NOVEL WEB Chapter 18 - Everything for Fashion
Chapter 18 – Everything for Fashion
The inside of the room was filled with paints and silk threads. Obviously spun by all the various bug types that call this gym their home. There wasn’t a single spot in this atelier that was not covered by these two things. Burgh obviously favored Blues and greens the most, but he didn’t hesitate to spruce things up with a dash of pink and yellow.
‘Burgh is probably the most famous of the major Unovan gym leaders second only to Brycen the movie star. His side gig is being a famous sketch artist and fashion designer. Burgh mostly paints forest scenes, his muse being newly born bug type Pokémon hanging from their silk cocoons.’
“What if he can’t help us?”
‘Then I will swallow my pride and give good old grandpa a call.’
“Ahhh, hello there young man. What a darling ensemble you are wearing! Red is your color I can just tell. With a few more adjustments you’ll be making waves for sure. I am thinking a wild look, as if you have just been roughing it out hand to hand with a throh from the forest.”
“Thank you for the compliment leader, Burgh. My name is Egon from Lavaridge town. I actually came here to get some advice on hatching a bug type egg that was given to me recently. This is the first egg I have been given to care for and I don’t want to mess up.”
“Well then, I’ll just have to see the little sweetling in person then, won’t I? If it’s a bug type egg we're talking about, you can rely on me.”
I placed the box on the single stool that was available inside this room before opening it and revealing its contents to Burgh.
“Oh my… do you know what you have here Egon?”
“Yes, a larvesta egg. I am having problems finding an incubator with the appropriate settings on the open market. The nice lady at Penny’s told me that I should ask you for advice.”
“Hmm before any of that, let me take a closer look at your body.”
“What are you…!?”
Burgh proceeded to manhandle every nook and cranny of my childlike body until he found what he was looking for on my right upper arm. The first-degree burn hadn’t completely faded yet. The distinct smell of moth pheromone still dominates my body’s natural scent.
“Here it is. If you didn’t have this mark young man, I would have confiscated the egg. Seeing it on your body puts my heart at ease. It means you have been given this egg with the blessings of its mother. A rare feat for any trainer to accomplish. volcarona don’t hand out their eggs to just anyone you know.”
Burgh proceeded to stick his nose on the mark and taking deep huffs of the lingering scent.
“Ahh this must be one of the most distinct smells in the world! A hint of ozone mixed with the scent of a loving mother Volcarona who must undoubtedly be at least over one hundred years old going by the richness of this aroma. You will need this mark when the egg hatches, but afterwards if you are still around and interested, I’d like to isolate this smell and turn it into my newest perfume. This mark here can help me produce as many as forty bottles! I’ll call it Sun goddess’ grace!”
‘This is the most unique individual I’ve ever come across.’
“I like him.”
Victini’s endorsement was all I needed to trust Burgh and proceed with my inquiry.
“Leader Burgh, can you give me a recommendation?”
“I wish that I could, for a promising young pupa such as yourself. Alas there have never been any studies done on optimal incubator settings for hatching larvesta eggs. The best I can do is point you towards the right direction to take. At the moment the league only knows of two trainers that have captured one of their line. Luckily, I have both their Xtransceiver numbers.”
“There’s another one beside Champion Alder!?”
“Yes indeed, the second one is our very own master sergeant Dianne of the ranger corps. We both started the circuit at around the same age. She was my rival for a long time but now we are just good friends.”
“But firstly, I have to ask. What possessed a young trainer like you to have climbed the unnamed mountain that’s completely removed from the routes like that? For a novice trainer like you that’s risking death. The wild Pokémon living on that mountain are strong and temperamental. There’s a reason the league decided to obscure that place from our maps.”
“Mountain…?”
“Oh dear, I guess it is me not making any sense this time. Let me start from the beginning. The league only knows of one place with a nesting Volcarona, but the mountain she calls her home is off route. I went there myself once together with Dianne. Sadly, the nesting mother only had a single egg to give and decided that my ex-rival was a better fit. You see Egon, a volcarona will only mate with another bug type she deems strong enough. Sadly, there aren’t many bug-types capable of besting a mature volcarona especially so in the wild. The league has tried many times to find a suitable partner for her, but she has turned down all suitors until now. I suspect her previous mate that fathered the egg lost to her and has now fallen out of favor.”
“Doesn’t champion Alder have a male Volcarona? A champion’s Pokémon isn’t strong enough?”
“The league suspects the two Pokémon to be siblings. They get along just fine, but there is no attraction there.”
“Hmm.” ‘That Volcarona must be one of Sunny’s daughters that left and established her own nest.’
