Saffron City: The capital and largest city in Kanto, it's the intersection of nearly every major place in the region. This place is home to a variety of establishments, including Silph, the Fighting Dojo, and of course, the Saffron Gym.
It's a miracle Hogoki was able to navigate the city so far as he headed straight for that gym, Foccai pointing him the right way amidst the crowds of passersby. He'd already recalled Kwaru and Hanako, Kwaru because the duck would've caused trouble, and Hanako because the Shaymin probably wouldn't appreciate being in a crowd.
A little navigation through the streets of the city later and they'd arrived at the Saffron Gym. Opening the doors, he was faced with... just a tiled floor? A couple of the tiles were glowing, but that was it...
"...Guess we might as well check those tiles." Bwark.
With that, he stepped onto a glowing tile, and suddenly the room changed, and he felt like he'd been spinning for a bit! Now some other tiles were glowing, he was dizzy, and he was just gonna step onto another... maybe that would reverse it...
...Uh, it didn't. He was even more disoriented now, and the room had changed again. ...Maybe these were different rooms. But if that was the case, this was a maze, right?
"...Do you have a map for this place, Foccai?"
The seal shrugged, and Hogoki proceeded to sigh.
...Hey, he was starting to get used to the spinning feeling, at least. Which meant he could run through the maze until he found a way out!
This would be easy!
...Or at least, he'd thought it would've been. He'd just gotten more and more lost in the maze until, an hour later, he stumbled onto a tile, Foccai recalled long ago because of all the spinning, and at last he arrived in front of an arena...
"Gym... battle... please..."
...before faceplanting onto the ground as a woman looked deadpan at him.
"...Are you perhaps lost?" the woman said.
"No, I'm here to challenge the gym leader," a confused Hogoki replied while getting off of the ground.
"...Then perhaps you should return later. Your mind doesn't appear strong enough to challenge me yet."
"I have five gym badges, of course I'm ready to challenge ya!" he rebutted cheerfully.
"Very well, then... I am Sabrina, leader of the Saffron City Gym. This match will be three-against-three."
"Good thing I have three, then!"
"Ideally you'd have brought four for the higher limit advantage... That being said, we shall begin. Abra!"
With that, Sabrina began by releasing some yellow thing that looked asleep as Hogoki simply... stared at it in absolute befuddlement.
"Is this a serious battle?"
"It is. Please send out your Pokemon."
"...In that case, Foccai!"
He opened the seal's ball up, and so, the battle began...
"Pound!"
"Teleport."
...with a clear disadvantage as Foccai continuously failed to land a hit. Bubble, Pound, and even a last resort Water Gun failed to hit as the esper teleported away every time.
"Take your time. This Abra doesn't know any attacks."
Hogoki and Foccai both stared dumbfounded at the bamboozling they'd received.
Then Hogoki proceeded to have an idea after a few moments.
"...Make a giant bubble, Foccai. One about as big as Abra, but just a little bigger."
After the seal questioned his trainer's sanity, he proceeded to do so, and then...
"Throw it at Abra!"
"Let it hit."
With that, the Abra was suddenly being covered in the inside of a giant bubble, and it was soon defeated by a strong Pound.
Hogoki was confused by this. "...How come you let Foccai do that?"
"Boredom."
Neither Hogoki nor his Popplio looked very pleased by that response.
"Are you takin' this battle seriously?"
"Not particularly."
They really didn't look pleased that time.
"That being said, I'll be somewhat serious now. Next up... is Mr. Mime."
Sabrina threw the next ball, and then a pink clown or something appeared. Didn't look too hard to fight.
"Let's start with Pound again!"
So Foccai proceeded to hurtle towards the mime...
"Barrier."
...and crashed into a solid psychic wall for his troubles. Was that thing laughing at him?
"...Then we'll just use Bubble!"
"Keep using Barrier."
The bubbles simply popped or bounced back at Foccai, who managed to dodge most of them.
"Now, Confusion."
