To Applicant Winona,
You drive a hard bargain. I reluctantly agree to appoint you the Hoenn League's representative for Fortree City.
As representative, you are granted the sole authority to assess the skill level of lapsed or unregistered trainers and appoint them to appropriate League ranks, and to organize local tournaments to be held under League auspices. Enclosed with this letter is an official Hoenn League seal which you shall display as proof of your new rank.
Regarding your gym leader application, the requirements remain unchanged. We have reasonable estimates of Fortree's trainer population if you try to flout them. League eyes and ears are everywhere.
The League will not be sending replacement or additional representatives to Fortree in the absence of extremely credible information that you have abused your new power. This is extremely irregular, but no one could be convinced to take the post. The last time Hoenn tried to send a representative they fled town after receiving a dagger with a note attached in their window. The one before that was murdered.
Be careful,
Champion Steven.
Winona reached into the envelope and withdrew the red and blue seal, glancing over the Kyogre and Groudon emblazoned on it – the Hoenn region's two great gods, whose followers had doomed the land to endless strife and warfare. Anyone who sought to rule the whole region successfully would have to honor both of them, even though the two were opposites whose followers typically hated one another. (Luckily, in this day and age their once-mighty cults were reduced to glorified crime gangs; neither Team Aqua and Team Magma had done anything more notable than extortion in years.)
Missing from the seal was Rayquaza, an obscure god of peace whose followers – including most of Fortree – claimed it to be the strongest god of the trio. As a symbol of league authority, the seal was everything she needed; as a logo of the Hoenn League, it was one more little thing to make her job even more difficult. But authority was authority, and putting up a poster with a picture of the seal and the phrase "Hoenn League Trainer Assessments Open" might get the building she hoped to turn into Fortree's gym some traffic; right now its spacious design just made the place look even more empty.
It would be two more days until a single trainer stopped by for longer than it took to read the sign, and Winona spent those days wondering if the challenge she had given Wallace was ill-advised. On the day her first challenger arrived, she still had sixty-eight days to go, but progress here was far less straightforward than challenging the gyms or contest halls could ever be.
(Not that Wallace had technically accepted her challenge. But motivation was motivation, and she had come to miss him; it was happier to imagine than him forgetting about her and continuing his contest career.)
At least no one had tried to burn the place down yet, although maybe they were only waiting for her pokemon to stop keeping watch. In some towns, her curiosity about what happened would be enough to send even the always-energetic Winona to the library, but Fortree didn't have one, and every time she tried to bring up the topic to visitors and neighbors they turned suddenly tight-lipped. Though Winona didn't blame them; there wasn't a polite way to ask "did you guys exile and murder my predecessors."
The first person other than Winona to enter what would become the Fortree City Gym was a girl who looked barely old enough to get her trainer's badge, dressed in a traditional Picnicker's uniform. She was the first person Winona had seen since her arrival whom she could consider her junior, and Winona found herself wondering what could possibly have brought this girl to turn her back on civilization at such a young age.
"I'm here for the trainer evaluations," the Picnicker said meekly.
"Well, you've come to the right place. Welcome! Step onto the platform and it'll take you right up to the roof, so we can battle in the skies with style!" Winona answered.
"B-but none of my pokemon can fly."
"Well, why not? Flying types are the best! I hear in Kalos they have battles so high in the air you aren't even allowed to use flightless pokemon," Winona half-asked, half-gushed – then, noticing the grim look on the shy girl's face, added, "But don't worry, this gym has a floor. You can adjust the platform's height with these arrows – I'll watch the battle from the roof, but that might be a little high for your pokemon – but if you're fighting my birds I think you'll need a decent view of the sky.
"Okay," the younger girl said, quivering as she stepped onto the platform. The railing was just low enough to keep her from fitting through the gap between it and the ground; it had clearly been designed for taller trainers. She raised it only a couple feet, mostly to improve her angle with the roof.
"Don't be so afraid. Win or lose, it's a pokemon battle – so have some fun with it!" Winona exhorted.d.
