“What did you say your name was again?” The woman behind the front desk of the gym looked up from her computer, eye peering over her glasses. She had thick curly hair and already looked bored with the day. She squinted at him as if seeing him better would help her remember the name he had not yet given.
“Apollo Cashe,” Cashe said. He leaned against the desk. It was early in the morning and the gym was empty, with only a few employees entering through the open gym doors.
“Is that Cash with an ‘S-H’ or Cashe with a ‘C-H-E’?” the receptionist asked.
“S-H-E” Cashe said, “Are there really enough people named Apollo that you have to verify my last name?”
“The directory is organized by surname, honey,” she said, typing in Cashe’s name. She frowned at the screen. “Huh.”
“Something wrong?”
“No,” the woman shook her head, sending her curly hair bouncing, “You’re Third Circuit.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, just surprising. I thought you would be at least Second Circuit given your-” the woman cut herself off, “Actually, never mind.”
“I got a late start,” Cashe supplied.
“It looks like we have quite a few open spots this week,” the receptionist said, pretending he had not noticed the implication of her words, “Does the earliest spot work for you?”
“Actually, we just arrived in town two days ago, I’m looking forward to relaxing a bit from the journey.”
“You didn’t come from Hau’oli?” the receptionist said absently as she clicked through the schedule for the next week.
“We did, but we went the long way around. Took more time than expected.”
“Oh! Because of Team Starlight and the Pheromosa? That’s been causing all sorts of delays for the new trainers. Were you stuck on Route 2 because of it?”
“It delayed us for sure,” Cashe said, “That and my injury.” He held up his arm, which was still plastering in a thick cast.
“Looks painful,” the reception said with a wince.
“It wasn’t that bad, really,” Cashe said, “I hit my head pretty hard, too, so the concussion kept me out of it for a while.”
“Well, at least you don’t have to worry about that Pheromosa now that it’s been caught,” the receptionist said, “Does next Wednesday at one thirty work for you? That should give you a few days to recover.”
“Yeah, that’s- Pheromosa was caught? Did a Ranger track it down?”
“I heard it was a trainer. There are enough of them hanging around after the sighting,” she waved her hand as if the news was unimportant, “I’ve booked you for Wednesday at one-thirty. Show up two full hours before with all the pokemon you plan to use for the battle. Your gym trainer will be assigned one day in advance, so you can come by anytime on Tuesday to see who you will be up against. Some trainers think it is cheating to do this and don’t show up early, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Gym Leader Hau runs a tight ship and I can guarantee you that the trainer that is assigned to you will be doing their own research into you and your past battles.”
“Thanks,” Cashe said, “Do I need to do anything else or just check in on the day?”
“On Wednesday, at eleven-thirty, come to the front desk and say you have a match in two hours. We’ll take care of the rest,” the receptionist said, shooing him away to make room for the nonexistent people waiting behind him.
Cashe nodded his thanks and made his way out of the building.
***
A week of training passed quickly. Cashe focused mostly on movement drills with his pokemon as he felt positioning and tactics would be the most effective against high level opponents. However, there was also time to work on other things, such as teaching his pokemon new moves.
Ivysaur shored up his understanding of Giga Drain and finally began to get a hang of Weather Ball, giving him decent options into a variety of pokemon he would have struggled to damage previously.
Primeape was still having trouble with Sunny Day, but she had dropped her stubborn streak and was getting regular practice in with other moves. She had even managed to use Rage Fist again, without being in a frothing rage to boot. Using the attack had completely drained her, however, and it took almost an hour before she was able to completely recover. It concerned Cashe to the point where he checked her into a Pokemon Center, just in case. Thankfully they did not find anything wrong with her, but they were unable to provide an answer as to why the attack was taking so much out of her. Primeape that could use Rage Fist, and Annihilape especially, were almost exclusively found in the Paldea region, which meant the Nurse Joys in Alola, particularly in a small city like Iki Town, had limited experience with the pokemon.
Hatenna continued to improve, working hard to turn herself into a battle-worthy pokemon. She was still the weakest of his four pokemon, but she pushed herself to the point where Cashe did not feel uncomfortable bringing her into the gym for his first official gym battle. It was a relief, given how every trainer in the gym seemed to have at least one fighting type pokemon. Hatenna’s psychic typing would be a great benefit to his chances. Her burst of progress was complimented by learning three new moves: Charm, Helping Hand, and Thunder Wave. Charm and Helping Hand came so naturally to her that Cashe was surprised she did not know them already, with the tiny pink pokemon picking them up in the course of an afternoon. Learning Thunder Wave was a happy little accident. Hatenna had been playing with Goomy while Lindon trained with Magneton. She started mimicking Magneton whenever Lindon called out a move. To the surprise of all, when he called out Thunder Wave, both Magneton and Hatenna fired off an attack. Cashe didn’t know how she picked it up so quickly, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and integrated it into her strategies right away.
