Blaine handed Lyra the badge with a smile on his face. Lyra smiled back as she took the badge and put it in her badge case alongside all of the others.

"I did lose this time," he said, "but I'm going to win next time. When I rebuild my Cinnabar Gym, we have to hold a rematch."

Lyra grinned and simply said, "yes."

Blaine remembered the way she had quickly bursted into the room before challenging him. There was a certain eagerness and hurrying to her that he had not seen in most trainers who came into his gym.

As a massive volcanic eruption ruined most of Cinnabar Island, the Cinnabar gym was relocated to a large basement created in the seafoam islands. Since it was such a far distance from the mainland of Kanto, most trainers and their Pokemon were tired by the time they got there. But not Lyra.

"You know," he began, "you did seem to be in kind of a hurry when you came in here. Is there something important that you have to attend to?"

Lyra looked down at the ground as she answered, "I need to battle Blue...ASAP!" On her last word, her eyes shot up as she looked right at Blaine.

Blaine knew what was going on but decided not to say anything on it. "So, do you know your way back to Viridian City?"

"Yeah," she said, "I guess I'll be going now."

Lyra exited the cave and waved as Blaine waved back. Once she was outside, she reached for a Pokeball and grabbed it. She called out, "Go! Rhydon!"

Rhydon emerged from the Pokeball and Lyra climbed onto his back. "Use surf," she ordered.

Rhydon roared his own name, and then jumped into the water and started to swim away.

Blaine waved as Lyra started to fade off into the distance. One of the trainers in the gym came up to speak to him.

He asked, "What do you think that was all about?"

Blaine looked off on the horizon as Lyra disappeared and smiled at the trainer. He replied, "Children...they can fall in love with famous people they see on TV without stopping to think about whether or not they really know them. I think Lyra's going to be in for a real surprise when she meets Blue. He may not be exactly what she expected..."

He was right of course, but also wrong in another way. Blue and Lyra had already met, on Cinnabar Island, just a little while before her arrival at Blaine's Seafoam Island Gym.

So as her Rhydon swam through the large mass of water between Pallet Town and Blaine's island gym, Lyra began to reminisce about the time she had first met Blue.

Blue had been her idol for a few years now. She had first seen him on TV when he took on the Elite Four and won handily, becoming the champion. Unfortunately for him, his fifteen minutes of fame ended swiftly when Red also defeated the Elite Four and then him, taking the title of Champion from him within a single day.

That was three years ago, and many things had changed since then. Blue was now Gym Leader of the former abandoned gym in Viridian City, although he was often away on adventures. Lyra herself had defeated the Elite Four and Lance, the Champion. After that, she had the opportunity to visit Kanto for a while. Although the idea of challenging all new Gym Leaders was an exciting one, she was mostly driven by having the opportunity to finally meet Blue in person.

So when she had finally seen Blue, she wasted no time in rushing to him to introduce herself.

"Hello!" she said. She had imagined this moment for quite a while now, and simply saying "Hello" was what she pictured she would do.

However, things took an unforeseen twist rather quickly. "Who are you?" was Blue's reply. Lyra found it just a bit rude, but really wasn't phased that much. "I'm Lyra!" she responded.

Blue was a little surprised at how eager she was, but simply said, "My name's Blue. I was once the Kanto Champion. Although it was short-lived thanks to Red..."

He started to drift off as he remembered Red, and how he had not seen him in almost three years. He was brought back when Lyra abruptly responded, "I know!" She clasped her hands together and said, "I'm your biggest fan! I've been watching you for three years now!"

Blue was starting to get a little weirded out so he tried to change the subject. "Anyway," he began, "take a good look around you...A volcano erupts, and just like that, a whole town disappears. We can go on winning and losing in Pokemon, but if nature so much as twitches, we can be overwhelmed in a second...That's the way it is."

"So, will you battle me," asked Lyra, completely ignoring his observation about nature, "it would be a dream come true!"

He said, "but," as he was a little confused about her one-track mind. But his confusion was quickly replaced with relief at her bringing up battling, as if she was finally speaking in a language he understood.

