Chapter 59 (Patreon)

I rushed out of my room in the Pokémon Center, and saw several other trainers do the same. They hurriedly approached each other to issue challenges, and pairs of trainers ran towards the stairs to leave the building. I looked around to see if there was another free trainer around, and one approached me before I could approach him.

“I challenge you to a preliminary battle!” he said as fast as possible.

I would have said yes, but there was something about the desperation in his eyes and this whole situation that felt wrong.

Shouts echoed throughout the hallway, and trainers desperately tried to find someone who hadn’t yet agreed to a fight to be their partner for a battle. Footsteps slammed into the ground as people ran back and forth, and the utter chaos of what was going on did not match the image of what I usually pictured when the Ever Grande Conference was brought up.

Is this mad rush really what the Pokémon League had planned for the preliminaries?

“...Not right now,” I said, both to the surprise of myself and the other trainer. “Maybe if you still need one later.”

The trainer just cocked his head and looked at me funny.

“Uh, alright? You’re the one missing out.”

He was caught off guard by my denial and slowed down a bit as a result, but still searched around to find someone else to challenge. Meanwhile, I slowly started to make my way to the staircase down while trying to process my thoughts and sudden gut feeling.

Nurse Joy said it was a race to a finish, but also said there wasn’t a need to rush into it. Then again, she also said that there wasn’t a need to wait for tomorrow. What am I missing?

As I walked down the staircase, the last few trainers hurriedly leaving the top floor passed me, making me one of the last people to leave. I peeked my head into a few floors I passed, and while most trainers had already left, I did notice not every trainer had left their rooms.

Only about half of the trainers here rushed out. I know it was possible to watch the preliminary announcement in the Pokémon Center, but not enough people would have done that to warrant half of the rooms not opening up. They must have realized something was up, too. What am I missing?

I exited through one of the doors on the ground floor that led to the outside, rather than the Pokémon Center interior, and emerged onto a small path that led to the main road. Right now, the street lights were just turning on as the day shifted into dusk and already, several pairs of trainers were far ahead of me and just reaching the road, rushing ahead intent on finding an official to witness their match.

Curiously, no one was stopping. There weren’t any officials in sight.

Is this part of the challenge? Finding an actual official?

I released Altaria from his Love Ball, and he sat at the ready, staring me in the eyes.

“I need you to fly up high and find a Pokémon League official for me. If you can’t find any, follow some of the trainer pairs around to see if they find someone instead.”

Altaria lifted up off the ground without responding, and flew into the air. While he provided no signs of acknowledgement, I trusted him to follow my orders.

As for me, I followed the cobbled path that led from the wing of the Pokémon Center to the main road. I was one of the few trainers out alone, and as far as I could tell, there really were no officials in sight.

Then again, what does an official look like? Nurse Joy used that term, but I’m unsure how I would identify them.

Considering I had no clue who to find, and no partner to battle with, I sat down on an empty bench to watch the trainers run around panicking.

As calm as I’m trying to force myself to be, I’m still panicking on the inside. I shouldn’t have rushed Altaria’s orders. He doesn’t know what an official looks like either. At least he should be able to tell when another team finds one.

I passively observed the chaos as the trainers ran around, becoming more and more stressed in the process, until I finally remembered I had a friend whose job might provide insight into what’s happening.

Taking out my Pokégear, I dialed the number and called Thomas, who picked up near instantly.

“Hey Alex. Figure out the trick yet?”

I paused for a moment to think.

“I think so. There aren’t any Pokémon League officials around.”

He chuckled on the other side.

“There are. You just have to find them. I would give you more tips to help, but I’m actually sitting out of the preliminaries. I’m one of the 44 who was able to skip them, as my job provides more information about what’s happening than the others.” Thomas paused. “Hm. Actually, I think I can give you one hint. You already have the tools to find League officials at your disposal, but you won’t be able to detect them with Ponyta. Good luck!”

Thomas hung up the phone without waiting for me to reply, which I was fine with as I was currently lost in thought.

When Thomas said I had all of the tools, my first thought was Ponyta’s mental detection, but considering he immediately went on to say that Ponyta wasn’t the solution, I couldn’t think of anything else.

I considered a few more options I had, but none of them were reasonable.

