Episode 38: The broken twig

Niko and his friends left Couriway Town the day following his battle with Oliver, the one that resulted in his Clauncher evolving into Clawitzer. He was also reminded of how powerful Oliver's Pokémon were. It made him wonder if his rival-turned-sort of friend had participated in Pokémon Leagues prior to this. There's no way he was that good as a beginner. But he knew that Oliver intended to challenge the Kalos League, just like he did. In the event that he had to face his rival—as Niko was supposedly wont to do—then he needed to be ready. He needed to be at his very best. And that might involve mastering mega evolution.

Since finding the new mega stone in Terminus Cave, Niko wondered what Pokémon was supposed to use it. Moreover, he wondered why he specifically was supposed to find it. He, of all people, had the good sense to go to Terminus Cave, and he, of all people, seemed destined to find that particular mega stone. Why him? Why did he find it? Why did he sense it? It made no sense to him at all, and he spent much of his free time on the way to Snowbelle City trying to figure it out.

Meanwhile, he and Charlotte continued their training with the knowledge that the Snowbelle City Gym would be the toughest for the both of them. It was the final gym and, in Niko's experience, he usually had difficulty with the final one. The exception to this rule was in Unova, where the Humilau City Gym was one of his easiest. Nevertheless, that wasn't a reason to underestimate Wulfric, whom Niko discovered to be the final gym leader that he would face.

After watching Niko's battle with Oliver, Charlotte took out more time from her day to train, even at the expense of their travels. She, like Niko, understood that she might have to face Oliver in the Kalos League, just like she might have to face any of Niko's other rivals—Ian and Wally, to be specific. She, however, did not have the wealth of reserves that Niko did. Instead, she had to rely solely on her full team of Pokémon that she has kept since before the Cyllage City Gym.

Understanding that Wulfric's team would consist primarily of ice types, Charlotte figured that she would use Braixen for much of the battle, along with Pupitar. This put a lot of pressure on both the Fox and Hard Shell Pokémon to do well, and to not make any mistakes when it came to mastering their movesets. Pupitar wasn't focused as much on learning new moves, but rather on improving on his current ones—iron head, rock slide, dark pulse, and sandstorm. Braixen, on the other hand, tried to master psyshock, in addition to improving on her flame charge and psybeam, both of which would serve her well in her battle against Wulfric.

Charlotte, understandably, had a lot on her mind. She was looking forward to finally entering a Pokémon League on her own. However, it still made her nervous as ever. She didn't know what it felt like to be on a stage, with thousands watching her, in the stands and on television. All of her friends from home—and her mother—would be watching. Niko's friends would be watching. Niko would be watching.

Niko…

During their travels in Kalos, she had spent more than enough time trying to think through her feelings for this guy. If she was being completely honest with herself, she had had feelings for him back in Unova, however they were largely dormant feelings that never truly manifested themselves until the Vertress Conference, when Niko finally surpassed his personal goal and made it through the quarterfinals. That moment, Charlotte realized, was when she began to like him. Not because he was a successful trainer. But because he had shattered his personal curse—he had moved on from his past. He had finally set himself on the path towards his destiny, whatever that was.

She appreciated that. She wanted someone who understood who they were, where they stood in the world (albeit vaguely). Charlotte had a feeling that Niko knew these things, but hadn't quite realized them himself. They were, she believed, part of some unconscious understanding of the self.

Most importantly, she wanted someone who cared. She witnessed powerful trainers like Hunter who only saw Pokémon as a vehicle to greatness. Niko didn't. He cared more about his Pokémon than she had seen any other trainer do. During their journeys in Unova, she witnessed the anguish it caused him to leave his Pokémon, and not know if he could go back to them; not know if they would accept him again as their trainer; what his personal mistakes had done to those he cared about. But she also saw him overcome them, and succeed as a result. She found herself inspired by the bond he had with his Pokémon and, in a way, wished he had shared that bond with her.

Charlotte couldn't quite describe her feelings in a succinct way, which is why she never attempted to, even to Warren. But, as far as she was concerned, she liked Niko. Maybe loved him. Love? What a strange word, she thought. How does one love? She had no idea. She loved her mother, and her father, and her Pokémon. But she never loved another person that she wasn't directly related to.

Another thing keeping her grounded was Niko's reception to these feelings. Sure, she had noticed some hints that he felt similarly—their night out in Lumiose, for example. The gift he gave her in Coumarine City. The way they made up during that blizzard on route 17. Every other small instance of kindness he had shown towards her. Two possibilities existed: either he liked her, or he wasn't sure if he liked her. Either way, it didn't matter to Charlotte. She still had no idea how to express them back to him.

Or when. When would be the best time to tell Niko? Certainly not before the Kalos League. What if they got into an argument over it? What if she was wrong, and he didn't feel the same? Then his chances at the Kalos Championship might be disrupted. Hers certainly would be. She didn't believe that she had the emotional intellect to handle a rejection. She had never really had the same sort of feelings towards Niko that she had towards anyone else. As a result, she had never dealt with rejection. Charlotte didn't want to mar anyone's chances in the Kalos League. So, she concluded that she would at least wait until the tournament was over before confessing to Niko, no matter how hard it was to wait.

