“Begin!”

  The Cryogonal spun around, sending his ten ice chains forward to bind the Magnemite from all directions, up, down, left, right, and center. They’d crossed half the field when Magnemite used Swift. Five grey glowing stars were launched from him and exploded as the chains closed on him, and each explosion rappelled back two chains.

  I hummed in surprise.

  Jasmine’s pokemon often used Swift defensively like that to stop projectiles, but to stop ten chains with only five was interestingly efficient, but ultimately not worrying. Mountain didn’t fight at long distance.

  “Get close with Rapid Spin,” I said to Mountain, and he flattened in my vision and surged forward like a high speed frisbee.

  “Shoot it down with an Electro Ball,” Jasmine said.

  Magnemite eyed the living object approaching while lightning ran across his round body to gather in front of him. He unleashed the ball faster than I thought he would and Mountain had to veer to the right to avoid it, going for a pass by the electric type.

  “Hit him with Thunder Shock.”

  Magnemite’s body turned yellow with electric energy. That energy condensed near one of his magnets and then turned into a lightning spear that the pokemon threw. The attack zipped towards Mountain, who, still spinning, hurled three ice shards at the spear to intercept.

  The two attacks collided and cancelled each other leaving behind a mist from the pulverized ice.

  The Cryogonal’s spinning stabilized just enough for him to use Rapid Spin once again towards the Magnemite.

  “Take distance with Spark and harass him from there.”

  Magnemite’s body electrified and the pokemon dashed away from the incoming Cryogonal and towards our side of the field. Mountain tried to follow, but his opponent had already stopped and was now hurling more Thunder Shocks at Mountain, who could only intercept them with Ice Shard once again or dodge them.

  Their strategy was to chip away at us, then it’s a good thing that we have something to deal with that.

  “He’s too fast to go directly!” I shouted. “Let’s go with Earth and Sun.”

  Mountain grunted as he spun again with Rapid Spin.

  However this time, one of his chains shot far away from his body and pierced the steel ground. The spinning pokemon shot forward, the chain stretched, but held firm and pulled the pokemon back towards the center, making him rotate to the side and follow along.

  The Cryogonal now revolved around his chain like a pendulum, or like the earth under the sun’s gravity, and started to gather speed.

  This tactic was created after witnessing Jungle sling himself around with his vines. If a pokemon like Ivysaur could do it, why couldn’t a more aerodynamically inclined one.

  Jasmine and Magnemite had already figured out what’s going on, and the electric type began to form energy for another Spark to get away from the angle he would leave.

  Mountain let go of the chain on the fourth rotation and like an arrow he went. Magnemite used Spark and zipped away towards his side of the battlefield while Mountain crossed the field back towards our side, but nowhere near where the Magnemite had been.

  I could feel their confusion.

  Reaching the end of the battlefield, he threw another chain to the side, and that chain yanked him to the right. He made a long single turn around and was sent back straight into enemy territory, right into Magnemite’s path. The electric type, already out of Spark, looked behind with his one eye to see a blue spinning missile heading towards him, and tried to dodge to the side. That had already been accounted for though. In fact, Mountain could speed up even more with the slinging, but if he did though, he lost the ability to adjust the end target with Rapid Spin. As any pokemon that uses that move can tell, they can more or less aim where they want to hit if they’re not going faster than their perception.

  Yesterday, when Mountain was training with Velocity and Blade, he found the balance between the super speed that Earth and Sun gives, and the steering component of Rapid Spin.

  The blurringly fast blue disk curved towards the grey floating ball.

  “Iron Defense and Iron Head.” Jasmine's voice washed over her panicking pokemon, and the pokemon glowed twice in succession, first his entire body, and then another shine on his head.

  “That won’t help him,” I whispered. Magnemite, as Jasmine’s first pokemon of the match, was too weak to not faint from this enhanced Rapid Spin.

  “Slam into him back,” she said finally, a bitter tone in her voice. She knew that it’s the end, and abandoned defense for an all in to try to squeeze the most out of him.

  Magnemite accelerated towards his doom thrice his size, clearly having heard his trainer. He closed his one eye just before the two pokemon slammed into each other.

  The ice type was stronger and quicker, while the steel type was like a moving steel wall, yet the result was clear. The Magnemite held out for a few seconds, but quickly crumbled under the accelerated Rapid Spin. He smashed and slid through the grey floor towards his trainer.

  Cryogonal had a small crack on one of his edges where the effective steel energy hit, but seemed fine and extremely proud of the win, even if against a weaker pokemon. Magnemite was just the first after all, there is at least one more for him.

