"Fake out!"

"Block!"

Kaden leapt forward with blinding speed. Hayley still didn't know how a Makuhita could move like that. Yuna was ready, though. As soon as her opponent brought in her hands to strike, the Mawile pivoted and swung her horn to intercept them. Instead of Yuna's head, Kaden's palms closed around a slavering jaw. But Chad didn't look worried.

"Throw!" In one quick motion, Kaden yanked Yuna's horn over her head, carrying the rest of the startled Yuna with it. Then she slammed Yuna into the ground and tackled her for good measure.

"Bullshit!" Miriam shouted. Chad grinned.

"We've been working on that one. Kaden, arm thrust! Don't let her get up!"

"Ugh. Bite!" Yuna, still on the ground, twisted her jaw and caught one of Kaden's arms. The other remained free and began pummeling Yuna in the face. Miriam's face screwed up in frustration, and Hayley knew she wished she could end the battle right now by breaking Kaden's arm. Excessive-force rules existed for a reason, though. "Sweet scent," she ordered instead, voice noticeably bitter.

Despite blow after blow raining down on her, Yuna somehow managed to relax her body, and a pink mist began seeping out of her skin. Chad's smile fell from his face. "Back up and regroup! Focus energy!"

It was too late. Kaden, with her heavy and rhythmic breathing, had already inhaled the mist, and her body relaxed just as Yuna's had. Ignoring her trainer's command, she kept punching, but each punch got slower and sloppier until she finally stopped and slumped onto the sand.

"Vice grip her stomach," Miriam said. "Remember to squeeze." Yuna dropped the arm she'd been holding onto, stood up, and wrapped her jaws around Kaden's midsection. Kaden was big enough that she couldn't reach all the way around, but it was enough. Kaden snapped out of her stupor and screamed as the teeth dug in, squeezing tighter and tighter. She thrashed and pounded her fists against Yuna's horn, but to no avail; her struggles only made blood blossom on her skin and run down in rivulets. At last, Chad raised his hand.

"We forfeit. Good match." Yuna, though, kept squeezing until Miriam intervened and snapped her fingers.

"Yuna, battle's over. Drop it." Yuna made a disappointed noise and opened her jaw, letting the half-unconscious Kaden fall to the ground. Kaden had a ring of bloody bite marks around her stomach, but Yuna had obeyed Miriam's direction and simply clamped down with her jaw, rather than sawing back and forth. The wounds were ugly, but not enough to cause a foul or disqualification from a second-badge match. As Chad jogged forward and began spraying Kaden with a potion, Yuna sauntered up to Miriam and looked at her expectantly.

"Weh!"

"I told you, I'm not giving you something after every match," Miriam said. "You're going to get spoiled."

"Weh!"

"I said no. Quit acting like a brat."

"Weh!" Yuna shouted that last one, crossing her arms and stomping her foot against the sand for emphasis. Miriam grumbled and rolled her eyes.

"Fine. But nothing big. I've got…" She dropped her backpack to the ground, rummaged through it, and came up holding a thick cable with clunky blue connectors at each end. "A VGA cord. That's all you're getting for now."

Yuna squealed with delight and gnashed her jaw. Miriam tossed her the cable, and Yuna leapt to catch it in midair. The air was filled with the sound of grinding metal and cracking plastic as her teeth crunched down again and again.

In the end, Miriam had had to reschedule her match with Brawly after all. It had taken multiple brainstorming sessions over multiple days before Hayley had had a radical idea—that maybe Yuna wasn't snapping at their phones and eating their chargers just to be a pest. Maybe she just liked the taste of them more than she liked the taste of pellets and iron filings. It turned out she was right. Yuna had a craving for copper, aluminum, palladium, and all the other metals that were used to make electronics, and she would do anything to get them. It was a mixed blessing that this "anything" included listening to Miriam. Miriam had wanted dominance; what she'd wound up with was bribery. Now their dorm was filled with piles of electronic junk from thrift stores and recycling yards, and every time Yuna followed Miriam's orders and didn't succumb to violence, she got a tasty treat.

It was funny that while Miriam had supposedly caught Yuna to make her repay the cost of her Gameboy, she was now actually paying her to fight. At least, Hayley thought it was funny; Miriam definitely didn't. The cost of keeping Yuna's voracious appetite fed meant that she still hadn't been able to afford a new console, which was something she complained about regularly and loudly.

