Author's Note: I am back everyone , its been a while I had quite a lot of work and exams as well hence I had told before last week would have been difficult to write but now I am free at least relatively enough to start writing again. That said enjoy the chapter
Grey's POV
After a bit more walking the next day, we finally reached Heart Village.
The first thing I noticed about the place was just how quiet it was. After spending so much time in cities like Pewter and Celadon, where there were always people moving around, shops, trainers, vehicles and buildings everywhere, Heart Village felt almost like a completely different part of Kanto. There were grassy plains stretching out around the settlement and mountainous areas visible in the distance, while the buildings themselves were mostly simple two-floor houses. There wasn't a skyscraper or a massive complex anywhere in sight.
Honestly, it was kind of refreshing.
I walked around for a little while before eventually finding the Pokémon Center. I guess every settlement in Kanto was required to have one built, regardless of how small the place was, because even a village this quiet had its own Pokémon Center.
That said, this one was considerably smaller than the Centers I was used to seeing in major cities. There was barely any space inside, and when I entered, the only person I could see was Nurse Joy standing behind the counter.
"Welcome."
"Hi. I just arrived in town. Could you heal my Pokémon?"
Joy nodded and I handed over my Poké Balls. She took them toward the treatment area while I looked around the small Center. There weren't any other trainers around, which wasn't particularly surprising considering how late it was getting.
I also booked quarters for myself for the next few days. I had no intention of immediately heading out again after walking for two days, especially since I had arrived at Heart Village fairly late at night.
Once Joy finished taking care of my Pokémon, I went up to my room and decided to call it a day.
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The next morning arrived quietly.
Actually, quiet was probably the best way to describe Heart Village in general.
Even during the morning, there wasn't much activity around the streets. There were some villagers moving around and going about their daily routines, but compared to the cities I had visited during my journey, this place felt almost empty.
I headed back to Nurse Joy and collected my Pokémon before stepping outside to explore the village properly.
The roads were uneven in places, and the overall infrastructure was fairly basic, but the people themselves seemed quite friendly. Whenever I stopped to ask someone where I could find certain places, they were more than willing to point me in the right direction.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to point me toward.
I asked one of the locals what there was to visit around Heart Village.
The answer was basically...
"For example Nothing."
Okay.
That was blunt.
I suppose the place wasn't exactly designed as a tourist destination.
Still, I had come here for one reason.
The Gym Leader.
I approached another local and asked about the Gym Leader, mainly to make sure that I hadn't travelled all the way here only to discover that the village didn't actually have a functioning Gym.
Thankfully, the person confirmed that Heart Village did have a Gym Leader.
Thank god.
At least this trip wasn't a complete waste.
There was just one small problem.
There wasn't actually a Gym.
Apparently, the Gym Leader conducted official Gym battles out in the open rather than operating from a dedicated building.
That was... different.
I asked about the Gym Leader himself, and that's when I learned something even more interesting.
Apparently, the Gym Leader was some kind of archaeologist.
And unfortunately for me, he wasn't currently in the village.
He was out exploring the local ruins along with someone named Brandon.
I immediately stopped.
Brandon?
Wait.
They couldn't possibly mean...
"Pyramid King Brandon?"
The local looked slightly surprised that I knew the name.
I didn't bother explaining that I had recently heard about Brandon from Bill.
Instead, I tried to get some information about what type of Pokémon the Gym Leader used.
That was when the local looked even more confused.
"You came here specifically for a Gym battle?"
"Yeah."
"That's... unusual."
Apparently, most people who came to Heart Village weren't interested in Gym battles at all. They came here because of the archaeological excavation sites surrounding the village. Researchers and historians were apparently the main visitors, with very few regular trainers bothering to make the trip.
Still, the local was able to give me some information.
The Gym Leader didn't really specialise in one specific Pokémon type.
Instead, he apparently used Pokémon commonly associated with ruins and archaeological sites.
One Pokémon in particular came up during the conversation.
Claydol.
Apparently, it was one of the Pokémon the Gym Leader commonly used during his battles with trainers.
That immediately made things more interesting.
I had been hoping that the PokeNet would have some information about this Gym, but even after checking it, there wasn't much to work with. Minor Gyms weren't exactly discussed much online unless their Gym Leaders had become particularly famous.
This place was clearly far enough off the usual trainer route that most people didn't even bother talking about it.
I continued asking the local questions until I finally learned the Gym Leader's name.
Steven.
Apparently, Steven had only become a Gym Leader because the monthly stipend provided by the position helped fund his archaeological hobbies.
That actually explained quite a lot.
He wasn't running the Gym because he was particularly interested in being a Gym Leader. It was basically a convenient way to finance the thing he actually cared about.
Fair enough.
I asked where I could find him.
The answer was somewhere in the mountainous regions surrounding Heart Village.
Apparently, I would have to search for him myself.
I thanked the local and started making my way toward the mountain areas.
As I walked, I couldn't help thinking that this situation felt strangely familiar.
A Gym Leader who wasn't at the Gym.
A trainer arriving at the town only to discover that they had to go searching for the leader.
I had seen this kind of thing before in Pokémon stories.
It was basically the classic situation where the Gym Leader was missing and the challenger had to track them down before they could actually get their battle.
Roark in Sinnoh had his own version of this.
Jasmine in Johto had something similar in the games.
And now apparently I had managed to stumble into the Kanto version.
I sighed.
"Of course."
I had travelled all the way to Heart Village for my sixth badge.
And now I had to go hunting for the Gym Leader first.
Hopefully Steven wouldn't make me climb an entire mountain before agreeing to battle me.
