Chapter 103 (Patreon)

Make sure you haven't skipped over Chapter 102, which was posted alongside this one!

====================================================

We needed the team members most suited for this situation, and as much as I wanted to take Mawile and Whimsicott, Carbink and Ralts were better choices.

While Mawile was capable of putting up a decent defense, Carbink's screens were better at defending a wide area. Similarly, Whimsicott would be vulnerable to both the Fire Type Heatmor and the Bug Type Durant at once. Not only that, but any hot environment the Heatmor might be in would be uncomfortable for him. While Ninetales had that same weakness, her use of Snow Warning meant she could cool down the air around her and better handle high temperatures.

Also, Ralts’s Teleport was necessary for an emergency quick escape. I would be a fool to not have a teleporting Pokémon with us after what happened last time.

The rest of the team contained the usual suspects. Florges, Azumarill, Altaria, and Ponyta were all coming along.

Traveling through the cave was easier than before. It wasn’t just that my team was stronger, but I personally had a much better understanding of how to handle Steel Types now that we’d been fighting them for so long.

The thing about Steel Types is that they were extra sturdy and tended to weigh hundreds of pounds at a minimum. They resisted melee attacks, but their low speed meant they were easy targets at range. There were a few exceptions to those rules like Bisharp and Scizor, but despite their relatively fast speeds for Steel Types, they were still slower than most other Pokémon.

My strategy for handling Steel Types? Throw them off balance.

Steel Types always expected to take control in the battlefield. They used their weight and dominating presence to force their opponents to come to them, not the other way around. Due to this, their reaction speeds were marginally slower than other Types, so not only were Steel Types weak to faster opponents, but it was hard for them to regain momentum once they were thrown off.

For battles against Steelix, rapid movements around them were enough to help my team members avoid and land attacks a lot more easily. Against the occasional wild Metang, we would use its levitation against it by running underneath it to force it to rapidly rotate in the air just to follow us.

The more practice we had in Iron Island, the better off we were. That Type disadvantage was slowly becoming less of a disadvantage.

Finding the Heatmor in the caverns was a bit of a different story.

I hadn’t found any during our previous trips down, and there were no signs of Fire Type Pokémon in the rest of the caverns. The lack of air flow meant that some spaces were hotter than others, but nowhere we traveled was ever hot enough to signify their presence.

We didn’t push to stay in the lower levels for entire days, instead we frequently returned to the surface to rest. During our delves, Ninetales’s nose let us avoid areas that would contain too many Pokémon or dangerous gasses. Our general exploration strategy mostly involved just pushing downwards, making sure to avoid places where too many Durant shell pieces appeared. It would do us no good to get caught in one of their swarms again.

After a few days of failure, we decided to try a different approach. Ninetales would lead, like usual, but rather than simply trying to find a path downwards, we used her sensitivity to hot temperatures to move towards where the caves were hotter.

This strategy had the consequence of making Ninetales uncomfortable, especially since she wasn’t able to use Snow Warning to cool down her environment without risking losing the trail. Within a day, however, our treks were already showing results.

Our first encounter with wild Fire Types was when we stumbled upon a small room with a pocket of molten rock and a few lava slugs in the form of Slugma and Magcargo meandering about. In a second, similar room, we found a lone Magby playing with superheated stones.

It was on the fifth day of this attempt, the second day of using this heat-seeking strategy, that we found them.

Heatmor were anteater-like Pokémon with red and yellow striped bodies and biological tubes running across their chest and back. They had openings around their wrists at the base of their sharp claws to regulate their heat. They were also capable of breathing out thin jets of flame that could carve through rock.

The Heatmor we stumbled upon didn’t number only one, but rather, there were a total of three lounging around a small dribble of magma coming out of the wall. As we stepped in the room, two of them snapped their heads out of the way while a third pushed to its feet to stand at its full height.

A normal Heatmor wasn’t even five feet in height, so I should have been much taller than all Pokémon in the room. However, the one that stood up was in no means a normal Heatmor, standing at least six and a half feet tall; its height one and a half times more than the others’.

Rather than sending one of my team members forward, I took a step forward to speak.

