Protean and familiar lines

The usual Abilities for starter Pokémon were Overgrow, Torrent, and Blaze.

They boosted the damage of moves of the corresponding type when a Pokémon's stamina dropped below a certain threshold, only activating when it was running low.

Compared with Overgrow, Protean offered a little less of a boost, but gave Meownei far more room to adapt.

Her movepool was remarkably broad, and there was no four-move limit here, which meant her typing went far beyond simply Grass and Dark.

Pikachu's Thunderbolt failed to deal any damage, but it was not entirely pointless. At least its light revealed the rough outline of Meownei's invisible flower stem.

That at least let Ash see that Pikachu was not being held in place by a Psychic-type move like Confusion.

After all, Pikachu could not easily describe his situation during a battle. Even he needed gestures and body language to communicate with Ash.

The root of all this lay in the strange species known as Pokémon. They could understand human speech, but expressing every word precisely was still rather difficult.

Without psychic powers or Aura involved, and excluding special cases like Team Rocket's Meowth, it could be compared to the following situation.

Meownei and Xin Mu communicating was like two people speaking standard Mandarin.

An ordinary Trainer communicating with a familiar Pokémon was more like a conversation between speakers of standard Mandarin, Sichuanese Mandarin, and Cantonese-accented Mandarin. There were accents, but they could get their meaning across, and a little body language made everything clear.

During a frantic battle, however, Pikachu would instinctively start speaking "Cantonese," leaving Ash struggling to understand.

"Invisible vines? Pikachu, break free! Use Thunder!"

"Pika... chu!"

"Wait until Thunder ends, then use Leech Seed."

The lightning Pikachu unleashed with all his might was just as ineffective as the earlier Thunderbolt, but the flower bud attached to Meownei's stem scattered several seeds onto his body.

That was a move Meownei had inherited. As she scattered the seeds, she also voluntarily released Pikachu.

She was no longer a Ground-type now, having switched back to her original Grass typing. With Leech Seed there to restrain him, she had no reason to make herself easier to hit by holding him like this.

Before letting go, however, Meownei lifted Pikachu even higher. When he was halfway down, the Leech Seeds sprouted at just the right moment, robbing him of his ability to move once again.

That also prevented Pikachu from adjusting his posture, causing him to take damage from the Spikes again. At that same moment, Leech Seed began draining his remaining stamina.

"Pikachu! Use Thunder on yourself!"

Seeing Pikachu trapped by the vines growing from Leech Seed, Ash suddenly gave a new command. Pikachu did not hesitate, aiming at himself without a second thought.

Under the onslaught of lightning, the vines restraining Pikachu were blasted into charcoal. Though he lost a considerable amount of stamina, he successfully escaped what had seemed like an inescapable trap.

"If Electric-type attacks won't work, we'll try something else! Use Quick Attack to get close!"

"Shadow Claw."

The energy within Meownei shifted once again. Dark, blackish-purple energy wrapped around both her hands, then extended into three sharp claws on each.

When Pikachu reached her, Meownei made no attempt to dodge, letting him charge straight into her.

The seemingly powerful strike had no effect upon contact. The force behind Quick Attack simply vanished, while those black claws struck squarely home.

There was no need to announce the result. The spirals in Pikachu's eyes already made the outcome clear.

The earlier attacks had dealt little direct damage, but they had still depleted more than half of Pikachu's stamina. The close-range Shadow Claw had left him completely unable to battle.

"Ash lost..."

"He actually lost that badly..."

"The gap was too big. Pikachu's moves are all Electric- and Normal-type. His opponent happened to have Ghost- and Ground-type moves, and combined with that rare Ability, Pikachu couldn't deal any effective damage at all."

In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Protean had already been nerfed, only activating once each time a Pokémon entered battle.

Here, however, Protean was still in its prime.

"My sisters told me before that Trainers here in Donghuang were all academically trained. Is this how they battle?"

"Maybe. At the very least, he's much better than Ash at using type matchups and Abilities. And..."

"What is it?"

"His Pokémon must know quite a few moves. If she's mastered that many, her level can't be low either, yet he chose to battle like this... It feels less like he's battling and more like he's testing something."

Misty had not yet taken over the Cerulean Gym, but Brock had properly run the Pewter Gym for a while.

Battles between Gym Leaders and challengers were not purely about winning or losing. They were tests of whether the challenger was qualified, so Gym Leaders selected appropriate teams based on their opponents' strength.

Brock sensed something familiar about Xin Mu, except that Xin Mu seemed to be testing himself.

By then, Ash had already picked Pikachu up. Though he had lost, Pikachu was still in decent shape and regained consciousness shortly after the battle ended.

To be safe, Ash took Pikachu straight back inside the Pokémon Center for treatment.

"Meow, meow~ (I told you it would be easy. I actually had an even easier way to beat him.)"

Meownei made an OK gesture at Xin Mu, but Meowscarada only had three fingers, so it looked more like a pinching gesture.

"Yeah, nicely done. Maybe you'd perform better if I didn't give you commands?"

"Meow! (Not at all. I didn't waste any stamina this way. It was so easy.)"

Pikachu had failed to deal any effective damage and had instead had his stamina drained by Leech Seed. From that perspective, she had even come out ahead.

"You don't have to praise me. I know perfectly well where I stand... Pikachu's Ability is Static. I shouldn't have let you make physical contact with him. If it had triggered paralysis, that could have caused trouble.

"And using Thunder to clear away Leech Seed... Battles like this are much more complicated than the games."

Xin Mu was reviewing the battle, checking for mistakes as though compiling a collection of problems he had answered incorrectly. Once he finished recording everything, he was ready to begin his plan to build connections through Pokéblocks.

Before he could put that plan into action, however, thick smoke suddenly rose inside the Pokémon Center. Even the battlefield out back was engulfed in it.

"Cough, cough! What's going on? Is there a fire?!"

No sooner had Misty spoken than several voices rang out from the smoke, as though she had triggered some keyword. To Xin Mu, they sounded both familiar and unfamiliar.

"Since you've asked us so sincerely!"

"We'll mercifully give you an answer!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To preserve peace throughout the world!"

"To uphold the evils of love and truth!"

"The lovable, charming villains!"

"Jessie!" "James!"

"We're Team Rocket, soaring through the galaxy!"

"A white hole, a white tomorrow awaits us!"

After saying that line, the two struck their poses. But even after the rose clenched between James's lips had made the corner of his mouth go numb, Meowth's closing line still never came...