I had done my research. Gym Leaders kept a rotating roster of Pokémon for their Battles, making sure that they would always be ready to handle any level of challenger; whether it be a kid just starting out on their Journey, or a Trainer taking on their last Gym before going to a League Conference.

  Roark, according to the forums online and the people in town I had talked to, generally kept a cluster of Geodude ready for his Gym Battle, along with some Gravler and even a couple of Golem for the more advanced challengers.

  My research paid off as Venus’ opponent appeared on Roark’s side of the field, a Geodude that was hovering slightly off the ground and raising its arms as it bellowed out its war cry.

  I licked my lips nervously. “Alright Venus, just like we practiced.”

  Venus simply flicked her ear in acknowledgement.

  “Challenger ready?” The referee called.

  “Ready!”

  “Leader Roark, ready?”

  “Ready.” Roark, curse him, didn’t look nervous at all, simply standing with a small smile on his face, his arms crossed in front of him.

  He looked rather familiar standing like that, but I couldn’t quite figure out why.

  The referee looked between us, then with a chopping motion, dropped her hand.

  “Begin!”

  Venus was the first to act, our speed training having paid off as she took off like a rocket towards the Geodude. Her form blurred into a white streak as she began her Quick Attack, and half-a-second later the stadium was filled with the next-best thing to the sound of a gunshot as she smashed into the Geodude.

  “Keep it up!” I called, and Venus barely took a second to stop, reorient, and dash towards the Geodude again.

  “Your Eevee is impressive!” Roark said nonchalantly. “You must have been training your speed for a while! Unfortunately for you, speed is nothing compared to the staying power of Rock-type Pokémon!”

  True to his words, even as Venus smashed into the Geodude’s body again, the other Pokémon barely seemed to notice.

  There was some damage there, I could see a few cracks and chips in its rocky exterior, but it was paltry in comparison to what came next.

  “Show them what an attack really looks like!” Roark commanded.

  Having met him a couple of times already, I could tell the Gym Leader was playing things up for the crowd, but it was still surprisingly intimidating.

  The Geodude roared again, then reached down with its large hands. Its fingers dug into the ground, and with a mighty heave it simply tore a chunk out of the rocky terrain.

  I blinked, staring in awe despite myself.

  It was one thing to have Kōjin force rocks upwards when he used Rock Tomb, and another to see a living boulder rip a chunk of stone out of the ground that was larger than it was.

  Rocks and boulder’s shouldn’t work like that, and I had to chalk it up to the mysterious Type Energy that governed this world’s physics.

  With a grunt of effort, the Geodude sent the boulder flying towards Venus.

  She was fast, faster than the Geodude was, but even her speed couldn’t save her entirely from this attack.

  She managed to make it most of the way out of the line of fire, but the rock was bigger than she had anticipated. A section of it clipped her hindquarters, sending her tumbling to the ground.

  I winced, unable to help Venus, but she didn’t need my help. Venus staggered to her feet, letting out a small snarl of anger and pain at the attack.

  Without waiting for my command, she took off towards the Geodude, juking left and right as she moved to foul the other’s aim.

  I wanted to chide her for taking off so rashly, but then a moment later I saw what Venus had.

  It’s slow!

  For all of its strength and vitality, being able to shrug off Venus’ Quick Attacks, the Geodude simply wasn’t able to keep up with her speed.

  She smashed into its body again, and this time I saw a chip of stone fall off of its shell.

  “Again!” I shouted my encouragement. “Think of Zetian’s bees!”

  Venus’ ear flickered again as she got my meaning.

  Zetian’s bees couldn’t do a lot of damage at once, but over time they could be devastating. The only way we would win this right now is to simply chip away at the Geodude’s health.

  Then I saw Roark smirk.

  “No moss.” He called.

  I frowned in confusion. For a brief second I thought he was speaking Spanish, or Paldean in this world, then the Geoduce wrapped its arms around itself and began to spin, and I understood the Gym Leader’s meaning.

  A rolling stone gathers no moss.

  “Venus!” I shouted, panic in my voice. “Get out of there!”

  She gave me a startled look, then turned back just in time to see the Geodude stop levitating.

  It hit the ground with a solid thunk and shot forwards, and I had the ridiculous image of the boulder from the first Indiana Jones movie.

  Rollout.

  Venus was quick on the draw however, and jumped out of the way before the Geodude could reach her.

