Chapter 24:
"So wait for me; the world is changing, Underneath, the ground is shaking, You and I were meant for something better,"-Something Better by Audien
I wake up before dawn. Well, technically, it's late in the year so dawn comes later. But still, waking up at seven is really early!
It's not like I could sleep in the first place, because all I could think about was my depleted funds. I should have thought before spending a boatload of money on that stone for Poe, but she's such a good Pokémon that it wouldn't have been fair if I didn't seize the opportunity and evolved her.
I spent the night with Madge sleeping at the footside of the bed and I was recalling how similar this felt to how my early days of training worked when I had constant budget problems and how Madge would give me one of her mature looks, as if she was telling me that this was only a temporary situation. As much as I love Ganon, I need Madge to keep me grounded when things get tough like this.
"Was it a good idea to have spent so much on that Dusk Stone on Poe so quickly?" I ask her as I get ready for my day.
She gives an affirmative bark.
"It was for the greater good, anyway." I put a lot of thought to how N said back in that cave that I knew that my strength was something that I realized wouldn't happen, but I need to prove him wrong. I needed that push. Helping Poe out would strengthen my team as a whole, making me focus now on their potential and how I can bring out the best of them. It wasn't good in the short term, but it'll help me in the long run.
Madge gives another affirmative bark as I smooth over my skirt and leave my room.
The other reason I woke up early was to get first dibs on the complementary breakfast these centers give. They're not huge breakfasts, generally, it's just a muffin and bland coffee and it's exactly what I get. The bright side is that I got the pick of the litter and choose chocolate chip.
I spend the morning training up my team in the area over on Route 10. What I don't anticipate was how the temperature dropped from last night to today and how the only sort of protection I have is an orange scarf that I forgot to take out of my purse ages ago.
My lack of cleaning has paid off!
The chilly weather wears me out faster but I keep going as I have Madge and Sheik fight together in the tall grass against the Rufflets and the Bouffalants. I spend all of this time hoping that a passerby trainer would like to fight, but it looks like they're all interested in heading towards Victory Road.
As Madge uses Ice Fang on an Amoonguss, my Xtransceiver goes off. I'm tempted to ignore the call and keep training but it's White's name flashing on my screen and these days if White calls then it's for something serious. Her face across the screen is visibly upset and I shudder.
"Uh, hi White?" I say as the Amoonguss scampers away. I flick my wrist at Madge and Sheik, signaling them to walk beside me in the pavement instead of the tall grass. There's no way I'm going to multitask training with calls.
"I'll just cut to the chase. Have you checked your interview from last night?" she asks me.
I slowly breathe in. "No. I was just about to go rewatch my match with Drayden and take notes on where I messed up. It's really cold out here today."
"It'll warm up this afternoon, just go and watch the interview, please. Listen, I gotta go. Ever since Brycen announced his retirement, I haven't been able to get fifteen minutes to myself during the workday." The angry look on her eye fades, with something...no, nothing replacing it. "But the money's really good, so I shouldn't complain." Even though she says this to me (and to herself), the emptiness is still there.
"All right. I..." My words go unheard as she hangs up "...love you, White."
This is really weighing on her, isn't it? I feel my heart breaking for my best friend as the three of us make out way back to the Center.
When I arrive, I use one of their free computers and check out the official Unova League webpage. Normally, I'd type in my name, but my defeat is on the front page. It isn't the main focus of the day but if you scroll down, you'll see it. Time to get this over with. It's the shorter of the two videos, of course, since it's a recap video. Madge isn't really interested in watching, but Sheik sits in an empty seat next to mine and watches alongside me. Out of all of my Pokémon, she's the most interested in strategy and competition. I'd say it's due to her being a Fighting type but Ganon isn't as invested. Maybe it has to do with her single typing?
"Last night was an amazing battle between trainer Bianca Bel and Gym Leader Drayden, where the blonde trainer had faced a narrow loss against the Dragon-type leader. A quiet, yet energetic girl who works for Professor Juniper, she is a lot more than she seems, being the only child of Wendy Bel and the best friend of Champion White and trainer Cheren, who has proven as mysterious of a force as Brycen." I want to look away from the screen as an older photo of my mom shows for a fraction of a second but despite her physical similarity to me, her affects are completely different. Her hands are clenched, her mouth wide open as though she were yelling at someone. Luckily it's replaced by White, who I noticed the reporting having called her by her preferred name, which clearly wasn't what upset her.
"Speaking of not what she seems, it may turn out that there might be a burgeoning romance between childhood friends."
"WHAT?" I burst out. Sheik shakes her head despite my outburst.
