C1AMA: G1: A Beautiful World, For Beautiful Heroes

by lumpeistbark3

Just when they thought they were finally able to go home, something unexpected knocked 1A of course from returning to where they needed to be, now in an even stranger place than before but not as unrecognizable. Despite their hasty arrival in the strange realm they have been tasked with guarding three key individuals that hold the future of region or world itself in there hands.

13. Month 1: Week 2: New Town, New Problem

Note: We are back into the show, my trip was a swell experience over the seas from visiting camien islands and Jamaica and now I return to the land of pokemon with another chapter for you all to enjoy!

Chapter summary:

Pokémon XY: Episode 18

Pokémon XY(Game): Cyllage City

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Awakening The Sleeping Giant: Ash's Group, Midoriya's Group

The group of eight continued to go on their adventure, making a small pit stop near Camphrier Town. The large town was surrounded by a large brick wall that, judging by the condition of the wall, had been around for a bit of time. This sentiment was mentioned even by Serena, as the girl had mentioned that the defining comment on the online map was that the traveler could "taste the ages.". Bonnie needed that phrase explained to her by her brother as he commented that the phrasing meant that the town had a rich history with many of the original buildings still standing before pointing out into the distance, which showed a rather large manor in the distance, which was a testament to that fact.

Bonnie was going to suggest that they all go over and explore the manor, but before she could say it. Hence, a loud sound completely stopped all talk as they were made to clutch their ears rather heavily just to block it out partially; the glass around them even began to shake and crack from the loud noise just when it seemed to pass. They thought that things were ok; a second and quick third round also came in quick succession. Suddenly the glass above the woman who had been sweeping nearby had completely shattered and was about to rain down on the girl Midoriya was quick as he noticed shooting out his black whip to wrap around the woman and pull her clear of the raining hazard.

The woman was completely shocked by what had just happened, and her new position, being a little fearful of Midoriya standing right beside her, she turned back to look at the place she once was and saw the new glass that had been present there before looking up at the window, which had suddenly been shattered, letting out a quick, exasperated sigh before turning to the boy that had moved her once more, which she could see that his lips were moving, but she couldn't hear him say anything. The woman remembered her earplugs and then took them out before thanking the boy for the save and asking him how he did that. Midoriya replied to never mind that for the moment and asked if the woman was right, to which she explained that she was.

Clemont asked the woman what was the source of that loud sound, and the woman at first was confused by what the boy was saying, but she immediately caught on to what he likely was referring to and took one more glance at the broken shards on the floor before letting out another sigh and showing them to the source of the noise. The teens looked at each other for a moment before following along with the women as they progressed through the city. It seemed that the town had been preparing for some festivities, the teens noted, as there were several people setting banners and flares on display. They also noted that several windows had been completely absent from the housing the closer and closer they went, which made sense given the sound would be louder and louder and the glass would likely break just like it did when they came in.

The group of eight was surprised when they found the source of the noise as they entered the town square to find three snorlaxes laid out in the bay; Bonnie remarked how they had never seen the Pokémon in person before, let alone three of them, and Serena silently agreed with that as she took out her Pokédex to scan the Pokémon.

Snorlax The Sleeping Pokémon: SNORLAX's typical day consists of nothing more than eating and sleeping. It is such a docile POKéMON that there are children who use its expansive belly as a place to play.

It is not satisfied unless it eats over 880 pounds of food every day. When it is done eating, it goes promptly to sleep.

Clemont asks the woman why three Snorlaxes were sleeping in the middle of town, and she explains that the town and the Snorlax have a symbiotic relationship; the word confusing Ash, which Iida simplified the meaning as the two help each other, which the woman confirms as she goes on to explain how during this time of the year, Snorlax comes down to their town to eat up all of the crop roots after they had finished their harvest. Serena assumed such a thing was bad, but the women corrected her and remarked that it was good because as the Pokémon went about digging up the roots, it also doubled as plowing the fields, allowing for a good harvest the following year.

When the Snorlaxs are nearly finished eating they throw a harvest festival to show the Pokemon their gratitude at the end of the festival the lord of the castle Shabboneau Castle finishes up the town offering and dances off back up the mountaintop. Ash asked if that meant that the festival hadn't happened yet and the women became a bit downcast at the question remarking that there was a bit of an issue however but they were a bit distracted by some movement out of the corner of their eyes which were a group of three kids running towards the sleeping pokemon and jumping on their stomach begging for them to wake up and wanting to see them dance.

The women got their attention once more and informed them of the problem which was the Snorlax which they could see for themselves, the pokemon were in a deep sleep and one of the only ways to wake them up from their nap was the Poke Flute, Tsu asked if they tried just giving them a good bonk on the head and the women shook her head at that course of action as she remarked that if they forcibly woke them any other way than with the poke flute Snorlax would tend to get violent and attack those that were nearby and so they don't want that.

Uraraka asked the woman where the poke flute was in that case and she honestly didn't know the king in Shabboneau Castle had usually assigned a poke flute holder and for the last couple of years it was up to him to play the flute but he had recently got sick last year so the responsibility fell to the king or original flute holders son but the son had gone missing and the king has refrained from coming to the festival this year leaving them in a hard pickle, this point was exacerbated by the sound of the loud snorlaxes snore once more that started to mildly shake the ground they had been standing on, the women quickly stuff her earplugs back and and handed the few extra she had to the rest while everyone else covered their ears, the teens had offered their own to the children as Uraraka and Iida had put their helmets on which had sound damping qualities and Tsu channel the power of the Stubfoot toad which has a vastly lower hearing capability compared to that of a normal person as her ears essentially disappeared inside of her body while Midoriya simply used his black whip to cover along his ears along with his hands.

The loud snoring continued for some time as the Snorlax continued to sleep although Clemont remarks mainly to himself as no one else could hear him at the time of a new invention. The future is now thanks to science! Clemont dug into his bag and rummaged out a device it looked like an old school circular alarm clock but with a smaller machine appendage on either side acting like arms which it could raise and lower while the hour and minute hand almost acted like a mustache as it flexed upwards in either direction. He remarked that this invention unlike his previous ones was an old one that he would have used to wake Bonnie up for school so he set the machine up to maximum volume before twisting wind up motion before setting it into action, the machine began to slam on the bell on top of its head as the twister began to de-twist. The sound it radiated mirrored that of the Snorlax snores sound reflecting the sound to amplify its own but after several seconds it didn't seem to be working and as the snoring stopped and the bel kept going and going the machine started to get faster and faster and heat up.

Midoriya sensing what was about to happen quickly threw up the clock machine just as the explosion happened leading everyone to look upwards at the explosion, Clemont only let out a sigh in return and remarked that hopefully, the explosion was loud enough to wake the sleeping Snorlax up but unfortunately, as the group looked down that didn't seem to be the case. The group was a bit saddened by the result as they took out their earplugs and stared at the sleeping Pokemon.

Some of the citizens around were getting fed up as well with the noise and disturbance remarking that the festival should be called off and the Snorlax removed from the premises otherwise people wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Some even remarked to maybe ask Nurse Joy or even Officer Jenny to remove them. The women restated that it seemed the only way to peacefully wake up the Snorlax was by using the poke flute that should be in Shabboneau Castle, the group stated that they could just go ask the lord but the women remarked that many of the town people have tried that but the king has only made excuses of why he couldn't do anything.

Ash remarked that they would go to Shabboneau Castle then and talk to the king himself; if he informed him about what had been going down, then he was sure that the king would tell them what happened, as a king should want to help his people, which was something the kids and teens agreed with. Uraraka suggested that in the meantime they could help with the snorlaxes at least for the moment so that the town people wouldn't be too disturbed by the snoring as she went over towards the snorlaxes and asked some of the kids and everyone to move back from the area as she put her knuckles togather before using her release.

The black spirals that had been following above her suddenly stopped as she proceeded to walk forward a bit she turned around to grab them out of mid-air and pulled them to the ground gracefully before setting them on the ground and placing her hands together this time using release once more and the orbs stuck to the ground hard like a rock, which it would stay for probably eternity.

The women asked what the girl was doing and Iida remarked that she was going to move the Snorlax high into the air so that the sound of their snoring wouldn't bother them too much and give the people some peace of mind as they went to figure everything out as Uraraka demonstrated as she touched two of the Snorlax which prompted both of them to simply begin to float high up into the air, the third Snorlax took a slightly longer time given that it had placed itself under a watering hole which she had to pull the pokemon out of, in a surprising show of strength that had shocked the audience in the center along with the kids and Bonnie before she tapped the pokemon and sent it up with a little speed to catch up with the other two.

They continued to rise upwards for about half a minute before Uraraka knocked one of her fists against one of the orbs on the ground before tapping them to her fingertips in a gravitic attraction which halted the Snorlax's in mid-air simply floating high up top in the distance, which everyone viewed with absolute aww although some of the children were worried and wanted the girl to bring them back down and she promised the small children that she would just as they figured out how to wake them up and asked the children if they wanted to see them dance which they all nodded excitedly and wanted to see it which Uraraka remarked that she wanted to as well and to just give them a moment they'll be back soon.

She told them with a smile as the kids ran off, and she came back to the group as the women stared at the floating Pokémon in the air. Despite their new circumstance, they were still sleeping proudly, and to the girl's credit, as the Pokémon let out their loud snore once more, the volume was a lot more tolerable than what it was on the ground. She looked back down to the women and remarked that she must be a remarkable psychic to hold them up there for so long, and Uraraka simply replied it wasn't exactly that, but it did take her some training back in the beginning; the three of them combined would probably make up half of her limit.

The woman nodded before she looked behind her and asked about the orbs on the ground. Uraraka phrased it as an anchor, or more precisely, a string on a balloon that would move the Pokémon around even from their great height, although she was confident none of them would be able to move it, so she asked if they had been in the way of any of the setup they had planned for the festival, but the woman shook her head and told them that they were in a good spot at the moment and that others would watch over it while they went to talk to the king, and she gave her thanks to the girl for helping them with their problem, at least for the moment, and wished them luck.

The group quickly made their way to the large castle on top of the hill, passing by an even older, it seemed, a castle that had been more on the ground floor, surrounded by a moat of water, which allowed visitors, but that was not where they were intended to go at the moment as the group made their way up the mountain. They were greeted by an even larger castle on the top of the mountain, and instead of blue, this one was a darker green color. Just like the previous one, it had been surrounded by a moat, but the notable difference, other than the color and size, was that the castle itself was more up to shape and refurbished compared to the one at the bottom of the mountain.

