“So, Rocko is off for a fortnight,” I said to the assembled group. I nodded to Rocko, “I think we can all say we’ll miss you terribly before you even walk out the door.” It wasn’t the best way to start off the meeting, but it honestly was one of the more important points, so I decided to announce it early.

Missy, Rachel, Greta, Crystal, and Yolanda all nodded their heads seriously. Crystal then shot Dennis a worried look. The man was practically buzzing in his seat. Worse, next to him was a towering stack of forms that I just knew he was going to be dying to start introducing as part of our procedures.

With Dennis as my second in command, he was getting a lot more authority on various tasks that Rocko had been much more relaxed on. I’d probably let Dennis run through things for a week before pulling him up when he got too anal retentive with the paperwork.

That way, if he had any really good ideas, they got a chance to actually be demonstrated. He had already submitted a few proposals, and I had given them some thought. I suspected his decision to switch around the method of tallying pokemon battles might be useful, but it needed to be tested in action first.

Everybody applauded for Rocko, who waved. “Don’t worry! I’ll not be having it easy. I’ve got two weeks to teach my little brother and sister some tricks, get them some good pokemon, and such before coming back. I’ll be back before you know it!” He then grinned. “It’ll be good training for when I get a month off in three months time when I can really work with them!”

The room at large flicked their eyes towards the paperwork next to Dennis and then shuddered. Rocko smirked only to clap his hands. “Alright Dennis, we can all enjoy a good joke, put them out of their misery.”

Dennis nodded seriously and leaned down to pull out another stack of papers.

I joined everyone in staring at the monster that Rocko was leaving with us. I was halfway ready to pull him up on this madness, only for Dennis to raise a camera and take a picture of everyone’s expression.

There was a moment’s silence as Dennis chuckled. “Heh! Got you! Heh! You should see your faces!” he said turning the camera around to show the room our gobsmacked looks. He reached out and pulled both towers of paper work, leaving a much more realistic trio of folders.

Crystal slammed a fist into the table. “Deniss has been replaced by an imposter! I’ve never seen him make a joke before!”

Yolanda shook her head at her friend and put a hand on her. “It was probably his wife’s idea of a funny joke.”

Dennis slumped. “... yeah, Yolanda’s right.”

A few people laughed at that, while Rocko snickered and stood to clap Dennis on the shoulder. I hummed and moved on with the next order of business. Namely that I would be away for the next two days with my trip to Mahogany Town.

“—I can do this now thanks to Greta and Missy’s work they put in going through the pokemon and making sure they had the right move sets, and, more importantly, the right temperaments to handle Gym style battles.”

This got another round of thanks, and I then laid out everyone’s duties for the rest of the week.

“Also, I’m going to be hopefully scaling back the hours that we’re working with a slightly earlier cut off in a few weeks time. I want to scale back some of the challenges that we’re facing. There’s no need to rush through them after all.”

I tapped my notes. “On that note, I see there have been some booked in doubles battles for me, which will be interesting for our usual crowd, along with the tropical Friday coming back up soon. I see Brawly is booked in…” My eyes alighted on the final dot point on this particular discussion, “And then I also have my match with Will.”

Rocko and Dennis both straightened up at that, while Rachel began bouncing in her seat. “We’ve already sold out tickets! I think it’s going to be a super event! It’s almost a shame we signed that deal so early in the year cause with the attention Will has drawn, the television company is going to be making tons of this match!”

I shrugged. “It’s nice, but it wasn’t our main concern back then. Good for us for later. But yeah, everyone be aware that he will be the last match of the day next weekend before lunch.”

Alexa cleared her throat, and I glanced up. “Yes Alexa?”

“Is there any reason we’re not running it later. In the evening perhaps?”

I frowned. “That’s the time we have Gym battles. I don’t do fights at night, as we book slots for the day. That way, we all get home at a reasonable hour. Why?”

“There has been some queries from the television group about running it later,” she admitted.

I huffed and shook my head. “Well, we’re not running a later match. One, we don’t do that cause of what I said earlier, and two? I don’t want to give Will any special treatment. I think he’s gotten more than enough of that.”

“Hear hear!” cheered Missy only to blush when everyone looked at her. I chuckled and nodded in thanks at her show of support.

