Episode 43: Go Big or Go Broke! (Re-Uploaded with new edits.)
"She got away?" Summer asked.
"Yeah, slipped through my fingers at the last second." Wes responded as everyone was getting their bearings straight back at the Dragon Clan estate.
Liza was doing a head count, but so far everyone seemed to be accounted for. Clair was talking to the Police and Drayden after seeing a large explosion all the way from Opelucid City. Most of the police were near the wreckage of the ruined ship and were looking at the tech that was used to trap them.
Currently, almost everyone from the fight was recuperating inside an open and free area. "I still can't believe she's your mother! …" Summer screamed before really thinking about it and looking at Wes from head to toe.
"I know you're comparing me right now, but it's understandable. I actually haven't met my mom until today." The boy from Orre explained.
"But I thought your father was a clock maker?" Jamie asked. "How did someone like him get involved with her?"
The Snagger stayed silent as he looked over to Ben and Summer. "Hey, I've got to keep some secrets to make me seem interesting. Anyway, you alright Mute?"
"I am." He looked at Wes before smirking. "Seriously though, I thought I had a complicated life."
The Snagger noticed the smile and quickly said, "Tell me, have we actually met someone remotely normal?"
"… Fair point."
It was at this point that Charizard flew nearby Anto and his Pokémon.
"Good job handling everything while I was out. It was horrible just watching everyone else fight while I couldn't even move my own body." He stretched out his wings. "Speaking of moving, it's time to continue your training."
"Wait what? But we just—"
"Tight! Bring it on flame breath! It's round 1!" Ohko spoke out and interrupted his surprised trainer as he took a fighting stance towards Charizard.
"Ohko, this is your third match, not first." Lily corrected the Sawk.
Anto shook his head. Even after a life threatening situation, Charizard was still adamant about their training. But what was more peculiar were his Pokémon who almost all quickly agreed despite after recently coming out of a real fight.
Kryx teleported nearby Wes. "Wes? By any chance do you have a spare digital screen on you?"
The Snagger looked strangely at the Alien. She never really interacted with him specifically before. "They're not hard to find, why?"
Kryx took out her DS and showed a 3d hologram in front of Wes showing a strange scouter device. "I've been going over your mother's ship data and I found this weird blue print on something called a Battle AR. I wanted to see if I could build it since it was the only thing I could decipher."
Wes' eyes widened. His mind flashed with those Rainbow Aura Pokémon that Sied once called a Synergy Burst—gotta love how all bad guys just love to monologue even if he did fail to do anything to him during that time.
He and Kryx could make something that could finally give them an edge against all those mega Pokémon used against them.
"OK, sure. It'll be nice to finally even the odds." Wes spoke out before he and Kryx left back towards the estate.
"Anto!" Benga cried out from on top of a giant rock. "It isn't only the Pokémon who must train to be strong! You too must join in and strengthen your bond with your Pokémon!"
Anto looked to see Ohko and Charizard duking it out even though they were just in a fight before looking back at Benga all the way over there.
"How?" He linked to the teen.
He did not like the smile on the fiery red head's face as soon as he asked that.
He also did not see Benga's Garchomp, Ferland, somehow sneak up behind him despite almost being twice his size.
From the distance, watching the ground and dragon type Pokémon lift up the struggling mute boy, Clair was talking to Drayden, who had just arrived after seeing the large dome over his estate.
"Are you alright Clair?" The beard face man asked.
The Johto gymleader nodded. "We're fine Drayden. In fact, we owe our safety to that boy Benga brought in." She looked over to the boy still struggling to free himself from Ferland as the dragon type lifted him away into the woods with the fiery teen.
"Benga is here? Wait that boy!" The gym leader of Opelucid City said with shock as he spotted the boy before he left their sight.
The Blackthorn Gym Leader blinked with surprise. "Huh? You know him?"
"I have heard much about him from the other before they were…" He shook his head. "The point was that we already decided Black to be the hero to help us oppose Team Plasma. He is just a backup plan." He stated bluntly.
"I'm sorry, what?" The blue haired gym leader asked.
"I apologize. Much has been happening in Unova lately, but there is a favor I would like to ask both of you and Liza while you are still here. That boy will challenge my gym very soon, and I intend to make sure he will not get his badge."
Clair blinked in surprise. "Excuse me? I thought it was illegal for us to turn down proper challengers."
"You misunderstand. I'm not denying his challenge. I'm just making sure that he will not win it by the end of the week." Drayden spoke out strictly.
Clair wondered why the older man seemed so adamant in making sure that the boy would not get into this year's league. The blue haired gym leader also wondered why Drayden seemed so unusually cold since he usually was much kinder despite his strict demeanor. She looked worriedly at where the boy was taken and wondered how bad things were really going to get if Drayden was going to use the full power of dragon types on him.
[Several days later]
Anto gulped as he saw the rather tall gym. It was easily the highest building in the entire city.
