So I guess links to the reference pages aren't working bc fanfiction dot net is a kind and trusting website. They're all on my deviantArt though, so if you want to see them, find me at username LeikoTanaka6 on deviantArt and go to Journals. There should be a list of links there.
On with the show~
Did I mention this was the week of the Valor Resort Tournament?
Most tournaments, apart from the Sinnoh League itself and a few others, are separated by badge level. Depending on participation, this could be anywhere between 2 and 8 divisions. Valor Resort was a 4-division tournament. I wasn't sure how many badges Dawn and Lucas each had, but there was a 50-50 chance they would end up in the 3-4 badge range.
(Dawn and Lucas came to Valor for the tournament last year. I was guessing they'd do so again.)
Thomas happened to have four badges, same as me, so I forced him to run up to Veilstone and get a fifth. "Are you sure you'll be okay?" he said.
I glared at him.
"…that's fair."
I smiled brightly. "I'm not letting you compete in the three-and-four badge division when you've been training for so long."
"Time doesn't mean skill."
I pushed him in the direction of Veilstone. "Bye now."
As for me… Well, there was lots to do. I stayed in crowded places and kept a pokemon out at all times. When we left the city to train, Prom and I were constantly on the lookout. Noises coming from behind us made both of us jump.
For the next week, I focused on training with Trust, Courage, and Hope. Strength conditioning, agility, and… whatever Hope was doing.
"Hope, the battle's down here," I said desperately. She was too high in the air again, and Coeur – who was supposed to be dodging – was sitting in the grass licking her fur.
I'd taught Hope shock wave with the TM, so she could in theory hit her opponent. The problem was, she wasn't even trying.
"Can she hear you?" Def wondered.
"Dunno. Try talking to her," I said.
He looked up into the sky. A few moments later, I heard, "This may take a while."
Apparently I hadn't properly explained battling to Hope – or, at any rate, she didn't really get it. Def tried for a bit, and then we brought Hope down so we could all teach her how to battle. Prom did a short demo of physical fighting, Coeur of dodging, Def of special attacking. Faith was having a literal field day with the marsh plants ("Pickleweed!" "Yes, Faith, I see." "Bullrush!"), so I let her be.
Hope agreed to have a mock battle with Trust, but the first hit – keeping in mind he was 100% going easy on her – with his first hit, she squealed and rocketed into the sky as fast as her little wings would take her.
"Hmmm…" I watched her hover. I had never gotten around to doing damage training with them – I mean, let's get real a sec. It's literally training pokemon to handle pain. Pokemon rights activists call it pokemon torture, and there's really not a lot of great counterarguments to that besides "but the pokemon are okay with it."
I did damage training with Liana and Quasar, because I knew they could handle it, but I hated it in general and had been putting it off with this team. And judging by Hope's reaction to one hit, now didn't seem like the time to start.
At this point, I decided to break the problem down into a level of foolishness. Hope doesn't like getting hit. Solution: don't let her get hit.
Watching her soar high in the air, I laughed to myself. "The fools are the wisest, in Shakespeare."
So we taught her to dodge. Or, more accurately, she knew how to dodge; we just helped her practice. It was a game – first a game of try-to-barely-miss-her-with-a-move, then as we became more confident in her abilities, a game of just-go-ahead-and-try-to-hit-her.
From there, actual battling was just a matter of adding in a few moves. Def helped her out with magical leaf; I worked with her on swift, to round out the moveset a little.
"That's good, Hope! Let's call it a day!" I called up to her.
She swooped down. I didn't realize she was going to tackle me until it was too late.
"Oof… I love you too, Hope," I said, patting her on the back.
My other pokemon took this as an invitation for a group hug. Cute.
Tuesday, November second: Looker teleported me to Celestic Town to chat. He looked much better than when I saw him last, like he'd finally gotten some sleep.
"So when I saw Uxie," he explained as we walked somewhere, "he didn't exactly give me the information I was looking for. Not directly, at least. Instead, he gave me a location and two people."
"Celestic, I assume?"
"Yeah."
"Who are the people?"
"…That's where it gets complicated. One of them is in the Pokemon League. But the other lives here. You've met her before."
