CHAPTER 231

I picked up Honey from the nurses the next afternoon because I'd stayed in Cece's bed the entire morning. She had not lied when she'd said that we would sleep in, but the truth was, it felt nice to catch up on some sleep and cuddle with her. I figured I would go train with her and Lauren later since Jasmine would be busy today. Hopefully it'd be the start of her alcoholism getting better. Last night still felt like a dream to me, but what I vividly remembered was Volkner's love for Jasmine. It was real. I was sure he would take care of her today, Gym duties be damned.

But before training, I had to catch my family up to speed on yesterday's events. With how everyone but Sunshine was still growing, it was starting to get very crowded in my Pokemon Center room even if fitting them all in was still possible, so I'd gone to the beach again. Buddy had told me during one of our talks that Jellicent grew their entire lives at an extremely slow rate, so his was negligible and he could resize himself to whatever he desired anyway so long as it was reasonable. According to him, there were some truly gargantuan Jellicent in the depths of the ocean that only came up to the surface to hunt, but he had never seen one of those sizes himself.

I released Honey last, and his head hang low and he apologized to me right away for losing. Needless to say, everyone demanded to know what had gone on last night, and although I was about to answer, Honey took over and explained everything himself. My Pokemon either weren't familiar with human rules or in Sunshine's case just didn't care, so they didn't see anything wrong with me breaking in. What they cared the most about was the battle, obviously.

Sweetheart clamored to Honey's left and her cocoon rattled as she demanded to know exactly how strong Electivire was while Sunshine sneakily listened from a few feet away, hiding his curiosity. Angel patted Honey's back with a few vines, but couldn't stop himself from wrapping more and more around him until he squeezed the electric type into a hug to cheer him up. Buddy was more silent, offering a comforting gaze and asking Honey if he wanted to prank him to feel better.

Honey finally laughed, saying that that wasn't how pranks even worked.

And of course, Princess offered to maim Electivire. She did not enjoy Honey recounting how much the electric type had laughed or mocked him during the fight. I hadn't understood Electivire's words since it was my first time meeting him, only felt the emotions radiating off of him, but he was apparently a devious trash talker that had tried to provoke Honey on numerous occasions. Thankfully the bait hadn't worked and Honey stayed cool-headed. It was interesting to see the contrast between Volkner's behavior and his starter's. Princess and I were very similar.

I had tried at least five times to get a word in to assuage Honey's worries, and I only managed to get everyone's attention by clapping my hands.

"We might have lost, but Jasmine negotiated another chance for us," I announced. Honey's eyes widened with a mix of disbelief and hope. "It'll be right after our Gym Battle. I still need to figure out if it'll be in public, and if it is, if the arena will be reset."

Honey screamed for joy, and Princess tackled him with a hug saying that she'd keep Electivire alive since he needed to be there for her brother's battle. Sweetheart demanded to be included in the hug too, and Angel dragged the entire team together in one big pile— including me and Sunshine, much to the dragon's displeasure. I heard him whisper 'children' to himself, but the barest hint of a smile was on his face. The different skin textures felt odd on my skin. Princess and Honey's thin fur, Buddy's liquid-like skin (he barely had a form from being squeezed down the middle), Angel's smooth vines, and Sunshine and Sweetheart's rough scales.

When he released us, I placed a hand on my chin and tapped a foot on the ground. I wanted the fight to be public for the simple reason that it'd look good for me, win or lose. I had almost created a PR disaster for the Poketch Company, but this was an opportunity. Even if Electivire held back, Volkner was still the second-strongest Gym Leader and was consistently compared to the Elite Four even though he was demonstrably weaker than them. Some people insisted that he was overrated when compared to someone with Byron's experience and that he was actually the third strongest, but that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Any kind of battle with his starter would be a boon for what the Poketch Company thought of me. If I lost— and I wasn't entertaining losing, but if I did, then it wouldn't reflect badly on me at all. After all, who expected the girl with five badges to win that battle?

But if I won, beyond getting Honey to evolve, I would create another splash, and the Poketch Company loved when I was on the news.

I would text Jasmine asking for the details of the battle tomorrow. Right now, she needed to focus on more important things.

"Let's start planning," I declared.

Honey answered with a firm nod, and I could feel the determination bleeding off of him. Beyond his loss, he'd gotten a taste of what awaited him beyond this form and was hungry for more. I was certain that part of him even wished he'd seen Electivire at his full strength, but that battle would be decided before it had even begun. There was still a huge gap to close before we could even hope to win that fight. An evolution was a shortcut, but it wasn't the end of it all.

