Chapter 31: Eight Months Later

July 3

Sweat dripped down my forehead as my hand hovered over a Pokéball, and the audience waited with bated breath to see what my final Pokémon would be. On the other side of the arena, Gym Leader Jasmine considered me with the same calm, composed air that she'd always shown. In front of her, a gigantic ironclad serpent slowly traced a circular path in the center of the battlefield, his body segments rotating rhythmically and massive jaws grinding against each other.

Three on three, no substitutions, and both of us down to our final Pokémon. Steelix hardly looked worse for the wear after his brief scuffle with Aros, which he'd brought to a crushing end through a well-timed Ice Fang. I'd watched Jasmine take down dozens of opponents with him throughout the past week—he had the endurance of a champ and could shrug off small hits all day long. But I already knew who I wanted to use against him. We had to clear out all the electric-types first, but now she was in the clear.

"Go!" I called out, throwing the Pokéball forward. The burst of light condensed into the form of an orange weasel, who bounced lightly on her hind paws, spreading her arm fins wide before sizing up her opponent. She had to crane her neck back just to make eye contact with him. But rather than flinch or show any sign of apprehension, the Floatzel just grinned.

Technically Jet had the advantage. Technically. Our opponent was still huge metal snake that was not gonna go down easy. The referee waved both flags to start the round, and the match was on.

"Aqua Jet!" I called out

Jet crouched low and sprang into the air, a swirling pulse of water propelling her forward. The water jet traced a jagged line in midair, zeroing in on Steelix's lower body and striking the joint between two segments with a fierce spray of water. Steelix jerked slightly, eyes tensing for a moment. A solid opening hit, but nothing too devastating.

"Thunder Fang," Jasmine said, her voice so soft I could barely hear it.

But Steelix definitely heard. The iron snake slowly turned his oversized head, keeping his eyes on Jet as she dashed around to his other side. Suddenly, he lunged, massive jaws opening, boulder-sized teeth crackling with lightning. Jet saw him coming though, and deftly backflipped away just in time for his jaws to snap shut on open air.

"Nice dodge!" I exclaimed.

Jet landed a good twenty feet away from Steelix and spun around on her front paws, sticking out her tongue at the giant snake.

Jasmine frowned. "Autotomize," she said. Again, I could barely hear her over the grinding of dirt as Steelix pivoted in the middle of the battlefield, keeping his head trained on Jet the entire time. But this time, rather than pursue her, he began rotating his body segments. Slowly at first, then building in speed. Fast, faster, past the point that he should have been able to, moving so fast that his spines were just a blur. Finally there was a powerful crunch, and the outer layers of his metallic skin snapped off, clattering to the floor with an echoing clang. The freshly-shed Steelix gave a swish of his tail and did a quick loop in the center of the battlefield, segments still whirring like an engine, dirt grinding beneath his body. Satisfied with the increased speed, he leveled his head at Jet, body tensed with potential energy, ready to strike.

Well, there went our mobility advantage.

"Now. Another Thunder Fang."

Steelix lunged at Jet with so quickly he was almost a blur. The Floatzel dashed to the side, using a spurt of water to push herself faster than she'd normally be able to run. But neither of us were ready for how quickly he managed to turn and zero in on her, teeth already sparking. He was right behind her. Only a few more seconds and he'd close the gap.

"Jump now!" I yelled.

Jet leaped upward the instant before Steelix would have struck, somersaulting over his head in a wide arc. But the steel-type snapped his head upward at the last second, and his jaws locked tight around one of her tails. Electricity surged through the Floatzel's body, and I flinched as her pained screeching filled the air. When it finished, she was left dangling from his jaws, flailing indignantly, punching his teeth repeatedly, to no effect.

Oh crap. Jet was stuck. Steelix's teeth began sparking again. He'd have no problem just repeating the attack, over and over. Unless—!

"Water Gun!" I blurted out.

The reaction was immediate. Jet used the momentum from her flailing to swing her body upward and spit a narrow stream of water straight into Steelix's eye. The iron snake recoiled backward, grunting in pain, and that was all the opening that Jet needed to wriggle her tail free and drop to the ground.

