*********

“KRISTAL! No way!” Hiro yelled.

He had followed the cavern as Lance had instructed him, and after a solid ten minutes of walking, he had emerged into broad daylight. He was in a steep and rugged mountain valley, not too far from Silver City. And the first thing he saw was Kristal and Tyler, both waiting around on a ledge on the side of the mountain cave from where he had just emerged.

“Good morning young Hiro Ferguson. Didn’t expect you to actually beat Lance.” Tyler’s crimson hair was more jagged than ever, as was his tone of voice.

“Shut up Tyler,” moaned Kristal. “Congratulations Hiro,” she added, though the voice sounded strained.

Hiro was feeling and looking confused. “How did you guys know that I won?”

“We watched the battle,” said Kristal quickly and sharply. “And why else would you be out here at the cave front? This is where all the champions come … well, except Tyler.” She threw a very happy look at him, and he scowled.

“All three of us made it to fight Lance – we were the only three.” Kristal announced, looking pleased. Her aquamarine hair was tied in the usual way, and she still had her pokegear like a necklace on her neck. It seemed that no time had passed at all since she and Hiro had split their paths in November. She was being much nicer toward him now, though still a bit frosty. “Tyler failed, though it was very very close.” She paused. “And to think, us three trainers from New Bark who left only six months ago … we made it this far.”

“Tyler wasn’t from New Bark,” Hiro pointed out with a twisted smile.

“Well he got a pokemon from Professor Elm, that’s my point,” replied Kristal, dangerously calmly and slowly.

“He stole it,” spat Hiro, loud enough for both the others to hear.

“DID NOT!” yelled Tyler, and Kris intervened between the two, who had both lunged at each other. She was holding a Great Ball, and her face was struggling between anger and excitement. “Now let’s start again.” She stepped back. “Let’s get off on a better foot than ‘NO WAY!’”

The boy settled himself down and made a conscious effort to talk in a very calm manner. “Hello Kristal,” said Hiro coolly. Tyler lurked behind, looking sulky

“Hello Hiro,” said Kristal, almost as coolly. But suddenly she couldn’t hold it in any further. “Oh, come on! All three of us are here together … let’s have a battle then!”

All the expressions changed. Kris was grinning her head off, knowing in her own mind that, according to the battles they had had with Lance, she was the strongest trainer of them all. Tyler was looking interested and even a bit over-confident. Hiro wasn’t sure whether he wanted to have another high-pressure battle immediately after the last one.

“Come on, guys, there’s plenty of room here,” urged Kris, taking a few steps back from the two boys. The area they were on was grassed, with few rocks, and the only danger that could befall the battlers was the steep slope about fifteen metres to the side, which slid all the way down to a ridge in the mountain valley. Beyond the ridge was pure mist, obscuring anything deeper down.

“Alright then,” Hiro agreed slowly. “But …”

“I don’t follow how this is supposed to work,” said Tyler, shaking his wild auburn mane. “You can’t have a battle with three people.”

“Oh yes you can,” Kris said. “It happened at the Whirlpool Cup on Red Rock Island. Lisa told me about it, didn’t she tell you Hiro?”

Hiro shook his head, then looked confused. “How’d you know she was with me?”

“I watched the match,” Kris smiled. “I saw her there, in the front row, cheering you on like mad. I presumed she must have been travelling with you again or something.”

Hiro was going to point out that she had helped him, but he didn’t want Tyler to know that, so he stayed silent. Tyler, however, did no such thing. “This Lisa … this is the one who works at the pokemon centre in Ecruteak City? The one who made Hiro win our battle that time in Goldenrod?”

“This isn’t meant to be a discussion about Lisa. This is a three-way battle. How does two-on-two-on-two sound for everyone?” There were nods from the two boys as Kris took charge. “Alright, let the mayhem begin!”

There were three balls thrown out from each angle, as every trainer took a dozen paces backwards to allow room for the makeshift battlefield. From the light emerged Venomoth, Feraligator and Crobat.

“This is going to be an absolute disaster,” giggled Kris to herself. But she sobered almost instantly. “Chompy, use Light Screen first then Safeguard from Crobat!”

Tyler had called out his orders a moment before he realised Kris had completely pre-empted his moves. “Double Acid attack and Confuse Ray!”

Hiro waited until the other two had begun their strategies. He analysed them quickly and decided on his moves. “Veno, use Leech Seed on Chompy and poisonpowder on Crobat!”

