Hard Enough - Chapter 256 - The Hoenn Circuit

Celia Shardness felt her lips twitch into a smile. Today marked the third time she’d entered the Sootopolis Gym.

It also marked the third time she’d been forced to endure the prematch act that Wallace, The Gym Leader of Sootopolis demanded occur for any challenger that underwent the gauntlet. 

It was something about demonstrating the courage and effort of each pokemon that took part in the fighting. Each performance had been slightly different. 

The first performance had been inspiring until about the tenth minute when Celia had grown bored with watching Dewgong twist and frolic with Milotic. There were only so many times you could have a fish flash its scales at you before you grew bored. 

Sadly, on her first visit, while she’d made it to challenge Wallace, she hadn’t had the legs in her team to beat him. The man had a deftness to him and his team, a crispiness of movement that was as artistic as it was skilled. 

Pokemon moves that should have blown through his team whiffed or were deflected with a graceful twist of a pokemon’s tail or evaded with a clever use of Waterfall, Surf or even Dive. 

She’d brought a team with all the advantages back then with Lizzie, her Nidoqueen, Boomer, her Electrode, Tropo, her Tropius, Sneezer, her Probopass, Spunky, her Vileplume, and Rainbow, her Delcatty. 

Each of her pokemon were powerhouses in their own right or deft hands with abilities. She’d trained them for months now and had a diverse team with a great understanding of what they could do. 

But they hadn’t been enough. 

Wallace had taken them out with only one of his four pokemon falling to her. 

That… hadn’t been the case for her in quite a while. 

Hoenn, for all that it was amazing with the varied geography and landscapes, the strong trainers and experience, hadn’t challenged Celia. 

Not in a serious manner. She’d taken part in a few Contests but they’d been whimsical things where she’d tried it out only to not really enjoy it. It was too… finicky for her. Some of the girls and guys she met at those events were also rather haughty. 

The entire scene just rubbed her the wrong way. 

She crushed any of the Contestants that looked down on her team and moved on. She’d gotten enough badges to qualify for the end-of-circuit tournament but she wanted to round out the Major Gyms to get the full eight as they stood. 

That had meant she’d needed to have Pride, her Fearow, fly her out to Sootopolis City. 

She’d sought out the Sootopolis Gym which had been a stunning manor with wide gardens and beautiful fountains. It had taken Celia a while to confirm that she hadn’t accidentally intruded on some rich guy’s backyard and was where she intended to be. 

The Gym battlefield was in a long manor that was a marvellous white and blue that made one think of the ocean.

It was wonderful but she’d kept her focus and fought her way through the first three Gym trainers of the gauntlet to face Wallace head-on.

Where she’d been beaten for the first time in her trip around Hoenn.

He’d simply been… too good for her. 

She’d departed and reflected on the loss for a while. 

She… hadn’t called Brock after that defeat, but instead sat with her pokemon in a stable where she could assemble them all to just… hang out and be with them. It sort of boggled her mind that she could do that these days. 

She’d never imagined that her, a girl raised in the Pewter Orphanage would have enough spare money in her account to just rent a penthouse and its training fields to goof around with her rather sizeable team. 

It had been nice, even if it was a bit of a pity party. She’d talked with her pokemon and they’d reviewed the footage of her defeat before coming up with ways to tighten up their targeting and lock her foes into positions that guaranteed hits. 

This time, instead of swinging for the outfield, Celia was going to control the tempo and field itself to dominate the battle!

Only… that hadn’t carried her to victory like she’d thought. She’d set up electrified fields for her pokemon along with seeding the air and water with toxins or clouds of paralysis powder. Only for it all to be washed away in an instant. 

She’d gotten two of the four pokemon. 

Which, was an improvement but it still felt there was a huge divide between herself and Wallace, which didn’t surprise her. He was a highly experienced Gym Leader while she was just in her second year as a pokemon trainer. 

But for his fourth-tier pokemon team to be this strong?

It just made her feel so much smaller than she’d been expecting, but it also made her happy to find that there was more to learn in this different region that… she’d sort of been treating as a holiday if she was being honest.

When she’d finally called Brock he’d advised her to not just look at what she was doing but also what Wallace was doing. He’d had her treat this like a serious match where she would be facing an opponent and needed to research them. 