I could call Steven, but I doubt asking the freakin’ Champion himself is what they’re going for as a solution. There has to be a way provided that a normal trainer can find a League official without any special items or connections.

Altaria landed next to me, interrupting my thoughts, and shook his head. He hadn’t seen any League officials. I pet his feathers as he snuggled up next to me, and I continued to sit on the bench, half observing, half thinking.

However, I didn’t need to spend much more time doing that when a yell broke out from the crowd around the vendors.

“I found one! I found one!”

Almost immediately, all of the present trainers ran towards that position, and I stood up to head over as well. I was forced to return Altaria, since the crowd of trainers heading towards the supposed official was making movement a tight squeeze.

“Alright, alright. That’s enough,” a deep voice boomed out from the center of the crowd. The number of shouts of trainers requesting a challenge died down, and the man who I presumed was the League official proceeded to explain.

“Because I was found, I can only agree to witness a single battle right now. In fact, over the next three days, that will be how every official will work. If you find them, you can request them to witness a battle. Otherwise, they won’t accept your request. As I have already agreed to witness a battle, I won't accept any other requests until I’m found again. If you aren’t confident in your abilities to find officials, we will be wearing a more distinctive uniform after the third day. Until then, you’ll need to find someone else.”

The crowd of trainers made a bunch of disappointed noises, with a few of them complaining, and the official and the two trainers started to head to the battlefields to have their first preliminary match. As they headed over, I noticed everyone else split off, panicked, attempting to find a different official. Surprisingly, no one was following.

So of course, I decided to follow.

The trainers and official did notice that I was walking behind them, but none of them made any comments. I looked over the official to find any distinctive features, and suddenly had an idea.

I grabbed the Dream Ball at my waist to send out Ponyta, and let them get some distance so they wouldn't hear what I said.

I kneeled down next to him to speak quietly.

“Ponyta, do you see that tall man in the button down shirt over there? I need you to try to memorize him so you can detect him in the middle of a crowd. Do you think you can do that?”

Ponyta nodded, and I stood up for the pair of us to follow, but we only took a few steps before Ponyta froze.

He whinnied worriedly, then looked back to me.

“What’s wrong, Ponyta? Can’t you detect him?”

His eyes flicked between me and the man in the distance, then gestured to my shadow.

My shadow... Banette? Wait, I think I get it. Thomas said Ponyta wouldn’t be able to detect them, but that wasn’t necessarily because he’s too weak. The officials must be protected by Pokémon to protect their minds!

Ponyta’s eyes glimmered in happiness as he saw my recognition, and I pet his head to thank him. We returned to following, having to speed up a bit to close the distance, and the pair of trainers and official found a field to battle in. Once they were settled, a few trainers that didn’t hear his speech earlier approached to ask him to referee theirs next, and he gave a barebones explanation before being forced to send them off so he could continue his job.

“As the witness for this preliminary battle, I will be calling down an assistant to record the battle while I serve as the referee,” he said. “The recording will be posted to the League’s online archives, and can be found by searching either of your names.”

The official pulled out a radio and spoke into it, and an Ace Trainer on a Braviary came down from the sky to set up a recording device next to the official. The Ace Trainer finished in moments, and after a quick nod of acknowledgement, the official raised his voice to start the battle as both trainers sent out their Pokémon.

One trainer sent out a Kadabra, and the other trainer sent out a Muk. The Kadabra trainer looked overjoyed, but the Muk trainer didn’t seem to be worried about his Type disadvantage.

The battle began and I focused on the official instead. Ponyta was still out, and his Psychic Type mind was great at pattern recognition to help me in my search for clues. As Poison and Psychic Type attacks were flung back and forth on the field, I went over what I remembered from the several speeches the official had given to asking trainers.

In three days, the officials will become more obvious, so that puts a three day time limit on getting into the Conference. Otherwise, the slots will all be filled up with the sheer number of challenges witnessed. He mentioned not taking any requests, but then again, he only declined witnessing any other matches and not anything else. I don’t suppose I could...

As the official was carefully watching the field, I purposely positioned myself next to him, and waited for the battle to end. I made eye contact with him to imply I wanted to talk with him afterwards, and even though he had brushed off all requests, he didn’t immediately tell me to leave.

