Burning Thunder

Sigilyph could fly rather fast when he didn’t have to physically carry any extra weight; Ryan and his Pokémon landed in Opelucid City just as the sun was starting to disappear below the horizon. The timeless architecture of the city glowed in the pale light, and it almost felt like he’d been transported back to an ancient civilisation, if it wasn’t for the Pokémon Center which stuck out like a sore thumb.

Ryan could still clearly remember the last time he’d been here, when Jay had been knocked out in the fight against Espeon and ran away after being confined in a Poké ball for the first time. It was amazing how much things had changed since then, in just over a month, but not all of the change was good.

There was no point dwelling on things. Denny clearly wanted to stay with his new trainer, and Axle wished to remain on Ryan’s team, so it was almost as if things had been sorted out, right? Ryan didn’t know what he’d do the next time he saw Jeremy, though. Perhaps if he was lucky they wouldn’t run into him again. Unova was a big place, after all.

As they ate breakfast the next morning, Ryan thought about plans for the day. He still didn’t know where the gym was, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find, assuming it didn’t look exactly the same as all the other ancient buildings. They should probably do some training before challenging it, though, especially since he now knew what type the gym leader used. Dragon-types were only weak to ice and their own type. His Pokémon didn’t have any ice-type moves, but he did have a dragon… although he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to send him out into such danger.

Axle didn’t seem to fit into the dining area of the Pokémon Center as easily now that he’d evolved; luckily there weren’t many people around right now, so they could use the extra space, but on days when it was more crowded he might have to be confined to his Poké ball. The capsules were designed to make sure the Pokémon inside had the nutrition they needed, otherwise being stuck inside one for a long period of time would cause them to starve, but it was still more natural for them to eat real food. Ryan still felt bad that Smith had to be kept in his Poké Ball whenever they were in a Pokémon Center, but at least, as a Garbodor, he’d quite happily snack on any litter they found while out on the routes. “It’s tasty and it’s cleaning the area for everyone else!” he’d say.

When he’d washed every last crumb of Pokémon food from his bowl, Jay padded over to Ryan and put his paws up against the chair, giving him a hopeful look.

“Sorry, Jay,” Ryan shrugged, tilting his empty plate so that the Umbreon could see there was nothing left. The cooks at the Pokémon Center made really nice pancakes.

“Aww,” Jay whined, his ears drooping slightly. They pricked up a second later. “Can we go and find that berry?”

“What berry?”

“The berry! The one I left in the forest!” he insisted.

“Oh.” Honestly, with all the commotion, Ryan had completely forgotten about it. He was almost surprised that Jay hadn’t. Almost. This was Jay, after all, and his mind was almost always on food. “It’s probably growing into a bush already, or something else will have eaten it. It won’t be there anymore.”

“But…!” the Umbreon stared at him with wide eyes, ears flat against his neck. He looked horrified.

Ryan just gave him a deadpan look, more than used to Jay reacting this way to things by now. “Alright, alright—we’ll have a look around and see if we can find you another sitrus berry, okay?” They needed to do some training anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt to look for berries in the process.

“Yay!” Jay cheered, almost falling over backwards as he hopped in delight.

---

The sky was cloudy but without threat of rain as Ryan headed back to Route 11. He wasn’t sure where exactly in this forest the battle with Jeremy had taken place, but he wanted to avoid the area if possible. Even if it had rained since then, it’d take a while for the bloodstains to get washed away. Everywhere in this forest seemed to be rich with berries, though, so even heading in a completely different direction, it hopefully wouldn’t be long until they found some sitrus ones.

Charlotte was out walking with him currently, since Ryan knew Jay would get distracted by every plant they walked past. That didn’t mean Char hadn’t snatched a berry or two along the way, though.

“So,” she started, mouth still full of the last of an oran berry. She swallowed before continuing. “What exactly did you do again? ‘Cuz you were in the place where they put the hurt people, and Axle won’t tell us what happened. I asked him and he looked at me like I’d forced him to eat a rotten berry.”

