“If it wouldn’t trouble you, woman, I’d like the information on the person who checked out the book containing valuable information about Regigigas last night,” Brandon requested to an unfortunate librarian. By the time he had finished conversing with Byron, he went to the infirmary to check on Paul, only to find that he had already left the vicinity to board a boat that had already left to take him to Veilstone City on a different route entirely. While slightly frustrated, he took comfort in the fact knowing that he and his son were both headed for the same place ultimately, just as soon as Brandon extracted information out of this girl.
The girl, looking horribly frightened, shook her head after a moment of hesitation. “I-I’m sorry, sir, but that information is confidential for safety reasons. You’ll simply have to wait until the book is returned next week…”
“NO.”
Brandon’s routine elicited stares from nearly everyone present in the library. The girl shivered and stepped back, only opening her eyes to remind him, “S-sir, we are in a library… I must ask you keep your voice down…”
To that, Brandon blinked and momentarily looked embarrassed at raising his voice in such a place. He sighed and shook his head. “My apologies, but my name is Brandon. I can do without the ‘sir’s and the like. Are you not aware of the Battle Frontier?”
“Brandon…” The young librarian looked down for a moment and pondered. “I do… and something seemed familiar. Then it hit her. “Ah…! You’re from the Kanto Battle Frontier! Pyramid King Brandon…?!”
Brandon nodded. “So you know my intentions are genuine. The book that was checked out was the only known book in the world with concrete information on Regigigas, which is a Pokémon I have been after for several months. How am I to be certain this person will return the book within a week? That book can’t possibly be one your visitors check out on a regular basis.”
“Actually, you do have a point there,” the librarian said as she scanned for previous check-outs of the book in question. “I wasn’t even aware we had this book until the boy asked for it last ni-.. oops.”
Brandon smirked. “So it was a boy who checked out the book. And it was you who allowed him to take it!”
The librarian sighed, knowing she was caught now. “Okay, yes, I did. The one who checked the book out is a frequent visitor here, so I don’t believe you have reason to worry about him withholding the book beyond its due date. He’s a very courteous young man.”
“A frequent visitor,” Brandon noted. “So he lives here?”
“Not at all,” the librarian said automatically. “He lives in Veilstone Ci- ah…! It’s too early to be interrogated like this! I’m breaking the code of honor!”
It was funny in a sad sort of way, Brandon thought, to fluster the librarian with the simplest of information-gathering techniques. “Veilstone City. A boy who lives in Veilstone City. Well, you know I am a man of honor, woman. I’m not going to harm that boy or anything, and I have an ill son to go see in the same vicinity. You might as well give me his name and physical description and save me the trouble.”
The librarian trembled. “But I…”
Brandon shook his head. “I’m going to find him sooner or later. The only damage you’ll do to yourself is by aggravating me by withholding the rest of the information, because there are other urgent matters I must tend to as soon as possible. The sooner you give me a physical description and a name, the sooner we can get this over with.”
Thankfully for Brandon, this librarian was very young and insecure, especially in the presence of someone like a Frontier Brain. After a pitiful cry, she conceded, though lowered her face to hide her shame. “Th-the boy’s name is Conway. He has dark green hair and glasses… i-is that satisfactory for you… Brandon…?”
He took the details into consideration. “A young man named Conway from Veilstone City, green hair with glasses…” Then he suddenly froze as he remembered something that Byron had told him earlier that morning:
Byron scratched his head uncomfortably. “Uh… funny you should say that, bud… see, I actually fought Paul in a Gym Battle just yesterday.”
That certainly got Brandon’s attention. “You did…?” He then looked stern. “What was the outcome?”
“He had a green-haired little Four-Eyes with him at the time, yeah… so anyway…”
Brandon’s expressions turned grim. Would it have been a simple coincidence that Paul had been accompanied by some other green-haired fellow in glasses? But since when did Paul take on followers in the first place? Something wasn’t adding up. Brandon wondered why he didn’t catch that oddity and inquire about it in the first place.
He certainly had something to ask Byron the second he would return to the Gym to see if his old friend had rented his boat yet.
“That will do fine,” Brandon finally said to the librarian. “I appreciate your help.” He wasted no time leaving the library as soon as possible and headed straight to Byron’s Gym. It all started coming together for him… if Conway was an associate of Paul’s, it would make perfect sense why the Regigigas book was checked out.
It prevented him from getting access to it: just as he feared. He hoped this was still all just a coincidence, however. He’d get some quick answers from Byron soon before receiving his rented boat to cross the rivers of Sinnoh in hot pursuit of Veilstone City, now for more than just one reason.
While Brandon learned the hard way about how the routes of Sinnoh had changed the river paths since he left the region, Conway and Paul were already well on their way to the Valor Lakefront. As Paul slept throughout the morning, Conway decided to go through the Regigigas book for him and write down the important details he found relevant. He had no idea of what Paul’s intentions were yet, but a chunk of their week being out at sea would cut into the time Conway would have with the book before he’d start getting charged with those dreaded late fees.
It was almost evening again when Paul finally woke up, feeling slightly less horrible than before, but still not very good. Conway had taken a nap on his bed, roughly halfway through the Regigigas book with a stack of pages filled with abridged notes from the book itself. Paul couldn’t help but notice that Conway hadn’t as much as touched his own books yet. Regardless, after holding in a cough, he sat up, shoved himself out of bed, and scooted over to Conway’s side to grab the book and the notes.
Paul mainly looked at the notes Conway had taken, preferring his more direct and straightforward definitions and explanations, but did look to the book to see the sketches within it, which Conway’s simply couldn’t compare to. However quiet Paul tried to be, though, Conway could hear the shuffling of his papers and opened an eye to see Paul wide awake and scrutinizing his work.
“Oho… you certainly took your time getting out of bed,” Conway teased. “Have a nice sleep? You pretty much missed the whole day, and it was actually nice out today.”
Paul only grunted at that as he continued to read Conway’s findings. “Yes, I see you’ve been enjoying the outdoors just by seeing all this paperwork, you hypocrite.”
“Aha, true…” Conway couldn’t argue. “I just didn’t expect you to spend the entire day sleeping. I have to have these books sent back within a week or else I’ll get charged late fees. Since we’re spending a chunk of said week on this ship, we have to make the most of our time, so I took the liberty of highlighting the important details of Regigigas for you… well, as far as I’ve read, anyway.”
Just then, Paul looked skeptical. “Actually, I never meant to return this particular book, Conway. I can pay you back for the late fees.”
“I-it’s more than that!” Conway insisted. “You’re seriously never returning that book to Canalave’s library? I never would have agreed to this if those were the terms! It isn’t just the staggering late fees, Paul! It’s my reputation! I’m one of their most faithful customers! What are they going to think of me if I just take one of their books and never return it? It’s not like they can order a replacement! That’s the only known book of its kind in this world! It has to go back eventually!”
“I have my reasons,” Paul said calmly. “Look, if it means that much to you, I’ll just make an account over there. Transfer the book in my name and the heat will be off of you. Will that make you feel better?”
“It most certainly will not!” Conway yelled, flailing. “I’ll have just aided a library criminal! My conscience will never let me live that kind of thing down!”
Paul glared, as his patience already wore thin by now. “Look, I-” He was cut off by another coughing fit. To this, Conway sighed and walked over to Paul’s belongings.
“Here, take your medicine,” Conway said, rolling his eyes. “One dosage twelve hours ago isn’t going to make that nasty cough of yours go away. Remember, you need to be relatively healthy by the time you see your brother.”
Conway gave Paul his cough syrup, which the latter took hesitantly. The thick, nasty liquid practically tasted like poison to him when he took it earlier that morning. His companion watched with amusement to see the medicine choked down in such a manner in desperation to not cause a huge scene.
“Taking it straight, Paul? You don’t need to prove your ‘toughness’ to me,” Conway assured as he stood up again. “I knew that much already the first time we met. I’m going to get a soda. Let me get you something to wash that down and you can explain yourself about why you don’t want to return the book, alright?”
It didn’t take long for Paul to accept the offer. “L-Lemonade,” he requested, trying his best not to regurgitate the medicine. “M-make it fast…”
Thankfully for Paul, it didn’t take Conway long to come back with the beverages – and he even brought in enough to last the two the rest of the night. After Paul was able to wash away the horrid flavor of medicine in his mouth, he finally (though reluctantly) filled Conway in on his family situation starting with the letter he received from his father. And surprisingly, Paul managed to vent out some frustrations and feelings of guilt he’d held in for a while after telling Conway the entire situation and why he did not want the book returned to the library and into the potential clutches of his father.
“… you said Reggie had a… ‘mental meltdown’, right…?” Paul asked Conway with great reluctance.
“That’s what Maylene told me,” Conway answered. “Either way, it sounds like he’s behaving abnormally and she didn’t tell me either way, but I somehow doubt it was directly related to him being struck by lightning. I’m guessing you’ve come to the same conclusion?”
Paul closed his eyes and nodded. “A lot of that depends on how he’s acting right now… Reggie acting abnormally could mean a lot of things. But if he were exhibiting traits opposite of his own during the training… hypothetically, acting strict, cold, cruel, ruthless…”
“Basically, he’d be acting like you and Brandon,” Conway pointed out.
That put off Paul for a moment, and he gave Conway a nasty glare before continuing. “Anyway… my point is, if he were acting like that, then yes, this might partially be my fault… and partially the old man’s as well for putting such an unreasonable time limit on him. My threat could have sent him over the edge… I only figure that much because Reggie’s the only one of the three of us who still cares about keeping the family together.”
