"There you are Hariel! I've been looking for you!" a voice called out from above.
Hariel paused her cooking to look up curiously, spotting Steven flying towards her on the back of a metal bird creature.
"Hello Steven, it's been a while," Hariel said, smiling.
It had been about a week since she had seen the man.
He looked even more handsome now that he was wearing a dark suit with a red cravat and purple zig zags on either side of the suit jacket. The cuffs of the jacket were encased in metal in the shape of a crown, and he now wore multiple thick rings on his finger. Underneath he wore a purple suit vest. Pinned to his left breast was a stickpin with a rainbow stone imbedded on the end.
(Steven Stone XY artwork)
At the moment, she had taken to making pokémon food very quickly. She hated to admit it, but Fate's cookbooks were great. Her pokémon loved her food and were spoiled by it.
For each pokémon, she would make the food pellets in bulk and put them in large labeled containers. Nurse Joy even gave her a booklet on pokémon food portions to make sure she wasn't overfeeding or underfeeding her pokémon.
"You sure do work fast," Steven said, amazed as he spotted Milotic and Kirlia, "And a shiny Kirlia no less!"
"Shiny?"
"The term Shiny pokémon means it was just born with a discolouration as per the regular colours they are born with, that's all," Steven helpfully explained, looking around at her pokémon more closely.
Luxray seemed to be teaching Charmander and Milotic how to use Iron Tail, Absol was sharpening his claws on a stone, and Kirlia was practicing her Psychic attack by surrounding herself in a flurry of flowers.
"I see," Hariel said thoughtfully as she put more ingredients into the pellet maker and turned the machine on.
She then wiped her hands on the cloth hanging from her apron and took out her pokédex, pointing it at the metal bird.
"Skarmory, the Armour Bird Pokémon. Despite being clad entirely in iron-hard armor, it flies at speed of over 180 mph."
"That's pretty cool," Hariel said with interest.
"I wanted to show you something," Steven said before throwing a pokéball into the air, releasing whoever was inside.
It was a silver steel creature on four hulking legs and a golden X across his face.
On its front right leg was a metal band with a familiar looking cat's eye stone imbedded into it.
"This here is my partner, Metagross. I had been looking for months for his Mega Stone when you had kindly gave me the one you found," Steven said happily.
Hariel looked at the pokémon with awe and held up her pokédex again.
"Metagross, the Iron Leg Pokémon and the evolved form of Metang. Metagross has four brains in total. Combined, the four brains can breeze through difficult calculations faster than a supercomputer. This Pokémon can float in the air by tucking in its four legs."
Like her Kirlia, Metagross' colouring also deviated from the norm.
"Just a dinner wasn't enough to repay you, so here is my true return gift," Steven said, smiling as he walked over to give Hariel a long velvet box.
Hariel took it with a smile and widened her eyes upon opening it. It was a Mega Stone with the colours of dark blue and white ribbons encased in a pale blue stone. The other stone was a rainbow coloured marble with some sort of black DNA design inside.
"This is an Absolite and a Keystone. With them, you can Mega Evolve your Absol into Mega Absol," Steven said with a smile.
"Thank you!" Hariel said, taking the stones gratefully, noticing that he had also taken the time to make both the stones into necklaces.
One for Absol and one for herself.
"The key to having Absol Mega Evolve is a close bond. When your hearts are united, the keystone will activate the Absolite and Absol will Mega Evolve!"
"A close bond," Hariel said to herself, looking at Absol with awe.
The pokémon looked just as amazed.
"I have no doubt that you'll be able to achieve Mega Evolution with your Absol in the future," Steven said with a confident nod.
"Thank you so much Steven," Hariel said and gave the man a hug, making the other blush at the close contact.
Thankfully it was a short hug, otherwise Hariel would have noticed Steven's increased heartbeat.
"Well, I also wanted to extend the offer to have your Gardevoirite cut for you. You may be able to achieve Mega Evolution when your Kirlia evolves," Steven said.
"Of course!" Hariel nodded and immediately searched through her pack for the right capsule before releasing the stone with within.
She handed Steven the stone with a smile.
"Oh and by the way…you look very cute in that apron," Steven said with a bright smile before making a quick getaway on his Skarmory after returning Metagross to its ball.
"Huh?" Hariel looked utterly bewildered by the sudden complement but before she could say anything in reply, Steven was already gone.
Hariel just sighed and shook her head before Absol approached her, his eye on the Mega Stone necklace.
"Here you go, Absol," Hariel said, slipping the necklace around Absol's neck. The Mega Stone pendant settled nicely on his chest.
