"Ziggs, use Headbutt!" I started commanding after making my mental preparations.

"Too easy," Peggy sneered, "Dustox, dodge and use Bug Bite!"

The Dustox was able to dodge the attack with ease much to Ziggs' frustration. Then, it quickly followed up with the Bug Bite attack, biting down on Ziggs repeatedly. Ziggs cried out in pain, but he forced himself to keep going, knowing that we would be in big trouble upon losing.

"Hey, your Zigzagoon over here doesn't seem like it could hold much longer. Might as well... just give up now?" Peggy taunted.

"S-Shut up!" I retaliated, "Ziggs, use Rock Smash!"

"Your child's play isn't gonna stop us. Dustox, Toxic."

Before I could stop Ziggs from attacking, the Dustox was already quick enough with its movements, firing a stream of purple liquid from its mouth at the Zigzagoon. Ziggs noticed the liquid coming towards him and panicked, losing his balance as he fell onto the ground, taking in the toxic liquid and was poisoned.

"Finish Zigzagoon with Venoshock." The Willpower Admin showed no mercy as he was quick with his command. The Dustox obeyed and released globs of purple, poisonous liquid from its mouth at its opponent, Ziggs fully taking the attack as he was near to fainting.

"Z-Ziggs..." I was heartbroken looking at Ziggs' condition, knowing that this was an unwinnable battle for him.

"There it goes. Why bother trying to fight back when you know you're going to lose?" Peggy continued his insults, "Now, hand us the fossil, will you?"

I exchanged expressions with Regis, both in panic and trying to find a different solution to get us out of this trouble only to no avail. The help we called had not arrived yet, and it was looking bad for us.

As Regis sighed and searched through his backpack, ready to surrender for our safety, Ziggs' cries were suddenly heard on the field. I reverted my gaze towards my Zigzagoon trying to get up, "T-This battle isn't over y-yet."

"Z-Ziggs! It's too much for you to handle. I can't let you get hurt even more." I rushed toward him and said.

"W-What about the battle? I-If we lose here, this team would reach their objective!"

"I-I can't just watch you suffer..."

"...I-I don't want to suffer, either." Ziggs faintly smiled, "But if it means to win, I need to try my hardest! E-Every time our teammates win, I could only watch and cheer for them while not doing the same myself. But when my confidence was gone, you and the others... c-cheered me up!"

With his mental strength, he was able to finally stand on his feet, "C-Call me reckless, but I need to win this one battle for everyone!"

I smiled, but Peggy was quick to react, "Your Zigzagoon getting up won't matter at all! Dustox, use Psybeam!"

As the psychic waves of energy were released towards Ziggs, I immediately went in front of him, trying to take the attack to protect my Normal type. However, instead of feeling the pain from the attack, the waves were instead pushed back by a familiar white light surrounding the field. Surprising both me and Peggy, we both looked towards Ziggs, the white light originating from him as it surrounded him.

I happily smiled as Ziggs changed his form after the white light disappeared, looking stronger and more energetic.

Ziggs... you finally did it.

Ziggs had evolved into a slender-bodied, quadruped Pokémon. Most of his fur was white, but he also had several brown stripes.

[Linoone, the Rushing Pokémon. It is the final evolved form of Zigzagoon. When running in a straight line, it can top 60 miles per hour. However, it has a tough time with curved roads.]

I also took the opportunity to check his moves, as one of the new moves caught my attention.

Then, I smiled, this battle is far from over yet.

I quickly commanded as Peggy was still trying to comprehend the situation, "Ziggs, Facade!"

Ziggs became covered in an orange aura before he charged towards Dustox, giving it a hard tackle. Due to his poisoned condition, the attack seemed to be more powerful than usual.

I quickly followed up, "Ziggs, Swift!"

"No! Dustox, Psybeam!"

Ziggs immediately fired yellow stars toward Dustox, finally able to master the move he wanted to learn as Dustox returned with another Psybeam attack. However, Ziggs was able to dodge the attack thanks to his improved speed, as the yellow stars were able to successfully hit the Bug and Poison type. It seemed like the battle was starting to turn its tides.

"Ziggs, finish Dustox off with Headbutt!"