“Based on your reaction I assume you must have found a different nesting mother while on your journey. That is excellent news! To think that there could be another nest out there. The propagation chances of this species isn’t as bleak as I originally thought it to be. Let me just call Dianne and have her tell us what she did to get her egg to hatch.”
Burgh started scrolling the numbers list on his Xtransceiver until he finally picked the one he was looking for. The device buzzed a few times until the call got forwarded through. Burgh put the Xtransceiver on speaker so I could listen in.
“Burgh? Why are you calling me again after such a long time? I already told you I won’t model for your new wild and free clothing brand.”
“Dear Dianne, it is such a wonder hearing your lovely voice after such a long time. Alas! I have called you for a greater purpose this time. A strapping young trainer has recently brought in a larvesta egg with questions on how to hatch this wonder of nature. Of course, I myself cannot help him. However, then I remembered my dear old friend who found herself in a similar situation years ago. Come introduce yourself, Egon.”
“Uhmm Hello Ma’am, Egon here. Just like leader Burgh said, I recently received this egg from its mother, and I was wondering how to hatch it.”
The woman on screen was a brunette wearing a standard issue ranger attire designed for female members to use. A skintight body suit with a vest and latch belt with all the tools one might need to survive in the wilderness.
“Burgh… did this kid go off route and ignore about a thousand safety precautions to get that egg? Arghh… sorry, that’s my work voice speaking. Since I am on break, I will ignore this matter for now. Kid if you want to hatch that egg you will need an incubator that’s capable of producing lots and lots of simulated sunlight. Temperature isn’t as much of an issue, but sunlight is. The best incubators you can find for this are those developed to house the sunflora and cherrim lines. I still have my old one and can have it sent to you tomorrow. Don’t worry about missing out on a few days. Pokémon eggs are hardy and can last for years, even decades until the right conditions have been met.”
‘Sunlight huh? That explains why there were five eggs in Sunny’s sanctuary. They don’t get any sunlight at all. Any light down there can only be provided by her scattering ember scales.’
“That would be great Ma’am, but I don’t really have an address you can send the incubator to.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll send the incubator to Burgh’s place, so he can give it to you. All I ask for in return is that if by some miracle the hatched Larvesta is a girl that you do the responsible thing and try to convince her to repopulate the species. Having more wild volcarona around would be a boon for us rangers. Their benevolence extends to all species, and they usually become the de facto leader of any place they call home. Burgh give him my number, I am available if he needs any advice on raising larvesta.”
The call ended after Burgh and Dianne exchanged some more pleasantries. Followed by Burgh showing me Dianne’s number and for good measure he gave me his personal number as well.
“Now don’t hesitate to call me. Especially so for the hatching, I can take a day off of work if it means I get to watch that special moment. Also…”
His face suddenly turned serious. “Try to keep the news that you have been given a volcarona’s egg on a need-to-know basis for a while. Baby Pokémon are very impressionable, hunters and poachers would not mind adding stealing eggs to their list of crimes. Selling an unbonded larvesta egg would set them up for life.”
“Thank you, sir! I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? I don’t think the package will arrive by then. Dianne lives all the way over at victory road.”
“I am up for my second gym badge at your gym. The match was scheduled two weeks ago.”
“What a pleasant surprise! That I’d be the one that gets to judge your skills as a trainer. Win or lose I’ll teach you all about caring for newly hatched bug types.”
“Is it going to be, okay?”
“It's fine, this is a 2nd level badge fight against a bug type gym. Within a few blasts it’ll be over.”
“The receptionist said it’ll be a three-on-three fight. Do you need me to?”
“No! I am not resorting to that. You still haven’t figured out what you want to do in life. Honestly, I’d be fine with you just hanging out with us. It's been a delight so far.”
We are currently residing at the Pokémon center. Victini was still concerned by the fact that the battle is going to be a three versus three fight. I wasn’t concerned, our major weakness being water types and there not being any bug and water types native to Unova made me pretty confident in our chances to win regardless of being at a numerical disadvantage. Aurea finally caught up with us and was currently giving our egg another look over, stumped by its mystery.
“Can you please tell me what’s inside Egon? I quizzed this encyclopedia on eggs and it’s not in there.”
“You're smart, you can figure it out. We are dealing with our own problems over here.”
“Judging by your wordings I am imagining that Victini is concerned for you having only two Pokémon capable of battling? I have to say she is right to worry. Gym leaders aren’t pushovers Egon. Even with a type advantage Burgh might surprise you.”