“Why is everyone aiming stuff at Crobat?” spat Tyler, but the other two didn’t hear him.

It was as though all three pokemon had been patiently waiting, eyeing each other off fiercely, until all their masters had given out the commands, then, once Hiro had spoken his last order, everything happened at once. Chompy, Kris’ Feraligator, crossed his scaly arms in an intimidating stance, and within seconds light was being made into a solid shield around him, strengthening for a few moments, then maintaining a stable state. At the other end of the triangular battlefield, Venomoth had taken to the air and was zooming across the sky, bombing Chompy with a small brownish seed, which easily pierced the light screen and tsunkked into his back, releasing vines and beginning to sap the creature’s energy. Venomoth quickly flew up and back in the direction of Crobat.

The purple Golbat evolution was struggling a bit, unlike the others had been. Originally, he had been waiting for the right moment to attack, when the other two were off-guard, but Chompy had quickly shielded itself and Venomoth was too far away. As Venomoth circled back toward Crobat, the bat spat out a lump of purplish acid directly at Veno’s face. The poisonmoth flinched back slightly, evading the clump of acid but not seeing the second one that was also incoming. Crobat’s second acid attack hit it on the wing, burning at the poisonous scales.

Chompy was having a leisurely time at the other end of the field. The three trainers had all been very quiet, as they were experienced enough to let their pokemon do what they had to without overloading them with commands. Chompy was satisfied with the Light Screen now, and was swiftly constructing a veil of stars to protect against dangerous status attacks like Poisonpowder and confuse ray. The other two seemed not to be worrying themselves too much with him, although the Leech Seed was slowly sapping at Chompy’s strength, and through a magical bond, Venomoth was becoming steadily stronger.

Kristal could see this even from her vantage point. “Rapid spin!”

Chompy was not as small and energetic as he had been as a Totodile, but he was still able to perform the technique with much skill. Venomoth and Crobat were having a much more conflicting time together, firing off Acids and poisonpowders constantly.

Hiro intervened quickly. “Psybeam attack, Veno, don’t hold back! Counter anything else with Tackle!”

Tyler seemed to be the most impassive of all three of them; even Kris had seemed more concerned about Chompy than he was about Crobat. The bat had been drained and poisoned repeatedly, but still Tyler had an arrogant smirk. “Crobat,” he drawled. “Attack with Solarbeam!”

Venomoth had psybeamed the bat by now, and Hiro suddenly realised that there was another battler whom they had almost ignored. “Veno, psybeam Chompy too!” Instantaneously, Venomoth let out a great stream of purple circles of psychic power, energy from within the deepest parts of the soul, and therefore almost unblockable. Hiro watched intently, waiting for Chompy to be injured. The Psybeam had only just begun penetrating the light screen when Tyler ordered Crobat to use Toxic on both fighters, before he could collect enough energy for Solarbeam, and it was then that Hiro learned how difficult it was to have a three-way battle; you couldn’t stand back and admire the exchange of attacks, like he had been doing for quite a while as a more experienced trainer. There was only time to command, check up on, and then listen out for both other trainer’s pokemon who might be coming in to attack.

Venomoth’s psybeam had hit Chompy, who reeled back slightly when hit, but there was no chance of confusion due to the safeguard. Crobat had dive-bombed Venomoth with a huge stream of poison, then began aiming for Chompy. “Come back!” called Tyler suddenly, seeing the veil of stars whirling around the Feraligator, just waiting to deflect anything. Crobat pulled back and rose up toward the sun to collect energy for the solarbeam.

Kris had really been biding her time, standing back and watching as the two rivals went to battle, almost forgetting her. But now they had remembered and were starting up the attacks. Kristal Williams went into battle action. “Chompy, Water gun and follow up with Ice Beam,” she cried calmly but sharply. “Slash if either of them get too close!”

Chompy began walking away from his light screen – it had faded considerably now – and he emerged out of it, quite close to where Venomoth was now using a Psychic attack at Crobat, on Hiro’s command. The brownish-purple bat had amassed a lot of energy in his jaws now, and looked ready to fire. Even with the type advantage, it would be a danger to Venomoth, who had already been weakened by acid attacks. Crobat paused, then fired a beam of solar energy directly at Chompy, instead of Venomoth. The gator reeled back once more, injured greatly, but still a long way from out. In response, he let out a jet of water, striking Crobat in the eyes and knocking it to the ground for a moment. The beam of ice was only a fraction later, but it split in mid-air, and forked into two beams – one for each adversary. Venomoth was iced up, and dropped to the ground with a thud. One down. On the other hand, Crobat was not frozen but was injured greatly. Just as Hiro was recalling Venomoth back into his pokeball and began calling out a new fighter, Tyler plunged a hand into his pocket and threw a small golden sphere at Crobat. It landed at the bat’s feet, and the bat zoomed down and gulped the object into its mouth.

