Pedestal: Chapter 107

"From here on out, the challenges will be secret, except for the very last one." And, of course, they didn't tell us what the last one would be. "They will remain spaced two days apart, but also from here on out, the beads won't be worth a thing. You will be given a pass or fail grade based upon your performance at the end of each challenge. Fail once and you're out. These challenges will be tougher, so consider yourselves warned."

The next two days, predictably, passed by in a flash, due to the apprehension and the fact that we basically couldn't leave the hotel without getting swamped. My parents told me how proud they were of me, Hanna did all of the shopping we needed (correction: she needed), and we were moved to the top floor in the hotel. Which meant we had suites. It was awesome, sure, but it didn't change the fact that we still couldn't leave and return unscathed. We each had our own room, too, so no more sharing, no more roommate, no more Vaikuntha sleeping over me. I was sad to see him go.

On the upside, however, with the lack of a roommate and added space, I slept with my team out.

"Whoa… Hey, guys, do you know this is the first time we've all slept together?" I asked incredulously, rolling over onto my stomach. "Zarek didn't hatch until we got here, so this is the first time he gets to do this with us."

"Oh joy," Ike muttered with an obvious roll of his eyes.

"Meanie," Carlita replied. I laughed helplessly at their argument.

"Bii?" Zarek bubbled, shuffling over towards me. Alice raised her head and watched the movement carefully, but for once, didn't decide to pursue him.

"Yes, you. I guess you're officially part of the team now." He had pretty much stopped growing, his shell was hard, and his personality had calmed down. He didn't pinch me at every opportunity, at least. "We should see if we can get you a translator sometime soon, too. And at some point, you need some serious training. Alice and Kostya caught up, so now you have to."

"If you actually used him in the battles, he would become stronger," Des advised with a lazy flick of his ear.

"He's a baby. I'm not sending him out against the fully-grown and trained Pokemon here."

"Send him out in a double battle some time. With Alice."

"Yeah!" Carlita agreed at once. "She would chase away any opponents and beat them into the ground!"

"What are you insinuating?" Alice hissed, fluffing up.

"Merely that your mothering skills are second to none," Konstantin soothed. She glared at him, but at least there wasn't any more arguing about it.

"I forgot how entertaining you guys are," I chuckled and rolled back over onto my back. Carlita, laying beside me, immediately snuggled up against my side with a contented sigh. "…Hey, guys. We can't leave to go train down at the beach anymore, but we're on the top floor, right? That's right under the roof."

Yes, the two days passed by quickly. Apprehension, a lock-in, and the clandestine training of a baby Krabby on the hotel roof filled it.

We were once again escorted to the Sunyshore Stadium and, unnervingly, split into two groups of five and then told to form a line. We would be going in individually for this challenge, performing in front of a panel of Gym leaders. I was second in line, which I wasn't sure I was happy about, and Vaikuntha, Lola, Keith, and Archie made up the rest of my line. Did that mean we wouldn't be battling each other? Would we be battling the Gym leaders? I wasn't sure I liked that prospect, even if I had technically beaten all of the Sinnoh ones once before.

Archie went first, and about ten minutes later, I was called in. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and stepped up onto the platform. Volkner, Fantina, and three of the foreign Gym leaders—Morty, Sabrina, and Winona, it looked like—were seated behind a table. Archie was sitting cross-legged against one wall, and only offered me a thumbs-up when I gave him a quizzical look.

Maylene was standing on the platform, too. She grinned at me, and said, "I thought you'd be placed in my group."

"Uh."

"This is more of a preliminary exam than an actual challenge, but something we feel should be included nonetheless," Volkner said calmly, gesturing to the platform. "The rules are simple. Fight her. Get knocked off the platform, and you fail. Knock her off, and you win. Fight cleanly and fairly."

"Wait, what," I said, squinting at him. "Are you… Are you telling me, without Pokemon, to fight a little girl? Myself?"

I probably should have known that was a bad idea, calling Maylene a little girl. Next thing I knew, I was on my back, wind knocked out of me, and she was standing over me with her arms crossed over her chest. "A little girl with a black belt!" she snorted with a scowl.

"Duly… noted…" I wheezed. She helped me back up into a sitting position as I struggled to catch my breath again.

"Due to the fact that two Gym leaders have been killed, we want to make sure you can hold your own in a fight."

"That's crazy—"

"We would rather err on the side of caution for this one, merci," Fantina stated curtly. "We want to be cautious in this sort of political climate. It's bad enough we are bringing in newbies, but we do not want any of you dying the first week."

"We don't plan on anyone failing this portion, but if someone cannot handle physically defending themselves, then it's something we need to know," Volkner drawled.

"So… I just have to throw her out of the ring?"

"At face value, yes."

"…Okay then." I got to my feet, dusted off my pants, and faced Maylene. She beamed at me and sunk into a fighting stance. I tried to copy her, but it felt too weird, so I instead skittered a little closer to her. She didn't move, so I took another couple of steps, until I could practically reach out and touch her.

