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"Sand Rush and Sand Force," Wayne said, reading from his pokédex, "No, that's pretty straightforward."

Wayne's intentions seemed clear as day through the Aura link. As Excadrill began to charge towards her, his Swords Dance increasing his strength to the point where he heavily outclassed Daphne in terms of raw power, the Lilligant stood her ground and waved her leaf-hand in the air.

Her Aura collected above the arena, a bright, shining ball of light. It took barely a second for Sunny Day to pulsate through the sandstorm, eradicating it and drenching the arena in Aura-born sunlight, the air clean. Without Sandstorm, Excadrill's abilities were rendered useless. Its once mighty charge faltered as its speed returned to normal levels and its strength boost diminished.

Daphne jumped backwards. Even though Excadrill was suddenly a lot slower, she didn't intend to allow it an easy target by remaining still. If Excadrill still wanted to reach her, then it would have to do so through the immense power of a Sunny Day-charged Solar Beam.

The Lilligant thrust her hands together, Aura radiating between the two leaves before exploding forth as a huge energy beam. She hoped to have acted quick enough. If Excadrill was slow to react to its sudden shift in power, or didn't decide to abandon its assault, then it would take the full brunt of Daphne's Quiver Dance-enhanced attack. And, as she was just off the ground when she fired, Daphne would be propelled further away from her opponent, hitting the ground with a slide.

Clay was trying to distract him. Wayne glanced down at the drink and held out his hand to stop it. He assumed that Clay's hand would get stopped dead against his new Aura strength, but to his surprise, Clay was actually able to keep pushing against him. He felt like a small child trying to shoved a brick wall that shoved back.

Wayne remembered what Tess had said about flaring, and that Aura links meant that if the trainer was flaring Aura, then so was the pokémon. His eyes snapped back to the battle and he grit his teeth. Excadrill was pushing through the Solar Beam, the grass attack deflecting from the mole pokémon's steel claws.

Rays of power splayed out from the point of impact, striking off in random directions, searing scorch marks across the arena floor, impacting the gym's cavernous ceiling with great booms and dislodging chunks of rock. The giant stone shards began to rain down, crashing here and there amidst clouds of dust.

Daphne hit the floor, rolling to the side to avoid a falling chunk of rock, narrowly avoiding an untimely end in the rumbling cavern. Excadrill was upon her again. His flared Slash should have expired when he struck her Solar Beam. Unless Clay wished to flare twice in a row, then Excadrill's power had fallen once again.

The Lilligant took a chance as Excadrill, great bulk, jagged claws and all, hurtled towards her. She activated Growth, which boosted her Attack and Special Attack by two stages each thanks to Sunny Day. As her power increased, Daphne seemed to swell, growing larger by a couple of inches, her body size increasing in proportion.

As Excadrill's Slash came racing down, Daphne braced herself, throwing her hands together, instantly blasting out another Solar Beam. If it hit, and assuming he didn't flare again, then Excadrill would be heavily damaged by her attack and sent flying through the arena. If the mole pokémon did flare, then his Slash would break through Solar Beam and hit Daphne, leaving her damaged and him immobilised by the burn out, weaker than if he had no Aura at all.

"Get inside?" Wayne said as Clay led him to the drill. Did this thing actually serve a purpose? Guess he'd find out. He held out his pokéball and recalled Daphne, who was just halfway through sighing a breath of relief when the recall beam struck and she dispersed into a mess of whipping light that shot back into the pokéball.

Too busy giving Daphne a brief smile through the pokéball lid, Wayne only just noticed the badge in time to catch it, snatching it from the air with Aura-enhanced speed. It was the Quake Badge; tall and thin with a design reminiscent of two tectonic plates sliding together as they did during earthquakes.

"I was pretty sure a gym leader wouldn't try to kill his opponent," said Wayne as he put his hands back in his pockets. "You got any tips on how to flare Aura?"

They reached the drill and Wayne stopped to look up at it. It really was huge. Did Clay say to get into the thing? How was that even supposed to work anyway?

"Ya, okay," Wayne said as he climbed into the drill after Clay. It looked like this was an escape pod, put there just in case a battle made the gym area unstable. The gym area that was right beneath Clay's main building. They may have been inside the pod but Wayne suddenly felt very unsafe. This man was a lunatic.

"So like," he leaned over, folding his arms against the back of Clay's headrest, "Why not just have a gym aboveground and skip all this stuff?"

The reality of the situation suddenly hit him. He was trapped inside a steel coffin, narrowly escaping a collapsing cavern, with a racist, alcoholic, billionaire cowboy, drilling through the earth to hopefully reach the ocean before the tunnel decided to collapse on itself as well.

"Can you give me a load of money? I wouldn't ask if I wasn't seriously broke," Wayne said, bracing himself in his seat as the drill escape pod bucked up and down, tearing through rock, "I'll buy you a drink if you do."

"Swimming's for chumps," Wayne muttered, throwing Eukarya's ball into the air. The pokémon materialised, automatically using his Self-Telekinesis to avoid dropping into the ocean. Wayne climbed out of the hatch at the top of the drill escape pod and stepped onto Eukarya's Light Screen.

"Well, we beat that guy," Wayne said as Eukarya used his psychic power to make the Light Screen platform float through the air, following close by with Telekinesis. They left the sea behind and flew towards the hill that Clay's building was on. The sun was shining brightly by now, bathing them in light as they hovered past the impressive structure.

Eukarya brought them to a stop in front of the gym entrance and, just a few feet above the ground, dissolved the Light Screen and let Wayne drop to the floor. The trainer said his thanks and recalled the psychic, starting the long walk into town. Normally he might have complained, but not right now. He had things to mull over, and a walk was the perfect time to do it.

((Don't tell me what to do mad

But okay ninja ))

Wayne was about halfway back to town when he ran into Azucena. The road leading down was fenced by two long cobble-stone walls with large fields either side. It looked like this was Driftveil's farmland, though the nearest fields seemed overgrown with tall grass. Wayne frowned at Azucena's remark.

"What are you talking about? I already had a show--" Checking himself, he realised that he was in fact covered in crumbs of dirt from the crumbling cavern. He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair to free it of soil fragments.

"Man, that's annoying," he grumbled, letting out a sharp sigh. "Why are you out here alone? You'd be screwed if some psycho attacked you. That's sort of been happening lately."

---

"Why yes it is, lil missy. In fact, ah have just been partakin' in a short swim maself."

Clay was stood at the poolside just behind Henrietta. He was still a bit wet from his dip in the ocean, and had changed out of his normal outfit into a black suit shirt, blue jeans, leather cowboy boots and a string tie with a silver Tauros emblem.

"Ah'd appreciate it if ya'd kindly get yer clothes back on. Would like ta avoid any more sexual pree-dation charges, false ones ah might add. Some snappy shutterbug with no respect fer people's privacy, or the state of undress of guests, might be skulkin' around."

The gym leader cleared his throat. "Ah take it yer here fer a gym match? Ah don't strictly take challenges in this here mansion, but ah know of a place that's right nearby. Would be perfect fer yer lil Blastoise over there."