Repairing Broken Bonds (Collab with Ray Chiu)

Chapter 20: A Robot's Last Stand...

It was early one morning. Mark was finishing his match in Round 2, while Golly, Trenor, and Bonnie were tasked with retrieving some of the Infinity Gems since they were free.

"Okay, let's see here..." Trenor sighed, looking at the diagram. "According to this, the Normal Infinity Gem should be in Lumiose City. But the issue is that it's the power source of Clembot, the robot that acts as the substitute Lumiose City Gym Leader for Clemont."

"Wait, hold on! My brother has the Infinity Gem as Clembot's power source?!" Bonnie gasped. "How in the world did he survive all those traps just to get to it, then set up a defense system that we, along with Ash and Serena, mostly got through unscathed, but a demonic monster can't get past it at all?!"

"My guess is that it didn't have any help, so it had a much harder time getting through because it could be outnumbered. Besides, the fact that Voidlie and her two partners had it means they managed to get through once!" Golly theorized. "Still, I have a feeling we're going to have to deal with some of those demons at some point..."

"Alright, let's get to Lumiose, then," Trenor stated as they saw Hoopa appear and form a ring portal. The three trainers went through the portal. Golly seemed prepared to handle the situation, and Trenor was determined to get part of the cure. However, Bonnie seemed to regret something, but she and Dedenne stayed quiet.

"Alright, you know the side entrance?" Trenor asked Bonnie, who tried to remember where it was. But Golly simply wanted to bust it down. "Okay, Golly? We need to remind ourselves that Clemont most likely amped up security since the Team Flare incident. If we break that door down, we run the risk of setting off an alarm!"

"Yeah, David might be way smarter than Clemont, but my brother isn't an idiot," Bonnie sighed, facepalming. "He learns from his mistakes. Take two of his battles with Ash: in the first one, Pikachu used Iron Tail, which made Diggersby—who was a Bunnelby at the time—catch the move, but that left him vulnerable to Electro Ball. During the battle in the Gym, though, Bunnelby learned Wild Charge to counter Pikachu when he tried that again."

"I see, so breaking down the door would likely set off an alarm..." Golly groaned. "Yikes, I almost screwed us over..."

"It's okay. Anyway, follow me." Bonnie opened up a vent, and the group climbed through it, making their way to the hallways, where they were spotted by 20 Magneton. "Dang it, busted..."

"I got this!" Trenor exclaimed while holding a brown Cherish Ball, sending out Landorus in its Incarnate Form. "Landorus, keep them busy!" Landorus nodded and faced the group of Magneton.

The trio continued forward, finding themselves in an area with lasers. "Lasers now..." Bonnie sighed. "Clemont isn't pulling any punches here..."

——————

Back in Sevestar...

"Lucario, let's finish this with Flash Cannon!" Mark commanded, swinging his right arm to the side as his Mega Lucario launched a silver laser projectile toward Bruno's Hitmonchan.

"Hitmonchan!" Bruno shouted, "Use Fire Punch to break through it, then follow up with Mach Punch!" Hitmonchan charged forward, blocking the Flash Cannon before leaping up to deliver a finishing Mach Punch. But Mark's Lucario ducked under the attack and unleashed a close-range Aura Sphere, finishing off the Hitmonchan.

"Geez, Red wasn't kidding about these Elite Fours from other regions!" Mark panted in exhaustion. "I still can't believe I needed two Pokémon to go down just to weaken Machamp enough to finish the job..." He glanced at the scoreboard: Urshifu (Dark), Quaquaval, Hisuian Decidueye, Kommo-o, and Flamigo had all been knocked out in this fight. It had been a very close match.