Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Grian adjusted his bag on his shoulder as he waited in line to exit the boat. The amount of people on this trip surprised him- Mumbo had told him that Hoevi was a quiet region.

After another few minutes, Grian managed to get his passport checked and escape the boat he’d been on for hours. He stepped off the ramp onto a large concrete pier, and breathed in fresh salty air as he took in his surroundings. A couple other boats were docked and some people and pokemon were milling about, but it wasn’t crowded- a welcome change from the small boat.

Grian started to look around for Mumbo, who was meant to be Grian’s guide and host for this visit. The two of them had become friends in Galar a few years back and Mumbo had come to visit several times, but this was the first time Grian was visiting Mumbo’s home. A faint buzz came from Grian’s bag, and he pulled out his phone to a new message from Mumbo: look to your right :).

Squinting against the midday sun, Grian saw the man he was looking for standing at the end of the pier closest to shore. Behind him was a picturesque town of colourful two-story buildings, packed in close to each other and lining the sides of a red brick street.

Mumbo waved his arms up high, despite the fact that he was over six feet tall and impossible to miss. Grian chuckled and made his way to shore.

“Grian! How was the trip?” Mumbo called as soon as Grian was in earshot.

“It was alright, thanks for paying my fare! Could’ve done with less people though.”

Mumbo waved him off. “No problem at all. Sorry that it was so crowded, I’d thought all the people coming for the gym challenge were already here.”

“The gym challenge is on?”

“Not quite, I think it starts in…” Mumbo tilted his head, trying to count the days. “A week or two? I’m not sure, but the professor could tell you. I’m afraid I don’t know much about the region, so I booked you an appointment with him so you can learn all the important bits.”

“You’ve lived here your whole life, how do you not know the region by now?”

“Wh- I- well- I don’t go sight-seeing all that often! I’ve got all I need at home, and I- I’m busy with work and-“ Mumbo sputtered, before Grian cut him off.

“Relax Mumbo, I know you’re a shut-in. What time is that appointment?” Grian patted his friend’s arm.

Mumbo pulled a crumpled up note from his pocket and read it over. “1:30, looks like.”

Panic seized Grian- who distinctly remembered the time being 1:22 when he received the text from Mumbo. A glance at his phone confirmed his fears. “Mumbo! It’s 1:25!”

“…Ah.” Mumbo’s face dropped for a moment, then broke into an annoying grin. “Well then we’d best get going!”

With no warning, Mumbo took off into the street, leaving Grian to chase after him. “You’re the worst!” Grian called, but he laughed the entire way to the professor’s lab.

Chapter Text

At least Grian could blame Mumbo. That was his sole thought as he finally entered the professor's lab. His hair was ruffled from the wind, he was out of breath from the speedwalk over and he didn't even get to take in the sights, for goodness sake! His sneakers squeaked on the tiled floor, glancing around the lab as he closed the door behind him.

"Professor?" He called. The lab had neutral colours, a grey floor and white walls. It'd been a long time since Grian had been inside a Pokémon lab (not since his internship, in fact), but he recognised the lab equipment around the room. He couldn't help his curiosity as he wandered around, taking in the bookshelves that sectioned off the space. There were lots of interesting books based on anatomy, Pokémon behaviours, common traits, evolution… It was like a library. There was so much information on these shelves alone! A glance into a partially open crate pushed against the shelves revealed a stash of Pokéballs.

If he wasn't in a new region, he'd have totally nabbed one. But he wanted to make a good impression here. Stealing someone's Pokéballs was not a good first impression. He wasn't ten anymore.

"There you are." Grian jumped at the voice, twirling around. An older man stood in front of him, with a fluffy white beard and bright blue eyes. His hands were in the pockets of a white lab coat, thrown on top of what looked like a black t-shirt. "You must be Grian." Grian smiled. Well, he tried to. He thought he was overdoing it.

"Yes! That's me, I am so sorry I'm late, sir." The professor waved him off, gesturing for Grian to follow him through the lab. Grian did so eagerly.

"When you've known Mumbo as long as we have, you come to expect it." Grian slapped a few fingers onto his lips to hide his giggle. "Name's TFC, you don't need to call me sir."

"Right, TFC," Grian agreed. Through the sectioning, there was an office space. A wooden desk sat up against the wall, decorated by a stack of paper all neatly labelled with sticky notes and a thick, hardcover book. As TFC went to pick something up, Grian took note of the large region map on the wall. It was surprisingly well annotated. Mumbo said this region had a lot to offer.

"This is your first time in Hoevi, isn't it?" Grian nodded. "Good, Mumbo wasn't wrong about that, at least." A few papers were placed in Grian's hands. "The most important thing there is your region map." Grian confirmed that the map was on top of the pile. TFC drew his attention to the map on the wall, holding his hand towards it. "Hoevi isn't the most well-known region. We don't have any unique Pokémon, but we do have a wide range of Pokémon from other regions. This region is also filled with history, and several people on the island have dedicated themselves to studying the civilisations that came before us."

"Mumbo mentioned some ruins," Grian told him. TFC circled the left of the region, and Grian raised an eyebrow when he realised TFC was including the ocean.

"We've explored more in this area, but there's other ruins throughout the region. But, outside of the contest arena, they're unlikely to be open to the public."

"The contest arena?" Grian was used to contest arenas being big, showy theatres, with dramatic curtains and lighting.

"It's an impressive sight. I'm not going to spoil it for you." Grian smiled, feeling some anticipation spark in his gut. "The map should have a code to load onto whatever fancy device Galar is using nowadays." Grian searched the cover, pleased to find the code across the bottom. He'd need to set that up later.

The next words that came out of TFC's mouth were less promising.

"The other thing I've included is a leaflet for our region's gym challenge." Grian laughed awkwardly, trying to find other things to focus on in the room.

"That's- really nice of you, but I'm not interested. My league days are far behind me." Far, far behind him. Something he never wanted to revisit, actually!

"It isn't age restricted like other regions," TFC told him. "We always have a wide range of people participating, and the battles aren't highly publicised like in… other regions." He didn't need to say ‘like in Galar’ for Grian to understand what he meant. Grian focused on some of the more personal accents of the room, looking just over TFC's shoulder at a framed picture.

"I'm just here for a holiday. I want to see the sights without getting bogged down with all the training stuff." The picture was of two boys, remarkably similar looking. They both had bright grins, one with white hair reaching his shoulders, and another with short fluffy brown tufts. It was the only obvious difference between the pair. Kids, maybe? They were pretty cute.

"The gym challenge is a good way to do that." TFC drew him back to the map, outlining a loop through all the town markers. "If you go through the gyms, it takes you on a neat loop around the region. It's one of the recommended ways to travel, you'll see far more areas you might miss otherwise." Grian hummed. It was an... Interesting thought. He was used to gym challenges rushing you through, needing to reach the correct town, get the correct team. It was hard to imagine a challenge where that wasn't the case.

"I'm- I still don't think it's really for me." TFC nodded.

"Well, if you change your mind, then do it quickly. Sign ups close tomorrow." Good. There was unlikely to be anything big to change his decision by then. Grian really shouldn't go signing up for something like this again, not after last time. "Sign ups are on the form by the door of my lab."

"Okay, um. Thanks for letting me know!" It was best to be polite, it's probably part of TFC's job description, after all.

TFC nodded, "Of course. I won't keep you any longer." Grian knew a dismissal when he heard one. He waved, heading to the door with his bundle of papers in hand.

"Thanks again!"

Chapter Text

After leaving the professor’s lab, Mumbo and Grian spent the evening exploring Newport before flying to Mumbo’s home in Shatterwail- a modern-looking city comfortably nestled in a mountain range.

Mumbo’s house was sparsely decorated. Grian laughed at the fact that the few personal touches were all dragon themed- it was painfully obvious what Mumbo’s favourite type was (As if the dragonite they’d flown in on wasn’t enough). The house itself wasn’t of much note, but the workshop in the garage was entirely different. Tools and contraptions were absolutely everywhere, and Mumbo spent hours excitedly showing Grian his favourites.

The neverending parade of gadgets was a welcome distraction from the traitorous thoughts swirling in Grian’s head. He was done with the gym challenge, and hadn’t thought about it in ages. But something about TFC’s pitch was starting to convince Grian that it could be better, that he could actually do it this time.

Fortunately Grian was able to find reprieve from his dilemma. After a long exhausting day of travel, he barely managed to release Dewdrop (His surprisingly mischievous sobble) from his pokeball before collapsing in Mumbo’s spare bed and falling into a dreamless sleep.

Unfortunately, his mind was right back at it as soon as morning came. Grian warred with himself all throughout breakfast, and Mumbo finally decided to say something while they were washing up.

“You alright mate? You’ve been quiet all morning. Come to think of it, you didn’t say much last night either, although that might have been my fault for talking your ear off.”

“No, it’s not your fault at all. I’m just… thinking.”

“Oh I see. My apologies, doing something for the first time can be difficult.”

“Hey!” Grian elbowed Mumbo, only to earn an unbelievably bony elbow in return.

Mumbo held up his hands in surrender before Grian started attacking him with dishwater. “Ok, ok, I concede. So what are you thinking about?”

Grian groaned and gently smacked his head into a cabinet. “The gym challenge.” Mumbo hummed in sympathy. “TFC said that it’s better here and I’m tempted to find out but-” Grian gestured frustratedly, somewhat inhibited by the fact that his face was still pressed against the cabinet.

“Well how about I take you back to Newport?” Mumbo suggested. “You can talk to TFC some more and maybe even sign up if you’re feeling comfortable.”

Grian lifted his head from the cupboard. “You’d do that?”

“Sure, just as soon as you finish drying these dishes and get dressed.” Mumbo said, wielding a soapy spatula at Grian.

-

45 minutes and a dragonite ride later, Grian once again found himself in TFC’s lab. The door was unlocked, but it was quiet inside. “Hello?” Grian called, making his way through the bookshelves towards the professor’s desk. “Anybody home?”

Grian found the desk with no sign of TFC but a sticky note that read “Back soon.” With no option but to wait until TFC returned, Grian sat down in a cushy armchair with a huff, and waited.

And waited.

…

…The gym challenge sign up sheet sat on the wall across from Grian. He swore it was looking at him. Grian looked back.

Grian wasn’t sure how long he sat there like that, but he was eventually interrupted from his staredown by a man clearing his throat. “Am I interrupting a moment here? Are you signing up or…?”

Startled, Grian tried to explain himself. “Oh! No, sorry I was just- uh- no I’m just. Waiting. For the professor. So…” Eloquent.

The man stared at Grian, who would have rather been eating rocks than having this conversation. After a few excruciating seconds of being examined, the man pounded a fist into his open palm. “Grian! Hey, it’s been a while!”

“Wait…” Grian took a closer look at the man. “Bdubs?” It took some effort to recognize the man, since the last time they’d met was over five years ago. They’d been assigned as teammates in an inter-regional architecture competition, and Grian hadn’t seen him since.

“What are the odds of running into you here? Are you still living in Galar?”

“Yep, I’m actually here visiting another friend right now. What are you doing in the lab?”

Bdubs puffed out his chest. “Why, signing up for the gym challenge of course!”

“Aren’t you a bit old for the league?” Grian commented without thinking.

That was a terrible mistake- Grian could practically see the steam coming out of the other man’s ears as he launched into a several minute rant about “Kids these days running around in the woods with their rotom phones.”

Grian waited until he felt it was safe to speak again. “So… it really has been a while. I haven’t seen you since I carried our team in that contest.” Grian knew that would rile Bdubs up again, but he couldn’t help it when it was so fun. Plus, it was obvious Bdubs got a kick out of getting worked up too.

Bdubs scoffed. “As if. We may have been teammates, but I totally kicked your butt.”

“Oh please. You couldn’t kick my butt if I was lying facedown on the floor.”

“I most certainly could! In fact, I’m doing it right now- you’re not even entering the gym challenge so I’ve beat you by default!”

“Well maybe I’ll sign up then, just to prove I can beat you!”

“Do it then!”

Lost in the heat of the playful argument, Grian picked up the pen hanging off the clipboard, signed his name on the sheet right under Bdubs’, and returned to staring down the other man.

A bell rang above the door, signalling the arrival of TFC. He held a bag from the local cafe in his hand. The professor’s mumbling about wingull stealing his lunch trailed off as he noticed there were other people in the room. “Oh! Are you two here for the gym challenge?”

“Yes.” Grian and Bdubs replied in sync, not breaking eye contact with each other.

“Okay?” TFC raised a brow at whatever was going on, but refrained from commenting further. “Well if you’re doing the gym challenge, you’ll need these.” He disappeared behind some bookshelves, and emerged with two leather bands. “These bands mark you as challengers so league officials know who you are. They’re also where you’ll keep your gym badges once you start collecting ‘em.”

TFC handed one to Grian and one to Bdubs. The band had snaps to secure it around a wrist, and there were eight indented plastic circles that Grian assumed were for gym badges.

“The opening ceremony is tomorrow morning at 9, and then you’ll be on your way. I wish you both the best of luck.”

Grian and Bdubs both thanked TFC and headed towards the door. “Oh! One more thing for you, Grian.” Grian paused and turned back to the professor. “I’m guessing you don’t have any camping gear. You may want to go buy some- there won’t always be a hotel along the challenge route.”

“Oh! That’s a good idea, thank you!”

Once Grian got out the door, his phone buzzed with a text from Mumbo. Sorry, I’ve got a work emergency. I’ll be back to pick you up in a couple hours. Grian rolled his eyes affectionately. This wasn’t a surprise- Mumbo was always running off during their online chats to deal with work. Whatever it was he did certainly kept him busy, but Grian didn’t mind waiting.

It did however mean that Grian had a few hours to kill, and he wasn’t particularly inclined to spend them alone. “Hey Bdubs? Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?”

Bdubs startled- he had already been walking away. “Uh… Don’t think so.”

“Excellent. I need a shopping buddy.”

“Sure, why not.” Bdubs shrugged and turned to walk with Grian, hopefully leading the way to a store since Grian had no idea where he was going. “Speaking of buddies, I don’t suppose you have a travelling companion, do you?”

“I don’t, except for sobble.”

“What a coincidence! Neither do I, so what do you say we team up?”

Internally, Grian sighed with relief. Having someone to travel with who actually knew the region would be a huge help, and he was very grateful to Bdubs for the offer. However, he couldn’t resist being a little annoying. “That sounds good to me, that way you can watch me become the champion.”

“Wh- As if!”

-

Somehow, despite all the arguing, Grian managed to buy everything he needed. Well, almost everything. The woman behind the counter at the pokemart took one look at his challenger band and refused to sell him anything beyond basic pokeballs and potions.

“I can’t believe it! How am I gonna get anything done with this rubbish?”

Bdubs laughed. “It’s supposed to keep things fair- once you start getting gym badges you’ll be able to buy ultra balls in no time.”

“Well I think it’s dumb.” Grian grumbled. As they walked, Grian’s phone buzzed- Mumbo was finished up with work and waiting back at the lab. “Oh! My ride’s here. Thanks for the help, see you tomorrow!”

“Bright and early!” Bdubs promised as they split in opposite directions.

Grian found Mumbo sitting on a bench, idly tossing a pokeball up and down. He looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. “So? How did it go?”

“Fantastic!” Grian dropped on the bench next to Mumbo, setting down his bags. “I ran into an old friend, I signed up for the gym challenge, we went shopping and-” Grian cut himself off as his rational brain finally caught up to what he had done. “Oh no. I’ve signed up for the gym challenge.”

Grian buried his face in his hands for dramatic effect and received a sympathetic pat on the back from Mumbo, but honestly Grian couldn’t bring himself to be too upset. He wasn’t at all looking forward to facing that kind of pressure again, but getting into a competition like this again was thrilling.

-

Later that night back at Mumbo’s house, Grian remembered Mumbo’s text from earlier. “I was so busy talking about my day I forgot to ask about yours! Did you sort out your work emergency?”

Mumbo laughed nervously. “Oh yeah, it uh. It wasn’t- exactly an emergency? Well it was, but it was my own fault- I sort of forgot that I had an important deadline tomorrow.”

Grian broke out cackling at that. In response, Mumbo started throwing pillows at him until he left the room to go pack for the start of his journey.

Chapter Text

Grian found himself in the central plaza of Newport alone.

Mumbo had very quickly dropped him off since he had to finish dealing with his ‘work emergency,’ which left Grian once again by himself in a foreign region. He scanned the plaza, searching the crowd for any sign of his future travelling companion’s distinct red bandana.

Of course, ‘crowd’ was a strong word, at least in comparison to his home. Despite only ever attending the event once in person, Grian had seen the gym challenge opening ceremony on the news every year, and the 100 or so people gathered here didn’t even hold a candle to Motostoke.

It was a lot less nerve-wracking though. The Galar opening ceremony had a nervous energy to it- all the challengers anxious to prove themselves. This place was far more relaxed. Children chased each other, and vendors were dotted around selling food and items.

A small stage was set up at the north end of the square. It was decorated with a banner covered in sponsor logos, as well as a few balloon bundles, coloured to represent all the pokemon types. League officials identifiable by red and white vests rushed about the stage area setting up a microphone stand and a large pair of speakers. A pair of them handed out gift bags to the overexcited children, almost certainly loaded with candy that would disappear within seconds. Grian started to make his way over until he remembered his search, and shook his head to focus.