She didn’t need to go in blind except for generic strategies but to seriously investigate Wallace as both a trainer and a Contestant. 

That had caused her to slow down as… there was a lot of footage of Wallace fighting in both arenas. And it was clear there was bleedover with how he fought. 

His pokemon were all graceful and able to perform deflections or evasions with minimalistic movements. 

Now, today, with this being her third appearance at the Sootopolis Gym she understood what was being shown with the performance. 

Where before she only saw repetitions and a boring sequence of events that were to be ignored, she now saw skill and pokemon’s abilities on display. The control each pokemon had, only committing to certain actions precisely as they meant. 

The dance also displayed the top speeds and strength each pokemon had if you watched carefully enough. 

You just had to open your eyes to what was being shown to you. 

When the performance ended she found Wallace looking at her with a pleased smile. “Ah, I see it in your eyes now young maiden!” he proclaimed with a flourish of a white rose. 

That was another thing that Celia had learned about the man. He did things with pomp and showmanship as much as possible. 

From his style of speech to his dress choices to his everyday actions. The man was said to eat at a high-end restaurant with several of his pokemon every day with it changing every day. 

It sounded exhausting to Celia to put that much effort in but the man seemed to just do it seamlessly. She didn’t even bother putting make up on and here this guy was with what sounded like an entire routine just for dinner!

He was also said to have a grand ambition to become the new Champion but to do so he still had to make his way through the Elite Four. 

Which was rather difficult with the current iteration having a Grass-type specialist as the first seat. 

“Yes indeed!” proclaimed Wallace. “Your eyes are no longer clouded by the superfluous or the drab! You have awoken your eyes to the beauty around you! You understand now what is thereby not simply looking but seeing! No?” 

Celia nodded. “I see much, but not everything,” she said firmly. 

She enlarged her first pokeball in challenge. “I still have much to learn,” she said as she prepared to test herself against the Sootopolis Gym once again. 

Wallace’s smile if anything grew as he waved his first trainer forward. A young woman trotted out a plastic smile on her face. As they both bowed Celia could see her mouthing insults at Celia so as to not have actual words caught on the microphone. 

Celia ignored her. As a redhead raised in an orphanage, she was used to rough words. 

She planned to be rough with this woman’s pokemon, but she was going to attempt some things she’d been working on. 

The woman sent out a Seadra to which Celia responded with Boomer.

“Electrode!” sparked Boomer as he emerged, happy to be the first point of call and for what Celia had planned she couldn’t pick a better pokemon. 

“Rollout Twist and spin!” ordered Celia with a grin and Boomer, instead of sprinting straight at Seadra began to spin and the field was slowly electrified the more and more he spun, then without warning Celia slashed her hand

“Discharge!” she barked only for her foe to block it with Protect but that wasn’t enough to stop the follow-up attack as Boomer pounched, going from stationary to rocketing into Seada’s form to deliver what amounted to a one-hit K.O.

Celia grinned. It wasn’t elegant by any means, not compared to what Wallace was capable of, but she needed to get her pokemon through these fights at their best form.

She used Boomer to dismantle all of the first woman’s team before recalling him to her side and sending out Tropo to slash his way through the second opponent with judicious uses of Magical Leaf and Aerial ace to avoid damage helped to get Tropo through without any damage done to him.

The last trainer was an older man with white highlights through his hair that forced Celia to actually trade out her pokemon lest she fatigue them between pokemon. The older man had a style that was similar to that of Wallace, only much weaker.

 It felt like this ‘Juan’ was pulling his punches a little but Celia wasn’t going to call him on it. He was just another barrier to get past on her mission to earn the Gym Badge.  

Juan would be foppish in another setting, but in the Sootopolis Gym he was right at home. 

Especially with his Kingdra and Walrein. He pushed Celia to use some of her actual tactics and to adjust when he revealed a Whishcash instead of a Crawdaunt for this fight. 

She still pushed through though. 

This battle of endurance and planning how to spell your pokemon was something that any serious challenger at the Gyms had to learn by the time they reached the last Gym of the circuit. 

It wasn’t just about blasting through and having one pokemon being exhausted. You needed to spread things out and give pokemon time to recover between matches as much as you could. You also needed to make use of the intervals between to apply any restoratives for your pokemon.