“It was… an accident,” Ryan said simply, not expecting her to bring this up and hoping that answer would suffice.

Apparently it didn’t. “An accident, huh. What kind of accident?”

“I accidentally thought Denny would stop before he hit me. Is that a good enough explanation?”

“Whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait,” Char waved her paws. “Denny? Ain’t that the one Axle was looking for? You found him?”

“Yeah.” It seemed the dragon hadn’t told them about that, either. “Jeremy was the one who caught him, and I guess Denny likes having him as a trainer.”

“Jeremy? The Espeon guy?” Charlotte tilted her head to the side.

“Yes.”

“Yespeon?”

“Wha…?” Ryan threw her a look of surprise. The Mienfoo had a smug grin on her face as she waited for the terrible pun to sink in—and when it did, he couldn’t help but laugh as a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Char, that was awful.”

“Thank you, thank you, I will take that as a compliment.” Charlotte pretended to bow.

“I guess it could be.” Somehow, she always knew how to cheer him up; she must have realised he didn’t want to talk about the current conversation topic. “You’re a Pokémon, you probably have some kind of natural sense for these things; any idea where we might be able to find sitrus berries in this forest?”

“Hey, I’m a Mienfoo, not a Swinub,” she responded with an over-exaggerated huff. “Just keep looking, we’ll probably find some eventua—hey, did you see that?”

“See what?” He followed her glance, but all he could see was the trees and bushes. He wouldn’t put it past Char to pull a ‘made you look’ prank on him. “I don’t see anything.”

“Then you ain’t looking in the right direction! See, there it is again!” she pointed ahead of them, slightly to the right.

“I don’t…” Ryan mumbled, about to repeat his words—until he noticed some movement in the distance. A flicker of light, like something shiny was passing through a gap in the undergrowth. “Uh oh. I think it’s one of those… things.” Jeremy had warned them there was one in the area, but he’d completely forgotten.

“What things?”

“The, uh… robot things?” Did Char know what a robot was?

“Oh, you mean like that creepy thing that attacked the others and exploded that one time? There’s more of them?”

“Yeah, there’s more of them.” At least she didn’t seem nearly as worried about them – but she hadn’t seen the giant monster in Lostlorn Forest, either. Ryan still had nightmares about that thing sometimes. “I think I know how to stop them now, though. We just need to damage it, or hit it with water, or something.”

“Really? That’s all? Geez, I don’t know what everyone was making such a fuss about.” Char rolled her eyes.

“Well, not all of them are that small…” Ryan mumbled, not knowing whether Charlotte could actually hear him or not. “We can probably take it out. It was only a little one.” The one in Nimbasa had only been small, too… ah well, they’d probably be fine.

The robot was still far in the distance, but occasionally Ryan caught a glimpse of it through the bushes. Oddly enough, he could hear a galloping noise. It couldn’t be coming from that little thing, right?

There was an area where the bushes thinned out, making it easier to see as the small robot scampered past. It was only a tiny thing, and it looked a bit like the one they’d seen in White Forest, except it had longer legs and a smaller body. Hopefully that meant this one wasn’t carrying a smoke ball. They weren’t the only ones going after it, though, which became apparent as soon as Ryan noticed a flash of black and white through the trees. Once it reached the open space he could clearly see the Zebstrika haring after the robot. The machine was fast, but the zebra was faster.

Unfortunately the Zebstrika was so intent on chasing the robot that it wasn’t watching the ground. A shriek of anger echoed through the trees as its leg caught on a root and the momentum sent it stumbling to the ground with an almighty crash.

“Ooh, ouch,” Charlotte winced. She must have witnessed the fall as well.

“Is it okay?” Ryan asked, a question not really aimed at anyone but himself. Instinctively he began to walk in the direction of the clearing, having lost interest in the robot and deeming the Pokémon’s wellbeing more important.

