[PKMN FULL] TRAINERS (IC)

How long had Gwen and Bethany been walking through Rock Tunnel? Gwen had no way of knowing, but it felt like six months to her, even if she was just mostly staring off into space. The two trainers mutually decided to tag along with archeologist duo Al and Pal, which probably just made things longer as they were more interested in any ruins that might be here rather than finding an exit. Even if it was for the best, as the girls thought they'd be trapped in the cave if they didn't, they sort of regretted it as nothing all that interesting really happened- With an obvious exception, but not much came from that.

All Gwen could do at this point was stick her head in the clouds, hoping to be pulled back down with some sort of information about an exit, but it seemed really unlikely to her at this point.

All hope seemed lost when Gwen's space exploration had been interupted by another Al discovery, one she was actually interested in this time.

"Oh, would you look at that! We found an exit!"

Gwen's face lit up with surprise and also joy at this. "Hooooooly shit, I'm soooo tired from all this walking!" She yawned as she stretched her arms while not minding that Bethany was standing right next to her.

"Well, I take it you'd like to split as opposed to further exploration?" Al asked. "You are both trainers after all though, so I certainly don't mind." Pal nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we need to get to Lavender Town." Gwen commented. "But thanks old man, we really appreciate your help! Kind of sucks the only rare Pokemon we found was a Spiritomb that we couldn't even catch."

"Ah appreciate yer help, sairr!" Bethany added. "Wi' thes chav here ah'd hae been lost fore'er!" Gwen stuck her tongue out towards her rival.

Al let out a usual hearty laugh. "Well, we are so glad we could help! But we'd like to part you with something." Pal bent over and handed the trainers business cards. "If you are ever interested in any of our other or future findings please be sure to check out our archeology blog!" The short old man reached his hand out to shake hands with Gwen and Bethany. "And who knows, someday we could see your matches televised! You both have potential to do so, and we are very big fans of Pokemon battles." Pal nodded.

"I bet you'll see me kicking ass on-screen soon enough." Gwen boasted as she made punching motions.

"'At'll be long afer ye see me oan th' telly!" Bethany said trying to dwarf Gwen as she usually would.

"Well whoever gets there first, we sincerely anticipate it!" Al grinned. "It was enjoyable sticking around you both, but we need to continue our discoveries." Pal nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, thanks a bunch old guy!" The two trainers waved as the archeologists walked to their next discovery waiting to happen.

When Al and Pal were no longer visible, Gwen and Bethany both looked at the exit. If they found the exit what felt like was a few hours ago, they both would have been excited to exit, but they were just tired now. They both left the tunnel at the same time, just subconsciously so, since they were too relieved to see the sun setting to be repulsed by one-another.

Of course, it doesn't take either of them long to realize what they were doing. At long last, they could split up, and couldn't wait to do so- Until their splitting was interrupted by a very loud growling coming from close by. Gwen flinched, and looked around to see if the cause of it is due to any nearby wild Pokemon.

"WAH! The fuck was that!" Gwen yelped, having had enough danger for one day.

Another growling occurs, sounding identical to the first. Gwen's reaction to the second growl was a little similar except she turned her head to the source of the unfamiliar noise; Bethany's stomach. Gwen just chuckled.

"Oh, you're hungry. I'd offer to share my food with you, but I'm guessing you don't want my 'Unovian Rubbish', eh?" Gwen smirked.

"Ah'd raither starve than eat yer naf cookin'." Bethany retorted.

Gwen chuckled again, a little more smugly this time. "Hey, if you wanna starve and die, go ahea-" Gwen froze mid-sentence as she had realized something "Hey wait a second, if you didn't eat my curry last night, what did you eat? Or more importantly, what did your Pokemon eat?"

"Ah didnae e'en fin' a bloody Pokemon Center so ah really did starve. Ah wasnae jokin' when ah said ah'd rather starve."

Gwen's expression changed from that of a smug teenager to one of genuine concern, and even slight panic. She held her face with her hands almost as if it would clam her down. "Ohhh nononononono, this isn't good. When was the last time your Pokemon ate?"

"Ah guess they got a wee bit at th' Pokemon Center. There wasnae a lot left."

"You need to be feeding your Pokemon more frequently." Gwen had said dead-seriously "Come on, we can set up camp for a meal and then we can split. I don't care how much you like my cooking, the fact is your Pokemon need to eat."

Bethany, genuinely shocked at the usual ditzy girl being more serious than she was used to, gave in. "Yer right. They got tae be starvin'...But ah still willnae eat anythin' frae ye!"

------

It was nightfall, and both Gwen and Bethany's Pokemon were out and about. Pix and Tusk were playing a game of tag with Tusk being more aggressive than Pix would like, Custard was sitting on the table Gwen was preparing their food at, and Jess just slithered off to somewhere, although Gwen was sure she'd see her again by the time dinner was ready. Bethany's Pokemon were all gathered around their trainer with little interest in leaving her side, although her Eevee seemed a little curious about Gwen's Pokemon, just not enough to act on it. Her Feebas was nowhere to be seen at the moment as she was still in her Pokeball, as Bethany believed this was for the best. Arceus knows what trouble Feebas would bring.

Gwen had finished cooking her curry but with less portions to work with than last night, and was ready to serve everybody.

"Pix, Tusk, Custard, Jess, dinner is ready!"

Tusk jolted towards his meal, with Pix following. Jess had slithered back from wherever she went, ready to eat the curry they all enjoyed so much.

After serving her Pokemon, Gwen scooped some curry and rice into four disposable bowls and headed toward Bethany holding them all. When approached, Gwen set the bowls down on the ground. Eevee, Ponyta, and Vulpix all looked at Bethany almost as if seeking her approval.

Bethany sighed. "Skedaddle aff now. Eat yer food." In response, Bethany's Pokemon gleefully pranced over to their bowls, gladly digging in.

"Hey, where's Feebas?" Gwen asked.

"In 'er ball. Ah dornt feel loch putting' up wi' 'er."

"She still needs to eat." Gwen pleaded. Bethany let out another sigh, releasing Feebas from her ball. Feebas saw a bowl of curry unattended, flopped her way over, and started smacking the food down as she got there with no time to breathe.

Eevee, Vulpix, and Ponyta were all eating their food at a normal pace, taking their time. Feebas however was eating really fast, almost unhealthily so. This even caught the attention of Tusk, who seemed a little surprised how fast the fish Pokemon was eating, giving him a run for his money. Tusk stormed up to Feebas, letting out a very angered "KEW KEW!". Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Oh my fucking-" Gwen complained. "Tusk, not every fucking thing is a competition, give it a rest." Tusk crossed his arms like a defiant small child. He marched away but only to march back shortly afterwards, this time carrying an empty disposable bowl.

"KEW KEW!" Tusk barked, waving the bowl. Gwen knew what this meant.

"I'm sorry Tusk, I can't give you seconds. I needed to make enough for uh...What's your name?"

"Bethany" The Galarian trained moaned exhaustedly.

"Yeah, whatever. I needed to make enough for Galar girl and her friends. There's nothing left, but when we get to Lavender Town I'll treat you to a restaurant."

Even with his trainer offering him something better, Tusk was only further enraged. He started breathing heavily letting out a few more growls, looking almost as if he was ready to attack.

"Tusk, this is ridiculous! Knock it off or you're going back to your Pokeball for the night!"

All Tusk could do at this point was cross his arms again and march away presumably to find something else to do, this time with less confidence.

"He can be a real pain sometimes..." Gwen sighed.

As Bethany observed all this she couldn't help but take in the aroma of the curry. Sure it was the exact same recipe from last night which she had loudly declared as disgusting, but there was something about it this time to where it didn't smell so bad to her. Her stomach grumbled again, and Gwen turned her attention towards it.

"Well, uh.." Gwen awkwardly started, looking around to make sure nobody could hear her. "I might have lied when I said to Tusk there's nothing left. I have a small amount I had left in-case you wanted any. I don't really like you like, at all, in fact I think you're an arrogant, stuck-up bitch, but I'd just feel kind of bad if you didn't eat."

"Ah thought ye didnae care if ah starved?"

"I mean…" Gwen scratched the back of her head "Yeah, guess I meant it when I said it, but I went through the effort of making food for your Pokemon, so like, might as well?"

There was something about the sight of being surrounded by Pokemon eating that made that feeling of hunger sink-in for Bethany. Hell, her own Pokemon ate without her.

"Sure, ah'll eat yer damn food." She reluctantly said. Gwen smiled and walked over to grab both of them a bowl.

After being handed the bowl from the Unovian trainer, Bethany very hesitantly scooped up a bit before putting any in her mouth. When she took a bite, she was surprised that despite being identical to last night's meal, it wasn't so bad. Of course she had no intention of letting her rival know. But even then, she still ate it up at a similar pace to her Pokemon as Gwen watched joyously.

"Ehts goo, isn ee?" Gwen said while chewing on her curry.

"Eh?" Bethany raised an eyebrow.

Gwen swallowed her food. "I said, it's good, isn't it?"

"Nae. It still tastes like shite." Bethany lied before eating another spoonful. "Ah coods easily havenae eaten an' been fine. Ah've gone longer with nae food, jist thought ah'd pity ye."

Gwen raised an eyebrow, not really believing what she heard. "Okay sure, that's why you're eating it without tossing it on the floor. Whatever." She stared off a bit because something Bethany had said stuck out to her.

"Wait, what do you mean you've gone longer without eating? Aren't you like, fucking rich?"

"Nae aye." She said before eating another spoonful. "Ah was in a gang in Spikemuth as a wee lass. There wasnae a lot tae gang around."

Gwen was visibly confused. "Wait, how did you suddenly become rich though? Didn't you say the Maller family or whatever was around for like, ever?"

"Miller family!" Bethany snarled. "And isnae it obvioos? Ahm adopted, ye dobber."

"Oooooh. I knew that." Gwen ate a few more spoonfuls, knowing since she had nothing else to add she was free to take a few more bites.

"Walter Miller, mah adoptife father, isnae loch other wealthy fowk." Bethany went on unprompted. "He's a good man. He saw me on th' streets an' didnae see how grottie ah was or even mah torn-up clothin'. He saw mah potential ah had as a Pokemon trainer. Nae other wealthy fowk woods dae 'at. He was sae prood tae tak' me in." This was followed by a few more spoonfuls of Gwen's curry.

Gwen was still absorbing everything she had heard. "Wow...So you're saying that Walter is like what Jenny is to me?"

Bethany cringed. "Walter Miller is naethin' loch yer sister nobody knows."

"First of all, shut the fuck up about my sister." This was followed by Gwen quickly eating some more spoonfuls. "Secondly, I mean like how Walter took you in when things were looking bad." Gwen sat down on her knees. "Like, my parents kind of fucking sucked, but when things got REAL bad with them, Jenny got custody of me. That's actually why I'm in Kanto right now." The black-haired teenager tilted her head upwards to get a look at the night sky, somewhat staring off into space. "She's just like...The best."

"Mebbe so." Bethany started. "But ye got a lot less tae li' up tae. Walter is as good a ba'ler as he is a father, an' ah hae tae li' up tae his name. Her sister? She's jis' some nobody. She's jist a has-been toornament winner. Not loch mah father. An' ah hae e'ery right tae say 'at."

Gwen groaned. "Sure. Whatever." She was too tired to argue at this point. It was probably a good idea to clean up what mess she had soon since she was almost done with dinner. She just needed to muster up the energy to do so, but was too much effort for her right now.

That was until she heard a very loud and panicked "KEW KEW!" not too far away. Gwen got up, and walking not too far showed what had happened; Tusk was being wrapped by Jess and was scratching and squirming to get out.

