Serena couldn't really put it into words how happy she was for Ash and Noivern. It was such a special moment. She kind of knew it from her first round win at the Masterclass. It was proving that you belonged with the best. It was proving that you and your Pokemon hadn't worked hard for nothing. And it was proving that a dream that seemed so far away at the beginning of your journey, wasn't an impossibility.

"I guess we should go," Ash said, after he was tackled in hugs by the rest of the group. Serena didn't know what he was talking about and couldn't understand why he didn't want to just celebrate his victory a little more. When he realized that nobody got what he was saying, he explained it. "Alain and Trevor should be battling now. Don't you guys wanna go see that?"

There was a quick murmur of agreement and the group quickly set off out of the arena. It was quite easy to find their way, and somehow Ash was already an expert on where the arenas seemed to be. Within a couple of minutes, they were running down the hallway towards the arena where Alain and Trevor were battling, and they couldn't hear too much, which likely meant it wasn't too exciting of a match.

When they emerged in the stands of the arena, Serena looked towards the battlefield, which she noticed was a rock field. Alain had a Pokemon that looked kind of like his Metang, but it had four metallic legs instead of two. Ash answered her mental question fairly quickly. "Alain's Metang evolved into Metagross!" he said excitedly. Serena then looked at Trevor's Pokemon and saw a badly beaten up Florges. When she looked up at the screen showing each trainer's remaining Pokemon, she saw that this was Trevor's fifth and Metagross was still Alain's first.

There was a wave down below, near the middle of the front of the stands, and Serena noticed Mairin, Shauna and Tierno were all waving to them, apparently having noticed they were there. This time, Serena lead the way. "Come on, let's go sit with them."

Unfortunately for Trevor, by the time the group reached their other friends, Florges was getting struck by a very powerful looking meteor mash. When they finally sat down, there was plenty of room due to there being less fans from the lack of excitement in the battle. When they were seated, the referee was calling the play and Trevor was returning Florges to its pokeball.

Shauna and Tierno looked pretty miserable, but Mairin was ecstatic. "Alain's Metang evolved!" she shouted out happily. "Trevor actually looked like he might have been able to win with his third Pokemon, but then when Metang evolved, Metagross was able to easily win."

"Trevor's still got his best weapon," Tierno said, sounding a little irritated by Mairin's excitement. "Let's not count him out yet."

"Yeah!" Shauna agreed, raising two clenched fists into the air. "Go Trevor! You can do this!"

Serena felt the urge to cheer for Trevor as well, but since Alain was also their friend, she decided to stay quiet. Hopefully Trevor's next Pokemon would at least put some excitement into the match. It was great to see Ash dominate a match, but in other battles it was kind of sad.

Trevor's voice suddenly carried out, as he tossed out his sixth and final Pokemon. "Charizard, let's go!" There was a flash of light and then the powerful looking fire breathing lizard emerged. It definitely looked strong. Not as strong as Ash's, but Serena got the feeling it wasn't going to be easy for Metagross to handle this one.

"No way!" Ash suddenly yelled, getting everyone to look at him. He pointed to Charizard. Serena didn't see for a moment, but then she noticed something shining. "A mega stone," Ash whispered, sounding impressed. "How did Trevor get that?"

Tierno and Shauna looked just as surprised. Tierno, in fact, sounded a little angry when he spoke next. "How could he not tell me? We're best friends."

"I guess he wanted to surprise us," Shauna suggested, sounding excited rather than angry. "This is good, though. This means Trevor has a chance."

Trevor wasn't going to start off by using his mega stone, though. He instead ordered an attack, perhaps wanting to prove that Charizard could beat Alain's Pokemon without mega evolution. "Charizard, use fire fang!"

Alain wasn't going to let a super effective hit strike easily, though. "Metagross, counter it with zen headbutt."

"Careful, Trevor..." Ash whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

Serena could see why Ash was worried. It didn't really look like Metagross was doing anything, and Charizard was charging forward, eager to land his strike with his flaming fangs. However, it was obvious the steel Pokemon was preparing something. Just when Charizard was close, Metagross lunged forward with its head and smashed it into Charizard's chest, throwing the fire-lizard into the air, where it flapped its wings and hovered, wincing from the hit.

"Charizard, dragon claw!" Trevor shouted.

