CH136 (750), Appointment Set

Luna/Clefable was very eager to try out her new talent once she heard its description, so she closed her eyes and began to focus. I hinted that sensing our bond might help trigger her Battle Bond talent, and I was sure that she tried that as well along with some other things. Yet, we waited for a minute, then two, and after three minutes passed without Luna undergoing a Bond/Mega evolution, we saw Luna open her eyes. Her ears drooped a bit and she was obviously disappointed at the failure to trigger her talent. We couldn't have that, so I went up to her and patted her head before telling her that it was fine.

Even if it did not work now, I was confident that it would do so at some point, unless the talent itself was malfunctioning, which I seriously doubted. Luna admitted that she managed to feel the Battle Bond, and that she had even managed to initiate it, but that it powered right back down after starting up. She tried to start the process more than once, but each time the process shut down as soon as it began. It appeared to me that she or rather her body was likely not ready for the Bond/Mega Evolution yet. It could not have been our bond for two reasons. One, I knew for a fact that a deep bond was enough to support a temporary Mega evolution, and two, if our bond had been the problem, the Battle Bond would not have triggered/started at all instead of starting up before discontinuing the process.

Anyway, the others joined in as well and they all made sure to cheer Luna up before we began to discuss when Luna would likely be able to support the Bond/Mega Evolution since we all agreed that the problem most likely lay with her body being too weak to support the process. Some of the younger ones were a bit too optimistic and said that she might be able to do so once she had acclimated to her new stage, but they were the only ones who believed that. They themselves lost confidence in that theory when they saw that no one seemed to share their opinion after which they just laughed awkwardly which caused the others to chuckle.

More sense than that made the proposition that Luna might be able to trigger the Battle Bond once she advanced to the (high) dark gold stage. In fact, this was the most popular opinion, and the final opinion was that it might take her breaking through to the platinum stage for her to actually trigger the Battle Bond. It was not a popular opinion since even those who admitted that this might be the case would prefer it if Luna managed it trigger her Battle Bond talent earlier than that, but it was a valid option that came up. Still, even if that was true, I believed that completing her first round of limit breaking could/would serve as an alternative for that.

Either way, the discussion managed to distract Luna from her earlier disappointment, which I had been hoping for, so after allowing the discussion to go on for nearly 20 minutes I interrupted them and told them that it was time to celebrate Luna's breakthrough before taking out some snacks and drinks. The next morning I left Utopia with the usual group and continued my trip towards Fortree City. The days passed as the distance towards our goal slowly closed, though in this case, the slow speed was entirely on me.

On Kyoday, shortly before the end of the month's first "proper" week, excluding the single day one last Grouday, we got some pleasant news. Not the one we had been waiting for, but still very pleasant nonetheless; Po/Pangoro advanced to the (high) gold stage. Just four days later, on Giratiday of week 3, Melinda/Mienshao followed suit and advanced to the (high) gold stage as well, which gave us another reason to be happy. Not that I needed more reasons to be happy since everything was going well, but good news was still always welcome.

Anyway, it was two days later, on Dialday, that my third thought stream made me aware that the last batch of Pinkan trees had finally fully matured. I had long stopped planting new trees, but from now on all planted trees would be growing Pinkan berries for me. While that might seem like something minor to others since I had been harvesting berries from the previous batches anyway, I disagreed with that and in this case, only my opinion mattered. Since my opinion was that it was nice to see the progress of one's efforts, this counted as noteworthy news as well.

Speaking of Pinkan trees/berries, I was closing in on the quota I had set to start the Pinkan project. We should reach the target in another 3 to 4 weeks, and I was looking forward to seeing how that was going to end up. Personally, I felt giddy at the thought of getting access to a near-unlimited source of Shiny Pokemon, even if those Shinies ended up being pink or at least pinkish. Not that turning some shade of pink was necessarily a bad thing since some Shinies managed to rock that color better than others. I knew for a fact that I would see no problem with offering the results of the project to some of our main members if it ended up being a resounding success.

Manami/Lapras and Freyja/Lopunny were two who I was sure would accept the offer, especially since their Shiny form looked great. I was less sure with Melinda and some of the others, though the boost to their racial value might tempt them into agreeing despite any reluctance they might feel on the matter. Ultimately, the choice would be up to them and I wouldn't force any of them to accept the Pinkan treatment if they didn't want it. I wouldn't disregard the happiness and feeling of the well-being of my Pokemon for a 15% boost to their racial value, especially not if they themselves disregarded it.

