Chapter 35 – Trial by Fire

My grandparents lounging in their garden, instead of managing the cookie store, set red bells ringing off in my head. Grandma loved that store and badgering passing trainers to buy from her. I was afraid that with Zinnia gone they’d feel too out of sorts to continue managing their passion project.

“Egon, we can't do anything about it. Even if we disagree with Willow’s handling of the situation, Zinnia is still her daughter.”

“I don’t trust that man, grandma. I am sure he only took Zinnia with him for selfish reasons. If he didn’t care for her the eight years prior, I don’t see him being all that interested doing so now.”

“Vuuuul!”

“Thank you, Rena. I spoke to Champion Drake, he confirmed my earlier speculations of that tribe living inside Meteor Falls. All I need to do now is grow stronger with my team, if we can beat back the roaming dragon types surrounding that place, I’ll demand they release Zinnia back to our care. Don’t worry about anything, I'll take care of it I promise.”

My grandparents were clearly exasperated by my bold claim but in a good way. Although they couldn't help but fuss over me in their own way.

“Are you crazy? No grandchild of mine will go anywhere near that place without at least earning himself eight badges!”

“Egon let grandpa handle it. I’ll talk some sense into that whippersnapper!”

I gave both of them tight hugs of appreciation before letting grandma know I wasn’t suicidal and telling grandpa that he was too old to get into a fight with my stepfather.

“I’ll be staying in Lavaridge for the next two weeks. I know that I am officially emancipated but could I still stay here during that time?”

I knew what their answer would be, but I still asked for propriety’s sake. After getting their consent for my continued stay. I left them to enjoy the rest of their afternoon while I set out to join Flannery and Victini at the Lavaridge gym. After asking for volunteers to keep an eye on the elderly couple Rena and Numsy opted to stay to keep them company. Leaving Glove and Orin to accompany me to the gym. Glove insisted on keeping the egg close during this crucial time in its development, so I brought my incubator along with us as well.

‘How are you holding up over there?’

“Flannery’s bed is really comfy!”

Getting confirmation that she was being treated well I continued my leisurely walk towards the gym. We passed by the sand baths at some point, and I was eager to greet my old master but not without Numsy. My first partner would be distraught if I tried to get one up over him by going to see master Quagsire first without including him.

The townsfolk didn’t have a particular reaction seeing me walking the streets again. Maybe three months and some odd weeks wasn’t enough time for them to notice me missing. Old lady Greta was still giving me the evil eye though, probably expecting us to go rampaging through the communal gardens again.

Walking past the sand baths I could already see the gym’s entrance and the Pokémon center. Which reminded me to meet up with our nurse Joy later to clue her in on the impending birth of my newest Pokémon. She has been a long-time family friend and an adept hand at delivering newborns. Nurse Joy was there for both mine and Zinnia’s births so having her there to welcome Larvesta into this world seemed appropriate.

I made it to the front gate. It was still during the gym’s opening hours. Although Lavaridge gym was the most unpopular gym of the circuit, people still needed to come here to earn their heat badge. Seeing as it was still opening hours there was a good chance I could watch a gym battle going on by just walking in. Naturally since I was a familiar face to the gym’s staff, I had free reign to walk around unsupervised.

Walking past the reception desk the first familiar face I met was Keegan the charcoal maker. Obviously on his way to bring any injured gym Pokémon to the center next door.

“Egon! It’s been a while, how have you been doing on your journey? And I see you’ve brought an egg with you.”

“Yes, I just came back from Unova, and I have some interesting new partners to show for it. I see you are busy, so I won’t hold you up.”

“Egon, Leader Moore already heard from Flannery that you’re back. He’s waiting for you inside the volcano’s main chamber. Finish up what you were planning on doing and head out to meet him. The gym’s been sponsoring you for quite a while and he’ll surely want to measure your progress.”

‘Okay now I am worried! No wait, calm down I’ve clearly made some progress filling up my team and earning two badges. That’s completely respectable.’

Not wanting to keep Mr. Moore waiting any further I telegraphed in my mind to Victini that I made it to the gym and that I was looking to meet back up with Flannery. Clearly, I wasn’t planning on barging inside a preteen girl’s room. So, the only other option was to wait for the two of them to come out. I knew roughly where Flannery’s room was situated. The gym had a side building meant for the leader and his family to live in. From an early age I’ve done all I can to avoid that part of the gym. I didn’t want to invade Mr. Moore’s personal space and lose my prospects of a sponsorship from the gym. Thus, I waited until Flannery finally appeared from a side entrance.

“Egon! You ready to meet up with grandpa?”

“Yes, I hope I’ve done enough to impress him.”

