Chapter 33 - The Snowflake Cup: Final Round

Now…

Celeste felt the cold creep up on her legs as soon as she called Powder out. Her eyes darted around nervously, fixating on the patches of frozen ground spreading across the battlefield.

She took a deep misty breath, and her heart thudded wildly against her ribs.

Around her, the stands buzzed with claps and whistles. It was a full audience today. The DJ and his Wigglytuff were hyping the crowd, but Celeste couldn’t focus on his words.

Her gaze flickered again. It went from the icy patches to Powder’s pale, bluish fur, then to the red.

The red light of a Pokéball’s beam. The red-lipped smirk on her opponent’s face. The fiery red hair that flowed in the cold wind. And those sharp, unyielding crimson eyes.

Lorelei was her friend, but she wasn’t playing.

—*——*—

Earlier…

“Accept things as they are,” Celeste said with a smirk, glancing at the silver-haired woman beside her. “That was good advice,” she continued, then turning her attention to the gym leader on the other side of the video phone’s screen added, “So here we go: I accept I can’t beat Lorelei.” She crossed her arms and nodded. “Not by myself anyway.”

There was a moment of silence as Opal and Olga exchanged looks. Although they had just met, there was a familiarity in their gaze, as if they both had the exact same thought.

Celeste grinned at them. “That’s why I called for a meeting of Team Cee! Olga, I have no idea why someone who sells ice cream knows so much about battling, but you’re good. You and Opal… you can figure this out. And then tell me what to do.”

She looked expectantly from one woman to the other. They… were still staring. Olga kept a neutral expression, while Opal, with her eyes hidden by a wide-brimmed hat, tapped her fingernails on the table and wrinkled her long crooked nose.

“If you’re mad, I still haven’t called Mum and Dad. I’ll do it after the battle. Promise,” Celeste grimaced. “But right now, Auntie Opal, I really, really need your help. It means the world to Powder to win this, and I don’t want to let her down. We don’t want to let her down. Her win is good for all Fairy kind out there, huh?”

Opal sighed and removed her hat. That was never a good sign. She completely ignored Celeste, choosing to fixate on Olga instead. “She told me you have a son.”

Olga simply crossed her arms. “These days, feels like I’m taking care of a lot more than just one kid.”

“Good, good,” the gym leader smiled as she trailed her fingers along the edges of her hat. “Would you mind reminding some of those kids their mother can give battle advice too?”

“Like she’d ever do that,” Celeste muttered. “You know there’ll be tons of yelling when I call her. And that will put me in the wrong headspace. I’m in the finals, Auntie. Please!”

Opal made a show of taking a long, dramatic exhale, and finally gestured for Celeste to make her case.

“Right…” she fiddled with her thumbs. “So… in the last battle, I finished with Moonblast. It was a lot stronger than when we trained it, but…”

“Your Pokémon collapsed shortly after?” Opal leaned in closer to the screen, making her already big nose appear even larger. “I thought this might happen.”

Celeste’s eyes twitched ever so slightly. “A heads-up would’ve been nice…”

“What was that you said, Cutiefly?”

She cleared her throat. “I was so worried about Powds, Auntie. She got poisoned… I thought it was bad.”

Opal fixed her eyes on her again, making Celeste herself straighten up.

“But that was a valuable lesson, and I’m glad you’re helping me make mistakes so I can learn from them.” She forced out a grin. “Just… uh… what… exactly was my mistake?”

Opal let out a croaky chuckle. “Celly, put yourself in your Pokémon’s place. You are in an intense battle. There’s poison in your system, but you are fighting with all you’ve got. Your Powder was filled with adrenaline and ended up taking much more fairy energy than her little body could handle.”

“That… that actually makes sense,” Celeste admitted. “Which brings us back to my biggest problem. Lorelei dominated every battle she was in. We can’t win with just Powder’s Snow and Ice Shard. So Powder has to use Moonblast. But it either takes too much to charge, leaving her exposed or… worse. If she faints right after using it, but Crystal doesn’t… Ugh! This feels like a losing game.”

She sunk into her chair, this time pointing her eyes up towards Olga.

“So… please… how do I win this?” She pressed her lips together. “And please don’t say I can’t.”

—*——*—

Now…

The hail from Powder’s Snow Warning ability was already falling when the referee gave the signal for the battle to begin.

“Crystal, let’s start with Lick,” Lorelei commanded, her voice cool and collected.

“Don’t let her,” Celeste reacted, trying to ignore her trembling hand and pounding heart.

Smoochum playfully stuck her tongue out, like a kid catching snowflakes. But these weren’t soft snowflakes—these were hard chunks of hail plummeting from the sky.

