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

John: Rockruff, Quagsire, Nidorino, Drilbur, Swinub


Saturday, April 28th, 2018

After the rain had kept us inside the secret base for all of the previous day, I was eager to get out into Duluth and we left as soon as everyone had finished their breakfasts. The temperature had dropped almost twenty degrees over two days so it was decidedly chilly, but that wasn't enough to deter me as I biked downtown.

I decided to get our shopping out of the way first in the hopes that it would warm up in the afternoon, though that did make me feel a bit guilty. Peren was the only one of my Pokemon that I trusted to cause minimal disruptions which meant that everyone else was stuck in their Pokeballs while we took care of errands. In order to make things up to everyone, I made an extra stop at a sweets shop, getting everyone's favorite flavors. I realized partway through that I hadn't figured out what Winter liked so I bought a bit of everything, knowing that Nin would gladly eat whatever she didn't want.

I also used the shopping trip as an opportunity to buy some more Potions. I still had the ones that I'd purchased after the initial scare with Scout, but since we'd be spending the next couple of months away from easy access to Pokemon Centers, I wanted to make sure that I was prepared. The other purely utility purchase that I made was to restock my food supplies as well as those for all of my Pokemon. I'd dipped into the debit card that I'd earned from the gym for the treats but burned through the rest of it buying everyday meals. As I wrapped up the purchase, I mused that the Cram-Pack was almost certainly the most important thing that I owned in this world. Without it, I would have to plan the legs of my journey around restock points, and it was even nice from a convenience standpoint since it meant that I could do all of my shopping in one go.

Once all the shopping was done, I went back outside and discovered that while the temperature hadn't gone up much, it had at least become sunny so it was a lot more tolerable. I made my way back over to the spot in Canal Park where I'd waited for my gym slot and sent out all of my Pokemon to relax. After making sure that everyone was set, I pulled out a book to read, though I kept being pulled away to look at the most recent change to my team.

While he wasn't doing much that was noticeably different than he had as an Ekans, Nin's presence was definitely different as he lay on the grass. I supposed that part of it was simply that it was easy to overlook a small snake basking in the sun, but a python-sized one was a different story entirely. The other slight difference was that he would lift his head up to look around more than he would before, making him seem much more active. I guessed that he was a bit less bothered by the cold than he was before, which certainly made sense given his new typing.

Predictably, the other one of my Pokemon that got the most of my attention was Blitz. He had taken it upon himself to chase away the massive flock of Wingull that hung out in the harbor. I assumed that he'd refrained from doing the same thing before in order to avoid tiring himself out before the gym battle, but he had no such inhibitions now. He looked like he was having the time of his life swooping at the seagull Pokemon, dodging the occasional Water Gun attacks that they shot his way.

I was still watching Blitz with an amused smile on my face when my phone buzzed. It turned out to be a text from John saying that his gym challenge was scheduled for the first and that he expected to get into Duluth the day before that. I'd somewhat expected him to beat me to the city so it was good to hear that it wouldn't be too much longer before his actual arrival. I texted back saying that I'd see him then and set my Poryphone on the bench next to me.

After I called everyone back over for lunch and got started on my own sandwich I picked my phone back up and pulled up the browser. Texting John had reminded me about the article that he'd shown me back in January about the man who'd fallen from the sky not too far from where I was sitting. It took a weirdly long time for me to find the article again. Back in my world a man falling from the sky would have been in the news for weeks, but here the supernatural was natural so it hadn't been treated as much more than a curiosity.

I was eventually able to track down the article and found that the contents were more or less what I remembered. A man had fallen out of a small portal that had appeared above Canal Park. When locals had checked on him, he'd been surprisingly unharmed but had seemed even more confused about the situation than his helpers were. After finishing the article, I went back and rescanned it, picking out the names of a few people who had been quoted in the hopes of being able to talk to them about the event. I didn't really have a real reason to look into it, but I was curious about what had happened to him and I had plenty of time to kill.

With that taken care of, I finished my sandwich and gave the treats that I'd purchased to my Pokemon. Everyone gladly devoured theirs and after some experimentation, we found that, like Blitz, Winter favored the salty ones. Since we were celebrating his evolution, I gave all of the leftovers to Nin who scarfed them down with no hesitation. We sat around for a while after eating, everyone too full to feel like moving much.

