I'd gotten a bit too far ahead of myself. Considering the Galarian gym challenge started in August, the adventure couldn't begin quite yet. So, instead, Mischief and I spent out first day together lazing about. Well, after my mom took a million photos, sending them to absolutely everyone, much to my embarrassment. I was pretty sure shopkeeper Tom did not ask for photos of me and Mischief, but he got them anyway.
Since I didn't have my pokedex yet, I didn't know what moves Mischief knew, so we had to find other things to occupy our time. I decided to try to find Mischief's favourite kind of berry, so I could keep a stockpile to mix with his food. I figured it also counted as a team bonding activity because I felt our bond solidify the moment I mentioned berries. Professor Oak would be so proud, with all his talk about bonds and trust and love.
I raided my parent's berry stash, having Mischief try a variety. Being the glutton he was, he devoured them all, leaving me confused about his preference, until he tried a razz berry. His eyes seemed to actually light up, turning into physical hearts, before he tore apart the razz berry with disturbing enthusiasm. At least the berries were relatively common in Galar.
The whole ordeal had taken about thirty minutes, and most of it was spent wrestling Mischief out of the pantry. Afterwards, I got together with the rest of the Blackthorn city kids, watching as Mischief flew around with the other trainers' dratinis, easily keeping pace with them.
They peppered me with questions, which I answered rather vaguely, not knowing half the answers myself. All of them were leaving on their adventure tomorrow, having experienced a slight delay since the gym had closed for the Galarian pokemon handoff.
Traditionally, most trainers left right after receiving their starters, eager to get started. However, going through the Ice Path was perilous enough without losing precious extra light, so they opted to spend the night at home, going tomorrow.
I could feel them looking at me half enviously and half pityingly. After all, every kid spent their whole lives plotting out exactly what their journey would look like, so even a special opportunity would feel a bit like it was taking away from their dream.
We said our goodbyes, and wished each other good luck, promising to watch our respective conferences. As I headed back home, I felt like I was falling behind, knowing everyone else was starting on their journey while I still had over a month to go.
Once I reached my house, however, I saw a large rectangular package sitting on our doorsteps. It was laminated with an image of Wyndon, with the words Galar printed straight across in big letters. All my previous negativity flew out the window as I snatched it up and raced into the house.
"Mom? Dad?" I hollered, wondering where they were. Oh, they were in a meeting with the elders today. Well, I wasn't going to wait. I immediately tore the box open, revealing a thick pamphlet titled A Glimpse of Galar! All you need to know for your journey, a thin metal card with a QR code, along with my full name, a trainer ID number, and a Dynamax band. Huh. I didn't remember much about Dynamaxing and was honestly curious to see the process in real life. Just the thought of an extra-big wailord was insane.
I scanned the card with my phone, which allowed me to "add card" to my phone. That's a relief. I was very good at losing things, so it was lucky that Galar was one of the most technologically advanced regions in the world, digitizing and streamlining as much as possible.
Then, I scanned the QR code, which allowed me access to the Pokedex app. Yes! I scrolled through the treasure trove of knowledge, since, unlike the games, you could see entries for all regional Pokemon immediately. My region had been set to Galar already, and it was locked, so I couldn't access any other regions unless allowed by their respective league. I looked over at a curious Mischief, who was nosing around the box.
"Can I scan you with my phone? It'll tell me all about you so I can get to know you better," I asked gently. Mischief wiggled in excited agreement, creeping closer to me with interest.
I scanned him, and my phone lit up. An array of information pops up, including Mischief's gender, male, and move set, astonish and quick attack, along with egg moves of dragon tail and confuse ray.
Okay, time to see what we've got to work with. My hands shook slightly, as I readied myself to witness the start of our illustrious career. Mischief was, after all, a pseudo-legendary in the making. "Mischief, can you show me Astonish and Quick Attack?"
Mischief excitedly complied. Mischief was pretty good at Astonish, and I flinched from the ear-piercing shriek, shooting Mischief a thumbs up. I quickly added "ear plugs" on my to-buy list.
Quick attack was also good, bolstered even further by Mischief's natural speed. I was confident he'd get to make the first move in any battle.
"Thank you, Mischief. That was great!" I said enthusiastically, and Mischief preened at the praise. "Can you show me Dragon Tail and Confuse Ray?"
And that was about when things started to fall apart. Mischief's attempts at Confuse Ray were…. lackluster, but that would apparently resolve if I surrounded Mischief with more ghostly energy. Because I clearly have an abundance of that at my disposal, I thought sarcastically. Dragon Tail went "better" in that I could see his tail glowing, but the actual attack had no force behind it.
I felt myself deflate, but I rallied. This was a minor setback, and all the best legends had them. Besides, I knew his evolutionary line took time to really grow into their own. I hopped onto my phone; now that I'd gotten access to the pokedex app, I could see Mischief's future move pool.
It wasn't so much a pool as it was a sink. Mischief only had a handful of (not very impressive) moves he could learn before he evolved to Drakloak, his form simply not big enough to handle the mismatch of ghost and dragon energy coursing through its body.
