After dealing with the Headband Guy, Roy returned to the hotel with the Annihilape. Roy's Communicator vibrated, and he opened it to check.
It was a message from Professor Sycamore to himself.
It has been a month and a half since Professor Sycamore left Hoenn; he should have arrived in the Kalos Region by now.
"Roy! I found it! I finally found it! Pokémon have evolved to their final form can still evolve again!!"
Ah?
The message left Roy completely bewildered.
They asked Professor Sycamore what he had discovered, but several minutes passed without a reply.
The headline on the Communicator's IQ page changed; the trending topic "The Annihilape," which was originally ranked number one, dropped, and the message that Annihilape it was:
[Shocking!! Mega Evolution Appears in the Kalos Region!!???]
Has Mega Evolution already occurred?
Could it be...?
Roy clicked on the link immediately upon seeing the title.
In the video
An elderly man with extremely long eyebrows, almost like twin ponytails, and only a single strand of hair on his head appeared in the center of the video.
This person appears to be the main character in the video.
Roy recognized him; the old man was Gurkinn, the master of the Tower of Mastery.
If you're not familiar with this person, you should be familiar with Korrina is the other party's granddaughter and is also known as Little Cucumber by players.
Roy also spotted Professor Sycamore in the video; Blatano was the person filming and looked very excited.
Gurkinn stood before the Tower of Mastery, an ancient, castle-like tower-like structure.
His eyes were devoid of any emotion, and he wore black fingerless gloves with a glass bead embedded in them— the Key Stone. In front of him stood a Lucario.
When Professor Sycamore shouted, "Mr. Gurkinn, may we begin?"
Gurkinn raised the black Mega Bracelet in his hand and shouted at Lucario:
Lucario, Mega Evolution!
The light from the Key Stone on the bracelet connected with Lucario, and the light of evolution appeared.
The light of evolution lasted for less than 10 seconds before it ended. Lucario grew taller, had more hair on the back of its head, darkened its skin, and developed more intricate patterns. The backs of its hands and feet turned red and sprouted spikes.
Roy was astonished after witnessing this scene.
The video shows Gurkinn fully demonstrating Lucario's Mega Evolution process.
People can only see the Key Stone in Gurkinn's hand, but not the Mega Stone inside Lucario's body.
What is the other party trying to do?
Daring to be the first?
Just as Roy wanted to replay the video again, he discovered that it had been deleted and was no longer playable.
Did the Kalos League make a move?
That...
Thump! Thump! Thump!
After a series of rapid knocks, an anxious voice came through.
"It's me, Roy! Open the door!"
The Snorunt in Roy's arms hopped and skipped, trying to open the door, but because it wasn't tall enough, it had to ask the Annihilape behind it for help. Only when the monkey carried it could it finally open the door.
The person who entered was Steven. After entering the room, he rushed straight to Roy, who was sitting on the bed, and showed Roy his Communicator:
"Roy, did you see that video on IQ just now?"
"Um."
"Then we..."
Steven took out his meticulously crafted lapel pin, inlaid with the Key Stone in the center. He had already planned out what pose he would strike after Mega Evolution.
"You're not planning to shout 'Mega Evolution' and then gently kiss the Key Stone on your lapel pin, are you?"
Upon hearing Roy's words, Steven stood still.
He had an incredulous look on his face, as if to say, "How did you know?"
How did I know? I saw it.
Steven grabbed Roy, demanding an explanation. This was an idea he'd spent the entire night brainstorming; was Roy just going to blurt it out like that?
They're practically like mind readers.
"I saw it in my dream, okay?"
Steven clearly didn't believe Roy's perfunctory explanation, but he didn't dwell on it, because he had another important matter to discuss with Roy.
"I'm not going to argue with you anymore. I've heard that the Hoenn League is taking a very tough stance on the matter of the Mega Evolution in the Kalos Region."
Roy nodded. This is just the Mega Evolution so far; there's Dynamax, Z-Moves, Terastallization yet to be seen.
In the end, Roy still advised Steven to wait a bit longer and take out the first target first.
And Professor Sycamore hasn't replied to my messages yet, I don't know what's wrong.
