Phanpy slept in Quinn’s arms on the walk back to the gym. A walk that only took five minutes when you didn’t take wrong turns. The medical bill ended up being 1,800 dollars, which Quinn negotiated down to 1,400 dollars after he told them he didn’t have insurance and could pay it all right away. He estimated that left him with around 5,000 dollars to his name and a broken-down gym in need of serious repairs.
Quinn was relieved to see that Aito was true to his word and had locked up. He was even more relieved that his keys had never left his pocket. He took time to lay Phanpy in his bed, making sure that his mouth wasn’t covered. Then he found his phone charger and plugged it in before laying his own twin mattress down on the dirty floor and falling asleep with no bedding.
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Quinn woke up with a headache he imagined was worse than any he could get from drinking. He looked outside the window to see the sun high in the sky as a beater of a truck rolled down Azalea Lane. He put his face back in the crock of his elbow and tried to fall asleep again. But the money he owed Saber hung over his head and he knew he couldn’t waste a precious day lying around.
He stood up and looked around at the piles of boxes in the room. The boxes and state of the gym overwhelmed him — he didn’t know where to start. If he wanted to get the gym open as soon as possible then moving his junk into an office was the top priority, followed closely by taking a flamethrower to the men’s locker room. But even with the looming threat of Saber, Quinn most wanted food.
He was grateful that he took the time to label every box he brought with him as he quickly found the boxes with his kitchenware and food. Pulling out a pot, a fork, and four packs of ramen, he made his way into the breakroom that still smelled like a casino. After finding that the hot plate worked and the water looked safe enough, he let the ramen cook and explored the breakroom.
The tables and chairs all wobbled and were all covered in a thick layer of dust. A brown leather couch sat in the corner with permanent indentations of the trainers and Pokemon who sat in them over the years. The cabinets looked to have been raided with only partial sets of kitchenware calling them home. Moving on to the fridge, Quinn opened it up to a horrific smell that made him shut the door as quickly as he opened it.
The smell made his concussion worse — his vision blurred like it had the night before. After doing a lap around the breakroom to psych himself up, he plugged his nose and opened the door only enough to see what was inside. The shelves were clear except for what looked like a new species of Pokemon being incubated inside a half-opened plastic container. Finding the culprit, he moved on to the freezer which thankfully didn’t smell, but had its own problem. It was entirely full of ice, so much so that Quinn was surprised the door even shut. Deciding he had to deal with the fridge situation before he went to the store, he left the freezer door open, unplugged the fridge, found some gloves, grabbed a trash can, and pretended he was somehow saving humanity by disposing of whatever was in there. The run to the dumpster singed off Quinn’s nose hairs.
By this point, the ramen was done, and he knew that Phanpy needed to wake up to eat. Quinn turned off the hot plate, found a water bottle and a banana, and gently shook Phanpy awake. He instinctively tried to trumpet out his displeasure with being woken up, but with the bandages blocking the airway, the created pressure irritated the stitches.
“Oh, please don’t try to do anything with your trunk,” Quinn pleaded. “You’ve been asleep since the surgery, but you need to get some water and food in you.”
Phanpy took a second, but soon remembered the traumatic night before and cuddled up to Quinn who was sitting on the ground next to his bed. Quinn wasn’t sure if it was the pain of the wound or the memory that caused the tears, but he held him until they stopped.
Trying to focus on the positive, Quinn said, “The doctor said you are going to make a full recovery and you’re even going to get a cool-looking scar to show off to all your lady friends.”
He perked up at the news of a cool scar that would match his hard hat. Phanpy looked around the boxes for it, but couldn’t see it. Quinn caught on quickly to what he was looking for because he used that hard hat as a pseudo-safety blanket. “Don’t worry, just let me help you take some sips of water and I’ll go get it.”
Quinn did just that, making sure to tilt the water directly into Phanpy’s mouth, something that would need to be done for all food and drink until Phanpy’s trunk healed enough to be used as an appendage again. He then got up too fast and made himself lightheaded.
