Redi said she was leaving, but she wasn’t leaving right away. She would only leave for Goldenrod once she and Sam agreed to head out of town. They had plenty of time left together, as neither were too keen on immediately splitting off. This was made extra true since leaving meant they wouldn’t see one another for over a full extra month.

  Instead, they tried to relax, walking around town in an attempt to explore with their teams. They visited a few gardens, a Bell Tower viewing site, a daytime Burned Tower, and a handful of shops that sold custom-made goods.

  It was boring.

  Sure, Sam appreciated the historical weight these places carried, and sure, they could have spent a while just taking everything in, but the thing about going out on a journey was that they were always sightseeing. Trying to do that specifically wasn’t anything special because they saw new places regardless of where they went. So it was boring, and staying in a town like this only caused a growing itch to go out and do something exciting. Exploring did little to help them develop their teams, and it did even less for what could be considered “entertainment.”

  No, it took little time for them to come to a unanimous agreement—acting like tourists wasn’t worth the effort. They were trainers. They’d rather be battling. So, if they wanted something to do, they’d do exactly that.

  After a day of trying to explore the town and wasting their time, Sam and Redi went out behind the Pokémon Center to claim a battlefield early the next morning. There, they placed down a simple, painted sign and a large glass jar. The setup was simple: pay a small fee, and anyone could challenge them to a one-Pokémon-each battle. If their challengers won the match, then the challengers would earn every dollar that’d been placed into the jar.

  The challenge was open to anyone who approached and paid a small fee. The catch was that the battle was a double battle—every trainer would use a single Pokémon, but two trainers were required to take Sam and Redi on at the same time. In Indigo, the main form of battling was still single battles. Almost no one ever practiced anything else, so challengers would need a partner to take them on in a match.

  Most people seemed wary of that idea, especially once they saw Redi’s towering team members and Sam’s scary-looking Ghost Types. However, a few curious pairs eventually decided to take them on.

  In every case, Sam and Redi won.

  The challenge started with only a sparse few trainers and a rather slow morning. Double battles were still new in theory, and not everyone wanted to bother with finding a partner. However, while it started slow, each fight added money to the jar. As its contents grew in both size and value, more and more passing eyes lingered on that prize.

  Whispers sparked up, not ones that talked about Sam and Redi, but ones shared between strangers trying to find the right partner to team up and earn that sum. Unfamiliar trainers would pair up and give the challenge a shot. Unfortunately for everyone who tried, Sam and Redi were prepared. The lack of switches made each battle fast, and Sam and Redi rotated their team members to ensure everyone had time to rest.

  By far, they had the advantage, as they were some of the few trainers here who had practiced for double battles in the past. Their challenge against Clair meant they were more experienced than most, and their Pokémon had been training together for months at this point so they knew how one another fought.

  Haphazardly thrown-together strategies weren’t enough, and their Pokémon knew how to dismantle any attempts at overwhelming force. The Normal Type Ursaring could pin Pokémon and not need to worry about being clipped by Ghost Type moves. Similarly, Sam’s Ghost Types could trap Pokémon without worrying about being incinerated by Ursaring’s Hyper Beam. Dragonair could charge right through fields of Will-O-Wisp thanks to Shed Skin allowing her to “discard” status conditions, and Porygon could hide within thick banks of Ominous Wind to serve as an impossible-to-find turret with perfect aim.

  But trainers watched, and they developed new strategies. When their opponents started becoming too clever, that was when Sam and Redi mixed things up.

  Instead of powerful combinations, they resorted to overwhelming force. Redi’s Pokémon would stall to allow Misdreavus to set up with Nasty Plot, and Primeape was a surprise for anyone who expected another fragile Ghost Type. Ursaring and Primeape together was a vicious combination. Sam and Redi had far too many pre-planned strategies for most trainers to win, and victories rolled in. The jar became flush with cash.

  Unfortunately, not every Pokémon could participate in these matches. While Porygon wasn’t known to the vast majority of challengers and Trevenant was rare enough to be a surprise, Typhlosion had to completely sit out.

  Rather quickly, this challenge became quite the public spectacle, so showing off the unknown Hisuian Typhlosion in battle was not worth the risk. Although, even though she couldn’t fight, she could still attempt a different type of challenge instead.

  Rather than directly participating in a match, Typhlosion pushed herself to make use of her new Type. While she couldn’t exactly sink into a shadow like the more ethereal members of Sam’s team, she could still cloak herself in darkness. Underneath a set of nearby bleachers, she practiced her control of Ghost Type energy while trying to stay hidden. Barely anyone noticed her, and the ones who did quickly looked away when they saw her glowing purple eyes and the many more sets of eyes of all of the Gastly floating around to assist.

