"You smell that Ralts?"

"Ralts?"

"That's the smell of victory."

I frowned, "And coal."

Ralts playfully pulled on my hairlock, chuckling carelessly.

Oreburgh City was...well, not nice.

The faint smell of coal was lingering everywhere, it was barely noticeable which made it even worse because it was still annoying me, but I couldn't really complain about it.

Oreburgh City was small, way smaller than Jubilife City. In my eyes it was too small to even be called a city, it looked more like a town to me.

The entire city was built on the foot of Mount Coronet. It was a modest place, nothing too significant in my opinion.

The streets were filled with people doing their stuff, but again nothing interesting. Somewhat further downtown, I could see a small mine with railroad tracks, the entire place seemed to be surrounded by fences.

"This place sucks," I muttered.

"RaaRalts."

Oreburgh City was important for Sinnoh's economy apparently, due to it being so close to Jubilife City both places benefited from the riches the earth provided.

Jubilife City exported all the coal that Oreburgh City delivered and Oreburgh City got all the relevance it needed despite being a coal district.

I mean they have a mining museum, who cares about that?

We found the Gym without too much effort. It was built in a mountainside which made it look more like a hangar or the open part of a mine than an actual League issued Gym.

Inside, I talked to a green haired dude who told me Roark was mining somewhere else and told me that I had to wait for him to return.

He gave me a free badge case since it was my first time and checked my Trainer ID because Gym battles are Profesional battles by default, so I had to be put into the system.

After that was done I told him to send me a text once Roark returned and left.

Once I was back outside, with the reassurance that I would be the first to fight Roark, I asked Ralts what she wanted to do and she pointed towards the mining museum.

"Seriously?"

"Ralts." Ralts reaffirmed her decision.

I sighed and began to make my way towards the mining museum.

In the end, it was actually pretty interesting.

I saw some Pokemon fossils and learned some awesome weird shit.

Mining in this world was a whole lot more difficult than you might think, the fact that Pokémon could reshape the earth in a second and do stuff that took nature eons to do made the Earth's crust a big sematary.

In this world, it wasn't rare to find huge underground structures which made some sense. All someone had to do to bury a city was create an earthquake or something similar and it would be lost to time, only to be rediscovered thousands of years later.

And the world of Pokémon did have a rich history of bloodshed.

Civilizations sometimes disappear overnight, entire regions could be drowned by Legendaries and apparently, humans had enough time to wage war between each other during the periods Legendaries didn't pull shit.

The Earth in this world was stuffed with history.

It did explain how Ash came across so many "newly discovered" ruins in the anime.

This world had a shit ton of them.

Yeah Minecraft, eat your heart out.

So while I was thinking about the odds of me standing on the remains of a collapsed civilization I received a text that Roark had returned.

"Time to go," I told Ralts, "Destiny is waiting for us."

Ralts gave me a dramatic nod and jumped onto my shoulders.

We had prepared as much as we could, now it was time to play.

Inside the Gym, I met with a couple of familiar faces.

Ash and Dawn were standing near the door along with a tall guy that must have been Brock. It couldn’t have been someone else.

A certain purple haired dude was talking to, who I assumed to be, the Gym leader near the counter. I ignored Paul and walked towards Ash and co.

Dawn was carrying Piplup in her arms and Ash was carrying his Pikachu on his left shoulder.

"Sup, Ash, Dawn," I greeted them with a nod as I joined them.

Ralts stayed silent, probably mentally preparing for the battle...I hoped at least.

"Oh hi Dust, so you came here too?" Ash grinned. He still remembered me!

"Definitely did, I see you got your Pikachu back," I smiled back.

"Yeah I indeed did, say hi to Pikachu!"

"Pika!" the yellow mouse waved, and God was it adorable.

"Hi," I said dryly.

"Dawn found him."

Dawn smiled, "Sure did, no big deal."

"Sup Dawn."

"Oh you know, everything's alright." Dawn greeted me. "Can't wait to see my first Gym battle."

"And this is Brock." He pointed at Brock who had been waiting patiently to be introduced.

