CHAPTER 121

"I'm serious, princess. You can talk to me, I'll listen," I said.

"To. Ge," she shook her head. Electabuzz worriedly tapped her back to convince her, but she didn't relent.

"Arceus, are you having your teenage crisis early?" I teased. "Well, I'll figure you out eventually. No secret is safe from me—"

Both of my Pokemon turned and stared behind me, and so did angel and sweetheart, who were together in the distance. I did the same, and I saw a bright light surround Frillish's body as he floated next to Turtonator, who was looking at him with a gleeful look.

"What… what happened?" I muttered in disbelief. I was too shocked to even move.

Frillish was… Jellicent now towered over Turtonator, being at least seven feet tall, if not more. His head had grown to enormous proportions, and he glowed slightly in the night. His eyes were now at least twice as bright, and staring at them too long unsettled me.

I shook my head. How could I be unsettled by my own Pokemon?

I snapped out of my stupor and ran toward Turtonator and Jellicent, closely followed by Electabuzz and Togetic. Tangrowth quickly came as well, propelling himself with vines while carrying Larvitar in the air.

"What happened here?" I asked, looking at Turtonator, then Jellicent. "You evolved! You weren't even fighting or anything! How do you feel?"

Jellicent slowly turned toward me and then stared down. He appeared a lot more slimy than usual, as if he was under a permanent Acid Armor, meaning that he'd be able to slip through any cracks easily. Did that mean hugs were now off the table? That sucked!

"Buddy? Talk to us," I smiled.

The water type let out a deep, booming sound from under his foamy mustache as he continued staring down at me.

"Hm, something isn't right," I frowned. Electabuzz nodded next to me while Turtonator just snorted and laid back down on the ground.

Tangrowth extended a vine forward, and it went inside of Jellicent's body, who just stood still and stared. Togetic and Larvitar both attempted to say something, but there was no reaction either. I felt my throat tighten.

"Are you feeling alright?" I asked, clenching a fist. "Do you want to go back in your Pokeball? Or maybe move around in your new body for a bit?"

Why was he just staring through me? Electabuzz grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back, stepping in front of me.

"What are you doing? I've got this—"

Tangrowth wrapped a vine around my waist, restraining me. Electabuzz continued yelling at Jellicent. Togetic and Larvitar begged for him to go back to normal, and Turtonator just watched with a curious, half-opened eye.

Jellicent's eye glinted, and in a split second, a Shadow Ball had finished gathering in front of his mouth. Electabuzz roared, and electricity sparked on both of his fists. He punched Jellicent, ramming through the Shadow Ball and creating an explosion. Tangrowth pulled me away and Togetic raised an earthen barrier to protect me. Electabuzz's hands sunk inside of the water type, shocking him from the inside. The water type's body shook and rippled, as if it was made entirely out of water, but his eyes cleared immediately after that.

His stare no longer disturbed me.

Electabuzz stopped his attack, shaking his hand where the Shadow Ball had hit.

Jellicent's stare turned to pure panic as he profusely bowed his head and apologized profusely. I breathed again for what felt like the first time in minutes and gave him a tired smile.

"You scared me there, buddy," I sighed. "What happened? That was like…"

Ghosts were known to grow out of control when they evolved, but Jellicent wasn't a true ghost. Unless something had changed…?

"Well, we'll figure it out at some point," I said. "Thank you for snapping him out of it, hon."

Electabuzz scratched the back of his head and smiled awkwardly. If he hadn't taken the initiative and attacked, then this could have gone to complete shit really fast. Even if it'd only take me seconds to grab Jellicent's Pokeball to recall him, an actual fight, however short it was, would damage all of their relationships. Plus, Jellicent wouldn't have been back to normal as quickly.

"At least I can figure out pretty quickly if you're normal or not," I told him. He stared at me and asked how. "Your eyes, you big goof. You were looking at me like I was a thing, not family. Anyway, Togetic, can you fix up the ground a little bit? I don't want to give the employees here extra work."

The flying type shakily nodded and began flattening the ground.

"What are you laughing at?" I asked Turtonator with a suspicious look. "I know you had something to do with this. I'm recalling you for now," I said, grabbing his Pokeball. After retrieving him, I turned to Jellicent again. "Important question. Can you solidify your body like ghosts? There's no point in you being this big if I can't hug ya."