“You ready for him?” asked Stephen, his eyes flicking around. “People have been talking him up around town a lot more than usual.” When I tilted my head, he elaborated. “Part of my research is to interact with the pokemon trainers and see how they are doing. I spend time on the routes but also go around to the Trainer hangouts like the various restaurants and battle clubs.”

Yolanda snickered, “You mean Mr Mimes?”

Stephen sighed hugely. “It really saddens me that Professor Oak was right about it being such a good spot to gather information. I just offer to buy some kids the cheap burgers and they answer any question I ask!”

I smirked, adopting a lecturing pose as be took on a flowery tone of voices. “Wisdom in spades,”

“His mind sharper th—” I started to tease, only for Stephen to hold up a hand.

“Please don’t I get enough of that when I check in with him in the breakroom…” Stephen then tilted his head. “Rocko did you tell him you’re on break? Otherwise, he’s going to be all sad when he comes and finds you gone.” Stephen rubbed his chin. “Then again, he’ll probably still be sad.”

“Just tell him Salvadore will play against him for a fortnight.” I rolled my eyes and Yolanda giggled. Rocko quickly fired off a message to that effect. I rolled my eyes harder.

"Right, well, with that out of the way, the only other thing of note is that we have a date for the inaugural Pewter Gym Contest.”

Dennis got a pained look and shook his head. “There’s going to be so much glitter,” he muttered under his breath.

“There is in fact, not going to be any glitter,” I said firmly. I ignored Rachel as she held up her thumb and her finger to indicate that there would be a ‘little bit of glitter’.

“The theme that we’re going to be working on is going be a Tough theme. Something our area is well known for with our Geodude, Onix, Mankey, Beedril, and other pokemon that are not traditionally cute or beautiful being found locally… for now,” I added quietly at the end. One day I would have Carbink and then hopefully a Diancie.

I then clapped my hands together and signalled the end of the meeting. “Alright, report to Dennis for the next two days, as I’m off to talk with Pryce in Mahogany Town.”

The Gym trainers all turned to Dennis, and he started assigning jobs while Rocko stood and talked with Alexa and Rachel before moving off.

Yolanda made straight for me. “You’re going to fly there on Zephyr?” When I nodded she pursed her lips. “Will he be able to handle the flight? Are you sure you can’t ask Sabrina to take you? She’s able to teleport nearly all the way across Kanto!”

I held up a hand. “Almost all the way across Kanto,” I corrected before continuing, “Even in an ideal situation, she’d need to teleport three to four times in a row to make it one way to Mahogany Town, I’m not sure, but I’d pretty sure that would tire her out a lot.”

Yolanda opened her mouth, but I twitched my hand to indicate I wasn’t done speaking. “Also, that’s not accounting for the Silver Range that she’d have to teleport around. That place is crawling with Dark type pokemon, that makes it extremely dangerous for her to teleport through as some of those pokemon will attack her and restrict her range of teleporting by a significant margin. She’d instead have to Teleport south toward New Bark town before heading back north west, extending the trip to six or seven teleports at least.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” she said. She walked with me to our house before brightening up and hurrying away. “Don’t go before I give you something!” she said as she dashed off.

“Alright, and no running!” I called after her. She cheekily ignored me. I checked in with Flint, and he seemed to have a good idea of what he was going to have to do for the next two nights.

“So you remember where the spare sheets are in case the twins have another accident?”

“In the linen closet!” he said exasperatedly, waving me off. Timmy, who’d been following Flint around, mimicked him with his shooing gesture.

“Alright gang! I’m off for a night! So anyone want to give me a goodbye hug?” I called as I made for the door, my travel bag slung over my shoulder and my pokeballs checked.

“Brock wait! If you’re dropping in on Terra and Titan’s mother, can you give her this?” Yolanda said as she handed me a clay tablet that had a handprint and a clawprint with Yolanda and Terra’s names above each. A picture of Yolanda and Terra was also shoved into my hands. “And give her this so she knows her daughter’s doing well!”

“She’s a wild pokemon Yolanda,” Flint said patronisingly. “She’s not going to care. Brock you really should stay away from her!” he said worriedly.

I waved off his concern. “She’s calm as anything with me. And I think she’ll like this. Maybe oneday I’ll take you up there when you’re trained up a bit Yolanda, introduce you?”

