Chapter 162

Author Note:

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“That's a Wyrdeer.”

The audience was in another bout of uproarious cheers as Redi's Wyrdeer bounded across the field. Her otherwise unknown Pokémon jumped from rock to rock with ease while avoiding every one of his opponent's Electric Type attacks.

Wyrdeer carried himself with the same grace and stature he had carried as a Stantler. He was an old Pokémon, but with his age came years of experience. His new look in his evolved form almost seemed to emphasize that, giving him a beard and bushy eyebrows alongside an air of wisdom and nobility.

His opponent, meanwhile, was far too focused on the battle to even start being impressed.

“Just one Paralysis!” their opposing trainer yelled. “Come on, Kilowattrel!”

...And that was another unknown species in this battle, but it wasn't like most Flying Types were truly that uncommon. Kilowattrel was a species that originated from a foreign region, but that specific electric bird Pokémon was known for flying great distances and even had a small breeding population north of Olivine. Apparently, enough had tagged along on passing boats to have established themselves a small home.

But this Kilowattrel was not one merely passing by Johto. It had the experience of plenty of battles in the Gym Challenge, and its neck inflated to let it build up a sharp, electric shock. 

Lightning crackled around its body as it dove toward Wyrdeer.

Wyrdeer didn’t even blink from where he was perched atop a boulder.

“Protect!”

Hooves planted firmly on the boulder’s uneven surface, Wyrdeer’s horns glowed to allow a shield to form in front of his body. The Kilowattrel’s flyby Thunderbolt scattered harmlessly across it, and he leaped after his opponent.

The Kilowattrel was too tired from its previous battle to put up any decent defense.

“Psyshield Bash!” Redi shouted to follow up on her last command.

That same shield from Wyrdeer’s Protect took on an almost psychedelic glow, and Wyrdeer’s leap saw him catch up to his exhausted opponent. With a single jerk of his head, he slammed his shield right into the Kilowattrel’s back. It cawed out in pain, and the Pokémon’s wings crumpled. Kilowattrel was sent straight to the ground.

With grace, he landed next to his twitching opponent. The arena itself seemed to pause in anticipation, but Kilowattrel did not get back up.

“Aaaaaand... Trainer Redi is the victor!” came the announcer’s declaration.

Her opponent let out a groan and dragged a hand down his face. Redi shouted in celebration, bringing her arms up for a victorious cheer, and that cheer turned to laughter as Wyrdeer walked over to affectionately circle around her.

From where he had been watching in the stands, Sam sent his mother a quick goodbye as she clapped for Redi’s victory. He waved to get all of his Ghost Types to gather back into his shadow, and the people sitting next to where he’d sat all seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

He charged down the stairs as Redi shook her opponent’s hand below, and he barely had enough time to slip into the arena’s lower tunnels before she was off the field. He was slightly out of breath when she approached him down there, but he was able to hide it.

Redi smiled when she saw him waiting for her, and Sam didn’t hold himself back before he spoke.

“You have a Wyrdeer?” he blurted out.

“Huh? Oh yeah. I'm not even responsible for his evolution, either! I just told him about Psyshield Bash before I left, and then when I came back, I found out he had evolved all on his own!”

Sam stared at her blankly.

“I already told Mr. Pokémon about it, too,” Redi continued casually. “He told me that a lot of what a Pokémon can do is based on what they know, and that’s true even in the wild. Some species just flat out don't evolve if they don't know they can, even if the requirements are simple. Although, I guess that’s kind of an issue since Wyrdeer’s herd now knows that Psyshield Bash can let them evolve.”

She awkwardly scratched at her cheek before pushing on.

“Soooo... some Pokémon Rangers might have had to relocate them due to ‘environmental concerns.’ Something about reintroducing an untested, extinct species potentially being bad?”

“...That's not what I was talking about,” Sam said with a huff. Redi ignored him.

“But it all worked out in the end, at least,” she said, moving past that. “His herd got their own place a bit north of Mahogany now—Wyrdeer made sure. They’re safe and happy and don’t need to travel to find food! Shouldn't risk any negative effects, either. They’re also really close to Trevenant’s forest!”

