Chapter 12

Metang’s claws twitched. His arms moved imperceptibly. His red eyes never left the forms of the Pokémon before him, but he wasn’t involved in this battle.

An electric, gliding rodent—and Emolga—flew circles around a Gothitelle standing stock-still. The Psychic type almost seemed as though it was merely a model showing off its tiered dress, but that was just because it was locked into intense focus, trying to lock down its highly mobile opponent.

Though nothing was visibly happening in this battle, it was an intense show of agility and skill. This battle was exactly the kind of fight that Metang would have jumped in on within the Giant Chasm, but fighting a certain Iron Valiant had all but beaten patience into him.

However, I could tell Metang wasn’t truly impressed. Not really. Not with this. These two Pokémon might have been battling at a level that was above his own, but they didn’t hold a candle to that Metagross.

And that Metagross certainly didn’t hold a candle to what Metang had experienced against Kyurem.

We needed to have that battle. Kyurem set an expectation. We know the heights we need to reach, and now Metang has a proper goal to chase after.

The Battle Club’s main battlefield had been built to take over an old plaza set between buildings. Trainers battled in the middle, and casual observers as well as trainers waiting for their turn could watch from the stands built at the battlefield’s sides. 

“You ever fight a Gym Leader before?” Dianne asked from where she was sitting next to me. The Battle Club limited just how many Pokémon a trainer could have out at once—otherwise, this place would be packed with countless teams—but right now, Liepard was pretending to be “her” Pokémon for that limit. He was lying down with his head in her lap, eyes closed and relaxed.

“I’ve battled a few. Not to earn any badges, but just for some casual battles,” I answered, turning back toward the field. “Some of them, I wasn’t interested in facing, but they challenged me. Honestly, I’ll never forget facing a team of Ghost types while my opponent rapped at their back.”

It was the strangest form of psychoanalysis I’d ever seen.

Dianne was watching me, but I was more focused on the battle taking place. The pair of trainers below us were skilled—more skilled than most trainers I’d battled so far—but they weren’t active trainers. They were a pair of old men who had retired long ago, having come to the Battle Club to have a friendly and casual match during their downtime.

They weren’t anyone I could challenge as part of the World Coronation Series, but I could at least appreciate what they were showing off in the match. No moves were being exchanged, but this fight was pushing the Emolga’s agility to its limits, and while the Gothitelle was unable to secure a telekinetic grasp, it never once dropped its focus.

“So... did you win?” Dianne asked.

“Only in about half,” I replied idly. “A lot of those battles were more about teaching me a lesson. The second Gym Leader I faced had us fight in a double battle, and she focused down Farigiraf to have her team battle Valiant two-on-one. Even though Valiant was stronger than all of her Pokémon individually, we still lost.”

“Let me guess,” Dianne said, “you were so focused on training Valiant that you weren’t spending enough time with Farigiraf.”

That lesson had been beaten into my head so harshly that I didn’t even wince.

“Yeah. I changed how I was treating my team after that. Farigiraf got a lot more of the attention she deserved. And that battle—would you believe me that it was against the Gym Leader considered to be the weakest in all of Paldea?”

Dianne laughed, but I didn’t. I smiled at the memory even though it had been a tough lesson to learn. Ever since that experience, I’d always made sure all of my Pokémon received time for focused practice. While directing my efforts on a single team member might have resulted in Valiant getting even stronger than they were initially, it wasn’t fair to Farigiraf, and even then, strong, single Pokémon could be overwhelmed with the right strategy.

Unless, of course, that single Pokémon was a Pokémon like Kyurem.

“And that’s the level of strength my team needs to reach,” I whispered.

“The Gym Leader’s?” Dianne asked.

“Sure,” I said, leaning back in my seat and sending a glance to Metang. I knew we needed to head out sooner rather than later, but it wasn’t even lunch yet, and I could tell Metang would despise me if we didn’t get into at least one battle.

“Anyway, I think that battle is why I like Bug-type moves a bit more than other trainers,” I said. “Someone else might have ignored Fury Cutter, but Valiant and I both know the power that can be found in that move.”

