Hello again everyone! Been a while, I know. Much longer than I intended. After my exams I took a few months off writing during the summer because I needed a break, figuring I'd be back to business as usual once school resumed. But then school took up way more of my time than expected. As soon as my exams were over I managed to finish the second half of this chapter in a week. Go figure. Anyways, hope you all enjoy!

Been a while, so here's a refresher on Ben's Team:
Ogrim- Golett (M)
Dart- Beedrill (M)
Cleo and Lacy/The Twins- Doduo (F)
Gauss- Alolan Geodude (M)

Chapter 27: The After-Aftermath

"...It was touch and go for a while, but the doctors say he's past the worst of it. He'll recover from the head trauma relatively soon. His stomach is gonna need months to recover though. Which means a heavily modified diet. Which is a serious pain in the ass with steel types. And I mean that literally because he's going to need so many weird medications and supplements that he's going to be shitting constantly." Hilda sums up, sounding frustrated.

I stare blankly up at the ceiling of my hotel room, feeling like I really would rather not have heard about that last part. It's too early to be hearing about a Pokémon's weird digestive problems. Well it's noon, actually, but I was up until like five last night so I'm still running on low sleep. I really wasn't prepared for this level of detail when I called Hilda to ask how everyone's doing. "I mean, that sounds miserable, but all things considered it doesn't seem too bad," I say tentatively.

"I… yeah. You're not wrong. For a while there I definitely thought it was going to be worse," Hilda replies, "I'm… not really processing that part at all right now though so my brain's just focusing on the annoyance because I can handle that. Can't find it in me to be relieved about anything right now. And I definitely don't have the capacity for everything else I'm feeling."

Yeah, that makes sense. I let out a long sigh, before figuring I should just bite the bullet and ask: "Do you want me to-"

"Don't you fucking dare, Wilson. I know exactly what you're thinking and if you come back here for my sake I'll kick your ass," Hilda snaps at me, then after a moment's thought adds: "And if you come back for Bianca's sake she's going to start feeling guilty about it in no time, which also means I'll kick your ass."

I let out a sigh of relief, "Yeah. Yeah, okay. That's what I thought. Just… needed to hear it from you."

"Thinking of hopping on a plane and flying over, were you?" Hilda says, still scowling at me.

"Koga offered to have me teleported."

"Oh. Wow," Hilda replies, taken aback. After a moment she rallies, "Well tell him you're fine over there!"

"Already did. Like I said, just needed to hear from you that I wasn't being a shitty friend," I explain.

"Seriously, you're fine. If anything it's better that you're there. Means we might have an excuse to leave for a while and visit you once things have started to calm down. Because they won't calm down for me if the Unova League has anything to say about it," Hilda scowls, "They've got fucking Ace trainers posted outside my hospital room, Ben. Two of them at all times."

"You are a priority target for any Plasma goons with a grudge right now," I point out.

"If anyone from team Plasma goes after me right now they will seriously regret it, because I have a lot of aggression to work out," Hilda replies in a low tone.

"At least wait until the rest of your team is back before you start making trouble. I'm sure Bianca will bring them to you the moment everyone's rested up," I say, attempting to sound as reasonable as possible.

Hilda is silent for a moment, before letting out a frustrated huff of air that comes out as a puff of static over the phone, "I shouldn't be here right now. I should be with them. I should be waiting with Bianca for news instead of sitting here getting it second-hand. I should be ready to see Ronin, and Dust, and Lola, and Aspar as soon as they're up. I should be making sure that big black idiot of a dragon is taken care of instead of making Cheren go back into that shitty fucking castle to do it for me. I… I should be there for Paris and Cole. And I can't do any of that right now, because I'm stuck in a damn hospital bed. For fainting. Of all the stupid things- don't you give me that look, ASS trainer, I know there's people who need this hospital bed more than me right now!" She suddenly shouts.

I faintly hear somebody speaking on the other end of the line, to which Hilda immediately responds with: "I'm stressed, not a damn invalid! You acting like a condescending jackass isn't doing anything to make me feel more cooperative! You're lucky I'm playing along with this bullshit at all!"

More faint voices, which seem to set Hilda off even more. "Try it and I'll put you in a hospital bed instead." Then a moment later, "Of course Caitlin put you up to this. You think I didn't figure that out three hours ago? Too bad for you I don't give a shit what she thinks is best for me!"

"Hilda, remember what I just said to you about not making trouble not even two minutes ago?" I ask. Much as I'm sure the League goons bugging Hilda are asking for trouble, she really shouldn't be picking fights right now.

"Two minutes ago this fucker wasn't giving me attitude," Hilda snaps back, "I'll call you back, Ben. Gotta deal with this asshole."

The line goes dead. I lower the pokégear, stare at it for a moment, then quickly send a message to Bianca in the hopes that maybe she can enact some kind of damage control. I don't hold my breath waiting for Hilda to call back. Now that she's apparently decided that she's done being hospitalized I have no doubt that I've just plummeted in her priority list. She only answered my call because she was stuck in a bed with jack shit to do.

I get a text back from Bianca thanking me and saying she'll rush to the hospital as soon as possible. So she's busy too now. And from what Hilda was saying, Cheren is… apparently taking care of Zekrom for her? Yeah, definitely don't want to interrupt that either. I had kinda been hoping I could talk to those three a bit longer to delay getting up, but there's just too much going on on their end.

I let out a long groan as I finally roll out of bed, grumbling to myself as I start getting ready to face the day, "Guess it's time to be a person again."

When I emerge from my hotel room, Sara and Keith are already gone, with only Axel remaining to greet me. We exchange a few pleasantries, then I head out to get to the important business: a team meeting. I decide to go to the same location I was training in before, out in the woods outside of Vermillion.

Initial reactions are mixed from the team when they realize we're out in the woods instead of in the arena. Ogrim looks around in confusion for a moment, then seems to assume today is just another training day and stands at attention, ready for orders. Dart meanwhile, is buzzing in shock and disappointment, having known today was supposed to be another battle. Gauss watches quietly, but his eyes keep darting to the twins. The girls are much more serious than usual. I should have realized they'd be paying attention through everything that's happened; they're much better at following what's going on outside of their poke ball than the others.

