"Normal Text" is normal human speech, "Italics" are telepathic speech, and "bold Text" represents translated verbal Pokemon speech.


John closed his eyes, stepping outside as the doors to the Pokemon Center slid shut behind him. He drew in a deep breath of the summer's warm fragrant air. Today was going to be a good day, he just knew it.

"...Excited?" He heard from within his thoughts. It wasn't so much that he could hear someone clearly talking, more like he just knew that the question was being asked.

He looked down at the Kirlia who had just telepathically spoken to him, and she looked back in return. She turned her big orange eyes upwards, a lock of blue hair falling out of the way. She smiled expectantly.

"Come on Thea!" John exclaimed as he gestured forwards, "How could I not be? Today's the day we finally get our first badge!"

Thea lifted a hand to her mouth and giggled quietly. "I'm excited too. Let's try our best not to get too cocky, alright?"

John laughed in response. "It's hilarious how you seem to think you're the mature one around here."

"I only think it because it's true." She shot back, offering a quick wink.

"Whatever you say, boss." He replied sarcastically.

The pair strolled through Mauville for a short while, admiring the hustle and bustle of the busy city. They had been out on the road for quite some time while they were training, so this was nice a change of pace. John's thoughts were interrupted when he felt something tugging on the sleeve of his jacket. Glancing downwards, he saw Thea looking shyly at the ground, pulling at him with one of her small hands to get his attention.

"What is it, Thea?" He asked, a little smile on his face thanks to her cuteness.

She hesitated, so he knelt down to be at eye level with her.

"It's okay, you can tell me." He assured.

"It's a little embarrassing, but that crossing up ahead looks pretty busy," She pointed forwards, "And... I was wondering if you could give me a ride through? Big crowds like that make me nervous."

Without a second's thought John scooped the Kirlia up and placed her on his shoulders as she let out a quiet squeal of laughter in response.

"You could've given me a little warning!" She giggled, a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Where's the fun in that?" He replied, flashing a toothy grin up at her.

"...Thanks John." She said sincerely.

They continued onwards on their journey towards the local gym. Thea loved riding on John's shoulders. She was only a little over two feet tall, so when she was perched on the neck of her sixteen year old trainer, she experienced a whole different world. Sometimes when she was up here she thought of all the other short pokemon as her minions or subjects. This always made her laugh. As the two passed flashy neon sign, Thea looked upwards, absentmindedly running her hands though John's hair. His short brown hair was soft to the touch, and she liked the smell of it. Upon realizing she had suddenly began massaging her trainer's scalp, she drew her hands back in surprise.

"Sorry!" She exclaimed, cheeks turning red.

"Hey, don't worry about it!" John replied, "Felt kinda nice, actually. Maybe just let me know next time?"

"Sure."

Giving Thea a ride was almost as much fun for John as it was for her. She was very light and John, being in pretty good shape, was able to carry her almost without noticing. He had his hands on her slender legs to make sure she wouldn't fall off. Even if she did, he was pretty sure she would simply land on her feet thanks to how agile she had become ever since evolving. John was always impressed at how graceful she was, moving like a ballerina who had trained all her life with seemingly no effort. She also gotten really cute.

"Whoa!"

The pair turned to see a man with a camera staring at them, dumbfounded. "Is that shiny kirlia?" He asked, eyes wide.

"Sure is!" John replied, "Me and her have been training together for little over a year now. I don't know what I'd do without her!"

"Kirl!" Thea agreed, verbally. Her telepathic abilities had developed to the point where she could convey her thoughts to John shortly after she had evolved, but they had stopped growing after that. She could only communicate mentally with John, not any other humans or pokemon, and John still could not speak to her mentally as their connection seemingly only worked one way. The pair had decided they had developed this partial bond thanks to all the time they had spent together, through Thea was disappointed that she wasn't able to do more yet.

"You are so lucky!" The photographer exclaimed, "Could I take your picture?"

"For sure!" John replied, as he smiled into the camera, raising his eyebrows slightly. Thea closed one eye and stuck out her tongue in response as the man snapped the picture. As he handed the pair a copy of the photo, John chuckled. "The mature one. Right."

"Um," The started, biting her lip, "What time is it?"