The black-haired girl was furious. "Tusk, god fucking damnit! Stop picking fights!" She grabbed Tusk's Pokeball to return him for continuing to misbehave. She had enough of this. On the bright side though, at least since she was up now this was an excuse to clean her mess up before going to sleep.

When she got back to where she had set up her camp, she noticed neither Bethany or her Pokemon were anywhere to be seen. All that was left of them were the disposable bowls stacked up with a single plastic spoon inside the one at the top.

Gwen had no idea where the Galarian trainer was at right now, but didn't really care. All that was know was that Bethany was lost, and this would certainly not be the last time they met.

It was 8 am on a Friday. Gwen Alanis woke up in the Lavender Town Pokemon Center, almost as tired as when she went to sleep, if not moreso.

Last night was a bit hectic for the ditzy girl. Initially, she was just going to camp out near the Rock Tunnel exit, going to sleep around 8 pm, but things went astray when she was woken up at 1 am. There was no reason she knew that could have caused this, she just did. Best rationalization she could think of was maybe being woken up by Debbie the night before messed up her sleep schedule, but thinking about it didn't help her situation. Gwen attempted to go back to sleep, tossing and turning in her sleeping bag for about an hour.

No luck.

It didn't bother her before, but for some reason having to sleep on the ground felt really uncomfortable right then. Plus, she really needed to use the restroom.

As soon as she was bothered by the ground the idea that Lavender Town was close by popped into her head. She could probably slide into the Pokemon Center and get comfortable. Besides, she only just realized she hadn't changed her clothes in a few days. She was reluctant initially, but her struggling to fall asleep made it seem very desirable.

Eventually she gave in, packing up her sleeping bag and returning everyone to their Pokeballs, despite how sleepy she was. At a Shuckle's pace, she made her way to the Lavender Town Pokemon Center.

On the bright side of all this, Gwen was glad to at least be able to change her clothes. She woke up wearing a loose-fit, baggy-looking, dark purple sports jersey with a "94" in a black font on that back. The front had a logo with a Gengar on it and in stylized text read "Nacrene City Gym". This was matched by black denim boyfriend shorts she had on.

Gwen stretched her mouth wide as if she was a Loudred, yawning as if she was one as well. As much as she wanted to and loved the comfort of a real bed, she knew there was no point trying to go back to sleep, and decied to get out of bed. She crawled out of the bed the Pokemon Center lent her, stretching her arms and scratching the back of her head once she emerged fully from her slumber.

She turned around to see all her Pokemon all still asleep, except Tusk who was still in his Pokeball because of his misbehavior last night. The sight of seeing her Pokemon sleeping always brought her joy, as they all looked so peaceful.

"Hey guys, it's time to wake up." Gwen urged gently. Unlike their trainer, they all seemed well-rested enough since they had the luxury of traveling in their Pokeballs. The Unovian girl sat down on the bed, pulling hair-ties from her pockets and began to put her hair into her iconic space-buns. "Are you all in the mood for some breakfast?" Pix and Custard simply nodded in response, while Jess didn't seem to care.

"Alright, just let me get my socks on an-" Gwen was interrupted by a Pokeball on her belt she set just tossed on the floor last night shake rapidly, before popping open to let Tusk out. Tusk seemed to forget about last night, because as soon as he got out he jumped with joy and kicked his legs whenever he was in the air.

"AXEW! YEW YEW YEW! YEW YEW YEW!" The dragon type cheered. This gave his trainer a similar expression she had when seeing her Pokemon sleep. Even if she had to go put up with aggressive rivals, shady Pokemon thieves, and even ancient Pokemon attacks to top things off, it was all worth it for the moments like this she could share with her Pokemon, she thought.

----------

Dragging herself to Pokemon Center last night was definitely a blessing in disguise, Gwen thought. Unlike the Pokemon Center before Rock Tunnel, this one was noticeably larger, and that meant a larger cafeteria, which meant more options. Today there was an offer for a favorite breakfast of hers, pancakes.

The black-haired girl took her sweet time eating her meal, indulging in every bite. She had gotten food for her Pokemon too, of course making sure they got something they would enjoy. Custard had also gotten a plate of pancakes, but it was a much shorter stack than Gwen's, having two small pancakes instead of a stack of three ordinary cakes her trainer had.

The way she tried eating involved a small fork she would try to stab the pancakes pieces Gwen had cut up for her. It was a struggle for the electric mouse, but it was worth every bite. Just like her trainer, she loved the sensation her mouth was experiencing, possibly getting more joy out of it than Gwen. Given that she was an Alolan Pikachu, this was to be expected. Perhaps she didn't need a thunderstone, and could tap into her evolution earlier than expected just through pancakes? Gwen doubted it, but couldn't let the idea go.

As for her other Pokemon, Tusk had prepared for him eight bacon slices and a pile of scrambled eggs that looked a third his size, eating it by shoveling his food into his mouth. Pix also was served pancakes in a bowl designed for quadruped Pokemon, although she didn't seem to be as into it as Gwen or Custard.

Jess, however, wasn't eating, since as it turns out, Ekans don't need to eat very frequently. This was something Gwen learned from the Pokemon Center staff. Even with all her knowledge about Pokemon she read in books on, watched battles and documentaries on, or even played battle-simulator games about, there was still a lot for Gwen to learn about Pokemon by interacting with them.

After she finished her delectable breakfast, Gwen sat in the cafeteria seat thinking about what she needed to do next. She knew she needed to go grocery shopping, and stock-up on other supplies, definitely challenge the gym, but she wasn't sure what to do at the moment.

As abruptly as if lighting struck, Gwen's eyes lit up.

"Ooh!" She hopped out of her seat with excitement. "I haven't tried calling Jenny in a few days!" The Unovian girl quickly dashed outside the cafeteria to the Pokemon Center lobby. The nurse took note of this, calling out "No running please!"

Gwen froze in place. "O-oh, haha, right. I'm suuuuuuuuuuuuuper sorry about that. Sorry."

The first thing anyone would notice about the Pokemon Center lobby was the front desk, where the Pokemon nurse would treat Pokemon of trainers who got a little too adventurous. To the left of that were four computers lined up against the wall with dividers between them to give everyone using them privacy. The computers all were set-up on desks that were small enough to fit between the dividers, each one with a stool-like chair built into the floor.

Gwen had left her Pokemon in the cafeteria without really thinking, but given that there was staff around and the security cameras were in-place, they'd be fine.

Gwen slammed her rear into the seat in-front of the nearest computer. It was already turned on, lucky for her, and she booted up the video call app the computer had.

Despite it taking only ten seconds, Gwen was so excited that it felt like ten minutes, spending every second rapidly tapping her foot on the ground.

When it was done loading she swiftly entered her login information followed by Jennifer's contact information. With all the necessary steps taken all she needed to do was wait for her sister to pick up. This was represented on the app through an animation of a phone icon shaking like a Pokeball, and Gwen's foot-tapping got faster during this, only this was starting to feel longer than the app booting up.

Ten seconds had passed. Nobody was picking up.

Twenty seconds had passed. Gwen's anticipation started to morph into anxiousness.

Thirty seconds passed. The app stopped trying to contact Jennifer.

"Sorry." An automated voice from the app said. "But the person you are trying to reach is not available. Please leave a message after the beep."

Gwen disconnected, feeling her heart sink. "Sh-She must be busy with something." The trainer rationalized to herself. "Let me try again."

She repeated the process only to then be met with another automated message. This time Gwen decided to leave her own message.

"Hey Jenny, it's me Gwen! It's, uh, been a long time since you picked up now. I hope you're okay. I tried calling you in Cerulean when I got Tusk and you were busy that time too. And well, I guess you've been busy for awhile now...But I hope you're free soon….But SOOOOOO much has happened since then, I ran into someone who tried to steal a Hydreigon from the Cerulean Gym, but someone who trained at the gym retrieved them, she said she knew you? It was weird. But then I ran into some Galar chick, but she was such a bitch and she beat in a battle, and then I caught an Ekans and went through Rock Tunnel and fought a Spiritomb, it was fucking terrifying!"

Gwen gasped for breath.

"But yeah. How are you doing? How's Krox? Or ShellShocker? Oooooo, or Krona, I haven't seen him in a long-ass time!" The black-haired girl sighed, clearing the enthusiasm she had in her voice. "Well, I hope I'll talk to you again soon. I'll definitely still visit you when I get to Saffron." Gwen nervously laughed before hanging up.

The idea that her sister wouldn't pick up was something she wasn't able to comprehend very well. She sat in the computer seat, dozing off and wondering why Jennifer wouldn't pick up. They always got along really well, so Gwen couldn't imagine a reason why this was happening.

She couldn't have just missed the calls, since Gwen received no missed calls from Jennifer, so that wasn't an option. Despite this however, this is what Gwen would try to convince herself on, because she was absolutely not a fan of the other theories her mind crafted.

Could it be because her sister just didn't really like her? If that were the case, why would she have taken custody of her sister when things got really bad with her parents and enroll Gwen in Cape College in the first place?

Did something happen to her? Was she sick, injured, or possibly worse? This was her least favorite theory, and there was no real way to verify it until she got to Saffron City.

She dozed off for ten minutes, wallowing in her thoughts about this, before someone behind her tapped on her shoulder.

"Uhhhh, 'scuse me bro."

This alarmed Gwen, finnicking about in her seat before slowly turning around. It was someone she never saw, but this person didn't claim he knew her at least. The stranger was visibly slightly concerned.

"Woah bro, sorry. I just wanted to use the computer, bro, and you've been sitting there for like, ten minutes bro."

"O-O-Oh, uh, right! Yeah sure!" Gwen awkwardly laughed in an attempt to try to shake off the embarrassment, and sped-walked back to the cafeteria while looking at the floor to make sure nobody could see her face. The nurse again passively reminded her to not run, although Gwen didn't seem to notice this time.

When Gwen thought she was out of the stranger's sight, she slowed her walk down, still upset by what just occurred with Jennifer. The speculation of what could have happened drove her wild, torturing her a little whenever she thought about it. She even shed a single tear, not something she did often, and especially not something she liked being caught doing.

When she was sure she made it back to the cafeteria, she noticed how many people were seated, which normally could make it difficult to make somebody out. Through some wild coincidence though, while standing in front of the cafeteria doorway Gwen's attention was immediately drawn to the table she was sitting at, and through her watery eyes she noticed all of her Pokemon seated there.

Pix and Jess had been waiting on the floor, with Pix laying down to rest her legs. Custard was sitting at the table who was anxious to the point she was shivering, having been left by her trainer for ten minutes. Tusk however, was just laying on his back with his eyes closed and his belly looking a little bloated. On the table were three empty plates where the Axew was eating.

"Vulpix! Vul!" Pix cheered when seeing her trainer.

"Pi-Pika…" Custard looked somewhat more happy when she noticed her trainer.

Unprompted, Pix pranced her way over to Gwen and sat down in front of her trainer, wagging her tails. Gwen laughed a little to herself, wiped her tear away, and kneeled down to headpat Pix.

Custard took note of this, bolting towards Gwen as soon as she saw her tending to Pix's needs. Gwen laughed again, this time sounding more cheerful than the previous laugh, and used her free hand to scratch Custard's back.

Jess took note of this, slithering across the cafeteria floor to her trainer. She slithered around Gwen's leg, making her way through her torso, eventually getting to her destination being loosely wrapped around the girl's neck. She rattled her tail twice, which felt cold in comparison to the actions of the two mammals, but her trainer still appreciated the sentiment.

