Ayyyy we're BACK with another LONG-ASS BATTLE

The podcast is going strong! Tomorrow we'll have reached chapter 15 (16, if you count the prologue). There's also some bonus content coming soon, so check it out on any of the platforms I mentioned last chapter (even the ones that weren't quite there yet last time).

Dawn found Thomas, Megan, and me after the battle. "That was wild, you guys," she said. "Congratulations, Evelyn."

"Thanks! Looking forward to battling you soon," I replied playfully.

Her grin slipped. "Oh, I… I didn't win."

I blinked. "Oh!"

"Yeah… you're battling Zeke Ren."

"Eight badge trainer from Veilstone," Thomas said when I looked at him. "I can tell you about their team. I looked into their past battles after they won."

"Okay." I turned back to Dawn. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for your battle." In all honesty, I hadn't expected it to be her last battle… Partly because I knew she was a strong trainer, partly because of… well, the tarot reading. Me and Dawn facing off made too much sense not to happen.

"It's okay. You had to focus on your battle, I get it."

"I– well, I mean, I actually went down to the registration desk to sort some things out…"

"Even more reason, then," said Dawn.

We returned to the Pokemon Center so I could put my pokemon through healing. Lucas had already gone off with Jonathan, but the four of us stuck together and found lunch at a festival stall. There was nowhere to sit in the third-day crowd, (even the sides of the walkways were packed) so Def teleported us to the lakeside. We sat on boulders and watched the waves lap at our toes.

Thomas told me about Zeke Ren's team, Dawn adding what she'd learned from her quarterfinal. We covered the basics – their team, some of their moves – and then we talked about other things so as not to overload me with information. Coeur took a nap in Megan's lap. Megan was thrilled.

Two hours whirled by. Most of what I remember was the surprising quietness of the lakeside, and the sounds of eighteen pokemon having fun together, and the rare joy I felt in this strange group of friends.

"This will be a five-on-five double battle between Evelyn Meyers of Twinleaf Town and Zeke Ren of Snowpoint City. Substitutions will be made as necessary. The battle will end when all pokemon on one side are unconscious. Battlers, are you ready?"

"Ready."

"Yep."

I scanned the audience, looking for familiar faces. Megan, Thomas, and Dawn had chosen seats on the left, where I could see them. Lucas wasn't with them. I wasn't sure where he was. But I did spot Andy Nguyen and Renée sitting with Michelle Wolfe, and Sean with Ashley and her friends from Sunyshore, and to my right there was Matthew and Emily Wu and a girl with soft curly hair sitting between them. It felt like every trainer in the world was in this stadium.

I held the shiny stone pendant on my necklace and steeled myself. This was a semifinal. People tended to watch those. Relax, Evelyn.

"Battle… begin!"

"Gardevoir, Gabite!"

"Faith, Coeur, it's yours!"

The start-of-battle fanfare blared through speakers behind me, making me jump. "All right, Faith, let's get it started with some confuse rays. Coeur, let's see how fast we can get the gardevoir down."

Faith sank into the sand of the beach terrain. Coeur darted to the middle of the field and shot forth a dark blast. Gardevoir disappeared, letting the dark blast fly harmlessly into the arena wall, and reappeared a few feet aboveground. I frowned. Why–

"Guys, it's an earthquake!"

Coeur surrounded herself with a protect. Faith flew out of the ground right behind Gardevoir and flung a confuse ray at him before he could react. Gardevoir fell back down, and the shaking stopped almost before it began.

"Okay, good dodge. Coeur, now's your chance."

As Coeur charged, Gardevoir duplicated himself tenfold with double team. Coeur easily picked the right one and rammed headfirst into him with what looked like feint attack. He stumbled and teleported away, ending up twenty feet high.

The ground shook before I could respond. Coeur was on the ground and Faith had landed, so the earthquake hit all but the gardevoir, who fell hard onto the sand.

"Gardevoir, magical leaf!"