"The Pokémon League is in ten days, Anto. I don't think even flying to the next gym will make us get there on time for the league." Summer spoke out to him.
"I know I know. It's just… intimidating." Man, he really had to throw back his neck to see the very tip of this gym up close.
"You've been training with Benga, Liza, and even Clair for the past three days! Of course you're ready! You've been battling that crazy strong Charizard nonstop!" The older ranger girl patted the young teen at the back.
"Thanks Summer," The boy spoke out before Wes handed him a scouter like object. "Is this that thing you and Kryx have been working on?"
"Yep. Just finished it. Kryx had a lot of spare parts and putting in the schematics was easier than I thought it would be. Guess Alien tech isn't that foreign after all—but don't go anywhere near cheese within a one hundred meter radius. Kryx says it will violently explode from the smell of cheese—don't ask me why."
Anto looked at the object cautiously. "Is this really a good idea to put this near my head?"
Kryx teleported in sight out of thin air. "It has the Kryxialvoimepotark seal of approval!" The Alien winked as she spoke out her full translated name.
"I thought you accidentally blew up a planet?" The trainer asked.
"It was actually an empty solar system, but that was in the distant past!" Why was she still smiling when she said that? The alien dismissed the fact she destroyed something large as a solar system as something as trivial as eating.
"How distant?" The brown eyed boy raised his brow.
"I think… five earth months ago? That reminds me: if some stars stop shinning where they usually supposed to be, I want you to know that it's totally not my fault."
"Is it really safe to be around this guy?" Ben whispered to White. Obviously the idea of being around someone who accidentally destroyed a solar system recently was unnerving to say the least.
"… No…" White finally said after thinking about it. "It surprisingly isn't."
"I heard that! And in my defense, it's not like I ask for these things to happen!" The mute mentally emphasized.
"So? Are you going to put it on?!" The alien floated closer to Anto with excited eyes. He was tempted to say not at first, but then with how hopeful his Pokémon looked, so he decided it wouldn't hurt to try.
One of these days this soft heart would be the one to do him in.
He sighed before putting it on and activating the device.
Data streamed in as Anto read it quickly. The device scanned the entire area, before revealing special data on Kryx that seemed to set up her stats.
The boy blinked. "Wow, it's showing me your stats… you've actually got some really decent special defense and special attack stats… so how do I activate the power boost I heard about?"
"I dunno." Kryx shrugged.
Anto's eyes widened before he looked towards Wes.
"Uhh yeah about that… I have no idea how it works." The older teen admitted.
"Wait, but you two made it!?" Jamie exclaimed and pointed to them.
"I could only get the schematics and had to build some custom parts from whatever gear I had. I can build it—yes, but I never found the instruction for it besides the on and off button." The Elgyem explained.
"So you two just created something without knowing what it does?!" White asked with confusion.
"Look, some of the parts that Kryx used from her world are things even I don't understand fully. The device is a lot more complicated than I thought it was and when I tried to look up online for the information, I found it wasn't even the right model. This must have been a custom made version because the information on factory made ones was nothing like the blue prints Kryx downloaded."
After a few seconds of silence, Anto looked around with the scanner. "Well to be fair, I already was a lab rat. Might as well be the one to field test this… that came out darker than I meant it to." He said before looking back at everyone.
Hastily, he went into the gym.
When he got inside, he stopped, looked up, and dropped his jaw.
The place looked even bigger on the inside—are those flipping giant dragon statues!?
"Welcome Challenger." Anto looked to his right to see an older woman in what looked to be her late fifties. But she had really beautiful blonde hair and nice green eyes while she wore a large simple white sun dress with a red shirt.
As Anto's friends came after him, Benga's eyes widened as he saw the woman. "Auntie Koiya!" the flame haired teen ran up to hug the woman.
"Oh Benga, you've grown again since the last time I've seen you." The kind woman spoke out and hugged the teen back.
The two let go before Koiya introduced herself properly. "My name is Koiya. I help around the gym here in Opelucid City."
"She's also uncle Drayden's wife!" Benga added in, making everyone stare at the boy.
The woman giggled politely. "You must be the challenger I heard from Claire. I must ask you to simply do your very, very best in this gym battle." She said before walking away.
"That's odd." Benga noted as the older woman walked ahead.
"What is?" Ben asked.
"She never said the word 'very' twice before." The red haired teen responded.
The others and Jamie seemed confused at that. "Why is her saying it twice such a bad thing?"
"It's not bad. It's just that she doesn't usually say words like that twice unless she really wants something of a person." Benga explained.
Anto raised his brow. Did that mean she wanted him to battle at his best?
The boy knew he was facing against dragon type Pokémon, but he wondered what exactly he was going to expect. As he walked in, he was motioned to separate from the others and enter into a different room.
He saw the giant room filled with two titanic dragons twisting around each other before another attendant helpfully explained that he would have to go around these dragons and press certain switches to make the dragon reach all the way to their gym leader.