"Thanks you guys." Gwen had blinked enough times to prevent herself from crying. "I don't know what I'd do without you." Gwen said while letting out a genuine grin that spread to both her cheeks, teeth exposed and all.

Even with the hardest of trials, the moments with her Pokemon, the closest thing she's had to friends, made it all worth it.

In the Lavender Town Pokemon Center lobby, the first you'll notice upon entrance is the main desk, which primarily functions for trainers of all different walks of life to heal their Pokemon from battle damage they've received. It's quite fascinating when you think about just how many different people, all completely different people who are all working to achieve their own unique goals, all with different Pokemon to help them achieve said goals, can visit a Pokemon Center in a day.

Of course, the ditzy Pokemon trainer from the Unova region, Gwen Alanis, was not thinking about this right now. Gwen instead was sitting on a bench in the Pokemon Center's outdoor area, writing in her notebook she packed while Custard rested on Gwen's right side. What she always tried doing whenever she made it to a new town was plan out her day, but even this could be too demanding of the girl, as her mind would often drift off and she'd spend her time doodling Pokemon, and right now she was really focused on an Infernape drawing she was working out.

By conventional standards, she was a great artist- When drawing Pokemon at least. She could never seem to get humans, plants, machines, landscapes, and such right. Usually she'd just lose interest whenever trying to draw people and just made them stick figures.

The outdoor area of the Lavender Town Pokemon Center was almost like a public park, being equipped with play-structures designed for small Pokemon to play in if they so desired, surrounded by benches for weary trainers to rest at while they monitored their Pokemon. Those who had larger Pokemon that wanted to play would have to look elsewhere.

This was perfect for what Gwen was currently doing, having her Pokemon get their exercise so she could (supposedly) plot out her day. She was fairly distracted from reality being lost in her Infernape sketch, but unlike her regular dozing off, Gwen needed to be focused to get in a drawing mood.

The problem was that Gwen's focus was interrupted by a loud smacking noise that came from somewhere in the outdoor area. She looked around, and to her surprise and relief, Tusk didn't start another fight, but what could possibly be the source of this noise?

The black-haired girl turned her head left as she heard cheering noises coming that direction. She wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded like a Pokemon battle, giving her an urge to investigate.

When she drew closer she noticed it was coming from the outdoor battlefields. It was like what was available in Rock Tunnel's Pokemon Center, but there were about ten courts this time. Also unlike the ones at Rock Tunnel, one battlefield in particular had a crowd around it leaning against the fence, mainly made up of youngsters.

"Winston is the best! He can't be beat!" One of the youngsters cheered.

"They're teaching them well at the Safari Academy!" Another one of them shouted.

"I wanna go to Safari Academy when I'm a big kid!" A little girl spectator cried.

"Damn bro, that bro is something else." Praised a young man in the crowd.

Now Gwen had to see what this commotion was all about. She tried to make her way into the crowd but the people standing in-front of her made it a little difficult to see, forcing her to stand on her toes to get a glimpse of the action.

Inside the fenced battlefield, Gwen saw a tall, thin boy in his late teens on his hands and knees with an Electabuzz lying unconscious on it's front. To the opposite side of the teenager was another teenager, although he looked younger, even more so than Gwen, and as soon as she took note of him he used a Luxury Ball to beam a ray of light at a Pokemon to return it. Gwen arrived too late to see what it was.

The older teenager struggled to return Electabuzz to a Great ball he pulled out of his pocket, shaking as if he was hit by a Thunder Wave. He was still able to return the Pokemon, but as soon as he did he got on his feet while still shaking. The fence-gate behind him was left open, and the older teenager saw this as an opportunity to escape.

"I WAS THE CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMP!!!!!!!!" He yelled, sobbing with total humiliation present in his voice.

Gwen was now able to get a better look at the younger teenager. He was wearing a white button-up shirt topped with a lavender suit jacket with lavender dress pants and a bowtie to match. The cuffs of his shirt were adorned with golden cufflinks.

He swept his posh long, dirty blonde hair away from his face, rather unnecessarily so because he didn't have any that was even in his face. "Well, looks like I'm the Pokemon Center champion now!" The boy flashed a grin, and everyone watching besides Gwen went wild with applause.

This drew attention to how behind the part of the fence that the boy was in-front of was a girl who looked about the same age, who cheered notably louder than her peers, and strangely enough had nobody crowded around her, she had that part of the fence to herself.

"Oh Winston!" The girl cheered adoringly. She held her hands together up to her tea-length cocktail dress that was the same color as the boy she was rooting for, and had a golden locket necklace hanging around her neck. Her light brunette hair was perfectly straight, touching her exposed shoulders.

"Since I now have the title of Best Lavender Town Pokemon Center Trainer, does anyone want to try to dethrone me?" It was clear the applause got to his head. Everyone in and around this fence was so in the heat of the moment they didn't notice a girl with black hair wearing a sports jersey walk through the gate, and onto the opposite side of the battlefield Winston.

"Yooo, I'm in the mood for a good Pokemon battle right now!" This drew everyone's attention to Gwen, and the crowd went silent.

With his right hand on his hip, Winston used his free arm to shield his eyes from what he was looking at.

"DEEEEEEEEUUGHHHHH??" Winston's expression quickly shifted to one that embodied both absolute fear and disgust. Curiously enough, the girl behind him made the exact same expression at the exact time, almost as if they were synchronized.

"My goodness! What are you wearing???"

Gwen casually glanced down at her wardrobe and shifted her head back up. She couldn't seem to find an issue.

"It's just my Nacrene City Gym jersey." Gwen shrugged. "It was pretty expensive, like most gym merch, but I got it on my birthday a few years ag-"

"I didn't ask!" Winston interrupted. "But I will ask you this, and you should be honored that I'm asking you anything, what is your name challenger?"

Gwen smirked, baring her teeth, and punched her right fist into the palm of her other hand.
"My name is Gwen Alanis! I'm a Cape College student on my graduation journey!"

Hearing this, the rich boy and the girl behind him snobbishly laughed in sync.

"PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The crowd joined in too. Everything was stacked against Gwen.

"Cape College?" Winston uttered. "You mean the school for poor people who can't afford a Safari Academy education?" The boy coughed to clear his throat, closed his eyes and smirked again.

"Well enough of what you have to say. My name is Winston Addington! I'm a Safari Academy student on my graduation journey." He stepped aside to put the girl behind him in view. "And this here is my darling, Lucinda Pendleton!"

Lucinda held her hands tighter up to her chest. "Ooooohhh Winston, darling! Show this Cape filth what it means to be a Pokemon trainer!"

Gwen was not at all amused by the affection on display. "Aren't you guys like, 12 or something?" Gwen asked judgingly.

Winston and Lucinda's expressions both shifted to slight anger. "Excuse you! I'll have you know I'm turning 14 soon!"

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Are we gonna battle or what?" She challenged, reaching to grab her Pokeballs from her belt.

The problem was, they felt lighter than usual, and Gwen just realized why.

"Damnit! I forgot my Pokemon!" She yelled out loud. Embarrassed, she scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, could you just wait a sec?"

As she embarrassingly dashed to go retrieve her Pokemon, Winston looked at the crowd. "What more can you expect from Cape students? PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" The crowd joined in on Winston and Lucinda's laughing, mostly out of pressure.

-------------

Now that Gwen was SURE she had her Pokemon on her, she was for sure confident in her ability to win.

"Alright, how many Pokemon you have?" Gwen challenged, once again residing on the opposite side of the field to her foe. "I have four on me, what about you?"

Winston held up two Luxury balls, one in each hand. "I only have these two with me at the moment- But I don't need anymore! I'm fine with both of us using all our available Pokemon!"

"It's settled then! Tusk, let's go!"

Gwen threw Tusk's pokeballs onto the ground, opening up to a flash of light that morphed into an Axew. Normally he'd hate having his play-time interrupted, but a battle was always an exception.

"YEW YEW!"

On the other end of the battlefield, Winston's Luxury ball Pokemon was revealed, being a short, blue canine Pokemon that stood on two black legs. It had black markings around it's red eyes, and the "mask" had black appendages besides both it's eyes, looking almost like they could be ears. It stood around pretty statically, not nearly as excited as Tusk.

"Woah! A Riolu!" Gwen gleamed. "Where'd you get one?"

"My father bred it for me!" Winston bragged. "And you'll see how much more difficult that is to battle!"

During all the commotion, few had noticed a girl who had a white, wide-brim, derby hat decorated with three yellow roses crowning her long blonde hair and dressed in a yellow halter summer dress, was making her way to the crowd. Even with the clicking sounds her white heels made with each step, nobody really noted her.

She stood on the side of the fence Lucinda was, which certainly caught her attention and riled her up a bit.

"Excuse me!" Lucinda pouted. "Can you not see you are taking up my space!"

"Shut th' fock up, ah cannae hear shite with yer yappin'." The familiar voice snarled.

Hearing such an accent in such a tone startled Liconda, causing her to flinch and fearfully shift her head towards the fight.

"We'll have to see about that!" Gwen pointed towards Winston, as if she was trying to zap him with the spare energy she had. "Tusk, use Slash!"

The Axew ran straight towards his opponent, bearing his claws on his right hand.

"AAAAAX YEW YEW YEW YEW YEW YEW YEW!" Tusk uttered with every step he took, loudly announcing his assault.

In seemingly no-time, the dragon-type got close enough to Riolu to land his attack. Winston noticed this, swashed his left arm, and gave an order.

"Riolu, attack!" The rich boy simply ordered. Right when Tusk was about to scratch the fighting-type, Riolu bluntly moved his right arm in-front of Tusk, and flashed a blue light, catching Tusk off-guard before he got hit by the light, knocking him back a few feet.

"That was Force Palm…" Gwen muttered to herself. She looked over at Tusk, noticing how he struggled to get back on his feet. She wasn't sure if Axew could take another hit.

Maybe she had bit off more than she was able to chew.

"Getting in there didn't do me much good...What should I do?"

Gwen had managed to drown out the crowd that cheered as Tusk was knocked back, so she could try to salvage the results of this match.

But how could she? Tusk only knew physical attacks...Right?

Just then Gwen's eyes lit up. She just remembered an attack Tusk that they hadn't yet used.

Gwen, brimming with confidence that this was the solution, pointed at the Riolu, ready to give Tusk his command.

"Tusk, Dragon Rage!"

The dragon-type Pokemon turned his head back to make eye-contact with his trainer. He had never used this move before, was now the best time, is what Tusk's expression read as. But upon seeing the amount of confidence Gwen had, Tusk nodded. They both knew what they needed to do.

Tusk opened his mouth, charging a ball of purple fire in it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" The Axew cried out as the attack was forming. The crowd stopped their chanting, watching in awe as Tusk charged his attack.

"KYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!!!!" Tusk's cry echoed through the outdoor battle arenas as he successfully fired off his first dragon rage. When the attack left his mouth, the purple fire formed into the shape of a dragon, and was headed directly towards the foe's Riolu. There was no way this could fail... Although if that was the case, why didn't Winston or his Pokemon seemed intimidated in the slightest?

As Dragon Rage was about to hit Riolu, Winston seemed almost bored. His eyelids were drooping and his hands were in his pants pockets. Right when it seemed Dragon Rage was about to land, Winston yawned, followed by him saying "You know what to do Riolu."

At the last second, Riolu punched through the attack, causing it to disappear. Gwen's jaw dropped, and while Axew tried to keep his cool, he wasn't fooling anybody. The surprise was very present in his eyes.

Dragon Rage wasn't the only thing that disappeared though, because Riolu was gone with no trace. Just as quickly as it seemed the fighting-type disappeared, he reappeared into thin air right in-front of Tusk, and punched him square in the face, knocking Tusk on his back.

