Previously on Galarian Days...
Zander has looped back around to Motostoke and conquered their stadium, earning the Electric Badge, a.k.a. the last hurdle mid-southern Galar has to offer. However, Elle and Turner's hidden agenda still remains unclear...
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The next day, Zander left the inn, feeling refreshed and ready to continue his journey. "Good morning, Galar, and all who inhabit it. I'm ready to keep this badge train going, so you better watch out, other five Gym Leaders!"
"Wait!" "Hold up!" "Don't leave just yet!" three different voices called out, and Zander turned in their direction to see Annie, Selene and Raphael approach him with Butterfree, Trubbish and Manectric out and following.
"Huh? What's going on here?" Zander asked, surprised by this gathering of three Gym Leaders.
"Remember when I said that challengers usually give up when they get to me?" Raphael said as soon as the group caught up. "When that 'once in a blue moon' hangs on and beats me, though, the three of us gather together to personally send them off to the next half of the Gym Challenge to congradulate them!"
"And the reason why our Pokemon are out," Selene chimed in, "is so they can join in on the fun, and to let those Gym Challengers know that there's no hard feelings for beating them."
"So, everybody ready?" Annie asked as the Pokemon positioned themselves in front of their Trainers. "Here we go, one, two and-"
Butterfree then started fluttering and scattering glittering scales over Trubbish eating a Sitrus Berry while Manectric looked ready to lunge, and the three Gym Leaders sang a little song together.
"Oh, we represent the mid-southern branch,
The mid-southern branch, the mid-southern branch,
And in the name of the Pokemon League..."
As they hit their high note, Trubbish let out a Belch into the sparkles, and Manectric shot a Shock Wave into the resulting cloud, making it crackle and pop with bursts of colorful flashes.
"We wish to send you off, so best of luck!" the three Gym Leaders finished their song as they and their Pokemon took a bow for Zander.
"Wow! That was amazing!" Zander said, clapping his paws to applaud the little show he got. "Almost makes me wonder why such great Gym Leaders like you were stuck in the Minor League for so long!"
"Besides the others just being stronger?" Annie asked. "Oh, we all have our little misfittings that contribute to that. For me, it's a combination of age, race and gender profiling."
"I was just more interested in art," Selene said.
"Unchecked enthusiasm," Raphael threw in. "But enough about that! It's time for you to make your way to Hammerlocke so you can begin the next half of the Gym Challenge: the mid-northern branch!"
"Where you still have five more Gym Leaders to challenge and collect badges from," Selene added.
"And each one is more daunting than the last, like I said before," Annie finished.
"Cool," Zander remarked. "Welp, thanks for the show! I'm off to go get the rest of those badges now!"
The three Gym Leaders wave one last time as Zander left Motostoke and re-entered the Wild Area, but once he stepped into East Lake Axewell, he started feeling sensitive for some odd reason. "Whoa, ahh! Why am I suddenly feeling all tingly here?" Suddenly, a gutteral roar and a ghostly wail rang out together, making Zander wince in recoil. When he looked up, he saw a lavender-colored giant wraith floating around the Watchtower Ruins, and an orange giant ogre was with it. The wraith was wearing a translucent veil over its body, and lavender constructs of dark energy in the forms of antique objects were floating around it. With every construct that it threw, a burst of energy made everyone caught in it feel sensitive as Zander was. Meanwhile, the ogre was muscular, with veins popping up all over its vascular body. And every time it punched something, its muscles seemed to be getting bigger!
"Dynamiasmas working in tandem... and in the same spot," Zander said as his body still tingled, making every move he made feel everything. "Gah! If I can find something to make my weapons, I can stop them before it gets out of hand!" He then started looking around for something, and found some discarded Poke Toys: a stick with its feather missing, and a Mirror Ball gone flat. Zander limped towards the toys until he reached them, then bent down to pick them up in agony. "AAH!" Finally, his paws grabbed the toys, and they turned into his sword and shield in flashes of light. He raised his shield to put up the force field, and the tingling stopped! "Huh. Well, that works," Zander said, no longer inhibited by sensitivity. "Now to get rid of those two!" He shot himself towards the wraith and slammed the force field into it, crashing it into the tower and making it wail in torturous agony until it exploded into a massive cloud of lavender dust! Zander then swung his sword at the ogre to slash it multiple times, making it roar in pain until IT exploded into a massive cloud of orange dust!