The zebra soon lifted its head from the earth, screaming obscenities at its now out-of-sight target as it climbed back onto its legs. Although it favoured three of them at first, it didn’t let the injury bother it for long, angrily pawing at the earth with the hoof it had caught on the root as it prepared to charge after the robot once more.

“Calm your stripes, Raisin, that thing’s long gone by now.” 

As soon as he heard the voice, Ryan recognised the Pokémon immediately, and realised why it was strong enough to brush off what would usually be a hindering injury. He’d been so focused on the Zebstrika that he hadn’t noticed Nate, although to be fair the colours he was wearing blended in far better with the surroundings than Raisin did.

The zebra whinnied in anger, still pawing irritably at the earth.

“I know, I know, it’s not your fault,” Nate said, unable to tell that the Pokémon hadn’t actually spoken any words. “You tripped, these things happen. We’ll get that evil robot later, okay?”

Raisin scraped his hoof on the ground once more before letting out a snort. He wasn’t happy about letting that thing get away, but the promise seemed to have calmed him for now.

“Good. I would pat your shoulder in assurance if it weren’t for the fact that you’d turn me into a lightning-fried steak if I did.” The champion unclipped Raisin’s Poké ball from his belt. “Return for now, I’ll get you healed soon.”

As the Zebstrika vanished in a flash of light, Charlotte nudged Ryan’s leg. “Hey. Hey, Ryan. Isn’t that guy the champion?”

“Mmhmm.” Ryan nodded. “Maybe we should go say hi. I need to speak to him anyway.” He still needed to thank him for the HM. If it wasn’t for that, he’d probably still be on a tedious hike across the region.

“Ooh, look at us, having business with the champion.” Char held her head slightly higher as she trotted after her trainer.

They’d only covered about half of the distance there before another voice sounded through the trees; familiar and obnoxiously loud in the silence of the forest. “Here you are! I finally managed to track you down!”

Ryan knew that voice. That was what caused him to abruptly make a grab for Char and dive behind the nearest bush.

“What the heck—!?” the Mienfoo struggled against his grip.

“Shh!” Ryan hissed, quickly letting her go, hoping that she would catch on and keep quiet. Char still looked confused as she watched him peek over the top of the leaves and stretched up to do the same.

Nate had definitely heard the voice as well, glancing briefly up and then around at the forest as if he were trying to decide whether it was worth trying to make a run for it. Fortunately he didn’t notice Ryan or his Pokémon, but he did seem rather unsettled. The expression soon vanished though.

The leaves around the clearing rustled as Delwyn descended into view, causing the ground to shake as he landed. Benga immediately slid off his back, having to use one hand to steady himself as his feet hit the ground but standing back to full height almost instantly. A Volcarona hovered down more slowly, wings buzzing as it flew in place to let its trainer climb off; Alder was here too, although he didn’t seem nearly as enthusiastic as his grandson. Risley looked exhausted compared to Delwyn, after carrying his trainer this far, and the fire-type was soon returned to his Poké ball to rest.

“Oh. Benga,” Nate muttered, lifting one hand in a single wave and forcing a smile that didn’t last more than two seconds. “Great to see you too.”

“It better be after all the effort I had to go to just to find you!” Benga scoffed, marching up to him so that he could look down on the shorter man. “So don’t think I’m just here to chat. Battle me!”

“Oh, he’s that guy Jay pushed into the grass!” Charlotte snickered.

“Quiet!” Ryan squeaked, hurriedly ducking and hoping nobody had heard them. Alder cast a quick glance in their direction, but if he noticed them he gave no sign. He threw an apologetic look at Nate, as if to say sorry for his grandson’s brash attitude.

Nate seemed to be used to it. He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “Not right now, Benga, I’m busy.”

“Busy? Doing what, sightseeing?” the flame-haired man spat. “What, you running out of excuses now?”

