As a reminder, you can find MORE of this on my SubStar (dot adult slash KajaWilder), it's posted up past chapter 60 there... And if you guys haven't seen an update in at least a week, please let me know! I have a busy life, and I get distracted and forget things. This story (and PTaL) are supposed to be updated WEEKLY from now until they're both caught up with each other (like I was doing with FwB until this weekend).

And if you're just interested in discussing things with other readers, of course, you can go to my DISCORD here: h- t_ t_ p-s -: -/ -/ -discord . g-g / N9yDA8t6Cw (taking out hyphens, underscores, and spaces of course).

Chap. 36: The Steelworks

Alex wiped sweat from his brow as he walked forward. He had two paths ahead from the starting door. The left side was lower, and had fewer Trainers visible, but there were more hazards in the outlined area. Moving vats full of molten metal, mine-carts, and sturdy, strong, bulky Pokémon moved around on their own, heedless of any other danger they might present to him. The upper, right-side path was full of Trainers, but relatively clear of hazards as far as he could tell. There were a few side-passages on both routes, leading into darkened corridors or sections beyond walls and even heavier machinery that he could not see past.

The way forward, he was sure, was on the far side of the steelworks floor. As Viridian's Underground Gym had, two or three Magnemite zoomed around him, no doubt recording his progress just in case it was interesting, while several more floated more sedately through the upper reaches of the smelting chamber, some ninety feet or more above his head.

He was ten or so steps in, and already he wanted to chug down the cool water from the bottle in his hand. "I thought Steel was weak against Fire," he muttered, "why's it so hot in here?"

Of course he knew the answer: It was precisely because Steel was weak against Fire. Or rather, Fire was good against Steel because it had a melting point. Much like Fire was good against nearly anything. If Fire wasn't solving your problems, an old adage went, you weren't using enough of it. He wasn't sure that was going to work here, though.
If the Steel-type Gym was this hot, no doubt every Pokémon on every Trainer's roster was used to it, and the Gym Leaders seemed to be more than capable of countering their most common weaknesses. He wasn't sure what that could be, but likely something. Water-Steel, or Ground-Steel seemed most likely, and he wasn't sure what he could use to counter either of those aside from Sappy, his Oddish, or his Remoiraid, Shooter. Both would be decent of course, and as he'd strategized with Elle what felt like months ago, he would be counting on them in general since this was a Gym he simply lacked several key Advantages against. In fact, he lacked the ability to even hurt most Steel-types with the primary type of his Starter.

For the first time, Alex cursed the fact that his Starter would not be getting his preferred type of Ground until his third evolution, if Cock even survived that long.

He put that train of thought to a standstill a moment later, though. His Nidoran was brave, strong, sturdy, and resolute. The Poison Pin Pokémon's personality matched his very well, and they were quite well suited for each other. This was one Gym. Yes, it was his second Gym and hopefully the first he had a real chance to win a Badge from, but it was just one Gym. There would be others. The Grass and Fairy Gyms, if he could find them, would be vulnerable to that same Poison typing. Psychic and Steel were all he really had to worry about until Cock gained the Ground-type with his third stage. So what was he really complaining about?

Nothing, Alex decided. At least, nothing important.

He scanned the two courses once more, before opting for the right. He could handle Trainers, but he wasn't sure he could survive getting whacked by one of the ten-ton or more cauldrons full of molten steel, or run over by a cart. It was insane that he'd read the instructions telling him to follow the golden-yellow lines moved directly through the dangerous paths of the cauldrons and carts. But there were fewer Trainers, and Alex knew he didn't need to worry about the small fry.

No... if anything, the vast majority of them would be nothing more than stepping stones. Minor inconveniences to his progress. At best, they would fuel it by giving him more experience fighting Steel-types, not one he'd come across a lot in the game so far, and give his team more experience in general.

So the combat route it was. His first opponent was a beefy young woman (Alex assumed, anyway, given the stocky appearance with some curves). She didn't say anything as he approached, only stopped tossing a red and white ball up in the air. She let it fall as he neared, and released one of the very Pokémon currently filming him. "Magnemite, huh? Alright, Electric-Steel, I can handle that. I'm just going to go down my roster, beginning with my Starter. Get ready, buddy."

He didn't want to name, or at least call out, his best and strongest Pokémon's name too early. There was a vague hope he could use it to distract Brigid Stirling, or perhaps some other young and attractive Trainer, but this one didn't exactly do it for him. And might've been a man, or close enough he didn't want to check.

