CHAPTER 88

I stepped out of the house— and far away from Roxie. She may have appeared docile, but she was definitely the most threatening-looking dragon I had ever seen after Cynthia’s Garchomp—

Roxie roared and flapped her wings, blowing my hair all over the place even though I was at least one hundred and fifty feet away, and flew off into the distance somewhere. I ran back into the house.

“Craig, Roxie just— Roxie just left!” I yelled.

“Ah, she must be hungry,” he said. “She hunts around here, which lets me save the food for Caleb— Caleb’s my Snorlax, and feeding him actually takes most of my expenses. She’ll be back in thirty minutes or so.”

“Oh. Sorry,” I said, feeling really awkward. I had never really seen someone be so nonchalant about their Pokemon leaving their side, but she was a Salamence. Nothing around here could hurt her, even with the type advantage.

I hurriedly left again and released my entire team. Electabuzz stood out now due to how tall he was, and Larvitar shot him an angry glare. Ever since he had evolved, she seemed to be jealous of his new strength and stature, even though she stood no chance of beating him in battle before his evolution anyway. The electric type let out a hearty laugh and easily picked her up, proving how strong he was now. She squirmed in his hands.

“Come on, hon, let her down,” I smiled.

Electabuzz laughed again and dropped Larvitar on the ground, causing her to huff like Frillish did. The water type noticed and smiled slightly, but when he saw that I had caught him, he, well, huffed and stared away.

“Caught ya,” I giggled. “And don’t worry, sweetheart, we’ll get you caught up to the rest in no time. You’ve got to finish growing first though, alright?”

“Tar!” She yelled.

“Okay, you’re already the strongest,” I humored her. Electabuzz clamored, demanding I call him the strongest now that he had evolved. “Let your baby sister have a win, alright?”

He sighed and nodded sadly at me, causing Larvitar to laugh and hit his leg with a stubby arm. He was about to retaliate, but angel hurriedly grabbed her with his vines and pulled her to his side.

“Okay, guys,” I said, clapping my hands to get their attention. “Due to everything that happened, it’s been a while since we had one of these, but it’s time to train some new moves. Princess, you’re first.”

Togetic smiled and clapped her hands. She was happier now that we were finally out of dangerous areas.

“You’re going to be learning Air Cutter, which is supposed to use the wind to, well, cut up your enemies. If I had to guess, you’re going to need to use your wings for this one. I know it’s going to be new, so don’t push yourself, alright? That won’t be it though, but I’ll get back to you.”

Togetic nodded, and I moved on to Frillish.

“Buddy, you’re going to learn Shadow Ball and Recover,” I told him. He immediately nodded without hesitation. “Shadow Ball should be pretty easy for you since you’re smart—”

My Pokemon all joined and complained in unison except Togetic. Even Tangela wriggled in defiance.

“—you’re all smart. I meant that he’s the smartest. You’ve got to gather ghostly energy, condense it into a ball and send it off. It’s easier when you’re an actual ghost, I think, but you’ll figure it out. Call out if you need any help. For Recover, I couldn’t think of how to actually get you started on the move…”

Suddenly, I felt knowledge fill in the blanks in my head. The lake was helping, somehow, but it felt incredibly alien. Like thoughts were being forcefully put into my head. I didn’t like it one bit, but at least it helped me figure out how Frillish could learn Recover in seconds. I probably would have figured it out eventually, but this just sped up the whole process. If I ever needed the answer to something, I was going to come back here somehow, although it would be easier if I got my flying license and evolved princess…

But I was getting sidetracked.

“I’ve got it. You’re almost completely made out of water, right? You already heal passively from wounds by regenerating your body with water, which means that you just have to speed up that process to learn Recover. Fiddling with your body composition should help you with Acid Armor too, which is perfect.”

“Fri…” he mumbled.

“Great. I’ll get you some poffins when we get to Snowpoint. You haven’t eaten any in too long.”

