Trick Room was a spatial technique.
Once activated, it rewrote the rules of an entire battlefield, and precisely because of that, its casting time was notoriously long.
If Protect was the fastest priority move, then Trick Room was the slowest. Bar none.
Unless a Pokémon had reached God level, the charge-up was agonizing. Even opponents two full tiers below would still get to act first.
But once Trick Room was established, everything changed.
Inside the twisted space, the fastest Pokémon acted last, while the slowest moved first. The speed advantage Trainers took pride in instantly became a liability.
Some Trainers even built teams specifically for this purpose: squads made entirely of painfully slow Pokémon, designed to always seize the first strike under Trick Room.
Rare.
But terrifying.
Ash had only ever heard of this tactic in passing from the chat group. Sightings were scarce, and his own fighting style favored overwhelming speed and direct pressure.
Why bother manipulating space?
His Pokémon were already fast, absurdly fast. Even his bulky Pokémon moved like lightning.
So Ash never used Trick Room.
Nor did he raise Pokémon suited for it.
Which meant, Trick Room was his natural counter.
Every Pokémon on his roster relied on speed. Even the comparatively slow Blastoise wasn't truly slow. Against Trick Room, that became a death sentence delivered from the heavens.
That was why Ash's expression changed the instant the space twisted.
Too late.
With Trick Room active, he had lost the initiative entirely.
And only now did he fully understand why Dusknoir's Speed stat was so abysmally low.
It wasn't a flaw.
It was intentional.
Stats could be raised, so naturally, they could also be lowered. If you knew where to look, there were items that did exactly that.
Which was why Trick Room teams were so hard to build. Beyond naturally slow Pokémon, hunting down Speed-reducing items was a massive pain.
Who would even go through all that trouble?
Only maniacs.
"Judging by your face, Ash, you already understand what Trick Room does."
Conway adjusted his glasses, his tone smug to the point of being obnoxious.
"Your Hydro Pump was impressive, but it couldn't stop my room. The moment Trick Room came up, the outcome was already calculated."
He smiled thinly.
"Brace yourself."
Conway recalled Dusknoir and immediately hurled his next Poké Ball.
"Go, Shuckle!"
A flash of light erupted, and a small, tortoise-like Pokémon appeared. Its shell was riddled with tiny holes, like a clay pot, and its head popped out with an unexpectedly fierce gaze.
Conway wasted no time.
"Time is limited, finish this quickly! Withdraw, then Power Trick!"
"Shu!"
Shuckle pulled its head and limbs back into its shell. Light rippled across its body as its already absurd Defense climbed even higher.
Shuckle possessed some of the highest Defense and Special Defense stats of any Pokémon alive.
But in exchange, it was unbearably slow, and offensively pathetic.
Most Trainers used it as a wall.
Conway, however, had other ideas. Withdraw raised Defense.
Power Trick swapped Defense and Attack.
Under Trick Room, where slowness equaled speed, Shuckle would become a fast, first-striking monster with monstrous Attack.
"Trick Room makes the slowest act first. Withdraw stacks Defense. Power Trick converts that Defense into raw offense…" Ash murmured, a faint glint flashing across the gemstone in his hand.
"So you're turning Shuckle into a battering ram."
Anyone familiar with Trick Room teams and Shuckle could see the plan coming.
The problem was never understanding it. The problem was stopping it.
Ash chose the simplest answer. If you want a slugfest, let's slug it out.
"Blastoise," Ash said calmly, lifting his hand,
"MEGA Evolution."
"Blastoise!!"
Blastoise roared as the Mega Stone embedded in its body surfaced, resonating with Ash's Key Stone in a burst of brilliant, prismatic light.
Ninety percent of the stadium leapt to their feet.
Evolution light?!
Blastoise… was evolving again?!
Impossible!!
As the glow faded, Blastoise's form had completely changed.
The twin cannons on its shoulders fused into a single colossal central barrel, supported by two smaller cannons mounted on its forearms. Its frame grew heavier, denser, radiating raw pressure.
Mega Blastoise.
Its ability, Mega Launcher, amplified all pulse-type moves.
Combined with Blastoise's mastery of Aura Power, its attacks were no longer water cannons.
They were artillery.
In Mega Evolution, Blastoise became the ultimate gun turret.
The stadium exploded.
"What did Ash just say?! MEGA Evolution?!"
"What in Arceus's name is that?!"
"You're telling me final-stage Pokémon can evolve again?! That was supposed to be theoretical!"
"Is this even legal?!"
"So those gems, those were the key items for Mega Evolution?! I saw them flash just before it changed!"
"Unbelievable… evolving again without telling anyone?!"