"What happens if I fall down?" Anto looked down at the surprisingly white floor.
The attendant simply laughed and said you would have to be a complete idiot to fall from here. That did not help the amnesiac in the slightest in feeling better.
He walked up towards the large dragon head… and looked down.
Ohhh! So that's how vertigo works—oh dear.
"Are you alright fellow scientist?" Kryx asked as she floated beside Anto.
The young teen adjusted himself after forcing himself to look back up. "Just, catch me if I fall OK? Don't use that shield you put on me when we first met."
Kryx saluted. "Aye, eye!"
"Seriously, I know Drayden is rumored to be the strongest Gym Leader, but someone should have told the half man, half beard person that there are so many safety hazard violations in this gym. Does he want to get sued?"
"I understood nothing you just said!" Kryx gleefully spoke out before Anto jumped off a dragon limb.
The mute sighed and strongly fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I don't even know why I bother."
Anto and his party handled against the gym trainers of this area. Each of them were no slouches compared to most of the other gym trainers he faced so far. Eventually, after moving through the puzzles of this gym, the boy made the two giant dragon heads meet.
The first impression Anto got was that Drayden really had a very intimidating aura around him.
"Welcome Anto!" The man screamed out.
Kryx gasped. "Humans can communicate through facial hair!? I must take notes on this!" Kryx quickly pulled out her 3DS.
Drayden unfolded his arms and took out a Poké Ball. "I have heard much from the others, but this sadly I must say that this is where your journey ends."
The boy blinked in surprise.
Drayden continued. "We already have our hero of Unova, and there cannot be any extra stragglers."
Hero? Wait was this about the dragon that N already summoned? About Zekrom!? He honestly completely forgot about him having a legendary with everything else happening around him! Zekrom was Unova's legendary dragon, and if N had him, did that mean that he was a chosen hero?
"Wait, is this about N? What do you mean we already have our hero?" The boy inquired.
"Zekrom's counter, Reshiram, has already chosen the trainer Black as his champion to face against his counterpart. We no longer have a need for you as your presence will only complicate Black's destiny to face the King of Team Plasma." He threw out his Pokémon, revealing it to be a powerful looking Druddigon. "This will be a three on three Pokémon battle. If you lose here, I will no longer accept any challenges from you."
The boy's eyes widened. "You can't do that!"
"If you've read the rule book, we are allowed to accept and decline challenges we wish after the first one. After you lose this, you will no longer be able to apply for this year's league." Drayden folded his arms as he stared at Anto's shocked and mouth dropping face. "Any questions?"
Kryx raised her limb. "Does this book explain the strange mutation of your evolving beard?"
Drayden was sort of expecting the questions to come from the boy, not his Pokémon but…
"Wait, what was that about my beard?" The gym leader made a motion with his hand towards the thing.
"Kryx!" Anto cried out.
"What? He asked." The floating alien moved back a little.
"Didn't you hear him?! If I lose here, I lose my chance to get into the league!" Anto mentally communicated with shock.
"Then don't lose." Kryx answered so simply, as if there was nothing more to it.
"But this guy is basically the strongest Unova Gym leader and I haven't even won all of my gym battles!" The boy screamed out.
"So?"
"So!? How am I supposed to win against that!?" Anto pointed.
Kryx shrugged her shoulders. "When have the odds ever deterred you?"
That suddenly silenced the mute boy as the words hung in his mind.
He sighed and pulled his hood over his head to cover his face. "Wow, I whine and complain so much."
"You do that a lot." Kryx concurred.
"Yeah," Anto took out a Poké Ball and tossed it into the air before catching it. "I guess that's just my way I deal with things. I whine like a baby before facing it anyway. … The battlefield calls! Rise up, Takezo!"
As soon as Takezo came into the field, Anto briefly thanked Kryx and recalled her back into her Premier Ball. He quickly took something out of his pocket and placed the Battle AR on his face under his hood. The scanner came to life and saw the amazingly above average stats the Druddigon of Dryaden was.
"Hmm…" The gym leader looked at the boy, but he could barely see the face of his opponent under his hood. "Druddigon, use Stealth Rocks!"
Takezo moved around as the rocks scattered across their side of the field and quickly slashed out his blade that was quickly imbued with dark energy.
Suddenly, Anto realized that Drayden wasn't even moving to make a command to counter Takezo's movement and quickly told him to back off, making the little normal type back flip several times to get away from the dragon type.
Why didn't the gym leader make any move? Was he expecting something—
"Attack with Flash Cannon!" Drayden suddenly yelled, making the dragon quickly inhale with silver light before unleashing a devastating beam within a several seconds. Takezo, sped away from the attack before jumping across the rocks that levitated between the two giant, dragon heads.
From there, Takezo countered with Thunderbolt. However, while not as fast as the normal type, the electrical attack barely seemed to bother the dragon type at all.