He had brown spiky hair and dark tanned skin, his eyes were not closed but narrowed. Not like he was focused but in a lazy way, like someone who had just woken up. He was taller than I was and I estimated him to be around 18 or 19 years old. He wore a green shirt with an orange vest over it and brown pants.

Brock looked like the guy you would see at a beach party, relaxed in every way.

"Hello, nice to meet you, I am Brock." He offered me his hand.

"Hey, I'm Dust, awesome to meet you too," I replied as I shook his hand.

"So, are you ready for the Gym Battle?" I asked Ash.

"You bet I am!" He answered, raising his fist. "It's going to be a blast."

"Yeah, once it's your turn," Dawn joked dryly.

Ash groaned. "I just can't believe I have to wait for Paul."

He glared at Paul who didn't notice it because he was standing with his back to us.

"Maybe if you helped with the dishes today you wouldn't have to wait so long," Brock muttered.

"Can't have nice things in life. Remember that." I offered.

Damn was I glad I got here before Ash and Paul did.

"Aah, you must be Dust Wildfire right?" Roark walked towards us, apparently done with talking to Paul.

"Yep."

His eyes drew towards Ash. "Then you must be Ash Ketchum."

Ash grinned, "That's me!"

"My name is Roark," The Gym leader introduced himself. He sounded formal, yet friendly. "I'm the Gym leader here, sorry to keep you all waiting."

Roark was still wearing his miner's helmet and it wasn't just for fashion's sake, the helmet actually had fresh scratches on it.

Brown hair lingered underneath his red helmet and I saw some dirt still clung to his hair. He wore grey safety clothes meant for mining, gloves for mining and heavy metal boots. I wonder what this guy does in his free time (spoilers: it's mining)

"So we battle now?" I asked impatiently.

"Yes, you were here first after all." Roark said.

"Oh, can I watch Dust?!" Dawn asked, "I've never seen a battle before!"

Roark shot me a questioning look and I shrugged. "I'm cool with that."

"Awesome!" Ash said. "I'm really curious how you and Ralts battle."

"I too am curious how this is gonna go." Paul said to my surprise and he walked towards the tribune for the audience.

Roark led me towards the battlefield for our match.

It was nothing fancy.

The field itself was a big rocky field with growths of stalagmites coming out of the ground at random spots.

It was dusty, very nice for Ralts' moveset potential.

The eye catching part was the roof, or better, the lack of the roof.

Mind you, this place was built inside a mountain, yet it still had an open roof.

I guess it would be good for any flying Pokémon, although they would have a weakness to Rock Type.

We both took place on the opposite side of the field and the spectators took seats on the tribune.

The green haired dude was the referee for this match, he stood on the side lines.

"The Oreburgh City Gym battle between Dust the Challenger and Roark the Gym Leader is about to begin. The battle will be three on three and as soon as all three Pokémon on either side are unable to continue the challenge is over. Only the challenger, Dust, may substitute Pokémon!"

Roark and I nodded.

"NOW LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!"

Roark smirked and threw his Pokéball; "Geodude let's go!"

A small weird creature appeared in front of Roark.

It looked like a small boulder with two arms, that's like all I can say about it.

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"Destiny's waiting for us!" I yelled and Ralts jumped off my shoulders and took place on the battlefield.

"Ralts!" My Pokémon glared at Geodude.

"You get the first move." Roark offered.

I smiled, "Nah, you take it."

Roark raised an eyebrow but he didn't complain.

It wasn't a gesture of kindness from my part either, I needed him to commit to an attack instead of responding to one.

"Fine by me! Geodude, Hidden Power!"

Geodude began to glow and levitated above the ground. Around it small orbs popped into existence, they began to glow in the same color.

Geodude threw his arms forward and the orbs flew towards Ralts.

"Disarming Voice."

Ralts opened her mouth and the high pitched scream shattered the projectiles.

Most of the orbs were destroyed by the soundwaves before they could even get close, the ones that didn't get destroyed missed Ralts.

"RAALTS!" Ralts challenged the Rock type Pokémon.