“Heatmor. I need your assistance,” I said.

The massive Fire Type minutely lowered its claws, not enough to remove its defenses, but enough to show it was listening.

“There are Durant here that are blocking my way,” I continued. “My team and I need to get past them. I want to ask for your help, and I’ll make sure it’ll be worth your while.”

The two smaller Heatmor on the side looked to the larger one for instruction, but all it did was stand there and leer at me. I very slowly brought my bag forward to reach into it and pulled out a sack I had stuffed to the brim only a few days prior.

I placed it on the floor and kicked it over. The big Heatmor had one of the smaller ones grab it to open it up.

As soon as the smaller Heatmor did, its eyes went wide with greed, and it would have immediately started to dig in if it wasn’t for the glare the much larger Heatmor was giving it. Instead, it handed the bag over to the big one, whereupon the boss Heatmor snatched the bag for itself and opened it up.

“Berries,” I explained. “As many different types as I could get. Oran, Leppa, Chesto, Pecha, and even several of Ninetales’s favorite: Aspear.”

Ninetales perked up behind me at the mention of her favorite berry, but she slouched when she realized I was just off-handedly mentioning it.

“These are all yours, and I have a second one for once we make our way through. Not only that, but I even have a third if you escort us back out as well. I doubt you’ve ever had this many berries before, considering the environment. Trust me, they’re good.”

The big Heatmor cautiously took a single berry out of the bag and pinched it between two of its claws to look it over. It was a blue Oran berry kept fresh in my backpack’s cooled pocket. Every so slowly, the Heatmor brought the berry up to its long snout, where it then extended its tongue to pierce into it and slurp out some of the berry’s insides.

Juice dripped to the floor under the Heatmor and sizzled in the heat. The Pokémon looked down at me after repeating the action once more before nodding.

With that, the lead Pokémon scooped out about half the bag and tossed the rest to its subordinates. Those two hurriedly split the rest between themselves as the trio turned to face away from me and messily devoured all the fruit they had available.

They then turned around to walk and stretch as if that never happened. One of the smaller Heatmor had a very obvious blue stain on its face.

The large Heatmor stretched its arms back and started to walk off, glancing behind it to signal me to follow. I started walking forward. The two other Heatmor fell in line behind me. The pact was sealed. The bargain was struck.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Finding a path down was easy. The problem was that every path down had signs of Durant.

The Heatmor had no problem with that, however, as, despite the discarded shells being a constant sign down here, the leader didn’t seem to care at all. It simply stomped forward as I hurried after it and made sure I had the appropriate members of my team out: Azumarill to make sure the Heatmor didn’t try anything against me, Carbink to help with defense, and Ralts in case we needed to rush an escape. I considered bringing Florges and Ponyta, too, for access to quick healing. However, with the passages becoming tighter, only Carbink and Ralts could fit in our group because of their small size.

Unlike last time, we didn’t encounter any Durants digging out of the wall. We did, however, run into a line of them moving down the passage we were in. Upon seeing three Heatmor moving their way, the Durant’s eyes all widened, and they rushed away.

That happened two more times until eventually, the passage opened up into a much larger room.

This place clearly wasn’t a Durant hive, but it was obviously in their territory. The walls were covered with holes that signified their presence, and their actual presence was made obvious by the lines of them moving around. Rock piles were scattered about the room with Durant relays tossing refuse from their digging efforts. The way the ants carried the rocks reminded me of a bucket brigade, with each Pokémon nimbly exchanging their parcels with their neighbors.

Importantly, there was a clear opening on the far wall where no Durant was heading. That was obviously the way to go.

The second our small group entered the room, every single currently present insect stopped what they were doing to look at us. It was unnerving the way their red eyes glinted off the light of my electric lantern, but, just like before, the lead Heatmor didn’t care in the least and expected us to follow. The other two Heatmor looked much more nervous, but they at least tried to put on a show of confidence.

As we moved through the room, all Durant we approached slowly backed up to avoid the Fire Types’ presence. The larger Heatmor scoffed as we pushed forward, but even with its arrogant act, I couldn’t help but to feel just as nervous as the rest of our group as I saw more and more Durant entering the room but none leaving.