“He really doesn’t sound like the big doofus you make him out to be,” Conway couldn’t help but notice. “It’s pretty selfless of him to be going out of his way to keep the three of you as a semi-functioning family. Kind of weird that he acts so different from you and Brandon, but…”
“If I had to guess, Reggie probably takes after our mother,” Paul assumed half-heartedly. “I can’t say for certain; I was too young to really know her before she passed on. But I’m pretty sure the old man shuns Reggie for emulating her. I always wondered if breeding was something Reggie really wanted to do, considering how far he’d come as a trainer before just… giving up after losing to the old man. I never could forgive him for that. That’s why I was so insistent that he should win against him this next time around… I thought that maybe…”
Conway frowned. “That threatening him would inspire him to work harder and make him strong enough to defeat your dad? Plausible theory, but it looks like Reggie might be a sensitive type. You’re going to have to leave your personality at the door when we see him at the hospital.”
“That goes without saying,” Paul mumbled. “But you understand why that book can’t go back to the library now, right? I got this book to buy Reggie some extra time to train, and I may have just set him way back now. For as long as the old man’s been trying to find Regigigas, eventually, he’s going to get sick of looking around in Kanto and he’ll start snooping around in other regions to find information. If he finds this book, it’s over for Reggie. He’s nowhere near ready to fight yet, especially after what’s happened now.”
“Who would’ve thought that you of all people could get someone in an emotional bind like this?” Conway grumbled, looking conflicted. “Our best route might actually be… to let your brother decide, though. This is his fate we’re playing around with here.”
“What, are you kidding?” Paul asked, looking at Conway as if he were crazy. “You said he’s mentally unstable. Regardless of how old he is, he can’t make decisions for himself right now until the doctors find out how to fix him.”
“Or we find out how to fix him,” Conway amended. “Maylene wouldn’t have called for you if she didn’t think she needed you. And since the three of you are about the loosest definition of a family there is, that’s saying a lot, Paul. I think your presence will make a big difference, and he’ll hopefully start acting a bit more like his old self again…” He cleared his throat purposely. “You might want to consider taking back that threat you threw at him the day he sent you that letter, hint-hint?”
Paul looked up at the ceiling and groaned. “I have a feeling I’m going to regret the fact that I told you all of this one day. But yes, I obviously have that in mind. I’ll do whatever’s necessary to get Reggie back into his right state of mind. He’s got more to lose than I do at this point.”
“Then are we agreed?” Conway asked, extending a hand to Paul. “We’ll leave the fate of the book up to Reggie?”
Paul stared at Conway’s hand for a few moments before shaking in an uncertain agreement. “Alright… I’ll leave it in his hands when we restore him back to his true self.”
Conway nodded and took the Regigigas book back from Paul. “In the meantime, let’s try and finish this thing off and absorb as much as we can before its fate is decided. Really, consider yourself lucky, Paul…”
After taking a sip of his lemonade, Paul whipped around to Conway and looked to him with a strange gesture. “Lucky? Why did you just say that…?”
“All I know is… I wouldn’t mind having an older sibling that held as much love and respect for their family as yours does.”
There were a number of questions Paul had for that statement, but wisely decided not to use any of them and went back to consuming his lemonade.
The next three days differed depending on the point of view. Brandon was confronted by several dead ends at the rivers where there previously weren’t any as he went through the rivers of Sinnoh to Canalave City, which greatly frustrated him, until he remembered he had a collection of Regi giants that could easily carry the boat to the next continuing river. He was more than a little angry when Byron admitted to him that he completely forgot the name of the green-haired, bespectacled companion of Paul’s because he was so attached to the name of “Four-Eyes” and only actually heard his name one single time – and that was before the mind-numbing battle – so Brandon still wasn’t sure if “Conway” was the one traveling with Paul or not. Still, he was determined to make it to Veilstone City before his youngest son, no matter what newfangled obstacle came in his way.
Paul and Conway, on the other hand, were almost entirely consumed in their reading during their trip at sea and on the bus ride. In ample time, they plowed through the Regigigas book and written out all of the relevant notes and details into Conway’s notebook for safe-keeping regardless of what would happen to the actual book. And while the progress was still slow, Paul was progressively getting better, dropping a degree or two in temperature each day until he was finally at 98.6 degrees after Conway measured his temperature at the Valor Lakefront. His coughing fits had mostly vanished, he was able to walk on his own without stumbling or staggering, and his throat was no longer sore. Conway had found it very peculiar of Paul to get himself nearly killed over a cold and then remain nearly incapacitated for four days, but by the time they finally reached Veilstone City, it seemed that Conway fulfilled his promise to Maylene after all and ensured that Paul would return to his hometown alive and healthy for the mental wellbeing of his brother.
The bus was kind enough to drop the boys right in front of the hospital, where they both looked up at the ominous building standing before them.
“Well, it was nice and sunny at Lake Valor, but it’s dreary as always over here, I see,” Conway observed. “Doesn’t really aid the imagery very well right now, does it?”
That remark elicited a curious stare from Paul. “What are you talking about?”
Conway innocently smiled to Paul and shrugged. “Just saying… it’s another dreary day in Veilstone City! And now we’re faced with this monster of a hospital with your mentally-unstable brother.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” Paul grumbled. “Let’s just get this over with.”
They entered the facility and immediately approached the front desk, where a Nurse Joy seemed to be writing something down. After Paul cleared his throat to get her attention, she hopped up a moment in surprise to see she had visitors.
“Oh…! My apologies; I didn’t see you,” she said. “Can I help you gentlemen?”
Paul frowned, immediately labeling her a flake of a receptionist and unworthy of her position. Regardless, he remained civil. “I’m here to see my brother, Reggie. He’s being cared for by the Gym Leader right now.”
Conway nodded. “And I’m his escort, Conway.”
“Oh, yes!” Nurse Joy said with a gasp. “You’re Paul… I should have recognized you at first. Oh, of course. Let me buzz in Maylene so she can escort you to where your brother is, alright? Please take a seat here in the lobby; this shouldn’t take long.”
As Nurse Joy went about her duties, the boys took a seat and sat with nothing but an uncomfortable silence between them until a young lady slightly older than them with short pink hair and athletic gear came from the hallway, looking elated to see Paul and Conway just down the opening.
“You made it!” She cried out in relief as she ran over to them. Slightly confused by her dramatic nature, the boys stood up to greet her. “Oh goodness, I’m so glad! I know it couldn’t be helped, but those four days felt like an eternity for me…”
Paul raised an eyebrow. “It’s been that bad?”
Maylene looked away, seeming distant. “It’s really something you should see for yourself, Paul. I can’t… possibly describe it well enough to do it justice. But we had no choice. Since he was so unstable and volatile, we had to keep him sedated until you arrived. I had the nurses remove the IV from him after I got the call, though, so he’ll be coming to shortly… I hope you can get him to calm down.”
The boys began to follow Maylene the way she came on the way to Reggie’s room. Maylene continue to explain the situation along the way.
“I’m really sorry I interrupted your journey for this, Paul,” Maylene apologized. “I probably wouldn’t have called if I knew there wasn’t anything you could do to help… still, I’m glad to see that you don’t look sick at all anymore.”
Paul looked taken aback that Maylene, the Gym Leader he made a fool out of in the past and completely broken the spirit of, was actually apologizing to him over something and expressing delight over him being healthy instead of ill (which after how he treated her, he assumed she thought he would’ve well deserved it), but simply shrugged it off. “No, it’s probably for the best that you called. It isn’t as if the League competition is coming anytime soon, and my brother’s notorious for being self-sacrificial when he doesn’t need to be.”
“I’m afraid that Reggie is gone right now,” Maylene forewarned. “So you’d better brace yourself.”
“How exactly am I supposed to get him back to normal again?” Paul asked, somewhat confused. “I’ve never actually witnessed Reggie act like anything outside of his ordinary, usual self.”
Maylene started to look fearful as she stopped at a door; the door that led to Reggie’s room. “Paul, I can’t tell you how. I just know I haven’t been able to do a thing to help him, and neither have his Pokémon… all of which have been injured as a result of the incident.”
“What, did they all get hit by lightning or something?” Conway asked. “Was it staccato lightning?”
“No, none of them were injured by the lightning,” Maylene clarified, shaking her head and motioned for the other two to lower their voices as they entered the room. “And Reggie’s behavior has nothing to do with the lightning, either. The Nurse thinks Reggie’s held in so much repressed stress over the years that… he just finally snapped. She’s already diagnosed him with borderline personality disorder, and he could have other things, too…”
Paul stopped short as soon as she said that. “They diagnosed by brother with a mental disorder?”
Reluctantly, Maylene nodded. “There could be other genuine things wrong with him, too, Paul. You didn’t let me finish. He had done some terrible things before he was struck by lightning. And when I mean terrible, I mean something along the lines of what you would do.”
“Along what Paul would do?” Conway echoed. “But if Reggie’s Pokémon weren’t injured by lightning, then you’re saying…” He was beginning to understand the severity of Reggie’s personality shift now.
Maylene lowered her head. “The wounds were all checked out. Aside from Infernape, Reggie’s Pokémon were ‘training’ against each other much more roughly than they normally should be. They’ve gotten a lot better over the past four days, but when they were brought in, they were all covered in bandages.” She looked up for a moment to glare at Paul. “See? That’s something along the lines of what you would do, isn’t it?”
Paul was briefly shocked to be called out like that, but closed his eyes and looked away. “How I train my Pokémon is none of your business, Maylene. Really, as pathetic a Gym Leader you are, I wouldn’t go around criticizing how other trainers raise their Pokémon.”
As Maylene glared, Conway grabbed Paul by the arm and took him aside, angrily whispering to him.
“Didn’t we agree that we’d ‘leave your personality at the door’?!” Conway reminded.
“That was for Reggie’s case,” Paul reminded. “We never agreed to anything about Maylene. And anyway, it’s only the truth. I’d know because I fought her not that long ago.”
