The way Ash moved left the stadium speechless. One moment he was standing in the trainer's box. The next he was at the centre of the field, Annihilape cradled in his arms. Just there, as if he'd teleported.
Several spectators blinked and looked at each other. That was faster than most Pokémon could move. Annihilape's combat speed earlier in the match hadn't looked this quick.
Gary watched Pidgeot plummeting toward the ground and gave a bitter smile. Even if he wanted to catch his partner mid-fall, his body simply wasn't built for it. At Pidgeot's weight, he wouldn't be catching anything. He'd just be getting flattened.
"You were incredible, Annihilape." Ash tapped the Poké Ball gently against his partner's body. The red light swallowed it whole. Annihilape was completely spent. That final Outrage had been everything it had left, a full detonation of every reserve it possessed. Win or lose, there was nothing after that punch.
This was the first time one of Ash's Pokémon had lost the ability to battle in the entire tournament. It could have been avoided. A simple recall before Outrage, a strategic substitution against Pidgeot's type advantage, and Annihilape would still be conscious in its ball.
But Ash didn't care about maintaining an undefeated streak. Annihilape had needed this. It had just evolved. It needed to fight to its absolute limit, to feel the full extent of its new power, and to fall standing rather than be pulled back with gas still in the tank. That kind of experience was worth more than any win-loss record. It would shape Annihilape's mentality for every battle that came after.
Ash accepted the loss without a shred of regret.
He stood up and glanced at Pidgeot, expecting the raptor to be struggling to its feet. A heavy hit from Outrage, sure, but Pidgeot was sturdy and Reflect had still been...
Pidgeot wasn't getting up.
It lay where it had fallen, wings splayed, completely motionless.
Ash stared. Annihilape's attack power after a full battle's worth of accumulated fury had been even higher than he'd estimated. Outrage's base power was already monstrous, and layered on top of everything else it had absorbed throughout the fight, the result had been enough to drop a healthy Pidgeot in a single exchange despite halved damage.
Gary noticed at the same moment. His bitter smile tightened into something more pained. The referee confirmed it without delay.
"Both Pidgeot and Annihilape are unable to battle! Both sides, please send out your next Pokémon." A brief pause, then: "Also, Contestant Ash, please return to the trainer's box. Further time on the field will result in a foul."
It was a gentle warning, not a penalty. Technically, trainers weren't allowed to enter the arena during a match. But Ash hadn't interfered with anything. Annihilape had already been ruled unable to battle before he reached it, and some Pokémon needed to be physically carried off the field by their trainers after fainting. His actions fell within that grey area.
Staying on the field, however, would cross the line.
"Sorry about that." Ash gave the referee an apologetic grin.
He jogged back to his box without further argument, privately grateful that his impulse hadn't been ruled an instant disqualification. That would have been a truly pathetic way to lose a semifinal.
Gary recalled Pidgeot and took stock. Three Pokémon remaining. Outside of Blastoise, his other two were the weakest members of his roster. Winning the match was effectively impossible.
But he'd accomplished something no other opponent at this Conference had managed. He'd taken down one of Ash's Pokémon.
Technically, Annihilape had burned itself out rather than falling to a direct attack. But the reason it had been running on fumes in the first place was Gary's doing. Alakazam had worn it down. Arcanine's fusion technique had forced the Endure. Every point of damage Gary's team had inflicted led directly to that final collapse. The knockout was his, even if the finishing blow was Annihilape's own exhaustion.
Of course, it helped that Ash had refused to recall Annihilape. If he'd played it safe, the way he'd benched Blastoise against Conway in the Top 16, Annihilape would still be sitting in its ball with health to spare.
But a record was a record. Gary would take it.
Both trainers drew their next Poké Balls in silence and threw simultaneously.
"I'm counting on you, Umbreon!"
"Lucario, I choose you!"
Light flashed on both sides of the field. On Gary's end, a sleek, black-furred form materialised, golden ring markings glowing faintly against the dark coat. Umbreon.
On Ash's side, a blue and black jackal-like figure dropped into a fighting stance the instant it touched the ground, aura sensors lifting behind its skull. Lucario.
Gary's Umbreon was a mid-journey catch. An Eevee with exceptional raw talent that had closed the gap with his founding roster in remarkably little time, earning a frontline spot despite being the newest member of the team.
At Initial High Level, it was the youngest of Gary's main battlers by a significant margin, and the fact that it had climbed this far this fast spoke to serious potential.
But potential and current power were different things. At Initial Initial High level, Umbreon hovered around the lower boundary of what was competitive at this stage of the tournament.
Lucario occupied a similar niche on Ash's side, though "similar" was relative. It sat at High Peak Level, a tier shared with Pidgeot, and as a relatively recent addition to Ash's roster its climb had been impressively rapid. In any other trainer's hands, Lucario's talent and power would have made it an undisputed ace.
