Chapter Thirty-Four
There was an after-party held at the Pokémon Center after Amira's battle with Candice. While it sounded fun, what it really meant was more work. After a mandated outfit change, Amira was marched out to the crowd to promote herself and Jubilife TV. This meant shaking hands, taking pictures, and smiling so much that her cheeks hurt. Liam stood off to the side, just to her peripheral to give her cues on what to say and do. The main attraction of the party however was to be Grace's performance, a live mini-concert. As soon as the music started, the crowd seemingly forgot her and rushed to the stage. Amira took advantage of it to sneak away and went to hide in another room. She finally understood why her Honchkrow often did the same thing.
She watched Grace and her Pokémon perform via television. She silently sang along while tapping her foot to the beat. She spotted Candice and Maylene in the front row. Candice was enthusiastically singing along while the more reserved Maylene cheered. Grace had added two more Clefairy to her team, bringing the total up to five. Amira had to respect how hard they worked to move as a group with such precise coordination while also bringing a newcomer up to speed. Her thoughts again turned to how she could use what she learned in contests for battles.
While Lucario was growing fast, Gabite was falling behind. She softly bit the inside of her lip as she wondered just what she could do to help. Being surrounded by Ice-types, Snowpoint City wasn't the best place to train him. So far, she had Luca covering him but this was what led to their current gap in strength. She wondered if she could ask Liam for another trip to Iron Island.
"Congratulations. You've done well once again."
Liam entered the room offering her a bottle of water along with his praise.
"Thank you," she answered. She smiled while taking it, thinking their relationship was getting better.
"If you're tired, you can leave now. You have another day of work tomorrow. You'll be partnering with the Gym Leader for a promotional campaign for a few local restaurants and hotels."
Just as quickly, her smile died. She took back her thoughts that he wasn't such a bad person after all. Instead, he was a tyrant obsessed with work.
"Don't I get a break," she asked. "I still have training to do! I just evolved two new Pokémon!"
"This is your break," he answered sternly without missing a beat. "I'm not stopping you from training at all. But don't forget you have obligations to fulfill as part of your contract."
Hearing the word contract silenced any objections she may have had. She couldn't even complain properly so long as he was giving her allotted time to train. However she was sure her cheeks would break sooner rather than later from smiling so much but even that wasn't the worst of it.
"Even if you got your eighth gym badge tomorrow," he continued, "there's still a few months before the Sinnoh League Tournament begins. You needn't be in such a rush."
"A few months?"
She quickly pulled out her Sinnoh League pamphlet and double checked his words. Although gyms could be challenged anytime, League Tournaments only took place once a year. It could be held twice but only if multiple gyms had a high number of regular challengers, such as in more populated places like Kanto and Johto. Her own home region of Unova held their league tournament between the end of summer and start of autumn to take advantage of the high number of students that would be participating for summer break.
Since summer had fully passed, she simply assumed that her shot at the Sinnoh League wouldn't be until next year. To her surprise, the guidebook told her that the league was held closer to winter. Since Sinnoh was a mountainous region in the northern hemisphere, winter was a culturally and spiritually significant time and so the league was held at the start of winter for good luck.
She appeared to calm down but in truth, she dreaded such a lolling gap. Too much free time seeded a daunting feeling in the pit of her stomach. Maybe having a busy schedule to distract her wouldn't be so bad after all. She clenched her fist and swore to train in between every restless moment she could get. Even if she had time before the league tournament, she doubted Team Galactic would sit still that long.
"I guess that's plenty of time," she muttered.
A steady beep came from inside her bag. She dug through it and found that it was her phone alerting her of a missed call. It was from her father and his predictable voice message told her to call him back. She clenched her teeth and tried to swallow her heart as it had leapt in her throat. He had seen her on television. She couldn't imagine what he would say. Nothing that came to mind was pleasant.
She turned to Liam, "I have to make a call. Can I have a few minutes?"
"Sure." He answered agreeably but raised his brow in curiosity at her sudden distressed demeanor. "I'll be in the hall if you need me."
"Thanks."
She waved him off as he closed the door then turned to stare at her phone. The thought of ignoring it came to mind and left just as quickly. She chose to bite the bullet as fast as possible and dialed his number before her nerve left her. She tensed herself in anticipation when he answered on the second ring.
"Hello?" The tone of his voice dropped the temperature of the room.
"Hey... Uhm, you called?"
"Yeah, I saw your battle on TV. I wanted to tell you-"
She closed her eyes, ready for the scolding he was sure to start giving her.
