--- 4 Years, 11 months later---
My day starts as it did many a time before, with a six legged critter walking all over my face to wake me up.
Still groggy, I open my eyes, to see the underside of Goggles. Maybe i should have called him Alarm Clock.
"I'm up. I'm up." I say, daring to fight Cresselia for full ownership of my waking consciousness
Goggles flies up from my face and hangs in the air in the perfect height to land on my head after i sit up from the bed. He does not weigh a lot, so I always just let him nest there while I go about my morning routine.
6:30 on the dot. I am thankful Goggles did not wake me beforehand.
After completing the usual morning ritual, i descend the stairs and go straight to the kitchen.
I start breakfast for the day, Goggles gets some special blend pokechow i make in bulk for him every Sunday. An omelet with sausage for me, a sandwich for mum and another sandwich for mum to eat during lunch at work.
She comes down not long after I finish both her sandwiches.
"Good morning sunshine! Sorry, can't eat breakfast with you, I'm already late!" She says, about to leave the house, before noticing that I already finished one sandwich and packaged another one for travel "Oh, you really shouldn't have son."
I really did have. It is the reason i made her food first.
If I say something about it being nothing, it's going to start a chain of thanks, sorrys and "I am the adult of this house", and she already said she was running late. So all i can really say is "You make mine next time." With a smile that may have given my game away a little with the way she frowns, grabs her food and says "I will little man!" Before turning to leave.
"Did you take your coat?" I turn to yell before she leaves "I left it at the center!"
Honestly. "And she tells me i could have left on a journey and she would've been fine. Right buddy?" the divorce was way harder on her than it was on me. I don't think leaving would be a kind thing to do. And i don't like battling.
"Yo!" He says as he digs on the last bits chow in the house. Sometimes it's so easy to understand him, sometimes he is indecipherable.
But i smile anyway. Goggles is an understanding guy.
I leave for my own shift shortly after. It may be an unpaid internship but mum's job at the center is more than enough to pay the bills.
I'm not wearing much, plain dark-green slacks (the best color) alongside a black T-shirt with the brand logo on it. (Its a sweet triple yellow hexagon pattern in the shape of a combee), i would normally wear a hoodie of some sort but it's hot as balls outside even if we are just coming out of winter into spring, melting inside a hoodie like ice cream wrapped in tin foil is a real issue.
Besides, Gran does not really have an actual dress code for us.
Goggles flies alongside me as I walk towards the city outskirts, he is definitely going a little stir crazy (it would be worse if i made him stay in the ball all day like Julian's snickit), so i will probably have to go with him for a walk tomorrow on route 01.
I pass by two kids using the battlegrounds near the dirt pathway to battle. The chewtle battling fires multiple water gun's in rapid succession, but the snikit dodges all of them with grace and a very smug look across their face.
But the fox can't get close or keep this up forever and neither can the chewtle. Both trainers obviously know this if i can pick up on it and have what seems to be a pensive look in their faces, probably thinking of how to break the stalemate.
It seemed like yesterday when their battles looked like badly acted slapfights from a old movie. They will do fine in their journeys next month when the league year starts again.
"Yan!" I am once again brought back to the waking world by a darter landing on my head.
"Oh. Hey there buddy, got lost in my head for a second there." I turn around to continue walking towards the lab.
This is one of the better parts of my day. Listening to the chirps of the swellow, watching the squads of rookidee lead by corvisquire passing overhead, the occasional skwovet leaving their nest to gather more food for the next winter, waving a hello to the mama quagsire tending to her wooper swarm in the river bench and getting a hello waved back.
Its peaceful.
I reach the lab soon after, the large rustic building is covered in moss and lichen, the pokeball painted above the old oak wood door is slowly fading and there are tiles on the cerulean blue roof that are completely discolored. This place looks dilapidated, but you just have to step inside to see the magic.
I open the door and step in, relishing the air-conditioned insides of the place. The interior is much nicer than the outside, both the walls and the floor are absolutely spotless and it smells of lavender inside.
I look over to the table right in front of the entrance and wince at my co-worker.
"Are you still eating breakfast?" I deadpan at Sonia.
"What? I live here, i can afford to sleep in! You are just early." She responds before taking a swing of her mug. "Yamper er!" Her dog Pokemon says in agreement to her from the other side of the table before gobbling up an entire sausage.
I look at the clock in the wall. Nope. 8:03. I guess i lost myself for a minute or two looking at the battling girls.
"I am technically three minutes late." I say, continuing to move inside the lab ignoring her delightful groan at the comment.