The path to Snowbelle City took roughly a week and a half from Couriway Town—if a traveler spent most of their days walking. Due to the constant training sessions, the trip would take roughly two weeks. Most of the journey was through route 19—a rather swampy, wet region of Kalos that reminded Niko of a specific part of Sinnoh, as well as Unova. They occasionally dealt with rain of various degrees of intensity. Fortunately, during a particularly intense rainstorm, they managed to find a Pokémon Center nearby, which acted as a sort of way station on their journey.

When they entered, Niko threw off his hood and, drenched in rainwater, waddled over to Nurse Joy at the front desk and asked for a room to stay in. Fortunately, there was one left, but it was smaller than usual.

"That's fine," Niko said, showing the key to Warren and Charlotte. The three of them made their way to the room and, once they walked inside, noticed there were only two beds, instead of the usual three or four. "Oh…that kind of small."

"What should we do?" Charlotte asked, genuinely curious.

"We could either share a bed," Warren said, "or one of us could just sleep in a chair, or on the ground."

Niko and Charlotte looked at one another, and then at Warren. It was clear what he was trying to do, but neither of them took the bait. "I'll sleep in the chair," Niko eventually said. Raising an eyebrow, Warren simply nodded, and started putting his things on his bed.

That evening Niko, understandably, had difficulty sleeping. Giving up, he simply just that there, waiting for it to be a reasonable time to start his day. After a while, he heard some rustling, and saw Charlotte get up in the dark room. She went to turn on a light and saw Niko sitting there, pretending to be asleep.

"There's no way you're asleep, are you?" she asked.

"Nope, I'm not," Niko said, opening his eyes. "Why're you awake?"

"Bad dream. Want to trade places?"

"Why?" Niko wondered.

"Because I can't fall back asleep, and you need to sleep."

Niko looked skeptical, but eventually nodded. He was tired, and the bed looked awfully comfortable. They traded spots, and Charlotte managed to curl up in the chair while Niko laid down on the bed and soundly went to sleep, wondering if he would wake up with someone next to him in the morning. He didn't.

The following day was raining, but not nearly as much, and so the group continued on. During their training that afternoon, after a day's worth of walking through thick grass and muddy swamps, the group's Pokémon found themselves having difficulty practicing certain moves. Some were sliding around in the mud; others—like Pupitar and Litleo—simply detested the rainy environment that they were in. Others—like Slurpuff, Frillish, and Clawitzer—enjoyed it, and delighted in running around in the weather.

Charlotte, who was trying to train with Braixen in preparation for the Snowbelle Gym, had difficulty getting her to successfully use flame charge while in the muddy environment. The Fox Pokémon was showing signs of slipping, and tried to proceed with caution. At one point, Braixen wanted to stop. "No, we have to keep going," Charlotte would say in response. "Just…be careful, alright?"

Braixen, eying her trainer with skepticism, nodded and continued. She lowered herself closer to the ground and charged off, her body alight in fire. This time, however, Braixen felt herself losing control, and slipped on the ground, falling backwards onto her tail.

Charlotte, without a doubt concerned, ran over to Braixen to see if her Pokémon was alright. Braixen was fine—her fluffy tail broke her fall—but when she got up she felt something in her tail that didn't seem like it belonged—dirt, rocks maybe? Reaching inside, she pulled out half of a twig.

Her twig.

Braixen's eyes widened in disbelief. Her twig was broken. The twig she used for all of her moves, bar flame charge. The object of her power. It was gone.

"Braixen, can't we just find another twig for you?" Charlotte asked. The Fox Pokémon looked at her trainer angrily, threw the twig pieces on the ground, and stomped away. "Braixen…wha—what did I do wrong?"

"So…apparently, Braixen's twig means a lot to her," Warren said, looking in Niko's pokédex. "This is common among the species, not just your particular Braixen. Granted, not all are like this, but they do admire their twig more than, well, we would. It's their wand; the vehicle through which they use their psychic power. They have a bond with it, and value it highly."

"What should we do then? According to this, we can't just find another twig," Niko said.

Charlotte sat on a log near their camp with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her Pokémon were sitting under a tree, trying to stay out of the light rain falling from the sky. Braixen was sitting up in the tree, eager to stay away from virtually everyone. The Fox Pokémon had since attempted to fix her broken stick, but to no avail. After a while, she lamely threw them out of the tree, nearly hitting Warren's Litleo.

Charlotte had no idea how to resolve this. If she didn't have her twig, then she would be less likely to battle, which would make her fight against Wulfric far more difficult. She needed Braixen, and not necessarily the other way around.

Later that evening, after Niko finished cooking, Braixen hardly ate anything. Charlotte attempted to force feed her Pokémon, who simply spat fire to her left as a warning sign. Seeing this, Charlotte backed off and, clearly hurt, went off to sleep instead, as she couldn't think of anything else to do.

