After its humiliating defeat, the Snorlax had trained very, very hard. That much was obvious thanks to the growl coming from its belly. It knew better than to fight with a full stomach and leave with Snorlax's Fireworks. The reprisal wasn't going to happen. This time round, it would be Magi's Fireworks, vermilion scales dusting the sky like the cute little pom-poms the humans wielded, the strands falling at its seams, the ignorance lurking in their smiles and cheers.

Even though this was a rematch, the Snorlax thought the situation was unfair. Its rival still looked so frail. It dropped him midair and he simply flopped on the barren earth. You'd expect, after going on a journey, to be stronger and wiser, but that's the issue with expectations. They set you up for either impatience and disappointment or impatience and a brief sense of achievement which soon grew into disappointment.

The Snorlax thought the Magikarp would at least feign some resistance, like wrapping his barbels around its claws and snapping them into pieces. It imagined fighting a Gyarados by now, not the same old slimy fish whose attempt at intimidation conveyed flimsy infatuation. Its victory would have to be unsatisfactory, albeit humorous.

"Magi! Crush! That! Snorlax!" The Magikarp's trainer, who didn't seem to be qualified at all, appeared confident that the fish would win. Well, the Snorlax would show them how much of a fluke their initial victory was. It lost the battle, but it would win the war. And this, the Sleeping Pokémon thought, was war.

As with every war, shots must be fired on both sides, the first ones coming in the form of precise taunts. Taunts were a necessity. No, they weren't battle cries made up by randomly arranging the letters of a Pokémon's species name, as the average human would tell you, which meant to say, every human was indeed average. The only ones out of this world were those of the likes of Natural Harmonia Gropius and Amarillo del Bosque Verde.

Snorlax started first with a "Your life is a disappointment!", causing Magi to flinch for a second. But Magi's rebuttal was more effective, forcing the giant to bite its nails and swallow them.

Magi slammed his barbels against the earth, tossing nearby soil and dust particles into Snorlax's eyes and mouth. His belly bloated with pride, he sneered, "Defeat me to know what disappointment really is!"

He cast a glance at Constance, conveying that he wanted to hear no orders from her, that he would win using his own merits. When she nodded, he flipped his head back to focus on his foe.

Dusk fell at this juncture, but the curtains did not. The moment the shadow of a tree drew the line between Snorlax and Magi, they moved.

Tailfin slapped cheek as Snorlax's fist missed the mark. With a grim nod, it swung its first upwards and smiled. In the corner of its eye, Magi, with his slower reflexes, whizzed into the clouds. His scales scintillated in the dimming light. He should've known better than to Tackle a Mega Punch. While both were Normal-type moves, the gap in power made the loser apparent.

But Magi hadn't lost.

Bending his barbels, Magi grew legs and dashed forwards to give Snorlax a Low Sweep. His opponent, rejoicing in the strength of its previous move, realised too late and crashed on its side. It shuts its eyes with a grimace.

"Magi!" Constance called out to him. "You won!"

Magi scurried over to her side for a hug and rubbed his crown against her cheek. Addy and Icarus joined in, not without squeals. Gary tapped his foot and watched them with a frown.

"Group hug!" Constance beckoned him to come over, but he shook his head.

Instead, he pinched the bridge of his nose and coughed. "Do you smell that?"

"What?" Addy whipped her head at him. "Don't ya be a spoilsport!"

Gary winced. Just as he was about to reply, snores cut the air. The group spun around to see the Snorlax's mouth, half-ajar and dripping with thick saliva, its hand bent to support the weight of its head, poorly mimicking an exhausted succubus. Poor succubus, actually! Salazzle would like to abandon you.

Anyways, for the first time in this story, the Snorlax lived up to its name. Now, let's present the Sleeping Pokémon award to Snorlax! Fun fact: Snorlax needed seventeen years to get up from its slumber and exercise! Too bad when Dynamax came, it got crushed back to sleep again. Maybe the award will have to wait another seventeen years or so.

Gary blinked. "Rest."

Addy's eyes widened. The battle had yet to end. Now, Magi needed support from a pro just in case. Despite Constance and Magi's protest, she summoned the trusty Icarus to perform an inspection on the Snorlax by sniffing out any Chesto Berries hidden in its fur.

Gary flitted his gaze aside, biting his lips and beating his heart. He'd so love to be of service. Heck, he was more qualified than Icarus!

Of course Addy knew. What better way than to humiliate a former champion by tackling his weakness? But Addy failed to anticipate the lack of Chesto Berries, as reported by Icarus with a salute.

Meanwhile, Magi wriggled out of Constance's grasp to prepare for the second bout. Snorlax's snores grew louder, making the noises you'd hear in a slasher flick. Think a remix of "shing! sha! swoop! argh!" and you're all good to go.

I meant it when I said to scram, people! Read the damn text! The wild Snorlax used Snore! Press 'A', select your attack! Right, you people can't see any of that. Well, I'll take the reins. Humans, use Run! Icarus, use Run! Magi, use Run!

Uh, Magi... Scratch that, just do yer thang.

Magi listened to himself and used Bounce! He went against the snore current and hit Snorlax's belly with his crown, making a zigzag mark like the one displayed on the screen when you went mining in the Sinnoh Underground. The yellow bits caught hints of red. The fur, too, gushed at Magi's attack, so smitten that blood trickled from the opening.

The Humans were loafing around.

They chatted with fervour about the situation. Pokémon battles had never been this graphic! Even our Viridian Gym Leader was shell-shocked, raising his voice to a thousand decibels as he spoke, each word coming off faster than the rattling of a machine gun.