It struck him how few kids seemed to be participating. Sure, there were a couple dozen little ones scattered around, but almost none of them wore a challenger band like his own. Certainly none under twelve. Most of the challengers were young adults, within a couple years of his own age, all prepared for the long trip ahead with hiking bags and outdoorsy clothing.

Eventually Grian caught a glimpse of a certain bright red strip of fabric, and he squeezed his way through the audience. The crowd had probably tripled in size during the five minutes he was looking.

He found Bdubs chatting with a tall blonde woman dressed in a neat blue uniform. Despite the fact that she seemed to have some sort of official presence here, Bdubs talked to her like she was a close friend.

“Bdubs! I found you, finally. I was beginning to wonder if you’d backed out after all.” Grian teased.

Bdubs scoffed, “As if. I was planning on entering before you even showed up, remember?” The woman he was just speaking to silently raised an eyebrow in amusement, and Bdubs seemed to remember she existed. “Oh yes! Grian, this is officer False, she’s the one keeping everybody in line in this region.”

“Just False is fine. I’m also here to do all the announcing and such for the opening ceremony.” She nodded her head in the direction of Grian’s challenger band. “I assume you’re participating as well?” At Grian’s nod she continued, “Great, we were worried about who was going to keep Bdubs out of trouble. After all, I can’t keep my eye on him for the whole challenge.”

Bdubs squawked in protest, but Grian spoke over him. “Wait, so you aren’t connected to the league at all? Then why are you the one announcing here?” He realized as soon as the words left his mouth that his question might have offended her, but False smiled in understanding and explained without a fuss.

“Well you’re right that I’m not officially connected to the league, but I know all the gym leaders and they seem to trust me, so I help things run smoothly along the challenge route for them. Plus, this is the most active time of year for the-” Her brow furrowed, and she took a breath before continuing. “Nevermind. I’ll handle them, nothing you need to worry about.”

Seeing Grian’s confused expression, Bdubs leaned over and stage whispered, “Thieves. She means thieves.” A small bit of worry sparked in Grian’s chest, but despite her strange dodginess, False didn’t really seem worried about these thieves. More annoyed than anything else, given the face she had just made.

She started to say something else, but someone in a red and white vest appeared seemingly from nowhere. The crowd had thickened even more while they’d been talking. There was a tension in the air created by a hundred or so individuals all filled with anticipation and eagerness to prove themselves.

Despite himself, Grian was excited too. Certainly quite nervous, but excited for whatever would come next. He turned back to the conversation to find False gone, and Bdubs watching the stage with the rest of the plaza. “So how do you-”

A crackle was heard throughout the square, the telltale sound of a microphone switching on. Grian turned his attention towards the stage.

“Hello everybody, and welcome back to another year of the Hoevi gym challenge!” Her enthusiastic greeting was met with the same level of excitement from the crowd, people breaking out into cheers and applause. Grian clapped politely while Bdubs whistled obnoxiously loudly with two fingers in his mouth. Grian pretended he didn’t know him.

“I am officer False, and you’ll all be seeing me along the route making sure that everyone stays safe during the competition.” False seemed quite familiar with the crowd; Grian guessed that she had been opening the challenge for a few years.

“First things first: for those who aren’t aware, the challenge route starts north of here in Midblossom, and goes all the way around the outer edge of the region in a circle. There are many sights to see, and we encourage you to take your time. As such, you will all have three weeks to complete the challenge.”

She went on to describe the rules in detail. Grian’s attention wandered a few times (it was not his fault that someone behind them started selling poffins that looked like pokemon, he was supporting a local business) but he got the general idea of it. Probably. If worse came to worst he would ask Bdubs. About half an hour later, False started to close off her speech. She seemed to have noticed the crowd’s restlessness.

“Right then, if everyone understands what the rules are, then I suppose we’d better get this thing underway. Let the challenge…” She paused with a grin, delighting in making the challengers even more antsy. After a few seconds they looked ready to go regardless of False’s words, and she waved her hand like someone signalling the start of a race, which Grian supposed was accurate. “Begin!”

It was like a dam had broken. Without the bottleneck of Motostoke stadium, about a hundred people burst out of the plaza onto the road all at once, leaving the square significantly less crowded than it had been moments before. The road was a dirt path, worn down by thousands of challengers over the years. It meandered through a flourishing, peaceful looking forest filled with white trees and bright green leaves. The trees looked inviting, light shining freely through the thin canopy. Grian thought he could see pokemon further in, but at this distance it was impossible to tell what kind.

“Well I guess we’d better get going if we have any chances of keeping up with those guys.” Bdubs’ voice pulled Grian out of his thoughts. They half walked half jogged across the plaza, Grian snagging a gift bag on his way past the stage.

Grian hesitated before stepping off the cobbled plaza onto the dirt road. Doubt filled his head despite his repeated attempts to push it back. He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and placed both feet firmly on the dirt. He took a step, and then another, following Bdubs’ confident stroll into the woods.

Chapter Text

Grian had never been camping before.

He was becoming increasingly grateful for Bdubs’ presence- he was pretty sure he would have died in the woods before reaching the first gym if it wasn’t for his travelling companion.

Bdubs seemed perfectly at home in the forest. His sleeping bag had carefully stitched on patches, his cooking pot had turned coppery brown from repeated use- all his gear showed signs of frequent use and care. Clearly, he spent a lot of time outdoors.

The trip to Midblossom was only about a day’s walk, but Grian wanted to get some practice in before the gym. Fortunately, Bdubs seemed thrilled at the idea of taking “the scenic route” (though they still followed the same path as everyone else so Grian had no idea what he meant).

Grian took a day just to refamiliarize himself with Dewdrop’s moves and abilities, letting the sobble show off his skills against rocks and trees. It was small, but Grian already felt himself falling back into the groove of battling.

-

The first night, Grian fumbled his way through setting up his tent, and several times he feared he’d lost Dewdrop forever in the endless sea of fabric. After what felt like hours, Grian finally had a tent. A sagging-in-places-that-it-shouldn’t-be tent, but it would hold. Probably.

He turned around to see Bdubs lounging on a folding chair in front of a blazing campfire, a perfect tent behind him. Without a command from Grian, Dewdrop wiped the smug look off his face with a well-aimed water gun.

-

In the morning, they continued the journey. Now that Dewdrop had grown accustomed to using moves again, the trainer-pokemon duo tried their luck against wild pokemon. The first few battles were close, but it didn’t take long for Dewdrop to start winning. With every one of those wins Grian felt more of his confidence and competitive spirit return, and his heart soared every time Dewdrop turned back to him for approval after a particularly effective move.

-

While eating lunch, Grian was startled by a weight landing on his shoulder. He turned to see a wild chatot, sitting comfortably on his shoulder as though it lived there. “Oh! Hello, who are you?” He petted its feathers hesitantly, and it leaned into the touch.

Bdubs looked up from his sandwich and laughed. “I think he likes you.” Grian felt inclined to agree as the pokemon jumped up to perch on top of his head.

“I wonder…” Grian trailed off as he slowly reached into his bag to retrieve a pokeball. He didn’t want to move too quickly and startle the bird, but there was really no need for the caution- as soon as Grian brought the pokeball close, the chatot pressed the release button itself and surrendered to the bright energy without a fight. The ball rocked back and forth in Grian’s hand for a few moments before closing with a satisfying click.

Grian and Bdubs both stared in stunned silence.

“You did it!” Bdubs cheered, clapping excessively. “Wow, that was a really tough one!” Grian started cackling, which only encouraged Bdubs to continue the over-the-top celebration.

-

“He seems studious. I think I’ll name him Professor Beak.” Grian declared. After setting up his tent in half the time it took the previous night (though the structure still wasn’t perfect- why was that thing so complicated?), Grian and Bdubs both released their pokemon for the night. Grian had spent the last ten minutes staring at chatot- now Professor Beak.

“Y’know, I’ve never met someone who named all their pokemon before.”

“Well I’ve named Dewy, it seems wrong not to keep doing it.”

Bdubs reached down and patted his ponyta’s head. “Good for you, but I think I’ll keep mine plain and simple.”

“To each their own I suppose.”

-

The forest changed as they got closer to Midblossom.

The trees became more colourful. What was once a more or less monochrome green forest became decorated in purples and pinks as well. Grian even managed to find some edible berries.

“I thought you didn’t know outdoorsy stuff- you been holding out on me G?”

“This isn’t camping, it’s cooking.” Grian explained. “We make curry with berries back home.” He remembered Mumbo was surprised by that fact as well- curry must not have been popular outside of Galar.

“Huh. I know they can be used in battles but…” Bdubs looked skeptical.

“Yeah, and they’re also delicious.” Grian popped a cheri berry into his mouth to emphasize his point, then silently offered one to Bdubs.

Bdubs grimaced. “Er- I’m. I’m good. Thank you.”

Grian shrugged. “Your loss.”

-

On the third night, Grian finally grit his teeth, swallowed his pride, and asked Bdubs to teach him how to set up a tent. His rival took a few minutes to gloat, but eventually gave a surprisingly helpful demonstration. The two of them managed to get a fully functioning tent up in no time.

-

The next day wasn’t much different from the previous two, except for the fact that Grian was training two pokemon instead of one. But Professor Beak was a quick study and it didn’t take long for him to battle with as much strength as Dewdrop.

They had to be very near Midblossom by now. The forest had completely shifted hues- now as much dark purple as it was green.

Sure enough, shortly after noon they came upon a sign. ‘Welcome to Midblossom’, it proclaimed. Grian was half a second away from making a joke that there was nothing there, when they rounded a bend in the path and the little town came into view.

The joke died on Grian’s tongue. In the span of a few short seconds the gym challenge became much more real than it had felt the past few days, and Grian found that his heart was racing. He took a deep breath and muttered to himself, “Here we go. Second chance.” and followed Bdubs into town.

Chapter Text

Midblossom really was a beautiful town. Grian could see where it got its name from- flowering fruit trees were swaying in the gentle breeze and the ground was littered with flower petals. Even the odd dying flower in the cracks of the cement, or in the occasional abandoned flower bed, looked incredible. It felt like he was walking into a dream.

“Wow,” Bdubs’ voice echoed his thoughts, and Dewdrop bubbled his own agreement. “They really went with the whole ‘blossom’ thing, huh?”

“Can’t say they didn’t nail their theming.” Grian joked as they walked, taking a lap around the main streets to really soak in the sights. Sure, they were there for the gym challenge, but nothing in the rules said they couldn’t enjoy their travels.

Grian was too busy admiring the architecture of a local café to notice Bdubs stopping right in front of him. He bumped into his friend’s back with a small sound, reaching up to steady Dewdrop on his shoulder before looking at what had caught Bdubs’ attention.

Grian’s mouth suddenly went very dry.

It wasn’t the tallest building he’d seen, but it felt like this one towered over him unlike any before. Its purple paint imposed a feeling of building dread that Grian could feel gnawing at his stomach and urging his feet to run away as quickly as he could. He held Dewdrop a bit tighter.

“This must be the gym.” Bdubs’ voice didn’t carry any of the same emotion that Grian was currently feeling- instead it was lined with anticipation. “Let’s see…” He squinted, bending down to look at the sign in front of him. “Midblossom gym, the Poison Palace.”

“Poison?” Grian’s voice was small, and he could feel Dewdrop trembling on his shoulder.

“A poison gym!” Bdubs whistled, looking back up at the pokeball insignia christening the building. “A challenge! I like it. How about you, Grian? You ready for this?”

It took too long for Grian to recognize that Bdubs was even talking to him. His heart was racing in his chest, and he worried Dewdrop might go tumbling to the ground. He picked Dewdrop up, cradling the small pokemon to his chest and offered Bdubs a shaky smile.

“Uh, maybe we should wait?” Bdubs’ eyebrow raised, and Grian backtracked quickly. “We just walked all the way here, and we haven’t slept in an actual bed in like, three days. Maybe we should rest for the night in the hotel?”

“Hey, you getting cold feet on me now? Throwing in the towel so quickly?”

“What? No!” Dewdrop squeaked and Grian made sure to not crush him. “I’m just thinking logically.”

“Grian,” Bdubs’ voice went soft- a hand landed on his shoulder and all the teasing in his voice disappeared. “It’s okay to be nervous. You’ll feel better if you just go ahead and do it! Don’t hesitate, jump right into it, all that good stuff. Trust your pokemon and your abilities as a trainer.” Bdubs pursed his lips. “Maybe those children PSA shows have a point.”

The comment startled a laugh out of Grian, and it did help ease some of his anxiety. “Uh, well, maybe we can just check out the gym? I don’t know if Dewdrop is up for battling today.” He felt Dewdrop huff against his palm.

“Fine, fine, scaredy-cat. Let’s go look at the first step to me becoming champion.”

The gym inside was pleasantly cool. A cheery, bald man waved them over. “Let me guess,” he started, looking the two men up and down, “Are you the parents of a trainer that just came through here? She was getting real spooked; I keep saying this is a poison gym, not a ghost gym but does Leader-”

“No!” Bdubs cut him off, an affronted huff in his voice. “We’re trainers! Challengers! Ready to take on the prince of this poison palace.”

“Ah, I think you mean princess.” The man chuckled, “Although, she would probably smack anyone who called her that to her face so maybe don’t.” He cleared his throat. “So, you’re trainers?”

“You bet! And we’re going to get this badge first try.”

The man cheerily laughed again, clapping his hands a few times. “I love to see it, I love to see it! Now, only one competitor can go in at a time, so who will be first?”

Before Grian could even explain that they were just checking out the inside, Bdubs turned to him excitedly, holding out his fist. “Let’s fire-water-grass. Winner goes in first.”

Dread returned to Grian in an instant. “But, Bdubs, we weren’t going to-”

“Oh come on, let’s just try. We’re already here. The worst case scenario is we lose and try again tomorrow.”

Grian really should have argued, or just offered to go second and left. But before he knew it he was holding out the hand sign for water against Bdubs’ fire and being ushered to the entrance of the… maze? This must have been the gym challenge.

Grian remembered the challenge at Turrfield stadium- the fairly straightforward task of herding a bunch of wooloo into a pen. He never quite understood the point of the challenges, if he was being honest. Why should his sheep herding skills be tested, and now his sense of direction? He was here for a pokemon battle, for goodness sakes! Not to wander aimlessly through poorly lit, too narrow hallways. He had to criticize the paint choice as well: he understood purple was symbolic of poison, but he had to squint around every corner to try and not run into a wall.

He held Dewdrop close to his chest, taking short steps through the darkness. He turned around a corner - only to scream in horror. Towering above him was the biggest, angriest looking arbok he had ever seen. It was coiled up on its tail, body flared out and fangs bared. Red eyes practically glowed in the surrounding purple.

Grian fell backwards, holding an equally terrified Dewdrop the whole way, and scrambled until his back hit the wall. How did a wild pokemon get in here? Let alone one this big? He shielded Dewdrop as well as he could with his body, bracing for an attack from the arbok and hoping Bdubs or the gym leader or that bald man or someone heard him scream and was coming to help him.

It was only when his thoughts had a chance to calm down, and his arms started to cramp from the tension, that he realized he was uninjured. And one peek at the arbok showed it hadn’t moved. At all. It was perfectly frozen. Grian was still catching his breath, but he unfurled ever so slightly, still cradling Dewdrop to his chest, and stared at the pokemon in pure confusion.

“Hello?” If he wasn’t still kind of terrified, he would have been embarrassed at how his voice cracked. “Are you- arbok? How did you get in here?”

He didn’t get any sort of reaction. Not even a blink. He glanced down at Dewdrop. Big eyes, just as confused, stared up at him. He used the wall to get himself back on his feet, never taking his eyes off arbok even as he set Dewdrop down on the ground with the silent order to stay put.

Grian took hesitant steps forward towards the gigantic pokemon, pausing to watch for any reaction. He could almost touch it, and it still hadn’t moved! “Arbok?” He whispered, going against his better judgment and reaching out his hand to touch the upper tail. Only he didn’t feel scales. It was smooth, cold, unliving.

Grian was even more confused than before.

He took a step back, squinting up at the arbok’s face now that some of his fear had dissipated. If he moved his head, he could see how the shine in its eyes moved, and he noticed that the body of the 'pokemon' wasn’t moving with any breaths.

“A statue?” He asked incredulously, turning back to look at Dewdrop who shrugged his shoulders in response. “Why… why would there be a statue here?” His fear had fully shifted into disbelief, his arms widely gesturing to the fake arbok in front of him. After a few more moments of huffing at it, he turned and scooped Dewdrop back into his arms, setting him back on his shoulder.

He set back into the maze, only for a few corners later to once again be caught off guard by another gigantic pokemon. This time a gengar- its mouth open wide in a smile and a tongue lolling out of its mouth, ready to gobble up any passing trainers. This time, though, Grian stared the pokemon down, taking in its details and its lack of movement. Another statue.

This trend continued the whole way through the maze, every dead end decorated with a realistic pokemon statue. He was annoyed at first, but Grian started to appreciate them after the fourth or fifth one he nearly ran head first into. They made the dark walls more tolerable, the seemingly endless maze a bit more entertaining. Even so, he was grateful when he saw a brighter light at the end of one of the corridors.

He took a steadying breath, walking towards the exit of the maze and out into a far more spacious room. Thank goodness, he was getting claustrophobic. It’s just a basic battle arena, the details made with white paint on the floor. Across from him was the gym leader.

