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"Stop!!! You're ruining the pokecenter!!!" Nurse Joy was shouting frantically as chaos reigned within. She was almost close to tears as the fire spread around the lobby, courtesy of Blaze's usage of flamethrower. The Chansey nurse had returned from the background with a hose, trying in vain to extinguish the equipment-destroying flames. Pluming smoke arose from the blazing wreckages.

All these collateral damage took second place to what Blaze could see from the corner of his eye.

The second Gardevoir.

"/That basta..." /he cursed as he blocked another aerial ace from the Scizor, forcing him back. Raising his wrist, he allowed fire to burst out in a flamethrower towards the advancing Scizor, igniting everything flammable in its path.

The Scizor was gone in a flash, re-appearing at Blaze's side, still fighting with nary a burnt mark on his exo-armor from the many flamethrowers Blaze had released. For a bug with a heavy steel armor, he moved very, very fast. Too fast for a stream of fire to hit.

Another aerial ace. Another block.

Blaze knew his arms were bleeding from the continuous impact. He could see that certain parts of the Scizor's steel pincers had shown signs of melting. There was also a couple of fist impression on the armor from the occasional brick breaks that Blaze could land on the Scizor.

Unlike Blaze, Hikari probably did not get much of a rest after the forest encounter earlier. She was in no shape to fight... he wanted to help but...

The Scizor flashed past him again, intending to strike from the back. Blaze rolled forward hurriedly as the armored bug brought its pincer onto the ground with a loud crash.

Blaze turned back to face the Scizor, the fire on his wrist burning in anticipation. The pincers had left a large depression on where it had impacted on the ground. "Fight me! Hurryyy! Huurrryyy! HHUUURRRYY!!" the Scizor screeched in delirious glee, pincers poised to strike again.

There was no way he could go to Hikari's aid, not with the Scizor fully intent on defeating him at the same time. /"Grrr..." /he growled angrily, annoyed at the situation they were in now. Annoyed at how Komicer could view everything from aside with such a cold, calculating attitude.

Blaze braced himself once again for the incoming impact as the Scizor launched forward again. There must be a way...



Hikari backed off slowly in fear and desperation. The blue ball of fire from the new Gardevoir moved closer.

No...

The new Gardevoir started to move. Before Hikari could react, the will-o-wisp flew forward in a sudden burst of speed and impacted on Hikari's body. Then, upon impact, it burst into bluish-black flames and dissipated into the air.

There was nothing for a few seconds, then a hot, searing sensation started to course through Hikari's body. There was no fire on her physically but it felt as though fire was engulfing her. /"Aguu.."/, she moaned as she felt her strength leaving her body due to the burning pain.

Calm down... this is all in your mind... Hikari stared at the other Gardevoir as she rubbed at her non-existant burn. The other Gardevoir did a little movement with her hand, similar to how a Medicham performs his pre-battle yoga warm-up. She could tell that the enemy was calming herself down, preparing her mind for the mental intensive special moves.

Hikari was not a fighter by nature. While she had been a participant in the elite four matches in the past, she had seldom fought since then, remaining more at the sidelines with Komicer, cheering her friends on.

She looked towards Komicer with desperation. He stood aside, keeping an eye on both Blaze's fight with Scizor and how the Gardevoir was dealing with her. Nodding occasionally and frowning at other times, he took down notes in a little black notepad. The old Komicer would be cheering, not taking notes...

Komicer... please stop... Hikari tried for one last time, feeling out with her sixth sense that small emotion of her old trainer. She knew the old him should still be in there, somewhere. If only she can appeal to it...

Komicer lifted his head from his notebook and returned Hikari's plead with a condescending glance. "Gardevoir! How long do you take to calm your mind?!" he barked.

Yes sir. The Gardevoir replied and then with a movement of her arm, prepared herself. For a while, Hikari could feel static filling the air around her. With a gasp, she scrambled backwards as the air before her exploded into a shower of sparks and electricity.

Hikari could sense slight annoyance from the opposing pokemon as her thunderbolt narrowly missed her. Pure instinct had only just saved her. She might not be so lucky the next time, not with the burning pain still on her.

She gritted her teeth as thoughts raced through her mind... Unlike Blaze, she had not fully recovered; unlike her opponent, she did not know Calm Mind or could remain calm in such a time... she was also concerned about Blaze's ongoing fight... she was at a disadvantage from all angles...

The other Gardevoir had regained her composure and directed her hand in Hikari's direction. Static gathered in the air again. Before Hikari could react, the mass of electricity exploded.