“It’ll be okay Egon! Grandpa likes you.”

“Liking me doesn’t matter. Being a sponsored trainer means that I represent the gym. If I do well in the circuit that shows the rest of the region that the Lavaridge gym raises competent trainers. Inversely if I perform poorly that will reflect badly on the gym. In the worst-case scenario, they might even pull the gym’s license. Arceus knows the gym hasn’t been offering competitors high level matches for a while.”

“Geez Egon! Now I am getting worried too, stop being such a sour meowth.”

Having invisibly followed the two of us through the hallway, Victini took that moment to reappear at my side followed by a quick activation of her ball’s return mechanism. The two of us agreed it would be wisest for her to stay in her poké ball for now. I knew for a fact that the gym housed a good number of security cameras. This could also be the reason why Mr. Moore requested for us to join him in the gym’s caldera battlefield. That being the only place where cameras couldn’t be mounted due to the ambient temperature. The battlefield was mostly just used in gym advertising since most non fire type Pokémon couldn’t handle the heat, especially grass and water types. If at some point in the future the gym started doing fifth level badges and higher again, this battlefield could be seeing some use.

Me and Flannery entered the gym’s deepest sanctum. The ambient torridness grew stifling. No matter how much I liked sweltering heat this went a bit overboard. The air surrounding us was bone dry which would normally help but not at these temperature levels. The volcano we were in was directly adjacent to Hoenn’s biggest most active one Mt. Chimney and it showed. Consequently, this was also the place where all the slugma, magcargo and magmar were kept. The kinds of fire types who did very well in extreme environments. Normally you wouldn’t see them since they liked staying inside the magma.

“Grandpa! I brought Egon!”

There standing in the center of the raised battlefield was Mr. Moore waiting for us. He seemed sharper than usual, completely different from the usual doting Pokémon poetry obsessed man. Flannery as usual couldn’t read the atmosphere and walked up to Mr. Moore waiting to get praised by the old man like usual.

“Flannery dear not now. Why don’t you go sit over at the bleachers? Egon and I have some important business to go over.”

“Grandpa, Egon’s been really good! And he brought all these cute Pokémon over from Unova. Please don’t fire him!”

“That depends on the outcome of this …Flannery. Now go do as grandpa says, if you are good, we’ll all go out for ice cream later.”

Unbeknownst to Mr. Moore those magic words triggered a reaction from a certain Pokémon currently inside her ball.

“Ice cream?”

‘Sure, after this you can have some too. For now, we’ll have to put on a strong united front.’

Flannery appropriately cowed did as Mr. Moore said and vacated herself to a nearby spectator seat. Now it was just me and the old man.

“Egon, I have heard you experienced some success all the way over in Unova. However, I also know that you haven’t earned even a single badge here in our home region where it matters most. As your sponsor I am curious, how do you intend to rectify this matter?”

“Well, I have already scheduled a match at the Mauville gym. And I was hoping to earn my Lavaridge gym by the end of my stay here. After that I’ll go to Fortree city and book an appointment with the gym leader there. My team is strong! and we are planning to go all the way this season.”

“If you are that confident, I suppose I’ll have to test you… Bring out your strongest Pokémon against one of mine. If you manage to impress me, I’ll let you keep your sponsorship.”

With that Mr. Moore retreated to the other side of the battlefield. Waiting for me to take a position on the opposing end of the arena to start the battle. Before taking him on I had to secure my egg. It was quite common for attacks to veer off course and accidentally hit one of the trainers. I had to make sure the egg was kept safe. So I bolted to Flannery’s spot on the bleachers.

“Can you look after my egg? Mr. Moore wants to test me in a battle.”

I also released Victini and Orin to stay with her just in case.

“You two watch my battle from over here, okay? If I know Mr. Moore, he’ll probably want to test me with a higher-level Pokémon. I have to bring out Glove just to stand a chance.”

“Lit!”

“Vi Vi!”

Rushing back down to take my position on the field I faced what would probably be my toughest battle yet.

“Standard rules! We won’t be needing a referee for this. Go! Rapidash!”

I recognized the Rapidash Mr. Moore brought out. It was one of his personal Pokémon he used when teleportation or a flying type wasn’t available. Even though this Rapidash was mostly used for transport it still had a spot on his personal team. Making it at least an eighth badge level Pokémon.

As luck would have it, I had my own unfairly powerful Pokémon to call on in situations like this.

“Glove let’s do this!”

For the first time I released Glove to do battle. The Blaze Pokémon materializing on my side of the field.

“Dar?”

“I am sorry for calling you out like this without notice, but would you engage in battle with me? Our opponent this time is too strong for the others.”

