Ian's sent out Iron, his trump card! But Chloe's managed to push him to the edge. With two pokemon remaining to Ian's one, and the first of her pokemon being an excellent counter for Ian's Aggron, our heroes find themselves in a tough predicament. Will Ian be able to come up with some way to win, or will Chloe's strategies and type advantages overwhelm him? I guess we'll have to see.

KedharS: Hopefully he'll be able to win. It would be really bad if he loses, that's for sure.

Pendragona17: Sorry to hear.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Yeah, Ian's in a pretty bad position. He needs to figure out how Iron can defeat Chloe's remaining pokemon.

Tambry96bj: Greninja are pretty tricky, especially against a pokemon like Aggron that relies on brute strength.

Hyphenman: The "stalker" comments are nice moments of levity, that's for sure.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1148

Ian coughed as the smoke billowed down the field towards him and the others. His eyes were stinging but he couldn't look away. He could just barely make out Iron within the smoke, the large pokemon looking around frantically for his opponent.

But Chiyome was nowhere to be seen.

There's only going to be one shot at this, Ian recognized. Luckily, the rain is helping damper down the smoke, so it should disperse soon enough. That means Chloe's going to try and attack us as soon as she can.

"Iron!" He shouted to his Aggron, "she's coming! You need to prepare yourself!"

He couldn't give a direct order, since Chloe would hear and then change her plans. He just had to hope that Iron would get the message from his words.

"…Aggron!" Iron shouted back, which Ian took as a sign that he understood. A small smile crossed his face. He might not have harmonia, but the connection he had with his Aggron went as far back as he could remember.

Maybe it was the choking smoke, making it hard to breathe, but Ian found himself flashing back to when he was just a boy, going through the hardest experience of his life.

"Dad…" An eight year-old Ian coughed out. How many days had he been trapped down in this dark cavern?

When Eugeo Davidson told his son that Granite Cave was a safe place to explore, Ian had believed him. Everyone in Dewford Town described it as a fun and relaxing tourist attraction, as long as you remained in the guided areas and didn't bother any of the wild pokemon.

But Ian's father was an explorer by heart. As a Top Ranger and an archaeologist to boot, Eugeo Davidson was a man of discovery, and so he took the first opportunity he found to break off from the trail and head down a side-tunnel. Ian didn't even know what he was hoping to find; maybe his dad just wanted to see the untouched nature of the cave.

It wasn't long before they got lost. Which would have been fine, of course, if not for the cave-in that buried them both alive.

"Hang on, son," Eugeo held Ian tightly and pressed the canteen up to his lips. "Here. Drink this. It's the last we've got."

"N-No…"

"I don't know how long we've been down here, but you need to keep your strength up," Eugeo demanded. His voice made it clear he wasn't in the mood for being questioned.

Ian knew why his father was giving him the last of the water. They were both dying of thirst. No food, no water, and oxygen was starting to get low. Part of that was on him. When they'd first gotten trapped in the cave-in, he'd run his voice ragged calling for help. No one had come. Now his throat hurt and he could hardly breathe.

Was this really how it was going to end? Somehow, Ian felt that if he accepted that last sip of water, it would be like accepting their fate. And he didn't want to do that. At eight years old, Ian couldn't BEGIN to think that he was going to die.

"Dad… I don't… I can't… I can go for a little…" His creaky voice wasn't making a compelling argument. But he was so hungry and thirsty, he couldn't help himself. It had been an eternity since he'd even seen his father's face; their flashlight had gotten lost in the collapse, and Granite Cave wasn't a place with a lot of natural lighting.

"Son, I just…" Eugeo's voice broke and it suddenly sank in just how desperate his father was. Ian began to shake. This wasn't what he wanted. He just…

Before he began to cry, however, a scraping sound caught his attention.

"Dad, what's-"

"Shssh!" Eugeo clamped his hand over Ian's mouth and strained his ears, trying to hear. Ian could hear it too, a strange scraping like metal cracking against metal. What could it be?