"What went wrong yesterday?" I asked.

It was tough to do my usual autopsy when there was no video available. Seeing myself battle in the third person always did wonders when spotting mistakes and improving upon them. Sweetheart chimed in, but Buddy gently told her to stay silent to let me focus and reminded her that she hadn't been there.

"It's not really a matter of what went wrong but what we can improve upon and what worked," I muttered. "Electivire will know our tricks next time, but do you know what a Gym Leader and their Pokemon's biggest weakness is?"

Honey stared around, hoping for someone to answer. Princess opened her mouth—

"Princess! No cheating," I said. "Just give it a try, Hon."

The fairy type let out a sad chirp and apologized to Honey. The electric type answered with overconfidence.

"No," I said. "Although Electivire will definitely be coming into that second battle underestimating us. The answer is stagnation. Once someone becomes a Gym Leader, they won't have much time to train with their personal teams beyond occasionally using them against powerful trainers that challenge them each year. Maybe they make them train on their own, but that's it. You become a Gym Leader, and you settle. You sacrifice progress to take care of your community and foster the growth of future trainers."

I paused, wondering if any of the current Gym Leaders beyond Fantina ever regretted that decision deep down. Even outside of Sinnoh, this problem still applied.

"Electivire will still be the same when we face him, but we will not," I said. "We'll be stronger."

Honey's mouth stretched into a toothy grin and I could tell that had fired him up.

"The three things that worked were— actually, let me get my laptop open for this," I said, grabbing the device from my backpack. Angel reflexively made a bed of vines for me to sit on so I couldn't get sand all over my clothes and I started to type. "The two things that worked perfectly were Thunder and Radiant Leap. Thunder breaks through Electivire's barrier instantly and Radiant Leap allows you to keep up with him, even if that's temporary— guys come sit. Reading lessons."

Sweetheart groaned at that, but she crawled at my side while Princess floated above my shoulder. Angel was already behind me and Buddy made himself as small as possible so he could fit. Honey sat to my right, while Sunshine lay in the sand with an open eye to listen to my strategizing.

"Pay attention to the letters," I said. "Buddy, pop quiz! What's that word!" I yelled, pointing to 'barrier'.

The water type hesitated, but he answered with the correct word.

"Good job," I smiled, rubbing whatever the hell he was. Some kind of squiggly star with his two red eyes piercing his pale blue skin. "Moving on, the things that didn't work that well, but will work if we work on them enough. Discharge, Screech and Railgun. Discharge is an excellent zoning tool that can reset the tempo. Swift works for zoning too, but no need to work on it. I'd rather focus on other things."

Honey winced, probably remembering when he got kicked into his own Electric Swift. He had avoided that part of the story when telling his siblings about it, so I decided to keep silent not to embarrass him.

"Discharge can always come out faster, but if we train Railgun enough, it will be powerful enough to break through Electivire's shield on its own, and we can use it like Princess' shrapnel. Smaller, focused projectiles or beams of energy break through psychic barriers easier than wide attacks like Discharge."

The fairy proudly nodded since she was the one that had helped Honey work on the concept for that attack.

"Screech is self-explanatory. No matter how strong Electivire is, he still has ears, but the problem is that he'll know to expect it now. Plus, none of that will be enough. The issues with Electivire are his speed and Teleportation," I started. "But thankfully it looks like even he has limits. He stopped using the move midway through the battle, and even Jasmine said as much while you were unconscious. The best strategy here would be to bait out as many Teleports as we can at the start until he runs out, and then we can start going in for real."

I stopped, and my hands hovered over my keyboard.

"Of course, we can always get a little bit innovative and refute that entirely," I grinned. "Go in while they least expect. That means countering Teleport in some way… you don't learn dark moves naturally and I can't spend anything on a TM right now, so I'll keep a tab on that for now. If I manage to figure something out, we can catch them off-guard, because that's how we win this. Both hits we got, we did because Electivire hadn't anticipated them. Next up, Static Shield."

Honey's fur stood on end, along with my hair and Princess' own fur as he reflexively charged up electricity until Buddy called out.

"We'll have to wait for Jasmine and Amphy to keep helping us with that one, but we'd need a more advanced version of the technique. Something strong enough to count as a hit and that would stop Electivire from actually touching you with anything other than his conductive tails."

