To Champion Steven,
Exiles have long fled to Fortree. If you seek refuge here, I will do everything in my power to guarantee your safety, although I confess I do not know if the people here will accept a neighbor who has not yet abandoned their efforts to regain power.
If you're in danger from the Elite Four, I know of nowhere safer in Hoenn.
Good luck,
Winona.
Since the fall of the last King of Hoenn and the rise of the Pokemon League as the region's governing authority, individuals on the losing side of League politics had migrated to Fortree on nearly a monthly basis; at the time of Winona's arrival, these self-exiles made up a majority of the area's population. And yet none of them – not even Veteran Anthony, although a few of his diehard fans suggested that had he avoided that second-round disqualification his team could've made it there – could match the importance to Hoenn of Champion Steven.
Never before had a king or champion come to Fortree, let alone one who still claimed Ever Grande's throne.
The people in the land of secret bases had received advanced word from Winona of the new arrival, despite his intent to enter in secrecy. Steven had arrived in the middle of the night, but the people still lined the forest paths to see a boy champion younger than many of their grievances against the Pokemon League. Once he realized his hope of secrecy was lost, Steven summoned his Metagross and made it an impromptu parade; he rode atop his strongest pokemon, which rose on its magnets above the path's many obstacles, while waving to the passersby he would soon reluctantly call neighbors.
Child champions had never been rare in the elite levels of pokemon battles, although they were not yet as common as they would become a decade or so later, in the age of the Pokedex Holders. Pokemon training was a test of skill, but it was also a sport where natural talent, determination, and luck went a long way, and a devoted prodigy with fast-growing pokemon could often use these to overcome a lack of experience. Many of these trainers came from wealthy backgrounds and benefited from their access at a young age to Ultra Balls and vitamins. In Steven's case, this wealth came from his position as heir to Devon Corporation's fortune, and many of the special poke balls he used came directly from his father's business.
In the bitter, rough-and-tumble world of Hoenn politics, once they lost the element of surprise and alienated the wrong people, it was not rare for a trainer to win the championship at age ten and lose it by age eleven. Steven Stone had only lasted two years longer than most, and differed from them only in that, when comparing notes, spying on training sessions, and biased officiating failed to get him out of the way, his rivals resorted to naked force.
Beaten champions before him bided their time, learned the ways of politics, further trained their pokemon, and won the championship back – like the present Elite Four - or resisted only to be called sore losers and defeated once again. A few had taken Veteran Anthony's path and given up against a political system where, despite pretenses to the contrary, skill at pokemon training was often not what determined victory or defeat – although with a Champion's wealth, leaving Hoenn for other, more honest regions was far more common than migrating to Fortree.
Steven had taken a third path as a fallen champion; he had declared the Elite Four's coup illegal and sought to rally Hoenn to his cause. In Fortree City he had found a crowd of eager revolutionaries, after being invited by the most revolutionary trainer of all.
He had not heard the grumbles of those who wanted no part of Hoenn's politics, no matter which side they would have to back or how noble the cause.
"So how do you like Fortree City?" Winona asked Steven. "There are extra sleeping quarters in the gym – I don't have any assistants yet, so take what will be theirs someday."
"It's nice. Quiet. Safe, or at least safer than I thought it'd be. It really has changed a lot since you got here, Winona. But I won't be able to lead a revolution from somewhere this remote."
"Who decided that you're the one who will lead this revolution?"
That statement would send Winona to Mauville City. She couldn't argue with Steven's reasons for having her travel; Winona wanted to change things, and one could not bring about change without leading, nor (sadly) could one do it without leaving a settlement in the middle of nowhere. Worse, Steven was wanted in most of Hoenn for treason, while Winona, as far as the League was concerned at this time, was simply an assessor who had been suspended for giving out ranks too generously.
So Winona had flown her Altaria into the biggest city of Hoenn – although its lights were far too bright for anyone to mistake her pokemon for a pair of clouds this time around. Mauville's roads were paved and marked, but the long, convoluted grid where meaningless road names, not buildings of interest, were noted on the signs was unmatched in Hoenn, although easily beaten by Unova's Castelia City or Kalos' Lumiose. Winona had spent the better part of the last two days trying to find the gym, and in her wandering had begun to miss Fortree City – which she had begun to think of as home.
