Chapter 101 (Patreon)

"So after Altaria dented it, how were your Pokémon able to damage the Iron Ball two more times?"

"Well, since Altaria was able to use Flamethrower to soften it up for his attacks, I thought that if Ninetales chilled it to make it brittle we would be able to scratch it."

"Did that work?"

"No. I was looking at it from the wrong angle. I considered it as just a training tool when I really should have treated it as if we were dealing with a Steel Type Pokémon."

The trainer sitting across from me nodded. I went ahead and added more dried twigs to the fire to keep the camp illuminated. There were barely any plants this high up, but there were just enough shrubs dropping dried twigs to support a small fire. Whimsicott was a big help when it came to collecting them.

"With that in mind, Mawile was the one who actually damaged it," I said.

"Even after chipping her tooth the first time?" he asked.

"Yes, even after that," I continued. "Steel Types don't resist Dark Type moves, and Crunch can weaken a Pokémon’s defense. We spent a while examining and practicing how she bit her opponents to make sure a chipped tooth wouldn't happen again, then we worked on that move's potential. Basically, Crunch’s biting power can crush a Pokémon's inherent armor for that defense-lowering effect I mentioned, and that was what we used to just barely manipulate the circumstance to create a small scratch."

"Wow. That's a big improvement."

"It is."

Gavel Grey was a trainer I met while training within the second area. Like me, he wanted to use Iron Island to make his team much stronger, except he actually specialized in the Steel Type, and he wanted to expand his team here, too.

Also, he was the trainer Byron told me to meet to gain access to the third area.

I glanced over to Mawile, who was currently sitting by herself and staring over the island as the last wisps of sunlight disappeared past the horizon. Most of my team was out and about with the exception of Dedenne, who was currently in a food coma in his Fast Ball. With me were Ninetales and Ponyta, as usual, and on the team with them were Whimsicott, Altaria, Mawile, Dedenne, and Ralts.

My plans had changed around significantly with Altaria’s wish to be with both Whimsicott and Dedenne at once, and Florges had started to spend some of her time with Sophie, practicing her healing alongside a professional. The third week of our training on Iron Island had just passed, giving us five weeks left until we needed to return to the mainland to fight Byron as soon as possible and Maylene in early September.

Considering we only had so much time to go, I was already in the process of trying to reach the third and penultimate restricted area. The second area was fine for training, but it still hadn't pushed us in the way I wanted. It only consisted of the upper mountainous reaches of the island, where most of the same types of wild Pokémon resided, but with more difficult terrain.

"And your third dent on the Iron Ball? Which of your Pokémon was that?" Gavel asked.

"Ralts," I replied.

"Ralts?" he asked again.

"Ralts." I nodded.

The Pokémon in question actually still had the Iron Ball with him. Like Mawile, he was off on his own, but practicing instead of relaxing. It took a lot of focus for him to lift such a heavy object up, so the Iron Ball served as a decent training tool for his psychic powers.

I only wished Ralts took more frequent breaks. Even Azumarill knew when to take time to rest during training.

"Ralts damaged it indirectly, but he still damaged it," I said. "He lifted up the ball, positioned it over a rock, then dropped it. That didn't damage it at first, but he did it again, and again, and again. When someone else wasn't trying an idea to damage the ball, he was always the one who had it, and it wasn't until a few days in that I woke up in the morning to see the ball positioned next to me with the faintest visible scratch right in view.

"And there Ralts was, only a few feet away, practicing by causing a few different stray stones to orbit each other. He wasn’t even acting like what he’d done was worth mentioning."

Gavel whistled.

"A base-stage like Ralts damaging an Iron Ball? He sure is impressive."

"He is," I said.

Ralts faltered briefly in his practice with the Iron Ball, but still managed to keep it in the air.

Gavel chuckled. I didn't find it funny.

"So," he interjected, slapping his knees and standing up. “Ready for your test for the third area?"

All the Pokémon in the camp turned to face him. Well, mostly. Gavel's Pokémon, like Bisharp and Ferrothorn, continued to stand (or hang, in Ferrothorn's case), around the camp. My Pokémon were assisting in their watch, but since this was Gavel’s base camp for his stay on Iron Island, Gavel's Pokémon were taking the lead since this was “their territory.”

