CHAPTER 169

"Okay, so you're looking for the battery compartment, right?" I told Honey as he confusedly twisted our camping stove around. I grabbed the battery and handed them to him. "See that little indentation on the side? Open it and put them in there."

The electric type hummed, and after a few seconds, he managed to get the stove powered.

"Now you want to select temperature, and bam! You can just put a pot on there and start cooking. Not the most exciting process since you're starting small, but it'll do for now. Baby steps, right?" I smiled, tapping his shoulder. "You watch me cook the pasta for now, okay? Tomorrow, you can do the same."

Electabuzz excitedly whirred as I grabbed my small pack of pasta. I called Buddy over and asked him to spit water into the pot. Water types' water was perfectly healthy to drink, but most trainers didn't exactly like to imagine drinking something coming out of someone else's mouth. I wasn't most people. When the water came to a boil, I dumped the raw pasta in.

"Now with pasta, it's pretty simple I think. I mean, it's one of the few things my dad taught me how to cook, so I'm alright at it," I continued as I twirled the noodles around. "You wanna wait until they're soft… which is, uh, a certain amount of time that I forgot. I guess we can taste test as it goes!"

After a few minutes, Honey tapped on my shoulder and grunted, nodding toward the salt.

"Fuck," I sighed. "I forgot."

We were currently camping on route 210, and we had made it halfway through. Denzel had been right. The grass here really was taller than all of us— even Sunshine and Angel. Luckily, the Rangers had forged a path through and we were simply following it. There had been no accidents or even attacks so far, which was good news.

I usually didn't cook that much outside of cities, but Honey did want to get better at it, so I figured why not pack a bunch of stuff to cook on the way to Veilstone? That way, I figured I'd be able to share his hobby and we'd get better at it together. Pasta and sandwiches were about all I could make right now, but it was a work in progress.

After dumping what might have been way too much salt into the bowl, I strained the pasta, dumped the water in the bowl and put the pasta back in.

"Guys! Dinner!" I yelled.

Sweetheart rolled toward us first, although I had to yell at her to stop herself before her momentum built up too much. Pupitar weren't supposed to move like that, and she was still slowly getting better at moving properly, but it was more of a temporary solution to her current handicap. It did remind me of when I used to train Princess with Rollout back in our apartment.

"You can taste a little, but there's not enough in here to feed you," I said. "You've got to eat dirt to grow up properly, okay?"

The ground type let out an echoing roar. I was slowly learning her body language again, and she had that same thing that Angel had going on with his eyes, but more muted. I was pretty sure she'd smiled right there. Princess was off in the distance, creating a lifesized statue of Sunshine, who was sleeping in his usual curled-up position. Unfortunately for her, the fire type shifted positions and ruined her work— at least in her eyes. She angrily reduced the half-finished statue to dust and blew it all over Turtonator's body before joining me.

I waited to see if he'd retaliate, but aside from a roar that caused a few Starly to flee in fear and him heating up the surroundings by a few degrees, he didn't do anything substantial. Still, I told him to stop, not wanting to scare trainers traveling through. There were a lot because of the tournament, but we mostly kept to ourselves. Buddy let out a heavy, otherworldly sigh and washed away the dust with a warm jet of water. Angel skipped across the floor with a huge smile in his eyes.

"When did you learn to do that?" I asked amusedly. I had never seen him skip before. He shrugged with his vines, not remembering the answer.

I prepared everyone's usual meals, along with a side of pasta. Yeah, kibble or berries with pasta was weird, but they seemed to like it enough. Except Princess, who kept to her Oran Berries and left the rest of the food untouched. I'd anticipated that and only put the vitamins on there anyway, so it worked out regardless. Sunshine hated my pasta and complained that there was too much salt in it with an exasperated groan.

"I tried my best, you grouch!" I yelled. "You sound like my dad. Oooh, look at me, there's too much salt in my food, I have to eat healthy. Just give it to Angel or Sweetheart if you hate it so much. Hmph!"

Honey reassured me with a worried grunt, saying that the food was fine and that he enjoyed it very much, and that cheered me up some. Angel passed on the food, not because he hated the pasta but because he liked to feed Pupitar. He'd gotten a lot more into his caretaking thing since she evolved, and he couldn't go five minutes before worrying about her. Sweetheart rolled over, and the grass type dumped the remaining contents of Sunshine's bowl into her mouth. Then, she turned back and began munching on dirt. It was all she did most of the day, along with sleeping. She needed all the energy she could get to grow strong and evolve. Hopefully I'd be able to get her some of that premium dirt in Veilstone.

