After an equally filling breakfast together to the dinner the night before, Xhasca retrieved a different Pokemon from her deep storage and replaced her Raichu temporarily. The two of them made their way out of the apartment building, and to a launch park where people who fly off on Pokemon which cause more air fluctuation in their flying are meant to launch. Xhasca called out the newly introduced Pokemon to Naeya instead of the fairy dragon of her team which might have been okay to fly them around. The Skarmory which bowed to Naeya upon meeting and received a gentle head rub from her cooed in response to the kindness she felt from Naeya.
"Sorry it's been so long Skarmory. I'll keep you with me for a while. I really should be cycling through all of you in storage often so none of you feel left out. Anyway, this is Naeya, my fiancee. Naeya, this is Skarmory, the third Pokemon to ever join me. She's been with me for twelve years now."
Naeya marvelled at how deep a bond might have formed over those twelve years, and what might have brought them together when Xhasca was only seven years of age.
"It's very nice to meet you Skarmory. I'd also like to introduce to you some of my other friends. Froakie here sitting on my shoulder joined me the afternoon before yesterday, and Honedge here saved me when I was little."
Froakie and Honedge seemed to have a little conversation with Skarmory, and eventually they were all happy and ready to go.
"Alright. Now, It's time to go see one of Xharye's zones. Do you remember where the water zone is Skarmory?"
Skarmory nodded her head and cooed in response. She bent down, ready to take Naeya and Xhasca on her back as well as Froakie and Honedge. Once they were all comfortably positioned on Skarmory's back, Skarmory took a few steps back so to get ready to launch all of them up into the sky. With Skarmory's strength and speed flying through the air, Naeya almost expected, she ended up hugging Xhasca's waist tight, while Honedge and Froakie were barely hanging onto her by the strap of her bag. She became thankful yet again at the bag, how high the quality of the material was that it could withstand such force in the situation they were in.
She almost didn't have the chance to admire the view from above they had, and when she was able to peel herself enough off of Xhasca, she looked down on the region. She could see the normal zone passing behind her so fast, she couldn't even make out the Pokemon on the ground. There were other zones she noticed, and thick forests between the zones as well as some lush roads filled with flowers on the sides instead of plain grass. It was beautiful, and she was becoming more and more eager to walk those paths and smell the nature of the region below them. There were plenty of small mountains through the region, more in what she guessed to be the rock type zone as well as the ground and steel type zones. Ahead of them to the north was a massive mountain though, which was heavily covered in snow, it made her realize how cold it was as high up as they were in the air.
Naeya realized with the experience that she wasn't afraid of heights.
While she looked ahead to the largest mountain, she was able to notice a large flock of dragons flying around. Noivern, Dragonite, Dragonaire, Salamence, Altaria...every flying dragon type were flying around the mountain, playing with each other or having a small airborne battle. As they grew nearer the mountain, Naeya was able to barely make out that the dragons who were fighting each other had trainers on their backs.
She noticed a trainer on another flying dragon approaching them, he was riding a Hydreigon...and he wore the cultist robe. Naeya finally had her bearings completely, and as soon as she noticed the Hydreigon readying to attack them, she readied a mirror coat around herself with the energy flowing through her. A pulse of dragon energy flew at them, and Naeya extended her mirror coat to catch the energy and return it back to the Hydreigon's trainer instead of the Hydreigon itself. From the height they were at, the fall would be lethal to the trainer if not severely hurt by the damage they took of the raw reflected attack on them. Hydreigon stopped going after the group on Skarmory and went down to capture the cultist who fell of of its back. Naeya knew it was the same Hydreigon and cultist she returned a hyper beam to the day before.
Xhasca seemed to be trying to convey her surprise at what just happened, but the speed they were travelling was too much for the words to get through. Instead of having her struggle with it, Naeya sighed and touched her forehead to the back of Xhasca's neck, reaching her mind to Xhasca's to hear her thoughts like psychic type Pokemon could do, like Gardevoir did and Sylveon did despite not being a psychic type. Xhasca was surprised at first having her mind touched by someone besides her Pokemon, but she returned the action by thinking the words she tried to shout through the air to Naeya.
I never thought we'd be attacked in the air. You protected us right? Incredible that you're so easily able to stop a Hydreigon...especially that one. That cultist has been a thorn in my side for a long time.
