Of course Wallace warned Juan about these kids.

Brendan woke up first the next morning, anticipation of his final badge and the possibility of honorary Championship having tugged him awake.

Or, more likely, it was that May had stayed up late talking to Wally about his mission in Fortree having 'mysteriously' ended, luckily before any fires. Wally's Kirlia had apparently evolved, and they spent a while gloating over their full parties before they finally ended the call.

With May still sleeping, he decided to dedicate the time to planning out his strategy. He was positive that the Gym Leader used Water-types, given the location of Sootopolis and how it needed a Pokémon with Surf or illegal uses of Fly to get anywhere. That was an automatic use of Breloom, and disqualification of Adam. He'd replace the Blaziken with the Pikachu again.

Aggron herself was part Rock-type, but he'd heard that her Mega form was pure Steel. Steel had neutral damage from Water-types, so she could be in battle, Mega Evolve on the first turn, and see how far luck could take her. Beldum would come along for the experience, and with the Exp. Share, he didn't even have to use it in battle.

Grumpig could stay, and Shuppet could probably be replaced with Jerry or Dusky. He almost felt bad for shoving her off on May when a Gym battle was the perfect opportunity to evolve, but he wanted this journey to be over already. He wanted to go home, and sleep in his new house for the first time.

Come to think of it, he'd forgotten what his new bedroom even looked like. It was probably spotlessly clean and with nothing broken, so un-Brendan that it made him wonder if his parents had kicked him out on purpose, under pretext of just letting him go on a journey...

He was distracted by the sound of a grumpy girl waking up across the room. He forced a smile and leaned over her head, and was rewarded with a scream before she processed it all.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty," he taunted, and May made a pitiful swipe for his head. "Today's a big day. It's our last day before we hit Victory Road."

May shoved her head under her pillow and said something. It sounded like she was commanding Pikachu to Meteor Mash him.

"That's not the way to speak, princess," he scolded, pulling her out of bed despite her protests. "We helped save the world yesterday."

"Rayquaza saved the world. All we did was wake it up and watch."

"What if I offered you cake?"

May said something under her breath, but she got to her feet. "You'd better not be lying."

The Sootopolis City Gym was, of course, Water-type. Brendan awarded himself thirty points to Slytherin for that one.

"But it's all made up," May stated calmly, "so the points don't matter."

"You're just mad because Ravenclaw's losing."

May pushed him forward with more force than she'd been intending, and both were surprised when the ice coating the gym floor cracked. For a moment, they watched the cracks spread from Brendan's foot, forking out at all possible angles like small lightning bolts before stopping. Then, slowly, they lifted their heads to make eye contact.

"A Gym puzzle?" May asked uncertainly.

"Looks like it," Brendan agreed.

"Cracking the ice to reach the next level?"

"Probably."

"And we're not wasting time by doing this legally, are we?"

Brendan's reaction was to pull out a ball. "You read my mind. Breloom, come and help us stomp these out!"

May, of course, knew better than to think that she could figure this out without him. "You might want to call out Grumpig and Jerry," she reminded him, before picking Torkoal and Dusky to join the ice-stomping party.

They heard the cries of Gym trainers from below, screaming about cheating. Brendan, May and the Pokémon were having too much fun to care.

And, when the kids had crossed and the Pokémon had finished stomping, they called them back to the balls to start again on the next level.

The Gym Leader was not a happy man when they finally reached him. In fact, Brendan was pretty sure the only reason he didn't throw them out and give them a lifetime ban was because he'd heard of their involvement with Rayquaza.

Or maybe he didn't want to be the one to have to explain to Norman about his son not getting a badge. Did Gym Leaders have conferences?

The Gym Leader quickly pretended to care when Brendan reached the field. "Good morning," he said politely, almost threateningly calm. "I would like to thank you for what you did. Wallace told me everything."

"I thought Wallace was the Gym Leader," May started, giving the man a suspicious look. "You're Juan. You stepped down from the Gym Leader position."

"You weren't wrong," the man explained, "but you are, perhaps, misunderstanding. Wallace was the Gym Leader. I taught him everything, both in battles and in Contests. I have taken the position back due to recent developments that may or may not have been Wallace getting arrested by the fashion police."

"The fashion police are real?" May asked before she could stop herself.

Brendan thought about asking about Juan's possible encounters with the fashion police, but decided that tights under shorts weren't too terrible compared to Wallace's...whatever it was. "Can we battle now?" he asked instead. "I just helped save the world, and I want to go home and sleep in my own bed for once."

