MunchMunch loved this gym.

  After the first battle, there was this really cool ride! It looked like a giant Spinarak, but it wasn’t, and they got to stand on it and it hooked up to a huuuuuuge rope and carried them over a hole in the ground!

  MunchMunch had stuck his arms out like he was Flying again! And then there was another one — but this one kept taking them back and forth until they had to go treasure hunting and find a secret switch! AND THE SECRET SWITCH MADE THE GIANT ROPE MOVE!!!!

  Then they got to go in a completely different direction! And all the Caterpie and Weedle had cheered when MunchMunch had found the switch! And this one had taken them right in front of another trainer.

  Which meant MunchMunch got to have another super awesome gym battle. This was the second best day ever, right after the Restaurant Gym and its Chocolate cake!

  ___

  Teddy was really enjoying seeing how happy his baby Munchlax was. He had been worried about how he would handle his loss. Honestly, he had felt really bad about having him battle Team Rocket too — even though he had asked so earnestly.

  Which is why he was all the more grateful to the Pokemon Trainers and the Pokemon of the Gym. They were all going out of their way to be extra nice to Munchlax. And he knew it was genuine, because a gym trainer would never hold their punches in a battle. It was against the gym and Indigo League code.

  But it was also pretty obvious that at least some of the gym Pokemon had been watching what happened in Slowpoke Well, and they were showing their gratitude by giving Munchlax the best first gym experience ever.

  Teddy just couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

  ___

  The new trainer had started by sending out a Weedle! MunchMunch was super excited, because he had never fought a Weedle before!

  When the referee, who swung out of a tree — which was so cool — shouted for the match to start, the Weedle immediately shot some string at MunchMunch.

  It was a bit sticky, and slowed him down but…he was pretty slow anyway, so he didn’t mind! He MunchMunch-skipped (which helped because it lifted his feet above the sticky stuff), up to the Weedle when his Trainer yelled “Tackle!”

  MunchMunch gasped — he had never done this move before, but somehow he just knew what to do!

  He squished the Weedle, just like he had squished the Caterpie — with his belly!

  But he wasn’t zooming through the air this time, so it didn’t do that much damage, and the Weedle was able to bounce away!

  MunchMunch giggled and chased the screeching Weedle who kept shooting String Shots at him while scootching away as fast as he could. It was super fun and MunchMunch just kept skipping so he could keep going!

  “Munchlax, Tackle,” he heard his Teddy shout again — so he squashed the Weedle again — except this time he tried to sit on it!

  “Would you — would you stop that!” The Weedle huffed, trying to get away. “Why won’t my String Shot slow you down!”

  “It is!” MunchMunch exclaimed, “But I have a super secret MunchMunch-skip!” He told her, tackling her one more time and knocking her out.

  The Weedle’s trainer looked very confused, but Gastly and his Teddy were laughing so he knew he did a good job! MunchMunch laughed too and happily MunchMunch-skipped back to his Teddy while the gym trainer sent out another Pokemon.

  The next Pokemon looked like…a giant yellow peanut. MunchMunch knew, because he had seen a peanut in the Restaurant gym.

  “Hi!” MunchMunch said.

  “Kakuna,” the gym Pokemon responded, plopping down on the ground.

  It looked super comfy, so MunchMunch plopped down too.

  His Teddy and the gym trainer both shouted at the same time “Defense Curl! Harden!”

  MunchMunch gasped. That was his move! He grunted and squeeze all his muscles super hard. He had to win!

  The Kakuna squinted its eyes and squeezed harder, too.

  Both Trainers shouted again and MunchMunch gasped.

  “Defense Curl! Harden!”

  This.

  This was the true battle.

  MunchMunch had to win.

  Kakuna and MunchMunch both squinted their eyes and squeezed.

  MunchMunch ended up using more Defense Curls than he had ever used before. He felt so strong, he bet even the Croconaw wouldn’t be able to hurt him.

  Ok…maybe he would.

  Croconaw was pretty strong.

  But MunchMunch felt strong now, too!

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  “Munchlax, Tackle,” his Teddy shouted.

  The Kakuna used String Shot and MunchMunch skipped through it. Now he would show the Kakuna just how strong he was!

  He squished him with his tummy!

  Except…

  He didn’t. The Kakuna didn’t squish. MunchMunch was floating, belly-first, in the air.

  MunchMunch gasped. Harden was awesome.

  The battle took a long time. MunchMunch had to use more Tackles than the fingers on his hand and foot-paws. He tried sitting on him, smooshing him and even rolling on him — but nothing seemed to work.

  By the time Kakuna, with a final squint, fainted — MunchMunch was huffing and puffing. He made sure to take a munch of his forever-snack to get some energy back. He nodded to the fainted Kakuna. He admired him. The Kakuna was strong in the same way MunchMunch was going to be strong when he grew up.

  He grinned in anticipation as the gym trainer sent out his last Pokemon.

