CHAPTER 6

Denzel looked at me and grinned. I certainly felt the urge to say yes— hell, it almost slipped from my mouth. Unfortunately, though, I had some worries.

“I’d really like to, but Twinleaf doesn’t have a Pokemon Center. The odds are pretty low, but if Togepi got really hurt, potions wouldn’t be enough, and I need her healthy for the trip back.”

“Ah, I see,” Denzel said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. “Well, don’t worry about it. It was just a silly idea.”

“Maybe if we see each other in Sandgem or something,” I said. “But anyway, you said you had internet here? Can I get the password? I want to check the Circuit forums.”

I placed Togepi on the bed and let her decide how to approach this Eevee. Denzel gave me his wifi password and leaned to watch as I typed in a familiar name in the search bar.

“Cecilia Obel, huh?” He said.

“You know her?”

“She’s the talk of the forums. Everybody knows her. Her brother’s—”

“Unova’s Champion, I know,” I said. “Before I decided to sign up, I was just going to root for her, but now she’s competition,” I finished.

“Aiming for the top already?”

“No point in not trying your best.”

“Eh, right now I’m just aiming for one gym badge. Mom said she would start paying for some of my supplies for the Circuit if I at least get that,” He said. “But this Cecilia girl intrigues me. She’s never been seen battling before, even in Unova. There’s nothing about her online. It’s like she just appeared when she first flew to Jubilife.”

“Mhm,” I acquiesced. “But anyway, I just wanted to see if there was anything new about her, but nothing substantial. Just footage of her going in and out of her insanely expensive five-star hotel with bodyguards.”

“She won’t have those for the Circuit,” He chuckled.

We spent the next hour or so just looking up interesting trainers and theory-crafting about our strategy for different gyms. Togepi tried making inroads with Eevee, but the little one was not having any of it, often trying to push her off the bed. Unfortunately, Denzel was still a beginner trainer, so I had no luck trying to learn the best way to teach Togepi new moves. Still, it felt great having someone to talk to about this.

Eventually, I decided to leave to go hang out with my mother. I hadn’t forgiven her, but I still wanted to get closer to her. Dad would always say that family was important whenever he tried to get me to call her, and I wanted him to be happy. He deserved nothing less. Mom and I went to Casey’s store and ate together, talking about her life in Twinleaf. She found it boring, but she always filled her days by helping around town with whatever she could. Every time she tried to bring up her old life in Jubilife, I shut her down. I didn’t want to hear her reminisce about her life with us, because that would get my mind racing about what could have been if she hadn’t screwed up. When we got back home, I ended up letting her hang out with Togepi while I caught up with Herdier. His fur was graying, and he had a little bit of hearing issues, but other than that he looked healthy. Every time I crouched to pet him, he’d get up on his hind legs to lick my face.

The next day was more of the same. I went to Denzel’s house in the morning and stayed with mom afterward. The day after that, however, when Denzel and I were walking around, he asked me something.

“Hey Grace, want me to show you something?”

“What is it? Please don’t tell me it’s at the patisserie, your mom overwhelmed me with questions about you last time I was there,” I hoped. Casey was a nice woman, but she was way too overbearing when it came to her son.

“Sorry about her,” He said. “But no, it’s outside of town just a thirty-minute walk away. It’s my secret spot.”

“Okay, and what’s so special about this spot that I have to walk all the way there instead of you telling me about it?” I asked with a hint of sarcasm.

“Dude. You’ve gotta feel it, then you’ll know,” He said.

I frowned, wondering what he was talking about, but I agreed to follow him. We reached the edge of town and got our Pokemon out, just in case. Togepi walked close to my legs and Eevee quickly climbed on Denzel’s shoulder.

A pack of wild Starly attacked us ten minutes in, but Eevee quickly dispatched its leader by baiting it low and then hitting it with a Sand Attack. The bird was too disoriented to get back in the sky and was hit with a Quick Attack shortly after. The rest of their pack fled after seeing their leader taken down.

“You guys are really good at that,” I said after watching their battle in awe. They were locked in step, never wasting a single moment.

“I’m used to taking this route, so I’m pretty confident I can deal with whatever nature throws at me here,” He said. “I even used to make the trip without Pokemon.”

“Huh? You must have a death wish,” I exclaimed.

“Nothing strong enough around here to kill a human. Plus I’m good at running away.”

That’s what I thought about route 202 before a damn Scyther showed up, I thought. Maybe this route was different? Regardless, I trusted him if he was still here to tell the tale, but it still wouldn’t calm my nerves.

The vegetation began to become denser and denser until we crossed a thick line of trees and found—

“Woah,” I said, unable to come up with any other words. “This is… wow.”

In front of us stood a lake way larger than the one back at Twinleaf, with water clearer than anything I’d ever seen. And it was just so still, without a single ripple at its surface. Around the lake, Pokemon were coexisting and living together. The area was completely… peaceful. That was the word I was lacking. It was peaceful.

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“People from Twinleaf call this Lake Verity. Its location has been passed from generation to generation, and most people outside of our town don’t even know this exists,” Denzel said before sitting down on the grass.

Togepi chirped quietly and just watched the water’s surface, while even Eevee jumped off of Denzel’s shoulder to stand next to her.

“This is amazing. It’s so peaceful, but there’s something else about it. I feel at ease here. All of my worries are just washing away,” I said with a heavy breath.