The Trainer themselves frowned, "A Poison...? You should take us more seriously, dude."

"I'm not worried. Dig."

Cock didn't quite vanish into the steel and concrete walkway, but somehow he dodged the bolt of lightning the enemy Magnemite launched anyway. On his way up, several shards of the gray, solidified mud blasted toward the Magnemite, which flinched with its singular eye just before the Nidoran itself collided with it.

"Tch... fine," the Trainer growled as he- she?- withdrew their first Pokémon and sent out another. "Try again, if you can."

Alex's eyes narrowed. This Trainer was either stupid, or confident the next attack would fail. He didn't really want to find out why if it was the second but he couldn't think of a better tactic to try, so he ordered a repeat.

Only this time, the Magnemite lifted higher in the air, and the spray of gravel and Pokémon missed it entirely. A moment later, Cock shook and hissed as sparks of electricity danced over his spiny coat.

"Magnet Rise," the other Trainer chuckled, "Should've expected that. You won't be hitting me with Dig, or any other Ground move."

"Maybe not," Alex acknowledged with a nod, then threw his arm forward in a gesture he hoped looked more dramatic and commanding than ridiculously chūnibyō, "No reason to hide it, mate- knock that thing out with a Double Kick!"

Without having to try and burrow through steel and cement, his starter was much faster. The Magnemite was knocked into a wall by the first kick, and the follow-up a moment later left a circular crack in the wall as if something had hit it with a very hard hammer. The Magnemite squealed painfully as it sank to the ground, just as unconscious as the first one.

"Fine, fine," the girl muttered, then stepped aside and waved Alex on. "Go ahead... but be ready. You keep using all your good moves like that, and you'll get worn out way before you find the Overseer."

"Thanks for the heads up," Alex said with a nod as he stepped past, Cock falling into place beside him. He was a little hurt, no doubt. That lightning attack- Thunderbolt, he thought- couldn't have been pleasant, but he would survive. The Magnemite's Battle Rank couldn't have been higher than fifteen.

His next foe was an even younger boy, perhaps thirteen. Like the first, he had two Pokémon, this time a small quadraped with a helmet-like skull as large as the rest of its body named Aron, and another with a similar shape called a Shieldon. Both went down to Dig, though now Alex asked Cock to use it five times, and he was starting to get worn out already. The Shieldon, of course, had been blessed with the Ability Sturdy, so it had taken more than one hit to bring down. If Alex had thought about it, he would have stuck with something else for the finisher, like Horn Attack. It wouldn't have done much, but the Shieldon was already reeling from the super-effective Dig attack, so Alex was sure it would have finished him off.

The third was even easier in some ways, as there was just one Pokémon. Two gears, each with eyes and a small hole for a mouth, spun and rotated in time together, occasionally grinding to a halt or spinning in the other direction. But the Klink, a part-Fairy, was no more immune to Dig or Double-Kick than anything else. It was a little harder to hurt, since it wasn't weak against Cock's better moves against Steel in general, which had let the tall, skinny woman use a Potion of her own on it.

It hadn't done that much good, and his next attack had still knocked the enemy's Pokémon out.

The fourth and fifth were similar, single examples of slightly stronger Pokémon. The fourth had another Aron and a Magnemite, while the fifth was another Klink and a Magnemite. That was when Alex figured out the Gym's strategy. You could either go quickly and more easily through the dangerous area... or you could wear yourself and your Pokémon team out on nearly endless battles against foes that often took more than one attack to bring down.

It helped that he was knocking out or disqualifying most of the creatures he was fighting in one hit instead of two, but he could not last forever. By the time he had fought his ninth combatant, he was only half-way through the first room, and faced with a choice again.

There was a ramp heading down to the left, onto the factory floor proper, and the lines marked that he could go that way. He'd only have to keep pace with a slow-moving cauldron as it came out of a gap in the wall on the right side and moved to the left, then turn right himself in the middle of that lower area. Or, he could keep going as he was, simply fight and fight some more, and be forced to stop using Cock either earlier than he wanted to, or wear him out before he fought the Gym Leader.

It was, all in all, a very Steel-appropriate strategy. Attrition mattered, but it could be done in more than one way. Not so very different from The Aerie, in fact, now that he thought about it.

Above him, all around him really, he could hear the banging of steel on steel, or the hiss as molten metal was poured into molds or down channels, or cooled by a chemical bath. It overpowered all other sound, but he thought he could just hear the distant cheers of a crowd that was, most likely, watching from some place out of sight on viewscreens provided by the Magnemite recording him.

