Montenevera was definitely more bustling than the scant amenities surrounding Grusha’s Gym, but it was still smaller than any other city I had been to. Even Zapapico felt livelier than this place. Not that I could truly blame them - we were deep into winter in one of the coldest parts of Paldea. The fact that people even built a civilization here is remarkable and speaks to how hardy humans can be.

  One element it wasn’t missing was a proper arena to battle in. Rather than the stage that Ryme had set up in the games, there was a large arena in its place, occupying the empty space near the top of the town, just off to the side of the Gym Building. Though I guess Ryme’s rap stage must also be a League-approved battle arena as well, since you fight her on it in the games. Man, I have no idea how much it must cost to build an effective soundstage alongside all the shielding and self-repair tech needed for a Pokemon Arena. Then again, Larry had his Gym built inside a busy restaurant, so I guess Gym Leaders are just given a blank check for that.

  It had plenty of covered stands set up nearby to the point that I thought you could fit the entire town around it. For the moment, a lot of those stands were empty, but it still had a decent number of spectators and people battling within. Most of them were students who seemed moderately skilled - beyond the level of just spamming attacks without strategy but not to the point where they had much by way of complex combinations. This is where they hold the ‘Rising Stars’ Tournament every year. I could technically compete in it, but…

  “Hey, you think Nemona is going to show up today?” My ears pricked up as I heard one boy on the edge with bright, spiky blonde hair mention my name. Are they fans of mine? Cyan did mention I had some.

  “I fuckin’ hope so. Been waiting to teach that brat a lesson for ages,” a girl with brown hair and bubblegum pink streaks tied in pigtails said.

  “Her schedule is so wack, I can’t keep track.” A third boy said. I couldn’t make out much about him as he was bundled up tight, and I didn’t wish to risk getting closer to find out, despite the significant distance between us. “She’ll blitz through three Gyms, then drop off the map for a month! It makes it hard to plan an ambush for her.”

  Blonde scoffed. “Whatever, she’ll have to come here sooner or later, so just keep an eye out for her.”

  My sister mentioned I had detractors too. Guess these are them. Though I didn’t think I’d done anything outrageous enough to gain the ire of random strangers. My mind rushed through a litany of ideas, reasons why they might be out to get me, from the reasonable (maybe I beat a sibling of theirs in my travels) to the absurd (Raifort had hired a bunch of schoolkids to ‘get revenge’ for her), before tossing them all aside.

  It doesn’t matter why they want to get me; I just have to avoid them and stick to my plans. Which was as easily said as done, as despite their words, the kids were easily distracted by the battles they watched. With the hood of my jacket pulled up, I hardly stood out, and waiting for them to cheer wildly at a lucky shot, I walked briskly across the open clearing to the Gym building.

  Entering the stark white building, I saw the Gym Leader standing nearby. Tyme looked tired and perhaps a little bored with whatever she was talking to the lady at the front desk about, but she quickly adopted a professional smile, glancing down at me as I approached.

  “Hello there, young lady, what can we help you with today?”

  “A battle,” I answered back with a fierce grin of my own, passing my Trainer License to get scanned at the front desk.

  “Oh my,” Tyme chuckled, and I hid any disappointment I was feeling. She’s not taking me seriously. Does she not get the challenge I can give? I know some Gym Leaders talk to each other, but I guess others don’t keep up to date as much. “Before you go challenging me, you’ll have to take on my Trial though.”

  “Of course,” I said respectfully. “What will your trial be?” I am kind of curious about this; her challenge is likely quite different from Ryme’s.

  “Tell me, do you enjoy numbers and mathematics?”

  I shrugged. “I’m decent at arithmetic.” More than, truly, but while I’ve always been decent at math, even in this life I’ve never really pursued it as a field of study in its own right. My studies here have mostly been about how it applies to engineering and the physics of this world.

  The thought struck me that I could probably expound on my interests and maybe get a tougher challenge from her, but just as I opened my mouth, she continued. “Wonderful! We’ll have a little test for you to do, and then if you finish that up, you can battle me.” The Gym Leader waved me off before walking away, leaving me to the staffer at the front desk.

  “Come right this way.” She directed me to a small room inside the building with a desk and a stack of papers. “Once you’re done, come back to the front desk. You need to get at least nine out of ten answers correct to pass the trial,” she warned me before heading back out.