Wallace and Juan talked for a while. Juan, despite being an older man was such a good number two for Wallace, Celia thought to herself as she guzzled down a can of lemonade. 

It was just like Rocko and Brock. Rocko was older but that gave him a wealth of experience with administration and handling the background work. 

The same must be true of this Juan fellow. 

Although it was rather amusing thinking about Juan in his tights and well-to-do jacket cleaning out the pokemon living areas and carting bags of pokemon chow around. The image made Celia giggle to herself. 

Wallace skipped down the stairs. “My my! I think someone’s holding back~!” he said gayly. 

Celia shook her head. “Eh, it’s part of my strategy, and you can’t talk. Juan is obviously a much stronger trainer than what he’s showing in our matches,” she said. 

Wallace nodded. “Ah! You noticed! Superb!” 

He then reached for his pokebelt. “Let’s see how much you have grown!” said Wallace as Juan moved around to take up the position of referee. 

“It is my great honour to serve as referee for this match! Gym Trainers, are you ready?” Juan said with his own personal style that Celia had to admit, was sort of groing on her. 

It was something she’d noticed about Hoenn. When a trainer was called to be a referee it wasn’t ever a standard set of commands. In the message they were the same, but the way they were delivered? 

Each and every person had a unique style with some people supposedly even being sought out for their interesting styles. It made each match slightly different with some matches being more exciting just from having the right referee.

Celia had grown rather partial to Juan’s introduction style. 

“I am awaiting combat!” announced Wallace with a twist of his hand. 

“Ready to throw down!” Celia shouted back with a punch before she crossed her arms, mimicking Brock’s signature pose. 

Wallace sent out his first pokemon and Celia was surprised to find that it was Milotic. Good, excellent even. She wasn’t facing an unknown! She’d faced this Milotic twice now and had a very good idea of what it could do. 

Celia grinned as once more Boomer took to the field. With a spark and a roar this time he rocketed forward, accelerating to his top speed straight away.

“Dance Milotic! Dance to your heart’s content!” proclaimed Wallace with a sweep of his white rose. 

“Dance with it Boomer! Give it the bass!” Celia countered, happy to go with the flow. 

Milotic twirled and swirled, and soon a Twister formed underneath it, only it wasn’t like any normal Twister. 

It was a signature move of Wallace’s Milotic.

It allowed Milotic to be borne into the air with the Twister carrying it aloft like a giant tail that attached to Milotic. 

It also helped Milotic maneuver more than it otherwise should have been able to. 

In the past, Celia had tried blasting Milotic and then the Twister itself to dislodge the annoyingly evasive pokemon. This time she instead matched the tempo and had Boomer spin around the Twister.

Sparks flew as the Twister absorbed the attack, and the Dragon-type move somewhat helped defuse the electrical-type attack. Celia just smiled as her ‘attack’ failed. 

Both pokemon twirled around and around each other causing the battlefield to become like the birthplace of a storm with lightning and winds being hurled across the air. Celia felt her hair fluff and puff out as the atmospheric charge built up.

That was what she was waiting for. 

“Take the lead!” Celia roared and Boomer, who’d been bound to the ground began to drift on winds that only he had control of. 

Milotic and Wallace were stunned as an Electrode took flight and slammed headfirst into Milotic. 

Celia clapped her hands together and shouted “Boom!” right as Boomer exploded with Discharge from close range, unleashing all the stored electrical energy that he’d been building up. 

Milotic was hurled off the Twister and— twisted through the air to make itself a ring to roll into a landing rather than small into the ground. 

Celia’s eyes widened. Damn, this thing was strong! That had been a direct hit with a super effective STAB move from one of her strongest pokemon!

Sparks still flashed along Milotic’s scales as it came back to an upright pose.

That was more than enough to trigger Celia to go on the offensive. 

“Electro Ball!” she barked. Boomer spun, electrical energy beginning to build off him as he shot forward to generate more charge. In a moment he’d throw the attack right into Milotic’s face and end this match! Celia leaned forward, knowing her first advantage was about to come into play.

“Protect!” replied Wallace causing Celia’s eye to twitch. That hadn’t been a move he’d used the last few times she’d fought him! Damn it! She thought his Milotic hadn’t had it! It typically tried to use Recover!