"Is that all you are capable off!?" Drayden angrily shouted. "You must have earned all of your badges by pure luck!"
Anto visibly winced at the shout. He did not win his badges by luck. He gave his all in each and every one of them.
The dragon type roared before jumping towards a nearby floating rock, and then kicking it with great speeds towards Takezo's platform. The Normal type quickly jumped towards the next floating rock before Anto quickly linked for him to use Detect in order to jump again to avoid another Flash Cannon that destroyed the rock he was on.
"Why must destiny always attempt to crush me with boulders!?" Takezo complained as he saw Druddigon summon more boulders and quickly jump towards one to grab it and launch it with herculean strength towards where Takezo was.
Long range was absolutely futile in this match up for Takezo. The fact the battle field was simply two giant dragon heads facing each other with rocks floating around really cut down on the normal type's maneuverability. Seeing as how this would only end up worse for the Samurai, Anto gave the go to close in and attack.
Takezo jumped away from another thrown boulder before jumping off towards Druddigon with his blade set ablaze with dark energy.
Suddenly, Anto's Battle AR started beeping as it detected some kind of energy spike around the eyes of his opponent. For a split second, Anto wondered what that meant.
"Glare!"
Druddigon's eyes glowed yellow as he saw Takezo's reflection on the surface of his eyes. Suddenly, Takezo found himself immobilized by paralysis mid air, making the Normal type as defenseless as a baseball thrown at a major league batter.
Druddigon ignited his tail with Dragon Tail then smacked the paralyzed Takezo hard right into the dragon head Anto was standing on.
The statue shook and the mute staggered from the vibrations, but he didn't care and quickly moved forwards towards the right eye where his friend was hit.
As the dust settled, Takezo was out cold from one hit without even damaging his opponent.
"Pathetic! That didn't even last five minutes!" Drayden shouted.
Anto clenched his fist and recalled his Pokémon. Kryx, Sentinel, and Lily were used on the way up here which just left Ohko and Super Nut as his only choices for this battle.
Anto threw out the Ultra Ball as Super Nut dramatically narrated his entrance.
"And thus Super Nut makes his Dramatic entrance to face against a mythical beast of legend while standing on top of giant statues of mythical beasts of leg—" Anto quickly told the Pokémon to use protect as most of the floating Rocks started flying right towards him.
The forcefield went up as the boulders crashed on to him, but strangely enough, Super Nut was still doing dramatic monologues.
"Does he ever shut up?" Drayden cruelly asked.
It was hard for Anto not to get angry at that. Insults to himself he could handle, but he was not going to stand there and let his own Pokémon get insulted.
"Why you—"
"Anto!" Super Nut cried out, surprising the boy for using his real name. "Don't let him get to you."
"What but he—"
The boy was interrupted again as Druddigon launched a Flash Cannon while Anto wasn't prepared, hitting Super Nut dead on.
Anto covered himself and got angrier.
"Anto!" Super Nut cried out as the dust settled, he looked injured but he was still standing tall. "Calm down. It's alright."
"But he's a complete jerk!" Anto yelled as he angrily glared at the gym leader.
Super Nut stared down the dragon Pokémon in front of him. "That may be true. But the fact remains is that you are not at your best when you are angry. Thank you for caring about me, but just like you, I can stomach insults thrown my way." He turned his face back with kind eyes towards Anto. "Doing the right thing doesn't always mean you will be liked for it."
The mute paused as he absorbed those words.
On the other dragon head, Drayden scoffed as he heard Super Nut's words without surprise, probably because he heard it from Brycen. "The right thing? You are just superfluous pawns that will do more harm than good. Druddigon, another Flash Cannon!"
Anto wasn't falling for it this time and quickly told Super Nut to get on top of the flying rocks via Power Whip to avoid the second blast then he quickly littered the arena with even more Stealth Rocks around Drayden's side of the field.
"What was the point of this!? Did you not pay attention!?" Drayden screamed as Druddigon jumped on a floating rock and then jumped again to kick one at full power towards Super Nut with a Flash Cannon being prepared to fire at whichever direction the Ferrothorn would dodge.
However, Super Nut quickly jumped and shot out two of his claw vines to two different boulders, and as the rock hit him, his claw vines stretched out to slow down the boulder.
"Send it back." Anto smirked as Super Nut sling shot the thrown rock back at Druddigon.
The dragon type panicked for a second before unleashing his Flash cannon at the boulder. However, the moment he did, something quickly shot out past the exploding rock: Super Nut performing a Gyro Ball move and slamming into the Dragon type with the force from the launch and smashing the opponent through several rocks before crashing into a lower limb of one of the giant dragon statues.
Super Nut stopped spinning and landed on one of the floating rocks as he moved his body in the direction of where Druddigon was launched.
Out of the smoke, two eyes shined gold as lasers shot out and shot and hit Ferrothorn in the face, revealing that Druddigon had used Glare again.