Gardevoir shot out leaves that made a sharp U-turn and slammed back into him. Nice. Confusion was going well.

"Faith, put the gabite to sleep. Coeur, keep it up with the gardevoir."

Faith bounced through the seaside surf (the watery side of the battlefield was slightly sunken into the ground, allowing some mechanism to simulate beachy waves). She ducked under a flamethrower, heading toward the gabite. Coeur got up from the earthquake and shot a dark blast at Gardevoir, following it with a bite.

"Gabite, draco meteor!"

Gabite sidestepped Faith's hypnosis and shot a sphere of orange light into the sky. It climbed to the top of the arena, where it burst like a firework into dozens of meteors that shot back down all over the field. Sand and water sprayed and I covered my face. I felt my feet slip out from under me from a simultaneous earthquake and toppled backward, landing hard on my butt. When the shaking stopped and I looked up, both Faith and the gardevoir were down, and Coeur was shakily getting to her feet.

"Gengar and Gardevoir are unable to battle!"

"Thanks Faith, rest up," I said, calling her back. Draco meteor didn't normally have the range to be considered an all-hit move. That gabite was intensely powerful, even pre-final evolution.

"Prom, I'm gonna need a lot of ice," I warned the buizel I was sending out.

"You got it."

"Coeur, I need ice from you too."

"I'll try," she said, looking wobbly.

Zeke sent out a flygon – another good reason for ice – who immediately unleashed dragonbreath at Coeur. Prom rocketed into the air with aquajet. Coeur rolled to the side and limped toward Flygon to try and use ice fang.

I winced. Maybe ice fang wasn't the move for Coeur, I thought right before one last earthquake took her out. Prom, hovering with aquajet, was perfectly fine, as was the flygon. Were flygons flying-ground…? Or were they ground-dragon? So shouldn't it affect her? Or, no, they had levitate, right?

"Coeur, return," I said with a sigh. "Sorry girl, that's on me."

"Hey, it's okay, don't get in your head about it," I heard.

I nodded. "Right. Sorry."

I hunted for another pokeball in my pocket. My mind immediately went to Hope – because, you know, flying-type immunity to earthquake – but of course she was exempt from battle still.

I threw Def's pokeball. "Okay. Def, double team. Assist Prom using ice if possible. Prom, your ice attacks are our best shot of taking out both of these pokemon. Be careful out there."

"D'accord."

"Got it."

"Dragon claw, shadow claw!" Zeke called out.

Def duplicated himself and made the copies teleport all over the beach. Flygon lashed out at a few with dragon claw, but never quite hit. Prom flew past Flygon in his aquajet and smacked him with an ice punch in passing. Gabite hit a Def copy with shadow claw, making it disappear. She swiped again as Prom neared, but a pink psychic glow pushed Prom very slightly to the side, allowing him to sock Gabite in the head with ice without getting hit himself.

"Doing great, keep it up!" I said.

"Earthquake!"

The ground shook; a couple of fake gallades disappeared, but Def managed to pull the rest off the ground in time to dodge. No one else was affected. Prom hit Flygon with an ice beam from afar.

"Gabite, keep going for the gallades! Flygon, dig!"

Flygon burrowed into the sand in the middle of the battlefield (I took a mental note that an earthquake would be unlikely in the next minute or so). Gabite kept swinging and missing. Prom scored another ice punch on Gabite while she was distracted by the fake Definites. Flygon emerged suddenly and took out a Def copy, but that was all. Prom nailed him in the wing with ice beam.

"Gabite, get the buizel out of there!"

I tensed – Prom had heard that too, so I wasn't too too worried about him getting hit by another attack. Gabite geared up for some sort of blast from her mouth while Prom swooped past Flygon and nailed him with another ice punch.

Gabite let out a spine-chilling roar that traveled across the field, hitting… hitting the gallade that appeared between him and Prom.

