Ash's Story (Part 6: Unova)

Chapter 25: Cocoon Threads

Castelia Gym looked different from the moment we stepped through the entrance.

The last time we had come here, Burgh had been missing, Team Plasma had been hiding, and the city had felt like a web with too many dark corners. Now the Gym itself looked like a web had become a building.

Threads stretched between walls, floors, and platforms. Huge cocoons hung from the ceiling, glowing softly with the strange Gym light. Some looked like entrances. Some looked like traps.

Iris stared upward with Axew clinging tightly to her hair. "This is a Gym?"

Cilan smiled like he had just been served a very strange dish. "A Bug-type Gym shaped around metamorphosis, movement, concealment, and surprise. Deliciously artistic."

Golly looked much less impressed. "It is also a structure full of hidden transport paths and blind exits."

Eve glanced at Alice. "So we watch every opening."

Alice nodded. "Especially the ones that look harmless."

Pikachu shifted on my shoulder, ears twitching at the threads around us. His meaning brushed against me with cautious humor. "Sticky road. Do not punch the walls."

I almost smiled. "I will try not to."

The Gym guide waved from near the first cocoon. "Hello! You are probably tired from wandering all over the crowded streets of Castelia City looking for Team Plasma and the Gym Leader."

"That is one way to say it," I said.

The Gym guide grinned. "The theme of this Gym is none other than cocoons! You head upward by going inside the cocoons and traveling through the threads. The threads are definitely connected to Burgh eventually."

Alice looked at the nearest cocoon as it pulsed with a faint glow. "So the challenge is trusting the path without seeing where it goes."

When I stepped near the first cocoon, the threads around it pulled open like a mouth. Before I could decide whether that was better or worse, it sucked me inside.

For a second, everything was silk, light, and motion.

Then I stumbled out of another cocoon on a higher platform, with Alice landing beside me and Pikachu gripping my shoulder harder than usual.

Alice steadied herself and looked back at the cocoon. "Is this the Gym challenge?"

"It sure is a sticky one," I said.

A Harlequin sprang from behind a webbed pillar with both arms wide. "What do you think? This Pokémon Gym has outrageous and mysterious charms!"

"Harlequin Clarence," the Gym guide called from somewhere below. "First trainer!"

Clarence sent out two Sewaddle, both bouncing in place with bright eyes and silk-ready mouths.

I touched Tranquill's Poké Ball. "Tranquill, I choose you!"

Tranquill spread her wings across the platform, and both Sewaddle looked upward with sudden caution.

"Use Gust, but keep it controlled," I called.

Tranquill beat her wings, sending a clean burst of wind across the threads. The Sewaddle tried to counter with String Shot, but the silk curved back around them.

Clarence gasped dramatically. "What a charming reversal!"

Tranquill's second Gust finished the match without tearing the Gym's threads apart. Burgh would probably have cared about that.

Clarence returned his Sewaddle and bowed. "You have quite a bit of charm yourself, do you not?"

We moved through another cocoon, then another, each one twisting us through silk tunnels to higher platforms. More Harlequins leapt from hiding places, and Axew squeaked every time.