“Blab-blab-blab. Fussy elders. Yada-yada. Sacred duty. Something, something, pretentious sounding word, something.” Watching the pretty, Galar gal slump with the familiar disappointment of a lackluster fight, a powerfully built man with a gray-brown mullet and a bored-looking Chikorita on his shoulder continued to tune out the lecturing of the person next to him. Seeing her eventually begin to trudge off the stadium with that Grimmsnarl of hers, the man suddenly stepped forward, brushing past his startled companion. She sputtered angrily but the man didn’t intend to stop until a staggering couple dressed like punks crashed into him. The man growled in annoyance as one of them spilled their drink on him. The growl didn’t stop one of the punks from leaning forward angrily himself.
“Hey yo! Just look at how messed up my jeans are. These jeans you just cost me 250 PD, yo!” The punk shouted obnoxiously, causing the large man to roll his eyes to the heavens in annoyance. “How you think yo’re gonna pay fo– ugh!”
Despite the increasing number of grays that had spread across his head, the casual right cross easily showcased how the man’s frame rippled with cut musculature as well as sending the drunk sprawling. Sighing with annoyance, the man turned to the punk’s friend to see if she was going to object only to find her snorting with laughter at the sight of her unconscious friend. The rest of her own drink sloshed wildly from her cup as she giggled. Looking up at the man with glazed eyes, she stumbled towards him to rest a hand against him.
“That –hic- was dope. He was like “yo!” and you were like “…” and he was like “whaaat?” and then you were like “bang!” Hic! That was hilarious!” she continued giggling as she pantomimed what had just happened. Finally straightening up, she looked at him with a conspiratorial grin.
“Hey, you want a hit?” she asked while scooping a small Foongus from her jacket and holding it up to him. Before he could speak, the Chikorita leaned down from his shoulder to snarl territorially at the girl. Taking the hint, she stumbled back with a laugh. “Word, word senorita. Hah, Chikorita, senorita. I can speak Paldean.”
Holding the tiny Foongus up to her face, she inhaled deeply as the tiny grass and poison type obligingly puffed out a small cloud of spores. Her eyes dilating wildly, the punk girl shot the man one last smile before staggering off, leaving her friend unconscious on the ground. Shaking his head in exasperation, the man looked up once more to find the Grimmsnarl trainer and began moving towards her again only to be yanked back around, a small but powerful hand digging deeply into his arm.
“What,” the man’s original companion hissed in a dangerous tone while keeping a firm grip on his arm. “Exactly do you think you are doing?”
The man looked back at her without concern. “The ‘Beast’ trainer didn’t seem half bad so I’m gonna go battle her. Why? You had dibs or something?” Silver Blackthorn asked casually, seeming to genuinely wonder what she was confused about.
Having insisted on bundling her trademark, long, blue hair into a bulging knit cap, draping a heavy trench coat over her trained body, and even concealing her eyes behind obnoxiously large sunglasses, the woman was nearly unidentifiable as his cousin. Niece. Niece-cousin. Actually, given how much some of Silver’s extended family seemed to obsess over themselves, it was just better to not think about it. Nevertheless, regardless of their actual relation or the ridiculous disguise she had insisted on wearing went entering Po Town, it was impossible for Silver to miss the sense of tyrannical power Clair Blackthorn gave as she glowered at him.
“Have you been listening to a word I’ve said,” she snarled.
“No,” he replied honestly, causing her snarling to double. Her death grip on his arm clamped down even harder before she started to bodily drag him away from the crowd & the Galar trainer, heading back towards the venue’s entrance. Silver groaned slightly but didn’t bother trying to resist. When they finally arrived to the relatively empty entrance, Clair whirled around and ripped off the glasses in order to shout at him before pausing. Turning back around slightly, she tilted her head in confusion, causing Silver to follow her gaze.