His eyes narrowed. In Viridian, he'd made the choice to risk himself for a speedy route, dodging the Graveler, Golem, and Donphan. He'd paid for it in injuries, but he had survived.

He wasn't sure he would this time, the guantlet-shield or not, given the warnings posted at the entrance, but Alex was also sure that his team would not last another forty-five or more Trainers and then the Gym Leader herself. He didn't know if there were that many of course, but that was the point. It was a calculated risk. No doubt, many people who didn't like the first route they had chosen switched here. How many regretted it?

The son of a businessman, yes, Alex was definitely that, but he was no stranger to work. He'd been working since he was sixteen, after all, to learn the business inside out from the ground up. He could do this. He would do this. He'd seen factories before, like he'd told Elle.

With one more swallow to help calm his nerves, Alex lifted his eyes to the moving cauldron as it passed overhead. "Alright, buddy, let's follow that one."

"Ni," his first friend in the game-world chirped, and started padding silently along, tongue lolling out due to the heat himself.

It wasn't hard, the cauldron barely moved at a walking pace. But of course, it couldn't be that easy. No sooner had he gotten to the bottom of the ramp than one of the workers shouted, "Hey! You! Eyes met, have to fight now! Watch your head!"

It would not take a genius to figure out why, another cauldron was already coming. If he let himself get distracted, one would clock him but good. "Alright, fine- what's your Pokémon?"

"I'll start off with my trusty Bronzor," the man chuckled, "I saw you had a Poison-type. This won't go well for you if you don't switch."

Alex risked a moment during the first round to check what his Pokédex had to say about his enemy's Pokémon, but didn't notice in time to save his Starter from being blasted with a super-effective Confusion. "Shit, sorry body," Alex muttered, already raising his 'ball to call the creature back. He would be alright if Alex could use a Potion after the battle, but for now he really did need to use something else. But a Steel-Psychic was a tough matchup. He would have pulled out his Mankey against most Steel-types, but the Psychic aspect of this enemy- "Shit!"

he ducked just in time, holding a hand over his head as the cauldron creaked by, swaying slightly. Even below it, he was close enough to feel a wash of heat from inside.

The other man chuckled and adjusted his own gauntlet, "See? Watch your head- you're stalling! Pick your next 'mon, we gotta get back to work!"

"Tch... fine," Alex growled. It didn't really matter. Any of his Pokémon aside from the Mankey and Nidoran were good here, just not great. "I'll go with Spike."

"You brought a Rock-type to a Steel Gym," the man chuckled, nonplussed.

"I brought a Pokémon with Bite," Alex corrected with a grin.

"Fuck," the other guy cursed, as Alex's newly-loyal Larvitar shot forward and closed his small jaws around the edge of the bronze, coin-like disk.

It whined out of a mouth Alex could not see, and smashed his Larvitar with some sort of Psychic move. Not a Steel one. He grinned wider, "No Steel attacks, huh? Sucks to be you."

"Damn," the man grumbled a moment later, his prized Pokémon unconscious after a third chomp. "You got me. Go on ahead."

Alex nodded with a bit of respect. He'd honestly been surprised by the typing. He should have known better. Still, he was allowed one item per battle, so he used the chance to recall Cock from his 'ball and spray him down with one of his few, more expensive Super Potions. The minor wounds mostly closed, and even the twitching eye the last Confusion attack had caused mostly faded. "You alright, buddy?"
The purple spike on his forehead waved up and down as the Nidoran nodded confidently. His eyes were determined, just like Alex's. Without a word or peep otherwise, Cock turned toward the far side of the Gym, leaving him to follow after.

They had to wait while a trio of cars full of ore passed from left to right in quick succession, then duck another cauldron that was a little lower than the last one, but two more Trainers fell before them. Finally, he climbed the stairs at the end back up to the surrounding catwalk, and was presented with not a puzzle, or just a hazard, but a test. A question test.

Challenger, the placard read, What Quality(s) are our Gym Leader most known for? Select as many as apply.

Below that was a series of buttons, three inches wide and an inch or more high, set right into the door that, presumably, lead to the next room of the Gym. Alex frowned as he looked at the answers. Some of them were just ridiculous. "Seriously?" The question was mostly directed at the Magnemite still filming him, but Alex didn't really mind that. He just thought the questions were... not that appropriate. He had to read through them all, though.