“We both need to take it easy today or else we’re going straight back to see Joy and Hawlucha.” Quinn laughed at his joke until he realized that Phanpy wasn’t ever awake to see Tyler.
Quinn found Phanpy’s hard hat in a dried pool of blood. The blood coated both the hat and the practice battlefield that Slugma and Vullaby fought on. He tried to kick dirt on top of the blood to hide it, but he would need a shovel to make any headway. Quinn settled with cleaning the hat by taking a detour back to the breakroom and using the sink there.
Using a half-empty bottle of soap, Quinn made sure all traces of the blood were eliminated before taking the hat and his ramen back to the reception area. He found Phanpy trying to use his front legs to open the banana he had left.
“Sorry, bud. I should’ve helped you eat before.” Phanpy gave out a frustrated grunt at how hobbled he had become without his beloved trunk. Quinn quickly opened the banana and started to feed him. In between bites, he put the hard hat on Phanpy’s head and started eating the ramen straight out of the pot.
Quinn knew he had a lot to catch Phanpy back up on, but the timing didn’t feel appropriate and he wasn’t sure how gung-ho Phanpy would be about potentially paying his assailant for “protection.” So they sat in silence eating and drinking the first meal they had had in almost 24 hours.
Quinn was about to get up to resume his mission to rid the Royal Gym of trash when a petite young woman passed by in front of the gym with a Spoink bouncing on its tail by her side. She had long, straight blonde hair and wore a light purple sundress with high-top sneakers and a purse over her shoulder. Quinn didn’t think much of it until she stopped in front of the actual door and cupped her hands to try and see through the glass. He then realized that he had forgotten to lock the door when he had stumbled in this morning. Worried about having to deal with another former customer who demanded to use the gym, Quinn got up and opened the door just enough to poke his head out.
The young woman was taken by surprise since she had not been able to see Quinn through the dirty glass. She gasped and backed away toward the street with Spoink bouncing in between her and the door. “Sorry, I was looking… I just heard that you might be here.”
“What do you mean, ‘you’?” Quinn questioned if he had ever met her. “Do we know each other?”
“Tyler said you might not recognize me. I found you last night in the street holding a Phanpy. The Phanpy was hurt and you both were covered in blood. I led you to the West Havenwood Pokemon Center.” She paused between each sentence to try and help him remember.
“Oh, you’re the girl!” Her description provided the necessary information for Quinn to catch on.
The young woman’s face shifted into a peeved expression. “Let's chalk up you calling me a child to your concussion, okay?”
Quinn grimaced at the call out. “Yeah, my vision has been all messed up. When I first started following you, I thought you were a pair of twins.” At this, it was her turn to look confused.
“I was seeing double. At night, you looked like twin girls who were moving in sync. It took me a couple of blocks to understand you weren’t,” Quinn explained as he opened the door all the way. “I can’t thank you enough. You saved Phanpy’s life last night. I had no chance of finding the center on my own. Would you mind telling me your name?”
“Lauren. I’m just glad Phanpy is okay. I was on my way home from the center when I heard some people talking about a crazy guy who was covered in blood yelling for help. This neighborhood can be pretty cynical when it comes to helping each other out. Would you mind if we came in to see Phanpy? We visited the center earlier to check on him, but you were gone.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Quinn looked down at himself and regretted not prioritizing at least changing out of his disgusting clothes. “Of course, Phanpy would love to see his savior. I just need to warn you that I smell like a dumpster and inside isn’t much better.”
“A little late on the warning. As soon as that door opened, I could smell you.” Lauren walked in with a smirk. “It’s fine, I’ve smelled enough blood and vomit on Tyler to not gag. Although your decision to let it stew for a whole night is certainly testing my fortitude.”
Quinn gave her a wide berth as he looked around for one of his clothing boxes. “Phanpy, this is Lauren. I haven’t told you a lot about what happened last night, but she was the one who led us to the Pokemon center.”
Phanpy sat up at the news of guests. He didn’t make the mistake of trying to use his trunk again and instead greeted them with raised ears and an enthusiastic rumble. Spoink was the first to greet Phanpy with a series of oinks, all the while bouncing up and down on her tail. Phanpy was fascinated by the pearl on Spoink’s head which led to him nodding his head up and down with Spoink’s bounces as he focused.
