Ash's Story (Part 5: Modern Sinnoh)

Chapter 79: Sunyshore Spark

Sunyshore City shone before we even reached the main road. Solar panels caught the sunlight from rooftops, towers, and walkways, while escalators and moving paths carried people across the city like the whole place had been built to keep moving. After so many forests, caves, lakes, and broken worlds, the clean brightness almost startled me.

Lillie looked up at the tower rising over the city. "Now that we are here, I hear the Gym Leader is Volkner, and he is tough to beat."

Tox adjusted his bag strap while watching the moving walkway. "He is considered one of Sinnoh's strongest Gym Leaders. Overconfidence would be a bad symptom."

"The stronger the opponent is, the stronger we can become," I said. "I am going to earn that badge."

Pikachu's meaning came bright and eager. "Electric city. Electric battle. Good place."

The city did not feel like any Gym town we had visited before. Oreburgh had smelled like stone and coal, Eterna had carried old forest air, and Snowpoint had wrapped every step in cold silence. Sunyshore hummed. The walkways hummed, the panels hummed, and even the tower above us felt like a heartbeat made from sunlight.

Dawn watched a moving path carry a group of children uphill. "If this city loses power, does the whole place stop walking?"

Daniel looked toward the tower. "That is probably why the power network matters so much. Centralized systems are efficient, but they create obvious points of failure."

Gladion gave him a dry look. "You just made the sunny city sound breakable."

"That does not make it less true," Daniel answered.

The Gym doors opened into a quiet room with polished machines and a robotic voice. When I said we wanted a Gym battle, a panel opened in the wall. A tray slid out, filled with Beacon Badges.

Lillie stared at them. "They are all Gym Badges."

The robot answered without emotion. "Challengers may take a badge without battle."

Dawn blinked. "That explains a lot."

"No," Lillie said at once. "A badge has to be earned. Otherwise, what is the point?"

I looked at the tray and felt Paul's words return. "This is what he meant when he called this the worst Gym."

The badge tray should have made things easy, but instead it made me feel cold. Every badge in my case carried a battle, a lesson, and a moment where my Pokémon had given everything. Seeing the Beacon Badge handed out like a souvenir felt wrong in a way that made my hands close into fists.

A red-haired man approached from the entrance before the robot could answer. His grin was warm, but the energy around him felt like a flame waiting for a match.

"Well, if it is not Ash Ketchum," he said. "Your Pokémon are secure inside their Poké Balls, but there is no masking that aura of serious toughness. Name's Flint. I am one of the Pokémon League's Elite Four."

"The Elite Four?" Dawn asked, startled by the sudden introduction.

Flint nodded proudly. "And I know determined Trainers when I see them. Come on. Volkner and I are old friends, and right now he is up at Sunyshore Tower."

On the way, Flint explained that the city ran on solar power. The panels across Sunyshore sent energy toward the tower, and Volkner had designed much of the system himself. That should have made him sound amazing, but Flint's voice carried worry under every compliment.

"He built half the city because he wanted Sunyshore to shine," Flint said. "Then somewhere along the way, the machines kept shining and he stopped."

We found Volkner near the tower observation area with his Raichu beside him. His eyes were sharp, but tired, as if every spark inside him had been used on machines instead of battles.