She lashed out at me, and then the weirdest thing happened. Maybe it was so many years of dodging attacks and Pokemon and random bad luck, but—no, I didn't dodge her hit. I took it. But in fact, I took it without flinching, without stepping back, without failing.

It was a quick insight that followed. I could take hits. I was so used to years of abuse and pain that it hardly fazed me.

Maylene stared at me with wide eyes, apparently surprised that she didn't knock me on my butt again. I blinked once, then relaxed back into a better defensive stance. I smiled.

"Oho, so little boy thinks he can take me on, huh?" she snapped, reverting back to her spicy, fighting self. I realized I had caught her off guard. I could use that to my advantage. "Just because you don't fall doesn't mean it doesn't hurt you. All I have to do is wear you out."

I was thinking the same thing. Although in an admittedly different way. Maylene struck out at me again, this time with a kick to the side. It did hurt, but it only scooted me over a bit. I snorted, pleased, because now I knew (roughly) her kicking speed.

She spun around and this time caught me higher with a roundhouse kick, but just in time—though I earned myself a pretty bad bruise for it—I reached up and grabbed her ankle. She stared at me for a brief moment, surprised again, and I tried my best to take advantage of that. My original plan had been to pull her off balance enough to throw her over the edge, but now that I actually had hold of her leg, I knew that would be impossible. She was small, yes, but she was solid. I wouldn't be able to lift her that easily.

So instead, I shifted her foot in my grasp, took a quick step back to brace myself, and pushed as hard as I could. Because she was already balancing on one foot, and because I managed to push a higher point than her center of gravity (or something like that), she fell backwards. Of course, it was rather anticlimactic when she only fell on the mat behind her and not off, but still.

Before she could jump back to her feet, I dove at her and managed to push her another couple inches towards the edge. Maylene turned and glared at me, probably having figured out my strategy by then, but I continued trying to push her towards the edge before she could right herself. Unfortunately, she was just as strong as I was, and smart enough to know to push back. She managed to nail me in the stomach with her elbow and I bent over with another wheeze. By the time I recovered, she was back on her feet, and apparently civil enough to let me get back up as well, although I was still holding my stomach gingerly.

So much for that strategy. I knew it wouldn't work again. So now all I had going for me was the fact that I was heavier than what she could pick up—I hoped—and I could take her kicks and punches fairly easily. For the moment, anyway. As she said, she would eventually manage to wear me out.

It was then that I had another idea. (Today must have been a good day for me.)

It was a gambit, though. I had no clue whether or not it would lead to my winning, but it was worth a shot. I couldn't defeat the fighting Gym leader easily or in any of the usual ways. Maylene charged at me again, this time going for the face. On instinct—because really, who wants to get punched in the face?—I ducked, but she just brought her knee up and knocked the wind out of my chest once again. I glanced back and saw that I was mere inches from the edge of the arena.

Maylene saw that too, and with a triumphant smirk, kicked me back off of the edge.

Boy, she was sure surprised when I grabbed her foot again and took her along with me.

I hit the concrete floor hard and the back of my head really didn't appreciate that. Before the pain could even set in, however, Maylene landed on top of me, yet again pushing all of the air in my lungs out. She was immediately off of me, kneeling beside me and leaning over into my (kind of blurry) vision. "Are you alright?"

"Does this mean it was a tie?" I asked thickly, which had been my aim all along. I couldn't win against her, so I had to settle for a tie. Hopefully it wouldn't get me kicked out.

Maylene looked up, still worried, and next thing I knew, Volkner and Winona were both there, gently trying to get me to sit up. I immediately had a headache from the movement. I guess I either looked pathetic enough to warrant a tie, or they honestly had no idea someone would be so stupid as to do that in a fistfight, but I ended up with a tie and an icepack to the head. I was led over to the wall and sat down by Archie. He immediately looped an arm around my shoulders and placed his lips against my hair. A little late, I shuddered away from him, but he simply pulled away again with a smirk. "Just making sure you heal up all right, sunshine."

"You're terrible, taking advantage of me in my weakened state," I muttered darkly.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet—"

"You two quiet. You're not allowed to speak during the challenges, especially to give anything away," Volkner said in a very businesslike tone. So much for sympathy. "Bring in the next trainer."

Keith turned out to be a ninja in the fact that Maylene couldn't lay a hand on him. He eventually won by a combination of tiring her out and knocking her feet out from under her. Lola had strength on her and basically shoved her out of the ring. Vaikuntha, being Vaikuntha, said that he would not fight a little girl, especially a tired little girl (why didn't he get hit for calling her that?) and instead they brought in Crasher Wake from the other group. I started worrying seriously for his safety—and sanity—until he managed to beat the man in three moves. I had guessed he was some sort of martial artist, but still. Crasher Wake was a good half a foot taller and probably a lot heavier.

Vaikuntha smiled blandly at the shock of the judges, probably unaware of what he just did. So his team was strong and trained on all sorts of attacks and commands. And he himself was as noble as a knight in shining armor with the honor of a samurai. I had no idea what he even was anymore, except some sort of saint and awesome trainer.

And the next day, the media tore him apart.