Studying for finals ≤ rereading the first fanfiction I ever published and writing a much more creative battle than usual as a result :O

Anyway if you forgot anyone's pokemon go to sta dot sh/01f0ipxac76a

Was I falling for Thomas? The idea would have been preposterous back…

When? When hadn't it been plausible? How long ago was that? Because the more I thought about it, the more I realized how close Thomas and I had become. We traveled together without any concrete agreement; I confided in him about Lucas and time troubles; he confided in me about April. I was so much closer to him than I'd ever been with Lucas.

"I'd have missed you."

"I'd have missed you too."

"Evelyn?"

I blinked; Thomas was looking concerned at me. "Are you okay?"

"I– yeah?"

"I called your name like six times."

"Oh." I must have skipped ahead. I took a deep breath to anchor myself. It smelled like late November. "Sorry. Lost track of the world."

"You good?"

"Yeah." I smiled. The warm feeling in my chest turned scalding hot when I noticed it. "Um… I'm fine, yeah."

He nodded. "Okay. Your first battle's now."

I nodded, taking a deep breath, and headed to my field. Celestic Tournament, take two.

Round one was more challenging this time. Faith fell to a jolteon, then Trust took the jolteon out. Trust made some headway on the trainer's dusclops before fainting. I sent in Coeur, who knocked out the ghost type easily, and in a close match, she defeated the opponent's feraligatr.

My opponent, a six-badge trainer named Sean, was in good spirits when we shook hands. "Your eevee!" he exclaimed. "Coming out with shadow ball like that– oh my goodness."

I grinned. "She's versatile."

"She is!" he exclaimed. Then, "I don't know the last time I saw an eevee in a tournament, to be honest. It's like most people think they can't battle til they evolve."

"Their loss," I said, shrugging.

Which of course led me to check in with Coeur right after that.

"She says she's still not sure," Def informed me a minute later.

"Okay. Let her know there's no pressure," I said to him.

"Okay."

Lucas, Dawn and I ended up watching the tail end of Thomas's round one battle. He was pitted against Kyle Nguyen, who I vaguely remembered from the Valor Resort Tournament. Kyle was at seven badges now, against Thomas's five, but neither one had quite prevailed over the other.

The original round had ended in a draw – Kyle's zangoose and Swaine fell simultaneously – so they'd moved into a tiebreaker round: Silver against a gabite. This, of course, was taking FOREVER given that ground and flying don't mix. Kyle was at least calling for dragon rage and Thomas for swift. They chipped slowly away at each other until finally Silver hijacked the gabite's dragon claw with a confusion attack and made him scratch his own leg – the super-effective dragon move prevailed, and Thomas and Silver emerged victorious.

"Time for you to get a sixth badge," I said to him as congratulations. He just laughed.

Lucas, Dawn, Thomas and I planned to go off and get lunch, but we ran into another group of trainers who invited us to join them in the Pokemon Center cafeteria. So we ended up scattered between Ashley de Leon, Kyle Nguyen, AJ Kaur, and Tejal Vaidya. I didn't get the chance to talk to Lucas during that time, but I did thoroughly enjoy getting to know the other trainers.

Ashley and I ended up talking about our hometowns (Sunyshore and Twinleaf respectively). The conversation segued into talking about local leaders – Professor Rowan was the closest thing we had to one in Twinleaf, while Sunyshore had the top gym leader in the region.

"He's bored to death," Ashley said. "He's started refusing to battle anyone with less than five badges, cause he doesn't think they're worth his time."

"Can he do that?"

"Not really. He just puts it off until they give up."

"What about walk-ins?"

"He doesn't do those."

Hm. "Good to know," I said. Volkner was the one gym leader I'd never fought; I didn't know much about him at all.

"He also keeps over-engineering the city past what it can handle, electrically speaking," Ashley added. "I'd explain further, but then Kyle would hear me botching all the electrical terms and turn into his alter ego, Circuit Man."

"What?" Kyle called across the table.

"Nothing!" she called back.

"If you ever need technological help, you can count on him," AJ Kaur said. "Or anything electrical."

"Not the electric slide," Ashley disagreed.

The two of them started giggling madly. They both tried to explain it to me – something something Kyle dancing – but I was just amused at how amused they were. It was so clearly a joke between friends. Even with the four of them dispersed between us, you could feel how close they were. It hung in the air like paper streamers at a party.

Def reached out to me toward the end of our lunch break. "Coeur is wondering what your preference is," he said.

"For evolution?"

"Oui."

"I don't have a preference," I said. "It's up to her."

Def conversed with her for a second. "Elle dit that is not helpful."

"Sorry…? It's not my right to decide this for her."

Round two set me against a Pastoria trainer named Omar. Prom went up against the fastest dewott I'd ever seen and actually lost; I sent in Hope, who defeated him with her loopy evasion and grass and electric targeting moves. Hope fell to a gardevoir who was capable of catching her in her psychic hold.

I hesitated after recalling Hope. "Que s'est passé?" Def asked me.

"I don't have good options against psychic types," I realized. "Of those of you left, there's two fighting types and one poison type. Prom knows crunch, but that's about it."

