Aquacorde
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AGE: 17 ⟡ PRONOUNS: she/her ⟡ HOME REGION: Johto ⟡ DEVICE: PokéGear
DATE: Monday, September 21 ⟡ TIME: evening
LOCATION: Dewford Town
Chapter 2 #12 - Battling Brawly
"Wow, that's an interesting lineup!"
Brawly shields his eyes from the setting sun, appraising Cutie towering over the dojo. Stunnie has already burrowed into the sand, and Tuie- Tuie has decided the best place to be is atop Cutie's leafy heads.
Marie has, perhaps foolishly, decided that her second gym challenge will be a triple battle.
Brawly's choices take up stances on the other side of the field. Poliwrath, she knows. Mantine, she knows. Raichu, she knows, but that thing is a very different Raichu than she's seen before. It hovers atop its tail, lazily dodging Mantine's slow wingbeats as it surfs loops around its teammates.
Fighting, water, electric.
Psychic, electric, grass.
She should be fine.
The Alexes, eating their dinner, watch intently from the dojo entry. They'd taken her on a detour through Dewford on the way back from the Wilds, dragging an older guy called Jim with them to the dojo. So they both could watch for real, they'd explained, instead of having to pay attention to the nuances an official referee has to. Jim had rolled his eyes and grumbled about finally getting to do his job. He seems like a long-suffering sort, even now as he clears his throat and raises a little flag.
"This official Dewford Gym battle is about to commence! Leader Brawly vs Challenger Marie! A triple battle, three Pokémon each. Ready?" Both parties confirm, so Jim waves his flag. "Begin!"
Marie knows that Tuie knows what to do; even with the Natu sitting high in the sky atop Cutie's head she can be confident that Tuie is already charging up, and will be ready when Marie needs her to be. So she focuses closer to home, where Poliwrath is directing the other two and Mantine's powerful wingbeats are creating some kind of- of Tailwind, yes, that's a move! Not that Marie knows what it does. Sand streams past her in mockery of Benji's tactics as the shallow layer covering Stunnie whips away. The weird Raichu just hovers, smiling amicably.
"Cutie!" Marie yells. The Exeggutor stirs, looking around for her, and then bends his three heads down low to hear. "Reflect!"
Cutie nods, returning to his full height, and begins to summon barriers to form a low, haphazard wall across the field. Wind blocked, Stunnie once again burrows into the sand. "You'd better be using Charge down there!"
Brawly looks interested. "What's the goal?" he asks.
"What?" Cutie continues to form barriers. The floating Raichu uses its tail to grind along the tops, like Marie's seen skateboarders do across Goldenrod.
"What's the goal?" Brawly repeats. "Are you setting these up for a reason?"
"Um-" His Mantine floats closer to the barriers, bolstered along by Tailwind, and she grins. "It stopped the wind, right?"
Stunnie's tail pops out from the sand and he slaps it hard into the ground, propelling himself straight up to Thundershock the surprised Mantine in the underbelly. The winds above the barriers knock him back down, but he burrows again immediately, shuffling along the calm side of the translucent pink wall.
"Oof! Sure did," Brawly agrees. Marie has a suspicion that he's not taking her very seriously. What's YOUR goal, gym leader?
The Mantine blows a large bubble of water, but instead of hurtling toward any of Marie's Pokémon, it engulfs Mantine itself. It blows more bubbles, increasing the size of the veil even as it glows aqua blue and reabsorbs some of the water. Marie's eyes narrow. Healing, huh? Fine.
The Poliwrath vaults the wall of barriers, unwisely landing exactly where Stunnie has settled and getting a charged zap for its troubles. Mantine beats its wings hard to revitalize the Tailwind and Cutie bolsters the barriers as the Poliwrath tosses Stunnie over the wall, Thundershocks be damned. Stunnie burrows in the sand piling up against the barriers and the Raichu darts after him, trying to track his movements from above.
Marie knows her timing. Tuie's nowhere near full power yet.
She yells up to Cutie, calls for Mega Drain, but instead the Exeggutor takes a few steps back, leaning his head back as far as can before whipping forward with astonishing speed to nail the Poliwrath into the sand, Tuie holding on for dear life.
