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Shuoma City - Koria Region

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The sound of hungry Pokémon woke up Akos of the Southern Water Tribe, as the sun rose on a new day. Alex was already up, letting his team frolic, spar, and eat breakfast. Akos's Piplup had joined them, but chirped and ran over once he saw his Trainer had finally woken up as well. Shuoma loomed over the group in the distance, a city built into a mountain peak, adapted to its shape, to accommodate as many houses, businesses, and other buildings as possible. The Fire Nation's flag flew over the simple but sturdy battlements of the front gate, and the Earth Nation symbol carved into the topmost part of the gate was charred black, but still visible, once one got closer.

"Initially they had it covered." Akos said, as they approached after feeding and letting their partner Pokémon relax for a bit. One of his darker brown toned hands gestured to the charred symbol. "But people kept burning the flag down, and the Earthbenders refused to remove the symbol. Those who tried to remove it with tools, only found it remade the next morning. The Fire Nation charred it after that and spent quite a few decades oppressing the citizens...until someone finally managed to convince the Fire Army to withdraw. You'll probably meet him later, once I find my people."

Alex nodded, eyeing the charred symbol as he did. "Charred, but still visible. Still standing. Much like your region." He quieted, as the pair approached the 'gate', which was really just a section of wall that the earthbenders opened and closed manually.

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Once the pair of guards outside Shuoma's gates bought their somewhat true story of a water tribal innocuously guiding an ignorant westerner through the hotspots of the Koria region, Alex and Akos began their search for the Avatar by splitting off in separate directions. Akos knew many of his fellows in the Water Nation were rebels, but he himself was not one. He tracked down his people, as only a waterbender could, using the same codes and tricks Avatar Kora had created for the rebellion in her time, that had passed to Akos from his father, and grandfather before him. There was no way they would ever approach him with a giant pale-skinned foreigner in tow. Even garbed as he was, Alex stuck out as a foreigner. He wasn't the only one in the city, but a flash of hands or cheeks gave him away with his inherited lighter beige skin tones, and the instantly noticeable size. Most Korians averaged around five feet, but he soon found he was not the only giant foreigner, the further he went into the city filled with squalor and hard living. They seemed Varangian and given what the Imperium had done to their region, they were likely refugees who were somewhere between trying to start over and struggling to exist.

For his part, Alex stuck to what he knew, and what he knew when he saw it, was a Pokémon Gym, right beside a Pokémon Center, in what he soon learned was the central area of the city, and the only part of it that had a Pokémon Center able to treat injured Pokémon.

He entered the gym, and was greeted by a strange sight, one that soon became evaluated by his psychic sight. A man who looked very much like a Gym Leader of a ground type gym was going toe to toe with a Rhyperior, though neither one of them was using Moves he recognized. As Alex watched, he realized they were bending the ground to strike, and the all-out rock themed brawl reminded him of Royal Mask and one of his classically larger opponents, but with rocks.

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The Rhyperior made a motion with both of its arms, filling the air with rocks that Alex watched it effortlessly keep aloft, before a swift shift in motion sent them hurtling towards what appeared to be his Trainer, judging by the Pokémon's surface thoughts. Said Trainer proceeded to plant his feet in a wide stance, and smash all of the projectiles with nothing but his fists, and speed. He then spun, keeping one foot planted as the other lifted a large part of the field that seemed glued to his foot, until gravity and his spin's momentum sent it hurtling at the Rhyperior.

The rock rhino roared, and spun up its Horn Drill, just before the rock made contact, making the chance of hitting much higher than usual. The boulder broke in half across his horn, but the two halves never hit the ground, as the Rhyperior took control of them, and then sent them back with a powerful Rock Throw. This kind of back and forth continued for several minutes, before finally, the Pokémon ran out of power.

That didn't stop him, but his struggle was obvious, and while the human was flagging, he still had more left in the tank, and finished the match with several sudden jutting pieces of the ground striking the Pokémon all at once. He planted his feet in the rocky floor as he shifted within it and moved, rather quickly, towards his partner. One hand fished for something within his dark green and brown attire. He pulled out something that looked like a blue Max Revive and tossed it in the weakened Pokémon's mouth.

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After several hundred hours of watching various team members do something similar with the earth, through the Move classified as Earthquake, and this demonstration, Alex felt reasonably confident he could move it as well. As he tried reaching out to the ground however, it remained as silent and still as it always had.

"Hello there, stranger. I take it you're here to challenge my Gym?" Alex glanced up as the man who'd gone one on one with a Rhyperior, and won, approached him. His hair was a wild, spikey, unkempt mess, but up close, his physique was much more chiseled than Alex had expected. He clearly put effort into his training, though judging by his Rhyperior, he was more focused on bending mastery than Pokémon training.

Alex spied only one other ball on his belt, and then met the man's gaze evenly, as they seemed to be almost exactly the same height. "I am. I heard there was a Pokémon League in the Koria region. Figured I would try to tackle it."

The man nodded. "I am your first in this region, foreigner?"

Alex nodded in return, and the slightly graying man chuckled with a deep, booming laugh.

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"The locals call me Leader Boomi. I'm the only serious Pokémon Trainer in Shuoma. The rest of these wimps don't train nearly as hard as I do! Let us see who has the stronger Pokémon." He crouched then, and the ground depressed, and then erupted, as he used it to leap, flip through the air, and land on his side of the battlefield he'd been facing his Rhyperior on. "I should warn you; we do things a bit differently in Koria. Thanks to our...strong Imperium overtones...the idea of Battling alongside our partners has caught on, over the years. Since you're not a bender, I'll face you with just my Pokémon, but in other Gyms, without bending, you will be at a severe disadvantage."

Alex arched a brow as he took his own spot on the field. "I can handle a handicap... but I see why Pokémon battling has fallen out of style with your non-benders...it's not fun, constantly losing to such an advantage. You can tell I'm not a bender so easily?"

Boomi chuckled. "Call it a hunch. Most foreigners can't hack it...but there's fire in your eyes. It reminds me of the last foreigner that came to my Gym. His Electric Type was...on another level."

Alex stroked the curly beard that covered most of his jaw, and half of his cheeks as he wondered which electric type would give a ground gym leader trouble. He guessed Elektross, with Levitate and Giga Drain. "If you think you can teach me to bend the earth, I would like to learn."

That, seemed to pique Boomi's interest, and there was a similar fire in the chiseled man's intense gaze. "Very well...beat my Pokémon team, and I shall try to educate you in the art of Earthbending. It's not completely unheard of for foreigners to learn bending."

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Everything Alex's eyes were telling him said this was the formulaic path to both his need for a Mega Evolution solution and finding the Guardian's Avatar. He continued to follow it, as after splitting from Akos, his unique perspective of the world and the randomness of the universe had led him here. He felt Arbor's ball twitch, as Boomi mentioned battle, and he knew his Grovyle, Arbor, close as he was to evolution, was eager to test himself against such a strong opponent.

"You're on." He nodded, and Arbor burst free from his ball. He dropped into a battle crouch, and held his palms so they faced the other, as he readied his Energy Ball. The Rhyperior returned, was given a potion, and then eagerly proclaimed how ready he was for battle.

"Energy Ball."

"Wedge Block! Then counter!"

Alex's eyes narrowed at the move his opponent called, as it was unfamiliar. The Rhyperior smashed the ground as Arbor spun up his Energy Ball between his hands, and a rocky wedge-shaped shield rose before the Rhyperior, right as the attack fired. It smashed into the shield, as it ricocheted off of it into a wall. Then, half of the wedge suddenly became a sharp flying triangle of rock headed towards the grassy reptile, and Alex knew avoiding it would be a good idea.

"Agility."

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Arbor's eyes lit up with psychic power, and Alex sensed their bond deepen as he drew on the one psychic related ability his species could learn. He moved faster than the eye could track, as the Rhyperior launched the other half of the wedge. The rapidly moving grass lizard dodged both, before Alex ordered another attack. "Good, now Leaf Blade!"

Boomi smirked. "Getting in close to a Rhyperior with a special attacker. Not the choice I would've made…Megahorn!" The Rhyperior's horn glowed with the familiar light green belonging to bug typed energy, and it swiftly bashed away both of Arbor's Leaf Blades, before the Rhyperior made to strike the quickly backtracking Grovyle's chest.