“If I said I was fighting a small army of artificially-created robot creatures you probably wouldn’t believe me.”

“Wow, sounds like quite the adventure!” Alder said cheerfully, not wanting the situation to turn sour.

“Spout whatever crap you want.” Benga ignored his grandfather’s comment. “The only reason you refuse is because you know I can beat you, and you’re too full of damn pride to let go of your title!”

“Yeah. Wow. Definitely hit the nail on the head right there,” Nate tutted. His voice didn’t have its usual playful ring to it and instead dripped with sarcasm. He rolled his eyes. “Benga, you have three Pokémon. You ain’t even a challenge.” He leant slightly to look past him. “No offense, Delwyn, I’m sure you would put up quite a fight.”

The dragon grumbled quietly, keeping his gaze on the ground. He seemed even unhappier about the situation than Alder did.

“Of course he would, if you’d actually agree to battle me in the first place! Why can’t you just do your damn job for once!?”

“I am doing my job. That’s what I’m doing right now. So, yeah, I ain’t got time for this.” Not giving Benga so much as a second glance, Nate walked past him, making slightly more of a detour than was necessary.

Benga stared at him with an incredulous look, like he couldn’t believe he’d just done that. “Fine—fine then, run away like the coward you are and go cry to your mama!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Nate froze mid-step.

“Benga…” Alder muttered. There was a slight edge of warning to his voice this time.

Benga ignored him. He’d realised he finally managed to hit a nerve. “What’s the matter, Mommy’s Boy? Can’t battle without someone there to hold your hand?”

“Don’t,” Nate muttered, voice barely audible. His shoulders had tensed up. He wanted to leave, but for some reason he couldn’t – maybe because of the shock of what Benga was saying.

“Don’t what?” Benga scorned, walking up behind him, arms folded and a smug expression on his face that the champion couldn’t see. “Oh, I’m sorry, you want me to pity you, right? It must be so difficult, completely ignoring your duties like this.”

“Stop it.”

“Benga,” Alder addressed him again, more sternly this time.

“Aww, poor baby. Do you want someone to call mommy to take you home?”

The line he was standing on had finally been crossed.  “Shut up, Benga!” Nate span around to face him at last, all traces of the carefree champion lost to the anger in his eyes. He swung his fist, more than ready to punch the man who wouldn’t leave him alone. Benga’s eyes flew wide as he realised what was happening, stumbling a step back, but his reflexes weren’t nearly fast enough.

Nate seemed to comprehend what he was doing at the last moment, though, freezing just milliseconds before he could actually do any damage. For a second he was completely still. Then he turned, slamming his fist against the nearest tree instead with a scream of frustration and storming away into the forest, pace soon picking up into a run.

Ryan hurriedly scrambled closer to the bush when he realised he was heading in their direction, and Charlotte hopped around to hide behind him, but Nate didn’t see either of them.

“I… think I understand why we were hiding now,” Char whispered, looking as stunned as Ryan felt. He’d never expected the champion to do something like that.

“Fine, run away just like you always do!” Benga shouted, his words echoing in the silence of the forest, but they went ignored.

“That’s enough, Benga.” Alder’s voice carried authority in it this time. “Leave the poor boy alone.”

“Leave him alone? He was about to hit me!” Benga exclaimed, a look of disbelief on his face.

“Well, perhaps you should think yourself lucky he didn’t.” The old man shrugged. Maybe that was his way of saying ‘you probably would have deserved it’. “The lad’s been through enough without you bullying him as well.”

“I’m not! We’re not kids, grandpa!” Benga huffed. “He has a job to do and he’s refusing to do it – and why do you always have to take his side?”

“I’m not taking sides!” Alder held his hands up in defence. “I’m sure one day you’ll get the battle you’re after, but this isn’t the way to go about it, alright?”

