Chapter Text
Beside the Seaside
Hulbury, Galar
Bolt was no stranger to a merchant town on the coast. After all, Treasure Town was exactly that. The Wigglytuff Guild overlooked the town where Pokemon opened businesses of all kinds. Shops, a bank, even a box opening service run by a glassy-eyed Xatu who talked about staring into the sun all day.
Now the angle his stall sat at makes sense.
But as he disembarked the ship, Pia running ahead of him, squeaking happily, and the humans he had ended up with trusting him to not run off or anything asinine, he felt a sense of familiarity looking around. Business owners chatting to each other in between sales, children running next to the huge body of water and their parents shouting at them to be careful. He imagined Castelia to be this place’s version of Lively Town. He made a mental note to visit there once he returned. So would Hulbury be the human version of Treasure Town?
He couldn’t quite say. But he felt a bit more relaxed here.
Of course, he had completely missed Krys racing past him in pursuit of Pia, shouting something about "not bothering the stallowners again".
“You like?” Ollie spoke up, coming up next to him, grinning. “Hulbury. Krys’s hometown.”
Bolt nodded lightly. “It’s nice! Is it your hometown too?”
Ollie shook his head, sticking his hands in his jacket pocket and sniffing in that fresh Galar sea air. “Nah. I was raised in Motostoke. Next town over. I’d rather be here though.”
Bolt furrowed his eyebrow and looked up at Oliver. “How come?”
“It’s a little quieter, and it’s better here to chill out. Motostoke’s a little too…” He waved his wrist in a clockwise motion, the word on the tip of his tongue.
“Noisy?”
“Noisy.” He clicked his fingers, relieved. “It’s not Castelia noisy, but honestly, I’d rather live here, as much as I love Motostoke.”
“Lemme guess. Too many people?”
“Well….it’s mainly the gears.”
This gave Bolt pause. What the f.. “Gears?”
“Something about industry and remembering roots.”
“Oh.” He scratched his itchy ear, before smirking. "Sure Krystal wasn't a factor?"
Oblivious at first, Oliver tilted his head and nodded. "Well, she certainly helped…"
And then his eyes widened. He'd caught on.
He snapped his head down at that cheeky mouse, that just so happened to be aiming a shit eating grin at him. His face going a tinge of pink, he huffed out "Just what are you trying to imply?"
Bolt burst into a fit of giggles, pointing at the flustered human. "Zing!“
However, wasn't looking where he was going, and he tripped over a cobblestone, falling flat on his front. "Oof!"
"Ha!" Ollie flashed a grin right back, cackling as he went on. "Zing!"
Bolt pushed himself up and huffed, folding his forelegs and glaring daggers at the back of Ollie's head as he followed.
Ollie’s own Rotom phone, this one blue as opposed to Krys’s red one, floated out of his pocket and hovered in front of him, displaying a text, making both of them stop.
“Found her. Meet me outside of the gym.”
“Can you read that?” Ollie asked Bolt, curiously.
“Yeah. Where’s the gym?”
Ollie pointed at the massive building that sat at the edge of the coast. “There.”
“That’s a gym?”
“Yeeeup.”
Bolt scratched his head, raising an eyebrow. “Looks more like a stadium to me.”
Ollie grinned, setting off walking, arms resting behind his head. “Welcome to Galar!”
Bolt couldn’t stand there and be lost for words, so he just made to catch up to his new companion. “Thanks, I guess?”
It took all of 2 minutes before the gang was whole again. Pia was perched on Krys’s shoulder, completely satisfied, clutching a Castelia Cone whilst Krys herself had her hands on her hips, inspecting the two as they skulked up to her. Krystal could immediately tell something was up.
Bolt dusting himself off.
Ollie with a stupid grin plastered to that cute face of his.
Wait, n-
“What happened?”
Ollie opened his mouth to speak up first, but Bolt was quicker on the draw.
“Well, Krystal, your companion here got a little embarrassed about something, and I had a little chuckle about it. He got a little salty about it to the point where when I didn’t see a crack in the ground, and it made me fall, well, he wasn’t exactly humble about it.”
