Chapter Text
If I could turn back time to before I met him, knowing what I do now, I wonder if things would've been different. A small, sleepy town, simple chores, a peaceful everyday life. Take the pokemon for a jog. Check that the gate to the Slumbering Weald is locked. Do the dishes. Go to school. Day after day, my life repeated itself in that regular pattern. A soothing, dream-like rhythm. Until the day he arrived.
I don't remember the details as to why he came. Something about the city being too noisy for raising kids and his older brother's rising fame causing them trouble in Hammerlock. Whatever the reason, one day the large house down the lane from us was renovated and soon a new family moved in. They said the boy was my age and that we should try to get along. When my mother first took me over to meet them, I hid behind her plaid skirt, not wanting to. I was content with my life as it was: playing with the pokemon, doing my chores, and splashing in puddles after rainstorms. Why did I have to entertain this random stranger?
However, like a bug-type expert prying a shy Nincada off a tree, my mother detached me from her skirt and pushed me forwards to meet the new kid. Large yellow eyes stared at me like the headlamps of a train, and his face morphed into a huge, stupid grin as he cheered in the screechy voice of an eight year old, "Hullo! I'm Hop! It's swell to meet you! I bet we're gonna be the best of mates!"
I looked over at a Wooloo rolling around the field, hoping that if I pretended the noisy aberration before me didn't exist, he'd go away like the Joltiks that occasionally crawled into our kitchen. Again, my too kind mother nudged me, and I mumbled out the briefest introduction I could think of "I'm Alice."
Somehow, his stupid grin got even bigger, as though he was trying to show off all his baby teeth. “Alice! Sounds like the perfect name for my future rival!”
Rival? At what? Was he nuts? We’re eight. However, just before I could blurt out that he was an idiot, my mother gave me a warning squeeze on the shoulder. Thus, my childhood friend and the fertilizer for the root of the calamity to come was forced upon me.
However, after a bumpy beginning, I eventually got used to Hop’s regular appearances on my doorstep and even more regular tangents about how awesome his brother was. Arceus above, he would not shut up about his big brother. Leon this, Leon that, I must admit I started zoning out when one of his obsessive tangents began. Fortunately, he seemed content with me smiling and nodding whenever he asked a question after finally coming back to the original topic, even if I hadn’t been paying any attention to the question. I wonder which of us had been more oblivious back then.
Though for the most part I viewed him as a bout of inclement weather in my day to day routine, or maybe an annoying commercial on the telly, Hop wasn’t all bad. I showed him how to race Rhydons, a sport my mom had picked up during her studies in the Kalos region, where to find the best berries along the edge of the Slumbering Weald, and how to aggravate the local Tympoles into using bubble beam to push us along the pond in our intertubes. Aside from his boastful tangents about his brother and his own future greatness, which never ceased to annoy of course, I gradually forgot why I’d found him irritating and he blended into my peaceful life like another part of the scenery.
After the initial interruption, seven years passed and my life continued along its wonderfully dreamlike path with a few minor changes. I smiled more—not intentionally—between my mother and Hop’s incessant nagging, a small, neutral smile seemed to get stuck as my default expression. Smiling at people when all you want to do is glare is quite frustrating for a young teen. Especially when everyone around you is apparently too dense to be able to differentiate a sarcastic smile from a real one.
An odd occurrence, or perhaps absence, was that I never actually met Leon during those seven years. Hop went on and on about how he’d introduce us, but it never actually happened. Something would always come up—Leon would get lost, busy, or I would have an appointment.
At last, the day that changed everything arrived. As usual, Hop being the overly excitable Yamper of a boy that he is, came to knock on my door at an unreasonable hour in the morning, like eight thirty. Just because I was already awake doesn't mean I wanted to be up and doing anything. However, after seven years I’d grown numb to this kind of irritation. After rolling off the bed already dressed and grabbing my hand-me-down backpack, I headed down to the foyer where my Mum and Hop were already eagerly discussing our getting pokemon. Oh, right, that was today. Hop blurted out some excited gibberish about Leon before practically teleporting back out the door, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I walked out after him.
Outside, it was a beautiful sunny morning. A gentle breeze blew and a Wooloo was rolling itself against the gate to the Slumbering Weald. Hop laughed at it and warned it not to get carried away, then cheered for me to hurry up, before rushing off on his own. Why rush? Based on his own testimonies, Leon was undoubtedly going to be late because he’d gotten lost again. I glanced at the gate, it was still latched from the previous night and seemed to be holding. With a sigh, I patted the Wooloo and hauled it around to face the other direction before setting off down the path to Hop’s place where we were supposed to meet Leon.
As usual, the Champion who couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag wasn’t there yet. Hop’s mum suggested we go down to Wedgehurst station to meet him. Hop beamed and agreed immediately, but as he turned to dash off again I thought I saw a crack in his unflagging grin. So even Hop could be disappointed by his idol sometimes, huh?
I followed him down Route 1 to Wedgehurst. Predictably, Leon was being mobbed by fans and practically bathing in the attention. Some people were just born to be celebrities, I thought. Enough people have gathered that we couldn’t get close to him, and try as he might, jumping up and down and calling, Leon doesn’t seem to notice Hop at all. Maybe all the fans just blurred together to him at this point, his little brother included. One positive thing is that his equally famous Charizard is leagues more reliable than its trainer, and when it noticed Hop it lightly smacked Leon in reprimand with its tail.
