Chapter 36


With Zweilous safely secured in a Pokéball on Tuffnut's belt, the gang continue their journey down the water bound Route 127 on top of Astrid's Wailord to Sootopolis City. It turned out that, even for a Wailord, the trip there was going to be a bit longer than expected and the day was rather hot, fortunately Wailord would spray some water up through its blowholes now and then to keep the gang cool.

They had been traveling for about an hour by that point and were just relaxing. Hiccup was having some of his other Pokémon battle his Swampert to get them up to speed with battling Water Types, Astrid was sitting on Wailord's forehead, looking out at the sea in front of her, the twins were letting Zweilous run around and Snotlout was on his back taking a nap.

Fishlegs, however, was currently staring at the plate he got from Regirock. Snotlout peeks up from his nap and comments, "You still looking at that thing, Fishface?"

Fishlegs replied, "Shut up, Snotlout. You know this thing is very valuable to me and reminds me of the best day of my life, the day when-"

"When Registone or whatever trusted you with its life, I get it." Snotlout interrupts. "It's not like that thing does anything anyway like, say, breathe fire."

Fishlegs rolls his eyes at the comment and looks back to the tan and orange plate when suddenly the 7 orange dots lining the plate begin to glow, catching Fishlegs by surprise. "Guys, come look!" he says, so Hiccup, Astrid and the twins rush over to see it.

"Whoa, it's never done that before." Astrid comments. "What could it be?"

"I don't know, let me see." Fishlegs digs into his bag and pulls out the book on the Regi trio that Scott, the researcher, gave him and skims through it. "Let's see, 'The plates of the beings of rock, ice and steel can also be used as a guide to find…the king of the Regis!'"

Tuffnut replies, "Wow…I don't get it at all."

"It's lost on me too." Ruffnut replies.

Fishlegs replies, "It means that this plate, plus the plates from Regice and Registeel can be used to help find the resting place of the legendary Regigigas! So weird, I thought Regigigas only rested in the Sinnoh region."

"Wait, hold on." Astrid says as she goes into her bag and pulls out the blue Regice plate, finding the 7 yellow dots on it were glowing as well. "Hey, my plate is shining too."

Hiccup pulls out his grey and black Registeel plate and sees the 7 red dots glowing. "Yeah, me too. I guess they're trying to tell us something."

Fishlegs holds his plate out and moves it from side to side, finding that it shone brighter when facing due South. "I think these things really are telling us where to go. Astrid, you think you can have Wailord follow my command?"

Astrid nods. "Sure thing. Wailord, we're gonna take another quick detour. Follow Fishlegs's lead."

"Waiiiii." Wailord replies as it listens for Fishlegs's word. To his directions, Wailord swims along, going about as fast as it could as this clearly meant something to Fishlegs. Before any of them knew it, they were hitting up Routes 129, 130 and 131.

They then come across a small town that appeared to be a bunch of floating docks, to which Astrid replies, "Hey, that's Pacifidlog Town, a dock town that is entirely supported by a herd of Corsola, I used to take vacations there during summer break when I was a kid."

Tuffnut asks, "Wait, so a bunch of coral Pokémon are holding that place up? I want to go see!"

Hiccup pulls him back, "We don't have time, Tuff. We need to get to…wherever it is that the rock plate is taking us."

Once they pass Pacifidlog Town, they soon come across some tides on Route 132. Fishlegs looks down at the plate and holds it out, having Wailord continue to go in the direction he was pointing, going across Route 133 and finally ending up on Route 134 where the plate took them to a deep water area.

Wailord stops and Fishlegs runs around as the plate shines duller when he points outward in any direction from there. "I don't get it." Fishlegs comments. "According to this thing, we're right on top of it!"

Snotlout shrugs. "Welp, looks like we came all the way out here for nothing, way to go Fishface."

Hiccup looks around and steps down to Wailord's upper right flipper where he looks down and spots a cave inside the trench they were over. "Guys, look!" he comments.

Astrid looks down and sees it herself. "Oh, the cave must be underwater."