Before Dustox could recover from the Swift attack, Ziggs dashed towards it before slamming his opponent with his head, resulting in a lucky critical hit. That was it for the vulnerable Bug and Poison type as it finally collapsed, Ziggs winning the battle after his losing streak.

I ran towards Ziggs, spraying him with an Antidote to cure him from the poison, "I'm so proud of you, Ziggs."

Ziggs smiled, happy with his performance that saved the day. However, Peggy's voice caught our attention as he yelled, "...Grunts, surround the kids and get that fossil!"

"W-What?! That's unfair!" Regis was shocked by the dirty move, "Lows and Ziggs won the battle against you!"

"I never said we would play fair to get what we want." Peggy smirked, "Start getting to work, you all!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid it's not happening, Willpower Admin Peggy!" A familiar voice appeared, the help we needed finally arriving.

We looked in the direction of the voice as we saw Steven with the members of the police department outnumbering the villain team. Steven gave us a relieved smile, "Sorry about that, you two. Gathering numbers was harder than I thought."

One of the police officers said, "You know what to do, squad. Get them!"

The grunts started to panic as the villain team seemed to be crumbling. However, Peggy remained his smirk as he said, "Looks like I underestimated you all. However, this won't be the last of us. May we meet again!"

Upon finishing his sentence, he took out a ball and threw it onto the ground, smoke releasing from the ball and spreading around the area. We were forced to cover our mouths and eyes as we waited for the smoke to fade away. After that was over, most of the villain team members were gone, with some of the grunts still around the area, clueless about the situation.

The police officers quickly took charge in arresting the remaining grunts as Steven walked over to us, "Lows, you two alright?"

"We're good! Thanks for your help." I sighed in relief, the pressure from the tense situation finally lifted from my heart.

"Just trying to help protect the Pokémon World. I've been told that Team Willpower haven't been doing much good since their existence."

"Yeah, it seemed like this proves their motives even further." I agreed.

"It's a good thing the police department prepared well-trained Flying-type Pokémon for a quick rescue mission when it's needed." Steven smiled, "We were able to arrive right on time before things get out of hand. You two did amazing in stalling their time, though."

"It's all thanks to Lows and Ziggs! They were going 'ah, kapow, ugh...', then all of a sudden, Ziggs evolved and they went 'yea, woo, pew-pew!', then they won the battle!" Regis explained how it went using his odd descriptive skills.

"You went all out in taking out the grunts too, Regis. Don't count yourself out."

"Fine, fine. It's a combined effort!" Regis laughed, before realizing the stone was still in his backpack. He quickly took it out and handed it to Steven, "This is the fossil they're looking for. I guarded it nice and safely!"

Steven took the stone and examined it before a confused look appeared on his face. We were curious about the reasoning behind his reaction, before Steven finally said, "...Sorry to break it to you two, the look of the 'fossil' does seem exquisite, but it's none other than just an ordinary stone. Just some mistaking from the grunts, I suppose?"

"W-Wait, that means we went all the way taking the stone from Team Willpower, running away from them, using all our hearts, energy and souls to protect ourselves from these men, all for it to be a complete disappointment?!" Regis was shocked, to say the least.

"I'm afraid so..." Steven chuckled, "This stone still looked astounding, though. I could keep it for my collection if you two don't mind."

"I-I suppose you can..." Regis said, clearly still trying to take in the truth of the stone.

"Hey, don't feel defeated. You two still did good work in stopping Team Willpower from their plans and helping us capture some of the grunts. It's not many, but it's a start."

"That's true." I agreed.

The police officers then interrupted our conversation with some questions to get an understanding of what happened. We told them what we knew and the police officers seemed to be satisfied and let us leave. As the police officers finally left the area with the arrested grunts, Steven was getting ready to leave as well.

"I guess there's not much work for me to do here anymore, so I shall head back to Devon. Let's meet again someday, you two." Steven politely smiled.

"Thank you again, Steven! You really were our saving grace." I gratefully said.

"You're welcome," I swore I saw a change of expression on Steven's face, but it was too quick for me to even raise a doubt. Steven sent out the familiar Flying-type Pokémon from last time before taking a flight back to his workplace, but this time, I took the chance to scan it with my Pokédex, [Skarmory, the Armor Bird Pokémon. After nesting in bramble bushes, the wings of its chicks grow hard from scratches by thorns.]

