CHAPTER 60

I flinched and almost tripped on a rock before being caught by Togetic’s Extrasensory. Unlike Confusion, Extrasensory manipulated the area around the object or thing it wanted to manipulate instead of controlling it directly, but it still felt strange all the same. My hair levitated as if I was in space, and the air I breathed struggled to get into my lungs. Togetic let go of me and let out a happy cry.

“Thank you, princess,” I said, looking at her with a smile. “That was probably a sign anyway, I think we’re far enough.”

I set my bag on the rocky ground that this side of route 211 was best known for, and felt a sense of dread wash over me when I looked up at Mount Coronet in all of its glory. It was my first time being this close to the mountain in person, and it was nothing like seeing it on a screen. I felt small. Insignificant, in the face of such a colossal creation of nature, and I was still a day away from reaching the actual mountain.

Not that I’d actually be able to get in even if I was suicidal enough to go. The entrance to this side of the mountain was permanently closed, meaning that if someone wanted to go through to get to Snowpoint City, they’d have to go all the way around and go through Celestic.

I was starting to see why some trainers preferred to scale the Arceus damned thing instead.

I grabbed my Pokeballs and released the rest of the team. There was no wasting any time. I needed to be as ready as possible for the gym, and that meant that all social activities would have to be delayed to after my battle with Gardenia. They settled in a line in front of me, and I clapped my hands together to get their attention.

“Alright, guys,” I started. “In one week, we’re going to have our second gym battle.”

At the mention of a gym battle, Frillish’s eyes narrowed, and Togetic started paying more attention. Elekid stared at the two in confusion and then acted like he understood what I was talking about, while Tangela just stared blankly into my eyes.

“Been a while, right?” I grinned. “We’ve progressed immensely as a team since our battle with Roark. Honey, angel, let me explain what I’m talking about…”

I explained the concept of gym battles to them and Elekid’s eyes immediately shone in anticipation. Tangela’s vines wriggled slightly, which was what he did when he was excited.

“That means that we’re going to train harder than ever before! C’mere buddy,” I told Frillish. He lazily approached me, and I wrapped an arm around him. “Come on, don’t be such a downer! This is going to be great! I need you to work on two new moves, and since you’re awesome, I think you can manage.”

Frillish turned his head toward me slightly and bobbed his head.

“Great! They’re called Acid Armor and Mist, and they’re mostly defensively minded. We already have Poison Sting and Hex to deal damage, so now I just need you to have a little more survivability for the battle. I’ll be around to help you out soon.”

The water type nodded, and I rubbed my head against his until he groaned in frustration and slipped out of my grasp.

“You wound me!” I joked. “You don’t see me complaining about how slimy you are.”

“Lish!” He yelled out in protest.

“Oh yeah? Well, I’ll keep hugging you anyway!” I exclaimed. “Ahem… now, princess, you’re going to play a major part in the battle, so I’ll need you to work hard, alright?”

“Prrri!” She answered with a twirl.

“Very cute. First, I need you to work on improving Extrasensory’s range. What I’m thinking you can do is alter a ranged attack’s path with the move, maybe? It won’t work as well as Confusion, but it’ll do the trick. And obviously, more range is always good, since you’ll be able to use the move from a safer position.”

Princess tweeted, and her eyes shone as she picked up angel with the psychic move. The grass type extended some of his vines toward her, but she giggled and stopped him from doing so.

“Hey, now’s not the time to be playing,” I said with my hands on my hips. “Use Ancient Power to get some targets to practice on. In fact, I’ll need some for Tangela too.”

Togetic let go of the grass type, who caught himself with his vines with surprising dexterity.

“That was good,” I praised him. He wriggled and squinted at me. “Oh, and princess, I’ll also have to save to get you a TM soon!” I yelled as she flew away. In retrospect, she probably didn’t even know what that was. “Frillish, you’re on older brother duty again. Keep an eye on her while you train.”

He smiled and floated toward her.

“Thank bud! I know I always ask a lot of you, and I appreciate your help,” I exclaimed. “Alright, now back to you, little one,” I continued, crouching next to Tangela. “No new moves. We’ll just practice what you already know and try to get you to become a little tougher so you can take more attacks, understand?” I spoke slowly, clearly enunciating every syllable. He blinked at me twice and pet me with a vine. “Good! We'll also work more on your understanding of verbal commands.”

I looked at Elekid and grinned. “You’re our ace in this battle, Elekid,” I said. He flexed his arms and yelled out triumphantly. “There’s no time to learn both Fire and Ice Punch, so we’ll have to pick one…” I trailed off.

On one hand, Fire Punch could be a nasty surprise if Gardenia ever set up a Sunny Day, but on the other, it could be shut down easily by Rain Dance. I nodded. Ice Punch was the safer option to go with.

“We’ll go with Ice Punch. Now you and angel are with me today since you’ll probably need a bunch of help, but I’ll also be with the others a bunch.”

I heard the ground rumble as Togetic raised rocks and boulders from the ground one by one. She was getting better at making them circles this time around.

“Well then, let’s get started!”

——

“How about you try feeling the ice?” I asked Elekid. The electric type screamed and punched the air, but there was no ice to be seen.