The double team disappeared. Def dematerialized into red energy and swooped back toward me. I felt his pokeball open within my pocket to let him in while another ball cracked open to let someone else out.

Wait, shit–

The referee blew her whistle. "Unauthorized pokemon on the battlefield," she announced, her voice booming through the sound system.

"Arceus," I whispered, staring at the blissfully unaware togekiss sitting in the sand.

A few officials jogged out from the sidelines to converse with the referee. The audience buzzed with anticipation. This was bad. The tournament rules had a few options for this kind of situation, but the fact that I'd specifically requested Hope's exemption complicated matters. Worst case scenario, this could disqualify me completely. But maybe since it wasn't my fault she was out there, they'd let me call her back in and we could just continue?

"Relax. It's okay."

I took a deep breath and looked over at the audience. Dawn and Thomas were talking nervously. Megan noticed me and gave me a smile and a thumbs-up, and that, more than anything, settled my nerves.

The group of officials separated and the referee proclaimed, "After a brief discussion, the ruling on the field is that the battle will continue as a six-on-six match."

My heart sank. It wasn't a forfeit, but Hope was back in battle.

"It's okay. You haven't even jumped in time yet, have you?"

"That's true, I haven't." That would help me protect Hope if something went wrong

"The battle may resume… now!"

"Prom, focus on the flygon. Hope, uh… Dodge everything."

"Stone edge!"

Both of Zeke's pokemon shot razor-sharp stones at Hope, who took off. The stones burrowed into the sand at my feet (I jumped aside, but they didn't reach me). Prom slammed into Flygon with ice in his jaws, knocking him out.

"Flygon is unable to battle!"

"Cacturne! Needle arm!"

"Prom, the gabite is next. Hope, don't go so high."

Hope had already ascended halfway to the top of the arena. I heard a faraway, carefree chirp.

Prom swooped past the gabite, who dodged his ice punch but not the follow-up ice beam. I could tell she was almost down. Cacturne swung and missed, and Prom landed on my side of the field and shot an ice beam that narrowly missed her on its way to Gabite. Gabite was gearing up for another stone edge into the sky and didn't notice the incoming ice in time. She roared and toppled over backwards.

"Gabite is unable to battle!"

"Nice job, Prom. Hope, not so high please."

Zeke Ren pulled out another pokeball. "Blastoise!"

I narrowed my eyes. I didn't understand their picks – Cacturne made sense against Prom, but less so since they knew he had ice moves. And water against water…?

"Hope, shockwave on the blastoise. Prom, ice, but you might wanna stay distant."

"Avalanche and giga drain!"

Prom's ice beam and Cacturne's giga drain met in midair in a battle of strength. Hope swooped around the ice boulders tumbling down, weaving between them narrowly enough to make me nervous. Shockwave shot down at Blastoise, hitting dead-on.

"Surf!"

Prom and Cacturne were still locked in their standoff when water swept the battlefield, hitting them both. Cacturne held steady, but Prom was knocked back, his ice beam aiming wildly. The giga drain pushed past to reach him finally, sapping energy from him.

I squinted across the field. Was that ingrain?

"Prom, the cacturne can't move. Hope, shockwave again!"

Shockwave hit easily, but the blastoise's avalanche was too close for comfort. One rock hit Hope in the back, and she swerved, squealing. My stomach flipped. She'd been climbing higher and higher during this time.

"Hope, you're too high, come down from there."

"I got her," said Prom.

He used aquajet to climb up to her. Landing on Hope's back, Prom put up a navy blue protect bubble around both of them. They started to fall – something something Bernoulli, Hope can't fly like that – until they were at half of Hope's original height, when Prom let go of the protect and Hope regained purchase of the air. Prom jumped down, using his fall to boost an aquajet that hit the rooted cacturne in the head.

"Nice one!"

Prom retreated across the field, and I realized the cacturne… didn't look fazed? Like, I got that it was a water move, and the cacturne was ingrained, but that should have done something…

"Avalanche, hidden power! At the togekiss!"

