CHAPTER 144

"Hi Lauren. Nice to see you again," I smiled. Duosion waved at me with its stubby little arms, and it seemed to speak to her.

"Hello. My name is Lauren Goodwill," she quietly said, introducing herself to the others. She always spoke with a whisper. "No relation to Craig Goodwill."

Such a brazen-faced lie! I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing, awaiting my friends' reactions.

"Of course," Cecilia said. "Just a coincidence, I'm sure."

"Uh… sure?" Denzel frowned.

"I'm glad you called us over," I said. "Do you want to hang out with us? We can grab a bite or a drink somewhere."

"Aw man, I heard of this awesome spot on route 210 that sells the best Moomoo milk. It's a bit of a walk, though," Denzel said.

"Moomoo milk is disgusting," I grimaced.

"That's why you're so short."

"Shut it!" I pushed him, eliciting an obnoxious laugh. "Sorry Lauren, go ahead," I said, dipping my head slightly.

"No, I didn't call you over to do that—" she suddenly stopped as her Pokemon wriggled. "I'm okay, Sirris… stop bossing me around."

The Duosion recoiled in its goo. Sirris was its name, huh? It looked like she was nicknaming her team just like her brother. Slowking observed the Pokemon with usual amusement. He was our only Pokemon out at the moment.

"I saw all of your battles against Fantina, and I was also there during your double battle with your friend Chase… I think you guys are good, but I want to push my limits. Grace, I heard that your Turtonator was the real deal," she said, staring at my burns. "I want to battle it. I get four Pokemon to make it fair and no switches… I'll use my Magmar, Seismitoad, Rhydon, and Sceptile. What do you say?"

If I'd been drinking something, I would have spat all over her face.

"Err, thanks for asking, but that's unfortunately impossible," I awkwardly said. "Sunsh— Turtonator's a bit of a grouch who doesn't battle, but when he does, I mean, he's way too powerful. Rhydon would probably be fine, but I don't even think your Seismitoad would be able to handle the heat, let alone us. Not without a psychic barrier to help."

"They've got a bunch set up for trainers to practice battling," she shrugged. "But it's okay, I guess…"

She didn't look okay whatsoever. In fact, this was the most emotion I'd seen on her face when meeting her. Her eyes were downcast, and she let out an exasperated sigh.

"Hey, if you want, I'll battle you!" Denzel exclaimed. "My Froslass could use some practice."

"I'm not in the mood anymore," she sighed.

Denzel's shoulders slouched.

"We can still get to know each other, right?" Cecilia smiled. "Better do it now while the brackets aren't announced and people aren't going too crazy."

Lauren paused. "Sirris tells me that it's a good idea, so I'll come."

I tapped a finger against my chin and watched the Duosion happily bob in its goo. It seemed that it was some sort of guiding figure for her like Riolu was to Chase, except that she had caught it relatively recently instead of knowing it her entire life. Still, I couldn't judge, and it looked like the psychic had her best in mind.

"Alright, I guess we can go grab some food, I'm starving," I complained.

"When are you not starving?" Denzel teased.

"Plenty of times, but a girl's gotta eat! Plus, I got raked over the coals by my sponsorship liaison since I have to practice taking interviews."

"Oh shit, can you give me some tips on that? I was going to take some too, but I'm going in blind and you probably have more media literacy than me by now. I'd appreciate the help. Can't fumble and ruin my brand."

"I'll send you the gist of it later."

"Text isn't enough, I need to see it."

"Ugh, fine," I groaned. "Come see me later tonight."

"The fact that you're doing interviews surprises me…" Lauren trailed off. "When my brother sent me stuff about you, he said you were just like me. I guess that was another one of his lies."

I held back a wince. Poor Craig really wasn't getting any points with his sister.

"I thought you weren't related to Craig," Denzel joked.

"I wish. That was just a joke."

That actually got his attention, and he kept going. "You seem to dislike him a whole lot."

"He babies me too much and keeps trying to help me. That takes away from my own success. I work hard, but people keep saying that it's unfair that I'm doing well for myself. The further away he stays from me, the better."

So it was what I expected, then. To be honest, it sucked for Craig, but he should probably have gotten the picture by now. I felt that if he gave her some space, then she'd slowly start opening up to him.

"I understand that completely," Cecilia nodded.