In the interest of being able to move around easily, I returned everyone again when I eventually got back up to start my investigation. Of the three people quoted in the article, one was just a passerby but the other two worked at nearby shops, making it somewhat plausible that I would be able to find them. One of those shops turned out to be Sweet Scent, which, conveniently, was where I had purchased everyone's dessert.

It only took me a few minutes to walk back to the shop, though I paused outside the entrance, realizing it might be odd to ask about an event from more than a year ago. When I failed to come up with a compelling reason, I just shrugged and walked in anyway. It might be a bit weird, but I thought that simple curiosity would be a sufficient answer if I was asked why I wanted to know.

The shopkeeper looked up when I entered the small shop, a bell in the doorway announcing my presence. "Oh, hello again. Was everything alright with the poffins you bought earlier?"

"Yeah, everyone really enjoyed them," I answered with a reassuring smile. "Actually, could I get another half-dozen?"

She beamed. "Of course! What flavors?"

"Two of each dry, salty, and bitter if you still have them." She nodded and bustled to the display case to grab them. Doing my best to sound casual, I waited a couple of seconds and then asked, "By the way, I was wondering if you remembered a man who appeared in Canal Park."

She was reaching for a poffin but paused at my question. "Oh my, I haven't thought about that for a while, but you usually don't forget seeing someone fall out of the sky." She hummed thoughtfully while she finished getting the treats that I'd asked for and then handed me the paper bag that they'd been put in. "What makes you bring that up though?"

"A friend showed me an article about it a while ago and I was curious," I answered with a shrug as I took the bag. "The article didn't really say what happened to him, just that it had happened."

She hummed again as she walked back to the cash register and started ringing me up. "Well, I guess they wouldn't have. Some people from the International Police showed up and he went with them. I do hope they were able to help the poor man. He just seemed so lost and confused the entire time."

I wasn't sure what I'd expected to learn, but finding out that he'd been taken away by the police was absolutely not what I wanted to hear. Somewhat stiltedly, I paid for the poffins and said, "Thanks for letting me know." She wished me a good day and I quickly returned the goodbye before leaving the shop.

I stopped outside the store again, though this time it was to try to process the morsel of information she'd given me. I'd mostly stopped worrying about people finding out that I was from a different world, but learning that there was a chance that I'd be taken into police custody suddenly had me rethinking that stance. There was nothing to do other than continue to be careful, so I put the bag of poffins into my backpack and decided that I needed to find something to distract myself.

After a bit of thought, I returned to my bicycle and started making my way toward the Duluth aquarium. I wasn't sure if any of my Pokemon had explained my origins to Winter yet and I definitely wasn't willing to have that conversation outside of the secret base now. Since I wouldn't be able to explain the funk that I was in, it made sense to do something without my Pokemon and since the aquarium didn't allow Pokemon inside, it was the perfect way to pass the time.

Conveniently, the aquarium was also near Canal Park so it only took me a few minutes to bike over there. After paying my admission fee and entering the building, I quickly realized that I'd forgotten an important fact. It was a Saturday, which meant that seemingly every family in the city was in the building, making it significantly busier than I'd expected. Since I'd already paid for my ticket, I decided to just put up with it and headed for the exhibits at the back of the building, hoping that they would be less crowded.

On the way, I noted some exhibits that I wanted to come back to, but what was actually the most interesting thing was the tidbits of conversation that I heard on the way. I'd expected people, kids especially, to find the non-Pokemon animals boring, but the novelty seemed to capture their attention. Even the most common and basic fish like crappies captured the attention of the aquarium guests, though I supposed that one might just be because of the name.

The first exhibit that I came across that wasn't terribly crowded was the otter tank, and since it was relaxing to watch them play, I stayed there for a while. The informational plaques were interesting too since they delved into animal-Pokemon relations which wasn't something that I had given much thought to previously. It turned out that otters were one of the few animals that usually didn't have issues coexisting with Pokemon in the wild due to their low number of predators. That wasn't a hard rule though as that particular family of otters had been forced out of their habitat by a group of unusually aggressive Buizel.

