Bloon spent the next three days training with Amber's dad instead of going to the nursery. The two of them attempted to keep their activities to themselves, not even telling Amber or her mom where they were headed. They were far from the only pokémon who had suddenly discovered an interest in exercise and practicing fighting moves. It seemed that one could find pokémon working on their punches, kicks, and special techniques everywhere in Muscle Village even as the rest of the villagers were swept up in the festival atmosphere of the anticipated tournament to decide the village's next protector.

To satisfy Amber's dad's urge for privacy, the towering blaziken found himself and Bloon a secluded place to train, right outside of the village's walls. "They'll let me pass," he explained to Bloon as he led the young riolu to the gate. "I know these pokémon well, and they've seen me run errands on the outside before."

Indeed, there were only a few hurried questions, and sidelong glances at Bloon, before the two sentries, a simian meditite and a pudgy makuhita let the two pokémon leave Muscle Village. "Be careful!" they both called in unison, and then they quickly shut the gate so that Bloon and Amber's dad were alone in the wilderness.

The inhabitants of Muscle Village were not completely isolated inside of their settlement, but visits by traveling merchants or adventurers were infrequent enough that there was no clear path to or from the village. The forest that Bloon and Amber's dad saw around them was wild and untamed, with only a few meager yards of prairie keeping the wild from pressing up against the village. Even just on the other side of the wall, the sounds of Muscle Village seemed to be drowned out by the chirping of wild birds and the noise of insects which made strange thrumming noises in the humid air.

"No one should interrupt us out here," Amber's dad told Bloon. He lowered his body into a fighting stance and told the younger pokémon, "Now, show me what you can already do."

Bloon spent the first day of his training with Amber's dad getting knocked around by the much larger pokémon. The blaziken had hardly seemed to be holding back, and Bloon had soon felt not only sore but frustrated as well. He could see now that the latest beating that Brutus had given him had been a sloppy, ugly thing. Amber's dad, by contrast, had been able to pepper Bloon with blows that married speed to power, with all of them undergirded by a dispassionate focus which Bloon had never encountered scuffling with the village's children.

By the time that they had stopped for lunch, Bloon had been struggling to stand and Amber's dad had asked him bluntly, "Do you want us to stop?"

Something in the older pokémon's voice had made Bloon's fur stand on end and he had answered without thinking, "No, we're just getting started." Bloon was sure that he had given the right answer when he thought that he saw an ember of respect in the older pokémon's fierce blue eyes.

Thankfully, their exercises for the rest of the day had focused more on fighting stances and Amber's dad had also modeled punches and kicks for Bloon to practice. Bloon had taken in this information eagerly and he had been pleased to see that the ember of respect was steadily growing whenever he caught Amber's dad's eye. At the end of the day, they had taken to sparring one more time and Bloon had been amazed at how much more he was able to do, even after a full day's training. He had still lost, of course, but a few times he had managed to land glancing blows against Amber's dad or had dodged the blaziken's attacks. When he had yielded to Amber's dad again, Bloon's mind had cried out for a rematch even as his body had groaned at him in protest.

"I didn't know that I could put up with all of that, sir," Bloon had admitted to Amber's dad as they went home at the end of the day.

"You did well, Blue Moon," Amber's dad had said, "for the first day. But we had to spend an entire day of our training acquainting you with the basics of fighting, and now there are only two days left before the tournament to decide who will succeed the protector. I hope that you don't think that you're the only one who is supposed to be improving."

"No, sir," Bloon had said at once. "I'll be able to help you tomorrow, I promise."

When the two of them had returned home ahead of schedule, Amber's mom had given her husband a questioning look, but had refrained from asking him or Bloon any questions. When Amber had gotten home, she had shown no such restraint and had immediately started interrogating her father and her friend. "Where were you two all day?" she had demanded to know. "What were you doing? Why didn't I get to come along? Why didn't you tell me?"