"Dart, I need you to cool it, alright?" I say, addressing the most unruly member of the team first, "This is serious."

Dart gives another dissatisfied buzz, but calms down for the moment. I nod at him, then get to business, "First thing's first: the tournament has been cancelled."

"BEE DREE LEE BEE!?" Dart screeches in outrage.

"Dart, what did I just-"

"BEE DRILL BEE!" Dart protests.

"Dart-"

"BEE DREE!"

"WARK!"

Dart's tirade is cut off as the twins loom over him, looking absolutely furious. Dart leans back in surprise, then starts to buzz in protest once more, "Bee lee dree-"

"WARK!" Cleo and Lacy shriek in unison once more, cutting him off immediately.

This time when Dart responds it's with proper anger, his stingers raised indignantly, "Bee-"

"WARK!"

"Alright, cool it!" I shout, stepping in.

"Go golett!" Ogrim echoes pleadingly.

"Girls, thank you, but I'll handle this," I say to Cleo and Lacy. Then to Dart, "You got something to say, you'll get your chance, but you will wait until I'm done explaining. Until then, keep a damn lid on it. Got it?"

"...Beedrill," Dart replies sullenly.

I mentally file that interaction away as the first real disciplinary problem I've seen with Dart, but with everything else I need to deal with today it gets left for the moment.

"Right, so here's the deal. There was a criminal attack in Unova. That's the region Ogrim and I are from. This attack was bad enough that a bunch of people from here in Kanto are going to help out. The people who were running the tournament are going too, so the tournament is over," I explain.

"...Bee dree?" Dart asks tentatively.

"I'm… not sure what you're asking there, Dart," I reply, frowning.

"Kweh," Cleo supplies, "Wark, wark." Lacy accompanies this with a dismissive little head bob that I'm somehow able to interpret.

"Oh," I nod in understanding, "It's a group called Team Plasma. They're a bunch of bad people who wanted to stop people from training Pokémon. They attacked the Vertress Conference, where all of the strongest trainers in Unova were gathered."

"Golett!?" Ogrim gasps in horror, "Go let go golett? Let go gogo golett!?"

"Yeah… yeah. Hilda, Bianca, and Cheren were all there," I answer. I turn to the others, "I've mentioned those three to you before. They're friends of ours who live in Unova."

"Go golett?" Ogrim asks anxiously.

"They're…" I trail off, trying to think of how best to explain this to Ogrim. "They're all being taken care of, Ogrim. But they're very tired right now, and some of our friends on their teams were badly hurt."

"...Golett?"

"Cole and Zephyr were both hurt badly. Along with another of Hilda's team that we didn't get to meet named Paris…" I trail off, trying to think how best to explain. "Some of the injuries," I continue, doing my best to push ahead, "Are the kind the doctors say won't get better."

Ogrim doesn't have tears, but there's no mistaking his reaction to the news for anything other than crying. He sways unsteadily on his feet, arms hanging limp, and the light starts to flicker in his eyes. I drop to my knees immediately and hold my arms open, "Come here, buddy." I barely manage to contain my wheeze as my starter throws himself into my arms with the force of a goddamn wrecking ball. I hold him close though, and return the hug as best as I can.

"It's okay bud. They're all safe now, and they're being taken care of, okay?"

"Go golett go? Let go golett go golett?"

"Yeah, of course you can see them," I console, patting my little buddy on the back, "I'll get a video call set up with them as soon as things calm down over there, okay?"

"Go golett…" Ogrim mutters.

"I know you want to see them right away, but it's gonna take some time. They just went through a lot, and they have a bunch of stuff to deal with after everything. But I'm sure when I tell them how worried you are they'll be sure to talk to you as soon as possible," I explain.

"Golett?"

"Course I'm sure, they'd never say no to you!" I reassure. The rest of the team comes to back me up at this point, forming a proper group hug. Well, Dart does, at least, clearly feeling bad about acting up earlier. Gauss settles for giving Ogrim a rather awkward pat on the back, and the twins just nudge him. Ogrim seems to appreciate it all the same though.

Once the group hug comes to an end Gauss seems to decide it's time to speak up. "Geo. Dude. Geodude?"

"What's that?" I ask for clarification. I watch Gauss' gesturing carefully, before taking a shot at interpreting his question, "What are we doing now? Right, good question! Our next stop is going to be Lavender town. We'll be getting our next gym badge there. Plus, the gym leader is a ghost-type specialist, so I'm hoping to get her help in figuring out this roadblock Ogrim's been having with his training."

"Geodude?"

"We'll be leaving tomorrow. Gonna spend the rest of the day making sure I'm restocked on everything so we can hit the road bright and early."

"Geo."

I break up the hug and step back to look at my team. Gauss meets my gaze evenly, all business. Dart is still clearly feeling guilty after the way he was acting earlier, but the thought of another gym battle clearly has him excited. Lacy seems impatient, ready to get back to business, while Cleo is mostly concerned with Ogrim right now. My little buddy is still clearly downcast, but I believe he can pull through this.

There's going to be some issues that still need to be worked out in the next couple of days, but all in all they're as ready as they'll ever be.

"Alright team, good meeting."

I leave Vermillion at the crack of dawn. It's a long trip to get to Lavender, so the earlier I get started the better. Also, getting a proper night's sleep when my head's filled with all the crap that's been going on recently is… yeah.

Hopefully I'll be able to hit the road hard, make some good progress, and let good old fashioned exhaustion push my overloaded brain over the limit and into a proper night's sleep.

Axel's the only one who I told about my plans. Keith's spent all of yesterday completely AWOL and things with Sara are still awkward from that time I snapped at her. I leave a note on the fridge in the suite for everyone anyways. Send out messages to Arthur, Valeria, and Ulu. Marvel for a moment at how my friend pool has expanded thanks to this tournament. Social butterfly I am not; this is a big achievement for me.