Quickly Drayden ordered his Pokémon to jump back and unleash his Dragon Claw on the Pokémon.
However, Drayden noticed something about the Ferrothorn before the attack could connect. Unlike the Patrat, the steel and grass type did not have electricity sparking all over him.
"Protect!" Anto called out, making the force field slam right into the face of the charging Pokémon. It was then Druddigon noticed that the Ferrothron's eyes were closed!
Drayden's eyes widened. His Ferrothon's eyes were closed that entire time? Then how did he know how to—oh right. The boy can send orders with his mind.
The pure Dragon type jumped back and attempted to rend the dual type with a Dragon Claw, but Ferrothorn jumped away and shot a rock at him with one of his vines. The Dragon Type landed on a lower Stealth Rock before blasting the incoming rock with Flash Cannon.
Drayden looked at the amount of cluttered rocks before commanding out, "Druddigon, pinball!"
The dragon type quickly looked around and seemingly jumped over two other rocks to grab onto a third rock then throw it some random direction.
One boulder hit off another boulder, and the impact reflected off and hit other boulders.
Then those boulders hit others, then the others hit other boulders…
It started a sort of chain reaction where all of the boulders were now moving around violently bumping and bouncing into each other, destabilizing the platforms and making them all move around violently.
Super Nut jumped around, but then mid jump Druddigon caught him by predicting the directions of the boulders and unleashed a powerful Dragon Claw on the Pokémon mid jump and smashed him into a larger floating rock.
"Super Nut!" Anto called out as the Ferrothorn smashed into the lower body of one of the dragons.
"Now Druddigon!" Drayden yelled out. The Dragon type jumped and quickly locked gazes with the Ferrothorn—meaning that it used Glare to paralyze the steel and grass type.
"This is the end!" The dragon Pokémon roared wildly as he descended to hit the Pokémon down below.
Ferrothorn looked up and his eyes still were filled with courage. "A hero never gives up!"
"And they always have a sidekick!" Anto proudly added with Super Nut as he threw his hand out. "Power Whip now!" He mentally screamed before streaming more information to his weakened Pokémon.
The self proclaimed hero powered through the paralysis and shot out a claw vine right into the gut of the descending dragon. Super Nut pushed on, stretching and lifting the dragon type higher with the extended limb.
"You aren't the only one who was paying attention to the movement of the boulders!" Anto cried out to Drayden as the gym leader noticed that Super Nut had pushed Druddigon up towards where half a dozen fast moving boulders were about to crush him at the spot Super Nut launched him!
The boulders all crashed on impact and out of the dust, Druddigon fell from the sky unconscious.
Quickly, Super Nut caught him with Power Whip and gently placed him onto a boulder then Drayden quickly recalled his Pokémon.
"I would have recalled him back in time." Drayden spoke out.
"Perhaps, but it's not in my nature to ignore anyone in need." Super Nut answered. "Nor is a hero so easily fooled." He looked back at Drayden despite electricity sparking around the less than nimble Ferrothorn.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Anto looked between Drayden and Super Nut staring down each other.
Drayden scoffed before throwing out his second Pokémon, Haxorus. "This is my second Pokémon! Get ready boy!"
"Sorry Danger Damoiseau, it's something I can't say." Super Nut slowly stood up and faced the Haxorus.
Super Nut's Stealth Rocks activated, making his half of the boulders around launch themselves towards the dragon type Pokémon.
Drayden shouted out. "Dragon Dance!"
"You've got to be kidding me." Anto mentally panicked at the sight of the other dragon Pokémon becoming stronger and faster.
Drayden pointed at the paralyzed Ferrothorn. "Now! Outrage!"
The dragon set himself ablaze with power and ran like a wild beast towards the injured hero. Mustering strength, Super Nut surrounded himself in a protect move. It held, but the buble was thrown away from the heavy impact and crashed through more of the boulders.
"I still have two full health Pokémon left!" Drayden went back to insulting as Anto looked back from watching Super Nut get knocked away. "How did you even win your other badges!?"
His other badges?
All… seven… of his badges…
(This gym focuses on…)
A random memory re surfaced in the amnesiac's mind. It didn't seem important at the time, and he simply glossed over it during his journey.
Anto smiled.
But the fact that this particular memory came up was all he needed to fight back.
"Super Nut! It's time to show off your new Fusion Moves!"
"Fusion Moves?" Drayden and his Haxorus looked surprised.
Ferrothorn slowly stood back up and launched more Stealth Rocks into the air, but strangely enough these particular rocks were pure green.
"What are you up to?" The gym leader demanded as he looked to the boy, but the amber eyed boy said nothing and fiercely looked back at Drayden. "… Haxorus! Whatever those green rocks are, destroy them one by one! Dragon Tail!"
Anto actually seemed surprised by that action, as Drayden saw that as a good sign for his Dragon type to destroy half a dozen boulders within thirty seconds.