I chuckled to myself. "Premium dirt. Heh."

After cleaning everything up, I set up my tent and got ready to sleep. I wouldn't clock out right away, but it was nice to hide away from the elements. Plus, making a fire was annoying and I no longer had to do it thanks to Sunshine being there. I could even sleep in short sleeves and I would feel completely fine so long as he slept to the side of my tent which he didn't mind. Buddy sneaked into my tent, becoming a misshapen thing that was more water than Pokemon to be able to fit inside. Only his bright red eyes were recognizable. Princess slept inside of the tent because she was a mommy's girl and could actually fit, but everyone else kept guard outside. The reason Jellicent was here was because we had these nightly chats, just him and me. Princess sometimes chimed in of course, but she was content to listen most of the time.

"Welcome," I said in a dramatic tone, causing him to roll his eyes at me. I lifted a hand in the air and softly plunged it inside of the water. Jellicent quivered and shook around my arm. "Sorry. I know it tickles, I just think you're really cool when you do this."

When I'd caught him in Sandgem, I never expected him to be able to do this stuff. The water solidified into a gel-like substance and he flashed his 'not actually angry, but I have to look angry' face at me that he liked to use when dealing with Honey, Princess or Sweetheart's antics.

"I'll behave," I smiled. "How about we start with what's been bothering you? When I said that you wouldn't be able to understand me."

His eyes dimmed, and he stared silently at me.

"I wanted to tell you that it's not true. Pokemon and humans, well, we have our differences and our similarities, and to be honest, isn't that fine? Our thoughts won't align sometimes, but that doesn't mean that we can't understand each other. Hell, I'd say that you're capable of understanding how I think almost perfectly already. I've been slacking in that regard… I've been expecting you all to just become like me, and I know that's not realistic."

Jellicent let out a series of clicks, each one at a different pitch, length, or resonation. It was a complex sentence, but I understood it perfectly. Cynthia couldn't explain my strange ability, and there was apparently no one else like me that she'd found, so why? Why was I so good at understanding Pokemon?

I blinked and snapped back to the conversation. "No, look, everyone in the family has a different moral code, and we've just been following mine because I'm the mom. We have Sunshine and you on one end, and Honey and Angel on the other."

The water type stared at Princess and huffed. She innocently snuggled into my arms.

"Fine, Princess is on your end too," I added. "Anyway, the point is, you're fine. Don't let what I said bring you down… it was a stupid statement, and I'm sorry. Just be you, alright? It's okay to disagree with the decisions I take, even if you feel forced to implement them. I'm not perfect."

His eyes softened and he floated to the tent's ceiling, becoming a small pond that clung to the roof. He was basically able to do what Vaporeon could now, so that'd be very useful against Crasher Wake when the time came.

"Now it's your turn. Shoot."

Jellicent whistled deeply, asking if this journey alone was doing me any good.

"Well, it only just started, but so far, I feel like I'm enjoying myself. Sure, it won't be the end of all my problems, but it's nice to just be with everyone for once. I miss my friends, but it's not the end of the world. We'll meet again soon, and when we do, I'll be ready to tackle their problems and help them out."

Princess chirped. She was already starting to doze off. From the way she'd explained things to me, a major problem with her leaking fairy type energy had been because of our way of using Fairy Wind as a move in the background. It hadn't been the only reason, but it had been one of the main ones. She had figured out how to fully stop it now though.

"My turn again. Did you like the pasta I cooked today? Don't lie."

Buddy suddenly made himself very small.

—

The next day, we stopped when we reached the end of the tall grass. A large hill sat to our left, and I could see the start of Mount Coronet up north, covered by a strange, never-ending fog. The Café Cabin was a few hours away still, but before going there, I decided to take an executive decision.

"Let's take a break here," I said before releasing Sweetheart. Since she wasn't able to walk yet, she was the only one that traveled in a Pokeball. Everyone else was already out, although Sunshine had relentlessly complained about me having him walk.

I had just told him that he needed to stop being so lazy if he wanted to get as strong as Cynthia's Pokemon, and that seemed to light a fire in him.

I dropped my bag on the floor and rolled my tired shoulders.

"How about a little training?" I asked the team. "All of us against Sunshine?"