All of the other exhibits that I visited had similar sections dedicated to how that particular animal usually interacted with Pokemon in the wild. They seemed to follow the same trend where each animal was at a significant ecological disadvantage against Pokemon, but they were all able to eke out an existence without going extinct. The otters also weren't unique in the sense that the aquarium had stepped in to rescue several different species in the interest of preserving them.

I ended up spending a few more hours at the aquarium before I started to feel guilty about being out and about while my Pokemon were stuck in their Pokeballs. I left the aquarium not long after that and after another grueling bike ride up the hill, got back to our secret base in Enger Park. I sent out my Pokemon in rapid succession and asked, "So what do you guys want to do? We've got at least a day before John will get here and I don't want to just be doing stuff I want."

Blitz was the first to answer with a loud scree and Shadow helpfully provided me with an image of a dumbbell. The mental picture then shifted to a pair of eyes next to Winter. I laughed softly, "Alright, that's not what I had in mind, but that's two votes for training. Anyone else?" Nin lifted his tail off of the ground and coated it in water while Winter raised her mouth to the sky and exhaled a small flurry of snowflakes. It was notable progress since the last time that I'd seen the move but it wasn't quite there yet.

I shook my head. "You're all overachievers. Peren, Scout, what do you think? Up for training?" While they didn't seem as enthused as the other four, both of them seemed okay with the plan as well. "Alright, fine, we can do training today, but we're definitely doing something fun tomorrow." I wasn't sure what that would be yet, but I would have plenty of time to think of something while they worked.

Shadow and Winter were the easiest to get set up with the day's training plan since they were just continuing to work on Miracle Eye and Frost Breath respectively. For Nin, I suggested that he try to work on Scald once he was happy with Aqua Tail. He was already able to make heat with Fire Fang, so I hoped that Scald would be relatively easy to pick up since it should come down to just using Fire Fang and Water Gun at the same time.

I'd already used the Steel Wing TM that I'd earned on Blitz, so his assignment was to keep working to perfect the move. It was actually a really interesting one for him to work on considering just how different it was from all of the other moves that he knew. Almost all of the moves in his current repertoire sped him up, so it was a big departure for him to work on an attack that made his wings heavier and slowed him down. It was a testament to how much his attitude had changed since I'd caught him that he was treating Steel Wing as a challenge instead of refusing to learn it.

Finally, I turned to the two Pokemon that hadn't been clamoring for training and admitted, "I'm actually not sure what to get you two started on. Peren, you're going to be the star for the next two gym battles, but other than Energy Ball, I can't really think of any moves that would be good for you to work on." Apart from Secret Power and Sunny Day, both of which were special cases, he'd never had any luck learning moves that weren't physically based. That didn't seem to deter him and I could see him already beginning to concentrate as he stepped away.

Similar to Peren, Scout was going to be a big help in the next gym, but we wouldn't be able to make any progress there until I could borrow the Iron Tail TM from John. Months ago, I'd written Scout down as the wizard of my proverbial adventuring party and I thought she was pretty set for filling that role. I stood there for a few more seconds considering what to go with until my trip to the aquarium came to my mind, making me think about what squirrels naturally do instead of just thinking in terms of her role on the team. "Hey Scout, what do you think about learning Dig?"


Tuesday, May 1st, 2018

I checked the clock on my Poryphone for the third time, my worry that John was going to miss his own gym battle steadily increasing. Duluth was a decent enough city, but I had no interest in staying there for another full week if that was the case. As far as I could tell, the only thing that Louie was strict about was not wasting his gym trainers' time by being a no-show to a reservation. Any trainer that did that was forced to wait a full week before they could set up another challenge, and I'd heard that the rescheduled matches were usually much more difficult than usual. If John did end up missing his slot, I decided that I was either going to try to convince him to come back to the gym later or else leave Duluth without him.

A few more minutes passed and I noticed that the gym trainer in the booth outside the gym was starting to check the time more frequently with an obvious frown on her face. I turned my gaze back south and saw someone biking toward us with a Pokemon about Winter's size running next to them. One of their hands was off of the handlebar and they were waving. I squinted and smiled when I confirmed that it was John. I immediately turned back to the gym trainer and announced, "He's here." She nodded, looking almost as relieved as me, and started typing at her computer, presumably to let the other gym trainers know to get ready.