That meant that the move needed not only to paralyze opponents that physically hit Honey, but to have electricity automatically jump at nearby Pokemon. My Pokemon all nodded, and I finished up my mini-report. It would have been ten times the length had I gotten footage of the battle, but we were done for now.

"So, Hon. While I train with Lauren and Cece, I want you to prioritize Railgun first and Discharge second. Tomorrow when we're with Jasmine again, we'll focus on Static Shield. That okay with you? Anyone else want to chime in with an idea?"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Aside from a few well-meaning but terrible suggestions from Angel and Sweetheart, no one had anything to say.

"Well then, let's get back to the Center. Now, now, Sweetie you'll get to swim later. You've got to work on Earthbreaker!"

—

Training went well for the next few hours. I mainly focused on getting Angel familiarized with Solar Beam against Lauren's Sceptile, since the grass type would be resistant to the attack. Even with all of our experience and strength, it was still only slightly smaller than the Solar Beam Gardenia's Sunflora had used against me, but then again, she had Solar Power, Growth, and a mastery of Sunny Day we still couldn't match to this day.

Lauren was delighted when I told her that Volkner was going to send the video of her battle to Flint. I skirted around the detail of what happened last night and only told her that Jasmine had helped, which was a twisted version of the truth. I knew Cece would breathe easier because of it. Speaking of Cece, Lehmhart was a real menace in battle and had won the first battle against Lauren's Seismitoad and nearly won the second, although Seismitoad wasn't used to fighting such a large Pokemon. Thirteen feet tall was nothing to scoff at, and it meant that her Muddy Water was useless at sweeping Lehmhart away. Volis had fared better, since he was so quick on his feet Lehmhart couldn't fight back that well, but the collateral damage from his Hammer Arms and Stomping Tantrums had severely damaged the Sceptile.

He'd fought Rhydon too, although the rock type had won thanks to his advanced strength. The fact that the rest of our Pokemon were catching up to both him and Sunshine was undeniable, however.

Before we finished for the day and left, however, I wanted to test my mettle against the ground type with Buddy. Cecilia stood opposite of me with Golurk already out in the field. Princess had fixed it up for what felt like the hundredth time. Slowking, who was tired from keeping up the barrier for so long, spoke into our minds and began the battle.

"Night Shade, then stay far away and Hydro Pump!" I yelled out.

Jellicent whistled sharply, and two shadows materialized by his side. Lehmhart's biggest weakness was how weak he was at a distance, but his size meant that it couldn't be easily exploited, especially when this arena was smaller than normal. Three thick pressurized jets of water flew out of Jellicent's mouth and his clones with a loud boom. Lehmhart lifted a hand, blocking one with his sheer mass, but the other two rammed into his tough exterior.

"Phantom Force and Thunder Punch!" Cece yelled.

Golurk disappeared into thin air, smoke evaporating from him until he slipped into another plane. The fact that something so large could just disappear like that was astonishing. The Hydro Pumps broke against the ground as if they were passing through the invisible Golurk, but I knew he was still getting hurt. Knowing that he could only be gone for around fifteen seconds at most, I waited for Lehmhart to reappear with bated breath…

And he did, dwarfing Buddy by a mile and with one of his fists wreathed in electricity. With surprising dexterity, he struck directly at Jellicent, but the water type narrowly dodged the attack and flew around his arm. The shades raged, denting Golurk's armor with a combined Hydro Pump.

"Aim for his knee," I ordered.

"Resonance!"

The Hydro Pump didn't stop. It simply slid down toward Lehmhart's leg, and Buddy added his own attack to the mix. Something within Lehmhart rumbled, and the sound of his engine bellowed erratically until it turned into a strange tune. A wave of ghostly energy exploded out of him and destroyed the shades in a single hit. Jellicent's body rippled, his eyes dimmed and he froze in place.

Cece's next order was obvious. A humongous Thunder Punch slammed against Buddy and sent him exploding everywhere. The shock from Buddy disassembling made him come to his senses and he quickly reformed.

"Stomping Tantrum," Cece continued.

Lehmhart jumped into the air, and the world held its breath. When he landed, the ground burst open and Buddy's fragments flew apart before most could reach the main body. The ones that did, however, reformed into a smaller, weaker version of himself. It would take a bit for him to gather everything again.

"The knee," I said again.

Night Shade was automatic to us now. Buddy formed two and sent another one crashing against Lehmhart for good measure, and a Hydro Pump washed against the ground type's knee. It was the thinnest and weakest part of his body. Golurk's knee buckled, slowing him down, and the ghost type leaned against Slowking's barrier for support. I smiled when we'd bought enough time for Jellicent to gather most of his body.

