Hilda's parents were reproachful about letting her travel the world and follow every lead she possibly could in order to find someone who had more or less dropped off the face of the Earth.
Reproachful was probably an understatement, but Unovans knew where their region had come from and who had fought to make it what it was. A culture couldn't venerate Truth and Ideals without recognizing their patrons. The fire that wouldn't go out in Hilda's eyes had made a very strong argument.
She wasn't going to leave the region immediately, since Hilbert could still possibly be in Unova, but she was going to leave them behind in Nuvema Town.
Bianca and Cheren, after her parents had said their goodbyes, were there to see her off. The former was wearing a typical smile, though the skin around her eyes was tense with worry, while the latter was trying to help her get prepared.
"You have everything packed?" Cheren asked. The young man had an issue with prompting for his answers rather than demanding them.
"Yup," Hilda said, adjusting her bag.
"And you really need to go?" Bianca asked.
"You know it. The Truth is out there," she said, striking her chest with her thumb. "It's gotta be me who finds it. And when I do, I'll bring that dumbass home."
"When will that happen?"
Hilda looked away. "I don't know. It could take days, months, or years, but it's out there. It's gotta be. I have to trust that it is even if I can't see it."
"And we'll have to trust that too," Cheren said, not without some bite.
"It's the Truth," she said, squaring her shoulders. "It's one of those things where you've gotta believe in what you can't see or what you can't be sure of. Can't be sure 'til you find it."
"What if," Bianca said, staring at the ground and trying not to pout, "What if you never do?"
Hilda's irises, once brown, were set ablaze like coal.
"Of course I will," she challenged, "Just who in the hell do you think I am?"
The Lights in the Sky Are Thunderbolts - XVIII - Where I Belong
"We're training to kill that thing," Hilbert immediately established at their next training session on the outskirts. "I've seen it in my dreams. If we're not strong enough to stop it, then we're not strong enough to stop what else is coming."
He'd gotten the TMs he requested from Rowan in by air mail with good speed, though they came with a note he couldn't read. He trusted Cheryl to read it to him and it said that Rowan obtained them in a bet with Professor Birch.
Whoever that was.
The thing about TMs is that they gave the basic framework of the move, but they could still be improved on from there, which was why he had whipped himself into a frenzy about training.
Because he had developed Communion, he was easily able to convey what exactly he saw and felt to each of his Pokémon.
Well, not all of them. Sinistea would be traumatized and Shuppet was too family friendly to take it well. Machamp was on board from the outset, Fuego would get a kick out of it like Captain Ahab, and Drifloon…
Well, frankly, Drifloon was starting to piss him off.
It wasn't that they were quiet. They were literally made of hot air, it was probably better that they didn't speak. It wasn't anything corny like "not acting like part of the team," or "acting like you're too good to be here."
Actually, it may have been that last one, Hilbert considered.
Simply put, the Flying-type was not at all invested in traveling, learning, growing, or anything in particular. For that one moment above Floaroma, they had understood his ideals, but after…
After he failed, they never seemed to get back up. Spirits could be depressed, that could even be the reason they stuck around, but that wasn't what was happening. As they did in Eterna Forest, they usually floated off to meditate and train their general spiritual energy, which would be helpful, but it wasn't what Hilbert asked.
Drifloon needed to be able to recover after taking damage, to take flight in an emergency, to help other people. That's what their species excelled at.
They were instead training themselves to be a demigod like the Wind.
The Wind got people killed.
Hilbert didn't like them very much.
"Oi, Drifloon," Hilbert said, deciding that, screw it, he wouldn't hold back his temper.
The Flying-type rotated towards him, swinging their arms around.
"I asked you to train your conversion abilities," he said.
It nodded.
"I can see your spirit, y'know. I get that increasing your generalized pool of energy is handy, but being able to convert ambient energy in a pinch will be a lot more helpful."
Drifloon drifted back and forth in the wind.
"Alright, put 'em up."
"Loon?" it breathed like a whistle.
"Put 'em up. Get ready to rumble. Shuppet, come over here," Hilbert called.
The four plushies quickly came to attention, lining up before saluting (though Pouty was attempting to put a finger gun to their head).
"Beat their ass," he said, pointing at Drifloon. "Use energy-based attacks until they learn how to take in that energy and stockpile it."
"Loon!" Drifloon whistled angrily.