Under the barrage of questions, Bloon had looked to Amber's dad for guidance. When he had seen the stern-faced blaziken ignore his daughter's repeated inquiries, Bloon had tried to do the same. But he lacked a parent's skill in handling a pestering child, and so, after the family had settled in for bed, Bloon had told Amber about training with her dad.

"Wow," the torchic had whispered, her voice still strikingly loud to Bloon's ears in the stillness of the night. "I wish I could have seen my dad kick your butt like that." She had ruffled her feathers and shifted in her nest before going on, "But really, Bloon, that's really cool. I wish I could train with you, but these stupid wings are completely useless in fights." She had sighed, "Someday when I'm evolved, you'll teach me everything you learned, promise?"

Bloon had promised, and then they had chatted a little longer before falling asleep.

The second day of Bloon's training had started out much like the first. Before the riolu had even been fully awake, Amber's dad had taken him outside of the village's wall and then subjected him to a vigorous array of strikes and counterstrikes which had Bloon feeling every ache and pain from the previous two days. Thankfully, Amber's dad had stopped them for a rest and Bloon had been pleasantly surprised to see that the older pokémon was also breathing hard.

"What do you know about the protector?" Amber's dad had asked Bloon abruptly.

After having given the question as much thought as he could without wasting either pokémon's time, Bloon had answered, "Well, Verkong is the one who found me outside the village and he brought me to you, sir. I know he's been the village's protector for what seems like forever." Bloon had stopped when he had seen Amber's dad was shaking his head.

"I'm not asking about the current protector, Bloon," the blaziken explained slowly. "I want to know what you know about the title, the role of protector." He had breathed out contemptuously and added, "Did that fussy Ms. Spore teach Amber and you anything about that?"

"Well, no, sir," Bloon had admitted, before his ears had perked up and he had added excitedly, "She did tell us about the history of the village once, and that had to do with the first protector."

"Well, tell me what you know," Amber's dad had said as he stretched his powerful limbs. "Then we'll pick up where we left off."

So, Bloon had relayed what he knew about Muscle Village's founders. There had been three brothers, a hitmontop, a hitmonchan, and a hitmonlee. They had been traveling adventurers who had protected the weak and punished the wicked. They had heard of the dangerous wild pokémon in the area and had made it their mission to protect the civilized pokémon who would go on to found Muscle Village. Periodically, they had set out from the village to push back the wild pokémon. Their goal had been to push the wild pokémon all the way over the mountain so that the pokémon of Muscle Village would never have to worry about them again, but one day things had gone wrong. The wild pokémon had planned an ambush and they had killed one of the brothers, the hitmonchan. After they had buried him at the top of Fist Mountain, the surviving brothers had split up, with the hitmontop returning to Muscle Village and the hitmonlee wandering off in his grief and vanishing into the wilderness forever.

Amber's dad had nodded along with Bloon's retelling and, when the younger pokémon had finished, the blaziken had bobbed his head one last time and said, "Well put. That hitmontop was Muscle Village's first protector and he set the model for how protectors are supposed to comport themselves. The protector is supposed to be brave and honorable, strong and kind-hearted. Verkong and the protectors who came before him did their best to follow in those footsteps, and I hope to do the same when I am protector." As he stood back up to his full height, Amber's dad had asked Bloon, "Do you remember what the hitmontop brother brought back from Fist Mountain?"

"A perfectly round, white stone," Bloon's answer had come immediately. "The kind that can only be found at the top of the mountain."

"That's right. Whoever wins the tournament the day after tomorrow will only be able to claim the title of protector if he can climb to the top of Fist Mountain and bring back one of those stones. His ability to survive in the wilderness and return to the village will show that he is ready to serve as Verkong's replacement. A pokémon may do well in the tournament, but if he isn't able to survive against the wild pokémon here on the outside of the wall, then he does not deserve the title of protector.

"That's what I want you to help me with today, Blue Moon," Amber's dad had continued. "Yesterday I worked on giving you the basics of fighting a straight fight with a civilized pokémon, but it has been a long time since Verkong took any patrols all the way to the edge of Fist Mountain, and even longer since I have gone with him. I want you to tap into your instincts, Bloon. I want you to let the wild out and try and attack me with every underhanded, treacherous tactic you can think of. Surprise, deceit, and savagery are your watchwords today, do you understand?"

