CHAPTER 257

"So you want to take Mudsdale?"

The man in charge of this Ranger's station hadn't given me his name yet, but he had led me to his office and offered me to sit, along with some tea. I had only drunk tea once before in my life and remembered not being a particular fan, but whatever this one was made of made a world's difference because I was certain I would have downed all of it if it hadn't been scorching the inside of my mouth every time I took a sip.

"Hmhm," I hummed as I put down my cup. "Mudsdale's already agreed to leave whenever we leave Pastoria, so we're good on that front. I'd also want to come see him every day, if possible?"

The short, square-ish man sank a few inches into his chair and ran a hand over his wooden desk, revealing two missing fingers on his left one. "We'd have to verify this, of course, but assuming you're telling the truth, we'd have to get Mudsdale to finish some of his commitments here first."

Oh, that was a lot easier than I thought it to be. "I mean, so long as he's done when we're ready to leave, it should be fine. We're planning on staying here… maybe another week and a half? Is that enough?"

I spied the Ranger's name on a nameplate. Brockhouse. I knew that last name… ah, it was the same last name as the Ranger that had helped register Sunshine to me when I'd first caught him. I spoke again, probably snapping the Ranger out of his brainstorming.

"You're Mr. Brockhouse?" I asked. "Do you have a family member that's a Ranger, by any chance?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You've met Malcolm?" He asked. When I nodded, he continued. "He's my cousin. We traveled together when we were young."

"If you could call him, I'm pretty sure he'd vouch for me." Malcolm Brockhouse had definitely kept track of me, seeing as he had warned me that an accident with Sunshine could have led to him being taken away when I'd first caught him.

"No need for vouching," he shook his head. His tone was slightly friendlier now. "A week and a half should be enough for Mudsdale to finish bringing the new trainees up to speed, and we'll also need his help transporting some cargo, but other than that, he'll be free— if he confirms what you said."

"He will," I said.

"We'll have to transfer ownership from this station to you personally, so you'll have to come in the day of," Mr. Brockhouse continued. "I think that's it."

"Can I stay to finish this tea?"

The Ranger smirked. "Unfortunately I'm quite busy with the poacher situation, so you'll have to leave my office, I'm afraid. Feel free to take the mug and hand it to Sandy downstairs when you're done, though."

That must have been the receptionist. "Any news or progress on the poachers?" I innocently asked. Fishing for information could only be good here. When Brockhouse frowned, I quickly added, "I'm just curious."

"I'll tell you information that's already public," he said. "The League's cooperated with us, scoured the entire route and found nothing, which means they must be Teleporting somewhere else that we haven't been able to track. When we manage to capture one of them, we'll have more to work with."

"Got it. Sorry, I just feel safer knowing about these things," I said in a half-truth. "I'll be out of your hair, then. Thanks for the tea!"

Brockhouse silently nodded, and I closed the door to his office, realizing that grabbing two crutches with one hand and drinking tea at the same time was a puzzle in and of itself. I opted to give up, leaned against the wall and finished drinking the delicious substance in silence. Why had no one ever told me about this before? Had none of them ever tasted this? My entire body felt warm when I finished, which would have felt great if it was the middle of winter.

Not wanting to drop the cup while walking, I awkwardly handed the cup to a passing Ranger instead of the receptionist in hopes that it would find its way back to Brockhouse's desk after I'd told them about it, and then I was on my way out. Before I left on Princess, I found a good spot to train at. An arena built for the Rangers that was twice as small as the ones I was used to, but it would unfortunately have to do. Of course, most days I'd have to swing by the beach to keep up the swimming lessons, and I also had UPAN work to do in three days or so— meeting with the City Council.

The flight back to Pastoria didn't take long, and I spent it telling Princess all about how cute Sunshine had been when meeting Mudsdale. It wasn't often that we got to see him excited, let alone embarrassed. I told her Mudsdale loved his statue and that we'd keep it for him, since he was coming with us. The temporary bit, I wasn't used to. Part of me hoped he'd just end up sticking around with us, but I knew that it was up to him, at the end of the day. Either way, I was doubly excited to go meet Lurantis now.