Due to the potential for more rain, the trio slept under a tree and returned their Pokémon, with the exception of Braixen, who simply refused to do anything Charlotte asked her to. The Fox Pokémon sat up in the tree, trying to fall asleep herself, but wasn't able to for obvious reasons.

After a few hours, she heard a rustling off in the distance. Perking up, she saw something approach the three sleeping trainers. She couldn't quite recognize it—it was an unfamiliar Pokémon to her—but it looked dangerous. Braixen crouched down on the branch she was previously sitting on and waited to see what the Pokémon—a large, scorpion-like creature—would do.

It then raised its two claws high in the air and, just as it was about to throw them down on Charlotte, a burst of fire erupted from the tree above it, and the scorpion was knocked to the ground.

Charlotte's ears rang from the sound of an explosion. Immediately waking up, she saw her Braixen in a fight with what looked like a wild drapion. The drapion was slashing and clawing at Braixen, who dodged and evaded each attack.

"What's going—oh god!" Niko said as he instinctively pulled out a pokéball. But Charlotte stopped him.

"Braixen can do this," she said. "Braixen!" Charlotte said, not standing up, her fists balled up, "use flame charge!"

The Fox Pokémon nodded, striking drapion with the full force of her body. Drapion, however, seemed to anticipate this and, with remarkable reflexes, managed to grab Braixen in its two claws and, spinning its entire torso around, slam the Fox Pokémon down onto its back. Braixen let out a whimper as it was thrown to the side. Drapion then scuttled towards it and crossed its arms, apparently ready to use cross poison.

"That's it," Niko said, "Clawitzer, water pulse!"

"Braixen!" Charlotte shouted, ignoring Niko and running to the aide of her Pokémon. She stood in between the drapion and Braixen and held her arms out. "You. Will. Not. Hurt. Braixen!"

Drapion's cross poison was nearly ready to fire when it got hit in the side by a powerful, mega-launched water pulse, which bought Charlotte and Braixen time to escape.

"Are you alright?" she asked. Braixen nodded, slowly getting back up. Then her eyes widened, and she grabbed Charlotte and spun around, taking a cross poison to the back. Both of them fell to the ground, Braixen on top of her trainer, and clearly hurt by the poison attack.

Drapion then grabbed Braixen's foot and attempted to drag her away, ignoring the attacks from Niko's Clawitzer. As Braixen was getting dragged across the wet grass, she instinctively grabbed a nearby twig and trying to use psybeam with it. Drapion, being a dark type Pokémon, wasn't affected, and instead threw Braixen against a tree…and another…and another, before slamming the Fox Pokémon into the ground and spinning around to strike Clawitzer with cross poison. It then grabbed Braixen again and, just as it did so, Charlotte jumped in between them in an attempt to pry Braixen off. Drapion grabbed her with its other claw and threw her to the side. Braixen screamed and, out of anger, released a powerful jet of fire from her twig.

At first, it looked like an ordinary flamethrower, but instead Braixen, now glowing a bright white color, was surrounded by a ring of fire. The red-orange stream of flames emanated from her twig, hitting the drapion in the face. Seizing the moment, Clawitzer fired off a water pulse and, feeling overpowered, the drapion scuttled off into the forest again.

Charlotte looked up to see a completely different Pokémon staring at her from several feet away. She was taller than Braixen, to be sure, and nearly as tall as Charlotte was. The Pokémon was covered in a coat of dark red fur that resembled a robe. The "robe" had red-orange, flame-like markings near the knees, as well as a thin tuft of white fur on her torso, flanked by yellow fur draping down from her shoulders. She had three tufts of red-orange fur protruding out of each ear. Her forearms featured long red fur resembling sleeves, and her hands and feet were dark gray with three clawed fingers and toes, respectively. A tail covered in yellow fur protrudes from her "robe."

"Delphox, the Fox Pokémon. Fire and psychic type. Using psychic power, it generates a fiery vortex of 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit, incinerating foes swept into this whirl of flame," Niko's pokédex read.

"Delphox…" Charlotte said. Delphox looked down at the twig in her hand, and then at Charlotte, and simply smiled. Charlotte scrambled onto her feet to hug her Pokémon, who was almost as tall as she. "Are you feeling alright? The drapion gave you quite a beating," Delphox simply nodded. "I'm sorry for pushing you too hard today. I caused you to break your twig, and I feel terrible about it. Can you forgive me?"

Delphox pretended to think about it for a moment before nodding. Getting the joke, Charlotte hugged her Pokémon again and laughed.

"Let's get back to bed, then."

"By the way, Charlotte," Niko said, "that move Delphox used to beat drapion is called mystical fire."

"Mystical fire…I like the sound of that," Charlotte said as she pulled out Delphox's pokéball on instinct. However, she placed it back in her bag. "Actually, I think we could all use someone to keep watch, don't you think?"

Delphox nodded, and sat against the tree, admiring her new stick and playing around with it while Charlotte and her friends went back to sleep. It didn't rain the rest of the night, and the trio wasn't bothered, either.