"I think so, sir," Bloon had answered with even less confidence than his words possessed. But he had dutifully followed his mentor's instructions and vanished into the forest's edge to try and attack Amber's dad when the blaziken ventured out of sight of Muscle Village and its wall of felled trees.

Although Bloon hated to admit it to himself, he had actually enjoyed setting his mind and body to work trying to take Amber's dad by surprise. It had turned out to be much easier for Bloon to land successful attacks against the blaziken with the aid of the shadows and the terrain than it had been sparring out in the open. More than once, Bloon had come at Amber's dad from an unexpected direction; this time from the trees above, another time from a ditch below; and the larger pokémon had needed to fight beak and claw to fend off Bloon's punches and kicks.

The exercise had come to an end when Amber's dad had caught Bloon launching his small blue body at him from a tree branch above and responded by launching a jet of fire from his beak which scorched a great hole in the canopy above. While Bloon had tried to shield his head from the resulting shower of embers and burning leaves and sticks, Amber's dad had grabbed the riolu roughly and pulled him out of the forest. "That's enough for one day," the older pokémon had said gruffly.

"But what about the fire?" Bloon had asked with a wary glance back at the slowly growing blaze.

"The tree line is far enough away from the village and the wall would protect it even if it wasn't," Amber's dad had answered. "The fire's a problem for the wild pokémon out there to worry about."

Bloon had spared only a glance back at the orange glow of the fire, but that had been enough to etch the sight of the burning forest into his memory. That night he had not wanted to talk to Amber about the day's training, so he had feigned sleep as soon as he had laid down for the night.

The day after that had been the last day of Bloon's training with Amber's dad. It had been a relief to hear that they would be returning to the sparring of the first day to see how Bloon had improved and to help Amber's dad loosen up for tomorrow's tournament. Still, there had been a gnawing feeling in Bloon's stomach as they had stepped through the gate that separated Muscle Village from the wilderness. The two pokémon had returned to their regular training site, but Bloon had been unable to resist examining the charred ground and remains of trees which were all that was left after the blaze from the day before. Bloon had been in the middle of turning over a burnt bird's nest with the remains of four eggs still inside of it when Amber's dad had given him a sharp rebuke and called him over to begin their first sparring match of the day.

That day of training had passed by in a blur for Bloon as Amber's dad had demanded his attention and received it, though the riolu was at least able to put up a better fight than he had on the first day of his training. Bloon had even dared to wonder what would happen if he should meet Brutus for another fight. Voicing that thought aloud to Amber's dad, Bloon had been pleased when the older pokémon ran his clawed hand over Bloon's furry head and said, "The next time that you run into that little troublemaker, you teach him a lesson so that he'll never hurt my Amber ever again, understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Bloon had answered with a voice as light as his wagging tail.

The following day was the tournament to decide which pokémon would be the next protector of Muscle Village. It was an exciting day for everyone in the village, but no one seemed to be as excited as Amber. The torchic woke up with the sun to nudge and peck Bloon until the riolu had gotten up with her. She was a bundle of energy, and again and again Bloon had to remind his friend to keep her voice down so that she wouldn't wake her parents.

"I just can't help it!" said Amber after being shushed yet again. "My dad's going to be the next protector! Why aren't you excited?"

"I am excited," insisted Bloon, but the truth was that the riolu's stomach was twisted in knots about what he was going to do. Amber's questions about his training with her dad had given him something to share with her or hide from her as he chose, but Bloon had never even hinted to her his plans for entering the tournament himself. Even after his training with Amber's dad, or maybe especially because of it, Bloon didn't think that he would win. But he thought that he might have a chance. Even if he lost, he thought that he would prove something to the pokémon of the village, and to himself.