She lounged royally on a throne almost as big as her. Her unruly, fire-orange hair draped across her shoulders as she smiled at him, her lips painted a matte black. The spotlights fixed on her almost made her pale skin look green, and he had to wonder if that was intentional or not. What he knew was intentional was what looked like purple stitches splitting her face down the middle, continuing down her right arm and curling around her wrist. Their lack of depth revealed they were just facepaint. She had a deep purple blouse on, the collarbone a transparent mesh, and right above she wore a choker with a little skull pendant. She wore gray shorts that came down to her mid-thigh, and the calf of her right leg was covered with a black and white striped sock that stopped just below her knee. Purple sneakers added to the clear theme she had going on.

“Well, somebody finally made it.” They uncrossed their legs in a grand gesture, standing up and taking the few steps down from the platform their throne was perched on. “I’ve been waiting all day, and I was starting to get really bored. Sometimes I think the maze was a bad idea for a gym challenge. Too long, a liability, blah blah blah, but people keep telling me I should change it, so I won’t.”

That was… backwards logic, but Grian could appreciate it. He too frequently went directly against what people suggested. “Um, I’m Grian.” He said rather dumbly, unsure if he was supposed to cross the arena to shake their hand. “I’m here to, uh, challenge you.”

“I figured. You’re in a pokemon gym after all.” She chuckled at his embarrassed silence, smiling at him and grabbing a pokeball from her belt. “I’m Cleo, the gym leader if you couldn’t tell. Are you ready for this? No shame in backing out. Just because I’m the first gym doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on you.”

Grian took a deep breath, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

She tossed her pokeball, a flash of light giving way to an ever-flowing pile of purple goop- a grimer. The grimer gave a call, smiling dopely back at Cleo who tutted at him, getting him to face his opponent.
Grian made to grab Professor Beak’s pokeball from his belt, trying to figure out his game plan here. Would water or flying be better against a poison type? His mind suddenly blanked on the basics of battling he studied years ago. He really should have refreshed his memory during their camping trip.

Cleo was perfectly patient, their grimer wobbling around as he awaited instructions. Grian hesitated in grabbing his pokeball, looking at Dewdrop instead. “Hey bud?” Big eyes looked at him, “Do you want to give this one a go?”

“Sobble…” The response was soft, a few looks between Grian, the grimer, and Cleo. “Sobble.” He bounded down, landing softly in the arena. He looked miniscule next to Grimer.

“You have a lot of faith in that little guy, huh?” Cleo’s voice held no malice, no mockery. Grian swallowed, and nodded. “Alright, let’s see what he’s made of. Grimer,” the pokemon perked up, “use mud-slap.”

It was overwhelming- how in an instant grimer raised his arms, sliding forward and getting ready to attack Grian’s tiny partner. Dewdrop froze, and so did Grian, simply watching the grimer approach. Grian wanted to call out to him to move, to get out of the way, but the words died on his tongue. Sound roared in his ears- sounds of people cheering and calling and it was deafening. He didn’t want to be here. It's too much. It's too much!

All at once he was back there. In Galar, in Turffield, at the gym challenge all those years ago. Leader Milo in front of him, Dewdrop out on the battlefield. The stadium around them was full: full of cheering fans, Grian’s parents, and all his friends rooting for his victory. This was the start of his future, this was the time when he would make a name for himself. He would achieve his childhood dreams. All he had to do was beat two pokemon. Easy. Simple. He could do this.

He never considered that Dewdrop couldn’t. That grass had the type advantage. That his studying turned out to be for nothing when he threw it all away. That he would make such a rookie mistake. Dewdrop trusted him, Dewdrop was counting on him to guide him. And Grian sent him into a losing battle.

The gossifleur’s magical leaf attack looked as if it consumed Dewdrop, his tiny body completely covered with the charged leaves. Grian couldn’t see him until it was too late. His partner fainted on the arena floor. Leader Milo was laughing in victory, voice amplified by the microphone on his chest. He was offering advice to Grian, but Grian couldn’t hear him. He was skidding to the floor next to Dewdrop, cradling the pokemon in his hands.

“Grian? Kid?” Leader Milo’s voice felt like it was coming through cotton placed over Grian’s ear, and when he looked up he saw the man concerned. A camera drone was behind him, angled right at Grian still kneeling on the floor.

It all hit Grian like a truck. The noise of the crowd, the feeling of the rough battlefield, the stifling humidity of a grass type gym arena. It was too much. He was sitting here in front of hundreds of people. He went into this thinking he could do this. He- He failed. He failed miserably.

He stumbled to his feet, and dashed past the lights and camera, back into the locker rooms of the arena. He needed to get Dewdrop to the pokemon center, and avoid all the TVs in the region. He could just barely hear someone calling out after him.

“Hey, you okay? Grian?”

Grian blinked back into the present. He was in the gym, Leader Cleo right in front of him. She was talking to him. She asked him a question. He should answer. Why wasn’t he answering?

“Uh oh. Here, stay here, I’ll go grab a nurse to come help you.”

No! He didn’t need more people seeing him like this. “I’m fine!” He blurted out, feeling bile climb up his throat. He swallowed it down, along with his lie.

Cleo gave him a look over. “Are you sure? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I’m fine,” he tried again, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants. He looked down at the ground, trying to stop the world from swimming around him. It was there he saw Dewdrop.

He must have come back from the arena, noticing Grian’s distress. He looked so scared, clinging to his leg, big teary eyes even bigger and tearier.

He couldn’t do this.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked, bending down to pick up Dewdrop. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry I wasted your time.”

“Wait-” He didn’t stop to listen to her as he turned to leave, swiftly stepping through the convenient exit, marked for any who failed the gym challenge.

-

Grian sat on a bench outside the gym, hunched over and lost in his thoughts. Dewdrop was pressed up against his side, sitting similarly and trying to help him feel better. It wasn’t working.

He failed. Again. He failed again. He let down Bdubs, and Mumbo, and Cleo, and Dewdrop. He let himself down.

He took a few breaths, pushing back the rising tears. Dewdrop wasn’t as successful. Grian forced a sad smile, reaching a hand over to wipe away the token ‘sobble-tears.’

“I’m sorry, Dewdrop. I thought I could do this but…” He sighed, staring back down at the pavement below. “I can’t. I’m not meant for battling.”

“Sobble…”

“I can’t, Dewy. I just end up back there. In Galar. In that stupid arena. I can’t put you through that again.”

“Sobble!”

“I’m not leaving you behind. We’re partners; if we fail, we fail together.”

“Sobble.” Dewdrop pouted, and Grian swiped his thumb over the pokemon’s cheek one last time, getting rid of the residual grimer-goop.

The doors to the gym slid open and Bdubs walked out, body slumped in on itself.

Right… Grian needed to tell Bdubs he couldn’t do it. Bdubs would probably rub it in his face, laugh at him, call him a loser. And he’d be right. He’d probably show off his shiny new badge and declare himself the superior trainer.

Before Grian could even open his mouth though, Bdubs fell down into the seat next to him. His head bowed, and shoulders low. He looked mighty sad for someone who just beat their first gym.

Silence fell over them, even Dewdrop holding his breath. “Uh, Bdubs?” He started, “How’d it go?”

“I lost.”

Just like that it felt like all Grian’s thoughts came to a grinding halt. “You- What? How? How could you lose? You-”

“Geez, a gracious winner you are.” Bdubs cut him off, leaning his head back and staring up at the cloud filled sky. “I got overzealous and didn’t think. Cleo’s trickier than I thought, especially with those poison types. Serves me right for underestimating the first gym leader, huh?”

And Grian’s thoughts were back, whirling in his head like a tornado. There was so much to process. Bdubs lost. Bdubs lost the first gym, which seemed inconceivable considering his pure confidence going into this challenge. He thought Grian won.

He thought Grian won.

“I- I didn’t win either!” Grian blurted out, stumbling over his own tongue in an attempt to both clear his name and comfort his friend.

Bdubs looked at him with surprised eyes. “You didn’t? You were in there for such a long time, I figured the battle was intense.”

“I-” A wave of embarrassment washed over Grian, his shoulders coming up to his ears. “I just got lost. I’m not very good with mazes. And- And the statues freaked me out.”

“Oh, good! I thought I was the only one.” Bdubs sighed, a hand on his chest. “Those statues were so realistic! It took me a solid five minutes before I stopped running away from them and realized that they weren’t actually chasing me.”

That startled a laugh out of Grian, “At least you had the idea to run! I just froze! If they were real pokemon, I would have been toast. I would be the one carted off to the pokemon center.”

They shared a laugh, the weight of their losses lifting between them at the ridiculousness of their own actions. It was only when they were resting against the bench again, catching their breath, that shame started to lick at Grian’s neck.

“I… I actually,” He stuttered, pointedly looking at a pebble on the ground, rolling it around with the toe of his shoe. “I didn’t even actually battle her.”

“What?” He felt Bdubs’ eyes on him, but he still refused to look.

“I chickened out. I couldn’t do it. I- I’m not cut out to be a trainer.”

“That’s nonsense talk!” Bdubs huffed, standing up, “You are absolutely cut out to be a trainer.”

“You haven’t seen me battle.”

“No, I haven’t, but I don’t need to see you battle to see you have it in you to be great at it.”

Grian sighed, reaching over to scoop Dewdrop off the bench and place the small pokemon in his lap. Dewdrop let him hold his front legs, gently rubbing over the smooth skin there. “I’m not going to ever be good at it.” He started again, eyes trained on Dewdrop. “I just can’t handle it.” He finally looked up, trying not to feel overwhelmed by all the emotions Bdubs seemed to be feeling on his behalf. “And that’s okay! I don’t need to be. I’ve got Dewdrop. And Professor Beak! See, this wasn’t a total waste of time.”

He was trying to be optimistic in the face of failure, he knew it. But he was being genuine, too. He got a new pokemon, he got to reconnect with some old friends. He got to see some of Hoevi. And now he had some spare camping gear he could use back home, too. Maybe he could convince Mumbo to go sightseeing with him. It wasn’t all for nothing.

Bdubs didn’t say anything for a long while, and Grian was about to accept that as his friend agreeing with him. Until, “That’s stupid.” Grian just about fell off the bench. “This is stupid, Grian. I won’t hear any of it.”

“Bdubs this isn’t-”

“I can’t believe you’re quitting. Just like this!”

“You don’t-”

“I can’t believe you’re just letting me be the better trainer. Just letting me become the champion, without even trying.”

“Bdubs, please.” Grian murmured, his voice almost failing. “I just can’t.”

There was another long bout of silence before Bdubs huffed, “Well, I’m not quitting. I’m gonna go heal up my team and march right back into that stupid maze and beat Cleo’s entire team in the blink of an eye.”

Bdubs was once again throwing Grian for an absolute loop, moving too quickly for him to keep up. He looked up, watching Bdubs stomp away, hands in tight fists by his sides. He didn’t follow, but Dewdrop did. The small pokemon jumped out of Grian’s lap, hopping across the brick pathways of Midblossom to follow after Bdubs.

“Dewy!” He called, scrambling to grab his bag before chasing after the little guys. Dewdrop stopped at the sliding doors of the pokemon center, too small to trigger the sensors, and Grian was able to scoop him up. “What were you thinking? What if someone stepped on you?”

“Sobble!” Was the response he got, a little blue finger pointing into the center.

“Are you hurt or-?” Grian took one step in only to hit his forehead against Bdubs’. They both groaned, hands coming up to hold their heads. When Grian finally looked up, blinking back the tears in his eyes, he was startled to see such a determined fire in Bdubs’.

“Don’t try and stop me!” Bdubs told him, voice far louder than it really needed to be considering they were right in front of each other.

“I wasn’t! Dewdrop followed after you-”

“Because I’m going to prove it to you, okay, Grian?”

Grian had lost track of the conversation already, that had to be a new record. “What?”

“I’m going to prove you can be a trainer. I’m gonna go beat Cleo, and my badge is going to move you so much you’ll run back in there yourself to get your own.”

“That’s not- Bdubs, you don’t need to prove anything to me.” Grian was becoming increasingly aware that the two of them stood in the entrance of the pokemon center, having a rather loud conversation, and people were starting to stare. He shifted Dewdrop to one hand, gently grabbing Bdubs by the forearm to bring him back outside, out of the way of any other passerbyers. “This isn’t just something you can- I don’t know, inspire me into doing. I- I’ve already failed Dewdrop once. I can’t do it again.”

Bdubs looked down at the sobble, the two blinking at each other for far too long. Grian started to think he wasn’t a part of whatever this was, but then Bdubs addressed him again. “Did Dewdrop tell you that or did you?”

“What?”

“Just by lookin’ at Dewdrop I can tell he wants you to go back in there and get that badge.”

Grian sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “He- he does, yes. But I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I’m- I just can’t, okay?” Grian’s chest felt tight, his own voice raising before he forced it back down. “I know Dewdrop wants me to try again. I know you want me to try again. Heck, if Mumbo were here he’d be telling me to try again, too! But I can’t!”

“Why not?” Bdubs asked again, taking a step closer.

And just like that, it boiled over. “Because I’m scared! Happy? I already failed in Galar in front of hundreds of people. I made a stupid mistake that got Dewdrop hurt, and never even looked at battling again until you came along. I never should have signed up for this because I can’t do this again, Bdubs.”

Bdubs scoffed, and Grian just about wanted to punch him in the face. “That’s stupid,” is all he said again, as if that magically solved all of Grian’s problems.

“Maybe it is.” Grian took a deep breath, petting the small crest on top of Dewdrop’s head.

Their argument lulled into silence, both of them shuffling uncomfortably in their spots. Grian focused on Dewdrop, and not on the way Bdubs still seemed to be radiating anger from the very core of his being. He startled when Bdubs spoke again.

“Come watch me battle them.”

Grian was starting to get used to not being able to predict Bdubs’ next move. He would have sworn his friend (he hoped they were still friends) would tell him to leave him alone, to make the journey back to Newport on his own. But instead he asked Grian to accompany him, despite their competition being as good as over.

“Why? It’s not going to make me change my mind.”

“I- Fine, it won’t. But you owe me this much.” When Grian tilted his head in confusion, Bdubs scoffed and elaborated. “We made it this far, and if you’re not even going to try to battle Cleo, then you can at least cheer me on.”

That softened some of the emotions swirling in Grian’s chest. “You want me there?”

“Not everyday you get to see your future champion win his first gym badge. Someone’s gotta be there to tell my story to the press. It’s doing you a favor, really.”

Grian laughed, a little breathless thing that had him shaking his head. This man was just as crazy as Grian remembered him being all those years ago. “Alright, I can come watch you. And make sure you don’t get lost in the maze.”

“Oh like you’ll be any help.”

“At the very least I can remind you they’re statues, not real pokemon.”

“Rude!”

Chapter Text

Grian and Bdubs continued their banter on the way back to the gym. It was easy, and preferable, to settle back into this joking between them. Even if the gym was still foreboding as they approached, something in Grian’s gut settled when he reminded himself he wasn’t entering as a challenger. He was a simple observer. He watched tons of gym challenges on TV as a kid, this was nothing different.

After convincing the doorman that only one of them was battling, he let them through to traverse the maze again. They squabbled a bit on which direction to go (“You always stick to the left,” he had told Bdubs, but the other man was convinced the right path was the way out), and only got scared by the statues a handful of times. Grian didn’t know if it took them longer to get through the maze than when he went alone, but it was certainly more enjoyable. He even got a few pictures of Dewdrop climbing on top of a victreebel statue and hanging off one of the giant fake leaves.

They emerged into the area (“I told you it was left.”), Cleo lounging on her throne once again. Her eyebrows raised when she saw them. “You know this isn’t a double battle gym, right?”

Bdubs was already reaching for his pokeballs, so Grian took it upon himself to explain, waving his hands placatingly in the air. “I’m not challenging. I’m here for moral support, if that’s okay?”

They stared at him for a few long moments. Unease made Grian want to shuffle his feet. “Fine, I suppose that’s okay.” They stood from the throne, grabbing a pokeball from their waist. “As long as your friend here won’t be too embarrassed if he loses again.”

“I ain’t losin’.” Bdubs grumbled, tossing out his ball and letting ponyta free. She whinnied, raising to her back hooves for a moment before settling down again, shaking out her mane. “I’m getting that badge.”

Cleo smiled at him, tossing out their grimer and paying no mind to how it spun in place while it waited for orders, spreading its goop everywhere. “That’s what I like to hear. Now, you ready?” Once Bdubs gave his affirmative, they commanded their grimer to attack.

The grimer surged forward, a flowing appendage ready to hit the ponyta that dodged out of the way with Bdubs’ call. Ponyta scraped her hooves against the ground, charged forward towards grimer, and knocked the dense pile of mud back, the hole left by ponyta’s horn quickly filling in.

Cleo’s lip twitched upward, “Grimer, disable.” The grimer gave a happy call, arms raising in the air before some of his mud spewed forward towards ponyta’s hooves.

Ponyta squealed, trying to lift her hooves from the ground only to find them stuck to the floor. She spent some time struggling, mane flipping back and forth on her neck. “Hey, hey, it’s okay girl.” Bdubs soothed, one hand out as if he could reach out and pet her. “Hit him with a fairy wind.”