  Sam and Redi’s battles stretched deep into the afternoon, but they didn’t last forever. Though they built a good streak, it ended suddenly. As was expected, they eventually lost.

  The “event” ended with a pair of challengers who were in the midst of their second season taking on the League. Though neither trainer had known the other beforehand, both had earned all eight of their Gym badges in their League attempt this year. They waited until a tough battle had come and passed before approaching Sam and Redi. There, an elite Arcanine identified Sam’s Ghost Type with an Odor Sleuth, and the resulting lack of immunity to Normal Type moves allowed an Electrode’s Explosion to take out both Porygon and Haunter at once.

  With that loss, the jar of money was passed over—but Sam and Redi weren’t complete fools. Not every bill had been placed into the container, and they walked away with a decent sum.

  The next day, they didn’t bother to do anything, choosing to simply sit back and take the time to rest. It was quiet, slow, and sleepy. They didn’t do anything or even speak that much, but that was fine.

  They both knew what was soon to occur.

  Finally, after a bit longer in town, which they mostly used to watch people take on Morty’s Gym, the moment arrived. Sam and Redi stood on a road that led out of the city. It split in a fork that had one path leading west toward Olivine and the other path leading south toward Goldenrod.

  “So,” Sam said as the wind blew. The quiet city of Ecruteak slept behind them.

  “So,” Redi repeated. She stared off in the directions they were yet to travel.

  Not sure what to say, Sam thumbed the strap of his backpack. Both he and Redi had already said their goodbyes to Morty at this point, and their Pokémon had already shared their well-wishes—especially Primeape and Ursaring. Those two seemed to have left one another with a promise: by the next time they met, both would have evolved.

  Sam and Redi planned to make that promise come true, but they were yet to say goodbye.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  But they stood there awkwardly, not really sure what to do or say. Eventually, enough time passed that Sam felt forced to speak up.

  “So this is it,” he said, unable to turn toward Redi. “We’re splitting up here. This is the last time we’ll be together until the Conference.”

  Redi just nodded, struggling to find her words, and she cast her gaze down the path that’d guide her away.

  “Sure. But it’ll be fine,” she said. “A month isn’t even that long. We’re still going to meet back up, and we’re still going to earn all our Gym Badges. We’ll be in Silver Town in no time at all, and when that happens, I’m going to beat you and win the Conference!”

  She did her best to grin at him, attempting to send him a challenging smirk.

  “Oh yeah? Beat me?” Sam said, grinning right back. “Maybe in your dreams! And even then, that’s not going to happen, ‘cause Haunter is going to eat those dreams right up!”

  A pause.

  Despite Sam’s challenge, Redi let out a snort. After a second, she threw her head back and guffawed, wiping an eye, and Sam had to look away due to the heat in his face.

  “That was so dumb! Maybe work on your trash-talking before we meet back up, yeah?”

  Sam snorted, and then he laughed too. He couldn’t help it. Redi was right; what he said did sound stupid, but it wasn’t like he could have said anything else.

  ...They stood still. It was like their feet no longer worked.

  “You’ll be okay, right?” Sam asked after a few seconds longer. “Tibia and Fibula will be going with you to make sure Porygon stays safe, but you’re still not going to have everyone else around. I’ll at least have Haunter and the Gastly and everyone else, but you—”

  “Please,” Redi scoffed. “You know my team can fight off anyone who comes our way. We don’t need a horde of sensors to stay safe. I’m more concerned about you and Typhlosion—”

  “No, the same is true for us. We’ll be fine,” Sam said.

  Once more, their conversation drifted off, but this time around, Sam could tell that this was it. There was no sense in stalling any longer.

  “We’ll be back,” he said, turning toward Olivine.

  “We’ll be back, too,” Redi said as she turned toward Goldenrod.

  They could have said a more explicit goodbye, but they both knew they needn’t bother. This was only a temporary parting. As they each took a step forward, they knew they would be meeting up again.

  In Silver Town.

  In the Conference.

  At the very end of the season.

  “No, no. This is not us betraying Redi. There’s nothing wrong with making a plan!” Sam said to his team. “She’s the same as us—I mean, she’s doing the same as us. We’re just planning for a fight against one another. There’s nothing wrong with that!”

  Typhlosion sent Sam a look from where she was sitting during the team’s break. They’d already traveled down Route 39 once before, so Sam knew the best locations to rest and wait. Around them were wide, hilly plains that’d eventually give way to ranches and farms. To the far north, a range of mountains lined the horizon, and directly to their south, a small slope connected to a river that followed the main road.

  Technically, they had stopped somewhere where passersby could see Typhlosion, but her evolution wasn’t exactly going to stay secret forever. It was just that the news of her evolution wasn’t something to be passed around just yet. She didn’t need to hide if they weren’t anywhere so public.

