Chapter 117 (Patreon)

I have no idea how, but Steven somehow stumbled onto a trio of assistants that he would leave to meet up with each day. They literally came out of nowhere and yet were master diggers perfect for helping him in The Underground. Whenever I tried to get more information about his mysterious new companions, he simply smirked and said “Keeping them close will save people a lot of trouble down the line."

I cursed Phoebe for tutoring Steven to be better at obscuring information.

Due to his more frequent absences, I followed Ash with no further major occurrences until we reached Pastoria. I made sure to enter a different Pokémon Center than the one Ash did upon arrival just to try to avoid any unnecessary encounters with him.

Unfortunately, due to my time away from major cities, I had forgotten to wear a disguise. Almost as soon as I entered the room, some of the trainers there looked my way and started to whisper.

There weren't too many trainers present in the Pokémon Center this deep into the season, but there were enough that I easily sensed a shift in the feeling of the room. It wasn’t just that they were recognizing me, it almost felt like there was something going on. I felt a mix of both apprehension and excitement as I approached the main counter.

The nurse here was professional enough to take my Pokémon for a checkup without comment. The other trainers, not so much.

Practically the second I thumped down onto a couch to relax and wait for my team to finish being looked over, a completely random trainer hopped over the back to land into a seated position next to me. He shifted around to support his head with his arm on the couch's back, then gave me a wide smile which I hesitantly (and only for politeness’s sake) returned.

"So, have you seen the interview?" he asked.

The smile left my face as my eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I'm not aware of any interviews," I responded slowly.

The trainer, almost giddy, pulled out a laptop and tried to move closer to place it in my lap. Thankfully, he got the hint when I scooted away from him and placed it on the table instead.

There was a bit of site-searching through the Sinnoh forums until he pulled up the thread labeled "Alex, Mega/Fairy Specialist,” where the inclusion of my chosen Type alongside the “Mega” label did relieve me of some unrelated worries, then scrolled down to where someone had posted a video. As he did, I caught a glimpse of a few comments.

...

VolknerFan1
14:56 October 2
I don't know, it felt like it was a decent battle.

SmolPokeLover
15:04 October 2
Feels like decent battle? **** you. It was a smackdown. Chance had it coming

Anonymous
15:38 October 2
Azuzu stronk

Gallades_Friend
15:45 October 2
You go, Alex! I knew you were super strong!

Dragonfish
16:12 October 2
Just watched all the videos. The whole situation was kind of unjustified if you ask me. All Chance did was not catch a Pokémon he didn’t want to catch. There wasn’t any reason to freak out about it. Trainers aren’t obligated to catch Pokémon who like them. Alex should get over themselves.

FuyouHibiscus
16:24 October 2
Replying to: Dragonfish at 16:12 October 2
Did you see JubilifeNative’s video post back in June? <link>

Leftovers_stall
17:12 October 2
Replying to: Dragonfish at 16:12 October 2
Wow, heartless mhch?

Dragonfish
17:29 October 2
Replying to: FuyouHibiscus at 16:24 October 2
No, I haven’t. Just got back from work. I’ll check it out when I can.
EDIT: Okay, I’m on Alex’s side now.

Anonymous
18:30 October 2
Fairy Type? More like “Ferry” type with how hard Azumarill is carrying Alex’s team. Come on, get a decent Pokémon other than her

Gaburias
21:47 October 2
I don't get fairies. They're just pink. Alex shouldn't got so worked up

PlumUpala
3:12 October 3
Well done!

Icepunk_477
4:31 October 3
I'm so sick and tired of lucky trainers being the ones that get far. Like, what, some random person does well in one tournament, then all of a sudden they're sponsored by a freaking professor? Like, if I had three months of a paid training vacation I could make my team just as strong. There's no talent to this, just who has the most money and connections. Alex should be suspended

SleepyInSinnoh
7:18 October 3
Replying to: Icepunk_477 at 4:31 October 3
Lol mad. Bet u only got 3 badges

Icepunk_477
11:19 October 3
<User was banned for this post.>

Lucian [Forum Moderator]
11:23 October 3
There’s no need to be so rude.

JubilifeNative
12:21 October 3
Whoa! Chance just did an interview on Sinnoh: Actual. Here's a recording: <link>

...

