"I'm gonna become a gym leader!" Winona shouted, her voice overflowing with exuberance.

Wallace smiled at this statement, but his smile carried with it a touch of sorrow; whatever city she chose, their days of traveling together would soon come to an end. And to make matters worse, "it's not like there's a flying gym to challenge... not in Hoenn, anyway."

"Don't worry, I'm not leaving Hoenn," Winona answered. "Ever since Ever Grande was abandoned we've been short a gym, and the Global League's getting on Hoenn's case for letting in trainers with only seven badges."

"So you want to set up a new one? Any idea where? I've won contests in most of the cities without gyms, so let me know if you need me to pull some strings," Wallace offered.

Unlike in most of the world, pokemon battles had struggled in Hoenn to become the single most popular competition; the region's legacy of war had cast such a long shadow that many had grown suspicious of anything that smacked of pokemon fighting each other. And of course, Hoenn was also the birthplace of Pokemon Contests, a local sport that combined all the strategy of pokemon battles with a side of flair and had spread as far as Sinnoh.

"Fortree. The people are halfway to the sky already, so it'd be a perfect place for a flying gym!" Winona declared.

"Fortree? Are you serious?" Wallace asked.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked, as if she didn't know – and Wallace wasn't sure if it was worse if Winona was playing dumb over this or genuinely had decided to become a gym leader without doing any research into the city she hoped to lead.

"Well, they've fiercely resisted incorporation by the rest of Hoenn since before there was a pokemon league. And even if they were to have a change of heart on the matter, the place is famous for its bug pokemon, and its namesake and mascot is a Forretress, which I should remind you can't fly. I'd have an easier time taking over the Sootopolis Gym!"

"So it's a challenge?" Winona asked, smiling.

"What, no! I'm a coordinator, not a trainer!" Wallace protested.

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a challenge if you were a proper trainer! I'm trying to set up a gym in Fortree of all places – all you have to do is supplant a gym leader, and I know that Milotic of yours can fight," Winona said, hopping onto her Altaria. "We meet in eighty days. Take care!"

It was entirely fair to call the land of Fortree a population center; this collection of secret bases in the remotest part of northern Hoenn's forests had come to house the tenth-largest group of people in Hoenn, much to the chagrin of many residents who had arrived in search of solitude.

To call it a city, however, was horribly unwise within the area. No matter what geographers from other lands claimed, the cities were precisely where Fortree's residents had fled from, and precisely what Fortree was not.

Fortree's first settlers were claimed by the townspeople to have been runaway peasants avoiding the extractive taxes of greedy landlords, and claimed by the records available in Mauville and Lilycove's libraries to have been vicious criminals, many of them murderers, who fled justice with their pokemon, set up a bandit camp deep in the forest, and made houses hollowed out from trees to avoid punitive expeditions from the region's armies.

Whatever its origins, Fortree's population had swelled over the years from self-imposed exiles, although what they fled varied from person to person generation to generation. Refugees made up most of the population when Hoenn was at war, and in politically repressive eras the population swelled with a great many intellectuals who criticized aspects of their societies at their time and were exiled for it – and even in more open ages a few left of their own accord in a fit of pique. They were joined by plenty of hermits and malcontents whose rejection, if backed up by less in the way of rhetoric, was every bit as motivated by their inability to get along with others.

Smaller, similar communities sprang up elsewhere in Hoenn, inspired as much by Fortree's legend as by any contact with its residents, especially in periods of fierce warfare between Kyogre's and Groudon's partisans. Most notable today are the so-called Secret Meadow and Secret Shore, but many other communities have sprung up and disappeared in Hoenn's long history, and a few more have claimed to disappear and taken great care to never make it onto maps.

They are today described as the "Secret Base" movement, and compose a group of pioneers in the wilderness who carve out small but lavishly decorated houses far from society's prying eyes, and often equally far from each other. But they have contributed immensely if reluctantly over the years to Hoenn's growth, and some of their settlements, such as Dewford Town, have become integrated into the region at large.

