Chapter 6: Decision Time
"Battle Frontier? What's that?" Cinder asked, staring at Scott in confusion.
"The Battle Frontier is the name for a group of facilities where Trainers compete in various forms of battle," Scott explained. "They're sort of similar to Gyms, except they're run by a Frontier Brain instead of a Gym Leader and instead of a Badge you get a Symbol upon winning. The big difference is that a lot of Frontier Brains use different rules to test a certain area of expertise for Trainers, and as such they're said to be even tougher than your normal old Gyms," he added with a chuckle.
Clair rolled her eyes. "Of course, if you beat eight Gyms, where the Gym Leaders are almost always going easy on their opponents in order to test their opponent's strength, you get to challenge the Pokémon League, which is obviously much harder than some silly Battle Frontier."
"But because you Gym Leaders almost always go easy on your opponents, you have to fight every single opponent that comes your way, and you hardly ever have a real challenge from the random kid walking in and demanding a battle," Scott replied, still grinning. "Tell me Clair, besides your battle tonight, when was the last time you had a real challenge from a fairly unknown Trainer? One where you didn't hold back at all?"
Clair grunted and rolled her eyes, but didn't respond to Scott's question. Instead she said, "Look, we could stand here arguing which is better, Gyms or Frontier Facilities, so why don't we just agree to disagree?"
"So I take it that means you yield the argument to me?" Scott asked with a laugh. Clair glared at the chubby man and opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Cinder.
"So why did you want to talk to me?" Cinder asked, trying to redirect the conversation before a giant argument broke out between her former master and the Battle Frontier owner.
"Hm? Oh yes," Scott said, turning his attention back to Cinder. "Well, you see part of my job of being the owner of the Battle Frontier is finding Trainers who I think are worthy of challenging it. After all, I can't have any old trainer challenge my Frontier Brains. They would be crushed."
"So that's what you're doing here," Cinder said, understanding dawning upon her. "You were looking for powerful Trainers who you want to partake in your, uh, challenge or whatever it is."
Scott nodded, his grin still plastered to his face. Cinder was beginning to wonder if it was a permanent feature on his body. "Exactly! This Dragon Festival of yours attracted Trainers from all over the globe, so it was the perfect place for me to go to scope out some talent."
"So what does all this have to do with me?" Cinder asked.
"Seriously? Are you really that stupid?" a new voice asked, drawing all three pairs of eyes to the new figure who was stomping towards them. "For some weird reason, Sunglasses over there thinks that you actually have some talent as a Trainer," Cole sneered, instantly making Cinder's temper flare.
"Well now, who's this?" Scott asked upon seeing the new arrival, the smile on his face dropping a little.
Cinder glared at her brother, crossing her arms across her chest. "He's nobody," she growled, her eyes never leaving Cole.
Cole smirked at her in response. "Now is that anyway to introduce your older brother?" he asked, his mocking voice just increasing Cinder's rapidly growing temper. Turning to Scott, Cole said, "As for you Sunglasses, you can call me Cole."
A single brown eyebrow emerged above the top of Scott's sunglasses as he turned to glance at Cinder. "This is your brother?"
"Unfortunately," she grumbled.
"I have to agree with you there little sis," Cole said, still smirking. "After all, I can't believe how someone like me could be related to a weakling like you and a freak like Blayze."
Clair regarded Cole with a cold stare. "You know," she said, "one should not talk about their family in that way. It is very disrespectful, and your actions make others think less of you."
"I don't really care what you think about me," Cole replied, shrugging. "After all, I beat you fairly easily if I remember correctly."
Clair glared at the insolent boy, replying, "I was testing you, just like all other Gym Leaders do. Our jobs aren't to win every single battle we're in, but to give badges to Trainers who we feel earned them through a variety of tests via battling. In fact, I can assure you that you've never actually had a true battle against a Gym Leader, for I have no doubt that any one of us could beat you with your attitude."
"Excuses, excuses," Cole replied, lazily examining his right hand and ignoring the glares he was receiving.
"What do you want anyway Cole?" Cinder asked, trying to find a way to get rid of her annoying older brother.
