CHAPTER 39

There were a few things to consider before I could even think about winning this battle. Louis hadn’t used Prinplup in Roark’s gym, or the tournament, so there were no videos of footage of its moves. I was going in blind, so my first condition for victory was wasting time to learn how Prinplup fought. There were a few ways of doing that, but first, I needed to lay the first trap.

Louis extended his hand in a dramatic fashion. “Prinplup, Ice Beam!”

My eyes widened, but I didn’t panic. “Fly up, princess.”

Togetic floated upward, barely avoiding the blast of ice. It collided against the facade of the mountain we were next to and froze the jagged rocks. I hadn’t considered Ice Beam, but Louis probably had his Prinplup completely decked out with TMs, which was strange because Gible only had moves it naturally learned.

“Again! Aim for her body!”

The Ice Beam clipped Togetic’s side, and she cried out in pain. It seemed Louis was going to be using the move over and over, and he seemingly had the Prinplup under control, unlike his Gible, so I wasn’t going to get any new information by waiting.

“Togetic, land!”

She looked at me confusedly, but one look into my eyes made her understand I was serious. Togetic landed, avoiding another Ice Beam, and clumsily stood on the soft grass.

“Get closer to her and keep Ice Beaming!”

The water type awkwardly ran toward Togetic. It wasn’t very fast, which meant that I thankfully had ample time to react for the next step of the plan.

“Protect yourself with Ancient Power,” I ordered.

Togetic’s eyes lit up as she lifted a giant chunk of earth in front of herself, blocking two Ice Beams. I had made her land because it was simply faster and easier to form a barrier with Ancient Power so close to the ground.

“Just get around and Metal Claw!”

I wanted to smirk, but I hadn’t won yet. I waited as long as I could, and when Prinplup was two steps away from Togetic until I slammed my foot twice against the ground. I was scared that because of the soft surface, Togetic wouldn’t hear, but a pink heart escaped from her mouth, hitting her opponent. Prinplup staggered and began swaying around.

“Fly up and gather a Fairy Wind,” I said.

Princess chirped and floated up as a pink gust gathered around her. Louis complained endlessly to his Prinplup, begging him to come back to his senses.

“Make it as powerful as possible, Togetic. You’ve got time,” I told her.

After gathering up the wind for twenty seconds, I could barely see her in the middle of it all. She yelled out confidently, sending it all downward to slam against Prinplup. The water type collapsed under the weight of such a concentrated Fairy Wind, and when it cleared, he stood back up. My eyes widened. I had honestly expected that supercharged Fairy Wind to knock it out in one move, but Prinplup was still standing, albeit it was obvious that he was barely staying awa—

“Ice Beam!”

“Shit! Ancient—”

Togetic tried to dodge, but the ice hit her directly, and she fell to the ground. I had been thinking too much! Or at least I wasn’t thinking fast enough.

“Quick, get to her and Metal Claw!” Louis yelled.

“Extrasensory!” I barked out. “Try to lift him up!”

Togetic was still on the ground, but Arceus bless her, she was still ready to fight. A strange force surrounded Prinplup, and he was slowly lifted up in the air. I stared at Togetic, and I could tell she was struggling too much to slam him against the ground, or the wall of the mountain.

“Just get your bearings back and let him go. Stay on the ground.”

I concentrated, feeling the gears in my mind turn as the world slowed. The problem I had was that gathering up a Fairy Wind would always be slower than Prinplup’s quick Ice Beams, and if princess was busy concentrating on using the move, she wouldn’t be able to dodge. For all I disliked Louis, I had to admit he had trained his Prinplup exceptionally well, which was a heavy contrast with his Gible. I needed to somehow trap Prinplup into coming close to Togetic again, but now, Louis knew the signal, so it wouldn’t work.

Think, think, think!

“Ice Beam, again!” Louis ordered.

“Ancient Power.”

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The Ice attack hit Togetic’s barrier, and Prinplup began running around it, hoping to get a good angle to attack. As the scene unfolded, Cecilia’s words resonated in my mind.

Sometimes, simple is just better, She had said.

“Raise more earth around you with Ancient Power!” I yelled out.

“Prrrri!”

Multiple rocks and chunks of dirt rose around Togetic, surrounding her completely.

“Now, attack!”

They all shot out toward Prinplup, who had to completely stop his attacks to concentrate on dodging one rock after the other. I watched in awe, as what was inevitably Togetic’s strongest move hit Prinplup, knocking the water type out. I pumped my fist and squealed in joy. That had been so obvious, and yet in the heat of battle, I hadn’t even thought about it at all.

“Damn it,” He said, returning his Prinplup. I could see real disappointment in his eyes, the same kind Denzel and I had when we lost a battle. It seemed that he truly enjoyed battling and always strove to win. “That was… that was a good battle, I suppose.”

“It was,” I said, surprised at his calm reaction. People that had huge egos like Louis tended to blow up whenever they lost. “It went a little bit too far as well. Sorry for knocking out your Pokemon when you might need him in the wild.”

“Well, nothing a little bit of rest and potions won’t remedy, I suppose,” He said. “Thank you for setting up that battle, Cece. It seems Prinplup still has much to learn.”