Gwen couldn't help but be astonished by what she just witnessed. She was sure that attack was. Bullet Punch, an attack that will always take priority. The Unovian trainer looked over to her Axew, to see that Tusk was knocked unconscious.

"PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Winston laughed, followed by the audience, cheering and screaming too. Lucinda wasn't exactly joining in for some reason. Concerned, Winston turned around to see why his "darling" wasn't in-sync.

"Lucinda, darling, what's the ma- WHAT THE- WHAT ARE YOU DOING SO CLOSE TO MY DEAR LUCINDA!?!?!?!?"

Gwen didn't notice any of this, instead too lost in her own headspace. She was panicking, her plan totally backfired, out of ideas. This reminded her of the time when Pix was hypnotized by the Alolan Vulpix who belonged to- What was her name again?

"OI, G'ENDOLYN!"

Speak of the devil. Just when things couldn't get any worse, she just had to be here.

Gwen looked up to see that in the area where Lucinda was standing, Bethany was standing right next to her, looking taller than usual for some reason. Lucinda was no longer staring adoringly at Winston, but instead was horrified to the point of shivering. Her eyes seemed watery, as if she was about to cry.

But this time Bethany didn't look antagonistic, or like she needed something, rather she seemed determined this time.

"SWITCH TAE EKANS!!"

Wait, was she... Trying to help?

The entire crowd was silent, collectively all having their eyes on the Galrian trainer. Gwen was baffled at how Bethany wasn't trying to berate her for once.

"ARE YEH CORNED BEEF?!? AH SAID SWITCH TAE EKANS YE CHAV!"

Well, that was the closest she'd get, anyways. Taking her advice, Gwen used Tusk's Pokeball to return the fainted Pokemon.

"You did your best Tusk... I'm sorry we weren't prepared for that "

After setting the ball on her belt. She pulled off another Pokeball, throwing it to the ground, and popping open to reveal Jess.

As usual, once Jess entered the ring, she rattled her tail and hissed at the Riolu. The Riolu slightly shook in fear, and even backed down a bit. This was the first change in expression the Aura Pokemon made. The tide was beginning to turn, and Gwen regained her confidence.

Winston desperately tried to reconstruct his confident persona, although it clearly didn't seem to fit very well this time.

"P-P-P-Pahahahaha!" Winston nervously laughed quieter than he previously had. Half the audience laughed along with him. "You think that's going to weaken my dear Riolu? Nonsense!"

"Jess, use Wrap!" Gwen ordered, ignoring the rich boy's empty words. Jess slithered on the ground, making her way to Riolu. The black-haired girl thought with his attack lowered, she might stand a chance getting in closer.

"R-Riolu, attack!" Winston stuttered. Riolu disappeared and reappeared in-front of Jess, stopping her dead in her tracks, angling his fist downwards, about to land another Bullet Punch.

This time was different however. As soon as the Riolu was visible again, Gwen called out "NOW!", and Jess capitalized on this opportunity to wrap around Jess, starting at his legs, and eventually Riolu was coiled by Ekans, squeezing him more intensely with every second. Riolu struggled, but it was no use.

"UM, UM, UM, UM, UM….." Winston panicked. "R-RIOLU, ATTACK!" His Pokemon was in too much pain to comply.

Jess had been tightening her grasp for about a minute while Winston continuously gave out commands to a Pokemon that clearly was in no state to do so. Just then, Gwen's eyes lit up as she gasped.

Something was not right.

"Hey, wait a second!" The ditzy girl pointed out. "You're not even calling out any specific attacks! Riolu is doing all the work for you!"

The audience started whispering among themselves at this revelation as Winston was frozen silent. There was silence from them for a minute before somebody called something out.

"Why don't you use something other than Focus Palm or Bullet Punch?"

Winston froze in place, appearing as if he were a child being caught stealing from the cookie jar. "W-Well, you see, Riolu uh...I don't know his other moves." The whispering among the audience continued, continuing to get more and more aggressive.

"Like, what a complete phony bro!" A young man in the audience shouted. Others started agreeing with him, and eventually everyone except Lucinda and Bethany began booing him one by one. It was hard to believe the same audience was cheering him on not too long ago. To top everything off, the rich boy's Riolu gave up trying to struggle his way out of the Wrap and fainted.

"This match sucks!" A youngster in the crowd shouted out.

"I didn't know they taught people to be such phonies at Safari Academy!" Joined in another.

"Bro, what a disappointment." The young man mourned.

One after another, members of the audience began dropping out of disappointment. Winston desperately tried to get them all back.

"W-Wait! Don't go!" The rich boy pleaded. "You can't leave just yet! You haven't even seen my next Pokemon!" His attempt was futile, because soon after the only remaining audience members were Bethany and Lucinda. It was unknown if Lucinda stayed out of devotion, or if she was in such a state of shock it prevented her from moving.

Winston returned his fainted Pokemon back to his ball. With his crowd no longer around to boost his ego, Winston's entire attitude changed.

"I-I-I can't believe you just drove away my fans you- you- you FUCKING LITTLE BITCH!"

Woah. That certainly was a juxtaposition if Gwen had ever seen one.

"Take it easy." She used both of her hands to do a stopping gesture. The black-haired girl tried to calm him down, because this drastic mood-shift kind of scared her. "The reason Riolu lost was because you didn't have a bond with him. Sure, he is really strong, but strength alone won't carry yo-"

"I DON'T WANNA HEAR SHIT FROM YOU!" Winston rudely interrupted. "THERE'S NO WAY A DISGUSTING CAPE TRAINER SHOULD BE ABLE TO BEAT ME!" The rich boy aggressively tossed his second Luxury Ball. The light that was released from this one morphed into a creature twice the size of his Riolu. This Pokemon was a green, bipedal insect with two scythes for hands, and four wings to boot.

"SCYTHAA!!" The Pokemon let out a high pitch screech that sent shivers down Gwen's spine. She'd always wanted to see a Scyther in person, but certainly not by someone this maniacal.

"SCYTHER, POWER UP!" At the wish of his trainer, the Scyther struck a pose, facing left, holding one scythe above it's head while the other was by his waist. He had one foot in-front of him while the other was behind him. He shifted his body, making sure to scratch his scythes together a single time before he did the exact same pose facing right this time, almost as if following a rhythm.

Gwen immediately recognized this as Swords Dance, and knew she had to take this opportunity.

"Jess, now's your chance! Wrap!" Jess was closer to Scyther than she was the Riolu, so she had far less of a distance to cover than before. The snake Pokemon had one issue with this creature, being that because Scyther was twice Riolu's height and this Pokemon was moving more , she only managed to get around his left leg. This put weight on that leg, but didn't stop Scyther from completing the attack-boosting move.

"DESTROY HER, SCYTHER!!"

Scyther, now facing forward, stuck out his left leg, and saw the Ekans tightening her grip. His arms were free, which couldn't be said about Riolu, and he swiftly slashed his scythe across Jess' tied up body, causing her to hiss in pain. This was unlike anything she'd felt before, but she really tried to hang in there.

Gwen was concerned for her Pokemon, but she knew it wasn't likely that Jess would be conscious after another hit. She knew she had to get in as much damage as she could.

"Jess, use Acid!" On command, Jess made noises that sounded like she was trying to get something out of her throat. After about three attempts, she hacked up a ball of purple sludge that landed on Scyther's abdomen. This bothered the Scyther, and his response was to just hit Jess with another Slash. The Ekans completely loosened her grasp afterwards, falling to the floor.

Jess fainted.

Gwen, starting to feel hopeless, returned Jess to her Pokeball. Winston laughed, but it wasn't anything like the laugh he shared with his "darling. Instead of sounding snobby, his laughter sounded maniacal, like he was power-tripping from having ownership of such a strong Pokemon.

Even if his Scyther was indeed really strong, it was still clear the two weren't much of a pair. To Gwen, the point of being a Pokemon trainer was to form unbreakable bonds between you and your Pokemon, what she thought made a good trainer, and what Winston lacked.

Even with two of her Pokemon down, Gwen wasn't intimidated, because it was clear the rich kid didn't actually know what he was doing. Not to mention, both of her remaining partners had a type advantage. Although Custard would be terrified of a 5 foot insect who was under the control of someone who was absolutely losing their shit. Pix was the only real option right now.

Gwen plucked Pix's Pokeball off her belt, looking at if for a second, knowing this would be her only chance to take down the bug-type.

"Pix, help me out!"

"Vul! Vulpix!" The fox Pokemon cried out on entrance, followed by the sunlight to appear brighter.

"Pix! Fire Spin!" Pix opened her mouth and spat out a small ball of fire, appearing to be slightly bigger than an Ember, that was directly headed Scyther's way.

"SCYTHER I DON'T CARE WHAT THE FUCK YOU DO, JUST GET RID OF HER!"

Just before impact, Scyther vanished. Was this another priority move? He appeared a split-second later on the right where he was standing, screeching a "SCYTHAA" noise, before disappearing in a blink.

Right next to the spot he was previously in, Scyther appeared and reappeared again, making another "SCYTHAA" noise in the moment that he was visible.

"SCYTHAA!" This time Scyther showed up to left of his initial spot, and yet again, fading away once more.

This process continued only speeding up, and in no-time, Scyther was moving so fast it gave the illusion that Pix was circled around by ten or so Scythers, all screeching out "SCYTHAA!" noise with zero harmony.

"Damnit, it's Double Team!" Gwen agonized out-loud. Of course she knew about it, but she never really wanted to deal with it. But she had to think, and fast, because at any millisecond these Scyther would attack Pix and hit hard.

Just right then and there, she had an idea. This could possibly end up real bad, but she was left with little other options.

"Pix, shoot a Fire Spin directly where you're standing!"

With no hesitation, the Vulpix complied, jumped up in the air and spat a fire ball where she was standing. On impact, the fire ball expanded into a fire vortex that grew with each second, and Pix landed back down to her spot. She was taking slight damage while she stood in the eye of the storm, her typing allowing her to resist the damage of her own attack. Even with some damage being taken, Pix and Gwen seemed to mutually agreed that this risk might be necessary, as the Fire Storm engulfed the Scyther and his clones

One by one, the Scythers disappeared in the fire, leaving only the real one to remain. The real Scyther, looking to be in severe pain, collapsing to his knees, as he couldn't handle being caught in the fire-type attack that was boosted by the sun-rays.

"SCYTHAAAAAAAAA!!" The bug-type screamed in agony, being burnt by Fire Spin.

Of the remaining audience members, Bethany took note of this. This wasn't something she'd expect from her rival, and was even a little impressed.

"SCYTHER WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!!" Winston hollered at his Pokemon, something that was starting to get on Gwen's nerves. She didn't have time to focus on that, because she needed to end this.

"Pix, ember!" Just as her trainer shouted, Pix spat out a small spark that landed directly on her opponent, this time Scyther had no real opportunity to dodge. The Fire Spin faded, and Scyther fell on his face, now unable to battle.

Gwen was the victor.

Winston dropped onto his hands and knees, almost in an identical position to that of the trainer he previously defeated.

"How could I...How could I have lost?"

Gwen completely ignored this, walked over to Pix, kneeled down to stick her left hand onto her partner's chest, and stood up while tucking Pix's rear between her chest and arms.

"Good job today Pix. That must have fucking sucked." Gwen smiled at Pix, very appreciative of what her Vulpix had gone through. Pix responded by nuzzling against Gwen's arm.

"How could I lose?" Winston said increasingly louder to catch the attention of the duo. "My Pokemon are so strong!"