“Ta!” She called, her horn beginning to sparkle on the tip. Grian could feel the breeze from where he stood as it circled through the arena. Ponyta’s hair was blown forward and grimer was blown back a few inches, a bit of goop flying off him.

Grimer still wore the dopey grin, bobbing up and down. Fairy was weak to poison, but Bdubs must have known that, right? The ponyta’s tail whipped back and forth a couple of times, and Grian noticed how the movement caught grimer’s attention. He swayed back and forth with it, letting out a low, amused call that Cleo rolled her eyes at.

“Grimer, sludge.”

That seemed to snap grimer out of his trance, and he gave one call of “Grime…” before his arms raised again, more mud spewing towards ponyta. This time the mud was a darker color, some sort of vapor coming up from it as it landed in ponyta’s mane. She thrashed her neck back and forth, managing to pry her hooves free in the struggle. She staggered backwards towards Bdubs, falling to her knees. Bdubs pet down her back.

“Don’t worry girl, you did great. Rest up and I’ll clean your mane later, okay?” Ponyta whinnied softly before Bdubs returned her to her pokeball.

“Given up yet?” Cleo asked, and Grian saw how Bdubs’ gaze hardened.

“You wish.” He pulled his other pokeball from his belt and tossed it out. “Pignite is going to wipe your team out.” Just on cue, Pignite stood in the arena now, looking pumped and ready to fight.

“You said that last time, too, I’m pretty sure.” Cleo continued to taunt, snapping their fingers to get grimer’s attention. “Come on now, you. Sludge him again for me.”

“Grimer!” He called, arms raising once again excitedly.

“Defense curl, quick!” Pignite wasted no time, curling in on himself and protecting his face and chest from the incoming blob of goop that landed on his back. A moment later Pignite unfurled, ears flicking. “Ember!”

The pignite made a snorting noise, body leaning back before it spat fire at the grimer. The flames hit and grimer called out, waving its ignited arm in the air to put itself out. Another shot of fire hit him, and he started frantically waving both arms.

“Drama queen,” Cleo muttered, a fond expression on their face as they called the grimer back into his pokeball. They gave no preamble before they sent out their second pokemon- a trubbish waving its little trash arms in the air as a greeting to them all. For literal trash, Grian had to admit the pokemon was quite cute. “Toxic spikes.”

“Trub!” He called, his arms retracting into his bag-like body for a moment before popping back out, a few dark colored spikes in each of his hands. He tossed them out onto the arena floor.

The pignite snorted again, another shot of fire aiming directly for trubbish. It landed, his baggy body igniting briefly before he patted himself out with an annoyed huff. Bdubs looked incredibly tense, his hands in tight fists as he watched the battle and gave orders to his pokemon. Grian didn’t blame him- he was sweating just watching.

“Pignite, flame charge.” Bdubs almost sounded hesitant giving the order, but pignite jumped into it without any preamble. He squealed into the air as his body alighted, then charged forward towards trubbish.

“Double slap when he gets close.” Cleo ordered, and trubbish did just that as soon as pignite got close enough. While the other pokemon rammed into him, trubbish used his arms to whack at pignite. He shook himself off when pignite stepped back, the fire covering his body dimming into a lingering smoke.

As pignite backed up towards Bdubs’ side of the arena again, his foot landed directly on one of the spikes trubbish laid out earlier. He cried out in pain, hopping on one foot until he fell over onto his behind, two little orange hands grabbing for the spike trap that had lodged itself in his foot.

Cleo wasted no time using this distraction to her advantage. “Pound!” She called out. Trubbish got ready to jump up and slam pignite into the ground.

“Ember!” Panic laced Bdubs’ voice, frantically trying to get pignite’s attention. “Pignite, use ember!”

Grian could’ve sworn the next few moments passed in slow motion. The trubbish was in the air, about to come down to land the finishing blow onto pignite just as the other pokemon looked up. The pignite snorted, a charge of fire landing right in the trubbish’s face as he descended. Instead of landing heavily on top of pignite and dealing any damage, the trubbish wheezed and flopped down on top of him. Everyone looked with baited breath, the scene processing in their minds, then Cleo smiled at Bdubs.

“Did I just… win?” He asked, the question feeble as if he didn’t believe it himself.

“That you did.” Cleo confirmed, calling trubbish back to his pokeball. Bdubs’ face broke out into a giant grin.

“I did it! Haha, yes!” He rushed forward into the arena, scooping pignite in his arms and hugging him close. “You did it, Pignite. You did great. Thank you, thank you!” He pressed a few kisses to the top of the pokemon’s head, getting a couple of snorts in response.

Cleo gave the two a few moments to bask in their glory, before drawing Bdubs’ attention again. “Congrats, Bdubs. You’ve earned yourself the Toxic badge.” She nodded towards the wall behind her. “Come with me, I’ll get you the badge and we can heal up your pokemon.”

Bdubs didn’t move for a moment, muttering something to pignite before returning him to his pokeball and following Cleo. Curiously, Grian followed behind the others, surprised to see a small room adjacent to the arena. Its walls were painted a lighter lavender color, warm lights filling the room with a comforting glow. But the thing that surprised Grian was the table in the corner- it looked just like the healing machines used in pokemon centers.

Grian always thought it looked like an incubator of sorts. A white base and black interior, six indents for pokeballs to rest in, and a glass dome to cover them while they heal. Cleo gestured for Bdubs to place his pokeballs into the machine, then pressed a button and watched the dome close. There was a bit of beeping, then a small chime before the glass receded. Bdubs picked up the pokeballs and slotted them back onto his belt. Cleo placed her own pokemon into the healing-incubator-thing (it had to have a name, right?) before tossing the balls into the air and releasing the pokemon inside. As expected, they seemed back to full health.

“Hey buddies, good work out there.” Cleo praised, walking to a counter and pulling out a jar filled with little colorful cubes. Grimer and trubbish crowded around Cleo, making happy chirps until she dropped a few of the cubes for them to gobble up.

“What…is this room?” Grian took a few more steps into the room, taking in the charming decor of it. There was a couch and loveseat set in the corner, with a TV hooked up on the wall. Cleo stood in a small kitchenette, setting the jar back in its spot against the wall. There were pictures hanging up here and there. Smaller versions of the statues they saw in the maze dotted the various surfaces. It was…cozy.

“Guess you could call it my break room.” Cleo told him, crouching down to give their trubbish a pat on the head. “My job mostly includes waiting for trainers to show up, so I have a lot of downtime.”

“And a mini-pokemon center?” Because that still baffled Grian. He’d never seen one of the incubators outside of the centers.

“Whoa, now, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it that. Most gyms have a healing table somewhere in them, but that’s it. We have to be ready for quick turn-around battles, y’know?” That made sense, he supposed. “Speaking of,” she opened a drawer, plucking out the same pendant that adorned her choker, and handed it to Bdubs. “There’s your badge, as promised.”

Bdubs was practically glowing, looking at the badge in his hands with a big smile on his face. His body bounced a bit from the excitement of it all, and he fiddled with his challenger band.

She let him deal with that, turning to Grian with her hands on her hips and an expectant look. “As for you…”

She didn’t need to say it for him to know what she was asking. “I’m not challenging you.”

“Really?” She seemed genuinely surprised, her gaze falling to his shoulder where Dewdrop sat. “That’s funny, since your sobble seems rearing for a fight.”

Grian startled, a hand instinctively coming up to press Dewdrop closer to his shoulder. “I- I’m not here to challenge you.” He said again, and they just shrugged.

“I can’t make you. Just a bit of a shame, I think.” They flopped down on one of the couches, having none of that previous regality to their movements.

“What’s a shame?”

“That you’re not even trying!” Bdubs called out, fixing a rather heated glare on Grian like the one from their earlier conversation.

“Well, that’s part of it, yes.” Cleo chuckled, beckoning them over to the seating area. “I think it’s a shame you’re not trying, when both you and your pokemon clearly want to.”

Grian’s brow furrowed as he thought about that, settling himself on the end of a couch. Dewdrop dropped down to his lap, tugging a hand towards him to hold. He wrapped his little paw around one of Grian’s fingers, big eyes blinking up at him.

“I don’t want to, though.”

“You hesitated.”

“You’re pressuring me.”

Cleo laughed, head throwing back. “Touché. But earlier, you hesitated too. If you really didn’t want to do this, why come all this way?”

Grian shrugged, still looking down at Dewdrop instead of at the gym leader across from him. “Rash decision. Didn’t think it through.”

“He kept going on about becoming the next champion.” Bdubs told her, lounging beside Grian.

“I joked about it once.”

“He’s a good trainer! He found a chatot in the forest on the way here, and didn’t even have to battle it to catch it.” Cleo’s eyebrows raised at that, her interest clearly piqued. “And then he spent a bunch of time training it. Or so he says. He never let me watch, so for all I know he doesn’t actually have a team to battle with.”

“Professor Beak could beat your team anyday.” Grian growled, protectiveness for his pokemon flaring up in his chest.

“Oh yeah? Then prove it!” Bdubs was reaching for his pokeballs already, fingers twitching. “Battle me! You’ve refused the entire time we’ve been traveling. Or do you know you’ll lose, now that I have a badge?”

“Boys, boys, you’re both pretty.” Cleo cut in, exasperation coloring their tone. They were smiling though, something almost fond twinkling in their eyes. “Keep in mind, Bdubs, you lost to me on your first try.”

“Hey! I beat you the second time.” Bdubs pouted, arms crossed in a defensive manner.

“After you learned from your mistakes. Don’t go claiming you can beat someone in a battle just because you’ve won the first gym badge.” Their gaze settled on Grian now, and he wanted to sink into the couch to escape it. “And Grian, don’t go claiming you can beat someone without being willing to back up your claim.”

Bdubs and Grian went silent, both effectively scolded for their respective outbursts. Cleo had a point, Grian could concede. How could he say his pokemon would win in a battle? A couple of wild battles are nothing compared to a trainer battle. He’d never even won a trainer battle. If his last experience was anything to go by, he’d probably fail miserably and make a fool of himself again. He’d already failed Dewdrop; he didn’t think he could stomach the idea of failing Professor Beak, too.

“I would be interested in at least meeting this chatot of yours, if you’d let me?” Grian blinked at Cleo, Professor Beaks’ pokeball feeling suddenly very heavy where it sat at his hip.

He shrugged, shifting to the side to grab the pokeball from his waist. He stared at the shiny red and white surface, shame tugging at his heart. He’d already failed Professor Beak, hadn’t he? He trained so hard, and now Grian wouldn’t even try. He knew he probably looked very dejected when he tossed the ball, Professor Beak flapping his wings happily once he was out in the open.

“Chaaa!” He called, tilting his head at Cleo, then back at Grian. He took a few hops towards the couch, then reached a talon out and climbed up Grian’s leg.

“Ow! Prof- Beak- Your talons, Beak, they’re sharp!” Grian carefully scooped the bird pokemon up by his abdomen. His wings lifted out of the way before flapping and launching himself onto Grian’s shoulder where he settled in quickly. What was it with his pokemon and perching on his shoulder?

“He’s very comfortable with you,” Cleo commented, reminding Grian of their presence. “I would expect nothing less if he chose you to be his trainer.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Grian told her, scratching under Professor Beak’s chin. Dewdrop made an affronted noise, so he made sure to give his partner some attention too. “Aren’t all pokemon comfortable with their trainers?”

“Absolutely not.” They shook their head, fire-red curls bouncing against the back of the couch. “In an ideal world, maybe. But for a pokemon to show such unrelenting trust in you so quickly? That’s something very special, Grian. You shouldn’t take it for granted.”

Something special? Grian didn’t think there was anything special about him. About Professor Beak, sure. He thought Dewdrop and Professor Beak were the best pokemon he could ask for. Dewdrop with all his shenanigans and endless support, even when it was accompanied by copious amounts of tears. And Professor Beak put up with Grian worrying over him during training days, always chirping brightly to let Grian know he was okay, even after a wild pokemon left him injured.

They did trust him, Grian realized. As a trainer, and as a friend- his pokemon trusted him. And what had he done to repay that trust? All he’d done was be a coward, clinging too tightly to his past to give either of his pokemon a chance at success. To give himself a chance of redemption.

The thought was staggering, leaving him completely frozen in his seat as he truly let that knowledge sink in. His pokemon trusted him - Professor Beak chose him - and he didn’t trust himself enough to even try a single battle. Professor Beak trusted Grian in training, and would trust him in a battle too. Something was unfurling deep in his gut, something Grian hadn’t felt properly since he was a child, standing before the Turrfield stadium with nothing but Dewdrop on his shoulder and a dream.

“Well, my gym isn’t closed for the day.” Cleo told them, pulling herself to her feet. Bdubs followed suit. Grian still sat there, mind racing over this new information he’d unraveled in his mind. “I need to be ready for any other trainers that stop by so sorry, but I’m kicking you two out.”

Bdubs said something, but Grian didn’t hear it. Blood was pounding in his ears, and Professor Beak’s weight was heavy on his shoulder. His pokemon trusted him, the least he could do for them was try.

“Wait,” Grian said, stumbling as he stood up off the couch, almost overbalanced by Professor Beak. They both looked back at him, and he decided to blurt it out before he got cold feet again. “Gym Leader Cleo, I would like to challenge you.”

-

For the second time that day, Grian stood on the battlefield across from Cleo. Only this time, he was ready.

He still felt ready to bolt at any second, but the confidence and eagerness of his pokemon kept him grounded. He fidgeted with Professor Beak’s pokeball in his hand.

“You ready?” Cleo called.

Grian squeezed the pokeball one more time for good measure, then nodded. “Ready.”

Cleo lazily tossed a pokeball at their feet, out of which came trubbish. It seemed like they were switching up their strategy as well. Grian sent out Professor Beak, who excitedly hopped in place.

“I hope you know I won’t go easy on you just because you’re anxious,” Cleo taunted, though her smile was lighthearted. “Trubbish, toxic spikes!” Trubbish waved an arm and scattered a dozen purple spikes at Professor Beak’s feet. It seemed like that was her go-to opening move with trubbish.

Grian took a deep breath. Just like we practiced. “Beak, fury attack! Careful around those spikes.” With a flap of his wings, Professor Beak flew up and launched himself at trubbish. He managed three pecks before trubbish successfully waved him off.

Trubbish brushed himself off. There was a rip in his bag where Beak had gotten a particularly good peck in. “C’mon, battle’s not done. Use sludge!” Cleo called.

Reaching within itself, trubbish pulled out a blob of nasty looking sludge and hurled it at Professor Beak, knocking him to the ground. Grian’s heart leapt to his throat.

“Professor? Come on, please get up.” This was exactly what Grian was worried about, but he tried his best to keep it together. It took a few agonizing seconds but slowly, shakily, the pokemon stood with a loud battle cry of a squawk. “Yes! Quick, use peck!” Trubbish tried to move out of the way, but the chatot was too fast. He flew into trubbish beak first, knocking the other pokemon down with the force. After a few seconds it was clear trubbish wasn’t getting back up.

Grian’s heart soared. This was what Cleo and Bdubs had meant about trust.

Cleo flashed Grian an approving look before pressing the button to bring trubbish back. “You did good trubbish.” She returned trubbish to her belt, swapping his pokeball for her second one. “Grimer, your turn!”

A familiar pile of mud emerged from the pokeball with a dopey battle cry.

“Beak, sing!” Grian called before Cleo got a chance to call out their move. The lovely birdsong seemed to have the desired effect- grimer started blinking slowly, fighting off the sleep effect.

Cleo pursed her lips. “Don’t fall asleep on me bud. Use mud bomb!” Grimer pulled off a section of itself, rolling it between appendages to pack it down, then pitched it at Professor Beak.

Beak went down. Seconds felt like they stretched into hours as Grian watched, waiting for him to get up, but it was clear he was down for the count this time. Grian’s heart was pounding.

The urge to run away slammed into him like a brick wall, but Grian stood his ground this time. Professor Beak would be okay. Not only that, he’d done amazing in the fight. This wasn’t Galar. Grian wasn’t ten anymore. Grian popped open the Professor’s pokeball. “You did good. Rest up Professor.”

Grian stared at Dewdrop’s pokeball for a moment. “I trust you buddy.” He whispered before sending his partner out.

Dewdrop trilled at Grian before turning to the battlefield, immediately stepping on a toxic spike as he did. Grian tensed, but Dewdrop turned back to Grian with a little thumbs up despite the tears streaming down his face. Clearly the sobble was trying not to worry him. Grian flashed a hesitant thumbs up back, before pointing his attention back to the battlefield.

Just in time, as Cleo shouted, “Give him another mud bomb!”

Grimer repeated the process of making his mud bomb, but Beak’s song was taking its toll. Grimer yawned as he threw, and the mud bomb missed Dewdrop by half a metre.

“Water gun Dewdrop!” Dewdrop obeyed- spitting a jet of water that pushed grimer back towards a grimacing Cleo.

Grimer was starting to doze off. “Just stay awake a little longer grimer!” The pokemon’s head snapped up as Cleo called their next move, “Acid spray!” Grimer yawned again, spraying lime green acid at Dewdrop as he did. Dewdrop trilled in surprise when the liquid hit him with a sizzle, but he stood strong.

Ignoring the urge to flee, Grian frantically called, “This is it Dewy, bind!” Dewdrop jumped at grimer and squeezed his arms and legs around it. Grimer didn’t even struggle against the attack- he fell asleep as soon as Dewdrop got a hold. “Finish this with water pulse!”

