Chapter 293

Chapter 293

CHAPTER 293

I'd known the next day would be a boring one, though hopefully there would be no incidents. I woke up early in the morning, having gotten awful sleep and feeling weird about having stayed in Charon's old bed. The room itself hadn't had anything particularly weird about it other than being strangely sterile and clean. It was the kind of room that felt unlived in, because it was. I'd be willing to bet Mira hadn't stepped foot in there once since returning to Jubilife, or even longer than that still. Nevertheless, the sounds of slowly getting ready also woke Mira up, and she decided over breakfast (that we'd gotten delivered again) together that she'd go out with me today, mostly to stretch her legs and to see what the 'pricks' at Poketch were all about. Those had been her words, not mine. I didn't think Ramon and Bobby were pricks, especially when they could have been a lot worse about what they did instead of working together with me. Ramon did get a little annoying sometimes, though, with how sarcastic he was. It didn't cross on the sardonic like Maxwell, thankfully. A pang of guilt struck my chest, and I took a deep breath as we left Mira's apartment complex. I hadn't spoken to my ACE Trainers since the incident, and honestly, I figured they wanted it that way.

"Woah. Sick ride," Mira joked.

Dad honked the car, already waiting for us on the sidewalk. He'd always been punctual with stuff, and since he had taken some days off work, he didn't really have anything else to do.

"It's functional," I said. "Comfy, too. The seats are softer than they look."

"That sounds good, actually, I didn't get much sleep."

"Me neither. Worried about Alakazam and Gardevoir?" I asked.

"Partly. I'm not worried about the reveal itself, more about what Emi's going to do. She's tough... mentally. It's like I'm flipping a coin, here. Either it makes her more likely to get involved, or she stands down. Those are better odds than always getting involved, though, and at least if they do they'll know the full picture."CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m

"What about Pauline?"

Mira snorted, recalling Gengar through the pavement. "Pauline will fold. First, she'll deny for a while, probably text us for confirmation, then she'll get angry until she burns out and collapses like a dying star. She'll be terrified. Her tough girl persona's a front."

"It's not a front."

"No, sorry, not a front. It's mostly all a joke, though. I mean, she almost had a breakdown over romance— ah, sorry, I'm being mean."

"Yeah. You are."

"Yeah. My bad, I was thinking about other stuff, and I tend to ramble without thinking about... the ramifications when my attention is divided. I like Pauline, it's just... you know, she grates. Sometimes it's better to just stay put if you don't have the guts to handle this kind of stuff."

I wanted to protest, but Dad honked again, and this time we got in the car. I slipped into the front seat while Mira got behind my Dad, instantly putting her seatbelt on before she even settled on the chair with white-knuckled hands. I kissed Dad on the cheek, did the same, and we all greeted each other after he started driving.

"Mira Compton, right? It's nice to meet you," Dad said, keeping his eyes on the road.

"You too, Mr. Pastel. Uh, your daughter's been a great friend."

He smiled. "Arthur is fine, and I'm glad to hear it. Last night was fun, I hope?"

"We watched that show I told you about," I said. "She was really into it."

"I kept having to stop you from spoiling me. You're horrible to watch a show you already know with."

Dad chuckled. "She probably gets that from me, so I apologize."

"Apology refused!" Mira grinned. "Hey, can I have some embarrassing stories about Grace's childhood?"

"I wouldn't call them embarrassing, more like funny and endearing..."

I would have pinched his side, had he not been driving. Instead, I spoke obnoxiously loud until I masked all attempts of him trying to reveal anything about me, which sent Mira into a laughing fit. The rest of the ride was calmer, with Dad and I talking about whatever and Mira sometimes chiming in, but mostly keeping her eyes to the window. There was a rhythmic thing about her breath that had me think she was sleeping with them open and sometimes talking at the same time, and that would be seriously scary. There was something about how Wailord and Wailmer slept with half of their brains turned on so they could go back for air during the night, and I was wondering if she hadn't been the same. Able to rest parts of her while the rest stayed awake. Sure, we'd told each other good night, but it wasn't like I'd actually seen her sleep since I'd visited her.

When we reached Poketch Headquarters, pristine and both towers rising high into the sky, Dad spoke up. "I'll come pick you up again if you need it, alright? I'll be at that tournament place on our street, they're running a water type only thing and I want to see how quickly it derails."

"Thanks! Oh, and also, it's Mira's birthday on the 30th, can she hang out with me then at the apartment?"

"Yeah, of course. I'll see what I can do about a cake."

"Legendaries, you're the best," I smiled. "See you later!"

He drove off, and it was just Mira and I in the employee-only parking lot, free from the press of groups of fans. The shutter clicking of the cameras could still be heard, even if the journalists kept their distance and were only allowed to stand at the edge of the parking lot. Some yelled at me and asked for an interview about Claydol, which I'd revealed yesterday at the park.

