Cranidos charged again, moving fast—as was to be expected of a Gym Leader’s ace. And once more, Afi simply stood there.
Pokémon bodies were tough, unrealistically so, but Cranidos’s skull was stronger than iron.
The distance between the two Pokémon closed faster than Maeve could think, Roark’s Pokémon kicking up a storm of dust. When Maeve blinked again, there was Afi holding onto Cranidos by the crown of spikes surrounding his head, a victorious grin on his face. Fire bloomed to life above Afi as Cranidos bucked wildly, but Afi held on and swung his arm down as he let himself be thrown off, a ring of fire slamming straight into Cranidos’s exposed back.
The arena was silent, a few spectators taking a recording on their phones as the few audience members started to clap. It wasn’t a fight that meant the guaranteed making of a new Sinnoh Champion, but it was definitely above average. Then Maeve realized something with a frown.
If Lara knocked out all of Roark’s Pokémon, who in the name of Arceus am I going to fight?
----------------------------------------
After watching Roark get a thorough verbal beating from a stern old woman manager for “scheduling matches too close to each other on the misfounded assumption you’ll win,” Maeve’s match was rescheduled to the next day. Of course, that was no excuse not to celebrate Lara’s win.
“I don’t need ice cream, I need to plan out my training schedule for my next Gym Battle!” Lara argued over a spoonful of raspberry sorbet. Swablu and Machop were spending a night at the Pokémon Center while Afi was released with only a minor bit of healing and an instruction from a stern Nurse Joy not to overexert himself for at least a day. The latter was currently stuffing his face with a berry.
“Well, if you don’t want it…” Maeve reached for her friend’s ice cream bowl with one hand but was immediately pushed away.
Lara turned her nose up haughtily. “You already have your mint chocolate chip ice cream! Anyways, I should finish this to stop you from getting a double brain freeze and a sugar rush.”
Maeve grinned knowingly and only received a playful elbow in response. Ice cream was the bane of all humans under eighteen—no one was excluded from the rule as far as she knew.
Blue reached through their connection in response, and Maeve clarified, Pokémon don’t count. They aren’t humans, last I checked.
Maeve paused. Why did that sound so rude?
Blue shrugged. Don’t know, don’t care. Humans are weird, and you are the weirdest of them all.
Who’s the rude one now?
----------------------------------------
With their ice creams finished and their brains thoroughly frozen, Maeve and Lara took a slow stroll through the park as Blue and Afi chased each other through the trees. The Monferno’s tail flame was dimmed to a harmless little spark to avoid accidentally causing a wildfire.
How the Sinnoh’s forests had survived with hundreds of Fire-type Pokémon running around, Maeve would never know.
Feeling Lizzie’s curious little mind pick up on that particular train of thought, Maeve felt the Salandit consider setting the entire park on fire with a couple of Embers. In response, Maeve threatened to give her no dessert for the rest of the year, and the Salandit’s malicious plans died as quickly as they had hatched. Lizzie shoved feelings of feigned innocence Maeve’s way, almost saying, I don’t know why you’re suspecting me of anything.
Next to Maeve, Lara was scribbling in her notebook with a look of utmost concentration on her face. Seeing she was about to trip over a branch in the path, Maeve took her friend by her shoulders and guided her to a bench on the side of the road, where Lara sat down without even glancing up.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Blue hopped over leisurely with Afi struggling to catch up to him, the two Pokémon stopping on the bench with a competitive glint in their eyes—particularly Afi, as Monfernos were naturally slower than Frogadiers. Meanwhile, Lizzie skittered off into the distance to set their race’s end point.
See, this is the sort of concentration I wish you’d have, Blue grumped, motioning with one webbed hand to the hyper-focused Lara Wyde. He let out a croak to Afi, who shook his head furiously in response, expression horrified. The Pokémon pointed to Lara’s planner and made a large X with his arms, still shaking his head. Blue croaked again, and the two dissolved into a heated argument that Maeve decided to keep her nose out of, for once. Then Lizzie let out a shrill hiss from across the forest, and Afi and Blue bounded off into the trees.
