"Angsty" - Best Coast
I wanna stay with you / But I can't / Because I gotta go to work / It's overwhelming how much I hate everything / But you
"So totem pokémon have crazy defenses, so ya wanna get your attack stats up," Guzma explained, grabbing a fallen branch off the forest floor. It was about as thick as his forearms and as tall as me. He held it away from his body, positioning the branch so that it was parallel to the ground. "You wanna beat 'em down good, so… Rowlet!"
Rowlet looked up from the dandelion it was blowing on to pay attention to Guzma's lesson. "Hoo?" he asked, cocking his head.
I stifled a laugh, covering my mouth so that Guzma wouldn't see me giggling at my pokémon's rudeness. It was kinda funny and reminded me of myself whenever I was in math class back in Kanto. I never quite payed attention in school, and would instead daydream of pokémon battles and what I'd call my gym badge that I'd hand out to victors. I still haven't decided on a name.
Guzma ground his teeth and strained his arms so that his veins popped out over the muscles. He was ripped, not overly so, but he definitely reeked of masculinity. "Rowlet, I want ya to use peck on this stick here until it breaks. Then I'll find another one and you'll do the same. Sun." He turned to look at me. "I want you to time him. The point of this exercise being to try and get a shorter time with every stick. Got it?"
Rowlet roared with power and thrust himself forward at the branch in Guzma's grasp. His beak collided with it with a loud smack, but there was barely a dent in it. "Hoo?" Rowlet wondered, eyeing the branch over, looking for the tiniest crack before pecking at it again.
"Zrrt! Rowlet asked if you found petrified wood on accident, Mr. Guzma," Rotom said.
"Yeah, we're gonna need to train a lot more," Guzma grunted. "Sun, why don't you let out Growlithe? I got another exercise for him to work on."
"Are you sure?" I asked, a little apprehensive due to the way Growlithe had snarled at Guzma earlier at the house on Route Two. It had looked like Growlithe was ready to lunge and attack before I recalled him into his pokéball. I trust Growlithe and know that he wouldn't hurt someone without a good reason, but I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to control him that well. I mean, Growlithe has only been a tame pokémon for less than twenty-four hours, so I wasn't quite sure how well he'd listen to me.
"I can handle your pup," Guzma said. I could've sworn that he flexed his muscles to look a little bigger, but it could've just been him straining his arms to keep them straight as Rowlet pecked at the branch in his grip. Poor Rowlet had managed to make a little ding so far and he was already panting.
"Come on out, Growlithe," I called, releasing him.
He landed on the grass and looked up at me, awaiting directions. "Woof!" he happily barked, wagging his fluffy tail.
"Growlithe," I said, lowering my voice to show that I meant business, "I want you to be nice to Guzma and do as he says, please. He's a good friend of mine and is going to help train us so that we can beat Ilima's trial."
Growlithe let out a low whimper before glancing back at Guzma, snorting embers out of his snout in frustration. He gingerly shuffled his paws over to Guzma and sat down in front of him, ready to listen.
"Growlithe," Guzma said, "I want you to run throughout the trees in a serpentine motion. Try to move as fast as ya can, but don't disturb any of the plants. This should help your speed and evasiveness."
Wow, Guzma sure was smart when it came to training pokémon. "Did you already beat your island challenge?" I asked. Growlithe was already running throughout the trees, dashing through the bushes, making leaves fly in all directions.
"Yeah," Guzma grunted, curtly nodding. "A long time ago, I beat all the trials, got all the z-crystals." The way he spoke about completing his island challenge made it seem as though he couldn't care less. His dark eyes stayed glued on the brach that Rowlet was working on and his face was like a stone, with no emotion whatsoever. "What are ya gonna do when you finish yours?"
I beamed with pride, eager to share my lifelong goal with this guy. "I'm going to become a gym leader," I stated. "When I was little, my dad would take me to the Vermillion Gym to watch the matches and it was awesome! So I'm going to establish a gym, maybe in Unova or Johto; but the thing is that I'm not going to focus on just one type. I'm going to be a multi-type gym leader, that way I can be more of a challenge. And then I read this article in PokéNerd Monthly that was talking about Mega Evolution and how it was being utilized in Kalos and Hoenn. So I thought, how cool would it be if my ace used Mega Evolution? But I don't think that Decidueye or Arcanine have a Mega, so I'll need to grow my team so more…" I babbled on, visibly excited that I had my dream within reach and all mapped out. Guzma remained stone-faced as he listened intently to me. His gray eyes were locked on me, wincing a bit when I mentioned relocating to another region. "…but then Hau was telling me about these z-moves that are here in the Alola region. So, perhaps it'd be smarter to have one pokémon use a z-crystal and another use Mega Evolution. What do you think?"