Eventually, right as we passed one of the piles of rock, a few Durant stepped forward. The boss Heatmor stopped to stare at them as lines of other Durant started to hurriedly move around us.

It was only moments before we were surrounded.

“Maybe this wasn’t the best idea,” I mumbled.

I caught a glance of the lower half of Ralts’s eyes when his green helmet bobbed with a disbelieving look sent my way.

With the Durant now surrounding us, the leader of the Heatmor took a step forward and threw its arms back. It stood in that challenging pose to try to ward the bugs off, but they made no sign of being intimidated.

So, the boss Heatmor tried something different. It let out a roar as heat radiated out from its wrists.

A small handful of the Durant took a step back. The rest of the horde remained strong.

It was a standoff.

"Be careful," I whispered to everyone. "This might end up as a fight."

The room fell still, but the swarm of Durant never ceased its repositioning all while almost every Durant’s antennae flicked about. The two Heatmor behind me took up defensive positions at our side, but neither took actions that were as bold as their boss’s.

All three Heatmor were ready to fight, and for a moment, it seemed as if we would be able to back off scot free.

Then, a single pebble dropped from the ceiling. We looked up.

It was hard to see in the darkness, but my electric lantern was just barely able to illuminate the shape of a few of the Durant grouped around a stalactite. Several of them were gnawing at its base while others were leaning against it to hold it in place.

As it stood, it was positioned to fall right on the lead Heatmor.

"Azumarill! Don't let it hit!"

The stalactites dropped in that moment, and Azumarill jumped in the air to knock it aside. She spun around and coated her tail with a film of water as a powerful Aqua Tail slammed into the falling rock’s middle, breaking it in two. The two halves then flew away and crashed into the swarm, knocking down several Durant who were hit by the large shrapnel.

Every Durant screeched. Their mandibles grinded together to make the ear-piercing noise of metal scratching on metal. Almost all of us clutched our ears from the mass Metal Sound. The only Pokémon that seemed to resist it were Carbink and Heatmor, but, then again, Carbink didn't have arms.

"Bink. Carbink car car. Carbink! Carbink bink car car carbink car. Bink," Carbink said.

They conjured a tight Reflect and Light Screen combo around the group to prevent the initial rush of Durant from crashing into us. The lead Heatmor turned around briefly to lock eyes with Carbink.

It nodded with respect.

A gap opened up in the barriers as an absolute torrent of flame burst forward from the Heatmor, searing the Durant and sending them scurrying back away from the blazing inferno. The Flamethrower's power reminded me of what Altaria could do after being boosted with Power Swap, but this was just the Heatmor’s base power.

With that initial burst out of the way, the battle proper began.

Rushing forward, the two subordinate Heatmor charged into the swarm and swung both their superheated claws and long tongues, using Heat Lash to deal super effective damage. Azumarill wasn’t one to sit a fight out and rushed in as well, setting up an Aqua Ring to prepare herself for the long game.

With Azumarill gone, there was room within our small psychic barricade to send out another Pokémon, so I sent out Ponyta to assist with Heal Pulse. He ran into the gap to position himself right in front of the towering Heatmor, his position under its head meaning he wasn’t even in the way of its continued flames.

Azumarill and the two smaller Heatmor tore into the swarm. Durant launched forward to bite and smash, but Azumarill just grabbed them and threw them back. Liquidation punches bashed several of the insects' heads all while flames from the other two Pokémon illuminated the battlefield.

If the injured Durant weren't being pulled back into the depths of their hive by healthier Pokémon, I would have said this was a massacre.

The fight continued as I released Altaria and Ninetales. Altaria took to the skies and Ninetales lingered on the edges of the fight, but their attacks provided even more covering fire from the trio in the battle. Florges, too, joined as she huddled next to me, squeezing next to Carbink and just barely fitting within the field.

"This way!” I yelled. “Don't get caught fighting alone!"

The screens shifted as Carbink strained to reform them to become a path towards the exit. Since they weren’t full Protects, a few Durants were still able to push through, but for the vast majority of them, they seemed too hesitant to approach the unfamiliar defensive move to bother.