We landed at the Pokemon Center, and I was planning on grabbing my laptop to keep studying Wake while my Pokemon trained on the beach for the rest of the day after getting them some food to eat, but first I had to deal with this new friend of Maeve's. All of my friends were out, either training or in the Safari Zone, but knowing that I'd need to vet this Zoey individual, Maeve and Mira had stayed behind, and they were waiting for me in the Pokemon Center's lobby.

"There she is!" Mira waved at me with a smile. Maeve sat next to her with her, although she was a lot more nervous than usual. I strode up to them with a wave of my own. "Did everything go okay with Sunshine?"

"Yup, it went great! And I might have gotten addicted to tea too."

"Tea? That's the sort of stuff I thought Cece or Emilia would drink," Mira snorted. "But Emilia's obsessed with coffee, so."

"You should have seen her back in Eterna, she hated the stuff," I said. "Where's Zoey?"

"On her way," Maeve said. "She wasn't expecting the vetting thing to be serious, since Mira already did so yesterday and found nothing wrong. In fact, she wasn't expecting this at all. She thinks we're weird for being so paranoid."

"How'd you vet her?" I asked.

"I just had Gardevoir take a look at her. No dark TE swirling around, no traces that she's a Pokemon, and when I asked her if she was involved with Abel, the poachers, Team Galactic or something evil in any way, she said no and Gardevoir detected no lies. Luckily thanks to you and Cece the news about Abel had come out and spread at that point, so I could just play the role of the overprotective friend without potentially alerting her," she turned toward Maeve. "Which I technically am! But to lay any doubt to rest, we need to be sure," Mira said with a shrug.

Maeve seemed irritated at that, and I knew she wasn't the only one. As it turned out, Denzel 'smoothing things over' with our friends had backfired terribly, and Pauline was even more pissed than we thought she'd be— specifically at him. The others were on her side too, which wasn't something I had expected. If anything, I would have thought Justin would have erred on the side of caution and pushed the group in the right direction.

"Maeve?" I probed.

"What?"

"You look angry."

"I just, you know, wish the rest of us weren't treated like kids by the rest of you," she snapped. "Since when do new friends have to be vetted? I don't remember you vetting Erin."

Mira's permanent grin went flat, and then turned into a grimace. "Look, Maeve. If Abel hadn't been here, this would be completely different, okay? We just want what's best."

"I get that," the teenager got out through gritted teeth. "But it still sucks. How's Grace going to figure something out Gardevoir couldn't anyway?"

"I just know these things," I said, not bothering to explain further.

Maeve wanted to protest, but she stopped herself mid-way through the first word. "Fine. Then we're done? I wanted to go to the Safari Zone today, but I couldn't sign up because of this."

"Guess you'll go hang out with Louis instead," Mira teased.

"I think he's busy at the moment," she responded with a faint voice. "But yeah, maybe."

"Planning on signing up for Wake soon?" I asked.

"I signed up today. I figured I might as well," Maeve shrugged. She then explained that her battle was in three days early in the afternoon. I'll have to miss it, then, I internally groaned. "I'll look for Yanma in the meantime. I've been having no luck, though. Apparently they're supposed to be somewhat common, but… blegh."

Mira rubbed the back of her neck. "I'd help out if I wasn't busy."

"No worries— oh, Zoey's here."

I turned toward the Pokemon Center's entrance, through which an imposing girl had just stepped. Zoey Miranda's brown hair was all over the place. Thick strands ran down her back and messy bangs over her forehead. A small amount of freckles dotted her cheeks and nose, which grew more numerous as she approached and got under a light. Mira immediately stared at me, but I'd already reached my verdict as soon as Zoey had stepped into the Pokemon Center.

She was not a Pokemon.

Still, I had to play the part. I held out my hand. "Zoey, right? Nice to meet you," I said.

She clasped it tightly. Cold hands. "Likewise."

Her voice was stiff, probably because she was nervous? People's extremities were cold when they were. "So, how'd you meet Maeve anyway?"

"At a Poketch Store. She was buying a new phone," Zoey answered.

