Chapter Twenty Seven – The Twin-Tailed Cat
Evelina
Once, in the last year of high school, Eve had tried to explain the Joy notion of prestige to her friends.
There are basically three things a Joy could do, what Eve used to call 'Good girl goals'. One, the 'professions', as they called them. If you didn't want to be nurse, a surgeon, a breeder, etc, you could always be a scientist. Aunt Immey liked that one, when she was backing Mum up. What about a cryptozoologist, like Aunt Elswith from Whitstone, who proved the existence of the giant cloyster? Or like Aunt Camilla, who discovered the vampire misdreavus?
Or you could get married, or perhaps more accurately, get pregnant – yes, that was a good girl goal, especially if you were going to be having a girl. Eve wasn't sure how she felt about that one. No, she didn't want to have children soon, but she hadn't ruled it out, per se …
Leofwyn had pointed out that there was a lot of choice within those parameters. But to Eve, that was never the point. Her life, her terms.
Though you'd have to break all her fingers to get her to admit it, there were times when Eve wondered whether her stubbornness was really worth it. Great Aunt Judith's eightieth birthday party was definitely one of those times. None of the other girls had talked to her. Oh, they weren't so artless as to crassly ignore her – they'd politely reply if she addressed them directly. And then they'd go back to talking amongst themselves.
Her school friends had pretty much drifted away by then. She was having trouble making university friends. In many ways those were lonely years, Eve remembered.
Or, you could win something. Then it almost didn't matter what you were, as long as you were the best.
"K-O! K-O! K-O!"
The Ice field looked like a battleground, which was appropriate. The scarred and gouged snow was perforated with strings of craters full of icy water. Dark clouds of smoke merged slowly into one another like syrup. Hazily through the murk Eve could still see Warbeck's Poké Balls in a gentle psychic orbit around her body, and the indifferent golden figure of Berkowicz.
"Magnemite is unable to battle!" the referee announced. Josh hesitated for a painfully long moment, his headache apparently burning through his concentration.
"You ok sweetling?" Eve said.
"Hang on," he replied. "Got it. Ivysaur, battle's on."
"Begin!" called the referee.
"Anvil," Eve said instinctively. "Lyra, let's finish what we started -"
"That's enough, Venomoth," Berkowicz interrupted. "Baton Pass to Corsola."
Eve sighed in what she hoped was an irritable way. She had to be Tigerlily Champion. Honours and accolades eclipsed everything else – and then they'd all have to lionise her. However bitter it was on their tongue.
Berkowicz's corsola squealed in pain from Toxic Spikes piercing all five of its stumpy feet – at some point it must have regenerated one too many.
"Bronzor, Double Team," Warbeck ordered. One bronzor became twenty in less than two seconds.
"Sleep Powder: Bronzor," Josh countered.
"Corsola," Berkowicz said, "time for Power Gem."
Bollocks! "Block that!" Eve called.
The top half of Corsola's body started to glow a deep magenta, a thin laser beam firing from its ventral horn and targeting Lyra's thorax. Corsola tipped its coral branches forwards into attack position – Eve was vaguely aware of Ivysaur planting Leech Seeds on Bronzor. Gods, I hope Lyra's timing is sharp.
Corsola launched the end of a branch like a rocket – there was a flash of green from Lyra's Protect, the Power Gem shattering against it in a shower of coral shards.
"Good girl!" Eve yelled. "We need to take out that bronzor, otherwise it'll keep shoring up Corsola," she added to Josh.
"Oh. Er … leave it to me."
You've got to trust him. "Lyra girl, Drain Punch Bronzor!"
Wings thrumming healthily, Lyra looped round into the attack, getting in two good strikes to the reverse.
"Move on, girl! Corsola!" Eve yelled – if she kept Lyra moving it would be that much harder to nail her with a Power Gem.
"Skill Swap: Ledian," Warbeck snapped out. Bronzor lost Levitation and thunked onto the dirt. A hot splash of anger sizzled in Eve's chest but Lyra swept on regardless.
