8 The Curse of Popularity
"Hopefully we cross paths again Davis, thanks for everything," I say waving back at the butler. Davis smiling at my words does a small wave back as he gets teleported by Alakazam.
'I'm finally back,' I thought to myself seeing that I was on the walking path to my house. Looking across the street I saw a huge building that resembled the size of four gymnasiums and had an octagonal shape.
The building seemed to be next or near my house so that was a little weird (Has a similar material design to the Cerulean Gym shown in the Alola anime episode).
'Was anyone allowed to build that close to us?' I questioned myself as I got closer.
Soon after this, I realized that the huge place wasn't just any building, it was the Pewter City Gym and it somehow got a huge renovation in just four days?
"Holy fuck." I murmur seeing its sheer size. Renovation is an understatement. They full-on made a gym that could fit at least eight of the old gym design inside.
How is that physically possible I'm not sure.
Walking to the front, the octagonal gym had the Pewter badge as its logo above the entrance door. This place got a whole new feeling and look and I really don't mind it.
This will elevate us in popularity in Kanto and show the rest of the region that we aren't some partnered gym. We are an official one and we have the strength and money to back it up.
I'm guessing Brock was never able to because of him trying to take care of all his siblings and run the gym every day. So there wasn't much time to improve the gym if he even knew how to.
"I'll go home first," I say to myself. While making my way back to where my house should have been, there replaced a two-story home that still somewhat resembled my old house.
'So they changed this up as well?'
Pulling out my Pokedex I double check with Mother if our house was still at this address.
(~~~~)
[Mum (Lola Harrison)]
You: Do we stlril live next to the gym?
Mum: Yeah, the place looks a little different though, come home soon my little boy!
Mum: Love u !!!!
You: Love you too ty
(~~~~)
Taking away my Pokedex I confirm that this house is still mine.
But did they remove the rooms?
I'm not too bothered about it but my belongings and some stuff I got before leaving were still there, so hopefully nothing was lost as the house was made/renovated.
"Look it's Forrest!"
"I heard he's getting his started from a gym trainer."
"There was a picture of him at Hoenn, how is he already here?"
Multiple voices could be heard about me as I turned around. There were civilians and trainers alike walking towards the gym like some sort of tourist spot.
Making a dash for it for no reason besides avoiding socializing, I make it to the front door.
*Knock* *Knock*
"I think theres someone there-" A distance voice inside the house yells. It took a few more seconds till the door opened.
*Creak*
"Hello who is th-" Before the kid could finish their sentence, they suddenly saw my face and got a shocked expression. "Bwother Forrest!" Cindy shouts surprised. Smiling at her words I walk up to my middle sibling and carried her.
"You miss your big bro." I chuckle.
"Yeah! Yow my favowite bwodah besides Bwock!" Cindy says in excitement. Walking inside with Cindy in hand, I start to look around. In the living room, there were the rest of my siblings besides Brock.
I had 9 other siblings including Brock.
From Oldest to youngest it goes from Brock, me, Salvadore, Yolanda, Tommy, Cindy, Suzie, Timmy, Billy and Tilly which the latter two are twins. Quite the big family if I say so myself and that is the reason why Brock had such a hard time.
Imagine at the age of 15 you had to manage a gym every day, nine other siblings and constantly train your Pokemon to keep the title of a gym leader in the first place.
"Brother!" All my siblings shouted seeing me, looking at the charging children I curse inwardly.
"Everybody stay still, I got gifts!" I say trying to avoid the stampeding of a lifetime. All of them hearing this stopped right in their tracks and attacked me with {Baby-Doll Eyes}.
"Ohh mee first!" Timmy shouts which soon escalated to everybody else trying to one-up each other.
"No, it should be me!"
"Suzie you got gifts from mum yesterday!"
"Billy should get it first."
"What did you get me bwada?"
Hearing all this shouting I couldn't focus and started to block my ears. Thankfully though somebody after a little bit interrupted all of them.
