A/N: A reader asked that I include a list of relevant Pokemon at the start of chapters so it's easier to keep nicknames straight, which seemed like a very reasonable request to me.

Thomas: Peren (Deerling), Blitz (Fletchinder), Scout (Pachirisu), Nin (Minnesotan Ekans), Shadow (Galarian Ponyta), Winter (Poochyena)


Saturday, April 21st, 2018

I felt a distinct sense of deja vu as I stood in front of the desk in the Aitkin Pokemon Center. I nodded along as Joy told me that Winter shouldn't get into anything strenuous for several days, but it would still be good for her to get some exercise. It was almost the exact same information I'd received when Scout had been released from the St Cloud Pokemon Center's care months prior. There was definitely a trend there and it wasn't one that I wanted to continue.

"Do you have any questions?" The nurse asked as she finished her spiel. When I shook my head, she handed me Winter's Pokeball with a smile. "In that case, I hope you have a good trip. And be sure to stop in and say hi the next time you're in town."

"Thank you, and will do," I promised before making my way back to the Center's entrance. When I got back outside, I saw Blitz and Shadow waiting by my bike, ready to go. Rather than hopping on it immediately, I sent out Winter and was struck by the incredible resilience of Pokemon. She looked nothing like the weakened Pokemon that had had surgery only a few days prior and seemed completely healthy to me.

I'd mostly sent her out to see how she was doing, but given her apparent health, I asked, "How are you feeling Winter? You feeling up for running along with Shadow while I bike?" When she replied with an eager yip, I cautioned, "Alright, but you have to let me know as soon as you start to feel tired." She nodded seriously so I looked back at my other two Pokemon. "You guys ready to go too?" Blitz nodded and I got an affirmative ping from Shadow. Neither of them had reacted much to Winter when I'd sent her out, and while that was normal behavior from Blitz, it made it clear how much Shadow was still stilted since she couldn't use her usual form of communication to interact with Winter.

As I got on my bike and started heading north-east out of town with all three Pokemon following me, I hoped that Shadow would be able to make quick progress on learning Miracle Eye now that the two of them would be able to spend time together. None of my Pokemon had spent too much time in the recovery room with Winter so they hadn't gotten the chance to get to know each other much yet. Peren had been the one who had spent the most amount of time with Winter, which gave me the impression that his opinion on Winter had mellowed somewhat. I'd asked Scout once and she had declined, which was simultaneously understandable and surprising given how friendly she was.

I was biking a bit slower than usual for Winter's sake so it took a few hours before we arrived at another small town named McGregor. Winter had been able to easily keep up with the rest of us, which would have surprised me even if she hadn't been recovering. I'd made sure to check on her several times during the trip but each time she'd happily insisted that she could keep going. I decided to once again chalk it up to the large resiliency difference between Pokemon and animals. Granted, even back home I had never gone on a bike ride with a dog before, so it was definitely possible that a healthy dog would have been capable of the same feat.

As I biked through the tiny town, I decided that it would be a good place to stop for lunch and rest, so I kept an eye out for a park. I got a few looks from locals walking around and gave them a friendly smile back as I passed. Between Winter being healed, being back on the road, and temperatures in the mid-fifties, I was in a legitimately good mood. My only concern was that something could pop up during lunch that would ruin it. Scout hadn't seen Winter since the day that I'd caught her, and given how wary she'd been then, I hoped that there wouldn't be a scene over lunch.

With that in mind, I decided that it would be best to have everyone's food prepared immediately. When I found a park, I served up everyone's food, including filling up the new bowl that I'd bought for Winter. Once all of the food was out, I sent out the last three members of my team and took a nervous breath.

It was immediately evident that my plan to distract them with food hadn't worked because Scout scampered over to Winter's side the moment that she spotted her. To my surprise though, Scout's reaction wasn't the distrust that I'd expected, but instead she started chittering excitedly to Winter. The Poochyena seemed just as surprised as me by Scout's approach, but recovered quickly and gave Scout a friendly bark with her tongue rolling out of her mouth. Peren wasn't as visibly friendly as Scout, but he still seemed glad to see Winter outside of the Pokemon Center.

