The Type Specialist

I was grumbling when Wally and I entered the arena floor alongside the other competing trainers. We were in the middle of a basic opening ceremony, during which all of the competitors were being shown off, but I was currently focusing on other thoughts to distract myself from the sheer size of the crowd.

I had wanted to stop at the Lilycove Department Store to pick up more TM moves for my Pokémon last night, but the prices were a complete rip off. Sure, the department store had a far better selection of TM moves than the stores in Mauville, but was the roughly thirty percent increase in price necessary? Even more, every move available here that wasn't available in Mauville was almost double the price of a normal TM. Considering that the cheapest TM was a few hundred Pokédollars, and the most expensive was a few thousand, I refused to overpay for a move my Pokémon could learn on their own.

Hm. Maybe I can get another big payout from this tournament and buy the TMs I want.

…Or I could save it like a responsible person. Argh! Why can’t spending be as simple as it was in the games, where I could drop my entire account on a single TM and not blink an eye.

Wally nudged me with his elbow when he noticed me frowning, and he leaned closer to let me hear him better. The roar of the crowd was near deafening.

“C’mon, Alex. Cheer up!" Wally exclaimed. "We’re in a major tournament now, we have to put on a good show for everyone!”

I sighed and forced myself to smile. I knew my expression still wasn’t great, but it was at least an effort.

No longer able to distract myself by forcing myself to think about the TM situation, I looked around at the stadium I found myself in. It reminded me of a football stadium, but instead of a single large field, the main floor consisted of four classic Pokémon battlefields lit up with massive spotlights shining down from the rafters. While the seats weren’t completely filled up, it was still a huge crowd cheering in excitement as music played over our entrance.

Above each of the four fields were large screens displaying the live feed that the cameras around the stadium were broadcasting. The video dramatically panned over the approaching trainers, and zoomed onto a few individual trainers. I could occasionally see myself in the background of the close-ups, but it never focused on me. Probably for the best, considering my expression.

There were sixty-four of us in this tournament, down from the ninety-seven who had registered. The previous day, there had been a few preliminary matches outside the stadium to arrive at that nice, even number. Apparently, this was an absurdly large number of registered trainers for an end of the year tournament, given that generally only fifty or so would compete at most.

Wally and I were exempt from the initial selection matches due to a recommendation from Professor Birch for Wally, as well as an anonymous recommendation from an important individual for me. I assumed that recommendation was from Steven.

As for the size of the audience, I estimated there were at least ten thousand people in the audience. This stadium was shorter than those I had seen in my old world, and had a larger central space dedicated to the fields the Pokémon fought on. While this tournament was televised, there were a few others happening around this time, with some of them even taking place at the exact same time. It was currently the fifteenth of December, and there was a similar tournament being broadcasted in both Kanto and Unova as well. It did make me feel a bit better that the audience wasn’t anywhere near the size that it could have been.

All of the trainers arranged themselves into eight even rows and columns, and the screens above the fields changed to show a woman and a man sitting behind a desk in a room that overlooked the arena. The woman was tall with short brown hair and a cyan top, while the man was much shorter than her and was wearing a tight suit that clearly hadn’t been refitted for weight he had gained.

The woman smiled as a musical intro played, and once it finished she dramatically grabbed the microphone on the table in front of her and began to speak.

"Coming to you live and in person is your favorite reporter, Gabby~!” She waved as a large cheer echoed throughout the audience. “I'll be your primary announcer for the Lilycove Tournament, and here as my co-host, temporarily returning to Hoenn from his year-long stint as a Contest Judge in Kanto, is the Pokémon Fan Club's President and Lilycove resident, Mr. Sukizo!"

"Remarkable!" the short, pudgy man next to her stated. A similarly loud but less noisy cheer rang out.

"We're here right now to make sure you all get the latest scoop about how this tournament will go," Gabby continued.

As she spoke, the screens shifted to show a mockup of a classic tournament-style bracket.

