Chương 262: Interlude - Forums VI

Andrew Melendez's eyes snapped open as soon as his alarm rung. He already knew what time it was and spared no time jumping out of his bed. His leg caught in his cover and he tripped down on the cold, tiled floor.

"Fuck! Arceus damn it…" Andrew hissed as he rubbed the shoulder and arm he'd fallen on until he heard a voice come from down the hall outside his bedroom.

"Andrew? You good, man?!" He recognized Jan's voice and answered right away.

"Yep! Just fell off my bed!"

"Okay, well I'm off to work! You have a good one!"

"Thanks Jan!" Andrew struggled back up to his feet and quickly left his room, snagging anything edible from their small kitchen. He ended up settling on some canned fruits from the pantry. Living in Jubilife was expensive for an eighteen-year-old, and he was only able to afford rent with roommates. Jan, Sandy and he had lived together for three years now, and Sandy had already gone to work. Why hadn't he left for work yet? Well, he had called in sick. Today was a very special day.

Andrew floored it back to his room and sighed when he saw that he still had two minutes left until the battle between Denzel Williams and Grace Pastel. Andrew was no trainer, but battling was his passion and had been as long as he could remember. Unfortunately, he could never imagine himself actually traveling. He'd given it a try once and realized that it wasn't for him after barely making it through Oreburgh Tunnel with his trusted Meditite.

He still battled sometimes in one of the public arenas when he had time, but being a real trainer was out of the picture. Andrew grabbed his glasses from his bedside table, sat on his desk and clicked at Meditite's Pokeball. The blue fighting type yawned as he levitated off the floor.

"The stream's starting soon," Andrew said as he spooned a mouthful of fruits into his mouth.

"You wanted to watch too." I did, Meditite answered. But I said I wanted to watch the video of the battle. A stream is unnecessary. You interrupted my meditation.

"Shit— uh, sorry. Well, I'll leave you to it, then," Andrew answered, turning on his computer. Meditite interrupted his levitation for a few moments and opened the door with his psychic powers. He'd probably be alone for a good hour or two. The fighting type shared Andrew's passion for watching and analyzing battles, but he certainly felt none of the urgency his trainer felt. Two of the best first-years in the Circuit, duking it out for the first time!

There were rumors of them having battled at some point in Sandgem, but that was old history and couldn't be backed up by evidence, since the few trainers that claimed to have been there weren't recording. Apparently, Denzel had won. Andrew opened up his browser and logged into DailyTube. His account name was the same as it was anywhere else. Username: Goalducc42 Password: ●●●●●●●●●●●●● He slowly munched on the last remaining fruits as he observed the stream.

Denzel had panned his camera toward the battlefield, but the crowd in the background was still visible, along with a few in his friend group. The chat was… well, it was what he could have expected from an event this large. Denzel's chat was always terribly moderated, but today was especially bad despite Pauline King having warned toxic chatters. That only seemed to have triggered them as a flurry of 'pauLines' and other nonsense flooded the chat.

S0phinator: SPAM 🥨 THIS 🥨 PRETZEL 🥨 TO 🥨 SUPPORT 🥨 DENZEL Mawawawa343: Why is pauLine talking? IlllIIIIlI: pauLine CountBisharp: SPAM 🏺 THIS 🏺 VASE 🏺 TO 🏺 SUPPORT 🏺 GRACE SurelyShirly: pauLine pauLine pauLine pauLine pauLine WailTank: Gamba where? Modcheck? Arial22030934: ALL IN ON DENZEL BOYS THE TRAIN NEVER STOPS. Tuturu: Every time this girl speaks I can't help but cringe Phoen1x: Can we get a Grace blink counter going? Andrew ignored those messages, along with the other spammers.

Pauline and Emilia were quite hated among Denzel's community because he'd garnered a majority female audience and he was objectively quite a good-looking guy. Andrew had been at this for years at this point. The chat was flooding as fast as it did for some tournaments, but he was good at filtering the trash from the valuable commentary. Even in a chat for a live event, nuggets of gold could be found, but he couldn't deny missing the forums.

Just as the battle was about to start, he split his screen and opened the forum live thread on the side of his screen. It seemed that the majority of people were supporting Denzel, but Grace had a sizeable amount of fans as well. Of course, there were also the inflammatory assholes who liked to rile up both sides into fighting each other by manufacturing arguments. Welcome to the League Circuit Forums! The best website to get any League/Circuit related news!