She shifted the target, “Arc to the left and bounce off the podium!” she ordered and Boomer, instead of unleashing his attack followed her order, changing targets to angle past Milotic’s shield and instead bounce off of the podium that Wallace was standing atop. 

The entire podium rocked but Wallace merely did a little sway to maintain his balance.

Boomer meanwhile came back upon Milotic with a vengeance right as the Protect fell. 

Boomer unleashed his attack from point-blank range and Celia grinned as this time Milotic hit the ground hard.

And more importantly, stayed down.  

Juan shot a flag out. “With a thundering timbre, Celia takes the first point with Milotic being unable to battle!” 

“Yes! That’s what I’m talking about!” Celia shouted punching her fist into the air as Boomer spun on the spot in celebration.

“Ah, my sweetheart! I wanted to show you to the world but alas we ran afoul of a storm!” Wallace said as he returned his pokemon to nuzzle with the pokeball. 

Celia snapped her hand down to point at Wallace. “Send out your next pokemon! I don’t want you to spend the next minute lamenting your pokemon’s defeat!” she shouted.

“Ah, but alas, it is allowed!” said Wallace as he flicked his long tresses of turquoise hair to cause a small rainbow to cascade around him. Urgh! 

Just from him doing that he formed a rainbow that lingered in the air. 

Everything aobut this guy was just so… flamboyant!

He then proceeded to spend the next thirty seconds praising his Milotic. 

This… this more than any other aspect of the Sootopolis Gym annoyed Celia the most. It almost made the victory not worth it but after considering it after her second defeat and Wallace’s consistent use of the minute it started to make sense. 

He was stopping any momentum you might have built up with the fight by forcing a pause… even if it really didn’t seem like that was what he was actually doing most of the time.

“Go! Milotic!” shouted Wallace as he sent out his second pokemon.

Celia frowned. Another Milotic? That seemed excessive… ah this was the one that she’d been facing off against the past two times, she realised as she caught the way this Milotic glistened and shone far more radiantly than the last one had. 

It tossed its head and Boomer sparked up a response. 

If this was the regular Milotic then Celia needed to stop it from—

“Aurora Beam!” Wallace said with a sweep of his hands in front of himself which Milotoic mirrored. Which was actually quite literal as thin sheets of ice shot out of the ground only to begin reflecting images of the battlefield. 

It was a crazy maze of mirrors that had thrown Celia the first time she’d tried to fight Wallace as she hadn’t known where to direct her pokemon’s attacks and had resulted in three of her pokemon going down.

On her second challenge, she’d just sent Boomer in and directed him to use Explosion in the heart of the maze only for Milotic to survive the blast and use Recover.

Since then she’d worked out another method of directing her attack.

“Swift and then give chase!” Celia shouted.

 Boomer unleashed a shower of stars into the air that shot forward only for Boomer to once more shoot forward. The stars just outpaced him but with their unerring accuracy, they led the way through the mirror maze and right to Milotic who reeled back as Boomer got close for the first time in three fights with Wallace. 

Milotic glowed then and through the mirrors, Celia could see something wafted out causing Boomer to miss with his charged-up Electro Ball instead of delivering a direct hit.

Celia’s mind raced. Swift had hit but that could only be denied through a few methods… She’d always had trouble getting through the maze in the past with…

“Confuse Ray… you use the mirrors but that’s only one layer to the trick!” Celia said as she snapped a finger towards Walalce. It all made sense now! If you fought your way through the mirrors Wallace was tricking you in ways you couldn’t even see! But if you went for the Mirrors you wasted your pokemon’s energy… 

He batted his eyes coyly and Celia felt like growling. Damn, this stupid beautiful man and his clever tactics!

Urgh, well she’d gotten close enough for her other option to still be viable at least. 

“Explosion,” she said with a sigh.

Rather than be annoyed that Celia was not playing his game Wallace put a hand to his lips and tittered! Tittered!

From close range, Boomer grinned as he exploded and blew Miltoic away along with the damned mirrors that had caused Celia so much trouble in the past!

When the smoke cleared Boomer was revealed to be toppled to the side… and so was Milotic. 

Celia didn’t pump her fist this time. She felt kind of annoyed that she’d had to go for that option again. Which, she knew was wrong, as it was an extremely viable tactic that lots of people used. 

It was just… she wanted to go further with her pokemon. Sacrificing him this way… it felt wrong in this instance.