"No, you listen here," Hilbert said with a glare. "You know what I've seen, and I know that you were given all of your guidance by the Wind, but that's not all there is in the world. There's stuff you haven't even thought of going up against! Work with me here."
Drifloon made an angry face before floating backwards and facing Shuppet.
"You can't learn anything if you think you already know everything," Hilbert said. "We can stop… we can stop Floaroma from happening again, I know you have the strength to help. You have a stake in this whether you know it or not. I just need you to work with me."
"Drif, drif," they replied, sounding indifferent but shifting the currents of spirit energy that surrounded them.
Hilbert's brow furrowed.
It would have to be a work in progress.
Hilbert, despite knowing jack shit about meditation, decided to take a few minutes to meditate back in the motel room in order to gather his thoughts.
He sat with his legs crossed in the center of his bed, hands resting on his knees while trying to sit as straight and still as possible.
It was not going very well for him.
The sight of the spirits beneath Sinnoh had been burned into the back of his eyelids. He saw the flame that could make enough steam to fill an entire region, the colossal Pokémon that could wipe out a town with a wave of its flipper, and the remains of something that dozens of cities and hundreds of thousands of people and rested on.
The worst part was that he was certain that wasn't the worst that would come.
He was also really quite bad at sitting still. Like, put a gun to his head and tell him not to move for ten seconds, you would shoot him at a count of three.
Maybe he needed to see a psychiatrist, he thought.
Nah. Even if there was a conspiracy that spanned the entirety of Sinnoh that understood the kind of dreams he'd been having, he sort of doubted that they could help if he got locked up for being a danger to himself and others.
Hilbert, despite actually being rather intelligent, could be legitimately stupid at times. It came with the territory of being a teenager lacking in about three years of real world experience.
"Excuse me, um, Kuroiwa," he heard Cheryl say.
His eyes snapped open as he turned towards her.
She had been scribbling in a notebook while running her hand over Chansey's head.
"Yeah?"
"Is it… normal for you to start flickering with electricity when you meditate?"
Hilbert blinked, looked at the back of his hand, and saw a bolt of lightning leap off his skin before grounding itself in his spirit once again.
"No," Hilbert said decisively. "I shouldn't be doing that unless I'm trying to channel my patron." He raised his hand and looked under it, just to be sure. "Weird."
"Ah," she said. "Are you feeling stressed?"
Was he? He knew from the moment he'd woken up in the hospital what he had to do. Seeing one of the threats in-person only kicked him back into overdrive.
For what was probably the millionth time since he came to Sinnoh, he wished he had just a bit of Bianca's emotional intelligence.
"I dunno," he admitted. "I've had a few bad dreams recently." He didn't want to burden her with the knowledge that the world might end before she got to see it. He'd avoided that with most people so far, though the Underground Man was able to hit the nail on the head.
"I'd thought so," she said. "You've been having night terrors."
He winced. "Do they wake you up?"
Cheryl shrugged. "Well, sometimes, but that's not something you can help. Are you taking any medicines for it?"
"Medication doesn't really work for me," he admitted. "I used to take them when I was a kid to focus, but I haven't recently."
"You've been having nightmares for that long?" she said with pity clear in her voice.
"Huh? Nah, nah, not like that," he clarified, trying not to let his discomfort show. People being more invested in him than he was made him feel awkward. "The nightmares are a more recent development. Maybe it's something in the water."
"Perhaps you need a break? You've been quite active. Is that normal for you?"
It was true that he usually left early and came back to the motel late at night, soaked in sweat, but he hadn't thought she noticed. He was a Pokémon trainer, that kind of schedule was completely normal.
That being said, he was sparking with lightning because of how laser-focused he was on his ideals.
"It's pretty normal, but I think you're right," he said, conceding and slumping a bit.
"My grandfather always said that when on an adventure, it's important to set a steady pace!" she declared, pumping her fist. "If you push yourself too hard one day, you might exhaust yourself and fall behind the next."
"I'll keep that in mind," Hilbert agreed.
He did keep it in mind, too, which was why he decided to take a couple of hours off to go on the Galactic Industries tour and maybe look around town again.
The building had an oppressive atmosphere, meaning it oppressed him by existing. Or not. The problem was that it was just an ugly building. Modern architects seemed to care more about being controversial, stunning and brave rather than making decent looking buildings.
