"Yeah."
The Cyclizar also looked at Gary with an unexpected expression on its face.
This Cyclizar had been sitting in the shop for quite some time. It was genuinely popular with people, but no one had been willing to actually spend the money to buy it, mainly because the price was too steep.
If the number of Cyclizar in circulation had been a bit lower, its value would definitely have exceeded 2 million. But since there were plenty of Cyclizar around, customers naturally compared prices, and 2 million was already enough to buy a professional racing-grade Cyclizar.
If this particular Cyclizar had been able to reach higher speeds, it would have sold much more easily. Unfortunately, its speed capped out below 100 kilometers per hour, which made anyone who saw it hesitant to commit to buying.
If this Cyclizar had had full speed control, there was no way it would still have been waiting around for Gary to come along and buy it.
"Cyclizar, I'm counting on you. My travels from here on out depend on you," Gary said.
"Yeah."
The Cyclizar nodded happily. Finally, someone was going to ride it. It seemed like this trainer traveled all over the place, which meant it would get ridden every single day—that sounded wonderful.
"Alright, come on in."
Gary recalled Cyclizar into its Poké Ball, then checked its data.
[Pokémon: Cyclizar (Shiny)]
[Type: Dragon, Normal]
[Level: 30]
[Potential: Elite]
[Ability: Shed Skin (When afflicted with a status condition, there is a 30% chance each turn to remove the condition.)]
[Skills: Tackle, Growl, Rapid Spin, Breaking Swipe, Quick Attack, Bite, U-turn.]
[Friendship: 180 (max value 255)]
It really lived up to its reputation as a Pokémon close to humans—meeting it for the first time and already having 180 friendship points was impressive. There was no need to carry a Soothe Bell; with some training and time, friendship would reach maximum on its own.
The clerk also handed Gary some riding equipment: a seatbelt and a set of handlebars. The seatbelt was meant to keep the rider from being thrown off during travel, while the handlebars were installed near the back of Cyclizar's head, making the riding experience smoother and easier to control.
Gary released Cyclizar, fitted the equipment onto it, and took it for a test ride down the street.
Since the speed limit within the city was only 60 kilometers per hour, Gary couldn't push it to its limits, but even so, riding Cyclizar felt genuinely comfortable. Though it wasn't as fast as an Arcanine at full sprint, Cyclizar felt far more stable while moving.
He rode all the way to the Pokémon Center and had lunch there. In the afternoon, he continued cruising around the city on Cyclizar, drawing quite a few curious onlookers along the way.
A shiny Cyclizar was still a rare sight. Riding one through the city was basically the equivalent of driving a top-of-the-line sports car.
The next morning, Gary boarded a flight to leave the Paldea region.
By 3 p.m., Gary had finally arrived in the Sinnoh region, landing at the airport in Veilstone City.
"I'll challenge the gym tomorrow."
Gary had briefly considered visiting the Veilstone Gym that afternoon, but by the time he thought about it, it was almost closing time. There wasn't enough time left in the day, and the Gym Leader would likely only be able to schedule a match for the next morning.
With no time left to challenge the gym, Gary rode Cyclizar to the Pokémon Center, drawing plenty of curious stares from passersby along the way.
Since Cyclizar were a Pokémon unique to the Paldea region, they were rarely seen elsewhere, and people couldn't help turning their heads to look as he passed.
Once Gary had settled into the Pokémon Center, he turned on the computer in his room to check the latest news from the Sinnoh region.
"So that incident with the Tower of Time and Space already happened."
Gary quickly came across a news report about Alamos Town. A reporter had covered the story of how the town had suddenly vanished, only to reappear later, based on recovered footage. The incident had occurred four days earlier—the very day Gary had left the Sinnoh region.
Now that the whole thing was already over, Ash and his group had likely continued on their journey.
"The second movie event happened when Ash caught Chimchar. That means Shaymin's movie event should trigger within about two months."
Gary recalled that Ash had caught Paul's discarded Chimchar right after the Double Battle Conference had ended.
He immediately looked up the schedule for the Double Battle Conference online and found that Sinnoh held this tournament annually. This year's competition was set to take place in Hearthome City, with the event scheduled to begin in exactly one month.
Ash and the others were apparently preparing to challenge the Hearthome City Gym around that time. As it turned out, Fantina ended up going on a trip, entering the Double Battle Conference herself, and coincidentally being paired up with Paul as her teammate.
Gary was confident that the Shaymin incident hadn't happened yet, so there was no need to worry about missing it.
After a night of rest.
The next day.
Gary rode Cyclizar to the entrance of the Veilstone Gym.
The Veilstone Gym was a Fighting-type gym with a fairly long history. However, its leadership had recently changed hands. The daughter of the previous Gym Leader had taken over the position, and her name was Maylene.
Maylene had become the Gym Leader about half a year ago. According to the anime's storyline, after being defeated and mocked by Paul, Maylene lost her confidence as a Gym Leader entirely. In the end, it was Ash and his friends who managed to lift her spirits and help her regain her confidence.
"Poor kid," Gary said, sighing.
In truth, Maylene's situation as Gym Leader had been rather unfortunate from the start. The original Gym Leader had been her father, but he was a gambler who spent his days at the arcade instead of running the gym properly.
Whenever a Trainer came to challenge the gym, Maylene's father was often nowhere to be found, which frustrated him just as much as everyone else. About half a year ago, he finally stepped down and handed the position over to Maylene.
This was Maylene's first time serving as a Gym Leader. Naturally, she wanted to prove herself capable, so she took every single match seriously in hopes of improving.
But Maylene's own battling skills weren't particularly strong, and her father hadn't left her with many powerful Pokémon to work with. As a result, she lost far more Gym battles than she won. On top of that, being provoked and criticized by Paul had left her withdrawn, and she had nearly given up on being a Gym Leader altogether.
Thinking about what Maylene had gone through, Gary considered whether he should hold off on the Gym battle for now. If it really came down to it, he could always send out one of his lower-level Pokémon to keep the match fair.
But then he remembered that the mission issued by the system restricted him to only using Sinnoh-region Pokémon in this challenge.
Every Sinnoh-region Pokémon currently in Gary's possession was already above Elite level. Facing Maylene's Pokémon, a single move would probably be enough to end things.
"Maylene has a Lucario. Maybe I can ask her if she knows where I could find a Lucario or Riolu of my own," Gary thought.
He had always liked Lucario quite a bit. It would be a shame not to have one of his own.
"We're here."
Before long, Cyclizar arrived at the entrance of the Veilstone Gym.
Gary patted Cyclizar's head and dismounted. Just as he was about to return it to its Poké Ball, he heard the faint sound of a spoon clinking against something.