Celia returned Boomer and stared at his pokeball for a long moment. “You did everything I needed you to do,” she said quietly. “You’ve taken me as far as I’ve gotten with everyone in the with your efforts. We’ll finish this,” she said.

There, that made it feel right. She wasn’t just using Boomer, she was working with him. She reached for her next pokemon only to find Walalce shooting her an approving look. 

She blushed and looked away, almost fumbling Rainbow’s pokeball. She sent out her Delcatty and her kitty emerged with a meow as it locked eyes with Whishcash of all pokemon. 

Right, that just meant the electric attacks were out of the question and that she needed to get high fast!

“Leap and shine like a star!” Celia commanded, thrusting her hand up into the sky.

Rainbow did precisely as she needed and leapt right as Whishcash unleashed a powerful Earthquake. As Rainbow reached the zenith of her leap a bright orb appeared between her ears and she roared as it flashed brightly enough to make people turn their eyes away. 

Yes, good! Celia thought as her plan was coming together finally!

She’d deliberately made it look like a Flash attack but in truth, it was a Sunny Day orb. Now she just needed to—

“Rain Dance!” commanded Wallace as he threw a wet blanket over her chance to perform a powerful combination that she’d been dying to get off. 

“Rude,” she said as she held up another pokeball. “Baton Pass,” she said. 

“Oh? Changing dance partners?” said Wallace with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “That’s new for you Miss Celia!” 

Celia shrugged as Rainbow came back. “I’ve had to shift up a lot of my tactics facing you Wallace,” she said. “And sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire,” she said as her new pokemon formed up. 

Stylish had grown throughout her trip around Hoenn. He’d gotten a huge workout during her ascent of Mt Chimney and that had resulted in him easily growing stronger, until the point of his evolution was merely a matter of when, not if.

Where before he’d had such cute little wing-like ears and fluffy tail, now he had twin cannons poking out of his shell. On each ear, he’d had a set of earrings attached to stick with his ‘Stylish’ name. 

“Blastoise!” he roared as he locked eyes on his foe. Celia grinned as the rain fell on both pokemon.

Sometimes, if you couldn’t beat em, you just had to join them. 

“Withdraw,” she commanded and as they’d practised Stylish ran forward a few steps and threw himself forward right as he pulled in his limbs and head causing his shell to spin through the air and straight at Whishcash with a follow-up Rapid Spin. 

“Waterfall! Blow it up into the air!” Wallace said.

Stylish’s forward assault was blown away with Waterfall catching him by the belly and hurling him into the air. With his weight, Celia knew he’d hurt himself coming down on the ground. 

Thankfully the ground wasn’t the only option of what to land on, however.

“Hydro Pump to launch yourself into Whischash! Slam into it!” Celia ordered and Stylish grinned as he tilted both cannons at just the right angle to launch himself through the air to hammer into Whishchash. 

The ground-water type wailed under Stylish’s weight and with her pokemon once more in close range she went to work with empowered Hydro Pumps, making use of both powerful cannons to hammer Whishcash with attacks that were still powerful if not super effective. 

It was enough to knock Whischas out however as with the weight of a Blastoise atop it the helpless fish could only flounder and deliver extremely weakened Earthquakes. 

Celia smiled smugly as Wallace returned his pokemon and Juan waved his flag in her direction. “The maiden challenges you with water and daring while claiming your third pokemon for the match! You have one last choice,” said the black and white-haired man. 

Wallace nodded and went through his usual eulogy to his downed pokemon.” Alas Whishcash! You were so strong that you drew the attention of this maiden and made her join us in our love of watery pokemon! Such wondrous—”

One more pokemon, chanted Celia in her mind as Wallace wound down the clock. 

Juan gave a polite cough when it was time for Wallace to use his last pokemon.

This time Wallace reached around his back and drew out a greatball that Celia had never seen before in her previous battles. A new pokemon?

He sent forth his selection and Celia’s eyes widened as a Swampert slammed into the ground.

Swampert locked eyes with stylish and both nodded in acknowledgement. Both knew they were prestigious pokemon for their respective regions. 

“Hydro Pump!” ordered Celia as she sought to keep up the pressure of the Rain Dance Wallace had used earlier to block out her Sunny Day. 

