WARNING: This chapter contains details on the 'Excadrill incident' characters occasionally mentioned in passing in previous stories. And Colress and Professor Juniper are apparently a couple now, because if you joke-ship something as long as we have it isn't a joke anymore.
Gloria caught the Impidimp as soon as he led them to the city, and announced that she was naming him Harry. Bede didn't care, but Victor laughed at the stupid joke.
"Because Harry Osborn was one of the people in the Green Goblin mask?"
"That is a good reason," Gloria admitted, "but I chose it because we all know what the final form looks like. Covered in hair...Harry...I like your version better."
Neither of the boys objected, and they headed to the Pokémon Center together.
The nurse seemed surprised to see Bede standing there. "I'd heard that Victor was traveling with a friend," she admitted as she took their Pokémon, "but I never heard of Bede having companions." Bede opened his mouth to object, but the nurse cut him off by saying with a big, innocent smile. "It's nice to see competitors becoming friends!"
"He's not my friend," Victor and Bede said together.
The nurse laughed and healed their Pokémon, and Gloria's as well. When they stepped outside again, Bede with them because he had nowhere else to go, they immediately started making plans
"So you break in," Bede commented, looking over at Gloria as if he was almost impressed.
"Not always," Gloria lied, not trusting that he wouldn't report her. "Just wanted to see if I could get away with it."
Bede didn't seem to believe her. She didn't blame him - she had just kidnapped him and spent an entire trip through a forest lying to him about her entire childhood. But he didn't care enough to drop the subject. "Then I see no reason to stop you. It's not like the chairman will listen to me now. How would you do it here?"
"I don't know," Gloria admitted. "I haven't really heard much about Opal's Gym Mission."
"Then we'll just have to figure it out."
When they got to the Gym, they met another familiar challenger. This time, it wasn't Hop.
"Hello," said Marnie, mildly surprised to see them. "I didn't know Bede was with you."
"Long story," Gloria said quickly. "Can't get into it now. What's the Gym Mission like?"
Marnie was silent for almost a whole minute. "Dunno," she finally said. "I have the badge, but Opal said I wasn't pink enough." She tugged on the skirt of her dress. "Dunno what 'pink' means, if it's not the color."
Victor hadn't spoken yet, but he was listening. Bede picked up on this, and he immediately figured out why.
"She's out of your league," he said casually. "I don't think she'll go for a kidnapper and attempted murderer."
"I did not throw the phone," Victor hissed back. "And the kidnapping was only to prevent getting arrested for murder."
"What's all this about a murder?" Marnie asked, seeming slightly interested.
"Never mind all that," Victor and Gloria said together, drowning out Bede's attempt at an explanation.
Marnie, luckily, didn't press it. "There aren't many challengers left, Victor," she said, giving him the slightest hint of a smile. "I guess I'll make you an official rival now. See you at the finals."
And she left. Victor watched her go, and so did Bede.
"She looks like a vampire," Bede commented.
"A hot teen vampire," Victor corrected. "Like in young adult romance novels."
Bede grunted, agreeing with him in the only way he felt comfortable. Gloria sighed dramatically.
"Boys," she said with an exaggerated eye roll, and squeaked in embarrassment when the woman in the Gym trainer uniform laughed.
Victor got in by telling the truth. Gloria got in by claiming that she and Bede were actors here to audition for roles after the match, and they were escorted to special seats. She figured they could deliberately blow it and head to Hammerlocke with Victor.
Victor, meanwhile, encountered Opal herself, and she immediately stopped to look.
"Challenger 123," she said with an amused smile. "Victor Bradley of Postwick, correct?"
Victor confirmed it with a silent nod.
"I have heard of your previous victories," she continued, "though I have to admit that I don't often watch the matches. In person, you seem to be lacking the color pink."
"There's no pink in the challenger uniforms, ma'am," Victor said politely.
Opal's smile turned into a laugh. "The previous challenger said the same thing," she explained. "Said something about her favorite dress being pink."
"Marnie said that?"
"She did," Opal confirmed, the amused smile returning. "But I'm looking for a successor here. I don't suppose you're a Fairy-type trainer?"
Victor went over his Pokémon in his head. "I don't even have a Fairy-type on my team," he admitted, "but my friend Gloria does. Should I bring her?"
"Perhaps in time," Opal decided. "Though your team means nothing, I can fix it. I look forward to seeing what you can do, young man."
And she headed off to judge his battles.
Victor did make it to Opal. He didn't see Bede and Gloria in the crowd, but he trusted that Gloria was there, and he didn't care where Bede went to as long as it wasn't the police. He used his bird for most of it, since he'd evolved into Corviknight after the first warm-up battle, but he'd taken a few hits to his stats when Victor had answered wrong.