John looked at his watch. Then brought his arm down. Then brought it back up and did a double take.

"...Thea?"

"...yeah?"

"I think I'm gonna need you to hold on tight."

With that said, John took off running as fast as he could, offering a quick and sorry wave to the photographer on his way by. Thea let out a squeal of laughter as she bounced up and down on John's shoulders, holding his head for dear life. The duo rushed through crowds, dodging bystanders, and ignoring all the shops they came across. Somehow, they arrived at Mauville city gym without incurring bodily harm to themselves or anyone else.

"We.. Haa... Actually... made it!" John exclaimed, panting.

"I can't see straight anymore. Please put me down." John took the kirlia in his hands and set her on the ground. She took three steps forwards and fell flat on her face. "You shook me too much!" She growled telepathically.

"Can't... breathe..." John slumped against the side of the gym, attempting to catch his breath. Thea eventually crawled over beside him and also leaned against the building. The pair sat like that for a while, attempting to recover from sprinting halfway across the city. John lifted his watch and gazed at it fearfully.

"...Only forty minutes late." He sighed, looking sheepish.

Thea was about to offer some condolence when a large older man with a white beard sauntered up to the door without noticing them. She watched in confusion as he slowly withdrew a key from his pocket and stuck it in the gym's front door.

"...Wattson?" John asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh, hello!" The man exclaimed, flashing as huge grin as he offered a wave. "Are you two here to try for your badge?"

"Um, yes." John replied, still very confused.

"Wahahahahaha!" Wattson let out a hearty laugh, "Wow! I must say I admire your dedication! I would've never shown up twenty minutes before the gym even opened back when I was your age!"

"Twenty. Minutes. Early." John could feel the words echo throughout his head as his Kirlia's eyes narrowed behind him.

"But- I-" John stammered, "It's almost one o'clock!"

"Exactly." The gym leader replied, "It's Sunday! We don't open until one on Sundays! We get some Sundays where we don't get a single trainer show up! But I still make an effort to show up twenty minutes early."

John and Thea simply stared.

"Say..." The older man brought his hand up to his chin in thought, "You two look beat. Why don't you come in and I can get you something to drink? You might as well rest a little before we have our battle. It just wouldn't be the same if I beat you in this state. I'd rather beat you when you're at full strength!" He laughed again as he pushed the door open.

After John, Thea, and Wattson all shared some refreshments and a bit of conversation in the back room behind the gym's arena, they decided it was time.

"Say... that's a pretty fancy Kirlia you've got there, John. It's been a long time since I've seen a shiny at all!" Wattson complemented as they walked back towards the battleground, making Thea blush, "How long have you had her for?"

"Well her and I have been training for over a year, but she's been with me for as long as I can remember. She's my best friend." John replied warmly as he ruffled Thea's hair, causing her slap his hand away in response while she laughed.

"A bond like that can make for quite the asset in battle." Wattson said as he grinned, "I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do!"

By this time both John and the gym leader had reached the battling area. The floor was brown, looking to be dirt of some sort. Wattson stared at him from across the battleground with both enthusiasm and curiosity. John stared back with pure determination.

"You've got three Pokemon, right kid?" Wattson asked.

"You bet!" He shot back.

"Wahaha!" The old man laughed, "I like that attitude! Three against three, then!"

"Thea," John said, leaning down slightly, but now breaking eye contact with his opponent, "Do you want to start?"

"I'd love to." She replied as she nodded, "I can't wait to teach these guys a lesson."

With that, Thea jumped quickly forwards, twirling in midair. She landed in the center of her side of the battle area and began tapping her feet in anticipation.

"Leading with the Kirlia, huh?" The gym leader asked, pulling a pokeball out from behind his back, "Okay Magnemite, start us off!"

He threw the ball, which opened in midair, allowing a flash of red light to spill out. When it faded, the small electric pokemon hovered above the ground with it's single eye narrowed in Thea's direction.

Right as the fighting was about to begin, a referee ran out from seemingly nowhere.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, "What are you guys doing? You can't start the battle without a referee! It wouldn't be official!"

Wattson chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Oh. Right. I guess we got a little ahead of ourselves. I suppose I am early."