I stood up as well. This was the second time I had run into him, and the first time he was willing to give me a shot.

Initially, we ran into each other by accident, half-intentionally. The second area was the primary area trainers here trained, if the first, public area was ignored. It was mostly Ace Trainers in training and a few Gym Trainers, of which Gavel was one. It was only polite to give nearby trainers a heads up if you’re passing through the area.

When we talked back then, Gavel revealed he was originally from Unova, but he traveled to Sinnoh after his first Gym Challenge to try to work with Byron in particular to get a sponsor that would let him train more Pokémon than he could on his own. As someone from a poor family, he couldn't afford enough food to support Steel Types that ate a lot like Aggron and Mawile, so most of his team only consisted of Pokémon that ate less or even not at all, which was true in the case of his Aegislash that he traded for.

Gavel made his way over to the nearby cave entrance in the mountainside we were at, speaking as he did.

"This is one of the many entrances to the third area,” he said. “They’re unlike any of the tunnels that would connect them to the western, public areas of the island thanks to the local Rangers that patrol the island. These caves are where the real threats lurk. Underground, Steel Types can come at you from any angle due to how some of them can dig through the walls, which makes isolated locations surrounded by dirt and stone even more dangerous than the cliffs up here.

"Byron told me that part of the reason this island is divided up as it is is to make sure no one stumbles into the wrong section of caves. He wanted me to test your Pokémon on their perception before you moved on, but—"

Ninetales let loose an Ice Beam at the ground a few feet away from me. A small ice crystal formed upon the move’s impact, stopping a dark shadow from getting closer. I had thought Gavel’s Aegislash was resting in its Pokéball while we were talking, but it seemed as though it had instead been waiting in a shadow just for this moment.

Gavel rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepishly.

“Your Pokémon are already really perceptive. We never really had a chance to try anything.”

Memories of me telling my team to keep an eye out many times in the past flashed through my mind. With how paranoid I got at times, I had somehow unintentionally trained my team to be quite good at keeping an eye out. We might still have a bit of difficulty when it came to the more shadowy Pokémon like Sableye, but our time on this island had forced us to overcome that weakness. The frequent battles with wild Pokémon probably helped as well.

“So instead of testing your team’s perception, I thought I’d do something a bit simpler as a test,” Gavel said. “I can already tell that most of your team would be able to handle the inside of the mountain, but I still want to do a test. What you said about Ralts interested me, so how about this:

“Let’s have a battle where you show me the three Pokémon on your team you think have improved the most. Beat me, and you can pass. Lose, and you can still pass, but only if I’m actually impressed. Like I said, you kind of already have everything I was going to test for.”

"I mean, sure, but that's kind of silly, isn't it?" I asked, scratching the side of my head. "If we already passed your test, shouldn't we be allowed in? Plus, it's kind of late, isn't it?"

Gavel glanced over my shoulder to stare at the stars in the sky behind me. Mawile was making her way back now that the sun had set.

"I— fine. Tomorrow, then. I just wanted an excuse to battle you."

"You got it," I laughed. "We’ll battle in the morning."

_________________________________________________________________________________________

In the night, two Pokémon tried to sneak into the camp, and both times, it was a Sableye.

I was getting a bit worried about the ghostly gremlins' persistent presence, especially once we would move to the interior of the mountain. They would pose a risk to Carbink, an issue I had been dreading since the species’s first appearance.

So, I decided to ask Gavel for his thoughts, thinking that his familiarity with bulkier Pokémon might help me with training Carbink.

"You know, not every Pokémon on my team is a Steel Type," he said in response over breakfast.

"Really?"

"Yup. I didn't bring her with me, but Mandibuzz is only a Dark and Flying Type. I needed a Pokémon on my team to help me get around, and her species is bulky enough that some of the techniques I use in training still apply."

I hummed.

"I'm not sure how that helps Carbink."

"I was getting to that," he said after finishing chewing on a dried fruit. "Carbink is a Pokémon that doesn’t have strong offensive options. It has the moves, just not the strength behind its attacks. I can see two options here. You can do something like I’ve done with Mandibuzz, in that she has a strong set of utility moves available. Alternatively, take Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn might be capable of powerful attacks already, but you should be able to do something like what I’ve done with him. Essentially, I’ve given him the capability to turn his strong defenses into a much stronger offense. That strategy would be perfect for Carbink.”