There was something about the way he said ‘companion’ that made Ollie’s face just a touch warm, and want to strangle the talking mouse. He knows too much.
“Uh...huh.” Krys nodded and turned her attention to her old friend, her left eyebrow quirked up.
Ollie felt stuck. Suffocatingly so. Oh no. There’s that look. Left eyebrow, eyelids down a quarter of the way. Shit’s gonna go south fast. Think, Oliver, think!
“And what embarrassed you, if I may ask?”
“Well.” Bolt began. “He-”
“-Farted.” Ollie interrupted, his face turning a little pink. “A little too loudly. A few passerbys heard it.”
..
Dead silence. That’s all that could be heard from the group. Bolt looked like Ollie had just kicked a Rockruff. Even Pia had stopped licking her ice cream in pure shock. All Krys could do was stare at Ollie with her brow furrowed.
This carried on until Krystal broke the silence with “Again?”
Ollie was right to immediately mouth a quick "Don't ask" to a gobsmacked Bolt. The poor boy's face was quite red.
"Now." Krystal started. "Mum's busy getting things ready for us. So we've got two options to kill time. One, go for a stroll and then have lunch at the Captain's Table." The girl could see the hesitance on both of their faces. However she had planned for this. She smirked, then jabbed her thumb at the amount of people entering Hulbury Stadium. "Or we could go watch the full exhibition match between Nessa and Gloria in about 10 minutes."
Ollie's face lit up with excitement. "Yes! I forgot she was touring Galar!“ Bolt's ears spiked up in curiosity.
"What's going on again?“
The atmosphere was absolutely electric. The crowd was roaring. It was tense.
And Bolt was absolutely loving it.
When the battle first started, Bolt didn’t think much to it. It was two Pokemon battling it out with their trainers issuing commands. And being a Pokemon himself, he felt a tiny bit awkward. He knew of Pokemon training, but he had never seen it first hand.
But watching these two seasoned trainers, one of which he had come to understand was the de facto strongest in the entire region, battling it out with their partners, he quickly came to love every moment of it.
And the crowd’s various attitudes were infectious. The chants, the screams. The odd boo here and there, he wasn’t a fan of though.
Both trainers were down to their last Pokemon, and both had taken some damage. The crowd, even Bolt knew, that the end was near. And it was tense.
One of the trainers had dark skin, hair that was two shades of blue (the shades reminded him of Grace a little bit), blue eyes (ditto), a two piece sports uniform that was water themed, and wore sandles. This was the Hulbury Gym Leader Nessa.
Opposite the field had fair skin, chestnut brown hair that reached just past her shoulders, eyes that matched her hair, a magenta shirt dress with a white jacket on top, and brown boots. This was the Galar Region Champion that had dethroned the “Unbeatable” Leon, Gloria.
Both had fire in their eyes. And Bolt could feel it from here.
“Looks like both of them are staring each other down, trying to read each other.” One of the commentators voiced.
“We could be seeing an upset here at Hulbury Stadium. We haven’t even seen Galar’s signature technique at play yet.” The other added.
“Ah yes. Something to note from her last battle with Milo, Champion Gloria saved her Dynamax until she was completely backed into a corner. And it looks like Nessa took a page out of her book. Now that these two are at a stalemate, could we see-” His question was cut off as both trainers’ wristbands glowed, something that set the crowd off once again as both Inteleon and Drednaw were returned to their Poke Balls.
Bolt had no clue what was going on, so to say he was surprised was a massive understatement as the Pokemon were sent out once more, only both of them were absolutely huge! Dark, red, stormy clouds circled the top of both of them. For a brief moment, however, flashes of Primal Dialga atop Temporal Tower played in his eyes, the Draco Meteors roaring down and-
“(Bolt?)” Pia squeaked from his side, bringing him back to the present. He blinked and looked down at her, looking back at him concerned. “(We okay?)”
Bolt sighed and smiled at her. “Yeah.” He answered, ruffling her head. “We okay.”