Multiple days of keeping his plan a secret from his best and only friend had been difficult, and now it was clear that Amber's suspicions were fully aroused. "Come on, Bloon," she pressed, "you look like you swallowed a bug. I mean, without meaning to. Did my dad make you eat bugs out there when you were training with him? Is that while you were sick the other night?"

"No! I'm just nervous about the tournament."

"What do you have to be nervous about?"

Before Bloon had to devise a satisfactory answer, Amber's parents started to stir and he was able to keep himself and Amber busy with preparing breakfast for her family. After they had all eaten a hearty meal, Amber's dad announced, "Well, we might as well head over to where they'll be holding the tournament. No sense in waiting around, especially if you three want to get good seats for the matches."

"That sounds like a good plan to me," agreed Amber's mom. "I checked out the square while I was out shopping yesterday, and even though they did their best to make space for spectators there are going to be a lot of disappointed pokémon if the whole village turns out to watch the tournament."

With that settled, the four pokémon set off for the heart of Muscle Village, picking up many of their neighbors along the way. They all said things like "Entering the tournament?" or "Beautiful day, don't you think?" to Amber's parents, while studiously ignoring the two children running around underfoot.

Along with the adults, Bloon and Amber stopped in their tracks when they saw the makeshift arena which had been erected in the center of the village. "It's so cool!" Amber exclaimed. Then, to Bloon, she remarked, "If you hadn't been busy getting beaten up by my dad, you could have checked it out while it was getting built like I did."

Bloon didn't rise to his friend's bait, but instead looked at the simply yet impressive stage made out of perfectly sawed and arranged planks. The stage was raised just enough so that pokémon could sit and stand all around it and still watch those fight on top of it. Bloon thought about being up there and having all of the villagers watching him and he felt both excitement and nausea at the thought.

He couldn't dwell on the feeling before a makuhita, the same one who had ushered him and Amber's dad in and out of the village's gate, approached Bloon and Amber's family with a board held in his thick hands. "All right, I'm here to take down your registration," the chubby yellow pokémon said to Amber's dad. With a grin at Amber and her mom he said, "Spectators will be free to find their own seating while it lasts." Lastly, he turned to Bloon and added, "This one, too, I suppose."

"Actually," Bloon said, "I'm going to compete in the tournament, too."

It would have been bad enough if only the pokémon he had known for most of his life were around to hear him, but Bloon, Amber, and the torchic's parents were ensconced in the heart of a crowd of pokémon who had gathered to watch the protector's tournament. All of their eyes flashed towards Bloon. He tried to ignore them and instead focused on the makuhita standing in front of him huffing over his clipboard.

"You," the makuhita said, and he needed to repeat the word a few times before he could finally get out, "You want to compete in the tournament? You want to try and become our village's protector?"

"Yes," Bloon said at once.

"But he can't," Amber's mom interjected. "Clearly there is some sort of rule to prevent a," she paused for a fraction of a second, "a child from taking part in this."

Amber chose that moment to chirp, "Actually, Ms. Spore told us that anyone can enter. Even children. Isn't that right, Ms. Spore?"

Now the crowd's ire was turned on the wilting breloom in their midst. "I just told the children the truth when they asked me," she explained meekly. "You can't possibly get upset with me for that." Despite her words, Ms. Spore chose not to take her chances with her fellow villagers and she started to push her way out of the throng of pokémon around her with a flurry of increasingly polite entreaties for them to let her pass.

Amber's dad cleared his throat and the other pokémon stepped back to give the imposing blaziken the room he needed to drop down to one knee and look Bloon in the eye. "What you're asking to do is very serious, Blue Moon," he said in a low voice. "Do you understand what it will mean to compete in this tournament?"

"Yes, sir," Bloon said as tried to master the tremor in his voice. "I want to do this, sir. I need to do this, sir."

Amber's dad stared at Bloon, and then stood up and told the makuhita, "Sign him up, Norridge."

When other pokémon in the crowd began to mutter darkly among themselves, a voice cut through the drone, "Is there a problem here, Norridge?"

