The adrenaline rush that came with every battle was already fading, but the loud roars of approval didn’t.
“Kayden! Kayden!”
“Castelia! Castelia!”
Between all the cheering and mix of voices that blended together, it was my name and that of our city that stood out the most. Grated fencing rattled under the weight of hundreds gripping the steel mesh with their hands. Young, old, rich or poor—none of it mattered. People of all backgrounds had somehow gathered here in a massive crowd. I hadn’t noticed any of them drop by because I’d been so engrossed in the battle. A certain emotion filled me as I returned Rune to his Pokeball.
Pride.
Judging from how people stomped their feet and screamed out Castelia until their throats gave way, most of these surprise spectators were probably locals. A good fight got anyone’s blood pumping, but one that involved a fellow Castelian?
Hometown pride went a long, long way in any region, and none more so than the world’s largest melting pot.
I was a candidate for a new Unova Gym Leader, a person of interest currently sweeping up all news headlines, an Ability Holder, a Bug Specialist, a trainer… The list went on and on, but before any of that, I was one thing.
I was from Castelia City of Unova.
These people shouting my name didn’t know the context behind this match that had been years in the making, but they knew I was one of them. I had been born here and walked the same streets as they had. I carried the proud name of Castelia with me the same way they did. That was why they cheered so loudly or so I liked to believe. I hadn’t planned on celebrating the end of this match, not when I merely took it in stride as a certain chapter of my life finally closing for good, but I couldn’t leave the people hanging—my people.
My way of acknowledging them was holding up a clenched fist in front of my face in a victory gesture. The moment my eyes met those of random spectators outside, they roared harder.
It was a wonder no one had tried coming onto the field yet, but for obvious reasons, they stayed on the other side of the fencing.
The arena was utterly decimated. Blown to smithereens. Fucked.
That tended to happen when two elite trainers let loose, and it was worse when one of them was a powerful Specialist of one of nature’s most destructive elements. Rune’s little finale had also been the icing on the cake for the rundown battlefield. We were looking at a sea of molten earth and lava sinking inches into the earth now. Burgh’s Orbeetle had prevented any damage to the environment outside of faded chalk lines, but waves of hot air spilled out now that all psychic barriers had been let down.
It felt like we were in the middle of a sauna, very much so that I ended up flapping the collar of my shirt while carefully skirting around the battlefield. Someone else did the same.
Sierra and I met in the middle by where Burgh stood.
I didn’t say anything but stuck a hand out for a cordial handshake as per proper battle etiquette. I didn’t particularly want to, but I was aware of all the flashing phone cameras in the crowd. I had to watch my image given that I was going to be in the public eye from now on. The same applied to the woman standing across from me, of course, no matter how precarious her future seemed.
She shook my hand with a clenched jaw.
There were so many things I could have said to her, but I didn’t. I regarded her coolly, gold eyes unblinking and as unnerving as ever. I’d said everything I wanted to before the match and shown her the rest through actions.
Whether she liked it or not, I was here to stay for good.
Sierra knew, too. Her dark eyes glittered coldly as she retracted her hand and placed it over her heart.
“‘With the Heroes and Dragons as witnesses, your claims have seen the light,’” she recited in a sullen mutter.
I had to hand it to her. Battered, beaten, and bruised, yet never broken—such was the thing known as pride. Even now, Sierra stubbornly clung onto what remained of her dignity and carried out the ending customs for the old ways.
That was all. No apology, not that I cared for one in the first place, and no other spoken word.
She sent out an Unfezant, climbed onto its back, and vanished into the skies… hopefully from my life for good as well. I wasn’t even glad to see her go. Only a sense of quiet, weary acceptance came over me. Another part of my past had been dealt with.
Now I had to look toward the future.
I clicked my tongue. “She didn’t even help clean up her mess.”
Most public battle arenas or related facilities had human and Pokemon staff on hand. Not this one.
No one else was going to fix what was a years-old, abandoned battlefield in the middle of nowhere, so I took it upon myself to do cleanup work. Out popped Armaldo and Araquanid from their Pokeballs to help reset the hazard zone back to its default state. While they worked together to cool lava down and bury everything in mother earth’s folds, Burgh grasped me by the shoulder with one thin, shaking hand. His Orbeetle threw up a translucent screen for privacy.