  I wasn’t only proud, I was excited. Earth and Sun was a foundational tactic that would only get better with time. I could already imagine the future, Mountain slinging even faster, gathering more speed, controlling his trajectory better, and, with a lot of training, would be able to weave something like a Giga Impact on the end of Rapid Spin.

  I couldn’t wait… but I had to.

  We still had a match to finish before we could go back to training, and if Jasmine’s expression was anything to go by, then it wouldn’t be an easy one. Oh, she had a smile on her face but not a full one, and it wasn’t even a polite smile.

  The best way to describe it would be to call it a small raising of the very corners of her mouth. In other words, the smile of a veteran who saw a beginner do something interesting and was about to trounce them for thinking themselves as something other than a beginner.

  She raised her next pokeball and released her pokemon.

  The small bundle of red turned into a small yellow and black furred humanoid pokemon with a giant hair-like appendage coming out of the top of its head. The only thing that betrayed the ‘hair’ was the white spots peeking out.

  It was a pokemon line that I’d spent a bit of time with in the last week, one I’d already guessed could appear today, a Mawile. Why did I think that it could be chosen today? Because the steel and fairy type was Jasmine’s hard response to ice types at this level.

  Steel moves might be effective against ice, sure, but fire is great.

  “Mountain, Mawile knows Fire Fang and Fire Punch,” I warned, and the ice type floated up and down, nodding. Fortunately for us, this wasn’t a sixth badge match, or it would've been the Aggron that knew Sunny Day, Fire Punch, Fire Blast and Flamethrower.

  The arbiter started the battle and Mawile ran forward, her horn-like mouth fully opened and in flames, no input from Jasmine. Fair enough, the enemy was completely made of ice, how much more direction she’d need?

  “Night Slash.”

  Mountain shadow lengthened, turned into a thin spear, and traveled towards the Mawile, who closed her horn and batted the move away.

  “Float up. Bind her.”

  The Cryogonal took as much distance as he could from the steel floor without losing the reach on his chains.

  Mawile stopped in the center of the field just as the chains shot towards her. She didn’t panic at all, and instead danced around them, easily dodging the ten chains, and I saw a glimpse of what Dendra’s Mawile could accomplish one day, as this Mawile wasn’t fighting like a steel or fairy type, she was fighting like a fighting type.

  Her moves weren’t fast, they were precise, without doubt practised hundreds of times. One step to the left, two to the right, a backflip to gain space, every chain dodged, and then she sparkled.

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  It was a blink and you miss spark, which I caught because I was interested in her movement. But now I saw the real reason why Jasmine chose her to fight Mountain. It wasn’t because she had fire moves, it was because a Cryogonal’s defense was too high for any other pokemon at the five badge match level.

  “She’s using Stockpile for a Split Up!”

  Mountain’s blue eyes blinked once, twice, and then his eyes sharpened.

  He pulled back his chains from the confused steel type to hover around his body and spun himself towards the ground. Before hitting it, he curved sharply towards the Mawile. The Rapid Spin took her by surprise for a total of three seconds before she dropped Stockpile and used Iron Defense on her horn, holding it like a giant shield in front of her tiny body.

  Mountain smashed into the steely horn, and Mawile’s muscles flexed, her feet dug into the steel below as she pushed to the side, deflecting most of the damage from the move. It didn’t matter, Mountain was exactly where he wanted to be, near her.

  The chains around him went first again, and this time he was right behind them. The close distance meant that Mawile couldn’t dodge as before but where she couldn’t, she used her horn or flaming hands to strike them away and try to break the surprisingly hard chains.

  She was able to break four when Mountain, with his entire form glowing grey, tried to hit her with a full on Body Slam.

  She responded by jumping back while twisting in the air like a ballerina. When the twist ended, her orange glowing horn had picked up speed. Body Slam collided with Brick Break, and the difference in strength between the two pokemon was handled by the superiority of fighting energy over normal energy.

  The result was that both showed ugly bruises where they struck, but one was relentless, and the steel type had to quickly jump again to dodge a Rapid Spin that passed below her. She landed and turned around just in time to deflect three Ice Shards with three Fire Punches.

  She danced around the following six chains.

  Rolled to the side to avoid a Night Slash.

  Went low when a chain tried to grab her head.

  Dodged another Rapid Spin.

  Jumped over two chains while destroying another with Bite.

  Twisted away from another Night Slash.

  Finally, as she gasped for breath, she was caught by the remaining three chains, two grabbed her arms and one an ankle.

