CHAPTER 192

Yesterday's date had been wonderful until it was ruined by that turncoat Amy. Or was she even a turncoat? She had subtly manipulated Cecilia her entire life, pushed her toward her father and told her it was her duty to be his pawn. No, she wasn't a turncoat. She'd been evil all along. I couldn't sleep last night, not even with Cecilia next to me. The fact that Amy was still running along and doing whatever she wanted brought a tremor of rage in my heart so immense that I couldn't help but imagine the worst when I closed my eyes. Fantasizing about revenge until I caught myself and relaxed slightly only to start all over again.

I had better not see her alone, or I wouldn't be able to hold back. The consequences were clear to me, but I knew it wasn't enough.

Hopefully she'd steer clear of my way.

This time, Cecilia woke up before I did. She was going to be extremely busy today, with her mental training with Slowking and then preparing a way to tackle Maylene. I was the same, of course, but I already had a strategy prepared, now I simply had to learn to execute it. I'd used the sleepless night to focus more on what Zachary had told me about my face. I was too expressive, too easy to read, but could I not use that to my advantage? I'd already done so a little during the tournament when I tried to trigger my opponents using baby talk, but what I wanted went beyond that. Faking being surprised, scared, enraged or scheming, all while my mind was completely clear on the inside and I could put everything I had into winning.

It would be easier said than done. I was barely managing to keep my face still after Zachary's advice, so I couldn't even begin to think to fake my expressions, let alone convincingly. I could do it if I focused enough and disassociated like Bellatrix had taught me, but doing that during a battle would be impossible. Or at least, I thought it was impossible. Cecilia was gone now, but I was still in my room, so I stepped inside of the bathroom and in front of the mirror.

"Angry face… no, scared or surprised faces are easier," I muttered.

I widened my eyes, raised my eyebrows and gasped with my mouth agape, and then giggled at how stupid I looked. That was possibly the least convincing surprised expression I'd ever made, but did it actually matter? Trainers stood far away from each other during official battles, and I doubted that anyone would actually notice that I was faking. Against most trainers I'd battle on the road, it would possibly work.

But possibly wasn't what I was after. Against my friends, who knew me like the back of their hand? They'd see through me right away. Experienced trainers like Zach or Craig and Gym Leaders would also be difficult to fool, but if there was one person to test this tactic on, it would be Maylene. She was young, abrasive, rash and easy to anger. Kind of like Pauline, but with a strict code of justice instead of just disliking anything that went against her.

"Sorry, Pauline," I chuckled as I smiled to myself. Smiling was easy enough to do, but could I convert that into something that I'd be able to use to taunt Maylene?

Taunting her would be a double-edged sword. Candice was a master at it, but I wanted to employ a more… silent version of her craft. On one hand, Maylene would make more mistakes if I made her mad. On the other, she might start going after me hard like Candice had done with that Galarian Darmanitan.

I'd definitely be able to beat that Darmanitan these days. In retrospect, it had probably been slightly stronger than a four-badge Pokemon, although its physical strength went far above that.

I'd come far, but it was nowhere near where I wanted to be.

"Time to go train before Melody calls me," I sighed.

I quickly got dressed into some joggers, a hoodie and a coat, then I made my way out of the Center with Princess in my arms. She was feeling lazy today and being a baby because she'd begun using her wings like the inspector had told us when I was getting my license, and she'd been all dramatic about it. I supposed that it was also my fault because I was actually listening to her and carrying her. She nuzzled her head against my chin and dozed off. I was going to battle Maylene last because I didn't want Mallory to bring the battle up in any shape or form. I wasn't expecting to mess up too badly, especially now that I had a better grasp of Aura, but having the interview after the fight would just add another layer of stress I didn't need.

That did also mean I had plenty of time to train.

Once again, I trekked onto the hills of route 214 and released my Pokemon. We'd found a flat stretch of rocky land that would simulate Maylene's arena rather well, although it was kind of screwed up from yesterday's training session. Her gym's arena was similar to Roark's although with fewer terrain variations and no boulders to hide behind.

