Cee’s comments made it clear that we didn’t need to worry about a time limit when it came to making a decision about his offer for training. If he could find us in Undella Town, then he could find us in Black City, and I did want to head to Black City sooner rather than later. It was a major settlement where competing trainers were gathering.

  However, I was still suspicious of Cee, even as tempting as his offer was. He hadn’t hidden how his expertise lay in analyzing trainers, but we stood to use that expertise to our advantage. Even if his knowledge ended up being theoretical at best, he still had an impressive team that also almost seemed to be a stronger version of mine.

  Black City was located south of Undella, just down Route 14, but we ended up heading directly west, instead. Route 14 tended to be populated with tough trainers that constantly searched out opponents to face, but I didn’t want to deal with frequent battles. I wanted some time to myself to think.

  So, located just to the west of Undella Town was a different kind of challenge:

  Reversal Mountain.

  A half-drowned, half-extinct volcano that served as the passage toward Lentimas Town.

  There were still trainers in Reversal Mountain's Pokémon-carved tunnels—as there were trainers all throughout Unova at this point—but there were fewer of them inside the mountain, and heading through these tunnels had the potential to open up other opportunities for me and my team.

  But really, I just wanted more time to think, and heading west instead of south meant we were taking a much more circuitous path toward Black City.

  “So,” I said, and the sound of my footsteps echoed through these black stone tunnels. The upper passages of Reversal Mountain were damp and filled with pools of water, and cracks in the walls constantly dripped to hint at the flowing streams contained within. “Do we accept Cee’s offer, or do we ignore him? Do we accept his willingness to make us stronger, or do we listen to my gut, acknowledge the guy is creepy, and just move on?”

  Valiant walked at my side, and Liepard was pressed into the shadows near the walls. Both of them served as our layer of defense—and Metang in the air behind us served as our eager layer of offense. Rotom rested in my watch, taking advantage of the electronic to not need to worry about floating along, but even with everyone keeping an eye out for potentially aggressive wild Pokémon, my entire team was carefully listening to the words I said.

  I could not deny that something felt off about Cee, but I also couldn’t deny that doubt mainly came from how suspiciously he dressed. His dedication to Pokémon battles without having a direct interest in battling, himself, made him unique among the many trainers competing in the tournament. Yet, he was a complete unknown, but he was a complete unknown who seemed genuinely interested in making my team stronger.

  Still, he was a bit creepy.

  But for all that I was wary of him, I could tell that I could trust him in this, strangely enough. His offer was a real offer because it came from a place of selfishness; we were guinea pigs to him. We were a willing team and a living opportunity that he could use to prove his hypotheses correct.

  We could rely on his lust for data, but that still required us to put our fate into his hands. However, I knew in my heart that continuing as we were would never let my team reach the heights that we all wanted to reach.

  So, my question regarding Cee hung in the damp air of the tunnel as we walked down the path lit up by Valiant’s glow as well as the light of my tablet. Valiant turned their head to send me a thoughtful look, but they provided no audible, direct response.

  Instead, the answer I got did not come from them. Rather, the first noise I heard came from Liepard, with the feline letting out an amused purr.

  “You think I should take Cee’s offer,” I said, watching the big cat’s tail flick back and forth in what was distinct approval.

  Then, I looked again, and I frowned when I realized what he was really implying.

  “No, wait,” I said, interrupting myself. “You think we should accept Cee’s offer and then ‘betray’ him later on if he really does turn out to be as creepy as we thought.”

  Liepard let out a single, strangely barking laugh—the idea of a potential ‘reverse’ ambush amused him greatly. I couldn’t forget that he enjoyed leaning into his Dark-type. After all, he was a menace in battle due to his skill with shutting down tricks.

  “That’s one vote for yes,” I said, bringing my gaze away from Liepard. “And one vote for ‘maybe’ from Valiant. Anyone else?”

  Glancing at my watch, I checked on Rotom, looking at the tiny ghost listening in from within the screen.

  I expected more hesitation, but the second I put my focus on him, Rotom nodded eagerly. He had seen Cee’s public profile, and given the species that man was familiar with, Rotom wanted to see if there were further improvements to his devices that Cee could provide.

  And, with that quick answer, I looked over my shoulder to check on Metang behind us.

  Metang’s immediate response was obvious; I shouldn’t have expected anything other than a ‘yes’ from a Pokémon so dedicated to getting stronger.

