Episode 35: The way of all steel

Niko got up early the morning following his gym battle with Byron to train on Iron Island, per the Gym Leader's advice. As he often tries to do, he attempted to not wake Lauren up, but as usual he failed at that.

"Where are you going…?" She asked groggily, rubbing her eyes with her fists.

"Iron Island. I need to go train."

"Can I come with you…?" She asked in the same tone.

"No. I'd prefer to do this with just my pokémon. Sorry…" He leaned down and kissed her forehead before returning his team to their pokéballs, getting dressed quickly, and leaving the room with his bag slung over one of his shoulders.

After looking at the map, Niko and JJ found Iron Island to be just north of Canalave City, or a quick boat ride away. All Niko needed to do was find someone to ferry him over there.

After a while of looking around the port, asking various sailors if they could help him out, he eventually found Byron talked with a tall mustached man with dark brown hair. The Gym Leader immediately noticed Niko as the trainer approached him.

"Niko! You made it! Excellent. Niko, this is Clint. You might know him as Lauren's father. Clint, this is Niko, the challenger I was telling you about."

Clint eyed Niko with suspicion. "How do you know my daughter?"

Niko looked up at Clint in surprise. "Err…I've been travelling with her actually," Niko admitted, choosing to err on the side of honesty, if anything. Clint raised an eyebrow, as if unsure of how to respond.

"Lauren never told me she was travelling with people. But I can deal with that later. Niko, Byron tells me you need to head to Iron Island?" Niko nodded. "Excellent. I've got some free time this morning to take you. Do you know how long you'll be there?"

Niko shook his head. In reality, he had no idea how long the training would take. Byron then clasped his hand on Clint's shoulder.

"Riley will notify me when he is ready to come back. It might not be or a couple of days, at most."

A couple of days!? Niko thought to himself, astonished. There's no way he would need that much time to train. What exactly is waiting for him on Iron Island?

Niko stepped onto the boat with Clint, and in moments they were off onto the sea, watching Canalave City quickly grow smaller. After the city disappeared in the distance, Niko sat down in the passenger seat of the small boat, which looked oddly similar to the one he and JJ would occasionally operate during their travels through Hoenn. After a while, Clint began to talk, asking about Lauren, her well-being, how she was doing in her gym challenges and contests. Niko answered each question in turn, noticing how all of the answers seemed to please him.

"You sound like a good kid, Niko. Where're you from?"

"Pallet Town in Kanto."

"Ah, Pallet Town! I've been there a few times, but never for leisure, usually on business. Lauren's probably mentioned that we're from Johto."

"Yeah, she has. I've been there, too."

"Oh? What for?" Niko explained that he competed in the gym challenge there. "Ah! Lauren wanted to as well, but she got into some danger, and I had to put my foot down. It was difficult to see her leave again, but I couldn't necessarily stop her. She's getting older now, and far more independent. But she needs her space, always has. It's comforting to know that she has people with her to look out for her. You might have noticed, but she kind of can—oh, how do I put it?—she can be too independent sometimes, and tends to shut others out when she's frustrated."

"I didn't know that, sir. I'll keep an eye out for that. Any advice?" Niko asked.

"Just to not let her get too far away from you. But space is necessary when she's mad. Well, that's how it is with a lot of people, but just a tip for you if you need it," Clint was quiet for a moment. "I'm really proud of you, y'know. I never got a chance to see the world the way she does. Sure, I get to travel a lot, but I don't get to go challenging gyms or bettering myself as a trainer. I got married early on in my life, and then Lauren came along, and then…well, and then she lost her mother, my wife…"

"I'm sorry to hear that…Lauren never mentioned anything about that."

"She won't. She doesn't talk about it. Never has. In fact, it's best to not bring it up at all. Losing a parent is a special kind of hell."

"I wouldn't know…" Niko said solemnly.

"And be glad you don't. Neither did I, but I lost my best friend. Next to a parent, that's the worst kind of pain.

"Anyways, I'm really proud of Lauren. And I know her mother would be, too. Competing in both gyms and contests can't be easy."

"No, it's not. But Lauren is a very talented trainer. I'm really proud of her, too," Niko said, looking down at the water passing by. A sharpedo leapt out of the water and then back in, moving in an archlike motion. He was being earnest—he really was proud of Lauren, and all that she's accomplished. Back when he started his journey, he couldn't have hoped to do the kinds of things Lauren has; to know the kinds of things she does; to have had the same kinds of experiences that she has had. In some ways, she reminded him of Fay: another talented trainer who found himself successful early on in his journeys.