“Nitan!”

My Darmanitan knew all the higher level moves his species can learn naturally. This meant that before he got stuck in his other form he could be classified as an elite level Pokémon. I didn’t know how much of his old strength remained, but this would be as good of a time as any to find out.

I mainly battled with the others on my team to help them catch up to Glove as fast as possible. Glove didn’t mind overly much not having to battle for a while since he was kept busy with looking after the egg most of the time.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Work up!”

“Agility!”

Both Mr. Moore and I called out our commands at the same time. He opted to increase his Rapidash’s maneuverability while I intended to increase Glove’s power. I figured it was meaningless to expend energy chasing after a Pokémon known to move faster than any top-of-the-line car. If we had to wait for Rapidash to get close we might as well prepare in the meantime.

Smoke wafted off Glove’s body signifying the successful execution of the move. Mr. Moore’s Pokémon even while restricted in the finite space that was the battlefield was hard to keep track of with just my eyesight. Blurring slightly at the speed it was going.

“Once it gets close Hammer Arm!”

“High horsepower!”

Rapidash jumped up intent on crashing down from above with its full body weight. The problem was Rapidash couldn’t take any evasive maneuvers while in the air making Glove’s hammer arm sure to hit. Their bodies collided into each other; Gloves arm imbued with fighting type energy struck Rapidash’ exposed midriff at the same time that the horned Pokémon’s hooves hit Darmanitan on his exposed head. The blowback from Glove’s fist alleviated the power of Rapidash’ strike somewhat but those hooves got a solid hit in while imbued with ground type energy.

Glove was left reeling the concussive force combined with the type effectiveness taking its toll. I knew he was just one blow away from changing forms. Meanwhile Rapidash looked to be the winner from their exchange but not by a whole lot, the horse Pokémon panting slightly.

“Thrash! Don’t let it build up speed again!”

“Double edge!”

Thrash was a risky move. The Pokémon using it would abandon the entire notion of self-preservation and keep slamming into its target with reckless abandon. Once the move ended it left its user in a confused daze. However, I couldn’t afford for Rapidash to keep on with its harrying tactics.

The two Pokémon collided again. Mr. Moore, seeing as I wouldn’t let up, gave the Rapidash’ instructions to close in with a full body blow. Rapidash’ reach being slightly better due to its long neck and horn impacted first blowing Glove away the only thing my Pokémon could do in that time was give a glancing blow to Rapidash’ head.

That’s when it happened, Glove’s body petrified and turned blue, his rapid change into his alternate form. Greatly surprised Mr. Moore momentarily giving me an advantage. Confusion was too weak a move to deal much damage to an experienced Pokémon like Mr. Moore’s Rapidash pushing me to rely on what we in the Lavaridge gym call the good old classic.

“Flamethrower!”

The short surprise was all we needed to get that singular move to hit. Glove, now empowered by his other form, no longer relied on his breath to execute the move. Using pyrokinesis on the flames his body can naturally generate. The blast of fire caught Rapidash head on. Naturally the thermal energy or Fire TE of the move wouldn’t do much against Rapidash but the blast could still knock her over for a short spell which it did in short succession.

“Very interesting Egon. I’ve never heard of a Darmanitan capable of switching forms! Let’s see how you deal with this. Megahorn!”

Somehow Mr. Moore accurately guessed that a bug move would now deal more damage. I knew for sure that Glove was on his last legs taking one more hit would result in our loss.

“Levitate! Don’t let Rapidash catch you!”

While in this state Glove should be able to move in the air to evade that attack. This was why I was adamant on him learning confusion first. Not for its use as an attacking move but for its other application.

Glove’s eyes started glowing blue and he managed to swiftly float high up in the air. I was very impressed with his quick mastery of this skill. As was Victini who was cheering from the sidelines.

“I taught him that!”

“You think my Rapidash can’t reach up there?! Bounce!”

Again, Rapidash showed its impressive range of learned moves. Bounce allowed normally landlocked Pokémon to imbue their legs with flying type energy to jump great heights. Managing to make her Megahorn connect even at such a high altitude. My Pokémon immediately fainted once the move connected and started falling down to the ground.

‘At this height he could seriously injure himself!’

“Glove!”

“Leave it to me!”

Glove’s descent slowed down instantly as if he had an invisible parachute wrapped around him. He slowly moved down until he gently landed back onto the arena.

“Glove return!”

I activated the return mechanism of my poké ball sucking up Glove inside. I addressed him briefly the adrenaline in my body slowing down enough to allow for my mind to judge the battle’s conclusion.

“You did great. I’ll give you plenty of berries after dropping you off at nurse Joy’s. With some extra training we are sure to beat that Rapidash no problem.”