Her Enormous Dick was the first one. The next, Her Magnificent Breasts. Some of the rest made more sense and were more Pokémon- or Steel-oriented, but not all of them. Her Brazen Attitude, Never-Give-Up Spirit, Confidence, Figure, Profit Margins, Video Sales, Erotic Fiction Sales, Self Actualization, Defense, Hardiness, Candor, Reliability, and finally, That Sweet, Sweet, Muscle Momma Body.

"You know," he murmured to Cock, hopefully low enough the Magnemite couldn't hear it over the noise, which was only slightly muted further from the floor itself, "you'd think this Gym Leader was obsessed with her porn career, or something."

As if he knew exactly what Alex was talking about, the Nidoran nodded again.

Alex, frankly, didn't know what to do. Perhaps there was another route? There were certainly stairs at the other end of the walkway, in the northeast corner of the room. Could he get to the other chambers by going up, first? Were there clues necessary to answer this?

Or was he over-thinking it?

Maybe he was being too cautious. There didn't seem to be a downside to answering incorrectly, after all. So he started pushing buttons, one, then two at a time until they were all depressed.

None released.

But a moment later, with a loud clang, the door lurched toward him a quarter-inch, then started to slide open from the middle, each half recessing into the walls. "Hah... Really? All that's important to her, huh?"

"You heard it, folks! Our Challenger just broke a record in figuring out Question Fifteen on the rotating quiz roster! We aren't gonna tell you what he chose, but you could see the annoyance in his expression- it's like he knew what it was from the start! Either that, or he got really, really lucky!"

Alex didn't want to react to the suddenly-audible announcer's taunt, mostly because it was a bit of both. In the next chamber, just as large as the first, he could see stands high up on the opposite wall. The platforms continued.

And so did his trek into The Steelworks.

Robin DeVerl, Specimen RDV herself, scowled down at the space between her legs, and the Pokémon in her hands. It wasn't working. She knew it wouldn't, but hoped it would. Her body should be changing. But it wasn't her body, was it?

She was in some other, fake body. A lesser Combinant, unable to change her shape and form like Robin herself could do. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the clitoris just peeking out from the top of her slit, willing it to grow, to change.
She wanted to use the female Nidoran's body, damn it. She wanted to climax! She wanted to do it as a man, too, or at least with a penis. She'd already done it twice with her woman parts, and wanted something new this time. The Nidoran's tongue was deliciously smooth, just prickly enough to really set her on fire as she lay in the bath, but now she was in her room at the Cerulean City Pokémon Center (North), laying her bed with a squirming, adorable blue-white Pokémon in her hands.

Robin sighed. Damn it... she couldn't just... well... could she? No, her Rattata was too small, she wouldn't even be able to feel it. Both her Happiny, adorable thing it was, and Nidoran were female, so she couldn't get fucked by one of them.

At least, not the way she wanted to. And of course, Doctor Phillips and his team hadn't seen fit to equip this temporary body with any sort of phallic device. There wasn't even anything in her room!

With a grumble, Robin set her Nidoran down on the bed. It promptly started snuffling around, its whiskered nose lifting and dropping several times per second as it explored. Her fingers tweaked one nipple, not as sensitive as it should be, then she shoved two fingers from the other hand into her soaking twat.

Fucking Game Freak. Only they would make her incessantly horny, then take away her ability to do something about it! But her trial run in this fake body was almost over. One more week, and she could be herself again. She could be a woman, a man, or something in between if she wanted. She could take any size cock a Pokémon could throw at her, and oh how she wanted that!

Almost as much as she wanted to bury her own shaft, thick and pulsing, into the Nidoran's tiny hole.

She sighed, then reached for the remote control. At least, if she was going to masturbate the night away instead of sleeping, she could watch porn, too.

Maline Greengrass watched intently as Alex Ward switched courses for the third time. He was now on the uppermost floor of The Steelworks, and seemed well-positioned, at least to her, to complete the Gym. The Aerie was definitely higher in terms of success rates in Pewter, and the second-highest in all of Kanto. The Steelworks was in the lower third, which meant it was more challenging overall, and most of its successes were Trainers with a single Badge, or less. It ramped up quicker than most in difficulty, because that was how Stirling wanted it, and how Steel was as a type.

But Alex might just do it. Four Trainers to go if he went that route, or he could do the laser-cutter challenge, where he would simply have to maneuver himself- hopefully he was smart enough to put his 'mons away- through a small maze of high-intensity cutting lasers. At least, that's what they were designed to look like.
Maline herself didn't know if that's what they were, almost no one took that route and Brigid Stirling wasn't talking. They didn't exactly see eye to eye, even though Maline herself admired the woman's figure, body, and spirit.