Aurora Beam painted the air with cold fire, missed Corsola by inches and evaporated. Flying through the ephemeral embers, Lyra struck. Green bubbles briefly foamed out in their hundreds like exploded soda. Corsola was slammed laterally by the force of the blows, a severe spider-web crack broken down to its substratum.
Josh issued a complex order in Kalosian, Ivysaur loping off towards the opposing side of the field. Fortunately the Kalosian made Warbeck cautious – she ordered a Double Team rather than something to support her ally. Time to finish off Corsola -
"Recover," Berkowicz ordered. The timely Recover drew a volley of hollered approbation from the crowd. Agh, damnit damnit damnit! Battling them was like trying to smash down a wall with a plastic hammer – every attempt at a decisive breakthrough was reduced to an exercise in pounding it into rubble, brick by brick.
Lyra was definitely going to need Iron Fist. "Lyra, good, return."
Eve flung Meowth into the battle as fast as she could, trying not to give any opportunity for a joint attack on Ivysaur.
"Aqua Ring, Corsola."
"Growth."
"Don't stop moving, Meowth!" Eve called, keeping a weather eye on Bronzor. It deftly assembled a Reflect shield. Corsola was glancing this way and that, bewildered, while Meowth dashed in unpredictable zig-zags. Berkowicz seemed to be as confused as her pokémon, issuing no new orders. Good, Eve thought firmly.
"Meowth! Return!" she called. "Lyra, you have the honour!"
"Forget it!" Berkowicz yelled. "Screw it," she continued in a more normal tone. "Corsola, kill the ivysaur. Icicle Spear."
Corsola stippled Ivysaur with a tight blitz of serrated ice-javelins. The attack ripped through an unlucky bush, flaying off half the leaves. Ivysaur's howl of pain competed with the yelling crowd; thick, sticky haemosap spattered onto the snow.
"K-O! K-O!"
"Leech Seeds!" Josh shrieked, but Ivysaur was already recalling them, the tumbleweed bundle flailing across the snow. Two dozen Bronzor clones instantly flashed out of existence, Ivysaur's bleeding wounds visibly knitting together. Bronzor didn't move. It just lay there, like a dropped penny. No-one else reacted either. After a moment one of the assistant referees dashed along the sideline. She whipped an arm into the air.
"Bronzor is unable to battle!"
Eve let out a rousing yell of triumph. "When all you've got is a plastic hammer, huh bud?" she commented.
Josh shrugged vaguely. There was a golden-yellow shimmer around Corsola as the opposing Light Screen fell.
"What do you think? Checkmate?" Eve said.
"Er – don't know. You lead the strategy."
"Right, you've got Corsola, then," she said decisively.
"Hypno, appear!" Warbeck commanded. Hypno hunched over, peering myopically through the smoky haze. He automatically tried to grasp a pendulum string that wasn't there.
Stalling, are we? "Lyra, take it out!"
[You got it!]
Corsola grabbed a chance to Recover as Lyra gained height, keeping both her opponents in sight. Corsola's Recover had only just completed when Ivysaur cracked down his Vine Whips – she hopped aside, assisted by a Baton Passed speed boost. Air Cutter chopped through the lingering murk and smashed into Hypno's right side. He toppled over into the snow. By now he was obviously blinded by Poison, hooting and trying to fling Psybeams freehand.
"Hypno is unable to battle!"
Nice try, Warbeck, Eve thought.
"Corsola's the keystone of this battle," Eve said.
"I'll crush it into gravel," Josh growled.
"Well, good," Eve said cheerfully. "Are you feeling better?"
"A little. Better enough."
They were at a fulcrum point, and Eve was sure Warbeck knew it as well. Two of her orbiting Poké Balls returned themselves to her pocket. She picked a third out of the air, slowly, pensively.
"It's time," she said. The crowd actually quietened down to hear her. "Unmask your eyes! Meowstic, appear!"
Warbeck's meowstic was a silky white, accented with midnight blue. She stumbled briefly thanks to Toxic Spikes and returned to her elegant posture stood on the balls of her feet, pretending nothing had happened. There was an intense look in her sullen eyes as if she were sizing up their pokémon. Spying out weaknesses. Eve cautiously scanned it with her Pokédex.