“Hello Phanpy! That is certainly a cute hat, but you better not be working in your state.” Lauren frowned at Quinn but talked to Phanpy.
Quinn was slow to respond, preoccupied by the change of clothes he had just found in one of the boxes. “Oh, that’s just his favorite hat. Phanpy is on strict bed rest. Hang out for a sec while I go change.”
Quinn went to the breakroom to change while Phanpy and Spoink had a conversation all their own. When he returned, Spoink and Phanpy had become fast pals with an energetic conversation still going.
Not wanting to interrupt the two Pokemon, Quinn walked up to Lauren and started a side conversation “So do you work with Joy at the center?”
“Joy? Tyler is going to hate that.” Lauren laughed out her question. “No, I’m just there a lot. I work at the corner store across the street from the center with my folks. I went there after showing you the center.”
“I’m guessing Tyler clued you in on what happened before you found me. I doubt you would be here if he didn’t.”
“Yeah, he did. There isn’t much we don’t talk about. Checking on Phanpy is only half the reason I’m here. My parents run a store down the block, the Metronome Mart — it sells a little bit of everything and has been there since I was born. Saber is something that my parents have learned to deal with. Before you make any decision about your gym, you deserve to know what it’s like to live here.”
Quinn was surprised by the opportunity but didn’t pass it up. “Do things like this happen a lot with Saber?” He nodded at Phanpy and his injury.
“They didn’t use to. Aito only resorts to violence when someone challenges him, but ever since he put Raze in charge that has changed. Last month we paid in full and on time, but he still broke a window on his way out of our store. Raze rules in fear, which is not what this neighborhood needs.” Lauren kicked at the ground, her frustration evident in her voice.
Quinn looked over to the main battlefield and said under his breath, “What a waste.”
“But that doesn’t mean it's impossible to run a business. Aito knows it’s already hard in West Havenwood. If Saber bleeds us too much, we have to close down and Saber is left with no one to pay for their protection. If you can pay the protection and still break even, then you can make it here.” Lauren responded with as much optimism as she could.
“How much is Saber protection for your parents’ store?” Quinn thought about the looming debt he had.
“It’s 1,000 dollars a month, which from what I’ve heard is standard unless you’re willing to do stuff for Saber on the side. Tyler said you didn’t tell him exact numbers, but can you swing it?”
“Aito said for the last half year and this upcoming month, I owe him 10,000 dollars.” Quinn didn’t offer his opinion on if he could come up with the money.
Lauren brightened up at the information. “That's not nothing, but I expected it to be a lot worse. Aito would have set a higher number if he wanted you out of here. In fact, if he really wanted you out of here, you wouldn’t have gotten a number.”
Quinn scrunched his eyebrows at Lauren. “You seem to be very pro-reopening.”
Lauren paused and then walked past the reception area before answering. “I’ve watched so many gym battles with my mom or dad here. We couldn’t all come together because someone had to watch the store, but we loved the Royal Gym. Slowking was my favorite even though he was old and not the strongest. He knew a move that projected a repeating image of what had just happened like time skipped back five seconds. While the scene repeated, it hid Slowking’s follow-up attack from everyone in the building, including his opponent. Seeing him was like watching a master magician on stage.”
By this point, Spoink and Phanpy had stopped their conversation to listen to Lauren. “This neighborhood used to have pride. It used to be something. We used to care about each other. That all went away with the Royal Gym and if there’s any chance of bringing some of that pride back, then I want to help make it happen.”
Lauren turned around to look at Quinn but avoided his direct gaze. “I don’t know you, Quinn. I don’t know if you and Phanpy still want to stay in this city after what Raze did. I don’t even know how you became the owner in the first place. But if you stay and fight, you will have at least one person in your corner to help you out.”