My Pokemon froze, although the dragon excitedly heated up. No doubt, memories of the last time we'd fought him flashed back into their minds, but it was different now. He was a part of the team.

I crouched next to Sweetheart. "I know this is going to bother you, but you can't fight until you learn to move, okay?"

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The rock type's eyes twisted in frustration and she jumped in place, shaking the floor below my feet and creating tiny fissures on the ground. Then, she proceeded to roll on the floor and throw a tantrum, bellowing louder than I'd ever heard her.

"Stop it."

Pupitar slowed down at first, and then came to a halt.

"I know it's not fun, but we've got to be responsible. You've been getting better at moving around, and by the time you get to Veilstone, I'm sure I'll be able to use you in battle. Just focus on improving for now."

She grunted with teary eyes and began to reflexively munch on some rocks she had kicked up.

I felt my heart wrench at her tears, but I knew that I needed to nip her bad behavior in the bud soon. When she'd been a Larvitar, it was cute, but now it could actually cause a lot of issues. And when she became a Tyranitar? Well, I wouldn't be allowed to release her in most city areas anyway, but she'd be capable of bringing an entire building down because I refused to let her hog the television. Luckily she'd still be able to be out in Pokemon Centers since they were made of some kind of super expensive hyper-resistant material, but she'd struggle to fit in my room. I knew there was a standardized list of Pokemon allowed to hang about everywhere on a government website, but I'd never really looked it up. In Sunshine's case, it had just been really obvious.

Of course, League Trainers and above were able to bypass this rule. And I did mean trainers. Interns like me would still be subject to them.

"Let's lay down some ground rules before you get ahead of yourself," I told Sunshine. His nose flared in anger. "You can raise the temperature, but not too much. We don't want to burn this entire area, and the fight wouldn't even be fair. No matter where we go, there's a small risk of trainers being around, so make sure not to let your attacks get too far. Are we clear?"

Turtonator reluctantly nodded, eager to get the battle going. The rest of the team grouped up around me after I called them for a strategy meeting. We huddled up and I began to whisper.

"Angel, you'll be at your worst during this fight, so try to just support the rest of the team from afar. You'd be a lot more powerful if you could use Sunny Day, but we won't do that for obvious reasons. That'd be shooting ourselves in the foot," I muttered. "Princess, you're going to be attacking more than usual. We can't win on defense against Sunshine. He'll choke us out and eventually blow past any wall you can make, so you're going to try to get close and Dazzling Gleam. Honey, you're going to feint him out. Keep attacking at a distance until I give you a signal. Buddy, you're the key to winning this. You can take a lot of hits and dish it back. Try to utilize Night Shade if you can, but other than that, focus on attacking with everything you've got. And this is important for everyone: watch the shell. Anticipate Shell Trap and move accordingly."

Turtonator impatiently slapped his tail against the floor and beckoned us to come at him.

He'd let us have the first move. I walked away as fast as I could, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire and prepared to observe the battle with Sweetheart. I'd give out orders as well, of course, but I wanted to see how the battle would go if I let my Pokemon fight semi-independently. In a normal setting, that wouldn't be necessary, but in a fight with no rules like my battle against Harry?

They needed to get used to it.

The temperature dropped as shadows intertwined with each other next to me, forming into a Night Shade. Jellicent turned into water and sunk into the floor just as his shade spat out a low-powered Whirlpool. Flames erupted from Turtonator's shell and the water immediately turned into mist.

Electabuzz whirled his arms until my hair stood on end, shooting out Thunderbolt after Thunderbolt, but Turtonator simply shrugged them off. The electricity harmlessly bounced off his beige scales. He grinned, blasting a metallic burst of energy toward Honey, who barely had time to put up a Protect. The Flash Cannon bounced off of Protect and crashed against a nearby tree, cutting it in half.

"Princess, build up a Fairy Wind. Force him to come to you!" I ordered.

On its own, Dazzling Gleam would be a lot more powerful, but if we could charge Fairy Wind up enough, it wouldn't even be a contest, especially because she was a lot more used to that move than the other. Pink mist began to swirl around Togetic, and Turtonator spat out a stream of bright orange flames toward her. The attack only grazed her, but it was still enough to break her concentration, and the wind went loose toward Sunshine.

Jellicent appeared at his side, barely in a coherent form, but Sunshine had been ready for it. A Dragon Pulse disintegrated his entire body and blew up a precharged Shadow Ball, hurting both Pokemon, but the Night Shade surprisingly stayed active even without Buddy keeping it going. It kept pestering Turtonator with weak Shadow Balls, since those couldn't just be burned away.

