Episode 21: Learning to smack down
The day following the Performance Festival, Niko and his friends continued their journey towards Driftveil City. Originally, Niko wanted to make up lost time, but was reminded that he didn't really have a reason to get to Driftveil City in such a hurry. So, they slowed down a bit, eventually taking a break in the early afternoon at the edge of the Driftveil Bridge.
The bridge was massive, to be sure. It stretched for nearly a mile, and was as red as a firetruck. Niko looked in awe at it, and simply stood there with his team of Pokémon as they observed the architectural wonder that was the Driftveil Bridge.
"Look at it, guys." He said to Servine, Rufflet, Roggenrola, and Solosis. "On the other end of that is our next gym battle. Want to get to training?" He said excitedly. Each of the Pokémon nodded with varying degrees of excitement. Rufflet was, without a doubt, the most excited by this, since he hadn't had much of a chance to battle since they had left Nimbasa City several days prior. And so the Eaglet Pokémon trained with Niko's newest Pokémon, Solosis, while Servine and Roggenrola paired up and exchanged attacks.
Solosis spent more time toying around with Rufflet instead of focusing on actually training, often using her psychic abilities to toss the Eaglet Pokémon around, which quickly enraged the bird, who fought back with an unexpectedly powerful peck attack. Noticing this, Niko smirked a little. He's getting closer to aerial ace, Niko thought to himself. However, it was the other pair of Pokémon—Servine and Roggenrola—that drew most of Niko's attention. He noticed that Roggenrola's moves weren't hitting, usually because Servine was able to quickly and agilely evade most of them, and usually by jumping into the air.
Confused by this, Niko sat down next to Charlotte—who was reading—and Warren—who was chronicling the previous night's events in his booklet. Upon noticing his frustration, Charlotte looked up at Niko with a concerned look. "You alright, Niko?"
"Yeah. I'm just a little concerned about Roggenrola. He doesn't seem to be getting any better with his training. I wonder if trying to teach him a new move would help…but I don't know what."
Charlotte thought for a moment, placing her chin in her hand, with the book still sitting in her lap. Eventually, she perked back up and turned to Niko, which got his attention. "Smack down!"
"Smack down…?" Niko asked curiously.
"Yeah, smack down! It's a useful move for rock types, especially when you're facing a flying type Pokémon!"
"Well, what does it do?" Niko asked, just as he saw Roggenrola get launched into the air from Servine's leaf tornado.
"So, it basically launches a rock at the opponent, knocking it to the ground. If the opponent is already on the ground, it doesn't really have any side-effect." Charlotte explained. "I'm quite sure Roggenrola can learn it, too."
"Well, we can definitely try that when we get to Driftveil City!" Niko said enthusiastically. "Unless, of course, the Driftveil Gym is flying type. Then maybe we should wait on the match until after Roggenrola has mastered the move."
Charlotte nodded appreciatively before getting back to her book. Niko then called off the training and recollected with his Pokémon before the group set off along the Driftveil Bridge. It was uneasy at first, at least for Niko, but once he took the first few steps he felt fine. As they traversed the mile-long bridge, they noticed cars passing by them, going in both directions along the bridge. It reminded Niko and Warren of the Skyarrow Bridge—the first step in their journey, even though neither of them knew it at the time. Occasionally, they would see unfamiliar Pokémon flying high above them. At one point, a few of them dove down and attempted to attack Niko and his friends, to which Niko summoned Roggenrola to put down the birds with rock blast.
"Wow Roggenrola…" Niko said observantly. "You're getting better at aiming your rock blast."
Roggenrola turned to Niko with smug look on his face; proud that he was improving as a Pokémon. Niko then pulled out his pokédex to observe the Pokémon they had defeated:
"Ducklett, the Water Bird Pokémon. Water and flying type. They are better at swimming than flying, and they happily eat their favorite food, peat moss, as they dive underwater."
"Hmm…alright." Niko said, returning Roggenrola and continuing on with Warren and Charlotte.
Driftveil City was a major port city in Unova, and it was clear as soon as the trio got there. As usual, they immediately went to the Pokémon Center to heal up their Pokémon first. As it was still light outside, Niko considered trying to challenge the Gym Leader.
"So…according to the book here, the Gym Leader of Driftveil City is Clay. He uses ground types…" Charlotte said, continuing to read information on Clay.
"Ground types…?" Niko said, thinking about it for a moment. He couldn't remember the last time he challenged a ground type gym leader…Giovanni from Viridian City…? He said to himself. Yeah, guess so. But I've fought plenty of ground types before. "We can do that, I think."
"This place has a lot of cool places to see, actually." Charlotte said, presumably still reading about Driftveil City. "There's a large marketplace; a lighthouse; the gym; and I think it's the site of the World Tournament."
"The World Tournament?" Niko asked.
