Pedestal: Chapter 113

I woke up and wasn't even fully conscious before I was groping for my pokeballs. I nearly fell out of bed as I knocked two of them off of the table and they clattered noisily to the floor, releasing Zarek and Carlita. I stared down at my hand, the reason why I had just pushed them off. I had a mitten. It was made of bandages and I couldn't move my fingers inside it; belatedly, I realized that it was the hand with the broken fingers.

Someone cleared their throat at the end of my bed and I immediately had a great ball clutched awkwardly in my mitten, a miniaturized ultra ball and pokeball in the other.

"You can relax. I'm not going to hurt you."

She had gotten a haircut and had dark circles under her eyes, and I had never met her in person—but there wasn't a soul in Sinnoh who didn't know her. Cynthia stared at me with a hooded expression, lips pursed. I swallowed and tried to think of a reply, but she saved me the trouble.

"This is some mess."

"Yeah," I croaked, and embarrassedly returned Carlita and Zarek before their questioning stares became vocalized.

"Everyone is fine. No one died." The fact that she was telling me this was worrying. "I had to intervene and Teleport you all out of there. Most of you are in the hospital with various minor injuries, but don't be afraid—no one knows where you are but the Gym leaders and myself."

"What about my family? My friends?"

Cynthia crossed one leg over the other and tilted her head a bit. Her hair slid to cover half her face. "You could tell them if you'd like. It's only been a day." A day of panic, I'd bet. Hanna would have turned the town upside down trying to find me. And my parents… They had been worried sick about me when this was tame. "You're not allowed to see any of the other Gym race trainers, though."

"Why?" The second it left my mouth, I knew it was a stupid question. Because we had been ready to kill each other. Because we made things worse when it was our job to make things better. "That is… What's Sunyshore like?"

"It's terrible," Cynthia said tersely and turned to stare hard out the window. I bit my lip and looked down at the pile of pokeballs in my lap. "The ex-Rocket and the thief are going to be publicly forced to leave the Gym race. Because, even if we were willing to overlook past transgressions, the public is not. And facts are facts. They did commit illegal acts."

"The rest of us?"

"A public apology. Each of you will have a press conference in which you answer any questions, apologize as much as humanly possible, and try to gain favor once more. At this point, the only thing you have going for you is the fact that you weren't with him."

I flinched and looked away. This had been the person that Nick took down, killed half her team. She looked so much older. She looked so sad. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. It wasn't your fault. It really was mine." She turned back to me and offered me a smile that wasn't fooling either of us. Cynthia sensed this and looked away again. "He was right about everything he said. You trainers know it. It's the public that doesn't understand."

"That doesn't mean he was right in what he did."

"No." She was quiet again. It worried me. As I began to fidget, she eventually said, "Crasher Wake is in the hospital."

"What?" I stared at her, trying to process that simple little sentence. We had been wondering where the Gym leaders had been, but we hadn't seen them in the mob. It was one thing to make a riot over Gym leader wanna-bes, but quite another to actually attack a real Gym leader.

"Your guard told us that you chased after a figure in a black sweatshirt right before you left him."

Oh yeah. "H-How is Nathan?"

She chuckled dryly. "He probably simultaneously saved your life and made it worse for everyone involved. He drew attention away from you by discharging his weapon into the air, but that made it worse for him and the police, who were on the outside. No one could easily reach the center where you were beating each other senseless."

Again, I felt grateful to him. He was doing his job, sure, but surely that had to be above and beyond the normal duty for a bodyguard. "Can I see him?"

"Later today, maybe." Cynthia stared at me with an inscrutable expression. Finally, she said, "A figure in a black sweatshirt. You don't have to be a genius to put two and two together."

"I think it was him." No use lying about it. Plus, as far as I could tell, she had been honest with me. I felt as if I should return the favor. Everyone already knew about my friendship with Nick. No use hiding it anymore—though if it came to light about me breaking him out of prison… Kaili and Challenger were out of the race because they were criminals. I would surely be added to that list—and put on trial. "There has been killings near Sunyshore, and everyone thinks it was him. I-I hadn't thought so until I saw him myself."

"And you felt the need to make sure?" she asked cynically. I nodded. "I suppose you would be the only one in Sinnoh who would want to ask him questions as opposed to merely attacking…"

"Please don't," I pleaded. I didn't want to have to be torn any longer. I didn't want to be forced to defend him. I was tired of it. She looked at me, startled, and then frowned down at her lap.

"I'm sorry. I'm just bitter. I'm bitter and frustrated and angry and guilty. It's why I had to give up the Championship." I opened my mouth to respond, but she continued too quickly. "Crasher Wake was attacked. You know who we believe it was. He's been unconscious since then, however, and while his life is not in danger anymore, we can't question him until he's awake again."

"Why are you telling me this?"

She tried to smile at me again, and failed again. "I was wondering whether or not you'd defend him."

-.-.-

When I was let out of the hospital and put back into my hotel room (with an enforced curfew this time), I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me from Hanna. "That was completely uncalled for," she huffed, crossing her legs on my bed. She flopped back down on it and kicked at the ceiling. "I mean—were they trying to incite a riot? It sure sounded that way."

"I think they were," I confessed.

"Doesn't surprise me. They should be thrown in jail. They're worse than you guys."

"They technically didn't do anything illegal, did they?" I hoped they had, actually; it would please me to see them in prison.

Hanna got a wicked little grin on their face. "No, but let's just say a couple of media outlets are missing some reporters." I blinked at her in shock. She leaned back up and beamed at me. "I had them fired. And no one's going to take them since whatever the heck their plan was backfired and you guys are still here. They're seen as bad guys."

"So are we," I mumbled, but she didn't hear me.

