Friday, September 29th, 2017

When we arrived back in Garrison a little after noon, I decided that we should get lunch first instead of calling the gym right away. I didn't want to have to do the gym battle on an empty stomach and it didn't make sense to get a ride back to the gym, only to leave for a half-hour or more to go get food. It turned out that Garrison was a small enough town that it had exactly one fast-food restaurant, so once again we had Combusken's for lunch.

After we had finished our meals, I called up the gym while walking my borrowed bike back to the garage with my Pokemon following close behind. Ekans seemed to be fitting into the party pretty well, though he hadn't seemed particularly impressed by any of the poffins that he had been offered for lunch. Our tests the previous night had revealed that he had a surprisingly extensive move list, which had cemented his position in my roster for the gym battle. Blitz had protested loudly at my decision, though I was eventually able to calm him down by reminding him how much he had hated the rain and that the gym fight would likely be much worse than that.

My musings ended when the call connected after the fourth ring and a man's voice answered at the other end, "Brainerd gym. How can I help you?"

"Hi, my name is Thomas Fitzgerald," I said while realizing that I had never given the gym my name. With that in mind, I quickly clarified, "I started the gym challenge on Monday. I've finished them and I'm back in Garrison."

There was silence on the other end of the line for several seconds and right as I was starting to think that the call had been disconnected, the man started speaking again, "I'm sorry. Normally people who bike for the trials take an extra day so we figured that you'd be done tomorrow. And well, with it being the weekend and all, Caroline decided to take off a bit early..." He trailed off apologetically before adding, "I can still come and pick you up though!"

I was frustrated at the news that I'd have to wait another three days before the gym battle but didn't want to take it out on this guy if it was the gym leader that decided to bug out early. Instead of complaining like I wanted to, I just answered, "Fine. I'm at the garage."

"I'll be there right away!" The man promised and promptly hung up.

I moved my Poryphone away from my face and stared at it for a few seconds, then sighed and looked at my team. "Guess we've got a few more days to kill before we can fight in the gym." The news was largely met with indifference from my Pokemon, which surprised me until I realized that normally Blitz was the only one rearing for a fight. However, in this case, he was also the only one who wouldn't be participating.

My Pokemon's lack of excitement aside, I didn't have anything to do while waiting to get picked up, so I ended up just leaning against the garage reading for the half-hour that it took for my ride to arrive. As soon as the van arrived, the man that had driven it on Monday rushed out and profusely apologized again. Once I'd assured him that it was alright and returned my Pokemon, we put the bike back in the garage and within a couple of minutes, we were back on our way to Brainerd.

The woman that had accompanied us before was nowhere to be found so I got to sit in the van's passenger seat instead of being relegated to the back. Recalling the reason for her presence in the first place, I asked, "I thought you weren't supposed to give rides by yourself?"

"I got promoted!" The man replied proudly before frowning slightly and adding, "Though I think it was mostly because Penelope complained that she had to sit in the car for an hour."

"Well, either way, congrats." My words were answered with a grateful nod, and the two of us fell into silence as I watched the scenery whiz past.

We had made it most of the way back to Brainerd when my Poryphone began buzzing in my pocket. After a brief struggle with getting my hand into my pocket while sitting down, I managed to retrieve it and saw that it was Tammy calling.

"You can answer it," the driver offered as he glanced over.

"Nah, I can just text her back," I said as I declined the call and sent Tammy an explanation text. 'Sorry. Being driven back to the Brainerd gym.'

Tammy's reply came only seconds later, 'No problem. Good luck with the gym battle!'

'Thanks,' I replied and returned my phone to my pocket with only slightly less effort than it had required to take it. I decided that the exchange probably sufficed for our weekly check-in, which meant that there wasn't anything that I needed to worry about until Monday. As annoyed as I was about the delay, I had to admit that the idea of an entire weekend off certainly sounded appealing. The only other time that I hadn't been on the move since coming to this world was while we were staying in the St Cloud Pokemon Center, and any relaxation on those days had been soured by my worries about Scout.

When we arrived back at the gym, the driver led me back to the desk at the building's entrance. "Alright," he said as he sat down and turned on a tablet that he'd picked up along the way. "What date and approximate time did you complete the Beta challenge?"

I paused for the few seconds that it took for me to get the timeline set in my head, "Wednesday late afternoon I think."

He hummed softly as he entered something into the tablet and moved his finger across the touchscreen. After a bit he looked back up at me, "I found the playback of your attempt so you should be good to go there. Do you have the locations for the Alpha trial and code from Gamma?"