His face lit up for a split second before returning to his neutral expression.

“Okay, you’re next, hon,” I turned to Electabuzz. “You’re actually spending all of our training session with me. We’ve got to test your new limits since you evolved. We don’t want to accidentally kill something when we start battling again,” I said. He nodded. “But we’re also going to be working on Discharge and Fire Punch. Originally, I was going to teach you Shock Wave, but you’re strong enough to skip that step.”

Electabuzz flashed me a sharp, toothy grin.

“Discharge should be easy, and Fire Punch probably…” I trailed off, waiting for more information to invade my brain again. “You need to use electricity to start a fire on your fist. Think you can manage that?” I asked.

“Buzz!”

“Of course, you can, I don’t know why I even asked! Now angel, you’re going to be focused on one move, and one move only. Ancient Power.”

He blinked twice and snaked a cold vine around my ankle.

“You like how it sounds, huh?” I smiled at him. “You’ve got some innate psychic powers in you, and I think princess will be able to help you awaken them.”

I waited a few seconds to see if I was going to get help from the lake, but it seemed that there was a limit to how much it could actually do. If I had to guess, the limit had to do with knowledge I could realistically acquire. I wasn’t a psychic, so knowing the intricacies of lifting the earth with my mind was impossible.

“Take your time and go at your own pace, alright?” I told the grass type. “When you learn the move, you’ll evolve.”

His vines shook, and he jumped. Angel was so adorable when he let his emotions show.

“And princess, no playing around with Tangela, alright? Not even lifting him with Extrasensory. I’ve got eyes at the back of my head! They’re called Frillish, and he’ll snitch. Right?” I said, staring at the water type. Togetic pleaded with him, and he avoided my eyes. “Okay, maybe I’m being too harsh…” I sighed. “For every hour you work hard, you’ll get twenty minutes of playtime. How’s that.”

“Prrrrri!” She celebrated.

“Sorry angel, looks like you’ll be her plaything again.”

He stared up at me and let out a series of blinks.

“Used to it already, huh? Well, as long as she helps you out,” I sighed. “Sweetheart, you’re with me and your brother. You’re going to observe today,” I said. She hissed in annoyance. “Don’t be so moody, I’m also going to test out your moves. You’ve used Horn Attack, but do you know that you know Rock Throw and Payback?”

Larvitar’s eyes shone in anticipation, and she stared up at me with a satisfied expression.

“Let’s get to work then.”

——

“Rock Throw,” I ordered.

Larvitar yelled, waving her arms in a really cute and wild way, and a tiny rock slightly bigger than my fist was pulled from the earth and thrown toward a tree.

“Larvi! Larvitar!” She yelled proudly at me.

“Great job, sweetheart,” I smiled.

Whenever no rocks were present, the move worked similarly to Ancient Power, except that psychic energy wasn’t used. I assumed that it was some kind of type energy— in this case, rock type. Either way, since there wasn’t the fine control that psychic energy usually had, the move was less precise. In the distance, Electabuzz let out a powerful Thunderbolt toward a tree, which promptly caught fire. I called Frillish over, and he exasperatedly extinguished the flames. It was the tenth time this had happened.

“Sorry,” I apologized to him. “But Togetic’s fully focused on teaching angel Ancient Power. I don’t want to disturb her by asking for targets.”

It was actually surprising how hard she worked when she got small breaks in between the bursts of activity. Whereas I was wholly focused on a task until I finished it, princess was the type who needed small breaks at regular intervals to stay on top of her game.

I grumbled when I realized that my hair was standing straight up again. Electabuzz had that effect on me now when he used an electric move, and he didn’t know how to tone it down yet. At least I looked funny, since he kept making fun of me with his usual cackle.

“You better not use this to prank me in the future,” I jokingly said. “You’re incredibly strong now. It’s actually ridiculous how powerful you got. Remember when you could only keep a Thundershock going for eight seconds back in Floaroma? You’ve come a long way.”

