WE GOT A FOUR WEEK STREAK CAN I GET A FOUUUUUURS UP

Ok I don't want to promise (haha) that we're doing weekly updates now but quarantine has definitely (haha) given me much more time to write Chance, so while I'm unsure how much faith (haha) I have in my own publishing consistency, I'm still hoping (haha) this continues forward.

Anyway I hit a point with Evelyn and Thomas where I realized, among other things, my instinct is to grant them a kind of maturity I've spent years developing – years they haven't obtained yet. So this chapter was an active push in the opposite direction :)

Looker was so shook by the news, he teleported out to Canalave to talk. "What were they doing?" he demanded.

"They were talking about scanning a mountain and trying to locate Spear Pillar," I said. "One of them was holding a mechanism like a projector? They didn't seem too upset about leaving; they said there'd be more chances to find it and they probably wouldn't return."

Looker frowned. "More chances yet they wouldn't return…" Then his brows raised. "Where did you see them?"

"Just in the caves… They were pretty far in. We started at the southern entrance and saw them after like, two days."

"And it was the steel types reacting… Then perhaps they were at the Iron Ruins," he said. "There are similar landmarks around the region – the Rock Peak Ruins, the Iceberg Ruins – so if they went to one of those instead, they could still accomplish the scan of Mount Coronet."

I nodded seriously. Serious stuff. Very serious. Mm.

…a giggle escaped me. "Sorry, it's just… You and I know where Spear Pillar is. I've been there. Galactic's lagging."

"Only in this respect," said Looker, still serious. "I'll check with Cynthia about how the Ruins are activated."

"Oh yeah, did you get the Key yet?"

"I was on my way there when you called."

"Oh, sorry."

"No, it's okay. This is serious. I'm glad you let me know."

We stood there in silence for a moment.

"Mars has a porygon-Z," I said.

"Just about confirms it was her, then. Although we still don't know how she navigated the IP HQ so easily."

Another silence.

Looker sighed. "Right, well, I'm off to fetch the Spear Key and then talk to Cynthia."

"Okay. I'll… fight the gym, or play hopscotch, or something similarly useful."

He smiled. "You're training to fight them," he said. "Don't devalue your hard work."

Looker teleported out, and I rejoined Thomas and Riley by the Canalave Bridge. "So what now?" I asked them.

"We can move ahead with the plan," said Riley. "I'll take your umbreon and gallade for a few days, teach them aura, and then you can come pick them up when it's done. You're also welcome to join us."

"Okay. I'll be in touch with Def, so I'll let him know if I'm coming over." We'd decided against following them to Iron Island, since Def could just teleport back and forth with whoever wanted to be there.

"Sounds good."

I scratched behind Coeur's ears and gave Def a goodbye hug, as if they were my kids going off to summer camp. "Take care," I said, waving as they headed off to the ferry.

"You're really okay trusting a trainer we hardly know with your pokemon?" Thomas asked me.

"Honestly? Yeah," I said. "I have a good gut feeling about Riley."

"Hm… I guess we did just spend the last two and a half days trying to save an island's pokemon with him," Thomas conceded.

"Shame it ended the way it did…"

"What, with the steel types being fine in the end? I know, how awful."

"Okay, okay, I get it." I laughed.

"Anyways, gym time?"

"Hell yeah," I said. "Rootin' for ya." I don't think I'd ever used that phrase in my life.

"I meant you," said Thomas.

"Me? I only have four of my pokemon."

"Canalave is a four-pokemon gym."

"It's actually three–"

Thomas made a face that said, "See?"

"–but I was planning to go with Coeur and Def."

"You could still do it. Promise has steel resistance, Hope is more agile than a steel type can deal with, Faith is… well, Trust is probably enough of a powerhouse to sweep the whole match."

"Damn, what did Faith ever do to you?"

"I didn't… It's not that she doesn't have merits as a battler, it's just… isn't she sort of more…" Thomas was floundering. "You know, sometimes not all six of your pokemon want to battle all the time? That's her."

"Faith's a good battler," I insisted.

"I know, she's just not… what's the word… reliable? Shit, that's too harsh, sorry," he said, recoiling from my astonishment.

"I feel like I can count on her when it matters."

"I mean, yeah, I'm sure you have a better idea of what your own haunter is like," Thomas said, clearly trying to backpedal.

I still wanted to push forward. "What made you think she's unreliable?"

"Uhh… I guess I don't know the last time I saw her win a battle…?"

"Hasn't she beaten you before?" I pointed out. "Esther, maybe?"

"Maybe? I meant other times, like um… tournaments."

I thought about it. I shrugged. "I dunno, I haven't been keeping track. I know I'm not concerned about her battling skills."

"It's not her skills, just her consistency."

"Let me rephrase: not her battling skills, just her skills."