"Hope, dodge!"

Hope started soaring upward to evade the moves flying at her. Prom ascended with aquajet once again and landed on her back, gently directing her back down. Icy rocks and orbs of unknown energy zoomed past them. I heard an upset chirp up above.

"Prom, try fighting from up there."

He unleashed an ice beam at the cacturne. Hope dodged another avalanche by veering sharply left, tipping Prom from her back. He controlled his fall somewhat with aquajet until the hidden power hit him and he tumbled the rest of the way down, crackling with electricity.

"Hyper beam!"

Prom scrambled to get back up and protect Hope. Neither of us realized the cacturne wasn't aiming for her at all.

The blast slammed Promise into the wall of the arena. Front-row spectators screamed and ducked away from nothing as he collided with the wall below them and fell to the ground. Pieces of the wall came crumbling down around him.

"Buizel is unable to battle!"

"Return. Thank you Prom," I said to my unconscious buizel through his pokeball. "Def, is he okay or does he need urgent care?"

"Promise will be all right."

I nodded. "Thanks."

I wasn't inclined to send out Trust just yet… because sure, Def was important for communication, but there was a blastoise out there. And he had surf.

"Def, it's yours! Get the blastoise first!"

As soon as Def appeared, magical leaves flew toward the blastoise, who countered with a stream of water. Cacturne was still recharging after the hyper beam. Hope was climbing again.

"Hope, don't fly so high."

Def, who was conveying messages for me, looked up. Hope glowed pink and sank lower in the sky. The water pushed the magical leaves back as Def split his attention.

"Hope's good now, thank you Def. Teleport out of there."

Def disappeared, letting the water shoot right through where he'd been standing, and reappeared next to Blastoise to slash at him with leaf blade. He vanished again after the hit, but not before Cacturne nailed him in the stomach with a needle arm.

"All right, blastoise! Avalanche!"

Icy boulders once again appeared in the sky, this time in front of Hope. She ran right into them and spun out, flapping wildly. A pink hold took over and straightened her flight path. Hope flapped to gain height as soon as Def let her go. The psychic hold returned to restrain her to a reasonable height. Hope chirped in frustration.

A hyper beam blasted into Def, knocking him head-over-heels across the field. Hope, newly freed, took off into the sky, flying straight into an avalanche. She tumbled downward and I fumbled for her pokeball.

"I've got her."

Def pushed himself up, arms shaking. He caught Hope with psychic, which slowed her fall and stopped her spinning before she hit the ground. The blastoise shot a water pulse at him, breaking his concentration, and Hope fell the last few feet down.

"Surf!"

The surge of water swept Hope and Def across the field. The two of them tumbled over the sand and the concrete beyond it, rolling to a stop before the wall.

"Gallade and togekiss are unable to battle!"

Shit.

I recalled them both, heart sinking. Three to five in a double battle was all but a definite loss.

I took a deep breath. The battle wasn't complete yet. We would not give in before the very end.

I threw my last pokeball. "Trust, it's yours!" I said, feeling determined.

Then I happened to glance into the crowd.

I was looking for my friends, but I aimed high by mistake and found someone else entirely by chance. He sat like a steel pillar in the middle of the excited crowd, gray-blue and still as death, staring straight at me. I froze.

Cyrus.

"Flamethrower! Get the cacturne first!" I yelled, trying to focus.

Trust flung flame across the beach. Blastoise wiped it out with a brine attack and followed it with surf. Trust couldn't dodge, but he kept his footing as the wave passed by him.

"Change of plans, go for the blastoise! Mach punch!" I said.

"Hyper beam! Gyro ball!"

Trust splashed through the surf, ducking under another one of Cacturne's lethal hyper beams. Blastoise withdrew his head and limbs and began to spin, using gyro ball in a sort of defensive maneuver. Trust hit him anyways, using a mach punch absolutely bursting with fighting energy to send Blastoise careening into Cacturne.

