Alright. I'm doing the announcement here just in case you don't pay attention to my words at the end of every chapter.

I'm not quitting, I'm switching my deadline. I now realize I'm not writing my chapters on time because I'm too packed during the week. Instead, I'll now be trying to upload my chapters on the weekends. That is, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. If I ever have the time, I will upload during the week, but generally I'll be uploading on the weekends to avoid feeling disappointed in myself and stop lying to you.

That's it! Let's get on with the Legends in Vermilion City!

Chapter 39: Battles and Leaders! (Vermilion City)

Serena's P.O.V

Coming from Route 6, the first thing we see is the great sea of Kanto in front of us. Even from the back of the city, the ships' tall masts and long flags rise above the buildings. Like the Pokémon Center, all the buildings in the appropriately named city have an orange roof.

Kalos is really far from Kanto, so we don't get that many stories from there. This trip to Kanto really helped me get to know it better. However, I'm still in the dark about a lot about it.

"What's up with Vermillion City?" I ask.

Candela and Blanche both frown at me. Calem looks like he's in the same boat. I know he doesn't know anything either.

"What?"

"I mean, all the towns and cities have a theme or something about them that makes them worth visiting. What does Vermilion City have?"

Candela thinks.

"Well first of all, it has the Vermilion City Gym, which has Lt. Surge. He's one of the most controversial Gym Leaders because most others ignore the War, but he celebrates it. Somehow, he acts like he had fun in it. He's the least popular Gym Leader in Kanto and Johto, but he's really popular in Unova. It looks like Lt. Surge fought for them during the War but stayed here. Too bad he's never over there."

"Wait. Didn't you say he's not in Kanto right now?" Calem notices.

"Yes." Blanche responds instead.

"But he's in Alola. It seems he's just now realizing he needs an Alolan Raichu."

"Apart from him, why else would we want to go here? Judging by everyone else's opinions, he's not a good reason."

Candela raises an eyebrow and smiles, extending an arm towards the sea.

"The harbor obviously! It lets a ton of ships enter and leave Kanto, but mainly the S.S Anne, the S.S Aqua and the Seagallop. Anyone that doesn't come from Johto has to either fly in their Pokémon or arrive by ship in Vermilion City's harbor."

"So," Calem says as he takes out his Pokédex.

"We're going to the gym after catching our Pokémon?"

Blanche and Candela nod and we get to work.

Pokémon caught in Lavender Town:

Sea Pokémon, a single Snorlax, a single Squirtle, Flaffy, Electrike and the Pikachu, Magnetite and Voltorb evolution lines.

After our Pokémon-catching spree, we head for the Vermilion City Gym.

Vermilion City Pokémon Gym
Leader: Lt. Surge
The Lightning American!

Like all the other gyms, the Vermilion City gym has a gym guide standing next to two Rhyhorn statues. Unlike all the other ones though, this one has multiple metal trash cans placed in rows in the middle. At the end, an old man dressed in formal attire stands before an electric gate.

"Why are there trash cans everywhere?" I frown.

"There's two trash cans with switches under them. You have to hit them in order to open the gate." Candela explains.

"How are we going to find them without battling the trainers?" I ask.

"I don't want to fight them and none of us have Kanto badges."

Blanche thinks for a moment and then takes out her strange device.

"Don't worry. When I was a kid I imagined myself going through all the Kanto gyms and created a solution for every one."

She points her screen at the trash cans and they become transparent. Two of them reveal switches under them.

"I was very bored."

Being careful not to catch the attention of the other trainers, we creep around and hit the switches.

"Putting them next to each other might not have been the best idea." Calem remarks.

Now that the gate is open, we can waltz right in the gym leader's room.

When we do, we are greeted by a man around the age of Candela and Blanche sitting in a comfy chair, staring almost dishearteningly at a screen that resembles Candela and Blanche's. He doesn't even look up when we enter. Instead, he continues to scroll down and tap the screen occasionally.

"Spark." Blanche is the one to speak first.

"Yeah." He still doesn't look up. Actually, I don't even think he knows who we are.