Nearby the entrance, the two doormen that had been aggressively collecting door fees were now huddled off to the side. One of them was crouching while clutching at a blatantly broken nose that was still dripping crimson. Despite the broken nose, he was gamely trying to jostle the other bouncer awake from where he was splayed out on the ground snoring. Next to the slumbering man, a Salandit also laid belly-up, snoring deeply. The fact that neither the man nor the pokemon woke up despite the first doorman’s repeated jostling implied that both had been forcibly made to sleep by a powerful pokemon.
Not particularly interested in their plight, Silver shrugged before turning back to Clair, only to find her glaring up at him suspiciously. Seeing her eyes go from him, to Chikorita, to the broken nose, to the slumbering duo, and finally back to him, Silver groaned.
“Oh come on. I was already inside, watching the fights when you came in. You would have walked right by them. Unless they were like that when you got here, it wasn’t us.”
“Chiko,” his partner agreed sharply.
Clair still looked suspicious but ultimately she didn’t comment. Instead she just shook her head and pointed a finger aggressively towards him. “As I was saying, the Indigo Pillars Tournament represents an opportunity to show the world that the Blackthorns aren’t weak just because Lance is no longer the sitting Champion. With clansmen reigning over two Gyms and holding an Elite Four position, we’ll prove that we are still a force to be reckoned with. The elders deliberated and have determined that you are to participate as a team leader and become one of the new Gym Leaders. We need to return to Johto immediately in order to begin preparing.”
“Pass.”
“You cannot ‘pass’ on this.”
“Skip.”
“No.”
“Ditch day?”
“No!”
“Look,” she cut him off before he could respond once more. “You might have shirked your responsibilities in the past but you are still a member of this family. Now, the elders have made their decision and it is your duty to follow it. No further discussion.”
“Yyyyyeeessss, further discussion,” Silver stated flippantly. “Being a Gym Leader is boring. I’d have to sit in the same place year in, year out, and babysit every rookie trainer coming through with their newly caught Seel. Even if someone interesting did come along, Chikorita here wouldn’t even be able join in.”
“She doesn’t battle anyways,” Clair said dismissively, causing the aforementioned pokemon to huff angrily before whipping her leaf down alarmingly close to Clair’s face.
“Oh, Chikorita battles,” Silver informed the now slightly paler woman. “She just likes hanging out on my shoulder too much to evolve.”
One of Clair’s eyes twitched alarmingly while he simply rocked in place, satisfied with his own reasoning. For several seconds, it looked like she was debating between trying to argue again or just challenge him to battle. Silver himself hoped that she went with battling him. That would be fun. Ultimately for him, the young woman finally allowed her body to relax with a sigh. When she next looked back at him, her face was devoid of anger and she spoke softly.
“Silver, the fact of the matter is that you are one of the strongest dragon tamers the family has. It might not have been immediately recognized like it was with Lance or I, but don’t believe that none of us noticed all the work you’ve put in over the years to grow that strong. Part of why the elders let you roam all these years is they knew that you spent each day pursuing strength and they respected that.” It looked like the admission currently pained her but she spoke with honesty, causing Silver to grimace. It was so much easier to blow people off when they’re just ranting belligerently. “Right now, the Blackthorn clan needs that strength.”
“You won’t actually have to do that much,” she continued in an annoyingly reasonable tone. “As long as you lead the team we’re putting together to victory; we’ll only need you to conduct Gym business every once in a while. You can handle the upper lever badge challenges and the tri-annual challenges and just leave the rest to Gym trainers if you want. You can spend the rest of the time on the World Coronation Series. We can even build the Gym on One Island. I know you love being there to challenge Moltres when it migrates there.”
Silver groaned as she started laying out all the carrots the elders were dangling for him. It was all so eminently reasonable, the bastards.
“As for Chikorita; I can talk to the elders. They’ve been communicating with another prominent clan of dragon tamers residing in Paldea now that it’s officially joining the United League. There’s a certain technology there that should allow for you to use Chikorita in Gym battles. The elders want the technology for our Charizard and Aerodactyl clutches but it should work for her as well.”
