The reconstruction of Eterna City was going faster than I had expected it would, but that didn’t mean the city was put back together by the end of the first week of September.

As it turned out, Pokémon made the process of cleaning the streets of rubble so much faster than in my old world. Beams and chunks of rubble that would require a truck to carry could be lifted with a single Fighting-type like Machoke, or broken into smaller, more manageable pieces with a carefully placed attack.

Fire-types helped dry out any wet areas, and I saw Water-types helping to siphon some of the larger bodies of water that had formed. And of course Ground- and Rock-types were moving mass amounts of the dirt and stone that had fallen from the side of the mountain.

Even with all of the advantages that came from having Pokémon, so much of the town was still destroyed.

By the end of the third day of work, power had been restored to the vast majority of the city thanks to help from Electric-types. The Pokémon League had flown in some of Volkner’s Gym Trainers and their Pokémon, who had helped provide enough power for essential services until the city’s power generators could be restarted. As thankful as we all were to get the electricity back, it also let us see what had happened to the rest of the world.

Galar, Kalos, Unova, Orre, and Paldea had all come out of the disaster relatively unscathed, thanks to their distance from the Four Islands. The coastal areas of those regions had been hit by bad storms, but none were too badly damaged.

Alola had been subject to some nasty storms, but the Island Guardians there had managed to prevent most of the damage to the towns.

On the other hand, Johto, Kanto, Sinnoh, and Kitakami had been hit hard. Power was still out in most of Johto, thanks to their more rural towns and cities. Mudslides like the one that had hit Eterna City were a common result across the Four Islands, and tsunamis had hit a number of cities near the coasts.

But Hoenn… Hoenn was in rough shape.

There were surprisingly few deaths, which was remarkable all things considered. The large endemic population of Absol had been freaking out for the week of rainstorms, and their precognition had helped the people there start to evacuate before things got really bad.

Even with advanced warning and time to evacuate, it hadn’t been enough. Pacifidlog Town was mostly gone. The people there had been taken away before the worst of the storms, but the sheer presence of Primal Kyogre had caused such massive waves that they had swamped the floating city, shattering most of the buildings into so much driftwood.

Thousands of people were homeless, and although the Hoenn government was doing the best it could, they were still fighting an uphill battle.

Shipments of aid for Hoenn and the rest of the Four Islands were coming from all over the world, and even an old sailing ship carrying the red seal of Ransei had come to deliver some supplies. Apparently the various warlords there had agreed to have a ceasefire in their years-long civil war so they could repair the damage from the storms.

The world was coming together to help with the recovery, but for Eterna City and the rest of Sinnoh, it would be a long time and a lot of work until things were back to normal.

Which made it all the more confusing to me when I heard that Gardenia, the Gym Leader of Eterna City, was officially taking challengers to compete for the Forest Badge.

/^\

“It's a cultural thing.” Ted said, gesturing with his wrap. “Unless there’s a war or some other kind of extreme disaster, the Pokémon League always opens up every year.”

Lucas nodded. “Always. It’s a, uh, resilience thing. Like showing that we aren’t weak or something.”

“Don’t speak with your mouth full.” I chided.

He rolled his eyes and swallowed. “Okay mom.”

“But wouldn’t this-” I waved at the ruined section of the city. “Count as an extreme disaster?”

The two looked at each other, and shrugged.

“I mean it’s bad.” Ted said.

“Pretty bad.” Lucas echoed. “But I mean, nobody like, died or anything.”

“Thank god for that.” I muttered.

It was the closest thing to a miracle that I’d ever seen. There were quite a few broken bones and concussions, and a few people had to be flown over to Jubilife City to the big hospitals there, but nobody had been killed in the mudslide.

There had been a few close calls, but this world’s medical capabilities were amazing. Berries alone went a long way to being a miracle drug, and they were some of the most common forms of medicine out there.

“But why not wait?” I asked again. “I mean, surely a couple weeks or a month would go a long way to making things better, right? Why is the Gym open already?”

Ted thought for a moment, putting his lunch down. Ted, Lucas, and I were all volunteering to help clear out a section of town, using our various Pokémon’s abilities to help remove some of the rubble. Out of all of us, my Pokémon were probably the least suited to the task, but they were all willing to give it a shot.

“The island you grew up on, there was no Pokémon League there, right?”

I shook my head.

“No. Not really that many Pokémon either.”

“That’s so weird to think about.” Lucas muttered.

“Then you don’t really have a frame of reference for it.” Ted said. “It’s hard to explain, but there used to be a time before the Pokémon League. A couple decades before I was born, there was no league, and instead there were powerful families that ruled the towns.”