Trainers → Events Topic: Denzel v Grace live reaction thread Original Poster: Denzel_Williams (Verified Trainer) Date: March 5th 20XX He quickly scrolled to the bottom of the page and looked at what people were saying. ►Lexie_Jimenez (Verified Trainer) No way Denzel takes this. Grace is going to win handily because the only useful Pokemon on his team is Froslass. The rest don't hold any water to the force she brings to the table. ►Xavier_Hester (Verified Trainer) I said the same thing but I was banned.

Shit mods tbh that's not even toxic compared to half the shit people are saying. ►APETITAN Tell me you don't watch the training streams without telling me you don't watch the training streams. Sorry bestie, you're both going to be in for a rude awakening. Andrew groaned. It seemed that the event had been advertised so much that even the forums were annoying to read. Everyone had a take that they thought was the absolute truth, and they couldn't help but tell it as if it was a fact.

He expected the intelligent chatters and users to start rolling in when the fight was in full swing. The man leaned forward as the battle finally started Froslass against Pupitar. If the ice type hadn't been so tricky, Pupitar would have held the advantage, but Andrew knew Grace would be forced to use the first switch. The two Pokemon started exchanging blows, and Froslass showcased her mastery of Double Team as Andrew glanced at the chat. Penguindrum: Pupitar kind of washed tbh.

Can't even deal with a basic Double Team. PokemonEnjoyer234: Froslass is chadded out of her mind right now. Celestrialcord: Why isn't she using Payback? I'm pretty sure that Pupitar knows Payback. Goalducc clenched his teeth and had to refrain himself from @ing the users directly. He knew the opinion of a chat could change on a dime. When Grace finished scouting and recalled Pupitar, more calls of her defeat began to roll in, especially when she released Tangrowth next. NeonNebbi3: FROSLASS SWEEP!

(Krabbie): People are getting way too hyped up when this thing barely started. Extendoarm: Already throwing OMEGALOL 1Harpie1: NOOOO GRACE DON'T SEND A GRASS TYPE AGAINST AN ICE TYPE NOOOO SHE HAS EARPODS IN SHE CAN'T HEAR US Hazsuman: It's Sopher. I literally bet all of my points on her. Andrew actually chuckled at that.

'Sopher' was a combination of Sophie and Over that had spread like wildfire after Sophie Richards had gotten kicked out of the Prime Minister position and arrested for collaborating with Team Galactic. The chat kept looking the same, with only a few actually realizing that Froslass was in trouble. Grace's Tangrowth was a monster, and anyone worth their salt knew it.

The image of Tangrowth— or Angel, as she called him— running up to your Pokemon and destroying them in complete silence had become an internet phenomenon. It wasn't until his Leech Seed landed on Froslass that the chat started to change their tune. Devil_In_Backseat: Wtf how does it not dodge that?! PkmnTDW: Guys what if Grace wasn't actually throwing but actually cracked? RRRER: FUCKING MIDROLL ADS I WANT TO DIE Undertimex: Why doesn't she just dodge? Is she stupid?

Vroomvroom: Dodge 4Head Dodge 4Head Dodge 4Head SleepyGlameow_: Holy shit, did he just detach that vine?! Indeed, Tangrowth had. Goalducc laughed as the grass type's vines wrapped around Froslass and her clones. He would have finished her off had Denzel not recalled Froslass at the last moment. The momentum had definitely shifted in Grace's favor, and now everyone in chat acted like they'd been supporting her all along to save face. Andrew wouldn't be so sure of her victory, however.

It was too early to tell who would win. The next bout began as Grace recalled Tangrowth and sent out Electabuzz to counter Denzel's Roserade. Her weakness to poison types was well-known, and many people Andrew interacted with enjoyed pointing it out, especially the second-years and above who would be at the Conference and were preparing for her and her friends. Normally, first-years wouldn't have been singled out like this. After all, they weren't the only first years that would make it to the Conference.

Andrew tracked a lot of them, and he expected twenty-two to make it. Not everyone in Grace's group was on that list. The usual suspects, her, Denzel, Cecilia, Lauren and Chase were on the list, but the rest were a lot less unsure. Even Mira Compton wasn't someone Andrew was confident on. But the reason a lot of the older trainers wanted to put them in the dirt was because they were a lot more fortunate than usual.

Incredible sponsors, fame, a closeness with the League never seen with first-years, working with Silph Co, the list went on and on. Grace even looked to be on speaking terms with Jasmine, Olivine's Gym Leader who was on holiday here and dating Volkner. People were jealous that trainers objectively worse than they were had it better than they did. Andrew was sure they'd catch up to most complainers by the Conference. Rare were the people who progressed as fast as they all did, and they were all a treat to watch.

