As Sabrina's eyes glowed faintly blue, Kadabra's entire body was enveloped in a blinding light of evolution.
The brilliance filled the entire arena, forcing Misty and Brock to squint. When the light finally faded, a new figure stood where Kadabra had been, a taller, more imposing golden fox with two spoons gleaming in its hands.
Kadabra's evolution, Alakazam!
Compared to Kadabra's slightly mischievous air, Alakazam radiated wisdom and authority. Its posture was calm, its gaze razor-sharp, and the psychic energy rippling off its body was suffocatingly dense.
Pokédex: "Alakazam, the Psi Pokémon. The evolved form of Kadabra. Its brain is as advanced as a supercomputer and capable of unleashing countless Psychic powers."
Ash flipped open his Pokédex, which hadn't been used in a while, confirming what his Insight eye already told him.
So it really had evolved, right here, right now.
And judging by Sabrina's tone earlier, she had chosen to let it evolve at will.
Ash turned to look at Gastly with an incredulous expression.
"Hey… isn't evolving freely something you learned after a thousand years? How can she do it too?"
Gastly's misty face contorted helplessly.
"How should I know? This girl you've got me fighting is seriously abnormal!"
It wasn't Kadabra, or rather, Alakazam, that was strange. It was Sabrina.
Gastly's self-taught free evolution and de-evolution had taken him centuries of experimentation, yet Sabrina could seemingly control her Pokémon's evolution like flipping a switch.
Once Kadabra evolved into Alakazam, its power surged instantly, settling at Elite Four Advanced Level, the same as Gastly's.
But Ash quickly pieced it together.
No, this wasn't a sudden power boost. Kadabra had likely already been that strong. Its suppressed evolution was part of a deliberate training method, Sabrina's unique way of honing her Pokémon's Psychic control.
And that theory was spot on.
Sabrina had long kept Alakazam reverted to its lower forms, Abra and Kadabra, to train their mental restraint. For most challengers, even an Abra under her command was impossible to defeat.
But now… things were different.
The pressure radiating from Ash and Gastly made her heart stir. For the first time in years, she felt the thrill of a real battle.
So she released Alakazam's full strength, no more suppression.
"Gastly, you evolve too," Ash ordered.
"Alright, alright~" Gastly replied with a lazy grin before his form burst into the same radiant glow. When the light faded, the shadowy figure of Gengar floated proudly above the ground, his grin wide and confident.
Unlike Alakazam's evolution, Gengar's form didn't alter his power level. His ability to evolve or devolve was purely a transformation technique, not a power boost.
From the stands, Misty and Brock gawked.
"Two Pokémon evolving before the battle even starts… What kind of madness is this?"
"It's like they can evolve and devolve whenever they feel like it…" Brock murmured.
Sabrina's voice cut through the tension, calm yet sharp as a blade.
"Let's begin. Alakazam, Psybeam."
Alakazam crossed its spoons, gathering a swirl of vibrant energy between them. A dazzling multicolored beam burst forth, slicing through the air straight toward Gengar.
"Gengar, Shadow Ball!"
"Got it!" Gengar gathered a mass of swirling darkness in his hands, the sphere pulsing with violent energy.
The two attacks collided midair with a thunderous explosion.
BOOM!
The blast was deafening. Raw energy rippled outward in shockwaves that shook the very foundations of the Gym.
Walls quivered, ceiling lights flickered, and cracks began to form along the arena floor.
Misty screamed over the roaring noise, clutching Pikachu tightly.
"W-Wait, that Alakazam's Elite Four level too?! If they keep this up, this Gym's going to collapse!"
Ash turned his head just in time to see Misty nearly blown off her feet by the force of the explosion. He clenched his fists, Aura flaring.
In the next instant, his entire body glowed blue.
A shimmering Aura Barrier spread outward from him, stretching across the battlefield like a transparent dome. It expanded until it completely enclosed the arena, walls, floor, and ceiling included, forming a cube of solid energy.
As soon as it stabilized, the shockwaves vanished. Outside the barrier, the air fell still.
Inside, the battle raged on, but Misty and Brock could now stand safely.
Misty blinked, stunned. "What… what just happened? The wind just stopped, Ash, is that your doing?"
Ash nodded without looking back. "Yeah. I made an Aura barrier. It should hold fine against two Elite Four-level Pokémon. Gengar, fight with everything you've got!"
Gengar gritted his teeth. "Nonsense. I am using everything I've got!!"
He pushed forward, his Shadow Ball slowly overpowering Alakazam's Psybeam. The colorful light was swallowed by the deep black energy, inch by inch, until;
BOOM!
The Shadow Ball burst through Psybeam's remains and streaked straight for Alakazam's face!
Sabrina's crimson eyes flashed.
"Teleport."
Alakazam's form flickered out of existence just before the Shadow Ball struck. The attack hit Ash's Aura barrier instead, sending ripples of blue light through the air like a disturbed pond surface, then vanished without leaving a scratch.
The barrier didn't even tremble.
Gengar turned to look at Ash, his wide grin faltering. "You're kidding me."
He'd thought he understood Ash after their last battle, thought the kid's strength came from guts and unpredictability. But this? This was something else entirely.
If Ash had used that barrier back then, the fight would have ended in seconds!
Misty and Brock also stared, their mouths open. They'd seen Ash do plenty of incredible things, but casually blocking a full-powered Elite Four-level Shadow Ball as if it were nothing? That was beyond anything they could comprehend.
This was like watching a human cast a battlefield-wide Protect, strong enough to tank one of Gengar's heaviest hits.
Even Sabrina's crimson eyes flickered slightly. Though her face stayed calm, there was a faint shimmer of intrigue in her gaze. Someone else who could manipulate energy on a level rivaling her Psychic power, it was rare.