Having expected the question, I had already pulled up my notes on my Poryphone and held out the device for him to read, "Info is all right here."

He took less than ten seconds to scan through my notes before nodding at me with a smile. "Looks like you're all squared away. I'll leave a message for Caroline so that she knows about your challenge so she should be ready first thing Monday. I'm sorry again about the delay."

"It's fine," I assured for the umpteenth time, "Have a good one."

He gave me a small wave as I turned to leave, only for him to speak up again after I'd barely taken two steps, "Actually, could you do me a favor and take down the sign on the door as you leave? You can just drop it on the floor."

"Sure," I said without turning around and grabbed the laminated sign that hung from a string on the door. I curiously flipped it over to see the other side, revealing black text on a light blue background that declared, 'Be Back Soon!' Bizarrely, the message was accompanied by a picture of a Slowpoke which I felt sent somewhat of a mixed message. It felt a little weird to just drop it on the floor but without anywhere else to set it, I did as I was told and the sheet flapped to the ground as I made my exit.

Without any other pressing concerns, I set out looking for a spot where I could pitch my tent for a couple days. Once I'd gotten that taken care of, we'd be free to spend the rest of the time relaxing and getting some last-minute training in.


Monday, October 2nd, 2017

I ended up arriving at the gym around ten in the morning, having had quite enough of rain. While Friday and Saturday had been pleasant and we'd gotten a decent amount of training in, Sunday had rained almost the entire day and the morning had been more of the same. Eventually, it had let up enough that I decided to take down my tent and make a dash through the drizzle in an attempt to stay as dry as possible, but I'd been far from successful on that count.

This time when I walked through the gym's doors I saw a woman that I hadn't met yet reading a novel. Unlike the half-hearted greeting I'd gotten last time, her head shot up as soon as I entered the building and she snapped her book shut. "Are you Thomas?" She asked earnestly and scrambled to her feet when I nodded. "I'm so sorry you had to wait the entire weekend. I would have come back right away if I knew that there was a challenger, but Bill didn't know he should have called me and…"

I waved off her hurried apologies with a shrug, "Honestly, it was a little nice to get a little extra training and have a couple days to relax."

She took a deep breath and visibly relaxed, "Well then, I'm glad to hear it. We can have our battle right away, I'm Caroline if that wasn't app- Oh my goodness, you're soaking! Let me get you a towel!" Before I could say that wasn't necessary, she rushed off to a side room and returned seconds later with a sky blue towel that was shoved into my arms.

"Uh, thanks," I said before drying off my face and then rubbing it against my wet hair, leaving strands messed up in every direction. Caroline laughed softly when I'd finished and I quickly patted it mostly flat before coughing awkwardly, "So you said we can battle right away?"

"Yes, follow me," she promptly replied and beckoned me to follow as she walked to a different doorway along the long hall that made up the gym's entrance. Eager to finally have the battle, I followed Caroline into the room. The gym's battlefield turned out to be a large pool that had two rather odd features. The first was that it had an extremely unusual shape that I eventually figured out was supposed to be the shape of Mille Lacs. The second oddity was that there was a slate gray platform that covered the top of the pool except for about a one-yard border all around where the water was exposed. The platform was completely flat apart from a hole about a yard across in the middle that opened up into the pool below.

While I'd been considering the battlefield, Caroline walked over to the far side of the pool and called over to me, "Does a three versus three battle with challenge substitutions sound good?"

"Sure," I replied before hesitating, "Are we going to have a ref?"

Caroline had been starting to reach for the first Pokeball attached to the tote bag she was carrying but stopped with a sigh at my question. "Let me guess. Your first gym battle was against Aeric?"

"Um, yeah?"

My confirmation prompted a scoff and eye-roll from the gym leader, "I don't know how that man got a gym. As far as I know, he's the only one of us that uses a referee for their matches. The rest of us are responsible enough to handle it ourselves." She ended her miniature tirade with an apologetic headshake, "Sorry. Any other questions?"

"Uh, no, I'm ready to go," I replied, slightly taken aback by the sudden shift in her demeanor.

The change turned out to leave as quickly as it came since Caroline smiled, "Alright then, the battle will begin once both of our Pokemon are on the field." With that, she pressed the button on one of her Pokeballs and a Corphish materialized a moment later on the platform.