He did want Cecilia to do more public battles, however. He hadn't seen her fight since her fight with Maylene. It was a real content drought out here. He turned his attention back to the battle. The entire field had been completely poisoned, and Roserade was having a much better showing than everyone had thought. Even Andrew's eyes bulged at that massive Sludge Wave. KalosR: Yikes. Electabuzz can't keep this up. PUAPUAPUA: WASHED. LITERALLY WASHED IN POISON. EdisonWuu: Why did she go into Electabuzz??????

Jeeeeeeepers: Graceheads it's literally sopher. QuQ0: She has to rush and overwhelm Roserade Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. PubbleYup: Wait, wtf??? AEIOUY: THUNDER?? Partager: BROS SHE JUST SAID THUNDER Doubledashline: HUH?

Fightclub: HOLY FUCK Jeeeeeeepers: GRACEHEADS WE NEVER EVEN LEFT LilyPikachu: are you srs rn -_- Forsale: LETS GOOOOO Goalducc grinned as the attack exploded onto the field, destroying everything in its path and singing Roserade. Grace ordered Electabuzz to use Fire Punch, but Denzel recalled his Roserade to salvage her endurance. Andrew sighed in relief and nodded. He couldn't deny preferring Denzel to Grace, even if Cecilia Obel was his favorite trainer this year, and he was rooting for Denzel to win.

Keeping Roserade healthy was the correct choice, especially when Electabuzz was the only Pokemon that could take her down relatively easily. She had the type advantage against every other member of her team except Turtonator, and Grace wasn't using him. People liked to theorize about when she would start to do so. The dragon type was her most elusive Pokemon and was rarely seen in public, so people barely knew anything about him.

The most fervent researchers (including himself) had looked up his old trainer's battles to at least know what Turtonator was capable of, however, and he would undoubtedly have turned this battle upside down. Still, Andrew was glad to see Electabuzz succeed this much. People often saw him and Lopunny in the same light— Pokemon that held their trainers back, for some reason. He knew they had no idea what they were talking about. They were just as powerful as the others, they just needed to get their moment.

And it seemed that this battle was Electabuzz's. Grace quickly switched, replacing Electabuzz with Togetic and Denzel sent out Froslass. Andrew refreshed the forum page to see if people that knew what they were talking about were there yet, but to his dismay, it was just a slower version of the livestream chat. He raised an eyebrow when he saw a notification— an invite to a private thread. ►Goalducc42 Hi everyone. Thank you all for the invite, the live thread and livestream chat is insufferable.

►Archive It's giving me an aneurysm every time I look. Who do you think has it in the bag? ►Goalducc42 Too early to tell. I'd say it's anyone's game right now. ►AsobiAsobase Did you see that Thunder? That packed such a fucking punch, I wouldn't have expected a five-badger to have taught the technique to her Pokemon. I think she wins depending on how many times she can use it. Electabuzz seemed quite tired after the attack, but he looks like he could use it a few more times at least.

►Chichi Don't count Roserade and Froslass out. They're Denzel's keys to victory. ►Chance_Bartan (Verified Trainer) Well Froslass ain't doing too hot right now, chief.

"Shrapnel," Grace had called out. Andrew gasped at the explosion of rocks that shred through Froslass' clones like paper. But she wasn't done. She proceeded to skewer the real body with an obscene amount of spears. The ice type fainted in silence. ►Archive One key to Denzel's victory down. This girl likes stabbing way too much, by the way. Half the time she uses Ancient Power it's to fucking stab a Pokemon. ►Chichi Did I jinx him? I think I jinxed him. ►Donald_Barkley (Verified Trainer) It's not looking too hot.

Hope Denzel can pull through. ►Goalducc42 Roserade can still win this. There was a reason Denzel was so universally liked if you discounted the usual trolls and contrarians. He was possibly the nicest influencer in Sinnoh. No other influencer his size still regularly interacted with his community and answered his DMs when someone asked him for tips on Pokemon training. He was just a genuine good guy, and those were surprisingly rare on the internet.

Both the forum thread and the chat went wild when Roserade destroyed Togetic with Poison Cutter. Denzel hadn't even shown that move in his training livestreams! The attack was vicious and cut through both Togetic's barrier and rocks from Ancient Power. Togetic were slow Pokemon, so dodging was probably impossible for her, especially since Grace hadn't focused on her flying typing apart from a pretty decent Air Cutter. Most flying types— especially those at a high level— could manipulate wind to speed themselves up.