Then, the wall they were leaning against began to shift. Ian was pushed to the side as the stones crumbled out, revealing the tiniest sliver of light. And bathed in that light was a dark figure that he could barely make out.

Ian didn't have time to think. Fresh air filled his lungs and he gasped, relief washing over him as he stared down at the shadow.

What is that? He wondered, squinting in the dark.

"Aron," the tiny creature muttered, absentmindedly chewing on something. At least, Ian thought it was chewing. The shadow that looked like the pokemon's head was definitely making a chewing motion, but what was there to eat in a place like this? And the harsh, gravel-like crackle sure didn't sound like anything edible.

"It's an Aron!" Eugeo gasped. Ian didn't know what that meant, but he could tell from his father's excited tone that it was probably a good thing.

"…What is it?" Ian finally croaked out.

"Aron are pokemon that live deep in dark caves like this one," Eugeo explained. "They eat ore and metal to survive! Don't you see what this means? If there's an Aron this far down here, then we must be near its nest! And do you feel that breeze? See the light? That tunnel he dug must lead all the way up to the surface! We can follow it back out of here!"

Eugeo threw a pokeball at the shadow, and the light of the ball illuminated the cavern momentarily, almost blinding Ian. He could just barely make out the armored pokemon's shiny metal hide in the resulting flash.

Eugeo released the Aron seconds later.

"Aron, show us a way out of this cave," Eugeo urged the pokemon.

"Aron!" The tiny pokemon nodded happily, turning and leading the father and son to safety.

Eugeo kept the Aron that saved their lives, and later gave him to Ian as a birthday present. That wasn't the only gift he'd gotten as a memento of their brush with death, either. Eccentric that he was, Eugeo saved a chunk of iron from that cave, the same ore the Aron had been eating, and made a pendant out of it for Ian as well. He still wore it to this day.

Iron saved my life that day, Ian fondly remembered. And since then, he's been saving me in pokemon battles as well.

Ian had absolute faith that his Aggron could do this. His partner had never let him down before. And all of Chloe's planning and strategies wouldn't change that fact.

She might have memorized our techniques and calculated a winning strategy, but we won't lose when it comes to heart, Ian swore. When it came to pokemon battles, some things mattered more than just having a good plan.

"Chiyome! Finish that Aggron off with your water shuriken!" Chloe shouted over the sound of the rain hitting the smoke.

Silent as a grave, Chiyome stalked the still statue of Iron, taking care to form the water shuriken as silently and stealthily as possible. It wouldn't do to get discovered now. She held up her creation and flung it at Iron with everything she had.

When the water shuriken hit Iron, two things happened. The first thing was Iron let out a roar of pain as the water struck his armor.

The second thing was an explosive burst of light.

"Oh no!" Chloe gasped, shielding her eye. She realized what had happened the second she saw the flash.

"It's metal burst!" Vic realized.

"AGGRON!" Iron roared.

That had been Ian's plan. He knew there was no chance of Iron catching Chiyome directly; the Greninja was just too fast. But he also knew that Chiyome didn't have much health left. If he wanted to defeat her, then he would need to unleash an attack that she couldn't dodge.

And the only way to do that was for Iron to take a pretty big hit himself. So he called out to his pokemon, hoping he'd get the message to use metal burst, and he did. Chiyome attacked just as Ian had planned, and Iron withstood it. Then, he stored the damage from the attack inside his armored body, and released it in a shockwave strong enough to blow away all the smoke, and the Greninja along with it.

"Chiyome!" Chloe felt the force of the blast through her Greninja, and knew Chiyome was finished. She clenched her teeth. That… had not gone as planned. She knew that metal burst was one of Iron's strongest moves, but she didn't expect the Aggron to use it without even being given an order! But Ian didn't have harmonia, so why…

"It seems we've underestimated the bond between the two of them," Samarra noted thoughtfully. "How curious. I can't understand how such a thing can be possible, understanding another so well without harmonia…"

The answer was standing right in front of her, but Samarra was too lost in her own view of the world to truly grasp it. And it wasn't like Chloe was very big on the socialization front, so she couldn't explain it very well herself.