"Whoa-ah! That's not Mega Drain." Brawly's tone has no undercurrents of judgement, but Marie bristles anyway.
"Stunnie!" she snaps, and the Stunfisk rises for his vengeance, but his charged Thundershock disperses into a sudden wave of water. Marie scrambles to climb atop Cutie's chunky trunk- she is not going to put her shoes through the dryer again today- and the Raichu looks fleetingly smug as the sand compacts around the glowing Poliwrath.
What's with the healing?!
And where's Stunnie?
She spots him quickly, clearly angry about the compact sand being more difficult to burrow into, but she has no time for a command before the Poliwrath summons a ball of water between its hands.
"Tuie!"
A blinding flash of pinkish light and the Poliwrath crumples, water spilling across the sand that Tuie flutters down upon. Her own smug look is fueled by the dropped jaws of all three Marshalls and Jim's raised eyebrows. "Not skilled, huh?" she teases, and the Alexes are suddenly red in the ears. Brawly laughs, recalling his Poliwrath as Jim makes the official call. Tuie retreats to her perch.
"Wondered what she might've been doing up there! Should have found out earlier, I guess. But," he grins, widens his stance, and pounds a fist into an open palm, "it's not happening again."
A haze of electricity crackles across the field, emanating from the surfing Raichu, who surges forward as if the sparks were a powerful wave and- disappears? Marie glances wildly around but it's the twins' craning necks that clue her in- atop Cutie's head the Raichu shoves its cheeks gleefully into Tuie's feathers, no matter how much she squawks about it, only retreating when the crackle of electricity surrounds the bird as well. And then, swooping into a loop, a ball of yellow energy forms atop Raichu's tail and it swings, midair, to slam it home.
Tuie falls from Cutie's head, not even conscious enough to open her wings, and the only sure thing Marie can do is call her back.
"Is that a forfeit for Natu?" Jim asks. Marie nods tightly. All that setup for nothing!
"Now what?" someone wonders, and Marie is somewhat surprised to find it's not her that has spoken. Brawly's Raichu surfs lazy loops around his Mantine as the Tailwind dies down again. She frowns, and Brawly continues. "That's what you were waiting for, wasn't it? But I took it away, and you still have to finish the battle."
No I don't, Marie thinks petulantly, but… she'd requested a triple battle for a reason. Paulo had told her, hadn't he, that wild Pokémon don't play fair. They don't play by rules. If this was a battle with them, she wouldn't be able to retreat. Sure, she could run, but she knows she can't outrun many Pokémon for long.
Battling is training. As much as this is a gym match, this is also practise. This is exercise. This is training.
So what can she do?
Cutie doesn't do Mega Drain anymore. And if he doesn't do Mega Drain, she's hesitant to ask for Absorb. Pokémon are instinctive, and they don't choose to forget their more powerful moves and keep weaker ones. That makes sense. Even if it's not true, it makes sense. Maybe that's something to ask Edison. Not now, though. Now she needs to remember.
That Mantine still has the ring of water around it. It's still healing.
Why not do the same?
"Cutie!" It's predictable, now, the duck of the head to hear her voice. She's going to have to find a way around that. Maybe get better at projecting. "Leech Seed on the Mantine!"
A seed forms atop Cutie's head, where Tuie had been sitting the whole time. A seed much larger than he had made as an Exeggcute, a seed the same shape and size as one of his heads. Like firing from a t-shirt cannon, it arcs up and comes down perfectly upon the Mantine's back, cracking open and bursting into thick roots that curl around the flat body, forcing the wings to curl in on themselves and crashing the Mantine to the ground. The roots pulse and Cutie glows with a green light as the Mantine shudders, healing itself with its own blue glow. The Raichu surfs over to tug and saw at the roots, but eventually shakes its head in despair.
Brawly shakes his own head, with a smile on his face. "Don't sweat it, little dude," he says. "We still have tricks up our sleeves. Why don't you give that Exeggutor a little love, huh?"