Naeya smiled and thought some words of her own toward Xhasca.
I returned a hyper beam to that same Hydreigon yesterday at the cultist base in the dark zone Xharye and I escaped from. Apparently the cultist lacks in the brainpower to avoid going after you. I'm sure a moonblast from your Gardevoir would be enough to knock out Hydreigon in a single attack after all. A cheap attack in mid air is just...disgusting. I'm glad the mirror coat worked the way it did. Normally Wobbuffet take those hits directly before returning the attack to their opponents.
Finally, they descended to the water zone. Skarmory slowed down just enough to not give the riders whiplash, landing just outside the gate of the water zone. While Xhasca gave the impression she would leave Naeya to experience most of the zone challenges on her own, after landing, she thanked Skarmory for the flight and returned her to the Pokeball she wore on her waist and walked with Naeya through the gate into the water type zone.
"They have a tournament today for championship of the zone, so I'm going to see about getting you in on it despite the rule of requiring at least one full evolution Pokemon during the zone championship challenges."
After Xhasca said it, Naeya became worried. Was she going to be showing it everywhere that she had extremely strong Pokemon strengths? She would rather experience her zone challenge as a trainer and not as one of her own Pokemon.
"Hey, did you know the region champion was going to be visiting today?"
A battle close by paused as they noticed the pair walking through the initial field where partial water types had their battles like normal on land. They were growing near to the massive lake where a lot of Pokemon were being trained and trainers battled their Pokemon.
"Not a clue...I wonder who the person with her is."
The conversations, even if they would normally be out of earshot reached Naeya and concerned her that they were getting so much attention. After about twenty minutes of it, not only was she even more nervous of talking to people when she would work at the zone normally, she was worried what kind of situation Xhasca was about to put her in with her zone challenge.
They arrived at an area where people and their Pokemon were being treated for injuries sustained during training, and there was a battle arena a little further ahead of the area they arrived.
"It's champion Xhasca! I wonder if she's here to battle with Xharye again during today's tournament..."
That comment got an immediate reaction out of Xhasca.
"Not a chance. I'm here with my fiancee Naeya to have her sign up for her challenge of the zone and see how she does with a run at the championship of the zone today. Where's the zone reception again?"
Apparently Xhasca didn't do well with crowds, because the way she said what she did caught a lot of unwanted attention, especially her mention of Naeya being her fiancee.
"They're wearing matching engagement bands!"
After that comment, Xhasca pulled Naeya away toward the battle zone where she finally saw the person she was looking for, the person who would file Naeya in for the zone challenge. When they reached the person in charge, and elder woman who looked surprisingly young for her age turned her attention to them and immediately welcomed Xhasca.
"It's been months since your last visit. Is your visit today for the tournament?"
Xhasca properly introduce Naeya to the receptionist.
"Actually, I'm here with Naeya to get her signed up for her zone challenge. I went and blabbed it to the others in the safe zone, so you'd hear it eventually, but Naeya and I are engaged. I was hoping she could join the championship run today. She only has two water types with her and neither are full evolutions, but she's personally very strong at fighting, so maybe either she could fill her third space personally, or would the zone be able to loan her a fill in for her team temporarily?"
The receptionist was a mix of reactions to everything Xhasca had to say. After it all, the thing she was most concerned with was how cute they looked as a couple with their matching engagement bands. She managed to catch herself and calm down enough to logically answer the question of how Naeya would be able to challenge the zone championship.
"Our rentals for the championship are all booked for today...how about we have a quick one on one battle between her alone and my Swampert? If she can handle the battle with Swampert well, she can participate in the tournament as she is. Are you certain she will be well enough to handle a battle like this since Pokemon are so powerful?"
Xhasca smiled wide and looked at Naeya for a reaction. Naeya was disappointed that it came to her fighting the battles herself, but she was confident in the strength ready to be unleashed.
"Alright. Make sure Swampert doesn't hold back against me."
The receptionist was surprised, but she opened the battle arena so that they could start the battle to test her ability against the Swampert she called out. The arena was a thin floating ring of waterproof metal held by rope to the outer edges of the ring, over a field of mostly water. Naeya hopped to the end she was designated for her side of the battle, and waited for Swampert to be called out.
A massive crowd of the water zone trainers and their Pokemon gathered in the seats around the battle ground and watched on as the battle prepared.