"Use Quick Attack to dodge, and then counter with an Energy Ball." Arbor looked back at him, and Alex nodded. "Point blank." The Grovyle smirked and turned to face the slowly charging Rhyperior. With his heightened perception, even a charging rock rhino seemed slow. Something odd began to happen though, as Arbor moved. Alex felt his heartbeat, and that of his Grovyle, begin to synchronize. Arbor dodged the Megahorn easily, as in that moment it seemed like he could see both through his eyes, and his Trainer's. While Alex had done something similar before with Blaze and others, this felt different somehow. More intimate. He was glad his Grovyle thought so highly of him, and those feels were reciprocated as his Grovyle did as ordered. While the thin aura of white certainly looked like a Quick Attack, the way his Grovyle moved with it was impressive, and since Alex had a direct line to the grass lizard's mind, he realized his partner had dodged the rock rhino's horn jabs with nothing but instinct.

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Then, Arbor seemed to vanish with his quadrupled speed, only to reappear and hit the Rhyperior from behind with his condensed Energy Ball, sending the heavy rock rhino sailing through the air, before he caught himself on his arms as he all but crashed to the ground. In a smooth motion he spun to his feet again, taking two pieces of floor with him as he struck back, throwing them at Arbor as he did. Alex smirked, and called the move that would likely finish the round. "Leaf Blade."

Arbor's arm blades hummed to life as he moved in to strike, sliced through both rocks, and then culminated in a final dual-slash right on the Rhyperior's chest. The moderately strong Pokémon let out a cry as he collapsed, but it was Alex who gave him the Max Revive this time. He looked up suddenly, as light blinded his peripheral vision, and he stared, as his Grovyle evolved, his form largening, growing, until it reformed for the last time, as a Sceptile.

Alex gave his Sceptile a fist bump as the Rhyperior lumbered back, somewhat confused by the fact that the human had responded to his 'thank you' for the Max Revive as if he'd understood his words. Boomi spoke then. "Well done, Challenger...and thank you. My own supply of Revives is...limited. The Imperium keeps Gym Leaders poorly stocked, in case we try helping the Air Rebels...even though the League has stressed its neutrality. I have one more challenge for you."

He threw his second ball, after recalling his Rhyperior, and revealed instead a Diggersby. Upon seeing the Diggersby, Alex nodded to himself. This was Boomi's first Pokémon of that, he was sure. It was bigger, its ear-arms were thicc and heavily muscled, and as the heavy appendages rhythmically pounded the floor, an aura of ground type energy flared up around the Diggersby.

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Alex nodded as he scratched under Arbor's chin and recalled him. He was more than a match for the ground pounding bunny, but he had others on his team that could rise to this challenge and needed the experience. "Canis, you're up. Cinder, you watch."

From where he'd been hiding, in the shadows by the gym's door, Alex's Riolu padded out, as mild and seemingly chill as ever, onto the battlefield. Beside him, Alex's Scorbunny appeared, eyes wide as he got a proper look at a Pokémon strong enough to manifest its aura as a shield. The Exp. Share harness had switched to him, but his Trainer wanted the eager fire bunny to see how intense battle could be firsthand.

Canis bowed in the Unovan style to the ground typed bunny, who mimicked the movement with his ears, as the battle began, though his eyes darted to the Scorbunny, and narrowed, as he resumed his ready position. Boomi took the initiative this time shouting, "Flopsy, Bulldoze it!" The Diggersby responded enthusiastically by lowering his arm-ears, linking them as they powered up with ground type energy, and charged at Canis.

If the Riolu was alarmed, his face didn't show it, beyond a widening of his eyes. He dropped into the Dragon Style's ready position, and waited for his own command, which came quickly behind Boomi's. "Go high with Quick Attack, and then bring a Brick Break down on it!" Canis's tiny form lit up with white light, as he dashed towards the bulldozing bunny, only to leap into the air, and dodge the move.

He shifted direction in the air with an imperfect Vacuum Wave, that was more of a Vacuum Poof, as his paws lit with fighting energy. Flopsy raised an ear to catch the paw that smashed down at him, but the type advantage won out over the Diggersby's aura shield, and left him on the ground, as Canis leapt away, and fell again into his fighting crouch.

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For his part, Boomi stroked his unruly tuft of brown chin hair. "I can tell you're close with your partners, stranger...but I'm curious. Why do you Battle?" As his Trainer spoke, Flopsy rose back up, snarling as he still had plenty left in the tank. By Alex's estimate, Canis's best move would clinch the victory.

Alex couldn't help himself, as he lowered his furry hood, smirked, and turned his basic Unovan style hat backwards. "To be the best. Ever." Boomi smirked as well, as Alex spoke again. "Canis...Focus Energy…"

"Dig!" Boomi said, and his partner obeyed, slipping quickly below the gym floor's rocky surface. "I see...and is winning all that matters to you?"

"Of course not. It's not about winning...or losing." Alex said, as both he and Canis watched for the Diggersby's strike. They were less in sync then he and his Sceptile had been, but Alex knew that would change, with time. "It's about the path we choose to walk...and ours leads to the top of this League, and the top of all the others. Wait for it to surface, Canis…"

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The punchy puppy nodded, as his eyes were closed, and his energy became more focused. Then, suddenly, his 'ears' flared up, and Flopsy emerged, wreathed in ground type aura as he intended to smash the Riolu. "Now! Focus Blast!"

The fighting energy swirling around his Riolu was skillfully redirected into a ball of dense energy that hammered the Diggersby. To his credit, he fought against the energy, and to Boomi's credit, he didn't give up either. "Try adding a spin to your Dig! Break through!"

Unfortunately, breaking into the dense sphere of fighting energy only caused it to explode, and the resulting boom left the ground typed bunny unconscious on the gym floor. Canis, for his part, hadn't moved. He stood gracefully from his fighting crouch, and then looked up at his Trainer, as his tail wagged. Alex chuckled, and tossed him something the locals, and Akos, had called a 'meat bun'. Canis had declared them his new favorite thing to shove in his mouth, and it was one such bun Alex gave him now. He sat where he received it and began munching. His tail did not cease wagging, and only increased in speed after each bite.

Boomi came over, once his partner was revived and recalled, and he seemed to eye Alex more closely this time. "Seems I've been had...you're no beginner. Neither one of my partners made yours so much as flinch...I guess Unova really does have strong Trainers."

Alex smirked and readjusted his hat and hood. "The strongest."

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Boomi nodded, then looked him over again. "Excuse my bluntness...but you seem very familiar. Do you mind if I ask your name, stranger?"

Right as Alex was about to say 'Lee', as he'd met five people with variations of Lee on his way here, the gym door opened behind him. "Ahh, there he is. I told you he'd be here; the man is obsessed with Battle. Hey, Alex! I found my friends. They're uh, ready to talk with you." Akos came into the gym, followed by two other members of the Water Nation who had similar blue toned outfits that matched Akos. One was a woman with wavy hair the same color as Akos's, who was scowling in Alex's general direction, and an older member of the tribe who was sporting several harsh but long healed burns along the entire left side of his body that looked anything but natural.

The widening of Boomi's eyes was all that gave away his recognition of the similarity in the face and name of the stranger who'd come to challenge him, and a certain world leader. If he made any connections, he said nothing, and instead looked at his new guests. He broke into a smile. "Ara. Boto. It's been a long time."

The two arrivals flanking Akos bowed to the man, as Akos seemed alone in not understanding why people were treating the crazy haired and ridiculously shredded shirtless old man with so much respect. Boomi crossed his arms after he returned their bow, as the somewhat manic looking eyes moved back to his latest victor. "I had a feeling you were someone important...one would think such a person would make more of an effort to hide in a potentially hostile region."

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Alex smirked. "I have my hood, since it's rather cold in your region. And my beard is longer. I'd change my skin tone, but Fairy Type glamours literally burn me when I try forming them so...I make do. I knew you might find out, but I'm willing to take that risk...ever since I learned about your League, I've been wondering...how is a normal Trainer, even with bending, supposed to take on eight masters of other styles, and win? It seems to me like this setup is designed to find a special kind of individual...one the First Dragon wishes to aid."

The woman introduced as Ara narrowed her eyes at him. "Dragon? What dragon? Boomi, you seem to have more of a clue than my brother. Who is this guy?"

Boomi stroked his beard, smirking as he answered Ara. "The newest Dragon Emperor of Unova, or a very good lookalike." His eyes shifted to Ara as he spoke, and he then looked to Boto, who glanced at Akos, shrugged, and then smirked back at the Gym Leader. "Very well, Alex...let's say we believe who you are, and what your purpose here is...if you get discovered, you're going to plunge your nation into a war."

"Perhaps." Alex said, smirk widening. "Or perhaps greater minds than ours are convinced that the Imperator's attention is embroiled elsewhere along with his Thunder Warriors, and now is the ideal time to liberate Koria. His Prime Archons have all been deployed somewhere I can't mention. But I do know we have some time to prepare, strike the Fire Nation, and free your region from the Imperium's influence. First...we need to find the Guardian's Avatar."

