Rock Raid

Booth spent the next week battling and training to reach tier 2. His training leads to massive improvements, but is still missing the last step that Ben tried to explain to him.

Booth turns on the target machine and gets warmed up with his Pansear. Over the week, his movements with Pansear have become much more natural. Before each attack, he positions and balances himself appropriately. The power in each of his attacks moves through Pansear's body calmly and without waste.

The power flows seamlessly into Pansear's claws and destroys each of the targets. It's after the fourth target that Booth senses a change. He continues and crushes each target up to twenty.

"Huh." Booth checks Pansears condition and is surprised when he doesn't encounter resistance. In Booth's hand, the main Integrator light that indicates connection status has changed color to red. Booth shuts off the Integrator and turns it on again.

The integrator returns to its normal color, but Booth notices he is missing the connection he had before. He turns off the Integrator again and guesses what might have changed.

'Is there another connection?' Booth stops and thinks something makes sense. 'Hmm, this is probably what Ben was trying to tell me about. He's a good trainer, but he's not the best at explaining things. Anyway, this must be a 'link'.'

A few days earlier Ben had achieved the same feat. And after looking around on the internet, he put a name to the connection, a 'link'.

The link is the final step in achieving control over a pokemon. The link is made after sufficiently connecting with a pokemon both physically and mentally. Booth spent the week training with Pansear until he could finally control Pansear well enough to do this.

While a link can take a while to establish in battle, the benefits of it are great. When a link is made, the trainer can finally use special techniques in battle.

Booth turns on his Integrator and tries to replicate his earlier success. This time it doesn't work so quickly. He gets another link a few minutes later after focusing on his exercise.

'It's kind of like finding the right tempo. Once you get it, you can clearly feel the difference. It's a good feeling.'

Booth goes through some other exercises and keeps his link active. He does well in the beginning, but the exercise becomes a bit awkward in the second round. Booth gets a slight headache and his moves become sloppy. The Integrator light flashes from red and yellow as the link grows weaker. The link breaks suddenly and Booth feels a slight pinch in the back of his head.

Booth isn't too surprised by it and looks at the machine's timer.

'About a minute forty. It seems I can keep my link active for a little under two minutes. It doesn't seem bad.' Booth smiles after seeing his time. He takes a small break and continues doing the exercises until lunch.

---

After lunch, Booth is eager to find a partner to battle with. Ben and Damon are busy practicing their new techniques and Booth doesn't want to disturb them. Booth and Emmet have battled a couple of times this week. Booth has established a bit of a rivalry with him after reaching tier 2. Unfortunately, Booth couldn't find him at the Tiered Trainer Center.

'I guess I can go fight some wild pokemon instead. It doesn't really matter who my opponent is, I just need to test my link.'

Booth takes a walk to the forest outside of town. On his way, he has an idea. Booth enters the forest and takes the trail towards Steele Cave. Today, he wanted to check out the mysterious glowing rock from before.

The trail is clear and Booth has an uneventful but pleasant walk. Booth brings out his Pansear to help him find the rock when he thinks he's close. Pansear looks around and leads Booth further up the trail. They travel for a while until Pansear stops and makes a sudden turn.

'Since Pansear can sense it, the rock should be back to how it was before.'

Sure enough, the weird rock is there. An orange glow surrounds the rocky monument making it stand out. And it seems the stone is not unprotected. A Stufful is sitting patiently in front of the rock, guarding it against enemies.

Booth sees that the Stufful isn't absorbing anything from the stone like the Tangela, and chooses to wait a while.

'I've haven't heard anything about these rocks before. But these pokemon go through a lot to get them, so they're probably something good.'

Booth watches for a while longer before making up his mind. Every few minutes the rock shines a bit, and an odd marking on the side of the rock grows brighter. He waits for twenty more minutes, when Stufful starts to get restless.

Booth gets tired of waiting and decides to attack the Stufful. He lets out his Pansear and walks towards the Stufful.