As far as I could tell, most of the comments that discussed what happened in the Lake Valor Resort were in favor of my reaction, but I was only seeing the ones posted a few days after my battle with Chance happened. I wasn’t surprised that most of them were just complimenting Azumarill’s strength. Based on the clicking around the random trainer next to me was doing, my dedicated thread didn’t get a lot of activity outside of the show battles. For this outlying period, I estimated about seventy percent of those leaving comments were doing so to support me.

However, the link to the interview started up, and I couldn’t help but to feel some dread in my stomach due to it involving Chance.

Once the video loaded, I saw that it wasn’t actually anything too professional, just a reporter that happened to catch Chance on the side of the street. Based on the date it was posted in the thread, it had taken place the morning of the final day of the Wallace Cup, when I had been far too focused on winning to actually pay this stuff any mind.

The reporter, a man in a white suit of all things, gave the camera a somewhat smarmy smile and began to speak.

“Welcome to Sinnoh: Actual! Your best source of real reporting, containing actual news! The Wallace Cup had been full of major, newsworthy events from the controversy surrounding accusations of Wallace’s nepotism to Coordinator Harper’s absolute meltdown after losing! Now, I’m here with a trainer you might remember from a few days ago. Chance, say hi to our audience.”

“Hello everyone! Happy to be here, not so happy about my loss,” Chance said uncomfortably cheerfully.

The fact that I’d never heard of Sinnoh: Actual and the weirdly personal topics the reporter had mentioned made me think the channel wasn’t as dedicated to real news as other stations.

The reporter continued to speak.

“For those who haven’t been following the story, Chance here was subjected to an unfortunate battle where a much more experienced trainer beat his team with a single Pokémon in a rather public environment. Rather than having a peaceful discussion, Chance’s opponent chose to humiliate him instead. Chance, you haven’t made any public appearances since your embarrassing loss. Any comments?”

“Yeah, I mean, I definitely deserved the loss, but not because of any philosophical differences. Alex had more time to train than me, so I lost due to the difference in strength.”

“So you’re claiming that you could beat Alex if you had more time to train?”

“Of course! Alex is just lucky. If I was sponsored by a Professor, I could definitely be doing the same things Alex is.”

The reporter gained a wide grin that spoke a lot about his thoughts on the story. I continued to watch, purposefully keeping a blank expression on my face.

“Seems to me you have a lot of thoughts on the topic,” he said.

“You know what? I do. Trainers like Alex have everything rigged in their favor. They have the money, the connections, the time to dedicate everything to becoming a better trainer. People like me? We don’t get that chance. Our argument about Ralts was just because Alex got upset at the way I caught my Pokémon. I only have six spots on my team so I have to be very careful on what I catch, unlike some people who get an entire ranch to support them. I was lucky enough to have Ralts help me catch the Pokémon I have now, but as for actually catching Ralts?”

He paused dramatically, causing the reporter to lean forward in interest.

“Well, sorry to disappoint, but it wasn’t anything special. I apologized and said I wasn’t interested in catching it, then peacefully parted ways afterwards. It’s not my fault if Alex came in later and tricked Ralts into being upset about it.”

My knuckles turned white from where I was clenching my fists.

“Honestly, look at Alex’s team, too. They have an Alolan Ninetales, an extremely rare Pokémon not even found in this region, a Florges, which is only found in Kalos and a few other places, a Galarian Ponyta, whose name says all about where its from, and even two different Pokémon that can Mega Evolve? Alex’s only been seen in one Conference before, yet they have Pokémon from across the globe? Maybe someone should look into where Alex’s Pokémon are coming from.”

I reached forward to pause the video.

“That’s enough. I don’t need to see any more.”

“Wait, wait, wait! You haven’t even seen the best part!” the literal stranger interrupted.

He skipped ahead to the end, which was only about a minute further in, to reach a point where Chance was staring directly at the camera. The reporter looked like he just won the lottery.

“Alex, if you’re watching this, I challenge you to a rematch in the Sinnoh Conference. You and me, let’s battle it out to settle this. No set-up moves, no tricks, just raw power against raw power. Show that you’re actually a good trainer and not one who can only win when things are rigged in your favor. I—”

“I’m leaving,” I said.