Instead of trying to meet her attack head-on Wallace twisted his hand. “Twirl and dance my fist then blast to your heart’s content!”

Celia really didn’t like the sound of that and she was correct when instead of taking the hits or countering with his own, Swampert jumped, rolling through the air and before it had even hit the ground it fired off a barrage of its own Hydro Pumps that Stylish was forced to evade. 

Neither pokemon could get the upper hand however as Swampert was able to twist and dance around Hydro Pumps, while Stylish ducked and bobbed tightly.

“Change it up with Ice Beam!” ordered Wallace and Swampert twisted only to then fire a beam of ice while twirling through the air to freeze the ground causing Stylish to stagger. 

“Now! Stone Edge!” said Wallace with a punch.

Celia grit her teeth. No way in hell was she going to let that hit do in Stylish! “Withdraw into Rapid Spin again!” she commanded. 

Stylish once more threw himself into a tightly controlled Rapid Spin that swept in, unlike last time Wallace didn’t try and use a Waterfall to launch Stylish. 

Instead, Swampert twisted out of the way with a pirouette before spinning and using the momentum to deliver a devastating Hammer Arm right onto the top of Stylish’s shell. 

Stylish was slammed into the mud only to pop out of his shell and rise with a growl, cannons locking on to the now much closer target.

Celia ran some mental maths and came up with an idea of what was about to happen. It wasn’t going to be pretty. 

“Hydro Pump!” she ordered deciding to back herself and force Wallace’s hand. Let’s see him get dirty with her, she thought vindictively. 

“So this is your plan? No, I shall not!” Wallace said as his hands shot into a large X in front of his face.  

Swampert, instead of trying to grapple with Stylish hopped backwards, then despite the mud continued to hop, side to side in a zigzag method to evade the oncoming Hydro Pumps. 

Celia growled and punched her fist forward. “Rapid Spin with Hydro Pump!” she shouted and this time Stylish launched forward with water spinning out of the holes causing Stylish to accelerate even faster. 

Swampert had no time to evade and this time Hammer Arm couldn’t get close enough without also being slammed into. 

Swampert was thrown back and Celia grinned. Fighting with water always led to mud and unstable footing but the best pokemon to handle it were always other water types!

Stylish popped out of his shell once more and levelled his cannons to blow Swampert out of bonds with a final powerful Hydro Pump.

Swampert hit the back wall only to hop forward. 

Wallace raised his white rose high. “I have seen enough! Swampert, Stand down my friend!” 

Swampert relaxed instantly and Celia blinked. 

Juan raised his flag. “Through the trials and tribulations, the true victor has emerged! The Challenger Celia is victorious!” he announced. 

Celia squirmed on the spot as the podiums lowered. She’d done it! She’d finally done it! 

She’d had to change the way she approached this match a great deal but all her behind-the-scenes work with her pokemon had paid off big time!

Wallace and Swampert approached her while Stylish stomped over to her with a grin on his face. 

“You did great boy!” Celia said giving the big turtle a hug. 

“You are to be commended for your spirit Celia, you have faced a good deal of defeats within this Gym,” Wallace said while lightly clapping his hands. 

Celia bowed her head. “Thank you for your kind words.”

“Those were not my kind words, merely my observations,” he replied. “You… you have adapted well and I admit I have perhaps gone harder at you than I have many others this season. I have read your profile and you have an interesting history.” 

He tilted his head and sniffed at his white rose for a moment as Juan drew up to him with a small wooden box that Celia had to resist staring at. Within that box, there would no doubt be a Rain badge. 

She wanted it, but had she proven that she had the skills? It wasn’t always just about winning after all.

“Tell me,” Wallace said casually as he held the rose just in front of his face. He rotated it infrotn of his nose as though that would change the scent. “What has your experiences been thus far for Hoenn Contests?”

“Poor,” replied Celia instantly only to blush. “I-I mean that is to say!” she stammered only for Wallace to wave his hand back and forth.

“No, no, I asked and you responded truthfully. What about it has been poor?”

Celia licked her lips. “The people… they are very… proud of the Contest scene and as an outsider and a rookie I have not had what I would call an enjoyable experience.”

“That… is a terrible shame,” Wallace said. “You have skills as a pokemon trainer, that is beyond question. I think you will do very well for yourself when you stop shackling yourself to the straightforward style of combat that your sponsor, Brock, used to favour.”