"Soooooo how do we get down there?" Ruffnut asks.

Astrid then reaches into her bag and pulls out three breathing apparatus. "These will help us breathe underwater and I can use Milotic to take us down there. Though, I only have three of them."

Hiccup looks to Snotlout and the twins and asks, "I presume neither of you are interested in finding this cave."

Snotlout replies, "Not even close." He looks at his wrist watch. "Oh, and look, it's time for my mid-afternoon nap." and he walks off to do just that.

"I got Zweilous to play with anyway." Tuffnut replies.

"Fine by me." Ruffnut replies.

Astrid nods as she, Fishlegs and Hiccup put on their breathers, Astrid calls her white serpent, and they all hop on before Astrid takes off her breather and commands, "Alright, Milotic, use Dive!" before putting it back on and Milotic dives deep underwater.


It continues to dive, following the light shining from the cave, until they reach the cave. Milotic enters and finds a place for it to surface which was in front of a ledge that the humans could hop onto. Astrid looks to Milotic and replies, "Stay here, girl. We'll be back soon."

Milotic nods and stays while the humans walk up a set of stone stairs that take them to a room surrounded by braille text. "Whoa." Fishlegs comments. "This must be the Sealed Chamber! I've heard about this place but never knew it actually existed."

There were also two statues, one of a yellow Pokémon with lightning bolt shaped legs, sparks coming out of the sides of its body, and 7 dots that form a sort of H pattern, the other was of a red Pokémon with a black dragon head surrounding the sides and 7 blue dots that form a downward arrow.

Hiccup asks, "Hey, Fishlegs, what are these guys?"

Fishlegs looks in his book and replies, "Aha, those statues are related to a legend in the Galar region." He gestures to the yellow Pokémon. "We've got Regielecki, an Electric Type that can power an entire region with electricity…" then the red one. "…and Regidrago, a Dragon Type whose arms are said to represent the head of an ancient dragon Pokémon."

Hiccup comments, "Wow, a dragon like that, I'd love to meet."

They then get to the far end of the cave where they come across a large, stone door with three slots along the front and some more braille text that read, 'present the plates of rock, ice and steel, and the king shall be awakened."

Fishlegs comments, "The plates, of course!" Hiccup and Astrid understood and quickly got out their respective Steel and Ice plates while Fishlegs got out his Rock plate. They stand with Astrid on the left, Fishlegs in the middle and Hiccup on the right before stepping forward and sliding their plates into the indent.

Seconds later, the room shakes as the door slowly opens up, revealing a massive white Pokémon with green fuzz on its shoulders and feet, black stripes along the body, and yellow rings surrounding its arms and face. "Regigigas!" Fishlegs says. "You are real!"

Hiccup checks the Pokédex. "Regigigas, the Colossal Pokémon. It is said that thousands of years ago, Regigigas made three lookalikes of itself out of a special ice mountain, rocks and magma. It is also said that Regigigas is capable of moving the continents with ropes."

"It's…incredible." Astrid comments. "I never knew such a magnificent Pokémon could live over here."

Regigigas then looks down at the three humans and begins to speak. "Humans, it seems that my children Regirock, Regice and Registeel have trusted you all with their lives, and doing so has allowed you to come here. I know that they all must have attacked you when you first met, but that was just them defending their honor and making sure their plates don't end up in the wrong hands."

Fishlegs steps forward and replies, "Regigigas, you are an amazing Pokémon, truly, and I'd be honored if I could ask you a few questions."

Regigigas shakes his head. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I cannot reveal much. There are many secrets of myself and my children that would be more than devastating if it were to spread too quickly. However, I will answer one question."

Fishlegs was a bit disappointed but nodded. He thought about that question for a moment before looking back up and replying, "Regigigas, can I at least get a token from you, to help remind me of the day I got to meet such a magnificent Pokémon."