"Meteor mash!" Alain countered.

"Good move," Ash said, eyes narrowed as he focused. "Dragon claw let's him get in close, but it's not as risky as fire fang."

Serena just nodded, pretending she had already figured that out. It was kind of odd watching a battle with Ash. He was picking apart the details better than she or Clemont had ever done while watching his battles. She got the feeling he was actually quite enjoying being on the sidelines for once. She turned her attention back to the battle and watched as Charizard dove in.

Charizard slashed outwards with one of his glowing green claws, clearly trying to aim for the middle of Metagross' head. Metagross, however, was fairly quick and shot up one of its metallic front legs. It clashed into Charizard's claw and the attacks struggled against each other. At least this proved one thing; Trevor's Charizard was at least a match for Metagross in terms of raw power.

"Flamethrower! Full blast!" Trevor suddenly shouted. Perhaps it was an obvious play, but maybe that was why it had worked on Alain, who was used to facing more cunning trainers than Trevor. He'd allowed Metagross to get locked in close combat with Charizard and now it was fully vulnerable to the blast of flames that were shooting downwards. Or perhaps not.

"Psyschock!" Alain countered. Just as it looked like Charizard's flames would hit, a jet of pink energy shot out from Metagross and clashed with the flames. There was a huge cloud of smoke as the attacks collided and Charizard whipped into the air to get out of it.

"This is a pretty good battle," Ash said, looking quite excited. "Trevor's Charizard is really strong. It's a lot stronger than when Talonflame, or Fletchinder, beat it as a Charmeleon."

"Yeah, Trevor must have trained really hard," Serena agreed, also quite impressed with how Charizard was doing against a very strong trainer in Alain.

"I think he's the same as almost everyone here," Tierno said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Trevor, and almost everyone else competing, trained really hard, just to beat you Ash."

Ash sighed, and laughed lightheartedly. "When did I become everyone's target?"

Serena just took his hand and gave it a gentle, comforting squeeze and turned her attention back to the battle. Charizard was now using his aerial advantage to keep some distance from Metagross and wait for the smoke to clear. It was a brief break for both Pokemon, however, Serena noticed that Metagross looked to have a little less energy than Charizard. It had been able to take down five Pokemon, but there was no way that it hadn't been hit a few times. Charizard had to have the edge here, and not just due to the type advantage.

Trevor then took a deep breath and looked towards where they all were in the stands. His eyes widened, apparently due to seeing more than just Shauna and Tierno there. Then he looked towards Charizard, the field and back to the stands. He was planning something, but Serena had no idea why she and her friends were part of the inspiration for it.

"Charizard, use flamethrower on the field. Heat up the rocks!" Trevor shouted, looking pretty pleased about his strategy and looking towards the stands again. Serena noticed Ash give a nod next to her and then Trevor turned his attention back to the field. Charizard was really lighting things up. The rocks all over the field were just getting a barrage of flames and some of them even started to melt at the tips. The arena even started to heat up after a few moments, and a haze was coming over the field.

"Remind you of anything Ashy boy?" Gary suddenly asked Ash, laughing.

"Yeah, and it makes me know that Trevor's about to win this one," Ash said jokingly, although Serena noticed Gary narrow his eyes a little at that. Serena realized that they were probably talking about a battle that they'd had, and it had probably involved Ash's Charizard. She decided she would find out about some of Ash's old battles at some point.

After a few more jets of fire hit the ground, it looked like Trevor and Charizard were ready to move forward with their plan. Metagross, who had been on the ground a moment before, was now hovering in the air, obviously unable to deal with the heat of the ground. Maybe Metagross was good in the air, but Serena knew that this would likely be where Charizard could take the edge.

"Charizard, use flame charge!" Trevor shouted.

"Zen headbutt!" Alain countered.

Charizard engulfed himself in flames and then shot forward. He quickly closed the gap between him and Metagross, but then Trevor shouted, "Now fly under it!" The speed and flying abilities were impressive, as was the planning. First, getting Metagross into the air, by heating the field, and then getting underneath it where it wouldn't be able to use zen headbutt. Now it was a perfect chance for Charizard's next strike, and Trevor was going to use it. "Flamethrower!" Charizard looked up, opened his jaws and unleashed a massive jet of flames that engulfed Metagross completely. When the attack stopped, Charizard flew to the side, as Metagross dropped like a stone and landed on the ground with a thud.