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Ara spoke, scowling with undisguised disbelief at the far too chill foreigner claiming to be someone important. "Oh do we. Do you know how long the Imperator's attention will be occupied?"

Alex pondered for a moment with a downward glance, before he met the woman's eyes again. "Until the end of the summer at most...I intend to help you all so you're ready much quicker. Just tell me what you need."

Ara walked towards him then, and by reflex, he stood a little straighter as she peered at him. "You're going to be our rich western uncle? Very well...we need equipment. Weapons. A way of communicating with our allies long distance, that can't be traced. Can you handle that, 'Dragon Emperor'?" She said, finishing with literal air quotes from her fingers.

Alex ignored her jibe, and in that moment realized she was quite a bit younger than he'd assumed. Living under the Imperium hardened everyone, but the hormonal roller coaster of puberty had not yet finished with Ara, that much, was clear. "Just tell me where you want it, and I can move it in...do you have a main base of some kind? I need an anchor, for my method of transport."

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The foreigner's seeming indifference to her verbal jab at his credibility drove one of Ara's eyes to twitch, but she turned incredulous as he asked for their base's location. "Like we're just going to take you there!"

Alex rolled his eyes, and then they fell on Akos, with a meaningful look. Akos stepped up to the woman then, and with the two together, the fairly obvious family resemblance became clearer. "Look sis, I've known him longer. He's good people. Pokémon like him. I think we can trust him."

"Trust is earned, not given." Ara said, as she quoted one of Avatar Kora's more popular sayings, from the end of her mortal coil. At that, both Boomi and Boto nodded as well, and Alex sighed inwardly, as he knew what came next. A task, likely menial, that would somehow demonstrate his loyalty to the cause.

With her hands on her hips, the female Southern Water Tribe native met Alex's gaze evenly. "We have allies in the Great Swamp that are having trouble with the Fire Nation. Their Trainers are too strong. If you are who you say you are, and the hype around your strength isn't an exaggeration," Her expression clearly signaled that she believed it was, in fact, exaggerated, "Then you should be able to help them deal with the Firebenders no problem."

Boomi chimed in as Alex prepared to decline, politely, and emphasize the need for speed, and just how fast he could get them supplies if they'd but lead him to the area they'd defended best. "The Great Swamp is home to another Gym Leader...though he's not so big on Gyms. He's a Waterbender, and you will be hard pressed to match him without bending of your own." Boomi met Ara's eyes then. "He can stay for a while, try to learn the basics of Earthbending, as we agreed before we Battled, then he can go see Hyu."

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Ara sighed, deeply. "Fine. Their tactics can buy us a few days, maybe a week, but you know what they'll do if we wait too long, Boomi. The Fire Nation is convinced there's Air Rebels in the swamp."

Boomi's subtly shrinking smirk vanished altogether, at that. "Then we must begin immediately…" His eyes shifted back to Alex, as he walked closer to the foreigner and extended his hand. Within it was a Badge, green and gold, and shaped in the style of the Earth Nation's symbol. "For winning the Badge of my city, you have earned the right to have your aptitude for Earthbending tested...come with me."

With a single shift in movement, and before the others could so much as move or reply, Boomi made a motion with his hands, and the entire battlefield flipped. Akos and Boto had hard falls, while the others landed on their feet. The room below was dark, but after a brief scratching sound, Boomi lit a built-in lantern embedded within the rock of the wall with a match. The flame followed the flammable but not easily charred material along what appeared to be a tunnel that led into more darkness. Every few feet, a new lantern lit with the same flame.

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Boomi talked, as the group walked. "Shuoma has been resisting the Imperium ever since the day the Fire Nation betrayed us for power and slaughtered the Air Nation. I eventually convinced the fire tossers to leave. Made them think the entire city was ridden with plague. Every time they return with one of their Thunderhawks, we give them the same news. Massive death toll, highly infectious, etcetera. If the Imperium is wise to my scam, they haven't done anything about it, and the Fire Nation seems just as eager to leave us alone. Provided we don't cause trouble."

Alex arched a brow at the old man. "You mean...you're bluffing the military might of the world's largest government? And it's working?"

Boomi tapped his nose with a pointer finger and a mad gleam in his eye. "As you said, Redwood. It appears that the Imperator is...distracted. Koria is a minor acquisition, and Shuoma is not its largest city. The largest resources we have are people, and maybe cabbages, and if those people are defective by Imperium standards, they think we aren't worth bothering with. Until we become a threat, of course."

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By the time they'd finished speaking, they'd reached the end of the long tunnel, and emerged into a room that, Alex guessed, was ideal for earthbending training. Massive boulders, the kind Arthur had honed his Rock Smash on in their early days, lined one wall. The other was filled with bowls atop pedestals that looked like they were holding various pebbles of rock. In the center was a meditation spot, where Boomi crossed his legs and sat patiently. Surrounding it, engraved into the stone of the floor, was a large depiction of the Earth Nation's symbol.

"Begin with the bowls." Boomi said, as he placed his closed fists together over his lap and closed his eyes. "They will get harder to punch through as you go down the line. Don't try to rush...bending the earth requires great patience."

Alex approached the bowls, and a portion of the wall they were arrayed before slid down, revealing another human. His eyes were narrow, and the set of his face made him seem to perpetually scowl. His skin tone was as dark tan as the rest of his region's people, and he demonstrated what Alex was to do.

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With a wave of his gaunt hand, the man hardened the contents of the first bowl, which to Alex appeared to be little more than dirt and pebbles. Then, he formed his hand into a flat, extended, and stiffened shape, before he plunged both of his hands into the solid rock three times, in rapid succession. He then gestured to Alex to do the same.

For his part, Alex had watched how the man achieved this task. His network of inner energy, much like Boomi's, was inundated with rock and ground typed energy, but this close, his eyes were telling him the man was evidently normal typed, with a strong tie to ground energy as well. Alex put his hands on the pebbles within the bowl, and focused. His eyes snapped open though, as the man struck him across the face, only to find the foreigner's face did not give an inch. "Not like that."

Alex chuckled, meeting the man's gaze as he completely ignored the slap. "I'm not born to this like you are...give me a moment."

The man, for some reason, made to slap him again, when Boomi held up a hand, and spoke simultaneously, stopping the man's strike as he heard Boomi's voice. "Don't. Ki-sai, he is right. If he can do this, it will not be the same way we do. Do as he asks."

Alex gave Ki-sai a smirk, which seemed to quietly infuriate him more, but Alex put the thin earthbender from his mind as he again focused, and tried to draw in the natural energy of the earth. His Splash Plate crystal had aided him before, outside Shuoma, but he knew Boomi would not allow him to draw on his crystals now, and relying on them too much would defeat the point of learning this kind of energy manipulation. He intended to use them to empower his attacks, like his partners did, but first, he needed to master the basics.

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He sat for many minutes in patient silence, as he mentally drowned out the thoughts echoing around him, rather loudly. Ara was glaring, remarking to herself how dumb his body shape looked, Ki-sai had similar, much more racially biased thoughts, though it seemed meeting his gaze had been what set him off. Evidently looking at a teacher directly was disrespectful in his culture. Only Boomi was truly focused, so Alex focused on his lack of thought, and breathed. Then, he felt it. When he became perfectly still, he was able to draw in the power of the stone below his hands into his own inner energy network. He focused on breathing then, and within ten breaths, had suffused his network with the required power.

Then, he struck the rock as Ki-sai had, and blinked, as it moved to accommodate his oversized hands rather easily. Ki-sai moved to the next bowl and seemed to glower at him. "Again!"

Again, Alex struck, only this time, his hand did not sink in as deep. He noticed there was a slow, but steady leak of the gathered energy, and that movement made it leave faster. As he struck the second bowl a second time, he realized he needed to purposefully hold in the energy, as he moved, or the resulting earthbending would be weaker, and it seemed holding his breath during the movement helped.

He repeated this, making his way down the line, until they reached the final bowl. Ki-sai smirked at Alex, this time. "Even I cannot break this one. It is the hardest rock we have found in this region. You will fail as well."

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Alex rose to the challenge from this new, irritating rival, and he did not see the slight smirk Boomi wore as he continued meditating. Alex drew in as much earth energy as he could, and then like Terra, focused it into his limbs. He only required one limb for this, and with a single chopping motion, his hand slashed through the bowl's contents, the bowl itself, and the pillar. Ki-sai waved away the dust, and his left eye twitched with fury as he saw the mess the arrogant foreigner had made.

Boomi's commanding tones filled the room, before their antagonizing personalities could spark into a fight. "Good! The rumors are true. You are strong, Redwood." He stood and turned all in one motion, and both Alex and Ki-sai quailed slightly, as they felt the power emanating from Boomi. He fell rapidly into a martial stance with a single motion and gestured for Alex to 'bring it'. To his psychic eyes, Boomi was holding in, somehow, more earth typed nature energy than Alex could, and he was doing so with ease. "Come, Pokémon Trainer...it is time we dueled again."

