After his match, Gary didn't bother sticking around to watch Ash and Tobias battle. Instead, he headed straight to the Pokémon Center to get Heatran's paralysis treated. He decided to catch the match on the TV inside the Center.
By the time the arena was repaired and the match started, the broadcast was already underway.
As expected, Tobias led with his ace: Darkrai.
Ash's choice, however, made Gary frown. He'd sent out Heracross.
"Heracross... so he ignored my advice after all," Gary muttered, shaking his head.
Ash was sticking to the same lineup he'd used in the original timeline. Heracross was a solid Pokémon, raised back during his Johto journey, and its level wasn't low—but compared to Darkrai, the gap was significant.
The battle kicked off, and both sides attacked simultaneously.
Darkrai fired an Ice Beam while Heracross retaliated with Hyper Beam. The two attacks collided and detonated in midair, canceling each other out almost perfectly.
"Huh, a clean trade?" Gary raised an eyebrow, genuinely a little surprised. Heracross was a physical attacker through and through; its Special stats were nothing impressive. For it to trade evenly against Darkrai's Ice Beam was no small feat.
Ash followed up by ordering a Horn Attack, but Darkrai weaved around it and tagged Heracross with Dark Void, dropping it into a deep sleep.
That was exactly what Ash wanted. "Heracross, Sleep Talk!"
Sleep Talk let a sleeping Pokémon keep attacking—it was practically the only way to function while asleep. The downside was that the move it called out was random. If a Pokémon knew too many moves, there was a good chance Sleep Talk would pull out something useless instead of what the trainer needed.
But Ash had the protagonist's luck. Heracross's Sleep Talk triggered Megahorn, and the glowing horn slammed straight into Darkrai, dealing a heavy blow.
Even Tobias looked surprised that Heracross could land such a clean hit. He quickly responded, ordering Darkrai to use Dream Eater. With Heracross still asleep, there was no dodging it. The attack connected, and Heracross was knocked out instantly.
"Just a little short on power," Gary commented. "Heracross is probably around the high end of Elite-tier. If it weren't getting outclassed by Darkrai's energy on the special side, it wouldn't have gone down that fast."
Sure enough, even though Ash's Pokémon from Professor Oak's lab were stronger than their original counterparts, they still fell a step behind Tobias's team.
The camera cut back to Ash as he recalled Heracross and reached for his next ball.
It was Snorlax.
"Snorlax, now that's a bit more interesting," Gary said.
Ash's Snorlax was no joke. It had a high win rate and a reputation for clutching out close matches. If anything could give Darkrai a hard time, it'd be this thing.
Ash went on the offensive immediately. Snorlax charged forward, and Darkrai fired off a Dark Pulse to stop it. But Snorlax just tanked the hit with its massive gut and answered with an Ice Punch that knocked Darkrai back.
Snorlax's defenses were ridiculous—Darkrai's attacks barely fazed it.
Tobias hadn't expected another trainer besides Gary to actually threaten his Pokémon. He quickly called for Dark Void.
Ash saw it coming. "Snorlax, Rest!"
Snorlax fell asleep on the spot, right before the Dark Void could land. Putting itself to sleep meant it didn't count as being hypnotized by the opponent—and it healed up in the process.
Then Ash followed the same playbook as before. "Sleep Talk!"
Snorlax lurched forward in its sleep and used Bounce, launching its massive body high into the air before crashing down toward Darkrai.
Tobias immediately ordered Dream Eater. A phantom struck Snorlax mid-air, but the damage wasn't enough to stop its descent. Snorlax came down full-force, slamming onto Darkrai with its full weight.
"Sleep Talk again!" Ash shouted.
This time it pulled Mega Punch. Snorlax's fat fist came down with terrifying force.
Darkrai tried to retaliate with Dark Pulse, but the Mega Punch landed first, knocking it back—though the Dark Pulse still managed to hit Snorlax in the process.
Snorlax took the Dark Pulse head-on, and its sleeping eyes spun before it finally collapsed.
"Not bad at all," Gary said with a sigh. "Too bad Snorlax doesn't know any Fighting moves, or it might've actually won that."
Ash's Snorlax was genuinely powerful, but it was lazy to the bone. If it had just learned Body Press, the outcome of that exchange would've been completely reversed.
Body Press was a Fighting-type physical move. Its base power was only 80, but it used the user's Defense stat to calculate damage instead of Attack. For a heavy, bulky Pokémon like Snorlax, that 80 base power translated into something far more devastating—well over double its listed value.
"He's still going to lose, but at least he's not repeating the same mistakes," Gary said. "He should be able to force Tobias to bring out a few more Pokémon, at least."
But the moment the words left his mouth, Ash sent out his third Pokémon: Sceptile.
Gary's frown deepened.
It wasn't that Sceptile was weak—far from it. Sceptile was arguably the strongest Pokémon Ash had caught during his Hoenn journey. But even so, its level still lagged behind Ash's true first-string team.
At least he didn't waste a slot on Gible, Gary thought.
Sceptile put on an excellent showing. It used Double Team to confuse Darkrai, then carved into it with a relentless string of Leaf Blades before finishing the job with a Leaf Storm that sent Darkrai flying out of the match.
"The original plot wins out in the end," Gary sighed. "Looks like Darkrai really is fated to fall to Sceptile."
He'd wanted to change the course of Ash and Tobias's battle, but in the end, Sceptile took Darkrai down just like before. The only difference was that, this time, Darkrai had only managed to knock out two of Ash's Pokémon before going down.
With a trade ratio like that, Ash would be lucky to force out Tobias's third Pokémon at most.
The stadium and the announcer alike were stunned. No one had expected anyone to actually beat Darkrai.
Ever since Tobias entered the tournament, he'd never needed anything but Darkrai. He'd steamrolled his way to the semi-finals on the back of that single Pokémon alone—and now, for the first time, it had been defeated.
Naturally, the entire stadium was dying to see what Tobias would send out next.
The camera swung over to him.
Tobias quietly recalled his fainted Darkrai, a faint note of acknowledgment in his voice. "As expected of a trainer who fought his way to the semi-finals. I didn't think anyone would force me to use a second Pokémon." He raised his next Poké Ball. "Then this is the one."