"There's one other."

"Je sais," I said, pulling out Coeur's ball. "Don't let this affect her choice, though," I said quickly.

Coeur did really well against the gardevoir; Omar sent out a lampent next, which confused me (he'd already seen Coeur's shadow ball) until I realized that aside from this one advantage, literally every other damage-dealing move in Coeur's arsenal wouldn't affect the ghost-type. I had Coeur leave floating shadow balls around the field like land mines (air mines?), restricting the lampent's otherwise-high movement abilities. And then Coeur literally learned bite in the middle of the battle – she just jumped on up and grabbed hold with teeth infused with dark energy. And she won.

Lucas, once again, was out by this round. I still couldn't understand why things were arbitrarily the same in the midst of all these chance-based differences. I tried again to discreetly console him, but he still pretended he hadn't heard.

"I don't get it," I said when Thomas and I were alone. "You said at the Resort Tournament that he just needed space. I've seen him, like, once in the last three weeks. Shouldn't that have been enough space?"

"Maybe it goes deeper than that?"

"I guess?" I looked at the ceiling with a tired sigh. "At this point I don't even know what's going on."

"Hey." I felt his hand on my shoulder. "It'll be okay."

I smiled at him, but internally I was trying so hard to analyze how I felt about his hand on my shoulder that I couldn't even tell how it made me feel.

Round three: me versus Dawn.

"This will be a three-on-three battle between Evelyn Meyers of Twinleaf Town and Dawn Berlitz of Twinleaf Town," said the announcer. I nervously grounded myself in the warmth of the sunlight above me. Miraculously, the announcer kept going forward. "Trainers may make substitutions in between rounds. Trainers, are you ready?"

"Yes," I said.

"Ready!" said Dawn. I could tell she was nervous this time.

"Battle – begin!"

"Trust, it's yours!"

Trust appeared – and so did Alan again.

"Alan, use flamethrower!"

"Trust, flamethrower. And also…"

A power matchup like before – except this time, when Alan burst through the flames, Trust was ready. Dawn's arcanine barrelled headfirst – in ExtremeSpeed, no less – into a fistful of blue-tinged fighting energy. Trust's focus punch made a satisfying whump sound upon contact. I grinned. He didn't even have to do anything. He just held his hand out and let the velocity of Alan's attack do the work.

"Awesome job! Get another one in!"

Trust leaped onto the back of the disoriented arcanine and charged up another focus punch. Alan swiveled, trying to get Trust in view, and I realized something I'd missed last time.

"Get him off with ExtremeSpeed!" Dawn tried.

"Stay on his back! All his attacks come from his mouth!" I shouted telepathically.

Trust held on tight with one hand as Alan charged around the field, changing directions erratically to try and buck him off. With his other hand, Trust rammed a fully charged focus punch into the back of Alan's head.

"Doing great, Trust! Get a brick break in!"

Trust wound up for brick break, but Alan suddenly came to a complete stop, hurling Trust off his back. Trust hit the ground several yards in front of him.

"Thunder fang!" yelled Dawn.

"Get ready to jump – and then don't."

Trust crouched down; Alan anticipated the jump and snapped his jaws higher in the air, placing Trust – still crouched – right beneath him. In a flash, Trust hurled two mach punches right into Alan's stomach, tossing him into the air. Alan fell awkwardly and got up with some difficulty.

"Flamethrower!" yelled Dawn.

"Flamethrower!" I yelled too. "And run forward!"

Trust ran, shortening the flames' distance like Alan had at the beginning of the battle. But instead of bursting through the other side, he jumped straight into the air – circumventing Alan's flamethrower and hitting him close-range. In a moment the flames dissipated, Trust landed, and I saw Alan lying on the ground. His fangs were still sparking with the thunder fang Dawn had anticipated Trust running into.

But I know better than that, I thought.

"Arcanine is unable to battle!"

Trust turned around. "Great job," I said out loud to him.

He grinned at me and began to glow. My jaw dropped – of all the changes between this time and last, this wasn't something I saw coming.

Trust grew taller; his limbs elongated; flames erupted from the crown of his head. He emerged from the evolutionary glow still grinning.

"Come on back," I said, laughing. "You can stay out for the rest of the battle if you want."

Trust cantered over – just the difference in limb length made him faster already – and took his place beside me in the box. I didn't want him to keep fighting for a few reasons – one, he'd need time to adjust to his new proportions, and two, getting knocked out right after evolving is anticlimactic.

"Prom, you're up next!" I said telepathically, throwing his pokeball.

…turns out Dawn had let out her electabuzz again.

Ok. We can do this still. Last time I tried long-range battling, which didn't work. So… short-range, somehow?

Wait!

"Prom, I have kind of a crazy idea," I said.

"Shockwave!"

Prom darted at Elliot, conjuring a water pulse in front of his face. The shockwave hit the water and more or less stayed there; a few sparks got through and zapped Prom in the nose, but not many. Prom kept inflating the pulse with more water until he was right in front of Elliot.

"Now!"