How to put this lightly… the damn thing had spikes on it. Sure, they were cantilevers, counterbalances, or whatever, but they were still spikes. The rest of the building was a shade of blue so dark it probably had to be repainted weekly from how quickly it would fade. There were only windows on every other floor and it distracted Hilbert so much he couldn't actually count how many floors there were without cheating with Golett.
It was a small-ish tour group, which was nice enough. Most of them were prospective employees by the look of things. Engineers, electricians, philosophy majors for some reason…
The tour leader was a red-haired woman who seemed, like, really into the whole PR thing. Hilbert understood that companies had to look good for the public, but at a point, you've got to admit that the emperor has no clothes and get on with it.
"Galactic Industries, following the merger with Galar's Macros Cosmos, will lead Sinnoh into a brighter age of energy production and bring greater meaning to life in the region," she said as they passed by another set of cubicles. "We do hope that you find employment opportunities as we continue through our tour."
Hilbert glanced upwards and furrowed his brow. They were on the seventeenth floor, weren't they? They'd taken the industrial size elevator to arrive on the current floor, and it didn't seem to go any higher than that.
That begged the question, then; why could he see so many spirits above him? A few would be normal if they were just Flying-types, maybe a Bug-type or two, but when he looked up, he saw so many different typings and more than a few human spirits between them.
He felt one of the Pokémon cry out as their spirit condensed and then exploded outwards in a burst, before solidifying into a new form. Had that been an evolution?
"This is the top floor, right?" Hilbert asked.
"Hm?" the leader asked. "Yes, you in the back?"
Hilbert tugged at his jacket as the group's attention turned towards him. "Is there an eighteenth floor?"
He felt the spirit shimmer through the air as they cried out in pain but quickly grew quiet. Hilbert winced.
"There is no eighteenth floor," the tour guide said, using the classic secretarial smile. "Don't be silly."
"Ah," Hilbert said, glancing up at the spirits again. "I see. My bad, then."
Definitely calling the cops, Hilbert thought.
He decided to ditch the tour early, citing wellness concerns. After realizing that just a call wouldn't suffice, he went back to the motel, spent an hour or so translating the anonymous tip into Sinjohan-Japanese, then scribbled it on a letter before leaving it in the Eterna police department's mailbox.
He wasn't exactly sure what had been going on in that building, but he didn't like it. That they were being secretive about it made him dislike it even more. He had seen a few scientists around the research and development floors, so maybe Golett had decided that there was something inherently wrong with the place.
His heart pulsed.
Okay, that wasn't true, the concern was entirely legitimate. That being said, he couldn't just start busting down walls or letting himself into places on his own.
That… that was what made Floaroma happen.
"Damn," he muttered, clenching his fist.
He couldn't catch a break even when he tried, could he?
The day had come, and the tunnel was dark. It was a dimly lit corridor surrounded by concrete that ended in a lift. Each of Hilbert's steps echoed down the hall while he gathered his thoughts.
His hands twitched towards the three Pokéballs that held his frontrunners.
Opening as usual and using their new technique, they would be able to set up for the rest of the battle and hopefully clear Gardenia's first Pokémon. After that, it was anyone's guess.
It was a plan. Not a particularly good or detailed one, but it was a plan.
He willed his ideals into his body and pushed Sinnoh's influence away. The spirit was never intrusive, but it tended to sink into everything that was on its back.
Hilbert had to use his own strength, the strength of his Pokémon. That was the point. Winning was a means to an end.
Cheryl was a nice enough person. If this was what it took to help her find home, then he would try his best.
A distant, bitter part of himself thought that there ought to have been someone else to take care of it if it had been such an issue for so many years.
He reasoned that if they did run into someone who should have acted but didn't, then they could get angry, but right before a gym battle wasn't the time.
He stepped onto the weighted elevator. A hatch above him that looked about the size of a rectangle between his fingers began sliding open, allowing lights and sounds to drown out his other senses. With a ker-chunk, the elevator began moving upwards.
Hilbert unzipped his jacket before crossing his arms. Thin as it was, it blew around as the greenhouse's natural heat overtook the air conditioning.
The arena was much like Oreburgh's in form, though not in construction. Though the fighting area and the stands were pretty much the same, though accented with green, the walls behind them and the ceiling were made of an uncountable number of glass panes. As the elevator began slowing to a stop, he saw the roof begin sliding open, allowing clouded, muted sunlight to flood into the gym along with the slight chill of spring's approach.
There had been an announcer, though he had to wait until Gardenia issued the challenge herself to get a clue.