But it didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that Iron was almost finished. He couldn't have very much health left. And Chloe's last pokemon hadn't even been sent out to fight yet. She was at full health!

We can do this, she thought, recalling Chiyome to her pokeball. Just a little more… just a little more and I can prove to Ian and everyone that careful planning and strategy are all that you need to be a Pokemon Master!

Feeling victory close at hand, Chloe took out her last pokeball, a Nest Ball, and sent out her final pokemon.

"Phyllii! Go!" She shouted.

"Leavanny!" A Leavanny emerged from the pokeball with a smile. Like most of Chloe's pokemon Phyllii wore ribbons, two in fact, both the color of grass. One was wrapped around her neck, while the other crossed her waist like a sash.

"So your last pokemon is a Bug/Grass type?" Ian noted, raising his eyebrow.

"That's right," Chloe nodded. "Phyllii is the perfect pokemon to finish off your Aggron! With her Grass type attacks, she can strike through the Steel type's resistance thanks to your Aggron's Rock typing, and she's quite fast, too."

"But… aren't Leavanny physical attackers?" Callie asked. She didn't have much experience with Grass or Bug type pokemon, but she remembered her fight the other day with those ninja, and the Leavanny that the woman had used was definitely a physical attacker.

"Normally they are, yes," Chloe nodded. "But I've trained Phyllii to be a special attacker, just for beating you!" She pointed triumphantly at Ian and Iron.

Donoma blinked, surprised. "Wow, you'd raise a pokemon in a stat they don't specialize in just for the sake of beating a specific trainer's pokemon? A stalker through and through."

Chloe snapped. "I'll kill you!" She shouted, before quickly covering her masked mouth. "Err, um… n-never mind! Phyllii! Use grass knot!"

"Uh-oh," Ross winced. "That's a good move against an Aggron…"

"Aggron weigh almost 800 pounds," Chloe stated with triumph as the grass rose up around Iron to try and tie him down. "That means grass knot will be at its absolute strongest!"

"Iron!" Ian shouted. "Use autotomize!"

"Autotomize now?!" Chloe couldn't believe it. "But you're already at maximum speed! What would even be the point?!"

Regardless, Iron began to sharpen his armor with a roar, ignoring the grass that tangled up around him and tried to pull him down. It was almost impossible to tell he was an Aggron at this point, his body was so shiny with polish and rain, and his armor was so sharply shaped, it wouldn't be wrong to mistake him for an entirely different pokemon. He was practically glowing!

Chloe ignored the useless autotomize, relieved that it hadn't allowed Iron to dodge the grass knot any better. Iron was wrapped up now, and rendered incapable of moving. With how devastating the attack was against a heavy pokemon, he was completely trap-

"AGGRON!" Iron shredded through the grass like it was made of- well, grass, and charged at Phyllii, raising his claws.

"Impossible!" Chloe sputtered in disbelief.

"But grass knot should have done a ton of damage!" Callie gasped, finding it difficult to believe that Iron could shrug it off so easily. She looked back to Alcea for clarification, only to remember that her friend was off fighting somewhere else.

"Under normal circumstances that would be true," Ian said, proudly admiring his Aggron. "But Iron won't be tripped up like that!"

"Explain!" Chloe demanded. All her knowledge of Ian and his pokemon told her that her strategy with grass knot should have absolutely worked.

"It's part of the effect of autotomize," Ian explained. "Do you really think I had Iron warp his armor like that just because it made him faster? Autotomize does more than just boost the speed stat, it also reduces the weight of the pokemon who uses it by 100 kg!"

Chloe stared at him with a blank expression and everyone else did too.

Ian sighed, rubbing his forehead. "…220 pounds. It reduces the weight of the pokemon who uses it by 220 pounds. Fighting against Chiyome, Iron had already used autotomize three times, which meant his weight had already been reduced down to 133.7 pounds. Not exactly a nimble weight, but enough to severely reduce the power of grass knot! And when he used it a fourth time…"

"He went down to negative, um…" Callie began counting on her fingers. "…Like, 90 pounds?! That's so awesome! Why can't I use a move like that on my waistline?!"