“Splendid,” he rasped out. His eyes shone with more life than I’d seen in them over the last two weeks combined. “It was a marvelous match, Kayden. As a fellow Bug Specialist, I couldn’t be prouder. I felt—I felt alive watching you. I don’t think anyone will be questioning your capabilities as a trainer after this.”
Warmth blossomed in my chest. That meant a lot coming from Burgh. I smiled, but the people swarming outside the court never left my peripheral vision. In fact, there were more people flocking here by the second. Having an audience for a match with my childhood nemesis—if she could even be called that—hadn’t exactly been on my bingo card, but it wasn’t unwelcome.
“How did they find out?” I mused out loud. “It’s so early in the morning. No one was here when Sierra and I arrived.”
“Actually, there was,” Burgh corrected with a small cough. “You both were focusing so hard on the match that you missed someone sitting on a bench behind the tree over there. He livestreamed the whole thing. Orbeetle let me know while you were introducing yourselves.”
“You didn’t stop him?”
Burgh arched a slender brow in response. “Was it supposed to be a private match?”
“Not exactly,” I admitted.
“Oh, good. I didn’t think you were going to lose anyway,” Burgh smiled. “I thought it’d be nice publicity if anything. Look how it turned out! Before I knew it, this many people showed up. And to think neither of you noticed anything…”
It was my turn to cough into my fist. “In my defense, I don’t usually ignore my surroundings like that. This match happened to be kind of important.”
I couldn’t argue with Burgh’s reasoning either. It was good publicity.
Like he’d said, I’d proven my mark as a trainer by soundly defeating Sierra Brooks, ex-Elite Four member and opposing candidate for the position of the next Castelia Gym Leader. I imagined this was not going to look good on top of what the public now knew about her hand in old exile cases. Character and morals aside, I also trumped her where strength mattered in the role we both vied for.
I had no way of knowing if the civilian government had sent Sierra after me or not, but their desperate last stand had hit a wall sooner than they thought.
Anything else they tried was going to get washed away by public momentum.
“Now, about that explanation I believe I am finally owed?” Burgh spoke up, voice full of amusement. “What happened to lying low?”
I snorted with laughter and recalled my Pokemon now that they’d finished fixing the field. “I tried, Burgh. I’ll tell you after I get medical care for my Pokemon.”
We were gone faster than people could converge on us.
The moment we Teleported to League HQ, Burgh showed me to the medical unit. Technically, I wasn’t allowed here yet without proper status or clearance, but they didn’t bat an eye. Kricketune and Galvantula got Ditto cells injected into them to help regenerate lost flesh and missing limbs.
Bugs, more so at higher tiers, boasted incredible survivability.
My team already had remarkable regeneration capabilities born from years of training and endless fighting, so I wasn’t too worried about my Pokemon bouncing back from their injuries. A short period of time was all it would amount to. I imagined the two of them would be bragging to the others later about their rapidly healing wounds slash badges of honor.
From the perspective of outsiders, it had probably looked like a horrific match for those with frailer stomachs. High-tier Pokemon battles usually weren’t all rainbows and sunshine in the first place (it was impossible for them NOT to be considering living weapons of mass destruction fought each other one-on-one), but being burned alive and losing whole body parts still leaned on the more uncommon side. Any fight where Bugs and Fire were involved wasn’t pretty.
…Shit. I suddenly remembered all the kids I’d seen around the court, and I hoped parents or older siblings out there had shielded their eyes from the more brutal moments of the match.
Once my Pokemon got the medical attention they needed, I told Burgh the story of how I got ambushed on my morning jog.
That was after Alder kidnapped us to his office first.
He’d watched the whole battle from the comfort of his desk monitor after officers from various intelligence departments brought it to his attention.
The smile he now wore could only be described as one thing: a shit-eating grin.
“Kayden, you keep surprising me at every turn!” he guffawed. A large hand slapped me on the back for what seemed like the tenth time in the last two minutes alone, and I winced from the impact. Alder was strong for a middle-aged man. “I didn’t foresee you battling Sierra. You really put the final nail in the coffin.”