I immediately got up to wait near the counter, where people would be less likely to approach me and subject me to the words of a guy I didn’t want to hear about. The trainer on the couch let out a disappointed groan.

“What? Why? Aren’t you going to give a response to what Chance said?”

A few people in the room were holding devices in their hands to record me. I took a deep breathe to calm myself down and avoid making a scene.

I really wanted to call the guy out on how weird and eager he was to get my thoughts. However, now wasn’t the time to start arguments with anyone who approached me.

“My life would be a good life if I never encountered Chance again,” I said both to my surprise and the absolute sick enjoyment of almost everyone in the room. “He can become a great trainer in his own right if he focused on forming bonds with his team. However, this obsession with latching onto my lapels to start drama and lift himself up? Neither I nor Kirlia need it. Also, why is Chance calling Kirlia ‘Ralts?’ He knows Kirlia evolved. I just— You know what. I don’t need to talk about it anymore. I won’t be commenting on this again.”

Quiet murmurings broke out at my words. Based on a few of their reactions, I could tell they were enjoying the drama. For Kirlia’s sake, I had hoped Chance would never approach us again. It seemed that to him, continuing this drama was a way for him to make connections. I couldn’t blame him for trying to get a sponsorship or two—I distinctly remembered the struggle of barely having enough to sustain a team—but there was no reason for him to do so in this manner.

The nurse called out my name, and I grabbed my team’s Pokéballs. A few people looked like they wanted to approach me to talk. I simply chose to leave the Pokémon Center again.

We had a Gym Battle coming up in this town, although we would be skipping the Contest to give ourselves more time to practice our routines for the next one. I wanted to focus on training instead of any of this meaningless drama that would likely serve to undo all the progress Kirlia had made so far.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Steven found me late that afternoon. He approached with Claydol at his side, the Pokémon most likely leading him here by detecting my team’s minds. Ponyta had actually given me a heads up about Steven’s presence, so I wasn’t surprised when he pushed past a few vine-laden trees that surrounded this mildly swampy clearing. Despite the environment being rather muddy, his striped suit was as impeccable as always.

“I saw your response today,” he said once he reached my side. “It was good.”

I grunted unhappily.

“Shouldn’t have needed to make it. Chance should have just disappeared forever after our battle so we could forget about him.”

Steven chuckled softly at my words, then absentmindedly adjusted some of the rings on his fingers in thought.

“Not everything comes to a clean ending,” he said. “Kirlia needs more time to recover. Chance is trying to use this to boost himself up. The public lives off of drama. It’s likely this will last longer than either of us will like.”

I scoffed. No doubt I disliked this situation.

“I know I’m a Fairy Type specialist, but honestly, I feel like I’m closer to one of those fairies that live away from civilization rather than one that thrives on appearance. I’ve done interviews after show battles, and, recently, people have started to recognize me. But all the publicizing and socializing? That’s not something I’d go out of my way for.”

Steven nodded and casually sent out his Cradily a short distance away. The second the ancient Pokémon appeared, Whimsicott rushed down from the air to scoop up Carbink and move over to its side. The trio of Pokémon then engaged in simple conversation and move practice, Whimsicott and Carbink still (unsuccessfully) trying to learn Toxic.

“That mindset is fine to have,” Steven started. “It’s just a different style of being a trainer. Some work best training on their own out of the public eye, like Drake, of Hoenn’s Elite Four. Others practically live in it, going out of their way to make connections and gain influence to give them the opportunities they need to make their team strong. I personally consider myself a mix of the two, although I would say that you are closer to the second one than you think.”

“What, because I’ve shared information with you?”

“Yes, and because you’re adept at befriending people who already have those connections. Look at Wallace, Sycamore, Ramos, and now Cynthia. I don’t believe you intended it, but you have the connections many others would do almost anything for.”

“I didn’t go out of my way for any of them,” I said. “And Cynthia was mostly done out of desperation. I guess I profited from our exchange, but that was only after she dropped that monster on me.”

Steven lightly tapped his head, as if admonishing himself.

“Ah, yes. How could I forget the questionnaire you’ve been so focused on? Tell me, how far have you made it?”

“About forty percent,” I groaned.

Steven brought his head back and laughed, a sign of less controlled emotion I only rarely saw from the ex-Champion.

