FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

And it's here, the next chapter! So life has thrown me a couple curve balls this passed month and it looks like I'll have to adjust to new responsibilities for a while. That, and a couple days of writers block delayed this release, but I'll get used to it eventually. On a side note, it's getting chilly over here, and windy. I miss you already summer! Anyway, I'll let you get to reading now. I hope I did a good job and, as always, Comments and Votes are welcome and appreciated here, so go nuts with that. And Happy Halloween!

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Tora was the first to wake in the bed. She yawned and stretched her back a bit before opening her eyes. A mass of warmth to her right and some light snoring already told her that Aaron was still sleeping, so she checked to see if Chris was awake yet. He wasn't, but it looked like he was about to. He usually scrunches his eyes a bit before waking up, like his body is trying to keep him asleep for as long as possible. She thought about the events of last night, smiling to herself as she brought her tail around to examine the plastic ring attached to it. Admittedly, it wasn't much to look at, but it meant so much for her to look at it and say that she was mated to Aaron. She ended up thinking about the possible future she'll be having with the psychic, all the possible happenings making her smile wider. She was so caught up in her thought s that she was almost startled by Chris stretching his arms out as he woke.

"Good morning Chris," she greeted happily.

"Morning," he yawned, seeing that they were the only ones up at the moment. "Been up long?" Tora shook her head.

"I just woke up a couple minutes ago."

"Oh, okay." He noticed that she was holding her tail close to her and glanced at the ring. "So I take it you told him yesterday and you two are officially mates now?" The chu blushed a bit, but nodded.

"Yeah, I told him. It was a little hard to tell him at first though. I still almost can't believe I'm mated to him."

"Well, I think you deserve it. It's what you wanted all this time, right? I know you didn't really have anyone back home that you saw yourself spending the rest of your life with, but, then again, we did spend all our time together, so you never really got a chance to get out there."

"It's alright, Chris. I'll always love spending my time with you. I just want to spend... a little more time with Aaron now, if that's okay with you." Chris brought a hand up and rubbed the top her head.

"It's perfectly fine; I know you two need your space. Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"Don't come back from your time with him popping out little pichu all over the place," he said jokingly. Tora felt her face heat up.

"Oh my god, Chris, that's exactly what dad said when I was in the hospital," she whined, completely embarrassed by his statement. Chris chuckled lightly at her before glancing at the clock. It was half-passed nine.

"Well, I guess we should be getting ready to go. We've got a gym match today." Tora's embarrassment nearly vanished instantly and was replaced with excitement at the mention of a gym battle "The leader has flying pokémon, so you'll definitely be getting some action in this."

"Because I'll be kicking some major butt, right?" she said proudly.

"That's the plan. Wake sleeping beauty up and we can get going as soon as I'm done getting ready."

Chris slid out the bed and made his way to the bathroom to get his teeth brushed and hair combed while Tora got woke Aaron up. Once Chris was fully groomed and dressed in some jean shorts and a red shirt, he, Tora, and Aaron went downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast. They all had the same thing on their plates; two waffles, bacon, eggs, and some sliced apples. It was a simple breakfast that should fuel them with the energy they needed to tackle the day ahead of them. Alice walked in soon after they sat down with Kishan by her side. Chris waved her down and she waved back before she went to get some food for the both of them.

"I'm sure I don't have to ask,"Alice began as she sat down across from Chris. "But are you ready for the gym battle?"

"I'm always ready for a gym battle," Chris replied. "It's just like battling another trainer, only tougher." Alice laughed lightly at his response.

"I guess that's one way of looking at it, but don't get too cocky, Mr. Two badges. He's still a gym leader. By the way, what's today?"

"Uh, Thursday I think."

"Uh oh."

"Uh oh? What's uh oh?"

"You're going to have a really tough time winning your badge."

"Why's that?"

"Well, the gym leader usually reserves Thursdays as the day when he uses one of his stronger pokémon to battle trainers. Most trainers that heard about this try to avoid battling him today, but the more experienced trainers try their luck anyway. I just happened to catch him on a Tuesday and only found out after I got badge from a passing trainer."

"Is his pokémon really that strong?"

"I heard that most trainers waited until they got five badges before they even attempted."

"So do you think I have at winning?"

"You're gonna have to be on you're a-game and then some if you wanna stand a chance."