Florges sent a Wish into Carbink at this point. Her practice with Sophie meant she was starting to be able to conjure the healing star of Wish between her hands, but it generally required her to use all her focus to be able to. It was less of a technique for battles, and more of a technique for out of combat healing.

The battle shifted to support our path out as Azumarill and her two Fire Type helpers pushed through the Pokémon to defend us from behind. Ninetales took the risky move of running over the swarm by jumping off of several of the Durant’s heads, using Agility to just barely outspeed the attacks.

I had to unfortunately return Altaria at this point. The room was getting too crowded to support everyone, and I didn’t want him getting grabbed and isolated by the Durant on the ceiling.

As we continued forward, the lead Heatmor tore through the few Durant trying to block our way, its claws strong enough to actually dent the bugs’ metal armor. It looked like our strategy was working, but the swarm shifted and reformed to completely block the exit.

The Durant didn’t want us leaving through this door. At the same time, they didn’t open a path back the other way. We were stuck.

"Ralts, do you think you can get us past it?" I asked quickly.

Ralts, who had once more only barely been contributing by throwing the occasional individual away, glanced between everyone here. He seemed hesitant, and I knew what he meant.

If I returned everyone at once, he would still need to take the three Heatmor with us. Four passengers were far outside his current powers.

However, Ralts nodded anyway.

"You can?"

Ralts sent me an annoyed look at my shock and nodded once more. Quickly, I turned to my team to shout more orders.

"Group up! I'm returning you all. We're going to Teleport!"

As ridiculous as it was, Azumarill bounced on her tail with Splash and did a backflip over a charging Durant to return to a spot next to me. The two fighting Heatmor caused fire to spiral around themselves with Fire Spin to ward any approaching Durant off. It was a powerful defense, but the flames started to die down nearly immediately and it didn’t look like they had the energy to sustain it.

Ninetales leapt over our group and I returned her in the same moment that Azumarill disappeared as well. Florges, still pressing close, was returned to her Heal Ball, and Ponyta managed to send out one last Heal Pulse to help the larger Heatmor maintain its assault.

Carbink closed their eyes with focus to seal us in a tight, screen-based cube. The flames died out and all three Heatmor pressed together.

"Whenever you're ready, Ralts," I said.

Rather than rushing in, the Durant moved to surround us. Their eyes were narrowed with malice and there was a sense of unnerving glee in the swarm as if they thought they had won. Despite being in a far more open cavern than the tunnel from the last encounter, the Heatmor’s presence meant I was having difficulty breathing. There weren't any toxic fumes from melting stone, but their bodies gave off so much heat, each breath I took burned my lungs.

Carbink was returned early since the Durant weren’t moving in just yet. Their screens became less solid without them repeatedly re-upping their initial, full-solid state, but the screens’ presence still served to ward off the bugs.

The Durant stopped positioning themselves and started to move in. It was a slow and terrifying march that likely spelt the end of whatever was caught in it.

Ralts’s eyes were already closed in focus. He glowed with a blue light that surrounded both him and us.

It flickered for a moment. The blue light started to fade away.

“Ralts! Please, don’t give up! You’re one of the most powerful Psychic Type Pokémon I know; you can do it, I believe in you!”

I admit, my words were a bit hammy, but considering Mega Evolution existed, I had no reason to doubt that the power of friendship did as well.

I was unsure if it was my words or the sheer stress of the situation pushing Ralts to new heights that caused what happened next.

Ralts screamed his name and the blue glow around the three Heatmor and I significantly increased its hue as Psychic Type energy flowed out of Ralts. His eyes shot open and looked to be pure blue rather than their natural red. At the same time, white light filled the cavern, and every Durant paused.

As a single-stage Pokémon, I doubted the Durants were too familiar with what was going on. It wasn’t every day that a Pokémon evolved in front of their compound eyes.

At first, Ralts just increased in height as his body increased in mass. His loose clothing-like skin pulled up and stretched out into a rim that resembled a small skirt. His legs extended and bent to have him balance on a point, and his red horns shifted to sit above the green dome on his head that now hung past his shoulders.

