Expedition 2.11

October 11th, 2022.

I had returned to the Kozukata Gym the next afternoon, and the room was just as packed with trainers and people waiting. Luckily for Akari and I our battles would be back to back, so we could watch each other’s matches. Days and days of preparation and training had been dedicated for this trainer, and I had even looked up some common methods of increasing potential.

It was often a matter of giving them the right environment to grow and evolve, along with strengthening your bond with… well love and kindness, bound through the light of our aura. That right environment was a combination of several factors, our aura made theirs stronger, and more balanced, and certain items gave them useful power sources or foci to train up their might. A common thing was a sort of reagent… protein shake (?) which used a blend of berries, apricorns and elementally infused items like gems, stones or dust. It was good for them, and easy to make, and increased their potential if paired with training and use of training tools like gems, orbs, and elemental items or species-specific totems.

Mirko got a blend of chilan, kora and salac berry, and apricorns with a pinch of normal and fighting-type dust. From what I had read and remembered, all the various powerful minerals, and exotic items were either condensed solid forms of infinity energy or infused with it on a fundamental level. So a pure form if it was good to add into their diet as a supplement.

Jericho’s optimal blend was a mix of oran, qualot, hondew, a pinch of elemental dust, apricots and payapa berry to feed his psychic-type affinity. Llayda leaned towards chesto and roseli berries, and fairy dust of course.

I had seen a number of trainers looking disappointed at our arrival, likely hoping they'd get moved up the queue if one or two trainers were no-shows for whatever reason.

I was at the door to the Gym Battle, which led to the main battlefield that wasn't the gigantic stadium that my social anxiety considered terrifying.

The receptionist looked at me in recognition. “You’re a lab trainer aren't you?”

“Yeah?”

The receptionist laughed nervously. “Leader Rei was interested in the trainers of Professor Laven since this is the first year she's ever sponsored anyone. You’re going to be facing a 3-star team since you were judged as a 2-star from your showing at the Gym Trial.”

So my team was collectively around what the equivalent of Lv 25? It wasn't an exact guess, simply recalling information on how badges affected the obedience of pokémon. Up to 8-stars were in the same… area of eight badges?

The approximate star level of a pokémon is pretty useful for assessing the likelihood of Evolution; most Elemental Trios evolved around reaching 4-star levels of accumulated might.

“Thank you.” The receptionist smiled and I opened the door to my second Gym Battle.

I walked into the Gym Arena, and choked.

It was an Olympic-class swimming pool of massive scope and scale, with raised bleachers and a fair number of people attending, I could even see Akari waving at me with a toothy grin. The floor itself was just slightly wet dirt and dunes of sand.

I beamed back and found the Gym Leader on the opposite end of the field. Rei wore a one-piece swimsuit, one that hugged her curves, and I could see her ruby-red eyes staring me down with cool curiosity.

“You’re my newest challenger… are you not?” Her expression was unreadable and I fidgeted uncomfortably under the pressure. “You were deemed to be worthy of a two-star rating, you'll thus face my three-star team. Will you be able to hold up against the tide or drown?” That was oddly creepy coming from a water-type trainer.

“Yes, and if I can't, I'll try again through a new angle.” I had to take a path of least resistance here, something that would ease up the difficulty of fighting Rei.

She smiled enigmatically. “Good.” She had three pokéballs ready, and the referee was taking their place on the field.

“Say hello, Staryu.” She sent out a five-pointed tan brown starfish some two and a half feet tall, with a crystal core of red flashing ominously. Three potential abilities, only two were real threats, Natural Heal allowed Staryu to heal over time, and the pokéball storage process allowed it to happen instantly while Analytic was an aspect of their psychic abilities, using clairvoyance to maximize offensive power. They needed time though, as it wasn't a quick process.

The referee projected their voice so the whole arena could hear it loud and clear.

“This will be a 3 on 3 pokémon battle,” they shouted. “The challenger has two switches to use at their discretion, Challenger please send out your first pokémon!”

I was going to have to work carefully with Staryu on the field…

I sent out Jericho as the lead, and I hid a smirk behind my hand. “Set up the field, hone your might, and keep it up.”

Jericho released a gigantic pulse of elemental power, matter materializing from infinity energy. Sharp stones floated into the air, covered in spines of poisonous spikes, as my fusion move of Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes covered the field.