Below us, Metang’s twitches started to grow—he was picturing himself using his attacks more and more in his head. I was still here because I knew Metang needed to watch these battles. As much as I appreciated Liepard being able to stop any crazy strategies from going on, there needed to be thought behind having a Pokémon reach its maximum level of strength.

Metang’s default strategy wasn’t something that worked. He had developed a bad habit of constantly throwing himself forward with wild abandon, and he needed to work that out of his system.

But his impatience was growing, both here right now and in general. At times, I could tell he was only just tolerating me—he wanted to get stronger, and he only listened to me because we were his best current path toward that.

However, that just means both of our goals perfectly align. I’ll make him as strong as he wants if he helps me win that one fight.

“Gym Leaders sure can be helpful, huh?” Dianne said, and I realized I had totally lost track of our current conversation. “But hearing all of that does make me wonder why Marlon accepted your fight.”

“Gym Leaders are still trainers. They want to battle and get stronger, too.”

“But at Great Rank?” Dianne said.

I didn’t have an answer to that. Gym Leaders generally stood as challenges for a trainer to overcome, purposefully raising teams with the sole purpose of testing others at every level, but they still tended to have strong, personal teams.

In a tournament like the World Coronation Series, it was practically unheard of for a Gym Leader’s core team to only see them be at the Great Rank.

“Anyway, you need to head out soon,” Dianne said. “It’s almost lunch.”

“Yeah. We need to get far enough down Route 13 to let us locate a decent campsite.”

Dianne nodded along, and looking over, I realized she had on what was basically an enormous smile.

“I get that, but... I might have signed up for a go on the battlefield while you were distracted with Don George,” she said, her eyes flicking over to lock with mine. “I’ve never been good with goodbyes, so before you, how about we properly part ways as trainers?”

She might not have been a part of the Coronation Series, but there was no way I could avoid that kind of challenge.

_______________________________________________________________________

Just like with the previous matches, people were watching from the stands when Dianne and I took the field. They were almost all trainers waiting for their turn, but really, they were here to watch a few battles as a way to pass the time.

When it came to battling in public areas, some trainers were always paranoid about revealing too much of their strategy. According to them, giving someone the chance to figure out a counter could be a tournament-losing move. Honestly, I considered those people crazy. If one counter-strategy meant your team would lose, then you never had a good strategy in the first place. It was better to give it your all, no matter what.

And, for my team, people could make all of the counters they wanted; we were always going to break through and win regardless.

“Metang,” I said, looking over to the floating Pokémon that had moved with me to the field. His entire body was twitching as if he wanted to jump into a fight right now, but he also knew that doing something like that would just see Valiant release themself to unleash a far-too-powerful strike against him.

“You want to battle, right?” I asked, and Metang's eyes bore down on me. “We're going to have one, but I need you to listen to me. Dianne is tough. She’s not just any trainer—she’s a trainer that earned seven badges, and she only didn’t earn her eighth because she ran out of time in her season.”

There was an archaic way of estimating a trainer’s strength that had fallen out of use in recent years. Trainers used to be rated by “stars,” with each star representing the approximate strength needed to earn that many Gym Badges. However, with so many people taking on the Gym Challenge nowadays, that system had fallen out of use. The number of Gym Badges earned could just be stated instead. After all, theoretical power was not equivalent to actual power.

But that system was still decent for estimation, and in Dianne’s case, she would have been rated at just under eight stars.

My team, however? Our level of strength was a bit more unclear due to the variability of my Pokémon’s power, but even just being able to last through one attack from Kyurem meant we were higher than that.

Still, Dianne was a trainer, and even if she was no longer an “active” trainer, she still carried the instincts of one. She stood inside a marked box that designated the space for a trainer.

With a wide grin on her face, she cupped a hand around her mouth to better let her voice carry.

“If you haven’t forgotten, I took today off!” she called out to me from across the field. “That means my Pokémon can fight as hard as they want! Any injuries we take, we’ll just sleep it off, so don’t even think about holding back!”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “We never do.”

I nodded to Metang, and he practically shot onto the field. I had to shout to tell him to stop on my half since he looked as though he was about to rush Dianne herself. When it came to these battles, the field was divided into two. Pokémon could only start on the half closest to their participating trainer, and trainers could only release Pokémon onto that half when sending out a new team member via Pokéball.