Then again this world does run on friendship power, so by local standards I'm probably still some kind of weird, anti-social recluse just like I was back home. It's really not all that different when you think about it. I meet friends once or twice per year, and talk exclusively online otherwise. The only difference now is I'm spending my days on the road rather than in a basement. Big change, mind you. But still about the same amount of contact. Which is to say little.

Of course, just when I'm thinking that I'm forced to reevaluate. Because there's Keith standing in the middle of the road as I round the corner.

"Thought you could escape me, did you?" Keith declares dramatically. He's really hamming it up too. He's got his arms crossed in a pose that I distinctly recognize from Koga, and has Checkers standing next to him, wings buzzing menacingly. He's hyping himself up for a battle. Should have guessed he'd want to pull the 'destined rivals' bit with me before we parted ways.

I decide to do the only natural thing and undermine him for shits and giggles. "Oh, sup Keith," I greet him casually, "You're up early. Out for a run?"

Keith and Checkers slump in unison. "What- no I'm not out for a run!" Keith sputters indignantly, "I'm here to challenge you!"

"Challenge me?" I ask in faux-surprise.

"Of course! We had to miss our rematch since the tournament was cancelled, remember?" Keith cries, "We can't just let that go! I need to pay you back for last time!"

"You won last time," I reply in a deadpan.

"Not the point!" Keith declares, waving my comment away, "The point is I've been looking forward to a chance to battle you again for weeks and I am not going to let you go without a rematch!"

"Hmm… I dunno," I muse, "I've got a lot of walking to do today, starting with a battle before I hit the road could really cut down on my travel time…"

"What? No, c'mon, don't be like that!" Keith pleads, looking like a kicked puppy.

I decide to let him off the hook, "I'm just screwing with you dude, let's do it."

"Yes!" Keith grins, "Alright, let's go! Full teams?"

"Better make it a 3 on 3," I reply, "Don't think Ogrim's up for a serious battle right now."

Keith grimaces at that, but recovers quickly, "Of course. Shoulda thought of that. Alright, 3 on 3. C'mon Checkers, let's do this!" He recalls his starter in a flash of light, and moves his hand to his belt.

Looks like we're jumping right into this then. I lightly tap my fingers on my poke balls, making sure my team's ready for a battle. Gauss and Dart wiggle in response. The twins don't respond, but I know they pay more attention than the others anyways, so I don't have to worry about them.

Now, who to start with… Well, easy choice, actually. I know Keith well enough to know what he's going to start with. Actually I could probably predict his whole team. But how much advantage do I want to take of that? Hmm… none, for now. We'll start this off on his terms.

We both release our beedrill at the same time. Keith grins in open excitement, and I meet his look with a confident smirk. Knew he'd want to start the rematch off with a proper repeat of last time. Dart vs Wocky.

Keith tosses a rock into the air. The battle begins the second it hits the ground. Dart and Wocky immediately begin a buzzing, chaotic dance. They become two blurs in the air, one green, the other gold, with flashes of silver between them as their stingers clash. Dart takes the offensive, naturally, his style being one of overpowering aggression while Wocky favors evasion and traps. But for the most part their only effective technique against a fellow beedrill is fury attack, since they almost completely resist bug and poison attacks and are too mobile for string shot to be useful. I keep an eye open though, just in case. I'm sure Keith's had time to develop more string shot techniques to counter mine.

For the most part though, I settle back, trusting in Dart's aggression and independence to dictate the flow of the battle, and consider the rest of Keith's team. I knew he'd open the battle hoping for the Dart/Wocky rematch. His last Pokémon will be Checkers, no question. Checkers isn't just Keith's oldest, most well trained Pokémon, he was one of the strongest Pokémon in the whole tournament. Checkers is the ace that Keith will use to try to finish me off. That leaves me only with the question of what his second Pokémon will be: Fluffy, or Belladonna?

Or, to put it another way, has Keith chosen to make his entire team weak to rock, or weak to fire and flying? Yeah, the 3v3 is really working in my favor right now. No matter which he chose, I have a Pokémon that can do serious damage to everything he's got. Had the tournament not been cancelled, and Ogrim been prepared for a battle, the weakness of Keith's team would not have been so pronounced. But in a 3v3 Keith's biggest current weakness is unavoidable: his team composition is just way too imbalanced.

Of course, Keith would have been able to mitigate the problem a bit if he'd left Wocky out, but he could never do something like that. Keith needed this rematch between Wocky and Dart. Leaving it behind would be to abandon something fundamental to what makes Keith who he is. And honestly, I feel the same. I knew he'd open with Wocky and knew both Gauss and the twins could handle the panicky little bug much easier, but I let it go anyway. Because just like Keith, I recognize that seeing how this matchup in particular will go is the best way to get an understanding of how far we've each come as trainers. And the best way to know exactly how we now match up.

There is also, of course, a bit of manly man machismo at play here. Sometimes the best tactical choice needs to be set aside in favor of the decision that most appeals to pride. Is it sensible? Obviously, no. But hey, that sense of competitive pride needs to be fed every now and then, right? If you want to be one of the best trainers in the world it's something you'll need. Or at least that's the justification I give myself as I watch Dart and Wocky zip around and jab at each other.

Speaking of which, I think it's time we stepped things up a bit. "Time for a tempo change, Dart! Plaster spray!" I command.

"We're ready for that! Blow it away, Wocky!" Keith shouts in response.

Wocky buzzes in affirmation as his wings start to hum louder than ever, beating at a rate that must be impressive even for bug types (though even the regular pace is too fast for me to follow). Dart's spray of web fluid is nullified immediately by the gale force winds that blast out from those beating wings, and suddenly Dart has to struggle to keep close. That's… not an attacking move. Defog? Tailwind? I'm suddenly realizing I don't know nearly as much as I should about beedrill's utility moves.