He said, "Anyway, I'm still a Trainer. If I see a strong opponent, it makes me want to battle."

Lyra appeared as if she would burst from the sheer happiness. "That's great! Let's do it!"

"If you want to battle me," Blue began, "...for real, show me how many Kanto Badges you've got..."

At this point, Lyra had 6 Kanto Badges, which she proudly displayed to Blue, hoping he'd be impressed. However, he was anything but.

"Six badges," he said bluntly, "You're not ready to battle me..."

Suddenly, her respect and admiration for Blue disappeared for a moment as she took his massive blow to her pride.

Blue started to realize what was happening as she began to look very sad.

Trying to save himself he quickly said, "Um...wait. I didn't mean it like that...you just need to get one more badge."

He made up a quick lie, "...I am only allowed to battle trainers who have the rest of the badges...it's Gym Leader policy."

In reality, of course, there was no policy. But his rivalry with Red had set a high standard on challengers. Most challengers he faced were defeated easily, and he felt they weren't really worth his time.

Lyra started to calm down. Then she said, "Oh...Okay! I'll just get on that then. Then we can battle!"

Blue thought to himself that this girl was nuts. But he was starting to admire her spirit. "If you want to battle me...for real," he said, "come to the Viridian Gym. I'll be waiting for you!"

Lyra finally stepped foot in Viridian City, ready to finally face Blue. She knew she wanted to impress him, but she wasn't sure whether it was to show him that she wasn't as bad as he assumed, or if it was because she was still in love with him, or even a mixture of the two.

She decided it didn't matter. She stopped by the Pokemon Center to heal her Pokemon, and then she headed straight for the Gym.

Before she battled Blue, she was faced with four trainers. She could tell from their get-up that they were probably skilled, but it didn't really matter to her. She had beaten the Pokemon League, and she was focused on her goal. She defeated them handily and then proceeded to the back of the gym where Blue stood.

She didn't expect him to, but Blue recognized her and said immediately, "Yo! Finally got here, huh?"

Lyra felt a rush of excitement and nervousness and couldn't speak. She simply nodded.

"I wasn't in the mood at Cinnabar, but now I'm ready to battle you," he continued. "Although, you shouldn't get too cocky just because you have all of the Kanto badges."

"Hey," responded Lyra, "I have all of the Johto badges too!"

" You're telling me you conquered all the Gyms in Johto?"

Lyra began to think that Blue was finally starting to respect her, but then he said, "Hahaha! Heh! Johto's Gyms are that pathetic?"

"Well...I defeated the Pokemon League too!"

Blue laughed again. "So did I," he said. Finally, he said, "Hey, don't worry about it. I'll know if you are good or not by battling you right now."

Lyra heard the words she had been waiting to hear. It was the time she had been waiting for for years.

Both trainers stood opposite from each other on the ends of the battlefield. Blue went first and sent out Exeggutor. Lyra then pulled out her Poke Ball and threw it.

"Go, Meganium!"

Meganium roared and Exeggutor roared back.

"Use Magical Leaf," Lyra called out. Meganium roared again as a pile of leaves materialized out of nowhere.

"Hypnosis! Go!" yelled Blue. Exeggutor instantly followed this order and fired out a Hypnotic beam that put Meganium to sleep. The leaves disappeared before they were able to be fired.

"Tch," Lyra grunted. She decided to call back Meganium. She thought for a while and then sent out Ninetales.

"You're in charge, Ninetales!"

Ninetales entered the battlefield. "Use fire blast," ordered Lyra. Ninetales roared and fired at her opponent.

This time, Exeggutor didn't use Hypnosis. "Use Trick Room," ordered Blue.

Ninetales' Fire Blast struck Exeggutor dead-on, but failed to knock it down. However, Exeggutor had acquired a burn.

All of a sudden, the battlefield began to glow as a giant cube appeared and surrounded the two Pokemon. Each side resembled a checkerboard, except the squares that made them up were a a transparent blue.