"It's negative 86.3 pounds you fool," Ange muttered. "And in the first place, do you really think it's possible for a person or pokemon to have negative weight? Are you completely brain dead or something?"

Callie's eye twitched and her face flushed with shame. "Shut up!" She shouted at Ange. "Who the heck even are you, you badmouthed blonde?!"

"That's rich coming from you," Ange snorted.

"Okay, I think you two should calm down," Rafe said, pulling his sister away from Ange before one of them hurt the other. "Besides, she is right, Callie, autotomize reduces a pokemon to only a single 0.1 kg at minimum weight."

Callie didn't even want to guess how her brother knew that. "Say it in English!" She groaned.

"About a fifth of a pound," Rafe converted for her.

"Whoa!" Callie gasped. "That's so light! So you're saying that Iron could stand on the river right now if he wanted to?!"

Rafe sighed. "Well…"

"Don't be ridiculous," Ange butted in. "Yes, if an object's weight is lighter than the proportional weight of water per volume, that means it would float. But you're forgetting that Aggron are still made of metal. Autotomize functionally reduces the weight of the pokemon in battle, but it doesn't have any effect on the pokemon's actual density. If that were possible then it would break the laws of physics even more."

Callie felt her brain begin to short-circuit. "This is why I hate Research Course students!" She griped, returning her attention to the battle.

Chloe was in a bit of a sticky situation. She had no idea that autotomize reduced the weight of a pokemon at the same time as increasing speed! No wonder Ian had used it instead of rock polish, she'd completely missed that!

So there are still things I don't know… Chloe thought herself an expert at pokemon battles, but come on! When would she EVER need to know the full effects of autotomize, except for in this specific instance? That was ridiculous!

"Whatever!" She shouted. "So you can evade grass knot! You still won't be a match for Phyllii! Phyllii, use energy ball!"

"Leavanny!" Phyllii raised her pincers, forming an orb of nature energy between them. She fired it at the charging Aggron, hitting Iron directly. The explosion sent him flying backwards.

"Iron!" Ian shouted.

"Hah!" Chloe smiled behind her mask. "Just as I thought! It was still a fluke. Your Aggron might look shiny and special-shaped now, but it's still the same 'ol Steel/Rock type, which means there's still a vulnerability to Phyllii's Grass type moves! And with all the damage Chiyome managed to inflict on him, it'd say it doesn't MATTER how little Iron might weigh! Phyllii, use energy ball again!"

"Leavanny!" Phyllii fired another energy ball at the injured Aggron.

"Iron!" Ian shouted. "Use protect to block it!"

"Aggron!" Iron rose to his feet, and a barrier of silver light rose up around him, shielding him from the explosion. But it was only a temporary measure. Ian could tell that his pokemon was starting to weaken, whereas Phyllii was completely fine.

"Hiding behind that barrier? Well, fine. Phyllii, while they're protecting themselves, use calm mind to boost your stats!" Chloe ordered.

"Leavanny!" Phyllii nodded. She began to focus her energy, boosting her special stats with the power of concentration.

"That's not good," Rafe said, frowning. "If she gets any stronger, then Ian's Aggron is in for some real trouble."

"Is there nothing he can do?!" Callie wailed.

Rafe shook his head. "I'd say it looks pretty bad for him," he admitted. "That Rock type isn't doing him any favors. As long as he's taking neutral damage from those Grass type moves… I'd say this match will be an uphill battle."

Oof. Rafe may have a point. Iron was able to defeat Chiyome, but not without significant cost to his health reserves. Meanwhile, Phyllii is fully-charged and ready to go. She might not be able to deal super-effective damage like Chiyome could, but since Grass type is neutral against Aggron, Iron's still going to be in for some pain. Problem is, there's not a whole lot Ian can do about it. Maybe he can figure out a strategy to help him win!