I'd gotten lucky that Mischief had 2 egg moves, or else we'd be really doomed. The more I read, the more I could feel my hopes and dreams sinking. Apparently, all the "pseudo legendary" power truly came in the final stage, but the lead up to get there? Painful. Very painful. Worse than the bagon to salamence grind, which was already infamously tedious.
Things would get better once he evolved into a drakloak, but that would take the better part of a year, and that's only because the League had sent over an older dreepy, at around 3 years old. I'm just thankful they didn't send a freshly hatched one. That would've really made me stand out from all the Watarus, and not in the way I'd like.
I was under no illusions about my own training skills, having hoped to rely heavily on a dominating team. But it was going to be a long time before Mischief would really come into his own. It's more like I have to catch a powerful second pokemon to carry Mischief and I through the league.
I looked over at a dopey Mischief, who was happily ripping apart my ralts pokedoll, and let out a fond sigh. Time to start researching other Galarian ghost types.
My efforts bore fruit, in that Galar had a fair number of ghost types. However, the earliest I could catch one was route 5, which was after Turffield. So, until then, Mischief and I were going to have to get to work.
Which was a lot easier said than done. Once my parents got home and I lamented the problem to them, dad brought up that his dragonair knew Dragon Tail and I looked at him with stars in my eyes.
"Can he demonstrate the move to Mischief?" I pleaded, sending my best baby-dolls eyes to my dad.
"Yes, yes, no need for that look. Tomorrow morning you guys can head to the training field and Scales can help Mischief out." My dad chuckled at my eagerness.
We talked over the contents of the welcome package, although I honestly hadn't investigated it thoroughly yet, too caught up with seeing Mischief's moves. I did promise to show them the contents tomorrow, and to discuss any extra preparations I needed for my journey, now that we had more details to work with.
That night, I read through the pamphlet, A Glimpse of Galar!, at a breakneck pace, noting down all the relevant details while Mischief gnawed at the discarded box. I was going to arrive on August first, which was the day you officially registered for the gym challenge. The Opening Ceremony was mandatory and held the day after. I'm informed that after the ceremony, I'll get to meet Chairman Rose (ugh, he was another can of wurmple I didn't want to open). What shocked me the most was that there's only 150 of us. That gave me pause. 150? In the most battling heavy region?
See, in Galar, you didn't just pass a test to participate in the gym tournament. You had to get an endorsement, which was generally quite difficult, so if you're not well connected, you're stuck trudging through the minor gym challenge first. So, even though each year there are only 150 or so challengers, the rigor was much higher than in the other circuits, which didn't have as high a barrier.
Galar, more than any other region, had commercialized its battling, so when I'm in the circuit, I'd probably have sponsorships and things to do in that regard.
This meant that I couldn't just walk into a stadium and challenge the gym leader. Instead, there were predetermined days where I could be slotted in, with most gym leaders battling multiple challengers that day. I guess that makes sense, since most people aren't going to pay to see a low level match between a single gym trainer and the gym leader.
Generally, the turnout for the earlier gyms was still pretty good, since that's when tickets were cheapest. The plus side of the highly televised nature of the gym challenge was that I could do lots of prep work, but that didn't stop my nerves at the though of battling in front of those massive crowds.
I let out a sigh. I really need to figure Mischief's moves out.
XXX
"Dragon Attack!" I yelled out, and Mischief disappeared, only to reappear right next to the horsea, whipping his tail with both the force of draconic energy and all of his momentum. The horsea couldn't react in time, and disappeared in a flash of light as he was forcibly recalled.
"Did you see that, Alison? Good job, Mischief!" I cheered, excited at how well Mischief had pulled off the move. Mischief let out a responding shriek, zooming in the air at his success. Dragon Attack was a combination of Dragon Tail and Quick Attack, and I was pretty proud of it. It capitalised on Quick Attack's speed, ensuring that Mischief would get the first move, while leaning on the strength of Dragon Tail's force.
"Yeah, yeah, kid. Pretty soon you'll be taking down gyrados with that tail swipe of yours." Alison rolled her eyes, but I knew she was as happy as I was. After all, I'd been practicing the move for weeks now against her pokemon.
Alison was a new gym trainer, and since most people challenged the Blackthorn gym last, she was bored out of her mind. This meant that she'd taken to mentoring me with an almost sadistic amount of enthusiasm, whipping Mischief and I into shape with her terrifying gyrados.
The past month had passed by in a blur of preparations for my journey. Much to the dismay of the lazy Scales, Mischief and I had been sparring against him every chance we got. Whenever Scales wouldn't budge, I'd bug all of the Blackthorn gym trainers, but mostly Alison, to have (very one sided) battles with me instead, and badger them for tips and tricks. All of their advice leaned more on the dragon-type side of things, but I was desperate for anything.
Between all the extra practice we got, Mischief had now fully mastered Dragon Tail, the force behind it enough to force a change in Pokémon. Bite was also coming along very well, since Mischief had to put in enough force to pierce a dragon's hide, which were notoriously tough. He hadn't really managed it so far, but it was a good start. Infestation was more of a work in progress, since I wasn't even sure where to start with a bug type move, and none of the gym trainers had bug types.
