MunchMunch was ecstatic. This new Gym was crazy.

  It smelled like bubblegum. MunchMunch didn’t know why he knew what bubblegum smelled like, but he did.

  It was probably because food loved him, so he knew all about it.

  Which made sense, because he loved food, too.

  He had tried eating one of the flowers but… it didn’t taste like food. It was still yummy though, so he ate another for fun.

  Gastly said he couldn’t do that though, which made no sense.

  Flowers grew back… so why couldn’t he eat them?

  MunchMunch blinked when the Trainer’s Sentret used Quick Attack, crashing into his tummy. MunchMunch giggled when his tummy jiggled.

  Oh! I was thinking too much about food! MunchMunch thought, quickly chewing his Leftovers.

  Mmm. Food.

  His tummy immediately felt better, which made him cackle happily.

  He looked back at his Teddy, and they nodded at each other.

  MunchMunch knew what to do.

  Defense Curl.

  MunchMunch flexed his muscles and felt himself getting stronger! The Sentret attacked again, but it hurt even less this time!

  MunchMunch took a bite, used Defence Curl again, and positively exploded in laughter when the next Quick Attack didn’t hurt at all!

  “Muuuuuncchmunchmunch!” He cried.

  My turn!

  MunchMunch waved his magic paw and —

  ____

  This was… this was disrespect at its finest.

  Of all the moves Metronome could have granted, it had to be Rest.

  Shadow did her best to blink away her tears of laughter so she could watch the show. Immediately after defense stacking, the baby went to sleep!

  She cackled harder as the Sentret proceeded to wail on MunchMunch, the frustration evident on its face as it did absolutely no damage.

  And then the baby ate his leftovers. In his sleep.

  The Sentret’s jaw dropped. The other trainer stomped her foot. MunchMunch snored and scratched his belly.

  Shadow cackled and Teddy facepalmed, doing his best to hide his grin.

  ____

  MunchMunch yawned and stretched. He had just taken the most wonderful nap —

  “That’s really quite rude, you know?” a voice huffed.

  “Munch?” MunchMunch wiped the sleep from his eyes and looked around.

  To see Sentret glowering at him.

  Oh, right! I was battling!

  “Uhm, why did I go to sleep?” he asked.

  The Sentret spluttered, but MunchMunch heard Mama Shadow cackling in the background, so he knew it was a good thing.

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  MunchMunch cackled, too! He even tried using his new Gengar-Cackle to sound extra happy!

  “Munchlax, Tackle!” his Trainer cried, and MunchMunch happily complied.

  “I can’t wait until Tackle becomes Body Slam!” he screamed as he skipped forward as fast as he could.

  The Sentret tried to dodge, but MunchMunch flung himself at her, belly flopping right into her.

  “Hi!” he giggled, as she flew backwards.

  MunchMunch really, really hoped he always got to battle.

  Because battling was *so much fun!*

  ____

  MunchMunch decided he liked a new thing very much!

  He liked Defense Curl.

  Well, he already knew he liked that. What he liked now was seeing his opponent get frustrated when they couldn’t hurt him.

  MunchMunch giggled. That wasn’t true either.

  What he really liked was how much food loved him. He loved taking a bite of his Leftovers and feeling completely refreshed… and he liked how the enemy Sentret would stamp her foot and scream at him for doing it.

  MunchMunch really liked this very much! He even did an extra Defense Curl, even though his Trainer told him to use Tackle.

  His Teddy looked shocked he hadn’t listened, but MunchMunch waved at him to let him know it was OK!

  And it was! Because the next time the Sentret used Quick Attack, she grunted and flew back — just like she had hit a boulder. Which was the perfect time for him to use his new move!

  Flying-Tummy-Tackle!

  The look on the Sentret’s face as he descended on her was awesome!

  Which made both MunchMunch and Gastly laugh super hard. Even his Teddy had chuckled and nodded! The Gym Trainer didn’t look very happy — but Mama Shadow had whispered through the shadows what he should do.

  So he smiled at the Trainer with his biggest smile and cackled — just like Mama Shadow told him to!

  ____

  MunchMunch tilted his head and looked at the enemy Pokémon in confusion. Then he looked at Shadow. And then Teddy.

  Something was wrong, right?

  After he defeated the first Sentret, the Gym Trainer sent out another Sentret.

  Who had yelled at him for beating up her sister and promised to use her strongest move.

  A move called Helping Hand.

  Which meant she stuck her hand out and looked at it.

  MunchMunch wasn’t sure what it was supposed to do, but it didn’t look like it was doing much helping.

  So he made sure to MunchMunch-skip into a Flying-Tummy-Tackle. That way she would know what a really helpful move looked like!

  Then... she tried to use the move again. So MunchMunch just flattened her.

  He thought she needed to work on her moves.

  What was really confusing, was that after he defeated that Sentret, the Gym Trainer sent out another Sentret.

  Who screamed at him for beating up both of her other sisters!

  MunchMunch waved his paw at them while looking at Gastly. This wasn’t right, was it? It was a whole family of Sentret. He couldn’t imagine all of them being Munchlax or Gastly.

  That would be terrible! If another Pokémon on his team was him, who would he be?!

  “I am definitely going to beat you! You shouldn’t underestimate us Gym Pokémon!” the third Sentret shouted.

  MunchMunch felt kind of bad, but he thought another thing…

  Sentret’s seemed kind of weak.

  “It’s ok!” he shouted. “I will help you train, just like everyone helped me train! That way, you can get strong like me!” he waved happily.

  A bunch of the Pokémon watching from their perches snorted and laughed, and even Gastly sank into a shadow so her laughter wasn’t so loud.

  MunchMunch didn’t understand why. He wasn’t trying to be funny?

  The enemy Sentret looked furious and used a move he had never seen before!

  Rollout.

  The Sentret tucked its tail under its body and rolled at him super fast! There was even a trail of dust behind the Sentret — which made MunchMunch a bit worried about how much it might hurt.

  But then the Sentret crashed into him and…

  It didn’t really hurt at all. The Sentret unrolled, looking a bit dazed.

  MunchMunch took a bit of his forever-snack and smiled.

  “Don’t worry, one day you will be strong too!” he cried, and Tummy-Tackled her, sending her flying back.

  The Sentret popped back up and rolled up again.

  This time, she rolled even faster, and MunchMunch didn’t even have time to move before she was right in front of him.

  And this time… it kind of hurt a little.

  Which made MunchMunch panic. His Defense Curl wasn’t strong enough!

  He quickly started using his magic paw, but his Trainer shouted at him to use Tackle instead.

  MunchMunch knew he should have listened earlier when he used Defense Curl instead of Tackle.

  And he didn’t want to make that mistake again.

  After all, he really, really… really loved Teddy.

  So he used Tackle instead.

  The enemy Sentret bounced back and rammed into a wall. She slid down the wall, landing on her tail unsteadily.

  She teetered, trying to wave a fist at him, but instead she fainted!

  MunchMunch shouted and skipped in circles. Of course his Teddy was right!

  Then MunchMunch gasped and paused, spinning to look at the Gym Trainer suspiciously.

  What if there was another Sentret.

  What if she had like… five MunchMunch paws worth of them!

  Even he would get tired!

  Thankfully the Gym Trainer didn’t send anyone else out. So MunchMunch giggled and skipped over to Gastly while Teddy talked to the Trainer and got the stuff that they could use to get food later!

  MunchMunch wanted to see if Shadow could teach him anything for the next fight!