CHAPTER 208

"You look happy. Happier than you were yesterday."

I rolled toward Cecilia and wrapped my hands around her waist. Three days had passed since my battle with Maylene, and I'd slept in her room yesterday night, although I did allow Sunshine to stick in mine out of his Pokeball so he could dream. Slowking sat in one of the corners of the room— I was pretty sure this was the first time I actually saw him sit since he'd evolved, and he looked kind of funny. He had his last lesson on mental shields later today, and apparently he was on the cusp of mastering single-layer shields. I didn't really know how many layers you could get up to, but it'd no doubt come in handy.

"I am. I'm picking up my Pokemon today, remember?"

She caressed my cheek. "I'm glad you're alright. Are you sure you aren't letting the guilt eat you up?"

She left the context of the sentence unspoken, but Maylene had announced that she was going on a month-long break yesterday evening and many rumors were circulating. Some said that it was just her way of saving face for a while until she retired while others said the League was going to replace her soon. I didn't really care for those, but I had felt incredibly guilty about it for a while, to the point that I almost considered trying to get a meeting set up with her to apologize again. Of course, Denzel and Cece made me realize that was a terrible idea very quickly. As for Justin, I'd warned Louis about him and said he might be more willing to speak now, but that was it.

"Yeah, I can't do much about it. I just hope it isn't too bad," I said. "I can't wait to see my Pokemon again, though. They're gonna be so happy we won."

I technically could have brought Buddy here, but I was sure he was having a very fun time with Sunshine. I'd have to buy him some books today too. When I asked him the history of what region and what period, he told me to get everything I could get my hands on, and when I told him about the Canalave library, he suddenly got very excited about the city. Unfortunately, it'd have to wait a while, but the library there had many books that you couldn't find anywhere else, both in paperback or online.

"Zweilous nearly destroyed the entire room in excitement when I brought him back here, so I had to recall them immediately before they got someone killed," she said. "Winning a Gym Badge always gets their blood pumping."

"Thinking they'll evolve sooner rather than later?"

Her lips went flat for a second.

"What?" I said. "Oh shit, sorry. They'll go beserk, right? I shouldn't have brought it up. If you need any help to calm them down when the time comes—"

"No, I will handle it alone, just like my brother did. But it's not even that," she sighed. "The heads combine back into one. That means that Zerst and Sol will fuse again, and I don't know if I'll ever be ready for that."

"You were scared when Deino split into two as well."

"Strange, is it not? I'll have to learn to deal with it when the time comes. I was thinking of combining their names whenever they do evolve. And to answer your question, no, I don't think it's coming any time soon. Maybe in a few months. Golett, however? I think his time is soon."

"Can't wait to see the little guy fly around," I chuckled. "Say, when your brother's Zweilous evolved, you said he got sent to the hospital, right? It's a dark type, so psychic attacks and barriers won't work very well. I think—"

"You worry too much," she smiled. "What's with your fixation on Zweilous today?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Last night, I just thought… we're more than halfway there, you know? Halfway to the Conference. That made me think about which evolutions people had left, that's all. Then I remembered the whole ordeal with Hydreigon."

Cece wrapped her hands around me tighter. "It has been a journey, hasn't it? I'll tell you about Mark, then. His Zweilous evolved during his second year during his Gym Battle against Drayden, and he had to recall it because it kept going for the kill instead of battling normally."

"What's Drayden's type?"

"Dragon."

"Huh. Convenient."

"Yes. He gave my brother advice after the battle, but he wasn't cautious enough and he got wounded by a Dragon Pulse— not the full attack, of course. He wouldn't have survived otherwise. He told me to call him when the time came."

"Fine."

I hoped she wasn't doing this in hopes of impressing Azelf, but I had no right to complain about not asking for help. I'd done it many times, after all.

"You know, thinking about your brother," I started. "Before him, there was Iris. But before her, there was Alder. I remember the headlines— the youngest Champion in the world— or at least since… what's his name?"

"Since Blue and Red were Champion for a single day in Kanto. First Blue beats Lance, then the other guy beats him— Red— and he immediately gives the position back to Lance and disappears."

