"Indeed, I think we do have that problem."
"Right, which is why when you face Jace's Arcanine, once your vanishing is broken, you end up on the defensive."
In the battle just now, the first time Arcanine landed Crunch on Mismagius was precisely because Mismagius's Ghost-type vanishing had been detected by Arcanine's keen sense of smell.
And that single Crunch put Mismagius on the back foot. Otherwise, given Mismagius's actual strength, even if Jace won it wouldn't have been so easy.
Watching Lena lost in thought, Simon consolingly patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. It's not too late for us to start working hard now."
"Yeah!"
Lena threw her arms around Simon and buried her face in his chest.
"Hey, hey, hey—big bro, I'm trying to give you guys a battle summary here! Can you at least show me some respect and stop rubbing your romance in my face?"
Seeing the two like this, Auron was completely exasperated. He slapped the ground impatiently.
Lena lifted her head from Simon's chest and mumbled dismissively at Auron, "If you don't like it, go find someone yourself."
"Oh, my temper!"
"Hahaha~ Haha!"
Although Jace and Tim had also been subjected to the same display, it didn't stop them from laughing at Auron getting put down.
After the laughter died down, just as Auron was about to continue with his feedback for Peter, he suddenly noticed two expressionless faces floating silently behind him.
Auron choked, then rubbed his forehead and waved his hand. "Peter, for the next few days let me take you to pick out a Pokémon egg first. With your current battle strength, you really only have Drilbur."
Peter heard this and froze for a moment, then slowly turned his head following everyone's gaze.
There, hovering quietly behind him, was a stone-faced Vibrava and a bewildered Kirlia.
After waving to the two Pokémon, Kirlia dropped down into Peter's arms while Vibrava settled at his side.
Only then did Peter hug Kirlia and laugh bitterly at Auron. "Yeah, I think so too. And honestly, I have a feeling the freshman tournament might be rough for me."
Auron stood up and walked toward where the two Charizard were. As he passed Peter, he patted his shoulder. "Ah, just do your best."
Jace followed suit, standing up and patting Peter's shoulder as well. "Ah, look after yourself."
Peter: ???
"Mm, might as well wait for death."
Peter: ?????
Peter stared at Tim in bewilderment. What was this guy even going on about? It was all complete nonsense.
"Jace, bring your Charizard. Let's head to the research institute."
"You all keep training! Jace and I will be back in a bit."
After calling out to Jace, Auron turned to the others.
"Sure~"
Hearing this, Jace quickly recalled his Charizard and followed along.
"Is this about the show-off plan for the tournament?"
Watching the eager Jace, Auron smiled mysteriously. "You'll know when we get there."
Auron did indeed have the freshman tournament show-off plan in mind when he called Jace along. But he also wanted his grandfather to collect data on both Charizard's post-evolution forms.
The Pokémon Battle Center wasn't very far from the research institute. After walking for a bit, the two arrived.
"Grandpa, is the data collection almost done?"
Watching the bustling people on the grass, as well as the Mega Evolved Audino, Auron spotted Ashford Vale in the crowd at a glance.
"Oh, Xiao Ze! What are you doing here? Hasn't school started?"
"Grandpa Flint, we don't have classes this afternoon. And we wanted to come try out Mega Evolution."
The moment Auron said this, both of their interests were piqued. Ashford Vale looked at Auron and asked with a smile, "Sure! We happen to be collecting data anyway."
Auron grinned. "Not unworthy of being my grandpa—your thinking is exactly the same as mine."
"Haha, well of course—grandpa and grandson, after all. It's just natural understanding. Wait a moment; once this data is recorded, you can go ahead."
"Got it."
Auron stood quietly to the side, waiting for them to finish recording.
He was feeling a bit of excitement inside, too. Although he'd witnessed so many Mega Evolutions by now, this was the first time he was Mega Evolving one of his own Pokémon.
And he wasn't entirely sure whether his bond with Charizard was strong enough for Mega Evolution yet. But by his own calculations, it should be enough.
After all, Charmander had been born with Auron as the very first thing he ever saw. Generally, when you purchase a Pokémon egg and hatch it yourself, the initial bond is very high.
And from the time Charmander was born all the way through to evolving into Charizard, he had basically slept alongside Auron the entire time.
If even after all that the bond still wasn't high enough, Auron was going back home to give him a spanking. No more sleeping together!
Before long, the base data for Mega Audino had been recorded almost completely. Mega Audino also reverted back into a regular Audino.
"Re... reverted?!"
At this point, Jace finally realized what was going on. At first he'd assumed that Pokémon was simply a newly discovered evolution of Audino—after all, Auron had discovered quite a few Pokémon with previously unknown evolutions, so it hadn't seemed that surprising initially.
But when Audino suddenly reverted back to his original form, Jace exclaimed in shock.
"You're overreacting. Just wait and pick your jaw back up."
Auron gave Jace a dismissive glance, then strode forward with Charizard's Poké Ball in hand.
"Go, Charizard."
"Graow!"
This time, Auron had brought the Charizardite X. After Mega Evolution it would be a black Charizard—whereas the shiny one, upon Mega Evolving, would turn a deep emerald green, with the flame on its tail shifting to an amber blue.
"Charizard, Mega Evolve!"
A smile tugged at the corner of Auron's mouth. On his wrist sat the Mega Bracelet, and with his other hand, he pressed his index and middle fingers together against the Mega Stone at the center of it.
(The Mega Bracelet had been made after Charizard evolved—Auron had called his dad and asked him to have one made. It had been placed in a storage locker at the research institute, and Auron had picked it up on his way here today.)
"Graow!"
Charizard let out a fierce roar toward the sky, and then, before Jace's stunned eyes, was enveloped in evolutionary light.
"Graow!"
The white light faded. Mega Charizard X had arrived.
Mega Charizard X looked over his own body, spread his wings wide, and shot into the sky in a single burst.
Watching Mega Charizard X soar upward, Auron broke into an excited grin.
After circling once high above, Mega Charizard X descended and happily nuzzled against Auron.
"Haha. Charizard, hold on a sec—work with Grandpa to let him collect some data first."
Auron smiled warmly and scratched gently at Mega Charizard X's neck. Even back when he was still a Charmander, he'd loved Auron doing this. He'd enjoyed it just as much after evolving into Charizard—but now, having Mega Evolved into Mega Charizard X, two extra tongues of flame sprouted from the corners of his mouth. So Auron had to be a bit more careful whenever he went in for a scratch.
Although Mega Charizard X's flames wouldn't actually burn Auron, even knowing that the fire couldn't hurt you, you'd still instinctively flinch away from it.