Chapter 180

Chapter 180

CHAPTER 180Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

Telling my friends about Bellatrix in-depth kind of made me realize how abnormal the entire experience had been. Maeve looked pale throughout the tale, especially when telling her about her Moonblasts which hadn't even been at full power. Louis and Emilia were just nervous, but Mira was actually quite interested in Bella's capabilities, especially the perfect barriers she easily created that were of better quality than even the ones in the gyms. She was interested in replicating them with her Kadabra and Kirlia, but without her direct teaching, she was out of luck. Bella already despised her psychic side and did the bare minimum with that power, only using it to shield herself or move things around. If I had to guess, she probably did know powerful psychic attacks, but she would never use them unless she was forced to.

They all stuck around my room for two hours or so until Maeve and Louis decided to go out and train. Maeve was trying to get her Monferno to evolve before challenging Maylene while Louis was introducing his Combee to battling, so they could cooperate with each other during training. I was sure that they'd battle against Maylene before me because of time concerns. They'd already spoken about spending very little time in the city in the first place to go to Sunyshore right away. Plus, Maeve had her flying license to work on. Her Staraptor was absolutely massive and could very easily carry her far, but that would imply splitting from her group.

They'd have to talk about it soon.

Mira, Emilia and I weren't that concerned. Mira and I because it was just February 10th and there was still plenty of time, and Emilia because she didn't exactly care about ribbons. She just wanted to improve this year, and from her fantastic performance netting her the top sixteen twice, she was quickly becoming a great coordinator.

"Mira, did Denzel talk to you about the Game Corner stuff?" I asked.

"You guys are going to the Game Corner?" Emi said as she typed away on her phone. "I wouldn't step anywhere close to that building. The casino always wins."

"Way to be a downer," Mira rolled her eyes. "He did message me. I actually went inside to scout a little bit. It's not like I have much money to play with, but it'll be good to at least know how the games work and if we can figure out a way to cheat."

"Cheat?" I frowned.

"Yeah, no need to make that face. They've got an Obstagoon as a bouncer that'll detect any kind of bullshit you have going on and psychics inside that patrol the entire premises, so that option's off the table. Denzel wanted to do it by the books anyway... so I don't think I'll manage to get my Porygon."

"Oh, you want a Porygon?" Emi asked. "I haven't really seen them used in battle. You hear a lot about them being produced in Sunyshore, though."

"Yeah, they mostly live in computers, but they can come out too and get inside Pokeballs," she said before grinning. "There's a lot of funky stuff you can do with them. Bummer I probably won't win."

"Eh, I mean, you won't know until you try, right?" I said, trying to cheer her up.

"I do know, and that's alright. I was thinking of just going all in with all of my savings on one spin," she laughed, throwing her head back.

Emilia's mouth gaped. "You're crazy."

"Well, some might say it's the quickest path to the 750k I need to buy myself a Porygon. Fuckers inflate the hell out of that price for profit, by the way. It's nowhere near as expensive to code one. Anyway, we'll see when the big boy himself gets there. Hopefully he's not getting grilled by your fairy friend."

"He'll be fine. They all will," I firmly said. "Err, Mira, how are you doing beyond all of your Game Corner plans?"

I knew from the moment that she'd stepped into this room that she hadn't given up on finding Charon. In fact, I suspected that she hadn't only snooped around the Game Corner. If the League couldn't find that Team Galactic base, I doubted that she could.

Still, I didn't want to talk about that with Emilia here, so I would just ask about her mental health for now.

The pink-haired girl silently stared at me and pursed her lips. "Been doing great," she said, innocently lifting her hands in the air. "I'm not as sad as usual, and that's a win in my book. I'm focused on other things right now."

Other things like her uncle, I guessed. Even if part of me internally screamed that she had the right to look for Charon, the rational part of me worried for her safety.

"Okay. Well, so long as you're sure of what you want."

"I think just coming somewhat close to achieving my goal would unwind a lot of tension that's been building up," she smirked.

"Are you speaking in code right now? Because it feels like you're speaking in code," Emilia frowned.

"What, of course not!" Mira said in a very sarcastic way. "Anyway, I've been trying to meet up with Chase, but he's ignored all of my texts. I can't find him in a city this big."

"Wait, you're still on that? I thought you were just pretending?" I scoffed.

"What? Obviously not!" She yelled. "Have you seen him? Anyway, I'm off."

My face fell. "Already? I thought you were gonna hang."

"No, I've been trying to teach myself how to code and progressing leaps and bounds. Think of it as a plan B for my Porygon," she exclaimed as she closed the door.