“Alright! The rules!” Dianne called out. Even with Metang looking so aggressive, she didn’t even blink, and she planted her hands on her hips. “I have four Pokémon, but one’s still growing, so we’ll just use three for this match! Single battle, no switching. And that works out pretty well—whoever gets the most knock-outs wins!”

“Oh?” I said, gaining a purposeful smirk. “So you’re telling me that this match ends when I knock out two of your Pokémon in a row?”

“C’mon, Nick!” Dianne said after sticking her tongue out. “We both know how this is going to go—we each get one knock-out before sealing it all in a dramatic, third battle finish!”

“Sure, sure.” I waved a hand. “Keep in mind that does mean you’d have to get at least one knock-out, first.”

Dianne grinned at me, holding back her laughter. It was basically tradition for every Pokémon battle to involve an exchange of taunts at the front. You couldn’t go into a battle expecting to lose, after all. Taunts were a way to make sure both trainers were motivated.

Also, coming up with clever taunts was fun.

Dianne drew a Pokéball from her belt, and she kissed it before flinging it into the air. There, an insectoid Pokémon came out. However, this Pokémon was no insect; it might have almost resembled a large dragonfly, but Vibrava was a true dragon—just one in its mid-stage form.

“Before we begin,” Dianne started. “How about a bet?”

“You want to pay me cash?” I asked.

“Nah, this is more out of concern for you. I know you’re poor and can’t afford much of a payment if you lose, so... How about the loser buys the winner lunch?”

I nodded.

“I can do that.”

The Battle Club owned this central plaza, and it didn’t just exist to serve as a mere public battlefield. This place employed a technician-slash-referee, and he had a small electric table off to the side. I had already been forced to chide Rotom to not approach it—he always wanted to possess new technology.

But with that technician there, Dianne sent him a thumbs up, and on a large screen attached to the wall above his head, images of our faces appeared. Additionally, beneath those, pictures of our current Pokémon had been set up to face each other. The screen would grey out those images as Pokémon fainted, serving as an easy way to track who wins.

“Almost like being part of an official tournament,” I mumbled. “I can see why Battle Clubs are so popular.”

The technician hit a button, and a trio of beeps played for a countdown.

When a horn blared to denote the start of the battle, I was so impressed by the setup that I almost didn’t realize that we had begun.

“Vibrava, Dig strats! Avoid everything, and strike with Earth Power!”

Metang rushed forward immediately; he was not one to hold back and wait. Though I had told him to listen to me, I hadn’t told him he couldn’t act on his own.

My other Pokémon tended to make quick choices in battle because we had fought together enough to know how we preferred to fight. In the case of Metang, he didn’t have that experience, but he’d also only ever seen really tough trainers fight like that. He likely assumed that was just how battles worked.

As a result, I didn’t get the chance to give him any proper commands before he had already thrown himself forward. An arm glowed a silvery grey for a Metal Claw, but Vibrava shoved its head into the ground opposite him, and it dug into the smooth dirt floor of this pseudo-official battlefield.

“Metang!” I called out quickly. “Get ready to defend yourself! Earth Power is an explosion!”

Arm still glowing, Metang looked around in search of Vibrava, only partially listening to what I said. However, the antlion-dragonfly was already deep underground.

He had no way to predict his opponent's actions, so he was forced to cross his arms in some rough form of defense. Seeing that, I couldn't help but wince. For all of our effort to catch him up, he was still fighting how he had fought in the crater:

He had only ever practiced his offense.

Due to that, he wasn’t ready for the ground to begin to glow a bright orange beneath him, and he reacted far too late when I shouted in warning.

The dirt exploded. Earth Power erupted with burning rubble. Metang might have been able to float in the air, but he carried no immunity to this earth-based move.

“I’m telling you, Nick,” Dianne called out. “We’re going to go one-to-one and then settle this in the third round.”

“What,” I countered, “you’re expecting to lose your next matchup, next?”

“Not really, but it’s a funnier taunt this way,”

She laughed, and I didn’t bother to hold back my snort.

I knew Metang had been capable of reaching a great speed in the crater, but that was due to how he relied on the location’s magnetic fields. He was much slower out here, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t picked up on a way to fight.