Shouldn't have wasted a moveslot on Water Gun of all things, but it managed to get her free, so it was worth it. But now I was stuck on what to do next. With Steelix's increased speed, we couldn't just go for repeated light blows. I could have Jet stop and try to pull off a Bulk Up, but the benefits likely wouldn't outweigh the damage she'd take from being an open target. Come on—what was the best move?

Jasmine pointed a finger forward. No need to give a command, there was no reason not to keep going with Thunder Fang. Jet couldn't take too much more of that. Had to think. Some way to get our advantage back.

Then, out of nowhere, an idea struck, and I shouted, "Whirlpool!"

Jet flashed a toothy grin, then dove at Steelix within a pulse of water, swerving around his lower body as he lunged with his jaws. Tighter and tighter she spiraled around the steel-type, until the outer circles joined together with the inner ones, forming a swirling vortex that swallowed up his lower body and held him firmly in place. There! It'd be that much harder for him to pivot now.

Steelix gave a small snort of annoyance, then lunged again, but the swirling waters held his lower body in place, and he couldn't pull himself out. Jet laughed and pelted him with a few spurts of water now that he had no way to close the distance.

Jasmine paused, observing the turn of events carefully. Then she said, "Bulldoze."

Ah, crap.

From within the watery grip of the swirling whirlpool, Steelix wrenched his tail free. Then he struck the ground, letting loose a rolling shockwave that churned up the dirt floor as it traveled across the battlefield. Jet stopped laughing abruptly, then attempted to leap over the wave, but the moment she landed, the dirt under her paws crumbled into chunks, then dug into her body from all sides. The Floatzel grunted in pain as she sluggishly wrenched herself free, swaying a bit on her feet once she stood back up.

On the plus side, that was Jasmine's fourth move command. No more surprises now. On the downside, Jet's legs had taken the full brunt of that shockwave, and her movements had noticeably slowed.

"Don't worry about it, just use Aqua Jet!" I called out.

That'd make up for the loss of speed, in any case. Once the burst of water flared up around her body, Jet shot forward like a bullet, using it to close the distance much faster than she'd have been able to run. The Floatzel swerved around Steelix, narrowly avoiding another tail smash, then dove into the whirlpool surrounding him, following the momentum of its current. Her silhouette was little more than a blur as she pelted the serpent with repeated Aqua Jets from within the swirling waters. He flinched with each blow, eye twitching. I knew that tell. The attacks were getting to him. Slowly. But at the same time, he was just watching her do it. Carefully waiting for the right moment…

"Keep your guard up!" I warned.

But there was a moment's pause after her next Aqua Jet. She hesitated for just a second too long. Suddenly Steelix's head zeroed in not on where she'd been, but where she was going to be the moment she darted forward. Boulder teeth locked around her midsection, crackling with electricity. Jet gasped in pain and shock as lightning coursed through the entire whirlpool with her trapped inside.

No!

But the Floatzel hadn't gone limp yet. She was still struggling against Steelix's hold, bubbles streaming from her mouth with each thrash. Only a few more seconds before she'd run out of air and we'd have to forfeit.

Last chance, had to make it count.

"Waterfall!"

I wasn't even sure if she could hear me over the rushing water of her own whirlpool. Or if she'd register the command with how much pain she had to be in. But then, without warning, the whirlpool broke, and all the water in the vortex suddenly collapsed together in a rushing wave, shooting straight upward with Jet right at the center of it. Steelix's eyes went wide just a second before the wave crashed into his face, snapping his head backward with a grinding crunch. For a single, heart-pounding moment, he leaned back as though suspended in midair. Then his weight dragged him down and his head crashed into the dirt, where he lay unmoving.

The referee swung a red flag towards Jasmine. "Steelix is unable to battle. The challenger is the winner!"

A sudden wave of noise burst from the audience stands, where all the gym trainers had been watching their leader's match—half of them cheering for our victory and the other half groaning at Steelix's defeat. The waterfall collapsed, streaming over the battlefield, and Jet emerged from within, coughing and sputtering. It didn't last long though—she quickly regained herself and flashed a wide grin at the audience. Jasmine recalled her Steelix without a word, but then folded her arms behind her back and gave a gentle smile.

We'd done it. We'd won the gym battle.

I realized too late that Jet was bounding towards me now. Eighty pounds of wet furball collided with my chest and knocked me to the ground.

"*I did it! That's right, me!*" she called out, posing for the onlookers in the audience.