“Hyah!” The strange distorted voice of Staryu at the setting up of the field. A combination of two field moves like this was formidable and damaging if I could keep it going.

“Rapid Spin, Psybeam.”

“Shock Wave.”

Jericho let loose an enormous electrical pulse, the attack instantly crossing the field, the pool exploding where arcs of stray electricity turned it into steam. Rei’s staryu had no means to avoid the attack, and it let out a piercing scream as it received the brunt of the super-effective move, Rapid Spin failing while Psybeam was a glancing blow, Jericho leaning away from the beam with a pained hiss.

“Double down.” Jericho lifted more venomous stones into the air, and a second Shockwave exploded along the air, and it seemed… unsteady, and I could see he had been confused by Psybeam and yet…

“HYAAHH!” Staryu couldn’t withstand the second electric-type attack, gemstone core dimming, knocked out in the flurry of attacks I had called out.

Rei simply smiled.

“I’m using one of my switches!” I called out to the referee, who accepted my decision and I returned Jericho to his ball.

As I grabbed Mirko’s ball, I whispered gently. “Prepare for anything, I’m not liking how easy this was. Fight carefully, use the move categories to your benefit.”

I tossed the regular ball and Mirko appeared in a flash of white, the ball flipping over as it returned to my hand. Mirko cried out her war song, red sparks of Work Up bursting into existence.

Rei blinked. “To me, Pelipper.” My face froze in horror as the massive pelican took his spot on the battlefield. Rain began to pour down from the sky, and the bird pokémon looked invigorated, wings flapping with incredible strength.

Drizzle was the most obvious ability, but I could see the signs of Rain Dish, how Pelipper metabolized water-type energy and increased his vitality in the nourishing rain.

Rain also increased the power of water-type moves, creating a richer environment to draw on their element. Pelipper was ridiculously powerful under rain, and I knew setting up as I had had been the best bet.

Stones slammed into the water bird with impunity, battering the pokémon and causing a great deal of damage on top of poisoning our opponent.

“Weather Ball.” Rei commanded with a serene smile, and I shouted out an order hoping Mirko could avoid that crippling move. Weather Ball under weather doubled in power, and gained the augmentation courtesy of both STAB with Pelipper’s typing and the boosting effect of the weather

“Dodge, hit and run!” An enormous ball of elemental power charged within Pelipper’s bill, the rain rippling and beating down in sheets from the open sky, clouds blocking the sun.

The ball ripped across the air, and Mirko lunged into a Quick Attack, lashing out with Swift… which was promptly consumed by the growing spherical mass of elemental energy. Weather Ball detonated, and the damage absorbers blocked the explosive impact, like a bomb had gone off in the open roofed arena.

Mirko looked horrified but kept herself in the game, and instead opted for a rapidfire barrage of Swift, the stars unerringly changing paths and directions as Pelipper flew over the pool, chipping away at him with glancing strikes and hits.

“Scald, multi-blast.” An absolutely enormous spear of scalding water was spat out from Pelipper’s mouth, which split into multiple streams.

“Dodge and deflect!” Mirko obeyed, using bursts of Quick Attack and dance-like motions to lean out of the way of the incoming streams of borderline bullet-speed water attacks.

Makes sense. Her speed is insane, easily thirty percent faster than baseline buneary, I’ve clocked her at just over a hundred meters a second, she can give a supercar a run for their money. Burst speed of course, so sustaining it over say many miles is a bit of a different story but…

“Mirko, traverser-bruiser.” Her speed doubled in an instant rocketing burst of power, Thunder Punch roaring to life around her paws. The combination move didn’t give Pelipper time to react, and he took the attack straight to the bill, right at the epicenter of an electrical explosion of power.

“Aqua Ring, Tailwind.” Rei ordered freely, and a massive ring of water surrounded Pelipper, wrapping around his frame like chains of healing fluid, and a sudden wind entered the battlefield. “Gust.” With a single flap he sent Mirko off of him, throwing her around like a ragdoll.

I eyed the bubbling pool, where Jericho had let stray electricity from his Shockwave strike the pool water, and even now sparks crackled and popped.

“Keep with the hit and run, and strike when I tell you!“ She used her wide vision to follow my gaze to the pool, and understood, offering a cheeky grin.