"Right now, we have a total of exactly sixty-four competing trainers aiming to make it to the top. All the competing trainers have registered three members of their team, and each trainer will battle a randomly chosen fellow competitor in one-on-one battles using a single Pokémon. The winner will move on to the next round, and the loser will be eliminated. After all trainers have battled at least once, the process starts again, but this time with half the initial trainers. Rounds will continue until only two trainers are left, upon which they’ll have a three-on-three battle as part of the exhilarating finals!

As she spoke, the graphic on the screen shifted to demonstrate a trainer losing and moving on, and then slowly zoomed in to cut off the matchups on the edges as the example trainer made it to the finals.

“Trainers will have to play smart if they want to win,” Gabby continued. “This tournament will proceed all day and night until a victor is determined. It’s both a battle of endurance, and a battle of trainer skill. "

The screen cut back to Gabby and Mr. Sukizo sitting at their desks.

"Any thoughts before I move on, Mr. Sukizo?” Gabby asked.

“I hope every battle will be... remarkable!” Mr. Sukizo said.

Gabby lightly chuckled at his statement.

“Now then, I know you’ve all heard the rumors, and I bet you’re wondering what exactly the winning trainers will receive. Well, the answer is, no one knows!”

The crowd as well as some of the trainers on the field murmured at that confession.

“Truth is, the reward seems too important to go into details about now. The League will be announcing their exact use at the start of the new year. However, as an investigative reporter, I couldn’t let this lack of information stand!”

Gabby stood up in her chair and slammed her hands on the table, causing a large portion of the audience, myself included, to jump back in shock at the sudden loud noise. From offscreen, a beefy man in a tight white tee and blue cap hurried over next to Gabby and handed her what looked to be a single polaroid before running back off screen.

“From my anonymous sources, the victor of this tournament will receive something called a Key Stone!” Gabby said, excitedly. “What’s it a key for? I’m not sure. But based on this picture, I can say it’s certainly impressive.”

Rather than cutting to a pre-made image like the screens had for the tournament bracket, Gabby held up a photo of an iridescent, marble-like stone with a black helix structure on the inside. This clearly wasn’t planned.

“Several organizations around the world are actively researching the energy this stone produces. Could it be a new energy source? A new way to train your Pokémon? An in-battle effect like Alola’s Z-moves or Galar’s Dynamax? All I know is that it’s definitely important, and the League’s being rather tight-lipped about it until the official announcement.”

Mr. Sukizo leaned forward to get a better look at the photograph, and gasped after he saw the picture up close.

“...Remarkable,” he said reverently.

Gabby suddenly flinched and shut one of her eyes, bringing a hand up to her ear. It was pretty obvious someone was yelling at her through an earpiece.

“Yes, yes, of course there’s also a cash prize like normal, a few free TMs depending on your final placement, as well as a discount on all TMs at the Lilycove Department Store for the top four.”

I clenched my fist.

I need to get in the top four.

“Anyway, that’s it for how this tournament’s run. I suppose it’s about time we let the competitors get to battling. What say you, Mr. Sukizo?”

“Have a remarkable competition!” he said jovially.

With that, the screens flashed to the logo of Hoenn TV, a Lilycove-based broadcaster that competed with TV Mauville, and loud music started to play over the sounds of the cheering crowds in the arena.

A woman in a bright orange jacket walked over to the front of where all of the trainers were lined up, clapped her hands together, then spoke loud enough that we could easily hear her over the music.

“Alright, all of you will wait until your name is called, then head to battlefield A, B, C, or D. Locker rooms are this way, and we can provide private spaces to take care of your Pokémon if needed. Follow me.”

With that, she headed off to one of the other entrances to this field, and everyone followed. Wally was distracted by the screens playing highlights from previous battles and events in this arena whereas I was just lost in thought.

Steven implied that I would get something valuable if I competed in this tournament. Did he expect me to win? I kind of doubt that the TM discounts were what he was talking about. He knows I already have a Key Stone, so I'm unsure what he has planned. Maybe he wants to give me a Steel Wing TM like in the games?