"No, we can't use the sprinklers! We have a fire pokemon here! And they might use electric attacks!" Nurse Joy was shouting into her mobile phone over the cacophony. She had given up on trying to stop the chaos; instead, all she could do was to salvage as much of the pokecenter as possible, moving as much equipments out of the lobby as she could while making urgent calls to the local firefighting station. Chansey was still making a valiant attempt to control the spreading fire caused by Blaze with the hose.

As the water from the hose extinguished the flames on the curtains with hisses and smokes, Blaze made it a point to keep an eye on the water stream while he struggled against the unrelenting Scizor. He could not afford to be hit by water at the moment.

Whatever work Nurse Joy had done in healing him had been undone in the last few minutes. He could sense the cracking of bones whenever pincer met flesh again. With a grunt, Blaze pushed the Scizor back from him. The bug pokemon was forced back with a screeching sound as metal fought against the friction on the floor. The smoke parted as the Scizor finally came to a halt.

For a while, both adversaries watched each other, wheezing slightly from tiredness. The Scizor too was getting wore down by the close encounter with his fiery wrist, his metallic pincers were scorched and somewhat deformed from constant exposure to Blaze's fiery wrists.

Blaze shifted his stance, trying to regain some breath as the Scizor swung his oversized pincers, slashing the air before him viciously.

"I am the blade of my ssssword..."

Blaze watched as the Scizor started to glow slightly, the steel on his pincers regaining some of its gleam.

"Ssssteel isss my body and bug in my blood..."

The Scizor moved back into a fighting position, strutting an elaborate pose like an ancient martial artist before doing a graceful dance of war. Twirling swiftly and smoothly in the air, his lyrical chanting growing in volume as he picked up speed. His pincers continued its assault on the smoked-filled air, gleaming sharper with each slash.

"I'm the generation of a thoussssand breedssss..."

"There is no lossssss nor isssss there any gain..."

"Withsssstood pain to be the ultimate weapon..."

Whatever the Scizor was doing, Blaze was not taking his chance. He could see from the side of his eyes Hikari just managing to barely avoid a thunderbolt attack. He needed to end his fight fast. This was his chance.

"Waiting for the fight of my life..."

"I have no regretssss, Thisss isss my only path..."

Blaze targeted his wrist towards the spinning Scizor, fire spluttered out fiercely as they started. Then a stream of fire burst out towards the Scizor.

The whirling mass disappeared from sight before the flames could hit him. The flames found its target on the furnitures instead, consuming the poor sofas in fire.

The bug type reappeared just before Blaze, his sword dance nearing the end. Blaze recoiled in surprise for a while. The Scizor's pincers raised to his back for maximum power, on its way down for a strike.

"My whole life wasss..."

An opening! Blaze raised his fist forward, ready to block and counter with another flamethrower, this time a direct one.

There was another explosion of static from aside and a scream.

"Hikari!" Blaze turned towards the noise, distracted by the circumstances of his love.

"UNLIMITED SSSWORD DANCE!!!"

As the Scizor finished his chant, its pincers gleamed in its former glory, gaining a sharp shine to it. Then he brought his pincer down on Blaze. There was a cracking sound. Blaze had no time to react as metal hit flesh and he was pushed back by the impact into the wall with a smash.

Blaze shook his head to get the groggy feeling out as blood spread across his chest, bringing pain along with it. He had left a humanoid-looking impression on the wall upon impact, gravel from the wall falling lightly on him.

The Chansey had ran just in time to avoid the incoming Blaze. The hose lay unattended to beside Blaze, with water continuing to flow from it, forming a little stream, dyed red by Blaze's blood.

There was a flash of red. Blaze raised his arms up to block the Scizor's aerial ace. He grunted as another stab of pain flashed through his arm. The impact caused even more bleeding from his injured arm, blending into the redness of the Scizor's armor. Numbness spread across the injured arm.

The thunderbolt had given Blaze an idea. The Scizor was simply too fast for a flamethrower. Perhaps it was time to use that move he had learnt from the old lady at the Battle Frontier. The flames from his wrists flared brightly in protest for a while before it extinguishes, leaving behind smoldering smoke.

"Blazzzeee!! Isss that all you got!!! What happened to the Blazzzeee of the championzz!!!" The Scizor leaped back, the burning particles of debris pushed by the impact. He swung his pincers to the side in a slick movement to remove the blood from it, "The Blazzzee I knew would not give out sssoo eassily!!! FIGHT ME!!!"