“What the hell was that?” demanded Hiro.

“No fair!” bellowed Kristal. “That was a Gold Berry. You can’t use any items unless we agree on it before the battle, Tyler!”

The crimson-haired boy was smug, and Hiro and Kris both felt an intense dislike for him like they had at the beginning of their journey. “Nobody said that we couldn’t use items,” he said with an irritating smirk at Kris. “Well, Crobat, start powering up for another solarbeam!” Kris was furious, but abruptly remembered that she still had some items in her pocket – a berry or two, a devolution spray … aha! Her hand clasped over the small but powerful bomb in her pocket – not a bomb of destruction, but one of intrigue.

“If you used items, it’s only fair that I do,” said Kris, noting that Crobat was gathering energy. She didn’t order Feraligator to do anything; he was in no immediate danger because of her bomb. Kris withdrew the black, orange-sized sphere, and threw it in an arc over the field, where it exploded in a burst of rainbow colours – red, green, yellow, blue, purple, orange, indigo. Each ribbon of light seeped through the battlers, who had stopped in their tracks, baffled, then seeped out of them again and formed back together in the centre of the field, as a dense black ball.

“WHAT’D YOU JUST DO!?” roared Tyler, in bewilderment and fear.

Hiro didn’t make any outbursts, but he looked at Kristal nervously. She was pleased at their reactions. “You know what a Special Guard item does. Well, this is like a really big version of that, the Hyperelemental Bomb.”

“Great name,” remarked Hiro under his breath.

“It prevents any special attacks being used for the entire remainder of the round. It’s not common,” she added, feeling a bit smug. “Lance gave it to me.”

“But that’s not f-” began Tyler.

“Oh, I think it is,” said Kris. “You broke the rules Tyler, and they remain broken. Now, I think it’s time we returned to the battle. CHOMPY, DISABLE AND SLASH!” She smiled – had she not used that item, it was likely that Crobat would Solarbeam Chompy again, knocking him out for the match.

Hiro slipped back into battle mode also, and threw out Charcoal’s pokeball. The Typhlosion appeared quickly, and tried to light up his back-fire. It took awhile, but finally worked – the Hyperelemental Bomb had not affected him because he was not on the field at the time. Hiro slowly realised that, until the other two were knocked out, Typhlosion had a major advantage. He had to make use of it.

As Chompy charged at the fresh Charcoal and the worn Crobat, almost any orders Tyler and Hiro gave went out the window. All three pokemon became entangled in a kind of brawl. Crobat was now the weakest of all three pokemon, and the poisonpowder from Venomoth earlier on finally took it’s toll; the bat was trying to bite at Chompy when his eyes crossed and he dropped to the ground, being recalled quickly.

“Golem, go!” shouted Tyler, and the rock pokemon appeared without delay, bursting into the scene. Kris immediately wished she was still able to use Water Gun – then Golem would be easily defeated – but she had prevented this.

Charcoal was Flamethrowering everything in close range, and now he realised the advantage was being lost. Chompy seemed to be the easiest to eliminate, so he fired off a volley of Swift Attacks, which caught the gator in the ribs and shoved him to the ground. Golem then got in on the act, tossing multitudes of rocks at Chompy and Char. Finally Chompy fell for good, tumbling to the ground after receiving a heavy boulder in the solar plexus. Kristal looked on for one subdued second, then returned him, throwing out her best bet.

“MISDREAVUS! SHADOW BALL!”

The final round had promised to be an absolutely massive showdown between Golem and Typhlosion, and Typhlosion and Misdreavus. However, everything happened very quickly. Char was using Fire Spin to protect himself, as he was weak to Golem’s rock and ground attacks, and Golem was resistant to anything he threw against him. So, the obvious happened; Golem began pounding Char with rocks and injuring him, and the fire spin was the best form of defence Charcoal could muster.