When the Vibrava appeared again, emerging a distance away from the ground, Metang immediately tried to rush it, but he failed. It just dug back down underground once again.

Vibrava’s amused chittering was pretty obvious. Likely, it was enjoying this battle as a form of punishment for all the times Metang’s practice had disturbed its nest.

“Alright,” I said, coming up with a plan as Dianne shouted for another Earth Power. “You aren’t going to catch it, but you do need to defend yourself. So, new strategy, Metang: wait for an Earth Power, and then smash an Iron Head right into it! Turn your offense into your defense!”

Other than pure damage, this was my favorite way for my Pokémon to fight. People always thought defensive moves had to be limited to something like Protect or Iron Defense, but why couldn’t attacks themselves be used to counteract and even deflect?

Valiant had used this idea with their Fury Cutter defense against Jack’s Reuniclus. Rotom had lowered the strength of Kyurem’s move by blasting out his Overheat.

Here, as the earth turned orange, Metang rotated to face straight down. That same, silvery sheen that would coat his arms now coated his stocky body.

Right as the ground began to bulge, he rushed straight into the attack.

The Earth Power did hit. However, it hit Metang while he charged. The Iron Head enhanced his defense and allowed him to tear right through. A Ground-type move was super effective against a Steel type like him, but he was able to minimize the damage he actually took by using this one attack.

Metang was already learning.

“Yes! Just like that! Now, get ready for Vibrava to come back up!” I shouted.

However, Dianne just sighed.

“Nick...” she said morosely.

I blinked, taking another look at Metang.

Despite how good his Iron Head had been, the sheer power of his move and the way the Earth Power had exploded the ground meant Metang had somehow managed to lodge himself in the floor.

“Vibrava, just... use Earthquake,” Dianne said. 

No matter what I shouted or what he did, Metang was unable to get free.

Vibrava pulled itself out of its hole, stabilized itself on the ground, and then it jumped up with loudly humming wings just to slam back down. The impact sent a shockwave right to where Metang was stuck in the earth.

Due to being surrounded by the dirt, Vibrava’s Earthquake hit with increased effectiveness as if Metang was stuck in a Dig underground.

“Told ya I’d get a knock-out,” Dianne said as Metang went completely still.

“...He just needs more practice,” I mumbled.

Metang was the weakest member of my team, after all.

Still, it wasn’t like he wasn’t strong. One solid hit would have caught Vibrava off-guard, and I knew Metang’s ferocity would have ensured that a follow-up was enough to take Dianne’s Pokémon out.

But not every match-up was fair. Vibrava’s agility far surpassed Metang’s. Metang would eventually be able to both take and deal physical hits, but getting attacked from range like that was definitely where he currently struggled the most.

I’ll need to keep that in mind.

The screen above the field tinted Metang’s image grey, and a buzzer rang out to signal that a Pokémon had fainted in the match.

That was one point in Dianne’s favor. Now, I needed two to win.

“Quick question,” she said. “You using Valiant?”

“Not planning on it.”

“So you’re going easy on me?”

I blinked at the sudden question.

“What? No. Why would I? I just wanted my other Pokémon to battle, and besides, I think both of us are waiting for a certain match-up at the end.”

I didn’t send my next Pokémon forward right away. Instead, with Metang fainted, I recalled him just to release him right next to me, where I crouched and leaned back to reach into a side pocket on my backpack.

There, I had easy access to a Potion, which I sprayed on Metang’s dents. The medicine would act quickly to give him the energy needed to return to consciousness. I would need to use something like the dust from a Revive if I wanted to get him back in battle right away, but right now, I just wanted him to be conscious enough to watch the upcoming exchanges. His natural recovery would be enough to get him back into a proper state.

“I know you’ve watched Valiant fight a lot, but I want you to pay close attention to how my next two Pokémon fight," I said, staring Metang straight in the eye. “Watch how we battle together. Think about their choices. This is something we’ve developed over the course of an entire year, and we are strong when we fight together. Just because Valiant might be stronger doesn’t mean everyone else deserves to be disregarded.”