"Meowstic (Female), the Constraint Pokémon. The eyeball-like organs on the interior of its ears emit psychic energy. It keeps its ears tightly closed to prevent psychic incontinence."
A beautiful pokémon. And dangerous. Warbeck's finally unleashed her ace.
"This could be dangerous," Josh said quietly, echoing her thoughts.
"You've seen meowstic before?"
"Ah. In Lumiose. Never seen one in battle, though."
"Nor me," Eve said thoughtfully. "Let's go with Checkmate anyway."
The referee flourished his flags. "And begin!"
"Lyra, Light Screen!"
"Power Gem at the ledian," Berkowicz said.
"Charge Beam: Ledian," Warbeck ordered.
Meowstic powered up her Charge Beam into a sparking aura – Corsola glowed magenta, firing her target-laser.
"Watch out, this'll be tricky!" Eve called. Come on Lyra, come on, get this dodge right!
Ivysaur quickly grabbed Corsola with all his Vine Whips and flung it aside, ruining her aim – Power Gem went wide, exploding somewhere up near the ceiling. Charge Beam missed, Lyra dodging up and over the attack.
"Herbizarre, rapprochez à Corayon."
"I've had enough!" Eve declared. "You will not withstand my ace! Lyra, Thunderpunch!"
She curled out on a wide hooking attack run, diving sharply and levelling off close to the battlefield surface. Her fists all blazed brilliant with fizzing, spitting electricity.
"Break through! Break through!" Eve yelled.
Lyra slammed into Corsola like a thunderbolt, illuminating the Amphitheatre with a hard white flash of light. The jagged rattling-tinfoil sound of the thunder banged deafeningly off the walls. Stray lightning-filaments stabbed craters into the field. There was an immense hiss of snow rising as steam, mingled with a great swell of crowd screams and cheers.
Too late Eve spotted Meowstic's charged and aimed Charge Beam. "Lyra!"
"Protégez Lyra!"
A leaping silhouette suddenly occluded Charge Beam's glare, occluded in turn by an expanding smoke cloud. Eve couldn't see anything – the assistant referees were running down the sidelines – even Madam Pemberton was leaning forward in her seat. The smoke thinned slightly, revealing a muddy clearing ringed with mushy snow.
"What the actual f-" Berkowicz began.
"Corsola is unable to battle!"
[Who's the ace?] Lyra crowed. [Who is the ace!]
The corsola icon on the scoreboard went dark. Cheers of 'Cherrygrove!' and 'Evelina!' amongst a wave of applause showered down. Eve breathed a little relieved giggle. With four swift Thunderpunches Lyra had punched right through their defences. No more Light Screens, no more Reflect, and no more damn Recover!
"We're nearly home, bud!" Eve said excitedly. She punched him on the arm again.
"Ow! Stop doing that!"
Eve wasn't really listening to him. "Lyra will need a rest, so let's do Scalpel, then Havoc."
"Fine."
"Right," Berkowicz said with feigned indifference. She sent out her battered venomoth. "See what you can do."
Eve had Lyra's Poké Ball raised and ready. "Lyra, return! Good job, girl."
"Ivysaur … attack Venomoth," Josh said cautiously.
"Meowth, you have the honour!" Eve called. An Aurora Beam from Ivysaur slapped into Venomoth's hindwing – lingering Paralysis rendered its dodge slow and clumsy.
"Double Team, then Slash! You've got Meowstic!" Eve yelled. Their Light Screen fell just as Meowth broke into a flurry of Double Team clones, quickly encircling Meowstic.
"War-beck! War-beck!" someone shouted. The chant started to carry round the stands. "War-beck! War-beck!"
"Psychic."
The command was almost coquettishly given. Meowstic opened her true eyes wide – they burned incandescent yellow, her pupils turning into white pinpricks. She raised her ears, unmasking two staring eyes gleaming a baleful cherry red. Eve could taste a metallic tang at the back of her mouth. The air throbbed.
Josh screamed.
The sound cut through the background tumult like a chainsaw. He collapsed to his knees, clutching at his head like he was trying to stop it from breaking in half. The battle shuddered to an abrupt halt.