Celia bristled only for Wallace to shake his head. “You should review some of his latest battles he still possesses the strength but his… finesses has improved. Marginally.” Wallace said with his fingers squeezing tightly. 

Celia narrowed her eyes but Wallace kept talking before she could speak up. “He still tries to exert control over every match instead of moving in time with his opponent and creating a true spectacle.  But then again that is perhaps his personal preference shining through,” Wallace admitted with a shrug. 

“How would you like to be sponsored by me for some Contests? I could train and advise you going forward,” Wallace saw her face shut off and he again hurried to explain, “not as your sponsor or to take over from Brock as your mentor, but as an older Coordinator to a younger. I think someone else should have gone out of their way to welcome you rather than deride your efforts. You have a lot of potential. I would like, and think I might rather enjoy announcing you as my ‘Diamond’ for this season to polish,” announced Wallace.

Celia blinked. “I have no idea what that means!” she said loudly as she widened her stance and planted her hands on her hips. 

Juan and Wallace blinked.

 Celia coughed. “I mean I get the trianing and helping me with Contests. But the Diamond thing? What’s that about?”

Juan coughed. “It is an informal declaration that Wallace, as the current Top Co-ordinator thinks that you are a young person with great potential. Indeed it would be a declaration to all that you possess the most potential for this season. You would have a few more doors open to you and be seen as a curiosity. It is a well-regarded position but one that has no true responsibility beyond being yourself and doing your best,” explained the older man.

Celia hummed. “So Wallace would be helping me out?”

Wallace and Juan nodded. 

Celia bowed her head. “I think I’d have to pass sorry your…” she gestured up and down at Wallace, “everything is a bit much for me.” 

Wallace blinked. “Eh?” he said, the flower tipping to the side like it was wilting at her denial.

Juan coughed in a manner that suspiciously sounded like he was laughing. “I think you may have broken him?”

“My… everything?” repeated Wallace.

Celia nodded. “Your everything. I think we just won’t click and it would be too frustrating and be more harmful than harmonious,” she said. “I might still be learning but I know myself well enough to know that!” she said firmly. 

Juan clapped his hands together. “Well said!” 

Wallace slumped like all the water in his body had been drained. “I.. can accept that reasoning,” he said morosely. “It was a shame, I wanted to see you excel at Contests,” he said glumly. 

Celia felt a little bad. Not enough to walk her statement back and accept him as a tutor for Contests but still a little bad. Like she’d just kicked a growlithe. 

Juan coughed. “Might I offer my own services? While I have stepped back from the Contest scene I think I have a good enough name to still open some doors for you,” he said suavely. 

Celia blinked. “Won’t you be needed to help out around the Gym as Wallace’s second in command?” she said. It was weird to have the equivalent of Rocko trying to step up for his boss but then again if he was any good maybe it would help?

Something about what she’d just said caused both men to twitch.

Wallace shot Juan a grin. “My second?” he asked. 

“Yeah?” Celia said. “I mean he stood in to fight me as the last representative for your Gym before you each time I challenged?”

Juan pinched the bridge of his nose as Wallace draped himself over the older man’s shoulders. “Hmmmmmm did you hear that Juan? According to her, you’re my second!” said the turquoise-haired man smugly. 

“I’m missing something here… aren’t I?” Celia asked as her eyes moved between each man.

Juan nodded slowly. “Yes, yes you are,” he said. 

“I am not his second. I am Wallace’s former mentor,” he said. “I used to run the Gym before him and I was also the former Top Coordinator, so… I think I have a rather good resume to teach a young lass such as yourself,” he said.

“Oh,” said Celia. “I’m so sorry!” she said bowing down to the older man. 

By the end of the discussion Celia left the Sootopolis Gym with a plan for the next few months to try her hand at Contests around Hoenn with Juan as her backer along with the Rain Badge. 

It seemed like a very strange turn of events but otherwise a good day that was going to get better.

Celia popped her team out of their pokeballs once they were healed up at the local Pokecentre. 

“We’re going to Mr Mime’s!” she announced with the Rain Badge in hand. 

She’d won her challenge and now she planned to celebrate. 

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A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for your continued support! Hope you enjoyed reading about Celia and her fight for her eighth major Gym badge in Hoenn.