Pedestal: Chapter 54

"Niiiiiiiiiiiick you have to help me!" I didn't care if it was five in the morning. I ran into the Center and jumped on his bed and tried not to continue screaming. Crasher Wake had just challenged me. Crasher Wake had just challenged me. Was that even allowed?! I had thought that only trainers could challenge Gym leaders, not vice versa. Could I say no? What if I just didn't show up?

"Nngh, wha…?" Nick groaned and sat up, hitting his head on the top bunk (which is why I didn't sleep on the bottom anymore). He swore and laid back down, flailing randomly until he managed to grab onto my shoulder. He pulled me down onto the bed beside him, as opposed to where I was sitting on top of him. "What's going on…?"

"You have to help me!" I wailed. It was a nightmare come true. I had to battle Crasher Wake. Sure, we had made progress, but not enough! Carlita still only had two real grass moves she could use reliably, and Ike was still weaker than her and only had two electric moves, and there was no way I could ever use Des, and I wasn't even sure Konstantin could help me this time. I was toast. I needed help, bad.

"What's going on?" he repeated, sounding vaguely annoyed.

"Crasher Wake ch-challenged me." It came out as not much more than a whimper. The next part came out even more pathetically. "I don't want to battle him."

"…Okay, what? What are you talking about?" Nick propped himself up on his elbow, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with his free hand. He fixed me with a sleepy glare, though I could tell he was still trying to figure out whether or not this was a real emergency. Which it was. At least the Center wasn't on fire (again).

"I just went outside for--for some fresh air--" Suddenly, that nightmare didn't seem so bad. After all, at least I had been asleep for it and could wake up from it. "--and Crasher Wake--the Gym leader--the water Gym Leader--challenged me!"

"…I'm going back to sleep now."

With a sleepy sigh, he flopped back down and turned his back to me. Since he had pulled me down between him and the wall, it meant that I couldn't really get out of bed without literally crawling over him. And since he growled angrily whenever I moved or made a sound after that, I just decided to wait until a slightly saner time to pelt him with my worries.

At some point, I fell asleep. After all, I could only stare at a blank wall and angst for so long. I had been tired, too, since my sleep had been so rudely interrupted before.

-.-.-

"Okay, your best bet is to use Ike against his Gyarados. He doesn't even have to do much--just have him dodge attacks and use Shock Wave, since it doesn't miss. If he can stay away from the Gyarados' attacks long enough, he'll win. Probably in three or four moves, since he's an electric…"

"Right."

"He has a Pokemon that is part ground type, too, so you'll want to use Carlita on that one. A couple grass moves will put that one out of business."

"Right."

"As for his third Pokemon, well… Use Carlita, probably, just because she's stronger and can take a hit better. Use Ike though, if she's tired out for whatever reason. If that's the case, have him try his hardest to keep zapping away."

"Right."

And that was the end of Nick's advice for me. He told me he felt guilty for giving me that much, and that it felt sort of like cheating, since he knew what I would be going up against and was helping me past it. So, instead of pestering him about it, I went outside to try to create some sort of solid strategy for us (following that advice, of course).

"Des, you'll be sitting this one out." He had no problem with that and obediently sat down, munching on the grass in front of him as he watched us. "Ike, you'll be running around like crazy. Seriously. Don't let that Gyarados catch up to you. Just keep zapping it with Shock Wave and running circles around it. Carlita, you'll go out against a different opponent and probably the third one, too. Just… Well, dance circles around them and use that Seed Bomb attack."

"Bre!" she cried excitedly, twirling on the spot. Ike edged away from her, looking embarrassed at her dancing.

"D-Did you say Carlita?"

We had been outside, and it was the middle of the day, so I wasn't surprised when a couple people stopped to watch the dancing Breloom or marvel at the Camerupt stretched out beside me. When one of them shyly approached us, however, I was a bit surprised. Maybe I was just used to my team, but they didn't astound me anymore; apparently it wasn't that way for everyone.

"Yeah." If I had noticed the way Carlita stopped dancing and stared at the stranger with something akin to astonishment, I might have handled the situation differently. As it was, however, I only had the upcoming battle with Crasher Wake on my mind.

The girl in front of me craned her neck to look over my shoulder at Carlita. I mimicked the move and looked back at the Breloom as well. I only then noticed her expression. The girl whimpered, "Ca-Carlita?"

"…Bre!" I ducked just in time as Carlita launched herself at the girl. They both went down into the grass.

It hit me like a slap to the face. I hadn't thought about it in so long, and we'd been together for so long, I had forgotten all about where and how I had received Carlita. I had never caught her. I had gotten her from a thief who had stolen her from another trainer.

And that trainer was rolling around on the ground with her right then, laughing.