"You really have everything all planned out, don't ya?" Guzma mused, raising his dark eyebrows.
I nodded, smiling wide. "Yeah," I said. "What did you want to do before completing your trials?"
He snorted, turning back to look at the branch in his hands, Rowlet about half-way through. "That's not important," he grunted. "Ya know that Kukui, for some reason, is establishin' a League here, so it's only a matter of time before Alola builds gyms."
"Really?" I asked. I knew that Professor Kukui was creating a Pokémon League in Alola, but I didn't connect the dots earlier. "So I could be one of the first Alolan gym leaders then?" Wow, that was a title to be proud of.
He chuckled, the left side of his mouth pulling up into a semi-smirk, semi-smile. Huh, that was the biggest I've seen that guy smile. "Yeah, I mean, I'm kinda in charge of Po Town back in Ula'ula Island, so I could have it so you can establish a gym there," he shrugged, trying to gauge my reaction from the corner of his eye.
Rowlet spilt the branch in half, falling face-forward on the grass with a huff. "Hoot…" he groaned, covering his head in shame with one of his wings.
"It's all good, Bro," Guzma said, patting him on the back. "Ya just need a little practice." He smiled down at him and cooed gentle phrases, trying to get Rowlet to perk himself back up. It worked and Rowlet jumped up, popping his neck in preparation for his next branch. "Good job!"
Something odd happened inside my stomach. It felt like I was nauseous, but I didn't have that characteristic bile rising up in my throat. The other way to describe it was that I was excited, yet it was different form than the one that I experienced while talking about my pokémon goal. This was… some kind of new feeling that I wasn't used to. And for some odd reason, I liked it. My limbs tingled and my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, making me feel almost at ease and relaxed. And there was a nagging voice in the back of my skull that told me that it was all Guzma's fault.
"Whaddya say, Sun?" Guzma asked, jerking me out of my moment.
"W-what?" I stuttered, trying to shake myself out of whatever funk I was in.
"You should make your gym at Po Town."
Oh yeah! "Are you the mayor?" I asked.
"Uh, sure?" Guzma bit his lower lip and looked away, searching for another branch for Rowlet to break in half.
"Well, yeah, that'd be great!" I cheered. "Thank you, Guzma. I have no idea how I can ever repay you for what you're doing for me." Seriously, I haven't known Guzma personally for too long and already he was helping me train my pokémon and helping me establish a gym. He was totally becoming one of my good friends.
"Just think it over when I ask you something later today," he said.
"Can't you ask me now?" I asked, hating to wait. What could it be? Maybe he was a trial captain, or even a kahuna. Or maybe he was a gym leader himself! I jumped in place and eagerly looked at him, desperate to find out what it was. Yeah, I'm pretty impatient.
Guzma chuckled. "No, ya gotta wait," he smirked and looked down, picking at the small blades of grass. "Or, I guess I could ask now." He stood and walked over to me, slowly and calculating. "Well, uh, Sun, I just wanted to start by saying that I kinda admire your…uh." Guzma's face turned red and he rubbed the back of his neck, his undershirt riding up as he did so, showing off his lower abs. Damn. "Um, I guess I kinda think it's cute how you—"
"Woof!" Growlithe called out, running up to us. He paused at me feet, sitting down and letting out a whimper.
"Zrrt! He sayz he's thristy," Rotom translated.
Guzma scowled, crossing his arms. "Ya got any water?" he asked me quickly.
"Um, I think so," I mumbled, unzipping my backpack and searching threw my stuff. There was my town map, some potions, a revive Hau had given me, and a water bottle. I yanked the bottle out, frowning when I realized that it was empty. "Um, oops." I blushed at my rookie mistake. How could I go on an awesome pokémon adventure and not pack any water?
"There's a river nearby," Guzma grunted, snatching the empty water bottle from my hand and stalking off into the forest.
I hurried behind him, struggling to keep up. His legs were significantly longer than mine so his long strides were covering much more ground than I was. It didn't take long for us to reach a large river that was on the edge of the forest, overlooking the ocean down below. The sun glittered off the water and the foliage was bright green. The songs of Pikipek rang out, making the area seem more like a scene out of a romance movie than real life. "Wow," I breathed as I took in the scenery.