She sent a smile to Sam, and Sam could only let out a sigh. He wanted to know more about Wyrdeer and Wyrdeer’s training and everything Redi had done to make sure Wyrdeer could fit on her team, but she hadn’t spoken about any of that. Yet, that was the point.

Sam had been so caught up in the surprise of seeing the successful evolution that he hadn’t even realized he’d been trying to learn more about her team. They had already both established that they only wanted to learn more about each other’s teams through battle, and he had almost barrelled right past that.

Breathing out, he offered Redi a quick apology as she kicked up her legs to start leaving the tunnel. Tiredly, Sam also fell into pace at her side.

“It was Agatha, by the way,” he said.

“Agatha? What about her?”

“She told me in our conversation. She’s the one who made sure I was last.”

“Pft. What a jerk,” Redi said with a scoff. “So you did talk to her, then? What did she say?”

“Just stuff about my grandfather,” Sam answered. “Aaaand... maybe some stuff about sponsorships, too.”

He filled her in on the basics, but they didn’t leave the arena immediately, choosing to stay in the building for now. They had already learned not to make the same mistake as they had after Sam’s match; leaving the arena immediately after a reveal would only cause the reporters to swarm.

Instead, they grabbed some food and returned to the stands, rejoining Sam’s mother to watch the last few matches scheduled for the day. Sam planned to skim through a lot of them later. The Pokémon League’s website allowed battles to be replayed at four times the speed.

Once the last match had finished, and once they felt like enough time had passed, they exited this smaller arena without any reporter noticing them and parted ways with Sam’s mother to safely slip back into their Pokémon Center bedrooms, undisturbed.

There, Sam all but crashed, and he was pretty sure Redi was doing the same in her room. Though two battles in one day wasn’t anything new for either of them, the pressure of the tournament had made these fights feel all the more difficult. Finally being done two full rounds meant they could take this moment to relax—at least somewhat.

After all, they had made it to the third round.

Just after dusk, their alarms went off. They had talked and already agreed that it was worth at least checking out Cassandra’s get-together that night. So, once they fixed themselves up after their two-hour naps, they met back up in the lobby to visit Silver Town proper.

(Drakloak stayed behind for this, sticking close to Sam’s mom. She would never admit to it, but she liked listening to his mother's stories about business.)

To get to the restaurant Cassandra had booked, Sam and Redi had to climb a steep road. As Silver Town was a settlement within the mountains, the city itself was rather hilly, but those same views let them see the entire city once they reached the top.

“Good view, I guess,” Redi said.

The entirety of the Silver Conference was visible from here. Despite no battles currently taking place, the centers of each of the five arenas were all lit up. They could see the interior curve of the four smaller complexes, but the biggest arena building still towered over the rest.

The buildings of Silver Town were like a sea of lights around them, only occasionally being broken up by darkened streets and small parks. The first few stars were beginning to be visible in the night sky. Behind them, the restaurant was loud, bright, and full of people.

“I’m not looking forward to this,” Sam grumbled.

“Yeah, social events aren’t for everyone, but there’ll be other trainers there,” Redi said with a shrug. “Cassandra said she invited a lot of people. It’ll be good to get a sense of where everyone else stands.”

The restaurant itself wasn’t necessarily a fancy one, but it was big enough to hold dozens of tables, and each and every one was crowded. Employees ran around to stack plates of food between all of the various groups, and Sam honestly wasn’t sure how or why they did it.

It didn’t matter if a trainer still had more fights to go or if they had been eliminated in the preliminaries; this was a restaurant where competitors could eat for free. If someone had even the barest chance of showing up in the Conference, they could eat as much as they wanted without paying even a dollar.

Sam had no clue if the restaurant was just willing to take that loss or if the League itself paid for every meal.

Upon entering, someone working the front asked the two of them about identification, and Sam and Redi each showed off that strange card with Cassandra’s face on it. Immediately, they got a slight laugh in reply and were led to the back. There, they were brought to a room that wouldn’t have been out of place in a karaoke bar—except it was at least twice the size of a room meant for that.

A cushioned couch lined the sides, and a low, central table was covered in foods and snacks. A television on the wall replayed the highlights from today’s matches, and trainers of all sorts animatedly talked in groups.