The teens reasoned that it was likely due to the one at the bottom perhaps being the original castle while this second one was a replica in its image, that way people who want to experience the town's history could do so, and the King of the town could still live in a castle, although with that reasoning Tsu believes the Lord could be a bit pretentious. The bridge came down after a few moments, and they were greeted by a rather old butler. The old man had been incredibly polite by greeting them with a bow, which the teens returned, and this was soon followed by the others as well. The man asked what brought them up to the castle, and Ash replied that they had come to see the king of Shabboneau Castle and that they came from the town below.

Seeing that they had come from such a far place, the butler had honored them with a greeting with Lord Shabboneau, as the man had been introduced with the sound of trumpets, even a grand reveal, as the throne was behind a current, which the teens thought was a bit unnecessary but carried on with nonetheless as the curtain slid away revealing the lord himself. He was not what they were expecting, someone that, or at least for Midoriya and Iida, but for Tsu and Uraraka, he was about what they expected given all the fanfare the person had for himself.

The lord was a very squat man his feet didn't even reach the floor of his thrown and he was rather pudgy as he filled out his chair completely, the lord asked what had brought the group to his domain and Ash explained that they were there to ask him to play the flute at the festival the mere question had brought a shiver up the King's spine as he hopped up from his chair and began to walk away exclaiming that it wasn't up for discussion, Ash, Bonnie, Serena, and Clemont begged the King to reconsider telling them of the snorlaxes in the center of the town which had been causing a commotion due to them not sleeping.

The king attempted to make up an excuse that he was allergic to the flute but Ash suggested simply giving it over to them instead so they could find someone the king once more attempted to lie and remarked that he developed such an extensive fear of flutes that he threw it away, of course, the teens weren't buying any of it and Tsu asked the man if he wanted to experience what the town folk below had been experiencing due to him of handing over the flute as she summoned the power of the Congolese Giant Toad and inflated her throat before cupping her hands around her mouth to let out a very loud belch aimed straight at the lord which caused him and everyone in the room to shelter their ears as the girl was able to perfectly mimic the sound of the Snorlaes that they just heard from before that, violently shaking the room that they were in as well as and shattering all the windows on that floor.

The King was floored by the sound as he tipped off balance and fell before getting up once more, Midoriya, however, felt his danger sense tell him something as he turned around and looked at one of the large suits of armor that decorated the long corridor. The Lord had been incredibly frightened once more but before he could say anything else that may have been a lie the butler had intervened and remarked that he should simply tell the truth and how he understood that he was saying such excuses to protect his family name but as he could see by what just happened he might regret lying to the group any further.

The Lord's eyes seemed to dart between his butler, the shattered widows the group, and more specifically Tsu once more before letting out a small sigh and agreeing to tell the truth. Lord Shabboneau informed the group much of what the women in the town had said before the king had someone who was dedicated to playing the flute in the festival and when he couldn't do it anymore the responsibility was passed down to his son, however, nearly a week prior there had been an incident with the Snorlax little ways outside of the town they had originally becoming a bit of a handful but a group of trainers had helped to resolve the issue.

The son of his original flute keeper had been asked to hand the flute over to the princess of the next town over which the trainers helped retrieve the flute and also deal with the snorlaxes that had been blocking their way into the town, however, it seemed that the flute son was incapable of using the flute correctly and some fighting still occurred.

Thankfully one of the trainers had been able to move the Snorlax with according to witnesses nothing but pieces of paper that extended from his elbow of all things, the teens all immediately looked at each other from the description knowing that meant that Sero and Bakugo had passed through there, lord Shabboneau continued and remarked that it seemed like from that incident and the lord of the next town over had taken an interest in the current flute keeper revealing his name to be Dale. There had been a fight due to Dale not being able to use the poke flute correctly which the young man had wanted to correct and the lord of the next town over even offered to have him taught but he hasn't been seen since.

Midoriya asks if he thought Dale was being held against his will and the Lord quickly squelched the thought and remarked that it could be likely that Dale may have slighted Princess Allie in some ways the young girl was treated rather favorably by her father if he was speaking gracefully in which case he may have been stuck there for another couple of days or so depending on the things done. He remarked that the young princess was rather quick to throw her power around in such a way and even in his kingdom he often allowed her to do so in fear of provoking a conflict between the two kingdoms.

Ash remarked that they could travel to the next kingdom and see what is happening with Dale and bring him back so that he can play for the festival Lord Shabboneau asked if he would be willing to do that for him which the entire group unanimously agreed to do so wanting to see the festival and everyone happy which the lord thanked them for their patronage for helping out.

The group responded that it was no problem and were about to leave for the next town but Midoriya had asked an almost random question before they had begun to leave as he looked at one of the pieces of large knight armor that decorated the halls and he asked the lord are the pieces of armor pokemon in any way, which confused the lord who replied that the armor before them mostly just props as they were much too large to be worn by regular people.

They could be used to hide people however Midoriya replied as he pointed to one of the armorers that were behind him in the corner to his right his black whip lashed out, surprising everyone in the room, the armor had tried to dodge out of the way of the attack however in its panic the occupants couldn't decide on which way to dodge out of the way and was completely wrapped up in the black energy, Iida snapped into action almost just as quickly as he started forwards and took the helmet off the armor which revealed a meowth.

The Pokemon was completely shocked by the action which was followed by his compatriots as Iida stripped the armor of the three which revealed Team Rocket once more, although the two teens had subdued the three, the Pokemon questioned how the boy knew they were their only to be answered by another question of how they escaped prison, neither got an answer and after the shock had passed Lord Shabboneau and Ash informed him about who team rocket was he quickly called upon his guards to come and apprehend them taking them away from the throne room and putting them down in the cells below where they would call officer jenny to apprehend them sometime later and even promising them a reward for protecting their lordship although they remarked they had been no need for it and in respect for the damage that they did to his palace.

After assuring that Team Rocket had been safely locked in jail, the group carried on with their mission to go see what had happened to Dale in the second kingdom off route six. As they traveled, Clemont asked about how Tsu had managed to mimic the sound of the Snorlax so easily and Tsu explained that the Congolese Toad had evolved the ability to mimic one of the deadliest predators in its environment a very venomous snake and when she calls upon its abilities it allowed her to mimic sounds as well that she heard which she demonstrated more by mimicking both Clemont and Ash voices which the kids found unbelievably cool and Bonnie wanted her to mimic her voice as she did as well as they started their trek.

Serena seemed to have picked up on that they seemed familiar with the person that had moved the Snorlax, which they were sure was likely their friend Sero. The teen could produce and control tape that shot out of his elbows. Bonnie thought the power sounded neat while Ash asked if one could become a hero with only that, and Iida replied that he shouldn't be underestimated. It is not the quirks themselves that define a good hero but how the person makes use of them. Midoriya agreed with that, telling them of a story where there had been an upperclassman of theirs whose only power was to phase through things named Mirio, but to do so, not only did he have to hold his breath, but he also gave up each of his five senses when using it for combat; touch, smell, sound, taste, and sight were completely gone, but he made it work for him, and he was on track to become a great hero.

Uraraka even mentioned that most of their class had tried to go against him, and he still beat all of them, which caught the kid's attention and amazement. The lesson they learned from that was to emphasize the creative use of their powers so that they could better use them so even the most mundane power could be powerful, which the kids nodded in understanding. The group continued to travel, eventually reaching the large, wide gate that had highlighted the next kingdom over; unfortunately, as they went to buzz the gate, the butler remarked that there was no visitation scheduled for the day, so they were not allowed in. Even when the group tried to inform the man of the problem they were having, the butler did not listen and simply restated that no visitors were allowed on that day.

Leading them to stomp for a moment as they tried to figure out their next steps, they loomed around the large hedge bush that circled the garden of the large manor, and it was Bonnie who suggested to them that they could simply jump the hedge bush and enter into the garden in the back. Still, Iida remarked that that would be breaking and entering, which they couldn't do, especially as heroes. Tsu argued that technically they were assigned by Lord Shabboneau to find his missing citizen. As such, they should have some liability to search for him, especially when denied entry into the last place he's been, impeding their investigation, which they could maybe work with for a reason for entering.

Iida found it somewhat of an acceptable reason for them to go into the home; the other option would be to just get Officer Jenny, but for the moment they could simply go and search around. With that settled, Tsu wrapped her tongue around everyone leaped high up and over the hedge bush, and landed in the massive garden. There they spotted numerous large and extravagant statues of some of the legendary Pokémon, like Reshiram and Zekrom, along with two large hedge mazes, a water fountain, and four plant guardians, and within the center of the belonged a sizable Pokémon arena.

The entire party was fairly impressed by the spectacle of the large garden as the group began to walk in the large backyard of the manor, although it would be soon where they were set upon by one of the inhabitants of the manor, which was none other than a furfrou, the owner of this Pokémon. Similar to others they have seen, having groomed the Pokémon to look a peculiar way that was different from what they've seen before, the Pokémon took on a more rounded style with a purple highlight along its chest, paws, circular tail, edge of its long ears, and front part of its cap; the top of its head was made to look like a baseball cap with six white fur balls rounding the bottom edges. The middle part of its body had been trimmed bare to give the Pokémon some contrast of almost showing its stomach or wearing clothes that showed off the midriff as if it were on a human.

The Pokémon ran around the corner barking agitatedly from likely smelling strangers enter its territory; however, the Pokémon merely barked at them and never attempted to attack, acting only like an alarm system for the next person that had arrived with a rather scathing comment to boot as she called off her Pokémon, referring to the group as "trash," which the dog shouldn't lay with unless it wanted a stomachache, which Ash quickly took offense to, although the small girl had simply brushed his concern off.

The girl who referred to them as such was a small one maybe a couple of years older than Bonnie at most and she wore a large extravagant pink dress with a heart on the center of the chest, she possessed rather large fake eyelashes along her face and she wore pink heels to match, she had orange curled hair and wore white sleeves that went with the white gloves she also wore as she held a mini-fan in her arms, the thing that told them that they were likely looking at princess alley, however, was the silver princess crown fitted with three green gems fitted in the center but other than that the group of four maids following behind the girl and occasionally throwing ripped flower petals along her feet was also a dead give away of her status and royalty.

