bone in her body and sent her stumbling backwards.
When the spots in her eyes finally cleared, she saw Celeste collapsed in a heap on the ground and Percival standing over the Absol, exhausted but victorious. A chrysalis of light enveloped Celeste once again, and when it burst apart, Celeste was once again back to normal, without her furred wings or re-curved crest. Percival respectfully bowed his head to Celeste and flared with brilliant light. The glowing figure of the Gallade reached back and flipped his cape with a lazy gesture, and hundreds of tiny streamers of light drifted from his body. When the lights were carried away on the gentle breeze, the Gallade’s white and crimson blades had once again become bony green spars, and his cape had vanished.
Serena couldn’t help but gasp at the simple beauty of the transformation. Every other time she had seen a mega evolution revert, it had been a violent change, marked by a brief flash and explosion. Not even the Kalosian champion could lay claim to such grace, and she practically oozed elegance and refinement from every pore. For Wally and Percival to have so much control over the process… Wally must truly be a cut above.
Percival dropped his weight, and Wally was at his side in an instant, helping to bear his partner up. “You were amazing,” Serena heard him say. “Totally amazing!” The Gallade’s face remained stoic, but Serena could swear she saw the pokemon’s eyes soften under the praise.
Wally returned his partner to his pokeball in a flash of red light, and Serena did the same for Celeste. Wally stepped across the cratered battlefield and extended his hand to Serena. “That was really well done. We haven’t been pushed like that in a battle for a long time.”
Serena clasped his hand and smiled. “That’s supposed to be my line, mon ami. I’ve been up here for months, and no one else has trounced me like you did.” She kicked at the gravel and shrugged. “I thought I was nearly ready to take on the League, but after this…”
“Serena,” Wally said. “You’ve got to be one of the strongest trainers I’ve battled in all of Kalos. If anyone can take on the League, it’s you.”
“You might be League material, but I’m not. Not yet, at any rate.”
“I don’t plan on taking on the League.”
“What?!”
Wally shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “I don’t really want to take on the League. Or not the Kalos league, at any rate. But I got in touch with Diantha through a friend of mine, and I wanted a chance to see how she uses her Gardevoir in action. She offered to meet me in Lumiose City, but I decided I’d do some traveling of my own and spare her the trip. I just want to see her battle, but to do that, she’ll need a challenger, right?”
“Well, yes, I suppose.”
“But the odd thing is, no one has been able to get through Kalos’s Victory Road for months, because apparently a wickedly strong trainer is standing in their way. I figured I might as well see this trainer for myself.” Wally pushed his hair out of his eyes. “Go to the League, Serena. I think you should be the challenger I watch Diantha battle.”
“But what if I lose?”
“Then you just try again!”
“But what if I’m not good enough?”
Wally stared into her eyes, his expression hardening. “Do your pokemon believe in you?”
“I suppose so. We’ve come this far together.”
“And do you believe in them?”
“Well, yes…”
“Then I think that’s good enough, right?”
But was it? When she compared herself to him, her premier adversaire, was anything ever good enough? “Mon ami, I’m not sure you understand the position I’m in.” Serena sighed. “I have this friend. We set out on our journey together, and it became clear to me early on that he was just… better. We went up against things that are too terrifying to recall, and he faced them without flinching. The last time we had a battle was right here, and he swept my pokemon aside without so much as a passing glance. He breezed through the League, because of course he did, and I’m just so afraid that I’ll never measure up.”
“I know what that’s like,” Wally replied. “See, I have this friend too. She’s an amazing trainer, and everything seemed to come to her so easily. She showed me how to catch my first pokemon, and I felt like I was always five steps behind her when I was on my journey. Everywhere I went, people were talking about how fantastic she was. And when something catastrophic happened, she was right there in the breach, putting things to rights. All I could do was watch the heavens tear themselves apart from a shelter in Mossdeep, but there she was, saving the day as usual.” He sighed. “I finally caught up with her right before she challenged the Hoenn League and… she trounced me.” Wally shrugged, his palms turned up to the sky. “But you know, in hindsight, I’m almost glad I lost. She showed me just how much further I have to go as a trainer. Percy and I, and all the partners we’ve met along the way, we’re going to catch up to her someday, and fight as equals.”
