'Poor girl...' Jason thought to himself, his brows creasing at the scene of Laani experiencing the same trauma as Ren. At the same time, Ren's fur stood on end, an uncharacteristically serious look adorning her face, and a faint trembling permeating her body.
Though his initial assumption was that Ren was afraid, the tension in her body and the way she subconsciously leaned her body forward led Jason to conclude she was more angry than frightened.
"We can't intervene..." Jason muttered, wrapping his arms around Ren's immaleable, almost trunk-like torso and drawing her to sit upright with her back to his chest. Doing so was like hugging a heated sandbag lined with a layer of stretchy elastane and fur, but while he didn't believe Ren would do something as audacious as charging the field, he wasn't willing to risk it.
Not expecting Jason to embrace her, Ren's vengeful fury was promptly replaced by surprise. At nearly that same moment, Korrina, after recalling Laani and whispering something to her Poké Ball, fielded a battle-ready Luca. These two factors were enough to rekindle her excitement, causing a pleased smile to develop across her face as she overlaid her hands and forearms atop Jason's to prevent their easy removal...
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'You've really backed me into a corner here...' Luca sighed telepathically, his voice audible only to Korrina.
'Yeah...sorry about that...' Korrina responded, her usual smile gaining a hint of awkwardness.
'It's fine. I know well how difficult it is for you to deny your partners the opportunity give their all...' Luca countered, his expression hardening, as, across the field, Alain didn't hesitate to Mega Evolve Rizaidon, causing its previously orange hide and yellow, snake-like underbelly to color shift to slate black and cerulean blue. In addition, its draconic, turquoise-webbed wings split into five midnight-blue, blade-like feathers with nearly thirty-centimeter-long hooked talons tipping its radial bones.
"GRAOOOOW...!" roared Rizaidon, emitting a powerful shockwave before taking a heavy step forward, each breath causing ghostly, cerulean-blue flames to spew from its toothy maw, matching the energetic flame at the tip of its tail.
'Roar all you like. I will not be intimidated...' Luca responded calmly, his eyes gaining a ghostly-blue hue before he took evasive action to evade the veritable column of blue flames that passed through where he had been standing. Their temperature left behind a long ditch of molten stone, but even though he was vulnerable against Fire-type energy, Luca didn't so much as twitch as he bolted forward and materialized a pair of golden-hued bone clubs via the Ground-type move, Bone Rush.
Knowing that it was susceptible to Ground-type moves in its Mega form, Rizaidon beat its powerful wings and launched itself tens of meters into the sky in an instant. Then, taking advantage of its elongated neck, it kept itself aloft while spewing stone-melting flames that forced Luca to stay on the move and, most importantly, well away from it.
"Tsk..."
With the battlefield rapidly being converted to a shallow molten pool, Luca knew he didn't have long to defeat Rizaidon. Thus, even though it strained his throat and messed with his senses, particularly his sense of hearing, he looked for an opening to leap into the air.
Seeing Luca on a trajectory that didn't overlap with its position, Rizaidon experienced a moment of confusion-born hesitation before instinctively flapping its wings to gain more altitude. It expected Luca to launch a mid-range attack, but instead, the opposing Lucario's chest expanded before he released a harsh-sounding cry like a thousand pieces of chalk scraping across a blackboard.
"Rizaidon! Heat Wave...!"
Hearing Alain's voice amid the harsh sound, Rizaidon glared at Luca, its shoulders and back igniting with curelean-blue flames that made the air around it become hazy and distorted from the heat. Before that, a silvery sheen had developed across its body, severely decreasing its resistance to non-physical attacks. With Fire-type energy neutralizing the Steel-type energy that comprised it, that effect was immediately undone.
Undaunted by his failure to reduce Rizaidon's Special Defense, Luca, upon landing on the ground, pulled his hands back and began to gather vibrant, amethyst-hued energy between his paws, causing the dust around him to swirl. Rizaidon immediately recognized the swelling mass as Dragon-type energy—something it gained a weakness to in its Mega-Evolved state. As such, it didn't hesitate to prepare a Dragon-type move of its own, the blue flames emitting from the sides of its mouth shifting amethyst and growing in intensity as it reared its head back in preparation.
Though the energy between his palms rapidly destabilized, Luca waited until Rizaidon released a powerful Dragon Breath before stunning nearly everyone in the stadium by allowing his attack to explode. The force of it doing so caused his body to surge forward, consequently allowing him to avoid Rizaidon's attack and placing him within its blind spot.
"Rizaidon! Fly higher...!" Alain shouted, one of the few who hadn't been stunned by Luca's maneuver. He knew the latter was too skilled to lose control of his attack, and his intuition was proven correct, as the moment he got into Rizaidon's blind spot, Luca spread his arms out to the side and strained every muscle in his body to send large, spear-like boulders rising into the air, veiled in Rock-type energy.
Trusting Alain's command, Rizaidon closed his mouth before the energy of his attack had fully dissipated. Doing so injured it, but it was already being injured continuously to maintain its Mega Evolution. That fact allowed it to completely ignore the pain as it ascended high into the sky and ultimately performed a sideways roll through the air to evade the rising projectiles of stone.