“Regardless, as someone who’s coming up in the world, you’ll undoubtedly meet people who wish to profit off of a connection to you. I’ve had my share in the past, and now you have Chance. I will say I’d rather deal with a ‘Chance’ than a ‘Team Rocket.’”

I hated how right he was.

“I guess you’re right,” I replied. “Not to change the topic or anything, but you do realize we need to split up soon, right?”

“I’ve already met with the Ace Trainers Cynthia assigned to me and gave them an overview of what’s to come,” he said.

I blinked in surprise.

“I thought you went to The Underground with your assistants?”

“That was this morning, I spent the afternoon getting everything set up.”

“Huh.”

We drifted off into silence as I watched my Pokémon train. Like I had tried to convince him to do in his battle against Ash, Kirlia was practicing non-Psychic Type moves by using his new TM move, Shadow Ball, against Ninetales. Whimsicott and Carbink were both failing to use Toxic. Finally, Florges was helping Ponyta get his own healing moves to be used much quicker and more efficiently. I had been personally working with a few of them before Steven showed up.

“So I guess this is where we’re splitting up,” I said.

“It seems so,” he said almost nostalgically. “It’s been pleasant traveling with you, Alex, but I wish to spend a while in a single cave system rather than traveling across the region so constantly. Even with the stress Ash gives, I’ve enjoyed my time so far. Thank you for traveling alongside me while it lasted”

“Thank you, too, Steven,” I replied. “You’re a good friend.”

He chuckled to himself happily.

“You are a good friend too, Alex. I wish you luck in your battle against Crasher Wake, and in all your endeavors to come.”

I nodded as we returned to our silence. As the sun began to set behind us, I said one final goodbye to Steven as we finally parted ways.

I didn’t see him again for the rest of my stay in Pastoria.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

“Aha! You’re here to take on the Crasher Wake! Like the harsh depths of the ocean, you’ve crushed the other Gym Leaders before you! But Crasher Wake is the sturdy, continuous flow of a waterfall! Come! Let us fight with all the power we can muster!’

Crasher Wake, the Pastoria Gym Leader, practically roared his words with flexing his immense body. The crowd of people in the stands cheered, the city’s Gym being much more popular than any Gym I’d seen so far in Sinnoh.

Crasher Wake was muscled, wearing a wrestler’s mask, and most importantly, completely shirtless. When it came to Water Type specialists, I regarded him as almost the complete opposite of Wallace, where instead of focusing on the gracefulness and the adaptability of Water Types, he focused on the strength and power of the Pokémon he used.

Despite the fact he had claimed we would be using all the power we could muster, that wouldn’t actually be the case. I wouldn’t be using the more experienced members of my team, but rather a trio of party members that needed the experience of this battle.

Kirlia would be competing in their first Gym Battle.

Carbink would be putting some new moves to use.

Ponyta would get more experience in preparation for evolution.

For this battle, we’d be facing off against Crasher Wake’s six-star team, which was unusually small in that it only had three Pokémon. I could have included Dedenne as he had the Type advantage against Water Types, but I felt that my other Pokémon would benefit more from this. Even if it was a poor decision, I didn’t care about losing here since losing would just let my Pokémon learn more from this fight. My end goal was the Conference; our battles along the way were to prepare us for that.

The battlefield itself was set up to be a single square platform floating over a deep pool of water. Grounded Pokémon wouldn’t have much space to fight, but there was plenty of room for Water Pokémon to swim around. The field shape practically guaranteed close-ranged, melee matches for the battle. I would have bet Crasher Wake had it set up like that on purpose.

The referee, standing on the side, wasn’t wearing the usual solid-colored sweatshirt of the referees of every other Gym. Instead, he was dressed like a different kind a referee; one that was wearing a black and white striped shirt complete with a whistle around his neck.

“ARRREEEE YOUUU REAADY TO BAATTLE!?” The referee screamed into his microphone after explaining the rules.

The audience cheered excitedly, Crasher Wake roared, and I nodded. The rules were the same as practically every match, except neither side was allowed to switch. However, there was a niche caveat to that that I planned to use to my advantage.

“TRAIIINEEERSSS! SEND. OUT. YOUR. POKÉMON!”