Togetic would definitely have some catching up to do in that regard when she evolved. Even if Togekiss were quick, they weren't the fastest. They had the potential to be, however. They were capable of learning Extreme Speed for a reason. ►Archive There she goes, stabbing again. Togetic had just penetrated Roserade's shoulder and stomach with two thick spears. She was slightly creepy, especially since she seemed to enjoy herself whenever something got stabbed as Chichi had said.

Her nascent fanbase was split into two camps: those that liked the creepy and those that thought everyone was being too paranoid and that there was no way Grace could be creepy in any way shape or form. Roserade finished Togetic off, and Grace sent out her Electabuzz again. But it was then that the battle started to slip out of Denzel's control.

Goalducc and the few in his private thread could tell, but no one else could other than a few isolated instances of intelligence coming from the livestream chat or the live thread that were instantly drowned out by every other take. His eyes panned over to the live chat once more. Nujabes: Roserade can outlast with Synthesis imo Peaceland: How the hell is Electabuzz lasting this long?

It's been like four minutes of nonstop Thunderbolts 1029485ITE: SPAM 🏺 THIS 🏺 VASE 🏺 TO 🏺 SUPPORT 🏺 GRACE Fredfred: Electabuzz fans are vindicated rn Teaisready: Denzel… Notlikethis Notlikethis Notlikethis E10: Roserade is dominating and it's not even close PianoGranbull: ELECTABUZZ ❌ ROSERADE ❌ TANGROWTH ✅ When Andrew saw that Denzel switched, he knew the battle had tipped in Grace's favor. Not because of the swap itself, but because of how long he had waited to do it.

Either he needed to commit to Roserade fighting Electabuzz— which would have been a worse choice, but still better than what he had done, but at least he would have one last switch for the rest of the battle, or switched as soon as she started losing the fight. He had done neither. The chat went wild as another Thunder destroyed Sylveon in one hit, and the two Pokemon began to fight. Andrew refreshed the forum thread and started paying a modicum of attention to the discussion.

►Donald_Barkley (Verified Trainer) That Electabuzz is pretty insane. Honestly, I thought he'd hold her back by the time they got to the Conference, but if he can learn Thunder, I'm pretty sure he can reach the level needed to fight in that tournament, evolution or not. He might be able to dish out ten in a row and without charge time by the time he gets there. ►Archive Yeah, Thunder's no joke. Only Zap Cannon is stronger if you discount custom moves.

►Chance_Bartan (Verified Trainer) The moment she starts thinking with electricity or magnetism, Electabuzz will improve even more. Obviously though creating custom moves with electricity's tough. I'm pretty sure that Electabuzz is carrying this fight. ►Goalducc42 I can't wait to see him duke it out with Wake. Going to be an insane battle. ►Chichi What if Grace figures out how to evolve him? Andrew blinked at his screen and stood still for a few seconds. That's impossible, he wanted to answer.

And yet, Grace had a closeness to the League that made people think that it was. What if they told her how to do it? They hadn't yet, or maybe they had, but the requirements couldn't be fulfilled yet. ►Goalducc42 Then we might have an ace on our hands. ►Donald_Barkley (Verified Trainer) Dude, Tyranitar clears when she evolves and it's not even close. ►Goalducc42 I mean, sure. But you know what Volkner can do with his Electivire, and we have no point of reference for Tyranitar. No one owns one in the region.

I still don't know how the fuck she got herself a Larvitar, and a fucking baby at that. They're always protected by their mother. Even the Hunters didn't sell them. ►AsobiAsobase Imagine if she actually spoke to people instead of sticking in her little corner the entire time. Goalducc, you speak to Denzel like every week. Use your clout to get her on his stream. They can do a Q&A or something. ►Goalducc42 I mean, I can try, but don't expect anything.

Electabuzz finally fell to Sylveon, and Grace released Jellicent next. The fairy type was the butt of many harem jokes in Denzel's stream and was his most popular Pokemon, but he was completely humiliated by Jellicent and hosed down in a corner. It was now that it started to sink in for people that Denzel was losing. Even Goalducc had little hope now.

Unless Roserade could beat Jellicent, then it was basically over, and the poison type was exhausted from her battle with Electabuzz and unable to use any more Synthesises. They had to go big or go home. But the reason Jellicent was so tricky wasn't his attacks, although Hydro Pump was powerful. It was the fact that he could penetrate in any surface. Unless you had a ground type move or another way to hit something underground, you were basically forced to play the reactive game, which she thrived on.