When John had gotten close enough to be within earshot, I called, "Cutting it a bit close, huh?" John didn't shout back so I turned my attention to the Pokemon at his side, confirming that Rockruff had evolved as I'd guessed. I considered adding a jab at John for not telling me that his Pokemon had evolved until I realized that I'd forgotten to tell him and Cait that Winter and Nin had evolved.

John gave me a quick nod as he biked past me before screeching to a halt in front of the booth. "Sorry. I'm not too late, am I?"

"Another forty seconds and you would have been," she answered with a slight smile.

John sighed in relief. "I better get going then," he said, immediately making for the stairs going up the side of the ship with Lycanroc at his side. He hesitated a couple of feet away from them and looked back at me. "Sorry, hi."

I waved him away dismissively. "I'll see you inside." John flashed me a thumbs up and turned back to the stairs to start climbing with his Pokemon.

I watched him climb up for a couple of seconds before turning back to the gym trainer. "The way that I came out before, right?"

She nodded. "Hope your friend does well."

I thanked her and then started making for a much smaller staircase further down the ship that led to an external door only about halfway up the ship instead of all the way to the deck. I went up the stairs two at a time and entered the ship through the large doorway. I guessed that I'd walked most of the way to the center of the ship when I reached an open door in the hallway. As I passed by it, a familiar voice came from inside the room, "Hey, get in here." I took a step backward and looked through the doorway to find Louie sitting in a chair that was definitely too small for him, facing a large panel of monitors. The gym leader gave me a friendly smile and waved me over. "C'mon and pull up a chair."

I'd figured that I would have to wait by myself while John finished the maze, so my surprise made me hesitate for a moment before entering the room. I saw that there were a few folding chairs leaning against the room's back wall so I grabbed one and set it down near the gym leader. Louie had returned his attention to the screens after calling to me but looked back at me as I sat down. "How's your Arbok doing?"

"He's doing really good," I answered, and then looked at the wide display completely covered in screens that showed the featureless walls and hallway that made up the maze. There were trainers on a few of the cameras, but the vast majority of them were empty.

Each of the screens had a number in the upper right corner and Louie pointed at the one labeled thirty-two. "Your buddy is right there." Sure enough, the monitor showed John and Lycanroc carefully walking down a hallway, but they left the camera's sight after only a few seconds. I tried to find which screen they were on next but was distracted when Louie handed me a printout and jabbed a finger toward the top.

I took the sheet and found that it was a map of the maze with small numbers printed at each intersection that I quickly realized corresponded to each of the monitors. There were also names scattered around the map and a quick check confirmed that those were the spots where the gym trainers were stationed. My eyes flicked back and forth between the map and the screens as I watched John's progress through the maze. I was surprised at how easy it was to keep track given the amount of information in front of me and commented, "You've got a really good setup here."

Louie laughed. "Plenty of practice," he said and then pointed at one of the monitors. "I think he's going to go up against Ingrid there." I frowned slightly and looked at the screen, but just saw John standing at the edge of an intersection. However, Louie was right, and as I watched a gym trainer walked into view and sent out a Magnemite. Lycanroc didn't waste any time and jumped at the other Pokemon with her teeth blazing red. Louie laughed again and lightly slapped me on the back. "You boys really love your Fire Fang."

I answered with a slightly uncomfortable smile before returning my attention to the fairly short battle. Lycanroc ended up being able to take out the other Pokemon, only receiving a few small shocks in return. As she returned Magnemite, Ingrid said something to John and pointed down one of the hallways, though no sound came through the screen. "None of them came up to us like she did to John."

"You were just quieter," Louie answered with a shrug. "That Lycanroc has a sniffer that's about as good as your Mightyena's, but it's not made for moving around nearly as quiet." John ended up fighting two more trainers as he continued his way through the maze, another one that must have heard him and then one that he walked right into. Lycanroc was able to deal with all of their Pokemon, but I hoped that John wasn't planning on using his starter for his gym challenge since she'd taken a decent number of hits. As John reached the final staircase of the maze, Louie stood up and stretched. "Looks like it's showtime," he said before leaving the room.

