“What are you doing?” Florence hissed at me as I walked over to my side of the floor. “Are you out of your mind? Do you want to be stuck in this city for who knows how long?”

“Hey, you told me to trust you for your battle with Richard,” I replied evenly. “Can’t you do the same for me?”

“That was different!” she spat. “I was not betting my future on the result!”

I ignored her as I turned to look over our ‘battlefield’. The top floor of the lighthouse was a big circular room with a roof overhead but no walls or glass around the sides. Someone had strung a rope a few feet up in the air around the perimeter of the space, sort of like a guardrail, but there was no way it would have passed safety inspections in my own time. The open-air room was mostly empty, but there was a pit in the middle with ashes scattered about and a rack near the stairs that held stacks of neatly-cut wood. Wasn’t Olivine supposed to use an Ampharos as the light source in their lighthouse? Clearly that practice hadn’t started yet, which made sense given how rare trained Pokemon were.

“Stop ignoring me!” Florence said heatedly. “Tanaji, you tell him.”

The boy quickly raised his hands in a placating gesture. “I am not getting involved in this.”

I let out a long breath and shook my arms out, trying to loosen up before the battle started. “I’m not going to leave things here as they are currently. This way the problem gets solved whether we win or lose. Though we’ll do our best to win,” I added, grinning a little.

Florence looked like she wanted to keep arguing, but at that point Jasper called out to us from the other side of the tower. “Are you ready?” he asked as his Skarmory rustled her wings next to him.

I looked over at my own Pokemon. Pausso stood at my side, breathing evenly as he mentally prepared himself for the upcoming fight. Echo was hanging from the rope handrail at the side of the lighthouse and flexing her wings in preparation. She squeaked out a reluctant yes; she was as ready as she’d ever be.

“We’re ready,” I told Jasper, turning to face his side of the floor.

“Then,” he paused, “begin!”

Skarmory instantly jumped into the air and flew off into the sky, away from the battlefield and into the open air surrounding the platform we stood on. Jasper didn’t say anything, but the metal bird apparently knew what was expected of her. She immediately spread her wings wide and closed her eyes as a faint aura surrounded her body. Was she using some kind of buffing move? I had no way to know what it was.

“Go for it!” I told Echo, and she uncoiled her tails from the rope and shot off into the air after Skarmory. She took a moment to get her bearings as she flew closer to the bird, then opened her mouth and screeched out her Supersonic attack, using it continuously as she bore down on the bigger Pokemon.

I had hoped that we might catch them by surprise, but Jasper didn’t look alarmed. “Down!” he called, and Skarmory quickly folded her wings and plummeted towards the ground.

“Switch!” I yelled to Echo. She stopped her attack so she could sound out the area around her and figure out where Skarmory had gone again. But we were too slow; the metal bird was already well out of range.

I leaned over the rope and looked to where Skarmory now glided around the lighthouse, about halfway down. The bird was moving faster and faster as she flew – maybe she was using Agility? That was bad since I had counted on Echo being faster than her opponent. Even worse, Echo’s only long-range move was Absorb and that wouldn’t do much damage at all against a steel and flying type like Skarmory. We had to bring the fight back into close range. But how? If only Echo knew her own, better buffing move so we could force Jasper to bring the fight to us.

Hmm. Maybe knowing the move wasn’t the important part.

“Fine,” I said with more bravado than I felt. “Zubat, use Quiver Dance!”

Florence made a startled movement that I ignored as I stared at Echo with full confidence. She twitched her ears back towards me, confused. “Just like Venomoth showed you!” I continued, deliberately not looking at Jasper. I resisted the urge to cross my fingers behind my back. This would only work if Echo understood what I wanted her to do, and it wasn’t something we’d ever discussed before…

Echo’s ears suddenly perked upright, going still for a moment. Then she started fluttering back and forth, dancing in midair. It wasn’t exactly like Venomoth’s Quiver Dance, and it definitely wasn’t making her stronger the way the real move would, but I was willing to bet Jasper didn’t know that.