While a lot of people lived in Fortree before Winona's arrival, the only thing there which could be possibly called a civic building was the Secret Base Guild, a building designed precisely to offer this movement's adherents tips, decorations, and the technique that lets their pokemon carve a tree or a rock or a cave into a home. The pathways between Fortree's trees were so labyrinthine and poorly maintained that wise trainers preferred to traverse it on the backs of their flying pokemon – although many trainers, including virtually all of those from more distant secret bases, had yet to learn this lesson and found themselves hacking through miles of forest and tall grass before finding either the Guild's tree, with its Forretress-shaped sign that was designed to be seen from the ground, or (more commonly) a resident who could point them the right way.

Many residents had left their trees this day, but they had done so primarily to argue over what some claimed to be a girl riding a cloud, and others a horribly lost Gligar.

"Ain't no Gligar anywhere near that thin."

"No Gligar around here... well, maybe in one of the ninja boys' pokeballs, but this one's wild. The poor thing probably looks so wispy because it can't find anything to eat this far from the desert," an old man asserted. "Someone contact the village's best healers; I'm not sure there's enough in my secret base to bring it back to health. Pokeball, go!"

With a powerful, underhand throw, a swirling red and white sphere spiraled high into the air until it approached the white, fluffy cloud, which slightly, almost imperceptibly descended a few feet and batted the ball down to the forest's brush-covered floor – and loud, high-pitched laughter, too high-pitched for even a Gligar, erupted from just beneath the Gligar's large, round, golden eyes.

"Well damn, these old eyes aren't what they used to be. Guess it's a Golbat," the old fool suggested, oblivious to what half of Fortree had already been arguing the moment the mysterious cloud showed up, or too stubborn to admit he was wrong even as the purple-haired girl laughed even louder.

Winona landed with her mount on one of the many rope-bridges connecting Fortree's tree – and as their descent cost the pair their camouflage, the people of Fortree learned that it was not one cloud, but two, and that the clouds were not of meteorological origins but an Altaria's twin wings. It was not the first time in her life she had been mistaken for a pokemon riding a cloud – some might suggest her outfit, with its sky blue color, tufts of hair through her hood, and golden flight goggles, along with her choice of mount, was precisely that disguise.

And yet when the people of Fortree City are asked even today about the day the world changed, what they remembered most was a young Winona's girlish, hysterical laughter at the village fool throwing a poke ball at her.

Her audacious declaration that she would set up a gym in this town, which they greeted with an equally raucous dismissal, was simply not as memorable at the time; most of them simply assumed that the village fool was approaching retirement and she had come to replace him, and her flustered and sincere protests had not yet convinced them otherwise.

Perhaps the reason Winona's announcement was greeted with such little fear or trepidation at the time was that everyone in Fortree, whether they trained one type of pokemon or three, fancied themselves to be some sort of gym leader.

The land of secret bases was a battle frontier in miniature whose top trainers considered themselves the equal of anyone in Hoenn. Fortree's residents, as Winona repeatedly learned whenever she tried to explain what she was doing, claimed that they had once debated sending an application to the International Pokemon League to be registered as a region in their own right, but either Hoenn's League had treacherously blocked their bid in order to maintain their claim on the neighboring routes, or Fortree had withdrawn it themselves for fear of drawing too much attention from the outside world.

What this meant was that they were glad to aid Winona in building her gym – but the area's stronger trainers were equally eager to puff up their own secret bases and install signs labeling them as gyms too.

It seemed they had completely the wrong idea about Winona's intentions, and given the Hoenn League's extreme unpopularity in the town, she wasn't inclined to correct them. It would be better for all involved if she were to just build her gym and request the league's approval. If her neighbors were surprised by the large number of challengers coming to Fortree, said challengers would probably run the gauntlet of secret base trainers next, and the Guild had already made the place a tourist attraction, so there would be no cause for complaint.

The proposal Winona sent to League headquarters was a reasonable compromise which would have extended the Hoenn League to distant Fortree – the largest settlement in the region with neither a gym nor a contest hall – for the first time in its history.

Unfortunately, the people of Fortree had not spent over a century resisting membership in the Hoenn league because of the latter party's amiability to compromise.