A wave of water materialized around Dewdrop and slammed into grimer. Grimer flattened, leaving Dewdrop holding nothing.

Grian felt a weight hit him. He instinctively caught it- it was Dewdrop. He seemed excited.

“Congratulations Grian!” Cleo walked across the battlefield, hand outstretched.

It took a few seconds, but eventually Grian’s brain caught up to what had happened. “I won?”

Chapter Text

After Grian got over his disbelief, he followed Cleo back to their breakroom where Bdubs was waiting. Bdubs shot up out of his seat when the two entered. “Did you…?”

“I did it. I beat the gym.” Grian confirmed, a bit dazed. It was actually starting to sink in that he’d beat a gym. Bdubs started whooping and clapping- Grian laughed at the annoyed look on Cleo’s face.

“Good lord Bdubs, have you always been this loud? You never made this much noise over the phone.”

Grian raised an eyebrow. “Over the phone?” He repeated. “You two know each other?”

“He didn’t tell you?” Cleo asked, then sighed. “Nevermind, of course he didn’t.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

Cleo ignored Bdubs. “I’ve known Bdubs for a little over a year- Etho introduced him to all us gym leaders at an exhibition and he never went away. A bit like a cockroach.” She grinned.

“Really feelin’ the love Cleo.” Bdubs grumbled. “But yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that. It’s actually why I’m doin’ the gym challenge- I haven’t seen any of these guys in a year and this is a good way to visit all of ‘em! Plus I get to kick all of their-”

“Okay! Enough talking from you. I do actually have a job to do.” Cleo interrupted. She reached into the same drawer that Bdubs’ badge had come from and produced an identical one that she handed to Grian. “Congratulations on your first gym badge, you earned it.”

Grian reverently turned the badge over in his hand a few times before placing it into his challenger band with a satisfying snap.

“So you two are going to head out to the next gym?” After nods from both of them, Cleo continued. “In that case, you’ll need to build up your teams a little more. How would you like to pay a visit to a friend of mine that can help you out?”

Normally, Grian wouldn’t go with someone he’d just met to visit a mysterious friend of theirs, but Cleo knew Bdubs. And after what both of them had done for him earlier, he felt inclined to trust her.

“Go get some rest, I’ll take you to him after the gym closes for the night.”

-

Grian and Bdubs paid another visit to the pokemon centre, then grabbed some dinner before meeting Cleo back outside the gym. They’d wiped off their dramatic stitch makeup, and traded the mesh shirt for a more comfortable looking sweater. They still wore skull jewelry and dark makeup.

“Alright, let’s get going. It’ll be dark in a few hours.”

The trio hailed a flying taxi that dropped them off on a side road after a few minutes of flying.

At the end of the road, not too far off from the main route, was a small farmhouse. A purugly was lazing on a bench on the wraparound porch, trying to take a nap. However, it was being distracted by a pair of sprigatito taking turns batting playfully at it. A ramp, rather than stairs, led up to the porch.

Cleo stopped just in front of the house and called, “Scar! I brought guests!”

Grian heard a thump and a surprised yelp from inside, then a minute later a man rolled out of the open door in a bright blue and orange wheelchair. The man had his hair tied back, wore a leather jacket over a plaid shirt, and he was absolutely covered in scars- various scratches, burns, and bite marks. Fitting name, Grian mused to himself.

“Well hello there- Finnegan! Katy Bee! Stop trying to play with Jellie when she’s napping!” Scar interrupted himself to scold the sprigatito on the porch. The two of them scampered into the house as soon as their names were called. “Sorry, where was I?”

Cleo looked amused. “Introducing yourself?”

“Right!” Scar snapped his fingers. “Hello there travellers! My name is Scar, welcome to the Goodtimes Ranch! What can I do for you two fine gentlemen?” He came down the ramp and enthusiastically shook Grian and Bdubs’ hands.

“Well, uh-” Grian awkwardly started after Bdubs looked at him expectantly, “The two of us are doing the gym challenge together, and Cleo said you could help us build our teams?”

“Ooh, a couple new challengers!” Scar got an odd look in his eye that vanished after a moment. “Absolutely I can help you, just follow me! Rotom, we’re going off-roading!” A rotom materialized and flew out the back of his chair. It flashed, and in an instant the wheelchair had changed- its tires were larger and wider apart, and a pair of steering handles had appeared.

Grian and Bdubs followed Scar around to the back of the house while Cleo stayed on the porch with Jellie. Behind the house was a huge backyard surrounded by forest, distant mountains looming in the background. Both in the yard and among the trees Grian could see lots of pokemon- some eating from food trays, some playing, some just milling about.

Scar swept an arm out grandly. “As you can see, we have a wide variety of potential partners here that can suit your every need- these guys have all sorts of amazing skills and every single one of them could use a loving home.”

A bold darumaka excitedly waddled up to the group. Bdubs crouched down to pat it on the head. “Darumaka? These guys don’t usually live in this area, do they?”

“Nope! Most pokemon here are rescues, so they come from all over the region. That’s why picking a partner here will give you an edge over the other challengers.” Scar explained with a wink.

Bdubs tried to stand up and was hit with a small shot of flame from the irritated darumaka. It immediately calmed down when Bdubs kept petting, so the man sighed and sat down to accept his fate. Scar seemed pretty entertained by the scene, so Grian walked off by himself to explore the ranch.

Not far beyond the tree line, he found a small clearing with a few bug type pokemon around. He accidentally snapped a branch, and the startled pokemon quickly scattered off into the bushes.

All but one. A cascoon stood right in front of Grian, spikes bristling in agitation. Grian held his hands up to show he meant no harm. “Whoah, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to startle you.” The cascoon didn’t attack, but it also didn’t stand down.

Slowly, Grian reached into his bag for the berries he had stashed away. He kneeled and held a few in an outstretched hand as a silent peace offering. The cascoon bristled for a few more seconds, but its interest in the berries won out and it hesitantly leaned forward. The berries disappeared into the cocoon, and the pokemon seemed satisfied.

“I’ve never met a cascoon before. Can I…“ Grian slowly reached to pat the cascoon on the head. When it didn’t shy away, Grian took that as permission and gave it a few soft pats. “Oh! You’re soft.”

Cascoon chittered in response. They sat in quiet for a few minutes, cascoon slowly migrating into Grian’s lap.

It didn’t take long for cascoon to start dozing off. Grian slowly reached for an empty pokeball, holding it out in front of cascoon. It lazily opened an eye, then softly chittered and closed its eye. Grian pressed the button. The ball enveloped cascoon in bright energy, then rocked back and forth a few times before clicking shut.

Grian gently placed the ball with Dewdrop’s and Professor Beak’s. He stood up, dusted the grass off his pants, then turned around to rejoin the other two.

-

Apparently the darumaka really didn’t want to leave Bdubs alone, and he’d had to catch it to satisfy the little guy.

“Alright, now that I’ve helped you both meet your new partners, that’ll be ₽10,000.” Grian and Bdubs both gaped at him, speechless for a few moments, before Scar laughed and waved a hand. “Just kidding! I don’t do this for money, I just want these guys to find good homes.”

“You- I- Wh-“ Grian stuttered. What is this guy’s deal?

Scar didn’t answer, just continued wheeling around to the front of the house and waved to Cleo. “Hi Cleo! We found some new friends!”

“Oh, I’m glad. Then if you two are ready, I’ll show you the path to the next gym.”

-

After saying their goodbyes and thank you’s to Scar (begrudgingly on Grian’s part), Cleo brought them back to the main route.

Despite Grian’s earlier complaints about having slept in tents the last few nights, they were going to set out right away rather than check into a hotel for the night- Grian was far too pumped to rest now.

“Now the next three gyms are a little odd since you can choose which order you do them in. Do you want to try fire, water, or grass first?”

Bdubs shrugged. “I’ll leave it to Grian. I don’t really care about type advantages.”

“How do you not-? Nevermind.” Grian was learning that Bdubs had many quirks he refused to elaborate on. “Dewdrop is water type, so I suppose we should go to fire first.”

“Good choice. In that case you’re going to follow that road,” they pointed straight ahead, “then turn left when you get to the intersection. Goldvale is the closest of the three, so it should only take you a day or two to get there.”

With two new gym badges and two new pokemon in tow, Grian and Bdubs waved goodbye to Cleo and set out on the path to their next gym.

-

True to Cleo’s word, the pair arrived in Goldvale just as the sun began to set the next day.

Goldvale was much larger than Midblossom- the city sprawled across a wide plain, gradually giving way to farmland to the north and the ocean to the south. The setting sun reflected golden light off sleek, black, modern buildings.

Before they even entered the city, the smell of street food wafted over, and Grian became acutely aware of the fact that they hadn’t eaten dinner yet. “Oh my goodness, that smells amazing.”

“Of course it does, Goldvale is known all over the region for its cooking.”

“You knew about it already?”

“Why do you think I didn’t stop to make dinner?” Bdubs replied. “Now c’mon, I wanna try everything.” He took off down the road, Grian close behind.

Grian realized where exactly the smell was coming from once they got a little closer- there were food stalls everywhere. Dozens of them lined the main road, and Grian could see several more down every side street and alleyway. The street was crowded with people lined up to order, or milling about deciding which stall to visit. Grian and Bdubs were part of the latter group- the place was so overwhelming it was hard to pick just one stall to start with.

Grian was delighted to find a Galarian curry stall, though Bdubs didn’t share the sentiment. Despite Grian’s attempts to convince him, Bdubs still wouldn’t try it. He instead wandered off and returned with a plate of fried noodles.

After stopping briefly for dinner they continued further into town, halfheartedly looking for a hotel but mostly marvelling at the array of foods for sale.

A poffin stall caught Grian’s attention, and he darted over to the display case with Bdubs in tow.

“Hey there! Welcome to Cub’s Poffins, what can I get for you gentlemen?” Grian startled at the familiar voice, and looked up to confirm his suspicion.

“Wait- aren’t you the guy from Newport? With the pokemon shaped poffins? What are you doing all the way out here?”

The man- presumably Cub- chuckled. “Guilty as charged. I like to take my business all over, give the whole region a taste of my product.”

“Well I’ll tell you what, you’ve got perfect timing. I just ran out of the ones I bought last time.” Already Grian was looking through the display case. He let cascoon (who still needed a proper name) out of her pokeball to help with the selection.

“Hm, you look familiar.” To Grian’s surprise, Cub was talking to cascoon. He then turned to address Grian. “You wouldn’t have happened to pick this cascoon up at the Goodtimes Ranch, would you?”

Grian blinked in surprise. “Uh- I actually did. How do you know that?”

Cub laughed, tearing a piece off a poffin and tossing it to cascoon. “Scar is my business partner, I visit his ranch all the time. The pokemon love when i bring free samples. That means you guys must be challengers, right?”

This time Bdubs chimed in. “Right again! We’re goin’ all the way to the top!” Bdubs wrapped an arm around Grian’s shoulder, only slightly choking him.

“Well in that case, take these.” Cub handed each of them a coupon for the pokemart, giving Grian a chance to shove Bdubs away. “They’ve got the best battling supplies around.” He then leaned in conspiratorially and stage whispered, “Trust me, I’m a co-owner of the company.” He winked and leaned back.

“Wait-” Grian connected some dots in his head. “If Scar is your business partner, does that mean he’s the other owner of the pokemarts?” Grian became incredulous at Cub’s nod. “Then what is he doing charging us ₽10,000 for pokemon? He’s surely rich enough already!”

Cub just chuckled. “Classic Scar. Anyway, this is what you asked for, right?”

Grian was about to remind Cub that he hadn’t actually given his order when he looked down to see exactly what he was going to ask for, neatly packaged in a to-go box. “What? I- I mean yes, but-”

“Perfect! That’ll be ₽3000.”

“Okay but I-” Grian gave up and paid, at a loss for words.

“Hope to see you again soon!”

“Bye Cub!” Bdubs waved cheerfully as he pulled Grian back to the street, apparently unaware of anything strange having happened.

Grian stared off into the horizon. “I’m beginning to realize that everyone here is out of their minds.”

Chapter Text

After spending the night in a hotel, Grian and Bdubs set out bright and early to challenge the gym. At least, as bright and early as possible when the hotel had a free breakfast buffet.

Bdubs’ rotom map led them to a small building, the fire type symbol lit up in neon above the door. Grian finished off a biscuit he’d snagged from breakfast (One of those fluffy ones they had in Unova, not a regular biscuit) before heading inside.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t much to see. The tiled floor and red painted walls reminded Grian of a diner, but the only things in the building were a couple of leather chairs and a counter, behind which stood a young woman.

Grian would’ve assumed they had been led to the wrong building if the woman behind the counter hadn’t been wearing the same neat league uniform as the man from the poison gym. “Hi uh, we’re looking for the gym?” He asked the woman.

“Well then you’ve come to the right place!” She replied cheerily.

“Oh! This is the gym?” Grian looked around, skeptical. “There doesn’t really seem to be enough space-“

“Oh no, the gym’s not here. But you’re at the right place to look for it! The challenge for the Goldvale gym is finding it. Here, take this.” She handed Grian an envelope, sealed with the same fire symbol that was on the outside of the building. “There’s a puzzle inside- solving it will lead you to the gym. Good luck!”

“Thank you for the help. And the envelope.” Grian waved goodbye with the envelope in question as he and Bdubs exited the building- it was clear they weren’t going to find the gym in there.

Grian peeled the wax off and unfolded the paper. Written on it was two words:

imin gstoduhun

“Wh- that’s nonsense!” Bdubs cried.

“It’s not nonsense, it’s a puzzle. You’re supposed to figure it out.”

“I know what a puzzle is! Lemme see that.” Bdubs snatched the paper from Grian, studying it intently. Grian looked at it as well over his shoulder, but couldn’t make any sense of it- he had never been good with word scrambles. Instead he started looking around- maybe he could find the gym without this stupid puzzle.

“Mini doughnuts!” Bdubs shouted with no warning. Grian nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Could you say that a little louder? I didn’t quite hear you over the ringing in my ears.” Grian shot a look at Bdubs and covered his ear to make a point, but the other man didn’t seem too bothered.

“Oh, you’ll live.” Bdubs pointed at the letter. “Mini doughnuts- that’s the clue!”

“That’s the clue? What does that tell us? Are you sure there’s not a second clue or something in there?”

“Not that I can see. Darn it!” Bdubs threw his hands in the air. “There’s gotta be a million mini doughnut places in this city!” He was probably right, Grian could see three of them from where they stood. There had to be some other way to find the right place.

“Can I see the letter again?”

“Have at it, I can’t find anything else.”

Bdubs handed Grian the letter, and Grian took the opportunity to tease him. “See how easy it is to ask for things nicely?”

He ignored the rude gesture Bdubs made in favour of studying the map, trying to find anything they’d missed but there was nothing. The only things on the paper were the word puzzle and…

“Hold on. Look at this.” Grian pointed at the wax seal.

“…It’s the fire symbol?”

“Now look at that.” Grian led Bdubs’ gaze to one of the mini doughnut stands- its logo was the exact same symbol as the one on the letter. “That’s our second clue- follow the symbols!”

Grian took off towards the stand, Bdubs close behind.

Slowing to a jog as he approached, Grian went up to one of the cashiers and handed him the envelope, slightly out of breath. “Hi- we’re here for the gym challenge.”

“Awesome! Well congratulations on solving the first puzzle-“

“First?” Grian felt his eye twitch.

“Here you go!” The man handed Grian a second envelope, identical to the first, with a smile- apparently oblivious to Grian’s distress. “Good luck!”

Grian turned to Bdubs and opened the envelope. Inside were 50 or so jigsaw puzzle pieces. “You have got to be kidding me. If we have to do any more puzzles after this I might just lose my mind.”

-

A pizza place, a taco truck, and two pokepuff stands later, Grian was indeed losing his mind.

“This isn’t even a puzzle! ‘What do you call cheese that’s not yours?’ That’s just a joke!” Grian was using the latest clue to gesture frustratedly, having long since lost the ability to care if anyone was staring.

Bdubs pointed across the street. “Well the good news is there’s a nacho stand right across the street with the fire symbol?”

“Good.” Grian started to march over. “The sooner we meet this gym leader the sooner I can give them a piece of my mind.” Bdubs followed at a distance, probably not wanting to look like he was associated with a madman.

Grian slammed the sheet of paper down on the counter. “If you hand me another envelope I may do something drastic.”

The man sitting behind the counter seemed amused. “...I take it you’re here for the gym challenge?”

“Yes.”

“Well fortunately for both of us, I do not have another envelope for you.” The man stood up. “My name is Hypno, leader of the Goldvale gym.”

Hypno reached out a hand over the counter. Grian hesitantly shook it. “...I’m Grian.”

In hindsight, Grian should have known this man was a gym leader. Normal people didn’t dress like that. He wore a long grey trench coat with bright flame designs going up each sleeve as well as the bottom half of the coat. Underneath was a plain black shirt, but he wore a leather pokeball holster overtop. His blond hair was mostly covered by a black bandana.

A lot of the frustrated wind had been taken out of Grian’s sails by finding the gym, but still… “Nacho cheese? Seriously?”

“Yeah! Came up with that one myself. Hilarious, right?” Hypno laughed at the thought of his own joke. Grian calmed himself by remembering he was about to fight this guy.

