Oh, boy. I didn't expect to update this again. But the discord people bugged me about it, so I obliged.

-SpiritOfErebus

It was time.

Wearing a heavy, winter coat he had gotten out of a dollar store (since it was summer and nobody actually wanted the thing that was rapidly shedding whatever subpar replacement to down was in said jacket), carrying red and yellow flags, and with a determined expression on my face, I stepped into the gym.

People looked at me strangely. I didn't care.

Children began to laugh as I waddled awkwardly towards the trainer battle room with my load of junk. I was used to children laughing at me.

Holly meekly trudged forwards behind me, almost as if embarrassed to be associated with me. That was fine. As a person in a completely normal friendship, it is the standard to be embarrassed when your friends are doing something.

Nothing mattered to me, however. I was prepared. After spending two days reading about tactics that some of the ancient Hisuian people used in their natural snowy lands and using a list of war crimes as a checklist, I was able to finalize my tactics.

However, now wasn't the time to show my entire hand. The gym leader could be watching, especially because I was challenging what is considered a beginner gym with a very advanced pokemon.

…That, and the new gym leader, Roxanne, was maybe a student? Or, well, generally pretty young. Her being just a couple years older than me… and achieving the rank of gym leader… gym leader did sting my pride, but I didn't care.

What was a 'pride' anyway? Could you sell it? Can it be sold in pounds? If so, can I remove it from myself and exchange it for money?

Shaking my head as I finally turned sideways and squeezed through the doorway that led to the trainer battles that divided the casual from the, well, slightly less casual trainers, I looked at the room at the end of the corridor.

"Advanced Pokemon Trainers" was the sign on the door.

I took a deep breath as I rustled across the tiles, each one made of cold, hard stone.

Stone that I would have to break with nothing but a giant floating ice ball with vaguely humanoid intelligence and supernatural ice abilities..

I placed the flags that I had bought in my backpack. There was no way I was going to be tripping on these flags.

I was going to be using them later… probably.

I opened the door and looked across the relatively large arena. It wasn't as furbished as the ones that I saw on television when gym leaders televised their gym battles, but it was still pretty

"...You Winston Snowberry?" the early-to-middle aged man grunted.

"Yes, yes I am." I said, adjusting the beanie on my head and the incredibly large collars on my aged winter coat in order to show my face. "I… uh… I mean that my name is indeed Winston Snowberry."

The trainer matched my face from the printout he was given a couple of times, trying to see past the aged ruff that was on the puffy jacket.

"Looks about right." he said. "You remind me of a kid that I battled back in my teenage years. He, well… he lost to me a lot. It was a welcome break against fighting all those juiced up Mudkips."

"...I was that kid." I sighed, taking out my pokeball. "Yes, I remember fighting you too. I always lost to rollout."

"Did you finally come back for the stone badge, then?" he sighed. "You must be much more successful than me now. You even have a… female companion now."

"It is a platonic relationship." I said. Holly blushed, curling a lock of her green hair behind her ears, her equally green eyes glittering in the slightly flickering fluorescent lights.

"Yeah, yeah. There's no way she's falling for that getup." the trainer said. "But my point is, I've just been stuck here. As a public service agent. My boss even retired and a girl that's younger than me got the gym leader position."

I really didn't want to say anything. It was just too awkward.

"Well, let's get it over with. Send out your pokemon. It's not that Snorunt again, is it?"

"Well… not exactly." I said awkwardly.

Glalie emerged from the pokeball, processed the environment, and immediately almost suffered a mental breakdown. Instinctively weaving left and right to dodge incoming rollouts, he did some meaningless somersaults before I slapped him on his horn.

The gym trainer looked at this display and shuffled awkwardly.

"And I didn't actually beat any other gyms. I'm just like you. I fucked up. I gave up on my gym training and I gave up on my dreams of becoming a pokemon trainer."

"...Then why the hell are you here?" the gym trainer said.

"There's one simple reason." I said. "And it's-"

"Money?" Holley said innocently. "I mean, if that was just your motivation, you could have asked me. With you as my financial advisor and h-ermm… human resources manager, we can make our family's bakery chain expand across regions!"

"No! It's not that!" I half-yelled, half sighed in exasperation. "It's for the college credit, remember? Mauville City College and a lot of other prestigious schools want at least one sports extracurricular."

"Wow, you fucked up in life, huh?"

"Yeah." I sighed. "College applications are a bitch. Let's get this over with."