Alex strode forward, drawing in more energy with each step, using the moment in which he stepped, and stood still for an instant between strides, to draw in more earth energy. It was nowhere even close to Boomi's level, but he refused to lose without giving it his all. He fell into his Dragon Stance, and Boomi tutted. "You're going to find that fire and air work far better with your Dragon's martial style. Do you know anything more...power-based?"

Alex nodded and shifted stances. He had not completely mastered the Foggy Swamp Style that Oranguru taught, but he knew it well enough. Boomi was correct as well, for he felt the gathered nature energy respond and settle much better into this stance than it had with Tao's.

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"Let's start...simple." Boomi said, shifting and bringing one shredded arm forward in a swift punch. A chunk of the floor moved with his motion, and Alex spun into it, in an attempt to chop through the small boulder. It broke apart around his hand as he made it listen and bend, and then like Boomi's Rhyperior, caught the chunks with his own power. He sent them back with a counter spin, and Boomi's fists caught them and turned them into sand in his palms. "Not bad at all, Redwood."

Alex bowed in the Unovan style. "I'm a fast learner."

Boomi grinned. "Again!" He said, before sending three rocks this time. As a style developed by an Oranguru and mastered by Passimian, Alex was ideally suited for handling roughly ball shaped rock projectiles. He sent back each rock, making use of his stupidly long arms and a few Dragon Style spinning motions to give them more heat, not all that different to how the Passimian who'd mastered this style returned punches.

Boomi spent the next several hours, the rest of the day, moving Alex through the forms of basic earthbending styles, and having him memorize them once he learned that the psychic foreigner had a memory like a bear trap. Finally, Boomi ended their training session. "That will do, I think...you have mastered and memorized all you need to know, to face Hyu and manage a win. Practice what you have been shown, Redwood. You will make a fine Earthbender."

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Alex held up a single finger and couldn't resist smirking. "There's one more thing I'd like to try...just be ready to stabilize these tunnels if it gets too...strong."

Boomi cackled. "You don't have the strength to bring down these tunnels, Redwood. I made them myself!"

Alex just smirked, and focused the earth energy in his bodily energy network into his arms and hands. The idea had come from Terra, but he also sensed he had Hydrus's attention as well. The rest of his main team was busy relaxing or socializing with what Pokémon were around them, but his mudfish and grass tortoise were keeping a mental eye on him with what seemed like amusement, and curiosity. Alex had been able to replicate an Earthquake by hitting the ground before, usually at high speeds, and then breaking it with a wave of psychic energy. It hadn't been as powerful as an Earthquake from a Pokémon, but he had made do, and it had broken the ground under his Arcean targets all the same.

What he attempted now was, in essence, what his team had done, often, in past battles, and it was their energy flow he copied as he raised his fists, brought them down, and focused the resulting bending of earth towards Boomi, who he assumed could handle it. The room shook, the earth broke, in a straight line towards Boomi, who raised a wild, unkempt eyebrow, and then simply shifted one foot, never letting it leave the floor. The trail of the miniquake arced away from the master earthbender, and dissipated harmlessly.

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Boomi smirked at him. "I look forward to seeing that once you understand the earth a bit better. For now, you have memorized what you need. You should be able to make your way to Hyu and the Great Swamp tomorrow. Tonight though, we shall feast! I haven't had a good feast in ages."

As Boomi seemingly sank into the ground where he sat, presumably to prepare the feast, Akos came up to Alex. "That's two Elements I've seen you bend now, Alex...are you sure you're not the Guardian's Avatar?"

Alex smirked. "What I did outside the city was...different. But similar. I think I have the capacity to...imitate your Avatar, but I doubt I'm anywhere near as strong. Even when I master this...from what Tao described, it sounds like your Avatar fused with the Guardian at some point in your history. That would make them as strong as a Legendary Pokémon."

This time, Boto chimed in, as he walked forward, leaving Ara scowling by the entrance. "Actually, it takes many years for an Avatar to be that strong...only when wielding the four Elements can they hope to stand up to the might of the Imperium. It has been many years since Koria had an Avatar like that, in the spring of youth."

Alex arched an eyebrow at the man. "If my math is right, the newest Avatar should be...what, early twenties? Younger? I get the feeling you know them, Boto."

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Ara stepped forward then, and the accusation in her tone caused Alex to sigh inwardly, as he resisted the human urge to rise to her bait. "Reading his mind now, are you? I'm still not convinced. For all we know, you could be an Imperium spy!"

Alex stayed calm as he formed a response, and then tossed it into his mental trash bin, as her brother rose to her bait instead. "Is my word not good enough, Aratak? I said he's good people! When have I ever been wrong? Besides, he's a psychic. The Imperium hates psychics."

Ara gave her brother a wide smirk. "How about that time those pirates from Eous came to our village? You practically invited their ship into our port, and they almost took it over, Akos. We don't even know that he's psychic, and if you remember, the Imperium has psychics as well. He could be part of the Collegia Psykana." The blue eyes narrowed as they focused on Alex. "A Librarius spy."

At that point, Alex closed his eyes, and the boulders lining one side of the room began glowing with a deep blue aura, and floating. He opened his eyes then, and Ara flinched, as she saw them burning with deep blue waves of intense aura. His voice, slightly shifted by the reverb which accompanied channeling such powers, echoed through the room. "I am no spy. The Imperium requires genetic modification, and alteration to their genes, to achieve that which I was born with, and have honed over my travels." He let the rocks land then and let the power fade. "This is the first time I've even heard of a...Collegia Psykana. Are you saying the Imperium has an entire school dedicated to training psychics?"

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Ara simply nodded, after that display, and then spoke quietly, mostly to Akos. "I... agree. That is the kind of power the Imperium hates...it reminds me of General Meelo...fine. I'll trust your word Akos," Her eyes shifted back to Alex then and held no less suspicion. "But you, I refuse to trust blindly. You'll need to earn it."

Alex thought for a moment, and then nodded, and bowed low to her. "All I ask, is for the chance to prove my intentions."

Ara gave him a grunt, and at that point, Ki-sai reappeared, in slightly less dirty attire that was still keeping with the same shades of green and brown that seemed common to the Earth Nation. The feast was meager, by feast standards, but Alex didn't complain, as he'd seen the poverty many citizens above lived in. The Pokémon were fed, and that was more important to him. Many of his new team were eager, after watching Arbor win, and then evolve.

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Cinder was the most eager, as he bounced around the room with barely contained energy but was skillful enough to not disturb the feasting humans with his antics. Alex let him practice, and burn off his energy, as he knew Scorbunny were often like this. They needed some kind of outlet, daily, or their inner fire would become too intense to use safely.

Alex noticed Ara watching his team, from Pruina keeping Temere from wandering off, to the egg he polished with a warm cloth once he'd had his fill. He hadn't eaten much himself and had decided to forgo seconds in favor of tending to his team. Once he brought the egg from his bag, he saw the watchful teen's eyes light up, but that light faded, as they fell back on him. He wasn't sure why she disliked him so much, but he was somewhere between not caring, and still wanting to make a good impression.

"Do you know what will hatch from that?" Ara finally asked, and Akos smirked as he gnawed on what was probably his third meat haunch. Given that part of the bone was protruding, he hadn't opted for silverware.

"Don't waste your time, sis. He doesn't hand out his secrets that easily." Akos muttered.

Alex just smirked. "I told you I wasn't entirely sure, Akos. I have a guess, based on the pattern, but I do know it's at least part Fairy Type. That, with the pattern, makes me think he's a Togepi. But again, I could be wrong."

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Akos munched quietly for a moment, then looked at Boto. "Do you know what a Togepi is?"

Boto shrugged, and it was Ara who answered. "They're fairly common in the Sinnoh region. Or they used to be...I hear things have changed quite a bit over there. Something about a foreign, hostile takeover?"

Ara directed her layered question to Alex, who pondered as he wiped down the egg with the warm cloth in the same pattern that had hatched the few other eggs he'd seen and cared for in his time. He was less of a breeder, and more of a catcher when it came to Pokémon but caring for Miltank and Tauros eggs had been one of the few aspects of his old life that he still missed.

"Yes...the same force that threatened my region, and the rest of the eastern States, also made landfall in Sinnoh, and then moved south to Kanto and Johto. They had quite a bit of Imperium technology, too. The Trainers of Japan were able to drive them back. With a bit of western assistance. Sinnoh got the brunt of the damage though. It will take a few years to build it back up to what it was." Alex finished wiping down the egg, and sensing the comfort from the life within responding to the warmth and good feels he sent the hatchling's way, carefully put it back into the safety of his bag. "I don't think mine is from Sinnoh...but I can tell he's a good Egg. That's good enough for me. Time will tell if he's also a Battler."

