CHAPTER 180

Telling my friends about Bellatrix in-depth kind of made me realize how abnormal the entire experience had been. Maeve looked pale throughout the tale, especially when telling her about her Moonblasts which hadn't even been at full power. Louis and Emilia were just nervous, but Mira was actually quite interested in Bella's capabilities, especially the perfect barriers she easily created that were of better quality than even the ones in the gyms. She was interested in replicating them with her Kadabra and Kirlia, but without her direct teaching, she was out of luck. Bella already despised her psychic side and did the bare minimum with that power, only using it to shield herself or move things around. If I had to guess, she probably did know powerful psychic attacks, but she would never use them unless she was forced to.

They all stuck around my room for two hours or so until Maeve and Louis decided to go out and train. Maeve was trying to get her Monferno to evolve before challenging Maylene while Louis was introducing his Combee to battling, so they could cooperate with each other during training. I was sure that they'd battle against Maylene before me because of time concerns. They'd already spoken about spending very little time in the city in the first place to go to Sunyshore right away. Plus, Maeve had her flying license to work on. Her Staraptor was absolutely massive and could very easily carry her far, but that would imply splitting from her group.

They'd have to talk about it soon.

Mira, Emilia and I weren't that concerned. Mira and I because it was just February 10th and there was still plenty of time, and Emilia because she didn't exactly care about ribbons. She just wanted to improve this year, and from her fantastic performance netting her the top sixteen twice, she was quickly becoming a great coordinator.

"Mira, did Denzel talk to you about the Game Corner stuff?" I asked.

"You guys are going to the Game Corner?" Emi said as she typed away on her phone. "I wouldn't step anywhere close to that building. The casino always wins."

"Way to be a downer," Mira rolled her eyes. "He did message me. I actually went inside to scout a little bit. It's not like I have much money to play with, but it'll be good to at least know how the games work and if we can figure out a way to cheat."

"Cheat?" I frowned.

"Yeah, no need to make that face. They've got an Obstagoon as a bouncer that'll detect any kind of bullshit you have going on and psychics inside that patrol the entire premises, so that option's off the table. Denzel wanted to do it by the books anyway… so I don't think I'll manage to get my Porygon."

"Oh, you want a Porygon?" Emi asked. "I haven't really seen them used in battle. You hear a lot about them being produced in Sunyshore, though."

"Yeah, they mostly live in computers, but they can come out too and get inside Pokeballs," she said before grinning. "There's a lot of funky stuff you can do with them. Bummer I probably won't win."

"Eh, I mean, you won't know until you try, right?" I said, trying to cheer her up.

"I do know, and that's alright. I was thinking of just going all in with all of my savings on one spin," she laughed, throwing her head back.

Emilia's mouth gaped. "You're crazy."

"Well, some might say it's the quickest path to the 750k I need to buy myself a Porygon. Fuckers inflate the hell out of that price for profit, by the way. It's nowhere near as expensive to code one. Anyway, we'll see when the big boy himself gets there. Hopefully he's not getting grilled by your fairy friend."

"He'll be fine. They all will," I firmly said. "Err, Mira, how are you doing beyond all of your Game Corner plans?"

I knew from the moment that she'd stepped into this room that she hadn't given up on finding Charon. In fact, I suspected that she hadn't only snooped around the Game Corner. If the League couldn't find that Team Galactic base, I doubted that she could.

Still, I didn't want to talk about that with Emilia here, so I would just ask about her mental health for now.

The pink-haired girl silently stared at me and pursed her lips. "Been doing great," she said, innocently lifting her hands in the air. "I'm not as sad as usual, and that's a win in my book. I'm focused on other things right now."

Other things like her uncle, I guessed. Even if part of me internally screamed that she had the right to look for Charon, the rational part of me worried for her safety.

"Okay. Well, so long as you're sure of what you want."

"I think just coming somewhat close to achieving my goal would unwind a lot of tension that's been building up," she smirked.

"Are you speaking in code right now? Because it feels like you're speaking in code," Emilia frowned.

"What, of course not!" Mira said in a very sarcastic way. "Anyway, I've been trying to meet up with Chase, but he's ignored all of my texts. I can't find him in a city this big."