Bonnie was enamored by the small girl's style and crown, asking if she was a princess. Allie was more than willing to indulge herself as she remarked that she was with a laugh and an additional laugh and more petals being thrown by the maids behind her. Ash quickly got to the point of why they were there and asked if the girl had seen someone named Dale in the manor, explaining the situation of how the man had an important event to get to for the festival for the town next door.

The girl did a rather unnecessary long pause as she seemed to pretend to not know what the boy was talking about before she smacked her mini-fan into the palm of her hand as she remarked that the man was currently doing time in their dungeon, this got the group completely confused about several things but the first two that had sprang to mind was first that the place held a dungeon but second, what did Dale do to have been placed there, and the small girl remarked that he attempted to steal something from her which again shocked the group but when Uraraka asked what did the man attempt to steal she replied that he attempted to steal the poke flute back that he allowed her to have.

Tsu attempted to ask the girl for more clarification and asked that the man was likely only allowing her to see the device, not to have it completely, as he had a job to do with it, so it didn't seem likely he would just give it to her like that, but the small girl sassily replied that her things were hers and anything given to her was now considered hers, and since it was now considered hers, she no longer needed to give it to anyone, which she finished off with another mocking laugh.

The entire group's expression turned sour upon hearing that, as they instantly figured out that the little girl was maybe just a little too self-absorbed with herself and more importantly did not have much respect for other people, the kids attempted to reason with the small girl asking her to free the man and telling her about what was happening in the town next over with the Snorlax and the people not being able to sleep at night do to the pokemon's snoring and the people may even start hating Snorlax but the small girl response was that the townspeople should simply run away to their seaside villa but it was clear she was once more just flashing off her wealth once more so they elected to ignore the comment mostly.

Ash once more begged the girl to let Dale out, this time being accompanied by a chirp from the Pikachu on his shoulder. It seemingly got the girl's attention as she noticed the small yellow Pokémon she quickly got closer to the boy and his Pokémon, looking at the Pikachu all the while. She explained that all Pikachu have different size cheeks, and he was interesting to her due to the both of them being perfectly symmetrical with the other, along with the roundness and redness being also completely congruent with one another, making it an excellent Pokémon for her. That was, as she began to smoosh around the Pokémon's cheeks, culminating in her yanking the Pokémon off of Ash's shoulder surprisingly.

She remarked that the Pikachu was too perfect to be in Ash's possession and that the girl should keep it for him as an heirloom, which shocked both Ash and his Pikachu. However, this was more in the literal sense for the Pokémon, as the girl let out a slightly panicked scream as the Pokémon shocked her and quickly ran away from back to its trainer, climbing back up onto his back and hiding further behind the boy's head, as Ash placed a hand on top of its head to comfort the small Pokémon as he immediately replied that there was no chance he would be handing over his Pikachu. The maids behind the girl's eyes all turned to venom upon hearing their master's pained shout, but before they could act, the small princess held out a hand signaling them to stop before snapping her fingers and remarking that they should "bring out the stuff" instead.

The maids bowed before making their appearance scarce and quickly shuffling off they had been gone for not much more than five minutes before they returned with a cart with a white sheet covering over its contents which was revealed to them to be a rather large list of priceless gems and jewels along with large gold bars that represented thousands of dollars in poké and asked if the boy was still willing to say no to her if she gave him all of the treasure along the cart and while everyone had been mesmerized by the amount of treasure Ash quickly snapped back into action and rapidly shook his head and remarked that his Pikachu was never going to be for sale and he was his dedicated partner and they were sticking togather for the long haul.

The girl seemed annoyed, and with another snap of her fingers, the maid recovered the cart and began to move it away. The small girl seemed to ponder once more in thought before something seemed to came to her mind, and getting closer to Ash once more, thinking she may have been going for his Pikachu, once more Ash took a couple of steps back, but the girl started to speak once more in a smaller tone, reminding the boy of his objective of coming to the Perfume Palace in the first place. how they wanted Dale, or maybe just the Poké Flute itself, and she proposed another crazy challenge, which would be that they would have a battle between his Pikachu and her Furfrou and the winner of the battle would get the thing that they wanted.

The kids remarked that even prosing such a thing was awful and very rude, but the princess simply shrugged them off and remarked it was the only way that they were going to be able to get to Dale or the poke flute, and then she also reminded the group that technically they were all on her property illegally, so she had a right to report them all to Officer Jenny, but more than that, she had been attacked by one of their Pokémon, which could result in Ash losing Pikachu entirely, which caused all of them to gasp in shock again, but this time in anger at such blatant overuse of her power.

Ash was thinking about whether he should go along with it looking over his options. Still, Pikachu seemed to decide for him hopping down from the boy's shoulder and plopping down in front of him before letting a few squeaks and a show of power by using its electricity to surround its body and micro explode out into the air showcasing to his trainer that the pokemon was ready to battle. The display was Ash needed to carry on and accept the battle.

They proceeded toward the Pokemon field which was soon followed by the rest of the group, Serena had gone to check on Uraraka and the teens to see what they had to say about what had been going on but the girl was surprised when both she and Midoriya had both of their eyes clothes, while the other two teens had been blocking them from the maids and the princess as they past by, Seran asked Tsu wat were the two doing and she explained the two of them were attempting to find out where Dale was inside of the large Palance in case they would need to go and rescue him themselves, the girl was overindulgent on her power and they weren't going to let an innocent man simply be imprisoned for no reason once they find him they would send Tsu in to go get him although, with the new circumstances, they may not need to, Iida remarked as they turned back and headed along with the others goes towards the arean taking and picking up Midoriya and Uraraka in the meanwhile as they continued to focus their concentration on searching for Dale.

Just as Ash and Allie had gone down into the pit of the Pokemon arena the rest of the group along with Allie's maids had stayed above separating themselves along the large field as Ash's friends took up the right side while the maids took up the left. Before the battle began to progress both Midoriya and Uraraka seemed to snap back to themselves and look around for a moment at their surroundings, Iida filled them in on the situation that had been happening at the moment before discreetly asking if they found Dale, Midoriya, and Uraraka seemed to nod simultaneously but instead of continuing to murmur amongst themselves that may draw attention they instead elected to use their phones and send private messages that way.

The dungeon comment was nearly literal there had been a location that had been inside the manor, deeper inside the base floor, and going by both of their counts likely below even the moat that surrounded the place, Midoriya could identify that there had been multiple people inside the building about 30 of them which Uraraka corroborated but the person in the basement seemed to be the only one near the body which they were assuming was Dale as according to her the man wasn't moving around as much as the others an staying in the one place.

They couldn't tell his condition but Uraraka remarked that going off his aura he wasn't in any major danger and deku commented that he didn't seem fearful or worried which could suggest that he didn't have any major injuries of anything of that kind so they didn't have to spring into action right away, they concluded that while the small girl was maybe a bit rude she likely wasn't malicious in that regard so for the moment they could maybe leave it up to Ash to handle the situation but Tsu asked the question allowed that what will they do if the boy loses, they pondered that for a moment in some worry it was a verbal agreement between the two, that technically should honor but being a verbal agreement likely also meant that it didn't have to be committed to.

Serena had budded into their conversation and remarked that it wouldn't come to that and that Ash was going to win, the teen spared a glance at the girl and remarked that they were confident in Ash being able to win as well but it was just good to have a fallback plan just in case. Clemont was set up as the proctor of the match as he stepped up to a referee area that hovered above the arena below as he read off the ruling of the match, firstly naming off the rewards of the match that both challenges were agreeing to first of which was Allieif she looses handing over Dale and the poke flute which the girl agreed with and the second was Ash handing over his Pikachu if he looses which Ash took a moment to look down at his Pikachu which gave him a confident nod before he also agreed with the terms.

Clemont acknowledged one more time as the two competitors clicked their two pokeballs togather but even more than that, Ash had to click on a second empty Pokeball that Allie had along with Pikachu ball which would automatically transfer over the ownership of the Pokemon in the case that he looses which the teens whistle at not thinking things would go such a way as now it was purely up to ash to win the match or else that was that if they attempted to take back Pikachu that be stealing from the girl. He announced the match as a single elimination held between Ash's Pikachu and Allie's furfrou and finally announced the match to begin.

Ash was the first one to start the match as he told Pikachu to use a quick attack. The small Pokémon began to charge forward with a white glow along its body, but Allie didn't seem concerned about the attack at all as she simply remarked that such a move should be child's play for her Furfrou as she let out a laugh, and her Pokémon simply charged forth directly into the attack. In the mutual charge amongst the Pokémon, it was the Pikachu that took the heavier burden, as when the two Pokémon passed each other, the small mouse Pokémon staggered from the trade and slid on the ground in front of Allie.

This mad Midoriya comment about Ash's use of quick attack on a Pikachu of all things, given its very low physical attack power, if he remembered correctly which Iida also remembered the Pokemon having, Serena asked what they meant and the group remarked for the girl to look at her pokedex and look at the Pikachu page the girl did so looming over the pokemon a bit more and the stats page that it had, they remarked that quick attack was a physical move but Pikachu itself wasn't very optimal for such an ability, they would have thought that he would have swapped it out by this point in his adventure.

The girl nodded in understanding as she next looked at the Furfrou page to compare it to a Pikachu; she knew the difference between physical and special moves, but Pokémon specializing in either was somewhat foreign to her. Everyone's eyes were drawn back to the fight at hand as Pikachu recovered and Ash called out for the Pokémon to look out behind it. The Furfrou continued to charge forward at the Pikachu as Ash commanded it to use Iron Tail, and to counter the attack, Allie commanded her Furfrou to use Bite. Pikachu jumped high into the air as its tail turned to iron and slammed down on top of the Furfrou. The Furfrou responded by opening its mouth as the fangs in its mouth glowed a bright white and bit along Pikachu's iron tail, causing a small shout of pain to sound from the Pokémon before Furfrou began to whip its head around in circles, swinging the Pokémon for a moment before attempting to slam it down into the ground, but the Pikachu was able to recover in time and spin around in mid-air and land on its feet.

