I panted heavily as the automatic glass doors slid open. I walked forward and entered the rock-themed building just on the edge of Rustboro. There were only a few minutes left before my Gym Battle was scheduled to start. I had just barely managed to arrive on time. My team and I had spent the last hour going over our strategies and I got so caught up in developing them, I had to run the entire way here.

When I last entered the Gym for the trial two weeks ago, the reception still had a decent number of people in it. Now, only a few chairs remained occupied. The schedule was still full, but if I were to reserve a time for a Gym Battle I would only need to wait a few days at most. I doubted I would have to wait at all when I eventually went to Petalburg.

I checked in with the Gym Trainer serving as a receptionist and was immediately told to enter the doors to the arena. I wasn't informed of how many stars the team I would be facing would be, but if Roxanne chose a team based on my performances in the previous two Gyms, she'd vastly underestimate what we could do.

Roxanne's arena was similar to the previous two Gym arenas in that it was a large compacted dirt field. However, this one contained several large boulders and scattered rocks. The walls around the room contained large decorative fossilized skeletons depicting ancient Pokémon. Off to the side was a small platform with a camera and recording equipment set up pointing directly at the field.

Despite the small differences in the arena layout, once again only the Gym Leader and I were in this room. I was immediately reminded of what Wattson tried to pull in Mauville.

"Excuse me, Miss Roxanne?" I called out.

"Just Roxanne is fine, I'm not teaching at the Trainer School right now," she replied. Roxanne was dressed in the same outfit that she wore in the games: a short gray skirt with pink leggings, with hair tied back using a similarly pink bow.

"Okay, Roxanne. I’d like to request an official referee for this match, if possible."

Her lips twitched into a slight frown for just a moment before they straightened back out. She maintained her rigid stance that befit a school teacher, but it weakened ever so slightly in reaction.

"I’ll call one in," she said with a hint of disappointment in her voice, "With your permission I would like to record this battle to show my students. I record every battle in this Gym for educational purposes. It’s a general rule, I’m not singling you out."

"That's fine." I said, mollified that I wasn’t being specifically targeted.

Roxanne pulled out a PokéNav from a pocket on her chest and spoke quietly into it. I could just barely make out a tinge of frustration in her voice.

After only a minute of awkward silence, two Gym Trainers entered the room. The first wore a thick solid-colored sweater that marked her as a referee (this time the sweater was brown), and the second just wore a thick jacket over casual clothes and went over to manage the recording equipment.

The referee took her spot on the side of the field and a red light appeared on the camera.

The referee spoke up.

"This will be a 3-on-3 battle between Challenger Alex and Rustboro Gym Leader Roxanne. The Challenger will have two switches while the Gym Leader will have none. Are you ready?"

Both Roxanne and I gave our affirmatives.

"Very well, then. Trainers! Send out your Pokémon!"

"Go, Graveler!"

"Marill, follow the plan!"

Two flashes of white light coalesced on the field revealing the angry face of my tiny blue mouse and a massive boulder with four arms and a pair of legs.

The Pokémon eyed each other as we waited for the referee to start the match. Marill scoffed, unimpressed like usual. Graveler hit its arms on its body in response, causing the sound of cracking rock to echo throughout the room.

The standoff lasted only a few seconds before the referee shouted for us to start.

"Begin!"

"Set up!" Roxanne yelled.

Marill started the strategy we planned ahead of time without me needing to say anything. She concentrated and water formed and condensed around her body. She gained a slight glimmer as Aqua Ring came into effect and started to provide her minor amounts of passive healing.

Graveler, on the opposite side of the field, rubbed its arms on its body as its rocky surface smoothed out. As soon as Rock Polish finished, which made Graveler as close to a perfect sphere as it could, it pulled in its arms and legs as tight as possible and used Defense Curl.

"Perfect, Graveler! Start your Rollout!" Roxanne ordered.

I gave my first command in response.

"Forego Rain Dance. Get in there, stop its movement."