Actually, Miriam's bribery method hadn't been great news for Hayley, either. Aside from making her trip over toasters and cables every time she went to the bathroom, it had briefly thrown a wrench into her team cohesion. Barrett, who had previously considered battling to be its own reward, now demanded to know why he didn't get a treat every time he listened to Hayley. Hayley had fired back with "She's eating trash, Barrett. I can give you some trash after every battle if you want, but I don't think you'd like it." Barrett hadn't been convinced, and Hayley had finally had to negotiate him down to extra berries and Pokéblocks at lunch and dinner whenever he did a good job. Of course, this meant she had to give extra berries and Pokéblocks to Ceres too, just to keep things fair. And then it had all circled back to Miriam again when Xena, realizing she was the only one not getting extra treats, spoke up and demanded that she get something too. The Elekid had been steadily getting more and more demanding over the past week and a half. Miriam groused that Yuna was being a bad influence on her, but if anything, Hayley thought the influence was good. She was learning to stick up for herself.

"Hayley, you're up next, right?" Chad's voice snapped Hayley back to the present. "Nolan should be ready for another round."

"Yeah. I'm going to use Ceres again—I'll go get her." She hiked across the sand to the dunes and rocks several yards away, where Sen and Ceres were sitting side by side. Sen greeted her with his usual stare, and Ceres, after several seconds, lifted her gaze from the Meditite to stare at her as well.

"Ceres, it's your turn," Hayley said. "Do you want to fight, or do you want to stay here?"

Ceres looked towards Sen again. Sen kept staring at Hayley. Finally, Ceres rumbled, turned, and lumbered towards her trainer. Hayley smiled and patted her on the head. "Great, thanks. You can go back to Sen right after." They walked back to the battlefield, and Hayley tried to ignore the familiar feeling of eyes on her back.

Nolan, being Chad's starter, was a much bigger threat than Kaden, and Ceres had yet to win against him. Still, Ceres was undeterred as she stared him down. The Machop stared right back and flexed his muscles. Chad raised his hand and began the count. "Three, two, one, go, bullet punch!"

"Yawn!" By the time Ceres opened her mouth, Nolan had already blinked forward and landed an uppercut with his hardened first. Ceres, as usual, didn't react; she wouldn't be feeling the hit for several seconds at least. Her yawn continued uninterrupted, a tired bellow that rippled the air around her. Nolan sagged, and even Hayley felt a flash of fatigue. But Nolan was too strong for a single yawn to take him down.

"Karate chop!"

"Defend and yawn!"

Nolan was faster and stronger than Ceres, but she was bigger and heavier, and her thick skin absorbed his blows like a punching bag. She stiffened up her muscles, lifted her head, and yawned again. This time, Nolan staggered and fell to one knee. Hayley wasted no time. "Headbutt!" Ceres turned towards Nolan, ducked her head again, and slammed her thick skull into Nolan's chest. Drew had given them some pointers on how to really make a headbutt hurt, and their improvement showed in the way Nolan tumbled across the sand.

"Nolan, roll and get her from the back!"

"Water gun! Keep him away!" But the pain of the headbutt had snapped Nolan back to his senses, and he rolled out of the way of the water gun and sprang to his feet. Once again, he charged forward and began landing punches and chops on Ceres' hindquarters and flank. Hayley gritted her teeth. "Yawn again!"

Battles with Ceres were battles of attrition. Her opponent's attacks barely hurt her, and her attacks barely hurt her opponent. And for a quick fighter like Nolan, she had to rely on her yawn to even land a hit in the first place. It made for a slow, painful slog that was less about who could deal more damage and more about who would run out of stamina first. The fight with Nolan dragged on for three minutes, and as expected, Ceres collapsed first. As she lay crumpled in the sand, she gave a plaintive groan.

"You did great," Hayley reassured her as she sprayed a potion over her back. "You got some really good hits in, and you're lasting a little longer each time." Whether it would be enough to take out Brawly's Machop on her own, though, remained to be seen. Privately, Hayley didn't hold out much hope. As the potion closed the abrasions Nolan had left on her skin, Ceres hummed, headbutted her trainer, and ambled back up to sit beside Sen once more. Sen didn't so much as glance in her direction.

The battles went on for another couple hours, with Hayley and Miriam taking turns against Chad's team. All three of his Pokémon had an insane amount of endurance; no matter how many times they were knocked flat, they were ready for another fight ten minutes later. Despite them fighting twice as many battles as Hayley and Miriam's teams, it was their own Pokémon who were eventually too worn out to continue. Barrett was doubled over and spewing thick smoke with each breath, Yuna had sat down in the sand and refused to get up, Xena barely had the energy to wave her arms, and Ceres was falling asleep on her feet. Meanwhile, Chad, Nolan, Cait, and Kaden still looked capable of running ten laps around the beach—which Chad proudly announced he was going to do. "Same time tomorrow?" he asked.