Prom shot through the water pulse, rather than launching it, and locked his teeth onto Elliot's arm. Dark, ice, and water energy coursed through his jaws – the water pulse in front of his snout had hidden this. Elliot growled in pain and sent a surge of electricity to the hand in Prom's mouth. Prom hung on until the thunder punch was too much for him to bear.

"Thunder wave!"

Prom was too close; thunder wave hit easily. He fell on his back, paralyzed. Now for the crazy idea.

"Shockwave!" Dawn shouted.

Prom again conjured water above him, but Elliot directed his electricity around it this time. "You can do it Prom!" I encouraged him, tense nonetheless. Prom held on as the water pulse grew much bigger than either of them.

"Okay, now!"

Prom put up a protect bubble. But it wasn't a shield around him; the protect enveloped himself, Elliot, and all the water above him. The water pulse popped, flooding the protect like an inverted fishtank.

Elliot's next shockwave coursed through the water surrounding them, shocking them both. Prom, immobile and underwater, started to constrict the size of the protect bubble.

There wasn't a ton Prom and I could do at this point. I watched Dawn, across the field, trying to figure something out that wouldn't hurt Elliot. By now Elliot was underwater, too, and running out of breath much faster than Prom.

"Shockwave," she finally said, sounding resigned.

Elliot let loose with electricity, and all the water in the bubble lit up with an electric yellow glare. He kept the shockwave going for a few seconds, but it died out just before the protect collapsed.

"Both pokemon are unable to battle!"

"Well done, Prom," I said to him. "Thanks for trying out my crazy idea."

I took a deep breath. So far so good; two to one, and one evolution on my side. We'd finally reached the point where I lost grip on time, last time around, so I had no idea what would happen from here on out.

Although this whole day's been pretty unpredictable, I admitted.

"Faith says jacaranda," said Def.

"What?"

"Jacaranda," he repeated, sounding confused. "A tree with fleurs de lavande."

Lavender flowers… oh, lavender like–

"Coeur, it's yours!" I said, thinking of the lavender flecks in her eyes.

"Venezia, go!" Dawn's altaria appeared on the field.

I narrowed my eyes. Air versus land – sharpshooting, when Coeur had been using too many shadow balls already.

So, let's not do sharpshooting.

"Dragonbreath!"

"Dodge!"

Coeur stayed on the defensive side, evading attacks from the altaria high in the sky. At some point Dawn finally got frustrated and called for a peck attack. I smiled. Perfect.

"Quick attack!"

Courage waited until Venezia was right about to hit, then darted to the side. Before Venezia could respond, Coeur swung around and landed on her back, like Trust had earlier.

"Yes!" I celebrated. "Hold on with bite!"

Coeur latched onto Venezia's wing with her teeth. Venezia tried and failed to get back into the air.

"Venezia, dragonbreath!"

Venezia turned her head; Coeur was too close. Dragonbreath hit at close range, loosening Coeur and sending her tumbling.

"Great, now pursuit!"

Dawn's altaria rushed at Coeur, who hadn't recovered in time to dodge. Venezia ran in for a second hit.

"Coeur, sand attack!"

The pursuit hit, but Venezia received a faceful of sand in the process. Coeur grabbed Venezia's leg in her teeth.

"Fly!"

Venezia flew lopsidedly into the air, pulling Coeur with her. Coeur held tight; as they ascended higher, I could see violet ghost-type energy coming out between Coeur's teeth, spraying Venezia with the raw material of a shadow ball.

Venezia dove, aiming to land Coeur-first. Coeur twisted in midair, and the pokemon closest to the ground switched – first Coeur, then Venezia, then Coeur briefly, then Venezia again. Then Coeur was higher and white normal-type energy was streaking behind her as she fell, pushing Venezia downward.

By the time they hit the ground, Venezia had lost control to Coeur's take down. Coeur landed on top and rolled off, impacted by the fall but cushioned by the altaria nonetheless.

"Altaria is unable to battle! The battle goes to Evelyn of Twinleaf Town!"

I ran over to Coeur and scooped her up. "Thank you," I said, hugging her. She nuzzled her face into my neck tiredly.

Trust and Dawn had walked over by now. "Congratulations," said Dawn, extending her hand.

"Thanks," I said, shaking it. Dawn headed over to Lucas and Thomas. I stayed on the field for a moment, scratching Coeur's head.

The sun's rays hung warmly in the air, cooled by a breeze that swept my hair into my face. The eevee in my arms was dusty, and the infernape beside me was trying to control the fire on his head, which was whipping around in the breeze. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the gingkoes on the edge of town raining yellow leaves.

I smiled. I was feeling much better. I was back.

yknow I'm gonna go ahead and dedicate this chapter to Sean, who's been an absolute joy to have reading this. Writing is a lot of fun for me, but it's the sheer hype from people like Sean reading this that makes writing Chance really rewarding. And Sean brings a lot of hype 😆 Sean, you're such a lovely person and I'm going to miss you once you've graduated, but you better bet I'm gonna keep in touch through Chance at the minimum. Also, tell me what you want your character's last name to be; I couldn't come up with one so I left it TBD for now lmao.