Out front of the main gym entrance, Wulfric was having a short discussion with two of his gym trainers, his coat fully on this time and not just trailing behind him. The crunch of snow under Chad’s feet alerted the gym leader his appointment had arrived right on time. With a wordless wave, he signaled for the fire type to follow him, proceeding to walk south. For whatever reason, the locals opted to let the duo pass in peace as they moved through town.
At the edge of town, Wulfric continued onwards, the snow fading away into the lush greens of a thick forest. There was no path, just a seemingly random route between the trees as the duo proceeded into the thick woods. “I suppose an explanation was in order before any of this, but I believe you are uniquely qualified to bear this secret. Something I learned when I became the local gym leader, and something which I have yet to share with anyone else.”
Their route continued to twist and turn at random, as the two lost track of time, with only unspoken landmarks affirming Wulfric’s resolve to continue. “As you’ll understand, this is possibly the best-kept secret in Kalos. I’ve done my best to keep even the League’s greedy nose away from these pokemon. But maybe seeing you today might open a few minds.”
The massive man swept away a branch, revealing a large pseudo clearing, with several large trees spaced out to provide cover from above without intruding on the space below the canopy. Within, several pokemon were walking and milling about, the scene reminiscent of a small human town. Just without any humans.
Nearby amidst a field of yellow flowers, a mushroom with a split white and red cap wiggled, cooing at the sight of the two newcomers. “Hey there,” Wulfric greeted with a warm smile, undoing his jacket to let it flutter behind him as a cape once more. “Can you let everyone know I brought someone?” The Foongus whistled before hopping away as quickly as the little thing could manage.
The shadowy fields seemed to dance as flickers of sunlight glimpsed through the canopy above, highlighting each flower as they danced in the shallow winds. Yellow as far as either could see seemed to frolic in the open sea of flowers. The Foongus’ distant cries gathered the attention of the locals, as more pokemon took note of Wulfric’s appearance in the hidden village. “You’re being uncharacteristically quiet, Narrator.” Chad mumbled, careful to keep the gym leader from hearing him.
“So what you’re saying is, this is a pleasant surprise for you, too?” Chad whispered, as the village seemed to be waiting to welcome them. Jigglypuff, Amoongus, a Noctowl up on a branch, Gothorita, Poliwhirl, some Lombre… It was a full-fledged community of dozens of different pokemon.
Surprise! I sort of wanted to preserve this easter egg just in case you ever decided to go hands-off.
Narrator, I have access to so many spoilers. I wanted to keep at least a few things in the back pocket for possible rewards.
“Does Dragonite know of this place?” Chad inquired as he stood beside Wulfric, enjoying the moment while being introduced to everyone.
Yes; they’re practically a pokemon encyclopedia.
“Alright everyone, with that out of the way, why don’t we have a small celebration today?” Wulfric announced with a clap of his hands, as his team emerged from their pokeballs and helped him unpack some odd gear from his definitely-space-folding backpack. Chad, recognizing the grill from yesterday, groaned with a smile. “Sorry to put this on you so suddenly, but I thought if they could talk with you and your team, it might be nice for everyone.”
“It’s crazy to think how fast time flew by. Did you know most trainers are still working on their second and third badges right now?” Serena commented to the group, as a few hanger-ons mentioned they were here for their third badge.
“Crazy to think we completed everything in barely sixty-six days,” Calem added, his mischievous grin appearing when he eyed Chad. “Meanwhile our buddy here managed to clear everything on the sixty-ninth day.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
I swear, that was NOT intentional.
“Did we really beat all eight gyms in such a short time?” Chad asked with worry.
“I wouldn’t fret over it, not like that’s even a record,” a random trainer blurted out, holding up their Holo Caster to show some official record site maintained by the League. “The current record is about fourteen days, set by Amelia a few years ago. Rich girl who basically had her whole team before the start of the season, pre-registered for every gym, and a flying license. She could’ve gone faster but the League forced the pace out of concern for her pokemon’s health.”
“Yea but she was a repeat challenger; what’s the record among first years?” Calem countered, as the trainer navigated through the screen on their device.
“Thirty-eight days, by Luke whose starter knew Teleport, and his parents took the two of them around Kalos before the season. Instant travel, but lots of training.” The other trainers broke into sequestered chatter about how powerful instant travel was for cutting down time on the road. “But, as a point of pride: Calem and Serena finished their eighth badges in the top five for the year.”
“Oooh, top five?! Are there any prizes?” Serena pushed, gently nudging the nerdy trainer.
A different trainer laughed in amusement, likely the oldest in the group. “Yea, the prize of everyone knowing your name, your team, and being able to study your matches for the conference.” Everyone but Serena and Calem laughed, some louder than others. “But no, the real prize is knowing you have the remaining time to just train and work on new strategies.”
“Four months is a crazy long time to train for a tournament…” Chad supplied, though he grunted in frustration upon noticing Rousseau was not present. Motioning towards Calem, the boy caught on quick, passing over his Holo Caster opened to a notes app. The surrounding trainers slowly fell to silence as the fire type tapped away on the virtual keyboard, as Calem repositioned to read the screen.
“Chad wants to know what we want to do next, Serena. But I think we all know that.” He supplied as she lit up in joy. Using his wings, Chad made a light flapping motion, to which Serena violently nodded in joy.
“Such as?” Chad inquired, continuing to type out his thoughts for the other conversation among his fellow trainers.