I rubbed my own back with a fist and smiled wryly. I had a feeling I already knew what he was talking about, but I asked anyway. “I take it the civilian side of the government’s seen the news by now?”
Alder’s grin deepened. “Oh, most definitely. I saw people running around like headless chickens earlier. I imagine they’re off in a private meeting right now to figure out how best to proceed, but there’s nothing they can do.”
Fingers flew across a keyboard as the Champion hummed out loud to himself. With a face full of utter glee, he finished what he was doing and spun his monitor around for our benefit.
“Here,” Alder pointed out, tapping the screen with his index finger. “Videos of the match are trending on Chatter and every social media or news platform you can think of. People who saw it live are helpfully spreading the word, too.”
He wasn’t exaggerating.
Displayed on his monitor were dozens of tabs and posts mentioning my match with Sierra. It was so rare for two elite, high profile trainers to fight a public battle that it was all people could talk about. Scarcely half an hour had passed, but the battle of Bugs versus Fire had generated much buzz on the Pokenet already—no pun intended.
“Alder, do you think we can move up the schedule then?” Burgh asked. With much anticipation, he leaned forward in his seat as the man across from us hummed out loud in thought.
The telltale look of joy on his face said everything.
“There’s no point dragging things out when everyone knows how things will end. Kayden, look forward to some good news tonight,” Alder declared in a voice brimming with undisguised enthusiasm. “I’m going to convene a parliament meeting later and put your appointment to an official vote.”
If there was one thing I could thank Sierra for, it was giving me the golden opportunity to dispel any doubts—no matter how ridiculous—about my qualifications as a Gym Leader candidate. I’d already been a shoo-in for the role, but our fight hastened the process. No one in their right mind would dare question me anymore.
I clenched a fist under the table. The grin on my face mirrored those of my companions.
“I better get ready to celebrate then.”
Lacunosa Town, Unova — Sierra Brooks
“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!”
Howard Moore’s shrill voice exploded from the phone Sierra held in her hand. He was red-faced, livid, and absolutely fuming with anger. She could see as much from the impromptu video call.
The man on the screen threw his hands up in exasperation.
“Starting and LOSING a public match?” Howard continued. “Your reputation is in tatters more than ever! You just needed to keep your head down! We would have found a way to prevent Kayden Sterling’s appointment. We only needed more time—”
“No, you wouldn’t have,” Sierra snapped right back. She bristled at his outburst. “Let’s not fool ourselves. The public was already against us.”
“You made things worse by proving his strength—”
“I had to do something! Better than you and your fool’s errand at least!”
She snarled out the last few words and hung up, slamming her phone onto the kitchen countertop so forcefully that she heard a crack.
She didn’t care.
She, Sierra Brooks, had lost again, this time to a twenty-something-year-old brat who believed he could serve Unova better than her. Her entire frame trembled from fury and a creeping sense of humiliation.
In her mind’s eye, pairs of gold and blue eyes continued to haunt her with their unnerving stares. They remained there even when she blinked furiously to try and chase them away.
Kayden Sterling and the Embodiment of the Sun.
She’d lost to them. Terribly.
Sierra’s shoulders slumped with resignation. There wasn’t anything else she could do. Any notions of rejoining the ranks of the League were laughable at best. Her entire campaign had gone up in smoke and cinders.
She, like the rest of Unova, would have to wait and see how the future unfolded from here on out. She only hoped the country would remain intact in the days or months to come.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
She still believed in her late grandmother’s ominous words.
Someday, a young man will tear Unova apart for the sake of Truth.
Castelia City, Unova — Kayden Sterling
In the grand scheme of things, what happened this morning hardly meant anything at all. I treated it like an ordinary workout for me and my Pokemon and conveniently wiped any more thoughts about Sierra Brooks from my mind. That was a chapter of my life over and done with.
I had something far more important to deal with.
Furniture shopping.
“Which one do we like better? Blue or green?” I asked.
My kind helpers—Burgh, Ribombee, Heracross, and Golisopod—were split half and half and pointed at the couches they liked best. One was a classic sectional couch outfitted with leather and the other was a modular couch made of softer fabric.
Our group only came to a consensus after sitting on both of them. The modular couch won because first, I knew the majority of my team was partial to green and second, it felt nice. Really freaking nice. Sitting on it was like sinking into a big, fluffy cloud. I might have even dozed off if given the chance to sit there with my eyes closed for a bit.