“Air Cutter.” At Rei’s command, Pelipper released an enormous slash of compressed wind that Mirko narrowly avoided, receiving a deep cut to her side that drew blood and made her hiss. “Quick Attack.”

Pelipper exploded into reality, and Mirko could barely twist out of the way as the water bird turned into a speed demon. She threw herself into the pool, and Rei simply smiled.

“Brine. End it.” The water began to bubble underneath Mirko, as the attack was summoned and brought forth with Pelipper’s power.

“Double elemental punches.” Fire Punch and Thunder Punch sprang to life around her fists, and Rei ordered her Pelipper to use Weather Ball.

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Mirko used Quick Attack to accelerate upwards, and slammed her flaming and electrical fists into the pocket of hydrogen building up since Jericho had used Shockwave on the pool.

An enormous explosion hit Pelipper at point blank range, and my ears almost rang even with the damage absorbers blocking the brunt of the force. The Tailwind was disrupted by the shockwave, and Pelipper was down in the water, disoriented, seared and burned, and still suffering from the poison of Toxic Stealth Rock.

Mirko had blocked some of the blast with a clever use of Swift but had taken her fair share of damage. She made a slicing motion with her right paw against the battered and injured Pelipper.

“Impressive.” Rei complimented, and made another order. “Roost.”

Oh fuck.

“Full power Swift.” Mirko threw her shot, having revved up with Work Up a total of four times. They crossed the field like bullets, and Pelipper was a sitting duck with his injuries and the use of Roost to heal up.

He was down with a single move, going limp as the blast of star-shaped projectiles knocked him out. Rei’s expression didn’t change as she returned her pokémon, whispering something to his ball as she placed it on her belt.

We hadn’t walked off the explosion unscathed though, and I could see Mirko’s fur had darkened where Air Cutter had left deep if not lethal cuts.

“Can you keep going? Or do you want to sit this one out?” Her ears unrolled, paws lifting up into fists… until she stumbled, her balance shot and her injuries almost sending her tumbling to the ground.

She looked at me desperately, and I crossed my arms with a feigned look of disappointment. One arm was shaking and with an annoyed chuff she nodded.

“I’m retiring my pokémon from the match,” I projected my voice to the referee, who accepted my reasoning. Mirko hopped over from her side of the pool, looking pissed off. “You did great, you beat a second-stage pokémon, and destroyed their Tailwind, and I have a good feeling you saved us from losing. Kay?”

Mirko perked up, and accepted her return with relative grace, and a brief glare at the completely serene Gym Leader. For a moment I thought of using Jericho… and decided to hold out this time, Llayda would get her time to shine.

“Go, Llayda!” I released my water bunny, who dove straight for the thankfully electric charge free pool, her tail already swaying back and forth, waiting for the right moment to attack. “Aqua Ring into Work Up.”

I started setting her up immediately, both healing and buffing in an instant was a good idea with the sheer power that Marill had on hand.

“Ludicolo, go!” And I immediately regretted my decision as her chosen partner stepped onto the field in her full glory…

Ludicolo was a shaggy beast, looking surprisingly derpy and cute in real life, a strange cross between duck, water lily, or ape. Their origin was unknown, their genetics was a chimeric mishmash of plant, bird, and reptilian which left their ancestry up in the air a bit.

I wasn’t sure Llayda would last long, even with Aqua Jet, with Swift Swim this ludicolo was a monster when it came to speed and constitution.

“Go for hit and run tactics, primer-bruiser-archer where you can.” Llayda nodded, her tail swaying back and forth with the energy of Tail Whip, while her cute face expressed Charm, lowering Ludicolo’s defenses in silence.

“Ludicolo, begin phase one.” To my horror, the pool began to swirl and recede back, pulled by her pokémon’s power. It… had to be Surf, as literally thousands of gallons of water rose up, forming an enormous wave, cubes and spheres and distorted masses of water building on each other with precise hydrokinetic force.

It was impossible… The amount of energy needed to control that amount of water was enormous… then I remembered Mirko’s Swift leaving craters with raw power and I swallowed my disbelief.

And then Ludicolo opened her mouth and released a burst of Ice Beam, the elemental attack freezing the wave over and turning it into a jagged avalanche.