On the less exciting side of things, packing had not been nearly as fun. Every few days, my mom would remember something "crucial" I needed, and freak out, and we'd have to reorganize my whole backpack, but I figured that was just her way of caring.
I was lucky enough to have a top of the line Silph Co. bag, which was lightweight and able to store much more than it should, due to the minimizing technology they employed. In it, I packed a tent, a small cooking kit (not my idea), 3 changes of clothes, towels, an umbrella, repels and potions, along with a lot of pokeballs. I also had some pokemon food, instant meals and a plethora of granola bars and sun dried nanab berries. I wasn't very good at cooking and was hoping to get away with as little of it as possible. And of course, I also kept a large amount of dried razz berries. Thankfully, rotom phones were charged by rotoms, so I could forgo power banks and chargers entirely.
The biggest struggle was keeping Mischief from eating my entire berry stash, since I'd had to replenish it twice already. I eyed Mischief, as I stored the third bag of razz berries, and Mischief looked up at me with beseeching eyes.
"No, Mischief," I said, trying to hold firm. Thank Arceus I hadn't ended up with one of the more domineering dragon types, it would walk all over me, I thought, as I crumbled and took out a small berry for him. He crooned happily. I sighed.
"I mean it this time," I said, for what was not the first time. I shook my head, going through my checklist again. I had a light raincoat, and a cap, due to the gloomy weather. Oh, I thought, realizing I was forgetting something vital. I grabbed my water bottle with a built-in filter, along with a big bottle full of water purifying tablets, and stuffed both into my backpack, marveling over the technology.
I took the pamphlet off my desk and put it into the front compartment. The pamphlet had been very useful, even coming with a large, folded map of Galar. I'd written down notes on it for time estimates and prospective Pokémon.
Although the bulk of my time, aside from training my Pokemon, had been spent
watching the gym leader's preseason matches. During the preseason, a tournament was held to decide which gyms are relegated or promoted to the minor and major gym circuit occurred during June, which was the pre-challenge season.
I'd had to fork over a fair amount of money to stream the battles and none of it was recorded. Obviously, fans recorded and uploaded the highlights, but for the most part, if you wanted to watch, you had to pay and watch it live. Which meant, due to the time difference, my sleep schedule was wrecked. Mischief was most active at night, so at least I had him for company.
I wasn't too bothered about getting every detail, since I expected I'd be one of the later ones to finish collecting the badges, which would leave me with plenty of footage to go off. Just due to my pokemon's typing being less straightforward than, say, someone aiming to be a fire or fighting type specialist, who can generally get through the circuit faster based on strong attacks alone.
I looked around, taking in every last detail of my room, from the high ceilings to the canopied bed. I took a final look in the mirror, scrutinizing my outfit. I'd opted to go for something practical and comfortable, although I did have a "dressier" outfit, just in case. I'd settled on wearing an oversized coffee brown T-shirt, and a pair of black shorts, along with black sneakers and a black cap. I also had a black pokeball belt, though it wasn't visible under my shirt, with Mischief's ultraball securely attached. My general color theme was "what would show the least amount of stains while not attracting too many bugs at night". Due to the infamous Galarian weather, I also had two sweaters in my backpack, along with waterproof cargo pants. I hated pants though, so would hold off for as long as possible.
"C'mon, Mischief," I said, motioning to my little dragon and we walked out of the room. My parents were waiting in the living room, where we would be heading to the gym together. I smiled bit, reminded of the day I got Mischief.
The walk was unusually silent, my parents looking torn between being sad and proud. I was drinking in the city, knowing that this was the start of the next chapter of my life. I caught sight of the various statues and carvings of famed ancestors and their dragonites. I hadn't given them much thought before, but I was suddenly struck with the sheer magnitude of their power. I couldn't believe that these imposing figures had once started out on a journey just like me. Once we settled to a stop in front of the intimidating gym, I turned to Mischief.
"Next time we see this place, we're going to be so much stronger," I whispered, uncertainty and hope laced in my voice. Mischief looked at me with wide, trusting eyes, before doing a loop de loop in agreement.
We entered the gym, where I immediately caught sight of the alakazam the league had sent to take me to Motostoke. I also saw Alison, and I waved goodbye to her. We'd already said our goodbyes yesterday, but I was glad she'd decided to come see me off anyway.
I turned to my parents, taking in a deep breath, trying not to get choked up.
"Oh, honey! We're going to miss you so much," My mom said, and wrapped me up in a hug, which I returned just as fiercely. "I'm going to miss you, too." I whispered back, before we finally released each other.
"Take care of yourself and mom," I said, hugging my dad. "Goodluck, kid, you're only young once, so have fun. We'll be rooting for you."
After the farewells, I walked over to the alakazam, smiling at my parents before I was teleported away.
AN: A lot of set-up, isn't it? I promise there will be more action, but one of my goals is to make the world as immersive and realistic as possible. Please favourite, follow and comment if you want to!