Jace shot Deoxys in its attack form a strange look, his lips twitching slightly, but in the end he said nothing.
"Arcanine, now it's all up to you."
Arcanine barked an eager confirmation and bounded over to Jace's side.
Once Jace had cradled Scorbunny and carried it off the field, Arcanine charged into the arena with nothing but battle hunger in its eyes.
"Arcanine, Quick Attack!"
Jace held Scorbunny in his arms and called up to Arcanine.
Given what he'd just witnessed — a single Dragon Ascent from Deoxys knocking Coalossal clean out of the fight — Jace had already accepted the truth. Even though this "cheat" had only just been born, his Arcanine stood absolutely no chance.
But losing was one thing. Showing weakness was another. At the very least, he'd get a better look at what this cheat could actually do.
"Gonna try racing it on speed?" Auron let out a light laugh.
"Deoxys, speed form — create distance!"
Deoxys shifted once more, its bladed form reshaping into a sleek, streamlined silhouette. Its body grew noticeably more refined, and its original four arms condensed into two slender appendages — one sky-blue, one blazing orange.
As Arcanine closed in for the rush, Deoxys darted backward from behind and ahead simultaneously — a blue-orange blur shooting back to the water's surface behind them.
"Arcanine, Flamethrower!"
Arcanine's eyes hardened. It blasted a column of fire toward Deoxys floating on the water.
Deoxys didn't bother switching to defense form. It simply slipped past Arcanine's Flamethrower in speed form, drifting effortlessly out of the way.
What was more, after dodging, Deoxys actually paused in mid-air — waiting for the Flamethrower's sweep to catch up.
When the flames came searing across, Deoxys reformed into a streak of light and dove straight at Arcanine, which was still mid-breath.
Arcanine reacted fast. The instant it caught the streak of light's trajectory, its pupils contracted. It cut off the Flamethrower, then instantly cranked the output to maximum and fired point-blank.
Deoxys, seeing Arcanine's response, immediately switched to defense mode — and then barreled straight through the pillar of flames, colliding into Arcanine with the inferno as cover.
The speed was too great, and the flames provided too much obstruction, so Jace couldn't make out what happened during the actual impact.
But Auron's Aura caught every detail.
In the instant Deoxys's defense form tore through the fire, a faint pink glow ignited on its forehead — Psycho Boost.
Which was why Jace saw exactly what he saw the moment the two connected: Arcanine launched backward, spinning wildly, and crashed to the ground with spiral eyes.
"Arcanine…"
Jace recalled Arcanine into its Poké Ball with a rueful smile, then turned to Auron with an expression of pure helpless admiration.
"Seriously — it just hatched and it's already *that* strong? What happens in another few months? How absurd do you get."
Auron laughed quietly. *Goodness — as if I could tell you that at its peak, this thing could go blow-for-blow with regular Rayquaza and even hold a slight edge.*
"What can I say. It's a cheat."
"Hah, fine, fair enough."
Jace shook his head, then grinned at Auron. "But hey — I just spent all afternoon as your unofficial beta tester. Don't you think you owe me dinner tonight?"
Auron waved a magnanimous hand. "Consider it booked. Get everyone together tonight — I've got something I need to tell you all anyway."
"Deal!" Jace's eyes lit up. Not many chances to milk Auron for a meal.
He then recalled Bulbasaur, who had been dozing by the water's edge, back into its Poké Ball and headed off with Scorbunny cradled in his arms.
"I'll go heal the two of them first, then come find you."
"Go ahead!"
Auron waved Jace off, then glanced down at his own soaked clothes and at Dratini in the water.
With a chuckle, he ditched the idea of putting on a shirt. Six-pack out, who cared who saw.
He dove straight into the lake and started playing with Dratini.
Watching from the depths of the water, Mega Gyarados burned with indignation — but dared not act. Deoxys was still floating on the surface above, the same one that had hurled it into the lake earlier. No need to ask for more trouble.
*Sure, I've got a terrible temper. But I'm not stupid.*
— — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Evening. After some time in the water, Auron made his way home with Dratini, Golbat, and the two Charizard.
Golbat's training grounds and the Charizard's training area weren't far from the water's edge.
While Auron had been swimming about, the two Charizard had been racing through the forest. When they'd shot over the lake, they'd spotted Auron and Dratini in the water below.
A momentary lapse in concentration — and one of them had flown straight into a lakeside tree, knocking itself silly.
Auron had heard the loud *crack* of the impact, followed by a string of laughter.
When Auron turned to look, Deoxys was already shaking its head in resignation, using its telekinesis to lift the dazed Charizard back to safety.
Golbat, drawn by the commotion, arrived moments later — and stopped dead in its tracks when it spotted Auron.
After introductions all around, Auron headed home with the group.
Everyone was meeting for the first time, but Deoxys in energy-core form was already familiar with Golbat and the Charizard from their earlier days together.
Though Deoxys was currently in energy-core state, back during the middle stages of its development it had already developed its own consciousness — and had been able to observe the outside world through psychokinesis. So it knew Golbat and the Charizard very well.
The only one it didn't know was Jace's Charizard. But the two Charizard were twins, so the familiarity carried over — they clicked just as quickly.
On the way back, Jace's Charizard had initially figured it would just wave goodbye to Auron and head off.
But Auron had caught it and said, "Hey — Jace is coming over for dinner. Stay and eat with us."
At that, Jace's Charizard's eyes lit up. It immediately went into another speed race with Auron's Charizard.
With that handled, Auron went out to buy groceries. They got home, the Pokémon scattered to their own devices, and Auron got to work prepping the night's ingredients.
He took the meat from the freezer to thaw, then rolled out the iron griddle he'd bought a while back.
For this many people, hot pot was the obvious choice.
But hot pot at home meant a massive cleanup afterward. So — iron griddle it was.
Everyone was a carnivore anyway. And the ones who weren't could always have grilled vegetables.
He laid out the beef, lamb, pork, and chicken, cut them into small pieces, and set them to marinate.
The beef got a rub of salt, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, a splash of cooking wine, then an egg white and a little oil — for that tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
The lamb, freshly bought from the Xinjiang supplier — the freshest possible — needed only salt. The lamb from that region had practically no gamey flavor, so a light salt rub was all it took to draw out the taste.
The chicken got a batch of BBQ seasoning — off-the-shelf, mixed evenly.
The pork got a different BBQ rub — also ready-made, stirred through.
But because Snorlax was joining them, Auron had to prepare an absolutely enormous amount of meat. Forced to call Deoxys in for backup.
Once the meat was marinating, Auron moved on to the other dishes.
Bell peppers, for instance — cut into segments and threaded onto skewers with the lamb. Versatile, delicious, and they cut right through the richness.
In between, Auron stashed the beer and cola the store had just delivered into the fridge to chill.
Summer evening, iron griddle sizzling, cold beer and cola on the side — it didn't get better than that.
Of course, he hadn't forgotten the fried chicken — he'd promised Dratini.
He'd also ordered crawfish on his new phone; it would arrive once it was prepped.
Summer was made for crawfish. Spicy, garlic, thirteen-spice — today he was having all of it.
He was almost curious how Crawdinator would react seeing all those crawfish. Would it eat them?
Strictly speaking, they weren't even the same species.
(End of chapter)