I don't think Thomas understood what I meant, but he said, "Okay, well, I assume you know her better. Don't mind me."

"Sure. Anyways, gym time?"

"Gym time," he said, sounding relieved.

Thomas's battle went well: Swaine easily took down Byron's magneton. When he switched Swaine out in preparation for Byron's steelix, I expected Cassie or Esther to come out next, since he'd been training with them the day before. Instead, Thomas sent out Oliver, his rarely-seen wooper, which surprised me even though Cassie and Esther were both weak to ground. But Oliver got the steelix with a couple impressive surf attacks, barely seeming affected by the steelix's ice fangs.

But of course, he's a wooper, I thought. "Barely seeming affected" is practically the species definition.

Thomas sent Swaine back in for the bastiodon, defeated him easily, and climbed into the stands holding the Mine Badge. 3-0 sweep. "Congrats," I said.

"Thanks," he said. "Your turn."

"Byron's gotta heal his pokemon," I said as an excuse.

"He's working on that." Thomas gave me an obviously sneaky grin. "He asked if you were battling next. I said yes."

"You what?" I jumped to my feet.

"He said he'll be ten minutes, and then you can–"

"Thomas, what the fuck? I've got like half a team right now. Def isn't even available to help me communicate. I'm not ready."

"You push me to do things I think I'm not ready for," Thomas said, sobering up suddenly. "This is me returning the favor for once."

I exhaled. Thomas was the one person who could maybe fairly pull this kind of bullshit on me. "Okay, but for the record, I don't corner you into battling the gyms," I argued. "I just bully you into doing it yourself."

"Have fun," he said cheerfully as I walked down to the battlefield. I flipped him off over my shoulder.

Byron wasn't out yet, but I went and stood in the challenger's box and tried to sort out my battle plans.

Okay. So, fuck, um, Trust, obviously. Ooh, I should send in Faith, because fuck you, Thomas. And then I guess Prom's the obvious third one, just because of the defensive type advantage… Thomas what the fuck.

Pretty soon Byron re-entered. "Ohhh motherfuck," I muttered. I wasn't ready for this.

"Hello!" Byron shouted, waving from across the battlefield. "Are you ready?"

"I'm not, but it's fine," I said, giving him a thumbs-up.

"This will be a three-on-three battle between the challenger and Byron, the gym leader," announced the ref. I realized I hadn't even given her my name. "The challenger may substitute pokemon between rounds. The battle will conclude when all pokemon on one side have been defeated. Battlers, are you ready?"

"Yes," said Byron.

"Nope!" I said, giving another thumbs-up.

"Challenger, I need a verbal affirmative."

"Sure, I'm ready."

"Battle… begin!"

"Magneton!"

"Trust, I guess we're doing this?"

Trust appeared and gave me a reassuring grin over his shoulder. Glad one of us was confident.

"Magneton, use metal sound!"

"Cover your ears!"

Byron's magneton let out an earsplitting screech – shit fuck I forgot to cover my own ears – which I hoped didn't get through to Trust, although I really couldn't tell. He'd covered his ears and hadn't really reacted, so I was staying positive there. "Mach punch!" I yelled, hoping to get a quick hit early battle.

"Thunderbolt!"

Before Magneton could get the move out, Trust had already advanced and struck them. Trust leaped to the side to evade the thunderbolt that… never came.

"Magneton is unable to battle!"

My jaw dropped. A mach punch? I know there's a type advantage, but one mach punch?

"I'll be," said Byron, recalling his magneton. "That's some infernape you've got there."

"Y– yeah," I stammered. "Return…?" Did I even need to switch out? "Arceus, good job, Trust," I said to his pokeball.

"All right, Steelix!"

"Faith!"

"Use flash cannon!"

"Duck underground!"

Byron yelled out something else, but it was lost in the roar of Steelix launching flash cannon straight at us. Faith went under; I dove to the side and tripped and fell in my hurry to dodge. Then the ground started shaking.

Oh Arceus he called for earthquake.

"Faith–"

She shot out of the ground, shrieking, before I got around to saying anything. I couldn't tell if she was hurt or how badly.

"Flash cannon!"

"Dodge!" I yelled, standing up.

Faith, disoriented from being propelled by an earthquake from darkness into daylight, couldn't get her bearings in time. Flash cannon sent her zooming straight into the wall. When Steelix let up, though, she was gone.

Byron tensed, looking around the room. I also had no idea where Faith was.

"Oh, sandstorm," Byron said.

Steelix whipped up a sandstorm, dimming my view of the battlefield. I might've heard her cry out, but I couldn't see any change in the sand. Then I realized: if sandstorm was hurting her, then she'd probably want to go where it couldn't.

Byron realized it, too. "Earthquake!"