'He's too quick. And his cooperation with his Trainer is nearly flawless...' Luca sighed telepathically, simultaneously touching his right paw to his chest and enveloping himself with bright blue Water-type energy to heal his self-inflicted wounds.
'Then...is it time for you-know-what...?' Korrina questioned, her brow and body coated in sweat and her expression uncharacteristically serious. In response, Luca's expression became identical, the telepathic link between them separating as his fur began to bristle and churn with a combination of cerulean-blue and red-orange, Fighting-type energy...
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Feeling that something was off, Jason instinctively covered Ren's eyes as Luca, appearing almost like he had gone Super Saiyan, leaped at Rizaidon with such speed that the latter barely had time to react. Then, along with the rest of the crowd, he watched with a mix of awe and disbelief as Luca effectively self-destructed, producing a loud, perceptible shockwave that briefly exposed the invisible barrier that prevented attacks from straying into the crowd.
"Jason...?"
Though she tentatively reached up to grab Jason's wrists, Ren didn't try to remove his hands from her eyes. Instead, she obediently waited until he removed them himself.
"Sorry, but the move Luca just used isn't one I want you learning or trying to copy..." Jason explained, causing Ren to lean her head back until the tip of her snout bumped his chin. She could tell that he was upset, so instead of asking him to explain himself, she purposely rubbed the top of her head against the underside of his chin and throat.
'I'm glad she's so understanding...' Jason thought to himself, breathing a sigh of relief before focusing his attention on the battlefield, where Luca and Alain's Charizard had both been knocked unconscious by the former's use of Final Gambit. He hadn't expected Korrina, of all Trainers, to utilize a self-destructive move. But he couldn't refute that it was effective. Now, as the WCS didn't permit draws, she and Alain were instructed to field a third Pokémon. As a penalty, Korrina was forced to send out her Hawlucha first, providing Alain the opportunity to field his Metagross as a counter. But as neither had access to Mega Evolution, the match-up was marginally more favorable than Luca being forced to battle a Mega Charizard X in his base form...
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Though Korrina ultimately lost her battle against Alain, as his Metagross simply had too many counters to her Hawlucha, she managed to secure a comparably one-sided victory against her second opponent. By then, the sun had long set, leaving Jason feeling completely exhausted by the time they were on their way to the Wyndham Champion's Resort.
"Are you disappointed in me...?" Korrina questioned, interrupting a lengthy silence where she and Jason had both been sitting with their eyes closed, her head resting on his right shoulder.
"You know that isn't the case..." Jason countered, placing his cheek atop Korrina's head as he appended, "I'm just glad that you and your Pokémon are safe and able to continue pursuing your dreams..."
"Mmn..."
Not sure what else to say, Korrina gently bobbed her head, rubbing her crown against Jason's cheek. She could tell he wasn't being completely open with her, but she could similarly sense his understanding. That was something she greatly admired in him. Even if he didn't necessarily agree with something, he did his best to consider things from the perspectives of those around him.
"When we reach the hotel, I want to give you a back massage..." Korrina muttered, causing Jason to experience a moment of confusion before he smiled, planted a kiss on her head, and responded, "I'm looking forward to it..." with an appreciative hum. He was all but certain that things would develop in their usual direction, particularly with both her and Lillie in the picture. But he appreciated her apparent attempt to make amends for the discomfort she had caused without trying to justify what he perceived as an unhealthy desire to win at any cost...
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Around the time that Jason and Lillie were introducing Korrina to Runa, a thin figure wearing a Pikachu hoodie stopped to crane its head up at the Wyndham Champion's Resort from its front. They were invisible to others roaming Wyndon's haze-filled streets, but several light-formed displays, including one with rapidly scrolling text, encircled the figure like barriers against the rest of the world.
"Huh? You want me to go inside? Do I look like I have enough money to buy my way into this bougie-ass place...?" the figure asked in the raspy, baritone voice of a man. A black dust mask obscured the lower half of his face, but his narrowed, deep green eyes exuded scorn as he watched the text scrolling to his right.
[The Maw That Smiles From Within the Abyss contends that those on the demonic path do not concern themselves with such trifles.]
"I don't even know this guy, though. Why should I give two shits what he gets up to when I already have a ton of other problems on my plate...?" questioned the man, making no effort to conceal his exasperation as he heaved a heavy sigh.
Reading an out-of-pocket remark from another of his viewers, the man frowned behind his mask and countered, "I'm not ready to take on a Gym Leader, though. If you're that desperate to see me do so, post a bounty or issue a Quest. I don't do this shit for free."
Reacting to several windows that appeared before him, the masked man perused each before snorting, clearing them away with his left hand, and complaining, "I'm out here risking my life and freedom, and the best offer you guys can come up with is 100,000 AP? You's some broke ass Gods, I swear..."
Turning away from the Wyndham Champion's Resort, the masked man began to walk in the direction of an alleyway with his head down and his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie. As he did, his silhouette began to fade, growing increasingly transparent until only a faint, barely perceptible yellow outline remained.
Failing to notice the man, a couple touring the area received the shock of their lives when a sudden force shoved them aside, knocking the male out into the street just as a car was passing. Fortunately, it wasn't moving that quickly due to the heavy pedestrian traffic. If it had been, the man would received more than a few scrapes and bruises as he was bumped by the vehicle's front and sent reeling backward...
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