"I tried to tell you." Gwen said somewhat condescendingly. "Even if they're really strong, you don't have any sort of relationship with your Pokemon. Anyone can catch a strong Pokemon. What matters is how you treat them." Gwen went on. "I mean, your Riolu seemed pretty emotionless. You know Riolu can only evolve if you become really good friends, right?"

"But...but...but…" Winston looked downwards to hide him crying. He had never been so humiliated before. "You don't understand...my dad gave me that Riolu!"

"OOOHHHHHHH, WINSTON, DARLING!" Winston's sobbing was interrupted by Lucinda dashing over to her "darling". Lucinda's voice was enough to encourage him to get back up on his feet, somehow acting exactly like he was when Gwen first saw him.

Winston held onto Lucinda's right hand with both of his, while Lucinda's free hand was on her cheek. "Oh my dear Lucinda, I'm so sorry you had to see that!"

"Oh Winston, darling, to me you'll always be the best!"

Gwen observed this all with disgust. Relationships were something she hadn't quite seen the appeal of, especially not as young as these two were.

Gwen remembered something at that moment. Wasn't there a Copperajah in the room that hadn't been fully addressed?

"Ah'll tell ye why ye lost."

Oh right. That was it.

Bethany approached the rich kid couple, ready to serve them a piece of her mind.

"Ye lack stra'egy. Ye hae strang Pokemon, but there's mair tae battlin' than showin' aff."

Winston and Lucinda simultaneously gave a disgusted expression headed Bethany's way, very similar to what Gwen was treated to when they saw her outfit.

"Oh my, where are you from??" Winston asked.

"Ah'm frae Galar. Born in Spikemuth, but li'd in Wyndon fer puckle years."

"Spikemuth??" Winston mocked. "Certainly shows by that accent, but it totally taints your wardrobe."

"If you want to pretend to be posh, why don't you talk posh while you're at it?" Lucinda smugly added in, clearly trying to provoke her.

"That's true, darling. Why doesn't she just try speaking normally???"

"PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The couple laughed in sync.

Bethany, however, was certainly not laughing. The look in her eyes seemed to tell a tale about how infuriated she was, and her face appeared to be turning a shade of red, getting brighter with every second. Her teeth were exposed and looking like they were about to grind, and she had her fists to her side, begrudgingly holding back because she knew the consequences would not be worth the action. Gwen had never seen her this enraged before.

"OI, YE SHUT YER BLUDY TRAP!" Bethany screamed, pointing her index finger uncomfortably close to Winston's face. She was ready to unleash her wrath.

"Ah cannae bludy stand other rich fowk loch ye! Unloch me, ye had e'erythin' en yer life handed to ye by yer bludy ma an' pa an' now as a result ye are absolutely awfy against somebody slightly mair component than ye, but is a complete BAMPOT in e'ery other way!" Her finger was getting closer with every word she spoke. "Ah hate Uno'ian chavs, but the only hin' ah hate mair than that is other rich fowk! Ye are SAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEE pampered by yer ma an' pa ye dornt ken hoo tae li' on yer own wi'oot yer da's lowie! Yer o'erpriced education was LESS VALUABLE than somebody frae bludy CAPE COLLEGE! Yer lowie means SHITE if ye dornt hae real technique! All ye pro'ed is at ye caught a strang Pokemon. ANY bludy nyaff can dae 'at, E'EN a UNO'IAN CHAV!!"

Lucinda cowered behind Winston's back, her eyes watering as she shivered once again. "Darling, it's scaring me!" Winston didn't seem to be much help, he was shivering just as much as her "darling".

"Me too, darling! Let us make our exit!" Within seconds, the two began booking it out of the battlefield, and far out of sight for the two girls.

"AT'S RIGHT, GET TAE FOCK AWAY!" Bethany shook her first at the young couple escaped the scene.

"Hey uhh…" Gwen whispered trying to get the Galrian trainer's attention. "So uh...what's your name again?"

"It's Bethany Miller!"

"Yeah yeah, that." Gwen made shooing gestures with her hands as if it didn't matter. "Why did you help me?"

"We come bonnie close in battle ance" Bethany crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Ah'd hate if th' chav ah got somewhat close tae beatin' me tint tae a rich fowk."

Gwen just stood there, expressionless. This didn't seem right to her.

The Galarian girl then faced directly at her rival, hands on her hips and wore her usual irritated expression.

"An' when ah said 'at barin lacked stra'egy, 'at goes for ye an aw, G'endolyn." Ah, there was the Bethany she was so familiar with.

"Hate tae admit, but 'ulpix's usage ay Fire Spin was noteworthy. Yer Axew, howe'er, is jist pure muscle."

Gwen knew she was right. Tusk was very headstrong, but that would get him nowhere without any thought-out way to land attacks.

"In that case, why don't you spar with me and we can work that out?" The black-haired girl's enthusiasm sparked, preparing to grab a Pokeball off her belt.

"Ah cannae dae 'at." Bethany closed her eyes and shook her head gently. "Ah got tae get ready fur th' gym. Ah suggest ye dae th' sam, nae 'at ah hink ye stain a chance."

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" The laugh that pierced Gwen's ears had escaped Bethany's mouth, and she walked away, presumably going to be lost soon.

This did remind Gwen she needed to prepare for the gym. Of course she needed to heal her Pokemon first, but once she was done with that she would do what she was supposed to be doing and plan out her day.

Gwen returned Pix to her Pokeball, as she was going to take her friends to heal up. Surely, these Pokemon would have quite a tale to tell to the nurse.

Friday, 12:00 PM

On the outskirts of Lavender Town and before the Rock Tunnel exit, Gwen and Tusk were practicing an attack Tusk had not yet used. The Unovian girl found a tall and sturdy tree to perhaps practice some of Tusk's attacks on. The trunk of the tree had tons of claw markings on it, indicating that Gwen was far from the first to use this tree as a victim of training. As she gave her commands to the Axew, one sentence lingered on her mind.

"Yer Axew, howe'er, is jist pure muscle."

Gwen very much disliked Bethany, but despite this, she was certainly correct. The encounter with the Riolu had brought to the forefront that Tusk does need some kind of technique. Normally in battle he just kind of attacked.

"TUSK, DUAL CHOP!" Gwen shouted, audibly exhausted.

"KEW KEW!" Tusk charged up to the tree, his hands surrounded in purple lightning to channel the dragon-energy into them, and as he got close enough to the large tree trunk, he slashed it with one hand, buffered a bit, and slashed it again with the other. Once done, Tusk was panting heavily.

Gwen was also panting, not as heavily as her Pokemon, but they had been at this for about an hour, almost right after they got lunch, and it certainly didn't help all they ate was Cup Noodles.

"Damnit!" Gwen held her fists to her side, closed her eyes, and thrust her face downward to hide some kind of shame. "I hate how Galar Girl is right! Tusk, your strength alone won't cut it!"

"KEW KEW!" The dragon-type Pokemon snapped at her trainer. In his mind, it was all he would ever need, even if in reality it cost him a few victories.

"You don't get it Tusk!" The frustrated girl lifted her head back up to face the Axew, her eyes still shut."You ARE strong! But if you don't have technique how will you ever get a hit in!"

"KKYYYEEEEEEEWWWWW!" Tusk lifted his head up, puffed his chest out, and marched over to Gwen. He looked up to make eye-contact and began yelling at her, despite how she couldn't really understand what she was saying.

Gwen couldn't take this. She had a bit of a headache and held her head in her palm. She even felt her stomach hurt a bit from the stress, placing her available hand on it.

"Is your Axew giving you trouble?"

Another unfamiliar voice. As soon as the sentence ended, Gwen flinched and jumped up in the air.

"GAH!" She turned around, slipped, and fell on her rear. The muscular, six foot figure intimidated her, causing her to tremble in her place. Tusk thought his trainer was in danger, rushing in-front of her to guard her from any potential harm, but too cowardly to attack against an opponent this size.

"Oh no no no! I do not mean to harm you!" The figure said using hand gestures to signal his innocence. Gwen stopped shaking as the figure reached out his muscular, warm beige arms to help her up. Gwen reluctantly accepted, and after being gently pulled up, she had gotten a better look at the goodwill in his face that had been growing out a thin, graying, handlebar mustache.

"I apologise!" The figure rubbed the back of his bald head in embarrassment. "I had no intention of frightening you!" Gwen took note of his purple, sleeveless karate gi and that he was completely barefoot.

"Wh-Why are you here?" Gwen stuttered.

The muscular man cleared his throat. "Well, I noticed you and your Pokemon seemed to have a misunderstanding, and I wish to help."

Gwen, still a tiny bit scared, anxiously cocked an eyebrow. "Okay, b-but...Why do you want to help a complete stranger out?"

"My bad!" The man chuckled. "I forgot to introduce myself." He extended his arm, this time offering a handshake, which Gwen accepted, less weary than before.

"I have trained with dragon Pokemon my entire life, and I wish to help any dragon types I come by. Please, call me Doryu." He shifted his views towards Tusk, meticulously examining him.

Doryu put his index finger and thumb up to his chin. "So, your Axew here is upset. He takes pleasure from charging into combat, but you come into conflict with him on this, because this always ends with him losing, and with an upcoming gym battle you desire to win as apart of your graduation Cape College, you are unsure how far this will get you."

Gwen's eyes widened. "W-Wait, how did you know???"

"Because I can speak with dragon Pokemon."

Gwen's eyes widened even further, her jaw dropped, and gasped loudly.

"W-WOW, YOU CAN TALK TO POKEMON??? THAT'S INCREDIBLE!!! PLEASE TEACH ME HOW!!!"

"GAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Doryu burst into a hearty laughter. "That was just a joke. I heard you shout at Axew as I was passing by, and Lavender is close by which has a gym. Many other Cape College students happen to be there, and you seem to be around that age."

"O-Oh, right. I was just joking too." Gwen weakly let a laugh of her own out in an attempt to cover her embarrassment.

Doryu cleared his throat. "But seriously, I do wish to help your Axew. I am a dragon master, so I believe I am well-suited for this."

"A dragon master?" Gwen's eyes lit up with slight intrigue.

"For many years, I have traveled across the planet, trained and lived with every species of dragon Pokemon."

The intrigue in Gwen grew. "So do you mean EVERY dragon type?"

Doryu nodded. "Yes. I have lived in the mountain peaks with Salamence, dwelled in the dark caves with Garchomp, wrestled with many Druddigon in the valleys, swam the treacherous seas with Kingdra, crawled the dry deserts with Flygon, and fought alongside the Kommo-O in the tropics!"

At this point the intrigue on Gwen's face could be seen from space. "DID YOU EVEN MEET RAYQUAZA?!?"

Doryu shut his eyes and smirked. "Of course. I've met the legendary Pokemon Rayquaza many times, even battled it with my own bare hands!" The dragon master swiped his thumb across his nose. "And on every single occasion, I was the victor!"

Gwen, trying her best to contain her excitement and failing, was rapidly bouncing up and down.

"OHMYGOSHTHAT'SSUPRCOOLYOUBATTLEDRAYQUAZAHOWISTHATEVENPOSSIBLE!!!"

Doryu, trying to keep his confident expression, broke and let out another hearty laugh. "GAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was another joke. There is no way I could ever beat a Rayquaza in battle in my current state."

"Oh, right...Hehehehe..." Gwen scratched the back of her head. "I knew it was a joke."

Doryu cleared his throat again. "Everything besides that however, was not. More than anyone else, I understand the bond with dragon Pokemon, and I see you wish to strengthen your own with Axew."