Once the greetings were out of the way, we all dug into our respective lunches. I was only halfway through the sandwich that I'd bought that morning before leaving when a glowing light pulled my attention away from my meal. Next to a nearly empty bowl of food was a fully white outline of Winter that was slowly growing larger. The rest of my Pokemon and I stared in silence while Winter grew to twice her previous height as her limbs grew longer, though she didn't gain much extra mass beyond that. As the light slowly faded away, Winter's color barely changed from the bright light as her new coat of fur was almost entirely white.

I just stared at Winter, completely flabbergasted by her sudden evolution. I had known that she must have been close to evolving if she had felt it necessary to swallow an Everstone, but I hadn't expected it to happen after only some exercise and a meal. Winter blinked and looked around from her new vantage point slowly as if she was equally surprised. When her gaze passed over Scout, the Pachirisu twitched and I gave a sympathetic wince. It was one thing for her to be friendly to Winter when she was the same size, but it was an entirely different matter now that the other Pokemon towered over her.

I knew that we would have to deal with that sooner than later, but for the time being, I returned my attention to Winter, who had started craning her head around to inspect her new body. I opened my mouth to congratulate her but was cut off by a loud, angry squawk from Blitz. Everyone looked over at the source of the noise, though after a moment Winter shifted her attention away from Blitz and looked at me with her head cocked.

"What is it, Blitz?" I asked with a barely suppressed sigh, but his only response was to repeat the noise. Significantly more helpful was the mental image I got from Shadow of a metal glove being thrown on the grass. I decided to not try to figure out how Shadow knew that turn of phrase and pinched my nose with an exasperated groan. "Really Blitz? She just evolved. And congratulations since I got interrupted before," I added, looking back at Winter.

Seemingly unperturbed by Blitz's challenge, Winter sat back on her haunches and barked happily, though it was much louder than the one that she had made before we had started eating. Peren flinched at the noise and Scout physically recoiled away from the other Pokemon. Winter instantly lowered her head and looked at Scout with wide eyes, whining softly.

I felt a bit bad about using something that Winter clearly felt bad about as an argument, but I gestured to Winter as I looked back at Blitz. "See? She's not even used to how loud she is yet. How do you expect her to give you a good battle already? At least wait a few days." Blitz imperiously considered for several seconds before finally nodding at me.

I rolled my eyes, glad that at least one metaphorical fire was temporarily out. Turning my attention back to the other one, I found that Winter had stooped so low that she was almost lying flat on the ground. Scout still looked a bit twitchy but seemed significantly calmer as she slowly chittered at the newly evolved Pokemon.

I checked to see how my other Pokemon were doing, but Nin and Shadow were as unreadable as always. The former had even gone back to his meal, ignoring the drama around him. Peren still looked tense as he stared at Winter, but forced himself to relax when he noticed my attention. While I was glad that things had seemingly calmed down without my interference, I knew that it was still something I would have to pay attention to in the near future.

Once everything had calmed down, lunch was finished without any further disruptions. After quickly cleaning up, we got back on the road to continue heading east to Duluth. The only difference from the first leg of the journey was that Winter ran into occasional issues with her new body, so we ended up traveling a bit slower despite her longer legs.


Monday, April 23rd, 2018

I pulled my bike over at the side of the road, having finally come across a clearing that was good enough sized to have a battle at. Since we still weren't in a hurry, I had decided to take the scenic route through Jay Cooke state park instead of heading straight for Duluth. Between the sudden increase in temperature and the beautiful scenery, the previous few days had been much more enjoyable than the Minneapolis to Aitkin leg of the journey.

Blitz must have recognized the reason for the stop since he immediately cried out loudly and flew to the far side of the clearing before turning back around and giving me an impatient look. "Yeah, yeah, hold your horses!" I called over to him, which prompted Blitz to stop and cock his head questioningly. I chuckled to myself, glad that my slip had distracted him for a few seconds at least. Taking full use of that time, I sent out my other three Pokemon, who all moved to the edge of the clearing. Peren and Scout gave some muted greetings to Winter, which I thought and hoped were good luck wishes.

