Chapter 114

Chapter 114

CHAPTER 114

“So Chase has finally shown himself,” Cecilia said.

“Yup. Gotta hand it to him, he did have me worried for a bit,” Denzel smiled thinly.

The three of us were eating breakfast in my room while Pauline and Emilia were hanging out in the city together. Justin, meanwhile, had left a few minutes earlier to finally go order his Audino from a reputable Pokemon breeding company that supplied most of the region with its medical Pokemon, which meant that they worked closely with the League to supply Nurse Joys with their partners.

“He won’t even tell us what he was doing in there so long, too,” I sighed. “I bet he was doing some really crazy training.”

“Sounds like him,” Denzel nodded. “So he’ll be here in five days. Does that mean we battle in six?”

“If his Pokemon are in shape to do so, I would assume yes,” Cecilia agreed. “We can decide on the teams when he gets there.”

“Come on, we know you’re fighting each other,” Denzel grinned as he stared at us. “The question is, who are Chase and I joining?”

“Oh, man, I’m so excited,” I squealed, tapping my feet against the ground. “I’ve never had a double battle before! There’s going to be so much to keep track of, oh this is just the best!”

Strategizing against a single powerful opponent was hard enough, but two? Both multiple Pokemon, and with different approaches to battling? And then there was how my teammate would synergize with me, and how we could work together! I was already quivering with excitement, and we were still a few days away.

“We have very different definitions of fun,” my friend chuckled.

Cecilia laughed as well. “Don’t stop her. She’s cute when she’s like this.”

“Then there’s the battle against Fantina to plan, too,” I cheered. “I think I’ll start doing that today, actually.”UppTodated from nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)/m

“Okay, so you won’t be doing anything today. Got it,” Denzel deadpanned.

“No, I’ve got to go train my team and talk with my grumpy turtle,” I said. “This is just going to be some light scanning. I need to figure out Fantina’s general strategy and stuff.”

“Don’t forget that we have to meet Vincent later,” Cecilia said.

“Right. Emi’s new friend.”

“She doesn’t want to call him a friend,” she clarified. “She says that he’s more of a business partner.”

“Sounds like a girl in denial to me,” I said before finishing my plate. “By the way, the food in Snowpoint was definitely better. Don’t look at me like that, Cece! I will die on this hill.”

“Whatever you say...”

After they finished eating, Denzel and Cece went their separate ways, both opting to train. I released my entire team, aside from Turtonator, of course. I’d speak with him again later. I would have really liked it if he could just be less aggressive so that he could actually spend time outside of his Pokeball, but alas, that looked impossible right now. Tangrowth was a lot bigger than before, so he could barely move around in the room, but I had found another application for his new form.

“Angel. Can I sit?”

The grass type’s entire body wriggled, which would have been a creepy sight if I hadn’t been so used to it. These days, I just found it adorable. His vines extended at his feet, stacking up and up until they were thick enough to be a mattress. I sat down on them and leaned against angel, who shook excitedly. His vines were surprisingly more comfortable than they looked, and I enjoyed how much he liked me sitting on them. Larvitar hopped on them as well, and the floor shook slightly.

“Nu-huh,” I warned. “No jumping inside, young lady.”

“Tar...”

“As long as you understand,” I smiled, petting her. “Come,” I continued, patting on the vines.

Larvitar waddled through the bed of vines and settled in between my legs. Togetic let out a lazy chirp and laid down on Tangrowth’s head, and Electabuzz leaned against his body, almost sinking into it.

“Stop brooding in your corner and being so edgy,” I told Frillish, who was keeping his distance. I beckoned him. “C’mere.”

He huffed and floated away, practically hugging the door.

“I already forgave you for what happened yesterday, bud. Come sit with the kids.”

“We’re going to have to fight a four against five, too,” I continued, and all of my Pokemon responded with their respective cries.

Now that Turtonator had been added to the picture and Larvitar was capable of battling, I was going to have to fight at a numerical disadvantage, although it wouldn’t actually be a six-on-six, since those tended to only happen at the seventh gym badge barring exceptional circumstances. Obviously though, I had no plan on using Larvitar for this gym, and even if Turtonator didn’t actually attack me, he wasn’t going to listen to anything I said.

Seeing if he’d let himself lose to spite me, or try to win to salvage his pride would be an interesting experiment, however, but I wasn’t mean enough to try that, especially when I needed to gain his trust and respect. If Electabuzz, Togetic, Tangrowth, and Frillish fainted, I’d give up the battle.

