“You were laughing before the battle and you are often smiling in others,” the cameraman said, repeating the question from the earpiece in his ear, “Do you feel it necessary to mock your opponents?”
“I have only ever mocked one opponent, and that was Steven Stone III, who deserved it for his assault on Emilia Oak.” Cashe said.
The cameraman’s eyes went wide but he didn’t cut him off. That was weird. Every other time he mentioned it, the interview ended right after. Maybe the studio was getting some backlash.
“You certainly beat Trainer Tobb as if you were mocking him. If you weren’t, then why were you laughing as he walked onto the stage?”
“It was a simple matter of poor timing,” Cashe lied, “A friend said something to me last night that I found particularly humorous. I remembered it as Tobb was entering the stadium and for some reason I found it even funnier. Normally I would simply smile at the memory, but in this situation I thought that might come off as arrogant, so I tried to hold it back. I think we’ve all been in similar scenarios where laughing is inappropriate and we need to stop ourselves from doing so. And I think we all know such scenarios have only one, rather predictable outcome.”
“I see, can you tell me what your friend said?”
“It’s an inside joke.”
The cameraman paused and held a hand to his ear, “You faced two pokemon in their second stage of evolution but seemed to have little trouble against them. Did you have any special preparation for facing more powerful pokemon, and why do you think you succeeded where so many other trainers struggled?”
“I did prepare for the battle, obviously. I focused mostly on areas where I felt my pokemon could outperform his,” Cashe said evasively, “As for why I was successful where others were not, Trainer Tobb was ranked in the middle of the pack and faced mostly middle of the pack trainers on his way to our match. In a single elimination tournament, progression can be heavily matchup dependent, and I think we see that here with Tobb. There were several trainers that I fought previously who could have beaten him as well, had they faced him. He was a trainer that progressed with strong pokemon rather than with skill, and the weaknesses of such an approach can be seen clearly with today’s result. In a tournament with a different structure, I think he would have been eliminated much earlier.”
“Harsh words for your opponent. Do you distain weakness so much?”
Cashe bit his tongue, holding back his reflexive sneer. That was the second pointed question thrown at him, a sneer was definitely what they wanted.
“I am simply observing the failures of the tournament structure and the failures of my opponent. It is truth, not disdain. Of my opponents alone, I can think of several who would not have any trouble beating Trainer Tobb. Lisa Summers comes to mind immediately, as does Ashley Werner, though she was obviously not my opponent.”
“So your disdain is not for the trainer but the tournament itself. Do you have any thoughts about the upcoming matches and who you will face in the next round?”
“Marcus will be a difficult opponent.” Cashe said.
“So you think he will win?”
“Yes.”
Cashe turned away from the cameraman, done with the interview. He walked directly back towards the seating area where Emilia and Lindon sat, greeting the with a wave and a smile. Lindon waved back with enthusiasm but Emilia raised an eyebrow as he hopped the barrier.
“Look at you, Mr Rules Breaker,” she teased, “How rebellious. Is this a new angle for Apollo Cashe, a subversive misanthrope fighting against an unfair system?”
Cashe snorted at her gentle mocking, “It doesn’t sound like it’s really my choice any more. A couple of those questions were not particularly fair.”
“I know!” Lindon frowned, “You obviously didn’t mean it that way! People ask my dad the same kinds of things after his battle and then everyone gets mad at his responses!”
“Your father battles?” Emilia said, her face a mask of innocence, “And he plays a heel?”
Lindon’s eyes widened slightly, “Yes?”
Emilia put a hand over her mouth in a dramatic gasp, “Your last name is Stroute! And we met you right outside Vermilion! And that’s where your parents live!”
Emilia’s acting was nowhere near good enough to fool Lindon, and his face fell flat, “Did Apollo tell you?”
Emilia laughed and Cashe shook his head, “I told you you didn’t do a very good job of hiding it. Did you think I would figure it out and Emilia wouldn't?”
Lindon gave Cashe a quick once over, “No. Definitely not.”
“Hey!”
***
The next two fights went as predictably as the previous two. Damian Dart faced his opponent using only his Deino. It was the first time Cashe had seen Damian in action, and he did not disappoint. Deino was on the slow side, but powerful. It was having some trouble hitting the opposing pokemon, which was an obvious weakness of its ability, Hustle. The ability increased power in exchange of accuracy, and every attack from Deino was devastating.
Both of the opponent pokemon, a Beautifly and a Hatenna, went down to a single Bite when the attacks eventually did connect. Damian was gracious and polite in his victory, speaking to the crowd directly when answering several questions and complimenting his opponent throughout his post-match interview. Cashe felt a worm of discomfort inch its way up his back watching the interview, having heard stories about the man from Marcus and Lisa, and experiencing a two faced interaction with him for himself. It felt like watching a python ingratiate itself into a hen house.
