At the station in Wedgehurst, John quickly located Sonia's laboratory, the tallest and most prominent building in the small town.
Before he could even enter, John encountered Sonia herself at the doorway.
She was a striking young woman with vibrant orange hair styled in a side ponytail. Her outfit was eclectic: a white lab coat thrown over a green camisole and light blue jeans. The overall impression was of someone who'd just left a nightclub and hastily donned a researcher's coat.
John approached her directly.
"Is there something you need from me?" Sonia asked, looking him over with curiosity.
When John mentioned his interest in obtaining a Dynamax Band, she continued, "Do you have the materials needed to make one? A Dynamax Band requires a Wishing Star, which is an extremely rare material, not easy to find at all."
The words had barely left her mouth when a beam of light suddenly streaked across the sky, crashing to the ground mere feet from where they stood.
BOOM!
The impact blasted a substantial crater in the earth. In the center of the depression lay a rock emitting an eerie purple glow.
If John wasn't mistaken, this was a Wishing Star, the exact item Sonia had just mentioned they needed.
Sonia's eyes widened. "Well... alright then. I see. I'll help you make a Dynamax Band."
She carefully retrieved the Wishing Star and retreated into her laboratory.
John watched her leave, thoughtful. "They say Wishing Stars fall to those who truly have a dream," he mused. "Does that mean I'm someone with a genuine dream?"
He pondered this. Before arriving in this world, he'd been just an ordinary Pokemon player. After his arrival, he'd developed a powerful desire to become a Trainer. Later, when he'd obtained his Gameboy, he'd set his sights on becoming a Pokemon Master.
Since then, he'd been working diligently toward this goal every day (mostly by playing his game, admittedly). It made sense that the world's mysterious forces might recognize his ambition as genuine.
John entered the laboratory to find Sonia already hard at work.
After more than half an hour of waiting, she presented him with his very own Dynamax Band, a simple but elegant wristband containing the Wishing Star.
This meant John could now Dynamax his Pokemon.
Naturally, he had to test it immediately.
John stepped away from his Gameboy and rushed to find an open area suitable for experimentation. In the games, Dynamaxing required specific power spots, but in reality, this constraint didn't apply. The Wishing Star in the Dynamax Band automatically absorbed free Dynamax particles from the air, enabling Pokemon to Dynamax anywhere.
Finding a suitably spacious field, John selected a Pokeball and tapped it lightly against his new Dynamax Band. The Wishing Star began to glow.
John watched in fascination as the Pokeball in his hand gradually enlarged, from the size of an apple to that of a soccer ball, and finally to something approaching a millstone. It grew so large he needed both hands to hold it, though curiously, its weight remained unchanged.
He threw it forward.
The massive Pokeball opened, and Tyranitar materialized.
The already imposing five-meter-tall Pokemon suddenly shot upward, reaching a height of fifty or sixty meters. Three crimson clouds spun rapidly above its head.
Tyranitar, intimidating even at normal size, had truly become Godzilla-like now.
"Ty?" Tyranitar tilted her head to look down at John, puzzled by how small her trainer had become.
Looking around, she realized it wasn't just her master who had shrunk, the entire landscape appeared miniature.
Tyranitar's eyes lit up with excitement. Perfect! It was time to play real-life Lego with these tiny buildings!
"Let's try Mega Evolution on top of this!" John called out, holding up his Mega Stone.
Multicolored light enveloped the gigantic Tyranitar.
When the radiance subsided, an even more massive Mega Tyranitar towered before John. Vicious spikes had erupted from its body, and its height had increased by another twenty meters. Mega Tyranitar looked increasingly terrifying.
So Dynamax and Mega Evolution could indeed coexist.
However, John noticed the physical strain wasn't simply additive, not just 1+1=2, but more like 1+1=3, or even 4. Maintaining a single Pokemon in both Mega Evolved and Dynamaxed states simultaneously required more energy than maintaining two separate Pokemon in altered states.
Still, the exertion remained within tolerable limits.
"Let's push it further with a Z-Move," John decided, pulling out his Darkinium Z.
"Tyranitar, Z-Move! Black Hole Eclipse!"
"TYYYY!" Tyranitar roared, tearing open a massive black hole in front of its chest with both claws.
Due to Tyranitar's enlarged size, the black hole was proportionally larger as well—now capable of swallowing an entire building.
The vortex immediately demonstrated its terrifying suction, pulling up chunks of turf from the field.
John could feel the powerful gravitational force himself. He signaled for Mega Tyranitar to direct the black hole toward the ground.
At once, nearly a kilometer of grassland collapsed into the singularity.
The tremendous noise alarmed Emerald, who came running to investigate.
After completing his power test, John could finally confirm that Dynamaxing didn't significantly impact the potency of Z-Moves. Dynamax primarily increased a Pokemon's physical strength (HP in game terms) and the range of its moves. While power improved somewhat, the boost wasn't dramatic.
Of course, this observation might be specific to Z-Moves, which already represented a Pokemon's maximum power output.
When using regular moves in Dynamax form, the attacks would take enhanced forms, G-Max moves, though these still couldn't match true Z-Moves in raw power.
The Z-Move had once again consumed a significant portion of John's stamina.
Moreover, combining Z-Moves, Mega Evolution, and Dynamaxing together created energy demands that weren't simply 1+1+1=3, it felt more like the equivalent of 9.
"I should avoid this combination in one-on-one battles," John noted mentally.
He proceeded to test Dynamax on his other Pokemon.
Everything worked as expected.
Only Venusaur could perform Gigantamax rather than merely Dynamaxing, but even it couldn't achieve Mega Gigantamax, the ultimate combination of Mega Evolution and Gigantamax.
"You'll need Max Soup for that," John muttered.
Max Soup was a special dish that could only be prepared on the Isle of Armor. But reaching the Isle of Armor required an Armor Pass.
In the games, this pass came with downloading the Isle of Armor expansion. In his current reality, John had no idea where to obtain such a pass.
"If I can't get it through the game, I'll need to find an alternative in the real world," John reasoned, remembering that in this reality, many powerful Pokemon could also perform special transformations not strictly bound by game mechanics.