I in my way to the main laboratory, I pass another co-worker (or rather my boss), on my way there. She is over at her desk, made of magnolia wood (she heard the joke already), blue eyes piercing into the computer screen as if it had personally offended her.
"Good morning professor Magnolia." I say with a wave as i approach her.
Her attention stolen from the pc, she turns to face me with a smile. A grandma kind of smile. "Oh Trent, don't be so formal. Call me Gran, like my grankid does."
I do call her that in my head. She does not need to know it. "When i am off the clock professor. Are you going to let me in your secret project today?" I say, faux hope injected into my voice.
Her sweet grandma smile turns into a smirk as she looks at me. "Not yet dear, maybe someday. Today you do the same as you did yesterday."
Two days ago, me and Sonia had gathered about 100 different soil samples after five different types of grass type Pokemon after using the move ingrain. We are now analyzing sample by sample and noting how the usage of ingrain had affected the levels of different nutrients after and before they had used the move on the ground.
Yes, Pokemon height, weight, species and age seemingly influences the nutrients they feed off the ground. This could revolutionize the grass type specialty pokechow, or it could just confirm what we already know. Either way, we need more samples to make a proper paper on this.
So, since there is no machine that automatically catalogues every single nutrient level on the soil, we do need to go over all the ones we already have manually and probably some more. 100 is not exactly a large sample size.
I'm not even an paid assistant, just a intern. So i get grunt work.
"Yes ma'am!" I say with a little salute before continuing on to the main lab. Goggles helps me with gathering all the equiment for this and the samples themselves. Granny was doubtful over letting him out of his ball during delicate work, but bug Pokemon are significantly cleaner than mammals and he is super careful with everything in the lab.
And so we begun grunt working.
--- 6 hours later ---
"Heyyyy Trenty." Sonia walked into the lab where i was just finishing soil sample #98.
Of course i did not notice her till she walked up to me and gave me a flick on the back of my head. I think she wouldn't have done it if I was handling something more sensitive. I think.
"Oh! Sorry for not noticing you there. I-Uuh... this is not about Magnolia's secret project is it?"
"I mean, its not a secret if she told me about it. But dude, Leon's match with that foreign girl is like, in an hour. Gran said you were off early today."
"Ah. That. I guess. I did say i would watch it together with mum." My shoulders slump a little. I honestly did not understand the appeal of watching Leon curbstomp the latest challenger is. It was a curbstomp the last 4 years and i do not know why that would change today.
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Leon battles like he is putting a performance for an audience. I heard some people say he meticulously plans every step of the battle like a 7d chess master, but I think it's more likely he never takes his opponent's seriously.
This is why we had an elite four before Leon ascended to the champion throne and then he decided their job was redundant. I was 7, I strictly remember Julian tearing up the newspaper in a fit that morning.
"So. You going to stay and do soil stuff all day?" She asks, one eyebrow raised in skepticism.
"I mean, I probably should, send Goggles to give her a message, I am almost fi-" and suddenly Sonia's hand is in my shoulder and her expression is pure steel.
"Dude. Go spend time with your mom. You got time off work. That's great. Now go spend time with your mum."
And coming from Sonia that holds some weight.
"Yeah. Sorry i did not know what i was thinking." Goggles flies over to my head, i cannot see his face but i bet good money he has that worried face he does whenever I am about to make bad decisions. "Yo."
"Don't say sorry for a mistake you didn't do man. Go have fun, we can finish this gruel later!"
Now i pout, undignified, but Sonia has seen me at my worst. "It would have been done already if you helped me today."
"Sorry, can't. Super duper secret professor's assistant stuff. Have fun with your mom, I'm going to watch it with Gran."
"Ya, i will. Thanks Sonia." If people don't want sorry, thanks will usually do.
We both begun moving towards our respective families after that, the assistant going up the stairs and the intern leaving entirely.
The path back seems unusually quiet. Mama quagsire and her little ones are still there, but the other critters seem almost suspiciously abscent.
The swellow song is quieter than before. No nikit pass me by, no bunelby checking the horizon from their rabbitholes. The only skwovet I see seems to have just woken from his winter holdout.
Blipbug and grubbin sneaking curious glances at me from the tall grass seem to be all here, however.
"Hey buddy, can you fly around and see if you see some Pokemon? This is weird."
Goggles the ever faithful companion does so as I ask. Taking up flight high in the sky and surveilling the area above in circles.