Apparently Grian had calmed down enough for Bdubs to stand next to him again, because he walked up to the booth as well. “Hey Hypno! Long time no see.”

“Bdubs! I was wondering when you’d make your way here.”

“So… where’s the gym?” Grian looked around- they were outside in the middle of a crowded street, and he didn’t see any nearby buildings that looked like a gym.

“Right!” Hypno reached under the counter and, with a click, a doorway appeared in the wall behind the nacho stand. “Welcome to the Sizzling Speakeasy gentlemen.”

Hypno gestured toward the doorway. Bdubs entered without question, Grian following a moment later. The opening turned out to be the top of a stairway, dimly lit with brick walls on either side. Hypno brought up the rear and the door clicked softly shut behind him.

At the bottom of the stairs was what looked like a waiting room with a couple of cushy leather arm chairs around the room. The floor was black and white checkered tile and the walls were red brick. It was like a cooler, darker version of the first building they’d gone to.

“Since he got to me first, I’ll battle Grian first. Sorry to make you wait, Bdubs.”

“All good.” Bdubs was already leaning back in one of the chairs. “Grian might pop a blood vessel if he doesn’t get to battle soon.”

Grian rolled his eyes. “I was not that bad, you’re being dramatic.” Bdubs let out a bark of laughter, but didn’t say anything else.

Hypno opened another door across from the stairs. “Alright then, follow me.”

Through the door was a short, dark hallway that opened up into a much larger and better lit room. Checkered tile gave way to packed arena sand, battle lines painted on it in white. The ceiling was surprisingly high for a basement, with exposed pipes and support beams giving it that industrial look. Hypno took his place at the opposite end of the arena, Grian took his spot on the close side.

“Alright, let’s do this. I know you’re mad but please try not to break anything.” Hypno grinned, starting the battle by tossing out his first pokemon- a quilava.

“I make no promises.” Grian responded with a wicked smile of his own, and sent out Dewdrop. If he had any luck, Grian could use the type advantage to wipe out Hypnos’ entire team. “Dewd-“

“Quilava, smokescreen!” Hypno shouted before Grian could call his first move. Quilava opened his mouth and let out a dark cloud of smoke that settled over Hypno‘s end of the field, completely obscuring both pokemon and trainer.

Grian squinted, but the smoke was too thick. He couldn’t see a thing. “Dewdrop, water gun. Just- do your best.” He added when Dewdrop shot Grian a skeptical look.

He fired a strong jet of water into the smog, but Grian heard it splash harmlessly on the arena sand- the attack didn’t hit.

“Quick attack!” Hypno called from inside the smoke. In a flash, quilava appeared and delivered a kick to Dewdrop’s side before retreating and disappearing again.

But the attack had given Grian an idea. “Try a bind Dewdrop.” He instructed. Dewdrop seemed to question it, but dutifully leapt into the smoke. He came out empty handed, but Grian silently motioned him to watch for his opponent.

“Hit him with an ember!” Once again, quilava emerged from the smoke and spat flame at Dewdrop. This time though, he and Grian were ready.

“Now Dewy, water pulse!”

Before quilava could make it back into the safety of the smokescreen, Dewdrop summoned a ring of water that blasted outward, knocking quilava to the ground. In a flash he disappeared, and the smoke quickly dissipated to reveal Hypno stowing away quilava’s pokeball. “I gotta hand it to you, that was a smart move.” He admitted, before tossing in his next pokemon.

A large arcanine appeared with a loud growl, looking at Dewdrop like he was prey. Dewdrop looked like he wanted to go hide. “Come on Dewy, don’t let her scare you.” Grian urged. “Hit her with another water pulse!”

Dewdrop did as he was told, but Grian could tell he was pulling his punches. The water pulse hit, but arcanine wasn’t nearly as damaged as she should have been, especially at a type disadvantage. Clearly Dewdrop was scared of her, which Grian supposed made sense since she was five times his size.

“Now I get it.” Grian mused, addressing Hypno. “Your strategy is to keep your opponent from attacking, rather than have strong attacks yourself. That’s why you had smokescreen and now a big scary dog”

Hypno seemed surprised for a moment, but smiled and raised his hands in mock surrender. “You got me. The best offense is a good defense. Of course some good old fashioned regular offense never hurts either. Arcanine, bite!”

She instantly lunged at Dewdrop, biting down on his tail and shaking him around like a chew toy. She dropped him, and he fell to the floor with a thud.

Grian reached for Dewdrop’s pokeball, ready to bring him back and congratulate him on a job well done, when Dewdrop shakily pulled himself to his feet. He let out a bubbly little roar, and Grian didn’t think he could be more proud. ”Yes Dewdrop! Get her with a water gun!”

Hit by a jet of water from Dewdrop, arcanine went down. Hypno stared at the field in surprise. “Wow, that’s some sobble you’ve got there.” He called arcanine back to her pokeball. “Get some rest girl, you did good.” He returned the pokeball to his holster, swapping it out for his last one. “One more. Fair warning, this one’s a bit of a curveball.” He smirked, and pitched the ball into the arena.

In a flash, a hypno appeared. It blinked slowly at Dewdrop. Grian couldn’t believe it- he started cackling. “It- that- You two have the same name? It’s not even a fire type!” He wailed, doubled over with laughter.

Hypno chuckled. “Yeah, he’s not a fire type, but he’s my best buddy and the champion said it was okay so I get away with it.”

Grian took another minute to compose himself- the battle had to go on. “Okay. Okay I’m good now.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah I-“ Grian snickered. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”

“Great. In that case, headbutt!” Like a switch had flipped, Hypno was back to battling and Grian very quickly realised that this was going to get confusing. He decided to refer to the trainer as human Hypno, and also made a mental note to never do so to his face.

Hypno charged at Dewdrop, slamming their foreheads together and causing Dewdrop to collapse. Unlike last time, he did not miraculously get up, and Grian brought him back to his pokeball with a quiet, “You did amazing out there Dewy.”

Grian had lost the type advantage when hypno came onto the field, but now he had an opportunity to get it back.

He threw cascoon out onto the field. “Alright cascoon, you ready?” She nodded, spikes bristling and- “That’s it! That’s what I’ll call you! How do you feel about being named Spike?” Human Hypno looked up at Grian, confused.

Spike seemed to accept the name, hopping up and down then getting into a battle stance. “Get him with a bug bite Spike!”

‘Bite’ wasn’t exactly the right word for what she did, but Grian wasn’t sure what the technical term would be for Spike wrapping herself around hypno’s arm and jabbing him with her spikes. ‘Bite’ would have to do.

“My turn, psybeam!” Human Hypno instructed. A pink beam of light shot out from the center of hypno’s pendulum, hitting Spike and making her slide backwards.

She was still standing, but that psybeam had done more damage than Grian would have liked. “Let’s try some of this defense Hypno keeps going on about. Spike, harden!”

Strands of silk appeared from underneath Spike and wrapped around her, covering up the parts that had been torn and hopefully protecting her from hypno’s next attack.

“Confusion, hypno!” Hypno started to swing his pendulum back and forth. Spike’s attention was immediately caught- she started to sway with it. Then he suddenly jerked the pendulum, and Spike reeled like she’d been struck.

She was still up, but staggering and squinting her eyes. Telltale signs of confusion. Grian cursed quietly, now she was just as likely to hurt herself as she was hypno.

“Come on Spike, snap out of it! Use bug bite on hypno!” Grian urged. Spike shut her eyes tight, trying her hardest to focus. Then, to Grian’s delight, she launched herself at hypno, jabbing him with her spikes until he fell.

Grian held his breath for one second. Two. Hypno didn’t move. He was out. Grian had won.

Human hypno brought his pokemon back into its ball before softly applauding. “Congratulations, you just earned your second badge.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an orange badge, handing it to Grian and shaking his hand.

The design on this one was done in gold and looked like a cyndaquil’s flames- sharp points of fire radiating from the center of the badge. Grian snapped it into his band next to the poison badge.

He reached for Spike’s pokeball so she could be healed, but she started glowing before he even pressed the button. “Wh- oh! You’re evolving!”

Hypno gasped. “Dude! That’s awesome!”

After a few seconds the light dissipated. On the floor was a pile of silk where the cascoon had been, and flying in the air face to face with Grian was Spike- now a fierce looking dustox. Grian pulled her in for a tight hug. “Spike, look at you! You did so amazing, thank you!”

-

Once Grian had finished his battle and healed his team, it was his turn to sit in the waiting room while Bdubs fought Hypno.

Grian got comfortable in one of the chairs- this would take a while. They were both fire type trainers, so neither of them would be able to do much damage.

He had only been waiting a minute or two when a man came down the stairs, looking around like he was trying not to get caught. He froze when he locked eyes with Grian. The man had long platinum blond hair tied back in a ponytail, and wore dark clothes and lots of jewelry. His outfit reminded Grian of Spikemuth.

The guy was probably another challenger. A weird one, but that wasn’t Grian’s business. “Are you here for the gym? The leader’s in there with a challenger right now.” He pointed at the arena door with a thumb.

“No.”

“...Okay?” As much as Grian wanted to be nosy, he really had no right interrogating a stranger. None of my business, none of my business, Grian repeated to himself like a mantra.

He sat down in the opposite corner of the room from Grian, arms crossed and looking sulky. They sat in silence for a few minutes, the man looking up at Grian every so often like he was waiting for him to leave. His scowl deepened every so often and it took Grian a couple minutes to figure out why- it happened whenever the man looked at Grian’s challenger band.

Another two minutes passed. The man shot another nasty look at Grian’s wrist. Grian ran out of self control. “Can I help you?” He asked abruptly.

The man seemed startled, as if he wasn’t the one being rude. “What?”

“There’s better ways to start a conversation than just giving me weird looks over and over.”

“Like what?” He sneered.

The other man’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, but Grian answered anyway. “Oh I don’t know, how about ‘my name’s Grian, what’s yours?’” He held out a hand. The other man didn’t shake it.

They sat in silence for another minute. “So what’s your problem with the gym challenge anyways?”

The man sat bolt upright. “What makes you think I have a problem with it?” He asked, his defensiveness immediately proving Grian right.

“Well it’s either that or you just think my challenger band isn’t fashionable, but you don’t seem like the type to get upset about a bracelet.” Grian pointedly looked at the other man’s highly accessorized outfit.

The man rolled his eyes. “Fine. If you must know, my problem isn’t with the challenge itself, just the gym leaders. They all think they’re better than the rest of us just because they happened to get a spot in the league! Even if some people deserve it more.” His tone was surprisingly bitter, and Grian suspected that this was personal.

“Well the joke’s on them, they won’t feel so high and mighty after I-” He cut himself off, apparently remembering Grian was in the room and turning away mid-rant. “Nevermind.”

“High and mighty?” Grian asked. “I’ve only met a couple of them, but they seemed pretty nice to me.”

“Great! Then we can agree to disagree and never cross paths again.” He said with a mocking smile, then abruptly got up and walked across the room to the stairs, pausing at the bottom. “…It’s Hels, by the way.”

“What?”

“My name. You asked for it. It’s Hels.” With that strange announcement made he climbed the stairs, and Grian heard the door click open then shut. And Grian was alone.

He wasn’t alone for long- barely a minute after Hels had left, Bdubs burst through the arena door, shouting as usual. Hypno followed close behind. “Oh yeah! Bdubs did it!” He held his fire badge aloft, bragging in a sing-song voice. Grian smiled despite the unsettling conversation he’d had not even a minute prior.

Bdubs grabbed Grian’s arm, pulling him out of his chair. “C’mon G, Hypno’s got a surprise for us!”

Grian of course made a fuss just to mess with Bdubs, but eventually went along with him and Hypno. He was sure that this little adventure would help shake off the strange feeling he’d gotten from Hels that clung to him like spiderwebs.

Chapter Text

Hypno’s surprise turned out to be a clothing boutique- a little storefront with neatly displayed racks of clothes in a range of styles. “Not a boutique, a workshop!” Hypno insisted. “This is more technical than just clothes, check it out.”

Admittedly, the back area of the shop was pretty scientific for a boutique. The three of them stood in a plain white testing room behind a pane of glass, looking at a mannequin on the other side dressed in a simple grey hoodie. Hypno’s quilava stood next to it. “Alright quilava, go ahead!”

Hypno flashed a thumbs up at quilava, and the pokemon turned around. Grian gasped as the flames on its back doubled in size, completely engulfing the mannequin. When the fire died down, the mannequin was burnt to a crisp and covered in holes. The hoodie however, was pristine. It hadn’t been affected by the flames at all.

“It’s completely undamaged!” Grian remarked, thoroughly impressed.

“How’d you manage that?” Bdubs asked.

“Well,” Hypno started, walking across the room to grab a small cloth sample from a bin. “It’s the same stuff they use to reinforce battle arenas, I just figured out how to weave it into fabric. I got sick of buying a new jacket every gym season, so I made this stuff.” He handed the red square of fabric to Grian.

It didn’t feel any different than he would expect, but when he stretched it out Grian could see shining strands running alongside the red ones. “Wow, you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s different at all.”

“That’s the point, yeah.” Hypno agreed. “I’m still testing it right now, and that brings me to why you’re here. Follow me.”

He brought them back to the front of the building and gestured to the racks of clothes. “Would you two mind trying this stuff out for me? Free of charge. The gym leaders are all using it already, but I want to see how the more casual trainers like it.”

“For free? Absolutely!” Bdubs agreed eagerly. Grian felt the same. Even with his small amount of experience battling, he was already noticing small holes and tears in his clothes from stray attacks.

Hypno let them browse, and soon both of them had picked an outfit to take with them. Bdubs took a white shirt in order to “really test how resistant this stuff is” and a pair of cargo pants. Grian chose a red jumper and plain grey jeans. It may have been nearly identical to what he was already wearing, but that was what he liked and no amount of teasing from Bdubs about being a cartoon character would change that.

“So where are you headed to next?” Hypno asked after giving them a list of care instructions for their new clothes.

Grian furrowed his brows. “I’m actually not sure. Bdubs ‘doesn’t care’ about type advantages at all, and I’ve already beat the gym I have advantage over.”

“Then may I recommend the water gym next? Gembrew is easier to get to from here, and then you won’t have to do any backtracking.”

“Fine by me.” Bdubs grumbled. “The longer I can put off going to Blindpoint the better.”

Hypno laughed. “Are you guys still arguing?”

“Obviously.” Bdubs rolled his eyes.

Grian would have asked what that was all about, but much to his annoyance Bdubs insisted on ‘no spoilers’ for any of the gyms, so Grian would have to stay in the dark.

“…Alright then. I guess we’ll go to Gembrew.”

“Awesome. Just keep following the main road through town, it’ll take you straight there. Good luck!” Hypno waved goodbye. “And let me know how those clothes work out for you!”

-

It was still pretty early in the day so they grabbed a bite to eat (their last taste of Goldvale, Grian lamented) before checking out of the hotel and setting out on the road again.

The path to Gembrew was beautiful- to their left the ocean lapped gently at the sandy beach. Water type pokemon jumped out of the waves occasionally, and Grian could see small islands dotting the horizon.

They stopped for lunch on the beach, and their pokemon all had fun playing in the water. Well, most of them. Bdubs’ ponyta stayed on shore, nervous about the water, until a stray water jet from Dewdrop hit her square in the nose. “Run Dewy, run!” Grian laughed as ponyta galloped into the waves to chase Dewdrop, no longer afraid.

“Your pokemon are as bad as you.” Bdubs remarked.

Grian felt like a proud parent. “I raised him well.”

-

The next day they watched Gembrew slowly appear over the horizon as they approached. It looked small, just a few buildings clustered together on the sand. The terrain had become beach-ier as they travelled. Grian was grateful for the paved road, because otherwise they would have been trudging through sand all day.

“Huh, that’s weird.” Grian noted. “I didn’t think plants like that could grow in the sand.” He pointed at a pair of bushes on either side of the path, full and leafy and not at all like the other vegetation on the beach.

Bdubs opened his mouth to comment, but went silent when one of the bushes rustled. Grian grabbed for Dewdrop’s pokeball, ready for a wild encounter, but let go in surprise when a man came out of the bush instead.

“Stop right there, traveler!” He shouted, pointing boldly at Grian and Bdubs. The man was dressed quite strangely- he wore some kind of grey tactical gear, and a blue and orange visor covered his eyes. He used a wheelchair that looked just like Scar’s- maybe they used the same manufacturer?

The bush on the other side rustled and out stepped another man, dressed in the same gear. The only difference was his visor was blue and white. “Tremble before the might of Team Vex.” He said in a monotone voice.

The first man jolted, then turned and stage whispered to his… partner? “Dude! You’re supposed to sell it more!”

“This is me selling it.”

“Can’t you be more… enthusiastic?”

“Trust me, my way works.” Something about their voices was familiar, but Grian couldn’t place it.

“Alright, alright. Let’s just get back to the mission. Travellers!” He turned back to the other two abruptly. “We are the infamous Team Vex. My name is Hotguy! Best trainer this side of the Moonspire Mountains.” He introduced himself with a bow. “And my partner here is the Jingler, criminal genius extraordinaire.” The Jingler bowed as well.

“Hotguy and the Jingler?” Grian repeated.

“You don’t sound impressed?” Hotguy asked, and was he pouting?

“I don’t know, with the matching outfits I just assumed the names would match too.”

