Red and Green had fought many battles over their careers, but never one with such high stakes or before anywhere near this many cameras. Red had avoided Green in their first Kanto championship due to her loss to Professor Oak, and had disappeared soon after. He usually won their scrimmages after his return, but full-fledged battles were rare. Then again, although it was a long time ago, Green had beaten him in a real match, which wasn't something that many trainers could ever claim.

Then again, this wouldn't be the usual kind of battle. Six on six was one thing; yes, most matches were three on three, but a world championship final could allow no less. But triple battles were strange things, uncommon even in their native Unova, let alone in the region both contestants called home. And to make things even stranger, the rules committee had decided that previous matches depended too much on prediction and move selection, and that therefore that the final would not limit pokemon to four different attacks to be registered before the match: any move they could remember and any weird technique they could pull out of nowhere would be fair game.

The arena was wider today: some of the closer seats had been temporarily removed to make room, for in a true triple battle only the pokemon in the center can hit all their opponents. Red and Green were both surprised by the new width of the field, but given the size of her first three pokemon Green was delighted; it wouldn't do to make one of them fly under the others.

"Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres! Let the Legendary Birds bring me victory!" Green shouted, tossing three poke balls high into the sky, which soon crackled with lightning, ice, and fire in a manner which recalled the Acid Rain stadium in which Green had defeated Palmer, or perhaps a Lugia's Elemental Blast. Three birds of blue and yellow and fiery orange appeared, each with wings that reflected their types: Articuno's soft, yet feathered in a pattern which recalled icicles; Zapdos's bifurcated and spiked, its feathers standing on end from the charges running through them; Moltres's on fire, burning eternally yet never consumed.

One could be forgiven for expecting some sort of combination attack, or for Ho-Oh or Lugia to appear in the sky because of the fact that Green, like Lawrence the Collector, had gathered the three and summoned them at once. Green did not announce any such moves yet, but Red had been studying myths for a reason: the threat was there.

Red selected three pokemon, but was still yet to reveal the final two pokemon he possessed in this tournament. Espeon, Snorlax, Pikachu, and Mewtwo had brought him this far, and three of them were numbered among his lead team for this match. Snorlax would face Articuno, Pikachu would center the line against Zapdos, and Mewtwo would match up with Moltres. His three pokemon were far more diverse in size and shape: Snorlax was as enormous as the bird gods it was fighting, while Mewtwo was the size of a grown man and Pikachu barely visible against the tall grass.

"Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, combine your efforts! Elemental Blast on Pikachu!" Some of those watching the battle would call this attack overkill, but Red was not among them. As the small rodent was engulfed in a massive spiral of fire, ice, and lightning many times its size, he wished it had managed a Discharge, but was thankful it had drawn his opponents' attention and left Mewtwo and Snorlax untouched. Red threw two signs his pokemon's way – one in his left hand to Snorlax, the other in his right to Mewtwo.

Green understood Red's sign language well; as a childhood friend, she was one of the reasons he had developed it to begin with. But the signs he used in battle were not the normal ones for "Psystrike" and "Rock Slide" nor indeed for any of the myriad of attacks he'd discuss with her in ordinary conversation; he came up with new ones each match, just to keep his opponents guessing. It was one of the many reasons she admired him.

Snorlax reached into the ground and picked up a series of rocks, which it threw one after another with the motion of sliders in baseball, curving with such speed and sharpness that they bounced off Articuno's wing to hit Zapdos as well, crippling them both. Mewtwo focused its efforts on Moltres, but the firebird shrugged off the sudden feeling of force against its stomach from Mewtwo's direction. It felt like a punch, and Moltres wouldn't be taken down by a mere punch.

"Is that worry I see on your face?" Green teased as Red sent out his next pokemon. He refused to respond because she was absolutely right and he wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of knowing that. Espeon wasn't exactly a good choice to center his pokemon team; it didn't know the kind of broad, sweeping attacks he would've liked to use which could hit all three foes at once. But it was better to have Espeon than his alternatives, both of whom were weak against flying. The small, pink feline, a head taller than Pikachu, walked atop the blades of grass, hissing at the great birds above its head.

"Articuno, Zapdos, Roost! Moltres, Heat Wave!"

"Roost? With two of your pokemon?" Red signed, amusement plain on his face. "Don't have the guts to actually attack me?"

Green shook her head as two of the pokemon landed. It wasn't optimal, but her birds were sturdy enough to survive. "I wonder how many more rocks your Snorlax can throw."