“Well, I think your moves are all good enough to win at the moment,” I told my team. “So we should work on perfecting what we’ve got.”

I hadn’t constructed a plan yet, but I already knew a combination of Togetic’s Wish, along with switching to Tangrowth and Electabuzz— which were my heavy hitters— would be crucial to winning. Frillish’s Recover meant that he’d be fine as an independent crutch in the battle.

So Togetic would put everything she had into using Wish. Tangrowth would perfect Knock Off, and Electabuzz would work on his endurance. With all of Fantina’s tricks, I knew the battle was going to last a long time. I would have liked for princess to learn Air Slash, but I already knew Wish was going to take too much time to work on two moves at the same time.

Plus, Wish would be crucial in the battle against my friends as well.

“Okay,” I said as I stretched. “Everyone satisfied with what we learned so far?”

It had been a few hours, and I was done learning about Fantina for now. I’d come back later and start taking notes, but I hadn’t even signed up yet, so I had time. I laughed when I noticed that angel was asleep. Everyone else had been so focused on my Poketch, but he had just dozed off. I carefully recalled him so that he’d stay asleep in his Pokeball, along with the rest of my team.

“Okay,” I smiled. It was time to speak to Turtonator once again.

——

I was back on route 208, and I released Turtonator. He stared at me angrily and let out a threatening growl.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, you’re a big, scary dragon,” I said dismissively, closing my eyes to show that I wasn’t scared— even though I was. I opened an eye when I heard that he wasn’t growling anymore, and I understood after a few seconds. “What? Surprised my team isn’t here this time?”

He didn’t respond. In fact, he almost looked disappointed, like he wanted a confrontation. Now that he wasn’t getting it, Turtonator turned and left, lying down a few feet away.

“I brought some food for you,” I said, grabbing a pack of kibble from my backpack. “Want some?”

I approached him, but he turned toward me, and flames started to gather in his snout. I froze and fell to the ground, and he let out a satisfied snort.

“Asshole,” I groaned. I realized that I had instinctively dropped the food and grabbed Frillish’s Pokeball instead, probably because I thought I was about to be lit on fire. Even though I knew Turtonator wouldn’t kill me, seeing him gather a Flamethrower and aim it at me had been so terrifying that I had forgotten about it.

Turtonator swiped the food, angled his head upward, and ripped the package open over his mouth, eating all of the kibble in one go.

Two hundred and forty Pokedollars down the drain. And he didn’t even look the slightest bit happy. I sighed.

“Wanna know something?”

He immediately shook his head and walked off. When I tried to follow him, he raised the temperature to unbearable levels and forced me to back off. He was daring me to either recall him or screw off.

“Okay then,” I shrugged. “I’ll tell you when you feel like it.”

I sat a ways away from him. It was uncomfortable but bearable, and I had plenty of water. I couldn’t really tell if there was progress being made or not, but it was nice sometimes, staying on my own in silence. I could tell why Justin wanted his alone time so often. I’d rather be with my friends, but once in a while, I wouldn’t be against this. Plus, even though I was on the edge of the route, no wild Pokemon would be crazy enough to attack a Turtonator.

I jumped when I saw the fire type get up. He was... angry. Furious, like he had been in Mount Coronet. I grabbed his Pokeball, ready to recall him before an attack came, but I soon realized that he wasn’t looking at me.

He was looking behind me. I heard someone fall over and turned. A trainer that had just been walking through the route scrambled backward, but before Turtonator could do anything, I put him back in his Pokeball.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, helping the teenager up. He gave me a shaky nod and left— well, it was more accurate to say he ran away. I thought that this part of the route was isolated enough to avoid others, but I had apparently been wrong.

In my hubris standing up to Turtonator, I had almost forgotten what he was. I needed to be more alert every time I had him out, or an accident was bound to happen. I clipped his ball back on my belt and ran a hand through my hair.

Dragons were a prideful bunch, and they held grudges. Turtonator still hated trainers for what they had done to him in Mount Coronet. I doubted that kid had actually been one of the people that battled him. There were no signs of burns, and he looked rather new. If I had to guess, I would have said that he had come from Hearthome to train and not from Mount Coronet.

And yet, it did not matter to him. They were all the same.

When I got closer to the city, my phone went off with a flurry of notifications. I opened it and checked the group chat.

Emilia was calling us over to meet her new coordinator friend.