“Ele!”

“But we’re only just starting,” I nodded. “Let’s try out a Fire Punch now.”

The electric type nodded, and sparks flew around his fists until it caught fire. The flames quickly disappeared, however, and he aired his hand around. They had also burned him somewhat.

“That’s okay, it was a great first attempt,” I said. “Let’s try it again for a while, and then we’ll start working on Discharge. Larvitar, let’s try out two Rock Throws at the same time. Don’t worry if it’s too hard, alright?”

“Larvitar!” She boasted, clapping her hands like Togetic.

“At this rate, you’re going to catch everyone’s habit,” I laughed. “If you start blinking or wriggling, though… I won’t know what to say to that.”

She huffed and easily lifted two small rocks out of the ground. I had apparently been underestimating her. Her species wasn’t called pseudo-legendary for nothing.

“Give me five this time,” I grinned.

Arceus, I loved training.

——

Cecilia swallowed as her hand hovered over the release button for Scyther’s Pokeball. Deino, Fletchinder, and Slowpoke were all around her, waiting. It had been so long since she had even spoken to the bug type. Would he attack her this time? Why did she feel so anxious about it now when she never had before?

Cece sighed. She knew why.

She had been a terrible trainer to Scyther. She had beaten him repeatedly into submission to force him into fighting for her, just like her father had wanted to force her into marrying Louis. And just like her relationship with her father, Cece feared that Scyther would never give her another chance. Why should he?

Cecilia valued strength in her Pokemon above all, and her training style was more brutal than most trainer’s, but that had been no reason to defeat Scyther over and over again.

And yet, he was her best hope against Abel’s Malamar.

She took a deep breath.

“Don’t attack him no matter what. You’re only there to dissuade him from doing so,” Cece told Deino and Fletchinder. “Slowpoke, keep him still if he does, then move him back and release him. Understood?”

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Her Pokemon all nodded— although Deino gave her a half-committed, angry one. That was probably the best she was going to get. He was growing jittery and anxious about his coming evolution, and so was she. She’d need to call Mark about how to raise a Zweilous, along with all the other help she was already going to ask of him. More than him going berserk though, she feared that she didn’t know how Deino’s personality would develop. Would the two heads behave as he did? Would only one do, and the other be completely different? Or would he be lost forever?

The girl shook her head. Today was Scyther’s day. Deino would come later. She released the bug type, who was very confused at how he had gotten from Eterna city to the middle of the snowy wilderness. He stared Cecilia down and started to bat his wings.

“I’m sorry,” Cecilia immediately said with an apologetic bow. “I know that won’t cut it, but I have to say it. I’ve been mistreating you. I’ve been a horrible trainer to you, and you have every right to hate me—”

Scyther let out an angry screech and sharpened his sickle-like arms as he stared around the lake.

“We went through a mountain and ended up here,” Cece said, guessing that he was asking where he was. “I want you to know that I won’t attack you anymore, no matter what—”

Scyther seemingly took that as a sign to attack, probably thinking that she would just let him kill her. Slowpoke sprung alive and restrained Scyther, lifting him up in the air and pushing him back around ten feet. Deino’s mouth started to glow red, but Cece placed a hand on his hot neck, stopping him.

“I won’t attack you, but I won’t let you kill me. I’ve found a reason to live,” she said, thinking of Grace and her friends. “I just want to get on civil terms… give me three months and if… if I can’t get that from you, then when I can get back to Eterna city, I’ll head into the forest and release you. You have my word.”

Scyther smiled, probably thinking that he was going to be freed soon.

At least he wasn’t attacking her.

“I have food if you want,” Cece tried hesitantly. “Or you can go hunt something… I at least know you like that. I’ll have to come with you though, since I know you’ll try to escape. I’m sorry, but I’ll need at least a chance to change your mind first.”

“Scy, scy,” he told her dismissively. “Scyther!” He screamed, pointing at the woods.

