A Stone-faced Defeat
For four out of six to earn a Gym Pass was quite an achievement. At the end of the school day, Kai, Ray, Max and Hilary had all been presented with a little blue ticket bearing the Pokémon Gym ensign. Tyson grumbled about how he couldn't care less but by the next day, Kai, Ray, and Max were out the doors of the Pokémon Centre early to see what would come of their Gym Passes. Tyson gathered what was left of the group in the boys' room in another attempt at a group meeting.
"We don't need them!" he asserted, yet he sounded like he would rather have them around. "We can get started without them. Operation Find Pomygon G begins today!"
"Porygon Z," Mari corrected, rolling her eyes. She went back to curiously investigating their beds with Mawi. Her Pokémon was currently swimming around in the sheets of one of the top bunks and everyone else's Pokémon were crawling around the room in various states of activity. Daichi's Slakoth was still munching through his breakfast leaf. Mari leaned over one of the bottom bunks to examine it. "Wow, Max's bed is pretty tidy. Did he even sleep here?"
"Of course he did. He was there when I fell asleep."
"Really?" Hilary said, fiddling with the training ball from Kai's bag. "Because I saw him chatting up a girl in the lobby pretty late last night."
"You can see the whole street from up here," Daichi piped up, leaning out the open window.
"Will you guys quit snooping around and listen?!" Tyson shouted. "How many times do I have to tell you how serious our situation is before you actually start taking it seriously? Mari, get your Pokémon off my bed!"
Mawi's jaws poked out, followed by her head wrapped up in a pair of boxers she had found between the sheets.
"Mawi, take that off! That's gross!" Mari scolded.
Hilary sighed audibly, still playing with the collapsible ball and sitting with her back against Kai's bunk. "What's the point at this stage? Like you said yesterday, it's already been so long in our world that we're probably already dead in everyone's eyes."
"How is that an excuse to stop trying?" Tyson urged. "If anything, that should encourage us all to try harder! Okay, I know I really pushed the worst case scenario yesterday but this is what I really believe: we should hold out hope that everyone we love and care about in our world is still holding out hope for us. It's hard on us being in a slower time zone but we have a responsibility to get back to them if we can."
"And what if we can't?" Hilary asked depressively. "Perhaps we should just start getting used to life in this world. Maybe I should take my Gym Pass and go earn a badge."
"No way, that is not an option!" Tyson argued hysterically. "At least not until we exhaust every other alternative. Mari, yesterday you said you'd found out something useful but you didn't get around to telling us what that was."
"Oh, right!" Mari realised, sitting down on Max's bed to get comfortable for the explanation. "Ran into Professor Oak in the library yesterday and said he would be super interested in finding Porygon Z too."
"Really?" Tyson said, eyes brightening. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"Means that he wants to help but that's not even the best part. Professor Oak's research is all about rare and Legendary Pokémon and he thinks that Porygon Z might be a key to better understanding the power of Legendary Pokémon. Not only that, he also has tons of information about Legendary Pokémon all over the world. Some of them can cross dimensions freely and turn back time and he reckons that if he can emulate whatever it is that Porygon Z did to get you guys here he might be able to create an artificial time-space portal that can get you home. But even if that turns bust, he can help us track down the Legendary Pokémon that might be able to do something about that. In the best case scenario, might even be able to get them to take you back to the moment you left."
The explanation left Tyson, Hilary and Daichi gobsmacked. They stared at her in stunned silence for a moment before Tyson shook his head in disbelief and yelled:
"ARE YOU FOR REAL!? Then what are we doing looking for Ponegon D? We should try to find those Legendary guys!"
"Porygon Z! Finding them is the problem," Mari replied grimly, "and even then, nobody knows much about them beyond what's enshrined in myths and legends. Don't know if they'd even be willing to listen to the wishes of mere humans."
"What're you saying?" Daichi asked. "That we give up on that too?"
"No, I'm saying that we should look for Porygon Z but we should calm down, take our time and do it for Professor Oak too. Because even if you find Porygon Z, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to make it take you home since you don't understand how its power works."
Tyson crossed his arms tightly and grumbled. "I don't really like that plan…"
"Of course you don't," Hilary sighed, "but this is actually the best option we've got so far."
"All of this makes my head spin," Daichi complained. "I mean, I don't like it any more than anyone else but it's so hard to do anything about it."
"Why don't we just unwind for a bit by going to the Gym?" Mari suggested. "Then we can catch up with the others."