"Everyone settle down!" A voice I recognize as my mother shouts. Everyone looking at the stairs sees mother pointing upwards with a haughty look. "Stop disturbing your brother and give him some space."
My siblings besides the two baby twins stopped making a racket and mother grabbed the twins to stop their little games.
"Let's eat first!" I hear mum announce. "You got something for me too right?" She whispers at the end making m skin crawl up. Nodding at her words she just hums in delight and heads to the kitchen.
The time at the new house wasn't too bad. I got a whole new room and shared it with my youngest brother Billy as he's now my responsibility. Brock did the same with the twins and I to raise me to be able to take care of the family when I got older.
As the time passed I was able to give everybody their own separate gifts and unpack all my new stuff in my room.
"I should check up on the gym." I murmur seeing the time on my Pokedex. It was still early in the afternoon and I had loads of time on my hand.
Exiting my room I spot Timmy, Tommy and Salvador's swinging around a toy bat and the other throwing a kids ball.
Billy and Tilly were in their crib sleeping
Cindy, Suzie, Yolanda were playing dolls and was having a good time. This was what usually happened at home as everyone could do anything that interested them.
"I'll see you guys later, I'm heading to the gym!" I tell my brothers as the others are too busy.
"Alright, when you come back you have to join us!" Salvador's says throwing a ball. Nodding at him I make my way outside of the house.
The walk to the gym was a bit farther due to the new walk paths introduced making the walk not just a straight line.
There were rocky cliffs and large boulders surrounding the octagonal gym. Looking around the huge walk path which kind of looked like the final pavement to a Pokemon victory road exit.
Multiple people were walking in and out of the gym with happy expressions.
"Dude did you see how huge Flint's Tyranitar was?"
"I wish I had a Larvitar."
"They say that Crystal Onix is owned by Forrest, the son of Flint!"
"I gotta post this on Pokebook! A Crystal Onix never before seen!"
"Flint should of stayed the gym leader. Brock couldn't even beat my Squirtle with a huge rock snake!"
Hearing some of the early comments I smiled but hearing the latter part, something in me snapped. My heart rate rapidly increase and unknown to me my eyes glinted a little bit of red.
"He fucking said wh-" I get intervened by a well timed escape by my Aron who felt my wavering emotions.
"ARON!" The Pokemon shouts using {Roar} not knowing the situation. Everyone in the immediate surroundings in front of the gym heard this and looked over at the commotion.
With this my heart beat started to turn back to normal leaving me completely flabbergasted on what just happened.
"Guys it's Forrest Harrison!" Some girl points out.
"He got his starter, he might go on his journey soon!"
"Hey do you plan on becoming the next gym leader?"
"Where did you get your starter from?"
"Can you show us your Crystal Onix?"
Random questions and comments started to be thrown around as I got surrounding by hoards of people curious on what's happening.
The situation looked a bit bleak so I stayed in the middle when a guy with a speaker and a camera crew entered the scene.
'You can't be serious right now.' I thought to myself. With this person getting in front of me, the crowd for some reason quieted down and listened in.
"Hello Forest, I'm a news reporter and am here to interview you!" The man says. Nodding I decided to leave the crowd after answering this man and satisfying their curiosity.
"So when did you get your starter, an Aron not the typical colour and size?" He asks. Scratching my chin I start to think on how to answer this.
"I got him at Hoenn from a family friend. He's a specially bred Aron who I received to be my starter." I explain not delving to deep into the topic.
"Alright! Now for a big question, do you plan on becoming the future gym leader of Pewter?"
Hearing the question I already had an answer in mind. It's something I though about since I've arrived to the Pokemon world.
"In short, yes. But first I want to explore the world and have fun first. Training and gyms will be a priority, but my current dream is to catch rare Pokemon." I announce. With my knowledge from cannon I'm able to gather an impressive collection of Pokemon just from the sheer amount of options I have.
This especially includes fossil Pokemon, a whole island dedicated to the Squirtle line, another island for the Dratini line, a city which houses a Latios and Latias and many many more.