Yolanda beamed. “I’d love that!”

A hand on my arm made me look down. “Oh hey Suzie come to say good bye?”

“Yeah!” she said as she hugged me. She held onto me. “When you get back you need to tell us another Snorlax story!” she demanded as she broke off.

I chuckled, “Sure thing.”

This caused the smaller kids to line up and hug me before listing their own demands for toys, snacks, or stories as they hugged me. Eevee decided to get in on the hugs by leaping into my arms. “Heh, hey girl, sorry I can't take you; otherwise, if you get lost, I might come back with a Glaceon!” I said dramatically.

Eevee huffed at me but licked my hand when I put her down. Munchlax pointed at his mouth before he hugged me. “Munch?” he asked.

“Sure, I’ll get you a Mahogany special snack, sound good?”

He nodded happily, hugged me, and then scampered onto the couch. He rocked back and forth with a content look on his face, as though he was prepared to wait right there for my return.

With that done, I nodded farewell to Flint, stepped outside, and released Zephyr to begin soaring west. With Zephyr judiciously using Tailwind to boost his speed, we made good time to Mt Silver where I released Don to shepherd a flock of Fearow that were hanging about above the mountain. I didn’t think they were going to be a threat, but they were known for their territorial behaviour, so I had him chase them off.

I considered flying down then and there to approach Titan’s mother, or as the Rangers called her, Empress, but decided against it. I wanted to get to Mahogany Town with time to spare for shopping and to get an initial look at what Lorelei had hinted at. I really, really hoped it was something like an Aurorus. That would be perfect for both of us. Otherwise, my next pick would have to be a Tyrunt. That would be an amazing find.

Lance would be so envious if I got a Tyrantrum.

I spent the next hour imagining having such a pokemon before the reality set in. The chances weren’t high for that. There was more likelihood of Aurorus, but then again, certain pokemon would favour certain regions for a reason, especially with ancient pokemon.

The sun began to climb higher in the sky, but I didn't feel the heat too badly due to how high we were flying. As we got closer to Mahogany, the temperature continued to drop, even though the valley between the Silver Range and Mt Mortar showed lush greenery, there was a chill in the air despite it being late spring now. There were a number of slopes that were still white with snow and I could spy a number of people and even pokemon skiing or snowboarding.

“Hmm I wonder if Brawly’s any good with snowboarding?” I said to myself. I snapped a picture and sent him a message.

He responded quickly. “Nice! Gone hit the slopes, man?! We should do that one day! Get a weekend free and board it up!”

I chuckled. Well, that made sense. He had spent time in Cianwood, which wasn’t that far away from the snow. I sent back that I’d think about it while wrapping a scarf around my neck and tightening my flight goggles and gloves.

Zephyr’s breath started to fog up as he closed in on our destination, and when we landed, he heaved huge gouts of fog into the midday air. I tugged off the goggles I used for longer flights and shook myself out to get feeling back into my limbs as Zephyr hopped towards a drinking station at the pokecenter that had been set up for pokemon such as himself. Then I sent off another message to Lorelei.

I didn’t have to wait long as a familiar redhead walked up and waved. “Brock!” called Lorelei. “Glad to see you made it over Mt Silver so easily!” As she got closer, the now familiar drop in temperature followed her. I saw a number of people shiver as she passed them by. I merely channelled some more rock energy into my limbs. I’d move stiffly but not feel the cold as much.

“Ehhh, it’s a piece of cake, honestly. I have some pokemon I know that know not to attack me these days,” I said thinking of Empress before pausing. Perhaps that herd of Donphan could be included? As well as that group of Onix from that one time with the Rangers… I shook my head. “Well anyway. The Mt Silver area isn’t as dangerous for me as it is for others.”

“Having a Tyranitar will do that. Do you get many pokemon attacking you in the air still?”

I held my fingers close together. “A little bit, but I always double up with Don flying a protection detail for me. He loves getting to rough up the locals when they try to fight him, so it works out for him.”

“Hmmm I wonder if before his resurrection his species were dragon typed?” Lorelei rubbed her chin in thought.

I shrugged. “Might have been, we’d need to find different fossils, I suppose. They’re rather hard to find though, might be due to being buried or even eaten by Onix or other pokemon that inhabit the land nowadays.” I tilted my head. “Does the same hold true for the ice caverns?”