"Right, Blue and Red. Arceus, those are strange names. Anyway, those guys became the Champion when they were eleven because trainers in Kanto could become trainers when they were ten back then. Kind of an unhinged policy, if you ask me."

Cece scoffed. "Right? When I was ten, I could barely do anything, let alone travel in the wild, but their society used to be... pretty martial. Still is, even if the age was finally raised."

"Anyway, Iris was twelve, right? Or was it eleven?"

"She was also eleven, and she's thirteen today. She trained under Drayden and he offered to make her a trainer early, which she happily accepted, but as you know, Unova's routes are a lot safer than Kanto's for travel. And Iris wasn't Champion for long," she explained. "There was an entire political crisis because of how young she was. Even with the systems in place in case a child ever got the position of Champion, eleven was really pushing it."

"What happened to Alder?" I asked. "I can't imagine someone who'd been the Champion for that long losing to a little kid…"

Cecilia grimaced. "You don't know?"

"Well, I am asking."

"His Volcarona. His oldest partner died."

"D—Died? During the battle?"

"No, it had died of old age. Well, not exactly old age, more like it was so old its body couldn't fight off some kind of illness. Apparently it was already really old when Alder caught it, and on the tail end of its life. Even then, it was probably the most powerful trained Pokemon in existence."

"Stronger than Garchomp?"

"Well, it's hard to measure power at that scale, I'm just repeating what people said," she shrugged. "But Volcarona are incredibly rare, and we thought they were extinct before Alder went and caught his. Do you know what they called his Volcarona? The Sun God. And it wasn't even in its prime. They were revered in ancient times and one flutter of their wings could burn an entire village to smithereens. There's this story of an ancient catastrophe in Unova. A supervolcanic eruption that blotted out the skies for years, but that a Volcarona acted as a second sun for its inhabitants."

"Arceus."

"An exaggeration no doubt, but all stories have hints of truths to them. Alder was a rather unique Champion. His Pokemon were all strong, but he relied on Volcarona for everything, and it was miles ahead of the other members of his team. Combine that with his depression, and you get—"

"His crushing defeat to Iris," I nodded.

"And it was crushing. 2-6, if I remember correctly. These days, he aimlessly wanders around the region like a homeless man, and his reputation is in tatters. Iris follows him around sometimes when she isn't back at Drayden's. I think she's happier not being the Champion, and she hasn't tried to retake the position. Her battle with Mark was very close."

"That was depressing," I sighed.

"Sorry?"

"I did ask. Hey, gimmie a lil' smooch to make me feel better."

"How about a long one?" She smirked.

"I'll never say no to that."

—

"I'll see you later?"

I stood on my tiptoes and pecked Cecilia on the lips. "Yup. Gotta run. We can talk about when to leave later when Chase finally answers us."

His two weeks had run out by now, but he hadn't told us when his Gym Battle would be aside from the fact that he was pissed that he'd have to fight some Gym Trainer and not Maylene herself. I quickly swung by my room and interrupted Jellicent and Sunshine's talk of Johto and its history, but the dragon was horribly vague and inaccurate, or at least he was according to Buddy. He huffed and demanded to be placed back in his ball, and I acquiesed after making sure he wasn't actually angry. It was just another one of his unserious tantrum, and those ranged from the 'I'm going to kill you' to the more common 'Put me back in my ball so I can sleep with my volcanos.' Learning what the inside of a Pokeball was like had been a fascinating affair. Even though they were a part of our everyday lives, few trainers actually thought about how the device functioned.

"Hey, Bud," I said as we descended the stairs. People scraped the walls in order not to walk close to me. "What's the inside of your ball like?"

He let out a series of clicks and explained. To him, his Pokeball was the deepest part of the ocean where no light could reach. It was just him, the cold, and the occasional sunken ship with the bodies of dead sailors— dead sailors? I didn't say it out loud, but the water type could tell I was confused. He huffed and said that the most powerful Jellicent were capable of dragging huge ships to the bottom of the ocean and feasted on every sailor's lifespan. Supposedly, it wasn't something he wanted to do, which I was glad for, but it was there for flair.

Basically, he decorated his house with corpses. Fun.

