Chapter 215

Chapter 215

CHAPTER 215

Route 222 was filled to the brim with trainers, and this time there was no avoiding them. My eyes lingered on a small Nidoran battling an obviously more experienced Dewott. Nidoran ran at full speed toward the water type, his horn dripping with poison, but Dewott simply pulled out one of his shells and raked it across Nidoran's hide. This wasn't the first uneven battle I'd seen. In fact, there were a lot of them. Not only was route 222 full of people and civilization, without a single wild Pokemon to be seen, but we could also see a prolonged patch of beach in the distance that reminded me of Sandgem.

"This is kind of nostalgic," I said. "Reminds me of when I just left Jubilife with Denzel. The road was full of trainers like this."

"Sunyshore's a noob trap," Chase said. "A lot of these kids have been here the entire year and won't bother quitting. Throwing their heads against the wall, not changing their habits even though they've been losing to Volkner all year."

"I mean, if it's fun," I shrugged.

"It's not fun. They're playing pretend," Chase said with a haughty tone. "Staying on the safest route, not bothering to take any risks to improve and going back to their parents' house when the day's over. I mean, what's the point?"

"Don't be an ass," I rolled my eyes. "We all start somewhere, don't we?"

Making it through route 222 would only take around twelve hours, and the more we approached Sunyshore's gate, the more trainers there were. This route was so safe that even civilians were out picnicking and the road trucks drove through was still there far to the left. There were even homes near the beach. They weren't simply a part of Sunyshore's expansion— the city was actually pretty conservative on that front despite the high population. There were just homes in the middle of a route.

I didn't like it.

"We need to find a quiet spot for the thing," Mira muttered.

"Good luck finding a quiet spot here," I said. "It might be a better idea to wait until we get to Sunyshore."

The thing was another word for the Voice. Originally, we'd wanted to test it in the resort (although Cecilia still vehemently opposed it, as she showed with her glare), but we'd delayed it due to personal arguments and disagreements. I was stuck in the middle of it all. On one hand, I didn't want to go against Cece, but I did believe Mira was right. It would be better to test it so we knew what we were getting into.

After around a two hours' walk, we decided to take a break near the beach. It was a great view, although it was way too active for Sweetheart to swim. Some trainers were even having a battle in the water, although they stayed out of it themselves. We all snacked on sandwiches I'd made before we left. The occasional trainer stopped by in hopes of talking to us, but Chase's unfriendliness chased them away pretty quickly despite Cece and I's best efforts. We'd even kept our most confrontational Pokemon inside our Pokeballs in order not to scare the public.

I sat on Angel's vines with Cece while Honey ate a sandwich of his own. Slowking spoke to Alakazam, although they kept their conversation private. From the way Mira's psychic looked, he was probably being subject to more horrible puns. Lucario sat with his legs crossed, and a pale blue Aura surrounded him. His usual meditation, no doubt.

Speaking of.

"Hey, Chase. What's Ri meditating for?" I asked.

"Oh, it's a bunch of complicated words," he waved a hand. "Long story short, his body's a conduit through which Aura can flow, and he's building himself up. The more he does it, the stronger his Aura-based attacks get."

"He'll have to show me his tricks sometimes. I'm interested in how they differ from Maylene's."

"That five-badge Lucario she has? Ri's better," Chase declared. "I know he was itching to battle him too. Too bad all we got was some League Trainer."

"I'd be glad if I got a League Trainer," Mira pouted. "Gym Battles are exhausting. I prefer the path of least resistance."

"Maybe you'll get one with Volkner. He's known to be quite lazy with his Gym Leader duties," Cecilia said. "He misses quite a lot of battles."

My eyes narrowed. I was not going to battle a League Trainer. I'd make sure of it, no matter what levers I had to pull.

"Guys, guess what, by the way!" Mira exclaimed excitedly. "Gardevoir told me I grew an inch! I'm 5'5 now!"

I craned my neck and instinctively stood a bit straighter. "You are my height... I'm still not growing."

Cecilia and Chase had grown during the year as well, although Cece was almost taller than he was at something between 5'9 and 5'10. I didn't think I'd grow much, but I had expected at least an inch or two. What was next? Was Mira going to grow taller than me? I could already visualize her future smugness and I was preemptively annoyed.