"You heard 'em, Kuroiwa!" Gardenia declared, holding up a Pokéball. "Three on three, normal rules. We've got a great audience today, so remember what I said! No holding back!"
Hilbert averted his gaze, knowing full well that was exactly what he was doing, but nodded and reached for his first pick.
Sinistea appeared above a field of sod and loam. Tied to a string, a tub of medicinal cream hung from their handle.
Gardenia used her hand as a visor and made a show of looking across the field. "Kuroiwa… why are you using IcyHot as a held item? I don't think that's regulation."
"It's a legitimate strategy!" Hilbert said hotly. "I checked." It could be considered a battle item under the current definitions.
"Oh. Well, then it's patent infringement."
"Are you being serious right now?" Hilbert asked, somewhat dumbfounded.
"Nah," she said, before taking a firm grip of her Pokéball. "Here we go! Let's get it started, Cherrim!"
After the blast of light subsided, a Pokémon cloaked in big purple leaves appeared, looking almost like a hanging eggplant as they hid themselves.
Hilbert put himself on his guard. "Sinistea, be careful. Don't use your item yet."
He was confident that the Pokémon had enough to last the entire battle, but it wasn't a sure thing and he was certain that Gardenia was taking this as seriously as he was.
Because he was. He just had a weird way of showing it.
Gardenia pointed at the sky. "Cherrim, get the vitamin D pumping and use Sunny Day!"
Hilbert saw the Grass-type's spirit swirl towards their stem before it consolidated into a singular point of Fire TE. An orange beam shot into the clouds, pushing the clouds away.
Heat flooded into the gym as if it were built in the savanna. Hilbert could already feel sweat beginning to form around his collar.
As sunlight beat down, Cherrim's leaves began to swirl open and shrink, revealing a peppy yellow biped who had dozens of pink petals covering their form.
Hilbert's eyes snapped wide open, his stare becoming even more intense.
"Now, Sinistea!"
With an amplified warble, Sinistea spun the top off like a poltergeist and pulled the entire tub into their cup. The cream dissolved completely, and Sinistea's liquid became almost as thick. The Ghost-type snapped the string that held the item fast and threw it to the side.
"Icicle Spear!"
The Ice-type energy dwelling in Sinistea exploded outwards, covering half of the field in frost as particles of icy blue light began forming and growing around them.
"Don't let the attack land, Cherrim! Use Petal Blizzard to intercept!" Gardenia yelled.
Cherrim cheered and the petals that covered their body began flecking off and multiplying, swirling around their body and kicking up into a storm.
"Switch into Stealth Hailstones!" Hilbert called before Sinistea could finish the attack.
Sinistea's spirit pulsed in understanding, and their reserves of Ghost TE began expanding to accompany the shards of ice. The former would keep the latter floating in the air and field their freezing properties even after they finished growing. In theory, they would stick around for a time even after he recalled Sinistea.
Gardenia, to her credit, didn't let this throw her off balance. "Knock those knock-off Stealth Rocks right out of the air, Cherrim!"
The petals surrounding the Grass-type suddenly swirled outwards, becoming like a hurricane of leaves as they swiped through Sinistea's set up. Most petals were shredded but others managed to knock a few icicles from the air.
Hilbert watched the flow of Cherrim's attacks and focused.
"They're a long range attacker, Sinistea! Get in close while using Withdraw!"
Sinistea bobbed in the air before swooping down and speeding along the arena floor, creating water which flash froze in the shape of a shield and leaving a trail of frost behind them.
"Break through with Solar Beam!"
Cherrim began funneling in the natural heat of the sky, converting it into Fire TE and then using it to fuel the orb of Grass TE that formed at the crest of their forehead.
Hilbert's brow furrowed. They'd quickly learned that Pressure Valve wouldn't work while Sinistea was running on Ice TE, so they'd had to work off alternatives.
"Icicle Crash!"
Cherrim cheer became harsher and feverish as the Solar Beam began filling out into its final form.
Sinistea cloaked themself in a ball of ice and type energy like a comet.
The air burned.
Hilbert's ears rang for a moment as the Solar Beam exploded outwards and washed over Sinistea before crashing against the barrier behind and above him, then fading back into light as it dispersed along the Psychic-type barrier.
He could feel the stress in the spirit of the Kadabra on the sideline, who was struggling to distribute the force and keep it up.
It took until the beam faded for him to see that it had gone off course, and that Cherrim had been sent tumbling across the ground.