  “Valiant,” I said, looking back to the first Pokémon on my team, the only Pokémon that hadn’t immediately responded with a firm acceptance. “You’re the only one who hasn’t given me a direct answer. We have three votes so far to take this risk, but I’m not going to come to a decision until I hear what you think.”

  Even though I was listening to my Pokémon’s thoughts, as cruel as it sounded, a Pokémon team was not meant to be a democracy. I was a Pokémon trainer; I was meant to be the sole person responsible for making these kinds of decisions. I might have been looking to my team for advice and counsel, but I was their leader who needed to have the best understanding of general knowledge and strategy.

  Ultimately, Pokémon were Pokémon—they tended to be far more trusting than the average human, and there were aspects of human culture that they’d often miss.

  Even with everyone’s votes, I was the final say on all of our decisions as a team, and with three out of four team members wanting to accept Cee’s offer, I was more likely to accept it than I was not.

  But I trusted Valiant. I didn’t want to make any member of my team uncomfortable. If Valiant absolutely did not want to take the risk, then I would turn Cee down. We still had other ways to improve our strength. It’d be rough, but we could potentially do it.

  However, I didn’t know if those other methods would be enough. Would ever be enough. And every alternative method we chased would still carry its risks.

  Walking along in silence, my team eventually found a safe place in these tunnels to temporarily rest. It was a simple bend that’d provide us cover from any hostile passersby. Water dripped from the ceiling to make an inch-deep puddle on one side, and I found the driest spot on the wall to lean against, taking this moment to rest my legs and watch my Pokémon.

  Liepard stuck to the shadows to keep watch, and Rotom zipped away from my wrist to join the Dark-type feline, using his Ghost-type nature to join Liepard in the darkness. Static crackled out from him; he was more focused on being a pest than actually providing his assistance. Liepard batted at him out of annoyance, but it was a feigned emotion. Their back-and-forth was more of a game than an actual fight.

  The only noise around us came from the occasional crackle from Rotom, the sound of dripping water, and the low, muffled noises of wild Pokémon in the distance.

  For once, Valiant was not on guard. They faced the ground, pink eyes dim from being so deep in thought.

  Whether or not we’d take Cee’s offer was not a decision they planned to come to lightly, and I wanted to give Valiant as much time as possible to weigh the pros and cons.

  But a thought came to mind. I found myself speaking up. I had a question that I spoke that I thought could help them break out of the trap that was their own thoughts.

  “Do you think you could beat Cee in a fight?” I asked, almost blurting it out.

  Valiant’s electronic eyes flashed for a blink, and they looked up to lock their gaze with mine.

  They were not wielding their polearm; their blades were still attached to their arms. Valiant had no weapon to hold, but I could still see how their fists gripped at their sides. They wanted so desperately to say that, yes, they could defeat Cee, but I could practically see the memory of just what I had told them was on Cee’s team flash through their eyes.

  Valiant could likely defeat Cee’s Magneton and Magnezone, but Cee would still have the rest of his team. Valiant could earn a few victories, but what about the man’s Klinklang? His Rotom? His Beeheyem?

  His Metagross?

  “You know,” I said, breaking Valiant out of their thoughts again as I continued to watch them, “if we want to get stronger, there is another Pokémon we can fight here. Another Legendary, I mean.”

  Metang had only been idly drifting in place before now, but as I spoke that, his red gaze locked onto me. Liepard and Rotom stopped their game to listen in from the shadows.

  “Honestly, I didn’t even remember it until now. I don’t exactly have a perfect memory of everything that happened in the games. But it’s a pretty common pattern that any volcanic area has this species, and if we go down deep enough, Reversal Mountain becomes filled with magma—which I guess is why people called it Reversal Mountain in the first place.”

  Water dripped around us.

  “Heatran,” I named for my team, and once again, I had captured the attention of all of my Pokémon at once. “It’s a Fire-Steel type. A Legendary Pokémon said to be able to control volcanoes. We’d just need to find a path downward and hunt for it like we hunted for Kyurem. Given enough time, we could challenge it like we challenged Kyurem, and that’d be a pretty good test of our strength, right?”

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  If Valiant could defeat Heatran, then Valiant could defeat the entirety of Cee’s team. And, Valiant wasn’t the only one weighing this option; Metang was already creaking as he rolled his shoulders.

  He needed to have that fight.

  He clenched and loosened his claws. Metang was confident he could win any battle. With us, he had practiced his Psychic techniques, sparred with Valiant, and had even managed to take out Cee’s Magneton. To him, a battle against Heatran was an inevitable victory and would serve as proof of his increased strength.