"Sure," Hayley said. Even she felt out of breath, and she hadn't even been doing the fighting.

Before they could leave the beach, Barrett insisted on doing his nightly spar with Sen. He lost, of course, because he was exhausted. But as Hayley watched Sen battle, her chest tightened up. He was favoring his left leg, and when he threw Barrett, a grimace of pain flickered across his face. Not only were his old injuries still not healed, even after two and a half weeks of recovery time, he was starting to collect new injuries. Just like the nurse had warned, he'd been throwing himself back into battles before his body was ready.

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"I'm worried about him," Hayley said to Ceres as she scrubbed her down that night. If fighting with Sen was Barrett's nightly ritual, then bath time continued to be Ceres'. Barrett rarely needed to be cleaned after a day of training, since his scales shed when damaged and burned hot enough to gradually remove most grime and bacteria. Plus, he could groom himself with his claws when he needed to, and he still hated being touched. Ceres, on the other hand, didn't have… hands. Her rough pink skin wound up covered in dirt and sand and whatever else she'd dragged herself through that day, and healing cuts left scabs that had to be attended to. And unlike Barrett, she loved being rubbed down with a washcloth.

"Do the two of you talk at all, when you're sitting together?" Hayley continued, running the cloth over Ceres' head. "Or is he just quiet? It doesn't look like he's saying anything, but maybe it's something I can't hear?" Ceres hummed, which could have been a "yes" or a "no" or a "a little harder behind the ears, please." Hayley sighed and dipped the washcloth in the bucket again. "I hope he's eating, at least. He might not need to, but it'll help him heal faster if he does."

At that, Ceres tilted her head up, giving Hayley a questioning look. "You know how you eat three times a day? Meditite don't do that. They just eat one berry, and that's it." Ceres took ten or so seconds to process this, and then, finally, her eyes widened in astonishment. "Yeah, I know. It's supposed to make their mind stronger, and then their mind will make their body stronger. But I still don't get it. How do you heal without calories?" Ceres rumbled sympathetically—or, actually, that was her stomach rumbling. Hayley laughed. "Did you get hungry just thinking about food? You just had dinner. I'll get you something from the cafeteria when we're done here, okay?"

Ceres bellowed happily, and Hayley thanked her lucky stars, once again, that she had at least one Pokémon who didn't turn everything into a challenge.

----------------------------------------

Hayley still wouldn't say she liked Chad. He was as annoying as he'd ever been, talking too loud and getting right in her face and running around like he'd die if he sat still. But after a week and a half of daily karate classes and evening sparring sessions, she was at least getting used to him. And it turned out he was actually a pretty helpful person to know. Most obviously, he had his Machop and Makuhita and was always down to battle with them, which was getting Hayley the practice she needed to prepare for Brawly. But there were other things, too. His advice about protein shakes had unfortunately been spot-on; choking one down after a workout made her muscles hurt a lot less the next day. He'd given her some pointers for Ceres and Barrett's strength training that made their drill sessions more efficient. And, finally, she found out that he was obsessively keeping tabs on all the trainers from their class, the same way Hayley had planned to before realizing how depressing it was to see other people win badges before her. He loved to talk about what everyone else was doing, having combed through videos and social media and joined group chats that Hayley didn't have the time or stomach for, and while this usually rubbed her the wrong way, she couldn't deny that some of the information interested her. Caelin and Wesley were trying their hand at contests and were considering leaving the badge track entirely, which meant she might run into them in Slateport. Osmund had caught a Chingling and was considering specializing in "inorganic psychics," whatever that meant—but if she ever caught up to him, maybe he could help her with Ceres and Sen. And Kei's Azurill had evolved into a Marill and mastered her aqua jet technique.

It was the last point that got her thinking. Aqua jet involved control over water, which Ceres needed to learn, and it had the same setup as flame wheel, which Barrett was still struggling with. So, since Kei was still in Dewford and had agreed to help her once before, Hayley had shot her a text and asked if they could meet up again. Kei had agreed almost immediately, and the next morning, they were all gathered at the beach to train.

Meriel was less literally bouncy as a Marill, but still as cheerful as ever, bobbing up and down on her legs and clapping her hands. Mallory was still a Psyduck and still had the same vacant stare he'd had in Rustboro. And Kei's new third Pokémon, Marina, a Wingull, eyed Hayley, Barrett, and Ceres suspiciously from her perch atop her trainer's head.

