Aerodactyl flapped his wings and erupted forth like a force of nature.

  “Razor Leaf.”

  Jungle let out a grumble and his bulb glowed. The grass pokemon swung his body with a small jump and dozens of sharp glowing leaves rotated towards the rock pokemon. The prehistoric pokemon slowed down his flapping and raised his wings, silver sprung from them and he slashed forward thrice, cutting the whole move into pieces literally. The fossil pokemon continued his hunt.

  “Again,” I said as the dragon approached.

  Another salvo of leaves attacked the dragon and again he slowed to deal with them. As his wings glowed, we attacked.

  “Rush, explode and swing.”

  Jungle followed my directions to perfection. He ran forward at a surprising speed for a Bulbasaur. Aerodactyl moved forward and finished the grass move with one last slash. Its eyes widened as he saw its small opponent running below his body. A giant puff of air jetted from Jungle’s bulb and traveled upwards. The dragon dark glowing mouth opened and he pounced down just as Jungle grabbed both of his legs with vines.

  The purple mug kissed the ground, leaving holes in the shape of his teeth behind. Jungle had pulled and shot between his legs. The rock pokemon noticed that and turned his long neck around to see nothing. From the other side, a swinging Bulbasaur struck his head with a Tackle.

  Aerodactyl’s head snapped to the side as Jungle landed nearby. Not waiting a second, the green pokemon spat a big seed at the giant, where the neck meets the head. The seed instantly grew roots that pierced into the pokemon.

  The giant pokemon flicked back with a winged limb raised. It descended at Jungle with a dangerous blue shine. The Bulbasaur jumped to the right and whipped his two vines to strike the limb to the left. Wing Attack slashed a deep cut on the ground as Jungle pivoted, pulling his vines and striking the pokemon on its rocky jaw. Aerodactyl was reeling when the roots on his neck flashed green, a part of his vitality was painfully robbed from him.

  The enormous purple pokemon stood afar from Jungle and didn’t look at him like prey anymore, but as an worthy enemy.

  “He’s coming, Jungle,” I warned. “Focus on countering.”

  The fossil pokemon was affected by poison and sleep agents, and had a Leech Seed. It was only a matter of time until we won. The rock type also knew that.

  Aerodactyl’s wings exploded with flying energy.

  “Aerial Ace!” I shouted, warning the bulbasaur.

  Aerodactyl disappeared and Jungle jumped back. Something purple smashed into his side and hurled the green pokemon away. He rolled once, twice, and then jumped off the ground to land on his feet. The grimace on his face and cut on the side showed that he was hurt, but a second flash of green from the massive purple head alleviated some of the pain.

  Jungle, enraged, sent another batch of leaves hurling at the Aerodactyl, who this time jumped over them and began to fly over the ground. The Bulbasaur stopped near a barrier and we waited to see what the fossil would do.

  “Try to Vine Whip around if he does that again.”

  Jungle nodded and Aerodactyl used Aerial Ace once again, disappearing from the sky. The Bulbasaur spun with his glowing green vines. One of them hit something but the small grass pokemon was still thrown away by a heavy hit. He landed on his side and rolled thrice before stopping, fainted.

  I grabbed his pokeball and recovered him.

  The Aerodactyl walked around with a grin on his face, reinvigorated by its victory. The rock pokemon was massive, so it was normal for the powder to take its time. I grabbed my second pokeball and released Mesa.

  Mesa appeared on my side of the field, took the surroundings and looked at the Aerodactyl, seemingly fascinated by the fossil pokemon.

  “Mesa, listen. Jungle poisoned him. We just need to fight defensively for a while and we win… although,” I looked around at the crowd. “You know what, he’ll probably leave some openings when he attacks. We’ll explore them.”

  Mesa bobbed in acknowledgment.

  The battle started.

  Aerodactyl tested Mesa the same way he tested Jungle, running at him as though a boulder falling down a mountain side. Mesa quickly dissuaded him.