Hariel then did the same and put the necklace on herself.
"I look forward to these upcoming months, hmm?"
"Absol!" Absol said in agreement.
Before even trying for the Petalburg Gym, Hariel had wanted to get some intense training in.
Since Luxray and Absol were the strongest pokémon on her team with Kirlia being third, it meant that Milotic and Charmander had quite a bit of catching up to do.
She had battled some rookie trainers on routes between towns, but she had defeated them all rather easily. She didn't think that pokémon training and battling would be this easy, but then she doubted that other trainers could fall back on practicing spells as a guide to help pokémon with their abilities.
Stamina, power, control, and then endurance.
Using magic to make large boulders more impervious to attacks, she had her pokémon attack them nonstop. Eventually, one by one, they all fell to exhaustion with Absol and Luxray lasting the longest.
After a break, lunch, and restoring their energy with Sitrus Berries and Leppa Berries, she had them try to pulverize the boulders instead, charming them so they would be extra difficult to destroy.
And if they managed that, then Hariel had them work on control next by making them do meticulous tasks with the use of their abilities.
She had Luxray meticulously use his discharge to create tiny sparks that would pick apples off a tree rather than blowing the entire tree up like it normally would have. The tiny sparks were supposed to carefully burn the stems so the apples would fall.
Kirlia would quicken her teleport use by catching each apple by hand and putting them into a basket before they bruised by landing on the hard ground.
Absol was using his Night Slash, Shadow Claw, and Psycho Cuts to carve perfect cubes out of stone instead of shattering it like he normally would have done.
Milotic was shooting water pulses of varying sizes at some special wooden rings that Hariel had transfigured. Each ring had a smaller ring within. Milotic was only supposed to get the smaller ring wet by having a perfect sized water pulse shoot through them. Too big and the smaller ring would be washed away. Too small and the ring wouldn't even get wet.
Lastly, Charmander was using her flamethrower to dry wet rags as the Fire Type had the tendency to burn everything into blackened crisps. This would teach her to control her Flamethrower and hold back from wasting unnecessary energy. Too much would burn the rags, and too little and the rags would just be holding hot water instead of the cool pond water they were soaked in.
Hariel wanted all of them to have minute control over all of their abilities.
As she supervised them over their respective training, she was practicing making Poffins as a treat for doing so well in their training. They had only been in the clearing for a few days, but they had already improved so much!
After observing her pokémon closely, she noticed that while all her pokémon liked the berries she gave them, when it came to the food pellets, some liked different tastes over others.
Kirlia preferred her food a bit sweeter than the others, while Charmander liked hers to be a little spicy. Absol liked his food to be balanced in flavour as did Luxray while Milotic preferred her food to have a more bitter taste.
Thankfully a League Tournament was held every 6 months, and it wouldn't be for another 2 until the Hoenn League Tournament came around. Deciding that she wanted to take her time with her journey rather than rush, she would enter the next League Tournament after the upcoming one. With this, she would have plenty of time to sightsee and gather badges.
Having gone through quite a bit of food in the past week, Hariel decided to stop by the supermarket to pick up some groceries.
After buying her purchases, the cashier handed her something with a smile.
"Congratulations, Miss! For this week, anyone who spends over 15,000 yen at our supermarket chain in a single purchase gets a free pass to the Annual Festival in Cameron Palace!"
After putting her groceries away, she showed the pass to Absol, who looked at it with intrigue.
"The Cameron Palace is in the Kanto region, which is quite a ways from here. But two weeks from now in Rustboro City, there's a free ride from there to Cameron Palace! Doesn't that sound cool?" Hariel asked. "Imagine all the different pokémon we'd see there!"
"Absol sol!" Absol nodded in agreement.
"After this gym, we should head off to Rustboro otherwise we won't make it," Hariel decided and headed off to the Petalburg Gym.
It didn't take long to find the Gym after asking for some directions. She found the Gym on a hill near the edge of the city.
She knocked before entering and looked around the large rocky battlefield within the temple-like building.
"Hello? Is anyone here? I'm here to challenge the Gym Leader!" Hariel called out.
"I'm the Gym Leader here," a man said, walking into the gym. The man had neatly styled short black hair, tanned skin, and wore a maroon jacket coupled with dark blue pants.
He was quite handsome if she said so herself, but passively she thought Steven was much more handsome. When she could herself thinking of such a thing, she sighed and cleared her thoughts. Hariel did not need any distractions right now.