When Winona finally did arrive at the gym, she found it sans its leader – not because it was closed for the day or abandoned, but because Wattson had a habit of traveling the city and fighting battles everywhere but his actual gym. And between her bad luck and Mauville's size, she hadn't found him yet.
It didn't help matters that his assistants wouldn't tell her anything unless she beat them in a pokemon battle. Or that said assistants (like Wattson himself) trained electric pokemon – and worse, Electrode was too fast for even Swellow to get an attack in, while Magneton's steel frame made it even harder for her birds to damage it than most electric types. Only Altaria, fortified by dragonhide, was able to put up a fight – but three on one was no way to win a pokemon battle.
If his assistants were this good against trainers who did not specialize in a type weak to electricity, Winona could see why Wattson had to leave the gym to get a chance to have pokemon battles! Still, she would have to be stricter with gym leaders' whereabouts once she took power; at least she had the decency to leave a note at her own gym that it was closed and saying when she'd (hopefully) be back.
It was best not to complain to Wattson if she tracked him down, though; she had come here for a reason, and it wasn't to ensure Mauville's trainers could find their Gym Leader. And she needed all the support she could get.
Winona finally found Wattson only after asking the Pokemon Center nurse for a picture of the local gym leader, then abandoning the roads entirely to hop on her Altaria and search the city by air. Yet Wattson was short enough and had normal enough hair that it took Winona a couple fly-bys before she realized whom she had found and landed her pokemon.
"Are you Wattson of Mauville Gym?" Winona asked.
"Indeed! Watt did you want to talk to me about?" Wattson responded, his pronunciation of the word 'what' too clear to be anything else but an intentional pun, much to Winona's groan. "Hahaha!"
"My name's Winona. I'm the Fortree City Gym Leader... and I've come to ask about the gym leaders' meeting in forty days."
"Be quiet," Wattson said hypocritically – for once, Winona hadn't been the loudest person around. "Wynaut speak openly, or discuss this in my gym? Because I'll support you in 40 days... if I still have a gym from which to offer my support."
"What happened?" Winona asked, ignoring the pun; the situation was too heavy to tease him about how it wasn't even an electric pokemon. "And how on earth could your gym be more dangerous than talking about this in broad daylight?"
"A few days ago, two powerful trainers arrived at the Mauville Gym and asked to be my assistants. I agreed to take them on, but silly me - I hadn't realized they were in the Elite Four's pocket! I'm not sure if my Manectric can take them one on one, let alone together if they try teaming up on me like Steven. In the meantime, they've been using their top pokemon against even zero badge trainers, and I'm a gym leader who can't use my gym. Hahaha!" Wattson explained.
"And you're laughing?"
"At a time like this, all I can do is laugh and wait. If I try a Quick Attack before the gym leader meeting, I won't be able to deliver Mauville, and I'd be lucky to deliver a vote. It's better to step back and laugh at the absurdity – at the rate the Elite Four are going, they won't have any gyms left to oversee! So I guess this is Finch's revenge."
"Finch?" Winona recognized the name, even admired it – there was still a part of her that felt a pang of pride watching his triumphs on television with a team of flying pokemon, riding his Pidgeot, Fearow, and Chatot all the way to... an elite four position. That was his name on the letter the Elite Four sent her – his, Haley's, Drake's, and Sidney's.
"He blames me for the Mauville Company going under and has had it in for me ever since. I believed in it just as hard as he did... but when Sea Mauville ran into financial trouble, he didn't care who he hurt if he could save it. It bordered on slave labor near the end, although he worked himself as hard as any of us. He's a dangerous man and I'd much rather see the champion back in power. Drake's a good guy and I've never heard anything that bad about Sidney or Haley, but I don't know if they can restrain him. Even as one tetrarch of four, he scares me." Wattson said, the fear evident in his suddenly whispered voice.
"I'm sorry." It was all Winona could say. "I guess if you don't need my help, I'll be headed back to Fortree now."
"Stay safe," Wattson said, as the girl he had just met re-mounted her Altaria.