In Ash's hands, it was fifth in line. Charizard, Venusaur, Pikachu, and Gardevoir all stood above it, four walls of power that Lucario hadn't yet scaled. In pure talent, only Gardevoir surpassed it. But talent alone didn't explain why the others were ahead. Pikachu had months of shared experience. Charizard and Venusaur had their own edges. The gap wasn't about ceiling. It was about time.
"Lucario? That's an exceptionally rare species!" The announcer leaned into his microphone with audible excitement. "Lucario are native to the Sinnoh region and extremely scarce elsewhere. Contestant Ash continues to surprise us with Pokémon we've never seen him field before!"
Gary stared at the jackal across the field, and a very specific memory surfaced. His mouth twitched.
"Lucario." He exhaled slowly. "That fight is still burned into my brain, you know. If I didn't know for a fact that your Lucario can't tap into that power anymore, I'd forfeit right now."
He'd been there when Lucario fought Mewtwo. A clash so far beyond normal combat that it had nearly levelled all of Viridian City. God-tier power channelled through a Pokémon that had no business wielding it.
If there were even a chance Lucario could access that kind of force again, Gary would turn around, recall his entire team, and walk out of the stadium without a backward glance. Forget fighting spirit. He wanted his Pokémon to survive.
Still, based on what Gary had observed at Oak's Laboratory since that day, Lucario no longer carried that kind of power. It was strong, genuinely strong, but the gap between its current level and what it had wielded against Mewtwo was enormous.
So no. He didn't need to forfeit.
"You still remember that battle?" Ash raised an eyebrow, a hint of nostalgia crossing his face. "That was ages ago."
"Anyone who saw it would remember." Gary's voice was flat. Matter-of-fact. The kind of tone that made it clear he wasn't exaggerating.
The exchange drew confused murmurs from the stands. The two of them were speaking like old soldiers referencing a war nobody else had been part of. Which battle? What power?
Why couldn't Lucario use it anymore? The audience was burning with curiosity, but no answers came. Only those in the know, the Elite Four among them, understood exactly which fight Gary meant.
"Enough reminiscing." Gary's expression sharpened. "Umbreon, Shadow Ball!"
Dark-type moves dealt minimal damage to a Steel/Fighting-type like Lucario. Gary knew that. He chose it anyway, because Dark was Umbreon's bread and butter. The move wasn't meant to hurt. It was meant to open.
A sphere of pitch-black energy condensed in front of Umbreon. Across the field, Lucario stood perfectly still, watching.
The faint pulse of aura radiating from its body filled the air with a quiet, heavy pressure.
Umbreon hesitated.
One small step backward, almost involuntary. The Fighting-type energy coiled inside Lucario pressed against its instincts like a hand on its chest. Every cell in Umbreon's body recognized the type disadvantage and flinched.
"Don't back down, Umbreon!" Gary's voice was firm but warm. He understood. Standing across from a Lucario and holding your ground took real courage, especially at this level gap. Fear wasn't shameful. Letting it win was. "Show them what we've got. Fire!"
Umbreon's ears flattened. Then it lunged forward, as if physically throwing itself past the fear. The Shadow Ball launched like an arrow, streaking toward Lucario on a flat trajectory.
"Extreme Speed."
Lucario vanished.
The Shadow Ball tore through empty space and detonated against the far wall. Lucario was already in front of Umbreon, having crossed the entire field in the time it took to blink. Its knee was already rising.
High Jump Kick connected under Umbreon's chin with a sharp, vicious crack. The Dark-type was launched skyward, spinning, limbs flailing against sudden weightlessness.
The crowd erupted.
Lucario's speed had been faster than Arcanine's Extreme Speed.
But Ash wasn't watching the crowd. He was watching the Reflect shimmer that still hung in the air from Alakazam's earlier setup. It hadn't expired yet. As long as it persisted, every physical attack Lucario threw would hit at half strength. Annihilape had powered through it with sheer overwhelming force, but that approach had cost stamina and health that didn't need to be spent.
Better to just break it.
"Lucario, follow it up! Brick Break!"
Lucario's feet barely touched the ground before it launched upward after the tumbling Umbreon. It arrived in the air beside its target in an instant. Umbreon was still reeling from High Jump Kick, pain locking its muscles, the Reflect cushion the only reason it was still conscious.
By the time Umbreon registered Lucario's presence, there was nothing it could do.
Lucario's open palm, blazing with Fighting-type energy, chopped downward in a single clean stroke. The invisible wall of Reflect split apart first, shattering like glass. The palm continued through without slowing and caught Umbreon across the top of its skull.
The impact drove Umbreon out of the sky. It hit the arena floor with a sharp crack and a plume of dust, cratering the ground beneath it.