When everyone else had moved out of the way, I looked down at the Pokemon in question at my side. "Are you ready?" Winter took several steps forward in front of me, staring down Blitz as she nodded. "Alright, let's get started off with a Howl then!" With the amount of time that Blitz and I had spent on his ranged options, I wasn't sure if it would be a terribly physical fight, but I wanted Winter to be ready just in case. While Winter sat back on her haunches and loudly Howled, Blitz streaked across the field toward her. I took a quick glance behind me and was glad to see that Peren and Scout didn't react to the Howl other than their ears twitching at the noise.

I returned my attention to the battle, squinting in the sun as I tried to spot what move Blitz was using. As I'd expected, his beak was glowing so I quickly called, "Dodge and Snarl!" Winter broke off her Howl to jump to the side just as Blitz soared overhead, but a couple of his Pecks still hit her. When her footing was stable again, Winter sounded a low, threatening growl that was accompanied by several arcs of dark purple energy. Blitz barely had to do any maneuvering to avoid the attack, using Quick Attack for a short burst of speed to get out of range. Once he was in the clear, he swung around for another run.

"Use another Snarl. Or Frost Breath if you feel up for it," I added as an afterthought. Winter decided to try her new move as she took a deep breath and exhaled in the path Blitz was taking, except only a few snowflakes came out of her mouth instead of a full attack. Blitz didn't even slow down as he punched through the lackluster attack and landed several more Pecks on Winter. She shook off the hits with a soft Growl and then barked out another Snarl, but Blitz dodged it once again.

Winter Howled ineffectually at Blitz's retreating form, though when he turned around again, flames started to form around his body. With Blitz switching to a physical move, Winter finally had a chance to retaliate, so I told her to use Tackle since I doubted that she'd be able to reliably land a Bite. Winter crouched in the grass, her full attention on Blitz, and then jumped up into the air when he was in range. Apparently sure of the flames that were surrounding him, Blitz didn't even try to maneuver out of the way. However, Winter was able to push through the heat and kept her momentum in order to barrel into the other Pokemon.

Both Pokemon were knocked backward from their respective hits and even though they both looked healthy enough to continue, I said, "Alright, let's call it here." Winter immediately accepted my decision and relaxed. I'd barely finished telling her good job before Blitz flew back over to my side, crying out in protest. Shaking my head slightly, I explained, "We're a couple of days from the nearest Pokemon Center, so if someone does get hurt, they're going to be stuck doing nothing for days."

Blitz thought about that for a few seconds before grudgingly nodding. I decided to push my luck, adding, "And speaking of getting hurt, you should have stuck to using Peck. You were completely safe in the air, so even if it isn't the most exciting, it's alright to stick to a safer strategy. The practice definitely wasn't bad though since I think you'll be using Flame Charge plenty in the gym." I pivoted slightly so that I could address my entire team. "We should start preparing for that actually. Since it's a steel type gym, I'll be counting on Peren and Shadow for Double Kick along with Blitz and Nin for their fire moves."

While all of the named Pokemon gave me nods or an affirmative ping in Shadow's case, Winter and Scout looked a bit disappointed. Singling them out, I added, "Even if you don't fight in the actual gym battle, I'll be counting on you two for the gym challenge. I'll need your help to avoid as many fights as possible and make sure everyone else is still healthy for the main challenge." Winter nodded eagerly at that and Scout did the same after taking a second to give her assigned partner an appraising look.

Not long after I'd revealed my otherworldly origins, Cait had taken some time to go over all of the gyms in the region since I didn't have the same background knowledge that other trainers had. She'd paid special attention to the Duluth gym since she stressed that no one challenged it as either their first or final badge. That was because the gym challenge was a maze that you had to work your way through, fighting any gym trainers that you stumbled across along the way. Critically, you weren't allowed to heal your Pokemon at any point during the challenge. Most new trainers didn't have the Pokemon to spare on the extra fights, which is why Cait had challenged the gym for her fourth badge, even though she had the type advantage with Houndy. On the other hand, no one wanted to challenge the gym for their twelfth badge either because no one wanted to have to fight Louie's real team without their own at full strength.

Since it was a nice day and we were already in the perfect location, I returned my full attention to my Pokemon. "Are you guys up for getting some training in now actually? It'll only be another day or two before we're at the gym."