As I walked with all of the trainers out of the arena, I absentmindedly brushed my hand over the bracer on my arm where the Key Stone Altaria had stolen from Courtney was placed, and made sure it was still secured with a fine mesh. People might recognize it now that Gabby had shown off a picture of a Key Stone, and I wanted to make sure it was still protected from thieves. I purposely didn’t take too long to do so, not wanting to draw attention to it, then focused my thoughts on strategies for my upcoming battles as all the trainers headed deeper inside the stadium.

I had to enter three Pokémon for this competition, and after spending a long time thinking about it, I chose Florges, Altaria, and Mawile. Out of the bunch, I personally considered Florges to be the strongest, but that selection let me cover the basics of how I fought and disguise any major strategies I wanted to hide.

Florges was the easiest pick. She had incredible offensive and defensive powers, and her aerial movement helped her avoid melee attacks, which she was weak to. She could easily handle special moves, as she could diffuse the energy throughout her body to reduce the damage, but a punch was a punch, and physical impacts could still seriously hurt her.

To help with that, I chose Mawile to take on trainers predisposed towards physical attackers. While Mawile had trouble keeping up, she had more than enough ways to lure enemies in close, and our practice with her jaws meant if they did get close, they would never leave. She struggled with ranged opponents, but that was what Florges was for.

Altaria, however, was my ace in the hole. He was a Pokémon of pure power and little strategy, even though that didn’t match my developing battle style. He was perfect to take on enemies that expected tricks or another Fairy Type, so he could counter anyone Florges and Mawile couldn't handle.

Honestly, having him as part of my team was a trick in itself.

However, I had no plans on using Altaria early on. This tournament was an endurance test. With sixty-three other experienced trainers competing, I would need to get through six difficult battles to win overall. Only using Florges and Mawile would mean people wouldn't expect a non-Fairy like Altaria, so saving him to be in his best shape for the later battles would be a big help.

None of the members I selected used any major tricks or special strategies to fight, with the exception of Mawile's inclination for luring her foes in closer. However, that was a strategy used by her entire species, so it was already pretty obvious. The Ever Grande Conference was coming up soon, and since this tournament was both televised and recorded, my future opponents in the Conference could look me up to figure out my strategies. Ninetales, Azumarill, and Cottonee were left out on purpose, which meant I wouldn't be showing off any of my more specialized strategies or Pokémon that needed to be explicitly countered. I might have a slightly weaker team without them, but I would rather do well in the Ever Grande Conference than in this tournament, so I was focusing on the long game.

However, no matter how well-planned or doomed to fail my selection might be, I would have to make do as I was one of the first trainers to be called up.

I was nervous about having to battle so quickly, but it was honestly good for me since it meant my Pokémon would have more time to rest before the next round. Also, hearing my opponent’s name helped me calm down even further.

I hadn't noticed he was here, since I didn’t look around at the other trainers, but it seemed that somehow Winston and I ended up in the same place again. He was to be my first opponent.

I said goodbye to Wally and he wished me luck as I left the waiting room containing a large portion of the competing trainers. Heading down the hallway towards the field, I saw Winston up ahead. He heard my footsteps and turned around to check who was following him, and when he saw me he sneered and turned back around.

Well. I was going to go up to thank him for his help in Sea Mauville, but I guess I might as well put that off for now.

Winston knew that I was a Fairy Type specialist, so I knew he would be making plans to counter me. Florges would be a decent choice, but a lot of his Pokémon were physical attackers that Mawile could handle better. Even more, if he sent out Linoone or Druddigon, I knew Mawile could win thanks to Iron Defense and her Steel Type countering their melee attacks.

Deciding that Mawile would indeed be the best option, I entered the arena and headed over to battlefield C, where I would be fighting Winston at the same time three other battles would be occurring on the other fields. Each screen above the fields was displaying information about the trainers, such as revealed Pokémon and how many badges they had earned. Since this was the first round, neither Winston nor I had revealed any of our Pokémon, and I was listed to have seven badges, while Winston was listed to have six.