But they were in battle, and fascination could wait.
"Focus on the fight, not me!" Ash shouted, seeing Gengar still staring at him like he'd seen a ghost. "Up there, Shadow Ball!"
"Alright, alright! Don't yell, I'm on it!" Gengar grumbled, forming another massive sphere of swirling darkness in his hands. He flung it upward toward the ceiling where a faint shimmer revealed Alakazam's reappearance.
"Alakazam, Psychic!"
Alakazam's eyes gleamed blue, and an immense wave of energy burst forth, crashing into the Shadow Ball midair. The two powers collided again, but this time, the Shadow Ball didn't dominate so easily.
The Psychic energy pressed down, twisting the black sphere backward. Gengar gritted his teeth, straining to hold it, but the pressure was overwhelming.
'Of course,' Ash thought. 'That last Psybeam wasn't even Alakazam's full power, this is.'
"Gengar, transform into a Dark-type Pokémon!" Ash commanded sharply.
Gengar's body pulsed and warped, expanding outward. In seconds, the ghostly mist solidified into the towering form of a Tyranitar, the Desert Tyrant itself!
The Psychic blast slammed into Tyranitar's chest, and fizzled out harmlessly.
Tyranitar looked down, patted his stomach, and gave a smug grin that seemed to say, 'Was that supposed to tickle?'
Sabrina's expression twitched, just slightly, but for someone normally unreadable, that tiny flicker was like a gasp.
What she had just seen completely defied her understanding.
A Gengar that could transform, without a catalyst, without a move, into another species entirely, and even switch to a completely different typing?
It wasn't Mimicry. It wasn't Illusion. It was a genuine, physical transformation.
Sabrina's Psychic sense confirmed it, the creature before her wasn't projecting an illusion. It had truly become Tyranitar.
"When… when did Gengar start copying Ditto's powers?" she murmured under her breath.
The newly massive Tyranitar smirked and flickered again, reverting smoothly to Gengar's round-bodied form. "Heh, not bad, huh? Gotta say, kid, you remember your type matchups pretty well."
Psychic-type moves cannot damage Dark-type Pokémon, but the level difference between them cannot be too great, otherwise, even if the type attack cannot cause damage, the energy contained within it would be enough to harm that Pokémon.
Again, the real world is not like game data. Type advantages and type immunities are not absolute.
Even a Ghost-type would be affected by the energy contained in a Fighting-type move if the opponent's power was strong enough.
"This Gengar is truly abnormal. If Ash hadn't stepped in himself, even sending out a Champion-level Pokémon might not have been enough to deal with him," Brock commented from the side.
There exists an ability in the world called Protean, where a Pokémon's type changes to match the move it's using, and that move then gains a Same-Type Attack Bonus.
But such a transformation can only occur when the Pokémon uses a move. Ash's Gengar, on the other hand, was far too abnormal, it could transform freely without using any skill or medium at all!
How could such an outrageous Pokémon even exist in the world?!
"Alakazam, Teleport."
After her initial shock, Sabrina quickly reorganized her offense.
Alakazam's body began flashing rapidly across the field, its form vanishing and reappearing from place to place, so fast and erratic that Gengar couldn't even lock onto its position.
"Psyshock!"
"Gengar!" Ash called. Though Gengar couldn't see the opponent, since the move being used was Psychic-type again, it just needed to transform into a Dark-type Pokémon.
Gengar instantly transformed into Tyranitar once more, his sharp eyes darting around vigilantly. As long as the opponent appeared, he could counterattack while remaining immune to Psychic-type attacks!
A shockwave condensed from pure Psychic power erupted from the void, but Tyranitar easily nullified it.
However, at that very moment, Alakazam appeared right behind Tyranitar, a green orb of energy already gathered in its hand. It hurled the attack straight at him!
"Gengar, behind you!"
Ash's warning came the moment Alakazam reappeared, but it was still too late.
The Energy Ball, a Grass-type move, slammed directly into Gengar's back while he was still in his Tyranitar form!
Boom!!
Tyranitar's dual typing was Dark and Rock, making Grass-type moves terrifyingly effective against him!
A roar echoed through the arena as Tyranitar stumbled from the impact. Then, with a flash of purple smoke, he reverted back to his Gengar form, rolling several times across the floor before crashing heavily into the Aura barrier Ash had created.
"Ow, ow, ow! What the heck?!" Gengar groaned, rubbing his back furiously. "How can you, a Psychic-type Pokémon, use a Grass-type move?! That's cheating! Cheating, I say!"
Though the attack hadn't caused any real damage, thanks to Gengar's exceptional stamina, it still hurt like crazy.
"If we're talking about cheating," Sabrina replied coldly, her face expressionless, "isn't turning into a Dark-type Pokémon yourself also cheating?"
How dare this Pokémon accuse her of cheating? This was the first time Sabrina had met such a shameless opponent.
Ash, however, showed a thoughtful expression.
Although the exchange just now had been brief, it revealed a lot about Alakazam, and Sabrina.
The first thing was Alakazam's multitasking ability.
Teleport, Psyshock, and Energy Ball, these three moves had been executed almost simultaneously, all within the span of a single second.
Most notably, Alakazam had been teleporting constantly throughout the process. To the naked eye, it was completely impossible to follow its movements. Those attacks weren't being chained together, they were being performed at the same time.
Ash had seen Pokémon use combo moves before, like Gary's Wartortle, for instance, but those were sequential, not simultaneous.
Using multiple moves simultaneously was like trying to draw a circle with one hand and a square with the other, it demanded incredible precision and mental control.
Only Psychic-type Pokémon with exceptionally strong mental power could pull that off.
This Alakazam was clearly not an ordinary opponent, but even more impressive than Alakazam itself was the Trainer standing behind it.