A Study in Mega Evolution

Corina’s mind was racing as they landed at the airport back in Kalos. Why would Alain suddenly leave them behind? What sort of danger was he talking about? Why did he drop off the radar so long ago? She needed more answers, and she was going to have a talk with him, one way or another. 

They arrived at the airport and went straight for the phones to call Professor Sycamore. It didn’t take long for him to answer the phone. 

“Hi Mairin, it’s been quite a long time. How may I be of assistance?” He smiled. 

“Professor, uh, you know a trainer named Alain, don’t you?” Mairin asked. Corina couldn’t miss the look of surprise on his face. 

“Alain?” 

“You see, Steven, Corina, and I have all been with Alain, traveling.” Corina and Steven stepped into the frame. 

“Hi there, Professor.” She waved. 

“Hello, Professor!” 

“Ahh, Steven Stone, correct?” He looked over to Corina. “Hello, Corina. How have your travels been?” She could tell his mind was racing thinking about Alain, but he wasn’t showing it. 

“Amazing, Professor. Hermes evolved and now has his own Altarianite.” She nodded, keeping it brief. She knew what he wanted to hear about. 

“You see, Alain, Mairin, Corina, and I, we’ve been through a lot.” Steven began to explain the past day or so to the Professor and all the suspenseful details. Once they finished up and answered all of Professor Sycamore’s questions, Steven and Mairin were about ready to go. 

“Would you two mind giving me a moment to speak with Professor Sycamore?” Corina asked her two companions. They nodded and said their goodbyes, leaving her alone on the phone. 

“So… I found him.” Corina let her face fall. 

“Yes. How did that happen?” 

“I just ran into him. I was so shocked I could hardly say anything.” 

“So…How is he?” Corina was silent for a moment, biting her lip. “Corina?” 

“I don’t know, Professor. Something seems…off.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“He’s…different. He’s quiet and serious. Nothing like he used to be. It’s like something’s wrong, and I can’t figure out what it is.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know, Professor. I used to be able to read him like a book, but suddenly, I have no idea what’s going on with him.” 

“Well, he has been gone for a while.” 

“I know, Professor. But now, all he can think about is getting stronger. It’s like he…doesn’t even care anymore.” 

“Corina…” 

“I’m going to do what I can to have him call, but…I can’t make any promises.” 

“That’s all right, Corina. You shouldn’t keep Steven and Mairin waiting. I’ll be sure to update Florin.” 

“Thank you, Professor.” 

“Talk to you soon, Corina.” 

“Bye, Professor Sycamore.” She waved, and the screen turned off as he ended the call. She sighed, and her shoulders slumped. She wished she could’ve had better news for him. 

Corina met Steven and Mairin outside, where a car was waiting for them to take them to the headquarters for Lysandre Labs. 

They walked in through the lobby, and Corina had to contain her excitement. She had been to both the Devon Corporation and Lysandre Labs now in the past few days and could barely keep her head on straight. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” Lysandre walked down a flight of stairs beside them with one of his employees in tow. 

“Mr. Lysandre!” Mairin jogged over excitedly. 

“Nice to see you.” Corina walked up behind Mairin and Chespie. 

“Hello, I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.” He looked over at Corina, and she smiled. 

“I’m Corina. It’s an honor to meet you, sir. I’ve always been a huge fan of Lysandre Labs and have followed the development of your products and the extent of your charity work since I was little.” He nodded, a neutral smile on his face. 

“Is Alain here?” 

“He is, indeed.” He crouched down, so he was at eye level with Mairin. “He’s battling right now.”

“Oh, can I please go and watch him?” 

“I’ll get an escort.” He nodded. 

“What about you two?” Mairin turned to look at her and Steven. 

“I’ll come to meet you later.” 

“Sure! I’ll come with. I’d love to see his and Charizard’s progress now that the fate of the world isn’t in the way.” Corina grinned. 

“Gotcha.” 

“It’s about the Giant Stone, I presume?” Lysandre asked Steven as they walked away, their partner pokemon close behind. 

They were brought to a balcony overlooking the battlefield, and Mairin and Corina rushed to the edge, excited to see Alain and Charizard battle. 

“Charizard!” Mairin gasped as they saw him being restrained by a Mega Venasaur. Charizard noticed the pair on the balcony and looked back at his trainer. 

“Hey! You worry about yourself!” Alain replied after taking a glance up at them himself. 