Gwen nodded. "Yeah. Tusk is really strong but he doesn't have any technique."

The dragon master crossed his arms and closed his eyes to contemplate something. "I might possibly have a solution." He proposed as his eyes opened. "How about we do a little sparring to test the potential of your Tusk here?"

Gwen backed away a little. "I-I don't know, I don't know if Tusk would stand a chance against your Pokemon, they're probably REALLY strong…"

"That's why I would use a Pokemon at a similar level." Doryu assured, holding a Pokeball of his own. Gwen contemplated the suggestion before deciding it was a good idea.

Doryu grinned. "Good decision." His expression then morphed from wise and relaxed to disciplined and determined as he clicked the Pokeball and used that energy to toss it. The ball opened, the white light forming into a Pokemon that Gwen or Tusk weren't expecting to see.

"Ahks-yew!"

"No way! Another Axew!" The Unovian trainer gleamed. She wouldn't have guessed that Doryu brought an Axew of his own, even if it did make sense.

Doryu's Axew, however, seemed different from Tusk. Unlike Tusk, who was very aggressive, this Axew shared an expression with his trainer, very stern and focused.

"Using the ability of my Axew, we shall test the ability of your own." Doryu's harsh expression starred the opposing side down. "Do not hesitate!"

"Looks like we're getting serious!" Gwen pumped her fist. "Tusk, show 'em what we practiced with Dual Chop!"

"AAAAAAAXYEWYEWYEWYEWYEWYEW!" Just as they rehearsed, Tusk began to rush towards the Axew, his hands being wrapped in the same purple lighting. Unlike they had rehearsed, however, the other Axew had his legs parallel to each other, and held his arms out to his sides, not to attack, but it certainly was not expected.

Doryu's Axew then folded his arms inwards, holding one hand into a fist into the palm of his other hand, and took a deep breath. Immediately, Axew stomped into a different stance, this time appearing hunched over, holding both of his arms out, his left arm angled upwards and right arm held out straight with boths hands baring his claws. This was all achieved before Tusk was even close enough to hit.

"YEEEEW!" Tusk announced his attack before it was about to land. He aggressively swung his right arm towards the enemy Axew, but Doryu's Axew countered by using his left hand to grab onto Tusk's attacking hand, neutralizing it.

"WHAT!?!?" Gwen gasped, Tusk gasping as well since he was the one to have his attack interrupted. Doryu was on a completely different level.

Doryu's glare seemed to get more intimidating as this happened. "Axew! Dual Chop!"

Seemingly at the press of a button, Axew's open claw was surrounded in what appeared to be purple lightning. He took advantage of Tusk's neutralized state, and suddenly jammed his claws into his foe's ribcage under Tusk's attacking arm.

"TUSK??? ARE YOU OKAY???" Gwen shouted out, concerned about the state her Pokemon was in.

All Tusk could do was stand there with his mouth wide open, gasping for breath, almost as if he was frozen in pain. Doryu's Axew let go of Tusk, and with no support, Tusk collapsed to the ground.

"TUSK!!!" Gwen, in a state of panic, ran over the dragon-type, and kneeled down to tend to him. Despite the Axews being a similar level, they were clearly unmatched.

Gwen was about to run over to her bag to grab some potions, but when she noticed that it was dark, she looked up to see Doryu standing over her, returning to his relaxed persona, holding a Revival Herb in his palm.

"For Tusk." He smiled. "He needs it."

-----------------------------------

Doryu sat on the ground with his legs crossed with Gwen and Tusk facing across from them sitting in the same position (Or at least as close as Tusk could cross his legs). Doryu's Axew was sitting down next to his trainer as well.

"May I ask your name?" Doryu asked. It was weird to think about, but he never actually got the name of the trainer whose Pokemon he utterly destroyed.

"I'm Gwen! Gwen Alanis!" She boldly stated. "My older sister is Jennifer Alanis!"

Doryu closed his eyes as if to contemplate a thought. "The name is not familiar to me." Gwen lightly sighed. Maybe her sister really was some has-been tournament winner?

"It does not matter to me however." The dragon master continued. "You are not your sister. You are you, Gwen Alanis!"

This seemed a little odd to Gwen. What was that supposed to mean? Obviously she wasn't her sister. She didn't have much time to dwell on this because Doryu went on.

"That is besides the point though. What I wish to discuss right now is your loss. Tell me, why do you think you lost?"

"It's because me and Tusk don't have any sort of technique." Gwen admitted, having gotten somewhat used to their losses being because of this.

Tusk, however, wasn't willing to accept this, as upon hearing his trainer point it out, he crossed his arms and pouted. He refused to believe that just going in for the kill wasn't as effective as he thought, even if he knew it was true.

Doryu took note of both of their reactions. "I can tell you both have a very strong bond, and while that is an essential part of being a Pokemon trainer, Alanis is right."

Gwen peaked over at Tusk to stick her tongue out. Tusk growled a little in response.

"However, not only do you lack strategy, you also lack discipline. Discipline is very important when raising Pokemon, and dragons are no exception. Dragons are some of the most powerful Pokemon known to man, however this comes at a cost of them being more difficult to raise."

"The style Axew used to defeat Tusk was Lung Ying, or Southern Dragon Style. This is a style I teach to all of my young dragons, as demonstrated by my Axew." Doryu's Axew nodded in agreement. "In the wild, dragons are born into very secluded communities of their species where they are raised by the more experienced dragons of the group, and are taught by the older dragons how to live using their natural abilities. Very rarely, however, a young dragon will get lost from it's pack and end up living on their own, hence why Pokemon such as Axew are so rare to come across."

Gwen briefly scanned Tusk. Did Tusk get lost from his family?

Doryu continued. "Sometimes these Pokemon are caught by trainers. Other times, the dragon, with little training on how to take advantage of it's natural abilities, will attempt to survive, and nature takes its course…" Even if he was able to mask it fairly well, Gwen felt the sorrow Doryu contained in the last sentence.

"When a young dragon is caught by a trainer, especially a beginner trainer, the trainer fails to understand how to take advantage of their strengths and weaknesses, usually focusing solely on power. As they evolve, their strength increases, but not much else improves. Think of it like this; Dragons who lack discipline are like Outrage, the Dragon-type attack. Devastatingly powerful- As long as it can hit. Outrage uses all of the power dragons contain, but comes at the cost of control, leaving them defenseless if used poorly. This is how I see Tusk right now."

Lectures usually weren't her specialty, but since the subject was Pokemon, Gwen absorbed this information like a sponge. She recognized every word he was saying was correct. Tusk wouldn't be evolving for some time, and by then all of Bethany's Pokemon would be running circles around Tusk.

"This is why I teach my young dragons Lung Ying, to teach them discipline until they are able to harness their natural abilities as they evolve."

"Alright then." Gwen let out. "Teach this to Tusk."

The dragon trainer once again appeared to be deep in thought. "As much as I would delight from training you both, at the moment you have more immediate goals, such as your gym battle and your graduation journey. What I wish to teach you takes time you do not currently have, however I can attempt to condense the necessary training. Remember, this isn't meant to carry you through your journey, but it will help you learn at least a little discipline."

Gwen again shifted her head towards Tusk. "Whaddya say?"

Tusk knew it was time to swallow his pride. Reluctantly, he sighed and unenthusiastically got on his feet. "Kew kew…"

"Let us begin." Doryu stood up but was a bit confused as to why Gwen was still sitting. She continued to stay seated, looking up after a bit.

"Soooo...What are you waiting for?"

"You." He bluntly stated.

Gwen's eyes widened as she waved her hands around. "M-Me?"

Doryu and Axew simultaneously noded their heads. "In order to strengthen your bond, you both need to learn discipline."

Just as her Pokemon did, Gwen sighed and unenthusiastically stood on her feet. Her training was about to begin.

-----------------------------

Two hours had passed. Gwen and Tusk, panting heavily, did their best to maintain the stance Doryu's Axew defeated Tusk with, even if it was difficult because they had been exhausted by the training.

Doryu sternly examined the duo, contemplating the training. "You have both done well. Let us finish our training." The moment the words left his mouth, Gwen and Tusk crashed to the ground.

"A-Are we actually done?" Gwen had never seemed so relieved.

"Not exactly. What I taught you was basic enough to help you through close-ranged battles for the moment, but you still have a lot to learn." Suddenly his face transformed back into his relaxed self. "But for all intents and purposes, yes."

"Oh, tha-" Gwen needed to interrupt her sentence to pant. "Thank you so much old man."

"Old man?" Again, Doryu laughed to himself. "Please, call me Doryu. Master Doryu."

The Unovian trainer shot up an eyebrow. "Master?"

Doryu nodded. "I shall consider you an honorary student of mine. It is a shame our training is so limited, because I can feel the potential the two of you have. However, if you ever desire to continue your training full-time, I will accept whenever you are ready."

Gwen, still panting, wasn't awfully keen on that offer. "Thanks, but I need to finish my journey first before I can really think about that."

"I am aware, however, once you complete your journey, I hope you shall consider my offer."

This wasn't something she was considering very heavily. Once she got her trainer's license, Gwen figured she'd be on her way to becoming a World Champion.

"Oh, that's right! Before we part, I wish to reward you for your training."

Gwen's eyes lit up. "Sweet! What is it!?"

"Close your eyes first and hold out your hands." Gwen did as her instructor asked, holding out her hands in anticipation.

She was very excited about the possibility of what she could receive. It had to be dragon related, so maybe it was a TM? Or perhaps he was going to leave her with a Dragon Scale or Dragon Fang? Or maybe even a new dragon-type Pokemon to raise? The possibilities made her shake.

What she felt drop into her hands was most likely not what she was expecting. It was very light, thin, and felt like paper.

"You may now open your eyes."

Gwen did so, and glanced down to see what she received. It was indeed all the things she felt, small, thin, and paper, shaped like a bill. It had some text printed on it, which she began to read aloud.

"Pokey's Family Restaurant...Free order of one chicken strip meal…" The disappointment in her voice deepened as she read each word. "What the fuck is this?"

"Have you had Pokey's chicken strips? They're delicious!" Doryu laughed to himself. "Plus, today is Pokemon Eat Free Day! That coupon expires tomorrow, so it would be wise to use it tonight!" Gleefully, the dragon trainer returned his Axew to his Pokeball to head on his way. "Farewell Alanis! Hopefully we shall meet again!"

Gwen was still in disbelief about her "reward". She did remember that last night she promised to take Tusk to a restaurant today, and he deserved it after their training, so at least that was covered.

Now that Tusk knew more than just charging into battle, there was no way they'd be able to lose in Gwen's mind.

The Lavender Town Gym was a building many Cape College students were visiting today in order to take their first step towards obtaining their trainer licenses. Gwen was no exception, as she nervously yet excitedly made her way into the gym. First thing she did, as any other trainer would do, was walk up to the receptionist to make her appointment with the gym leader.

"Uh-h-I-Co-The gym-I want to-"

Well, at least she tried to.

"Can I-I'd like to-is the gy-" The words were struggling to escape Gwen's mouth. Doing such things were definitely not her strong suit. The receptionist's fading patience seemed to imply this was irritating her.

"Would you like to schedule an appointment with Beaumont?" Gwen was alleviated by the receptionist putting the words into her mouth, even if she did so passive aggressively. She nodded in response.

"Alright then, please hand over your permit and your Pokemon." Eager to get on with the process, the receptionist stared at the challenger, waiting for her to hand over the requirements.