Chris looked over at Tora, who was listening in on the conversation as well, wondering if they should maybe wait until tomorrow for the match. He didn't want her or any of his other pokémon to get hurt in a battle that they would have little to no chance of winning at. He was confident in their ability to win any battle, but this was sort of pushing his faith in them. Tora however took it as another challenge. "We're going to be fighting at that level one day anyway; might as well get a head start on it," She said, taking another bite of her waffle. She was not the least bit intimidated by a stronger pokémon, especially if she still had a type advantage over it. If anything, she was more determined to defeat this powerful pokémon instead of running away. Chris smiled and shook his head. He should've known she'd say something like that. She was, after-all, raised to never give up. Hopefully, that won't come to bite them on the butt later.

"Yeah, you're right. Just know that I'm throwing in the towel if things get too rough."

"That's fine."

Breakfast continued with Chris and Alice chatting about the upcoming battle and last nights festivities. Once everyone was done eating, Alice led the group to the Auburn Town Gym. On their way, they noticed that some people were busy taking the festival decorations off their businesses and the street. It looked like it would take little while before all the decorations would be put up. The gym itself was quite impressive from the outside, looking almost like a smaller version of the pokémon league stadium. When they got inside, they walked down the one hallway that led back outside, or more precisely, into the open air stadium.

Almost immediately, Chris and Alice spotted a moving shadow on the battlefield, growing larger as it was coming toward them. They looked up and saw a man riding a rather large bird flying toward them at an incredible speed. "I think that's him,"Alicesaid, once the bird could clearly be identified as a pidgeot. The mighty bird swooped in very close and, with a flap of its wings, stopped just inches from the ground and landed. The man hopped off the bird with an excited 'whooo' and a big smile. He was a tall man, maybe about 6'2", with spiky brown hair. He wore jeans, a red shirt with a brown flannel jacket over it.

He lifted the goggles he was wearing off his eyes. "Ahh, excellent ride as always Celia," he said while lightly scratching his pidgeot's head, who cooed in appreciation. "I think you really enjoyed yourself out there." Chris and Tora had never seen a pidgeot up close before, so they were amazed at how powerful and beautiful it looked. Its feathers were practically glowing in the mid-morning sunlight. Then man turned his attention to the group of visitors. He recognized Alice immediately and smiled widely. "Alice, it's so great to see you again. How have you been doing on your journey? Have you won any more badges?" Off the bat, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy, maybe just a bit energetic. He also seemed really young, probably in his early twenties, but there are younger gym leaders in world.

"No, I took a break to go visit my nana, but I'm back on my journey now," Alice said with a smile of her own.

"I see. Is this your friend here?" He asked gesturing to Chris.

"Yeah, this is Chris and he's here to challenge you for a badge."

"Is that right?" The gym leader eyed Chris then looked down to Tora and Aaron. "You have a couple of fine pokémon with you, Chris," he commented. "Is it safe to say that you'll be using these two in our battle?"

"Just Tora, my raichu, and my other pokémon," Chris replied.

"I assumeAlicetold you about the significance of today?"

"That's right. Tora wouldn't let me back out even if I wanted to." The leader chuckled.

"Well, it's good to have some fighting spirit. I just hope you two have the skills to back up that spirit."

"We don't plan on losing today, so we'll be bringing out all the stops."

"That's what I like to hear before a battle. Now, let me formally introduce myself. My name is Sora, the leader of this gym, and I accept your challenge."

Within a couple minutes, Chris was standing on the opposite end of the battlefield with Tora by his side. Aaron, Alice, and Kishan were sitting in the stands ready to cheer them on. Twice before he's gone through this, yet he still feels little butterflies in the pit of his stomach, although not as bad as the first time. With the added anxiety of battling a really strong pokémon, he didn't know if he was feeling more excited than nervous right now.

Sora stood confidently on the other side of the field. "Alright Chris, this'll be a three-on-three battle. You're free to substitute your pokémon at any time and the battle is over when one side loses all three of his pokémon. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," Chris said.

"Let's start things off with Golbat," he said excitedly as he threw a pokéball on the battlefield. The giant-mouthed bat pokémon materialized in the middle of the field, flapping its wings as it hovered in place. Chris pulled a pokéball from his belt and tossed it on the field. In a flash of light, Nyx materialized from the ball with cheerful glee. She immediately turned to Chris with a big smile.

"Good morning, Chris," she said. "I've been thinking about this since last night, but I was wondering if I could maybe address you as 'Master Chris' for a while. I think it has a nice ring to it."

"Nyx," Chris said, trying to get her attention.

"Yes, Master Chris?"

