Quinn walked back to the cart full of food and wheeled it over to the fridge in the breakroom to put away. The dish on the top was some sort of casserole that was warm to the touch so he set that one on a table and set the table with silverware and bowls he brought from Ashford. Phanpy had followed the food and was longingly looking at the casserole that was still covered with tin foil. “Hang in there. Mom would roll in her grave if we ate without the cook.” Phanpy didn’t object, but also didn’t stop staring.
Quinn had left the door to the breakroom open, so Mabel and Gogoat were quick to find them when she was done talking with Carlos. “Quinn, you lucked out with getting Carlos to the gym.” Mabel finished her sentence and then noticed the bandages on Phanpy’s trunk and rushed as quickly as she could over to the elephant. “Oh sweetie, what happened?”
“Mabel, do you know a man named Aito?”
“I don’t believe I do, but I’m really bad with names. Why do you ask? Did he hurt Phanpy?” Worry was written all across her face.
Quinn thought about lying and avoiding informing Mabel of the criminal enterprise that tempted Paul to first start taking bribes all those years ago. However, if there was anyone who deserved to know, it was Mabel and her late husband. “The last two days have been a whirlwind of information that has given me answers to questions I had and questions I didn’t have.” He gestured for Mabel to sit in the chair across from him. Mabel took the chair and waited for Quinn to continue.
“Aito is a man who leads a gang called Saber. From what I can tell, Saber is more than just some local gang and heavily influences what goes on in Havenwood. I don’t know how deep it goes, but Aito said that he rules Havenwood from the shadows and I believe him.”
“Quinn, why would you be talking to a man like you are describing?”
“Because Paul was involved with him and Saber. Aito said that he was the one who first worked with Paul to fix the badge matches all those years ago. Saber would find trainers, take the bribes, and then give Paul a portion of the bribe after he threw the match.”
Mabel looked down at the ground. “I didn’t think Paul could disappoint me anymore. How could he stoop to involving the gym with criminals?”
Quinn didn’t have an answer to that question. “I’m not sure, but he got greedy. In addition to throwing the matches that Saber told him to, he took bribes on the side from other trainers. The reporter who broke the scandal was one of those bribes he took on the side and Aito was not happy about it. Aito said he made Paul pay for going behind his back and I think that’s why Paul sold the gym’s Pokemon.” Quinn didn’t mention how Aito almost killed Paul.
Mabel started to softly cry at the revelation. “Why? Why did he do this? The gym didn’t even need the money. That greedy fool.”
Quinn got up, walked around the table, and put his arm around Mabel to console her. He couldn’t offer any words that would help, but he knew all too well the sadness that Paul could bring.
Mabel’s tears didn’t stop, but she quickly turned and said, “Wait. How does this all involve you now?”
“Paul’s dealings with Saber didn’t end after the scandal. Without the badge battles, he came up with the idea to run illegal fights out of the gym. He would keep up the facilities and Saber would run the illegal fights. From what I can tell, that’s how he kept the gym running after losing the league status. The illegal fights have still been going on. Aito was the one who was keeping the utilities on.”
Mabel now saw all the strings that were attached to the inheritance that she had given up to Quinn. “Quinn, I swear I didn’t know. We can go to the police and tell them everything. You don’t need to let them run the fights.”
“It’s not that simple. Saber has the police in their pockets and has people in the city government looking the other way. I’m guessing that’s how Amanda couldn’t find anything about this when she was searching.” Quinn moved back to his original seat. “But Aito said I didn’t have to run the pit fights out of the Royal Gym anymore. Instead, I can pay up for ‘protection’ like the rest of the businesses around here. He gave me until the end of the month to come up with the money. I don’t have it right now, but I think I can earn it by fixing up the place and selling yearly memberships.”
While Mabel wondered if Quinn could get the money, she remembered the bandages on Phanpy that had started this conversation. “Did Aito hurt Phanpy?”
“No, but one of his men did. It was my fault, I was too naive to recognize who I was dealing with. I got too close to Aito and Raze cleaned my clock for it. Phanpy protected me, but took a knife to his trunk from Raze. I rushed Phanpy to the West Havenwood Pokemon Center and got him fixed up there.” Quinn left out the scarier details about Phanpy’s injury.
Mabel was horrified by the news and asked, “What’s to stop them from doing it again? We need to call Amanda and figure out how to sell the gym.”
“We definitely need to talk to Amanda about all of this, but I don’t think selling the gym is an option anymore. She suggested selling it, but she didn’t know about Saber and all that entails. I may legally own the gym, but who would be interested in it with Saber involved? Even if I found someone who wanted to buy for pennies on the dollar, would Aito even let the sale happen? He made it very clear that he owned the gym and not Paul. If Amanda can find a way out of this legally then I’ll definitely explore it, but I think that’s a dead end. If I don’t come up with the money then I’ll be leaving Havenwood with what I came here with.”
Mabel opened her mouth to respond, but then shut it.
Quinn continued, “Other businesses make it work around here while paying the protection. As long as Saber gets their money, they leave the businesses to do what they want. I can still revive the Royal Gym and live out my dreams. I just need to figure out how to do it with Saber breathing down my neck.”
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“Are you sure you want to do this? I did what I could for the gym, but James handled all the logistics. I don’t even have much money to help you.”
Quinn was touched that Mabel was willing to give more of what little she had. “Mabel, I don’t want your money. I either come up with the money through the gym or I can’t and I move on. Using other ways to get the money will just lead to me drowning in debt. If you can just lend me Gogoat the next time Raze shows up, then that would be great. I don’t think anyone will mess with us with Gogoat around.”
“Of course! Just give me a call and I can tell Gogoat to run over here right away. He protects his own and that includes you and Phanpy.” Gogoat gave a snort of confirmation at Mabel’s offer.