Ara arched a thin eyebrow then. "And if he isn't?"

Alex shrugged. "Then I let him do whatever it is he wants to do, ideally once he's strong enough and old enough to be safe on his own."

Ara's eyebrow rose further. "You'd just let him go? An Egg you cared for, hatched, and then raised?"

Alex chuckled lightly. "Part of being a Trainer is knowing what your partners need and want. What they want isn't always Battle. It's my job as their Trainer to ensure that they're happy, doing things that make them happy, ideally in a setting where they're also useful to society as a whole. I've yet to meet a Pokémon that was unwilling to help the greater good the Original Dragon is trying to create."

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Ara nodded, seemingly accepting that answer, and shortly after that, the feast was finished, and everyone departed to bed. Alex awoke early the next morning, gave his team breakfast, re-upped his portable Berry Pots, and then Boomi had them on their way to the Great Swamp in under an hour. It was a straight, southern route to the swamp from Shuoma, and the trip down wasn't too exciting. A few Pokémon he half recognized jumped out at them on the road, especially when the road became more tall grass than road, but between Akos's Piplup and Alex, who used Cinder and Temere depending on what type of Pokémon they ran into, the group was largely fine.

Alex noticed that Ara also had Pokéballs, but he hadn't seen her team, and there were only three of them on her belt, hidden away from easy viewing. He'd scanned them mentally enough to know they were mostly water types, which wasn't a surprise. She didn't bring them out on the trip down, though. While it was technically fine to keep Pokémon in their balls indefinitely, as they eventually entered a sort of stasis if kept within long enough, the overwhelming consensus among Trainers was that giving them fresh air and food regularly was the best way to keep them happy.

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When they finally arrived at the Great Swamp, Alex could tell Cinder was close to evolving, and Temere had grown to trust the commands given to him in battle. After dealing with more than a few flying types, he was getting the hang of aiming his Thunderbolts with more accuracy. It was a far cry from his Luxray's 'unmatched visual prowess', but Temere was still young.

The swamp itself was less hazy than Oranguru's but the stench was still the same. Alex had images of nostalgia flash through his mind as he recalled the last time he'd come to such a place to train. His current team was greener than the others had been, and there had only been six of them at the time, but he had a feeling his 'B Team' would be a bit stronger once they left. No visions of Arceus or impromptu battles with the deity occurred on their trek through. Akos and Alex switched off between having Cinder and his Piplup battle the grass types they came across, and it was after several hours of trekking into the vast swamp that Akos suddenly stopped swinging the Water Nation machete he'd borrowed from Boto and paused their forward progress.

Alex, Ara, and Boto stepped forward to see what had stopped him. A massive root blocked their path, and Akos sighed. "I can't cut through this."

Alex walked up, and placed a hand on the root, then smirked, as it reminded him in many ways of the Swamp Tree. It was older, though. Much older. Its voice was too slow to listen to right then, but he did get a brief psychic impression of just how large the Great Swamp truly was. "We don't need to cut through." He said, after a moment. "In fact, we should stop cutting altogether...there are other ways to move through the swamp."

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Akos sighed. "How are we supposed to get where we're going if we don't make a path?"

Alex turned his head towards his newest friend, and smirked. "You're focused so much on making your path, that you're not paying attention to the trees. Or tree, in this case. We're already where we wanted to be. The center of the swamp." He raised a hand then, and psychically levitated their group onto the massive root. He looked at Ara and Boto then. "Where is this...Hyu person we're supposed to meet?"

Boto answered first. "In my experience, he's usually under this very tree...meditating. He probably already knows we're here."

Boto took the lead, as the group climbed the massive root, which eventually led to a massive trunk. Once they were properly beneath the sky-blocking canopy that had to stretch for at least two miles, Akos spoke again. "So... does anyone see him? What does Hyu even look like?"

The group turned at once, as Canis leapt from his perch on Alex's pack, and growled, falling into a fighting stance as something large and deep bluish green came hurtling towards them. It was attached to the tree by a vine linked to the canopy, and Alex stepped up behind the Riolu as he sensed the mass was indeed alive. He sensed both a Pokémon mind and a human's within the mix of vines however and spoke to Canis. "Easy boy...let them attack first, if attack is their plan." Canis nodded, and his 'ears' flared as he readied himself but did not strike first.

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The fast-moving blob of vines hurtled past them, and the group watched as it swung up, and then let gravity bring it back. It was aimed towards them, and Canis growled again, but Alex reinforced the order to hold, and wait. Several more times it swung by them, before stopping in front of the Riolu. The vines parted, and seemed to vomit out a man, drenched in water and plant fibers.

He was stocky and big boned, like Alex, though his body lacked muscle definition and he smelled like a mix of adult human body odor, and swamp water. His feet were coated in hardened brown mud, and the only clothing he was sporting was a leaf wrap and some cloth around his waist, keeping his man bits from showing, to the strangers. His face was round, and bearded, though his mustache was less impressive. His hair was wild and unkempt, with leaves and dirt mixed into it that suggested a natural living style that Alex had a feeling was by choice. His eyes, were on the Tangrowth behind Hyu, still hanging from the canopy. It was strong, that much was obvious, and given how few Tangela ever learned Ancientpower, it suggested the dirty swamp man before him was a decent Trainer.

Throughout their journey here, Alex had only encountered two other Trainers, who had Pokémon as something more like a pet, than someone they battled with to be the best on the planet. They had provided decent experience for his budding team, but he wished there were more of them. Unova had been home to thousands of Trainers willing to battle him, each with their own style of battling. They had been a large part of why his first team of six had become so strong, so fast.

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Boto stepped forward next to Alex, and Canis lowered his paws, slightly, as it seemed the two were not going to attack them. Like his Trainer, his eyes were also on the Tangrowth, but for an entirely different reason. "Hey there, Hyu. How have you been?" Boto said, as he extended a hand with a genuine smile.

"Oh, y'know. I've just been hangin' around here, swingin' vines, scarin' off fire tossers. The usual." The two men clasped each other by the forearm and shared a nod of respect. "Tell me, Boto. Who're yer friends? I recognize Ara, but these other two are…" He trailed off. His examination of Akos had been cursory, but upon meeting Alex's eyes, and getting a nod from the silent Trainer, he got a good sense of what kind of person he was looking at.

Alex spoke, as he saw Hyu's eyes widen. "I'm Alex. I'm here to challenge your...Gym." He glanced around at the tree and the roots. "I assume this is it?"

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Hyu nodded, and then stepped forward, peering at the Unovan. "Alex, huh? You a Trainer, boy?"

Canis let out a slight growl at the tone of condescension from the stinky, stocky human, but Alex was unfazed both by his breath and his natural odor. "I am. I'm...considered pretty strong, in Unova. I've been traveling the world, and your region, to improve myself."

"I'll bet'chu have." Hyu said, chuckling slightly. "C'mon up to the canopy. Our Battle will be up there." Surprising all of them then, Hyu did a backflip, into the mass of vines that was his Tangrowth, and then swung his way up hundreds, if not thousands, of feet to the massive tree's canopy. Alex recalled Canis, and began to follow, climbing on his own ability, rather than using his power. The less he used such things here, the harder it would be for the Imperium to track him down and identify him. Arbor had to help him several times, and he realized just how out of practice he was at climbing, but he eventually reached the top.

He was sweating as well, in the humid heat of the Great Swamp, but oddly enough, there were almost no bugs constantly trying to suck his blood and transmit a disease as they did. Such pests had been an issue in Oranguru's swamp, but here, it seemed like other bugs and plant life had either eaten them, or their species had simply never made it here.

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Once within the canopy, Alex discovered a battlefield. It was made from the interwoven wood of the tree itself, but something had shaped it, at some point, into a massive circle. Hyu was sitting in the middle of it, with his Tangrowth standing behind him. "Over here, foreigner." Hyu said, patting the wood.

Alex joined him, sitting cross-legged as well. Up here, the air was cooler, and he removed some of his Water Nation layers to enjoy the breeze, and air out his sweaty shirt. Hyu spoke, as Alex took his place. "You know, most folk don't come here to face me...an' those that do, don't last very long, in the Swamp."

Alex waved a hand. "Oh, this is nothing. I'm pretty used to most of the things a swamp can throw my way. We have a fairly large one back home."

Hyu nodded. "I've heard y'all have a nice swamp out there in Unova. The swamplands that have taken a portion of your land began here, with a seed, from this very tree, given to...an old friend. The Great Tree has never told me who that friend was, but that lesson helped me reach enlightenment. Everything is connected."