Cole simply shrugged in response to Cinder's question. "Well, why do you think? You were just in a fairly big battle with a Gym Leader, and I was coming over to talk to you about it. After all, who else is going to point out that blue hair over there went easy on you, and that you should have been beaten into the ground. Instead, you got a bit lucky, and on top of that, your opponent went soft on you. But I guess that's what happens when you never use your full strength." With this, he glanced over at Clair and smiled at her. "Your weaker battling becomes your strongest battling. Your skills get dull, your Pokémon lazy, and you simply lose your previous skills. Not that they were high up there in the first place though."
"You certainly are critical, aren't you," Scott said, taken aback by the boy's rant. Hearing Scott's reply, Cole wheeled around and faced him, regarding him coldly.
"What's it to you, Sunglasses?" he asked, his eyes looking over the slightly shorter man, taking in his tourist-like appearance. "By the way, just what were you talking to these losers about anyway? Are you some sort of retarded fan of theirs or something?"
Scott frowned at Cole, obviously displeased with the teen's attitude. "Actually, my name is Scott, and I'm the owner of the Battle Frontier. In fact, before you so rudely interrupted, I was just about to ask your sister here if she would be interested in—"
He would never get to finish his sentence though, as Cole cut him off with a burst of laughter. "Are you serious? You're the owner of the Battle Frontier, and you actually think that Cinder is tough enough to take on that challenge? Wow, either you're even dumber than you look, you're a horrible liar, or everything I've heard of the Battle Frontier are lies and it's filled with a bunch of weaklings. Of course, the answer is probably all three."
"That's enough Cole," Cinder growled, both of her hands clutched tightly at her sides.
"Or what?" Cole sneered. "What's the little baby going to—" He never got to finish his sentence though, as Cinder's right fist shot out from her side, punching Cole square in the face. Cole let out a gasp of surprise from the blow and staggered backwards, clutching his face and swearing loudly.
"You have no idea how good that felt," Cinder said, rubbing her right fist with her left hand.
"You...You freaking bitch!" Cole sputtered, glaring at the red haired girl through a crack in two of his fingers. With an angry snarl he launched himself forward, only to run into something very large, and fairly scaly. Glancing upwards, he met the eyes of a rather pissed off Gyarados, who looked like he was only a bit too willing to crush the little pest beneath him.
"That is enough!" Clair grumbled, stepping in between the two quarreling siblings. "Both of you are acting like children."
Cole glared at the Blackthorn City Gym Leader and opened his mouth to speak, only for Gyarados to growl menacingly at him. Needless to say, he didn't say whatever it was he was planning on saying.
"That's better," Clair grumbled.
Scott coughed quietly in the awkward silence that followed, Cinder and Cole simply glaring at each other and Clair making sure it didn't go beyond that. "So, um, anyway Cinder. Would you be interesting in competing in the Battle Frontier? I think you would enjoy the experience."
Taking a deep breath, Cinder tore her eyes away from Cole and glanced over at Scott. "I'm…not sure," she finally mumbled.
On the other side of Gyarados, Cole snorted. "Why? You afraid your puny little Typhlosion will get hurt again?" He was about to say more, but another growl from Gyarados quickly silenced him. So instead he grunted and folded his arms over his chest, glaring at the Atrocious Pokémon.
Scott continued on, ignoring Cole's little comment. "Well, why don't you think about it a little? After all, there's no rush or anything. You can take the Battle Frontier challenge any time you want."
"What about me?" Cole asked, glancing briefly over at the owner of the Battle Frontier before returning to glare at Clair's Gyarados.
"What are you grumbling about now?" Clair asked, her Gyarados growling slightly to add some intimidation. "Do you really expect some sort of special treatment from the three of us after the way you acted before? You should count yourself lucky that I haven't ordered Gyarados to Hyper Beam you to next Tuesday yet."
Cole smiled coldly at the Blackthorn City Gym Leader. "I'm…intrigued. I've heard of the Battle Frontier before from Trainers I've beaten on the road. I've read about it in a few magazines, and I've even seen a few television specials on it. And in all of them, they talked about how they each specialized in a specific trait to test even some of the most experienced Trainer's out there. And yet, on the day I apparently meet the owner of what I once considered a prestigious group of facilities, he's considering my sister for a chance to battle in the Battle Frontier. And I have to say, if the owner of the Battle Frontier would rather choose a girl who has never made it to the top eight in any competition over a guy who just placed second in the entire Johto League, then everything about the Battle Frontier would be a sham. Now I'm beginning to wonder how strong all those previous challengers really were, or if they were all really just weak Trainers who have no idea what real battling is. So I want to try it out for myself to see what it's really like."