The mime glowed, and soon so was Foccai... who was being slammed into barriers as Hogoki could only watch in horror.
Foccai was soon defeated.
"That was quite simple."
Hogoki was now staring in shock. "What kind of...?"
"I am the strongest gym leader in Kanto. You're lucky to face my fifth badge team rather than my eighth. Now, your next Pokemon-"
Hogoki actually threw the ball for once, and Kwaru went straight for the mime without instructions, actually landing a hit or two with Peck.
"Psybeam."
"Water Gun!"
Kwaru from his beak let out a torrent much too big to be just a Water Gun, and it was just enough to parry the Psybeam.
"Now, Wing Attack!"
The Ducklett proceeded to slap the absolute shit out of the mime that had looked funny at him, and, crashing the psychic type into its own Barrier, proceeded to win the round.
"...Perhaps I was not serious enough," Sabrina remarked.
"You seem pretty serious all the time..."
"Then with my final Pokemon, I will be truly serious — Alakazam!"
...A bigger Abra with spoons proceeded to pop outta the ball.
Kwaru began laughing until he began levitating, and then he started panicking as he was hurtling towards the arena walls.
"Psychic."
The frantic Hydro Pump didn't quite make it to Alakazam, but Kwaru certainly made it to all four walls of the room in a few seconds, which was quite painful, so much so that he was knocked out.
That was something of a shock to Hogoki as he recalled the duck.
"Now, send your final Pokemon out."
He didn't immediately do so — he knew the stakes of being frantic at a time like this. His only option was Hanako, so how could he win from the start? He only knew she had Quick Attack and Razor Leaf, so...
Right, speed. They needed to use their speed.
"Hanako! Quick Attack as fast as you can!"
And so, out came the Shaymin, and she certainly followed instructions, hitting the Alakazam before Sabrina could give orders.
"Keep attacking and throw a few Razor Leaves into it!"
Hanako was knocking the esper around at this point, and probably giving it quite a few paper cuts in the process.
Sadly, not all good things last...
"Psychic!"
...but sometimes, a miracle happens.
"Razor Lea- Huh?!"
Hanako started glowing, shining almost as brightly as the sun itself, before she released a beam of light that quickly engulfed a surprised Alakazam.
When the light had faded, Hogoki was staring in shock, Hanako was no longer about to be defeated by the walls, and the esper had fainted before Sabrina nodded and recalled it.
"...Solar Beam. Quite an interesting tactic."
"I didn't even know she knew it..."
"Nonetheless, you have proven yourself. I'll give you my Marsh Badge..." She handed the pin to him as Hanako proceeded to lie on the ground. "...Your mind may be stronger than I first believed, if mainly in potential. Perhaps you'd like to join our classes on using psychic abilities?"
Hogoki tilted his head. "I'm a battler and adventurer, though... not a psychic."
"Strange. You appear to have a great power somewhere inside you..."
"...Well, even if that's how it is, I'm not gonna need that kinda power, so I'll be headin' to a Pokemon Center now!"
With that, he gently picked up a sleeping Hanako, recalled her, and hurriedly left for the building's exit.
Once he left the building, he crossed the street, went to another street, then crossed it again, then took a left, then a right, then another left, then crossed the street again before realizing he had no idea what he was doing.
So he just decided to look around at that point. Buildings, buildings, people, Pokemon, cannons, buildi– Hold on, something seemed off.
It got stranger when the cannons started firing cobs of corn in every direction and people in extremely bizarre costumes began shouting boisterously.
"The war continues!"
"For farmland and prosperity!"
"We will not concede!"
"What is going on here?!"
That last shout, which was Hogoki's, soon caused the cannons and shouters to be silent for a few seconds.
"...Retreat for now, we don't want civilians involved!"
With that, half the people in bizarre costumes left quickly, and the other half remained for Hogoki to walk up to.
"...What's with all the-"
"The corn and costumes, you might ask?" A figure in a corn costume dramatically began. "Your naivety shall be corrected!"