"You don't have a height complex, do you?" Mira asked when she saw my face.

"No, but I'm friends with a bunch of tall people. Well, except you."

"Touché."

Cecilia wrapped an arm around me. "I like you small. Angel does too."

I felt the grass type's vines shake in agreement behind me.

"I'll let that pass because it's your birthday," I smiled. "Angel's fine, though. He can do no wrong."

"Oh, I get birthday privilege? I'm going to abuse that. Can we extend it until it's your birthday?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself now."

"All this battling's got me itching for one," Mira grinned.

"Mira Compton, interested in battling?" Cece raised an eyebrow. "That's a new one."

"How about it, Chasey?"

"Me?" He asked, his mouth full of food. "Sure, why the hell not."

"Don't speak with your mouth full..." I sighed. Honey echoed my words, but he ignored us.

Mira raised two fingers. "Two-on-two, no switching! If I win, I get a date with you in Sunyshore."

Ah. That was her angle. Her interest in battling had probably been a lie. She was a trainer, but she didn't share the sheer joy the rest of us had during Pokemon battles. Chase finished his sandwich in two bites and hummed.

"Not like you're going to win anyway," he said. "Cecilia, can Slowking make us a barrier?"

The girl hummed. "A low-powered one, perhaps. He's still getting the hang of it. Slowking?"

I will try my best, he said. But I would appreciate it if you didn't go all out.

"They won't, this is just a spar. The last thing we want to do is kill a kid—"

I heard a whimper behind me, and a girl scampered away in fear. Cece nearly held her laugh in, but Mira didn't bother to hide it. I lowered my head into my hands and groaned as Honey patted my back and Angel caressed my head.

"This always happens to me."

"No, no, please go into greater details about how you threaten to murder children." Mira teased.

"I said we shouldn't," I hissed. "Whatever, just go do your battle thing already. I want to get out of here ASAP."

I watched as Cecilia made rounds to clear us enough space for a battle and Slowking summoned a rectangular barrier. It was a much smaller area than actual gym battles, and it was also less high, but he was still a novice at protecting such a wide area and Mira needed her Pokemon with her in case she was going to use them. A small crowd formed around the makeshift battlefield, and people already had their phones out to film.

"Honor system. We release on the count of three," Chase said.

"Sounds good. You better prepare to organize a date for us, Chasey!"

He scoffed and then counted down the three. He released Sigilyph while Mira released Gardevoir. It'd be a battle between psychics, then, but I had actually never seen what Sigilyph was capable, so I found my eyes getting drawn to the cute flying type. Needless to say, the person who knocked out the first Pokemon would have a huge advantage, so everything rested on this fight.

"Damn it, I thought you'd lead Houndoom!" Mira yelled. She sounded genuinely upset. "Come on, Chase! Your Houndoom beats Magnezone, Haunter, Alakazam, and Porygon isn't strong enough yet. He was your best choice! Use your head!"

"Don't care, didn't ask. Can we start?"

"...Yeah."

"Three, two, one, go!"

Mira leaned against her knees, but no orders came from her. Instead, a multitude of microexpressions etched themselves onto her face and Gardevoir responded to the silent order. The psychic type held out a hand and tiny rays of electricity appeared in front of her palm, coalescing into one giant sphere that exploded outward into a beam.

"Psycho Shift!" Chase yelled.

Sigilyph's singular eye lit up, and the ray of electricity blinked out of existence right before it hit her chest. The attack immediately shot out from another point in space, this time slightly to her left, and flew toward Gardevoir. The fairy type quickly raised a barrier and the attack broke against the invisible shield.

Mira's face only twitched, and red flames began to spin around Gardevoir. The psychic grunted, bringing her hand down and the fire split into five different wisps. With another wave of an arm, they each flew toward Sigilyph. Psycho Shift wouldn't work this time, not when the flames were being deliberately controlled by Gardevoir.

"Whirlwind and Psybeam!" Chase ordered.

Sigilyph shook her wings, and wind powerful enough to send me flying beat against the flames. Gardevoir's stare intensified as she fought to keep the flames going, but they each fell onto the grass and began to burn the field. The wind continued and swept up Gardevoir's dress-like skin, and the fairy type glared at Chase. Another attack, this time a multicolored series of rings flew toward Gardevoir. She didn't hesitate to raise a barrier, but—

"Shadow Ball!"