"Sweetling, what's wrong? What's wrong?" Eve asked urgently, kneeling down beside him.
"Oh sweet Eostre," he whimpered. "… the power …"
Eve followed his line of sight back to Meowstic. Her Psychic pulse had summarily obliterated Meowth's Double Team and literally planed smooth a twenty foot circle of snow.
"It's the Meowstic, isn't it?" she said. A weak nod. Tears of pain flecked the corners of his eyes.
One of the assistant referees ran back down the sideline. "Is she ok?" she asked.
"You can't go on like this!" Eve half-protested, half-commanded. "What happens if we have to quit?"
"That's up to the referee. There could potentially be a rematch, but there's not a lot of time in the schedule. It's up to you …" she replied, leaving the implied question hanging in the air.
"Mm-mn," Josh said unexpectedly.
"What?"
"Mm-mn!" he insisted.
The assistant referee gave them an 'Ok, then' sort of look and strode back to her neutral position.
"Are you mad?" Eve said. "You can't battle like this!"
"Take command."
That shut her up. Take command of his pokémon? While he just – had to be Tigerlily Champion – lay there in pain? Would they even listen to her?
"They know you. They love you," he said, as if he'd read the thought off her face.
Eve tried to pull herself together. Nagging was supposed to be a family talent, for Heaven's sake. "You'll be in pain every time that bitch cat uses psychic power!"
"Don't care."
"Jo-Melissa Evans -"
"Don't care!"
"Joy! Evans! Are you continuing or not?" the referee yelled.
"Maybe, I mean – yes!" Eve yelled back impulsively.
"Good girl! Fight on!" Whitney chimed out, echoed by her courtiers.
"Ivysaur, Eve's in charge!" Josh called from down on bended knee. Ivysaur croaked what she hoped was agreement.
"Meowth, Flash and attack!" Eve commanded. She didn't consciously think about that. A moment's confusion from Flash gave her enough time to decide what to do about Berkowicz's last pokémon. "Ivysaur, Vine Whip Venomoth!"
The crowd started their 'War-beck!' chant again. Wings whirring, Venomoth climbed to escape Ivysaur's vines and only just made it. Meowth raced past, closing in on an impassive Meowstic.
"Hidden Power," Warbeck said.
Hidden Power detonated under Meowth's paws with a spout and an expanding plate of indigo fire, flinging him six feet into the air. Dragonfire! - Eve seized the victory charm hanging from her zipper – as an afterthought Meowstic flung a couple more blasts of dragonfire at Ivysaur. Meowth scrabbled from the snow cursing and spitting with rage.
"Go Venomoth! Giga Drain Ivysaur," Berkowicz suddenly barked. Venomoth swept down on him, wings folded back, using the Hidden Power explosions as cover.
That was a mistake. Ivysaur grabbed it, slammed it once into the field, and trampled it thoroughly.
"Saur," he said shortly.
"Yes!" Eve hollered with a fierce fist pump. You've got Warbeck isolated now, Evelina Joy! Just got to keep hammering away till she breaks. Josh gently nudged her ribs, glancing meaningfully at the stands. Eve's heart leapt to see Madam Pemberton elegantly applauding her. She saluted the Imperial Champion and earned herself a patrician smile.
"Trainers ready …" the referee shouted. Warbeck was going to fight this to the end.
"And begin!"
Nothing happened for a second or two – both of them were thinking furiously.
Warbeck got there first. "Hidden Power: Meowth!"
The pursuing Hidden Power made it look like Meowth was fleeing through a minefield, dodging and weaving barely a foot ahead of the spouting indigo flame.
"Meowth, Double Team and close!" Eve called instinctively. "Uh, Ivysaur, Vine Whip! Don't let up!"
Vine Whip bought Meowth some breathing space as Meowstic was forced to skip away from the lashing vines – she was agile, far more agile than her huge twin tails would suggest. Meowth closed en masse, not dodging but merely trying to close as fast as he could.
"Psychic."