"I'm exhausted from all of that, Lows." Regis sighed tiredly, "Let's head to Lavaridge and take a rest."

"Sure thing, Regis." I chuckled, "We kinda deserve a good rest after what happened, don't we?"

"Yup! I would rather take ten flights per day over this at any time of the day. Let's go, Lows."

"Yeah, let's!"

We walked down Jagged Pass, this time for a completely different purpose. We were just glad that it was all over, so we could continue what we were supposed to do along: keeping up with our journey as Trainers.

"I-I'm back." Peggy managed to get out of the sticky situation as he returned to what seemed to be their headquarters, "Our team had some troubles with the police officers, but most of us got out safely. Some weren't so lucky though, and our plan is definitely more than just ruined."

Peggy lowered his head, the Willpower Admin ready to get a scolding from the person he was talking to. However, the person just laughed it off and continued, "No worries! With the hidden camera you set up, I saw everything. It seemed like you just barely lost due to a sudden evolution, isn't it?"

"Y-Yes, that's definitely true! Without that Zigzagoon's evolution, I would've just ended the battle easily and retrieved the fossil."

"We'll have to come up with another plan, but for now, get some quick rest, Admin Peggy. We got some work to do after today."

"Alright, leader! Whatever your command is, I'll be at your service!" The Willpower Admin gave the leader a huge bow before leaving the headquarters.

The leader remained at the place, seemingly becoming deep in thought.

The power of evolution is just so mysterious, so... marvellous, isn't it?

Soon, once the grand plan works out in our favour, perhaps I can finally reach the objective I longed to achieve.

Making the world become in shambles.

Lavaridge Town

"An excellent place for relaxing!"

"We made it! I thought I'd never see the day of light again." Regis exclaimed as we finally reached Lavaridge Town.

"It did feel like quite a while." I chuckled.

"A flightful day, to say the least!" Regis said, "Right now, all I want to do is take a rest and enjoy the hot springs to soothe my soul from all of those tense moments!"

"Hot springs?" I asked.

"You don't know about the hot springs around here, Lows?" Regis was surprised, "Lavaridge is most popular for its hot springs. They're said to cure any ailment!"

"Really? I've never heard of anything like that before." I was curious about that statement.

"Whether it is true is not up for our debate. What's most important is that anyone and everyone gets to relax around them! I definitely need it after what happened."

"That's true. Maybe I'll check it out later."

"I definitely recommend it!" Regis gave me a thumbs up, "I'm gonna head to the PokéCentre and do the usual. You should get some rest too for doing so much work!"

"Yeah, I'll probably do that. Thanks, Regis."

"See you later!" Regis smiled before heading towards the PokéCentre while I briefly walked around the town. Regis definitely was not lying about that, as I saw several people taking their sweet time in the hot springs, some even closing their eyes in contentment. Other than that, the town had everything it needed, being a small yet cosy area for visitors.

After doing that, I went to the PokéCentre, healed my Pokémon and got a room for ourselves. I went into the room, unpacked and sent out my Pokémon for them to enjoy their activities. For myself, I landed on the bed immediately for a well-deserved afternoon nap.

I wonder what Team Willpower is going to do now after their foiled plan...

I wish they could just give up. From what it seems, everyone definitely considers them the bad guys. I definitely don't want my friends or Pokémon to be involved in their shenanigans in the future.

But I suppose I can't stop them from what they want to do. Not like I have any power, anyway.

...

My thoughts finally ended as I slowly lost consciousness, and eventually fell asleep.

Lows' Pokémon Team:

Surfer (Wartortle, Male) Jolly Nature, Moves: Bite, Water Gun, Water Pulse, Mud Slap

Ziggs (Linoone, Male) Naive Nature, Moves: Dig, Headbutt, Swift, Facade

Grace (Kirlia, Female) Calm Nature, Moves: Teleport, Magical Leaf, Double Team, Psybeam; learning-Shadow Ball

Woody (Grovyle, Male) Lonely Nature, Moves: Pursuit, Leaf Blade, Bullet Seed, Rock Throw

Power (Machop, Male) Timid Nature, Moves: Fling, Focus Energy, Karate Chop, Low Kick