Again, it seemed that Kris’ chosen fighter was being neglected, but that was soon forgotten when she pounded Golem with two massive Shadow Balls, great black orbs which sparked with what looked like lavender bolts of electricity. Golem was thrown back a good way, and ended the attacks on the worn-out Char. Charcoal stopped the firespin, then began a Quick Attack on Golem, who was very slow to get up and recover. Although the Typhlosion was not as small and nimble as it had been in the days of Cyndaquil, the attack was very quick and although didn’t really take much strength off Golem, it knocked him over again.

“Psywave, Missy!” called Kris.

“Golem, use Earthquake!”

“Use those coals, Char!” called Hiro, remembering that when the going got tough, Charcoal could produce hot, burning coals from inside him, which were like a Pin Missile at 1000 degrees.

The earth began to slowly rumble, as Misdreavus flitted her way through the air, knowing her small black body would not be affected, as she was not touching the ground. She released wobbly waves of psychic energy, which connected with Golem’s head and seemed to drain him of a huge portion of his power, and looked to be confusing him. Still, the shockwaves had been sent through the ground already, and an earthquake was brewing. Char had meanwhile summoned the coals within him and fired them out in all directions like a berserk Beedrill. Golem was hit thrice, and even Tyler and Hiro had to step and dodge the dangerous coals.

But Misdreavus was the worst off of the lot. Dozens of fiery bullets ripped into her, and she did not have the predisposition to make herself completely permeable, as a ghost. She went reeling through to the ground, struck down but not fainted. And that was when the major blow hit all three fighters.

The earthquake shook the entire area. Kristal abandoned her spot near the cliff edge in fear of being thrown off, and ran to join Hiro and Tyler, who were clutching at the ground, crouched down. Golem was being thrown about violently by his own deed, and Typhlosion was moaning on the ground, like Misdreavus was, as rocks began tumbling onto them from nowhere. The earth gave one final, huge tremor, and righted itself. The trainers all stood and all realised that every single fighter was almost out of the match. One more attack and they would be finished.

“Misdreavus, get up and use one big Faint Attack on Golem!” Kris cried. She would rather have the final round with Hiro, who she didn’t really get along with, than Tyler, whom she hated.

“Char, Swift at Golem!”

Tyler cursed. “STOP PICKING ON GOLEM! DEFENSE CURL!”

Misdreavus picked herself up, and dusted her front of with invisible hands, then disappeared into thin air. Char conjured up half a dozen golden-white stars in his paws, and released them in a stream of power at Golem. The stars hit and connected with Golem’s head. The last star struck him as Misdreavus appeared directly before the rocky pokemon, and with all the dark energy it could muster, shot an arrow of blackness at Golem’s centre. The darkness seemed to seep into the boulder and drain the energy from him.

Golem was fainted.

“WE BEAT TYLER!” cheered and jeered Hiro and Kris in a total feeling of euphoria. Not once during their entire training had they been able to defeat the crimson-haired boy, who teased them for not having enough pokemon, being too far behind, being too wimpy, being too young – and they had defeated him together. Hiro caught Kris’ eye, and she gave him a small grin; the first since they had split paths.

Golem was recalled. Tyler didn’t know what to say, for her had not thought he would be the first to be beaten, at least until the last attacks had been ordered. He stood there, silent, as the other two cheered and jeered and smiled and laughed in his face. Had he been more sensible, he would have realised they were throwing back in his face what he had hurled at them so often before, but he didn’t.

“**** you,” he said at last, in a savage tone. “**** you both.”

With that bitter taste left in the mouths of Hiro and Kris, Tyler released a Fearow, jumped onto it’s back, and flew off into the mountains, giving his rivals a middle finger on the way. Gladly, neither Kris nor Hiro saw him again for many long years to come.

“Sook.”

“Spoilsport.”

They both laughed. Kristal turned to Hiro. “Should we keep battling?”

“If you want to,” said Hiro. “But they look pretty worn. And it won’t be nearly as much fun without Tyler here to laugh at.”

Kristal nodded and recalled Misdreavus, and Hiro did the same to Charcoal. The two former friends looked at each other from across the field, and then Kristal began awkwardly. “Hiro, I know this has been a long time coming, but I really am sorry for that stupid fight we had back in Olivine. I shouldn’t have been so picky about that stupid Voltorb anyway.”

“It was really my fault,” said Hiro, going red. “If I hadn’t tried to trade my Krabby so persistently in the first place, it wouldn’t have all begun and got so out of hand.”