I turned toward the teen in question, who explained that she'd dropped her old phone down a drain and into the Pastoria sewers near the docks. After some small talk about how I was sponsored by Poketch (I was really just filling in the air here), I let Zoey go. First, she asked Maeve if she wanted to hang out, but she'd already decided to go check on Louis. When both of them had left, Mira stood by my side.

"Nothing off about her?" Mira asked. "Not even a little bit?"

"Nope," I said. "She's human, through and through."

Mira clicked her tongue. "Huh. Really? I feel like I'm missing something. Like, a gaping hole in my knowledge. And it's fucking with me. Like an itch that can't be scratched."

I stayed quiet for a few seconds.

"I mean, if you think so, then… we can always look deeper into her," I muttered. "But it's not like we can stop them from meeting. We'd have no reason to, anyway. No solid reason."

The pink-haired girl undid her two pigtails, shaking her head to free her hair. "That's fair. I just think something doesn't pass the smell test. I'm going to set up another meeting and have Gardevoir track her with Trace, but I'll give it a little. We can't have her grow too suspicious. Did you see how stiff she was?"

"I don't want to get a big head, but I think you're forgetting I'm famous."

Mira chuckled. "Ouch. Lose one badge, and you're no longer included in the famous club," she fake-whined. "You might as well have driven a stake through my innocent heart."

"Oh, please. You've got thick skin."

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"I'm just fucking with ya," she laughed. "Hey, Porygon." Once she called out, the normal type slipped out from her pocket— I assumed her to have been in her phone. The artificial Pokemon was one I'd always struggled to understand, even after knowing her all these months. "Say, Grace. What do you say about a little fight? A one-on-one between Porygon and one of yours."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'll never say no to a fight. What spurred this?"

"Well, Louis and Pauline are about to battle," Mira said with a shrug. "I've been training with Chase, but not with you. I need to fight someone I'm not used to fighting, and we've got a few tricks up our sleeves—"

"Louis is fighting Pauline?!" I yelled.

"Huh? Yeah—"

I grabbed her by the shoulders. "Where?"

"The arena you recommended—"

"Teleport us there!" I yelled. "I can't believe you'd let me miss this! I already missed so much of it! I'll battle you after!"

"Well you were busy," Mira groaned. She grabbed Alakazam's Pokeball, and told him to Teleport us to the arena.

We had to step out of the Pokemon Center to actually do so. One second, we were on the street, and the other, we were outside of the arena. It was still packed, but there weren't anywhere near the amount of people there had been during my fight with Barry. Damn it. I had thought that them wanting to fight Wake early would mean that they wouldn't be fighting.

Ninetales was embroiled in a patchwork of flames and steam when I arrived. The fire danced around her like it had a mind of its own, and her eyes shone bright pink as she sent the flames barrelling toward Gothitelle. The psychic lazily waved a hand, dispelling each flame before it could reach her. Ninetales forwent sophistication, opened her maw as light danced in her eyes. She brought the flames at the tip of her tails and weaved them around her into nine condensed orbs that shone bright blue.

The fireballs seemed to howl when they flew toward Gothitelle.

"Imprison!" Pauline yelled.

Gothitelle groaned, but the shine in her eye intensified. Ninetales sent the nine fireballs flying erratically, but her opponent seemed to know exactly where each one would be no matter what. Pink boxes clamped down on each flaming orb, and they all exploded with a deafening boom. When the boxes disappeared, there was only smoke and wisps of flames.

Louis bit his lip, then swept his arm. "Will-O-Wisp!"

"Teleport and beat the shit out of her!"

I snorted at that order. Gothitelle couldn't Teleport very far— a sign that she was green with the move— but she could still go from island to island while Ninetales was stuck in one spot.

"Disable!" Louis snapped.

Pauline's eyes bulged out of their sockets when the power to Teleport vanished out of Gothitelle's arsenal.

"I thought this was a spar!" She complained with a grin. "Fine! Magic Room!"

