It took three more rounds until Emilia was satisfied. Bagon’s stubborn streak came to an end in the last battle between him and Sneasel. Sneasel still won, of course, his speed and type advantage gave him too much of a head start over Bagon, but in the final battle Bagon was listening to everything Emilia said and managed to last much longer because of it, collapsing in the dirt for a final time only after several minutes of intense battling.

Emilia returned Bagon to his pokeball and administered a few potions to keep him comfortable while Sneasel made his way back to Cashe. The final fight left him dirty and tired, the feather over his ear drooping and his feet dragging as he walked across the practice yard.

“Good job today,” Cashe told him as Sneasel staggered back, “You really are the strongest Sneasel.”

The words perked Sneasel up and he hurried the last few steps to Cash, thumping into his leg like an enthusiastic cat greeting its owner. Cashe grinned and patted him on the head, “You’re looking awfully tired. Do you want to go back to your ball for the rest of the day?”

“Sneasel,” Sneasel shook his head and wrapped his arms around Cashe’s leg.

“You can stay out,” Cashe said, “But if you fall asleep on me, I’m not carrying you around, you’re going back in the ball. You’re too cold for me to have in my arms all the time.”

“Sneas,” Sneasel agreed.

“Good. Now let’s go.”

Cashe walked over to Lindon, who was waiting, bored, on the bleachers for Cashe and Emilia to finish up. His expression matched that of the observers watching Cashe and Emilia battle. Their initial contest drew attention thanks to the rare pokemon on display, and Cashe was pretty sure one or two people recognized him or Emilia. But that interest turned to shock and confusion after the first round, followed by boredom as the audience figured out the battles were intentionally one sided.

“Can we go yet?” Lindon whined, giving Cashe an expression that suggested he and Emilia were holding him back in some sort of cruel and unusual punishment, “We’re going to miss all the matches.”

“Once Emilia finishes taking care of Bagon,” Cashe said.

Lindon groaned, but it was only a couple of seconds before Emilia joined them on the bleachers and they made their way around the gym and to its front entrance. Lindon darted ahead, rushing into the gym, but Cashe stopped to stare. Like the rest of the gym, the front was covered in wood paneling; however, unlike the rear, which was a hodgepodge of different natural shades of wood scattered about at random, the front was a work of art.

An enormous monochromatic mosaic of wood made up the front entrance of the gym. It depicted a giant Tapu Koko standing guard over a village. Tapu Koko was larger than life, staring down all who entered the stadium with a fierce scowl on its face. Behind Tapu Koko stood a single figure, a silhouette of a trainer pointing down at a staircase that led to the gym’s entrance.

“Whoa,” Cashe almost took an unnecessary step back at the intimidating piece of art, “I think they got their message across.”

“They want to scare off challengers,” Emilia agreed, “Or let them know what’s coming. But it doesn’t matter. We will beat this gym all the same.” Not hesitating a second longer, Emilia made her way up the steps of the gym and Cashe followed closely behind.

Lindon was waiting in the entrance of the gym, already impatient, despite only being there for several seconds. The area was mostly empty, with a few people trickling away from the seating area and out the door and even fewer entering like Cashe, Emilia, and Lindon.

Lindon was standing by a ticket booth, waving a trio of paper tickets at Cashe and Emilia as they made their way across the lobby.

“What’s taking you so long?” Lindon complained as he ran over to them and handed them their tickets, “The next battles are about to start!”

Tickets in hand, Lindon dragged them across the lobby and into the gym proper. They entered via a ground level tunnel, the cheering of the crowd echoing through it long before they made their way into the stands. Exiting the tunnel was like stepping into a battlefield of noise and pokemon. The arena was much larger than the stadium on the cruise, with enough room for several adjacent stages in addition to the main stage. It was well lit and sported an open roof, the bright Alolan sun shining down on the stage below.

Pokemon cried out and moves flew through the air as multiple trainers clashed simultaneously, much to the appreciation of the crowd. Gym trainers were distinguishable from the challengers by their uniforms, dark orange jerseys with splashes of yellow. Each stage had its own battle taking place on it, making ten separate trainers and their pokemon. Unlike in the True Rookie Tournament or the Viridian City gym, the barriers around the stages did not block sound.

