Monday, September 25th, 2017

After what had been a slightly awkward walk, we arrived in Brainerd about an hour and a half after lunch. I still wasn't sure how to address what had happened yesterday, so instead, I did my best to pretend that it hadn't happened in the first place. While Peren had returned to his normal self and Scout had followed his lead, Blitz definitely seemed even more aloof than usual. Instead of staying in sight at all times, he spent much of the day flying farther ahead before circling back to occasionally check on our progress. Granted, it was entirely possible that I was projecting my own feelings and the extra distance was only because he wanted to flex his more powerful wings.

One thing that hadn't changed was his grudging acceptance when I went to return all three of my Pokemon in order to use the city's Vigoroth's Rest. After a quick shower, I decided to head straight over to the gym so that I would at least know what the challenge was. Given Brainerd's size, it only took me a few minutes to arrive at the town's gym and the smaller size of the city was immediately reinforced by the entrance to the gym.

Rather than the large lobby and professional-looking receptionist desk of the St Cloud gym, the entry to the Brainerd gym just had a few folding chairs up against a wall as a woman reading a newspaper sat behind an old wooden desk. While the floor of the lobby was very spartan, the walls told a completely different story. They were lined with decorations consisting of fishing rods, photos of different people holding up water types, and a shelf that held several various kinds of Pokeballs.

When the front door closed behind me, she peered over the top of her newspaper and idly asked, "Your first time at the gym?" Her words were accompanied by the sounds of splashing water further down the hall.

"Yeah," I answered and then decided to clarify because of her odd wording. "Well, first time at this gym. I've beaten one already."

She sighed at my response before setting down her paper and grabbing some keys that were sitting at the edge of the desk. "Alright, let's go," she said unenthusiastically as she stood up.

"Uh, go where?"

She halted as her expression shifted from boredom to bafflement, "Kid, do you not know what the gym challenge is?"

I definitely wasn't a fan of being referred to as 'kid' but ignored it. Instead, I defensively said, "I tried to look it up, but the league's website said that challenges are up to the leader and could be changed at any time."

My excuse only earned me an eye roll, "Yeah, but Caroline hasn't changed the challenge for ten years." She sighed again before explaining, "You need to complete three challenges with your Pokemon around Mille Lacs Lake. You can fight Caroline for the badge when you're done."

A small piece of me died at the news that I would have to do even more traveling before I could earn the badge, but once again it didn't seem like a point worth arguing so I mutely nodded. I must have looked more crestfallen at the news than I'd thought, because her expression softened slightly and she added, "We'll give you a ride to Garrison and then give you a bike or kayak for you to use during the challenge. Anyway, you ready to go?"

I was definitely glad that I wouldn't have to do more walking but paused before saying yes. Since I didn't have any information about what these challenges would be or how long they would take, it probably made sense to restock on food first. Given that I hadn't heard of Garrison before, I wasn't willing to bet that there would be good options in terms of resupplying. "Is it alright if I run some errands first?"

"Sure kid," she said as she plopped back into her chair and picked up her paper. "I'll be around for another couple hours. We can leave whenever you're ready."

After thanking her, I left the gym and went to the grocery store to buy enough food to last us for about a week. I really hoped that would be a more than sufficient amount given that I was now out of cash and my second card from the St Cloud gym was half gone. Especially glad for the free entertainment with my limited funds, I stopped by the library and picked up a copy of 'Return of the Kingler' before heading back to the gym.

Even though I had been gone for over an hour, the woman was still reading the paper when I returned. In fact, the only change since my departure was that there was now a man in his mid-twenties eagerly talking to her, undeterred by the fact that his conversation partner appeared to be ignoring him. As soon as the woman noticed me, she scooped the keys off of her desk and tossed them to the man who barely caught them. "Take the kid to Garrison," she instructed tonelessly before I could say anything.

"Sure!" The man instantly replied before hesitating, "Er, I'm not supposed to go by myself since I'm still a junior gym trainer."

That prompted a loud groan from her, "Fine, but you're driving. C'mon kid," she said as she got up and waved me over. I silently followed them to a small garage that housed a white van that proudly said 'Brainerd Gym' on the siding next to a picture of a blue circular blob. For the first time in weeks, I sat down in a car and had the novel experience of making sure that my seatbelt wasn't hitting my Pokeballs. Once situated, I looked around the van and was a bit surprised to discover that I was completely surrounded by cardboard boxes.