Chad blushed, lightly fumbling the word he was mid-typing, as Calem and Serena locked eyes, having overheard half of the conversation. Moving to sit on the opposite side of Calem, Serena seemed to trap Chad in his place on the oversized couch. In an attempt to escape, he simply stood up and attempted to extricate himself from the ambush, only to be forced back down when a flash from his belt revealed the stoic Keanu standing in his way. “No running,” the owl warned.
Calem pursed his lips, glancing at the nearby random trainers. “We can move this to my room, if it helps. But we have a lot of questions we want to cover, questions that need answers now that all of us have the time to just let loose.” Calem’s eyes shone, bright with the desire to just help someone if they would trust him. Chad, making a decision, handed back the Holo Caster before returning himself to his pokeball, as Keanu scooped up the belt and motioned for the two humans to lead the way.
The three entered Calem’s borrowed room, the small one-bed shoebox barely enough for a human trainer and a moderately-sized pokemon, was absolutely cramped with the three of them. “Ahem,” Keanu coughed, seemingly waiting.
“Thank you,” Calem mentioned, as the avian released the subject of inquiry in the center of the now adequately-sized room. Handing over the Holo Caster to the Charizard, Calem and Serena made a few quick hand gestures to debate something. Up until Calem gave a resigned sigh, and took center-stage. “Chad, there’s a lot we want to cover–”
“WITHOUT anything being summarized, skipped over, or fast-forwarded, thanks!” Serena added, pointing accusingly at the ceiling.
“But how about we start with something simple. Like, is this Dragonite the same one who raided Lysandre’s Cafe last week?” Chad waited a moment before frowning and nodding his head. “And you would knowingly associate with them? Why did they even attack Lysandre in the first place?”
Chad used the keypad, summarizing everything in a simple sentence: [LYSANDRE WAS GOING TO END THE WORLD]. “And what makes you so certain of that?” Serena pressed, unsatisfied with such a statement. To which, Chad simply pointed a finger at the ceiling. “He told you?”
“I highly doubt they got them all,” Keanu added in, roosting in the comfy armchair. “Organizations like that, with plants in law enforcement bodies, take a long time and a lot of illegal means to purge.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” Chad questioned the owl, neither of the two humans able to understand the side discussion.
“I was part of the cleanup effort in Unova before I came here.” He stated with a solemn finality, as Chad seemed puzzled by the context before deciding to move on.
“OK, let’s assume Lysandre is actually a bad guy. It still doesn’t change the fact that the police haven’t found any evidence to support that yet, and that Dragonite is a rare pokemon; rare enough that they can’t just walk around Lumiose City like a normal person.”
“BOYS!” Serena shouted, interrupting the serious discussion. “We’re getting off-track. The real, most important question is why Chad likes Dragonite.” Chad fidgeted with his fingers before typing out a short and simple explanation: [BLIND DATE].
Serena threw up her hands in frustration as Calem laughed at her. “Alright, if we’re not doing serious questions… One year ago, when Stanley got the top score on the essay assignment about proper care for a baby pokemon; how much of that essay did Stanley actually write?” Chad held up a single finger. “A page?” He shook his head for no. “A paragraph?” Another shake. “...A word? No, wait, he only wrote his name, didn’t he?” A nod triggered Calem into maniacal laughter.
Serena waited a moment, before softly asking her next question. “Was Stanley even real? He just, showed up one day, but his parents were acting like he had been there all along.”
The four sat and stood around in relative silence, some withholding questions on the tip of their tongue, others waiting to see what the rest of the group were thinking. Chad broke the stalemate, offering up his question digitally. [WOULD YOU HAVE PREFERRED TO TRAVEL WITH ME OR STANLEY?]
“You!” The two humans replied at once, giggling at the idea. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but Stanley was just so infuriating to be around! Like, all of our interactions were just the big guy telling me what Stanley was thinking, and how I should be able to read his mind or something.” Serena elaborated, her eyes fixated in frustration.
Chad tuned out the two, as they reminisced about everything that had been wrong about the human meat puppet. “Narrator… I think you need to have a talk with The Lady.” Chad vocalized, putting his serious face on. “I won’t ask what happened, or why things ended up this way, but it’s clear to even a loner like me that you would both benefit if you could just take some time to yourselves.”
<...I will take that under advisement. Thank you for your concern.>
“You’re welcome. Now, they said no fast-forwards, so I expect they’ll keep me here for a while. Why don’t we regroup in the morning when we set out for Lumiose?” Chad offered, as Calem and Serena continued their heated discussion, with Keanu smiling softly from his chair.
Inferno
Stomp, Rock Tomb, Dragon Dance, Hone Claws, Rock Smash, Bulk Up, Detect, Protect, Dragon Tail, Ancient Power, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Crunch, Earthquake
Focus Energy, Double Kick, Dig, Venoshock, Sludge Bomb, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bulldoze, Protect, Flamethrower, Stone Edge, Power-Up Punch, Bulk Up, Earth Power
Detect, Protect, Extreme Speed, Aura Sphere, Close Combat, Bulk Up, Power-Up Punch, Bone Rush, Metal Claw, ??, Flash Cannon, Heal Pulse
Detect, Protect, Swift, Shadow Sneak, Nasty Plot, Phantom Force, Leaf Storm, Synthesis, Leaf Blade, Shadow Ball, Magical Leaf, Confuse Ray, Hex