"Yep. You sure did," I gasped, thoroughly winded. "Now, could you please get off."

It had been eight months since the rebellion against Team Rocket was brought to a crushing end, and some days, when I was particularly distracted, I could forget about everything that happened and just be a normal trainer enjoying their journey throughout the Johto region.

There were, of course, reminders. My friend Ajia, who was still deeply involved in the fight against Team Rocket, but avoided bringing it up, for my sake. My friend Starr, who had once been a top Rocket leader and my greatest enemy, but who had thrown it all away to save my life. My Pokémon, half of which were genetic experiments, rescued from Team Rocket's labs. Sometimes the memories would creep up on me when I was least prepared for them, like the dead of night, lying in bed, suddenly flashing back to the floor of a Rocket detention cell. My dreams were laced with threads of lightning, pierced by the mindlessly glowing eyes of Mewtwo, and haunted by the looming spectre of a giant avian dragon, glaring murderously, ready to end me.

But for the most part, life had gone on. Each day on the road in Johto was another day that I'd survived beyond all of that. And each day brought new experiences that had nothing to do with any of it.

After a quick stop at the Pokécenter, I found myself and all six of my Pokémon—Swift the Pidgeot, Firestorm the Charizard, Chibi the Pikachu-Zapdos hybrid, Aros the Flygon, Stygian the Absol, and Jet the Floatzel—seated at the trainer area of an outdoor cafe, eating lunch and listening to Firestorm recount his battle with Magneton for his teammates that hadn't seen it.

"*So that was a direct hit with Thunderbolt, yeah? Didn't think I could take another one, even if it was real slow and I was dodging everything, eventually one of them was gonna land.*"

The Charizard was standing back from the table, giving him room to spread both his arms and wings to accentuate the dramatic beats of his story. On his opposite side was Aros, listening to the story with as disinterested a look as possible, though he couldn't help giving a nod of approval at certain parts. Chibi stared off into the distance, the salty sea breeze ruffling his pointed head feathers. Stygian was sprawled out under the table, pawing at something beneath the deck floorboards and not particularly paying attention. But Swift was hanging on every word, beaming with pride at his teammate's success.

"*So then, uh…*" The Charizard paused, tapping his claws together. "*Wait, what was next?*"

"Smokescreen," I offered.

His face lit up. "*Oh yeah! Jade ordered Smokescreen. So Magneton starts using Swift a ton. I mean a ton, there's stars everywhere, and they're all hitting me, even with the smoke.*"

I smirked. "When are you gonna remember that Swift is a sure-shot move?" He'd forgotten during the match, too.

But the fire lizard just snorted. "*That's your job.*"

Alright, that was fair.

"*So I had to land and cover my face with my wings and just slowly walk toward it, taking the hits. And I couldn't see, but neither could it, but I could feel where the stars were coming from. So I just let off this huge Flame Burst that explodes right in the middle of all three magnets and boom!*"—Firestorm clapped his hands together with a small wisp of flame between his claws—"*Down it goes.*"

Jet leaped onto the table, throwing a paw up to give him a high five—which would have knocked my food tray to the floor if I hadn't managed to catch it before it slid all the way off. I gave her an unamused stare, and she grinned sheepishly before jumping down.

"*I took down Magnezone. That's a lot harder than beating Magneton,*" Aros pointed out to me in the kind of tone you'd use for something helpfully informative and not stating the obvious.

"You know, you might have forgotten this, but I was there, and I saw the whole thing," I said with a laugh. "In any case, sorry about that whole Hidden Power thing. No one else used any dragons against her, so I had no idea it would hit so hard."

"*It's not that impressive,*" Jet chimed in. "*Aren't those magnet guys mad weak to ground?*"

Aros opened his mouth to protest but I cut him off with, "Actually, in his defense, it had used Magnet Rise, so we had to totally change our strategy." The Flygon gave a satisfied huff at my explanation. Jet just shrugged before dropping to the ground and hunting under the table for lost fries.

All of a sudden, I felt my Pokégear start buzzing. I grabbed it from my pocket and checked it to see that Starr was calling me.

"Hey, how's it going?" I answered.

"Terrible. When are you gonna save me from Ajia?" Starr replied in an exaggeratedly defeated tone. I heard a laughing voice in the background call out, "Oh, whatever!" Starr snorted and then added, "Yeah, okay, I might be lying. It's been nice."

