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Leon stepped up to the pitch.
The exhibition match was almost underway, and on the other side of the arena was the only person to ever best him in an all-out battle - the fiery 11-year-old named Gloria, who had grown up next to him and his little brother in Wedgehurst. When he first gave the girl a Scorbunny, he had no idea how far the two of them would go together - and now that she was back from the Crown Tundra, she’d invited him to a battle. It was just a little match for fun, to give a solid show for the crowd, but as far as Leon knew, Gloria had never lost a battle.
So he was ready to go all-out.
"Are you ready?" She called out to him, her voice perfectly clear despite the roar of the crowd.
He ran a gloved thumb across his Poké Ball - knowing that his lead was prepared to face the only challenger to ever best them. "I'm ready, Gloria - Let's have a champion time!"
He threw out his first Poké ball with a flourish, and his mighty Aegislash emerged, wielding its sword and shield. It spun with excitement, pointing its sword at Gloria in challenge.
Gloria laughed brightly, giving him and his Pokémon a nod. "I knew you'd start with Aegislash," she said, taking out a Poké Ball. Wait... this one was purple - with a red "M" on the casing. She flipped it over in her hand, reeling back to throw.
"Ho-oh! Come on out and use Sacred Fire!"
Leon blinked. Surely she hadn’t just said what he thought she’d just said…
A brilliant red-and-gold bird called out to the area as it emerged, its sacred cry bringing light to all who witnessed its presence. An actual legendary Pokémon, Ho-oh’s great wings seemed to spread from one end of the arena to the other, genuinely larger than life. Golden, fiery light washed over the grass below them, as if Ho-oh were amplifying the ambient sunlight to a nearly impossible degree. Above its majestic, crowned head, Leon would have sworn he saw a rainbow.
Ho-oh tossed its head back at Gloria’s command, exhaling a brilliant blue flame that instantly immolated Leon’s poor Aegislash. He had to shield his eyes from the wave of heat that roared across the arena from the attack, and was almost certain that his cape was a little singed.
“Aegislash!” Leon shouted over the roar of the fire. “Can you…”
The flames cleared, and Aegislash’s sword was dug into the dirt, its shield flopped out on the ground. Leon exhaled a slight sigh, nodding with resignation.
“Aegislash, come on back,” he said, bringing the already-defeated Pokémon back to rest. “You did a great job,” he murmured to its Poké Ball.
He met Gloria’s eyes, watching her Ho-oh beat its massive wings almost lazily, just enough to stay aloft. From what he could tell, Ho-oh was actively holding back, restraining itself from utterly shattering the arena with its sheer might.
Leon laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe that I’m still finding ways to underestimate you, Gloria,” he said. “But you’ll have to forgive me for not expecting that.”
She smirked. “I’ve been training pretty hard! And I figured that you’d want me to go all-out.”
Leon smiled back. “I would never ask for anything less.”
He reached for his belt, considering. According to the stories he’d read as a child, Ho-oh was a fire and flying-type. He could bring out his Inteleon, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Gloria’s Ho-oh knew Solarbeam - he used the same strategy with his Charizard, and he didn’t think Inteleon would be able to withstand the super-effective attack. Honestly, he didn’t think that any of his Pokémon could withstand a hit from this absurdly powerful creature before him, except for maybe his ace, and he didn’t want to go there until he had no other choice.
If we can’t take a hit from that thing, then we’ll just have to move faster than it can react.
“Okay! Dragapult, let’s go!”
His trusty Pokémon burst out from its Poké Ball, ready to face its challenger. Dragapult stopped, however, looking slowly upwards until it met Ho-oh’s eyes, seemingly frozen by its utter majesty. It looked back at Leon over its shoulder, as if to ask, “Are you serious?”
Leon put his hands up innocently. “Hey, don’t ask me. I’m just as surprised as you are.”
Dragapult rolled its eyes, the two Dreepy mounted in its cannons shaking with fear as it turned back to Ho-oh.
“Great job, Ho-oh!” Gloria called. “Come on back!” The legendary bird let out one final roar before returning to her.
Leon’s shoulders fell in relief, now understanding what was going on. Obviously, Gloria was just showing off her newly-caught Legendary Pokémon - she’d given the crowd a show with its massively powerful signature move, but was now bringing it back for the safety of the spectators. Since that was all finished, they could finally battle for real. He was looking forward to battling once more with Gloria’s Boltund, her Cindrace, her Corviknight - the Pokémon that she’d brought with her to their first championship match.
“Okay, Xerneas, it’s your turn!”
Or not.
