Chapter 17: A Fairwell to Fairies
I woke up in my room at the Pokémon Center groggy and disoriented. A night of partying (and eating!) in Lumiose City meant that I'd long overslept. My alarm was buzzing next to my pillow, and my transporter also alerted me to the fact that I'd received a new Pokémon while I slept. It must have simply auto-transferred to the PC while I was snoozing. I yawned and started preparing for my day, almost not recognizing my new hairdo in the mirror, long and glossy black. I badly missed my natural red, but it was too conspicuous.
I went down to the PC lobby and figured I would check out my new Pokémon before wandering off to find some breakfast. My eyes scanned over my stored Pokémon until I spotted a small, purple snake towards the bottom of the screen. My heart leapt, an Ekans! Surely it couldn't be my old Pokémon of old; Ekans had evolved into Arbok some time ago, long before I had released him to take care of some wild Ekans that James and I had freed. However, just seeing it coiled up there brought back memories long suppressed, and I quickly swapped in Raichu to bring Ekans onto my team.
Ekans was young and weak, so I knew it would take some time before he would be strong enough to keep up with the rest of the team. As such, I decided to dedicate a day to training him to bring him up to speed. We battled with trainers and wild Pokémon alike, learning new moves and growing more powerful by the minute. Just as I was about to call it a day, Ekans evolved into an Arbok right in front of my eyes! Remembering how hard I had worked to evolve my earlier Ekans, I couldn't help but reflect for a bit on how much I've grown as a trainer over the years as I ate a late dinner at one of Lumiose's cafés. With a full belly and tired muscles from the day of training, I decided to stay in Lumiose again overnight and continue traveling in the morning.
It was overcast and smelling like rain the next day when I left Lumiose, heading north on Route 14 to Laverre City and the next gym. The weird twirps were all hanging around and waiting for me, including James, still in that ridiculous costume. As expected, none of them even noticed my new hair or clothes, and Ash challenged me to another battle, though I beat him soundly. Afterwards, James asked us all to go join him in visiting a haunted house deeper in the path. Ash declined, but the others want to meet there, so I reluctantly agreed, mostly just to get them to leave me alone.
Right after exiting the playground at the beginning of the route, the rain broke. And just as I thought things wouldn't get any worse, I entered the swamp. Great. It looked like Route 14 was going to be a messy, disgusting path, but I'd need to make my through it to get to the next city, so I just plodded on, beating the trainers in my path. Arbok was proving to be a good addition to my team and was fighting with the other Pokémon well.
Eventually I made it to the haunted house. By this point, I was actually glad that I'd agreed to go, since it meant getting out of the rain for a bit. Inside, an old guy told us a short, terrible ghost story and then asked for money. I rolled my eyes and exited without giving him a dime, eager to keep moving.
After most of a day's worth of hiking through mud and ick, the sun finally came out again, drying the mess on my clothes and skin just as I made it within the Laverre City limits. I spied a clothing boutique and almost ran inside, eager to buy some new clothes and change out of what I was wearing. The clothing was cute and colourful and I quickly had a new outfit ready. I stopped by the PC to refresh my Pokémon and bathe before changing my clothes, and then I finally felt clean enough to look through the city.
Laverre was a cute, small city with lots of trees and houses. I noted the location of the gym, but I found myself drawn to the northern part of the city where a Poké Ball factory was located. While I can't pinpoint what exactly called me there, I was surprised to spot a Team Flare grunt hanging around outside, keeping people from entering. My curiosity was peaked, but he would tell me nothing interesting, and I could find no other way into the building, so I thought to ignore it for now, and instead headed back to the gym.
The Laverre Gym was as cute as its clothing, a doll house like structure filled with fashionable girls. While I got lost easily among the warp tiles, I beat all trainers I came across, and I eventually made it to the gym leader before getting too frustrated. The leader herself, Valerie, was very pretty, but also somewhat flighty. Although I was nervous to battle her, the battle actually went very smoothly. I opened up with Lucario and Mega Evolved him to take care of Valerie's Mawile and Mr. Mime, then swapped out to Skarmory to take care of her final Pokémon, a strong Sylveon. I felt worn out and sweaty after the battle was finally over, but Valerie had not a single hair out of place and was perfectly poised as she gave me my badge and a TM for my efforts. Someday, I hope to be that glamorous.
As I was exiting the gym, I unfortunately happened to the meet the eyes of the twerps who were waiting outside for me. James invited me to join them all in visiting the Poké Ball Factory, and I was about to decline, when I remembered the Team Flare grunt. Surely there was something interesting in there, and I'd look like conspicuous in a group than I would alone, so I decided to agree. I was tired from a morning filled with trudging through swamps culminating in a difficult gym battle, but curiosity was a powerful motivator. After a quick lunch, we agreed to head up together, and perhaps then I could figure out what Team Flare was hiding this time...