The Raichu darts in, but Marie's on guard already. Stunnie's Mud Shot sends the Raichu tumbling off course, but when he tries to retreat into a burrow he finds himself stumped by the wet sand once again. "Just go!" Marie yells, and Stunnie launches himself with a slap of his tail, little fins acting as gliders as he coasts across the fading barrier wall. He drops onto the prone Mantine, and even Raichu's Teleport doesn't come fast enough to save it from a charged Thundershock. The Mantine wilts, the last of its energy drawn into Cutie before it collapses, and a gentle wave of water from Raichu only takes Stunnie out of the running.
Brawly clicks his tongue to silence a complaint from the Alexes. "I know you know but you don't need to say anything at the moment." The twins sulk. Marie's eyes narrow. Jim calls both knockouts.
It's just Cutie and Raichu left.
"Hypnosis!" Cutie comes to eye level with Raichu, staring deep into the sky-blue eyes.
Nothing happens.
"Ah," Brawly shakes his head. "Electric Terrain prevents sleep. What else?"
He didn't attack?
The Raichu surfs around Cutie's heads, following as he straightens up. A well-placed Reflect knocks it out of the sky for a moment, but it quickly recovers and darts in to press its sparking cheeks to Cutie's trunk. The staticky electricity courses through Cutie, and his next not-Mega Drain is easily dodged, though it puts a good dent in the sand. Barriers are thrown up in a spiral around Cutie's trunk, but the Raichu drifts between them easily. Barrage, in this new form, turns out to be rather like Leech Seed but quicker, and the seeds don't burst into vines on contact. Not that they make contact with the Raichu.
Brawly is counting something. He reaches five, and calls: "Hey! What's your last move?"
Marie opens her mouth, then shuts it. She also counts to five. "I don't know?"
"What?"
"I don't know!" Her frustration finally bleeds over into her voice, and she stomps her foot into the sand. "I don't know what he does! I caught him today, and I looked at his moves once, and I saw him use them a few times, and then I went training with your kids and he evolved! And I told him to do Mega Drain and he did something else, and I don't know what that is, either! And I don't know what he does instead of Absorb, now-"
Cutie fires a rain of small seeds from each of his heads, in all directions, and Marie yelps and presses herself up against his trunk. Raichu throws a web of electricity up between Brawly and Cutie, the twins duck into the dojo, and Jim calmly steps a few paces to his left. The scattering of seeds dies down quickly enough, and all that's left is the crashing of waves against the nearby shore.
Brawly makes a gesture to Jim, who announces: "Gym Leader Brawly has forfeited the match. The challenger is the victor!"
What?
The Alexes start a chorus of complaints, but Brawly shushes them. "You went out to the Wilds?"
They know exactly where this is going. Marie can tell. "Yeah…"
"Which part of the wall did you climb?"
"Uh, between Isa's house and-" Boy-Alex slaps a hand over his sister's mouth. "We went through the gate! Like we're supposed to!"
Marie can feel Brawly's disappointed stare, even though the man has his back to her. "And you decided to train a challenger?"
"Yeah, because she just got that Exeggcute, and-"
"Marie," Brawly beckons her, without looking, and she slinks over. Why? You're not the one in trouble! "Tell me about your training session."
"Um." The twins look at her with pleading eyes. "We went into the Wilds, and found a nice little clearing, and they brought out their Pokémon so they could spar with Cutie." That's fine, right? That's enough information. But not anything to get them in trouble.
Brawly considers this. "And your Exeggcute evolved during training?"
"Yeah."
"And then what?"
"Huh?"
"And then what?" Brawly presses, and Boy-Alex sucks in a breath, as if realizing something. "What happened after it evolved?"
"Um, I was confused? Because he's way different from the Johto Exeggutor. But Alex said they're the same species, just different forms. And this form only happens here on Dewford and in Alola. Maybe a few other places, right?" Boy-Alex nods. "But mostly Alola."
Brawly nods. "Yeah. Specifically, it only can happen on Dewford in the sunny months. You're lucky to have come here around this time. So, Alex explained this, and then…?"
"And then we left." Girl-Alex looks like something has dawned on her. "We went back over- um, back through the gate, and went to Jim's, and came here."
"Right." Brawly crosses his arms. "Who wants to explain to me what you missed?"