"Don't worry about it, boss." The man replied, lifting the whistle to his mouth, "I'm ready to get this show on the road! Let the battle begin!"

He blew the whistle, and the battle started.

"Magnemite, use thunder wave!" Wattson exclaimed, pointing forwards.

"Thea, go mobile! Dodge his attacks!" John yelled, knowing that Thea, while possessing hard-hitting attacks, couldn't take very many herself.

"I think you'll find your defeat quite... SHOCKING!" The magnemite exclaimed as electricity built up around it's body. It released the energy in a wave towards the kirlia, who almost effortlessly front-flipped over the attack, avoiding all damage.

"Puns? Seriously?" Thea sighed, continuing to tap her feet in anticipation of the next attack. The fight continued like this for a short while. Magnemite constantly attacking while Thea basically danced around him, dodging his attacks with grace.

"Magnemite!" Wattson hollered, "Switch it up, use tackle!"

"Thea, dodge it and counter with magical leaf!"

"The humor in this gym is pretty GROUNDED, don't you think?" The magnemite laughed hysterically as it flew towards Thea with hopes of slamming it's body into hers.

"Oh my god you are so lame." She groaned, bending over backwards to let him fly over her. As he passed by, she summoned several leaves coated in purple psychic energy and sent them flying towards her opponent. The attacks landed, knocking Magnemite to the floor and causing it to roll several times. It rose slowly off the ground, several scratches and scrapes showing on it's body.

"Try another thunder wave!" Wattson exclaimed.

"Thea, use confusion! Finish it off!" John exclaimed.

"This battle is getting me ELECTRIFIED!" The electric pokemon screamed, launching another barrage of electricity at his opponent. It connected with the kirlia, shocking her very slightly, but doing almost no damage. Thea could still feel the electricity coursing through her veins. She knew being hit by that would come back to bite her later in the fight.

"My turn." She growled as her eyes began to glow blue. A similar glow enveloped her opponent, and he was quickly lifted off the ground before being thrown up against the roof. He hit the ceiling with a loud crash and began to fall towards the ground. Before he landed, Thea caught him with her telekinesis and used it to speed up his descent, causing him to land incredibly hard, kicking up a large cloud of dust on impact. When the dust cleared, Magnemite was unconscious on the floor in a small crater.

"Magnemite is unable to battle!" The referee yelled, "Round one goes to the challenger!"

Thea hopped up and down excitedly from the victory. John let out a short cheer in response.

"Not too shabby!" Wattson exclaimed, recalling his pokemon as he cut the celebrations short. "But let's see if you can keep it up. Go! Voltorb!"

As the next electric type pokemon appeared before them, John noticed Thea was panting and that her posture hunched over slightly.

"Are you doing okay there, Thea?" John asked, his voice full of uncertainty, "Do you wanna take a break? I can throw Earl in for a bit."

"Um..." John felt the uncertainty ring through his head as he watched the bite her lip, "As much as I'd like to take this guy down too, I'm going to need a short rest to keep fighting at full strength. Could you use someone else for this?"

"No problem." John responded, "Thea, come back!" The kirlia hopped backwards off the field to stand at her trainer's side as he unclipped one of three pokeballs from his belt.

"Go, Earl!" He yelled, throwing the ball. A second later, a phanpy stood on the field, his eyes narrowed.

The two pokemon faced off on the field as the referee lifted the whistle to his lips.

"Round two, begin!"

"Earl, use defense curl!" John commanded. In response the phanpy took a more defensive stance with the hopes of taking less damage. Earl was not even close to as agile as Thea, so many more attacks would land on him.

"He doesn't have special attacks, so we'll just go full offense! Wahahahaha!" Wattson laughed, pointing forwards, "Use rollout!"

The voltorb stopped hovering and fell to the floor. Then it began to spin, rolling along the ground and picking up speed quickly. It connected with Earl, running him over. The phanpy rose quickly, but winced, showing signs of damage.

"Let's hit back!" John said as he clenched a fist at the end of his red jacket, "Use tackle!"

"Phan!" Earl growled, charging forward as quickly as he could and slamming his shoulder into the voltorb who was still trying to recover from the dizziness induced by using rollout. He knocked his opponent into the dirt, it rose again quickly, eager to continue fighting.