To Applicant Winona,

We regret to inform you that, despite your credentials as a pokemon trainer, you have failed to demonstrate your hegemony over the residents of Fortree City. To be recognized as a gym leader in a new town, applicants must win the approval of a majority of the settlement's recognized pokemon trainers, which is traditionally granted by beating them in battle.

With regards,

Champion Steven.

To the Hoenn League,

Enclosed with my letter is the approval of the sole trainer in Fortree who has not let their registration lapse. I trust that 100% is a sufficient majority, and hope to be approved shortly.

With regards,

Winona.

To Applicant Winona,

Nice try.

A settlement with one recognized pokemon trainer is of insufficient size for approval. We both know there are plenty of good trainers in Fortree even if they've rejected the League.

Try again,

Champion Steven.

To Champion Steven,

Seafoam. Ever Grande.

Winona.

Winona folded the letter, placed it in the envelope, and tied it to her Swablu's leg; none of her pokemon were getting that much exercise, and Swellow, who had delivered the last mail, was itching for a battle.

Not that she could blame her; building the gym had been plenty of work, and although Tropius had pitched in a bit, the rest of her pokemon didn't really have the ability to do much more than carry small stones in their mouths to build the roof. The rest of the Fortree settlement came out of curiosity, and while some were impressed, others were baffled. The people of Fortree didn't understand why she didn't "hollow out a tree for her gym like a normal person" and one of them had even offered her the Secret Power Technical Machine and to help her out in finding a big enough tree.

But no flying trainer was meant to battle inside a tree. The prospective Fortree Gym's roof was built with a gap precisely the size and shape of a regulation Pokemon arena, and was outfitted with elevators and guardrails for trainers to stand at while watching the battle.

Which would require there to be a battle. Which would require challengers to show up. Which would probably require League approval, at least if she wanted a decent number of challengers. But this was a city full of secret bases, and Winona was perfectly capable of issuing her own challenges.

Winona hopped onto her Altaria – climbing ladders or crossing rope bridges never sat quite well with her – and flew around Fortree before dismounting at the entrance of one of the treehouses. There were few doors in the area, and this treehouse was no exception – either because it was trusted that visitors had good intentions, or because the place was so full of traps that a closed door would if anything have been a needless deterrent.

Not, of course, that she was one to talk when it came to traps. The only difference between the traps of a secret base and the puzzles of most pokemon gyms was that the puzzles were bigger. Winona personally didn't care for the dangerous kind and had set up nothing more than a series of gates, but she had heard that Unova's flying gym leader had gone so far as to install cannons, and Unova's gym leader was far more typical of the occupation.

The owner of this secret base, luckily, had not planted a single trap; his base was full of medals, certificates, and pokemon plushies, seemingly from an impressive career as a world-traveled trainer. Which left Winona all the more puzzled by the fact that this very man, if she wasn't mistaken, had confused her for a pokemon and thrown a pokeball at her.

"You're that Gligar girl, right? Or was it a Golbat?"

"Yeah, that was me. Up for a battle, or do you still need to catch a couple more clouds?"

The old man laughed. "I can't deny that a Gligar would be a boon for this team, especially once it evolved. But don't you worry, miss – the bugs I have are more than up to handling your Altaria! I accept your challenge!

"In this secret base, we do triple battles! Flygon, Forretress, Ninjask, go!"

"Three on three? Good luck – you'll need it against a trainer who always thinks in three dimensions!" Winona taunted. "Swellow, Skarmory, Altaria, come out!"

The two trainers gave their pokemon a series of hand signals – the sort extremely rare in league competition these days, but a necessity when battling at such close range that the opponent could hear attack commands as well as one's own pokemon. The old man did nothing more than flash his fingers in the manner of baseball signs, which contrasted mightily with Winona's elaborate signals that seemed more suited to the wars of ancient Ransei – except, of course, that pokemon warlords had rehearsed said signals ahead of time.

Her Swellow folded its wings and slammed headfirst diagonally across the Secret Base, but Ninjask was fast enough and smart enough to improvise; its trainer had actually ordered a different technique, but Winona's running a couple steps in its direction, arms outstretched behind her, had made it as clear to her opponent's Ninjask as to her own Swellow that it was to use Brave Bird – and this Ninjask was one of the few pokemon fast enough to react even at this range. Ninjask encased itself in a sphere of blue light and floated to the base's low ceiling, and Swellow bounced off the light, then crashed headfirst onto the wooden floor.