For a long moment, Benga was silent. His hands balled into fists, trembling slightly in his irritation. As wound up as he was, though, he didn’t want to take it out on his grandfather. He took a deep breath, and headed over to the dragon. “Come on, Delwyn. Let’s go.”

Leaning down so the trainer could climb onto his back, Delwyn let out a quiet noise which sounded almost like a whimper. He didn’t like the way his trainer had acted at all, but there was nothing he could really do to stop it.

Alder took a few steps back to give the dragon more room to take off. He watched them disappear over the trees above, and let out a long sigh. Ryan felt bad for him, caught in the middle of all this.

The forest remained silent for a good ten seconds. Finally, Alder looked over at the bush Ryan and Char had been hiding behind, giving a half-hearted smile. “It’s okay, they’re gone. You two can come out now.”

Ryan exchanged an alarmed glance with his Pokémon. He knew they were there the whole time!?

“Busted,” Char muttered. “Do we make a run for it?”

“… No,” Ryan eventually shook his head. He’d considered it, though. He emerged from his hiding place, and Char decided that it would be faster to jump the bush than walk around it. “Sorry for eavesdropping,” Ryan said sheepishly as he trudged towards the former champion.

Alder waved one hand as if to say that it didn’t matter. “I don’t blame you, lad. I’d rather hide behind a bush than get caught up in that, but they already knew I was there and I’d probably throw out my back in the process.” The old man gave a laugh. At least bitterness didn’t seem to run in the family.

Ryan smiled, partly in relief. When Benga and Nate had been here there had been an almost suffocating tension in the air. He couldn’t help but look over his shoulder at the forest behind him; everything was quiet now, no movement except for the leaves waving gently in the autumn breeze. After the way he’d just reacted, Ryan had to wonder if the champion was okay.

“I’d leave him be,” Alder advised, having noticed his glance. “He’ll be alright on his own. Besides, he’s probably better off not knowing that you saw what just happened. Nate’s usually not a violent person, honest.”

“Yeah. I’ve met him before.” He looked back up at the former champion, eyes harbouring confusion but curiosity as well. “Something happened to him, right? Since he became the champion?”

With a drawn-out sigh, Alder gazed thoughtfully at the trees, as if deciding whether to tell him or not – or how exactly to explain, how much would be enough to settle his curiosity. “A few years back,” he said eventually, voice more subdued than it had been until this point, “he lost his mother. To a nasty illness, so it was very sudden, but the poor lad was the one who found her. I’m sure the grief’s long past by now, but… shock has a way of changing people.” He grimaced, like this was something he knew well.

“That’s… that’s awful,” Ryan said honestly. Despite any arguments he might have with them, he loved his parents; he couldn’t bear to even imagine losing either of them. He managed to suppress the shiver he felt just at the thought.

The former champion gave a small, slow nod in agreement. “Benga knows about this too, of course, but… as you probably saw, he’s a lot less sympathetic. Nate’s much better than he was; he’ll recover fully, given time, but pushing him over it isn’t helping.” Pausing for a moment to let the atmosphere fade into the silence of the forest, Alder set his gaze back on Ryan. “I wouldn’t bring any of this up to him, though, okay? I was never sworn to secrecy, but… it was something we all tried to keep out of the ears of the public to avoid overwhelming him. That might have backfired, though.”

At first Ryan didn’t understand what he meant; then he remembered the night of the fire in Lacunosa, how Ruth had spoken rather negatively of the champion and the murmurs that had rippled through the crowds. If they didn’t know what had happened, they’d never be able to understand – and if Ruth was a newer gym leader, she might not have known either.

Despite not knowing before now, Ryan had never felt any kind of resentment for the champion – but that was probably because he was an outsider to the region. The man had never shown any hostility towards him, or anyone else really, so he’d been inclined to like him, but maybe it was different for people who had only ever seen him on the media. Famous people always seemed different in person, right?

“Anyway,” Alder continued more chirpily, seeming eager to try and lift the downcast mood. “You out here hunting for berries, Ryan?”