The battle proceeded, and in the end, the Muk trainer won. The Kadabra was a strong Psychic Type that could avoid most attacks with Teleport and even use Recover, but Muk managed to use Disable to prevent it from using Teleport, and ended up engulfing it and overwhelming the Psychic Type’s low defenses.

The official called the battle in favor of the trainer with the Muk, and called the winner over to write down their trainer ID number. Once that was done, he congratulated their victory and wished the losing trainer luck in their future battles, then turned to me to give me a chance to talk.

“If this is a request for me to witness a battle, I have to decline,” the official said. “I will not be able to witness any more battles until I report this outcome in person.”

I shook my head.

“No, I have a different question instead.”

He raised an eyebrow and motioned for me to continue.

“How can I identify officials to request them for challenges?” I asked.

The man froze at my question, then chuckled to himself after a few moments. He shook his head a bit exasperatedly, then finally responded.

“Are you really asking the solution for the preliminaries?” he asked.

“Yes. No one ever said I couldn’t,” I replied.

His chuckles turned into laughter, and once he calmed down, he shook his head again while smiling.

“You just lost me a bet, but yes, I can answer your question. However, I can’t tell you outright. If you’ve been paying attention, every time I’ve told people I cannot receive more than one request at once, I’ve made sure to include the phrase. ‘We will be wearing a more distinctive uniform after the third day.’ Every official is wearing something shared between them, but it’s up to you to identify what. Do you have any other questions?”

“Yes, where do you plan on being after you report this outcome?”

The official let out a boisterous laugh again.

“I admire your audacity, but I can’t answer that question, unfortunately. I believe that I’ve given you enough help as it is. In the meantime, I do have to go report this battle. Good luck on your challenges.”

He nodded respectfully at me, and then suddenly disappeared. I blinked a few times to process what just happened, and realized what he did.

A Psychic Type must have snuck close to teleport him away so no one can follow him. That’s interesting. I need to be on the lookout for uniforms in the future.

I looked down at Ponyta, who had spent that entire conversation memorizing what the official was wearing down to the smallest detail, and patted him on the head again. We then returned to the main road to collect more information and to figure out what exactly we were missing.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

That night, I managed to catch the moment where two more League officials were found, and saw that none of their clothes were the same. The one I had talked to had been wearing a button-up shirt and khakis, the second found one was disguised as a gardener, and the third one was wearing a loose T-shirt and cargo shorts. I had trouble figuring out what exactly was shared between them, but when I had a discussion with Ponyta that night that mostly consisted of charades and the occasional pressure on my mind, I figured out what their “hidden uniform” really was.

Their accessories.

Each one of them was wearing something that proudly displayed the League’s logo. The initial official had a pen in his front pocket with the logo on it, the gardener was wearing a watch with the logo on it, and the final man had the logo imprinted on the back of his shoes.

Most people were discovering League officials by simply asking random people if they were officials, and while some of them were being caught, the vast majority were just tourists. The League was forced to implement a rule for trainers to only ask for someone’s identity if they had a strong reason to believe they had found a League official.

I woke up the next morning and went to the Pokémon Center to find someone to challenge.

It seemed a lot of people had that same idea, and within minutes, I easily found someone who accepted my challenge.

Ponyta stayed out with us, and I used him to help identify who the League officials were. While finding the hidden logos required us to look around rather than use Ponyta’s Psychic powers, he was still able to narrow down our options to people who had their minds protected. Essentially, we found them by finding people we couldn’t find. Hence, Thomas’s clue of “not being able to detect them with Ponyta.”

This League official I approached was disguised as a vendor selling berries, and I identified him via a small pin attached to his wide-brimmed hat. I asked him if he was an official, he nodded and was soon replaced by the actual vendor. The trainer I planned to challenge for the preliminary was intrigued how I could tell, but he understood that trainers preferred to keep their strategies a secret.

We approached the battleground and the official took the place on the side to ref. He called out the same basic instructions as yesterday, and once more an Ace Trainer flew down to set up recording equipment. As soon as he was done, each of us sent out our Pokémon, and my opponent groaned.

I had sent out Mawile, while he had sent out Sableye. The Dark Type was at a disadvantage against Mawile’s Fairy Type.

The battle started with each of us commanding our Pokémon to set up.

“Taunt!” we shouted in unison.