"Yeah, I used to come here a lot as kid," Guzma said, filling up my water bottle at the stream. "S'nice place when ya wanna be alone."
I looked around, seeing no sign of any other person whatsoever. "I thought you were from Ula'ula," I wondered aloud.
He nodded, screwing the cap back on the bottle. "I was born and raised here on Melemele, but I live on Ula'ula. I'm just here runnin' an errand," he said. "It's nicer there, though. Like I mentioned earlier, Po Town's there. You'd like it."
"I can't wait to see it," I said. "Is there a trial there, too?"
He shook his head. "Nope."
Growlithe and Rowlet caught up and both began to lap up water from the estuary, quenching their thirst. Growlithe took a moment to pause and pant for a little bit.
"Yeah, it is rather hot here," Guzma said, dropping his sweatshirt to the ground and yanking his tank top off over his head. Oh hot damn! Guzma was chiseled and the epitome of muscular. He had the perfectly defined pecs and cobblestone abs that I could grate cheese on. There was a sparse sprinkling of hair on him and he just radiated the word "Man". I had to close my jaw and turn my head to avoid staring too long and obviously. He noticed my internal struggle to not ogle and chuckled. "You can look if ya want."
"Um, thanks?" I turned back around, but kept my face directed at my shoes as I lazily kicked a pebble into the dirt. "So, uh, what did you want to ask me earlier?"
"Look at me," he ordered, using a tough voice that had a gentle slivering to it.
I obeyed and watched as Guzma saunter over to me, his bulk swaying side to side as he made his way over. He stopped when he was just a couple of inches away, and I took a mental note that if I leaned forward and stuck out my tongue, I would touch the lower base of his pecs. Huh, that is useful information in a way.
"I wanted to say, that you kinda remind me of myself back in the day, ya know?" Guzma said, reaching forward, placing each of his large hands on either side of my waist. As he held me there, his arms flexed, showing off how crazy huge his biceps were. Why would he want to hide those guns under his sweatshirt? "I was all full of light, like you are now. That's why I like your name, Sun. It suits ya, 'cause you're like a solar beam in this dark world. So I wanted to ask—"
"Zrrt! Look, Sun, there's a Luvdisc in the water!" Rotom shouted, floating in the small space between Guzma and me. I glanced past Guzma's bulk to see a pink figure swimming playfully in the clear water. After squinting, the Luvdisc was made out as it picked at the nutrients at the bottom of the river.
"Whoa! No way!" I called, dashing over to the river's edge to get a closer look. The heart-shaped pokémon spotted us and swam up to the surface, poking its head out and smiling up.
"Luv!" it chirped.
"Luvdisc is the Rendezvous Pokémon," Rotom said. "Hordes of them will turn a section of the ocean pink during breeding season. Some legends say that they only appear to those who in love. This one says 'Hi! You guys are in for the long haul!'"
"Yeah, we are," I agreed, eagerly nodding. "We're going to complete the island challenge and establish a gym in Alola. We'll be on a pokémon adventure for life." It was awesome to gain confirmation of our journey from a pokémon that was able to detect love. It must've been able to pick up on my love for my new adventure. Wow, instincts can be enlightening.
The Luvdisc frowned and shook its head. "Luvdisc, luv."
"Zrrt! It says that you're oblivious."
"Huh?"
The Luvdisc winked and swam off further down the river. What did it mean when it called me oblivious? I looked back at Guzma, who had his fists clenched and ground his teeth.
"You okay?" I asked him, making my way back over to him. "Did you see the Luvdisc? There's this story that my mom used to tell me back when I was young." He looked up, expectantly, cocking his eyebrow. "Seeing the Luvdisc reminded me of it. But anyways, she said that whenever two people see the Luvdisc, then their relationship blossoms even further and usually to the next level. Cool, right? So you know what that means, right?"
Guzma's smile returned and his hands made a comeback to my waist, pulling me in closer to him. "I'm pretty sure I do," he grinned, leaning forward.
"Yeah, it means that now we're best friends!" I cheered. This was awesome! I was now going to be best friends with the virtual Champion of Alola who was going to help me train my pokémon and set up a gym, too. Plus, the Luvdisc had mentioned that we were in for the long haul, so that meant that this friendship would last forever, which was good. Rowlet and Growlithe seemed to be warming up to Guzma, and therefore, it'd be easier to go on more excursions.