"Surf!"

"Brick break!"

Trust jumped over the waves that washed his way and landed a left-handed chop on Blastoise's head. Cacturne was recharging still, but I realized how thoroughly undamaged she was. Did cacturnes have the water absorb ability? That would explain all the surfing…

"Water pulse!"

"Mach punch!"

Trust's mach punch aimed below Blastoise's water pulse. Both hit. Trust fell back, spitting out water; Blastoise toppled over backwards.

"Blastoise is unable to battle!"

I snuck a glance at Cyrus, who'd turned his attention to the field. He looked back at me and I looked away.

Why the fuck was the literal head of Team Galactic here?

"Mamoswine, ancient power!"

"Dodge! Flamethrower!"

Rocks formed around Mamoswine, but aimed too high to block the flame Trust blasted forth. Blaze is active, I realized. That meant Trust was almost out, but we could make it with fire moves. The flames fanned out over the beach, easily hitting the still-rooted cacturne and the giant mamoswine. That said, neither of us quite realized the ancient power had gone up only to come down, and it hit Trust dead-on. He staggered back, holding his head.

"You can do it, Trust! Mach punch, put fire into it!"

He reared his fist back – the glow of fighting and fire energy surrounding his hand rivaled the blaze atop his head. Mamoswine moved to dodge, but couldn't escape Trust's boosted speed. He crashed down on his side and struggled to his feet.

"Mamoswine, earthquake!"

"Don't let him get up!"

Trust flew in with both fists emanating fiery orange-red energy. He hit in front and circled around the side of the gigantic pokemon to hit again. Cacturne extended tendrils of grass energy forth, but couldn't figure out how to get at Trust without hitting Mamoswine.

Mamoswine managed to get back to his feet. The ground shook, knocking Trust over. He hit the ground on his side.

"You good?" I said instinctively, forgetting all my psychic-and-aura-communicating pokemon were down.

"Yeah," I heard anyways.

What?

The voice had spoken to make a few times throughout the match, I realized, but I'd been too focused to realize I didn't recognize it. Or, no, I did recognize it, even though I'd never heard it before.

"Trust?"

I heard a laugh that was absolutely my starter's.

"So you CAN hear me!" Trust said in delight. "I wasn't sure!"

I risked another glance at Cyrus. He was no longer looking at me, but…

"Jump on Mamoswine's back," I yelled out loud.

I saw Trust frown. "But we can talk silently," he said, jumping up.

"Later."

I couldn't risk Cyrus knowing what Trust and I had just learned. And I hated that it meant we couldn't celebrate this major development in our friendship, but Galactic couldn't know about aura comm.

So Trust jumped on Mamoswine's back, where earthquake couldn't hit, and whacked him a few more times with what I'd loosely been thinking of as rocket punch. Mamoswine tumbled forward, sending Trust flying – right into the path of one more hyper beam from Cacturne.

Trust somersaulted through the sand and came to a stop at the edge of the gentle seashore waves.

"Infernape and Mamoswine are unable to battle! Which means Zeke Ren of Snowpoint City is moving on to the finals!"

I exhaled and walked across the battlefield. The originally-loose sand had been washed over with water so many times, it was nearly solid ground. I knelt in the surf and pulled Trust into my arms.

"Well done, Trust. Take a rest now, buddy."

As I pulled Trust into his ball and shook hands with Zeke Ren, I glanced again at Cyrus. A chill ran down my spine as I realized my friends were sitting just a few rows in front of him.

WE'RE FINALLY DONE WITH TOURNAMENT BATTLES HOLYSHIT AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Zeke Ren is based on my sibling, who isn't nb but is better than me at every video game.

Big old shoutout to the two new Porter Robinson singles, Look at the Sky and Musician. Not for any particular reason, just because they're awesome ("I'll be alive next year" are you KIDDING me that's INCREDIBLE).

Ok see you next time.