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"You know me?" Nova asked.
Fay's eyes lit up. "My family is from Goldenlight City. The Great schemer himself — Nova!"
Of course.
Ever since Nova had left Luma Gym, the trainers of Goldenlight City he'd outmaneuvered over the years had apparently joined forces, swearing to track him down no matter which corner of the region he turned up in.
"Have we battled before?" Nova asked.
Fay shook her head. "No. I only ever watched from the crowd. There were always too many people lined up, and you only had the one Pokémon, so I never got a turn."
"Then you're not part of that so-called Anti-Schemer Alliance?"
She shook her head again. "I don't care about any of that. I just love battling. When you left Goldenlight City, I thought I'd missed my chance for good." She leaned forward slightly, and the calm in her voice cracked open into something much more earnest. "Running into you here today — Nova, you have no idea. The moment I saw you, I could barely keep it together. Please, send out Nidorino! Show me what you've got!"
Nova thought back to when the group had first arrived at the Gym. The heavyset man from Icefield City, the curly-haired woman, the man with glasses, the serious-faced one who never smiled — he remembered all of them. Fay had been invisible by comparison. Quiet. Unremarkable. The kind of person you'd walk past a hundred times without noticing.
But the second she stepped onto the battlefield, something switched. She was more alive here than anyone else he'd seen all day.
That's what Pokémon battles can do to a person.
"Alright," Nova said. "But if you lose because of your own request, no complaints."
Fay grinned. "If you actually beat me, I might cry — but it'd be from happiness."
Nova reached into the rack and made his choice. "Nidoking, let's go!"
The Drill Pokémon burst onto the field with a thundering roar, striking his fists together. The air around him seemed to sharpen.
Fay's mouth dropped open. "He evolved?! Your Nidorino actually evolved! He's incredible — look at the size of him!" She snapped back to focus almost immediately. "Blastoise, Hydro Pump, now!"
"Nidoking, Psybeam!"
It wasn't Blastoise that Nova was targeting. Water-type moves posed no threat to a Blastoise, and Psybeam wouldn't do much against it directly. Instead, Nidoking aimed the iridescent beam straight at the massive column of water surging across the field.
Psybeam's base power was only half of Hydro Pump's. Even with the boost from Nidoking's Sheer Force ability, it couldn't cancel the attack outright — but it didn't need to. What mattered was the half-second of speed advantage Nidoking had.
The Psybeam struck the leading edge of the water column. The energies collided, the temperature plummeted, and chunks of the surge froze on contact. Ice built upon ice until a jagged wall had formed between the two Pokémon. The Psybeam burned out first. The remaining torrent crashed into the frozen barrier and shattered it — but the impact scattered the flow, breaking apart the concentrated force of the Hydro Pump before it could reach Nidoking.
What hit him was the weakened remnant. Against a Pokémon built like Nidoking, it barely registered.
"Sludge Bomb!"
Dark orbs of toxic sludge launched across the field in a wide spread.
"Blastoise, shoot them down — Hydro Pump!" Fay called without hesitation.
Her Blastoise had clearly put in the training. A move that normally carried only 80% accuracy became a precision intercept system, blasting each Sludge Bomb out of the air before it could land.
Nova hadn't expected the bombs to deal damage directly. That wasn't the point.
The real threat was the poison.
Nidoking's venom was extraordinarily potent — a side effect of his Poison Point ability, elevated further by his Sheer Force. Even with the sludge detonating at range, the toxic haze drifted across the field and reached Blastoise before it could clear.
Blastoise inhaled. A sharp, burning sensation spread through its body almost immediately.
Fay had studied Nova's battles. She knew about his poison-based strategies — the slow, suffocating pressure of Toxic that became more punishing with every passing turn. But she had come here today to challenge Mort Cotterill, not Nova. She hadn't had time to prepare a counter.
If she couldn't stop the poison, she would win before it mattered.
Blastoise braced through the pain, drawing in breath for another Hydro Pump.
But Nidoking was still faster.
"Toxic Spikes!"
A dense stream of purple venom shot from Nidoking's horn, the sticky toxin spreading across Blastoise's underside on contact.
The effect was immediate. Already poisoned, Blastoise absorbed the secondary toxin on top of the first. The two venoms reacted — the pain multiplied sharply, nearly overwhelming Blastoise's senses in an instant.
And yet it fired.
A Trainer's command was a promise. Blastoise had made that promise to Fay, and it intended to keep it — even now. Even if it lost, it would land one more hit. That was its answer to Fay's trust, and its acknowledgment of Nidoking as a worthy opponent.
But Water Spout's mechanics were already working against it.
The move's power scaled with the user's remaining HP. At full health, it was devastating. Below half health, it fell sharply — weaker than a standard Hydro Pump. By the time the attack launched, Blastoise had already crossed that threshold, its HP gutted by the stacked Toxic damage.
The weakened stream arced across the field —
"Thunderbolt!"
The electric blast intercepted the water mid-flight. The current raced back along the conductive stream and struck Blastoise directly.
Venom and electricity. Blastoise had nothing left to absorb either.
It didn't fall. Even at the very end, it pressed its tail against the ground and held itself upright, refusing to let its heavy body drop. But its eyes had already gone dim, and its legs had stopped responding.
It was standing. But the battle was over.
Fay stared at her partner for a long moment. Then she exhaled — slowly, like someone coming up for air.
So that's what it feels like. A real battle.