I was about to follow her lead and send out one of my Pokemon when I realized that I still had the towel in my hand. Not wanting to hold it for the entire battle, I hung the towel around my neck since there wasn't anywhere to set it other than the floor, which seemed like it would be a bit rude. With that taken care of, I pressed the button on my leftmost Pokeball, and the red light shot towards the edge of the platform in front of me.

"Taunt!" Caroline called the moment that Scout appeared. Matching its trainer's decisiveness, Corphish immediately began clacking its pincers open and shut while making a loud clicking noise. Whatever Corphish said made Scout fire off a Thunder Shock while charging forward before I could give a command, but I was far from upset about it. Scout was still working on learning Thunder Wave, which meant that her only moves were still Thunder Shock and Growl.

Corphish tried to scuttle out of the way of the jolt of electricity flying towards him but wasn't able to move fast enough and convulsed when Scout's attack connected. "Get in the pool!" Caroline called out, and Corphish scuttled the few steps back that put its hind legs over the edge of the platform, allowing itself to fall into the waiting water with a splash. Corphish's entry into the water was accompanied by a second bolt of electricity that hit the platform where the crab Pokemon had been standing a moment before.

Presumably because of the Taunt, Scout chased after her opponent with uncharacteristic aggressiveness and had made it most of the way across the platform before I could call out a warning, "Don't get too close to the edge! Don't let it sneak up on you!" My words jolted Scout back to awareness and she skidded to a stop halfway between the hole in the center and where Corphish had vanished. Split between the two sections of water, she slowly began moving to the outside edge of the platform with her ears twitching as she went. Every couple of seconds, there was a splashing sound and Scout would turn towards the noise, only for there to be no trace of her opponent.

After the fourth such splash, a column of water suddenly erupted from the central hole in the platform with Corphish riding on top. With speed that I was used to only seeing from Blitz, Corphish rode the water and smashed one of its pincers into Scout before she could jump out of the way. If being hit by Corphish wasn't bad enough, the jet of water engulfed Scout before she could recover, knocking her off of her feet and back several feet.

"Keep it down with Bubblebeam!" Caroline called out and once again Corphish obeyed its trainer's command without hesitation, firing a steady stream of bubbles out from its left claw. Scout tried to pull herself back to her feet but was buffeted by the bubbles and forced back down.

"Use Thunder Shock on the ground!" I yelled and Scout stopped trying to right herself to send electricity right into the puddle that she was laying in. Corphish tried to scuttle out of the puddle that it was standing in at Caroline's warning but didn't have nearly enough time to get to safety. Its surprise attack had almost completely covered the platform with water so Scout's electric attack quickly arced across the entire surface, shocking the crustacean again.

Now that she was able to regain her footing, Scout staggered back to her feet and I was thankful to see that she didn't seem too worse for wear from her attack. I was well aware of the dangers of mixing water and electricity but, as I'd hoped, she appeared to be insulated enough that there was very little feedback. On the other hand, her opponent wasn't nearly as lucky and the latest attack had caused its legs to give out as smoke gently wafted off of it.

Despite its injuries, Corphish was still trying to regain its footing and Caroline hadn't returned her Pokemon. "Finish it off with another Thunder Shock!" I called out and Scout immediately complied by shooting off another small bolt of electricity that flew through the air and hit Corphish directly. This time, Caroline's Pokemon wasn't able to stay conscious after the attack and it unceremoniously fell forward onto its face.

The familiar red light engulfed Corphish a second after it hit the floor and when I looked at Caroline, I saw her softly say something to the Pokeball she was holding before reattaching it to her tote bag and grabbing another. She paused to give me an encouraging smile before sending out her next Pokemon, "You're up next Lotad!" A moment later, a Pokemon that was more lilly pad than animal appeared in front of her and made a bizarre croaking noise.

While Caroline had been busy switching her Pokemon, Scout had shaken the remaining water off of her fur and ran back to my end of the platform. She tilted her head curiously at the new arrival before giving me a questioning look. After a moment of consideration, I moved my hand down to her Pokeball and said, "Take a rest Scout." Before I could return her, Scout jumped across the gap of water to land at my side where she looked up at me and chittered excitedly. "That works too," I said with a shrug as I knelt down to scratch her behind the ear while simultaneously pressing the button on a different Pokeball.

"An Ekans," Caroline said with a considering tone from the other side of the field. "That wasn't listed as one of your Pokemon on the report that Bill gave me."

"Sorry, I caught him after the second trial," I hurriedly explained while jolting back to my full height. "Is that a problem?" Given that her second Pokemon was a Lotad, Blitz actually would be a viable choice if I could only use the Pokemon that I'd originally registered for the challenge with. Even so, I would still prefer to stick with Ekans if I had the choice.

