Chapter 28 - The Snowflake Cup: Gifted

One day ago

"Aria, use Dig! Powder, cover the ground with snow to stop her."

Celeste watched her vulpix and eevee as they executed their moves, and before Aria could even start digging her hole, Powder covered Olga's backyard with a thin layer of snow. The place looked beautiful, but the move didn't faze the eevee, who burrowed underground as if nothing had happened.

It only took Aria five seconds to climb out of her hole and hit Powder while flashing out her smuggest grin. Once she was back on her feet, the vulpix huffed a flurry of ice and barked her new favourite word: "again!"

The trainer looked at her two pokémon, and let out a loud sigh. "Okay, let's try using less snow and more ice now…"

—*—*—

Today

Celeste peered at the two pokémon fighting for space on her lap and giggled. Pat had taken the opening Aria had left when she tried to steal some popcorn from a nearby kid, and claimed his territory. Now she was trying to make the slowpoke budge and failing miserably.

There was no way she was meddling in that, Celeste decided, before turning her attention to Luan.

The two trainers were sitting in the stands around Articuno Plaza, waiting for the next battle of the Snowflake Cup to begin. This was, of course, the perfect moment to meddle with something else entirely.

"So," Celeste said with a grin that extended from ear to ear. "What will it be, family or love?"

Luan turned to face the girl, making the munna perched in his head lose balance and shift around. As he brushed a curl away from his face, the boy frowned and then, as if a little cog in his head had clicked, he widened his eyes.

"W-what?" Luan stuttered in a squeaky voice.

"I'm asking who will you cheer for?" Celeste pointed down at the battlefield below, while trying to look as innocent as she could. The first round of the day was supposed to be underway, with the competitors, Mia and Delia, already standing on opposite sides while DJ Jiggly Jams rambled on. The referee, however, was nowhere to be seen, and the crowd was bored senseless.

After some moments of a nervous, awkward silence, Luan's eyes shot up to the pokémon in his head. He looked pleadingly at Rev, who simply responded by blowing off his trunk. Whatever that was about, the boy calmed down enough to talk again. "I'm cheering for them both."

"You can't cheer for both, that is like cheering against both. Pick one and I'll go for the other," Celeste said, with an eye roll, but the boy was much more preoccupied with his munna than her. "Hey, want to make a bet?" she added, still determined to get his attention.

Before Luan could answer, however, Aria leaped on Patrick's back and tried to use him as a pillow. After the ten seconds it took for the slowpoke to notice, he tried to retaliate by hitting the eevee with Water Gun. Obviously, Celeste got caught in the crossfire and let out a loud yelp as she got drenched.

"Enough of that, you two," the girl said, picking Aria up and placing her on her shoulder. The eevee protested and hissed, but Celeste was unimpressed. "I know you are just as comfortable in there."

Aria puffed in resignation, but settled herself quickly, making the girl sigh and turn back to Luan, whose gaze was distant, as if his mind was a million miles away. "Still here with us, Luan?"

"I was just thinking," he answered absentmindedly.

Celeste narrowed her eyes and looked at Rev again, but shrugged off any lingering thoughts so she could get back to the task at hand. "Thinking about how to ask Delia out?"

Luan answered with a squeak, but then just looked away and muttered, "Dude, can't you just drop it?"

"I wanted to, but watching you both is just sad. Rey, of all people, asked me what was the deal with you."

"There is no deal with anyone." Luan folded his arms in front of him and tried to focus on the battle that was about to begin. "Where the hell is this referee?"

Celeste shrugged as she scratched Pat's ear. "There is no deal because you won't ask her out. Come on, I can be your wingman. I'm an awesome wingman."

"You are really not dropping it, huh?" Luan finally said, slumping his shoulders. "She will say no."

"You won't know unless you put yourself out there," Celeste said, dropping her teasing attitude in favour of a more supportive tone this time. "I don't know how, but Delia is a hundred per cent oblivious of your very, very, obvious crush. So the only way to know how she feels is by, you know, asking her out."

Luan stared at Celeste for about a minute until he bobbed his head. "No, thanks."

"You are hopeless." The girl lifted her hands up, but soon looked back at the boy with a mischievous grin. "So, wanna have that bet or not?"