"Now we're in the business of making actual plans," Hilary said, collapsing the training ball and letting it roll off her hand.
"Then let's get a wiggle on!" Mari chuckled.
Rustboro City's Pokémon Gym was a building of brick and stone, another piece of Rustboro's older architecture. However, it was vastly underwhelming in that it was only one storey and even then its only floor wasn't very high. Just like Devon Corp.'s headquarters, any new or retrofitted décor was disguised among the concrete arches and stone veneer.
Tyson, Daichi, Hilary and Mari arrived just as their friends were walking out. Treecko was sitting in the crook of Ray's arm, looking worse for wear but still smiling happily. Max carried his Mudkip in his arms since the little guy was battered but still awake and looking proud of himself. Togepi giggled and wiggled in joyful excitement without a scratch on her. The three bladers were chatting amongst each other (or at least Ray and Max were chatting) animatedly and the damp sheen on their skin showed that whatever had happened in there had forced them to break a sweat.
"Hey!" Mari called over to them, getting their attention as the two groups approached each other. "How'd it go?"
Max chuckled and took his badge case out of his pocket. "See for yourself."
In the first slot of his case he had placed one shiny, new badge. It was a brown, square boulder that was split in two and separated diagonally by a reddish-brown brick. Ray showed off the badge in his case too and they both grinned triumphantly.
"Wow, so that means you won?" Tyson said, unable to keep the awe out of his expression. "What about you, Kai? Where's your badge? Or did you lose again?"
Kai scowled at him but said nothing, allowing Max to answer for him: "Kai actually did really well. His Seedot was kicking ass right up until Roxanne's final Pokémon but then Magikarp managed to finish the job. Though I gotta say, Ray probably did the best out of all of us."
Ray chuckled awkwardly. "I suppose, only if you forget about what happened with Taillow."
"What happened with Taillow?" Hilary asked.
Ray hung his head in embarrassment as Max burst into laughter. Even Kai was smirking. "Taillow only listened long enough to carry out one attack," Max recounted through his sniggers. "Then he tried to fly out a window, crashed and got knocked out anyway when Roxanne's Geodude pitched a boulder at him. Treecko had to carry the battle on his own from there."
"She was really hard on me about it afterwards," Ray moaned.
"You don't have to tell me about how hard she is on people," Tyson complained.
"So, what's the deal with the Gym Pass?" Hilary asked.
"Oh, those are pretty convenient," Ray said. "You guys remember how the Petalburg Gym had that maze gimmick?" Hilary, Tyson and Daichi nodded in memory of the frustration of the thing. "Well, this Gym has a gimmicky layout too but with the Gym Pass you get access to a walkway that lets you bypass it."
"Bypass?" Daichi echoed excitedly.
"Walkway?" Tyson repeated with a questioning inflection. Then he growled irritably. "Great! Now I just have less reason to get a badge. I don't have time to mess around with stupid puzzle mazes."
"Sounds like you really want to participate," Mari pointed out slyly, making Tyson baulk at the idea that he would, in fact, like to get a Gym badge.
"Of course he does," Hilary responded. "Tyson is actually really competitive."
"Th-that still doesn't change the fact that we don't have time!" Tyson tried to defend himself, going red to his ears. Suddenly there was a little slip of blue paper right next to his face. His gaze flickered to it and then to Kai, who was holding the Gym Pass to him. "What's this for?"
"I thought you didn't have time for gimmicks and puzzles," Kai replied. "So take this."
"Won't they notice if I take back the same ticket?"
"Actually, Kai didn't use his Gym Pass," Max answered. "He thought it was something like taking the easy way out so he went through the puzzle part. But gee, I think he must have been quick because he caught up to us just as I finished my battle and the girl who got here before us didn't even make it before we left."
"Blacked out, maybe?" Mari guessed.
"What does that mean?"
"Didn't have any Pokémon left that could still fight. In trainer circles that's called blacking out."
"Heh, thanks, buddy," Tyson grinned, taking the ticket. Kai just grunted in response. "That Roxanne chick talks big in the classroom but let's see if she can follow her own lessons in practice."
"Go for it!" Mari cheered. "And I'll take these guys to look for Porygon Z."
"Wait," Ray said as Mari started to push him out to the street. "We need to go to a Pokémon Centre first."
"Naturally."
Kai and Max simply followed where Mari was leading Ray. The three who were left exchanged glances.