Alex nodded. "I've learned that lesson as well...though sometimes it's hard to believe. People are so different...even Pokémon can be vastly different from one another, despite looking the same physically."

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Hyu chuckled lightly. "Yer not so different from other Humans, Pokémon, or even this here tree. If you listen long enough, you can hear every living thing, growing together. We are all connected, even if some people can't or won't accept that. The actions we take, the choices we make, there's always a price for'em, a reaction somewhere, some place, maybe thousands and thousands of miles away. What affects one of us, affects all of us, in the end."

Alex nodded sagely. "The actions of a few can easily upset the balance...I've devoted my existence to trying to maintain that balance...as well as I can."

Hyu chuckled again. "Seems the Original Dragon has been teachin' quite a bit, since he was awakened again. Tell me Trainer...I know yer here for a Badge, and we will be havin' our Battle soon, but I think there's more to you being here than you said, down below."

Alex was quiet for a long moment, as he pondered. He didn't like revealing who he was so often, but at the same time, building trust required sacrificing secrets. Eventually, his identity would get out, but he assumed one hermit Gym Leader in the middle of a deadly swamp was probably not a huge security risk. "You are right, Leader Hyu...I came to this region looking for the Guardian's Avatar. The person the Imperium is so bent on finding and destroying once and for all. I... have a close tie to the Original Dragon. He sent me here, to accomplish this, to aid the Avatar, and free Koria. If possible."

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Hyu looked at Alex in return, seemingly studying him, in that manner Gym Leaders had, when they evaluated a Trainer. "I can tell yer not lyin' to me Alex, and ya seem pretty enlightened, fer a westerner. I like the vibe you have going, very relaxed, calm, so I'll trust you, since both the Dragon and Boto seem to be vouching for ya. The Avatar was here only a few weeks back, learnin' how to bend water and earth, together. He's a fierce Battler of Pokémon as well, though he din't catch any. They jus' listened ta him, like magic or sumthin'. When he left, he did so quickly, quiet-like, an' I dunno where he went off to next...but I can help you find'im. I reckon you're like the Air Rebels...I can sense your mind, an' the power it has...General Meelo came by as well, tryin' to do the same thing you are after he recruited my fellow Waterbenders here in the Swamp, but his connection to the Universe wasn't as...strong, as yers seems to be. Meditate, after our Battle...follow the connection to Koria's Guardian, and you will find her Avatar."

Alex listened closely, and then tilted his head at the end. "Her?"

Hyu winked at him, and then grunted as he got to his feet. "Now then...I assume Boomi told you how we do things in Koria...I won't go easy on ya because yer not a bender."

Alex smirked, and then stood as well. "Actually, I have Earthbending down...more or less...it's keeping the Nature Energy inside my body that I can't seem to grasp."

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Hyu chuckled and paused in turning towards his side of the battlefield. "You just spoke the issue, young'un. Nature isn't meant to be kept, it's meant to flow, freely and continuously. You weren't born a bender, but given your psychic talents, I'm not surprised you've achieved this much...it's rumored that some Air Nation gurus were able to bend the other elements, sometimes, because of their control of their energy network. They eventually realized that bein' so attuned to the air was what kept'em from wieldin' the other elemental types enough to master them...but you...you might just have the skill to use all of them...maybe even more...let the energy of the earth flow through you, an' only stop it when you require it to strike. See how that works for ya."

Alex furrowed his brow but closed his eyes anyways. There was a surprising amount of dirt and rock this high up, in a tree, but he sensed it was also what had made a battlefield's presence up here possible. He would need to be careful, in how much he used for the battle. He let the ground and rock suffuse his body's network of energy once more, and instead of drawing it in and holding it, he let it flow. The flow itself was naturally slow, but he found he could increase it, and did so, until the required nature energy was shifting through his body's pools of energy in steady waves. Then, he moved, and hurled a piece of hardened dirt and mud towards Hyu, who he sensed was amused by that.

Alex opened his eyes in time to see the Tangrowth bash the clump away effortlessly, and it was around that time that Ara, Boto, and Akos joined them in the canopy, also sweaty and out of breath from the climb up. Akos was the most out of breath, and Ara seemed to be sweating, but at the same time had no visible sweat on her, just a sheen of moisture. Boto also seemed indifferent to the climb.

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"I really...wish...he would add...some stairs…" Akos grumbled, not for the first time.

Boto chuckled, in between heavy breaths of his own. "I just wish...he'd add some pants."

Hyu chuckled as well, seeming to not care about how exposed his stocky body was, as he walked over and gave the three some water, which he drew from a snapped vine of his Tangrowth with a wave of his hand, and guided into their mouths. "Pants are an illusion, and so is death. You three rest, while Alex and I have our match…" He looked at Boto then. "Any advice?"

Boto smirked. "He's strong. Hold nothing back."

Hyu nodded, and then strode over to his side of the field. Alex was already on his side, Canis and Temere were beside him, watching, but it was Cinder who was on the field, hopping like a Hitmonlee in place, as he readied himself for some intense, fiery kicking. He'd used Alex's Holodex to watch videos of Nick battling in the Elite Four back home, and how Bruce, his Hitmonlee, constantly beat down challengers to the Victory League with a potent mix of kicks, and even a few punches. Between him and Ace, the Galar Champion Victor's Cinderace, the young Scorbunny was eager to test what he'd learned by combining the best of both, and someday taking his place among them as one of the best battlers.

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Hyu stepped in front of his Tangrowth, as Alex readied himself as well. "I'm sure Boomi told ya how strong my fellow Leaders and I are...are you ready?" Alex nodded, and then Hyu fell back into his Tangrowth, letting the vines engulf him. The Tangrowth's larger vine-arms started moving then, in shifting circular motions, and Alex watched, kind of fascinated, as his eyes showed him how exactly Hyu used his Waterbending. Vines from below them rose up to join the Tangrowth, and the combination of Pokémon power and human bending caused the Tangrowth to grow taller. Moss and wood joined the mix, and then finally, Hyu's vine-encased figure appeared at the top of the vine mass, clad in a wooden mask with a simple face depicted upon it that he hadn't been wearing before.

Cinder stared down the massive clump of roiling vines and Pokémon, and then looked to his Trainer as he gulped. Alex could see the tiny fire bunny shaking, and he knelt down to Cinder's level. "You remember the TMs I showed you?" Cinder nodded, and went still, as his Trainer's hand met his head. "Stay calm. Stay focused. Don't worry about their size, it doesn't matter. I'll cover you; you just focus on hitting with your kicks, alright?"

The Scorbunny took a deep breath, then nodded confidently. "We've got this." Alex nodded as well, and started the battle, as Hyu and Tangrowth loomed ominously over both of them. "Flame Charge!"

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An aura of fire surrounded Cinder, and he dashed forward. Alex had no chance of matching his speed, but he moved as well, ready to counter once Hyu got involved. The Gym Leader's voice rang out over the canopy, even as his partner began swinging a massive vine-arm. "Power Whip." Cinder kept running, eyes constantly shifting between the 'fused' form of their opponent, and the oncoming arm. He winced, braced for a hit mid charge, and then found his forward momentum unimpeded as a square slab of sturdy rock rose between him and the vines, and shielded him, for the moment. The slab broke in half under the powerful vine, but Cinder was already past it.

He charged into the mass of damp swamp grass and vines, hitting with the Flame Charge. Alex reset his position to the ready stance of the Foggy Swamp style and gave the next move. "Blaze Kick!"

Cinder leapt off the mass of vines, backflipped in the air, and then aimed his burning foot for his opponent's face. A massive vine arm blocked the kick, and then hammered Cinder back, but the agile fire bunny had flipped off of the arm again, and landed, panting, but still in the fight. Hyu's voice rang out again, and both Alex and Cinder tensed, as they readied themselves. "Now use Surf!"

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The vine covered combo of human and Pokémon raised their 'arms', and a truly massive wave of water rose up unnaturally, to the canopy of the tree they were battling on, before the topmost part of the wave came crashing towards Cinder, while the rest fell short, and became nutrients for the tree. Alex knew a hit from that would knock them out, so he countered with the only move that might save them. "Cinder! Bounce!"

The fire bunny wiped his nose, nodded, and then crouched, before leaping high into the air. Alex wasn't done, though. "Come down with a Blaze Kick!" The aura of flying typed energy shifted to fire at the apex of Cinder's jump, and a combination of gravity and propulsion drove the speeding Scorbunny towards his target. He hit with the ferocity of a missile, and then flipped away. Or tried to.