From the corner of his eyes, the boy looked at his friend, unconvinced. "I feel like I'll regret it, but go on."

"Pick the one you are cheering for. If she wins, you can do you sad, silent pining and I won't bother you ever again." Celeste explained, watching the referee arrive and apologise. "If the other one wins, you ask Delia out."

"Why the hell would I agree to that?" Luan said, narrowing his eyes. "But if you want me to pick on so bad, I'll cheer for Mia. Happy?"

Celeste stood up and clapped as the two red streaks in the battlefield materialised into a delibird and a shellder. "Cool, it's on then," she said, peeking at Luan from the corner of her eyes.

"It's on…?" he said slowly, and then click. "Wait, I didn't agree to anything!"

—*—*—

One day ago

"You Dig really came a long way, Aria," Celeste said, looking at the hole the eevee made in the frozen ground. "And you froze a lot of the ground this time, Powder! You were fantastic."

The vulpix also stared into the hole, as if this was the doorway to hell itself. The trainer could tell her pokémon was getting frustrated again… and actually, so was she.

"It's okay, we will figure this thing out," Celeste tried encouraging her partner. "Maybe if we flood the hole with snow, it will collapse…"

—*—*—

Today

Delia impatiently ran her fingers through her hair as she watched Jukebox, the DJ's wigglytuff, jump and twirl for the entire twenty minutes they had been waiting for the referee. The pokémon seemed to be there as fodder for the DJ's breaks, but as entertaining as it could be, Delia was not on the battlefield for fun. She was there to challenge herself and hopefully to finally find the strength to answer Olga's request.

"I'll need someone to help me out with the shop I'm opening in Viridian." Olga's words echoed in Delia's mind, making her heart race whenever she thought of her boss's request.

The girl knew what she wanted, of course… and yet, whatever she chose would disappoint someone. Professor Oak and Spencer were still waiting for her in Pallet and Celeste kept dropping hints about how cool it would be if they kept travelling together forever. She had thought she had time to decide, but now Olga wanted her to move to Viridian.

Delia let out a heavy sigh.

Battling wasn't something she ever thought she would do again, but thanks to Olga, she was in the tournament and enjoying it, too. It was silly to think that the two things were connected, but somehow she believed that by pushing herself a little more… maybe she would be able to also push herself to do what she wanted and not what others expected her to do.

"Sorry for the delay, folks," the DJ's announcement snapped Delia back to reality. The referee had arrived, and the battle was about to start. "Since I'm pretty sure y'all tired of my voice, let's cut back the yapping and get this show started already. Ladies, send out your pokémon."

Promptly, Delia let Shelly out, doing her best to let go of all her problems and focus on the task at hand. Across from them, her opponent, Mia, winked. "Go easy on us," she said, while releasing her delibird, creatively named Noel.

The red and white bird chirped and shifted his large hollowed tail around on his back. The tail that doubled as a bag looked full, and Noel had a tight grip on the opening, keeping whatever secrets he had hidden inside. Delia frowned and peered at the referee. Having a bag full of items should be against the rules, but no one seemed to mind.

"Withdraw," Delia yelled as soon as the battle started. Her shellder closed its shell tightly with an audible thump. There was no way the delibird could break through its defences now.

Mia didn't command Noel to do anything for a while. The delibird, never letting go of the tail bag, tilted its head and lazily preened its feathers while it waited. The lack of action was unnerving, but Delia was sure they would have to make a move at some point. Shelly was not letting her guard down.

"Agility," Mia finally said, after a minute of nothing. The surrounding audience cheered, happy to finally see some action, but Delia frowned in confusion as the bird grabbed the tail with its beak and took flight. Its feathers quivered and its wings went from a somewhat lazy flapping to something more frantic.

What was that even for? She couldn't help but wonder. On land, Shelly was incredibly slow, and any pokemon could outspeed her. Why did Mia use agility? Was this some sort of trap?

"Now be a good boy and eat your berries, Noel," Mia said in a motherly tone, this time leaving not only Delia but the entire audience confused. The delibird casually landed as far from Shelly as possible and reached inside his bag. It was as if they weren't even having a battle. Noel poked around for a while until he finally produced a bunch of cornn berries, of all things.