"Geodude, Rollout!" Roark yelled.

"Geodude!" It cried out and began to spin on its own axle like it was imitating Sonic the hedgehog.

I smiled, this was perfect.

It sped towards Ralts, rolling over the battlefield with surprising ease. Rollout was quite fast too, I had no idea how it did work but I knew one thing.

Geodude might one shot Ralts if he were to hit her.

Ralts dodged its first attempt with ease, hopping to the left and letting the Geodude roll past her.

The rolling Pokémon didn't stop, it made a wide arc and made a second attempt to crash into Ralts, this time it was faster.

"Rollout gets faster everytime," Dawn noticed from the sidelines.

"No shit." I muttered as I saw Ralts narrowly dodge a second strike.

Geodude sped past her and rolled up against one of the rock spikes, using it as a slope to propel itself towards Ralts.

"Dodge it again!" I ordered and Ralts jumped up, using a Disarming Voice to launch herself even higher.

Geodude missed her by an inch and Ralts managed to land behind it.

"Ralts, Mover Protocol 2, follow up with an Ultimate Punch!"

Roark frowned but didn't yell a counter command, not that he could.

The Pokémon which turned into a Beyblade made a wide turn and went for another attempt, again faster than before.

"What's Mover protocol 2?" Ash asked out loud from the sidelines.

Right now Geodude could be considered a Mover, he was fucking fast.

The downside to being fast was that even a small disturbance in your path can trip you up and send you flying.

Ralts took a deep breath as Geodude sped towards her and screamed. The scream however was not directly aimed at Geodude, doing that would turn this into a power match, which we would lose.

Instead, she aimed it to Geodude's right, only slightly brushing against his left side.

It still worked wonders though, a small push in the wrong direction was all it took for Geodude to lose control.

No longer having any control over its directions, it flew past Ralts and crashed into a boulder. An audible cracking sound followed and it had to hurt a lot.

Mover Protocol 2 was a simple counter against any fast moving opponent, abusing their own speed and knocking them off course with a small attack.

We discussed multiple ways of dealing with each class of attack, and right now she executed protocol 2.

Ralts didn't waste a second, she launched herself up with Disarming Voice. While flying up she shot a Confusion at Geodude and stun locked it against the boulder.

Geodude was already damaged by crashing into the boulder with a heavy impact but now a second attack slammed into him.

Ralts turned around midair and her fist began shining, a Mega Punch ready.

"Geodude get away!" Roark yelled but it was futile.

Geodude was stunlocked by the Confusion and the force of crashing into a boulder with the speed of a car.

The combo continued as Ralts descended down from the sky like a glowing angel and struck Geodude with her fist, dust stirred up but she wasn't done.

A Disarming Voice was executed upon her landing and the scream threw Geodude away from her and towards Roark.

Roark didn't say anything.

No one said anything.

For a few long seconds, it stayed silent, then the referee got his shit together and yelled. "Geodude is unable to battle."

"HOW!?" Ash cried out, "That was so cool."

I shot a grin at Ash, "I know right!"

"Well done, take a nice rest," Roark said as the red beam of his Pokéball engulfed the Pokémon.

He gave me a sharp look, "Impressive, you baited me into attacking and waited for the perfect moment to strike."

"Ralts." Ralts grinned.

"Onix, you're up now!" Roark shouted and he released his Pokémon.

A huge rock-like snake appeared in the middle of the battlefield, looming over Ralts.

"You're still good?" I asked Ralts.

She turned around and gave me a smile before focusing on Onix again.

Welp, seems like we keep going.

"Fine, then use Sandstorm, as we practiced." I said.

"Sandstorm?" Roark muttered, "Ralts can't learn that move."

"Sandstorm again huh?" Paul said thoughtfully. I had almost forgotten he was present.

Ralts took a deep breath and let out a high pitched scream. The sound waves tore through the rocky soil and stirred up sand and dust alike in a crazy frenzy.

Ralts closed her eyes as the dust reached the height of the arena border and she shot multiple Confusions to spread them even further, making sure to cover the entire battlefield.