“Any thoughts on your next team member?” Maeve chirped merrily after the two Pokémon vanished into the forest. Lara looked up from her notebook, the entire page a mess of fancy cursive, dates, and times. Skimming the rigorous training schedule Lara had planned, Maeve started to feel a little sorry for her friend’s Pokémon. Nah, Pokémon are hard workers. Unlike me…hehe…
Lara looked up from her notebook and set it to the side. “I have a few ideas, yes. At the moment, one of the crucial Types my team is missing is a Water-type, but since we’re challenging Gardenia next and her gym is basically all Grass-types, it’s not as high of a priority. Steel-types are also pretty high on my list, and while Dragon-types are strong, they’re an absolute pain to deal with ‘cause of their attitudes. I’ll consider it when Afi grows strong enough to beat some sense into any Dragon Pokémon I pick up. Internal hierarchies and all that, you know,” Lara informed her. Maeve nodded along mindlessly, her mind already wandering to her own future team. Eevee…I need an Eevee…just look at those adorable brown eyes…
Maeve had been exposed to a variety of Eevee content from a young age, either from Pokémon battles on the TV or from surfing the web, and every time she saw its huge brown eyes and thick brown fur, she felt the insatiable need to pull it straight out of the screen and snuggle it for two days straight. It drove Blue insane, his mind refusing to believe his trainer could stare at a single picture for five minutes straight without even blinking, but Maeve refused to change her perfectly reasonable ways. After all, there was no need to fix what wasn’t broken.
Lara, who was scrolling through the web on her laptop, suddenly paused to check her Pokégear when it let out a short buzz. Flipping it open, her expression turned sour near-immediately before she turned to Maeve and ordered, “You have to win against Roark on Saturday.”
Trying, unsuccessfully, to arch one eyebrow, Maeve gave Lara her best “why” look. Lara sighed, showing Maeve the message she had gotten. “It’s my mom, who cares more about our family’s reputation than her own children. You know, our family is rich. Maybe not so well known to the public, but we were rich before, and then we turned mega-rich after my grandfather invested a ton of money into Silph Co., you know, that monster company in Kanto? Anyways, my parents saw my battle with Roark—because of course they did, probably have a surveillance agent tracking my every move online so I don’t ‘wreck their reputation’. Anyways, they saw the battle and decided to drop a ticking time bomb on me.”
Human Gengar (Sarah Wyde): Hello, my darling Lara! My only daughter hasn't messaged me in so long, I was beginning to think she’d forgotten about her dear family back in Kanto. How’s Monferno doing? Or is it “Afi” now? I still remember the day your father gifted you a spirited little Chimchar starter on your birthday, do you? ;)
Human Gengar (Sarah Wyde): I just thought I’d give my dearest daughter a little heads up that your best friend from Kanto is joining you! Sonali misses you very much and would like you to know that she’ll be there at Roark’s gym in a week. She would be over the moon if you showed her around Oreburgh City, and know that we, your parents, would be that much more relieved for you to bring a trusted friend along with you on all of your Pokémon travels.
Human Gengar (Sarah Wyde): And what’s this about the new friend you’ve been hanging out with everywhere? Care to introduce me? (◔◡◔)
Lara opened her mouth to speak, then seemingly thought better of it and closed it again. “Ugh, I hate the way she speaks. All those honeyed lies, even her texting feels…ugh. Trust me, you’d rather deal with a Seviper than my mother.”
Maeve, meanwhile, was peering up the nearby trees and under all of the lamp posts with a funny look on her face. “Lara…how long have we known each other? Three, four days? By the Creation Trio, what sort of surveillance access does your family have?”
Lara shrugged helplessly in response. “When you have the money, there’s no telling what you can’t do, let alone what you can.”