With a triumphant cry, the legendary fairy-type emerged, its inactive horns surging to life. The air became heavier with the Pokémon’s mystical aura. The dry, scorching heat that Ho-oh had brought with it was replaced with a thick, muggy humidity, like the dead center of a mystical forest in the middle of the summer.
Before Leon could even call out to Dragapult, Gloria spoke again.
“Use Geomancy!”
Xerneas glowed, enhancing its already fable-worthy power to beyond epic proportions. It usually took longer for such a move to take place, like Solarbeam or Sky Attack, but the tiny red Power Herb that floated in front of Xerneas was consumed by the energy of its move, and Dragapult was immobilized with the awe of its opponent until it was already too late.
“Nice job! Time for a Moonblast!”
Leon couldn’t help but stand there and watch.
He’d never stood a chance.
His Mr. Rime was obliterated by Gloria’s Solgaleo and its legendary Sunsteel Strike. Inteleon was felled in an instant by her bright white Zeraora, which moved with such impossible speed that it seemed to essentially teleport. Its Plasma Fists sought out his poor Pokémon like a Houndoom to the scent, destroying what had formerly been the rival of Gloria’s Cindrace in a single blow.
“Great job, Zeraora!” Gloria called out with a smile.
The announcer’s voice - equally as stunned as Leon - rang out over the arena. “Our former champion seems to be backed up against the wall! Can anything stop Gloria and her incredible team?”
Leon smiled. He already knew the answer, but he was still going to give the crowd the best show that he could.
“We’re not done just yet!” He called, summoning a cheer from the audience. They’d been utterly speechless at Gloria’s new team at first, but watching the incredible Pokémon in action had brought back their spirits tenfold. “Come on out, Charizard!”
The crowd erupted at the sight of his ace, and Charizard flew out around the arena, showing off for the crowd in the way it had always loved. The people cheered for their hometown hero, bringing a smile to Leon’s face. His partner and very best friend landed in front of him, exhaling a defiant flame. He turned to the girl across from him, his competitive spirit igniting within him. He allowed his voice to ring out through the arena - his time at the top may be over, but that didn’t mean he was going down without a fight.
“Okay, Gloria, you’ve got me in a corner. Let’s see what you’ve got!”
She just smiled.
Gloria had fought his Charizard before. In their first match, she’d barely defeated them with a clever use of her Milotic’s Max Geyser. The only weakness to his Charizard’s G-Max Wildfire is that, unlike other Dynamax fire-type moves, it couldn’t override the rainy weather with sun. Gloria used that to her advantage, using Max Geyser to summon a rainstorm that weakened fire-type moves and strengthened water-types ones. Gloria’s Milotic was just bulky enough while Dynamaxed that it could withstand the weakened G-Max Wildfire long enough to douse Charizard’s flames. No one had tried such a strategy against him before or since, so he was most certainly curious to see how Gloria would go about it this time.
“All right, then.” She said, her voice surprisingly soft. She removed a ball that was hidden at the very back of her belt - though they all had a purple casing and that red “M.”
She took a breath, shouting to the entire arena. Her voice rang out proud and clear - the voice of a true Champion.
“Time to wrap this up! GO, ARCEUS!”
Leon’s jaw fell open. The crowd stopped, their roar disappearing as they all fell silent. A loud, electronic sound echoed through the loudspeaker as the match’s announcer dropped his microphone in disbelief.
Arceus was a story, a legend, a myth. He’d heard of another champion named Cynthia, from the Sinnoh region, who studied history and legends like that. Supposedly, she had met the legendary Pokémon Giratina and returned from its Distortion World to tell the tale, but he was rather confident that not even she had seen Arceus in all its glory.
And yet, here it was.
Gloria’s throwing motion completed, a light shone as the creature within materialized, and the world itself fell completely silent.
Leon looked onwards in awe at the most powerful being in all of existence. To call Arceus a Pokémon would be like calling the moon itself “a rock” - true, perhaps, on an extremely technical level, but doing so would reduce the raw majesty of the creature - no, the deity that currently stood before him.
Arceus’ four legs just barely touched the ground, as if it were lighter than air. It lacked its thousand arms from the stories he’d heard as a boy - perhaps those were an exaggeration of the myth, or perhaps they were simply too powerful for him to even perceive. Arceus shifted up and down, softly, its every action unhurried and yet precise. He doubted that the motion he observed was breathing - surely such an awesome power did not require air to live - but that was the closest approximation he could ascribe to it.