"Well, let's go," Hilary said. Then they stepped into the building's sliding doors.
Their eyes widened once they stepped inside. They hadn't been sure what to expect but it certainly wasn't this. The level of the ceiling was consistent with what they saw outside, it was the level of the floor that got them; it dropped down to the ground like an open basement but they couldn't see anything in it. A wide staircase led down to that lowered level and disappeared into a maze of rocky walls. What's more, some of those rock walls were moving. The height of the maze never exceeded the ground level and they could see over the top of the puzzle to the identical staircase at the end, where Roxanne was waiting for the next challenger.
There was evidence of the Gym's longevity along the front wall where plinths bearing plaques on all of their sides displayed the names and trainer ID numbers of all the trainers who had triumphed. The first two plinths beside the door merely held concrete Pokéballs – the generic symbol of the Pokémon trainer. However, every other plinth had a hunk of rock, all of them unique in some way. In the first few metres before the staircase were display cases showing even more rocks, some of them were precious and some of them had hunks of fossils sticking out of them.
"I didn't know this place was a museum," Daichi said, leaning over a display case and misting up the glass with his breath.
"Why, yes it is!" boomed an unfamiliar voice, making Hilary, Tyson and Daichi nearly jump out of their skin. They all whirled around from the rock specimens they were looking at and saw an eccentric man in a forest green three piece suit with a pink tie secured by a Gym logo tiepin. He had dark brown hair that was combed back and had two spikes sticking out the back (the trainers weren't sure if those were deliberate), brightly enthusiastic green eyes and a winning smile with teeth that shone with the intensity of a thousand suns. "Welcome to the Rustboro City Gym but to the regular folk this place is just the Hoenn Regional Museum of Geology. Look around! This place encapsulates all of the stony wonders you might find across the Hoenn region. Even the fossil record has an honourable mention."
"Yeah, I can see that," Hilary deadpanned, looking across the Gym where a giant 3D mural of fossils sticking out of stone covered the walls around the Gym Leader's arena.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" the strange man continued to spruik. "And if you go over to that vending machine in the wall there, it's only 5 Pokédollars to purchase a map, ensuring that you can enjoy the educational wonders without getting lost in the Gym. Isn't that considerate?"
"Thanks but no thanks," Daichi said, sticking his tongue out at the thought of more education. "We're here for Roxanne."
It didn't seem possible but the man's eyes became even more sparkly. "Then you're trainers?"
"Who the heck are you?" Daichi snapped, irked by this guy's overenthusiasm.
"Ah! Haven't introduced myself," the man said, laughing at his own oversight. "Name's Jim. Jim Gai. You might say that I am a Pokémon Gym fan. My repertoire of knowledge of Hoenn's Pokémon Gyms is rival to none. You want advice? You've come to the right man."
"What's with the Tetsuwan Atom hairdo?" Tyson asked rudely.
"The what now?"
"Okay, if you're so full of advice," Hilary said, pointing out to the Gym, "then what's with these moving walls?"
"No Pokémon Gym is complete without a good challenge," Jim explained, gesticulating grandly to make his point, "and the challenge of Rustboro Gym is to learn and fight your way to the finish, where the rockin' whiz Roxanne awaits! All you have to do is navigate the maze but do not fear, for there are no dead ends for the educated. Knowledge moves mountains, scales cliffs and breaks boulders!"
"Yeah, but what exactly do we do?" Tyson asked.
"If I told you that would be cheating."
Tyson face-planted the floor. "Some advice you have!"
However, Hilary clicked her fingers as epiphany struck. "I see! Roxanne's a teacher so she'd be concerned about learning, right? I'm guessing that the puzzles at those walls might be some form of quiz and if this is a museum then maybe those quizzes have something to do with the information you can learn around here. That explains these passes too." She took hers out of her pocket. "Doing well in Day School means you're studious enough to gain Roxanne's respect so she grants you immediate access to the final stage of the Gym."
"WHOA!" Jim screamed, clutching his head in shock. "So perceptive! Capturing the essence of Roxanne's character and the character of her Gym in one go like that?! Simply extraordinary! How would you like to become my apprentice in all things Pokémon Gym-related?"
"No way," Hilary replied, backing away from him.
"Wait! This just sucks!" Daichi complained. "That means I have to go through the maze."
"Life's a rocky road, sonny-boy," said Jim. "Sometimes you'll get stuck between a rock and a hard place but it's what you learn from it all that will clear your path."