"Good job."
"Huh?" She opened her eyes and stared at her phone as if it had somehow caused a mistranslation.
"I said good job. You did well. You looked like you were having fun. I'm glad."
He had stumbled upon her performance completely by accident. One of his own gym trainees had been watching it when he walked by just in time to hear her name announced. He looked thinking that it must be some other girl with the same name as his daughter. Instead, he found out that it was in fact his daughter. He watched the match silently in shock. Then his shock turned to genuine interest. Unconsciously he began to cheer for her aloud. He clenched his jaw when her Pokémon took a hit. He clapped when they landed an attack. When she won, he grabbed the trainee and proudly boasted about her.
When he regained his composure, he cleared his throat with a cough and excused himself back to his office. Once alone, he pulled out his phone to pull up the match. Although the match was over, his search led him to Amira's profile on the Jubilife TV homepage. He followed it to her own page and read it from top to bottom. He watched every video available. He chuckled to himself when he saw her get scared by Murkrow's evolution. He stared skeptically at her cooking poffins coming out so perfectly and correctly guessed that it had been edited to appear so. He watched her previous matches and cringed when Murkrow nearly shredded her dress to show so much skin during her match with Fantina. Although it appeared to be fixed somewhat during the badge award ceremony, it still didn't sit right with him that it didn't cover more. His anger flared as he watched her match with Byron and heard the other gym leader's harsh criticisms of her. He laughed out loud with the same pettiness as his daughter had when he saw Luxray tear into the opposing Bastiodon, ferocity be damned.
When there were no more videos to watch, he went through the gallery of photos. One by one, he stared at the photos of her and her Pokémon and studied her face. He saw her smile slowly build sincerity. He stopped on the photo that had been most recently uploaded. It was of her and the Snowpoint City gym leader, mouths open in cheesy grins after a laugh. She looked happier than he had seen her in a while. Even though she couldn't see him, he smiled back, content and relieved.
There were parts he disagreed with of course. He couldn't help but feel protective when she wore such showy outfits or appeared to have such little privacy from photos and videos. Now that he knew, he was of course going to talk to whoever was in charge about it. It would still irritate him but he could at least make it tolerable. But most of all, what mattered was that she was happy. He would accept it for her and her alone.
"I wish you had told me about it sooner," he chided her. "But I'm going to assume it slipped your mind. Just this once, understand?"
"Yes, Sir," she replied fully in her guilt. "Oh... Yeah... Uhm, dad!" She shouted into the phone, speaking louder than she meant to. "Uhm... uhm..."
"What is it?"
"Uhm..." Even with his asking, she remained speechless. Tears started sliding down her cheeks for reasons she didn't know. It wasn't as if she was so surprised. Even the relief that flooded her wasn't so overwhelming as to cause her to cry. Perhaps it was an amalgamation of the uncertainties she had been building up being pushed back, just a little.
Surge could hear her sniffling over the phone and became alarmed. "Ami, what's wrong? Talk to me."
"I'm fine," she finally answered after catching her breath. "I'm okay."
He stayed silent for a minute as he waited for her to calm down. When he could breath even out, he asked again. "Amira, are you sure you're okay? I need you to tell me the truth."
"Mm-hmm. I'm fine," she nodded. "I just... Uhm..."
She thought of what else she could tell him. Could she truly tell him about Team Galactic and what they planned to do? Could she tell him about the plates? Could she ask him where this was going; how familiar the path felt and how much it scared her?
Before either of them could speak again, the building started to shake. The tremors were large and violent from the beginning. She held onto the desk to keep herself upright as the lights flickered. Then they stopped just as suddenly as they had begun though the lights still swung and her legs felt like jelly.
"Dad, I have to go!"
"Wait! Don't hang up! What's going on?!"
She jumped in shock when Liam burst into the room. "We're evacuating," he said. "Leave your stuff and come outside for now."
"Amira!"
"Sorry Dad. I'll call you back!"
She hung up the phone and shoved it into the pocket of her coat as she threw it on. She ran outside with Liam following at her heels. He thought she would stop when she joined the crowd. After all, it was only a precaution. Instead, Amira kept running. She knew it wasn't an earthquake, at least not a natural one. She hoped to be wrong but knew it wasn't. If she had had a second to think, she would've grabbed Maylene and Candice to come with her. But that thought was too late now and her focus was on what lay ahead.
Team Galactic had arrived.