Finally, the worst of the worst happened. Clair’s face screwed up in an incomprehensible contortion. Her lips pulled back to expose her grimacing teeth. Her cheeks spasmmed as unused muscles were forced into action. Her eyes bulged alarmingly. Her skin flushed back and forth terrifyingly between bone white and sickly green. A sinking weight started drifting through his stomach as Silver realized what was coming.
“Please?” she asked while attempting to smile pleadingly up at him. An involuntary shudder ran through him at the sight, but even his partner sighed in resignation. She had them and they both knew it.
“Fiiinnnnne,” he ultimately groaned so that at the very least she would stop making that monstrosity of a smile. “I’ll do my best. But if I do win, I swear here and now that I am putting in the absolute minimum amount of effort from then on.”
“Excellent,” Clair immediately dropped the ‘smile’ and straightened up once he agreed. “Now let’s get out of this degenerate hell-hole at once.”
Taking one last look around at the various ‘citizens’ staggering through the decrepit town, Clair shook her head with disgust before marching past the slumbering bouncer towards the town’s exit. “Honestly, I have no idea what made you think you’d find anything interesting here, let alone a decent battle.”
“Eh,” Silver said with a shrug as he followed sedately along. “It could happen.”
*
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As always, glad-handing and making her way through the crowd was more tiresome then the battle itself. Any remaining thrill and adrenaline from the battle drained away alarmingly fast as the crowd of strangers moved in. It was still better than the Royal Dome where the post-battle PR parade occasionally took hours before the payout could take place and she could leave. Here at least, Brute’s menacing demeanor was taken seriously enough to cause the soberer of the crowd to make room. As she made her way off the trainer platform, the crowd swirled around her in a mix of drunken cheers and bitching over lost bets. The latter of which reminded her to give Kori the bird before heading over to the battle promoter to settle up her spoils.
Even if someone looked on the Po Town battle scene in the best lighting possible, meeting Ronny, its chief promoter and organizer, would convince them that it was a shady production. The slicked back hair, bejeweled sunglasses at all hours, and gold-capped teeth couldn’t convey a more honest image of the man’s character. She had a good view of all of them as Ronny’s fake smile appeared at her approach.
“There’s our superstar. Did I tell you or did I tell you? Those two just came in from Kalos a few weeks ago. Maybe need a little more time to get them up to your speed, but they’re going to really spice this scene up, and you know what that means!” he punctuated this statement by none too subtly rubbing his thumb and fingers together.
“You do whatever you want Ronny, I’m just here for my winnings.”
“Oh you silly little thing, you. ‘Do whatever you want Ronny’. The Beasts of Ballonlea are practically part of the team here.” His face twisted into what she knew he believed to be a warm and trustworthy smile. It looked soooo breakable. “Together, you and I are really going to kick this enterprise into gear. I’ve told already told you a little about my expansion plans, but let me give you the real skinny. Two words. Cruise battles. Just a little more capital and we can have a fleet of yacht rings set up in Sevii and Sea Mauville. Some friends in Orre have already gotten most of the opportunities, but you know I can still make some room for my favorite competitor!”
‘Impressive how the little worm tries to pry money from you while simultaneously avoiding the subject of your winnings. You know he’s going to cheat you on the price right?’
The familiar, dry tone entered her mind unprompted. Witch might have hated crowds, but she refused to allow Dani to enter this ‘third rate den of depravity and half-assed grift’ unprotected. Dani suppressed a snort at the thought. She could never tell if her psychic friend was more bothered by the depravity or just the complete ineptness people like Ronny went about it. She had loved the Battle Frontier, after all.
‘Yeah, I know. I’m not doing the whole song and dance this time though. The bets we made will balance it out and we can threaten him a little next time.’
‘Hmm’ She responded absently. That was odd. Witch was never the chattiest but she usually loved suggesting terrorizing Ronny. Witch must have picked up on her concern as she quickly assured Dani that she was alright. ‘I just noticed something unusual. Don’t worry about it. I’ll explain when you get here.’