"Yeah, well…one of them. It was the first city to host the World Tournament, which is why it's so famous. According to this, the World Tournament is a worldwide championship to determine the world's strongest trainer. Trainers from all around the world come to some selected city every ten years to compete. Even gym leaders and members of the Elite 4 compete in it, as well. Driftveil City was the first to build a stadium for it, and other cities have followed suit, like Lumiose City in Kalos and Mt. Silver in Johto." She said.
"Hmm…interesting." Niko said. He noticed Charlotte briefly look at him, but for some unknown purpose to him. "Anyways, I think I'll go try to see if I can challenge the gym leader. You guys want to join me?"
"Of course, we do!" Warren said, immediately getting up. "We can check out the market and lighthouse later. Niko's got a badge to win!"
Niko nodded with a nervous smile before also getting up, just as his Pokémon were ready for pick-up. He took them and placed the pokéballs in his pocket.
The Driftveil City Gym was to the north of the city, past a series of massive craters in the ground. It stood at the end of a road—a large, bronze-colored building with a pokéball symbol in the center of the center tower. On each corner of the building were towers with blue domed rooftops. Niko approached the front door of the gym, which had a sign on the front.
"Out for the day. -Clay." Niko said aloud. "Guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow."
"That gives you some time to train, though." Charlotte said with an optimistic tone. Niko nodded, turning to her and smiling. "Smeargle and I can help you train, if you need the help."
"Thanks Charlotte. Yeah, let's head back to the Pokémon Center then." Niko said, turning to walk back down the lane.
Walking back into the city, the trio took a detour through the marketplace. Warren found some Moomoo Milk, stating that he's never had it before, as it's a foreign drink. Charlotte got some as well for Smeargle while Niko looked around for things his Pokémon might enjoy. He got a Lum Berry for Rufflet and some Carrots for Servine, but he had no idea what to get for the other two. He knew Roggenrola didn't really eat food—somehow—and Solosis hasn't shown a preference for anything in particular.
Eventually giving up, and getting something completely random for Solosis, Niko and his friends purchased their things and the trio went back to the Pokémon Center's practice battlefield as the sun was beginning to set.
"Alright Roggenrola, I want to try a new move with you." Niko said as he kneeled down to the Mantle Pokémon's level. "It's called smack down. I'm not sure what it looks like, but supposedly you just shoot a rock at your opponent and they should begin to fall to the ground if they're a flying type."
"Or if they're levitating!" Charlotte added.
"Or if they're levitating." Niko repeated. Roggenrola nodded, and turned around to face the battlefield. He seemed to concentrate for a moment before ultimately launching a rock into the air, but Niko recognized it as rock blast. "So…uh…that was rock blast, Roggenrola. Let's try smack down."
Roggenrola nodded, still feeling confident in himself. He continued to shoot rocks into the air aimlessly; all of them looked like rock blast. Niko kept shaking his head before sitting down next to Roggenrola and explaining to him how he believed the move worked. Roggenrola nodded and continued trying, launching rocks through the air until he couldn't anymore, eventually sitting down on the ground.
"Don't give up, Roggenrola…" Niko said, patting the Mantle Pokémon. "We can do this. Let's give it another shot, alright?"
Roggenrola nodded again and stood back up—with Niko's help. Aiming into the sky, he concentrated hard and shot out…another rock blast. Roggenrola stomped the ground angrily before running over to a nearby wall and headbutting it in rage.
"Maybe a practice battle will help?" Charlotte suggested, pulling out a pokéball. Niko turned to her and shrugged.
"I'm not sure what'll help, but we can try. Hey, Roggenrola, want to try practicing smack down in a battle setting?" Niko asked. Roggenrola nodded and stood back up straight, waddling over to Niko. "Alright, let's give it a try. Charlotte and Smeargle are going to help us out, alright?" Roggenrola gave his approval, albeit not looking entirely up to the task.
"Smeargle, let's do this!" Charlotte said, appearing with the Painter Pokémon on the opposite end of the battlefield. "Use hex!"
Smeargle conjured a purple and black sphere with a red eye in the middle and launched it at Roggenrola, who countered with a rock blast. The two attacks collided in the middle of the field, forcing the hex attack to dissipate and the rock blast to shatter into dozens of smaller pieces. Niko then commanded Roggenrola to use smack down.
However, instead of using the attack, Roggenrola shot out another rock blast, which slammed into Smeargle's chest and launched her backwards, knocking her onto her back. At the revelation that he couldn't successfully use the attack, Roggenrola threw a second temper tantrum, running wildly into the wall behind Niko once more, slamming his head into the wall once more, repeating this process multiple times. Eventually, Niko returned Roggenrola to his pokéball so that the Mantle Pokémon couldn't do any more damage, either to himself or the environment around him. Letting out a heavy sigh, Niko walked back into the Pokémon Center to heal up Roggenrola and his other Pokémon, with Warren and Charlotte closely following by.
