"Wait, wait, wait, wait—hold on just a minute. When did your Riolu evolve into a Lucario...?" asked Iris, breaking out in a cold sweat as she looked to Lillie for an explanation.
"It happened just the other day. And with the World Coronation Series in full swing, the League may not have had the opportunity to revise Jason's file," Lillie offered with a subtle, mischievous smile.
"I've been bamboozled...hoodwinked even..." Iris contended, staring at Ren as if she were staring at a ghost. At the same time, Emmy, realizing she was at a disadvantage, promptly retreated into the front of her dress and hid.
Pointing at Jason's face with her left index finger, Iris, looking somewhat conspicuous with Emmy curled up around her stomach, proclaimed, "You should have told me you were planning to field a Lucario! Are you trying to bully my Emmy!?"
Shaking his head and placing his hands on Ren's shoulders to settle her down, Jason calmly responded, "I had no way to know you would bring out an Emolga. And though I'm the one who challenged you, it was only after your prompting..."
"Right...that is how things played out..." Iris conceded, crossing her arms, lowering her gaze, and cupping her chin with a frown. Recalling Emmy just because there was a high probability that she would lose could be viewed as childish or, at the very least, unsportsmanlike. And if she fielded one of her stronger Pokémon, it could be misinterpreted as her bullying someone who hadn't even received their Trainer Card and License...
Realizing that he had inadvertently placed Iris in a difficult position, even if it was a hole she had dug for herself, Jason tried throwing her a lifeline, submitting, "Truth be told, Ren is still in the process of acclimating to her body and learning to control her strength. Since you're going to be visiting us in Alola, why don't we wait until then to have our battle?"
"Is that okay? Your Lucario seems raring to go, and I know how frustrated Fighting-types can get if they're denied a good fight..." Iris noted, meeting Ren's gaze. She appreciated the latitude Jason's words had given her, but as she had purposely provoked him to challenge her, she would feel guilty if she left Ren hanging.
Unbeknownst to Iris, she had inadvertently walked directly into Jason's trap, enabling him to propose, "Then, even if we're fated to lose, will you do us the honor of battling against us seriously? We were previously given a chance to test ourselves against the power of an Elite Four member, and the only thing we learned is how callous certain Trainers can be. I believe that with Champion Iris as our opponent, we can experience the pinnacle of the Pokémon world without being shamed for daring to look..."
"Sheesh...did you write all of that down...?" Iris asked, exhaling faintly from her nose before posing with her hands on her hips and sizing both Jason and Ren up with a smile. She was tempted to ask about the Elite Four member they had faced, but since she didn't really care, she took a moment to consider her options before nodding.
"Alright, I've made my decision. But before I tell you what it is, I want to ask your Lucario directly..." stated Iris, meeting Ren's gaze as she asked, "Do you really want me to battle you seriously? I'll do my best not to take things too far, but it could turn out to be a traumatizing experience. I don't want to be responsible for extinguishing that fire in your eyes..."
"Ren will battle," Ren responded, clenching and pumping her fists without a moment of hesitation.
"Awesome. No matter what happens next, that conviction alone proves you're an incredible Pokémon," Iris asserted, genuinely impressed by both Ren and Jason. Among the hundreds of challengers she faced each year, very few left her thinking that they would achieve greatness. In Ren's and Jason's case, she wouldn't be surprised to see them in the Ultra Class the very next year.
Glancing at Lillie, who was observing Jason's side profile with a rather intense expression, Iris craned her right brow and asked, "Can we trust you to referee our battle? If at any point you think things have gone too far, you should interrupt us immediately."
"I understand completely," Lillie confirmed with a nod, her expression serious as she looked to Jason and silently held his gaze as a show of solidarity. She hadn't been too pleased when Iris first provoked him into challenging her, but if he and Ren were determined to face her, she was determined to watch and support them with all her heart.
"Great! Then, let's do this...!" exclaimed Iris, pumping her fists before turning away and running to create some distance from where Jason and Ren were standing.
'She's fast...' Jason noted, his gaze briefly lingering on Iris's quickly receding figure before he moved to stand in front of Ren with his hands on her shoulders. In turn, she looked up at him, her wine-red eyes devoid of fear or hesitation. Instead, as she patiently waited to hear what he had to say, he saw his own reflection...
Nodding, Jason did his best to sound calm as he asserted, "You're in control here, Ren. I will support you and call out when I believe it will be helpful, but you should trust your instincts. And if you ever have doubts, remember these two things: never lose sight of your opponent and never stop moving. As long as you're patient and avoid taking serious damage, opportunities will present themselves..."
"Mmn...Ren will be careful..."
Catching Jason off guard, Ren followed her words by stepping forward and hugging him. He was a little slow to reciprocate, so when he did, he made sure to hold her tightly and briefly nestle the lower half of his face into the fur topping her head before releasing her.
Seeing Ren distance herself from Jason from nearly a hundred meters away, Iris waved her right hand and called out, "Alright! If the two of you are ready—" before spinning on her left heel, flinging out a Poke Ball, and shouting, "Let's show them what we can do, Girono~!"
"Hackshaaaaaaaaaa—!"
Though he expected it, considering it was one of Iris's Ace Pokémon in the games, Jason couldn't help but tense as she fielded a Haxorus—its battle cry causing a burst of tempestuous winds to spread out from it in all directions. Even from afar, it looked imposing with a tapered, reptilian head flanked by black, crimson-lined blades. And though he didn't know its exact height, it was at least two meters tall, propped up by powerful, crimson-tipped, raptor-like feet and notably muscular legs that allowed it to support the yellow-green, armor-like plating covering nearly its entire body from head to lizard-like tail.