After the battle’s conclusion Mr. Moore moved to address me his Rapidash trailing along at his side. Before he had the chance to speak his first words. Mr. Moore got heckled down by the singular spectator at the bleachers.

“Unfair! Don’t be a meanie grandpa! You sent out Rapidash while Egon doesn’t have a single badge yet! Don’t fire Egon he did really well!”

“Flannery dear, let me talk with the boy, I haven’t even said anything yet.”

“Uhmm I could always come back later? Glove still needs to be cared for at the Pokémon center.”

“Hush, that Darmanitan is tough enough to wait the entire evening if it has to. Now as for your sponsorship… It can continue but with certain requirements.”

“You’ll at least earn yourself seven badges this circuit. With Darmanitan’s strength that should be easily doable. As for the second requirement… You’ll accompany Flannery here to catch her own Pokémon.”

“Really, you’ll let me go out grandpa?! I love you!”

“As she is now, she won’t be able to complete the circuit in one go, but she also desperately needs the experience in order to grow as a trainer. Flannery is my heir so I can’t have her fail the circuit on her first attempt. And as an elite four I have too many duties. She wouldn’t grow as much while stuck under my care. I want you to accompany her. Let her catch a Pokémon or two on her own. Have her get some practice battles in with wandering trainers. While making sure she doesn’t do anything reckless or crazy.”

‘Looking after Flannery as a side gig? Hmm I don’t know… this could be even more exhausting than trying to survive off prize money.’

As if she knew what was going on inside my head. Flannery preemptively tried to use her baby-doll eyes on me.

‘Fool! that move only works on Mr. Moore.’

“There is also of course an increase in your allowance since you’ll have to take care of Flannery and her team as well.”

“I’ll do it!”

“Grandpa, I can take care of myself, you know! Just give me that money!”

“Flannery dear, you are liable to get scammed. Egon has more experience in this. Let him handle the money issues while you focus on training your Pokémon. Now… Since that is settled, I would like to hear all about your experiences in Unova. Mayhap you can introduce me to that ‘special’ Pokémon you described during our phone call.”

----------------------------------------

Sometime later*

It had been decided that Mr. Moore and Flannery would come over for dinner where I would regale them with all of my Unova adventures. Before that happened though, I needed to drop by the Pokémon center.

“Nurse Joy!”

“Oh my! Egon, how good to see you again.”

“Can you restore the health of my Darmanitan? He’s been in a tough battle back at the gym.”

“Certainly, just place his poké ball on the counter. Chansey, we have another patient.”

“Sey!”

The pink ovoid Pokémon picked up the tray containing my singular poké ball and brought it with her into a side room.

“So how have you been? We have been worried about you and Zinnia since the day your parents came into the center to have that talk with you. I haven’t seen her around since.”

“Our mother and her father thought it best that she live with them. I’ve come back early from Unova to convince them otherwise.”

“How unfortunate that you had to cancel your journey early… Did you at least have a good time?”

“Yes, I’ve made lots of Unovan friends. One of them even gave me her egg to take care of.”

I showed Nurse Joy the insides of the incubator I was carrying. The egg was at a stage where it twitched once every hour or so.

“The Nurse Joy in Mauville city said my egg would hatch somewhere within the next two weeks.”

“That’s great news Egon! It’s always a special time when a new life comes into this world.”

“So… I was thinking that I’d like you to be there for the hatching. At this point it's tradition for my family to have you be there for the deliveries.”

“I’d love to! During medical school I specialized in Pokémon obstetrics. You know the species of the mother?”

“Uhmm yeah, the mother is a Volcarona.”

“Such a rare species of Pokémon! There are so few left that scientists speculate they are close to extinction. Then certainly I’ll have my work cut out for me. Now I’ll be twice as motivated! To provide this little one with the best healthcare.”

I thanked my lucky stars that she left it at that and didn’t start grilling me about the egg’s origins like the nurse Joy from Mauville city. While we were busy talking, she grabbed a medical chart and started scribbling on it and asking questions only pertinent to the egg’s overall health. She was surprised when I told her that the egg was probably decades old. That it only started showing signs of activity after putting it into the incubator.

“You are being really helpful, Egon. Would you mind if I shared this information with the rest of my family? The specific incubator settings alone could help other joys when they encounter similar cases.”

“Go ahead, I don't mind. Does the center have any recording equipment? I also made a promise to tape the hatching for the ranger who helped me by gifting me this incubator.”

“We sure do! I’ll ask Chansey to record the whole process. Speaking of… We printed out that photograph of Zinnia’s reaction after receiving her Horsea. Would you like to have it?