Out loud, Dani just tried to bring the discussion back around. “I’m not handing you money Ronny. You’re handing me my winnings. That’s the only thing that’s going to be happening.”
“Of course, of course. You know Uncle Ronny’s got you.” He began while making a big show of fiddling with his phone. The reflection in his sunglasses showed a DM stream he had going with several women Dani assumed he paid rather frequently given their over-the-top gushing. “Now, just a fair warning, the new recruits certainly did spice things up a bit but they were still unknown and with your reputation, the odds against Brute weren’t quite what we were expecting. Disappointing, I know, but give it a few weeks and the re-match will be lit, I promise.”
Silence was the best response, she told herself. Silence could mean anything. In this particular case, it meant she was thinking about punching him in the throat half a dozen times, but he didn’t know that. She’d gone straight for the nose last time, after all. Unfortunately, Ronny decided that this silence meant he still had room to push.
“You know, there are still ways we can make this more interesting. Ol’ Brute here is hardy enough to take a quick Toxic before a match to really spice things up. Or, if you change your mind about the free-for-all, there has been a lot of interest.” Dani reflexively started to scowl at his words, but he pressed on before she could say anything. “I mean look, I know you’re sensitive about getting too rough and tumble, but Brute here can take it. And not to speak out of school, but some of our investors are starting to grumble about your win streak. It’s just not good for business if the crowd doesn’t think the other side stands a chance. Come to think of it, just between you and me, sister, some people were even mentioning that if Brute were to just have a bad day, maybe under the right circumstances, we could really be looking at a lot of … money. Or, um, ahem like I said, the investing side is really…”
The unscrupulous promoter’s spiel trailed off under Dani’s gaze. Her expression had turned stone faced, but her aura had slowly bubbled up, rage bleeding out of it and pressing down on the man in front of her. Did it matter that Brute could probably guzzle a gallon of poison, top it with a mercury chaser, smack around any fixers Ronny’s “investors” could hire, and still win a fight on the level they’d just had? No. Anyone suggesting putting one of her mates in danger to make a quick buck deserved to be turned into a mangled mess.
Brute’s own aura rising up in addition to hers ultimately silenced Ronny before he could say anything else. The pokemon’s typically capricious spirit now exuded a sense of imminent violence. Ironically, he wasn’t even offended by Ronny’s prattling, it was just that Brute’s own brand of ethics called for violence against anything that upset Dani. Witch’s calm voice in their heads was the only thing that helped restrain them both.
“I don’t give a damn about how you and whatever trash you work with make money and I don’t give a damn about your ‘investments,’ but if anyone does anything to fuck with Brute or one of my other mates, I will break you. My team will rip this whole damn town to pieces and I will personally break every bone in your body. And don’t forget, there is not a single place or scheme you can hide from Witch if she goes looking.”
“Right, yes, of course. I promise I didn’t mean anything like that Dani. Ah, there we go, your winnings should be in your account now. Of dear, I wish we could keep chatting, but it looks like ex-Grunt Q needs medical attention. I’ll be in touch, bye.” The man sputtered out before scurrying away.
Dani took a certain amount of enjoyment when the color drained from his face at her words and he made a hasty retreat. It was a little worrisome though that the vermin only looked truly terrified when she brought up Witch. An extraordinarily powerful psychic capable of liquefying the man’s brain within his skull from over ten miles away was duly frightening of course, but sometimes she worried that her semi-retirement had led to her going soft. Her old mentors were pushing eighty and could still put the fear of Arceus in people with a look, no pokemon needed. Dani had once seen Mustard make a fully grown man piss himself just by raising a bushy eyebrow. She’d never be able to look the two old buggers in the eye if she lost the edge to properly threaten scum like Ronny.
As always, thoughts of her old teachers led her to wonder what they would think of her willingly participating in battles organized by the man. They and her old friends would be horrified. Probably not by the cage fighting, shock stadium, or gambling, but certainly from the blatant graft and pettiness all around. She could practically see Carter’s dad look of disappointment and feel Opal yanking her away by the ear. Bo would… well actually the spineless coward would have to be on the same hemisphere as her to say anything so fuck whatever he would say. ‘It still sucks to think about though’, she thought as she and Brute stalked through the crowd.
