CHAPTER 19

It was strange to be in the Oreburgh gym at night. Most lights were turned off, and almost nobody was there, giving the building an eerie atmosphere because it was just so large. The gym trainer that had let us in led us to Roark’s office upstairs, which was in an isolated corner of the building. Personally, I wouldn’t want to work somewhere that took so long just to get to, but maybe the peace and quiet during the day was worth it. The gym trainer gently knocked on Roark’s door and waited for a few seconds.

“Come in,” He said.

The trainer opened the door and gestured for us to get in before closing the door.

“So, Grace Pastel and Denzel Williams. Tell me your story.”

Denzel and I glanced at each other and waited. I think we both expected the other to do the talking, so we ended up in this moment of awkward silence.

“Well?” Roark probed.

“Ah— well, a few weeks before the Circuit…” Denzel started.

Just like we had done with the Sandgem police, we told him everything, but this time we stressed that they had threatened to kill us with their Pokemon, believing that was the thing the most likely to spur the League to action. Roark asked for more details, such as the exact location of the lake, and the exact time the incident took place. We answered as best we could.

“Anything else?” Roark said, spinning a pen in his hand. His uninterested, tired gaze made me anxious and was a far cry from how he looked when he battled me.

“That’s everything,” Denzel said.

“I hope you’re not lying to me. Criminal organizations are extremely dangerous— so I hope you understand that I wouldn’t take kindly to this being all fake.”

“We have nothing to gain from lying,” I said. “Especially when Denzel’s battling you soon. You could make sure he never gets his badge.”

“Fair enough,” Roark said after a pause. “I’ll look into it. Now leave, I have work to do.”

We nodded and left quietly. All things considered, that could have gone way worse, and we at least had confirmation that someone important was at least going to attempt to figure this out. I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. If something was to happen without us having done anything about it, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself. I looked up at the sky as the cool air blew into my hair. Autumn was soon approaching, and I finally felt like I’d be able to enjoy this year to the fullest.

Denzel ended up taking me out to a somewhat fancy restaurant to celebrate my victory, and even after my many protests, he still ended up paying after snatching the bill away from me. It tasted great, and it was a nice change from fast food or the Pokemon Center cafeteria. The next day, Denzel was about to go off to Oreburgh gate to train. I could tell the nerves were getting to him, so I did my best to cheer him up.

“Once the battle starts, you barely even register the audience, I swear,” I said as I watched him tie his shoelaces. “You’ll do fine. Eevee’s a little trooper.”

“Vee!” Eevee exclaimed.

“I’m already getting a stomachache, and it’s not even tomorrow yet… I literally just went to the bathroom, man…”

Whereas I sweated all over the place when I got nervous, Denzel apparently had to go to the bathroom. A lot.

“Want to call my dad? He said he’d watch your battle since it’s on a weekend.” I asked.

“Now I’m even more nervous… I gotta go to the bathroom!” Denzel said before running back to his room.

Again? I thought. How is that even possible?

I left the Center soon afterward and let out both of my team members. While Togetic was going to focus entirely on her flight for the time being, I was going to have a more personal training session with Frillish.

“Alright, Frillish. I have two moves I want you to start learning: Water Pulse and Hex. Bubblebeam works, but it’s more of a precise attack, whereas Water Pulse can hit a bigger area in one go— that means it’s harder to dodge,” I explained. Frillish nodded. “Good. Next, according to my dex, Hex doesn’t need to be aimed or directed— it just affects your opponent directly from the inside. That should mean it’s basically impossible to dodge unless you’re confused or something.”

I left out that the move dealt more damage if the enemy was affected by a status condition, such as poisoning or a burn because we had no means to do that yet. Either way, Hex was a better ghost type move than Night Shade, and we needed to learn it. When both Togetic and Frillish mastered these new challenges, then I figured it would be time to think about a third member for the team.

Throughout the day, Togetic stumbled through the air, and Frillish barely managed to get something that didn’t look like a Bubblebeam out of his mouth.

Maybe it was too early to think about that, then.

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——

It was strange to be back in the stands after having been down in the arena. Everything up here seemed so small now. I watched as a clearly nervous Denzel walked up to the arena, and Roark did the same. I had no doubts in my mind that he would win. I fully believed in my friend.

After Roark’s pre-battle instructions, Denzel sent out his Eevee, and Roark sent out a metallic Pokemon with stubby little feet that I immediately recognized as Aron. The battle would be two-on-two with one switch in allowed, but I hoped that Denzel wouldn’t have to use Budew.

“Begin!” The referee announced.

“Quick Kick!” Denzel yelled out as he pointed forward.

A custom move, I thought. Trainers sometimes would come up with moves that weren’t listed in the official Pokedex list— or in this case, they’d combine two moves together to create something new.

Eevee became a white blur as he weaved in between the rocks, making his way toward Aron.

“Harden,” Roark simply said.

When he reached Aron, Eevee dashed to his right and quickly spun around with one foreleg before kicking Aron’s flank twice. The metallic Pokemon cried out in pain, but it was nowhere near done.

“Headbutt,” Roark continued.

