There was no crowd to roar its approval, in fact, barely anyone even noticed, a battle had ended. To each side of Cashe, trainers still battled, caught in their own hectic struggle for victory. Darla stared at her Krabby in grim resignation while the official got the last of the Leech Seeds out of its shell.
“Bulbasaur!” Bulbasaur croaked, strutting with pride back towards Cashe.
Cashe grinned. The little pokemon looked almost smug as he waddled back to him, “Good work, buddy,” Cashe said. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a treat, tossing it to Bulbasaur who snatched it out of the air with one of his vines like a frog catching a fly with its tongue. Bulbasaur swallowed the treat down and Cashe returned him to his ball.
“Are we done?” Cashe said, calling out to the official.
“Yes.” She was poking away at the device attached to her and didn’t even bother to look up to answer Cashe’s question.
Cashe stepped off the stage and straight into a punch thrown by Emilia. It smacked him lightly in the arm as she grinned, “See? There’s nothing to it. You just have to do that tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” Cashe said, returning her smile.
“So how does it feel?” Emilia said as they walked across the training gym. Lindon’s match would start soon, and neither of them wanted to miss it.
“Okay, I guess,” Cashe said, “I was a little worried at the end when Krabby was trying to use Flail - I got pretty lucky that it fainted when it did - but otherwise the battle wasn’t too challenging.” It felt good to win, but it didn’t feel like a real victory. Darla had a big type disadvantage against him and neither of her pokemon showed any moves that were outside the standard learnsets for their species. It felt more like a warm up match than his first official tournament win.
“If anyone but me ever asks, it was calculated,” Emilia said, giving him a sly wink, “But that’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean then?” Cashe said.
“How does it feel to no longer be a True Rookie?” Emilia said, holding up her pokedex.
Cashe took it. It was displaying his trainer profile, which had changed with his victory over Darla.
Trainer ID: 00319070
Name: Apollo Cashe
Region of Registration: Kanto
Designation: Third Circuit (Region Undetermined)
Badges: None
Record: 73-0 (TR), 1-0 (3C)
Challenges: 42
Battle History [Click to expand]
Significant Opponents: None
Regional Rank: 18299
World Rank: 127550
Pokemon Usage [Click to collapse]
65 - Bulbasaur
33 - Mankey
Recordings [Click to expand]
“I dropped a lot in rank,” Cashe said after staring at the trainer profile for a minute.
Emilia rolled her eyes, “Obviously. You didn’t think you would win one battle in the Third Circuit and still be at the top of the leaderboards, did you?”
“It’s just shocking to see how far down I am,” Cashe said, handing the pokedex back to Emilia, “I didn’t think there would be that many trainers.”
“The Third Circuit is the most populated designation,” Emilia said, “Everybody can make it to the Third Circuit, but a lot of people get stuck there, so the rankings are full of people who aren’t active trainers anymore. Beat a Gym Trainer and you will rocket up the rankings.”
“Sounds good,” Cashe said as they approached Lindon’s stage. They were late, and the battle was already underway.
Lindon was battling a young man with a large mohawk and a distraught expression on his face. His pokemon, a Wingull, was not the best choice against Lindon’s Magnemite.
Lindon was fully invested in the battle, not noticing Cashe and Emilia’s approach as they found a spot to the side of the arena to watch.
“Magnemite, Thunder Shock!” Lindon shouted. Magnemite hummed in response, building up an impressive amount of electricity and let it loose at the Wingull. The poor seagull pokemon didn’t stand a chance, the lightning moving too fast and with too much accuracy for it to dodge.
The electricity crashed into the Wingull, sending it into involuntary spasms and slamming into the ground. Sparks danced between its feathers as it twitched on the ground. The mohawked trainer cried out in wordless protest as his Wingull failed to get up from the attack.
“Wingull is unable to battle. Trainer Lindon is the winner!” The Pokemon League official raised his hand towards Lindon.
Lindon stared at the official for a long moment, before a wide grin appeared on his face. He thrust a fist into the air, jumping as he did so, “Yes! We did it, Magnemite!”
Magnemite made a bizarre screeching noise and darted across the stage and into Lindon’s open arms. Lindon laughed as it bumped into his chest, wrapping his arms around it and dragging it to the ground in delight.
“Congratulations,” Cashe shouted as the Kadabra let down the psychic barriers set up for the match.
“We only caught the end, but you did good, kid,” Emilia said.
Lindon looked up from his celebration, wide smile on his face, “I won! It was over so fast, it was like I barely had to try at all!”
“Not so loud, Lindon,” Cashe said, grimacing as the mohawked trainer heard Lindon’s words and flinched, “You don’t want people to think you’re a poor sport.”
