Chapter 66

CHAPTER 66

After that almost disastrous contract negotiation with Retani Industries, Cece helped me release a statement exposing their shady dealings on the forum, and Denzel took care of calling them to say that we weren’t coming back. I felt like I should have been doing more to help and warn people, but this was all I could do. At least I could rest easy knowing that the vast majority of trainers browsed the forums at least once in a while, and with my boost in popularity, maybe they’d use that small moment to look up my post.

After that, I finally decided to go pick up the rest of my team, but first, I decided to get some gifts to celebrate, which I could afford with the money I had gotten from winning against Gardenia. Zipping back and forth through the city was annoying, but the look on their faces would be worth it. First, I bought enough poffins for Frillish— although everyone would probably steal from his share. Tangela didn’t eat, but maybe there was a way for him to enjoy tasty things. I needed to look that up eventually to be sure if he couldn’t enjoy the taste of food once in a while like Frillish could. Then, I purchased a small Tepig plushie for Togetic, who could finally use Extrasensory on something other than rocks or poor angel, who she seemed to enjoy bullying.

Maybe bullying was the wrong word since Tangela didn’t seem to mind whatsoever. He didn’t seem to mind many things, to be honest, but I still felt bad for the little guy. I decided to get him a stress ball of some sort that he could use his vines to press and touch. I wasn’t sure he had ever touched the material before, so he was bound to be interested in it, with how curious he was about touching everything new.

Denzel and I already owned a portable battery that we used to cook, but I decided to get Elekid his own battery. Most electric types were capable of generating their own electricity, including him, but apparently, they enjoyed getting it from other sources. It was supposed to feel good if it wasn’t their electricity or something. I’d be able to charge it on the road since it was solar-powered.

I really needed to learn more about the ins and outs of caring for my team.

Since the others were out training and Denzel was depressed about the sponsor incident, I decided to finally get back up to my Pokemon Center room. Plus, it’d be convenient since I was just picking up my team. I grabbed my Pokeballs from Nurse Joy, rode up the elevator, and entered my room. It was scary how fast I had gotten used to the luxurious life at my friends’ hotel because a small part of me remembered Pokemon Center rooms to be bigger than this. People got used to wealth way too easily, so it’d be nice to get back to Earth and sleep here once in a while.

I released my team, and they rushed toward me. Togetic flew at me and knocked me to the ground, rubbing her head against mine. Elekid clapped my shoulder affectionately, and Tangela rubbed me all over with his vines. Even Frillish was staring at me with that smile that I had learned to love.

“Okay, okay, I’m also happy to see you guys,” I laughed. “You were all amazing during the battle. Every single one of you did your part.”

Elekid stood up straight and yelled proudly.

“Your Ice Punch was awesome,” I grinned. “You were even better than when we trained. I have gifts for you guys! Here,” I said, rustling in my bag. “For you,” I said, handing Togetic her Tepig plush.

“Togeprri!” The fairy type cried out cheerfully before grabbing her toy. She flew around the room with it, throwing it in the air and catching it with Extrasensory.

“Glad you like it, princess,” I smiled. “Don’t tear it up, or I’ll have to get you a new one, and that was the last Tepig in stock! For you, Frillish, I have your favorite… Mago berry poffins!”

I saw his eyes twitch a little, but he stayed still and just nodded. He was so strong, pretending not to be completely enchanted by the poffins.

“C’mere and get some,” I said. “Or I’ll have to feed all of them to the others. Elekid’s never tasted any, and you would like some, wouldn’t you, hon?”

“Elekid!” The electric type yelled.

Tangela writhed slightly and curiously felt at the poffins with a few vines, but he seemed uninterested. Togetic flew close, still carrying her toy with her psychic powers.

“Fri…” Frillish said, clearly annoyed, but he came close nonetheless. I grabbed one of his tentacles and looked at him.

“Seriously, I want you to know that I’m very proud of you,” I told him. “Without you, the entire strategy falls apart, and you poisoning that Lombre helped a lot too. I know how hard you practiced with Poison Sting.”

The water type nodded, and I pulled him close into a hug. “Now here, say ahhh,”

Frillish rolled his red eyes and opened his mouth, and Elekid couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Frillish glared and threw water at the electric type, who easily dodged, and the two started playing a game of chicken throughout the room. Elekid somersaulted behind the bed, and Frillish flew after him.