I picked up the rest of my team and swung by a library before making my way toward good old route 214. Buddy wasn't actually allowed inside the building, but he told me to get anything I could on either Sinnoh or Johto, and I obliged him, picking up 'The Complete History of Johto' and 'From Hisui to Sinnoh - A History.' I was starting to think I'd need another bag soon somehow, but I managed to fit the two thick books inside my backpack. I wasn't very interested in history, but it was a hobby to share, and it wasn't like Buddy could hold the books himself without ruining them. It'd pass the time on the road or at night in the Centers whenever I slept alone. Once I made it to my usual spot, I released everyone and they were all as good as new.

"We won," I immediately said.

There were cheers, but they were less jubilant than my win against Fantina. Meanwhile Sunshine just snorted, but I ignored him. We'd expected a win, which was why there was a lot less surprise here. We had never worked as hard as we had for this Gym Battle, and everyone had been confident going in. Pupitar immediately started bragging about her part of the fight, and then they all started speaking about who did what. I let that go on for a while. It was true that while I saw everything that went on during a battle, they did not, and had no idea what their siblings had faced.

Electabuzz snorted and gave a thumbs up at Jellicent when the water type told him about how he'd finished off Lucario, and Angel was up in arms, telling everyone about how much fun he'd had fighting Conkeldurr. I sat next to Sunshine and poked him in the leg.

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"You're smiling. You're proud of them, aren't you?"

The fire type immediately lost his little smirk and turned his head away from me.

"You don't have to hide it," I said. "It's okay to get closer to us. It's okay to be happy. You deserve it."

I stroked him on the arm, and his scales heated up a little. His smile returned soon after, and we listened to Princess brag about her pillars to try to upstage Sweetheart, and the two bickered for a while. Volkner was next, and that meant Buddy and Princess would take a backstage while the rest of the team came to the forefront. It'd be a perfect Gym for Sweetheart thanks to her ground typing, although I had no doubt Volkner had many counters for the type. Angel would resist electric attacks while Honey needed to be in top form as well.

"Hey,"

The dragon opened an eye and stared at me.

"Are you ready to play ball, you think? This is the sixth badge, so it'll be a decent challenge. I'm sure Volkner will go a little above that too. The next Gym is Crasher Wake, and his arena's full of water so you won't see much action. If you want to finish shaking off your rust, battling Volkner will be a good way to do it, and you'll be more prepared for Byron. If you say yes, of course. Don't feel forced to."

Turtonator sighed as he pondered his answer. I could see the gears move in his head as I stared into his eyes. I'd told him about Team Galactic. He knew a confrontation might be near, and I assumed that worried him a lot more than underperforming in Gyms did. After a few seconds, Sunshine nodded firmly.

"Then you'll see action," I smiled. "Let's start working on something right away. Remember that Turtonator you told me about? The one who could move himself through explosions?"

The fire type nodded. He'd tried before, of course, and the problem wasn't the power required. After all, he was stronger now than that Turtonator had been. No, the problem was the sheer amount of control required to make it work. He couldn't just explode his shell willy-nilly. He had to consider pitch, strength, tilt, his body weight, his shell's current condition, and a thousand other different things. Essentially, he needed to do what Sweetheart had done, but it'd be harder. Way harder. I didn't think he'd be done working on this by the time I battled Volkner.

"Your biggest weakness— don't look at me like that, I didn't say you were weak, I called it a weakness. It's your lack of mobility. Imagine a future where your opponent tries to keep you at bay like Zachary's Vespiquen, but you just fly up and land next to them. Then, you do what you do best. You burn, and they faint."

Sunshine's eyes glimmered in anticipation, but that light left soon after. He'd tried to learn this trick countless times with Oranguru, but to no avail.

"We can still try, right? Other than that, you're on Sunny Day duty. Angel can teach you the basics."

Turtonator's head turned toward the grass type, who was pushing himself up in the air with a dozen vines for fun, and then he stared back at me.

"Come on, you know he's smarter than he looks by now. Can you handle five different tasks at once? I don't think so, mister."