Electabuzz cackled at that, agreeing with me. Larvitar stepped below Jellicent, waving her arms and looking at him with admiration as Tangrowth watched with his vines drooping. It looked like she had a new favorite now, much to his chagrin, but the novelty would probably wear off, and then she'd be back to begging to play with him.

Jellicent hesitated, but then his body slightly trembled, and he nodded at me.

I tackled him. It did not have the effect I wanted.

I thought I'd be able to bring him to the ground to hug him, and then everyone else would join in for a collective group hug. Instead, I bounced back and almost fell down, but Tangrowth stopped me by quickly wrapping a vine around me.

"Arceus, that was embarrassing," I exhaled as I stood back up. "Thanks Angel."

He waved at me and blinked twice. Jellicent apologized again, but I stopped him before he could finish.

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"Stop it, it was just me being stupid," I said, slowly approaching him. I gently wrapped my arms around his face— or as far as I could, given how big he was. "You smell like the ocean."

"Licent," he nodded.

"I love you," I teared up. "Don't do that again, okay? I can't lose you."

We must have stayed there for at least ten minutes. At some point, the others joined in too, although Larvitar was only hugging my ankle. There was no point in my Pokemon being strong if they lost themselves in the process.

"Oh man, this changes everything for tomorrow!" I gasped. "I need to text Denzel— we need to change our strategy around. Oh, we also need to try out your new body and strength and stuff! Oh man, this is gonna be so much fun. You guys mind if we extend our little jaunt and go to route 208?"

Togetic sighed, but everyone else agreed.

"Sorry princess, I'll make it up to you," I said before recalling them. I grabbed my Poketch, checked the time and winced. "Oh man, my sleep schedule is going to be fucked."

—

On the opposite side of Amity Square, Denzel sat at the edge of the lake. He had come here multiple times already thanks to Grace's recommendation, and he liked the place to bits. He found it easy to relax here, especially with how fidgety he felt about tomorrow's battle.

"Bas…!"

Feebas jumped across the lake, creating a beautiful arc. He was getting better at that. Sylveon, meanwhile, was lying down at the lake's shore, happily watching the fish perform for him. He had wanted to release the rest of his team too, but there'd be a high risk of a fight happening, and that was a no-no before tomorrow's battle. He needed them focused on that, not a lover's quarrel.

Well, at least Feebas could get some quality alone time with his crush while Denzel got into his battling headspace. Even though it would only be tomorrow, he was still thinking about it, talking and muttering to himself about different possible scenarios and creating a broad strategy to counter them. Sylveon called out to Feebas, who shyly approached the fairy type, and he hugged him with his ribbons.

Denzel raised an eyebrow. Sylveon usually didn't display that much affection with Buneary or Roselia. He was sure now that Snorunt wasn't in love with the fairy type, but she liked to hog his attention to annoy those two anyway.

The trainer grabbed Buneary's Pokeball and held it firmly in his hand. Lopunny was an evolution that required Buneary to feel highly attached to its trainer, and he was sure they were close enough now— even though she liked Sylveon more than him. If it had been enough for Budew, then she was ready. The problem was that she was so used to being in tough battles that nothing seemed to be enough to let her evolve.

It was a strange quirk of his team. Even though, again, Budew technically didn't require to be in a battle to evolve, she had done so during his gym battle against Candice. Denzel was sure Buneary would be the same. The question was, would she evolve tomorrow or during the battle with Fantina?

And could he trigger it at a specific moment?

Denzel snapped out of his thoughts as Sylveon tightly wrapped a ribbon around his arm. A soothing feeling permeated within him, and he smiled at his Pokemon. He liked to help him work past his worries with his powers, which he assumed worked like Togetic's.

"Thanks, Sylvi," he said, petting his head. "Can't get too reliant on that, though,"

The fairy type protested and shook his head.

"I know you mean well, but Cynthia warned Grace about it. I could get addicted to it, it's dangerous."

Sylveon grumbled and plopped himself on the ground, turning away from him.

"Can you at least try the new armor-like thing we've been working on?" He sighed.

Sylveon grumbled.

"Not armor. Got it. How about glamour or something?"