Meowstic stopped in her tracks. Something invisible slapped into Ivysaur like a sledgehammer, squeezing the breath from his lungs. Meowstic's head swivelled with cold purpose, turning her burning gaze on Meowth. Impacts smacked into the snow at the speed of thought, stippling the Double Team out of existence one-by-one. The last impact blew Meowth out like a light.
Both assistant referees raised an arm.
"Ivysaur and Meowth are unable to battle!" the referee announced. The cheers crashed down like a breaking wave; people were jumping out of their seats, raining down approval for the double KO; up went a twelve-foot ONE MORE KILL, WITCH GIRL! banner blazoned with fire-orange tigerlilies; so many of them were chanting "War-beck! War-beck!". Whitney was whooping, Cynthia was applauding, Madam Pemberton was applauding.
Eve didn't even curse. She recalled Meowth without really thinking. Josh's recall beam followed a moment later. The power of that Psychic … Warbeck had just flattened two pokémon in the space of ten seconds!
"War-beck! War-beck!"
"Keep going, Eevee," Josh said. "That cat's still poisoned."
"I can't tell if it's working. And if I can't tell, you can't tell," Eve said snappishly.
"Don't care. Sooner or later it'll take effect," he insisted patiently.
Eve felt a little ashamed of herself. "Ready?" she said more gently.
Josh didn't say anything. He released Fionn into the field, his sluggishness betraying his headache. Eve followed with Lyra, rested and ready for action.
"Fionn, do what Eve tells you," Josh said.
"Miiiss!" she whined petulantly.
"Do as you're told!" Josh snarled, his voice cracking oddly. Fionn was shocked enough to shut up immediately. Might as well let her play games, she won't listen to anything else without a fight anyway.
The battle restarted with Eve snatching back the initiative. "Fionn, disappear, Lyra, Light Screen!"
Fionn laughed maniacally and slipped easily into the smoky murk. The laugh hung in the air after she'd disappeared.
"Wonder Room," Warbeck commanded. Meowstic's eyes flashed briefly. The battlefield instantly looked indefinably but obviously different. Lyra's Light Screen turned blue and faded away again.
[Oh, you bitch!] Lyra shrieked. She knew that left her vulnerable.
"Charge Beam: Ledian," Warbeck said as if to prove the point. Long sparks arced and spat from Meowstic's coat, the acid tang of ozone slicing through the ambient ash-smell.
"Careful, Lyra! Wait -"
A disembodied mouth appeared right by Meowstic's ear. It screamed in anguish and desolation – she thrashed in terror and fell into the snow, her electric aura extinguishing with a hiss. In a blur of scarlet Lyra dived down into the attack yelling a wordless battle cry. Her blood was up.
"Defend yourself," Warbeck commanded.
A savage, bitter snowstorm billowed up from nowhere, tinted with pellucid blue witchfire. Lyra pulled up short, flick-rolled left and sped round the storm, trying to find a way through the biting ice. Eve didn't need Josh's tears to tell her this was a Psychic manoeuvre.
An Astonish might put a stop to that – then Lyra finishes it. Hang on, where is she? "Fionn, I need you!"
"Meowstic, keep Ledian occupied."
The air pressure fluctuated wildly; Meowstic slowly raised her arms. Almost in unison Josh fell to his knees, pulling his hat down like he was trying to block her from sight. The swirling blizzard collapsed in on itself, writhing furiously, shards of ice glittering like broken glass. More snow fountained up off the battlefield. Eve realised Meowstic was shaping the snow, moulding it into -
- a rearing serpent of sculpted snow towering twelve feet above them. Fangs of ice as long as her forearm slid into its jaws, witchfire spilled from its empty eye sockets. It lunged at Lyra, and it wasn't a feint. Lyra barely escaped, cursing breathlessly. The monster tried to roar and ended up engulfing her in a cloud of sparkling diamond dust.
"Fionn! Where the hell are you?" Eve bellowed. "Get back and interfere you little bitch!"
"Bastard!" Lyra snarled. She made a spirited attempt at beheading the serpent with Air Cutter.
A skeletal bush near Meowstic developed a very deep shadow with malicious yellow eyes. Fionn drew breath for Ominous Wind.