"I know this sudden, but I'm going to need you to battle right now." The ghostly mistress glanced back to see the golbat and, just beyond it, the gym leader. "Also," he said in a more hushed tone. "It would be really helpful if you told me what attacks you know."

"What?!" Tora exclaimed in disbelief. "Chris, how the heck do you not know-"

"Of course," Nyx giggled, cutting Tora off. She telepathically told Chris all the attacks she knows while Tora chided him for not knowing this before going into battle with her.

"Are you sure you're ready over there?" Sora asked, wondering why it was taking Chris so long to get his pokémon in order.

"Y-yeah, we're ready!" Chris shouted back. He and the ghost turned their attention to their opponents.

"I think I'll start things off. Golbat, use Wing attack." The bat pokémon flapped its wings to gain some altitude before flying straight toward Nyx with glowing wings with some impressive speed.

"Shadow ball, Nyx." The ghostly mistress' hair raised a little as she charged and fired the purplish-black ball of energy at the fast approaching bat. The golbat however surprised both of them when it knocked her attack away with one of its wings and continued with its own attack. Nyx barely reacted in time and slipped under the bat pokémon as it flew by. "Quick, use Psybeam!" The ghost fired a multicolored beam from her eyes and hit the golbat square in the back before it could turn around. It faltered from the super-effective attack, but it recovered and flew up to a higher altitude.

"Nicely done, but that won't be enough to beat us. Golbat, Screech." The bat suddenly let out a very high-pitched shriek that echoed throughout the stadium. Nyx' face scrunched up painfully as she tried to fight it off. It was so loud that even Alice, Kishan, and Aaron had to cover their ears. The only one that didn't seem affected by this was the gym leader. Chris found it hard to concentrate on what to do next, but he managed to come up with something.

"Confuse ray!" he shouted over the bats' shrieking. It took a couple seconds, but Nyx managed to concentrate enough to pull off the attack. A few burst of light shot forth from her eyes and quickly flew toward their victim. It was already too late to warn the golbat to dodge once the leader realized what was happening. The golbat stopped its attack once the lights swirled around it and flashed brightly for a second.

Once the light faded, it was clear that the Confuse ray did its job, seeing the bat pokémon struggle to stay in the air. "Golbat, snap out of it!" Sora cried out, knowing he was in danger of losing this battle.

"Hit it with Psybeam, Nyx!" The ghost wasted no time in knocking the bat pokémon out of the air with her multi-colored beam. The attack hit right between its eyes and sent it falling onto the battlefield. "Finish it up with a Shadow ball." It was that last attack that sent the defenseless golbat crashing face-first onto the ground at the leaders' feet, unconscious.

A few cheers from stands was heard when the bat didn't get up again and Chris felt the slight rush of relief and adrenaline from having defeated the first pokémon. Nyx was very proud of herself, as evident by the huge smile on her face when she turned to Chris. "Did I do well?" she asked excitedly.

"You were amazing," Chris said, equally as thrilled. The first battle went over a lot more smoothly than he initially thought. If they keep up the pace, they might just win this with no casualties on his side. Still, this was a gym battle and there's no such thing as an easy win here.

"I gotta say Chris," Sora says, having already recalled his pokémon. "You've got a pretty strong misdreavus there. I guess I'll have to step it up a bit if I don't want this to be too easy of a challenge for you. Let me introduce one of my favorite birds of the sky." He tossed out another pokéball and called out his next pokémon. With a high-pitched screech, a tall, metallic bird materialized on the field.

"A skarmory," Chris muttered. The metal bird was practically shining in the sunlight, its steel body reflecting the suns' rays off of it. Chris knew this would be an impossible battle for Nyx to win, so he recalled her back into her ball. He glanced down to his partner. "You ready for this, Tora?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course I am," She replied. "I'll wipe the floor with that bird brain." The raichu wasted no time in stepping out on the battlefield, getting into battle-ready position, sparks flying out her cheeks. The metallic bird squawked and flared its wings to her challenge.

"It looks like we're ready to go. I'll let you have the first move this time," Sora said.

"That's fine by me. Let's start things off with Thunderbolt, Tora," Chris said. The raichu charged up and let loose a burst of electricity at the bird.

"To the sky." The skarmory quickly flapped its wings and flew upwards, narrowly avoiding her attack. It continued flying up until it was out of reach of Tora's attacks. "Show them what's up with Swift!" The metal bird opened its mouth and shot out a volley of star-shaped rays.