Moltres flapped its enormous wings, breaking off countless tiny embers which dramatically warmed the air. The temperature soon resembled a sauna than even a hot summer day, let alone a pleasant night, at least on most of Red's side of the field. Snorlax's corner remained cool, but was too occupied by the enormous teal beast for his other pokemon to seek cover. Both Espeon and Mewtwo, however, looked to be enduring the heat just fine; it hurt, but they weren't anywhere near fainting.

Mewtwo raised its enormous purple and white tail and shot a laser-like Ice Beam at Zapdos, an attack which would have been devastating were the normally flying pokemon not grounded and if the heat didn't melt and evaporate half the ice before it hit its target, leaving a trail of steam in its wake.

Espeon did not attack; yes, they were roosting now, but Red still feared the destructive power of the legendary birds. And like Pidgey wound themselves when they fly into glass windows, even when they break the window in the process, Red hoped that the attacks of the legends he faced would be blocked against a Light Screen.

Again, Snorlax picked up a pile of rocks after digging through the dirt to the bedrock below the open-air arena. Again Snorlax hurled them, but its control was lacking: they slammed into the grounded Zapdos, but missed Articuno entirely.

"Good idea, Red," Green remarked as she saw the screen go up. "Zapdos, Light Screen! Articuno, Mind Reader on Snorlax! Moltres, Roar!" There would be no damage dealt this round by Green's legendary trio, but this fact didn't make Red feel any better. Espeon's wall of light continued to cover the center of the field, but it grew more solid and double sided as Zapdos sent a stream of bolts its way to fortify its strength. Articuno's eyes turned a deathly red as they focused sharply on Snorlax.

Red made a few signs of his own: again Snorlax gathered the rocks, and again they slammed into Zapdos and Articuno: both looked badly injured this time around. Espeon focused its mental acumen on Zapdos, using its energy to slam it into the ground; it didn't get back up. Mewtwo's cheeks sparked like a Pikachu's and struck Moltres with a crippling bolt from the sky. Moltres didn't struggle to fly so much as hovered in place, but it was inertia as much as anything keeping it airborne. If not for the Light Screen, perhaps it would have fainted in a single shot. Yet despite this powerful attack, when Moltres let out a loud noise as much chirp as roar, Mewtwo fled into Red's poke ball in terror, forcing him to summon his Venusaur for the first time all tournament.

Although he had received it from Professor Oak and owned it nearly as long as he had Poliwrath, Red had preferred to rely on newer captures through the bulk of the Championship. Venusaur had too many weaknesses and it was facing two of them now in Moltres alone. The grass-type stood quite tall and stretched as far as a Charizard: it was one of Kanto's dying megafauna, although not quite as enormous as Kanto's legends told. Despite its name, its blue body did not resemble an ordinary archosaur, but looked more like turtles such as Blastoise, or even amphibians such as Politoed. Then again, like Sceptile and Meganium, it did have a symbiotic relationship with a plant, in this case an enormous, flower atop a thick tree trunk which was thought to be among the earliest known representatives of the angiosperm family.

Espeon would not be face-to-face with another bird this time around: Green didn't fear Snorlax's Rock Slide, but as imposing as using all three birds at once was and as powerful as their combined attack could be, their common weaknesses often made this combination more of a liability than a strength. Instead, she would go with another legend, and an old favorite of hers to boot. "Go, Mew!"

"When did you catch Mew?" Red signed.

"Just after I tricked Team Rocket," Green signed back. "I found the real Mew soon after and caught it with Ditto's poke ball."

"Wow, you had it this whole time? Why didn't you use it?"

"I did. You thought I was using Ditto."

The pink cat emerged from Green's poke ball, floating gently above the grass in midair. It bore some resemblance to Espeon, who it faced, but it was as though the same general concept had been tackled by two different designers: in face, tail, and coloring, it looked more like the Mewtwo who would be facing off against it if not for Moltres' roar.

"Articuno, Sheer Cold! Mew, Shadow Ball! Moltres, Heat Wave!" Snorlax possessed a thick coat of blubber which usually protected it quite well from ice attacks, and had won many battles this way, but this meant little against the power of a god. The very molecules in its body stopped moving as an enormous chill surrounded it, bringing it from barely damaged to unconscious in an instant. As Snorlax fell, Mew swept its long tail from beneath Articuno to beneath Moltres to gather their bird-shaped shadows, then combined them into an abyssal black orb which it hurled into Espeon. Moltres flapped its wings again to heat up the arena further, setting Venusaur aflame and briefly convincing Espeon it had been hurled into the depths of hell.