Lorelei nodded with a saddened look. “Yes, sadly, the pokemon such as Piloswine and Delibird do disturb the caves. It doesn’t help that a trainer released a number of ice typed pokemon from Hoenn locally a number of years ago. Some of the peaks of the local mountains now have Glalie that blend in rather well. The Rangers didn’t know about it until various caverns had been carved out by the pokemon, and now there is an established group.”

“A number of them? Was it just a breeding group?” I asked interestedly.

“Indeed, there are numerous reports of some of the frozen waterways having Spheal. These are being focused on and they’re only rarely found. They haven’t been as damaging to the local ecosystem as the Glalie but they're also easier to contain.”

“I’m surprised the Rangers are having such trouble with the Glalie, they have specialised teams for most environments,” I said, thinking it odd.

“We had Brandon come in for a while.” She glanced at me. “I assume Lance told you about what is happening with Fiore?”

I didn’t even get a chance to confirm or deny it as she continued talking. “Brandon has been nominated as a glorified border guard, which is a shame as the man truly was a skilled trainer for the Rangers. We had him here for a number of months, and his pokemon are certainly special. Not even he, however, could stop the Glalie issue. It’s almost like they were slipping through the mountains at times. The odd thing is they were leaving no evidence.”

I paused as I reconsidered what I knew of Glalie. Glalie were widely thought of as the only evolution for Snorunt, but that wasn’t the case, and I knew as much. Was it possible that there were Frosslas in the local mountains? It would explain their evasion of experienced Rangers like Brandon, especially if they were working under the assumption they only needed to look for open air caverns. What pokemon could Frosslas breed with? I wasn’t too sure of that and had to give it up. It did, however, offer a potential confirmation of there being Dawn stones in the local area. You couldn’t get Frosslas otherwise, to my understanding.

“Pokepenny for your thoughts?” Lorelei said.

“Hmmm just mulling it over. Feels like there’s something we’re missing here.” I glanced at her. “What happened to the trainer?”

“They were fined and had their pokemon license suspended for a decade for endangering the ecosystem. They tried to argue with a League official and got themselves in more trouble as they thought they could catch and release to help spread biodiversity.” She shook her head. “Some trainers, I swear. They think they can just catch and release without any issues being caused.”

“Hnn,” I said in agreement before smirking. “So is it true about Brandon? He has a Regice?”

Lorelei nodded. “He does!” She pouted a little. "Sadly, he won’t tell us how or where he found it.” She shot me a look and said, "Hoping to find out about his Regirock?”

I sighed. “Oh, I’d love to have one of those on my team.”

Lorelei nodded in agreement, and we spent the rest of the walk to her grandfather’s Gym discussing the powerhouse dream teams we could set up if we ever got the chance.

“—and Articuno would make the perfect addition,” Lorelei said wistfully.

"Oh, no doubt,” I said as I walked into the Mahogany Gym proper.

“Still dreaming of getting yourself an Articuno child?” barked a gruff voice that cut through our conversation like a harsh, icey gail. I turned my gaze and locked eyes with an older, weather-beaten man. Now that I was aware of him, I noticed I was blowing small clouds of fog with each breath. Was this just him, or caused by an overlap of Lorelei and Pryce’s aura? Pryce turned his attention to Lorelei. “You should know it is a fool's gambit to attempt to contain a Legendary pokemon! They’re too powerful to be contained with pokeballs!” he said.

Lorelei nodded. “Yes, of course Grandfather.” I glanced between them. Pryce wasstanding, and although age had worn him down until he was physically shorter than Lorelei he still towered over her.

“You know you could just try to become friends with—” I stated to say only for Pryce to snort.

“Friends!? Pokemon are wild unless trained. Sadly some of them are more powerful than others making it harder to tame them! But don’t forget they will go back to their ways at a moment’s notice!”

I blinked at him. “Huh?” I said. That, hadn’t been what I’d been expecting to hear from a man that had made it to the top of the Pokemon League. For him to deride friendship with pokemon with all things, how had he ever become Champion?

Pryce snorted. “Perhaps this was a mistake. I thought you were more educated than your years suggested. Bah!” He turned and walked away, leaving me to stare after him. My eyes slid to his legs and I noted he walked with a hitch that told me he had an injury or sore point.