They walked to each other, and shook hands. Then Hiro asked the big question. “Where are you going now?”

“After the league ceremony tomorrow?” Kris asked, and he nodded. “Well, I don’t know. I do want my own gym one day, but not yet, I’m too young to settle in one place yet. Maybe I’ll do a different league.”

“I’d be honoured if you came with me,” said Hiro. “I’m headed off to seek out anyone else who beat Lance before you and me. He said something about Drake – from the Orange Islands. I think I’m headed there. Could you keep me company, like old times?”

“Old times as in two months ago?” Kris asked and they both grinned. “Hiro, I’d be the honoured one. Of course I’ll come.”

The two friends held hands as they walked slowly to find a way from the mountain valley back to Silver City. Up in a cool cavern about twenty metres above, Lance Hudson watched them. “I knew I could count on those two.”

*********

Melanie came wandering back to the pool much later on. Lisa was still there, sitting in the cool water of the hotel’s pool. It was a warm, humid night, though the sun had set hours ago, but it was perfect for the pool. The pokemon were mostly still in the pool also, but were no longer playing loudly but more slowly and subdued.

Mel sat down very slowly on the edge of the pool, where the paving met the water. “Lisa, Gavin’s gone,” she said quietly, but loudly enough for Lisa to hear. The girl shook her sleek mane of ebony hair and walked over to Mel slowly, very subdued.

“What do you mean, he’s gone?”

“Well, he left,” Melanie said with awkwardness. She seemed to have calmed down a lot since that afternoon. “He ran away. Poor boy, he didn’t take it well at all, first he broke down, then he seemed to recover slightly, but when I told him where Eusine’s body was found, and that the funeral had already been, and he seemed to lose it completely. He just ran down Chester Lane and disappeared into the night.”

Lisa’s mouth was doing the fish thing again. “What, he’s just gone? What am I supposed to do? Just go back to Ecruteak without him? What about his pokemon? This is ridiculous!”

“I’m sorry,” said Mel, brushing her frizzy brown hair back, and getting worked up again, like she had been when she arrived at Lisa’s apartment. “Look, Lisa, I think he’s headed for Ecruteak anyway. For some strange reason, he wants to return to the place where Eusine died. Maybe go back home, and look for him.”

“What about Lanturn and Staryu?” demanded Lisa angrily.

“Take them with you I suppose. Oh, I don’t know … what’ll I do?” Mel said, as though she were suffering from this. “I have to go Lisa, oooh no … dammit … I really gotta go … bye now!”

And with that, the flustered woman sprinted back up the path to the hotel foyer, mumbling to herself and almost colliding with someone who was coming down to the pool.

Lisa sat on the poolside, feeling her head spin. She was alone now, Gavin had been her companion, now he was simply gone. It didn’t seem fair that she was stuck by herself in a strange town with hardly any money. She’d never handle the trip back to Ecruteak well. Unlike other friends she had – Charmaine, Marina, Anna … (Lisa paused her thoughts and sniffed) – Lisa couldn’t really handle herself very well – alone – in the wild.

I need a travel companion, thought Lisa. A new friend.

Suddenly, she felt a cool hand on her bare shoulder. Darius slipped into seating position beside her, dangling his legs into the water. He was wearing only boardies and a towel. “Hi Lisa. Wanna swim?” he asked her.

A smile curved up Lisa’s face, one that spread schemingly into her small dimples and bright golden eyes. Maybe she didn’t have to look far.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next up on Lisa the Legend

Christmas! That’s right, it’s Christmas time! That means urgent shopping …

“It’s Christmas eve!” giggled Marina hopelessly, while Lisa stared at her watch in despair. “And you’re telling me you haven’t bought a single present yet?”

… not to mention all the presents …

Lisa was tearing open the beautifully wrapped package from Gavin, when Aipom finally awoke. It was probably Bulbasaur who did it, by standing on his tail, but all the same, Aipom awoke in the same hyperactive mood, and began swinging wildly from the top of the Christmas tree, snatching Lisa’s gift.

… and of course, the usual catastrophic attack at Lisa’s place.

There were still many people in the garden, for the second time in a week or so. Lisa gazed around, tapping her fingers on the table and waiting until Darius came back to the table. She was watching the guests at the party, when suddenly a blanket seemed to be thrown over them, smothering out all sound. That was when the explosion happened.

Chapter 39 – Christmas Crush.