  From a distance, she looked like a normal Typhlosion, she just had darker fur and purple flames. All Pokémon could have slight differences in fur style and color, and some stores even sold specialty dust that could temporarily change the appearance of a Fire Type’s flames.

  So it wasn’t that suspicious to have her out here. It wasn’t like there were any travelers nearby, anyway. Anyone who passed by would just think she was just a strange-looking Typhlosion until they got close, and even then, the rest of Sam’s team could move around to block that view.

  But since they were traveling, Sam couldn’t exactly not take breaks to train, and forcing Typhlosion to constantly stay hidden was just plain cruel. There were no problems with her being out right now, and she needed to be out right now. After all, they were planning! What better time to make a plan to defeat Redi if not during a time when Redi wasn’t around?

  “Just think about it,” Sam said, looking around to meet almost everyone’s concerned gaze (except for Trevenant, as he didn’t seem to mind), “we already know Redi has a plan to defeat us, so we need to make one to defeat her. But not just her, we also need to be ready for Xavier. More than him, there’s also everyone else we’ve met—Eliza and Edgar and Cassandra and anyone else who might show up at the Conference! We need plans! We have to be able to take them on!”

  It was simply common sense to prepare strategies for any trainer they might face, and it was simply common sense to include Redi in that group of potential opponents. Sam’s Pokémon might have grumbled to themselves, but they did relent in the end.

  He took the opportunity to pull out a certain book, and for once, it wasn’t the New Pokédex. No, for their upcoming training sessions, he had a journal full of notes prepared specifically for developing the team.

  “Morty helped a lot. We know where we can improve because of him. Yeah, we can’t forgo offense again, but we’ve been letting some of our status moves fall to the side.” Sam flipped through his journal’s pages. “I’m talking about the weirder moves—Spite, Grudge, and even Curse. Typhlosion, you saw how that move actually works, so you should be able to figure it out now. And for the rest of you, there’s also Destiny Bond. And then we can’t forget about using known moves in new situations, either.”

  He glanced up from his journal to see that his team was paying rapt attention. For his impending plans, he had no intention to let anything Morty had said go to waste. The man was Ecruteak’s Gym Leader. Everything he had said came from a place of extreme, recognized skill, and Morty was also Johto’s foremost expert on the Ghost Type for a reason.

  “Also, there’s something else. I’m not going to focus on just you five. For our training, there are a few other Pokémon that deserve our attention, so...”

  Sam glanced between his feet at the dark shadow beneath them.

  After a second of staring, the mass of hiding Pokémon got the hint, and a Gastly pulled itself out. After that one came another, and then another, and another. There were enough Gastly beneath him that it wasn’t a quick process, but soon enough, an entire swarm of Ghost Types had entered the air—although Haunter did have to dive in and grab two more that hadn't wanted to come out.

  “So far, all of you have been traveling with me, and I can see that I’ve been neglecting you. I’m sorry.” Sam bowed his head to the Ghost Type swarm, earning him over a dozen looks of surprise. “For all of you, unless you’re very interested, I’m not going to train you to battle, but I do think working together to plan out a few tricks might be fun. I want to take a more active approach instead of just leaving you as observers. What do you think about that?”

  In addition to training his core team, Sam couldn’t forget all of the Gastly that’d been following him across the region. He had a responsibility to make sure they didn’t fall into chaos—and to do that, this moment had been carefully planned.

  The phrasing of his offer had been specifically chosen to imply that the training was something the Gastly would get to do instead of something they had to do. Forcing them to train under him would only see most of them run away.

  Thankfully, this moment was planned to minimize risks, and Sam already had a quiet conversation with Haunter. Haunter had gone ahead to pick out the most amenable Gastly to inform them of this offer ahead of time.

  So, as the swarm weighed Sam’s words, a few, specific individuals were quick to nod. Already aware, they were downright eager to work with Sam. That initial display of willingness opened the floodgates, and as to not part with the rest of the group, the rest of the Gastly easily jumped in to agree.

  “Great! I know it’ll be fun. I have a lot of ideas you’ll enjoy,” Sam said.

  He hid his sigh of relief as the Gastly began to chat among themselves. Morty wasn’t wrong about his duty to these Pokémon, and it helped to know he wouldn’t have to wrangle them into submission.

  That confirmation marked the end of everything Sam had to do to start his team’s practice. Everyone here was ready to help him craft new strategies. The mass Gastly were all ready to train together as well, but even then, to Sam, something felt missing.

  So this is it. I’ll be training everyone on my own, huh? It feels... I don’t know. It feels quiet.

  There was a missing energy in their group. A certain presence was absent. Unfortunately, it wasn’t like that’d change anytime soon. This was how things would be until the Conference.