In the back, Cassandra waved to greet them, but she otherwise stayed seated to listen to a conversation taking place around her.

“This is a lot of people,” Sam whispered to Redi.

She nudged his arm.

“C’mon, Sam!” she said. “It’ll be fun!”

At least, he could see a few familiar faces. A surprising number of them had been in the Beginner’s Tournament. Right away, he could recognize Eliza, and even Edgar was present, albeit a bit subdued.

Though Edgar had made it into the second round, he hadn’t won his match.

I think, out of everyone here, I recognize about two-thirds of them as people moving on. They’re all trainers I have written down in my notes. If only one-fourth of the competition is moving on, but two-thirds of the people here are entering the third rounds, then Cassandra must have a really good eye.

There were a lot of strong trainers in the room, but Sam’s gaze ended up settling on one person, one face that stood out from all other trainers present.

Xavier sat on the couch, not talking to anyone, and simply sitting still with his hands crossed under his chin. 

Where everyone else was chatting excitedly, trying to brag without revealing too much about their plans, he stayed out of it all. Sam wasn’t sure if Xavier was merely staring forward or if he was quietly listening in.

But when Sam’s gaze settled on him, Xavier was alert enough to send him a short glance.

Neither of them said anything.

Huh. He’s usually more talkative. I think this might be the first time I’ve run into him without seeing him chatting with someone else.

If Sam had to describe how Xavier looked right now, “dour” would have been a pretty good word.

“Terry! You made it!” With a bright smile on her face, Redi waved at someone from across the room, and she headed over to deposit herself in an empty spot across from him. “I caught part of your match. I saw that your Gible evolved!”

“Ah, yeah, he’s a Gabite now, but we...” Terry groaned. “Ugh. We still lost.”

Redi immediately started to try to cheer him up, going on and on about how cool his Pokémon were regardless of his defeat. Quietly, Sam moved to sit next to her, and he did his best to pay attention to what everyone else was saying, trying to see if he could hear any hints about anyone he might face in the future.

The entire time, Xavier’s eyes seemed to linger on Sam, but it wasn’t Xavier who eventually spoke up to get Sam’s attention.

“Hey! Sam!” someone else called out. “I saw your fights! Your Pokémon are so much stronger than they were in our last match! But that makes sense. The last time we fought was all the way back in Goldenrod.”

Blinking out of surprise, Sam looked over to see one of those familiar faces staring at him—Eliza. She sent him a smile while picking at some chips.

“Your team is crazy!” she said happily. “Almost every Pokémon you showed off is a brand new species!”

“A lot of them aren’t brand new,” he said, trying not to mumble. “Typhlosion is just an older variant of her species, and Annihilape are common in other regions.”

“So then it’s true what you said on TV?” a boy suddenly asked from Eliza’s side. “You learned about them from reading?”

“I, uh, live in a bookstore?” Sam offered awkwardly.

People oohed and aahed at that as if it were some kind of big revelation.

“Hah! I guess that makes sense,” the boy said. “That kind of background fits a Ghost Type trainer like you.”

“Is that supposed to mean something?”

Sam was more bewildered at the boy’s comment than anything else, but the trainers listening in just laughed, seemingly thinking his reaction was a joke.

Somehow, Sam found himself falling into conversation easily enough. People mostly wanted to brag about their Pokémon, and others shared compliments and asked questions while exchanging words of pride.

“I saw your Steelix and Lapras fight,” Sam managed to say to Eliza when he had a moment to squeeze in a few words. “It’s impressive just how well they can control the field.”

“Thank you,” she said with a slight blush. “We worked hard to get so skilled with that.”

“But I also saw you had a Slowking,” Sam added. “You have a lot of rare evolutions on your team. How did you manage that?”

“You're one to ask, Mr. I-Introduce-Extinct-Species,” she teased, and a few more people laughed. “But yeah. I guess my Pokémon are kind of rare. We had to do a lot to get the items we needed.”

Going to the Blackthorn Clan for help with Dragon Type moves wasn’t the only time Eliza went to someone for help. She revealed that she spent a while working with Jasmine, doing odd-jobs for the Gym Leader in exchange for access to the Metal Coats she needed for her Onix and Scyther.