And there I am, the me from yesterday, looking tense and awkward. "Do you and Trainer Cheren have any history?"
"Definitely," the Bianca from yesterday says.
"What!" the fuming Bianca from right now yells. "I know I said 'definitely not'!"
"Does Champion White and Cheren have any history?" he asks, the editing proving itself to be quite skillful because I don't remember those words being used together.
"Definitely," the same loop of yesterday's Bianca says.
"AW COME ON! That's an obvious loop." You'd have to be really easily mislead to have believed that.
I search for White's name in the news. Other than her victories from the past couple of days, there are articles written about the supposed love triangle between us that may or may not have brought Cheren so far to the edge that he disappeared because he couldn't handle us wanting him.
Really?
I call White and amazingly enough, she picks up. She catches my angry gaze.
"So you saw the video, didn't you?" she says, putting a piece of pizza in her mouth. I clearly caught her during lunch.
I shake my head. "Why..."
"This is what happens when you're Champion. The rumors, the scandals, the stories that follow you because there is nothing better for these people to do. After N did his thing and stuff, it was all the media wanted to talk about. Well, it's been a while since that happened and they need stories and as Champion, I have a large target on my back. So do you, by proxy."
"It sure looks like it. Look, I know I said 'definitely not' or something like that. The editing is really bad there."
"It doesn't matter to them. Look, you've got a good thing going with Professor Juniper. You sure you wanna continue with this whole training thing? What if you beat me during your eventual battle with me? I can't imagine you being bait for them like that any more than what just transpired."
I know for certain my chances of defeating White are slim. "But..."
White cuts me off. "It doesn't matter, because I know you and you've got a point to prove to yourself and the rest of the world. You wouldn't get this far and not do anything. It's stupid that people pit us against each other, because it's pretty obvious that this little interview will be used to hype out our potential match. It's not fair to you or me, but we gotta deal with it."
"Yeah..." I say weakly. The anger has faded and has turned a new form in frustration.
"It's something you do need to think about if you were to beat me in battle, Bianca. And about that loss against Drayden, it wasn't as bad as the loss you had against Clay and Drayden's a much more formidable opponent, wouldn't you think?" Her cheeky grin is back again, reminding me of ages gone by when we were still in school. "I should go. You really should rewatch your battle, Bianca. There's...mistakes you made and I know you can spot them out. Use that science-y stuff Juniper's been egging you on with."
"Well, she mostly uses history, but, you know." White laughs and we disconnect. I take out my pad and take notes. Sheik watches alongside me, pointing out anything she saw as strange and I watch and watch and rewatch.
I spend two whole days analyzing my match against Drayden and taking notes. Even though I'm pushed to my limits in terms of exhaustion while training and barely eating, I've come to realize all of my mistakes. I scribble them down as I watch them on a random page in my notepad, but after watching it a few hundred times, I realize my notes are as disorganized as Professor Juniper and I start from scratch again, this time in order.
My re-match with Drayden is on the third morning. If I lose, there won't really be much at stake on my part, since I'm flat broke.
Iris is nowhere to be seen, and to be honest, I haven't really noticed or looked her up in the possibility to hang out. I guess once I focus on a task, I'm set to finish it.
"It's nice to see you again, Ms. Bel," Drayden says as he takes his Fraxure out of his Pokéball.
Mistake #1: I took out a Musharna when instead, I should have gone all out with a Pokémon who knows an Ice move (mainly Madge the Stoutland). Sometimes in a Pokémon battle, especially a high stakes one like this, it's better to go in guns blazing.
Madge comes out, her face ready to go. She ignores the camera watching her and goes full force on her opponent, her strides long and fearless. Madge shakes, her fur swishing with hers as she bares her teeth, now looking like icicles ready to fall. She bites down on the Fraxure's tail and it wails as Drayden cries out for it to strike back with Assurance.
Mistake #2: Assurance is NOT a Normal type move. It's actually a Dark move. This is why my Musharna went down so quickly. It turns out the Axew line is capable of learning this attack early in their training.
The attack hones down on Madge, but it doesn't do as much damage as it did with Munny that day. Her fangs turn to icicles once more and she strikes down on the Fraxure, finishing it off.
Not-Really-A-Mistake-But-I-Have-To-Write-This-Regardless-Down #3: Drayden's second Pokémon used was a Druddigon, who immediately lashed out with Revenge (a Fighting type move) on Madge, basically one-shotting her. If Madge is lost, then I could easily lose my hand in this battle and I really don't want to waste a Max Revive until I face White.