"Good job Wocky, now bag 'em and tag 'em!" Keith calls. At his command Wocky starts to spray a wide spray of string shot, not quite a proper net, but still enough to cover a wide range. The technique could be problematic on its own, but it's augmented by the fact that Wocky is spraying these webs while still keeping up the wind move. Which means those nets are closing in fast.

"Ride the wind, get high!" I shout.

Dart follows my commands, just barely evading the net by using Wocky's wind to fly back and up until he's out of reach. Once he's high enough the webs can't hit him he takes the initiative by diving down at Wocky. Wocky attempts to aim his wind technique upwards to stop it, but it doesn't seem to work. Beedrill can fly, buy they aren't proper flying types, which means they can't manipulate the wind with the same freedom a flying type could. This limitation leaves Dart free to slip through whatever meagre wind Wocky manages to redirect, and finally get the proper melee he's been aiming for.

"Good job Dart, now make it stick!"

"Get some distance Wocky, quickly!"

Wocky tries to follow Keith's commands, but it's pointless. Keith's desire to return to Wocky's more evasive battle style has already been countered. When Wocky retreats, Dart follows him perfectly. When Wocky twists, Dart persists. And all the while, Dart is doing what he does best: attacking like a crazy motherfucker. Which means Wocky is also doing what he does best: freaking the fuck out.

"How are you keeping up with Wocky while using fury attack!?" Keith groans in confusion as yet another of Wocky's sharp aerial maneuvers is effortlessly followed. Wocky screeches something in response to Keith's outburst, but he's reached about a fifteen out of ten on the panic scale so he's pretty much completely incoherent.

"Hard work and determination," I comment idly. He's right to be confused. Until now Wocky had a clear advantage in aerial agility, yet now nothing he tries is enough to shake Dart off. It's like Dart is attached to Wocky at the hip…

…I wonder how long until Keith notices?

Well, it doesn't seem to have happened yet. Rather than puzzle out the mystery of my suddenly much more agile beedrill, Keith elects to run damage control instead. "Sorry Wocky, but if you can't get away you'll just have to fight back! Stop trying to escape and hit him as hard as you can!"

"DREEE!?" Wocky screeches in horror, but follows Keith's command, starting to fight back against Dart's fury attack with his own.

I hum to myself in satisfaction. Dart has completely taken Wocky out of his comfort zone. In a straightforward brawl he's got little chance of losing. Still, just to be sure I call out one more command, "Get an iron defense up, let's shut him out completely."

"Gah, what the heck, man!?" Keith groans, as Wocky's next strike bounces off Dart's suddenly steely body, "How did you shut down the speed difference? I don't- wait." Keith straightens up, peering in closer, "Waaaaaait. No! Augh, you son of a- Damn it, I'm blind! I've gone friggin' blind!"

Keith's realization of his fuckup sinks in just as Wocky finally gives in. With a distressed buzz, the big green wasp finally slumps in the air. He passes out… left dangling on the end of Dart's stinger. Or, more specifically, the clump of small, but extremely sticky webbing that Dart placed on the end of it.

Yup. Dart was, in fact, literally attached to Wocky. And because Dart flails around so much when attacking, and Wocky's a panicky flyer by default, the two beedrill were constantly moving too fast and too erratically for Keith to notice.

Now that he has noticed, Keith seems to have lost a lot of his momentum. "Well… crap," he says, looking a bit dejected as he calls Wocky back, "That was… really bad. I expected way more out of that rematch and then bungled the whole thing because I missed your trick.

"These things happen," I reply with a shrug, "Can't win them all, right?"

"No, but I should at least be able to make you work for it," Keith shakes his head, then straightens up again, "Alright, that's fine, we can rally. We got this, Checkers!" He starts bouncing on his feet as his ace takes the field, getting himself hyped up again.

Well, don't I look foolish. Glad I keep my monologues strictly internal, because I'm feeling a bit silly for not expecting him to let his strongest Pokémon help him make a comeback. After all my thought about knowing exactly what he'd do- whatever. Doesn't matter. Time to get serious.

Dart seems to mirror my thoughts, dropping his usual hyperactive attitude as Checkers takes the field. They trained together often during all those group sessions we did leading up to the tournament. Dart knows as well as I do that Checkers is a serious threat.

When the battle resumes I waste no time. "Net!" I call out, knowing full well that Checkers' speed needs to be mitigated in order for Dart to put up a proper offensive.

Of course, using string to tangle a Pokémon with giant blades for arms is easier said than done. Dart's web net is large and sticky, but Checkers scythes through it with ease.

"Keep going, add toxic walls this time," I command. Dart fires another web, and then another when Checkers slices that one as well. At the same time, he starts to fire a barrage of poison stings from his stingers, aiming each one on either side of Checkers and bringing them together.

Keith nods thoughtfully at my attempt to restrict Checkers movement, then grins ruthlessly, "Come on Ben, that won't be nearly enough! Checkers, advance!"

"Close it now!" I call out.

My hope was to keep Checkers preoccupied with dodging webs so the poison could wear him down, but I clearly didn't prepare well enough for just how fast Checkers is. Two seconds. That's all the time it takes for him to close the gap. Webs are shredded, needles are unable to aim in time, and suddenly there's a loud clash as Checkers appears directly on top of Dart and meets his stingers with blades before I can react. I've barely finished speaking my last order by the time Checkers arrives.

Dart reacts in far better time than I can, stopping the poison spray from his arms and switching to firing from his abdomen. But Checkers manages to twist up and out of the way with a buzz of his wings, his body raising away from the poison even as his blades continue to struggle against Dart's stingers. The wings of both bug types are buzzing in a furious hum as they struggle to push the other back, like a bizarre version of midair sumo. And then their balance begins to shift. Dart aims his abdominal stinger upward to try to hit Checkers again. Checkers twists further, lifting his body even higher in the air to avoid the poison stings. Suddenly, for a brief moment, the clash between the two bug types has shifted from horizontal to vertical, with Checkers' body pointed straight up and down and Dart floating on his back in midair. Then, gravity decides to get involved, and suddenly Dart can't fend off his heavier opponent anymore. He crashes into the dirt, and the battle becomes a wild melee on the ground.