The Alexes simultaneously stare at their feet and mutter unintelligiblly. Brawly shakes his head. "Uh-huh. Go clean up your dinner, please."
Marie waits for them to scurry away before asking, a little more hesitantly than she normally would: "Um. What did they miss?"
Brawly sighs, dropping his lecture stance, but heavy footsteps announce Cutie's arrival, being led by Jim, and it's he that answers her question.
"They didn't help you train him after he evolved." Cutie sluggishly swings his heads down to nuzzle at Marie, and she remembers that the static is still locking his movements. She pats him and calls him back to his ball as Jim continues. "It's all well and good to gain power, but if you don't have skill to back it up, it's worthless. Leaving you with a Pokémon in a completely different form with moves you've never seen used and then dragging you straight to an official match is… not ideal, to put it lightly."
"That said," Brawly chimes in, "you should have checked your PokéDex at some point. A twelve-year-old is not always the most reliable source of information."
Jim heads into the dojo as Marie flushes and pouts at the ground. Brawly does have a point.
"You didn't go to a Trainer's School, did you?"
The kindness in his voice is kind of awful. She doesn't need any pity! "No," Marie replies sullenly.
"Well done getting my badge, then," he says, and that's not what Marie expected to hear. "You'll have to work very hard to catch up to your peers who have, though." That's more like it. But that's something she knows already.
"Why do I get your badge? I would have lost if you fought for real."
"All challengers would lose if gym leaders fought for real," Brawly corrects, and that makes sense. "I give my badge to people I think deserve it, who show me they can step up to a challenge and do their best to overcome. People who don't give up, and people who are willing to learn and grow." He laughs, suddenly, clapping her on the shoulder. "My mind was halfway made up when you came in here with a week-old license and no merits to speak of and requested a triple battle! That takes guts, kiddo."
Marie shrugs, self-consciousness crawling unpleasantly across her shoulders. "I thought it would be good practise."
"I think you were right," Brawly says. Jim returns from inside the dojo and hands him something. "And you've won yourself a prize. Here," he presses two things into her hand. "The Knuckle Badge and some prize money. Don't spend it all in one place."
Marie is already thinking of the market in Slateport.
Brawly shields his eyes from the setting sun, appraising Cutie towering over the dojo. Stunnie has already burrowed into the sand, and Tuie- Tuie has decided the best place to be is atop Cutie's leafy heads.
Marie has, perhaps foolishly, decided that her second gym challenge will be a triple battle.
Brawly's choices take up stances on the other side of the field. Poliwrath, she knows. Mantine, she knows. Raichu, she knows, but that thing is a very different Raichu than she's seen before. It hovers atop its tail, lazily dodging Mantine's slow wingbeats as it surfs loops around its teammates.
Fighting, water, electric.
Psychic, electric, grass.
She should be fine.
The Alexes, eating their dinner, watch intently from the dojo entry. They'd taken her on a detour through Dewford on the way back from the Wilds, dragging an older guy called Jim with them to the dojo. So they both could watch for real, they'd explained, instead of having to pay attention to the nuances an official referee has to. Jim had rolled his eyes and grumbled about finally getting to do his job. He seems like a long-suffering sort, even now as he clears his throat and raises a little flag.
"This official Dewford Gym battle is about to commence! Leader Brawly vs Challenger Marie! A triple battle, three Pokémon each. Ready?" Both parties confirm, so Jim waves his flag. "Begin!"
Marie knows that Tuie knows what to do; even with the Natu sitting high in the sky atop Cutie's head she can be confident that Tuie is already charging up, and will be ready when Marie needs her to be. So she focuses closer to home, where Poliwrath is directing the other two and Mantine's powerful wingbeats are creating some kind of- of Tailwind, yes, that's a move! Not that Marie knows what it does. Sand streams past her in mockery of Benji's tactics as the shallow layer covering Stunnie whips away. The weird Raichu just hovers, smiling amicably.
"Cutie!" Marie yells. The Exeggutor stirs, looking around for her, and then bends his three heads down low to hear. "Reflect!"