"Thanks for coming out here," Hayley said, trying hard to focus on Kei's face and not on the bird glaring at her from several inches above it. "And uh, congrats on the evolution and the new catch."

"Thanks! And, it's no problem. Meriel was super excited to see you guys again. I think maybe Mallory was too, but, you know, you can't really tell with him." The Psyduck looked less like he was excited and more like he was coming down with a migraine, but as far as Hayley understood it, Psyduck always looked like that.

Barrett strode up to Meriel and examined her critically. Hayley could tell he was unimpressed. Barrett thought of evolution as something that made you a lot bigger and a lot stronger, and Meriel was still half his size. "Be nice," Hayley said to him. "She's going to help you with your flame wheel." Barrett snorted at that. Kei smiled.

"I guess we have to show him. Meriel, aqua jet!" Barrett's expression went from disbelieving to astonished as water gushed from Meriel's pores, suspended itself in the air around her, and formed an orb that was twice as big as she was. Then the whole thing rocketed forward, shooting her several meters in the blink of an eye, and exploded with the force of a crashing wave.

"Great job, Meriel!" Kei beamed. To Hayley, she said, "Aqua jet's not exactly the same as flame wheel, since aqua jet uses just the water to move, but for flame wheel you're still kind of running. Or somersaulting. Are you having Barrett do the somersault thing?"

"Definitely not. We're just going for a tackle with fire." Somersaulting flame wheels were faster and flashier, but there was no way Barrett had the acrobatics to pull them off.

"Okay, then let's see what we're working with. Barrett, can you show me your flame wheel?" Barrett bristled at Kei's sweet tone, but obliged all the same. He blew out a thin stream of fire and slowly, gradually, wrapped it around his body. It wasn't a solid orb like Meriel had made; it was more like a shaky spiral. Then, brow furrowed in concentration, he lumbered forward, holding his hands out to the side as if that would help him keep the fire from collapsing. Over the course of fifteen seconds, he took fifteen steps, before finally losing control and letting the fire wink away.

"Good job, Barrett," Hayley said. Barrett grumbled and stomped back to her side. Hayley turned to Kei. "He was able to keep a fire spin going for a while during our gym match against Roxanne, so I don't think it's the endurance that's the problem. I think it's that he has to move it along with him whenever he moves."

Kei put her chin on her hand and nodded. "Yeah, Meriel had the same issue at first. I think what worked for her was making her body into a kind of anchor…? At least, I think that's what she was telling me." Meriel clapped her hands, cheered, and shot forward with another aqua jet. "She can explain it to Barrett better than I can, and hopefully it'll help. And you said Ceres can't do water control at all?"

"Nope," Hayley muttered. She looked at Ceres and said, "Can you try a water pulse? Remember, you want to keep the water in the air as long as you can." Ceres spat a water gun, and just like every other time, it fell immediately to the ground. Barrett had made progress with flame wheel over the past week, but Ceres was still stuck at square one. Hayley sighed. "I tried explaining that it's supposed to be like part of her body, but I don't think she gets it."

"Well, just watching Meriel might help," Kei said. "Let's see what happens. Meriel, tell Barrett and Ceres how you use water for your aqua jet. They want to learn to do the same thing."

Over the next hour, Meriel lectured Barrett and Ceres in a language Hayley couldn't understand. The air was a mix of chirps, squeaks, grunts, snorts, huffs, hums, and bellows. It was kind of unfair, the way Pokémon could talk to each other so easily, while humans needed psychics or sign language or other tools to even get an idea of what they were saying. Devon had been throwing around ideas for Pokémon translators for years, but right now, they didn't even have a translator that would work on human languages, so Pokémon language was way out of their reach. Regardless, whatever Meriel was saying, it seemed to click. Barrett's flame wheel got a little more stable, and he began walking a little faster. Ceres, for her part, finally managed to get her water gun to stay suspended in front of her for two entire seconds. Hayley couldn't resist running up and hugging her when she did. She would have hugged Barrett, too, but had to settle for verbal congratulations instead. She didn't want to get her skin burned off.

"Thank you so much for helping," Hayley said to Kei, after leaving her Pokémon to get back to it. "This is more progress than we've made in two weeks."

"I'm happy to," Kei said. "It kind of makes me feel like… I mean…" She glanced away and scratched the back of her head. "Melinda keeps saying I'm not any good at anything, so if I can help you out, that means I'm at least good at something. Since you're an actually good trainer."