However, as soon as he destroyed the seventh boulder, something happened.
Sprouts were growing on Haxarous!
Drayden's eyes widened as the plants started growing around "Wait! Those look like—"
"Leech Seeds."
Drayden looked back at the boy who had a calm smile with his hood off but his Battle Scouter AR still on. "This a new move I created with Super Nut, the combination of Stealth Rocks and Leech Seed: Stone Drainers! Once the rocks attack an opponent, not only do they get damaged but they get seeded from the second half of the attack from Leech Seeds hidden inside each rock. I was planning on throwing one to you or making you hit one before attacking Super Nut again, but you just made things easier for me," Anto pointed back to Drayden. "Pretty careless for the so called strongest gym leader in Unova!"
Oh Arceus did it feel good to turn the tables on this guy!
"Tch!" Drayden grunted before throwing his hand out."Haxorus, Out Rage again! Burn those pathethic leaves off you!"
The dragon set himself ablaze, but the leaves still stayed around the dragon type.
Even though he was paralyzed, Super Nut was slowly regaining his strength and energy back.
Haxrous didn't waste time and quickly rushed for the Pokémon all the way on the other side of the flying rock field.
Super Nut tried to move, but he couldn't and was body checked by a dragon dance boosted Haxarous and blasted through the rock into another lower limb of one of the dragons, cracking it further than the others so far.
Haxarous may have had one of the best attack power stats in Unova, but Ferrothrons were known for their defense.
Super Nut held on and while pinned down, started spinning as fast as he could, performing a Gyro Ball and warding back the Haxarous who was already damaged from ramming body first into Super Nut's spikes.
"Haxarous, use our opponent's limbs against them!" Drayden cried out, surprising Anto with what he meant by that.
With superior speed, Haxarous quickly got behind Super Nut and grabbed one of his vines before pulling it over his shoulder and whipping Super Nut into the dragon limb like a tethered ball. Haxarous didn't let up and quickly pulled and whipped Super Nut like a cartoon character, slamming on one side and then the other.
"Super Nut!" Anto cried out in horror as Haxarous stopped and quickly spun the vine and Super Nut around him in a circle before releasing him back towards the heads where he crashed through a dozen rocks before crashing into another big floating Stealth Rock.
Super Nut twitched before falling unconscious as he got stuck on the rock he was thrown into.
Anto quickly recalled him.
"Thank you so much, buddy. You're going to help us win this." Anto then put his container away and took out a Great Ball. "Tear the field asunder! Rise up, Ohko!"
The fighting type appeared before being attacked by more than a dozen boulders. Out of the dust, Super Nut threw off his cloak and looked over to Haxarous.
The seeds around the dragon type glowed and Ohko felt whatever damage he had from the rocks heal up.
"A cripple is your last Pokémon?! How bad of a trainer can you be!?" Drayden insulted once more before commanding Haxarous to charge right at Ohko. The dragon type had his tail glow with dragonic energy as Ohko ran up to meet him. The fighting type threw a punch, only for Haxarous to easily dodge and spin his tail to slam Ohko into the floating rocks.
Ohko was getting a little energy back but Haxarous pressed his speed advantage and avoided another attack from Ohko and used Dragon Tail again on the fighting type. However, the second time, Ohko regained composure mid air and landed on a rock.
Drayden then spoke out with his hand stretched out and pointed to Anto. "This is pathetic! I still have my secret weapon in store, but it looks like I won't even need to use it! How do you intend to beat me?!"
(Anto recalled the time when Takezo fought against an evolved rock Pokémon for his first badge. His mind flashed with how he won even with that overwhelming disadvantage.)
Anto stayed strong and actually responded in a calm manner. "When I battled for my first gym badge, Cilan taught me something," Despite the confused look in Drayden's face, Anto went on."Their gym was based off the ability to overcome an enemy's advantage."
Haxarous went in for another fast Dragon Tail towards the fighting type. As the attack came speeding towards the blue Pokémon, the Haxarous gawked in shock as he saw his tail stopped dead in its tracks by Ohko's hand, and he wasn't even using a move!
(The young teen recalled the time he battle Lenora, he learned new information about himself, about his Pokémon, and about his opponent as he battled hard for that second badge. Most of all, he learned that even his own Pokémon could surprise him and themselves.)
"In Lenora's gym, I learned that even in a battle, you never stop learning about people, their Pokémon, about anything—in fact—that you can learn so much more than any written book!"
Ohko grabbed Haxarous' tail and crushed it, causing the move to stop and making the dragon wince in pain before Ohko kicked Haxarous' chin hard before spinning on his heel and side kicking the dragon type back onto the face of Drayden's dragon head statue, causing the ground beneath the gym leader to shake.
The gym leader grunted as he saw Haxarous slowly get up, only to get his energy sapped by the seeds and faint.
