A Study in Mega Evolution

Corina arrived in Laverre City and breathed in the fresh air. She’d been on the road for about a week since she left the Professor’s lab. She’d already gotten stronger with Eda, considering that many trainers were eager to battle her since she had a key stone now. Corina was here to visit the gym leader, Valerie, on behalf of Professor Sycamore to check out her mega-evolvable Mawile. The city was heavily forested and had old, historic buildings and a sweet smell that seemed to cling to the gentle breeze coming off the river. It was more different from Lumiose City than she could have imagined. 

She walked through the doors of the old wooden building constructed around the trunk of the largest tree she’d ever seen. The lobby was decorated with cute furniture in shades of pink, purple, and white, and it was bustling with finely dressed people, all eager to see the fashion designer, Valerie, in person. Corina shifted through the crowd until she reached the front desk. “Hi there, I’m Corina. I have an appointment with Valerie on behalf of Professor Sycamore.” She smiled as Eda looked around, admiring the fancy clothes. 

“Oh, yes! Of course, she’s been expecting you. Her office is just beyond those doors, there, go on in, and she’ll be with you shortly.” The secretary smiled, pointing to a pair of antique-looking wooden doors behind her. Corina smiled, nodded, and stepped through. 

The office was much quieter than the busy lobby. The walls were adorned with sheets of fabric and patterns and sketches of lovely dresses. Mannequins with accessories and ribbons thrown on them haphazardly were shoved along the walls to make space for the desk covered in sketch paper, colored pencils, and a full-looking day planner. 

The door on the opposite wall opened and out stepped a pale woman with long black hair, gray eyes, and wearing an elaborate dress of purple, pink, yellow, and black. “Valerie?” 

“Yes, you must be Corina?” Her voice was soft and gentle and gave Corina a calm feeling. 

“I am! It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Corina smiled as Valerie walked over to her. “You asked us to check and see if the Mawilite you found is genuine?” 

“Yes, I found it out in the woods with my own Mawile and wanted to be sure.” Valerie opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a purple stone with a black and yellow design in the middle, and handed it to Corina. 

Corina rifled through her bag before pulling out a tiny handheld machine, connecting some cables to the mega stone, and another line to her own key stone. 

“This is a smaller version of a machine the Professor has in his lab that we use to test the validity of mega stones and key stones. He gave this to me so I can test stones on his behalf while I’m on the road.” Corina explained. 

“You have a key stone?” Valerie noticed, looking at Corina’s necklace. 

“Oh yes! It was a going-away gift from the Professor when I started my journey about a week ago.” 

“You’ve only just now started your journey? It’s a bit late, isn’t it? How old are you?” 

“Oh, I’m sixteen. And yeah, I am a bit late, I suppose. My father was never really on board with the idea of me leaving. It wasn’t until a week ago that I actually left Lumiose City.” Valerie gave her a look of surprise before the machine beeped, and Corina smiled, then disconnected the stones. “Yup! It’s a genuine Mawilite.” She handed Valerie back her mega stone. 

“While you’re here, how about a mega battle.” Valerie proposed, smiling softly. 

Corina’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “With me?” 

Valerie nodded. “Don’t worry, it’s not a full gym battle unless you want to, but I think it might be a bit of fun. Besides, I’ve never battled a mega ampharos before.” Valerie looked over at Eda and rubbed her head. 

Corina looked down at her partner, who looked back up, her dark blue eyes sparkling. Corina smiled and nodded. “We’d love to, Valerie!” 

“Wonderful, let’s go, then.” She opened the back door of her office, and Corina could see the gym battlefield beyond it. 

Corina gaped around, her pale green eyes shimmering, reflecting the light. Since this wasn’t an official gym battle, the stands were empty, but the young trainer was still in awe. She’d seen a few of the gym battles in Prism Tower with Florin and Alain back when they were growing up in Lumiose City, but she’d never been on the field of a gym before. 

Corina took her position opposite Valerie with Eda out on the battlefield. Valerie released her Mawile, now holding the Mawilite around her neck. 

“This will be a one-on-one mega evolution battle. The battle will be over as soon as one side is out of able pokemon.” The young lady serving as the referee announced. “Battle begin!” 

“Mawile! Mega evolve!” Valerie called. 

Valerie’s mawile began to change and grow. A new set of jaws sprouted from Mawile’s head and fully grew. Mawile’s arms and legs dawned a dark pink color and became more menacing. 

“Listen to my heart, Eda! Mega evolve!” Corina touched her key stone, and Eda changed into her mega form, gaining the dragon type.  

“Mawile, use Iron Head!” 

“Counter with Thunder Punch!” Eda knocked the Mawile away, electricity sparking around her fists. 

“Play Rough!” The powerful fairy type attack hit, now super effective. 

“Thunder Shock!” 

“Crunch!” 

“Electro Ball, Eda!” A giant ball of electricity hit Mawile straight-on. 

“Play Rough again, Mawile!” Valerie’s passionate side was showing through in a battle for someone so usually soft-spoken. 

Corina’s heart was pounding in her chest, trying to think of a clever way to win. She was at a significant type disadvantage with Valerie’s fairy type against her now dragon type. How could she pull over a win against a fully-fledged gym leader? 

“Crunch, Mawile!” Wait, maybe that could…? 

“Brace yourself, Eda!” Eda took a firm stance and defended her face with her arms. One of Mawile’s jaws clamped down hard on the Ampharos. 

“Now, Thunder Shock!” Corina smiled. There was no way for Mawile to escape this. 