Marcus’s battle was up next, and he demonstrated similar proficiency in his battle. He used both pokemon, but not because it was necessary. His Popplio only took a hit or two from his opponent’s Zubat before knocking it out, and when Wynaut was switched in, Marcus pulled Popplio out, letting Gligar finish the battle. Wynaut was a tricky pokemon to handle, but Marcus was prepared. He used a strategy straight out of Cashe’s book, poisoning the small, psychic pokemon with Toxic and waiting for an opportunity to knock it out with a single hit. Marcus handled the situation deftly, waiting out Wynaut’s Destiny Bond and striking just as it began to flag from the accumulated poison damage.
“Just one more match,” Emilia said as they left the stands, moving slowly through the tunnel due to the packed crowd around them, “then the party, then the finals. Think we’ll face off?”
“I don’t know,” Cashe said honestly.
“That’s not a great attitude,” Emilia frowned, “You’ll never make it talking like that.”
“Watching that match against Marcus worried me,” Cashe said, “He’s good. Navigating around that Wynaut was impressive, and hard to do. I don’t know if I could have done as well.”
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“Of course you could have,” Lindon said, speaking up. He was sticking close to Cashe so he didn’t get separated in the crowd, “Bulbasaur is really strong and that Wynaut wasn’t good at dodging at all.”
“Wynaut and Wobbuffet want to be hit,” Cashe said, “They can’t attack directly, they can only counterattack.”
“Oh.”
“You still could have handled it,” Emilia said.
“I probably could have,” Cashe allowed, “But that’s not the only thing I’m worried about when facing Marcus.”
Emilia nodded solemnly as they exited the tunnels and made it back into the ship proper, the crowd dispersing as they headed to separate locations, “His pokemon are very well trained.”
“Gligar especially,” Cashe said, “Plus he has a type advantage against both my pokemon. And I bet you anything that Gligar’s ability is Immunity. It’s going to be a nightmare for me to handle that.”
“Plus we don’t know what region it is from,” Emilia said with a small frown, “That throws an extra problem into the mix.”
“What region it’s from?” Cashe said, “How does that make a difference?”
“Some pokemon can learn very different moves, depending on what region they came from, even if the species exists in multiple regions. For most pokemon it doesn’t make a difference, but for Gligar…”
“What does it get?” Cashe said. He didn’t like the tone of Emilia’s voice.
“Roost.”
“Crap,” Cashe frowned deeply, “Where did Marcus say he was from again?”
“Johto,” Lindon answered, “He and Lisa are from Johto. But his mom is from Alola, just like his Popplio.”
“So do Gligar from either of those regions learn Roost?” Cashe said.
“I don’t know, we’ll have to look it up.” Emilia shrugged.
***
“Well, shit.” Cashe groaned, leaning back on the couch in Emilia’s room. Bulbasaur and Mankey were with him, having taken little damage from the day’s fight, only requiring a quick heal at the pokemon center before they were fully recovered. They were gathered around Emilia’s laptop, which he was again hunched over, watching all the recorded battles they could find of Marcus Daye. It turned out it didn’t matter what region Marcus’s Gligar was from. It knew Roost. There were several recordings of him using the move. It was not an encouraging sight.
“Bulbasaur.”
“You can say that again.”
“Bulbasaur.”
“You think you’re smart, huh?” Cashe sighed.
“Mankey.” Mankey hopped on his shoulder and Cashe grunted. The little pig monkey was getting seriously heavy.
“No, I know you’re smart. Way smarter than the average Mankey,” Cashe said, “That’s not the problem.”
Mankey ran her hands through Cashe’s hair, looking for grubs. She didn’t find any. “Key!”
“The problem is that I don’t think Bulbasaur can outlast Gligar since it knows Roost. Chances are it can’t be poisoned, it has the type advantage against us, it can recover any sustained damage it takes from something like Leech Seed with Roost, and unless we have a nice sunny day, it’s much faster than Bulbasaur as well.”
“Bulba.”
“I know you will buddy,” Cashe sighed, “But it might be impossible for you right now. I think you might need to evolve to Ivysaur to beat this.”
“Bulba,” Bulbasaur nodded seriously and hopped off the small couch. He planted his feet and flexed his entire body at once. “Bulbasaur!” He chanted.
Emilia looked up from where she lay on her bed, where she was browsing Damian Dart’s battle history on her phone. “What’s going on?”
“Bulbasaur!” Bulbasaur flexed again.
Cashe smiled fondly at his pokemon, “I think he’s trying to evolve.”