We stopped at a cottage. He knocked on the door. In a moment, a woman with gray hair opened it.
"Oh, it's you again," she said.
"Professor Carolina, right?" I asked.
"Yes, yes. Come inside."
The professor led us to the room we'd convened in last time, back when we went to rescue the orbs from the museum. Back when I was on better terms with Lucas. I sighed a little.
"Something wrong?"
"Oh, no, nothing."
The professor took a seat on an armchair; Looker and I took the sofa. "Quite frankly, my granddaughter is the expert on mythology. I'm more of the archaeology expert."
"That's all right," Looker said quickly. "We don't want to trouble your granddaughter."
"Didn't think twice about troubling me," she grumbled.
"At any rate, thank you for agreeing to meet with us," said Looker.
"Don't mention it. What do you want to know?"
"Let's start with Spear Pillar," Looker said. "What would be required to summon Dialga and Palkia there?"
Professor Carolina snorted. "You'd need to open it, first."
"Open…"
"Open Spear Pillar. It's been sealed off since ancient times."
"How would you open it?" I asked.
"The Spear Key. It's an artifact that's been lost for centuries. Ancient texts say it's in a sacred place, but that could be anywhere. Iron Island ruins, Snowpoint Temple, Foreign Cultures Building, Solaceon Ruins, the Lost Tower… Hard to say. And of course all of these places have been scanned to death."
"Okay… Well, if Galactic obtained the key–" Looker glanced at me, because of course someone had obtained the key before. "–what else would be needed to… say, summon the beasts?"
"Oh, the orbs for sure. And I think the Lake Trio."
"The Lake Trio?" I cut in. "The pokemon themselves? Not just the Red Chain?"
Carolina glared at me. "I know what I'm talking about, child."
"I'm not… Okay, anything else?"
"The Red Chain would be helpful. To control the pokemon. I know it's based on the Lake Trio, but the creators of Spear Pillar only meant to summon Dialga and Palkia, not to hold them hostage."
"Okay… so we've got the Lake Trio, the Red Chain, Spear Key, and the orbs," Looker summarized. "How could the Red Chain be created without the presence of the Lake Trio?"
"That's not so hard. It's just a compound that doesn't occur naturally on earth. I imagine once the chemical compound is figured out – most likely they'd look into meteorites – it wouldn't be so difficult to synthesize."
"No wonder they have a location in Veilstone," Looker mused. "For the Lake Trio, apparently Galactic plans to cause a ruckus at one lake to draw out all three pokemon?"
Carolina shook her head. "Out of my scope. The Lake Trio is almost entirely myth-based. My granddaughter can help you there."
"But surely you–" Looker began.
"I have told you," Carolina raised her voice, "what I know. If you have no further questions I can answer, I have no further time to spare."
As it turned out, she had no further time to spare. At least not for now. Looker and I took a walk around Celestic Town.
"So… what now?" I said.
He sighed. "Well… We do know quite a bit. Maybe it's good enough to say we stop Galactic from creating the bomb, so they never get to the Lake Trio."
"You don't really think so," I said. It wasn't a question.
Looker shook his head. "We're missing so much still. Just think – if we knew where the Spear Key was, we could protect it from Galactic and lock them out of Spear Pillar. And… other things."
We looked out over the town. From where we stood, we could see the ruins. I hadn't been inside recently, but I knew the back wall of the caves told of how Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie could meet at Spear Pillar to summon a member – or members, if Galactic succeeded – of the Creation Trio.
"What do you think it means," I said, "that Azelf and Uxie appeared to us?"
"I can only guess," Looker admitted. With a huff, he said, "All right. I guess we need to see her granddaughter."
"She's the one who's part of the Sinnoh League?"
"Worse. She's the Sinnoh League Champion."
Two days later, trainers began to arrive at Lake Valor for the tournament. I sent messages to Dawn, Lucas, and Thomas on my poketch saying we could share a room (things get crowded during tournaments, so I hoped Lucas didn't mind too much).
Dawn arrived while I was settling in. "Oh, hey," I said, closing Looker's diary. I was trying to write down the details we'd learned, to sort of organize the information.