A silver light flashed from Metagross's iron feet, and a Meteor Mash knocked a Venusaur to the ground, revealing its ring eyes.
"Congratulations to Steven for successfully advancing to the second round of the semifinals!!"
Steven, having successfully defeated his opponent, advanced smoothly to the second round of the semifinals.
Wallace fared worse; his previous opponent used two Pseudo-Elite Four level Golems in Explosion, destroying Starmie Milotic together, rendering them all unable to fight.
However, Wallace had a Lapras to follow up, while his opponents had all been wiped out, and Wallace ultimately won.
However, due to the Explosion at close range, Milotic and Starmie cannot recover in a short period of time and may need to take ten days to half a month to fully recover to their peak condition.
With both of its main Pokémon injured, Wallace was defeated by Winona from Fortree City the next day. What goes around comes around, and this time it was Winona's turn to speak sarcastically as she passed by Wallace:
"Isn't he just the inheritor of the Sootopolis People? I thought he was something special. He's nothing special."
"Who said that! I clearly only had two key players injured, otherwise, with your strength..."
Wallace naturally unconvinced. If Milotic and Starmie hadn't been unable to participate, how could he have possibly lost to this woman?
"If it's no good, it's no good. Why make so many excuses?"
Seeing that the two were about to start arguing, Steven wanted to intervene, but Roy stopped him.
Why would you go and flirt with them?
Steven watched as the two almost came to blows. Was this flirting?
Roy immediately dragged Steven to draw the lots for the second round of the semifinals.
After this round, it will be the real final.
In the second round of the semifinals, when it came down to 32 to 16, Roy drew number 16, which was Cade, the opponent he had always wanted to face.
Steven, on the other hand, drew Winona, who defeated Wallace.
Winona, who had just been arguing fiercely with Wallace, suddenly fell silent. Of course, she knew she was no match for Steven.
Wallace put his arm around Steven's shoulder and asked Steven to help him Payback.
The battle mode has now changed from 3v3 to 6v6 all-player battle.
Cade was surprised to actually get to queue with Roy, but he no longer had the confidence he had when he first ambushed Roy at the hotel entrance.
Roy's Annihilape was putting him under immense pressure; he wasn't sure if his own Pokémon could withstand Annihilape's punch.
Despite the immense pressure she felt, she remained tight-lipped.
"I originally thought my opponent would be that Legendary Pokémon guy, but I didn't expect him to lose to you. I hope you can give it your all in our next match."
Of course, the effect would be even better if his hand wasn't shaking when he said that.
Just as Cade was leaving, Roy noticed a black bracelet on Cade's wrist, one that Cade hadn't worn when they first met.
He silently touched Steven, who had just drawn his lot, and gestured for Steven to look at the bracelet on Cade's wrist, where the stone was the Key Stone.
Steven was also stunned when he saw the Key Stone.
Cade has Key Stone?
That means the other party must know about Mega Evolution.
They possess the Key Stone and also know about Mega Evolution.
Wow, looks like this Cade isn't simple either.
Steven was a little worried, as Roy seemed to only have the Key Stone and Froslass's Evolution Stone, and Froslass was currently only Snorunt.
Roy patted Steven on the shoulder, indicating that there was no need to worry. He had watched Cade's battles before, and he was different from Lance, the Dragon type Elite Four, who was considered a Dragon type simply because he had the word "Dragon" in his name.
The opponent's Pokémon, except for one Charizard which is Fire/Flying, consisted of five Dragon type Pokémon.
It features Mega Evolution Pokémon: Charizard, Salamence, and Garchomp.
Roy reasonably suspects that the Pokémon the opponent can Mega Evolution from is Garchomp, because Steven said it was the opponent's Trump Card.
The All-Dragon team, right?
A numerical value, right?
If Cade dares to Mega Evolution, he'll bring out Fat.
Let the other party know what the actual numerical values are, and what the mechanism for immunity to damage from the four elements is.
Wallace watched as Roy and Steven exchanged a glance and nodded in tacit agreement, while he himself remained completely bewildered.
Steven and Roy have a little secret?
"What did you guys see? That Cade isn't even as handsome as me!"
"You'll find out in the next match." *2