The referee raised the flag high, announcing the end of the match.
"Whiscash is unable to battle! Meowscarada is the winner!"
Meowscarada had thrown everything it had left into one final Leafage, driving the attack straight into Whiscash's face. The Water and Ground-type could not withstand the brutal effectiveness of the blow. It flopped onto its belly, its dull eyes rolling into the telltale swirl of a Pokémon that had fought to its limit and lost.
Meowscarada was completely spent. Its black and green fur was streaked with dirt and scored with scratches from the long battle. This had been a fight that pushed it far past what should have been possible.
Its petal-colored eyes rolled back as its knees buckled beneath it. Just before it could hit the ground, an embrace caught it, not the steadiest hold, but a warm one.
Meowscarada had never liked being kept inside its Poké Ball, so unlike Gilbert, Nova didn't reach for a Poké Ball to recall his partner. Instead, he ran the full length of the shattered arena, vaulting past the last flickers of the dissolving energy shield, and caught Meowscarada before it fell.
Gilbert found the whole scene a little strange, but this wasn't the moment for questions. He stepped down from the challenger's platform as well, lifting his own partner, worn out from disuse and thoroughly outmatched by a trainer half his age, and carried it toward the Gym's physical therapy room.
Gilbert suspected that what Whiscash needed most wasn't just care for its bruises. Losing so decisively to a newcomer was bound to sting just as much as the hits themselves.
Nova wasn't handling things half as calmly as Gilbert appeared to be. Meowscarada had no strength left to stand, and it wasn't the small Sprigatito anymore that he could simply perch on his shoulder. Nova had no choice but to carry it in his arms the whole way to the therapy room.
It took only a few steps for him to realize this would not be easy.
A typical Meowscarada stands around one and a half meters tall, but Nova's had grown past that after evolving, closer to one meter seventy by a conservative guess. Since Nova himself was barely taller, at one meter seventy-two, he was essentially carrying a partner nearly his own height and weight across the length of the arena. His arms were already trembling with fatigue by the time they reached the corridor.
Walking a few steps ahead, Gilbert glanced back once. Seeing a trainer refuse to let go of his partner even while struggling under the weight himself, Gilbert allowed himself a small, approving smile before continuing on.
What Nova found more exasperating was that Meowscarada seemed entirely at ease with the arrangement. He was fairly sure it had already come back to its senses, since it kept pressing its head weakly against his chest as they walked.
Meowscarada, for its part, decided that it probably didn't need the Gym's famous treatment at all. As long as it stayed close to Nova, the pain already felt easier to carry.
Nova disagreed completely and marched them both straight into the Layered Peaks Gym's therapy center, easily the most extravagant medical facility he had ever set foot in. It was only fitting, he supposed, for a Gym old enough to have built its fortune on dozens of gold mines. The building looked less like a clinic and more like a palace.
While the Nurse Joy on duty took Meowscarada and Whiscash in for treatment, Gilbert and Nova waited together in the reception hall. Gilbert couldn't resist a bit of pride in his voice as he said, "Studies show that a comfortable recovery environment makes a real difference in how quickly Pokémon heal."
Nova nodded along politely, though inwardly he had his doubts. Comfortable was one word for it. Resplendent, maybe even a little much, felt closer to the truth. He wondered whether Gilbert had any idea how it looked, flaunting all this in front of someone who, in both of his lives, had never once been well off. Gilbert's family was worth more league coins than Nova could count, and yet somehow that fact was doing nothing for Nova's own wallet.
Still, Nova supposed Gilbert had his reasons. It wasn't every day that a fifteen or sixteen year old trainer managed to defeat a member of the Elite Four in a straight battle. As far as Nova knew, the only other person with that kind of story in his youth was the current World Champion, the celebrated Mr. Syndicate of the Inca League.
If that comparison held any weight, then perhaps Gilbert saw something in him worth investing in, a future champion in the making. That would certainly explain why Gilbert kept showing off the Gym's finer details, as though hoping Nova might be tempted to stay on and train here, perhaps even under Elite Four member Yu himself.
Nova, though, tried to keep a level head about it. Winning one match against a member of the Ground-type Elite's team, even a key member of that team, didn't put him anywhere near the level of a true Master-level trainer, let alone an Elite Four member in his own right.
He knew the truth better than anyone. What Meowscarada had pulled off today wasn't something that could simply be repeated on command. It had been carried through on nothing but grit, trust, and a bond between them that Nova wasn't sure he could put into words. If he had to compare it to anything, the closest thing that came to mind was Ash's Pikachu from the old adventures he'd grown up watching.
Pikachu's reputation for being unpredictable in battle needed no introduction. On its best days, it could summon lightning fierce enough to make even Arceus think twice about staying nearby. On its worst days, a wild Rattata on the side of the road could apparently get the better of it. One moment it was taking down a Dragonite that had unloaded ten different attacks in a single match, and the next it was being outplayed by a rookie trainer who had only just received their first Pokémon. It was hard to make sense of performance that inconsistent.
As for how Meowscarada had managed to keep grinding down a Pokémon as sturdy and enduring as Whiscash for the entire match, Nova knew the credit belonged to the careful preparation he had put in long before the two of them ever stepped onto the battlefield.