'If I'm going to take the rock anyway, there's no reason to not just beat the Stufful now.' Booth reaches for the Integrator in his pocket and gets ready to battle.

The Integrator's smooth button slides up and a yellow light flickers on to indicate its activation. Booth stares at Stufful through Pansear's eyes and begins the fight.

Pansear runs in and launches the first attack. Booth slashes wildly with Fury Swipes. Stufful is surprised, but not defenseless. It quickly retaliates with a Brutal Swing. Booth strikes the Stufful with his claw, but he encounters a lot of resistance against its fur. Stufful swings around and slams Pansear on its side.

Booth retreats a bit and makes a guess at his opponent's ability. Most likely the Stufful's ability is Fluffy. The ability is able to reduce physical damage, and it seems to slow down Booth's Fury Swipes too.

He already understands Stufful's ability, but he wants to activate his link quickly for testing. From what he's found so far he has the most success in activating it up close in battle.

Stufful surges with power as it chases Pansear. Stufful's arm collects power and expands to use Strength. Booth tackles Stufful before it can unleash its Strength.

'It's getting a little too eager to finish this fight. It must really want that rock. Well it's good for me.'

Booth gets into the battle and finds his link. His senses become more responsive. He checks the Stufful and discovers it hasn't given up yet. Stufful breaks free and socks him in the stomach.

Booth's face twists and he finds that the pain he feels increases a little when in a link. Booth controls his power and shoots an Incinerate at Stufful. He feels a warm feeling flow to his palms as he prepares the fireballs.

Two fireballs expand in the air and cause the Stufful to panic. Stufful uses Endure to withstand the intense flames. The fire swallows Stufful and leaves harsh burns across Stufful's arms and head. Endure's power stops the fire from spreading across its fur and helps Stufful reduce some of Incinerate's power.

Booth applauds Stufful's quick thinking in his mind. 'It was a good move, but unfortunately it used its power too fast. I can definitely knock it out now.'

Booth scythes the Stufful with a Fury Swipes. Stufful's Fluffy is no match this time, as Stufful suffers under the sharp claws and faints.

Booth looks at the fainted Stufful and decides to move it under the shade of a tree to get it out of the way.

Booth still has his Integrator on as he approaches the rock. He looks at the rock and checks the marking on the side. He touches the rock with his hand, but gets no response. He doesn't get frustrated and uses Pansear to inspect it instead.

As soon as he makes contact with the rock through Pansear, Booth shares its experience. Booth's eyes widen as he quickly retracts his hand. The Integrator light briefly turns from green back to red.

'What was that?' Booth disengages his link to rest his mind. 'It was only for a brief moment, but something entered my head. It seems like my link with Pansear allowed me to interact with the rock. The Integrator reacted as well, so at the very least, this is a known function.'

Booth resolves to try his luck after a quick break. When Booth is done, he gets up and activates his link. He reaches for the rock a second time with Pansear and tries to make sense of the phenomenon.

After about a minute, the glow starts to grow fainter. At this point Booth gets a clue on what is happening.

'The stone gives the pokemon that come in contact with it an understanding of some kind of technique. Since I'm linked with Pansear, I'm able to gain an understanding of the technique as well. It's pretty exciting, I just hope it will be something useful.' Booth eagerly waits for the rest of the stone monuments gift.

The process finishes a little while later and the glow disappears completely from the stone. Booth is surprised as he identifies the purpose of the technique.

"It's a grappling technique!" Booth says half excited and half worried. While he admired the grappling skills of different trainers in the tournament, because he found them impractical to learn he never gave them a second thought.

Booth isn't one to turn down a free gift, and seriously reviews the technique in his head. When he's done he turns off his Integrator.

Booth is more than satisfied with the technique. He smiles, and changes his plans for the next few days. He finds the trail, and cheerfully plans to return the favor for the most recent battle he lost to Emmet.