Chapter 248

Chapter 248

CHAPTER 248

"Sorry again that you can't use your Tangrowth to walk here," Alex apologized with an awkward smile. "He's way too big."

Alex was almost done showing me around now. The building was mostly full of empty offices because no one had been called in due to the UPAN's current inactivity. Since the place was old, there was no elevator and I hadn't gone up the stairs, so I technically hadn't seen most of the place, but according to Alex, it would just be more of the same. In a way, it was kind of underwhelming, and not at all what I'd pictured when I first heard about this organization, but Alex swore that it was temporary. It was easy to tell that he didn't want to let me go.

"No worries. I'll deal," I answered with a tired huff.

I followed him down a hall, although it was clear he was slowing himself down so I wouldn't fall behind.

"Ms. Webb seemed really excited to have you here," he continued. Clearly, he was trying not to let this fall into awkward silence, and I was happy to bite.

"That's her excited self?" I asked. "I thought she was going to yell at me."

"Yup. She doesn't smile very often. The last time I saw her do that was her birthday two months ago, but even that didn't last very long. Blink, and you'd miss it," Alex said. "It's probably because you're a big deal."

I nodded absent-mindedly. "So you're a trainer?"

"Technically. I don't battle, though. Not because I oppose it or anything!" He quickly stammered. "It's just not for me. I tried it out when I was fifteen for a few months, but it never went anywhere. I... well, at least it made me come here. Been in the UPAN ever since. I volunteered at first, but now I work here."

He opened a door and gestured at me to go inside. The door looked more like a living room than anything else. Bookshelves hugged the walls, but they had very few books and a lot of decorations like artwork, ceramic vases, unlit candles, and plants. It did smell really good in here, though. Everywhere else else smelled of wood and freshly printed paper.

"This is a meeting room. Sit down so you can rest, you look pale. I wanted to show you one last thing first, but it can wait."

I'd put on a brave face the entire time, and that didn't change, but I did feel grateful he had noticed I was tired. I hadn't wanted to say anything because not being able to walk for long pissed me off, but a relieved sigh escaped from my mouth as soon as I collapsed on the couch. I let my crutches fall to the ground and splayed out on the sofa like a slob.

"Damn. I guess I pushed you, my bad," he said, scratching his head. "Do you want anything? I'm sure we have something in one of our medicine cabinets upstairs... maybe water?"

Arceus, I'm pathetic, I bit my lip to contain a groan.

"I'm okay," I sighed. "Thanks for asking. So you said that your time as a trainer made you join the UPAN?"

Alex looked startled for an instant as if he hadn't expected me to ask a question while I'd been hurting. Unfortunately, I needed a distraction from my throbbing ankle. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"Yeah. I'm actually from Sunyshore. I traveled with two other people originally, and they were... well, they were pretty awful to their Pokemon."

My breath trembled. He kept going.

"They'd treat them fine almost all of the time. More than fine, really. But when they lost in a battle? They'd put all the blame on their Pokemon and spew the vilest words at them. Worthless, trash, useless... and worse insults that I don't really feel like repeating. We all got stuck at the second badge, and needless to say, after a while I just separated myself from them. I couldn't — I can't be friends with people like that," he paused and frowned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I breathed. "Yeah, I am."

"So then, I tried for another month or so until I got tired of the Circuit, and I looked into Pokemon abuse. That got me involved in Pokemon Rights as a whole. I still specialize in abuse today, though. It's a sizeable problem with weaker trainers. zero and one-badgers, mostly. Physical abuse is a lot rarer than psychological, thank Arceus."

"There's no way you'd be able to be a good trainer without treating your team correctly," I muttered as my heart stirred. "You blame your Pokemon for battles, and you'll never improve yourself."