The small purple berries resembled grapes, but they were not as tasty. They were dry, overly sweet, and most had large and annoying seeds. Most importantly, they didn't really have much of an effect on pokémon. Some people on contest circuits would say they made the pokémon look prettier when used as a poffin ingredient, but even if that was true, this berry would be useless in a battle. Despite this, Noel kept popping one cornn after another into its mouth with the appetite of a snorlax.

Delia nervously fiddled with the top button on her shirt. This could be a trap, and yet… someone needed to make a move.

If this was a trap, it was working, because the girl could only think that the delibird was too far away to make it in time for a close-range attack, even with its agility. In case of a long range move… Did delibird even know long ranged moves? The shellder could take a hit from the infamous Present attack.

Delia bit her lip. She had made her decision and hopefully this wasn't a mistake. "Shelly, use Icicle Spear," she commanded, and her shellder responded right away. However, the little confidence she had wavered and her body felt cold as soon as she noticed Mia's lips twitch upward. Before her pokémon could even finish her move, the girl changed her mind. "Withdraw again, quickly!"

"Bullet seed," Mia ordered, seizing the opportunity. Shelly had launched one of her spears before getting confused by Delia's sudden change of tactics and, even though it hit the delibird right on target, it wasn't enough to prevent the barrage of cornn seeds were shot right into the shellder's shell, for super effective damage.

"Shelly," Delia yelled at a loss. The seeds were coming too fast and her pokémon wasn't being able to Withdraw.

That had been Mia's trick all along. She had looked unassuming, doing mundane things, but when the moment came, she had taken Delia by surprise and hit very hard.

Things were bad, but when the delibird ran out of seeds, the girl smiled, happy to see Shelly was still standing. Maybe it wasn't too late for them yet.

"Shelly, withdraw to your shell and rest," Delia commanded with her heart pounding. It was risky to put Shelly to sleep now, but their only chance to turn this around was to protect and recover. Once her wounds were healed, the shellder would wake up ready to battle with full force.

As the small shellder fell asleep, faint green droplets emanated from her body, bringing some hope back to Delia. Mia's trick would not work twice. They were going to be fine.

"Oh no, you won't," her opponent said as soon as Shelly closed her shell again. Her voice had lost her usual gleeful, friendly tone. "Time to finish this. Hammer it open with brutal swing."

Brutal swing? Delia's eyes widened as she accidentally pulled the top button of her shirt out.

"Shelly, wake up and use Protect!" Delia yelled, but it was no use.

The delibird landed beside Shelly with his bag-like-tail already glowing in an ominous dark purple hue. While still clenching it, the flying type spun around and swung the bag with incredible force, batting the shellder away like a golf ball.

Delia twitched when her pokémon fell to the floor with a loud thump. Part of her hoped the high defence and the healing that had been underway would have been enough to keep Shelly going. As everyone watched in silence, however, she closed her eyes and let the button slip from her fingers.

She didn't need to wait to know she had lost.

When Shelly's shell opened and her tongue rolled out, the DJ exchanged a worried glance with the referee, but after a nod, the man burst out. "Looks like delibird delivered Delia a daunting defeat!" he said, making the crowd explode.

Ignoring the world around her, Delia quickly made her way to Shelly and cradled her in her chest. "You were really great," the girl said as she gently tapped the unconscious shellder with her pokéball. To her surprise, in front of her, Mia had a hand extended.

"Maybe next time we battle, you can make a choice and stick to it," the woman said, grinning.

Delia blinked at her, and taking Mia's hand, she smiled back. "Next time I'll win."

—*—*—

One day ago

"Powder, zigzag around the field, while you wait for her to come back up," Celeste yelled. The silver lining in today's training was that Aria's dig now hardly ever missed when using it on a stationary target. Still, Powder could not do much to stop her from using the move. "Aria, try to listen to her position."

As she dug herself out, the eevee narrowly missed colliding with the vulpix. Powder dodged at the last second, but Aria's dig still grazed her tails. Frustrated, the vulpix barked something at the eevee, who responded by grabbing one of her tails in retaliation.

Powder, who was supposedly Celeste's gentle and cute vulpix, spat snow into Aria's face and the eevee tackled her in return. Soon enough, the two pokémon were exchanging blows and what the trainer assumed were insults.

It took Celeste quite some time to break the skirmish.