"Which one?" the trainer said, finally detaching a pokeball from his belt. With a practiced motion, he tossed it up and down once, before throwing the ball onto the field. The pokeball bounced off the floor after it released its cargo, the metal shell scraping off the dirt floor, rebounding off the alloy walls before landing back in the trainer's hand.

"This battle… or your life?"

A cold glare was shot at me from across the room as from the red glow, a Graveler appeared. It was a towering mess of stone, filled with tiny dips and divots that were probably products of years of battling.

Despite being in an incredibly thick coat, I still shivered.

"Sorry, sorry." the trainer said. "I just wanted to try a one liner, you know?"

"No, no. It's fine." I said. "We all have to feel better about our situation, y'know?"

"...Yeah." he sighed. "Anyways, let's just start the battle."

"Agreed." I said, just as Glalie floated up into the air.

Looking at said floating rock, the trainer paused for a moment. The Graveler also looked at the Glalie, trying to process the situation with what resembled a brain inside a rock… how it would hit the flying creature with a rollout.

"...Use rock throw, Graveler!" the trainer ordered. Glalie stayed still in the air as a decently sized chunk of rock flew up at him, pinged off of his hardened, icy shell, leaving a slight scratch mark, and fell back to the ground.

"Use rock throw, more?" the trainer questioned. The graveler complied, and rocks and soil began to fly up into the air.

"It's honestly pretty hard to fight flying targets that don't just faint when they get hit by a brick-sized rock."

"It's also pretty tough fighting a rock with ice." I said, as Glalie acted on his own and began to intercept and dodge between the projectiles, altering the trajectory of particularly large rocks with short usages of ice beam. "But we both make do."

"Got any other pokemon?" the trainer asked. "Maybe this can go faster that way."

"Well, I do have a Wurmple." I said. "But I'm not using him."

"Will you both just stop talking and battle already?" Holly sighed, her face in the palm of her hand. "

"Yeah, I am sweating to death here in this winter coat." I said.

"Why'd you bring that thing, anyways?" the trainer asked. "In case you haven't noticed, it's summer."

"Oh, right." I sighed. "I almost forgot to use it against you. Glalie, use Hail!"

A white glow began to glow in Glalie's jaw-like structure, and it burst into a white fog. Before long, snowflakes began to manifest magically from the top of the small, enclosed space. The white specks slowly floated onto the dirt arena, where they slowly began to accumulate in the previously air conditioned space. Gently, snow began to fall, but the vortex grew faster and faster as Glalie's eyes glowed brighter and bluer.

As Holly inched towards the door and I smiled victoriously within my winter coat, the gym trainer's expression slowly soured.

"Throw the b-biggest rock you can at that Glalie!" he said, his teeth slowly beginning to chatter. "I thought I've seen everything during my years at this job."

Glalie dodged without my command. Honestly, why didn't pokemon just do that on their own more often? Maybe it was something about trained pokemon.

"Bet you haven't seen a competent ice type trainer trying to take on the rock gym, have you?" I said, my voice excited. "I've done it! I've finally managed to do something productive with my life!"

As I saw the Graveler narrow its eyes in irritation, the hail now falling like small rocks onto the field, and the decreasing visibility, I began to laugh.

I reached my sleeves out, and I got smacked on the arm by a hailstone. It felt like it was going to bruise, and the coat sustained quite the impact. But I didn't care.

Every ounce of pain was progress. The bits of stinging cold on my face made my smile wider. It was validating all of the time that I had spent during that summer back when I was twelve. It was validating Glalie as well.

It felt… amazing.

I took a deep breath of the freezing air in, and exhaled a mass of white mist. Through the fog and the hail, I saw Glalie glowing victoriously in midair.

I knew that this was our moment. This was our moment to counterattack! This was our moment of rebellion against fate!

Now, we would finally breach the bounds of being average.

"Freeze that thing solid!" I shouted, pointing one puffy sleeve at the Graveler. Now wasn't the time to get overconfident. Despite the double typing of rock and ground, since Glalie's attacks were purely ice based, he couldn't actually cause the process of frost wedging, something that relied on the expansion of the process of freezing water to ice. Therefore, although he was type neutral to the Graveler, the Graveler still had the advantage of a much harder outer shell… and potential surprise moves.

"Graveler, use rock polish. Shake that frost off you."

The Graveler's surface spun as several cracks and impurities were shed off of its rock shell. Hailstones that slowly damaged the rock now were sliding off the smooth surfaces, not unlike the effect of angled armor on the particularly blocky pokemon.