“What?” I asked, disbelieving. “How?”

“Body Press,” he said.

“Ah.”

In the games, Body Press was a move that used a Pokémon’s defense stat rather than the attack stat to calculate the damage of the move. I embarrassingly hadn’t looked into it here since, before Carbink, I hadn’t had a Pokémon on my team that was so heavily focused on defense.

Actually, if Carbink could learn Iron Defense to increase their resistance to attacks even further, their Body Press would practically obliterate anyone who tried to stop them. That alongside Toxic would definitely round out their options by a significant margin, so this is definitely good advice.

“Thank you,” I said. “You’ve let me make plans to help them out with that.”

Gavel smiled.

“No problem. So, the battle?”

Our camp was set up on a small, high up ledge that overlooked a good portion of the island’s mountain, with us situated right in front of the mouth of a cave. Most of our Pokémon were lingering inside of it due to the lack of room, and as such, it provided cover from most Flying Types interested in coming our way.

The tradeoff was the constant presence of Sableye, but at least my team was more than familiar and ready to deal with their tendency to sneak into our camp and rummage through our stuff.

Gavel and I planned to make the battle three individual matches, and in it, neither of us would be using Pokémon or moves that might be especially destructive or require a large area. That meant Ninetales and Altaria were out for me due to their powerful attacks (and in Altaria’s case, his tendency to scream), and Gavel wouldn’t be able to tell members of his team to use moves like Earthquake or Bulldoze. I wasn’t sure if any members of his team knew those moves, anyway.

With no referee, there was no need to shout any of the rules or our readiness, so both Gavel and I sent out our Pokémon.

“Whimsicott, set the field.”

“Bisharp, ready yourself.”

Whimsicott began by nearly simultaneously sending up a red fiery sphere while also sending out a pulse of green underneath him. Both Sunny Day and Grassy Terrain came into effect, with Whimsicott making the most of his Prankster ability to show off both the speed his ability imbued, as well as his newly learned move, Grassy Terrain.

Prankster was really benefiting Whimsicott recently, since his expertise with utility moves let him practice with more moves at once than the rest of my team. His options in battle were slowly becoming more and more expansive, and I was dreading some of the pranks he would be able to do with them in the future.

(Small splotches of Grassy Terrain had been repeatedly showing up right where I was about to step during some of the hikes in the past few days. The sudden difference in floor texture always caught me off guard and made me jump, giving Whimsicott plenty of reason to laugh.)

Bisharp, across from Whimsicott, popped out the blades on its arms and ran them over each other while shifting back and forth on its feet in an almost ritualistic manner. The Swords Dance let it sharpen all of its blades, including the one on its head, to increase the damage of attacks using them from here on out.

Curiously, Bisharp was wearing a necklace with what looked to be a broken tip of a bronze sword hanging around its neck. The held item was unfamiliar to me.

Above, Whimsicott floated high up in the air and tried his best to let his Chlorophyll ability increase his speed from the effects of Sunny Day. His ability was still developing, but it was coming along, giving him a slight boost that wasn’t quite the full doubling effect the fully trained ability would grant.

Gavel shouted a second command once both Pokémon finished.

“Don’t let it linger in the air. Force it down with Metal Sound.”

A horrible screeching sound rang out as Bisharp purposely scratched its arm blades along the sharp protrusions on its chest, as if it was playing some horrific violin. The metal-on-metal noise caused Whimsicott to clutch the sides of his head in pain, and the Pokémon a bit further away, the ones that were watching the fight, did so as well. I personally felt as though someone had shoved an ice cube against my teeth.

“Whenever you’re ready!” I yelled through the noise.

Whimsicott wavered a bit in the air from the piercing sound, but the thought of using his second new move in battle filled him with enough joy that he didn’t fall too far in the air. Without any obvious signs from Whimsicott, his opponent was suddenly forced to stop playing its blades and leap to the side to avoid an incoming Energy Ball.

The pure green sphere of Grass Type energy hadn’t come from Whimsicott, but the ground itself. It was as if the Grassy Terrain had attacked Bisharp.

“What was that?” Gavel asked, shocked. “Did Whimsicott do that?”

“Well, it looked like it came from the field, didn’t it?” was my non-answer.