I found it mildly humorous that we each used the same move, and I expected both Taunts to go off, but this trainer had actually trained Sableye’s hidden ability, Prankster. Before Mawile could properly send a few choice words Sableye’s way, the Ghost Type stuck its tongue out through its sharp teeth, infuriating Mawile and causing her to run in close. Her jaws opened up to use Crunch without me telling her, but Sableye sank into its shadow and dashed underneath her, avoiding her jaws with Shadow Sneak.

“Play Rough!” I yelled.

Sabeleye appeared from its shadow to tear into Mawile with its claws, but Mawile jumped back to slam into Sableye behind her. Seeing her attempt this, Sableye’s gemstone eyes gleamed and it easily moved out of the way. Mawile followed up her attempted Play Rough by trying to use the move again, swinging her jaws, arms, and body at it with a cruel smile on her face. However, despite her efforts, her opponent’s eyes continued to shine in a strange light and it avoided all of her attacks.

It must be using Detect to dodge. Since Mawile is enraged from Taunt, I can’t have her use Fake Tears to throw it off guard, either.

As I was considering what options Mawile could go through with, in her fury from Taunt she swung her jaws down with an Iron Head attack. Sableye just barely managed to duck under it, and stuck its leg out, using Mawile’s own momentum against her to cause her to trip and hit the ground hard. That was Sableye’s Foul Play attack, which hurt Mawile using her own strength.

Sableye moved in to continue its assault now that Mawile was prone, but I realized that this was the perfect opportunity.

“Crunch, right now!” I shouted.

Mawile’s jaws snapped forward towards Sableye from where she was on the ground, able to attack as she didn’t need to stand to bite. Sableye was grabbed and squeezed with Crunch, the Dark Type energy of the move preventing it from escaping with Shadow Sneak.

“Follow it up with Play Rough, full power!”

Happy to finally land an attack, Mawile pushed herself up and giggled, then spun around and slammed Sableye into the ground much harder than I was expecting. She lifted it up and began to charge her teeth with Electric Type energy for a follow up Thunder Fang, but the referee suddenly called the match.

“Sableye has fainted. The victory goes to Mawile.”

Both Mawile and I looked confused, and she gently placed the unconscious gremlin Pokémon on the ground. The trainer I had challenged was more than a little upset, and returned Sableye to stomp off and find a different opponent.

At least they weren’t eliminated after this battle, like how it usually is.

I returned Mawile and gave her a few words of praise from within her Heavy Ball, then headed over to the official to hand over my ID. I was overjoyed to win my first preliminary match, but at the same time my reaction was a bit muted as I had trouble understanding why Mawile managed to faint Sableye so quickly.

I didn’t realize it until a few minutes after the official had teleported away, and I felt dumb for not understanding sooner.

Play Rough has the potential secondary effect of lowering a Pokémon’s attacks due to the injuries it inflicts. Mawile went for a single strong blow, making use of her Sheer Force ability, and causing the already super effective move to deal more damage. Huh, I didn’t realize how much Mawile’s strength had increased from that ability after all of our training.

Since our first victory had ended, I went back to the Pokémon Center to heal Mawile, and to hopefully find a second person to challenge for the preliminaries as well.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Somehow the word had spread about how to identify League officials, and the number of slots filled had increased. When I woke up in the morning, there were less than a dozen who had managed to earn two wins. My battle with Mawile took place before noon, and after taking a break for lunch, when I returned to the Pokémon Center, there were over forty. That combined with the trainers who managed to skip the preliminaries meant that a total of eight-five slots had already been filled for the Conference.

I tried to ask around for another preliminary match, but people’s attitude about them had changed. Rather than just accepting any challenge, people were much more hesitant to do so. They were asking questions like “Do you have any wins?”, “What Pokémon are you going to use?”, and even being as bold as to ask “What moves do your Pokémon know?”

A gridlock of challenges was starting to form, and while not everyone had that same attitude, the vast majority would only take battles they felt like they had the advantage.

I see now why we were given six days despite it being a race. People are going to try their best to win.

There was a small selection of trainers who were more than willing to accept any request, me included, but people were leery of potentially giving someone with one win the chance to enter the tournament. While everyone completely trusted their teams, there was an underlying hesitancy to potentially let someone take up a slot that they could take up themselves.

