Ash and I were having an epic stare down.

The first one to look away would show weakness and would lose the staring contest. I had no idea why we were doing that but he started it and I wasn't about to back down.

"You and Fay are really good together, very impressive." Ash complimented me.

"Thanks, you were also doing great, really had me in a pinch."

"What can I say, I love battling."

Dawn yawned from the sidelines, "Can you two continue already?"

"Fine," Ash sighed as he shot me an apologetic shrug.

"I suppose."

Clearly, Dawn did not understand the true value of trash talking during a match.

Ash looked away.

I won. I won! I drew my gaze away from Ash and turned to look at Fay. "Can you still carry on?"

"I can," Fay replied, she tried to sound strong but I doubted she could last much longer.

"Pikachu, I choose you!" Ash pointed at the battlefield.

Pikachu stepped forward onto the battlefield, walking on all fours, holding his tail high and his eyes fixed on Fay.

Above us dark clouds gathered, the air buzzed with energy and I could feel the air grow static.

"Fay stay in there." I said dryly, not entirely sure how to reply to the iconic line.

"Go!" Brock shouted.

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack!"

Pikachu ran towards Fay faster than any Pokémon we had battled before. It was as if lightning zipped across the ground.

"Counter!"

Fay put her hands in front of her body but before she could activate her Counter Pikachu slammed into her.

Damn that rodent was fast. He had been too fast to even react to properly.

"Iron Tail!" Ash shouted, determined to continue his attack.

"Metal Claw!"

Pikachu spun around in the air and his tail began to glow. He brought it down on Fay in a downward arc.

Before it could hit her Fay slid underneath Pikachu and hit him in the back with a series of slashes.

"Hit the ground!" Ash yelled. "Follow it up with an Electro Ball!"

I saw Pikachu grit his teeth as Fay hit him. His tail kept glowing and he continued the downwards swing of the tail.

His tail slammed down on the ground.

The earth exploded, large chunks of solid rock were thrown up into the sky by the sheer force of his tail. Both Pikachu and Fay were launched alongside the shattered ground by the blast. I couldn't help but let out a small curse.

While it may seem like Pikachu's attack had put both Pokémon on even footing, flung into the air, it was the opposite of true.

Pikachu still had attacks that could be used in the air while Fay was practically helpless in this state. She had no ranged attacks and none of her moves could help her land or affect her own trajectory on the way down.

She was very vulnerable.

Quick Attack could only be used if Fay stood on solid ground while activating it, right now Fay couldn't even defend herself properly.

Pikachu twisted his body so he was facing Fay and revealed a large orb of lightning that had been generated on the tip of his tail.

"Try to use Metal Claw to defend yourself!" I weakly offered a countermove while knowing it was futile.

"Pika-chu!" he shouted as he launched the orb towards Fay. It crackled with energy as it traveled towards her.

The sphere connected and Fay let out a cry as she was consumed by the lightning.

Her entire body spasmed and I saw her eyes roll back.

The flashes dissipated a second later.

Everything Pikachu had blasted into the sky fell down, including the two Pokémon.

Pikachu managed to land on all fours while earth rained down around him. Before Fay could hit the ground I recalled her, already seeing that she wasn't going to battle anymore.

She was consumed by the beam of the Pokéball just as she was about to hit the ground.

I glanced at the Pokéball in my hand.

Briefly I considered saying she shouldn't have underestimated Pikachu but to be honest there was nothing Fay could have done better, based on the lack of moves she had she did everything she could.

"Take a good nap, you deserve it." I shrunk the Pokéball and pocketed it.

{Don't worry.} Luna smiled at me, {I can win for you.}

We shared a short nod before Luna stepped over the line and entered the battle.

"Ready Ash?" I asked him.

"You bet." He replied excitedly.

"Okay Luna, this will be the day we waited for. Don't hesitate and victory will be ours!"

"Ralts!" Luna slammed her two hands together and sent a challenging look at Pikachu.

"Pikachu, give it all you got!" Ash balled his fist, "Full force Volt Tackle!"

And it seems that Ash wants to go all out from the start. Fine by me.

Pikachu began to run towards Luna, first slowly but he became faster with every step.