"Then we'll battle," Juan agreed, and selected his first Pokémon. "As this is your eighth badge, I assume you have come prepared?"

"Of course." Brendan had already selected a Pokémon of his own, and was already preparing to call her out. "You make the first choice, Juan."

"We'll start with the easy ones." Juan threw the first ball. "I select Luvdisc!"

An air-swimming heart? That was easy. "Pikachu, do the thing!"

Pikachu, Breloom and Jerry were good enough for most of Juan's Pokémon. There was no trouble at all up until the Kingdra came out. That's when things started to go south.

It was a Water-type, but it was also a Dragon-type. Dragons were weak to only three types, and Brendan had none of them. Pikachu's Draining Kiss worked, but it didn't have the type bonus that would have made it more than just 'helpful,' and he ended up losing her in the fight.

But he wasn't worried. He had a secret weapon.

"Aggron, do the thing!"

Juan wasn't afraid of the monster standing in front of him, not even considering that she was much bigger than his Kingdra. "You do know that Steel-types don't resist Water attacks enough to save your Aggron's Rock typing."

"I know that." Brendan caught Aggron's eye, and she seemed to understand what he was going to do next. "I wasn't planning on using her as she is."

May's horrified squeak echoed through the room. "You mean you're...?"

Brendan raised his hand with the Key Stone. "Aggron, Mega Evolve!"

"He did it," May said, hiding her face in her hands. She didn't want to watch the Incident that would naturally follow.

Juan clearly didn't, either, but his Gym Leader duty told him to not surrender and to give Mega Aggron a chance. He took a moment to remind himself that Wallace trusted this boy enough, and that Brendan was the friend of a legendary trainer, and called for Rest. The Kingdra put a Chesto Berry in its mouth to keep it awake, and Mega Aggron waved her arms around, roaring in fury.

"That's garbage, dude!" Brendan complained, but he knew that it was within the rules. "Metal Claw!"

"Water Pulse!" Juan commanded, silently praying for confusion.

It never happened. A few attacks later, and Kingdra was down, Mega Aggron returning to her ball just in time for Juan to call on his final Pokémon, Crawdaunt.

Breloom returned to the field, and the battle began again.

The Rain Badge sat in Brendan's palm, the light from the window reflecting off of it and onto the ceiling. Crawdaunt hadn't been as hard to defeat as Kingdra, and the experience bonus to Beldum had come in handy again.

"You do have a talent for battle," Juan commented. "But then, you are Norman's boy, aren't you?"

Of course. "That's what the DNA test said," Brendan answered, trying not to make faces at the Gym Leader. "All five times."

Juan didn't even pause. Wallace must have warned him about everything except the Aggronitem including Brendan and May's typical modes of conversation. "You have eight badges now. I assume you will take the Pokémon League challenge next?"

Brendan clicked the badge into his case, not looking Juan in the eye. "It's the last step," he said, as if it were obvious. "Once I become honorary Champion, or maybe even actual Champion, I get to be ahead of my father and not have to be reminded that I'm Norman's son. He'll get asked if he's Brendan's father all the time. That'll be a nice change."

"You mean you went all this way just to top your father's accomplishments?"

Brendan tried not to sound like he thought Juan was stupid when he answered. "Yes."

"It's all he wants out of life," May explained.

"That isn't true," Brendan said, finally calling Breloom back into his ball. "I have an interest in cooking even though I'm too lazy to learn. I want to do that someday, too." He stroked his imaginary goatee in thought. "And I want to make a flamethrower, but Dad won't let me do that."

"I won't, either," May told him bluntly. "You have Adam for that."

"That was not our current topic of discussion," Juan reminded him. "You were going to take your badges to Victory Road, leaving Sootopolis City forever."

Brendan faked innocence again, this time putting too much of it into the act so Juan would understand it was false. "You don't want us gone forever, do you?"

Juan's calm didn't fade. "Consider this an official ban from Sootopolis," he said seriously. "The two of you have made more enemies than children your age should, and I do not want my city to be caught in the target again."

Brendan almost objected to that, but he stopped himself. "You might have a point," he decided, keeping his own voice calm. "We'll be leaving now. Come on, May."

May followed without a word, turning and waving goodbye to Juan, supposedly forever. Unlike Brendan, she knew a Gym Leader alone didn't have the power to ban them from an entire city.

Juan waited until they were out of earshot, and then called the nurse at the Pokémon League building.

"Warn the Elite Four and Champion," he instructed. "Tell them...they're coming."