Someone in the audience, perhaps sharing that thought, let out a groan loud enough for Celeste to hear. A hailstone falling into a human’s mouth would hurt, but Smoochum, like Powder, was an Ice-type, and things worked differently for them.

Celeste managed a small smile as she watched the hail turn into sparkly dust before it touched Crystal’s tongue. It was subtle and quick, but the effect of ice energy negating itself was pretty. The individual hail pieces were small enough to disintegrate on contact, making Ice Pokémon immune to it. Other moves, like Ice Shard, wouldn’t vanish entirely but rather become smaller and less effective.

The science of type interactions was a strange new world that Celeste would be extremely curious about at any other time. Right now, though, there was a tiny pink Pokémon taunting them, so it was hard to care about anything else.

“Keep your cool,” Celeste muttered, steadying herself. Powder knew what she needed to do. All of her tails spread out on the floor, her eyes locked onto every movement the Smoochum made.

“You can play later, Crystal,” Lorelei clicked her heels on the floor. “Use the move.”

Crystal winked at Lorelei and didn’t waste another moment, leaping into action with her tongue still out. She closed the distance between herself and the Vulpix in a flash.

Celeste took a deep breath. She didn’t need to issue a command. Her Pokémon was in control.

At the right moment, when Crystal was close enough, the Vulpix dodged the attack and circled around to the Smoochum’s back. From there, she launched a few ice shards, each one hitting its mark. It was minor damage, but enough to make Lorelei wince.

This was just like their battle with the Swinub.

That Smoochum was faster than any Swinub, though. She spun around, taking the ice shards to the face, and then leaped towards Powder again, tongue out and ready.

Celeste held her breath as the small pink Pokémon got dangerously close, but Powder got away once more, just in the nick of time. Using the surrounding hail to create larger shards, she drove Crystal to pause and huff in frustration. It was kind of cute, the way she was stomping her little feet.

With another click of Lorelei’s heels, Crystal stopped her tantrum and resumed her sprint towards Powder, who remained attentive and ready to dodge again.

Feeling stray hailstones pelt her shoulders and head, Celeste ran her hands through her hair. She bounced on her toes, shifting from one foot to the other, both unconcerned to the hail and too jittery to stand still.

This battle was far from over.

—*——*—

Earlier…

“We’re not supposed to give you the answers, Celly,” Opal said, still tapping her long fingernails on the table. After a few moments of back-and-forth, this was the one point the gym leader seemed resolute on—Celeste was going to have to work for her victory.

Celeste’s first instinct was to pout and make puppy eyes at her auntie. It obviously didn’t work, so she turned to Olga instead and… well, Olga lifted her eyebrows with very little amusement, almost daring Celeste to try the puppy eyes on her. With a little grumble, she straightened up. “The whole point here is I don’t know what to do…”

Opal let her smile soften. “We’re not refusing help, Cutiefly.” Then, with a glint in her eyes, she pivoted. “Do you remember when you were younger, and we played pop quiz?”

Did she remember? How could she forget? Deciding to stoop to whatever level Opal wanted her to, Celeste simply curled her lips in as innocent a smile as she could muster in her current, very frustrated state. “You mean the game where you’d ask me how old you were and then give me cake if I said you were sixteen?”

Opal puffed out her chest. “Excuse me!” She brought her hands to her mouth, feigning indignation. Unlike Celeste, she almost seemed genuine. “I hope you’re not insinuating I’m not sixteen.”

“Of course you aren’t,” Celeste squinted at the screen.

“You wound me, Cutiefly.”

“Come on, it’s been what? Seven, eight years since we last did one of those?” Celeste batted her eyelashes. “You must be twenty-three by now.”

The gym leader let out a hearty laugh, and Celeste didn’t dare look at Olga’s face throughout this entire exchange. She was pretty sure there was a not-so-subtle groan coming from behind her, though.

“You know,” Opal said, leaning back in her chair with a smile, “you’ve just proved my point.”

“You were making a point?” Celeste’s smile felt lighter now. “What was that, again?”

“That you’re attentive, you learn, and you grow. No need for us to give you the answers.” Opal nodded, satisfied. “So, pop quiz. You had three big battles in this tournament. What did you learn from them?”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Celeste leaned back in her chair and played out in her mind every single battle she’d had since this all started. She could see Olga was observing her just as intently, and surprisingly, she felt comforted by the fact she had them both with her, even if they were being difficult.