But it didn't matter. Despite the speed boost that rock polish generally gave to rock-type pokemon, if it couldn't move its limbs… then everything was futile.

An ice beam was unleashed. Empowered by the cold environment and the hail slowly accumulating on Glalie's ice body, despite the fact that the hail also depended on Glalie's energy to exist, a blast of blue emerged from his jaw. The energy spilled past the pale, white teeth and the lower jaw whirled past the hailstorm, disrupting the trajectory of several hailstones, before impacting the Graveler trying to roll out of the way.

The frost began to accumulate. As the Graveler began to move, Glalie continued to track it through the storm, changing his aim on his semi-continuous ice beam. Each and every attack added a pile of frost onto the Graveler. Each and every attack slowed down the process of rolling… until the Graveler was completely entombed.

The gym trainer looked at his immobile pokemon, shivered, and then sighed a very chilly sigh.

"Okay." he said. "I… I…"

Glalie stopped his attack, and in the room, the hail slowly abated. The ice ball containing the extremely stuck Graveler wobbled slightly as the pokemon within still tried to struggle. It reminded Winston of a younger Snorunt, struggling within the literal mud pits of defeat that enemy Mudkip were prone to create.

"...I concede. You win. Congratulations."

I jumped up into the air, my coat flopping awkwardly as I did so. And though I was carrying a bag literally filled to the brim with flags on my back, along with other miscellaneous supplies, berries, and a bootleg potion I had found in a random bush… but that's besides the point.

I had never felt lighter.

"Your winnings will be billed to your trainer account." the gym trainer said. "If you have an appointment to go and battle the gym leader, then you can proceed. But If you don't… then you can schedule one, now."

"Wait, you can schedule battles with the gym leader even if you haven't won against the gym trainer?" Holly asked, peeking in from the entrance to the small arena.

"If you don't win, then it simply goes to one of the people in the waiting list." I sighed. "I had very high hopes once, and I scheduled several battles with the gym leader. Obviously, none of those hopes ever materialized."

"But now, you'll make it, right?"

I sighed again.

"Yeah. Sure. Definitely. Hey, what's your name, gym employee guy?"

"...Is that really a way to address somebody else?"

"Well, since we're both failures, then I suppose it's fine."

The gym leader looked at his frozen graveler, then back at the arena floor, and sighed.

"Simon. My name is Simon."

"...Nice to meet you, Simon." I said, slowly staggering up to him across the hailstone-ridden arena. Almost stubbing my toe on a protruding rock, I nearly tripped and leaned onto the frozen Graveler, which growled menacingly at me. Glalie growled back, and the rock's expression immediately faltered.

"If I can actually succeed with my irresponsible and stupid decisions, then you can too. You don't have to work here forever, you know."

"...But I still lost to you." he sighed. "That was just my skill level. I couldn't really adapt to heavy environmental moves because I haven't faced any before."

"There's a first time for everything, right?" I said. "Besides, I've basically only been losing battles until recently. I mean, I don't really know what changed except from Glalie evolving, but your pokemon is probably actually better against a lot of the gyms compared to mine."

"I do have three badges." he said. "The flying badge wasn't that bad for me, and Wattson was tough, but I did it when I was still a kid. And I'm pretty sure the fire gym went easy on me and old graveler here."

"When did you go on your own journey?"

"...After I beat you a ton of times that summer." Simon said, smiling slightly. "I actually regained some self-confidence after you came in to fight all those times, and went out to try on my own… with rock types."

"Fighting gym?" I asked.

"Fighting gym." He confirmed.

I held out a hand. Simon hesitated for a moment, before reaching out and giving it a firm shake. My coat rustled as he moved it up and down mechanically.

"Good luck. I hope you beat my new boss." he smiled. "And I have my own resignation to hand in."

I nodded as seriously as I could with the fluff from the coat's hood hovering around my sightline, before shouldering my bag and marching past Simon to the door that he had been guarding for the past seven years.

What was in this next room?

I didn't know. But I was about to find out.

…

My match was about eight hours later.

After actually bothering to check the schedule while I slowly calmed down from my first official league win in my entire life… I realized what time I had booked my battle for. Six in the afternoon, right about when dinner should be.

So, sitting in the waiting room with Glalie back in his pokeball, I looked down at my bag of flags and miscellaneous items. And considered.

…How tough would an actual gym leader be?