My fears were quickly put to rest since Caroline reassured, "No, it's perfectly fine, Ekans are wonderful Pokemon. Now Lotad, let's start this off with a Growl." The unusual croak that Lotad had made when it had been sent out was repeated, though this time it was significantly louder and Ekans shied away slightly at the noise. Not content with just making its opponent cringe, Lotad continued making the noise until it started reverberating around the room.

"Glare Ekans!" I almost shouted so I could be heard and Ekans sharply turned its gaze towards Lotad. Within a second, Lotad quieted and once again the only sound in the room was the soft lapping of the water against the side of the pool. "Wrap and Bite!" I commanded at a much softer volume and Ekans darted across the platform towards his stunned opponent. Ekans slithered to Lotad with surprising speed and within seconds he was firmly coiled around the other Pokemon.

Lotad regained its senses and started struggling to free itself right as Ekans opened his mouth to Bite down on his trapped prey. However, before he could continue his assault, Caroline called out, "Mega Drain!" Undeterred by Caroline's command, Ekans bit down hard on Lotad at the same time that its lilly pad began to glow green. The strength of Ekans's Wrap loosened for a moment before he redoubled his efforts by tightening his grip and continuing to Bite as energy flowed from him to his opponent.

"Keep at it Ekans! Focus on trying to disrupt its attack with Wrap!" I called out, hoping it was the correct decision. Ekans didn't have any damaging ranged moves so as tempting as it was to disengage, I was fairly sure that would put us at an even further disadvantage. Since we had to stay close, I would just have to hope that our damage would outpace Lotad's damage and healing. It would have been a much easier call if Ekans was a poison type like what was usual for its species, but I had to make do with what I had.

Caroline was apparently equally happy to maintain the current battle state since she also stayed silent and the two of us watched as our Pokemon struggled against each other. Ekans was putting all of his focus into Wrapping up Lotad tightly so his Bites had stopped while Lotad strained to free itself while somehow maintaining its concentration enough to continue using Mega Drain. After about fifteen seconds of no visible change in the battle, Ekans suddenly uncurled and only managed to slither a few inches away from Lotad before collapsing to the platform.

"Dang it," I muttered as I watched Lotad shakily pull itself to its feet. I was about to return Ekans and send Peren out to finish off Caroline's second Pokemon when a black tail shot out and smacked Lotad right across the face. The surprise Pound attack was enough to deal the final blow as Lotad dropped back down while Ekans did the same, the last of both of their energy spent.

"Well done!" Caroline called warmly from the other side of the room while she returned Lotad. "It appears those couple of extra days paid off if you only caught Ekans last week."

I silently nodded as I returned the Pokemon in question, knowing full well her praise was undeserved. Other than learning what all the moves were that Ekans knew, I really hadn't given him any training time, instead focusing all my efforts on helping Peren get some last-minute prep. Deciding to hold Scout in the reserves, I sent out Peren hoping that the extra time had been worth it.

Peren shook himself slightly as he appeared, pausing to give the pool a wary look before looking up to see his opponent. Caroline's last Pokemon turned out to be a Frogadier which casually rocked itself back and forth on its heels while waiting for the battle to start. Hoping to press what should be our advantage, I quickly called out to lead with Bullet Seed. Peren immediately angled his head down slightly and fired off a salvo of seeds from the top of his head towards the other side of the field. At this distance, it was fairly unlikely that our first attack would hit, but I wanted to immediately put the gym leader's Pokemon on the back-foot and force it to come to us.

"Bounce!" Caroline commanded with a smile and Frogadier lept into the air with Peren's attack flying harmlessly beneath it. Not missing a beat, Peren angled his head toward Frogadier and continued firing off seeds at the approaching frog Pokemon. A good number of the seeds hit their target, but Frogadier didn't seem particularly bothered by the attack and continued falling down towards Peren with one leg outstretched.

Right before Frogadier reached Peren, I felt a strong sense of deja vu as I called out, "Camoflague!" Just like in our battle against Aeric, Peren stood his ground until the last second before flashing white and turning gray just as his opponent hit it with a flying attack. As had happened in that first gym battle, Peren staggered backward slightly from the blow but quickly righted himself. Frogadier didn't seem fazed by Peren's sudden color change and silently hopped back after its attack, waiting for new orders.

"Well, this will be a very interesting matchup," Caroline said as our two Pokemon silently regarded each other.