A look of confusion passed over Lindon’s face until he followed Cashe’s gaze to his defeated opponent. His smile shrank by a couple of molars as he realized the trainer had overhead everything he said.
“Oh no,” Lindon mumbled, watching the trainer sulk.
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“Don’t worry about it, kid,” Emilia said, walking over to Lindon and helping him to his feet, “Someone is always going to be upset after a pokemon battle. Just don’t rub it in and you will find most people pretty accepting of defeats.”
Lindon nodded, “Okay.”
Cashe joined them as they made their way off the stage and out of the training gym. The hallway outside the gym was packed with people, crowded around a small desk with a League official sitting at it. After the first matches started, very few people were allowed inside to prevent overcrowding. Only those with a match coming up in the next hour were now being let in. Most of the people in the hall were trainers, waiting for their time slot, but there were non-trainers too, friends or fans of trainers that were waiting to find out the results of the day. Cashe saw more than one reporter sitting beside the official’s desk, listening closely as match results were announced.
Cashe, Emilia, and Lindon moved around the mass of people and several ran out of the crowd, stopping in a group in front of them. Cashe pulled up, startled by the sudden rush of people. The group was mostly young women, school aged teenagers by the look of things, and they were focused entirely on Emilia.
“Emilia!” One of the teenagers shouted. She was wearing a custom print tee-shirt with Emilia’s smiling face on it and a cute bucket hat that had a Charmander and a Omanyte embroidered into it with plenty of room for more pokemon in the future. She led the group straight to Emilia, stopping only a few feet from touching her. Cashe glanced at the rest of the group. They wore similar outfits to their leader, though Cashe noticed the only two young men in the group had shirts with Emilia’s face in little hearts on them instead of the single smiling face.
“Oh!” Emilia said, flustered at being crowded so suddenly. She saw the stretched print of her smiling face plastered across the girl’s chest and her face darkened slightly with a flush, “Hello. Are you fans?”
“We’re member’s of the FAN-MILIA,” the girl at the front said, nodding excitedly. A lock of dark blue hair popped out from under her bucket hat in her enthusiasm.
“Fan milia?” Emilia said.
“We’re a fan group! We’re fans of Emilia. Fan-milia!” Another girl said happily. She had dark, curly hair, styled eerily similar to Emilia’s own, “We met on Battlenet.”
“Oh,” Emilia said again, her face looking less certain now, Battlenet was a forum for fans of professional trainers. “Nice to meet you. I’m Emilia Oak. Thanks for cheering me on.”
The blue-haired girl jittered in excitement with Emilia’s greeting, “Can we take a picture with you?”
“Um, sure?” Emilia said, giving an uncertain glance at Cashe, “Cashe, can you-”
“Thank you so much!” the blue-haired girl squealed, shoving her phone into Cashe’s hands. Its background was a screenshot from the interview he, Emilia, and Lindon did after the Golduck incident with everything but Emilia cropped out. Cashe grinned, the photo was of Emilia barely able to maintain her feet as Omanyte tried to hold her up. It looked like she wasn't beating the cute and clumsy accusations any time soon.
Cashe opened the camera app and held up the phone, taking a step back to get the entire group in the picture. “Okay, ready?” Cashe took a few photos as the group smiled and made signs with their hands. They were all gathered around Emilia, who looked awkward and uncomfortable, even as she smiled with the rest of them.
“Done,” Cashe handed back the phone to the excited blue-haired girl, who immediately began gushing her thanks.
“Thanks Cashe.” Emilia nodded, disentangling herself from the group of fans.
“Did you say Cashe?” One of the two young men at the back of the group said.
The other young man nodded, “That was the second time she said it.” He sounded excited.
“Like Apollo Cashe?” the girl with Emilia’s hair joined in, “As in Blood Money?”
“Oh!” The blue-haired girl gasped, “Emilia! Are you okay? Are the rumors true?”
“I heard he uses poison strategies because he likes to, not because he needs to,” Another girl added, a scandalous look on her face, “I heard his Bulbasaur is strong enough to win battles normally, but he doesn’t let it.”
What the hell? He was right here, guys. They could just ask him.
“His Mankey picks on people, too,” one of the boys said, “Apparently, she has a habit of beating pokemon after they faint.
“Oh my gosh, that’s awful,” another girl said. She took off her hat, a baseball cap with a woman’s silhouette on it, and wrung it in her hands, “Pokemon behavior is learned from their trainers.”
“Do you need help?” The blue-haired girl whispered loudly, leaning in close to Emilia’s ear, “Is he as bad as people say?”