"Wait, you're still on that? I thought you were just pretending?" I scoffed.

"What? Obviously not!" She yelled. "Have you seen him? Anyway, I'm off."

My face fell. "Already? I thought you were gonna hang."

"No, I've been trying to teach myself how to code and progressing leaps and bounds. Think of it as a plan B for my Porygon," she exclaimed as she closed the door.

"Then why would you spend everything you have on one spin?!" Emilia groaned. "Arceus, this girl is crazy."

"A little," I nervously laughed.

I had no idea how to even begin to code, but I did know that creating Porygon was among the most challenging tasks out there. There was just no way that she was going to succeed in a few weeks what took most people years. If Kadabra had been interested in coding, then maybe, but he wasn't, and from what she'd told us about the species, they weren't about to do something they didn't want to, even if it was to help their trainer.

I spent a few hours talking to Emilia about everything and anything, although it was mostly me asking about her contest stuff. She'd made a few friends aside from Vincent in the scene mostly through her influencer stuff, and an eccentric judge had taken an interest in her. Like always, just the judge stuff just didn't seem right to me. If a judge took an interest in someone, how could we be sure that they wouldn't be biased in their scores? Well, even Emilia wasn't so sure anymore, but all she could do was keep going. She was having the most fun she'd ever had in her entire life.

This was what she'd always wanted to do.

But I had things to do myself as well. First and foremost, my team needed direction. After picking up my Pokemon from Nurse Joy and bidding Emilia goodbye, I decided to go down south toward route 214. I had considered going back to route 215 on the off-chance of seeing Bella again, but something told me the rangers wouldn't take too kindly to my presence there. Veilstone's south was actually very pretty compared to the hulking factories of the northern side. The further south I went, the more expansive and big the homes looked. I made my way through a sprawling network of suburbs until I reached the city's gate and went through, although some Rangers there did shoot me a look and whispered behind my back like children. It seemed like I was building a pretty bad reputation with them, or at least the ones in and around Veilstone.

I'd remember their faces—

"Arceus. That's the Bellatrix in me speaking."

No, there was no need to feel that antagonistic. Most of them were just kids slightly older than me. Younger rangers tended to be stationed in Sinnoh's east due to how much safer it was. It was difficult to compare the cozy plains of route 214 with the rugged Iron Island, Mount Coronet, or Eterna Forest, and trainers often complained about the double standard. A few close brushes with death would let them know how immature they were being, but they'd most likely have to wait a few years for that.

Yes. An appropriate price, even if I wasn't the one collecting.

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"Woah," I gasped as I exited the gate.

Route 214 was truly stunning, especially on a bright day like this one. To my right were mountains taller than the ones I'd had to scale on the previous route, but still paled when compared to the towering Mount Coronet, ever present in the far distance and dwarfing them completely. Beyond the smaller mountains was Solaceon, which I'd be able to see if I climbed them. There was no way in hell I was going to do that, though.

The beginning of route 214 actually had a road. Not just a dirt path or a trail, but a fully paved road that stretched on beyond the horizon. Civilians driving there wasn't allowed, but Pastoria, Veilstone and Sunyshore transported a lot of their goods through trucking, so some freight companies had the right to use the road. Other than that, it was reserved for government use.

There were trainers almost everywhere, but no Pokemon to be seen. I felt a twinge of pain at the notion that they'd been kicked out of their land, but I didn't dwell on it. I made my way west toward the ridge's flank, where I'd be able to get some peace and quiet. It felt good to be out of the city. It wasn't like I didn't like cities, I just disliked Veilstone in particular. The tension with Mira, Team Galactic, the League and the fact that it was polluted to all hell just made the entire city unpleasant to be in. There really ought to be some regulations on how much greenhouse gases a city was allowed to emit…

I released my entire family with a wide smile, and they all returned the gesture in their own ways. Jellicent boomed, his eyes softening slightly at my touch. Cold water dripped down my arm and then onto the ground.

