Chapter 24:
Cautiously, I open the door to see Daedalus waiting in the corridor. He's holding something in his hands and throws it to me unexpectedly. I catch the soft item on my chest. I inspect it closer to find that it's a hoodie similar to the one Daedalus is wearing. I look at him in search of an explanation. There is no immediate response, but I quickly understand that he's waiting to be invited inside. I step to the side and show him the way in while still clutching the jumper.
He thanks me as he walks past me into the room. I stick my head out of the door and look in both directions. There's nothing out of the ordinary in the corridor. I'm not entirely sure what we're suspicious of, if we even are, so I shut the door and go to greet Daedalus properly.
"Hey," I say awkwardly, "wasn't actually sure we'd arranged a time. I was just going to come over when I was ready and thought you might be."
"You look more than ready," he replies.
I think I'm blushing. I don't quite know what he means by that, but I'm taking it as a compliment. He starts laughing to himself. I'm definitely blushing. I try to hide it. It's too late though and he starts laughing even more.
"So, what's this about?" I ask, holding up the hoodie.
"To get you out of the hotel," he says, "the press are still hounding the gates. They'll be after you if you don't try to hide yourself."
"About that…" I begin. I don't want to break it to him that I might have to call off our date. I don't want to call it off. I want it to be a distraction. I just know if I did go through with it, it would be ruined by all that's going on in my head.
"No, don't worry about it, I understand," he says. "I heard about what happened last night. I don't know all the details of what's going on, but my guess is that you're too focused on that for romance."
"Thank you," I say. It's all I can say and it comes straight from the heart. He does understand. He was able to figure it out without knowing all the details or me saying anything. I tighten my grip on the hoodie in my hand. It's a piece of him that I can cling to.
"Still, that doesn't mean we're not leaving the hotel," he says. I give him a curious look, signalling for him to continue. "Training in hotel grounds isn't a good idea anymore. Mark knows about the gardens and seems to have eyes and ears everywhere. Your best chance of beating him requires you have something hidden from him."
"So, where do you have in mind?" I ask.
"I found out about an old abandoned warehouse we can use, it's not far," he says.
"Thank you," I say again, "You've put so much thought into this. You didn't have to."
"Oh, but I did for a girl like you," he says.
I immediately throw the hoodie over my head to cover up the inevitable blushing. I can hear him laughing as I struggle with the giant jumper. Eventually, I manage to put it on properly. By which time, I grew frustrated enough with struggling that it hid any embarrassment from my face. Daedalus' hoodie is far too big for me. It's like being a kid again and wearing my dad's clothes. I playfully wave at Daedalus with a hand that can't reach the end of the sleeve.
"Perfect fit, let's go," he says and heads for the door.
I stand and blink as I try to process if that was a joke or not. I then hurriedly make sure I have everything I need and chase Daedalus out of the room. He says nothing when I catch up with him. He just puts his hood up in an attempt to disguise himself. He didn't need to hide his face just yet, if at all, we're still only walking through the hotel. Of course, he isn't the most sociable person. I guess he isn't ready to give up on the dark and mysterious loner motif for me just yet.
I understand my place. I'm not going to try and attempt conversation. Instead, I flick my hood up as well. It covers the top of my face and makes it difficult to see at first. I end up spending most of our time heading out of the hotel trying to adjust the hood in a way that I can see out of it without exposing myself too much.
As he said, the press are still gathered outside the front gate, cameras at the ready. Someone spots us approaching and calls to the rest that someone's coming. They haven't identified us yet.
"Excuse me, who are you two?" a journalist shouts through the gate as we get close.
"No one, why should you care?" Daedalus spits, putting on a different voice to disguise himself.
The security guard, a different one to the previous day, lets us out. We pull our hoods to cover as much of our faces as we can as we barge through the crowd. It also helps shielding our eyes from all the flashes that greet us. When we get out of the crowd, no one follows us. Instead, we can hear the journalists conversing over the pictures they took in hopes of trying to identify us.
I follow Daedalus' lead through the streets of Nimbasa City. I vaguely recognise most of them from my trip out with Elin until we head off into an alley. Five minutes later, we arrive in an industrial estate and Daedalus makes his way straight to a row of old looking warehouses. He stops in front of a particular one and I stand next to him. We look up and see the lights are on inside through the windows near the top of the building. Daedalus said it was abandoned. Who else could be here?
Daedalus silently signals for me to wait before stepping forward and pushing the rusty iron door open. He steps inside and signals back to me to come in.
"Good of you to make it, Mr Wexler," Daedalus says as I follow him inside.
My dad is stood waiting for us in the middle of the warehouse. It is a large building consisting of seemingly just the one room. There is little in here apart from a couple of decaying boxes and some discarded rubbish. It seems like a good private place for me to train. I can't escape from the fact my dad is here though, what is he doing here?