Aron reared its head and ran toward Eevee, who promptly jumped over and kicked his opponent in the back. The battle continued like this for a while, with Eevee simply being too fast for Aron to even hope to touch.

“Enough! Mud-Slap and then ram him!” Roark yelled.

The steel type used its leg to hurl as much sand as he could in Eevee’s general direction. He staggered and closed his eyes before Aron crashed into him with a Headbutt.

“Next time he does that, use Baby Doll Eyes,” Denzel said as he wiped the sweat off his brow. “Keep up the pressure with Quick Kick!”

After six more kicking attacks, Aron finally went down without much of a fight. It seemed that Roark had underestimated Eevee and had thought that Aron’s defenses would be enough to make up for its lack of speed. Luckily for Denzel, that backfired and got him the first win. I squinted and looked at Eevee. He was clearly tired and panting heavily, and I didn’t know how many times he’d still be able to use Quick Kick.

“Aron is unable to battle. Leader Roark, please send out your last Pokemon!”

Roark frowned as he hovered his hand over his Pokeballs for a few seconds before finally choosing his next fighter. Rhyhorn came out of its ball with a defiant roar.

“Rock Polish into Horn Attack. Quickly!” Roark said right away.

“Wait for him to get to you, and then Double Kick!” Denzel responded.

Smart. He’s saving Eevee’s energy, I thought.

The Rhyhorn shone and then skidded across the battlefield without any resistance, aiming its horn toward Eevee. He responded by laying flat on the ground before kicking Rhyhorn’s head upward and then scrambling away. He ran as fast as he could, gaining a little bit of distance with Quick Attack whenever his opponent got too close.

“Smack Down, and then ram him!” Roark said.

Rhyhorn slammed his horn into a rock, and a large chunk hit Eevee in the back. He fell and struggled to get up.

“You’ve got this! Sand Attack!”

Eevee threw sand into the Rhyhorn’s eyes with its tail before rolling to the side and then hit its rocky hide with another Double Kick. I clenched my fists around the handles of my seat. This was it! They had regained the initiative! The rock type shook its entire body and then began ramming into random boulders with its horn.

“Focus on my voice, Rhyhorn! He’s on your left!”

Rhyhorn roared before suddenly tackling toward Eevee.

“Quick Attack so you’re faster! Double Kick!”

Eevee blurred to the left and kicked the Rhyhorn’s head before getting clipped by his horn. Blood soaked his brown fur, and he could barely stand, but Rhyhorn went down and never stood back up. I was the first one to stand up and clap, yelling out his name. We had both won! Denzel quickly returned his panting Eevee got his badge, money, and TM before he left. I squeezed through my row to leave the stand and met him in the gym’s lobby with a hug.

“You were great down there,” I said. “I knew you’d win.”

“Thank you for being such a great friend Grace. I don’t know if I would have won without your support. My parents didn’t even call me—”

“None of that gloomy stuff,” I said. “Screw them! You’ve got your first badge! Hell, didn’t your mom say she’d send you money now?”

“Mhm,” Denzel said. “I hope she actually goes through with it,” He paused. “Wow, I can’t believe this is real.”

“Feels like a dream, right? It was the exact same for me. All that worrying you did seems silly now, doesn’t it?”

“It does, but I feel like it whipped me into shape. I don’t think I would have trained anywhere near this hard with Eevee if I hadn’t been destroyed by Chase back in Jubilife. I’m almost… happy it happened now? Does that make sense?”

“It totally does,” I said. “But it’s my turn to treat you now. Let’s get you some lunch! We can plan our next moves over some fries.”

“Just fries isn’t a healthy lunch…”

“It’s not supposed to be healthy, it’s supposed to be a treat. Let’s buy some poffins for everybody on the way.”

During lunch, we decided that we’d stay in Oreburgh for a few more days to get a well-deserved break. We considered getting a plane ticket back to Jubilife, but after checking the prices, they were way too expensive. Plus, Denzel was averse to the idea. There weren’t any rules that said trainers weren’t allowed to forego traveling through the routes and take a plane ride instead, but it was frowned upon, and it meant that we would skip on a lot of training. With Denzel’s goal of becoming famous, he didn’t want to get caught boarding a plane, only to get ridiculed on the forums.

Denzel ended up calling his mother and wrangling for a good amount of money which she transferred to his account. She still disagreed with his decision to participate in the Circuit, but she was a woman of her word. The faces and the eye rolls he made when speaking to her were too much. I could tell they didn’t have the best relationship, but a part of me wondered if these issues went back to before they even disagreed on Denzel’s journey.

I ended up lightening my team’s training, going down to barely an hour per day. Togetic, Frillish and I would usually just hang out in my Poke Center room. Togetic would cuddle with me while I watched T.V. or browsed the internet while Frillish soaked in the bathtub to simulate being in a body of water. I felt bad for him, but soon we’d be back on route 203 and he would be able to get in a real lake. Soon enough, we finally said goodbye to Oreburgh and headed back into Oreburgh gate. All in all, we had made good progress and we hadn’t even spent a month in the city. At this pace, we’d make it in time for the conference at the end of the year.

Oh, and I couldn’t wait to see dad again.