"Counter it with another Thunderbolt!" Tora fired off a second thunderbolt, which blew away most of skarmorys' attack, and was about to connect, but the bird easily flew out of the way.

"You're going to have to do better than that if you want to beat us," Sora said confidently.

Chris furrowed his brow. He needed to come up with a plan to bring the bird down. He couldn't have Tora keep firing shot after shot because that would drain too much of her energy and leave her tired and open to any attack the bird will throw. He only had two options left, but he wasn't going to back down quite yet. "Get in closer and charge." Tora started off slowly to get used to moving while charging her electricity, but soon went into a full sprint after a few steps.

"Trying to get a closer target eh? Good idea, but you're going to have to work to get that hit in. Use Metal sound, skarmory." The metallic bird flared its wings out, which suddenly glow a light blue color and vibrating at an ultra high speed against each other. A high pitched ringing, that was far worse than the golbat' screeching, resounded in the arena. Tora stopped dead in her tracks and put her paws over her ears to try muting the horrible sound. It was like the ringing she would get in her ear sometimes, only a hundred times louder. "Now, go in with a Drill peck."

"Move, Tora!" Chris shouted. The raichu didn't even hear him, the ringing still present in her ears. When she looked up, all she saw was a rapidly spinning gray object less than ten feet from her before she was hit and knocked back several feet. At the same time, she accidently released all the electricity she had been storing up and shocked the skarmory. She came to a rolling stop in front of Chris, a bit dazed and confused as to what just happened. She felt like she just got punched by a machamp.

"Tora, are you alright?" Chris asked. His question sounded a bit muffled to her, but she understood it.

"I'm fine," she replied as she shakily got back up on her feet. Chris looked from her to their opponent, who was already in the air. He already knew that if they were to try the same thing, it would end in the same way, with Tora taking more damage than the skarmory with each exchange. He was about to call her back and go with another pokémon, but he noticed something odd about the pokémon that wasn't there before.

"Is it..." he asked himself, not entirely sure of it himself. There was only one way to find out. "Alright, let's go for another Thunderbolt. I think we can get a hit in this time." The raichu nodded and faced her opponent, who was back in the air. She didn't question him about his plan, although she had her doubts that it would work after a third time, and fired off another Thunderbolt.

"Dodge it and use Swift," Sora commanded. The skarmory made to move, but suddenly froze up. "What?!"

"Thought so," Chris thought, right before the metallic bird was struck with the powerful electric attack. It cried out as the electricity coursed through its body and dropped out of the sky, crashing on the ground with a loud thud.

"Skarmory!" The steel bird whimpered quietly as it shakily tried to stand back up. Sora cursed himself for not realizing sooner that his pokémon was suffering from paralysis. He figured that it must've been when it used Drill peck.

"Finish this, Tora." The raichu charged up for one last Thunderbolt, but the skarmory collapsed back onto the ground unconscious.

A round of applause and cheers erupted from the stands while relief and a sense of awesomeness spread all over Chris and Tora. Chris was two-for-two so far with no loses on his side. Since he still hasn't brought out his third pokémon yet and neither Tora nor Nyx took little to no damage from their battles, the odds were greatly in his favor. "I can't believe you just beat two of my pokémon without losing any of yours," Sora comments as he recalls his skarmory. "And you only have two badges so far?"

"Yeah, that's right," Chris replies. He watches the gym leader close his eyes briefly and sigh heavily. He almost thought he had somehow upset him, but Sora seemed to just laugh his slight frustration off. He snatched a pokéball off his belt and then pointed at Chris, feeling his energy renewed.

"It's been a while since I've felt myself get this excited over a battle. The time for being nice is over! I'll tell you right now that you won't have nearly as easy of a time battling my next pokémon!" He called out his next pokémon, which revealed itself to be after it materialized a pidgeot. Chris almost thought it was the same pidgeot that Sora flew in on, but this one was a bit smaller than the other one. "This one is Celia's pride and joy, a fine bird I've raised since he was an egg. You'd better bring out all the stops because we're going all out this round." As if to emphasize his statement, the brown avian spread its wings out and gave a mighty cry as to intimidate them. Tora didn't back down and growled right back at him. Chris smiled at her.

"I've raised her since she was an egg too, and we're not going to be pulling any punches either."

"Then let's get this battle started."

"Thunderbolt, Tora!"