  The Cryogonal, his eyes glowing with winter’s fury, approached, himself glowing like a pale sun, as the chains pulled her in. The pokemon flew forward and Maliwe burst into grey. The explosion that followed from the one time powered Spit Up engulfed the greenish form of the Cryogonal and burst all around, shoving the Mawile back and raising a cloud of white smoke.

  It seems that Mountain’s self-preservation instincts saved him again. Ever since I told him about Stockpile he’s been expecting a Spit Up, and had used Substitute to get away.

  It was the first time he used it in battle ever since she showed it to me in Grey Lake. It was odd since pokemon can’t learn it naturally in the wild, but when I asked where he learned it from, he said he always knew it. Well, it doesn’t matter now, what matters is that we won.

  Mawile, now free from the chains, stood up. She was smiling even as her movements were sluggish from exhaustion. She took deep breaths freely, as she thought the battle was over.

  Jasmine's own smile dropped as she finally noticed the shadow in the smoke. “It’s not over yet!”

  Too late.

  Mountain’s blue form burst out of the white smoke cloud and used Take Down on the steel and fairy type’s head. Mawile barely had time to look up before she dropped to the ground, fainted.

  The arbiter announced Mountain victory as he wobbled back to our side of the field. Those weren’t hard wins, but in this second battle he had to use a lot of moves, and then Substitute. He wasn’t hurt badly, but pokemon can also faint from exhaustion.

  “Can you fight more, Mountain?”

  Cryogonal turned around to stare at the other side of the field, and I nodded. Well, if he couldn’t at least we’d learn what’s the next pokemon and have the advantage to choose between Jungle or Valley.

  On the other side of the field, Jasmine was pensive, and was taking so long that the arbiter turned to her, even if he wouldn’t call out his own boss, of course. Finally, she pulled out a pokeball from a compartment near the front of her platform instead of her belt.

  It meant that the kid’s gloves were off.

  Her arm raised and extended, she released her pokemon, and a pile of scarlet red light landed on the ground in a long line. The red light slowly turned into matter, more specifically rock.

  The stone snake rose, creating a shadow that engulfed Mountain. Mountain’s blue eyes rose tiredly and met the beady little dark eyes of the Onyx.

  The arbiter began the battle.

  “Iron Tail.”

  A sheen of silver took over one third of the giant snake. The Onyx turned around and his tail came around like a giant mace wielded by a Rhyperior.

  “Rapid Spin, deflect!”

  Mountain whirled around towards the metallic tail and struck it for a second before letting it slide to the ground.

  Jasmine scoffed. “Tackle.”

  Finishing his turn around, the ground type barreled forward, momentarity angling his body slightly to deflect a sneaky Night Slash while doing so. He was still far away.

  “Ice Shard.”

  Three big ice stakes appeared around the Cryogonal, and he launched them forward.

  “Iron Head through them.”

  Onyx’s entire head turned metallic and he sped up, turning the stakes into snow powder before reaching Mountain, who used Rapid Spin again directly towards the head. The two forces collided, and for the first time in this fight, Mountain definitely lost the exchange.

  His Rapid Spin broke and the Onyx smashed into his ice body. Cracks spread through his body from the point the attack hit, not deep, but definitely painful.

  The Cryogonal smashed into the steel floor and used two chains to yank himself back further towards our side as the Onyx, still Iron Headed, tried to hit him again on the ground, but only dented the steel below.

  “Hit him again,” Jasmine said, and the pokemon advanced forward again, like a train with no breaks that somehow had sentience and wanted to smash you.

  I stared at the rock type coming towards us, at Mountain lying on the floor, looking up at the Onyx looming over him with weak disdain, at the shrinking ground between the two pokemon, and tasted the inevitability of his defeat in my mouth.

  We’re going to lose after winning against two pokemon and tiring the third. That’s not bad at all. We did exactly as I predicted, the fact that Mountain could tank steel type pokemon with his weakness to their energy was incredible.

  But then why’d I felt strangely angry about it?

  I see.

  I would’ve been pretty happy about it before that fight with George. One of my pokemon pulling way more than his weight on a Gym Match would be enough to satisfy me before that, but after? No.

  So that’s what believing in your goal feels like, infuriating.

  I decided to be the best pokemon trainer in history in that finals. How could I accept defeat while I still have a brain to think, without pushing myself and my pokemon beyond what they could do now.

  Winning against two?

  We were going to win against three.

  “Bring down Cape,” I said without thinking, and Mountain’s blue eyes widened.

  It wasn’t something we trained, and it wasn’t a tactic at all, or anything that we both would recognize had we’ve been speaking in any other place, or even against any pokemon that wasn’t doing precisely what the Onyx was doing right now.

