Author's Note:

Re- Bugtop: So yeah Kleavor would definitely fit a little bit better with the team. Though Isaac does need some Steel to balance it out a bit. If the story organically leads Isaac to Sinnoh I may have him participate in an excavation that can discover a fossilized bit of the special obsidian that will allow that evolution, but Hisuan forms are canonically extinct at this point in time. Though obviously extinct doesn't mean impossible to rediscover. That Ursaring evolution is pretty tight too.

Re- NumerousNumel: 1) A+ name. 2) While I won't be touching on Ash's life outside of interactions with Isaac I imagine by the time we see him at the Indigo League he'll have learned that lesson.

Chapter 7: Very Very Frightening

Even as the Stealth Rocks slammed into the electabuzz the psychic energy of the dual screens took part of the effect, and the energy of the Agility burst to life around it.

Allowing a brutal blitz attack right into Alexei.

"Endure!" I called out, borderline desperately, as the glow of the move shined around his partner, barely allowing him to hold on through the Low Kick that slammed into the swinub's comparatively tiny form.

As the yellow brute flickered backwards from its attack, preparing for another quick strike, a secondary glow erupted from Alexei.

The glow of evolution.

I grinned, "Amazing show Alexei, but even with this I am going to bring you back. You deserve to rest."

"Swiiinnneee…" The newly evolved piloswine rumbled in agreement. That kick had hurt.

As his pokemon returned in a burst of red light, I tilted my head to the side, quickly examining the electabuzz.

It was a big bruiser of a specimen for its species. Which makes sense, Surge was all about physical fitness.

That Low Kick meant I couldn't send out Alberich the rhyhorn, typically who I would use against a heavy physical attacker. And the Agility boost from the Baton Pass meant my fast pokemon wouldn't be at as much of an advantage as they normally would have.

But I still really only had one choice, "To arms, Estella!"

In a burst of light my trusty marowak appeared, bone club spinning in anticipation.

Surge's eyebrows shot up, "You're a type specialist?"

I shrugged, "In the same way Steven Stone is. It's not all ground-types. But I do specialize in the earth elements wedge. Rock, Ground, and Steel."

Surge nodded, "Well I hope that advantage and your tactics are enough for you then. Because I'll be doing my best to beat straight past those resistances!"

And with that suddenly his electabuzz was in Estella's face and vicious punches and kicks were being thrown at her, barely being blocked or deflected by her club.

Unfortunately your average marowak is not particularly fast, no matter what their bodies and techniques would make you think. And electabuzz were the same but in reverse. Extremely fast on base, regardless of what their muscle packed forms would suggest.

However, I had trained Estella very effectively. Out of all my pokemon she was probably the smartest and most tactically inclined. I had drilled this situation into her, well not this exact situation, but similar circumstances. A brutally fast and strong physical attacker she couldn't dance around the way she could Alberich or punch through the way she could Artagnan? She knew this scenario.

I grinned as a Low Kick slammed into her purposefully lowered skull, seemingly doing even less damage than last time.

Unfortunately Surge caught onto it too.

"You cheeky brat! That marowak knows Skull Bash and you've been holding the strike portion of the attack back to build defense!"

I shrugged, "That's part of it, Estella…Anger Burst."

She also knew both Bide and Rage. I had effectively combined the techniques. Every time she was hit her attack stat would rise as if she had been building her Rage. However instead of repetitive usage, it charged to be unleashed similar to Bide.

Combined with the Skull Bash's strike…well the electabuzz was extremely surprised when Estella rocketed forward and her boney skull slammed into its gut, shattering the dual screens, and threw it tumbling backwards.

Giving her all the distance and space she needed to truly start the battle on her terms.

Her bone began flying around the battlefield, circling, looping, and ricocheting around stopping the electabuzz from closing the distance again. Even with the continued Agility boost.

Occasionally mixing Quick Attack with its already boosted speed the electabuzz broke through, but the tide of the battle had turned.

I watched Estella systematically dismantle the brute with her rage enhanced strength and bone club. Bonemerang tosses slowly chipped away at its health until the yellow beast was returned.

"Good job, kid! Your marowak is well trained! Let's see it deal with something more versatile! Magneton, go! It's a ground-type, you know the drill!"

As the creepy, hovering, mass of magnets and metals took the field it immediately began blasting out Tri-Attacks from its multiple eyes and magnets. Now Estella was back on the defensive, and not in the way she excelled. She only had ways to boost her physical defenses, not her special ones.

"You've got to force an opening! Dodge the ice, push through the fire, and deflect the lightning with your club!"

Estella jumped into action, following my directions perfectly. The Bone Club came up and whacked the magneton straight between the eyes.

Which widened in surprise as it reeled back from the still stacked attack boosts. Which allowed her to finish the job.

"Can't underestimate you at all it seems! Alright, get out here electrode!"

That…wasn't a great match up. Estella was tired, she definitely wasn't going to take an Explosion well if that's where we ended up.