“Well he used to be the Jangler,” The Jingler explained, “but then he got really into the whole superhero thing and changed his name.”

“We could still be matching if you changed your name too.” Hotguy argued in a sing-song voice.

“I like the Jingler.”

“Come on! You could be Coolguy, or-or…“

“Cuteguy?” Grian suggested, joining in on their antics despite himself.

“Yes! I love it. What do you say Cu- I mean Jingler?”

The Jingler seemed amused, but didn’t budge. “No thanks. Can we get back to fighting these guys?”

Right, of course. Grian!” Hotguy pointed at him. “I challenge you to a battle!” The Jingler did the same, but not nearly as dramatic. He just pulled out a pokeball and raised his eyebrows at Bdubs.

Bdubs dug his own pokeball out of his pocket and rolled his eyes. “Here we go…”

Not particularly interested in a fight but not wanting to break trainer etiquette either, Grian sent out Dewdrop.

Hotguy tossed out a palafin, which seemed quite startled and darted into the bush. The bush glowed for a moment, then the palafin burst back out, now in its larger hero form.

“Alright palafin, who definitely isn’t the same palafin that just went into that bush!” Hotguy called, winking exaggeratedly at Grian. “Hydro pump!”

“Hydro pump-?” Grian questioned just as Dewdrop went flying past him, knocked out instantly from such a powerful move. “That’s one of the strongest water type moves! What are you doing here? If your pokemon are so powerful you should be at the end of the gym route!”

Hotguy shrugged. “I go where I’m needed.”

“How is this even remotely helpful?” Grian asked, incredulous.

“Are you gonna send out your next pokemon or…?” Hotguy examined his nails.

Grian should have conceded. But he was angry, and wanted to get a hit on this guy. He threw out Professor Beak harder than necessary. “Beak quick, sin-“

“Hydro pump.” Hotguy yawned as Professor Beak fell out of the air.

Barely restraining himself from real physical violence, Grian sent out Spike. He may not win, but he would go down fighting. “Spike, bug bite.” He ground out.

She flew at palafin and almost made contact, but with one more command from Hotguy palafin hit her with hydro pump and she was down.

“Is that all you got?”

Grian grit his teeth. “Yes. Congratulations.” He stiffly held out a wad of cash that Hotguy happily swiped.

“Oh well,” he shrugged. “Maybe next time you should stock up on potions, then you might have a shot.”

“But that wouldn’t even-“

“Hotguy out!” He threw down a smoke bomb and vanished. Grian looked over at Bdubs, at a loss for words, just in time to watch the Jingler disappear in a puff of smoke as well. Team Vex was gone and Grian and Bdubs were down ₽500 each.

“Wh- what was that?” Grian spluttered.

Bdubs pinched the bridge of his nose. “Those were the nuisances False warned us about. They show up every gym season and mess with the challengers by fighting them or stealing their battle items. I was hoping to avoid them, but no such luck I guess.”

“That’s it.” Grian shoved Spike’s pokeball back into his bag and started marching towards Gembrew, sights set on the pokemon center. “Forget about becoming champion, I’m gonna get stronger so I can wipe that smug look off Hotguy’s face.”

Chapter Text

“There’s no way. Your map must be broken.”

“It’s not broken! Look, it says Gembrew gym that way!” Bdubs pointed forward.

Grian pinched the bridge of his nose. “Right I get that, but ‘that way’,” He said with finger quotes, “is the ocean.”

The pair stood right at the edge of the water, the waves almost lapping at their shoes. Bdubs’ rotom map was in fact directing them into the water, but it must have been malfunctioning. “The Gembrew gym is supposed to be in Gembrew. Not a kilometre off the shore.”

“Actually,” came a voice from behind them. “Your friend is right.” A man with dark hair and a beard stood on the beach. He wore a wetsuit- probably a surfer or something.

“Ha! Toldja so!” Bdubs bragged.

“I’m headed there myself, I guess it’s lucky I ran into you guys.” The stranger said with a chuckle. “The name’s XB, hopefully I’ll see you out there.” He threw out a quagsire and made to surf across the water with it when Grian spoke up.

“Wait! How are we meant to get there? None of our pokemon can use surf.” While Dewdrop was certainly capable of learning the move, he wasn’t big enough to carry two grown men.

“Ah.” XB stated plainly. “Yeah, that would be a problem. Fortunately there should be a…” He looked up and down the beach until he found what he was looking for. “Aha! A lapras rental! They can help you.”

XB had pointed towards a shack on the beach, a blue and white striped awning stretched across the front with a cartoon lapras printed on it. Grian turned back to thank the man but he was already gone, nothing more than a blur fading into the distance. Man that quagsire is fast.

The employee at the lapras rental was very helpful, even offering some extra advice upon seeing their challenger bands. “Oh! If you’re going to the gym I recommend wearing something you won’t mind getting wet. I can throw in a couple of free wetsuits with your lapras if you’d like.”

Grian was mildly concerned about what the warning was about, but he took them up on the offer and soon he and Bdubs were on their way to the gym, each on their own lapras. Apparently they were trained to return to the shack after three hours no matter what, so they would have to finish up at the gym before then or risk being stranded.

This one turned out to be Grian’s favourite gym challenge so far. Unlike the others it was straightforward- no puzzles, no jumpscares, just heading straight toward the gym. Sure he had to dodge rocks and islands and battle some wild pokemon, but at least it didn’t make his brain hurt.

It didn’t take long to find the gym. After a short while a structure appeared on the horizon- a dark grey technical looking building floating on the waves. A quick glance at a map confirmed that this was the right place.

Grian arrived at the structure a few minutes before Bdubs. “I win!” He bragged as soon as Bdubs’ lapras slowed to a halt.

“Wh- hey! You never said we were racing!”

“All a part of my strategy.” Grian shrugged. “Anyway, how do we get in here?” He had been studying the building while waiting for his companion, and so far hadn’t seen anything resembling a door. The gym just seemed to be a large, impenetrable cube in the middle of the ocean.

As if it had been waiting for him to ask, Grian’s lapras dove underwater without warning. Grian barely had time to take a breath and grab on before he was pulled under the waves.

Without goggles it was hard to make out details, but Grian thought he could see some kind of opening in the structure underneath the water. His lapras headed inside that opening, Bdubs’ lapras close behind. To Grian’s alarm, a panel slid over the opening once they were all in, shutting them inside. However, before he was able to panic he heard a loud clunk, and the sound of draining water. Within seconds the two challengers and the lapras were standing in an air-filled chamber, soaking wet and thoroughly disoriented.

“What was tha-” Grian started to complain, before he was interrupted by the chamber sliding open on the opposite end of where they had come in.

“I think it’s an airlock.” Bdubs guessed.

“Some warning would have been nice.” Grian grumbled, half-heartedly glaring at his lapras. The pokemon trilled happily in response.

A familiar voice chuckled from the opening in the airlock. “Whoops, looks like you got unlucky with your lapras. Some of them like to mess with the challengers.” Standing in a hallway outside the airlock was XB, quagsire at his side.

“But hey, you guys made it! Welcome to the Saltwater Research Station, home of the Gembrew gym.” He gestured grandly. “I’m the gym leader, in case you hadn’t guessed.”

Grian whirled on Bdubs. “Wait, so you knew who he was?” Bdubs must have recognized him on the beach, but he hadn’t said a word.

“No spoilers, remember?”

“Unbelievable.” Grian rolled his eyes and left his traitorous partner behind, stepping out into the hallway. It looked almost futuristic- dark grey walls with lines of blue light zig-zagging all the way across. It reminded Grian of a spaceship from a certain sci-fi franchise.

“Let me show you guys around.” XB invited, turning to walk down the hall. Grian and Bdubs followed, leaving the lapras behind in the airlock since they didn’t seem particularly inclined to go anywhere. That was fine by Grian, who was still maybe a little bitter about getting dunked.

On the tour, XB explained that the purpose of this structure was to study the ocean- environmental monitoring, pokemon studies, energy research, and whatever else the scientists were looking into at the moment. XB’s main area of study was pollution. “I’ve always been focused on keeping our oceans clean. When I became a gym leader they said the gym could be whatever I wanted so…” he trailed off, gesturing vaguely at the lab around them.

The tour ended in a large central room housing a water type battle arena. Grian started to feel the buzz of anticipation just from seeing it.

There was a large pool in the center with battle lines marked out in the tiles on the sides and bottom. Several platforms floated on the water for land based pokemon, but the arena still catered heavily to water types. This’ll be harder than I thought, XB has home field advantage.

“Now that that’s over with, time to fight! Who wants to go first?” XB offered.

Grian stepped forward. “I’ll give it a go. We need to let Bdubs get as much prep in as possible.”

He laughed at Bdubs’ indignant “Hey!”. Grian wasn’t wrong though- despite the other man’s insistence that he didn’t care about type advantages, his fire type team would really struggle here with the water arena and XB’s water type pokemon.

But that didn’t make Bdubs any less bitter about it- he dramatically plopped himself into a poolside chair, grumbling the whole way.

As he made his way to the challenger’s end of the arena, Grian noted with satisfaction that he had more or less settled into the routine of battling. At Hypno’s gym he’d still felt some trepidation. But he was actually starting to feel confident now, strolling casually across the deck tossing a pokeball up and down.

XB went to his own end of the pool, quagsire waddling happily behind him. “I think your pokemon’s supposed to get into the arena.” Grian joked.

“Oh! No, he’s not battling today. He just likes to hang out. Go on bud, get to your spot.” XB gently pushed quagsire away from the pool. The pokemon waddled away without protest and plopped down on the chair next to Bdubs.

Without any more fanfare Grian and XB pulled out their first pokeballs, tossing them into the water simultaneously. Grian had decided to start with Dewdrop- he would be resistant to water type moves and could last a while.

At least Grian thought so, until XB’s pokemon swam up out of the depths- a lanturn. “An electric type? Are you kidding me?”

“Ouch, bad luck.” XB grimaced, but he was clearly satisfied to have gained the upper hand already.

Grian couldn’t get too caught up on it- Dewdrop needed him. “A little bad luck won’t stop us. Dewdrop, sucker punch!” Dewdrop seemed startled at the sudden call to action, but did as he was asked. He leapt quickly from platform to platform, then dove off the last one and slammed lanturn’s head with his tail.

XB and lanturn were clearly both taken by surprise, but the gym leader recovered quickly. “Oh alright, we’re going now. In that case, lanturn use spark!”

Dewdrop tried to hop back out of range, but lanturn was too quick. Arcs of lightning came up out of the water to hit Dewdrop, who fell and showed no signs of getting back up. “Tough luck buddy, but you did good work.” Grian tucked Dewdrop’s pokeball away, and brought out his next one. “Alright Spike, take it from here!”

Spike materialized already mid-battle cry- ready for a fight.

But XB was ready too. “Thunder wave, now!” Barely having had time to get her bearings, Spike was hit by a small bolt of electricity and dropped to the ground. She was still standing but paralyzed, judging by the sparks coming off of her.

This electric type was really getting the best of Grian’s team.

Grian grit his teeth. One more hit would take him out, but the odds of Spike actually landing a hit right now were low. “Come on girl, get him with a bug bite. Just one hit, please.” Grian urged his pokemon.

Apparently sensing his distress, Spike turned to the battlefield with an expression of intense focus. Grian started to worry when she didn’t move for a few seconds, but she suddenly let out a loud cry, and the electricity flowed harmlessly from her into the water.

Now freed from the paralysis, she flew at lanturn and bit him with all the force she could muster. When the struggle was over lanturn disappeared in a flash, having been knocked out by Spike’s sudden burst of power.

Then, as if a switch had flipped, she turned back to Grian with a happy chitter and a big smile on her face. She… did that for me. Grian thought, once again struck by the bonds he’d made with his team. “Spike, you’re incredible! Good work.” He praised. She seemed satisfied by that and turned back to the battlefield.

XB tossed his next pokeball- notably onto one of the floating platforms, not in the water. When the flash receded, a floatzel stood on all fours, ready to pounce. “Aqua jet!” XB called with very little fanfare.

This was turning out to be a very fast paced battle. Before Grian could call for her to dodge, Spike was hit with a jet of water. Fortunately she seemed okay, other than being soaked.

“Let’s try something new…” Grian thought aloud. “Poison powder!” Spike flew above floatzel’s head, releasing a cloud of purple dust from her wings. Floatzel sneezed from the dust, and the dark purple bubbles that came out of her nose confirmed to Grian that the poison powder had worked. Now all Spike had to do was hold out one more turn.

“Take her down with a double hit floatzel!” At XB’s command, floatzel leapt into the air at Spike. She took two hard swipes at the moth before falling back into the water and swimming away.

Spike seemed worse for wear after the attack, but she held herself in the air with great effort. Once again floatzel sneezed purple bubbles.

“Perfect! Now let’s see how this combo works– venoshock!” XB gasped in recognition but couldn’t stop Spike from spitting bright purple poison all over floatzel. All their training paid off- just as Grian had seen happen to wild pokemon, the poison powder drastically increased the effect of venoshock’s poison.

A few short seconds later floatzel fell, and XB called her back to her pokeball. “I’ll admit it, I’m impressed. You usually only see that combo in professional matches. But don’t think you have me beat yet.” He flashed Grian a friendly smile, and casually dropped his last pokeball into the pool.

The ball sank into the depths, far enough that Grian couldn’t tell what pokemon had come out of it. All he did know was that it seemed to be getting bigger.

With a roar and a splash, a wishiwashi in schooling form breached the water’s surface. Grian instinctually took a step back- this thing was huge. The only part of it above water was its head and even that was about as tall as he was.

But he didn’t have time to be intimidated. “We can do this Spike- venoshock again!” Fortunately Spike wasn’t as taken aback as Grian had been. She flew at wishiwashi with zero hesitation and once again spat poison at her opponent. It didn’t have as strong of an effect on a non-poisoned target, but Grian still saw a few wishiwashi abandon the school.

“Wishiwashi, brine!” XB called. Wishiwashi roared again, and it was like a geyser had errupted directly below Spike. She tried to escape the blast, but she was clearly exhausted. When the water died down she fell onto one of the platforms, and Grian called her back to her pokeball, quietly muttering his thanks.

Down to his last pokemon, Grian sent out Professor Beak. “Alright Beak, give it all you’ve got! Fury attack!” Professor Beak instantly launched himself at wishiwashi, pecking repeatedly at it. Grian saw quite a few fish swim back into the depths before wishiwashi finally got its bearings and fended Professor Beak off.

XB narrowed his eyes analytically at the wishiwashi school, now down to less than half its original size. “Ok, let’s go for a tearful look. Really sell it.” Wishiwashi nodded, then turned to Professor Beak. Every single fish in the school now looked on the verge of tears- to top it off there were light blue wishiwashi swimming through the ‘eyes’ of the school to mimic crying.

Grian wasn’t fooled, but unfortunately it seemed like Professor Beak was. He tilted his head and chirped at wishiwashi, trying to cheer it up. “Oh come on Beak, don’t be nice! We’re fighting it!” But Professor Beak wouldn’t listen- he gestured sadly at his new friend. “Okay fine, you don’t want to hurt it. How about sing?”

Apparently Professor Beak was okay with this compromise, because he started to whistle a soothing melody. XB looked startled. “Oh shoot! Quick wishiwashi, dive!”

With surprising speed, wishiwashi disappeared under the water, deep enough that Grian couldn’t tell where it was. He cursed internally at its speed, but kept an eye on the depths. It would emerge eventually, and he and Beak had to be ready when it did.

It didn’t take long for wishiwashi to come back, leaping up out of the water and slamming into Professor Beak. “Now Beak, chatter!” Fortunately the hit, while leaving him slightly dazed, had also convinced the bird that wishiwashi wasn’t just an innocent little fish.

The professor opened his beak and let out an impossibly loud chattering sound- it sounded like a whole chorus of chatot were making the cacaphony. To Grian’s relief, it had the desired effect on wishiwashi. It twisted uncomfortably in the water, and with one last roar the school dissipated, leaving a single confused wishiwashi behind.

“It’s okay buddy, we can still do this. Brine!” XB encouraged. Grian’s heart rose to his throat. Professor Beak couldn’t take this attack. If it hit he was done. The dazed wishiwashi squinted and hesitated a few seconds, before letting out a squeak only barely reminiscent of the roar from earlier.

A powerful jet of water rose up out of the pool, but the pokemon sent flying into the air was wishiwashi, not Professor Beak. “Yes!” Grian cheered as the confusion effect from chatter paid off. Wishiwashi, disoriented from the noise, had hit itself. It landed on one of the platforms, and with a sigh XB brought it back into its pokeball.

However, the loss didn’t hit him too hard, as XB looked back up at Grian with a proud smile. “I gotta hand it to you, that was amazing. You definitely earned this.” He pulled a blue object out of his pocket- the gym badge. He started to make his way over to where Bdubs and quagsire sat- Grian did the same.

They shook hands and XB handed it over. The design on this one was a silver wave, crashing up against the side of the badge. Grian snapped it into his challenger band alongside his other two badges. “Your strategy was impressive, I think you’re gonna go a long way.” XB complimented.

“Oh uh- thank y-”

“Yeah it was pretty cool,” Bdubs butted in. “but now it’s time for the real battle- with me.”

Grian rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue and sat down next to quagsire. “This should be good.” he commented snidely to the pokemon. Quagsire just grunted in response.