Allie complimented the Pikachu's reflexes but remarked that it wouldn't be enough to beat her as she extravagantly announced her next move, which was none other than a charge beam. Ash immediately countered with an electro ball. The two attacks collided in midair, creating a rather large dust cloud, although Pikachu was blown backward a bit from the force being more in its direction. Ash was quicker to react than Alie because just as the dust was still settling in the air, he ordered his next move, which was Thunderbolt. The attack came rocketing out of the smoke at a near-blinding pace, dispersing the rest of the remaining smoke and completely blindsiding Furfrou and Allie as he was able to land a direct hit against the Pokémon.

The attack had dispersed to reveal that the Pokemon had still been standing although the Pokemon had been paralyzed however that wasn't what Allie had been concerned about the girl completely yelled out in shock when she saw that the fur on top of her Pokemon's head had completely unraveled from its neat and pampered look and had emerged into a rather frizzled afro, the girl couldn't believe that they have done that to her pokemon and the girl's dismay caused both Bonnie and Serena to chuckle at her expense although the next thing the girl did surprise her as she snapped her finger and demanded that her maids take her furfrou to the groomer however Clemont mentioned to the girl if fufrou was removed from the field that would be her admitting to forfeiting the match.

Allie took a moment to answer, and when she did, she answered with a pout and simply remarked that she nor her Pokémon could battle looking in such an atrocious state, so Clemont declared Ash the winner of the match. The others clapped for the boy's victory. Ash asked for the girl to bring out Dale and the Poké Flute, but in a shocking turn of events, the young princess had denied doing so, even remarking that she was under no authority to give it to them since it wasn't a written agreement and they had no proof of such a deal taking place, but even further that if she had won, she would have given them the flute at least as a gift.

The group all began to proceed down the Pokémon arena, but all the teens looked over to Tsu, who nodded her head as she used the distraction to back up and hop back over the hedge bush surrounding the garden to put her hero costume on so that she could stealthily go inside. While the other teens would go down to attempt to keep the peace and the princess's and maid's attention. The kids had been declaring how unfair the deal was even initially, but now the girl was demanding even more from them. The girl simply laughed them off once more since she was the ruler of the palace.

That was until Clemont got into her face; the boy had seemed deadly serious in his approach, which partially surprised the princess, as he pointed an accusatory finger in the small girl's face and remarked that while it was true that she was the princess of this palace, her selfishness wouldn't work outside in the real world, as not everyone could be bought with money, and if anything, having that money could come to hurt her more. He cited Ash as an example of someone who lives up to his promises, even if it meant putting his precious partner Pikachu on the line because he believed that she would have been the same.

He told her how she may seem to have many friends now, but that was only due to her money, and to think about how many people would want to be around her if she didn't have that, and finished off by answering the question himself, remarking that without her money, she would have no one.

Both Bonnie and Serena thought that Clemont had been going a bit too harsh on the small girl, but Iida backed him up, remarking that with how much power her family possessed, it would be easy for her to walk around with a chip on her shoulder, and one day that could lead to disaster down the line for her and her palace that she adores, so it would be better for her to be taught such a critical lesson. She can't throw around her power so easily and expect people to treat her nicely or respectfully.

The girl had been seemingly sniffling from the remarks made about her, which were mirrored by the maids behind her, who had small hand towels to dab away their tears, although this turned completely on its head when the small princess spoke once more, as what the girl extrapolated from what the boy said was that he cared for her; maybe even Iida did as well, which was a very strange turnaround as she moved closer to Clemont and batted her eyelashes at the boy. Clemont quickly took a step back and told her that she may have been having a misunderstanding, which the girl pouted at before turning to Iida and asking the same of him, to which the large boy nodded, remarking that he had concerns for her in the sense of a concerned civilian, not anything more.

She pouted once more and remarked before getting an idea as she asked them once more about the poke flute and Dale, but in return, she wanted both Clemont and Iida as a "fair" trade, which completely baffled everyone, although Serena and Bonnie called everyone to a group huddle while they weighed their options. First, they contacted Tsu and asked how close she was to the target; the girl had to find out how to get down into the basement of the manor. It took a bit of time, but she was still working her way down without having to break anything.

They argued the point about whether they should just agree with the girl's deal instead and remarked that they could just leave at any time they wanted, as the girl never actually specified the amount of time they wanted them to stay with her, and worst comes to worst, they could just have Iida speed them away without much problem. Iida considered it for a moment and thought that plan was good enough to accept, better than what they had been currently doing with Tsu further breaking into the princess' home, which could cause even more problems for them if the girl found out.

So with a heavy sigh, Iida decided to go along with it and waited for Clemont's comments, which, despite looking a bit nervous, also agreed to the trade. Uraraka asked Tsu to leave the house and come back outside to where they were, and the girl confirmed as Iida and Clemont were about to go and accept the small girl's offer.

She quickly turned around at that moment and remarked to the small princess something a little surprising as she came up and tapped on the back and remarked that she didn't think that they were making a fair trade and that she was getting a potential suitor in Clermont and a knight in Iida; this random line completely took both Clemont and Iida off guard, especially Clemont, as he reiterated the word suitor over and over again in his head, completely flushed, and was going to outright object until Uraraka had put a hand over his mouth to stop him, as she came up and remarked that on top of the trade, they may get some poké for their troubles.

Allie considered the girl's proposal looking Iida up and down and remarking that while tall he didn't look the part much like a knight Midoriya was the one to answer her and remarked that he wasn't wearing his armor at that moment and also how Iida was also very special in that he was really fast as well so he could carry her around to different places in the home if she wanted to as he pointed towards the small engines located on his forearms which intrigued the girl as she got closer to examine them and Midoriya offered that he could even show her, him in his suit of armor which the girl thought would be a good idea and Iida agreed with a small crooked smile showing slightly uncomfortable with what was happening as he asked for both Uraraka and Midoriya to join him so they could talk more privately.

He essentially dragged the two of them and demanded to explain what she was doing and Uraraka explained that they needed to buy more time for Tsu so she needed to keep the conversation going so she could join them once again but Iida then asked why the inclusion of money and at that Uraraka flushed for a bit and remarked that it was only just a little payback for the way she was treating them and it wasn't like they didn't need the money in the first place, which Iida could more or less agree with as he sighed and took a moment to jump over the hedge bush and put on his armor, Uraraka suggested for the teen to speed back into the field and strike a pose so that they could get an even bigger price for him, Iida once more iterated how he felt like he was being auctioned off but Mirdoriya told him to think of it more like the girl was paying him to tutor her which the boy found more agreeable although he doubts she would listen to him that much.

Tsu came back towards them just in the nick of time when everyone had been exiting out of the pit of the Pokemon arena, Allie had been holding onto Clemonts arm the entire time while they waited for Iida to make his appearance known and he followed Uraraka's instructions as he arrived with some flare using his engine booster to soar high over the hedge bush and behind the groups as smoke trails leaked behind him as he braced himself for the landing and turned around and announced his hero name Ingenium with a strong heroic pose.

Allie was immediately enamored by the boy as she went to get a closer look at him dragging Clemont along with her all the while as she observed and inspected his armor along with the eight engines that came off his suit.

The small princess was impressed although she wanted them to see him more in action as she ordered him to run a lap around the garden, behind his mask Iida did a deadpanned expression but followed orders anyway as he quickly traveled across the entire large garden several times blowing up a large wind gust in the process which forced Allie and all of the maids to push down on their dresses to keep from rising upwards, he settled for 10 laps before coming back to a complete stop in front of Allie and the girl's eyes were sparkling with amazement and intrigue but she quickly regained her posh composure and played with her fan a few more times hitting it into the palm of her other hand attempting to think about what she should offer in return for such a fine knight she turned back to the group and gave a price of 500,000 poké for him and an additional 300,000 poké for Clemont which Midoriya immediately agreed with which made the princess extremely happy as she practically skipped along her feet as she gestured for her maids to receive the money along with Dale and the pokeflute.

They proceeded inside the palace and navigated the long and decorated hallways of the large manor filled with royal golds, blues, and reds, which the girl was not afraid to show off, as she took them a long way around to get to the front door. There they had found Dale, and soon later the maid had rolled in a cart counting the poke flute and the poké. In comparison to the tiny sticks that signified the 1,000 poké, eight solid gold bricks were about the size of Midoriya's hand, which represented 100,000 poké each. They took the money and waved goodbye to the other two as they waved goodbye back.

It didn't take very long for the new group of seven to make its way back to the kingdom, especially with Midoriya speeding up the process as he took off with the posse high into the air, which surprised Dale quite immensely, and he made the connection to those other teens he had seen before nearly a week prior, which they confirmed were friends of theirs. They asked the man if he was prepared for the festival, and Dale, with some slight worry, said that he believed so as they made it back into the town square where the king of the castle had just arrived as well, and the food offering was still being completely set up. The townsfolk weren't too surprised to see them flying down, given that a number of them kept a solid line of sight up in the sky, staring at the Snorlaxes that had still been floating there asleep. As Midoriy set them down, he went to retrieve the Pokémon and brought them back down into the town square, careful not to squash anything.

Uraraka released her powers on the slumbering Snorlax, and the festivities were ready to begin once more; however, the king did have some not-so-pleasant news to inform them of, which was that the two prisoners that they had captured before they left for the castle had managed to escape. He admitted that it was an embarrassing display on his part due to a lack of formal training for his guards, who were more like actors than true guardsmen, that they didn't carefully unarm the captives of their Pokémon, so they had managed to bust out of prison and escape into the forest nearby.

The teens didn't mind it much and remarked that they could always capture them the next time before asking if anyone was injured in the escape, and thankfully no one was. With that out of the way, the festival could finally begin as Dale and the lord took to a podium that hung above the food offering, with everyone looking up towards them. Dale seemed to wipe sweat from his brow before gripping the poke flute and taking several deep breaths to calm his nerves, seemingly locking eyes with someone in the crowd, which restored his confidence before beginning to play the flute. It started a little rough, but as he went on, it smoothed out very gently, and the three Snorlax all began to respond to the music, waking from their slumber and glancing around for a moment.

Almost as if the flute was guiding them the three Snorlax broke out into a dance hopping from one foot to the other which was mirrored by some of the other townfolk and children who wanted to dance with them which many did although the group was simply content to watch the spectacle unfold right in front of them, not being the greatest of dancers themselves although Uraraka and Midoriya held hands for the entirety of the flutes song as they watched over the dancing pokemon and people, as the night started to fall the large pokemon's belly started to ruble and their happy dance quickly brought them over to the offering that had been presented before them as the pokemon ate and ate the flute continued to play in the background as fireworks lit up the sky. When the three Pokemon were full they quickly began to make their way out of the small town they continued towards their home in the hills as the townsfolks waved goodbye and thanked the Snorlax's for the harvest.