The four Pokemon that were going to be battling in the gym agreed before splitting up, not needing any further instructions. Peren and Shadow moved to one section of the field to continue the work that they'd already started on with Double Kick. Peren had already had the move down for some time so he was mostly helping Shadow get up to speed on it. Blitz flew up into the air and began trying to fly faster and faster without the fire from his Flame Charge being blown out by the wind rushing past him. Nin stayed right where he was and didn't appear to be doing anything, but I trusted that he was doing something to perfect Fire Fang.

Left with my two Pokemon that didn't have anything specific to work on in the short term, I looked down at Scout and Winter for a few seconds, trying to think of something to give them. Since the key for them would be their ability to work together, I ventured, "I'm not sure if there's a lot of overlap between making electricity and ice, but Scout, do you think that you could help out Winter with Ice Fang and Frost Breath? You're the only one who has several moves like that and I'm sure she would appreciate the help." Scout took a few seconds to consider before finally nodding, and Winter inclined her head thankfully toward the much smaller Pokemon.

With all of my Pokemon working on their tasks, I wandered around the clearing while they worked, enjoying the scenery. I occasionally offered pointers to all of my Pokemon as I thought of them, but I paid extra attention to Peren and Nin in particular. Winter's evolution had made me realize that their own evolutions were likely coming sooner than later. The game information that I was familiar with wasn't always the most reliable in this world, but I was moderately sure that Deerling and Ekans evolved at relatively low levels and both of them were experienced enough that I could see it happening any day.


Tuesday, April 24th, 2018

The first thing that struck me as I biked into Duluth was how much cooler it was. While the temperature had gone up enough so that it was still comfortable, the cool air coming off of Lake Superior made it feel like I had gone back two weeks in time. Doing my best to ignore the chill, I biked down the road right next to the massive lake, heading right for the gym. For the first time in quite a while, none of my Pokemon traveled alongside me. Since there was only two errands in the city that I needed to accomplish, I figured it would be faster for me to go by myself. There would be plenty of time to explore the city at a later date.

Even though this Duluth was smaller than the version of the city that I was used to, it was still a very long city, so it took me some time between entering it and arriving at a large red ship moored in the harbor. Sitting on the shore not far away was a small ticket booth-like building with a painting of the ship on its side, showing the permanency of the ship's docking. There was no one else standing outside the building so I was able to walk right up to the counter when I arrived.

The woman behind smiled at me as I approached. "Good afternoon! Are you here for a challenge or a reservation?"

"Reservation," I easily answered, having known the question was coming. Cait had told me that the Duluth gym was the only one where it was impossible to challenge it on the same day that you arrived because of the setup time required for the gym challenge. Remembering the other piece of information she would need, I added, "It'll be my fifth badge."

She nodded as she typed information into her computer, absently saying, "It'll be an amateur challenge then." I was left awkwardly standing there for a minute as she continued working before finally looking back up at me. "Would Thursday at one in the afternoon work for you? That's the first time that I can fit you in."

"Sounds good." I'd hoped that we would be able to have our gym battle the next day, but having an extra day to relax after traveling didn't sound like the worst thing in the world either.

"Excellent, I'll just need your name then." Once I'd given the name that I'd grown used to using, she entered it into her computer before giving me another smile. "You're all set then. Have a good time in the city and we'll see you on Thursday."

"Thank you, have a good one," I replied before getting back on my bike, a bit surprised at how quickly that had gone. With the most time-sensitive thing out of the way, I made my way over to the Pokemon Center for my next stop to heal up any injuries that my Pokemon might have gotten while on the road. When that was finished as well, I started heading to the northwest side of the city for the final stop of the day. Since I knew that we were going to be spending a decent amount of time in Duluth, I wanted to make sure that we had a good base set up, and I had the perfect spot already in mind.

Only a few minutes later I was already regretting my decision as I'd completely forgotten the massive elevation change in Duluth once you got away from the lake. Despite that, I pressed on and after almost a half-hour I finally arrived at Enger Park. There were several families walking around the park with Pokemon, enjoying the day, but the most notable thing was the large watchtower in the middle of the park that gave an excellent view of the entire city. Deciding that I would have to climb that later with my Pokemon, I moved to the edge of the park to find a tree suitable for a secret base that we would be using for a while.


A/N: I finally got around to crossposting my stories to AO3, so you can find them there if that's your preferred site.

Thanks to Star (quarknova on this site) for betaing. Next up is Chapter 32: Ship Shape