[attr="class","frlastcontmid"]
[attr="class","frlastcontparty"]
[attr="class","frlastcontpoke"]
[attr="class","frlastcontpoke"]
[attr="class","frlastcontpoke"]
[attr="class","frlastcontpoke"]
[attr="class","frlastcontpoke"]
[attr="class","frlastcontpoke"]
[break]
A baptism by blood. A baptism by flame. In this fury, in this pain, the blood-soaked Sergeant can only hear a question as a blinding light engulfed her.[break][break]
What do you want, Bailey Cooper?[break][break]
[break]
A girl was seated in a small, low-lit room. Her feet knock together, unable to reach the ground from the chair that she was seated; knuckles white as if she were ready to burst.[break][break]
“You graduated by the skin of your teeth.”[break][break]
The brown of her hair is shortly cropped, buzzed at its sides, and intended to intimidate. A high-school uniform was crinkled on her frame, begging to be ironed, with a leather jacket thrown over—her
statement. Its yellow fuzz contrasted the dark smudges of make-up that had been so lazily traced beneath her purple gaze.[break][break]
A pamphlet. A man seated at the desk across from her, with the words “guidance councilor” labeled to the glass door. He was leaned back in his chair, as far as it could go, as if the sight of the disgruntled teenager frightened him.[break][break]
He chewed on the eraser to his pencil. He had a pocket protector. She could still smell the fresh ink from the printer.[break][break]
“Community college will be your best bet, if you can apply yourself. It'll give you the time to think about what you'll want to be.”[break][break]
“Fuck off with that,” and she threw it in the trash.[break][break]
[break]
What do you want, Bailey Cooper?[break][break]
[break]
“Shit, I really managed to do it,” and a young woman rubbed the dirt from her face as she grinned at a distant foe—her pokemon standing victorious. Kapow and his brass scales were held to the sky, letting out a roar that rumbled down to her very core. Blues contrasting the disaster of the battlegrounds that they had left scorched.[break][break]
Triumph. The malpais of Lavaridge, from beyond its borders, kissed her face with the chalky, reds of the Earth. It even smudged the ridge of her shoulders, where leather toasted beneath a warm sun.[break][break]
A distant trainer groaned, fishing for his wallet as stacks of bills were fitted snugly into the palm of her hand. She liked the slap, liked the pleasure of looking at money that had been rightfully earned.
“You won by the skin of your teeth.”[break][break]
A victory filled the hole in her chest.[break][break]
Despite its presence, her face would become crestfallen, a frustration lingering in her eyes as she walked back to her motorcycle—alone, aimless, even if all of Hoenn stretched out before her. A gap year that had stretched into three—the life of a wandering trainer had started to lose its appeal.[break][break]
[break]
What do you want, Bailey Cooper?[break][break]
[break]
“You passed—your battle assessment was outstanding, but we're still concerned with your other scores,” and Bailey Cooper was still at the edge of her seat, dressed in the fatigues that the League had provided her. Now, her hair was longer. Now, it lightly brushed against her shoulders, where the yellow fuzz of her jacket existed to coddle it.[break][break]
Her gaze was focused.
“But... I passed?”[break][break]
“By the skin of your teeth,” and she wondered if this would be what she needed—a purpose.[break][break]
[break]
What do you want, Bailey Cooper?[break][break]
[break]
She held his hand, feeling the contrast of metal to skin. Warm and then cold.[break][break]
It felt secure. It felt like structure—like what had driven her to the League.[break][break]
Her toes sink into the sand, staring out at an endless blue ocean with a police badge resting beneath her jacket—now, the day has expired, and she stared at a Hoenn with new eyes that had been blessed by the sight of a Legendary's fury—a hyper beam that had never touched her, despite the confines of the tomb where they had battled.[break][break]
Regirock had perspired, but she continued to exist—by the skin of her teeth, she thought, as she bit into a warm cheeseburger.[break][break]
[break]
What do you want, Bailey Cooper?[break][break]
[break]
A funeral. A door was closed, leaving her to wonder where it could have lead.[break][break]
She survived, but only by the skin of her teeth, as Hoenn felt ready to crumble—as she felt ready to crumble, wondering how long she would be the one to survive while others fall. By the skin of her teeth, she thought, as she sat in a bar next to
FERNANDO SILPH and downed another drink.[break][break]
Her new medals felt heavy. Her new title felt worthless.[break][break]
Why did others die while she continued to survive? Why was she the one to always scrape by?[break][break]
[break]
What do you want, Bailey Cooper?[break][break]
[break]
“What do I want?” And the fire that surrounded her did not burn, because it could not come close to the fire that burned
inside, where it stripped her raw and let her emotions overflow like churning magma.
“I'll tell you what I fucking want.”[break][break]
Burn. Burn. Burn—Burning anew as Bailey Cooper was made into a
Victory Star.[break][break]
“I'm done living by the skin of my teeth, I'm done living because I'm too fucking lucky to die,” and the Spitefire spat her words as the memory of those she lost filtered into her mind; today, two had fallen and taken her place.
“I'm not gonna lose. Not anymore.”[break][break]
Rumble's capsule was raised—she can feel something inside her chest that sang to the pokemon she carried.
“Today, I'm gonna live. Today, I'm gonna win.”[break][break]
"Give me fire." She would take this strength. She would let it overflow; her own
eruption as years of seismic activity reached its boiling point.