"Come on, Magikarp, in you go. The finishing blow is yours. It'll let you taste what winning feels like."
Vance said it to the Magikarp, pointing at the Raticate ahead of them with one breath left in it.
"Flap, flap—"
The Magikarp went bouncing over, threw his body round and used the tail slap he practised in training, struck the Raticate and finished it, and tasted victory for the first time.
It left the Magikarp thoroughly worked up. That was the first opponent he had ever beaten.
After that, whenever there was a fight he went forward and helped his Trainer against the enemy, beating one after another; his Trainer did most of the work, true, but he had a part in it, and that satisfied him.
Then scene after scene of their life together rose in front of him, and a strange power appeared over his body. It seemed he was evolving again!
"Gyarados, Mega Evolve!"
Streams of dazzling light shot out from the Key Stone and the Mega Stone and wound about one another, and the blinding glare covered the Gyarados over.
"Roar, roar—"
The Gyarados's roar came out of the light, and the shape hidden inside it was changing.
On his side, scene after scene of his life with the Gyarados rose in Vance's mind as well; he felt every small thing they had shared, and could feel the Gyarados's joys and angers and sorrows.
Friendliness towards him, gratitude, reliance, delight — he went through the whole of it.
The feeling between the two of them reached the state of a bond, and the Key Stone and the Mega Stone resonated together.
"Roar—"
The next moment the light scattered, and a Gyarados in an entirely new form stood before Vance and the rest of the Pokémon, a Gym-class presence about him.
On the strength of Mega Evolution the Gyarados had entered that realm.
He looked grander and more powerful than before, the barbels on his face longer and straighter, red markings spread over the whole of his body, a pair of wings on his back,
The Slaking put away his idle look and got up off the ground. This newly evolved Gyarados gave him a thick sense of threat.
"Combusken, combusken—"
The Combusken's eyes went wide and his beak fell open as he stared at the Mega Gyarados in shock. How had he evolved?
The Aerodactyl and the Deino were the same, staring blankly at the Mega Gyarados. It was not only his shape that had changed; his strength had risen too, a good deal past the Slaking at full power.
"Roar, roar. So this is Gym-class power... it's enough to make a Pokémon drunk." Feeling the power bursting out of him, the Gyarados was rather lost in it. His strength must be first in the whole team now; even the Slaking at full power, he thought, he could beat.
"Hahaha. Brothers, I, the Gyarados, have grown stronger again."
The Gyarados shouted it happily in front of them all.
"Congratulations. As you are now, you're a little stronger than I am."
The Slaking came forward and offered his congratulations.
"Combusken—"
"Roar, roar—"
The Combusken and the rest were rather stunned by the Gyarados evolving again, but they were very pleased at the change in him all the same.
A powerful companion on the team was good for everyone, whether as a sparring partner or for their safety out in the wild.
The Slaking gazed at his companion and said inwardly, *I'll have to find an occasion for a battle, and measure myself against him.*
The Combusken looked at the Mega Gyarados and thought, *Wonderful. Now we'll be able to make a lot of money, heh heh.*
The Aerodactyl: *So grand, and such a leap in power. Could I do the same?*
The Deino: *It won't be long before I reach that realm myself.*
Each of the Pokémon had his own thoughts on seeing the Mega Gyarados.
"Gyarados, how do you feel now?"
Vance said.
"Roar, roar. Good. Very good. Extremely good. I'm stronger now than I have ever been. That Golduck from the other day — if I'd faced it, it would have been over in a few moves."
Seeing that the Gyarados's mind was still clear, Vance was reassured. A Mega Gyarados's body takes a heavy load during Mega Evolution, and under that strain it grows more and more violent and charges about blindly.
His Gyarados, though, had no such trouble.
A load there was, certainly, but it was one he could bear.
Vance felt his own stamina draining faster than usual while he held the Mega Evolution.
"Boss, that's far too handsome. I want one too."
the Combusken clamoured.
"Yes, Boss. I want to learn it as well."
the Aerodactyl put in, and the Slaking and the Deino looked at him with expectation in their eyes too.
"This state needs that Mega Stone. Look." Vance pointed at the Mega Stone on the Gyarados as he said it.
"Once we find more of them, then it can be done. And this Mega Evolution isn't permanent, mind — it's temporary. You still have to train hard and work at raising your strength."
Vance explained.
"What? Surely not, Boss. This state of mine isn't permanent, it's only temporary?"
The Gyarados was taken aback as well. How was this one different?
"Yes. This state of yours is only temporary, and it burns more stamina than your original form. In return, in this form your strength rises, and your type and Ability change as well."
Hearing that, the Gyarados was a little disappointed, but he cheered up quickly enough. Even temporary was not bad at all; to be able to put out power like that, he had come out well ahead.
> **Name:** Mega Gyarados (male)
> **Type:** Water, Dark
> **Ability:** Mold Breaker
> **Aptitude:** Elite-Four-class
> **Level:** 55 (Mega Evolved)
> **Moves:** Bite, Tackle, Leer, Twister, Flail, Whirlpool, Ice Fang, Brine, Dragon Dance, Scary Face, Waterfall, Hyper Beam, Outrage, Water Pulse, Dragon Tail, Blizzard, Ice Beam, Rain Dance, Hydro Pump, Protect, Earthquake, Dragon Pulse...............
Mega Evolution only strengthens a Pokémon for a time; its aptitude stays as it was and does not rise, though the Ability and the type do change.
"A level 55 Gyarados. A full ten levels up!"
The Gyarados had been at level 45; after Mega Evolution he stood at 55, an enormous gain.
That was a leap of a different order, from Elite-class straight to Gym-class, a change in kind; and with the Gyarados's solid grounding on top of it, he need not fear a Pokémon in the late Gym-class range.
Ten levels might well be down to how strong the bond between him and the Gyarados was; the whole principle of Mega Evolution is the bond.
The stronger the bond, the greater the power it can add.
After that Vance had the Mega Gyarados show what he could do; the force of his moves was all at the Gym-class standard, somewhere around energy level 58 or 59.
The Slaking stepped up of his own accord and proposed a sparring match with the Mega Gyarados, and Vance agreed.
The two of them sparred, and in the fighting the Gyarados had the upper hand.
He knew the Slaking far too well, too; many of the Slaking's tactics did not work, and his psychic methods were held in check by the Gyarados.
Even close in the Gyarados had room to spare, waves rolling in layers around him; his command of the power of water had been strengthened as well, and his mastery of it was nothing that Golduck could match.
The Slaking's bursts at close quarters gained him very little.
And in trading energy blows the Slaking came off slightly the worse.
The Gyarados and the Slaking sparred for a hundred exchanges and more, and still neither could settle it.
The Gyarados had the advantage, but he could not put the Slaking away in any short time; a Slaking with the Huge Power Ability is very strong, and not one he could take down easily.
If he understood the Slaking, the Slaking understood him too; taught by the same Trainer and on the same team, each knew the other's way of fighting.
After a dozen or so more exchanges Vance called a halt; the sparring had served its purpose.
On the showing of that match, the Mega Gyarados was the stronger of the team, his fighting strength above the Slaking's — though in his ordinary form he was no match for him.