At least he remembered my name correctly this time. “Yep!” Ryan managed to summon a smile. At that point, he remembered what had initially interrupted their search in the first place. That thing they’d seen was probably still around here somewhere. “Oh—Mister Alder, if you’re going to be here for a while, you should keep an eye out. There’s a robot thing running around still, and it’s probably dangerous.”

The old man’s greying eyebrows rose. “Wait, that was serious? I thought he was joking!”

Ryan nodded. “They keep showing up every now and then. I don’t know where they came from, but I know they’re not real Pokémon.”

“Nobody tells me these things anymore,” Alder sighed, though it was in good humour. “Alright. Baldwin’s been resting all this time, so at least he’ll have the energy to fly. You take care, okay lad? If there are strange robots running around, someone’s probably controlling them, and that’s something a young ‘un like you should try and avoid getting caught up in.”

---

Everything was quiet. Quiet enough that he was almost certain Benga hadn’t followed him, because even without Delwyn trampling the undergrowth, he’d still make enough of a racket traipsing through the forest that Nate would hear him approaching long before he arrived. Even so, climbing a particularly sturdy-looking tree had been an extra measure. He leaned heavily against the trunk, staring aimlessly at the thick canopy of leaves above, waiting for the shadow of a Dragonite to block out the dim light that managed to pass through, but it never did. That was a relief. He wasn’t sure if he could handle another onslaught.

A rustle of leaves and the creak of a branch somewhere closer to the ground didn’t sway his gaze. Benga couldn’t climb trees. Not as swiftly as she could, at least.

Iris didn’t give any greeting; she just swung up to sit on the branch level with his on the opposite side of the tree, swinging her legs like a school child.

“You okay?” she asked, after fifteen seconds of silence had passed.

“Mm.”

That wasn’t a yes or a no, but she didn’t push him for an actual answer. Iris leaned forward to look over at him, effortlessly keeping her balance on the branch. “What happened to your hand?”

The unexpected question caught him off guard, and Nate finally broke out of his stare to see what she was talking about. “My ha— oh.” His knuckles were scraped and bleeding in places as a result of hitting the rough bark. He shrugged. “A tree looked at me funny.”

With the slightest huff of laughter, Iris smiled. If he could joke about it, he was already starting to get over whatever had happened. “Let me guess; a tree with red hair and an insatiable need to fight?”

Nate met her gaze at last, raising an eyebrow as if to ask how she knew.

“I heard him shouting from across the forest,” she said simply. She’d heard Nate, too, and that was the reason she’d gone to look for him, but there was no need to patronise him by pointing that out. “What did he do this time?”

“He said… some things. Things which I almost made him regret a lot more than he does,” Nate muttered, hitting his injured hand against the palm of his other for emphasis and finally feeling the sting he’d been numb to until now. “Just because I told him I was too busy to fight. What a brat, huh.”

“Well, why didn’t you battle him?” Her question wasn’t an accusing one; just one of curiosity. “You know you can beat him.”

“You think I want to put up with an explosion when he loses?”

Iris gave a half-hearted smile, though it was more of a grimace. “Fair enough.” She reached over to gently tug at his sleeve. “C’mon. Let’s go back to Opelucid.”

“Why?” Her suggestion was met with a deadpan look, although there was the slightest hint of panic in his eyes, even though Opelucid was nowhere near as crowded as the bigger cities of Unova.

“Because it’s better than moping around out here in the forest,” Iris said pointedly. “Besides, knowing you, you’re going to ignore that injury and let it get infected.”

“Fine, fine, Miss Officer of Health and Safety.” Nate rolled his eyes, but at least now it was accompanied by a friendly lopsided grin. He was returning to his usual self already.

“Just don’t fall out of the tree on the way down,” she joked, sliding off the branch and landing perfectly balanced on one below, making the descent look easy.

“Oh, come on!” Nate huffed. “That was one time!”