Clair and Cinder glanced at each other. Neither of them had expected Cole to actually want to compete; at least, not after the way he treated Scott before.
A similar thought was apparently going through Scott's head, as he smiled and replied, "And why should I accept you? After all, you've insulted me, my facilities, a Gym Leader, and your own sister in a matter of minutes. That's definitely not the type of Trainer I want competing in my facilities."
Cinder winced as she heard Scott's verdict. Cole wasn't used to not getting what he wanted. And even though she agreed with his decision, it could spell trouble for her later on down the road if she went on to compete as well.
Surprisingly, however, Cole didn't react in a burst of outrage. Instead, he began laughing, further adding to the growing confusion of the other three people on the hill. "You…You think you actually have a choice in the matter?" Cole finally asked, his sides shaking as he tried to regain his composure.
"Um, yes, I do," Scott replied, only adding to Cole's laughter.
Finally, after about another minute or two, Cole finally managed to subdue his laughing for the most part. Taking a few deep breaths, he said, "Well you see Scott, if word gets out that the owner of the Battle Frontier refused to let the runner up from the Johto League last year and chose instead to have his own, less accomplished sister compete, people are going to start talking. And you can be sure that I'm going to do everything in my power to help spread those rumors, be them true or not. After all, I'm not some random half-baked Trainer off the street. I've got connections. And I can promise you that the public will never look at the Battle Frontier the same way again once I get through with you."
"You…You're giving me an ultimatum?" Scott said, shocked at the strange turn of events. "That's blackmail!"
Cole flashed a smile at the curly haired man. "I prefer to think of it as a deal. You do something for me, I do something for you. It's up to you really. Would you want to risk having the image of your little Battle Frontier stained, or allow a powerful Trainer to compete? And, being the generous person I am, I'll even promise that I won't talk about the Battle Frontier at all until after I've won if you agree. So what do you say Scott? Do we have ourselves a deal?"
Jessica stifled a yawn for what must have been the fifth time in less than two minutes. Grumbling slightly to herself, she pushed her chair away from her desk and the mound of paperwork on it, and stood up stretching. A new artifact being brought in always meant a mound of paperwork for her to look through and approve, and this one was no exception. But the paperwork always brought a slight feeling of happiness to her, as it meant that Damon was back and safe with her, at least for a little while.
Smiling to herself, she recounted the scene from the previous night. Typical Damon. He always did something unexpected when he came back from a mission, like sneaking up behind her and startling her. But he had never actually thrown a beaten up boy into her office before. That had been completely unexpected.
Almost as if on cue, a voice behind her said, "Arceus, I don't know how you can stand looking through that crap for hours on end."
Whirling around, Jessica suddenly came face to face with the person she was just thinking about. Sighing as Damon chuckled, she leaned back against her desk and folded her arms. "You know I hate it when you do that," she grumbled.
"And you know that's why I like to do it," Damon grinned. "Besides, think of it this way. One day you might actually notice me sneaking up on you. And once you do that, no one will be able to."
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Someone's got a high opinion of himself," she said quietly, causing the thief to chuckle to himself. "At least you're in a good mood today."
"Why wouldn't I be?" Damon asked, still smiling. "I was able to get that Dragon Fang without a hitch, caught a little sneak, and now I'm enjoying my time off with a truly amazing person."
At hearing the last part of his list, Jessica rolled her eyes and shook her head, but chose to simply ignore the flattery. "You call alerting an elite force of Dragon-type Trainers to your position, being chased by the Champion of Johto for hours, and almost killing yourself on a mission 'going off without a hitch?'" she asked, raising a single eyebrow.
Damon shrugged, but some of the lightheartedness in his nature from before seemed to have disappeared. "I've been through worse. We both know that."
"And that gives you an excuse to take excess risk with your life? Just because you've been through tougher challenges out in the field doesn't mean you're immune from any lesser mission going horribly wrong."
"I know that," Damon grumbled, crossing his arms in front of his chest and looking away from Jessica.
"Then why do you constantly insist on putting yourself in unnecessary danger Damon?" Jessica asked, exasperated.
Damon's eyes narrowed as he looked over at Jessica. "Now you and I both know that I don't do this just for laughs and giggles, so don't make it seem as if I willingly run out there risking my life for stupid trinkets that are hardly worth what it takes to get them. If it was my choice, I would pack my bags right now and wave sayonara to this place. But we both know that that's not going to happen anytime soon. At least not until the boss gets what he wants."