"Angel, Ancient Power!"

An enormous rock shot out of the ground and rolled in Turtonator's direction. He destroyed it with Flash Cannon, but Princess reformed the rock with an Ancient Power of her own before the shards came too far apart and kept it going. Sunshine's eyes widened in surprise, but he immediately turned, letting his shell absorb the damage and creating an explosion that scattered Jellicent's remains once again.

That was our opening.

"Honey, go in now! Cross Chop!"

The electric type dashed forward, becoming a blur. His arms bulged and lit up as he entered the smoke generated by the explosion. Not wasting a single second, I ordered Princess to go in right away.

I heard Sunshine grunt, but much to my dismay, Electabuzz was thrown out of the smoke with his fur smoking from some type of burn. Then, instead of dissipating, the smoke began to build up, glowing with a menacing red and burned the grass in its path. I whistled sharply, stopping Togetic and ordered her to keep her distance. Jellicent finally reformed next to the rest of the team and awaited my next command.

"Throw your shade into that," I said, pointing toward the smoke.

Before I was even done speaking, Buddy's shade was already floating toward Turtonator. It was slow, but that was fine. I knew that the fire type was planning something, but he had surprisingly not used the smoke as an element of surprise for Flamethrower or Dragon Pulse like he'd done in Mount Coronet.

The Shade entered the smoke and immediately blew up. Angel sent another Ancient Power, and Togetic tried to dissipate the smoke with Fairy Wind, but nothing worked. Turtonator's Smokescreen was too cohesive to simply send away with wind.

A giant beam brighter than the sun emerged from the smoke and hit Jellicent directly. Solar Beam. That was why he'd taken so long to use the move! And I had just waited because I'd thought that we could anticipate anything he'd throw at us. The move was so energy intensive that I hadn't expected him to be able to use it without the power of Sunny Day— much less with his smoke blocking out the sun entirely, but I'd been completely wrong. Somehow, even through the smoke and ash, it had been enough.

Buddy was down for the count, barely able to come back together into a weird goo. I recalled him and snapped back to the battle. Turtonator appeared somewhat wounded by Honey's Cross Chop and the multiple Ancient Powers he'd taken, so winning was still a possibility. I needed to find an opening for Princess to use Dazzling Gleam or Honey to use Cross Chop again, but fighting a fire type close-up was frustrating. There was so much care and planning needed that by the time you figured something out, the enemy had already attacked ten times.

"Air Cutter, Thunderbolt and Ancient Power!" I yelled.

Togetic's wings fluttered and the air in front of her sharpened into blades. Electabuzz brought his hands forward, sending an enormous surge of Electricity toward Turtonator, and Angel did the same with Ancient Power. The dragon type grinned, turned around and slammed his own shell with Iron Tail. The explosion was so strong that I felt the shock wave fly through my body. I shielded my face as dust and dirt flew everywhere— even toward me. All three attacks had been dissipated by the explosion, but there was no choice.

"Everyone, go in! It's all or nothing!" I yelled. This time, Turtonator wasn't keeping the smoke around. He simply watched with a curious eye.

Honey was first in line, his arms full to the brim with power. He threw himself to the floor, dodging a Flamethrower that only managed to scorch his tail. He rolled forward and nimbly hit at Turtonator's right leg with Cross Chop. Sunshine roared in pain and reflexively used Dragon Pulse to retaliate, but a vine from Angel saved the electric type in the nick of time. Princess used another Air Cutter, slashing across the fire type's tough scales, but as soon as she got close enough, she exploded with Dazzling Gleam.

I shielded my eyes from the blinding light, but my heart dropped when I saw that Turtonator was moving around now. It was silly, but he had stood completely still during the entire battle. It was a part of his lazy personality, but we'd forced him to move. The fire type angrily sprinted toward Angel and Honey, his eyes still dazed and his skin still slightly burned from the Dazzling Gleam. Each step he took burned the floor under his feet.

"Angel, stop him! Use your vines and Ancient Power!"

Fifteen vines shot out of Tangrowth's body, and he erected a boulder from the floor in Sunshine's path. The fire type retracted into his shell and began to spin so quickly that he just tore through the rock. Tangrowth struggled to stop his motion, especially since his vines were sizzling away, but Turtonator ended the struggle when he let his tail out of his shell and slammed it while he was still using Rapid Spin. The explosion spun, creating a super heated tornado that rose high into the sky and completely disintegrated any vines leftover.