“Hunting it is,” she sighed, looking back at her Pokemon.

In the forest, Scyther tried attacking her five times, thinking that the advantageous terrain would help him kill her.

Slowpoke stopped him every single time.

——

Denzel rolled his eyes at the current display of jealousy that was happening in front of him. Eevee sat in the middle of Budew and Buneary while the two practiced the new moves he had asked them to, doing their best to impress his starter. Budew needed more move variety, so he had asked her to work on Venoshock, which she was already excelling at due to her poison typing. Large swaths of snow in front of them had been stained purple, and Budew screeched at Buneary, trying to showcase her dominance. Buneary, meanwhile, was trying to get Power-Up Punch down. The move supposedly made your Pokemon more powerful the more they used it, but it was very physically intensive.

Which somehow had become a theme for his team. Beauty and endurance. From those two words, he had carefully theory-crafted his team at the ripe age of ten, revised it, then rerevised it again another thousand times before he finally came up with a final draft right before he turned fifteen with Eevee now by his side— although his slot had been left blank since he could evolve into anything. It had also been right before he had been supposed to start his journey. Of course, that had been delayed by a year due to his mother.

Either way, Buneary was giving the move a hearty try, although she was struggling more than Budew was. Her right ear shined brightly and extended right away in front of her. She was getting the punching part down rather well, but the powering up was still a mystery to them. Budew let out something of a snicker and a screech morphed together into a horrifying cocktail, clearly mocking her. The normal type cried out to Eevee indignantly.

The poor guy was stuck in the middle of a love triangle.

To be honest, Denzel didn’t exactly mind. Eevee was just practicing his current moves today, and mostly trying to get better at Swift. He wanted Eevee to create the most amount of stars possible and throw them out in a wide shot instead of a line to make it harder to outrun. That meant that Eevee didn’t really have to be focusing hard today. Denzel also felt that some of this battle for attention could be used for Budew and Buneary to push themselves further, which they were doing at a rapid pace. As long as it stayed a healthy competition, then he wouldn’t intervene. He could tell that Budew still held back when fighting Buneary for training, even though they were around the same strength.

He did feel bad for Eevee, though. He clearly had no interest in the two romantically, but he didn’t have the heart to reject them, so he just tried to appease the situation as best he could. Denzel sighed and leaned down toward his Feebas, who was swimming along the surface of the lake. He had caught up with the water type on everything that had happened in Mount Coronet and apologized for not letting him out of his Pokeball sooner. The cave’s lakes had been too dangerous for him to swim in.

“At least you’re not in love,” Denzel told the water type.

“Fee…” he said, looking longingly at the rest of Denzel’s team.

Denzel let out a sad sigh. It was true that Feebas was less close to the rest of the team through no fault of his own. The limitations of the water type meant that any time he was released outside of water, he’d suffer immensely and could only flop around. When he evolved into Milotic, all of that would be solved, but that was still somewhat far off.

The secret to evolving Feebas into Milotic was well-known, and it was simple in theory but hard in practice.

You simply had to make the fish feel beautiful. Not just tell them, take care of their scales, or bring them to Pokemon spas every day. No, it didn’t matter what they looked like. You had to make them believe they were genuinely beautiful, and then they would evolve. Denzel did believe that Feebas was beautiful. If he hadn’t, then he wouldn’t have caught him in the first place, but he had been racking his brain to find a way to transfer that feeling onto the water type.

And it looked like he wouldn’t figure it out today, either.

“Hey, guys!” He yelled out at his Pokemon. “Take a break and come hang out with Feebas.”

Eevee smiled, happy that he was finally going to get some relief and ran to them as fast as he could. Buneary followed him closely, and Budew was lagging behind. The rabbit looked at Budew and stuck out her tongue to mock how slow she was, and Budew’s permanent scowl somehow worsened.

At least Buneary had gotten out of her shell with the group.

