A Late Start

Questions

"Wait so that's it?" Zorua chirped from inside my bag. "They fight and then you shake hands and walk away?"
"Well, yeah, what else were you expecting? It's called a Pokemon battle for a reason." I replied quietly, trying not to draw attention to myself.
"But. You didn't even do anything. Just stood there shouting at them." He popped his head out through the small opening I left in the top of my zipper.
"There's a little more to it than that you know. The trainers' job is to come up with strategies and give information while the battle is going on. We keep tabs on everything going on, like where attacks are, how close each Pokemon is to fainting and knowing when to switch up our tactics to help guide our team to victory." I glanced over at Silas, who gave me a smug grin.
"And you're okay with that?" I could tell that question wasn't aimed at me.
"Well, I don't mind it, the food could be better though," Silas responded in a vaguely sarcastic tone.
"Silas. We've been over this, I'll get you some better food when we can actually afford it."
"You mean when we win this tournament."
"Don't get ahead of yourself now, mister. We still have another round to go before we'll even make anything from it."
"And we'll win that one just like the last two."
"Well, I appreciate your confidence." I gave him a gentle pat on the head.
"Hey wait. But what about those little, ball, Things?"
"You mean Pokeballs?" Silas and I responded in unison.
"Yeah, Isn't it weird having your entire body trapped inside of that tiny little sphere? Must be really cramped."
"Eh, not a fan of it personally. But it's not that bad," Silas replied. "A bit like you riding in her bag like that, but less cramped. I don't really know how to explain it. But it makes everything around you look, bigger? And It's see-through on the inside so we still know what's going on." He tilted his head to one side as he tried to think of a way to describe it.
"But you don't like it right? So why are you okay with her keeping you like that?"
"Well, I know Silas doesn't like it. So I don't really recall him unless I need to." I tried to keep my voice level.
"And when she does. It's only for a little while at a time, so It's not too bad." Silas added as we pulled into our room at the Pokemon centre. I set my bag down and let Zorua out to stretch his legs.
"We've got a few hours before our next match, so you guys can just chill out for a while." I detached Erah's Pokeball from my hip and let him out to play with the others. "I'll see about making you guys some lunch in a few." Zorua dropped his Illusion and their conversations faded back into the series of chirps and grunts I'd gotten used to. I laid back in bed and just stared up at the ceiling, processing everything that had taken place in the battle earlier. Erah and Silas kept making mock-ups of their battle pose at each other, pretending to throw attacks at one another. I had to assume Erah was still winding down from his first real battle. I found myself smiling a little as Zorua joined in their little mock rehearsal. I would have to talk to Erah about his fighting style before the next battle. But I decided to just let them have their fun for now. Ethan came into the room an hour or two later, the pokemon had calmed down since we had gotten back. He had a stupid smile on his face as he sat on the bed next to me."You're not gonna believe this Lexi," He declared. "We're in the semi-finals."
"What? How, we still have another round to go first," I glanced across at him, confused.
"The guys we were s'posed to be fighting in round 3 pulled out. So we got a free pass in."
"You're kidding right?"
"Nope. And you know what that means? 25k each, guaranteed." I sat there in disbelief for a moment.
"Why would they pull out one round before entering the top 4?"
"I dunno, but I'm not complaining either. I told you we could make it this far."
"I don't think you can really count this as a win, Ethan. This was a fluke."
"Fine, we'll just have to go on to win first place as well then."
"You sound just like Silas," I teased. As I spoke it seemed like everything had begun to get darker. I ignored it, assuming it was just the sun going down.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ethan chuckled between his words.
"He said the same thing earlier today."
"I forgot they can talk now."
"They can't it's just that we basically have a translator now." I began to hear a faint buzzing with no obvious source. I scratched at my ear instinctively.
"It's hard to remember that it's just, what did he say? An Illusion? Especially since they all have their own voices."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, it's pretty impressive." The buzzing grew louder as the conversation went on, a dull headache eventually grew to accompany it. I placed a hand on the side of my head.
"Hey Lex, you alright?" Ethan asked, placing a hand gently on my shoulder.
"Yeah, I think so. Just a sudden headache." I could feel the pain gradually getting worse and a sense of panic set it. But it didn't feel like it was my own. Suddenly the sensations all disappeared and I blacked out.