Chapter XIII
Finn went offline to inform his girlfriend of our latest discovery. I jumped into the shower. It was early afternoon and the military drug I was on still kept me from wanting sleep. The fearlessness made place for a headache though.
I noticed Riley's bathing gel and shampoo in my shower caddie. The new developments in the OASIS had made me forget all about the night out in the abandoned hospital. I opened the tube with her soap and took a smell. Just like the scent of her hair.
With her devil-may-care attitude I had a hard time estimating how genuinely her interest in me was. She was almost like a NPC companion in any old RPG. Cooler than anyone realistically could be and for some reason completely captivated by the player. Too good to be true.
I shut down the shower, got dressed, did my hair, brushed my teeth and got something to eat. We had eight gym badges to collect.
Westeros was the continent disputed in A Song of Fire and Ice, but the actual realm ruled from the Iron Throne was called The Seven Kingdoms. So where would we find eight badges?
"I figured it out," Finn said as soon as I logged back in. We were still in front of the Red Keep with our dragons, NPC's screaming in fear around us.
"You did?"
"Guess how many kingdoms The Seven Kingdoms consist of?"
"Eight?"
"Nine. It's so stupid. I hate it. Why not call it The Nine Kingdoms? This is just forcing fans to spend hours on the wiki's. Your world is already confusing the hell out of everyone, then you go and make it more complicated? Who does that?"
I let Finn rant some more. Apparently the name The Seven Kingdoms was an old title, but in the current age there were nine distinct regions in the realm. The one we were in right now, was called The Crownlands. Federal territory in which the capital was located. It didn't have a gym, because it already was home to the Elite Four.
The other eight kingdoms had their own rulers. Vassals that bend the knee to the king on the Iron Throne in exchange for privileges. If someone for some inexplicable reason would convert Westeros to a Pokémon region, they would probably place the eight gyms there.
"OK, let's find out," I said, jumping on Alpha. Finn followed my example. "What's our first stop?"
Flying to Winterfell, capital of The North, we were happy to find out that our dragons traveled in season 8 speed. Almost teleporting from one end of the world to the other. It broke all the world building that was still left at the end of the original show, but it did come in convenient at moments like these.
We established a private audio connection, because Olivia was tired of Finn's shouting while riding the dragons. Our cynicism about Westeros faded while flying over the continent. Seeing all the famous landmarks from the sky was pretty awesome.
Green fertile fields and forests changed to a more frigid tundra like landscape. And soon there was a large, bleak town on the horizon.
We parked our dragons in the courtyard and immediately NPC's ran away to hide.
"Don't go into the crypts!" Finn yelled at them. "They're not safe!"
We entered the castle and made our way to the Great Hall. After a few wrong turns we found the right door. The room was almost empty. The floor was painted with the official line marking of Poké Gyms. And on a throne with direwolf-shaped arms sat Ned Stark.
There was one other NPC in the hall. The gym guide somehow made his way here before we did and stood right at the entrance of the makeshift Poké Gym.
"Yo! Champ in making!" he greeted us. "Here's my advice! The Leader, Ned Stark, is a pro who uses ice Pokémon! You can burn them like popsicles with fire Pokémon! Or break them with heavy-hitting moves!"
"Should be easy enough," Finn said.
We wanted to move on to face Stark, but the gym guide stopped us.
"Uh-oh, I'm sorry!" he specifically told Finn. "You don't meet the requirements to challenge gym leaders in Westeros. Please try again when you finish all the prerequisites."
The answer to a question that had been lingering in my mind, but my brother and I didn't discuss it yet. When both our Charizards evolved to big dragons upon arrival, it encouraged the hope we were still on this quest together. Now we knew that we were not.
"We can go back, do the Rainbow Road. And you pick up the phone this time," I said.
"And then wait for Ghostface to come kill me?"
"You'd be prepared for it, just pick a PvP world with guns and stab proof vests. Should be easy enough."