Flygon folded its wings behind its body, having barely any room to fly, and instead took a slow, lumbering walk up to Winona's Altaria, raised its draconic claw, and sliced it painfully across the blue dragon's face. Altaria, despite the intense pain, did not outwardly react to Flygon's strike, for it was lost in concentration, singing a haunting and beautiful melody that summoned a miniature moon into the arena. The moon smashed into Flygon, who spread its wings and flapped them furiously in a doomed effort to brace itself for the inevitable collision into the wall.

Forretress spat a slow-moving, metal ball at Winona's prone Swellow, but Skarmory had flown above it and spread its wings wide to shield its teammate. The ball at first appeared to bounce harmlessly off the steel pokemon's thick, sword-like wings, but then pierced through a fading blue sphere into an unsuspecting and now unconscious Ninjask.

"Ninjask, return!" the old man shouted, raising his poke ball. "Clever. I didn't know Skarmory could do that."

"Most can't," Winona admitted. "But a Skarmory's wing is shaped like a cross between a bat and a hand, and it's perfect for parrying spherical attacks if you know what you're doing."

"Well, cloud girl, I guess it's time to show you my own combo attack! It's not the same without Ninjask, but it should still be enough to win me this match!" her elderly opponent shouted, and at his command, Flygon lifted Forretress in its small but powerful arms and threw it in across the secret base as it ricocheted through the air like a giant pinball.

Swellow, still regaining altitude after its last failed attack, was blindsided as the ball of steel rammed into its wing, knocking it out. Skarmory and Altaria had ducked under the technique, but at the price of landing on the base's shaking floor, for there was simply not enough room between Forretress and the ceiling.

The earthquake seemed to hit Skarmory harder than the Forretress itself would have; its tiny, dark grey legs and talons represented the least armored parts of its body, and the attack was more than sufficient for it to topple over unconscious as it let out a clanging screech of agony.

Only Altaria managed to mostly shrug off the combination attack; at the moment of the combo attack's announcement, it had folded its cloudlike wings and encased itself in its cottony feathers. It was too low for Forretress to hit, but despite being nominally on the ground, there was too much soft material between it and the rumbling ground to feel much more than a scratch.

Winona recalled her Swellow and Skarmory to their pokeballs, and seemed nearly as shaken by the quake as her pokemon.

"You flying trainers never pay any attention to what's going on below you. But in an arena this small, you can't expect to soar above everything," the old fool taunted (although attempts to catch her in a poke ball aside, "fool" seemed a bit mean if he could pull off a combo like that; she'd have to ask his name after the fight.)

"Don't get too confident. There's not much that can restrain my Altaria, even with barely any room to fly!" Winona shouted, whipping her hand forward to point at the Flygon. "Draco Meteor!"

Forretress floated above the Flygon, intent on blocking any aerial attack, while Flygon watched its fellow dragon closely, intent on using the moment it reared back, spread its wings, and brought forth the meteor to strike when it was vulnerable. But Altaria flew closer and closer, and that moment never came.

Instead, a surprised Flygon was raked across the face with Altaria's own thin, light blue, and surprisingly sharp claws and crumpled to the floor, while Forretress shielded Flygon from an attack which would never come.

"W-what did you do?!"

"My Altaria doesn't know Draco Meteor," Winona said with a smile. "I'm just glad it was smart enough to realize I didn't mean Moonblast or anything, but we're close enough that it read my signal perfectly."

"You're a clever girl," the old man answered, "but don't think that your tricks can defeat my Forretress!"

"Well, I can't conquer Fortree without defeating its symbol... but tricks or no tricks, this Altaria is up to the task!"

The Forretress slammed into its opponent, only to be met with another slice from the blue dragon's claws. Neither pokemon seemed all too injured by the exchange; the Forretress' steel body and the Altaria's thick feathers protected them both from more than a dent, but neither trainer had any stronger techniques to command of them.