"You still will not defeat this last Pokémon! Go Garchomp!" Drayden cried out after recalling his Haxarous.
The dragon roared mightily and looked towards Ohko, who readied his fighting stance. The Stealth Rocks and Stone Drainers attacked the Garchomp, but even with the seeds that started growing on the dual type, the dragon Pokémon still looked strong.
"Let me guess: it's a mega, isn't it?" Anto deadpanned.
His answer came out when Drayden revealed a mega bracelet from his pocket and placed it on.
The evolution light enveloped the dragon. That power was more than enough to erase the growing leaves on the Garchomp as he completed his transformation to becoming Mega Garchomp.
"A Mega versus a one armed fighting type. Now it's finally over!" Drayden spoke out.
(The challenger flashed back to when he faced Burgh in his rematch. How he inspired the bug type gym leader by pulling moves that even he didn't know he was capable of imagining.)
Anto closed his eyes and inhaled. "Against Burgh, I learned to be creative even in the strangest of situations." When he opened his eyes again, he noticed something on his battle AR screen.
Ohko reached into his Karate Gi and took out the Choice Band and fixed it into his head.
"What is the point of that!?" Drayden yelled as Mega Garchomp unleashed a powerful Dragon Claw to face Ohko who had a Dual Chop attack ready. The two attacks clashed , but Mega Garchomp over powered Ohko even with the Choice Band.
(The Amnesiac recalled how Elesa turned his own tactics against him, and almost dominated the battle because of that. He recalled how caring about other people, even your opponent, can bring out the best in you.)
Anto still seemed calm and determined. "Against Elesa, I learned how to use my opponent's advantage against them."
Ohko jumped on a rock and then removed his choice band before using the many rocks surrounding them to avoid Mega Garchomp.
(The Mute had flashbacks of when he struggled against Clay. No matter what he did, Clay always seemed to have an answer to what he did—but it didn't deter him in the slightest from trying.)
"Against Clay, I learned that there are unfair battles and that sometimes I won't win."
Drayden was getting tired of this and quickly commanded Mega Garchomp to use Draco Meteor, the attack exploded and destroyed all floating Stealth Rocks and Stone Drainers, clearing the entire air space between the two heads and leaving no more place for Ohko to run.
(Music pounded Anto's ears when he battled Roxie. It was his first six on six battle with all of his Pokémon. Each of their characters shined through in their own individual fights.)
"Agasint Roxie, I learned to embrace my Pokémon's flaws," As the smoke died down, Ohko stood in front of Anto on his side of the dragon head, while Mega Garchomp stood on Drayden's dragon head statue. "And their strengths."
Ohko smiled a huge dorky smile and gathered energy that Drayden had never seen before coming form a fist.
"You have nowhere left to hide!" Drayden yelled. "It's over!"
(Anto recalled how excited he was to watch Brycen's movies, and how he was estatic to be using costumes to both inspire and throw off Brycen off his game. Yet he still loved the actor's movies and has been a huge fan ever since.)
Anto still went on. "And from Brycen, I learned that behind each battle, is a trainer with their beliefs, their ideas!"
"What is the point of all that!? Why have you been doing but spouting nonsense for a while now!?" Dryaden yelled out as he ordered Garchomp to end this with a powerful Outrage attack.
Anto gripped his fist hard. "The point is that with everything I learned from my journey, I am going to beat you!" He placed his hand on the Battle AR and finally pressed the button.
-SYNERGY BURST ACTIVATED-
Those words lit up in Anto's screen.
As Garchomp came up, Ohko ran to meet the fully evolved pseudo legendary head on. The two attacks clashed with equal strength mid air as Ohko started to be enveloped with rainbow aura.
"What the!?" Drayden cried out in shock as a crippled fighting type was going toe to toe with one of the most powerful Mega Evolutions for dragon types.
Ohko's fist clashed with Garchomp's head, but the dragon type noticed something odd with the fist Ohko was using.
Was it using Ice?
Wait, no. Fire?
Huh? Electricity!?
Anto clenched his fist as he made a punching motion in the air. "Tri-Fusion Move: Elemental Uppercut!"
Ohko's fist ignited with three types of attacks and with the power of the Synergy Burst, overwhelmed Mega Garchomp and knocked him into the air, the energy from the attack shot out and even destroyed the roof of the gym!
"What was that!?" Drayden yelled out as he saw the fighting type upper cut his Mega Pokémon.
Anto smiled with relief. They really did train hard in those few days, needing a new way to push further than before. Benga gave him inspiration for it: using everything they had learned and the form of a new skill for all his Pokémon: Tri-Fusion. The ability to use three moves together instead of two. The power was multiplied more than the fusion moves, but this time, they could only use it once per fight.
Ohko's Tri Fusion: Elemental Uppercut, combined three moves: Thunder, Ice, and Fire Punch all together into one elemental boom that actually did more damage and elemental stats than compared to a regular Tri Attack.
