Actually got this one done with some time to spare; I just have too much fun describing cities and...well we all know who's still yet to make an appearance. I'm not gonna keep this from you any longer. This chapter was super fun and I hope you'll agree with me.
Marnie led me out the back of the crowd, who were fortunately too flustered with the goings-on at the gate to notice we were there, and once we were clear, we sprinted south, along the gritty, grungy wall lining the city. Here the grass grew taller and wilder, and if that weren't hard enough to run through, there were empty glass and plastic bottles lying around everywhere to deal with. Marnie was surprisingly nimble in her combat boots, navigating as if on autopilot, while I just barely managed to keep up, narrowly avoiding small holes where some wild Morpeko had made their homes. Morpeko was riding along on Marnie's shoulder, scouting around, as if hoping to find some family she had known before she was caught, but no Pokémon were around amongst the strewn-about garbage.
We hooked a left and up a small hill where the garbage piles seemed to grow even higher still, with a smell that matched. Finally, Marnie slowed to a walk, panting lightly.
"Not how I expected the tour to go," I joked.
"Shut it," Marnie growled, pushing aside a couple larger garbage bags. "I was hopin' you'd be able to see how good Spikemuth can be, but this…"
"It's got…character," I admitted.
Marnie dropped the garbage bag and looked at me with disdain. "Oh, spare me, I know you think it's shite, everyone else does."
"I haven't even seen it outside of the walls and whatever this is," I countered. "And how bad could it even be? You're from here, so it must be doin' something right."
Marnie blushed, and a flicker of a smile appeared on her face, disappearing just as quickly. "You're really somethin' else, you know that?" She asked, then tossed me a garbage bag. "C'mon, there's a hole in the wall I used to sneak out all the time under all these bags."
I deftly dodged the bag and walked up to help her find the hole. Fortunately, it was a quick search, and after moving just a few large pieces of garbage around, we found a gaping hole in the wall large enough for a Wailmer to roll through. Marnie nodded in thanks and quickly walked inside, gesturing for me to follow. We quickly found ourselves in a dark alleyway between two ancient and crumbly brick buildings. Marnie slowed down even further, and we inched our way to the end of the alley, where I could see the street alight in a hazy neon glow. We reached the edge and peered around the building.
Though it was late in the day, I didn't think it was late enough to be sunset. Yet, the inside of the city was dark, as if even the sun was being blocked out by the goons from Team Yell. Grey clouds covered the sky, but whatever light they could bring was quickly obstructed by the tall buildings that grew up and seemingly over the street. The only light we could see was the light coming from streetlights and neon signs. Above our heads was the telltale glow of a Pokémon Center sign, but on the inside, the PC seemed to be deserted. There were a few people loitering in the streets, paying no mind to any part of the world around themselves. For such a dense group of buildings and people, it sure was quiet. I debated making a joke, but quickly decided against it when I noticed Marnie kept sneaking curious glances at me, trying to get my honest read of the place.
"So, er, what exactly is our plan here?" I asked.
Marnie blinked. "I, er, I honestly hadn't thought through it that far. I guess we open the door?"
"Good plan," I snickered. "Do we need to be sneaky? No one's paying us any mind."
"Oh," she said, blinking again. "Guess not, then." She stood up tall and waltzed onto the street, with me close behind.
"You look nervous," I said with a grin.
"Wha' makes you say that?"
"Literally everything you've said and done since we got off the battleship," I laughed. "Most people are excited to go home."
"I am excited!" Marnie argued, flushing a bit. "Do you not see this eager smile to see my ol' stompin' grounds?" I looked over back over to see her manually force a smile by jabbing the corners of her mouths up with her index fingers. She held the face for a second before we burst out in a laugh.
"You're just scared I'll hate the place and leave you," I jabbed, knocking her with my shoulder.
"Not even!" Marnie quickly retorted, before sighing and grumbling a yes just loud enough for me alone to hear.