Lorelei made a noise. “Sorry, about him; he’s been like this since he lost his starter. Piloswine had been with him since he was a child. They fought together for… well, decades. It has hit Grandfather rather harshly to have his starter run off like it did.”

I blinked. “That… that can’t be right though? Maybe his pokemon went to…” I trailed off. Hadn’t there been a plot point about this? Something that had to do with Ash and company finding Pryce’s pokemon frozen or something…

Lorelei nodded. “I tried saying as much, but Grandfather’s Piloswine was extremely well trained. It could leave messages. Supposedly Grandfather had a fight with it… it doesn’t help that Grandfather was then challenged by Lance a few months later.” Lorelei rubbed her elbow. “He thinks he wouldn’t have lost if Piloswine hadn’t run away.” Lorelei shook her head. “This was years ago though, it’s old news now.”

“He fought Lance without his starter?” I rubbed my chin, I had a vague recollection of that match due to having not watched it when it occurred due to having to set up my Gym and look after my family at the time. “Hadn’t he fielded a Piloswine still?”

“Yes, a much weaker Piloswine,” Lorelei said with a shake of her head.

“Oh…” I said. “I… can kind of see where he’s coming from but… I couldn’t imagine Titan ever giving up on me. Had something happened before then?”

“Not that I can think of… this was before my time as a member of the Elite Four,” Lorelei rubbed her chin. “It was actually after Piloswine ran off that Grandfather had me assume my role as Elite Four member…” She tilted her head. “Huh, I never thought about that before, actually.”

“Did he face a challenger before that?”

“No he had a rather rough show match with Blaine I think…” She shook her head. “It was years ago, I’m sorry to say.” Lorelei looked away. “I personally think Piloswine was old and thinking it didn’t have much time left so it ran away to spare Grandfather the pain of losing him… It’s just made things rough.”

“How long do Piloswine live?” I asked.

“As long, if not longer, than humans. But… it’s not uncommon behaviour for them to just wander off from their herds, or family.”

“Hmmmm,” I said. The problem was that it was something that Ash in the cartoon had fallen into. There weren’t any landmarks that I could recall. This was the first time I’d stumbled into something that I knew was working against me. “Can we still see the fossils you have, or is that off the table?”

Lorelei chewed her lip. “I’ll.. go talk with him, give me an hour or two…”

“No problem,” I said, turning back to the front doors. “Any chance there’s a local shopping area where I can get some souvenirs for my family?” Lorelei smiled, pulled a brochure off the wall, and handed it to me.

She then pointed to the map of Mahogany Town. “Knock yourself out,” she said merrily before adopting a more careful expression as she marched off to talk with her grandfather.

I glanced down at the map and was surprised when it highlighted an entire street in Mahogany town dedicated to souvenirs. Well, with that sorted out, I set off. Hopefully, Lorelei could deal with Pryce and we could wrap this up relatively soon.

By the second hour, I had all the shopping done. It was very easy to look through gift shops and buy things for kids that had never been here to Mahogany town, and Munchlax? Well a few kilograms of chocolate should solve any gift for him. The trick would be making sure he didn’t eat it in one go.

I kept walking feeling a bit annoyed that it was obviously taking Lorelei a while, from our previous discussions, I knew she liked to be punctual where possible. A fact that often saw her rubbed the wrong way when she was set up to be snubbed by people trying to curry favour with Lance.

I kept walking around Mahogany Town, only to pause when I came upon a small walled-in temple. It was a tidy little affair, only slightly bigger than a traditional shrine, in truth. Still, the garden was idyllic and inviting. I walked into the open area and passed a few statues of some sort of guardian dog, only to do a double take.

Those weren’t guardian dogs! Those were Growlithe! I inspected them and felt my memories twinge on a specific note regarding Growlithe.

Stripes, paws, and snouts were all present. Where these statues of Growlithe were different, however, was that they were rather fluffy. You could almost call them around with how their hair was arranged. I snapped a few pictures before approaching a shrine maiden.

I bowed in greeting before indicating the statues. “How old are the statues?”

“Oh! Our temple is one of the oldest in Johto! It has historical records dating back five hundred years ago!”

“Five hundred years you say?” I said. “Does that make it the oldest?” I asked as another thought occurred to me.