He then looked over at the battlefield again, and Inteleon’s form had shifted along with its size. Its tail was tall and simultaneously acted as a platform for it to perch on.
“Now, Inteleon! It’s time to close it out!” Gloria shouted, her collar microphone amplifying her voice to the crowd. “G-Max Hydrosnipe!”
Nessa’s eyes widened and she threw a hand out to her partner. “Dodge it!”
It was too late, however. Inteleon took aim, and the compressed water hit its mark on the shelled behemoth, sending it sprawling backwards.
And that was that. The Dynamax energy grew unstable and exploded, and Drednaw shrunk back down to its normal size.
“A brutal end!” One of the commentators screamed into his microphone as the crowd roared. “It was close, but it looks like Nessa couldn’t quite end the Champion’s Tour this early on. Gloria will go on to battle Kabu, same time next week!”
Nessa returned Drednaw to its Pokeball and gave off a shaky sigh. Gloria came up to her and smiled at her.
“Well well, Ness, you actually went and made me sweat that match.” She offered her hand out. “Catch you again at the next Star Tournament, aye?”
The Hulbury Leader looked up at the Champion from her hands. She couldn’t bring herself to be mad with how well she battled.
“I hope you know that after this, you’re gonna get drowned next time.” She remarked and took her hand in a fierce shake, smiling back. There was no animosity behind those words.
The crowd cheered once again. “And there we go. A fitting end to a well fought battle on both sides.”
In the stands, Krystal looked over at Bolt to see him grinning from sac to sac. “Enjoy the show, Bolt?”
“Enjoy it?” Bolt stood up from his perch on the railing, paws clenched into fists, grinning like a madman. “That was amazing! So cooooool!”
“Psh, someone got a little too much into it.” Ollie remarked, standing up and grabbing his jacket.
“You were screaming yourself.” Krys retorted. Ollie could only grumble and look away.
“It was intense, okay?”
“You’re not wrong.” Bolt spoke up. “The roaring crowd…”
“The tactics and showmanship of the Gym Leader and Champion..” Ollie added.
“And above all else..”
“The power!” Both Bolt and Ollie shouted, grinning at each other. Right as that happened, the two came to a realisation.
An understanding.
“Y’know, you really aren’t half bad.” Ollie remarked, with a smirk.
“Likewise.” Bolt retorted with a smirk of his own, and the two fistbumped each other.
“Well, this has been a really big bonding experience.” Krys snarked from the sidelines. The two looked at her, and she held up her phone with a text from her mother. “But mum’s expecting us back soon.”
“Oh right!” Ollie laughed, zipping up his jacket, and picking up Pia. “Let’s go then.”
The group walked out of the stands and out of the stadium.
Bolt felt a lot better after that. All that cheering had helped him let off a lot of tension he didn’t know he had.
There was still the problem of getting back to the Guild, and back to Grace...and finding a way back.
But unlike being in the future, there was no world in danger. So he could afford to take his time at least a little bit.
Upon setting foot onto the Isle of Armour, Spike was challenged by a fair few Pokemon right away. It was clear the Pokemon on this island were a competitive bunch, and, well, he was more than happy to oblige.
Being an experienced battler himself, he won just about all of them.
But, naturally, battling works up an appetite, and he found a small spot to relax and ate some berries he plucked from some of the trees about the place.
And all he could do was ponder to himself as he considered his next move.
“Hehe. It’s strange, ain’t it?” He thought out loud. “I finally found myself able to move on from Ellie, and I find myself here.”
He took a massive bite out of his Leichi Berry, not at all minding the natural kick of the berry, and burped, sighing and looking at the sky.
“Although....that does make me wonder. Did someone actually manage it? That’s pretty big if so. Things were pretty weird before I went to sleep.”
He demolished his Leichi Berry, then threw his paws behind his head, closing his eyes.
“Power nap, fight-slash-body a few more ferals, then decide what in the Hells I’m gonna do to get back to the Syndicate. They’re all gonna laugh at this. Except Dawn. She’s probably gonna kill me.”