The raichu quickly fired off a bolt of electricity at the large bird. "Dodge it." The pidgeot didn't take off to the sky as expected, but simply sidestepped her attack instead. "You should know by now how fast my pokémon are. As long as you keep firing from that distance, they'll have plenty of time to dodge."

"Then we'll just have to get closer then. Go for an Iron tail." Tora took off across the battlefield toward her opponent, her tail glowing silvery-white. Once she was close enough, she jumped and swung her body to deliver the blow.

"Steel wing." The pidgeot intercepted her Iron tail with its Steel wing in the time it took her to turn fully around, almost godly speed. The two attacks met and seemed to be in a stalemate, but the brown avian knocked the raichu's attack away and immediately followed up with a swing of its other wing.

Stars briefly filled Tora's vision as she was knocked back hard to a rolling stop in the center of the battlefield. Chris winced as soon as she was hit, feeling a large weight suddenly drop on his chest. He could almost swear he felt that hit. Tora rolled onto her stomach, feeling heavily dazed and shakily got back up on her feet.

"Shit that hurt," she thought. "I knew he was strong, but damn!"

"Tora, roll to your left!" Chris cried urgently. The raichu barely had time to even register the command when she simply threw herself to her left, narrowly avoiding the massive glowing wing of a dive-bombing bird. She quickly got to her feet as the massive bird made for a return trip. "Thunderbolt!" She was already ahead of him and fired another jolt of electricity, but the pidgeot skillfully dodged her attack and struck her with a powerful Wing attack, sending her flying across the field.

The blow had knocked the wind out of her and the pain in her chest was intense. It was almost too painful to even breathe. It took nearly all her strength to stand back up again. She was unsteady on her feet, panting heavily. "Tora, come back and rest up!" Chris shouted worriedly behind her. "You can't take another hit like that!" She shook her head, which turned out to be a bad idea since it made her dizzier.

"No! I'm going... to get at least one hit in... if it's the last thing I do!" she shouted. As much as he wanted to pull out her ball and forcibly return her, he knew she wouldn't forgive him for it. She had too much pride to let a battle end this badly, especially if she couldn't put up a decent fight. He hands balled into fists now that he was committed to seeing this to the end.

"Wait for my command," he said. Tora exhaled slowly as she got ready to go out fighting like she never has before.

"Your raichu's fighting spirit is pretty inspirational," Sora commented. "I can see that desire to win still burning in her eyes! You've raised her well, and it will make this battle all the more exciting! Let's end this pidgeot!" The mighty bird cawed before diving toward Tora with glowing wings. As the bird quickly approached her, the raichu remained tense and charge up her electricity for her last attack.

"Jump back and grab on!" Chris yelled. Tora jumped back as soon as the avian was a mere ten feet away and took hold around its neck, lessoning the severity of the impact she would've taken otherwise, but still taking some damage. She didn't have to look to know that the pidgeot was startled by the brash move, did she have to look to see how far up they both were from the ground. The bird tried to shake her off by doing a couple loops and spins, but she held on for her life. "Thunder!" she heard Chris yell from below. She immediately released all her stored up electricity and then some into her opponent. The pidgeot cried out and seized up in pain as the powerful jolts coursed through its body. The pair began to fall from the sky. Both trainers could only watch as their pokémon fell from at least fifty feet and make contact with the unforgiving ground. "Tora!" Chris exclaimed.

When the dust settled, both pokémon were lying next to each other. As luck would have it, the pidgeot actually took the full impact of the fall, while Tora bounced off its body and rolled off. Still, that didn't really do her much good since she had absolutely no energy left to fight back. She looked to her left to see the pidgeot slowly, yet painfully, get into a standing position. There was nothing more she could do at that point and she felt so sleepy all of a sudden. She closed her eyes with a small smile, content to have done her part, and let her consciousness slip away.

Chris stared for only a moment before unclipping a ball from his belt, one he hasn't had to use for a while, and recalling his partner inside. "You did great," he whispered to the ball, hoping that she could hear him. He didn't waste any time calling out his next pokémon. Nyx materialized back onto the field, looking as pleased as ever. "Be careful Nyx!" he said before she could say anything. "This is a powerful opponent we're facing, so don't take him lightly!"

"Yes, master Chris," the ghost replied, not taking her eyes off the injured bird.

"Start off with a Psybeam." Nyx shot a multi-colored beam of energy from her eyes.