"I am?" Hayley asked, before catching herself. "And, Melinda doesn't know anything—"

"She's right. It's not like I want to be a good trainer, but it's still… Your battle against Roxanne was so much cooler than mine. And Chad says your Pokémon are really tough. Meanwhile, I just lost against Brawly for a second time, and it's like… I know I'm just doing this for a little while, to qualify for the Pokéathlon, but I wish that while I am stuck doing it, I could be good at it. You know?"

"Brawly's tough," Hayley said, because she was fumbling to process everything else Kei was saying, but she knew how to talk about battling. "And you actually have kind of a type disadvantage against him, since his Pokémon are so used to the ocean."

"And if I was good at battles, I could figure out how to get around that," Kei said. "But I can't think of anything that'll work."

"Huh." Hayley sat back on the sand and crossed her arms over her knees. "I've been studying Brawly and his Pokémon for a while, so maybe I can help you think of something. The last time you fought Brawly, what was your strategy?"

"I sent out Meriel against his Machop and had her use water gun a bunch. I wanted her to keep away so she wouldn't get hit, but no matter what she did, it kept closing in and grabbing her."

"Brawly does everything he can to get into melee with his opponents. It's really tough to avoid." Hayley thought for a moment. "Why did you use Meriel first instead of Mallory?"

"Well, his Machop is pretty fast. I didn't think Mallory would be able to hit it."

"Maybe not at first, but if he takes a couple hits, his psychic side might activate…"

They chatted like that for another hour, and all the while, Hayley swelled with pride at the fact that she'd been called a good trainer.

----------------------------------------

The next day, at karate, Hayley saw Chad slipping his phone into his shorts underneath his gi. "You're not supposed to have your phone with you on the floor," she pointed out.

Chad scoffed. "What are you, a narc?"

"No. But sensei's going to make you run laps if she finds out."

"Pfft. I'm great at running laps." He pumped his arms in the air, and Nolan and Kaden copied him. "Besides, I need my phone. Corbin's got his battle against Jin coming up in half an hour, and I have to know if he wins."

"How are you even going to check your phone when she watches us all the time?" Hayley swore Drew had eyes on the back of her head. Or maybe her Hitmontop did. That thing was almost as freaky as Sen.

"It's fine. I can be stealth—Lee, hey. What's up?" Lee narrowed his eyes as he walked up to join them, clearly suspecting that something was going on, but didn't say anything. Drew arrived soon after, and the session began.

As always, stretches were first. Hayley was able to follow along easily by now, and even Barrett, with his short limbs, performed them all without halting or stumbling. It was amazing how quickly Pokémon could commit things to muscle memory—he was even beginning to outperform Hayley at katas. After their warmups and katas, Drew brought them to a section of the gym that had a line of punching bags hanging from the ceiling. Today was about power and stamina, not just technique, which meant it was a day that Ceres and Cait could join in on. One by one, each of the human and Pokémon students and punched or kicked—or, for Ceres and Cait, headbutted or tackled—each bag as Drew instructed. Next, there was ten minutes of push-ups, sit-ups, and leg lifts, and after that, Drew and her Hitmontop got their blocking pads ready and instructed each of them to punch or kick as hard as they could. Before they could start, though, they were interrupted by a blaring, tinny song coming from underneath Chad's gi. Hayley resisted the urge to smack her forehead with her palm. Of course he hadn't put his phone on silent.

"No phones in the dojo!" Drew shouted.

"Sorry, sensei, I forgot I had it," Chad lied. Drew rolled her eyes.

"Turn your phone off and give it to me, or you'll run laps for the rest of today's practice."

"Okay, okay. But before I turn it off, can I just check—"

"Do not test me, Chad."

Chad sighed and nodded glumly. "Yes, sensei." He pulled out his phone and moved his thumb to the power switch. But as he did, the phone buzzed and chimed and the screen lit up with a message. Hayley couldn't see what it said, but Chad swore and dropped his phone onto the floor. "Holy shit!"

"No swearing in the dojo—"

"Yes, sensei, I'm sorry. But…" He glanced from Drew, to Hayley, to his phone on the ground, back to Hayley, back to the phone. "Fuck."

Drew narrowed her eyes, and then, all at once, dropped the stubborn act. "Chad. Are you okay? What happened?"

"It's…" He worked his jaw a few times, as though deciding on what to say. Finally, he picked his phone off the ground, unlocked the display, and thrust it at Hayley. Through the layers of spiderwebbed cracks on the screen, Hayley saw a single text message from Forrest.

"jin just killed corbin's taillow"