"I know a bit about you. Your brother is Unova's Champion, right? You probably have it even worse than I do, sorry for complaining…"

"It doesn't bother me much. I tend to ignore the noise."

"I still don't know how you manage that," I said.

We entered a local restaurant close to the Pokemon Center Lauren was staying at, which was different than ours. I looked the menu over a few times and decided to order some chicken fingers, which Cecilia and Denzel relentlessly made fun of me for. Obviously it wasn't just for kids, or it wouldn't be on the damned normal menu. The others all took complicated and fancy meals. I hadn't expected Solaceon to have such a high-profile restaurant.

"So, Lauren. Why don't we talk about our teams?" I asked. Couldn't go wrong with talking about Pokemon to a fellow trainer.

She showed a hint of a smile. "Who should go first?"

"I guess I will, since I suggested it," I said. I proceeded to explain how dad had suddenly brought a Togepi egg one day, and that unexpectedly started my path to becoming a trainer. If Princess hadn't been there, I doubt that I would ever have become one.

Denzel told her about how he rescued his Sylveon as an Eevee and nursed him back to health, while Cecilia explained that her Zweilous was the child of her brother's Hydreigon. I was surprised that Lauren didn't seem even a bit miffed at that. I thought that she'd think that Cecilia should have done everything on her own like she was. Granted, I'd had ten counters ready to defend her. We proceeded to go over how we caught each one of our Pokemon, reminiscing about old times, and I finally learned that Cecilia caught Slowking in the lake north of Jubilife before heading to Oreburgh.

"My first Pokemon was Volis, my Sceptile. He was a gift from my brother. The only one I ever got. He's from the Daycare here, actually…"

Oh. That made a lot more sense.

"They do breed wonderful Pokemon," Cecilia nodded. "We have a friend with a Vulpix from there."

"He's outgoing and always there to cheer the team up, but he hates my Magmar— Mags. He's aggressive all the time, and he's annoying to take care of, but he's a good guy. I caught him near Canalave as a Magby, and he burned my legs."

She lifted her pants to show us, and we dipped our heads under the table. Those looked pretty bad and stretched across both of her tibias. The ones on the right leg were worse, stretching up further until we couldn't see. That must have hurt. It was interesting that she owned a Magmar, though. He was Electabuzz's counterpart, and both of their evolution methods were secret. Hoarded like gold by a few trainers at the top. I knew that Flint from the Elite Four owned a Magmortar, but speaking to an Elite Four member was exponentially harder than speaking to a gym leader, so she would probably have to figure out the evolution method on her own or get good enough to have connections with people high up at the League.

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Still, I figured it would maybe make for a nice rivalry if the two ever fought.

"As long as he can burn things, he's happy. That's easy to understand, so I like that. Byron was my first gym badge, and Volis and Mags made quick work of him."

"So you come from Canalave?" I asked. I had never asked where Craig was from and never bothered to look it up, so this was new to me.

Lauren nodded. "When I easily won, people started to talk about my brother helping me. Since Craig's first ever gym battle had been against Byron too, he gave me a bunch of tips about how he fought and the Pokemon he used at that level, so they weren't exactly wrong. I told him to stop, but he keeps trying to help to this day. At least he backed off a bit recently…"

"Yeah…" Denzel said. He was probably thinking about the fact that Craig wanted us to help her instead of him.

"Anyway, I went to Oreburgh next and caught Defiant in the mines there. He's my Lairon. He pulled his weight a lot during that fight," she smiled. "He's the only one Mags gets along with, and they like to spar a lot. Mags's been outgrowing him a lot recently though, so he's been a bit irritated. On the way back to Jubilife, I caught Sirris. He's my best friend," Lauren said fondly.

"Aww," I said.

"He's always there to support me, I don't know what I'd do without him. He runs my finances too, so I don't have to worry about money. He even answers my emails."

Cecilia frowned. "How? He can't really… type."

"He uses his psychic powers to push down on the keyboard. He types faster than any human I've ever seen."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense."

"You aren't sponsored by anyone, right?" Denzel asked.

"No, and I don't plan on doing so. I want to reach the Conference without any sponsorships at least once. Maybe next year will be different."

"Sounds like Chase," Cecilia laughed.