Say what you want, but the trainers I had been fighting with or traveling with were all terrifyingly competent in some way. Holly's Rosalia had great control over energy, while Simon's Graveler didn't actually seem very hurt by anything. It was merely immobilized, and if he had used his other rock types that weren't part of his routine as a gym trainer… maybe he could have beaten me.

Was it really smart to go in blind?

As I saw the kid with the red hat I had battled a couple weeks ago in the arena below.

Through the reinforced glass windows, I could see Roxanne using a… rather elementary team against the kid and his Treecko. Several simple strategies were exchanged, such as Treecko being hit into the air but using said momentum to crash down with pound… and Geodude being a Geodude and not exactly yielding to a slap from a reptile's tail. Spectators at the side of the ring cheered and gasped as the Treecko took some hits and dished out some hits.

It just seemed way too simple. Was I really just that incompetent when I was that age, to not even be able to reach those types of gym battles?

Thinking about my irrational decisions to only use ice types, I realized that yes, I was just that incompetent.

But perhaps my match would be different from whatever battle they were going to have. After all, I had signed up for a monetized match. A match that would be broadcast on television, given the fact that I had actually evolved pokemon. After all, the league needed to make their money somehow. Other than the fact that they entirely dominated small businesses and pokemon products, they also needed publicity… and fame… in order to sustain their public image so they remained the only major business in Hoenn and all the other regions.

I shrugged. That wasn't my business anyways. What could I possibly do to challenge this beast of a corporation? The one thing that I can do is just work within their system.

I cast a glance at Holly, who was actually just using my jacket as a blanket. It seemed comfortable, but she had taken it first, and although it was… well… my coat (it was a dollar, but it still technically can be classified as a piece of apparel that maintains body warmth), I just decided to let it go without a fight.

Looking down at the flags and other items in my bag again, I decided to zip it up. It was time to really test my metal.

But first, I had a call to make.

…

Surprisingly, a televised match wasn't really that big a deal. After all, it was just one of the innumerable battles in the easiest gyms in Hoenn. There were a couple cameras on the side of the arena, in addition to one on the ceiling… and an incredibly bored cameraman leaning on the stand of his camera, looking slightly amused as I trudged in with my slightly ripped winter coat and extremely worn out tennis shoe combination.

"Challenger." the girl said, an easy smile on your face. "Are you ready?"

I numbly nodded, palming Glalie's pokeball. The familiar scratches and grooves were still there upon the red and white sphere, marking year after year of it being thrown onto a variety of battlefields.

I looked down at said device. It needed a new paint job.

"...Do I have to say this every time?" the cameraman moaned into the mic.

"Yes. Yes, you do." Roxanne said sternly.

"Fine, fine." he sighed. "Only the challenger can substitute. The gym leader can't. Pokemon that have fainted can't battle any more. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Can you all get on with it now?"

"I thought this was televised." I remarked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you okay with… whatever you're saying going on TV?"

'We haven't done the spiraling drone thing that signals the beginning of the match." the cameraman yawned. "Besides, it's an amateur commenter that's freelancing on the internet that will do the commentary for your battle. None of your audio will actually make it in."

"..So that's why I'm only getting like a hundred bucks extra for televising it, right?"

"Yup. Okay, I'll do the drone thing now."

The cameraman lazily pressed a button, and Winston saw the drone do a pass in front of his face, and then in front of Roxanne's face in a programmed motion, before flying upwards while recording the fadeout. I could hear Holly's cheering in the background, but frankly, with how loud my heart was beating, I couldn't really hear her.

"...So, we've started?" I said.

Roxanne nodded. "Now, challenger, choose your first pokemon!"

"There really isn't a choice for me." I sighed, pressing the button. As it had a thousand times before, Glalie appeared.

"An… Ice type." Roxanne muttered. "And an evolved one. Your League registered information said that you had evolved pokemon, but not a single badge. In spite of this contradiction, you were placed in the more advanced league."

"Well, I'm no pokemon champion." I shrugged. "I just work with what I have."

"And yet, you have a seven year old training license, and not a single record of any gym battles." she continued. "You only recently completed your seasonal assessment at the beginning of this summer, which placed you in the advanced league. How… strange."

"Would you believe me if I've been working all this time just to defeat your gym?" I asked, reviewing my mental plan.

"...Honestly, no," She sighed. "Our gym normally isn't that difficult for trainers. Go, Graveler!"

A graveler was tossed onto the field. Contrary to the one that was possessed by the gym trainer, however, this one seemed a lot rounder and stockier. Its rock coat, instead of seeming like a collection of gravel, was actually one continuous shell. Its arms were much bulkier and longer, while for some strange reason, its feet-like appendages were flat and stayed on the ground.

