"I'll be the referee for this one. Both sides, take your positions—match start!"
Tim Wynn snapped his flag down.
The flag came down fast. Everyone just stared at him.
Soren Li looked pained. "Ref, you might want to wait until I actually release my Pokémon first."
"Oh." Tim scratched the back of his head. "Sorry—first time refereeing, no idea what I'm doing."
He raised the flag back up.
Soren's expression smoothed out. He shook off the irritation, let a lazy grin settle back onto his face, and tossed his Poké Ball.
*"HYAAAH!"*
The ball burst open. A Charizard landed, reared its head back, and blasted a pillar of flame at the ceiling.
"I was hoping for a Charizard-versus-Charizard matchup," Soren said easily. "Shame yours isn't here."
Auron watched Soren's confident smile and silently offered him one second of internal sympathy. *I hope that smile's still there in a minute.*
"Woohoo?"
Kommo-o spotted his opponent and turned to look at Auron with visible confusion.
"That's right. He's your opponent."
"Woohoo..."
Kommo-o spread his little claws wide. *You should've led with that—I wouldn't have come.*
He turned back to face the Charizard with a resigned sigh, studied his opponent for a moment, and then reached back behind his shoulder blade and pulled something out to toss at Auron.
Auron caught it.
*Item: Life Orb*
*Effect: Raises the power of the holder's moves by 30%. After each damaging move, the holder loses 10% of its max HP.*
"He says he's worried about killing it in one punch," Lucario murmured into Auron's mind through an Aura telepathy.
Kommo-o could just barely join the Aura Chat Group—but without Auron actively projecting his own Aura, whatever Kommo-o was trying to say got completely lost in translation. It was nothing like Lucario, who could reach out through the Aura current directly.
Auron exhaled a short laugh. "Fair enough."
*"Swish!"*
Tim waited until both sides were clearly ready, then finally dropped the flag a second time.
The flag fell. The match began.
Not quite the same as before, though—Soren and his Charizard were both visibly furious now. As far as they were concerned, that little exchange had been a deliberate insult.
"I'll show you what happens when you underestimate your opponent in a real match!"
"Charizard—fly up! Sunny Day!"
*Boom.*
Charizard had barely spread its wings—hadn't even left the ground—when a sphere of blue light slammed into it head-on.
"Charizard!"
Soren watched his Charizard skid backward and fly off its feet. He screamed its name.
"Charizard is unable to battle. Auron wins!"
The Charizard's eyes had already spiraled into little circles. Auron and Kommo-o shook their heads in unison.
Well. So much for not going too hard.
"Is the gap really that big? Can't be."
Soren forced himself to recall his incapacitated Charizard, jaw tight, working through it in his head.
"That's not even your Pokémon!"
"I know. I never said it was." Auron spread his hands. *Not my Pokémon. And I did tell you upfront that mine weren't with me—you're the one who pushed for this.*
Soren looked like he was about to blow a gasket. He was furious—but there was nothing to grab onto. The Pokémon wasn't Auron's, and yeah, Auron had warned him.
"Why didn't you use your own Pokémon?"
Auron gave Soren a look that probably could have been kinder. "Didn't I already say? Mine aren't with me right now."
Soren stopped cold. Right—he had said that. Soren was the one who had insisted on fighting despite knowing. He'd done this to himself.
He breathed in slow and deep.
A Gardevoir materialized at his side without being called, draping her arms gently around him. As she did, she shot Auron a mildly reproachful glance over Soren's shoulder.
"Okay, wow, jealous," Auron muttered—then blinked as his Information Display kicked in automatically.
*Pokémon: Gardevoir*
*Gender: Female*
*Type: Psychic / Fairy*
*Ability: Trace (On entry, copies the Ability of a random opposing Pokémon in battle. Reverts to Trace on exit.)*
*Quality: Gold (✦)*
*Base Moves: Moonblast, Helping Hand, Misty Terrain, Healing Wish, Double Team, Psybeam, Teleport, Disarming Voice, Wish, Magical Leaf, Draining Kiss, Psyshock, Imprison, Future Sight, Psychic, Calm Mind, Sunny Day, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball...*
*Egg Moves: Mean Look, Shadow Sneak, Synchronoise, Perish Song.*
*Another Gold-quality one.*
Auron's eyes lit with open envy. A Gold-quality Gardevoir—he wanted one too. He just hadn't managed to stumble across a Ralts egg yet.
His thoughts drifted, and he glanced sideways at the still-bored Kommo-o. *Grandpa Ashford's Kommo-o really is something else, though.*
*Pokémon: Kommo-o*
*Gender: Male*
*Type: Dragon / Fighting*
*Ability: Bulletproof (Immune to ball and bomb moves.)*
*Quality: Blue*
*Base Moves: ...*
*Egg Moves: ...*
Honestly speaking—a Blue-quality Kommo-o, this strong? Strong enough to run over that Red-quality Aggron from the Mokoan Kingdom's squad without breaking a sweat?
From where Auron stood, even walking the Breeder's road like Grandpa Ashford had, that was an insane ceiling.
His thoughts kept drifting outward—and across the arena, Soren Li, still nestled against his Gardevoir, was gradually finding his footing again.
"Okay. I'm good." He reached up and gave Gardevoir's cheek a light pinch.
Gardevoir flushed red, gave him a look, and in one smooth Teleport was already three steps back, standing quietly behind him—dignity restored.
Soren didn't miss a beat. He smiled, turned on his heel, and walked toward Auron—who was still somewhere in the middle of a mental tangent.
The others noticed. They watched Soren close the distance with perfectly alert expressions but didn't move to stop him.
"Hey, little Auron—this one doesn't count, okay? Bring your own Pokémon next time and we'll run it properly."
*That* snapped Auron back.
But Tim and the others were gaping.
Soren had gotten close—very close. Face-to-face close. And then he'd reached up and ruffled Auron's hair.
Auron came back to himself, looked at the face inches from his, and physically recoiled.
"What are you doing?!"
Soren blinked at him—and then cracked up, already walking away.
"Don't forget about the rematch, yeah? Your Pokémon, for real this time!"
After Soren disappeared through the door, Auron stood there for a second and shuddered.
"That guy is *weird*."
He looked toward where Soren had gone. Eyes sharp.
"Next time I'll wipe the floor with him."