He probably stopped at Lilycove for this tournament before leaving for Mossdeep and Sootopolis. That would line up with his number of badges, and explains why he is here and not at the other upcoming tournaments in Mauville and Rustboro.

"Trainers, select your Pokémon and send them out at the end of the countdown," a different woman wearing an orange jacket shouted. She was presumably the referee for this match, so I gave her a nod of acknowledgement to show I understood.

I locked eyes with Winston, and while he didn't look happy, he was at least taking this battle seriously. He wore that same navy blue suit, and maintained that familiar air of arrogance. However, he was calmer, and though he had sneered earlier, he was more focused on the battle and didn’t look like he would be shouting insulting banter.

It seems like he’s matured a bit from his journey these past few months. I’m glad to see he’s improving as a person. Or at least I hope he is and this isn’t just a show for the audience. I don’t actually know him well enough to read him like I can with Wally or my Pokémon.

While the countdown to start our match ticked down, I noticed that Winston's hand was hovering over one of four luxury balls at his waist, rather than the Ultra Ball I knew contained Druddigon.

Not his Dragon Type, then? Makes sense, he does know I use Fairy Types, after all. He's probably going to use Linoone. I know how powerful Belly Drum is. It's better than his other choice, which would be-

"Oh no," I whispered under my breath.

Making the realization too late, Mawile's Heavy Ball was already flying through the air. She appeared on the field as a gallant, red and yellow-maned lion was released opposite to her. It let out an impressive roar, and I cursed.

Of course I just sent out a Steel Type against a Fire Type in the very first round. We have to be careful. We haven't let Type Matchups stop us in the past, and we won’t let them now.

Winston smirked when he saw Mawile and pointed his finger forward and called out to Pyroar to use its first moves.

"Noble Roar! Then follow it up with Flamethrower!"

I didn’t bother waiting for Pyroar to roar, and shouted my own orders as well. Mawile was just barely able to hear me over the roar of both the crowd and the lion thanks to how close I released her near me.

“Get in close and never leave. It’s a Fire Type, and strong against you. Avoid letting it aim its head at you.”

Mawile didn’t bother to acknowledge my orders, choosing to instead immediately run forward towards Pyroar. Pyroar’s roar petered out in the meantime, and thankfully she was almost entirely unaffected.

Mawile's Hyper Cutter ability was close to being fully developed, and I felt like this tournament would push it over into being completed. Hyper Cutter made it so Mawile's offensive power was too tied up into certain body parts for it to be reduced in battle. Essentially, Mawile couldn't be weakened that easily if her teeth would dig into her opponents or her jaw's full weight would be used anyway. It was a simple ability, but was difficult to get just right since she needed to practice making sure all of her attacks used the relevant body part.

Pyroar inhaled to prepare for a Flamethrower, and Mawile recognized the incoming move and preemptively positioned herself to dodge. A stream of flames shot towards her and even despite planning ahead, Mawile was forced to bring her jaws forward to reduce the damage. Her jaws began to glow red from the heat as the move tracked her, and Mawile tried her best to move forward through it. As a Steel Type, her body was essentially one large heat sink and warmed up quickly while also taking a long time to cool down. She was lucky that Pyroar had to stop to breathe, otherwise the continued heat might have been hot enough to inflict a burn.

If Mawile wasn’t forced to put all of her effort into getting close, Misty Terrain would have been great here to prevent the heat from Flamethrower from burning her. I can only hope she can get close enough without suffering from that condition.

Winston noticed that Mawile was managing to approach relatively quickly, and called out to his Pyroar to modify his strategy.

“Keep your distance,” he said coolly.

While that would have been a good idea against a different opponent, Mawile already knew the perfect move that countered that strategy. She had finally got battle ready just in time for this tournament.

“Taunt, Mawile,” I said.