Conway just smacked the side of his own head in frustration. “Oy vey, Paul. I guess you weren’t lying when you said you didn’t remember your mom. Only guys without mothers would go out of their way to treat women so disrespectfully!”
Maylene cleared her throat, getting the boys’ attention. “Ahem, boys? I’m standing right here. And I can still hear everything you’re saying.” She then smiled a little. “I appreciate your attempts to be courteous for Paul, Conway, but you’d have better luck carrying on a conversation with a brick wall.”
“Ah… sorry, Maylene,” Conway apologized, looking flustered. “He certainly has been a handful since I ran into him on the ship to Canalave City.”
“Well, don’t worry about his rudeness for my sake,” Maylene assured. “Paul may think he’d broken my fighting spirit after he beat me, but if that were the truth, I wouldn’t still be a Gym Leader right now. I owe it to Reggie and the others who revitalized my spirit, and life has been wonderful for me ever since. There’s nothing Paul could say to bring me down now; not even if be beat me again.”
Paul rolled his eyes. “Well, how wonderful for you. But I still see that you’re bitter.”
Maylene adamantly shook her head. “I’m not sore about the loss, Paul; I’m being serious when it comes to the details of Reggie’s incident. I haven’t even mentioned the most telling detail about the change in his attitude… well, the change that I hadn’t witnessed myself yet, anyway.”
“One you hadn’t witnessed yourself?” Conway wondered. “Oh, you mean Infernape’s case?”
“That’s right,” she affirmed. “While Reggie’s Pokémon had taken a significant beating in all-out brawling each other… Infernape’s case was different. Infernape’s opponent was Reggie himself… and according to Infernape, all of this was Reggie’s idea.”
That was enough to shut Paul up for a moment before he could gather his thoughts. “Wait… wait a second. You’re saying my brother organized what was essentially a bloodfest and called that training, and beat up his own Starter all before getting struck by lightning?”
By this point, they finally reached the bed where Reggie had been for four days. Paul tried his best to wall up any emotions that tried to escape from his face when he saw his brother, still in bandages and looking like a wreck, on the hospital bed.
“See for yourself,” Maylene said, pointing to Reggie’s hand, which was still completely wound up and bandaged. “He pretty much shattered his hand right there. When they analyzed it, the marks indicated that the injury was self-inflicted. He must have punched a rock on accident while trying to hit Infernape. And Infernape… Infernape ended up getting injured more severely than any of the others. But by this point, they’re all recovering well… even Reggie… right hand aside; he’s physically doing well considering what happened to him.”
“And that’s nothing short of amazing,” Conway remarked. “It took Paul almost the entire trip here just to recover from a cold. Reggie recovering from a lightning strike in a shorter period of time… he was either born lucky or he’s genetically resistant to instant death or something.” He couldn’t help but smirk at Paul. “Guess that means you got the short stick of the gene pool. Might want to stay indoors during lightning storms from now on.”
Paul replied by shoving Conway aside to sit at a chair next to Reggie to get a closer look at him. His brother currently looked peaceful, as the anesthesia was still in the process of wearing off; he would be regaining consciousness soon enough.
“When we brought Reggie here, he woke up and claimed that he was talking to his mother,” Maylene informed, sitting at a chair on the other side of the bed. Though Conway was displeased with the shove he just received, he took a seat next to Paul. “I assumed he was having a near-death experience and reliving past moments of his life, but he swore to me that he was… ‘presently’ talking to his mother, who urged him to not give in to dying and to move on, saying that the family needed him and whatnot…”
Paul looked up to Maylene, giving her an 'are you serious?' gesture, to which she sadly nodded. He then shook his head.
“It’s just near-death psycho-babble; what can you expect? He was hit by lightning,” Paul said. “Of course he’s going to be imagining deranged things like that.”
“That’s not the end of it, I’m afraid,” Maylene said regretfully. “And this part I’m sure is not psycho-babble. Reggie practically cried when he realized that the whole… talking-to-his-mother thing was just a dream. I tried to calm him down, telling him how happy we all were that he made it out alive and well… and that’s when he angrily snapped at me. He said that wasn’t the case. That not everyone was happy to see him alive and well… namely you and Brandon.”
Paul’s eyes snapped wide open when Maylene said that. Conway gasped at the same time, looking to Paul.
Maylene’s saddened expressions worsened as she witnessed the reactions. “That’s right… Reggie outright told me that he doesn’t believe either of you care about him anymore. He was highly upset that neither of you were here, and… it sounds like he really does believe that neither of you really love him because he feels like he’s the weakest link of the family. That’s when he started breaking anything he could find, and that necessitated the nurse to knock him out until I could get you to come here.” She took in a deep breath, feeling the pain all of them were going through at this time. “That’s why I think you’re the only one who can bring Reggie back to his usual, loving self, Paul. I don’t know how, but he wants you here with him. I really wish I knew how to get your dad in here too, but I can only do so much…”
After a moment of silence, Paul’s shoulders slumped. The expositional onslaught hurt more than he thought it would have. “This… this really is all my fault…” He said quietly.
Seeing Paul devastated like this made Maylene not want to ask Paul directly. Instead, she looked to Conway. “What’s he talking about…?”
Conway sighed. “We talked about this on the way to Lake Valor while we speculated what was actually wrong with Reggie since you weren’t too specific about it over the phone. Paul brought up the fact that Brandon sent them both a letter…”
“… Challenging them both to a battle,” Maylene finished. “I know that much already. I was going to look over Reggie’s place while he trained. Go on.”
“Ah, right, sorry,” Conway muttered, taking off his glasses tiredly and wiping the lenses as he continued on. “So Paul was in Floaroma Town at the time Reggie sent him a copy of that letter. He told me that he actually threatened Reggie this time around that if he failed to defeat Brandon, he’d see to it that he’d have Reggie disowned from the family. Furthermore, Paul didn’t want to receive any more calls from him unless Reggie had a Brave Symbol in his hand. So, Reggie was facing some rather weighted and risky odds that logically fit this little puzzle as to why he ‘snapped’, as you call it.”
Hearing this only made Maylene angry. She glared and looked straight at Paul, not caring that he was still reeling from the guilt. “Paul! How could you?!”
“I’m going to apologize and take it back,” Paul said stiffly, but could not bring himself to look at anyone but his brother just yet. “If I’d known it was going to end up like this, I never would’ve said that to him.”
“You never should’ve said it to him at all!!” Maylene argued. “That’s a horrible thing to say to someone who spent the majority of his childhood raising you in his mother’s place!”
Conway shook his head, putting his glasses back on. “Really, it’s a horrible thing to say to any relative. But what matters now is that Paul’s learned his lesson, and hopefully the apology’s good enough to get the old Reggie back, right?”
After considering that, Maylene calmed down and sighed. “You’re right… at least, I hope it’s enough. He’s brought up Brandon, though. I’m not sure if Paul alone can completely heal him. Even if Paul takes back what he said, Reggie’s still under a pressure-building time limit.”
“Well, Brandon is an element none of us have any control over. Nobody can contact him, et cetera. We don’t have the means to go all over Kanto hunting for him, so that’s something Reggie’s just going to have to… come to accept, wrong as it may be,” Conway reasoned.
“Huh…? Accept what…?”
A new voice entered the conversation, and all parties looked to the source: Reggie had finally woken up. He was still drowsy, but otherwise seemed fairly normal, but a little unaware of his surroundings.
“Reggie, you’re awake!” Maylene cried graciously.
Reggie smiled to Maylene, though his eyes remained halfway-closed. “Hey, Maylene… what’re you doing here?”
The smile on Maylene faded. “Reggie… do you remember where you are…? And what happened?”
Reggie scanned his surroundings in front of him. “Hospital…” He murmured. He took a moment to register what he could remember, then yelped in pain when he lifted his right arm to extend his fingers, only to find that he couldn’t and it hurt immensely when he tried to do so. With that jolt of pain, things were coming back to him more quickly now. The smile on Reggie’s face went away as well.
“I was struck by lightning… I remember now,” Reggie said quietly. “Infernape was backed up against a tree. I could feel it coming, and I knew what was going to happen… so I jumped and pushed Infernape out of the way-…” He paused. “Is Infernape…?!”
“Infernape’s fine,” Maylene assured. “And you look a lot better now than you did when you woke up last time.”
“Last time?” Reggie inquired. “What are you talking about?”
Maylene looked to the side. “The lightning-strike incident was four days ago, Reggie. You were awake briefly the first day, then knocked out for the rest.”
“… oh…” Reggie then looked depressed. “Well… even if Infernape did make it out alright, that doesn’t excuse what I did… and I suppose the doctors have had plenty of time to figure out what that was, right?”
Maylene nodded. “It wasn’t right, but it isn’t entirely your fault, Reggie. Either way, we all forgive you.”
Reggie blinked, looking confused. “What do you mean by ‘you all’…?”
“Try looking the other way, genius.”
Reggie looked around to see his younger brother trying his best to keep up his usual stance in spite of his depression and guilt over the situation. With just as much effort, Paul fought hard to keep the smile off his face when Reggie finally noticed him, but there were some feats even too difficult for Paul to perform. He gave his big brother a little wave from where he sat. “Hi, Reggie…”
“Paul…” Reggie was nearly speechless. He almost thought he was seeing things, but ended that thought when his brother (reluctantly) initiated a hug. With his one good arm, Reggie clung on tightly to him. “Paul, how did you…?!”
“Maylene let me know,” Paul responded, cutting Reggie off. “I had just finished earning my Mine Badge at the time, so… I only just now got here. I’m sorry you had to go this long with just Maylene for company.”
Maylene rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but smile at the scene. Conway too found this endearing, but felt the need to clear things up for Reggie’s sake.