I took the time to return my folding chair before following him, meaning that I entered the large battle room just seconds before John. Looking at Lycanroc in person instead of on a screen, it was obvious that she was tired, but given that John looked completely at ease, I figured he'd been counting on the extra fights. He leaned down to say something to the Pokemon and then returned her as he stood back up and walked to the edge of the battlefield. I gave John a quick nod that I hoped conveyed good luck, but kept quiet since it was his moment.

"Looks like you're all warmed up, but are you ready for the main event?" Louie asked. John grinned and answered with a confident yes. "Alright, then. Let's see how you deal with this," the gym leader said as he sent out his first Pokemon, which was once again a Ferroseed.

John took longer to decide his response than I had but eventually settled on sending Nidorino out. While Ferroseed busied itself with the same process of setting up Spikes that it had used against me, John had Nidorino do his own preparations with Focus Energy and Leer. Since Nidorino didn't have the ranged option that Blitz had against Ferroseed, I decided it made sense for him to go for a single knockout hit.

While John seemed content to let Nidorino continue to use status moves, he was interrupted when Ferroseed started pelting its opponent with Pin Missile. John immediately switched tracks and had Nidorino go in for Double Kick, though Louie had Ferroseed use Ingrain as Nidorino charged across the field. While the barbs on the top half of its body continued to pelt Nidorino, the lower barbs sprouted out into small vines and dug into the metal floor, anchoring it in place.

Ingrain allowed Ferroseed to continually right itself when Nidorino kicked it, and it even took advantage of the spring back to swipe at Nidorino with the top of its head. Between Ferrorseed's barbs and the hits it was able to return, both Pokemon appeared to be trading surprisingly equal despite Nidorino's setup. That said, I was fairly sure that Nidorino was going to come out on top until Louie called, "Self-Destruct!"

"Run!" John ordered a moment later. However, I don't think it would have been enough even if Nidorino had started to run away immediately as it only took a couple of seconds for Ferroseed to turn white and explode. When the resulting blast of smoke cleared, both Pokemon were revealed to be knocked out. While the two trainers returned their Pokemon, I eyed the large dent in the ground from the explosion and was amazed at the damage that Louie was willing to do to his own gym. I glanced up at the ceiling and found that the dents that Ferroseed had made attacking Blitz had already been fixed, so I guessed that he knew what he was doing.

Durant was Louie's next choice, though John barely looked at the other Pokemon before sending out Drilbur. The mole Pokemon immediately started using Rapid Spin, pushing the mass of Spikes that Ferroseed had made to the edge of the field, far enough to be out of the way, but not so far as to risk hitting any of the trainers. While Drilbur was busy with cleanup, Durant charged across the stage, completely ignoring the Spikes that were bouncing off its body.

As soon as the Spikes had been cleared away, John called, "Sandstorm!" Drilbur didn't stop spinning, but instead of pushing things away from himself, sand particles started coming off of him. Even though the weather condition wouldn't hurt any of Louie's steel Pokemon, I figured it was still a decent choice since I knew firsthand how much speed Drilbur got from Sand Rush. By the time Durant had reached the other side of the field, the Sandstorm was in full force and Drilbur wasn't easily visible. "Jump over and Crush Claw," John called, and a moment later Drilbur practically flew out of the storm with his claws aimed at Durant's midsection.

Before the attack could connect, a shadowy Bronzor suddenly appeared between the two Pokemon, blocking Drilbur and protecting Durant. When Drilbur bounced back from the image, it faded and was replaced by a shadowy Alolan Sandslash that swiped at Drilbur. I was more than a little surprised to see Beat Up from Durant. It wasn't a particularly powerful move and since it reveals the rest of your team, most trainers didn't bother with it. I decided it made some sense for Durant though since the move gave it some extra reach that it usually lacked.

