"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Brock asked as Ash ran by the pokémon center, which was thankfully free the crowds that had been trying to get in yesterday.
"To the gym," Ash said, stopping on the sidewalk. "I've figured out the riddle!"
"That fast?" Brock raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah!" Ash nodded. "It.. just came to me."
"You know, Blaine does have enough surveillance on the island to tell when someone's gotten the answer from another trainer," Brock warned Ash.
"How?" Ash asked.
"CCTV and I think he has some gym trainers trail visiting trainers."
"CCTV?"
"Closed circuit television," Brock explained. "You know, security cameras."
"Oh," Ash nodded and then stopped abruptly. "He can't catch everyone, there's too many trainers and too much land!"
"You're probably right," Brock said after a moment, stroking his chin. "But he catches enough trainers to have the reputation that he catches them all."
"I wonder," Ash mused. "Do you think he does a lot of faking? Just to scare people so that they don't try to cheat?"
"Huh…" Brock looked thoughtful. "Maybe? I guess anyone who does successfully cheat isn't going to brag about it for fear of having their advancement taken away, though Blaine wouldn't be able to do that legally."
"I wonder if it's just another… test I guess," Ash said with a shrug. "Maybe Blaine doesn't care if you cheat as long as you cheat good."
"Cheat well you mean," Brock corrected.
"Cheat well," Ash repeated. "I mean, that would be another way to make trainers be more inta-inteta- inta-lec-tual?"
"Intellectual?" Brock asked. "You may be on to something there, but it's still a pretty awful practice and way to run a gym."
"I guess," Ash shrugged. "Anyway, I got to go find the gym!"
"Well, now I want to see if you managed it so fast," Brock said, pulling out his pokégear. "Tell me where you think it is and I'll tell Misty to meet us there."
Don't tell him everything! Pikachu warned quickly. Start with telling him the building and then act like you're solving the rest of the riddle once you're there!
"It's a building with a clock," Ash said, pointing to the forested slope of the volcano. "And it'll be in the trees!"
"Huh," Brock shrugged. "If you say so."
Ash led the way straight into the forest, not bothering to find a path or road, with Brock following, calling Misty on his pokégear. It didn't take long for Ash to realize that he didn't actually know where in the forest that the building was and that maybe he should have looked for a road, path, or any kind of human trail before charging forward.
Before Brock could start making comments about them being lost, Ash grabbed a pokéball and threw it. Pidgeot appeared in a blaze of white light.
What is it? She asked.
"Can you find a building with a big clock on it in this forest?" Ash asked. "It should be on the slope."
Sure, Pidgeot said with a shrug and then took off, bursting through the canopy and causing a small shower of young leaves to fall.
"Probably should have done that before we got into the forest," Brock remarked.
"Yeah," Ash agreed, rubbing the back of his head.
"You know, I just realized, you're better at fieldcraft than I would have thought," Brock went on. "Most trainers take several months to become proficient at moving through wild terrain like a forest, but I've never seen you have any difficulty."
"Pro-wha?"
"Proficient," Brock repeated. "It means you're good at something."
"Oh!" Ash said, nodding and smiling. "Yeah! I spent a lot of time in the woods when I was growing up."
"Oh? Why was that?"
"Just because," Ash said with a shrug.
"Didn't your parents worry?"
"I guess," Ash said with another shrug. His parents had lived out in the woods and they had been worrywarts, but he didn't think that was what Brock was getting at.
"But they still let you go out into the woods? Did you have a babysitter or did they have one of their pokémon accompany you?" Brock continued questioning.
"Sorta?" Ash said, looking up for Pidgeot, hoping she'd beback soon. He didn't get why Brock was asking so many questions and he didn't like it. He had a gym to find and a badge to get.
Then again Brock had seemed strange on the boat, so maybe the strangeness was long term. Maybe something about Brock getting old. Ash wondered if that would happen to him too.
"What do you mean 'sorta'?" Brock inquired further.
"I mean, I had pokémon with me most of the time," Ash said, completely honest.
"Most?"
"Well, sometimes they just kept tabs on me with their minds," Ash admitted.
"Oh, they had a psychic type?" Brock asked, raising an eyebrow.
More like one of them was a psychic type, Ash thought to himself, but Brock didn't need to know that.
"Yeah," Ash nodded, looking back up at the sky, fidgeting as he waited for Pidgeot to get back.
"Did they ever go with you into the woods?" Brock continued.
"Yeah," Ash nodded, not looking at him.
"How often?"