“Actually, Reggie, he would’ve gotten here sooner if he hadn’t gotten sick right after the Gym Battle,” he mentioned. “I advised him numerous times to wait it out, but he simply pushed himself too far. Either way, yes, we were quite far away at the time of the incident, so it was going to take us a few days to get here either way. But fret not; I took good care of your brother for you and he appears to be in excellent health.”
Reggie looked closely to his brother and smiled in approval. “Looks like it, anyway!” Then he paused for a moment and looked to Conway while Paul moved away from his brother to scowl at his companion. “Wait a minute, who are you? You… kind of look familiar.”
Conway smirked. “Like any good big brother, I imagine you watched the Tag Battle tournament that was televised in Hearthome City a while ago. I battled against your brother in the finals.”
“And you lost,” Paul reminded him.
“Yes, yes, I lost, you won, and didn’t even want the prize either as I recall,” Conway muttered as he resumed his friendly gesture towards the friendlier brother and extended a hand towards him. “Name’s Conway.”
Reggie nodded and shook Conway’s hand. “Yeah, I definitely remember you now. You had the Heracross. You had some pretty neat strategies, as I recall. I’ve already met your partner from that competition, Dawn, as well.”
Maylene’s smile widened as she looked to Conway. “So we were talking about the same person that day! Dawn helped me regain my fighting spirit!”
Again, Reggie was confused. “What…?”
Simultaneously, Maylene and Conway sung out, “No need to worry…!” That was the breaking point for Paul.
“Can we stop talking about the stupid girl for one second?!” Paul cried out. “This is a serious issue here and you’re all pretending it isn’t there!”
“O-oops, got caught up in the moment,” Maylene mumbled as she returned to her seat. “Sorry.”
“Excuse me, mister smiley-face-who-jumps-up-and-hugs-his-brother. You’re lucky I don’t have a camera, or that would’ve been awesome blackmail to use against you to aid, say, Ash,” Conway muttered as he returned to his seat.
Reggie looked to his broken right hand again, thinking back to what he did four days ago. What he’d done in the hospital hadn’t even come to mind, or perhaps even slipped his mind completely. “It’s true that this is serious… I let things get too far. I let the pressure consume me to the point where I was willing to throw away all of my morals… and do anything to win.” He looked to Paul. “You were right all along. I don’t fit in this family.”
Paul stared at him, glaring harshly, before telling him in a low voice, “That is… without a doubt, Reggie, the stupidest thing that’s ever come out of your mouth. Don’t you dare ever say that again.”
Of course, Reggie remembered their last video conversation and was therefore confused. “But you said…”
“What I said was wrong,” Paul assured. “I never should have threatened you the way I did, because this is exactly where it ended up putting you: in a hospital. I almost lost you, and if I had known that ahead of time, I never would have said any of that, so…” Paul took a deep breath and sighed before finishing his apology. “I’m officially retracting all the threats I made in regards to the challenges the old man made out to us. You’re not the weak link in our family, and you can bug me on the phone whenever you want; I don’t care.”
Reggie smiled, but somehow couldn’t believe it. “I feel like you’re letting me off too easily…”
“Letting you off too easy would be getting you out of the old man’s challenge completely,” Paul corrected. “You’re nowhere near ready for it and this is going to set you back. Thankfully for you, Conway and I pulled some strings to buy you all the extra time you need.”
Maylene blinked. “What are you talking about? What did you guys do?”
Paul gestured towards his traveling partner. “Show them, Conway.”
“With pleasure!” Conway reached down into his bag and pulled out none other than Legends of Sinnoh – the God among the Regi Trio for Reggie and Maylene to see. “Behold, my friends: the only book on Regigigas in Canalave City’s library, in Sinnoh, and in the entire world… not to mention the only copy.”
Maylene and Reggie gasped simultaneously, speechless initially.
Paul smirked. “Yeah, I thought you might like that.”
While Maylene continued gaping, Reggie suddenly regarded the situation seriously. “So you did this on purpose… you knew I’d have to battle once dad found Regigigas, so you’re trying to give me as much time as possible to train by taking the only book that has information on Regigigas’ whereabouts and keeping it out of dad’s hands.”
The smirk faded away from Paul’s face. “You see a problem with this?”
“Well… dad’s letter said to report all information on Regigigas straight to him if we find any, remember?” Reggie reminded him. “Withholding the information would be dishonest.”
Now Paul was frowning. “So after all I did to ensure that you could have time to battle the old man in a relatively fair fight, you want to throw all of that away to abide by his clearly lop-sided and unfair rules and lose again?”
“That’s not what I meant!” Reggie insisted, looking uneasy. “I appreciate this, Paul; really, I do, but…”
“But you don’t accept it?” Paul assumed.
Reggie wasn’t quite sure yet, actually. “Well, don’t make it so black and white. I mean, I haven’t even gotten out of the hospital yet, and…”
“It’s a fairly easy question to answer, Reggie!” Paul said, demanding in tone. “Now answer it.”
Before he could, Maylene interfered. “I think what Reggie’s trying to say is that he’s not sure how he feels about how he’s going to go about his training from here on out yet,” she tried to reason. “Give him some time. Let him recover first.”
“Yeah, about that…” Conway said with a tone of lingering. “I checked out that book and it’s due in three days. Paul and I agreed to leave the fate of the book up to Reggie before we got here. I really don’t want to be charged late fees, so after the three days, I’m shipping it back to the library.”
“We have read through the book already, however,” Paul noted. “Even it can’t seem to pinpoint a specific location, but it strongly hints that Regigigas is located somewhere around the outskirts of Snowpoint City.”
“Here?!” Maylene exclaimed. “In Sinnoh?!”
“That’ll certainly make it difficult for dad to get Regigigas, then,” Reggie mused. “He’s stuck all the way over on the Kanto region. Being a Frontier Brain is a pretty big deal, so I don’t think he can really leave Kanto unless it’s a big deal… and I’m not sure if they’ll let him leave for Regigigas. I mean, he didn’t need to leave Kanto for the other three, as I recall.”
“Exactly,” said Paul. “So really, why torture the old man by even dangling it over his head? I’ll check out the situation myself since I’m heading up to Snowpoint City anyway for my next Gym Battle, but Reggie… I implore you not to give the old man the book if you know what’s good for you.”
Conway looked slightly guilty. “I hate to pressure you, really, but for Paul, this is an awfully nice gesture, don’t you think?”
Reggie looked to the book and sighed. He wanted to do the right thing, but… he really wanted to win and bring his family back together, too. And he wasn’t a fool; he knew it would hardly be fair going up against a man who would have three – make that four Legendary Pokémon on his team while he would have none.
He looked to Maylene, then Conway, and then a very expectant Paul. With a conceding sigh, Reggie hung his head down. “Alright, I won’t give the book to dad. Thank you, Paul… you just took a great deal of weight off my shoulders.”
“Well, that doesn’t give you an excuse to be lazy,” Paul reminded him. “You’re still going to have to work yourself to death almost every day just to have a shred of hope of ever getting that Brave Symbol; you’re that out of practice. Your old methods aren’t going to cut it this time; I hope you know that.”
“Of course I know that,” Reggie grumbled, frowning. “Why else would I end up here? My usual training regimen doesn’t land me in a hospital. I just panicked and lost all sense of who I really was for a moment there… I’m going to have to do a bit of soul-searching to find out what the right way to train is.”
Paul was about to open his mouth, but Reggie was quick to shut it by interrupting him. “And you of all people do not need to be giving me suggestions on how to train, Paul. If I recall correctly, you haven’t beaten him yet, either.”
“Fine, I’ve done more than enough for you anyway,” Paul said snidely, looking away.
Suddenly, Conway snapped his fingers, surprising everyone. “A-ha! I got it!”
“Got what…?” Reggie asked quietly.
The lenses of Conway’s glasses lit up as he grinned and looked directly at Maylene, which made her fearful for a moment. “The perfect plan; that’s what I got. I became inspired after refereeing Paul’s match with Byron. See, I’m kind of like a Pokémon Freelancer. I like to dabble in a bit of everything, but I spend more time reading up and studying the material than actually practicing it. But I’ve decided now that this is the best time to try out my first official Gym Battle! And I would like you to be my first opponent, Maylene!”
“M-me…?” She said with disbelief, but then she smiled. “Well, I suppose I don’t see why not. You know, this is exactly how Dawn got me back into my groove…”
Conway laughed out, in pure rapture to have another thing in common with Dawn. “No way…! That’s way too good to be true…!”
Maylene nodded. “It is true. Instead of helping me, I suppose you’d like to battle me for Reggie to watch so he can get an idea of how he can train, though?”
“Ah, yes, that’s about what I had in mind!” Conway affirmed. “We should inspire Reggie with our own battling techniques to help him find his own new way to battle and train. With any luck, he’ll find the successful path he’s been looking for all this time and it won’t be one that’s too intense and Paul-esque.”
Paul grunted. “I’m sitting here right next to you, you know.”
Conway just smiled. “Yeah, I know.”
“My Gym is closed for renovations, unfortunately,” Maylene informed the boys. “But Reggie said I could use his backyard to take on challengers whenever I wanted. So when we get Reggie out of the hospital, I’ll see that we schedule a battle as soon as possible.”
Reggie yawned. “Why not today? Seriously, the only thing physically wrong with me is my hand. I don’t think I need to stay in a hospital for that. The other Pokémon are okay, aren’t they…?”
“They’ve healed up just fine,” Maylene assured. “Every one of them, and they’ve all forgiven you, so don’t worry yourself about that. I’ll go see a nurse and see about how soon we can get you out of here, alright?”
Maylene waved to the others and almost made it out of Reggie’s room until she collided into another person who came into the room just then and fell onto the floor.