John continued having Drilbur attack Durant by jumping in and out of the Sandstorm, but it didn't go very well. Almost all of the attacks that Drilbur came in with were either blocked by another Beat Up attack or else Durant was able to catch the blow in its Metal Claw-enhanced mandibles. I started to wonder why John didn't switch to a different Pokemon to fight Durant until another Beat Up reminded me that Louie had already shown the rest of his team. Drilbur's odds would probably be even worse against Bronzor and Alolan Sandslash so keeping him in against Durant made sense.

With Drilbur's speed not providing as much of an advantage as John had probably hoped, Durant eventually won the war of attrition. The ant Pokemon definitely hadn't gotten out unscathed though as I noticed there were several cracks in its carapace. Quagsire was John's next Pokemon and he began to use Rain Dance without needing a command from his trainer. Durant was once again forced to run across the field to reach his opponent, which gave Quagsire plenty of time to finish his dance. Within seconds, the Sandstorm was stopped by the deluge of water from the clouds that Quagsire conjured above the field.

The sand and water quickly mixed to become a massive layer of mud, slowing Durant as it continued to try to struggle to get to Quagsire. John watched for a second with a grin and then called, "Mud Shot!" Quagsire bent down to shovel some of the mud into his mouth, then stood back up and spit it out like a cannon. Durant once again tried to use Beat Up to block the attack, but the high-speed mud punched right through the images and splatted Durant. Completely covered in the mud, Durant began to move even slower and only made it a few more feet before it fell to the near-infinite Mud Shot ammo that Quagsire had made for himself.

Louie's next Pokemon was Bronzor, and he called for Confuse Ray at the same time that John told Quagsire to use Yawn. Quagsire swayed in place as he let out a massive Yawn, but didn't otherwise seem affected by the flashing multicolored lights that Bronzor hit him with. With their status moves finished, the two switched to trading Mud Shot and Confusion attacks, neither seeming to care about the damage that they were taking.

I watched the two carefully, trying to judge which would happen first, Quagsire messing something up because of confusion or Bronzor falling asleep. While they traded blows, Bronzor kept slowly floating toward Quagsire, which struck me as odd since I was fairly sure that Confusion had a longer range than Mud Shot. When the two were only about five feet apart, the light purple aura around Quagsire suddenly vanished and Bronzor fell face-first into the mud. "Get it stuck with a Slam!" John called.

Quagsire waddled forward, and despite almost tripping, he managed to make it to the dozing Bronzor's side. Quagsire slowly turned around and then Slammed his large tail down onto the other Pokemon, sinking Bronzor deep in the mud.

"Payback!" Louie said and there was an explosion of mud as dark energy erupted from the spot where Bronzor had fallen. Quagsire staggered backward and once again almost slipped on the mud, barely regaining his footing in time as Bronzor slowly raised itself off of the ground. Quagsire opened his mouth and expelled the last bit of mud that he'd been carrying, knocking Bronzor right back down to the ground, and this time it didn't get back up.

We'd already known that Alolan Sandslash was Louie's last Pokemon, but I was surprised by the fact that when it was sent out, it didn't immediately move to finish off the weakened Quagsire. Instead, it took the opportunity to change the weather for the third time in the battle, making the rain slow and then turn to Hail. Quagsire scooped up more mud and then started waddling toward Sandslash to get into range, the Hail further slowing his already sluggish pace. Even with the Hail coming down in full force, Sandslash still didn't make any offensive moves, taking the opportunity to power itself up with Iron Defense and Swords Dance.

Quagsire fired off another Mud Shot at Sandslash when he finally meandered into range. Only half of the mud hit its target as Sandlash dove out of the way, moving almost as quickly as Drilbur had earlier. Sandslash's speed meant that it reached Quagsire while he was still in the process of scooping up more mud to attack with. Louie called for Sandslash to use Icicle Crash and several of its icy quills broke off from its back before shooting right into Quagsire.

Quagsire staggered backward as the quills exploded, and Sandslash didn't give him a moment to recover, darting forward to Slash his stomach. Quagsire emptied his mouth of the mud that he'd managed to gather, but it didn't accomplish much beyond covering Sandslash in chilled mud since it was missing its usual speed. With his final Mud Shot done, Quagsire finally fell to the ground, completely covering Sandslash in mud displaced from the impact.