The battlefield shifted to a yellowish pink. Ninetales' control over her flames died, and they all sputtered out. The Will-O-Wisp wavered, some of them dispelled, but one managed to enter Gothitelle's body regardless. When Ninetales opened her mouth to spit more fire, only smoke came out instead. Pauline had control over the entire arena. Ninetales wasn't the only one incapable of using moves, however. Even Gothitelle seemed to be locked out, although she could still use weakened moves like Psybeam. The multicolored light hit Ninetales' flank, and Louis immediately understood.

"Ember!"

This time, the fire type spat out small flames which were so slow that Gothitelle easily dodged them by walking.

"What the hell…" I muttered.

"That's a hell of a technique," Mira said.

"That's not a dark type move," I noticed.

"Nope. Long story short, it creates a zone that leaves all but the weakest moves unusable. And this isn't something your average Crunch will be able to break either. You'd need a whole lot of Crunches, or a burst of dark TE to dampen the thing or bug TE to overwhelm it. Maybe you could do something funky with ghosts. Gothitelle took control of the ambient TE and is stopping most of it from being used. So not inhibition, more like a restriction."

Pauline had come far, but at this rate, the fight would never end. The redhead recalled Gothitelle with a grin and sent out her massive Braviary instead.

And I immediately understood what the plan was.

Braviary didn't need moves. Louis was evidently out of switches, and even if he wasn't, nothing would be able to stand up to that massive bird. Braviary let out a low-pitched screech, and then swooped down toward Ninetales, who tried to fight back with another Ember. The flames just slightly burned the edges of Braviary's feathers. The flying type's claws dug into Ninetales, picking her up like a rag. One flap of her wings generated ripples across the swamp. She raked Ninetales against the psychic barrier and continuously dug into her skin with her talons until she dropped her down into the water.

"Are you still good to go?" Louis asked as soon as the fire type plopped her head out of the water.

Apparently, she answered yes through Telepathy, because Louis nodded. Braviary dove down toward Ninetales as the Magic Room slowly dissolved, and I spotted Emilia in the crowd. Dragging Mira by the wrist with me, I made my way toward our friend. She was well-dressed, as always, and stood next to a tripod holding up a phone. She must have been streaming. After all, it was free revenue.

Emi smiled when she saw us. "I didn't know you'd come."

"I didn't know they were fighting!" I exclaimed. Braviary flapped her wings, and wind started to pick up around the arena. "What are the rules?"

"Just a friendly four-on-four with two switches. Louis' Gabite is down, and Pauline's Vigoroth is down too. Gothitelle really manhandled Gabite with Future Sight, it was kind of crazy. A few hits from Gabite would have taken her down, but he never even got close to her."

Mira whistled, and I turned back to the battle. Every time Ninetales got anywhere close to an island, Braviary would swoop down and attack her to prevent her from reaching land. Ninetales decided to take this into her own hands and turned toward the normal type. Her eyes shone once more, and Braviary slowed— the sudden Psychic held her in place for a moment, and Braviary lost her balance, falling in the water as well.

Unfortunately for Ninetales, the huge bird pecked her in the head until she fainted. Louis released his second-to-last Pokemon, his Vespiquen. The buzzing swarmed my mind, and trainers that were spectating grew pale. Most opted to straight up leave. There was an unsettled gleam in Braviary's eye, but it left as soon as it came.

Braviary barely got out of the water before honey assaulted her and pushed her back in. It clung to her feathers and she grew heavy. Her wings were slower, her movements sluggish, and she couldn't even get in the air. That large size was working against her, for once. Even if the Magic Room hadn't faded, Vespiquen controlling her honey wasn't TE, it was biology.

The bug type's eyes shone, and she ripped out wet mud from the ground. Light engulfed the small spheres, heating them up until they glowed white, and a laser ripped through Braviary's plumage. It would take more than a single Power Gem to take her down, though. While the flying type still struggled in the water, Vespiquen tried her best to destroy her with as many Power Gems as possible while keeping her still with Honey.

"Whirlwind!" Pauline yelled.

Louis countered, "Defense Order!"