Exeggutor succumbed to his burn and fainted. Blue recalled it and said, "Well done."

Lyra wondered what Blue was planning. She had never seen this sort of thing in Johto or even against the Elite Four. She had no idea what it was, but she couldn't let him know that.

"Go, Rhydon!"

Lyra was glad to see him use Rhydon, a Pokemon that she herself also used. "At least he's using *something* that I know," she thought to herself.

Normally the Rock-type Rhydon had a pretty solid matchup against a Fire-type such as Ninetales, but Lyra had taught it Energy Ball to deal with the Rock and Water types that gave it so much trouble.

So Lyra chose not to recall Ninetales and instead called out, "use Energy Ball!" She smiled as she was sure Blue didn't expect it.

But suddenly her smile turned into a look of confusion, and for good reason. Rhydon was moving extraordinarly fast. In the blink of an eye, it had closed half of the distance between it and Ninetales. As for Ninetales, it was moving extremely slowly with jerked motions.

"What kind of trick is this?" Lyra wondered out loud.

Blue chuckled. "It's Trick Room, it lets slower Pokemon, like my Rhydon, move a bit faster...and it makes fast Pokemon move slowly. Now Rhydon, use Stone Edge!"

Rhydon swiped at the ground, causing a few rocks to shoot out. They struck Ninetales and knocked it out instantly.

"I think I get it now," Lyra said to herself.

"Go, Rhydon!"

"A mirror-match," said Blue. "This should be interesting."

They were both slow, so the battle took an even turn. Lyra ended up winning with a critical hit, knocking out Blue's Rhydon with Earthquake. After the skirmish between the two Rhydon, the Trick Room began to fade, until it completely vanished.

The rest of the battle went on similarly. In the end, Blue only had Machamp remaining. On the other hand, Lyra only had Meganium, who was still asleep.

"Heh heh heh You're unprepared for this," Blue said, "We'll knock you down!"

Lyra tried to relax. She sent out Meganium, who still slept. She desperately hoped for it to wake up soon.

"Dynamic Punch," ordered Blue. Machamp lept towards Meganium and punched, but suddenly Meganium woke up.

"Yes!" exlaimed Lyra, "now use Reflect!"

What resembled a glass wall appeared in front of Meganium, and as Machamp passed through it, his punch was significantly weakened.

"Now," Lyra called, "use Toxic!"

Meganium did so, poisoning Machamp. However, Machamp kept up the pressure, repeatedly punching. Meganium was able to stomach most of the hits, and used Synthesis to heal itself. Meganium took serious damage but it was obvious to see that Machamp was getting weary as well.

"Perhaps I was the one who was unprepared?" Blue asked this to himself, as it became a possibility to him that he might lose.

Finally, Machamp succumbed to the poison and fell over. Meganium barely hung on, but it still was enough. It managed to outlast Machamp and Blue was defeated.

"This is the real power of Johto," Blue thought to himself.

He said out loud, "No way! How the heck did I lose to you?" But he remembered he was still a gym leader. "Tch, all right Here, take this. It's the Earth Badge."

Lyra could hardly believe what had happened either as she took the badge.

Then Blue started laughing again. " All right, I was wrong. You're the real deal. You are a good trainer."

With that statement, suddenly all of Lyra's fangirlisms returned. Then she laughed as well. "Hehehe," she laughed, "I didn't think you of all people would take defeat this well!"

"But I'm going to beat you someday. Don't you forget it!"

Lyra looked back. She had always dreamed of meeting Blue, but never really thought that by the time she met him, she'd already be equal to her hero, even able to defeat him.

And there was that whole thing on Cinnabar Island. Thinking about it, she realized that perhaps she wasn't really thinking about him as a role model or hero anymore, and more as a person, as a friend.

She smiled as she came upon this new revelation. She looked at Blue and saw that he was smiling too. The battle had really given him a new respect and a new point of view of her.

Just by looking, she could see that he was thinking the same thing, seeing her more as a friend, not a fan.

As they both smiled at each other, she thought to herself, "Maybe it will work out, after all."