“Yeah, let’s go with this one,” I fervently agreed. My Pokemon cheered in the background. With great reluctance, I made myself get up and add the item to a digital cart on my phone.
Even if it didn’t seem like it, something as ordinary as furniture shopping was a monumental task right now. It cemented my new reality—that I was staying in Castelia from now on permanently.
Heh, and to think this had all started as a seemingly short vacation.
My new house was more like a sad, wooden husk devoid of any color and life. That problem needed to be rectified. Given that I didn’t have anything better to do while waiting for the good news Alder promised, I opted to get started on a house makeover now rather than later. Burgh had graciously accompanied me to one of Castelia’s largest department stores. He and Ribombee were bonding quickly over their shared love for art and beautiful things. Kricketune probably would have loved to join them, but I’d left him and Galvantula at home to heal outside of their Pokeballs.
Heracross and Golisopod were our so-called hired muscles. We already had three shopping carts packed full of cleaning supplies, bathroom essentials like toilet paper and a fun shower curtain patterned with smiling Sewaddle, plates, silverware, kitchen appliances—the whole shebang. The two large Bugs easily wheeled carts around like they weighed nothing, and they kept themselves amused by spinning them in circles or racing from one aisle to the other. I let them be so long as they didn’t disturb anyone or make a mess of the store.
So far, they were doing a good job.
The only reason they or our group as a whole didn’t attract attention was because Ribombee periodically sprinkled everyone with fairy dust, another trick I stole from a famous Fairy Specialist in Johto. Glamour, or enchantments such as illusions, came naturally to the Fae. Ribombee helped us stay under the radar by lowering people’s perception of us. They wouldn’t notice our group unless they really concentrated on our faces, and even then, our facial features would be blurry in their memories until hours later. Ribombee’s whole Fairy shtick revolved around warmth and hospitality as her specialties.
She had to keep the fairy dust to a minimum for me and Burgh, though. Too much would cause complications like type energy poisoning—in this case, probably severe rashes similar to allergic reactions if copious amounts were to be sprayed on our human skins.
Just like that, we were free to walk through the department store mostly unhindered. It was funny walking by oblivious teenagers talking about me and even a row of televisions that played the news.
“Dude, did you see the match between that old Elite Four member and Kayden Sterling—”
“—here at Cloud News, it seems the next Castelia Gym Leader is all but confirmed—”
I couldn’t help but smirk to myself. My name was going around everywhere.
Burgh found it amusing, too, if the way his eyes suddenly crinkled with joy meant anything. It was nice seeing him less depressed these days.
“Treat yourself to a nice meal tonight, Kayden,” he suggested, gesturing to a mahogany dresser that seemed worth getting. “You’re going to get busy from now on as a Gym Leader.”
I ran a hand thoughtfully over the wood. “Busy isn’t bad, Burgh. And how did you know I was going to do that? I’m ordering from Jake’s later.”
If you wanted real, authentic Castelian pizza—the kind of slices that filled your stomach with cheesy goodness—then Jake’s Pizza on Gloria Street was your only choice. No ifs, ands, or buts.
“Great. I believe I have to order some for myself now,” Burgh chuckled. “I do mean it, though. There’s a lot to learn. Two months until the next League Circuit will be cutting it close—”
“Then why not start now?” I playfully interrupted, and I tapped the side of my head with a finger. “You’d know it best as a fellow Bug Specialist. Our brains are wired a bit differently. I can keep up with whatever you throw at me.”
He raised a brow. “You’re serious?”
“Dead serious.”
“In the middle of a department store? Looking at dressers and closets?”
“Sounds about right.”
Some catchy pop song played over the speakers overhead as Burgh stared at me with open astonishment. Meanwhile, I kept looking at furniture I wanted to buy with Ribombee.
Burgh had to blink slowly a few times before he finally shook himself out of his daze.
“I suppose there’s no time like the present,” he agreed in a faint mutter.
I wasn’t looking, but I heard a rustling sound before something entered my field of vision. Burgh held some sort of old, ragged notebook out to me that he’d evidently pulled from his tote bag.