Despite having his back to the floor, Dart puts up a good fight. The loss of flight means he can't evade at all, but he has three massive stingers and a pair of jaws all facing upward and Checkers has to struggle to get around them to strike at something important. For a few brief moments, he tries to hack down at Dart with those monstrous blade arms, with Dart gamely fending him off. At one point Checkers steps a bit too close to Dart's head and takes a bug bite to the ankle for his trouble.

"Fry him!" I call out, seeing a chance to get Dart back in the game.

"Get away!" Keith shouts.

Thankfully, Checkers isn't quite able to tug his leg free from Dart before getting cooked. He spasms as he leaps back, webs crackling with electricity clinging to his leg. Dart doesn't look much better though. It looks like because he was making direct contact with Checkers when he unleashed that electroweb he ended up suffering from some feedback.

"Push through! Scoop him off the ground and hit him from behind, Checkers!" Keith encourages.

"Use electroweb again, drive him back!" I respond.

Unfortunately for Dart and I, Checkers and Keith seem to have finally found the right angle to approach. Dart's arm stingers can stop attacks from the sides and above well enough, but his abdomen isn't nearly so maneuverable. Dart's electroweb is neatly avoided by Checkers, and his blade sweeps in so low it scrapes along the dirt of the road. It passes underneath Dart's stinger on his abdomen, and then sweeps sharply up, sending Dart spinning into the air.

Fun fact about beedrill: they can't attack behind them. They're evolved to always face forward, drive threats away head-on, and to never retreat. Any threats they'd encounter in the wild that might get behind them would never be able to take advantage because they'd still have a swarm of other beedrill to contend with. This isn't as big of a problem in a Pokémon battle as you'd expect, since beedrill are speedy enough to turn on a dime and have compound eyes that can track an opponent's movement well (though not to the same extent as bug types like yanma or butterfree that have the 'ability'). But that only applies when the beedrill in question can keep its flight stable.

Right now, Dart's flight isn't stable. The sudden transition from pushing back from the ground to getting tossed in the air means that what Dart is doing can barely be considered flying at all. He tries his best to recover, and nearly succeeds… but not before Checkers can rush into Dart's blind spot. Dart's barely managed to right himself in the air by the time two massive scyther blades come crashing into his back. With the way Checkers is moving, that was almost certainly an aerial ace attack.

Critical hit. It's super effective! Dart fainted!

Yeah, Dart's tough, but he's not that tough. Even his ungodly tenacity can't take a blow like that without an iron defense, and he was too disoriented to pull that off. I sigh, withdrawing Dart as he lies senselessly on the ground. "You fought well, Dart. We'll take it from here."

My next move is obvious. I only have one member of my team who can keep up with a scyther… or rather, two members. "Cleo, Lacy, your turn," I call out to the twins. The girls seem unbothered at first, but once they see a scyther across from them they immediately get serious. Not their usual attitude, but not unexpected. No doubt the girls have seen scyther before, since they're both from the same part of Kanto. And typically when the two species meet in the wild it goes very badly for the doduo if it doesn't start running the moment the scyther approaches. Right now the girls are facing a matchup that has centuries of evolution behind it; even they can't keep their usual blasé attitude.

Keith seems to be matching the intensity of our Pokémon at this point. He's been focused up since he was forced to pull Checkers out early. I should do the same, honestly. I fixate my attention on the two Pokémon, knowing full well that in a battle between these two I'm going to need to be on the ball to keep up with my commands.

The next round begins in an instant. Bladed arms clash against sharp beaks. Both Pokémon dance circles around each other, trying to find an opening. The girls lash out with taloned kicks, only for Checkers to fly up and out of the way. Checkers tries to use his superior mobility to outmaneuver the girls, only to be foiled by their lack of blind spot and ability to quickly disengage and re-engage with quick attack. The girls are faster in a straight line. Checkers is faster at circling.

Keith and I both watch on grimly, knowing that we have to keep our orders sparse and make them count. In a match with Pokémon this fast we can't afford to call out every move. We won't change the status quo unless an opportunity presents itself… or one of us starts feeling the pressure.

The advantage becomes clear soon enough: the twins are starting to increase their pace. Checkers is flagging, his takeoff speed slipping thanks to the damage he took earlier from Dart's electroweb. His right leg, the leg which got electrocuted, is fractionally slower to push off the ground. He can only move at full speed when using his other leg to take off, meaning he moves faster going right than left. "Head him off," I call out, "Keep your attacks on his right flank."

"Kweh!" Lacy scoffs, having already caught on, but Cleo hadn't caught up to Lacy's vindictiveness yet and follows my commands in a hurry. Checkers grimaces as the pressure amps up and he's forced to put his weight more and more on his hurt leg, with Lacy's beak jabbing viciously on offense and Cleo working to maintain a defense like usual.

And that's when Keith moves. I take my eyes off the battle for a moment, wanting to know what his next response will be. But rather than give an order, he just claps his hands twice. A focusing technique, or…?

I shift my focus back on our Pokémon, and suddenly Checkers is in two places at once. There's a Checkers leaping backwards, and a second diving low to the ground to flank the girls. That's two targets, four potential blades to keep track of, and zero pressure from Cleo or Lacy as they struggle to figure out what just happened.

One of the two is an illusion, but I don't have time to figure out which. Both scythers are darting in now, and the twins are panicking as they try to figure out how to block four giant arm blades at once.

"Quick retreat!" I call out. Too late. By the time I've finished speaking Checkers has already struck. Thankfully, the girls decided to split the difference by having one head react to each scyther. It means one blade is going to connect no matter what they do, but that's better than gambling and potentially taking two direct hits. Instead one Checkers passes illusory blades harmlessly through Cleo's defenses while the other Checkers collides with Lacy. And Lacy, vindictive thing that she is, strikes back at the same time, throwing the main body entirely into the real Checkers. She deflects one blade away, takes the other to the side, and plants a talon solidly into Checkers' chest. The Pokémon separate with pained gasps, each staggering back as they take a moment to regroup.