Guzma pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh Arceus dammit," he spat. "Do you remember what I was saying before the fish?"
"Yeah, you said I was a solar beam in the dark," I recalled. "Thanks by the way. I try to be cheery and then part of it comes from eating tons of Blissey eggs. The doctor said a side-effect was that they'd make me really happy a lot."
He jerked back, letting go of his nose. "What?" he asked. "Why would ya wanna eat Blissey eggs?"
"Zrrt! Blissey is the Happiness Pokémon. Its said that whenever it shares one of its eggs with someone, that person becomes pleasant and that they find happiness immediately afterwards. I met one one time back when I waz wild. I got hurt by a Haunter and a Blissey came and nursed me back to health. Nice pokémon, they are," Rotom said, flashing a thumb's up on his screen.
Guzma glared at Rotom, narrowing his eyes at him. "Anyways," he sneered, "I was mentioning that you kinda remind me of myself when I was a rookie. I was all cheery and excited too, had big dreams of becomin' a captain." He set his jaw for a second and then relaxed, drooping his shoulders, but maintaining his hold on me. "I guess, what I'm gettin' at is I find ya to be nice to be around. Like, you make me…" He pursed his lips, that redness coming back to his face. "You make me feel happy. So I wanted to ask if you'd be—"
"Yo! Yo! Yo! What do we got o'er here?" came a voice from behind the forest line.
"Son of a bitch!" Guzma shouted, grabbing at his white hair in frustration.
Out from the behind the trees came three people, two boys and a girl. The guys were wearing the exact same outfit, making them look like they were twins. They had on black sweats and black tank tops. They also wore bandanas over the lower parts of their faces that had a skull pattern printed on it. The girl was taller than them and had long pink and yellow hair that was in pigtails. She stood in the middle and made her way over to us, eyeing Guzma and me with a look of shock at first before a smirk curved her lips.
"Well, well," she mused. "So this is where the Boss has been." She put her hands on her hips. "Y'know we've been looking all over you, right? We have to find the girl for the Prez." She looked at me, running her eyes up and down my trembling form before looking back over at Guzma, who sneered on back. He puffed out his chest and pushed me behind him, blocking me from the view of the three strangers. "So this is him?"
"Plumeria," he snarled, "I called ya after I got off the ferry, yeah? And what did I say?"
The girl, Plumeria, rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you said you had something important come up," she scoffed. "While that's cute and all, the Prez has been getting all on my case about her precious Cosmog that kid stole. She's seriously giving me a headache, so deal with her!"
Rowlet and Growlithe ran up behind me, hiding behind my legs as they watched what was unfolding.
One of the guys noticed them and jerked back. "Yo!" he said, pointing at us. "That guy's got some pokémon with him. Hand 'em over!" He threw out a pokéball, letting out a Zubat. "Zubat! Use your poison fang—"
With a roar, Guzma lurched forward, throwing out his ultra ball to let out Golisopod, who crashed onto the forest floor with a battlecry. "Razor shell!" Golisopod curled in on itself, lunging at the Zubat at a high speed. It crashed into the much smaller pokémon, sending it flying back at the feet of the shocked grunt. The Zubat let out an air of exhaustion, failing to get back up. Damn, that Golisopod was super strong, being able to take out other pokémon with a single move.
"Wha—?" the grunt gasped.
Plumeria scoffed. "So I take it you want me to spread the word?" she asked, rolling her eyes again. She seemed to be really over what was happening.
All the while, my brain struggled to comprehend what was going on. Guzma and I were just talking before this Plumeria and her cronies showed up. However, they seemed to know Guzma and knowing him somehow involved stealing pokémon, including mine. Wait a minute… "Team Skull?" I whispered to Rotom who was floating by my shoulder.
"Zrrt! I think so," he whimpered, lowering himself so that he was behind me too. I'm so glad that I have such brave pokémon on my team who will protect me from danger.
"So listen up, Kids," Plumeria said, turning to the grunts. "This guy's off limits, so leave him alone. Tell the others."
"But why?" one of them asked. "Why is he so special?" He nodded at me in disgust, eyes twitching as they ran over my trembling form.