"Do it again!" John exclaimed, and the phanpy complied. He knocked Voltorb down again, and his foe began to show signs of wear. John grinned. Earl was tough, and he planned to use that to his advantage. He may have just weakened his opponent enough to gain the edge.

"Tackle!" John yelled, "One more time!"

"Fly over it!" Wattson yelled.

Earl charged and jumped upwards to land the finishing strike, but Voltorb hovered above his attack. The phanpy landed flat on his face in the dirt a few feet away, dazed.

"Use rollout!"

John watched in horror as the electric pokemon moved too fast for him to react. It picked up speed until it smashed into Earl, knocking him back nearly ten feet and causing him to faint.

"Earl is unable to battle! Wattson wins round two!" The referee exclaimed.

"Good try out there Earl!" John said, putting the fainted pokemon back in it's ball, "You'll get them next time."

He looked over at Thea and noticed that it looked like she had been wincing.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." She replied as she gestured to Earl's pokeball, "That just looked like it hurt."

"Yeah, that Voltorb hits harder than I expected. It's pretty tough. But I think Oddball should be able to finish him off."

"Sounds like a good plan." He felt the words as she looked up at him, "I'm here if you need me."

He smiled down at her before locking eyes with Wattson once again. The old man looked like he had gained some confidence, but wasn't going to get cocky. He had been at this too long for that.

"Oddball, I choose you!" John announced, throwing the third pokeball from his belt. It released a small pidove, who looked around the arena in confusion before looking back at John.

"...Pi?" It asked, staring blankly at him with wide, unblinking eyes.

"What did he say?" John asked, raising an eyebrow.

"One moment." Thea sighed, turning away from her trainer and towards the small bird pokemon.

"Kirl! Kirlia, kirl!" She yelled, pointing at the voltorb. Oddball looked slowly from Thea to his opponent, then back at Thea, then finally back at Voltorb. He seemed to understand, refusing to take his eyes of his foe now.

"...He needed you to tell him who he was fighting, didn't he?" John asked.

"I'm not going to answer that. For his sake." Thea mentally sighed, rubbing her forehead in frustration. This kind of thing happened often.

The referee blew his whistle.

"Round three, begin!"

"Rollout!" Wattson commanded immediately, hoping to catch John and his pidove off guard.

"Get into the Air Oddball!" John yelled quickly, "Avoid it!"

The pidove complied, beating it's wings so that it was high enough to avoid any attack coming from the ground. It soared above the Voltorb, giving a small tweeting laugh as it rolled by.

"Hit it with quick attack!" John yelled. Before Wattson could react, Oddball flew down, slashing Voltorb with his talons, knocking the spherical pokemon backwards. It floated back up, one eye closed in pain. This thing wouldn't be able to fight much longer.

"Thunder wave!" Wattson said. John could tell by his tone that he also knew that Voltorb would soon faint. The Voltorb launched an arc of electricity from it's own body to Oddball's, electrifying him in midair and sending him crashing to the ground thanks to a brief bit of paralysis.

"Now!" The gym leader grinned, "Use rollout! Don't let it get back into the sky!"

As Voltorb began to spin, John's thoughts raced. There wasn't time to fly out of the way again. He would have to improvise.

"Gust!" John exclaimed, trying to get the words out of his mouth as quickly as possible, "Use the wind to change his course so he doesn't hit you!"

As Voltorb raced towards Oddball, he beat his wings as hard as he could, creating enough wind to change his opponent's course enough that it missed him completely, slamming into a nearby wall instead. It slowly floated out from the hole it had created before falling to the floor, unconscious.

"Voltorb is unable to battle! Round three goes to the challenger!"

"Nice job, Oddball! That was awesome!" John exclaimed, beaming with pride. All that training had paid off.

"Pidove!" He replied. John looked quizzically down at Thea in response, hoping for a translation.

"...He wants to know when we're planning to get dinner." She deadpanned in his head.

"Keep your head in the game, Oddball!" John laughed, "We'll eat like kings after we win this battle, I promise!"

"After you win, huh?" Wattson grinned mischievously from across the battleground, "I wouldn't get too cocky if I were you, kiddo."