Unsatisfied with my response, Gavel ordered Bisharp to cut down the grass around it. It would mean it wouldn’t gain any of the passive healing Grassy Terrain applied, but at least it wouldn’t be hit by an attack from nowhere.

Bisharp was then hit by an attack from nowhere, an Energy Ball slamming into it from behind as a Slash cut through the grass.

“Okay, I have no clue what that move is,” Gavel said.

Whimsicott giggled.

Floating above, Whimsicott continued to subtly flick his arms back and forth like a conductor, causing Energy Balls to form and be launched from the ground. In all honesty, I hadn't been aware of this move before simply because I hadn't realized how useful it was.

Nature Power was a move that drew on the natural energies of the environment to fuel attacks. Here on Iron Island, using the move normally let Whimsicott use an attack similar to Rock Slide. However, by using Grassy Terrain, Whimsicott was able to "override" the natural energy of the environment and use Energy Ball instead. The same was true for Misty Terrain and Moonblast.

The true benefit of the move was the fact that Whimsicott was able to use it alongside Prankster, allowing attacks to be formed and launched from where the energy was drawn from, rather than Whimsicott’s center of mass.

Another attack came out of the grass, but this time, Bisharp was ready. It punched its arm forward to tear through the incoming attack and slice it in two, destabilizing the move and causing it to break apart before Bisharp took any damage.

"We have to bring it down,” Gavel said. “Taunt and resume Metal Sound.”

Another Energy Ball clipped Bisharp in the side as it looked towards Whimsicott and spoke a few harsh words his way. Unfortunately, since Taunt enrages its target to the point of not being able to use any utility moves, Whimsicott’s battle style was now crippled.

Whimsicott formed an attack between his hands in his anger and lowered in the sky as he launched forward his own Energy Ball. Nature Power was unfortunately a style of move that was closer to a utility move rather than an attack, which meant Taunt had shut down more than Gavel realized.

With Whimsicott now approaching, Bisharp once more sliced the attack in half and returned to making that horrific sound from earlier. The pain from the sound interrupted Whimsicott’s next Energy Ball and gave Bisharp an opening to move in.

“Metal Claw!” Gavel yelled.

“Fairy Wind!” I yelled back.

Fairy Wind wasn’t a move Whimsicott practiced that often, but it was at least a quick attack that had a higher chance of hitting since Bisharp wouldn’t be able to slice through it. The Steel Type leapt into the air towards Whimsicott, one of its arms glowing with Steel Type energy, and landed a solid slash across the center of Whimsicott’s body.

The super effective move made Whimsicott grunt in pain as a good chunk of his lower head fluff was severed from the rest of him. That caused him to lose balance, but he was at least able to launch a gust of sparkling wind forward at the falling Bisharp.

Bisharp twisted in the air to face it, and this time, when Bisharp tried to slice the attack in half, the attack parted and continued forward rather than destabilizing. Even though Whimsicott was better at utility moves and a few Grass Type attacks, his Fairy Type attacks were nothing to be underestimated. My team as a whole had plenty of practice and experience with them.

Bisharp landed, a bit injured, then rushed forward at Whimsicott right as he touched down. A hand snapped forward to grab one of the Grass Type’s horns, and Bisharp lifted him up right in front of its face.

Undoubtedly, if Whimsicott wasn’t under the effects of Taunt, he would have used a quick utility move here to throw Bisharp off. Instead, Bisharp dropped Whimsicott only to slam its axe-bladed head right into Whimsicott to finish him off with Iron Head.

Both Gavel and I returned our Pokémon.

“Whatever it was that Whimsicott used was definitely impressive. How did he attack like that?” he asked.

“Nature Power,” I said. “He figured it out on his own without any help from me. Somehow, he can have the attacks originate from the environment rather than his body. My current theory is that it's a benefit from having the Prankster ability.”

Gavel hummed and pointed to the side to tell his next Pokémon, Ferrothorn, to move onto the field. I did the same, telling Ponyta to move forward.

Gavel looked hesitant at the sight of his opponent.

“Are you sure about that? Bisharp was my starter, so my strongest has already been used, but that doesn't mean Ferrothorn is anyone to scoff at. He competed in Unova’s Vertress Conference as one of my strongest Pokémon, so a relatively weaker Pokémon like Ponyta might get hurt."

"It's fine. I trust him."