“Bas…!” The water type exclaimed and smiled. Eevee jumped into the lake right next to him, splashing Denzel with ice-cold water in the process, and so did Buneary. Budew angrily stewed on shore, since she couldn’t swim.

“Hey, you’ve hogged Eevee’s attention a lot, let Feebas have some too,” he said.

“Bud! Bud! Budew Bud Budew Bud—”

“Arceus, you woke up on the wrong side of the bed today,” he said, interrupting her tirade.

His team played around for a while. Feebas kept splashing Eevee and Buneary with a proto-Water Gun from under the surface, blasting them up a few feet while Denzel kept Budew company. Ten minutes of playtime turned to thirty and then one hour. Their training had been cut short, but that was fine. Denzel didn’t want to stop Feebas from having fun, especially when this looked to be the happiest he had been in a long while. When Eevee finally climbed out of the lake, Denzel saw Feebas sadly shoot a glance at the normal type. He then realized that his earlier longing stare at the rest of his team had only been for Eevee, not the others.

Wait…

Him too?

Was… was Eevee unknowingly building a… love quadrangle? A harem?

“What the fuck…” Denzel muttered. Even Feebas was in love? “Let’s hope this doesn’t balloon out of proportion.”

Around another hour later, Denzel had recalled everyone since Savika didn’t allow Pokemon into her home. He shot a glance at the huge Salamence that had only recently come back with a Piloswine. She was cooking it with flames so hot they altered the air around them and munching on it like a small snack. He gulped and made his way into Savika’s house. The old woman was making lunch on her small electric stove. Now that she wasn’t wearing layers upon layers of clothes, he could see that she was incredibly muscular— more than Chase was. Her life in the wild kept her in shape.

“Savika,” Denzel said hesitantly. “I have a question, if you don’t mind.”

“Shoot,” she answered right away.

“I’m looking for the next member of my team— a Snorunt. Would you know where to find them? Do they live around here?”

“Ah, those,” she said with a certain… dislike. The same that she had when she spoke about any Pokemon. “They do live in the woods around the lake. They’re not particularly uncommon either, so if you look, it’s only a matter of time until you find one. Just make sure not to bring it inside.”

Denzel smiled. “Thank you! And um, another question, please?”

“Don’t ask me to ask a question, just ask the question.”

“I’m looking for a female Snorunt, not a male. Is there any way to distinguish between the two?”

“It’s a bit tough, but it’s certainly doable. The females are slightly smaller, but other than that, they’re virtually the same.”

“That’s good enough, thank you,” the trainer smiled. “I’ll be going then.”

Even after all these months, Denzel still felt uncomfortable living in someone else’s house, just like what had happened at Grace’s place. He just felt so indebted that he thought he needed to be overtly polite, which probably made him come off as awkward, which he really wasn’t. Savika was a tough woman, but she was nice. She had even given him ice to put on his ribs and painkillers while they healed. Apparently, they were fractured, not broken, which was a relief and meant that they’d heal faster.

Denzel felt his muscles loosen as he stepped outside and released his Eevee, who climbed on his shoulder.

“We’re going to look for a Snorunt today,” Denzel explained. “They should be pretty common, but keep an eye out.”

“Vee!” The normal type exclaimed.

Denzel smiled and softly caressed his head. The truth was, he also wanted to have an important talk with Eevee about evolution. He had told Grace he would talk to Eevee about it, but he had kept putting it off again and again until he had gotten trapped in Mount Coronet. Now that he was finally safe, he figured that he needed to do it.

Denzel watched a group of Vanilite float past him and instinctively cursed, releasing his entire team before remembering that he was safe. The Pokemon around the lake weren’t aggressive, and this was still relatively close to route 217.

That didn’t stop his heart from drumming against his chest.

He apologized to Buneary and Budew before recalling them.