John raised an eyebrow, wondering what surprise the old man had in store.

"Besides, We gym leaders always save the best-"

He threw his final pokeball, and a huge Magneton materialized on the battlefield, cracking with electricity.

"-For last!" He finished, gesturing to his final pokemon.

"That thing looks pretty tough John, you might wanna play it safe." Thea warned as she looked at their final opponent. She concentrated on it, searching for anything that looked like it might be a weakness. Her thoughts were interrupted as the referee blew his whistle.

"Round four, begin!"

Thea went back to studying her foe from the sidelines when the magneton spoke.

"I think you'll find your defeat quite SHOCKING, little bird!" It laughed, hovering up and down.

Thea's brow furrowed. "Hey!" She yelled, catching it's attention, "Your friend already used that stupid pun!"

"WHAT?!" It roared, "How dare he? I make the puns around here! I'LL DESTROY YOU ALL!" The magneton growled, as the electrical energy coming off it doubled, making a few of Thea's hairs lift off her head. She could hear it crackling in the air.

"What did you do?" John exclaimed, a drop of sweat running down the side of his face, "That thing looks really angry. I think it's getting a power spike from all that rage."

"It's... way too stupid to explain, but suffice to say I may have made a mistake." She replied, eyes wide.

"Use magnet bomb!" Wattson commanded, "Show them what you can do!"

"Fly out of the way!" John yelled, "Dodge it!"

As Magneton changed it's attack Oddball... did nothing. He simply stood there, eyes wide, irises shrunken in fear.

"Oddball, What's wrong?" John asked as he began to panic, "Why aren't you-"

But that's when he noticed them. The thin jolts of electricity flashing all over his pidove's body. Oddball was paralyzed. He couldn't have moved no matter how much he wanted to.

"Goodbye Oddball." Thea said sadly, closing her eyes and placing a hand over her heart, "We hardly knew ye."

"Be serious." John sighed, trying his hardest not to chuckle.

"We're horrible. This really isn't something we should be joking about." She agreed.

Just as she finished telepathically talking to her trainer, Thea watched as Magneton launched a barrage of small steel balls that stuck to Oddball's body and began to glow blue.

"Pi...dove?" Oddball groaned, before the bombs went off. He was launched out of the explosion until he landed at John's feet, still smoking. It went without saying that he had fainted.

"Round four goes to the challenger!" The referee announced.

"Wahahahahaha!" Wattson laughed, hands on his belly. "Thought you had me there, huh? This old coot's got a few tricks left!"

John looked downwards at his only remaining pokemon. She said nothing, just looked up at him as her eyes blazed with determination and nodded quickly. She leaped forwards, locking eyes with the Magneton on the other side of the field. From behind her, John did the same thing to Wattson.

"What a battle this has turned out to be!" Wattson exclaimed, seeming to be thoroughly enjoying himself, "I must say I'm impressed."

John couldn't help but smile. He had earned the respect of this wise gym leader. Win or lose, he had made quite the accomplishment.

Without saying anything, Thea crossed the distance to the battleground in two quick leaps. She was ready.

"It all comes down to this! Let the final round... begin!" The referee exclaimed, looking quite invested in the fight even though he wasn't participating.

"Let's lead with magnet bomb!" Wattson's command echoed throughout the area as his pokemon began to build up the attack.

"Use confusion! Turn it upwards!" John barely got the words out before Thea's eyes glowed blue. She had been reading his emotions, trying to sense what move he wanted her to do before he told her to do it. She couldn't quite read his mind, but it helped her respond more quickly than most other pokemon.

As Magneton began to launch it's bombs, Thea used her psychic abilities to flip it backwards, causing the deadly orbs to fly upwards, sticking to the ceiling before exploding. As it missed it's attack, Thea retained her hold on her foe's body, and slammed him roughly into the ground for good measure.

"I'll make you regret that!" It growled, floating back up and righting itself in the air. It shot a nasty three-eyed glare in her direction.

"You'd have to hit me first!" She shot back, doing a quick ballerina twirl to taunt her opponent

"Thea, use double team! Let's switch things up!" John exclaimed.