Ponyta didn't make any moves to show if he was nervous or unsure, choosing instead to lock eyes with Ferrothorn determinedly. Gavel frowned, but Ponyta was my Pokémon, not his, so he had no choice but to relent. The battle began.

"Weaken it and stay at range," I told Ponyta.

"Power Whip," Gavel ordered.

Ferrothorn consisted of four main parts: a spiked central body and three cleat-like appendages connected with vines. With the relatively small area of our battlefield, it wouldn't have to move far to reach Ponyta. At the same time, both Grassy Terrain and Sunny Day were still up from the previous match, which meant that it was likely that the Grass Type Power Whip would faint Ponyta in one go if it hit.

But that was if it hit.

Ponyta's ability, Run Away, meant he was quite adept at staying away from his foes. Ferrothorn moved toward him by both using its vines to both hop forward and “walk,” but it wasn’t very fast. It tried to approach Ponyta, who he easily moved around the edge of the field to avoid his foe. Ferrothorn was more about surviving and taking hits than it was about actually reaching opponents to strike. Ferrothorn would never be able to catch up to Ponyta.

"Fine, then,” Gavel said frustratedly. “Ingrain and Leech Seed. Just stall it out."

Ferrothorn lifted its main body off the ground before slamming and embedding itself into the floor. Its three vines did the same, and bursting out from gaps in its metal-plated shell were a series of large seeds that started to grow their own vines out like a net.

The first seed glowed in midair before it could reach Ponyta, and its extending vines stretched out and caught the seeds sent behind it. Once the Leech Seed’s path was interrupted, Ponyta let his Confusion drop as the seeds fell to the ground and withered away without a host.

A Psybeam then impacted Ferrothorn. Grassy Terrain and Ingrain meant the Grass Type was healing itself faster than Ponyta could hurt it, so any damage his attack dealt was quickly undone.

Both the Grassy Terrain and Sunny Day faded soon after, but there was little change to the rate of damage.

"Let it exhaust itself. Just wait," Gavel said.

Ponyta didn't have to run away if Ferrothorn wasn't attacking, so he was able to unleash a constant pulse of Psybeam at it just fine. The difference in power and experience meant he barely hurt it, and while Ingrain wasn't fully healing it from the move, it was clear that he would tire himself out before Ferrothron even began to show signs of damage.

Ponyta stopped his attacks. The field was still.

"Stall, huh?" I mumbled.

I rubbed my head.

"It's what Steel Types are good at. Their ability to resist attacks are the best out of all other Types," Gavel explained.

With Ponyta unable to damage his foe, and Ferrothorn unable to reach Ponyta or successfully land a Leech Seed, there was little that could be done between them. Gavel hadn't noticed, but Ponyta had maintained his eye contact from the start and had been subtly using Charm to weaken Ferrothorn's willingness to battle. The issue was that Gavel's strategy of simply waiting things out meant that was unlikely to come into play.

Ponyta's eyes flashed pink for another use of Charm to maintain the effect. Gavel still didn't notice.

"Ponyta, I think it's worth trying to put some of our training into the battle," I said.

His eyes quickly flicked my way before returning back to lock on to Ferrothorn.

"This will be difficult, but I don't see us winning otherwise. I trust you. Use Mystical Fire."

Gavel made a weird sputtering sound as I said that, but I paid him no mind. I simply watched  and waited as Ponyta stood stock still on the field.

Mystical Fire wasn't an attack Ponyta actually knew, but it was one that we were working into his training. With Heal Pulse figured out, we started to work on expanding his known moves. I felt that the flames from Mystical Fire could be used to add extra damage to any melee attacks he performed.

(Plus, the boost Mystical Fire got from Sunny Day would let him synergize with that weather condition even further in future battles.)

"It's a Fire Type move, so maybe think of the warmth that heals you when you use Morning Sun," I suggested. "The Types are different, but that might do it."

Gavel gave Ferrothorn another command, but all it amounted to was telling it to use Leech Seed again. The same result of Ponyta catching the seeds with Confusion happened yet again, and with it locked in place with Ingrain, there was little Ferrothorn could do but wait.

I suppose it’s possible that Ferrothorn could cancel the effect to give chase, but both Gavel and I know that doing so wouldn’t do it any good. Ponyta’s speed, Agility, and Run Away ability lets him stay away from his foes far too well.