Finally noticing Hop after about five minutes, Leon called out to him and made his way through the crowd. Hop introduced us, and Leon is polite enough, but once introductions are over Hop resumes his usual rapid-fire interrogation. I walked behind them, happy not to be the target of Hop’s endless chatter for once, and couldn’t help but smile a bit at Leon’s helpless expression as his own brother wouldn’t let him get a word in edgewise.
The Charizard walked in the back beside me, seeming to likewise be enjoying the break. I stealthily offer it a cheri-berry, which it accepts with an expression of approval and lets me pet its noble head in exchange. The orange flesh is more like coarse skin than scales, and satisfyingly warm to the touch. Riding on its back, high above people, conversations, the world really, with the warmth of its body protecting me from the cold wind seemed like it would be absolutely amazing.
Soon enough we arrived back at Hop’s place and I was snapped out of my idle daydream by Leon announcing he had a surprise for us. Is it really a surprise when this has been arranged for months already? He released three pokemon, introducing them as Grookey, Scorebunny, and Sobble. Hob jumped in excitement as I looked over them and belatedly confronted the reality that I was actually going to have to go on a pokemon journey instead of just chilling at home with my partner. Drat.
Gentlemanly perhaps, or perhaps unable to make up his overactive mind, Hop invited me to choose first. The Grooky was bouncing energetically and making chattering noises as it tested the percussive quality of different sticks. Nope. One Hop was enough for me. My eyes lingered on the Sobble for a bit longer. It was quieter, now that it’d stopped bawling, but still seemed super insecure. I looked over to the third pokemon, a fire-type. Scorebunny was diligently dribbling a ball made of fire and seemed to be enjoying practicing its moves. My smile became a bit more genuine. That was the one. If I was going to have to go on a journey, it was going to be with a partner who was focused and fun.
I pulled a dried pecha-berry from my pocket and offered it to the little pokemon. It came over and looked at me curiously, tried the berry, then gave me a huge grin as it toasted the flesh before eating it. Little gourmet. I grinned back and picked it up, enjoying the dry warmth it had that’s reminiscent of Charizard. Maybe this could be a little fun after all.
Hop finally made up his mind and enthusiastically picked the Grooky, spinning around with an bigger, stupid grin than usual and thanking his brother. Leon took the remaining Sobble, probably out of pity, but who knows, maybe it balanced his team somehow. Then their mum came out with a lighter and said that to celebrate we’re going to have a barbeque.
While the adults and Hop chattered on over kebabs, Scorebunny and I went off to the side and I tried to see if Leon had happened to teach it anything already, as he’d explained they already knew some basics. After some bumbling around with pantomime, we managed to reach an understanding and I got it to use Scratch. Hop came over and cheerfully complained that I was getting a head-start, and drug me back to resume being a sounding board for his unfiltered ambitions. It was a long night, but tumultuous as it had felt at the time, little had I known it marked the end of my peaceful days.
The next morning, I was again rolled out of bed, thought at the more reasonable hour of ten, by Hop who grinned and said he’d gotten another surprise for us. However, as we walked out the Wooloo from yesterday was rolling at the fence again, and just as we got to the bottom of the stairs, it burst through and went tumbling down the path into the Slumbering Weald. Hop and I both cursed and went chasing after it.
I’d only ever flitted around the edges of the Weald before, searching for berries. We’d been warned the seemingly ever-present fog might cause us to get lost, and that it'd be dangerous if we ran into a powerful pokemon on our own. However, having had our pokemon for just a day, not even that really, Hop was overflowing with nervous energy and said it should be fine now that we have our own pokemon. Nevermind that they’re only babies and we’ve just barely begun to learn how to command them properly. And of course, as soon as he said that I ran face first into a flitting Rookiedee, which understandably, pissed it off.
Hop ran off ahead somewhere while Scorebunny and I dealt with several more ruffled pokemon who were disturbed by our intrusion. Fortunately they were all weak, so Scorebunny and I could handle them without a problem. Actually, we even figured out how to use the little ball of fire it liked to make as an attack, Ember.
However, even though we made a little progress as a team, as we continued on the fog got denser and denser. Still no sign of the Wooloo. I began to understand why the adults had warned us to stay out of here.
Then, in the distance came the sound of an eerie howling.
It was only a small tug on my leg by Scorebunny that kept me from slamming right into Hop. The fog was so dense I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Something like fur brushed my shoulder and I didn’t dare move. My partner was also dead silent, as though sensing a predator. In addition to the fog, there was a peculiar pressure in my ears, like when you ascend a mountain too quickly or jump too deep into a pool.
A wind stirred the fog and suddenly a giant canid-looking pokemon stepped forward not ten feet away. Rust-red fur on top, a silvery underside, with a blue tuft atop its head. It was covered in scars and missing a piece of its ear: a warrior. With luck we might be able to slip back into the fog and lose its interest, but there’s no way two novices with baby pokemon could’ve fought that. Or so I’d reasoned like someone with common sense. Hop on the other hand seemed to have decided to try his hand at being a hero and commanded his Grookey to attack it.
It turned its head towards him. The idiot. Not about to get the blame for him getting eaten, I clench my fists and ask Scorebunny to get its attention with Ember. It worked, kind of. When the flame hit the pokemon it turned its scarred face towards us, however, the move itself didn’t seem to do anything. Instead it seemed to pass thought as though going through a mirage. Well, that was just great.
