Chapter 254

Chapter 254

CHAPTER 254

"So you're saying that Abel Torres is in this city?"

The lights of the interrogation room were so harsh I could feel them on my skin. Apparently this was one of their most comfortable rooms, which was why it had a nice couch that I was seated on, but other than that there wasn't much else. The police officer dragged his chair a little closer to me with a stoic, but worried look. The last time I'd been with an officer was in Sandgem, and that had been a terrible experience. I had come in here thinking that I'd be treated the same way.

"His Zoroark, more specifically. A Unovan dark type that can turn into other living things through illusions," I explained. Could they actually turn into non-organic beings? Questions for later. "She was with his Hypno. Abel himself was on the mountain on route 213 and caught a Leafeon."

Officer Pugh let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand over his bald head. He was taking me seriously. Giving credence to my claims. Arceus, it felt good for my words to matter. Sometimes I wondered what had happened to that officer in Sandgem and what would have happened if they had taken our claim seriously. I doubted that Cyrus would have been apprehended. He'd probably Teleported out as soon as he'd found the lake and called Charon. Maybe it would have made a difference, still.

The chubby officer wrote for a few seconds on his notepad, but I continued. "It'd be nice if you could announce his presence here for people to take precautions and everything. Zoroark could be anywhere," I muttered. And we wanted him to feel the pressure. Better he slows down stealing or stops entirely, even if he might take precautions and become harder to find. "We think he has links to the poachers on route 212, but we have no hard proof yet. Just evidence."

Mr. Pugh nodded. "Is that everything?"

"Yeah, I believe so."

"Thank you for your report," he said. "You wanted this to be anonymous, correct?"

"Yeah."

He went over my story another time to make sure he had gotten every detail correctly, and then let me out of the interrogation room. He led me back to the lobby, where more officers worked around the clock behind reinforced glass. Cecilia was there waiting for me. She'd given her report too, with Croagunk there to confirm everything (every police station had at least one psychic).

"Everything went okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, swimmingly." I grabbed her hand and squeezed it, leaning one of my crutches against the plastic chairs. "Now we wait. Abel will be put on blast, and he'll wonder who screwed him over. Maybe that'll make him stop sending his Zoroark out on these kidnapping missions."

It was hard to remember that what he was doing technically wasn't illegal— or at least the catching part of it was. Who knew what happened to those Pokemon afterward? A sudden shiver shot up my spine and my hand tightened around Cecilia's. I let go, grabbed my crutch and we walked out of the station.

"Denzel, Emi and Pauline are coming back today," she said. I knew she was trying to change the subject to cheer me up. "Pauline said she'd try to catch a sixth in the Safari Zone."

Louis and Maeve had too, although they'd come up empty yesterday. Maeve was specifically looking for a Yanma while Louis didn't even know what he wanted yet.

"Good. Any later, and she'd fall too far behind. How are you planning on getting Croagunk up to speed?"

"Scyther seems to have taken a liking to her, and she enjoys Slowking's jokes, believe it or not," Cecilia said with a beautiful laugh that left just as fast as it came. "She's still having a tough time, but hopes of saving her friend drives her. For now, I'll just work on her basics and have her focus on a few moves. Poison Jab, Venoshock, Rock Smash— and I'll have her learn Brick Break. Then, we can expand."

I paused for a few seconds, and then moved to face her. "Say, why don't we go to the beach later? My team's going to be all healed soon, and I want to teach them how to swim."

Cecilia smiled. "Swim? For Wake?"

"Well, that and the general applications of swimming," I specified. "It's just a good skill to have. What do you say?"

We had gone on a date in Sunyshore where I'd shown her the isolated beach, but the weather had turned against us that day and we couldn't go into the water. It had been too cold, and the rain hadn't been in our favor either. Of course, I wouldn't be able to go in the water due to my cast, but that didn't mean I couldn't go to the beach and sit on one of those chairs or a towel to take in the sun. Cece could go and enjoy it.

"Obviously yes," Cecilia said with a roll of her eyes. "Slowking will be better off improving his swimming as well, and it would be nice for Talonflame and Scyther to practice getting out of the water as fast as they can."