"Misdreavus, eight o'clock, two metres," Warbeck said.
The ice serpent vented a freezing fog of diamond dust, screening Lyra off from her ally. Meowstic's head whipped round, fixing Fionn in her gaze – witchfire wavered around Fionn as she psychically grabbed her. For a moment she just held her there, frozen. With a sudden flare of witchfire she compressed her into a featureless oran-sized sphere. Fionn couldn't scream, but that didn't matter because Josh screamed for her.
Meowstic squeezed her brutally for a few seconds and released. Fionn slumped into an amorphous mass of gently sloshing fog.
What … what the hell just happened? Meowstic was tearing through her team so fast … that was three, three pokémon Meowstic had single-handedly smashed. What if I lose?
"Fight on, girl!"
"War-beck! War-beck!"
"Keep going," he said indistinctly. There were tears on his cheeks. "You're so close. Meowstic's still poisoned."
Yes, she is … Lyra's Light Screen was effectively useless. Air Cutter had chopped almost halfway through that serpent's neck but it didn't seem to have made any difference.
"And begi-"
"Lyra, return!" Eve commanded. "Take the victory KO, Bailey! You have the honour!"
Bailey looked almost small and defiant in the face of the surging psychic power in front of her. Meowstic was still as a statue, staring into space with incandescent eyes. The metallic taste was so strong it was like sucking on a mouthful of tin.
"Take Down!" Eve sang out. Bailey kept her shell raised, eyes open, driving up a bow-wave of snow as she closed down on Meowstic. Suddenly she juddered to an anticlimactic halt as Meowstic seized her. Witchfire flared brightly like she was trying to crush her.
"That's not going to work twice, Warbeck!" Eve yelled. With a great crunching rush of snow the serpent slithered between Meowstic and Bailey, looming over her predatorialy, the Damoclean threat of its icy fangs hanging over her. Eve narrowed her eyes at them, daring it to shatter them on Bailey's steel armour. It tried to roar again, venting a vast cloud of glittering, scintillating diamond dust that blocked both Warbeck and her pokémon from view and made Eve shiver violently.
If I can't see you, you can't see me. "Pin Missile!"
Warbeck couldn't see that she wasn't targeting Meowstic. The Pin Missiles punched into the serpent's body as easily as needles punching into icing sugar. A ripple of detonations blew it apart from the inside, sculpted snow bursting into bluish-white dandelions of flying powder. Meowstic still had a tight psychic hold on Bailey. An avalanche of smashed and molten snow crashed back down.
Eve's savage yell of triumph was lost in the sound of thundering snow and applause. An idea struck her like divine inspiration. "Bailey, try a Protect!"
The Protect bubble shone green, extinguishing the witchfire flaring on Bailey's shell – suddenly liberated from that psychic grasp she catapulted forward -
"Stop that Take Down!" Warbeck shrieked.
"Self-Destruct!"
The force of the blast made her bones tremble.
Eve bounced to a halt by the atrium balcony and looked down at the bustling floor below. Her ears were still ringing with the sounds of her victory.'Meowstic and Forretress are both unable to battle! Victory goes to the team of Evelina Joy and Melissa Evans!' Riley and Aunt Jocasta were both busy at the front desk with one of the chansey. Aunt Edith dashed by in bloody scrubs, pursued by an orderly. Eve enjoyed the thought of them learning about her victory for a while, her stomach fizzing with elation.
Threading her way past the trainers, she joined the queue for coffee in the cafeteria. Eve had been off to check on Josh, expecting him to be fully horizontal on the bed, head soaked in pain. Apparently though, thank Eostre, he'd recuperated enough to venture out of the room. She tried to pull out her smartphone to text him and add milk to her coffee at the same time. Oh. There he was, sitting in one of the phone bays, back to looking unpretty and unfeminine. He was talking on videophone to a black woman Eve didn't recognise, holding his fidgeting roselia seedling on his lap. Presently he noticed Eve hovering and reluctantly beckoned her over.
"Yes, this is Eve," he said in a put-upon kind of voice. "Eve, Mum."