  Stone rose in front of the rock type taking the shape of a wall. The purple pokemon smashed through it with a mighty opening of its wings over the remains of ruble. The fossil opened his mouth and roared at Mesa, enraged at the use of its own element against himself. The Baltoy calmly swung his arm and a boulder flew from the ground and smashed into the giant head, prematurely ending the roar.

  Glaring at Mesa, the rock type accepted the challenge and slammed his claws into the soil. Chunks of earth rose from the ground around the dragon as irregular orbs irradiating a primordial dark purple energy. The memory of being in the middle of a crowd as a swarm of Yanmega brought down rocks as if rain resurfaced. Ancient Power. That’d left an impression. I wanted that power.

  I glanced at Mesa.

  “Mesa, I trust you.” The Baltoy didn’t turn but I knew he was listening. “You can figure this out, Ancient Power.”

  Mesa was a genius at his typing. Mesa didn’t know Ancient Power, but his rock energy control was also immaculate and he’d been right there by my side when the Yanmega showed off their signature move on mass. If there’s any pokemon who could learn Ancient Power in the middle of a battle, it was him.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Aerodactyl was ready. Purple beaming boulders floated around him like planets. The rock type roared and hurled the boulders at Mesa. They traveled forward and then in an arc, bending towards the small clay pokemon who raised its clay hands to the boulders, but they didn’t stop. The shadow from them now covered the clay body. They approached him, but I didn’t make a mistake. Mesa proved me right.

  The giant stones slowed down just as the Baltoy's whole floating body began to tremble, and they stopped right as they were about to hit him. Aerodactyl, hidden behind the wall of boulders, roared. Mesa lowered his arms in exhaustion, but soon raised them up again with something akin to rage. The rocks, for a time silent, exploded with the purple colour of Ancient Power. Mesa spun around once and stopped, pointing his arms directly straight.

  The rocks moved. No. They blasted forward, falling like comets into the incoming giant mass of purple. Aerodactyl shined with rock energy, trying to destroy or take over the rocks. But it seemed as if the poison and sleeping mixture of Jungle were finally coming into play as the seemingly equal battle between the vigorous body of the fossil pokemon and the purple boulders of the clay pokemon tilted. The boulders slammed the rock pokemon down into the ground and piled on top of him with force enough to break bones. Its head was still visible and the eyes on it were heavy.

  Aerodactyl roared one last time before his body slacked for good and he was fully buried by the own rocks he’d raised from the earth.

  The arbiter announced Mesa’s victory in battle, and then my victory in the match.

  Falkner recovered his pokemon and walked through the battlefield. I decided to leave Mesa outside since he wasn’t hurt, and strolled through the ruined floor.

  The Gym Leader and I met in the middle of the battlefield.

  “It's a pleasure to meet you, Scott Wood,” The flying master said plainly, bowing slightly.

  “The pleasure is mine, Gym Leader Falkner,” I said, bowing back.

  He nodded graciously and then sighed as his mask of politeness slipped, “I saw you in the tournament, and hoped that an aggressive stance might’ve been your weakness. It seems I was wrong.”

  “I understand,” I nodded. “It isn’t.”

  “Oh well, maybe you’ll come here again in a few years so I can try again with my main team. For now, we have a show to give.” Falkner reached for his belt and grabbed the badge. “For defeating the Gym Leader of Violet, I, Falkner Hayato, confer unto you the Zephyr Badge!”

  I extended my hand and the flying master let the Zephyr Badge fall into my hand and the crowd clapped politely.

  Two more days passed in Violet City as we waited for the others to finish their match.

  Dendra now had two badges, after easily winning her match. Twirl won the first battle, which was exciting for the Tyrogue, and Cross wiped the last two pokemon, proving his aerial superiority. Jess also won her match. Velocity won the first and second battles. In the third battle Falker released a Pidgeotto that somehow defeated Quake, but was too tired to put up a fight against Blade. This exciting match gave Jess her third badge. Finally, Aiden was the last one and his match was one sided, Gyarados won against his first opponent and almost defeated the second even with the disadvantage of typing. Swablu defeated the last two pokemon.