"I see you have your Absol here. This Gym calls for a 3 on 3 battle," the man said. "I'm Norman."
"I'm Hariel," the witch nodded, "And I do have two other pokémon who can battle."
Norman smiled, "Excellent! Then I accept your challenge!"
A boy named Kenny was to be the referee as he was working as an assistant in the Petalburg Gym.
"This will be a 3 vs. 3 battle! Only the challenger may substitute her pokémon!" Kenny said.
"Ready, Absol?" Hariel asked.
"Absol!" Absol nodded and stepped out onto the field. This would be their first Gym Battle together.
"Absol, huh. Good choice! My turn! Vigoroth, let's go!" Norman called out and a white monkey with hulking claws appeared on the battlefield.
"Vigoroth?"
"Vigoroth, the Wild Monkey Pokémon and the evolved form of Slakoth. Vigoroth is only comfortable going berserk. It will destroy anything in its path by spinning both arms, and goes more berserk when done."
"It seems like we'll have our hands full with this one," Hariel commented, swallowing her nervousness.
"The battle between Vigoroth and Absol will now begin!" Kenny announced.
"As the challenger, you may have the first move, Hariel," Norman said with a smile.
"Thank you. Absol, use Future Sight!"
"Future Sight? That's an interesting move," Norman mused as Absol shot out balls of concentrated psychic energy that disappeared into worm holes in the air. "Vigoroth, use Scratch!"
"Counter with Dark Pulse and follow up with Megahorn!"
"Absol!" Absol fired a beam of purple rings of dark energy at Vigoroth, hitting him directly in the chest mid-charge of his Scratch attack.
While it was stunned, Absol enlarged his horn and slammed it into the other pokémon, throwing it back.
"V-Vigoroth!" the Normal type grunted and glared at Absol who gave nothing away in his facial expression.
"Flamethrower, Vigoroth!" Norman commanded.
"Jump and use Razor Wind on the flames!" Hariel countered.
"What?" Normal asked, confused as Absol did just that.
The Razor Wind fused with the flames from Vigoroth's Flamethrower and came flying at the Wild Monkey.
"Dodge and use scratch again!"
"Dark Pulse!"
Vigoroth was not able to dodge all of the fiery wind blades and barely managed to move out of the way from Absol's follow-up Dark Pulse, though the attack did skim its side. Charging in quickly, Vigoroth was finally able to land a hit on the other pokémon, making Absol growl.
"Now, use Focus Punch!" Norman ordered quickly.
"Block it with Megahorn!" Hariel countered just as quickly. If Focus Punch was allowed to hit, Absol would take major damage as Dark Types were weak against Fighting type moves.
Absol thankfully was able to react in time and blocked Vigoroth's glowing fist with his enlarged glowing horn. Even though Bug Type moves weren't generally effective against Fighting Types, Absol were known for their great physical power. Besides, type advantages weren't everything.
"Dark Pulse!" Hariel commanded swiftly.
Vigoroth was sent flying back from the point blank attack of Dark Pulse.
Before Norman could order a counterattack, the worm holes appeared in mid-air around Vigoroth and barraged the Normal Type from all sides with concentrated psychic power, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Oh no!" Norman panicked as the dust cleared, only to find Vigoroth out cold on the ground.
"Vigoroth is unable to battle, Absol is the winner!"
"Great job, Absol!" Hariel said, hugging the Dark Type.
She and Absol were truly compatible. During the whole battle, her pokémon had only taken one hit! Absol purred and nuzzled her back with just as much affection.
"That was excellent! Especially with your Absol's Razor Wind. Using my own attack to power up your own was nothing short of genius," Norman praised as he returned Vigoroth to its pokéball. "Good job Vigoroth, you deserved a nice long rest."
"Thank you," Hariel nodded.
"Let's see how you handle my next pokémon, Slakoth! Come on out!" Norman called and a sloth-like creature appeared. Vigoroth's pre-evolved form.
"Slakoth, the Slacker Pokémon. Slakoth is generally foundsleepingandvery few ever witness it in motion."
"Absol, why don't you take a break for now?" Hariel suggested as she took out another pokéball.
Absol nodded and sat at her side.
"Charmander, let's do this!"
Charmander appeared on the field looking fierce and gleeful. The small Fire type was already trying to punch an invisible opponent, trying to get the lazy looking Slakoth as pumped up for battle as she was.
Norman smiled in amusement. Truly as a Gym Leader, you saw pokémon of all kinds.
"It's a spunky one, huh?" Norman chuckled.
