“Huh? But- that wasn’t for nothing! That was an awesome battle and it happened because of all the hard work we both put in!”
The former snowboarder didn’t seem convinced. “I was utterly crushed, just a speck on the mountain before your might.”
“If I hadn’t recognized that Perish Song strategy, it would have been quite close.” That’s a slight exaggeration on my part, Miles would be more than enough to take on Beartic and Frosmoth, even if they hadn’t been hurt beforehand in the battle, but still. Grusha looked unconvinced and I sighed heavily. “A Gym Leader job isn’t to win, it’s to help teach Trainers, you know?”
The competitive man that he was, Grusha was unconvinced by my argument. “Teach them by pushing them. How was I able to push you during that fight? What did you learn?” I resisted the urge to groan. This is supposed to be the easy part of battles. Accepting my medal and moving on.
“Well, it taught me not to rely on Trick Room so much.” My words were a half truth - I had learned that in part from my battle with Brassius, the fight with Grusha just hammered the lesson home as more than a fluke.
Not that the Gym Leader in question seemed to understand, furrowing his delicate brows. “What do you mean? You timed that weird Move perfectly, like you knew every ridge of the slope you were riding.” Do all Gym Leaders have like, a contractual obligation to tie anything they talk about into whatever their other job/passion is?
“Eheh, well, the praise is nice, and I have practiced hard, but that's part of the problem. Even knowing the Move and using it well, it still locked me out of other options. There were a bunch of Moves that I couldn’t use with Trick Room active, and some of the ones like Curse, ended up turning against me after it stopped. I would have had to use my final switch on Dun pretty soon after it stopped even without your Perish Song because of that.”
He seemed to consider my words a little more after that, so I decided to press further, trying to hammer home the real message. “More than anything though, did you have fun with the battle? Did it invigorate your passions, make you feel that drive to win?” Did it help mend the hole left in your heart by the loss of your old career?
Grusha stared at me for a long minute before turning away and saying, “I want to fight you again sometime, so I guess it did.”
I pumped my fist in the air before asking, “Oh, one more thing? Can my parents post a video of the battle?” I asked giving him my best puppy-dog eyes as he turned back to glance at me. “I want to advertise for them, like Miles’ new Form.”
He sighed before nodding his head. "So uncool. Don’t usually do those things but… special exception. Oh, and before you go,” he tossed me a small, glittering metal object which I caught in my gloved hands. “You earned it.”
Proudly, I held the badge up to the light, the snowflake symbol shining within the brass circle. Awesome.
Caught up as I was with that, and my parents coming over to congratulate me, I almost missed it when Grusha whispered “Thank you.” Though quiet, his words were as sincere and heartfelt as I had ever heard from him. The Gym Leader didn’t turn back to face me, but I smiled broadly at him as my parents hugged me. I’ll never be able to tell if what I did made a difference, but I’m hopeful that this improved things. Maybe got him out of his funk after his accident just a little bit faster and made his new life a little brighter than it would have been otherwise. That I made a positive impact on this world.
***
After taking my team to the Pokemon Center, we headed back to my parent’s hotel room. There I was treated to even more gushing over the battle (enough to make even a battle enthusiast like myself blush), and got to give me team some extra attention for their performance… or in the case of Pokemon like Nightwing and Phantasm, to make up for the fact that I hadn’t used them in the battle.
Luxury was limited up here, and even in the penthouse suite, it was actually a little cramped with my entire team out alongside my parents. They kept a good mood however, despite it being only very fancy, and thus not up to their usual standards, commenting on how ‘homey and quaint’ the room was. They also joined in eagerly with my team, helping me with stuff like applying the scale polish to Dun and helping sharpen Bahamut’s tusks.
“Oh, your fur is so soft and cool!” O’Nare cooed as she ran a brush through Phantasm’s mane. “I wonder if this could be used to make summertime scarves…?” She muttered, to Dad’s delight.
“Ah, how incredibly Glitterati, to consider such a fashionable and innovative idea!” Billy exclaimed.
“Hate to burst your bubble, but unfortunately the fur loses its chill once it falls off of her.” To say nothing of the fact that she’s a one-of-a-kind Zoroark and could hardly make enough fur to revolutionize the fashion industry.
Despite that, Mom took it in good cheer. “A shame that we won’t be able to have everyone look as gorgeous as you, dear.”