Regigigas ponders this question for a moment before simply replying, "…Yes." It lifts its arms and causes the rock, ice and steel plates to eject off of the door before joining them into one plate that it lined the outside with yellow shards of rock. "Take this, the Regi Plate, it is a symbol of the trust of myself and my children, and if you wish, you may use it to visit me again."

Fishlegs's smile widens and he takes the plate like a kid going to a Christmas present before looking back and saying, "Thank you, Regigigas, truly. I will cherish this plate for the rest of my life. Unless you two want it."

Hiccup shakes his head. "You clearly want this more than either of us."

Astrid adds, "Besides, we have the memories of this adventure, something the twins or Snotlout could never have."

Fishlegs nods before stuffing the plate into his backpack and looking back to Regigigas one last time. Regigigas gives a salute to Fishlegs and Fishlegs does it back.

The three of them then leave the cave as Regigigas's door closes behind them, they hop back on Milotic who happily takes them back to the surface where Wailord and the other 3 members of the gang were waiting. Once on top of Wailord, Ruffnut runs up to them and asks, "So? Did you find that Pokémon?"

Fishlegs nods. "Oh, yes we did."

Tuffnut adds, "So, tell us about it!"

Fishlegs, Hiccup and Astrid look to each other before Fishlegs replies, "You had to be there to believe it. That's all I can say."


With that, the gang has Wailord take them back the way they came, Wailord's massive size and powerful flippers allowed it to battle the tides like it was calm water until, as the sun was setting, they had finally reached the white rocked island of Sootopolis City.

Once there, they all get off and while the rest of the gang get settled in to the Pokémon Center, Hiccup runs up to the gym, located on the West side of the city, where there seemed to be a well-dressed man locking up the doors. The man sees Hiccup approach and said to him, "Hello there, little boy, how may I help you?"

Hiccup replies, "I know it's late, but I was hoping to get a Gym Battle sometime soon."

The man sighs. "I'm sorry, but the Sootopolis Gym Leader has been on a leave of absence for some time now."

Hiccup stands there with an open mouth. "What? But, how can that be?"

The man sighs again. "I suppose if you really need a battle you could try the gym over at-"

"It's alright, Charles, I'm here." said a familiar voice, causing Hiccup to look around and see Astrid approaching.

"Astrid? W-what are you doing here?" Hiccup asks.

Charles replies, "Oh, Miss Astrid, this little boy here would like-"

"I know why he's here." Astrid replies.

Hiccup's eyes widen as a possibility comes to his mind. "Astrid…what is this?"

Astrid sighs. "I've been trying to keep it a secret because I didn't want you worrying but it had to come out somehow. I'm sorry you had to find out like this but…the truth is…I'm. The Sootopolis Gym Leader."

Hiccup stands there looking even more gob-smacked. "Y-you? You're a Gym Leader?"

Charles explains, "Miss Astrid happens to be the toughest Gym Leader in all of Hoenn, it's quite rare that she loses."

Astrid adds. "I was taking a leave of absence because I wanted to get away from Gym battles for a bit, it was originally supposed to be a quick trip to Oldale but then I met you and saw the ambition in your eyes to become a great trainer, so I chose to help you out with your journey instead. I knew it would come to this at some point, I just wanted you to have a chance to enjoy your journey without thinking of having to battle me." She crosses her arms. "Now you know, question is, do you have a request for me?"

Hiccup could see what was going on, Astrid didn't want this to be a battle between friends but the same Challenger vs Leader battles he's faced 7 times beforehand, 8 if counting the loss at Dewford. He's also already had this same battle with everyone else in the gang, so this only made sense. "Astrid…I challenge you to a Gym Battle."

Astrid nods. "We'll go first thing tomorrow morning. Get ready, it's gonna be a very long day."

With that, Astrid walks to her house while Hiccup turns around and heads to the Pokémon Center, already knowing that he wouldn't be sleeping that night.


If anyone was actually surprised by this turn of events, you can say so.

Final gym battle begins next chapter, but after that things will only get crazier so stay tuned.

I have 4 more chapters to this story planned, so be prepared.

Thanks for reading and take care!