"A lot," Ash answered, still not looking at Brock. Instead, Ash was trying to figure out why Pidgeot was taking so long.
"I thought they had office jobs though?" Brock continued and Ash felt something small and cold jolt through him. He almost flinched, but managed to stop himself.
"Yeah," Ash replied without hesitation. "They made time."
"It couldn't have been easy," Brock said.
Ash just shrugged.
"What exactly did they do at the office that let them take time off to go hiking with you?" Brock asked.
"I don't know," Ash snapped back, his voice getting harsher. "Office stuff."
"Do you know the name of the company that they worked for?"
"No," Ash said, taking a few steps away from Brock. "They worked for a couple. We had to move because of that."
"They were able to find jobs at the same company when they had to move?"
"I don't know," Ash snapped and then he saw something through the trees and leaves in the sky. "Pidgeot's coming back!"
"Well-" Brock began and then was cut off by Pidgeot descending back through the forest canopy in another small shower of leaves.
Found it! she said, landing next to Ash.
Ash, remember to do the whole 'pretend to not understand us' thing, Pikachu said before Ash could react.
"Did you find it?" Ash asked while Brock watched. Pidgeot nodded. "Then can you lead us to it?" And Pidgeot nodded again.
Pidgeot led the way, jumping and gliding between tree branches, with Ash and Pikachu running along underneath. Brock kept pace, but whenever he tried to restart the conversation, Ash dashed ahead.
About a mile up the volcano slope, they came across a path and Pidgeot led them down it until they came to a building with a large clock face. Misty was there waiting for them.
"Wait, how did you know we'd be here?" Ash asked, coming to a stop before her.
"I.. may have been thinking about the riddle too," Misty admitted. "What?" She said at Ash and Brock's stares. "I like puzzles. I just can't risk solving them on my own because I'm pretty sure Blaine would consider that cheating."
"What is this place, anyway?" Brock asked.
"The Big Riddle Inn," Ash answered, reading the sign.
"Wow, that's blatant," Brock rolled his eyes.
"Then I know I'm going the right way!" Ash said, rushing up to the door. He hurried on in to an empty lobby with a man with long auburn hair and round sunglasses waiting at the reception desks.
"He-" the man began, but Ash interrupted him.
"Do you have a lot of water around here anywhere?" Ash asked.
Don't forget the fire, Pikachu warned. You don't want him to know that you already know where to go.
"Oh, or fire," Ash asked. "Do you have a lot of fire around here?"
"It's a volcanic island," the man said, with the air of someone rolling their eyes behind their sunglasses. "We've got plenty of both."
"Do you have any in here though?" Ash asked, looking around on the off chance that he might see a sign leading to a 'hot water place' as the wingull had put it. Ash figured it was either a giant cooking pot, laundry area, or those public baths he had heard about but never had a chance to visit.
"Well, we've got the hot springs," the man said, still with the air of someone rolling their eyes. "I think that counts as 'a lot' of fire and water."
"Where are they?" Ash asked.
"You're lucky they're public," the man said, his eyebrows drawn together as he glared behind his sunglasses. There was a giggle from behind Ash and he turned around to see that Brock and Misty had followed him in. Misty was trying to stifle the giggle with her hand.
"What?" Ash asked.
"Nothing, nothing," Misty said, waving. "It'll make sense later."
The man at the desk gave her a glare as well, but Ash thought there was something different about it. Brock looked at Misty then at the man then at Misty again and then stared at the man, Brock's brow furrowing.
"Do you want the naked bathing or the swimsuit pools?" the man asked, turning away from Brock and Misty.
"Can I just look at them first?" Ash asked.
"Why, ya punk kid? You think there's something wrong with them?" The man asked. His glare had increased.
"Can I just see them, please?" Ash asked again.
"Fine, ya brat," the man sighed. "This way, I'll show you the clothed one first."
He led Ash through the inn, with an amused Misty and a thoughtful Brock following. They passed through carpeted hallways lit with fluorescent lights and came to a titled area with two sets of doors.
"This way to the clothed springs," the man said, once again in the tone of voice that made Ash think he was rolling his eyes behind his glasses. Ash didn't get why the man was acting so annoyed. He had to know that the inn was the secret entrance? Or, Ash wondered, was he at the wrong inn? Was there another inn with a clock face in the forest and the wingull just hadn't mentioned it?
Well, they'd just have to keep looking if this one was the wrong one, Ash decided. He followed the man through an empty locker room and into the clothed spring, which was currently empty. Something seemed off about that, but Ash couldn't put his finger on it, so he decided to ignore it for now.