"You buckled up back there?" The driver asked and then started the car once I'd assured him that I was.

It only took a couple of minutes for us to leave Brainerd and get on the highway leading to Garrison. Once we were on the road, the woman lazily started explaining from the passenger seat of the car, "Alright, so there's three challenges around the lake that you need to do before you can try to earn the badge. If you wanna think of the lake like a clock, then they're at five, seven, and twelve." She paused for a moment then looked sideways at her fellow gym trainer, "Actually, can kids these days read clocks?"

"Yes," I shortly replied, having quite enough of being referred to as a kid, though my annoyed answer was mostly covered up by good-natured laughter from the driver.

"Whatever," the woman continued with a shrug, "Anyway, you can't miss 'em. Let's see what's next? What Pokemon do you have?"

"Deerling, Flechinder, and Pachirisu."

She considered my team for a moment, "'Kay, you're fine. Some Pokemon have issues with the challenges so we have special instructions for them, but you don't need to worry about that. What shirt size are you?"

The sudden shift in the line of questions threw me so it took me an inordinate amount of time to reply, "Large."

"Grab a couple shirts from the box with the 'L' on it," she instructed. After locating the right cardboard box, I strained to lean over and barely managed to snatch two long-sleeve shirts from within. While I was doing that, the woman continued her explanation without bothering to look back at me, "Wear those while you're doing the challenges. Plenty of people live around the lake, so this way they know you're with the gym and not trespassing. You'll be fine as long as you don't do anything dumb. Uh, let's see, there's one other thing..." She trailed off uncertainly.

"Shellder," the driver provided helpfully.

"Oh yeah, those things. It's not actually part of the challenge, but if you see a Shellder you should catch it. The gym will reimburse you for any Pokeballs you use and give you a reward if you catch any. If you want to keep 'em, great, otherwise the gym will take it off your hands."

"Why Shellder?" I asked uncertainly.

She just shrugged, "Caroline is serious about cleaning up the lake. She probably would have made it part of the challenge by now if they weren't so damn annoying to catch." That didn't really answer my question but I stayed silent, figuring that this must be one of the things that I would already know if I was native to this world.

With the explanations completed, the second half of the drive was quiet apart from the radio that was softly playing some vaguely pop-sounding song. About twenty minutes after we'd left Brainerd, the van pulled in front of a standalone garage at the edge of the tiny town that I assumed was Garrison. The woman stayed in the passenger seat while the driver and I made our way to the garage and he opened it up to reveal eleven bikes and six kayaks. "Which one do you want to go with?" He asked pleasantly.

"A bike would be good," I replied without having to think about it. I'd never used a kayak before, so even though they were probably faster, I really didn't want to risk getting stuck in the middle of the lake because I didn't know what I was doing. We took a few minutes to find a bike and a helmet that were good sizes for me, then refilled the tires with air.

The driver took a moment to look me over before declaring, "I think you're ready! If something comes up during the challenges and you need to reach us, just call the number on your bike. Same thing when you're done; just come back here and give us a call and we'll pick you up."

I leaned over to verify that there was a phone number painted on the bike's crossbar and then nodded, "Got it. Thanks for the help."

"No problem at all. Good luck!" The man said as he closed the garage door and walked back to the van. Once he'd gotten situated into the driver's seat, he gave me one final wave before backing up the van and heading back to Brainerd. The woman also gave me a half-hearted wave but didn't bother looking up from her phone to do so.

I briefly considered starting heading to the first challenge immediately but then thought better of it when I noticed some dark clouds in the sky. I was fairly sure that I was going to be biking along a road which would mean that I would likely have fewer stopping opportunities and didn't want to risk it. Even if that hadn't been the case, I didn't want to be forced to set up my tent in the rain if it was avoidable.

Instead, I decided to set up camp in the small clearing behind the garage and have an early dinner. Thankfully it was a lot less awkward than the previous dinner had been, though Blitz still just accepted his food before moving a short distance away from the rest of us. As we were finishing eating, I noticed that the clouds above had gotten even darker so I hastily set up the tent and went inside with Peren and Scout.