While dark type moves broke through barriers like butter, ghost type moves were effective at breaking them down. While Gardevoir blocked the Psybeam, Sigilyph weaved shadows into a tight ball and let it loose. Gardevoir Teleported away from the sphere, braving the flames she herself had created, but the wind ahead of her sharpened and cut up her skin.

A slightly frustrated groan escaped Mira, but she stayed silent. Gardevoir grinned, and then appeared right above Sigilyph with ice frozen around her fist. The flying type let out a series of beeps as Gardevoir relentlessly beat her up. She tried to shake her off, but she'd linked her other fist with Sigilyph's skin and frozen the two together.

"Don't panic. Steel Wing!"

Mira's eyes widened, and before Gardevoir could Teleport away, Sigilyph's wing turned silver and slammed against her. The psychic type's Teleport stuttered as she quickly released another one of those electric attacks to buy time. I'd noticed the fact that Gardevoir had also tried to use Psychic on Sigilyph while she'd been on her, but Sigilyph was a construct. While the attack would work, she wouldn't get a headache that broke her focus when there was no brain to assault.

"I don't know—"

"You know," I interrupted. "It's okay, just tell us."

The girl shuffled uncomfortably. "I'd really like it if you beat Riley on our behalf! He's the Wild Tamers' leader— that's the new club. You guys are famous, and if you came out and supported New Wave, he'd stop bullying us."

"The kid with two badges? That should be easy enough," Mira said. "Where's he at?"

"He usually hangs out further down the route, an hour out from the gate. Since I was planning on heading home soon, uh, I can follow you. I'll point you to him."

I brought a hand to my chin and nodded. If what Erin was saying was true, then what was happening was unfair. No trainer should ever be forced to give money to another if they didn't want to, and since they weren't actually breaking any laws, calling the Rangers would be useless.

Plus, they'd look like cowards, and they seemed to hate that. If they kept it to trainers, they'd look a lot better.

But first, I'd make sure to get this Riley's story.

"What do you guys think?" I asked.

"I say we help, it sounds entertaining," Mira said.

"Don't care," Chase shrugged.

"Sure, why not," Cece said.

"I guess we're in."

—

Erin was quite a sweet girl, but sometimes I felt like she thought we were, like, Gym Leaders or something. Even after traveling with her for two hours and making small-talk most of the way there, she was just as nervous as she'd been when we first met. She explained this club system to us in greater detail, and it was mostly kept to Pastoria, Veilstone and Sunyshore, where first and sometimes second year trainers decided to stay the entire Circuit. All you had to do to join was pay a membership fee every month, and the club would distribute potions, food and supplies, and the older members would give tips and practice with the newer ones. They mostly stayed inside cities but liked to go to routes to battle and 'camp', which was meant to stimulate the harsher environments of western Sinnoh.

I had to say, it was very cute.

And of course, with these quasi-armies came politics. Club rivalries, drama, bullying, everything I could think of. Hell, they were even run differently. Some of them were direct democracies while others had councils where a few ruled, and others were basically a dictatorship. Erin's club— New Wave— was actually a relatively new player on the tri-city area stage. Tri-city meaning Pastoria, Sunyshore and Veilstone. Even though she had no badges, her organizational skills had propelled her to the position of representative, and now people looked to her to fix this issue.

"That's him, that's Riley," she whispered as she shrunk behind Cece.

Mira smirked. "Woah, Chase it's your twin—"

"Don't even fucking go there."

Riley didn't really look like Chase. He was a short-haired, stocky kid that was bigger than the others— and than me, by extension. I kept having to remind myself that these people were my age and not a bunch of children. He was speaking to some others with the widest smile on his face, and a Makuhita sat at his side.

"Okay. Guess we'll go in and figure this out, then," I said.

"You should come," Chase told Erin. "Don't run away."

"I'll... I'll come," she whispered.

"Let us do the talking, Chase," I warned.