Its two red eyes seemed to look directly into his very being, his mortal soul - the deity’s gaze was isolating, yet revelatory. For the briefest moment, it was as if Leon and the god before him were alone in the universe, standing across from one another surrounded by an endless sea of stars. He felt all of his actions judged in an instant, and then forgiven, by this impossible entity that he could not have even begun to comprehend. Arceus had created him, his Pokémon, his parents, the Galar region, the very planet upon which they stood. It was the beginning and the end, everything and nothing, the very origin of all of Creation.
And he was facing it in a Pokémon battle.
Leon gulped.
“O-okay, Charizard,” he called, the crowd around him not even reacting to his voice. Charizard didn’t either - it was like he hadn’t made any sound in the first place. Was this the power of Arceus, the origin of all things?
If so, why in the world was it here with Gloria?
He tried to speak again, but the words simply didn’t leave his mouth. He clapped his hands together, but there was nothing at all. Finally, Leon walked forwards, tapping Charizard on the shoulder, holding up its Dynamax band. In the silence, his partner nodded, understanding his intention.
He returned Charizard to its Poké Ball, the Dynamax Band on his wrist shining brightly. He felt the Poké Ball in his hands grow to be nearly three feet in diameter, and he threw it out behind him as the clouds overhead gathered and darkened. Charizard, now well over thirty feet tall, roared out at the arena, wreathed in massive flames. Despite the impressive visual display, it didn’t make a single sound.
And the sight was still nothing compared to the six-foot-tall Pokémon before them.
Arceus seemed utterly unbothered by Charizard’s titanic presence, the massive clouds around them that darkened the sky simply choosing not to obscure the sunlight as it fell upon the Pokémon. It was as if Arceus were simply immune to Charizard’s enhanced power.
Leon caught Gloria’s eye.
Was she going to Dynamax Arceus in return?
Would the world stay in one piece if she did?
“I knew you two were gonna go all-out,” Gloria said, the first noise that anyone had made since she had put out her final Pokémon. The silence around Arceus was deafening - yet she broke through it with ease, as if her Pokémon was permitting her, and only her, to speak out over all of them. “So let’s see what you’ve got!”
Understanding Leon’s unspoken intention, Charizard threw its massive head back, the G-Max Wildfire transforming the arena into a scorching inferno. Despite the heavy silence around them, the attack utterly immolated Arceus, obscuring it from Leon’s vision. From the tiny moment that he had seen before the attack landed, Arceus hadn’t reacted at all - it was clear right from the start that the only reason that the attack had landed in the first place was because it had been permitted to.
The flames burned away, with Arceus standing there unaffected. The stadium’s grass had burned to a crisp, excluding a perfect circle around it, and it was clear that even G-Max Wildfire, the most powerful attack that any Pokémon of Leon’s could perform, was nothing before Arceus itself.
“So, what do you think, Arc?” Gloria asked with a smile, causing the god to gently look at her over its shoulder. “Ready to finish this off?”
Arceus gave her a nod. It was unbelievable, seeing them interact - an eleven-year-old girl having a casual conversation with the single most powerful being that ever had, or ever would exist, speaking as though the two were equals.
And based on the performance he had seen from Gloria today, perhaps they were.
“Okay,” she said, nodding back towards her Pokémon. “Let’s do it, then.”
Her voice rang out over the arena with a supernatural echo. They’d both been miced for the exhibition match, but that wasn’t what amplified her words - the power came from Gloria, or the Pokémon before her, or most likely a combination of the two.
“ARCEUS, USE JUDGMENT!”
Leon blinked, and the battle was over. Charizard’s Gigantamax form exploded the instant before Arceus teleported through it, vanishing and reappearing just beyond its massive, orange back as if it were preordained. Charizard couldn’t have reacted, because the move was over before it had begun - as if time itself had bent with Arceus’ will, sending the conclusion of the attack into the past so that it would end before its own beginning.
Just like that, Arceus was back beside Gloria, and Charizard was back to its normal size. Sound finally returned to the arena, and after a stunned silence, the crowd exploded into cheers. There was another loud, electronic thumping sound as the announcer scrambled for his fallen microphone, but soon he recovered, concluding the match.
“Well, everyone, Champion Gloria has given us all quite the incredible display! I truly can’t believe what I just witnessed, but what I do know is that that was the most explosive battle I’ve EVER seen! Thank you all so much for attending our Champion’s Return exhibition match, and we hope you had a champion time!”
Leon picked Charizard up, its wing resting across his shoulder as they walked across the scorched arena grass to congratulate Gloria on her win. She walked to meet them, her Arceus’ graceful, ballerina-like footsteps following closely behind.