Quinn was taken aback by someone he had just met coming to his aid, but her speech inspired courage that had been completely absent since Raze attacked. Quinn turned and walked to Phanpy. “Phanpy, we’re backed into a corner. Aito has controlled this gym ever since Paul crossed him and if we don’t figure out how to pay Saber’s protection, then we left Ashford for nothing.” Quinn paused before continuing, “But I think we can still make this work. We have five grand that we can use to fix up this place and then we just need to sell some yearly memberships to get to 10 grand. We would need to shelf everything to do with becoming a gym leader and making the Royal Gym a league gym once again, but if we can get the money and keep paying for the monthly protection then Saber won’t stand in our way to live out our dream. If we don’t get the money then we leave Havenwood and the gym behind. I’m not going to pretend to know what Saber will do. Based on what Tyler and Lauren have said, I think Aito will honor what he said. Raze is the wildcard, but he still answers to Aito.”
Quinn got on one knee. “But if you don’t feel safe, then this ends. We go back to Ashford and get our old life back. You’re more important than all this and I’m happy as long as you are with me.”
Phanpy looked down at the bandages on his trunk for a couple of seconds. Then he looked back up to Quinn with conviction in his eyes and nodded his head.
Lauren smiled at the reaction. But Quinn couldn’t smile as lingering fear of Saber persisted in the back of his mind. “Well, then rest up and I’ll get to cleaning up this dump. We can’t keep using the entrance as a bedroom.”
“Spoink, you stay with Phanpy, keep him company, and use [Extrasensory] to help him eat. I’m going to help Quinn clean up.” Lauren set down her purse on the reception desk and grabbed a trash can as Spoink snorted happily at her assignment.
“Thank you. Let's start with the main office. There’s enough room in there to move all these boxes and set up a pseudo-bedroom.” Quinn opened the door connecting the reception area to the dark office. He flicked on the light switch and was greeted by an office that was haphazardly covered in paper. On the desk, the chairs, the tops of cabinets, and on the ground — paper was everywhere. Drawers and cabinets were open and about half of the papers were covered in a thick layer of dust. He presumed the non-dusty papers were pulled out in Amanda’s search of the estate.
Even if the office was clear of papers and clean, Quinn would have felt awkward with how impersonal it was. There were no photos or mementos, the furniture and walls were combinations of dull browns and grays, and there was only one frame hanging up in the entire room.
Lauren was quicker to identify the frame and walked up to get a good look at what it was. Inside was what looked to be a lottery ticket. She read aloud, “‘Havenwood City Lottery. Dated: June 15, 753. Numbers Chosen: 92, 35, 12.’ Holy cow, the payout is printed on here. It says this won 44,000 dollars!”
Quinn couldn’t help but verify what Lauren said with such a big payout. His thoughts drifted to what he would do with that kind of money until he realized that Paul won this money precisely 30 days before Lucy died.
“What a cruel joke,” Quinn said quietly.
“What?” Lauren asked with a confused look on her face.
Quinn almost explained until he realized that she knew next to nothing about his family and Paul. “Nothing. I guess we should start with picking up all this paper and trash. If it looks like a document, let's just put it in a big pile and we can throw everything else away.
Lauren agreed and the tandem started cleaning up. As they sorted the room out, they ended up finding more lottery tickets than Quinn could count. He threw the tickets away as he found them, but he started to notice a pattern in Paul's gambling habits. Paul played the lottery every day and he always bought three tickets. 92-35-12 was one combination, 66-88-44 was another combination, and 03-78-14 was the last combination of numbers that Paul played daily. Quinn found tickets from just before Paul disappeared, January of 757, and tickets going all the way back to 748. He found some solace in the fact that even with the big 44,000-dollar payout, there was no way Paul came out ahead after this many years of gambling.
“Do you have any cleaning supplies, or even a broom?” Lauren asked, looking at some large dust bunnies in a corner.
“I brought one from home, but there’s a janitorial closet at the end of the hallway.” Quinn pointed toward the door they had not entered.
Lauren left the room as Quinn got on his hands and knees to clear under the desk. More lottery tickets and papers had been shoved into every nook and cranny of it. He moved on to a recessed corner of the cluttered desk and felt a solid object under a piece of paper. Wrapping his fingers around the sphere, he pulled out a Pokeball.