With both Dynamiasmas destroyed, Zander felt the sensitivity disappear from his body entirely... but his weapons were still in his paws and didn't disappear like usual. "My weapons are still here?" Zander wondered. "Maybe there's another Dynamiasma around here somewhere?" He looked around, but didn't see anything unusual... then a thought came up. "The bridge!" Zander rushed down the hill to the bridge on the Motostoke Riverbank, and saw his suspicions were confirmed; a fog thicker than pea soup saturated Bridge Field and points north, much more than normal.
"Man, this is crazy!" Zander said, squinting to try and see through the fog. "But, if I were a gambling wolf, I'd say this is the doing of another Dynamiasma." Suddenly, the singing voice of a woman was heard, followed by a shout of "Snoooor!"
"Uh-oh! That sounds like a Snorlax in trouble!" Zander said, recognizing the second sound. "But how am I supposed to rescue the sleeping Pokemon if I can't even see past my own muzzle?" Zander then looked at his sword, and said, "Wait a minute... idea forming..." He then swung his sword at the fog, but he used the flat rather than the blade, and the fog was blown back a little. "It's working, but not enough," Zander said before trying to blow the fog away with his shield, which yielded better results!
"Alright! And now to find that Dynamiasma and rescue that Snorlax!" Zander said as he was fanning the fog away with his shield all the way to the Giant's Mirror, and with one last wave, Zander saw that this Dynamiasma was a giant pink goddess in a star-like dress summoning stars from the sky that made the fog thicker with each star, and some of those stars were being aimed at a Snorlax trying to defend itself by dodging, but a star managed to clip it once or twice.
"Hey, lady!" Zander shouted, getting the goddess's attention. "I'd say 'Why don't you throw those at someone your own size,' but you already lost two chances to do that!" The goddess responded with more stars at Zander, but the force field was raised, and Zander retaliated with another wave, blasting the force field at the goddess and temporarily stunning her.
"Whoa. Didn't know I could do that," Zander remarked, but then attacked the goddess with a swing of his sword, slashing it multiple times and making her sing in pain until she exploded in a massive cloud of pink dust!
Now that the Dynamiasma was destroyed, the fog cleared from the Wild Area, and Zander could see everything clearly again, even the Snorlax that was on its back, possibly resting from the harrowing experience it had. Zander then walked up to the Snorlax and softly said, "Hello? Are you okay?"
But all that Zander got in response was light breathing as Snorlax was out cold. "Huh. Seems okay to me," he said to himself, but still felt a little concerned for the large, sleeping Pokemon. "Still, I wish there was something I could do for it to help..."
Suddenly, Zander got an idea to try and catch Snorlax so he could take it to the Pokemon Center in Hammerlocke to get it healed up. He reasoned that he could use some more Pokemon to have on his team so he didn't end up like he did back in Motostoke. Plus, he had to admit, with its large body he could hug, and its docile nature that would let it, Snorlax was rather... cute.
"Tell you what, Snorlax, why don't you come with me on my journey? We could get you trained up so you wouldn't end up like you almost did, and on the off hours, we can do anything you want together, like sleeping, napping, snoozing... What do you say?"
Snorlax seemed to like the idea, or maybe it was dreaming something pleasant. Either way, it gave Zander a little smile and nodded.
Taking that as a yes, Zander took out a Great Ball and said, "Then it's settled! Great Ball, go!" then threw the ball at Snorlax, where it bounced off of its tummy, opened and swallowed it in red light. Once the light was absorbed, the ball closed and landed on the ground, where it wobbled around for 10 seconds until the "thoomp" was heard, saying the capture was successfully completed. Deciding to give his new partner a nickname, Zander picked up the ball and said, "Welcome to the team... Serta."
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