  Which might be scary to a little girl but hardly so to me. Also, the fact that they gave me almost the exact same difficulty as the one I aced for my Trainer License years ago makes this less scary too. Idly, I noted that I could probably also have Miles give me all the answers if I needed to since no one was watching over me. Not that it’s necessary, and most Trainer’s Pokemon probably aren’t better than them at math specifically.

  “Did you have any questions?” The woman at the front desk asked as I handed the paper in.

  “No, I’m finished. When will Tyme be back?”

  “I- oh, it looks like you filled out all the questions.” She took almost longer checking over my questions than I had spent writing them. “And these are all correct… Ahem. Tyme is out on some business; I’ll message her, and hopefully she’ll be back in half an hour.”

  It ended up taking over an hour, which didn’t end up helping my frustration over it all. Still, I did my best not to rush Tyme when I saw the Gym Leader return. “How was the tria-”

  “Can I use Mega Evolution for our battle?” I asked before wincing. Calm down, me. I know we have some cool stuff planned for this battle, but still.

  Tyme glanced over at the front desk staff, who nodded to let her know that I had indeed passed. “Mega Evolution isn’t usually allowed for these battles,” Tyme began.

  “But Terasatalization is! I won’t use my Terastalization for our fight, just Mega Evolution, and of course, you’d be free to use any Enhancement effect you’d like as well.” Though I don’t think she has any Z-Crystals nor a Mega Stone, and there aren’t any Dynamax spots here, so it’s really just Terastalization she’ll have.

  Tyme frowned. “Fine, I suppose the math checks out there. But I warn you, this won’t be an easy fight.” A broad grin broke out on my face as one of the Pokeballs at my side shook in anticipation. Good, we’re looking for a tough fight.

  She started taking some steps to the door when I said, “Could we not battle in the arena nearby?” Tyme looked curiously at me, and I scrambled for a reason. “Some other kids were using it, and I don’t want to disturb them.” More like I don’t want them disturbing me, but whatever. Tyme agreed easily enough and instead led me to the elevator inside the building.

  We went up to the roof of the Gym Building, where another arena was set up there. Guess it saves on space, but it feels like a waste not to make more of a spectacle of the fight and use the arena in town. Or maybe that’s the point, to let Trainers keep any edges hidden? At least the view up here is nice.

  It was quite grand, especially since the Gym Building itself was already partially up the mountain; you could look down and see the entire town and well beyond it. My keen eyes also spotted a few small black stones in the snow, scattered on the outskirts of town. Right, I guess Martha is keeping this place safe from Ghosts. Hmm, I wonder if Ryme does that in the future? Though, I don’t know what happened to Martha in canon either; she might still help.

  Miles floated off to the side within their phone case, preparing to record the match, leaving me with the rest of my team to face off against Tyme. “This match will be a six on six with two switches allowed. Are you ready, Miss Nemona?”

  “I am.” I raised Athena’s Pokeball and the dark-skinned would-be teacher mirrored me.

  On the arena’s automated signal, we released our Pokemon. My blue jackal-esque Pokemon was met with a red wolf-like Pokemon. Tyme’s Midnight Lycanroc let out a mad howl as he saw Athena, a crazed look in his red eyes met by a dispassionate, almost bored gaze from Athena. She is taking this seriously, though; that’s just an affectation to rile up her foe.

  One that worked; the Lycanroc was practically chomping at the bit to attack Athena even before the signal went. When the machine announced for the fight to, “Begin,” the Rock Type was leaping towards my Pokemon before Tyme even gave a single command. Really? Lycanrocs are fast, but that’s more for the Midday and Dusk forms. This Midnight is only so-so compared to other Pokemon and quite slow compared to his contemporaries.

  “Mega Evolve!” I shouted, clutching the Key Stone tight as I held it up to Athena. A sphere of light exploded out from her, knocking Lycanroc back as the Fighting Type Mega Evolved, power suffusing her form.

  The Gym Leader’s eyes widened, and she gasped in shock, which was just a step too far for me not to comment on. “You know, I never got why people never used their strongest move first? Sure, you don’t want to rush in without thinking,” I said, gesturing a hand at her prone Pokemon. “But if you’ve got the power, best to use it while you’re strong rather than waiting till you get whittled down.”

  While I spoke, Athena had been busy gathering the power around her, forging her Aura into a mighty construct. She floated a few meters in the air, connected to the golden form behind her, looking to the uninformed a bit like a llama.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The godly construct had the four hooved legs it stood upon, but out from its back extended an odd dual crescent thing. From there, a hundred massive glowing paws stretched around and took up almost all of the space above and around our half of the arena.