“Professor Rowan told me this.” I said, thinking back to our conversation by the road after the fight with Kane.

“Oh, good, I don’t have to explain that.” He said. “I like learning about myths, not more recent history.”

Lucas stuck his tongue out. “Old man.”

Ted spluttered. “I’m twenty-five!”

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “Old.”

“Anyways.” I cut in before the bickering continued. “Cultural frame of reference?”

Ted glared at Lucas, but there was no heat there. The two seemed to be getting along, even if there were a few good-natured jabs every so often.

“Well, maybe not cultural. Or not just cultural. It’s hard to explain, but the times before the Pokémon League are seen as the “bad old days,” when things were a lot tougher for people. Without the regulations and oversight of the Pokémon League, people are afraid that those bad days would come back.”

“But the League isn’t the government, each town has its own police and local officials. I mean, take Galar for example, Chairman Rose isn’t in charge of Champion Leon, and Leon’s not in charge of Rose. They work together.”

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“True,” Ted admitted. “But the League goes a long way to setting the guidelines for how Pokémon and Trainers are regulated, and the Champions and Gym Leaders help shoulder a lot of the burden of managing their regions of responsibility.”

“Yeah.” Lucas said around a mouthful of food. “They may be technically separate, but the League has a lot of sway over the townies.”

Ted and I both looked at him.

“Townies?” I asked.

He flushed. “Sorry - “local government officials,” better? Plus, my dad always talks about how it’s a symbiotic relationship, since the League helps bring in tourists and traveling Pokémon Trainers across the regions. There’s a lot of money to be made by local businesses. Besides, Trainers who aren’t from the region have to pay to compete if they travel abroad.”

"I don’t know if we can really explain it to somebody who grew up without the League.” Ted said, choosing to ignore Lucas. “It’s just one of those things that we take seriously. The Pokémon League endures, even in the face of adversity.”

“Especially in the face of adversity.” Lucas pitched in.

I shook my head. “Weirdos.”

But it did make some sense. If I understood them right, the Pokémon League was like the UN or the EU back on Earth. They set some guidelines and had the power to enforce them, but didn’t necessarily care for managing the regions directly.

“Yup!” Lucas said, and took another big bite of his wrap.

“Weird as we may be,” Ted said. “At least I’ve already got my challenge scheduled.”

“Hey same!” Lucas said. “Mine’s not this Monday, but the next one, on the thirteenth. When’s yours?”

“This Wednesday.”

“Oooh, lucky! Why’s yours so early?”

Ted shrugged. “I really can’t say.”

“Lame. Well, what time is it? I want to come by and see you fight!”

“Uhh,” Ted pulled out his Rotom Phone and scrolled for a second. “Two-thirty.”

“Nice! I’ll be there.”

“Wait,” I cut in. “You both already have scheduled your Gym battle?”

The two looked at each other, then turned back to me.

“Well yeah.” Ted said.

“Of course I did.”

“But what about…” I gestured again at the ruined part of the city.

“It’ll still be there if we take fifteen minutes to have a Gym battle.” Lucas said glibly.

“Unless you’re at the higher levels of competition, battles don’t take that long.” Ted agreed.

Lucas looked at me weirdly “Are you saying that you haven’t scheduled your battle yet?”

“No! I’ve been busy helping the town clean up!”

“It only takes five minutes on the website.” He muttered.

“I don’t have a fancy Rotom Phone.”

“The Pokemon Center has computers you can use.” Ted said. “Or the local library. Or you could even go down to the Gym itself and schedule it in-person.”

“If you don’t do it soon, you might not get a battle in for a couple weeks!” Lucas chirped.

“Fine!” I threw up my hands in surrender. “I’ll go down to the Gym after we finish eating, happy?”

Ted and Lucas looked at each other again and shrugged.

“I guess.”

“Sounds okay to me.”

/^\

I grumbled the entire way to the Eterna City Gym, which was a tall, circular building that was covered in vines and other flowering plants. The raid had over-watered a lot of the plants of the town, but now that it was over they were bouncing back quickly.

Ted and Lucas had tagged along, “for fun”, and they were discussing their strategies for taking on Gardenia.

Lucas wasn’t worried at all about the fight, with his two Fire-types he was at a strong advantage against Gardenia’s Grass-type Pokémon.

Ted also wasn’t too particularly worried, although he didn’t have quite as strong an advantage. While Switchback was technically a dual Fighting- and Poison-type, he didn’t actually know any Poison-typed moves. Gardenia’s Grass attacks wouldn’t be as effective against Switchback, but likewise he wouldn’t be able to hit her Pokémon as hard as he would otherwise like.

