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He felt his presence the moment he entered the forsaken mountain. It was everywhere – it hung heavy in the freezing air and was engrained into the cold, hard stone – and he could feel his mark over the pokemon here. They were stronger than Oak had said, and fought with a ferocity and protectiveness that he had never seen before.

Nevertheless, he triumphed over them. They fell before him just as quickly as the Elite Four did, despite their great power. Typhlosion roared whenever one of the weaker pokemon drew too near, sending the assorted golbat and teddiursa scurrying away. It didn't affect the powerful ones – it just attracted them to their location with renewed ferocity – but it didn't matter.

The fights continued to get harder and harder until Typhlosion had begun to tire, an event that hadn't happened since he fought Lance. His starter still fought hard and conquered anything the mountain could throw at him, and soon they had reached the summit.

His presence was nearly overpowering as he left the safe confines of the cave and emerged into the whipping wind and icy temperature. Ethan shivered as he felt something watching him, and Typhlosion growled nervously, his flames intensifying.

Ethan looked around the summit, trying to find him. Finally he began to follow a rugged path up the mountain, and at the peak he saw a pale teenager looking out at Johto. He walked up towards him, but before he could alert the teenager, the boy turned around.

It was at that moment that Ethan was sure of his identity. The presence that suffused this cruel mountain was all concentrated in this teenager, and everything Blue had said about him sprang to his mind. He remembered the tales of the legendary trainer from Pallet Town and how he beat the Elite Four without losing a single pokemon, how he had crushed Team Rocket at every turn.

Ethan grinned and motioned for Typhlosion to move forward. He couldn't wait to start this battle, to test his power against the legendary Red. This would be a battle of Champions.

Red looked blankly at him before tightly nodding. The teenager silently moved past him, motioning for Ethan to follow him back down the mountain. When they had gotten back to the summit, Red walked over to the far side of the area and pulled out a pokeball. Ethan understood and walked to the opposite side, and took a moment to use a hyper potion on Typhlosion before sending him out.

The other Champion examined Typhlosion for a moment before sending out a blastoise. Ethan looked in awe at the magnificent creature. It was a monster, dwarfing any of the others of its kind that Ethan had seen before. The blastoise's shell was scarred and dented in many areas, but it looked like it was harder than diamond.

When Ethan was done and had returned his attention to the battle, Red made his move. Without saying anything the gigantic turtle somehow knew to use hydro cannon. Ethan had his starter dodge and use a flamethrower at the blastoise.

His attack hit, but it hardly did anything to the monstrous blastoise. He doubted the turtle even noticed the flames. Blastoise used a blizzard attack, which impacted Typhlosion. Typhlosion was badly hurt from it, despite his type advantage.

Ethan was beginning to get worried, and had his Typhlosion use double edge. The lightning fast pokemon easily closed the ground between it and blastoise and landed the attack. Typhlosion was forced back by the impact and was clearly hurt from it. Blastoise was also knocked back, but recovered faster. It still didn't look badly injured.

Red made some sort of hand motion, and blastoise roared before using hydro cannon. Ethan yelled out a warning to his stunned Typhlosion, but it was useless. Blastoise was too close for the attack to miss, and the powerful attack sent Typhlosion flying back towards him.

He sighed and recalled his starter, praising it for its efforts while he did so. Ethan only had one pokemon that would have a good edge over the blastoise and sent it out. Perhaps Typhlosion would be useful later.

A large exeggutor emerged onto the battlefield. It looked around curiously before focusing on the blastoise. Red didn't show any reaction, but Ethan took full advantage of this moment before blastoise could use blizzard again.

He ordered Exeggutor to use leaf storm. Hundreds of razor sharp leaves emerged from the pokemon's head and slammed into blastoise. For a few seconds blastoise looked like he would survive the attack, but eventually the overwhelming power and type advantage forced the monster unconscious.

Ethan grinned and shouted out praises for his pokemon. Blastoise would have been too strong for many of his other pokemon to take out. His grin faded when Red withdrew the blastoise and sent out an equally massive charizard.

The dragon – like the blastoise – was heavily scarred, but its tail flame was nearly white and it was much larger than the ones Ethan had fought before. He withdrew Exeggutor and sent out Lapras.