"You too."
Winona hadn't expected, when flying home to the building the Elite Four continued not to recognize as the Fortree Gym, for a Gyro Ball to whizz narrowly past her ear – or to look down and spot an ongoing battle in her gym's open-air arena. And if one had to happen, she would've at least assumed that one of the trainers would bother to use flying pokemon!
Perhaps they had earlier in the fight; she didn't know, for she hadn't had time to install a proper scoreboard. But right now, the match was Forretress on Metagross – steel on steel – which was probably better for her ability to land in the vacant referee's box without interrupting the fight, even if both pokemon had used their magnets to rise a few feet into the air. Behind her golden flight goggles, her keen eyes soon picked out why; the ground was thick with both intentionally laid spikes and loose, pointed scraps of iron that had been knocked from the two pokemon, and what looked like Skarmory sword-feathers from earlier in the match as well.
On one end of the arena – her end, Winona fumed, although she supposed she had in a sense left the gym in his care – was the Skarmory and Metagross' trainer, the exiled champion of Hoenn, and her guest: Steven Stone. In the challenger's box was a man dressed in a white shirt, red cut-off shorts, and the red cowboy hat and cape that seemed to her a bizarre throwback to a distant era – but to Fortree's other residents as marking his position as President of the Secret Base Guild, who had on the day before her arrival been unquestioned as the most powerful man in Hoenn. She had never met Secret Base Expert Basil, and not for lack of trying.
"So this is the best the Hoenn League Champion has to offer?" Basil taunted. "Fortree doesn't need the League, it doesn't need the rest of Hoenn, and it doesn't need you, either. Forretress, Struggle Bug!"
A barrage of green and spiky mines which bore a striking resemblance to Pineco (apart from being a fraction of their size) shot forth from the crater-like indentations that covered most of Forretress' round, steel body.
"I guess it's all we can do at this point. Metagross, Psychic," a dejected Steven answered, but the stings of the continued barrage had cost his star pokemon its concentration, and the weak, blue wave which emerged from his pokemon's bright red eyes fizzled out without doing much harm when it arrived at its heavily armored foe.
"Forretress, finish his last pokemon and send him back to Hoenn! Struggle Bug!" The second barrage of Pineco was no deadlier than the first, but Steven's Metagross was already cracked, scorched, punctured, and struggling to hover above the spikes; it didn't take much more for it to close its eyes and shut down.
Neither trainer had responded to Winona's arrival with so much as a hello; in the midst of a pokemon battle, one could not afford to be distracted and give their opponent an opening for an extra strike. But now their match had ended, and not long after the winner's taunts had given her an idea of the stakes.
"What's this about sending him back to Hoenn?" Winona asked indignantly.
"Those were the stakes I agreed to," Steven said sadly. "He said he didn't want this town involved in this, and he had a point and enough followers, so I accepted. The championship's yours, Basil, if you want it."
"Of course I don't, and even if I did, it isn't yours to give anymore. That's how Hoenn works – how it's always worked," Basil – head of the secret base guild – answered.
"Nor was exile yours to impose," Winona shot back. "Basil, by what authority do you challenge trainers and demand they leave the region if you lose?"
"I'm the head of the secret base guild! The leader of Fortree City!" Basil responded. "A city that has spent a thousand years at nearly unbroken peace because the people who came here had the good sense to stay out of Hoenn's conflicts!"
"Fortree... City?" Winona asked. "I thought this was not a city, and had no leaders. I believe the Secret Base Guild still refers to this as simply a popular place of refuge. Or have you forgotten what you sought to uphold in your zeal to keep the League out of Fortree at all costs?"
"Nonetheless, he agreed to these terms – and he lost. Is the Pokemon League Champion a man without honor?" Basil said.
Steven started to respond with agreement, but Winona stepped forward and raised her arm in front to cut him off. "Champion Steven will fulfill the terms of his agreement; indeed, it need no longer be an issue. I hereby withdraw this structure – I suppose I can't call it the Fortree City Gym anymore - from the borders of your 'Fortree City'. It is simply a large secret base on the north end of Route 119 where anyone may find refuge, albeit one whose owner is at odds with the guild's leader."