"Come on, this is hard enough without you two fighting." Celeste plopped down on the frozen ground, exhausted. She gestured for her pokémon to come closer as she laid on her back. Her gaze shifting through the clouds above her as her two pokémon settled on each side of her head.

The girl closed her eyes and let out a sigh of frustration. She knew she shouldn't be so worried about a ground-type move, but that swinub she would have to face in the next battle… using dig was its whole thing. In its last fight, the pokémon had spent most of the time underground, only emerging to attack. Slowly but surely, it won, and Celeste was afraid that, slowly but surely, it would win again.

"Nothing we do seems to work…" the girl muttered as the eevee and the vulpix settled on each side of her head. "How are we going to stop swinub from using Dig?"

"You won't," Olga said, suddenly appearing into Celeste's field of view. The woman crossed her arms and groaned as she surveyed her frozen garden. She then rubbed her forehead with her hand and added, "Accept things as they are. How many times do I have to drill this into your head? It is really important."

—*—*—

Today

As Celeste stood in her little square, she felt the cold emanate from Powder's ball, which meant her pokémon was excited. So excited, in fact, that it was almost like she was holding a block of ice. The girl snorted. Was that why so many trainers wore gloves? Imagine having a fire type.

"Trainers, let out your pokémon." The call resonated throughout the speakers placed on the battlefield and Celeste felt a shiver run through her spine as the cold pokéball got somehow even colder. Her vulpix was telling her to focus, but there was no need this time.

She let her pokémon out with a giggle.

Powder emerged with a serious look and, as a cloud formed above them, she got into her battle pose. It was adorable how focused her vulpix could get. It was like every battle she was in was the most important thing in the world.

Standing across from them was a boy named Sam, with his tiny swinub. The pig pokémon had the thickest fur Celeste had ever seen, barely even noticing the hail raining down on them.

As soon as the battle began, Celeste shouted, "Powder Snow!" The hailstorm intensified with the wind, causing visibility to decrease, but the swinub remained unfazed. Still, it took the bait.

The vulpix was not posing any danger with Powder Snow, so there was no reason for the opposing pokémon to hide underground. Sam ordered his swinub to use the much more effective tackle, and it actually surprised Celeste how fast it could go.

But speed alone was not enough. Powder was quicker and expertly evaded the incoming attack. She then circled around to the swinub's back and switched to hurling ice shards at it. The pokémon was hit twice before it could charge forward again.

It wasn't a lot of damage, but not a lot of damage was still damage.

The pokémon engaged in a dance of tackles and dodging for a while until Sam grew frustrated and decided to change tactics. "Use Dig. She won't be able to avoid that," he commanded.

Celeste smiled. Like Olga had told her, she couldn't stop it. Avoiding, though? That was a whole other story.

"Like we trained, Powder," Celeste said, hardly hiding the excitement in her voice.

The boy frowned at the vagueness of her commands, but didn't dwell on it. His swinub quickly burrowed underground and a tense silence fell around the audience.

Swinub were famously known as the pokémon that can find hot springs. Apparently, the reason for that was because it could not only sense the vibrations on the ground but also differentiate them, precisely detecting things like the flow of water or, as it was probably doing now, the footsteps of pokémon walking on the surface.

Powder would not walk, though. She was going to be a nice and easy target and lay down on the ground, with all six tails spread out for maximum coverage.

They just needed to wait and then…

As the swinub launched itself out of the ground, ready to strike, the vulpix swiftly jumped away with impeccable timing. While the swinub was still in the air, Powder took advantage and aimed a few more ice shards at its exposed belly. The disoriented pokémon was feeling the damage slowly pile up, so it didn't wait for a command before burrowing underground again.

"H-how?" Sam asked, staring confused at the vulpix who calmly laid down and spread her tails around once more.

Celeste grinned with pride at the bewildered trainer. "Did you know that vulpix are born with only one tail?"

Sam and the others frowned in confusion, all still waiting for the swinub to make its move.

"I didn't," Celeste continued, undeterred. "My mom told me that the tail would split after a first few weeks, but I was so curious when she first got home with me, I decided to examine it myself."

The surrounding silence was tense, but the girl ignored it.