  “No,” I said, interrupting him. “It wouldn’t be that easy. Heatran can control magma. I’m sorry, Metang, but you’re wrong.”

  Kyurem had been overwhelming. Honestly, compared to it, the improvements that not just Metang had experienced, but our team as a whole had experienced, were altogether minor at best. We might have started our climb through the ranks, but matching the level of power of a Legendary Pokémon was still just a dream.

  And for Metang specifically, he was still yet to catch up with everyone else, and he was still yet to evolve, as well.

  “A Heatran isn’t as strong as Kyurem, but I’m not sure that matters,” I said. “Kyurem barely fought when we went against it, and I have no idea how a Heatran might respond, either. Would we be intruding on its private space? Would it be extremely territorial? Or, would we be lucky again, and challenging it would let us face a Pokémon that carries itself with honor?”

  “Don’t get me wrong,” I continued, “we do have a chance to win this. As powerful as Heatran is, it’s not the strongest Legendary Pokémon around, and facing it would give us a much more reasonable battle than Kyurem, but...”

  I looked away from Metang to return to watching Valiant. I tried to decipher just what they were thinking, but to my stare, they turned away.

  Their hands gripped again, but then they released that.

  Sometimes, it took considering a second offer to be able to make up your mind about the first.

  “Ugh. Yeah,” I groaned. I let out a sigh and brought up an arm to scratch at the side of my head. “It’d be a mistake to fight against Heatran, wouldn’t it? Way too risky, yeah? We still haven’t improved enough after Kyurem. And Heatran might be a bit weaker, but I don’t know what I’d do if one of you fell into a pool of magma.”

  We already knew the level of strength we needed to possess. Right now, a battle against another Legendary Pokémon wouldn’t do much for us. We needed to gather more experience—and safely, at that. As much as Valiant doubted their ability to defeat Cee, Cee was just one guy, and it wouldn’t just be Valiant fighting.

  If he tried to pull anything, we would still have our entire team behind us.

  “So that confirms it, then,” I said, speaking up and pushing off the wall. “We’ll accept Cee’s offer. We’re in agreement; we do need his expertise. We need a way to push ourselves that doesn’t involve extreme risk. Fighting Kyurem was... kind of dumb, but we did it. And we can keep that memory as our goal, but we’ll rely on Cee’s help to develop our strength."

  I looked around, seeing that most of my Pokémon were nodding along, watching me.

  “Cee’s in Black City, but there’s an airport in Lentimas Town we can use to reach him. But before we head over there, I think we should—”

  A sharp noise rang out, and Metang glared.

  With his red eyes locked onto me, his gaze simmered as he let out a low, metallic growl. Soon, however, the blue Pokémon turned away to stare out into the darkness of the Reversal Mountain hallway. Frustration seemed to radiate off of him, and I immediately realized what I’d just done.

  “Oh. I just broke our promise, didn’t I?” I said quietly. “When I caught you, I promised you that we’d fight more Legendary Pokémon, but here I am, passing up our best and quickest chance to have a fight with another one.”

  I hummed as Metang grumbled, and the Steel type stared down the tunnel.

  He did nothing else; acknowledging my mistake was enough for him.

  And something about that caused me to suppress a laugh.

  “No, no!” I said quickly. “I’m not laughing at you, I’m just proud of your progress! Even just a few weeks ago, would you have acted like this? Or would you have just rushed off out of frustration to have some other fight all on your own?”

  Metang blinked at me, and I just grinned. As much as I’d unintentionally gone back on my words here, I hadn’t truly changed any of my plans, and it felt as though Metang was finally starting to understand.

  “Look, I know we might be passing up this chance, but we won’t be passing up every chance. We might not be going after Heatran, but I promise you that we will fight more Legendary Pokémon—just not right now,” I said. “But let me at least make this up to you. What if I make a secondary promise to make sure to use you in our next few fights?”

  Metang had missed the chance to battle against a Gym Leader due to my poor decisions in our match against Marlon. Though Metang’s initial response was to remain turned away, as soon as what I was saying settled in, his eyes began to gleam once more.

  This was not just an offer on my part. This was a discussion.

  In other words, this was an opportunity for him, and his hastily refocused stare was his attempt at negotiation. The stare served as a refusal that told me a promise for a handful of meaningless battles wouldn’t be enough.

  “Alright,” I said in reply, already knowing exactly what Metang wanted. “Then, how about I promise to rely on you as our core attacker for our next big fight?”