My mind was racing at speeds faster than a Dragonite. The situation thrusted at me was too confusing to comprehend, but there was a nagging voice in the back of my mind that screamed for me to get out of there. It only made sense that the strangers in front of us belonged to Team Skull. Their clothes and the way they mentioned a stolen pokémon seemed to be dead giveaways. However, there was also the way they approached Guzma and spoke to him like he was in charge of them, even referring to him as "Boss". Oh Arceus, no, please. Hesitantly, I glanced up at Guzma, who stared back at Plumeria and the grunts, eyes narrowed and fists clenched. Golisopod came over to us and made a noise in front of Guzma, leaning down so his trainer could pet his head. Meanwhile, Rowlet and Growlithe were shaking behind my legs, filled to the brim with the same anxiety that I was. Rotom made beeping noises from his hiding spot, trying to analyze what was going on and hopefully thinking up a way for us to escape.
But my mind kept returning to Guzma, the man who shielded me and protected my pokémon from the Team Skull thugs. "Because," he said, answering the grunt in a deep voice full of authority, "he's mine. And you don't fuck with what's mine, got it?"
"Y-yes Boss!" the grunts stammered in unison, Plumeria rolling her eyes again.
"Well, this has been fun," she spat, "but, Guzma, the President is seriously becoming a pain in my ass. I don't trust her." She crossed her arms and clenched her jaw in frustration, matching Guzma's hard stare. Plumeria must be a tough trainer if she wasn't intimidated by Guzma, his domineering attitude, his insane musculature, or his crazy strong pokémon.
"Now's not the time, Plums," Guzma said, turning around and placing a gentle, warm hand on the small of my back. It was baffling how a man could convey such raw, fierce power one moment and then be all cute and soft the next. My head hurt with all the confusion it was dealing with.
"Guzma?" I whimpered, looking up at him and rubbing the irritated scar on the back of my neck, the thoughts and terror of New Team Rocket fresh in my memory. I had to know if Guzma was somehow involved with the people in front of us, had to know if he was dangerous. Despite what my subconscious told me, I had to hear it from his mouth. I didn't want him to be evil. He was supposed to be a good person; he was the man who was going to help me out on my island trial, the one who was training and getting along with my pokémon, the one who saw the Luvdisc with me. He wasn't meant to be a villain. "A-are you with Team Skull?"
Rotom stopped beeping, wanting to hear his answer too.
I stared up at the man before me, desperate to hear him deny it, to say that there was no way he'd align himself with a bunch of pokémon-stealing thugs who were up to no good. Guzma looked down at my face, his gray eyes looking deeply into mine, biting his lip and turning red. Quickly, he pursed his lips and looked away. "And if I am?" he growled, refusing to meet my gaze anymore. He dropped his hand from my back and crossed his arms.
I shook my head. "You didn't answer me," I wheezed. "I just— just need to hear, 'yes' or 'no'. Please, Guzma." My eyes stung with fear and I could feel my throat grow dry at the notion of my best friend in the region being the leader of a criminal gang. Yeah, I may have known him for less than twenty-four hours total, but I could still the attachment forming to him a little bit. But I couldn't have my pokémon journey with a bad guy.
"And I s'pose if I say 'yes' then you'd want nothin' to do with me?" he sneered.
Plumeria ushered the grunts back into the forest to give us our privacy, stopping for a second to look at Guzma in pity. She scrunched her eyebrows and bowed her head before disappearing behind the tree line.
"Zrrt! You're damn straight!" Rotom answered, floating a little further away from Guzma as he spoke.
Guzma was helping us out, I reminded myself. He was virtually taking care of me and my pokémon. He wasn't evil, it was impossible. "I know you can't be a part of them," I breathed, letting my arms drop to my sides in sad exhaustion. "You're a good guy, Guzma." A part of me felt as if I were attempting to convince myself more than Guzma in a poor, pathetic way.
He snorted and turned his head to glance at me out the corner of his eye. "No," he chuckled, "no, I'm not a good guy, Sun. You're lookin' at the founder and leader of Team Skull."
My breath hitched and I could hear Rowlet and Growlithe gasp in surprise.
Guzma faced me and nodded to himself. "That's right, Sun. The guy who you've been hangin' with is the big bad boss of Team Skull. The guy who beats you down, and down, and never lets up. It's ya boy Guzma."
"Zrrt! I knew it! A pokémon's intuition is never wrong!" Rotom yelled. "Sun! We need to run!"