Metang didn’t have the energy to hover, but he could sit on the ground and open his eyes. It was hard to tell exactly how he was feeling sometimes with how his stare often tended to be a red glow. Right now, with how motionless he was, I couldn’t tell exactly how he was feeling, but I could at least tell I had his entire focus.

As I stood back up to face Dianne, my watch crackled, and something slipped into my backpack just to slip back out, possessing a much larger form.

“Flareon!”

“Rotom!”

This was an interesting matchup, especially with Rotom’s choice of form. He had left the additional pieces of his fan behind in my pack, and he now hovered over the field in his electric-flying form.

“Alright, Flareon! Let’s wake up and do this!”

Dianne’s red-furred Flareon just yawned and arched its back. For all the time I had stayed with her, this was the Pokémon I’d seen the least. Not because she tried to hide it or because it hid from me.

No, Flareon was just lazy.

It preferred to spend its time sleeping inside its Pokéball more often than not.

“Air Slash!” I shouted, wanting to take advantage of Flareon’s drowsiness before Dianne could call for anything smart.

Rotom forced the blades of his fan to accelerate to an incredible rate, and with an audible buzz, they churned the air to launch forward a visible blade of wind.

“Detect!” Dianne ordered, throwing an arm to the side. “Into Flame Charge! Run and build up speed.”

Despite how it lazily smacked its lips, Flareon’s eyes suddenly flashed. It jumped to roll, perfectly moving out of the way thanks to the foresight provided by Detect, and flames sparked up around its body as it returned to wakefulness, using Flame Charge to begin increasing its speed.

“Keep it up,” I said to Rotom.

Flareon circled him, and for some reason, I started to get flashbacks to one of my recent battles.

Much like how Liepard would fight, Dianne’s Flareon circled around to dodge. Rotom didn’t move, staying in place to unleash his blades of wind, and Flareon ran faster and faster and faster, a growing fire consuming it thanks to its ever-growing Flame Charge.

“I can see where Liepard got this strategy,” I said.

Dianne grinned.

“You should know he helped me train Flareon, and Flareon’s that much stronger for it!”

Rotom turned ever so slightly to face me. Specifically, still aiming at his opponent, his face shifted around on the surface of his fan to send me a look.

I nodded.

“Go ahead and prepare,” I said quietly.

Flareon continued to build more and more speed as Rotom unleashed Air Slash after Air Slash. However, his attacks started to slow as electricity crackled around him. Sparks would appear, but those sparks would just get sucked in.

The pauses between his moves meant Flareon had plenty of time to accelerate. Eventually, it was almost moving faster than Valiant on an Electric Terrain. Flame Charge had all but maximized its speed at this point, and Dianne planned to translate all of that momentum into pure offense.

With an incredible grin, she pointed right at Rotom.

“Flare Blitz!”

The fire that had already consumed Flareon now erupted into a blistering inferno.

This attack threatened to take Rotom out in one move; there was no way he’d last through an attack that powerful. 

However, Dianne’s strategy had been flawed since the beginning; her strategy was one we had seen Liepard use countless times before.

“Wait,” Dianne said, seeing the sparks crackle around Rotom once more. “Oh, shoot.”

The very second Flareon got within range, he exploded with electricity, releasing every ounce of voltage he had built with Charge in between his Air Slash attacks. He basically squeezed himself dry for this one move—his Discharge came out with such force that the electricity threatened to put out Flareon’s flames.

In fact, it did.

As Rotom slipped under the falling Pokémon to avoid being touched by its rapidly fading move, I looked over to Dianne and then sent a glance to Metang.

“Dianne, I’m going to say something. Please don’t take it as an insult.”

“...Sure, but you didn’t need to preface it like that?”

“Dianne is retired,” I said. “We aren’t. We train as much as we can, but she works to patrol routes. She still gets into battles sometimes, but I imagine a lot of her free time is spent in rest—right?”

“Basically, yeah,” she replied, taking my words at face value. “We might do a few exercises every so often, but really all of our training is just when we get into the occasional fight.”

“Rotom took out Flareon in a single hit because we’ve trained. We’ve put all of his focus into his special attack, and that’s why he was able to win in one move.”

Flareon was returned; the Pokémon was unconscious. Rotom, meanwhile, was only lightly singed due to proximity more than anything else.