At first, when Riley noticed us coming at him, his face scrunched up and he placed a hand on his second Pokeball. Then, he recognized us and his face fell. That was convenient, then. There probably wouldn't be a need to battle him. He waved away his entourage, leaving only himself, but they still observed from afar. We made sure to recall our Pokemon to forgo any... intimidation or accidents, but Cece still kept Slowking out.

"How the hell did you find these people, Erin?" He asked.

"Hi there!" I smiled. "Would you be open to speaking with us for a few minutes? Yes?"

"I didn't say yes," he said, glaring at Erin.

"It's about your problems with New Wave," Cecilia added. "Something about forcing money matches onto others even though they don't want to."

The teenager grunted. "Pokemon battles have always been this way. If I don't make money, then what? I've been saving up for a TM! Not only could I not make money, but I still had to pay the stupid club fee. I was bleeding cash."

"Erin, how much is the club fee?" I asked.

"Five Hundred Pokedollars a month," she muttered.

My first thought was that that was dirt cheap, but I had to remember these were new trainers— relatively speaking. That amount of money was a lot to them, especially when they wouldn't be able to make any more. Riley did have a point, but bullying? That was too far—

"Riley, you get an allowance from your dad that's way more than that!" Erin snapped.

"I do, but the others don't! I'm fighting for them."

"It's like I'm watching a show," Mira whispered to Chase.

I clenched the bridge of my nose, and Cecilia took over for me.

"Then let the split happen. That's fine," she said. "But don't pressure trainers who don't want to battle into battling. Problem solved!"

"I'm just teaching 'em to be tough. And a lot of them seem to like the way I run things, considering how fast we're growing."

"So you won't stop bullying them, then?" I asked. "While I do think your concerns are valid and that you have a right to create a club to run things the way you want, I don't think you should keep up the bullying."

"It's not bullying. I'm just toughening them up—"

"Well, fine," I said, turning to Erin. "Hey, I'm going to be in Sunyshore for quite a while. I'm probably going to head to this route a lot to train in the coming days. Y'know, maybe I'll stay a few weeks. I've got to get my flying license and do a bunch of other stuff. My friends will be here too, and more of them are on their way."

"So— so, you're threatening me?" He asked.

I scoffed. "Threatening? Oh, absolutely not. I wouldn't threaten someone with two badges, not when I have five. That'd be punching down and would reflect horribly on me, especially when any confrontation wouldn't be close at all. No, no, I'm just talking to Erin, telling her my plans. She's our new friend, so I figured it'd be good to let her know. Maybe I'll help her train too while I'm at it. What do you say, Erin?"

"Huh— what?"

"That a yes?"

"Y—yes...?"

"Cool! I'll see you here tomorrow, give me your number—"

"Fine, fine!" Riley yelled. "You don't have to pretend to be her fucking friend. I'll stop it, okay? We'll just do a clean break and go our separate ways. That sound good to you, Erin?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Arceus, fuck," he sighed as he left. Makuhita patted him on the leg as he followed.

Mira whistled. "Damn, you were ruthless."

"Ruthless? No, I was just being nice to Erin," I said. "Is it my fault he interpreted my words as a threat?"

Mira pursed her lips. "Now you're just being devious."

"Thank you guys... for, uh, helping us. We don't have much to give you, but New Wave will remember this favor. If we get big enough one day, then I'll repay this kindness," Erin stammered. "I'll be on my way now, I've got to call a general meeting—"

"Wait. I wasn't lying, Erin. Give me your number."

The girl's eyes widened, and she nearly dropped her phone.

"I'll help you get a hang of things. Leaders being organizers is nice, but you've got to be stronger when you're talking about club for trainers. Come on," I smiled as I beckoned her. "Cece can help you too if she wants. I won't ask the other two—"

"Absolutely not," Chase groaned.

"I'm busy," Mira lied.

"I figured, which is why I said I wouldn't ask," I said. "Cece?"

"Sure, I'll help," she smiled. "This reminds me of Unova, makes me nostalgic."

"Thank you anyway!" She beamed. "Oh Legendaries, the others will never believe me when I tell them this!"

They'd probably seen us walking together already, but I wouldn't let it spoil the surprise. Erin accompanied us to the gate to Sunyshore, and we finally entered the solar-powered city.

Now, to start preparing for my battle with Volkner.

And Denzel.