She smiled to herself. She liked this one. She closed her eyes as they began to glow blue, forcing the thought that there were actually three Kirlias into her foe's mind, when she opened her eyes, the magneton believed it too. She could tell by the way it's eyes darted around, trying to discern which opponent was real. She and her doubles began to jump and dance around the arena, making themselves hard to keep track of.

"Now, while it's distracted, use magical leaf!" John exclaimed, hoping to capitalize on this advantage as much as he could.

The purple-coated leaves seemed to hit Magneton from every direction, confusing it even more as it as battered about. In reality, Kirlia had simply surrounded her opponent with leaves before actually using them to attack, to keep up the illusion.

"Enough of this!" Wattson growled, dropping his usually cheerful demeanor for a moment as things got close, "Use Shock wave!"

"Magical leaf again!" John said quickly.

Thea summoned another group of leaves as Magneton began to gather Electrical energy. The two launched their attacks at the same time, the leaves knocking Magneton into the dirt while the electricity shocked The and destroyed all of her doubles. The wave hit her hard, knocking her back onto her knees. She rose as quickly as she could, trying to show as little weakness as possible. The fact of the matter was that she wasn't sure she could take another hit like that and keep fighting.

"Okay, let's finish this!" Wattson yelled, the man was now visibly sweating, "Magnet bomb! One last time! Put everything you've got into it!"

As the magneton built up its ultimate attack, Thea and John locked eyes. It was a split second, but a spectrum of emotions passed through in that moment. Above all else, it was a look of understanding. Thea knew exactly what she had to do.

"Run straight at it." John said, in a voice far quieter than most of his commands.

Thea did just that. As her foe charged it's attack, she ran as fast as she could directly at the magneton. Just as it was ready to fire, she heard John's next order, but it was almost like she had already known what he was going to say.

"Slide underneath."

She dropped down just as Magneton began to fire. His eyes followed her downwards as she slid underneath, causing most of the bombs he shot to get stuck to the floor right underneath him.

"Confusion!" John yelled, face lighting up as he realized the plan was working, "Hold him down!"

Eyes glowing blue, Thea pushed the magneton to the floor just as it's three eyes shot wide open in realization of what was going to happen. She concentrated hard, holding her opponent right against the bombs it had just fired.

"NOOO-" It roared as the small spheres began to glow. It's anger was cut off as they exploded, creating a massive cloud of smoke that nearly filled the whole arena and made it impossible for anyone to see what had happened. Both John and Wattson held their breath in anticipation. Mostly anticipation. Part of it was not wanting to breathe in any of the smoke. When the air finally cleared, it revealed Thea, hunched over and panting hard from her recent exertion, and Magneton covered in soot and ash, and completely unconscious.

"The final round goes to the challenger! John is victorious!"

John threw his hands up in the air and laughed as Thea ran back to him as quickly as she could. She jumped into his arms and hugged him around the neck as he spun her around in a circle. The pair was completely awestruck that they had managed to pull this off.

"That was incredible!" John exclaimed. "You did so good!"

Thea blushed, "It was a team effort, but yes. I was pretty great."

John laughed, his cheeks turning a little red, too. "Did you... read my mind?" He asked.

"I'm not sure. I've never done it before, so I'm not sure what it's really supposed to feel like. I certainly knew what you were planning, though. Maybe it's just a heat of battle thing?"

He held her out at arm's length, one hand under both of her arms, to get a good look at her. She was a little scratched up, but the way she looked at him with those big orange eyes... and the way she smiled at him... He really didn't know what he would do without his shiny kirlia. So John pulled Thea into another tight hug.

"Whatever it was, it was amazing." She smiled up at him with her eyes closed as both her cheeks turned red.

In that moment, Thea found herself completely overcome with emotion. She knew that John's emotions were influencing hers, causing her happiness to be amplified, but her mind was almost cloudy. She couldn't focus on anything but her trainer. Well, that and the heat in her face.

"..John, I-" She began softly, but was interrupted as Wattson marched over, a massive grin on his face.

"Wow!" He said, giving John a hearty slap on the back, as Thea started to blush even more, refusing to make eye contact with her trainer, "I haven't had a fight like that in years! You two really are something else! Now, I hate to interrupt your celebrations, but I'm going to anyways. I believe we have some business to attend to?" He reached into his pocket and produced a small badge. He pressed it into John's hand.