The dragon type groaned, but waved a hand dismissively. He'd get started on Sunny Day when we started training back up again. Volkner was going to be tricky, but I was already planning on a sun strategy. It wouldn't counter him explicitly, but it would turn Sunshine and Angel into monsters in their own rights, and I had a theory on something regarding Ancient Power. As for my other Pokemon, I was going to have Angel start work on Solar Beam. He needed to get better at fighting at a distance, and combined with the sun, it'd prove to be a devastating move. I'd already told Buddy to work on Water Spout. Electabuzz still needed to increase his electric potential as much as he could, and Thunder was still some weeks away. The good news was that his stamina problems were now gone, and he could fight for as long as was needed.

Princess was going to start working on Air Slash and conduct some… experiments with Ancient Power soon. If what I had in mind worked, then she'd actually be very useful for Volkner despite how vulnerable she'd be. Sweetheart, meanwhile, was going to finish working on Iron Head. The focused steel type energy would make her pack a meaner punch when she flew. Sunshine would also keep teaching her Dragon Pulse. Drawing on dragon type energy was difficult for her, but it was possible according to the Pokedex.

Training never stopped. It was only continuous, arduous improvement that would bring me to the top, and thinking the pillar strategy would work again was foolish, even though it'd be a nice trick to bring if I ever battled in tournaments. Stagnation was the last thing I wanted.

As for me? Well, I needed to learn what made people tick without enormous amounts of studying. I wouldn't have as much time to study opponents in the Conference as I did with Gym Leaders, and humans could be somewhat predictable. Behavioral sciences were a thing, after all.

Well, I wouldn't ruin the mood by announcing more training. It could always wait. Right now, my family was having a lot of fun.

—

I came back to Veilstone earlier than planned because I'd gotten a text from Chase asking to meet me, Mira and Cecilia in front of our Pokemon Center. I actually hadn't seen Mira in a while, and she had deep bags under her eyes. When I asked, she said she'd spent an all nighter trying to get her Porygon to learn Ice Beam, and she'd done it. She spoke about a bunch of coding stuff that went over my head, but long story short, she'd managed to essentially code the move into Porygon's head.

"The answers came to me if I dug deep enough," she said. "It feels like cheating, but I'm not going to complain. Ice Beam took me more than a week, so I'm going to try Thunderbolt next."

"Thunderbolt? When you're fighting Volkner?" I asked.

"I'm mostly thinking about Wake. Don't think Porgyon will see much fighting in Volkner's Gym, but we'll see. In other news, I need to find myself an Eevee—"

"You mean buy yourself an Eevee. You can't just stumble across an Eevee," Cecilia said.

"Denzel did it," I said.

"Okay, but he just got ridiculously lucky. Eevee are rare, you're most likely going to need to buy it. And the price of every Pokemon went up now that the Hunters went under."

"Damn it," Mira sighed. "Okay, maybe I put the Eevee idea on the backburner for a while."

Cece raised an eyebrow. "Which evolution did you even want?"

"Glaceon. Cynthia's wreaks havoc every time it fights, and it's perfect for a special attack specialist like me," she smugly said. "Plus, Candice is my last Gym… there's that huge Icy Rock up north that's known to evolve Eevee if they stay close to it for a day or two. Damn it, it was perfect."

"If you ever get one, just make sure it actually wants to evolve into that first," I warned.

"I will, I will, no need to preach at me. I'd take any Eeveelution, although Sylveon would be raining on Denzel's parade a little. I don't really care about trainer etiquette though."

It was well known that trainers traveling in a group often avoided getting the same Pokemon. It wasn't actively discouraged, but it was good manners. Of course, Mira didn't care for good manners.

"What about you, Cece? Narrowed your choices a little?" I asked.

"Hitmonlee's out," she declared. "Not flexible enough for what I want, and Tyrogue isn't even guaranteed to evolve into one."

"Fair enough. I'm sure you'll— ah, there he is."

Mira beamed at the sight of Chase and waved like an excited little girl. Sigilyph followed close behind him, although she made herself small behind her trainer when she noticed us. She was still as shy as always.

"Chasey!" She yelled.

"Hi."