"Alright then! Niko, we're here," Clint said, arriving at a dock on the edge of a massive island. Niko could see why it was dubbed "Iron Island:" the entire landmass was a mixture of earth and iron chunks in the form of a collection of small hills and mountains. Near the dock sat a relatively small house. And, as Niko was getting off of the boat, the house had a resident.

"Niko! Pleasure to meet you," The man said, walking down a set of stairs with his hand out. He was a tall man with black dress pants and a navy-blue blazer with a black collar. His hair was dark brown, eyes blue, and he wore a blue hat with a black band running around it, and a set of three pointed edges on the back of the hat. "I'm Riley. Byron told me you'd be joining me here for a couple of days to train, is that correct?

"Yes. Hi Riley," Niko said, returning the handshake. Riley then waved to Clint, who got back on the boat and rode off.

"Come, let's get you settled first, and then we can go into the mountain and begin. So…tell me about yourself."

Niko paused, unsure of where to begin. He was always terrible with this kinds of questions. Always unsure of the intention behind the questioner. "Well, I'm from Pallet Town, and I've been travelling for three and a half years now, battling gyms and Pokémon Leagues. I have five badges so far in Sinnoh, and intend on competing in the Pokémon League here."

"Impressive, impressive. But you seem to have trouble against Byron. Why is that?"

"I don't know, really. None of my pokémon have a natural type advantage, to start with. And I've always had difficulty battling steel types. When I challenged Jasmine back in Johto, I had to rematch her, too."

"Ah, makes sense. Trainers will often have weak spots in their teams and battling styles. For you, it seems to be the steel type. I can certainly help you with that."

"How?"

Riley smiled. "By understanding how the steel type works," They had already made it to the house, and Niko had dropped off his bags and followed Riley into the mountain.

The tunnels of Iron Island were very well lit, compared to the myriad of caves and tunnels Niko has travelled through in his adventures. It took them only a few minutes, until they entered into a large chamber that was also well lit.

Riley then led Niko towards a wall on the far end of the chamber made purely of iron ore. He briefly touched the wall before lifted his hand off and turning to Niko. "Summon your team of pokémon for me."

"Alright. Everyone, let's go!" Niko said, throwing out five pokéballs containing grotle, luxio, prinplup, staravia, and cranidos. "Guys, we're on Iron Island to train for our rematch against Byron. This is Riley; he'll be helping us."

"Indeed. Hello everyone. Now, it wouldn't be fair if you were the only one using your pokémon. Lucario, come on out," Riley said plainly, summoning a familiar aura pokémon into the chamber. "This is my lucario. He'll be showing you all what I want you to do. Now," Riley put his hands behind his back, as if he were about to conduct a lecture, "The steel type is vulnerable to three different elements—fire, ground, and fighting. You have neither of the first two, or so I can imagine, but you can learn the third in two different ways. By learning a fighting move, or to utilize your body in certain ways to replicate a fighting move, usually with a punch or a kick. Prinplup, cranidos, you are both better suited for this. Prinplup, can you use metal claw on this wall here for me?"

Prinplup nodded, his flippers glowing light gray. As soon as he slashed at the wall, the glow disappeared. The penguin winced in pain from slamming so hard onto the wall.

"Well, we'll need to work on that. For the other three, you can hit steel types hard enough by hardening your own bodies, which if strong enough can replicate that of a fighting move. Make sense at all?"

They all began shaking their heads in a negative way. Riley frowned, trying to figure out a better way to explain it.

"You know what, then? Just use whatever moves you have at your disposal to attack this wall. You might want to space out a bit to give yourselves some room. You all know your movesets, and how you can use those moves. Beat on this wall as much as you can until you are too tired to continue. Niko, I have something for you to do as well."

"Huh? Me?"

"Yeah. While they're using attacks, so will you," He pointed to a set of pickaxes. "You will also be digging into this wall."

"Why me?"

"You will get the best results when you are working in sync with your pokémon. You don't have any special abilities or moves—at least, as far as I'm aware—but you too can break through a wall. Here, take this pick and begin."

Niko gave Riley a bemused look before grabbing the largest pick and walking over to the wall, next to grotle, who was firing off energy balls at the iron-coated wall. He then lifted the pick and began whacking at the ore, breaking pieces of it off and onto the ground.

The six of them did this for hours before all of them collapsed. First was staravia, who by far had the hardest time breaking through the iron ore. Eventually he had had to resort to using his talons, but those exhausted quickly and he collapsed onto the ground. Luxio was second to stop—there was only so much electricity he could muster, but he certainly felt like he was improving. Cranidos was next, but it took him a while to get exhausted, as it was easy for him to break through the iron ore. Lastly, prinplup and grotle kept at it for some time, eventually turning it into an endurance contest to see who would stand for the longest. The two kept at it for hours before they collapsed onto the ground simultaneously.

