Ch.36

Walking outside to the backyard, I can see an endless expanse of nature. There even appear to be different manmade bios set up across his backyard, with a miniature mountain in the back that had a snowy peak. To say I was stunned was an understatement, as I stood there seeing all this with herds of Pokémon wandering around. 

"Don't worry these Pokémon wandering around won't bother you unless you bother them. They are still considered wild but live on my property and under my protection, in return, I can run my tests on them. This place has helped push our knowledge of Pokémon very far," Professor Oak says as we walk over to a huge building three stories tall that appears to be in the center of this huge expanse. 

"Climb in," Professor Oak says as we get into what looks like an off-road version of a golf cart. 

"The drive there is half an hour, so you can imagine how long it would take to walk around. This property expands about one hundred miles (161 km) in all directions," Professor Oak says making me realize that this place takes up even more space than I realize. 

'Guess that explains why his hometown is still just a town and not a city. The man owns most of the area,' I think as we pass by all sorts of Pokémon, even ones not native to this region. 

"Here is my research area, of course, there are other researchers here. They also live here, but they work for the league directly. I'm given much more freedom, though I have to let them work here or else I couldn't afford to keep this place running," Professor Oak says as we park near the entrance and walk inside to see several dozen other researchers walking around. 

There even appear to be Pokémon Trainers acting as guards and security for this place. The staff all stopped what they were doing to greet Professor Oak, who just nodded his head at them as we kept walking. We then took the elevator to the top floor which appeared to be Professor Oak's laboratory. The whole floor was for him, though there also appeared to be a basement. So the other floors must be for the staff I imagine. 

The top floor was one open expanse with nothing but glass walls which allowed us to overlook everything from this vantage point. There were even expensive-looking telescopes placed in several locations along the glass walls. In the center of the room was a large semicircle desk that Professor Oak sat at, with all sorts of equipment littering the room. Things that would make many other researchers wet their pants in jealousy. 

"If you would, please call out Annihilape and Leo. You can even call out Piloswine, though I won't be running tests on him," Professor Oak says to me taking a seat at his desk and grabbing some things. 

"Sure," I say then toss out my three Poké balls with all three of my team members appearing. 

They each looked around inspecting their new environment. Annihilape looked unimpressed with his emotionless face. Leo appeared disinterested too with his stoic demeanor. While Piloswine looked around with interest sniffing around the area, then quickly losing interest smelling nothing he cared for. 

"Ok, you two, if you would follow me," Professor Oak says gesturing to Leo and Annihilape. 

Over the next few hours, Professor Oak performs his tests for the day. He does have food sent up for all of us taking a break at noon. Then Piloswine and I take our leave to explore the ground while Leo and Annihilape stay behind. I asked Professor Oak if we could train here and battle some of the Pokémon. He said that was fine if the Pokémon agreed to it, plus I'd have to heal them up afterward too. 

After lunch Piloswine and I wandered the large expanse of his personal property challenging any Pokémon that would expect our challenge. Then I met him back at the lab around five in the afternoon. From there we would head back to his home eat dinner and spend the night. His wife's cooking was like a five-star restaurant, it was amazing.

That time flew by, at least for Piloswine and me as this place was huge. We even explored the mini mountain where Piloswine thrived meeting some of his fellow members of his species. During this time each of my Pokémon finished absorbing their items spiking each of their stats. With Leo and Piloswine maxing out their stats, well for Piloswine until his next evolution. 

"Ok, Piloswine… I'm gonna remove the Everstone and you should be able to evolve. Are you ready?" I say to Piloswine after dropping off Leo and Annihilape, we've been here now for three weeks. Next week Giovani would be coming for my last gym battle. 

Piloswine nodded his head with an excited look on his face. I then removed the large necklace/belt I made for the Everstone which was a one-size-fits-all necklace/belt. With a large glowing light surrounding Piloswine, he began his final evolution. I watched on with an excited smile for the next minute until the bright light died down revealing a huge Pokémon that was even taller than Leo. 

Mamoswine finally appeared with a loud cry showing his happiness at reaching his final evolution. I checked the changes and like usual his stats reset and he learned two new moves, Earthquake and Heavy Slam. It seems my luck is still high as his potential increased one last time, though not as much as Primeape to Annihilape. Though now Mamoswine is a Blue Ranked potential, one under Leo and two under Annihilape. 

'With the next item for Mamoswine, he should max out his stats… and we can even maybe get him to King Ranked too,' I think after checking his changes. 

"We have one more week to get you to your Rank cap. Then after getting your next item from Professor Oak that should be the last push you need to breach King Rank," I say to Mamoswine who nods his head seriously now that he is done celebrating his evolution. 

