CHAPTER 100

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” I screamed. “Slow down!”

I shut my eyes tightly as Salamence flew upward so fast that it felt like my spine was getting squeezed. No one answered my plea. We were climbing so quickly that all I could hear was the cold wind blowing past my ears. Even though I was attached, I held on to the saddle for dear life. I hesitantly opened an eye, looked to my right, and saw that Cecilia had the biggest smile on her face and was bending forward to look at the ground. I couldn’t see Denzel’s face, but his shoulders were stiff, and his fists were clenched around his seat. Chase, meanwhile, had his face turned away from anywhere near the ground. After a minute or so, Roxie gradually slowed down her ascent, and I could finally start to hear again.

“Guys take a look,” Craig yelled. I turned toward him and saw that he was pointing forward.

I stared at Mount Coronet in the distance in awe. From this far, we were around a day and a half away, but even then, and even though we were flying, the mountain appeared to tower over us. We had gone through that and lived. Salamence was done climbing now and was gently gliding across the sky, occasionally flapping her huge wings to generate lift. I took a deep, cold breath and finally gathered the courage to stare down. Snowpoint was still in the distance, but it was shrinking rapidly— a testament to Roxie’s speed. From here, everything looked so little. So insignificant. But together, everything formed into a coherent whole that held meaning.

“You guys can relax, the worst is over,” Craig said.

“Thank the Legendaries,” Denzel exhaled. “I’ve never been on a plane before, and this is terrifying to me.”

“This is nowhere near how high a plane actually flies,” Cece said. “And you can barely tell you’re on one after take-off anyway. This is a lot more personal. A grand experience.”

“You’re insane,” Chase said, his face pale. “Fast travel or not, I’m never subjecting myself to this again, this was an awful idea.”

“Oh?” Cece smiled, turning her body toward Chase. “Is the great Chase admitting to a weakness?”

“It’s not a weakness, dumbass! Traveling on foot all the time will make me and my team tougher.”

“Whatever you say,” she replied with a haughty tone. She seemed to take great pleasure in his suffering.

“So, ten hours of this?” I asked.

“Yeah, give or take a little bit, depending on Roxie’s mood. How you feeling today, Rox?” Craig asked, rubbing his dragon’s neck.

She replied with a gentle growl and beat her wings energetically, gaining in speed and altitude.

“Tell her to stop!” Chase stammered.

“Relax, you’re screwed on tight, and no flying types are foolish enough to attack a Salamence. We’ll go around Mount Coronet too, so you don’t have to worry about any dodging maneuvres.”

“Um… dodging maneuvres?” I asked with a hint of worry.

“Oh, it ain’t much. Sometimes when we fly close to the Mountain, the wildlife gets a bit angry, and Roxie has to… well, dodge. But again, we’re taking a safe route.”

I relaxed slightly and leaned back, away from the edge. Now that the excitement was wearing off, the cold was sinking in, especially since it was impossible to move around very much.

“Ten hours, huh?” I whispered, rubbing my hands together.

This was going to be a long flight.

——

Our first stop was late in the afternoon, and somewhere along route 216, where we were all taking a well-deserved break. It didn’t look like it, but flying was actually exhausting. Sure, I didn’t panic anymore, and I wasn’t scared, but I still felt like it was impossible to rest up there. Humans weren’t meant to be this high up in the sky, and when there wasn’t a huge metallic tube separating you from the elements like on a plane, even relaxing was impossible. It felt like my body had been on high alert for ten hours straight.

Cecilia, meanwhile, had easily fallen asleep around four hours in, and only woke up when Salamence landed. We were standing a few minutes away from camp. It was safe since obviously, Salamence had landed us on a route, and we could easily handle every wild Pokemon here. She was planning on having her daily… face-off with Scyther, where the bug type tried to find an opening to kill her, but first, she wanted to speak to Zweilous again. It would be her fourth time since the gym battle against Candice.

She released the dragon in front of us, along with Slowpoke, just in case one of the heads got any ideas. I was noticing a theme with Cece. Her Pokemon were troublesome to raise, and extremely aggressive. Scyther was an apex predator, and when her other Pokemon evolved, they would be too. Talonflame were notoriously good at devastating local normal type populations, and Hydreigon was one of the most dangerous Pokemon in the world.

Slowpoke was… well an exception to the rule, I supposed.