“But what if you lose again?”
“Then I lose again. But I’ll know that I lost after giving it everything I had, and that my pokemon did too. And that’s okay, I think.”
Serena nodded slowly. “Has anyone ever told you that you are un homme sage, mon ami? You must think I’m such a fool, waiting around here for months, when I really should have been trying to go forward.”
Wally glanced towards the neighboring peak, where the castle-like edifice of the League building rose from the mist. “There are other mountains to be climbed.” He walked two paces past Serena. “Want to go together?”
“I’d like that.” Serena took one last look around the ancient standing stones that had borne witness to countless battles for thousands of years. But they would not see any more of hers. She followed Wally down the path she had dreaded taking for months, onward towards the League and whatever awaited her there.
The wind was blowing down from the north again, carrying with it a promise of winter’s icy bite.
When she had arrived here several months ago, the cooler northern air had been a welcome respite from the heavy, humid weather that was a hallmark of long Kalosian summers. But she had been training here for so long that the cool breezes had become far sharper, and they would only get worse. It would soon be time to move on, whether she was ready to or not.
Here atop Kalos’s Victory Road, she had trained for months in the shadows of the ancient megaliths that dotted the landscape, giant boulders deposited here eons ago by a retreating glacier and reorganized by ancient tribes with help from their pokemon. This was the final summit a trainer had to climb before going against the Elite Four, and that meant any trainer who got this far had to be the best of the best. It was the perfect place to wait for a chance to battle some of the finest and most skillful pokemon trainers Kalos had to offer.
And in the long gaps between battles, she had plenty of time to think.
With winter coming on soon, she was going to have to come down from the mountain, one way or the other. But that meant deciding whether she was ready to admit to herself that she wasn’t ready for what came next and go back down the way she’d come, or if she was going to press onward. Towards the League.
She sighed and leaned back against one of the ruined monoliths, jamming her hands into the pocket of her coat. Staying up here much longer wouldn’t be healthy for her pokemon, or for herself for that matter. But she still wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to challenge the League. She couldn’t believe how naïve she had been the first time she got this far, challenging her rival to one final showdown with all of her unearned confidence. For all her hard work, he had been so much stronger, his team taking hers out almost effortlessly. And even he had a hard time against the champion…
The sound of footsteps against the stone path through the ruins shook her out of her thoughts. Someone was coming towards the summit, which meant she had a new opponent. Since she had arrived here, she had managed to build up something of a repartee with the nurse at the center at the base of Victory Road when she went down the mountain occasionally to get supplies. Now the nurse would give her a call when a big group of league hopefuls passed through, to give her a heads up. But the last call had been several days ago, and only two people from that group had made it to her perch. Whoever this was had probably come alone.
She rounded the standing stones and stood in the middle of the path, jutting her chin up at an angle and fixing her face into something she hoped displayed the kind of stoic confidence she had seen so often reflected in his face. The challenger picked his way slowly across the path, and the first thing she noticed was how remarkably clean he was. All of his clothing was a shade of off-white, contrasting with the pale green of his hair. Despite the long trek up the mountain and through the caves, he’d managed to keep his clothes practically immaculate.
Which meant he was strong enough to have breezed through the lower levels of Victory Road. Perfect.
The young man glanced up, vaguely registering her presence for the first time. “Oh, hello,” he said. His voice was soft, almost stolen away by the wind. He turned in a slow circle. “Wow, the air is so clean up here! And the view… wow!”
She palmed a pokeball. “How was the climb, mon ami?”
“Oh, not too much trouble,” the young man said, still staring out at the view. “Are you the one the trainers down the path warned me about? The final trial before the league?” When she shrugged, the young man finally glanced back her way. “I assume you stopped me so that we can have a battle.”
“Oui.”