Crasher Wake laughed loudly and tossed forward a Great Ball. I tossed forward Kirlia’s Nest Ball. The Psychic Type gracefully appeared on the field and spun with a pirouette. Across from him, an incredibly tall mass of light coalesced into a serpent the size of a building. The angry face of a Gyarados appeared and roared out its name.

Kirlia’s eye twitched. Not out of fear or anger, but out of excitement. I’d been suspecting for quite a while that Azumarill’s own battle lust was rubbing off on him.

“You know the plan, Kirlia. Focus on using Shadow Ball,” I said.

Kirlia huffed in disappointed acceptance as he started to conjure a sphere of dark, ghostly energy in front of him. He was only barely able to start forming that move, however, as the Gyarados suddenly launched itself out of the water toward his position.

“Waterfall!” Wake screamed.

Kirlia only narrowly escaped in time with Teleport before the hulking form of the Gyarados crashed down onto his previous position. The Water Type was covered in the chaotic, forming waters of Waterfall, and its entire body took up half the field.

Kirlia didn’t even have the time to retaliate before Gyarados flicked its tail at him when he reappeared. The sudden Aqua Tail knocked the relatively light Psychic Type far into the air, where he disappeared and reappeared on the ground with Teleport, all momentum lost.

Kirlia huffed and puffed. Gyarados leered down at him.

“Forget Shadow Ball, go full defense with Double Team,” I quickly said.

Crasher Wake wasn’t one to let my command go unresponded.

“Rain Twister!” he yelled.

Gyarados moved to the center of the platform and tightly coiled itself up. Kirlia disappeared, and, this time, when he reappeared there were dozens of him all encircling Gyarados. He didn’t attack just yet, choosing to focus on Calm Mind while he had the safety of Double Team.

That was when Gyarados struck.

With the force of what felt like lightning, Gyarados snapped its body out and sent up a massive Twister all around it. As it did so, water was sent into the sky to form a Rain Dance, its creation speed enhanced by the move combo. That attack was a Dragon Type move, which meant Kirlia was immune to the damage, but that did little in the face of the intensely forceful winds it conjured.

Every Double Team copy was dissipated, and Kirlia himself was launched far into the sky. He could definitely react, but I felt as if this battle was not in his favor.

“Kirlia!” I yelled to my Pokémon. “Return!”

My words caused the referee to watch me closely as I held up Kirlia’s Nest Ball. There was no switching allowed in this battle, but that wasn’t exactly what I was doing.

From the air, Kirlia disappeared with a flash of Teleport, and the Pokéball I was holding up suddenly shifted in place as if something hit it from the inside. Essentially, he had used Teleport to return himself without me needing to return him on my own.

As this aligned with the niche rule, as I planned, the referee didn’t call me out.

Teleport was a switching move not unlike Baton Pass, Volt Switch, and the like, that allowed the user to reenter their Pokéball. A switching move could be used once per battle, regardless of any restriction on switching. Originally, these moves dominated the battlefield until League rules put this restriction in. They’d fallen to the wayside, but in a match like this, Kirlia’s Teleport was perfect to let me gauge Wake’s lead Pokémon and flip the flow of the battle to my favor.

This let me switch to my best answer to Gyarados.

“Ponyta, you got this!”

I tossed forward the Dream Ball containing the little horse, and Ponyta hit the ground running. Gyarados was still in the center of the field where it had used Twister, and it seemed like it would use it again. From above, rain poured from the clouded room, but the water on the floor did nothing to stop Ponyta’s charge.

His body began to crackle with electricity. Even at the smallest sign of sparks, Gyarados immediately freaked out and began to flinch backwards.

“Gyarados! Back in the water!” Wake quickly ordered.

“Don’t let it, Ponyta!”

Gyarados lifted up its tail to push itself to the safety of the water, but that attempt stalled when Ponyta used Confusion to “grab” its tail midair. However, the Water Type was strong enough to quickly break through the telekinetic grab. That reaction wasn’t enough to let it escape in time, and, thanks to the small field, Ponyta easily smashed his whole body into Gyarados with Wild Charge.

The reaction of such a massive serpent to a tiny horse was rather ridiculous. Gyarados’s entire body spasmed from the pain of a four-times effective move, as both of the Pokémon’s Types, Water and Flying, were vulnerable to electricity.

Wild Charge was a recoil move, so Ponyta took some damage as well. He stumbled back in pain, dealing with the force of the impact alongside his own electricity slightly shocking him.