"O-okay. I'll try," her challenger answered. "What's your name, miss?"
"Winona. Bird Keeper Winona... for now, but I'm trying to become Leader Winona."
"I'm Picnicker Ashley. Nice to meet you."
"As the assessor, I send out my pokemon first to give opposing trainers a chance to strategize appropriately. Altaria, go!" Winona hurled her pokeball high into the sky, and her opponent strained her eyes in vain to get a look at what had emerged.
"An invisible pokemon? Never fought one of those – but my pokemon can see what I can't. Skitty, start this match off with Foresight!"
A pink kitten materialized on the ground of Fortree's arena, sniffing and focusing its ears high into the air, then pointed with its pincushion tail at a symmetrical pair of clouds which did not float across the sky like the others. Ashley instinctively hit the up button on her platform to get a closer look, and was able to make out what looked like long, thin, almost antenna-shaped patches of blue sky breaking through the clouds.
"Probably not a bad move, all things considered – but your pokemon just isn't capable of winning this fight. Moonblast."
Altaria spread its wings wide, and a brilliant pink moon suddenly appeared from behind the thick cloud that composed Altaria's left wing. A bright ray of piercing moonlight engulfed the Skitty, who struggled to remain on its feet long enough to let out a soft, charming purr, its voice having a mild disarming effect on the Altaria, who seemed wholly underwhelmed by the battle.
"Thanks, Skitty. You fought well, and although I never thought you'd be able to pull this off alone," Picnicker Ashley said as she recalled her lead pokemon and pet its pokeball. "I hope your sacrifice lets my next pokemon take down Altaria. Plusle, come out!"
"Plusle? I see you've been planning to take on a flying trainer... but Altaria's a dragon type too," Winona said. "I'll have to mark you down if you haven't learned that yet."
"I have," Ashley answered sadly. "But if I can't get past Altaria, having a Plusle in reserve won't do me any good. Thunder Wave!"
The plus signs on the mouse pokemon's cheeks lit up a bright yellow, then sent separate jolts to each of Altaria's wings which unfolded as they moved through the air into something like the attack's eponymous waves. Altaria dove at the Plusle, hoping to swoop down and strike it with its claws, but misjudged the distance and crashed into the ground, its bound, cotton wings shielding it from the brunt of the impact.
"Maybe I have a chance in this match after all! Plusle, Spark!" The Plusle swung its red, cross-shaped tail into the downed Altaria as it crackled with electricity, but the cloud dragon shrugged it off as though it was only a scratch.
"You're not a bad tactician, but your pokemon just haven't had enough training. Dragon Claw!" Altaira swiped its claw to the left and raked through Plusle's tail lengthwise before it could rebound from Altaria's body.
"Careful it doesn't evolve into Minun!" Winona joked, while a couple tears streamed down her younger challenger's face as she recalled her fainted pokemon. "Sorry. Getting hit like that hurt your Plusle a ton, but it didn't sever the tail or anything. I've seen pokemon bounce back from much tougher injuries; it should be fine with a bit of rest."
"Right," Ashley said, trying to steel herself after her pokemon's injury. "I just don't want to start without even being approved for a trainer's license. I know I can't do much here when everyone's so much more experienced than me, but I've been trying hard to train my pokemon, even if it's just against wild pokemon in the forest. Zigzagoon, do your best – Headbutt!"
"I don't want to place you too high and put you against trainers like me... but honestly, you've done well for a rookie, so don't worry too much. Altaria, end this match with a Dragon Claw!"
A prickly, brown and tan rodent pokemon emerged from the young trainer's pokeball and slammed its no less spiky head into the paralyzed but determined and unconquered dragon pokemon, and the Altaria, whether from pain or paralysis, simply could not react to Winona's words.
"Zigzagoon, headbutt again! Keep it up until that thing faints!" Again the prickly head rammed into the dragon's blue body, and again the dragon seemed only mildly perturbed by this particular impact – but a bunch of little impacts had finally begun to add up.