“For you,” he offered. “I was going to give it later, but since you insisted… It’s full of notes I wrote down when I was younger and still learning from the previous Castelia Gym Leader. You might find it useful to go over in your free time.”
I took the offered item into my hands, fingers gently prying the decade-old relic open and flipping through the first few pages. Huh, Burgh had really nice handwriting. Couldn’t say the same for my own.
“Thanks. I’ll read and study everything in it,” I promised. I wasn’t kidding.
By ‘study,’ I meant I was going to analyze the hell out of it like a Bug searching for their prey’s weakness with a creepy stare.
Burgh smiled at me, hands stuffing themselves inside the pockets of fashionable striped pants. He was feeling well enough these days to put more thought into his clothing choices again.
“I never imagined I’d start teaching you in the middle of a department store, but so be it.” He cleared his throat. “I suppose we should start with arguably the most time-consuming aspect of what a Gym Leader does: fighting trainers during the yearly League Circuit. You already know, but Unova’s season runs from late August through the end of May.”
It used to be from September to June about twenty years ago, but they changed it at some point to give Gym Leaders a little more time off during the summer. Unova was a massive country with a staggeringly high population. That translated to millions of kids taking on the League Circuit every year, and even though there were way more major gyms and Gym Leaders in Unova compared to the rest of the world, they still tended to be overworked.
“You mentioned you worked briefly under Gym Leaders before, so I imagine you have a good idea already of how Gym Leaders must fight the trainers who come challenge them…” Burgh continued. Him trailing off was the prompt for me to answer.
I nodded to show I was listening while tossing a pillow to my shopping basket. “Trainers who pass the gym challenge qualify to fight the Gym Leader. Either they take a gauntlet, or they only fight the Gym Leader themselves. They’re given an appropriate match based on their current stage of growth.”
I knew as much from my own League Circuit runs in other countries when I was younger.
Before a trainer could hope to challenge a Gym Leader, they had to qualify for it first. That meant passing a certain task. Every gym typically had some sort of ‘trial’ or ‘challenge’ related to their chosen type specialty. Sometimes it was an interactive puzzle, a simple quiz, or something far more elaborate like a winding labyrinth or game. It varied by country and the personality of the Gym Leader who ran the business, but they could get really outlandish and creative.
If a trainer successfully completed said gym challenge, they qualified to fight the Gym Leader. They could choose to partake in a gauntlet, a series of battles against gym trainers before fighting the Gym Leader, but that was pretty outdated. I heard it was still popular in Indigo these days because they so highly valued tradition over there, but for the rest of the world, most teenagers preferred fighting the Gym Leader right away.
What I was going to have to deal with on the Gym Leader side of things was giving appropriate matches to my challengers.
Burgh nodded approvingly. “A broad overview, but yes, that would be correct. The point of gyms is to help trainers grow instead of stagnate. Go too easy, and they won’t learn anything. Go too hard, and they’ll be left feeling frustrated. It’s a difficult task to strike the delicate balance of a worthy, exhilarating battle that will help both them and their Pokemon grow as individuals. Based on how many badges your challenger has and how strong they are, you’ll need to field Pokemon with an appropriate level of strength to test them.”
Yeah, so no pitting a seasoned Gyarados against a young Rattata for instance. I knew that crystal clear.
I understood the importance of what Burgh was saying given that I’d been on the receiving end of it in my youth. I wouldn’t have grown as much as I had today if Gym Leaders out there hadn’t given me thrilling enough fights. Exciting, fun memories all things considered—the same kind I wanted to give to challengers of my own someday.
Thankfully, since I was a veteran trainer, I could gauge Pokemon and trainer skill levels pretty easily. Learning to field so-and-so Pokemon against this or that challenger wouldn’t be too hard for me to pick up.
Plus—
“I’ve got a bit of experience thanks to running some gauntlets as a gym trainer intern before,” I mentioned out loud. Ribombee handed me a teddy bear she’d picked out from a toy aisle, so I added that to our growing pile of goodies while patting her head. “The most important matches were those against trainers aiming for their first, second, fifth, or eighth gym badges.”
“Exactly, those are what I’d call milestone matches for a trainer,” Burgh beamed at me, and he proceeded to rattle off information I needed to know.