My mind flashed back to the trainers we'd seen during our second crossing of Mount Coronet, with their Pokemon so wounded that they could barely walk straight, and yet they hadn't been brought back in their Pokeballs despite them being near the entrance. There had been a few incidents close to Sunyshore I had to stop as well. Of course, there were always one or two exceptions, but even Saturn seemed to care for his Pokemon with the way Sunshine had spoken about him, and Mars seemed to care for her Dusknoir too in some messed up way.

Not that that made me hate them even a fragment less. I still wanted them to die by my hands.

"People don't want their egos hurt," he said. "They think they're going to be the next Cynthia their entire lives, and then it turns out, they aren't, and they feel the ground sink under them when they realize they'll probably have to quit for one reason or another. Not everyone can afford to try for years."

"You can't justify the way they think!" I scoffed.

"I'm not justifying, I'm just telling you that's how they think."

I bit my lip. "Right. Sorry."

"I can tell you're passionate about this, at least. That's a good thing, but it's important to get in the heads of the people you're trying to change."

"Some people are beyond saving," I said. "There comes a point where you've done too much to be forgiven."

"I have faith in people and humanity as a whole," he shrugged. "There's a lot of things you can do beyond punishment. Education is important. What if every trainer had to take a class on how to treat Pokemon before they left off? Yeah, that wouldn't fix everything, but it would help. You've got to chip away at the issue. Hell, I'd make wild-traveling classes mandatory too instead of optional, but that's an entire other problem."

I nodded. "That's a great idea! But I didn't see it on your platform."

"Oh, that would rock the boat way too much to actually be on our official program," he laughed. "They're just a few pet projects of mine I try to push whenever Ms. Webb gives me the time of day and is willing to entertain me."

"I looked at your program, and I also looked at the PFA."

Alex's mouth flattened, and his back straightened. "The PFA's kind of a taboo around here. They just say anything to get in the headlines and get attention instead of making tangible progress."

"They have some good ideas, don't they?"

"Well, I won't deny that they have some," he reluctantly said. "But there's a difference between good ideas and ideas that are actually achievable. The world isn't a vacuum. You can't just do whatever you want."

"What about the psychic idea? Putting some in every Center?"

Alex hummed. "Good in theory. Tough in practice. First, you'd have to breed thousands of psychics, and that's expensive, especially now that the Hunters aren't in the picture. They also can't just be set up to punish bad trainers. That's a narrative waiting to blow up, with how little trust there's in the government right now. And even then, the PFA is suggesting to make them therapists too, and to be honest, I agree. Trainers get free therapists, so why not Pokemon? The problem is that we just don't have money for all of that, and we didn't even before the sanctions."

"Right," I realized.

"There's always going to be a fear of control, though. Pokemon Centers are government-run, and that's a slippery slope a lot of people wouldn't be okay with."

"Okay, I kind of get it," I said. Trusting the League was something even I couldn't do. "I mean, I do think we also have to figure out a way to stop trainers from catching Pokemon against their will too, and I thought psychics would help with that, but I get that it's a lot more complicated than I thought. What else is there?"

"Well, why don't you try to guess?" He smiled coyly.

"A quiz, huh?"

I leaned on my palm and pondered his questions for a few seconds.

"Would it make trainers that abuse their teams less likely to take their Pokemon to the Center?"

His eyes widened slightly. "That wasn't what I had in mind, but I... I guess it's true? You see the same thing with parents that abuse their kids. They don't take them to the hospital for bruises they give them and things like that. I never really thought about that."

"What is it, then?"

"The vast majority of Pokemon abuse doesn't come from trainers," he said. "It comes from people who would never have a reason to bring their Pokemon to the Pokemon Center in the first place. People who find loopholes in laws to still use Pokemon as labor, people that hunt rare Pokemon and only keep them to sell to breeders, things like the Game Corner— when there's money involved the chances of abuse skyrocket."

"That... makes a lot of sense."

"See what I'm saying?" He said. "The PFA is focusing on things that aren't really a priority. To be honest, the UPAN is just ignoring most of what I just said because they don't want to be written off as extremists, so all of this is just me rambling. The only hardline stance the UPAN has is the banning of breeding Pokemon for food."