"Madge, you did fantastic, you gotta go now!" It's a good thing that official battles allow you to swap Pokémon at the beginning of turns and that it takes priority above all else. I swap her with Ganon, who has the most HP and defense and would be the least affected by the inevitable Revenge move. It would actually be Munny would had the most resistance, but...
Mistake #4: Taking out a Musharna in this battle was a mistake in itself in the first place. I had said earlier that the Axew line was capable of learning Dark type moves early on in training and this goes the same for Druddigon, who is not only capable of learning Assurance through TM, but also can learn Bite, Crunch, and Night Slash, with each move being worse than the last.
"Ganon, use Flare Blitz!" Ganon nods and rushes towards the Druddigon, his body alighting with fire as he body-slams into its large belly. The damage it does is pretty decent but not something I was hoping for, like a burn. It wasn't like I had a strong chance anyway, but you never know. I keep going with the same attack as the Druddigon turns its back and swings its tail at Ganon.
When it's HP is low enough (and Ganon's due to excessive recoil damage), I make him use a Return, which deals a critical blow and causes the Druddigon to faint.
And now I'm at an advantage with Drayden, but I can't lower my guard for a moment. As Drayden's Haxorus takes center stage and dances for its audience, I watch Ganon breathing heavily and call him back to his Pokéball.
Mistake #5: Just because the Haxorus isn't attacking doesn't mean I can't take my time. In fact, time is of the essence as his dance is actually really dangerous to my odds of winning if he were to keep on going and because of that...
Mistake #6: Refer to Mistake #1 for not going all out.
Madge is back once again and she knows what to do.
Unfortunately, the move isn't as hard-hitting as I'd like, but I have at least two rounds left until that Dragon Tail move wipes Madge out. I have to keep going. The second move puts the Haxorus into the Orange zone.
But before Madge unleashes a final Ice Fang, Drayden's Haxorus steps back and is offered a Full Restore.
Dagnabbit!
"Keep going Madge, you've got this!" I yell at her as she barks. It does one more dance as Madge bites her way into his HP going down to what looks like an almost orange zone.
The Haxorus turns around and strikes at Madge with full force during the next round, leaving her HP at a low 20.
So at this point, I'm back to facing my earlier dilemma (except I'm not as cornered as I was last time, but again, I can't let my guard down). In my observation of my previous fight, I chose not to give Sheik the Full Restore and truth be told, that was the only action I took that couldn't be counted as Mistake #7.
"Go again, Madge," I tell her, knowing this could potentially be her last chance at striking with her advantageous move.
It hits, but not enough to make the Haxrous faint.
But something else happens.
It flinches. Drayden loses his composure and I seize the opportunity.
"Go again! Take it out NOW!" Madge's fangs pierce through its tail and the Haxorus falls down. Yes! Yes! YES! I jump up and down as Madge tackles me, her soft, warm tongue licking my cheeks. Drayden then presents me my final badge.
"Good job. It's good to see that you've learned from you mistakes, Ms. Bel. I wish you the best while you seek out the Elite 4. May the winds of luck be at your side." He also hands me over 5,000 in cash, which is more than enough to buy me a good lunch and a couple of Poké Puffs.
I know what's coming ahead is a long marathon of battles, but so's a nice, big box of Unova's finest pizza!
Long A/N: I wanted to get this out on it's first anniversary. When I started writing this story, I had just received news of something terrible happening in my family almost two years ago. I started writing this as a way to cope with it all and it was a story that was really supposed to end when Bianca took the apprenticeship but things kept happening and suddenly, I had this giant world with its own mythos and I couldn't stop writing and editing. That is, except for chapters 23-26, which I had a block and then write the future chapters to keep the steam going all the way until I wrote the epilogue. I finished on January 1st, 2015, but I figured that I'd get the inspiration for writing these tough, battle-heavy chapters somewhere down the line. It took nine months, actually and I was actually satisfied with chapter 23.
A month after I wrote chapter 23 (not published), the second part of the horrible thing that happened to my family occured (this time involving the death of someone extremely close to me) and I basically had the exact opposite reaction. Instead of taking solace with this story, I had felt self-conscious of my work and felt little motivation to return to Bianca's eternal optimism, especially considering mine was at an all time low. I'm aware of the risks this story entailed. It's written in first person of a character who isn't the most popular in the fandom and does things I haven't even seen other fanfics or art from. Nonetheless, I felt a disconnect and I needed to be away from this universe for a while. I actually do worry if this story is worth something to someone and if you're believing in this as I am. But yeah, it would mean the absolute world to me if you reviewed or something. Thanks.