  For a split second, Athena simply hovered like that. Imposing, but immobile, her forepaws clasped together as if in prayer. Then, she dropped her right paw down, bringing it around in a circle to clap her left again. Just as fast as that quick motion from her flesh and blood limb, three Auric arms flew out, reaching across the arena towards the Lycanroc.

  He had barely finished picking himself up, with no defense to offer against the first paw, which scraped across the ground, flipping him up to the air above. The blow might have sent him all the way to the upper limit had he not been intercepted by the second, a punch that pounded him against the back barrier. As it drew back, before gravity could take a hold of the Rock Type, the third one fell in a chop on his left shoulder, sending him spiraling to the ground below.

  Tyme looked on, shocked at the devastating combo that had struck her Pokemon down in no more than a single second. She blinked, rubbing at her eyes as if she literally couldn’t believe what had just happened. During that time, her Lycanroc groaned but made no motion to get back up.

  “Ho- how?” She asked rather than recall her Pokemon, a fact I tried not to grit my teeth at. Don’t want to point that out, or else she’ll realize that’s one of the weaknesses of this technique. For all the power it granted, there were dozens of them, but I was still hopeful that this could carry us through much of the fight.

  “Well, it’s just basic math at the end of the day. Mega Evolution can make your Pokemon a lot stronger, and when you’ve already got a Pokemon as strong as Athena…” I trailed off meaningfully. Of course, that’s not the entire picture - Adaptability can boost the power of her STAB Moves as much as if she had Terastalized even before the Mega Evolution boost. But I’d rather not entirely give up the game on what Type of Move this is yet.

  The Gym Leader returned her Pokemon, frowning before giving me a serious look. “Go, Lycanroc!” This time a beige-furred wolf, one that landed on all fours, appeared on her side of the arena. This one didn’t rush in but instead eyed Athena warily.

  The stalemate couldn’t last forever, and Tyme soon tested the waters, calling out “Accelrock!” Her second Lycanroc blurred forward, shooting off the ground at Athena.

  “Hit her.” I called out simply, trusting Athena to manage it. Her left paw changed from flat against her right paw into a fist punching into it. Once more, the golden limbs followed, sweeping across and smacking the Lycanroc out of the air.

  “Dodge! Get out of the way!” Despite Tyme’s words and Lycanroc’s best efforts, she couldn’t avoid the onslaught. On the ground, she tried to scramble away but just couldn’t maneuver fast enough. The strange Move was unlike anything I suspected they had ever seen before, and though Lycanroc managed to mitigate some of the blows, after three combinations, Tyme’s second Pokemon was down.

  I couldn’t see it directly with Athena’s back turned to me, but I suspected the Fist Plate currently hanging around her neck was burning bright with all the energy she was channeling. Another downside to this. Even with Notch’s brilliant suggestion to use Arceus’ image as a base for the construct, which drastically reduced the energy needed to maintain the technique, it’s still a strain to maintain. One she can’t do without both Mega Evolution and the Fist Plate at once, and it still drains her at least as fast as if she were using a Life Orb.

  The elderly lady cast me a disturbed look before shaking her head. “I hadn’t expected this kind of intensity from one so young. Looks like I need to use a hundred percent of my strength!” Despite her boisterous words, I could feel the nervousness there, tinged with despair. She knows she can’t win.

  “Let’s go, Stonjourner!” The tall Stonehenge-looking Pokemon appeared on the field, an angry slant to its blank white eyes and mouth.

  “Hit him with everything you got!” I shouted loudly, punching my fists up in the air. Athena took in a deep breath… and did nothing.

  “Protect!” Tyme tried to counter, but my bluff meant she simply wasted her Pokemon’s one window of invulnerability. As I saw the hive comb barrier begin to fade around her Pokemon, I called out an actual attack.

  “Crushing blows.” Tyme’s Pokemon tried to renew the Protect, and while it did reconjure a barrier around itself, this one was much weaker. It broke before the might of the first punch, and the following two caused the Stonjourner to collapse into a pile of rocks. Glad I’ve seen that before online, or I’d be really worried about how badly he was hurt there.

  “My goodness, I haven’t been pushed back this far in a while. But while even a chance remains, I’ll pursue it! Go, Klawf,” she declared, returning her defeated Pokemon to send out a fresh one. The large crab Pokemon snapped its pincers aggressively before being immediately set upon by a flurry of blows from Athena.