Hop and I tried a couple more times, apparently his stupid-bug also bit me at some point. Luckily, the pokemon didn’t come closer, it just kept looking between the two of us, as though mulling something over. The fog grew denser and denser. For some reason, I was starting to feel dizzy. Then, when it was almost completely obscured by the fog, those steely eyes locked with mine for a moment, and I felt as though every hair on my body stood on end. The last thing I remember was hearing that eerie howling again before the creature vanished into the fog and I guess I blacked out.
When I came to, the fog was back to the same density as at the edges of the forest. Sitting up, I felt dirt and twigs clinging to the back of my cardigan. Clinging to the front was my Scorebunny, who woke up and began making alarmed chattering noises. Patting its head, I soothed it and told it it’d done well. It calmed down after I gave it an oran berry that had been somewhat squashed and was seeping through my pocket.
Looking around, I saw Hop lying against a bank a little ways away, also just beginning to stir. So it hadn’t just been me, that was a relief at least. We both got up and I dusted myself off as Hop yammered off theories about what had just happened, then Leon burst around the corner. He at least asked if we were all right before beginning the interrogation as to why we had come into the Slumbering Weald.
Hop explained about the Wooloo. Leon called his Charizard which herded a sheepish looking, wooly pokemon over, and said that fortunately they’d found us and that no one seemed hurt. Leon and Charizard, though mostly Charizard, lead the way back out, and we’d gone back to Hop’s place. Apparently not exhausted enough by the antics of the morning, Hop said we should get more practice in battling and challenged me. To my dismay, Leon said it was a good idea and volunteered to referee.
Standing across from each other Hop and I each pulled out our pokemon. Hop told me that I’d better not go easy on him since I was his rival. Ugh, he was bringing up that rival nonsense all on his own again. Tired, irritated, and rattled from the earlier encounter of the day, I took the initiative and had Scorebunny use Ember. Hop flinched as the super-effective hit sent his Grookey flying in a ball of smoke. Leon raised an eyebrow. Oops, was I not supposed to thrash his younger brother in front of him? Oh well. If Hop didn’t want to get thrashed, he should’ve picked the water-type Sobble. Even elementary schoolers know how type-matchups work. Hop had Grookey use scratch, and Scorebunny flinched, but we retaliated the next turn with another Ember that knocked it out of the match.
However, before Leon could call the match, the Wooloo jumped into the battle on Hop’s side, and he smirked saying he wasn’t out of the fight yet. I gave Leon a baleful glance, but he just grinned mischievously and said it sounded like fun. What a pain. Wooloo’s Defense-curl made it hard to do any damage, but Scorebunny was fast. Eventually, it wore it down and was able to knock it out before its defense went too high.
With a stupid smile that showed their family resemblance, Leon announce that we both seemed promising and that we should definitely start our pokemon journey. Tomorrow.
I opened my mouth to protest, that was way too sudden. However, before I could get a word in edgewise, Hop cheered in excitement, going on and on about how awesome this was going to be and what a great trainer he was going to become, etc. I stared down at my Scorebunny lost in thought. No matter how exciting Hop might make it seem, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. As I probably should’ve expected, that night my mother cheered that this was a great opportunity for me, and I plopped into bed utterly exhausted and wishing Hop would fall into one of those false-well/ den things in the Wild Area and get eaten by something.
The next day we made our way to Wedgehurst. Hop, full of nervous energy as he embarked on what to him was probably akin to a holy mission from his idol, explained even trivial things like what the pokemon center was. As he went shopping for pokeballs, I wandered back out, still in a daze that I was being forced on this mission with him. I happened to bump into Leon, who introduced me to a woman named Sonia who was either his Ex or had an unrequited crush on him that had died bitter. Either way, ooph. She seemed reasonable enough though, and even offered to introduce me to her grandmother, a pokemon professor. I seized the opportunity, anything to get out of the likely chance Hop was going to drag me to do the Gym Challenge.
On the way, Leon showed us how to catch pokemon. I guess he might’ve felt compelled to do it as a formality, seeing as everyone already knew this. Hop dashed off as soon as he was done to go and build his :roster,” as he put it. However, I didn’t feel any connection or need to catch anything as I wandered along to the Professor’s cottage, so it remained just Scorebunny and I.
Just as I went to check out water-types by the lake, a pair of meteorites slammed into the ground up the bank for me. I jumped back in alarm, cursing. Hop rushed over and found a pair of things in the little crater. When Leon and Professor Magnolia came over, they revealed them to be Wishing Stones. The Professor took them to polish them into something, and Hop declared this was surely a sign he was going to become the best trainer ever. Well, one person's near-death experience was another’s divine sign, I suppose.
Riding that energy, he challenged me again. Again, Scorebunny and I crushed them. The first time I’d dismissed it as a combination of luck and Hop’s poor decision-making, but this time, I began to wonder if I might actually have a knack for pokemon battles. From the corner of my eye, as Scorbunny scorched Grookey into the earth again, I’d noticed Leon watching us appraisingly.
When his last pokemon was defeated, Hop took a step back in shock and said, “Wow, you’re amazing Alice! I’m definitely going to have to train harder to stay toe-to-toe with you as my rival!”
With a feigned thoughtful air as though he hadn’t had this in mind all along, Leon mused, “If you’re that enthusiastic, then why don’t the two of you try the Gym Challenge?”