Electricity began to light up every step he took and he left behind a long trail of electricity. The lightning Pikachu generated began to sparkle around his body in big arcs, lashing out violently with big sparks striking near him while the creature kept picking up speed.

I had seen it in the anime and in the Detective Pikachu movie and it was supposedly his strongest attack, or the strongest attack any Pikachu could learn and I was eager to see it with my own eyes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

And as it turns out, it wasn't like in the anime at all.

God was it a monstrous attack.

Pikachu wasn't just leaving behind a trail of lightning, he became lightning.

An entire funnel of black clouds and huge flashing white arcs trailed behind Pikachu, engulfing the small Pokémon partly.

It was like Pikachu was running away from a storm front, but he wasn’t, he had become the literal eye of the storm.

The size of the storm trailing behind Pikachu was nothing to scoff at. The storm clouds had big flashes of lightning shooting out of the storm funnel, striking all around Pikachu seemingly at random, making half of the battlefield too dangerous to teleport to and the air above a certain death sentence.

Pikachu had become a literal storm that was charging towards us and I could tell with one glance that there would be no shelter for this storm.

Yeah, I might have underestimated the situation a bit more than I thought.

"Blockade," I told Luna.

I had prepared a special counter plan for this single attack but it was rather resource intensive, not finished yet and definitely not safe.

But it was the only way to escape Pikachu's Volt Tackle, seeing there was no spot to teleport to except above and that would only result in Luna electrocuting herself immediately.

How do you even fight a living storm front? Attack it head on? Pikachu was engulfed in lighting himself, it would be like trying to stop a charging train. There was nowhere to flee too.

There was only one solution to stop an unstoppable force.

Luna glanced back at me to give me a confident smile before turning to face the rampaging Pikachu.

She pointed her finger at him. There was no fear on her face, despite the fact that he was very close to striking her.

A second later the ground underneath Pikachu disappeared.

A perfect square of ground had been teleported out of the ground and reappeared in front of Luna, forming a small but thick wall of earth to defend herself.

Pikachu let out a surprised cry as gravity suddenly tried to pull him down. To my horror however, Pikachu didn't fall, instead his momentum carried him over the hole and somehow managed to bridge the gap, walking on fucking lightning

Next moment Pikachu slammed into a wall of earth and stone.

It didn't stop him.

Pikachu kept running into the wall like he was running on top of a treadmill, his head butting into the wall.

The storm behind Pikachu increased in intensity and electricity began to drill into the blockade.

Cracks began to form and Luna took a hesitant step back.

"Disarming Voice now!" I said, dismissing the last step of blockade, seeing how it simply wouldn't hold up.

Luna opened her mouth and unleashed a scream on the wall.

It shattered under the force of soundwaves and electricity and for a brief moment, all the pieces were thrown towards Pikachu.

The storm was stopped for a brief moment under the constant pressure of the scream.

"Chu!"

Pikachu broke through.

A white flash followed and a spearhead of electricity tore into Luna.

Before she could even let out a proper cry of pain, the entire storm behind Pikachu flowed forward like water released from a dam and submerged Luna into a sea of ash black clouds.

It began to funnel around her and white flashes traveled through the inky black clouds.

The entire storm dicharged all at one on Luna with a blinding flash.

All the energy turned into a spire of blue lightning that shot up into the sky with Luna at the base of the beam.

It was like the Shine had been in Jubilife City but a smaller version.

A loud thunderous roar crashed into my ears and I physically faltered as I felt the shockwave rattle my bones.

It lasted a total of three seconds before it completely disappeared, leaving no trace of the storm. All that was left was a deep crater with a small humanoid in the middle of it. Black scorched earth surrounded Luna, she was still smoking from the heat.

I could only stare in surprise and pure shock.

"Ash wins." Brock called out when neither I nor Ash spoke.

Pikachu walked towards Luna and stared at her, he softly poked her cheek. "Pika?"

I had no idea what to say.

Ash must have seen the shock on my face.

"Sorry," Ash muttered, looking at his feet. He began muttering apologies. "I think we got a bit too excited. When I saw your battle in Oreburgh City I assumed Ralts could take a Volt Tackle."

I swallowed hard. "No, it's cool."

