Continuing up Foal Mountain, the group finds a Lairon batteling a Stalorn to protect its Aron friends and losing. With Lairon too big and heavy to move normally, Doc catches it so they can move it out of the caves and away from Stalorn to heal it. Doc decides to help Lairon defeat the invading Stalorn and take back its home for it and its friends.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Lairon only knows Physical attacks, so it has no way of getting around Stalorn's Counter. Once Lairon learns Flash Cannon though this is subverted, since Flash Cannon is a Special attack that isn't affected by Counter. On the other side of things, Stalorn's only really effective attack against Steel and Rock types seems to be Counter, so once its would-be-victims learn a move that is unaffected by it, it is easily defeated by them.
- The Glomp: Once Doc agrees to let Lairon stay with him, Lairon is so happy he leaps on top of Doc in a hug, accidentally crushing him in the process.
- Honor Before Reason: Doc says he wouldn't mind having a Lairon on his team, but feels like he doesn't deserve to keep Lairon since he doesn't consider it a "proper catch", since he didn't weaken it himself and only caught it to move it better. So, he promises that once he helps it get its home back from Stalorn he'll let him go. Subverted by the end when he sees that Lairon wants to stay with him, despite the unusual circumstances surrounding his capture.
- Took a Level in Badass: Lairon learns Flash Cannon in order to defeat Stalorn. Afterwards, all of his Aron friends learn Flash Cannon too from watching him, right before they all evolve into Lairon themselves.
- Wham Episode: This initially seems like just a Breather Episode to help another Wild Pokémon, until the very end when Doc agrees to let Lairon join his team. The Author's Notes at the end of the chapter even state this was meant to be a surprise, with Doc catching a canon Pokémon.