Braviary screamed, and huge gust of wind that could have swept Honey off his feet hurtled toward Vespiquen. A wall of honey formed in front of her, but it was destroyed by the Whirlwind, and it threw the bug type back before a thick cushion of honey kept her in place.

Unfortunately for Pauline, Vespiquen countered Braviary completely. The flying type was permanently grounded and assaulted on all sides by Power Gem. Consciousness flitted from her eyes, and Louis yelled out, "Fell Stinger!"

A sharp, glowing needle stabbed into Braviary's wing. It had been the finishing blow.

"Shit," Pauline muttered. Who next? Unsurprisingly, she sent out Charizard. I internally sighed when I realized I wouldn't see Primeape fight just yet.

It was easy to see that Charizard had already fought in this battle from the numerous bruises on her. She took to the air with a mighty roar and flames licked the edges of her mouth. Honey converged into one huge blob larger than the island under Vespiquen when Pauline barked out for a Flamethrower. Her control over honey wasn't as clumsy as it had been before taking down Braviary. It was fluid now. Nowhere near Zach's own Vespiquen, but getting there. The honey turned into a charred, black mess, but it was enough to stop a Flamethrower.

"Air Slash!"

It wasn't enough for that, though. The air in front of Charizard sharpened as she flew directly into Vespiquen, ignoring the honey crawling on her wings. Not like it could do much anyway. It just burned instantly before it could do any real damage. Vespiquen screeched when the air cut across her comb.

"Heal Order!" Louis yelled.

Not good. You should have had her use Power Gem instead. Grubs and honey stuck to Vespiquen's exoskeleton, closing her wounds slowly. It was only now that I could appreciate Zachary's Vespiquen more. She could easily heal faster while still attacking and bending honey. I desperately wanted a rematch, even if he had eight badges now.

Charizard slammed into Vespiquen with a fiery tackle and slammed her against the ground, uncaring for any damage she'd taken. The bug type screeched and only now did Louis order Power Gem. More honey subconsciously climbed onto Charizard, but it just burned, and the grubs inside of it died before it could be of use. Charizard raked a flaming claw across Vespiquen's chest and she retaliated by spitting a glob of poison on her face, melting the outer layer of her skin.

"Vespiquen, this is a spar," Louis firmly spoke.

The bug type redirected her anger toward Charizard's belly instead. So he had control of her in battle, but she could still slip sometimes. More fire finished off Vespiquen, and he sent out his Empoleon instead. The steel type sneered at the amount of water next to him, but I knew from our texts that Louis was finally getting Empoleon to swim, even if he hated it. Before Charizard could take full advantage of Blaze, Empoleon lifted a hand, and a Brine appeared above her. It was smaller than what Buddy could manage, but it followed her as she made a mad dash through the arena not to get hurt by the attack.

"Fuck it. Flare Blitz!" Pauline grinned.

Charizard's bloodshot eyes shot open, then were engulfed by flames as was her entire body.

"Into the water!" Louis yelled.

"Flamethrower!"

More bright jets of flame hit Empoleon as he slid down the mud and into the swamp. Undeterred, Charizard dove down there too. There was an explosion of steam as the fire type impacted the water, but Pauline recalled her soon after. I was pleasantly surprised that Empoleon had managed to swim deep enough to escape a Flare Blitz. With Blaze, the attack would have been devastating.

It was Gothitelle against Empoleon, now. Even after so long, their skill was neck and neck. What I hadn't caught before, however, was that Gothitelle was tired.

"It takes a lot out of a Pokemon to sustain a Magic Room," Mira said as if she read my thoughts. "I mean, how can it not?"

Empoleon was fresh. A Flash Cannon came alive in front of his mouth, and Gothitelle barely Teleported in time. With heavy breaths, the Psychic threw an insult Empoleon's way vocally, hitting the water type with a Psybeam. Her hand moved diagonally, and the attack followed. Empoleon grunted from the attack, but it was no Psychic. The move was too weak to deal substantial damage. He swam toward Gothitelle, summoning another Brine that finished the psychic off.

Louis had won. Mira discreetly pumped a fist while Emilia sighed and started commentating her stream.