Venasaur wound up and slammed Charizard into the ground using the vines. Corina felt her grip on the railing become tighter as she felt anxiety grow in her stomach. What if Alain lost? 

“Charizard! Get up!” Alain seemed tense. Corina could understand since his key stone, and Charizardite X were on the line. With one final dragon claw, Charizard defeated them. 

“Yay! They won!” Mairin yelled excitedly. Corina could feel relief flood her body. But Alain’s work was far from over. 

Charizard flew back to Alain and happily accepted a pecha berry to heal his poison. 

“Hey! Alain!” Mairin called down, but the doors opened before she could say anything, and Alain’s next opponent walked through. They sent out an Alakazam with an Alakazamite hanging from one of its spoons. It started the battle by mega evolving, and Charizard did the same. 

Alain soundly defeated each and every opponent. That Alakazam, then a mega Heracross, a mega Scizor, a mega Ampharos, and a mega Aggron. Alain was now more than halfway through the allotted trainers he had to defeat, and deep down, Corina felt herself rooting for the two of them each time. 

“Wow, Alain really has gotten strong, huh, Mairin?” There was no reply. “Mairin?” Corina looked around to see she had disappeared. 

“Alain!” Corina turned around to see Mairin walk onto the field behind Alain and Charizard. 

“What are you doing here?” His tone was impatient and stand-offish. Corina frowned; she had a bad feeling about this. 

“Aaaamphaaa.” 

“I know, Eda.” Corina nodded, still looking down. 

“Watching you! Anyway, is it true you’re battling with a key stone and mega stone on the line?” Mairin asked, ignoring Alain’s tone. 

“Yeah.” 

“But why?” 

“That isn’t your concern, Mairin.” Alain turned to the side. 

“Cheee! Chee pin, pin che!” Chespin shouted at Alain, clearly unhappy with his tone with her. 

“No! Don’t get in the way, Chespie!” She comforted her partner, holding him. “So, what about our journey?” 

“Go wherever you want.” 

“Chespie and I got stronger because we were with you. I want us all to stay together!” She protested. Corina frowned and felt her heart tug. Those words sounded all too familiar. 

“No way!” 

“But why?” 

“Because you’ll be in great danger if you do.” 

“Hey, if you’re with us, I’m sure we’ll make it through!” She protested; Corina could hear her voice cracking. 

“Stop relying on me.” Alain turned his back to her. 

“Alain?” 

“Don’t you understand? I can’t get stronger with you around!” Alain shouted. Mairin fell silent. Chespie began to complain when Mairin was squeezing him too tight. Mairin turned and ran away, not saying another word. 

Alain’s eyes flickered up to Corina standing up on the balcony. She was sure her face conveyed all the hurt and disappointment she was feeling inside, not that she was trying to hide it. She shook her head, fighting back tears of her own. “Come on, Eda. Let’s go find Mairin.” She muttered to her partner. 

“Amphaa. Amphaarooos.” Eda nodded, then slowly followed Corina out into the hall. 

It took some time, but Corina finally found Mairin crying silently in the stairwell. She looked down at Chespie, who looked just as unsure and sympathetic as she did. Corina stepped over and sat next to Mairin. 

“Mairin, I’m sure he didn’t mean that.” It almost hurt more to realize that Corina was unsure if she believed that herself. 

“Chee?” Chespie stepped over. 

“Corina, Chespie…” Mairin’s voice was heavy. “I just wanna be alone.” Corina let out a breath and nodded. 

“Just call me if you need me, okay?” Mairin didn’t reply, so Corina stood up, placed a hand on Mairin’s hat in a feeble attempt at comfort, then walked off with Eda. 

She had an escort show her to the phones. She figured she could use another call to Florin or the Professor to help her clear her mind. 

“Corina, hello again.” the Professor’s face appeared on screen, and she smiled. She wanted to talk to him, somebody, but now that he was here she wasn’t sure what to say. 

“Hi, Corina.” Florin appeared next to his father and sat down, so he was in view. 

“Hi, both of you.” 

“So, dad just told me about Alain.” Florin frowned a bit. 

“Yeah. I don’t think you all are going to get the chance to see him.” She frowned too. 

“Yeah… but hey, let’s change the subject, huh? You’ll never guess what happened.” 

“Oh yeah?” 

“My Absol, Nimbus got his Absolite!” Florin smiled. He angled the camera so Corina could see Nimbus in the background with a necklace with the absolite in it., with a glistening mega stone in it. “And I have a key stone!” He turned his head to show her the key stone dangling from his hair tie that held up his bun. 