Hyu's counter was swift, and brutal. "Power Whip!" The Tangrowth did not waste time in smashing the Scorbunny in midair, sending him hurtling back towards the 'ground' of the canopy battlefield. Alex moved his arms, and a wall of rock seemed to rise to catch the Scorbunny, who saw it, and had enough time to curl into a ball. Thankfully, the middle bit was soft dirt, while the edges were stone, and the structure killed the momentum from the hit without fainting the fiery bunny.

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"Giv'em a barrage of Vine Whips!" Hyu called, as Alex and Cinder gained their footing. The two shared a nod, and Alex moved again, using his basic martial arts of both his known styles to keep the vines from hammering Cinder. He swirled, dodged, ducked, and kept any of the vines from his Scorbunny with sharp rock pillars that sliced the Tangrowth's vines when they hit hard enough, as the tiny Pokémon recovered his breath, and readied himself for more.

"I'm good!" He shouted to his Trainer after several long moments of a constant vine barrage, and Alex nodded. The vines came again, all at once, as Alex had been consistently forcing them to strike at him in unison, pretending that multiple vines at once were something he had trouble deflecting. As they came, he leapt as high as he could, and the striking vines buried themselves in the earth of the canopy battlefield. He then hardened the ground as much as possible, holding the vines in place, and giving his fire bunny a ramp straight towards their opponent. "Flame Charge!" He shouted again, as he landed, and struggled to hold the vines. They were resisting his grip, but he was determined to keep them long enough for Cinder to attack.

Cinder looked up the ramp at his target, and nodded, as he began running. Fire surrounded him again, and time seemed to slow, as he made each step. He felt an unknown but potent power rising within him, one he could stop if he wanted. Thus far, he had stopped it. He knew embracing it would change him quite a bit, but he also knew with that change came strength. The Scorbunny glowed a bright white as the infinite power of the Evolutionary Spiral drove him to the next stage of his life, just in time for him to land the move his Trainer had called for.

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The Flame Charge, now much larger in size and effect, hammered the Tangrowth, and the entirety of the 'fused' human and Pokémon mass shuddered from it. The vines wrenched free of Alex's grip then, and he swore, shouting, "Incoming, Cinder! Use Flame Charge to break free if they grab you!"

Cinder had enough time to spring off his opponent and glance behind him, when the vines suddenly wrapped around him. They were tight, damp, and smelled truly awful. He tried to Flame Charge, but the fire went out immediately against the rather damp vines, and the Raboot realized the human had used some of their Surf attack to protect his partner as well. Having a human to aid one in battle really did add a whole new dimension to the competition.

The vines rose ominously with their furry prize wrapped tightly, only to suddenly fall limp, and be burnt away, as a spinning, sharp disk of rock sliced through them. The serrated rock frisbee made several more passes as Alex guided it back to him, caught it, and threw again several times. The Tangrowth's vines tried to reclaim its prey, but all it got for its efforts was more damage. Once they needed to regroup for another strike, Alex and Cinder countered. "Blaze Kick!"

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The fire rabbit, still in mid-air, aimed his foot at the mass of vine and human once more, and fell like a comet towards it. More vines rose to try to stop him, but they lacked the watery protection Surf had given, and thus the grass typing fell before fire. Cinder landed the hit, and then sprung high off the Tangrowth, this time with a triple backflip, before he landed back on his side of the field in a three-point landing straight out of the Pokévengers.

Hyu was blorped out of the soggy vine mass, as his Tangrowth fainted, and he chuckled, as he fell, patting his partner back to semi-consciousness. "Well done, Trainer. You and that rabbit of yours are quite a team."

Alex smirked at Cinder, who brushed off the praise, as if he was too cool for it now. Alex walked up beside him and offered a subtle fist bump. "Yea, we really are." He felt the soft press of a Raboot paw, smirked, and tousled the fire rabbit's fur tuft atop his head before heading to Hyu to claim his prize.

As Cinder despaired, and fixed his fur tuft, to the amusement of Canis and Temere, who were mentally mocking him, Alex met Hyu's gaze with a nod, and offered a Max Revive. "Well thank you kindly, Trainer. I've only got my Tangrowth here for Battlin', so that makes you the victor. Lemme get your Swamp Badge, and then we'll try trackin' down the Guardian's Avatar."

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The Tangrowth also expressed its thanks, as it regained energy, and the vines rumbled and swirled, before they blorped forth a Badge, in the shape of the Great Tree, into Hyu's hand. Hyu turned, and offered the gooey, swamp-smelling piece of metal to Alex, who took it with two fingers, shook it clean, and then nodded his thanks. "Thanks. Now I won't have to go to the Fire Nation capitol to get their Badge. For reasons I can't go into, it's best if I avoid that place...do you know what spot would be best for sensing the Avatar's presence?"

"Many people avoid the Regis Caldera, son. Don't worry, yer not missin' much. I went there, once. Awful place. Too red. Too much lava'r. No vines at all!" He chuckled, and then looked around, and shrugged at the second part of Alex's sentence. "I s'pose the center of the field here would work best. It doesn't really make. The connection is what's important. Where you are when you make it is just an illusion."

"Like pants…" Alex muttered, as he walked towards the center of the swampy, dirty, mass of vines that made up this battlefield. He knelt and placed a hand on the center. He heard an audible gasp from his companions, and an appropriately accented cry of amazement from Hyu as he summoned his power and focused it into the Great Tree. The battlefield around him lit up with blue psychic aura, in a pattern of Balance that Alex was intimately familiar with, but did not see, as his eyes were closed.

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What...do you seek...Human...

The impossibly slow tone of the tree, a far cry from Swamp Tree's own inner voice, echoed in Alex's head. "I need to find the Guardian of Koria...I need to find the Avatar." As if in response, Alex felt his third eye's vision drawn across the sky, miles and miles, towards what he realized was a floating pod of Drifblim.

Follow… Was all the tree said, and just like that, the connection ended.

Alex's brows furrowed, and he glanced up to see Hyu, Ara, Akos, and Boto all standing in front of him, having a chat. Ara was speaking. "So, you scared them off? All of them? Firebenders don't usually give up."

Hyu waved her words away. "It's handled, Miss Ara. Them fire tossers won't be back fer a long time. I 'preciate the concern, though."

Alex looked at Hyu as the conversation lulled, and he opened his eyes. "That didn't really help...it just told me to follow some Drifblim."

Hyu stroked his beard, and then shrugged. "If the tree told you to follow...then follow. You'll find what yer looking for if you do, that much I can guarantee."

Alex nodded, and stood, towering by several inches over most of them. Only Boto was close to being his height, and he had to be around five feet seven inches. "I'll take your word for it, Hyu. I just don't know how we're supposed to catch them...Drifblim disappear all the time, they're easily spooked, and it's almost dusk. That's when they typically vanish completely. Eremus can carry Akos and I, but he can't fit four Humans."

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Ara and Boto shared a look. "Don't worry about us…" Ara said, as she brought out a standard Pokéball he hadn't seen or mentally scanned before from a belt pouch and enlarged it with a click. "We have our own method of transport...but we can't use it for long... the Fire Nation assumes anyone riding one of these is an Air Nation rebel." With that, she tossed the ball, and in a flash of white appeared a Pokémon that Alex was intimately familiar with, from feeding and care, to shoveling its feces. In Koria however, it seemed the Bouffalant had taken to the sky instead of the plains.

The coat was less robust around the head, the horns were thinner, and pointed almost straight up from the skull that had a brown downwards facing arrow of brown fur atop its white coat, and the Pokémon had six hooved legs, instead of four, but otherwise, it seemed to be very similar to what Alex was used to. "His name is Oogie. General Meelo loaned him to me...said if the Imperium ever caught him, they'd turn him into a meal...the Firebenders take great pride in how well they roast their Sky Bouffalant steaks...it's sickening."

"It is." Alex said, as he met the bison's gaze, and gave it a friendly smirk. He held his hand out obviously, and moved slowly as he approached, but it seemed the Pokémon was, in that moment, wondering why it had perfectly understood the human, as if he'd been speaking like another Korian Bouffalant. The wide nostrils snorted, as they took in his scent, and the Bouffalant's eyes widened. It was faint, but it was there. The smell of his own kind...or something very close to it. Out of curiosity, he pressed his nose to the strange, pale human's hand, and rumbled, as he found it radiating quite a bit of heat. "There are many Bouffalant back where I am from...someday, I hope you get to visit them. You would amaze and astound them."

The sky bison rumbled as he replied. "Long have I dreamt of tasting the golden grass of Unova...but first...Koria must have Balance."

Alex chuckled. "That's...why I'm here."

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That response received a massive, gooey lick from the happy Pokémon, and Alex sighed, as he once more smelled quite a lot like bison. It brought back nostalgia, and bitterness, that was soon overshadowed by the thrill of flying on the back of his Flygon to find a group of Drifblim that could take them to the fusion of a human and a Legendary Pokémon. Even though he was exhausted from his efforts in the war and was forced to travel incognito, he was enjoying every second of being in Koria, and learning their ways.