"You… arranged for him to come here?" I ask Daedalus.
"It seemed like a good idea to have more than just one person help you and who better than the one who knows you the best and you can trust the most?" he says.
I lower my hood and walk over to my dad as Daedalus goes to make sure the door is locked. It seems a bit much to lock us in. I don't imagine Mark or anyone wanting to help him will have followed us here.
"So, how are we doing this?" I ask.
"We discussed it last night and, instead of having you prepare and practise for your battle, we're going to teach you how to battle Mark," my dad says.
"I don't think I'm following," I say awkwardly.
"There is no strategy that you can prepare today that will help you defeat Mark," Daedalus says, "He is the ultimate counter-tactician."
"Which is why you have the best chance out of anyone to beat him," my dad says, "Remember what I told you yesterday, your ability to read a battle is second to none. Only you are capable of adapting to what Mark has prepared for you. We just need to push you in the right direction to get the best out of your talent."
"But we've come and hidden ourselves to train, can't we prepare something in secret?" I ask, seemingly a little confused by the whole matter.
"It's not that simple, he's probably expecting that and will try to plan accordingly. It's far more effectively to counter him as he plays," Daedalus explains, "Your comeback against Thomas started when you adapted to the situation and scrapped any previous plans in favour of the ice field."
"How did you know I hadn't planned that?" I ask.
"It's not your style. It's that simple," my dad says.
"Now, send out your Pokémon," Daedalus says, "even though they won't be doing much, they need to be present for the learning process."
I nod and bundle all of my Poké Balls into my hands. It will be useful for them to all be on the same page as me. I flick all the Balls into the air and all of my Pokémon emerge, even Goodra. My dad and Daedalus look over them briefly. Muk gets excited at the sight of its trainer and crawls over.
"There's seven here, do you know if you'll be using Crobat or Muk?" Daedalus asks.
"Crobat would be my preference," I say and look to my Pokémon. Crobat is actually flying which shows an improvement. Chances are that Crobat's role in the final will have to be similar to how it was against Thomas.
"Now, I want you to think back on the two semi-finals," my dad says, "At the most basic level, what did Thomas do to counter you and how will Mark go about doing the same?"
I close my eyes and quickly play the battles over in my head.
"Thomas neutralised my ability to inflict status," I say. Daedalus nods. "Mark will try to do the same by avoiding the status."
"Correct, Thomas took on your strategy head on to stop it. Mark stopped Flourette by making sure she couldn't land a hit," Daedalus says. This seems a bit odd. This is covering basics that I was easily able to figure out. What purpose does it serve?
"Now that you understand what you're up against, we need a demonstration. Don't actually perform your solution, just say it when you figure it out," my dad says.
Daedalus holds out a Poké Ball and his Greninja emerges. With a single word command, it launches itself off the ground. The Greninja latches to a wall, then suddenly jumps again. With incredible speed, it leaps around the warehouse. There is no way an attack would hit it. This is the challenge. Greninja is essentially dodging any opportunity to inflict it with a status condition and I have to figure out how to overcome it.
I immediately dismiss the idea of it tiring. It has only just been sent out fresh and ready. It will also be able to land hits of its own long before then. I watch it for a moment as it launches itself to the roof. My Pokémon are watching it too. They're trying to assess its movement patterns to try and hit where it will go. However, there is no pattern to where it targets and it moves too quickly to assess its position and work out where it can go.
"The walls!" I suddenly cry out. I've got it. Greninja is using the walls as stepping stones. It has to get into the air to have a better chance of avoiding any attacks. Being in the air isn't the key though. What the walls are is the answer. The walls are part of this particular battlefield. "Mark likes to control the battlefield to restrict his opponents!"
Daedalus cracks a smile and returns his Greninja. That must mean I was right. My solution is to alter the battlefield myself so that he can't use it to his advantage. In this case, my immediate thoughts are to heat up the metal walls so that Greninja gets burnt when it uses its stepping stones.
"That's it," I say, "If I use the battlefield to inflict the status, then he won't be able to avoid it how he'd like."
There is a collective nod of agreement. I've figured out one way of counteracting Mark's counter-tactics, but that isn't the end of it. The training continues. My dad and Daedalus work to make me ready to improvise on the day of the final. They push me in the direction of what I need to figure out but never give me the answers. I have to figure them all out myself.
I never knew improvisation needed so much preparation, but I am getting ready for the biggest battle in my life. Perhaps it's even bigger than that. It's more than just about me. It's the biggest battle for my family, to get Melissa back. It's also the biggest battle for Mark, to find out what happened to his father. There is no way either of us can afford to lose.