I woke this morning to find myself still being held like a toy but hey, at least Fen joined me. It was just past dawn from what I could tell through the limited view of the window. Oliver was also asleep with Froakie asleep on the top bed and Aron happily dozing at the end of Oliver’s bed. I can’t see Hoot but he’s probably above me. It was weird not having that weird nightmare, but I didn’t care about that as it did suck whenever it happened. Seeing as I couldn’t do anything, I just practised Puppet till I could be released.

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We had spent the morning training getting ready to fight the gym leader. I mostly watched but I acted as a training partner as long as I didn’t strike back but pushing the others around was allowed. The gym was massive in terms of area it took up. The whole building was green with a red roof and had ring of windows way above ground so probably multi-story. Upon entering, it was a basic white lobby, there was a man in a green and white uniform at a reception desk. The whole place was similar to the pokecenter excluding a large forest mural located on the right wall. Walking over to it, I could see a bronze sing at the bottom. I got to look at the language properly now. The mural was covered in bug pokemon from all regions. The plaque at the bottom was written in a language I don’t recognise but I could read it.

‘To all pokemon lost during team Flare’s corrupted use of Zygarde and Yveltal’

Thinking back to the pokedex now after looking at the letters, it was written in this language but as for why I could read it fluently, I don’t know. Maybe it’s why I have no problem walking or eating raw meat and such. Either way, it seems that every letter I’m use to simply has to be swapped out. So if I could learn the letters, I could speak to Jen and Oliver.

“Shade, you coming?” Oliver called out to which I quickly followed.

While me and Jennifer walk out a door and the right, Oliver walked through one on the left.

Where’s Oliver going? I ask but obviously they can’t understand but it seems at least people can understand intent.

“He is battling first, so we’re going to watch.” She says walking down the hallway.

The hallway suddenly turns to glass and all around is forest. All sorts of bug types are flying and walking around the large greenhouse. The most surprising was flying around was a shiny beedrill flying with butterfree and various coloured vivillon.

The glass hallway eventually ended before leading to a collection of bleachers which overlooked a dirt arena. The surrounding area was covered in grass and there was trees and vines growing around the edges of the glass roofed room. The room had four entrances, two at each end of the arena for the challenger and gym leader, the one we entered, and a smaller entrance of the other side in the middle. There was a couple of people that looked like tourists already present. Finding a nice spot, we waited for a bit before a female ref entered through the small door and called out.

“Welcome to the Santalune gym, known for its bug types of all regions. We welcome our first challenger, Oliver Hawthorn!” With that Oliver entered and waved to the small group which everyone clapped for. “And say hello to the Santalune gym leader, Viola!” At that, a woman in possibly her late thirties walks in from the opposing entrance which received a louder amount of applause which is unsurprising. Viola looked like she did in the games. She had a white singlet and green baggy shorts with a camera, and blonde hair sitting above the shoulders. She simply looked older than she did in the game. The cameras band had six balls on it.

“Always good to see new faces on the circuit every year.” Viola says with a smile. “But that doesn’t mean you get special treatment.”

“I don’t want any.” Oliver responds grabbing his first pokeball. “I just want that badge.”

“Well your going to have to work for it.” She retorts getting into the mood.

“This will be a standard two on two match! The challenger is allowed 1 substitution! Choose your first pokemon!” The ref says.

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“Aron, you’re up!” Oliver calls out while throwing his pokeball.

“Surskit, show them how it’s done.” Viola calls at the same time.

Both pokemon appear ready for battle.

“That’s unfortunate, type disadvantage straight up.” Viola says from her side.

“Just means I have to work harder.” Oliver said smiling.

“Trainers ready?” The ref calls and when he received no objections, “Begin!”

“Surskit, ice arena!”

“Rock tomb.”

Surskit shoots first as a beam of ice and starts freezing the ground in lines but before the arena was coated, Aron rips up the ground and tosses the rocks towards the bug.

“Dodge and use bubble!” Viola yells.

“Trap it with rock tomb!”

The surskit starts sliding along the ice and shooting bubbles towards the aron while rocks beside it randomly shoot limiting its movement. The bubbles were clearly affecting the aron while the surkit struggled to dodge the boulders before being suddenly cornered and swiftly trapped.