Marill disappeared with a burst of water as Graveler started to roll forward to start its Rollout attack. Marill's Aqua Jet smacked into Graveler and she bounced off after reducing Graveler's initial speed. She landed back on the ground then pushed off to jump at Graveler once more. She spun in the air and used that momentum to slam down with an Aqua Tail into Graveler. With the force of the super-effective tail attack, Graveler's Rollout was stopped before it started, the impact force preventing any more momentum from being built.

Roxanne spoke up next, her initial strategy failed.

"Grab it. Seismic toss."

With its enhanced ability to move from Rock Polish, Graveler's hand shot out from its body and grabbed Marill before she could run away with Aqua Jet.

With surprising force, Graveler jumped into the air and did a backflip, using the momentum from both gravity and its flip to chuck Marill at the ground beneath it as hard as possible.

The impact caused a small dust cloud to puff up, but Marill got back up as Graveler landed next to her. She spat out a bit of water from her mouth before leaning over to get ready to start again.

The correct tactical decision here would have been to have Marill back off and hit Graveler with Bubble Beams from a distance. I did not do that. In fact, I didn't say anything at all. This was Marill's show now.

Graveler held out its arms, readying itself to grab Marill in a pose reminiscent of Sumo Wrestlers.

Marill shot forward with Aqua Jet, but instead of smashing into Graveler's body like last time, she went straight underneath it between its legs.

Graveler missed its grabs as Marill's unexpected position caused it to react too slowly to reach Marill during Aqua Jet. Instead, its four hands dug into the ground and ripped out chunks of stone. The Graveler turned around and used Rock Throw at Marill.

Marill managed to dodge three out of the four Rock Throws, but one scraped her side. Aqua Ring had already partially healed the damage from Seismic Toss, but Graveler's many arms would mean its rapid fire Rock Throw would damage Marill too quickly to heal at a decent rate. I decided it was time to change our strategy.

"Marill, we're going on the offensive." I told her. Her grin immediately became predatory. "Get in close, and never run away. Use its body like a playground."

Marill launched forward and slammed another Aqua Tail into Graveler. It tried to grab her again for a Seismic Toss, but she was already behind it and using Play Rough.

Marill aggressively tore into Graveler's rocky exterior before she was hit and knocked back from a backhand Mega Punch. Without even thinking, she immediately used Aqua Jet to get back onto Graveler to continue her violent attacks.

I essentially had just told Marill to ignore defending herself and go all out. Aqua Ring passively healed her so she could sustain damage while also slowly regaining lost health, which allowed her to reduce her defenses since any damage she took would be healed eventually. Without needing to defend, she could focus more on her attacks and deal more damage in a shorter period of time.

Of course she could be knocked out very easily but it worked well when the enemy was caught off-guard.

Graveler was unable to move much with the tiny blue mouse running all over it and tearing it apart with Aqua Tail and Play Rough. Even if it hit Marill with Mega Punch or Rock Throw, Marill just got back up.

Roxanne recognized that this was a losing battle and that Marill posed a serious threat for the rest of her team. She decided to take drastic measures.

"Get rid of that Marill! Self Destruct!"

Unfortunately for her, Marill was experienced with this move. Back in the Mauville Gym, she was subject to a Voltorb exploding and was dealt enough damage to cause her to be knocked out by the next Pokémon soon after. Not wanting to be taken out of the fight this early, she immediately dashed away with Aqua Jet the second she heard Roxanne's order and saw Graveler glowing.

Graveler released all of its built up energy in a massive shockwave that only barely clipped Marill. Aqua Ring was temporarily pushed back off her body before recondensing over the area it was removed from. Graveler was left unconscious, blackened and smoking, within a small crater on the field. Marill was still standing.

Roxanne recalled Graveler.

"Your Marill is certainly impressive," she commented while reaching for her next Pokémon.

I stood up straighter, proud of my Pokémon.

"Yeah, she's a little monster, but she's my little monster."

Marill also tried to stand tall from the praise but wobbled from the aftermath of taking so much damage. She had used a lot of energy and took several attacks, so it was unlikely she could go much further.

