And now, I'm pleased to announce we're back to our usual standards.

Victor had to admit it - Allister was very deserving of the title. Axew won against Yamask with Crunch, but then Allister brought out a Mimikyu and she had no chance. Excadrill managed to beat Mimikyu and hold her own against Cursola, but Victor decided to switch her out for Allister's fourth Pokémon.

The Gigantamax Gengar was a cross between funny and horrifying. The Dynamax Linoone was just funny.

Dishwasher took a lot of damage from the Max Ooze, but a Max Darkness helped him out. Once Victor was declared the winner, he heard a quiet laugh from the Gym Leader.

"I had fun," Allister said as he shook Victor's hand, passing him the Ghost Badge as he did so. "And...I didn't have to battle you again. That was nice."

Victor just smiled, deciding to keep his promise to Bea a secret.

He and Gloria left together, laughing at how her blatant disregard for the rules got her in, and came face to face with Sonia before they could trade their Pokémon back.

"Hello, Sonia," said Victor, internally groaning. "What are you doing here?"

"Same thing I do everywhere, apparently." She laughed as her Yamper sniffed Victor and Gloria's shoes. "Keeping an eye on you two and investigating local legends. Have you seen the mural yet?"

"Can't say we have," Gloria admitted. "Don't really want to. Heard it's..." she trailed off, trying to find the word.

"Awful?" Victor suggested.

"That's it," Gloria agreed.

Sonia sighed in disappointment and shook her head. "I'll admit it isn't the best drawn," she conceded, "but it is supposed to be a replica of the original art. If I can find something useful behind all that mess..."

"The professor won't kick you out of her house?"

"That's it." She still smiled, though. "Want to come along?"

There was a moment of silence. "We don't have anything better to do," Gloria finally decided, and Sonia led them away, once more without waiting for them to trade back.

They got to the mural after hearing a commotion, and the closer they got, the more they felt the noises. They found the mural, but they also found Bede. And a large elephant Pokémon. And the mural cracking.

"That mural was an eyesore, anyway," Bede said proudly. "There should be plenty of Wishing Stars for the chairman here. Take it down, Copperajah! Make the chairman proud!"

"What are you doing?" Victor demanded, and Bede turned around.

"Oh, it's you." He didn't seem too interested in them. "You don't seem to be interested in the Wishing Stars. Why are you even here?"

Victor ignored the question. "Why are you breaking the mural? It's not that awful."

Bede huffed. "I didn't expect you to understand," he told him. "But I won't let you stop me. We never had our rematch - why don't we do it now?"

Victor knew that he should head right to the Pokémon Center. He knew he should heal his team and Dishwasher before he got into any more battles. But the punk was asking for it, and if he didn't do something, Bede could end up destroying a national landmark, and that could have serious consequences with the law. As fun as it would be to see Bede go to jail, Victor didn't want to get involved with vandalism.

At least, not vandalism on this scale.

So, Victor grabbed a ball at random, took one look at which Pokémon was in it, and immediately decided it was the best choice. "Oh, you're up against Dishwasher now. Stop it or I'll crush you like Gloria did."

Bede did, in fact, pause. "What," he said slowly, "is Dishwasher supposed to be?"

"Are you brave enough to find out?"

Bede looked up at the giant Copperajah, then back at Victor. "I suppose I am," he decided. "Let's see what this 'Dishwasher' is capable of."

Victor threw the ball. Bede sent out a Duosion, and the Linoone appeared at the same time.

"Why?" Bede asked, looking past Victor to Gloria, as if he knew exactly who had captured this thing.

Gloria, due to her love of the former pet, didn't deny anything. "He likes licking plates," she replied.

Bede, rather than press the issue, nodded once and returned to the battle.

Victor did not sweep Bede's entire team with a Dark-type. Bede had apparently learned from his battle with Gloria, and came prepared with a few Fairy-type moves on his Psychic-type Pokémon. But Victor did have Dash, and was rewarded for the battle with his final evolution.

Bede didn't claim he'd let his guard down. He was just silently fuming, fists clenched at his side. Then he turned back to Copperajah, not a word spoken to Victor, Gloria, or Sonia.

He didn't even notice Rose and Oleana leading some of their employees to the source of the minor earthquakes until one of them spoke.

"Challenger Bede!" Oleana snapped, and Bede finally turned away from his work. He was giving his usual smug smile, but it slowly faded away when he saw the look on the chairman's face. Oleana didn't seem to notice. "I thought you were borrowing the chairman's Copperajah to protect your Psychic-types from Allister! Not to destroy a historical site!"

"But who cares about some ugly mural when the fate of Galar is at stake?" Bede complained. He gestured to the hole. "I'm sure there are Wishing Stars hidden in there! You said -"

"Bede," said Rose, and even he looked surprised that he remembered the boy's name. "I'm disappointed it's come to this. You were supposed to help my research on Wishing Stars, but you weren't supposed to do this."

"But..." Bede looked over at Oleana for help, but she showed no more emotion than she ever did. "You said there were Wishing Stars in Stow-on-Side!"

"I did," Oleana confirmed. "I did not say they were behind the mural."

"But they might be!" He sounded desperate, and the young heroes wished that they weren't here to witness this. "I couldn't find them anywhere else!"