"It's just…hard sometimes," Jessica said, sighing. "I hate how I'm constantly worrying about you all the time. One week you're sneaking into a museum in Pewter City, and the next you're being chased by the strongest Trainers in all of Johto. What's next? A swarm of genetically-altered super Magikarp?"
"You know, if one were to genetically-alter something, I think they would settle on something a little better than a Magikarp. Those things will always be useless no matter what you do to it until you evolve them. But you're right," he said quickly as she began to glare at him, "it is getting a bit ridiculous."
"And it's not only the missions that have me worried. You've changed Damon. You're becoming more secretive, and more brutal too. I mean, just look at what you did to that poor boy last night. The Damon I know wouldn't do something like that. I don't know who you're becoming, but I know one thing: I don't like it."
"Hey," Damon said, uncrossing his arms and taking a step toward Jessica. "Come on now Jess, you know that's not true. I'm still the same old Damon, it's just that…recent events have caused me to do some…unconventional things…"
Jessica raised a single eyebrow as Damon stammered to a halt. "See, even you can't come up with a good argument."
Damon sighed. "So what do you want me to do Jess? It's not like I can control what mission Blackburn sends me on. And whether I like it or not, those missions sometimes force me to do some things that I may not want to do."
Jessica shook her head, sighing as well. "When did things get so complicated?"
"Oh, they've pretty much always been this way," Damon said. "You just never noticed it before."
"Oh haha, very funny," Jessica said, rolling her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something else, but at that moment, a cough sounded from the doorway of her office, causing both her and Damon to temporarily shift their attention away from their conversation to the girl standing in the doorway.
Looking awkwardly at the two of them, the girl mumbled, "Um, excuse me. I'm looking for someone named Damon Kione. Do, um, either of you know where I could find him?"
Jessica and Damon glanced at each other, not sure what to make of this random girl. She didn't seem to know what she was doing, as evident from her not knowing that the person she was looking for was standing right in front of her. Tentatively, Damon said, "Yes, I believe we know where you could find him."
The girl sighed in relief. "Ah, thank you so much! I've been running all around this building for a half an hour now looking for him. So where is he?"
"He's standing right in front of you," Damon replied, smiling as the girl began to stutter in confusion.
"Great, now look what you've done," Jessica said. In response, Damon glanced back and smiled innocently at her, making her roll her eyes.
"You're…and he…and I…with the…" the girl continued to stutter, much to Damon's amusement.
"So, why exactly were you looking for me?" Damon asked, trying to redirect the conversation back to the reason for the strange girl having been looking for him.
"Oh, um, yeah, right," the girl muttered, a blush spreading across her face in embarrassment. "Um, I have a message for you from Dianne." At this, Damon raised an eyebrow, and motioned for the girl to continue. "So, um, apparently you're supposed to be at this meeting thing with the boss at ten. He wants to talk to you about something."
Looking over at the clock mounted on the wall of Jessica's office, Damon swore slightly under his breath. Glancing back at the messenger, he said, "Nice of you to give me the message ten minutes after I'm supposed to be at the meeting."
The girl's eyes widened in horror as she too looked over at the clock. "Oh no! I'm…I didn't mean…I got…" she said, beginning to stutter again.
"Now, now, no reason to be so upset," Jessica said. "Damon's late all the time for his meetings anyway. Isn't that right, Damon?"
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," Damon replied, giving her another innocent smile.
"Well then Mr. I'm-never-late-to-a-meeting, shouldn't you be getting a move-on, seeing as how your standing here talking to us is just making you even more late?" Jessica replied. Damon's smile faltered, and he rolled his eyes.
"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to get rid of me."
Not missing a beat, Jessica smiled and said, "Well obviously I'm trying to get rid of you, you big oaf. I've got boring paperwork to through."
Cinder sighed as she gazed down upon Blackthorn City. The sun was just peaking over the mountains that surround the city, and most of the residents were just waking up, having stayed up the late into the night before for the festival. The evidence of last night could be seen all throughout the city, as clean-up crews were still out in full force, picking up garbage and tearing down different stalls and platforms. From Cinder's vantage point on the ledge above, they looked like tiny bugs scurrying around after their hive had been disturbed.