Sinistea rose shakily, the thin layer of ice covering their teacup steaming.
Cherrim immediately rolled back to their feet, sluggish as they were with a similar layer of frost covering their body.
"Again!" Gardenia commanded.
Hilbert resisted the urge to check his Pokétch for the time. The first stage of the item's effect could wear off at any moment.
Cherrim slowly began gathering more energy. The Fire TE helped thaw them, but they were still slower than they had been at first. The Sunny Day wasn't doing much to accelerate the process.
"Stealth Hailstones all around them and dodge high!" Hilbert called.
Sinistea slung a scatter shot of icicles towards Cherrim before rapidly trying to float above its head.
"You're not getting away that easily!" Gardenia yelled.
Proving her point, Solar Beam's charging point danced around Cherrim's body before resting between the petals on their head, pointing almost straight up.
Hilbert flinched and shouted, "Withdraw and Icicle Crash, again!"
Sinistea began gathering water, but it suddenly burst into steam.
His eyes widened before a grin came to his face. "You know what IcyHot does, right?" Hilbert said. "It starts cold. Then…"
The ice surrounding Cherrim exploded into a blazing inferno. Instantly, the previously frosty sod across the arena was scorched and blackened by the Ice TE's shift to Fire. Each of the floating hailstones burst into flames as they began burning like candles dipped in oil.
Cherrim's focus wavered and the Solar Beam exploded into leaf-shaped bits of Grass TE that harmlessly fell to the ground and were incinerated by the lingering heat.
"It gets hot," he finished, watching Sinistea's secondary type switch from ice to fire in an instant. "Use Will-O-Wisp!"
A stream of individual purple flames poured out from over Sinistea's lip and stretched across the arena.
Cherrim dodged through the fire that lined the sod, as if able to ignore the pain of flames running up their body. That alone proved how far Gardenia pushed her Pokémon, and that despite its small stature, Cherrim still needed to be taken seriously.
Sinistea sent more Will-O-Wisps after them and while Cherrim was able to dodge most, the tiny flames lingered and simply floated in the air like the burning hailstones that already covered the arena.
"Try one more time, Cherrim!"
The Grass-type tried to gather more sunlight, but they weren't able to dodge as unpredictably. The orb that they were able to gather exploded in their face as the wisps made contact with the raw Grass TE.
Cherrim was thrown across the field again, scorched and still burning in some places.
Sinistea cautiously floated away, still facing it but approaching Hilbert's side of the field.
It tried to rouse itself and stand again, but fell on its face in a thankfully untouched patch of dirt.
Gardenia recalled her first Pokémon and grinned. "Good one, Kuroiwa! You're pretty skilled for a rookie, but you're going to have to do better than that."
Hilbert was pretty sure she was playing up the stakes of the battle for entertainment value. Or to impress someone. There didn't seem to be that many people in the audience. Maybe someone she liked was visiting? Roark?
Nah, not Roark. The guy wore glasses, the only way he could have less charisma was if he was Cheren.
He supposed it could have been a Bianca situation as well.
His heart pulsed like a slap upside the head.
Focus, focus, I know, Hilbert thought.
"I'm a quick learner," he declared. "And, y'know, I've got stuff to do."
Her grin stretched. "Do ya? Well, I'll hurry things up, then! Come on out, Torterra!"
The earth shook as the final evolutionary form of Turtwig touched down with its full weight. Each of its legs were as thick as tree trunks, and it seemed to carry a section of Eterna Forest on its back with ease. For a moment, he thought he saw something flitting about between branches of the tree that had grown along with the large Pokémon.
And man, was it weird for him to describe a Pokémon that could likely eat him in a sitting as merely large instead of titanic.
But, well, he'd seen titans. It was hard to come down from that pulse-pounding high and think anything else could still compare.
Preconscious thought came before anything else, however. It was a Ground-type, Hilbert instantly recognized.
"I'm retiring Sinistea." There wasn't anything else that the teacup Pokémon could do, and they had visibly exhausted themselves by using so much TE in quick succession.
Gardenia's grin only widened. "Naturally."
Torterra snorted as Sinistea dissolved into red light and shrank back into their Pokéball, like they were amused by his concession.
His face nearly went blank, but he managed to reel the stab of anger back in as he reached for his second Pokémon.
Machamp appeared from their Pokéball rather than from thin air. It was necessary if they wanted to be able to battle with the items that they had brought.