The referee held up a flag towards Trevor. "Metagross is unable to battle. Charizard is the winner!" Tierno and Shauna high-fived while Mairin angrily folded her arms and lowered her head.

"This is where the real battle starts," Ash said quietly, his eyes looking towards Alain, who was recalling Metagross and pulling out another pokeball.

"Charizard, come on out!" Alain called, throwing out his pokeball. The light flashed and Alain's own fire-lizard emerged, immediately shooting into the air and staring down his double across from him. "Trevor," Alain said, "let's show each other our true power. I suspected you had a mega stone right from the beginning. I've been waiting for this."

Trevor nodded. "I kind of thought you'd figure it out," he said, holding up the camera around his neck and placing a finger around the capture trigger. That's when Serena noticed a glowing near it and realized he'd put his key stone there. He clicked it and called out to his Charizard. "Charizard, mega evolve!"

Alain pressed his finger to his own key stone at about the same time. "Charizard, respond to my heart! Mega evolve!"

It was usually too bright to see when one Pokemon was mega evolving, but when two Pokemon mega evolved it was actually quite painful for the eyes, even when covering them up. Serena and Ash just ducked their heads together and waited for the few moments it took and then looked upon the two mega evolved Charizards.

There was nothing new to report on Alain's Mega Charizard, which, as usual, was a bit larger and coloured black and blue. Trevor's on the other hand, was not what Serena expected. It was somewhat similar to its regular form, but like Alain's a bit larger, and definitely more intimidating. It had a large, orange spike coming out of the middle of its head, in between the regular horns that were usually there. It also seemed to have spikes on its tail, concentrated at the tip where the flame was much wilder than before. Its wings were quite different as well, seeming to be much more stretched out and jagged looking. It also kind of looked like he had two, leathery pieces of skin on his arms with were kind of like the leaves a Sceptile would have.

The announcer was definitely excited, as was the crowd, who were happy to see Trevor looking much more competitive now. "We're looking at what could very well be the best match up of the early part of this tournament folks. A battle of two mega evolved Charizards, and it looks like they mega evolved in different ways. This should be very interesting."

"I don't understand how they could mega evolve differently," Dawn said, the confusion apparent in her voice. "How does that work? If one is Mega Charizard, then what is the other?"

Clemont had apparently already thought of this. "I'm not sure why they would mega evolve differently, but perhaps it has something to do with Charizard having such a resemblance to dragons, that Alain's mega evolves into a dragon type. Maybe people aren't so wrong when they assume Charizard is a dragon type. And then with Trevor's it seems to have retained a lot of it's original appearance. It seems that rather than changing its type, it just has a power boost." He adjusted his glasses and thought another moment. "I think we should call Alain's Charizard, Mega Charizard X and Trevor's, Mega Charizard Y."

"Those are weird names," Bonnie muttered, not impressed apparently. "Why call them that?"

"Is there a scientific reason?" Ash asked. "Science is so amazing!"

"It doesn't matter!" Mairin suddenly shouted. "It's starting."

Alain made the first move, apparently quite eager to get things going. "Charizard, flamethrower!"

"You do the same, Charizard," Trevor ordered.

Serena decided to go with the names Clemont had given the two Charizards, as it was easier for her to mentally differentiate between the two. The two flamethrowers shot forward from each Charizard and crashed together in between them. Amazingly, Charizard X's blue flames looked just a tad smaller than Charizard Y's normal coloured flames, and they were slowly pushed back. Serena could see that Alain was actually not too surprised about this for some reason, as he just watched the flame struggle closely. It seemed that initial flamethrower was just a test.

"Fly low and then use dragon claw!" Alain shouted.

"Counter with your own dragon claw!" Trevor ordered.

Charizard X quickly stopped his flames and then shot down. He flew low to the ground a moment and then pulled back a claw and it instantly began to glow green. Then, he immediately shot into the air and charged towards Charizard Y, who was preparing his own dragon claw, as he turned towards the ground. Just as Charizard X reached back with his claw and struck forward, the gap now closed, Charizard X thrust down with his own claw. There was an explosion of green sparks, very similar to Noivern's and Mega Garchomp's clash, however Charizard X was able to power through and push his claw past and slash upwards into Charizard Y's jaw, causing him to spin away, roaring in anger and pain.