  “I just want to say that while I might be a bit hard on everyone, it comes from a place of recognition. A place of desire,” Sam said, taking the time to look all of the Pokémon in the eye. “All of you have your own wants and needs, and my job is to make sure they come true. But we can’t forget that we only have so much time left in the season—only so much time left to train. One Gym is all that stands between us and the Conference, but you know what?”

  Many of them said their names, asking “What?” in reply.

  Sam smiled.

  “No matter what, we’re going to win!”

  His declaration was met with a cheer by the majority of the Pokémon. While the Gastly were still in agreement, a few were only cautiously optimistic, and Primeape and Trevenant were quiet when they nodded their heads.

  Sam knew that all of his Pokémon carried their own desires, but all of those desires came from the same place. They wanted to be happy. They wanted the freedom to do what they wished. But to do that, they all needed the same thing:

  They needed to become strong.

  Together, they’d train. Redi might not have been there, but Sam and his team still had each other. He had a duty as their trainer to make sure everyone was prepared. He had a duty to make sure they became as strong as they could possibly be.

  So as they traveled west, they trained, practiced, and created new plans. His team worked on specific developments, and to make sure everyone was working toward the right goals, Sam began to meet with everyone one by one.

  My dog passed away over the weekend. I will be taking some time off for myself, so there will be no chapter on Friday. The next chapter will be out on Tuesday.

  Thank you for reading. I will see you then.

  Sam’s Team:

  Badges Earned: 7 (Mineral, Fog, Plain, Hive, Zephyr, Rising, Glacier)

  Approximate Team Strength: 7 Stars

  (Fire / Ghost Type, Female, Timid Nature +Spe/-Atk)

  Abilities: Blaze

  Held Item: Charcoal

  Moves: Tackle, Leer, Smokescreen, Ember, Flame Wheel, Curse, Will-O-Wisp, Incinerate, Detect, Quick Attack, Swift, Flame Charge, Flamethrower, Double Team, Infernal Parade, Confuse Ray, Hex, Shadow Ball, Night Shade, Shadow Claw

  (Fighting Type, Male, Impish Nature +Def/-SpA)

  Abilities: Anger Point, Vital Spirit

  Moves: Scratch, Leer, Low Kick, Karate Chop, Fury Swipes, Assurance, Ice Punch, Fire Punch, Cross Chop, Curse, Brick Break, Rock Smash, Rock Slide, Bulk Up, Rage, Rage Fist

  Haunter (Ghost / Poison Type, Male, Naive Nature +Spe/-SpD)

  Abilities: Levitate

  Moves: Hypnosis, Lick, Confuse Ray, Spite, Mean Look, Hex, Shadow Punch, Night Shade, Acid Spray, Ominous Wind, Shadow Ball, Dream Eater, Nightmare

  (Ghost Type, Female, Hasty Nature +Spe/-Def)

  Pokéball: Friend Ball

  Abilities: Levitate

  Moves: Growl, Psywave, Astonish, Confusion, Confuse Ray, Mean Look, Night Shade, Shadow Sneak, Shadow Ball, Nasty Plot, Psybeam, Will-O-Wisp, Psychic

  Trevenant (Ghost / Grass Type, Male, Quiet Nature +SpA/-Spe)

  Pokéball: Moon Ball

  Abilities: Harvest, Frisk (Developing)

  Moves: Horn Leech, Tackle, Confuse Ray, Astonish, Growth, Ingrain, Leech Seed, Forest’s Curse

  Redi’s Team:

  Badges Earned: 7 (Mineral, Plain, Hive, Zephyr, Rising, Glacier, Fog)

  Approximate Team Strength: 6 Stars

  (Normal Type, Male, Adamant Nature +Atk/-SpA)

  Abilities: Guts, Quick Feet

  Moves: Scratch, Fury Swipes, Fire Punch, Baby-Doll Eyes, Slash, Ice Punch, Focus Energy, Thunder Punch, Hyper Beam, Rock Slide, Swords Dance, Giga Impact, Shadow Claw, Sleep Talk

  Porygon (Normal Type, Genderless, Quirky Nature +-n/a)

  Abilities: n/a

  Moves: Tackle, Sharpen, Conversion, Psybeam, Thunder Shock, Charge Beam, Discharge, Tri-Attack, Charge, Teleport, Recover, Thunder Wave, Magnet Rise, Lock-On, Zap Cannon

  (Dragon Type, Female, Rash Nature +SpA/-SpD)

  Abilities: Shed Skin

  Moves: Wrap, Leer, Thunder Wave, Twister, Slam, Agility, Aqua Tail, Dragon Rush

  Auxiliary Pokémon: x2 (Tibia and Fibula), a decent number of wild (variable)

  At Home (non-battlers): ,

  Pokémon included in this chapter:

  Arcanine

  huge thank you to everyone reading! Your support keeps this story going.