Quinn still had a lot to unpack in regards to his relationship with Mabel, but in this moment he finally knew what it was like to have a grandma. “Thank you. It’s nice to have family to support me and Phanpy again.”
Mabel’s eyes started to water at Quinn’s first acknowledgment that she was indeed family. “As long as I’m still kicking, you always will.”
With the most pressing issue addressed, the four ate the casserole together. Quinn thanked Mabel multiple times for all the food she had brought while he fed Phanpy. Luckily for everyone, Gogoat had eaten before coming over so he only ate half of the casserole. The conversation turned to what else had happened, with Quinn sharing that Tony and Nick had used the gym two days ago and Lauren had helped him clean up the day before. Mabel didn’t know any of them by name, but when Quinn mentioned that Lauren’s parents owned the Metronome Mart, she remembered Lauren as the “cute blond store girl.”
The meal lasted an hour and would have gone longer if Quinn hadn’t politely inferred he had a lot of cleaning still to do. They said goodbyes and Mabel told Quinn she would call Amanda today to get her up to speed and ask her if they had options. He was grateful to have one less thing to do and asked Mabel to see if Amanda was able to get a waiver for the overdue taxes and bills.
With Mabel and Gogoat gone, Quinn knew he should take a shower to get rid of the days of filth on him, but figured he would feel less gross going into the men’s locker room if he was already gross.
Phanpy decided to rest and Quinn geared up with the gloves he was wearing earlier and the goggles he had seen in the janitorial closet. He stuffed toilet paper up his nose and tied a small towel around his face. With a trash bag and a broom to use as a shovel, he walked over to the men’s locker room looking like a budget Halloween supervillain. Even with all his preparations, Quinn could still smell the stench while standing at the entrance of the locker room. But before he could brave the unknown, he heard Carlos speak up.
“Cargo.”
“What?” Quinn responded with a clogged nose that made him sound like a nerd on some sitcom.
“Cargo.”
“Cargo what?”
Carlos then pointed at himself and said, “Cargo. Not Carlos.”
Quinn, feeling emboldened by how casually Mabel had talked to him before, said, “Hello, Cargo-Not-Carlos. You better rack those weights when you’re done.”
Cargo harrumphed and went back to his workout.
Happy with himself, Quinn didn’t wait a second longer to find the origin of the stench. The smell of death was only magnified the farther he got into the locker room so Quinn resorted to holding his breath.
To his surprise, after he flipped on the lights he found the locker room to be in much better shape aesthetically than the women’s locker room. It looked run down, but Quinn couldn’t see any trash in his quick glance. He would have taken more time to think about why that was if it wasn’t for his limited air reserves.
Quinn checked each bathroom stall and the rows of lockers but found nothing of note. Quinn then moved on and checked the shower stalls one by one. He started to worry that the carcass would be found in one of the many lockers when in the last shower stall he saw something shiny. Actually, it was a lot of something shiny.
In front of him was a large pile of shiny junk. Screws, bolts, broken mirrors, broken colored glass, reflective tape, and on top of the pile was an unbroken vinyl record. Besides the vinyl, Quinn doubted any of the junk had monetary value, but it was all incredibly clean. Once again, he wanted to think about why this was the case but could feel himself running out of oxygen.
He poked the pile of junk with his broom and in a heartbeat, something moved from behind the pile and sprayed a fluid right in Quinn’s face. While the spray didn’t have any force to push him, the shock of being hit made him stumble back, ultimately falling on his butt. Landing on the ground made Quinn involuntarily take a breath that made him wish he had been born without a mouth or nose. The smell of burnt rubber, sulfur, and rot entered his system which forced him to violently cough. The coughing came with gasps for air, so Quinn willed himself to get to actual clean air.
He emerged from the hellish locker room and only got 10 feet away before falling on his knees to continue his coughing. As he coughed, he realized that while the towel around his face had protected him from an even worse fate, it was still wet from the spray so he untied it and threw it away from him. Having access to clean air slowed the coughing until it only interrupted his every other breath.
Quinn laid on the ground for the next few minutes, thinking about what his life had become. Why did I think I could be a gym leader? Why didn’t I just tell Amanda to sell the gym and move on? Why did I think I could be anything special? A more violent coughing fit interrupted Quinn’s train of thought. Why does this have to hurt so much? My head now feels like someone took a jackhammer to it and then dumped it in acid. I didn’t even consider the smell could be anything other than Paul’s dead Pokemon… Paul’s dead Pokemon… Paul’s Pokemon.
He sat up abruptly invoking another cough, but it didn’t stop him from walking to the reception desk. Could this be some random squatter that got into the gym? Yes. Am I probably going to get sprayed again? Yes. Should I come up with a better plan? Yes. Am I still going to check right now? Of course. Quinn grabbed the Pokeball from the drawer and made a beeline back to the locker room.
Quinn took another big breath, but this time he went into the locker room with only goggles, gloves, toilet paper in his nose, and a Pokeball in his hand. Quinn didn’t need to go back to the shower stall full of shiny junk, because his assailant hissed at him while already standing out in the open for Quinn to see from 20 feet away. He took his first good look at the Stunky in front of him. Stunky had a deep purple coat of fur that looked to be more black than purple. The dark coat was broken up by a streak of white that ran from their nose to the end of an extremely bushy tail.
Quinn let out just enough breath to say, “Stunky, are you Paul’s Pokemon?” He shook the ball in his hand as he talked.
At Paul’s name, Stunky stopped the hissing and focused intently on Quinn’s face. Quinn gave a closed-mouthed smile in response and a look of recognition came over Stunky. The look was then suddenly replaced with a scowl and Stunky turned their rear to fire. But Stunky couldn’t release a spray before they were enveloped in a red beam and returned to their Pokeball.