"Alright, enough with your pseudo-philosophy," Tyson snapped. "What about beating Roxanne? Any tips for that?"
"Hm," Jim muttered, pretending to think about it. "Roxanne is an expert user of the rock-type and her Gym reflects that. No pushover, that's for sure. Rock-types are durable but their solid defences crack when up against water- and grass-type attacks. That's all to be said without giving too much away; want to see how you tackle the rock wall. I'll be here, rooting for you guys. Best of luck."
He gave them a double thumbs-up and grinned that blinding grin.
"Thanks for the tip," Hilary replied, grabbing Daichi by the back of the shirt and leading him away while muttering under her breath: "let's get away from this weirdo."
The three of them scuttled away from that guy pretty quickly and made their way down the stairs. It stopped first at a landing with a gate on either side that each had another narrower staircase going up to a walkway that skirted the inner edge of the building. In the walls beside the gates were ticket machines with a feeder.
"This is where Gym Pass holders get off, then," Hilary surmised.
"Hey, couldn't you guys just, y'know… take me with you?" Daichi begged.
"Don't be a cheater, Daichi," Hilary berated. "You too, Tyson. If I were you I wouldn't use Kai's Gym Pass."
"Liar," Tyson rebuked. "I bet you would totally take the easy way out. Not like you're gonna stop me now anyway."
He slipped Kai's ticket in the feeder and the gate swung open. He ignored Hilary's verbal chastisement as the gate closed behind him and walked on with his hands folded behind his head. The walkway had a waist-high railing and a full view of what was going on as he passed it. Tyson looked down at it all curiously. There were ordinary people just wandering around the place with their maps but there were also some more open spaces where trainers were battling each other, sometimes with the audience of the regular folk. At the end of the walkway, Tyson strode out to the top of the stairs where Roxanne was standing with a watchful eye on her Gym. She turned to him sharply.
"Don't know where you got Gym Pass," she said in a clipped tone, "or the gumption to cheat but I must say that I'm really not that surprised at all. You strike me as the type of student who would rather not be a student at all."
"You got that right," Tyson replied proudly.
"Tyson!" Hilary shouted, running at him from the other side. She grabbed him by the shirt and shook him. "What the hell makes you think you can just do whatever you want here? Get back down there and do the Gym challenge like everyone else!"
"Huh? Someone's cheating?" another voice said, orchestrated by the echoic steps of someone walking up the stairs. "Don't you know that cheating isn't tolerated?"
The person reached the top of the staircase and stopped, standing there proudly with her arms akimbo. Tyson blinked. "Elain? Is that you?"
"Know another Elain?"
"No, just… why are you here? Didn't you have some big exam or something yesterday?"
"Passed it," Elain answered, smiling broadly. "Did way better than I thought I did too, so I felt really confident about challenging Roxanne for a badge. But what's this about skipping out on the challenge? It's mandatory without a special pardon from the Trainer's School."
"You upset because you failed to get one?" Tyson goaded.
Elain shook her head, showing him her Gym Pass. "Just wanted to see how I fared against the challenge."
Tyson blew a raspberry. "Book smarts aren't everything. Battling is a practical skill; if you get results in the field, who cares about anything else?"
"Why you!" Elain growled.
"Difficult student, indeed," Roxanne harrumphed, crossing the arena to her cabinet under the enormous fossil ribcage. One of her aides – a black-haired girl in school uniform on standby to referee matches – leaned over to her and whispered:
"What do we do about him? Kick him out?"
"Unruly students with poor work ethic should be disciplined," Roxanne stated, opening the cabinet and revealing the Pokéballs for the day's matches. Some slots were empty, indicating those that had lost their fights and were carried away for healing. She picked one Pokéball. "However, at the same time talent should be recognised."
She turned around, glaring at Tyson, who met her gaze defiantly. "Very well, Mr Granger. We'll battle. For winning you will receive the Stone Badge, as per the rules of this Gym."
"Roxanne!" the aide exclaimed. "You crazy?!"
"If you lose," she continued, "you will have to complete an entire week's worth of study at the Trainer's School to a satisfactory level before you're allowed to even step foot in this Gym again."
"Heh! Fine by me. Bring it on, teach'!" Tyson chuckled.