  ___

  MunchMunch was ecstatic.

  This one was everything a cool Pokémon should be.

  She had wings. Cool colors. She was fast. Had sharp paws. And she made awesome noises while she flew!

  “Beeeeeedrill,” the Pokemon buzzed as it zipped around the field, almost too fast for MunchMunch to see.

  The gym trainer looked smug now. MunchMunch agreed with him, he should be proud of such an awesome partner!

  Then the Beedrill zoomed at him so fast MunchMunch couldn’t react.

  The Beedrill used Fury Attack, stabbing his tummy Once…Twice…Thrice…Four…Five Times! MunchMunch scrunched his eyes closed and waited. Eventually, he peeked out of his eye and looked at his tummy.

  The Beedrill was looking at him in confusion. MunchMunch laughed and took a bite of his leftovers — he hadn’t even felt it!

  “Munch!” He shouted.

  “Go Munchlax!” His Trainer shouted, too. “Use Tackle!”

  MunchMunch immediately tried to squash the Beedrill, but she zoomed away so fast he missed and plopped on the ground. Then she came back and used Fury Attack again on his back. This time, it kind of tickled! MunchMunch took another much of his leftovers and got up laughing.

  Both he and his Teddy seemed to have the same idea. If tackle didn’t work, it was time for magic-paw time!

  “Metronome!” His Trainer shouted, and MunchMunch immediately started waving his paw!

  Splash popped into his mind. It sounded so cool, he couldn’t wait to see what it did!

  It didn’t do anything.

  MunchMunch looked at his paw in confusion.

  That wasn’t how it was supposed to work.

  He was supposed to fly. Or go super fast.

  He started waving his paw again, worried that maybe it was broken.

  Tail whip.

  MunchMunch didn’t even have a tail! And the move didn’t look like it did anything!

  MunchMunch turned to waddle back to his Teddy. His magic-paw was broken! He didn’t know what to do. The Beedrill Fury Attacked him in the back, but he just ignored it, taking a bite of his leftovers to make his tummy feel warm again.

  Then he saw Gastly behind his Teddy. She was rolling on the ground, laughing so hard she was crying. Even Teddy was smiling, motioning for MunchMunch to turn around and keep fighting.

  ___

  Gastly just couldn’t anymore. This baby was just too much.

  First he tried to squash the poor Weedle — which was absolutely hilarious. Then the whole Kakuna fiasco.

  But now? Now the Beedrill was trying so hard to look cool for all the Weedle and Kakuna that were watching, and MunchMunch was completely ignoring it, waddling back in wide-eyed terror thinking his paw was broken!

  Every time she tried to catch her breath, she just ended up laughing harder. This was definitely the greatest gym challenge ever to happen.

  Then the baby turned around and wagged his paw again.

  And shot out an entire Hyper Beam, absolutely annihilating the Beedrill. He turned around when it was done and looked so shocked. Then smiled happily before falling asleep.

  Gastly couldn’t tell if he was happy because the move looked so cool, or if he was happy because his paw wasn’t broken.

  She fell back over and burst into a cackling fit yet again.

  ___

  MunchMunch woke up a moment later. He was really, really happy his paw wasn’t broken! And the move looked so cool! It was like the sun came inside!

  He saw his Teddy talking to the gym trainer, and he quickly waddled up, watching closely to make sure everything went right and they got the stuff to get food later!

  He was very relived to see it went well.

  Then the gym trainer stepped aside and they got onto another giant Spinarak ride!

  This one went for a loooong time. While they were flying over the giant hole in the ground, Gastly came up and whispered to him.

  Her idea made him smile. He liked this idea very much.

  ____

  “What do you think that light was?” May asked.

  She and her twin sister Amy had just turned ten, and Gym Leader Bugsy was letting them help out for their birthday.

  “I dunno. Maybe one of the Pokémon knows Flash?” Amy offered.

  May shook her head. “Too loud.”

  Amy nodded slowly. She was right. Whatever that was, it definitely wasn’t just Flash.

  A nearby creak made them turn—the Spinarak platform was on its way. The twins grinned at each other, excitement building.

  Then the platform emerged from the shadows.

  It looked like a Munchlax.

  But the Munchlax was cackling.

  Floating just above it were two glowing eyes, staring straight at them from the dark.

  “Amy?” May whispered.

  Amy didn’t answer. She just hugged her sister tight.

  The platform creaked closer. The eyes began to cackle too. And then the shadows started moving.

  May screamed.

  Amy joined her.

  The Munchlax and the floating eyes cackled louder, flickering in and out of the shifting shadows as the platform drew near.

  “No! No! No!” Amy shouted, sprinting to the lever.

  The platform jerked mid-track, turning sharply and bypassing their station.

  The girls collapsed into each other with relief.

  As the ride coasted by, MunchMunch gave a cheery wave. Gastly howled with laughter. The Trainer just offered an apologetic wave.