"That's considered hardline?" I scoffed, raising my tone. "Fucking awful."

Alex sighed. "Yeah."

After a pause, he perked up.

"You know, I think we're going to get along. And to be honest, this whole breeding thing needs a revamp too..."

"Yeah. You do something for months, and you think that you can't stop, or you'll lose all of your motivation to work. I thought the routine was the only thing that kept me in it. That if I took a break, I'd disappoint everyone who looked up to me. I thought that stopping would make me burn out, when it was really the opposite. I think I was burning out."

"Oh..." I trailed off. "And now, what do you think?"

"Well, that was all bullshit," he laughed. "This is so much better."

"I always thought you worked way too much," I said. "I'm sorry, I should have said something sooner. I didn't want to get involved, since it seemed like you knew what you were doing."

"No worries, Grace. At least I fixed it before irreparable damage could be done," he paused for a few seconds. "Is that training I hear in the background?"

"Oh, yeah! My team's hard at work— though Honey and Sunshine are at the Center, as you know."

Arceus, he was going to freak out when he saw Electivire.

"Hope your leg's doing okay," he said.

"It's not, but I can take another painkiller in—" I took my phone away from my ear to check the time. "—two hours and forty-seven minutes."

"Damn. It's so bad you're tracking it down to the minute, huh?"

"Well, when I talk to people or I focus on something else, it doesn't hurt that badly."

"I'll help, then. What are you working on?"

I let out a taunting hum. "I guess I can let you on a few secreeeets."

Denzel groaned—

"Don't roll your eyes at me," I said.

"Damn it, how did you know?!" He chuckled.

"Seriously though, I'll tell you a bit of what I'm working on. For Princess, I..."

—

I arrived in my Pokemon Center room late at night, and despite my best attempts, falling asleep was impossible. I had taken another painkiller during training and I wasn't allowed to use any more today. I lay still in my bed for hours until I cracked and decided to call Cecilia. It was three in the morning, so I was almost certain she would be asleep, but she actually answered the phone after a little while. The sound of her voice alone soothed my pain. Or not, it was definitely just a placebo effect and me being way too happy to hear her after one day apart.

We told each other about our days and everything was going well (despite her relentlessly worrying about me) until Cecilia said that she had something important to talk to me about.

"Um, say, Grace. I have something to tell you about Abel. I told this to the others already, but... I'm feeling conflicted about him."

I paused. "Conflicted how?"

Cecilia went on to explain that despite everything Abel had done to her, she wanted him to be freed from his chains in Sinnoh so that he could go to Unova. She justified herself in numerous ways, mostly by saying that she wanted her father to burn— a sentiment I understood very well. What I couldn't understand, however, was the fact that she wanted someone else to do the burning for her. A criminal that had caused her so much pain and suffering— that had almost pushed her to commit suicide! A scumbag that was worse than trash and that justified all of the horrible deeds he did by saying it was just a job.

"Cece," I muttered. The words almost died in my throat. "Why?"

My girlfriend stayed quiet for a few seconds. "I told you why."

I frowned. "I don't understand. I mean, I do, but I guess I don't understand how your mind prioritizes things."

"The short term isn't everything, Grace," she told me with a firm voice. "You have to look beyond what's on the horizon, or at least try to."

"I..."

I sighed. I didn't want to argue or debate. Not tonight.

"Fine. I'll try, but don't expect me to just let him escape."

I had to stop myself from scoffing at my own words. Me? Abel would run circles around me for a lifetime if he needed to, but the words had just come out before I could think. It was the same thing whenever I thought about Mars and Saturn.

"Sorry," I said. "I just feel like him getting off scot-free for what he did would be really hard for me to accept."

"He went after me, not you," she said, raising her tone slightly. "So let me decide. When we inevitably have to follow Chase to stop him from getting himself killed, we don't even know what will happen. Mira suggested we give Abel no quarters because if he can't escape here, then he wouldn't be able to put even the smallest of dents in Unova. Plus, we don't even know if he's truly involved. I am hoping he isn't, to be honest with you."

