Chapter Text
Setting Course
The twins set off on their Gym Challenge on their fourteenth birthday. They wanted to do Drayden’s Gym last, so that he could see how much better they’d gotten then they beat his best Gym team, so Schuyler gave them a ride to the start of Route 1.
They even got new ““Starters”” for their Journey, a pair of Klinks, since Tram and Trolley had been battling since the twins were five and were a bit too strong to be fair for the early Gyms. Uncle Clay was going to keep Tram and Tolley at his house, and the twins could pick them up once they beat his gym.
It took a lot of promising, and bribery with treats, that they weren't being replaced for Tram and Trolley to stop sulking about this.
Ingo brought with him an old, but very good quality, camera. Emmet didn’t understand why Ingo had the camera, where he got it, or why he was constantly stopping to take pictures with it.
Yes, those are verrrry nice flowers, just like the last twenty you’ve taken pictures of
Yes, the sunset is cool, just like last night and the night before
Yes, that cloud looks like a Pikachu, and that cloud like a Joltik, and that cloud like a Pidove
Ingo meanwhile was trying to feel closer to their parents. The camera, in fact, was found by Ingo in the attic while looking for their camping gear, among boxes of loose photographs and crammed albums.
And was inscribed with the name Duke Elliot Silvermane
Building Speed
The trip started out fantastic, but things quickly went downhill.
Ingo, in a very misplaced sense of duty got it in his head that he needed to protect Emmet. To be fair to Ingo, Drayden and Clay did tell the twins to protect each other. To be fair to Drayden and Clay, they didn’t mean ‘intervene in battles against wild Pokémon if it looked like Emmet was going to lose’ or ‘challenge all the other trainers before Emmet could’
Emmet got annoyed at this verrrry quickly, understandably, as it meant that he wasn’t progressing as fast as he would like, and made him feel like Ingo thought he was helpless.
Which, of course, he wasn’t and Ingo didn’t.
Emmet just grit his teeth and snuck off at night to train and try and build his team up, which was often foiled by Ingo coming to find him, worried when he woke up to find Emmet gone
The tension started to build fast
STRIATON CITY
Naturally, the twins made it to the first Gym with ease; the Gym leader gave a raised eyebrow at the non-traditional Starters but, as Steel is weak to fire and she could still test the how the kids handled facing their Pokémon’s weakness, didn’t fuss too much about it as.
Her three young sons did object a bit, though, thinking it outrageous that these boys had the wrong Pokémon!
They both beat the Gym first try, Emmet only by the skin of his teeth though, and he resolved to shake Ingo’s guard and train his team harder before the next gym
And oh does he try
A Delay In Schedule
NACRENE CITY
Two weeks in, and Emmet was ready to explode. Ingo wouldn’t leave him alone to train, and was hogging all the fights against other trainers!
Emmet at this point only had his Klink, Freight, and a Purrloin he’d managed to catch while Ingo was sleeping, named Skimbleshanks*
Ingo, meanwhile, had his own Klink, Stephenson, Pullman the Roggenrola, and Trevithick and Westinghouse the Lillipups
They reach the second Gym and challenge the Gym Leader, who just took over the year before, Burgh
Ingo manages to win with only one of his team being rendered unable to battle, Emmet…does not.
Emmet was, understandably, upset at losing but squared up and resolved himself to train harder and try again.
He healed his team up and went to find some wild Pokémon to fight/catch. This plan was promptly derailed after about an hour, when Ingo arrived, saw Emmet and his team ‘struggling’ against a Blitzle, and ““saved”” him.
This was the Last. Straw.
Emmet had really wanted to add that Blitzle to his team!
Emmet blew up at Ingo, out of nowhere from Ingo’s point of view, and accused him of sabotaging him. A lot of hurtful things were said before Emmet stormed off, leaving behind a very confused and upset Ingo.
The next day, Ingo tries to talk to Emmet [Read: Find out why Emmet blew up at him out of nowhere and make him apologize] and it backfires [Gee, I wonder why? Re, previous brackets]
Emmet gets even more upset at that, and starts ranting at Ingo. He has some valid complaints, but he’s also was bringing up petty little things that have been annoying him because he was already upset
Naturally, Ingo gets angry at this and argues back
Things hit the breaking point when Emmet’s rant hits the camera. He grabed it and starts waving it about while shouting about how ‘maybe Ingo would have actually noticed he was upset if he hadn’t been so busy with this stupid thing all the time!!’
Emmet’s grip slipped and the camera
went
flying.
It landed in the tall grass with a sharp crack.
There wasn’t actually that much damage, it was a solid, good quality camera but there was visible damage. It was just a cracked lens or something, thankfully, but neither twin knew enough about camera care to realise it was easily fixable
Both twins went silent as the camera went flying and Emmet felt oddly triumphant when he heard the crack as it hit the ground.
Until he saw the look on Ingo’s face.
Until Ingo, quietly and furiously, said “.....That was dad’s.”
Ingo shoved Emmet over and stormed off and Emmet stormed off in the opposite direction, and Emmet came back later to find the camp…different. Emptier
One tent
One set of dishes
Half the supplies
One broken camera still on the ground
And a note basically saying that if Emmet didn’t want Ingo there to help him, then He wouldn’t be.