“Oh…! Oh my!” Maylene flailed and looked around the floor for anything that was dropped or spilled. “I’m so sorry, Nurse Joy! That was totally my fault! I should’ve been watching where I was goi-”
“NO.”
The girl, looking horribly frightened, shook her head after a moment of hesitation. “I-I’m sorry, sir, but that information is confidential for safety reasons. You’ll simply have to wait until the book is returned next week…”
“NO.”
Brandon’s routine elicited stares from nearly everyone present in the library. The girl shivered and stepped back, only opening her eyes to remind him, “S-sir, we are in a library… I must ask you keep your voice down…”
To that, Brandon blinked and momentarily looked embarrassed at raising his voice in such a place. He sighed and shook his head. “My apologies, but my name is Brandon. I can do without the ‘sir’s and the like. Are you not aware of the Battle Frontier?”
“Brandon…” The young librarian looked down for a moment and pondered. “I do… and something seemed familiar. Then it hit her. “Ah…! You’re from the Kanto Battle Frontier! Pyramid King Brandon…?!”
Brandon nodded. “So you know my intentions are genuine. The book that was checked out was the only known book in the world with concrete information on Regigigas, which is a Pokémon I have been after for several months. How am I to be certain this person will return the book within a week? That book can’t possibly be one your visitors check out on a regular basis.”
“Actually, you do have a point there,” the librarian said as she scanned for previous check-outs of the book in question. “I wasn’t even aware we had this book until the boy asked for it last ni-.. oops.”
Brandon smirked. “So it was a boy who checked out the book. And it was you who allowed him to take it!”
The librarian sighed, knowing she was caught now. “Okay, yes, I did. The one who checked the book out is a frequent visitor here, so I don’t believe you have reason to worry about him withholding the book beyond its due date. He’s a very courteous young man.”
“A frequent visitor,” Brandon noted. “So he lives here?”
“Not at all,” the librarian said automatically. “He lives in Veilstone Ci- ah…! It’s too early to be interrogated like this! I’m breaking the code of honor!”
It was funny in a sad sort of way, Brandon thought, to fluster the librarian with the simplest of information-gathering techniques. “Veilstone City. A boy who lives in Veilstone City. Well, you know I am a man of honor, woman. I’m not going to harm that boy or anything, and I have an ill son to go see in the same vicinity. You might as well give me his name and physical description and save me the trouble.”
The librarian trembled. “But I…”
Brandon shook his head. “I’m going to find him sooner or later. The only damage you’ll do to yourself is by aggravating me by withholding the rest of the information, because there are other urgent matters I must tend to as soon as possible. The sooner you give me a physical description and a name, the sooner we can get this over with.”
Thankfully for Brandon, this librarian was very young and insecure, especially in the presence of someone like a Frontier Brain. After a pitiful cry, she conceded, though lowered her face to hide her shame. “Th-the boy’s name is Conway. He has dark green hair and glasses… i-is that satisfactory for you… Brandon…?”
He took the details into consideration. “A young man named Conway from Veilstone City, green hair with glasses…” Then he suddenly froze as he remembered something that Byron had told him earlier that morning:
Byron scratched his head uncomfortably. “Uh… funny you should say that, bud… see, I actually fought Paul in a Gym Battle just yesterday.”
That certainly got Brandon’s attention. “You did…?” He then looked stern. “What was the outcome?”
“He had a green-haired little Four-Eyes with him at the time, yeah… so anyway…”
Brandon’s expressions turned grim. Would it have been a simple coincidence that Paul had been accompanied by some other green-haired fellow in glasses? But since when did Paul take on followers in the first place? Something wasn’t adding up. Brandon wondered why he didn’t catch that oddity and inquire about it in the first place.
He certainly had something to ask Byron the second he would return to the Gym to see if his old friend had rented his boat yet.
“That will do fine,” Brandon finally said to the librarian. “I appreciate your help.” He wasted no time leaving the library as soon as possible and headed straight to Byron’s Gym. It all started coming together for him… if Conway was an associate of Paul’s, it would make perfect sense why the Regigigas book was checked out.
It prevented him from getting access to it: just as he feared. He hoped this was still all just a coincidence, however. He’d get some quick answers from Byron soon before receiving his rented boat to cross the rivers of Sinnoh in hot pursuit of Veilstone City, now for more than just one reason.
While Brandon learned the hard way about how the routes of Sinnoh had changed the river paths since he left the region, Conway and Paul were already well on their way to the Valor Lakefront. As Paul slept throughout the morning, Conway decided to go through the Regigigas book for him and write down the important details he found relevant. He had no idea of what Paul’s intentions were yet, but a chunk of their week being out at sea would cut into the time Conway would have with the book before he’d start getting charged with those dreaded late fees.
It was almost evening again when Paul finally woke up, feeling slightly less horrible than before, but still not very good. Conway had taken a nap on his bed, roughly halfway through the Regigigas book with a stack of pages filled with abridged notes from the book itself. Paul couldn’t help but notice that Conway hadn’t as much as touched his own books yet. Regardless, after holding in a cough, he sat up, shoved himself out of bed, and scooted over to Conway’s side to grab the book and the notes.
Paul mainly looked at the notes Conway had taken, preferring his more direct and straightforward definitions and explanations, but did look to the book to see the sketches within it, which Conway’s simply couldn’t compare to. However quiet Paul tried to be, though, Conway could hear the shuffling of his papers and opened an eye to see Paul wide awake and scrutinizing his work.
“Oho… you certainly took your time getting out of bed,” Conway teased. “Have a nice sleep? You pretty much missed the whole day, and it was actually nice out today.”
Paul only grunted at that as he continued to read Conway’s findings. “Yes, I see you’ve been enjoying the outdoors just by seeing all this paperwork, you hypocrite.”
“Aha, true…” Conway couldn’t argue. “I just didn’t expect you to spend the entire day sleeping. I have to have these books sent back within a week or else I’ll get charged late fees. Since we’re spending a chunk of said week on this ship, we have to make the most of our time, so I took the liberty of highlighting the important details of Regigigas for you… well, as far as I’ve read, anyway.”
Just then, Paul looked skeptical. “Actually, I never meant to return this particular book, Conway. I can pay you back for the late fees.”
“I-it’s more than that!” Conway insisted. “You’re seriously never returning that book to Canalave’s library? I never would have agreed to this if those were the terms! It isn’t just the staggering late fees, Paul! It’s my reputation! I’m one of their most faithful customers! What are they going to think of me if I just take one of their books and never return it? It’s not like they can order a replacement! That’s the only known book of its kind in this world! It has to go back eventually!”
“I have my reasons,” Paul said calmly. “Look, if it means that much to you, I’ll just make an account over there. Transfer the book in my name and the heat will be off of you. Will that make you feel better?”
“It most certainly will not!” Conway yelled, flailing. “I’ll have just aided a library criminal! My conscience will never let me live that kind of thing down!”
Paul glared, as his patience already wore thin by now. “Look, I-” He was cut off by another coughing fit. To this, Conway sighed and walked over to Paul’s belongings.
“Here, take your medicine,” Conway said, rolling his eyes. “One dosage twelve hours ago isn’t going to make that nasty cough of yours go away. Remember, you need to be relatively healthy by the time you see your brother.”
Conway gave Paul his cough syrup, which the latter took hesitantly. The thick, nasty liquid practically tasted like poison to him when he took it earlier that morning. His companion watched with amusement to see the medicine choked down in such a manner in desperation to not cause a huge scene.
“Taking it straight, Paul? You don’t need to prove your ‘toughness’ to me,” Conway assured as he stood up again. “I knew that much already the first time we met. I’m going to get a soda. Let me get you something to wash that down and you can explain yourself about why you don’t want to return the book, alright?”
It didn’t take long for Paul to accept the offer. “L-Lemonade,” he requested, trying his best not to regurgitate the medicine. “M-make it fast…”
Thankfully for Paul, it didn’t take Conway long to come back with the beverages – and he even brought in enough to last the two the rest of the night. After Paul was able to wash away the horrid flavor of medicine in his mouth, he finally (though reluctantly) filled Conway in on his family situation starting with the letter he received from his father. And surprisingly, Paul managed to vent out some frustrations and feelings of guilt he’d held in for a while after telling Conway the entire situation and why he did not want the book returned to the library and into the potential clutches of his father.
“… you said Reggie had a… ‘mental meltdown’, right…?” Paul asked Conway with great reluctance.
“That’s what Maylene told me,” Conway answered. “Either way, it sounds like he’s behaving abnormally and she didn’t tell me either way, but I somehow doubt it was directly related to him being struck by lightning. I’m guessing you’ve come to the same conclusion?”
Paul closed his eyes and nodded. “A lot of that depends on how he’s acting right now… Reggie acting abnormally could mean a lot of things. But if he were exhibiting traits opposite of his own during the training… hypothetically, acting strict, cold, cruel, ruthless…”
“Basically, he’d be acting like you and Brandon,” Conway pointed out.
That put off Paul for a moment, and he gave Conway a nasty glare before continuing. “Anyway… my point is, if he were acting like that, then yes, this might partially be my fault… and partially the old man’s as well for putting such an unreasonable time limit on him. My threat could have sent him over the edge… I only figure that much because Reggie’s the only one of the three of us who still cares about keeping the family together.”