All in all, a much more intimidating opponent.

"Three… Two… One… begin…" the cameraman sighed.

"Hail." I said immediately. Glalie prepared to shoot up into the sky, where it would unleash the weather effects that could-

"Tackle." Roxanne shouted.

As Glalie was concentrating on said weather condition move, Graveler moved. Moved in a way that you wouldn't expect a large rock on a flat surface to move. The boulder launched itself at Glalie' interrupting the attempt to sail upwards. Glalie had to dedicate his energy to shifting to the side as his Hail came out as a strange, distorted cough of snow.

Landing just before the arena edge, the Graveler spared me a look before resuming his endless pursuit of Glalie.

"What the fuck?" I muttered. "Since when were Graveler this fast?"

However, try as the Graveler might, Glalie, with his energy devoted entirely to flying, was still faster than a very, very heavy rock. Every single impact shook the earth as the boulder leapt up and landed once more, cracking the ground and sending dust clouds everywhere. Then, out of the cloud of dust, the Graveler would leap once more, although not ordered to by his trainer.

I had to do something about this.

"Glalie, uhmm… uhmmm." I stuttered, lost for word for once. "Ice beam! Freeze his arms!"

Glalie spun around quickly, shooting a quick beam of ice energy at the Graveler's arm, before zipping past yet another tackle attempt. This time, however, the graveler completely missed. Although its effort shattered the ice, the disparity in forces between the arms caused it to go vaguely sideways.

"Now! Set up Hail!" I shouted. "It's our only chance!"

Glalie soared upwards now that he wasn't being targeted by the Graveler, his eyes glowing blue as he looked down at the arena.

"Graveler! Rock blast!" Roxanne shouted. "Disrupt his setup!"

I wished dearly that I had practiced more with hail. It was an incredible move, but the summer outside was an ineffective place to set up the weather condition during my daily battles against trainers for money. Glalie's eyes closed, but it didn't flinch in the face of the rocks. At last, a piercing white glow emanated from his slightly battered form as a dense, white fog finally cloaked the arena. Hailstones and snow began to fall, slowly tearing away my vision, and thus, Roxanne's vision as well.

That was fine. Roxanne was more experienced than I am, but the Glalie population had adapted to see through snowstorms. We were at an advantage.

Now, I had to see if we can finally overpower the Graveler.

"Ice beam!" I ordered, as Glalie utilized the simple, yet effective attack against the rock type pokemon. The ice hit the unsuspecting graveler.

"W-what is this?" Roxanne shouted, as her own teeth began to chatter. "Why is it so cold?"

I grinned. This was also part of my plan.

"What, is there something wrong with utilizing weather effect moves?" I grinned under my heavy down coat. "Am I not allowed to use them?"

"It d-d-doesn't matter! Graveler! Retaliate!" Roxanne shouted. "Use stone edge!"

"Stone edge" I thought. "Why would she use- what the hell?"

Within the hailstorm, I could see as the Graveler raised its heavy arms. Although battered by the hail and snow, its motion didn't seem to be affected in the slightest.

Then he slammed his arms down.

Pillars of stone erupted at the point of impact as the Graveler roared, the shadowy constructs arising one after another. Their sudden state of existence made the air vibrate, making Glalie shake within his own hailstorm purely because of the vibrations. I even lost my own footing as I staggered backwards on the side of the now rather dangerous arena, having to lean against the wall to support myself.

Was this… really the full power of a gym leader? It probably wasn't considering the fact that this was still just a Graveler. Rarer pokemon were probably more powerful, and given the fact that I had never seen a Nosepass, it was probably pretty powerful.

"You're not the only one that can use arena affec-c-c… affecting moves, y'know?" Roxanne shouted over the hailstorm. The cold was definitely bothering her, but she still managed to sound smug. "This is why high level challenges usually don't happen right besides the arena."

It was understood. It was very much understood by me, as I looked for Glalie's probably battered form within the storm.

Such raw power was… threatening. It was nothing like the trainer battles in the square, where the meta was mostly on maneuverability and pinpoint attacks.

This was simply… raw power. Like that Pikachu I had faced a couple weeks ago, calling thunder from the sky despite its tiny body. This time, however, the appearance and the power level of the pokemon vaguely matched.

And I was the one that was hopelessly outmatched.

"Glalie, try to stay in the clouds!" I shouted. "Rely on the ice to heal!"