"Naivet-"
"Ohohoho, worry not, little boy! For my name is... Cornus!" He struck a pose... "Cornelius!" And another... "Cornwall!" And yet one more... "Junior...!" A CGI explosion happened behind him.
"...What's that supposed to mean?"
The corn man facefaulted.
"It means I'm the agricultural crime lord of Kanto, kid! Son of the military-mighty Cornus Cornelius Cornwall of Canalave City himself! And what's your name supposed to be?"
"Hogoki Taki!" he replied cheerfully.
Cornwall proceeded to have a face that ideally would be made when shitting oneself. "A Taki...?" Then he realized something. "...Say, kid, I have an idea. My nephew, Vito Cornleone, he's staging an uprising against me. We're about even, though, so I'd like you to help me out and take him out..."
"...My Pokemon need healing before anything like that, though. Do you know where the Pokemon Center is?"
"I'll heal them myself, actually! Just do me a favor, beat Vito in a Pokemon battle and say you're from Cornwall. He's on the other side of the city..."
So that was how Hogoki went to the other side of the city. That was also how Hogoki got horribly lost again, even with Foccai's help, because even Foccai didn't do well with bad directions.
Eventually, he decided to ask a random guy in another corn costume because he wasn't relying on his own navigation at that point.
"Do you know where Vito Cornleone is?"
"That'd be me. What business you got with me?"
"Some guy named Cornwall asked me to take ya out!" he replied cheerfully.
That shocked Cornleone for a second before the corn man began laughing hysterically at him.
"Look, kid, I don't know why Cornus decided to send you, but you can go right back to him and take him out for me instead, okay?"
"But I'm supposed to be–"
"I did you a favor helping ya find me, didn't I?"
"...You're right, actually." This was a dilemma... Wait, no it wasn't. "So help me find him again, and I'll take him out!"
"Attaboy, I'd love to watch the Cornwalls finally fall. Just follow me... Doin' me a great kindness here."
So Hogoki and Foccai followed Cornleone, and eventually they arrived back where Cornwall was.
"So, Hogoki, you beat Vito, did ya?"
Hogoki proceeded to cheerfully reply. "So I found him and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse, but I would've had to refuse your offer to take it, and I didn't wanna do that, so I decided, why not take both of 'em and take both of ya out?"
"...Holy shit."
"...Agreed, uncle."
"We'll send our Houndour in, then!" they both declared, throwing their balls and sending out two black and brown dogs that tried to look menacing.
"Kwaru! Water Gun!"
Well, that ended quickly. Even the corn men were surprised by that.
"...I think we have a new boss."
"Can't say I can disagree."
"...New boss?" Hogoki asked confusedly.
"You, kid! You unified the family, you see, and now you're the leader of the corn empire!"
Hogoki suddenly regretted this quite a lot.
"...Anyway, boss, we've gotta offer you favors now, so what do you need?"
"Which way's the nearest gym, Foccai?"
Seal getting out the Kanto map and barking:
"Cinnabar Island? No way we're getting there on foot..."
Cornwall and Cornleone looked at each other and nodded.
"Get the cannon, boys!" Cornwall yelled.
With that, the entire corn mafia proceeded to haul out a giant cannon as Foccai looked absolutely flabbergasted at the idea.
"Load the boss!"
Hogoki proceeded to recall a now panicked Foccai as the corn mafia picked up Hogoki and tossed him into the cannon.
"Aim for Cinnabar Island, the beaches, not the fuckin' volcano, it'll spit him out! All right, it's done, now fire!"
A CGI explosion happened as Hogoki went flying southwest (not that he would know).
"...Hey, who takes over while he's gone?"
"...Here we go again."
The corn men sighed.
He was so high up... He could've sworn he saw Vermilion City from up here.
He only saw water right now, though.
Not that he minded — he'd land on Cinnabar soon.
In fact, he thought he saw it coming up right then.
Yep! He saw the beaches right there!
...Actually, he was heading straight for them. Downwards.
He thought he suddenly realized something right about then.
...Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all–
B O N K