Yet from the depths of hell, it continued to fight! Espeon did not flinch at the Light Screen before it, but strode through it, then conjured an enormous explosive out of thin air and defeated Articuno in an impact measured in gigatons. Venusaur was silent this round, its animal body unmoving. Green wondered briefly if it had used Calm Mind, then noticed the glowing plant pointing Espeon's way and the fact that Espeon didn't seem exhausted in the slightest.

"Energy Trans!" She shouted in realization as she recalled her half-melted, fainted Articuno, and Red did likewise to his Snorlax. "I forgot about that little trick."

Red smiled and signed his response. "It's no Rain Dance or Energy Burn, but in the hands of a skilled trainer..."

Green nodded, gripping her second-to-last poke ball. She had hoped to break the game open with those three, but two of them were gone now and she had only taken out two of Red's pokemon in exchange. Not that there was any question who to summon: Ditto's versatility meant it was much better saved for the end. "Wigglytuff, go!" she yelled, summoning a pink and white pokemon half-balloon, half-rabbit in appearance, although its proportions (save for its tiny limbs) more resembled a rotund man in a rabbit suit then a Nidoran or Buneary.

Red nodded and returned Mewtwo to the field, this time in Snorlax's place. Its body was facing Wigglytuff, but it was not Wigglytuff who had met its piercing stare. The message simultaneously went telepathically from Mew and Mewtwo alike to their trainers: "Let me switch."

The response was also simultaneous, although only Green said it aloud: "This isn't a rotation battle" - although if it was they probably would have given their pokemon another excuse. This wasn't a fight either of them wanted, for the safety of the crowd as much as anything.

"Mew, Wish!, Wigglytuff, Double Team! Moltres," Green paused for a moment before ordering Moltres' move: against Light Screen, even Heat Wave didn't do the trick. Yet in the darkness of this prime-time final, she wondered if Venusaur could in fact recover from her attacks, and even Espeon had to be taking some damage from this succession of flames. "use Heat Wave again!"

She was shocked to find that, while her Wigglytuff cloned itself and Mew wished upon a shooting star, her opponents had done nothing whatsoever to strike back. Indeed, Red seemed as mesmerized by the star as Mew was: he wanted that wish badly. Like Arceus, Mewtwo created light, setting a miniature sun in the palm of his hand and placing it in the center of the arena. The star was so tiny it looked like its fusion reaction could only last five turns or so, but it illuminated the field and brightened Moltres' flames.

It had not brightened them enough, for Venusaur's plant soon took in enough sunlight to heal away the energy, and Espeon's jewel did likewise: one attack was called Synthesis and the other Morning Sun, but it seemed as though they were one and the same.

Yet Red had unwittingly sealed his own Venusaur's defeat as he sought to heal it, and perhaps his Espeon's too. "Mew, Brick Break the barrier! And I guess hit Espeon too. Moltres, Overheat! Wigglytuff, another Double Team!" As Moltres flapped its enormous wings and Mew skillfully dismantled the wall keeping them apart, Green looked to the side to see Mewtwo doing likewise to the other side, laying into Wigglytuff with some kind of karate move - the real one, not a clone. Wigglytuff shrieked in pain and fell over, then crawled back to its feet. The barriers dismantled, Espeon sent an enormous ball of shadow Mew's way; with the sun in the center of the arena, everything seemed to cast a larger shadow, and the ball was bigger then ever. Mew reeled from the hit, but soon healed, rejuvenating as it was smashed with the healing light of its own shooting star.

And then, intensified by the blazing sunlight, Moltres flapped its wings and Venusaur was charred into a crispy facsimile of the pokemon which had once stood there, covered in black, and Espeon looked badly burnt as well.

As Moltres devoured a White Herb and Red recalled his Venusaur, it became clear he had made a devastating mistake; it was time to change the weather. At least Poliwrath only faced one bird now, not three, and that one bird was weak against water.

He wished desperately he could shout "Poliwrath, go!" but could only hold up a poke ball as silently as ever, his hand silent to occupied with a toss to speak. Red summoned his final pokemon – his starter pokemon - facing Moltres on the side furthest from Wigglytuff. Poliwrath was blue in color, and despite its frog eyes was less a traditional amphibian in shape than a blob with fists and a spiral in the center.