My fears about the imminency of the rain turned out to be unfounded as it was several hours later before we began to hear the patter of rain against the tarp. A few minutes after the rain started, I heard a loud 'Inder!' from outside followed by something rubbing against the side of the tent. After some shuffling, I made my way to the entrance of the tent and unzipped the side revealing a damp Blitz standing outside. As soon as I'd opened it wide enough, Blitz tried to squeeze past me but I quickly dropped my hand to my waist and returned him before he could get inside.

"Sorry, but I'm not going to let you get the tent all wet," I defended myself to the annoyed bird that stared back at me from within his Pokeball. Plus, it was definitely petty of me, but I had to admit that it felt good to make Blitz spend a night in his Pokeball for once. It was like a well-deserved timeout.

After zipping the tent back up, I crawled back over to my bedroll and started to wish that I had a bigger tent. Now that my camping equipment's weight was no longer a factor, it certainly would be nice to upgrade to a larger tent and get an actual sleeping bag. Unfortunately, I didn't have the discretionary funds for either. I doubted that I would have money to spare in the near future either given that I almost certainly wouldn't get a double payout from this gym as well.


Tuesday, September 26th, 2017

It turned out that the morning just brought more rain so we ended up staying in the tent longer instead of getting the early start that I had wanted. The rain had made the temperature drop significantly overnight so I was more than happy to change into one of the long-sleeve shirts that I'd received yesterday before returning to my books. With not much else to do, I spent most of the morning reading while pointedly ignoring the stink eye that I was getting from the still-encapsulated Blitz.

Apart from reading, I also made sure to check the weather and was relieved to see that it was supposed to stop raining around one and that the forecast for the rest of the week was completely clear. The one other thing that I looked up was why the Brainerd gym leader would want challengers to catch Shellder, which after some research I figured out was because they were considered an invasive species. The Tynamo, Bellsprout, Grubbin, and Cottonee families had similar classifications according to the Minnesota DNR's website, making me realize that I probably should have told someone about the swarm of Charjabug and Vikavolt that we'd encountered.

As the forecast predicted, the rain stopped in the early afternoon so we were finally able to leave and eat a late lunch. Not wanting to delay any longer, I simply ate an energy bar and focused on packing up the tent as quickly as possible while my Pokemon ate their meals. As soon as I had finished with that, I addressed my Pokemon while I dried off the bike with a dirty t-shirt, "I'm going to return you guys for the bike ride. Well, except for Blitz if he thinks he can keep up."

Peren and Scout didn't complain while they finished their meals and I got a haughty nod from Blitz which was pretty much exactly the responses that I'd expected. I was curious how far and fast Bliz could fly now that he'd evolved and this was definitely a convenient test of that. It didn't take them long to finish their meals so within ten minutes I was biking south as Blitz flew high in the sky above me. My initial impression was that he didn't have any problems keeping up, but I knew that the real test would be if he was able to maintain the pace for several hours.

As I biked down the road to the first challenge, something that I'd been trying to avoid thinking about was forced to the front of my thoughts. Between the bright oranges, yellows, and reds of the trees on the side of the road and the crinkle of leaves that I biked over, it was more than evident that the season had crept into fall. While that didn't mean much in itself, it critically meant that winter was coming.

And that was a major problem.

I'd hoped there would be news of something by now about some supernatural phenomena that would ultimately be my ticket home since I was pretty sure that's how it worked in stories, but I'd heard absolutely nothing. The frustrating thing was that I didn't even have the spare time to hunt for leads on my own since so far I'd been forced to devote all of my time to just earning enough money to eat. And that would only get worse in the next few months. Traveling between gyms in the winter would be nigh impossible unless I started using a long-distance busing service, but that would still leave me with the issue of shelter as there was no way that a tent would be sufficient in the middle of January.

I spent the rest of the bike ride trying to think of possible solutions, but the only thing that I could think of was to try to find a job that would pay in cash or else something that was attached to my trainer ID like my account with the library. In terms of staying out of the cold, I would just have to hope that I could earn enough money to make rent or else find some sort of homeless shelter that I could stay in for a few months.

My worried thoughts made the ride blur by and before I knew it I had almost biked past the trial. While the woman from the gym had claimed that you couldn't miss the trials, I didn't quite agree with her assessment. The main sign was a normal road sign for 'Kathio State Park' which almost made me ignore it until I noticed that there was a smaller one beneath that read 'Brainerd Gym Gamma Challenge.' Hoping that she hadn't also forgotten to mention that I was supposed to be doing these in a specific order, I biked into the park with Blitz still flying high above me.