She arrived at Lake Acuity just in time to catch the end of Barry's fight with Commander Jupiter. His Infernape was down on a bent knee and breathing heavily. It had been poisoned. Its face looked ill, its eyes were hazy and its brow was dripping sweat. Jupiter's Skunktank was as malicious as its trainer and wore the same smirk. Before Amira could help, Skunktank struck with Night Slash. Its long poisoned claws cut Infernape across the chest, too close to its neck. The exhausted Infernape tried to throw a punch in defense but even that motion proved too much for it. It collapsed, forcing Barry to return it to its Poké Ball.
Jupiter laughed.
"Well your Pokémon aren't bad but you're so weak. You honestly thought you could save the Pokémon of the lake? And become the Champion? Dream on, kid. I'm done with you and this disgusting cold."
"Stop!"
Amira rushed to block her path with her hand on Empoleon's Poké Ball, ready to battle. There was no telling if she would fare any better but she had to try. Jupiter looked her up and down.
"Oh? It's you again. Listen! Team Galactic is going to do something huge for everyone's sake! So keep out our way," she shouted. "Don't come whining about poor Pokémon and other junk like that!"
"No matter what you guys say you're doing, I won't leave it alone," she yelled back.
"Hmph!"
Jupiter readied herself for a battle. If taking down one child had been a piece of cake, how hard could another one be?
"Amira!"
They both turned and looked. Liam and the gym leaders were running down the path. Jupiter gritted her teeth. She was outnumbered. It would ruin everything if she were caught because she was overconfident. She decided she had wasted enough time. She hurriedly put Skuntank's ball back, took out a smoke bomb, and set it off to make her escape.
"We're kicking things off in Veilstone. Come if you dare."
"Togekiss, blow away the smoke!"
Liam took a Poké Ball and threw it in the air. Released from it was a large snowy owl with blue and red triangular marks all over its body.
'Togekiss, the Jubilee Pokémon. It shares many blessings with people who respect one another and avoid needless strife.'
As the smoke cleared, Amira ran to Barry.
"Are you okay!? Do you need potions?"
He stood still in shock at his loss. Jupiter's scathing appraisal of his skills replayed in his mind. As Amira broke him from his daze, he started trembling. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist to keep himself from crying.
"Damn it!" The force of his words took them all by surprise. "Damn that Team Galactic! I won't let them get away with this!"
"Barry... It's okay," Amira tried to comfort him by sounding self-assured. "If you're okay, then everything will be-"
"It's not okay!" He cut her off and turned to face her. Tears of anger welled in his eyes. "That Pokémon they captured was suffering! And I couldn't do anything! I lost! I'm going to get tougher...," he said in a low tone. "It's not about winning or losing. That's not good enough anymore!"
He took off running before she or anyone else could stop him. As she watched him go, the anxious feeling within her grew.
"He fought with Team Galactic," Liam asked as he too watched. "You knew this was going to happen?"
He wasn't asking a question but asking for confirmation. She said nothing.
Candice ran to the railing to look over the lake.
"That cavern," she said, looking at an island in the distance. "That's where the mythical Pokémon of the lake is said to be sleeping. That's the Pokémon Team Galactic captured!?"
"The same thing happened at Lake Valor," answered Maylene. "It happened at Lake Verity too. They're collecting the Pokémon of the lakes."
"Ugh! No way," replied Candice. "I totally messed up! I'm supposed to guard the lake and I totally dropped the ball! They waited until I was distracted with my gym to pull this off!"
"There's nothing more we can do now," Liam added. "We have to notify the authorities as soon as possible. Let's go back."
"But where did that lady even go?"
"Did she say anything to you," he asked.
All eyes turned to Amira.
She stayed quiet as she weighed her options in her mind. If she told them what she knew... Cyrus's threat came to mind. Who would they believe? Who would the world believe?
"Nothing," she said at last in a small voice. "She didn't say anything."
Liam said nothing as he watched her lower her gaze.
"We gotta notify the league right away," said Candice. "Maybe we can find them and stop them somehow!"
Agreeing to the urgency of the situation, they all hurried back to Snowpoint City. While Candice and Maylene went their separate ways, Amira went back to the Pokémon Center. She hastily packed her bag and headed out alone. She walked to Route 217 with her phone in hand. She couldn't return her father's call, not now, but she felt she at least needed to let Professor Rowan know what had happened. Team Galactic had taken Uxie. Whatever they were planning, it was starting in Veilstone City.