“Florin, that’s incredible! My congratulations to both of you.” She smiled. 

“Amphaaa!” Eda bleated from beside her. “This means we gotta have a mega evolution battle as soon as I get back.” 

“Yeah! I won’t lose this time!” 

“We’ll just have to see about that.” They laughed. Florin was good at making her feel better. 

She stopped laughing when one of the employees stepped up beside her and whispered in her ear. Her face changed utterly into one of worry and distress. He stepped back and waited for her to end the call to accompany him to the ER. 

“Professor…You should get down here right away.”  

She stood beside Mairin, gazing into the room, holding the young girl’s shaking hand. They watched as Chespie lay unconscious in the hospital bed. Nurse Joy and Wigglituff checked over charts and hooked the small pokemon up to cables. 

“Mairin!” Professor Sycamore rushed up to them. 

“Professor!” 

“Corina called me and told me about what happened.” 

Nurse Joy walked out of the room with a grave, serious look on her face. 

“Nurse Joy! How’s Chespie?” Mairin asked. 

“It’s not in any danger. But we don’t know why it’s unconscious.” Mairin started tearing up again. “All we can do now is keep a close watch.” 

Professor Sycamore leaned down and placed a hand on Mairin’s shoulder. “How did this happen, Mairin?” He asked, his voice gentle and concerned. 

“I wish I knew….” She shook her head. “I have no idea!” Corina’s heart broke. She hated seeing her friend like this. First, Alain shouted at her and dismissed her, and now this. 

“We’ll keep Chespin here at Lysandre Labs for the time being. This facility is second to none.” They turned to see Lysandre walk up to them. 

“You are Lysandre, aren’t you?” 

“Nice to meet you, Professor. I give you my word that Chespin will make a complete recovery—huh?” Surprised, he looked down as Mairin lunged at him, hugging him tightly. 

“Ch—Chespie will be okay, right?” Mairin pleaded, sobbing. “Chespie w—will wake up for sure, right?” 

Corina frowned, then something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She looked up and could barely see Alain hiding around the corner, listening to the whole scene unfold. She furrowed her eyebrows when he slipped away. Corina took a deep breath as she felt frustration rise within her. She nodded to the Professor, telling him silently she’d be right back. She walked over to the hallway, the light flickering, and saw the door to the outside shut. Alain just stepped outside. She hesitated a moment, wondering if she should stay for Mairin, but knew that this wouldn’t take long. She walked down the hallway and slipped out of the door to see Alain about to walk off. 

“Alain.” She stood in front of the door. He turned and looked at her, surprised she’d followed him outside. 

“Corina?” 

“Leaving again without so much as a goodbye, huh?” She placed her hands on her hips, giving him a disapproving look. “I’ll make this quick.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “I waited for you for so long. I waited, hoping that one day you would walk through the doors to the lab, put on the lab coat, and it’d be like nothing ever happened. But the more time I spend with you now, the more I realize how stupid I was.” Alain furrowed his eyebrows together. “You know, I hesitated going on my journey for you because I wanted to be there the second you came home. But seeing how obsessed you’ve become with strength and how you treat Mairin, I think I was a fool for delaying my dreams for you. 

“It’s like I don’t know who you are anymore. The Alain I knew cared about more than just that.” She felt tears brimming her eyes, but she shut them tight to keep them at bay. “I thought Professor Sycamore was special to you, I thought Florin, and the pokemon, and Garchomp were all special to you, I thought I was—” She let her arms flop to her sides and bit the inside of her cheek. “But now I see that none of us meant anything to you. I never meant anything to you.” She said, her voice suddenly quiet as the realization set in. “All the times we shared at the Professor’s lab were just…passing the time until you could get stronger, huh?” She looked back up to meet his eyes. She could see hurt and confusion in his bright blue oceans, and that only made her heart shrivel more. “So, fine. Run off, Alain, do whatever it is you need to do to get stronger. I’ll be here with the people who really need me.” 

She turned to walk back inside. 

“Corina…” 

Her hand curled around the door handle, and she felt a tear finally escape her eyes now that her back was turned. 

“Goodbye, Alain.” 

She opened the door and stepped back inside, shutting it behind her. Eda was there at the door waiting for her. 

“Ammmphaaa?” Her big, dark eyes were sympathetic and sad. 

“Come on, Eda, Mairin needs us.” She rubbed the tears from her eyes, rubbed her partner’s head, and walked back down the hallway, leaving her childhood friend behind.