“It’ll be just a couple of minutes.” The receptionist said politely, her smile a little strained.

  It had been the fifth time she had said that, after all.

  I nodded, and turned back to anxiously bouncing my knee as I waited for my Gym Battle.

  Finally the time had come to do what I was technically supposed to be here in Snowpoint for, and things were already running behind.

  We weren’t even running slow by a couple of minutes; the clock on the wall said that it’d been over half-an-hour from when I was supposed to have my Gym Battle.

  If something hadn’t changed in a couple more minutes, I was going to have to see if I could reschedule, which was going to be somewhat of a challenge considering the “Ice Festival” was going to begin in a few days.

  There was every likelihood that we’d have to stay here in Snowpoint City after the festival if I had to reschedule, maybe even a week, and Ted and Lucas were already getting antsy over staying in one place for so long.

  They were both convinced that we were running behind schedule, despite all of my efforts to reassure them we were not.

  Sinnoh’s Pokémon League season was eight months long, running from September to April, with the Conference being held in late April or early May, depending on the calendar for the year. Theoretically, that allowed Trainers one month to get each badge.

  That seemed like more than enough for me, especially since we were already getting into the beginning of November and had three Badges under our belts, or two in my case. If anything, we were actually running ahead of schedule, but my two companions wouldn’t listen to me when I said that we could slow down and take some time to enjoy the sights.

  I was happy to take some time off from the constant travelling to sleep in a real bed, eat food that I didn’t make, and enjoy all the luxuries of modern living, but Ted and Lucas were both deeply concerned that we wouldn’t make the cut-off for the Conference.

  There was still something that was nagging at me about the Conference, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Cyrus and Team Galactic hadn’t put their heads up, there were no major disasters in the past month or so, and everything seemed… calm.

  “I’m so sorry I’m late!”

  A girl burst through the waiting room door, nearly scaring me out of my skin.

  She was dressed in a school uniform sweater under her jacket, had long black hair, and must have been seventeen or eighteen years old.

  The girl scurried over to the receptionist desk and started talking in hushed tones with the receptionist, and I relaxed a little bit.

  She must be the challenger before me.

  That must have been why I was waiting so long. Normally every match I’d been in had moved smoothly, but there must be a grace period that the Gym would give challengers. Especially in a place like Snowpoint City, where the frequent snow storms would mean that schedules could change on a dime.

  I relaxed even more into my seat, knowing that it’d be a short amount of time before I went up against Candice.

  Pokémon Battles always felt longer than they actually were.

  Still… something about the Conference still felt off to me.

  I mean, was I really a good enough Trainer to do the full Gym Circuit? I’d need to collect and train more Pokémon, which would be difficult.

  And even if I did-

  “Hi!”

  “Geh!”

  My entire body flinched back as the girl was suddenly in my personal space, standing right in front of me.

  “Oh, I’m sorry!” She said, taking a step back. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “It’s okay.” My heart was beating very fast now.

  “Are you the next challenger?”

  “Um, yes?”

  “Sorry it took me so long.”

  “That’s… fine.”

  “It’s really not.”

  My eyes darted over to the receptionist who was looking rather… exasperated?

  “Um, it’s okay? I mean it’s your turn to go, so- why are you laughing?”

  “Oh! It’s just- you think I’m a challenger too!”

  She cocked a hip and placed her hand on it. “I’m Candice! I’m the Gym Leader here!”

  I blinked up at her.

  “I- you are? Aren’t you a little-”

  “I’m nineteen!” Candice said firmly. “I’m not even the youngest Leader there is!”

  “Okay!”

  “”There are those twins over in Hoenn that really shouldn’t be Leaders. Just because I still go to a cram school for university doesn’t mean I can’t be a Leader!”

  “I never said that!”

  She puffed up for a second like she was going to keep going, then sighed and deflated.

  “Sorry. Sore subject.”

  “I understand.”

  “So you’re Alina? Listen, I know we’re supposed to have a battle, but what would you say about doing a task for me instead?”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  I frowned. “Is that… allowed?”