Sighing again, she pushed back the few strands of hair that had fallen into her face as she remembered what had happened last night. Scott had grudgingly agreed to Cole's deal, although he hadn't been happy about it at all. He had then proceeded to walk away, muttering something about needing his sleep, but not before reminding her that his offer still stood. Cole on the other hand had simply smirked and walked away in the general direction of their house. She could only assume that he had been there, as his bag, a week's worth of food, and other various belongings were gone by the time she had managed to get back. She had also found Blayze passed out on the couch, once again sitting upside down on it with his feet in the air and his arms and head resting on the ground.
She had tried to fall asleep in her bed, but her thoughts kept her up, keeping sleep out of her reach. The fact that Typhlosion was also in her room sleeping as well didn't help either. So she had gotten up at about four in the morning and went out to one of her favorite spots in Blackthorn: a little cave in the ridge below her house. She had found a tunnel leading to the cave when she had first moved to Blackthorn, and when she followed it, she found that it opened up in a small cavern underneath her house. One of the sides had broken off, opening up a view to the outside world, along with the virtually ninety degree angle drop of the ridge.
She was still sitting there now, staring at the sunrise, thinking about what she was going to do. After all, she had no plans at all. What was there to do? She had tried all four of the leagues in the regions closest to her, and she really didn't want to go back and head through the same region all over again, collecting the same Badges, and winding up in another tournament that would lead to her defeat, as she always did awful in tournaments.
But at the same time, could she really do the Battle Frontier now that she knew that Cole was competing? What if he was able to complete it and she couldn't? One thing would be for sure, he would never let it go. If she settled on the Battle Frontier, she would need to make sure that she would be able to win the entire thing. The only problem was that she wasn't sure if she could win it. The Frontier Brains were supposed to be tougher than any Gym Leader, and she had just barely managed to scrape by with a draw when a Gym Leader was going almost full power. How could she be expected to beat a tougher opponent?
"I thought I would find you down here," a voice said behind her. Turning around, Cinder saw that Blayze was standing at the entrance to the cavern, and was leaning against the far wall on the opposite side of the ledge drop-off. His hair was in a mess as always, except the top was flat from having slept on it while sitting upside down, giving him an almost comical appearance. "I woke up earlier and no one was home."
"What about Mom and Dad?" Cinder asked.
Blayze shrugged. "I don't know, they weren't there. That's why I said 'no one was home.' Even Beedrill didn't know where they went, and he's usually really good at keeping track of people. And when I tried to ask Noctowl if he had seen anyone last night, he got really mad that I woke him up and hit me with an Air Slash. Trust me, you don't want to wake up to one of those in the morning."
Cinder smiled slightly, and Blayze grinned back at her in response. Patting the ground next to her, she said, "Want to sit? There's a pretty nice view of the city from here."
"Alrighty," Blayze said, walking over and plopping right down next to his sister. He swung his legs out over the edge of the drop-off, and began kicking the air with them, much like a little kid would kick the air in a seat that was too big for them. "So, any idea where Cole ran off to? His stuff was gone, so I figured that he either left or we were robbed by some guy with really bad taste."
Cinder shrugged. "Knowing him and what happened last night, I wouldn't be surprised if he was already in Kanto by now."
Seeing Blayze's confused expression, Cinder proceeded to tell him about what had happened last night at the Dragon Festival, starting with her and Clair and ending with the scene with Scott. When she had finally finished, Blayze leaned back and whistled.
"Geeze, you get distracted by one little shiny thing, and end up missing all the action," he mumbled. "So not fair. I want to go to the Battle Frontier!"
"You're already going to Sinnoh, remember?" Cinder pointed out. "After all, didn't you promise your friends that you would meet them out there?"
Blayze rolled his eyes. "Please, with all the training I've been doing, Cody doesn't stand a chance against me now. And I beat Ace last time we battled, so obviously we know who the better Trainer is. I think they would understand if I went to go onto bigger and better things for a little advanced training. At least for a little while."
"Or they might think that you're a chicken for not showing up and you're afraid of fighting them," Cinder pointed out.
Blayze snorted, but didn't respond beyond that. The silence continued between the two of them as they each gazed out at the city below. The sun was above the mountains now, and the city was clogged with people once again. Most of them were leaving, having come for the Dragon Festival for a little vacation or celebration, and were ready for their next journey to begin.