The young man walked several paces back. “All right. But I warn you, I’m not going to go down easy. My pokemon and I have become strong together.” He took a deep breath and pushed a clump of green hair out of his eyes. “If we’re going to battle, it’s only polite we introduce ourselves. My name is Wally.”
“Je m’appelle Serena.”
“Okay Serena, what do you say to three on three?”
“Je suis d’accord!” Serena palmed a pokeball and hurled it skyward. “Claire, let’s begin!”
The sphere burst open with a flash of brilliant white light, and a large shape spiraled through the air. Its leathery black and indigo wings flapped as it steadied itself and let loose an ear-piercing shriek that rattled the loose gravel of the pathway below.
Wally calmly regarded the bristling Noivern and inclined his head. “So you want to battle in the sky, huh? I’ve got just the partner for that.” He tossed his own pokeball up. “Veil! Show them what we can do!”
A new pokemon appeared, gliding up higher than Serena’s Noivern on large, feathery wings. Blue and white feathers sparkled in the afternoon sun, and the Altaria’s impressive wings caught a thermal rising from one of the fallen monoliths to ascend higher yet. Claire screamed in indignation at this interloper in the sky and braced to engage, but caught herself and glanced back at her trainer for orders.
“St. George’s folly!” Serena called.
“Veil, hold and brace for impact!”
With three rapid beats of her wings, Claire soared up to match Veil, drew back her head, and roared. From her gaping maw came a massive blast of white and indigo light that enveloped the Altaria. Serena tore her gaze from the sky and looked at Wally. “Tough luck, mon ami. When two dragons clash, it’s the fastest one who wins.”
Wally smiled. “Are you sure about that?”
Serena whipped her head back up and saw that Veil had surrounded herself with a glowing barrier, and was utterly unscathed by Claire’s attack. “Let’s turn that attack back on them, shall we?”
“Dive, Claire! Get out of there!”
As the Altaria released its own pulse of indigo light, the Noivern swooped and dove, tucking in her wings and rolling through the air to skillfully dodge the blasts of raw energy. Each time the Noivern tried to reorient itself and fire off another salvo, Veil harried her with another Dragon Pulse from above. The maneuver denied the Noivern a chance to rest, while simultaneously keeping Claire from ascending to the upper air or take aim for a counterattack.
Serena shouted for Claire to keep dodging as best she could, and furrowed her brow in concentration. “Your Noivern is very well trained!” Wally called across the field. “It’s clear you’ve raised it with care!”
“Merci, but this is hardly the time for compliments!” Was Wally trying to distract her? Draw her focus so that his Altaria could score a lucky hit? She knew that Altaria didn’t pack the raw power of a Noivern, but those pulses looked strong enough to ground Claire, so any hit could put her out of the fight. Serena’s mind raced as she reviewed maneuvers, trying to find a way for Claire to get the upper hand again. How was she supposed to challenge the league when this random trainer had her hard-pressed like this?
“Serena,” Wally said. “Take a second to breathe.”
Serena glared across the field. “Are you talking down to me, mon ami?”
Wally shook his head. “Not at all! I just want to make sure you’re okay.” He flashed what was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile. “This is just a battle for fun, right?”
Wally didn’t understand. Of course he didn’t. How could he know that if Serena was having trouble in a battle like this, there was no way she would be able to hold her own at the league against the best trainers in the region? But Wally was right about one thing; she needed to breathe, to take charge of the situation. She was done freezing up, done losing the initiative.
“Claire! Time to stop playing around! Let’s get loud!”
She saw her Noivern’s chest swell as Claire took a deep breath in, and as soon as Veil released another Dragon Pulse, Claire darted out of the way and unleashed a percussive burst of sound that sent the Altaria reeling head-over-tail feathers through the air. “Go high!” Serena called. Her Noivern furiously beat her wings to rise above Veil. Just as the Altaria had managed to regain its equilibrium, Claire sucked in another breath.
“Go on the defensive!” Wally cried. “Don’t let them ground you!”