  “Endure it!” Tyme cried as Klawf’s shell fractured all over. Ah, so that’s how they’re going to play it. Not bad, but…

  “Another barrage, half strength. It’ll be faster this time.” My words were correct; the crab Pokemon had been smushed against the side of the barrier but was scuttling along it with incredible speed, their Anger Shell Ability vastly increasing the power and speed they had.

  However, even with that, they couldn’t avoid the furious golden limbs. It thought it had jumped over a strike, only to leave it vulnerable to the rest, striking where he had jumped to. Part of that is the elements of Extreme Speed we managed to work into the mix. Athena isn’t an idiot, but she’s not going to match the tactical skills of Isaac Netero yet. Extreme Speed increases the reaction times to a degree, as well as vastly improving the speed of her blows, allowing her to adapt to any movements from the enemy and hit them before they can adjust.

  Anger Shell also made Tyme’s Pokemon more vulnerable, so I was relieved to see that Athena had enough control to take the enraged crab out of the fight without causing it permanent harm. Something I should be careful about with Athena. This technique pushes her to the brink in many ways. I’m sure if she continued, she could sweep this whole match, but pushing out that much Aura… No, best to call it here and end on a high note.

  “Return,” I announced. Athena gave a slight sigh and let the ‘Hundred Hands’ construct drop, the energy dissipating as she flopped to the ground. “You did amazing out there,” I told her as I returned my exhausted Pokemon to her Pokeball.

  “Now, let’s give someone else a chance to shine, Bahamut!” The Shiny Dragon proudly roared as he took the stage. This will be his first chance to really face off against a Gym Leader’s Pokemon without any setup. It’ll be tough, but I think he can take on at least one of Tyme’s Pokemon.

  Tyme released Coalossal without much fanfare (despite how much the massive burning pile of rocks brought to the stage naturally). The woman looked tired. Frustrated, no matter how much she tried to hide it. Guess it is tough to continue on fighting even though defeat is becoming more and more certain. But Gym Leaders are also supposed to put on a good show for Paldea and the world, so I suppose the show must go on.

  “Up above and down below,” I called, and my Fraxure eagerly ran forward. The Coalossal breathed out a stream of fire, which Bahamut soared over, calling upon Aerial Ace to leap up high above the titan of coal before stomping down with Bulldoze, partially burying the Fire Type in the arena, slowing them down further.

  Nicely done, he’s learned how to switch energy Types quite effectively. All that training with Dun paid off. The Ground Type attack was incredibly effective against the dual Fire/Rock Type, and unlike his Water weakness, he didn’t have an ability to help compensate for that.

  He was still a Pokemon on a Gym Leader’s Ace team, however, and proved it by spitting out a deluge of tar, the burning liquid swamping my Dragon. Then the Coalossal began to tip over, his body glowing red-hot as he simply fell atop Bahamut.

  The tar slowed him down enough that he didn’t quite manage to jump out of the way, clipped by the Heat Crash. The powerful Move hurt a fair bit, especially with the tar catching fire as well. But Bahamut was a dragon, and he didn’t go down easily, his pained cry turning to one of defiance as he rose up again.

  “There you go, you got this! Swords Dance, then show him your true power!” My Fraxure weaved around the Coalossal, waving his sharp tusk as he did so, jumping over and sliding around the Rock Type’s clumsy swings in his direction.

  Powered up, he engaged the Rock Type closer. On instinct I almost went for the Tera Orb to Terastalize him before remembering that I couldn’t do that here. Whoops, gotta be careful with that. Terastalizing would be nice here, but the Mega Evolution more than made up for it, I feel. Not that Bahamut truly needs the help.

  Indeed, he was ripping into the stone monster with a powerful Outrage. On Tyme’s orders, a few Stone Edges smacked into my Dragon, but he powered on through, tanking the shots well. By the end of his rage, Bahamut was swaying slightly, his eyes glazed, but victorious over Tyme’s Pokemon.

  We both recalled our Pokemon. I knew that even though Bahamut had clearly won, he wouldn’t be able to handle the next enemy. “Go, Dun.” My starter fluttered down onto the arena, narrowing his eyes at Tyme.

  “Garganacl, show them your rock-steady power.” The large salt Pokemon landed heavily, the ground shaking at their entrance. “The numbers might not be on our side, but let’s see if we can change that by doubling your strength, Terastalize!”

  Tyme pulled out her Tera Orb and threw it above her Pokemon, surrounding it in a mass of crystals. The smart Type would be to change it to a Ghost Type and make use of his Purifying Salt Ability, but- The crystals cleared to reveal the shimmering Rock Tera Pokemon. Right, don’t think any Gym Leader changes out of their chosen Typing. Which wouldn’t be too terrible, but the Rock Type is riddled with weaknesses.