"Don't worry. All this isn't half as messy as Vic's room before mum does the laundry," I said, grasping her hand. It trembled slightly in my own as Marnie led me back up to where the gate was. We weaved through the empty streets in silence, and I got a chance to further look around at everything along the way. There were a lot of windows with either cracked glass or no glass at all. Many were boarded up, and had their own door shuttered, with thick metal grates pulled down in front of them. Long shadows seemed to come out of every direction; perfect hiding places for people who didn't want to be found. I remember Mum saying that Spikemuth was dangerous, and I could understand where she was coming from now. Yet, Marnie didn't seem on edge (about Spikemuth at least), and she walked through the streets as if nothing were wrong at all.
Finally, we started to hear some commotion as we came back up to where the city gate was rolled down. The familiar faces of Team Yell were still up top, riling up the crowd on the other side of the gate, but there was a large handful more of them standing around as well. They were all dressed like the Team Yell I had seen on my journey thus far; lots of leather, lots of skin showing where the leather wasn't, lots of spikes, and lots of dyed magenta hair. Standing away from them and making a show of not paying attention to them were people who were dressed a little more conservatively. They would, like clockwork, glance inconspicuously over at the group by the gate to assess the situation, then go back to whatever it was they were pretending to do instead. I found myself faltering, not wanting to make a scene either. Marnie noticed immediately and turned to face me. There was a flash of confusion in her eyes before they were taken over by a somewhat disappointed understanding. "Don't worry," she insisted, "they're harmless. Watch." And she dropped my hand and walked straight into the thick of it. As she did, she gave Morpeko a nod and Morpeko hopped off her shoulder and skittered around the crowd in the other direction, disappearing silently into the dark corners of the street.
"Oi!" one of the punks shouted. She was a skinny older woman with a scraggly silver head. "Lookie who came 'round the back door."
"Oi yourself, Madge," Marnie said, rapping her fist lightly against her shoulder. "You know I ain't the one for makin' appearances. Leave it to me brother, eh?" She brought her other hand up to her mouth and whistled through her fingers, sending a blistering sound that even made a couple wild Corvisquire from down the block fly away in shock. The entirety of Team Yell stopped and slowly turned around to face her.
"Marnie!" The man at the top, who seemed to be the ringleader, bellowed. He pumped his fist and turned back to the outside, shouting "Awright, listen up, chums, our beloved champion-to-be has been in here the whole time, so once she's all good an' set up for the league, I think we might send you all through one at a time."
"The hell you will!" Marnie roared. "What have I been tellin' you lot, ever since I set off on this challenge. Don't bleedin' mess it all up!"
"We ain't messin' anythin' up, we're just givin' you a bit of an edge in the tournament!" he yelled back.
"I don't need your help! Open the damn gate, alright?" Marnie shouted. She was not happy.
The man roared with laughter before hopping down from his position across the wall. He stumbled a bit on the landing, then righted himself and stalked over to her. "Believe me, Marn, I would, but this ain't even my choice to make. These orders come from the boss 'imself." He leaned in to give Marnie a clap on the back, but Marnie stiff-armed him before he could get close enough. She
"Don't lie to me, I know when you're full of it. My bro pulls stunts, but he doesn't pull stunts like this."
I gaped from my spot twenty feet away. Marnie's brother was their ringleader? It explained the begrudging respect that she had for the knuckleheads, that's for sure. But it might have also explained why she never talked about her brother beyond just passing reference.
"Look, you know we do it all out of love for our girl!" the punk offered, coming up with arms wide to give her a hug, but Marnie gave him a hearty shove, so he took a few steps back. He paused, and then laughed again. "Damn, you even got his shove. Must run in the family!"
"Well, I don't care who's responsible for doin' this, anyway," Marnie said, ignoring him. "Just make sure it's undone. My friends are out there and they gotta gym battle to fight, just like everyone else."
"And we said we'd let 'em have it, once you had all eight!" Another punk, this one tall and lanky with long black hair with magenta tips messily spread down to his shoulders. "I dunno, I think it's a good deal, innit?"
"It's a shite deal, now open the bloody gate," Marnie growled.
"I told you; this is on Pie—"
"Augh!" Marnie cried. "Useless, the pack o' you. C'mon Gloria, let's go."
Suddenly all eyes turned to me as Marnie stalked over.
"Well, if it ain't the lucky lady!" The second punk said, with a wave of surprised cheers in response. "You know you're our second favorite. Heard she trounced you good on the Battleship. Dave told us all 'bout it."