“The first battle was against a Seel,” she said after a moment. “I… I had a plan for that battle, but it went wrong. The Seel did something I didn’t expect to… I guess I adapted. When things turned up for the worse, I came up with a solution on the spot.”

“You were always good at improvising,” Opal said. With a smirk, she added, “Even though you keep telling everyone that you’re ‘awesome with plans.’”

Celeste opened her mouth, then closed it again, then rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “I can only improvise when a plan fails, and, uh… that’s part of the plan?” She let out a giggle. “Or no. I have a better comeback: I’m awesome with plans because I can come up with them on the spot… Hah! Nailed it.”

“Focus,” Olga groaned, eliciting another laugh from Opal. “Anything else from that battle?”

“I’ve been trying to focus.” Celeste straightened up again, more invested in the conversation. “I liked how the Seel transformed the field into an ice rink. Powder and I could create big platforms and make everything slippery and… actually, we’re not even close to being able to pull this sort of thing off.”

“So… anything useful?” Olga asked again.

On a gentler note, Opal added, “It’s good to have something to strive for,” her eyes flashed towards Olga for a brief moment before returning to Celeste. “But what about the second battle? What have you learned there, Celly?”

Celeste looked at the grouchy shop-owner by her side and smiled. “That is easy. I learned I can’t obsess over one idea. Sometimes I need to accept that the direction I was going was wrong. Take a step back, and try another approach,” she said, then turned back to Opal. “Well, that, and the fact that Powder’s tails are freaking amazing. She can react much better when she uses them.”

“Good,” Opal nodded, leaning back from the screen. “What about the third battle?”

—*——*—

Now…

Celeste watched as the Smoochum closed in on Vulpix again. For such a small Pokémon, Crystal was surprisingly fast and sturdy, but Celeste could see the fatigue setting in.

They had been playing a game of tag for about two and a half minutes. Crystal would get close, Powder would dodge just in time, and then shoot ice shards at her. Plan A was to continue this pattern until her Vulpix could execute her fairy move and finish the battle.

Celeste tapped her feet on the floor as Powder narrowly avoided Crystal’s tongue once more. After missing, the Smoochum twirled like a ballerina and jumped toward the Vulpix again. The tip of her tongue scraped Powder’s hair puffs, but another quick reaction allowed Celeste’s Pokémon to escape. Crystal, however, lost her balance and ended up face-planting on the icy ground.

“There’s our opening!” Celeste yelled. “Use—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Crystal let out a loud cry, flailing her arms and legs in frustration. It looked like a kid throwing a very big tantrum, and the audience’s boos echoed through the stadium, disapproving of Powder making the Smoochum cry.

Celeste gritted her teeth as Powder looked at her, confused. She had fallen for Crystal’s Fake Tears before. No way this was happening again. Her eyes darted to Lorelei, who remained unmoved. Whatever she was planning, Celeste wouldn’t let this opportunity slip by.

“Powder, Moon…” Celeste took a deep breath. “Moonburst!”

The fairy energy was already swirling around her Pokémon as Celeste counted the seconds. One, two, three…

“Heart Stamp followed by Lick,” Lorelei finally said, clicking her heels again.

The Smoochum sprang up as if nothing had happened and charged towards Powder.

“Five!” Celeste yelled, but it was too late. Crystal’s fists lit up with psychic energy as she launched a heart-shaped attack at the Vulpix. Powder didn’t have time to finish her move or dodge, being thrown to the other side of the field by the psychic blast.

Stumbling on her feet, the Vulpix stood back up. The hailstorm was weakening, which was never a good sign. Worse than that, the Smoochum put her tongue out again and started darting towards Powder once more. Instead of getting ready to dodge, Celeste’s Pokémon had her tails up and wasn’t moving. She was frozen in place. Flinched.

Damn it.

Across from her, Celeste noticed a small smile dancing on Lorelei’s lips, and her heart sank even further.

Was that it?

—*——*—

Earlier….

“I feel the most important lesson from that last battle was that Moonblast in our current state is suicidal,” Celeste said gloomily. “But it’s still our strongest move.”

“So change the move,” Olga said, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving her a meaningful look.

Right. Accept things as they are and act based on that. Okay… that was good in theory, but… changing a move? Wasn’t that high-level stuff? Celeste’s eyes fixed on her two mentors again, and… they seemed very encouraging. Could she pull this off…?

She let her lips curl up. Maybe she couldn’t, but it would be fun to try.

After a few minutes of conversation and some brainstorming, Celeste was downright excited. “Okay, so the way I can keep control of the power of the blast is by counting the time she takes to absorb the energy. What do you think?”