Sand bounced against the edge of the arena and force fields flickered to life, protecting the spectators from harm.

A sandy mist hung now in the arena making it impossible to see anything.

Still, that didn't stop Roark from giving orders.

"Stealth Rock now!" He demanded.

I didn't see what was going on but I knew what was happening all the same.

Stealth Rock was a move that did no direct damage but it would hurt the Pokémon I would send in next, the moment I replaced Ralts, the Stealth Rock would activate and damage the next Pokémon.

Of course, I don't have any second Pokémon, not that Roark would know that.

Still, it was a smart move that would've worked very well if it wasn't for the fact I only had Ralts.

Big problem for me anyway.

"Your Pokémon are really well trained." I complimented Roark.

"Thank you," he smiled. "Your Ralts is also very good."

"You mind if I ask you something?" I asked innocently, deliberately making my voice higher.

Nothing seemed to be happening on the battlefield, no cries of pain or battle sounds; we had some time for chit-chat.

"No problem," Roark said confidently.

"Do you love your Pokémon?"

"Of course I do," Roark sounded confused.

"Would you let them suffer?" I followed up on my question.

"No…?" Roark said, confused.

I smirked. "But what if they need to suffer in order to get stronger, would you let them suffer?" I mused.

"NO!" Roark said, "I would never do such things!"

Ow, it seems that I have struck a painful subject.

"So you wouldn't let them suffer? You love them so much?"

"Of course I do," Roark said.

"But what if they need to suffer in order to get stronger?" I asked. "Would you deny them the opportunity to get stronger? Just to keep your morals?" I taunted.

He stayed silent for a second.

"What are you implying Dust?" Roark asked, sounding quite angry.

"Pokémon get stronger through hardship, would you deny them suffering just to keep your hands clean? Or would you let them suffer, knowing they'll get stronger and benefit from it?" I pointed out the dilemma. "In both cases, your Pokémon will suffer."

"That's an impossible question," Roark muttered. "What are you thinking, Dust?"

He sneered at the last part.

"Not much." I said, "Just that you should keep your eyes on the match."

"What?" Roark's eyes widened and shot towards the battlefield, noticing that it had been eerie quiet.

"Onix are you okay?!" Roark shouted.

No reply came.

As if waiting for Roark to notice something was going on the sandstorm began to descend and eventually settled.

Roark glared at me, his fist was clenched and I had the vague idea he was not happy.

I held my tongue.

On the battlefield the lying shape of a rock snake was revealed. Ralts walked away from it and stopped in front of me.

"But how?" Ash wondered from the sidelines, his expression was one of marvel. "There was nothing going on."

"Simple," I said, "You should keep your attention on the battle."

Ralts had done her job perfectly, taking down Onix as quietly as possible. And she had done it so perfectly that Onix didn't even notice what was going on.

It had taken her some time though, time that I bought while talking to Roark. While that was going on Ralts had been spamming Confusion, a low power move that makes no sound.

Like a deadly poison you only noticed once it was too late.

Being a big opponent, even the smallest Confusion was likely to hit Onix, especially when he too was distracted by conversation with Roark.

It had been a patient job, draining Onix with low power attacks that were almost unnoticeable. A dead by a thousand paper cuts.

Roark called back his Onix, "I'm sorry my friend."

He shot another glare at me. "That was a sneaky thing to pull, Dust."

"There's no rule against talking right?" I looked at the referee.

"No, there's not. The match has never been paused officially," The referee said reluctantly. I could see he was pissed at me.

"See," I said, "No one said the battle had stopped."

Roark was no longer smiling, he took out another Pokéball. "Don't think I'll go easy on you Dust."

He threw the Pokéball and with a loud roar a small dinosaur appeared in front of him.

"Cranidos!" Roark yelled. "Headbutt now!"

I raised an eyebrow, I was no longer offered the first move it seemed.

"Shadow Counter, Mover Protocol 1."

Ralts grinned at me and focused on the rampaging Cranidos.

Her tiny chest was heaving and I saw she was growing tired, but she was still fighting.