Veil created a shining barrier around herself, and the Noivern struck again with another ultrasonic blast. The force of the attack caused Veil’s barrier to crack and then splinter into tiny, iridescent shards that vanished as they cascaded to the ground. The Altaria appeared to be stunned after the force of Claire’s attack, and Serena clenched her fist. “Finish this! Show them the true power of a dragon!”
Claire looked skyward and roared, her entire body radiating indigo energy. The brilliant light coalesced and shot heavenward, and Wally realized what he was seeing. “Quick, Veil! Moonblast!” The Altaria’s body briefly shone with a pale light as a silvery orb appeared at the tip of her beak. She launched it towards the swooping Noivern just as the indigo light descended. The pale orb punched through the comet Claire had summoned, gouging out the core and scattering it into smaller shards of energy. Though the Draco Meteor had been weakened, Veil was still bombarded by the remaining shrapnel from the attack, even as the Moonblast struck Claire full on.
Both dragons shrieked as the attacks connected, and they plummeted towards the ground. Wally and Serena quickly returned them to their pokeballs before the impact could do serious lasting damage. Wally glanced across the field. “I think that’s a draw.”
“It was a clever trick, mon ami, but my next two pokemon won’t go down so easily.”
“You call that easy?”
Serena smiled and waved her hand at Wally. “I chose first last time, so I think it’s your turn.”
“Right,” Wally said, reaching into his bag. “Briar, I’m counting on you!” He tossed out a second pokeball, and when the flash of light cleared, a Roserade stood between him and Serena, her arms crossed, but the small barbs contained within her flower-like hands extended.
“I don’t think this round will go as well as you think, Wally,” Serena said as she tossed out her pokemon. “Felix, don’t waste any time!”
Even before the light from her pokeball resolved itself into a physical form, a tongue of fire lashed out, forcing Wally’s Roserade into a hasty retreat. As the grass type darted backwards, the flames abruptly changed direction, angling towards the Roserade. Briar jumped up and back, narrowly avoiding the conflagration. By now, the initial flash of light around Serena’s pokemon had resolved itself, revealing a Delphox with small embers dancing through its lustrous coat.
The vulpine fire type gave Briar no quarter, drawing complex patterns in the air with a smoothed branch of hawthorn, and new conflagrations erupted all around the Roserade. “Keep the pressure on, Felix!” Serena shouted. The Delphox snarled and redoubled its efforts, not giving Briar a chance to even catch her breath. Serena spared a glance at Wally, and saw that the young man seemed remarkably collected. Certainly, he was watching his pokemon with concern, but he kept his composure, and his eyes were narrowed in concentration.
“Go on the offensive!” Wally shouted.
Briar slid underneath a stream of conjured fire, and before Felix could redirect the flames, the Roserade brought her flowered hands together and released a pulsing spectral orb that seemed to drink in the light around it. The orb flew with unerring accuracy and struck Felix in the center of his chest, breaking the Delphox’s concentration and allowing Briar to close the distance between them and leap at the fire type. Briar struck with a quick one-two punch, the poisoned barbs hidden within her roses scoring tiny scratches on Felix’s pelt. Felix yelped in surprise and conjured a pulse of telekinetic energy in the air in front of him, hurling Briar backwards. The Roserade slid across the ground, but turned the motion into a somersault and landed on her feet, glancing over her shoulder to give her trainer a cocksure smirk.
Felix raised his wand to call down another barrage of fiery explosions, but he winced in sudden pain and used his free paw to lightly probe at one of the scratches Briar had made. Serena bit her lip and scowled. Despite its effectiveness, the shadow ball had only been a diversion to get Briar in close enough to poison Felix, and the Roserade had already proved that she could evade Felix’s attacks with relative ease. If Wally managed to drag out the battle, Briar’s poison would eventually weaken Felix to the point where he wouldn’t be able to continue.
Wally seemed to read Serena’s thoughts, because he gave an apologetic shrug. “There’s more to winning battles than type advantages. Briar, keep your distance and stay on your toes!”
“Pas si vite!” Serena said. “Felix, give it everything you have!”