She dashed toward him with her arms outstretched, but he easily sidestepped and ducked under her. She stood there for a few seconds, frozen with her arms in the same position while Chase pulled out two things from his pocket. One, his flying license. It was a shiny card with his name, picture, date of birth, and Trainer ID embedded on it. Two, a badge. Maylene's badge, to be quite exact.

"When?" I asked.

"Yesterday. I pick up my team tomorrow morning, and we then we can leave on this trip thing."

Mira finally unfroze and turned. "Aw, yeah! I'm so excited!" She beamed.

Sigilyph beeped at her, staring with her unblinking eye until Mira looked back and the psychic type screeched in fear.

"Stop scaring her," Chase said.

"I just looked at her."

"I said what I said. She's a soft one— but strong when it matters," he proudly said with a smile. He recalled the psychic into her ball and leaned against the Center's wall. "She pulled her weight during my Gym Battle. Had to beat down a Gym Trainer, so it didn't feel as good as it could have, but what's done is done. At least I'm not strapped for cash anymore."

"Tomorrow's so soon," I stammered. "I have to buy a bunch of stuff, talk to Denzel—"

"Okay, no worries," he raised his hands. "Just don't waste too much time. Don't forget, after this Sunyshore trip, I'm outta here."

"You said you'd think about Pastoria too," I said.

"Right. I did say that. Sorry, I forgot. We'll see."

"Well, I'm ready to go whenever," Cecilia announced. "I'll swing by and tell our friends goodbye. Mira?"

"Louis and Maeve are gone, so yeah. Just gonna tell the annoying love triangle adieu and then we can get going. Think they'll sort things out if they're traveling alone, or will they delay another month? Any bets?"

"I'm not betting anything. I don't even know what you're talking about," Chase said.

"Don't worry about it, Chase," Cecilia sighed. "Grace?"

"Yeah. I guess— I guess we can leave tomorrow."

This was really happening, huh? Our time in Veilstone was finally over, and a lot quicker than I'd thought. It wasn't like I had anything left to do here. Hell, I still disliked the city as a whole, but it was still kind of surreal to be leaving. I did get this feeling after every city, but it was more pronounced this time because of the sheer density of everything that had happened. There'd been event after event with very little time to rest.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I said, more steadfast. "Did you guys know I've actually been to Sunyshore once before? I was a kid though, so I don't remember much."

"You did tell me," Cece nodded. "I've also been there last summer."

I nodded, remembering that Sunyshore was where Cece had caught Talonflame.

"Anything interesting to do there?" Mira asked.

"It's really pretty. The walkways and the architecture make you feel like you're living in the future," I explained. "Compared to Veilstone, it's night and day. There's the beach, but it's still February. You can go see what the Lily of the Valley island looks like from an observation deck in a lighthouse… yeah, that's all I remember. Oh, and there's a Ferris Wheel!"

"There's a Ferris Wheel in Jubilife…" Mira muttered.

"But this one's bigger."

"None of those compare to Unova's, but it is what it is," my girlfriend mocked. "There's the Sunyshore Market open every Sunday where they sell a wide variety of goods, and the city's also the influencer center of Sinnoh. It used to be Hearthome, but Sunyshore's been growing extremely quickly since Volkner became Gym Leader and every young person wants to move there. Sunyshore University is also the most prestigious in Sinnoh, and of course as Grace said, it's a center of technology and innovation."

Sunyshore University… I remembered that was where Isaac studied. The man who'd dated Lisa Hunter and who had led us to uncover everything in Solaceon thanks to his very helpful phone call.

"Who cares? We're there to beat up Volkner, not to take pictures," Chase shrugged.

Cecilia groaned. "You don't know how to have fun, do you?"

"I do have plenty of fun, you just enjoy boring stuff too much. Anyway, if that's all, I'm gonna dip and practice flying some more outside the city. Let's meet at the gate to route 214 tomorrow at eight in the morning."

"That's so early," Mira grumbled.

"Yes. Exactly."

"I'll do it for you," she said, her eyes rapidly blinking.

He took a few steps back and grimaced. "Ew."

"Ew is better than what you used to say. That's progress!"

Chase kept walking away from her until he turned the corner. One thing was for sure, Sunyshore was going to be a lot more easygoing than Veilstone.