Pupitar yelled happily, but there was also a loud crack when she jumped in place. She was currently molting for the first time, which mean she'd grow a few inches when she was fully done. Her rocky armor appeared weaker than usual, and the few cracks that revealed the new one within showed that it was a lot shinier than what she currently had. It glimmered under the sun and had a slight blue tint to it, while her current one was just a dull grey. It was also slightly soft to the touch, but I knew that'd go away a few hours after she was done molting completely.

Well, I'd go easy on her today and allow her to eat the rocks here and molt in peace. It had started a few days ago while we were still with Bella, and she hated the entire process. According to her, it made her feel dirty, as if she wasn't crawling around dirt all day.

Not that I said that, though. She'd make a whole scene otherwise.

Electabuzz grinned, happy to be back out of his ball. After greeting me, he teased Sweetheart by making fun of her half-molted form, and the rock type threw a tantrum by jumping up and down. The ground shook under my feet, but Angel quickly helped by wrapping a vine around me.

"You knew she'd do that, didn't you?" I groaned.

The electric type proceeded to belly laugh until he was out of breath. It really wasn't that funny, but I couldn't help but giggle too. Much to my annoyance, Turtonator encouraged her, yelling at her to bring down the entire mountain. Thankfully, Sweetheart stopped after a few vines from Angel soothed her by caressing the little crevasse between the jagged spikes on her head. We both knew it was her favorite spot.

"You relax and eat, okay? I'll see about getting you your special food when I come back to speed up your evolution," I said. I still had to look at the prices in-depth to see how much I'd be able to get while still saving for a Shiny Stone.

Sweetheart let out an echoing roar from within her cocoon.

"When we get to Sunyshore, I'll see about letting you swim. Veilstone is close to the water, but it doesn't really have beaches. So just hang in there, okay?"

She begrudgingly agreed. She was cute when she acted spoiled like that. Princess was spoiled too, but it was a different kind. She just wanted me to give her most of my attention, which was evident with how she'd immediately asked to be picked up when I released her. Meanwhile, while Sweetheart did demand attention, she mostly wanted everything that caught her eye no matter how unrealistic it was, and that was reinforced by how Sunshine kept telling her that yes, that was an entirely reasonable way to think.

Yeah… I had two spoiled girls, and it was entirely on me. At least Honey was reasonable despite enjoying pushing Pupitar's buttons.

I placed my hands behind my back and walked back and forth between my team as they formed a line.

"Listen up everyone! Our time with Bella might have been very productive, but we can't rest on our laurels! You've all improved leaps and bounds, but there are still plenty of glaring weaknesses we need to address before the fight with Maylene— Sunshine, pay attention. This is good for team cohesion even if you aren't fighting. You want to beat Night, right?"

The dragon's nose flared, but he turned back my way. It was crazy how quickly he just found a spot to lie down when he was too lazy to walk anywhere for more than an hour. My eyes drifted toward Sweetheart's mouth, and I saw Angel sneakily bringing her large pebbles and rocks so she wouldn't have to move around too much. I silently thanked him by dipping my head and kept going.

"She's a fighting type gym leader, and even though I haven't done my research yet, I know that implies fighting at close quarters. Angel, remember what happened to you and Lucario?"

The grass type's vines instinctively retracted further into his body.

"Right? That was scary. I don't think we'll have to fight a Vacuum Wave user again, but since Maylene's Pokemon are fighting types, I think that they'll have a lot of ways to rip out your vines and escape from Bind. That means that we're going to focus on long-range attacks for this gym. Leech Seed, your powder moves— we'll add Sleep Powder to that mix, by the way. If we had enough time, we could get started on Solar Beam, but that's a long way off without a TM, so we'll stick to that for now. If you can weaken them enough with those moves, they'll have a harder time countering your vines."

The grass type nodded and happily petted my head by extending one of his hand-vines and tightening the one he already had around my ankle. I needed to take what had caused Chase to beat me into account, so adding onto Angel's toolkit was a must.

"Princess, you're going to play a huge role. Keep practicing with Dazzling Gleam and Moon Blast. I know you want to get better with glamour, but we'll work on the fundamentals first."

Togetic nodded but noted that Bella would be very angry hearing that.

"She would," I acquiesced. "But her mind doesn't work with time constraints. She's centuries old, and I don't exactly know how long Hatterene live for, but she seems to think she can keep going for a long while. We just think about these things differently," I explained to her.