It was already early evening but because of my anxieties about the next few months, I wanted to try to get the first challenge done within the last few hours of daylight. Thankfully, the trial was fairly close to the entrance to the state park and I just had to follow a couple of signs before I came to the mostly empty picnic shelter that hosted it. After sending out Peren and Scout and promising that we would eat dinner soon, I investigated the small podium that stood at one end of the shelter. Atop the podium was a tablet that had a single green start button on the display while the side of the podium listed the instructions for the challenge.

The Gamma challenge is intended to test the communications skills between a trainer and their Pokemon, though in the opposite direction from what is usual. On the far side of the shelter is a smaller display screen that will display shapes of various colors that the challenger's Pokemon will observe. They will have to communicate what is on their display so that their trainer can select the correct object from the screen that they are using. The challenge will be complete upon six successive selections. There is no penalty for incorrect selections apart from having to restart the streak.

Note that while psychic Pokemon are not banned from participating, the use of telepathic abilities is strongly discouraged.

When I finished reading the instructions aloud, I returned my attention to my Pokemon to gauge their reactions. I was slightly surprised to see that Scout was the one who had become distracted during my explanation, while Peren and Blitz stood at rapt attention. I felt a flash of guilt about enjoying Blitz's earlier timeout since he was for once willing to put effort into something that had nothing to do with battling, likely as atonement. If he was going to put in the work, I definitely wasn't going to hold a grudge so I smiled at them and said, "Sounds pretty easy, right?" Blitz sharply nodded while Peren's was a bit more uncertain, and after a second Scout cheeped positively, giving me hope that she had actually been paying attention after all.

There was no time like the present to get started, so I pressed the green button on the tablet. A moment later, a grid of thirty-six shapes appeared on the screen with the grid being composed of six different colors and six different shapes, and all of the combinations thereof. As if the sheer number of selections wasn't enough, a timer appeared at the top of the screen and quickly began to count down from ten.

"Ookay, maybe a bit harder than I thought," I muttered before turning around to see that my Pokemon were huddled around the other screen that the plaque had mentioned. "What are you guys seeing over there?" I asked, only to receive a sharp chirp from Blitz in reply, which was probably a fair response. Deciding I should just take a look for myself, I stepped away from the podium and was immediately rewarded with a sharp buzzing noise from the tablet as the screen changed to display 'Attempt Forfeited' in blocky red letters.

Ignoring the message, I jogged over to my Pokemon's side just in time to see a red rectangle float off the right side of the screen that they were examining. As soon as the shape left the screen, a green circle started its journey from the left to right of the display. With ten seconds between each shape, it was followed by an orange square, a blue triangle, and finally a purple circle.

"Alright, so we just need to assign a shape and color to different things and go from there," I mused. Twelve was still a decent number to track, but it definitely seemed manageable and I was sure that we would quickly get the hang of it.


Wednesday, September 27th, 2017

We absolutely did not get the hang of it.

I woke up with a groan and desperately wanted to go back to sleep instead of returning to that absolutely awful challenge. The previous day had been just one roadblock after another and by the time we had called it for the day, the longest streak that we had attained was only four shapes in a row.

The first issue that we had run into was that it turned out that Peren and Scout were both partially colorblind, which made divvying up colors a more difficult task than it should have been. Next, if an object had a shape and color that were assigned to two different Pokemon, they would both make their assigned noises at the same time, making it so that I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. That one at least had been an easy fix since with ten seconds for each shape, there was plenty of time to get the shape first then ask for the color.

The third issue was an inverse of the first in that it turned out that Blitz could see more colors than I could, which took a while to figure out what was going on. Eventually, I was able to convince him to make the same sounding chirp for both colors that looked red for me, even though he insisted that they were different. The last was simply that I had problems keeping track of the twelve different calls that my Pokemon were making at me. After an embarrassingly long time, I realized that I could keep notes in my Poryphone, which turned the translating process from difficult to fairly trivial.

By the time that we had worked past all the issues, it had started to get dark so I decided to call it so that we could eat an extremely grumpy dinner before going to sleep. Well, everyone except Scout was grumpy. She had been having an absolute blast with the challenge and barely wanted to stop in order to eat.