A dozen stone pillars lay before me, each of a different thickness and height. The tallest reached up to twenty-five feet. Some were also crumpled, having collapsed under their own weight after having been built too tall. I released my entire team, and at this point training on route 214 was routine. They all knew what they had to work on, what they had to perfect and fix, but Angel and Princess stuck with me. The grass type poked at Togetic's fluttering wings, but she chastised him to get him to stop. He flinched, and his vines drooped as he began to sulk. They were the pillars' architects, and the key to my strategy against Maylene.

"Play nice," I told Princess. "He's just curious. He's never seen you use them before."

Princess' eyes softened, and she patted Angel's head with her tiny arms. She told him that she'd just been nervous about using her wings. We'd found that actually using them was not only good because it'd carry over when she evolved, but also because it could give her a small burst of speed to better dodge things. It seemed obvious in retrospect, but I'd never even considered it. Angel quickly cheered, and Princess begrudgingly let him touch her wings to his heart's content.

I touched them too, of course. They were fluffy as hell, and her flustered reactions were cute.

Right now, what we had was barely enough to be called a working plan. My strategy was meant to create a forest of stone pillars stretching at least thirty feet tall, if not more with their help. The first step was to have Angel raise the stumps. The bottom part of the pillars that Princess could then stretch high into the sky with her control. He'd do the heavy lifting, and she would do the fine-tuning. The problem was that raising so many was difficult even for her. The bottom parts had to be bigger than the top, or the towers would collapse in on themselves, but molding so many targets that quickly was impossibly difficult.

But if.

If we mastered it, it would go a long ways to beating Maylene.

First, it would be the perfect environment for Princess and Buddy to get lost in thanks to their ability to fly. Hiding behind pillars or inside of them in Jellicent's case would be perfect to confuse Maylene and her Pokemon. Not only that, but Togetic's control with her attacks would mean that she'd be able to easily have Ancient Power maneuver the field whenever we used the attack. I was planning on using mostly fairy, psychic and flying type moves, but an extra boost wouldn't hurt. Angel would be able to use his vines' long reach to fight better than her fighting types as well. It wouldn't affect Honey that much. Even if his range would be reduced, he was training to improve his reaction time with Discharge and Thunderbolt, along with their power. The one that would be hampered by this was Sweetheart. It would completely screw over her mobility and make her unable to use Stomping Tantrum.

There were two ways to remedy this. The first was to use her first while the terrain was clear, and the second was to use her last, since I wouldn't care about collapsing the towers with Stomping Tantrum.

The pillars could be destroyed with enough work, of course. Smash the base enough times, and they'd collapse. I'd proven as much with Angel's Power Whip and Honey's Cross Chop. The problem for Maylene was that there'd be way too many of them for her to spend time and energy on destroying them. If she did, well, that was ample time for my Pokemon to retaliate. Sweetheart flying at full speed into one of them with Iron Defense was enough to collapse one in one hit, but nothing at our level could pack that much of a punch. Some of her Pokemon like Machoke had moves like Rock Tomb they'd be able to use to rip rocks out of the pillars, but that move was specifically meant to counter flying types. If I'd been battling Roark, then I would have been worried, but from what I saw, her Pokemons' rock type moves were weak, they were terrible at being precise, and they were bad at hitting multiple targets at once. She'd focused on turning her Pokemon into experts at singling out and destroying an opponent if they got close, but this would hopefully screw her over.

The only Pokemon I'd have to watch out for in this case was Lucario, whose aura-infused Bone Rush could cut through anything, but I had a contingency plan if she used it against me. The loss against Chase had been a blessing in that regard.

"Angel, can you collapse these for me? And then, Princess, you smooth it out."

Tangrowth's eyes shone with a pale blue, and the structures in front of us crumbled, kicking up huge amounts of dirt. Princess continued his work, crumpling it into dust and filling the cavities that had been left. It took a minute, but the ground was as good as new.

Now, to ruin it all again while I practiced making my face do things I wasn't feeling.

And hey, maybe it'd help for the interview with SGNC. I had to suffer Honey laughing at me the entire time.

—

Mira waited for me at the gate back to the city with her arms crossed. She was chatting up some ranger about the intricacies of his job and the amount of studying they needed to do to become a full-fledged ranger, but I didn't focus on what they were saying. Instead, my body tensed up and I prepared for another fight. The pink-haired girl lazily waved at me with a sheepish smile.