A Change of Tracks
Ingo was angry. Hurt too, but mostly angry.
He’d been doing his best to help Emmet and keep him safe, and then Emmet went and threw it in his face and broke dad’s camera
So yeah, he left.
He also took all of Emmet’s left socks, stuck a couple big rocks in his backpack, and messed with his alarm clock. If Emmet is going to be mad at him for something, it can be something he actually did!
A scowl on his face, Ingo headed into Pinwheel Forest, leaving his twin behind.
Emmet was angry. Guilty too, but mostly angry
He had just wanted Ingo to stop acting like he was weak! He wanted to be able to train and build his team and earn the Gym Badges!
He didn’t know the camera had been dad’s! Emmet carefully packed the camera away, hoping he could find someone to fix it and then went to actually train without Ingo getting in the way.
Emmet was still angry three hours later when he still hadn’t found another Blitzle! Though he had fought many other Pokémon, and even had to backtrack to the Pokémon Center to heal his team once.
He was still angry another half hour later, when he finally saw another Blitzle, only to realize too late that it was someone else’s Pokémon.
The girl was not super impressed with him trying to catch her Starter, but she did understand it, since wild Blitzles were found there
She was even less impressed when she then swept the floor with him in a battle and he started to throw a tantrum. In her eyes it was a tantrum, at least, Emmet actually just yelled in frustration, kicked a rock, and then teared up a bit because he’d been having a really bad day
She felt a little bad for him, honestly “Hey, look, if you want to catch a Blitzle that bad, I can help-“
“I am Emmet, I DON’T need HELP!”
“Wow. Okay, fine then!” And with that, she huffed and walked away, mildly offended, and went to heal her Pokémon before challenging the Gym
The next day in Pinwheel Forest, the same girl runs into Ingo. When he challenged her to a battle, she thinks it’s just a rematch now that he’s calmed down. Maybe he was just grumpy yesterday.
“So.” She says, after beating him “I guess you never got that Blitzle?”
Ingo was confused “What Blitzle?”
“…Yesterday? You tried to catch Electra, and when I offered to help you catch one of your own you snapped at me?”
“Oh.” Ingo huffed “No, that would be my brother Emmet, I’m Ingo. I’m sorry for him yelling at you.”
“Elesa. Your brother’s a bit of a jerk.”
“…He is, yes. He threw our dad’s-my camera yesterday and broke it”
“Wow."
The two of them started to travel together. It takes half an hour for them to discover their shared love of puns, and then there’s no end to them.
Ingo tries all of once to help Elesa with a fight before she shuts him down.
“I beat you in a fight, I can handle a Timburr!”
Emmet, now not being accidentally hindered by Ingo, spent a few days training his team, caught that Blitzle he wanted, now named Freight, and a Timburr, Metro. Then he re-challenged the gym, got the second badge, and headed off towards the next city
Emmet actually runs into Ingo and Elesa while in Pinwheel forest. They had gotten lost.
He proudly tells Ingo that he got the second badge ‘Now that you aren’t getting in my way all the time’, which, of course, sets off another argument between the boys before Emmet storms away.
Elesa stood there feeling awkward. Part way through the argument she clued in that Ingo had been ‘helping’ Emmet the same way he had tried to ‘help’ her, so no wonder he was crabby when she offered her own help.
But Ingo is her friend, and also Emmet shouldn’t have thrown Ingo’s camera just because he was mad.
CASTELLIA CITY
Emmet reached Castellia first, despite staying in the forest a few days to train, because Ingo and Elesa got lost again. When telling this story as adults, both parties always blame the other for getting lost
As such, he was the first twin to challenge the Dark-type Gym, with it’s Gym Leader Grimsley.
Between Metro and Caboose, a Venipede he caught in the forest, Emmet left with his third badge and the cloud over his head since he had first failed back in Nacrene finally faded some
Ingo and Elesa showed up a few days later and Ingo had to prove he wasn't Emmet trying to get the badge twice. Which isn’t hard, he has his own Trainer ID, just annoying
Elesa loses on her first attempt, and Ingo sticks around for a few days while she trains her team up and tries again. He spends the time training on Route 4 and catches himself a Crustle he names Hackworth.
Meanwhile Emmet finally found a camera repair shop and leaned that the damage was mostly cosmetic, other than the cracked lens, and that he actually had enough money on hand from battling people to get it fixed.
He did have to stick around for about a week while they do the work, though.
Which meant he went out to train his team on Route 4.
And ran into Ingo a few more times.
And got into arguments with Ingo a few more times
Tensions build and build
Once the camera was fixed, Emmet headed straight for Nimbasa.
NIMBASA CITY
Emmet reached Nimbasa first and challenged the Electric Gym, before learning the Gym Leader, Volcan, was unavailable. He was looking into reports of a dangerously strong Pawniard on Route 16 that made it’s way out of the forest. Emmet instead faced Volcan’s son, Surge.** Emmet won the battle and then goes to wait.
Ingo and Elesa got there the next day, and also both won on their first try.
To Elesa’s surprise and confusion, Emmet is waiting for them shortly before the drawbridge into Driftveil.***