  Now was our last day in Violet and as arranged by Katy, we were all training outside the city.

  Cape and Tylla were training with Dendra’s fighting team. Asha and Blaine were teaching the other water type pokemon water moves, including Gyarados. Ronald, Emilia and Aiden teams were working together on the strength of their moves, which was their weakness in the tournament. The others were having a simple spar.

  I was watching Cryogonal battling Mesa in a slog of a battle, when I started to see some new changes in the others. It’s interesting the impact the tournament had on each one of them. Aiden, for example, was a lot more open than he’d been before, getting well with Ronald and Emilia. It might have to do with him gaining more confidence after his match with George Reed. Ronald and Emilia, on the other hand, seem much more motivated and focused than when we’ve talked before the tournament, even after their loss to Morty–I guess Morty is too strong to get motivated from being defeated by him. Dendra has been more quiet than normal, but that’s because she’s been studying more since her loss to Katy. Jess was still Jess, but I think that she would’ve been acting differently if it wasn’t the Azalea incident and the Seviper problem.

  Katy was the most affected I think. She is twitchy, and sometimes her posture and fists close randomly on what I can see is rage. Her loss to Yael showed that sometimes even your best isn’t enough. All the plans, the strength, the secret move, are nothing in the face of something that can fill an entire battlefield with flames or get a second wind on powerful moves.

  Speaking of Katy, she was coming this way after having stopped to talk to Tylla, who bounced away to the others.

  “Hey Scott, we’re taking a break,” she said.

  I nodded, “alright.”

  We made our way to the middle of the clearing where our pokemon were gathering.

  This break had been combined before in our chatroom. The only one technically unaware of it was Aiden. Everyone sat down at a long forgotten fire pit made of rocks and we, the trainers, started to get the pokemon snacks from the bags. Lots and lots of it. We distributed them to our respective teams and sat down in a circle to eat our own snacks.

  There was a little chatter, but we mostly focused on the food. However, halfway through the meal, Katy cleared her throat, looked at Aiden and spoke, “Aiden, as you know, we are all part of a group called Project that are focused on growing our strength through cooperative training and healthy competition. Our main goal for this year is that everyone in the group gets into the Conference. Since you’ve proved to be a dedicated trainer with aspirations to become a real pokemon trainer. We would like to extend an invitation to you to enter our group.”

  Any tension that could’ve been created after Katy’s decorated speech was cut down by Ronald, “If I knew you’re going to say all that I would’ve done it.”

  He was lighty elbowed by Emilia. Of course, there wasn’t any tension at all. I asked Aiden two days ago if he wanted to join. He said yes and so I gave the idea to Katy to ask today in a proper way with a formal invitation, citing Aiden’s clan background as an excuse.

  Aiden stood up, “I accept your invitation to enter this esteemed group,” Aiden gave a deep bow that made Katy scramble to get up and bow as low in return.

  I also let Aiden in on the joke.

  “That’s it then,” Ronald asked, looking down the road his group would follow.

  “Yep,” Dendra popped, patting the Eevee in her arms. Even in the far away Paldea, the popularity of the Eevee line is too strong.

  We stopped near an early division on Route 36, the road that leaves Violet City towards the west. The seven of us had left the city together and would now be separating here. Katy, Ronald and Emilia would be going to Olivine City, and Dendra, Jess, Aiden and I would be going north, to Ecruteak.

  The two groups probably wouldn’t see each other for a few months.

  “Do you guys have to split off right now?” Emilia asked, a sadded tone in her voice.

  We didn’t actually. If we traveled with them for one more day we would have to take Route 37, but Jess and I convinced the others to take an outside route just like we did in Azalea with the Sea Route. It ended up working great for us.

  We exchanged goodbyes, Dendra handed over Eevee to Katy, and the two groups walked away from each other on their respective roads. Soon enough we couldn’t see them anymore as the forest closed on us.

  I checked the date in my pokedex. We had one week to get to Ecruteak in time for Dendra’s match.