Infernape. The Pokémon that had carved its name into the memory of everyone who watched the Indigo Plateau Conference.
Not because it was the strongest on Ash's team. It wasn't. Not because its level was the highest. It wasn't that either. Infernape's story was what made it unforgettable. From a discarded Chimchar that couldn't meet its former trainer's standards, to a final-stage evolution achieved in days of actual combat, to a battle against a Elite Level opponent where it refused to fall until the enemy fell first.
Growth rate that defied explanation. A spirit that defied physics. That was Infernape's identity in the public consciousness.
"It's been a while, Infernape." Ash threw a punch, mirroring the fighting stance of his partner. "Let's do this again."
"Huocha!" Infernape raised a thumb, and the flame crown on its head surged higher. Its aura pulsed outward, and every trainer in the stadium with the ability to read power levels felt it land.
Elite Level.
Drake's pupils contracted. He remembered Infernape from the Conference footage. High level at best during that tournament. The Conference had been roughly a month ago.
One month. High to Elite. An entire major tier.
Elite Level wasn't a participation trophy. In most Gyms across every region, Elite level was the absolute ceiling for a Gym Leader's main Pokémon. Eighty percent of all trainers in the world never reached it. Some spent their entire careers trying. Ash's Infernape had crossed the threshold in thirty days.
"LEI!" Electivire answered Infernape's roar with its own. Its aura flared, and the stadium felt the weight of it: Between Elite High Stage.
The announcer was on his feet. "Both sides have revealed their true power levels! Infernape, the Pokémon that evolved from Chimchar to its final form in days and defeated a Elite Level opponent at the Indigo Plateau Conference. And Electivire, Chief Drake's hidden ace, the evolved form of the Electabuzz he hasn't fielded in months because no challenger has pushed him far enough to need it!"
Few people had seen Drake's Electabuzz in action. The challengers who came to Pummelo Island couldn't get past his opening roster. Nobody forced the real team out. Now that the long-absent Electabuzz had returned as an Electivire, the power curve had jumped again.
Against an average trainer, this Electivire would end the fight through intimidation before the first command was given.
Ash wasn't an average trainer.
"Let's go, Infernape." Ash closed his eyes. Blue aura surfaced across his skin and streamed into Infernape's body. Aura Connection, established in full, pushing Infernape to the absolute ceiling of its current capability.
No holding back. No testing the waters. The first half had been for information. The second half was for real.
The level gap was still significant.
But Infernape had beaten opponents above its tier before. At the Conference, Aura Fusion and Blaze and sheer stubborn willpower had let it fight and defeat a Elite Level Magmortar. The victory had been narrow, fuelled by an obsession with proving itself to Paul that bordered on self-destruction. Super Blaze had burned hotter the closer Infernape came to collapse, and its refusal to fall had outlasted everything Magmortar could throw.
That state wasn't available here. The desperate, life-or-death determination that had driven Infernape against Paul couldn't be manufactured against a stranger. Super Blaze's extreme form required genuine willingness to break, and Infernape had no personal vendetta against Drake.
But it doesn't need to be like that now anyway.
Aura Connection surged through Infernape's body. The pressure wave blew sand off the field in a flat ring, filling the air with dust and grit. For a moment, visibility dropped to nothing.
Drake felt it. The same anomaly he'd noticed with the Crystal Onix. Infernape's aura read as Low Elite, but the pressure it exerted didn't match that reading. It felt heavier.
This kid has a method that lets his Pokémon fight above their tier. That's what's been happening all match.
"Infernape, Mach Punch!"
Ash launched the attack before Drake could finish his analysis. Infernape kicked off the sand, its body becoming a crimson streak. Its fist cut the air with a high-pitched whistle, the priority move closing the distance to Electivire's face in a fraction of a second.
"Thunder Punch!" Drake's response was instant.
Electivire roared. Golden lightning coiled around its right fist, and the massive arm swung forward to meet the incoming strike.
The fists met.
Fire and lightning detonated at the point of contact. A shockwave rippled outward, scattering sand in every direction. Hot air and electric sparks lashed the front rows of the audience. The ground beneath both Pokémon cracked under the competing forces.
For one suspended moment, their arms locked. Neither gave. The tremor running through both bodies said the same thing: even.
They separated by half a step. Then surged forward again.
Infernape's second punch was faster. Not much. A fraction. But the acceleration was there, and in a fight measured in fractions, that mattered. Electivire answered with another Thunder Punch, fist glowing brighter, and the collision was just as violent as the first.
The exchange didn't stop.
What followed was a brawl at the centre of the sand field. Mach Punch against Thunder Punch, over and over, fist meeting fist in a rhythm that sounded like a machine gun. Each impact sent shockwaves rippling across the arena. Each collision left marks: electrical burns tracing across Infernape's arms, internal vibrations accumulating in Electivire's torso from the concussive force of Mach Punch's sonic impacts.
Infernape bled from small cuts where the electrical discharge had split skin. It didn't slow down. If anything, the damage made it fight harder. Its punch speed climbed with each exchange, its force increasing where it should have been diminishing. The more it got hit, the sharper it became.
Electivire started strong. Matched the pace. Then, turn by turn, fell behind. The lightning flickering on its fists dimmed. The intervals between its punches widened. The sonic booms from Infernape's strikes were hitting harder than the Thunder Punches coming back.
The damage was mutual, but the trends weren't. Infernape was accelerating. Electivire was decelerating. And the gap was growing with every exchange.
What is this thing? Electivire's alarm was visible in its eyes. Mach Punch didn't have a built-in escalation mechanic. There was no documented reason for the user to hit harder and faster the longer a fight went. But the evidence was in its bruised ribs and numbing arms.
"Now!" Ash's voice cut through the rhythm.
Infernape read the opening. One heartbeat where Electivire's fist was extended a fraction too far, its recovery a fraction too slow. Infernape ducked under the incoming Thunder Punch, dropped its centre of gravity, and drove its right fist into Electivire's wrist joint with surgical precision.
A soft crack. Electivire's arm went dead. The lightning wrapping its fist flickered and dissolved. Thunder Punch, broken at the source.
"Close Combat!"
Infernape became a storm.
Fists. Elbows. Knees. Kicks. Every striking surface on its body activated in a continuous chain of impacts that left no gap for defence, no window for retreat. Fighting-type energy coated every blow, multiplying the force beyond what any single technique could achieve. Close Combat wasn't one attack. It was a complete martial assault compressed into seconds.
The sound was relentless. Impact after impact after impact, each one driving into Electivire's body with the accumulated power of a Pokémon that had been building momentum since the first punch of the exchange.
Infernape's final blow was a double-fist strike to Electivire's chest. The massive Electric-type staggered, groaned, and crashed backward into the sand. Dust erupted around the impact crater.
Infernape stood in the centre of the field, breathing hard. Its body carried the marks of the fight: electrical burns, small cuts, the strain of sustained maximum output. But its eyes were clear and its stance was solid.
Electivire lay in the sand, conscious but unable to rise. The Close Combat barrage had rattled its organs past the point of continued function. Standing was no longer within its capabilities.
The crowd erupted.
"Infernape just went toe-to-toe with a High Elite Stage Electivire and won?!"
"That's an Ash Pokémon for you. Whatever he does to them, they fight a full tier above their reading."
"It's not the Pokémon that's abnormal. It's the trainer."