“He really doesn’t sound like the big doofus you make him out to be,” Conway couldn’t help but notice. “It’s pretty selfless of him to be going out of his way to keep the three of you as a semi-functioning family. Kind of weird that he acts so different from you and Brandon, but…”
“If I had to guess, Reggie probably takes after our mother,” Paul assumed half-heartedly. “I can’t say for certain; I was too young to really know her before she passed on. But I’m pretty sure the old man shuns Reggie for emulating her. I always wondered if breeding was something Reggie really wanted to do, considering how far he’d come as a trainer before just… giving up after losing to the old man. I never could forgive him for that. That’s why I was so insistent that he should win against him this next time around… I thought that maybe…”
Conway frowned. “That threatening him would inspire him to work harder and make him strong enough to defeat your dad? Plausible theory, but it looks like Reggie might be a sensitive type. You’re going to have to leave your personality at the door when we see him at the hospital.”
“That goes without saying,” Paul mumbled. “But you understand why that book can’t go back to the library now, right? I got this book to buy Reggie some extra time to train, and I may have just set him way back now. For as long as the old man’s been trying to find Regigigas, eventually, he’s going to get sick of looking around in Kanto and he’ll start snooping around in other regions to find information. If he finds this book, it’s over for Reggie. He’s nowhere near ready to fight yet, especially after what’s happened now.”
“Who would’ve thought that you of all people could get someone in an emotional bind like this?” Conway grumbled, looking conflicted. “Our best route might actually be… to let your brother decide, though. This is his fate we’re playing around with here.”
“What, are you kidding?” Paul asked, looking at Conway as if he were crazy. “You said he’s mentally unstable. Regardless of how old he is, he can’t make decisions for himself right now until the doctors find out how to fix him.”
“Or we find out how to fix him,” Conway amended. “Maylene wouldn’t have called for you if she didn’t think she needed you. And since the three of you are about the loosest definition of a family there is, that’s saying a lot, Paul. I think your presence will make a big difference, and he’ll hopefully start acting a bit more like his old self again…” He cleared his throat purposely. “You might want to consider taking back that threat you threw at him the day he sent you that letter, hint-hint?”
Paul looked up at the ceiling and groaned. “I have a feeling I’m going to regret the fact that I told you all of this one day. But yes, I obviously have that in mind. I’ll do whatever’s necessary to get Reggie back into his right state of mind. He’s got more to lose than I do at this point.”
“Then are we agreed?” Conway asked, extending a hand to Paul. “We’ll leave the fate of the book up to Reggie?”
Paul stared at Conway’s hand for a few moments before shaking in an uncertain agreement. “Alright… I’ll leave it in his hands when we restore him back to his true self.”
Conway nodded and took the Regigigas book back from Paul. “In the meantime, let’s try and finish this thing off and absorb as much as we can before its fate is decided. Really, consider yourself lucky, Paul…”
After taking a sip of his lemonade, Paul whipped around to Conway and looked to him with a strange gesture. “Lucky? Why did you just say that…?”
“All I know is… I wouldn’t mind having an older sibling that held as much love and respect for their family as yours does.”
There were a number of questions Paul had for that statement, but wisely decided not to use any of them and went back to consuming his lemonade.
The next three days differed depending on the point of view. Brandon was confronted by several dead ends at the rivers where there previously weren’t any as he went through the rivers of Sinnoh to Canalave City, which greatly frustrated him, until he remembered he had a collection of Regi giants that could easily carry the boat to the next continuing river. He was more than a little angry when Byron admitted to him that he completely forgot the name of the green-haired, bespectacled companion of Paul’s because he was so attached to the name of “Four-Eyes” and only actually heard his name one single time – and that was before the mind-numbing battle – so Brandon still wasn’t sure if “Conway” was the one traveling with Paul or not. Still, he was determined to make it to Veilstone City before his youngest son, no matter what newfangled obstacle came in his way.
Paul and Conway, on the other hand, were almost entirely consumed in their reading during their trip at sea and on the bus ride. In ample time, they plowed through the Regigigas book and written out all of the relevant notes and details into Conway’s notebook for safe-keeping regardless of what would happen to the actual book. And while the progress was still slow, Paul was progressively getting better, dropping a degree or two in temperature each day until he was finally at 98.6 degrees after Conway measured his temperature at the Valor Lakefront. His coughing fits had mostly vanished, he was able to walk on his own without stumbling or staggering, and his throat was no longer sore. Conway had found it very peculiar of Paul to get himself nearly killed over a cold and then remain nearly incapacitated for four days, but by the time they finally reached Veilstone City, it seemed that Conway fulfilled his promise to Maylene after all and ensured that Paul would return to his hometown alive and healthy for the mental wellbeing of his brother.
The bus was kind enough to drop the boys right in front of the hospital, where they both looked up at the ominous building standing before them.
“Well, it was nice and sunny at Lake Valor, but it’s dreary as always over here, I see,” Conway observed. “Doesn’t really aid the imagery very well right now, does it?”
That remark elicited a curious stare from Paul. “What are you talking about?”
Conway innocently smiled to Paul and shrugged. “Just saying… it’s another dreary day in Veilstone City! And now we’re faced with this monster of a hospital with your mentally-unstable brother.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” Paul grumbled. “Let’s just get this over with.”
They entered the facility and immediately approached the front desk, where a Nurse Joy seemed to be writing something down. After Paul cleared his throat to get her attention, she hopped up a moment in surprise to see she had visitors.
“Oh…! My apologies; I didn’t see you,” she said. “Can I help you gentlemen?”
Paul frowned, immediately labeling her a flake of a receptionist and unworthy of her position. Regardless, he remained civil. “I’m here to see my brother, Reggie. He’s being cared for by the Gym Leader right now.”
Conway nodded. “And I’m his escort, Conway.”
“Oh, yes!” Nurse Joy said with a gasp. “You’re Paul… I should have recognized you at first. Oh, of course. Let me buzz in Maylene so she can escort you to where your brother is, alright? Please take a seat here in the lobby; this shouldn’t take long.”
As Nurse Joy went about her duties, the boys took a seat and sat with nothing but an uncomfortable silence between them until a young lady slightly older than them with short pink hair and athletic gear came from the hallway, looking elated to see Paul and Conway just down the opening.
“You made it!” She cried out in relief as she ran over to them. Slightly confused by her dramatic nature, the boys stood up to greet her. “Oh goodness, I’m so glad! I know it couldn’t be helped, but those four days felt like an eternity for me…”
Paul raised an eyebrow. “It’s been that bad?”
Maylene looked away, seeming distant. “It’s really something you should see for yourself, Paul. I can’t… possibly describe it well enough to do it justice. But we had no choice. Since he was so unstable and volatile, we had to keep him sedated until you arrived. I had the nurses remove the IV from him after I got the call, though, so he’ll be coming to shortly… I hope you can get him to calm down.”
The boys began to follow Maylene the way she came on the way to Reggie’s room. Maylene continue to explain the situation along the way.
“I’m really sorry I interrupted your journey for this, Paul,” Maylene apologized. “I probably wouldn’t have called if I knew there wasn’t anything you could do to help… still, I’m glad to see that you don’t look sick at all anymore.”
Paul looked taken aback that Maylene, the Gym Leader he made a fool out of in the past and completely broken the spirit of, was actually apologizing to him over something and expressing delight over him being healthy instead of ill (which after how he treated her, he assumed she thought he would’ve well deserved it), but simply shrugged it off. “No, it’s probably for the best that you called. It isn’t as if the League competition is coming anytime soon, and my brother’s notorious for being self-sacrificial when he doesn’t need to be.”
“I’m afraid that Reggie is gone right now,” Maylene forewarned. “So you’d better brace yourself.”
“How exactly am I supposed to get him back to normal again?” Paul asked, somewhat confused. “I’ve never actually witnessed Reggie act like anything outside of his ordinary, usual self.”
Maylene started to look fearful as she stopped at a door; the door that led to Reggie’s room. “Paul, I can’t tell you how. I just know I haven’t been able to do a thing to help him, and neither have his Pokémon… all of which have been injured as a result of the incident.”
“What, did they all get hit by lightning or something?” Conway asked. “Was it staccato lightning?”
“No, none of them were injured by the lightning,” Maylene clarified, shaking her head and motioned for the other two to lower their voices as they entered the room. “And Reggie’s behavior has nothing to do with the lightning, either. The Nurse thinks Reggie’s held in so much repressed stress over the years that… he just finally snapped. She’s already diagnosed him with borderline personality disorder, and he could have other things, too…”
Paul stopped short as soon as she said that. “They diagnosed by brother with a mental disorder?”
Reluctantly, Maylene nodded. “There could be other genuine things wrong with him, too, Paul. You didn’t let me finish. He had done some terrible things before he was struck by lightning. And when I mean terrible, I mean something along the lines of what you would do.”
“Along what Paul would do?” Conway echoed. “But if Reggie’s Pokémon weren’t injured by lightning, then you’re saying…” He was beginning to understand the severity of Reggie’s personality shift now.
Maylene lowered her head. “The wounds were all checked out. Aside from Infernape, Reggie’s Pokémon were ‘training’ against each other much more roughly than they normally should be. They’ve gotten a lot better over the past four days, but when they were brought in, they were all covered in bandages.” She looked up for a moment to glare at Paul. “See? That’s something along the lines of what you would do, isn’t it?”
Paul was briefly shocked to be called out like that, but closed his eyes and looked away. “How I train my Pokémon is none of your business, Maylene. Really, as pathetic a Gym Leader you are, I wouldn’t go around criticizing how other trainers raise their Pokémon.”
As Maylene glared, Conway grabbed Paul by the arm and took him aside, angrily whispering to him.
“Didn’t we agree that we’d ‘leave your personality at the door’?!” Conway reminded.
“That was for Reggie’s case,” Paul reminded. “We never agreed to anything about Maylene. And anyway, it’s only the truth. I’d know because I fought her not that long ago.”
Conway just smacked the side of his own head in frustration. “Oy vey, Paul. I guess you weren’t lying when you said you didn’t remember your mom. Only guys without mothers would go out of their way to treat women so disrespectfully!”