"Wha-What…" Shell-shocked, I could only stare down at them both. I couldn't comprehend what was going on. This girl, out of nowhere, appeared and now was playing with Carlita. Carlita had recognized her. Carlita had had another trainer before me.

"I-I'm so sorry!" the girl clambered to her feet and straightened her shirt, still smiling as Carlita head butted her hand. "Let me introduce myself. I-I'm Celia. And… About a-a year and a half ago, I had a Shroomish named Carlita who loved to dance stolen from me."

I grinned, unable to do anything else. "I… I'm Carlita's trainer. I've had her for most of that time. I--I rescued her from that thief." Oh no. I blinked suddenly, trying to keep away the tears that had come from nowhere. Carlita was going to be taken away from me. And, just because karma loathed me, she was being taken from me right before my battle with Crasher Wake. I was losing a third of my team, my second Pokemon, my little dancer, the one who had saved me from the Abomasnow, the one I'd trained and learned kicks from, the one who had nearly killed us all with SolarBeam, the one who always had a smile and a twirl for anyone who was feeling down.

Celia looked as though she might cry, too. Carlita looked back and forth between us in alarm. "I… I mean, I understand, b-but--I caught her when she was a little Sh-Shroomish… I didn't mean to l-lose her. It just happened. I-I hadn't wanted to give her up…"

"I don't want to give her up, either," I said pathetically, still blinking. I kept grinning, not knowing what else to do. Now Celia started blinking as well, and Carlita was getting more and more distressed because of it. Carlita was part of my team. She had been for so long. I wasn't going to give up another Pokemon. Not my Carlita.

Celia gave a great sniffle and wiped her wrist across her eyes. "I… I understand b-but… Carlita had been m-my only Pokemon when she was t-taken from me."

Carlita made a sad sound and wrapped her arms around Celia's waist, nuzzling into her leg. I looked down at the hug. My grin finally broke.

Nick found me too late. I had stopped crying, at least--I hadn't wanted to cry in front of anyone, especially not him. I think Konstantin might have fetched him, but I wasn't sure. I just knew that soon enough, I was being lifted from where I was curled into Des and I latched onto Nick instead. "Carlita's gone," I told him.

"…It's okay. Come on. Let's get back inside," he murmured, smoothing back my hair.

"I-I have to fight Crasher Wake in ten minutes. I have to battle him. With only Ike." My Luxio didn't seem too put off by this, however. In fact, he seemed excited that he didn't have to share. "I have to battle him."

"No, you don't, not in this state."

"I have to. I have to battle without Carlita now."

I couldn't believe that I was arguing about battling Crasher Wake, and wanting to, but I was. I had to try it without Carlita. It would only get tougher from here on out, when I really started to miss her and notice her absence, and I knew I would never be able to face Crasher Wake without her. I had to do it now while I could still function somewhat properly and didn't talk myself into what an impossible task it would be without her. I had to prove to myself that life went on while missing a piece of my team. Pokeballs are like heartstrings, huh; I had to prove that I could function without a piece of my heart.

That may sound melodramatic, but it was really how I felt. I wish I could have turned back time and not given her back to Celia, or battled Celia for ownership, or flat-out fought Celia herself for her. I would've. I would've in a heartbeat. Less than a heartbeat. I would have even now, if she would have appeared in front of me.

"Let me battle him. I have to try. Nick let me try."

I don't know why he did. Maybe he had hoped to teach me some sort of lesson, or maybe he just thought he really couldn't stop me. (After all, I fought Maylene last time we argued about this subject.) Or maybe he just realized this was something I needed to do. For all I knew, he'd gone through this same exact thing before. What were those three greater tragedies again?

Crasher Wake gave us both a curious look when we first came into the Gym. I managed to get through the puzzles on my own, though for some reason, about halfway through, the trainers stopped challenging me. That was good, since Ike was starting to get a little tired and sick of the constant water attacks. In other circumstances, I probably would have had more fun--or a harder time--trying to cross from floor to floor on the rafts, but as it was, I was hardly more than a zombie.

Nick left me after I made it to Crasher Wake. He murmured something to the Gym leader before his departure, but I didn't bother trying to eavesdrop. Probably something about going easy on me, or an explanation of why I'd only use one Pokemon since Konstantin had vanished as well. It was really just Ike and I. I had a couple of Revives, but that would entail that I call Des out for a turn while I used it, and that would turn him into little more than a sacrifice. I wouldn't do that to my starter, to anyone on my dwindling team. So it was just Ike and I.

"Aha…" Crasher Wake laughed uncertainly. No doubt he was unused to seeing such a listless challenger. Especially when I had given him such a reaction just that morning. It seemed like so long ago… "…Well then! Let's get this show on the road!" I could only nod.