Lapras called out a greeting as it appeared on the mountain, but began to shiver just a few seconds after being released. The pokemon wouldn't last long in this brutal cold, so he would have to finish off charizard quickly.

He ordered Lapras to use hydro pump, but the charizard moved with blinding speed to avoid it. The dragon launched itself up into the air and fired a dragon pulse at Lapras. Ethan shouted at Lapras to dodge, but Lapras wasn't fast enough to avoid it. His pokemon stood strong, but the attack had hurt it.

Charizard took advantage of Lapras' momentary weakness to fall into a dive. Lapras tried to use another hydro pump, but the charizard veered off to the side before impacting the water pokemon. Its sharp claws tore into Lapras' side, badly hurting the pokemon.

Lapras ignored the pain this time and fired another hydro pump. It hit charizard and forced it to the ground. The charizard was up in no time at all and used an attack that Ethan had hoped it wouldn't know. A blast burn cut through the air and hit Lapras, engulfing it in the inferno.

Ethan held his breath, hoping against all odds his hurt Lapras had held strong against the attack. When the flames cleared he saw that it was still conscious, but another good blow would take it out. Charizard had reacted to some unspoken signal and barreled towards Lapras, its orange body engulfed in fire.

Lapras acted instinctually and fired another hydro pump into the large dragon. It weakened the flare blitz dramatically and obviously hurt charizard, but the pokemon finished its attack. Lapras fell unconscious, but the recoil had finished off charizard as well.

He sighed in relief, withdrawing Lapras and waiting to see what Red sent out. Ethan smiled when he saw it was a snorlax that was just as large as the other pokemon Red had used. It yawned, but stood up to its full height.

Ethan narrowed his eyes and sent out his own snorlax. Nothing else except his trump card would do very well against the gigantic creature, and Snorlax stood up as well.

He shouted out at Snorlax to use giga impact, hoping to weaken Red's snorlax – it was larger than his own and obviously had more power behind it – but the other snorlax used the same move. Their attacks met and the titans were knocked away from each other. Red's snorlax recovered several seconds before his own and charged toward his Snorlax.

They met again, but this time Snorlax's giga impact was somehow dodged by the massive creature. Red's snorlax used crunch and its massive jaws bit down powerfully on Snorlax's neck. His snorlax roared in pain and Ethan had it use body slam.

Although it was weakened by not having much distance between them, the body slam did its job. Red's snorlax was forced away, and Ethan ordered his Snorlax to use rollout. It slammed into Red's snorlax again, forcing it a few more steps backwards. Snorlax continued to use rollout until Red's snorlax was beginning to show signs of tiredness and pain.

Ethan had Snorlax use its last rollout for this set, and expected to see Red's snorlax finally fall. Red had another plan, however. As Snorlax barreled towards it, Red's massive creature used giga impact just as Snorlax was about to hit it. A massive explosion of dust and snow erupted as the two attacks met, and as it cleared Ethan saw that his snorlax had fainted. Red's snorlax stood strong, although it looked as though it were about to keel over from exhaustion.

He swallowed nervously and recalled snorlax. Red had an advantage right now, although the snorlax would be beaten soon enough. Ethan sent out his first trump card. His opponent had to lose as many pokemon as he could before Ethan sent out his weaker pokemon.

A massive dragonite emerged from the pokeball, roaring its fury as it looked around the battlefield. It was rather aggressive for a member of its species, and even Ethan could barely control it.

Dragonite flew towards the snorlax the moment he saw it, not bothering with an attack. The sheer speed of the charge was enough to knock out the snorlax, although it used blizzard at the last possible second. His Dragonite was hurt by it, but didn't let it affect him.

Red examined the Dragonite that was glaring at him for a moment before sending out a lapras. Ethan didn't know where he'd gotten these monstrous pokemon, but this lapras was nearly twice as large as his own and was just as battle scarred as Red's other pokemon. The cold barely seemed to affect it, and the lapras just snorted at Dragonite disdainfully.

His Dragonite glared hatefully at the lapras before using dragon breath on it. Lapras shook off the attack and used blizzard. The ice attack hurt Dragonite, but the dragon was too enraged to let it affect him. With a cry of hatred it launched towards lapras before using thunder punch. The speed gave the attack incredible power, and with the added type advantage lapras was knocked out.