As the battle returned to a standstill, everyone stayed silent as we watched. Ponyta continued to stare, and Ferrothorn continued to passively heal from Ingrain.

Then, a spark appeared in the air around Ponyta.

"Yeah, I'm not risking Ferrothorn. We have more training to do, and he's especially vulnerable to Fire Type moves. This match will go to Ponyta."

Gavel returned Ferrothorn before sending it back out next to him to quickly get it out of its Ingrain. Ponyta galloped over to me, excited, and I cheerfully rubbed the sides of his neck.

"Great job! Your running has got a lot better and your move mastery is getting better and better. Even though it didn't come up, your use of Charm was amazing! I can't wait to see you running around with Mystical Fire up."

Ponyta whinnied happily before returning to the side of the field to watch. There was one match left in our casual battle, and it seemed that Gavel had a specific request for it.

"I want to battle Ralts," he said. "I want to fight a bit more seriously than these last two matches. Prinplup is the newest member of my team, caught right here on Iron Island as a Piplup. He needs experience, and I want to see how the Pokémon that damaged that Iron Ball would fight."

I didn't get the chance to say anything before Ralts used Teleport to move onto the field. Gavel called over Prinplup in response.

"Ralts, are you willing to listen to me for this?"

I disliked how Ralts had to pause to think about my question, but in the end, he did at least nod.

Facing the blue penguin that was his opponent, the battle began.

"Use the strategy you used against Ponyta in our first encounter!" I told Ralts.

Immediately, Ralts disappeared only to reappear in multiple places at once. His Double Team created a large number of illusory duplicates that obscured his actual position.

It looked like Prinplup was surrounded.

The penguin Pokémon glanced around nervously at its foes, showing a lack of control of its movements and demonstrating its poor battle experience. I saw a small smirk appear on every duplicate at once as Ralts took pleasure in its fear.

"This is fine, Prinplup,” Gavel said softly. “Spin around with Bubble Beam."

At Gavel’s command, Prinplup opened its beak to send a stream of bubbles forward out from it. The Pokémon slowly turned its body in a circle to eliminate all of the clones, but its relative inexperience meant it wasn't doing so particularly fast. I took advantage of this by giving Ralts another order.

"Reuse Double Team to replace those illusions. Don't let it find your position."

Ralts’s smile turned into a full-on grin as all of Prinplup’s efforts now went to waste. All clones that had disappeared before now reformed in the same spots they had just been cleared from.

Prinplup’s eyes twitched with both surprise and annoyance. It stopped its attack and stood there to figure out what to do next.

"You're doing fine, Prinplup," Gavel reassured. "See if you can catch it with a Metal Claw."

Both of Prinplup's wings glowed steel gray before it charged forward at one of Ralts's clones. A slash from that attack went straight through it, then it charged forward with its wings out to try to slice through them all one-by-one.

Honestly, I wasn't sure where Ralts was either, but Prinplup did an entire loop without finding him.

"What?" Gavel mumbled.

Ralts didn't bother making himself known as he chose to stay within one of his clones. As far as I could tell, he was using them to disguise his Teleports to stay away from Prinplup. Honestly, this technique would take a lot of energy, but it was quite effective in throwing off his foes.

With Prinplup stopped and unable to find Ralts, it was an easy target for his Confusion. A blue glow appeared around the Water Type as it was slowly lifted up into the air.

Prinplup’s flippers flailed around as it tried to escape from the psychic hold, but this form of telekinetic control had been the focus of Ralts’s training these past few weeks. Prinplup’s movements only got worse as Ralts started to twist the space to damage it, a Calm Mind allowing him to do a bit more than he normally could.

Gavel wasn’t going to let it end like this, though.

"Bubble Beam to fill the field!" he yelled.

Rather than attacking a specific duplicate, Prinplup managed to aim its head straight down to attack the floor instead. The rocky surface was hit by bubbles that then spread out in random directions upon impact.

Gavel quietly pumped his fist as practically all of the duplicates were struck and taken out by the bubbles, but his cheer didn't last long.

A sharp clack rang out as Ralts forced Prinplup’s beak shut. The Bubble Beam suffered an early end as a series of impacts hit the inside of Prinplup's mouth rather than the field below.