[‘It is my curse to bear,’] Phantasm replied, earning a shocked clap from my parents. This is nice. Everyone is happy here and it’s such a calm moment. This is why I always back out of telling them the deeper truths about myself. But even if I can keep the isekai stuff secret, that those memories only affect me, the other stuff I really do have to tell them.
So, with a heavy sigh, I began. “Hey Mom, Dad, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about. A couple things, actually.”
They took notice of my serious shift in tone, the way I sat up straighter on the plush bed. Billy and O’Nare didn’t react much, just a quick glance shared between them that communicated something even I couldn’t decipher, and that I bet most people never would have noticed.
“What is it honey?” Billy asked, just a touch softer than he usually was.
“Well, first off, I need to thank you guys. So, so, sooooo much. I’ve done the math and you two have poured tons of money into my training. At Pokemon, but also into my other projects, like Martial Arts and Music. And I… haven’t given anything back.”
“Oh Nims, a child shouldn’t have to pay their parents back for raising them. Every moment seeing you shine is a delight!”
That’s very sweet, but… “Maybe, but I know what I’ve asked for has been a lot more expensive than what Cyan gets. And I’ve been getting more carefree about it. Look at my album; you guys funded the whole project, all the advertising, all the guest artists, everything! While I demanded that none of the money went to yo- to our family and that all the proceeds had to be donated. I feel like a -” Like a leech, but that’s not a reference you’ll get.
Luckily I didn’t have to come up with a metaphor as Dad understood my meaning and practically burst into tears. “So considerate! True Glitterati generosity shinning through. But you don’t need to worry my girl, we uhm-” he actually paused, appearing nervous for a moment. “We’ve been making almost as much off of your album as if we had been selling your music for profit.”
“Huh? How does that work?”
Mom idly twirled part of her hair. “I happen to know a great deal of tax codes and tricks. With the number of charities you cleared as good, I’ve been funneling the proceeds in certain percentages to get the greatest tax credits as we could so… your music has indeed helped us. It’s projected to be almost neutral to our net worth overall.”
Part of me questioned that. How accurate are those projections and how much of a difference is ‘almost’? The projections might shift after my five-minutes of fame from the Gym Challenge end, and my parents view money in large amounts. Almost could be a couple of thousand or a couple of million Pokedollars apart.
Still, I was mollified to hear that my vanity project hadn’t been quite as big a drain on their finances as I had assumed. “That’s good to hear. However, it still says I’ve been careless with your money that I just didn’t notice these things before. Worst of all though? I still need your support to be the best Trainer I can be.” I said as I turned to stare at all the amazing, incredible Pokemon on my team.
“But!” I shot an index finger up in the air dramatically. “I’m going to start trying to make sure I pay you two back, at least a little bit. So that account you had set up to give me all the proceeds for the sales of the new Rotom Forms?” I said, bringing my finger down and pointing it at my Father. “Cancel it! You guys take all the money from that.”
“What?! Now see here-” Billy began before I cut him off with an ‘X’ cross of my arms.
“Nope! That’s just the bare beginning of making up for everything you’ve put into bolstering my team.”
“Where did you even learn about that? We hadn't told you about that account yet,” O’Nare narrowed her eyes, and I winced slightly. Mom’s super sharp when she wants to be.
“Eh, well, things get mentioned in the Rotom R&D group chat,” I said vaguely. Unfortunately my Dad was on-the-ball as well, immediately gasping.
“Emil,” Billy hissed. “He’s the only one who knew about that fund.” I sent a silent apology towards the director of the R&D group, hoping I hadn’t gotten him in too much trouble.
“Anyway, that was just one thing I wanted to talk to you two about. The other thing… is something I should have told you a while ago. Please don’t be mad.”
“Oh honey, we could never be mad at y-”
“I kinda got attacked by poachers early on the journey and never told you,” I blurted out. In the background I heard several of my Pokemon facepalm or do the equivalent at my actions. Ok, not my smoothest moment ever.
“-What!” O’Nare screeched. “How could you hide something like that from us?!”
“So un-Glitterati!” Billy added.
“I didn’t want you two to worry,” I tried yelling overtop of them. Noticing some members of my team getting agitated in response to how us humans were acting, I returned most of them, leaving only Miles out, knowing they’d always be a solid voice of reason.