Getting back to his train of thought, seeing Chase and Grace’s Pokemon evolve, and learning that Cece’s Deino was close to doing so as well had made him more open to having a conversation with Eevee. Surprisingly, Denzel didn’t feel inferior or anxious about falling behind any longer. He was going at his own rhythm, and that was fine. If Eevee still wasn’t ready to evolve, he wouldn’t hold it against him.

“Hey, Eevee,” Denzel hesitantly started. “I think we should talk about your evolution.”

He felt the normal type tense against his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’m not about to force you into evolving or anything,” he quickly explained. “I just think it’d be healthier to have the conversation, you know?”

Eevee nodded slightly.

“Okay. And don’t force yourself to pick, alright? We’ve made it this far with you as an Eevee, we can easily go further,” Denzel said before pausing. “So you don’t know what to evolve into still, right?”

“Eevee,” he said hesitantly.

“Is it because you’re scared of not being able to go back if you don’t like it? I’d understand that, it’s scary to make a choice that final.”

Eevee shook his head before warning Denzel to look left, and he tensed, his hand hovering over his Pokeballs. A group of Snorunt were traveling together and packed tightly. Even though there were a good number of females in the group, Denzel clenched his fist and let them through. He wasn’t going to steal a Pokemon from their family. Not again.

“So it’s not that then,” he said. “You told me you wanted to evolve a long time ago. That’s still the case, right?”

“Vee,” he said, agreeing.

“Okay, then can you tell me? I won’t mind, no matter what you answer.”

Eevee took a deep, nervous breath before launching into a long tirade of noises and cries. Denzel wasn’t as good as Grace at deciphering what Pokemon said, but he had owned Eevee for long enough to understand the gist of what he was saying.

“So you… you were waiting for me to decide?” Denzel asked in disbelief. “But I told you that I was fine with anything!”

“Eevee…”

“My list— my plan left your spot blank.”

“Vee!” The normal type angrily raised his tone as he jumped down his shoulder.

“I’m not! I don’t have a secret preference that I’m hiding from you!” Denzel desperately appealed. “I’ve been telling you the truth!”

Denzel had messed up royally. His plan for his team had been so rigid that Eevee truly believed that he also had a plan for him, and he had refused to evolve while he waited for Denzel to tell him what to do because Eevee had been there for more than a whole year of planning. Of course, he’d think that Denzel was secretly hiding what evolution he wanted for him. The trainer facepalmed and crouched toward his starter.

“I don’t know how to prove it to you, but I truly haven’t been hiding my intentions to make you feel better. I was never going to force you into doing anything. I’m giving you the freedom to choose. If you want me to get one of the evolutionary stones, I’ll save up and do that. If you want to evolve into anything else, we can wait for the right time of day or travel to the mossy or icy rock. If you’re already ready, then you can choose. I can tell that you’ve been holding back— since… since before Oreburgh, even!” Denzel said, pouring his heart out. He felt tears gather in the corner of his eye.

“Ee… Eevee,” Eevee cried as he started to glow, and Denzel covered his eyes. His hair grew slicker, and ribbons began to grow out of his neck and right ear. After ten seconds, it was over. Bright blue eyes stared back at Denzel, still in tears.

Eevee had evolved into a Sylveon. He understood now that there was another reason he had held himself back so long despite wanting to evolve into one.

His sixth and final team member was supposed to be another fairy type, and Denzel valued type diversity. Eevee probably thought that he’d ask him to evolve into one of the evolutionary stone evolutions for that. That he would never budge on his planned team.

Denzel brought him into a warm hug and felt his ribbons wrap around his body, soothing him. His heartbeat calmed, and he looked at Sylveon again.

“Going to be weird not calling you Eevee anymore,” Denzel laughed. “The rest of the team is going to fawn over your new look.”

“Sylv,” He complained.

“Wow, your voice is higher pitched than before. Cool,” Denzel smiled. “Now, let’s find that lone Snorunt, shall we?”

Sylveon nodded and climbed on his shoulder.

“Arceus, you’re like, four times as heavy.”