High above the center of Pummelo Stadium, two terrifying forces ground against each other, the shockwaves visible to the naked eye. Only in the middle of that impact did the spectators realize why they hadn't taken any damage.
They should have caught on sooner, but they'd been too swept up in the battle to notice. Now, with the shockwaves rippling on a barrier in front of them, it became impossible to miss. So that was why none of the violence on the field had reached them. The organizers must have thought of everything.
In Drake's earlier battles, the stands hadn't had that kind of protection. Then again, none of Drake's earlier opponents had been Ash. Setting up a barrier for the usual challengers would have been overkill, so the omission made sense.
The Orange Islands organizers hadn't set up any barrier. They were just as confused as the audience, staring at the rippling surface and wondering when it had appeared. Back when Infernape and Electivire were trading blows, they'd been working out how to minimize casualties in the stands, and as it turned out the barrier had been quietly doing the job for them the whole time.
But this battle showed off its strength to the fullest. Aftershocks that should have flattened Pummelo Stadium hadn't even creased the barrier. Whose work was it?
That was a question for later. The collision on the field had hit its white-hot peak.
At first the blue Dragon-type energy, and Outrage, edged the lightning back inch by inch toward Pikachu. Then the advance slowed, and as it neared him it stopped entirely.
Drake balled up both fists and shouted, "Dragonite, come on, just a little more!"
Just a little more. If Dragon Rush connected, Pikachu was finished. Even if Ash sent out his next Pokémon, the gap between Pokémon would give Dragonite time to catch its breath.
No matter how hard Drake yelled, Dragon Rush couldn't push any closer. Bit by bit Pikachu's electricity drove it back instead. Golden arcs kept ripping through the dragon energy and the killing intent woven into it, and the violent blue torrent dissolved at a speed anyone could see.
Dragonite let out a pained roar. The violent will Outrage had hammered into its mind frayed apart under the lightning. The blue glow around it dimmed, the momentum of the dive broke entirely, and its massive body shook under the shroud of electricity. In a heartbeat Dragonite was swallowed by Pikachu's 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt.
"Go, Pikachu!"
"Pika pika!" With Pikachu's cry the lightning on his body surged again, the storm closing over Dragonite completely. The glare blinded the stands, brighter than the sun overhead.
How long it lasted, no one could say. When the lightning finally began to fade and the strain on their eyes lifted, the spectators turned back to the field. They thought they knew the answer. With lightning like that, with Dragonite swallowed whole, what miracle was there to hope for?
Yet neither Pokémon was down. Pikachu was on all fours, panting, his eyes fixed on Dragonite in front of him. Dragonite was covered in scorched streaks, but it didn't seem to have lost the ability to battle.
The crowd's fists clenched. Was there still a miracle here? Even with five Pokémon left in Ash's hands, as long as Dragonite hadn't fallen there was still a path to victory.
While the stands held onto that thin hope, Drake's hands had already loosened, and he let out a long breath. It was over.
For all that Dragonite was still upright, the spectators close to the field would have noticed something Pikachu was doing that Dragonite wasn't. Pikachu was heaving for air. Dragonite was perfectly still. Had it burned less stamina than Pikachu? Obviously not.
Dragonite had already lost the ability to battle. The light had gone from its eyes, and the violent rush of Outrage had drained away with it. Outrage's side effects only mattered while a Pokémon could still fight, after all.
After a brief silence Dragonite lost even the willpower holding it on its feet. Its massive body tipped backward and slammed to the ground with a heavy thud, sinking slightly into the sand.
The arena fell into a brief, deathly hush. The islanders stared at the Dragonite laid out in the center of the field, faces blank with disbelief. The Dragonite that had swept the Orange Islands had just lost a head-on clash to a Pikachu. And not under normal conditions either.
Dragonite had been in Outrage, with a powerhouse Dragon move like Dragon Rush layered on top. Even an Elite Four Pokémon would have struggled against that combination. Pikachu had crushed it with a move none of them had ever heard of. It was impossible to make sense of.
"Dra-Dragonite is unable to battle! Pikachu wins! The winner of this match is Ash!"
The referee was the first to come to his senses, snapping his flag down and calling the match for Ash and Pikachu. Even a professional referee had needed a moment to recover, never mind the rest of the crowd.
As the call rang out, Pikachu let his body slacken and collapsed onto the sand. He hadn't lost the ability to battle, but the back-to-back clashes had drained him to the line. The opponent had been a pseudo-legendary Dragonite. Winning against a Dragonite in Outrage came down entirely to the bond between him and Ash.
The 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt stood in the same class as the signature moves of Legendary Pokémon, with the kind of power that could flip a battle on its own. That was why Ash saved it for decisive moments. So far it had never failed. An Electivire with Motor Drive, presented with that much voltage, would simply rupture under the weight of it. That was what 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt was.