“But Slowking actually evolved due to a lucky break! We thought he’d just be a Slowbro at first,” Eliza said. “We were exploring Slowpoke Well to see if we could find any hints that’d help with that. Instead, we stumbled onto this weird little side room. While searching through it, we managed to find a King’s Rock hidden in stalagmites at its back!”

“...Uh-huh.”

Someone else asked her a question, and her attention shifted as she answered that, but Sam failed to hear what she said. He remained totally and utterly silent, unable to stop the look he sent to Xavier.

There was only one King’s Rock that he was aware of inside Slowpoke Well. With Eliza’s description, he couldn’t think of any other possibility than that the King’s Rock she used had been the one left behind when that ghost had moved on.

Despite the meaning that stone carried, Sam couldn’t be upset that Eliza had used it. If anything, learning that was satisfying. If there was ever a person to use that King’s Rock, then it was best if they were a trainer who truly loved their Pokémon rather than just someone grabbing it just to make a quick buck.

“I’m happy you found that,” Sam eventually said.

He genuinely meant it, too.

Eliza looked back over to send Sam a smile.

“Thank you. We’ve been working hard to make the most of it. Slowking aren’t exactly the most common Pokémon, so we’ve been doing all we can to have him live up to his evolution.”

The conversation continued from there, and Sam let himself fall out of it so he could get some snacks from the table. No one seemed to notice that he “accidentally” knocked one bowl of chips to the floor. It disappeared into a shadow, and if anyone heard the crunching that came from beneath his feet, nothing was said.

However, as all of the chatter and levity of the party went on and on, Sam wasn’t left alone. It wasn’t that people kept talking to him—he was only one point of interest in a room full of them—but ever since Sam had sent him a glance while talking to Eliza, Xavier had never once looked away.

It took a while before the other boy eventually spoke.

“I watched your battles,” Xavier said, and Sam’s attention was brought back to him.

“Both of them?” Sam asked.

“All of them,” Xavier answered.

“Then, what did you think?”

Xavier was quiet. He seemed to struggle to choose his words.

“You’re strong. Stronger than I’d thought. But that won’t make a difference. I’ll win.”

“We’ll see about that,” Sam said in reply.

Rather than a similar look of challenge, a frown crossed Xavier’s face, and Sam could see Xavier struggle to not clench his fists. What he said next was clearly not meant to be heard—it was more of a mumble to himself than anything else—but Sam had spent far too long listening to hidden Ghost Types to not hear what Xavier said.

“You don’t understand. I don’t have a choice.”

Sam desperately wanted to respond, to ask him what he meant, but that was when Cassandra unexpectedly spoke up. The party’s “host” so graciously raised her voice, and something about the way she carried herself all but demanded everyone listen in.

Like a queen holding court.

“Sam. Your Ghost Types were surprising. Any tips for the rest of us?” she asked.

It took him a moment to realize she was talking to him.

“Oh, uh, just lean into their species’s strengths?” he offered.

She laughed.

“Yes, I suppose that’s true for every Pokémon,” she said.

Cassandra then cast her gaze to the trainer next to him and asked them a question as well. Slowly, she began to speak to everyone, asking questions to people around the room.

“Naomi, your Ninetales’s Confuse Ray is impressive. How did you manage to get it to use its moves as fast as it did?”

“Alexa, I saw your Persian. Its fur is beautiful. Do you have any advice for a Pokémon’s diet?”

“Daisuke! I saw the immense strength in your Fighting Types’ moves! I have to know, what kind of punching techniques do you include in their regimen?”

One by one, she acknowledged everyone here, and while people had initially gone quiet to listen in, a handful of conversations started back up, but none ever became loud enough to drown out her voice.

Soon, Cassandra’s focus reached Terry. He still seemed to be out of it after his loss.

“Terry,” Cassandra said politely to greet him. “So glad you could make it.”

“S-sure,” Terry replied, and then without saying anything else, Cassandra moved on.

Redi bristled at Sam’s side.

As Cassandra went through her questions to everyone in the room, Redi followed her gaze, and Sam followed Redi’s. Cassandra would ask a question or two to a trainer here—polite without being intrusive, revealing without being revealing—and then she would move on to do the same for the next person seated.