"Quick, use flamethrower!" Trevor ordered.

"Hold it off with your own and use thunder punch!" Alain shouted.

"Alain's already won this," Ash said quietly, so only Serena could hear. "He knows that fire attacks aren't going to do anything right now, so he's just using them as defence until he can use more effective attacks."

Serena could see what Ash meant when Charizard Y's flames shot down towards Charizad X, who quickly fired off his blue flames. The two flamethrowers collided, exploding with a huge cloud of smoke, which Charizard X swiftly flew into. A moment later, and he emerged, fist crackling with electricity. Charizard Y had no opportunity to counter, and the electric fist slammed into his chest and he was sent spiralling away once again.

"Charizard, you can do this," Trevor encouraged. "Use flame charge and pick up some speed." Charizard Y immediately responded, engulfing himself in flames and shooting through the sky. Bit by bit, Serena did notice his speed increasing, but she wondered why Alain was letting it happen. He's got something planned, she thought.

"Flamethrower!" Alain ordered. "Stay low to the ground." Charizard X quickly aimed down to the ground and whipped towards it, before spreading his wings and slowing his descent. Then, he aimed into the sky, where Charizard Y was still whipping through the air in his flame charge, and then he opened his jaws and fired off a massive jet of blue fire.

"Charge down and use your own flamethrower!" Trevor ordered. Charizard Y quickly stopped moving, although he was still engulfed in his flames, and then he shot down towards his opponent's flames. Just before he reached the flamethrower, the flames engulfing his body disappeared and he opened his jaws and fired out his own flamethrower. They shot down and struck the blue flames beneath with full force. "Now, to the side and use dragon claw!" Charizard Y quickly dipped a wing and slipped past the colliding and exploding flames and charged down towards his opponent. He was moving at an incredible speed, having increased it with his earlier flame charge.

"Dodge now and hit it with thunder punch!" Alan shouted quickly. It was a clever move, and Serena realized now why he'd allowed Trevor to build up the speed of his Charizard. He was moving too fast. When Charizard X moved aside, Charizard Y had no time to slow his charge. Just when he swung his claw forward, and then attempted to hit his enemy to his side, Charizard Y was struck once again by a powerful thunder punch that only sped his descent to the ground. The electric punch did a great deal of damage for sure, but the crash to the ground was likely the most painful. It wasn't even over. "Flamethrower!" Alain yelled.

"Charizard quick! You have to get up!" Trevor yelled, panic in his voice. Serena felt pretty bad for him. He'd done so well in winning against Metagross and the mega evolution was pretty impressive as well. However, he hadn't even been able to land proper hit in this match. Alain's experience was proving to be too much for Trevor to handle. Charizard Y didn't agree, though, as an orange shape shot out of the dust cloud that had come up when he'd landed. He was beaten up, but there was determination in his eyes and he wasn't giving in just yet. He just barely managed to avoid the blue flames that crashed to the ground where he'd just been. He hovered in the air, facing his opponent, ready to continue.

Alain looked pretty impressed by this, smiling a little at the sight of the determined enemy Charizard. He wasn't going to stop with his attacks, though. In fact, Serena got the feeling he'd only been warming up before, and he was really getting serious now. "Charizard, dragon claw!"

Trevor, surprisingly, didn't make a counter order. At least not yet. As Charizard X pulled back a claw and it glowed green, Charizard Y only watched and waited. Alain's powerful partner Pokemon then charged forward with a powerful flap of his wings. The gap was closing quickly and Serena was wondering if Trevor had somehow been spooked and was, indeed, giving up. Then he made his order. "Fire fang!" Just as Charizard X swung forward with his green claw, Charizard Y made a quick movement backwards, pulled back his head and then opened his jaws and bit down, his jaws flaming up. The flaming jaws closed around the glowing green claw of his enemy and the two mega evolved Charizard's were locked together. However, flames were beginning to shoot out from Charizard Y's hold, and were spreading out across Charizard X's body.