Hariel laughed with him, "I wouldn't have her any other way!"
"The battle between Slakoth and Charmander will now begin!"
"Charmander, use scratch!" Hariel ordered.
Norman said nothing to counter her order, making the witch confused.
Charmander was much faster than before, but was stunned when Slakoth simply leaned out of the way at the last second.
Hariel blinked before understanding shone in her eyes.
"Scratch again!" Hariel ordered.
When Slakoth dodged again using the same method, Hariel smirked.
"Spin and use Iron Tail!"
Charmander immediately spun on her foot and slammed a now glowing metallic tail right into Slakoth's face for a critical hit. The pokémon was skidded a few feet away from the impact and now looked angry as opposed to its easy going expression moments before.
"Shadow Ball!" Norman ordered, knowing that Slakoth's dodging method wouldn't work against Hariel and Charmander anymore.
"Hit it right back and follow up with Flamethrower!" Hariel countered.
Norman widened his eyes, "Dodge!"
Using her tail, Charmander smacked the Shadow Ball right back at Slakoth who jumped over it, but in the air it was unable to dodge Charmander's Flamethrower.
Slakoth's fur was all singed and burnt from the Flamethrower and did not seem to be fairing very well.
"Hidden Power!"
Multiple white balls of power outlined in blue surrounded Slakoth for a moment before they shot at Charmander.
"Dodge!" Hariel commanded.
"Shadow Ball again!"
Charmander ran around, trying to dodge Hidden power when a Shadow Ball hit her directly while she was distracted. The fire lizard skidded back from the impact.
"Flamethrower again!"
"Dodge it, Slakoth!" Norman ordered.
Ironically, the sloth-like pokémon was fast on its feet and was able to dodge Charmander's Flamethrower.
"Iron Tail!"
Charmander was still faster than the other pokémon though.
The fire lizard quickly dashed over and hit Slakoth with Iron Tail, throwing the pokémon away.
Slakoth fainted when it hit the ground.
"Slakoth is unable to battle! Charmander is the winner!"
"You did a great job, Charmander!" Hariel cheered, hugging the Fire Type close.
"Absol!" Absol said in agreement.
After being let go, Charmander eagerly got back onto the field, clearly ready for more.
Hariel saw no reason to deny Charmander is wish, but was cautious of what type of pokémon Norman would save for last. It would probably be his strongest pokémon.
"You're an excellent battler, Hariel. But how will you do against my Slaking?" Norman asked and released the pokémon.
It reminded her of a gorilla mixed with King Kong!
"Slaking, the Lazy Pokémon. Slaking lives most of its lifeasleep, eating only grasses that grow within its reach."
Hariel swallowed. The pokémon radiated power, and she was honestly worried for her Charmander. But since it was clear that Charmander would not back down despite looking slightly nervous, then she would not either.
"The battle between Slaking and Charmander will now begin!"
"Charmander use Flamethrower!" Hariel ordered. Unless she had a clear shot, close range was not an option.
"Slaking, use Earthquake!"
Slaking smirked and stomped on the ground, creating a pulsing Earthquake in the area and interrupting Charmander's Flamethrower.
Hariel bit her lip. Ground type moves were very effective on Fire Types like Charmander. Sure she trained Charmander to take hits from water-type moves, but ground types were a whole different matter.
"Charmander!" Charmander cried out in pain from the horrible vibrations she received from the quaking ground.
Even Absol could feel it from beside her.
"Finish him off with Focus Punch!" Norman commanded.
The large pokémon was surprisingly pretty speedy, and landed a perfect hit on Charmander, making the poor Fire Type fly straight into the wall behind her.
"Charmander!" Hariel gasped as the pokémon slid from the crater in the wall. The wood was completely splintered and had no doubt scratched Charmander's scales.
The tiny Fire Lizard was out cold.
"Charmander is unable to battle, Slaking is the winner!"
"You did a great job, Charmander. Take a good long rest," Hariel said and returned her pokémon.
She thought for a moment on who would be best to take on Slaking. Luxray was out because he was weak against Earthquake and the attack would make him vulnerable like Charmander.
That left Kirlia and Milotic.
"Milotic, let's finish this up!" Hariel called out and released her pokémon. Milotic was able to levitate above the ground when she was out of the water, making her a perfect choice against Slaking who's Earthquake would be useless.
Milotic cooed upon being released, dazzling Kenny and Norman.
"What a beautiful Milotic," Norman praised.
It was very uncommon for anyone to challenge him with a pokémon most caught for contests.
"Thank you," Hariel smiled.