"Your Frogadier has Protean, right?" I asked, almost completely sure of the answer given how ineffective the move that Peren had worked so hard to learn had been.

Caroline looked mildly impressed at my question, "Well spotted! Yes, he does. Normally it takes more than one move before a novice rank trainer sees what's going on."

"Leech Seed! It won't matter what type it is for that!" I called, once again ignoring what I deemed to be undeserved praise. As a flurry of Leech Seeds flew through the air, I couldn't help but muse that my claim might not be completely accurate. With the battle rules that I was used to, grass Pokemon weren't affected by Leech Seed, though it was likely a moot point given I doubted that Frogadier knew a grass move. Though, that did make me wonder what would happen if a Pokemon became seeded and then changed its type to grass afterward.

My meandering thoughts on battle mechanics were put to a stop by the actual battle in front of me when Frogadier tried to avoid the incoming projectiles. Peren's practice had paid off in more than one way and now his Leech Seeds were noticeably faster than before, which meant that a couple of the seeds hit Frogadier's left leg as it jumped away.

"Well, that's not great," Caroline said with a frown when the seeds began to sprout as soon as Frogadier landed. "Let's return the favor with Water Pulse." Her newly repositioned Pokemon nodded and opened its mouth with a croak and started firing rings of various sizes towards Peren. The water rings weren't particularly fast as they crept across the battlefield, but Frogadier had quickly made a half dozen of them and didn't seem to be slowing down. While it normally would have been fairly trivial to outrun the attack, the first few rings it made were particularly large before they started to taper off in size. That meant that the Water Pulse had formed what looked like a funnel between the two Pokemon, leaving Peren with few opportunities for escape.

"Back up and use Bullet Seed to disrupt!" I ordered. Peren lowered his head towards his opponent again and fired off another round of Bullet Seeds while slowly stepping back towards the edge of the platform. Unfortunately, he hadn't moved up much from the edge to begin with and after the Bounce attack had forced him back, he didn't have much space to work with. Another negative to my new strategy was that we hadn't practiced using Bullet Seed while moving, which meant that Peren's accuracy suffered and only a couple of the seeds hit Frogadier. Even with its renewed weakness to grass, the seeds that hit were only enough to make the frog momentarily flinch before resuming its attack.

Peren's reduced accuracy led to one unexpected result in that one of the stray bullets hit one of the green globes formed by Leech Seed. The moment that the seed made contact with the globe, it exploded with a small pop, disrupting the nearby Water Pulse rings for the couple seconds it took for them to regain their normal shape.

"I've never seen someone blow up their own Leech Seed," Caroline commented with a considering tone.

"It was definitely an accident," I admitted while I struggled to figure out a way out of our current predicament. It would have been ideal if the explosion had made any of the rings collapse since it would have given Peren an escape route, but it didn't look like that would be a viable option unless we could trigger multiple explosions at the same time. There wasn't enough time to set up that strategy even if it was possible, so I switched tracks to something decidedly less complicated. "Peren, can you swim?"

In lieu of an answer, Peren glanced at the water behind him before jumping back into it with a large splash. He quickly resurfaced and I was surprised by how well he could tread water given that I'd never seen him in a creek, let alone a deep pool. While the first of the Water Pulse attacks flew over his head, Peren once again flashed white and this time his coloring changed to be the same light blue as the pool's tiling. We ultimately weren't able to take advantage of Peren's reduced visibility because another Leech Seed orb began traveling from Frogadier directly towards him, revealing his position.

Frogadier hadn't been idle as Peren made his escape and bounded across the platform towards him, putting on an extra burst of speed when Caroline called for Quick Attack. Peren resumed firing Bullet Seeds at his approaching opponent as he slowly swam away to put more distance between them. A few of the Bullet Seeds went over or under Frogadier due to its hopping, but a good number did make contact this time. However, they still weren't enough to stop the frog and it crashed into Peren with another large splash of water.

My hand shot to Peren's Pokeball, ready to return him in an instant if he got knocked out. While he could clearly swim just fine, I didn't want to run the risk that he wasn't buoyant and would sink as soon as he stopped treading water. That moment hadn't come yet as both Pokemon were still clearly conscious as they struggled in the water, with Peren doing his best to swim backward while Frogadier continually rammed into him. Not wanting a repeat of the day that Blitz evolved, I followed them around the perimeter of the pool with Scout following, making sure that they stayed with the recall range.