I seriously think about just stop whatever i am before and go straight to the ranger station about this. But Sonia's words ring through my head like a particularly catchy song. Returning to me whenever I think about skipping out.
Goggles returns not long later, when i am about to enter the city proper again.
"Yo, Goggles, what did you find?"
"Yamna Yo Yo!"
Puzzlement and bewilderment. That is surely what is written across my face.
"What do you mean they are just ahead?" I continue forwards when I ask, Goggles is a pragmatic guy. He would have told me more if i was not just about to figure it out.
I hear them before I can see them.
An electronics store. With a huge plasma television the display, the monitor is taller than me standing and wider than me on the ground.
It shows a countdown for the beginning of Leon's match.
There is an entire band of zigzagoon pressed against the glass, rows of rokidee, tailow and corvisquire line the power cables in front of the store, there are some human children with their pokemon, they turned nearby trash cans into booster seats for smaller pokemon like skwovet and ratata to watch the big screen without craning their necks, there are even some rare (for the area) Pokemon around, like shroomish and palpitoad on the street. And that is not even considering those that must be on the park, since they are having a big projection of the match there.
They are looking at the screen expectantly while chatting among themselves.
The sight makes something in my stomach curl and bend. Weird. I never felt like this about just a battle. I don't want to dwell on it, lets get some new thoughts inside my head.
And honestly WHO IS ADVERTISING LEON'S MATCHES TO WILD POKEMON?
I shake my head at the marvelous sight, and take a bit of detour not to walk in on their fun. There is a ranger next to them in case things go south, but he looks as concerned about the situation as I am baffled.
Wedgehurst does not have huge walls like the big cities next to the wild area to keep Pokemon out. Wild Pokemon entering and leaving the city is normal, but not at this volume.
I see mum's car already parked at home. I wonder if she saw all the wild Pokemon in the city?
I enter home and Goggles zooms past me to his spot atop the couch in front of the television. The second thing that happens is the smell of fresh popcorn with too much butter fills my nostrils.
Perfection.
"Good afternoon bookworm! Excited for the big match?" She looked at me with an expectant grin. I am not excited. I am not really excited. There is definitely a feeling there about the match, but i am not about to start thinking about now, so i respond with the best smile i can muster "Sure!"
I approach her in the kitchen, seeing the huge bowl of yellow-white popcorn she made... "do you think the match is going to last this long?"
"Oh, not really. This is the foreigner girl first fight with a champion, she is probably going to fold pretty quickly, but we can watch some movies afterwards, I got the whole day off!"
Mom getting the day off gets me a more real smile. She loves her work, but sometimes i think she goes to work to busy herself and not think about life was before the incident. She needs a therapist i think. "Let's!"
We sit in the sofa, i plop myself right in the middle, Goggles above me, and mum sits on the right side. I don't dwell on the space to my left, its better off empty.
The television is already on and the countdown goes to zero right when we all get comfortable.
There are speeches by the chairman. Speeches by the champion, speeches by everyone, the challenger face is implacably pleasant even if everyone treats her defeat as done deal, remaining silent at the indirect digs made against her.
They say she played a heel pretty well in her gym matches, and the reporter has the balls to ask a challanger that fought all 8 gyms and a whole ass tournament in front of millions of people where she is where is her sense of sportsmanship and showmanship now?
Showmanship is like, THE galarian staple but come on man.
"I would like to put all my focus on the battle today, thank you, also buy poketch!" She says with a perfect smile, there are no features i can see in the screen that indicate irritation or anxiousness.
Already i like her, i would have curled up and died on the spot in that situation if it happened to me.
Leon on the other hand, looks absolutely done with the speeches and statements and is bouncing on his feet for some action.
He demands the match to start in the most polite way possible, field is cleared of personnel, personal shields are up, breathes are held, and pokeballs fly.
I watch as Leon's aegislash creates a million metal blades out of thin air to strike at the challenger's grimsnarl, the monster of a Pokemon is named "Smiles", and it answers by just fading out reality and smacking aegislash in the back? That did not look like any of it's signature moves!
The entire battle my state is "i did not know grimsnarl could do THAT" and "gods that aegislash is so cool"
Its a double knockout in the end. Then, the trainers perform a usual "trade dance" from what the commentators say.
Rhyperior meets tyranitar and is swapped by seismitoad, tyranitar than becomes a liligant and Leon switches his seismitoad into another Pokemon - Rince repeat ad nauseum until they are both out of trades. They don't show a single bug pokemon between them. (This should not annoy me)
Their starters now face each other. Charizard sets the whole arena on fire but the togekiss seems nonplussed by that development as she(?) barrages charizard with every single special attack I've ever heard of.