“I’ll deal with it. My team has been prepping for another gym battle for over three weeks now. We’ll kick their carapaced behinds, piece of cake.”
‘Should I have stuck around longer to catch a Darmanitan?’ I am not in such dire financial straits as I used to be. I am by no means wealthy, but I was not in any danger of not being able to afford the basic necessities. The professor’s generous donation gave me breathing room and some time to think. I did not want to run the risk of my egg being discovered by the people in charge of the camp that morning. Sunny entrusted her child to me that outweighed the concern of missing a team member to take on Burgh.
This being a second level badge fight did mean that Burgh had more freedom to use diverse tactics. I was expecting to see him make liberal use of status moves and the occasional entry hazard. Bug types generally being frailer than most other types meant that trainers that specializing in them tended to use tricky tactics to trip up their opponents. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that it would behoove us to watch some of Burgh’s second level gym battles as preparation. The Castelia gym has a website dedicated to reviewing the gym’s past matches. This was mostly so sponsors could watch out for promising trainers to keep their attention on. However, it could also be used by trainers looking to prepare themselves for their upcoming gym battle. The gym charged a small sum for each watched video though this being part of a gym’s mainstream income. The Lavaridge gym did something similar. Mr. Moore being the old fossil that he is rented out battle tapes at the gym’s desk.
“Okay gang! I’ve decided to have us watch some of Burgh’s battles on video. Let us make haste to reserve one of the center’s computers.”
“Vuuuul!”
“Num num!”
We watched three videos that evening in preparation for our upcoming gym battle. As expected, burgh favored the use of guerilla tactics in his gym matches. His team for second level badge battles consisted of a shelmet and a dwebble while his third choice was usually preserved to throw his opponent for a loop. We had seen him use a venipede, joltik or even a whirlipede. The latter one on that list he saved for trainers like me who have already been training their team for some time.
“Okay so we’ll lead with you Rena. You are fast enough to dodge those acid sprays from the Shelmet. When he switches in for his Dwebble I’ll recall you for Numsy. He can tough it out against those rock blasts. His final Pokémon will likely be his Whirlipede. The most important thing for us is to disrupt its use of rollout. Once that Whirlipede gets going it will be very difficult to hinder its use of the move. Numsy, we’ll use smokescreen and mud bombs to obscure Whirlipede’s vision. Going at high speeds using rollout while having obscured vision will likely result in the Whirlipede missing us and slamming against the wall.”
“Vuuuul.”
“Okay you guys let’s go out for dinner. Since Numsy didn’t enjoy the frozen desserts last time he gets to pick out our dinner place.”
“Num num!”
“That spicy ratatouille from last time?”
“Num!”
I don’t know if they have Kalosian restaurants in Castelia city, but it doesn’t hurt to look around. I proceeded to look it up on the pokénet. In fact, Castelia did have a number of fancy Kalosian restaurants, but once I got a look at their menu’s I was forced to bow down to the fiscal reality of our situation. Going there once would drain my wallet of all it’s hard-earned cash. Striaton’s gym menu was designed for penniless trainers on the go quite unlike the restaurants of a big city. I proceeded to be more selective on our outing place.
“How about this Galarian curry place? They say it’s the best around the block.”
“Num num?”
Yes, it’ll be just as good as any of those fancy places, and they let you decide your own mix of berries that they will put inside the curry. You can make it as spicy as you like.
“Num!”
We made our way out of the Pokémon center and into the neighboring streets. The restaurant I was looking for was just two blocks away, easily within walking distance. I had my whole team out with me. There was a ruling for not having more than one Pokémon out at the same time to prevent overcrowding, but the streets were pretty tame on traffic tonight so no one should mind.
“Here it is. The Slowpoke Shack. Arceus, I hope they don’t serve real actual slowpoke tail here.”
We made our way inside and it was exactly how I imagined a Galarian restaurant would look like. There was this massive pub table with several high-rise stools lined up alongside it. Behind the bar hanging on the wall was this large flat screen tv or a telly as the Galarians would call it. The bar was probably experiencing a slow day since there were only around six people inside and all of them nursing an alcoholic beverage.
“Welcome to the slowpoke shack! Table for three?”
The barmaid gestured towards me and my Pokémon. Before leading us to sit at a window side table.
“Can I get you started on anything?”
“Yes, I’d like some fresh water and give us three cartons of berry juice. Sweet, Dry and Sour. Also, could we get an extra cushion for the egg? You see our incubator hasn’t arrived yet and I don’t want to let it out of our sight.”
“Coming right up! We’ll bring an extra cushion for you right away.”