Llayda reacted quicker than I did, using Aqua Jet and using the force to propel her towards Ludicolo. He reacted with Mega Drain, tendrils of green energy reaching out towards my pokémon.

She used a rapidfire stream of Bubble Beam to block the draining attack, and spun around, gathering momentum for a devastating Slam. Ludicolo caught Llayda within a split second, and she smirked.

I ordered clearly. “Play Rough.” She opened her mouth and bit down on Ludicolo’s bill, fairy energy surging into her tail, arms, and mouth. Her tail slammed into her opponent’s face, as she scurried around Ludicolo like a rat, playing dirty and slamming into the pokémon with chaotic fairy energy.

It hit far harder than it should, as four consecutive uses of Tail Whip had lowered the toughness of Ludicolo, allowing far more damage to break through the aura of Ludicolo.

“Phase two.” The ice of the disrupted frozen Surf glowed with energy, and shot towards Llayda like heat seeking missiles.

Ice Shard? How?

Llayda received the blades of ice poorly, unprepared for the unexpected ice-type move from Ludicolo, leaving her covered in thin cuts.

“Mega Drain.” I felt my heart clench as Llayda let out a pained cry as she took the full brunt of the attack, Ludicolo’s friendly gaze almost cold as it watched her get damaged by the move. “Energy Ball.”

Llayda was down and out in less than a second, surrounded by fields of ice and cold pools of water, and with a flicker of Ludicolo’s hand the ice began to melt.

“It took quite some time to train Ludicolo to master ice with her limitations, it is… useful.” Rei tilted her head, offering a mysterious smile.

Fuck.

I returned Llayda and whispered to her ball. “You did good, Play Rough left a mark on Ludicolo.” And the damage from Stealth Rock and poison hadn’t gone away yet.

Grabbing a standard pokéball, I sent Jericho back into the field, and he stood at the edge of the pool. He rubbed his claws together, dark-type energy focusing his mind and strength. He was my last pokémon on the field, and he was already setting up two Hone Claws in a matter of seconds.

Rei clapped her hands “Synthesis.”

“Shockwave into Poison Jab!” Jericho reacted in an instant, sending out the electric attack to disrupt Synthesis. Ludicolo rolled her eyes and lifted up a wave of water which blocked the attack, and she blurred out of existence before reappearing in front of a shocked Jericho.

So fast.

“Zen Headbutt.” Ludicolo moved like a missile, and psychic energy built around the crown of her head, shivering and phasing into reality around her face. Jericho’s horn took on a bright venomous purple color, Poison Jab infusing into the attack.

The whole field exploded in a clash of energy against energy, and I saw stars in pink, cerise and violet.

The damage absorbers started flickering on and off, and I could see a starmie maintaining the force field with raw psychic power, the secondary star spinning like a top.

The dust began to clear, and I could see Ludicolo towered over Jericho and I feared the worst for a moment until… The dust cleared.

Ludicolo was shivering, hands pawing at her gut where she had been stabbed by Jericho’s horn-focused Poison Jab, steeped in pure poison, the raw energy of Confusion twisted around Jericho’s head, having partially negated the impact of Zen Headbutt along with the effects of Llayda’s Charm.

Ludicolo rose up, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head as a combination of poison, and Jericho’s devastating Poison Jab proved too much for the 3-star monster.

We won?

The dome went down with the defeat of Ludicolo, and Rei gave me an almost warm smile as she returned Ludicolo. She walked over to me, and I did the same. She bowed her head slightly and I offered the same, and reached somewhere in her swimsuit to offer a small metal object.

“With my defeat, you have earned the Ocean Badge, proving your victory over the Kozukata Gym. Wear it with no hesitation, as is your right.”

I took the badge, thanking her with a slight shaky reaction. I walked out of the room, feeling energetic as hell as my second gym badge burned inside my badge case.

I remembered to pick up the reward money, a total of six thousand pokédollars, and a Scald technical machine. I was going to go and heal up, reward my pokémon and come back to watch Akari’s match.

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After earning the badge I had been allowed to sit in for Akari’s match, after coming back from the Pokémon Center for a healing session. Her match was of a very different character, while mine was more strategic, setting up with weather, good abilities, and flexible move sets, Rei had opted for three pokémon built around being utterly monstrous when it came to power or durability, and kept the strategy when it came to useful abilities.