“Look, just- can I explain what happened?” My parents agreed, and I walked them through what went on, thankfully with no further interruptions. The poacher incident was hardly something they were happy to hear about, but they at least seemed to understand the situation and my actions after the fact. The Raifort incident afterwards though…
“Why did you do something so- so- so-” O’Nare seemed at a loss for words after I finished. “So dangerous?
“I got caught up in the heat of the moment. And I was the only one able to see her and react fast enough!” As many mistakes as I made there, I do believe she would have gotten access to the vault if I hadn’t chased her down.
“To let a criminal run around for months, wanting to chase you down and not tell us? I can’t believe how irresponsible that is!” Billy said, my father actually looking truly upset for once. “You never behave like that.”
“Yeah, I don’t. Because Raifort isn’t interested in me. Haven’t seen hind nor hair of her since she ran away. Not that I’ve been looking for trouble!” I tacked onto the end, hoping that would calm her down.
“We need to make sure she’s stopped,” O’Nare said, not listening to me as she whipped out her phone.
“Indeed my dear,” Billy said distractedly, thinking intently about his own contacts. “We can’t let her get to our daughter again.”
“Wait!” I shouted, slightly louder than I intended, though it did at least get them to stop. “Look, I’ll be as happy as anyone if she gets caught. But isn’t that something to leave to the League? If you aren’t careful with the pressure you apply and Raifort catches wind of that then she might really be after me.”
Billy scoffed. “She won’t be able to hurt you at home, we’ll up security-”
“Uh no? No, I’m not going back home.” I interrupted.
O’Nare gave me a sympathetic look and knelt down in front of me, grasping my hands with her own. “Honey, this is for your own protection. We know you wanted to go out early, but wouldn’t it be better if you just waited a few years-” I pulled away from her grip. I can’t let my journey end here! I haven’t become Champion, I’m nowhere near where I need to be to stop Turo, or do so much else.
“Maybe I got a little scared down in those tunnels, but I’m not weak! I can handle the journey. So many people believe in me, I’ve earned respect from Champions and Elite Four alike.”
Billy shook his head. “I don’t know what that man was thinking. Hassel seemed like such a good tutor but clearly he’s not thinking straight if he’s encouraging you to face this danger.”
“Actually he told me off for the poacher thing too and not to get in any more trouble too,” I mumbled before speaking up. “But he also trusted me to handle myself and that I could go on my journey just fine. He and Miguel actually believe in me!” So why can’t you? Went unspoken.
“Nemona dear, you’re just a child, it’s too dangerous for you to fight poachers.”
“And it wasn’t too dangerous for Dad?” I said, waving an arm out wildly at him. “He fought those poacher back when I was in the tournament, and he didn’t even have any Pokemon. I have enough firepower on my team to wipe a city off the maps!” That seemed to shock even my parents into silence.
“Not that I’m saying I would,” I clarified. “Just that I’m better defended than either of you.” A different silence settled between us, one where I could clearly see the hurt on their faces. Oof. I didn’t mean to- well, it is the truth but-
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
After a minute where all of us struggled to say anything on the matter, I stood up, motioning for Miles to return to my pocket. “I’m going out for a walk.”
“Nemona!” O’Nare cried out, a hand reaching out to me as if she was going to lose me forever if I stepped out the door.
“I’m fine, O- Mom. I’ll have Miles with me so you can call me whenever and I’m not gonna go anywhere dangerous. Just, thought it might be good to clear my head and for us to have a break. Ok?” Slowly, she and Billy nodded and I left the room with a sigh.
Once we got outside, I released Dun and began trudging a short ways up the mountain path. “So, that probably could have gone better.”
“Du Du.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, obviously. Should I have just sent them a message earlier to let them get over the initial shock of it on their own? But that might have just led to them digging their heels and refusing to budge on the notion of canceling my journey.” The idea still rankled at me. Beyond the need for it to deal with future problems, it’s just… so demeaning for them to think they can just end my journey.
Distracted as I was by my thoughts, I almost missed a woman standing on the edge of the path, looking down over the mountain. Doing a double-take, I took her in more carefully. She was dressed in thick winter gear, stylized with figures that looked like Legendary Pokemon on her jacket and pants. She was a little on the short side for a grown woman, with wild dark-blue hair that felt familiar.
The moment my gaze locked onto her, she snapped her focus to me, giving me a bemused smile. “I suppose I’m slipping if you noticed my presence. Or perhaps that’s to be expected, given who you are.”