Her Delphox howled and spread his arms wide, summoning every scrap of power at his command to make the air itself erupt into brilliant bursts of flame. Each blast caused Felix to wince, and the slightest movements made the Roserade’s potent poison course through his veins. Felix sensed the direction of Serena’s thoughts and glanced over his shoulder, giving her an abrupt shake of his head. He wanted to finish this himself, not rely on another teammate to pick up the slack.
The fire bursts cast strange shadows on Wally’s face as the battle raged on, but despite the fury of the attacks, Wally’s pensive and calm visage never so much as cracked. He raised his voice only loud enough for Briar to hear him between each percussive boom, and the Roserade responded to his orders without a second’s hesitation.
Wally’s calm unnerved Serena, but not in the way that her friend’s had. His manner had been icy and unrelenting, not even balking in the face of true primal terror that had left Serena frozen in place and given her nightmares for months after the fact. He had calmly called out to his equally terrified pokemon, his voice cracking like a whip to cut through their fear and order them forward to victory. After winning a battle like that, Serena was certain, taking on the League wouldn’t seem nearly so daunting a prospect.
Wally wasn’t like that at all. His calm was like that of still waters running deep, and there was a light dancing behind his eyes as he studied the movements of his pokemon and their opponent, rapidly taking notes on a mental slate. Wally projected calm, but just beneath the surface was an active mind racing through possibilities and stratagems, not at all like the decisive and commanding nature of her one-time friend.
But she had to admit, Wally was pushing her and her pokemon harder than any opponent had in months. Wally might not have been on the level of her former rival and traveling companion, but he was undoubtedly an elite trainer. If she managed to pull off a win in this battle, then maybe, just maybe, she would finally be ready to take on the League…
Felix’s enraged snarl snapped Serena back to the present. Fire blazed from the Delphox’s ears, and the fur around his legs crackled with flame. Serena’s pokemon was pushing himself to the limit, but Briar was proving too dexterous a foe to pin down, even with an unceasing barrage. Serena knew how Felix got when the rage of battle took him, so it was time she took back control.
“Felix! Les fouet!” She saw Felix’s lips pull back from his fangs in something like a grin. His left hand flashed out, summoning a psychic pulse to knock aside one of Briar’s shadow balls. Then he held his wand out to the side, parallel to the ground, and began to move it in small figure-eight motions. A trail of fire followed the end of the stick like a comet’s tail growing brighter and longer with each flick of Felix’s wrist.
Briar seized the opportunity to rush in again, her hidden talons popping out from their sheaths. “Ếclater!” Serena cried, and Felix thrust his left hand out in front of him. The air exploded in a conflagration of light and smoke, and Briar dropped into a slide to get underneath the explosion. Felix whipped his hand down, and another explosion tore up the ground to Briar’s right. She started to dodge left, and an instant too late, Wally saw through Serena’s plan.
“Briar, no!”
But Felix was already in motion, swinging his fiery whip across his body and right into Briar’s flank. The flaming brand struck with a sharp crack and hurled Briar head over heels across the field. Before the Roserade could rise, Felix brought the whip around again, this time cracking it just before Briar’s face, and the grass type tumbled back towards Wally.
The green-haired young man held up a hand. “She’s down! It’s over.” Serena shouted a command at Felix to halt, and the Delphox dissolved the flame whip with a flick of his hand. Wally returned Briar to her pokeball and looked across the field at Serena. “Do you want to call yours back too?”
Serena looked at Felix. “Comment tu te sens, mon ami?” Felix pulled his lips back to bare his teeth in a savage smile again. Serena knew the poison must be causing him serious pain, but he seemed determined to fight on. Serena turned back towards Wally. “He’s not giving up. And neither am I!”
“Then for your pokemon’s sake, I’ll end this quickly.” Wally dropped a pokeball at his feet with no flourish. “Percy, if you would.”