However, that wasn’t true for everyone she spoke to. There was a pattern to the trainers she asked questions versus the ones she only bothered to share a brief greeting.

“...Are you kidding me? Even here?”

Redi’s comment came out as nothing more than a hiss under her breath.

“Ray, Tyra, you two train your Pokémon together, right?”

“Vincent! How’s your Golduck recovering?”

“Edgar,” Cassandra greeted, and then she moved on.

With that, Redi seemed to have had enough, and her eyes locked onto Cassandra’s in the same moment her voice rang out.

“Are you joking?” she said.

Tension shot through the room like a blast wave.

“Whatever do you mean?” Cassandra asked innocently.

“You’re not even trying to hide it! You’re not talking to anyone who lost! You’re not... You’re not even pretending to be polite!”

Redi glared at Cassandra, but all Cassandra did was idly stare back. A few whispers were shared through the room—Sam caught a hushed comment of someone saying that Redi was right.

“I simply didn’t want to bother them after—”

“Liar.”

“I merely thought it was better to—”

“No. You didn’t.”

Cassandra smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes.

And Redi didn’t hesitate to send a glare right back when she began to talk.

“You’re not even doing the bare minimum,” Redi said, crossing her arms. “We’re all in the same competition. You could at least try to have some respect.”

“Of course I have respect for them,” Cassandra said easily. “They fought hard, and they lost. But there’s no point in lying. We’re all here for the same reason. When it comes to learning more about our potential opponents—”

“They’re still people,” Redi hissed. “Do you see anyone else ignoring everyone who lost?”

Uncomfortable, a few people shifted in their seats.

Everyone here had come expecting prying questions. Even one bit of unintentionally revealed information could give an advantage that’d lead to a trainer’s defeat. Yet, at the same time, this was still a party. There was a level of respect meant to be held between trainers, and Redi could not stand that Cassandra wasn’t bothering with that.

As Redi leaned back with her arms crossed and waited for Cassandra to respond, a few people murmured a bit. From their hushed words, Sam could tell at least some of them agreed with what Redi had said.

But then, a sinking feeling settled into his stomach. An amused glint entered Cassandra’s eyes.

“Oh, alright. I’ll apologize,” Cassandra said with an exaggerated sigh. “So! Terry. Redi here thinks I mistreated you.”

Redi’s expression went totally blank, and a handful of people groaned.

“I am so sorry about your battle,” Cassandra continued, her voice dripping with false sympathy. “You lost to Victor, right? Unfortunately, that was only expected. Despite his past experiences, I heard his team is deceptively—”

“And now you’re just doing it on purpose,” Redi interrupted.

“I’m not sure what you mean?” Cassandra asked while batting her eyes.

Redi gritted her teeth and honestly looked more frustrated than Sam had ever seen her before, but she held back, recognizing the bait.

If it had been just a few months ago, she might have lost it there.

But it never reached that point.

No, above everyone’s heads, the image on the television in the room suddenly changed. No one cared about the argument anymore. It wasn’t like they were able to when comparing it to the information about to be displayed.

“Welcome back to our coverage of this year’s Silver Conference tournament!” a newscaster’s voice rang out as the highlight videos came to a stop. “Today’s matches have certainly been interesting. And I have no doubt that tomorrow’s will prove to be even more of the same!”

“That’s right,” another newscaster replied. “In tomorrow's battles, trainers will be allowed to use up to five Pokémon each, and the time for the alternative battlefields will be over. Battles will only take place on the main battlefield from here. They will be tests of nothing but skill and strength. Personally, I can’t wait!”

The two people displayed on the screen chuckled politely and brought up a few of the more memorable highlights. Sam couldn’t stop his small smile to himself when he heard both his and Redi’s names.

Everyone in this room was listening in. Likely, people were watching from all across the region. Honestly, Sam could only barely imagine what the main lobby of the Pokémon Center might have been like right now. 

Tomorrow’s match-ups were about to be revealed.

“Alright,” one of the casters said, speaking with a slight laugh. “That’s enough stalling from us. The reports are finally in. The next matches have been decided, and here are all the pairs for Round Three tomorrow!”

Sixty-four trainers remained. Thirty-two matches needed to take place. With each battle being allotted thirty minutes, Round Three was set to stretch over a sixteen-hour day.