"Sheesh. Sounds annoying to have to deal with," Mira said as we entered through the side doors. Her hands were shoved in the pocket of a baggy hoodie she was wearing. Neither of us had really dressed to impress, and the morning, tired feel still clung to both of us. "So what's the plan? Is Melody meeting us down here?"

"There's a room. I think it's the same room we were in yesterday, but it's mostly formality stuff before we present everything to the board. Well, when I say 'we', I'll just have to stand there and look confident."

"I guess I'll wait for you in that room, then."

"There are a bunch of sofas if you wanna lie down. They might kick you out while we talk pitching strategy, though."

We made our way up at a brisk pace, or as fast as we could with my broken ankle. This time, I was fifteen minutes early. I was glad to see I wasn't the last one there this time. Twice in a row might have been seen as disrespectful. Ramon was missing, but Amandine was already here. By the end of this morning, this entire Poketch thing will be over, I thought with a relieved sigh. Business politics were not for me. They weren't something I was passionate about like Pokemon rights, and so every minute spent here was a slog. It was like time passed twice as slowly and just listening to the ramblings of all the business people trying to squeeze profit out of us.

"Mornin'. Is it okay to bring a friend here?" I asked.

There was Melody, Bobby and his liaison Dennis, and the lawyers all looming over the long table. This was a lot more low-key than I thought it'd be. Craig was here as well, chatting with Amandine. They all greeted us politely.

"She'll have to leave when Ramon gets here in a few minutes. He had to deal with family problems, so he'll be right back," Mel answered.

"Yeah, I'll get out of your hair, or whatever," Mira shrugged.

Bobby must have noticed my eyes narrowing, because he added onto Mel's sentence. "They don't want him leaving."

"I thought he was leaving next year," I said, meaning one year after me.

"He is, and they still disagree. They've been screaming his ear off the entire morning about it, so you can relax. It's a done deal, Grace."

I sighed, settling in on the couch next to Mira and thankful that Bobby wasn't asking about Claydol for now, even though he was so clearly interested in it.

"Oh, Grace, check on your emails and get back to me, yeah?" Melody said, keeping her attention on some papers.

I did just that and contained an excited squeal when designs of my merch popped up on my screen. "Mira, Mira, check this out! Holy shit, these look so cool!"

They were mostly t-shirts, but there were also water bottles, stickers, hats, a Poketch Watch, and best of all, the knife. All of them had variations of me and my team on them, and just like Craig, I did notice they focused a whole lot on Sweetheart. There was, of course, no merch with Claydol on it quite yet. The colors were all different, but they were all pastel-themed as a play on my last name. They'd made my Pokemon look quite nice, too. Not fierce or scary like I was scared they'd do, but soft-looking, or at least as soft-looking as you could make a Turtonator or a Tyranitar. One of the shirts had Angel carrying a cartoonish version of me, another had Honey and I cooking, me flying on Princess with a bright smile and pointing forwards, Sunshine and I sleeping next to each other, Buddy serving as a pillow while I read him a book... Arceus, I was getting emotional. So many memories had been put on these.

"Wait, wait! What's this one?"

I stopped scrolling through the designs and noticed the same picture I'd posted online with the flower crowns near Floaroma and beamed. "My new favorite, I think. Do you think it's obnoxious if I only wear my own merch from now on? Craig doesn't do it."

"It would be super obnoxious. You could do it during Gym or tournament battles, though," my friend mused. "Hey, I get a shirt for free, right?"

"I'm charging you extra," I said, my face straight. "Just kidding. You get whatever you want for free when they start mass-producing these. I wonder if I could get them early..."

"I mean, you're literally the girl on the shirts. It'd be weird if you couldn't."

I hummed, turning toward my liaison. "Mel, these are all great. The team did a fantastic job, I— thank you."

She smiled. "Glad you like them."

If there was something to be said about Poketch, it was that they could make merch. Mira and I spent the next five minutes or so looking at my clothes, deciding which one we'd take. I wanted to deck out my computer in stickers of my team, a ton of shirts, the knife with a Princess motif on the handle... I wanted too much stuff to fit in my bag, actually. I'd have to leave some at home with Dad.

"The good thing about you having merch is that it kind of makes people associate you with certain Pokemon," Mira said. "Like, when we think of Craig, we think of Salamence, Snorlax— though I guess Bertha and Cynthia have him beat in the Hippowdon and Eelektross front, but do you get what I mean?"

"This is rocking the boat," Mr. Sandy said. I did notice his small glance of approval toward Remington McMillan before he started speaking. He was obviously a long-time smoker, with the way his voice sounded like it was one bad cold away from permanently disappearing. "Risky. It's a tough sell, to change the system we've gone with for so long... but the potential is there to make Poketch a household name in multiple regions."