Maylene cleared her throat, getting the boys’ attention. “Ahem, boys? I’m standing right here. And I can still hear everything you’re saying.” She then smiled a little. “I appreciate your attempts to be courteous for Paul, Conway, but you’d have better luck carrying on a conversation with a brick wall.”
“Ah… sorry, Maylene,” Conway apologized, looking flustered. “He certainly has been a handful since I ran into him on the ship to Canalave City.”
“Well, don’t worry about his rudeness for my sake,” Maylene assured. “Paul may think he’d broken my fighting spirit after he beat me, but if that were the truth, I wouldn’t still be a Gym Leader right now. I owe it to Reggie and the others who revitalized my spirit, and life has been wonderful for me ever since. There’s nothing Paul could say to bring me down now; not even if be beat me again.”
Paul rolled his eyes. “Well, how wonderful for you. But I still see that you’re bitter.”
Maylene adamantly shook her head. “I’m not sore about the loss, Paul; I’m being serious when it comes to the details of Reggie’s incident. I haven’t even mentioned the most telling detail about the change in his attitude… well, the change that I hadn’t witnessed myself yet, anyway.”
“One you hadn’t witnessed yourself?” Conway wondered. “Oh, you mean Infernape’s case?”
“That’s right,” she affirmed. “While Reggie’s Pokémon had taken a significant beating in all-out brawling each other… Infernape’s case was different. Infernape’s opponent was Reggie himself… and according to Infernape, all of this was Reggie’s idea.”
That was enough to shut Paul up for a moment before he could gather his thoughts. “Wait… wait a second. You’re saying my brother organized what was essentially a bloodfest and called that training, and beat up his own Starter all before getting struck by lightning?”
By this point, they finally reached the bed where Reggie had been for four days. Paul tried his best to wall up any emotions that tried to escape from his face when he saw his brother, still in bandages and looking like a wreck, on the hospital bed.
“See for yourself,” Maylene said, pointing to Reggie’s hand, which was still completely wound up and bandaged. “He pretty much shattered his hand right there. When they analyzed it, the marks indicated that the injury was self-inflicted. He must have punched a rock on accident while trying to hit Infernape. And Infernape… Infernape ended up getting injured more severely than any of the others. But by this point, they’re all recovering well… even Reggie… right hand aside; he’s physically doing well considering what happened to him.”
“And that’s nothing short of amazing,” Conway remarked. “It took Paul almost the entire trip here just to recover from a cold. Reggie recovering from a lightning strike in a shorter period of time… he was either born lucky or he’s genetically resistant to instant death or something.” He couldn’t help but smirk at Paul. “Guess that means you got the short stick of the gene pool. Might want to stay indoors during lightning storms from now on.”
Paul replied by shoving Conway aside to sit at a chair next to Reggie to get a closer look at him. His brother currently looked peaceful, as the anesthesia was still in the process of wearing off; he would be regaining consciousness soon enough.
“When we brought Reggie here, he woke up and claimed that he was talking to his mother,” Maylene informed, sitting at a chair on the other side of the bed. Though Conway was displeased with the shove he just received, he took a seat next to Paul. “I assumed he was having a near-death experience and reliving past moments of his life, but he swore to me that he was… ‘presently’ talking to his mother, who urged him to not give in to dying and to move on, saying that the family needed him and whatnot…”
Paul looked up to Maylene, giving her an 'are you serious?' gesture, to which she sadly nodded. He then shook his head.
“It’s just near-death psycho-babble; what can you expect? He was hit by lightning,” Paul said. “Of course he’s going to be imagining deranged things like that.”
“That’s not the end of it, I’m afraid,” Maylene said regretfully. “And this part I’m sure is not psycho-babble. Reggie practically cried when he realized that the whole… talking-to-his-mother thing was just a dream. I tried to calm him down, telling him how happy we all were that he made it out alive and well… and that’s when he angrily snapped at me. He said that wasn’t the case. That not everyone was happy to see him alive and well… namely you and Brandon.”
Paul’s eyes snapped wide open when Maylene said that. Conway gasped at the same time, looking to Paul.
Maylene’s saddened expressions worsened as she witnessed the reactions. “That’s right… Reggie outright told me that he doesn’t believe either of you care about him anymore. He was highly upset that neither of you were here, and… it sounds like he really does believe that neither of you really love him because he feels like he’s the weakest link of the family. That’s when he started breaking anything he could find, and that necessitated the nurse to knock him out until I could get you to come here.” She took in a deep breath, feeling the pain all of them were going through at this time. “That’s why I think you’re the only one who can bring Reggie back to his usual, loving self, Paul. I don’t know how, but he wants you here with him. I really wish I knew how to get your dad in here too, but I can only do so much…”
After a moment of silence, Paul’s shoulders slumped. The expositional onslaught hurt more than he thought it would have. “This… this really is all my fault…” He said quietly.
Seeing Paul devastated like this made Maylene not want to ask Paul directly. Instead, she looked to Conway. “What’s he talking about…?”
Conway sighed. “We talked about this on the way to Lake Valor while we speculated what was actually wrong with Reggie since you weren’t too specific about it over the phone. Paul brought up the fact that Brandon sent them both a letter…”
“… Challenging them both to a battle,” Maylene finished. “I know that much already. I was going to look over Reggie’s place while he trained. Go on.”
“Ah, right, sorry,” Conway muttered, taking off his glasses tiredly and wiping the lenses as he continued on. “So Paul was in Floaroma Town at the time Reggie sent him a copy of that letter. He told me that he actually threatened Reggie this time around that if he failed to defeat Brandon, he’d see to it that he’d have Reggie disowned from the family. Furthermore, Paul didn’t want to receive any more calls from him unless Reggie had a Brave Symbol in his hand. So, Reggie was facing some rather weighted and risky odds that logically fit this little puzzle as to why he ‘snapped’, as you call it.”
Hearing this only made Maylene angry. She glared and looked straight at Paul, not caring that he was still reeling from the guilt. “Paul! How could you?!”
“I’m going to apologize and take it back,” Paul said stiffly, but could not bring himself to look at anyone but his brother just yet. “If I’d known it was going to end up like this, I never would’ve said that to him.”
“You never should’ve said it to him at all!!” Maylene argued. “That’s a horrible thing to say to someone who spent the majority of his childhood raising you in his mother’s place!”
Conway shook his head, putting his glasses back on. “Really, it’s a horrible thing to say to any relative. But what matters now is that Paul’s learned his lesson, and hopefully the apology’s good enough to get the old Reggie back, right?”
After considering that, Maylene calmed down and sighed. “You’re right… at least, I hope it’s enough. He’s brought up Brandon, though. I’m not sure if Paul alone can completely heal him. Even if Paul takes back what he said, Reggie’s still under a pressure-building time limit.”
“Well, Brandon is an element none of us have any control over. Nobody can contact him, et cetera. We don’t have the means to go all over Kanto hunting for him, so that’s something Reggie’s just going to have to… come to accept, wrong as it may be,” Conway reasoned.
“Huh…? Accept what…?”
A new voice entered the conversation, and all parties looked to the source: Reggie had finally woken up. He was still drowsy, but otherwise seemed fairly normal, but a little unaware of his surroundings.
“Reggie, you’re awake!” Maylene cried graciously.
Reggie smiled to Maylene, though his eyes remained halfway-closed. “Hey, Maylene… what’re you doing here?”
The smile on Maylene faded. “Reggie… do you remember where you are…? And what happened?”
Reggie scanned his surroundings in front of him. “Hospital…” He murmured. He took a moment to register what he could remember, then yelped in pain when he lifted his right arm to extend his fingers, only to find that he couldn’t and it hurt immensely when he tried to do so. With that jolt of pain, things were coming back to him more quickly now. The smile on Reggie’s face went away as well.
“I was struck by lightning… I remember now,” Reggie said quietly. “Infernape was backed up against a tree. I could feel it coming, and I knew what was going to happen… so I jumped and pushed Infernape out of the way-…” He paused. “Is Infernape…?!”
“Infernape’s fine,” Maylene assured. “And you look a lot better now than you did when you woke up last time.”
“Last time?” Reggie inquired. “What are you talking about?”
Maylene looked to the side. “The lightning-strike incident was four days ago, Reggie. You were awake briefly the first day, then knocked out for the rest.”
“… oh…” Reggie then looked depressed. “Well… even if Infernape did make it out alright, that doesn’t excuse what I did… and I suppose the doctors have had plenty of time to figure out what that was, right?”
Maylene nodded. “It wasn’t right, but it isn’t entirely your fault, Reggie. Either way, we all forgive you.”
Reggie blinked, looking confused. “What do you mean by ‘you all’…?”
“Try looking the other way, genius.”
Reggie looked around to see his younger brother trying his best to keep up his usual stance in spite of his depression and guilt over the situation. With just as much effort, Paul fought hard to keep the smile off his face when Reggie finally noticed him, but there were some feats even too difficult for Paul to perform. He gave his big brother a little wave from where he sat. “Hi, Reggie…”
“Paul…” Reggie was nearly speechless. He almost thought he was seeing things, but ended that thought when his brother (reluctantly) initiated a hug. With his one good arm, Reggie clung on tightly to him. “Paul, how did you…?!”
“Maylene let me know,” Paul responded, cutting Reggie off. “I had just finished earning my Mine Badge at the time, so… I only just now got here. I’m sorry you had to go this long with just Maylene for company.”
Maylene rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but smile at the scene. Conway too found this endearing, but felt the need to clear things up for Reggie’s sake.
“Actually, Reggie, he would’ve gotten here sooner if he hadn’t gotten sick right after the Gym Battle,” he mentioned. “I advised him numerous times to wait it out, but he simply pushed himself too far. Either way, yes, we were quite far away at the time of the incident, so it was going to take us a few days to get here either way. But fret not; I took good care of your brother for you and he appears to be in excellent health.”