It nearly knocked me over again, but successfully hit Faith. She popped out of the ground into the sandstorm, then fell back down.

"Haunter is unable to battle!

Oof. There was the battle I'd been expecting. "Sorry, Faith," I said, recalling her.

I was still feeling pretty unsure about the battle as a whole, but there was a degree of clarity through the worry. I knew what to do next: get rid of the sandstorm. How?

"Prom, aquajet!"

By weighing it down.

Prom shot around the room, the water stream he inhabited protecting him from the storm. Sand grains flew into the trail of water behind him, getting trapped and falling to the ground with the rest of the stream. Water that had already fallen sank into the battlefield, soaking the loose sand beyond potential for flight.

The sandstorm thinned and continued to do so. Byron's Steelix tried to hit Prom with flash cannons, but the erratic path of his aquajet took him places they weren't anticipating. Prom touched down occasionally, but never long enough for an earthquake to be worthwhile. Finally, the air was just about clear.

"Go!"

Prom rammed into the bottom of the steelix's chin, knocking his head back. Steelix returned with ice fang in a familiar maneuver, but Prom was ready with a brick break that drove Steelix's head down. Prom jumped back to assess the situation, but–

"Steelix is unable to battle!"

"Oh!" I blurted out. I guess… I guess that was it too.

"All right, Bastiodon! It's your time to shine!"

I thought about it. "Um… Prom, switch out? Trust, same as before?"

"Bastiodon, iron defense!"

I wasn't sure this was the best move, since muddying up the whole battlefield was similar to that one move that diminishes firepower. But if Trust pulled this off, it would make fire unnecessary.

Trust shot forward with the speed of mach punch. He landed one solid hit to the face, backed up for a second, and let his hand drop as the bastiodon came crashing down.

He didn't even get iron defense up yet, I realized.

"Bastiodon is unable to battle! The challenger wins!"

The sound of Thomas cheering from the stands was obnoxious, but I was too shocked to care. Trust and I met Byron on the sideline to receive my badge.

"He told you I'm a five badge trainer, right?" I had to check.

Byron seemed puzzled. "Yes?"

"It's just–" I glanced at the waterlogged battlefield. "I mean… I haven't had a gym battle that quick since the first one."

Byron burst out laughing. "Ahh… Really doesn't look good for my family," he joked.

I remembered who the Oreburgh gym leader was. "Oh! Sorry, it's not–"

"I'm kidding." Byron patted his pockets. "Jen, I–"

Shaking her head, the referee pulled a case from her pants pocket.

"Ah, there it is. Thanks," said Byron, taking a badge from the case. "Kid, do you know how the badge system works? How the gym leaders approximate which pokemon to use based on the challenger's badge count?"

"Yeah."

"This was my five badge team," he said, gesturing back over the field. "You – and your friend up there, but you more quickly and literally – wiped the floor with that team. Simple as that."

"How?" I still couldn't believe it.

"It's tournament season, isn't it?" said Byron. "Trainers come back from tournament season realizing they've grown a lot."

I looked at Trust, who'd evolved in the last tournament. "I guess you're right."

The thing was, I didn't remember this happening last time. I mean, I didn't have an infernape who could sweep a steel gym like this, but I remembered coming back to the gym circuit after fall tournament season was over, and specifically reaching Canalave in mid-January. It wasn't that impressive a gym battle – I mean, I won, and it wasn't that hard, but it wasn't like this.

Is my team just that much better this time? Already?

"At any rate, that was an impressive move you pulled with your buizel there," Byron said. "Washing out the sandstorm? Well done."

"Thanks," I said. "There was a maneuver your steelix used – I think I saw it on Iron Island?"

Byron grinned. "Wild steelix? We train there fairly often. We trade moves all the time."

"Ohhhh, okay." I wondered… "Were you there in the last couple days?"

"No, why?"

"There was a…" I wasn't Looker. I didn't need to hide Galactic from the gym leaders. "Some people were setting off an energy signal that was hurting the steel types," I said. "It's gone as of this morning, but we're worried it could return."

Byron frowned. "Hm. I'll keep an eye on it, check in with Volkner or something. He's been training out there lately. Thanks for the heads-up," he said.

I nodded. "Sure thing."

Jen cleared her throat. "Ah, where were we? The Mine Badge! Here you go," Byron said, handing it to me. "A well-deserved badge."

"Thank you."

"A well-deserved badge," Byron repeated, more seriously. "Don't forget it."

Canalave is the easiest gym if you have an infernape... aka every Platinum run I've done. I think it's usually a 3-hit battle.

Anyway this chapter was written with he help of Porter Robinson's new singles Get Your Wish and Something Comforting. I'm loving his new vibe; it's everything I loved about Shelter.

Anyway see you next week(?!)