She could have just stuck with the Battle Royal Dome or tried out Red & Blue’s Battle Tower. Both of those offered a better payout, better competition and wouldn’t involve working with the creeps that populated Po Town. Already, the matches she’d done in the Battle Royal Dome had earned her a better reputation in Alola than she’d had anywhere else. That was part of the problem though. She snarled under her breath as old memories from the end of her League days stirred. Po Town might be a haven for low-lives but at least none of them thought they had the right to judge her. She only broke from her brooding when she felt Brute lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Snarl. Grimm, grimm, grimmsnarl. Snarl,” he uttered, the sage look on his pointy face eliciting a chuckle from Dani. He’d had the exact same look on his face when debating ice cream flavors. Crazy nutter still insists that Chunky Mankey is better than eggnog.
“Thanks pal, you always know what to say.” She shot him a quick smile as the two came upon the repurposed pokemon center in town. The old center had never been officially reinstated by the Alolan League, but it still served as the best place in town to aid in a Pokemon’s recovery. The fact that the new owner had also installed a bar didn’t hurt the venue in Dani’s mind either. Spotting Witch at the end of the bar, gracefully sipping a glass of moomoo milk, she collapsed into the chair next to the Hatterene.
Dani’s pokemon greeted them with a quite call before rolling her eyes as Brute pulled her into a one armed hug. Witch slid out of the hug with a huff before good naturedly passing him his own glass of milk. The willowy pokemon then proceeded to spray him with a few Life Dews to speed up his recovery. She’d get him a full check up in the morning but she wasn’t worried about any serious damage from the pokemon equivalent of a slap fight. For now, Dani felt content watching her two oldest pokemon in their familiar routine. This might not be where she expected to end up but at least she knew they always had her back. A soft clunk made her turn in her chair to spot her usual drink on the bar in front of her. She lifted it with a smile. Tequila was a hell of a lot less reliable than her pokemon but it was still fun betting on the result.
She took a gratifying sip of the drink before thanking the pink-haired woman that had poured it. Her presence in a dump like Po Town still confused Dani. The pink hair and facial features alone might not have been definitive proof, but Dani had journeyed long enough to recognize the aura given off by a Joy. The normal and fairy type tinged aura emitted a healing warmth that was only found amongst genuine Joys. It wasn’t that seeing a Joy was that unusual in and of itself, but Dani couldn’t fathom what one was doing in an unlicensed center.
Getting a J0Y or JnY procedure without government subsidizing was nearly impossible and cost a fortune to get along with requiring a host of bureaucratic hoop jumping. Dani’s own JY procedure would have wiped out her early savings if her friends hadn’t chipped in as well, even without any of the additional effects added through extracted pokemon RNA given to Joys and Jennies. Plenty of people did take the government subsidized offer every year, but doing so required all participants to sign on for decades of government employment. The contract even obligated the next two generations for government service if they retained the same genetic traits implanted by the procedure.
All of that combined made seeing a twenty something Joy operating out of what was practically a dive bar a mystery. Her going only by the moniker, Bartender Joy, rather than any other name didn’t help either. Best Dani could figure out she was one of the few fourth generations that retained their parent’s healing aura. Either that, or Nanu wasn’t completely ignoring Po Town’s activities like most assumed. Regardless of the reason, knowing that a Joy was nearby did make Dani feel better about participating in Po Town events. They were near pathologically unable to let those around them seriously harm each other.
An alarmed growl from Brute snapped her out of musing about the Joy’s origins. Her oldest partner seemed to be wavering between anger in confusion as Witch tried to quickly shush him. Whatever Witch had just told him was sending Brute on roller coaster of emotions Dani wouldn’t have felt from him in even the tightest spots. She was about to question Witch on what was going on when she heard the sound of the door sliding open behind her. Before she could turn around, Bartender Joy snapped her hand up in a halting gesture.