Reggie looked closely to his brother and smiled in approval. “Looks like it, anyway!” Then he paused for a moment and looked to Conway while Paul moved away from his brother to scowl at his companion. “Wait a minute, who are you? You… kind of look familiar.”
Conway smirked. “Like any good big brother, I imagine you watched the Tag Battle tournament that was televised in Hearthome City a while ago. I battled against your brother in the finals.”
“And you lost,” Paul reminded him.
“Yes, yes, I lost, you won, and didn’t even want the prize either as I recall,” Conway muttered as he resumed his friendly gesture towards the friendlier brother and extended a hand towards him. “Name’s Conway.”
Reggie nodded and shook Conway’s hand. “Yeah, I definitely remember you now. You had the Heracross. You had some pretty neat strategies, as I recall. I’ve already met your partner from that competition, Dawn, as well.”
Maylene’s smile widened as she looked to Conway. “So we were talking about the same person that day! Dawn helped me regain my fighting spirit!”
Again, Reggie was confused. “What…?”
Simultaneously, Maylene and Conway sung out, “No need to worry…!” That was the breaking point for Paul.
“Can we stop talking about the stupid girl for one second?!” Paul cried out. “This is a serious issue here and you’re all pretending it isn’t there!”
“O-oops, got caught up in the moment,” Maylene mumbled as she returned to her seat. “Sorry.”
“Excuse me, mister smiley-face-who-jumps-up-and-hugs-his-brother. You’re lucky I don’t have a camera, or that would’ve been awesome blackmail to use against you to aid, say, Ash,” Conway muttered as he returned to his seat.
Reggie looked to his broken right hand again, thinking back to what he did four days ago. What he’d done in the hospital hadn’t even come to mind, or perhaps even slipped his mind completely. “It’s true that this is serious… I let things get too far. I let the pressure consume me to the point where I was willing to throw away all of my morals… and do anything to win.” He looked to Paul. “You were right all along. I don’t fit in this family.”
Paul stared at him, glaring harshly, before telling him in a low voice, “That is… without a doubt, Reggie, the stupidest thing that’s ever come out of your mouth. Don’t you dare ever say that again.”
Of course, Reggie remembered their last video conversation and was therefore confused. “But you said…”
“What I said was wrong,” Paul assured. “I never should have threatened you the way I did, because this is exactly where it ended up putting you: in a hospital. I almost lost you, and if I had known that ahead of time, I never would have said any of that, so…” Paul took a deep breath and sighed before finishing his apology. “I’m officially retracting all the threats I made in regards to the challenges the old man made out to us. You’re not the weak link in our family, and you can bug me on the phone whenever you want; I don’t care.”
Reggie smiled, but somehow couldn’t believe it. “I feel like you’re letting me off too easily…”
“Letting you off too easy would be getting you out of the old man’s challenge completely,” Paul corrected. “You’re nowhere near ready for it and this is going to set you back. Thankfully for you, Conway and I pulled some strings to buy you all the extra time you need.”
Maylene blinked. “What are you talking about? What did you guys do?”
Paul gestured towards his traveling partner. “Show them, Conway.”
“With pleasure!” Conway reached down into his bag and pulled out none other than Legends of Sinnoh – the God among the Regi Trio for Reggie and Maylene to see. “Behold, my friends: the only book on Regigigas in Canalave City’s library, in Sinnoh, and in the entire world… not to mention the only copy.”
Maylene and Reggie gasped simultaneously, speechless initially.
Paul smirked. “Yeah, I thought you might like that.”
While Maylene continued gaping, Reggie suddenly regarded the situation seriously. “So you did this on purpose… you knew I’d have to battle once dad found Regigigas, so you’re trying to give me as much time as possible to train by taking the only book that has information on Regigigas’ whereabouts and keeping it out of dad’s hands.”
The smirk faded away from Paul’s face. “You see a problem with this?”
“Well… dad’s letter said to report all information on Regigigas straight to him if we find any, remember?” Reggie reminded him. “Withholding the information would be dishonest.”
Now Paul was frowning. “So after all I did to ensure that you could have time to battle the old man in a relatively fair fight, you want to throw all of that away to abide by his clearly lop-sided and unfair rules and lose again?”
“That’s not what I meant!” Reggie insisted, looking uneasy. “I appreciate this, Paul; really, I do, but…”
“But you don’t accept it?” Paul assumed.
Reggie wasn’t quite sure yet, actually. “Well, don’t make it so black and white. I mean, I haven’t even gotten out of the hospital yet, and…”
“It’s a fairly easy question to answer, Reggie!” Paul said, demanding in tone. “Now answer it.”
Before he could, Maylene interfered. “I think what Reggie’s trying to say is that he’s not sure how he feels about how he’s going to go about his training from here on out yet,” she tried to reason. “Give him some time. Let him recover first.”
“Yeah, about that…” Conway said with a tone of lingering. “I checked out that book and it’s due in three days. Paul and I agreed to leave the fate of the book up to Reggie before we got here. I really don’t want to be charged late fees, so after the three days, I’m shipping it back to the library.”
“We have read through the book already, however,” Paul noted. “Even it can’t seem to pinpoint a specific location, but it strongly hints that Regigigas is located somewhere around the outskirts of Snowpoint City.”
“Here?!” Maylene exclaimed. “In Sinnoh?!”
“That’ll certainly make it difficult for dad to get Regigigas, then,” Reggie mused. “He’s stuck all the way over on the Kanto region. Being a Frontier Brain is a pretty big deal, so I don’t think he can really leave Kanto unless it’s a big deal… and I’m not sure if they’ll let him leave for Regigigas. I mean, he didn’t need to leave Kanto for the other three, as I recall.”
“Exactly,” said Paul. “So really, why torture the old man by even dangling it over his head? I’ll check out the situation myself since I’m heading up to Snowpoint City anyway for my next Gym Battle, but Reggie… I implore you not to give the old man the book if you know what’s good for you.”
Conway looked slightly guilty. “I hate to pressure you, really, but for Paul, this is an awfully nice gesture, don’t you think?”
Reggie looked to the book and sighed. He wanted to do the right thing, but… he really wanted to win and bring his family back together, too. And he wasn’t a fool; he knew it would hardly be fair going up against a man who would have three – make that four Legendary Pokémon on his team while he would have none.
He looked to Maylene, then Conway, and then a very expectant Paul. With a conceding sigh, Reggie hung his head down. “Alright, I won’t give the book to dad. Thank you, Paul… you just took a great deal of weight off my shoulders.”
“Well, that doesn’t give you an excuse to be lazy,” Paul reminded him. “You’re still going to have to work yourself to death almost every day just to have a shred of hope of ever getting that Brave Symbol; you’re that out of practice. Your old methods aren’t going to cut it this time; I hope you know that.”
“Of course I know that,” Reggie grumbled, frowning. “Why else would I end up here? My usual training regimen doesn’t land me in a hospital. I just panicked and lost all sense of who I really was for a moment there… I’m going to have to do a bit of soul-searching to find out what the right way to train is.”
Paul was about to open his mouth, but Reggie was quick to shut it by interrupting him. “And you of all people do not need to be giving me suggestions on how to train, Paul. If I recall correctly, you haven’t beaten him yet, either.”
“Fine, I’ve done more than enough for you anyway,” Paul said snidely, looking away.
Suddenly, Conway snapped his fingers, surprising everyone. “A-ha! I got it!”
“Got what…?” Reggie asked quietly.
The lenses of Conway’s glasses lit up as he grinned and looked directly at Maylene, which made her fearful for a moment. “The perfect plan; that’s what I got. I became inspired after refereeing Paul’s match with Byron. See, I’m kind of like a Pokémon Freelancer. I like to dabble in a bit of everything, but I spend more time reading up and studying the material than actually practicing it. But I’ve decided now that this is the best time to try out my first official Gym Battle! And I would like you to be my first opponent, Maylene!”
“M-me…?” She said with disbelief, but then she smiled. “Well, I suppose I don’t see why not. You know, this is exactly how Dawn got me back into my groove…”
Conway laughed out, in pure rapture to have another thing in common with Dawn. “No way…! That’s way too good to be true…!”
Maylene nodded. “It is true. Instead of helping me, I suppose you’d like to battle me for Reggie to watch so he can get an idea of how he can train, though?”
“Ah, yes, that’s about what I had in mind!” Conway affirmed. “We should inspire Reggie with our own battling techniques to help him find his own new way to battle and train. With any luck, he’ll find the successful path he’s been looking for all this time and it won’t be one that’s too intense and Paul-esque.”
Paul grunted. “I’m sitting here right next to you, you know.”
Conway just smiled. “Yeah, I know.”
“My Gym is closed for renovations, unfortunately,” Maylene informed the boys. “But Reggie said I could use his backyard to take on challengers whenever I wanted. So when we get Reggie out of the hospital, I’ll see that we schedule a battle as soon as possible.”
Reggie yawned. “Why not today? Seriously, the only thing physically wrong with me is my hand. I don’t think I need to stay in a hospital for that. The other Pokémon are okay, aren’t they…?”
“They’ve healed up just fine,” Maylene assured. “Every one of them, and they’ve all forgiven you, so don’t worry yourself about that. I’ll go see a nurse and see about how soon we can get you out of here, alright?”
Maylene waved to the others and almost made it out of Reggie’s room until she collided into another person who came into the room just then and fell onto the floor.
“Oh…! Oh my!” Maylene flailed and looked around the floor for anything that was dropped or spilled. “I’m so sorry, Nurse Joy! That was totally my fault! I should’ve been watching where I was goi-”
“NO.”