That's a serious blow from both sides, but one that bodes worse for me and the girls overall. Doduo are not as bulky as scyther. Just how it goes when one side has an exoskeleton and the other doesn't. Checkers is definitely hurt, but he can take more punishment. And now that I know he can use double team to force an advantage…

Now or never. Time to show Keith that he isn't the only one with a secret weapon. And that he isn't the only one who can secretly code commands. I make the call: "Gysahl!"

Because of course I'm going to make the girls' secret code word a chocobo reference. They talk like chocobos, it's a no brainer!

As for what Gysahl means… It's basically the command for the girls to switch into overdrive. The result of all the training I've been putting the girls through lately, pushed to the absolute limit. High intensity mental processing, with the strain mitigated by their internalized telepathy, all for the purpose of cranking their entire body into overdrive through a sustained channeling of the energy they would normally only be able to use in a brief burst, that of a quick attack.

It's a far cry from the unending agility that Janine first pitched to me, but thanks to her suggestion and the weeks of training I've put the girls through, we've managed to reach a grand total of… seven seconds. That might seem like it isn't that much. But it's already more than triple the length of what the average quick attack can be used for at our level. And while Cleo and Lacy are using agility they can do a lot more at quick attack speeds than just run really goddamn fast in a straight line.

And a lot can happen in seven seconds. A lot more than I can really process, if I'm being honest. I catch the highlights though. Cleo and Lacy begin glowing with energy, and rush in at Checkers at ludicrous speed. Checkers lashes out with his blades to drive them back, but the girls are able to track the path of those blade arms and coil about to strike out like serpents, driving Checkers back instead. Checkers screeches in a panic, lashing out at the girls' legs, but they hop over the attack easily-no, they're jumping off of the blade, planting a talon on it mid-swing and leaping even higher into the air. The other talon hits Checkers in the face, Lacy's move by the sound of her victorious screech. Cleo, meanwhile, is doing what she does best and covering for her sister's aggression by deflecting another dangerous hit by Checkers' other blade.

Take that entire exchange, mix in at least a couple dozen feints and narrow misses and moments where beaks and blades and talons collide and are driven away, and yeah, you more or less get the idea of what just happened. Mostly I just register a blur of movement other than the blade jump and the kick.

That final blow is the point where the girls stop glowing and return to regular speeds. This return to regular speed does nothing to stop Lacy from clasping her talon against Checkers' face and completing her pluck attack by clawing a neat series of lines into his glossy green carapace. Poor Checkers has his head rattled as it's slammed by the kick and then jerked back the other direction by the grasp of talons. He staggers, for just one moment, his blades faltering as his flailing shifts from "desperate, lethal counterattack" to "Oh god what's happening?" And that's when Cleo finally makes a move of her own, striking with enough force that the twins' entire body twists in the air. Her beak strikes perfectly, landing a shot directly into the pale patch of softer carapace between thorax and abdomen.

Checkers wheezes, and finally manages to hit the twins again, but this time only with the blunt backside of the blade. The twins are sent tumbling away, squawking indignantly out of a cloud of dust as they skip across the road. They stalk out of the dust a moment later.

The girls look… messy. Remarkably so, really, I've never seen them this unkempt in all the time I've known them. They're gasping for breath, the strain of using agility wearing down on them. They're covered in dirt from the road, and one of their wings is dripping blood from the body blow Checkers landed earlier (I take a moment to marvel at Pokémon biology when I notice that; a strike like that would have killed just about anything from my own universe). And the skin on their necks and legs is covered with bruises. The poor girls took a beating and a half.

But Checkers looks worse. Unlike the twins, he can't stand up properly right now; a blade planted in the ground is serving as support. His eyes are still unfocused from that kick to the head, and the spot where Cleo jabbed him is slowly oozing blood (another minor flesh wound, because again, Pokémon biology is ridiculous).

Keith looks the two of our Pokémon over, correctly judges that Checkers isn't up for anything more, and recalls him. "Good work Checkers," he comments, and then gives me a lopsided smile, "I think that round got a bit out of hand, yeah?"

"Yeah, I can't really hold back against Checkers," I shrug, "Between his speed and those meat cleavers he calls arms he's kind of an all or nothing deal."

"I suppose that's fair," Keith admits. He takes a moment to look the girls over, "You gonna call them back too?"

"Wark!" Lacy protests. Cleo lets out a resigned sigh. Poor girl's probably ready for a nap, but once Lacy gets riled up she isn't going to quit until the fight's over or she can't walk anymore. Once she's had a moment to despair at her sister's battle mania though she straightens up and focuses.

"Looks like they're ready for more," I say, eying the girls warily. Their wing injury isn't bleeding fast enough to be serious, and the rest of the injuries seem fine… I'll let them carry on and have them take it easy for the rest of the day. "Yeah, let's keep going," I confirm.

Keith sighs, and releases Belladonna, "I was afraid you'd say that. Really wanted the double knockout there."

"Tough luck, dude," I grin triumphantly. Roselia can be tricky opponents, but against the twins? No shot.

The last round begins with me calling out calmly, "You know she likes her traps. Brute force this before she can do anything."

Belladonna reacts to the twins' approach fast, but not quick attack fast. As my girls rush in and crash into her she raises her flowers to fire back, but gets hit before she can actually release anything. The twin peck attacks that follow, she manages to avoid, if only barely, twirling gracefully out of the way just in time. And that's when she releases her counterattack, a burst of blue powder, directly into the girl's faces.

I grin in anticipation. Keith grimaces, realizing too late that he chose the wrong move.

Cleo's head immediately droops as the sleep powder washes over her. Lacy, who is slightly further away from the brunt of the powder's blast, scoffs and punishes Belladonna for staying in reach by kicking her in the chest. She manages to take three shaky steps out of the cloud of sleep powder before dozing off, by which point Cleo has already woken up again and is running after Belladonna.