I laughed nervously, trying to think of what I could even say to the group of punks who were slowly starting to come toward me now.
"Don't mind them," Marnie sighed once she reached me. "They're pansies, the lot of 'em."
"Harsh words," the first punk said. "Why don't we strike a deal? You two try an' take us all on, then. After all, didn't challengers have to rise the ranks of a gym 'fore they battled the leader?"
"Yeah, they still do that in Kanto," one punk said. He gestured to a Kantonian Mr. Mime, who was performing a routine for a couple passersby a few yards away. "S'where I got Mimey, here. You know they're mad different than the ones here—"
"Shut yer damn trap about yer bleedin' Mr. Mime!" the man roared.
I frowned. "Wait, you lot are all with the gym here?" I asked.
"Unfortunately," Marnie groaned. "Did…did you not guess that?"
"For someone's who's so good at battlin', you sure got bad eyes," the leader laughed, and he ripped open his leather jacket. On his black undershirt was a brilliant pink Y on it, emblazoned in a spiky font. The man then twisted the fabric, so the Y was on its side and traced a lowercase d over it. "Stands fer 'dark,' right? Or did you not catch that, neither?" His compatriots laughed along with him, and I felt myself turn a bit pink from embarrassment.
"Leave her be," Marnie spat. "They ain't all with the gym, and we've been trying to keep that connection under wraps because some people have taken a fancy to ruinin' our reputation."
"I'll ruin your reputation!" The man yelled, pulling out a Pokéball. "You forget, Marnie, 'fore we loved you, we loved Piers, and that runs deeper than you even know. Come on then, we're battlin' now. An' you know what? Even if you do beat me, I ain't bringin' the gate up."
"I figured as much," Marnie shrugged. "Morpeko, if you could."
There was a loud squeak as Morpeko appeared from the shadows, sending a jolt of electricity into a Team Yell Punk right next to the gate's control booth. The man yelped and fell to the ground, and with the way clear, Morpeko hopped onto the panel and smacked her paw onto a button. There was a clank and a whir, and the gate slowly began to lift, much to the groans and moans of the Team Yell punks.
"Wish I could say this was the first time this happened," Marnie explained to me, rolling her eyes. "Tell you what, then, mate," she continued, glaring at the man in charge. "We'll go talk to my bro an' see if he really did set all this up."
"I didn't," said a voice from behind us all. Marnie whipped around, and seeing that all of Team Yell had turned white as ghosts, I slowly turned around as well. Behind us, a man was approaching. He was rail thin, with porcelain-white skin, decked out in skin-tight black jeans that showed every crease and knuckle on his spindly legs and a torn black and pink jersey I recognized as the Team Yell logo from before, correctly positioned so it looked more like the lowercase D. On top of the jersey was a crisp-looking white leather jacket with a single Pink stripe across the chest and shoulders. It hung loosely on the man's skinny frame and hanging loosely over that was a mane of hair that would have put Sonia's to shame. It hung loosely and messily over his body, in streaks of black and white, tied up loosely and then spilling out all over again in an explosion of hair that went down his back and finally tapered off in three messy dreads near his waist. He looked older than he likely was, both from the white hair and the deep circles around his eyes. In the incandescent light, his brow cast shadows over them, making him almost look like a Zigzagoon. But although the eyes were sunken in a bit, they were bright green and cold, shrewdly looking back and forth between me, Marnie, and the loud man speaking for Team Yell. He came to a stop just feet away from me with a resounding clunk of his black and silver spiked boots, covered in enough metal coating that it could have doubled the man's weight. His eyes flicked to Marnie, and he grinned, revealing teeth that seemed to be just a little sharper than they should have been. "Welcome back, Marn, was wonderin' when you'd finally come home."
"Hey, bro," Marnie said quietly.
My jaw dropped. This was Marnie's brother?
The man clocked my changed expression and let out a harsh laugh, stalking up to me next. "Right, that must make you Gloria. Wish I could say I've heard all about you, but as I'm sure you gathered, my sis ain't all that talkative. I'm Piers, obviously," he said, extending his hand for a handshake. I took it silently and he squeezed it roughly with his. "Guessin' you'll want a battle, then?"
"Er, yes," I said quietly.