  It was just three little words, but they brought us an intimate memory, and a world of possibility.

  Mountain and Cape were in front of the rest of us, sparing as usual, and also as usual was the fact that the Heracross was dominating the battle. He was limited to only punches and kicks and nothing else. Meanwhile, Mountain could use everything he had, his flight, his chains, all his moves. The Cryogonal was losing, but there was this one moment towards the end of the hour long spar where Cape, already bored of this moveless spar, overextended his punch and gave Mountain enough time and space to wrap his chains around his arm and pull. He used Cape’s own body to dodge the punch while bringing the Heracross down on his knees.

  Valley, Mountain, I, and even Mesa cheered him on this small victory, Cape was reinvigorated, and the spar ran for another hour. Mountain never managed to do the same thing again; a testament to the growing strength and speed of the Heracross.

  Just like Cape at that spar, Onyx and Jasmine had grown bored, had grown arrogant, had grown… sloppy.

  The Onyx was bringing his head down when Mountain’s six remaining chains snapped forward in a wide arc and wrapped around the head of the fully committed Onyx. He only had time to widen his eyes before the glaring Cryogonal pulled against him, consequently dodging towards the sky and away from his vision. In his place, a steel plate appeared.

  The Onyx smashed head first into the floor with Mountain’s help. Dazed and confused, it couldn’t defend itself from what came next.

  The Cryogonal dropped from the sky like a mountain. His ice chains were still wrapped on Onyx’s head and neck, and he pulled himself down with all his strength, enhancing the move he chose, Take Down.

  His glowing grey shield-like body bashed into the back of the Onyx, denting one of the tough steel plates of Olivine gym and the back of the rocky head. The recoil was almost enough to faint Mountain himself, and there was silence as the Cryogonal rose as much because of his floating as for the recoil from the force inflicted.

  Jasmine’s mouth was open, the crowd was silent, and the arbiter was staring at the Onyx.

  “The victor of this battle is Cryogonal,” he declared, an arm raised high into the air.

  The crowd cheered, even as I locked eyes with Mountain.

  “That… was your limit,” I said, breathing hard, and he agreed with me. His droopy eyes were almost closing, and the powerful glow always present in them was barely there now.

  “Can you hold for us to see the next pokemon?”

  The Cryogonal gave barely a blink, but I recognized it as affirmation. I looked up at the arbiter and nodded firmly. He nodded back.

  “Gym Leader Jasmine, please release your next pokemon.”

  The Gym Leader had collected herself after returning her Onyx, and was looking at the both of us with a glint in her eyes.

  She looked down and pressed something. There was a small ping below me and I looked down. There were very small holes in the floor of the platform that I noticed before, but had thought they were there just for ventilation until now, when a voice leaked out from there.

  “Hello, Trainer Scott,” the Gym Leader’s voice eerily said. “I already selected the fourth pokemon, but I can change my choice based on the answer to one simple question?”

  I glared at the ground. “I don’t want a cheap victory.”

  “Good,” Jasmine said, giggling, “because my question is… do you want an actual challenge?” I blinked, surprised that a reportedly sweet girl like Jasmine would offer to give me a potentially damning option. “Hurry up, your pokemon is going to faint soon.”

  I glanced up from the hidden speakers and locked eyes with the smirking Gym Leader. I smiled back, even as Mountain sighed.

  “I accept.”

  The pinging sound came again, which probably meant that the connection was cut.

  The crowd had quieted down a while ago, but Jasmine reinvigorated them by raising a pokeball high into the air for everyone to see, then she put that pokeball back into her belt, to the confusion of everyone.

  The Steel Gym Leader of Johto crouched down and grabbed something from a hidden compartment of the platform, this one far below than the Onyx. She pulled up with not another pokeball this time. In her hand was a great ball.

  The crowd held their breath as Jasmine raised her arm and released her next pokemon into the field.

  A sleek and blue wheel shape was the first thing that appeared from the floating red light. It reminded me of Mountain, just bulkier and horizontally inclined. Then came two bulky arms that looked like stone pillars and ended with three sharp claws. Its eyes appeared from two dark spaces, and a spike stood between them.

  The eyes reminded me of Dendra’s Hippowdon in that they were red, and looked as cruel somehow, but not in the same way.

  A Hippowdon’s red eyes promised pain because it showed a single emotion burning in them, rage. But these ones promised violence just because the thing they were seeing dared to think themselves capable of winning against them.

  It was a violence born of pride for simply being what it was.

  And what was it?

  It was a Metang.