My gamble paid off. The other trainer narrowed his eyes at Echo briefly, then leaned back over the side to call down to his partner. “That’s enough! Close quarters!”

Skarmory kept gliding for a few moments before she cut off whatever move she was using and flapped her wings, soaring back up towards us. That gave me time to coordinate with Echo. “Get over into the wood pile!” I told her quickly.

She squeaked acknowledgement and flew towards the stairs, then dove between two stacks of wood into the rack. Skarmory flew in moments later – she was moving fast now – and looked around at all of us, squawking her confusion at her opponent’s disappearance.

“The Zubat’s hiding in the wood,” Jasper told her. “Metal Claw, get her out!”

I managed to hold my face steady until Skarmory had hopped over to the wood and lifted one great talon that shone in the light. Then I grinned. “Supersonic ambush!”

Echo immediately screeched up and into Skarmory’s face, which made the other Pokemon reel back from the dizzying sound. As the bird backed away Echo shot out of the wood pile and dove straight at the Skarmory’s neck, just as we’d planned before. The bird screamed in rage and tried to force her off, but Echo had aimed well; Skarmory couldn’t reach the back of her own neck with wings, talons, or teeth, and my girl was just small enough to fit there perfectly.

“Great! Now Bite!” I yelled. A dark energy whirled around Echo’s mouth as she bit down as hard as she could on the back of Skarmory’s neck. Her fangs couldn’t get through Skarmory’s steel plating, but the darkness bled straight through the armor like it wasn’t even there, and that made Skarmory shriek in pain.

“Focus!” Jasper yelled at his Pokemon. “Stop trying to bend your wings! Slam your head backwards to trap it!”

Shoot, that would probably work. “Get out of there!” I called to Echo quickly.

We were in luck; Skarmory tried one more swipe with her wings before she followed Jasper’s advice, and that gave Echo just enough time to take off and wing away before the bird could trap her. That was where our luck ended, though, because now Echo was right in range for Skarmory’s attacks.

“Get her!” Jasper snapped, and Skarmory snarled as she leapt forward.

“Try to get in close and attack her front,” I told Echo. Her wings wavered uncertainly, but she still dove for the larger Pokemon without hesitation.

Just before Echo reached her, Skarmory dipped slightly in the air and slammed a wing into her body. Echo squeaked pitifully as she was thrown back towards me. She managed to flap her wings rapidly and regain control of her flight, but she looked shaken now. I bit my lip as I looked her over. One more attack would probably knock her out. Maybe it was time to withdraw her from the fight…

“Dru!” Pausso shouted from his position next to me. “Zee, drow!”

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I looked at him, surprised, but before I could ask him what he’d said Echo leapt into action. She shot forward in the air and screeched out another Supersonic, and this time the attack must have hit Skarmory at just the right angle because the bird started tottering back and forth, clearly confused.

“Nice! Get in there!” I shouted to Echo as Jasper yelled for Skarmory to snap out of it. She dove neatly under a wild Slash attack and landed on Skarmory’s chest, then started using her Bite attack against the steel bird unprompted.

Skarmory lurched about in her confusion for a few moments as Echo bashed her teeth into the bird’s front; then she jumped into the air and shot forward. In her confused stupor she flew straight into one of the pillars that connected the top floor of the lighthouse to the overarching roof, which made the whole top floor of the lighthouse tremble. Skarmory fell backwards, clearly stunned, and Echo fell off of her to the ground.

I winced; Echo was limp there on the floor, almost certainly unconscious. “Drowzee, your turn!” I shouted as I ran over to the two Pokemon. Skarmory heard my voice and lashed out with a wing blindly, but I managed to duck under it and dive forward to where Echo lay. In seconds I picked her up, clutched her to my chest, and scuttled backwards to get away from the confused bird. My heart hammered uncontrollably as Skarmory turned to me, her eyes still wild and unseeing, and raised a claw that was outlined in silvery energy. Perhaps jumping into the middle of a battle wasn’t the smartest idea.