From this point on, it was as if Denzel had lost his footing. Grace started playing even more mind tricks on him, alternating the time she took in between attacks. Roserade fainted despite having put up an amazing fight. ►Chichi Yeah, it's gg. ►AsobiAsobase It never even began. If Jellicent hadn't been poisoned drowning Roserade he might have been able to sweep the rest. Might have been too aggressive from her. ►Goalducc42 She's winning because she's aggressive.

Grace is defensively aggressive if that makes any sense, and Denzel isn't responding in kind. She's pressing down the gas pedal and letting go at random, different intervals to heighten the tension. He needs to learn how to not get affected by it if he wants to win, and he needs to learn how and when to take risks. Grace knew she had to take a risk to finish off Roserade and it paid off. ►Donald_Barkley (Verified Trainer) Calculated risks. ►Chichi The risk I took was calculated but man, I am bad at math.

jpg ►Goalducc42 I wasn't even joking ►Archive Once Jellicent can make his Night Shades actually take more hits and create attacks as powerful as he can, he'll be an even bigger threat too. ►Goalducc42 Everything on her team is a threat. That's how it's supposed to be, ace or not. No one can last long with an unbalanced team. Denzel's team is a threat too, but no one is actually paying attention. Sylveon just had a terrible matchup and Milotic is having one too.

►Chichi Look at us, sitting in our ivory chairs and telling it how it really is. By the way, Goalducc, didn't you have work today? ►Goalducc42 I'm sick. Real bad cough. ►Chichi Uhuh. I believe you. Looks like Milotic is down. The water type had lost to Tangrowth. There hadn't been much he was capable of doing against the grass type except keep him at bay with Twister and Dragon Pulse. It had been a good strategy from Denzel, but it was too little too late.

He sent out his Lopunny, who immediately rushed toward Tangrowth. Now, he was taking risks, but again, it was too late, and everyone but Denzel's most ardent supporters knew it. Mystline~: It's COPIUM not COPIUM over COPIUM yet AkakA: Midpunny can't do it, it's sopher. Blud keeps failing in every battle I can't do it anymore.

RockTypeSpe_1: HOLY BASED Tangrowth on fire Starryeyes87: GOOOOO MY ANGEL Threedashline1: Denzelbros on suicide watch now that their flawless idol is getting crushed Axolotlhead: Do you think Tangrowth will be able to stab things with his vines one day? X11P: LMAO SHE HIT HER HEAD ON A ROOF I CAN'T Kaspaldrew: LOST TO ROCK HOUSE OMEGALUL 1010Years: What an awesome battle. Gonna watch it a thousand times. Defeat4t: Truly one of the battles of all time The battle was over.

Lopunny and Tangrowth both fainted, the former from Knock Offs and the latter from the fire. Andrew got up to stretch his legs, letting the chat fly by. Denzel ended the stream soon after, and he made sure to download the VOD for Meditite in case there were any accidents that corrupted the video or it was ever deleted. He had thousands of battles on his hard drive that he'd saved over the years. After grabbing a bottle of water, Andrew returned to his computer and enlarged his forum window.

►Archive They're already making GIFs of Lopunny hitting her head on that roof, she'll never live it down. ►Chichi I mean, it was extremely funny. Y'all wanna get in a call so we can analyze this shit frame by frame or what? ►Goalducc42 Hell yeah. I'll call. ►Donald_Barkley (Verified Trainer) Weren't you sick? Andrew rolled his eyes and called his friends. He'd never been good at being a trainer, but he knew battling itself.

That was why his dream was to get out of the slog that was working in a damn Pokemart and start a podcast that spoke about trainers throughout Sinnoh— and possibly the world, if he got that big. He was inspired by Poketracker: Spotlight on Future Champions and wanted to do the same thing, but better. Archive wanted in on it too, but for now, they needed to save money before they could take the plunge. He knew they were good enough to do it.

Andrew hadn't simply garnered the reputation he had on the forums making in-depth analyses of battles, trainers' fighting styles and their teams because it was fun. That was a part of it, yes, but his reputation could possibly kickstart his podcast if they could get enough listeners on day one. Archive was less known, but he was just as good at analyzing battles or even better. They wanted to do everything. Analysis, live commentary, tips and tricks, tracking rising stars… the list went on and on.

And they would start it all at the Conference this summer.