Spot Inspection

Chapter 17

-Ash-

Arm around Jane's waist, Ash looked out over the waves as the ship they were on moved ever closer to Cinnabar Island and his seventh gym. Much as he'd expected, Jane's family were less than pleased at the quality of the test he'd looked into for them. He'd even shared his theory of the connection between Poketech and the testing center, but he couldn't exactly look into that himself as Poketech was a private institution, not a government one. They were looking into it though, through the channels they had access to. "We're still ahead of schedule enough that we can spend a couple days relaxing on the beach." Ash smiled as he held Jane close, "Wanna do that before the badge or after?"

"Badge?" a cocky nasally voice sneered from behind as Ash suppressed a groan, turning to see Gary sneering at him in an Alolan-Print shirt. "Shows you're just as dumb as always Ashy-Boy. Everyone knows that Cinnabar Island is a resort. There hasn't been a Gym there since Gramps was a trainer."

"…Gary, you do realize that the Pokémon League has a database online of all active Gyms and where they're located right?" Ash deadpanned, "And that Cinnabar is still listed as one of the Major Eight gyms?"

"…Wut?" Gary blinked in confusion as Ash slapped a palm to his face.

"Imbecile." He groaned before looking back at Jane who looked just as done with this conversation as he was, "Come on Jane, let's go."

"Gladly." Jane rested her head on his shoulder as they left, tuning out a protesting Gary Oak. The boat eventually pulled into port as Ash looked about at the blatant tourist trap. The place was bustling and full of tourists and merchant stalls but nothing that showed it as a battle hub for the League. That, combined with word of mouth implying that there wasn't a Gym here anymore, set off warning bells in Ash's head. Following his Pokédex's GPS to where the Gym was supposed to be, they found a burnt out wreck. Weeds snaked up the ruined timber and stone, showing years of neglect.

"The hell?!" Ash gaped at the condemned wreck of a Gym.

"Weren't expecting to see a sight like this little man?" a man who sounded like a hippie approached, "But sadly it's all too true. This used to be Blaine's Gym years ago, but not anymore."

"What happened?" Jane asked in shock even as Ash felt the hippy's surface thoughts.

"Tourists happened." The hippy scowled, "They ruined this island! Blaine got tired of battling people who cared more about T-Shirts and Post cards than anything else. So, he abandoned his Gym." As the man spoke, he pulled a business card from his pocket, "Here, I run a hotel on the island. Swing by if you need anything little man." And if that, the hippy walked off, not even waiting for a response or comment.

"That was…weird." Jane blinked, "And why run a hotel on a tourist destination if you hate tourists?"

"That was Blaine." Ash answered as he pocketed the card, "He built a secret Gym…in the fucking Volcano."

"…" Jane gaped at the absurdity of that statement, seemingly dumbstruck.

"Yeah." Ash sighed, running a tired hand down his face. Looks like number seven was yet another failure.

"You…you mean near the Volcano, right?" Jane begged, "Or on the outside or something?"

"No, I mean in." Ash deadpanned, "The battlefield is a friggin sheet of iron held up by metal chains over a pit of lava. Meaning non fire types are likely to be burnt just by standing on the surface of it. Oh, and he also built the entrance to his secret Gym in the Women's Hot spring at his hotel. He wanders around here to give out the cards to Trainers he thinks might be 'worth his time' to battle." Ash scowled at the last bit. Seriously! Viridian city's Gym leader had gotten special dispensation to only battle trainers who already had seven badges. Blaine could have easily just gotten permission to only battle trainers who had three or four badges already. It would prevent, or at least severely limit, tourists showing up to battle him on a lark. Not to mention getting to see actual Gym Battles would be something a lot of people would love to witness and would still help with the islands commerce.

"And since the Gyms are government facilities he's been neglecting this one." Jane scowled at the wreck that had once been a Gym. A Gym Blaine was still getting a government paycheck to run. He wondered how much of that pay was going into bribes for any other inspectors that had come before them; or to avoid people protesting a large plot of land being left to molder away when it was prime real estate.

Jane groaned, shaking her head "Let's…let's just go to his stupid hotel." Jane slumped in misery at yet another failure, "We need to at least see this facility for ourselves. Even if this!" she gestured angrily to the wreck, "Is grounds enough for failure already."

"Well…Viridian's Gym is supposed to be the toughest in Kanto." Ash grimaced, faint hope in his voice as they made their way up the mountain to the man's Hotel, "He even got special permission to only battle trainers who already had seven badges. Maybe that means he'll be competent like Surge was?"

"R-right!" Jane perked up, hope blossoming in her eyes too at that point, "I mean, what are the odds of only one Gym being able to pass?!"

AN: Yeah, this Gym was never going to pass. I don't get people who try to defend Blaine. Even in reviews for this story I had people suggesting 'oh, maybe he didn't know about the entrance in the women's hot springs'. Blaine built that death trap of a Gym. Plus he destroyed the original building and held onto ownership out of spite. There's no way that people wouldn't have wanted to build something there to replace the burnt out wreck he'd left. And, as I said in this chapter, he could have just gotten a similar dispensation to what Giovanni got. His whole complaint was 'oh, I don't like battling people who don't take this seriously' so he destroyed a government building and made a fake identity. He built a far from safe Gym over a pit of LAVA and thought 'ah, yes, I am totally the smart one here'. Blaine was an imbecile. What makes it worse is that he wasn't that mean of a person. He had passion for his work and he genuinely threw his all into stopping the volcano going off. He's just an arrogant idiot who didn't think things through and got huffy when he felt people didn't deserve the right to challenge him because they didn't dedicate their entire being to battling.