"So what are you planning on doing?" Blayze asked finally. "I mean, are you going to do the Battle Frontier challenge, or did you have other plans?"
Cinder sighed. She had been hoping Blayze wouldn't ask her that question, but as always, things never seemed to go her way. Choosing her words carefully, she said, "I'm not really sure. I mean, I have to make sure Typhlosion is better before setting out for wherever it is that I'm going next."
"So wait…You're telling me that you might pass up the chance to go to the Battle Frontier?" Blayze asked, staring at his sister as if she was a mentally insane person and he hadn't realized it until now.
"Well…I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure if I'm really up for it…"
"Are you completely mental?" he asked, jumping up. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you're going to let it go because you're afraid it's going to be hard? That's not the way you should be thinking! Trainers are supposed to push themselves to reach greater heights than they ever thought possible, and this is a textbook example of one. We're not supposed to settle on something to do because it's easy. Plus, what fun would that be if we just ran around doing extremely easy things? A challenge is what makes everything worthwhile!"
Cinder glared at her younger brother. "You think I don't know that? I know what it means to be a Trainer, Blayze. I've been one longer than you have. But have you seen my track record recently? I had to forfeit in the Indigo League because I didn't have enough Pokémon to continue. I got destroyed in my battle with Cole. And I barely tied with Clair, and she wasn't even going full strength on me apparently! So what hope to I have against people who are most likely a lot tougher than them?"
"But we don't really know what we can do until we try," Blayze retorted. "And if you think that way, then guess what? You're going to end up losing the battle. It's all about your mentality. If you think you're going to win, and your Pokémon believe in you, then it's going to be really hard for anyone to defeat you. But if you keep thinking like this depressed little girl, you're not going to be able to do anything!"
"Shut up!" Cinder cried, getting to her feet. She glared at her little brother, who glared back, obviously annoyed with her. "I don't need you lecturing me about how I should be battling, or acting, or whatever Blayze. And I'm getting tired of it! Ever since I've come home it seems like you can't help but to give advice at every turn about stuff I already know about! So would you do me a favor and just go away?"
Blayze's eyes narrowed as he stared at his sister. With a grunt he stood up to his full height, and Cinder noticed for the first time that her younger brother was actually taller than her now by about an inch. But they way he seemed to stare down at her made the height gap seem all the larger.
"You want me to leave you alone?" he finally asked. "Fine. You don't want me to help you get through this? That's fine too. Go ahead and wallow in your self-pity. I'm done with trying to help you."
Spinning around on his heels, he turned his back to his sister and marched out of the cavern without a backwards glance. Cinder didn't notice though. She had already turned her attention back to the view of Blackthorn.
How long she stood there, she didn't know. It could have been a few minutes or a few hours, but eventually, Cinder noticed that her vision was getting very blurry. She blinked a few times to try to clear it, before the realization hit her. The things blurring her eyesight were tears.
She was crying.
Damn it, she thought, feeling the wetness on her cheeks. I've screwed everything up. Blayze hates me, Typhlosion's been hurt again, and everyone thinks I'm a spoiled brat for the way I've been acting. You idiot! How could you have acted like that?
Well, I'm tired of all this crap. I'm tired of feeling like a loser and letting everyone down. I've got to find a way to turn this around, before I completely drive off everyone I've ever cared about.
Taking a shuttering breath, Cinder wiped the tears from her eyes and continued to look out of the hole in the wall, just thinking.
Blayze…I'm so sorry. You were right about everything. I…well, thanks. I know that you probably are pissed with me now, but I promise I'll make it up to you.
But first things first. It's time for me to get back in the game and stop acting like this. And I think I know the perfect way of how to do just that.
Smiling to herself, Cinder continued to stare out of the hole, memorizing the sight before her. "Goodbye Blackthorn City. I'm not sure when I'll be back, but for right now, the Battle Frontier awaits."
Well, that seems like a good place to stop. Seems like Cinder's got her motivation back. It's about time, don't you think?
And we got to see more of Damon and Jessica. It's been a little while, although I guess it's only been a few chapters. It seems longer than that though.
Next chapter will feature Damon talking with his boss and Cinder doing…some more stuff. So yeah, it should be good. Plus, more OCs! That's always good, right?
Anywho, please review, give some constructive criticism, yada yada yada. Seriously though, I didn't get a single review last chapter, so it would be nice if I could just get one little review for this one. No pressure though, haha.