Electabuzz had no hope of stopping him, but maybe Princess could—

"Create a slope!" I yelled.

The floor incrementally rose until it became a ramp, and Sunshine flew above Angel and Honey's heads and slammed into the ground with a heavy thud. He quickly got on his feet and shot out a turquoise stream of draconic energy at their back, and it was too fast to dodge. Princess and Angel both combined their strength with Ancient Power, but the attack simply broke through and hit both Tangrowth and Electabuzz. The electric type fainted, and I recalled him.

Angel staggered Sunshine with heavy Power Whips, leaving Princess enough time to build up a Fairy Wind. Every time Turtonator would try to hit her, Angel would interrupt and throw himself into him, not caring for the burns he'd suffer. Turtonator let out a frustrated roar, and his vines caught on fire, but he kept him still, spreading Stun Spores and Poison Powders all over both of their bodies. The few spores that didn't burn away had an effect on Turtonator, however little, slowing him down and dulling his senses.

When the dragon type finally finished off Angel with a heavy grunt, Princess let her Fairy Wind loose. It was so thick that I could barely see anything. She was getting faster at charging them to their maximum power, and it showed. My hair flew in the wind, partially blocking my view.

"Another," I exhaled.

She nodded sharply and executed my command, but I was surprised to see that even though the attack dealt very real damage on Turtonator, he simply bore with it and grazed her with a Flash Cannon. She cried out, but my eyes widened when I saw that the wind only lost form for a single second. It snapped back under her control and flew out toward Turtonator again.

They traded blows like this for a few minutes, and Princess used the lowered visibility from the mist to her advantage, occasionally swapping Fairy Wind for Ancient Power, but it wasn't enough. Turtonator was too strong, even while holding back, and after catching her offguard and escaping the Fairy Wind with a speedy Rapid Spin, he quickly finished her off with another Flash Cannon.

We had lost.

That wasn't to say it had been completely one-sided. Sunshine clearly had to push himself more than he'd expected, even if we hadn't come close to beating him. I stared at Sweetheart, who was looking on in awe. When she would be able to join the fray, we'd have a better chance at taking him down, but right now, he'd proven how strong he was compared to us still, and that was while holding back.

"Good job!" I smiled at him. He watched me with heavy breaths, like he hadn't expected me to praise him. "You've got a lot of cool techniques I didn't know about before, but when you get too angry, you resort to just hitting things with a really big stick instead of thinking— metaphorically speaking. Flamethrower, Dragon Pulse and your body heat are your sticks."

Like against Weavile, or me in Mount Coronet, I omitted. I started to approach him.

"You're a really powerful technical fighter when you put your mind to it," I continued. "You did great."

I placed a hand on his hot arm and smiled when Sunshine couldn't even look me in the eye. It seemed that he hadn't been used to praise and didn't know how to take it.

"Just take the win, big guy," I said.

I released the rest of my Pokemon again, making sure to heal them with potions. Their wounds were all superficial. Turtonator had held back well. Of course, Buddy just needed time to come back together. He was disappointed at his performance, but it was also partly my fault. I really hadn't expected Sunshine to hide in Smokescreen to conceal himself while he charged Solar Beam. He knew that Jellicent would be the most annoying opponent to deal with, so he prioritized taking him down as fast as possible, and it worked.

Now that I had a frame of reference for what Sunshine was actually capable of when he had time to think, I'd be able to counter him better in the next fight. There were a lot of things I could have done better, but the largest problem was that my Pokemon were simply too weak to deal any real damage. Ancient Power, Dazzling Gleam, Cross Chop, and a charged-up Fairy Wind had been enough, but the rest of our attacks only tickled him. Buddy's Shadow Balls or water type moves would also be enough, but obviously he hadn't had the opportunity to use them. I was planning on focusing on moves my Pokemon already knew during this trip to remedy that. The only new move I was planning on teaching was Giga Drain to Angel, but that'd be relatively easy seeing as he already knew Mega Drain.

Buddy and Princess groaned at me when I told them that we'd be doing this again tomorrow, but Honey was excited to grow stronger. I had Princess fix up the destroyed terrain as best she could, and after a one-hour break, we were on our way again.

Now, it was time to get to the Café Cabin.