The first badge was especially meaningful. Up to that point, young trainers had probably only fought simple, clumsy matches with peers. Fighting a Gym Leader for the first time—and in front of a massive, public audience no less—was supposed to be their first glimpse into the actual trainer scene. Only about half the first-year participants in the League Circuit each year reached and passed this point in their journey. It showed who was or was not casual about being a trainer.
Those trying to get their second badge found things got a little harder. If they already got one badge, then Gym Leaders expected trainers to be somewhat serious about training.
Similarly, when aiming for the fifth badge, the difficulty level of a gym match rose again. At this point, challengers had four out of a minimum of eight badges needed to qualify for the regional Conference. If people didn’t know what they were doing at this stage, it was on them.
And of course, getting the shiny eighth badge was the hardest of all.
It was the final obstacle for a challenger and their ticket into the yearly Vertress Conference. Gym Leaders didn’t hold back. Only the best trainers were allowed into what was widely considered one of the nation’s most prestigious events, so Gym Leaders put challengers through the wringer to see who was or was not worthy of that opportunity. Because so few trainers got to this point, Gym Leaders handed out especially difficult challenges for those who fought them. They came prepared with specific counters and strategies tailored to their opponents, and they gave aspiring youths a worthy challenge—one that put everything the trainer had learned while traveling to the test.
Listening to Burgh hammer all this in my head really made me respect those in the profession a whole lot more. Much more work went into being a Gym Leader than people thought, and this was only the battling side of things. One aspect of a very draining but rewarding job.
I knew there was also lots of—
“—paperwork,” Burgh helpfully added at some point, and I cringed already at the mention. On cue, terrible memories of me filling out paperwork while interning at gyms flashed through my mind. “But we’ll discuss more about the role of a Gym Leader next time. I dare say we should probably wrap up shopping first. Your Heracross and Golisopod look like they’re starting to get bored.”
I glanced over to see them slumped dramatically over beanbags as if they were dead. They cracked one eye open each to see if I was done yet, and then they hurriedly closed them when they saw that I was looking. Both massive Bugs sank further into their chairs to exaggerate the ‘feigning death’ act.
Yeah, they were definitely tired of picking out patterns and colors for furniture already. Both preferred battling and exercise over mindless shopping.
I rolled my eyes.
“Alright, we’re packing it up and going home. Let’s roll these bad boys over to the checkout area.”
The moment I said that, both Heracross and Golisopod magically ‘revived’ and sprang to their feet. With shouts of relief, they grabbed all our shopping carts and raced away before I could change my mind.
Burgh smiled nostalgically as I rolled my eyes again.
“You’ve got a good family,” he murmured.
“I do,” I agreed, following after our runaway Bugs. “Wouldn’t change them for the world.”
League HQ. Union Peak, Unova — Alder Adeku
Many years ago, Alder had dreaded parliament meetings.
It was because he was never able to get anything done. Most of the government hated him at the time and were greedy, self-serving scumbugs with their own insecurities and interests they wanted to protect. Things only got better years down the road once more open-minded individuals joined the ranks of the government and League. Nowadays, he looked forward to meetings thanks to a growing number of allies.
Today?
Alder wore an especially ferocious smile.
From his place at a raised podium, stormy eyes gazed challengingly at hundreds of men and women seated in curved rows similar to those in an amphitheater. Two gigantic flags were hung on the wall behind him: one with the proud symbol of their nation—a Braviary with wings stretched wide to the heavens—and the other with an intricate Pokeball design that stood for the Unova League.
Parliament had long been in session here in the Great Hall, and the tension was so thick one could have cut it with a knife.
They’d spent an hour going over the qualifications of the proposed Castelia Gym Leader candidates one last time. People tried their damned hardest to nitpick at Kayden, but only a small minority struggled until the end.
Alder had been Champion for a long time. He knew there were still Ekans hiding in the bushes—mainly Howard Moore, that conniving son of a gun—but for now at least, there was nothing they could do in the face of overwhelming public opinion. They had to go with what the people wanted or risk their ire and the untimely end of their political careers.