"Your sophistry won't do us any good when a Hoenn League army comes marching up Route 119, and they won't stop at your gym," Basil shot back.
"You're right. My sophistry won't. But my pokemon will," Winona responded. "As will yours. As will Steven's, if he's still here. As will those of every other exile here who can't stand the Elite Four's coup, and the people who grew up here who never liked them either. You said it yourself – you beat the best the Hoenn League had to offer."
"They can make up in numbers what they lack in skill," Basil said sadly. "I wish I was wrong, I really do. I know so many people the Hoenn League has screwed over, and I'm sure we'd all like to see them fall. But Steven is in exile and the Elite Four controls Ever Grande... so please, don't harbor him."
"I'll have to decline that request. Before I came here, I challenged a very good friend to a competition – and I can't win it without becoming Fortree City's gym leader. And the more time I spent here, the more I wanted to change the Hoenn League – not just for you and me and Steven here, but for every honest trainer in Hoenn who dreams of becoming a pokemon master. This is my secret base, my guest accepted your challenge without my approval, and you haven't beaten me yet!" Winona spoke, accidentally using the term 'City' - unlike some of the longer-term residents, she had no aversion to the concept, and if it became part of the Pokemon League it'd become one for real. Maybe Basil would even run the place.
"So battle it is, then," Basil said. "I don't think I'll be able to get you out of here any other way. In fact, even though you'll need to fight an army if you win, I'll be nice – let's do this mano a mano, three pokemon each. But make it a triple battle; if your plan fails and the League comes for Fortree, they won't fight fair, and you'll need to command all your pokemon at once."
"I guess you don't trust your guild to take your side," Winona taunted. "Since you're the challenger, send out your pokemon first."
"They're already out," Basil answered, pointing to his Forretress. "Out of their pokeballs, anyway."
"So that's how you want to play this," Winona answered, gripping three balls and throwing them high into the air. "It's been a while since I used you guys – and you deserve a chance to show this town what you can do. Tropius, Pelipper, go!"
"You're using your reserve pokemon in a battle like this?" Steven asked, dumbfounded and disturbed. "This guy's no pushover – he beat the Champion! And if you lose..."
"Don't worry," Winona answered him. "I didn't pick this team to go easy on him. Pelipper, start this fight with a Surf! Tropius, Fly high into the air, above the waves! And my third pokemon... speed up the waves with a Tailwind!"
"You picked them because you've fought more than enough matches in this town with Skarmory and Swellow, and I've heard more than enough to know how to counter them," Basil taunted. "And while I appreciate the effort, we both know that's the Altaria you flew here on that you hid in the clouds. Shadow Ball, Shadow Sneak, and Forretress, how about you Zap Cannon Pelipper?"
A black blur emerged from the shadows and struck Tropius across its leafy wings as it flew high into the air – only to be followed up by a lightless beanball right under its green headguard, and although neither strike grounded the winged sauropod pokemon, its face twisted in agony.
Pelipper opened its oversized bill and an enormous wave, spurred on by an enormous, fierce wind, flooded out to engulf the battlefield. It did not break high enough to catch either Altaria or Tropius, but Forretress was too heavy to be swept away by the waves, and too sturdy to fall over, and Winona could only catch the barest glimpse of her foe's other pokemon in the water – the spiky outline of a Gengar or a Clefable, and what could be virtually any lizard pokemon – before they vanished beneath the waves. (And she could forget about trying to figure out how much damage the attack had inflicted.)
The wet Forretress spun to the right, positioning its red, spike-shaped turret in Pelipper's direction, and blindly fired an enormous ball of lightning. A quicker or more alert pokemon might have dodged, but Pelipper, even with the wind at its back, was too large a target to fly out of the way. When the orb connected, it crackled with electricity and plummeted to the ground, relieved from the crash only by Winona's quick reflexes and the light of its pokeball.
"That Pelipper hadn't fainted," Basil noted. "So why'd you withdraw it?"
"A paralyzed Pelipper crashing from that height? It was as good as gone; I wanted to spare it any more injuries," Winona answered. "Also, before the next round of attacks, Basil, I'd like to clarify something."
"What?"