  Candice shrugged. “I’m the Gym Leader, I get to make the rules. Gym Battles are only the most common way of getting a Badge, there’s a bunch of other ways too.”

  My frown stayed on my face, and Candice sighed.

  “Okay listen, our battle will go like this: you have an absolutely adorable Umbreon, a Vespiquen, and a Growlithe that’s apparently part Rock-type. You’ll send your Growlithe out first, planning to steamroll my team with it. A good strategy. I’ll send out my Snover to get you nice and complacent. Once you beat him, I’ll send out my Medicham. You’ll realize what a bad matchup for your Growlithe it is, and you’ll use one of your switches to swap out for your Vespiquen.

  “Once your Vespiquen is out, I’ll use my swap to send out my Sneasel. The Ice-moves it has will be too much for your Vespiquen, and your Umbreon won’t be as effective. Once that happens, you have one of two options: Either you’ll stick with your Vespiquen and hope to get lucky, or you’ll use your last switch to bring back your Growlithe. At which point I’ll use my last switch to bring back out my Medicham, and you’ll be in an even tougher spot. There’s a chance for you to win, but you’ll have to roll the dice.”

  My mouth could have swallowed a Wailmer as I stared up at her.

  “Did you just… plan out the entire battle?”

  “Please. I may be young but,” she gestured to her uniform. “I know how to do my homework.”

  “Now, do you want to do that whole battle that I just described, or would you rather go play with some Vulpix kits?”

  /^\

  “I made a mistake.” I said through chattering teeth. “I should have gone with the battle.”

  “Nah!” Candice shouted from her lofted position. “You’re doing great! Oops! Sorry, I’ll stop shouting! I think it scares them even more!”

  I’m going to strangle her. I thought viciously as one of the white-furred Vulpix kits darted out of range of my mitten-clad hands.

  The task should have been easy. It had sounded easy enough, after all.

  Snowpoint City had recently received a family of Alolan Vulpix from the smaller island nation. As it turns out, Alolan Ninetales could be quite territorial when it came to their isolated mountain homes, and a Ninetales and her kits had been forced out of their lair.

  The Aether Foundation in Alola had worked with the Sinnoh Rangers to convince the family to come to Snowpoint City instead, where they could live in the tall hills above the city and luxuriate in the constantly cold weather.

  Of course, there had been a miscommunication when it came to vaccinating the new Pokémon when they arrived, and the mother was currently resting in one of the Pokémon Centers down in the city after coming down with a bad case of the flu.

  The Vulpix kits, on the other hand, still needed to be vaccinated, and they decided that they would rather play hide-and-go-seek in the Ranger’s reserve rather than simply take their shots.

  The Rangers had called in Candice, who had decided to outsource the chore to me. She then added the challenge that I couldn’t use any of my Pokémon, saying that: “Trainers have to keep their heads cool with any Pokémon they encounter.”

  It would have been a lot more acceptable if she wasn’t clearly making it up on the spot.

  So here I was, an hour and a half later- well past when I could have been done with my battle- bundled up in countless layers of cold-weather gear, trying and failing to catch the remaining Vulpix.

  There were a grand total of five of the kits, and I’d already caught and vaccinated three of the litter.

  The last two were the quickest and wiliest of the bunch, and they were taking a perverse glee in making me run around in circles. They also kept warming themselves up with all the ‘play’ they were doing, and continually breathed out cold mist to cool themselves down.

  It also had the unfortunate side effect of freezing me down to my bones.

  “It’s mocking me!” I shouted up at Candice, who was ‘supervising’ me from a ledge.

  The kit did seem to be enjoying itself, letting out a chittering laugh as it darted through the snow, white fur blending in perfectly.

  “I think so!”

  Sighing, I stopped chasing the Vulpix, and cast an eye about for the other one. They were almost impossible to see, but I managed to catch a glimpse of a pair of bright blue eyes peeking out from over a snow drift.

  Fine, I’m done doing it your way. Work smarter, Alina. Not harder.