As the festivities were winding down Midoriya suggested that the group continue with their adventure although Serena asked if he was forgetting about Clemont Midoriya assured them that with Iida they could catch up in no time and since the girl did give them a rather generous amount of money they should allow her to enjoy their company for a bit longer although having said that Uraraka pinched Midoriya on the cheek as she was reminded of the mossy haired boy's folly in that negotiation as she remarked that they could have secured more funs if he didn't bit on the first offer made. Which caused the group to let out a small laugh at the couple's antics.

---

Perfume Palace

Clemont truthfully didn't know what to say about the situation that they had gotten him into as the small princess had clung to his arm and fed him all sorts of food, it's not like it was bad per se far from it in fact although he didn't like the prospect of leading a girl on to something that wasn't going to happen any time in the foreseeable future, while he had the duty of entertaining the girl Iida merely had to exist by their side as a protective knight or give the girl the occasional piggyback ride around the manor sometimes even with the both of them.

Given they still had the drone following Ash and company using Iida's suit, he was able to project what was happening in the next town over to the three of them while they sat and ate, which the girl forced Clemont to dance with her as the Snorlaxed danced; this was somewhat of a learning opportunity for the both of them as Clemont had to instruct the girl on some formal waltz moves, but overall the night went well. Iida had put his foot down in remarking that Clemont wouldn't go with the girl to her chambers to sleep and remarking how unethical it was for nonmarried couples to do so, which saved Clemont for that time as she assigned them a large bedroom a couple of doors away. Iida told Clemont that they would be leaving in the morning, and Clemont sighed with relief as he could put this nightmare behind him.

---

Overcoming The Boulder: Elliot, Calem, Bakugo's group

Elliot never thought how it would feel like to be camping out along the beach would be like but despite not having to worry about other wild Pokemon, for the most part, he stil decided to air on the side of caution and set up his tent, they could have gone back into the forest to head into Cyllage City but the beach offered the same distant with fewer obtrusions and besides it also allowed them to use their new dowsing machine on their journey to see if they could find in treasures on their travels that might have been washed onto the beach by the ocean, although Bakugo didn't seem to care very much about it even allowing Jackie and Mina to use the machine more than he did, the only problem that arose with camping out on the beach was the sand, well mainly to Calem, Kirishima, Jackie, and Sero but this was primarily due to them not taking the advice of him or Bakugo to not just brave the elements and set up their tents as if they were sleeping in the woods.

The sand had been blown into their clothes causing them to have some severe itching when they woke up this was not to mention the occasional pinch from Dwebble who had been searching for a suitable new rock and found that they had been in the way from the pokemon from getting to, unfortunately for the small pokemon the person that it had decided to clamp on was Jackie and the girl despite being someone he would describe as easy-going or casual person didn't take to kindly to that which but to him took it a good bit to far as she used the whirlwind on the creature and he saw first hand how dangerous such a technique could be used against an organic being as the small crab was violently bisected by the vicious airwaves and the girl seemed to just brush it off like a pest after that. He wasn't dumb; he understood that humans sometimes hunted and killed Pokémon for food, some Pokémon even being regarded as a delicacy, but he guessed seeing it in first person was something else and in such a violent way to boot.

The others didn't seem to Amish her for the stunt when they woke up and found the Pokemon pieces and maybe trying to dispel worry about her Sero remarked that where she and Silvy were from they weren't used to friendly monsters very much so if something that they conceive as unnatural attacks them they wouldn't hesitate to put it down without remorse or pity which he got but he didn't know if that made it much better, Mina also slept outside her tent but unlike the others that would get bothered by the sand that managed to weasel its way into her clothes she was simply able to melt it all of using her acid-man technique, the girl had to get rid of her clothes for that though since they would simply melt off along with the sand which would have been problematic if the girl couldn't conjure her shelter with her solid-state acid.

Calem was curios about the substance and threw a small rock into the small enclosure wondering if it was still acidic which it was while seemingly not as acidic as before the rock was a bit melted off as it bounced off the enclosure and landed back into the sand, Kirishima was similar to mine where he used his quirk to remove the sand from him and his clothing red riot adaptable was pretty unique as well as the simplest way to remove the sand seemed to repel the substances entirely his entire body, clothes included had appeared to secrete a weird substance that seemed to just expel the sand from all over his body as it simply started to peel off of him like they were being repealed by something, they asked Kirishima what he was doing and how he was doing it but the boy simply had no idea himself, his body adapts but how that adaption works or why that adaption was working he didn't immediately know of although after a moment his body seemed to give him the knowledge and he explained that it was due to the his body admitting a hydrophobic substance thats stopping the sand from sticking to his body and clothes making it fall right off.

After the group had been done with their cleaning and continued with their journey along the beach they had another shortstop to make as Elliot announced that his egg was finally hatching, Calem was immediately interested and asked him where he got it from and he told him that he along with Trevor, Tierno, and Shauna had got some from a pokemon daycare they passed by a couple of days ago which caused the boy to pout a bit as he snapped his fingers and remarked he knew he should have checked inside that place but he didn't have a reason to stop if he knew he could potentially get an egg out of it, then he would have surely went, he has to check up on another pokemon daycare the next time he got close to one he thought to himself for the most part, as Elliot shot the egg out of his spare Pokeball and the eggs began to rock and shake, it took a little time before the firsthand began to burst from the egg.

It took another minute for the second hand to burst from the egg and then for the head to burst out of the top separating the egg in half as the Pokemon peaked over the rest of the shell and stared out at the people surrounding it the group before hunkering down in its small egg once more and peeking its eyes out again scanning the surroundings for its master when it did so, it seemed to let out a small chirp in response of recognition as Elliot move forward slowly to rub the pokemon on the head before helping it and lifting it out of its egg and placing it down judging by the wings he guessed the pokemon was flying type of some kind and the purple skin maybe it was also poison? He tried to familiarize himself with most Pokémon that were native to or populated in the Kalos region, but there were dozens of them, so some would get lost in the back of his mind, especially the initial-stage Pokémon as well.

He took out his Pokédex, scanned it over, and was shocked by the outcome; the Pokémon was a Noibat. He would like to say that the Pokémon was a bit on the rarer side of things when it came to places the Pokédex entry about it read.

Noibat The Sound Wave Pokemon: They live in pitch-black caves. Their enormous ears can emit ultrasonic waves of 200,000 hertz.

The Pokémon was very small, being just over 1 ft tall, but as he looked at his Pokédex at its evolution, he could see that it became a pretty interesting customer. It evolved into a Noivern, and going off its Pokédex entry, it was a seemingly frightening and powerful Pokémon, stating that:

Noivern the sound wave Pokemon: In the dark, even Hydreigon are terrified of this Pokémon. But in the light, Noivern is the one that avoids battle.

Hearing the name of its evolution got the teen's interest as they met the Pokémon before from a Pokémon reporter. Alexa, Calem had heard that name before from some articles he found online about something around the region, and the teens reminded Elliot that they briefly met the women when they left from Lumiose City, and Elliot did remember that as he tilted his head from one side to the other before remembering the women as he put the Noibat down and watched as the small Pokémon began to flap its wings and start to fly.

The teens asked if baby Pokemon were capable of battling and Elliot confirmed that they were however as one could expect the moves that they could use were quite limited in scope and would need to be bolstered by TM or HM until they could learn something on their own as they grow and develop as Elliot put the Noibat back in its, well her ball as he looked over the pokemon gender, Calem asked was he going to keep the pokemon and he remarked that he'll try and trade for it first but if that doesn't work out he might as well just keep it for the journey it wasn't apart of the roster he was going to keep originally but having a few additional pokemon on him wouldn't hurt anyone, he even pondered allowed that maybe after the league was over and likely after a few more years with his parent he could travel the world to catch all pokemon at least once.

Calem liked the sound of that idea and hoped for his rival to take him with him if he did decide to do that, but he second-guessed that when he thought about it as he remarked that he didn't know if the champion of a region would be allowed to take extended stays out of the region, causing him to laugh once more at the boy's confidence and spirit, causing him to ask what was so funny, although Elliot simply blew it off. The group continued on their way to Cyllage City, not much on their journey after the Pokémon egg hatched. They passed along a couple of trainers along the beach, but most of them had been too busy fishing to bother with Pokémon battles; some were even painting along with their Smeargle.

The only other time that they stopped was when the two couples had taken one of the painters they passed up on his offer to allow him and his Pokémon to draw them. The painter had given them a price of about 5,000 Poké each, and given the money that they had gathered so far, they could afford the price, which gave them some time to chill out and talk about strategies to beat the next gym leader. Calem went off to practice near the beach shoreline with his tentacool and decided on which fire Pokémon he should use in the upcoming battle, his Braixen or Charmander.

Elliot was going through a similar process thinking about which Pokemon should he use for the upcoming battle he realized he didn't have many choices now that he thought although he had five different Pokemon to his name only three of them were going to be on his main roster it wasn't going to be that much of a difficult thing to do his Zoro was new but it was still a dragon type and was neutral against rock and ground types and held some good resistances but on the other end using seaquake and evergreen meant that he would have to go through the handicap modifier, Mina suggested that she was fine with him using her Skrelp if he wanted to give the pokemon was a rock type water should be effective he thanked the girl but he already ruled that out he wanted to beat all the gyms with pokemon that would be with him to the very end where he gets to the league.

After the paintings were done they continued with their adventure and got to Cyllage City the first thing they did was as usual go to a Pokemon center to get one final check-up on their Pokemon before the big event and Calem accompanied Elliot to the back to the world trading center and once more he had to pay the fee and set up what pokemon he was like to trade for but he left it open for any offers, you never knew he told Calem trading one pokemon for another and then trading another pokemon for the pokemon he wanted could be a viable strategy although in his mind he thought that he likely didn't even have to do this if he got the teens to just take him to a region that normally housed them, just needed to scoot around his parents was all but he didn't know if the teens would be comfortable with doing that, maybe bakugo would be but knowing him he would probably have him pay an absurd price for the travel distance maybe even double for back and forth, he thought with a slight chuckle.