Already formed, Machamp's fists floated around while wrapped with heavy metal and cloth.
"Kuroiwa!" Gardenia suddenly shrieked, "Are those friggin' training weights?"
"It's the only way they're willing to battle," Hilbert replied. "They might accidentally kill something otherwise."
"Yeah? Let's test that theory!" she snarled. "Torterra, use Frenzy Plant!"
The Continent Pokémon roared with a deep, grumbling drone, before planting their feet. The tree on their back unfurled and split into a hundred vines, each of them stabbing into the arena's floor.
The earth shook.
Thick roots as wide as Hilbert exploded out of the ground all around the arena, immediately towering over Machamp before they twisted together to catch them in their grasp.
Hilbert could feel the split second where anger radiated out of Machamp. He shivered.
Machamp's torso dissolved, while his fists flew between what little space there was left before the vines, now in a completed cage, raised slightly and then slammed into the ground.
Hilbert wasn't thrown from his feet, but it was a close call.
After the rolling boom subsided, Machamp was floating over the mesh of vines and no worse for wear.
Torterra snorted and tapped its foot against the ground as if they were about to charge like a Bouffalant.
"Knock 'em out of the sky, Torterra! Stone Edge!"
Torterra raised its foot again and slammed it down, making the floor around it ripple like water. Where the ripple approached Machamp and faded, the earth solidified into massive pillars and exploded towards Machamp, a dozen at a time.
Machamp rolled around the first, skimming along it with their fists. They punched away the second and third, shattering them even with the weights holding Machamp back. The fourth struck them right in the stomach, throwing their torso back before their fists flew around to take hold of it.
Machamp swung through the rest of the stone barrage with the pillar, cracking and shattering them before they threw it back towards Torterra.
"Wood Hammer!" Gardenia said quickly.
The tree on Torterra's back stretched and lengthened in its trunk before becoming pliable like a palm tree. It morphed into a solid, open-faced log before battering the chunk of stone to the side. Boulders and rocks scattered across the battered arena, with much of the grass having been uprooted or burned, while many of the still-burning Stealth Hailstones remained.
In its motion, one of Torterra's branches had caught fire. The Pokémon snorted and shuffled around, seeming more annoyed than pained.
"Ingrain!" Gardenia called. "Don't let them try to stall you!"
The tree unfolded into a hundred roots before planting in the ground around them, leaving gaps that were only a little bigger than Hilbert's head.
Machamp didn't retreat but didn't move closer either.
"Machamp," Hilbert said, "Use Vital Throw. They can take it."
The Fighting-type bowed its head and blurred into motion.
Torterra snorted and looked around, before its eyes widened and it tried to look down.
A root tore.
Astute observers would have noticed that Torterra's weight seemed to no longer be resting on their feet.
Another root snapped under the tension. Another.
Torterra let out a dull, whining drone as they were lifted into the air beneath their shell. For the first time since they were a Turtwig, years and years ago, they felt the sensation of flight.
More and more of their roots snapped.
Machamp's fists became visible as they continued forcing Torterra high into the air, almost as high as the gym's ceiling.
Hilbert looked at Gardenia flatly.
She didn't say anything, only staring up in annoyance.
"They can take it," Hilbert agreed, "Drop 'em."
Machamp, with a final heave, lifted Torterra above their spectral head and threw them into the arena floor.
For a couple of seconds, you could hear nothing but the Starly chirping outside and the whoosh of air.
Hilbert was thrown from his feet this time, as Torterra hit the ground on their side and cratered the earth beneath them. Its tree was bent and many branches had been snapped and scattered, but the trunk itself was still intact.
He watched Gardenia pull herself up as he did the same and recalled Torterra.
Machamp's fists flew towards him and waved in front of his face.
He looked across the field, where among broken roots were the scraps of the weights he had previously tied to the spirit.
Hilbert shrugged. "Alright, you're good."
Machamp nodded before scattering their spirit to the wind.
Gardenia glared across the field at him. "You're serious? They can't battle without limiters?"
"Won't," Hilbert clarified. "Not in official battles, anyway. And I'm not going to force them unless lives are on the line."
Gardenia shook her head. "If you say so. Well, ready for the final stretch?"
Hilbert held up one final Pokéball. "Naturally," he echoed.
Fuego appeared on the field with a wave of heat. The fires that had previously burnt out were reignited, and the dying Stealth Hailstones brightened with renewed vigor.