Cutie nods, returning to his full height, and begins to summon barriers to form a low, haphazard wall across the field. Wind blocked, Stunnie once again burrows into the sand. "You'd better be using Charge down there!"
Brawly looks interested. "What's the goal?" he asks.
"What?" Cutie continues to form barriers. The floating Raichu uses its tail to grind along the tops, like Marie's seen skateboarders do across Goldenrod.
"What's the goal?" Brawly repeats. "Are you setting these up for a reason?"
"Um-" His Mantine floats closer to the barriers, bolstered along by Tailwind, and she grins. "It stopped the wind, right?"
Stunnie's tail pops out from the sand and he slaps it hard into the ground, propelling himself straight up to Thundershock the surprised Mantine in the underbelly. The winds above the barriers knock him back down, but he burrows again immediately, shuffling along the calm side of the translucent pink wall.
"Oof! Sure did," Brawly agrees. Marie has a suspicion that he's not taking her very seriously. What's YOUR goal, gym leader?
The Mantine blows a large bubble of water, but instead of hurtling toward any of Marie's Pokémon, it engulfs Mantine itself. It blows more bubbles, increasing the size of the veil even as it glows aqua blue and reabsorbs some of the water. Marie's eyes narrow. Healing, huh? Fine.
The Poliwrath vaults the wall of barriers, unwisely landing exactly where Stunnie has settled and getting a charged zap for its troubles. Mantine beats its wings hard to revitalize the Tailwind and Cutie bolsters the barriers as the Poliwrath tosses Stunnie over the wall, Thundershocks be damned. Stunnie burrows in the sand piling up against the barriers and the Raichu darts after him, trying to track his movements from above.
Marie knows her timing. Tuie's nowhere near full power yet.
She yells up to Cutie, calls for Mega Drain, but instead the Exeggutor takes a few steps back, leaning his head back as far as can before whipping forward with astonishing speed to nail the Poliwrath into the sand, Tuie holding on for dear life.
"Whoa-ah! That's not Mega Drain." Brawly's tone has no undercurrents of judgement, but Marie bristles anyway.
"Stunnie!" she snaps, and the Stunfisk rises for his vengeance, but his charged Thundershock disperses into a sudden wave of water. Marie scrambles to climb atop Cutie's chunky trunk- she is not going to put her shoes through the dryer again today- and the Raichu looks fleetingly smug as the sand compacts around the glowing Poliwrath.
What's with the healing?!
And where's Stunnie?
She spots him quickly, clearly angry about the compact sand being more difficult to burrow into, but she has no time for a command before the Poliwrath summons a ball of water between its hands.
"Tuie!"
A blinding flash of pinkish light and the Poliwrath crumples, water spilling across the sand that Tuie flutters down upon. Her own smug look is fueled by the dropped jaws of all three Marshalls and Jim's raised eyebrows. "Not skilled, huh?" she teases, and the Alexes are suddenly red in the ears. Brawly laughs, recalling his Poliwrath as Jim makes the official call. Tuie retreats to her perch.
"Wondered what she might've been doing up there! Should have found out earlier, I guess. But," he grins, widens his stance, and pounds a fist into an open palm, "it's not happening again."
A haze of electricity crackles across the field, emanating from the surfing Raichu, who surges forward as if the sparks were a powerful wave and- disappears? Marie glances wildly around but it's the twins' craning necks that clue her in- atop Cutie's head the Raichu shoves its cheeks gleefully into Tuie's feathers, no matter how much she squawks about it, only retreating when the crackle of electricity surrounds the bird as well. And then, swooping into a loop, a ball of yellow energy forms atop Raichu's tail and it swings, midair, to slam it home.
Tuie falls from Cutie's head, not even conscious enough to open her wings, and the only sure thing Marie can do is call her back.
"Is that a forfeit for Natu?" Jim asks. Marie nods tightly. All that setup for nothing!
"Now what?" someone wonders, and Marie is somewhat surprised to find it's not her that has spoken. Brawly's Raichu surfs lazy loops around his Mantine as the Tailwind dies down again. She frowns, and Brawly continues. "That's what you were waiting for, wasn't it? But I took it away, and you still have to finish the battle."
