CHAPTER 123

“The forums are going to go crazy about this,” Denzel smiled. I just answered with a tired nod. A lot of people had been recording the battle and were no doubt rushing to be the first ones to upload it online— both on the forums and every video hosting platform in general.

As we walked to meet the others, the adrenaline was quickly leaving my body, and I was growing more tired by the minute. My body felt like it had gone through an hour of cardio, and I was surprised that I was even still standing. I was also surprised to see that trainers weren’t swarming around us like I had expected them to. Oh sure, there were some exceptions— people asking for pictures, or just asking us to stay and talk for a while— but the majority just stood there. A deafening silence hung in the air as they watched Denzel and I walk up to Cecilia and Chase. My girlfriend was flat on the ground, breathing harshly and staring at the bright lights on the ceiling, while Chase annoyingly tapped his foot against the floor. Denzel, meanwhile, looked completely fine physically.

“Congratulations,” he said as we reached the two others. “That was one hell of a battle.”

“Didn’t do as well as I wanted,” Chase complained. “I felt like a sidekick, and that shit pisses me off.”

I offered Cece a hand and helped her up, but she was barely able to stand up straight.

“I’ve… I’ve… never had to… push myself this much,” she panted. “Tired…”

I smiled slightly. “Let’s get you in a bed, okay? Denzel, go get the others so we can leave.”

“Gotcha.”

Arceus, the result of the battle was disappointing, still. Cece leaned against me with her eyes half-closed, and I watched as trainers finally began to trickle out or ask questions to Denzel instead of us. That was something I could appreciate about trainer culture that people just didn’t get. You couldn’t overwhelm someone right after a battle this intense. Denzel was fine, so he’d be a legit target, but Cece and I were exhausted while Chase just looked pissed.

“Nice surprise with that Vikavolt,” I told him. “You caught us both completely off-guard.”

“Obel told me you’d lead with Frillish, so we figured it might have been a good idea,” he shrugged. “Obviously, she was wrong. And we didn't know he evolved. That regeneration thing is bullshit, by the way.”

“I thought… I…”

“Just close your eyes, okay? We’ll be in a car soon,” I told her before turning to Chase. “Hey, I won’t compliment you too much because you’ll think I’m pitying you and get pissed off even though you won, but your Pokemon were each excellent. Zangoose especially…” I grumbled.

“She’s fierce,” he agreed with a slight smile. “But at the end of the day, we didn’t do as well as I wanted, which means we lost.”

I was genuinely surprised at his lack of outbursts or complaints. I sighed, sitting against the wall, and Cecilia fell asleep on my shoulder immediately. I was too tired to even think back to the battle properly, which was frustrating. I wanted to go over my mistakes and fix them now. I had been prepared to lose, but it hurt more than I expected. I was almost there. I had almost caught up, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.

“Guys! That was incredible,” Pauline beamed. “It’s almost unfair how good you all are! Except you,” she said, looking at Chase.

I frowned, wondering why she was targeting him specifically before remembering that he’d been rude to Justin.

“Your shit-talking means nothing to me,” he responded. “But if you’re so sure about yourself, why don’t we battle when my Pokemon—”

“No fighting,” Emilia said, tugging on the redhead’s arm. “Can Cece walk? Justin and Denzel are already out looking for a taxi, so we should leave.”

“Um, Cece?” I asked. I had to shake her a little bit for her to wake up, and we were finally on our way.

No matter how bitter I felt about my loss, I couldn’t hold it against her, or Chase. We had promised no hard feelings for the Conference, but it also applied here, and with every single battle we would fight. The frustration was more focused on myself. We stepped into the taxi, but Chase opted to go back on his own because he didn’t want to owe us anything. We’d meet again eventually. Plus, he wanted to go sign up for Fantina’s gym immediately tomorrow morning to knock it out of the way.