"Oh, no you don't!" Roxanne said. "There won't be any breaks for you here. Graveler-"

There was a slipping noise from the other side, and a soft whump as she probably slipped on some ice and fell.

Perfect.

"Ice beam!" I yelled. "Do it while Roxanne is still-"

"Use rock throw where the Ice beam appears!" Roxanne shouted.

My stomach sank. Clearly, she had been on the receiving ends of moves like this before. The slipping was merely bait, or her slipping wasn't enough to detract from her concentration.

"Glalie! Abort!" I yelled, but it was too late… or was it?

Because Graveler missed.

The ice beam was fired before the rock could be thrown, and Glalie clearly had aimed for the arm that was throwing the rock.

"Move! Now!" I shouted, "And do it again!"

This went back to the ancient Hisuian tactics that I had been reading. Snow guerrilla warfare was something that I was familiar with, but never had the chance to really utilize until now.

Graveler's energy wasn't limitless, while Glalie's attacks literally got stronger the longer the hailstorm was up, despite the fact that Glalie's overall energy still decreased. This meant that environmentally, we were at an advantage.

Stone edge also had a flaw: It couldn't reach up high enough.

Despite being effective against flying types, the major edge of that move was that it had to actually hit the target the size of a bird in the sky, which was… difficult… and despite Glalie being much larger than a bird, his constitution was also sturdier. Coupled with the fact that the Graveler couldn't aim well within the hailstorm, we were effectively immune to all of his attacks as long as Glalie could keep dodging.

And that would be ensured if the Graveler was sufficiently disrupted during each and every one of his attacks.

"Glalie, use powder snow as you move!" I shouted. "Try to make the area as foggy as possible!"

Slowly, the already rather dense hailstorm was also shrouded by a lot of crystalline mist, and since powder snow was a move that even a Snorunt could use without too much effort, it was basically a cake walk for Glalie.

Slowly but surely, the environment was turned into a wasteland of snow and frost, and as the Graveler slowed down more and more, I realized that we were actually winning.

Glalie wasn't hitting the ground, and therefore couldn't be hit by most of Graveler's moves.. Glalie could not be seen, so most of Graveler's physical attacks were useless as well.

For once, we were the advantaged side.

"Glalie, finish that rock off!" I shouted. "Using physics!"

Obviously, going to fight a rock in close quarters while announcing it to our opponents was a bad idea. But since Roxanne and Graveler probably couldn't figure out what was going on, it would be fine to use a code word.

Said physics application was Glalie suddenly biting down on one of the arms of the Graveler and making the temperature drop as fast as possible, before smashing said arm with as much force as he could muster.

Glalie would be hurt by this maneuver. There was no denying that. But the payoff was great, and the Graveler rolled out of the arena and storm cloud, several spiderwebbing cracks showing on its left arm.

One down.

One to go.

As Roxanne calmly withdrew her first pokemon, she looked almost… satisfied.

"Winston, I have to tell you something." she said. "Graveler… is not a particularly strong pokemon. He's the strongest one that we have as of now, but he has yet to hit the point of evolving to a Golem."

"I was assuming that this probably isn't your actual team." I said. "I mean, you're probably using league provided pokemon or something."

"Indeed." she said. "And after seeing your seven year old trainer license, I knew that I had to find a worthy pokemon for you to finally show the league what your team has been training for all these seven years."

"...If by team, you mean a single pokemon… and training for, you mean catching fish out of a lake and fighting a Torkoal… then you'd be completely accurate." I thought, a bead of sweat dripping down my forehead despite the cold temperatures.

"And that is why.. I have this pokemon in my hand." Roxanne said, closing her eyes. "It has seen many, many experienced challengers, and now, it shall face you. Go, Nosepass!"

The pokeball was thrown, and out of the thing that I've described too many times in my head emerged… another rock.

A blue rock.

A rock with a nose. And telekinetically connected legs and arms.

"Okay… This doesn't look too bad…" I muttered. "Glalie-"

"Nosepass, use rock tomb."

The room went dark suddenly as the ceiling lights were covered by huge boulders floating in the sky.

"What the hell is this fucking shit!" I yelled, "What the hell am I supposed to do! Glalie, uh-"

The rocks descended.

…

AN

Sorry about not finishing the gym battle, but college. I gotta keep my test scores up so I can not get scammed by the tuition I'm paying.

Hopefully this was a fun read. If you want to bother me to write more, join the discord!

Discord link: discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV

-SpiritOfErebus

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