No I don't, Marie thinks petulantly, but… she'd requested a triple battle for a reason. Paulo had told her, hadn't he, that wild Pokémon don't play fair. They don't play by rules. If this was a battle with them, she wouldn't be able to retreat. Sure, she could run, but she knows she can't outrun many Pokémon for long.
Battling is training. As much as this is a gym match, this is also practise. This is exercise. This is training.
So what can she do?
Cutie doesn't do Mega Drain anymore. And if he doesn't do Mega Drain, she's hesitant to ask for Absorb. Pokémon are instinctive, and they don't choose to forget their more powerful moves and keep weaker ones. That makes sense. Even if it's not true, it makes sense. Maybe that's something to ask Edison. Not now, though. Now she needs to remember.
That Mantine still has the ring of water around it. It's still healing.
Why not do the same?
"Cutie!" It's predictable, now, the duck of the head to hear her voice. She's going to have to find a way around that. Maybe get better at projecting. "Leech Seed on the Mantine!"
A seed forms atop Cutie's head, where Tuie had been sitting the whole time. A seed much larger than he had made as an Exeggcute, a seed the same shape and size as one of his heads. Like firing from a t-shirt cannon, it arcs up and comes down perfectly upon the Mantine's back, cracking open and bursting into thick roots that curl around the flat body, forcing the wings to curl in on themselves and crashing the Mantine to the ground. The roots pulse and Cutie glows with a green light as the Mantine shudders, healing itself with its own blue glow. The Raichu surfs over to tug and saw at the roots, but eventually shakes its head in despair.
Brawly shakes his own head, with a smile on his face. "Don't sweat it, little dude," he says. "We still have tricks up our sleeves. Why don't you give that Exeggutor a little love, huh?"
The Raichu darts in, but Marie's on guard already. Stunnie's Mud Shot sends the Raichu tumbling off course, but when he tries to retreat into a burrow he finds himself stumped by the wet sand once again. "Just go!" Marie yells, and Stunnie launches himself with a slap of his tail, little fins acting as gliders as he coasts across the fading barrier wall. He drops onto the prone Mantine, and even Raichu's Teleport doesn't come fast enough to save it from a charged Thundershock. The Mantine wilts, the last of its energy drawn into Cutie before it collapses, and a gentle wave of water from Raichu only takes Stunnie out of the running.
Brawly clicks his tongue to silence a complaint from the Alexes. "I know you know but you don't need to say anything at the moment." The twins sulk. Marie's eyes narrow. Jim calls both knockouts.
It's just Cutie and Raichu left.
"Hypnosis!" Cutie comes to eye level with Raichu, staring deep into the sky-blue eyes.
Nothing happens.
"Ah," Brawly shakes his head. "Electric Terrain prevents sleep. What else?"
He didn't attack?
The Raichu surfs around Cutie's heads, following as he straightens up. A well-placed Reflect knocks it out of the sky for a moment, but it quickly recovers and darts in to press its sparking cheeks to Cutie's trunk. The staticky electricity courses through Cutie, and his next not-Mega Drain is easily dodged, though it puts a good dent in the sand. Barriers are thrown up in a spiral around Cutie's trunk, but the Raichu drifts between them easily. Barrage, in this new form, turns out to be rather like Leech Seed but quicker, and the seeds don't burst into vines on contact. Not that they make contact with the Raichu.
Brawly is counting something. He reaches five, and calls: "Hey! What's your last move?"
Marie opens her mouth, then shuts it. She also counts to five. "I don't know?"
"What?"
"I don't know!" Her frustration finally bleeds over into her voice, and she stomps her foot into the sand. "I don't know what he does! I caught him today, and I looked at his moves once, and I saw him use them a few times, and then I went training with your kids and he evolved! And I told him to do Mega Drain and he did something else, and I don't know what that is, either! And I don't know what he does instead of Absorb, now-"
Cutie fires a rain of small seeds from each of his heads, in all directions, and Marie yelps and presses herself up against his trunk. Raichu throws a web of electricity up between Brawly and Cutie, the twins duck into the dojo, and Jim calmly steps a few paces to his left. The scattering of seeds dies down quickly enough, and all that's left is the crashing of waves against the nearby shore.