After reaching the Pokemon Center, we all gave our Pokemon to Nurse Joy. I brought Cece to her bed, and then left for my room. Emilia, but especially Pauline, wanted to hang out with Denzel and I, but he wanted to do a short livestream for his viewers about the battle, and wanted to be alone for a bit. Emi surely wouldn’t have minded being in the livestream, though. Exposure was everything to a content creator, after all, and they still had to film their video with Vincent soon. I closed my door, crashed into my bed and shrieked into my pillow.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

That Zweilous was ridiculously, stupidly, insanely, unfairly strong! I fucking had them! I had them, damn it! Sure, I was sure that when I thought back to the battle tomorrow and looked at the footage Emilia had recorded, I’d cringe and find a bunch of mistakes, imperfections, and moments of hesitation in time where I could have done better. Those would slowly but surely have stacked up and tipped the course of the battle in my favor, and we might have won because of them, but right now?

Arceus damn it, it felt unfair. I hadn’t known that I had to defeat the two heads! I repeatedly kicked my bed as I kept screaming into my pillow until I was completely spent. I groaned as turned and stared at the ceiling. A dragon’s pride made them ridiculously stubborn when it came to fainting. Turtonator had been the same, although obviously on a completely different level, being covered in wounds for a week in Mount Coronet and still being capable of wiping the floor with me.

“Fucking hell,” I breathed. “Was I always this immature?”

At least I was done coping now… somewhat. Everyone else seemed fine about their loss. I counted Chase’s battle as a loss, since he did so himself, even though I found that strange. If Denzel had been the last one standing and he beat Cece, then I would have celebrated because I would have ultimately contributed to the win, but I supposed that we were fundamentally different. Anyway, what I meant was, I doubt he was screaming in his damn pillow due to anger. He maybe might have been just the type to do so, once, but he seemed so mature now.

Denzel too. He’d been trying to hide his disappointment to cheer me up, but I could easily see through him without an issue. He had immediately moved on and capitalized on the battle to bring himself more success by livestreaming. He’d grown a lot from when he needed that pep talk before Gardenia’s battle.

And now I was the only one being a baby. If the loss didn’t sting, it would have meant that I didn’t really care about battling— or at least winning. Then that meant that there’d be no drive for me to improve. However, all my motivation had been sapped away like I’d been hit with Absorb. I thought I was bigger than this.

My meeting with the Poketch Company was soon. If I got enough money from a sponsor, then I’d be able to start feeding my Pokemon supplements and buy TMs… but I had been so, so close to winning without them, and for some reason, that frustrated me further.

“Well, I’ve got to start planning more in-depth for Fantina soon,” I sighed. “I also need to start preparing for that damned meeting.”

Electabuzz would be the star of that battle. I was kind of noticing a pattern there. He’d been supposed to be the ace against Gardenia— although that ended up being princess due to the ever-changing circumstances of battles, but he’d been my strongest against Candice, and now he’d do the same against Fantina.

And this time, it was solely thanks to his ability to sense ghosts, which I still didn’t understand why he even had. It wasn’t as good as we needed it to be right now, but with a some practice, I was sure he’d be able to perfect it. Now that Jellicent had evolved, and he was more of a ghost than before, I was confident that honey would be able to use him to practice.

Could Jellicent sense other ghosts too? If I had two Pokemon that could, then the odds would certainly be in my favor.

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I closed my eyes, daydreaming of my battle against Fantina, and drifted off to sleep.

——

Chase sat at the window of his Pokemon Center and sighed. Riolu leaned against his wall and stared apologetically at him. For all that stupid strategizing that Obel had tried to rack into his brain, they sure went off the rails immediately. In the beginning, she had wanted to create an intricate plan, but in the end, they just ended with a few strategies and figured that the best they could hope for was to not get in each other’s way. Slowking speeding up Vikavolt had been one, but they mainly ran on instincts throughout the battle, netting them a narrow victory.

“Ri,” Riolu said with his arms crossed.

Chase smirked at his partner. “Proud that I didn’t use you, huh?” He asked. The fighting type responded with a nod. “Well, you’re the one who ragged on me to stop depending on you so much, so we busted our asses in Mount Coronet to catch up.”

And yet, after all of that training, Chase still felt like he was ever so slightly lagging behind. Oh, he wouldn’t beat himself over it whatsoever. The cure to struggling was to simply work harder— a natural mindset in the Iron Islands. That jaunt through Mount Coronet had undoubtedly brought him up to speed, but there was something he was lacking.

