Disclaimer: We don't own Loud House or Pokemon. All rights to Loud House belong to Nickelodeon. All rights to Pokemon belong to Nintendo and Game Freak.
Tower of Mastery
Lincoln and his friends are continuing walking through Reflection Cave on their way to Shalour City where Lincoln's next gym battle awaits him. As they continued walking, Tierno sees a blue, rocklike Pokemon with two brown rocks for feet and another brown rock on top of it.
"Hey, what's that?" asked Tierno, taking out his pokedex and pointing it at the Pokemon.
"Roggenrola, the Mantle Pokemon. Its ear is hexagonal in shape. Compressed underground, its body is as hard as steel." said Tierno's pokedex.
"I'm catching this one." said Tierno, taking out a pokeball. "Hippopotas, go!" He throws Hippopotas' pokeball and releases him. "Okay, Hippopotas, use Dig!" Hippopotas digs into ground; Roggenrola's body glows white and it shines. Hippopotas bursts out of the ground beneath Roggenrola and rams it, dealing super effective damage. Roggenrola rams Hippopotas, making him flinch; Roggenrola then releases several rocks from its body and they hit Hippopotas.
"Hippopotas, use Bite!" said Tierno. Hippopotas charges at Roggenrola and bites it, dealing damage, and knocking it to the ground. Tierno takes out an empty pokeball and throws it at Roggenrola, hitting it and sucking it in; it wiggled until it clicked. "Awesome; I caught a Roggenrola!"
"Great job, Tierno." said Lincoln. Roggenrola's pokeball vanishes and gets transported to storage. Tierno takes out his pokedex and uses it to look up Roggenrola's information.
"This says Roggenrola's a boy, he knows Tackle, Harden, Sand Attack, Headbutt, Rock Blast, Mud-Slap, and Iron Defense; he has the Sturdy ability which prevents him from being taken out with one attack." said Tierno. He then returns Hippopotas to his pokeball and the group continues walking through Reflection Cave. They were suddenly approached by a man.
"Any of you kids Pokemon trainers?" asked the man.
"Yeah, why?" asked Lincoln.
"Perhap you would be interested in a Pokemon Battle." said the man.
"Sure; I don't back down from Pokemon battles." replied Lincoln. He and the man soon stood several yards from each other while Lincoln's friends watched. "How many Pokemon are we using?"
"We'll use one each." replied the man, pulling out a pokeball while Lincoln does the same. "Carbink, go!" The man throws a pokeball and releases a gray, rocklike Pokemon with light blue crystals on its body. Serena takes out her pokedex and points it at the Pokemon.
"Carbink, the Jewel Pokemon. Born from the temperatures and pressures deep underground, it fires beams from the stone in its head." said Serena's pokedex.
'Lola would definitely like this Pokemon.' Lincoln thinks to himself as he thinks about his pageant-loving sister with a somber look on his face.
"Are you okay, Lincoln?" Shauna asked out of concern, snapping Lincoln back to reality.
"Yeah, just thinking about stuff." said Lincoln.
"Are we going to battle or not?" asked the man, making Lincoln look back at him and nod before pulling out a pokeball.
"Panpour, go!" said Lincoln, throwing Panpour's pokeball and releasing him. "Panpour, use Water Gun!" Panpour sprays a stream of water from his mouth, and it hits Carbink, dealing super effective damage.
"Carbink, use Smack Down!" said Carbink's trainer. Carbink forms a golden ball of energy in front of it and launches it at Panpour, hitting him, and dealing damage.
"Panpour, Scald!" said Lincoln. Panpour releases a stream of steaming water from his mouth, and it hits Carbink, dealing super effective damage; fire surrounds Carbink's body.
"Carbink's burned." said Trevor.
"Carbink, use Rock Throw!" said Carbink's trainer. Carbink forms a ring of rocks around its body and launches them at Panpour, hitting him, and dealing damage; Carbink flinches in pain from its burn and falls to the ground, unconscious.
"All right, Lincoln!" said Tierno.
"Great job, Panpour." said Lincoln, making Panpour nod in response. Carbink's trainer returns Carbink to its pokeball.
"You did good, Carbink." said Carbink's trainer. He puts Carbink's pokeball away and walks to Lincoln. "You're some trainer."
"Thanks." said Lincoln. Carbink's trainer gives Lincoln pokedollars and walks away. After Lincoln returns Panpour to his pokeball, Lincoln abnd his friends continue walking through Reflection Cave.
Moments later, they walked out of the cave, and they see a city ahead of them.
"This must be Shalour City." said Shauna. Lincoln looks up and saw it was getting dark.
"Maybe I'll challenge Korrina to a battle tomorrow; it's getting late." said Lincoln; everyone looks up to see Lincoln was right.
"Good idea." said Trevor. The group began walking until they entered Shalour City; once there, they looked around until they found a Pokemon Center. They walked inside and gave the nurse their Pokemon to be treated; they then walked to the cafeteria. Moments later, the group was sitting at a table, eating.
"So, Lincoln; you think you're ready for Korrina?" asked Serena, making Shauna frown at the mention of Korrina's name.
"Maybe; I may have beaten her at Geosenge Town, but she may have been preparing for me, and may use different Pokemon." replied Lincoln.
"I'm sure you're ready for her, Lincoln." said Shauna, making Lincoln smile in response. After the group finished eating, they left the cafeteria and got their Pokemon back from the nurse. After the group showered and brushed, the boys went to a sleeping quarter while the girls went to another to sleep for the next day.