A sour expression appeared on the maiden’s face. “In Johto it is… The shrine in Lavender town holds the claim in the Indigo region.” She then brightened up. “But there are two temples in Hoenn that are older still!” she said as though she was glad that Kanto of all places didn’t have one of the oldest structures.

I asked a few more questions. I didn’t bother asking what pokemon was around the walls, I knew what they were, it was obvious to me.

I walked out and started looking through my transceiver for images of other temples, slowly accumulating a small library of images that all supported a growing theory I had. Sadly, the statues didn’t feature in any of Hoenn’s temples, but then I took a moment and considered Hoenn. Growlithe didn’t naturally occur there. I hummed and opened my Guardian holopad, starting my search for more images of temples.

I noted that the images were all linked with reports on targets of military importance where the temples acted as points where defenders would retreat and recover. Images of ‘guardian’ beasts appeared in some of these files and in more than a few— specifically the older temples— round, fluffy Growlithe appeared to ‘protect’ the population.

I rubbed my chin. This was very interesting information. If I could tap a Growlithe breeder and Bian—

My transceiver started to beep frantically, startling me from my research fugue. I had to tuck away my holopad to answer. “Brock here,” I said brusquely.

Lorelei’s image appeared, and she blinked at me. “Brock, I was able to get grandfather to relax. Are you still interested in viewing the caverns?” I blinked as I recalled what I’d actually come to Mahogany for.

“Oh yeah, send me your location, and I’ll come to you.” I checked my watch. Damn, it had taken Lorelei almost four hours to talk with him.

I felt a wave of irritation wash over me at that. Damn, and I’d been in such a good mood with my find just a moment ago. Was Pryce deliberately snubbing me?

Lorelei shot me her co-ordinates which saw me remounting Zephyr and flying east towards the icy trail. In a large clearing, I found Lorelei standing with Pryce. She looked a little tired, and he just looked grumpy. She gave me a small wave. “Hi Brock, thanks for sticking around. We’re ready to take you to the caverns our family owns now to see the fossils.”

“Well, that’s what I’m here for!” I said, gesturing for them to lead the way.

Pryce snorted like a great Tauros, his breath shooting out of his nostrils like twin geysers. He marched off to the north and into the mountains. Lorelei smiled in apology, and I hummed. This was going to be delicate, it would seem.

I couldn’t help but notice that when Pryce walked, he did so with a limp that coincided with a growl escaping him. He probably had an old injury or two, though, considering he would have been in the thick of it during the war.

We walked out of the clearing and into a forest that sloped before coming to a rather innocuous-looking ledge. Pryce flicked out a pokeball and a Walrein appeared. “Clear it out,” he ordered. The pokemon bowed its head before turning to the ledge and blowing a huge gust of wind out that swept the snow away to reveal a frozen cave entrance.

The cave entrance was then broken with a Headbutt. As Walrein shook off the shock, it was returned to its pokeball. I could only frown at Pryce. It was considered a little rude to be so blunt with your pokemon. He didn’t even bat an eye and instead marched into the cave.

I followed, with Lorelei bringing up the rear. The cave itself was a tightly packed walkway with multiple stalactites and stalagmites that glittered with the small torch that Pryce used to navigate. I walked along without worry behind him, only for Lorelei to stumble a few times.

I paused. “No torch?” I asked.

“Gramps doesn’t like the glare that having two torches in the caves causes. The place sort of becomes a mirror maze otherwise. It hurts his eyes…” Lorelei swallowed what she was about to say and offered a tight smile, “It’s not usually a problem.”

I hummed in thought for a moment. It seemed like Pryce valued not having a headache from too much glare over Loreli potentially injuring herself. Pryce was really starting to rub me the wrong way with how he was acting. “Put a hand on my shoulder; that way you can feel any dips you can’t see.”

She did so, but we still had to hurry after Pryce as he hadn’t stopped for us. I had no issues navigating the darker tunnels, thanks to my dark energy trick, so we quickly caught up.

When we did, he stopped to glance back at me, his torch flicking up into my face.

“Something the matter?” I asked as I shielded my eyes. It didn’t matter that I was wielding dark energy, having a torch shine itself into your eyes stung.