Red was less than pleased by Poliwrath's position: he wished this were a rotation battle, for Wigglytuff was starting to really scare him. Against a full Double Team, even Moltres was only a diversion, but it was a powerful diversion all the same. He made three signs to his pokemon, but none were attacks aimed Wigglytuff's way.

"Moltres, another Overheat! Wigglytuff, Double Team! Mew, let's win the match now – you use Overheat too, even Poliwrath won't last long!"

Unfortunately for Green's hopes of a quick victory, Red was no longer nearly as stupid as when she had robbed him of his badges; he was more than prepared for the twin Overheats. Espeon took in the last of the sun's rays, rejuvenating itself once again after Moltres had let loose its devastating flares. They were the last rays not because the sun was fading already, but because Mewtwo soon did an awkward dance still more graceful than the Blastoise who had invented this technique, and rain clouds gathered in the sky. And the rain poured down so ferociously upon the field that they extinguished Mewtwo's earlier miniature sun.

Moltres flapped its wings, while Mewtwo rubbed its fur with its long tail at lightning speed to create massive friction, but the water turned to steam and absorbed most of both attacks: Poliwrath and Espeon still stood, a bit wounded but nowhere near beaten. And then Poliwrath showed the world why "Wrath" was not a joke appellation, why Red had kept it on his team for so long, gathering and riding the rain as high as Moltres flew in order to give its beak a devastating wet punch. And then the bird of flames, the last of the trio of legends with which Green had opened the match, finally fainted. The match was tied again, and to make matters worse, Mew had exhausted its power trying to overheat its foes.

Green was not despondent as she recalled Moltres: on the contrary, winning this way would have simply made things too easy. Three on three and one legend apiece was much more fitting. "Ditto, go!" she yelled, and a pink blob emerged from her final poke ball. She would've liked to get over her fear of Ho-oh this match, but it made no sense to try – not in a match like this, not against Poliwrath in the rain.

"Ditto, Transform into Mewtwo! Mew, Thun..." Green began, then stopped; after an Overheat, Thunder wouldn't be enough to beat Poliwrath. "On second thought, Nasty Plot! Wigglytuff, Substitute!" It wasn't the deadliest array of attacks, but there was more to battle than power alone, and soon she would bring Red's fears to life.

Her opponent would not be nearly so cautious. Before Green's Ditto could transform, it was struck by Poliwrath charging on a jet of water, and Espeon followed up with a large, orange beam of raw energy. Ditto didn't faint, but it was lucky it didn't. Mewtwo, too distant to try to strike Ditto, threw an Aura Sphere - a ball of pure light the size of a basketball – in Wigglytuff's general direction, for the moving blurs that pokemon had become left it impossible to tell which if any among them were the true Wigglytuff.

None of them appeared wounded by the attack: it had probably missed completely. The cascading blurs shrunk to a pile of three plushies, the type one could easily expect to find at a nearly sold-out store or on a casual collector's shelf. An exclamation point shot up behind Mew's head as though it had invented a new way to regain its energy; in reality, it had done this countless times before. Finally, Ditto, wounded badly, began to shift in shape to something like its teammate to the center of the arena, but much more like that in the far corner – yet like a fighting game character fighting one's self, its color shifted so the two could be told apart: its stomach and tail were not purple, but a bright yellowish green.

At this transformation, Mewtwo redirected its fury, giving its Ditto counterpart an angry yet sorrowful glance, unsure whether to think of it as a thief or a misguided fool. For all his prowess in battle and all Red had tried to convince himself otherwise, he was firmly of the opinion that he was an unholy abomination and that being Mewtwo was suffering.

Red began to regret not targeting Wigglytuff earlier, but there could be no further attacks its way. Not against a false Mewtwo, and worse, Mew also numbered among his opponents. Being able to know any move made fighting Mew scary enough; being able to use whichever one came to mind was far more terrifying. He just hoped it wasn't too late, because Wigglytuff would get even scarier. With the thought of being defeated fresh in his mind, he signaled three attacks to his pokemon, each of them directed at the small feline from whose DNA Mewtwo had been born.

"Wigglytuff," Green paused. She would have liked to use Last Resort, but Last Resort was all but impossible in this format: she'd have to use each and every other attack it could possibly learn first. Then again, given her next move, it probably didn't matter. "Thunder on Mewtwo! Mew, Explosion! Dittotwo, another Thunder, this one on Poliwrath!"