He spun to focus himself and the light faded. Ralts was no longer a Ralts. He was now a Kirlia.

Kirlia screamed, and with his increase in power, the four beings relying on him to escape disappeared from view, only to reappear in the entrance to the cave behind the swarm. As soon as the move was done, he collapsed in exhaustion, and I returned him to his Nest Ball.

As impressive as that was, we couldn’t spare any moment to congratulate him. The Heatmor and I took off running.

The sounds of thousands of skittering limbs echoed behind us as we rushed through one of the connecting corridors. This one bent downwards at quite a slope, making it difficult to run without falling forward. The angled ground at least meant we were moving much faster than usual, and since Durants tended to climb whatever surface they were on, we were managing to get quite the lead.

The ground eventually leveled out, causing me to stumble a bit, but everything I'd done in these past few weeks meant I was keeping my balance. While the air quality down here wasn't the best, I was at least more used to this kind of exercise in my attempt to flee.

I somehow ended up leading this small group as we were forced into a single file line to fit into the tight, upcoming corridor. The largest Heatmor stayed in the back, clearly trying to keep an eye out for the two that worked under it.

Soon, we banked around a corner, and I barely pulled to a stop in time after a certain sight came into view.  One of the Heatmor crashed into my back and burned me slightly with the heat of its body. It stepped back before any real damage was done, but I wasn’t fully recognizing that anyway.

Even with that slight pain, though, my mind was elsewhere. There had been no major twists, no hidden routes, and even no forks in this tunnel.

Yet somehow, we reached a dead end.

The sound of the Durant swarm approaching continued behind us. I stared at the slate black wall with no hope in my eyes.

"...What do we do now?" I mumbled.

I asked, and the universe answered.

The sound of something bubbling made itself known as the wall turned a bright red, then shifted through warm hues before turning pure white. Chunks of molten stone dripped to the floor as the wall was melted down and opened up to reveal a creature behind it.

It was a large Pokémon, reaching my chest despite standing on four legs. I would say it almost looked amphibian in nature if it wasn’t for the lava dripping from the wide mouth on its squat, metallic face. Its hide was spotted with reds and browns as wide feet dug into the floor.

Its deep amber eyes bore into me. I choked back a breath.

"Heatran," I whispered.

Heatran was a Legendary Pokémon. It wasn’t one that controlled an aspect of reality, but it was still extremely rare and was capable of tremendous power. If I had to rank it, I’d say it was weaker than a trained Diancie, but stronger than something like a Latios.

A voice rang out from behind it. A human voice.

"Good! You've made it. I was getting worried you wouldn't reach this point. It’s been a while since Gavel told me you were making the final push."

"What."

I wasn't really able to think of anything better to say upon seeing Byron standing there alongside a Heatran.

In an act of either pure cowardice or true bravery, all three Heatmor rushed past me to dash behind Heatran and disappear into the tunnel Byron and the Legendary emerged from. I was pushed against the stone wall to let them squeeze by, and, seeing them move past me, I immediately moved forward to do the same.

"There's a horde of Durant chasing us,” I said quickly. “Can Heatran help?"

Byron paled. That didn’t make me feel any better.

"Heatran, quickly, Lava Plume! Bring down this cavern!"

Byron hopped back away from Heatran as I did the same. The Legendary Pokémon opened its mouth up to send out a burst of literal lava that hit the ceiling behind me.

Molten rock dripped down in large chunks to fill and seal the passage. I only had a brief glance of a few Durant turning the corner before they were completely obscured from view.

Byron let out a sigh of relief.

"Heatran could have taken them, but we're not prepared for an extended battle. Good thing Heatran detected you with its tremor sense, huh? If we hadn’t been waiting for you for so long, things could have really gone south.”

"No kidding," I said as flatly as possible.

Byron just laughed and moved down the much wider tunnel he had emerged from.

"Oh, don't make that face. Follow me. Let's reach the fourth area of Iron Island."

I spent a moment in stunned silence.

"Really? Just like that?"