  Or rather, she tried to do so at least.

  “Redirect left!” Roark shouted, and I was witness to a truly ridiculous sight.

  The rolling Geodude snapped out its left arm and dug its fingers into the ground, creating a temporary anchor.

  Instead of spinning past Venus, the Geodude pivoted on the new axis provided, and took off right for her.

  Venus didn’t have a chance to dodge again, and Roark’s Pokémon smashed into her.

  She was thrown off her feet, landing several yards away from the still-spinning Geodude.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The rest of the world faded away as I stared at my first companion in this world, but after a second, she stood up. Her legs were shaky, but she held her head up high, tail lifted proudly.

  My hand twitched towards her Poké Ball at my waist, and Venus caught the motion.

  She snorted, and stared at the Geodude with determination blazing in her eyes.

  I let my hand drop.

  Venus didn’t want me to withdraw her from this fight just yet.

  I took a deep breath, and nodded, the rest of the world beginning to come back to focus.

  I saw Roark smile.

  Both of our Pokémon had taken damage, but it wasn’t over yet.

  Judging by the way Venus’ body was shaking with strain, she probably only had one or two more exchanges in her. She’d done a pretty fair amount of damage to the Geodude, but I didn’t know if it would be enough to force a dual knock-out.

  The two Pokémon eyed each other for a moment, then burst into motion once again.

  Venus blurred into a Quick Attack again, racing towards the Geodude, but at the very last second the other Pokémon dropped its Rollout.

  Right before Venus slammed into Roark’s Geodude, the ground erupted into a now-familiar pattern.

  Before I had a chance to tell her what was going on, the rocks that Roark had installed into the floor of the stadium shot upwards, the Geodude’s Rock Tomb trapping her back leg.

  Venus slammed to the ground, her forward momentum ripped away by the move. I winced as she crashed into hard rock, but thankfully it didn’t seem like any of her bones had been broken this time. She still managed to stagger to her feet, but her attack was effectively ruined with her foot still stuck in the rocks.

  Then something strange happened. The Geodude was just out of reach of Venus, and with the way she was trapped in the rocks, she was unable to get any movement to get a Quick Attack going, or even a Tackle.

  My Eevee snarled, and snapped at the Geodude. A dark mist seemed to shimmer into existence near her mouth, and then with another snap of her teeth, an almost invisible set of jaws snapped down on the Geodude.

  The Geodude that was at least a foot away from her.

  It cried out in pain and staggered back from Venus’ trapped form, breaking its focus just long enough for her to wiggle her leg free of the Rock Tomb.

  I had to take a moment during her escape to figure out what exactly was going on. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I was fairly confident that had been Bite of all things.

  I knew Eevee could learn Bite, but she’d never shown any particular aptitude for the move during our training before now. At what level an Eevee would gain the move in the games, I wasn’t sure, but whatever it was, I didn’t think it would be in the middle of a Battle.

  “Follow up Venus!” I cried. “Use Bite again if you can!”

  She could handle the fight herself, I knew that much, but I couldn’t help but shout my support.

  Interestingly, Roark didn’t seem to follow the same philosophy, choosing to remain mostly silent.

  From the few times that I had met him, he seemed like an entirely different person when battling.

  Venus lunged forwards and while a dark mist began to appear around her mouth once again, this time the Geodude managed to get one up on her.

  “Finish it.” Roark said quietly.

  The Geodude pulled its arm back and punched.

  Venus skidded across the ground, unconscious.

  The referee waited for a long minute, before blowing her whistle.

  “Challenger Knighton’s Pokémon is unable to continue battling!” The referee called. “Challenger Knighton, please recall your Pokémon and send your next one out!”

  With a grimace I pulled Venus back into her Poké Ball.

  “You did great.” I whispered, even though I knew she couldn’t hear it.

  The Ball went back onto my belt, and I pulled out Kōjin.

  “You can do this, just listen to my commands, and it’ll be okay.”

  The Ball wiggled in excitement, and I held it out, releasing the fire dog.

  Kōjin let out a howl as he emerged, brief spurts of flame sparking out of his mouth as he did so.

  “Challenger ready?” The referee called.

  “Ready!”

  “Defender ready?”

  “Ready.”

  “Begin!”

  “Kōjin! Rock Tomb!”

  The move was still a little slow, slower than I’d like, but my opponent was slow as well.