Eventually, I ended my reflections on our failures and exited the tent to get breakfast for the Pokemon while I performed normal camp teardown. I refused to accept being here another full day so I put away the tent even though we still hadn't passed the challenge. All of my Pokemon seemed to have a similar mindset since they finished their meals in record time and practically pushed me back towards the challenge the moment that I was finished.

It turned out that a good rest was the main thing that we needed since we immediately broke our record from the previous day and got a streak of five. It ended up being my fault that we didn't get it on the first attempt of the day since I was so overeager to finally be done that I skipped checking my notes and mixed up which of the two colors Peren was assigned to. After apologizing, I tapped the start button for what would hopefully be the last time.

"Dee!" "Chi!" As soon as I heard my Pokemon's cries I mashed my finger on the orange circle. While we had just failed because I hadn't bothered to check my notes, it really wasn't worth taking the time to check on the first shape given that we could start a new one immediately after if I did get it wrong. The screen momentarily flashed green to indicate that I'd made the correct choice and I was once again greeted with the all too familiar grid of shapes.

"Ind!" This time there was a pause and I gave my Pokemon a thumbs up without turning around so they knew that I was ready for the color.

"Fle!" Blitz added loudly and I mashed the red triangle after quickly consulting my notes and my selection was immediately confirmed.

The next three shapes similarly went without any issues and I took a deep breath to steady myself when the screen cleared for the last one. "Pach!" Scout eagerly called out and I nodded before giving them another thumbs up.

"Ing!" Peren clearly enunciated and after triple checking my notes, I slowly tapped the green square. The screen flashed black and my heart sunk, only to be elated when it updated to have a large 'Congratulations' written across the top with instructions for tracking the success beneath.

"We got it!" I gleefully shouted and got relieved cheers in response from Peren and Scout. I quickly jotted down the code that was on the screen before turning around with a wide grin. Scout was practically dancing around her teammates while Peren watched with a smile. Blitz hadn't moved from his spot next to the screen and simply gave me a short nod which I gratefully returned. "You guys did amazing. One down and two to go!"

My words didn't quite have the desired effect as Scout immediately ceased her celebrations and the other two got pained expressions. I didn't really disagree with them though and hoped that the next two challenges weren't nearly as bad as the first had been. At this point, I definitely preferred Aeric's challenge of defeating a single gym trainer instead of this convoluted mess. Knowing that there was no salvaging the mood, I switched tactics, "Well, we won't know until we get to the next one. Are you guys alright if we head out right away?"

Given that none of them were any more interested in sticking around than I was, a few minutes later I was back to biking on the road with Blitz soaring above me. While yesterday's bike ride had been filled with thoughts of the upcoming weeks, this one was instead focused on imagining what else the gym challenge would involve. The most annoying thing was that I was presumably supposed to learn something from the trial, but I was at a loss for what it was. So far all that I had 'learned' was that trial and error eventually worked, which was a concept I was definitely already familiar with.

After a short stop for lunch along the way, we arrived at the park that hosted the Beta challenge in the early afternoon. This challenge was much farther inward than the previous one had been so I ended up biking much of the length of the state park before finally reaching a large field that was fairly close to the lake. My initial impression was that this challenge was significantly lower-tech than the previous one had been given that there wasn't a computer screen in sight. Actually, the only things that I could see were four differently colored buckets scattered around the field and a small crate next to a sign on the other side of the field.

I'd run out of path so I walked my bike over to the sign while sending out Peren and Scout along the way. When we reached it, Blitz silently landed next to us and after my more sociable Pokemon greeted him, all three quieted down so that I could read the instructions.

The Beta challenge is intended to test the bond between a trainer and their Pokemon by forcing a Pokemon to put their full trust into their trainer's commands. The challenger's Pokemon must carry six balls from this location to the receptacle that has the color that matches that of the ball on the other end of the field. All Pokemon must be blindfolded while attempting the task. While the trial has no time limit, placing a ball into the wrong colored receptacle will result in having to restart that ball from the beginning.

Note that while it is not required, it is highly recommended to attempt the trial with more than one Pokemon at a time.

