Argenta looked at Blastoise and felt a headache. She knew next to nothing about Gary's Blastoise. After watching Dragonite get pushed back by it repeatedly, she didn't dare act rashly.
She decided to trade damage instead. That was the safer option.
"Dragonite, Thunder!"
"Blastoise, Ice Beam!"
Since Argenta wanted to trade damage, Gary naturally wasn't going to hold back.
Golden electricity surged from Dragonite's body and shot up into the sky. At the same time, Blastoise's cannons fired two Ice Beams. The beams merged together in midair, turning into a single, much thicker beam that shot straight at Dragonite.
Boom!!
Thunder rang out suddenly.
The Ice Beam also hit Dragonite at the same moment, instantly freezing it solid.
"Draa…"
Blastoise withstood the Thunder again, and its stamina dropped sharply. Sweat appeared on its forehead.
"Did it go down?"
Gary looked at the frozen Dragonite, unable to tell if it had already lost the ability to battle.
Even though Argenta's Dragonite had the Multiscale Ability, it had already been broken by Blastoise's first attack. An Ice Beam this powerful was more than enough to finish Dragonite off.
"Dragonite, use Steel Wing," Argenta ordered.
The frozen Dragonite did not respond.
"Draa…"
Seeing that Dragonite wasn't moving, Argenta suddenly had a bad feeling. She had thought her Dragonite could withstand two Ice Beams with no problem, but it seemed she had badly overestimated it.
"Flash Cannon!" Gary suddenly ordered.
"Blastoise!"
Two silver beams shot from Blastoise's cannons, shattering the ice. Dragonite was blown back several meters and crashed to the ground without moving.
"Dragonite is unable to battle."
"Argenta's Pokémon has lost. The winner of this match is Gary."
The referee immediately gave his ruling.
"I really didn't expect the challenger to be this strong." Argenta shook her head with a wry smile.
Although Scott had told her over the phone to use her full strength, she hadn't taken it completely seriously when she saw that Gary was just a teenager.
But thinking back on it now, Argenta felt that even if she had gone all out, her Dragonite still wouldn't have been a match for this Blastoise.
After the battle, Argenta handed over the symbol from her battle facility to Gary.
"Congratulations. This is the Stage Symbol. Take it."
"Thank you."
Gary thanked her and took the symbol.
[Ding! Mission complete. The reward has been distributed to the storage space.]
Now that the Stage Symbol was secured, only the Battle Tower remained.
Gary decided to collect the Battle Tower symbol first and then head to Lake Valor. There was more than enough time.
"Ms. Argenta, thank you for the battle."
After saying goodbye, Gary turned and left.
Watching Gary leave, Argenta let out a bitter smile. "I really was careless. I wonder if that boy Palmer will be able to stop this Gary."
Twinleaf Town.
Gary landed at the Pokémon Center in Twinleaf Town.
The final stop of the Sinnoh Battle Frontier, the Battle Tower, was located here.
"Hmm? What event is being held?"
Gary got off Garchomp's back and saw banners hanging on both sides of the street, with fenced-off areas and signs that read "Celebrate Twinleaf Festival."
The Twinleaf Festival was a unique celebration in Twinleaf Town, lasting three days and three nights. Today was one of those three days, and it seemed to be the first.
"A celebration…"
Gary remembered that Ash had also challenged Palmer during the festival. That meant Ash was in Twinleaf Town right now.
"Forget it. I'll go to the Battle Tower first."
Gary recalled Garchomp, released Cyclizar, and rode toward the Battle Tower.
The Battle Tower was right here in Twinleaf Town. It would only take about twenty minutes by Cyclizar to get there.
The Sinnoh Battle Tower was open to the public. Trainers could come here to battle, and winners earned Battle Points that could be exchanged for the Battle Tower's technical manuals.
In addition, any Trainer who won twenty consecutive battles in the Battle Tower earned the right to challenge Palmer. If they managed to defeat Palmer, they could choose one of the available prizes without spending any Battle Points.
Today, however, the Battle Tower was almost deserted. There were very few people nearby, most likely because of the Twinleaf Festival. Everyone had gone to enjoy the celebration.
Gary recalled Cyclizar and stepped inside.
"No one?"
Gary walked into the hall, but there was nobody at the front desk.
"Is anyone here?"
Gary called out, but got no response.
"Is anyone here?"
"Hello?"
"Is anyone here? Thief...!"
After calling out for a while, someone finally appeared.
"Coming! Coming!"
A young woman hurried out from the corner at the end of the corridor and rushed over.
When she saw that Gary was a teenager, she asked in confusion, "Is there something you need?"
Gary felt a headache coming on.
Because only Trainers who had already qualified could challenge the Frontier Brain, the receptionist here would never assume that a Trainer who just walked in was there for that reason.
"My name is Gary. Mr. Scott recommended me to challenge the Battle Frontier. Is Mr. Palmer here?" Gary replied.
"You're here to challenge the Frontier Brain?!" The young woman was shocked.
"Is there a problem?"
"No." She shook her head. "It's just that Mr. Palmer was invited to attend the Twinleaf Festival. If you want to challenge him, you'll have to wait until the festival ends."
"When will the Twinleaf Festival end?" Gary asked.
"It won't end tomorrow. Also, there's a tournament being held during the celebration, and the winner will get the chance to fight Mr. Palmer. If you want to challenge him normally, you'll have to wait until at least the day after tomorrow."
"I see. Then I'll go to the celebration and find Palmer."
Gary decided it was better to find Palmer and set up a time for the match directly, so he wouldn't waste time waiting around.
Besides, Ash and the others were in Twinleaf Town as well. Once Ash left for Sunyshore City and passed Lake Valor, Team Galactic would make their move.
"Alright, go ahead then."
Leaving the Battle Tower, Gary rode Cyclizar back to the area of town where the celebration was being held.
When he arrived, he found the streets packed with people. Stalls lined both sides of the road, selling all kinds of snacks, and the young people of the town had all gathered there.
Gary walked around and bought some snacks along the way. As he approached one stall, he suddenly stopped.
There were no customers there at the moment, but Gary immediately recognized the person standing behind the counter.
It was Brock.
"Customer!"
Brock felt a shadow fall over him and assumed a customer had walked up. When he looked up, he froze in surprise.
"Gary!"
"What are you doing here?!"
Brock was completely taken aback. He never would have expected to run into Gary here.
"I'm here to find someone," Gary replied. "Why are you selling things at a stall?"
He looked around.
"Where are Ash and Dawn?"