"Awesome."

We walked back to the Pokemon Center, which took a while because of how slow I was. I picked up my team as soon as they were ready. After texting the group chat about the police report going through (we figured it was time to inform everyone that Abel was in this city and possibly working with poachers), we decided it was time to leave for the beach. Beforehand, though, I had to address my team in private. I donned the swimsuit we'd bought at the Hotel Grand Lake and wore a shirt and a pair of shorts over it before making my way to the park on Princess' back.

Actually, could sand damage my cast? I'd better put a plastic wrap around it just to make sure. Eh, I'd look it up later. Right now, I was too busy smiling at how good the wind felt against my hair.

Princess landed near that same park where we had played music for the Kricketot in, and I released the entire team when I got there. Sweetheart, who showed her first signs of molting, shivered within her shell as I rubbed her chin and the spot between the spikes on her head. One more after this one, and she'd evolve. The sparks coming out of Honey's fingers were smaller now. I couldn't wait until I could finally hug him again. They all greeted each other in different ways. Sunshine patted Sweetheart on the head while he grunted at the others until Honey gripped his hand and patted him on the shoulder. At this point, the dragon didn't feel anything from the relatively small electric shocks that never made it past Princess' barrier. Princess hovered above me and let everyone greet her first.

Arceus, she was turning into a brat. For now, though, I let her have her time.

Two minutes of greetings later, I was sitting on Princess' fluffy back. She had lowered herself to the ground for me, and I could almost sink into her.

"So, we lost against Barry— but," I stopped to raise a finger. "The fact of the matter is, we could have won had I just been better. Made better decisions. The loss is on me."

They were reluctant to agree, of course. I knew a bunch of 'what-ifs' were running through their minds right now. What if they'd been stronger? Faster? Dodged that one attack? It was a train of thought that could utterly consume someone if they let it run wild, but we'd learned not to do so. I clapped my hands to have them focus back on me.

"In two days, I'm getting paid enough to buy a TM for each of you," I said. "And we'll keep our heads in the game. Barry Lane is the strongest first-year. He had all of Professor Rowan—" I stopped, remembering that none of them knew who that was. "A really famous Professor. The most famous one in Sinnoh, in fact. He has all of his resources, and we almost got there. We're strong, guys. Revel in it. Doesn't it feel good?"

Honey smiled, revealing his flattened teeth, and he let out a motor-like giggle. Sweetheart roared, causing the floor under her to rumble. Princess rubbed her head against my hand and cheered with a cry. Angel caressed everyone with vines, and Sunshine didn't swat it away like he used to do. Buddy sagely nodded, an almost-silent click reverberating across the woods.

"We'll go further, still," I grinned. "The next time we fight Barry, it'll be our win. For now, though? Back to training! Today's going to be a little special, although Honey will be exempt because we don't want to get anyone electrocuted. Any guesses?"

Jellicent immediately guessed, taking the fun out of the entire situation. Sweetheart and Angel cheered, although Sunshine snorted and waited for me to say he'd gotten it wrong.

"It's true. You're going to learn how to swim."

Turtonator balked.

—

"You aren't nervous? Not even a little bit?" I asked my girlfriend.

"Why would I be? I'm going to be strapped in a saddle."

I pouted. "You're no fun."

Seeing her be all anxious about flying would have been cute, but then again she'd been completely zen when Craig had flown us back to Eterna City. Princess lowered herself to allow Cecilia to climb on first. It was her first time flying with two people, but I was confident she'd grown confident enough with flight for it not to matter. Two was definitely her max, though. There was no way we'd ever get up to three. Pauline's Braviary, meanwhile, could probably carry six people with the right saddle. Cecilia helped me up on Princess' back, and I strapped myself in too, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach when she wrapped her hands around me from behind. I knew for a fact that she didn't need to do it either.

But it felt good to.

"Go ahead. To the beach," I told Princess. "Uh, preferably a spot without many people?"

And if she was gone, who had they replaced her with?

A cry from Princess snapped me out of my thoughts, and she turned toward a dark spot in the sky. I squinted, still constantly running my hand on her back.