He took a moment to inspect me before grunting and shaking his head. “Just didn’t take you as an aura user is all.” I paused as Lorelei hissed in surprise. Her hand twitched on my shoulder before staying where it was very carefully. Pryce continued as though he didn’t care that he’d casually detected my aura use, something no one else had done beyond a very select group with the Guardians.

“Thought you’d have been like a rock. You certainly have the head for it,” he said waspishly.

“I took after my pokemon,” I replied, ignoring the slight even as I felt my eye twitch. His attitude was really starting to piss me off. I locked my face into a rictus of a smile. I had to remember what I was here for. Do it for the Ancient pokemon Brock! I considered biting back, maybe even nudging him a little.

He was old and the ice was slippery… Alright, that got a bit too dark.

I called up some Rock energy to stabilise me before I got too tempted to do anything drastic to this old crotchety man.

I wanted to see the fossils I chanted in my head, while saying aloud, “Oh I have that as well. I worked with my pokemon to get it,” I said back with a tinge of pride.

Alright, so I wasn’t going to stop myself from needling back at least a little.

“Feh!” he said in annoyance, only to step around a corner and suddenly into an open cavern.

He set the torch down and pulled on the end to make it into a lantern that brought light to the cavern we’d entered. I whistled at what was revealed, it was a room that was practically full of ancient bodies. I whistled at the forms of a number of shrivelled bodies that had skin that was too tightly wound over skeletons. I could easily recognise the pokemon on display.

Anorith, and Kabutops seemed rather close together, as did the Omastar. I walked a little further in and found an Aerodactyl that was curled up around what looked like a nest. The final pokemon was a pokemon that resembled a mammoth.

I whistled when I stood before it and realised that it easily stood at two and a half, if not three metres tall. “Wow,” I said as I inspected tusks width of my legs but almost the length of my body. “That’s some impressive ivory.”

Pryce stepped up to me. “Yes, this is the pokemon we wish to resurrect. It will make a powerful… addition to my team,” he said. I frowned. I had gotten the feeling he meant ‘replacement’ rather than addition.

I squinted at it. “You know… I think this one has a lot that is similar to the Swinub line.”

Pryce scowled. “It perhaps is an ancestor pokemon but the modern variant has grown weaker.”

I hummed. I knew that wasn’t the case thanks to my past life’s knowledge, but conveying that to Pryce, an Ice expert, was going to be difficult. “What if there had just been a condition of evolution that hadn’t been met?”

He turned and scowled at me. “Are you one of those people that will try to preach friendship with me?” I felt the temperature drop, but I didn’t huddle into myself to try and avoid him.

“Friendship is important, its how we’re able to make our pokemon stronger. But it’s not the mechanic of evolution I was talking about.”

“Which were you referencing?” Lorelei hurriedly interjected, trying to move the conversation away from the touchy subject.

“Pokemon moves that need to be learned. I actually only yesterday pointed out that Erika from Celadon’s Tangela could potentially evolve with a certain move, and she did.”

“A Grass type pokemon is not the same thing as an Ice type!” snapped Pryce.

I took a calming breath. “The link is the same, though, perhaps a Piloswine could bridge the gap with Ancient Power,” I said honestly. It helped that I knew I was right.

That didn’t help Pryce though. “Bah! You’re awfully confident it’s a Piloswine evolution for a trainer who has never raised one! Piloswine are smaller and hairer!”

“Evolution does change a number of pokemon in different ways,” I replied, thinking of Octilery.

“Hmpf, we’ll see if you have any truth to your words when your machine revives this pokemon.”

“What will you do if it comes out as a Swinub?” I asked. He merely scowled at me, and I sighed before gesturing to the other frozen fossils, deciding to not deal with it. Nope, no way, not my issue. “What do you want to do with the other fossils?”

“We’ll have them cut out and sent to the Pewter facility for holding. With them being frozen rather than entombed in rock, there should be more genetic data, so we will get more pokemon resurrected.”

I nodded before considering something. “Why did you never approach Bla—”

“I’m not approaching Blaine with this!” growled Pryce fiercely. Then he grimaced and held his hip. He gritted his teeth and snarled. Lorelei ran up to him and let him lean on her for a few moments as he regathered himself. He shuddered and sighed. “Thank you,” he murmured quietly to her.