  This was not a promise for an immediate battle against a Legendary Pokémon, but this was a promise that represented much more than just that. This was me promising to center our strategy around Metang instead of Valiant, and doing so meant I would have to redouble our training efforts to ensure he would win.

  Looking at him, I didn’t let down my smile, even as Metang’s gaze lingered. Soon, however, he turned away.

  However, this time, it was not a denial. Instead, Metang replied with the slightest of nods.

  “Great!” I said, stepping away from the way. “So we have a plan. More training for Metang, and we need to get through Reversal Mountain to reach Lentimas Town and then Black City. However, if we’re going to accept Cee’s offer...”

  I had wanted to bring this up before Metang interrupted.

  Reversal Mountain represented more than just a destination. Being here opened up a great deal of opportunities for me and my team.

  “If we want to tackle our training more efficiently,” I started, “then we should probably start looking for a fifth member of our team.”

  Having Cee help us train five Pokémon instead of just four was a far better use of our time, especially with only five-or-so months left in the season. We had a massive amount of training to get through to even just start nearing the top, and I honestly didn’t even know what that would entail.

  The sooner we reached the cap of six Pokémon, the better, but we needed to actually find a viable fifth Pokémon, first.

  I might have liked to properly explore Reversal Mountain to search for our fifth team member right away, but traveling through these tunnels didn’t end up being as easy as that. Before now, when we traveled, I had the simple task of either taking a bus, being within the Normal Rank on a mostly empty road, or using the Marine Tube to skip a long route. I couldn’t forget that the World Coronation Series was going on, and traveling through Reversal Mountain was apparently enough of a challenge that a decent number of trainers wanted to experience it for themselves.

  “Hey, you! You’re Great Rank, right? Awesome! Then, I challenge you to a match!”

  “...Can we keep this to a simple, one-on-one battle?” I would ask in reply, already tired from all of the other challenges my team had faced.

  “Nope! And this is an official battle—so you can’t ignore it! We’re gonna do this the proper way: a two-on-two match with both of us using four Pokémon each!”

  At least, the battles we faced ended up being quick.

  As much as I didn’t want to overrely on Valiant, sometimes, especially in dangerous places, battles did need to end quickly. For most opponents that challenged us, all it took was one Electric Terrain, and either Valiant or the overwhelming combination of Rotom and Metang would always end the fight.

  Honestly, Marlon was tougher than most trainers we battled here—in fact, Cee was tougher than everyone we faced in Reversal Mountain. The improvement between the Great Rank and the Normal Rank was less than I had thought, but it wasn’t that these trainers weren’t tough; it was just that most trainers were only aiming to place at the top of the Ultra Rank, whereas my team and I wanted to place at the top of the Master Rank.

  If I had to estimate it, each Great Rank team we faced was roughly equivalent to a group of the Giant Chasm’s Pokémon. Honestly, our success here made me feel better about the general improvements my Pokémon had obtained during that previous, constant push.

  When we weren’t battling a random trainer, we were keeping our eyes out for a new Pokémon to catch. There were a few species around these parts that I was interested in, but traveling toward Lentimas Town meant our search only consisted of keeping watch rather than going through with any dedicated hunt.

  Though not as dangerous as the Giant Chasm, Reversal Mountain was uncomfortably humid. Similar to the effects of the Chasm’s freezing cold, the constant, moist warmth sapped at my team’s stamina, and I didn’t want to stick around for longer than we needed.

  While a Steel-type species like Excadrill or Skarmory was my main goal, for this initial push, I was primarily focused on exiting Reversal Mountain so we could base in Lentimas Town. Once again, I expected to be able to spend each day searching, but we needed to get through these tunnels, and I found that the constant battles here meant we were burning through our healing supplies fast.

  Picking up the pace let us make it out in only a day and a half, but we emerged tired and to the dead of night, with night being when all of the most aggressive Pokémon came out. Thankfully, Reversal Mountain and the areas around it were patrolled by Pokémon Rangers to ensure the most dangerous species stayed away from human territory, but Rotom did have to rely on his ghostly nature to stay awake for us and scare off any wild Pokémon that crept too close.

  The next day, we woke up safely and were able to finish off our push. Early that afternoon, I found myself walking next to Valiant, traveling through Lentimas Town’s dusty streets and passing by its red adobe buildings.

  “I want to catch a fifth Pokémon as soon as possible.” Lentimas was almost as old as Lacunosa, but this place was far less maintained. “We’ll want to meet Cee in Black City the second we can. Not just to have more time to train, but also so we can have access to more modern facilities.”