Since Starr and I had been primarily travelling together, with Ajia only meeting up with us once a month or so, the two of them had spent the past week in the Sevii Islands, just the two of them. Plus it had given me the chance to spend some time with just me and my team. Having both our teams out together could sometimes get a bit… tense. Not outright hostile like eight months ago, but still. (Not that any of that had affected Jet. She'd immediately gone up to Starr's team and tried to make friends with all of them, to varying degrees of success.)

"So, you still up for Blackthorn?" Starr asked.

"Of course!" I said with a grin.

"Sweet, it's been ages since I've been to the hot springs there. Looking forward to that."

I chuckled under my breath. "Yeah, you have fun with that."

She scoffed. "Don't think you're getting out of it. Anyway, when do you think you can meet us there?"

"Tonight's fine. I'm done with my gym battle so we're just wasting time in Olivine."

"Oh nice, you'll have to tell me how that went. So see you tonight?"

"Yup, see you then," I said, ending the call.

Swift turned to face me once I had put my phone away. "*So where's our next destination?*" he chirped.

"Sounds like it's gonna be Blackthorn City."

"*Who's flying?*" Aros asked.

"It gets pretty cold in those mountains, even this time of year. So I was thinking Firestorm."

The Flygon shrugged. "*Fine with me. But we should stop at the beach before we leave town.*"

Firestorm snorted and rolled his eyes. "*You always want to do that.*"

"*I like sand,*" Aros replied defensively.

"Yes, we can hit the beach," I said, standing up. "Might as well enjoy the sun before we head up into the mountains anyway."

I was pretty much done with my food, so I picked up the tray and went to throw its contents in the trash. At least, until Jet poked my side and made grabby-hands at it.

I rolled my eyes and lowered the tray so she could reach it. "Here." She shoved the remaining fistful of fries into her mouth.

Olivine City was a heavily industrial town, with the majority of its coastline taken up by piers and shipping yards. That said, there were still a few nice public beaches out on the western edge of town. My shoes kicked up sand as I left the main path and walked down the gleaming white shore, shielding my eyes from the sun as I went. Maybe I should have thought to pick up sunglasses, but it was a little late for that now.

Once I'd located a stretch of sand that was relatively clear of other beach-goers, I set down my bag, kicked off my shoes, and let all six of my Pokémon out of their balls. Jet dashed forward and dove into the water immediately, surfacing a few seconds later and playfully squirting a few streams of water at the others. Firestorm shielded himself with his wings and gave an annoyed snort before turning around, giving a few flaps, and taking off, soaring low overhead. Stygian pawed at the sand for a bit, then took off running down the shoreline and through the flocks of Wingull that lined the beach, scattering countless fluttering white shapes into the air. Meanwhile, Aros had set to work digging out a massive hole and constructing a large mound of sand around himself.

"You better smooth that back out when you're done; the lifeguards don't like it when people leave holes everywhere," I told him.

"*I got it, I got it,*" the Flygon replied, giving a swish of his tail.

I grabbed a towel from my bag and laid it on the sand. I wasn't much in the mood for swimming, and the ocean was always too cold for my tastes anyway. I could at least relax on the beach while everyone else had fun though. Swift wound up settling down next to me, fluffing out his feathers to absorb maximum warmth and closing his eyes contentedly. The only other one who hadn't gone off to busy himself was Chibi. The Pikachu was sitting by himself in the sand, gazing out at the ocean with a troubled look on his face.

"Something up?" I asked.

"*It's nothing,*" the hybrid replied.

I made sure he wasn't looking at me before I smirked. "With you, it's never nothing."

He gave a small huff but didn't dignify that with an answer.

I tilted my head. "You weren't hoping you'd get to be in the gym battle, weren't you?"

Chibi turned and gave me a face that said, "who do you think I am?" Alright, so I didn't really think it was something as dumb as that. Just wanted to rule it out.

Several seconds passed in silence. Finally, he opened his mouth and said, "*I know we said we both needed to take a break from it all…*" but his voice trailed off before he could finish.

Oh. It was this again. Seemed like every few weeks, he'd start asking about the situation with Team Rocket again. It was making it harder and harder to pretend that we'd left that world behind.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, look. I've been asking Ajia about it practically every time I see her, which is what you told me to do, by the way. She still hasn't heard anything."