“I’m sorry, do we know each other?” I asked, stepping forward slightly to converse better. Something about her felt potentially dangerous, even if I couldn’t pick up on any malice sent my way.
“I know of you, at least, but no, we’ve never met.”
Pieces clicked in my head and I nodded. “Suppose that’s fair. I know of you too, Martha Bitterleaf. What brings the Dark Type specialist of the Elite Four here? Not me, I hope, that’d come off a bit stalkerish,” I said with a chuckle to indicate I was joking. She just smiled wider and I shivered.
“Ha… No, I don’t think you’re here for me. Grusha, maybe? Here to check out what your old haunt is like?” I guessed. She used to be a Gym Leader too, before she stepped aside to ‘focus further on her Elite Four duties.'
“A good guess, but no. That young man will have to manage on his own merits. I’m here for a different purpose.” She turned trudging through the ice and snow, cutting her own path along the mountain. As she went, I saw her occasionally dropping small dark stones from her pocket into the snow.
My curiosity piqued, I followed after her. “Mind if I ask you what that is all about?” I said as I marched after her.
She made a ‘hmm’ sound before agreeing. “That’s fine, if I can ask you a question of my own.”
“Sure.” Might not answer it, but you can ask whatever it is.
Martha held up one of the rocks, letting me see it, the light almost absorbed into it and not reflected. “These are, let’s call them ‘Void Stones.’ An odd little thing that can be slightly disturbing to those who wander the Distortion World.”
Turning back, she looked at me with those gray, fathomless eyes of hers and explained. “My job as Gym Leader is done, but I had other duties on this mountain beyond whipping younguns like yourself into shape.” I snorted, feeling my hand itching down towards my belt. Don’t think now is the right time or place to challenge an Elite Four, even if it is a tempting thought.
“Why this mountain? Or do you do this for other places around Paldea too?”
She shook her head, turning back to the task at hand. “Glaseado Mountain is a nexus for many lost souls that have wandered throughout the ages of Paldea. Little rituals like this help keep the spirits calm.”
Interesting. Paldea has its fair share of blood and warfare, so it makes sense that there would be some of that. And Ghost Types are fairly common even in places like South Province, which have historically been fairly peaceful, albeit with mostly just Ghastlys and Misdreaveuses, nothing too aggressive. Part of me wondered if Martha did these rituals in other spots around Paldea. She was rumored to have captured three different Spiritombs from across the land, an impressive feat for any level of Trainer.
“Now, I believe I had a question for you.” She said, turning around brightly to face me. Something about that smile worries me.
“Okay…” I said tentatively, only slightly worried at being all alone on the mountainside with the scary Dark Type Trainer. Then her smile became a lot sadder and she opened her mouth.
“If you could, try not to hurt my daughter too much if you run into her.” Ah, that’s why she seems familiar.
“Sorry, I really can’t promise anything. But I’m really not planning on running into her any time soon.” Then an idea hit me. “Hey, could I get your number? If I do see her, I’ll leave and call you.” Mostly to try and reassure my parents that I’m not looking for trouble, but the idea of calling Raifort’s mom down on her is just too funny not to do.
The Elite Four member smirked but agreed, Miles exchanging numbers with her Rotom Phone. With a wave, I started back towards the hotel, trudging through the snow.
***
Things were awkward when I got back. My parents were both sitting down nervously on the bed, unusually subdued. “Alright so, I wanted to say-”
“We’re so sorry! Don’t leave us all alone as you adventure the world and never sending us even a postcard!” They cried in unison.
“Gah-! What? No, that’s not going to happen. Also, who even uses postcards these days? I’ll just call or text you guys.” I took a breath, recentering myself. “And I’m not going to be leaving forever, even if I want to continue my journey and probably have more journeys after I’m finished at Blueberry. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be leaving home or not talking to you forever. I… I love you.”
I really do. Scary sometimes how much I do. Almost enough that I’m tempted to be selfish and let things run their canon course… but not quite. I’ve already changed things, so stopping here would just leave things worse, and even if not, I couldn’t live with myself knowing something bad was going to happen and that I could have done something to stop it but didn’t.
Still, there were some worries I could put to rest. “I also want to reassure you that I’m not going to run into danger. If I see Raifort, I’ll disengage and call Martha Bitterleaf, of the Elite Four.”
O’Nare got up and instantly wrapped me in a hug. “Oh, I’m so relieved to hear that dear. Though… when did you get in contact with her?” She asked after a moment.