Fairies, ghosts, and dragons were all bullshit. That was a part of his problem. Pastel’s Jellicent could take hits like a sponge and regenerate like it was nothing. Williams’ Sylveon was an Arceus damned battle maniac that had some sort of bullshit fairy armor, and he could barely recognize it from that time Ri had easily dealt with it as an Eevee. Togetic’s mastery of the field was as good, or perhaps even better than Slowking’s. Hell, even that little Snorunt could completely turn the tide of a battle with Blizzard. The two fairies in general unnerved even him greatly. Sylveon, and to a lesser extent, Togetic, looked at their opponents like someone would stare at a lesser lifeform. Chase didn’t understand how Williams and Pastel were just fine with having them on their teams, especially since they appeared to be getting worse the stronger they got.

The boy sighed.

Yes, Chase would not complain about his loss, but he was realizing that being a good Pokemon trainer was more than having your Pokemon be at their top physical condition. He needed to control the field as a whole, or he would not improve as quickly as he wanted. Pastel had Ancient Power, Cecilia had her damned psychic, and to a lesser extent, Williams had Blizzard.

But Chase did not need a dragon, a ghost, or a fairy. He had come from nothing, and had reached this point through hard work, perseverance, and dedication. Most important of all, he needed to branch out of just trying to hit things harder. He needed to find a way to control the field and change it to his advantage.

And he would start immediately.

“Well, I’m teaching Vikavolt Electric Terrain starting tomorrow,” he declared to Riolu. Then, he’d need to figure out a way to get the electric type to his top speed without another Pokemon’s help. He still wasn’t exactly used to his body yet. Going from crawling on the ground to flying had been a shock, and Vikavolt was still slowly getting better at it.

And maybe Houndoom’s darkness could also be worked with.

Chase Karlson would not be left in the dust.

The trainer sighed again, his face turning grim. “We’re getting pretty close to Celestic, huh?”

“Rio,” the fighting type nodded.

——

Cecilia groaned as she woke up, and she wiped a trail of drool from her mouth. She groggily picked up her phone and sighed when she saw that it was only two in the morning. Her entire body felt sore, but her mind still vividly remembered that battle. The stakes, the highs and the lows, the individual stories and rivalries that played themselves out in front of her eyes for nearly an hour.

She had never had to push herself this hard for a battle. Never. And yet, it was the most fun she had ever had. Zweilous had nearly fallen by the end, and by the Legendaries, it wouldn’t have mattered to her if they had. Win or lose, she would have been satisfied with the results, but she couldn’t lie. It was a relief to her that Chase and she had won. He had gone off the rails a few times to do his own thing, but they had agreed on no overarching plan or strategy, which meant that they had to talk mid-battle a whole lot to adjust for errors. Arceus, just thinking about the fight still made her feel giddy inside. Grace and Denzel were the best rivals that she could have asked for. Even Chase, as painful as it was to admit it, was one of them. The girl couldn’t wait to see the carnage they would all unleash during their battles when their teams grew in power. As Cecilia poured herself a glass of water, she couldn’t help but daydream about a future where one of them— hopefully her— was the Champion and they were all a part of the Elite Four. Maybe Pauline could be the last one, since Justin would be preoccupied with Pherzen. Alas, dreams were often not reality, and Cecilia recognized that it’d be easier said than done.

She did want to stay with her friends forever, though, and that was the main way that she could envision such a future. She was no longer miles ahead of her friends. Grace was breathing down her neck with none of the resources Cecilia had. If she slowed down for even a second, it would mean that she would fall behind. No. Even that wasn’t enough. She needed to go above and beyond. Grace had her meeting with the Poketch Company and a bunch of other businesses, so she’d soon get a lot more money to work with if everything went well, and hopefully, it would.

And Cecilia knew her girlfriend too well to think that the same tricks would work on her twice. She would need to come up with new tactics for their next battle, whenever that would come, and the best path forward that she could see now was getting better at faking her body language, somehow. As the battle had progressed and panic had overtaken her thoughts, she had completely stopped even trying to, but it hadn’t even worked that well in the first place. Grace had somehow seen through her almost right away, and Denzel had been there to stay focused on the small details, constantly whispering to her to micromanage the fight and catch the things she didn’t.