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Grey's POV
After travelling for a while, I finally reached the mountainous areas surrounding the village. The place was much more interesting than I had expected.
There were quite a lot of caves scattered throughout the mountains, along with several ruin-like structures that seemed to have been partially buried or carved into the surrounding rocks. I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at in most cases, but judging by the number of archaeologists present, there was clearly something important about this place. Some of them were examining what looked like ordinary rocks with magnifying glasses, while others were carefully inspecting the walls and structures around them.
Anyway, I wasn't here to become an archaeologist.
I brought out my team and let them camp for a bit while I went around asking the archaeologists if they had seen Steven anywhere.
Some of them didn't even care about Steven and were downright rude to me, telling me to get lost and stop disturbing their work. I guess archaeology makes people lose their social skills and, apparently, their brain as well. Thankfully, there were also a few who were willing to help and gave me directions toward one of the caves where Steven might have been exploring.
I decided to check it out.
I recalled most of my team for the moment and brought out Persian and Exeggutor to help me explore the cave. I also brought out Charmeleon, whose tail was basically a walking torch for us.
Why do I need Flash when I have a walking matchstick?
Princess clearly wasn't amused by that particular line of thinking, especially since I had essentially reduced her role to being our portable light source.
"Come on, Princess, you're doing great."
She gave me an annoyed look as the flame on her tail flickered beside me.
Yeah.
She definitely wasn't happy about being used as a matchstick.
The cave itself was much larger than I had initially expected. After walking through several passages, turning left, then right, and occasionally following paths that seemed to go deeper underground, I slowly began to realise that we had probably gotten lost.
"Sigh... what exactly do I have to do to get a Gym battle?"
Thankfully, I had brought my own search duo with me.
Exeggutor and Persian were both surprisingly useful when it came to exploring. They were picking up various signals using their respective abilities, though I wasn't entirely sure what exactly they were detecting. For all I knew, they could have been sensing humans, Pokémon, or even items hidden somewhere in the ruins.
That was the problem.
I couldn't exactly ask them what they were sensing.
Still, their abilities did lead us toward several things along the way. I found a few items scattered throughout the ruins, including what looked like Potions and even some Poké Balls. I wasn't sure who had left them there or how long they had been sitting inside the ruins, but finding them at least made the exploration feel somewhat worthwhile.
Luckily, after exploring for a while, we eventually encountered some wild Pokémon.
Most of them were Sandshrew and a few Graveler.
Neither species caused us much trouble.
Persian was fast enough to deal with the Sandshrew before they could properly approach us, while Exeggutor could easily repel the Graveler whenever they became aggressive. The two of them were handling the wild Pokémon almost effortlessly, allowing us to continue exploring without too many interruptions.
We went deeper into the ruins.
Then took another turn.
Then another.
At one point, we even found ourselves travelling through an underground passage that seemed to connect one section of the ruins to another.
Eventually, after taking several lefts, rights and underground paths, we finally found something that wasn't a pokemon.
A group of people.
Humans.
"Finally."
I immediately approached them and asked if they knew where Steven was.
Fortunately, it turned out that this group had actually been travelling with Steven.
Unfortunately, they had become separated from him while exploring the ruins.
I explained that I was looking for Steven because I wanted to challenge him to a Gym battle.
The group looked at me as though I had just told them I had climbed into the ruins for fun.
"You came all the way in here just for a Gym battle?"
Apparently, they found it strange that I was willing to put in so much effort just to find the Gym Leader. They pointed out that I could have simply waited somewhere outside and challenged him whenever he eventually returned.
Honestly...
They had a point.
But I was already here.
And I was stubborn.
I wanted to find the guy quickly and get this Gym battle over with instead of spending another day wandering around the village if this guy delayed his exploration.
One of them eventually pointed toward another section of the ruins where Steven might have gone, though they weren't entirely confident about it themselves. Apparently, these ruins were basically a giant maze, and even people who had been exploring them for some time could easily lose track of where they were.
I nodded and thanked them before preparing to continue.
Before I left, one of them asked me if I had an Escape Rope with me.
I laughed.
"Quite a few, actually."
I had learned my lesson about getting lost in places like this.
If I was going to wander deeper into a giant underground ruin system, I at least wanted an emergency exit available besides persian's pickup had already ensured I had enough.
With that settled, I continued deeper into the ruins.
The deeper we went, the more wild Pokémon we started encountering.
This time, they weren't just Sandshrew and Graveler.
There were stronger Rock- and Ground-types roaming around the deeper sections, and some of them were clearly more experienced than the Pokémon we had encountered earlier.
Eventually, we encountered a Rhydon.
It was considerably stronger than the other Pokémon we had faced inside the ruins, and for a moment I was actually impressed by its strength.
Still...
It had absolutely nothing on that boss Rhydon we had encountered back in Mt. Moon.
Exeggutor stepped forward to deal with it.
The battle didn't last very long.
Exeggutor toyed with the Rhydon for a while, avoiding its attacks before repeatedly draining its health with Giga Drain. The Rhydon tried to fight back, but the difference in strength was simply too large.
Eventually, it collapsed.
Another victory.
I looked toward Exeggutor.
"Our undefeated streak in these ruins continues."
Exeggutor proudly raised its heads.
I had no idea how long that streak would actually last, but for now, everything was going smoothly.
What I didn't realise...
Was that we weren't alone.
Something had been following us for quite some time.
Hidden among the rocks and shadows of the ruins was a small green Pokémon with a red belly.
It kept its distance, carefully watching us from behind the rocks as we continued deeper into the ruins.
And neither I nor any of my Pokémon noticed it.
Author's POV: Comment in the comments what you think is the pokemon .