Zweilous was just as tall as I was now, if not taller. I wasn’t about to get close enough to check. One of the heads growled at the other, and they immediately began to fight, using Dragon Breath, Crunch, or Incinerate. Slowpoke shielded us from any stray attacks, and Cece calmly observed the heads at work. Strangely enough, none of them used Dragon Pulse. Maybe they deemed it to be a step too far? It would deal substantial damage to their body if it hit, so it made sense if they only struck with attacks that would only affect the individual heads. They were sharing a body, and if it was injured, it would be to both of their detriment.

“The left one inherited most of Deino’s unpent aggressiveness. He’s always the one that starts the fights, and he’s more vicious in the way he attacks, but he’s very driven in his need to obtain strength. I decided to name him Zerstörer, or Zerst for short.”

“Zerst? Never heard that name before,” I said.

Zerst seemingly noticed his name and blew a small flame toward me, which Slowpoke blocked. I still flinched and felt the heat of the flames on my face.

Cece clicked her tongue. “Bad! Bad Zerst! Behave, or you’ll get grounded. No more training for two days!” She yelled. “Sorry about him. It might seem like a lot, but he was holding back against you, and he knew the attack would be stopped… it’s just his way of complaining.”

He simply responded by roaring at her, sending spit that Slowpoke again blocked.

“He’s still feral with others. It seems that he at least recognizes you,” Cecilia smiled. If that was recognizing, I wondered what he’d do to strangers. “But yes, it’s not exactly a name. It’s supposed to mean ‘destroyer’ in another language.”

“Destroyer? You can be so childish sometimes,” I laughed.

Cece stared at the ground, clearly embarrassed, and cleared her throat. “Moving on! The other head’s given me very little problems. He’s less aggressive, but obviously he fights back as you can see. He’s inherited Deino’s loyalty to me, and he always listens to what I say, but he can be very… protective, down to a fault. I’ve had to yell at him not to attack Scyther. I decided to call him Sol.”

“Sol?” I asked. “That’s short for something, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but now that you made fun of me for Zerst, I’m not going to tell,” she said, clearly vexed.

“So you’re just… letting them fight? That seems kind of ruthless.”

“I thought so too, but Mark gave me advice on how to raise Zweilous. They won’t ever be good friends or get along, but the relationship between the two heads is especially rocky at the start,” she sighed. “I’m supposed to let them fight it out, and eventually, a dominant head will be established.”

“Aw,” I lamented. “That’s kind of depressing.”

“No, no, you have the relationship wrong,” Cece hurriedly said. “Take the Sneasel pack that attacked us, for example. They had a leader, right? They take the decisions, decide where the pack goes, et cetera. It’ll be like that, although I’ll be the actual leader in the relationship—”

Cece stopped when she noticed that Zerst was gathering a Dragon Pulse in his mouth.

“Zerst. Stop that immediately,” she said with a frigid tone.

The head stared at her, clearly angered, but the Dragon Pulse dissipated, and he turned away from her. Sol, meanwhile, gave her a thankful bow. Taking care of these two looked exhausting, and I had an entire team full of babies and children.

“Don’t hesitate to ask for our help, alright? You’re going to have your hands full with them, plus Scyther,” I worriedly told Cece.

She grabbed my hand and held it tightly. “Of course,” she smiled. “Which is why I wanted to introduce you to them. Can you call Denzel over? His Sylveon might come in handy if things ever go… off the rails, and I want to tell him the same things I told you.”

“Sure,” I nodded. “You’ll be fine alone?”

“I have Slowpoke, and I have much to talk about with him as well. About his evolution.”

I stared at Slowpoke, who had seemingly lost a lot of his aloofness. Just like during the battle against Candice, he was always aware now. The water type looked into my eyes and blinked.

“Gotcha,” I said before leaving back to camp.

Well, camp might have been a generous way to call it. It was mostly a singular fire that had been lit by Chase’s Houndoom. Roxie was lying down, her body curled up around Craig, who was eating canned tomato soup that he had heated on the fire, and Chase was working his team to the bone with his drills. I made my way toward Denzel, who had also released his entire team.

“Am I interrupting something?” I asked with an amused smile.

Sylveon was desperately hiding behind his trainer, and Snorunt was standing on his back, riding him like a Ponyta with a wide, toothy smile, seemingly ignorant of Roselia and Buneary staring daggers at her. I hadn’t been acquainted with the ice type just yet, since Denzel largely kept her in her ball during our walk to Snowpoint, but she seemed like an upbeat kind of Pokemon, reminding me of Togetic or Electabuzz.