But then, that meant Leafeon would never get back to Carnivine, I thought to myself.

"And you shouldn't even be involved with your broken ankle in the first place!" She yelled. "Do you want to get hurt again? Abel doesn't kill unless he's paid or absolutely forced to, but he can still leave you in the hospital for weeks or months! And even then, the poachers could be paying him to do so, and I am sure they will have no mercy either. I know we'll have the ACE Trainers, but they aren't infallible, as you know now."

Buddy, who hovered closely above me, nodded as his eyes dimmed.

I ignored the bad taste in my mouth along with the surge of pain in my ankle at its mention and sighed. "Yeah. I guess that would be the best choice, logically speaking. But I don't see myself sitting in a Center while you're all out there."

She exhaled. "Let's just change topics. I don't like fighting. We can all hash this out when we meet."

"Fine. But I am telling you that if you decide to go into route 212, I will come. I don't care how much you all push back against my decision, I will be there."

"I'm not even the one wanting to do this. Chase is. He wants Denzel and Lauren involved too, but he won't force them to come if they don't want to."

"Denzel and Lauren don't have ACE Trainers," My stomach dropped, and I shifted in my bed, ignoring the pain in my ankle. "They shouldn't get involved. The ACE Trainers won't be able to cover for all of them and protect us adequately."

Denzel was too good of a friend not to come, and hiding it from him would basically be impossible. Lauren, I was less sure of her commitment.

It dawned on me.

"Cece, this is a really stupid idea."

"Like staring at two trains about to collide," she affirmed. "We could convince Chase not to do this, maybe?"

I rubbed my forehead and thought for a few seconds. "We can try. What I'd really like is to talk to the ACE Trainers and tell some of them to do something, but I'm not naive enough to think they'd do it. We'll have to talk to them about it anyway, though."

The conversation died down for a little bit, and I decided to change the subject. I didn't want to talk about dark things for the entire hour.

"So. What are you thinking to beat Crasher Wake?" I asked.

—

The next day passed in a flash, and I spent almost its entirety training. I finally picked up Honey and Sunshine from the Center, and they were surprisingly excited to get in a tough fight so soon. The fact that Sunshine had struggled against a plant— and yes, he had called Carnivine a plant— had him thirsting for a good fight where he could get his revenge. Personally, I didn't know how the hell his revenge made any sense when we wouldn't be fighting Carnivine, but I just attributed that to him being his usual self. Honey was just eager to get a better feel for his new form, and for that, he needed to fight more battles. The electric type had spent his day of training learning to better control himself. He was almost no longer super-charged (and he had probably given the Nurses a lot of trouble), but he still had a lot more power than he'd ever been used to.

Now, another day had passed, and we were ready for Barry, although none of my friends had made it to Pastoria quite yet. The closest ones would make it this evening, and the rest would make it tomorrow. I showed up at the address he had given me on Angel's head and saw him already waiting there. He waved at me with so much gusto that I thought his arm must have been hurting. His Empoleon stood tall beside him. The water type was slightly bigger than Louis', but just from one look at him I could tell he was nowhere as serious. His resting face was a smile, just like Barry's.

"You're late!" He exclaimed.

I grabbed my phone and checked the time. "It's 12:55. I'm literally five minutes early."

"Cutting it real close, though," he waggled a finger at me. "My mother taught me to always be twenty minutes early everywhere you go."

"Uh, I think that's just a you thing," I said. I leaned toward the door and saw that the place was packed, but that should have been obvious from the number of people already outside. Looks like my and Denzel's advertisement on Chatter helped. "Should we go in?"

The blond trainer pumped a fist, and Empoleon mimicked him, which ended up looking extremely awkward. "Sure thing! We're all excited to fight."

We stepped into the arena, and I took a deep breath.

This was going to be tough.