“Hey, no water!” I exclaimed before groaning. “Angel, help me out.”

Tangela blinked twice and gently trapped Elekid with a few vines by cornering him against one of the walls of the room. Frillish’s eyes glinted, and he spat out his biggest jet of water yet, but angel quickly dragged Elekid into my lap. Togetic giggled and clapped her hands at the whole ordeal.

I scratched my head and stared at the wet room. “Well, at least it’s just water, I guess. Come and eat,” I said, beckoning Frillish.

I fed him the vast majority of the poffins, but I also fed some to Elekid and Togetic as well, much to Frillish’s chagrin. Togetic complained that the poffins weren’t made of Oran, but I reminded her that this was Frillish’s gift and not hers.

“Next up, for you, honey,” I said, staring at Elekid. He looked at my bag, barely able to contain his excitement. “A battery.”

I handed it to him, and he grabbed it, staring at it confusedly for a few seconds before exclaiming and finally understanding how to use it. He quickly drained it of its entire energy and yelled out as he flexed and spun his arms around.

“Done already?” I asked with a pout. “I guess it isn’t much for you, since it’s meant for humans. I hope you like it still. It’ll recharge alone with the sun when we travel.”

Elekid nodded and caressed my arm, shocking a small jolt of electricity. I flinched, and he apologized profusely.

“It’s okay, it didn’t hurt,” I said. “I guess you’re not used to manipulating electricity that isn’t yours. Last but not least, angel. I have this for you,” I said, pulling out the stress ball. It was rather big, barely fitting in my hand, so I hoped it’d be big enough for him to have fun with it.

I felt Tangela’s vine around my wrist tighten slightly. He was excited. I grinned as he extended one of his vines and carefully felt at the multicolored ball. After a few seconds of feeling and pushing it around, he grabbed it from my hand and started compressing it over and over, smiling with his eyes. I could barely see the ball under all of his vines now.

They all loved their gifts. I was so happy that I felt a few tears build up in my eyes. I held them back.

“You guys have fun, I’m going to work a little bit,” I said, standing up and walking to my desk. Tangela, Elekid, and Togetic played together while Frillish watched over my shoulder. I affectionately grabbed one of his tentacles and placed it against my head. “Thanks for worrying about me, bud. I love you.”

Frillish huffed and took his tentacle out of my hand. He was shy, but I knew he appreciated the comment. I had told myself I would take a break from Pokemon training after the battle with Gardenia, but I couldn’t help it. I lived and breathed Pokemon battling. So while I’d give my team a break for a few days, I had a few things to work on.

I grabbed a notepad— the same one I had used to write down notes before going into Eterna forest— and I put the video of my battle with Gardenia on my Poketch.

I hadn’t done this after Roark, which was a shame, but better late than never. I was going to call this the ‘post gym battle autopsy.’ I’d analyze what went wrong, what went right, and what I needed to change or improve, and ideally, I would do this after every gym battle, and maybe future tournaments too.

I pushed through the visceral discomfort of hearing my shaky voice on video and started watching. The first thing I noticed was that even though I thought I’d been hiding behind a stoic mask like Cece did during the gym battle, it was actually very obvious to tell when I was nervous, excited, angry, or panicking with the tone of my voice and my body language. I couldn’t help it.

“Maybe masking yourself and what you’re thinking just comes with experience,” I muttered as I fast-forwarded through the video. “Arceus, Grace, stop shaking,” I groaned at myself.

Alright, so that part of the plan had failed, along with trying to read Gardenia’s body language during the battle. Even though I had studied it a decent bit, I had been too distracted to do so. For example, when Gardenia was about to completely ruin your day with a tactic she was cooking up the entire battle, she fucking laughed and giggled like a little girl.

“Ingrain, Growth, Solar Beam!” The video played back, and the gym leader laughed until the sound of her voice was drowned out by the huge, bright attack. I still couldn’t believe Togetic had dodged the first and withstood the second by weakening it using all those layers of Ancient Power.

I scribbled away in my notebook and reached another conclusion. With Togetic’s newfound prowess with her psychic powers, it might be possible to start thinking about restraining Pokemon with Extrasensory and then using Sweet Kiss on them at the same time. Thunder Wave was out though since the attack took too long and too much focus. It was something to consider experimenting with, at least.