His ears pricked up at my words. "*That's even worse. Eight whole months and nothing?*"

"She said they're probably just working on gathering funds to recover from their main HQ being totally fried last November," I said pointedly.

He paused, taking a few seconds to think of a response. "*That, or they're working on something big and they don't want anyone to know about it.*"

"We don't have any proof of that."

"*We can't disprove it.*"

I put a hand to my forehead. "No, I guess we can't, but that really doesn't tell us anything."

Chibi turned away, flattening his ears in frustration. He sat there like that for several seconds before standing up suddenly and announcing, "*I'm going for a walk.*" He then wandered off down the beach, kicking at the sand as he went.

I sighed. I wasn't like I didn't understand his anxiety. There were times that I felt it too, no matter how many times I told myself that the fight against Team Rocket wasn't my problem anymore. But there wasn't any sense in stressing out over something that we had literally no information on. It wasn't like we could do anything about it now.

I was dragged from my thoughts by a sopping-wet Floatzel leaning into my field of view and staring me straight in the eyes.

"*Hey. I'm bored.*"

I smirked. "We've got a whole ocean here," I said, gesturing to it as though she hadn't noticed.

The sea weasel flopped down into the sand next to me, sending a wave of it into my lap. "*Whatever. Tell me one of the rebel stories.*"

"You've already heard them all," I said with a snort.

"*I don't care. Tell me the one where your friend was gonna kill you but then she didn't. I like that one.*"

I let out an exaggerated sigh. "Alright, you asked for it," I said, sitting fully upright and spreading my arms for dramatic effect. "So there we were in the main Rocket base. Alarms blaring, Rockets all around us with no way out…"

And so, like I'd done a dozen times before, I told the story of how Starr betrayed Team Rocket. From the unruly lightning that tore the air from Pichu's battle with Raichu, to the crushing checkmate at the hands of Mewtwo. From the overbearing presence of Giovanni to the smothering feeling of certain death when he gave Starr his ultimatum. Halfway through the story Floatzel flipped onto her back and stretched out widely, sunning her belly. It was always hard to tell if she'd dozed off or not. But either way, I kept going. It felt good to tell the story. Especially when I got to that single, unbelievable moment when Starr had decided to turn her back on the Rockets, despite the fact that there had been absolutely nothing in it for her. By all accounts, it should have been a death sentence. And yet she'd done it anyway. And that was why I'd known without a doubt that her change of heart was genuine. Even though there had been times when it had been difficult to move on, or difficult to forget the things she'd done, that moment always managed to stand out more, like a flame piercing the rest of my memory.

The afternoon stretched into early evening, with Jet dozing off periodically (but still opening one eye every so often to make sure I was still talking.) At some point Chibi wandered back, and he and Stygian passed the time by racing each other up and down the shoreline, thus ensuring that no Wingull could safely land there for the rest of the afternoon. But eventually Stygian took a break from that and went to pawing at Aros's now quite formidable sand mountain, knocking down some of its spires. Aros was content to deal with this by occasionally swatting the Absol back with his tail. At least until Firestorm swooped over them and upped the ante by breathing out a small, concentrated spurt of flames at the mountain, melting its tip into a brightly glowing lump of glass.

"*What are you doing?!*" Aros demanded, standing up in one swift motion that knocked most of the sand from his body.

"*It looks better this way,*" Firestorm said, landing next to Stygian and flashing an innocent grin.

The Flygon glared at him, then dug his claws into the sand. Seconds later, the ground underneath Firestorm and Stygian collapsed into a sinkhole, sucking the two of them down and ensnaring them in a Sand Tomb.

"Oh my god, you guys…" I said, chuckling under my breath.

"*I want in on this!*" a voice cried out near me. I glanced to my left, where there was now a Floatzel-shaped indent in the sand, conspicuously empty. Now Aros had to defend his rather sad and abused-looking sand mountain from invaders on three different sides.

"You know, if you guys wanted to battle, we're not on the right beach for it," I said, gesturing towards the designated battle area on the other side of the volleyball courts. No one heard me, and even if they had, I doubt they'd have cared.

For the second time today, my Pokégear started buzzing. I reached for it, careful not to get sand on it, and half expecting to see Ajia or Starr calling me back. But nope, it was the name I hadn't been expecting, but really should have been.