The whole time, Niko dug into the wall, feeling the ore crack under the weight of his pick. Occasionally he would have to change picks or change hands with which to hold the pick, but he continued on for a while.

"I'm impressed, Niko," Riley said. "Normally trainers stop after an hour or so."

"Yeah, but I'm really tired. Don't get me wrong," Niko said as he dropped the pick to the floor a few feet away from him.

"Now, when you were breaking the ore, did you notice anything at all?"

Niko thought about it for a moment. As he considered how the ore broke, he thought about the amount of energy he needed to break each piece. Sometimes he needed as much energy as he could muster, and other times he only needed a light tap. But what determined how much strength he had to put into his hit? The way it looked?

He relayed this all to Riley. "Good. You understand how to break iron and where to break it, and how much force you need to put into your hit," He then turned to the pokémon. "Did you all notice that, too?"

They all nodded. Cranidos then demonstrated by ramming his head into the iron wall, shattering it again.

Eliciting a laugh, Riley continued. "I'll take that as a yes. Well done, all of you. Let's head back to my place then and rest up."

Back at Riley's house near the dock, the pokémon ate some pokéfood with lucario while Riley taught Niko how to repair the picks he had used that day. The process wasn't terribly difficult to understand, but it did take a while. After that, the six of them fell to sleep, either on Riley's couch or on the rug in front. After several more hours, Niko found himself waking up sometime in the evening, his pokémon already up and about, presumably with Riley.

Getting off of the couch, Niko rubbed his eyes and stood up, walking over to Riley's kitchen to grab a glass of water. While he drank it, feeling the cool liquid rush down his throat, he looked outside to see his team running around and playing. He couldn't help but smile as he watched from inside. They were all very serious pokémon most of the time—cranidos excluded—so it was welcoming to see them happy and seemingly healthy. To Niko, it was one of the many things that made his adventures worth it.

Walking outside, niko saw Riley sitting on a nearby bench watching them with lucario. "Your pokémon are quite active."

"Yeah, we usually try to give them time every day to just run around. My friends and I have a lot of pokémon altogether, so it's important that they socialize and engage with one another."

"How are you feeling now?" Riley asked. "I understand that you haven't done much today. If you need to stay a second or third day, you are more than welcome to."

Niko thought about it. But his decision was made when he considered how much work his pokémon put in that day. They—especially grotle and prinplup—only gave up when they collapsed from exhaustion. That was more than he could ask for from them.

"I think we can do it now. I've seen how Byron battles. I know his pokémon's moves, and today gave me a way to counteract them, or to at least do damage to them."

Riley nodded. "Excellent. Well, allow me to take you back, then. I have a boat down by the docks."

Niko nodded, calling his team to come back to him. Once they all gathered together, Niko returned them to their pokéballs and he set off with Riley and lucario to Canalave City.

During the trip, neither of them said much, and it didn't take long for them to arrive back in the ports. By this time, it was close to midnight. Niko got off of the boat, but before he walked towards the Pokémon Center, he turned back to look at Riley.

"Thank you Riley, lucario. I really appreciate you taking the time to help us out."

"Anytime, Niko. Best of luck in your rematch and in all of your future battles. Remember what you learned today."

Niko nodded, determination glowing in his eyes. "I will. Thanks."

It didn't take him long to get back to the Pokémon Center. He stood at the front desk while Nurse Joy healed up his team before he went off to the room he and his friends were staying in.

The room was illuminated only by the fiery tip of monferno's tail, which helped guide Niko over to the bed Lauren was sleeping in. Sending out his pokémon, they all crawled onto the extra bed in the room and immediately fell asleep as Niko took off his shoes and crawled in next to Lauren, accidentally stirring her once again.

As usual, her face was dimly lit by the fire, giving her a usual radiant look. "Evening," She said quietly.

"Hey," Niko said, moving closer to her. "How was your day?"

"It was alright. I missed you," She said, leaning in for a kiss.

"Missed you too," Niko said, returning the kiss and then yawning mid-kiss. "Damn, sorry."

Lauren giggled a little. "Someone's tired."

Niko nodded with an odd look of embarrassment. "Yeah, it's been a long day. But I think I'm ready for my rematch."

"I know you are. I believe in you."

"Thanks…" Niko said before bringing her under his arm and quickly falling asleep.