Next up, it was time to look at Frillish’s performance. He had actually done his job perfectly, and the only problem had been my fault. I had used too many videos from last year’s Circuit as a reference, and in those, Lombre hadn’t known Mega Drain yet. I still had a lot of work to do regarding information gathering. It was hard to remember that the gym leaders’ Pokemon also improved and learned new moves throughout their lives, slowly moving up in the kind of battles they could be used at. Roark’s Onix had been on the cusp of being too strong for trainers with no badges, and Gardenia’s Sunflora was the same, although for trainers with one badge instead.

Elekid had done his job wonderfully, even though I hadn’t used him as much as I wanted. That Roselia and her Toxics were so accurate that they had hit my fastest Pokemon, so it was obvious it would have poisoned the others easily if Elekid hadn’t taken care of it so fast. The situation with Leafeon made me realize that the electric type needed a move that could affect a large area around him. Tangela could extend his vines in every direction, Togetic had Fairy Wind and Frillish was good enough to keep a Bubblebeam going for long enough to find a potential opponent in time. Luckily for me, I had the perfect move already lined up for him: Shock Wave. The attack was a quick burst of electricity all around the Pokemon— like a weaker version of Discharge. If the opponent was in range, there was no way it could miss. I would need to start working on it with Elekid after his break.

Finally, Tangela. The grass type was even more powerful than I thought. The combination of Bind and Mega Drain was seriously hard for a Pokemon to get out of. He had been perfect as well, and I’d need to teach him Leech Seed soon. In the long term, I wanted angel to have as much survivability as possible, and the move would help greatly with that.

Next, I needed to replay the fight in my head and figure out what I’d change in hindsight.

This was going to be a fun day!

——

I stretched in my chair and yawned as my Poketch started ringing. It was already night time, and I had lost another day engrossed in Pokemon battling. I rubbed my eyes and answered the phone without looking.

“Grace,” I heard, recognizing Cece’s voice. “I’m calling to tell you that the party’s been moved to tomorrow, so there’s no need to come if you don’t want to. I’d like it if you still did, though… you can sleep over again.” She said.

“I’ll come!” I said, suddenly feeling awake. “But why is it canceled? Did something happen?”

“The gym is closed tomorrow,” Cecilia said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

——

As soon as I heard the news, I hurried to Cecilia’s hotel room, where everyone else was already, including Denzel.

“Sorry, I was busy,” I quickly said, taking off my shoes. “Can someone tell me why the gym is closed? Doesn’t that literally never happen?”

“They’re saying that Gardenia will be occupied tomorrow speaking with the protesters and stuff,” Denzel explained. “So the entire gym’s closed for the day.”

“What happens to the people whose battle was tomorrow?” I asked.

“The entire schedule’s moved up a day, so all of our battles are the day after tomorrow,” Louis explained.

Justin groaned. “I had just gotten myself mentally prepared too.”

“Why are you complaining?” I asked, sitting next to Cece. “It just gives you another day of training, no?”

“I’d rather just rip the bandaid off and be done with it,” He said, sinking into the couch. “The nerves are getting to me.”

“Hmph. How weak-willed of you, Justin. You’re better than a man that would worry about nerves,” Pauline complained.

“You’ll do fine,” I told my friend. “Just keep the strategy I gave you in mind, and things will probably work out.”

Pauline’s eye twitched. “You gave him a strategy?”

“Yeah, when he asked me for help with his Lotad a few days ago. Do you want one too?” I grinned. “It’ll probably be a big help since you’ll be fighting two-on-three.”

“I don’t need anything from you,” She crossed her arms. “I’ll be fine on my own.”

“Pauline, don’t be foolish,” Emilia sighed.

“What? I’m telling the truth!”

And so, we spent another night talking among friends. Still, at the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but worry about how things were progressing. The fact that the demonstrations were so significant that they forced the gym to close was concerning. The only time Pokemon gyms closed was when the leaders were sick, and usually, one of the gym trainers that were good at battling took over their duties for the duration of the problem. But to close the gym entirely? Either I was worrying for nothing, or things were worse than they seemed. Way worse.