“Just some jealousy issues…” Denzel said with a pained look. The two Pokemon yelled out in protest.

“Rose!”

“Bun!”

“Come on, just let Snorunt enjoy this,” Denzel groaned. “You practically hazed her when I first introduced you, obviously she’s going to be pushed into Sylveon’s arms! You did this!”

Snorunt laughed loudly. So loud, in fact, that it almost felt like she was taunting her teammates. Roselia and Buneary, seemingly having forged a new alliance in love, turned away from Denzel with a look of pure betrayal.

“Why are you even mad at me? I’m not even doing anything! Sylveon, tell them!”

Sylveon looked like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He gave a half, grumbling answer and quickly lifted Snorunt off of his back with his ribbons and jumped on Denzel’s back to escape from his fellow Pokemon.

“You know what, you’re all tiring me out. We’ll sort this out when we get back to Eterna,” Denzel sighed. “I’m recalling all of you. Sylveon included.”

He recalled his Pokemon, who all protested loudly, and shot me a dismayed look.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You’ve had it rough, huh?” I empathized. “Love troubles?”

“Yeah, I thought I could manage, but now that I’ve added another member to the team, Roselia and Buneary are going crazy. Snorunt isn’t even in love with Sylveon, they’re just friends!”

“You sure about that?” I said, half-teasing.

“Yes!”

“Okay, big guy,” I laughed. “You mentioned hazing before. Can you let me in on that?”

My best friend groaned with a tired look. “The first time I introduced Snorunt to the team, she was already acquainted with Sylveon, since he was there when I caught her. You know him, he’s friendly like that, even though he likes to be alone sometimes.”

“Alone or with you,” I shrugged. “Anyway, keep going.”

“Buneary and Roselia— she was obviously still a Budew— acted all chummy with her right away, which instantly raised my alarm bells, but they somehow convinced me that they had grown and matured enough to befriend Snorunt. Anyway, long story short, she ended up being pushed way too hard when I started training her with the group, but luckily I caught wind of it fast, and now Buneary and Roselia hate her, especially since Sylveon came to her rescue, and he’s pissed at them for bullying her.”

“This seems like a really convoluted romance flick plot.”

“I know! It fucking blows! But at least Buneary and Roselia get along now?” He said with a pained smile. “I hope Feebas is going be more amenable with Snorunt. He’s only seen her once before we left the lake, and he didn’t have much time to get to know her.”

“Hey, maybe when you catch your sixth, Snorunt will ally with them and start this whole process all over again,” I said, patting him on the back.

“Right…” he sighed. “Haven’t even decided who my sixth will be yet.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you had the whole thing planned out?”

“It’s a long story… but basically, now that Eevee’s evolved into a Sylveon, I need something new.”

“You wanted another fairy type?”

“I wanted a Gardevoir, yeah,” he nodded. “I’ll figure something out. It’ll probably be a while until I catch another Pokemon anyway. I need to fix this whole damn relationship issue first.”

“That’s the smart thing to do,” I agreed. “Anyway, Cece wanted to see you,” I said, pointing toward where we were. “She wants to introduce you to the heads.”

“Ah, the heads,” he said with emphasis. “I bet they’re just peachy.”

“You don’t know the half of it. Hey, before you go, Cece named one of the heads Sol. Can you ask her what that’s short for?”

He shot me a suspicious look. “I dunno, it smells fishy. Like betrayal.”

“Come on. Aren’t we friends? Best friends?” I said, leaning against him. “After everything we’ve been through, you can’t do this one little thing?”

“If Cece gets mad at me, I’m going to have my revenge. You know that, right?”

“Why would she get mad? I just forgot to ask her, and I want you to do it, that’s all,” I lied. “Anyway, go on. You’ve kept her waiting long enough.”

“Arceus…” he sighed as he left toward Cece’s direction.

I watched on with a satisfied smile and then turned to Chase, who was seemingly done with his drills and taking a break. He had given his Pokemon water, and he was relentlessly telling them to stay up and not sit down. I approached him and his team, curious to meet his new Snover. I knew quite a bit about his other Pokemon, but the ice type still eluded me.

“Hey man,” I said. “Busy?”

“On a short break, so not right now,” he answered dryly before taking a swig of cold water.