It was a dilemma I knew I was going to have to deal with, which was why I wanted to be with Elekid to train. How did a Pokemon create ice from nothing?

“So, for Thunder Punch,” I started. “You just use Charge and spin your arms around, and then channel it to your fist. For ice… hm, why don’t we go see how Frillish is doing?” I asked.

The electric type nodded.

“Alright, angel, keep the Vine Whips going! You’re making good progress,” I told him. He smashed another rock that Togetic had raised for him with terrifying speed and strength.

We walked up to Frillish, who was away from all the noise and hubbub and keeping an eye on Togetic, who was playing around and juggling some rocks with Extrasensory. Her childlike laughs immediately stopped when she saw me coming, and she started pretending to train seriously.

“I saw that, but I’ll let it go,” I said to her sternly. The truth was, I was trying to hold back a smirk, but a parent had to be the voice of reason in times like these. “How’s it going, Frillish? I know you have a soft spot for her, but being the older siblings means you've got to lay down the law.”

The water type huffed, ignoring me before he spun around a puff of mist started coming out of his mouth, slowly enveloping him. It wasn’t anywhere near the amount we needed for the gym battle, but I was surprised he was already so far along.

“It’s only been two hours,” I told him. “Wait… Frillish… are you a genius?!”

He huffed and splashed me with a little bit of cold water.

“Hey! Don’t do that in this cold weather… you’re killing me here,” I whined, wiping water off my face. “Anyway, Elekid and I are in need of help. I see you’ve already mastered how to use ice. How?”

Now, I wasn’t expecting him to answer with an essay here, but I figured he’d be able to communicate the gist of it.

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“Fri…” He said quietly as his eyes dimmed. He was thinking.

Frillish’s eyes widened before he spat out a small jet of water. The water was so cold that mist started to form around it— albeit in small quantities. Frillish stared at me and nodded proudly.

“So… you use the water already in your body to create mist,” I nodded. A few seconds passed before I slammed my fist against my palm. “Living Pokemon are always made of some water,” I exclaimed. “For humans, I remember learning in school that the number’s sixty percent,” I said, before staring at Elekid. “I think you need to find a way to turn some of that water into ice, hon. Maybe you can even use, like, the moisture in the air, or something. Since the Dex says you can use the move, there should be a way for you to do one of these or both.”

“Elekid!” He boasted.

“Nothing you can’t handle, huh?” I smiled. “Well, that’s getting somewhere. Let’s get to work!”

——

Another two hours had passed, and we were getting somewhere. Elekid managed to make his fist colder and have fragments of ice form onto it whenever he attacked, but it tired him out fast, and it also made him thirsty. I handed him a bottle of water, which he awkwardly held with his clawed hands and downed in seconds.

“Why don’t you take a break, honey?” I told him. He protested, but I insisted until he said yes. “You too, Tangela,” I said. “Or… maybe not?”

The grass type had been using Vine Whip the entire time, and he wasn’t tiring. At first, I had been impressed, but now I was kind of scared, although I theorized that it was because today was particularly sunny. Improvement by repetition was slow, but if he could do it for hours at a time without breaks? His improvement speed would be on par with the others, or maybe even faster.

“I’ll go check out Frillish and Togetic again. Be back in ten minutes,” I told the two.

I let out a satisfied sigh when I saw that Togetic was taking her training seriously, no doubt because Frillish kept scolding her. She silently moved a small boulder away from her with a look of pure concentration on her face. I stayed silent and winked at Frillish, who was watching intently. I could tell by the slight movements on his face that he was silently rooting for her. After around forty-five feet, her control over the rock weakened, and after sixty, it crashed onto the ground.

“You did great, princess!” I praised her. She turned to me in surprise and could only muster a tired nod. “Here, take a break. I have some water if you want.”

I gave her some water and gently scratched her neck before turning to Frillish.

“How are you doing?” I asked.

He bobbed his head silently.

“Good, huh?” I smiled. “You’ve got the hang of Mist, and now it’s all about practicing with it, but how about Acid Armor?”

The water type shook his head.

“Then let’s get to it. Here, let me help you,” I said, grabbing my Pokedex. “It says here that you’re supposed to… alter your cellular structure to liquefy yourself. Uh… that sounds complicated, hold on,” I said, reading it a few more times. “Okay, so in simple terms, you’re supposed to turn into goo.”

“Lish…”

“You’re already pretty slimy,” I started. “Can you make yourself slimier?” He looked at me with a disappointed stare. “Okay, sorry, that was a stupid question, but I’m just spitballing here. Uh, you’re kind of like… entirely made out of liquid water, no? And you can alter water and weave it into moves. Why don’t you try to alter yourself using the same methodology?” I asked.

The ghost type nodded before closing his eyes. I watched in anticipation with Togetic, waiting to see what would happen. His body trembled slightly for around two minutes until he finally opened his eyes again.

“Doesn’t look like much has changed,” I said before trying to touch him.

My hand went through his body.