"Hey," she said. "Long time no see."
"Oh yeah," I said, trying to remember when I'd last seen her. Stark Mountain? "It's been a good, what, two or three weeks?"
"Think so, yeah. What's new?" Dawn asked, setting her bag on the ground.
"Mm, not much… I managed to get a Hearthome badge," I said.
"Ah, man," she groaned. "I hear Fantina's one of the hardest to beat."
"She can be. It's nice getting her out of the way, before I have to fight stronger teams."
"Mm, I suppose so. I defeated Candice while I was up in Snowpoint."
"Oh, nice. You have… a fire type…" I frowned. Were all the rest of her pokemon weak to ice?
She giggled. "I fought with Alan, Kenna, and Elliot. Fire, water-steel, and… Have you met my electabuzz? I picked him up sort of on the way here."
"I haven't yet. Have you met all of my team?"
I introduced her to Coeur, the one pokemon she hadn't met. It occurred to me that we had six pokemon each – full teams, and if we were to take our rivalry seriously, time to strategize against that team.
We socialized for a little longer, but it was clear that we both really wanted to get some last minute tournament prep in. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing lightweight target practice, evasion skills, working just a little more with Trust on focus punch. I wasn't sure he was ready to use it in battle, but it was a possibility.
When I returned, Dawn was sitting on a top bunk. Lucas's bag hung from the end of the other top bed.
"He's here?" I asked her.
"Yeah. He's downstairs somewhere."
"I guess you guys caught up already?"
"Yeah. His grotle and houndour evolved, by the way. And he has a riolu."
"Oh. Thanks." Nice of her. "Do you know his badge count, by the way?"
"Four, like us," she said, grinning.
"Whew. We're not behind," I said with a laugh.
I took the bottom bunk below Dawn and pulled out the Pokemon Center clothes I borrowed, preparing for a shower. "Hey Dawn?" I said suddenly.
"Hm?"
"You checked out Lake Acuity, right?"
"Yeah. Took a while to get there, cause I had to wait out the blizzard."
"Did you find anything unusual?"
"Not really. Why? Did you?"
"Nah." I hadn't really expected her to say yes, since Looker had seen Uxie already.
Later that night, I went downstairs to hang out in the Pokemon Center lobby. Thomas hadn't arrived yet, but mostly I was hoping to run into Lucas.
Trust was out. I didn't expect to get attacked when there were so many trainers nearby, but I liked having him around.
"Ready for the tournament?" I asked him.
"Mon," he said with a cheery nod. "Moh?" he asked, pointing at me.
"I sure hope so," I said, chuckling nervously. "There's a chance we'll go up against Lucas and Dawn. That'll be exciting. Hopefully it's not too early on. I don't want us to knock each other out all at once."
Trust nodded. The doors to the Pokemon Center slid open. I looked up; Thomas had arrived.
"What division are you competing in?" I asked him immediately.
He stopped and put his hands on his hips. "I feel so welcomed," he said.
I raised my eyebrows.
Thomas dropped his hands and sighed. "I'm in the 5 and 6 badge division," he said.
I grinned and stood up. "Welcome back," I said, taking him to our room.
Round one. I was facing off against some girl from Sandgem Town. 3-badge trainer.
I inhaled and exhaled deeply. The green room was occupied by a few other trainers, either recovering emotionally from their last battles or preparing for a battle later than mine. I hoped I wasn't forgetting anything.
First tournament battle of the year. Highkey sets the tone.
I rummaged through my bag again, checking to see if I'd missed anything. My hand bumped into a small box at the bottom. Megan's gift.
I pulled the necklace out and went over to the mirrors along one wall. For good luck, I thought, fastening it around my neck.
Someone poked their head into the room. "Next up, Evelyn Meyers. On deck, Axel Tokuyama."
I made eye contact with myself in the mirror. A little grin nudged the corner of my mouth.
Showtime.
Tournament season = I finally get to give names to throwaway characters :D
Axel is the name of the person who got me started on fanfic dot net/writing online in general, so he had to be first.
VALOR TOURNAMENT HYPE HYPE WOOOOOOOO