My heart sped up and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I could feel my legs tremble and prep themselves to bolt. It was absurd. I had felt safe and happy with Guzma just a few moments ago, but now I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. Golisopod was standing next to him, his massive claws gleaming in the sun. He could deal way more damage to me than an Arbok, without a doubt. But before I left, there was something I needed to know, otherwise it'd bug me to no end later on.
"You never asked me that question," I reminded him, trying to muster up false courage, but my shaking form and glistening eyes totally betrayed me.
Guzma jerked back in surprise and cocked his eyebrow. "Yeah?" he asked. "You wanna know?"
I nodded.
He stepped forward, but stopped when I took a step back. He scowled and huffed. "Well, Sun, I think I already know your answer, but I was gonna ask if you'd be mine." His shoulders drooped and he held his hands out for a brief moment before letting them fall. "That's all I want, for you to be mine." He slowly nodded and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Golisopod nuzzled him and whimpered.
"Why?" I blurted, forgetting that I was in the presence of a Team Skull boss for a second. What could it possibly be that Guzma sees in me? I'm just some gym leader's kid from Kanto who is noob when it comes to pokémon training. Despite his preference in profession, he was a pretty nice guy to be around.
"Gee thanks," he snorted. "Sure I may be the leader of Team Skull, which scares you for some reason. But keep in mind that just a few secs ago, you were all too eager to train with me and stuff." He pointed an accusatory finger at me, his arm muscles flexing with anger. "I made you feel comfortable and safe earlier, ya can't deny that. And ya know that I can provide for you since I have the hookup in Po Town, and can make anything happen for you there. Think about it."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "I mean, why me?"
Guzma's pissed expression fell and he looked down at his feet, kicking at the dirt. "Oh," he muttered. He straightened back up and fast-walked over to me, grabbing a strong hold onto my shoulders.
"He'z gonna kill Sun! Call Officer Jenny!" Rotom cried. Growlithe began to snarl and Rowlet hid his face behind his wings.
Guzma bared his teeth at them, making their noises stop immediately. "I won't hurt Sun, ever!" he roared, glaring at them. He turned back to me, pushing his face closer to mine so that his hot breath moved over my features. "You're my sunlight in this shitty world, and that's why I want you all to myself."
Huh? Was I hearing this guy correctly? First off, I was just Sun from Kanto: no one special and no one even remotely attractive. I was perhaps a three on a scale from one to ten, while Guzma (and I'd never admit it to his face) was a fifteen. He could totally have anyone that he wanted, so why me? Like, how terrible was his life that I was the sunlight in it? And then my subconscious wouldn't shut up over the fact that he was the boss of Team Skull, despite how cool he was to be around earlier. It felt almost as if that euphoria that he had given had been completely whited out with the new information of his extracurricular activities. Plus, there was that whole choice of words that he was using with me: "be mine". Last time I checked, ownership over another human being counted as slavery. However, that probably wasn't what he had intended in that statement, but it raised red flags that shouted out exactly what type of lover Guzma would be. He'd be the domineering man who would totally own me in bed, shoving my face into the pillow while he went to town and just had his way with me… Uh, anyways, he gave off the impression that he could be a little too possessive for my flavor, and there was the fact that I was a rookie in that department too. I've never dated anyone before, and having the boss of Team Skull as my first everything wasn't exactly the fairy tale love life that I'd envisioned.
I couldn't do it. Sure, Guzma had never done anything personally to me, but he was the leader of a gang who terrorized the Alola region. I couldn't align myself with something like that.
"I'm sorry, Guzma," I croaked out, half feeling bad at rejecting this guy and half scared that I was rejecting a member of Team Skull.
Guzma frowned for a brief moment before regaining his composure, putting back on an icy stare that conveyed absolutely nothing. "Fine then," he spat, pushing himself away from me, his arms recoiled as if I were toxic. He turned to walk off, Golisopod looking at me and whimpering. "Just know this, Sun."
"What?" I asked.
He looked over his shoulder, smirking. "Ya boy Guzma don't give up easily," he laughed. "I'll leave ya to think about that for now, but remember that I'll be out here keepin' an eye on ya."
"Zrrt! Creeper alert!" Rotom called out.
Guzma shrugged. "Call it whatcha want. But either way, Sun, your gonna be mine before ya finish that island challenge, I can assure ya." He faced forward and walked off towards the forest, Golisopod following behind.
I was left alone with Rotom and my pokémon, wondering just what in the world went on.