Ralts let his opponent drop at that, whereupon Prinplup immediately brought its flippers up to rub its beak. It moaned in pain from the self-inflicted damage, then looked over to glare at where Ralts was standing.

Double Team was no longer up. Ralts was alone on the field.

"Your Bubble Beam worked!” Gavel shouted. “Get it with Metal Claw!"

Ralts stayed still as Prinplup tried to look confident by running a flipper across the base of its beak. It charged forward, but Ralts stayed motionless. He didn't move as the penguin ran towards him, and he didn't move when the penguin got close.

Instead, the moment the attack was about to land, Ralts disappeared. Prinplup managed to guess correctly that Ralts had used Teleport to get behind it, but in the end, that didn't end up mattering.

Prinplup turned around. Ralts screamed. The Disarming Voice finished off his foe.

Before Prinplup could completely fall backwards, Gavel returned it to its Pokéball. Ralts lingered on the field for only a moment more before teleporting off to where he left the Iron Ball to resume his practice.

Gavel looked both upset and impressed.

"That was a bit... brutal," he commented.

"Ralts is getting better. He at least lets himself get healed between matches now."

Gavel was quiet at that, choosing to simply watch Ralts lift and drop the Iron Ball repeatedly. Eventually, Gavel just ended up shaking his head in minor exasperation and walked forward to shake hands with me.

"That was good, Alex. Yeah, I'd say you can move on. I mean, you honestly could before, but I at least got a battle out of it.

"Oh, and by the way. For your next area, you're going to need to go down deep. Like, as far down as you can go, deep. I have no clue who's going to approach you, but apparently your next test is supposed to be a battle? Byron didn't explain. He just told me the basics."

That was strange, but nothing too unusual considering all the nonsense I'd been experiencing recently. I half expected a trainer using a Legendary Pokémon after everything that’d happened in this region.

"Thank you," I said. "You're taking on the Gym Challenge, right?"

Gavel nodded.

"Yup. Byron is giving me this chance to do so before I need to take some time to work as a Gym Trainer. I'll probably take on another region's Conference after next season. Since I have that break coming up, you need to be careful. For this Conference, my team and I are going to the top!"

Gavel's cheer lessened at the sight of my strained smile.

"Don't tell me you think I'm that weak," he sighed.

I glanced over to my Pokémon before turning back and sighing myself. I unconsciously ran a hand through my hair as I considered how best to break the news to him.

"This year is going to be more difficult than the others," I said slowly. "There are trainers that have been in multiple region Conferences, and there's even one who competed in and finished the Battle Frontier."

Gavel scoffed.

"That's it? There are tough trainers every year!"

I bit my lip.

"No. There's one more."

He gave me a confused look as I moved back over to my Pokémon. I sent out Whimsicott to heal him up with some of my weaker potions as Ponyta assisted with Heal Pulse. Gavel watched on silently.

"It's not like I'm trying to avoid talking about him, mind you, it’s just that I’m unsure how I’m going to be able to handle him myself. I found out recently that he'll be competing this season, but even then, I doubt he'll ever need to use more than one or two Pokémon to win."

Gavel looked confused.

"That's... what?"

"Just keep in mind that some trainers don't just have normal Pokémon. Some might even say their team is... Legendary."

I chuckled, but it wasn't a happy chuckle. It was rather grim.

Whimsicott was okay, but he needed some rest, so I returned him to his Pokéball before entering the cave. Altaria moved to the front of the group, looking extremely excited to travel through a cave with us. With a scoff, Ninetales moved past him to lead since her low light vision was much better than his, and Mawile made sure to be close by to help as well.

My team and I started to head into the cave to reach the depths of the third area of Iron Island.

"Keep an eye out for any trainers with strange, shadowy Pokémon," I called out to the silent Gavel. "I'm still creating a strategy myself, but there's no doubt that a Darkrai is going to be a nightmare to fight."

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

I want to thank Appelofdoom for leaving a comment specifically about Nature Power on Chapter 95. I hadn’t known the move was affected by Prankster, and considering Whimsicott knew both Energy Ball and Moonblast already, as well as Alex’s penchant to rely on both Grassy and Misty Terrain, it made sense for him to add that move to his selection.

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:
Aegislash
Bisharp
Ferrothorn
Mandibuzz
Prinplup
Sableye

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter