Chapter 222

Chapter 222

CHAPTER 222

"She answered?" Cecilia said. When I nodded, she sighed in relief. "Finally!"

My eyes glanced over Lauren's response as I read it out. "I'm sorry I took so long to reply, I was busy creating a new concept for a move and spent the entire time without looking at my phone— yeah, that sounds like her. Anyway, she agrees."

"When?"

"Now," I said.

"Wow. How... punctual."

"That was some not-so-subtle sarcasm. She's in our Center, so I think that's why."

It had been two days since I witnessed Craig and Jasmine's battle. Craig was leaving in a few days, but of course, he told me to tell his sister he'd said hello. Jasmine, meanwhile, had apologized for getting so drunk with me and said it was unbecoming of an adult. I really didn't mind much, especially with how much information I'd gotten out of her, but she wanted to make it up to me so I asked her if she wanted to meet Cece. I'd considered inviting her to my birthday before remembering that a twenty-seven-year-old probably wouldn't enjoy being alone at a party with a bunch of teenagers, so I didn't actually send that text.

"Maybe we should have slept in, then," Cecilia said as she sipped on some apple juice.

"Who doesn't like to go to a bar at ten in the morning?" I said. "We should go, though. I don't know when she'll be available again."

Since Erin had been taking a break today to deal with the new recruits in New Wave, I'd brought Cece to the same bar Jasmine and Craig had been in. It was a cozy spot by the boardwalk, so what was not to like? Plus, the eight badger tournament in Jubilife was still going on and we were having a lot of fun watching. That grass type specialist girl had made it to the semi-finals and I was rooting for her. We quickly downed our drinks and left.

We hopped on a bus back to the Pokemon Center, and I checked my messages again. Denzel, Pauline and Emi were coming back sometime this evening, and the party was tomorrow night. Our battle was drawing closer, but I felt confident. All training was going according to plan and we were progressing at a rapid pace. Sunshine still had problems, but we were actually making progress there too, despite it being so slow.

"Think we can do this out of the city?" I asked. "How about my route?"

"You call it your route now?" Cecilia smirked.

"Well, I've been going there every day since Veilstone."

"It depends on what Lauren says," she said. "She might want to stick to the arenas."

"Hm. I think she'll agree," I said. "I don't want to do this in public. Too many people and no cameras. I don't want the Poketch Company to complain because I lost a few one-on-ones."

"I've been thinking about sponsors," Cece said. "Oh, do you—"

Someone had just gotten off one of the seats and she offered it to me with an outstretched hand. I sat down and thanked her.

"Sponsorships? How are you doing on money?" I asked.

"I still have enough for a few years. It's not like I've been going on a spending spree," she said. "But it wouldn't be about the money. I would like being sponsored by a professor... someone who had information to give instead of money."

I chewed on her words and remembered Barry Lane existed. He was supposed to be in Sunyshore as well.

"There are a lot of professors out there, but not that many of them offer sponsors. Only the biggest ones like Rowan," I said.

"Yes. And it's not like it would be feasible at the moment. They tend to only sponsor children they know or that can have them study rare Pokemon in return."

"Zweilous is rare," I said.

"They're rare, but I mean truly rare. Like fossils, for example. I'll have to keep a tab on it for now, since it's not like it's an urgent matter. It's also a little late in the year for new sponsorships."

"Fair enough," I said.

Lauren was waiting for us in front of the Center already, donning her usual mask and sunglasses. Cecilia turned toward me and opened her mouth to ask why, but I shook my head. It'd be best if we just left first.

"Good morning," Lauren whispered. "I'm happy that we're doing this."

"Right? This is great," I grinned. "Is Mira busy? Do we have a Teleporter available? We wanted to do this on route 214."

"Alakazam should be," Cece said. "I'm worried about her. She's being a bit of a shut-in."

"Well when I asked, she said she was working on something great, and she looks fine," I said. "I wouldn't worry too much. Plus, she'll be at our party, so we'll get her out of her room. Lauren, what do you think?"

"About Mira? I don't know her well—"

"About training on the route," I said. "Slowking's good at barriers."

"You don't have to tell me twice. I don't like crowds," Lauren muttered.

We went to get Alakazam and he Teleported us to Route 214. He was getting interested in Erin and pestering me to line up our schedules so he could study her. She had three normal types now, but since they weren't powerful at all, they weren't going to change her behavior and the way she looked at the world. Still, Alakazam was interested in studying the potential start of the process. I told him he'd be able to talk to her during my party. Even if telepathy would give Erin a terrible headache, he could still write down questions on pieces of paper if needed.

"You still haven't fixed your carving?" Cecilia smiled as she stared at the mountain's facade.

"Well, it was for you, so it'd be odd to fix it," I said. "We can keep it here. It's romantic."

Cece's smile widened, and she grabbed onto my hips—

"Who's starting?" Lauren asked. "I want to go first."

"Um— I guess I can go," I said. "Remember, we need to find the right balance. Enough to maximize growth, but not too much. We don't want our Pokemon to go to the Center for multiple days."

It was a bit risky doing this with my battle with Denzel in two days, but I trusted myself to recognize when to give up or to stop attacking. Cece released Slowking, who quickly began to raise a barrier for us. It was a lot slower compared to Dot's, and it was no doubt weaker as well, but it would do for the amount of power we could throw around. Lauren released Magmar next to her along with Sirris, who had evolved into a Reuniclus during Lauren's battle with Maylene.

"Sirris is here for moral support," Lauren said.

Howdy! The psychic type said. I heard two voices instead of one, which made sense, considering they were two brains sharing one body.

Thanks for taking care of Laulau!

Lau's thankful for your companionship!

The voices were interspaced this time. They were kind of like Metagross in that regard, but unlike Jasmine, Lauren referred to them as singular.

"She's a friend," I said. "The pleasure's all mine."

Magmar had grown slightly, although he was shorter and stouter than Honey. I could feel the heat radiating from him due to the flames constantly lit on his shoulders. I knew his heat was dangerous, but he didn't come to Sunshine's level yet in that regard. Lauren made her way toward her side of the arena with her two Pokemon, but I didn't miss Mags shooting me a dirty look as he stepped behind his trainer.

I mentally shrugged. I knew how he was already.

"I might as well use Honey for this," I told myself. Since we were putting them in a pair anyway, it'd be nice to see how they matched up. "Is Thunder too much? It's probably too much."

Sceptile blurred impossibly fast, narrowlingly dodging the Air Slashes that had beelined toward him. Fighting and bug type moves could push through dark TE, and Lauren was in the know. What she hadn't expected was for another Air Slash to cut across Sceptile's flank as soon as he finished using Detect. The grass type slammed his tail against the floor in a display of frustration and ran toward Scyther, then jumped. Finally, the Fury Cutter had activated. Scyther flew toward the left, but the grass type twisted his body and kicked him in the waist with Double Kick. The Fury Cutter had been a feint.

"Counter!" Cecilia bellowed.

There was a glint in Scyther's eyes, and the bug type's body straightened as he slammed his entire body against Volis. Sceptile tumbled back toward the ground and Scyther followed, finishing him off with an X-Scissor on the back. Cece and Lauren congratulated each other and healed their Pokemon.

Even with the type advantage, that had been an impressive showing from Scyther. He wasn't the most powerful or the fastest of Cecilia's team, but he was among the trickiest to fight with his harassing and skirmishing tactics. The fact that Sceptile had managed to stand up to him was a testament to his strength. He might have made it close had he not been locked into bug and fighting type moves. I definitely needed to look into more of those types of moves for my team in case some other trainer ever had the same tactic as Chase and Cece.

These battles were relatively short and more fast-paced than usual since we could play them a lot more aggressively than usual because there were no consequences to a loss, but I was still learning a lot.

Cecilia grinned as she patted Scyther on the back. "I can't believe that worked! You did great!"

The bug type screeched and shook his head dismissively. He didn't really care about her praise much.

"Is it the first time you managed the darkness trick?" I asked.

"Yes. Chase helped me, but we never got it down until now," she excitedly said. "Now I just hope we can replicate it in battle."

"You will. And it's you and me now," I told Cece. "I'm going to use Princess."

"Princess, hm?" Cecilia mused. "I'll use Talonflame, then."

"Hell yes! Remember the last time they actually fought one on one? That was the Floaroma tournament."

Lauren walked up to us with a smile. "This is so much fun. Who knew battling with friends felt like this?"

"I told you you should have hung out with us sooner," I said. "I'll get in position."

Talonflame was actually a perfect matchup for Princess, since I was interested to see how good she'd gotten at shielding herself against extreme temperatures in a situation that wasn't a controlled environment. She'd have to multitask, so this was going to basically simulate the actual battle with Volkner. We released both Pokemon, and they floated high in the sky. Slowking counted down, and the battle began anew.

She's going to build up speed and Heat Wave, I thought to myself.

"Agility, Tailwind, Flame Charge and Heat Wave," Cecilia ordered.

"Keep a barrier around yourself and get some rocks," I said.

Talonflame's body loosened as she flattened her wings against her sides. The bird fell to the floor, speeding up until she caught herself at the last second and her body burst into flames. With a squawk, she blurred toward Princess and started gaining altitude with the wind at her back.

The air was growing hotter.

Princess ripped a set of fifteen head-sized rocks from the ground and chirped as they began orbiting around her. Talonflame simply circled the arena as she built up her Heat Wave, since they didn't want to get in Princess' Psychic range.

What they didn't expect was that we had another move at our disposal.

Princess grunted as the heat pushed against her shield, and I knew now that she was struggling to keep her shield up. Using it while doing other things was still too difficult for her, but practice made perfect. I waited just a few seconds until Talonflame reached the closest point and sprung to action.

"Extrasensory in front of her!" I yelled.

By the time the command had gotten out of my mouth, Talonflame was just where we wanted her. The air in front of her blurred, and the fire type screeched as she flew through it. She'd gotten a headache no doubt, but what I'd been waiting for was for her to slow down. Princess knew me and how I fought by now. The rocks orbiting around her flew toward Talonflame and reformed into spikes mid air.

Lances would have won, but that would have been overkill.

"Air Burst!" Cecilia yelled.

One of the spikes stabbed into Talonflame's chest, but that was all we got. The fire type flapped her wings with a defiant cry and a powerful gust of wind pushed the remaining stones away. The air was sweltering by now, and both Pokemon's form were blurry through the barrier.

"Air Slash," she continued.

"Air Cutter from below," I countered.

Talonflame flew quickly, but Air Slash was slower than what we had. The air below Talonflame sharpened and cut her body, slashing into feathers and skin. It'd been even faster than I expected thanks to the massive updrafts from the superheated air. I ordered Princess to gather some rocks again, and she did so. Having them in that form not transformed into anything would keep an opponent on their toes and guessing what we'd do.

Now, in a normal battle, the best play for Cecilia would have been to keep away from Princess while the Heat Wave did its job, but this was no normal battle.

"Go as fast as you can and Aerial Ace!" Cecilia yelled.

She was going for broke and hoping that the force—

"Extrasensory and Psychic!" I said, my words so quick they were barely coherent.

—behind the move would be enough to push past Princess' barrier, Extrasensory and Psychic.

A pillar of air in front of Princess grew strange in an effort to slow Talonflame down, and she threw all of her rocks forward, opting for blunt force this time instead of spikes. Talonflame slowed, but she pushed and kept going. The streaks of air forming from her beak destroyed most of the rocks, and she kept flying toward Princess.

We needed more juice.

"Dazzling Gleam!" I yelled.

Of course, the problem with Dazzling Gleam was that the move came from Princess' skin, and that for that, she needed to pull down her barrier. Her fur caught ablaze as she dissolved the last amount of protection she had, and light and wind exploded out of her. The Dazzling Gleam blinded Talonflame and burned her body into a hazy, smoking mess.

With a tilt of her head, Princess grabbed Talonflame's body with Psychic. The fire type had only stopped mere inches from her face, and she struggled in a desperate attempt to break free as Princess recreated her barrier.

"You win," Cecilia conceded. "You could just slam her against the ground and break her wings."

I nodded and wiped the sweat off my brow. Some of the heat had leaked past Slowking's barrier too. I recalled Princess to free her from the fiery arena and healed her with more potions. One thing was for sure, this was efficient, but we'd burn through potions pretty quickly. Slowking made sure to keep the barrier up until the air naturally cooled. Once I walked up to Cece again, she was already healing Talonflame with potions. The headache would stick around, though, so she'd need a big break.

"Isn't Princess just the worst to fight?" Cece asked Lauren. "You can't slip up even once."

"I'd like to have Sirris battle her," she grinned.

"Well, Flare Blitz or Brave Bird would have broken through and taken us down," I shrugged.

"Let's not do what-ifs," Cecilia said. "You won, end of story. Now, who's going next?"

We ended up doing this game the entire afternoon, cycling through our Pokemon who had gotten enough rest. Even Alakazam wanted to go home and thought we were insane. Since Cece had fewer Pokemon available than we had, she battled the least, meaning that Lauren won the most battles, I was second and she was third. By the end, all of our Pokemon were exhausted and definitely needed to spend the night in the Pokemon Center. I'd wanted Sunshine to battle Lauren's Rhydon, but we were interrupted by a text.

Denzel, Emilia and Pauline had arrived in the city.

Alakazam Teleported us back to Sunyshore immediately. Lauren bid us farewell, saying that she wasn't really good with reunions, and we waited at our Center after texting them the address.

Needless to say, I tackled Denzel to the floor as soon as he walked through the doors.