Gotta Catch That One

Chapter 62: X vs Y

"I guess he wanted to surprise us," Shauna suggested, sounding excited rather than angry. "This is good, though. This means Trevor has a chance."

Trevor wasn't going to start off by using his mega stone, though. He instead ordered an attack, perhaps wanting to prove that Charizard could beat Alain's Pokemon without mega evolution. "Charizard, use fire fang!"

Alain wasn't going to let a super effective hit strike easily, though. "Metagross, counter it with zen headbutt."

"Careful, Trevor..." Ash whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

Serena could see why Ash was worried. It didn't really look like Metagross was doing anything, and Charizard was charging forward, eager to land his strike with his flaming fangs. However, it was obvious the steel Pokemon was preparing something. Just when Charizard was close, Metagross lunged forward with its head and smashed it into Charizard's chest, throwing the fire-lizard into the air, where it flapped its wings and hovered, wincing from the hit.

"Charizard, dragon claw!" Trevor shouted.

"Meteor mash!" Alain countered.

"Good move," Ash said, eyes narrowed as he focused. "Dragon claw let's him get in close, but it's not as risky as fire fang."

Serena just nodded, pretending she had already figured that out. It was kind of odd watching a battle with Ash. He was picking apart the details better than she or Clemont had ever done while watching his battles. She got the feeling he was actually quite enjoying being on the sidelines for once. She turned her attention back to the battle and watched as Charizard dove in.

Charizard slashed outwards with one of his glowing green claws, clearly trying to aim for the middle of Metagross' head. Metagross, however, was fairly quick and shot up one of its metallic front legs. It clashed into Charizard's claw and the attacks struggled against each other. At least this proved one thing; Trevor's Charizard was at least a match for Metagross in terms of raw power.

"Flamethrower! Full blast!" Trevor suddenly shouted. Perhaps it was an obvious play, but maybe that was why it had worked on Alain, who was used to facing more cunning trainers than Trevor. He'd allowed Metagross to get locked in close combat with Charizard and now it was fully vulnerable to the blast of flames that were shooting downwards. Or perhaps not.

"Psyschock!" Alain countered. Just as it looked like Charizard's flames would hit, a jet of pink energy shot out from Metagross and clashed with the flames. There was a huge cloud of smoke as the attacks collided and Charizard whipped into the air to get out of it.

"This is a pretty good battle," Ash said, looking quite excited. "Trevor's Charizard is really strong. It's a lot stronger than when Talonflame, or Fletchinder, beat it as a Charmeleon."

"Yeah, Trevor must have trained really hard," Serena agreed, also quite impressed with how Charizard was doing against a very strong trainer in Alain.

"I think he's the same as almost everyone here," Tierno said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Trevor, and almost everyone else competing, trained really hard, just to beat you Ash."

Ash sighed, and laughed lightheartedly. "When did I become everyone's target?"

Serena just took his hand and gave it a gentle, comforting squeeze and turned her attention back to the battle. Charizard was now using his aerial advantage to keep some distance from Metagross and wait for the smoke to clear. It was a brief break for both Pokemon, however, Serena noticed that Metagross looked to have a little less energy than Charizard. It had been able to take down five Pokemon, but there was no way that it hadn't been hit a few times. Charizard had to have the edge here, and not just due to the type advantage.