"Get back!" Alain yelled. It wasn't a super effective hit, but just as Ash's Gliscor had managed to burn Remo's Hydreigon in the earlier battle, Trevor's Charizard had managed to burn Alain's Charizard. The black and blue Charizard quickly obeyed his trainer's order and flew back, avoiding any possible further strike from his enemy. Serena saw Alain narrow his eyes. He was looked like he was focusing hard, but there was a light in his eyes that showed he was really enjoying this. She remembered Mairin saying something about how much he enjoyed battling other trainers with mega evolved Pokemon and facing another Mega Charizard had probably been a dream for him. And amazingly enough, Trevor wasn't disappointing him.

"Charizard let's keep it going," Trevor called out. "We can do this. Use flame charge!"

Ash made a noise like he wasn't impressed with the order. Serena looked at him for an explanation and he spoke. "He got overconfident with landing the fire fang. Alain's gonna counter this."

And sure enough, as Charizard Y closed the gap, engulfed in flames and moving with impressive speed due to his flame charge, Alain called his order. "Thunder punch followed by dragon claw!" Then, just when it looked like Charizard Y's speed was too much and he was about to crash into Charizard X with full force, the latter thrust forward with his electricity-charged fist. The flames around Charizard Y vanished in an instant and then there was a loud boom like thunder as Charizard X's fist exploded against his opponent's chest. It wasn't over there, though. As Charizard Y was sent rocketing away, Charizard X shot after him, his claw glowing green in preparation for his dragon claw. He reached his enemy in an instant and swung down, launching Charizard Y to the ground once again.

There was another sickening crunch as Charizard Y landed, crashing into a rock and exploding it on impact. Somehow, though, he was able to struggle to his feet. He was shaking and panting with the energy it took, but he wasn't giving in. Serena, due to her time with Ash, always cheered for someone who didn't give up. She silently willed on Trevor's determined partner.

"Charizard, we're not going down," Trevor encouraged. "Flame charge! Build up speed and use dragon claw!"

"Not quite," Alain said quickly. "Charizard, let's finish this. Blast burn!"

Serena noticed Ash tense up next to her. That was the move that Alain had used in the first battle between Charizard and Greninja. It was a deadly powerful move and it didn't look any weaker this time, that was for sure. As Charizard Y shot into the air, engulfed in his flames for flame charge, the ground beneath him started to break apart, flames emerging from the cracks. It was truly desperation time for Trevor's Charizard. As flames and molten rocks shot up from the ground, Charizard Y did his very best to evade, trying to use his speed from flame charge to shoot higher into the sky and out of reach of the attack. There was no longer any focus on striking Alain's Charizard. It was all about avoiding this dangerous attack.

A few flaming rocks reached the speedy Charizard Y and he flew in and around them, doing whatever he could to not make contact. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep it up. Finally, a flame shooting up from the ground struck Charizard Y in the leg. Whether effective or not, it was a powerful attack and he was already pretty wiped out. His flame charge was extinguished as he winced from the strike. His speed slowed and another rock struck his back. Then, another struck his wing. Eventually, he was overcome by the blast burn and there was an explosion in midair. When the attack ended, Charizard Y plummeted to the ground for the third time in the battle. However, this time he didn't get up.

"Trevor's Charizard is unable to battle. Alain's Charizard is the winner! This means the winner of the match is Alain and he moves on to the next round!" the referee shouted out, waving his flag towards Alain.

As the crowd cheered, Serena looked down to a very happy looking Mairin and a very sad looking Shauna and Trevor. Shauna spoke first. "Poor Trevor...he worked so hard to get the eight badges."

"Yeah..." Tierno agreed sadly. "I was hoping we'd all be able to at least win a round. It sucks that he had to go against Alain."

"Don't be sad, guys," Ash said, doing a fist pump. "This is just an opportunity for Trevor to get better. He'll have learned a lot from this battle. And he did a great job. Alain is really powerful. He's even beaten Greninja...twice."

That knowledge made Shauna and Tierno look much happier. They'd come to believe Ash was unbeatable, so hearing that he'd lost to the same trainer Trevor had lost to, obviously made them much more accepting of the result. And Ash was right, Trevor did a great job. His Charizard didn't give up and showed a lot of power. Alain was likely always going to win this match. Really, the only thing that this Mega Charizard battle had proved, was just how strong Alain was. Ash was right about that, too. Alain was really powerful.