Cashe did not try to teach Sneasel any new moves. He was still new to the team, so Cashe spent much of his time with his new pokemon working to understand his preferred battle style and how to use him in the midst of a fight. Sneasel was fast and strong, dangerous to nearly every pokemon, but he was also frail. A few good hits, or even a single strong one, could take him out of the fight completely. It was a departure from Cashe’s other pokemon, who could all take a few hits and keep going. The difference in battle style was awkward for Cashe at first, but he grasped it with Emilia’s help, focusing heavily on timing and strategy with Sneasel’s attacks.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Emilia made similar, if slow, progress. Vullaby was looking like a strong addition to her team already, having learned Knock Off and Snarl over the past week. Cashe was also able to help her train her ability, Overcoat, using Ivysaur’s powder moves to help her learn it. Neither Charmeleon nor Omanyte learned new moves, but they were both so well trained already that progress was slow going for them at this point. The only roadblock was Bagon, who, while having acknowledged Emilia as his trainer in battles, was still stubborn when it came to actual training. He was surly and standoffish at the best of times, showing the classic Bagon trait of preferring to slam his head into anything and everything whenever he got frustrated instead of working on the problem or following his trainer’s instructions.
Lindon practiced with them every day, but he was frequently distracted by his new friend.
“I saw him with his little girlfriend again,” Emilia giggled as they took a break from their training, “They go to a cute bakery and put Goomy in a bowl of water to splash around while they talk. It’s sweet.”
“It’s strange that he gets embarrassed whenever we mention it with him but he seems natural with her, right?” Cashe said, “I remember when I was his age. Talking with girls was so awkward, I felt like I was constantly putting my foot in my mouth.”
“So, no different than you are today?” Emilia teased.
“Quiet, you,” Cashe said, “I just think it’s strange he’s normal around her, but around us he clams up and goes red.”
“He’s probably categorized us as older siblings or even parents in his head. I wasn’t talking to either about my crushes when I was twelve or thirteen.”
“Crushes?” Cashe said, raising an eyebrow, “Plural? Were you a heartbreaker?”
“Dylan DiMarco and So Joon Wan,” Emilia smiled, “Dylan was so cool. He had a skateboard and could play the guitar. But Joon Wan was cute and kind. My young heart couldn’t make up its mind.”
Cashe grinned, “So what happened?”
“What else? They started dating each other,” Emilia rolled her eyes, “Isn’t that always the way it goes.”
Cashe laughed, sitting down to relax on the bleachers of the practice yard, “You don’t think it will be an issue, do you?”
“Joon Wan and Dylan? I very much doubt it.”
“Dalia and Lindon,” Cashe said, rolling his eyes, “We are going to be leaving in a few days if we all win our matches. I don’t want Lindon getting upset.”
“He’s a happy kid,” Emilia said, “I don’t think it will be an issue.”
“I don’t know about you, but hormones made me emotional,” Cashe said.
Emilia paused, a frown forming on her face, “Lindon’s parents didn’t let him go on his pokemon journey just so they wouldn’t have to deal with a hormonal teenager, right?”
***
Cashe took a deep breath, letting the warm sunlight on his skin relax him. A gentle breeze blew through the air, bringing with it the damp, earthy scent of the mountain surrounding Iki Town.
Cashe opened his eyes. The day was unremarkable. The town was quiet, still working before the lunch break. A few people moved through the streets around him, sparing a quick glance at him as he stood in the middle of the street.
Cashe checked the time on his pokedex. Eleven. He had half an hour until he needed to get to the gym. He began to walk, spurred forward by the nervous ball of energy residing in his chest. He forced himself to slow down. He left with too much time to spare, at this pace he would spend twenty minutes just waiting around before he spent another two hours waiting around.
He took the time to review his strategies again. His assigned opponent was the worst possible trainer for him, in his opinion. Kiana was the Hawlucha trainer who Lindon had pointed out on the very first day they were in Iki Town. She had four pokemon, the same number as Cashe, but all of hers looked dangerous.