G̸e̴t̷ ̶ b̸a̸c̵k̶!̷ Pausso shouted mentally as he shot a Psybeam at the other Pokemon. Skarmory then snarled and charged at him instead, and I used the distraction to get up on my feet and back up so I was out of the way. When I looked again Pausso had dodged to the side. His glowing eyes showed that he was using Confusion, just like we had discussed before.

“Focus, partner!” Jasper yelled in a frustrated voice. “To your right!”

Skarmory slashed directly before herself with a claw, hitting nothing but empty air. Then she shook her head rapidly and looked more alert again. Her eyes narrowed as she swiveled her head to the side, looked right at Pausso, and charged towards him.

I hissed as the metal bird slammed into Pausso and started slashing at him relentlessly with wing and claw. The glowing light around both Pokemon showed that he was still using Confusion, but Skarmory fought relentlessly. In close-quarters combat we didn’t stand a chance. We needed to get more space.

“Hypnosis!” I yelled, and Pausso gave up on his psychic attack so he could wave his hands in the usual pattern. The blue light washed directly over Skarmory and the bird swayed slightly as her attacks slowed down.

Jasper hummed in annoyance. “Back into the sky, fly it off,” he told his partner. Skarmory slashed her wing against Pausso’s arm in a lazy movement, then sprung into the air and started circling the lighthouse, her eyelids fluttering as she fought to stay awake.

Pausso looked like he was already in rough shape. His body was covered in scrapes and shallow cuts where Skarmory had hit him, and he was panting after the rapid series of attacks. But we had the advantage in long-range combat. This was our opportunity to turn things around.

“Psybeam!” I told him, and he quickly shot off a bolt of psychic energy after Skarmory. The attack hit the bird and she jolted in the air slightly, shaking her head at the mental attack.

“Evasive maneuvers and Swift,” Jasper commanded. I clutched at Echo a little more tightly. She squeaked in protest and I glanced down at her, surprised; I hadn’t expected her to wake up from her faint so quickly. I hefted her up to rest on my shoulder and turned my attention back to the battle.

“Keep hitting her with Psybeam!” I told Pausso. He grunted and started shooting off more beams of psychic energy, but Skarmory’s evasive actions combined with her speed made her near-impossible to hit. Worse, whenever she had a moment to breathe she would send a Swift attack back at Pausso, and he had no way to dodge the homing stars. She looked fully awake now, but Jasper didn’t bother telling her to go back to close-quarters fighting. He seemed to think they’d be able to win from a distance.

Worse, it was possible he was right. If nothing changed we would lose. I bit the side of my cheek and muttered to myself as I tried to think quickly. Even when Pausso’s psychic attacks had landed before they didn’t seem to do as much damage as I’d expected them to. Maybe because of the bird’s steel armor?

Echo squeaked right in my ear, so I spared a quick glance at her. She used one wing to point up in the sky towards Skarmory, then leaned down and tapped her other wing against my chest.

I stared at her for a moment, befuddled, then looked back up at where Skarmory flew nearby. Then I saw it. The areas where Echo had used Bite on her looked darker than the other parts of her body. Maybe they were bruised? If so, those would be her weak spots. If we could hit her there, maybe we could do real damage.

“Aim for her chest, where Zubat bit her before!” I yelled eagerly.

A flicker of annoyance shot back at me. I̷ ̷ c̴a̸n̴n̵o̷t̴ ̷ e̸v̶e̸n̶ ̷ h̵i̵t̶ ̵ h̷e̷r̸, Pausso thought back to me, and the fatigue and pain he was feeling was carried along with his words. I winced; he was exhausted and far past the point when I would normally pull him out of a battle. I knew I ought to cut my losses and forfeit, but with the wager I had placed…

Maybe this whole battle had been a mistake. I’d thought my strategy of getting Skarmory confused and landing a few dark attacks first would weaken our opponent enough that Pausso would be able to finish her off, but I hadn’t accounted for the metal bird’s speed. We had no way of slowing her down that I could think of. We had to try something different.