"Your eyesight's better than mine. What is that?" I asked, leaning toward her ear.

She answered Honchkrow, and it was then that I remembered that a man with that Pokemon had revealed his cover when Abra had tried to whisk me away with Teleport back in Veilstone. His name was... Maxwell, I remembered. I ordered Princess forward, and with a flap of her wings, the momentum shifted. Wind whizzed past my ears in the same exhilarating fashion it had our first flight, and my lips stretched into a thin smile.

As we approached the ACE Trainer, something dawned on me.

Honchkrow weren't supposed to be this big. Usually, they were four feet tall, or somewhere around those lines. This one was slightly bigger than Princess was. Was he another insane genetic mutation like Pauline's Braviary? I'd been so shaken during the Abra attack that I hadn't noticed at all. The dark type's feathered cap tipped itself as he hovered in the air with his two wings lazily outstretched. Maxwell's dark hair was unkept and he looked tired, but other than that he was the same as every other ACE Trainer. The orange uniform, strong-looking with lean muscles and a few scars here and there, the most prominent one being a cut stretching from the top of the right side of his lip to his cheek, stopping right below his eye. Lucky. What was particular about him was that he didn't wear any goggles to protect his eyes.

"'Afternoon," he lazily drawled, much more emotive than Ariel ever was. "How can I help you, Ms. Pastel?"

"Hi. Um—" Arceus, now that I was here I didn't know what I wanted to say. "Okay, first off, what happened to Ariel?"

"Rotated through the formation. She recused herself as your contact and I was ordered to take her place," he explained. "She's still hanging around."

How the hell did she hide something like Dragonite? She might have had other fliers— honestly, the fact that I didn't know the Pokemon teams of the people protecting me didn't feel normal, but secrecy and all of that. They weren't allowed to get close to me or become attached so they could make the hard decisions down the line, like... kidnapping me and keeping me locked in a cell should the need for it arise. I have no idea why that's the first thing that came to mind.

"Okay," I exhaled. It was difficult to speak this high up in the air. The sound of the wind was deafening, and it blew against my face, so it wasn't carrying the sound of my voice very far. "I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind!"

"Answering what you want to know is my job so long as the questions are reasonable," Maxwell nonchalantly shrugged. Honchkrow let out a mocking cackle, not at me, but at his own trainer. He didn't care at all, though.

"The poacher's base is somewhere on route 212's swamp. I feel like—" I groaned when more wind interrupted me. "—I feel like a couple of fliers should have been able to spot it?"

Maxwell nodded. "Pastoria has sent a couple already. No reports of any base being found. Hearthome helped by sending their own Rangers down their side of route 212, but there was nothing either. No base found."

So they had tried. The entire narrative online made it seem like the League was doing nothing. Of course, a full search with hundreds to thousands of boots on the ground wasn't feasible. Even if they used the Rangers, the risk involved would send the casualties skyrocketing, both from potential attacks from poachers and the Pokemon in the swamp thinking that humans were invading again. A massive sweep like that happened every time a city expanded. Pokemon fought back as best they could, but at the end of the day, they were always beaten back. The average Ranger wasn't actually that powerful. Less than the usual League Trainer, at the very least. Of course, there were definitely a couple thousand stronger than I was throughout the region, but the point was, there was no political will to send a bunch of Rangers to their deaths in a swamp for a base that may or may not have existed.

I moistened my lips. Good thing Alex was teaching me things fast.

A few powerful trainers could have dealt with this, like Craig, Aubri and the others who routinely made it to the Conference, or at least I thought so. Maybe they wouldn't have found the base either, but they had the power to do things. Unfortunately, trainers like them were more worried about where they'd place in the Conference than things like this, and it wasn't their job to do anything anyway.

"Could it be underground? Out of view from any flier?" I asked.

"Under a swamp? You'd have better luck building a flying castle," he dismissed. "They're good at hiding, which makes sense considering they apparently have Abel involved."

Ariel must have told him about that.