I didn't expect to win, but this was vastly different from what I had imagined it to be. I had imagined a long battle in which Ash and I fought at our best, trying to counter each other at every turn.

A true battle of the minds.

But this was not a battle.

This had been a one hit KO for Luna, an inevitable loss.

A battle we had lost from the first move.

"For what it's worth," Ash looked me in the eyes and shot me a small smile. "Your Pokémon did really well. Don't forget that Pikachu and I have been training for years and even competed in Leagues."

"He is right you know," Brock offered, "Ash's Pikachu is exceptionally strong, he had him for a very long time. Usually he holds back his strongest moves."

I nodded, not feeling better about it in the slightest.

Call it arrogance but I expected better from myself, it wasn't a rational thought but still.

"You are still a rookie trainer," Dawn offered.

"Thanks Dawn," I said sarcastically. Although she was right, it wasn't fun to hear it.

"Yet Ash and Pikachu battled you at full strength," Dawn continued. "He thought you could take it, he may be dense but he does understand battling."

"I'm not dense." Ash muttered, "But Dawn is right, I think you are already a great trainer. And I met a lot of people and Pokémon from all over the world. You battle on a whole other level, despite only having 2 very young Pokémon."

"Pikachu." Pikachu stared up at me, he stood on 4 legs and held Luna on his back. He must have carried her out of the crater while Ash was still talking.

Pikachu lowered his back and carefully put Luna down.

I knelt down and cradled the small psychic in my arms, of course her heart was still beating. It would take a whole lot more to kill a Pokémon in battle but she had scared the shit out of me.

"You're right, Luna is weak."

"That's not what I am saying." Ash narrowed his eyes.

"Fay is weak," I almost felt her Pokéball burning in my pocket. I let out a dry laugh.

"I am weak! I mean, what did I think? I only started my journey and I don't even know most Pokémon moves and strategies." I fixed my gaze on Ash. "But don't think that will stop me."

A promise had been made by me, to make Luna the strongest she could be.

I felt worn out. Seeing such a crushing defeat made me feel empty, I had a mountain to climb that was far higher than I thought.

"I won't stop, nor will Fay or Luna. We will keep going, despite the fact that we are weak. No, because we are weak.” Without thinking about it the words kept coming. “We cannot afford to stay still, we have to play harder and dirtier, smarter and meaner. I owe it to them to do everything in my power to help them. It's a promise, don't think I've been defeated Ash. This is just the start."

Ash smiled.

"You won the battle but I will win the war."

"I'll keep you to that," he answered.

"Pika." Pikachu wagged his tail in excitement.

I nodded sternly, not feeling happy but definitely feeling determined and motivated.

"Let's get you healed," I told Luna.

We left the devastated battlefield behind.

----------------------------------------

"Quite the speech." Fay didn't look at me as she spoke, instead she was watching the sleeping Ralts.

Luna needed, according to the nurse, a good night's rest to recover. She had tried to stay awake after the nurse patched her up but her tiny body couldn't handle the tiredness and she had crashed down.

"You heard it?" I looked up from the laptop, surprised to see Fay start a conversation.

"Every word."

Now that made me feel awkward.

"Look," I began, hoping I could explain my sudden emotional declaration but Fay cut me off.

"Did you mean what you said?" Fay asked.

Her eyes changed from red to blue.

"Every word," I replied.

Fay nodded and put her head down on the pillow, "I think Luna heard what you said too."

Again I had no idea what to say.

"Your speech must have done something right, her aura is stronger than before. It’s almost overflowing from her body."

I glanced at Luna, personally nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

'My aura also increased in intensity, Fay revealed.

"Well, that's possible. I think Pokémon get stronger through hardships and the two of you did lose."

Fay closed her eyes. "I think it's because of you. Because of what you said."

I sniffed. "Nah, as I said, high stress correlates to a Pokémon's strength. I am pretty sure it's something like that."

"I don't think it's just the battle," Fay shared. "It's not the experience alone that made her stronger, nor is it all the training. I think it's because of you."

I yawned, "Still don't get it. I refuse to believe in friendship magic and all that kind of bullshit logic."

Fay stayed silent for a long time and I had the feeling I said something wrong.

"You might not believe in it, but others might," Fay said quietly.

I stayed silent.