“That’s the effect of the Lake, and it’s why Pokemon here don’t attack each other. You could put a Zangoose and a Seviper next to each other here and they’d just ignore each other without any problems.”

An absurd statement to make in any other circumstance, but here? I actually believed him.

“I come here when I want to clear my head, or when I want to relax. I figured it’d be good to bring you at least once before you go back tomorrow,” Denzel said.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you come with me back to Sandgem?” I asked.

“But I’ve got nothing prepared.”

“So prepare when we get back! Who knows, we could be traveling companions during the whole Circuit. A lot of people do that to have it easier in the wild. Two trainers or more is always better than one, and I think that I vibe pretty well with you, no?” I said.

He paused for a few seconds before breaking into a smile. “Screw it. Let’s do it, Grace. You, me, Eevee, and Togepi against the world.”

I didn’t know how that had just happened, but I was still delighted. It was as if the Lake itself had popped the idea into my mind. Or maybe it was just some repressed emotion that clawed its way out? Either way, things were looking up.

Just then, I heard a rustling in the trees behind us. A man with spiky blue hair and bizarre-looking clothes with a yellow ‘G’ written on it passed through the treeline and walked toward the Lake, paying us no mind. Denzel practically jumped, and I frowned at the peculiar individual.

“Um, hello,” I quietly said. The man did not answer. “Is he from Twinleaf?” I whispered to Denzel.

“No, I’ve never seen him before,” Denzel answered. “Sir? How’d you find this Lake if you don’t mind me asking?”

I called Togepi back to me and she hid behind my leg, while he recalled Eevee back to his ball.

“Please don’t leak this to the press,” He continued. “Or anyone for that matter. This is Twinleaf’s secret, and I’d like for it to stay that way.”

The blue-haired man stayed silent and perfectly still, observing the lake’s surface with his hands behind his back.

“This guy’s creeping me out. Let’s just leave?” I asked.

“No, I need answers—”

“Mister Cyrus, sir!” A woman passed through the trees. She had a similar, skin-tight uniform with the same ‘G’, this time at its center. “Please don’t get too far away from us—” She started before noticing us. “Who are these kids?”

“I’d like to ask the same question to you,” Denzel said.

I pulled his arm, indicating for him to calm down. I didn’t know who these people were, but I wanted out. This situation gave me a bad feeling even Lake Verity couldn’t shake.

“Oh, yeah?” She smirked as five other people joined her. She grabbed one of her Pokeballs and released a Golbat with a mouth large enough to swallow me whole. The others released their Pokemon as well, including Zubat, Stunky, and Glameow.

Denzel’s bravado evaporated straight away. Not even entertaining the thought that we could fight them, I recalled Togepi to her ball.

“We—we’re really sorry! We’ll leave now, just let us go,” I said, my voice shaking.

“Sir? What should we do with them?” One of them said. She then gestured cutting her throat with her finger and giggled.

“Please,” I pleaded.

The blue-haired man called Cyrus turned to us slowly, his face stoic. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Let them go,” He said with a smooth voice. I felt a giant weight lift off my shoulders. “We did not come here to harass children. Call Charon and tell him the Lake has been located.” His eyes drifted toward us, and he lifted his chin.

We took that as our sign to leave, slowly at first and then running as fast as we could. I felt my legs turn to jelly, but I couldn’t stop. Not until I was sure we were safe. This was scarier than any wild Pokemon attacks. These people had consciously trained their Pokemon to kill. I let that feeling sink in and felt a shiver of dread. They had threatened to kill us.

We reached Twinleaf and collapsed on the ground. I was drenched in sweat, could barely breathe, and my throat was dry. I heaved for a few seconds as a nauseatic feeling took hold of me. A few seconds later, I threw up all over the grass and coughed up the rest of my breakfast in chunks.

“We… have to… tell someone…” Denzel croaked.

I kept coughing and then rolled over. I couldn’t speak. I was too tired. My lungs were ablaze, and my heart was hammering my chest to the point that I believed that I was having a heart attack.

“Sandgem… Police…” Denzel said.

It took ten minutes for me to recover. I had never run this hard for that long, and it took a lot out of me. My legs still shook when I stood up, and even walking took an immense effort because of the soreness. Denzel supported me back to his house— I didn’t want to have to explain why I could barely walk to my mother.

“This is fucked!” He said, slamming the door to his room. “Completely and utterly fucked.”

“Who were these people?” I asked. “What did they want with the lake?” I asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine, but all I know right now is that they’re trainer killers. There was no hesitation, no doubt in their eyes when they asked what to do with us. They wanted to kill us.”

“Their leader spared us, though,” I said before my eyes widened. “The common uniform, the logo, a leader… what if this is an evil organization? Like Team Rocket from twenty years ago in Kanto?”

Team Rocket had run rampant in Kanto for years, and they had been adept at stealing trainers’ Pokemon to sell them on the international black market to make a profit. They were only stopped when it was discovered that one of the Gym Leaders was their leader, and that was why they always seemed to know how to avoid the authorities.

“Pokemon traffickers? Could be. Either way, we have to leave for Sandgem now and go to their police department. I’ll call them too, but it’ll be better to make a report in person so they can ask us anything,” He said, nodding to himself. “I hate that this will bring the secret of Lake Verity into jeopardy, but this is more important.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “And then they might be able to find evidence… DNA or something. And also warn the League.”

He agreed, and after we warned our parents about what we had seen and told them not to go to the Lake, we set off for Sandgem immediately.