Ah, there it was, I thought. Blaming his Pokemon instead of himself, that was the Louis I had expected to come out.

“Come find me whenever you’re done so Gible can train with Deino,” He said as he left. “I need to go heal Prinplup.”

“Very well,” Cecilia answered.

When Louis left, Denzel rushed to my side and high-fived me.

“You did so good! I’m jealous, I don’t think I could have won against that Prinplup,” He said. I couldn’t help but smile at the praise. “As soon as I saw that Ice Beam, I thought it was over, but you managed to win anyway. It’s kind of annoying, but that just means I have to train even harder. Right Eevee?”

“Eevee!” He barked.

“Thanks,” I said. “But I think you could have won. Prinplup can’t run really well, and Eevee’s a fast little guy. You could have overwhelmed him with speed and close-range combat.”

He looked at Eevee for a few seconds, thinking about what I had said. “You might be right. I was annoyed when Louis interrupted our training, but I actually want to battle him now. Well, as long as I don’t have to battle that Gible again…”

Cecilia approached me with an amused look. “You did well, Grace. I wanted to see how you would respond to a sudden battle without the time to study your opponents, and you managed to pass, although there are many improvements you could make. For example, have you tried altering the path of a move with Extrasensory…” She started.

I swallowed and averted my eyes. I was so nervous, I could barely focus on what she was telling me. Was I blushing? Did I look weird? I was sweating so much, oh Arceus, what was I doing with my hands—

“Hey, Cecilia, Grace over here’s been wondering if she could be your friend,” Denzel said.

If looks could kill, he would have spontaneously combusted right then and there. He looked at me and shrugged, and I stepped on his foot. He rolled his eye and looked at Cecilia.

“Well,” She started, hesitantly. “Sure, we get along. I suppose we can give it a try.”

“Great!” Denzel said. “Now, let’s get back to camp.”

I wanted to drag him aside and yell at him. I was trying to get over Cecilia, not get closer! She was just my teacher, and when we were out of Eterna forest, we’d go our separate ways again! She hadn’t even been that enthusiastic about being friends, which hurt a lot more than if she had just flat-out refused. It was like she was accepting out of pity. I stomped away furiously, and instead of getting into that giant tent, I decided to hang out with my team instead to calm down and clear my head. Togetic hovered closely with her head over my shoulder as I pet her head. Frillish was observing the surroundings, scaring away any wild Pokemon that got anywhere close to us. Elekid was training a few feet away, punching the air with Thunder Punch.

“Relax, buddy,” I told Frillish. “You can chill out with us. Why don’t you play with Togetic a little?” After so many days of intense training, I wanted to spend an hour or two just relaxing with my team, although I was under no illusion that I could convince Elekid to stop until he himself determined that he was done.

“Toge!” Togetic agreed.

Frillish rolled his eyes and came down. It was cute how he had designated himself as the group’s protector, but being on edge twenty-four-seven wasn’t healthy. I grabbed one of his tentacles and started dancing with him like he was a human. The look of disappointment he shot toward me made me burst out laughing, almost to the point of tears.

“You’re… you’re something else, Frillish. Come on, let’s dance some more!”

He spat out water at me and turned away. I wiped it off and smiled. Togetic flew toward Frillish and snuggled her head against his, and even though he looked annoyed, he stayed still and was subject to her vicious cuddles. I walked toward Elekid, who screamed enthusiastically as he shot out a Thundershock at a tree.

“Hey, honey,” I told Elekid. “Let’s get you and Frillish on good terms, yeah?”

He crossed his arms and looked at Frillish with devilish eyes. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what prank would befall my poor water type. Elekid called out with a booming cry, and Frillish stared at him for a few seconds before ignoring him. Elekid called out again.

“Come on, buddy! He just wants to speak to you!” I lied. I knew he wanted to do something, I just didn’t know what. Hopefully, the prank wouldn’t anger Frillish too much. I could stop it, but a part of me wanted to see his reaction.

“Fri…” He said quietly as he flew down, followed by Togetic.

“Kid! Elekid!” Elekid screamed, extending his arm. Did he want to shock him? Frillish’s red eyes narrowed, and he sprayed the electric type with water. Elekid simply laughed and retracted his hand.

Togetic smiled and tried touching Elekid’s horns, but he nimbly dodged her advances. It looked like even to Elekid, hurting Togetic was off-limits. Frillish turned back and looked with interest as Elekid weaved and dodged Togetic as she tried flying into him. His head slumped as he approached Elekid once again with one of his tentacles extended. Togetic watched in awe, probably because she really wanted to know what would happen.

Had Frillish finally started respecting Elekid after seeing that he wasn’t willing to hurt her with his antics? Now he was finally willing to entertain his pranks. My heart melted. He was so sweet!

Elekid sniggered and clumsily grabbed Frillish’s tentacle with his three claws. Frillish jumped a little and sent out a slightly more powerful jet of water this time. Togetic laughed and clapped her hands, seemingly satisfied by the prank. We continued hanging out deep into the night. I would be tired tomorrow, and eventually, I would need to explain the dangers that were ahead of us, but right now?

All I could think about was how much I loved these three.