Riolu had no problems standing upright, but Houndoom and Zangoose were struggling, their legs clearly shaking like leaves. Charjabug, meanwhile, couldn’t really lie down, so he appeared to be fine, although upon closer inspection, his breathing was ragged and harsh. Snover was impatient for the break to be over and clamored at Chase, eliciting a smile. My eyes widened slightly. It wasn’t often that I saw him smile outside of when he was being a smug jackass.

A smug jackass you could learn to appreciate, though.

“How’s your new Snover?” I asked, getting directly to the point. The ice type stared at me with an expression I couldn’t exactly place.

“Fits in like a glove,” Chase said. “The drive to get stronger is there, and it’s probably the strongest I’ve ever seen it. He’s always motivated for our workouts, and he’s already at the others’ level in battle.”

The ice type proudly slammed his fist against his chest.

“Already?” I asked in a surprised tone. “That usually takes a lot longer.”

“Who do you take me for, Pastel?” He asked, rolling his eyes. “Do you think my hard work’s just for show? I work myself and my team to the bone for a reason.”

“Right,” I nodded, taking a step next to him. He flinched and stepped back.

“Oh— sorry?” I said.

“What was that for?” He frowned.

“Nothing, I just felt like doing it,” I shrugged. “I like being close to my friends.”

“Friends?”

“I mean, yes? What did you think we were?”

“Traveling companions that ended up together out of convenience?” He said.

I frowned, feeling genuinely hurt. “Are you kidding me? How— why would I even ask you to meet my other friends and travel together if I didn’t think you were my friend?”

“I don’t know, I thought that you’d maybe need me to get through Mount Coronet down south,” he shrugged.

“So you don’t think of me as a friend at all?”

He paused for a few seconds, and the silence grew uncomfortable. “My break’s over, I need to—”

“Riolu,” Riolu shook his head.

“What? But the—”

“Ri,” he interrupted, his tone stern.

The teen scratched his head and groaned. “Fine! I’m not a friend guy. I’ve never had any friends at all, and I don’t know what it’s like, okay?! I don’t fucking know if we’re friends or not!”

“Well, I’m telling you that we are!” I yelled. “Stop putting this barrier between you and us! Let us in!”

“Fuck off,” he spat, turning away from me.

“You’re such a prick!”

“Yeah! Yeah, I am, and I like it that way, which is why I’m leaving!”

“Okay!”

“Fine!”

Riolu facepalmed, clearly giving up on the situation, and I stomped away angrily. Stupid Chase and his stupid need to be an asshole. I wanted to help him, but he kept pushing me away, like he needed to keep me at arm’s length at all times. Maybe that was why he kept calling us by our last names all the time. He didn’t want to get too close to anyone. I bet that was why he wanted to leave—

“You two alright?” Craig asked me, interrupting my train of thought.

“What? Oh, yeah. Yeah, just something stupid,” I sighed.

“Want someone to talk to while your other pals are busy?” He asked.

“Sure… I don’t see why not, I guess.”

I sat next to him, and next to his Salamence, who thankfully didn’t pay me any mind.

“I just can’t with Chase!” I complained. “I want to be friends with him— hell, I thought we were. He was finally starting to be nice to us, and now he just blows up at me… although I guess I blew up at him too.”

“Maybe he just needs his space,” Craig shrugged. “Some people are like that. They don’t mind interacting with others, but at the end of the day, they’re a solitary trainer at heart. Like Sarah Newman, for example.”

“The girl who beat you last year in the finals?” I asked.

He grimaced. “No need to twist the knife. But yes, that’s her. She’s one hell of a trainer— one of the best— and we’re actually on good terms, but people considered her to be… eccentric. She was always quiet, and when she spoke, she always said what was on her mind, which is why she could be rude as hell,” he laughed, clearly reminiscing. “Anyway, that’s all to say that we’re all wired differently. Maybe Chase is just uncomfortable with the label of friendship. I mean, you are friends, that’s undeniable, but do you need to use the term?”

“I mean, no, but he wouldn’t let me even step next to him,” I grumbled.

“That’s his personal space,” Craig shrugged.

“I’ve never had someone reject me so strongly,” I sighed. “It hurt.”

“I can tell you’re a friendly kid. You’re like a big… bundle of warmth, and some people don’t like to be warm all the time. Do you like to hug your friends, for example?” He asked.

“Yeah, I do it a bunch,” I said.

“I figured. Some people aren’t comfortable with that level of bodily contact, right? It’s the same for personal space.”

My eyes widened, thinking of Frillish. “Oh. Oh.”

“You get it?” He smiled.