"Then why would you spend everything you have on one spin?!" Emilia groaned. "Arceus, this girl is crazy."

"A little," I nervously laughed.

"Princess, you're going to play a huge role. Keep practicing with Dazzling Gleam and Moon Blast. I know you want to get better with glamour, but we'll work on the fundamentals first."

Togetic nodded but noted that Bella would be very angry hearing that.

"She would," I acquiesced. "But her mind doesn't work with time constraints. She's centuries old, and I don't exactly know how long Hatterene live for, but she seems to think she can keep going for a long while. We just think about these things differently," I explained to her.

Togetic sagely nodded, adding that Bella wouldn't care about losing to Maylene anyway.

"Exactly. You're gonna pack a punch at the gym, just keep working on what Bella told you," I said. "Now Sweetheart, you can take it easy today— hey, don't start yelling, I haven't even finished yet! Tomorrow, you're going to work on your precision with your flight. Fighting types are strong enough to crack your cocoon, but Bella taught us that the type advantage isn't everything. No Pokemon would be able to shrug off 350 pounds flying at them. Add Iron Defense onto that, and you're one of the biggest threats as long as you've got air stored in your vents."

She shivered in excitement, letting out a burst of air that kicked up a bunch of dust in Honey's face, which was something she took great pleasure in. The electric type looked at me and complained, but he had made fun of her earlier, so he owed her at least this.

But he definitely wouldn't like hearing what I was going to say next.

"Honey, this gym is kind of your biggest weakness," I started. "I'll still use you, obviously— the fight's going to be five-on-five, but Maylene's Pokemon will be better than you at close combat. We've kind of been neglecting your ranged attacks, so we'll start working extensively on those again for the gym. If you can't beat them at their own game, then change the way you play. Was that the saying? I forgot."

My Pokemon looked at me confusedly. Right, if I didn't know the saying, there was no way they'd know.

"So keep working on Thunderbolt, Discharge and Protect for when you're in a pinch," I said. "But you know, since we're trying to impress Volkner next, your long-term project will be working on Thunder."

His eyes glimmered at the move's name.

"I don't think it's realistic for you to expect to learn it in time for the fight. You'll need to essentially tire yourself out by draining out all of your electricity over and over to build up the amount of electricity you can store, so it goes hand in hand with your training. Remember when you could only use a few Thunderbolts, but now you can use a whole lot? It's basically like that— like working out."

I patted him on the shoulder and then moved on to Jellicent.

"Bud, you're obviously working on Night Shade," I started. "But we've been neglecting your water side lately. Whirlpool is good, but it's easily countered unless you're fighting something in a water arena. It's about time we get you decked out with something stronger than Water Pulse."

Jellicent silently stared and awaited my following words.

"On one hand, we've got Hydro Pump. On the other, we've got Water Spout. These techniques are extremely demanding and they'll drain you of most of your water right away. Hydro Pump is like a much more powerful Water Gun that can cut through just about anything. Water Spout is kind of like Honey's Discharge. You use the water inside of you and explode it outward. I've seen it used in a single direction too, but that requires a lot more control. Control that you won't have yet. I'm letting you pick which one you want to learn. Start working on both and mull over it today."

He nodded, letting out a few resonating clicks.

"Sunshine. Don't look at me like that, yes, you," I groaned, playfully kicking his leg. "Stop being such a lazy old man. I thought Night lit a fire in you today."

The fire type grumbled and closed his eyes. It was a relatively warm day today, so he wanted to laze around in the sun and rest. He was clearly exasperated with me.

"No new moves. You already have an incredibly diverse pool, so just stick around and stay active. Help the others when they ask for it and battle them too, okay?"

He waved an annoyed hand at me and reluctantly agreed.

"Great! But hey, if you really don't want to train, don't feel forced to. You go at your own pace."

He opened a surprised eye at me and I grinned.

"I know how hard it is for old Pokemon like you—"

I coughed as a mouthful of smoke surrounded my face.

Yeah, I kind of deserved that.

Well, I'd downloaded a few of Maylene's fifth gym battles, so after coughing for what felt like an entire minute, I plopped myself down next to a rock and opened my laptop. I was surprised to see that even on this route, there was internet access. The government had really built up this side of Sinnoh. Not as much as Unova, though, since according to Cece, they had internet and service on almost all of their routes.

Well, more videos for me. After doing some shameless promotion for the Poketch Company, of course. I also posted something else. A challenge to trainers with six or seven badges in Veilstone.

The board filled up with hundreds of answers immediately, and I just knew that ninety percent of them were lying.

"How the hell am I going to sort through this? Picture verification for proof?"

I sighed and opted to go and study Maylene for now instead.