"Wait!" Elain interrupted. "Challenging for the badge is a privilege that belongs only to the people who've worked for it. If you want the same then you should have to prove yourself of equal or greater standing. Roxanne!" Elain turned to her with her hand outstretched to receive something. "Let me challenge Tyson in a preliminary round. If he beats me, only then can he go on to challenge you."
Roxanne smirked and her aide grinned. "A fair proposal. Very well. We'll see if Mr Granger can demonstrate the skills worthy of a top-grade student." She walked back to the other side of the arena to hand Elain the Pokéball.
"And just to keep things interesting," Hilary added, "let's say that the losing rate still applies."
"Do you just live to make me miserable?" Tyson growled at her. Hilary pulled a face at him.
The opponents took their places in the trainer boxes at either end of the arena while Roxanne explained to her aide what conditions the battle would take place under. The aide took her place on the referee's podium. Two screens, located in the corners of the walls, activated automatically, displaying all of the relevant information, including how many Pokémon each side had. Tyson was about to ask how those screens actually worked but was cut off by the Gym aide's announcement:
"This is an Anything Goes Single Battle; Gym Leader restrictions apply in the red corner." The aide looked to Elain, who nodded, indicating that she was fine with those rules. Tyson just looked confused like all of those words didn't mean anything to him. The Gym aide raised the red and blue flags in front of her. "Challenger Tyson VS Challenger Elain. Battle commence!"
She lifted the flags. Elain and Tyson both threw their first Pokéball. Shroomish leaped out on Tyson's blue side while on Elain's side was a dark blue Pokémon with a huge red nose that looked like an Easter Island Head with arms and legs. Tyson couldn't resist looking it up in the Pokédex straight away.
"Nosepass, the compass Pokémon. Its magnetic nose consistently faces north. It emits a powerful magnetism, such that if two meet they will not be able to face each other since their noses repel each other. When endangered, it may protect itself by raising its magnetism and drawing iron objects to its body."
"Use Rock Tomb," Elain ordered. With its magnetic powers, Nosepass lifted several stones out of the floor and walls and threw them towards Shroomish. The little grass-type panicked and scrambled to dodge but was still pelted by some stones. They fell in a messy ring, containing him. "Stop looking at your 'dex! This is a serious battle. Rock Throw!"
Nosepass picked up an even larger rock that moved soil into a mound as it was dragged up from the ground and pelted it at Shroomish. Shroomish couldn't move fast enough around the rocks and it fell heavily on his head.
"Shoomie, use Stun Spore! Slow it down!" Tyson yelled.
His Shroomish puffed out a cloud of spores but the plume didn't reach far enough to affect the opponent. Nosepass threw another huge rock, hitting Shroomish dead on. It was hard enough that Shroomish's head felt dizzy and he blacked out.
"Shroomish is unable to battle," the Gym aide announced.
"How do you know?" Tyson argued. "He could still—"
"Referee's decision is final!" the aide retorted. "Switch out your Pokémon."
Tyson clicked his tongue in frustration but returned Shroomish anyway, bringing out his other Pokéball. "I guess it's all up to you, buddy." He released Torchic onto the field, outside of the Rock Tomb. "Focus Energy!"
Torchic ruffled his feather and pumped himself up, generating a red aura.
"Not so fast! Rock Tomb!" Elain commanded.
"Scratch attack!"
Nosepass picked up the rocks again and manipulated them around the arena. Torchic darted under, around and even over them, much faster than Shroomish possibly could have. He leaped off one rock with claws bared, ready to scratch. They raked across Nosepass' face. The rock-type toppled over, rocking on its back like a tortoise that couldn't get up.
"Alright, Torchic! Use Ember."
"Nosepass, use Tackle."
"Wait, how can it—"
Before he even had time to be perplexed, Nosepass just lifted into the air and flung at Torchic as if it was moved by an external force. It barrelled through Torchic's embers and tackled him with enough force to send him tumbling away. It stopped abruptly, as if nothing bizarre had happened.
"Wh-what the?" Tyson spluttered. "You must have just cheated! There's no way…!"
"Not cheating when a Pokémon falls back on its biology," Elain laughed. "Mechanically, Nosepass doesn't move very fast or very often. If it needs to get somewhere in a hurry it just utilises its magnets. Learn to deal with the unexpected. Use Rock Tomb, Nosepass."
Nosepass waved its stubby arms and swivelled like it was remote controlled. The rocks around the arena floated up into the air again. Torchic was hit badly by flying stones that all piled on top of him, forming a mound. He barely managed to wiggle out but was knocked out when Nosepass bowled the rock tomb with its magnet-aided tackle.