"Dodge it and use Air slash!" Sora commanded. The pidgeot flew up high, avoiding her attack and sending several blades of wind her way with a couple flaps of its wings. The ghost almost easily evaded the attack. "Now use Wing attack!" Nyx once again showed off her impressive aerial combative skills by dodging not just one, but all of the pidgeot's speedy charges. She even pulled off the daring stunt phasing right through the avian's face and body, causing it to shiver from her chilly body temperature and momentarily freak out while she giggled and hit it with a psybeam.

Although Chris wanted to reprimand her for doing such a reckless thing, he had to admit that it worked... and was kind of funny. "I see your misdreavus has some tricks up its sleeve," Sora commented. "Too bad for you we still have one as well. Pidgeot, use Faint attack!" Before either of them had the time to actually process what he said, the massive bird disappeared from sight for just a moment before slamming right into Nyx. The ghost cried out as she was sent flying across the field. She managed to recover in time before she hit the ground. She shook off the slight dizziness and fully realized just what she was dealing with. Rather than being intimidated, the ghostly mistress focused her mind and seriously began to contemplate how she would best this powerful enemy.

Chris was relieved to see that Nyx was okay and that she looked like she was taking this battle seriously now, but he also knew that she had taken a lot of damage just now and that she couldn't take another like that. "It's time to wrap this up pidgeot!" The brown avian suddenly dove at Nyx with glowing wings.

"Counter with Sucker punch!" The misdreavus instantly materialized a ghostly hand out of thin air and swiftly uppercuts the bird, knocking it backwards. The moment of victory was short-lived however when it recovered during a quick flip and continued with its attack anyway, getting a clean hit on the ghost and knocking her out.

"That's two down and only one more to go!" Sora exclaimed, grinning widely at another victory. "C'mon, Chris, I want to see that desire to win that your raichu had burning in your eyes too! Show me that your challenge today wasn't some foolhardy decision and that you deserve my badge!" Chris' hands turned to fists in desperate frustration. He was down two pokémon, the two who had the best chance of winning, and their last opponent looked exhausted, but could still put up a decent fight.

"This is bad," he thought His last two pokémon weren't especially suited to be in this battle; one couldn't fly and really only had close-range attacks, while the other was at a major type disadvantage. Out of the two, there was only one who could take just as much damage as they could give.

"Don't count us out yet! I still have one pokémon and we're gonna win!" Without a second thought, he sent Kaden out onto the field. His appearance surprised everyone there.

"Now that's a gutsy move, sending a bug to take on a mighty bird!" Even up in their seats, Alice and company hoped that Chris knew what he was doing, but now was not the time for doubts. They had to cheer him on until the very end. "Show that bug who's boss with your Wing attack!"

"Hold your ground and stop it with Brick break!" As the pidgeot flew down with its impressive speed, the heracross planted his feet firmly on the ground to intercept the bird. He raised his both his claws up and struck the wing intending to hit him with all he had, but the power behind the birds' attack still sent him skidding back a few feet. While it was momentarily stunned from being blocked he quickly slapped the bird across the face with another Brick break.

"Hurry and get back in the air!" Sora exclaimed.

"Don't let it get away!" Kaden quickly flew after the recovering avian, getting up close to its face and delivering another blow to its face. The pidgeot, realizing that it had to get away from him to fly properly, fought back by swinging a silvery-grey wing at him. Kaden blocked the hit as best he could, but was still pushed away quite a bit.

"Blow it away, pidgeot!" The heracross didn't need to be told to move to avoid the incoming Air slash attack. He flew higher to avoid the brunt of it, but he was still hit by a few stray shots.

"Go in with Horn attack!" Chris commanded. Kaden nodded and dove straight for the brown avian, which in turn was flying at him with Steel wing. The two combatants collided in the air, the heracross being the one to come out of the exchange the victor. His powerful horn hit dead center of the pidgeot's chest, effectively knocking the wind out of it. "Now slam it into the ground!" Kaden latched onto the front of the stunned bird and drove it backwards into a freefall to the ground.

"Fight it off!" Sora exclaimed. The heracross could only brace himself when the pidgeot started slapping his back with multiple Wing attacks. He knew that Chris was counting on him to win this battle, so he endured the punishment and gave it everything he had. Both trainers watched their pokémon crash onto the battlefield with a loud thud, dust erupting upon impact.