“Nope. No drugs in here. If you want to be high, get your ass outside!”
“For the love of Arceus, I’m not high and I’m not selling anything either! This is like the fourth time tonight. I just spent a lot of time in the sun. I sort of bleach instead of tan is all.”
Dani was half turned around when she heard him respond. Turning all the way, she saw Bo standing at the entrance, his annoyance fading into an awkward stillness as she saw him. He, he, he really did look stoned. He always looked kind of stoned but this was another level. The last time she had seen him he was dressed for the open road on the circuit; light weight jacket with a few sponsor logos, brimmed cap, jeans, and brand name track shoes. The only thing that set him apart from other trainers had been the rainbow colored scarf she’d given him years ago that he refused to take off. It looked like he hadn’t replaced it since it got burned three years ago, though.
‘So you really can get yourself two whole fucking new arms but not a scarf, huh?’
The person standing in front of her now was wearing a washed out, grey robe and tattered sandals, with a straw hat perched crookedly on his head. Untrimmed, pale hair hung sloppily to his shoulders. The only real spot of color was what appeared to be one of those leis they hand out at the airports. At least she knew from experience that he was serious about bleaching in the sun so the near white pallor wasn’t alarming. It was the look on his face though, that was truly different from the last time she saw him. His expression seemed locked in a half grin with a manic gleam in his normally dazed eyes. So much better than that guilt ridden, terrified expression that he’d had when he left. Looking at him now, she almost didn’t want to throttle him.
Time seemed to come to a standstill as the two looked at each other. The confusion coming from Brute piled on to her own shock, along with the rest of her team’s as they realized what was happening. Dani was dimly aware of Witch trying to calm them down. The psychic type might not have been able to read his mind, but she would certainly have been able to spot Bo coming from miles out. Apparently, his emotions were wrong in a very distinctive way.
She needed to say something. Ask him if he was alright now, yell at him for being an idiot, other less vocal things in some form or another. She had wanted to say a lot of somethings to him for the last three years now. Three whole years since he broke up with her and ran like a fucking Wimpod. Three Arceus-damned years without looking her in the eye so they could finally have an actual conversation about what happened like mature adults. She finally forced words out.
“Go fuck yourself.”
‘Huh, that felt good, but I don’t think it’s what I was going for.’
“And your face.”
‘Did that one even make sense?’
“You look like some tech bro at a company retreat blazed up before giving an idiotic speech and went wondering through the forest.”
‘Eh, that’s close enough. I can be mature in another twenty years. Let’s just keep going with this.’
“You look like you got rejected by a martial art’s dojo but had already bought the outfit and begged them to let you hand out fliers outside instead. You look like a knockoff piñata a dude bought for his moppet instead of a real one so he could afford another pint. You look like you got strip mugged by a pack of Mankeys and a passing hotel clerk took pity on you. You look like a painter having a psychotic breakdown after seeing a five-year old’s finger painting and realizing it looks exactly like what you’ve been selling for the last ten years. You look like a git destined for an STD after trying to try to pass himself off as one of Hef Hughes’ grandsons to bang dumb idiots thinking they’re auditioning for Playbuneary.” She thought she could finish there only for Witch to chime in.
“Hatterene,” she stated in a definitive tone while waving her hair in an elegant gesture towards Bo’s new apparel.
“And what she said!”
‘Nailed it.’
Breathing heavily, she realized at some point she had gotten up from her chair and moved in front of him. For the first time in three years, they were standing face to face. She might have gotten a little side tracked somewhere in this conversation, but at least they were talking. Ok, she was talking, but he was going to start talking if she had to force it out of him. That wasn’t going to be necessary though. They were both adults and had enough history together that the two of them could have a rational, dignified conversation. You know, now that she had finished yelling at him. As if in response to her thoughts, Bo finally opened his mouth to speak.
“Didn’t you used to wear a shirt underneath your vest?”