It helped that the new officials temporarily filling in for vacant seats had enough common sense to go with the current political atmosphere in Unova rather than against. A small group of them including an interesting man named Ghetsis Harmonia Gropius had approached Alder prior to the meeting, and they’d pledged their support ahead of time for Kayden’s official appointment. Maybe they were trying to curry favor with him, but Alder didn’t care.
It was time to put an end to this blasted meeting.
“Votes must now be cast. Please submit your votes for appointing Kayden Sterling as the next Gym Leader of Castelia City,” Alder spoke powerfully into a microphone.
They used to record votes by calling out the roll, but that practice had slowly faded out. They’d since switched to electronic votes in recent years. People bustled around in their rows, fingers gingerly pressing colored buttons on devices attached to seats.
Oh, their faces were a sight to see. It was obvious who was or wasn’t on Alder’s side from how bitter their expressions were.
Fifteen minutes later, all eyes were on the electronic board present on the chamber’s back wall. There, the final tally was on full and undisputed display.
Alder had to refrain from barking out a laugh.
Today, he gladly welcomed one new ally to his ranks.
“We have our results,” Alder declared, and he raised his hand. “By majority vote, Kayden Sterling will be the next Castelia Gym Leader from this moment forth.”
His smile stretched wider.
“This meeting is now adjourned.”
Castelia City, Unova — Kayden Sterling
After we parted ways with Burgh, my team and I spent the whole afternoon redecorating the house and moving stuff around. The hardest part wasn’t installing new carpeting or anything but agreeing on furniture arrangements.
The thing about Bugs was that most of them had a very, very keen attention to detail and could get fixated on the smallest things when they wanted. I had to break up a fight between Centiskorch and Scolipede when they squabbled over whether to put a beanbag forty degrees to the left or right of a bookshelf.
Their natural rivalry as predator and prey species did not help.
At six o’clock sharp, the best pizza Castelia had to offer was delivered to our house.
At half past six, my world changed forever with one phone call.
“I promised you, didn’t I? The vote and meeting ended just now,” Alder’s happy voice drifted through the air. He was on speakerphone. “Congratulations, Kayden. You’re the next Castelia Gym Leader.”
The living room exploded with a cacophony of proud screeches, buzzes, and clicks from my Pokemon. I let them cheer for me and silently fist pumped the air instead, grinning.
It was one thing to understand you’d get the role of your newfound dream and another to officially become it.
Alder didn’t keep me for long after that. He let me know to show up bright and early tomorrow at League HQ for my swearing-in ceremony and forwarded me a long list of what to expect—very short notice, but it couldn’t be helped. All the Unova Gym Leaders had apparently asked Alder to hold it this weekend so they could pack it into their crammed schedules. There were only a few days left in this season’s League Circuit. In spite of how busy each Gym Leader was with last-minute challengers seeking to squeeze in one more badge before the season ended, they still wanted to attend my swearing-in ceremony and show their support. A show of unity, so to speak, and a firm declaration to any remaining dissenters that they wholly welcomed me, an Ability Holder, into their ranks.
From that alone, they seemed like nice, friendly people already. I wasn’t exactly happy about having to put on a formal suit again, but I was definitely looking forward to meeting my new coworkers.
I leaned back on one of our new couches and raised a can of lime soda, grinning.
“Well, gang,” I drawled. “The next step of our lives awaits us!”
The resounding roars would have terrified the whole neighborhood if it wasn’t so empty.
I had no idea what the future held exactly.
This was new territory I was stepping into, but like a true Bug Specialist, I would not only easily adapt but thrive.
Castelia— No… Unova had yet to see the legacy I’d leave behind for future generations. The Ability Holder and Bug Specialist named Kayden Sterling.
For now, my Bugs and I had one last box of pizza to conquer.
In the middle of grabbing one of the few remaining slices, my can of soda almost slipped out of my hand as I realized something.
I swore out loud.
“Ah, shit, I have to draft a speech, don’t I?”
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Kayden's Pokemon for reference purposes
- Rune / Volcarona / M
- Flygon / M
- Golisopod / M
- Kricketune / M
- Frosmoth / F
- Centiskorch / M
- Beedrill / M
- Scizor / M
- Heracross / M
- Araquanid / F
- Ribombee / F
- Vespiquen / F
- Scolipede / M
- Galvantula / F
- Yanmega / M
- Armaldo / M