"Ah, no, Protector Verkong, I was just handling it!" Norridge bowed deeply as the wizened form of Verkong slipped through the gathered pokémon to stand at the makuhita's side. "The, ah, that one wants to compete in the tournament."

"This one, you say?" Verkong looked down at Bloon and the riolu found it harder to hold the infernape's gaze than any other pokémon that he had met. Whatever Muscle Village's current protector was thinking, his face betrayed nothing. With a simple nod of his head, Verkong said, "Very good," and melted back into the crowd as suddenly as he had appeared.

After that, the pokémon swirling around Bloon, Amber, her family, and Norridge disappeared, still muttering amongst themselves. "I'll put you down then," Norridge grumbled. "You follow him, he knows what to do." Bloon's eyes followed Norridge's gesture up to the sharp face of Amber's dad and then immediately dropped to the ground.

"Come on, let's go find some seats for ourselves," Amber's mom told her, and she started to drag her daughter towards the rows of chairs, but not before the Torchic could hiss, "You should have told me, Bloon!"

Even when it was just the two of them, Amber's dad didn't say anything to Bloon, and Bloon didn't dare to speak without being spoken to first. Instead, he loped after the larger pokémon and clung to his side.

Amber's dad's long strides led Bloon to a tent which had been set up and furnished with a series of chairs. Even though the tent had already been hosting six powerfully-built pokémon when Amber's dad led Bloon inside, none of them were sitting. Part of it was the restless energy of the assembled pokémon, but also most of them, like the machoke who sneered when he saw Bloon, looked like they would snap the flimsy chairs under them if they tried to use them.

"What's the little savage doing in here?" the machoke asked Amber's dad in a voice which filled the whole space.

"He's competing in the tournament," replied Amber's dad before Bloon could even think of answering for himself. "Anyone in the village can enter."

"I'm sure you mean 'any villager can enter'," a skeptical-looking medicham offered. The flat-faced pokémon looked Bloon up and down and said, "Though I'm sure it won't make a difference one way or the other."

"They didn't need to waste any of our time like this," aargued a blue-shelled heracross who was polishing his horn with a jar of oil tucked under one of his arms. "Just give one of us a free pass for the first round. This will only be embarrassing."

Bloon felt his temper start to overcome his nerves, but what stopped him from saying anything was the fact that Amber's dad wasn't speaking up in his defense. The blaziken had merely folded his arms and ignored the scorn being poured upon Bloon, and that made the young pokémon think that maybe disregarding this kind of talk was what was expected of him. I'll answer their insults during the tournament, Bloon told himself, and he turned away from the other pokémon to watch the section of the stage that he could see from the entrance to the tent.

There was activity on the stage now. The makuhita Norridge puffed as he climbed the steps built into the side of the arena and, after he had caught his breath, shouted to all of the pokémon present, "Attention, everyone! The tournament is about to begin! This tournament will decide which pokémon will be our village's next protector, who will be responsible for keeping us safe from the wild pokémon who prowl outside of our walls! Only one member of our community was witness to the last protector's tournament, the winner of that tournament and our current protector, Verkong!"

A storm applause went up from the crowd which grew even stronger when Verkong climbed up the stairs and stooped to shake Norridge's hand in the center of the stage. The infernape then held up his other hand and Bloon saw that he was carrying a round stone the size of his head, the white surface of which gleamed in the morning sun. "This," the protector announced to the pokémon below him, "is the same stone which I brought back from Fist Mountain's peak when I became protector many, many years ago! The eight pokémon who want to take up the title and responsibilities of your protector will first try to prove themselves against each other, but then the winner of this tournament must prove himself against the wild. This competition is merely to decide who is worthy to make the journey." Verkong stretched a spindly finger towards where Fist Mountain blighted the horizon. "There is where a protector is made."

As Bloon and the pokémon seated or standing around the stage watched, Verkong took the stone between his hands and, with a grunt of exertion, crushed it between his palms so that fragments of rock and dust littered the floor of the arena. "I announce the commencement of the nineteenth protector's tournament!"