“Yes please!”

In the end I left the Pokémon center with a new addition for the family scrapbook and Glove attached back to my belt with the recommendation to let him rest for the next twelve hours. Coupled with some sage advice about the egg hatching process.

If the egg starts twitching as frequently as three times per hour it means that the egg would hatch within twenty-four hours. This is a golden rule among all the different species of Pokémon with few exceptions. Nurse Joy recommended to come stay at the center with her as soon as that happened.

With my business at the center finished I finally headed back home for the final time this day. Mr. Moore and Flannery should have already made it over. Re-entering my grandparents’ home I already found the two of them sitting at our dinner table together with grandpa and grandma. It seemed that grandma made her special region famous falafels with sitrus berry glaze, my absolute favorite.

“Egon, come sit quickly, your dinner is getting cold!”

“Coming grandma!”

----------------------------------------

Nearing the end of the regaling*

I decided on telling my family and friends most if not all of the noteworthy events that I experienced while in Unova. Including the fact that it turned out that I was their champion’s grandson. If my grandparents suddenly got a surprise visit from anyone on my father’s side of the family, I wouldn’t want them to be left flatfooted.

“You are a Champion’s grandson?! How come you are still mooching off grandpa then?”

“I am not mooching off of Mr. Moore! Sponsoring trainers to represent a gym, company or other organization is common practice.”

“Oh really? Are you sure that champion grandfather of yours didn’t gift you that Darmanitan? No way could a nerd like you catch such a strong Pokémon on your own!”

“Says the girl who got gifted all the Pokémon she ever owned! Every member of my team chose to come with me on their own volition!”

‘Wait, why am I arguing with an eleven-year-old girl?’

The other adults in the room were bemused enough to watch our verbal sparring play out. Content to nurse a drink while doing so. Alcoholic beverages made from fermented berries were quite popular in this world. I wasn’t much of a drinker even in my heyday, but it still would have been nice if I got offered one. Seeing as I was technically considered an adult. Mr. Moore was the first to break the gap in our conversation.

“Now then can I finally meet this so called “Victini” at this point I am questioning if my granddaughter’s descriptions of the Pokémon are even real.”

Victini was at this moment busy having dinner with my other Pokémon. I made it a point to have breakfast and dinner with them during those moments. Sadly there wasn’t enough space inside the house for Numsy to come eat with us. So we collectively decided to have my team eat dinner together with Numsy so he wouldn’t feel left out.

“Victini was eating dinner outside. They should be about done. I can ask her to come back inside if you’d like?”

“Yes.”

‘It’ll be fine, this is the man who is paying for all the food you’ve eaten so far. Just a quick paw shake and you can spend the rest of the conversation on my lap.’

Victini was unused to being introduced to multiple people in a single day. Meeting my maternal grandparents and Flannery was still doable for her. Since I know the three of them very well and she could experience their personality types through my memories. Mr. Moore was a bit of an unknown factor since we generally didn’t speak with each other.

“Okay…”

Victini turned visible right in front of Mr. Moore, her paw extended in an attempt to get the handshake and fly off as quickly as possible. Naturally Mr. Moore was quite surprised. He wasn’t as slow witted to not understand the gesture though. Using two fingers to grab her tiny paw for a shake.

“Why it’s nice to meet you as well, Victini. My name is Tim Moore, but everyone just calls me Mr. Moore.”

“Vi Vi.”

Having done her due diligence, she floated off the table and right onto my lap. Her two ears still sticking out from under the tabletop.

“Didn’t I say that she was cute grandpa? Not as cute as Torchic though!”

“Egon, now that I have had her in front of me. I could sense the great power she holds, why didn’t you choose her to face me in battle with? I have no doubt you could have defeated Rapidash with her by your side.”

“Well… Tini has never been in an actual battle before.”

“Vi Vi!” “Yes, I was!”

“That Litwick doesn’t count! The poor thing just got blasted away. A proper battle is more than that.”

“Hmmmm… You find yourself in a precarious situation. She has the power but not the skills to use them in battle. It would be best if you and Victini trained at the gym for a while under my supervision.”

“Really!?”

The opportunity to study under an elite four like Mr. Moore was something most trainers would shell out a truckload of pokédollars for.

“Yes, I can’t have you walking around with a Pokémon that valuable who doesn’t know how to defend herself. I’ll ask Drake to give me a week’s leave but during this time I expect you and Victini to give it your all.”

“We’ll happily accept! But ehm… Asking Victini to give it her all is kind of dangerous for her sparring partners.”

“You think this old man’s team is that brittle? I’ll have you learn the true meaning of firepower!”