Roxanne sent out her next Pokémon: a purple anemone-like creature that stood on stubby, tentacle-like legs. I recognized it as Lileep, a revived Pokémon whose fossil was most commonly found in Hoenn. I whistled, impressed. Fossil restoration was expensive. Both acquiring and reviving a fossil could cost almost as much as an Eevee.

"Hey ref, I'm switching out Marill," I called out to the referee. She nodded in acknowledgement and Marill disappeared in a flash of red light.

"Challenger Alex, send out your next Pokémon."

I grabbed the Love Ball at my belt and Swablu appeared in the air on the field. Roxanne raised an eyebrow.

"A Flying Type in the Rock Type Gym? You sure are brave. I'm excited to learn what strategies you have planned."

The referee called out to begin and our Pokémon started to move.

Swablu's cloud-like wings emanated a light fog as he was surrounded by Mist. Lileep dug down and Ingrained its legs into the floor while chunks of stone around it glowed purple and began to float in the air. Since Lileep had used Ingrain, it would be unable to move for the rest of the battle in exchange for passive health regeneration as strong as Aqua Ring’s.

Mist would slightly help Swablu dodge ranged attacks, but otherwise not do much else unless Lileep knew a stat-affecting move.

"Swablu, stay at range and pester it with Disarming Voice."

Swablu squawked loudly and a visible pink soundwave shot forward and impacted the stationary Lileep. The floating rocks around the Pokémon shot towards the bird but Swablu easily flew out of the way since he saw them coming from a distance. The flying rocks and purple glow signified that the Lileep was using Ancient Power.

I smiled to myself, thinking it would be easy for Swablu to take out a stationary target even while dodging its ranged attacks. That is, it would have been easy until Roxanne put a time limit on the battle.

"Prioritize wide-range Toxic to get it badly poisoned. Follow up with Amnesia and continuously use it."

Lileep spat out a barrage of tiny toxic globs of poison towards Swablu. There were too many to dodge and while Swablu moved out of the way of most, some still landed on his body. Droplets of toxic sludge now decorated Swablu’s blue feathers and he wobbled midair, suffering from poison.

Lileep’s obscured eyes gained a light blue glow as it started to temporarily forget unnecessary memories in exchange for greater focus to defend itself from special attacks. Swablu only had Disarming Voice as an effective ranged move, so Amnesia drastically limited his damage.

It was unlikely Swablu could faint Lileep before he fainted from poison.

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to use my second switch here so Swablu was stuck on the field. I told him to keep using Disarming Voice as he got weaker and weaker. He wasn't able to approach Lileep either, as the fossil was likely to know Absorb and could sap Swablu's remaining vitality to heal itself.

The battle continued as Swablu screamed its name to use his attacks against Lileep while he also slowly became more and more exhausted from the poison. When it looked like Swablu was on his last legs, I gave him one final order to maximize the damage he dealt before he fainted.

"Full speed, Peck!"

Using the last of his energy, Swablu flew forward as fast as he could while his beak glowed white. Lileep, a naturally slow Pokémon, was unable to react to Swablu's attack despite his exhaustion.

I recalled Swablu as soon as he hit Lileep since the impact combined with the poison caused him to faint.

"Swablu is unable to battle. Challenger, send out your next Pokémon."

I held Swablu's ball in my hand and whispered quiet praise to him.

"You did a good job, you were just dealt a bad hand. Get some rest."

I slotted his Love Ball onto my belt and pulled out my final Pokémon. I threw the Heal Ball and Floette appeared on the field.

Vulpix would have been a good matchup against Lileep, even with the fossil's high special defense. However, Floette was the one who had the ability to turn the entire battle around. Roxanne still had one untouched Pokémon left while I had just sent out my last Pokémon, and my other one was severely damaged.

The battle resumed and both sides moved at once.

Floette sent out a Fairy Wind to hit Lileep while Lileep sent a wide-ranged Toxic towards Floette.

Floette was immediately poisoned, but let loose a puff of pink gas from her flower as Aromatherapy dissolved the tar-like substance sticking to her body to cure herself from poison.