So out came the Excadrill to face the Alcremie. The Alcremie Gigantamaxed, getting a cheer from the crowd.
When Victor Dynamaxed Excadrill to match, however, the crowd collectively gasped in horror. A horror that Victor only barely understood.
Many years ago, in Kalos, a giant Excadrill had rampaged across the central zone of the region. The culprits, a team of scientists working on understanding Mega Evolution, were promptly fired from the project, leaving only their interns - one of them was Augustine Sycamore, the other wasn't even mentioned.
He wondered if it had really been as long ago as he'd thought when the gasps turned to screams and people started running.
(NUVEMA TOWN, UNOVA)
Professor Juniper watched the news, where it seemed that people were fleeing the Ballonlea Gym in record numbers. Colress deliberately looked away.
"So," Bianca said to the man across the room. "Care to explain this one? I would like to know where this thing came from."
Colress cleared his throat, and faked innocence. Which was a bit strange since for once he actually was innocent. "You see, when a giant male Excadrill and a giant female Excadrill love each other very much and have no regard for the human societies that surround them..."
"He's innocent," Juniper interrupted, giving Colress a brief, exasperated glance before returning to Bianca. "I know we like tease Colress by associating him with every strange thing that happens on the news, but I am constantly aware of all of his shenanigans, and I know enough about Galar to know that giant Pokémon are rather common."
Bianca tilted her head in confusion. "So why is it a big deal now?"
"I know enough about the regions in that area to know that it's generally frowned upon to allow an Excadrill to grow to extreme proportions," Colress explained as he began to relax, knowing his wife would always know when he's innocent. "This does mostly apply to Kalos, though."
"Why would that be?" Bianca asked.
"I plead the fifth," he responded almost automatically.
"Smart," Aurea said, almost as if to make the man sink back down. She would also know when he was guilty.
(BALLONLEA, GALAR)
Victor had realized too late that Dynamaxing his Excadrill was against the unwritten Galar code. But he figured that if it didn't give Opal a heart attack, he probably wouldn't be arrested for a public Dynamax.
Opal, in fact, merely laughed it off. "A brave boy," she said, her microphone picking up her voice and carrying it across the half-deserted stadium. "Perhaps you do have some pink after all." She nodded at her Alcremie. "Max Starfall."
"Max Steelspike," Victor ordered, and Excadrill, though taking quite a bit of damage for the type disadvantage, immediately fired her own attack and took Alcemie out in two hits.
When Alcremie and Excadrill returned to normal and the trainers reached the center of the field, Opal was still laughing softly. "You've given me quite a bit of excitement today, young man," she said with a mischievous smile. "If only you were more pink."
"What does pink even mean?" Victor complained, but Opal refused to answer. Instead, she merely turned to the seats, where Gloria was rushing out in her pink dress.
"Is this the Gloria you mentioned?" Opal asked, and Victor nodded.
"Is she pink enough?"
"Close, but not quite."
Gloria said a brief hello to the Gym Leader, and then ignored her to deliver the news to her friend: "Bede's gone."
"Good riddance."
"No! I think he went to the police!"
Victor went dead silent. Opal was interested, even more so when he finally spoke again. "We have to find him!" he announced, and turned back to Opal. "Where is the police station?"
"He'll never find it," Opal assured him. "Only the locals know. Why would he go to the police?"
Gloria took her turn at silence. Victor decided to explain after he removed the challenger microphone. "There was an incident where he was convinced we kidnapped him."
"Really?" Opal removed her own microphone, hanging on to every word these children said. "What convinced him that you kidnapped him?"
Victor cleared his throat nervously. "When we kidnapped him, most likely."
"That would do it," Opal agreed happily. "But if he can't find the Ballonlea police, where would he go?"
Victor frowned, his mind coming up blank. "I don't know," he admitted.
Gloria tapped her bottom lip. "That's because you don't think like he does, Victor!" she cheered. "But I do. Now, if I were Bede...and I told him that my parents set our box on fire to stay warm one night...he'd probably say something like 'The orphanage didn't even have an oven for heat. We had to eat food from...'" Without finishing the thought, she nodded. "He's in Hammerlocke."
"Where would he eat his food?" Victor asked, but Opal's witch cackle drowned him out.
"This is good! We can all travel together to find your little runaway captive."
"Accidental captive," Victor insisted.
"Oh, an accidental kidnapping is nothing." She was still smiling as she led them off the field and out the door. "I thought I accidentally killed somebody once. I was twenty-three, and very good looking if I may say so..."
Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corviknight, Drednaw, Excadrill, Axew
Gloria: Ace (Drizzile) Dishwasher (Galarian Linoone) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hatenna) Harry (Impidimp)