My initial impression was that this trial sounded a lot less difficult than the previous one had and it might actually be a little fun. A quick check inside the crate confirmed that there were eight black cloth blindfolds and about a dozen balls in four different colors. I grabbed six of the balls and dropped them on the ground before also retrieving three of the blindfolds and turning to my Pokemon. Scout apparently had the same impression as me about the challenge possibly being fun since she immediately picked up one of the balls and bounded to my side so that I could affix her blindfold.

After a moment of consideration, I decided to at least try what the sign suggested and attempt the trial with multiple Pokemon at the same time. Once Scout had been dealt with, a much more muted Peren was next to get blindfolded and finally a very unenthusiastic Blitz. Both of them had to carry their balls in their mouths which I suspected was a factor in their reluctance.

I slowly guided all three of them so that they were facing in the right direction before asking, "You guys ready to get started?" When I got nods, I smiled and continued, "Alright, so just go straight for-"

I cut myself off when Blitz immediately flapped his wings and took off at the same second that Scout took off across the field in a full sprint. Peren was more cautious than the other two and he slowly and purposefully started to walk across the field.

Thankful that I had at least one Pokemon with sense, I called out, "Blitz land! You're going to go past them." I wasn't sure if it was because he was still getting used to his more powerful wings, but he crossed most of the field in only a few seconds, forcing him to unexpectedly have to land in a heap at my command. "Maybe try walking," I added before I was forced to turn my attention to Scout who had angled herself in the wrong direction and was about to run right off of the field.

Once she was headed back towards her bucket, I had to help Blitz readjust as he turned his head, unsure of which way to go after his hasty landing. "Okay, keep turning… and stop! Now just keep going in that direction for about twenty feet." Blitz adjusted his body so that it was facing the same direction as his head before slowly walking forward. A quick glance at Peren confirmed that he was still hesitantly making his way towards his bucket. I figured I should let him know that so I called over, "You're doing great Peren, just keep at it."

With all three of my Pokemon temporarily squared away, I momentarily relaxed and took a deep breath. Some rustling grass at the edge of the clearing distracted me from my attempt to recenter myself, though I didn't get a chance to investigate it since Scout reached her bucket before I could get a good look. Once I'd confirmed that it was the right bucket and told her to come back, I returned my attention to the disturbance and squinted to try to see what was the cause. Because of its distinctive coloring against the green of the grass, I immediately spotted a black and yellow head peering out at my Pokemon. I didn't recognize the Pokemon and the fact that I couldn't spot any discernable eyes didn't help my attempts at identification.

A muffled squawk made me return my attention to the field and once I'd confirmed that Blitz had also located the correct bucket, he dropped it in and began unhappily walking back to my side. The rest of the trial went fairly smoothly and I stole glances at the unidentified Pokemon whenever I got the chance, but I still couldn't figure out what Pokemon it was. I eventually decided that it must be a regional variant, which made me even more curious as to what it could be.

His slow and steady pace meant that Peren was the last to finish his two deliveries, and the trial as a whole, by several minutes. I quickly congratulated all three Pokemon before jogging over to where the unidentified Pokemon had been, only to be disappointed when it was nowhere to be found. I briefly considered hunting through the tall grass to find it but decided that that would likely be a fruitless endeavor given that the Pokemon hadn't seemed particularly large.

When I turned back around, I saw my Pokemon were giving me questioning looks so I shrugged, "Nevermind, don't worry about it. Anyway, we did really well today. Let's set up camp and then just relax the rest of the evening." There was still more than enough daylight to make a couple more hours of progress towards the third trial, but I frankly wasn't feeling up to it. My legs were sore after the amount of biking that I'd done the last two days and I wasn't sure if we'd be able to find a good campsite on the way to the third trial. Plus, when I'd been making my way to the trial on my bike, I'd spotted a sign for a campground close to where we were.

After retrieving my rented bike from where I had parked it at the trial, the four of us slowly made our way to the campground. I was a little surprised to find the site empty before deciding that anyone else would prefer one of the sites that weren't right next to shouting trainers. At any rate, I certainly wasn't disappointed by the lack of company and put myself to the usual task of setting up the tent.

While the Pokemon normally relaxed while I set up camp, this time I asked them to collect wood for a campfire. The weather had cooled enough that a fire would be welcome and we still had plenty of energy to set one, unlike the previous evening. Once the tent had been set up and I'd arranged the collected wood into a teepee, I retrieved my lighter from my backpack before pausing and asking, "Hey Blitz, can you light this?"