Once the dust settled, they saw that Kaden was standing over the fallen bird, looking pained and a bit exhausted from the repeated attacks to his body. The pidgeot was sprawled out on the ground, clearly unconscious by it lack of movement. "I almost can't believe it. You actually won against one of my stronger birds with your heracross," Sora said disbelievingly. "Even so, you and you pokémon really proved yourselves out there and earned some major points for your victory. Now get over here and get your badge." Chris felt like a huge weight was suddenly lifted off his shoulders and couldn't contain how excited he was after the hard-earned victory. As he walked across the field, he thanked the tired Kaden for all his hard work and recalled him to his ball. Off to the side, he could see Alice, Kishan, and Aaron coming down from their spots to congratulate him.

When Chris approached the gym leader, he saw that Sora seemed to hold no hard feelings for losing. "Ya know, I was really impressed with what you showed me today," Sora said with the same enthusiasm he had before the battle. "You and your pokémon showed a lot of heart, and for that, I'm awarding you this Feather badge as proof of your victory." He held out a lavender feather-shaped badge in his hand, which Chris took with appreciation.

"Congrats on your third badge,"Alice said behind him. "Now that you're all caught up with me, we'll have to have a rematch one of these days... now that you're at my level." Chris rolled his eyes at her comment and faced her.

"Sorry, I don't wanna have to wipe the floor with you again," he said playfully.

"That was only because I was using my newest pokémon. You can bet that I'll win next time."

"Sure you will."

*****8*****

Chris and Alice, along with Kishan and Aaron, sat in the lobby of the pokémon center waiting for his pokémon to be fully healed. They chatted on about his gym battle, more along the lines of why he chose Kaden as his last pokémon instead of Lani. Eventually though, they moved onto another topic that needed to be addressed. "So, since we didn't get a chance to shop for supplies yesterday, I was thinking we should stock up before heading out,"Alice said.

"I guess," Chris said a bit uncertainly. "But I'm kind of running low on funds. I'm going to have to get another job if I want to pay for food and not feel broke."

"Oh, that's no problem. So, what, you want to stay here a couple days and save up?"

"Yeah, if that's alright with you."

"Works out fine for me; I could use a little extra cash myself. We'll just hold off on the shopping until the morning we leave, sound good?" Chris nodded.

Just then Nurse Joy came by holding a tray with three pokéballs on it. "Your pokémon are fully healed and have suffered no permanent injuries," she says with the trademark smile. Chris stands up and retrieves his pokémon.

"Thanks for healing them, Nurse Joy."

"It was my pleasure. And by the way, it was really impressive that you managed to defeat the gym leader today. It must've really been a tough battle."

"You have no idea." The nurse smiles again and promptly turns around to attend to her duties.

Chris immediately releases Tora from her ball. The raichu only had time to glance to her right before Aaron nuzzled and kissed her cheek. "Glad to see you're alright," he says. "You fought really hard out there."

"Um, about that..." she started; sounding a bit sad while she looked up to Chris. "Did you... Did you win?" Chris smiled and pulled out his new badge to show her.

"I sure did, but I couldn't have done it without everyone's efforts. I couldn't have asked you to do any better than your best today, so don't beat yourself up over losing this time, okay?"

"Okay." Although she said that, he could see that she was still disappointed in herself for losing.

"C'mon, let's go celebrate our victory." He stood up and looked to Alice. "Do you know of any place we could go to treat ourselves?"

"Of course," she replied. "I know a couple places around here that are close by."

With that said, Alice led them to a small café/bakery just a little ways down the street of the center. The smell of baked goods and freshly-brewed caffeine wafted through the air as soon as they stepped in. Chris walked up to the register and ordered a slice of cheesecake for everyone. They sat at a booth and had to pull up another small table to seat everyone there. Just as they started eating, Chris gave Tora and Nyx a rundown of the battle after their loss, much to the insistence of a certain ghost. At the end of the story, both girls congratulated, and even toasted, Kaden on his hard-earned victory. The heracross appreciated their praise and gladly boosted to working harder to be more helpful in the future.

Nyx was ecstatic about eating cheesecake for the first time, expressing how she loved the creaminess of the cake, the crunchy graham cracker crust, and the taste of caramel and chocolate blended together perfectly in her mouth for the most delicious dessert, or food, she's ever tasted. Kaden enjoyed it too, although clearly not as much as she does. About halfway through their desserts, Aaron gently nudged Tora to get her attention. "So I was thinking, since we're going to be here a couple extra days, would you like to go out?"

"We're staying here a couple more days?" she asked, to which Aaron nodded.

"Chris wanted to stay and work up enough money for more supplies and a little extra before we head out on the road again. I just thought that since we wouldn't really be doing anything we could go out and do something."