The dinosaur Pokémon lowered its head and stormed towards Ralts.

Just as before, Ralts waited patiently for Cranidos to storm into her.

The moment Cranidos struck Ralts the clone dissolved and the real Ralts appeared behind it, however unlike before with Shadow Counter Ralts didn't try to hit Cranidos with a Mega Punch.

That would be useless, Cranidos' Head Butt had a priority over Ralts' Mega Punch.

Instead, she twisted her body out of its path and hit the dinosaur on his left knee.

Mover Protocol 1, the best way to deal with a fast-moving opponent; hit the knees.

Immediately after hitting Cranidos Ralts split off into two clones, each one retreating to a safe distance.

Cranidos let out a cry of pain and I noticed his left leg was shaking.

It wasn't broken of course but it was definitely not alright.

"Ralts Disarming Voice!"

"Hit both of them with Flamethrower!" Roark yelled and Cranidos opened its mouth.

A beam of concentrated fire shot towards the first Ralts, by sheer luck Cranidos managed to hit the real Ralts.

The Flamethrower completely ignored the sound waves and Ralts was struck in the chest. She was thrown backwards but she managed to land on her feet.

"Zen Head Butt!" Roark yelled and Cranidos stormed forward.

"Shadow-" I tried to command but Roark changed his command.

"Flamethrower!"

Ralts biggest weakness right now was dealing with ranged attacks that were not projectiles.

She was not fast enough to dodge them for an extended period of time and it seemed that Roark caught up to that fact.

Flamethrower outraged Disarming voice and was faster than Confusion.

While running Cranidos opened its jaw and a Flamethrower was unleashed on Ralts.

"Dodge it with a Disarming Voice."

After Ralts had managed to escape the Flamethrower she faced a nearby rockpile and used Disarming Voice to launch herself away from the flames.

"Chase after it, keep the flames up!" Roark commanded.

I groaned, "Sand Attack Ralts!"

Disarming Voice was a Fairy Type move, weaker against a Fire Type and that was probably the reason the fire had no trouble breaking through the sound waves, maybe the sand could throw off its aim.

Ralts screamed as the flames tore through the sand and hit her in the chest and threw her against a rock.

She fell over and landed on the ground, I thought the battle was over but Roark had other ideas.

"Zen Head Butt!"

The endless barrage of fire stopped instead blue energy was focused on top of Cranidos head as it stormed towards Ralts.

I shot a look towards the referee but he didn't call off the match, even though Ralts was clearly not getting up.

"I for-" I began, trying to save Ralts of a lost game but she suddenly began glowing white.

And then she disappeared.

Cranidos stopped its charge, clearly confused since its original target was missing.

"What?' Roark asked, "Where did she go?"

I could predict where she was going; Ralts was smart enough to realize that Cranidos had superior Blaster and Brute moves.

Above the arena, the sun began to shine brighter.

Of course, it was not the sun.

Finally, she had learned the move I wanted her to learn for eons.

"Raaaaaaallllltttss!" A long cry came from the shining meteor that fell down from the sky.

She was a blur, the only thing that could be seen was her glowing fist, shining brighter than ever before and drawing a glowing streak across the sky.

Cranidos looked up at the heavens and flinched, unable to do anything. Sheer terror froze it in place.

Then the impact came and it was no exaggeration to say that the ground shook.

The impact even broke free rocks from the ground and threw them around, wind blasts came from the point of impact and for a second I couldn't see anything.

A second later it all settled down and a crater had appeared in the middle of the battlefield.

"Cranidos is unable to battle," The referee called out as Ralts stepped away from the unconscious Cranidos.

"Dust the challenger wins."

When the final word was out Ralts shot me a wide smile.

And then she fell over.

A/N Ugh, this chapter took way longer than normal but I really wanted to make the final battle of this arc something cool and wholesome; I hoped I did a good job with it.

So yeah Ralts learned Teleport and the MC has won his first battle, well that only took 98K words ;-).

So I think there are only 2 more chapters in this arc.

Welp, please review, I love those a lot and I’ll see you later.