"Yup. Just like that," Byron replied. "Alex, to tell the truth, I haven't been completely honest with you."

"...You don't say.”

My tone was just as flat as before. Byron laughed again.

"In truth, I used you for an experiment. I needed to see how trainers might reach these depths. Area four might not be the most high level area, but it’s certainly the most unique."

"Unique, huh? I don't suppose it has a Pokémon Center?"

"It does!" Byron exclaimed.

I stopped in my tracks only for Heatran to butt its head behind me to keep me moving. Its metal face was surprisingly cold.

"Please continue your explanation," I said quietly.

"Maybe it's best to show you instead."

We continued down the tight tunnel to make our way towards wherever Byron was leading me. It was a bit unnerving that a Legendary Pokémon was just casually walking along, but I'd stumbled upon so many of them at this point that I was slowly getting used to it.

Eventually, the smooth crack we were walking through opened up into a new cavern that utterly dwarfed any of the ones I'd been to before.

This one was high enough that the ceiling felt as if an entire city block could fit without touching the top, and the walls were filled with glowing crystals that lit up the room in an eternal day.

The cavern was divided into two halves, with one being a craggy, molten magma field, and the other being a rocky, sparse forest. The terrain shifted from raw heat to warm but temperate, and, somehow, the room had enough airflow to support that.

Spread throughout this biome, various Pokémon moved around as they played and trained. A good number of them were common species like Staravia and Geodude, but more eye-catchingly, there were extraordinarily rare species such as slug-like Sliggoo moving around in large metal shells and herds of Bastiodon and Shieldon munching on some of the shrubs growing on the non-burning half.

Additionally, in the back, there was a small wooden hut built into the wall, complete with a red Pokéball symbol on the top.

Byron was not lying when he said there was a Pokémon Center here.

"My father is one of the foremost experts on Sinnoh's underground," Byron began. "When he was young, he stumbled upon this place and realized the significance of his discovery. Rather than publishing his findings to rack up the fame, he contacted the League to ask for help to turn this place into a secret Pokémon sanctuary. My father was not a selfish man; he recognized that these Pokémon were living a peaceful life and didn’t need hundreds of trainers rushing here to capture them due to their rarity.

"Heatran lived here as its guardian even before my father found it. Somehow, he managed to befriend it, and they worked together for years to defend this place. It’s responsible for allowing people to go in and out by detecting them with its tremor sense and sealing and opening the caverns appropriately. Without Heatran, we wouldn’t have been able to find you so easily.”

“Cool, but wasn’t I supposed to fight someone to gain access? Or go through a test like Riley had me do?” I asked.

“The challenge was just getting here,” Byron said, scratching his face. “I didn’t want to rush you.”

I had no response to that level of obliviousness.

“So the Durant were just a coincidence then.”

“No, the Durant were a mistake,” he replied. “How much do you know about the rules around releasing Pokémon?”

“Most of it,” I said, thinking of the research I had done after learning Azumarill’s background as well as what I’d looked up after meeting with Paul.

“Then you know the League tries to put Pokémon back in their appropriate environment,” Byron said. “Normally, they’re sent back to the same area they’re caught, but sometimes those Pokémon are too strong to return. It would upset the natural balance of those environments.

“To offset that, the League tries to find appropriate areas to send Pokémon so they can live peacefully. The Durant on Iron Island was one such attempt, but it was done early in the League’s attempts to increase biodiversity, and we didn’t fully realize how quickly Bug Types could breed here. Without any specific predators, the Durant population spiraled out of control, and a species that would have fit in just fine on paper has turned into a major problem we barely have a handle on.”

Byron glanced over to the section with streaks and pools of molten rock to look at the three Heatmor that had helped me here. The largest one had its lower half dipped into some magma as if it was just a bath, and the other two were just stalking around and digging between some rocks. I would need to give them their hard-earned berries later.

Byron sighed.

“We introduced Heatmor to the depths of the island to help, but they can only do so much. The presence of Steelix above at least keeps them contained to the lower levels, but they’re likely to spread soon. We’re still working on a solution.”

I shot him an annoyed look.