Out of the blue, a resonant crunch froze time.

"Sssnnnnooorrrr..." The Snorlax was stirring, much to Magi's dismay. Snorlax's eyes snapped open and it yawned, delivering a nutty scent to its audience.

"The Chesto Berry was in its mouth all along!" Constance gasped. "Could it be delayed reaction?"

"Impossible!" Gary scratched his head. "This never happened before."

"I got it," Addy said. "Snorlax must be fasting."

"If it ate something now..." Constance's eyes sparkled.

Magi didn't need her to carry on to know what to do. It was time for a full frontier assault. He first used Splash in quick succession in the puddle the Snorlax's saliva created while it adjusted to the streetlights. The foul droplets went up and down, coating his scales, providing a lubricant as rain would, activating his Swift Swim ability.

After a few more seconds, Magi's speed could not be increased any further. Capitalising on his rival's slow grasp of the new situation, he flipped it till the Snorlax rolled over to face the sky, not without the persistence of water smoothening rocks.

His actions inspired the cheerleaders to pick up their slack and Constance to join them, becoming the liveliest of the pack. Focusing too much on his peripheries, however, deemed costly as he slowed down just enough for Snorlax to direct its head at him and release a quick jet of vomit.

"Magi! No!" Constance took off her shoes and tossed them at the Snorlax. "Take that! And that!"

Magi paid no heed to everything and continued to Tackle the giant. Snorlax didn't back down either, wincing and swiping at the air.

"Tauros shit!" Gary slammed his first onto his palm and stared intensely. The scent he was picking up conveyed a highly dangerous aura, a mix of spicy boldness and bitter revenge. "Get away, Magi!"

Magi paid no heed to him. Why should he bother with someone who wasn't his trainer, even if he had more experience than Constance?

Swipe!

Magi vanished from sight.

"Magi!" Constance reached her hand out, but Addy and Gary held her back with furrowed brows and clenched teeth. "Don't stop me! I don't care if Pokémon faint! I will make it pay! You hear that, you big chunk of snores? You will pay!"

Gary flinched for a while at her similarity to Agatha, and that split second sufficed for Constance to break away from their stronghold and charge towards the enemy base. How dare that Snorlax hold Magi hostage? No, was Magi still alive?

Constance shook her head and bawled. She was the one who rescued Magi from his fate of being dinner, but today, he was Snorlax's dinner.

She slammed her fist against the Snorlax's jaw and pried its mouth open. No Magi. Just bits of a Chesto Berry, crooked teeth, and a rolled-up tongue. "This Snorlax must be that ingrate's!"

Addy hushed her while patting her back, but to no avail. Gary received her nod and rushed over to pull Constance back.

"Just when we're about to reach the Dragon's Gate!" Constance smacked her chest again and again.

"Magi is strong, remember? He'll be fine. He'll be fine." Gary's consolations fell upon deaf ears. Even he himself wasn't convinced.

"Magi did all that just to Walrein our Safety! I let him down! Let him down! I—"

"That's enough," Addy tried. "We need to believe in Magi. That's what we've been doing all along, isn't it? He's never lost a single battle. He'll win this one."

The earth quaked. They glanced up. The wild Snorlax got up and was ready to take its leave. With a yawn and a nonchalant wave of a paw, it lumbered towards the cave.

"The cave!" Constance tapped her companion's arms and looked between them, left and right and left again. "We need to go there! The Dragon's Gate is the only way Magi can live!"

But how? I'm sorry for your loss, Constance, but this isn't Weathering with You or any other Makoto Shinkai film. Don't expect miracles to happen after walking under a torii gate, or the Dragon's Gate, in this case. Besides, you can't expect the Snorlax to open its mouth and vomit Magi out so he could leap over the gate. That's too unrealistic. It only happens in fiction.

Hold that thought. That won't occur in this story.

Doesn't matter, our protagonists still enter the cave, in pursuit of a particular supervillain.

"How are you so sure it's here?" Gary glanced at the rocks and cracks in the walls.

"It's called Victory Road," Constance said. "So it will only lead us to our victory, the Dragon's Gate."

Addy detected in her tone a firmness similar to that a soil before a storm, but kept mum about it. Anything she could supply would only worsen things. Constance always knew how to argue her way out of everything. It's just a matter of fallacies.

"Fine," Gary said, still oblivious to Addy's silence. "How sure are you the Snorlax will go there?"

"Aren't you the smart one?" Constance gave him a glance and leapt over a hole. "What's with these holes?"

"You need Strength." Gary frowned. That statement seemed to connote something else entirely and he didn't want to be misconstrued. He tried again. "You need a Pokémon who knows Strength."

Addy gave him a death glare. He gulped.

Constance let go of their hands. "I can walk by myself. I have some fight within me."

The cave was likely at least thrice the size of Mt. Moon's cave, but there weren't many differences besides the variety in Pokémon and the interior design of random boulders, random puddles and random holes. As such, following the Snorlax wasn't quite the feat.

It stopped. They stopped. It moved. They moved. Simple.

But there were no signs of it heading anywhere near a water body, no signs of Magi breaking out. And the wounds seemed not to affect it at all. How sturdy was the Snorlax?

It finally ground to a halt, though in the middle of nowhere. Just then, a tiny metallic sign protruded from the loamy earth like a Diglett, screaming "Dragon Gate". Yes, there's no 'apostrophe s'. The Snorlax looked up with a slight tilt of its head and breathed blue fire before falling onto the ground, kicking up dust and dirt.

No, it wasn't blue fire.

Snorlax spat out a Gyarados.