She gave him a tight smile before she looked up at me. “When Blaine burns things… he really burns them. During a match with Blaine, Grandfather got hit by a tongue of fire and has been struggling with the aftereffects for years.”

“Oh,” I said.

Pryce scowled. “He doesn’t need to know that!” he snapped before standing. Lorelei watched him worriedly, ready to support him if his hip gave out once more. I tilted my head, I’d never considered that he might have raised her up to Elite Four to have her supporting him. The common narrative never mentioned him being injured.

“Blaine laced his fire with aura I take it?” I asked.

Lorelei nodded, while Pryce grumbled. “He didn’t want to leave things with a simple retirement with his last match; he wanted to show off. That man is like a volcano, though, and he doesn’t have much discrimination; remember that if you ever fight him!”

I nodded. “I only ever fought him for my seventh badge.”

Pryce tilted his head. “You did the traditional eight?”

“Yeah, Giovanni wasn’t as hard to get through back then,” I shrugged, I’d prepared well and truly to take the fight to him, but he’d merely faced me down with a Kangaskahn and Rhydon before awarding me the badge. “It would be a lot different these days, I suspect.”

“Indeed,” Pryce said. He watched me thoughtfully. “Who trained you in aura? It couldn’t have been Agatha.”

“Oh? She trains others?” I said, faking that I didn’t already know Agatha very well, or that she could teach Aura.

Pryce nodded slowly, his frosty gaze attempting to cut into me. “Indeed, this new girl that is challenging Steven Stone… She reeks of Agatha’s methods.” He looked away. “I faced Agatha a lot, you know, in the past? She was always a tough opponent.”

“Hmmm well, I’ve only ever learned aura from my starter pokemon.”

Pryce’s face hardened, and I knew I’d touched on a sore spot once more. “Hmmf, learn what you can before he runs off on you!”

“Titan wouldn’t do that without a good reason,” I said firmly.

“Know that, do you? Think you can count on him?” he said, his chin jutting out. “I thought the same! Forget what you think you know and listen to experience, boy! Pokemon can and will betray you!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the frozen cavern.

I stared at Pryce and took him in. He really was a bitter old man. He’d been burned, literally and metaphorically. His life’s work had slipped through his fingers… What must it have been like to follow in Samuel Oak’s shadow? The weight of two regions placed upon him with Oak’s retirement. It couldn’t have been easy. These days, he was almost a footnote to Oak, and Lance, despite his tenure as Champion.

I worked my jaw and wondered how I should deal with this.

Pryce opened his mouth. “Your Titan is a pokemon, a beast of destruction; don’t forget that! One day in the future he will leave you and claim some mountain, but then he will be a threat to everyone!”

I scowled. Alright, I was going to rip the bandaid off. “How long was it before you gave up looking for your starter pokemon?” I said.

Pryce reeled back at the sudden shift. He narrowed his eyes at me. “You…!”

Lorelei held up her hands and stepped between us. “Hey, come on now, let’s calm down. We’re getting a little too heated! Let’s cool down!”

“No, I want to hear how long it took for you to give up,” I said, holding a hand up to Lorelei.

“I looked for two years!” he snapped.

“But you gave up in the end, right?”

“Oh, and I su—”

“I wouldn’t have stopped looking,” I barked, cutting off what he was going to say. I even stepped forward to get closer to him. “What if he got swept away or injured? What if he got stolen? What if he went looking for something to help with your burn from Blaine?”

Pryce’s eyes flashed, and a look of worry appeared before he closed himself off. “That is not what happened! And what I did back then is my business!”

“Sadly, that’s not true.” I point out. “You were the Champion, even as a former champion, your words and actions carry weight.” He blinked in surprise at that while I looked him up and down, judging him. “If you gave up on the bond between you and your pokemon, I’m not all that surprised that you lost to Lance.”

“Boy, you better be ready to back those words up!” he said, pulling out a pokeball.

“I’d be delighted to show you how wrong you are,” I said as I unclipped Titan’s greatball from my necklace with a twist.

Lorelei slumped. “Urgh men! Fine! Let’s take this back to the clearing! We’re not fighting in here but only a small battle to sate your stupid egos!” She threw up her hands in disgust.

I nodded, not dropping my gaze from Pryce.

I’d beaten the current Champion, now I needed to teach the prior Champion a lesson.