Soon, morning came; after having breakfast, Lincoln and his friends left the Pokemon Center.
"Okay; time to earn my third badge." said Lincoln, making his friends cheer in response; Lincoln sees a man walking by. "Excuse me, sir; but can you tell me where the Shalour City Gym is?"
"It's located in the Tower of Mastery." said the man.
"Where is it at?" asked Lincoln.
"It's located north of Shalour City." replied the man.
"Thank you, sir." replied Lincoln. He and his friends began to travel north until they see a massive tower.
"Whoa; that place is huge!" said Tierno.
"It'd be hard to miss this place." said Shauna. The group continued walking towards the tower until they reached it. They walked inside and found themselves in a round room with a stairway spiraling up the tower; they also see a large statue of a Lucario. On the base of the statue was a door; two voices were heard from behind the door, one sounded familiar to Lincoln.
"I think I hear Korrina behind that door." said Lincoln. He runs to the door, followed by his friends. Lincoln opens the door and looks to see a room with a bed, two bookshelves, a table with two chairs; he saw Korrina with an elderly man with large, yellow eyebrows, wearing a gray, sleeve-rolled jacket over a red undershirt, gray pants, black and red shoes, and a black fingerless glove with a stone with a black DNA helix on it. "Hey, Korrina." Korrina and the man both turned towards him.
"Hey, Lincoln!" said Korrina, blushing, making Shauna frown.
"This is Lincoln?" asked the man. "This must be the boy Professor Sycamore told me would be coming here."
"Professor Sycamore told you about me?" asked Lincoln.
"Yes; I'm called the Mega Evolution Guru, but you can call me Gurkinn." said the man, now identified as Gurkinn.
"He's my grandfather." Korrina says to Lincoln.
"And I've heard about you from my grandaughter, Lincoln." said Gurkinn. "She says you're a strong trainer and may have let it slip when she said you were cute." Lincoln blushes in response. Gurkinn then sees Lincoln's friends. "And you must be the other kids Professor Sycamore gave pokedexes to.
"Yes, sir; I'm Shauna." said Shauna.
"My name is Serena." said Serena.
"I'm Trevor." said Trevor.
"And I'm Tierno." said Tierno.
"Pleased to meet you all." said Gurkinn.
"Gurkinn; what can you tell us about Mega Evolution?" asked Lincoln. "We've already seen it up close on Route 10."
"Yeah; we know some Pokemon can evolve with enough battle experience or with certain items." said Shauna.
"And some will evolve if you're really good friends with them." said Serena.
"Exactly; and it's likely that other Pokemon evolve in a lot of other ways as well." said Korrina. "But Mega Evolution is an evolution that transcends all other evolution!"
"Indeed; Mega Evolution is a transformation of Pokemon that were thought to be unable to evolve any further." said Gurkinn. "It's a whole new level of power."
"Cool!" said Lincoln.
"So, in like an evolutionary line like Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard, does that mean Charizard would be able to evolve even further?" asked Trevor.
"Yes, exactly; but not all Pokemon have a Mega Evolution." said Korrina.
"There's a reason why I used the word 'transformation' a moment ago." said Gurkinn. "Mega Evolution differs from evolution because it ends after a certain amount of time; in other words, it's a temporary evolution."
"So, it evolves, but it goes back to what is was before?" asked Shauna.
"It shouldn't surprise me; Astrid's Mega Absol turned back to a regular one after our battle." said Lincoln.
"Mega Evolution is a special kind of evolution." said Korrina. "That said, we still know very little about it; we do know now is that it requires special items, and the most important element is the trust between Pokemon and trainer."
"Trust; in other words, the bond between Pokemon and trainer." said Serena.
"To make Mega Evolution work, you need a Mega Stone for the Pokemon and the Mega Ring, which has a mysterious stone set in it, for the trainer." said Gurkinn. "Since Professor Sycamore entrusted each of you with a pokedex, I would like to give you each Mega Rings."
"But, first; Lincoln, you still want a gym battle with me?" asked Korrina.
"You bet." replied Lincoln.
"It will be a great way of seeing how strong the bond you have with your Pokemon, Lincoln." said Korrina. "Shall we have our gym battle?"
"Sure." said Lincoln.
"Then let's get going." said Korrina. Lincoln nods before following Korrina.
Moments later, the group were in a large room with a raised battlefield that had a ramp going to each end of the battlefield, lower walls that curved upward, more ramps, railings, and a spectator stand in the upper wall.
"Cool gym." said Tierno.
"Thanks; I skate around here a lot." said Korrina; she turned towards Lincoln. "So, Lincoln; I hope you've been preparing since the first time we battled, because I have."
"You bet I have." said Lincoln.
Moments later, Lincoln and Korrina were standing on opposite ends of the battle arena while Lincoln's friends watched.
Lincoln is about to have his gym battle with the leader of the Shalour City Gym, Korrina. Will Lincoln be victorious and win his third badge? Wait and find out.
End of Chapter 26
Pokemon on Lincoln's Team: Shelgon (M), Braixen (F), Panpour (M), Lucario (M), Floette (F), and Farfetch'd (F).
Pokemon in Lincoln's Collection: Shelgon (M), Braixen (F), Zigzagoon (M), Beedrill (M), Panpour (M), Dunsparce (M), Riolu (M), Farfetch'd (F), Budew (F), Floette (F), Honedge (F), Volbeat (M), Woobat (F), Anorith (M), and Golett (genderless).