“Remember to instruct your Vulpix to do it at a steady rate,” Opal nodded. “But go on.”

“If I call for Moonblast, that means she goes all out, even if she gets knocked out doing it. Mooncracker is the express version. Powder’ll gather all the energy she can in a single second and release it in a small burst, like a firecracker.” Celeste’s grin widened. “The final version of the move is Moonburst, AKA our middle ground. Five seconds of energy absorption, unless I say otherwise.”

The gym leader laughed, perhaps sharing Celeste’s enthusiasm. “Congratulations, Cutiefly. You are the first trainer I’ve seen who created weaker versions of your Pokémon’s moves.”

Celeste snorted. “Not my fault that I only have the hardest fairy move ever to work with.”

“So, are we done with this team meeting?” Olga cut off their laughter. Spoilsport.

With her smile morphing into a grimace when she saw Olga’s scowl, Celeste shook her head. There was one more thing she needed to know, but… she hesitated for a moment until she finally asked, “You also trained Lorelei when she was starting out, didn’t you?” Olga narrowed her eyes at that. “Can’t you tell me her weaknesses or something?”

“No,” she simply said.

“Come on, it won’t—”

“I said no,” she interrupted, her voice emotionless but resolute. “How would you feel if I went around telling people about your weaknesses?”

“Please, I don’t have any…” she started saying, but one look from Olga was enough for her to know she wouldn’t find the bravado endearing. “What’s… What’s my weakness again?” Celeste’s words came out more meek than she hoped, and, when Olga glared, she added. “Come on, there can’t be that many!”

“You want some advice? Time your moves right and make sure you don’t waste energy throwing those moon attacks just because you can. The trick with Ice-types is patience and stillness… and… you’re you.” Olga finished her words with Opal laughing way louder than she should.

Celeste pretended to be unbothered. “I’m not asking for answers… just help me out a bit! Tell me something… anything about Lori.”

“She doesn’t need to,” Opal leaned in again. “Lori… by the looks of it, is not just a great trainer, but your friend? You said you were with her a week ago when she captured the Smoochum?”

Celeste nodded.

“A week ago,” the gym leader stressed, hoping to get something from Celeste. When that failed, she said, “She may be a fancy trainer, with many tricks, but in some situations, people revert to what they are most comfortable with.”

“What are you getting at, Auntie?”

“Let’s use me as an example. I know you never really paid attention to any of my battles, but I’m good at messing with people’s and Pokémon’s heads,” Opal explained. “I have an arsenal of tricks to make attacks weaker, defences broken, lower accuracy. It’s very useful, and I’m very comfortable using it,” she continued, nodding. “The problem is, although I might feel I’m unbeatable with my usual tricks, if I use them too much, people wise up to me. It’s easier to prepare against one trick, after all.”

Celeste just blinked at the screen. “So, don’t rely on just one single trick? Seems obvious enough. I don—”

Opal raised a hand, interrupting her. “Would you start training your new Pokémon with some new fancy strategy or with something you’re comfortable with?” She relaxed her muscles as she watched Celeste’s face slowly brighten with understanding. “Having some sort of gimmick is expected of gym leaders, though. At least when we face official challengers.” She winked at Olga. “We need to make it easier for the kiddies. Give them a learning experience.”

Olga simply shrugged and turned to Celeste’s bewildered face again. “What your… uh… what your aunt is trying to say is that—”

“Lori’s just had a week with her new very young Pokémon!” Celeste burst out, repeating Opal’s earlier words as they clicked in place. “So she’s not doing anything complicated. She’s probably leaning into something she’s comfortable doing.”

Celeste’s grin kept widening as she watched both women change their expressions. Though they were not giving her the answer, she had it on the tip of her tongue. Lori’s first battle had been a mix of Lick to paralyse and then hammering the opponent with Pound. The second battle was the same, but she told Smoochum to also use Sweet Kiss. Celeste had missed the third battle, but the boy in the Pokémon Centre had told her she used Sing and Pound.

That was it.

“Her strategy is status moves. She’ll try to stop Powder with something like sleep, confusion, or paralysis. Then, when she is sure we can’t fight back, she’ll tell Crystal to get close and use Pound with full force until we are down.”

“I’m not telling you anything,” Olga muttered, but her expression betrayed her. Her eyes were softer, and the corner of her lips had a small twist upward.

“Now we just need to figure out how to actually win.”

—*——*—

Now…

“Powder, snap out of it. You’re not paralysed… Not yet.”

The Vulpix looked at Celeste with panic but shook herself back into action. With the snap from her trainer’s voice, the hail’s strength increased again, and she somehow still managed to dodge the Smoochum in time.