He had seen Hawlucha in action, of course. It was well trained, fast, and tough. Kiana’s online trainer profile listed its ability as Unburden and provided a long list of known moves. This pokemon alone presented a glaring problem for his team. It could hit all but Hatenna with super effective attacks using its typing alone, and if it managed to activate its ability, would out speed even Ivysaur in the sun.
Her next pokemon covered Hawlucha's weaknesses. Krokorok could hit psychic types with all the dark type moves it wanted to, and was immune to the psychic and electric attacks that Hawlucha was weak against. The upside was that both Krokorok and Hawlucha were weak to ice type, putting Sneasel in a good position. Unfortunately, Hawlucha could hit back with fighting type attacks, and Cashe suspected it would be faster than Sneasel, even if it didn’t activate Unburden.
Third was Forretress. The bug and steel type pokemon was the only one on Kiana’s team that Cashe did not feel anxiety over facing. It would be a hopeless steel wall for Sneasel to throw himself into, but Cashe was confident both Primeape and Ivysaur would have little trouble taking it down.
Finally there was a Baile Style Oricorio. That meant fire type as well as flying, again hitting three of his four pokemon for super effective damage from the typing alone. The difference between Hawlucha and Oricorio was that none of his pokemon had a type advantage against it. Only Primeape could even hit it for super effective damage with Rock Tomb.
Cashe would be fighting the entire battle on a knife’s edge, the smallest slip up would mean a painful loss. He had a plan, of course, but it was predicated on Kiana making certain decisions during the match.
He continued to walk, coming to a stop in front of the towering tableau of the Iki Town gym. Tapu Koko stared down at him, arms at its side, indifferent to his nerves and anxiety, the silhouetted figure behind the pokemon ordering it to attack. Cashe shivered. The art felt different when he was coming to battle.
***
“It’s a good thing we are in the middle of nowhere!” Red laughed. They had finally found the last pieces of their missing camp, days after the explosion. It was miles away from their camp site, carried by the winds into the middle of Axew’s eye.
Blue picked up the broken laptop out of the mud, “You’re just lucky that Ranger didn’t spot us. I’m pretty sure we all would be kicked out of Galar for life if they found out this was us. Maybe even arrest us.”
Charizard’s attack, powered by both Mega Evolution methods, had devastated the area, but thankfully, not much else. The hurricane-strength winds tore up trees and the enormous explosion of fire and water scared, injured, and in a few cases, killed the pokemon of Lake Axewell, but such events were nothing new. Legendary and other powerful pokemon wreaked havoc half the time they did anything and the Rangers rarely batted an eye. But Legendaries were the exception. Causing a mess was expected for them. Veteran trainers and pokemon professors were supposed to know better.
“After we write this paper I never want to see either of you again,” Julius groaned, trying unsuccessfully to wipe the grime from his face.
“You still want to publish?” Blue said, “There’s a new Team out there! What if they get their hands on this? And think of the trainers! Between you and me, I know a few that shouldn’t be trusted with this kind of thing.” Blue gave Red the side eye.
Red snorted and made a rude gesture, “You’re just mad that your wrinkly, old ass can’t beat me in a battle anymore.”
“I am thinking of the trainers,” Julius said, ignoring Red and Blue’s bickering, “That there is at least one alternate method of Mega Evolution out there is already known throughout the world, thanks to you. How long before some kid with a knack for pokemon figures it out? How long before that same kid says, ‘I wonder what would happen if I did this with a Mega Stone?’” Julius shook his head, “It would be a disaster, worse than anything Red did here. The world needs to know, even if it is just a warning. At the very least, the League needs to know so they can monitor anyone with a Mega Stone who is looking into alternate evolution methods.”
“You’re right,” Blue frown, “But I think you are forgetting something.”
“What?”
Blue turned to face Red. Red saw something in Blue’s expression and his eyes went wide. He turned, attempting to scramble away. Blue jumped forward, tackling him to the ground and rolling in a heap of limbs.
“Stop squirming you idiot!” Blue shouted, “Julius, help me with him!”
“Let me go!” Red wrenched himself back and forth, struggling to get out of Blue’s grip, “Just one gym! Imagine the looks on their faces! People will remember it forever. Don’t be such a prude!”
“It would wreck the stadium, you moron,” Blue growled, grunting as he wrestled Red on the forest floor.
Julius watched both of the sixty year old men roll around in the mud as they struggled and swore. He sighed and sat down on a mossy log, placing his head in his hands.
*****