“I met her on the walk I just went on,” I admitted, earning a flash of incredulous looks from my parents.
They quickly smoothed out as Billy said, “That’s our girl, forging connections easily, true Glitterati networking!” Yeah, don’t think that’s it, I suck at hobnobbing at parties and the like. I just have crazy weird luck.
He also joined in on the hug, so I had to endure it for a moment before eventually squirming out. “So, we’re all good with me continuing my journey and stuff?”
“Of course,” Mom clapped delightedly. “It can be so odd how mature you can be and so impulsive at other times.”
“Yeah, yeah, I shouldn’t have chased after Raifort.” Maybe I helped things there, but I was putting myself at risk. That being said… “If someone is in danger, I will try to help though,” I stated firmly. “Just, trust that I can handle things?”
A pair of bittersweet looks hit me before Dad sighed heavily. “I never realized the Glitterati kindness could be such a curse.”
“Hey, I’ll be fine, I promise.” Whether or not I can keep that promise remains to be seen.
Billy nodded. “I know you will. And we want you to know you can count on us too, which is why your mother and I have talked it over and decided…”
“We’re both getting Pokemon!” O’Nare finished for him.
“Oh, wow. I mean, you know that I know that I can count on you two, right? You don’t need a Pokemon for that and I’m sorry if it seemed like I implied that earlier. Not that I’m against you two getting Pokemon, I’d never be against that, this is just a surprise…” I rambled for a moment before Miles popped out of my pocket.
“Sorry to intrude on the moment, bzzt, but something just came in to the Porto Marinada market.” I blinked before my jaw dropped at what they were showing me.
“Umm, hey, before the next Gym Battle, I was thinking we’d make a quick stop,” I said, turning Miles around to face them. “If it’s alright. I know I’ve been relying on your money a lot but it would mean so much to Athena-”
“It’s fine dear,” Mom forestalled anything else I had to say. “We actually appreciate that you can lean on us for some things. You’re so independent it can be hard for us to keep up.”
“With your Glitterati spirit? I’ll never outpace that.” The look of sheer delight on her face warmed my heart before her crushing hug nearly popped it out of my chest.
*** Bonus Omake ***
Author: Sky Fyre
Published: 2022
This article contains spoilers for the Scarlet and Violet games.
So, we've had Scarlet and Violet out for a week now, and a certain Trainer is already getting a reputation up there with some of Pokemon's worst offenders for toughest fight in the game. That's right, I'm talking about Nemona Glitterati, your rival. She's the first one you fight at the start, and the one you have to fight near the very end.
Nemona is infamous for more than just your final battle, however. While she starts out like a basic rival, it's clear from the start that she's a Champion-ranked Trainer and is slowly building up a team to match you. She ramps up her team rather suddenly once you start your Treasure Hunt, but you don't need to win any of those battles, so as much as Nuzlockers might gnash their teeth, I'm only going to talk about the one battle you need to win to progress the story.
In order to go to Area Zero and complete the game, you need to beat Nemona after the Elite Five (haha, sorry Geeta, but putting your Glimmora in the back? Don't think you get to call yourself Champion after that). Thankfully, you get the chance to take a break in between them and Nemona, which most players use to grind out a quick ten or twenty levels to beat her. I can't blame them, but she is beatable at her own level. You just need to be prepared with solid counters and make sure to use good items (because she will too).
The first Pokemon she throws out is always a Dudunsparce. Don't let his silly body fool you, this Pokemon is a tank (and as a quick aside, I appreciate the dialogue she shares in this battle, giving you background on her and her team, like how 'Dun' was her starter when she was six). High health with Roost to heal (on top of the Leftovers he has equipped), and a decent attack backing strong Moves like Hyper Drill and Earthquake to hit you hard. Finally he has Glare to Paralyze you if you have a tanky Pokemon of your own.
You might think about using a strong Fighting Type to beat him down fast, but that's a mistake; go for a Ghost Type. The reason for that is her second Pokemon Gothitelle. Part of what makes her so difficult to beat is that if Nemona is at a disadvantage, she won't hesitate to switch her Pokemon around, so you'll want to have good coverage for multiple Pokemon on her team. Especially Gothitelle because she has Shadow Tag, locking you in with her when she switches in. Yeah, get used to hidden Abilities, a lot of her Pokemon have that.
