She was standing outside the gym, and Ritchie and Carlton and Elyan were there with her, the latter with mandibuzz still on top of his head. For the time being, Ash had failed to convince Norris and they had thrown him out of the gym, and yet, he remained undeterred. In fact, his conviction filled Serena with confidence, and with a healthy dose of anger directed at the gym leader with the bob haircut. The doors of the giant glass cube opened up just for her. The guards at the entrance made that clear. But she didn't falter or had doubts about going in. She was going to get the blank badge for Ash no matter what. Once she was inside the doors closed behind her and she was left in complete darkness. It was almost asphyxiating, and she could only hear the sound of her own breathing to boot.
"Ups! Sorry, my bad," somebody said. And then the lights were turned on, she was on an empty room with a sleepy guard who was scratching the back of his head when she identified him. Something seemed off, but not in an unsettling way, it seemed literally off. There was a door in front of her and it was open, and on the next room there wasn't anyone else. Her steps made abundant echo as she walked, of the kind that only happens when a big place is completely deserted. It seemed like there was a sort of labyrinth element to the gym, there were many doors, all of them open, and as she kept going forward into other rooms, the mirrors embedded on the walls encompassed more and more of the surface. By the last room, the entirety of the walls and the ceiling were made of very clear mirrors, reflecting each other. It was as if there were hundreds of glass rooms, all of them containing hundreds of Serenas within them. The effect was off-putting, and made Serena a bit dizzy. At the very end of the room there was a guy wearing a white leotard with his face uncovered. He was completely focused on his cell phone. Serena called to him and startled him.
"Oh, yeah, the girl! Norris did say you'd come. Sorry, it's after hours for us. It's going to be just you and him, plain and simple… pretty normal if you ask me."
The guy then knocked on the glass, it felt like a ritualistic summoning, when it reality it was the most austere thing possible. Seconds later a different set of steps echoed all over the place. Then, from the same door where Serena came in, a figure shrouded in reflective light appeared, revealing itself to be Norris, wearing the same stained red plaid shirt and ripped jeans.
"Well, well, you showed up after all," he said with a hateful smirk on his face. "It is now or never for that guy's badge. A low-key clandestine affair, as every one of these farces should be. Are you ready to stare at your clearest reflection?"
"Yes," Serena replied, adamantly. "I mean, I'm ready to win."
At that point the guy at the back cleared his throat and then said: "Alright, you know the rules. The challenger can change, the leader can't… just go for it guys."
Serena wasted no time after this. First she called out her newest acquisition, Delibird, red and white, with big round eyes, plump and jolly, eager to fight. Norris's smirk became wider, he looked like a total creep. He called out his pokemon, ditto, pink small blob. The transformation happened immediately and very suddenly, Ditto twisted and squeezed its body, turning into an exact copy of Delibird.
"Hm, my ditto has the special ability of transforming into the opponent as soon as the battle starts. Come on! Show me what you have."
Serena said nothing, she saw an opportunity, which even in the instant rush of the moment seemed cheeky and opportunistic. However, there was no time to think about morality, it was not murky, barely pragmatic, and Ash's first badge was on the line. It seemed so easy to be true. In silence, she called Delibird back and exchanged him for Braixen, yellow furred, and standing decisively in two legs while holding a stick on fire on her hand.
"Braixen! Use flamethrower!" Serena shouted, to Norris's bewilderment. Braixen prepared her attack, showing no mercy. She swung her stick in the air, as if charging it with the power necessary to release it, then she swung the stick again this time right at Ditto-Delibird: a projectile made entirely out of flames was thrown from it right at the impostor, bathing it in fire, consuming it in its entirety. Ditto-delibird was left scorched as it fell to the ground, at which point it turned back into Ditto, and then it went to sleep. It was over.
"What the hell!" Norris cried. "That's not fair! Do-over!"
"No way!" Serena angrily replied. "It was fair, now call out your second pokemon."
"…I only have one."
"So I win?"
"If you call that winning."
"Yay!" Serena jumped from happiness. She went over to Braixen and together they jumped a bit more. "Wait, so it's over, can I have the badge?"
Norris was raging mad, he was visibly pulling his hair out, and his eyes wanted to come out of his eye-sockets.
"Yeah! Here you go, take them." He pulled out a bunch of badges from his pocket. They all looked like round mirrors the size of a bottle cap. He gave them all to Serena. "Here, so you can not only have one for yourself too but also share some with your friends. I couldn't care less if you threw them away!" Norris didn't wait for anything else and stormed out of the room.
As he walked away, Ash, Ritchie and Carlton came in. Serena had her sight set on Ash, although he was first distracted by Norris angrily bumping into him. But when he looked at her, all of the badges but one fell from her hand to the ground, and then she kept her palm open, with the sole tiny mirror on it, facing upwards, as Ash walked towards her, surprised, thoroughly content, and visibly proud. He didn't say anything once he arrived to her, so she just reached her hand over to him and nodded at the badge.