“Don’t mock me!” Bdubs shouted, before heading to the challenger’s spot. After healing his pokemon, XB took his own position, and the battle started.

-

Despite having the advantage of knowing XB’s team beforehand, Bdubs still ended up losing the battle. “I want a rematch! Right now!” He demanded.

“Actually I think we’ll have to take a rain check on that.” Grian checked his watch. “It’s almost been three hours, we need to get back before our rides leave without us.”

Begrudgingly, Bdubs promised to come back later. Despite Grian’s urgency, Bdubs took his sweet time getting back to the entrance, and they ended up having to run when the airlock door started to close without them.

“Traitors, we still had five minutes.” Grian complained after they emerged back onto the ocean’s surface. The lapras did its best approximation of a shrug, before taking off like a rocket back towards shore.

Bdubs’ lapras did the same, but apparently its rider hadn’t been holding on tightly enough. With a shout, he splashed into the water and was quickly left behind. Grian cackled the whole way back as his friend faded into the horizon.

Chapter Text

Eventually Bdubs did make his way back to shore, ranting about being left behind and having to call XB for a ride. Grian tried to be sympathetic, but it was hard when he couldn’t stop giggling at his friend’s struggle.

They spent the rest of the day training- Bdubs was adamant that he wouldn’t be bested again. He even bought a couple TM discs from a local shop to really boost his team.

They camped overnight by the beach, and Bdubs was up bright and early the next morning (far too early in Grian’s opinion) to return to the gym. However, Grian declined to go with him. He wasn’t particularly interested in getting soaked again. Instead, he spent the morning exploring the town and surrounding area.

North of Gembrew turned out to be mostly farmland. Grian decided to roam the countryside for a few hours, admiring the scenery.

He was standing on the side of the road observing a pasture of mareep when he was startled by a voice to his left. “Need any help there my friend?”

Grian just about jumped out of his skin. “Don’t try anything I have a-! Oh.” Grian whirled around only to discover that the voice belonged not to a potential attacker, but a regular man. A combee-keeper, if the suit and hat were anything to go by.

The man held up his hands in a show of innocence. “Whoa there! Didn’t mean to startle you, just thought you might need some directions.” The man tilted his head in apology. Grian assumed it was accompanied by a smile, but it was impossible to make out his face behind the mesh veil. Really the only thing he could tell about the man was that he was tall.

Grian buried his face in his hands, embarrassed by his paranoid outburst. “No, don’t be sorry. I probably shouldn’t be in the habit of threatening strangers.”

“Let’s just call the whole thing water under the bridge then. How about we start over? My name is Xisuma, nice to meet you.”

“Grian, nice to meet you too.”

…

Silence. “So… you’re a combee-keeper?” Grian asked, desperate to break the awkward lapse in conversation.

“Oh, yeah! I suppose that’s obvious, huh?” Xisuma chuckled. “My apiary is just next door, would you like to go meet the combee?”

Having nothing better to do and still feeling a little bad for threatening the man, Grian agreed and followed Xisuma. His property had an adorable little rustic cottage on it, looking like it had been plucked right out of a fantasy movie. Ivy crawled up the stone chimney and there was even a pie cooling on a windowsill.

Around the back of the house was the apiary- a large wooden shed with honeycombs lining the inside walls. The outside had a mural painted on it featuring various bug type pokemon.

“Here’s one of them!” Xisuma reached out to a passing combee to get its attention. It saw Grian and immediately rushed over to him, cuddling up against his arm. Grian hesitantly patted it on the head, which it seemed to enjoy. “Don’t worry, they’re very friendly.”

Grian laughed as another combee flew over to demand pats from his other hand. “I can tell.”

“I love it out here. It’s nice to get away from all the craziness every so often.” Xisuma said wistfully.

“Craziness? What, you have a busy day job or something?”

Xisuma seemed caught off guard, like he’d forgotten Grian was there. “Oh uh- well yeah, sort of. But I don’t mean to keep talking about myself, what about you? You’re a gym challenger, right?”

“Sure am.” Grian pulled up his sleeve to show off his gym badges.

“How’s it been so far?”

“Oh- well, other than the annoying gym challenges I’ve been having a blast. It didn’t start off that way, but I’ve gotten more comfortable with the whole thing over the past week, and I’m starting to feel like an actual trainer now.”

Now that he’d participated in a few battles, Grian found that he actually loved the pressure and high pace of battling. It turned out that the whole thing was pretty fun when he let his pokemon help and didn’t take on the entire weight of the battle by himself. Who’d have thought?

“What do you mean it didn’t start off that way? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

Surprisingly, Grian didn’t mind. It felt nice to talk about this with somebody that wasn’t involved. “Well I- I didn’t have the best introduction to the gym challenge as a concept. When I was young I tried to do the gym challenge in Galar, and failed in front of everybody. After that I swore off battling for a while, but luckily I had some friends that helped me rediscover it.”

“Mumbo was supportive and helped me take the first step, and then Bdubs shouted at me until I actually did it.” Grian laughed. “Sorry, that makes it sound like he’s some kind of bully. He’s not, he’s just… loud. But he’s been there for me this whole time, helping me get back up on my feet in his own strange way.”

“Your friend reminds me of my brother.” Xisuma tilted his head. “We travelled together when we were younger, and he shouted at me a lot too. Still does all these years later.” He laughed fondly. “Come to think of it, I haven't heard from him in a while… Maybe I should call him?” He pondered aloud.

“Well I’ll leave you to it then.” Grian said, trying to gently push the combee away with only mild success.

“Oh, no! Gosh, that sounded like I was trying to kick you out. You don’t have to-“

Grian shook his head. “It’s not that, it’s just that I should probably be getting back soon.” It had been a few hours since Bdubs left, and if Grian wasn’t there when he came back the other man would make a scene.

“Alright, if you’re sure.” Before he left, Xisuma insisted on giving Grian a jar of honey. “It was good talking to you!” Xisuma waved as Grian closed the garden gate behind him.

Grian waved back, then set off back to Gembrew. He felt lighter after the conversation. Like talking about his old fears had helped him finally let them go. He made his way to town feeling strangely at peace.

-

It was good that Grian had gone back when he did, because as he approached the beach he saw Bdubs coming in hot on a lapras, excitedly waving something in his hand. Presumably his new gym badge. He’s going to lose it if he keeps doing that, Grian thought wryly.

“I did it!” Bdubs shouted as soon as his feet touched the shore.

“Really? I couldn’t tell.” Grian replied sarcastically. But he quickly dropped the banter and gave his friend a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. “Seriously though, good job. That gym was seriously stacked against you.”

“Nah, it was easy.” Grian raised an eyebrow at the obviously untrue brag. “Ok, maybe it was a little hard. Nothing ol’ Bdubs couldn’t handle though!”

-

Not long after Bdubs returned, the duo packed up their bags. As they set out on their way to the next town, Bdubs happily regaled Grian with the story of his epic victory over XB, probably embellishing every detail.

I might have to miss Bdubs’ battles more often, Grian thought. This is the most fun I’ve seen him have the whole trip.

Chapter Text

“So why is this place called Blindpoint anyway? Seems a bit ominous.” Grian asked as they approached the next town. After leaving Gembrew that morning, they’d spent the whole day travelling. Grian had almost suggested stopping for the night when buildings came into view over the horizon just as the sun disappeared.

Bdubs replied in his best attempt at a scary voice, “It’s because the town is blind to the terrifying horrors in the forest.” He wiggled his fingers like he was telling a spooky campfire story. Grian wasn’t impressed. “There’s all sorts of old ruins and ghost type pokemon in there, they say that unwary travellers can vanish in the middle of the night.”

“Uh huh, I’m sure.” Grian replied, monotone.

“Oh come on! You can’t at least pretend to be scared?”

“Nope.” He replied, popping the p.

Bdubs was right about one thing- they couldn’t see the forest from here. That was because the north side of the town was nestled up against a tall cliff face that extended a few kilometers in either direction. Grian could see greenery at the top of the cliff, but it was impossible to see anything beyond the treeline.

There was a gap in the cliff face just barely large enough to fit a road through- Grian guessed that was why the town was built here. Looking at his rotom map, he confirmed that the road to the next town went through there and into the forest.

He also noted with some shock just how large the forest was on the map- it took up about a quarter of the whole region. The Fogblown forest, according to the map. The cliff was just labelled as the Perimeter.

“So, now that we’re here can you finally explain what’s going on between you and the gym leader?” Grian asked. He would prefer to know some details before being thrown headfirst into a heated rivalry.

Bdubs grimaced the way he always did whenever the mystery man was mentioned. “Well, we sorta butt heads over everything, but there was a recent… incident that he’s still pretty mad about. At the last exhibition tournament I may or may not have-“

“You!” Shouted a new voice, startling both travellers. It had come from a rather imposing man blocking the path in front of them, having appeared from seemingly nowhere. He was tall with dark hair, and it looked like his right arm was covered in some kind of metal, though it was hard to tell in the dark.

While Grian tried to recover from the minor heart attack, Bdubs struck up a conversation, sounding slightly nervous. “Doc! Speak of the devil, I was just telling Grian about the little joke I played on you-“

“Little joke?” The man- Doc apparently- asked incredulously. “You made me camp outside the hotel all week-!“

“Well yeah okay I did do that, but-“

“For the second time!” Doc shouted.

Grian thought it was safe to assume that Doc was the gym leader. Unless there was another man in Blindpoint who hated Bdubs which, now that Grian thought about it, was actually a possibility.

“Let me guess, you’re here to challenge me?” Grian sighed in relief as his suspicions were confirmed- they would only have to deal with one of Bdubs’ enemies here.

“Oh please, why else would I be here? It certainly isn’t to see your pretty mug!”

“Then let’s go right now. I’ve been waiting for this.” Doc smirked, holding up a pokeball. Grian noted with surprise that the top of it was white instead of red.

“Ok,” Grian interrupted, pulling Bdubs away from Doc. “As much fun as this is, you’re not challenging the gym right now. We’ve been walking all day and I, for one, would like to get some rest.”

“...He’s right.” Doc admitted, though there was a strange tone to his voice. “You two go find somewhere to sleep for tonight, we can pick this back up tomorrow.”

If he hadn’t been so tired from travel, Grian might have thought it was strange how quickly Doc dropped the argument, or noticed the scheming look on his face.

Instead, he woke up the next morning to the near-deafening sound of a half dozen loudred in his and Bdubs’ hotel room.

-

Fortunately, the pokemon stopped their racket after about ten minutes of the challengers fruitlessly trying to quiet them. Grian worried they would get in trouble with the hotel staff, but the people at the front desk waved off his apology- apparently Doc had warned them beforehand. If anything they seemed amused by the whole thing.

Bdubs’ face went red at the mention of the gym leader. “That’s it! I’m gonna destroy him, let’s go!”

Without waiting he marched out of the hotel, leaving Grian to pay for the room and scramble to catch up with him. Hilariously, the loudred followed the pair in a single file line all the way to the gym.

-

The gym turned out to be a large greenhouse in the center of town. It looked to be about three stories tall and full of lush plant life.

A league staff member stood outside the door- his eyes lit up with recognition when Bdubs and Grian approached with their unwanted entourage.

“Hello! I’m uh- assuming one of you is Bdubs?”

Bdubs pointed an accusing finger in the man’s face. “How do you know who I am?”

The staff member raised his hands in surrender and nervously pointed at the small crowd of loudred still following them. “Doc said to expect a challenger to come this morning with uh… guests.” Bdubs narrowed his eyes then backed off slightly, and the man sighed. “Look. There’s obviously something weird going on between you guys and I want no part in it, so can you just let me give my spiel and then go on your way?”

Before Bdubs could say anything rash, Grian shoved him to the side. “Of course, go right ahead.”

The man cleared his throat. “Ok then. Welcome to the Goat’s Garden, the grass type gym. You’ll find the gym leader inside,” he gestured to the greenhouse behind him. “But you’ll need to follow the right path. The grass type pokemon will show you the way. Good luck challengers- or whoever you are.”

With the explanation out of the way, the pair entered the gym through automatic sliding doors. Grian flashed one more apologetic smile at the poor staff member.

Grian couldn’t help but gasp in amazement when they walked in- earning himself a disapproving glare from Bdubs for ‘siding with the enemy’ or whatever. But he didn’t care- the place was beautiful. On either side of a cobblestone path were all sorts of tropical plants- some towering a good few metres above them as they walked, some bearing ripe looking fruit. It felt like they were in a jungle.

“What do you think that hint meant? ‘The grass type pokemon will show us the way’?”

“It better not be more pokemon Doc trained to annoy us.” Bdubs complained.

It didn’t take long for their question to be at least partially answered. Not long after they entered they came to a fork in the road. “This must be what he meant about choosing the right path… but where are the pokemon?” Grian squinted around at the foliage, but didn’t catch any sign of movement.

Looking closer, Grian saw something off to the right side of the path. “There!” He called, at exactly the same time Bdubs pointed to the left and shouted, “I see something!”

Looking where Bdubs pointed, Grian saw a small stone statue of a chikorita. “Weird, there’s a statue on my side too.” Grian pointed Bdubs’ gaze to the similar looking totodile statue he’d found.

“Maybe they’re garden decorations?” Bdubs suggested.

Grian looked back and forth between the two statues. “I think it’s part of the challenge. Maybe we’re looking for these statues, not real live pokemon.”

“But how are they gonna show us the way? Statues don’t move.”

“Well only one of these is grass type, right?” Grian gestured to the left. “So we follow chikorita’s path.”

Bdubs tilted his head in thought. “Makes sense to me. But if we get lost I’m blaming you.”

-

Fortunately it seemed like Grian was right. They rounded a sharp corner after taking the left path and found themselves in what felt like a whole new greenhouse. The bright jungle green plants suddenly gave way to thick dark foliage. A small sign off to the side read ‘Unova.’

“Oh wow,” Grian said with awe. “He must have plants from every region here.”

“Yeah yeah, very cool. Let’s keep moving.” Bdubs grumbled.

They came upon three more forks in the path, each with a pokemon to either side. After each correct answer they found themselves in a new section of the greenhouse, themed after different regions as Grian had guessed.

For the most part they passed the little quizzes with very little difficulty. However, the last one threw them for a loop.

“Seriously Bdubs? How is it not sudowoodo?”

“You need to go back to school, everyone knows lotad is a grass type, so that must be the right one.”

“It’s water type!”

“And grass.”

“And sudowoodo’s not?”

“No!”

Grian let out a frustrated huff. They’d been yelling at each other fruitlessly for five minutes already. “Fine, we’ll do it your way, and when we hit a dead end you can admit I’m right.”

“Sure, but I won’t be admitting squat.”

The two of them headed right, past the lotad statue. To Grian’s dismay the path continued past the corner and they once again found themselves in a new region of plants, with a sign reading ‘Hoevi’.

“It’s literally a tree!” Grian muttered incredulously to himself. He rolled his eyes at Bdubs’ smug grin. “I’m not admitting you were right. The typing system is wrong.” To his annoyance, Bdubs just kept walking with that same smile on his face.

Fortunately he didn’t have to deal with it for long, as they soon made it to the arena. They stepped into a large clearing with a loose dirt floor and painted battle lines, surrounded by foliage on all sides. It looked like this was the center of the greenhouse.

Off on the sidelines was Doc, kneeling in front of a planter bed tending to some berry vines. “Oh you guys finally made it? I thought you would have been arguing for another hour at least.”

Bdubs pointed at him accusingly. “Alright smart guy, let’s do this! Right now!”

Doc hummed. “You seem upset. What happened, something disturb your rest this morning?”

“Yeah, no thanks to your wake up call!” Bdubs gestured to the group of loudred that were milling about now that they’d returned home. “Now I really wanna take you down.”

“Alright then, it’s your funeral.” With a sigh, Doc stood up and brushed the dirt off of his overalls. Now that they were in proper lighting, Grian could see that the strange glint he’d seen on Doc’s arm was actually a rotom transformed into a prosthetic arm. A blue symbol on the back of the hand marked it as a medical service pokemon.

While the two men prepared for battle, Grian looked for a safe place to watch. He settled on a spot up against the greenhouse wall, hoping it was out of the blast zone.

“Welcome to the Blindpoint gym. I hope you’re ready to meet your doom.” Doc smirked, then calmly tossed out a formidable looking gogoat. Not nearly as relaxed, Bdubs yelled and pitched pignite onto the field, who matched his energy perfectly with a loud angry squeal.

Despite being at odds, Bdubs and Doc were surprisingly in sync. They both called out their first moves at the same time- fire punch from Bdubs and earthquake from Doc. Grian idly thought that earthquake was a bit much for the fourth gym, but what did he know?

Gogoat slammed her front hooves down with thunderous force just as pignite’s fist made contact with his opponent. The intense clash of force made the ground and the entire greenhouse frame tremble. Grian had to hug a nearby tree just to stay upright.

Everyone went silent for a moment as they tried to assess if the building was still standing. Grian had never felt that much force in a battle before. Granted, he didn’t have a whole lot of experience, but he figured it was safe to assume that didn’t happen often. It further cemented just how heated their rivalry was.

After a few quiet moments passed, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief. “Man, this stuff must be really reinforced.” Grian tapped at the glass wall beside him. “I mean, after a blast like that I expected the whole place to-”

The glass cracked under Grian’s finger, and as though it had been waiting for him to say something, every single pane of glass in the place shattered.