The Shield of Galar

Marnie's Dilemma

Grimmsnarl stood above it's fainted opponent, the frustration of his trainer, felt wholly by him.

"Who's next?" Marnie yells out over the gym trainers, most of whom are pretty new to the experience.

"Ms. Marnie, I think you are hurting morale more than helping," a trainer who had been a member of Team Yell back in the day comes over and tells her. "Maybe...take a break for the rest of the day," they suggest, only to be on the receiving end of Marnie's dagger eyes.

"Fine, but tell them they really need to shape up if they hope to make the final cut," with that she storms out of the court that functions as the gym for her city. From there she walks the two blocks to her house, coursing the mostly empty streets of this near abandoned city.

Once home she slams her door and stomps her way into the kitchen where she diligently searched through every drawer for a vice she had once tried giving up.

"She really did get rid of all of them," she sighs then slams her fist on the counter. "Damn her,"

Defeated, she treks her way to the couch and flops down on top of it and covers her face with one of the pillows.  Slowly, she lowers her pillow to see a picture of her brother staring back at her. With a groan, Marnie reaches up and lays it flat against the end table. As if her situation wasn't bad enough, the last thing she needed was to dredge up those memories.

Sighing, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out her Rotom phone and looks through the pictures she has taken. A lot of them were from her time spent traveling the regions.

Scrolling up, she finds herself on the Islands of Alola. Then, she sees pictures of her across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh. While abroad, she learned a bunch, from a variety of people. Although she may not have won every battle, each one felt fresh and new. Plus, she encountered Pokémon that her eyes would never have seen had she stayed put.

It had been a wonderful, and eye opening experience, but the whole time she was away...

Finally she gets to the pictures she had been looking for. Her and Gloria being goofs in a multitude of ways all across the region. After a bit more scrolling, she finds her favorite of the bunch.

The two of them were spending a few days with the sibling Bea and Allister in the Wild Area. They had been training at the Lake of Outrage, and Gloria wanted to stop and pose for pictures. Using Bea's phone, Gloria took pictures of the siblings, and on and on they went, taking photos on everybody's phones. Finally, it came time for Gloria and Marnie.

"This way, I want to be right on the water," Gloria had insisted, dragging Marnie by the hand. They stop right on the shore of the lake, the water rippling a bit from the numerous Pokémon that made their home there. "This is perfect, don't ya think?"

"Yeah," Marnie had answered the Champion's question with a smile, then wrap her arm around Gloria's shoulder.

"Smile you two," Bea called out. Then Gloria turned and kissed Marnie on the cheek, leaving her super flushed for the photo.

Even looking at it these years later made her smile. That day, that moment, had been the tipping point for Marnie. It solidified in her mind and heart that Gloria was the one for her. Being around her, makes her feel a way that she couldn't replicate her entire time away from Galar.

Of course, now with the incident yesterday.

Now mad at herself, she flips on the TV and listens to the news in the background. It is all the normal nonsense until she hears

"Is the Champion's temper getting a bit too wild?" The news anchor asks the audience. "It may be so, as we have two clips today of her blowing her cool,"

The first scene is somebody hiding behind the Pokémon Center with a camera filming an argument between Milo and Gloria. It brought a smile to Marnie's face to see the once kind to a fault Gloria standing up for herself. That was until her name was brought up at the end of the list of those who had used her.

Not staying to watch the end, she grabs her typical leather studded jacket and charges out of Spikemuth, ringing a flying taxi to take her to Stow-on-Side. She needed to fix this problem, and the only person who could possibly help her at this point was Bea. At least, she hoped she could.

Just as the Corviknight is landing, her Rotom Phone starts going off. Pulling it out, she sees the picture of her and Bea wrestling, and the latter's name on the top of the screen. Wincing, she picks it up while climbing into the taxi.

"Hello," she says nervously before pointing the phone away from her ear.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!" the voice of Bea echoes out of the phone before Marnie brings it back to her ear.

"I fucked up, and I need your help. I'm heading your way now," Marnie responds.

"If you hurt her, I swear to Arceus I'll kill you, and make sure Allister's ghost torment your afterlife,"

With that, the line went dead as Marnie brings both hands to her face. If she survives this encounter, she will be sure to make it up to Gloria. No matter how much groveling or ass kissing it will take to reach that point.

I hope you are all enjoying the story thus far. I would like to make a call out to PokeGothGf's Instant Family. It was what inspired me to write this, and put in my head the idea of Bea and Allister as siblings. If you like mine, I'm sure you'll like theirs