"It looks like the paralysis is getting to you, Altaria. Try a Moonblast, it might be easier at this range," a concerned Winona commanded. The Altaria's wings spread wide and pointed down, and the moon hung lower in the sky, shifting its angle with the battle to send a brilliant blast Zigzagoon's way, Altaria barely avoiding the edge of the explosion.
When the ethereal light faded, Altaria was barely standing on its tiny blue legs, but Ashley's last pokemon had fainted. The assessment match had been a sweep.
"Sorry about the blowout; it's my first time doing this, and I don't have much of a B team yet. In retrospect, I probably should've started with my Swablu," Winona said, and the look of grave disappointment suddenly vanished from her badly defeated challenger's face.
"So I wasn't supposed to beat that team if I wanted a decent rank?" Ashley asked, equally curious and relieved.
"Of course not! You're a rookie, and I might just be the strongest trainer in this city. Though if they let me build a gym here I'm gonna have to adapt to using different level teams based on how many badges trainers have; if you had to beat eight leaders at their full power, no one would ever qualify for the Pokemon League."
Upon hearing those words, Picnicker Ashley smiled – the first of her smiles Winona had seen. "You know, that pokemon of yours was really powerful, and before I paralyzed it I wondered how anyone could even hit it. Maybe I should try catching a Swablu sometime."
"Aren't flying pokemon great? If this gym gets approved, I can try to teach you the ropes – gym leaders need assistants."
Winona soon reached into her bag and handed her challenger a signed certificate, declaring her the equal in skill level to a trainer who had won a single badge – although this evaluation was only for tournament placement, and she'd still need to win enough actual badges if she wanted to ever enter the league. But it meant skipping the real novice tournaments and being acknowledged as a trainer, and for one of the few people in Fortree who had not fled the outside world, but always called this one home, that was enough for her profuse thanks and eager signature on Winona's own gym leader petition.
All things considered, her first League activity in Hoenn had gone far better than expected. But Fortree had few children, and Winona needed the older generation to eventually come around.
After all, she only had sixty-eight more days.
To Bird Keeper Winona,
We've been training hard these last two weeks, and I think I've had to learn as much as my pokemon. Milotic seems to have taken well to pokemon battles, but Luvdisc and Clamperl have really struggled in this format, and Whiscash doesn't do that great against other water types, so I don't think it'll be much help in my gym match. I traveled to the Shoal Cave to train and caught a Sealeo there, and it's good at both contests and battles.
I miss you a ton, and there's so much I want to ask you about winning pokemon battles, so give me any advice you have. Then again, there's so much to remember about types and matchups and strategy that I'll probably forget your advice in the middle of a fight; unlike in contests, I have no time to think. I've lost a lot of matches even though my pokemon were strong enough because I used the wrong move, and when I win it's because Milotic's figuring out how to adapt its contest techniques to fights, often without much guidance from me.
Maybe I should've challenged you instead; I hear the contest champion these days uses an Altaria.
At least you gave me eighty days, and I have sixty-six of them left. We've been training so hard I've hardly had time to send you any letters... or to tell you where to send mine, because even though my final opponent is at home in Sootopolis, it's hard to train without traveling. Maybe I should stop in Fortree sometime.
Good luck,
Wallace.
As Winona watched the group approach her gym the evening two weeks after she had arrived in Fortree – six men, one woman, all armed with pokeballs – she gave serious thought to fleeing before they got any closer. She had sent her first trainer on the road to the Pokemon League, and that was probably what wore out her welcome.
Winona had never been truly blind to the possibility this day would come (although she often pretended otherwise), but she didn't think it would be quite this soon.
Only two factors kept her there. The first was that, should she need to escape, Altaria could fly and her arena was open-air. The second was that, although it was late, the gym was not technically closed yet – and if she was wrong about their intentions, she would be abdicating her duty as an assessor and her dream of becoming a gym leader for no reason whatsoever.