The group continued forward and got a bite to eat before heading over; Calem wanted to play rock, paper, scissors to decide which of them would challenge the Gym first, but Elliot allowed him to have it as he remarked that he would be going through the Pokémon handicap system in the first place, so it wouldn't matter. Another trainer, a young man, overheard them talking about the gym leader and remarked that he was going to be taking on the gym leader once he returned first and challenged Calem to the match instead.

Before the match began, Eliot asked what the boy meant when he said when the leader returned, the young kid remarked that the gym leader was currently competing in a bicycle race that was going around the city at the moment, and the gym would be open in the next few hours or so, even pointing to the scene behind in the window, which showed a bunch of bicycle riders driving by in the middle of the street headed down the block near the large mountain with a winding road upwards, Elliot and Calem, and they immediately left the restaurant they were in as the group looked at the bicycle riders pass by.

Calem asked if he could have Sero catch up with them and the boy obliged as he took the two and continued hovering above the buildings and a bit further away so that they didn't distract anyone in the race, they looked on their phones and cycled through the internet to find coverage on the race and see who was in the lead, thankfully Sero remarked that there weren't any helicopters taking it as he lowered down a bit more still keeping his distance to not distract the racers or camera crews down below but as the large group of cyclist began to cycle up the large hill he simply stopped and allowed them to view the image from afar, the higher they went up the better chance they would be seen and given how many of them there were it would essentially be a really bad pile up if one of them fell due to them.

There had been a clear winner in the lead of the pack, and by the broadcast below, the leader was none other than the gym leader himself, Grant, a dark-skinned man who took off his helmet to smile for the camera and waved as the other racers started to place. Sero took the two back toward the restaurant where the others were and went back inside as they continued to view the rest of the stuff on the livestream. Grant had unique hair as it almost built up to a tip like a sandcastle. Inside the middle portion of his hair were three stones or gems of some kind with different colors: red, blue, and yellow. They wondered if that was a signal for anything or not, but they guessed they could just ask him when they got the time for it.

Inside the restaurant once more, the younger boy was floored by them just flying off like that and realizing the group of people he'd seen on Pokevision a couple of times now. He had so many questions to ask them, although the teens mainly warded the boy off and remarked that it would all be explained in due time sometime soon. This was the first time Elliot had heard of this, he thought and wondered what that would be about. The conversation was derailed by Calem asking about the gym leader as the group went to go and travel to where the gym was set up, which ironically was at the foot of the mountain's base of where the bicycle race had ended up.

Calem asked about what Pokémon Grant used, and the boy had heard that Grant mainly uses an Onix, but his secondary Pokémon changes between a Tyrunt and an Amaura. Interested in the Pokémon, both of them took out their Pokédex and wanted to see what that Pokémon was. It was another fossil Pokémon, which the boy explained that he used as he hollowed out the mountain for his gym arena and found them there.

They looked over the two Pokemon for a moment and decided which secondary would be better to go up against for Elliot it is better if he used his tyrunt instead of the Amaura but given he was going to be coming out of the handicap it was likely he won't be getting that lucky so he will likely have a tough time in the match but for Calem either or will likely be bad although with his tentacool it could be dealt with despite the news they weren't going to be dismayed as the group traveled to the foot of the hill and entered inside the large gym it as still not operational you could put in your spot for the time and that was when Elliot had to go over to the handicap corner and sing his name and the pokemon he would be battling with while Calem and the boy had a rock, paper, scissors match to decide who wold go first Calem ended up loosing but on the bright side if he was quick enough he wouel be able to spectate his rivals match and cheer him on which made the boy somewhat happier from his defeat.

As the group was leaving the gym, they encountered the gym leader entering the establishment. Three trainers all ran up and greeted the man, and Grant was courteous enough to welcome them as well before asking everyone in the room if they had been there to challenge his gym, Elliot clarified that it had been the three that approached him and the others were sort of like an entourage for him. Grant was somewhat interested in that as he scanned the room, looking at the other teens, highlighting Bakugo for a moment, who seemed to be analyzing him just as much. Grant remarked that he had seen him before, he was sure and asked if they had just been in Ambrette town the other day, to which Calem responded with a yes.

Grant remarked that he'd seen some of the teen's vids and wanted to give props to the special effects and how realistic they looked. Bakugo merely scoffed as he repeated the words "special effects.". As sparks of explosions began to bubble in his chest with small cackles, which he put on full display in front of the gym leader, who was intrigued, it was almost like fireworks were going off in the palm of the boy's hands, and he was so intrigued that he wanted to reach out and touch it just to make sure it was real, but before he could feel it, the other teen's arms reached out and grabbed at his hand. He was stunned once more when his hand seemed to grow rocky and brick-like as he looked over to the boy who had grabbed him, which gave him a large smile as he remarked that he didn't want the leader to hurt his hand.

As the boy guided him further into the firework-like display, even given his rocky skin, he could feel the sparks and heat, which shocked him even more for a moment as he pulled his hand away and the other boy retracted his hand, which prompted his hand to return to normal, which he could only mutter the word fascinating as he explained this hand for a moment longer before taking a look over to the others, especially the pink girl with dark black eyes with golden irises, and the girl already began to answer the question that was at the tip of his younger tongue, which was yes, that was how she normally looked, and she had pink skin.

Sero waved as the leader's eyes swapped over to him and pointed to the tape producers on his elbows and remarked that he's had them grown in ever since he was four; the leader was a bit curious about them, as he had seen some of their exploits along a couple of vids, but he never thought that they were real but was done with a really good Zoroark of some kind as some type of promotion of some kind, but he now stands corrected before he looked towards Elliot once more curiously asking what did he do to earn an entourage like them?

Or if he was like them as well, but Elliot quickly shook his head and simply remarked that he was special, he guessed, or that's what they say at least, which intrigued the gym leader as he asked the boy if he was going to be attempting his gym battle, which he confirmed but remarked that due to his choices, he was going to have to take his penalty challenge and asked about what it would be.

At that Grant stated that he should just show them as he gestured for the group to travel further into the place, passing by a couple of doors before he got to one that said penalty and opened it up to see a large, wide cavern, and in the center of the place was a massive rock climbing wall. Alongside the large wall was a set of numbers starting at four, which seemed to be counting down to one, higher, and higher until you got to the top, where the final number was one. Grant remarked that his penalty challenge was simple: climb to the highest point of this wall that you could, and based on the height that you get, determine the number of trainers you would have to face before facing him for the challenge. He also added that since he heard he could offer to get the challenge underway now that he had the time, it would be good for him to be able to prepare, and Elliot fully accepted as he began to walk forward towards the starting area.

The rest of the group began to walk over toward some bleachers on the side and here they realized that the rock wall had more than just one side, it seemed to be a rectangular structure with climbing opportunities on all sides some of it even included ledges that people could walk on or rest under so they could conserve energy perhaps, it also offered avenues for the person to transition to another side of the wall if they wanted to which Bakugo found suspect as Grant didn't go towards the stands but instead a instruments in front of it, he told them in the stands that usually someone else would operate the machine in his place but he does get joy in using the machine himself from time to time.

He called over to Elliot, asking if he was prepared, and Elliot took a deep breath, looking at the intimidating tall structure, which seemed to tower upwards for eternity since he was on its floor. As he got on the floor, he noticed something else: the entire area had been surrounded with crash pads, which were pretty malleable his foot sunk into it and almost seemed to bounce back as he continued to move, but he ignored it for now as he heard Grant remark that he had 10 minutes to get as high as he could get before he started to count down to the beginning.

As he remarked Go, Elliot quickly attempted to scramble up the cliff, he had been used to and quite enjoyed some time accompanying his father to certain research sites he had picked up a hobby of hiking so he would have thought that rock climbing could be an easy transition to make but he was a bit over-eager in his climb upwards as he continued forwards he had only gotten about up three of four rocks before in his haste he slipped and crashed down into the ground below the landing wasn't hard if anything it seemed to be the opposite it was a soft landing but not a stead one as he seemed to bounce slightly almost like a bounce pad that rocked him upwards for a brief moment, well at least he didn't have to worry about falling to much about falling from a great height as he got back into gear.

This time he tempered his excitement and started to take things a bit more slowly as he began his climb up once more. This time he got much further up, but he didn't feel like he liked the time it took him to get to the first gap he looked over and still saw the number four to the side, but his father warned him of this during their travels: when doing expensive physical activity, times may seem like they're going faster than they likely really were for the person, so while it felt like it took him a few minutes, it likely was only a minute or two at best, as he didn't want his eagerness to get him to fall once more.

The platform was all blue and held places for him to continue forward and climb higher upwards under a different plane. Thinking mainly of the audience, he decided to stay in sight of the others instead of transitioning to some other side, but his mind was tipped off to something up; there was a chance that the multiple walls were so that they could test multiple people at the same time, similar to Viola's little spider grid from before.

His thoughts were disturbed by Grant, who asked if he was ready for the real challenge to start. He seemed to move one of his instruments, and suddenly from above he heard some rumbling start to happen, causing him to immediately freeze and look up, and above him started to rain down debris. Of some kind, causing him to panic for a moment, thinking that maybe some rocks off the ceiling had come loose and started to rain down on his head. He clung tightly to the rock wall and hoped that the rocks would pass above his head. He trusted that this was normal, as he believed that the teens would have sprung into action otherwise, and he felt one of the rocks slam into his shoulder, which made him let out a grunt of effort more from trying to maintain his grip instead of the pain of the object hitting him.

Judging from the impact, they were made of some styrofoam substance, so they didn't hurt that much, but they didn't need to be realized as the thing continued to rain down upon him for some. After a moment, he started to count the seconds themselves and stopped me. After getting to 30the second of the objects raining down, now realized this was likely going to last for some time or maybe the entire time itself, but he needed to keep moving, es and stopped after getting to 30 seconds of the objects raining down, and just as he thought that the objects had to realize this was likely going to last for some time or maybe the entire time itself, but he needed to keep moving, and just as he thought that the objects had stopped raining down on him.

That was the wall for another moment as the styrofoam began to rain down once more. He looked up once more to see how much longer he needed to get to the second ledge; there were about 13 more grabbing spots before he could get to it, which meant that he would have to endure the rain two more times before he could reach the next lip and whatever the next challenge.

