"The gym is where?" I ask, and Rune just nods and points straight up.
"Prism Tower."
"Wow." I breathe the word out, eyes shining. The tower is beautiful, sleek and shimmering, standing over the Lumiose cityscape like a beam of starlight from the heavens. Even in the daytime, when it's not lit, it seems to glow from the inside.

Rune twirls his stick. "So I've been thinking about the gym. Strategy and whatnot."
My eyes widen. "Oh right. Pich, you might not want to... it's sort of dangerous."
Pich turns around from a nearby bench. Even now that the team is huge, I try to keep them out of their Pokeballs whenever possible, even though it does tend to make me stand out amongst the small pocket Pokemon, dainty Furfrous, exotic pets and newbie trainers of Lumiose.

It makes me dangerous.

I never really wanted to go for that, but when you have a ten foot rock dragon standing over you, no one's going to stop to learn he's a huge pansy and nothing to be afraid of.
Pich chirps, confused. "You want me back in the Pokeball, or you want me to stay out here?"
"I don't know how safe it is for you to be out here alone." I say, "So probably the former."
She gives a slightly indignant wing ruffle and then consents with a disinterested shrug. I hold the ball up, recalling her.

"Right Rune, what was it?"

"So we're going up against electric-types. Nina has natural electric type immunity, but for those of us who don't, namingly me, creating a lightning rod may serve a similar effect. If we can just find some ground to drive my stick into..."
I bite my lip. "I don't know if they'll have fields like the ones we're used to in the tower. Seems like that would be hard to do. For now we'll have to stick with Nina and Crypt, but I'm sure you can help..."
Nico grunts.
"Yes, and you too..."
I don't have to turn around to know Chrona is probably thinking the same thing.

"You know what? Everyone who isn't weak to electric types gets to fight at some point."
Everyone seems decently pleased with that, so I proceed into the tower, which happens to hold our first trial on the first floor- a human sized elevator.

"How are we all going to fit in that?" Rune complains.

"I don't think we're supposed to. Everyone, in the Pokeballs."

Once everyone is back in their Pokeballs except for Rune, who has stubbornly decided to stick along, the two of us are rocketing up the floors. Surprisingly, it's only a few seconds before we stop.

"The gym must be at a pretty low floor." Rune says, but when the doors open, a trainer blocks our way.
"You want to fight Clement?" He asks. "You'll have to go through me first."
He sends out a Jolteon and my heart freezes in my chest. Rune steps past me, looking back with pity on his face. "It's alright. I'll handle this. Well.... you might want to get out Nina, just in case."

I nod numbly, sending out Nina who stands by his side. Rune hits his stick against his coarse fur, setting it ablaze. The Jolteon snarls and lunges forwards, and Rune hits it back with a fiery blast overhead.

They clash over and over, the Jolteon covering itself in electricity for more powerful blows. The trainer sweeps his hand back and the Jolteon stops, heaving. "Thunderbolt!"
Rune's eyes widen as the electricity shocks his whole body. I can feel his pain course through my own small form, and I press back a scream.

"Use your stick!" I yell.
"There's nothing to jam it into!" Rune whimpers weakly.

I look around for a solution but there's nothing but the dark glass floor and the other Pokemon and his trainer.

Finally, it stops, and Rune stumbles backwards, kneeling. Nina pushes past me and before the Jolteon can react she sweeps it off the ground with her tail and slams it downwards with two armored paws clenched into one fist.

The Jolteon lays limp on the floor, its jaw open and blood trickling from its mouth.

"Nina!" I screech in terror.

"It's not dead. I don't kill." She casts a wary gaze at the Trainer, "But a few thousand volts of electricity might."

We get back into the elevator silently and it stops again. I get out to see another trainer. This time, they have both a Dedenne and a Pikachu. Nina mercilessly smacks down both of them, Sludge Bombing the Dedenne and then knocking out the Pikachu in a single hit of Earth Power.

Meanwhile, I heal Rune and Nina cracks her knuckles as we get back in the elevator.