Again, propelled by growing jets of water, Poliwrath swam and skidded through the rainy field, ramming Mew with its spiral stomach and drenching it in the process. Mewtwo followed Poliwrath's assault with a Shadow Ball, smaller than those in the blistering sunlight, but with Mew's own shadow hurling it the attack seriously hurt. And as Mew glowed white and began to crack, Espeon finished the job with a Shadow Ball of its own.

The three plush Wigglytuff all began to sparkle across their whole bodies: presumably, the real one hidden deep within the steam was doing likewise. Electricity from the three combined in the center of the triangle between them, then arced high into the sky and down to strike Mewtwo with a paralyzing jolt. On the other side of the arena, another Mewtwo raised its green tail and shot a bolt of its own through the pouring rain, striking Poliwrath with a devastating blow.

Yet neither of the two had fainted. For the first time this match, Green was losing – and it hurt all the worse because she had been so close to victory. To make matters worse, her pokemon instinctively moved to the center. It wasn't that they could hide in the corners, because if they didn't occupy the center, one of Red's pokemon would: it was just that being down to two pokemon left her team vulnerable.

Or at least it left her Ditto vulnerable, for Wigglytuff, shielded by three substitutes, was anything but an easy target.

"Wigglytuff, Work Up! You'll need more power to win this match. Mewtwo," Green paused for a moment: it was tempting, easy, and all too expected to try and take down Poliwrath, which meant that it was absolutely the wrong play in this situation. "Protect!"

Again, three pokemon sent a series of attacks towards a single target, a combination of rushing, falling water and Shadow Balls (Green privately wished the two of them had not chosen so many psychic pokemon; this attack was getting tiring) but this time it was not targeting Mew but a facsimile of its clone. And this time, rather than trying to explode, the target surrounded itself in a barrier of energy, blocking the three attacks so casually that one could be forgiven for expecting it to fire back with a powerful display of lightning.

While Mewtwo blocked its assault, the three plush Wigglytuff clapped their hands against each other and sparkled with increased power.

By this point in the match, Red had grown tired of rain: even Poliwrath was hurt more than it gained, for it allowed Green to target her Thunder perfectly. He was thankful the clouds were slowing: one more round and the rain would stop. Then again, Green wasn't the only trainer who could abuse thunder.

It would help if his Mewtwo wasn't too paralyzed to answer the sign. As Green shouted for Wigglytuff to use Thunder on Poliwrath, and Dittotwo to do likewise on the real Mewtwo, Mewtwo stood unmoving, not even recoiling in pain when the blast struck it. Poliwrath got in another boosted Aqua Jet the false Mewtwo's way before Wigglytuff's bolt knocked it out, while his frustrated Espeon shattered Wigglytuff's substitutes with three well-placed stars, then flung another into Mewtwo's clone for good measure. If only Swift did enough to take down the real thing!

"You broke my Substitute! I was gonna selfdestruct and win next turn!" Green pouted.

Red recalled his Poliwrath, then signed back a retort about true Pokemon Masters not needing to blow their pokemon up to win. The triple battle had ended: it was doubles play now, and Red was relieved to get to this phase, even if his two remaining pokemon looked a bit more worse for wear than his foe's. Not that they couldn't heal it off, but if Mewtwo could, so could Ditto's imitation, and Wigglytuff could probably get away with resting even if it wasn't hiding a Chesto Berry in its fur.

"Wigglytuff, Work Up! Ditto, Psych up on your teammate!"

It was the one attack Red had hoped Green had forgotten to research. Mewtwo weren't exactly well-known, and all his hopes this match depended on that technique slipping her mind. Unless. In desperation, he canceled his previous command of recover and sent a thought of "Miracle Eye, quick!" to Mewtwo, who eagerly obliged while Espeon connected with a Psych Up on Wigglytuff, psychically copying the boosted power it had gained and growing so strong that Wigglytuff, who had not boosted its defenses, was left weak and vulnerable to a well-connected swift.

Green shuddered. Was this the end? Wigglytuff didn't have time to power up again, and Mewtwo could hit it just fine now. It'd be lucky to last another turn, especially with Espeon knowing Swift.