I need to start building counters for these weird moves, I thought to myself. Magic Room wouldn't have come near winning Pauline the battle had she fought against me— it was too niche of a trick specifically tailored toward her Braviary (and I assumed Primeape and Vigoroth) and didn't work for long. Plus, I would have been ready for it. Gothitelle was less focused on sheer power and more on utility and support, with Future Sight, Imprison, and Magic Room. Still such ingenuity from Pauline? Her battle with Volkner's Gym Trainer had been pitifully simple compared to this.

"So how about it, then?" Mira said. "You against Porygon? Doesn't even have to be here."

"Oh, right," I said. "Let me just talk to Pauline and Louis first."

I'd gotten to know Pauline very well this past year, so I thought I understood what had driven her to make this shift in her style. Out of the entire group, she was the only one that Volkner didn't battle. Why? The answer was simple once you knew the man himself. Pauline's style had carried her far, but it was so simple. Something Volkner no doubt would have found boring to battle against, especially when he held someone with her number of badges to such high standards.

"...good fight, Louis. Damn, Vespiquen is so annoying," I heard the redhead say. "Fire counters her easily, but there must be other ways to hamper her."

"I've had help from Zachary. It was mostly him getting Vespiquen to this level—"

"Oh shut up, you mopey bastard," Pauline sighed, rolling her eyes. "Oh. Grace. Mira."

Her tone had been a lot drier than expected, and I already knew why. She was angry she was being left out of the poaching situation. Emilia shuffled in place uncomfortably while Louis greeted me and Mira as well.

"When I heard you two were battling, I had to swing by," I said. "That was a great performance. I mean, Magic Room? How did you even teach Gothitelle that?"

"She cheats," Pauline said. "Looks into her future to reverse engineer moves she'll learn. To me, that's a whole ass paradox, but hey, if it works it works," the redhead said. "You know, lately she'd been telling me to stay away from you two. Cece and Chase too. She won't tell me why, though."

My throat felt very dry at that moment. How much did Gothitelle know, and how far could she see? Mira— who had been conversing with Louis and Emi on the side about contests— froze, and her eyes darted to Pauline.

"How good's her Future Sight?" I asked.

"The longer she focuses, the further she can look, but right now she can't really go further than three months," Pauline explained. "And it's all through me or her. She can't look at your future. Only through people she's bonded with, and it's still really blurry."

That was… better. But still didn't answer much. If she wanted Pauline to stay away from us, that meant she saw something, and that something was harmful to Pauline in some way. What way, though? If she was in mortal danger, then surely Gothitelle would have suggested cutting contact completely and more forcefully.

"Sorry I was a little rude," Pauline continued, unaware of the bombshell she'd dropped on my lap. "But if you really think I've improved that much, then maybe I could help with the—"

Mira shushed her. "Not here, and not so loud," she hissed.

"My bad," Pauline muttered, half-turning to Mira. "But you're helping, and I'm pretty sure I could take you down in a battle these days."

"Let's stop this dick-measuring contest," Emilia cut in. "We talked about this, Pauline."

The redhead huffed. "You're right."

They talked about this? About what? From the way Louis reacted, I knew he'd been there too. Damn it, now I couldn't help but be fucking paranoid. It'd be so much easier if I could just be an empath for humans too and read them however I wanted. After around ten minutes of small talk and a promise to all get dinner together later, Pauline and Louis left to the Center, accompanied by Emilia, who had ended the stream. Justin was apparently hanging out with his team on his own.

"I think the battle can wait," Mira said. "I've got to go check in with Denzel."

"Yeah," I breathed. "You go do that. I'll, uh—"

"Go train, Grace," Mira cut in. "I'll handle this. You and Chase already patrolled today, and I've been doing nothing. You guys have to train for Wake, and I gave up on the badges. You've got your UPAN stuff, Cece has her flying lessons, Chase is training up Wimpod. Let me use my free time, alright?" She said in a soft tone. "You know I'm good at multi-tasking."

"Thanks. Yeah, I'll do that."

I had her Teleport me back to the Pokemon Center, and we spent the rest of the day training after flying to the beach.