At the Forretress' next slam, Altaria again folded its wings, and its feathers grew into an even more imposing shield; its sky blue dragon body could barely be seen beneath its wings, and it was so shrouded in clouds that it had become easy to mistake it for its mega counterpart.

After two more exchanges of claw and ball-shaped slam, Altaria landed daintily on the ground, recovering to full strength from a few seconds of rest.

"Forretress, return."

"Hey! This is three on three! If you could switch pokemon, I would have given Tropius a shot once Swellow was knocked out!" Winona protested. "Besides, what was that you were saying about tricks and defeating your Forretress?"

"Indeed it is," the old man noted, resignation in his voice. "I'm conceding, and you won through raw attrition, no tricks involved."

"What? Why?"

"Your Altaria can recover from anything my Forretress does, but I can't say the same. When I saw it roost, I knew the result; anything more is just needlessly hurting both our pokemon."

"Well, I guess it's a win, so I can't really complain," Winona said, although her voice sounded more disappointed by the unfinished battle than elated from the fact of her victory. "Will you sign my gym application?"

Winona handed the old man a small card, and he briefly glanced it over before handing it back. "So you were serious about wanting to be Fortree's Gym Leader. I'm sorry, especially since you won this fight, but I'll have to decline. I want nothing to do with Hoenn's league."

"Why not?" Winona asked, sounding far more shocked than she should have; Wallace had been right to warn her.

"My name was Gym Leader Anthony... though I guess it's Bug Catcher Anthony or Veteran Anthony now. You're young enough that this might not ring a bell, so look me up or ask around Azalea, and I think my reasons should be obvious."

To Applicant Winona,

We're closing the Ever Grande gym precisely because no one lives in Ever Grande anymore, which is why we're accepting nominations for an Eighth leader from other towns to begin with. The gym in Seafoam, apart from being outside my jurisdiction, is a temporary emergency measure whose gym leader is still registered as representing Cinnabar, and will return there once the island rebuilds from the eruption.

There are plenty of excellent trainers in Fortree. Convince them to register and approve you and I see no reason we should not look favorably on your proposal.

With regards,

Steven.

Winona uneasily gripped her pen, unsure if to respond.

She had fought her fair share of matches in the past few days – nothing official, just practice – and won a lot more than she lost, but the example of her battle with Anthony repeated itself time and time again; not a single trainer in Fortree City was willing to sign her gym application, even the ones her Altaria easily swept, and virtually all of them had a grievance with Hoenn's League.

The grievances were different, and some were more raw or personal than others; some had wound up on the losing end of bitter personal conflicts, while others had no more serious objections than being denied appropriate ranks by the league's often frustrating bureaucracy. The story she looked up about Anthony – removed from being a gym leader because a change in classification of bug types had deprived him of his Flygon for gym matches and his other pokemon weren't up to the task, and then his disqualification from the league's tournament in a controversial ring-out call criticized even at the time as an example of atrocious, politically motivated officiating – was certainly the most severe, but aspects of it echoed in all the other stories she was told.

There were trainers who would be discouraged by this stonewalling from all sides. But Winona, appalled as she had become by the present League's leadership, was simply not among them; if anything, it made her even more determined to change Fortree – and pokemon battles in Hoenn – for the better.

To the Hoenn League:

I've beaten multiple trainers in Fortree who are as skilled as the average trainer who manages to win eight badges and compete in the Pokemon League, but could not be convinced to register with Hoenn. As the League's sole representative in Fortree, I hope to be given the authority to adjudicate their skill level and rank them appropriately, at a minimum on a temporary basis until sufficient League officials can arrive.

I will accept your condition, provided that unregistered and lapsed trainers are given an adequate rank based on their observed skill in pokemon battles, regardless of their lack of experience in official matches.

Should this request be denied, I am not averse to writing to Kanto and requesting the creation of an official Fortree League, incorporating the settlement proper and all portions of forest closer to Fortree than Mauville or Lilycove. It is my sincere belief that Fortree contains a sufficient number of powerful trainers and land to support its own regional league if need be, and that the locals' universal rejection of Hoenn's League would mean the creation of a new league would not impugn on any existing interests.

I hope for a favorable response,

Winona.