Felix barely waited until Wally’s final pokemon was out of the ball before attacking. He summoned a massive inferno and sent the conflagration hurtling across the field at the new pokemon. Serena only saw the vaguest silhouette of a human-shaped pokemon before it was engulfed in flames, reducing it to nothing but a hazy shadow. Felix sank into a crouch, and Serena could see his back heaving as he struggled to stay upright and watch the fight to its conclusion.
Then to her amazement, the fire engulfing Wally’s pokemon seemed to ripple. The shadow within the blaze shifted, and the inferno simply parted, as though cut by a blade. The figure within the flames moved almost too fast for Serena’s eyes to track, sprinting across the fields as a black aura spread along its arms. It stopped just before Felix, pivoted on one heel, and slashed both of its arms across Felix’s torso as the Delphox struggled to rise.
Felix dropped with a mournful howl, and Serena saw that the black aura that surrounded the blades on the pokemon’s arms was dotted with hundreds of tiny pinpricks of light, like stars in the night sky. When Felix collapsed on the ground, the Gallade briskly raised its right arm in front of his face and then down to the side in an imitation of a dignified fencer’s salute.
Serena recalled her Delphox and clenched her third pokeball. Normally, between Claire and Felix, she could dispatch any opponent who made it to her perch. But she still had one last trick up her sleeve, and it was perfectly suited to taking out Wally’s Gallade. “Celeste! It’s time to shine!”
She cast out her third and final pokemon, revealing a four-legged creature with gleaming silver-white fur and a single black horn that curled wickedly from the side of her head. The Absol braced her clawed feet on the gravel, threw back her head, and howled. Wally nodded slowly. “A good choice. Percy, stay on your toes.”
“That’s not all,” Serena said. “Get ready to experience true power, Wally!” She raised her right wrist skyward, making the black stone bracelet there glint in the evening light. She tapped the iridescent multi-colored stone set into the ring and a streak of light shot upward, arcing over the battlefield to descend on Celeste. The Absol tilted her head back, letting the beam of light strike the stone hanging from the pendant she wore around her neck, and then Celeste was enveloped in a chrysalis of light and wind.
Serena instinctively raised her arm in front of her eyes as the sudden gust blew her hair back from her face. When the explosion of power cleared, Celeste stood before her transformed. Her fur was far longer and more voluminous, having spread out behind her in two tufts that appeared to be almost like wings. Her horn had thickened and curved further, and she seemed to shine with a lustrous inner light.
Celeste tossed her head and screamed at the heavens, summoning another gale-force wind to whip up around her. Wally and his Gallade braced themselves against the sudden blast, and in their moment of hesitation, Celeste focused her psychokinetic power to send the wind howling across the field at Percy.
The wind whipped up a cloud of dust as it screamed through the ancient monoliths, and soon it had gathered a massive wall of debris. Serena could vaguely see Percy move in front of Wally and drop into a ready stance, but then Celeste’s attack hit, and her opponents were lost in the chaotic haze of wind and dust. Serena let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. It was over. She hadn’t yet met an opponent who could stand before Celeste’s raw power after using mega evolution.
And then the cloud of debris contorted in on itself as a force inside created a second, stronger gale. The dust cloud whipped away, scattering gravel and rocks around the field of monoliths.
“Non,” Serena whispered. “Non, c’est impossible.”
Wally reached out and put his left hand on his Gallade’s shoulder. “Well done,” he said. His right hand held a simple wooden pendant that appeared to be hand-carved. A multi-hued stone glimmered there, but that wasn’t what held Serena’s attention.
Wally’s Gallade had changed, the crest atop its head extending and sharpening. The bony green spurs that jutted from the Gallade’s arms had extended into proper blades that bore a wickedly sharp red edge, and a protrusion that looked almost like a cape flapped from the Gallade’s shoulders. But despite the physical changes, the Gallade’s eyes still burned with the same steely resolve it had before its sudden transformation.
“You can use mega evolution?” Serena gasped.
Wally nodded. “My friend mastered the power of mega evolution a long time ago. If I’m going to keep up with her, I need to learn it too.” Serena blinked in surprise. That sounded familiar. Wally took a deep breath. “Come on, Percival! Let’s show them how strong we’ve grown together!”