"Well, it's about bloody time one of you challengers showed up," he said with surprising energy that didn't quite fit his style. "Here I was, thinkin' that my big chance to join the top eight gym leaders was bein' sent out to deaf ears. But it seems I haven't been keeping a good enough eye on my bouncers, eh?" He dropped my hand and sauntered over to the Team Yell punk who was giving us so much trouble earlier, who was now quaking in his combat boots. Even though Piers was almost a whole foot shorter than him, he positively dominated the large man just in the way he looked at him. "You an' me are gonna have a bit of a chinwag after the show," he said snidely. "Might need to change how we treat our honored guests."
At this point, the gate was fully open and everyone outside was slowly filing in, led by Morpeko, who did not seem fazed by Piers whatsoever and skittered up his leg, making herself at home in his hair. Piers frowned and pulled her out, scowling. "Marnie, I thought I told you to keep a better eye on this rat," he rasped, but he still brought Morpeko into his chest and scratched her warmly on the top of her head before handing her off to Marnie. Morpeko gave the two a jolt of energy as thanks and crawled back up Piers' arm, once again aiming for his hair. This time, Piers just accepted this fate with a sigh. Instead, he looked around to see the entirety of Team Yell watching him anxiously. He frowned. "I said, we might need to change how we treat our honored guests!" he roared.
Instantly, the punks shifted their mood entirely, eagerly leading trainers toward the Pokémon Center, apologizing profusely for their actions, or running away entirely. Piers sighed and walked back over toward Marnie and me. He looked me up and down, resting his hands on his hips, before finally speaking again.
"Weren't there supposed to be more of you?" he asked, glancing at Marnie. Morpeko popped out of his head and squeaked happily, entirely ruining Piers' original intimidating presence.
"That'd be us," Hop said jubilantly, as he paraded toward us with Victor close behind.
"Great," Piers sneered, rolling his eyes, "it's the little Leon. Saw your battle, nice job on Melony. She's the reason I got bumped to 9th overall originally. Good luck, keep that streak goin', warm platitudes, so on and so forth. So, what, that's four gym battles now? Truly, I've been blessed." He groaned again and stretched his back, grimacing as the bones in his spine clicked into place with a sickening crunch before lurching forward again and walking down the road. Marnie grabbed my hand, urging me forward and Hop and Victor followed behind, a little put off from an aloof greeting that only someone who shared Marnie's blood was able to pull off.
Piers led us through the streets of Spikemuth quickly, not interested in giving us any sort of tour. The city itself was growing darker as time ticked away, and soon the entire town was covered under the night sky. And that's when everything came to life.
Residents of Spikemuth took to the streets as they crackled and buzzed to life under neon signs. The lights cascaded downwards and mixed together, coating the streets and its denizens in a surreal blueish glow. Most of the people around us almost looked like cadavers, brought back to life by the glow of the city. There were no shops in a traditional sense, but there were quite a few peddlers bringing out carts with all sorts of knickknacks and handmade trinkets. There were a couple men in trench coats spreading their arms wide and showing off some suspicious looking TMs and TRs that probably did not contain league-sanctioned moves. There was an older woman standing in front of a pile of steaming baked goods, waving them softly with a fan to waft their tantalizing scent towards anyone who got close. Teenagers and young adults were out in full force as well, rushing to the first stop on their pub crawls or some other nonsense.
Marnie shrugged, trying to act like she wasn't intently waiting for my reaction still. "It ain't much, but—"
"It's beautiful here," I said, pulling her closely. She looked away, hiding a smile under the pale light of one of the storefront signs.
"I suppose you'll want to rest up a bit before the match?" Piers grunted, jerking his head to the left towards a rather shiny-looking Pokémon Center. It looked totally out of place with its modern signage and bright lights shining onto the sidewalk from the inside. I noticed a couple Team Yell punks loitering around the outside, while the trainers they had shuttled to the site checked in to a room, looking a bit relieved that their tour guides had stayed outside.
"I'm fine to battle whenever," I said bravely, patting the Pokéballs at my hip.
Piers stopped and gave me a once-over before cracking a smile that bared his teeth again. "Pretty punk rock of you. You got some stomach, little one. We can have a do tonight then. I'm doin' a show just 'round the corner, and no show's complete without a good mosh, eh?"