As they began to fly, Alex found himself drawn within his mind, falling into a sort of semi-sleep, as he left scanning the sky for Drifblim in the general direction he'd sensed them to Eremus. He opened his mind's eye to find himself in a familiar clearing in Unova, surrounded by golden and crimson leaves, sitting on golden grass. In his lap, was the woman he'd do anything for, or rather, the psychic manifestation of her conscious mind, which had used their bond to create their mental surroundings.

She didn't look like she had when they'd taken a lengthy break in this particular clearing. Her hair was still shining with a rainbow sheen when it moved, and her face was more mature. Despite not aging, fighting in a war had taken its toll on her, as much as it had on Alex. "Finally…" He heard her say, "It's amazing how single minded you get when you Battle…"

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She shifted on him then, to a position of straddling, and dominance. He knew the look in her eye, and could guess what she wanted to try, with their psychic manifestations. He could also vaguely sense her surroundings, a rather nice Arcean hotel that had been solely for the higher ups, but now was open to the general public to use as they moved around in the general chaos that followed the dismantling and reorganization of a government. Mostly, it was used to reunite families, separated by work, that hadn't seen each other in years, sometimes decades. More than a bit of drama had erupted over such reunions, but that was why Jess's presence had been required. The Empress in all but 'official' title was rapidly becoming a favored figure of the Fornian public, and a softer pill to swallow than the psychic-powered saber wielding Dragon Emperor that had marched an army down their entire region's coast.

The propaganda campaign the Church had launched against him also didn't help. In the wake of the collapsed Church of Arceus, Arc News and its owners had taken to regularly and baselessly bashing him, and his 'decisions' as Emperor, or so he heard. He refused to give those lying hacks more of his life hours by dignifying them with his eyeballs, but he knew Tao was monitoring them for the line they would, inevitably, eventually cross. Stochastic terrorism, and the incitement of fresh violence towards the Empire.

"Jess...I'm in the middle of a mission…" Alex began, only to find her mouth on his. His mind actually went blank, as he was shocked, and then awed by how realistic it felt. He let that sensation linger, and then exhaled through his nose, pulling her close to his chest as he parted their lips and struggled to maintain his total bodily calm. "I'm in the middle of finding the Avatar...as in, I'm flying to do so right now."

"Do you know…" Jess began, grinning up at him, "How long it's been since we've-"

He kissed her again, cutting her words off, though this one was shorter, his forehead was against hers when they parted. "I'm literally counting the seconds...but I need to finish this so that we can enjoy the real thing."

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He sensed her disappointment, as she wondered if he even wanted to try this at all, to which he responded, immediately, to correct her misconception. "The moment I have time to rest...I will be back for you...I think I can guess how you...arranged this." He blinked then, as he felt someone shaking him. It wasn't Eremus, so he assumed it was Ara or Akos, and that their quarry was in sight. "I mean it. The moment I have time to sleep...I will return here."

She sighed, deeply, and leaned against him. "I'll hold you to that."

"You'd better." He said with a smirk, and to Jess's perception, his eyes closed, but a piece of his mental presence stayed. His attention was elsewhere though, focused on the mission Tao had given him. She sighed again, and fell completely to sleep, figuring the rest would be useful if the mental exhaustion was similar to the physical exhaustion coitus usually brought.

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As Alex opened his eyes, he saw them. A group of roughly twenty Drifblim. Beside Eremus, Oogie was flying, and Ara was giving him an odd look. Apparently, she had tried to rouse him, from her steering position atop the sky bison's head. "Finally! We found them...also, you had a weird look on your face...this isn't the time to sleep you know."

Alex sighed and turned his focus to the Drifblim as he urged Eremus to pick up the pace. "Oh, I know." They zipped ahead of the comparatively slower Bouffalant then, and Alex approached the Drifblim. "Hello there!" He said, letting his Voice carry his words to all of them.

Eremus gave them a friendly hello as well, and one of the younger ones waved back, as it drifted idly along. "Hello Dragon. Hello Hooman."

"I was told by a wise swamp tree that your pod could lead me to someone I need to find. Could you help me?" Alex said, as Eremus matched their lazy pace.

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"That depends...depends...on who you seek…" One of the larger Drifblim spoke now, and judging by his place in the floating pod, he was the leader.

Alex spoke again, bringing Eremus closer as he lowered his Voice, but still propelled it to each of the Drifblim. "I seek the Legendary Pokémon of your region. Your Guardian. The Human known as the Avatar."

One of the other Drifblim spoke this time. "Ahh...Raava. You seek Raava."

Alex stared for a moment at the older balloon Pokémon that had spoken. Its cloud wisp of hair was wild, and frizzy, its body had several old burn marks, too focused to be anything but Firebending, and its arms were frayed as well. "I... I guess I do. Is that your Guardian's name?"

At that moment, Oogie pulled up beside the pod as well, and the older Drifblim spoke again, it's simple eyes shifting to the sunset as it answered. "It is," He wheezed as the rest of the group heard only one side of the conversation. "We...do not know...where Raava resides now...but we can take you...to one who does." Alex watched as the lead Drifblim's body, and the energy-filled bodies of the other ghost and flying types all began to glow, in unison. Then, the sun set over the distant horizon. "Hold on tight, Hoomans."

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Suddenly, and out of nowhere for the three humans on Oogie's back, four Drifblim grabbed each human, and the leader grabbed Alex, as he was likely the only one that could carry his heavier form and still float. Akos struggled uselessly against the female who'd entrapped, and then winked at the young waterbender, and upon seeing Alex be taken and not seem concerned about it, Boto and Ara stayed calm as well. Ara recalled Oogie after Alex recalled Eremus, and the older Drifblim spoke again, and their surroundings became pure darkness. "Keep your eyes closed, or you will become lost. Keep your mind focused, or you will wander. Good luck, Hoomans."

Alex relayed that to his companions, who ceased their struggles, closed their eyes, and waited. For his part, Alex was more focused on finally finding out just where exactly Drifblim went at night, but he closed his eyes as well, trusting the Pokémon to know better than he did in this area. The next thing he felt was soft grass, and energy, rather potent energy, all around him. He got up slowly, eyes still closed, and called out. "Drifblim? Are any of you still here?"

There was silence, and finally, Alex opened his eyes. What he saw, made no sense, and as he tried to use his psychic sight to figure out just what the actual Muk he was looking at, he found his powers muted. Even the special way of seeing the world, the way a Harmonia did, was lessened. There were vague, half-formed patterns that made little sense in his new surroundings. His neck tingled constantly, like it had in Selva Muerta, and around ghost types. If this was the realm of ghosts, he supposed their natural type advantage over psychics was probably what was limiting him.

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Then, he noticed the ground, and looked around, taking in the area. Two giant beams of light burned from either side of the strangely circular mountainous terrain, and it was as he noticed the terrain, that he smirked in disbelief. One half of it was grassy, full of life, and light, and the other half burned with an unsettling aura of darkness. The inky blackness hid whatever might be lurking there. Between the two sides separated only by an S shaped line between them, in the exact center, was an ancient tree, not at all dissimilar in shape to the Entree of Unova. At the bottom of the helix-swirled branches with varying shades of light brown and dark brown, was a hollow, bored into the trunk of the tree.

Alex held his head, as he experienced a sudden headache. His view of the tree fragmented into what he assumed were different stages of time. In one, what seemed like the earliest to his perception, a thin male human was bending four elemental typings at once as he used them in a spherical combination to trap, and then bind the figure within the sphere of elements inside of the tree. Then, came another vision, as Alex's perception of the area changed. There was a figure in this one, still bound within the tree, held in place by a barrier of psychic, fairy, and fighting typed energy, rather than grass, water, ground, or fire. The figure itself, now more easily seen not surrounded by elements, looked like some sort of edgy black and red evil kite, and sported the dark and ghost typing. His perception shifted again, and this time, a female figure in black robes, with a similarly black hood, stood before the tree, raised both of her long, thin hands, and shattered the barrier with a mix of dark, poison, and ghost energy.

The evil kite creature and the female then seemed to leave together, as she walked out of sight of the half-vision and into the darker side of the area. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the visions ended, and Alex was left staring at the tree as it currently was. Empty, and unoccupied. Lux and Nox floated out to either side of him, as they sensed the energy disturbance. Alex continued to hold his head, as he realized none of his partners had seen what he had, and he had no rational explanation for why he had seen what he had. All he knew, was that it was a bad thing that the evil kite had escaped. He didn't know how he knew that he just knew it boded ill for the future of existence. He spoke softly, as his hands rubbed the sides of his skull. "Muk."