Togetic sagely nodded, adding that Bella wouldn't care about losing to Maylene anyway.

"Exactly. You're gonna pack a punch at the gym, just keep working on what Bella told you," I said. "Now Sweetheart, you can take it easy today— hey, don't start yelling, I haven't even finished yet! Tomorrow, you're going to work on your precision with your flight. Fighting types are strong enough to crack your cocoon, but Bella taught us that the type advantage isn't everything. No Pokemon would be able to shrug off 350 pounds flying at them. Add Iron Defense onto that, and you're one of the biggest threats as long as you've got air stored in your vents."

She shivered in excitement, letting out a burst of air that kicked up a bunch of dust in Honey's face, which was something she took great pleasure in. The electric type looked at me and complained, but he had made fun of her earlier, so he owed her at least this.

But he definitely wouldn't like hearing what I was going to say next.

"Honey, this gym is kind of your biggest weakness," I started. "I'll still use you, obviously— the fight's going to be five-on-five, but Maylene's Pokemon will be better than you at close combat. We've kind of been neglecting your ranged attacks, so we'll start working extensively on those again for the gym. If you can't beat them at their own game, then change the way you play. Was that the saying? I forgot."

My Pokemon looked at me confusedly. Right, if I didn't know the saying, there was no way they'd know.

"So keep working on Thunderbolt, Discharge and Protect for when you're in a pinch," I said. "But you know, since we're trying to impress Volkner next, your long-term project will be working on Thunder."

His eyes glimmered at the move's name.

"I don't think it's realistic for you to expect to learn it in time for the fight. You'll need to essentially tire yourself out by draining out all of your electricity over and over to build up the amount of electricity you can store, so it goes hand in hand with your training. Remember when you could only use a few Thunderbolts, but now you can use a whole lot? It's basically like that— like working out."

I patted him on the shoulder and then moved on to Jellicent.

"Bud, you're obviously working on Night Shade," I started. "But we've been neglecting your water side lately. Whirlpool is good, but it's easily countered unless you're fighting something in a water arena. It's about time we get you decked out with something stronger than Water Pulse."

Jellicent silently stared and awaited my following words.

"On one hand, we've got Hydro Pump. On the other, we've got Water Spout. These techniques are extremely demanding and they'll drain you of most of your water right away. Hydro Pump is like a much more powerful Water Gun that can cut through just about anything. Water Spout is kind of like Honey's Discharge. You use the water inside of you and explode it outward. I've seen it used in a single direction too, but that requires a lot more control. Control that you won't have yet. I'm letting you pick which one you want to learn. Start working on both and mull over it today."

He nodded, letting out a few resonating clicks.

"Sunshine. Don't look at me like that, yes, you," I groaned, playfully kicking his leg. "Stop being such a lazy old man. I thought Night lit a fire in you today."

The fire type grumbled and closed his eyes. It was a relatively warm day today, so he wanted to laze around in the sun and rest. He was clearly exasperated with me.

"No new moves. You already have an incredibly diverse pool, so just stick around and stay active. Help the others when they ask for it and battle them too, okay?"

He waved an annoyed hand at me and reluctantly agreed.

"Great! But hey, if you really don't want to train, don't feel forced to. You go at your own pace."

He opened a surprised eye at me and I grinned.

"I know how hard it is for old Pokemon like you—"

I coughed as a mouthful of smoke surrounded my face.

Yeah, I kind of deserved that.

Well, I'd downloaded a few of Maylene's fifth gym battles, so after coughing for what felt like an entire minute, I plopped myself down next to a rock and opened my laptop. I was surprised to see that even on this route, there was internet access. The government had really built up this side of Sinnoh. Not as much as Unova, though, since according to Cece, they had internet and service on almost all of their routes.

Well, more videos for me. After doing some shameless promotion for the Poketch Company, of course. I also posted something else. A challenge to trainers with six or seven badges in Veilstone.

The board filled up with hundreds of answers immediately, and I just knew that ninety percent of them were lying.

"How the hell am I going to sort through this? Picture verification for proof?"

I sighed and opted to go and study Maylene for now instead.