  Something I was going to (continue to) make great use of. “Smart Strike!” My adorable land snake flew forward, tail first, flying unerringly into the Rock Type and grinding into it.

  “Hammer Arm!” Tyme called as soon as our attack was finished and Dun was falling down to the ground.

  “Swerve around it, Aqua Tail!” Dun’s three-segmented body granted him a lot of flexibility, and with that and his three sets of wings, he was able to contort around the blow and smack into it with his tail, now covered in water.

  “Earthquake!” Dun landed tail point first, raising himself up, then body-flopping the roof. His Move raised large chunks of the arena floor into Garganacl, roughing him up hard.

  The salt Minecraft-esque monster did manage to strike back there, even amidst the beating he took, slamming down on Dun with a Hammer Arm. He gave a cry before scuttling away, the blow having cost Dun some health, but even more speed from the already slow Rock Type.

  “Recover,” Tyme ordered. “Here’s a tough question for you: How can you subtract all his health when I keep on adding to it?”

  My answer came in the form of a small bout of singing and a hand sign for Dun to start Roosting. “Anything you can do, I can do greater. I can do anything better than you~.” Dun curled up, his own wounds healing faster than Garganacl’s.

  “Earthquake.” As the ground shook once more, I said/shouted, “I guess I’ll subtract it by being several times faster than you are.”

  Tyme didn’t have a witty counter, and the Rock Slides she ordered against my Pokemon were quickly outmatched in power, speed, and accuracy by Dun’s Earthquakes. In short order, her Garganacl collapsed, signaling the end of the match.

  “Congratulations, you battled well, Miss Nemona,” Tyme said to me after we recalled our Pokemon and met in the middle of the arena. She handed me a badge, which I took gratefully.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone battle like you have before,” she continued. “Have you considered entering the Rising Stars tournament? I host it near the end of the Treasure Hunt. Ah, that’s at-”

  “The end of next month, right? I’m aware; my sister won it last year. Hmm, sorry, I don’t think I’ll be able to.”

  “Might I ask why?”

  “Hopefully I’ll have all my badges by then, and only Trainers with five to seven badges can compete. Plus… honestly, I don’t think I’ll learn much from battling people on that level.” The fact that there are Trainers around willing to act scummy nearby doesn't entice me any more, either. My brash words earned only a sigh from her, as if she had expected that from me.

  “If I can ask you a question now?” Tyme jerked her head in a nod, so I continued. “Am I wrong in thinking you weren’t at the top of your game for our battle?”

  The Gym Leader let out a mirthless laugh. “You could say that. I’ve been out of sorts for a while now because- well, you might not understand. But in any case, you’re quite skilled, as you mentioned. I believe you would have won this fight and earned your badge no matter how great a challenge I could put up.”

  I think I understand better than you’d think. Pushing her to become a teacher wasn’t the point here, though. Just trying to gauge what she was feeling. “Well, when you get that sorted out, I’d love a rematch.” The smile she gave me in return was small, but it was the first genuine one I had seen on her.

  - Tera Type: Normal

  - Held Item: Expert Belt

  - Abilities: Run Away, Serene Grace

  - Moves known:

  - 'Miles' (Rotom, Genderless, Electric/Form dependent Type)

  - Tera Type: Electric

  - Held Item: Life Orb

  - Ability: Levitate

  - Moves Known:

  - 'Nightwing' (Gliscor, Female, Flying/Ground Type)

  - Tera Type: Water

  - Held Item: Toxic Orb

  - Ability: Hyper Cutter, Poison Heal

  - Moves Known:

  - 'Notch' (Carbink, Genderless, Rock/Fairy Type)

  - Tera Type: Fighting

  - Held Item: Light Clay

  - Ability: Clear Body

  - Moves Known:

  - 'Phantasm' (Hisuian Zoroark, Female, Normal/Ghost)

  - Tera Type: Ghost

  - Held Item: Lax Incense

  - Ability: Illusion

  - Moves Known:

  - 'Athena' (Lucario, Mega-Evolveable, Female, Fighting/Steel)

  - Tera Type: Fighting

  - Held Item: Clear Amulet

  - Ability: Steadfast

  - Moves Known:

  -'Bahamut' (Fraxure, Male, Dragon)

  - Tera Type: Dragon

  - Held Item: Dragon Fang

  - Ability: Mold Breaker

  - Moves Known:

  *Custom Moves