I really didn't get her.

"Hello?" I warily said.

"Hi. How're you doing, Grace?"

"How'd you know I was here?" I asked.

"Sheesh, no need to be so aggressive. We all know that route 214's your spot. Everyone else would rather train in the city, but you do it in the wild. That's pretty cool."

"Yeah. So what's up?"

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"I came to apologize, among other things," she shrugged. "I was a bit of a dick, and I heard you're going out of your way to reveal your fairy stuff. Honestly, I was kind of lonely. Maeve and Louis are stuck together like glue… ugh, they should just date already, but the poor guy's got a self-esteem issue and she's extremely obvious but too nervous to say anything, it's not great to look at."

I felt a slight boost of confidence when I restrained my eyebrows from rising in surprise at the fact that Maeve apparently liked Louis. The training was slowly paying off.

"Wouldn't you be the type of person to just reveal it out of nowhere?"

"Yeah, I would, but I don't want to fuck what they have going. They're cute together, and she can slowly help him fix his issues. Anyway, I finished assessing my Porygon and Denzel's got a new friend from the Game Corner, so he won't hang out with me."

This time, I couldn't hide my surprise. "You got it already?" I scoffed.

"Lucky spin," she grinned. "Anyway, the point is, I had free time and I wanted to apologize. I mean, you were kind of hypocritical when I called you that, but I shouldn't have worded it that way, and you're working to fix it, so good on you, pal."

"Right… I still have to tell Louis. I haven't seen him in a bit," I said. "But is that really it? You want something else, don't you?"

Mira nodded. "Let's get out of here. Do you have free time to hang out?"

"Two hours and some change," I hesitantly answered.

I followed her out of the gate and into the city, and a man with a… melted face was looking right at us. I felt my burn scars tingle when I looked at him, but he kept his stare completely still.

"That's Carlos, my League Trainer. He won't be talking," she explained. After a short pause where she collected her thoughts, she spoke again. "Grace. What do you think about letting my Kadabra get a good look at you?"

"I thought he already looked at me. Isn't that why you knew about me?"

"Yeah, but he never got close other than when we were robbing that place at the tournament," she said. "He had no time to properly study you then. I can pay you back somehow if you need it, I've got some money leftover from the spin."

Why— why did she even think I'd need anything from her—

And then it dawned on me. Fairies almost never did anything for free. That must have been what Kadabra told her, or her preconceived notions about me.

"We're friends, despite what you think. I'll do it for free if it helps you, especially when you're doing dangerous stuff at night."

She flinched and began to blink rapidly. All this time, she'd probably thought us to be acquaintances at best, despite pretending otherwise. We'd been at odds during our investigation in Solaceon, and even now we still disagreed on how to proceed with Team Galactic.

Even then, I still liked her, and she had apologized to me.

"Carlos would protect me anyway, he never leaves my side," she said. "But if you really want to, I appreciate it."

"Where should we do it, then?"

"My room," she said, her tone resolute.

I had just given her something invaluable, and we both knew it.

—

Mira's Pokemon Center room was so clean and neatly arranged that it was almost as if she'd just booked it from the lobby downstairs. The bed was immaculately made and covered in fresh sheets. There was nothing on the bedside tables or the floor. Hell, even her bag was nowhere to be seen. If there hadn't been two laptops on the desk with some kind of moving code I didn't understand, it would have been as if no one had lived there for the past week. I was surprised to see Kirlia standing in the middle of the room, her legs so close together that they were almost like a single thin line. Her eyes were closed, but there was a soft glow behind her pupils and her two red horns were shining as well.

"She's meditating to get ready to evolve," Mira explained. "Says my mental state's getting better."

"It is?" I outrageously whispered.

"No need to whisper, she can't hear us," she said. "And yes. I want to live, so that's an improvement."

Arceus, the way she just said these heavy sentences like they were nothing…

"But, my goal takes precedence. It'd be a bummer if I croaked, though. Kirlia knows about it, so she understands. Our values are similar."

"I disapprove," I crossed my arms. "But I can't do anything about it, since I assume Carlos knows?"

"He does," she waved a hand dismissively. "I tried to get him to join me, but he's loyal."