I retired that night without being able to get my second battle in, and went back down to the Pokémon Center the next day to try again in my search for a second preliminary match.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

“I was really worried, too, since Machamp is really strong and has a Type advantage over Delcatty, but she pulled through! Even though it could have easily beat her, her Cute Ch- I mean, uh, she managed to disable its attacks!” Wally said.

I hummed, half paying attention to the conversation as I talked to Wally over my Pokégear while I sat in the Pokémon Center. He called to talk now that he had won both of his preliminaries, as he managed to find someone who thought they had an easy win against his Delcatty with their Fighting Type Machamp. He turned the tables, and planned to spend the rest of the week on the training grounds, where he was right now.

“I’m happy you got in, Wally. What was your placement?”

“I was ninety second!” he replied. “Last I checked, they were approaching a hundred twenty people in. You’re still trying to get your second, right?”

“Yeah, but no one is accepting my challenges,” I said.

“I’m sure you’ll find one soon! I believe in you Alex! We have to battle so I can give you back your Dawn Stone, after all.”

I chuckled.

“Thank you, Wally. I’m going to go see if someone else is willing to battle. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Yeah! It was nice catching up!”

I hung up the call and stood up, stretching my back. Wally was wrong that it was approaching a hundred twenty, as there were now over a hundred fifty people who had secured their position in the tournament, despite it only being the third day of the preliminaries. There had been a sudden increase after someone organized a bunch of battles between the people who didn’t want to deal with the “strategical nonsense” that everyone else was following, and I had shown up too late after finding out to participate. The vast majority that were left were people who were carefully analyzing each potential challenge, and as annoying as that was, I couldn’t blame them.

It was hard to earn eight badges without analyzing situations carefully.

At this point, there were less than a hundred slots left. I was getting nervous about my chances to get in, especially since there was still a decently sized group of people who didn’t know how to identify the officials. Once today was over, it was likely they’d spam battles until they got their two wins. Effectively, this was my last day to get in before tomorrow’s rush when the officials revealed themselves.

The trainers who knew how to identify officials were the trainers who were keeping quiet about the proper method, and of course all of them were trying to be as strategic as possible about it. While no one was accepting my challenges, I decided to try a different, albeit a bit silly, method to arrange a second match.

I pulled out a rolled up poster from my backpack, and held it up to display what I had drawn on it this morning.

TRAINER LOOKING TO BATTLE

ONE WIN SO FAR

WILL USE ALTARIA

ACCEPTING ALL CHALLENGES

A few passing trainers walked by and chuckled at my sign, but it ended up working. A different trainer approached and smiled, and gave me a request.

“Hey, you’re accepting all challengers? If I don’t tell you what I plan on using, would you still accept my request?”

“Yeah. I’m tired of waiting. Do you know how to find an official?” I asked.

He nodded.

“One of my Pokémon is actually tracking one outside. Let’s go.”

I stood up to follow, and we headed out.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

This League official was disguised as a tourist carrying a satchel with the League’s logo on its side. My opponent had found him earlier in the day and told his Beautifly to follow. It was perched on a lamp post nearby, and pointed our target out to us when we approached.

He returned his Pokémon, and after a brief conversation later, we were on the field, sending out our Pokémon.

“Go, Altaria!”

“Fly circles around it, Ninjask!”

I raised an eyebrow after seeing what he had sent out, then immediately got wary. Ninjask didn’t have any specific advantage against an Altaria, and if anything, it had a significant disadvantage fighting against a Flying Type. My opponent must have been extremely confident in his strategy to challenge me despite knowing what Pokémon I would use.

“Keep back, you know the drill,” the trainer said.

“Focus on Flamethrower,” I commanded.

Ninjask moved around with incredible speed as Altaria breathed out a gout of flame. The bug easily zipped past it, and as it continued to fly around its momentum increased.

Worrying. Ninjask has the Speed Boost ability, so it speeds up as long as it keeps moving. If we take too long to faint it, or if we can’t find a way to slow it down, it’ll be able to easily dodge all of Altaria's attacks and win the battle.

Like I expected, Altaria’s Flamethrowers repeatedly went wide as Ninjask easily moved away from them in the air. Considering I doubted Altaria could land an attack like this, I decided to switch up the strategy.