"Go in and Water Spout!"

Buddy screamed, propelling himself with Water Sport to rush toward Golurk's knee while his shades kept applying pressure—

"Phantom Force!"

And Golurk disappeared. Still, the attack went through. Water exploded out of every inch of Jellicent's head. Each jet was powerful enough to stab through steel, and the pain from the attack forced Golurk out of hiding. The ground type flickered in and out of reality and the water cut through his tough exterior.

Ideally, this was when Buddy would slip inside of his body and use Water Spout, but I didn't want to send Lehmhart to the Center for days.

"Hammer Arm," Cece said, crossing her arms.

Golurk lifted a glowing fist into the sky, slamming it against the ground with all of his might despite all of my attacks. The earth wept from the blow and Slowking's barrier shimmered as the psychic struggled to keep it intact. Shards of rock flew upward, destroyed the Night Shades and stabbed into Buddy.

This was the problem when facing Lehmhart. His evolution had taught him how to feel pain, but that didn't matter. He was too big and too strong for his simple attacks to be stopped.

"Resonance and Ice Punch!"

I clicked my tongue when mist coalesced around Golurk's fist next and formed into ice. The battlefield would be unnavigable to any Pokemon, but not him. He was just too big for it to even matter and stepped over faults or ridges like they were nothing. Lehmhart let out a pleasant hum as music played from his body, and another wave of shadowy energy passed through Jellicent. The effect was dimmed this time, but the water type still froze and Lehmhart's fist rammed into his face—

And froze him completely.

That was the disadvantage of being entirely made of water I supposed.

Cece breathed a sigh of relief. "My win?"

"Well, Buddy can barely move, so yes," I said, recalling the water type. "Lehmhart's a monster, huh?"

"His size is a blessing and a curse," she said as she recalled him. We both joined Lauren, who had been sitting next to Slowking and watching the fight. "In a real battle, I need to figure out a way to improve his defense. Something that will work multiple times, unlike Resonance. Iron Defense works for physical moves, but…"

"No one's crazy enough to fight Lehmhart up close except Volis," I said.

"He likes a challenge," Lauren grinned. "I'd like to say I could help with Lehmhart's moves, but I don't know enough about how he works yet."

"I'll figure it out," Cece said. "Let's call Mira so Alakazam can send us home."

It was no use wasting potions now that we were done with training since all of our Pokemon were going to go to the Pokemon Center.

"I'll have Princess fix the damage in the meantime. People use this path sometimes."

Cece raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. Denzel says that there are rumors about this spot going around because of how much we're using it. It might be best to switch it up tomorrow, even if I'm not here."

"Thanks for the heads up," Lauren said.

Princess groaned when she saw the state of the ground next to us, but she got to work and soon enough, we were back home.

—

Craig had left a few days prior, so Denzel's training had come to an end (and he was very cagey about anything he'd learned). That meant that we could hang out a lot more whenever he wasn't busy having his 'totally not a date' excursions with Emi. Of course, they weren't dating yet, but I knew from Sylveon they were trying, and that meant that they were spending a lot of time together, whether it be outside, streaming together or making videos together. Pauline wasn't jealous at all. In fact, she was encouraging this in very non-subtle ways.

The fact that I couldn't reveal this to Cecilia was annoying me. We told each other everything, but this wasn't my place. I did catch Sylveon giving me the stink-eye recently because I wasn't blowing up his trainer's nascent relationships.

Either way, it had been a while since I spent time with Denzel. He sipped on some boba tea while we walked Sunyshore's streets.

"Want to go ride the Ferris Wheel?" Denzel asked. "I went with Emi the other day, it was great."

"I'm saving it for later," I said. "For Cece."

"Ah, I get it," he said. "Let's just head back toward our Center for now, then. Are you sure you don't want any boba tea? It's really good."

"I'd have some if it didn't have those little… what even is that down at the bottom? Olives?"

Denzel nearly choked on his drink. "Olives? That's tapioca! Arceus, why would they put olives in this?"

I smirked. "I was joking, calm down. I'm not that oblivious, although I didn't know it was called tapioca. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something."

"This could either be really good or really bad," Denzel said.

"Have some faith, will you?" I said with a teasing smile. "You'll love it."

"Oh really? Are you finally going to use the gift I gave you and moderate one of my streams."

I stopped myself from grimacing. "Absolutely not. But it's even better, believe it or not— for you. For me, it might as well be the end of the world."