"Hold on. If Ash discovered it, why is he obligated to tell you?"
"Exactly. Sharing is generosity, not a duty. Who do you think you are, demanding answers?"
The crowd descended into chaos.
With the appearance of MEGA Evolution, the stands erupted into chaos.
Some spectators were awestruck by the phenomenon itself. Others let out excited, half-joking screams. A few sharp-eyed observers, those who lived for details, noticed the Mega Stone that had briefly surfaced on Blastoise's body thanks to Dusknoir's Frisk.
And then there were the purely jealous ones.
They cursed Ash for discovering an entirely new form of evolution and keeping it to himself instead of "sharing it with the world."
Yet not one of them stopped to ask the obvious question.
Why should he?
Ash had never been obligated to make his discoveries public. Knowledge wasn't charity.
Plenty of clear-headed viewers thought the same, and they wasted no time tearing into those complaints. Arguments flared in the stands, logic clashing with entitlement, until the jealous voices were drowned out completely.
In short, the public unveiling of MEGA Evolution triggered a colossal uproar.
Even Steven, seated in the VIP section, shot to his feet.
What stunned him wasn't just MEGA Evolution itself, but the two gemstones involved.
The gem embedded in Blastoise was slightly different from those in his own collection. Still, Steven could tell at a glance: it belonged to the same category of items. The core was the same, only the details differed.
Then there was the multicolored gem on Ash's wrist.
That one… he recognized perfectly.
A Life Stone.
It had once been part of his own collection.
He had given several to Professor Oak after the professor asked for them. They weren't especially rare or useful, at least, not as far as Steven knew, so he hadn't hesitated.
Who could have imagined that those stones were the key to breaking a Pokémon's evolutionary limits?
It was absurd.
Both items had passed through his hands.
And he'd discovered nothing.
Worse, he'd simply given them away.
Ash must have already sensed the secret of MEGA Evolution back then. Oak had asked for the stones on Ash's behalf, even mentioning it casually at the time.
Steven hadn't thought much of it.
Ash was just a rookie Trainer a few months into his journey. Wanting shiny stones because they looked cool seemed perfectly reasonable.
Who would ever imagine that a beginner would uncover a higher evolutionary system that no one else had managed to grasp?
As for whether Professor Oak himself had been behind it, that was practically impossible.
Not because Oak lacked the ability, but because he would never use a child as a smokescreen. If Oak wanted something for research, he'd say so outright.
The fact that Ash had been the intermediary meant the idea had unquestionably come from the boy himself.
"You lot," Steven muttered, the corners of his mouth twitching as he glanced at Lorelei and the others, "don't look surprised at all. Don't tell me you already knew?"
Under normal circumstances, witnessing a never-before-seen evolutionary form should have left everyone as stunned as the audience, or himself.
Yet the Kanto Elite Four showed barely any surprise.
If anything, their expressions said finally.
Which meant, they knew about MEGA Evolution too?
They exchanged looks, then shrugged helplessly.
"We only found out recently that Ash could use MEGA Evolution. He more or less perfected the entire system on his own."
"Until he chose to reveal it publicly, we didn't dare say a word."
"Now that he's used it in an official tournament… well, that's him announcing it to the world."
"Detailed information should start appearing online soon. It'll probably trigger a new craze."
They passed responsibility around, but none of it was a lie.
The MEGA Evolution system had been discovered by Ash alone. Even Professor Oak's role had been minimal, mostly helping collect Mega Stones.
That was why no one revealed it without Ash's consent.
Gary thought the same way, which was precisely why he hadn't used MEGA Evolution in earlier matches.
A discovery this monumental, one that belonged entirely to Ash, had to be unveiled by Ash himself.
When Steven realized that Ash had developed the system alone, his mouth hung open.
For a long time, he even wondered if he'd misheard.
A Trainer barely six months into his journey. Already absurdly strong. And now the discoverer of a brand-new evolutionary system that had eluded researchers for generations.
What kind of monster… was this kid?
Kalos Region - Lumiose City
Professor Sycamore sat comfortably in a café, a cappuccino in hand, casually watching the Indigo Plateau Conference on his computer.
Though mountains of research awaited him, an occasional break was necessary for inspiration. Ash's name had reached Kalos long ago, and the recent visit from Kanto's Elite Four had only piqued his curiosity further.
So when he found himself free that morning, he tuned in.
By sheer coincidence, the very first match featured Ash.
It wasn't Sycamore's first time seeing him, though the last encounter had been five years ago…
Then, Ash raised his arm.
"MEGA Evolution!"
Blastoise erupted in radiant evolutionary light.
Professor Sycamore spat his coffee straight onto the screen.