“And knowing that, you still encouraged me to come down here?”

“Well, it was good training, wasn’t it?”

I hated that he was right, but at the same time, I had come to Iron Island to prepare my team and I to better handle potential life-threatening situations, not to experience more of them.

I started to walk towards the Pokémon Center as Byron rushed after me.

“Okay, okay, I admit, I made a mistake. You were the perfect candidate to send down here since recent discoveries of other underground biomes meant that it's time to finally open this place up to the rest of The Underground and the world at large. Iron Island is my responsibility as the Canalave Gym Leader, I can’t have trainers risking their lives to catch a rare species.”

“But you can risk me?”

Byron opened his mouth to respond, then sat there gaping for a few moments before closing it again.

“Okay, I admit you have a point as well. I severely messed up. I needed to see how easy it would be for someone to stumble upon this area. The only ways to reach here are either from Iron Island itself or the Underground, but Heatran keeps this section of the underground separate from the mainland’s. After looking into your background, I thought that—”

“So not only did you send me and my Pokémon into an extremely dangerous environment under the pretense of training, but you purposely invaded my privacy?”

Byron huffed.

“I submitted a request for what information the League had on you after you beat my son, Roark, in that Pokémon battle. Normally I would read over the documents the next day, but yours took so long to process I assumed something was up. Very few trainers have that amount of restrictions on their information! I thought you were competent and could handle it.”

“I mean I could, and we did, and my team benefited from it as well. I’m just sick of all these life-threatening situations. You could have just asked me up front, or even just given me more information to better prepare. We got trapped by that Durant swarm twice and wouldn’t have made it out if it wasn’t for Kirlia’s Teleport.”

“I prepared you with those tests, though!” Byron pointed out.

My lack of response was all the response he needed.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

I wasn’t going to mention that I would have come this way anyway.

We walked a bit further before stopping outside the Pokémon Center. The doors were freshly made, but they were made of wood so I couldn’t see in. I couldn’t hear the telltale sound of trainers talking inside, though.

“Are you still going to challenge my Gym?” Byron spoke up, speaking for the first time in a bit.

“Of course, but my team still has time left in our training schedule. I don’t suppose we’d be welcome here to train?”

“Of course!” he said quickly. “That was half the reason I wanted you to get here! I need to see how some of the wild Pokémon will respond to the presence of trainers and their teams.”

I nodded.

“Good. I’m a little upset with you, but I’ll have time to calm down. Don’t expect me to go easy on you in our battle.”

Byron threw his head back and let out a deep, booming laugh. A nearby Spinarak dropped out of a tree in front of the Pokémon Center and scurried away from the loud noise.

“Great! I’m looking forward to it, Alex,” Byron said. “ Your team performed admirably, even with your loss last time. I want to see how much you all have improved since then.”

I didn’t have anything else to say, so I simply entered the building. Byron, thankfully, walked off elsewhere, leaving me to heal up my team and rest before we resumed training tomorrow.

We had a lot to take care of before our last bit of time training. Pokémon needed to be switched around, moves needed to be practiced, and, most importantly, Kirlia deserved a congratulatory dinner for his evolution.

Iron Island had resulted in huge gains for my team. Horrible bug swarms aside, we would soon be ready to take on Byron’s Gym.

====================================================
Author Note

Welcome to Chapter 103. We’ve got a Heatmor berry deal, an even bigger ant swarm, Ralts evolving, a surprise Legendary Pokémon, and even one of those underground biomes from Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, complete with wild Hisuian forms and fossils. Byron Gym Battle next chapter.

I picture Byron kind of like an absentee father. He still keeps in touch with his son, but he rarely visits to focus on his hobbies (read: digging for fossils) instead. He might be decent in Pokémon battles, but I translated that here as a mild ineptness when it comes to dealing with people. He spends most of his time underground when he’s not battling, after all.

No chapter on Sunday.

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:
Geodude
Durant
Heatmor
Hisuian Sliggoo
Magby
Metang
Shieldon / Bastiodon
Slugma / Magcargo
Spinarak
Staravia
Steelix

Previous Chapter 
Next Chapter