"O-Oh, right! Hehe, my bad, just uh…" Gwen hastily placed her Pokeballs on the desk, and then seemed to struggle with pulling her wallet out of her pocket. When she heard her Pokeballs rolling around on the desk, her attention was promptly drawn to it, and she grabbed them to ensure they wouldn't roll off the desk. She didn't realize however, that she did manage to grab her wallet with her left hand, making it more difficult to actually pick up two of her four Pokeballs.

"Ahem!" Gwen looked up to see the receptionist looking more annoyed than before. Mortified, Gwen handed over her belongings, and turned around to make her way to a seat in the lobby.

"The next spot we have is available right now, just walk this way and you'll be on your way to see Beaumont, it's a 3 on 3 battle against electric-type Pokemon with substitutions allowed, and no items."

Well this only made things more embarrassing. Gwen buffered for a second, wallowing in her humiliation, turned around to grab her permit and Pokeballs, and sped-walk through the hall to the arena.

The time it took her to approach the battlefield gave her some time to come down from her embarrassment. The idea that she was about to face her first gym leader made her a mix of nervous, but very excited. For years, she dreamed of the day she could challenge a gym, however this would be no easy feat. She remembered the stories of gym battles her sister, Jennifer, told her, but those usually ended in Jenny pulling through. A lot more for the young trainer to live up to.

As she arrived into the arena, Gwen was in awe of the room she set foot in. A dirt battlefield, monitors above each hallway the challenger and gym leader would enter from, and an audience, which for better or worse, very few people were among. With the exception of the minimal audience, this was all very standard for a professional battlefield like this, but it was something she could only imagine battling on. One could imagine the excitement she shrieked when she noticed on one monitor her Pokemon were shown on-screen next to the portrait she had on her permit, even if it wasn't a very flattering one, since she was only informed about picture day at the very last second, making her buns look messier than normal while having the appearance of a zombie.

Gwen noticed the other monitor light up, quickly examining the Pokemon on-screen.

It seems they're all electric types with ranged attacks. She noted to herself. I don't think Tusk's training will pay off here.

Her eyes averted to the man below the monitor who was adjusting a yellow tie around his neck. On his head rested big, puffy, light blonde hair while he was wearing a green suit. The colors complimented each other quite well, but nothing matched his outfit as well as his massive smile that must have hurt his mouth from stretching it out so long. Something about it made the Unovian trainer a tad uncomfortable, although she couldn't put her finger on what it was.

Once she got past his grin, the color scheme of his look reminded Gwen of something.

"Wow!" Gwen pointed in the direction of the gym leader. "You look like a Skiploom!" The man wearing the Gulpin-looking suit could only widen his smile.

"Why, that's an awfully adorable observation you have there." He lightly chuckled to himself. "Miss Alanis, is it? My name is Beaumont and, as you probably guessed, I'm the Lavender Town gym leader."

Most of the time Gwen would be unbelievably stoked to be in the presence of a gym leader, but something about this man was...Off. Was it the outfit? It wasn't abnormal for a gym leader to be hyper flamboyant, honestly there were plenty who could put Beaumont's lemon-lime soda suit to shame, so it definitely wasn't that.

"Shall we begin?" Beaumont grabbed a Pokeball, clicking the release button, tossing it into the air letting a white light escape that formed into a metallic, levitating Pokemon, perfectly round with two magnets to its side, with three screws sticking out.

"MAGNEMITE. MAGNEMITE" The Pokemon sounded like it was making a very robotic statement.

"Magnemite!" Gwen quickly reached for Pix's ball, being fully aware of the type advantage she had. More eagerly than the gym leader, she tossed Pix's Pokeball onto the ground to send out the Vulpix. Despite the fact they were indoors, Pix's ability created the mirage of a bright sun looming overhead.

"Vulpix! Vul!"

Beaumont's grin seemed to reset. "Wise choice Miss Alanis. But don't think type advantages alone will be all you need!"

She was somewhat aware of this after a few encounters, but with a steel-type right in-front of her Pokemon it was difficult to not get a little cocky.

"Begin!" An electronic voice announced. This excited Gwen a little, even as she was still trying to figure out what was off about Beaumont.

Is it the smile?

"Pix! Incinerate!" Pix opened her mouth to unleash a slow stream of fire that was aimed at the Magnemite. Unlike Ember, where one Ember allowed for quick movements in-between uses, Incinerate required the Vulpix to be stationary.

The moment Pix unleashed the attack, Beaumont's smile instantly disappeared, his face instead appearing very cold and stern.

Oh yeah, it's definitely the smile.

"Magnemite, Light Screen." Magnemite stuck it's magnets in-front of it, using them to project some kind of force field. The Incinerate wasn't completely blocked by the force field, about half of the attack made its way through, but the damage was still minimized.

This caught Gwen off-guard, but she wouldn't let that stop her.

"Pix, use Will-O-Wisp!" Pix spat out a ghastly fireball, however the attack was too easy for Magnemite to move out of the way of, then followed up with a Magnet Bomb, summoning many metallic orbs thaf violently attached themselves to Pix.

"Damnit! Incinerate again!" The pair copied their last move, and unsurprisingly Magnemite was able to float out of the way. It then shot another Magnet Bomb at Pix.

"This isn't gonna work is it…" Gwen, facing towards the floor, put her index finger and thumb up to her chin, indicating she needed to reevaluate her plan. Beaumont studied the challenger's face.

Suddenly Gwen's eyes lit up. "Pix, use Incinerate!"

Beaumont's smile returned. "Another Incinerate? What do type advantages mean if you can't even land a single hit?"

As expected, Magnemite dodged, however instead of appearing frustrated as she had before, Gwen let out a smirk of her own.

"Now Pix, Fire Spin!"

Right as the Magnemite dodged, Pix shot a fire ball out of her mouth that unlike the Incinerates, was able to connect. On-impact, the ball of fire expanded into a flame vortex, trapping the Pokemon. Magnemite had been baited.

"Pix, Incinerate one more time!" With the Magnemite trapped, Pix shot out a stream of fire that was able to scorch the steel-type. Even with Light Screen still up, the damage of this boosted by Pix's Drought ability stacked onto the Fire Spin damage caused Magnemite to fall to the ground.

"Magnemite is unable to battle!"

Beaumont's grin returned, increasing in size. "My my, that certainly threw me off. Nicely done!" He said as he returned his Pokemon. "But let's see how you can deal with a Pokemon that takes half the damage my Magnemite did, and moves at twice the speed!" Just as he did before, Beaumont tossed another Pokeball into the air, releasing a flying squirrel Pokemon, Emolga.

"Emolga, why don't you greet our guests here with a welcome hug?" The Emolga jumped into the air, just enough to become airborne and to glide it's way towards Pix while sparks were emitting from it's cheeks. Gwen recognized this as Nuzzle. Bad news.

"Pix, Will-O-Wisp!" Pix spat out another wispy fireball, and it was at this moment that Beaumont's grin disappeared again.

Why does he keep doing that?

"Spark!" At the command of her trainer, the Emolga glided out of the way of the purple fireball, changing course to attack Pix from behind and engulfed her body in electricity, tackling the Vulpix and shocking her. After her attack landed, she glided back to Beaumont's side of the field, landing on his shoulder.

Pix was able to stand after the damage, but Gwen noticed static around the Vulpix. She had been paralyzed. Gwen thought it could be a good idea to switch out, but her options were limited. Emolga was certainly too mobile for Jess, and Tusk wouldn't be able to keep up much better. The Emolga's flying typing normally would be an ideal time to switch into Custard, but her electric-typing would resist Custard's own electric moves. It seemed best for Pix to stay in.

"Incinerate again!" With some difficulty, Pix shot out another slow stream of fire, one which Emolga was immediately able to dodge out of the way of, quicker than the Magnemite ever could. Even with this, Pix was able to follow-up with a fireball she shot from her mouth.

"You think the same strategy is gonna work twice?" Beaumont glared, staring coldly at Gwen, his grin gone once again. Emolga then swiftly dodged the Fire Spin, and seemed to multiply. There were now three Emolga, quickly splitting again into five, all flocking towards Pix from different directions. Faster than anyone was able to see, the Emolgas would continuously ram their bodies into Pix.

While not quite on this level, Gwen had experienced a very similar scenario just earlier today. She was prepared for another Double Team. "Pix, Fire Spin like earlier today!"

"Vul...Pix…" All she was able to do was whimper in pain, the paralysis prevented her from using any attacks, and it certainly wasn't helping that she was being swarmed by Emolga clones.

Gwen cupped her hands around her mouth. "PIX! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!" She tried her best to cheer her Pokemon on, refusing to give up just yet. "WE CAN'T LOSE JUST YET! USE FIRE SPIN!"

With the encouragement of her trainer by her side, Pix mustered up all her energy to jump into the air and shoot a Fire Spin at the ground. Just like against the Scyther, the fire ball burst into a fire tornado. Pix was trapped in the middle of it, and so were the Emolgas, one by one the clones disappeared. Normally, this would be overwhelmingly positive news, but both Gwen and Pix both noticed something bizarre.

Emolga never stopped flying. Rather instead, she used the flame vortex as an air current to glide through it, gaining more and more momentum, allowing her to zip through the tornado, and as a result was very difficult to see. Emolga was still trapped and taking damage, but she definitely had an advantage.

"I have to admit Miss Alanis, this is an interesting strategy you've had up your sleeve. But never put it past a gym leader to take advantage of something like this. Emolga, let's give her some shock therapy!"

Being too fast to be spotted by the naked eye, all Pix could see was a black blur swirling around that would zap Thundershocks directly at Pix every five seconds.

"Shit, what do I do?"[/] Gwen was beginning to panic again. "Emolga is moving way too fast to properly hit, what even IS there to do, I think I might be screwed-"

"VUUUUUUUUULLLLL!" Her train of thought was cut off by her Pokemon screaming in pain. She had a feeling Pix did this deliberately in-case something like this were to happen. Pix was trying her absolute best to hang in there, but it wasn't looking certain she'd be able to much longer.

"Pix, Incinerate!" Doing her best to fight the paralysis and aim for the Emolga, Pix tried to aim her attack at her opponent, just being off by an inch or two, pursuing Emolga. She did catch up, the attack stopping Emolga in her tracks, but the fire seeped through the same barrier Magnemite put up.

It was around this time that the effect of Pix's ability faded away- As did Magnemite's Light Screen, now with neutral damage being dealt to Beaumont's Pokemon. This didn't stop Pix, as she continued to breath fire at the Emolga until the Fire Spin went out, and so did Emolga, crashing into the ground.

"Emolga is unable to battle."

Gwen, in awe of how much her Pokemon was able to survive the round, jumped with joy.

"That was amazing Pix! You really need a rest right now." She aimed a Pokeball at Pix, but before she could press the white button, the fire-type turned around and shook her head.

"Vulpix!" Her Pokemon barked. Gwen looked quizzically at Pix.

"You really wanna stay in? You need to rest!"

In response, Pix shook her head once more. Gwen sighed. "Well, alright then." Her uncertainty quickly morphed into confidence. "We got this Pix!"

"How charming." Beaumont returned his Emolga, giving another grin which made Gwen shiver a little. "You've demonstrated your skills very well. But let's see how you can do against my final Pokemon."

Beaumont tossed his last Pokeball, letting out a Heliolisk, a Pokemon Gwen had seen before. However, unlike Al's Heliolisk, this one seemed like it was far more capable of defeating foes.

"Vulpix...Vul…" Gritting her teeth, Pix desperately tried to keep her stance. Gwen's confidence was becoming a little difficult to maintain.

"Heliolisk, Razor Wind!" On queue, Heliolisk began to spin in-place, dragging her tail against the floor to whip up a powerful storm.