John sent Swinub out as his last Pokemon, making me a bit nervous about his chances of winning the battle. I'd somewhat hoped that he'd caught another Pokemon that wasn't weak to steel on the way up north, but it turned out that wasn't the case. John didn't appear to share my doubts and confidently called, "Mud-Slap!"

Making good use of the untouched pile of mud that John had sent her out on top of, Swinub sent wave after wave of mud toward Sandslash as it darted toward her. The repeated attack wasn't enough to keep Sandslash back and it quickly reached her side, using its momentum to quickly snap its glowing silver forehead toward her. A wave of brown-colored Secret Power partially slowed the Iron Head but it still hit her dead center in the back. Undeterred, Swinub quickly recovered and sent an even larger wave of mud to crash over Sandslash.

"It's time to end this! Metal Burst!" Louie called and I watched as the painfully familiar silver balls appeared around Sandslash and Swinub. The swarm of balls exploded a moment later, pushing all of the remaining mud away and obscuring both Pokemon. I spotted Sandslash first and while the Pokemon seemed tired, its footing still looked secure. I was afraid to look for Swinub, sure that she would be in much worse shape.

My fears vanished when I heard the clear glee in John's voice. "Good Endure! Now Flail!" In all the battles that I'd watched John's Swinub in, she almost exclusively used ranged attacks so it was a bit of a shock to watch as she launched herself at Sandslash. She repeatedly bounced off of Sandslash and the floor, each hit coming before her opponent could recover from the previous blow. After being battered and knocked around for almost ten seconds, Sandslash finally fell to the ground. The room echoed with a loud triumphant squeal from Swinub before she collapsed to the ground next to Sandslash.

All three of us quietly watched the Pokemon, waiting to see if either would get back up. After a few seconds, the silence was broken by Louie loudly clapping. "Great job turning my own strategy against me!" He enthused as he returned Sandslash.

John nodded gracefully before returning Swinub. He started to step forward but paused looking at the mud-covered field that was still being battered by Hail. I'd been spared since I was standing at the very edge of the room, but I could see that both John and Louie had been completely splattered with mud.

Louie held up his hand toward John and said, "Just wait a second, we've got this." He pulled a Greatball out of his pocket but hesitated before sending out the Pokemon. "You might want to stand back." Once John had taken a few steps back and the gym leader had verified I was still standing by the wall, Louie tossed the Greatball, making the entire ship shake as a massive Aggron appeared in front of him. I suddenly understood why he was willing to host gym battles in the bowels of a ship if it was strong enough to hold up to an Aggron. "Alright, Aggs, clear a path."

John had been staring at the Pokemon appreciatively but decided to take a few more steps back when he heard Louie's command. Aggs lumbered forward to the edge of the mud and then slammed his foot on the floor. A shockwave traveled down the length of the field, sending mud flying to the side and causing the ship to lurch again. Completely unaffected by the floor moving beneath him, Louie stepped forward to pat Aggs on the back before returning the large Pokemon.

John jogged across the newly cleared path, braving the Hail with a large grin on his face. He stopped in front of the gym leader and simply asked, "Iron Range?"

Louie returned his smile. "Yeah, you looking for one?"

"That's part of the reason why I'm up here," John said with a nod.

"Well, good luck. You're going to need it. But then again, with what you showed me today, I think you'll be fine." With that, Louie handed John his badge, TM, and debit card, but then paused and asked, "You wanted Iron Tail, right?"

"Yeah," John said and picked up the badge to admire it. "Just one more to go."

I'd been keeping quiet since I didn't want to interrupt the ceremony, as much as there was one, but opened my mouth at that. "Wait, only one? And, uh, congrats."

John turned to me and explained, "I got Lizzie's badge before leaving Minneapolis. I didn't want to get hit by fool's spring like you and figured while I was waiting…" He trailed off and had the decency to at least look apologetic about it.

"I thought I'd finally caught up. At least for a few days," I said with a groan. "Alright, well then, since you made me wait, we're going to head out right away."

Louie laughed loudly and John's expression fell. "But I just got here," he said weakly before sighing. "Alright, fine. Grand Marais, here we come."


A/N: Thanks to Star (quarknova on this site) for betaing. Next up is Chapter 34: Gitchi-Gami