“That was a great match, Leon!” She said with a smile, offering him her hand to shake. “Looks like my training in the Crown Tundra really paid off, though, huh?”
Leon let out a laugh of utter disbelief, shaking her hand. “Yeah, I guess so. How did you manage to catch all of these incredible Pokémon?”
She shrugged. “I had quite a lot of fateful encounters back there. Ho-oh was the first legendary Pokémon that I met, and my whole team barely managed to take it down. Then Ho-oh helped me battle Regice and Registeel, then I encountered Xerneas and its cousin Yveltal…” She put a thoughtful finger on her chin, as if lost in the order of events. “Zeraora was from around here, actually - I took a lot of them down in Max Raid Battles with some other trainers a few months ago, and then a shiny one offered to join my team.” She smiled at the memory before continuing.
“Anyways, in the Crown Tundra, I battled pretty much every legendary Pokémon there is. Solgaleo helped me take down Lunala after it had been absorbed and become Ultra Necrozma, Mewtwo helped me with Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno, then we met Reshiram and Zekrom, who both battled Kyurem, then Groudon and eventually Kyogre, then we encountered Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina…” she trailed off with a laugh. “I’m probably forgetting a few. But after all that, Arc here appeared before us, and they challenged me.”
The deity perked up at its name, looking over at Gloria from behind her. She absentmindedly reached up a hand, fingers turned towards the sky over her shoulder. Leon’s jaw fell open as Arceus’ piercing red eyes blinked happily, the immortal being lowering itself down so that Gloria could scratch its chin. Its eyes closed like a happy Rockruff being petted - the action was apparently so mundane to Gloria that she didn’t even break Leon’s gaze. Arceus leaned in further, though, rubbing its head against her cheek, making her brightly laugh. She wrapped her arm up around its head, now scratching the top, which Arceus seemed to absolutely adore.
“Yes, hello, Arc, I see you,” she admonished. “You did an amazing job today. Don’t you wanna thank Leon for the awesome battle?”
Arceus’ eyes narrowed on Leon, considering him. An endless pit opened up in his stomach as his eyes went wide, and he didn’t dare breathe. Before, the deity had barely regarded him, focused mainly on Charizard - other than that brief glance, he hadn’t been the subject of Arceus’ immortal gaze.
It was the single most terrifying, humbling experience he’d ever had in his life.
Eventually, Arceus merely flipped its head in a disdainful, reluctantly accepting gesture, and Gloria just rolled her eyes.
“Sorry, they’re still pretty antisocial,” she said, as Arceus moved away from her touch to wander around the arena. It seemed oddly fascinated by its surroundings, which he supposed was a fair reaction for a deity to take while in the center of a very human construct. “But that was a really nice battle! My team finally got a chance to go all-out.”
Leon finally wiped the surprise off his face, turning it into a smile. “I appreciate the compliment, Champ, but I’m pretty sure you were still holding back.”
Gloria sheepishly grinned. “Okay, yeah,” she admitted. “I could have brought out Mega Rayquaza for your Dragapult, but I think Xerneas really wanted that matchup so it could test out its Power Herb out against a faster opponent.”
Leon just shook his head. “You’re truly incredible, Gloria. You’re easily the best champion that this region has ever seen.”
Her eyes widened with the praise. “Really? You think so?”
Leon’s heart swelled massively when he saw that his compliments still apparently meant something to her, probably the most amazing Pokémon Trainer to ever live. It seemed that despite her simply immeasurable power as a Trainer, she was still a bright-eyed young girl who loved her Pokémon with her whole heart.
Leon smiled. “I know so.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “See you around, Gloria - I’m looking forward to our next battle.”
Gloria smiled back. “Me, too! See you next time!”
She turned away, catching up to her Arceus after it had wandered a few feet away from her. She laid gentle fingers on the deity’s foreleg, making it look down at her. Leon watched with utter fascination as they apparently spoke - at the tail end of their conversation, he just barely heard Gloria say, “Come on, then! Mum’s got a hot curry waiting for us at home - I made sure it was spicy, just the way you like it!”
Leon exchanged a glance with his Charizard, and immediately could tell that they were equally flabbergasted, and equally proud. Charizard seemed to have slightly recovered from the battle, but Leon reached into his bag and offered it a few Sitrus Berries, which were immediately accepted.
Leon sat down on the grass while his partner ate, staring up at the clear blue sky.
“She really is something, huh, Charizard?”
It simply let out a draconic “wuurmph” in reply, happily munching away.
“Yeah,” Leon said, shaking his head again. He tipped his hat back towards the heavens with a smile. “She sure is.”