We then spend the next week training heavily to get him to level sixty, before the gym battle with Giovani. We succeeded in doing this as we spent most of our time in the mini mountain letting him challenge the other Mamoswine. On the last day we would spend here, Giovani showed up around nine in the morning. By this time I was ready and so was my team. Professor Oak also seemed to run all the tests he wanted to on both Leo and Annihilape. 

"I will act as the referee," Professor Oak says as we follow him to an open area outside. However, due to the weird situation, the battle is not recorded or has any audience other than the few researchers who heard of the coming battle. Plus there was Cherry Oak who seemed to be cheering for me, it seems she has come to see me as a grandson always doting on me. 

"You can do it, Lucas!" Cherry says cheering me on. 

"Ok you two, send out your first Pokémon," Professor Oak says gesturing for us to begin. 

"Time to show how far you've come Mamoswine," I say as Mamoswine walks out into the open field. As Annihilape is hiding in my shadow which he does now all the time and Leo sitting next to me watching this all with his stoic face. 

Giovanni sends out his Rhydon which appears to be a Duke Rank like Mamoswine, making this a fairly equal fight. Though Rhydon is large, Mamoswine is still towering over him looking at Rhydon with a serious face. Rhydon stares back with the same serious face as the tension in the air rises. 

"Begin already!" Professor Oak says seeing this staring contest. 

"Mamoswine you know what to do!" I say with Mamoswine using Amnesia and Mist right after my command. 

"Rhydon, break him," Giovanni says in his monotone and deep voice. 

Rhydon then charges Mamoswine who was just finishing starting his power-ups. Mamoswine used his tusk to block the Hammer Arm blow which cracked his tusk in the process but negated the attack. Ryhdon didn't wait and followed up with another Hammer Arm. 

Mamoswine finally finished his buffing moves but had to block the attack again. However, this time the tusk shattered after blocking the second attack. Thankfully he can regrow the tusk very easily, but he will have to wait until after the battle. Mamoswine seeing his one tusk shattered became very pissed off and used Tackle to smash into Ryhdon pushing him back a few feet. 

'Mamoswine, charge down Ryhdon,' I say through our connection. 

Mamoswine then charges up his Highorse power, while Rhydon charges Mamoswine again with another Hammer Arm charged up. Though Mamoswine meets the charge head-on smashes into the charging Rhydon. As Mamoswine smashes into Rhydon who cries out, Rhydon still manages to land his strike onto Mamoswine who grunts in pain from the strike. 

'Mamoswine, use Earthquake. Then follow up with a Blizzard,' I say as Mamoswine begins charging his Ground Type energy. 

"Rhydon, switch it up," Giovanni says as Rhydon begins charging up his Rock Type energy.

The two finish at the same time, with Mamoswine rearing up and smashing onto the ground causing a massive earthquake speed toward Rhydon. Just as Mamoswine smashed onto the ground Rhydon released a volley of large spear-shaped rocks toward Mamoswine. 

Mamoswine tried to turn his body to use his thick fur and fat to tank the damage but was not quick enough as one of the rocks smashed into his head. Mamoswine stumbled back a few feet crying in pain from the strike, which worsened as the few other rocks crashed into him next. 

At the same time, Ryhdon felt the wave of systemic energy smash into his body and wreak havoc on his insides. Making him fall to his knees crying out in pain as the energy made it appear to have caused some heavy internal injuries. Rhydon then struggled to stand while spitting out some blood from his mouth with more dripping down his chin. 

We could see Mamoswine bleeding as well, with one of the spear-shaped rocks embedded in his shoulder. With blood flowing from this wound, though Mamoswine powered through the pain and released a huge blizzard that swept through the battlefield. Thankfully everyone was not close enough to be hurt by this either. 

We all heard the cry from Rhydon as the Blizzard swept past him, then as the storm died down. We saw a collapsed Rhydon who appeared to have even some frostbite damage. Giovanni withdrew his Rhydon without a word and sent his next Pokémon in without waiting for Professor Oak to announce anything. 

"Yeah, Rhydon lost and you can send out your next Pokémon. No patience huh!" Professor Oak says seeing this and Giovanni gives him a shrug. 

"I figured we didn't need to follow the procedures since it is not aired and we all know how this goes," Giovanni says in response. 

"Whatever, just start already!" Professor Oak says while grumbling. 

The Pokémon that Giovanni sent out was a large purple-colored Pokémon that we faced before at Koga's gym. It was a large heavily armored Nidoking with this one looking more for brawling at hand-to-hand combat versus the one at Koga who was more tanky and special move type user. 

Mamoswine grunted as he flicked the rock from his shoulder and the wound bled a bit more before stopping. Then the two Pokémon moved to attack one another.