The fairy type nodded, and his body blurred for a single second, then tensed. Denzel brought a hand to his back and smiled when he couldn't manage to touch him directly— it was fundamentally impossible, at least until he got hit enough times. That would undoubtedly throw Chase and Cecilia for a loop tomorrow. They had developed this 'armor' during their training, and it wasn't actually a move. Fairies tended to be the most adept at creating things that weren't moves, and from what Denzel knew, each fairy was different with what they could achieve. He didn't really understand how Sylveon had come up with the concept, but he knew that it meant that he'd be able to fight in a melee for longer, which was his specialty.

Denzel let Feebas play around for another thirty minutes before he went back to the Center to sleep.

—

"You look so goofy!" I giggled at Jellicent. Togetic could barely float straight as the water type used Water Sport to propel himself upward. "Seriously, how does it still work with the size of your head?!"

Somehow, Jellicent had not lost any mobility from his evolution, although his larger size did mean he was a lot easier to hit. In his solid form, he was as slow as a Torkoal, and extremely heavy, but in his default, goo form? He was actually lighter than he had been before evolving, and his body could easily bend in unnatural ways, meaning that sharp turns weren't a problem either.

"Your attacks are a lot stronger than before, too," I continued. "No time to learn any new moves in a day, but what we have is already good. I will try to get you to learn Brine before the battle against Fantina, though. The large area of effect means that it'd be excellent to take down ghosts."

The water type nodded slowly.

"By the way, there'll be people tomorrow at our battle. Will you be okay to be out?" I asked.

Jellicent hesitated, but then nodded.

"Okay. Don't beat yourself up, okay? The fact that you're back to normal so quickly's already a lot of progress. Arceus knows that taking care of two unruly Pokemon would have exhausted me."

I checked my Poketch, and there was no answer from Denzel.

"I guess he's probably sleeping," I said. "Well, we've got all day tomorrow to work something out, so there's no rush. We should head back."

—

"And remember," I told Denzel. "I know it'll look stupid, but don't—"

"I won't intervene in your plan, I know," he smiled. "Did you remember to submit your order to Justin?"

I scoffed. "Obviously!"

"I don't know, you forget a lot of stuff."

"Maybe I'll forget that we're on the same team, too," I snarked.

"No you won't, because you hate losing."

I lifted a finger, but paused. "Yeah… fair enough."

Jellicent's evolution had completely changed our strategy from top to bottom, and we had stayed at the Center until the last minute to refine it. The beginning would look roughly the same, but the deeper into the battle we would get, the more different everything would be. The surprised look on Justin's face when I revealed that Jellicent had evolved had been very entertaining, but I had expected a bigger reaction. Denzel and I entered the arena where our battle would take place, and a small crowd of trainers was already there somehow. Pauline and Emilia were also sitting on the side, and I had asked for Emi to record the battle so I could watch it later.

"Arceus, how'd they find out so quick?" I asked exasperatedly.

"All it takes is for one person to see that Cece and Chase were there," Denzel said, pointing at our two friends. They were speaking with each other, probably doing some last-minute strategizing.

"And then it spreads like wildfire. I'm honestly surprised there aren't more people."

"Don't jinx us," I groaned.

Cece smiled and waved at us, while Chase just nodded. After ironing out our plan and implementing a few, last-minute changes, it was time for the battle to begin.

Justin stepped to the side of the arena and cleared his throat. He was clearly nervous, and he adjusted his collar before starting his speech.

"Erm, this will be a double battle, and each trainer will be allowed to use four Pokemon! You can only… wait I messed up. Uh, you can… there's only one switch per trainer allowed, and a Pokemon order was given to me, so you have to send out the first one you picked no matter what…"

How awkward, I thought. Still, I couldn't fault him. Speaking in front of this many people for the first time was no doubt nerve-wracking.

"Trainers, send out your Pokemon!" He exclaimed, a little firmer this time.

Immediately, I sent out Tangrowth, and Denzel released Roselia, who glared at him and screeched when she realized how many people were there.

I bit the inside of my lip when I saw a Slowking and a Vikavolt appear on the other side of the field.

It looked like I wasn't the only one that had hidden an evolution. We had been completely wrong about which Pokemon Chase would choose. All of the time he had spent in Mount Coronet made sense now. He had traveled up the mountain to reach a level where the mountain's magnetic field was powerful enough so that Charjabug could evolve. Meanwhile, Cecilia had an Arceus damned Slowking, which, needless to say, was a disaster for our plan to take him down quickly before moving on to Chase's Pokemon.

"Well, fuck," Denzel exhaled.

Yeah, I thought. Fuck.