Her first pokémon was an alomomola that was incredibly and insanely bulky, a combination of Hydration and Regenerator turning it into a monstrously powerful tank, using the pool water to fuel the ability instead of rain. Akari had started it off with her munchlax, setting up with Curse, and using Recycle on some berry juice to keep Kirby in the game against alomomola.

It had taken a maxed out Body Slam to take down that monster, who chipped away at Kirby with Toxic, Scald and Wake-Up Slap, and gave away a Wish for the next pokémon.

An octillery with Moody, Sniper, and Suction Cups that hit like a truck and had a gigantic movepool used to full effect. It was a maximum special power attacker, using a combination of Incinerate to destroy Kirby’s item, and then Lock-On and Focus Energy to enhance its destructive moves.

She had chosen her togepi for the match, showing how much of a monster the little fairy was. Ellis had used Nasty Plot and Calm Mind in tandem, maxing out special power and special resistance, and using a continuous flow of Fairy Wind to buffet Rei’s octillery who had revealed he had access to Flash Cannon which Ellis had blocked with Protect, and responded with Thunder Wave and Sweet Kiss to paralyze and confuse the octopus.

That pokémon was a guy who didn’t quit, refusing to back down even as he was buffeted by the constant Fairy Wind, covering the whole field with chaotic fairy power. Ellis was no different, she had taken three Flash Cannons to the face, using Life Dew to restore her constitution, before ending the battle with a disgustingly strong Dazzling Gleam that practically smeared him across the wall, though without well… killing him obviously.

Ellis had immediately evolved into her second stage, becoming a togetic with far greater stats and accumulated might. The final pokémon was her ‘ace’ for the match… a fucking gyarados.

Ellis had been taken down, but Rei’s gyarados had taken a maxed out Dazzling Gleam, doing an insane amount of damage, before ending it with Ice Fang. Happy had been a champion during the match, using a fusion move of Rollout, Flame Charge and Defense Curl to maximize striking potential and speed.

That had been a wake-up call as I realized Akari was heads and shoulders above the average challenger of a Gym, and that meant I was doing better than I expected as a trainer. Gyms tended to challenge you with a team a level above your own, and I had been challenged with a three star team when most faced a two star team.

All my pokémon were strong, far above the average for their species, not the strongest but I had done everything in my power to help them out. I went for best practices when it came to diet and energy consumption, and the optimal tools when it came to training their control of their moves, gems to focus their energy when practicing moves was a good trick, along with teaching them visualization techniques for better shaping, generation and augmentation of their aura.

In turn I was developing a deeper insight into aura, better understanding that I used it at every turn, subconsciously, an unrefined and raw manipulation with my every action. When I danced with Mirko, when I read the stars with Jericho and traced out the rabbit on the moon, I felt it then and there, felt it when Llayda played her fey tricks and games, how her glamour burst to life when using Charm to get her way.

Aura was a fundamental force of the universe, it was seeing the world for what it was below the surface level. According to Akari, in normal conditions aura from all parts of the body tend to flow together, producing one mass of collective energy. There are points on the body from which aura flows out, which reminded me of things like chakras and meridians.

For human beings, these nodes tend to be closed by default, while the opposite is true for pokémon, with humans gradually leaking aura with no ill effect, steaming off their head like a tea kettle. The bond between man and monster tends to change that relationship, granting both access to a deeper layer of inner power.

A lot of pokémon moves involve various nodes, a sort of channel for their elemental powers. Asking my pokémon about how moves felt for example was interesting, Mirko for example had mimed that Drain Punch stemmed from both her stomach and her limbs, and I wondered if it was… a sort of funnel, draining energy through her point of contact and down into an area that digests power.

For Jericho, energy poured out from his eyes and his forehead when he used Focus Energy. I couldn’t use aura yet, while Akari could to a limited extent even if it mostly involved being able to understand pokémon, and the ability to consciously move it around, and sort of sense it. Not with her eyes though, it was more a feeling for her, working in the background.

Just being able to move aura was going to be a cool as-hell ability, but it was going to take time and effort and hard, bitter work.

I sighed, and glanced over to the takeout I had ordered, it wasn't the healthier option but I didn't care much. Pangoro Express was delicious.

No matter what Akari said.

I rested my head on my palm. “So much work, but it'll be worth it.”