"Let's go out and eat, girls," Mira declared. "I'm starving. Here, take me to that high-end place you two went. The Elegant Carver."

"How do you even know that?" Cece scoffed. "And no, I am absolutely not taking you there. You won't be dressed appropriately, and I'd like for it to remain something between Grace and I."

"Come on. Pretty please? Do they do take-out?"

"They… they do," she relented.

We ended up eating some luxurious food on the sidewalk and split the bill three ways.

—

"Yo," Denzel waved. "Heard the news. You're leaving."

I'd knocked on his room and he even paused his stream to talk to me. Now, how had he done that, I didn't know, but—

"Blacked out the screen and muted the sound," he explained as if he'd read my mind. His Swablu sat on his head and preened herself constantly. She glared at me just for stepping inside of the room as if my mere presence was dirtying it. I could easily feel that she disliked me.

"Who preempted me and told you?" I asked.

"Chase did. He's not very discreet, and he's terrible at caring. He sent a message to the group chat asking for everyone to confirm that you were leaving at eight. I guess he kind of didn't care everyone else was in it."

"Ah. Sorry," I winced. "I came to tell you."

"Yeah, I figured."

An uneasy silence settled in as I leaned against the wall and shut the door.

"Good luck out there," he said. "With whatever it is you're going to do."

"Thanks. When are you guys leaving?"

"When Emi's better. Probably in three days or so. She's slowly improving, so that's good. Pauline won't leave her side and is asking me to stick close by constantly."

"You two are her favorite people in the world, so that makes sense."

"I wouldn't say that," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"You know it already," I shrugged. "You're not dense, Denzel. I mean, I've known what's going on since Hearthome, and I'm the densest person on the planet. Everyone else also figured it out. You three are the only people ignoring it. Pauline likes you both."

"Look, it's better this way," he said. "This way, no one gets hurt."

I exhaled. "If you say so. Sooner or later, the lid's going to pop off, and I figure it might just happen while you're all traveling alone."

"It'll be fine."

"Okay."

"You didn't sound very convinced."

"That's because I'm not."

"Oh. Right."

There was another pause.

"Look at you," Denzel continued. "Now you're the one giving relationship advice. How times have changed."

I smirked. "I try my best. How'd it go when Pauline met Ashley?"

"She was nice, but she was doing that thing where she's just pretending. Like she did in Solaceon?" He said. "Creeped me out too, because she obviously hated her. Told me Ashley had a crush on me right after.

"Yeah, I remember. Did she say anything else?"

"No."

"Wow. She's grown. I thought she would have asked you to never meet her again."

"I did too, honestly. I can honestly tell she was trying to be nice, which was really endearing. Probably gonna see Ashley again in Sunyshore and see how she's doing. Anyway, you wanna join me for this stream? Since we're going our separate ways for a little bit, it'd mean a lot."

"Oh. Uh, what do you even do when you stream?"

"We were talking about Swablu, but the conversation will change since you're just going to pop up out of nowhere. Here, let's just talk about how we train Pokemon. I think people will enjoy hearing the differences and similarities."

"I think they'll enjoy me picking you apart," I teased.

He smiled. "Bring it on."

—

It was morning now. I'd stocked up on potions, told my team we were leaving early and bid my Center room goodbye after making sure I hadn't forgotten anything. Streaming was… an experience. It could maybe be fun once in a while, but it definitely wasn't for me, especially since the commenters kept asking about Maylene and I kept having to ignore them. Denzel had no moderators in his chat and it sometimes got quite toxic, but he was planning on making Lopunny one when she learned to read.

A Lopunny moderating a stream? Now that was something else. What was next, her browsing the forums? I liked it, though. He was saving to buy her a phone and he'd have enough money when he got to Sunyshore.

I met up with Cecilia and Mira in the Pokemon Center's lobby, and we quietly made out way toward route 214. Chase was already there when we arrived. The teenager greeted us with a curt nod. Everything was quiet. The rangers were tired and drinking their morning coffee and clearly didn't want to be disturbed.

"Wooooooo! Let's get this show on the road!" Mira screamed.