I answered the call with, "Hey Rudy."

"Got your text, how'd the battle go?" he asked immediately.

I grinned. "It was great. Came pretty close to the wire, but we pulled through and got the badge," I said, unable to keep myself from pulling it out again and admiring its metallic surface in the gleaming sunlight.

"Awesome, you gotta send me a pic of it later," he said rapidly, his words ending in a sudden pause, as though he was waiting for something with bated breath.

I waited a few seconds for good measure and then slowly asked, "…So what about you?"

"Oh man, thought you'd never ask!" he exclaimed, and I could practically hear the grin behind his voice. "Just got to the plateau. Man, you should see this place, it's freaking huge. I can't even tell how many stadiums they got here. I think five. It's at least five. Man, even the side ones make Midnight Stadium look like kid stuff. They've got huge-ass shields too, so you can just cut loose and practice your attacks as hard as you want."

I couldn't help smiling. Rudy had been looking forward to the Kanto League tournament for months, and now that it was finally on the horizon, it was hardly surprising that it was all he could think about.

"So I got registered, got my Pokémon approved and everything, so we just spent the day checking out everything. You wouldn't believe it, there's gotta be like a million shops here. Everything's freaking expensive, but I did get some sweet gear for my team—I've gotta show you when you get here." He paused for about two seconds but then immediately kept going with, "Well, alright, I'll tell you one of them; Nidoking's wearing an Expert Belt. But that's the only spoiler you're getting. Oh, did I tell you how many people are here? Well, actually, it's not that many yet, I think I was one of the first ones."

I laughed. "Honestly, when you said you were gonna get there early, I didn't believe it. Since when do you arrive early to anything?"

"Hey, if you wanna be serious about the tournament, that's what you gotta do," he said matter-of-factly, like nothing was more obvious.

I shrugged. "Alright, that's fair."

A couple seconds' pause followed. "So… you sure you're not entering the tournament?" he asked in an overly-hopeful voice.

I put a hand to my forehead. "Rudy, there's a month left, and I have zero Kanto badges. I've been traveling through Johto. And I only have four of those badges. So no."

He gave an exaggerated sigh. "Lame. I don't think they let guests enter the tourney site until August."

"I can wait."

"Fine. Guess I gotta bother Darren then," Rudy said. "If he ever shows up. I swear, it's like he's not even trying."

I raised an eyebrow. "Where'd you two get separated, anyway?"

"I went on ahead of him on Route 23; he wanted to take it slower." All of a sudden Rudy gasped. "Hey wait, I haven't even told you about Victory Road yet!"

Oh no. That was definitely going to take a while.

"You can tell me all about that in person, okay?"

"Seriously?"

"I'm heading to Blackthorn soon, and I wanna make it there before sundown. Aaand I get the feeling this is a long story," I added with a slight laugh.

Rudy snorted. "Yeah? Alright, you got me there. I wouldn't be able to do it justice over the phone anyway." In the background, I could just barely make out a muffled barking sound. "What? Oh yeah, Ebony says hi."

I chuckled. "Tell her I'm looking forward to seeing her."

There was the muffled sound of Rudy saying something with the microphone pointed away from him, then a much louder and clearer voice barking out, "*Really?! Oh boy, oh boy!*" Then some other scattered background noises, some of which sounded vaguely like Pokéspeech. Then Rudy's voice came back with, "Gotta go now talk to you later!" all in one breath before he ended the call.

I couldn't help snickering as I pocketed my phone. Now I had that to look forward to as well.

I stretched widely before standing to my feet, dusting the sand off my shorts, and calling out, "Hey, guys!" Aros, Stygian, Jet, and Firestorm all glanced over at me from their wrestling pile surrounded by lumpy mounds of soaked or melted sand.

"We're heading out soon. Come on, let's get the beach cleaned up."

My words were met with scattered grumbling, and it took me repeating it several times before everyone took the suggestion to heart. (Granted, it mostly involved Aros using Sand Tomb to dissolve the mountain and Firestorm flying the melted bits off to sea.) After that, I gathered up all my stuff, recalled everyone except Firestorm, and braced myself for our flight into the northern mountains.

"Well, we've got a month until we meet Rudy in Indigo," I said as the fire lizard spread his wings. "What do you think the odds are we can get the Blackthorn gym badge in that time?"