Now that the battle was over, Cecilia was mostly preoccupied with what Pauline’s mother would tell them about Harvey and Clarence. Cecilia had been worried about Louis, but now that she at least knew that he was safe and that he had people to keep his spirits up, a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She hoped that they would at least talk once in the city. She also wasn’t worried about the fight against Fantina at all, and she doubted that the gym leader would give her as much trouble as Grace and Denzel had. She would have to work hard to bring Scyther up to speed with the others, though. Sure, he was fast, but his lack of power was disappointing. A shame, when he had seemed so unstoppable when they had traveled through Eterna Forest, but she supposed that his stagnation had been her fault. Slowking, Zweilous, and Fletchinder had done everything she could have hoped of them as well.

Despite the dangers that lurked, there was a lot to look forward to in the future. Her fifth team member was near, and she’d be able to catch it as soon as they reached the Lost Tower on route 209. Cecilia shivered in excitement. It had been so long since she caught a new Pokemon, but now that she had seen what Fantina had done with it in the battle against her friend?

She was sure that she had made the right choice.

——

That settled it, Denzel thought as he finally ended his livestream after thanking every donor. He was definitely getting a dragon as his last team member. He’d been on the fence about it, still wondering if he should get an Altaria or not, but seeing Zweilous fight had changed his mind. Maybe he was being a bit childish about wanting the big, new shiny thing that beat his and Grace’s ass. Most trainers that competed at the top didn’t even have one, nor did they have fairies or ghosts. A ‘good’ type couldn’t exactly overcome hard work, talent, and experience. Denzel knew that even though Cece’s Zweilous was special, with the vitamins and being an offspring of a Champion’s Pokemon and all, he’d eventually catch up due to the diminishing returns that the vitamins had the more you fed them to your team. Still, the type was undoubtebly strong, along with ghosts and fairy types. He would already have the latter two when Snorunt evolved, so why not complete the trio?

Altaria shared, or even surpassed Zweilous’ attacking power, but it was a frail Pokemon that would go down a lot quicker than he would if it got hit, and it wouldn't exactly fit what he was looking for. If he could get a Dratini somehow… Arceus, he’d have to save up millions. He was making a lot of cash from his streams and donations, and his channel was growing at a quick pace, but that was pennies compared to the money he’d need if he wanted to buy it from a breeder or the Veilstone Game Corner.

Which was basically just a casino. They called it a Game Corner to prevent underage people from getting banned. Trainers were their primary source of income, after all.

Sponsors were the name of the game, but his first meeting had gone terribly. The company kept wanting to lock him into an exclusive contract, and Denzel wasn’t going to take that deal. He wanted to be fluid— not locked into working with a single company. Plus, although the benefits were good, they’d be locked for the next two years. Pauline kept hammering at him that he was worth more or whatever, and she was better at business than he ever was, so he walked out. He had nine more, and the next one would be tomorrow. His time at Hearthome was keeping him extremely busy, but he was okay with that. This was how he wanted to live.

“Dratini it is,” he breathed out. This time, the words felt correct. There was a certainty to it that he had felt when choosing his other team members that hadn’t been there with Swablu.

Dragonite were just as tough as Hydreigon, but also beautiful— or maybe the word was majestic? And they were quick. If there was one thing Denzel also lacked in his team, it was speed. Cecilia had Fletchinder, and Scyther, Grace had Electabuzz. Chase’s Zangoose was about as fast as Lopunny was, and his Vikavolt was faster if given enough time to reach his top speed. If he could combine his team’s usual toughness with a dragon’s, along with a Dragonite’s speed…

Well, it was still a long-term goal. He was generally happy with how his Pokemon had done, even though he wished he could have performed better. Lopunny especially had been an unfortunate loss. She hadn’t been used to her newfound power and jumped too high, meaning that Fletchinder easily hit her with Flame Charge. Denzel knew she could have done a lot more if she had been used to her new form. If he could have gotten a do-over, he probably wouldn’t have triggered her evolution during that battle.

Suddenly, he heard his phone ring. He picked it up, expecting it to be Caitlyn. She was supposed to be arriving in Hearthome tomorrow, and they were going to hang out after his meeting, but she could have made it early. Hopefully, Pauline wouldn’t burst a blood vessel about that. Denzel almost dropped his phone when he saw a message from Louis asking to meet in secret.

Right now. In the middle of the night.