Like snorlax, however, it launched one last blizzard at Dragonite. The dragon roared its victory and didn't heed the ice attack. Red blinked in confusion before sending out another pokemon.

Ethan stared at the tiny Pikachu that had emerged. It had some strange ball around its neck, and it looked at the Dragonite in amusement. His Dragonite couldn't take the little creature's insolence and roared before launching at the mouse with incredible speed. Its dragon tail would easily take the fragile Pikachu out and put Ethan one step closer to victory.

Pikachu surprised him, however. It vanished for a moment and reappeared several dozen feet behind Dragonite. The dragon slammed its tail into the ground, cracking the cold stone. It roared in victory before realizing that Pikachu wasn't there. It looked around in confusion for a moment before the small mouse launched the most powerful thunder Ethan had ever seen.

His Dragonite didn't even have a chance against it. The proud dragon fell unconscious the second the lightning touched it. Ethan stared at the Pikachu in awe before recalling his Dragonite. That was his trump card, the thing that he was sure would win him this battle, and it was defeated by a Pikachu?

Ethan sent out his rhydon. It could beat Pikachu easily, no matter how strong the mouse's electric attacks were. Rhydon didn't roar but merely locked eyes with the Pikachu. It was gearing up for an earthquake when the Pikachu sudden appeared behind it and slammed an iron tail into its neck.

He gaped as Rhydon went down in one blow. He silently recalled Rhydon, stunned at how easy it had been defeated. Ethan gripped one of his last two useable pokeballs and sent it out.

Exeggutor emerged. The Pikachu went into action the moment the grass type had become aware of its surroundings. As the yellow mouse appeared behind Exeggutor, preparing another iron tail, Ethan pulled out the only attack that could beat the mouse.

His Exeggutor used explosion. The powerful energy knocked out the fragile Pikachu as well as Exeggutor.

Ethan returned the grass type and looked up at Red. The quiet boy was glaring at him, the most emotion he'd seen from him all day. He just waved cheerfully back, although he was secretly nervous. This was his last chance for victory. Both he and Red were so close to victory, but only one Champion could achieve it.

He threw out Typhlosion. The larger pokemon came out quietly, too tired to roar. Red sent out his last pokemon, a gigantic venusaur that dwarfed Typhlosion. Ethan gritted his teeth, knowing that he only had one shot at beating Red. Typhlosion was about to drop from the strain and damage he'd been dealt, and was quivering from exhaustion.

Venusaur was preparing some sort of poison attack. Vile purple liquid was beginning to bubble up from its tree, and it was beginning to bubble and boil. A tackle would take out Typhlosion right now, so Ethan did the only thing he could do.

He ordered Typhlosion to use overheat. His starter poured the last of its strength into the attack, knowing just as well as Ethan that this was their last shot. Typhlosion's flames burst into their full intensity and a ball of flame erupted from his mouth.

Red's venusaur had launched the sludge bomb. The overheat vaporized it and impacted the venusaur, the sheer power of the attack managing to knock it out.

Ethan ran towards his Typhlosion, hugging it and praising his starter. He couldn't believe he'd done it. He'd beaten Red, the most powerful trainer alive! The Champion finally let his Typhlosion go and went to find Red in order to congratulate him for the best battle he'd ever had. Red should have won – would have, if he hadn't used explosion.

When he looked up, however, the Master was nowhere to be seen. His pack was on the ground, as were his pokeballs, but the teenager had vanished. Ethan suddenly realized that the odd presence he'd felt since entering the mountain had left, and the mountain no longer felt quite as protected or mysterious as it had before.

He quietly walked over, looking to see if Red had just gone off to be by himself – that's what he had done after his first loss. Red was gone, not even the area he'd been standing in had footprints anymore.

Ethan felt a sense of unease wash over him, and he reverently picked up the pokeballs that held some of the most powerful creatures in the world. They went into his bag, and he carefully picked up the vanished trainer's backpack. His mom would probably want it back.

He released Dragonite and revived him, telling the powerful dragon where he wanted to go. This mountain wasn't friendly anymore, and he just wanted to be off of it.

Blue should know about all of this. He was the one that had inspired him to find Red, after all.