"Alright! This is a true champion level battle!" He says, grinning with a glint in his eyes (is that his natural eye color or contacts?) and recalling charizard, he is out of trades so that can only mean-
"Let's have a REAL champion time!"
The pokeball in Leon's hand doubles, than triples in size, he tosses it skyward with an athlete's strength and unleashes a beast so large they switch to drones instead of ground cameras.
Ive seen pictures of gigantamax charizard in textbooks, clear ones that show it's entire body. In those pictures, its wings are made of flames. Here the thing just looks a wildfire in vague shape of a dragon.
The regions waits with bated breath for the challenger to dynamax her pokemon. She never does.
It is widely accepted that the best strategy against a dymaxed pokemon was another dynamax pokemon.
Instead while charizard creates multiple flaming tornadoes that could level cities by themselves, making giant mushrooms pop into the arena to add kindling to the flames, the jubilee Pokemon flies past all the flames and dodges every swipe and stomp thrown at it.
It was like watching a mosquito fight a mountain. A mountain that is on fire.
I thought she was just waiting for the gigantamax transformation to fade, but Leon's charizard is known for being able to hold that form for disgusting periods of time. So that just seemed like a bad strategy, the togekiss fur was getting more and more charred and by the looks of the close-ups on it's face, its exhausting herself(?).
And then, from beneath the sea of flames, an entire army's worth of person-sized sharpened rock spears rise.
She used the charizard's flames to hide them!
The horde of spears fly towards the dragon, a max windstorm knocks most of them away, but dozens of the spears clearly pierce the giant's throat and eyes and then collapsing their forms into tiny rocks and dust. (Putting rocks inside it's throat and eyes while letting his bleed, this girl is so cool.)
Charizard tumbles backward, clearly surprised at taking damage from the attack after the windstorm, in that moment of weakness, a bigger, massive spike of earth erupt from beneath the conflagration on the field it and pierces it's chest.
Seriously, what is that move? Some sort of super ancient power? Stone edge does not make SPEARS.
For a brief moment, i look at Goggles, imaging him there in the arena, out of sight, hidden in the flames and raining cataclysmic moves and putting a gigantamaxed charizard on the backfoot, and he looks at me at the same time, i recognize his expression as mirroring my own (oh no)
The dynamax energy begins to fade just at the moment the giant spike hits him, not giving the 'mon time to move back, and his flesh begins to tear as his form reduces rapidly around the wound.
Leon recalls charizard before the damage is irreversible.
The whole fucking town goes crazy.
Like every single human has decided to voice their displeasure at the result of this AWESOME AMAZING battle at once. Either by booing or calling her a lucky bitch.
(My ears hurt. But i am focusing too hard to notice)
The multitude Pokemon cries that echo around the town are much more excited, more than half of the local biodiversity roar in agreement that this is fucking awesome. (I am included in that roar, even if I don't notice.)
The little guys are not here for Leon's match they are here for the OUTSIDER. (HOW DID SHE ADVERTISE HERSELF TO THE WILD POKEMON?)
Leon pulls out his seismitoad next. The togekiss is already on it's last legs of exhaustion and all it's movements are super sluggish compared to what they have been against Leon's ace.
Seismitoad uses sludge wave and the flier chose destiny bond. Leon is down 3 including his ace and the challenger is down 2 and including her starter. But not her ace.
The next minutes of the match are a slaughter, as haxorous fails to withstand the what looks like of relentless river of stone edges directed at it by a mega tyranitar, rhyperior gets send to hell by a fissure that splits the arena in 2 and dragapult is DESPERATELY trying to keep away from the dark pulses and crunches amidst a dark type variation of sandstorm.
The conclusion to the battle makes me so fucking angry.
The blonde outsider collapses from over extension from maintaining a mega evolution for too long.
This amazing battle, all the stadium shaking moves, the back-and-fourth quickly replaced by a dominating sweep after a starter's stellar performance and set up for it's teammate... ends like this?
No miracle comeback from Leon. No deserved win for the girl. Just an instant loss a second before tyranitar could catch the ghost dragon.
Normally the ensuing noise of the townsfolk alongside the Pokemon would have driven me into a hellish sensory overload, but the sound is barely there inside my head, i tune it out almost completely.
I am standing up, sweating and with a sore throat from cheering. I was so EXCITED. So HYPED. I wanted to be there. I wanted to battle.
I have never felt so conflicted in my entire life.