"I should've trusted you more Serena, I was so obsessed with getting my match with Norris that I forgot about pretty much everything else. It seems it's so easy for me to forget."
"Maybe this will help you remember." She waved her hand, prompting Ash to take the badge. When Ash looked at it on her hand it reflected just a tiny little bit of Serena's face on it.
"I won it for you, that was the challenge, so now you get the prize," she said. Ash looked at her once more, then nodded decisively. Then he took the blank badge and raised it triumphantly.
Ritchie had surreptitiously gotten right next to them. He shamelessly lifted one of the badges and showed it to Ash.
"Look Ash," Ritchie said, "I guess today we both got our first badges on this crazy place. First of many huh?"
"You bet."
Serena felt weird about it, and subtly enraged. Ritchie hadn't been part of the challenge. But she didn't say anything. Instead, she herself lifted one of the badges for herself, and felt proud and resolved enough to keep it, as a worthy reminder of what she had accomplished that day.
Outside, Elyan and mandibuzz were waiting for them. Elyan had his arms crossed and a very smug look on his face. Things had certainly changed for him in just one day. He felt like he could go back to his house and personally beat Pryce's ass, but that would have been too easy. Also, he had yet to catch a single pokemon.
"Good job bros, I knew you'd be able to do it," he said as the group came out with the badges. As soon as they did, and the doors of the gym closed behind them, mandibuzz flew away, taking Elyan's blue cap with it. He failed to notice at first, but when he did his semblance immediately changed; he wanted to cry. He ran after the flying pokemon, who quickly gained altitude and speed, but as soon as Elyan reached the sidewalk, he tripped and fell on the ground. And then he could only raise his head and watch as the mandibuzz became a dot on the nightly horizon. Elyan was absolutely crushed, desperately holding on to the pathetic hope that the mandibuzz would somehow return to him. When it didn't happen, Elyan's state didn't ameliorate, and he headed to the police station to figure out a way to solve the hopeless situation.
He ran into the building late at night, stumbling his way to the counter. "Excuse me officer, a mandibuzz stole my hat, I got it just today!"
"Pardon?" the police officer asked.
"A mandibuzz appeared out of nowhere and placed itself at the top of my head this afternoon. Then that was it for a while, I was scared but soon realized everything was fine, and the mandibuzz was an unlikely boost to my confidence. Then it betrayed me and flew away out of nowhere, taking my new cap with it."
"I see, well, do you want to file a report?"
"Don't you have a way to see who's the mandibuzz's trainer, or where it came from?"
"Yeah, sure, let me check the general database."
"Really?"
"No. There's no such thing as a general database, it's an insane idea. Could you imagine if everyone was under surveillance at all times? That would be criminal."
"I don't think so," Elyan replied. "It seems like a pretty good way to check up on people and pokemon, in case something like this happens, you know, an actual criminal act."
"You're crazy kid. I'll file a report, if your cap turns up, I'll notify your parents, now in the meantime you should get some sleep. You know, this reminds me, my neighbor actually had a mandibuzz."
"It's something, can you give me his address?"
"No I cannot, kid, what's wrong with you? I can't just give you someone's address, now that would be criminal."
"I understand, sorry I asked officer."
"It's okay, you're under some stress."
"Thanks, hey, just out of curiosity, where do you live?"
"Oh, just across the street actually… wait! Hold on a minute."
"Thanks officer." Elyan walked out of the station triumphant and satisfied. He then proceeded to canvass the neighborhood, in what had suddenly become a very clandestine personal crusade. He got to the obvious suspect just after a few houses.
"Yes, my husband had a mandibuzz," the woman at the door said. "But he disappeared just a few months ago. His mandibuzz used to leave for undetermined periods of time, just like him, roaming around all over the region. However, this time it's been too long, and he has not communicated with me since."
"I'm so sorry."
"Thank you. I guess Mandibuzz returned for a while, saw that my husband was gone and then left again. It could head to anywhere in the region, I can pay you for the hat if you want."
"No, please, that's okay. It was more of a sentimental thing, but not that much, please don't worry. The hat itself was actually pretty cheap."
"I wonder what my husband has been caught up with. I'm sure he's still alive, he's too resilient to go out like this."
"I'm sorry for wasting your time miss, if I ever find something out about it I'll notify you."
"Likewise, have a good night."
"You too," Elyan finalized, then the woman closed the door. As Elyan headed back to the castle, to the celebration of Serena's victory, he pondered about what he had discovered. The mystery that he started unraveling by chance went a lot deeper than he could've ever imagined. In a day, he had gained a hat and confidence, and in the same day he had lost both. But he was not ready to lose his conviction just yet, countless questions had appeared literally out of nowhere, and still he had not a single pokemon. What he had gained was another objective. He now sought to get his cap back from the mandibuzz.