“Really Lee?”
Oh Arceus, here it comes.
“Sure, I’ll even endorse you myself!”
I stare blankly at the two. Seriously? Wasn’t the journey around with our pokemon enough? A memory of the blindingly bright stadiums and the deafening roar of the crowds in the stands flashed through my mind from when my mother took me to one of Kabu’s matches in Motostoke (she has a weird taste in guys). Not my cup of tea. However, arguing just to be pressured into doing it anyways would be a pain, so I begrudgingly went along with it. It’s not like I was going to win, right?
“Well in that case, these Dynamax Bands certainly won’t go to waste,” Professor Magnolia chimed in as she walked out and handed us each a white bracelet. Well, that was convenient .
Leon gave us a mini-lecture on how Dynamaxing worked, then sent us home to pack for the Challenge. The professor added it might be helpful for us to complete the pokedex as finding and fighting a lot of different pokemon would be a great way to prepare for battles and find new teammates. Well, that at least I could agree with. When I arrived my mother congratulated me and we had ice cream sandwiches and spare-rib soup, my favorites. After everything that day, it was a wonderful evening. I still wonder if my mother had planned it that way: a celebration marking the end of adolescence.
The next day I met Hop at Wedgehurst station and we got on the train for the Wild Area. He chatted non-stop the entire ride, which was rather impressive. It took all my concentration to ignore him while looking through the rules of the Gym Challenge on my phone. Each Challenger was allowed to challenge a Gym twice, however, two consecutive losses, whether at the same or different Gyms would result in an automatic loss of the overall Challenge. Furthermore, Challengers were scored based on their performance during official matches: number of losses, number of pokemon left standing, number of moves used, completion speed, everything tallied into points which would be assessed after the eighth Gym to determine the finalists that would be permitted to participate in the Semifinals of the Champion’s Cup tournament at the end of the summer. Currently, the highest score and fastest completion time were still held by the ten-year reigning Champion, Leon. I couldn’t help but raise an incredulous eyebrow as Hop continued to rant on. There was surprisingly a lot that went into these Challenges, and he thought he was going to win just like that? Leaning back and looking out the window, I sighed. Talk about delusional. This was going to be such a pain.
We met Sonia again at the station. She gave us the rundown on how to get around and advised that there were stone-rimmed holes in the ground that connected to vast underground caverns called false-wells or dens that we should probably avoid going into until we had collected a Gym Badge or two. That was fine by me. I’d heard enough horror stories of people having their partner pokemon eaten by something horrifically stronger than them when they’d ventured too far into the Wild Area. Scorebunny had grown on me, and I was now quite partial to it not dying or being eaten.
Hop dashed off, cheering something about catching an awesome team. He sounded like someone who was going to get eaten. With a sigh, I hefted my backpack laden with camping supplies and pokeballs and set off into the Wild Area.
It was a bright, sunny day. The Opening Ceremony wasn’t for a week and a half, so most Challengers were training at home or out and about somewhere like us. Wake up, hike a bit, scout out wild pokemon through the zoom on my rotom phone, battle, work on the poke-dex, have a meal break, repeat—such was our routine for the next week. The Wild Area, an enormous national park that stretched down the middle of Galar, seemed to go on forever. Forests, lakes, rivers, desert areas, even a few caves, and ruins. It was actually really beautiful. I’d come hiking here before with my mother, but we’d only stayed on the well-maintained paths near the station, never making the multi-day trek from the station to Motostoke. The ones Scorbunny and I walked now, though well worn, were thin and twisting, rife with tree-roots, mud pits, and occasional boulders: the kind of trails used by hardcore hikers and pokemon trainers on a mission.
Walking along a twisting path through the Dappled Grove, hopping down over roots like stair-steps, hearing near and far cries of pokemon, alone save for Scorebunny’s cheerful skipping, I began to feel that if this was what it meant to be a pokemon trainer, then this wasn’t so bad after all.
Two days before the Opening Ceremony, I caught sight of the Motostoke clock tower above the treeline. We’d make it by nightfall, so after a few hours of battling, Scorbunny and I stopped by Lake Axwell for a break and some curry. We were making good progress in terms of teamwork. Stretching, I looked down at Scorebunny and decided that since we’d worked so hard to get here, and the sunlight was so nice, a nap was certainly in order.
What a horrible mistake.
When I awoke the sky was gray and still darkening. The sun was obscured by ominous clouds and rain was beginning to fall intermittently. Just goes to show how much you can trust the weather channel. Fortunately, we were close enough that we didn’t have to worry about missing the opening ceremony for the Gym Challenge.
“We might end up camping tonight pal,” I’d murmured to my partner as we jogged towards the now ominously looming ruins. It was called the Watch Tower on my map, the remnants of a defensive fort from before even Motostoke had been built. Now it marks the boundary between the prairie land before Motostoke and the twisting Dappled Grove.
The sputtering rain suddenly made up its mind and began coming down in buckets. The wind picked up, driving it sideways in sheets. Lightning flashed across the sky, close and violent. “F***.” I cursed aloud for the first time. Grabbing Scorebunny, I dashed towards the ruins, hoping to find some shelter, but suddenly passed through a purple haze that made my blood run cold and the hair on my arms stand on-end. I tripped and went sprawling in the mud. Scorebunny flew out of my grip and also rolled along the ground, its white fluff flattened by water, impromptuly dyed gray-ish brown by mud.