"Keep your distance!" Estella tried to fall back on her Bonemerang strategy, but Surge had his electrode use Magnet Rise and begin zipping around the field, levitating and throwing out Sonic Booms.

This time it was Estella who got whittled down and I returned her before she could be fully knocked out, but she wasn't going to be too much use the rest of this fight.

"Cleo, you've got this!" She had the biggest coverage pool of all my pokemon, and it would only grow after she evolved. "Try and poison it!"

A barrage of Poison Sting barbs and Toxic globules began firing out in alternation across the field, trying to track the speedy electrode as it rolled through the air.

Swifts and Sonic Booms were returned at Cleo as both parties got clips in, though Cleo never landed a proper Toxic unfortunately.

Cleo didn't manage to finish off the electrode, but she did manage to poison it, which allowed me to send out Alberich to start building up momentum for Surge's fifth and final team member. Unfortunately he had to rely on Rock Throw for the most part, with the Magnet Rise in effect I couldn't have him use Bulldoze.

Which caused me to make a big mistake.

Frustrated, I called out, "Roar!"

The Roar forced a switch out, bringing out Surge's raichu straight into a barrage from the Stealth Rocks I had laid at the beginning of the battle.

It looked great.

And then the raichu led with a Fake Out, staggering Alberich, and opening him up to an absolute onslaught. Surge followed up with Endeavor, equalizing the raichu's low base hit points and my rhyhorn's high base hit points.

I didn't like that playing field being evened, but Alberich was slow, I tried to have him toss out Bulldozes to slow down the raichu, and it did allow him to disrupt the first Brick Break, but not the second.

Eventually I had to return Alberich, needing something that could keep up with the raichu.

Luckily I had that option. Or at least one that would soften it up.

"Out, Brinker!" I called, my Alolan sandshrew appearing with glittering icey plates and claws.

"Fancy! We hate fancy." Surge quipped, as he had the raichu switch tactics, as opposed to aggressive attrition it began blitz moves. Quick Attacks into Brick Breaks primarily, but mixing in the odd Thunderpunch as my partner was no longer immune.

Brinker kept pace beautifully however. Metal Claws met Thunder Punch and Brick Breaks met air as he darted away with Rollout, slowly building speed and momentum as well.

Surge could definitely see that I was keeping pace with the war of attrition. And I still had a completely fresh pokemon on tap. Which is likely why he did his next move.

"Volt Switch!" Just like the Baton Pass his pokemon got around the leader-switching handicap and out came the electrode again.

Brinker made short work, only taking a few Sonic Booms.

But then when the electrode fainted something unexpected happened. It let out one final explosion. His electrode had had Aftermath as an ability.

Brinker, after fighting two of Surge's pokemon and tanking that explosion was not in a great state, I returned him.

"Alright, Huckleberry it's your turn!"

A quagsire against an already winded raichu looked good for me.

But boy did that raichu put up a fight. Amnesia worked greatly in my favor, boosting his already stellar defenses. The raichu was limited to Brick Break and Mega Punch, which weren't hurting Huck too badly.

But I couldn't get him to land a Yawn or Mud Bomb to finish the fight either.

What finally finished the battle was a move I didn't even think had properly stuck in Huck's adorable but thick head.

I'd been working for months on turning Huck into more of a special attacker than physical attacker, but the quagsire movepool was generally poor for that until higher levels and more expensive technical machines were involved.

So when Huck got frustrated and blurted out a torrent of water that slammed into the dirt arena and created a tidal wave of a proper Muddy Water attack I was surprised.

It swamped the raichu finishing the battle.

Both Huck and I slumped back into sitting positions.

"Whew…" I breathed out, exhausted by the strain of the focus leaving my body and mind.

"Good job, kid. You earned your final badge. I better see you whip the competition on TV."

I grinned up at the burly man who had walked over to give me my reward.

"You got it, sir."

Twenty minutes to run to drop his pokemon off at the center ended with myself leading Ash and company back to one of the cafe's we'd decided we liked over the past week or so.

"And then your sandshrew stopped that Thunderpunch with its claw and that was so cool!" Ash had apparently really enjoyed my battle.

Brock was getting a good laugh out of his enthusiasm, "I hope you took notes, Ash. You seem to learn better from full examples instead of just me explaining it to you."

"I kinda wish I'd gotten to see more of his electric moves though…" Ash groused, "Maybe Pikachu could have picked up some ideas!"

"He certainly gave you a show on how to get around resistances and immunities with Pikachu though!" I chimed in, "Brick Break, Iron Tail, Tri Attack, Sonic Boom, he made sure all his pokemon had coverage moves or moves that didn't care about my own defenses!"

A microsecond of thoughtfulness crossed Ash's face, "Oh yeah! That's true! And Pikachu already knows Brick Break too!"

An hour later we all separated, "I'll see you all on the SS Anne in a few days."

As I returned to my room at the Pokemon Center I frowned. Hopefully I could avoid a gyarados swarm getting involved in that.