Regardless, the maturing of the Pinkan trees did not give me any cause to put a pause on our journey, and once it was time for us to enter Utopia for the night, there were less than 50 kilometers left to Fortree City. Due to that, I still entered Utopia and ate dinner with my Pokemon, but instead of spending the rest of the night there, I left Utopia again once the cleaning that followed dinner was dealt with. I took only Mothra/Butterfree with me since she refused to stay inside. Well, Mothra and Hades/Gengar, who snuck into my shadow before Mothra settled on my head.

Once I was outside, I decided not to rush to Fortree City and jogged there instead. It took me around an hour to arrive at the outer part of the city, and since it was already past 11 p.m. at this point, I debated whether I should try my luck at the Gym to see if I could still register for a Gym Battle or if I should rather try my luck tomorrow instead. Deciding that the Gym personnel was likely going to be friendlier/more helpful tomorrow than now, even if the Gym reception was still open, I chose to leave the registration to tomorrow. Nonetheless, I still made my way towards the Gym to save myself some time tomorrow. Once I made it there, I looked for a secluded spot to enter Utopia, where I spent an hour talking with my Pokemon before I went to sleep.

I saw no reason to rush things the next morning since the Gym was not running away, so I only left Utopia after supervising everyone's morning training. It was close to 11:30 a.m. when I stepped foot into the Fortree City Gym, and thankfully there was nearly no one else lining up in front of the reception. Thanks to that, I got to speak with the receptionist within less than 5 minutes, though it seemed that my luck ended at that point since the earliest challenge appointment I was able to schedule was for the Mewday in two weeks; Well, 11 days actually but if the receptionist said that this was the earliest she could schedule my 3-star challenge, then I would simply have to wait that long to gain my second S-rank Badge.

I actually attempted to register for/request a battle against Winona's real/main team since my research into the Fortree Gym had left me to believe that we could probably beat them, but my request was declined and I was forced to go with the "regular" 3-star challenge. Actually, maybe my confidence in beating Winona's main team was why I got refused in the first place. It was possible that Winona had given prior instructions to refuse any such request from me after I beat Stephanie and gained my first 3-star S-rank Badge. I guess she wanted to avoid becoming the first Major Gym Leader whose main team got beaten by someone in their first year, and once that idea came to my mind I couldn't even blame her for taking such a precaution since I kinda understood that.

It would be embarrassing to lose in such a situation, no matter how impressive the challenger was. Hence, instead of facing her (low) platinum stage Salamance, and Skarmory, along with her (high) dark gold stage Honchkrow, Crobat, Shiny Swellow, as well as Charizard, I was going to face a team made up of only (high) dark gold stage Pokemon. As far as I knew, Winona used the same team for all 3-star challenges regardless of the number of their Badges, so I, and everyone else, knew for sure what I/they was/were going to face. The team consisted of an Altaria, a Togekiss, a Tropius, a Mandibuzz, a Talonflame, and a Staraptor. All in all a pretty balanced flying team; Well, as balanced as a specialized team could be.

In fact, I already had my candidates for the battle against Winona in mind, but as far as the 3 Gym Trainers were concerned, I would try to have Thor/Raichu and Gwen/Gardevoir battle as much as possible before sending someone to sweep things. The Gym Trainers generally used (low) or (mid) dark gold stage Pokemon, so Thor and Gwen had to fight seriously each time, but still had pretty good shots at winning. Nonetheless, with 11 days until the battle, there was a chance that I might change things up depending on how things developed, like if Thor managed to break through to the dark gold stage for example.

Anyway, with the registration complete, I left the Gym and made my way to the park close by that I had seen yesterday. I sat down on a bench and pulled out my phone. I had made the promise that I would share the news when I challenged any of the Major Gyms, so even though I would have preferred to keep things on the low until the Gym Battle was a done deal, I still posted the news in our group chat before writing my parents as well since they were, for obvious reasons, not members of the group chat. Mom called me before anyone had written anything in reply to the news, and I accepted the call to just get it behind me since I knew she would keep calling if I ignored her. Not that I would do that since that would be disrespectful.

The call went on for nearly 15 minutes, and as I had suspected, even though I tried, I failed in convincing Mom as well as Dad to not travel to Fortree City for my Gym Battle. After hanging up, I took a look at the group chat to see if the replies had already come in and saw that there were quite a few of them. In fact, it appeared as if they were currently discussing who wanted to travel to Hoenn to watch my Gym Challenge. 

I told them that I had been on the phone with my Mom before adding that they could speak to her if they wanted to organize a group trip. I had accepted at this point that at least a part of them was going to show up, so I decided that it would be for the best to just direct them to my Mom for the trip planning bit to make things easier for all of us.

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