"I just don't know what he's getting wrong!" Niko said, lightly slamming a fist on the table. "Why can't we figure this out? Don't Roggenrola normally learn smack down?" He asked, posing the question to Charlotte.
"I believe so…but I don't know why he can't figure it out." She said with a nervous shrug. "I just hope he'll be alright. It doesn't look like he's in a good mental state right now."
"He probably just hasn't experienced failure." Warren said sympathetically. "I'm sure Roggenrola is going to fine."
"I hope so…" Niko said, thinking back to the other times where he had to deal with a Pokémon's lack of confidence. In many ways these moments reminded him of himself. He had given up because he lost confidence in himself, and he ultimately ended up hurting others in the process. However, he never quite understood how to help others facing the same problems.
Later, Niko and his friends had gone to bed. Since leaving Castelia City, Niko had gotten back into the habit of letting his Pokémon sleep outside of their pokéball. Servine was laying on his bed; Rufflet was perched atop the bed; Solosis was hovering a foot or two above the bed; and Roggenrola lay against the leg of a chair.
But that night in particular, Roggenrola had difficulty sleeping, and eventually woke up. After having a little difficulty getting onto his feet, he started to waddle away from Niko's bed at the far end of the Pokémon Center's room and towards the door. However, he couldn't figure out how to leave the room without blowing a massive hole in the door, which would inevitably wake up his trainer and their other friends.
As Roggenrola was about to give up and try and fall asleep, he noticed Solosis floating there in front of him, which initially scared him. The Mantle Pokémon leapt backwards out of fright. The Cell Pokémon then gargled quietly before using her psychic powers to open the door and let Roggenrola out. Solosis then followed him down the hallway and out onto the practice battlefield, closing the door to the room on their way out. No one had any idea they were gone.
Roggenrola stepped out onto the field, hearing Solosis moving through the air around him. He focused his energy on one specific target—directly in front of him—and fired off a rock.
It was another rock blast.
Roggenrola stomped the ground angrily before seeing images in his mind's eye from Solosis. These images showed another rock type Pokémon—it looked like Roggenrola, but much larger—using a glowing metallic gold orb of energy and launching it at its opponent, knocking it to the ground before using another attack to finish them off. Presumably, Roggenrola thought, these were memories from Solosis. That's when he understood.
He focused once again, this time on the images Solosis provided him. He then did everything he could to conjure the glowing gold orb, but only barely created small gold sparks before the attack dissipated into thin air. Roggenrola felt despair, but continued on all the same. He repeated the move a dozen more times before finally creating and holding the golden orb directly in front of his ear for several seconds. However, actually launching the attack took more effort, but Roggenrola was determined. Using up all of his energy, he shot the golden orb directly in front of him, suddenly hearing a pained gargling sound. Solosis had taken the hit from smack down, and fell to the ground just as the gold orb exploded upon contact. Roggenrola quickly wobbled over to Solosis to make sure his teammate was alright. As it turned out, Solosis felt fine, but didn't expect the attack to work as well as it did. Feeling better again, Roggenrola leapt an inch into the air with joy.
As soon as he landed, Roggenrola began to glow a bright white color.
Niko woke up to Charlotte's loud gasp, and Warren shaking him. Opening his sleepy eyes, he looked over his bed to see an unfamiliar Pokémon sitting there.
"Oh geez, what the hell?" Niko said. The new Pokémon was blue and made entirely of rock. There was an array of red crystals on its back and front, and a spine protruding from between its yellow ears. Rocky chunks at its sides comprise pincer-like limbs, tipped with red crystals similar to the ones on its back. He pulled out his pokédex:
"Boldore, the Ore Pokémon. Rock type. When it is healthy, its core sticks out. Always facing the same way, it swiftly moves front to back and left to right."
"Wait a second…Roggenrola, is that you…?" Niko asked, now sitting up on the edge of his bed. The Boldore nodded proudly, and began waddling across the room and out into the hallway. Niko then frantically got dressed into his travelling clothes and ran off to catch up to Boldore, with Warren and Charlotte following closely behind.
Niko found Boldore standing in the middle of the practice battlefield. Once he and his Pokémon showed up to watch, Boldore then faced in a different direction. Niko noticed a glowing gold orb show up in front of the Ore Pokémon, and once it got to nearly a foot in diameter, Boldore launched it across the battlefield, exploding upon contact with part of the wall separating the battlefield from the rest of Driftveil City.
"Boldore…you figured it out!?" Niko said, rushing onto the battlefield to congratulate his Pokémon. "How'd you do it?" Boldore turned to Solosis, who was hovering to the Pokémon's right. When Niko noticed this, he simply smiled and then hugged Boldore and thanked Solosis. "Well then…guess we're ready to take on the Driftveil City Gym, right guys?" He said, looking at all four of his Pokémon. They all cheered excitedly.
"Think Niko can win this one?" Warren asked Charlotte as he usually did.
"Of course he can. With Boldore and the others, I don't think he can lose." She said confidently.