"Your friend is scary… I don't want to meet him. Sirris told me that he looked like bad news."

"He grows on you. I don't think you'll be able to meet, since he's got to get ready to leave soon."

"Oh, I thought he'd be participating…"

"No, he's got stuff to do, can't stay here for too long," I vaguely explained.

"Okay, well good for me, I guess. I caught my Seismitoad, Prime, next to the river that runs east of Floaroma. She's a little reserved, but she enjoys sparring a whole lot too. She helps keep Mags under control, but he hates fighting her because she's got the type advantage."

"Your Magmar kind of reminds me of Louis' Gible," Denzel noticed.

"Dragons are overrated," Lauren said with unusual confidence. "Sorry… um, ignore that. After that, I went a long while without catching anything else. I considered catching a grass type in Eterna Forest, but none of them appealed to me. I traveled through there alone too, and there were a few close calls."

My eyes bulged. "Alone?!"

Even with the Pokemon I had now, I wouldn't feel confident going through the forest alone. The Pokemon there were probably almost all weaker than what I had at this point except at the center of the forest, but one Poison Sting was all it took. One mistake, and I'd be dead. I wasn't going to take those odds unless I absolutely had to.

"Yes? I didn't really know how to ask for help."

Denzel facepalmed. "You could have gotten yourself killed."

"I was fine. I beat Gardenia easily in Eterna. After I beat her Lombre with Volis, Mags almost completely swept her team by standing around and burning things."

I repressed the primal need to defend Gardenia and let her keep going.

"It wasn't until I came across my Rhydon— Paragon— in the middle of Mount Coronet that I knew I what I wanted. It took my entire team to hurt him enough to catch, and I almost died in the process," she said.

It was only now that I noticed a huge scar running across her shoulder, barely hidden by her shirt. Her coat had hidden it back in Hearthome.

"I can see you want to ask. I took a shard of Stone Edge to the shoulder. If it had been the full attack, I would have died. Paragon's a bit of a special case, since he doesn't really listen to me and just does what he wants. He doesn't really talk to anyone on the team, but Sirris tries to keep him company from time to time. Still, even though he's kind of dumb, he's also really strong… slightly weaker than your Turtonator, if I had to guess," she nodded toward me. "I still think he'd lose handily one-on-one though, which is why I wanted a four-on-one."

Wow, that was a lot stronger than I expected. I'd need to figure out how to take this thing down if I wanted to win. The table went silent, and we were probably all thinking about the same thing. If he was dumb, it was doable… she'd given us a lot of insight into her team, for someone as secretive as she was. I was starting to wonder if the secrecy was more of something that she just preferred because she disliked people instead of a genuine attempt at keeping her team and moves secret. She didn't seem to care at all about the latter.

We finished our food, and Lauren left us to go battle other trainers. She seemed to love doing that even when she utterly crushed the competition. I didn't really see the point in a battle if it was that lopsided, so I preferred to train my team on my own, but maybe I could find a few four or five-badge holders here to practice… but it'd be wiser to wait for my first few matches. I still had a few things to hide.

"I guess she doesn't care about secrecy at all," Denzel enunciated my thoughts as we looked at Lauren growing smaller and smaller on the horizon. "She's a lot different than I thought she was, but she's cool."

"She probably thinks that with the strength behind her Pokemon, it doesn't matter," Cecilia said. "That Rhydon will be an issue."

"And there are the custom moves to worry about. We've got our work cut out for us," I said.

"Training it is, then," Denzel smiled.

We all laughed, and then decided to split up. Before going off to train, I went back to my Center Room to grab my laptop and downloaded the video of my battle against Fantina so I could finally get the autopsy done. I went off to a secluded wooded area that I had no doubt people were observing and released my entire team, including Turtonator for intimidation purposes. I had them work on moves that the public knew I owned while I opened my computer with a sigh. There was literally a Ducklett just staring at me from afar, and a Trumbeak flying overhead. They weren't being discreet about this at all.

I wasn't used to being studied, I usually did the studying. I ignored them and started to play the video of my gym battle. There were a few mistakes here and there that I easily caught. My reaction time when I didn't expect something left a lot to be desired, even if I had improved a whole lot, but aside from that? There were no glaring issues that I could see. The old me would have lost to that Haunter splitting in two I would have tunnel visioned and not switched because I had come up with the Wish plan and I would have been desperate to make it work. I also might have panicked when Doublade revealed Swords Dance. There was real improvement here, and I was glad that I could see it on screen. It wasn't subtle at all.