“Very clever, Corina, but that won’t be good enough to defeat me.” Valerie smiled, and the electricity stopped. “Play Rough.” And with that attack, it was over. Eda fainted and reverted to her normal form. 

Corina walked over to her partner as her heart finally calmed down after the adrenaline rush of battle. 

“That was a wonderful battle, Corina. You almost had me there.” Valerie praised her as she returned her Mawile. 

“Thanks, Valerie. I did my best.” Corina replied as she revived Eda. 

“I could tell.” 

“Thank you, Valerie. I’ve never battled a gym leader before. That was fun.” 

“Take care, Corina. I’m glad you were let out for your journey.” 

“I’m glad I got out too.” Corina chuckled. “And I’ll be sure to be back for a rematch when I’m back in town.” Corina waved as she and Eda walked out of the gym. 

Corina and Eda went back to the Pokemon Center, where they stayed the night and called the Professor. 

“So, how did your meeting with Valerie go?” 

“It went well.” Corina chuckled. “She had me battle her mega mawile.” 

“Oh really? What was mega mawile like?” 

“Really intimidating! Eda and I couldn’t beat a fairy type with our new dragon typing.” 

“Amphaaa,” Eda added, sounding dejected. 

“I’m sure you performed wonderfully, Eda.” Professor Sycamore smiled at her supportively. “You’ll have to give me all the details the next time you’re in Lumiose.” 

“Will do, Professor. Do you have any more assignments for me?” 

“I do. Now, I know you’re not a fan of flying, but I will need you to do this for me.” 

“Professor…” Corina grimaced. She’d always hated the idea of flying with a passion. It terrified her. Although, she had never flown before. 

“I know, I know, just hear me out. I’ve heard reports that mega evolution has been happening in the Hoenn Region for some time. I’d like for you to join my colleague, Professor Birch, out there and retrieve some of the Hoenn native mega stones for me.” 

“Professor Birch? He studies pokemon distribution and migration! His research on the regional variants of pokemon is phenomenal! It changed the way we understand migration patterns in each region’s pokemon.” 

“Yes, I knew you’d be familiar with his work.” Professor Sycamore laughed. “I’ll send over your flight information. You have a couple of days, so you have some time to get to Anistar City, but I wouldn’t delay.” 

“Of course, Professor. It’s getting late, and Eda and I have had a long day. Tell Florin, Sophie, and Garchomp that we say hello, okay?” 

“Of course, stay safe, Corina.” 

“Will do, Professor.” She hung up and stood from the chair. “All right, Eda, let’s get to sleep.” 

“Amphaaaa…” She droned sleepily. 

“Yes, I know. I’m tired too.” 

Corina and Eda turned to head up to the hotel rooms. “Corina?” Someone called her name. She turned, and her heart froze when she saw a large, burly man with red hair. 

“Dad?” 

“Amphaa!” 

He rushed over to her, and Corina braced herself for the inevitable argument to come. 

“Dad, what are you doing here?” Corina looked up at him. 

“I should ask you the same thing, young lady.” His pale green eyes looked at her like she was crazy. “Running away from home like that—what were you thinking?” 

“Well, what choice did I have, Dad?” 

“What choice did you—You could not have left behind my back!” 

“And what, asked nicely?” Corina countered, now getting riled up herself. “I realized a long time ago that bargaining, and pleading, and arguing wasn’t doing any good.” 

“You were perfectly happy back at the café.” 

“I was miserable! You have no idea what it felt like to be the last one in my class to stay behind.” 

“Well, what about Florin?” 

“Florin never went on a journey because he didn’t want to!” Corina pinched the bridge of her nose before looking back up at her father. “Please, Dad, you have to understand, being trapped in that city wasn’t doing me any good. And who knows, maybe—maybe I can find him out here and—” 

“Corina, is that what this is all about? Alain?” His tone turned sympathetic. “Corina, this happens. Sometimes people leave like this, and there’s nothing you can do to—” 

“I know you’ve thought that since Mom left, but Alain was different! He wouldn’t do that!” She shook her head, hoping it’d help her fight off the tears that were grasping at her throat.

“Sweetheart, you have to let him go.” 

“Never.” She replied with no hint of hesitation and glared up at his eyes defiantly. “I can’t let him go. I’ll never do that.” 

“Corina, just come back to Lumiose with me. This rebelliousness is over, now that you’ve had your fun.” 

“No.” 

“What?” 

“I’m not going back with you.” 

“Corina—” 

“I’ve already learned so much out here that I’d never been able to learn in the city! It’s thanks to that that Eda was able to evolve!” She stepped back from him. “I’m going to Hoenn in a few days.” 

“Hoenn? Absolutely not!” 

“I have a flight leaving in a few days. You can see me off if you want, but I’m not going home.” 

“Corina, you hate flying.” 

“I don’t care! I’m so passionate about my research and the opportunities the Professor has given me that I’ll gladly put them aside if it means learning more.” She stepped back a little more and pressed the elevator button. “So, you can say whatever you want, Dad, but I’m staying on my journey.” The elevator doors opened, she stepped inside with Eda. “Bye, Dad.” The doors closed before either one could say another word. 

The elevator was deafeningly silent. 

“Ammmphha?” Eda reached out and touched Corina’s arm. Corina bit her lip and brought her hand to her eyes, wiping away the tears finally making their escape.

“I’m okay, Eda.” She sniffled and swallowed as the doors opened on their floor. “I’m okay.”