The Road to our Destiny II: The Galar Adventures

Chapter 8

Electchu waited patiently for Timothy by the entrance to the men's room. Several challengers, including Ezria and Venarge, had exited from the men's room and the women's room from the other side of the hall, having changed from their Gym Challenge uniforms to their regular clothes. The Mouse Pokémon was growing uneasy, wondering why its partner was taking so long.

Finally, Timothy emerged from the men's room wearing his H.A.K. shirt and jeans again. He turned to Electchu and smiled as he gestured to it to follow him with his head. Electchu smiled and walked beside him as they headed to the stadium's front entrance.

"Well, that was pretty short. Wasn't it, pal?" Timothy said. "I think we only needed to be there for all three minutes tops."

"Raichu. Chu Rai Rai Raichu" Electchu said.

"Good point. The sooner it's over, the sooner we leave," Timothy said. "Are you excited to collect Gym Badges for the first time in ages?"

"Raichu," Electchu answered with a cute smile.

Timothy smiled back as they made their way to the lobby. They walked to the front entrance, where they could see Coovers and Gwen waiting for them outside through the glass doors. They talked until Coovers noticed Timothy and Electchu walking toward them with a toothy grin. Gwen turned her head to where Coovers was looking and smiled in a way that made Timothy's heart skip a beat. After a moment, the man in the H.A.K. shirt frowned in confusion, having never experienced his heart acting that way before. In his mind, Gwen's smile wasn't different from when he saw other people smile, and yet somehow, the sight of this woman looking at him in a friendly way was comforting.

Suddenly, when Timothy and Electchu were just a few yards away from the doors, four men in black suits and sunglasses stood in front of the entrance from opposite sides. Timothy and Electchu stopped walking, feeling a sense of unease from the way the security men were looking at them.

"Mr. Durbin, come with us, please," one of the men said.

"Is something wrong?" Timothy asked.

"The chairman would like to have a word with you," the man replied.

Timothy and Electchu looked at each other, not knowing whether or not to be nervous about what was going on. Without another word, they silently complied, following two of the men in the opposite direction from the front entrance while the other two walked behind them. Timothy looked behind him to see Coovers and Gwen equally concerned. Timothy and Electchu followed the agents to a hall on the right side of the lobby leading to an elevator. One of the agents opened the elevator with a set of keys, and they went in to go up to one of the middle floors of the stadium. They walked down to a long hall where Oleana was standing in front of a door at the end. The secretary raised her eyebrow as she looked at Timothy.

"I remember you," she said. "You're that trainer who planned to enter the Gym Challenge, not knowing he needed a letter of endorsement."

"Uh, yeah, that's me," Timothy admitted.

"How peculiar," she said before she opened the door. "Inside."

The two men in front of Timothy and Electchu moved away, allowing them to enter. Timothy and Electchu looked at each other again before they silently complied. Inside was an office where Chairman Rose was talking on the phone. His back faced Timothy and Electchu, looking at the glass wall where he could see the battlefield. Oleana closed the door behind Timothy and Electchu, and the chairman turned to the trainer and his Pokemon partner. He wrapped up his phone call and put away his Rotom Phone to give Timothy a friendly smile.

"Welcome," Rose said. "Please, take a seat."

Timothy and Electchu sat down on the chairs facing the chairman's desk. Chairman Rose sat in his chair behind the desk and paused for a moment, looking at Timothy and then at Electchu, before he took out Timothy's letter of endorsement.