Our heroes continue on their way to Ira City so that Ichigo can earn his eighth and final badge. With that battle just around the corner, Ichigo can't wait to see what his final gym battle will be like.

"It won't be long. Once we get over this mountain, we'll be in Ira City." Rukia said.

"Are you excited, Ichigo? Your eighth gym battle will be real soon." Orihime said.

"I sure am." Ichigo said. "That badge will be ours soon enough. Am I right, Absol?"

"Absol." Absol seemed as excited as Ichigo was for this battle.

"I wonder what kind of gym this one will be." Orihime wondered.

"We'll find out soon enough." Chad said. All of them kept on going, but Absol stopped as he felt something was wrong.

"Absol? What is it?" Ichigo asked. Absol could hear something and heard something coming their way. Absol looked up the hill the mountain and a rock slide was heading there way and they were about to be crushed.

Pokemon

Every trainer has a choice

To listen to that voice inside

I know the battles maybe long

Winners may have come and gone

I will carry on

Yeah, this dream will last forever

This dream will never die

We will rise to meet the challenge every time

(Advance challenge)

Yeah, this dream keeps us together

This shows that you and I

Will be the best that the world's ever seen

Cause we will always follow this dream

Pokemon

(Ichigo's voice) Heavyweight Weight

"It's a rock slide! Run for it!" Ichigo said as all of them were running as fast as they could before they could get crushed. However, Orihime tripped and it didn't seem like she was going to get up in time. "Orihime!" There didn't appear to be time to save her either, but something large and heavy got between her and the rocks. It shielded her and the rocks seem to have bounced right off what saved her.

"Orihime, are you okay?!" Rukia called. Orihime appeared to have been unharmed.

"I think so." Orihime said. She turned to what saved her and saw it was a Hariyama. "Thank you."

"Hariyama."

"What pokemon is that?" Ichigo asked.

"That's a Hariyama." Rukia said.

"What's going on over there?" All of them looked and saw a big guy. He was twice the size as any of them with the only bit of hair he has is in a black tail behind his head with sideburns. He wore baggy white pants and a white jacket, but his jacket appeared to have been tight on him.

"Is this your Hariyama? It just saved our friend." Ichigo said.

"Yeah. That's mine." The big guy said. "I heard the rock slide and Hariyama saw your friend needed help."

"Thank you. I hope Hariyama didn't get hurt." Orihime said.

"Nah. It takes a lot more than a few rocks to hurt my Hariyama. Am I right?" The big guy asked and Hariyama showed that it was perfectly fine. "You kids just better watch out from now on."

"We will. Thank you again for the help." Rukia said as Hariyama and its trainer climbed up the mountain.

"That guy was huge. What does he eat?" Ichigo said as he was a little intimidated by the size of that man.

"Yammy, wait!" All of them looked and saw a small elderly man trying to catch up with him. "That boy. He never really listens."

"Excuse me." Orihime said and got the old man's attention. "Do you know that man? He just saved us."

"Yes. That was Yammy. He's my grandson." The old man said.

"That big guy was your grandson?" Ichigo said as he found that hard to believe this small would be the grandson of someone so big. He stopped his thoughts when he felt Rukia smacked his head. "What was that for?!"

"I know what you were thinking." Rukia said. "Sir, is there a problem?"

"Sort of." The old man said. "First, my name is Ricardo. Something has been disturbing the pokemon in the forest lately and Yammy came up here to see what's been doing that."

"Something is bothering the pokemon?" Orihime said.

"Or maybe someone." Ricardo said. That didn't sound too good.

"Well, we like to help out, but we need to get to Ira City for my gym battle." Ichigo said.

"Ichigo, how could you even think about that right now?" Rukia said as she didn't like what Ichigo was saying.

"So you came for a gym battle? It won't do you good because the gym leader isn't there now." Ricardo said. "My grandson is actually the gym leader. That was him who just went by here."

"Hold on. That big guy was the gym leader?!" Ichigo said as he was surprised to hear that.

….

Yammy

Yammy and Hariyama looked around the mountain. They knew something was going on and they were trying to find what. Nothing really seemed out of the ordinary, at least not yet.

"Hariyama!"

"What is it?" Yammy said. Hariyama pointed to the ground and saw a mark in the ground, almost like something blasted the ground there. "That must have been what caused the rock slide. So it really wasn't natural."

"Yammy!" Yammy looked and saw Ichigo and is friends with his grandfather.

"Abuelo?" Yammy said. "What's going on? Why did you bring these kids with you?"

"I came after you since you just took off." Ricardo said.

"Your grandfather just told us that something has been bothering the pokemon around here. We thought we could help." Chad said.

"I'm not sure. I don't really need help." Yammy said.

"Yammy, you can't just run off without some sort of plan. We don't even know what's going on." Ricardo said.

"Yammy, let us help. It's the least we can do since you just helped out Orihime." Ichigo said. Yammy could see none of them were just going to go away. So they all sat down and had a talk about all of this.

"I noticed something strange was going on. So I came up here to check things out." Yammy said. "When I got up here, I was able to find this." He pulled out a piece of a net and showed it to them.