"This is our chance!" Gwen pointed at Heliolisk, hoping her Vulpix was able to keep up. "Pix, Fire Spin!"

With her remaining energy, Pix spat up a fire ball aimed directly at Heliolisk, too occupied with her own attack to dodge or deflect. The attack did land, appearing to light the cyclone she was wrapping around herself on fire.

"You did it Pix! Great job!"

However, Heliolisk didn't seem to be taking much damage, if any at all. Beaumont's Pokemon stopped spinning, and, much to Gwen's shock, used her tail to launch the Fire Spin-enhanced cyclone towards Pix.

"GAH! Pix, dodge with Quick Attack!" Pix did her absolute best to comply, but she couldn't move. She was fully paralyzed, leaving her in the trajectory of the attack. All she was able to do was stand still, struggling to move. This, of course, left her defenseless when the cyclone knocked Pix against the wall behind Gwen.

"Vulpix is unable to battle."

Gwen, simultaneously in shock while also not at all surprised, returned Pix to her Pokeball. This was to be expected, but to be defeated in such a way certainly was not.

"You did awesome today. Just...Please try not to push yourself next time."

Her first Pokemon was down. Who was there to send out now? Custard's electric attacks wouldn't dish out much damage, and she was unsure if Tusk was able to deal with a long-range attack. That narrowed her choices down to one pick.

"Jess, you're up!" On entrance, Jess hissed aggressively and rattled her tail. Heliolisk winced, but Gwen had the feeling Intimidate wouldn't be super useful right now.

"Heliolisk, Thundershock!" Heliolisk opened the frill around her face, appearing as if she were a satellite. The frill then glowed a bright yellow as she closed her eyes, aiming an electric attack at Jess.

"Jess, get close!" Jess crawled her way to Heliolisk, swiftly dodging the electric attack. She was about two feet away from the Pokemon, a perfect time to launch a ranged attack, Gwen thought.

"Hit 'em with Poison Sting!"

"Heliolisk, I heard that our friend Ekans likes to get dirty. Why don't you go play in the mud with 'em?" Heliolisk kicked up mud from the ground at Jess, dealing super effective damage. Jess was still able to shoot a Poison Sting, but it flew past Heliolisk's shoulder

Damnit, he's trying to lower Jess' accuracy...At least Mud Slap is a weak move, but that can't be how he wants to finish Jess off.

"Heliolisk, use Slam!" Heliolisk lifted her tail up, and was about to crash it into the Ekans. Gwen, however, had a case of deja vu.

"Take advantage of it! Use Wrap!" On-impact, Jess was able to wrap around the tail of Heliolisk, feeling the vibrations of the Pokemon through the ground, and slithered up around her body as fast as she could, wrapping herself around the generator Pokemon.

With a genuine smirk of her own, Gwen made eye-contact with Beaumont. "It's over."

Beaumont was definitely not smiling right now. "You think I didn't expect this? Heliolisk, Razor Wind!"

Gwen flinched at Beaumont having read her as she was. "Wait, wha-"

She didn't finish, as she was distracted by Heliolisk spinning in-place, dragging her tail against the floor to kick up a storm, the only difference this time being that Jess was still wrapped around her.

"GAH! Uhhhh, Jess, use Acid!"

The Heliolisk had started to spin too fast to the point Jess was unable to hear her trainer. Her eyes looked like they would pop out of her head, comically hissing loudly to stop. It was definitely a sight to be seen.

"Come on Jess! You can do it! Poison Sting! Bite! Leer! Wrap! Do something!" Even as Gwen continued to shout commands, this didn't stop the fact that Ekans was being rotated too fast to notice her surroundings.

Heliolisk then stopped, using its tail to unleash the tornado she whipped up. Jess was stuck inside it, curled up and spinning around like a disk, before crashing into the wall behind Gwen.

"Ekans is unable to battle."

"Well well, seems we're both down to our last Pokemon." Gwen really wished Beaumont would drop the smile. "And somehow I don't think you'll be using that Pikachu of yours."

Beaumont was right. Custard would be a guaranteed loss, not only were her attacks ineffective, but also she needed more training before she was truly ready for a gym battle. Tusk was her only hope of winning right now.

Gwen returned Jess to her Pokeball, putting it back, and grabbing her last Pokemon. This would be the round to decide the victor.

"Tusk, I choose you!"

Why is his smile back? Why does he keep doing that? It's really giving me the creeps.

Focus.

That's right. I need to worry about beating the Lavender Town gym leader right now. His Heliolisk is something else, never in my fifteen long years if living did I think I'd see Jess spin around like that. I'm down to Custard and Tusk, but Custard would be suicide. Tusk is my only hope.

"Tusk, I choose you!"

There he is, that's my boy. Just like we practiced with Master Doryu, stay slightly hunched, curl your arms and stick your claws out. It doesn't look as fancy as Master Doryu's Axew, but it works. But how useful will that be? Heliolisk mostly uses range attacks, and the few physical attacks she has used are all with her tail, rather than her arms and legs. How will Tusk even approach Heliolisk? What about-

Focus.

That's right. Everytime I worry about these things, my opponent always takes advantage of that. I don't want a repeat of my first match against...

Damnit, I can't remember her name to save my life! I'll just keep calling her Galar girl.

But that's strange...His Heliolisk doesn't look like it's moved an inch. They've gotta be planning something. They always are.

I could have sworn I saw Beaumont squint for a second when I sent Tusk out. I guess it's not everyday you see an Axew trained in martial arts.

"Tusk, Taunt!" With the arm he was raising higher than the other, he's using his finger to make a beckoning motion. Perfect. Now he can't use any status moves or whatever.

His smile is completely gone again. Heliolisk's flap is up again, glowing bright yellow. Another Thundershock.

"Tusk, dodge and get in there!"

Tusk is able to jump out of the way of the attack, and run his way up to Heliolisk. He's able to hold back his desire to just rush in there, but Beaumont has gotta be planning something.

Heliolisk is kicking mud up, another Mud Slap. It sucks some of it has gotten stuck in Tusk's eyes, but we'll live.

Now she's rotating 180 degrees, sticking her tail out. There's no way Beaumont would charge up a Razor Wind at this range. It's Pound.

"Tusk, just like we practiced!" Well, I dunno about just like we practiced, we weren't expecting tail attacks for sure. But besides that, things look like they're going well. Tusk is able to grab Heliolisk by the tail with his left claw. Now to use his right claw.

"Tusk, Dual Chop!" Normally Tusk would use his dragon-energy enhanced hand to punch his opponent in the face by angling his arm upwards, but there's a bit of a height difference here, and she's already facing backwards, so it looks like it'll just hit her in her back. Probably not as effective, but I'll take it.

As Tusk let's go of her tail, Heliolisk is now sliding on the ground from the impact, trying to keep her balance. Great! We got something in, and I swear to Arceus, for a split-second I noticed Beaumont widened his eyes. What could he be planning after that attack…

Heliolisk is opening her flap again, about to hit us with another Thundershocks.

"Get outta the way!" Tusk jumps back to try avoiding the attack, but the mud in his eyes makes it a little difficult, so he ends up getting hit. At least dragons resist electricity.

"Heliolisk, Razor Wind."

Crap, there it is. Seems Beaumont wanted Tusk to put some space between us so Heliolisk can charge up a Razor Wind. There she goes, spinning around to surround itself with a cyclone. What is Tusk supposed to do? I really don't want a repeat of what happened to Jess, so I can't really use any physical moves. Is it worth it to shoot off a Dragon Rage? What if that gets sucked into the Razor Wind, and then launched back at Tusk? That would deal some serious damage because of Tusk's weakness to his own type. What am I gonna do?

Focus.

That's right, there's a Razor Wind being charged. I don't wanna be too distracted tha- OH SHIT, IT'S ALREADY HEADED TUSK'S WAY!

All he can do is shiver in place and look at me for instructions. Damn, this is embarrassing.

It may be a stretch, but this is the closest thing I can do to dishing out any sort of damage. This might bite me in the ass later, but I don't have time to think about that right now. The attack is quickly heading our way.

"Tusk, Dragon Rage!" Tusk looks back to me, dumbfounded.

""I SAID DRAGON RAGE!" Hastily, he shifts his head back at the cyclone aiming about to deal serious damage.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Just like last time, he's charging purple energy in his mouth. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping desperately this works.

Unfortunately, it seems my prayers are for nothing. Tusk has gotten swept up into the Cyclone, somehow still charging his Dragon Rage. This is looking really bad right now, I've basically already lost...How would Jenny feel if she heard her sister lost a gym battle? I can hear Galar Girl's voice right now, already laughing and talking in her funny voice. There's nothing that I can do.

GULP

What the hell was that?

Turning my head from the ground to Tusk, I notice something really strange. The Dragon Rage is nowhere to be seen in his mouth, but I can see a purple glow coming from his belly. Did…

...Did Tusk just swallow/I] his own attack?

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

A loud noise seems to come from the cyclone, and it looks like the force of Dragon Rage Tusk swallowed was enough to push him in the opposite direction, and the cyclone got wrapped up in things as well.

I...I didn't know this was possible. I can just feel my jaw involuntarily drop to the floor at the sight of this.

Both are now heading Beaumont's way, and there's Beaumont briefly widening his eyes again. Even he seems to have a hard time hiding his surprise!

The cyclone crashes into the wall behind Beaumont, this one having more impact than the one that launched Pix and Jess.

It's kind of hard to see what's going on now, because that impact created a dust cloud and I can't see either Pokemon.

I don't really know exactly what just happened, but I'm REALLY hoping this counts as a win.

-------------------------

The wall debris settles, showing both Tusk and Heliolisk stuck in the indents their bodies made against the wall. Gwen was trying really hard to process what this meant for the results.

"Heliolisk is unable to battle."

Gwen gets ready to jump into the air as a way to celebrate her first gym victory, but before she can take-off, her action is interrupted by the same electronic voice.

"Axew is unable to battle."

Dumbfounded, Gwen just stared at the wall with her jaw hanging loose. "So...It's a draw?"

Beaumont grins again. "Technically yes, but I'd say with your crazy plan there turning the tides, we could count it as a victory for you."

Overjoyed by Beaumont's declaration and not thinking about how what just happened was a matter of crazy coincidences caused by not paying attention, Gwen jumps into the air and pumps her fists.

"YESSSS! I WON MY FIRST GYM BATTLE! OH ARCEUS, I CAN'T BELIEVE I WON, JENNY WILL BE SO PROUD OF ME, THANK YOU SO MUCH TU-"

She interrupts herself when she realizes that Tusk was still stuck in the indents he created in the wall. Gwen giggles to herself, and returns Tusk to his Pokeball.

"Thank you so much Tusk! I'm really proud of you, and I'll be sure to get you whatever you want when we go to Pokey's tonight."

After Gwen finished praising her Pokemon for their efforts, Gwen looked up to see Beaumont approaching her.

Oh my god, please just leave me alone. She thought to herself.

"I'd say you've done a pretty good job today Miss Alanis." Beaumont's unnerving grin widened. "I'll be sure to let Palm know all about our battle today, including how attentive you've been."

The sight of the gym leader caused Gwen to slowly back away. "Hehe, yeah...thanks so much, I uh...I need to go now." Within seconds, Gwen went from slowly backing away to speedily dragging her feet against the ground to make her escape. Once she exited the building, any thoughts she had earlier about something being wrong with Beaumont were clouded with the thought of her victory. Who cares how weird he was? As long as she won the battle.

In her mind, this would surely be a reoccurring thing when challenging gym leaders. If she could beat Beaumont, there would be no stopping her from stomping her way to her goal of becoming the greatest Pokemon trainer.