Rolling over, I sat up and saw a Haunter leering back at me. That had been the cause of the cold sensation. However, I soon noticed a red spot, then two, then dozens slowly appearing and turning towards me. Duskulls, lots of them. We were surrounded.
Scorebunny picked itself up and came to my side as I slowly climbed to my feet without breaking eye contact with the slowly advancing ghost-types. There was no way we could’ve won against all of them. Maybe if we made a distraction? These guys seeed normal unlike the insanely powerful canid from the Slumbering Weald. I got ready to run, but just as Scorebunny used Ember, one of them dashed at me from the side. In a panic, I backpedaled. In the wet, slippery mud my heel slipped, and I found myself suddenly falling back through a hole in the wall of the ruins.
To my horror I didn’t suddenly hit the ground but a steep slope and continued roughly tumbling down. Ther floor had long given way to a chasm beneath. With a cry my Scorebunny leapt after me. Together we fell into a pit that had begun to emit a red glow. I held Scorbunny tight as we fell, but eventually the slope lessened, changed from stone to dirt, and when we finally came near something resembling a bottom and rolled to a halt. That was probably the only reason I hadn’t broken anything or even died that day.
The ground trembled and I heard a roar like thunder. Slowly sitting up, I saw a giant. It was a scene I’d only ever seen in person once: Dynamax. There was a pokemon easily the size of a two story house, with dark red and black clouds swirling over its head. A quadruped with four legs, a mottled blue body, a black head with eyes that were either obscure or not present at all, and a gaping mouth that bit wildly in all directions. My pokedex buzzed, but I didn’t have time to check. The stone on my wrist was glowing, and that giant wasn’t going to wait for us to do some research.
I returned Scorbunny to its pokeball and activated the Dynamax Band. The ball grew and I threw it into the air. Scorbunny appeared in its giant form and roared at the wild pokemon. The ground trembled beneath me, and I remembered from the matches I’d watched with Hop that I only had enough time for three shots. I gritted my teeth—I had to make the most of them.
Scorbunny was faster, and quickly hit the giant pokemon with a Max Flare to the face. It seemed to stagger, then turned to us and roared in outrage. Then it released what I recognized from the telly as Max Darkness, and Scorbunny went sliding back, but it didn’t fall. I cheered it on, telling it to keep up the fight as it launched another Max Flare. Another hit. This time the wild pokemon was forced back a step, but it soon reclaimed it and used Max Darkness again. This time Scorbunny was able to dodge and I couldn’t help but cheer in exhilaration. Maybe we could do it. Was this why people liked batting so much?
One more move, just one more shot. Before the wild pokemon could get off another shot, Scorbunny got off another Max Flare and… a critical hit! The wild pokemon shuddered and an energetic barrier exploded around it. I gripped the dark ball I’d found while wandering the Wild Area earlier that day. Assuming the cavern was dark enough for it to be effective, I enlarged the ball with my Dynamax band and threw it.
One shake. Two. Three. There! It was caught! The giant pokeball shrank and sealed with a click. Scorbunny also shrank down, staggered, and fell over. I ran over to it, ignoring the other pokeball for now. Its breathing was weak, and its tiny body was trembling with exhaustion. I quickly sent it back into its pokeball before going to scoop up the other one. Turning on the light from my Rotom-phone, I look around the weirdly large underground space more closely. Aside from the giant pokemon I caught, it seemed empty, but there was still a strange energy in the air and a red fog hung low over the ground. I needed to get out of there before anything else showed up.
Looking up and around, I finally spotted the hole I fell in through. Enough time had passed that the ghost-types had probably dispersed from the entryway. The scrapes on my arms and legs stung, and my pink shirt dress was ruined. I ripped the hem and tied it around my scraped left palm to give it some protection. It was a long way up, but I was out of potions and berries from training earlier and needed to get to a pokemon center. Plus, if another wild pokemon appeared and Dynamaxed in there I was screwed.
The hole was a little over two stories up, but ther beginning of the climb was a slope and there were plenty of handholds in the old stonework foundations of the ruins after that. Little by little, I doggedly made my way up to the edge, arms shaky from exhaustion and shock. Carefully peering out, I saw the ghost-types had drifted a little ways away, meaning I should have time to run for it if I could get over the edge quietly. It was still storming, so the sounds of the rain and the thunder should’ve helped muffle the sounds of my movements. But f***, it was slippery and my head was killing me. After nearly falling back in twice, I managed to heave myself up over the edge in a desperate, messy scramble. A couple Duskulls had noticed the noise and were slowly wandering over. No time to rest then. Wiping the mud from my face as best I could, I dashed off through the tall grass and onto the path to Motostoke.
Little had I known the worst was yet to come.
Covered in mud and blood, I came to the steps that led up to Motostoke from the Wild Area panting and holding my two pokeballs in a death grip. Even the league staff that should be there and the campers had gone in to take shelter from the rain. I leaned on the rail as I slowly forced my legs up the steps one by one. My hands began to tremble from the cold, the adrenaline beginning to wear off, and my legs burned with each step I took.
Staggering into the pokemon center as the lightning flashed behind me, I must’ve looked pretty horrific. With the last of my energy, I handed the pokeballs over to the Nurse Joy on duty and dazedly went to sit on a bench.