"Spark." Blanche wants him to look up.

"Yeah?" He answers, still not paying attention.

"SPARK!" Candela suddenly screams, making Spark jump up from his chair.

"Candela! Blanche! What a surprise..." He gets up and pushes back his blond hair, nervously smiling.

"What'chu doing in Vermilion? I thought you were just going to skip it because Surge isn't here."

Blanche points at Calem and me.

"We found the Legends."

Spark frowns.

"TV really does make you look taller. And older. And not as cool..."

Candela takes the opportunity to smack him upside the head.

"That's Calem and Serena you dolt. The others are in Saffron City."

Now he gets excited again.

"The others? You mean Red? Leaf? Gold? Ruby? May? Diamond? Dawn? Black? Hilda?"

He basically just named everyone except for the last two generations. Rude.

"Yes. Now are you going to join us or not?" Blanche rolls her eyes at his excitement.

Said excitement drains away from Spark's face.

"Ugh, I would, but Surge trusted me with the gym while he was gone and I really don't wanna piss him off."

Yet again, Blanche starts to think of a plan.

"Well they're just going to New Bark Town after this. You should be back by night."

He sighs and thinks about it.

"Fine. But only because I get to finally meet the Legends. Did they reach level 5 yet? I'm assuming they're only here to play PKGO."

Despite his previous statements not making him look very bright, he made a pretty smart assumption.

"Yeah." Candela answers, making Spark's eyes...sparkle.

"Oooooohhh! Who did they pick?"

Blanche frowns again but answers again.

"The only ones in your team are Gold, Kris, Dawn and Nate."

He jumps again, but this time it's in excitement.

"YES! I mean, I wish I also had Black and Red, but that's really good. Who's Kris and Nate?"

Blanche rolls her eyes, sighs again and starts to leave.

"Just follow. We'll talk on the way." Candela answers for her and begins to leave as well.

I shoot a glance at Calem, who shrugs and joins them. Guess that means we're leaving.

Outside the gym, we start to walk towards the north exit.

"How did you get stuck in Vermilion City anyway?" I ask Spark after Blanche finishes explaining.

He sighs.

"It's a dumb story. Like Candela and Blanche, I came to Kanto to finally act out my dream of conquering the Kanto League. Different from them, however, I decided to come to Vermilion City first. That way I get to meet the Electric-type gym leader and be just as far from Blanche as I am from Candela. So the first thing I did in Vermilion was of course, challenge the gym. Like you guys, I managed to find the switches and get to the gym leader room without battling the trainers. So I battled Lt. Surge in a PKGO battle and won. After the battle, Lt. Surge smiled at me, put a hand on my shoulder and said:
'Look, kid. You got spirit. I like that. I heard there's a new powerful type of Raichu in Alola that's half Psychic-type. Don't you think I'd do well with one in my team? '
Of course, I nodded.
'Great. Stay here while I go get one.'
And he was gone. I didn't want to leave the gym because that would mean I would have broken a promise (even if I didn't make it in the first place) and I would leave the Vermilion City gym without a gym leader for who knows how long. So I stayed. It's been a week."

I frown while Calem tries to conceal his laughs behind me.

"So he just told you to stay and you did?"

He shrugs.

"Well, yeah. Have you seen him? He's a soldier. He's like twice my size and three times my weight. Compared to him, I'm a wimpy Bellsprout. When he finally arrives though, you can beat I'm gonna bail on him. I'm 27, rich, handsome and unemployed. I don't have the time to run a gym in Kanto."

I roll my eyes and keep walking.

Spark has joined the tour! I wanted to release this chapter much earlier, but RWBY season 4 premiered and I couldn't wait. Anyways, I already talked about my new uploading schedule, so I guess the only thing to talk about here is next chapter, where everyone will rejoin in Saffron City before heading for New Bark Town and ending this trip. I really want to finish this whole arc so I can get back to writing normal HOPL chapters. The trip was fun, but it's not HOPL and I could be doing a lot more.

Anyways, please leave a review so I can know what you think of my fanfic! 'Till next time!