She was just too stubborn, and wanted nothing to do with GameFreak's colonization efforts. All she was concerned about was making money with her double- no, triple- business empire. Which was fair, Maline supposed, she had the right to do that and it seemed to be working for her.

Nadine Miner, Maline's counterpart in that world, had even gone so far to destroy Stirling in a Battle, but it hadn't done any good in changing her mind.

She growled. That was alright... Alex would win, he'd get his Badge, and GameFreak would get a little more information about Stirling's battle style and low-end team. And they'd get one of their best testers a Badge. Alex and Elle, together, were still near the top of the listings as far as Sync Rate went, but they had been slipping in performance otherwise.

As more and more people realized they could go wild and do essentially whatever they wanted in the 'game', many of them had started getting more and more brutal in their training, both Prowess- and Battle-related. Some of them, a dozen or so, had figured out the trick to getting by Gyms faster than the others, too.

Type mattered, and if you went in with a full team of advantageous Pokémon, even half-trained you were likely to win on that alone.

Or you could take just one very well trained, highly dangerous monster without a disadvantage. If you had an advantage, you would crush the Gym. Even with a neutral typing, your strength alone- or the strength of your Pokémon- would carry you through nine times out of ten.

That secret had six Trainers with four Badges already, and two with five. Alex and Elle were falling further back, and she didn't know how to get them ahead. They were too easy to control, not everyone in the test group had such good material to manipulate them with.

That Chuke woman, for example.

Team Rocket... how dare she join them! They were the enemy, fighting against all that mankind- at least mankind on their world- needed to survive! They were even the bad guys on their own world. Didn't everyone know that? Apparently not.

Sixty-nine Trainers had joined the Team, but most had backed out after realizing what they were getting into. And now Adisa Chuke had five of the remaining twenty-one on her immediate team, and she was now being looked at for a promotion to team lead. Of an evil, criminal empire. How had the woman fallen so far? Her Psych profile had mentioned nothing about that kind of behavior, nor had her past history shown any sort of indication.

Was it Vaan? The man was certainly her closest contact with Rocket, or in fact any resident of that world. It would stand to reason... but GameFreak had no eyes in Team Rocket's headquarters, and no way to find out what they were really after.

"Swirly, come here," she ordered the 'animatronic' Omanyte that was, as usual, crawling around her office when she was the only one there. The blue-skinned mollusk-like creature inched its way closer, and when she was within reach, Maline scooped it up and tickled its four tentacles with a faint smile. "Who's my good boy? Do you want to warm up mommy before she gets her slave to lick her for a while? Yes? Good boy. Go on, munch away..."

With the Pokémon eagerly lapping up the juices beneath her skirt, she leaned in again. Not much longer, and Alex would probably have his Badge. His team was getting worn down, but the other holo-screen showed his stats in realtime. He was still over sixty-five percent of full power, even after taking the combat route three times out of six. Yes, he could definitely win. She wasn't sure he would, Stirling was no pushover... but he could.

A stray thought made her smile. Was... Stirling connected with Rocket? Is that why she was so recalcitrant? It wasn't like they needed much- just a place to live and settle, access to that world's tech, and some Pokémon to help clean up and rebuild their own world. In return, both would get so much! A share of culture, of technology, cleaner living space... survival of not just one, but hundreds of millions of species!

And the money! If that was her only motivator, then Stirling should have allowed it for the trade it would bring. Interstellar, interplanar trade, even!

But she hadn't. Maybe Alex could knock some sense into her. She'd have to ask if they were still nearby when the downtime hit.

Four small tentacles tickled and twirled around her pussy as she pressed the intercom button on her desk, "Karen, note a memo for me and Dr. Hobby. I need a private word with Mr. Ward during the downtime, should take about an hour. I'll speak with Mrs. Berkman too, actually."

"Yes, Ms. Greengrass."

"Excellent. And send in one of my toys, I need a good licking. You can have the rest of the night off, maybe spend some time with the husband or your kids."

"Of course. Thank you, Ms. Greengrass."

Maline smiled. Karen was a good worker, a better assistant, and a decent lover in her own right. She was no tentacle-mouthed Pokémon or a guy with a massive dong, but she was able to get the job done when needed. It was well worth giving her some family time to keep her happy.

Now, if only Ward, Stirling, Berkman, and the whole damned organization of Team Rocket was easier to control...