As it so happened, she was completely wrong about their intentions.
"So I heard you gave my daughter her trainer's license and a one badge rank? She's been waiting for this day since she was five, and so much more since she turned ten. But there was never anyone in Fortree, and neither her mother nor I could show our faces in the Hoenn League offices in Lilycove or Mauville without swallowing a lot of pride. Thank you so much!" the man at the head of the party – a bearded man in his forties whose wide muscular figure suggested a Hiker – said, gesturing to the sole woman in the group when he mentioned "her mother".
"You're welcome," Winona answered, "Your daughter's pokemon aren't the strongest, but she has a good grasp of strategy for her age. Couldn't you have let her go alone?"
"Well, I'm doing that now!" the man joked. "And maybe I could've sooner, but I wasn't sure if her pokemon were strong enough for the roads around here. Getting that trainer's rank gave me some peace of mind. Besides, I wouldn't want her arrested for unlicensed training by League authorities on her way. You know the patrols are nastiest on the roads from Fortree."
Winona hadn't known that, but the way the League and Fortree's population spoke of one another, it didn't surprise her at all. Another thing she'd need to change at League Headquarters, although she supposed that if Fortree had its own gym leader, they wouldn't have an excuse to keep messing with the residents anyway.
"And since you did a fair job with her, I gathered up my buddies – at least the ones who want to know where they rank and don't mind giving the Hoenn League another try. I wouldn't mind a match myself; if they sent someone like you to Fortree, then maybe they're finally turning a corner."
When she heard those words, Winona's face changed from the subdued relief that her gym was not being burnt down to an enthusiasm that exceeded even that of her usual personality. The prospective gym's posted closing time was only a half hour after the group arrived, but Winona was far too excited to sleep, and the eight of them battled long into the night.
She had asked between the matches about the last person the league sent, and they admitted that he had been run out of town, but also that he had personally alienated everyone there with his heavy-handed efforts at rules enforcement, ignored virtually all the complaints about either his gym or his attempts to organize tournaments (under rulesets where few locals bothered to show up) and was rude and combative even on topics like city planning that had nothing to do with pokemon battles. As for his predecessor, who had been murdered, none of the party had even heard about that incident; whenever it happened, it was clearly before their time.
Winona would win six more victories that day, and the one trainer who defeated her – the girl's father – signed her gym application anyway. He claimed he had only won because she was exhausted and made a silly mistake in the last round of their battle; Winona was far from convinced a Moonblast would've hurt enough to make a difference, and thought he was simply thanking her for helping her daughter on her way.
But with all the trainers who wouldn't sign even when she beat them, the fact that Winona had won the approval of one of the few trainers in Fortree who could beat her meant that she had made serious progress. Hiker Robert's signature was more than a fair consolation for not getting Bug Catcher Anthony's, or those of so many others who hated the Hoenn League just as much.
As word spread of Winona's assessment battles, the trainers came, one by one, to what was already being called the Fortree Gym – although at the time she still lacked any assistant trainers or the authority to grant badges. Many spoke approvingly of her compared to her predecessor; none knew the city's history well enough to know a thing about any league officials before said predecessor who had been murdered. Either it was a dark secret and they were sworn to silence, or it had happened long before any of Fortree's current residents had arrived.
Fresh signatures on her gym application came with her assessments, day by day; few managed to defeat Winona, and those who did had multi-type teams and no desire to claim the mantle of Fortree's Gym Leader. These few typically signed Winona's petition anyway, both in recognition of her strength as a trainer and out of a desire for fair treatment from a League many of them had long rejected, or worse, been rejected by.
Yet despite this thaw in attitudes from the populace at large, Winona was as shocked by Veteran Anthony's appearance at her gym, pokeball in hand, as he had been on the day of her arrival.
"So I hear the league's appointed you assessor, cloud girl. Maybe they've finally decided to let old grudges go." Winona nodded and answered with words of optimistic agreement, and the two began their rematch.