Within his fan, he zipped over to come back to me with a proud smile. However, that smile turned into a smirk as he looked over to Metang.

It was cocky, and he was bragging.

Metang looked incensed.

But as the blue, metal Pokémon entered the air in an attempt to make himself look big, Rotom disappeared. He turned to electricity, snapping back into my watch, and I had to lunge to catch his fan before it hit the floor.

“Really?” I asked.

Snickering came from my wrist. I ignored it. The battle was briefly put on hold as I shoved the fan back in my pack.

“One Pokémon left, Nick,” Dianne said. “You ready for this?”

“When you first challenged me to a battle, I kind of expected this match-up.”

We didn’t need to say anything else; we were both in agreement.

This would be a match between traded Pokémon.

Fargiraf versus Liepard.

Liepard fought differently than every other Pokémon on my team, and I wanted Metang to see that. Meanwhile, a similar fact was almost true for Dianne—Farigiraf had once trained under me.

The two Pokémon appeared on the field, released from their Pokéballs. We were supposed to wait for the technician to give a signal, but neither Dianne nor I waited to start shouting commands.

“Trick Room!”

“Taunt.”

“Signal Beam.”

“Night Slash!”

“Use Reflect!”

“That's a bluff—charge right through!”

Farigiraf wasn't a fast Pokémon. Trick Room was a field effect that would invert a Pokémon's speed. In other words, setting it up would make Farigiraf speedy, and Liepard would find himself drastically slowing down.

But Trick Room was not an attack; it was vulnerable to the effects of Taunt, and Liepard’s species meant he had this little ability called Prankster. He could use status moves in almost an instant, and before Farigiraf could pull off anything at all, a sharp, taunting growl goaded the giraffe into not bothering with anything but attacks.

So, instead, both sets of Farigiraf's eyes glowed, and a dual Signal Beam shot out, combining and spiraling and shaking the air. The move hummed like a raging swarm of insects, and its Bug-type damage threatened to be twice as effective against Liepard's Dark-type.

But just like Flareon, Liepard ran to avoid it, and a line was carved into the earth behind him. Farigiraf dragged her move after him, with Liepard practically turning into a blur.

Soon, the Signal Beam stopped due to the shout for “Reflect,” and Liepard changed directions. However, Farigiraf's eyes never stopped glowing, and as Liepard got close, it almost seemed like Dianne’s bluff was about to work.

When the second use of Signal Beam tore out of Farigiraf, I almost thought my Pokémon had been consumed by the blast. Instead, with incredible grace, Liepard slid under the beam to reach the space beneath Farigiraf's legs.

There, he had room to attack.

He used Night Slash.

Against a Psychic-type, the darkened swipe dealt super effective damage, and he had slashed into such a vulnerable part of Farigiraf’s body that he landed a critical hit.

“Stomp!” Dianne shouted.

“Get back. Encore,” I said.

Liepard got clipped, but Farigiraf was left swaying. And now, due to that hasty shout for Stomp, Farigiraf would be unable to use anything but that melee strike.

Easily, Liepard could stay away and outpace.

So Liepard had free rein to finish this match, listening to my call for “Assist.” He conjured a paw-shaped glow in front of his head, drawing in light from where my team rested.

Assist “borrowed” a random move from the user’s allies, and in this case, Liepard began to crackle with electricity.

Dianne returned Farigiraf before the move could be unleashed.

“...That was fast. I don’t think I’ve ever had a battle quite like that.”

“Well, you’ve never had a Pokémon quite like Liepard, have you?”

She laughed, and smugly, Liepard lifted a paw just to give it a casual lick.

It was only then that I realized Dianne’s true plan—by winning this battle, I would be staying in Lacunosa Town for a bit longer.

Before I left, she had to buy me lunch.

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

I think it’s really funny that in this fiction, “retirement” means working a full-time job.

This is the chapter in which I want to start including the full team summary! However, I’ve been focused on getting out the Royal Road release and writing this chapter (this post is already delayed as is), so the attachment won’t be up until tomorrow or alongside Friday’s update.

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:
Emolga
Farigiraf
Flareon
Gothitelle
Kyurem
Vibrava

Nick’s Team:
Iron Valiant
Liepard
Metang
Rotom

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