“Bulbasaur!”
“Oh my gosh, that’s adorable.” Emilia cooed, “Bulbasaur, you know it doesn’t work like that, right honey?”
“Bulbasaur!” Another flex.
“I’m willing to let him try,” Cashe said.
“Mankey!” Mankey tapped Cashe on the head.
“I think you’re a bad matchup into Gligar as well,” Cashe said, giving Mankey a scratch on her head, “Gligar is faster than you and has really good defenses and has a type advantage. I don’t know if you’ll be able to do much either.” Cashe frowned, “Maybe I should have bought that Ice Punch from that shady guy.”
Emilia snorted, “And what, missed out on my Mega Stone? No thanks.”
“Kind of hard to use a Mega Stone without a pokemon that can Mega Evolve,” Cashe pointed out.
“Kind of hard to use a TM when it’s just a CD with ‘Ice Punch’ scrawled across it.” Emilia countered.
“That’s a fair point.” Cashe said, turning back to the laptop, “It doesn’t help me figure out what I’m going to do, though.”
“Then you can help me strategize for my battle instead,” Emilia said.
“Oh? Is it looking tough?” Cashe glanced over at her.
Emilia shook her head, “Not super tough, but kind of tricky.”
“Well, Deino shouldn’t be too much trouble for you, right?” Cashe said.
“Probably not too much trouble, no,” Emilia said, “Landing an Ice Beam shouldn’t be too tough, especially since it prefers fighting in melee range. I’m trying to figure out a foolproof strategy for his Gastly though, and that’s a bit harder.”
“You only need to hit a Gastly with a couple of solid attacks to take it out, right?” Cashe said, “Those pokemon are glass cannons, strong but not tough. Just have Charmeleon take care of it.”
“I plan to,” Emilia said, “Gastly is fast, though, just as fast as Charmeleon. And trapping a ghost type pokemon is basically impossible. They are really tricky to pin down, and even harder to train, which means Damian is probably a strong trainer as well, so I can’t guarantee I will have the advantage in positioning and tactics.”
“You think you might lose?” Cashe said, raising an eyebrow.
“Of course not,” Emilia scoffed, “I’m trying to figure out a plan so that my pokemon are as healthy as possible for when I have to fight in the finals. That is the match I am really worried about.”
“Hey!” Cashe complained, “Are you trying to use me to find a plan that has the best chance of beating me?”
“You or Marcus Daye,” Emilia smirked, “You have a problem with that?”
“Obviously I do! It's a violation of my Fifth Amendment rights!”
“Yeah? Should I bring up how you told Ashley the best way to beat me?”
Cashe bit his lip, holding back a smile, “Bulbasaur, she’s using logic! Get her!”
“Bulbasaur!” Bulbasaur flexed again, ignoring Cashe.
“I’ve been betrayed!” Cashe groaned.
“Bulbasaur is a good boy. He would never attack a person,” Emilia laughed, “Shame on you for attempting to corrupt him.”
“Enough from you.” Cashe said, “You should just be glad I didn’t ask Mankey.”
Mankey looked up from Cashe’s hair at her name.
Emilia’s smile fell, “You wouldn’t.”
“Mankey, do you know the move, Tickle?”
“Mankey.”
“That was a no, right?” Emilia said, scooting back on her bed. She picked up a pillow and ducked behind it.
“I don’t know, what do you think, Mankey?”
“Key.”
“Cashe…” Emilia held the pillow in front of her for protecting, unable to fully hide her smile of anticipation.
Cashe grinned
“Cashe, no!”
“Mankey-”
***
“Look at that,” Daryl breathed. Connie looked, leaning against the glass of the flying taxi, speechless.
A sprawling tapestry of green covered the entire horizon, thick jungle brush and trees obscuring the earth completely. Towering above them all was a tree, stretching far into the sky. Bird pokemon flew in flocks around it, Passimian and Oranguru swung through its branches, and bug pokemon covered its trunk.
The sun was high in the sky, blaring down on the lush, green, rainforest. Beams of light bounced off thousands, maybe millions of points on the tree, causing the entire thing to sparkle in wondrous light.
“Is each of those spots a berry?” Connie asked, her voice reverent, “Look at what one pokemon can do.”
“Yeah,” Daryl said. His face darkened significantly, “This has to be the third wish, right?”
“I don’t know. There was that other giant berry tree, but it was nothing like this. But it is kind of weird that there are two. And I guess pokemon would wish for food.” Connie said. She paused, peering at him, “You look upset.”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“The first tree was a really, really big tree with some strange readings coming from it. It might have been a wish, but it also could have been a big tree with some strange readings.” Daryl said. “This is something else. This is proof.”
*****