"A net?" Orihime said.

"Not just any net. That looks like one used for hunting." Rukia said.

"That's exactly what it is." Yammy said. "I'm pretty sure there are poachers somewhere in this forest, gathering all the pokemon they can."

"Poachers?! That's never good." Ichigo said.

"I think we just missed the poacher behind all this. I'm pretty sure whoever it was caused that rock slide to happen." Yammy said.

"If that's the case, we need to catch the guy doing this and stop him." Rukia said. "If he tries something like that again, someone will get hurt."

"Agreed. What he's doing is wrong in the first place." Chad said.

"That's all very kind of you to want to help." Ricardo said.

"Which brings me to my question. Why are you kids out here in the first place?" Yammy asked.

"We were actually on our way to Ira City." Ichigo said. "We were on our way to the gym so I can challenge it until we heard you were the gym leader."

"Oh… So you're a challenger?" Yammy said as he liked the sound of that. "I always like it when trainers come to my gym. How many badges do you have now?"

"Seven of them. I just need one more." Ichigo said.

"So I'm your last stop? In that case, I'm expecting you to give nothing less than your all." Yammy said. "Once this is over, I'll take your challenge." Ichigo was glad to hear his challenge was accepted, but they've got to solve this problem first. They got their first notice as they heard some sort of explosion go off.

"I think we may have found our poacher." Rukia said. All of them got up and hurried towards where the commotion is coming from.

….

The Forest

"Magmortar, Flamethrower! Golem, Rock Blast!" A Magmortar and a Golem used those two attacks and it blasted a group of Beautifly and made it easier for them to be captured. An armor vehicle scooped them up and put them in cages. "Nice work, both of you." The poacher was a man that wore an eyepatch with messy brown hair and a beard. "Let's see what else we can find."

"Absol, Razor Wind!"

"Absol!" Absol launched the attack and blasted both pokemon. The poacher looked to the side and saw Ichigo and the others.

"Looks like we found the poacher." Ichigo said.

"Who do you think you are?" The poacher said.

"What are you doing with all those pokemon?" Orihime said.

"What does it look like? I'm catching them all." The poacher said.

"You mean stealing them and going to try and sell them off." Rukia said. "You will release all of them at once."

"No one gives me orders." The poacher said.

"Were you the one that caused that rock slide?" Yammy questioned. "Some of the people here almost got crushed by them."

"Do I look like I even care? Now stay out of my way or you're in for a lot of pain." The poacher said with both his pokemon ready to battle.

"You asked for it." Ichigo said as he and Absol were ready to do battle, but Yammy and Hariyama stood in the way.

"Let me." Yammy said.

"How come?" Ichigo said.

"I prefer handling problems on my own." Yammy said. "Hariyama, let's go." Hariyama stepped forward and looked ready to battle.

"This shouldn't take long." The poacher said. "Magmortar, Fire Blast! Golem, Rock Blast!" Both of his pokemon used their attacks and it seemed like Hariyama wasn't even moving. Hariyama held up its hands and was able to block the attacks real easily.

"Whoa! Hariyama didn't flinch or anything." Orihime said.

"Those hands are like twin shields." Rukia said.

"That's Yammy's battle style." Ricardo said. "He uses the weight, strength, and size of his pokemon in his battles. So they really have no need to dodge any attacks."

"You think I'm scared? Think again. Magmortar, Hyper Beam!" The poacher said. Magmotar held up its arms and fired the beam, but Hariyama was able to block that attack as well. "So you want some more? Golem, Rock Wrecker!" Golem held out its arms and formed a giant rock with it tossing it at Hariyama.

"Hariyama, Force Palm!" Yammy said. Hariyama pressed its hand against the rock and energy blasted through with the rock shattering to pieces.

"No way!" The poacher said as he and the others were amazed that Hariyama did that so easily. Chad snuck over to the armored vehicle and was able to release the captured pokemon from the cages, but the poacher noticed. "Hey! Those are mine!"

"Not anymore. Hariyama, Surf!" Yammy said.

"Hariyama!" Hariyama slammed its hands against the ground and generated a giant wave of water. There was no way to dodge it and both of the poacher's pokemon got caught in the attack. The wave headed over to the poacher and hit him with the vehicle being knocked over and all three of them were knocked out.

"No way! He took the attacks and was able to knock them around so easily!" Rukia said.

"What power!" Ichigo said. He couldn't believe the power the two of them possess. He's in for a real battle. Once this was over, they got the poacher and his pokemon tied up.

"I'll call Officer Jenny and let her know about this." Ricardo said.

"Good thing that's taken care of." Yammy said. "So you came for a gym battle, Ichigo? You'll get one, but it better be a battle where you give it your all."

"Ichigo, this won't be easy." Chad said.

"I know, but I'll be ready. Right, Absol?" Ichigo asked.

"Absol!"

They may have stopped that poacher, but Ichigo is in for a bigger battle. Yammy and Hariyama are a powerful team and this will be Ichigo's toughest gym battle yet. We'll see how he handles this one. So stay tune to see what happens from here.

To Be Continued…