“Yeah, I do completely,” I groaned. “I messed up.”

Obviously, Chase had messed up as well. He was meaninglessly harsh with his words, but I was the one that had pushed him to that because I wasn’t willing to be content with a no.

“Well, you might as well go make up,” Craig said. “We’re leaving in ten.”

“Thank you, Craig,” I said as I got up.

“No prob.”

I hesitantly walked toward Chase, who clearly acted like he didn’t see me until I was literally right in front of him.

“I see you didn’t start up your workout again,” I said, trying to start the conversation in a non-awkward way. He had recalled his Pokemon as well.

“Yeah, my heart wasn’t in it. It was better to stop it here and start again the next time we land before we go to sleep,” he shrugged. “Plus we’re leaving soon anyway.”

“Erm… I wanted to apologize.”

“Eh, there’s no need.”

“No, let me finish,” I said. “I’m a friendly girl, alright? So sometimes, I forget that others aren’t as friendly as I am, and I think that they’d be okay with everything I spring up on them. I’m sorry I did that to you.”

Chase shifted around. “Look, we can just put this behind us and act like nothing happened, and it’ll be fine— ah, fuck it. You know what, let’s not do that. I’m sorry for blowing up at you, alright? I messed up more than you did, and Riolu chewed me out for it. I’m just new to this whole people thing.”

“S’alright,” I smiled. “Let’s, uh, not tell the others about this, okay? It’d be way too awkward.”

“Sure thing, Grace.”

My eyes almost fell out of their sockets. “What?”

“Nevermind. You aren’t getting any more of those from me.”

“What?! No, call me by my name again!”

He waved his hand annoyingly at me. “No, you made it weird, so I’m sticking with last names. Now bugger off.”

“Fine,” I said. “But that’s going in my long-term memory. I’m never forgetting about it.”

“Don’t make me regret my apology.”

I happily left Chase and saw that Cece and Denzel were back in one piece.

“Anything interesting happen?” I asked.

“Not much, just that her Scyther’s a piece of work,” Denzel sighed.

“He’ll come around,” I said, and Cece nodded. “We’re leaving soon, so you guys should get ready.”

When Cece left, I held back Denzel’s sleeve and pulled him closer. “Did you get what I asked?”

“Sol is short for Soldat, which means soldier,” he sighed. “I hate it here.”

I gave him a short hug and smiled. “You’re the best.”

“Just don’t make fun of her for it. She’ll know it came from me.”

“No guarantees.”

“I fucking knew I shouldn’t have trusted you!”

——

“I can never get enough of cities at night,” Cece whispered.

In the distance, Eterna city loomed.

The city looked strangely dim at night. It was nothing compared to the bright lights of Jubilife or Oreburgh, but it was still beautiful. It had taken us three days to get here, and we had made it in time for Pauline’s birthday. Roxie landed on the outskirts of the city, and Craig recalled her.

“Well, it was certainly different, traveling with you kids, but this is where our paths diverge. Stay safe, alright? If you ever meet my sister, call me and give her your phone! Tell her to answer her messages! Tell her that I love her, and I miss her very much, and I would like it if we spent some time together!” Craig said as he got progressively further away from us. We all waved at him until he entered the city, now a speck.

“What time is it?” Cece asked.

“9:34 pm,” I said after pulling out my Poketch. “We can make it. You know what Center they’re staying at, right?”

She nodded with a devious smile. We had tricked them into giving us their Pokemon Center address and rooms by saying that we’d need them for when we got back. Of course, that hadn’t been a lie. We were just back much sooner than they would ever expect. When we finally made it to the city’s entrance, Chase was going to head in another direction, down another street. It was time to say goodbye.

“Well, I’m off,” Chase said. “Traveling with you all was nice enough. Have fun meeting your pals.”

“Let’s meet back in Hearthome, alright?” I said. “And don’t forget to send messages!”

“I will, I will,” he said.

“And don’t get into random fights with trainers,” Cecilia added.

“Come on, I don’t do that.”

“You do.”

“Not unless they deserve it,” he shrugged.

“And don’t just do dangerous shit in Mount Coronet just because you’ve been through worse,” Denzel said.

“I’ve got it! Arceus! See ya.”

Now Chase was gone too, and my heart felt heavier. We had gone through so much together, and he was leaving, just like that.

“Well, it’s our turn now,” Denzel smiled nervously.

“It’s nighttime, so hopefully, we can keep a low profile,” I shuddered. “Let’s go.”