"The upfront cost is something to be worried about," Remington agreed. "But these markets are untapped. With Unova alone, we have more potential customers than all of Sinnoh. It's a no-brainer."

"These stipulations about Sinnohan salaries are a little grating," Landis said. He was the only one not scared to speak up without his father's approval. His eyes settled on Bobby. "I hope you know we'll make your life harder because of it, right?"

My fellow trainer didn't answer, though I could feel the tension leave his shoulders a little. Arceus, he was weird. I understood always waiting for the other shoe to drop, but to be relieved because of it?

Remington gestured at his son, who shut up immediately. "Nonsense. Cooperation between all our branches is what makes Poketch successful," he said with a smile. There was something sinister about it that either meant Bobby or Landon were in trouble. Or both. Rarely had I seen someone with such amounts of power without any Pokemon to back up the talk. "These plans all seem in order. There'll have to be some adjustments, but it is all feasible before next September."

Just like that, everyone else agreed. Even Landis. Remington McMillan's word here was as good as law, and so it would be done without a fuss. From what Mel had told me, I knew Unovan expansion was his pet project and something he'd been planning for nearly two decades, shortly after Cynthia ascended to her position and started opening up the country, and he was not about to let a small hiccup get in the way of that. It was funny, in a way, how one man's personal agenda was going to be the cause of such a shift. This was the kind of power Cecilia dreamed of having, and to be honest, me too, just a little bit.

In a more morbid way of thinking, he probably wanted to see it through before he died. He was in his seventies.

"The proposal will be put into place effective immediately, and the transition will take place this summer." Remington said with a satisfied sigh. "Now, we'll have a word with only Grace Pastel and Craig Goodwill."

Everyone else but us and Melody left the room, and a weight lifted off my chest at this Poketch stuff finally being over. Now I'd be able to focus on training my team, especially since I was picking up Princess tomorrow...

"This is the first time we're speaking face to face, is it not?" Mr. McMillan said, looking right at me. I nearly jumped in surprise, but managed to pretend I'd just been needing to scratch my arm.

"Ye—yeah. Nice to meet you all," I said.

Greetings sounded throughout the board, and Remington continued, "Now, seeing as you wrestled a position that still keeps yourself at the top of the pyramid when the year is done, we still need to work out the details of this transition between Mr. Goodwill and you. You're going to be international. That means we'll have expectations of you, even starting in Unova. More communication with medias, both traditional and social, more presence in tournaments, keeping your face in the news..."

"We could send her to visit some trainer schools, Pops," Landis grinned. "He always loved to do that with Craig, and they take those seriously in Unova with Blueberry Academy being a thing."

"Exactly. Now, it is my understanding that you want to get involved in politics as well," Remington said.

"So long as they're not extremists, it's fine, right? You let me get involved in Pastoria."

"Pokemon Rights are a bit of a hot button topic in the country, at the moment," Smithson chimed in. "Would it be wise to let her take a side on the issue?"

"God, you're so inoffensive," Landis groaned. "Pokemon Rights, honestly, who gives a fuck, but polls repeatedly have shown that younger people— our main demographic— are in favor of laws to better protect Pokemon across nearly every region, Unova included. Her taking a side on the issue is fine."

Remington raised a hand, and the room fell silent again. "My son is correct, but there is a line that mustn't be crossed. Plasma."

"You don't have to worry about that. They—"

"Have moderated their platform recently, had Ghetsis Harmonia Gropius vocally support them two weeks ago and are surging in the polls thanks to a coalition backed by young people who usually don't come out to vote," Remington interrupted me. "They have fringe elements, but they are not extremists any longer, Ms. Pastel. The majority of their members and supporters are people like you."

I blinked at that. My image of the Plasma Organization had always been Mallory and the way she'd told me she wanted to abolish all trainers, so this was all new to me.

"I mean, if they're like me, it's not that bad—"

He interrupted me again. "If we have you support Plasma, the people in power, the real people in power—" the members of the board around Remington chuckled. "—will push us out of Unova before we can get a proper foothold in the country."

"Why's that?"

"Because they're the people who can actually change things," Craig shrugged as he fiddled with his nails. "I'd be willing to bet they'd be fine with you backing all the other small orgs, but not an actual political party with real power."

Ah. It was at times like these, that Cecilia raving against the status quo came back at the forefront of my mind. No one wanted to rock the boat, and Plasma was the definition of that.

"I... I get it," I said. "Yeah, okay."

I got it, but that did not mean I agreed. If Plasma was a problem because they could change things, then any organization would be a problem as soon as they grew big enough. They were essentially giving me those fucking fake driving wheels you gave children in a car and had them pretend they were driving. Telling me to have my fun, but not to expect to actually change anything.