“Cotton Guard, several times.”

The second I said that command, Altaria squawked in excitement. He focused and the white fluff on his wings spread through his body, giving him extreme padding against any of Ninjasks’s melee attacks.

As my opponent saw Altaria setting up his defenses, he frowned and changed what Ninjask was doing.

“Substitute into Swords Dance.”

Ninjask horrifically ripped the outer layer of its chitin off its body, and reinforced it to use as a shield, protecting itself with Substitute. Once that move was over, it began to fly in a directed pattern while sliding its two front legs across the other, sharpening them and using Swords Dance to increase any future move’s damage.

Hm. With Altaria’s defenses maximized after his Cotton Guards, Ninjask’s own boosted attacks with Swords Dance won’t actually deal that much extra damage. Altaria won’t be able to hit any ranged attacks due to Ninjask’s speed, but a close-ranged move might work.

Ugh, I regret not teaching him Power Swap with one of Wally’s TMs like Millie suggested. He could have stolen the boost from Ninjask’s Swords Dance.

There was a bit of a standoff as Ninjask continued to use Swords Dance to boost its strength even further as Altaria occasionally shot out a burst of Flamethrower. When it looked like Ninjask was just about done increasing its attack, I finally gave Altaria a new set of orders.

“Catch it like Cottonee.”

Altaria quickly understood my coded meaning, and readied himself for when Ninjask approached. It was moving incredibly fast, as it had never paused to stop in the air, and that momentum combined with its sharpened arms from Swords Dance would result in a potentially devastating attack.

Following an order from its trainer, Ninjask shot forward, trying to use Slash in a flyby past Altaria, intending to carve off some of the protective Cotton Guard feathers. However, Altaria leaned into Ninjask’s attack rather than moving out of the way, and like how Whimsicott used to pick up things when he was a Cottonee, Ninjask’s slicing claw penetrated too deep and got caught in the fluff.

Unfortunately, because Altaria leaned into it, Ninjask managed to land its Slash in an especially damaging spot and dealt critical damage. It was still stuck, though, and the momentum provided by the acceleration of Speed Boost was canceled out.

Altaria used the beneficial position to his advantage, and while Ninjask was locked in place next to him, he opened his mouth and screeched. Ninjask’s Substitute was useless in the face of a sound-based move as the violent soundwaves went straight through it.

The bug tried to get away once more, but amidst Altaria’s mid-air screaming, Altaria locked his wing down on Ninjask’s claw when it seemed like it was about to escape. Without being able to flap his wings, both Pokémon began to hurtle towards the ground.

“Latch on with Leech Life!” Ninjask’s trainer called out, trying to get some healing in before the impact.

Ninjask shifted forward to land on Altaria’s back and bit down onto him. Altaria was already hurt from Slash and was now even more hurt, but he pushed through and flapped his other wing just enough to lean back and rotate around. This new position would cause Ninjask to hit the ground first. The pair of them slammed into the dirt, and Ninjask took the brunt of the damage while Altaria’s Cotton Guard protected him like a strange, fluffy airbag.

When they impacted, a violent cracking noise rang out and I suddenly became extremely nervous that Ninjask had just been hurt far more than normal for a Pokémon battle. However, Altaria began to roll on the floor like a child throwing a tantrum as he continued his Uproar. The motion revealed that Ninjask was okay (although seriously wounded), but its Substitute had been shattered.

Unfortunately, Altaria’s flailing let Ninjask escape from the fluff and it immediately moved away to once again build up speed with Speed Boost. It stayed at that distance to regain its momentum, and it spent enough time away that Altaria finished his Uproar and transitioned into healing himself with Roost.

I heard the other trainer curse, and he shouted at Ninjask to attack.

“Get in there! We can’t let it heal any more!”

Ninjask closed in on Altaria, bringing up both of its claws in what it intended to be a momentum and Swords Dance boosted X-Scissor, but Altaria was ready. From our practice at the Weather Institute, he managed to use Dazzling Gleam the moment before Ninjask impacted. The bright light threw off its attack as its flyby failed, and as Ninjask stumbled to get away, Altaria just barely managed to clip it with a Flamethrower, finishing it off.

My opponent returned his Pokémon as it bounced off the ground and shook his head.