But just barely.

At the beginning of the battle, Powder had set the rhythm, moving gracefully and quickly, launching steady attacks. The plan had been working before that last move.

But now?

Now she was just running away. She was much slower than before. Her paw was clearly injured, and determination alone wouldn’t turn this around.

Celeste bit her lip. She needed to do something, or they would lose.

If she hadn’t become impatient earlier, she would have called for the weaker but faster Mooncracker instead of Moonburst. Powder wouldn’t have taken the hit and would be in a much better position now… but… that moment was gone, and she needed to focus on the present.

“Speed it up, Powds. We can still do this!” Celeste yelled.

They still had one card up their sleeve, but like Olga had said, she couldn’t afford to get impatient and mess up the timing.

Quickly her eyes darted to the Smoochum, who was also slowing down, and then to Lori, who looked more serious. Powder was still slightly faster than Crystal, and if Celeste were to guess, her Pokémon, even though injured, had much more stamina. The redhead across the field had clearly noticed that too, as she clicked her heels again to call for her Smoochum’s attention.

“Time for you to Sing,” Lorelei simply said.

There it was. The opening she had been waiting for.

The Smoochum would sing, and Powder would gradually become drowsy, eventually falling asleep. Opal had mentioned they had a window of about five to ten seconds before the song took its toll. And that… that was all they needed.

It was all or nothing.

“Moonburst…” Celeste steadied herself before adding, “Eight!”

As the sweet notes of the lullaby filled the air, Celeste experienced a strange moment of stillness. Though she was too far to be affected by the move, it brought her a sense of peace and clarity.

One.

Lorelei, standing across from her, had maintained her composure throughout the battle. Yet, Celeste noticed a subtle twitch in her eyes. It was a small, almost imperceptible movement, but undeniably a twitch. That one movement was enough to shatter Lori’s frozen facade.

Two.

And once the facade crumbled, so did the illusion.

Her opponent wasn’t a Lapras or some intimidating Poison-type. It was a small Smoochum who had only spent a little over a week bonding and training with her new trainer. Celeste and Powder were a family, their bond forged on the peaks of an unforgiving mountain.

Three.

Lorelei had years of experience, sure. It showed. Celeste, however, had Opal and Olga. That was her lesson this time. Sometimes you are lucky to have a gym leader on speed dial. Sometimes you meet the strange owner of an ice cream shop who has a Vanillite and a lot of knowledge about Pokémon battles. Life is strange, but people shouldn’t be afraid of asking for help when they need it.

Four.

Powder was quicker than Crystal by a lot. Her reflexes were unmatched. Lorelei had also watched Celeste’s battles, and she was well aware of Powder’s speed. She knew that hitting her with Lick or Sweet Kiss would be challenging. So, what did she do? She tried to trick them. Heart Stamp didn’t require physical contact. It was faster than Lick and had the potential to make Powder flinch. In that moment of panic, they would have an opportunity to inflict paralysis and finish the battle.

Five. Now they were in the danger zone.

Lorelei probably didn’t anticipate the Vulpix recovering as quickly as she did. It wasn’t her fault, really. The one other lesson Celeste had those last few days was that Powder always surprised her.

Once her initial plan failed, Lori had one final card to play. Sing.

Six.

Sing was scary. But it also left the singing Pokémon open for a few seconds. Lorelei probably hoped Celeste wouldn’t know that. She likely expected her opponent to be disoriented and defenceless against the lulling song. Lorelei certainly hoped Celeste wouldn’t seize that moment to charge her most powerful attack.

Seven.

If all else failed, Celeste would be proud she and Powder had pushed it through to the end.

Eight!

Lights flared, and a blue orb shone brightly before shooting up. Powder took too much energy; Celeste could see the intensity of the glow was more than it should’ve been. Maybe she got greedy by asking her Pokémon to absorb eight seconds of energy.

But then again, this was their last shot.

Celeste squinted against the light, unable to see what was going on.

When the glow finally faded, there were two Pokémon on the floor. The hail had dissipated, and there was nothing but a serene silence around them.

“A tie?” Celeste muttered, blinking rapidly. She didn’t want a tie. She could deal with defeat, but a tie was just too open-ended. This was the final match. People needed a resolution.

The referee approached the Pokémon and was about to raise both his hands.

And then… Powder snored and curled herself into a ball.

She was asleep, not fainted.

Celeste chuckled when she heard squealing from the audience. Even Lori joined in the laughter.

The referee looked to the side where Celeste was standing and raised a hand towards her.

“Victory goes to Trainer Celeste.”