Roxanne frowned.

As Lileep tried to hit Floette with long ranged Ancient Power stones, she was able to easily dodge due to her diminutive size.

With Floette capable of easy dodging and the effective neutralization of Lileep's toxins, it was only a matter of time before Lileep fainted.

And that's how it went for a while. Floette attacked with Fairy Wind while Lileep tried to retaliate with Ancient Power. Eventually, Lileep ran too low on energy to use Ancient Power and Roxanne recalled her Pokémon in a flash of light .

"Lileep isn't able to deal with Floette's ranged attacks anymore,” she explained, “For the sake of time, I've withdrawn Lileep from the battle. There's no sense in keeping her out to get hurt and gain nothing from it."

With the sudden and unexpected "defeat" of Lileep, Roxanne was left with one Pokémon.

That stall-fest went on for far too long. Floette is low on energy herself and probably only has one or two big moves left. I’ll need to use my switch here.

As I contemplated my next moves, Roxanne grabbed a Great Ball and like I expected, a Pokémon signature to her appeared.

Looking like a blue Moai with a bright orange nose, Nosepass rumbled onto the battlefield.

As soon as the referee called out to start, I gave Floette the set of orders I decided on.

"Grassy Terrain and Wish!"

A burst of green energy shot out from Floette as a wave of grass grew from the field in a pulse out from her. Nosepass lifted its arms as several rocks flew out from behind it and smashed into Floette, limiting her movement due to Rock Tomb. Some grassy energy healed her wounds as she clasped her hands and a shining star appeared far above her head.

I shouted at the Referee.

"I'm using my final switch!"

Floette was recalled and Marill was sent out. Immediately the grass started to invigorate her and the Wish started to drift down towards her body. Since Nosepass was at full health, it wasn't benefiting from Grassy Terrain’s healing like Marill was. Marill leaned forward towards Nosepass, ready to fight.

"Begin!"

Following an order from Roxanne, Nosepass started to spark as it charged up an Electric Type attack. Marill waited to move, wanting the Wish to reach her as fast as possible and not delay combat any longer.

Nosepass shot out a Thunder Wave, intending to paralyze Marill, but the grass from Grassy Terrain restored enough of her vitality that she was able to move behind a boulder quick enough to block the attack.

At this point, the star from Wish entered Marill's body and her wounds healed. Her exhaustion was reduced and she took advantage of her restored vitality to reuse Aqua Ring. Nosepass's slow movement speed meant that Marill had enough time to conjure a storm with Rain Dance as well. Now healed up and benefitting from two different sets of passive healing as well as boosts from Rain Dance, Marill dashed forward using Aqua Jet with almost as much energy as she started the battle with.

She crashed into Nosepass and immediately unleashed a barrage of Aqua Tails that were empowered by the rain.

This time, she made a careful effort to dodge and avoid Nosepass's attacks. As beneficial as it was for her attacks if she forwent defense, Marill couldn't afford the loss of health. She was the last battle-capable Pokémon I had. Nosepass tried to use a high-level Electric Type attack that I assumed would have been Discharge, but the onslaught from Marill interrupted its focus and prevented the move from going off properly.

Roxanne gave it the order to not try to use Discharge again and to instead use Spark.

Nosepass's body crackled with electricity and swung its arms at Marill. Marill was able to turn direct hits into glancing blows by twisting her body just right, but when the attacks grazed her skin, the Electric Type damage coursed through her regardless and she took serious damage. The water from the rain and Aqua Ring didn't do her any favors in resisting it, either.

Grassy Terrain and Aqua Ring tried to heal the damage Nosepass dealt to her, but the Rock Type responded to Marill's assault by using Spark several more times. Even if its arms didn't hit her directly, the electricity was able to jump off of its body to hurt her anyway. Eventually, the constant Electric Type barrage was too much and Marill fainted.

But Nosepass didn't beat Marill without a cost.