Beneath the extreme sunlight and behind Fuego's near uncontrollable heat, he felt more like he was in an oven than a Pokémon gym.
The Fire-type spirit flicked their blades, which burned indigo like the rest of their body. Fuego's ability, Light of the Mind, hadn't activated; they were still relying on Hilbert to regulate their energy and communicate, which proved much more difficult when they became Psychic-type and more independent.
"Kuroiwa!" Gardenia shrieked. "I know for a fact that isn't your ace! Are you playing games with me? What gives?"
"My apologies for not bringing a Ground-type to a battle with a Grass-type specialist," Hilbert said dryly, though his gaze remained intense and his shoulders slightly hunched.
"You think that- Agh, fine!" she yelled, before throwing out a Pokéball. "Roserade, let's turn it around!"
The Pokémon that appeared was green, with a white flower mimicking hair, a dark green domino mask, and red and blue roses instead of hands. It immediately raised one of its arms and pointed it at Fuego.
"Start off with Rain Dance!"
Roserade began dancing and radiating an intense amount of Water TE which seemed to evaporate and shoot skyward. He'd seen less energy in attacks coming from actual Water-types.
Hilbert's brow furrowed as he kicked himself mentally. Rain would weaken the power of fire, of course, but he hadn't expected that turnaround. From the research he did, she often used Sunny Day in most gym battles so she could set up a Solar Beam and Solar Blade with her later Pokémon.
The fierce sunlight pouring in from the sky faded, and seconds later, Hilbert began feeling the first rain drops fleck against his face.
Though the audience was shielded from the sudden downpour, Hilbert wasn't and quickly began feeling rain soak into his hair.
The fire that had remained on the field from Sinistea's attack was finally extinguished. The sky seemed to turn a blackish-gray as water began pooling on the field, covering it in puddles where it couldn't soak into the earth. It reminded him of the island in his heart.
Black talons flashed across his vision in his mind's eye.
Hilbert shivered. Tiny bolts of lightning danced across his vision.
"Careful, Fuego," Hilbert said, refocusing, "We don't have the advantage anymore."
Fuego nodded, sputtering before flaring up again.
"Ooh, tough guy!" Gardenia called. "A Fire-type that can take Roserade's rain! Wouldn't be the first time, but I'm glad to see you're up to snuff, Kuroiwa. Are you ready?"
Hilbert leaned in further, allowing a small smile to come to his face. "Damn right I am. Flare Blitz!"
"Switch into Petal Dance!"
Fuego exploded forwards, leaving dry dirt behind as they charged towards Roserade with their blades glowing like suns.
They slashed towards the Grass-type, who leaned beneath the first swipe and left over the second before a burst of petals exploded from each step.
Hilbert felt the spirit's frustration as they continued trying to cut through the Grass-type but was unable to before it danced out of the way.
He paled when he realized that, no, his mind wasn't playing tricks on him; Roserade was getting faster.
Fuego jumped away after a hundred unsuccessful strikes, trying to analyze the opponent from a distance.
Roserade held out their flowers in an 'en garde' gesture.
The petals that they'd left behind swirled towards them and dissolved back into TE before coating their body like armor.
Roserade then disappeared.
Fuego was slashed just below the speed of sound, cutting into their armor seemingly a hundred times in as many milliseconds.
The Fire-type jumped back and flared up to push Roserade back.
The Grass-type reappeared from a blur in front of Gardenia, twirling Leaf Blades around their roses before righting it between the petals and holding it like an extension of their arms.
Hilbert saw petals grow from the blade and flow back into Roserade before his eyes widened.
Petal Dance made its user more powerful by reintegrating their TE after expelling it, while Leaf Blade was for sheer attacking power. Had Gardenia worked out how to combine the moves and make her Pokémon gain more momentum?
Fuego flickered beneath the rain, their platinum armor scratched and dented.
Roserade blurred into motion again, disappearing from his vision as the entire arena became cloaked in Grass TE.
No, that wasn't it. Roserade was just moving so fast that it seemed simultaneous.
They couldn't keep Roserade back forever. The rain would put out Fuego's fire before Roserade tired, and if Roserade powered up to the point they could brute force the flames, it was over.
Fuego, through their spiritual connection, seemed to sense this. They dulled the orb of fire and heat they were emanating and awaited Hilbert's thoughts.
The boy's brow was furrowed enough that he could barely see through his normal vision.