"What did you have in mind?" The psychic leaned in and whispered what his plans were for them. When he finished, she gave him a little smile. "That sounds nice. I'd like to do that." Aaron smiled back and kissed her cheek.

"That's great." Now that their plans had been decided, the only thing left was to let Chris know so he doesn't have to worry about feeding them later.

*****8*****

The streets of Pewter City were as moderately crowded as ever, everyone focused on their destination and not really paying as much attention to their surroundings as they should be. Of course, that's to be expected of those that live the city life. It always seems that the kids pay more attention than their parents or the surrounding adults, probably because everyone and everything is bigger than they are. At least, that's what Chad thinks. He's been walking down these streets for the last couple hours to get to his own destination and he's noticed these things as he made his way toward an alley on the northeast side of the city. He's supposed to meet a contact there for another job, or so they thought. It was the only thing he could think of to get this particular person to meet him on such a short notice, his real goal being to get some information out of him. He chose the meeting place himself, somewhere he knew was secluded enough to not be pestered or noticed by any passersby. He glanced at his watch as he turned into an alley, noting the time to be 12:00p.m. Just as he estimated, he arrived exactly on time. Now all he needed to do was to wait for the contact to show up.

"It's good to know that someone cares to be punctual," someone said. A woman clad in blue jeans and a black shirt emerged from behind the green dumpster. Her reddish-orange curly hair and her unusual height of 6'1" were the only things that made her stand out in a crowd. Although most knew her by her government, she was known as the "Cybor fox" to few people, and not just because of her hair color and the fact that she carries her laptop with her everywhere.

"Only when it's in my best interests," Chad replied as he approached her. She smirked at the comment.

"That seems to be everybody's reason for everything." She quickly looked him over and crossed her arms. "So what's this really about?" Chad raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Like hell you don't. You didn't call me all the way up here for a job. In fact, there's some rumors spreading about you again, and it sounds like you got into some deep shit this time." Chad kept his face stoic. He knows that he shouldn't be too surprised that she knows of his situation. She is, after all, one of Lou's top employees. "I heard that you got your dratini taken away from you after your little party a few days back as 'punishment' for being... what did he say? Oh right, 'an insubordinate brat'."

"Fine, you got me," Chad sighed, already tired of listening to her talk about him. "I need some information."

"Of course you do," She said, pulling out a cigarette and putting it in her mouth. She tilted the box toward him in a 'want one' gesture. He shook his head and she put the box away, pulling out a lighter a moment later to light it. She took a long drag and blew the cancerous smoke in the air. "So what do you want?"

"I want to know where that bastard Lou is," Chad stated flatly.

"What makes you think I know?"

"There are only a handful of people that know you have ways of getting your information, or to be more accurate, two specific ways. It's one of the reasons some of us don't write or keep certain things on our computers and opt to write letters. I'm sure that if Lou knew what you have, he'd make sure it would be sent back to you with a virus if you ever used it on him." The woman grinned.

"Are you threatening me?"

"It's not a threat if I carry it out."

The two stared at each other for a moment that seemed to carry on for minutes. The woman broke the staring match and took another drag of her cigarette, flicking the ashes on the ground as she exhaled. "Alright, I'll help you. But just so we're clear, I'm only doing this because I have nothing better to do, so you can call off your dragon that's been watching me from the roof." Chad snapped his fingers and in just a few seconds, a dragonite flew down to his side. "It's good that you had some insurance in case I refused to help you, but I'm a little cautious myself." Just as she finished her statement, a spot on the wall next to her froze over and a froslass appeared. The ghost pokémon stood possessively beside her trainer as she glared at Miu, who returned the hostility three-fold with a low growl.

"Before these two get it in their heads to square off, could you tell me where he is so that I can be on my way?" Chad demanded.

"Sorry, babe, but I can't exactly do that right now."

"And why is that?"

"It's because I don't want to pull out my laptop and set it on a filthy dumpster. I have to take care of my electronics. Let's go to a café instead. I could use a little caffeine and some food." Chad inwardly sighed. He didn't want to have to spend anymore time with her than necessary, but it looked like he would have to have lunch with her if he wanted to get what he needed from her.

"Fine, let's get going," he said. Without another word, the woman recalled her pokémon and strolled passed him and Miu. Chad recalled Miu into her ball, saying he'll release her once he's done. He then followed the woman out of the alley and onto the open sidewalk toward the nearest café.

**********8**********