  The walk back to where I had stashed my bag was a miserable slog, the snow drifts coming up to my knees.

  I cursed my new body for the first time, wishing I wasn’t quite so short.

  After Candice had given me the option of the test instead of the Gym Battle, I had made sure to explain the situation to Ted and Lucas, then stopped by the hotel to pick up my bag.

  “Oh boy!” I said loudly, to nobody in particular. “All of this running around sure has made me hungry! Thankfully I have a bunch of food here with me!”

  Digging through the bag, I pulled out a bunch of dried Berries and nuts, pouring them all into a small bowl.

  Then I took the bowl over to a relatively flat spot, sat down with it next to me, and stretched theatrically.

  “Although I am pretty tired too, maybe I should take a nap first?”

  I laid down, making sure the heavy winter coat was protecting me from the snow, and pretended to sleep.

  My eyes were kept open to the barest sliver that I could still see, and I made sure that my breathing was as steady and regular as possible.

  It was still a good fifteen minutes or so of laying on the cold snow until something happened, although it was hard to tell how long exactly passed.

  At first it was just some sniffing around, the snow lightly crunching around my head.

  One of the Vulpix had obviously succumbed to its curiosity. And I was going to punish it for that.

  Eventually it was confident enough that I was asleep, and through my slitted eyes I could just barely see a small furry shape pawing at the bowl of food.

  Just a little bit further…

  It finally took the bait, and leaned in to eat some.

  Quick as a flash my hand snapped out, grabbing onto the loose fur at the nape of its neck.

  The Vulpix kit yelped and wriggled as it tried to get free, but with my other hand I dug a syringe out of my pocket, removed the cap, and carefully slid it under the skin and into the muscles of the Vulpix’s leg.

  The whole thing took a minute, I was still unfamiliar with using the syringes, but with a quick depression of the plunger I was almost done with my chore.

  I gave the Vulpix a poffin, which it reluctantly took before scampering away into a snow drift.

  One more.

  Although I was actually rather hungry, come to think of it. I reached down for the bowl to grab some nuts.

  Only to find a nearly empty container, the few remaining Berries and nuts had small bites taken out of them. To add insult to injury, every single last bit of food was frozen solid.

  A chittering laugh echoed through the clearing, echoed by Candice’s own peals of laughter.

  “So close!” She called.

  My eye twitched.

  /^\

  “Hey Alina, how was the- woah.”

  “Shut up.” I said as I stalked through the hotel’s suite to my room.

  Lucas and Sunny tried to muffle their laughter, and I glared at them as I walked by.

  Half of my hair was frozen completely solid, the sheer weight of the ice causing my head to list to the right.

  My coat was shredded from where the last Vulpix had fought with its claws to avoid getting vaccinated, and by the way my nose was starting to run, I was pretty sure I was coming down with another cold.

  The little menace had even peed on my pants to try and get me to let it go.

  “Is that Alina?” Ted’s voice said from behind his door, and it opened with a creak. “Did you ever get your badg- oh.”

  “I hate you all.”

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out the tin where I kept my badges, flipping it open to show my companions. The Icicle Badge that Candice normally gave out looked like two icy mountains and a hill.

  Candice had taken the enamel pin and added a few dots to make the entire thing look like a parody of a Vulpix’s face - even worse, she had made it permanent somehow, and the dots wouldn’t wipe off.

  I stomped into my room to take a warm shower and change while Ted and Lucas’ laughter echoed through the suite behind me.

  Despite it all though, I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face.

  wild ride writing and posting ItD, and I want to take a moment to thank all of you, especially the ones who've stayed with the story from the beginning. Your support has kept me going. I also want to take a moment to publicly thank Ondmos again. Without the editing and chats about where the story is going to go, as well as the general support, I feel that Into the Dark likely would have been dropped out of exhaustion a year ago.

  is an ending planned, and we're actually coming up on it. I'm not sure exactly how long it will take, this story seems to have a life of it's own a lot of the time, but we're past the halfway point. Maybe even past the 3/4 mark. I hope you all will enjoy it going forwards.