“That was a good fight. Hah... Guess I’m going to need to find someone else to battle,” he said.

Altaria flew straight at me, and I had to push the now extremely fluffy Altaria back to not suffocate on his cloud-like feathers. I patted his head as he squawked in happiness.

“Your Ninjask is strong,” I said to the other trainer as I gave Altaria affection, “its Substitute would have been extremely effective if Altaria didn’t know Uproar. Once you find a new opponent, you’re definitely going to get in.”

He smiled at that.

“Thank you. Good luck in the Conference! There are some strong trainers this year.”

He walked away while saying goodbye, and I returned Altaria with the intention of celebrating with him later. I gave my trainer ID number to the League official, and he disappeared within a few moments to report the outcome. There were only a few days left until the opening ceremony, but with this victory, I had made it past the preliminaries and secured a spot for the Conference.

While I was nervous about our future battles, I was pumped to have secured our spot in the official tournament.

====================================================
Author Note:

Sableye:
Sableye and Mawile have approximately the same power level, so I felt more comfortable including the damage calculations for this fight.

Sableye’s attacks:
200 Atk Sableye Shadow Sneak vs. 200 HP / 200- Def Mawile: 45-54 (15.4 - 18.5%) -- possible 6HKO
200+ Atk Sableye Foul Play vs. 200 HP / 200- Def Mawile: 63-74 (21.6 - 25.4%) -- 0.3% chance to 4HKO

Mawile’s attacks:
200+ Atk Mawile Crunch vs. 200 HP / 200 Def Sableye: 69-82 (23.7 - 28.1%) -- 92% chance to 4HKO
(Mawile didn’t use Sheer Force for Crunch since she wanted to grab it and lock it down rather than solely deal damage.)
Play Rough with Sheer Force (what happened):
200+ Atk Sheer Force Mawile Play Rough vs. 200 HP / 200 Def Sableye: 302-356 (103.7 - 122.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Play Rough without Sheer Force (what Alex expected):
200+ Atk Mawile Play Rough vs. 200 HP / 200 Def Sableye: 234-276 (80.4 - 94.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Alex didn’t expect the extra damage from Play Rough simply because of how Azumarill uses it means its secondary, attack lowering effect almost never comes into play. Alex wasn’t aware that it benefitted from Sheer Force, and it had slipped my mind before I wrote the battle as well.

Ninjask:
Speed Boost is another ability I changed around. I try to avoid just “magical aura increasing stats” and try to provide an explanation of how stat boosts work each time they are used. Speed Boost is a passive increase to speed each round in the games, and I was unsure how to represent it here. I checked the Japanese name and found it translates to “acceleration,” so I took it as the Pokémon experienced quick acceleration in its motion. That explanation works with every Pokémon that could get the ability, except maybe Blaziken, who probably just slowly increases the speed it fights at as it builds adrenaline.

Ninjask’s attacks:
+6 200 Atk Ninjask Slash vs. 200 HP / 200 Def Altaria on a critical hit: 301-355 (88.2 - 104.1%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
+6 200 Atk Ninjask Leech Life vs. +6 200 HP / 200 Def Altaria: 43-51 (12.6 - 14.9%) -- possible 7HKO
+6 200 Atk Ninjask X-Scissor vs. +6 200 HP / 200 Def Altaria: 43-51 (12.6 - 14.9%) -- possible 7HKO

Altaria’s attacks:
200 SpA Altaria Dazzling Gleam vs. 200 HP / 200 SpD Ninjask: 70-83 (22.3 - 26.5%) -- 19% chance to 4HKO
200 SpA Altaria Uproar vs. 200 HP / 200 SpD Ninjask: 79-93 (25.2 - 29.7%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

Also, remember that Ninjask hurt itself when it used Substitute. Since the move reduces its users health in exchange for absorbing a few attacks, I’ve been writing it as Pokémon using a piece of their body as a shield. Whimsicott will be tearing off a good chunk of his cotton when he uses it, which damages his effectiveness in battle aka his health as a result.)

I’m looking forward to when Altaria can properly learn how to Mega Evolve to get STAB Fairy Type Uproar and Hyper Voice thanks to Pixilate. It’s going to be fun.

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:
Delcatty
Kadabra
Machamp
Muk
Ninjask
Sableye

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