Gary checked Darkrai's detailed data.
[Pokémon: Darkrai]
[Type: Dark]
[Level: 50]
[Potential: Quasi-Legendary]
[Ability: EX Nightmare (When the target is asleep, Darkrai's attacks reduce its physical strength by one-quarter.)]
[Moves: Disable, Quick Attack, Hypnosis, Sucker Punch, Night Shade, Double Team.]
[Taught Moves: Rain Dance, Drain Punch, Rest, Protect, Rock Slide, Dream Eater, Shadow Ball, Hyper Beam, Ice Beam, Shadow Claw, Sludge Bomb, Thunderbolt, Swords Dance, Hidden Power.]
[Friendship: 225 (Max 255)]
It was exactly as Gary had predicted. After the Ability was strengthened, the reduction increased from one-eighth to one-quarter.
"Dak!"
Darkrai was quite sensitive to its own Ability and could clearly feel that it had become stronger.
"Do you feel it?" Gary asked.
"Dak."
Darkrai nodded.
"Do you want to try taking the Lunar Wing out and see if you can control your Ability now?" Gary asked.
Since the Ability had been strengthened, maybe it would help Darkrai gain better control over it.
"Da..."
Darkrai hesitated. After all, this was a human city. If it couldn't maintain enough control, the people and Pokémon in the area wouldn't sleep well tonight.
"It's fine. Just one night of poor sleep won't really matter," Gary said.
Veilstone City residents: That's easy for you to say.
"Dak."
Darkrai nodded and decided to give it a try, taking the Lunar Wing out of its carry space.
Gary kept the Lunar Wing with himself to avoid having nightmares at night.
"By the way, I'll improve your potential." Gary used a Gold Bottle Cap and raised Darkrai's potential from Quasi-Legendary to Legendary.
Darkrai didn't feel any immediate change from the potential improvement. All it wanted was to try controlling its Ability today.
After one night...
"How is it? Were you able to control it?"
The first thing Gary did upon waking up was ask Darkrai about its condition from the previous night. Gary had gone to bed very early and slept straight through until dawn, so he had no idea how things had gone.
"Dak."
Darkrai shook its head. The results were not ideal.
Last night, aside from the people in the Pokémon Center and the Pokémon staying there—who were unaffected—the surrounding neighborhoods and hotels all suffered nightmares to varying degrees.
People had nightmares very frequently, and some of the more timid ones didn't even dare to rest afterward.
Because the Ability had been strengthened, the nightmares felt more realistic, as if they were actually real. Even when people woke up frightened, they still felt trapped inside the dream and didn't dare to fall back asleep.
"Hurry up and put the Lunar Wing back on."
Gary had no choice but to hand the Lunar Wing back to Darkrai.
This test was considered a failure. It seemed that after strengthening the Ability, Darkrai still couldn't control its own power. That left only one solution—raising its overall strength.
In this regard, they could look to Ash's Chimchar. During its Chimchar and Monferno stages, it couldn't control its EX Blaze Ability either, but after evolving into Infernape, it finally mastered it.
Gary wasn't in a hurry to level up Darkrai for now. He would let Darkrai improve through training first. With its Legendary potential, gaining two or three levels before the Lily of the Valley Conference would be easy enough.
Seeing the Lunar Wing again, Darkrai was visibly relieved and immediately stored it back in its carry space.
The day before, watching people and Pokémon suffer had made Darkrai feel terrible. It never wanted to do this. When it first noticed the Pokémon around it having nightmares long ago, it hadn't realized it was caused by itself.
Only after a long time did Darkrai finally understand that it was its own problem, so it left the other Pokémon behind and chose to live alone on Newmoon Island.
"Come back."
Gary also recalled Darkrai.
When he went to the cafeteria in the Pokémon Center, Gary looked at the faces of the people eating there. Thanks to the Lunar Wing's proximity, everyone staying inside the Pokémon Center was perfectly fine.
After breakfast, Gary went outside to take a look. The owners and employees of some nearby shops really hadn't slept well.
Gary silently apologized in his heart, then rode away on Garchomp and hurried toward Sunyshore City.
The Battle Castle was located in Sunyshore City.
The villas and castles of Caitlin's family were always built in prime locations. Sunyshore City was an excellent place, and real estate prices here ranked among the highest in the entire Sinnoh region.
It took more than an hour of traveling.
Gary arrived in Sunyshore City. This was his second time visiting.
Perhaps to check whether anything had changed, Gary rode Cyclizar to the entrance of Sunyshore Gym.
"Hello, what brings you to the Sunyshore Gym?" A familiar mechanical voice sounded.
"Is the Gym Leader here?"
"Sorry, the Gym Leader is out on business. If you need anything, please let me know."
"I'm here to challenge the Gym."
"Please come inside. This Gym doesn't require a challenge—you can directly obtain our Gym Badge."
Gary curled his lips. It was still the same as always. It seemed only Ash could awaken the Trainer's spirit in Volkner's heart.
"Ah! Someone got here before me!"
Just then, a voice called from behind Gary.
Gary turned around and saw a blond teenager charging straight toward him. Gary immediately stepped back several paces. The blond teenager didn't stop and crashed headfirst into the Gym door.
Bang!!
"..."
The blond boy was knocked so dizzy he couldn't recover for a while.
Barry!
The blond boy was none other than one of Ash's strong rivals in the Sinnoh Region, named Barry.
This guy Barry was also the protagonist's rival in the games. Barry in the anime seemed a bit less impressive, but he still made it to the Top 16, so his strength was still decent.
"Are you okay?" Gary asked.
Barry immediately came to his senses, jumped to his feet, and shouted, "Why did you dodge?! Fortunately, I'm tough, otherwise if something had broken, you'd owe me a million!"
Gary was speechless.
This Barry was the son of Battle Tower's Palmer. Why didn't he learn to watch where he was going? He demanded a million every time he crashed into something.
Why not just claim he'd hit someone and demand a million in compensation instead?
Barry had bumped into Ash plenty of times. Fortunately, Ash had a genuinely tough constitution. Otherwise, if he had crashed into an ordinary old man, even with Palmer as his father, Barry would still have had to pay up.
"If you don't have the money to pay, you can make it up another way. Just let me challenge the Gym first, and you won't need to pay a million," Barry declared.
Gary: "...!"
After all that commotion, his ultimate goal was just to challenge the Gym first.