On the screen itself, only eight pairs were displayed at once, with a trainer’s name and picture being listed across from their would-be opponent. Normally, pages would need to pass before Sam saw anyone important, but everyone he cared to learn about was displayed on the first.

He would be facing Eliza.

Xavier would be facing someone else.

And Redi?

Redi would be facing Cassandra.

The moment that match-up appeared, both of them turned to the other to lock eyes.

“Looks like we'll settle this tomorrow,” Cassandra said with a smile.

“You'll lose,” Redi said.

“Ah, but that’s only what you think.”

Immediately, Redi left the room without saying anything else, and the many trainers here seemed torn between watching her go and watching the next set of matchups be displayed. Honestly, Sam was a bit stunned at how fast this had all devolved, but he still managed to send a polite smile to Eliza, his opponent for tomorrow.

“Good luck,” he said.

“Good luck,” she said right back, and she looked eager to test his unknown species in a match, herself.

With Redi’s exit, Sam quickly stood to join her as she left the room, and he could feel Xavier’s eyes burning a hole into his back the entire way out. Cassandra, meanwhile, didn’t even seem to care. She simply moved on to other conversations, already trying to find out even more about other, future opponents.

There was no doubt in her mind that she would win.

Sam hurried out of the restaurant, practically running through that trainer-filled main room. The second he stepped out into the darkness of the night, he had his Ghost Types flood out of his shadow to begin a search, and he was only slightly delayed when an Ace Trainer came over to lecture him about sending so many Pokémon out at once.

Still, Sam was more careful the next time he called for his Pokémon, and he was able to find Redi quickly—but she wasn’t inside Silver Town.

Redi was sitting just past the town’s edge. Silver Town might have gotten its name from the dangerous Mount Silver to its north, but Redi had headed to the moderately less active route to the south. With so much of the Pokémon League’s power centralized in this location, it was a surprisingly safe settlement even though it was so deep in the mountains.

Sam found Redi just off the main road. She was sitting on a fallen log, staring up at the stars.

The full moon hung high above her head. Sam didn't immediately join her. However, he did make his presence known as he stood in the shadows to the clearing’s side.

“It's not that I'm afraid. Or that mad. Or even that bothered,” Redi said as Sam purposefully disturbed some fallen leaves. “It’s just, people like Cassandra? I hate when they act like that. Like they’re the smartest person in the room, or like they’re so much better than everyone else.”

“You’ve brought up something like that recently,” Sam said. “I have to ask, is this related to those girls you mentioned from that nearby Trainer School?”

Though she faced away, he could tell that Redi blinked in surprise.

“...Huh,” she said, a smile creeping onto her face. “Yeah. Probably. Hah! I think you’re right. That definitely explains it. Cassandra reminds me of them. Just someone who only really has her words. Someone who thinks she’s better than everyone else and will always win just because she’s able to think of a plan.”

Redi pushed off her log to stand, and Sam briefly remembered a comment her aunt had told him.

Even with her loving family, he was effectively Redi’s first human friend.

But all of that was old news to Redi. Truthfully, she hadn’t come here to brood. She had come here to make space.

Under the light of the full moon, she pulled a certain Pokéball off her belt.

“I’ve proven it time and time again, and I’ll prove it against Cassandra,” Redi said, her smile having evolved into her classic, sharp grin. “I’ve been called meat-headed. Slow. Too focused on power. But what people don’t understand is that all of those are my greatest strengths!”

Sam finally joined Redi in the clearing, and her grin practically glowed under the moonlight. She held her Pokéball forward, and then with a flash, Ursaring appeared alongside a yawn.

“Mr. Pokémon had a place he wanted me to visit in town,” Redi explained slowly. “There were going to be a few researchers there who would work to evolve Ursaring, like they usually do under the full moon. I was supposed to head there after the party, but... I’ve been thinking about Typhlosion a lot. I think, just trying to meet the basic conditions isn’t enough. There needs to be a meaning behind an evolution attempt. When it comes to something like this, you can’t just randomly have your Pokémon evolve.”

Dramatically, she threw out her arms.