He had to ponder his choices and decide he had enough time to just wait things out, but that would be another two entire minutes of his time off the clock on top of however much time he had already gotten off the clock just getting to the was now, so with some heavy consideration, e decided his next move. He could afford to wait out at least one more rumbling entirely, but he would proceed through the next one.

Now his only problem was which one he would stop and proceed when the styrofoam stopped it was time for him to get a move on once more and again after six more paces upwards was time to decide, he thought a brief moment the rumbling occurred, and simply reacted by trying to speed up before the rocs came tumbling down on him, this was sort of curse of judgment as the rocks coming down impacting one of his hands that was reaching upwards completely through it off balance and smacked it away from the current spot he was aiming at forcing him to readjust rapidly as he tried to catch his footing once more on his new course but with the rocks slamming down on top of his shoulder it was much harder than it would initially and eventually this caused him to stumble and fall.

His back hit the soft crash pads below and bounced for a couple of moments, but while disheartened by his slip, he was still determined to get back in the game, so even before he could feel the bouncing stop, he got his under him to stand up once more and sprinted towards the rock wall. He noticed that while rocks were still climbing down on his side, the other sides of the wall were still free, and he wasn't going to be waiting around for the rocks to fall if he could help it as he charged to the right and began his climb up once more.

He charged up the cliff with a steady but quick pace ensuring that he wouldn't fall once more due to his negligence but still trying to make up for the time he lost by the fall he was halfway up the first part when the rocks stopped falling, he had expected that upon his climb up once more rocks would come down but none of them did, suggesting to him that it was likely location based challenge of some kind which made sense, he speculated that the higher he got the harder and harder the challenges would likely be and to that end, he wonders should he stop concerning himself about the current challenge itself and just worry about the seeing what the challenges of the higher levels were?

He would likely have to face four trainers in that case before facing the gym leader, in which case he would be hard-pressed to win due to fatigue, but that would just make him more prepared for the next round, in that case, he could hopefully get an easier score the second go-around. But that seemed like a looser mentality, he wondered as he got to the first checkpoint in the rock wall once more and took a moment to breathe; he analyzed the numbers a bit more thoroughly and noticed that the checkpoint's relation to the numbers was going upwards as well. The fourth level had two checkpoints before you go into the third level, and that had three checkpoints before you got into the second level, and so forth, so he had about eight checkpoints to go before he would be at the top of it all, but after the first checkpoint,the challenges would be in play as he prepared himself for that, and he immediately started upwards once again.

He proceeded forward and was surprised when he didn't feel any rumbling at all even when he got to the spot where he had initially felt it leading him to wonder if this was some kind of mistake or maybe each wall had a different challenge time so the rock wall would be like a puzzle in of itself on which wall you would want to proceed up through which checkpoint, it was an interesting idea but he didn't have the time to think about it as instead of rumbling he heard the sound of a large fan activate multiple of them seemed to activate, thinking only one thing could come from that he braced himself against the rock wall thinking that a harsh wind would begin to try and blow him away but after a few moments that didn't happen.

Instead what he started to feel was a sharp chill along his fingers and he immediately looked up at the other footstools that were embedded in the wall he could start to see ice begin to cover them like a sheet, despite he still attempting to reach up higher especially as his fingers were getting colder and colder feeling a bit numb in them as well, he reached forwards and attempted to grasp the next lege only for his hand to slip off and not find purchase, he began to start to feel the same cold feeling in his shoes as well but he could better ignore that, for the moment at least but his hands were getting the worst of it as he attempted to maintain his grip amongst the cold pressure.

His fingers had provided enough heat to stop the ledge he was holding to from hiding over with ice completely but still just staying in place proved difficult part of him wondered if he should crawl back down to the first checkpoint but that would probably be harder than climbing up normally so he elected to just stay still just like before and wait it out, he didn't have to wait to long probably like half a minute as the ledges started to heat up again which was probably for the best as he couldn't imagine enduring a minute of that cold breathing on his finger and it seemed like to compensate for that very issue the ledges had steadily warmed up allowing him to feel in his fingertips once more as he continued to scale upwards.

There was residual water left behind, but nothing too much to worry about. Elliot was sure that he didn't want to experience that again, and, as he looked to his left and right once more and decided to instead le higher but shift around to the third wall a little bit away to his right, he had managed to hook a hand around just in time to transition, and in his wild swing around, he noticed the cameras, which told him that the others could likely still see him, but he never minded that for now as he heard the fans activate again before fully swinging to the next wall over.

He braced himself for something else to hit him instead but after 10 seconds nothing had activated or sounded off so he just continued to climb up without worry and nothing bothered him for his remaining climb which suggested to him that his hunch before may have been right their maybe a puzzle included with the Rockwall which would provide and somewhat easy safe passage to the summit. He continued this climb, getting to the second checkpoint easily enough, and took a moment to cool his hands down once again before starting up the climb once again, unlike before when he had gotten into the center before the challenge had started. It happened almost immediately as he got all four of his limbs in place.

This time the challenge seemed to be an earthquake as unlike the low rumble that singled the fall of the rocks from before this was some real rattling even his teeth were chattering with the rabid shaking that was going down, he was forced to keep a steady pace as he continued to climb up through the harsh shaking, another thing that had been different was that there was no stopping in the shaking it continued to shake as he climbed although he did have a trip up when there had been fluctuations in the vibrating which caused him to slip for another causing him to slide down the rock wall, he continually attempted to catch another foothold but failing that he simply wanted to stay close enough so he could stop at the former check point at the very least.

He had managed just that as his sliding stopped just at the lip of the edge of the checkpoint before having to balance himself so that he didn't tip over and fall anyway once he finally got his bearing he breathed a sigh of relief before looking upwards once more, he was confident at this point that he wouldn't get to the top in time so instead he argued if he should keep in place, three trainers would still be tough to get through before a gym match but maybe manageable if luck was on his side but he wasn't going to give up just yet as he used the checkpoint to move along the wall switching once more this time back to his left as he began to climb up once more but stopped as soon as he heard something he believes it was shutters of some kind but they deactivated as he hopped back down.

He transitioned once more, continuing to the left, and started to climb. Hearing nothing, he was emboldened to continue forward; however, he didn't even manage to get to the checkpoint when there was a rather large buzzer that rang out over the room, which Elliot could only suck his teeth at as he looked over and saw the number three mark still hovering nearby. He wasn't even close to the top, which he was disappointed by, but he would suck it up as he pushed off the rock wall to the soft crash pads below, bouncing a few times, not bothering to catch himself as he lay there for a moment considering his options before the Shadow of Calem hovered over him as he helped him up.

The younger kid remarked that he gave it his best shot and at least he made it to three instead of four which was something at least, Elliot understood but it was still somewhat disheartening he couldn't even get halfway up. He saw the others beginning to come his way including Grant who also congratulated him for trying his best and for figuring out the hidden puzzle so soon and remarked that usually most trainers he's seen take about two or three tries before figuring something like that out. Elliot smiled knowing that but that still didn't diminish how many trainers he had to face although he was surprised when Grant remarked that he would be curious to see how he overcome his coming challenges tomorrow, which Ellito immediately questioned why he couldn't do the battles today and the man remarked that there simply wasn't much time.

Grant remarked that he was going on a small daybreak the following day as he had some business to attend to, most of the days leading up to it had reduced gym hours actually which was why he could also compete in the bike race that just happened which the teens congratulated the man for his victory on and he thanked him, he also remarked that he would have to get his challengers ready and that no matter how good he was going through three double elimination matches would take quite a bit of time no matter the trainer, causing Elliot to suck in a breath as he couldn't believe the challenge matches would be double elimination as well, he couldn't help but remark about how harsh the punishment seemed to be.

Grant simply laughed it off, however, as he remarked that trainers always flourish when overcoming such harsh challenges, but that for now, he suggested that he needed to hurry off so that he could get to all of his competitors before ushering everyone out of the room. Not before showing Elliot something else, as he pushed a button on the wall near the entrance, a large mechanical sound was heard behind them the group turned around and looked at the rock wall that Elliot was just climbing on and saw that several of the individual sections between the checkpoints had started to shift and move around, stunning everyone.

Grant remarked that they initially had a problem with people trialing and erroring the puzzle and just threw their first match of the handicap games to learn the safe way to scale the wall without problems and have an easier time, so they always randomize it to prevent people from trying that strategy. Elliot let out a small chuckle and remarked that he guessed remembering the two safe paths he found now was a bit pointless.

Bakugo remarked that the challenge was pretty nice and he wondered if he could try it out himself, Grant was slightly surprised and asked if he was wondering about challenging the gym himself but Bakugo shook his head and remarked that he didn't have any Pokemon and if he did it himself it would be too easy although he liked rock climbing so he wanted to test it out for himself, Grant was more than a bit challenged when he said it was too easy as he gave the teen a side eye as he repeated that but carried on for the moment as he remarked that they had some other rock climbing walls in the establishment that he could try out but none of them had the same challenges that the one Elliot just did but there was a few challenging ones that should appease his appetite.

Bakugo seemed to grin at that and remarked that he would see about that as they came back to the main entry the group had to wait around for two more hours until the Gym was finally prepared for them in the meanwhile Bakugo and most of the other teens had started practice some rock climbing themselves thinking it was pretty fun from seeing Elliot do it, so the group just played around and Elliot was able to ask bakugo some pointers on rock climbing and what he should be doing when climbing and how he should position himself which he appreciated although he seemed to just like bossing him around a bit and of course the monetary value of any time he fell on the ground.

Calem had elected to go with them instead of spectate the match that was happening before he was set to begin reasoning that he felt like it was somewhat cheap to see how he battles before facing the man himself and wanting to think quickly and on the fly to help him grow as a trainer but he was sure to not claim that he wouldn't-blamee Elliot for watching his match with his own punishment game going having to take on three additional trainers and six entire battles back to back before challenging the Gym leader could see why he would need to breathe room when it was his turn to get up to the plate for the challenge which Elliot agreed with as he gave a nervous chuckle thinking about tomorrow.

Speaking of stepping up to bat the next thing was heard on the intercom was Calem's turn to head up and challenge the Gym leader, they all gave him a word of support as they walked towards the station they passed by the boho before who seemed downtrodden signaling that he lost but Kirishima was there to reconcile with the kids and tell him not to give up and that there was still more than enough time to get stronger and come back later on the boy seemed to nod in understanding at that before wishing Calem luck as he waved goodbye not before asking for a picture from the teens ust to say that he met them, which they had been glad to give the boy as Elliot took the picture and told Calem that they would catch up with him later even Bakugo got into the picture with some instigation from Ashido and Sero to rope him into and they all made use of their powers as well to give it even more authenticity before waving the now much more happy kid than he was prior.