Eve knew she was looking stupidly surprised. The words 'I didn't know your mother was black' stuck in her mouth. You can't say that! Inappropriately long pause. Say something!
"Um, hello Mrs Cook," she managed.
"Aliss, chick, it's Aliss. Nice to meet you – finally," she replied, directing that last word at Josh with a pointed look, which he pointedly ignored.
"Are you responsible for his hair?" Aliss asked her with mock disapproval.
"Aha … well, doesn't he look cuter this way?" Eve tried.
"He looks cuter this way," Aliss agreed.
"I knew this was a mistake," Josh cut in, taking a quick draught of his own coffee.
Aliss gave him a reproachful look. "I wish you'd wear your turban."
"Mum," Josh said with tired forbearance. This was obviously an old conflict.
"Or at least a head cloth. Goes on easy as a bandana and he still won't wear it," she added as an aside to Eve.
"Mum."
"Anybody'd think ye weren't proud of your culture."
"Mum!" Josh protested.
"If ye say so …" Aliss relented. "Josh, Wulf says the holly staves have a-finished seasoning and he'll put your share aside."
"My share?" Josh said. "They're all bloody mine! Thass my coppice, that is!"
"Simmer down, ye silly sausage, I'm a-going to impound them afore work tomorrow," Aliss said mollifyingly. "Now you go and raise ye weed. Go on, get!"
"Alright, fine. Bye Mum."
Eve stayed awkwardly quiet while Josh juggled Meg into the crook of an arm and set down his half-finished coffee. "It's alright. You can say it," he said.
"Um …" Eve picked her words carefully. "I didn't know your mum was Native Orange."
"I know, I don't look very black. Some quirk of the genes, since Dad's white. I've been identified before now as Alolan, Hoenner, Mizrahim …"
"Um," Eve said pointlessly. She optimistically tried to cover for her inane response by taking a mouthful of coffee. Unfortunately it turned out to be an accidental mouthful of Josh's horrible over-sweet battery-acid coffee. She let out a muffled noise of distaste.
"Hm. A question of etiquette – to spit or swallow," Josh said dryly.
Eve elected to swallow. "That is not funny," she lied, giggling.
"I thought we were supposed to be being discreet till the Tourney's over!" Josh complained under his breath as they moved away from the phones.
"Chill out, damnit! We're staying here because it's the biggest Pokémon Centre in the Empire. Remember?"
"Regardless – stop wriggling Meg! Oh, sorry."
He'd almost walked into another trainer. She blenched like a meowth caught doing something forbidden. The girl gave the appearance of being smaller than she really was, dressed in a faded green bomber jacket a couple of sizes too big. Her hair, badly dyed orange, looked like she'd tried to cut it with a bread knife. She was clutching a metapod to her chest protectively.
"This is my starter and there's nothing suspicious about that!" she blurted out.
The nameless girl scuttled off, furtively hugging the walls in a way that made her look conspicuously inconspicuous.
"What do you think that was about?" Eve said.
"Don't know. Looks like she needs a thick steak on her plate," Josh replied. "Stop squirming, you!"
"Don't get any ideas of feeding another girl," Eve automatically teased. It didn't get the usual half-smile. He was looking, well, frayed. Apparently getting caught in psychic splash-back for half a battle can be taxing.
"I know. Let's get away from Millennium Centre for the night," she suggested. "Oh! I'll take you to the balneary we saw on Thursday, the one by Brightwater."
"Eevee, you don't have to keep paying for things …"
You didn't have to suffer through a psychic migraine for me. If she'd known he was psychosensitive – I shouldn't have let him do that.
"Oh, shush," Eve said, rather than waste time winning the argument. "Anyway, no-one'll recognise us there. A nice hot bath, a nice pink steak, a nice cuddle and you'll be out like a light."
Josh hesitated despite the allure of steak. "I ought to revise my notes again before bed."
"Square! Bet you a shilling we're as ready as we're going to be."
Eve said it cheerfully, but that was a comment with two edges. There was only so much studying even Josh could usefully do. After a point all it wasn't so much studying as polishing up your anxieties. But the other edge, the other edge was that nothing more could help at this point either.
She pretended not to think about the other edge.