“And here? Now? On the night before the third round of battles, and with my upcoming match against the kind of person I hate? I can't think of a better time to try this!” she yelled, shouting her plans to the world. “It’s finally time! We can do this! But, I’ve also come prepared.”

With Ursaring waking up from his nap before her, Redi stepped back to the log to reach into her backpack. From within it, she pushed around what sounded like a bunch of loose papers to pull out a container that felt as though it should have held a lunch.

However, when she opened it up, nothing edible was contained within.

Inside that box was a muddy block, patchwork and compressed. It resembled a cube that was totally and only comprised of muck.

“Mr. Pokémon has already exhausted samples from every bog he could find,” Redi said to Sam. “Every single peat block ever presented to Ursaring has failed—there's a reason his species doesn’t evolve anymore.

“But this?” She slapped the container of wet dirt without even blinking an eye. “This is more than just a basic peat block. It’s also all of my souvenirs. Every time we tried to evolve Ursaring, I asked for a little bit to take with me just so I could create this.”

Almost reverently, Redi held the container in her hands and looked up at Ursaring. After all of today’s battles, Ursaring was definitely a bit tired, but he had plenty of energy left, reserved just for this moment.

The cube was gross. It was made up of nothing but old, stinking dirt. It hadn’t been maintained over the past month or so, and it smelled of moist and rot.

Redi looked totally confident despite that.

“Will it work?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know,” she answered truthfully, “but I have to try.”

Under the light of the full moon, Redi grabbed her makeshift peat block to hold it forward, and Ursaring leaned down to give it a sniff. Nothing happened, and Redi slumped, disappointed.

Ursaring’s nose twitched.

Standing before her, a frustrated glint entered his eyes, and his jaws started to creak open just slow enough for Redi to recognize she needed to pull back her hands. Dropping the cube, Ursaring snapped out with a mighty crunch, chomping down on that disgusting block before it could hit the ground.

A grimace overtook his face—this was not how a peat block was meant to be used—but he chewed on it anyway, bringing his gaze up to the full moon.

Still.

Nothing happened.

With that, Redi let out a sigh.

“I guess this wasn’t our moment,” she said tiredly. “Come on. It’s already late enough. We should probably head back to the researchers, and we might have enough time left to—”

Ursaring swallowed. Sam gagged. The bear Pokémon brought his head back, and then, after a powerful inhale, Ursaring poured his whole heart into a deafening roar.

Right away, Sam could tell that Ursaring was forcing it. This was not how it worked. This was not how it should work. Yet, his eyes locked onto the moon in challenge, and he seemed to be practically daring it to stop him.

There was no other way this could have gone. So much like Redi, Ursaring brute-forced it.

To both of their surprise, his glow started as just flickers, and those flickers were a spark that ignited the event. A moon-bright shine overtook him, and Ursaring’s body began to expand to be twice his size, all four of his limbs rippled with muscle, and that weight sent him to the ground.

Fur grew around his neck. His jaw grew larger.

He shuffled, ears flicking, settling into his new size.

And, beneath all of that change, there was a flash, and a clouded moon seared into his forehead.

The light broke.

The roar that came out of him next was not the roar of an Ursaring, but the roar of a full, properly evolved, Ursaluna.

“You... Ugh! You’re so stupid!” Redi threw herself into his side regardless of what she said. “I can’t believe you did that! You actually... You did it.

“Thank you, Ursaluna,” she whispered. “You managed to evolve.”

Ursaluna did his best to express his pleasure with a low, rumbling growl. The earth itself seemed to shake from the sheer force of the noise.

Redi wiped the tears from her eyes as she laughed, and Sam had to take a step back just to see all of Ursaluna at once.

“Yeah. You’re definitely going to win tomorrow,” he said.

“You think so?” Redi asked.

“No,” Sam replied. “I know so.”

Redi and Ursaluna laughed.

There would be no other outcome. Sam simply couldn’t picture it. Even if Ursaluna hadn’t managed to evolve, the next match’s fate had already been sealed.

After all, Redi would never allow herself to lose before she faced Sam.

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Author Note:

Last chapter and this chapter were tough. They'll both be given another pass as soon as I get the chance.

Pokémon included in this chapter:
Gible / Gabite
Lapras
Slowpoke / Slowking
Steelix
Ursaring / Ursaluna

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