Rena and Numsy took their seats at the table. Pokémon of their size got the booster seat treatment. Sadly, small restaurants like this gave no options for larger Pokémon to eat together with their trainers. Any Pokémon larger than a human needed to go to eateries that specialized in catering to big, bodied eaters. Numsy would start experiencing this problem once he evolved. Victini sat at the table invisibly, using the paper place mats as a makeshift cushion. I tried making small talk with the bartender while we waited.
“So, the name. Does the owner have a slowpoke or something?”
“That’d be me, the name’s Harry. Yes, we do have a slowpoke. He's the mascot of this restaurant.”
The gentleman pointed at the west most corner of the restaurant where the dopy Pokémon was sleeping inside a pillow stuffed basket. This slowpoke seems to be of the Galarian variety having yellow markers on the top of its head and tail.
“Yep, old Scruffer’s is essential to the atmosphere of this place. He is one of the few things I kept with me when I married my Unovan wife and we moved back to her home city of Castelia. Judging by the friends you keep with you, you must be from outside the region as well.”
“Yep, the name’s Egon. I am Hoenn born and raised. Go Combuskens!”
“The Combuskens? The Combuskens are terrible not once have they qualified for nationals.”
”Sorry, still have to back my home team.”
“As we all do, my wife tried getting me into what the Unovans here call football, but I just can’t see the appeal of a sport where men cause each other concussions on the regular. Well there is at least one pastime that we all enjoy.”
The man gestured towards the screen where a Galarian gym battle was being displayed. The challenger seemed to be around ten years old like me. Doing reasonably well against his opponents Gossifleur with his Charmeleon.
“That kid Leon is looking decent. He might be one of the few who makes it to the championship tournament.”
‘So that is Leon huh? Nice Charmeleon.’
The Galar league had a completely different structure than the regular circuits from foreign regions. Only a handful of hopefuls each year were selected to join the circuit run. Basically, you needed to have a high-ranking league official or gym leader in your corner before you were allowed to participate. Typically, this meant family members or friends got in quicker in comparison to no-names who first needed to prove themselves capable of going all the way. When trainers lost once during a gym match their run was over which reflected poorly on the official who sponsored them. That system ensured that every match was worth watching since the novice trainers tended to be students of big shot trainers. Naturally, I had an innate disdain to this form of nepotism even though it did produce results. Their television ratings were always sky high making their league more commercialized than those in other regions.
“Sir, if I was a betting man, I would put all my money on Leon making it to and winning the Champion’s cup. In fact, I’d even bet that he will never lose a single battle.”
“Really? And what makes you so sure that a no name kid can win against heavy hitters like Raihan and Sonia? They both come from trainer families. Sonia’s grandmother is the region’s professor ensuring that she has her pick of strong Pokémon to train.”
“Don’t tell others that you got it from me, but my sources tell me that Leon was trained personally by the former champion Mustard.”
Champion Mustard sported a strong reputation, even abroad, being the champion who held onto his title the longest. The decision to retire only came after losing his first partner Pokémon due to old age.
“So, he is Mustard’s disciple, eh? I’d see why you’d want to make that bet.”
The waitress came back with our drinks and plated our table before taking our orders back to the kitchen. I just ordered the cheapest curry they had, while the rest of my team received curry’s that suited their taste palettes. Personally, I would never eat a sweet tasting curry and half expected Victini to throw up after her first bite.
“I saw you ordering four meals when’s your third friend coming?”
“She’s already here. My Kecleon is very shy and remains invisible most of the time even when eating. She doesn’t do well in public spaces.”
I came up with the Kecleon excuse in case we wanted to dine in public places. Your standard Unovans wouldn’t know the difference between true invisibility and the camouflage Kecleon are famed for.
“A Kecleon huh? That’s certainly not a Pokémon you can find around these parts. You are a traveling trainer then?”
“Yessir! I am going to win my second badge from Burgh tomorrow; he won't know what hit him!”
“Well, you are certainly hotblooded enough to make a lasting impression on Burgh. Especially so with all these fire types.”
It was at that moment a certain brunette walked into the bar. Aurea having successfully tracked us down gave me a stare as if condemning me for not constantly updating her on my whereabouts. She nabbed an extra chair and took her seat nearest to the egg.
“Egon, have you already rented an incubator for the egg?”
“Yes, it’s being sent out to me. Also please stop asking questions about the egg. I want to keep it a surprise. You’ll find out when it hatches.”