"He learned some new tricks," I warned. "His Hypno knows Miracle Eye, now. He used it to Teleport Zoroark around. You know what that means, right? He can have his Zoroark act independently and have her essentially be anywhere at any time."

Maxwell's eye twitched, and it wasn't because of the wind. It made sense for him to be wary of being in a city. People knew what he looked like, even though he had no striking features. Zoroark could turn into anyone at will. Such an ability still boggled my mind. She didn't even need DNA like Ditto did! So while Zoroark kept to the city and the Safari Zone, Abel kept to catching Pokemon in the wild. How many wild Pokemon had they caught, anyway? There was no way Leafeon and Wooper were the first, and they also targeted trained Pokemon. Why? Wild Pokemon would be possible to influence so they were ready to be sold, but trained Pokemon? Malamar had brainwashing, but he needed to be close to his victims, or he'd eventually lose his connection.

"What's with all this poacher talk, Ms. Pastel?" He asked with narrowed eyes. I couldn't help but notice that he was sticking with that name.

"If I told you to do something about them, would you do it?"

"No. That is not the mission I was assigned to do," he immediately answered.

Of course. My shoulders slumped, and Princess let out an angry chirp, calling the ACE Trainer a bunch of swears that Sunshine had taught her. Some of these were even new to me. Honchkrow smirked at her outburst, and I calmed her down by caressing her head.

I nodded. "Okay. What if I told you that we were going to do something about it, then?"

Maxwell raised an eyebrow, and his Honchkrow cackled once more. The dark type apparently loved when someone went against his trainer. "Then I would tell you that is horribly unwise, stupid, dangerous and that you should keep playing badges."

Playing badges. I didn't like that tone, but he was a grown man, so maybe that was how it looked from his perspective.

"But will you stop us?" I asked.

Maxwell hesitated. "My orders say no, and I listen to my orders. If you weren't allowed to put yourselves in danger, you'd grow slower, and we can't have that now, can we? We'd have to step in should you be attacked by a human trainer, but I doubt you'll have any luck finding a base of operations. At this point, we believe they're Teleporting somewhere else after they steal anything. With Abel's psychics, it would be very likely."

I wanted to smirk and cry at the same time.

Good.

Now, how the hell were we going to find a lead?

—

It was evening now. I'd spent the last few hours of the afternoon getting Buddy started on Taunt and making plans for him to further his encroachment into water manipulation. I had a lot of ideas swimming in my mind, but I needed something that would actually help him. It was nice to create a move, but what we needed was more utility with the water. He already had Water Spout and Hydro Pump, so he was good on that level for a while. I tapped a finger against my chin and slung an arm around the backrest of my chair, pushing myself back against the desk.

Barry had Roserade possess plants with spirits. Could I do the same with water? Of course, I had Night Shades to fill that niche, so I wasn't looking for pieces of water to attack our opponents.

Buddy had two weaknesses at the moment. One, he was too fragile. Even when he solidified himself, an attack powerful enough could dismantle him and it took a precious amount of seconds for him to come back together— sometimes even a minute if he'd been damaged too much. Two, he could be frozen too easily, and since he was fully made of water, that was a death sentence in a fight. Scald was an option, but that was a temporary fix that would only break him out of the ice just like Water Spout, not stop the freezing entirely. A defensive move, then. Coating himself with water wouldn't work with the ice problem, but what if that water was possessed? Or what if that water was coated in dark TE?

I actually had no idea if it would work, but it was an idea. Wake had at least one ice type move on almost all of his Pokemon at the seventh badge, and Buddy was too instrumental to that battle to leave those weaknesses unaddressed.

We'd practice that tomorrow.

I almost had all the TMs I wanted to buy in mind save for two because of budgeting, and due to the contract, it would be some months until I could renegotiate a raise again. I hadn't understood it at the time, but the Poketch Company definitely hadn't been as lenient as they had looked to the naive person I'd been in Hearthome.

"Next time, I'll ask for a whole lot more," I muttered.

I spent the next hour alternating between studying Wake and rewatching my battle with Barry until my phone rang.

Denzel, Emilia, and Pauline were back.

And Arceus, they'd taken their sweet time.