The Gallade surged forward, the blades on his arms beginning to glow. Celeste danced backwards, the black gem on her forehead glowing with pink-white light. The dazzling pulse shot across the field at Percival, but the Gallade simply ripped through it with his glowing blades without losing momentum, and Celeste was forced to use her horn to stop Percival’s descending strike. Her eyes flashed as she channeled psychokinetic energy into the horn, lashing out with the jagged-edged crescent and forcing Percival into a quick retreat.
They battled back and forth, and with each exchange of blows, every block or parry, the two pokemon caused depressions or craters on the battlefield as the power surging through their veins was made manifest in the physical world. Every strike was accompanied by a flash of light and a concussive burst of sound, to the point where Serena felt as though the battle was being waged in the heart of a thundercloud. The noise of the struggle would have overpowered any spoken commands, leaving Wally and Serena to trust in the training they had given their pokemon and their desire to win to carry them through.
And yet, Serena could feel the same prickling sensation in the back of her skull that she got every time Celeste mega evolved. Every time she saw Percival approaching from Celeste’s blind spot, the Absol moved just in time to block the Gallade. She wasn’t sure if Celeste’s instincts were simply that good or if mega evolution gave them a form of communication that went beyond simple speech and very nearly transcended cognition. All she knew was that when they battled like this, Serena had no need to brief Celeste on strategy or call out any commands. The Absol just knew precisely what Serena’s plans were and acted accordingly.
Celeste’s horn pulsed with indigo light as she shoved Percival backward, knocking the Gallade off-balance just long enough for Celeste to coalesce the energy surrounding her head into a scythe blade of pure light that flew across the ground at the opposing pokemon. Percival’s blades became coated in a black substance dotted with hundreds of tiny glimmering stars, and he slashed clean through Celeste’s attack. With a dexterous flick of his arms, he dispelled the black coating and his blades once again began to glow with harsh white light.
Black energy gathered around Celeste’s horn, but unlike Percival’s, her attack was not marred by glittering pinpricks. Instead, it seemed to drink in the light around it, shrouding the Absol in a shadowy aura. Celeste whipped her head around, and Percival caught the horn on his blade. Celeste’s back legs dug into the ground for purchase as an echoing boom echoed across the mountaintop, the sound magnified by the standing stones. Percival’s eyes narrowed as he pushed back against the attack, the brilliant glare from his arm blades melding with Celeste’s inky blackness. The horn and the blade ground against each other as both pokemon pushed with all their strength.
Percival’s entire body began to glow as the darkness that surrounded Celeste intensified, and the ground beneath their feet began to crack. “Allons-y Celeste!” Serena shouted. “We’re nearly there, mon ami!”
“Don’t give in, Percival!” Wally cried. “I believe in you!”
Serena didn’t know what happened next. All she saw was a rapid series of brilliant flashes and explosions of light in the air between Percival and Celeste, followed by a series of pops, a sudden rush of air, and then a final boom that shook every bone in her body and sent her stumbling backwards.
When the spots in her eyes finally cleared, she saw Celeste collapsed in a heap on the ground and Percival standing over the Absol, exhausted but victorious. A chrysalis of light enveloped Celeste once again, and when it burst apart, Celeste was once again back to normal, without her furred wings or re-curved crest. Percival respectfully bowed his head to Celeste and flared with brilliant light. The glowing figure of the Gallade reached back and flipped his cape with a lazy gesture, and hundreds of tiny streamers of light drifted from his body. When the lights were carried away on the gentle breeze, the Gallade’s white and crimson blades had once again become bony green spars, and his cape had vanished.
Serena couldn’t help but gasp at the simple beauty of the transformation. Every other time she had seen a mega evolution revert, it had been a violent change, marked by a brief flash and explosion. Not even the Kalosian champion could lay claim to such grace, and she practically oozed elegance and refinement from every pore. For Wally and Percival to have so much control over the process… Wally must truly be a cut above.