In a rare moment of clarity, she acceded to my argument and ordered some curry of her own. While I was being distracted by the battle on screen. The curry soon arrived and after giving it a taste I was surprised by the flavor of this Galarian delicacy. The flavors were well balanced and slightly spicy, but not overwhelmingly so.
‘I was expecting their basic curry to be just plain rice, coconut milk and spices but what is this texture? It reminds me of something I haven’t had in a long time.’
And then it dawned on me what I was eating. I kept my cool and started asking the owner a few pointed questions.
“Uhmm… this curry could there possibly be meat inside?”
“Yes, we put slowpoke tail in all our curries. Now I know that you foreigners have this weird hangup about eating meat, but don’t get your britches in a twist. Galarian slowpoke tails fall off naturally. Of course, my partner’s tail wouldn’t be enough to feed all my customers, so we order in. All ethically sourced none of these tails have been cut.”
Aurea chose this moment to chime in.
“It’s true Egon, Galarian slowpoke tails fall off naturally. It takes multiple weeks for the tail to grow back though so the demand is always higher than the supply.”
I looked at my Pokémon. Rena was eating without qualms while Numsy had already finished his plate and was slowly falling into a food induced coma. Victini was still slowly savoring her meal. I put my spoon back into the curry and took another bite.
“…Not bad.”
The next morning my team was well rested and fed, ready to get that second gym badge. Aurea decided to come with us and watch our gym battle from the stands. Most gyms sold entry tickets for the higher profile seven and eight badge matches. Lower ranked matches like mine didn’t have that restriction the public was free to sit in as long as there was enough space left.
I brought my egg with me and asked Aurea to egg-sit for me during the match. Leaving the egg without supervision at any point seemed like a fool’s gambit to me. We walked past the revolving gym doors and entered. On first glance I could spot the figure of Burgh already waiting for me in the lobby.
“Egon, how wondrous that you could make it! And I see you have brought the stunning Aurea Juniper with you. You know Aurea that offer to work together on my spring collection still stands. In fact, I’d be delighted to have you model for my entire deerling seasonal storm clothing line.”
“It’s nice to see you too Burgh, but regarding your invitation sorry I have other aspirations.”
“Shot down again! No matter, I will have to make do with my other muses. Speaking of muses, Egon the package has just arrived this morning. My dear Dianne has paid extra for overnight teleportation services. We can put that little wonder of nature right inside the incubator.”
Aurea gave me a glare.
“You told Burgh what’s inside the egg and not me!?”
“I needed his expertise for hatching the egg! Besides you know who likes him so he’s gotta be on the level.”
Burgh interceded into our conversation.
“Well then, I must thank this mysterious stranger for his or her glowing recommendation. Now let us depart for my atelier. I kept the incubator on my desk.”
Burgh guided us into his workroom where the incubator was standing on his desk. Unlike other incubators this one’s headpiece was decorated with LED lights. Dianne also generously provided a poké ball to catch the Larvesta in once it was hatched. The ball in question was one of those Devon net balls which had increased effectiveness when used to capture bug and water types. Not that I needed it, but it was a nice gesture, nonetheless. The ball also doubled as a head ornament for the incubator.
“Okay, Egon put the egg inside. This incubator is triple isolated and has reflective strips at the bottom, see? So, it gets hit with sunlight from up top and down below.”
I did as Burgh instructed while he was messing with the incubator settings. Eventually he got the thing working, the lights inside went on and the surface temperature of the incubator got nice and toasty.
“This will do it. It took my dear Dianne around three weeks to hatch her egg after she figured out what to do about the incubator. Come now let us have our match. The beautiful Aurea Juniper can look after the egg while we will have our exciting battle!”
Burgh went straight for the room housing his battlefield. The field itself was a standard variety battlefield with no fancy whistles or gadgets, the area surrounding it was decidedly not so. Large trees surrounded us while we walked across the pseudo-forested area.
“Isn’t this astounding? This is our home away from home. My bug types feel most comfortable up and around large trees, so I modeled this room to resemble pinwheel forest very closely.”
The gym’s referee was already waiting for us to begin the match. So, me and Burgh took our positions on the battlefield while Aurea secured herself a good viewing spot from the rafters. Beside her there were two local members of the bug catching scouts there to cheer Burgh on.
For our first battle today in the Castelia gym it’s Egon from Lavaridge facing off against Burgh the gym leader. Only three Pokémon each, the challenger may substitute his Pokémon twice while the gym leader may not. The match is over if both the leader and/or the challenger’s Pokémon are unable to battle.”
“Let the match begin!”
“As the gym leader I’ll show you my choice of Pokémon first. Go Shelmet!”
‘Just as expected.’
“Go Rena!”