"No one's going to touch Sara Grace Kellner for decades now. I wish I could have seen her face when she got the news. I also started pressuring the companies to lay off of the Gym race, so you should get a fairly quiet ending to this catastrophe of yours."

That was certainly an apt word for it. I exhaled loudly and sunk low in the chair. "Thanks, Hanna." I knew she was searching for gratitude, and I was grateful. But this was nothing more than revenge and pettiness. The damage was done. Kaili and Challenger were long since gone, and the Gym leaders were smoothing out those feathers. With Crasher Wake in the hospital, the media had something else to feast upon; the pair managed to get out of Sunyshore safely and disappeared back into the anonymity of training.

We were given our losing challenge before we were allowed to see each other once more. I figured the Gym leaders were hoping to trim our numbers down a bit more, but everyone passed. The little girl who trounced me with a Dewgong and Charizard combo gleefully got to go on her date with my guard.

Then, after that, we were put in a room without our Pokemon and told to hash it out amongst ourselves.

Which was unfair considering the first thing that happened was that Benjamin looked at me and spat, "He's still here? Why wasn't he booted out with the other criminals?"

"I was friends with Nick before… all that happened. You know, when he was still the hero of Sinnoh," I replied irritably. But in all honesty, it felt good to say that. It felt good to admit to what was in the past, the perfectly harmless past. "Don't pretend you weren't hoping he'd become the next Champion."

"If he was even old enough to remember that," Sela muttered with a nod to Benjamin.

"Are we really going to sit here and bicker?" Alicia asked in exasperation. A couple of us looked away guiltily, clearly planning on just that. "We were friends… sort of… before this."

"Like how he and Nick Sayre were friends?" Keith asked innocently.

"Drop it, will you? Yeah, it was just like that!" I snarled at him, taking a step towards him too. A guard by the entrance started towards me, but I shied back against the wall. "We were good friends, getting along great, and then something bad happens and it all goes south. It happens."

"Are we going to let that stop us?" Lola asked, voice quiet.

"She's right. There are eight of us now. Half of us are going to become Gym leaders, though with all of this, I'm not sure I even want the job anymore." Sela chuckled dryly and crossed her arms over her chest. She glowered at the guards, and then halfheartedly added, "I'm so tired of it. This is taking forever and it's been hell."

There were murmurs of agreement from all of us. Lola pushed off of the wall and clasped her hands behind her back, all business. "Let's simply agree to not go at each other's throats anymore. What's in the past is in the past. We're good trainers now. The best."

"And what's even better is that the three mildest are the shoo-ins," Archie said with a sarcastic smile. Lola raised an eyebrow, so he elaborated, "You, the feminist, and the saint are the favorites, aren't you? And you like to pretend you're the voices of reason, you're the logical ones, you're the ones with the least problems against you."

Benjamin's lip curled, and Alicia looked down at her shoes. He was right, of course. Vaikuntha, Lola, and Sela were still the favorites. They were still the strongest out of us, and they were the tamest choices. It was obvious they'd become three of the four Gym leaders. They were safe choices to make. "So it's you three, and then one of us. And whoever they don't like they're just going to put up in Snowpoint."

"Hell no, I wanted Snowpoint," Sela said immediately. This surprised everyone. None of us had spoken about what we actually wanted after becoming a Gym leader. "And I figured Vaikuntha would go to Oreburgh on principle—"

"Why is this?" he asked in confusion.

"You'd be the best for the newbies. Better than Sela or Lola scaring everyone off," Alicia explained, smiling for the first time. After that, our group relaxed. There were still jabs at each other, and Lola, Sela, and Vaikuntha were now referred to as the 'favorites' or by various titles we had come up with for them, but it was better now. Having all of the dirt dug up on us allowed us to act more like ourselves. We weren't keeping things hidden or restraining ourselves.

That's not to say it was perfect, of course. Archie was still angry with me. Benjamin and Sela still didn't get along. Vaikuntha visibly was very unsure about being called a 'saint'.

But it was progress, I guess.

"So Sela wants Snowpoint. No one's arguing with her for that one," Keith summarized, and there were a couple nods of agreement. "Vai should go to Oreburgh. Archie wants Sunyshore, and Lola doesn't care."

"Why would I? They could assign us to cities and then ruin our plans, anyway," she drawled, folding her hands behind her head lazily.

"I want Canalave," Alicia spoke up. "I… I always liked Byron. He didn't think it was weird for a girl to start off with an Armaldo."

"And it's not! Female trainers can have any Pokemon they want, regardless of—" Sela started, but Lola calmly interrupted her with a, "Says the one who has a Lopunny as her go-to."

We then turned to talking about our Pokemon. It was the one thing we all had in common, after all. Vaikuntha explained his swords and how Koel learned to fight by copying him, Lola and I explained the Electabuzz we both owned, Archie embarrassedly admitted that Charlotte, his Garchomp, was named after Chase, Alicia pointed out that Armaldo were just as cute as any other Pokemon, and Keith retold how he managed to get the world's shortest Nidoking. Vaikuntha and Alicia burst out laughing when I tried to relate how bad my team's luck was, Keith told us stories about ninja training, Sela informed us of how training was 'back in the day', and Benjamin in turn told her what training post-Champion's Tragedy was like.

And then the Gym leaders came back in, told us how proud they were of us not wanting to kill each other anymore, and that the final challenge was to be held in a week. It was going to be broadcast live on television, to try to lighten the mood of the Gym race again. (We were, of course, to be on our best behavior.)

"What is it going to be, though?" Benjamin asked guardedly. Alicia and I shared a look. We were both thinking the same thing: a battle royale? I sure hoped not. Archie's team was scary enough without thinking about the rest of them.

"What else would the Gym race end with?" Cynthia asked, putting a hand on her hip. "A race."