Though, maybe, he needed to stop relying on what he could see and start relying on what he couldn't.
He took a deep breath and took in the sound of rain falling as Roserade slashed at Fuego again, blowing away the fire with their strike like a bladed hurricane.
This was exactly the sort of situation he'd prepared for. The technical machine from Professor Rowan had been low quality, but they'd been able to work on it. The problem was that while they did, Fuego needed to activate their ability and cut themselves off from Hilbert's aid.
Hilbert threw open the doors of his heart to the storm and raised his voice.
"FUEGO!"
Their fires flared up, readying themselves for what would come next even as Roserade began cutting straight through their armor.
"We're only halfway to forever!" Hilbert shouted. "You'll have to do it on your own from here! But that's fine!"
His eyes crackled with electricity. The air in the arena seemed to buzz like they were in the middle of the storm.
"With your flames, burn your legacy into the records of Heaven!"
Fuego's flames rolled outwards, sending up jets of steam and pushing Roserade back, if only for a brief moment. The Grass-type began scattering petals around them, only growing stronger as they retreated.
"Believe in the me…"
Beneath a blackened sky and sheets of rain, thunder boomed.
"...that believes in you!"
In a flash of light, lightning struck Fuego from above with an ear-splitting crack.
Their fire flared up, pouring outwards, and for a brief second, it was as if they could burn away the sky itself. Steam poured upwards as mud was turned into dirt and then partially into glass.
Fuego's flames shifted in an instant from a deep violet to a scalding scarlet, burning so brightly that they seemed to lose all color. The Light of the Mind had taken hold, and though disconnected in spirit, they shared something greater.
"Trick Room!" Hilbert shouted with all of his being.
Hilbert couldn't do anything else as Fuego stared down the blurring mass of petals ahead of him, waiting. With their spiritual connection weakened, the only thing that connected them was their ideals. He'd done everything he could for the Fire-type and at that point, he had to let Fuego do everything they could on their own and build their own legacy.
For a brief moment, he felt doubt. Could they make it without his help?
Petals danced through the air before being cut in half. Blades of Grass TE flashed in and out of Hilbert's vision. Roserade only appeared between blinks.
Suddenly, Fuego boomed like a flashpoint explosion and froze a subsection of the arena in what looked like magenta ice.
Solid sheets of air slammed into place all at once with a clang. Floating dust fell to the ground like meteorites and petals sank like they were made of stone.
Roserade was trapped between split seconds and seemed to be entirely still, boxed within the Trick Room that was as thin as their body. Incredible speed was inverted to near complete stillness.
A grin split Hilbert's face, an honest one, not the kind he usually put on for others. "Alright!" Hilbert cheered. "Are you ready, Fuego?"
Though Psychic-type, communication could only so far. They were better with communicating through senses rather than abstractions, at least to the psychically uninitiated.
Hilbert, however, had a little bit of an experience in communing with those that no one else could understand. He felt Fuego latch onto his mind.
"Damn right I am," they echoed with his voice.
"Then let's do this!" he shouted. Hilbert clenched his fist in front of him as if he were grabbing a thunderbolt.
"This…"
Fire began looping around one of Fuego' blades, growing many times longer than they were tall as they held it aloft and pointed it at the blackened sky. The flames spiraled and lengthened, remaining thick at the base as they seemed to sharpen to a point.
"This…" Fuego echoed in his mind.
The arena rippled with washed out pinkish waves. Air condensed. It seemed like the cone of fire at the end of Fuego's arm had become as thick as stone. The flames within it, theirs and theirs alone, glowed white like a dying star. Their armor seemed to unfold as it multiplied and wrapped around the blaze.
"...is a drill!"
With a sound like bells ringing throughout a church, gold-like scraps of metal snapped together and melted to form a spiral that ran from the drill's end to its tip.
"Finishing move!" Hilbert roared with his voice hoarse like crackling electricity.
Fuego raised both of their blades and melted them into one.
"Armor!"
Bits of dirt were shaken loose from the ground. Air swirled behind Fuego and made their flames burn even brighter as they began levitating just above the earth. Rain turned to steam before it could even touch the arena's floor.
Fuego pointed the drill towards Roserade.
"Cannon!"
When the drill began rotating faster than anything man-made could, it was impossible to distinguish what was solid and what was plasma. Indeed, it seemed to be spun of hardened fire and gaseous gold.
Blue lightning flickered in both of their eyes.
"BREAAAAAAK!"