Gothitelle has Psychic, Focus Blast, Nasty Plot, and Trick Room. With a Sitrus Berry and high defenses, if she gets a Pokemon she can set up against, she can sweep. Focus Blast does have a low hit chance though, so a Steel or Dark Type might take her out. Spiritomb is easier to get than ever in Gen 9, able to be found in three locations in the overworld, so if you can get one of them, Gothitelle is pretty easy to take out.
Next up is Scyther. If you've played the game up to this point already, you'll remember this jerk from her challenge after the third Gym. You know, the one where she pops up right after you've won, then challenges you to a battle with Pokemon about four levels higher than Iono (who's supposed to be the third Gym Leader by order)? Yeah, Scyther's back, with the same Eviolite to boost defense making them a tough hard hitter with Technician boosted Dual Wingbeat. Thankfully for this battle your team will likely have higher BST than back then and she doesn't tend to Terastalize Scyther to add more Flying STAB to the Dual Wingbeat in this battle. He's more of a setup role in this battle, with Tailwind and U-Turn over making the most of his high attack power and Technician, but he's still a tough customer with Swords Dance this time to let him do a ton of damage if you aren't careful. Since she doesn't Terastalize him often, a Rock Type attack will do a ton of damage to him.
Next up are the Pokemon that vary based on your starter. Thankfully Nemona picks the starter 'weak' to yours, but the secondary Typings of each makes things pretty even between most. Even worse though; whatever starter you choose, she has a Psuedo-Legendary that counters it. Yeah, it's insane. So if you picked Skeledirge, she has Hydregion, Meowscarada has to fight Kommo-o, and Quaquaval takes on Salamence.
All Dragon Types means that she has resistances against your base starter Typing, but it also means that they all have quadruple weaknesses to deal with. Fairy for Hydregion and Kommo-o and Ice for Salamence.
Hydregion uses Choice Specs alongside Earth Power, Flash Cannon, Dragon Pulse, and Dark Pulse giving them good coverage to hit what they need. Will often be sent out mid-way through the battle to let Nemona switch them out again if you take advantage of the Choice Specs lock. Same for Salamence with Choice Scarf letting them hit insanely fast. Fire Fang, Earthquake, Dragon Claw, and Dual Wingbeat.
Kommo-o works a bit differently. They have a Throat Spray to let them further boost with Clangorous Soul. Find a way to get rid of this omni-boost + additional Special Attack boost or you'll be in serious trouble. Clanging Scales and Tera Blast get heavy boosts off this. Also has Body Press, giving them a STAB Fighting Move that makes use of their high defense, and will sometimes use that one before even going for an Clangorous Soul.
All of her starters have their Hidden Abilities. This gives Protean to Meowscarada letting him drop his bad Typing, Moxie so Quaquaval can build up steam and tear through your team easier, and Unaware so Skeledirge doesn't have to deal with your boosts.
Meowscarada is equipped with Choice Band to boost his high Attack further. Flower Trick always hits and always crits for high damage, Knock Off makes use of his other STAB and can remove your items, U-Turn for scouting, and Play Rough to cover his bases. A hard and fast hitter, but a priority Bug Move like First Impression can take advantage of his quad weakness.
Skeledirge uses Throat Spray to get even more of a Special Attack boost from Torch Song. Their slow speed and lack of recovery means he likely won't ever sweep, but he might take a few Pokemon out before you can stop him. Yawn can force switches, and Earth Power and Hyper Voice give him coverage against Types he'd have trouble hurting with Torch Song.
Quaquaval has a Life Orb, which will chip away at his own health, but usually not by enough to matter if he gets a few Aqua Steps in to boost his speed and sweep your team with that and Moxie. Close Combat is a good Fighting Move to make use of that STAB, and he's got Brave Bird and Rapid Spin for more coverage and hazard removal.
Something to make note of is that Nemona's team doesn't tend to have a lot of entry hazard or weather or terrain removal. If you can get those set up, it might help deal with the powerhouses she throws at you. Of course, some might still tear through anything you set up…
… Like her last but certainly not least Pokemon, Houndstone. If you've seen the memes about 'Nemona is banned!' this is why. Houndstone is a new Ghost Type that has a specific Move called Last Respects which Smogon has banned from most of their tiers, and it's one that Nemona abuses. It's a ghost Type Move with 50 base damage, and 50 more for each of Nemona's Pokemon that has fainted. Considering that she only sends out Houndstone at the very end of the battle, that means she'll hit you with a 300 power STAB boosted Move.
