In which Piers and Marnie have a typical sibling relationship.

"You can get into Spikemuth?" Victor asked, and Marnie nodded.

"It's right through here," she said, leading them to a small tunnel. "They blocked it off for the challenge, but I fixed it with help from my Pokémon. You're my rival, though, so you'll have to beat me in battle before I can let you pass."

Victor made an odd, strangled noise, and looked over at Gloria for a moment. Gloria fought a laugh.

"You picked the wrong rival to challenge, Marnie," she said with a grin. "Victor's likely to get a bit too distracted."

"Distracted?" Marnie repeated, confused. "Why?"

Gloria merely whistled a tune that Victor recognized as "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty. Victor momentarily wished that he'd never met Gloria or tasted her delicious curry. Marnie jumped to the wrong conclusion entirely.

"You were there with Bede when he dropped out, weren't you?"

Victor cleared his throat, glad to take the distraction. "Well…sort of."

"Do you blame yourself for what happened?"

"No, he deserved it," Victor answered immediately.

"Then battle me."

At her feet, her Morpeko chirped in agreement and clenched its tiny paw-fists.

Victor accepted that he had no choice. So, in order to get it over with quickly, he sent Clobbopus out first.

Victor won. It didn't come as much of a shock. Even Marnie merely nodded, as if she'd had every suspicion confirmed.

"I figured I still had some work to do before catching up with you," she admitted, as Morpeko hopped up and down by Victor's feet. He wasn't sure if it was excited or trying to trip him, but he didn't dare ask. "It was nice to imagine victory for a moment, though." She tilted her head to the entrance. "Come on. The Gym Leader's being an idiot again, he needs a distraction."

"An idiot?" Gloria repeated, and Marnie nodded once. "What's he been doing?"

"Making corpse outlines on the streets," was the answer she got, complete with exasperated eye roll. "He sprawls out on the ground and gets his friends to trace around him in chalk. You'd think Mum hitting him with her car would discourage him, but no, he just got a tattoo of a tire track…" she trailed off, giving them an embarrassed glance. "Sorry. Rambling again."

"It's fine," Victor assured her. "But your mum ran over the Gym Leader?"

"Like in the opening for The Simpsons. He spent two hours at the hospital and came home with minor injuries." She stopped in front of the Pokémon Center. "Like I said. He's an idiot."

She went into the building without further explanation, and Victor had no choice but to follow, Gloria only a few steps behind him.

After her team was healed, Marnie waited for Victor on the narrow path that served as the Gym Mission. The rest of the town was blocked off, not by Team Yell but by the League itself, as only those who had volunteered to help trainers were allowed to be disturbed on their streets and in their homes.

"The Gym Leader got bored of his corpse outlines and headed back to the 'stadium.'" They heard the air quotes in her voice. "I'll be cheering for you, Victor. Don't disappoint me."

She led Gloria to where they could watch the challenge for free, and Victor was so happy that Marnie had said she was cheering for him that he almost missed when Team Yell grunts charged up to him.

"Marnie said she was cheering for me," he tried protesting, only for the grunts to quickly wipe off their makeup.

"We're not here as Team Yell! We're here as the warm-up trainers for the Spikemuth Gym!"

Suddenly, everything made sense. "You know, having pride that someone from your hometown is going so far in a competition is fine. Attempting to remove her competition by any means necessary? That is not fine."

The grunts were silent. "Shut up and battle."

So, he did.

He made it to the Gym Leader relying mostly on Clobbopus and his new Fraxure. He'd save the others for the man himself.

Piers was a tall, thin man with hair that matched an Obstagoon and a face that resembled a zombie. He was in the middle of a concert, and every so often his jacket would slip, revealing the tire track tattoo on his shoulder. And when Victor made his appearance, the concert stopped, though the music continued.

"Challenger 123," Piers said, something that resembled an amused smile threatening to cross his dead-looking face. "I'm surprised you made it, honestly, what with the Gym Trainers doing…" he looked over at the cheering Gym Trainers/Team Yell grunts. "Whatever it was they did."

"Chased me down and tried to stop everyone but Marnie from getting any badges at all?"

Piers shrugged. "What can you do?"

"You're their boss! You could have threatened to fire them!"

"Not much of a chance with that, sorry." Piers gestured around at Team Yell, as if it was an explanation. "I'm not much of a Gym Leader. Spikemuth isn't much of a place." He shrugged again. "I can't just give an order and expect them to follow if they're not on my turf. I just sign their paychecks. What they do on their own time is their business."

Victor clenched his teeth. Then, deciding it was best to just get it over with, chose a Pokeball. "Are you ready or what?"

"Of course. But keep in mind I don't like Dynamax much. Not a fan of gimmicks."

"I understand," Victor agreed. "I can go either way on Dynamaxing, really."

"Then let's go without." He almost laughed. "It's not like we even have a Power Spot."

Victor wondered which came first, Piers not liking Dynamax or Spikemuth not having a Power Spot. But he didn't ask. He just sent out Dash and hoped for the best.

Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corviknight, Drednaw, Excadrill, Fraxure, Clobbopus

Gloria: Ace (Inteleon) Dishwasher (Obstagoon) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hattrem) Harry (Morgrem) Stabitha (Pawniard)