Unlike in their initial match, Winona had the home field advantage this time, and it showed from the beginning; fighting a single battle nullified most of her foe's clever combination attacks, and her Altaria, Swellow, and Skarmory simply soared above many of his bug pokemon's techniques in the open-air rooftop arena.
Yet Anthony had not become one of the Hoenn League's elite trainers through any lack of preperation. The pokemon he used in the rematch – Forretress, Ninjask, and Flygon – may have been the same, but the trio had practiced techniques designed for handling flying pokemon in general and Winona's in particular, and for the most part they worked.
Swellow struggled to maneuver through Forretress' floating rocks, and was left easy pray for a speedy Ninjask. Skarmory had a clear advantage, and Winona thought the favorable matchup would be sufficient – but Ninjask flew away into Flygon's pokeball, and Flygon, its speed boosted from the exchange, reminded Winona why the phrase "fire-breathing dragon" was so popular even when pokemon taxonomists rarely found that type combination in the wild.
But Winona's Altaria, who had so stymied Anthony last match, was no less dangerous in this one – especially as Skarmory had given it some help on its way out. On the verge of fainting, it had spread its wings wide and flapped them furiously, creating a high-paced tailwind which Altaria rode past Flygon, swiping it with a devastating claw on the way. And Ninjask, fastest of all pokemon in ordinary conditions, soon learned it could not count on it speed with the wind against it, and could never count on its size or toughness to begin with; again Altaria outflew its opponent to a single-strike victory.
The match had been hard-fought, and Winona had to admit she had a type advantage, and Anthony had an excellent record of success to fall back on in his long if interrupted career as a pokemon trainer. On that day – twenty days after she had arrived in Fortree – she gave her foe what she considered a wholly appropriate rank.
She had never imagined placing a trainer who had once served as a gym leader and nearly won a championship at League level would be, in the eyes of Hoenn headquarters, an "abuse of power" so severe that she must be denied the right to rank any future trainers.
Winona raced to her mailbox the moment she heard the Pidgey outside her window – after a couple false alarms from nothing more than local Taillow and her own Swablu – and tore open the envelope. She had won the signatures, bit by bit, of what was probably half the city's trainers and sent in her application, and was eager to be confirmed so that she could open her gym with 50 days to spare.
Her excitement lasted until she opened the letter.
To Bird Keeper Winona,
We have received credible reports of grossly inflated ranks in your role as Fortree City assessor, most notably in your promotion of a trainer you twice defeated all the way to League Veteran. You are henceforth relieved of your authority, and we expect the return of your seal within seven days.
The status of your gym leader application is on hold, pending an investigation of the true strength of the trainers you defeated, along with any suspensions or demotions the League deems necessary for this abuse of power.
With regards,
Elite Four Sidney, Drake, Haley, and Finch.
Winona grabbed her Swellow feather-pen and paper and began to compose a furious response, prepared.
Anthony's rank was not given solely based on his performance against me, although I advise you to read the match notes and consider type advantages before
But she soon heard a loud clang, dropped her pen and raced again to the mailbox to find a second letter delivered – this one in an envelope with the Devon Corporation seal, one she would have dismissed as junk if not for the fact that the delivery Skarmory seemed larger and stronger than her own representative of this species.
Again, she hurriedly read the letter.
To Gym Leader Winona,
The Elite Four said I had gone too far and launched a coup. I hope approving you wasn't the last straw.
They attacked in the middle of the night, four against one, and declared me deposed and the Championship vacant on the grounds that a Champion must be able to defeat the Elite Four.
I'm currently on the run and trying to get Gym Leaders to resist this illegal seizure of power, because without the gyms, holding Ever Grande City is meaningless.
I hope I can count on your support at the Gym Leader meeting in 50 days. My dad already called in favors at Rustboro, so Rocky should be on my side, but I don't know about the rest.
Hoenn power struggles haven't involved anything worse than a trip to the Pokemon Center so far in the Pokemon League era, but these guys scare me.
I hope you can help,
Champion-in-exile Steven.