Wake used this moment to call out for Gyarados to use Bite. I tried to tell Ponyta to repeat the move. We were too slow.

Gyarados managed to recover first and lunged down to snap its jaws around Ponyta. Ponyta was unfortunately not a Fairy Type just yet, so the Dark Type attack dealt super effective damage. The serpent flicked its head up to toss him in the air, where he tried to respond with Fairy Wind. Gyarados was already in the middle of a combo, so without Wake needing to order it to do so, Ponyta was hit by a Hydro Pump and knocked out.

"Feel the depths of Crasher Wake!" the Gym Leader yelled.

I returned the sad little horse to his Dream Ball. He may have fainted, but that didn’t necessarily doom my team. The Gyarados was huffing and puffing, having taken extreme damage from Ponyta’s single Electric Type move.

Since I already knew Kirlia wouldn’t be a good option, I sent out the extremely sturdy Carbink next.

"Defenses up. Ancient Power to wear it down," I ordered.

Carbink, the little geode Pokémon, responded to my orders by creating a Light Screen and Reflect around themself. Gyarados responded by trying to slam into them with a Waterfall, but Carbink was nearly unaffected.

Small chunks of glowing rock were formed and jabbed into Gyarados. The attack itself wasn’t very strong, but Gyarados was also vulnerable to Rock Type moves, making Carbink’s move deal more than just chip damage.

"Keep up Waterfall!" Crasher Wake yelled.

I said nothing. Carbink already had this in the bag.

Gyarados managed to hit another Waterfall, but it didn’t matter. While it was gathering up the water to use the move a third time, Carbink had hardened themself with one of their new moves, Iron Defense; a move that had caused me to delay our challenge against Crasher Wake just to let Carbink learn.

Iron Defense let Carbink’s body gain a Steel Type hue as they imbued themself with the appropriate Type of energy. Gyarados’s attacks did nearly nothing.

"Hydro Pump!"

Even one of the strongest Water Type moves in existence did little damage to Carbink. Carbink was small and easily knocked around, but their body was extraordinarily hard and dense. That combined with their Reflect and Light Screen cutting the moves’ power in half or blocking them outright made them a formidable foe to fight.

By the end, Carbink was practically completely silver from using Iron Defense so much. The only part of their body that wasn’t silver was a small patch of Light Clay I had spread out on them to help empower their screen-based moves. The Gyarados eventually fainted from the continued Rock Type onslaught, meaning Carbink, albeit decently injured at this point, was prepared to take on whatever Crasher Wake sent out.

His second Pokémon was a Quagsire, the sight of which made me worried.

It wasn't that I hadn't expected it—I had looked up the possible Pokémon Crasher Wake could have on his team beforehand—it was just that Quagsire’s Unaware would cause difficulties for Carbink. The ability let the Pokèmon ignore all stat changes, which meant Iron Defense was effectively worthless here.

"Body Press," I ordered, regardless.

Even though Quagsire was a decently bulky Pokémon in its own right, Carbink’s second new move gave them a chance to knock out Quagsire through that bulk. Body Press was a move based around a Pokemon’s defenses, rather than its offenses, meaning for Carbink, it was an attack that could deal devastating damage.

Carbink rushed forward in the air at Quagsire, and, with an order from Crasher Wake, the Quagsire used Mud Bomb in response. My Pokémon’s Light Screen helped reduce the damage, and Carbink simply continued forward through the mud to reach their target.

To my surprise, Body Press left quite the bruise upon Quagsire’s spongy body when it hit. The Water Type groaned in pain, and I smiled. None of Carbink’s other attacks would have been able to deal this much damage. Body Press was perfect to win this match.

"Keep it up!" I yelled.

"Get away!" Wake called out.

Quagsire tried to shift positions, but it quickly found itself slamming into Carbink's screens, unable to escape. Light Clay empowered those moves to let them last longer, and Carbink was skilled enough to use them quickly. Rather than a Pokémon battle, Carbink had turned this into a full-on cage match in their own special way, forcing both Pokémon into a tight space.

Quagsire laid into them with Aqua Tails, Mud Bombs, Water Pulses, and even an ineffective Slam. Carbink needed no moves other than Body Press.

