The Road to our Destiny II: The Galar Adventures

Chapter 18

Author's note

So, here's something I feel you guys should know ahead of time rather than when you read this chapter. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, Route 6 and Stow-on-Side are in desert-like mountains, but when you watch the anime, Stow-on-Side appears to me in forest mountains. They never show in the anime the route between Hammerlocke and Stow-on-side to reveal if it's desert-like or not. Now, I went back and forth between making route 6 a desert, but I ultimately decided to use my home state as a reference, and here in the Denver area we have a great view of our beloved rocky mountains which have forests and there's no desert near said Rockies to speak of. So, I decided that Route 6 is not a desert area. Maybe later in the anime they would show the routes to actually be deserts. It's very unlikely with so little focus on the Galar region as a whole to speak of, but that's my assumption of the route between Hammerlocke and Stow-on-Side. Pure speculation on my part. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

After Timothy had Poliwrath healed at the Pokémon Center, the group headed over to Motostoke Station. They grabbed their tickets to Hammerlocke and got on the train just a few minutes before it departed. After finding a room to put all their stuff in, everyone decided to go to the dining car to grab lunch.

Timothy and Coovers were munching on burgers, Gwen ate a salad, and Electchu and Winnie ate bowls of Pokémon food with Winnie's drenched in honey as usual. As Gwen ate her salad, she looked at a map on her Rotom Phone, planning for the journey to Stow-on-Side from Hammerlocke.

"It's going to be a four-day ride to the next Gym," Gwen said. "Stow-on-Side is in the mountains, so we should grab lots of water at Hammerlocke."

"Ugh, riding bikes through the mountains. That's gonna be fun," Coovers said sarcastically. "Who's the Gym Leaders there?"

"Bea, the Fighting type specialist, and Allister, the Ghost type specialist," Gwen answered. "Are you still planning to face Bea, Timothy?"

"Yup, I'm sticking to that plan." Timothy answered.

"Awesome," Coovers said with a grin. "That should be an easy one with Shockwave and Knightblade. Right, Timothy?"

Timothy hesitated as he chewed on his burger. He swallowed and said, "Honestly, Coovers, I'm not too sure about that."

"What?! How could you not be sure about that?!" Coovers shouted. "Shockwave is part Psychic type, and Knightblade is part Ghost type, which is immune to Fighting moves. They may as well give you your badge without needing to battle with that kind of advantage."

"We don't know that for sure, Coovers," Timothy said. "Poliwrath had the type advantage the entire time I battled Kabu, yet Centiskorch's G-Max Move overpowered Poliwrath's Max Geyser. With a Gym Leader with a Pokémon partner who can Gigantamax so early into the challenge, it's likely that all the remaining Gym Leaders will have Pokémon partners who can Gigantamax, and they might be harder regardless of what type advantage my Pokémon have against them."

"I agree. Type advantage might not entirely be useful if the other Gym Leaders' Pokémon can Gigantamax when yours can only Dynamax," Gwen said. "You may have won the match with all of your Pokemon, Timothy, but if you didn't tell Poliwrath to move, Centiskorch might have taken it down with its G-Max Move. The way I see it, you wanted more challenging Gym Battles, and you might be on your way to getting what you wanted."

Timothy nodded in agreement, while Coovers looked up in thought and frowned.

"Okay, fair point," he said. "But, if you guys are right, then you better keep your wits about you, Timothy. You still need to impress Chairman Rose to get to Eternatus."