I must’ve blacked out after that because the next thing I remembered was waking up on a bed meant for larger pokemon and a Nurse Joy complaining about how she might as well get her human medical license for all the trainers she treated in addition to pokemon. When she noticed I was awake, she calmly explained that I had a light concussion, some nasty bruises, a few scrapes, one cut that had required stitches, and that I’d had a bout of shock, but after some rest I should be able to make a full recovery. I immediately asked about my partner and the other pokemon I’d caught. She said the Deino, which was apparently what I’d caught, was recovering well and had a voracious appetite.
But then she paused. She took my hand in the way adults do when they don’t know how to explain something heavy to a kid. I think I blocked it out when she said it the first time because I was so shocked. The second time it stuck though: my partner had been DoA. There were signs of poison, probably from an attack by one of the ghost-types from before we’d fallen into the den with the Deino. It had fought all along while being poisoned instead of running away and saving itself. I remember wanting to cry and wanting to sleep but being too overwhelmed to do either. Instead I’d sat there feeling dizzy and nauseous and just wanting to see my partner who would never see me again.
I remember asking to see it one more time. The Nurse Joy helped me from the bed and slowly supported me to the dusty morgue where my Scorbunny was forever sleeping. They’d already cleaned and dried its muddy fur which smelled like antiseptic instead of the warm smell of fresh-struck matches. The feeling of cold, limp, velvety ears under my fingers marked the end of my ability to recollect the events of that afternoon.
That evening, the Nurse Joy kindly lent me a pink dress that was a tad too big as my own was ruined beyond repair, and handed me my bag and a pair of flip-flops someone had forgotten. I’d lost one of my boots in the fall it seemed. Walking back around to the side of the counter I should’ve been on, I looked up at the Nurse Joy and requested my pokemon back. Surprised, She quickly went into the back and returned with the Dark Ball containing my Deino. Like hell I’d have forgotten it. The little bastard was my sole recompense after that awful night.
Clutching the Dark Ball in my hand, I ignored the strange looks from the shop clerk as I bought a few potions and antidotes. Shouldering my backpack, I walked out the door. With horrible timing continuing its streak, I bumped into Sonia who chuckled and said that I looked like I’d had an exciting time in the Wild Area. Exciting, huh? I hadn’t even had the energy to explain how utterly off point that remark was.
After she strolled off to do some shopping, I headed for the nearby cafe to get something to eat. On my way however, I bumped into Leon.
For seven years the man was like a ghost, yet suddenly he was appearing around every corner. Was he trying to make up for lost time? Maybe, because he walked me to the lift that goes to the upper level of Motostoke, the one that’s in plain view to anyone with eyes right down the main boulevard, and explained how to use it. Well, my tired brain was appreciative of not having to figure out how to operate the thing myself.
However, just before he left he commented that no matter how fun the Wild Area had been, I should probably get cleaned up before the Opening Ceremony. It took all my rememaning will-power to resist the urge to pull a loose brick from the wall and bash him in the head with it.
After Leon left, I went back to the cafe and scarfed down a couple of scones and a large cup of tea, then got a couple poke-treats to go. Leaving the cafe, I looked down at my oversized dress, a reminder of what had happened to my own clothes, and decided to make like Sonia and do some more shopping. Maybe if I looked different the recent memory wouldn’t sting so much. No more dresses though. I needed something a bit more sturdy. Fortunately the leather backpack my mother bequeathed me had endured the encounter with only a few scratches so I wouldn’t need one of those.
Emerging from the store in a new black hoodie, T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of competition shoes from last Season that had been on sale, I finally began to make my way to Motostoke stadium to register. Hop was waiting out front and with a huge grin and as I walked over he called out, “Looks like you got caught in that storm in the Wild Area too! Haha, well pluck up! I can’t have my rival looking so gloomy.”
Gloomy? Ha. Gloomy was a light rain cloud of sadness. I was a thunderhead of pent up rage and grief. I couldn’t… shouldn’t vent on Hop though, even if this all started because of him. Irritated, I squeezed the strap of my backpack as I followed him in. I didn’t want to vent on him, but if he kept poking me in that dense obliviousness of his, he was digging his own grave.
The staff-person in charge of the front desk processed our applications quickly. After some commentary about how it was cool that Leon had sponsored us and that they had big expectations, mostly of Hop, they directed us to the Budew-drop Inn where we had rooms for the night. As we were leaving some platinum blond with a perm bumped shoulders with me, and made a fuss about how he was sponsored by the Chairman, and obviously that made him better than everyone, bla, bla, bla.
“Tch, I might as well use you to demonstrate how superior I am,” Perm-boy scoffed, and I zoned back in enough to realize he was sneering at me.
Oh great. He threw out a Hattena, giving Hop barely any time to jump out of the way. I looked at the Dark Ball that I’d been carrying around, realizing I had no idea what this pokemon could do, or if it would even listen to me. Even so… I gripped the ball and threw it. It wasn’t like I had any other pokemon, and this arrogant over-permed brat might as well have volunteered to be the test-dummy for me to vent on and figure out my new partner.
In a burst of dark purple characteristic of the Dusk Ball, my Deino leapt out onto the hall with a screeching noise. I tried to block out the emotions and just think of what move it had used in its Dynamaxed form in the den. Max Darkness, I thought. I remember the way it had been reaching around with its mouth, constantly biting at everything. Bite. The odds were good it probably knew Bite.