And the effect was amazing, Garchomp's body had fire, ice, and electricity around him after the attack made contact.
The Mega Garchomp's body was covered in light… then it reverted back to normal as both he and Ohko landed on Drayden's head.
And Garchomp was out cold.
A few seconds passed until a smile slowly appeared on Anto's face then grew bigger and bigger.
"We did it! Oh my god we won! Ohko! Great Job!" The amnesiac jumped up and down in joy and relief.
Garchomp slowly got up, but was surprised when Ohko offered him a hand. "That was super tight yo! We gotta do that again!" The fighting type smiled happily.
Drayden sighed as Garchomp took Ohko's offer to lift him up.
It was a good thing his beard covered most of his face after all because no one noticed the small, but proud smile the gym leader had.
[Later]
"And this is the Legend Badge. With it, you now have eight badges and can enter into the league." Drayden spoke out as he gave Anto his last crest to enter into the league.
"Way to go Anto!" "Congratulations!" "That was awesome!" "Good Job, mute." All of Anto's friends congratulated the boy, since they were watching the fight from a different room.
Drayden's wife, Koiya, walked up to her husband with a smile. "It looks like you owe me dinner of my choice."
The bearded man coughed.
It was then that Anto noticed that despite all the insults Drayden spoke against him, there was something off about him right now.
Then the boy recalled what Super Nut said about heroes not being so easily fooled.
Anto walked up to Drayden.
"What do you want? You got your badge, you can go." The stern man said.
The young boy smiled gently. "I figured out what Super Nut meant by not being fooled. All that time, you were just testing me, weren't you?"
Drayden said nothing, but seeing his wife holding in her giggles was more than a good enough answer.
Then his wife lightly shoved her husband's back. "Go on, he won, so he deserves to hear why you treated him so poorly."
It seemed the tough gym leader's weakness was his wife as he sighed and let down his arms. "It's true. I've been harder on you than any other challenger this year. This is because you are our last hope."
Anto and his friends looked surprised.
"Team Plasma's King N… has just defeated Alder and is now currently the champion of Unova."
"What?" Benga asked in shock while everyone else stayed stunned in silence.
Drayden nodded solemnly. "What's worse is that one of the trainers we hoped to face him, Black, has gone missing."
White gasped. "What!? Black is missing!?" She asked with very deep worry.
"Please let me finish." Drayden tried to calm her down by continuing to talk. "With the league within a week, with Team Plasma gaining title over the Champion, with most of the Unova Gym Leaders gone, and with Black currently MIA, the only one left to help Unova in its time of need is you, the second trainer chosen by the gym leaders," The last gym leader pointed to Anto. "I did my absolute best to test you if you were ready to face the challenges up ahead. Thankfully, everything all the gym leaders that faced you said was as true as they said about Black."
"Me?" The boy pointed to himself with utter shock.
"You, an amnesiac that woke up only a few months ago in a small city, are now the only thing standing between Team Plasma's plans and their ideals of separating Pokémon and Humans." Drayden sighed. "The only way to fight N is to win the Tournament, and while there are other powerful trainers there, none of them have a stake in this as much as you and Black did."
Anto and everyone else remained silent.
"You've come a long way here," Drayden put a hand on Anto's shoulder. "But this last leg of your race will be the hardest one yet."
The mute couldn't believe it.
From a complete zero, nobody, or even someone unlucky as him had just become Unova's last hope.
If anyone dare says, 'No pressure or anything.' He was going to barf.
Oh wait, he was about to anyway—
BLLLRRGGHHH!
"Eww! Anto!" "Man that's gross!" "I think we need to bring him to the Pokémon Center!"
Needless to say, Unova was going to have a very very long month.
{Author Notes}
(Post edit#1: Saw some mistakes had to re upload this because I accidentally erased my doc. Sorry!)
From Zero to Hero, Anto has finally earned the right to enter into the league and has gained the power of Synergy Burst!
However, it seems like Black is missing, and Alder is no longer the Champion!
What will happen next? Will Anto not get sick to his stomach—I think he's actually going to feel stressed for a while before the tournament.
[Extra: After the Gym Battle]
Anto wanted to get his mind off that recent and heavy revelation, but as soon as he entered into the Pokémon Center, he was greeted by a strange convention.
A man wearing a cheese for a hat, or a hat that looked like a giant cheese walked up to the boy with a platter of assorted cheese. "Hi! We're having a Cheese Appreciation Convention! Want some free cheese?"
Before Anto could react, he noticed his Battle AR violently sparking with alarms going off—
(BOOM!)
Eventually, Kryx and Wes were finally able to work out the Battle AR's allergic (and explosive) reaction to cheese.
It's just too bad Anto was one of the first people being billed for free cheese (and Drayden sent him a bill for all the damages to his Gym from their battle.)
{Author Notes}
It's official: Anto will only truly feel at peace when the fat lady sings—joke. See you guys soon.