"As we can see, Inkay and Ferroseed are extremely comfortable with and protective of Marco, indicating feelings of loyalty and care from both sides. Now, I'm not sure if any of the veteran trainers here can tell, but there is a bond between Inkay and Marco that is commonly seen in Psychics. Marco, are you a Psychic?"

"No, nor am I aware of having Aura-related abilities."

"That answers my next question. I guess Inkay here is going to be quite the Psychic-type since it has already conferred mental protections to you despite it not having evolved yet. Now, I want to point out the difference between our Pokémon.

"For those of you who have experience with Pokémon, you'll know that many trainers develop some sort of bond with their Pokémon quickly. However, strong bonds can only be forged through hardships and difficult experiences. I can already tell that, while Inkay and Ferroseed are loyal and have a good impression of Marco, they've yet to go through any real hardships between them. This can be felt, if you were to walk up here, via the energy of each Pokémon. The stronger the bond, the denser the energy. All of you could feel the energy of my Pokémon when I released them, but not the energy of Marco's Pokémon. Now…"

Professor Sycamore turned to me. Pangoro walked forward, a grin appearing on his face.

"Would you like to battle?"

This surprised me. After seeing both use Tackle, I wasn't sure if I wanted Inkay or Ferroseed to go up against him. One look at their excited faces and I found myself not really having a choice.

"Sure, a 2v2?"

"Bien sûr, Marco," he answered.

I looked at both Inkay and Ferroseed, my face asking the question I had in mind. Both looked at each other and nodded. Inkay floated over, trying his best to stare down Pangoro and failing miserably when Pangoro grunted aggressively.

"Okay, we'll go outside for the battle since that'll be the rest of the lecture. I don't want to demolish the building," Professor Sycamore told us. So we all walked outside to an arena that was well hidden to a garden next to the lab. The other trainers were recording, watching as the Professor and I walked to opposite ends with a referee waiting.

"This will be a two versus two Pokémon battle between Professor Sycamore of Kalos and Trainer Marco. Trainers, choose your first Pokémon!" yelled out the referee. We nodded at our respective Pokémon, Pangoro and Inkay heading out.

"No switch-ins are allowed for this battle. Trainers, are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Oui."

"Battle, start!"

Pangoro immediately roared out, some rippling waves could be seen indicating it used a move, most likely Growl. Inkay shivered in fear for the entire duration of the move. When it ended, he shouted back at Pangoro, furious he made him show such cowardly behavior. Pangoro laughed, then rushed forward with a bronze colored energy faintly surrounding his right fist.

"Use Peck to your left, follow with Pluck under you!"

Inkay's Gravity training really came in handy. Though Pangoro was quick, it wasn't generally a fast Pokémon. Inkay was able to dodge with the use of Peck, even if just barely. A pale blue glow was emitted from Inkay's beak, which was then rammed down towards Pangoro's head. Pangoro, surprised by the dodge, shot out a fist that looked more metallic than his normal charcoal fur.

Beak and fist collided, resulting in Inkay being forcefully pushed away and Pangoro, surprisingly, clutching his arm with a grimace.

"Oho! What a strong Inkay, surprenant. You must really train hard," Prof. Sycamore exclaimed with a smile. "However, it is not enough. Goro, Taunt s'il vous plaît."

With that, Pangoro laughed at Inkay while pointing at him, Dark-type energy flowing out from Pangoro towards Inkay. Inkay grunted and shook his head a few times. With that, he shot forward towards Pangoro.

"Inkay, Peck towards the ground." / "Goro, Body Slam."

While Pangoro moved forward to slam down Inkay, Inkay dropped towards the floor, causing Pangoro to miss. Peck hit the floor, creating a small crater and chunks of rock and dirt to fly into the air. This caused Pangoro to momentarily lose sight of Inkay.

Stolen story; please report.

"Go up into the air, prepare for another crater," I called out.

"Goro, don't let him go up. Bullet Punch to get in close," Prof. Sycamore responded.

Pangoro closed the distance quickly but just barely missed Inkay. Inkay floated up, charging Peck the entire time, and released the move while flying down towards Pangoro.

"Seismic Toss!"

As soon as Inkay got within range, Pangoro grabbed him with rust colored hands and threw him away. Inkay crashed into the floor, upside down, with his eyes dazed and out of focus.

"Inkay is unable to battle, Pangoro wins!" the referee called out. Before he could continue, Inkay began to glow. His body slowly changed and grew bigger.

His little tentacles grew longer, resembling spiky hair while his body became wider and longer. After a few seconds, a passed out Malamar lay on the floor. The yellow dots on his forehead were now part of his main body and resembled a Regi's face. His face looked meaner than before and Malamar now had legitimate arms and legs. Overall, Malamar went from a cute squid to an edgelord.

"Wow, to think Inkay gave Pangoro a bit of trouble before evolving. If they battle now, well, qui sait?"

"Thank you, Professor. We actually don't have a ton of experience battling other trainers, so I guess Inkay needed a tough opponent to finally evolve," I responded.

"Ah, ok. Well, if you need more experience, Gogoat is definitely getting antsy."

"I'm sure Ferroseed will enjoy a good battle."

"Génial. Before we continue, can anyone tell us a bit about our battle?"

Prof. Sycamore waited a bit. No one spoke out, so he continued.