Xhasca acted as the referee of the fight, signalling for them to hold until she saw that both sides were ready to battle. When she got a nod of confirmation from Naeya and the zone receptionist, she smiled and shouted.
"Begin!"
Swampert dove into the water, swimming around to gather its advantage in the water over Naeya who needed air to breath. She gathered her energy to work the same as a water type, so that she would be able to function under water the same as Swampert. Then she stopped herself from diving into the water thinking about her outfit. She would much rather prefer to wear a wet suit when fighting a water battle. She readied herself and waited for Swampert to make the first attack.
"Swampert, use hydro pump to knock her into the water!"
The receptionist was decided on getting Naeya wet during the battle. Just barely in time, Naeya was able to dodge the attack and avoid getting wet, finding another good spot on the ring. She needed to be ready for the water, so she reached her energy to exchange the outfit she was wearing with the swimsuit in her bag and when she felt the air tickle her skin, her outfit being replaced, not only was the crowd roaring in surprise, she hopped into the water and grabbed at Swampert trying to swim away from her for an advantage. She let Swampert get ready, using the energy to steady herself in the water. She smiled when she noticed that the energy was working as well to keep her from needing the air outside of the water to breath.
She could barely make out the sound of the receptionist calling out for Swampert to use aqua jet attack, to which she readied herself to counter the attack. Swampert sped at her with frightening speed in the water, only to meet with her high sense of adaptability, swimming just enough out of the way to grab hold of Swampert's tail and bring him above water. Naeya grinned as Swampert became surprised as much as the spectators of the battle. Swampert was ready though. At the very next command, Swampert unleashed a powerful hydro pump at Naeya, to which she calmly danced out of the way and unleashed her own hydro pump from her left hand she extended.
That was where the spectators lost any composure they had left. Seeing a human unleash a hydro pump from their hand. Swampert was just as off guard to what he witnessed, taking the full brunt of the hydro pump to the chest, flying back to the stands. The battle was over.
The receptionist called Swampert back to his Pokeball and looked at Naeya with a dumfounded stare. The audience which gathered was still roaring with their disbelief at what they witnessed.
"Isn't Naeya amazing?"
Xhasca was barely calm, just as excited to see how amazing Naeya's ability was. From changing her outfit with psychic power, being able to condition herself for a water battle, and then unleashing a hydro pump were all simply too amazing. No other human could do that. Xhasca was proud of Naeya's ability, not afraid of it like she initially had been. The more her ability was complimented, the more Naeya warmed up to her ability to fight.
"Well, seems like Naeya's ready to join the championship today. We have to wait for Xharye to arrive before we begin, but I'm sure others are eager to get started right now..."
To which loud shouting directed at Xhasca was directed.
"You had her show her ability in public?! Are you trying to get the cultists after her?! You should be more careful with her if you continue to claim you love her! Damn it sis...! Sometimes I really can't believe you!"
Xharye was furious at Xhasca for what she just witnessed. What Xhasca encouraged.
"Naeya is incredible though. Not only was she the full force of your escape yesterday, but she continues to show having a ridiculous amount of energy to spend. She stopped that pest Hydreigon member of the cult on the way here as they tried to attack us in mid air. We could have all been hurt, but she's ready at any moment, so why not let her ability out instead of trapping it?"
Xharye fumed instead of responding. She wanted to argue it, but she couldn't deny that what saved Naeya the day before was her own ability to fix herself. Naeya was...she wasn't a human or a Pokemon. She was something in between. Xharye had to admit that Naeya's energy needed to be used. Otherwise, it might go out of control and force her to take a full Pokemon appearance like she almost did with the fever she had the day before after stopping the use of the power.
"Fine. Naeya can join the tournament. She has to prioritize the use of her water type Pokemon though. She can only join battles herself if her Froakie and Horse are fainted. Those are my conditions for letting her join."
Everyone was excited for the tournament now except for Xharye. She knew that unless Naeya would exhaust herself, she would definitely win the zone championship.
So it began. Naeya was ready to fight the battles normally until Froakie and Horsea would be fainted. She hoped that the challenge would give her the chance to evolve one of them to their second stage. Meanwhile, everyone else was excited to see just how much they could push Naeya to use Pokemon attacks. Xhasca showed her pride in Naeya, while Xharye continued to feel worried for Naeya. Someone hidden plotted revenge from the shadows.