Both Pokémon were repeatedly bounced off of the set up screens like the ropes of a wrestling ring, but Carbink was in a much better position thanks to their innate defenses, powerful attack, as well as personal screens reducing the damage of Quagsire’s attacks.

Just like the Gyarados before it, Quagsire, too, fell to Carbink whittling it away. This time, Carbink’s attacks dealt impressive damage thanks to the boost from Body Press, making it go a lot quicker.

When Quagsire fainted, Carbink shifted up in the air proudly and looked back at me.

“Carbink. Car bink car, car bink, Carbink! Bink, car car Carbink,” they said.

They then nodded sagely as if they had said something profound.

Carbink was rather wounded at this point, and despite their incredible tankiness, they were honestly having trouble staying conscious. Gyarados and Quagsire had done quite a number to the little Rock Type, but I trusted them to weaken whoever was sent out at least a bit.

Then, the lights cut out. Embarrassingly, I thought Team Rocket was about to attack. That proved untrue when music began to play.

"Crash! Crash! Crasher Wake!

"A tidal wave of power to wash you away!

"Crash! Crash! Crasher Wake!

"Put out the fire, Crasher Wake!"

I had been confused why the stands were so filled, but I got the answer here. Right now, an honest-to-goodness theme song was playing overhead, with the audience cheering and singing along.

Eventually, a spotlight appeared over Crasher Wake as he went into what was essentially an introduction for his last Pokémon.

"You've done well to get this far, Challenger," Crasher Wake said dramatically. "But you haven't faced my last Pokémon before. This... this is where it gets exciting."

He tossed forward a Pokéball to send out his ace for the battle. On the field, a tall, orange weasel with an inflatable scarf around its neck coalesced from the light of its ball.

"Go, my Pokémon!” Crasher Wake yelled out. “Floatzel! Crush it beneath your waves!"

While this Floatzel's Aqua Jet wasn't as fast or strong as Azumarill's, it was still a force to be reckoned with. The Water Type rushed forward to slam its body into Carbink, and before Carbink was knocked too far back, grabbed them and slammed them into the ground.

Carbink tried to float back up into the air to use Body Press one last time, but Floatzel sent out a Brine of salt water to dig into Carbink's dents and cracks. Since Carbink was already injured, the move was ever so much more painful and damaging, finally knocking out the little geode that could.

The watchers in the stands practically went insane at such a dramatic entrance. I returned my Pokémon in silence.

In unison, both Floatzel and Crasher Wake flexed to show off their bodies. I sent out Kirlia.

"Kirlia, same strategy as before," I ordered.

Kirlia seemed a bit annoyed at the lack of Psychic Type moves, but he was still more motivated than ever to fight in this battle and be a part of the team. Just like he did against Gyarados, he disappeared, only to conjure numerous copies of himself over the field, making Floatzel lose track of his position.

Floatzel used Rain Dance as Kirlia set up, not bothering to attack just yet. The water had been pouring down since all throughout the battle with Quagsire, and now it was here to stay.

Considering that Floatzel’s ability was Swift Swim, it would now be much faster.

"Get them all with Ice Fang!" Crasher Wake commanded.

Floatzel dropped to all fours as its teeth frosted with ice then zoomed off. One by one, the illusions fell, Floatzel slamming into them like a connect-the-dots. Kirlia and I had trained for this situation, so he wasn’t hit just yet. By using Teleport, he was able to constantly hide his position while conjuring more Double Team copies to keep Floatzel off his trail.

He stalled a bit to let Floatzel miss him several more times until Kirlia seemed to have squeezed in enough uses of Calm Mind. Once that happened, Kirlia purposefully let Floatzel hit him.

On impact, the Water Type weasel snatched Kirlia off the floor and lifted him up to carry him in the air as it sailed forward with momentum. Its mouth was wide open to bite down on Kirlia. He didn’t let that happen.

Thanks to the enhanced focus of Calm Mind, the formation of Shadow Ball was a lot quicker. The move impacted Floatzel’s face like a slap, sending its head back.

When it snapped down and forward, Kirlia was already gone. His Teleport had brought him out of his assailant’s hands.

Understanding this strategy wouldn’t work, Crasher Wake changed orders.

"Sweep them all away with Surf!" he ordered confidently.

