("Come! Fight me!")
Rayquaza stared at Darkrai with feverish excitement and issued his challenge.
He couldn't help it. He'd been starving for a worthy opponent for far too long. Foreign legendaries were off-limits—too much diplomatic fallout.
Take those two birds from South Korea and North Korea. They chirped in his ear nonstop, day after day. One time, he'd finally had enough and flew over to teach them a lesson.
They'd come crying to the authorities afterward. Couldn't beat him, so they tattled.
Then Rayquaza got lectured. Cyrus stood there going on and on—North Korea is our ally, you can't hit their legendary, blah blah blah. South Korea's bird? Sure, you can rough that one up on the down-low. But the whole ordeal drove Rayquaza up the wall.
South Korea's was fair game? Great. But it was too weak. Rayquaza had zero desire to fight it. Like seeing an ant on the ground—if it isn't baring its teeth at you, why bother?
("Personally? I go straight for the anthill. One ant isn't worth the effort!")
So foreign legendaries were a no-go. Domestic ones, then? Nope—not much better. Everyone worth fighting had already been fought. And the ones that hadn't? Those genuinely couldn't be fought. The domestic roster was tapped out.
So when a legendary appeared that wasn't from the Dragon Kingdom, had entered willingly, and looked like it could actually put up a fight? Rayquaza was thrilled.
After sensing Darkrai's energy alongside Cyrus's, Rayquaza assumed Cyrus had arranged a match. His tail whipped with excitement as he burst out of hiding.
Darkrai stared at the fired-up Rayquaza, utterly bewildered. ("Why would I fight you?")
Rayquaza paused. Then attacked anyway.
("Didn't little Cyrus bring you here to spar with me? Come on—I can't wait!")
Rayquaza said, already blazing forward with Extreme Speed.
Darkrai's expression shifted to furious disbelief. What kind of nonsense was this? He'd just come to pick something up. Was he really about to catch a beating for it?
Anger rising, Darkrai fired back. He conjured a volley of Shadow Balls and launched them at Rayquaza.
Rayquaza lashed his Dragon Tail, swatting every Shadow Ball into oblivion, then roared skyward.
("THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!")
Now fully in his element, Rayquaza cut loose. Hyper Beams raked across the sky like they cost nothing, beam after beam sweeping toward Darkrai. Darkrai dodged frantically, weaving and banking until he had no choice but to throw up Double Team and hide his real body in the shadows.
("Holy—he's insane! He's way too strong!")
After watching Rayquaza obliterate every one of his afterimages with another Hyper Beam—and remembering how a casual tail flick had annihilated his entire Shadow Ball barrage—Darkrai broke into a cold sweat.
("Nope. I'm leaving. If this keeps up, someone's going to die, and it's going to be me!")
Decision made, Darkrai sank deep into the shadows and fled, dissolving into the darkness toward the horizon. He didn't forget to toss out parting words.
("Got plans today. Gotta run. Rematch later!")
When Rayquaza heard that—and felt Darkrai's presence racing away—his excitement curdled into disappointment.
They'd only traded two moves, but judging by Darkrai's reflexes, he would've made a solid opponent. Too bad the guy had somewhere to be. Lousy timing.
Rayquaza flicked his tail in frustration, then decided: forget going home. He was going out to blow off steam somewhere else.
Back at the research facility, Cyrus heard the distant explosions and his eye twitched. "You 'know'? You don't know anything!"
After venting his frustration, Cyrus sighed and released his Pokémon, flying toward the blast site as fast as he could.
The whole exchange—Rayquaza versus Darkrai—had taken less than a minute from start to finish, despite sounding like an epic confrontation.
By the time Cyrus arrived, all that remained were the furrows carved into the earth by Rayquaza's Hyper Beams. Nothing else.
He surveyed the damage, exhaled softly, and allowed himself a small, relieved mutter. "Well... at least he had the sense to fight somewhere with no people."
He pulled out his phone, dialed, and spoke with the ease of long practice. "Southern outskirts of the capital. Straight south. Needs cleanup. Yeah—Rayquaza again."
Call finished, Cyrus didn't waste another second. He hopped back on Talonflame and flew toward Rayquaza's den. He needed to get there and explain that Darkrai was not his arranged sparring partner.
What Cyrus didn't know was that the trip would be pointless. Rayquaza, still unsatisfied, had already flown off to pick a fight with someone else.
Meanwhile, back with Auron's group, they were browsing the mystery egg section of the Pokémon shop.
Since everyone now knew about Auron's Aura ability, there was no reason to waste money on the transparent eggs where the species was already identified.
Of course, if they couldn't find anything suitable among the mystery eggs, they could always go buy a known egg instead.
"How about Mareep?"
Tim turned and pointed at himself, baffled. "Me?"
"Yes, you. Who else—me?"
Auron nodded as if it were obvious. Who else would he be talking to? Himself?
"Mareep? But I want a Dragon-type. Mareep evolves into Ampharos. Other than the name having 'dragon' in Chinese, it has absolutely nothing to do with dragons." Tim ran the numbers in his head. No matter how he looked at it, Ampharos didn't fit his team composition. You couldn't count something as a Dragon-type just because its Chinese name contained the character for dragon.
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong." Auron's smile turned cryptic. "Have you forgotten about Mega Evolution? Here's a hint: Mega Charizard X is Fire and Dragon."
"Fire and Dragon?!" Tim's eyes snapped wide. "What are you saying—you'll give me Charizard?"
"In your dreams." Auron rolled his eyes.
"Er... right. Just wishful thinking. Back to Mareep. Are you saying Mega Ampharos also gains the Dragon type?"
Auron nodded. "Exactly. After Mega Evolution, Ampharos goes from pure Electric to Electric and Dragon."
Tim's expression shifted—clearly tempted. "But would Ampharos actually work on my team?"
(End of Chapter)