The poor roselia is lying on her back gasping, having been completely unprepared for the kick. Apparently she has a lot of faith in her powder techniques. A little too much, as it happens. Despite being sent flying though, she still has enough of a grasp on things to roll out of the way when Cleo's beak darts in. And again when Lacy wakes up and immediately joins in. And again. And again. She just keeps rolling desperately as the twins take turns pecking at her.

After a few seconds of this I realize the twins have stopped taking things seriously and snap at them in annoyance, "Quit playing around, girls! If you don't want to fight properly I'll withdraw you right here!"

"Too late!" Keith crows in triumph, right as Belladonna raises a flower in the air and releases another explosion of powder in the air, this time a vibrant purple. Cleo and Lacy reel backwards, not having the same resistance to poison techniques that they have with sleep, and start choking. "And now!" Keith shouts, grinning triumphantly, "Finish them off!"

I've noted before that venoshock is the most dangerous tool in a poison type master's arsenal. Which means that when I see the gob of poisonous liquid fly out of Belladonna's flowers I pretty much abandon all hope of the girls finishing the fight on the spot. The twins take the attack head on, still reeling from the sudden lungful of poison powder they just inhaled. For a moment they merely stagger back, as the liquid washes over them. Then their whole body violently spasms and they shriek with pain. They stagger forward a few steps, then spasm again. In a startling bit of good luck, one of their talons lashes out and clips Belladonna, sending her spinning, before the girls finally tip over and crash senselessly to the ground. Belladonna gets to her feet and lets out a relieved cheer as I finally return them.

"You had it and you threw it away, girls," I say with a frustrated sigh. Looks like their discipline issues are getting worse if they're letting it mess up an easy win. As soon as they stopped feeling threatened they started playing games mid-battle.

"Well, looks like my travel time just got cut in half for the day," I comment to Keith, "There's no way the girls are getting out of a trip to a Pokémon Center after that one."

"Skill issue," Keith replies cheekily. I can only scowl in response, because, yeah, that's pretty accurate. My failure to manage Cleo and Lacy's arrogance is entirely on me. And now the end of this battle is going to be way closer than it should have been.

"Gauss, I need you at your best for this one," I call out as I release the geodude to the field.

"Dude," Gauss replies reproachfully. As he should. We both know that even if he doesn't have the same passion for battling that Dart or the Twins do he is far and away the most focused member of my team.

"Let's try the new trick," I comment as Keith tosses a rock in the air for the last time, "Center point."

The rock hits the dirt and both Gauss and Belladonna move.

Belladonna's closing the gap. She's going to focus on mega drain, or maybe giga drain if she's strong enough for it. Best technique to use if you're worn out and your opponent is weak to it. Great move in general really, it's an absolute nightmare to try to stop. Decent range, decent power, can't be blocked except by high level defensive moves like protect and detect, makes you unstoppable in a drawn out battle.

"Slow her down!" I call out.

Gauss has been working on a trick for this. He slaps a hand down on the ground and pulls rocks up to act as a wall, then pushes them forward using bulldoze. Suddenly Belladonna's advance is met with a moving wall of stone. She attempts to climb over them, but climbing over a wall when you have no thumbs is easier said than done. Fortunately for her, Gauss and I haven't mastered the wall technique yet, so the rocks crumble on their own from the force of the bulldoze technique. But it's still enough to buy Gauss time to do some prep work.

The next rock Gauss pulls out of the ground is big enough to make the wall he just called up look small in comparison. It's at least three times bigger than he is. And when he lifts it over his head it crackles with electricity. Gauss and I have been taking time to practice making rocks that are better for letting him channel his electrical powers through them. He's gotten pretty good at drawing what he needs from the ground around Vermillion.

The sparking boulder is heaved through the air with a grunt of effort from Gauss, and crashes to the ground right in front of Belladonna. She dives for cover as it crashes, but still stumbles as charged electricity releases in a small burst. That's… an interesting side effect, actually. Could be useful for creating an opening in the right circumstances. Not here though, since Belladonna's mostly hidden from Gauss behind the big-ass rock.

Belladonna peeks her head out cautiously, but has to duck away as Gauss tosses a rock in her direction. She can't risk taking any more heavy hits after that brutal kick Lacy got on her earlier. Not without draining Gauss' health first at least. Which is why I am of course extremely dedicated to keeping her the fuck away from him.

Of course, Keith isn't about to let me play that game forever. "Don't give them a chance to set any more tricks up, Belladonna! Use magical leaf!"

Right, that absolute nuisance of a move. She can use it to hit Gauss without leaving cover. "Rock shield!" I call out.

Gauss reacts quickly, pulling up a decent sized rock in each hand and using them to deflect the magical leaf attacks. When the leaves start cutting through his impromptu shields, he charges them with electricity, and to both of our relief the leaves start to shrivel up when they hit. "Keep it up, then lob a few rocks at her when you see an opportunity!" I call out, watching the battle closely.

Keith is making some kind of complicated hand signal to direct Belladonna's attacks, letting her change the direction her magical leaves are attacking from without leaving the cover of the boulder. Looks like he's trying to hit Gauss from behind, but he's still fending them off well enough. Occasionally he takes a few hits as one of his rock shields breaks down and he has to grab another, but he's holding out well. He hops around, swinging his electrified rocks and flash-frying the leaves as they close in, until he finally finds a good chance to toss one of his rocks up and over the boulder.

"Now's your chance, go for the mega drain!" Keith calls out, apparently seeing Gauss' attack as an opportunity.

Belladonna darts out of cover, rushing in. Gauss croaks in alarm and tosses his remaining rock directly at her but she manages a rather graceful evasion that only barely sacrifices on her speed. The whole time she was pushing Gauss around with her magical leaf attacks she was actually driving him closer so she could close in and drain Gauss dry.

Low marks on this one, Keith. The hand signs were interesting but the commands were too obvious for me not to realize your plan. And honestly, did you think I let you use that giant rock against me by accident?

"Magnet rise!"