If this didn't work, it was over. "Wigglytuff, Protect! Dittotwo, Selfdestruct!" As Wigglytuff rolled up into an oval, egg-like shape resembling a football more than a real ball, Ditto shined with a brilliant light, then tore itself apart in a blinding and powerful blast, leaving only a fainted pink core behind. Espeon, despite the three illusions in which it strove to cloak itself, was caught in the blast in an explosion so strong it ripped through the psychic shield: the pink, twin-tailed cat landed in the arms of scared and thankful fans a few rows back, while a crew of Blissey promptly began work on healing any crowd injuries inflicted by the attack.

The real Mewtwo did not move. It did not attack, perhaps still too paralyzed, perhaps because it had lost focus against the brilliant light of its copy. Yet it did not fall.

"How..." Green wondered aloud, and Mewtwo brushed its thin coat of fur, revealing a bright, many-coated powder which resembled the crushed feathers of Kanto's three legendary birds.

Red looked elated: his Mewtwo, with its Miracle Eye, was about to finish the match. And Green was equally dejected, but she hid that under a brave pose and a pointed finger: this match wasn't over, and she wasn't about to give up before her pokemon did!

"Wigglytuff, let's finish this! Hyper Beam!"

Red gave no sign – he didn't need to with Mewtwo – just sent a single thought to his pokemon: Psystrike.

Even paralyzed, Mewtwo was faster than the glacial pace at which Wigglytuff moved. It half-walked, half-teleported over to its foe and raised its three-fingered hand which began to glow with psychic energy. And then, cloaked in purple light, Mewtwo plunged its hand into its foe's stomach. Wigglytuff fell back on its tiny feet, slowly shrinking as though the air had been let out of it, but it did not faint. The rabbit then opened its tiny mouth and shot forth an impossibly large orange beam which engulfed and defeated Mewtwo.

Green of Pallet Town was World Champion.

The two trainers returned their final pokemon, then each crossed the arena to shake hands. Green struggled to contain her elation – she wouldn't ordinarily try, but Red was in tears, and they had been friends for so long – and sometimes more.

The champion did not know what to say, so she greeted the tearful former champion with the phrase "You fought well," a warm embrace, a handshake and a kiss on the cheek. Red's tears began to slow if not stop as he returned to the side of the arena and the other defeated trainers who had stayed in the area joined him for the championship ceremony.

From the center of the arena, the ground opened up to reveal the world championship trophy: a beautiful silver globe with the continents shown in a brilliant red, yet with a wide bronze band around the equator and again in bronze, the release mechanism of a poke ball.

Green could barely contain her awe as she hosted the trophy aloft – the silver and gold were paint, so she could lift the real thing. As she held it above her head, the trophy opened! Green was as confused as the audience: she hadn't pressed the release mechanism.

The pokemon which emerged from the World Championship Ball was a rare but familiar one, recognized by fans from its appearance at the start of the tournament. A white fairy, with a golden star for a hat, and three teal slips of paper with wishes written on them hanging from its head, emerged when the poke ball's light faded. The tournament's organizers looked as confused as anyone as to how it had snuck in there.

"Champion Green, make your wish." The legend spoke, not with telepathy, but with a high-pitched yet quite human sounding voice. For a few seconds, Green hesitated, staring first at her close friend who she had just beaten, then back to the trophy.

"I wish to rule the world!" She shouted, then turned around to give Red a long, sorrowful and regretful gaze, yet saw not tears but a ball of purple and silver in his hand. In an instant, Green's half poke ball hat, sleeveless light blue shirt and red skirt were replaced with the elaborate robes of Kanto's long-forgotten monarchy, and the fans still in attendance bowed down in adulation: "Long live the Empress!"

Yet no sooner had Jirachi granted Green's wish than was it captured by Red's Master Ball. For a moment, Red considered revoking Green's wish. It was for this eventuality he had been entrusted with the ball in the first place as an emergency measure, after all. But he was not attached to the half-anarchic world which had preceded this tournament, and as for Green, she at least deserved a chance to make her wish come true; he could always revoke her power later.

Instead, he summoned Jirachi himself, then grabbed a thin teal slip of paper from his pocket, wrote down a wish of his own, and fed it to his newest pokemon. And then, for the first time in his life, Red spoke.

"Congratulations, Green. That was an awesome battle. I had a lot of fun this tournament. Thank you everyone!"

I would like to thank my editor, Vethica, for her excellent work in removing the numerous errors I made this NaNoWriMo. This was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you enjoyed this fic!