Floatzel leapt back to the edge of the field, where, with a bit of concentration, it began to bring up a towering wall of water. The surrounding pool bulged upwards and raised in height, threatening to wash away all Double Team illusions in a single attack.

I finally relented to Kirlia’s wishes.

"Go ahead and Confusion," I said.

Every one of Kirlia's copies gained a mad grin.

Floatzel, its arms raised to use Surf, suddenly froze where it was. Its entire body became surrounded in blue, Psychic Type light, unable to react.

"Break out with Waterfall!" Wake commanded.

Rushing water moved away from the half-formed Surf to surround Floatzel instead. Unfortunately for it, it didn’t break out, but unfortunately for us, the Waterfall let it move.

Still stuck in the same position, the water coated its body, and tilted it forward. Kirlia struggled to maintain his hold on it, and eventually lost control of his attack. His eyes still glowed with Psychic Type energy as he tried his best to stop the incoming Water Type.

That was a mistake. Floatzel easily locked onto the sole figure with glowing eyes and charged forward. The water moving around its body like a drill, Floatzel crashed right into Kirlia—

Then continued out to the other side.

It was another illusion, a trick.

Despite being able to move and being enhanced by the rain, Floatzel wasn't able to react in time to stop Kirlia screaming into its ear. Combined with the Calm Mind-boosted Shadow Ball and Confusion, this similarly enhanced Disarming Voice finished it off.

“Yes! Kirlia, you did it!” I cheered.

My heart was pounding with excitement. This was Kirlia’s first Gym Battle, and somehow, he managed to pull off a victory. He’d been training so hard these last few months, constantly improving his Psychic Type moves, and, recently, sparring against the much stronger members of my team.

For him to win like this? I was so proud of him.

Despite their prized Gym Leader having lost, the audience still cheered rather excitedly to have seen such a great fight. Kirlia stood frozen, almost in shock, next to where Floatzel lay fainted.

A small bridge extended out from the trainer platforms to let us go onto the field. Crasher Wake returned his unconscious Pokémon, but I didn’t do the same just yet.

"Hear that, Kirlia?" I said when I got close. "They're cheering for you. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you're weak. I’ve seen how much you’ve been training, how much effort you’ve put in to get here. You’re slowly becoming one of the toughest Psychic Type Pokémon I know. You did a great job.”

Kirlia’s eyes, wide at the response of the audience, watered up slightly. He wiped them with his arm, then looked up at me with a smile.

“Kirl, lia!” he said.

I gave him a smile back.

“I’m very proud of you,” I said.

I let Kirlia take in the continued cheering of the crowd for a bit longer. He needed this moment to realize that Chance was wrong about him. He was strong, he had potential, and he would become a powerhouse of a Pokémon soon enough.

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

The Gym Battle’s "aftermath" will be dealt with in the next chapter.

As a note regarding the comments at the start of this chapter: early on in this fiction, I included a few forum posts that I never revisited since I wasn't too happy with the outcome. There’ve been a few people asking for something similar to this, so I decided to give it another shot. This chapter was the first time I felt like I could actually fit in the reactions after everything that happened in Lake Valor

Crasher Wake fight details:

Crasher Wake used his in game team here. There’d been enough battles where Gym Leaders had “custom” teams that I thought it would be fun to go back to the basics. Also, for the switching rule caveat, I’d actually been sitting on that for quite some time. My intention was to have it be the lead in to teaching Mawile Baton Pass, but as it stands, it made more sense to reveal it now as Kirlia knows Teleport.

Ponyta’s exchange with Gyarados (seriously, that 4x weakness to Electricity really hurt it here):

160 Atk Ponyta-Galar Wild Charge vs. 160 HP / 160 Def Gyarados: 272-324 (73.3 - 87.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
160 Atk Gyarados Bite vs. 160 HP / 160 Def Ponyta-Galar: 152-180 (54 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Since Body Press uses a Pokemon’s defense stat in its damage calculation, Carbink was able to deal much more damage to Quagsire over their over moves (about 25% of Quagsire's health, as compared to the 8% of Carbink’s other attacks).

Remaining TMs to be taught:
-Shadow Ball: Whimsicott
-Psychic: Florges, Carbink

Pokémon (and people) mentioned in this chapter:
Claydol
Floatzel
Gyarados
Quagsire

Crasher Wake

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