"She bit my hand as soon as I touched her tail, though," Celeste chuckled. "Powder didn't even have teeth yet. Anyway, I learned my lesson: do not touch a vulpix's tail. They are hyper-sensitive, and the vulpix will lash out at you."

The boy's eyes suddenly widened with realisation as his swinub emerged, attempting another attack. As they watched Powder dodge and retaliate, it was clear that he had understood Celeste's tactics.

She was using the tails to feel the vibrations on the ground. They might not be as specialised as the swinub itself, but it turned out that they were quite versatile.

Celeste exchanged a look with her pokémon and saw Powder puff her chest with pride. She should really thank Olga, though. Accept things as they are, was great advice. It was only when she accepted she couldn't stop swinub from using Dig that she actually came up with a plan to counter it.

"Thanks for the heads up," the boy scoffed, bringing the girl back to reality. His eyes glinting with an idea of his own. "Let's see how sensitive those tails really are. Use Mud Slap!"

"What—?" Celeste started saying, but was interrupted when the swinub dug out some mud, readily available because of the melting hail. With incredible accuracy, it hurled mud right into Powder's eyes.

The vulpix was taken by surprise and did not deal with this turn of events well. Blinded and panicked, she aimlessly threw ice shards all around.

"Use tackle again," Sam commanded, and this time, his pokémon scored a direct hit.

Celeste cursed under her breath. One good idea had been enough for her to start monologuing her plan like some cartoonish villain.

"Powder, calm down," the girl tried to maintain a steady voice, confident and calm, despite the knot in her stomach. "You don't need your eyes. You've got your tails."

The tails wouldn't be enough, though.

Either way, the vulpix seemed too nervous to listen, still reeling from the effects of the mud slap and repeated tackles.

"Powder, do you trust me?" Celeste finally asked, determined to help her pokémon. "We can do this together. I'll be your eyes, but you need to focus and listen to me."

The vulpix stopped fussing and took a deep breath, freezing the edges of the arena as she calmed down. Finally, her trainer's words had broken through. However, there was no time to relax. The swinub was coming in strong for another tackle.

"On your left," Celeste whispered, and her pokemon's ears twitched. She turned left and raised three of her tails while placing the other three on the ground. Her dodging was even better than when she could see. "Great job, Powder!"

The swinub was growing increasingly frustrated as his attacks continued to miss. In a last-ditch attempt to win, it charged towards Powder with Flail, hoping to land a stronger hit.

"On your right." Celeste held her fist up with excitement as Powder swiftly turned to the right, using her tails to sense the swinub's movements. As she leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding the move, the swinub tumbled over. "Right in front of you, it's vulnerable."

With one last ice shard, her strongest yet, Powder seized the victory. Even with her face filled with mud, Powder's expression was of pure pride and joy, as Celeste jumped onto the battlefield to hug her.

—*—*—

Celeste was sitting on the corner of the field, trying to clean the mud off Powder's face, when Lori stopped by her side.

"Have you ever met the one ice type in the world who is more bothered by ground than fire?" Celeste looked up at her friend with a grin as Powder let out a low grumble of protest. "Come on, Powds, you know how great you were! I just think it's funny that you are so annoyed."

"You both did a great job," Lorelei smiled encouragingly, but Celeste could see she was absentminded. Which, to be fair, was understandable. Hers was the next battle. "Wish me luck," she added, waving as she moved on to the field.

While Celeste was still trying to clean Powder off, she saw Kristal the smoochum, and some snom materialise on the field. "Lori doesn't have the advantage on this one," she whispered to her vulpix, who barked again, pleading for her to hurry. "Wanna watch, too?"

She turned from the battlefield and tried to rub the mud off quicker, so the two of them could watch the battle together. From the back, she could hear the exchange of commands.

"Use Lick." Lorelei's voice seemed calm.

"Don't let her. Dodge and counter with Struggle Bug," their opponent spat. "Shit."

"Keep using Pound. If it seems it will move, stop them with Sweet Kiss."

One minute. That is what it took for Celeste to clean Powder's face. The battle ended before she even finished. As Lorelei walked away, the girl and her pokémon just kept staring at the defeated trainer, cradling the fainted and badly bruised snom.

"How in the world can anyone stand a chance?" Celeste muttered, as she and Powder exchanged anxious looks.

NEXT CHAPTER: Time at Lorelei's