"It's OK, Leo. There's just one Mew in the end. This would happen sooner or later."
I shook my head. This was unfair.
"You won the kart race," I said.
Finn nodded at a small stone pedestal near the entrance with a sculpture of a Pokémon on top. It had a plaque on it, containing a list of trainers that already beat the gym. It was a bit of a useless feature from the first Pokémon games, because all they ever showed was the name of your rival.
But this plaque had three names on them: WinstonYin92, ShikaraStalker and Matcheon. Indicating we were the fourth and fifth player to get to this part of the Mew hunt. A reminder that we were not on a personal journey, but taking part in a huge contest.
"We're in fourth place."
"Not bad."
"But no time for detours either," Finn said. "We have to move on. You have to."
I imagined other players getting stabbed by Ghostface, losing all their stuff. Some things you could insure, but your most personal and dearest items often not. How many people were on our heels, I wondered.
"It's weird," Finn said. "We know Winston Yin and Matcheon. But ShikaraStalker doesn't ring a bell. Can't find a link between that account and Pokémon at all."
WinstonYin92 was from Japan. A pro since the very first start. A nineties kid and a true veteran. He always reached at least semi-finals in official championships and was part of the honorary Elite Four, the group of trainers with the highest cumulative points on Satoshi.
Matcheon was a rather new participant and less consistent, but also specialized in competitive battling. I think he's from China and my guess would be he's younger than us, because of his limited history in the OASIS.
But ShikaraStalker was new to me as well.
"Maybe a Gunter, hoping to get lucky this time around," I said.
"Could be… But I rather know who we're up against. Even if it's a member of the Elite Four."
"Can you imagine Winston Yin dancing the Macarena?" I grinned.
Finn chuckled.
"Or how about that Serebii guy, Joe?"
We both laughed out loud.
Finn stayed with the gym guide as I approached Stark. The "King in the North" mumbled something about winter coming and brought out his first Pokémon.
My Charizard was still outside in the courtyard, which meant I had to do this fight with the five other creatures I was carrying. Luckily I had more Pokémon that could handle ice types.
The level 100 Alolan Ninetales was no match for my Heracross. The one that failed so miserably against the Snorlax on Rainbow Road. But with his powerful fighting and rock moves, he could knock-out ice opponents with one hit.
Stark had a full team of ice Pokémon from various generations. None of them forced me to switch out my Heracross. And within fifteen minutes, I had won.
I received the Wolf Badge and some congratulations from both Stark and the gym guide. Soon Finn and I were off to the Vale. There I faced mommy's boy Robin Arryn, who specialized in flying Pokémon.
Heracross had a double weakness against birds, so I chose Crustle. A lobster with a boulder on it's back that could smash flying types from the sky with rock moves. And without too much hassle I added the Crescent Badge to my collection.
I went on to collect the other six badges around Westeros. From fighting a team of water type Pokémon on The Iron Islands to grass Pokémon in The Reach. Like often with Pokemon, the novelty worned out quickly. Halfway through Finn left to do research on the three players ahead in the contest.
The challenge wasn't too difficult, but even in the case of failure I would be able to cheeze it by using potions and revives. Still this challenge would narrow down Mew hunters by the masses.
The Snorlax on Rainbow Road could've been beaten by one decent fighting type Pokemon. But to get all the badges of Westeros, players would actually need a well trained versatile team. That would take months. On the other hand, the contest had already been underway for four months now.
After defeating a team of ground type Pokémon in Dorne, I possessed all eight badges Westeros had to offer. Now it was time to challenge the Elite Four. The traditional routine. The story progress from the first games had been unchanged for the first twenty years and only slightly altered in later decades.
You were a kid, got to choose from three starter pokemon, met a rival, beat eight gyms, fought an evil organization and then challenged the Elite Four. After beating the four hardest NPC's in the game, there was only the champion left. I wondered who it would be.