The pink-haired girl grabbed her Pokeball and released Kadabra. The lean psychic's eyes narrowed when he saw me, and he levitated his spoon onto the desk.

"Grace agreed to let you take a look at her," Mira said. She paused and then groaned. "Stop being so grumpy all the time. Also, she can handle telepathy these days, so feel free to add her to your link."

Grace Pastel. I appreciate you coming here, he said. I have heard that you have tried to stop this foolish child from endangering herself, and for that, I thank you.

"No problem," I said. His stare was somewhat unsettling. It was like he was looking at an object and not a living thing.

"Get on with it and stop embarrassing me," Mira said.

Whereas Slowking was Cece's attendant and Duosion was Lauren's finance manager and best friend, it seemed that Kadabra was just Mira's dad. It was funny in a way, how every one of my friends' psychic types took a different role.

I am the only parental figure in your life. You are lucky your gamble paid off, or all of your savings would have vanished, he said, ignoring her groan. Now, you, Grace Pastel. Ah, yes…

A slight layer of light washed over his eyes.

Yes… I see it emanating from you. Every pore, brimming with fairy type energy. Fascinating. If only Mira had been affected by me as you had with your Togetic, we would be able to see eye-to-eye much easier, but alas. Kirlia and Haunter would have thrown a fit. Magnezone, though, he would have been okay with it so long as he could disagree with that ghost…

Kadabra kept rambling as he studied me, so I opted to speak to Mira instead.

"Does he see type energy?" I asked. "Never heard of a psychic that can do that."

"He does. It took him months to develop, he's been doing it since he was an Abra and he can't maintain it for long, or his eyesight will go bad for the rest of the day," Mira said. "I don't think he cares at the moment, though. It's kind of useful in battle too, we've been practicing it a little."

"Useful how?"

"The more we progress, the more Pokemon act independently," she said. My mind flashed to Zachary and I nodded. "Seeing TE means that he's able to see his opponents' attacks before they actually strike. They've got to gather that energy first, right? Either in their mouths, on their fists, feet, over their entire body… Kadabra can see it in advance. It makes dodging with Teleport a whole lot easier."

"Arceus," I exhaled.

"He's pretty good, yes."

I will attempt something. Tell me if you feel strange or pain and I will stop immediately, Kadabra said, grabbing his spoon with telekinesis.

"Okay…?"

The feeling was hard to describe. It was like something pulling from under my skin, begging to get out from any way it could, but it was stuck there. My entire body froze, I clenched my fists and every muscle contracted. It refused to leave me and screamed. It was a part of me. It was me. Kadabra stopped after a few seconds, and his spoon stopped bending.

There is enough fairy type energy inside of you to sustain many Dazzling Gleams, Kadabra mused. But it cannot be pulled out forcefully.

"Which is why people are stuck when they get influenced by a type too much," Mira nodded. "I told you I was right."

"W—wait," I stammered, barely understanding. "What about Justin, then? The doctors said he'd go back to normal!"

"Can't track him down. Kadabra would love to study him, but he's slippery. We'll find him eventually. I think that the problem with him is that he's absorbed so much dark type energy that some of it should theoretically not fit inside of his body and should be forced to leak out. I looked up some dark type specialists for research and none of them are as bad as he is. His personality shouldn't have been erased. Right, Kadabra? Hello?"

Kadabra's eyes flashed with passion.

My hypothesis was wrong all along, but then why... Humans came before Pokemon, but they have somehow been fundamentally changed by the type energy that they brought with them. Is it adaptation? Evolution on such a scale and this rapid was not seen in any other animals. They keep it locked inside themselves and are fundamentally changed by it, but why are they special? Why has no other species adapted this way and why have they all been hunted to extinction or reduced to mere cattle while humans thrived? Was it mere luck? Aura alone would not have been enough, especially in the early days. It is spread through blood, after all. They would have been wiped out in a generation. Don't tell me that—

His words grew louder and louder until he stopped. His eyes widened, shining ever brighter.