“Deino, Bite!” I commanded, and before Perm-boy could come up with a command, Deino turned its head towards the Hatenna, cocked it to the side, then lunged. It missed. The Hatenna didn’t even have to dodge as my pokemon stumbled past it way to the left. I couldn’t help but facepalm. Why couldn’t I catch a break?
“Is that your new pokemon, Alice?” Hop asked in surprise.
I lowered my hand and nodded then told Deino to dodge as Hatenna let off a psychic-type attack. It got hit, but shook itself and didn’t seem to take much damage. A small, tired grin appeared on my face. So the type-advantage was in my favor, huh? I had Deino to use Bite again. Seemingly irritated by the miss and then getting hit by an attack, this time Deino charged right in the direction it’d been attacked from, and bit down on top of the Hatenna’s head. The Hatenna let out an alarmed squeak, then fainted.
And then Deino started chewing on it.
“Ahhh! What is that monster doing to my pokemon!” Perm-boy cried in alarm, stepping forwards now that the battle was clearly over and returning it to its pokeball.
As though disgruntled at having its snack taken away, Deino reached up to bite on the boy’s hand, and he just barely yanked it away in time. Hiding a snigger, I returned it to its pokeball.
“Hmph, well, I suppose you can consider that a consolation victory since I went easy on you. Treasure it. I’m sure you won’t make it far enough in the Gym Challenge for us to battle again.” He stormed off in a huff.
Sheesh, what a pain. For once Hop and I shared the same sentiments.
After he ran off to go check in, I wandered around Motostoke until I found a quiet area by some water fountains on the lower level and let Deino back out. It made a whining squeak. Probably a complaint about not being allowed to eat the Hatenna earlier. I pulled out a berry and it scarfed it down greedily, then turned its maw to me for more.
“Not yet,” I lectured sternly. “If we’re stuck doing this Gym Challenge, first we’ve gotta improve our battle strategy. Like hell are we losing to that arrogant Perm.”
There was nothing I could do about Scorbunny. I was mad, helpless, sad, frustrated, but there was no one to blame but myself for not noticing the poison. I’d even had an antidote that I’d found in my bag. As I’d thought that, I scolded myself that moping about was pointless. Pushing those feelings down I instead focused on what was in front of me.
Over the next hour I learned that Deino knew Bite, Tackle, Focus-energy, and Dragon-pulse. Not a bad spread, actually. It could even use Bite and Dragon-pulse with reliable accuracy, though it tended to get over excited and over-shoot the pokedoll I was using as a dummy for Tackle, and the “focus” part of Focus Energy was not its strong suit. After the battle with Perm-boy I guessed it was probably just above the average level of all the other Challenger’s pokemon in terms of ability. Satisfied with our progress for the day and looking up to see the last of the light in the sky beginning to fade, I walked back up the metal stairs to the Budew-drop Inn to check in for the night.
I bumped into Sonia, who was pondering the statue of a hero in the foyer. Was she working or on vacation?
When I went to check in, there were some obnoxious fans of one of the other Challengers making a fuss. Hop came back from dinner around then and we took care of them with ease. The Challenger they were supporting, a punk-rock looking girl called Marnie, came over to shoo them away and apologized for the fuss. Well, at least she was decent about it.
With that I went to my room and set Deino’s ball on the nightstand before collapsing into a deep, exhausted-on-all-fronts slumber.
The next morning the real stiffness from my fall set in. As I lay there waiting for the painkillers to kick in, Hop began pounding on my door in excitement saying it was finally time for the Opening Ceremony. I looked at the bedside clock. We had two more hours. With a groan, I rolled over and shut my eyes trying to ignore him. Apparently having heard that. he called and said, “Oh good, you’re awake. Come on, we should head down so we don’t get caught in the crowd. We don’t want to be late like Lee if we plan to beat him.”
With a sigh, I rolled over again so just my head was hanging off the bed and I stared at the room upside down. Earlier I’d let Deino out, and it’d been gnawing on one of the bed-posts contentedly. When it heard me, it raised its head from its gnawing and came over.
“At least one of us had plenty of energy this morning,” I muttered. It made a questioning squawk, then abruptly chomped at my nose. Letting out my own squawk of alarm, I pulled it off my nose and the process fell off the bed with a thud that my stiff bones did not appreciate.
“Alice?” Hop called out in concern.
“I’m…coming!” I yelled back as I struggled to keep my grip on Deino so it couldn’t continue to teethe on my face, madly scrambling for its pokeball.
After washing up and getting dressed, I opened the door to find Hop playing on the floor with his pleasantly fluffy Wooloo. “Your nose is all red. You can’t have caught a cold before the opening ceremony. Allergies?”
I looked down at the Deino that’s now happily chewing on a dried oran berry, or maybe it was a rock. I summoned it back into its pokeball. A rock tumbled onto the floor and I couldn’t help but sigh. Scorebunny hadn’t been nearly this exhausting.
Hop laughed and said, “Well that Deino's quite a character!” Then as he stood and turned to go down the hall he continued, “It’s a good thing you’ve got Scorebunny to teach it.”
Hop continued down the hall, but I froze in my tracks, feeling as though my blood had suddenly run cold. My throat tightened, and everything I’d been burying beneath the excuse of training Deino for the Gym Challenge threatened to well up all at once. I clenched my fists until my fingernails bit into my palms and the knuckles turned white.
It took several deep breaths to regain my composure. Fortunately Hop was rambling off on one of his tangents again and didn’t seem to notice.