Elliot and the teens quickly shift back over to the doorway into the Gym leader's room, they were or more like weren't surprised when they are greeted by another Rockwall a couple of feet away although climbing along the wall had been Calem he was near the top already about to climb to the very top but the group had been told by an usher on the right side of the door which explained to them that if they wished to spectate their was an elevator to the right of the rock wall which they could take, they agree before walking around and spotting the elevator and taking it up to the top.

It only took but a moment, and as they left into the arena proper, they were in a stand that was segregated by just a black safety bar that extended down the entire arena. The arena itself was mostly just a flat ground surface with certain large rocks scattered about the arena. Calem had gotten up and prepared his Pokémon as Grant asked him a question. The two clicked both of their Pokéballs together, which was what he thought about when climbing up, and the boy's simple answer was a victory, which made the gym leader chuckle for a moment before they both began to walk away into their proper places in the arena.

The referee began to lay down the rules once more for the double elimination type match, and the challenger was the only one able to substitute Pokémon with those out of the referee. Announced the game to begin, and both opponents threw out their Pokémon, Grant started with an Onix while Calem started with Tentacruel, causing the teens to be a bit surprised, but Elliot somewhat expected this; they did catch a water type because of their water stone, and evolving would be better than not. Grant was also a bit surprised that he didn't save that Pokémon for his anchor, but Calem admitted that he had only recently gotten the Pokémon and wanted to leave his anchor to his very best, which the Gym Leader could respect.

Both started first with a status effect move; Calem used chilling water as the tentacruel's tentacles began to shoot out freezing water at the Onix just as the large goliath rock snake glowed a light blue in rock polish. Despite the increased speed that the Onix was under, it was still slower than the Tentacruel attack, causing it to get caught in the water and a red aura to flare around it for a brief moment, decreasing its attack power. Grant thought the move was an interesting first attack, but rolled with it as he commanded the use of Rock Tomb. Calem quickly told his Pokémon to use Bubble Beam as Onix began to raise several white rocks into the air, and to everyone's surprise, instead of sending them to attack, the Onix used the move as shields to block the incoming water attack, shattering several of the boulders in its way, causing a great degree of smoke.

Out of the smoke, Grant continued the attack and asked for his Onix to use a flash cannon. A burst of bluish-white energy burst from the smoke and dove straight at Tentacruel. Calem was quick and told it to dodge it, but the attack was too quick as it struck the Pokémon, although it had managed to mostly shrug the attack off as Calem told it to return fire with Bubble Beam once more, which it did, answering the attack as it moved closer before firing the attack. At that distance, the Onix couldn't dodge as it took a hard hit to the gut, sending the Pokémon reeling backward into the dirt.

Calem wasn't going to let the Pokémon take its time to recover as he used another move, which was acid. The move wasn't very effective against the rock-type Pokémon, but there was a chance that it could weaken its defense even more, which would allow him to knock it out with a second bubble beam guaranteed, although it didn't seem like that plan worked out very much, the poison was still present as the large rock monster got up, and the large purple sweat started to drop out of its body, given its size almost looking like the size of raindrops.

Grant asked if his Onix was still up for the battle which the Pokemon roared approval as the poison continued to drip from its body Grant grinned as he told his Pokemon to use Rock Tomb once more this time the rocks flung out towards the tentacruel but it didn't fall directly on top of it but instead surrounded the pokemon trapping it in the center, Calem told his pokemon to use his bubble beam to break out of it but once he did he and his pokemon was blindsided by rushing in onix using iron tail slamming the pokemon in the front and blowing it back out the miniature circle of rocks it created.

Calem gasped in shock and cried out for his Pokémon, but after bouncing once and then twice, it was able to restabilize and slide to a stop, ready to battle once more. The Pokémon gave him a nod; it was okay before he turned to the large Onix, still dripping with poison, and let a smile as he told his Pokémon to use hex. Tentacruel glowed with a dark black and purple aura and rose into the air as its dark eyes gave a sickly bright pulse. The Onix had suddenly been surrounded by that dark aura as well; the poison seeping from its body seemed to cause even secondary pulses of purplish-black explosions, causing the Pokémon to let out a roar of pain before falling over to the ground unconscious.

The referee called that Onix was unable to battle, and the first round went to Calem, which he was hyped about. Grant complimented him as he sent out his next Pokémon, which was a Tyrunt. Grant went first this time, using Draco meteor as the tyrunt shot the attack up into the air to have it come crashing down on top of the tentacruel, which was so numerous it was almost impossible to dodge out of the way of. Try as the Pokémon might, it had barely managed to recover until the tyrunt had come running at it under the cover of the screen with a crunch, but before it could make up the distance, Calem was able to launch out with a bubble beam, shaking the encroaching Pokémon in the face, but it had managed to bare it to get its jaw wrapped around the Pokémon and shake its head, snapping it back over him, which Grant was going to capitalize on to use the dragon tail. Calem was again on the back foot as he countered this time with acid; again the special effect didn't proc, and due to the type of the move, the dragon tail continued striking the tentacruel one more time.

The Pokémon seemed like it was going to stand once more but simply fell to the ground unconscious as soon as it stood up. He thanked his Tentacruel as the referee called the match. Now he sent out his next Pokémon, which was his partner for his adventure, which was none other than Charmeleon. Calem went first, ordering the use of Dragon Breath; the move came out quickly, taking the tyrunt by surprise as it was struck, and Calem's status luck finally came out as the blast carried the small fossil Pokémon off its feet and into a boulder, creating a small dust cloud. As it cleared, it revealed that the tyrunt had been paralyzed.

Calem quickly moved to take advantage of the move as he shouted for Charmeleon to use a bite. Grant attempted to order his Pokémon to defend itself with Dragon Tail, but the Pokémon was still stuck in place. The green, glowing energy almost stopped before completion as the Charmeleon struck forward and bit the Pokémon on its hand, causing another shout of pain, but the Pokémon still was ready to fight as Grant tried one more time for Dragon Tail, only for it to fail once more as Calem continued to press his advantage with Swift as the Pokémon jumped into the air, and out of its mouth emerged a star-shaped attack, which came rocketing down and slamming down into the fossil Pokémon's head.

But the smoke didn't get a chance to clear before Grant ordered the use of Draco Meteor once more; a bright, burning fireball struck the Chameleon in the chest, raising it upwards once more before exploding outwards with the Charmeleon in the center. Grant ordered Tyrunt to run forward, paralysis gone, and use Dragon Tail, and Calem countered with Fire Fang. Its mouth ignited with flames as it rose and attempted to bite on top of the tail attack, successfully doing so to mitigate some damage and cause only a brief flinch in the Tyrunt, but the superior strength of the opponent Pokémon allowed it to use its tail to swing the Charmeleon around and throw it off directly to a falling Draco Meteor, causing another rupture from the blast.

The Charmeleon managed to land on its feet, dropping to a knee, which Grant was going to use to continue his attack as he commanded the use of Crunch, which turned the Pokémon into a dive bomber straight over the top of the Charmeleon, which could barely look up in time to avoid its head getting chomped but not avoid the attack completely, as its entire arm was taken instead, but Calem immediately told his Charmeleon that now he was the one that had it as he told it to use Dragon Breath directly in the Pokémon's face. Grant attempted to tell his Tyrunt to let go, but it was too late; the blast struck true right in the Pokémon's face and blasted it off the Charmeleon.

After the dust had cleared, it was revealed that Calem had won the match as the tyrunt lay unconscious, and the referee called the match, citing Calem as the winner. The young boy hopped in praise as the group on the sidelines clapped for the boy's victory. The Grant walked forward as he held the gym badge case for the young boy and complimented him for his battling and quick wit. He awarded him the rock gym badge as the other came onto the field to celebrate the boy's victory with a badge. Bakugo asked the gym leader why he didn't just cure the paralysis instead of waiting for it to wear off. Grant remarked that doing such a thing was risky; the opponent gets a free shot in that case by rules alone, and given his Charmeleon knew dragon-type moves, the same outcome could have happened anyway but just faster. Bakugo hummed at that, curious; he knew that was a game mechanic used to lose a turn, but here it was a rule that you lose the capability to do anything interesting to think about.

Calem was sure to show off his badge to Elliot as he boasted about how he had gotten the rock gym badge but Elliot was sure to remind him that he would get his Gym just the next day and he would be right next even with him once more but for the moment they should celebrate his victory and asked the boy if there was any place he wanted to go, Calem hummed for a moment thinking about it before asking Grant what was the city best known for and grant response that since they were so close to the beach, Seafood restaurants were mainly the best they would get even getting them a recommendation on a place where they could go and for his victory, the gym leader ev offered Calem a ticket for a free TM at the next pokemart he decided to visit which the boy thanked and accepted.

Instead of taking the elevator down, the group simply decided to jump down the massive arena using Sero's tape, and as they glided down to the shock of Grant and the other workers in the room, they waved to the gym leader goodbye, and Elliot saw him tomorrow before they left to go get something for the champion before finding a place to stay for finding a small motel they could lay low in. Elliot could barely wait for tomorrow when it was his turn to get the rock gym badge as he looked in his bag once more to see how many hyper potions he held and hoped that it would be enough for the challenge ahead.

End Note:

I was disappointed In this episode when all the snorlax did when it finally woke up was eat and leave making things seems so dumb for a festival event and the kids talked about the snorlax dancing so I wanted to actually show that during Ash portion along with tying it to the game stuff from before.

Speaking of the game stuff, Elliot's journey continues as we experience the rock gym And the handicap system which was an invention to implement the game leaders often wacky arenas we see in the games which also has fellow trainers around it which you oftentimes have to Battle before the gym leader.

See you all on the 15th for the next chapter!

PS. Look artist I get it's fairly hard out There but god don't market yourself in the Reviews please? It just comes off as Disingenuous(I honestly wish I could delete them). If I were actually looking to commission Artwork I would completely ignore those sent in that way and only look at the people that DM me instead, respect those individuals and maybe next year after I'm done paying off college I'll consider one or five of you to do a cove story for each of the months.