The clothed spring really was a spring, a steaming pool surrounded by brown mountain rock and shrubbery, with a few large grey rocks sticking out of the water. At one end of the pool there was a carved gyarados head out of which hot water streamed, which had to be the entrance that the wingull had mentioned.
Ash sped over to the statue and then stuck his hand into the mouth, ignoring the uncomfortably warm water while he reached around until he found what felt like a switch. He flipped it and then there was the sound of rock grinding against rock as part of the stone wall moved, revealing a secret passage leading down.
"You could have at least pretended that you were still investigating," the man sighed. "And I don't know how that pizza you gave to that wingull plays into all this…"
"Wait, you're with the gym?" Ash asked. "And people were watching me?"
"Of course, I'm with the gym," the man snapped. "Why else would I be here, by this month's secret entrance?"
"I think you're a bit more than 'with the gym'", Misty muttered, quiet enough that Ash barely heard her.
"I thought you just let them build the secret entrance here," Ash said with a shrug and then became indignant once more. "And why were you all watching me?"
"Because you rolled up to town accompanied by a former gym leader and a gym trainer," the man said, "if anyone had the opportunity to cheat, it would be you."
"And I'm sure it wasn't because you wanted to check up on us," Misty said.
"Well, then I would have had security keep an eye on you instead," the man, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And is my disguise that bad?"
"Maybe?" Misty said, holding up a level hand palm down and then titling it side to side.
"I didn't figure it out until she pointed it out, Blaine," Brock said.
"Small mercies," the man sighed. He took off his sunglasses with one hand and took off his hair, no, a wig Ash realized, with the other.
Underneath the disguise was an older man, balding with a white fringe that went below his ears. He had jet black eyebrows and black eyes.
It took a moment for the name Brock had called the man to register with Ash.
"You're the gym leader?" Ash asked, pointing accusingly at the old man.
"Indeed," Blaine said and then grinned wickedly. "And the gym punisher."
Brock and Misty groaned.
"I was hoping that the battle would be with a gym trainer," Brock said through his groan.
"Oh, you think I'd leave such an important badgle to a gym trainer?" Blaine asked, eliciting another round of groans.
"Important?" Ash asked, not getting or caring about the pun.
"Why yes," Blaine turned to him and his eyes grew colder and his smile sharper. "After all, it's not every day a six-badge trainer comes to my island. A six-badge trainer who fought in the battle of Saffron and was stupid enough to rush ahead and get himself nearly killed."
"I-!" Ash closed his mouth, caught flat footed between anger and shame at the sudden accusation. He wanted to defend his actions against this stranger, but as his pokémon and human friends had made clear, he should have waited for Brock and Misty. However, it was one thing to hear recriminations from those close to him and quite another to hear it from some stranger out of nowhere. "I- I messed up, but-!"
"No buts about it," Blaine went on. "I don't know why Sabrina gave you a Marsh Badge after that little display. I have to assume it was for tactical skills displayed during that affair, while ignoring the glaring strategic oversights you committed."
Ash grit his teeth and said nothing.
"If it had been me, I wouldn't have given you a badge after that display," Blaine went on. "I don't care if you can make your way up an occupied structure to destroy a piece of vital enemy infrastructure if you don't know when you should."
"I mean, we could say the same thing about the way you give out badges," Brock interrupted in the manner of someone who was rolling their eyes, like Blaine had been acting earlier.
"And what are you doing guarding the entrance personally?" Misty asked. "Shouldn't this be a gym trainer's job?"
"I had nothing better to do today," Blaine shrugged, turning to face the two.
"And maybe you were hoping to run into us?" Misty asked, arching one eyebrow.
"You two do make a good audience for my puns," Blaine smirked at them. "Your efforts to groan-police me are very entertaining."
Brock and Misty evidently couldn't help but give him the satisfaction of reaction to that one.
"Not that it matters," Blaine went on. "I made it clear that the gym trainers on duty were to inform me if and when your… companion here made his way to my gym."
"Well, I'm here now," Ash declared, planting his feet and narrowing his eyes at the gym leader of Cinnabar Island.
"So you are," Blaine drawled, giving the boy a dangerous look. "And now we should move on to what happens next."
AN: Reminder that Misty was the one who solved most or all of the riddles in the original episode.
I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading!
Once again my scene based approach to writing leaves me in an awkward position. Either I publish a chapter that's too short or a chapter that's too long.
Buffer is getting better, but not quickly enough.
Next chapter will be released on October 19th 2022.
Don't forget to leave a review! Concrit is welcome!