We got in the elevator and he finally looked up from a recording of one of Leon’s matches long enough to remark, “You look pale as a sheet. Nervous? Ha, it’s just the Opening Ceremony. The Gyms are what you really need to think about, you know!”
“Yeah,” I mumbled, pulling my hood down lower.
Down in the lobby we bumped into Marnie who was also on her way out. She challenged me to a battle, and hoping to take my mind off the storm of emotions Hop had carelessly triggered, I agreed unthinking.
Deino ended up learning the hard way that it actually had to focus during battles when the Morpeko kept using Spark on it when it missed attacks. We won, barely, and Deino actually wobbled back to its pokeball on its own to sleep it off.
“That was super cool, but it would’ve been easier if you’d just swapped Scorbunny in when Deino started looking rough,” Hop mused, putting his hands behind his head as we walked out the front door with Marnie.
“I dunno, sticking it out seemed to pay off this time,” Marnie murmured, thoughtfully watching Deino as it flashed back into its pokeball.
I grit my teeth and parted ways with him, following Marnie to the pokemon center to heal up Deino before the Opening Ceremony. Maybe it was evasive and cowardly of me, but as mad as I was at him for constantly bringing it up, I had no idea how to even begin telling him that the pokemon his precious older brother had given me was…gone. No matter how much I told myself it was an accident the guilt was gnawing away at me inside.
Fortunately, Marnie was actually a decent distraction. She said she’d been impressed by how my partner (referring to Deino) and I had really gotten in sync when things had gotten tough. I thanked her, but didn’t elaborate on how long we’d practiced the night before just to be able to do the fundamentals for a pokemon battle.
We chatted about superficial stuff the whole way back. About how her older brother was in a band, but fortunately since he was the local Gym Leader she still got to see him pretty frequently. Well…I say we chatted, but Marnie did most of the talking while I smiled and nodded.
When we got to the Motostoke stadium she grinned and said, “I like you Alice; I hope we can be rivals as the Gym Challenge continues,” she said with an eager grin as she headed into the lockerroom to change. It mostly went over my head as I was thinking about how I was going to hide the scrapes and bruises on my arms and legs when I was about to go on television for thousands of people to see.
In the end, I went to the uniform shop and got a pair of thigh-high white socks to go with my Challenger Uniform set. Fortunately the jersey sleeves were long and the glove covered the worst cut on my right hand. I changed after almost everyone had gone so no one would see, then found a quiet place in the waiting room to wait for the beginning of the ceremony. I sat on a bench and stared down at the lone Dark Ball cradled in my hands.
It should’ve been a normal Pokeball with Scorbunny in it. Or maybe both of them side by side. I let Deino out of its ball, but instead of running off to chew on something random as usual, it turned around to face me and began to chew my knee. Not in a hard way, but more like it was deliberately gumming on my knee. For some reason, that small bit of consideration from that rascal of a pokemon sent a large part of my pent up stress away. Scorbunny was gone, and there was nothing I could do about it, but I had this dummy. Peace. It was a small feeling of peace that I hadn’t felt since Hop rolled me out of bed to go get our first pokemon.
I gave it a berry out of thanks and quickly yanked my fingers out of the way to avoid them going down Deino’s gullet with it.
One of the league staff in charge of the Opening Ceremony told us that we’d be going out in just a few minutes, so I quickly returned Deino to its pokeball and looked up. Some of the challengers grouped together, but there were a distinct few who stood apart: Perm-boy had headphones in and was making a point of ignoring everyone, which wasn’t terribly effective since he kept looking over to see if we had noticed he was “ignoring” us. Marnie was leaning against a wall humming and playing an imaginary drum set as she watched the live feed where Chairman Rose was giving the same speech he did every year for the Gym Challenge. Hop was standing right next to the sliding glass doors, bouncing on the balls of his feet and practically buzzing with anticipation.
“Alice, come on! We’re going out soon!,” he called, excitedly waving me forwards to join him. With great reluctance, I did. To my dismay the doors opened for us to go out as soon as I got there and I had to begin following Hop down the tunnel to the pitch.
We would be showing off our starting pokemon and demonstrating a few moves while the commentator introduced us before coming right back. It wouldn’t take long, and it wasn’t hard, but dread settled into the pit of my stomach as I confronted the reality that this would be showing the world that I would be competing on Leon’s endorsement without the pokemon he’d given me. One tiny plus was that I didn’t think he was here in-person tonight due to Champion business, or he got lost again, or he was getting a Meowth out of a tree, or something like that. Still…it was only a small relief.
Hop glanced over at me as I stared at the ground while we walked down the tunnel. My limbs ached from the fall and my mind was a fuzzy, jumbled mess. Yet completely unable to take a hint, he just grinned bigger, patting me on the shoulder and saying, “Alice, even if you’re nervous you can’t go out with a face like that! Smile, the world is watching!”
And for some reason, those five little words caused something to snap inside me. Smiling was the last thing I felt like doing right now. A deep sense of rage nearly turned my vision red as I forced out that familiar, fake smile, while inside I vowed to rip that unwavering smile off of his face. I would make him feel the same gut-wrenching pain and confusion I did. We walked out onto the pitch, the bright, dazzling lights stung my eyes and suddenly, sinisterly inspired me: I would make this smiling bastard doubt everything about himself, fall into a pit of despair that’d wipe that dense smile off his face, and I’d use his precious Gym Challenge to do it.