Then raising his pincers once more, he charged forward for a final blow.



Hikari had never learnt the move 'thunderbolt', thus she never knew just exactly how powerful it was. She did knew that it must have contained a few thousand voltages of power.

At least that was how much she estimated from the strength of the electricity that hit her, shaking her body violently.

There was a loud scream, probably hers.

When the electrical convulses ended, Hikari slummed to the floor, moaning in pain. At least there was an end to the electric induced pain, unlike the burning will-o-wisp that still plagued her.

A stream of flame flashed from behind, setting the sofas on fire. Smoke was filling the room. Blaze was still fighting, this was no time to give up. Hikari looked back up with renewed determination.

The Gardevoir was preparing another attack, Hikari could already feel her hair standing due to the accumulating static charges in the air. She could sense no emotions from the Gardevoir, only a serene calmness.

It was time to break that calmness. Closing her eyes, Hikari reached out with her psychic powers to her opponent. She had done this before in the past, back when she fought in tournaments. She could do it again.

The static grew stronger.

Finding her opponent's psychic being, she started to tune it to her own.

There was a scream as the static dissipated. The Gardevoir started to slap her body frantically, as if to put out some invisible flame.

Synchronize successful! The burning sensation would have been duplicated on the enemy. Hikari opened her eyes and struggled to her feet. A shadowy mass of dark matter started to gather in her hands as she readied to counter attack.

"It's in your mind! Continue fighting!" Komicer ordered the Gardevoir in annoyance. The other Gardevoir stopped herself and looked towards Hikari. Her calmness had been broken. A sense of confusion and franticness took over her emotions.

Hikari picked up as much speed as her injured frame could take and then with a surge of strength, threw the shadow ball at the opponent. The shadow ball hurled across the room, hitting the Gardevoir directly in the stomach region. She fell back from the impact, evidently somewhat hurt.

"Stand up! It's only one shadow ball!" Komicer shouted with a little more emotion, pointing towards Hikari, "Do what you are made for!" The psychic pokemon climbed back to her feet with a look of pain on her face. Letting go of her midsection which got hit, she placed her hands to the temples of her head.

I'm... not going to... lose to a second-rated... pokemon... the Gardevoir said as she pushed her hands forward. Hikari could feel the surge of psychic heading towards her, pushing her back, straining her mental strength.

What happened to modest?! she retorted in frustration and anger. Another shadow ball gathered at her hand. I am who I am! Just because I like being stubborn, doesn't mean I am useless! Hikari threw the shadow ball as hard as she could towards the perfect Gardevoir.

Her opponent dodged the shadow ball with a quick movement to the left. She then raised her hands again to charge the thunderbolt. The soft buzz of gathering electricity could be heard. The dodged shadow ball flew through the pokecenter wall, out of the combat zone and into oblivion.

Hikari tried to ready another shadow ball before the thunderbolt hit. Dark mass gathered once again in her hands.

Then it disappeared.

What!? Hikari looked at her hands in fear and shock. She tried again, but no shadow ball was forthcoming. She had used up her dark energy required for shadow ball.

The gathered electrical energy of the thunderbolt exploded with the clap of thunder.

Hikari bent down with a yelp, clutching her head in fear. Luckily, the opponent had aimed the thunderbolt too high; her hair bristled with static but it was not a direct hit.

There was a tremendous crashing sound from aside, coming from Blaze and the Scizor's duel.

Static gathered again.

Hikari got up and ran forward towards her opponent as fast as an injured Gardevoir could. Without shadow ball, her next best move would be 'return'. Concentrating on the image of her master, Komicer, her body started to glow faintly. Images of her past with him flooded her mind.

Komicer, her benefactor...

Her master...

Loyalty...

Love...

"What are you doing!? Thunderbolt!", the voice of Komicer could be heard commanding the other Gardevoir.

Return!

Hikari hit the Gardevoir with the output of emotional energy. The Gardevoir stumbled slightly, losing focus on the thunderbolt. Then she regained her balance.

Is that all? she said while she forced Hikari back with her psychic attack. Hikari fell back on the floor, too weak, too tired to resist.

Too weak. Her once strong 'return' was too weak. Too weak against that Cacnea, too weak against this Gardevoir. And her body still burned with hot, painful intensity. Hikari felt her chances growing smaller. Already, she could sense the growing static charges. Her opponent would not miss a second time.

Sorry, Blaze...

She hung her head in both pain and shame.

Then there was a loud explosion of fire from aside.

Blaze!