  Lentimas had an airport. It was a small, somewhat run-down strip located at the back of all of the town’s residences. It was honestly one of the only reasons Lentimas was on the map—before the airport had ever been built, travelers primarily used this place as an off-route pitstop.

  “We might be able to sell Kyurem’s Never-Melt Ice here, but we should probably wait until we’re in Black City,” I said as we searched for the town's Pokémon Center. “We missed our chance to sell it to a rich person in Undella Town, so Black City will probably give us the next best price, but that does mean we need a different way to earn some cash and resupply.”

  We also needed to buy plane tickets, of course.

  When I laid my eyes on the town’s Pokémart, I used all of the earnings we’d won in Reversal Mountain battles to restock on the supplies we’d used so far. I was only just barely able to top us off, and doing so left my wallet bereft of cash.

  Given that we still had a few days until the next check came from Geeta, I turned to something else entirely:

  Pokémon Center jobs.

  “We’ll take a job or two for the cash and experience. And just looking at the jobs should help us learn what species are nearby,” I said to Valiant as we finally found and entered the local Pokémon Center. “We don’t need to take on that many—just enough to buy tickets and earn us some extra funds. No matter what, once the next check comes in, we’ll have enough, but this should help us get some decent experience and let us start searching now instead of waiting.”

  Lentimas Town’s small Pokémon Center already had a handful of trainers sitting in its lobby, with many of them waiting for their Pokémon to be healed. When we walked in, almost all of those trainers turned to eye the strange, unfamiliar species that was the Iron Valiant at my side. However, I didn’t need to worry about being challenged; Pokémon Centers had been declared to be safe places. When the World Coronation Series was first announced, almost all of Unova’s nurses banded together to ensure a certain rule was put in place:

  In absolutely no situation would an official challenge ever be presented or approved within a Pokémon Center.

  Pokémon Centers were meant to be peaceful places for trainers and their teams to recover and relax. They were not meant to be bait for a trainer to walk in and immediately be challenged. Nurses wanted people to go to Pokémon Centers and ensure their Pokémon were in perfect health. They couldn’t have people running away to avoid mandatory fights.

  When creating that rule, they’d even gone and established an official “grace period” of immunity that lasted for as long as the Pokémon Center was in sight. Just like how they didn’t want trainers to be afraid of showing up, they didn’t want trainers to be afraid to leave.

  So, as hungry for battle as these other trainers were, I didn’t need to worry about facing any of them as I strode over to where a corkboard hung on the wall. There, locals had pinned odd jobs open for trainers to take, all of which had been approved by the Pokémon Center’s workers to ensure these jobs weren’t tricks or scams.

  Right away, I could see that not many of the jobs here were that interesting or high-paying. Mostly, they were tasks like helping people lift heavy boxes, scaring off small nests of wild Pokémon, or the classic job of using Ice-type moves to cool down a freezer.

  As I skimmed through the jobs, Valiant stood on guard as usual, and I did my best to find anything that stood out.

  “There’s one to load a plane—maybe we can negotiate discounted tickets if we take that one? And... Interesting. A herd of Numel has been roaming a bit too close to town. That might be a good experience for Metang, but maybe there’s a job here that’ll have us fight a Steel-type we can catch, instead. Alternatively, there’s this job for help at the haunted house to the east of here, and that one’s looking... for...”

  I stopped, blinked, and then read over the description of that job once again.

  “They’re looking for a robotics expert to help with a... Ghost-type problem?” I mumbled, barely able to comprehend what I was saying.

  I turned to check on Valiant, and my statement had been bewildering enough for me to gather their full focus.

  This task almost seemed to be targeted toward me and my team, but unlike how Cee had purposefully searched me out, the listing was nonspecific enough to be an actual coincidence rather than just a “fortunate” encounter.

  This job had been posted in a Pokémon Center with the intention of any viable trainer picking it up. My familiarity with Valiant, Rotom, and Metang was enough to fulfill its requirement, and that requirement meant that the job was offering a decent payment.

  “Alright,” I said. “So this may or may not help with a new capture, but we’re taking it no matter what, right?”

  If not to earn the cash, then just to learn exactly how a robotics expert would be useful at a haunted house.

  And Valiant agreed with a slow, single nod. For once, they weren’t suspicious. Neither of us had ever been to a real haunted house, one filled with Ghost types, and both of us wanted to know just what the job could possibly entail.

  Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:

  Drilbur / /

  Nick’s Team:

  Iron Valiant

  enormous thank you to everyone reading! Your support keeps this story going.