Brawly makes a gesture to Jim, who announces: "Gym Leader Brawly has forfeited the match. The challenger is the victor!"
What?
The Alexes start a chorus of complaints, but Brawly shushes them. "You went out to the Wilds?"
They know exactly where this is going. Marie can tell. "Yeah…"
"Which part of the wall did you climb?"
"Uh, between Isa's house and-" Boy-Alex slaps a hand over his sister's mouth. "We went through the gate! Like we're supposed to!"
Marie can feel Brawly's disappointed stare, even though the man has his back to her. "And you decided to train a challenger?"
"Yeah, because she just got that Exeggcute, and-"
"Marie," Brawly beckons her, without looking, and she slinks over. Why? You're not the one in trouble! "Tell me about your training session."
"Um." The twins look at her with pleading eyes. "We went into the Wilds, and found a nice little clearing, and they brought out their Pokémon so they could spar with Cutie." That's fine, right? That's enough information. But not anything to get them in trouble.
Brawly considers this. "And your Exeggcute evolved during training?"
"Yeah."
"And then what?"
"Huh?"
"And then what?" Brawly presses, and Boy-Alex sucks in a breath, as if realizing something. "What happened after it evolved?"
"Um, I was confused? Because he's way different from the Johto Exeggutor. But Alex said they're the same species, just different forms. And this form only happens here on Dewford and in Alola. Maybe a few other places, right?" Boy-Alex nods. "But mostly Alola."
Brawly nods. "Yeah. Specifically, it only can happen on Dewford in the sunny months. You're lucky to have come here around this time. So, Alex explained this, and then…?"
"And then we left." Girl-Alex looks like something has dawned on her. "We went back over- um, back through the gate, and went to Jim's, and came here."
"Right." Brawly crosses his arms. "Who wants to explain to me what you missed?"
The Alexes simultaneously stare at their feet and mutter unintelligiblly. Brawly shakes his head. "Uh-huh. Go clean up your dinner, please."
Marie waits for them to scurry away before asking, a little more hesitantly than she normally would: "Um. What did they miss?"
Brawly sighs, dropping his lecture stance, but heavy footsteps announce Cutie's arrival, being led by Jim, and it's he that answers her question.
"They didn't help you train him after he evolved." Cutie sluggishly swings his heads down to nuzzle at Marie, and she remembers that the static is still locking his movements. She pats him and calls him back to his ball as Jim continues. "It's all well and good to gain power, but if you don't have skill to back it up, it's worthless. Leaving you with a Pokémon in a completely different form with moves you've never seen used and then dragging you straight to an official match is… not ideal, to put it lightly."
"That said," Brawly chimes in, "you should have checked your PokéDex at some point. A twelve-year-old is not always the most reliable source of information."
Jim heads into the dojo as Marie flushes and pouts at the ground. Brawly does have a point.
"You didn't go to a Trainer's School, did you?"
The kindness in his voice is kind of awful. She doesn't need any pity! "No," Marie replies sullenly.
"Well done getting my badge, then," he says, and that's not what Marie expected to hear. "You'll have to work very hard to catch up to your peers who have, though." That's more like it. But that's something she knows already.
"Why do I get your badge? I would have lost if you fought for real."
"All challengers would lose if gym leaders fought for real," Brawly corrects, and that makes sense. "I give my badge to people I think deserve it, who show me they can step up to a challenge and do their best to overcome. People who don't give up, and people who are willing to learn and grow." He laughs, suddenly, clapping her on the shoulder. "My mind was halfway made up when you came in here with a week-old license and no merits to speak of and requested a triple battle! That takes guts, kiddo."
Marie shrugs, self-consciousness crawling unpleasantly across her shoulders. "I thought it would be good practise."
"I think you were right," Brawly says. Jim returns from inside the dojo and hands him something. "And you've won yourself a prize. Here," he presses two things into her hand. "The Knuckle Badge and some prize money. Don't spend it all in one place."
Marie is already thinking of the market in Slateport.
Spoiler: Team
Spoiler: Inventory
Spoiler: Contacts
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