Victor gulped but Hop seemed ready to battle as well. Marnie rolled her eyes but squeezed my hand even tighter.
"Don't worry, I'll get to you too, Marn," Piers said. "Oh, I hate to disappoint, but we don't do Dynamax here in Spikemuth. Not ever, but especially not now with that Tauros shit that Macro Cosmos is pullin' with the Dynamax Storms."
Victor gulped again before speaking. "We don't officially know—"
"Semantics," Piers said, waving his hand. "Trust me, kid. You spend enough time in Spikemuth, it gets real easy to see who's makin' all the real problems. An' you best believe they're all comin' from the same place. But I ain't here to get political on you kids, I'm here to kick your arses in a Pokémon battle. Let's go." And with that, he hooked a left and continued towards a large warehouse that somehow seemed to be even blacker than the sky. Marnie followed, letting go of my hand.
I slowed my pace so that I was with Hop and Victor. Looking at Marnie and her brother, they were almost impossibly similar, save for Piers' long mane of black and white hair. They walked with a similar gate, had the same gruff and intimidating face that cracked into an affable expression once you pushed hard enough, and the same nearly opalescent skin tone. Even if I hadn't been told it on meeting him, I could have nearly immediately pegged him as Marnie's brother.
As they walked toward the building, I noticed that Hop and Victor were both tensing up. I glanced around and quickly realized that our group of five was growing both in size and volume. With each step we took, another person fell in line with us. Most had facial piercings or non-natural hair colorings, looking even more ethereal under the neon lights of Spikemuth. As the crowd grew, some began to whoop and holler with excitement. Piers acknowledged most of it with a wave, which only made their yells louder. Each of these punks brought a new jolt of energy to our group as we grew in number, until it seemed the entire street was buzzing with an electricity Morpeko or Boltund would be unable to muster on their own, and as we stepped under the dark shadow of the building, one massive sign sparked to life. It was simple; just the logo of the Dark Type Gym, also askew so that it matched the Y on the various Team Yell members that were in our group. Alongside it on raised scaffolding was an army of pink-haired punks, cheering for all of us as loudly as they could. As the volume reached its zenith, I saw Pink Pyroar and Mohawk Man standing among them, pointing at me and bellowing incoherently. I couldn't help it, I grinned and yelled back at them. Victor and Hop were still looking unsure about it all, but Piers kept waving his hands, gesturing for them to keep going. Marnie was still expressionless, but I could see her lips twitching upwards with excitement as well. Finally, we passed under the scaffolding and into the gym proper.
As we fanned out into the gym, gigantic scoop lights from high up flared to life, covering the entire building in a bright, harsh light. The entire building was empty, outside of a few rickety wooden fixtures on the far end of the warehouse that surrounded a large chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Inside the fence were the lines of a hastily painted battle pitch on speckled concrete. At the far end was a raised wooden platform where a band was taking their place, tuning their instruments and setting up for a concert of sorts. With them were some sickly-looking purple Pokémon with lightning bolt-shaped spikes riddling their backs. Some had blue spikes, some had yellow, and all looked like they'd rather beat the snot out of me than anything else. Everyone but Piers, Marnie, Hop, Victor and I surrounded the pitch, many of them clutching the fence and waving it excitedly, causing the metal chains to wave side to side, catching the light from above like waves in the ocean. Piers made his way to a small door at the center and turned back to us. He looked me dead in the eye and fully smiled, showing me every tooth in his mouth.
"You'll notice we're all a little scrappy 'round here," he said with a harsh laugh. "But I wouldn't have it any other way." He then raised a bony finger at me, then flipped his hand and curled his index finger in, gesturing me to join him inside the fence. "You. You're up first. Let's mosh." And he shoved open the door, leading me into the pitch.
I was originally going to make Piers' arrival be the end of this chapter, but after that big chunk of text describing him, I knew I wanted to give him some more time to shine (like sister like brother, am I right?) I know a couple of you were looking forward to him finally showing up. Hope I did it justice, and if it didn't, don't worry, this upcoming gym battle might do the trick for you ;)
NEXT WEEK: THE BIG BAD BROTHER