“You can go faster!” I shouted to Pausso, and I closed my eyes to remember and send him dozens of tiny moments from our training with Smith. Running laps every day until we could go twice as fast as we had on the first day without running out of breath. Practicing move alternation until he could switch between Confusion and Psybeam in the blink of an eye. Iterating through multiple variations on his handwave pattern until we found one that produced the Hypnosis waves faster than all the rest. And of course, practicing with Psybeam; holding the beam for longer so it would shoot out far, yes, but also firing the beams off as rapidly as he possibly could.

Even at his best he wouldn’t have been fast enough to outpace Skarmory right now. That didn’t matter. Training was about constant improvement, wasn’t it? This was just another chance to improve.

That last thought slipped in with the memories I sent him, and I could practically feel as it resonated with him and something in his mind clicked into place. He stopped shooting off Psybeams and turned to stare directly at Skarmory, still flying around the lighthouse. The bird used that as an opportunity to send another volley of Swift stars his way, and he grunted as they hit him, but his eyes were focused on the bird, on the way she cut through the air like a hot knife through butter.

Then he held a paw up in front of his face and waved it in a new pattern. It was like what he did for Hypnosis, but different somehow. A fine pink energy flew out of his paw and into his own head, and his eyes briefly glazed over as he twitched.

Then he moved, and Mew help me, he moved fast.

I gaped as he dashed forward towards the edge of the floor, running several times faster than I had ever seen him manage before. His paws shot forward and a globe of energy appeared before them and launched forward immediately, nailing Skarmory right in the chest.

The bird squawked in pain and Jasper cursed. “Get in close!” he yelled. Skarmory obliged as she angled back towards the lighthouse.

“Keep it up!” I told Pausso, which wasn’t really necessary as he was already firing off a steady stream of Psybeams. Skarmory tried to dodge the moves, but he was moving just as fast as her now. All of the psychic beams hit her, and most of them nailed her weak spots. I dared to grin as she faltered and hit the floor, scrabbling against it with her claws. She looked just as exhausted as Pausso did now. Maybe we could win this!

Then he tried to create another Psybeam and it sputtered out before the globe of energy could form.

Jasper noticed right away. “Almost there!” he told her. “Get in close, Wing Attack!”

Pausso felt panicked as he kept trying to focus on the energy in front of his hands. She was bearing down on him with wings outstretched, but it wasn’t working –

Strangely, even though I hadn’t planned for this, I knew exactly what to do.

“Disable! Then Headbutt!” I yelled, and Pausso reacted immediately. He dropped his hands and looked square in Skarmory’s face, and a series of bright blue rings shot out towards the bird. She still ran forward and slammed a wing into Pausso, but the energy that had surrounded the wing was gone; it just drove some of the breath out of him without doing substantial damage.

Then he lowered his head and slammed it into the part of her chest that had been weakened. I winced when the pain of headbutting a steel creature pulsed through my bond with Pausso, but I also felt a grim sense of satisfaction when it sent her reeling.

Skarmory fell backwards while panting heavily. Jasper shouted for her to get up and she briefly scrabbled at the ground, attempting to stand. Then she wilted backwards, folded her wings back, and bowed her head slightly. It took a few moments, but eventually I realized what that meant.

“Come, partner! Get up, you can keep fighting!” Jasper yelled. He sounded annoyed and… anxious? Even scared? Surely not. He was a full-grown adult, after all.

“She’s done,” I told him levelly. Pausso was gasping for breath and looked like he was in much worse shape than the bird, but he still held his fists up and energy glowed around them. He would keep fighting if he had to. “She’s giving up the match. That means you lose.”

And it struck me at that moment that it was true. A heady feeling swept through my whole body and made me smile giddily.

We had done it. We had won.