I really had a lot of options and didn't need to rush my team choice.
"That's amazing, I bet you would make a good gym leader though!" The interviewer says making most of the crowd nod a long with his words. "Next question! Are you the proud owner of the Crystal Onix recently leaked by your dad in the training grounds?"
…
The interview went on for a few more minutes until one of the staff of the gym shooed everybody away and saved me.
"You're the bosses son, my names Clark a gym trainer!" He says raised his hand to shake mine. Seeing my savior introduce himself, I hold in my tears and shake his hand.
"Sup, I'm a gym trainer as well. Looking forward to working with you." I respond with a smirk. Clark seeing this returns the grin and challenges me to a battle later on.
"I got an Aron from becoming a gym trainer. So including my Charmander, I've already got my second Pokemon. I'm currently preparing for my own journey." He says. Hearing this I wonder why did dad get a batch of Aron's. I know it could be for the gym trainers but Clark said that there were heaps.
Speaking about Clark though, he has a good head over his shoulder and knows what he's doing.
Walking into the gym me and Clark got along quite fast and said bye to each other after my father called.
"The gym looks so well kept and high quality." I couldn't help but say seeing the floor and furniture giving the place a homey vibe.
<Dad Calling!>
~Hello Forrest, come to the training ground. Just ask the location from the guy in the registration. You're Pokedex acts like an ID already~
Flint says all at once. Keeping silent the whole time, I just absorb what he's saying and made a move on.
It didn't take too long before I was heading to the private grounds and entered through an automatic metal door.
"Very high tech ay~" I hear my dad say in joy as I entered the place.
"Yeah this place and the new house is amazing. How did you do it?" I asked curiously. Because you better bet if I could make a whole ass building like this in less than a week, then I'd make a villa somewhere in Unova.
"I payed a decent amount of money to Sabrina to fasten up the process with her power. You'd be surprised on how close all the gym leaders are." He says making me shiver.
'There ain't no way I'm gonna hire Sabrina to help me build a house.' I thought to myself remembering Sabrina from the anime.
She was creepy as hell first of all. Second of all she trapped her parents into a play doll house as a doll themselves.
Ain't no way I'm willing to communicate with that. Speaking of the gym leaders being close, why didn't Brock get noticed by the other gym leaders then?
"Speaking about the new place, why are there so many gym trainers and Pokemon now?"
"We need to elevate our standings in Kanto, so I went all out in making the gym better with our living space. This included getting enough gym trainers and Pokemon to do a gauntlet multiple times a day and a separate teams." Dad explains.
He proceeds to go on that he can't keep on battling challengers with his main team and either tiring his out to give a challenger an easy win, or completely demolish them.
Dad caught 10 Onix, 25 Geodude and bought 15 Aron.
"10 of the 25 Geodude will be given to gym trainers and as well as 5 of the 15 Aron's. I also got a special order of Geodude's from the league but I'm not sure when they're coming." Flint says while murmuring the last part to himself. Hearing all of this I just nod and walk to the training fields with Flint.
The rest of the afternoon was Flint explaining on the different types of changes he made to make it so he could stay with his family.
He made the gauntlet challenge compulsory to challenging for a gym badge depending on your badge count. The gauntlet was basically needing to battle a few gym trainers before the gym leader himself.
Looking over at the place, there were four large battlefields which three of them were occupied.
One field had Geodude's practising their {Rollout} attack, the other had Onix's using {Iron Tail} on each other while third had Aron's just roaming the place.
Each field was fenced off but I'm sure the Pokemon could escape, not like they would seeing that dads Tyranitar was watching over the place.
"I was waiting for you before training the Aron. I'm gonna train all of them together with yours to keep him safe for the family." Flint says with a reprimanding voice.
I knew what he meant though, he didn't want my Aron to hurt any of my siblings or family. Property damage was fine though.
"I guess I'll be spending most of my days till my journey here." I say with a smile. Dad hearing this just ruffles my hair and tells me to get a move on.
"Let's start by seeing his moves Forrest."