Blitz had just come back with a few branches in his beak and deposited them at my side before strutting over to the firepit. He made a deep chirp, shook himself a little, and then coughed on the wood but no flames came out. Blitz's eyes narrowed and he repeated the process a few more times, but the closest he came to success was making a single spark fly out of his beak that landed on one of the pieces of the wood before going out.

"Hey, no worries. Guess I know what we're going to work on next for you," I quickly said before he could become frustrated enough to Flame Charge the logs. While the attack would likely be successful in the sense that it would light the wood, it was also almost sure to send them flying everywhere. Blitz reluctantly backed up and allowed me to ignite the fire with my lighter, grumbling as he went.

Several hours later, we had finished dinner and were sitting around the fire when Peren suddenly perked up and sharply looked back towards the trial. A moment later, Blitz also turned to look in the same direction and I realized that I could hear something rustling through the grass.

"Hello?" I cautiously called out, but whatever was causing the noise continued unabated. A few mildly terse seconds later, a black and yellow head came into the firelight followed quickly by a long body that had the same coloring and thickness. Without any hesitation, the unusual Pokemon slithered closer until it finally stopped just a foot away from Blitz and the fire. All of us were stunned by the sudden intrusion, except for Scout who jumped to her feet and walked right over to it with a curious chitter. The wild Pokemon lifted its head off of the ground and softly hissed at Scout. Peren and Blitz instantly relaxed and I followed their lead since it presumably wasn't hostile.

Given its body shape and the noises that it had made, I was fairly certain that the wild Pokemon was an Ekans. I couldn't remember what a normal Ekans looked like well enough to make a comparison so I loaded up my Poryphone and did an image search for the species. The most obvious difference between the picture on my phone and the Pokemon in front of me was its colorings. While a normal Ekans was entirely purple apart from its yellow underbelly, tail, and a single band at its neck, this one was pitch black except for two thin yellow lines that went down the entire length of its back. The Minnesotan Ekans also didn't have the rattle of a normal Ekans and appeared to be a bit skinnier and shorter than the image I was examining.

The rest of the evening was weirdly normal apart from our unexpected guest who did nothing except silently bask in the warmth of the flames. In fact, the only time that it did anything at all was when it was time to go to bed and I had Peren put out the remaining embers. As soon as the kicked-up dirt hit the fire, Ekans softly hissed but Peren paid it no mind and made his way into the tent. Scout eagerly followed him inside and I stood up with a stretch before moving to join them.

"Night Blitz," I called up to him before entering the tent but hesitated and added, "Night Ekans." Blitz chirped back from his perch above the tent while Ekans didn't react. I shrugged and then ducked into the tent, eager to curl up and go to sleep.


Thursday, September 28th, 2017

In the morning I was roused by a loud screech that I blearily recognized as Blitz. I was instantly fully awake and rushed out of the tent, worried that he had gotten into another fight with a wild Pokemon. The first thing that I noticed was that Ekans was still in the same spot that it had been when I'd gone to sleep and the snake Pokemon slowly brought its head up to regard me silently. Since Ekans didn't appear to be the cause of Blitz's noise, I looked around for several seconds trying to find Blitz before I finally spotted him hovering above the lake.

Blitz was intently looking at the water so I followed his gaze to see a Shellder drifting on the surface of the lake below him. My bird Pokemon cawed loudly again and this time the Shellder submerged beneath the water, vanishing from sight. Blitz circled the spot where the Shellder had been a few more times before flying back towards me with an annoyed expression.

"What did you want me to do about it?" I asked, equally annoyed, but Blitz ignored me. I groaned before turning back to the tent where Peren and Scout were peeking their heads out. "It was only a Shellder. Someone just got a bit too excited about it," I explained to the pair while Blitz protested with another loud caw.

Since we were all already awake, I decided to start breakfast and camp teardown a bit earlier than usual. After serving up food for my Pokemon as usual, I decided to put some in front of Ekans as well. The wild Pokemon eyed the pellets of food somewhat suspiciously until Scout chittered something and Ekans finally started to eat.