“You got it, use the rocks to get close and use metal claw!” Oliver yells from his side of the arena. Aron proved to be surprisingly mobile avoiding the icy floor.

“Oh no you don’t, Surskit, climb the rocks with quick attack!” Viola calls out. At this, the little bug starts jumping between the rocks and makes a leap for the top only to be slammed by right back in by metal claw.

“Crush it with rock tomb!”

“Surskit, quick attack!” Viola yells out, but it was too late. The surrounding rocks crashed together before receding into the ground leaving Surskit unconscious on the ground.

“Surskit is unable to battle, the round goes to the challenger.” Called the ref which brought an around of applause. Returning her surskit and saying something even I couldn’t hear, she puts the ball back in its slot before grabbing her next one. “Vivillon, you’re up.” She tosses the ball to show a white winged vivillon so it might be from a cold region.

“Clearly your more skilled than I thought so let’s use one a bit above the mark shall we.” Viola said bowing.

“Challenger, will you swap out?” The ref calls.

“You did good Aron, but you don’t have the right moves for this battle.” Oliver said returning his pokemon before sending Froakie out.

“Ready, begin!” The ref yells.

“Froakie, bubble!”

“Vivillon, sleep powder.”

The bubbles fly through the air trying to hit their target as clouds of purple powder fall.

“Froakie, climb the rocks to get close.”

The frog gives up trying to hit the butterfly and starts running to the rocks to get a better height advantage. He manages to avoid the powder which was quickly becoming a problem and jumps towards the butterfly.

“Use gust.” The vivillon stops and turns around slamming a gust of wind into Froakie launching him into the mist. I was worried the dust would hit us as the gust blew it everywhere, but it seems like it just kind of stops just before the trainers, the ref, and the seating. “Now start charging solar beam!”

“Froakie, if your awake, use quick attack!” Oliver frantically called out. Nothing happened as the attack slowly charged before out of the haze, Froakie rushes the Vivillon interrupting it and slamming it to the ground. “Now use pound!” The frog descended towards the downed pokemon with a glowing hand.

“Vivillon, use gust to move away and attack!” Viola calls out enjoying the action.

The bug rights itself before letting the opposing force of gust move it away before shooting another at Froakie hitting him back into the powder cloud.

“Fly up and use solar beam again.”

“Quick attack Froakie!”

As the beam charges up, nothing happens until its fired and clearly, nothing was going to survive being hit by that. As the dust settles there is rubble everywhere but, Froakie isn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Where are you pal!?” Oliver calls out as a small pile of rubble starts moving before a light blue strikes out and freezes Vivillon’s wing solid. As the pokemon falls, the little frog, clearly on its last legs, rushes forward and uses pound to launch the butterfly into a wall before collapsing as the Vivillon did also. It happened so quickly that the ref took a second to realise what had happened before calling out “Both pokemon are unable to battle, the victory goes to the challenger Oliver Hawthorn!” The cries in applaud were incredibly loud for such a small group of people but they clearly were excited with the results.

Returning her vivillon, Viola walked over to Oliver as he was returning his Froakie congratulated his victory. “That was an excellent battle young man, its uncommon for a pokemon to spontaneously learn a move and quite the ice beam that was. You have earned this.” She said handing over the bug badge.

“Thank you for a wonderful battle Viola.” Oliver said with a beaming smile before he ran over to us.

“We will take an intermission in order to clean the arena and to prepare for the next trainer.” Called the ref before he left and everyone funnelled out.

“Well done bro.” Jen said to her brother giving him a hug once he got to us as we are walking down the glass hallway. “Let’s just hope mine goes that well.”

“I’m sure it will.” Oliver responds. “So I assume I will be sitting with Shade in the stands.”

“Yes you will, she simply is more powerful than the others so she would skew the battle. We will make sure to celebrate your win when we get back and mine when I win.” She says before heading off to wait her turn.

Good luck. I call out.

“Lets wait at the stands till the battle begins. I’m sure her battle will go well.” Oliver said walking back down the path towards the stands.

I hope your right.