Percival dropped his weight, and Wally was at his side in an instant, helping to bear his partner up. “You were amazing,” Serena heard him say. “Totally amazing!” The Gallade’s face remained stoic, but Serena could swear she saw the pokemon’s eyes soften under the praise.
Wally returned his partner to his pokeball in a flash of red light, and Serena did the same for Celeste. Wally stepped across the cratered battlefield and extended his hand to Serena. “That was really well done. We haven’t been pushed like that in a battle for a long time.”
Serena clasped his hand and smiled. “That’s supposed to be my line, mon ami. I’ve been up here for months, and no one else has trounced me like you did.” She kicked at the gravel and shrugged. “I thought I was nearly ready to take on the League, but after this…”
“Serena,” Wally said. “You’ve got to be one of the strongest trainers I’ve battled in all of Kalos. If anyone can take on the League, it’s you.”
“You might be League material, but I’m not. Not yet, at any rate.”
“I don’t plan on taking on the League.”
“What?!”
Wally shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “I don’t really want to take on the League. Or not the Kalos league, at any rate. But I got in touch with Diantha through a friend of mine, and I wanted a chance to see how she uses her Gardevoir in action. She offered to meet me in Lumiose City, but I decided I’d do some traveling of my own and spare her the trip. I just want to see her battle, but to do that, she’ll need a challenger, right?”
“Well, yes, I suppose.”
“But the odd thing is, no one has been able to get through Kalos’s Victory Road for months, because apparently a wickedly strong trainer is standing in their way. I figured I might as well see this trainer for myself.” Wally pushed his hair out of his eyes. “Go to the League, Serena. I think you should be the challenger I watch Diantha battle.”
“But what if I lose?”
“Then you just try again!”
“But what if I’m not good enough?”
Wally stared into her eyes, his expression hardening. “Do your pokemon believe in you?”
“I suppose so. We’ve come this far together.”
“And do you believe in them?”
“Well, yes…”
“Then I think that’s good enough, right?”
But was it? When she compared herself to him, her premier adversaire, was anything ever good enough? “Mon ami, I’m not sure you understand the position I’m in.” Serena sighed. “I have this friend. We set out on our journey together, and it became clear to me early on that he was just… better. We went up against things that are too terrifying to recall, and he faced them without flinching. The last time we had a battle was right here, and he swept my pokemon aside without so much as a passing glance. He breezed through the League, because of course he did, and I’m just so afraid that I’ll never measure up.”
“I know what that’s like,” Wally replied. “See, I have this friend too. She’s an amazing trainer, and everything seemed to come to her so easily. She showed me how to catch my first pokemon, and I felt like I was always five steps behind her when I was on my journey. Everywhere I went, people were talking about how fantastic she was. And when something catastrophic happened, she was right there in the breach, putting things to rights. All I could do was watch the heavens tear themselves apart from a shelter in Mossdeep, but there she was, saving the day as usual.” He sighed. “I finally caught up with her right before she challenged the Hoenn League and… she trounced me.” Wally shrugged, his palms turned up to the sky. “But you know, in hindsight, I’m almost glad I lost. She showed me just how much further I have to go as a trainer. Percy and I, and all the partners we’ve met along the way, we’re going to catch up to her someday, and fight as equals.”
“But what if you lose again?”
“Then I lose again. But I’ll know that I lost after giving it everything I had, and that my pokemon did too. And that’s okay, I think.”
Serena nodded slowly. “Has anyone ever told you that you are un homme sage, mon ami? You must think I’m such a fool, waiting around here for months, when I really should have been trying to go forward.”
Wally glanced towards the neighboring peak, where the castle-like edifice of the League building rose from the mist. “There are other mountains to be climbed.” He walked two paces past Serena. “Want to go together?”
“I’d like that.” Serena took one last look around the ancient standing stones that had borne witness to countless battles for thousands of years. But they would not see any more of hers. She followed Wally down the path she had dreaded taking for months, onward towards the League and whatever awaited her there.