Looking at myself, I hadn't even been trembling or anything during the battle. I'd just been focused. I was sitting completely still and just staring at the battle and Fantina, barely blinking. I had failed to read the gym leader much, unfortunately, but other than that, I had been in top condition.

I stared up as Turtonator angrily blew a stream of flames toward the unsuspecting Ducklett, who flew away in fear. Jellicent quickly extinguished the burning underbrush and angrily boomed at Sunshine, who just snorted and went back to sleep.

"Don't attack things," I warned. "I know you were holding back, but hurting a trainer's Pokemon is past what we're allowed to do."

His nose angrily flared.

Well, I was a literal child ordering him around, so that made sense. He was kind of cute when he was mad. Not that I'd ever tell him that.

"Yeah, I know you don't like to be bound by rules, but it's just how this works, so cooperate with me here. Call it a favor? I'll owe you later."

The fire type curiously peered at me with the smuggest smile I'd ever seen, and Princess angrily chided him. Electabuzz calmed her down quickly enough, but Sunshine just ignored her and kept speaking to me.

"You want me to stop talking? Alright, fine. I won't annoy you with any more stories today, and you let the Pokemon here spy in peace. It's not like we have anything to hide."

I had said that final part intentionally, hoping to fool some into believing that all of the information on my team was already available online if they looked hard enough. Turtonator lay back down, seemingly satisfied with his bargain, and I just rolled my eyes at him. He was such a diva.

Back to the battle it was. Like I had said, I had been completely focused like never before, like the world around me simply didn't exist. Every decision I had taken had been at least somewhat correct, and there were no glaring mistakes.

So how could I replicate this?

Being completely prepared was certainly a part of it, but that wasn't it. I stayed deep in thought for at least ten minutes trying to think of what had been different, and I finally got it just as I won the battle on the video, funnily enough. Princess' Ancient Power sure made me proud every time I saw it.

My battle with Fantina was simply the first battle where I had come in with expectations that things would go horribly wrong at some point. Sure, in all of the others, I had thought that there might have been some deviations, but never bad ones, so I had always been caught off guard when they did come. If I expected things to go wrong, then I couldn't get tripped up.

It was kind of related to what I had done against Candice too. With her, I had changed the pace of the battle rapidly to catch her off-guard and affect her judgment, so why wouldn't it work on me? If my mind was already ready to counter bullshit, then I'd do it quicker than if it wasn't.

"Note to self, always expect things to go to shit," I whispered.

If it didn't, then great, but if it did, I would be prepared. I started playing back the video with Fantina again, and did so until nighttime in between helping my Pokemon out with their training. Princess had almost mastered the spear. Almost. When I got back, I helped Denzel like Melody had helped me, but it felt a little weird to act like an expert in media when I had gotten just a few hours of help. I was a novice at this, just like him. Still, it brought me back to the Floaroma tournament, where Denzel had helped me escape from a few small-time reporters trying to interview me.

I'd come far, but I would go further still.

—

Three days later, the brackets were announced, and I would actually have the earliest battle of the group. Mira and Denzel were fighting on the same day as I was, but the rest were all fighting tomorrow. My opponent was named Kyle Thornton, a three-badge holder from Sunyshore with a Watchog, a Gogoat, a Kricketune and a Probopass, and unlike me, he was a second-year. It was surprising to see someone in their second year with only four Pokemon, but I had to remember that I was the exception in that regard, not the rule. People usually took multiple years to fill their roster completely, since they opted to focus on training a few Pokemon to beat the early gyms consistently instead of overextending themselves.

Honestly? I was confident, and this was a perfect opponent for Sweetheart to battle with Angel. I had to physically stop myself from looking up more information, like moves, fighting style or abilities. It felt fundamentally wrong not to research more in-depth, but I was committed to doing this, at least for the early rounds. One of the good things about knowing his team was that I knew that he had nothing to spy on me unless he'd caught something in between Veilstone and Solaceon, so I was freer to train openly. I spent the next two days perfecting my team's new moves and working exclusively on their teamwork.

Finally, the day of the tournament had come.