It was a strange thing, but since Pikachu set out on his journey, apart from his first battle against Ash before they ever became partners, he had lost only one match, the one against Cynthia. And in that one, as it happened, they hadn't used the move.
It wasn't that Ash and Pikachu hadn't wanted to use the move in that match. They'd thrown everything they had at Cynthia, their coordination and synergy at its peak, and a 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt at that height would surely have hit its full ceiling.
The problem was that Pikachu no longer had the stamina to fire it. The Cynthia match had looked like a one-sided beating.
The final collision today hadn't been easy either. Pikachu had essentially erupted with the move at Peak Level power, hard-countering the strongest strike a pseudo-legendary could throw.
Outrage stacked with Dragon Rush was a pure all-or-nothing play. Pikachu had managed to block it and turn it back, but only by burning every ounce of stamina he had.
A soft thud. Pikachu collapsed onto the field, but instead of grit and sand he felt himself drop into a warm embrace. He forced his eyes open and found Ash there in front of him. He hadn't hit the dirt at all. He'd landed in Ash's arms.
"You did great, Pikachu. You did so well. We won!" Ash tossed him high into the air, his face lit with joy.
"Pika Pi." Bouncing up and down, exhausted as he was, the sight of Ash's smile chased most of the fatigue out of him. He even felt his stamina creep back, and a bright grin spread across his face.
"Pika pika." When he finally settled back into Ash's arms, he nestled in and let his feelings spill out. Ash, your mood is catching. The Pain just kind of fades, and I feel like I've got some strength back already. It's amazing.
"What are you talking about? I've been healing you with Viridian Power this whole time."
Pikachu deflated. Give me back my touching moment.
Across the field, Drake recalled Dragonite and murmured a few words of comfort. Dragonite had given everything. The problem wasn't that it lacked strength, just that the opponent was a monster. The power it had pulled out today went past anything in its past battles.
Outrage lifted every stat by a wide margin, but it made focused move use enormously hard. The most a Pokémon could usually manage in that state was a handful of minor moves. For Dragonite to land Dragon Rush on top of Outrage was already a move that crossed its own limits. And it had still lost.
If that was how it shook out, there was nothing to complain about. When you give everything and still come up short, you just admit your skills weren't enough, go home and train, and come back for revenge later.
"Congratulations, Ash. You're now an Honorary Trainer of the Orange Islands." Drake walked onto the field and held out a hand.
"Thank you, Mr. Drake. That was a real, satisfying battle."
"Satisfying, huh." Drake murmured the word, then quietly shook his head. "Ash. Pikachu. The two of you weren't at full strength today, were you? That can't really count as a satisfying battle on your end."
Ash and Pikachu glanced at each other. As for full strength, they really hadn't shown all of it. One side of it was Aura Fusion. The other was that Pikachu wasn't in his best shape. Before stepping into the Orange Islands, Pikachu had stood at near Champion leve, but after going through his Second Rebirth, his level had dropped. By that measure, yes, they hadn't used everything.
Then again, this battle had drained every drop of power Ash and Pikachu could currently bring to bear, so saying they had given their full strength wasn't wrong either. Both framings held up.
"Dragonite and I will get stronger. Let's have another battle then, Ash."
"Yeah. There will be a chance."
The grand match finally came to an end. Drake, undefeated since the day he took the seat of Head Trainer, had at last lost one. And not a close loss either. He'd been swept aside. Ash had six Pokémon in total, and not a single one had lost the ability to battle.
Anyone outside who only saw the headlines and skipped the match itself might have assumed Drake had been thrashed from start to finish without a chance to swing back.
The truth was that Drake had handled things well. Ash's Pokémon were simply both strong and unpredictable. Surprise after surprise kept landing during the match; otherwise Drake would at least have taken one or two of Ash's down. Against Ash's first three non-main Pokémon, Drake had genuinely had a path to victory.
After the match the heat of the battle still hung over Pummelo Island. Everyone was trading details about Drake and Ash's fight, while Ash and his companions followed Drake to the Winner's Palace.
The place existed to register Trainers who had defeated the Head Trainer of the Orange Islands. On a stone slab they could leave footprints, handprints, or a partial imprint from one of their Pokémon that had taken part in the battle. A large group photo of the Trainer and their team was taken and hung inside.
Travelers coming through Pummelo Island, and the islanders themselves, could walk in and see the imprints and portraits of every Trainer across the generations who had downed the Head Trainer.
You had to admit, the winners, or rather the Champions, of the Orange League ate other League Conferences for breakfast. Which other League Conference let you leave an imprint in a hall of fame after winning? Only the Orange Islands. No wonder the Orange League had been climbing in popularity these past couple of years.