Gauss allows himself a cocky smirk as his body sparks with electricity and he begins to hover in the air. Belladonna is close enough now, raising those big roses she has for hands and attempting to drain him of his energy. But before she can, Gauss gestures to his boulder, and goes flying back out of reach.

See, I've been reflecting for a long while now on the best way to deal with Gauss' movement problems. The weird hopping and walking on his hands are not getting him anywhere fast. More importantly, they're not skills that are going to remain useful when he evolves. Gauss needs a form of movement that will get him where he needs to be quickly, and it should be a skill that will remain useful as he continues to grow. A foundational movement technique that he can continue to build on. I had two options: rollout, like Ogrim likes to use, or magnets.

Naturally I chose magnets. But how to make that work? Only true masters of magnetism like magnezone or probopass are able to use magnetism to fly freely. Gauss isn't strong enough for that. He needs to rely on the most basic principles of magnetism: push and pull. And for that to translate effectively into lateral movement, he needs something to push and pull off of. Like a big electrified rock in the middle of the field.

End result: Belladonna's attack fails as Gauss pushes himself through the air, well out of reach. And once he's floating in the air, with no friction to slow him down, and a very confused roselia now standing directly between him and his anchor point, I have him switch from push… to pull.

And that's how the battle ends with poor Belladonna getting brained by a high-velocity geodude. Gauss smacks into her at top speed, keeps going, crashes through his anchor rock, and tumbles to the ground. He straightens out looking extremely dissatisfied with the result; he's been practicing for days to stop himself from breaking his anchors but has yet to develop the control for it. But the result is good enough for me all the same, Belladonna is not getting up to fight again after that one.

Keith calls Belladonna back in a hurry, then starts analyzing everything that just happened. It takes him a minute, but once he notices the way some of the pieces of magnetised rock are reacting to each other, sliding around on the ground as the charges repel or attract each other, he puts it together. "When the boulder did that lightning explosion I assumed that was your new trick," He comments, shaking his head. He scowls for a moment, clearly disappointed in how the battle ended. Then, he lets a chuckle slip, which breaks into a full-blown laugh, "Ahahahaha! Oh man, that was crazy! Where were you hiding all these technical strategies during the tournament?"

"Somewhere they could be kept nice and secret until I needed to surprise somebody with them," I reply, feeling very proud of myself. "I figure Arthur's good enough that I'd need Gauss' tricks to beat him. But I was pretty determined to save agility for when I had to deal with Checkers no matter what."

"That agility was great, it completely turned the tables on me. Janine taught you some tricks for that, right? I started Checkers on agility training last week and she said she'd been studying the move for somebody," He nods to himself, clearly already certain exactly who I've been learning from.

"Yeah, she's the one I've been consulting on agility," I answer, "As for Gauss, I looked up a few old vids Surge posted about working with magnemite and we figured it out from there."

"Man, I don't know what to say anymore," Keith shakes his head, "It's like a complete reversal from last time, you had control of that battle from start to finish…" He sighs, disappointment settling over his features once more. After a moment he glances over at me, "Hey, Ben. Who do you think would have won the tournament, if it had finished properly?"

I think about it for a moment. And to my frustration that's all it takes to come to the obvious answer, "Mint. As much as I don't want to agree with their bitch of a mother, she was right. I don't think any of us stood a chance against lucario alone…"

Ironically enough, the trainer with the best chance to beat Mint was actually Goh. Between his talent for counterpicks and that monster of a golurk he kept as a secret weapon, I think he'd have had a good chance if he'd been matched against them. Only other option… Vlad, maybe? Mint's clearly got some confidence issues, so Vlad's mental games could probably be pretty effective.

But that still leaves every traditional battler hopeless against Mint's team. The power, the balanced composition, the resources, Mint was playing with a big enough advantage that I've still barely begun to think of how I could overcome it. I had a plan for every trainer in the tournament except for them.

From the look on Keith's face, he's come to the same conclusion. "Yeah… yeah that's what I thought you'd say," Keith replies sullenly, "Maybe it's good the tournament ended when it did. Kept us from getting embarrassed. There's probably a lot of people out there who might think you or me had a chance of winning that thing. Would have sucked to let them down."

"Would have sucked to let Mint's mom get what she wanted," I reply.

Keith makes a face at that, "Yeah. Yeah that would have been even worse, honestly." And just like that he's back to his usual upbeat self, "Well, let's just make sure that by the time we're all facing each other again we're strong enough to blow the competition out of the water, right?"

"Damn straight."

"Geodude."

I blink, and look down at Gauss, "Oh! Sorry for ignoring you there, man. You did a great job!"

"Seriously. I didn't stand a chance against you two," Keith nods in agreement.

"Geo. Dude. Geo deo dude," Gauss replies, straightening proudly, as much as a sentient boulder can anyways.

"We're gonna head to a Pokémon Center so we can get everyone patched up. You wanna stay out or would you rather get some rest?" I ask, raising his ball.

Gauss chooses to go back to his ball, leaving Keith and I to head back into Vermillion. A part of me despairs at the lost time today, but winning the battle has me feeling proud enough that I can't be all that upset. It was good to even the score with Keith.

Apparently, Keith is thinking along the same lines, because he turns to me as we walk and declares in a firm voice: "The Indigo League. That's where we have to settle this. No more battles between us until then. I want our biggest showdown to be on the world stage!"

"Sounds good to me," I agree easily, "With the routes we're both taking I honestly doubt we're likely to bump into each other again any time soon anyways."

"Yes!" Keith pumps a fist in excitement, "It's a promise, alright? We absolutely have to battle again in the Indigo League. No matter what it takes, got it?"

I scowl at him in fake anger, "Now Keith, you can't just go arranging fated Pokémon battles with people left and right like that. You still have Janine waiting at home, after all."

"Whoa, hey, don't go making it weird!" Keith protests, as I start laughing at how flustered he's become.

Yeah, as delays go, this was a good one.

Updates will continue to be slow, as this is apparently the consequence of actually moving my life in a positive direction. But until then your support is ever appreciated!

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