“Holy shit, that felt so… so weird,” I said. My hand felt wet when I passed it through him, but it was completely dry now. Suddenly I realized that he had used the move. “Wait, you did it! You did it, you did it!” I celebrated, jumping around wildly. “You are a genius!”

He nodded and let out a familiar huff, but the sound was completely different than his normal voice. It was distant and alien like I was listening to something underwater. He went through the same two-minute process again to turn back to his natural state.

“Now we just need to get you to use it in seconds instead of minutes,” I said. “Although that’s probably easier said than done.”

But when he did? His defensive options against physical attacks would go through the roof.

“Take a break, bud,” I said. “You deserve it.”

——

“Feeling tired now, huh?” I told Tangela. “The sun’s down.”

He blinked twice and nodded. The grass type was sitting on the ground with a bunch of his vines all untangled, forming into some kind of cushion. It was very cute to look at, but also somewhat disturbing to see his form so… fluid was the word. I had been so engrossed in my training that before I realized it, night had come. I was hungry, tired, and sore, since I had gone on a run with Elekid. I figured it was time to start those back up again, especially with how useful my endurance was in Eterna forest. I gathered my team and stood in front of them with my back straight. They were all exhausted. Frillish was struggling to float, while Togetic was just lying down on the ground. Elekid was still standing, but I could tell he was only doing so because of his pride as a battler.

“You all did amazing today,” I started. “I’ve never pushed you this far, but you did even better than I expected. If we do this every day, I have no doubt that we’ll be ready to tackle the gym.”

Another two days to get familiar enough to use the moves on a regular basis without tiring themselves, and then I’d use the other three to make them battle each other.

“But uh… this is kind of awkward,” I started. “I’m kind of low on money, so I need one of you to go with me to one of the arenas to battle some trainers. Anybody up for that?” I tried.

Tangela lazily retracted all of his vines and walked up.

“Thanks, angel,” I smiled. “I’ll let the others rest. You can rest in your Pokeball too until we get to the arena.”

I recalled them all and started walking back toward Eterna city. My feet and legs were terribly sore, and I was physically tired. It was important to remember that I wasn’t a Pokemon. I couldn’t keep working myself to the point of exhaustion, but I was just having so much fun.

Plus, it wasn’t like I could sleep anyway, although I hoped the appointment with Amanda next week would help remedy that.

Oh well, at least when these seven days were over, I’d be able to take a well-deserved break. I wondered what the others were doing.

——

“Isn’t she one of Obel’s friends?”

“Did you see her destroy Chase Karlson the other day?”

“She’s smaller than I thought.”

Ugh. Whispers and gossip spread around me like a disease. All of this attention was making me nervous. I wanted to go back to being a no-name trainer like I had always been, but that was impossible now. I walked up to one of the battlefields before tightening my shoelaces, but before I was about to look for someone to battle, a few trainers had already made their way to me to challenge me.

Well, I supposed that was one way to make money. I accepted the first challenger to a one-on-one battle, and he won the coinflip, prompting me to release Tangela. I could tell that the boy was nervous, which surprised me.

How could someone be nervous to battle little old me?

He released a Timburr, who carried a large piece of lumber in its arm. I had seen the Pokemon a few times on television, and they were known to be excellent construction builders, but I never expected the piece of wood they carried to be brought into the Pokeball with them.

I took a deep breath, and the battle started.

“Timburr, Bulk Up, and then get close!” The teen yelled out.

The fighting type’s muscles bulged out as it flexed its entire body. I watched as Timburr slowly ran up to Tangela, giving me ample time to think. The Pokemon was slow, especially with the load it carried, but a few good hits was probably all it would take to beat Tangela, especially since he was so tired. Now wasn’t the time to underestimate our opponent.

“Bind him, angel!” I ordered.

Tangela shivered as five vines flew toward the fighting type. Timburr used his piece of Lumber to knock two away, but the other three grasped him tightly. It groaned in pain as angel tightened his grip— so much so that I was starting to worry.

“Not too hard, angel,” I warned. “He’s not a rock.”

He was still a wild Pokemon in many ways, unused to battles. Tangela loosened his grip enough to let the Timburr breathe, but he was still unable to move.

“Come on, Timburr! You’re stronger than this!”

My eyes widened as Timburr let out an enraged scream and tore out Tangela’s vines.

“Bind him again,” I said,

Three, five, ten vines confined the Timburr this time. There was no getting out of Tangela’s grasp.

“Mega Drain.”

Tangela’s vines started to glow, and the energy made its way back to the grass type, who writhed in delight. When he was done, he retracted his vines, and Timburr fell to the ground.

“Good job, Tangela. That was some good range,” I praised him. A vine extended behind him and affectionately wrapped around my ankle. “Good battle,” I told the teenager.

“You’re too good,” He smiled thinly. “But I’ve always wanted to battle against a trainer with a badge.”

I nodded, and he walked up to hand me my prize money, which wasn’t much. There wasn’t a set amount trainers were forced to give when they lost, which was something the League implemented to stop trainers from bankrupting themselves from a losing streak, but the minimum amount was one hundred pokedollars. I thanked him, and the next challenger was already ready for me.

At this rate, I’d be able to buy Thunder Wave before the gym battle.