Houndstone also has Play Rough, Bulldoze, and Body Press. Of these, you'll only really see Body Press if you use a Normal Type against him because Last Respects is just that strong that even against a Dark Type, it's still better than Play Rough. Houndstone is pretty slow and is weak to Fire in addition to Dark and Ghost because of her Ability, Fluffy. That plus the Assault Vest she wears means that taking her down is incredibly annoying and has the potential to sweep you even with a mostly full team left if you aren't prepared. Because of Nemona's tendency to Terastalize before this, you'll rarely run into a situation where she Tera's her Houndstone to give it even more of a boost to Last Respects (thank Arceus).
Speaking of that, yeah, in addition to swapping her Pokemon around freely, Nemona's AI is also pretty free with who she Terastalizes. She rarely Terastalizes at the end of battle and some Pokemon are less likely than others, but all of them are tricky to deal with. Here's a list:
- Dudunsparce: Tera Normal (adds more damage to Hyper Drill)
- Gothitelle: Tera Dark (defensive, no STAB boost, but makes the usual counters difficult)
- Scyther: Tera Flying (gets rid of some of his Bug Type Weaknesses and lets Dual Wingbeat hit even harder)
- Houndstone: Tera Ghost (Last Respects even more deadly, rare)
- Skeledirge: Tera Dark (defensive, Types good against Dark aren't good against regular Skeledirge. Also powers up Snarl)
- Quaquaval: Tera Water (takes away some weaknesses from Fighting and powers up Aqua Step)
- Meowscarada: Tera Fairy (very rare to be used, usually Nemona just uses Protean to change their Type)
- Hydregion: Tera Poison (purely defensive. Levitate means that he's only weak to Psychic when Tera'd, which he'd otherwise be immune to.)
- Kommo-o: Tera Steel (defensive boosts. Has Flash Canon which get boosted as well)
- Salamence: Tera Fire (defensive against Fairy and Ice, boosts Fire Fang too)
Some general advice is to use Protect or other protection Moves to stall against speed control from Tailwind and Trick Room and watch out for those switches. Try to have coverage on most of your team, or see if you can otherwise force switches through Moves like Dragon Tail. Make sure to make the most use out of items as you can for this battle, and for that, follow the link to my next guide, detailing the top ten best held items in Scarlet and Violet and where you can find them. A lot of great post-Elite gear like Assault Vest and Life Orb can be found in the wild in Scarlet and Violet. Thanks for reading, and good luck against one of the toughest Trainers to date.
A/N: This is a little bonus meta/side thing I made and posted on SB, SV, and QQ about a week ago, and it was well liked there so I thought I'd post it here as well. And to be clear, this is not 100% accurate about the future. There's no guarantees that these specific Pokemon will be on her specific team by the time we reach the game start (obviously, since some of them are modular based on the player's choice while the ones in the fic won't be). Still, I thought it was a fun little meta view on what SI!Nemona might be like as a battle challenge for the players of the games. What do you think of the team and her potential battle choices/strategy?
Discord. Thank you, and I hope you have a great day.
- Tera Type: Normal
- Held Item: Expert Belt
- Abilities: Run Away, Serene Grace
- Moves known:
- 'Miles' (Rotom, Genderless, Electric/Form dependent Type)
- Tera Type: Electric
- Held Item: Life Orb
- Ability: Levitate
- Moves Known:
- 'Nightwing' (Gliscor, Female, Flying/Ground Type)
- Tera Type: Water
- Held Item: Toxic Orb
- Ability: Hyper Cutter, Poison Heal
- Moves Known:
- 'Notch' (Carbink, Genderless, Rock/Fairy Type)
- Tera Type: Fighting
- Held Item: Light Clay
- Ability: Clear Body
- Moves Known:
- 'Phantasm' (Hisuian Zoroark, Female, Normal/Ghost)
- Tera Type: Ghost
- Held Item: Lax Incense
- Ability: Illusion
- Moves Known:
- 'Athena' (Lucario, Female, Fighting/Steel)
- Tera Type: Fighting
- Held Item: Clear Amulet
- Ability: Steadfast
- Moves Known:
-'Bahamut' (Fraxure, Male, Dragon)
- Tera Type: Dragon
- Held Item: Dragon Fang
- Ability: Mold Breaker
- Moves Known:
*Custom Moves