[X] My Assistant

[Umbrae Calamitas]

In the end, Tuesday had managed to eat a piece of buttered toast before they'd left the pokemon center. Ashleigh, who had been wandering the center by himself while the others at breakfast, was trotting alongside Tuesday as they made their way to the Petropolis Gym. The houndoom's tail was low as they walked and even Tuesday rubbing him between the horns hadn't eased his mood. The houndoom had been good friends with Darryn's jolteon, Romeo, and coming back into the lobby of the pokemon center to find that the jolteon and his trainer were gone had put the canine into a sorrowful mood.

Tuesday was glad that she was using the houndoom in her gym battle. She thought the chance to fight an opponent might make the pokemon feel better. The dog had already seemed distracted by something as it was. Tuesday was aware of the foolishness of using a distracted pokemon in a battle, but she was more concerned with Ashleigh's state of mind than winning.

Not that winning wouldn't be grand, but if battling would take Ashleigh's mind off of missing his friend, then it was worth whatever chance there was of her losing because of it.

"Don't worry, Ashleigh," Tuesday said, her fingers finding the houndoom's favorite scratching place between his horns, "we'll see Darryn and Romeo again."

The houndoom whimpered and looked up at her, but didn't react favorably or at all to Tuesday's scratches. The girl allowed her pokemon his mood. She was distracted herself, with nervousness over her impending gym battle. It felt a great deal more like she was walking to her doom.

"You okay, Tuesy?"

Tuesday didn't answer right away. Was she okay? Physically, sure, other than that her hands were sweating and she felt a little cold, like she was catching something, even though she knew it was just worry over how she would do. What if Vega wasn't as nice to her as he had been to Reilly and Jaima? Maybe he only liked battling boy trainers? She swallowed thickly.

"I'm nervous as a whore in church," she quoted bluntly, her eyes flicking over to Jaima as she spoke.

The startled look on his face made her laugh, so much that she had to stop walking to keep from falling over. Her lips pulled back in a smile and the nervous energy fled her in a moment. She sighed, grinning at him. "LaWanda Page." She licked her lips. "All right. Yes. I'm... okay. Let's just go and get this over with before I chicken out, okay?"

[Umbrae Calamitas]

Tuesday couldn't believe how stupid she was. When the battle had begun, she had guessed that the krokorok was likely a dark type. She knew he would be unaffected by psychic attacks. It provided a good defense against trainers who had pokemon capable against only one type of pokemon, or who they themselves only had one type of pokemon, to use two types that naturally conflicted with each other. Like earlier, however, with her worry over Ashleigh, she had forgotten that the psychic attack would not be effective against the krokorok.

It was beyond embarrassing to have Vega point out something so obvious to her, and the fact that she should already have known it. And that lecturing tone he used, in the middle of a gym battle...

Tuesday cringed and resisted the urge to look up into the stands and see if Jaima and Meiko were watching. She was sure that they were. She grimaced, imagining how disappointed they would be, to realize that she really had no idea what she was doing. She really was just a kid playing pokemon trainer. She should have stayed in the lab...

Odysseus chirped, calling Tuesday's attention. She glanced his way, to see him looking at her over his shoulder, his back still facing her. When he was sure he had her attention, he spun his twin tails shortly, and then smacked them against the ground. It took Tuesday a moment, but when she realized what he meant, she felt herself relax. He was right.

Odysseus' tailbone had been fractured when she'd caught him. She had splinted it and kept it positioned so that it would heal properly, and it had. She had done it herself, without the aid of a nurse or even one of her older companions. She wasn't a genius when it came to everything about battling, but she wasn't an idiot. And she had been doing really well as a battler. Yes, Zorro and Ashleigh had both been fainted, but so had Vega's duosion and xatu, and he was the leader of the gym.

She could do this.

Tuesday smiled at Odysseus, and the buizel let his tails spin freely, chattering in pleasure. He was pleased with Tuesday's quick retreat from her uncertainty, but he didn't expect what came next.

"All right. Odysseus, let's give this crocodile a proper mudhole to play in. When he comes up, use Aqua Jet!"

Odysseus distinctly remembered the last time Tuesday had commanded him to use Aqua Jet. She had gone nearly catatonic in fear. But he could see the same determination in her blue eyes now that had taken over then, when she had combatted the fear with the help of Zorro.

She was truly coming into her own, sailing into the storm and facing her fears. And Odysseus couldn't... be... prouder...

He shuddered, glancing down. Was the ground shaking? No... there was a feeling inside his chest, like the tide, pulsing forward, trying to break up the shore. Trying to reach further than the force of its own momentum would allow it...

Odysseus' form was seized by light, enveloped in a wave of it. He chattered, feeling altered as a course is altered by a wave, tossed as a ship is tossed. Changed, as the moon changes the tide.

The white light faded, and a floatzel stood where the buizel previously had. Odysseus gaped down at his fins.

"Color me splintered, would ya look a' me. Like turnin' a dinghy into a galleon..."

"Odysseus!" Tuesday cried in delight.

At that moment, the floatzel felt the ground beneath him shift. His eyes sharpened and narrowed, and on instinct, he jumped, his tails whirring like a propeller. The wind shifted just slightly at the speed of his tails spinning, and Odysseus leaned to one side, jerking himself to the left in the air. The snapping jaws of the krokorok missed him only by centimeters.

Huffing, the floatzel slowed his tails to a stop and dropped to the ground, landing on all fours and crouching there, watching the krokorok lift its body the rest of the way out of the earth. He glanced back at Tuesday quickly.

The lass was gaping at him. Evidentally, she hadn't known he could hover. He probably should have revealed that earlier, but as smart as she was, he supposed he had just expected her to know.

Though he had to admit, he didn't recall it ever being that difficult before. He supposed he was heavier now, though. Flying might be out of the question, but a good surprising hover now and then...

Odysseus grinned, and the lass seemed to come back to her senses in the same instant, for he heard her shout "Aqua Jet!" just as he let the waves swirl around his body, and shot like a soaking bottle rocket toward the krokorok.