"The battle between Slaking and Milotic will now begin!"
"Milotic, use water pulse around Slaking!"
"Huh?" Norman said in confusion before understanding dawned him when the ground underneath Slaking's feet became muddy and slippery.
It would be much harder to move now.
"Now, use Twister!" Hariel called out. Twister was a move that Milotic quickly learned under the harsh training the witch had put her through.
"Dodge, Slaking!" Norman commanded, but the Lazy Pokémon slipped on the mud instead and was directly hit.
"Now that it's now, slam him with Iron Tail!"
Milotic narrowed her eyes and swung her tail down onto Slaking's back, making the pokémon cry out in pain.
"Again!"
"Grab its tail and slam Milotic onto the ground!" Norman ordered.
Slaking caught the Iron Tail mid-swing and slammed the Water Type onto the ground, repeating the action over and over.
"Water Pulse!" Hariel commanded hurriedly.
Milotic managed to launch a Water Pulse that hit Slaking directly in the face, causing the pokémon to sputter and let go.
"Slap him with Iron Tail!"
Instead of swinging downwards, Milotic swung her tail sideways and caught the pokémon on the side of its head while it was still momentarily blinded from the Water Pulse.
"Now, barrage it with Twister!"
Letting loose a Twister from her tail, Slaking grunted in pain as it was barraged from all sides by the twister.
"Slaking, use Hyper Beam to cut through the Twister!" Norman ordered.
Slaking, while still under attack, managed to charge and fire a Hyper Beam to cut through the Twister.
"Dodge it!" Hariel commanded.
Thankfully, Milotic reacted in time and twisted out of the way of the Hyper Beam. However, Slaking looked battered and exhausted. It wouldn't take much now to render the pokémon unconscious to win the match.
"Water Pulse, rapid fire!"
"Dodge and use Focus Punch!"
Slaking, though hit by a few Water Pulses, still dodged most of the attack and was able to get close to Milotic with a Focus Punch all charged up and ready to go.
"Use Twister to push him back!" Hariel ordered.
"Dodge it and continue!" Norman countered.
Slaking was able to dodge the Twister and landed a good hit on Milotic's side.
Milotic cried out in pain as she flew into the wall, looking quite bruised and beaten, but not out of the count yet.
"Slaking? What's the matter with you?" Norman cried out in alarm.
Hariel smirked once she realized that Milotic's hidden ability Cute Charm had activated, meaning that Slaking was a male.
The pokémon had literal hearts in his eyes as he looked at Milotic with a love struck expression.
"Quick, while he's still infatuated, Water Pulse one more time!" Hariel ordered.
She wanted to use Refresh to heal Milotic, but she was worried that Cute Charm's effects would wear off before she could counter attack afterwards.
"Slaking, snap out of it!" Norman demanded.
Milotic fired another Water Pulse directly into Slaking's face, making the pokémon topple over from the impact. Slaking fell into the mud with a loud splat. It was over.
"Slaking is unable to battle, which means the winner of this match is Hariel!" Kenny announced.
"We did it!" Hariel cheered, feeling a rush of adrenaline from the battle she had just participated in.
Milotic and Absol cheered with her, though the latter's was much more subdued.
"Return, Slaking. You did an excellent job," Norman said, returning his pokémon before turning to Hariel.
Kenny pulled out a small box and handed it over to Norman before the Gym Leader himself walked to Hariel.
"Hariel that was truly an intense battle. You did a fine job of raising and training your pokémon well," Norman praised before holding up the box and opening it, revealing the Balance Badge inside. "I'm happy to present to you the Balance Badge as proof of defeating my Gym. You've earned it."
Hariel picked up the badge with awe and thanked Norman.
"I'm just curious, but how many badges do you have now?" Norman asked.
"Umm…this is my first one…ever," Hariel said awkwardly.
There was a silence.
"WHAT?!" Kenny exclaimed, "What do you mean this is your first badge ever?"
Hariel scratched the back of her head sheepishly, "Well due to some family circumstances, I couldn't start my pokémon journey up until a couple weeks ago. I've never even owned or trained a pokémon before then!"
Norman and Kenny gaped at the girl. Her pokémon were that strong and she was that good at battling in a mere two weeks? Was she some sort of prodigy?!
Most people had about 2 or 3 badges before they challenged his Gym!
"You've got some great talent!" Norman happily let out, "I'll keep my eye on you! Good luck on your journey!"
"Thank you very much!" Hariel said, bowing before hurrying out the door to have Kirlia teleport her to the pokémon center.