Mawile eyes flashed black and she spoke a few strangely echoing words under her breath, just loud enough for Pyroar to hear. The sounds of the Taunt had an ominous reverb that echoed through the arena, and I looked forward to the day Mawile could use it as subtly as Thomas's Mightyena.

Infuriated and under the effect of the Taunt, Pyroar paused before it could run away and reared back for a Flamethrower, intent on attacking the source of its anger. Winston looked on in frustration, knowing his yells wouldn’t have changed its mind.

Mawile managed to reach Pyroar just in time, thanks to the delay, and before it could release its fire breath, she swung her large jaws into Pyroar’s front legs with a sneak attack Sucker Punch. As Pyroar was distracted by recovering from the damage, Mawile continued her forward motion, sliding underneath it on the dirt floor to reach its side before it could breathe out any more flames.

Pyroar still tried its best to attack, but all that happened was a burst of fire singeing the ground behind Mawile, and her jaws snapped forward to latch onto Pyroar’s side. It roared in pain, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. I couldn’t lose focus just yet, but Mawile had just barely managed to get into a position where Pyroar would have a difficult time attacking her.

Her teeth sparked and sent Electric Type energy coursing through Pyroar. The Fire Type recoiled from the Thunder Fang attack and convulsed from the electricity interfering with its movements. It tried to turn its head for Flamethrower, but her position was just right to make the Pyroar struggle to aim its attack. Seeing this, Winston spoke up to change Pyroar’s strategy.

“Forget Flamethrower. Use Overheat around you.”

I tensed. Overheat wasn’t necessarily directed like Flamethrower, and could hit in a radius that would include Mawile. I quickly ran over the options she had to respond with, and settled on one she would have to use just right.

As Pyroar’s mane started to glow as its entire body heated up, I called out a new move.

“Iron Head to flinch!”

Mawile released her grip on Pyroar’s side, then jumped up and swung her jaws down, flipping them over her head similar to how long hair could be flipped forward. Thankfully, while Pyroar hadn’t been fully paralyzed, the Electric Type energy within its body delayed its already slow-to-use attack just long enough for Mawile to land the Iron Head safely. As her Steel Type-infused jaws smashed into Pyroar's face, I noticed that the heat from the initial build up of Overheat did inflict a bit of damage to Mawile, but it wasn’t the full damage of the move so she managed to stay conscious.

The sudden and unexpected impact caused Pyroar to flinch in pain, exactly like I had wanted, and its Overheat stopped. I silently cheered as Mawile finished her jump and landed on the ground in front of Pyroar safely.

Thunder Fang wasn’t able to fully paralyze it, but at least Iron Head managed to interrupt its attacks.

Mawile and Pyroar stood off facing each other, both panting heavily from their accumulated damage. Pyroar was hurting from the bite wound on its side and the electricity that had been sent through it, and Mawile was almost completely overheated from all of the Fire Type damage she took. While Pyroar had taken more attacks, Mawile was definitely worse off. However, I knew we had this in the bag. When Winston spoke up, neither Mawile or I blinked.

“End this farce. Flamethrower,” he said.

Pyroar barely managed to breathe in before Mawile lunged forward. In that brief, minor window of distraction between attacks, Mawile swung her jaws up in a fistless uppercut that slammed into Pyroar’s chin. The lion’s eyes rolled up into its head from the surprise Sucker Punch, and it fell to the ground unconscious.

Winston looked like he wanted to say something, but shut his mouth and clenched his fists in anger. He wasn’t happy to lose, especially from a move like Sucker Punch, but he was at least trying his best to demonstrate good sportsmanship. I, on the other hand, was extremely happy. Our strategy had perfectly set up that Sucker Punch, after all.

Taunt and Sucker Punch worked incredibly well together since Taunt tricked its target into only using attacking moves, and Sucker Punch could only be used to sneak in during that brief delay before a Pokémon attacked. Taunt ensured Sucker Punch would be able to be used while it was in effect, and I was more than happy to have Mawile abuse that. I had figured this synergy out back in Sootopolis when I was considering better strategies for my team, and was one of the reasons I had her learn Taunt in the first place.