When we finally ascend to what I can only hope is the last floor, Clement waits for us from a distance upon a platform. He's blond haired and short, with large glasses and large wire protruding from a machine on his back. "Welcome, challenger. Get ready for a fight that will light up the whole city!"

Nina steps forwards, lashing her tail. Clement sends out an Emolga.
"Nina!"
"I'm prepared." She says, "Crypt and I have been working on this!"
She spreads her arms out and from above the Emolga, rocks come raining down like a meteor shower. I recognize it as Rock Slide. Emolga dodges it gracefully, swinging forwards as Clement calls "Aerial Ace!"
It piledrives into Nina, who has no time to react. There's a gash all the way up her chest where the Emolga was. Her eyes roll upwards in her head and I call her back immediately, swearing. "Crypt!"
Crypt lets out a mighty bellow as I send him out, and I know he can tell that Nina's been knocked out. Rocks drop from the ceiling so fast that the entire battlefield is covered in minutes. After they clear, I can see Emolga, knocked out. It's pinned by its tail under one of the rocks at the edge of the battlefield.

"Alright." Clement says, recalling Emolga. "Go, Magneton!"
"This one's mine." Rune says, darting forwards.
Magneton uses Mirror Shot, creating a ball of energy which Rune dodges gracefully. It continues launching more until Rune is forced to parry with his wand, slamming into one like a baseball with a grin. He sucks in air and then blows the tip of his wand, blowing a suddenly giant flame at the Magnezone, which jolts sideways.
It's fast, but this isn't a speed based competition. Rune barely has to move his wand with the enormous range his fire gets. The continuous roast ends with the Magneton disabled on the floor. Rune coughs a few times and then manages to smile back at me. "Not too shabby, eh?"

Clement looks frustrated, but clicks the Pokeball and sends out his last Pokemon. "Heliolisk!"

Rune moves back and Nico moves forwards.

The Heliolisk darts forwards with Quick Attack, and Nico doesn't even budge. He takes it head on, acting as if the pitiful normal-type move hurts oh so much.

"Fine." I say. "Mega evolution?"
Nico nods. I clutch my Mega Ring and he in turn holds his Mega Stone. I feel his cool energy seep through me, until we are one and the energy grows hotter and hotter, a violent flame that demands to break through us and combine us into one powerful force of nature.

We roar with power as the Mega Evolution finishes.

The Heliolisk attacks from a distance with a Thunderbolt. We spread out our arms and take it, welcoming the first hit. We both know it can't hurt us now.

The electricity feels almost... good. I remember it from somewhere deep inside me. However, Nico doesn't, and we begin to lose our connection. I force myself to keep back the memories that threaten to swell over and with a battle cry, we lunge forwards with a Bone Rush, swinging the bone made of energy and jabbing at the Heliolisk, who parrys with its tail.

"A Goldeneye, hm? Korrina told me I could expect one soon. I was waiting for this. Heliolisk, give it everything you have!"

It turns into a fight of bone on tail, both of us parrying as if we've been swordfighting our whole lives. We're graceful, beautiful, twisting and dancing across the ground. The Heliolisk knows its outmatched and so does Clement. Our paw hits something- Grass Knot. One paw is stuck and Heliolisk knocks us back while we're distracted by it.

Leering, we get back up, reforming our bone from pure energy. We run forwards again, but this time Heliolisk expects it. We come in from the side, knocking it down, and then we twirl the bone on high before slamming it down into the Heliolisk's head. It falls over with a faint hiss, defeated.

I return to my own body suddenly, laughing. "That was AMAZING!"
"Our training paid off." Nico admitted.

Clement holds out a badge. "Not bad. Come back in a few months and I'll have some new tricks."
"Oh yeah! Korrina said-" I say, but he cuts me off.

"Korrina didn't mention this is one of the busiest times of the year for trainer battles. Come back soon if you want to do the electric training and well, I'll work it out."
I nod. Everyone returns to their Pokeballs except Rune (who looks remarkably smug) as I step back into the elevator.

"That was really easy." I remark once we're out of earshot.

"Here's to many more." Rune says. He looks a lot happier than he does after most gym battles. In fact, the last few have been emotionally exhausting.

"Yeah." I say. "Sounds good to me."