Well, fuck that.

I my lips stretched into a forced smile, and the board kept speaking about plans of transition. The only play I had was to make myself too important to dump, and to let Poketch get their foothold before I really got going and tried to connect with like-minded people in public, which might take a few months. That did not mean I wouldn't be able to check things out in secret, though. Maybe see what this Plasma stuff was really about when the crazies weren't speaking.

"Now, we have a press conference set up next Wednesday where we'll announce Craig stepping down and you stepping up for the first time in public..." Remington continued.

—

The meeting took an extra twenty minutes to finish up, and as soon as I was out of it, Bobby and Ramon swarmed me to figure out if I'd screwed them over or not, which I obviously hadn't. I was getting a little tired of these guys expecting me to stab them in the back at the first opportunity just because they had an outdated idea of who I was. I mean, even after bonding together, they still thought I was out to get them? It was a little grating, but at least they apologized by the end of it and we were cool again. Now that everything had been finalized, part of me wanted to return to not bothering to keep up with Poketch stuff again, but I knew that was just the lazy part of me speaking. Connections weren't just made, they were maintained over dinner, meetups, battling, texting... it was kind of exhausting, but it had to be done, and at least they were fun to talk to.

Now I was on my way to find Mira while Melody had gone back to work. I'd hoped she could join us and Dad, mostly because I wanted him to make friends, but duty unfortunately called. She had said she'd ship one of every merch item to my Dad's address, though. Mira hadn't been in the meeting room with all the couches, so I assumed she was waiting in the lobby. My eyes scanned the massive waiting area filled with enough chairs to fit at least a hundred and fifty people and found her instantly, with the way her pink hair popped to my eyes. I made my way toward her, and she winced before waving back at me. She was in her head again.

Mira shot up and clapsed my wrist. "How was it? Did everything go alright?" she instantly asked. "Did you guys do it?"

"Well, I didn't really do anything beyond standing there... but yeah, we did it," I grinned.

My friend pumped a fist. "Hell yes! That's great, I'm happy for you. Now you can finally stop stressing about it."

"Yeah, it's a huge relief," I exhaled. "Wanna get out of here? I texted Dad before the board meeting and he should be here in like five minutes."

"Wait— didn't you see my text? About Aubri?"

I frowned and grabbed my phone. "Ah, crap. I missed it. Did she do something? Do I need to talk to Mel?"

"No, no, relax! She just wanted to apologize to you about yesterday, but for real. It's not a trick."

"To me? I didn't think she was the kind of person to..."

I stopped, realizing that she'd kind of said sorry before leaving the bathroom stall already, so my words didn't really make any sense. I still didn't trust this. Was there a play here? No, it wouldn't work, or she would have struck when Ramon was emotionally vulnerable because of the issues with his parents and before the board meeting. Was an apology really all there was to it?

"I saw her coming in and thought she was planning to screw you over, but it turned out she just felt bad," Mira said. "I can get her down here if you want."

"Huh. I mean, okay?"

Having someone I'd designated as an enemy in my head apologizing had kind of knocked the wind out of my sails. Every time I heard Aubri's name, now, I expected a fight or at least an unpleasant interaction of some kind, which was crazy considering I hadn't even met her that many times. Her words yesterday had... really hurt me. I'd kept hearing them when trying to go to sleep, tossing and turning in Mira's apartment, and had Buddy not been keeping an eye on me all night and forced me to sleep with my hands above the covers, I might have made a mistake. Mira clapped my shoulder and went to get Aubri, so I just stood there with a blank look, not knowing what to think.

Aubri's one-eyed stare was just as hardy as it always was. The way she looked me up and down had my body instinctively grow tense in a way that sickened me, because it meant I was scared of her. Of what she could say to me. For a bit, she silently stood there with her hands in her pockets until I couldn't take it any longer and colors flared to life around the lobby. Aubri was a wispy, dull gray of uncertainty. She didn't know how to begin. Breathing a sigh of relief, I let the colors dim again. I'd slipped, and I had no idea what I would have done had she been planning a trap.

Something to talk to Aliyah about.

"Well?" Mira pressed. "Come on, it's not that hard."

Aubri cleared her throat. "I apologize for what I said yesterday. It was terribly out of line, and I hope our relationship can remain professional and functional. I will refrain from implying anything about your... past experiences in the future, and if the company requires us to see each other like in Sunyshore, I will make sure to treat you like any other colleague."

It was strange, the way she spoke like those lines had been rehearsed when they clearly hadn't. Or maybe they had, and she just hadn't been sure they were the right words after coming face to face with me? I hadn't delved deep enough to tell, only staying at the surface of what she felt.

"I accept your apology," I flatly said.

She dipped her head a fraction. "Thank you."

That was that. I didn't think we would ever be friends, but maybe that was okay.