"Inkay was definitely trained well. I can't imagine the type of training they do in order to have Peck cancel out some of the damage from Bullet Punch. Inkay may actually be physically more capable than Goro. In fact, Peck's physical characteristics managed to pierce through Bullet Punch's energy to do slight damage to Goro. However, Pangoro's attacks dealt more damage because of the energy provided by our bond, which meant that even though the physical damage was somewhat prevented, Inkay received quite a bit of damage from the attack.

"To say it differently, Inkay was able to stop the physical attack but not the reverberating effects of it, which is what caused him damage. This also explains why Pangoro was able to grab Inkay mid Peck and throw it, causing not only damage from Seismic Toss but also from Inkay crashing into the ground with such force," Prof. Sycamore explained. "Now that we know that, let's enjoy another battle. Without the lengthy explanation afterwards. I hope all of you will be able to notice the differences."

With that, we both sent out our Pokémon. I sent Ferroseed, the Professor sent Gogoat. Gogoat's massive body dwarfed Ferroseed, though she wasn't the least bit scared. Rather, Ferroseed was excited for a new challenge.

"Are both trainers ready?"

We both nodded.

"Then battle, start!"

"Bouc, Seed Bomb." / "Ferroseed, Gravity on Gogoat's head!"

A brown ball began to form in Gogoat's mouth when his head dropped onto the ground like a bowling ball. The seed bomb he had formed exploded in his mouth, dazing him.

"Leech Seed and Iron Defense, stay moving!"

Ferroseed shot out a few seeds towards Gogoat, who was able to get out of the daze just after the seed stuck to his body. They glowed for a moment, causing Gogoat to pause for another second, enough for Ferroseed to use Iron Defense without trouble. She then rolled around the entire field, keeping up her momentum.

"Bouc, Bulldoze when she gets close then use Aerial Ace." / "Ferroseed, Gravity on the ground around you!"

As Gogoat stomped, Ferroseed increased the gravity around her. This led to the ground all around her shaking, except for the area just barely surrounding her, which stayed intact. Gogoat rushed forward, slamming into Ferroseed. She was sent crashing backwards, but was able to use that to start rolling once again.

"Bouc, use Synthesis!" Prof. Sycamore yelled out when he noticed Gogoat was starting to pant and slow down due to Leech Seed. As he began to heal up, I gave my next command.

"Gravity on yourself, jump and release!"

As Gogoat finished his healing, Ferroseed increased the gravity on herself, causing her to sink in the ground a bit. As Gogoat sped forward, Ferroseed jumped up and released the gravity, shooting high into the sky.

"Bouc, use Dig to hide yourself."

I smirked. This was something I had come up with after seeing all of the damage Inkay could do to the environment with Peck.

"Alright girl, Iron Defense as you fall into a Tackle!"

Little did they know that she would also use Gravity on herself when one of us found our target. As a ball-shaped Pokémon, Ferroseed didn't have much mobility in the air. She could spin and manipulate gravity to get where she wanted though. That spin also added a lot of extra force. Combined with her iron defense (pun intended) and Gravity, not much would be able to tank the hit. Most Pokémon would be demolished. Gogoat wasn't most Pokémon though.

As I scanned the ground, I could feel a slight trembling, meaning Gogoat was closer to me. I could feel it going from left to right, the vibrations slowly becoming less noticeable. I guess Gogoat was moving slowly to avoid detection. Perfect.

"There!"

As soon as she got the message, she applied Gravity and crashed into the ground with a loud 'Boom!' that threw me onto the ground and sent the Professor flying backwards.

A dust cloud was left hanging, preventing everyone from seeing the results. Charizard flapped her wings, clearing the dust.

"Go go!"

Ferroseed was downed, eyes shut but breathing. Gogoat was just barely kneeling, swaying around just long enough for the referee to call it in favor of the Professor before passing out.

*Clap clap*

"Bravo, jeune. A bit ruthless with Ferroseed, but seeing as she doesn't have much of a scrape from that attack, I can only assume she is a mighty defender. I think Gogoat here only lasted because of Protect, which is something I taught all of my Pokémone to use automatically in dangerous situations.

"Now, everyone, I hoped you all learned something from our battle. That concludes my lecture, hope to see some of you at the next! Marco, follow me, please," Prof. Sycamore said to the stunned audience as we walked back into the lab. We went up to the third floor, in which his own office was found.

He motioned for me to take a seat while he sat on his desk, sipping from a mug that strongly smelled of coffee and vanilla.

"That was a fantastic battle, Marco. I'm very surprised by how adept you are considering your situation," he told me with a smile. "If you haven't figured it out yet, that was part of the examination for your Trainer status."

I nodded, showing my understanding. "I thought that might be the case. Why do it during your lecture?"

"To see how you reacted. An 'ideal' examination, quotes around ideal, takes place without distractions or room for outside influences. I was told to make it more challenging for you and gauge your reaction, so when you signed up for my lecture, I thought, 'why not?'" he replied. Prof. Sycamore set his mug down and turned his full attention towards me.

"You have to understand, your being here has many implications for our world. We are being very cautious because our experiences with legendary Pokémon and some, unsavory, groups have taught us to," he explained. "We don't know anything about you being here, which can be dangerous for us. Since you already know about our history, you know that even the ones we thought of as friends can prove to be a danger."

I assume he's talking about Lysandre. I don't blame them, given everything the regions have suffered. I'm also not sure if the events of specific games, like the Ruby/Sapphire remakes and Legends: Arceus, have affected things here.

"So, if that's the case, why even let me become a trainer or roam out on my own?"

"Good question. I'm not too sure, though I believe having you as a registered trainer will make it much easier to keep you in check. I also doubt having you locked up would be of much use."