Nosepass was not looking much better than the fainted Marill. It suffered a massive amount of super effective damage from Marill’s moves that it only managed to stay conscious through due to its high physical defense. The Grassy Terrain had faded in the middle of their exchange, so Nosepass was not receiving the same passive healing effect it had from before. Meanwhile, I still had Floette, who might have been low on energy before, but had rested in her Heal Ball during Marill's assault to restore some of it.

I sent her out and onto the field. Floette had only taken minor damage from Rock Tomb that had already been partially healed from Grassy Terrain before she was switched out, so we had a significant advantage over Nosepass.

The final round began and Roxanne and I both had our idea on how to win.

Nosepass immediately used Flash Cannon, hoping the super effective Steel Type move would faint Floette.

Floette created a preemptive Wish and spun to reduce the power of the Flash Cannon by letting the move slide off of her.

Floette followed it up with Fairy Wind, a weak attack that still hurt Nosepass.

Nosepass braced itself against the ground as the pink fairy dust sparked against its stone body.

Roxanne shouted out an order.

"Last chance! Full power! Lock-on and Zap Cannon!"

Zap Cannon was an extremely powerful Electric Type move that was likely to faint Floette. It was honestly unreasonable to use it in a third Gym Badge Battle. With Lock-On, the move was guaranteed to hit Floette and there was nothing we could do about it.

Wish’s healing star entered Floette's body and she was restored to a perfectly healthy condition.

I racked my mind for options before I smacked myself for my stupidity. Floette had rested enough that she could use stronger moves once again, and I had forgotten that in my focus on her healing utility.

"Floette, use Magical Leaf."

Spinning, glowing razor-sharp leaves popped out of Floette's flower and cut into Nosepass. Its slow build up for Zap Cannon was canceled as the accumulated damage was too much and Nosepass fainted.

“Gym Leader Roxanne is out of usable Pokémon. The victor is the challenger, Alex!”

Internalizing the lesson to never forget my Pokémon’s capabilities, I returned Floette and Roxanne did the same for Nosepass. I walked to the center of the field to shake Roxanne's hand.

"Congratulations on earning the Stone Badge,” she said, “That was a great battle. Not many trainers would make such good use out of utility moves in only their third Gym."

I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment from the praise.

"I figured we had traveled long enough to stop using solely brute force and Type matchups to win. We definitely have improvements to make but I can't ignore the results."

She smiled. "I'll certainly be showing this battle to my students in the Trainer School."

There was a brief pause in the conversation as Roxanne glanced at the two Gym Trainers in the room.

"Say, Alex," she said, "I don't suppose you'd be interested in coming with me to have a private conversation, would you?"

I expected this, but I wasn't happy that she had asked me anyway.

I had been debating whether or not to reveal what I knew for the entire month I was in Rustboro, and I was leaning towards doing so. However, just what specifically I wanted to share hadn't been decided yet, and there was also the fact I didn't know if they would even believe me. I got the sense from Drake that for some completely insane reason the Pokémon League thought that I knew a decent amount about Mega Evolution, which was true to be fair. If I wanted to reveal something, I would probably start with Mega Evolution. I also wanted to have a proper plan of what to say to make sure that whatever I shared wouldn’t cause someone to go after me for my knowledge.

But if I went along with Roxanne, I wouldn’t be going in there with a plan. Without one, I would most likely end up revealing more than I wanted. Considering I already made that mistake with both Steven and Drake, I did not want to do that again.

Plus, the way Roxanne almost forced me into a discussion like Wattson did rubbed me the wrong way. I appreciated the fact she at least asked me, but it still soured any thoughts I had to share at this moment.

"Sorry, I have plans," I lied.

Roxanne visibly slumped in disappointment.

"Ah, that's okay, I suppose. Maybe another time, then."

I shrugged noncommittally and we said our goodbyes after I pocketed the Stone Badge.

I left the Gym in a good mood.

Another Gym Badge earned and an uncomfortable conversation avoided. Things are finally looking up for Alex. Now then, time to heal and use my winnings to treat my Pokémon. I wonder which sweet shop would be the best...