While I worked on putting away the tent, I slowly considered asking if Ekans wanted to come with us. I had missed a possible Shellder capture, but it would still be nice to get another Pokemon added to my team given Blitz's new weaknesses. There hadn't been much of a chance to get a good read on Ekans's personality yet, but at the same time, there hadn't been any red flags. Plus, I had to admit that I was curious what was special about Minnesotan Ekans. The coloring made me think it was possibly a dark type, which would be interesting since it would mean stronger Bites and Crunches.

Having made up my mind by the time that I was finished, I crouched down in front of Ekans noting that it had absolutely devoured its food. "So Ekans, you interested in coming with us? We'd be happy to have you." The snake Pokemon narrowed its eyes at me without making any other move. Realizing that I hadn't actually given it any reason why it should come with, I struggled for a few seconds before lamely adding, "We'll have more campfires and food?"

Oddly enough, this seemed to be what Ekans was looking for since it slowly nodded. I grinned and dug through my backpack to find one of my unused Pokeballs, noting in the process that I only had two left after this one. When I turned back to face Ekans, Peren and Scout had come closer to watch the proceedings while Blitz stayed up in the trees, possibly still sulking about the Shellder.

Feeling weird that I had effectively bribed a Pokemon to join us with the strangest possible reasoning, I hesitated before holding out the Pokeball and added, "If at some point you decide you don't want to stick with us anymore, just let me know and I can release you." It occurred to me that I didn't know how to release a Pokemon, but reasoned that I'd burn that bridge if I ever came to it.

Ekans apparently didn't share my reservations since it gave me another nod so I lightly tapped the Pokeball against Ekan's snout. The Pokemon was instantly sucked into the ball which shook exactly twice before dinging. As soon as the capture was confirmed, I sent Ekans back out of its new ball and the newest member of our team was greeted with cheers from Peren and Scout. Ekans simply nodded and hissed something in reply, but it must have been positive since neither of the other two seemed dissuaded.

"I'm glad to have you Ekans and I hate to break this up right away, but the next challenge is going to be a longer bike ride than the other two. You guys mind if we head out right away and then you can all visit over lunch?" None of them protested so I tapped their Pokeballs in sequence to return the three grounded Pokemon leaving only Blitz and myself.

While I had said that I wanted to get going right away, there was one thing that I wanted to check first rather than wondering about the entire bike ride so I grabbed my Poryphone. When the Pokemon app loaded, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed when I saw that Minnesotan Ekans were a pure normal typed species. After a few seconds of staring at the entry, I shrugged and returned the device to my pocket before getting on the bike. While it wasn't the most exciting outcome, there was nothing wrong with normal Pokemon and I was still looking forward to seeing what he could do.

Despite the distance between the second and third trials, we made surprisingly good time and arrived at the Alpha challenge in the middle of the afternoon. Unlike the other two trials, it was located in a small town and the instructions weren't nearly as convoluted and involved. In fact, all the notice board said was 'Scavenger Hunt,' followed by a list of twenty items that we were supposed to find and instructions to write down where each item was found.

In the end, the scavenger hunt ended up taking only a bit less time than the shape one had, but it was actually fun. After I'd listed off the items that we were supposed to find, Blitz immediately took to the skies to try to find things as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for him, it seemed that the organizers had accounted for airborne Pokemon since most of the things that we were supposed to find were underneath something else, which meant that the only items that he was able to locate were the flag, the umbrella, and the statue of a Basculin.

Unsurprisingly, Scout was the most successful at finding things with Ekans being a close second place as the two Pokemon darted around the small town going from one item to the next. While Scout's efforts were haphazard, Ekans took a much more methodical approach as he searched, which meant that he came across several items that Scout had run right past. Peren and I ended up finding exactly zero things since all of our time was devoted to chasing after the other three Pokemon and apologizing to the several townspeople that Scout just about bowled over in her excitement.

I was completely exhausted at the end of the three hours that it took us to finish the trial, but I smiled widely at my team and deeply thanked them for all of their hard work. There wasn't enough daylight left to make it worthwhile to start heading back to Garrison, but I didn't mind sticking around town. A little extra rest before tomorrow's gym battle wouldn't be a bad idea, plus I was curious to see what moves our newest member knew. Blitz was fast enough that I was moderately confident he could dodge most water attacks, but I preferred not to risk it now that I had options.


A/N: Thanks to krazykz for betaing, next up is Chapter 11: Rain Delay