"Now you're just being dramatic. Spit it out."

"I need to come on one of your streams. The just chatting ones," I said. "Poketch Company obligation, I'm afraid."

My best friend's mouth opened agape, and he couldn't even find the words to respond.

"For real?" He stammered.

"Yes, for real," I said. "Then I wanted to ask if you could stream every single time I battled someone in our group—"

"I'm going to announce it right now so you can't back out," Denzel spoke over me. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and opened up his Chatter app. He typed faster with a single thumb that I did with both. "Can we do this tonight?"

"Tonight? Absolutely not! I need you to prepare me! I don't even know what you're going to be doing."

"Fine, tomorrow," he groaned. "Emi will want in on this to grow her channel too. We draw from the trainer community, but she draws from the coordinator community. With the three of us, we can probably get like… sixty-thousand viewers. That's huge for just chatting. Top of the category in Sinnoh."

"Blergh. Words."

"I need ideas on what to do… oh, I know! We'll start with a Q&A. You have no idea how many questions people have been dying to ask you. I'll make another Chatter post asking people for their questions with a hashtag— actually, I need to cooperate with Emi for this."

"You do you," I said. "I'll just be hoping for the best in my corner."

"No, no. That's not it. I want to ask you something, actually. Remember Goalducc42?"

I looked into the depths of my mind, but no answers came up.

"A username?" I said.

"He's a friend. The guy that did that awesome analysis before the Solaceon tournament—"

"Ah, I remember now! The guy that didn't know Buddy had Water Absorb!" I snickered.

"Well, that was your fault," he said. "Anyway, he's been wanting to interview Cecilia… he's kind of a superfan. I was wondering if we could combine both ideas and turn it into a massive stream. I'm sure he'll actually interview you both if given the chance. He has this neat idea for a podcast and I want to help him get his name out there for when he starts it. Plus, it's good practice."

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" I asked.

"Because she'll say no if it's anyone but you," Denzel said before clasping his hands together. "Come on, please. It'll be great, trust me!"

"I'll ask, I'll ask," I sighed. "Is that it?"

Denzel finished his boba tea as he nodded.

"I'm not looking forward to this," I sighed.

Honey wasn't the only one looking forward to an evolution. All of it was for the Shiny Stone.

"I've been telling you that you're too offline, this is going to be great," Denzel grinned.

—

"He told me to ask you because you'd say no if it wasn't me. It's tomorrow— theres' no time set up yet, but definitely at night so it can be after my training with Jasmine."

Cecilia chuckled as she lounged with her head on my lap. I'd only been in her room for five minutes and I'd already broken the subject.

"Well, he isn't wrong," she said with a hint of a smirk.

"Feel free to say no if you want."

"Well, in an ideal world, I would say no, but I've got to be up there with you."

"I can handle it. Crowds don't make me that nervous anymore," I said.

"Oh, it isn't about your anxiety," Cecilia said. "It's about stopping you from saying something stupid."

I scoffed and tried to rebuke her, but I came up empty.

"Hm?" She teasingly probed.

I grumbled, "You might be right, but you didn't have to point it out that harshly. Fine, I'll tell him you're in, but don't complain!"

I quickly texted Denzel, telling him that Cece had agreed.

"This Goalducc guy is your superfan, apparently. If I'm being honest, it's kind of weird. Denzel showed me a lot of his posts and he gushes about you a lot."

Cece pursed her lips. "Are you jealous?"

"Well, no… I just feel protective, that's all. But Denzel says he's a nice guy, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Aw. It would have been cute if you were jealous."

I don't know about that, I thought to myself.

I rolled my eyes, but then a question popped into my mind. "You know, I've never asked. Have you figured out if you're gay or bi?"

"No, actually. Before you and the others, I never knew anyone that well outside of Amy," Cecilia softly said. She raised a hand, cupping my cheek, and I felt the cold silver of her ring. "I've never had a crush or fallen in love with anyone else and I don't think I'll do so anyway."

"You know your way around with… words," I blushed. "Thanks."

Cecilia raised her head until her lips met mine, her hand still wrapped around my cheek. Her other one gently pushed me down until she was on top of me and she smiled, her hair draping down toward me.

"You're like the sun," she whispered.

Another kiss, more passionate this time, and—

Someone banged on the door, and I recognized Denzel's voice.

"Guys! Open up, it's time for stream prep! Emi's here too!"

Cece sighed, parting our lips. "I wish you had delayed the fact that I'd said yes."

"Yeah… my bad."