The result was a chaotic mess of light and noise, with trainers screaming in order to be heard over the sound of the pokemon clashing. With the crowd’s cheering mixed in, it was nearly impossible to tell what was happening on any of the stages, even though the stands were only half full.

Thankfully, there was no announcer commentating on the action of the stages, though Cashe assumed there would be if the gym leader had a scheduled battle. The man himself was standing on the main stage, arms crossed as he watched his trainers battle. He was both unrecognizable and a familiar face to Cashe. The gym leader was Hau, the main rival from games set in Alola. He had dark skin and thick, black hair tied back in an attractive knot, but the childish joy of the boy from the games was long gone. This Hau was older, in his late forties, grizzled and thick with muscle. He watched the battle on the main stage, silent, face set in an unreadable expression as he observed his gym trainers.

The gym trainer under his eye was a man half his age, likely of the Second Circuit. He was in the process of tearing apart his opponent’s Breloom with an Infernape, only seconds after the battle started. On the adjacent stages, the other battles were more varied. Cashe spotted several trainers that he assumed were in the Third Circuit and one or two more that might have been in the Second Circuit.

Following Lindon to their seats, they sat down to watch the battles. They were far up in the stands, but near the center of the stadium, which allowed them to have a good view of all of the matches.

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“Gym Leader Hau is here!” Lindon said as soon as they sat down, “Do you think he’s going to battle someone?”

“I doubt that,” Emilia said, “My sister watches her trainers battle all the time. She just normally does it from a private booth instead of standing right behind them. Doesn’t your dad do something similar?”

“No,” Lindon shook his head, “He says as long as his trainers are winning more than they are losing he doesn’t care how their battles go.”

“That’s probably why Selena kicks his butt every time they battle,” Emilia smirked, “He needs to keep on top of what the kids are doing.”

Lindon shrugged, “He says he likes spending time with me and Mom more.”

Emilia blinked at his words, “He sounds like a good dad.”

Lindon nodded with enthusiasm, not noticing the look on Emilia’s face as he watched the battles below.

“What do you think Hau is doing?” Cashe said.

Emilia gave her head a little shake, “Probably just observing to help his gym trainers improve,” she said, “He might be trying to decide if he is ready for the Gym Circuit as well. If a Second Circuit gym trainer gets too good, most gym leaders will encourage them to join the Gym Circuit to become better.”

Cashe turned to Lindon, “So, what do you think about the Third Circuit trainers? Any we can beat?”

Lindon frowned but nodded, pointing to a battle taking place on a stage on the far side of the gym. The gym trainer, a woman battling against a Pawmo with a Bombirdier.

“She doesn’t have a good match-up and it looks like that’s making it hard for her,” Lindon said, “I think Magneton would be able to win there.” He pointed to several of the other stages as well, “Lots of people have fighting types. I think Ivysaur, Hatenna, Slowpoke, and Vullaby can handle them. But that guy and that woman,” Lindon pointed to the two nearest gym trainers, fighting on stages beside each other, “are going to be trouble.”

Cashe looked where Lindon was pointing. The man was in his mid twenties and was fighting his opponent’s Azumarill with a Mienfoo. Despite having both the type advantage and the evolution advantage, it was clear the challenger was struggling. Azumarill took hit after hit, while the Mienfoo took none. Cashe didn’t have to watch long before he could tell the battle wasn’t truly a contest.

The second battle was between two women in their late teens, by Cashe’s estimate, at least. The gym trainer was battling with a Hawlucha, the flying/fighting type pokemon doing literal circles around its opponent, a beleaguered looking Scyther. The battle was entirely aerial, which was new for Cashe, but clearly not for the gym trainer. She maneuvered her Hawlucha with a deft touch, pushing the pace of the battle to keep Scyther on the back foot.

“They are good,” Emilia said, confirming Lindon’s opinion of the trainers, “I think Omanyte could take on that Hawlucha, no problem, but that Mienfoo is something else. I don’t even want to know what the other pokemon that trainer is using look like.”

“They both look tough,” Cashe said, “What are the chances we get matched against one of those two?”