After several exchanges, the pattern was broken when another Leech Seed orb appeared and was promptly burst by Peren's Bullet Seed. The resulting explosion made water fly everywhere, momentarily obscuring my sight of the two Pokemon. I instantly mashed my thumb down on Peren's Pokeball and I was relieved to see him inside of it when the red light dissipated. The water settled back down a moment later, revealing a knocked out Frogadier floating on the surface for a second before it was likewise returned.

"An excellent battle," Caroline praised as she made her way over to me and returned her Pokemon. "It's not every day that you see two double KO's in a single match."

Scout cheered at the news of our victory while I silently double-checked Peren's Pokeball. When I verified that he was still conscious within, I sent him back out and couldn't help but give Caroline a cheeky grin. Rather than join Scout in celebrating, Peren stepped away from the rest of us to shake the water off of himself.

"...Ah, make that a single double KO. Well, at any rate, I have your rewards right here," Caroline said while reaching inside her bag. After a moment of rummaging, she retrieved several small objects and handed them off to me. An examination of the items confirmed that the rewards for beating the gym were the same as it had been in St Cloud: a TM disc, a debit card, and a small badge, this one in the shape of a canoe. "The card has 250 dollars on it and the TM contains Water Pulse, which can be quite useful if your opponent allows it to land. Lastly, that badge is the Canoe Badge and will be valid until October third, 2019."

My head shot back up at her odd statement, "What do you mean valid?"

Caroline gave me a confused frown for a second before rolling her eyes, "Of course he didn't explain. I thought his brother at least would have- Anyway! Badges in the Minnesotan league expire after two years, which can cause you to drop divisions. You can rechallenge a gym leader to renew your badge, but the challenge will be at the highest division that you attained, not the one that you are currently in. It's really just there to make sure that trainers stay sharp."

I nodded absently at the information, deciding that it made sense. Ultimately, I hoped that it wouldn't be a factor for me, given how long two years was. Thinking on it some more, I actually wished that they expired faster than two years since it would potentially mean that I could earn even more money from gyms.

"Well, you're all set to go," Caroline declared with a clap of her hands before gesturing towards the room's entrance. "I don't want to waste any more of your time. Oh, and you can keep that towel. It looks like your Deerling needs it."

A glance at Peren saw that while he'd been able to get most of the water out of his fur, he was far from dry. I thanked Caroline for everything before we followed her back to the gym's entryway and then headed outside once I'd confirmed that it hadn't started raining again. Outside the gym, I took a few minutes to put my newest spoils in my backpack and to pat Peren and Scout dry. Once those things had been taken care of, we made our way to the Pokemon Center to get them and Ekans healed back up.

Ten minutes later, I sat in the Pokemon Center and pondered what I should do next. Like I'd decided during the gym challenge, I didn't have much more time to earn badges before it was winter and my travel options were reduced to almost nothing. With that in mind, I wanted to try to earn at least one more badge before I was forced to return to Minneapolis. I used my Poryphone to double-check the list of gyms and after a minute I confirmed the suspicion that I'd already had: The Duluth gym was the only viable option.

The rest of the gyms in the northern half of the state either had types that would be too much of a challenge given my current team or were too far away from Brainerd. The steel-typed Duluth gym wasn't ideal when it came to the first factor but Blitz at least would have a good time with it. The other downside of Duluth was that I would have to travel cross-country, which meant that I would have fewer opportunities to resupply. The one upside was that Duluth was a big enough city that it was certainly possible that I would be able to find the things that I needed to winter there, which meant that I might not even have to return to Minneapolis.

With my mind made up, I waited for the Pokemon Center machines to finish their jobs before treating my Pokemon to yet another fast-food lunch. Once we were done eating, I stopped by the grocery store and was once again glad for my backpack's special properties. With weight not being a factor, I could comfortably stock up on enough food to last us the more than a week that it would take to reach Duluth. That said, the hit to my wallet was far less comfortable but I didn't have a choice in the matter. After one last stop at the Brainerd library, we set out northeast towards Duluth.


A/N: I promise that not every gym battle will turn into type-changing shenanigans. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Thanks to Star for betaing.

So the next chapter will likely be a bit delayed compared to my last few for a couple of reasons. The first reason is simply that my next two weeks are pretty busy so I won't have a ton of writing time. The second is that the next chapter is the last one that I had planned since day one of the fic, which means that my plans going forward are still in flux. I've got some pretty solid ideas for 13-16 now but I want to flesh them out some more before I continue on. At any rate, next up is Chapter 12: Pack Hunters.