  The Geodude had just begun to spin up into another Rollout when pillars of rock erupted out of the earth, trapping it in place.

  “Now, Head Smash!”

  Kōjin barked happily, put his head down, and charged.

  The Geodude was hanging upside down from the pillar, caught mid-move, but it was already starting to get free. Unfortunately for it, I had learned a few things about Kōjin during the past few weeks.

  One, I was ninety-nine percent sure that his Ability was Rock Head.

  Two, he was really good at headbutting things.

  Stone cracked, and the Geodude went limp. Kōjin took a couple steps back, staring at the other Pokémon, before he was sure that it was unconscious.

  Then he sat down and looked over his shoulder at me with a big grin, panting happily.

  “Leader Roark’s Pokémon is unable to continue battling!” The referee called. “Leader Roark, please recall your Pokémon and send your next one out!”

  Roark recalled his Geodude, and released his next Pokémon.

  I had to smirk as a familiar shape emerged onto the field. It seemed that at some point, Roark had also managed to get his hands on a fossil, as a Cranidos appeared in a flash of red light.

  This… was actually good. At least on paper it was. I had done a lot of training with Lucas after all, and Hardy was also a Cranidos.

  Presumably the same tactics would apply.

  We went through the same rigamarole we had just gone through when Venus had been knocked out, and then the referee was blowing the whistle again, and the fight was on.

  “Kōjin! Flame Wheel then Head Smash!”

  From a type-effectiveness standpoint, Flame Wheel was a terrible move to use. Fire-type moves were weak against Rock-types after all, but the damage that it would be doing wasn’t the point.

  Kōjin concentrated, the Fire Type Energy coming much easier to him than Rock did, and a tall pinwheel of flame ignited in a wave of heat, and began rolling towards the Cranidos.

  It wouldn’t hurt the other Pokémon that much, but it was big, and it was flashy.

  Kōjin was right behind the Flame Wheel, charging forwards towards the Cranidos.

  I wish I could have kept the second half of the combo move quiet, but Kōjin just wasn’t at the point yet where we could have specific strategies.

  The Cranidos hopped out of the way of the Flame Wheel, and Kōjin redirected his charge, intending to hit the other Pokémon while it was still distracted by the other, much flashier move.

  It had worked on Hardy, Lucas’ Cranidos, and I was hoping that it would work here as well.

  My hopes were dashed when I realized the difference between a Pokémon that was trained by a well-taught researcher’s assistant, and a professional Trainer and Gym Leader.

  The Cranidos spotted Kōjin’s follow-up move, and stepped back into the path of the Flame Wheel.

  Flames washed across the scaly hide of the dinosaur-like Pokémon, and although I thought I could see it flinch, that was all it did. And then it raised a foot.

  My heart sank at the motion.

  “Kōjin! To your left!”

  Kōjin either didn’t hear me, or couldn’t move in time. His head was already down for his charge, and he was committed.

  The foot came down. A small boulder jumped out of the ground in defiance of all laws of physics, and then the Cranidos headbutted it, sending it directly into Kōjin’s side.

  Kōjin yelped in pain, and was sent hurtling away.

  “Focus!” Roark commanded.

  My heart sank even lower with the Cranidos’ next move. Instead of following up with another attack, the Cranidos hunched down, eyes severe as it stared at Kōjin.

  “Get up!” I called. “Rock Tomb, then get out of there!”

  Kōjin scrambled to his feet and concentrated.

  A pale gold nimbus started to surround the Cranidos.

  Rocks crunched together around the dinosaur-like Pokémon, almost completely obscuring it from view, and Kōjin began to dart away.

  “Hemuretto!” Roark shouted, gesturing dramatically with one hand. “Rock Slide!”

  The Cranidos roared from inside its rocky cage, and the ground moved. Pillars of stone emerged in concentric rings from where Hemuretto was trapped, and they only grew taller the farther they moved.

  Kōjin, my poor boy, was caught by the move despite his best efforts. The Rock Slide picked him up, and slammed him into the ground, only for him to be caught by another ripple and tossed around again.

  When the dust finally settled, Kōjin was laying on the ground, unconscious.

  “Challenger Knighton is out of Pokémon! By knockout, Leader Roark is victorious!”

  Almost numbly, I fumbled for my Poké Ball, recalling Kōjin.

  We’d lost.