Rose shook his head. "I saw talent in you, when I found you," he said slowly. "You reminded me of myself at your age. It was me and my brother back then, not much help from anyone else. I sent you to the Trainer's School, gave you a Pokémon...and then I see you destroy a part of Galar's history. You have no love for Galar, boy. Go back to Hammerlocke, and turn in your badges."

There was a long, awkward silence.

"You're joking!" Bede objected. "You have to be! You can't disqualify me from the Gym Challenge! You have to let me continue! This is the worst possible way to sort this out!"

"The worst possible way to sort this out is letting you get arrested," Rose told him. "That mural is a landmark, and it will take substantial amounts of money to keep you out of prison. Stay in Hammerlocke until the anger is over with."

Oleana turned to her employees. "Take his Wishing Stars," she ordered, "and keep him under watch."

The look Bede gave her was almost betrayed, and the chairman doing nothing to help him pushed him over. He took off running, leaving Copperajah behind. Rose watched, his disappointment evident, and turned back to the others.

"Terrible shame, all this," he said, trying to put it all behind him. It made sense, in a twisted kind of way - the man was always thinking of the future, after all. "I hate to lose challengers like this, especially ones that I endorsed myself. But destroying a national landmark is not an offense easily forgiven."

Victor was still too stunned to process. He'd spent so long waiting to give Bede the humiliating public defeat he deserved, and now he was watching his almost private disqualification.

But Bede had gotten some kind of comeuppance, so Victor was willing to take what he could get.

"I don't think Bede will have to face too much anger," he decided, looking over at the mural. Terribly-painted flowers almost masked slightly better art of a sword and a shield, and most of the wall was surprisingly blank. He took a moment to silently acknowledge that he might have wanted to destroy it too, and then turned to the ladies with a smile. "And the mural is just cracked. It's still in decent shape."

He patted the mural for emphasis, and then jumped back as the crack that Bede and Copperajah had started led to the collapse of the wall, and the revelation of the statues it hid.

The two people in the background were, apparently, the heroes of the legend. The Pokémon in front were new.

"Are there really Pokémon that can use a sword and shield?" Gloria asked, as Victor climbed a large rock to get a better look. The one with the sword in its mouth looked vaguely familiar, as if he'd seen it in a dream.

"I'm not sure," Sonia admitted, "but if so, are the Pokémon the sword and shield that the heroes found?"

Victor yelped and nearly fell off the rock as he remembered where he'd seen the Pokémon. It was the one he and Hop had found in the forest, the one Sonia herself had called a forest god.

He didn't say a word, even when both of the others asked him what had happened. He didn't say a word until he and Gloria were heading to bed, and then it was a simple, friendly goodnight.

He refused to think about the so-called forest god any more.

By morning, Victor had gotten used to pretending that he hadn't had an actual encounter with a...he refused to even think the words. He and Gloria headed out, preparing to head through Glimwood Tangle and then to Ballonlea for the next badge, and then try to find where Hop went.

Then, as they passed a table in front of the Pokémon Center, Gloria tugged on Victor's sleeve, her eyes half-focused on a large lump sitting at the table. A blond and purple lump, with his left hand on a bottle of chocolate sauce while his right supported his head. Victor cringed - if Leon had revoked his sponsorship, he wouldn't have turned to this.

So against his better judgement, he and Gloria sat down next to Bede, who merely glared at them but did not bother to move.

"You have other options," Victor pointed out. "You could look for another sponsor. I'm sure I could get Leon to -"

"Don't," Bede warned, before pouring more chocolate directly into his mouth. "Don't even talk to me. We're not friends."

"No," Gloria agreed. "We're not. But I don't like seeing somebody drown his sorrows in a bottle of chocolate. You just lost a sponsorship, there's plenty to do -"

"Like what? Join your little cheer squad for that nobody over there?" Bede rolled his eyes. "Forgive me for not wanting to associate with that stain on humanity."

"Victor's not so bad, once you get to know him."

"Only to a fellow stain on humanity." He slammed the bottle down, and Gloria moved to snatch it. Then his smug expression turned furious, and he yanked it away from her, filling his mouth with the substance as if he was afraid she would drink it all.

Victor pulled his Rotom phone out of his pocket. "Can you get him to stop this?" he asked, and Rotom buzzed briefly before jumping right into action.

Said 'action' involved slamming Bede face-first into the table. Chocolate sauce oozed from the bottle, dripping onto the table and then the ground like blood. Bede stopped moving.

"Bede?" Gloria said quietly, poking his pale face with a single finger. His head rolled with the little pressure she applied, and she pulled her hand back, horrified.

Victor had the same expression. Slowly, he turned to Rotom. "You...killed him."

"Not on purpose," said Rotom, taking advantage of the translator. "I'm actually rather impressed that I managed to do anything."

Victor quickly pulled a pair of sunglasses from his bag, placing them on Bede's face. "I've seen Weekend at Bernie's," he announced, and Gloria, who had watched the movie with him, immediately understood. "We'll bury him in Glimwood Tangle and take it to our graves."

Gloria crossed her heart. Rotom, despite its usual personality, agreed with just as much seriousness.

Victor lifted Bede up, carrying his limp body and laughing like they were friends and Bede had told him a good joke. Gloria carried the chocolate bottle, deciding to bury it with him as a tribute. And Rotom made plans to ditch these losers and head for Sinnoh at the first opportunity.

Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corvisquire, Drednaw, Excadrill, Axew

Gloria: Ace (Drizzile) Dishwasher (Galarian Linoone) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hatenna)