Then he smiled and laughed. Audibly. It was my first time hearing Kadabra's voice, and he sounded like a mix between a heavy smoker and an old grandpa. Kirlia stopped meditating and intently watched her fellow psychic as his laughter grew until he could barely breathe. Madness was in his eyes, his old, grizzled wise look all but gone. Tears streamed down his face and his spoon fell to the carpet with a soft thud. Kadabra kept cackling, hacking all the air out of his lungs for what felt like an eternity until he stared out the window and into the sky.

He drew a breath, and he suddenly looked exhausted. As if he'd aged a decade or even more.

I see it now. I have deciphered one of the key madnesses of the world and I shall now move on to the next. I am satisfied, Mira. I understand.

The light spread from Kadabra's eyes and enveloped his entire body. He grew taller than I and thinner than a child. His spoon shook, resonated and somehow split into two halves and levitated into his glowing hands.

An Alakazam stood before me.

"What did you find out?" I quietly asked.

That knowledge is mine and mine alone, he said. Suddenly he sounded a lot like Bellatrix hoarding her old stories like gold. I have reached enlightenment. I thank you, Grace Pastel. Without you, it would have been impossible.

"So somehow, you trying to use a move by pulling energy out of my body made you realize something?"

Do you take me for an amateur? It is not the act of pulling energy, but how the energy itself reacted to my attempt that made me attain this level of knowledge.

"Atta boy," Mira smirked. "You ought to be able to start Teleporting me around now, no? Want to practice how far you can go?"

I will get started right away while chewing on this newly attained awareness, he said, disappearing in a single instant.

"Thanks, Grace. You were a big help," Mira said, clapping my shoulder. "This stuff is gonna come in handy."

"The real reason you wanted this wasn't to have an easier time beating Maylene," I realized. "It was to have an escape route in case you get taken by Team Galactic."

"You're correct. Ah, man, I wish Alakazam would share his findings with me," she sighed. Kirlia rolled her eyes and went back to meditating without a word. "Anyway, that's crossed off the list. Porygon!"

I blinked when polygons materialized out of one of her laptops. It was blurry at first, and then slowly grew in resolution, like I was looking at a video game instead of real life. The Porygon let out a little beep and floated toward Mira. Not wanting to let the opportunity go by like I had done with Alakazam, I grabbed my Pokedex and scanned it.

"How's life inside of a computer? Wait, you can't even answer that."

"Can't you have Kirlia translate?"

"Nah, she doesn't speak normally. It's weird, but Kirlia and Kadabra can't understand her. I've been trying to get her better at hacking stuff and running simulations on my laptops."

"Hacking? Why?"

"Well, in the off-chance I get attacked and force whoever did that to take me there and I get out of that base alive, it'd be a shame if I didn't get any information out of it, no? Plans of attacks, locations of other bases… Porygon's sentient, so he can beat whatever bootleg Porygon that they have in there," she shrugged.

"You've given this a lot more thought than I thought," I said, my throat dry.

"I told you, didn't I? It'd be a bummer if I croaked. Things are slowly starting to line up, but first I've got to get Carlos off my back!"

I understood now. Mira Compton wasn't insane, unhinged, or mad. She had a terrifyingly low amount of self-preservation, but she wasn't just throwing anything at the wall to see what stuck like I'd believed when I had blown up at her a few days ago.

She was creating a plan. A reckless, suicidal one, but a plan nonetheless. Mira sat back at her computer and studied whatever it was that Porygon had done.

"Thanks again! Feel free to go if you want. Looking forward to working with you when the time comes, Grace."

It was the second time she'd said this, and it felt a lot more ominous now than it had before.

"We'll see about that," I answered.

—

I told Carlos that Mira was preparing something on the way out, and he answered by saying that the League already knew and that he'd stop her from doing anything reckless. I couldn't help but feel anxious and think that she'd manage to slip out of their hold. Still, if the League couldn't stop her, nobody could, and I was glad that they were taking her so seriously that they had their League Trainer visibly shadowing her.

Training with Melody was slowly getting better. I had to throw out a question that Mallory had sent back about my experience with Team Galactic at the power plant and my time during the Darkest Day. Those had nothing to do with the topic she wanted to speak to me about, but she had still tried to worm them in. Plus, the answers to the second were classified.

A text from Denzel snapped me out of my thoughts.

One, Justin had won a battle against Louis an hour ago and disappeared.

Two, Lauren and Cecilia were about to battle.