The graphics on the screen changed. The second Pokéball icon representing Tyson's Pokémon went dark and his portrait shrunk to make room for Elain's portrait to enlarge for a shiny victory screen.
"Torchic is unable to battle," the aide announced lifting the red flag to indicate that Nosepass had made a knockout. She waved the flag dramatically in Elain's direction. "And Tyson is out of useable Pokémon. Winner is Elain!"
Hilary cheered loudly. Tyson rounded on her. "Hey! Whose side are you on?"
"Elain's, obviously," Hilary retorted.
Tyson groaned and returned Torchic. No stranger to defeat, he immediately began to think of ways that things could have gone better until Elain came up to him with a hand out to shake.
"Hate to say I told you so, but…" she said in a sing-song voice that wasn't particularly sportsmanlike at all. However, Tyson privately digressed that he hadn't been particularly sporting either when he decided to skip the challenge. He shook her hand. "And since you lost, be a good sport and hold up your end of the bargain, right?"
Tyson grimaced. "Yeah, yeah… I know."
He tried to block out Hilary's cackling off to the side but there was no denying that he had just been (for lack of a more appropriate term) schooled. And the schooling wasn't over… not for a week.
Tyson was pretty sure Roxanne was actually a slave driver. She didn't even give him the rest of the day off, ordering him to report to the main foyer of the Trainer's School after lunchtime. He groaned as he stared up at the building he'd visited yesterday. The point of Day School was supposed to be that he would only go to school for a day. Now he had a week.
Sighing, he made his way up the steps and through the doors, not putting it off any longer. He wondered if Roxanne would be there to see him. Perhaps she would be his teacher again. That would be awful.
"Oh? Fancy seeing you here again."
Tyson looked up to the person who'd just addressed him. "Elena, right? Hi. I could say the same to you; I didn't really expect to be coming back here."
"That's funny because I was just about to leave for Blackthorn City," Elena replied, "but then Roxanne sent a message from the Gym asking me to stay on for a little bit of extra work. Kind of sudden but I don't really have anything urgent to do other than train, so I agreed."
"Seriously? Because I'm in the exact same boat. If Roxanne hadn't sent me back here I would have taken off with my friends by now – we're on a really important mission."
"Roxanne sent you?" Elena questioned, raising her eyebrows. "From the Gym? Does that mean you're the student?"
"Student? Wait…" Tyson's eyes went wide as the situation began to dawn on him.
"Roxanne asked me to stay on because she had a student from the Gym to send to me. That must be you."
"No way! You're my teacher?"
"From what she told me, we have a lot to cover in just a week. You should know, though, that I'm a strict teacher so be prepared." She winked and gave him a peace sign and somehow Tyson believed that there was no way she could be half as strict as Roxanne.
A/N: And now a chapter that isn't eye-bleedingly long... and Tyson spends almost all of it being a huge jerk. Is this too OOC? Is it going to make people angry? I hope it's not because it's sort of part of Tyson's character development arc as a Pokemon trainer. And, I mean, he's been cranky about the whole situation literally since the moment they got there.
I borrowed the Rustboro Gym's inner appearance from the screenshots of OR/AS. I don't know about the outer appearance yet but I'm just going to say, it's this. It's what I said it is regardless of what it turns out to be in canon. What I liked about R/S/E is that they were pretty games but LQ enough that you could justify a Gym looking like whatever you wanted it to be because everything was still mostly made of digital lego. But with the 3D games everything will be much more detailed. You can see that just looking at the interior of the Rustboro Gym! I saw it and I was blown by how awesome it looked! I can't wait to get in there! I am also a fan of Roxanne's new appearance. She now looks like what I always thought she should've looked like.
Nosepass' magnet movement thing is something I kind of made up. I've seen Nosepass in some anime episodes and it moves at about the same rate as most other Pokemon, which is bizarre because according to the game Pokedex it barely moves a centimetre in a year. However, in my headcanon, game-canon will always trump every other canon (where relevant) and in that case Nosepass is ridiculously impractical for battle. So I made it more practical... with nonsensical physics.
And about the Tetsuwan Atom thing: that's really just what Astro Boy is called in Japan. It translates to 'Mighty Atom' and I just decided to put that in as some really random hyper-realism because as a Japanese boy that's the name Tyson would know that character by.