"Ferro, use Stone Edge!" Sharp rocks circled around the Aggron's body and were launched at two Golbat, who fled after they were hit. "Stone Edge looks much stronger than it did before. I can't get over how proud I am of you, Ferro!"
"Agg-ron!" It smiled at him.
"All right, let's keep goi-" The trainer was cut off by a magnitude that shook the entire cave floor. "Wh-What's going on?"
Right in front of them, the ground broke apart as something huge made its way to the surface; it had a long body with sharp edges all over it. When the dust cleared, Davin got a good look at the creature as it let out a mighty roar.
"It's a Steelix!" Davin shouted with shock in his voice.
"Steelix, the Iron Snake Pokemon." his Pokedex spoke. "Steelix is the evolved form of Onix. It lives underground even further than its pre-evolved form and it is known to reach six-tenths of a mile when it digs into the earth's surface."
"This must be the Pokemon Nurse Joy warned me about. I've never seen a wild Steelix in Hoenn before."
The Steelix raised its tail as it started to glow and it threw it at them. "Get out of the way!" Davin and the others jumped away from the incoming hit. The trainer stood to his feet. "You're just the kind of Pokemon we need. Guys, give everything you've got! This training will be a lot harder than the other ones." They all nodded as they got up from the ground.
"Ira, start off with Aqua Jet!" The Carvanha launched itself at Steelix while it was coated in water. The giant snake responded by blowing a beam of white air from its mouth that collided with Ira and sent her flying into one of the cave's walls.
"That was a strong Dragon Breath." Davin stated. "Ira, use Swagger!"
It tried, but Steelix came at it with another Iron Tail and knocked it to the other side of cave, making it fall unconscious.
Davin recalled it to its Poke ball and turned his attention to Luck. "Hit it with Focus Punch and dodge the incoming attacks!" The Vigoroth ran towards Steelix on all fours as its right arm began to collect energy. Steelix shot a Hyper Beam, which Luck dodged successfully and the Wild Monkey Pokemon landed a blow right on to Steelix's head. "Way to go, Luck!" But the happiness died when Steelix opened its eyes and released its Dragon Breath, hitting Luck on the spot and making it faint when it hit the ground.
After recalling it, Davin tried a different method. "Let's do a double attack! Kalis, use Icy Wind and Halo, use Bug Buzz!" Both Pokemon used their respective attacks but Steelix brushed them off with minor difficulty. "All right. Let's try Ice Fang!" Kalis jumped forward but was soon knocked back by Iron Tail, falling into unconsciousness.
"Halo, use Stun Spore!" The orange powder was scattered only to have it be destroyed by Dragon Breath, which hit Halo and made it faint right next to Kalis when it fell.
Both were recalled. "Nurse Joy wasn't kidding. This guy's far from being a pushover."
Steelix used Sandstorm, making Davin and the remaining two Pokemon shield their eyes from the chaotic sand hurricane.
"Ferro, use Iron Head to stop Steelix!" He complied and ran at Steelix, hitting it straight in the body with its glowing head and making the Sandstorm disappear. "Great. Now use Headbutt!" Steelix wrapped the tail-end of its body around Ferro and threw him across the cave floor.
"Stone Edge!" Another cancellation occurred when Dragon Breath made contact on Ferro, sending him into unconsciousness. "You did good, Ferro. Return." At those words, the Aggron was absorbed into his ball.
Davin turned to his Swampert. "Ros, it's up to you. Think you can handle it?"
He gave him a thumbs up. "Swam-pert!"
Steelix came with Iron Tail. "Ros, Water Gun!" The blast of water was shot, but it wasn't powerful to stop it. Ros easily evaded the hit by jumping to the side. "Use Mud Shot!" Bullets of mud shot out from its mouth and on to Steelix, dealing super effective damage with it being a Steel type.
"Muddy Water!" The tidal wave made its third appearance and was sent towards the large iron being. Still full of energy, Steelix released a Hyper Beam that destroyed the Muddy Water entirely and hit Ros so hard that he collided with Davin. Both of them fell to the ground.
Davin groaned. "You alright?"
"Swamp." It confirmed as it got off of him.
"What do we do? This Steelix has a lot of power and it's not giving even the slightest hint of it being tired." He looked at his Poké-partner and saw him breathing heavily. "Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Ros."
While the boy's focus was being distracted, Steelix launched a second Hyper Beam. Without awaiting orders, Ros charged forward in the direction of the attack.
"Ros! What are you doing?!" The Pokemon just kept rushing forward. At what seemed like the last second, Ros jumped up and dodged the Hyper Beam.
Meeting Steelix eye-to-eye in mid-air, Ros's left arm began glowing light blue and smashed it against the Steelix's huge head, making it roar in pain.
"Whoa! Ros, you just used Hammer Arm!" Davin celebrated. "That's so cool!"
Ros landed on the ground as the Steelix began to pant with its eyes closed.
"Finally, we're getting somewhere. Ros, use Muddy Water and put every single ounce of energy you have left into it!" Raising its arms, Ros summoned its move's signature tidal wave, though this one reached all the way to the cave's ceiling unlike the previous ones. Putting everything it had into its arms, it thrusted them forward to send the wave at Steelix at a fastened pace. Steelix attempted to use Hyper Beam but couldn't, due to fatigue, and it suffered the crash of the brown water wave, causing the towering iron snake to plummet to the ground, unconscious.
"ALL RIGHT! ROS, YOU DID IT!" Davin cheered as he jumped in the air and clapped. He ran over to Ros and hugged him from behind. "Simply amazing! I can honestly say that I'm proud to have you as my Pokemon. You're excellent, Ros. Truly excellent!"
"Swampert...!" He smiled with a wide grin and rubbed his head against Davin in affection.
Afterwards, Davin decided to exit the Cave of Origin and go to the Pokemon Center to heal his Pokemon. Since it was getting close to nighttime, he decided to rest at the Center and challenge the gym in the morning.
The next day, Davin woke up around noon and immediately went to the gym after getting dressed and eating breakfast.
"Here it is... The final gym in Hoenn..." He tightened his hand into a fist. "I'll get that badge, and I'll show 'em what I can do in the Hoenn League!"
Wasting no time, he entered the doors of the gym and saw that the inside had walls of aquamarine and that the battlefield was on a crystal floor. "Hello! I want to challenge the gym leader and get my eighth badge!"
"Your eighth, huh? I'm a bit surprised."
Davin gasped at the voice. From the other side of the field, he recognized the boy with blonde hair that walked towards the other side of the gym.
"HARO?!"