"If you don't win, Steven stays here, right?" Winona asked.
"Yeah. That was the agreement we made – why are you asking? I know airheads tend to train flying types, but this is a little much even for you," an oblivious Basil answered.
"Tropius, land on Forretress. And my hidden pokemon will use Perish Song!"
"You..." Basil responded, his tone furious, but with a hint of admiration. "So that's what you meant! In that case, Gengar, reveal yourself to block Tropius' attack! Forretress, rise! And my hidden pokemon... hop on, and use that move to be sure that we'll only deal with Altaria the rest of this fight!"
Tropius plummeted from the sky, but a soaked and injured Gengar suddenly appeared in its path and acted as a pokemon shield, using its gaseous body to slow its saurian foe. It attempted to turn and smash the rising Forretress anyway, but the steel sphere floated out of the way, high into the air, and rained rocks down upon the Tropius' leafy wings, as a haunting, foreboding melody from Altaria's siren-like voice cast a pall across the arena.
Or at least that's what it looked like. Surely, the rocks came from Basil's other pokemon – whatever it was, wherever it was hiding, because Winona still couldn't see it. Either way, it had done enough; Winona only had one pokemon left to Basil's two, and she recalled her Tropius as he did likewise to his Gengar.
Good thing she had prepared.
"Altaria, there's more than one floating fortress this match. Protect yourself with a Cotton Guard!" High in the sky, as both trainers elevated their platforms to watch the aerial duel, a pair of clouds folded in upon each other and puffed out to triple their prior size, then flew around the sky in the hopes of re-disguising its position.
"So you admit it's an Altaria?" Basil teased. "No matter. Forretress, Gyro Ball! And its rider, use the technique you used to finish Tropius!" The Forretress circled around in mid-air, creating a smaller sphere which it knocked like a billiard ball in Altaria's direction, and it picked up size from flying into the wind as it approached the giant pair of clouds that composed the pokemon's wings. To compound the damage, another barrage of rocks descended from the sky above the dragon, shredding its cloudy wings and interrupting its song as the pokemon cried out in pain.
"Altaria... you're gonna need some healing if you wanna finish this match. Roost!" The dragon-bird plummeted out of the sky – but this time slowing its ascent to rest on the ground in front of Winona's trainer's box.
"It's the right play, but it won't be enough – we'll hurt it faster than you can heal! Hit it with another Gyro Ball, and why don't you lower its defense with a Screech!" Basil shouted, and Forretress bumped another sphere into the fierce but slowly fading wind. A loud, reptilian shriek interrupted but did not break Altaria's song, leaving it prone to the brunt of the attack as it moved its bloated wings to cover its tiny ears. Despite its healing technique, the second exchange had left Altaria even more wounded, and with both pokemon on the ground it was easy to see that, even with the wind no longer boosting Forretress' techniques, it couldn't take another combination attack.
And yet Winona was smiling. "Basil, you put up a good fight. Altaria, Fly!"
"Dammit... no! Kecleon, Shadow Sneak!"
The ghostly lizard that had ridden Forretress most of the match emerged in a green flash which soon changed to black and raked Altaria across its neck with its claw before the dragon flew high into the air. But it could not stop it from completing its song, and all three remaining pokemon on the battlefield soon lost the strength to fight – Forretress closing its eyes at rest, Kecleon tumbling over, and Altaria, like Pelipper before it, falling out of the sky and shielded by Winona's pokeball from the crash.
"You've fought well," a defeated Basil said. "I shouldn't have underestimated you. The Guild's support is yours – and I'll make sure no one in Fortree City tries to interfere. With that Altaria you'll crush any armies the League sends its way," he said, then turned to Steven. "I'm sorry. I overestimated Hoenn, and underestimated Fortree. I'm ashamed of myself – my predecessors drove out Gym Leader Woody and overthrew Governor Henry, and Hoenn's never beaten us before!"
Steven, for all his bitterness towards the Elite Four, looked a bit disturbed by Basil's enthusiasm, but Winona was elated to have him on her side, and she added her own proclamation. "Together, we'll beat anything the Elite Four throws at us – and if they don't help us, the other gym leaders too!"