John was speechless. Thea cleared her throat.

"The Dynamo badge." Wattson said, pointing to the small yellow pin, "Take it. We both know you've earned it. I'm gonna be rootin' for you, kid!"

"Thanks Wattson." John said back, beaming at his accomplishment. "I'd like to stay and chat for a while longer, but I hate to see my pokemon like this. I'm going to get them to the pokemon center as quick as I can."

Wattson's smile never faltered. "Hey, don't worry about it. I understand. Nothing better than a trainer who cares about their pokemon!"

As John left the gym and made off to heal his pokemon, he turned back to see the old man waving at him cheerfully. "I hope we meet again someday!" He exclaimed.

They walked for about five minutes as John basked in the afterglow of his victory, his Kirlia trailing a short ways behind him. Suddenly, he felt her words in his head.

"...Hey John, I'm going to be totally honest with you." Thea said, somehow mentally gasping, "I can actually barely walk right now."

John looked down in surprise to see that his kirlia had stopped moving about ten feet behind him. He rushed to her side. She had hunched over, and was breathing hard.

"Are you okay?" He asked,starting to pluck her pokeball from his belt, "Do you want to go in the ball?"

"No!" She exclaimed, raising a hand in defense, "I hate that thing."

"Do you want to ride on my shoulders again?" He asked.

She nodded, and so the pair set off towards the pokemon center. As they traveled at a much slower pace than before, Thea had time to think. What had she been thinking, almost saying that to John? Her feelings towards her trainer were... complicated. She thought he was the nicest person she had ever met, not once ever mistreating any of his team, especially not her. He kept her outside of her pokeball nearly all the time, and actually asked her for advice, something that was very rare for a trainer to ask of his pokemon. And she thought he was quite attractive. He was in very good shape. But he was a human, and she was a pokemon. This sort of thing didn't happen normally. In fact, a lot of people were pretty against it. And then there was the biggest problem of all. She wasn't sure if he felt the same way. She couldn't read his mind, at least not outside of certain high-adrenaline moments. She could only sense his emotions, and that didn't help her out much. If she told him about how she felt and he didn't feel the same way, it would destroy the bond they already had. It would ruin everything.

And so Thea decided her failed confession was a spur of the moment thing, and tried her best to put it out of her mind.

Forty-five minutes later, John left the pokemon center with all three of his pokemon trailing behind him in perfect health. He turned to them, feeling immense pride in the team he had put together so far.

"Okay guys, and Thea-" She giggled as he made an obvious glance towards her, "You all did great out there. I say that deserves a reward. So we're going to Mauville's market and I'll buy you whatever you want!"

Three cheers rose up as he finished speaking. They made their way to the market and John watched as Oddball picked out a bag of corn, Earl's eyes widened at an over-sized chocolate bar, and Thea levitated a bundle of oranges into her arms. He bought all three items without hesitation. He was even impressed at two of the healthy choices that were made. As for Earl's decision, John decided he would let it slide.

The group of four then spent the rest of the day exploring Mauville, taking in the sights, and shopping. The sun was already setting by the time they got back to the pokemon center, where they were staying. Pokemon centers everywhere offered free rooms for all trainers to stay in, as well as free breakfast in the mornings.

"Well, I'm beat." John sighed, closing the door behind him as his companions filed into the rooms. "Who's up for ordering a pizza and watching a movie?"

"Anything besides your cooking!" Thea taunted, hopping onto the bed. John just laughed. Cooking had never been his strong suit.

And so, John sat on the bed with Thea resting against his arm as the group ate pizza and watched a movie about a man with a Skorupi on his jacket. Thea found herself enjoying the first half of the film, but ended up covering her eyes for most of the second half. As the credits began to roll and the main character drove off into the night, John glanced over at Oddball, who was splayed out sleeping on top of Earl. The phanpy still had half a piece of pizza in his mouth, and was chewing on it in his sleep. John couldn't help but chuckle quietly to himself.

His amusements was intensified as Thea cuddled up closer to him, nuzzling his neck. It tickled, and he laughed. She was talking softly in her sleep.

Too tired to make out what she was saying, he soon drifted off to sleep himself.