“Pretty high,” Emilia said, “Some gym leaders pair their trainers off randomly, but most gyms assign trainers to specific challengers. Both you and I finished well in the True Rookie Tournament. If the gym leader doesn’t take note of that, I’d be shocked.”

“My dad lets the trainers choose who they want to battle,” Lindon said, “He thinks it's more fun that way, but Mom says he just doesn’t want to do the work of picking challengers appropriate for his trainers.”

Emilia snorted, “What do you think?”

“It’s probably both,” Lindon said, “He definitely doesn’t want to do the extra work, but also the battles are a lot more interesting when the trainers pick their opponents.”

“How so?” Cashe said.

“A lot of the younger gym trainers aren’t as good at telling how strong someone is,” Lindon explained, “So sometimes they get really embarrassed or other times battles are way closer than they should be. It keeps things exciting.”

“So what do they do at this gym?” Cashe said, “Anyone know?”

“It’s by assignment,” Lindon said, “I asked the lady at the ticket booth while I was waiting for you to come inside.”

Cashe grunted and turned to watch the two impressive trainer more closely, “I guess we’d better figure out how these two battle.”

***

The air crackled with energy. Blue could feel the power radiating from Charizard tingling on his skin. Little sparks of blue lightning danced over the black of Charizard’s hide. The flames from Charizard’s Mega Evolution, normally blue, now glowed white and pulsed with intense heat. Even with his Mega Evolution, Charizard was struggling to contain their power.

He flexed his wings and wind whipped from them, buffeting Blue and Julius hard enough to rock them where they stood. Red stood in front of them, laughing with maniacal glee.

“Mega Charizard X indeed,” Julius breathed, taking a step back from the pokemon.

Blue didn’t blame him. Charizard was frightening. Most pokemon became larger when they Mega Evolved, but Charizard did not. They became more dense, increasing in weight, but not in size. It was a visceral feeling, like standing in front of an active volcano. There was a tangible sense of power around the pokemon, especially when they Mega Evolved.

But this was something else, Charizard felt like the sun, a blinding star so full of energy that it was impossible to look at without getting burned. But Blue couldn’t help but look. It was too much.

“What are the readings?” He said, unable to keep the quavering from his voice.

Julius swore and stumbled back to the laptop. He swore again, more violently.

“That much?” Blue guessed.

“I don’t know if we can publish this, Blue,” Julius said, “People won’t believe us.”

“How much? Double?”

Julius didn’t respond. Blue tore his eyes from the pokemon to see Julius standing at the laptop, shaking his head back and forth. His face was white.

“What is it? Triple? It’s not quadruple is it?”

Julius shook his head, “It’s not constant.”

“What?” Blue said, “What do you mean it’s not a constant?”

“The increase in power from both Mega Evolution methods. It’s not a constant. It’s exponential.”

Blue felt his stomach drop, “That can’t be correct. That would mean-”

Red erupted in laughter again, shouting something and pointing Charizard at the lake surrounding Axew’s Eye. Charizard jumped into the air, soaring out of sight in an instant. A moment later, the world exploded in a burst of light, so bright that Blue had to cover his eyes with an arm and turn away so as not to be blinded. This was not the sun. This was worse.

The world rocked around them and waves of force and noise hit them simultaneously. Blue was thrown from his feet and into the grassy hill where Red had set up camp. He crashed into something and felt a pain in his hip as he rolled away from the explosion. He bounced to a stop after several seconds, his ears ringing. The light slowly faded from the world and he opened his eyes.

The camp was destroyed, torn apart by the gales of wind caused by Charizard’s attack. Their equipment, the tents, the fire pit, even the trees on the hill were all gone, ripped up and tossed away. Lake Axewell was roiling from what Charizard had done, a blanket of steam billowing away from a giant pillar of water, rising in the air with the heat created by Charizard’s attack.

The water came crashing back down to earth. Blue thought it was moving in slow motion, but he realized it was just a matter of distance and size. An enormous wave cascaded away from the pillar of water, cutting across the lake and racing over land when it reached it.

Beside him, Red sat up, hair windswept flat against his head. His eyes went wide as he stared around the ruined world, face slowly splitting into a grin.

*****