Kadabra?
He'd meant to pin the thing gently. Instead something inside the Butterfree flared with psychic power far stronger than his own and shrugged him off.
Still running, then. Gardevoir's temper finally slipped its leash. She cocked a fist and swung.
The Butterfree was faster. Her punch went through empty air and cratered the ground, freezing half a patch of undergrowth solid.
"Hm?"
Under the Mother Tree, Nanami 's eyes opened. She watched the three of them chase the pink dot farther and farther out.
She elbowed Gyarados out of his scenery-induced trance and patted his head. "Up. Quietly. We're following them."
Ever since she evolved, Gardevoir had left something girlish behind for good. Her temper had grown along with her, and so had her stubbornness. Only around Akiyama did she still act like a kid.
The chase carried them out past the crowds and kept going.
"Stop, Gardevoir. Something's wrong." Akiyama planted his feet, and she pulled up short ahead of him.
The Butterfree stopped fluttering the instant they did. It turned in the air and looked back at them.
"You wanted us out here." He stepped in front of Gardevoir, putting himself between her and it.
The Butterfree blinked once, scattered a shimmer of glittering scales, and dissolved.
While Akiyama was still processing that, a voice came out of the dark.
"Heracross. Bullet Seed."
The voice was a rasp. The Heracross that burst out of the brush was thickly, unpleasantly muscular, and glowing green seeds were already spitting from its mouth.
Gardevoir started to move—and a dead-white beam erupted past her shoulder and swallowed every seed in the air.
Akiyama turned his head. Beside him, Kadabra was lowering a finger.
There it was. Metronome—Hyper Beam.
"Not bad. So you're the human the boss wanted tested."
A figure walked out of the grass wrapped in a black cloak. That rasping voice was fingernails dragged down glass.
"Hiding your face in the weeds. You embarrassed to be seen, or just a coward?" Akiyama said pleasantly.
While he talked, Gardevoir finished charging a Focus Blast, and Kadabra's finger swung again on the quiet.
The white column of Metronome—Hyper Beam tore out, and the Focus Blast went with it.
That was Kadabra's private gift: when he used Metronome, the odds tilted heavily toward the moves that ended fights. And Hyper Beam most of all.
"Cute. Not enough."
The man laughed under his hood and produced a stone with rainbow trapped inside it.
"Mega Evolve, Heracross."
The stone on Heracross's wrist lit up in answer, and colored light bridged the distance between them.
Focus Blast and Hyper Beam hit that light and didn't even make it ripple.
When the glow tore away, the Heracross standing there was a different animal. Darker across the shell. The horn on its head longer. Its forearms grotesquely strong.
Mega Heracross.
"Team Rocket has people like you?" Akiyama's brow twitched as he found the R on the cloaked figure's shirt.
"The boss's strength has no bottom to it."
A true believer, apparently. He wasted no more words. "Heracross. Pin Missile."
Post-Mega, Heracross's Ability became Skill Link—every multi-hit move landed the maximum number of times, guaranteed.
"We can't block that. Kadabra, Teleport, take us with you." Akiyama made the call fast.
The needles were still in the air when the three of them blinked out and reappeared on a stretch of grass to the side.
Where they'd been standing, the spikes buried themselves inches deep.
And it wasn't over. Heracross's aim swung with them the instant they resolved.
"Again."
Kadabra nodded and vanished.
They played that game five times, once for each volley, and then the last Teleport put them right beside Heracross.
Gardevoir launched and drove a kick in. Kadabra swung his finger, wrapped himself in flame, and rammed it from behind.
Metronome—Flare Blitz.
Heracross didn't dodge, didn't guard. It stood there like it was nailed in place.
Kadabra's fire hit its back. Gardevoir landed three separate strikes across its front.
Then a shimmering shield closed over Kadabra.
Magic Guard.
The recoil from Flare Blitz went nowhere.
He Teleported out with Akiyama.
And then Heracross moved.
It caught the hem of Gardevoir's gown in one hand and grinned, wide and ugly.
"Heracross. Counter."
Akiyama's pupils shrank. Light exploded along Heracross's fist.
The blast came, and Gardevoir came flying backward straight into his arms.
"Garde…"
Her face was tight with pain and there was almost nothing left in her voice.
Akiyama's jaw locked. He looked at Heracross, which was still in perfectly good condition.
And in that instant, mental strength gathered around him.
Hm? Kadabra looked over, startled.
"From here on, you follow me."
He was furious, and at the same time his mind had never been this clear. He didn't notice that his voice hadn't only reached Kadabra's ears—it had gone from his chest into Kadabra's.
Kadabra nodded once and got a hard grip on his spoon.
"Heracross. Pin Missile." The cloaked figure moved first.
Needles came screaming in.
"Psychic. Send it back."
That absurd intellect took maybe a tenth of a second to understand exactly what was being asked.
Kadabra's eyes opened and a wave of violet light met the volley in midair. Nothing collided. The light wrapped around every needle and took ownership of them.
The entire barrage reversed.
Heracross threw a forearm up to shield itself and then stared at the puncture wounds on its own wrist like it couldn't accept them.
"Reflect. Then Teleport." Akiyama didn't stop.
Kadabra raised a hand, left a pane of transparent light hanging in the air, and disappeared.
Heracross stood alone in the clearing with nothing to hit, suddenly on the back foot.
"Find him," the cloaked figure rasped. "Then end it in one."
Heracross nodded and scanned the dark.
"Metronome," Akiyama said.
Kadabra materialized behind it and swung a finger.
Hyper Beam.
"Behind you. Aerial Ace."
Heracross snapped its wings out, took off, and cut in along the edge of the beam, blade-fast, straight at Kadabra.
"Reflect."
Too fast for Teleport. There wasn't time.
Kadabra's hand shot up and the wall of light appeared in front of him.
Aerial Ace slammed into it and stalled for a fraction of a second.
Boom.
Kadabra went backward and hit a tree.
The gap between them was enormous.
"Psychic," Akiyama said, level.
Violet light lanced out. Heracross didn't dodge that either—just took it on the forearm.
"Teleport."
Kadabra was gone again.
Under the hood, the man's teeth came together. "Annoying."