As Jason's gaze was inexorably drawn to the gold breastplate adorning the Haxorus's chest, the center of which bore a black Mega Stone with a red and gold swirl, Ren unleashed a cry of her own, shouting, "Rennae is not afraid...!" while bluish-white energy rose from her like flames.
Staring at Ren with its crimson eyes, the Haxorus, Girono, appeared to evaluate her before glancing back at Iris over its right shoulder, taking advantage of its elongated neck. In response, Iris nodded, her red-brown eyes determined as she asserted, "I promised them that we would give it our all, so don't hold back."
"Haxiuw..."
Nodding in understanding, Girono faced forward and widened its stance in a battle-ready posture. As he did, Iris swept her left hand forward and shouted, "Alright, Girono! Let's kick things off with a bang! Dragon Dance into Dragon Pulse...!"
Despite its somewhat unwieldy, bottom-heavy physique, Girono began swaying from left to right with the grace of a dancing cobra, enveloping its body in an amethyst-purple haze.
Dropping forward onto her forepaws, Ren demonstrated she hadn't completely given up on her original fighting style by using it to brace herself. At the same time, she opened her mouth, borrowing a page from Laani by issuing a loud cry and expelling a beam of swirling, fiery-orange energy that formed in front of her open mouth and cut like a laser toward Girono.
Sidestepping Ren's Hyper Beam, taking care to direct it away from Iris, Girono waited for the energy output to diminish before opening his own, beaked maw. In place of a spiraling energy beam, bands of amethyst-hued electricity briefly arced between its mouth and the blades framing its head before erupting forward as a dragon-shaped, amethyst-purple bolt of lightning that started slow before rapidly accelerating toward Ren like a homing missile.
Narrowing her eyes, causing them to shift from wine-red to ghostly blue, Ren kicked off the ground and charged forward at a step angle, her body virtually parallel to the ground as she evaded Girono's attack by slipping under it. As it exploded behind her, producing a glowing purple cloud, she rode the shockwave and leaped with her chest forward, her arms and legs briefly trailing behind her as she materialized a large, bone-shaped club in her hands.
Seeing Ren descending toward him, Girono stood its ground and waited until the last moment before twisting its body and striking out with its tail with startling, almost imperceptible speed. It didn't use any actual moves, but as the tip of its tail made contact with Ren's body, it produced a loud, air-tearing crack before she was sent sailing to the side.
"Grrrr..."
Though she managed to flip over and slide to a crouching stop, Ren had to tuck in her left arm to lessen the pain branching through from her left flank and across her body as a numbing heat. The digitalization process that spread damage across a captured Pokémon's body was an extreme boon, but it was also what caused them to flinch. Fortunately for Ren, she had the Steadfast Ability, causing her body to fill with innervating energy that both freed her from the impeding effect but temporarily boosted her speed.
"Girono, prepare to use Counter...!" shouted Iris, recognizing the influx of energy released from Ren's body.
Heeding Iris's instructions and mixing them with his own battle intuition, Girono leaped backward at the same time that Ren rushed forward as a black, blue, and beige-hued streak. At that same moment, Jason's voice cut through the air, shouting, "Ren! Copycat...!"
Hearing Jason's voice, Ren abruptly changed direction, flipping backward through the air and sliding to a stop before raising her head and glaring at Girono with bands of amethyst-hued electricity arcing between her mouth and cheeks. The arcs singed her fur and caused her mouth to fill with the taste of iron, but she endured the pain to send Girono's own Dragon Pulse back at it.
BOOM
Despite Girono taking a direct hit and his body becoming enveloped in a plume of crackling amethyst smoke, Iris pumped her fists excitedly and shouted, "No way! Your Lucario is able to use Copycat!? She's even more incredible than I thought...!"
"Ren! Don't stop moving! Use Detect...!" shouted Jason, causing Ren to startle and retreat backward, zig-zagging from side to side as her eyes glowed with bluish-white light. She had briefly paused to see if her attack had been effective, but Jason's shout returned her to her senses—and in the nick of time.
Erupting from the cloud of purply destruction with his facial blades twice as long and glowing an ominous purple, Girono sliced through where Ren had been half a beat prior. When that attack missed, he pressed forward nearly as fast as she dodged back, his head swinging from side to side in wide arcs, courtesy of his elongated, plate-covered neck.
'He's even faster than Ren...!' Jason realized, his pupils contracting to the size of pinholes as Girono transitioned from a missed slash to a swift spin, his tail tipped with humming blue energy that formed a lengthy, saber-like blade. Ren crossed her forearms and used the metal spikes on their backs to avoid being sliced across the chest, but the force of the diagonal blow slammed and bounced her off the ground.
Transitioning out of his spin, Girono swept three nearly meter-long claws of amethyst-purple energy down through Ren's rebounding body. As they phased clean through her, glowing crimson streaks were left in their wake, shimmering like the tip of a hot skewer as Ren opened her mouth to issue a soundless cry.
"Ren...!" cried Jason, his body rushing forward even before he consciously sent the signal to his hands and feet. By the time he reached her, the fiery streaks had mostly contracted on themselves and disappeared, but it was clear from the fact that Ren's clothes were slashed clean through that the attack had real substance to it. Fortunately, while her body hung limp and heavy in his arms, Jason was able to quickly confirm that Ren had both a pulse and was breathing as he could feel the former's beating through his arms just by holding her...
...
..
.