Pyroar disappeared into its Luxury Ball, and the cheering of the crowd picked up momentarily. I also returned Mawile to her Heavy Ball, since being inside of a Pokéball would help her get rid of the heat stored in her body a lot faster. I walked over to shake hands with Winston out of habit, but was hurried off the field by the referee. Recognizing that Winston had no plans to approach me, I decided to shout at him instead.

“That was a good battle! I’m glad to see that your Pyroar evolved, and has a better handle on its Flamethrower, too!”

I was trying to be friendly since I knew Winston had helped me back in Sea Mauville and wasn't the happiest of people. This was my attempt at holding out an olive branch to him, although I admit it was a pretty weak attempt. It went about as well as I was expecting, with Winston choosing to roll his eyes instead of responding.

Considering he didn't shout any snarky comments, I considered that a victory in my book.

With my battle finished, I headed over to the locker room to have Florges heal up Mawile, and to have her rest in preparation for future battles.

“What do you mean you 'lost in the first round’?” I said to Wally.

“She was super strong! Her Altaria doesn’t fight like any other Pokémon I’ve fought. Roserade wasn’t able to paralyze it for too long, either.”

I sighed and leaned into the wall of the hallway where I had bumped into Wally. He apparently was called up soon after me, and finished his battle at approximately the same time. He tried to get my attention when I was walking away, but I wasn’t able to hear him until we were in the quiet and isolated hallways that lead to the waiting rooms.

As for his tournament performance, it wasn’t that I was disappointed or angry at Wally, I was just in pure disbelief. I expected him to perform much better considering how strong all of the members of his team were, and while I knew it was possible he’d get knocked out, losing in the very first round was not what I was expecting at all.

“Yeah, her Altaria was all like ‘swoosh!’ and ‘spin!,’ then it clawed Roserade before she could do anything!" Wally exclaimed. "I’ve seen your Altaria fight, and he isn’t anywhere near as close-ranged as hers. You need to be careful.”

I pressed my lips together.

“Well, if I’m lucky she’ll be knocked out before I ever need to fight her. Otherwise, I’m probably going to need to use Altaria against her. His Cotton Guard would be the best defense against it, since Mawile has nothing against Flying opponents and Florges is weak to melee attacks, even if she does have a Type Advantage. Knowing that her Altaria already has its Natural Cure ability mastered puts my Altaria at a disadvantage if they both paralyze each other with Dragon Breath, but I’m hoping that he’ll still come out on top anyway.”

Wally closed his eyes and nodded sagely at my analysis. For someone who had lost in the first round of a tournament he had been looking forward to for over a month, he was handling it a lot better than he had back in Mossdeep. I was unsure what steps he was taking with his team as lately he’d been much more insistent on training separately in preparation for the Ever Grande Conference. He was clearly improving, and I was happy to see him develop as a trainer.

“I am upset I can’t get a Key Stone now,” Wally said. “I remember Mr. Wattson’s Manectric, that was super cool! Imagine if Gallade could do that!”

I held back a chuckle and forced myself to not reveal that Gallade could Mega Evolve and details about that were already known by the League.

“Yeah, it’s definitely nice to have, although kind of useless right now. I might have a Key Stone now, but I haven’t found any Mega Stone to use it with, so it hasn't done me any good. Hopefully I can get a relevant Mega Stone soon enough.”

“Maybe they can give you one if you win since you already have a Key Stone?” Wally supplied.

I froze.

I’m so stupid. Of course! If Steven recommended I come here, and there’s a Key Stone as a reward, if I do well enough I might receive a Mega Stone. Only the top four for the TM discount? No way. If I want this, I have to make sure to get to the top.

Wally must have seen the newfound determination in my eyes and smiled.

“Alex, you better beat her Altaria for me.”

I locked eyes with him.

“Believe me, Wally. With what’s at stake here, there’s no way I won’t be trying my absolute hardest to win.”