Mayfly, Ted’s Scyther, was going to be the front-runner for his team for this Gym.

I was a little worried about my own chances. Zetian would be a strong counter to a lot of Gardenia’s Pokémon, but Kōjin was still very new, and we had a long way to go to build up our teamwork. While his Fire-typing would be a good advantage against Gardenia, I was leaning towards letting him sit this particular battle out.

He could watch from the sidelines and get a good look at how a battle would go.

The Gym’s foyer was relatively empty, with a few people sitting idly by on some benches and chairs, mostly reading books or scrolling on their phone.

“Hi there!” A receptionist said from behind his desk, waving at us. “Welcome to the Eterna City Gym! How can we help you today?”

“Hi, I’d like to schedule a Gym battle with Leader Gardenia.” I said.

“Well certainly, we can do that for you. Can I see your Trainer ID?”

I fumbled around in my purse, pulling out my wallet and handing over the ID card that I had gotten back at Professor Rowan’s lab.

The receptionist took it, and compared my face to the picture on it.

He winced.

“You, uh, hm.” He said. “Just so you know, the Pokémon Center can retake photos for a small fee.”

I sighed. The photo had been taken shortly after I had fought Kane the first time around, and my face on my ID was bruised and had red lines where Terror the Mightyena had slashed at my face.

“I know.” I said. “I’ve been busy, but I’ll get around to it.”

“Just a suggestion!” He said quickly, before typing on his computer.

“Hmm, let’s see here, Alina Knighton, Trainer ID number 133415058. Oh, you’re a Lab Trainer?”

“With Professor Rowan, that’s right.”

“Good to know. Well, let me pull up our schedule here.”

He moved to another screen, clicking through various menus.

“Due to, ah, current events our calendar is fairly busy.”

“How many challenges do you do in a day?” I asked with idle curiosity.

“Hmm, it depends.” He said, a bit distracted. “We can usually get through more Trainers in a day if they’re less experienced, since it’s not quite as hard on the Pokémon. If we have a more challenging Trainer,”

The receptionist turned to look at Ted for a second. “It’ll usually be a bit more of a show. Say maybe four to six Trainers a day, depending.”

I frowned. “That’s less than I thought it would be.”

He shrugged. “It takes time for the challengers to go through our various Gym Trainers. Most gyms don’t require challengers to take on the Gym Trainers, only the people who want a real challenge normally do so, but Gardenia insists on it. She says it’s a good test of vitality and strength.”

Internally I blanched at his words. I’d hoped that that particular game mechanic hadn’t been carried through into the real world, but I guess I was wrong.

“Plus it takes time for Pokémon to heal up. Ah, here it is. Well, it looks like our next opening for a battle is in a couple of weeks, say September 22nd?”

I thought for a moment. “Yeah, that should be-”

“Wait, I’m sorry.”

The receptionist frowned, and clicked a few more times on his mouse, before looking up at me suspiciously.

“That’s… interesting.”

He typed a few more things into his computer.

“Hm.”

“Hm?” I asked.

“If you’ll excuse me.”

He turned, and picked up his phone.

“Hi, this is Harry at the front desk, can you- yes. Yes. Another one. Uh huh. Okay thank you.”

Harry listened for another minute, then nodded to himself and hung up the phone before turning back to his computer. Another minute or two of clicking, and he looked up.

“Sorry about that, my deepest apologies. It looks like there’s a spot that just opened up, how would tomorrow work?”

Lucas made a choking noise, and I could feel Ted raising an eyebrow.

“I, uh, sure?” I stuttered. “That’s a bit sooner than I thought but… okay?”

“Okay good!” He looked relieved for some reason. “Tomorrow at three-thirty?”

“Okay.” I said, reeling a little bit from the change in pace.

“Great. Please be at the Gym fifteen minutes before your appointment, just so we can fill out some paperwork.”

“Why that time slot?”

The man looked at me, then shrugged. “I really can’t say. It just opened up.”

I nodded and exchanged a few more words to confirm the appointment, but my blood slowly began to run cold as I realized what was going on.

Cynthia, the Champion of the entire Sinnoh Region, had looked me in the eyes and told me that she’d heard interesting things about me, and that she wanted to talk sometime. I had a feeling that this was connected in some way.

It was only half-way down the street, Ted and Lucas chattering excitedly about watching me battle, that I processed what had just happened.

I had my first Gym battle tomorrow. This was really happening, I was a real Pokémon Trainer. I’d been in battles before, but this was a Battle battle.

I spun on my heel, stopping the two behind me.

“What is it?” Lucas asked at the look of sheer panic on my face.

“Guys, I’ve never done a Gym battle before.” I said. “What do I do?”