Emilia pulled back with a frown on her face, standing beside Cashe. She glanced up at him and put a comforting hand on his arm when she saw his expression. She gave Cashe the barest hint of a smile before schooling her expression and turning back to her fans.
“He’s not bad at all,” Emilia said, pausing to give the girls a significant look, “to me. He's got a good heart under his darkness.”
The group gasped collectively, the two young men looking bereft and downcast. Cashe suppressed a sigh, instead giving Emilia a hard look. She saw it, grinned and patted his arm affectionately, pulling him away from the fans as the group descended into gossip.
“Why did you do that?” Cashe said once they were some distance away from the crowd of people outside the training gym, “People are going to think things.”
“Don’t look so grumpy,” Emilia said, “I just changed your image for the better.”
“How is making people think I am horrible to everyone but you a good thing?” Cashe said.
“Clearly you have never been a teenage girl,” Emilia said, “You just went from a crazy and unpredictable menace to a dark, brooding man with a single soft spot in your heart for me.” Emilia sighed dramatically and flopped into Cashe’s arms. He barely caught her before she tumbled to the floor, “You used to be violent. Now you’re romantic.”
Cashe frowned. Vampire fiction with remarkably similar themes had been especially popular among young women for a while back home. He lifted Emilia back to her feet as she laughed at her own antics, “I’m not sure about that.”
“What do you know?” Emilia rolled her eyes, “Lindon, which is cooler, Cashe as Blood Money, someone who is brutal and wins battles at any cost, damn to the rules and anyone who stands in his way, or Cashe as Blood Money, someone who is dark and mysterious, struggling to do good for the one person who melts his icy heart and makes him feel things he had long forgotten?”
“The first one,” Lindon said instantly, “Blood Money is way cooler than some guy obsessed with feelings.” Lindon made a grasping motion with his first, “You can’t escape Blood Money. If you try he’ll poison you and you lose and spit up blood.” Lindon made a big bowing motion with his head, pretending to spit blood. He turned to Cashe and grinned, “Don’t worry, Apollo, you just have to poison a bunch of girls’ pokemon and they won't think you have a big heart anymore!”
Emilia gave Cashe a significant look. Cashe’s frown deepened. Maybe Emilia was right.
***
Blue let his phone ring a few more times, glaring at the caller ID and waiting until it was about to go to voicemail.
“Hello?” Blue said, answering it at the very last moment.
“Hello, Blue, is that you?” A familiar voice said from the other end of the line.
“This is Professor Oak,” Blue said, emphasizing the title, “To whom am I speaking?”
“Blue, please, it’s me, Julius.” A slightly accented voice said.
“Hmm, Julius,” Blue frowned, “I don’t think I know anyone who goes by that name. It sounds like it would belong to someone who was a smooth talking, two-faced, little Buizel.”
A sigh echoed through the phone speaker, causing a smattering of muffled static, “Blue, it's been years. For Arceus’s sake, you’re nearly sixty. Can you act like it? Even if you don’t believe me when I apologize, you should have let it go by now.”
Blue said nothing and kicked back in his chair so his feet were resting on his desk.
Julius sighed again, “Listen, I’m calling because I read your paper-”
“Oh, you read it, did you?” Blue said, his voice cheery, “You mean the paper that disproved years of your research? That paper?”
“Disproved is a strong word,” Julius said, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice, “If anything the only thing it proves is that research into Mega Evolution needs further exploration and-”
“Due to these properties and the unique properties of the Key Stone,” Blue quoted, “we can reasonably conclude that advanced evolution without a Mega Stone or Key Stone is impossible, and that prior rumors to such an effect can be regarded as nothing more than folklore.”
“Fine, I was wrong,” Julius said, “Is that what you wanted to hear? Are you happy now?”
“I’ll be happy when you rot with Giratina!” Blue shouted.
“Listen, that paper is why I’m calling!” Julius said again, “You didn’t mention it at all, and I need to ask, did you find any residual energy from Red’s evolutions? Did you see anything like that at all?”
Blue frowned at the question and grumbled. But science was more important than grudges. Especially now that he was right. He answered the question, “I wasn’t testing for residual energy, just levels from the initial evolution,” Blue said, opening his laptop and scrolling through the recorded data he had with him, “It looks like we didn’t register much overflow after the evolution, however. Why are you asking?”
“Because in my research there was always a distinct resonance in the residual energy,” Julius said, “And if you didn’t find it-”
“Then it might not be a simple trigger difference,” Blue said, his brow scrunching in thought, “There could be alternative methods.”
“Or alternative sources,” Julius said.
Blue blinked. “What are you saying?”
“Professor Oak, I would like to make a formal request,” Julius said, “for a joint research sabbatical into Mega Evolution between Oak and Sycamore labs.”
*****